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It's an old story that has circulated around various circles for years. Maybe you've heard it and maybe not. I do not even know who authored it, but let me read it to you:

Got that? The bottom line and the moral of the story is that what should have been done was not because "everybody was waiting on somebody else" to start.

In our text in the Gospel of John, we read about Jesus entering the Pool of Bethesda and confronting the lame man who lay there. I like this story and have often preached from it. This "pool" was a concrete basin formed around a natural spring by the Romans who had intended to turn it into a public bath and place of relaxation and parties. They built elaborate covered porches around the pool of water and formed fancy steps going down to the water's edge. It would have been a very elaborate place for their festivities and drunken binges, except that God interrupted their plans. Once a year an angel would come and "trouble" the waters and as the waters began to move around in the pool, the first sick person who was able to get into the water after they were troubled, was healed! And only the first was healed; the second person in didn't receive it! Because of this, what the Romans had intended to be a place of festivity had become a hang out for the sick and poor and lame and blind and withered. And the place had began to be known as the Pool of "Bethesda" which means "house of mercy!"

It was into this place that Jesus walked in John chapter 5. Here He approached a man who had been lame for 38 years! I thought I had preached everything that you can preach from this story and I will not go into all of the spiritual applications tonight, but it was these verses that we read as our text of Jesus' verbal exchange with this lame man that the Lord laid on my heart a week or so ago in reference to our church. Because when Jesus walked up to the man and said "Do you want to be healed?" the man immediately answered with an excuse:

The man did not quite understand the question! Jesus was not asking if the man would be healed that year when the angel came down and troubled the water. But rather the Creator of that angel was standing in flesh before the man and asking "do you want to be healed?" But that's another message in itself. What I want you to notice is that the man's excuse involved blaming someone else for the reason why he had laid there for so long and not been healed. "I have no one to put me into the pool." In other words, I'm still sick because I'm waiting on somebody else. When the Spirit of the Lord stirs the waters, I'm waiting on somebody else to make the first move before I can get where I need to be. My receiving from God depends upon whatever someone else does. And so for 38 years, he had lain just short of the promises of God waiting on somebody else!

A few weeks ago, after I had given an altar call in our church and people came but nobody seemed to really be seeking anything from God, I returned to my house and asked God "why are our altar calls powerless?" Why is it that I hear from you and preach with all my heart and yet there is not a mighty confirmation and stirring of the Spirit in our altar services? And God spoke to me, just as sure as I'm standing here and brought my mind to the story of this lame man and said something to the effect of, "just like that man, everybody in the church is waiting for someone else to move first before they do."

Last Sunday night was a prime example of this spirit that is trying to enter our church of everybody waiting on somebody else. Many of you needed a service where you got beside yourself and interceded for someone else. Many of you needed a service where you just yielded freely to the presence of God. But it didn't happen until a young man decided that he wanted to touch God, no matter what anybody else was doing. The rest of you responded to God's Spirit responding to him and you got on board and were blessed, but you only moved when someone else moved first. Such is the attitude and philosophy that is trying to sweep in our church: most everybody has taken to waiting for somebody else.

Like the lame man, we've grown accustomed to the miraculous stirring of the Spirit by God. Like the lame man, we know that it is vital to our spiritual healing to enter into and submerge ourselves in that spiritual water. Like the lame man, we show up faithfully and believe in the miraculous. But like the lame man, we wait around to see if somebody else is going to make the first move before we dip into the waters of the Spirit. If somebody else first steps up and begins to worship God with all of their might, then the rest of you will join in and worship God with all of your might. If before service, somebody comes in and begins to pray fervently, then the rest of you will quiet your conversations and begin to seek God fervently. But if someone comes in and instead of praying, decides to hold a loud conversation with their neighbor, then before long nobody is praying and everybody is holding a conversation with their neighbor. Everybody is waiting on and following the example of somebody else.

Maybe we should revamp the little story that I read at first to fit our situation:

Such is the danger of everybody waiting on somebody else. We don't need more followers in the kingdom of God, but we need more leaders. Some of us have a particular person that we watch to see how we should respond in church. If they are praising God, then we praise God. If they are into the sermon, the we are into the sermon. If they go up at altar call, then we go up at altar call. If such and such doesn't obey a particular part of the Word of God, then we excuse ourselves from obeying it, also. But think of what you are telling God: "God you are worthy to be praised with all my heart as long as so and so thinks you are." "God your message was true and needs to be responded to because so and so responded!"

When Jesus walked up to the lame man, He was not speaking of somebody else, but the question was direct, "Do you want to be healed?" Jesus wasn't wanting an excuse, but rather was asking a question. Because the lame man's action was such of waiting on somebody else that he was not doing all that he could have done to get his miracle. Think of it for a moment and you'll realize the truth of what I just said:

If I were the lame man, then obviously the problem is getting down the steps to the water. If I were the lame man, I've somehow gotten to the porches -- and probably somebody else had brought him that far. But the issue was getting down the steps. Now he has all day to work on it and he can use his hands and arms. If I were him, I would roll; I would pull myself from step to step -- do whatever I had to do -- to drag my body down to the edge of the last step. I'd get as close as I could to the water's edge so when that angel troubled the waters, all I had to do was -- flip! -- and I was in. But the lame man hadn't done that. He only went as far as somebody else would bring him and then sat in his excuse as to why he couldn't see the miraculous!

You see, trusting and waiting on somebody else will only bring you so far in God. It will get you to the porches, but it won't get you all the way to the troubling of the water. That last journey has to be undertaken by yourself. And that is where most of us stop. As long as somebody is helping us get there and going first and showing us the way, then we advance in God, but when it comes to a point where if we are to get our need, we will have to step out and do something radical, then some of us would rather stay in our predicament for 38 years rather than travel the last few feet to our miracle that is found in the moving of the Spirit.

"Oh preacher, if I step out first, then everybody will be looking at me." "Oh preacher, what if everybody thinks I'm weird?" "But I feel scared stepping out first in the things of the Spirit." The problem is your pride is greater than your "sick and tired of not having the miraculous." Obviously the lame man was more concerned with not looking foolish rolling down the steps, than he was getting out of his situation. And so Jesus showed up and said "do you want to be healed?" Do you care more about getting the miraculous and the freedom of the spirit of God moving in your life, than you do about what others think? Until you do, you will never get what you want! The danger of everybody waiting on somebody else to move first is that you will never get all that you need from God that way. To get everything -- to get complete healing -- you must step out first for yourself. You must get beyond waiting for somebody else to go first. You must get to a place where it doesn't matter what everybody else is doing, you are going to get to the place where the waters of the Spirit are troubled! That's the only way you will get everything that you need!

In preaching this story, I've always wondered why Jesus showed up to heal this one guy and nobody else. The porches were full of sick folk and yet Jesus healed nobody else but this one. Could it be that Jesus detoured to this guy just to bring the story to light to us and to highlight what I'm preaching to you tonight? Could it be that Jesus wanted this man's situation recorded so that we could see the danger of everybody waiting on somebody else!?

Why don't you make up in your mind, that no matter what anybody else does in a service, you are going to position yourself for a miracle!? No matter what anybody else does, you are going to do everything that you can to get into the waters of the Spirit! Maybe the timing for your miracle is tonight or maybe God's sovereign time will be next week. But the only way to make sure that you get everything that you need from Him is to every service do everything that you can to get as close to the moving of God's Spirit as possible. It's Wednesday night, but I'm going to position myself for a miracle. It's Sunday, but I'm going to position myself for a miracle. It's Thursday and we don't have any type of service going on, but I'm going to talk to God and see what's moving in the Spirit. Because I'm not going to miss it. Who cares what everybody else is doing, I will be the one that will be ready! We must get out of the trap of waiting on somebody else!

Remember the story of the ten lepers? Jesus healed all of them and stopped the working of the disease and sent them to show themselves to the priest so they could be cleared to return to society. But of the ten, one decided to not just do what everybody else was doing. But he turned back and worshiped Jesus and Jesus pronounced him "whole." I believe that the other nine had the disease of leprosy stopped, but they still bore the scars and the missing digits and the grotesque reminders of their infirmities. But when the one refused to only go as far as the others and stepped out and worshipped Jesus, I believe that he was made whole in that his digits were restored and the scars healed and the features normalized.

You see, doing what somebody else is doing will take you only so far in the kingdom of God. It may bring you to a place of healing, but it will never take you as far as you need to go to be completely restored. To wait on somebody else to move before you step out is to live your life beneath the healing power that is waiting for you. To wait on somebody else and not step out further in God from the others is to choose to bear the reminders of your sin when God could completely heal you. But you will never get everything only doing what everybody around you is doing. You've got to get to the place where you care less what people think and all you care about is what He thinks! Cast aside the attitude of waiting on somebody else to first move, because such thinking is a prison cell of partial miracles and partial healing!

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There is another danger to the attitude of everybody waiting on somebody else that you must know about. And it is just as serious or more serious than not getting everything that you need. The story of Moses' call from the burning bush is a familiar one to most of you here today. Moses -- who was destined by God to be a prince and spiritual leader of Israel -- is out in the wilderness desert keeping sheep and God has to use a burning bush to get his attention. When Moses turns aside, God speaks to him from the bush:

Notice that God has said "I will" do this. Moses has only to follow along with God's plan and God will do some mighty things. There is no conditional promise here, but the God who cannot lie says "I will." And yet Moses comes up with an excuse:

Moses keeps making excuses. God keeps saying "I will do this and I promise this and it is your will for you to have this" and Moses keeps saying "but I have this excuse as to why I cannot see this and why I cannot do this and why . . ." If you are counting, that is two excuses already, and here comes the third:

And so God has to help Moses' doubt by showing miraculous signs. Moses casts down his rod and it becomes a snake and then he picks it up and it becomes a rod again. His hand turns leprous and back to healthy again. And yet Moses comes up with a fourth excuse:

And after God takes that excuse away, comes Moses' fifth excuse which to God is the final straw:

"Lord, please send someone else." "Lord, you are asking for me to step out and do something that nobody has ever done before." "Lord there are two million Jews in Egypt and you are asking me to step out in faith without somebody else doing it first." "Lord send somebody else" and at that, God gets angry!

Do not we do the same thing to God? Our excuses are in the same order of Moses:

1. Who am I to be used by you?

2. Are you sure that's God?

3. Other people will not believe that it's really you driving me.

4. I'm not talented enough to do what you are asking me to do.

5. Send somebody else.

To the first, God will reassure you that "yes, we are unworthy, but He has qualified us by calling us." To the second, He will patiently reassure us that it is He. To the third, He will perform the miraculous through us so that there is little doubt that it is truly Him working in our lives. To the fourth, He says "go and I'll help you." But when we say "send somebody else" God gets angry! Why are you worried about what somebody else is doing? God picked you! If God is dealing with your heart, then what does it matter what someone else does or does not do? God is calling you. Don't wait on somebody else!

Have you ever noticed that the people that Jesus commended the most was those who reached out to Him in a way that nobody else ever had? Remember the story of the centurion that came to Jesus? Go back and look and you will find that this centurion was the first to ever come to Jesus and say "you've only got to speak the word." He didn't approach Jesus based upon what others were doing and Jesus called it "great faith!"

Our attitude is "well, we could have revival if somebody else would get serious for living for God." or "we could have people get the Holy Spirit if somebody else would pray them through to it and teach them a Bible study. We would be an Apostolic church if somebody else would sacrifice in the Apostolic way. And you are right, but when are you going to realize that your waiting on somebody else is an excuse for your lack of doing it!? Why don't you be the someone else? Why don't you be the one!? Realize that God has called you to do it.

We live in an onlooker society which has an "audience mentality." People are used to showing up at things and watching others. You sit for hours at the television and watch others have fun without ever going out and doing things yourself. And then you gripe about how you don't have time to do anything -- it's because you are watching other people do things all the time! And that attitude comes to church. Some people in today's church would really fit well into the Old Testament style worship service. You took your sacrifice to the priest and then you stood around while the priest did everything. In the Old Testament, you stood outside while the priest offered up the sacrifice and did the work.

But in the New Testament every believer is called "kings and priest of Jesus Christ." Peter said that we are a chosen generation and a "royal priesthood!" The church is not about you watching the ministry perform or do the things of God, but rather about you participating in the things of God. Sure, you need a spiritual leader, but it is your responsibility to act and perform as God has commanded! You have just as much responsibility on your backs as the preacher does on his to allow God to move and instigate such an environment! Stop waiting for somebody else. Stop telling God to send someone else to start the revival. I'm preaching to you: you be the one!

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And so I close with this, the story of our other text. It is the story of Jonathon and his armourbearer, but more importantly, it is the story of a man of faith not waiting on somebody else to fight for the victory. And it is the story of what God can do when people lose the attitude of "everybody waiting on somebody else."

In 1 Samuel 16, we find the Israelites readying themselves for battle with the dreaded Philistines. Everything seemed in order. The king was there. The priest was there. Over 600 soldiers were there. And everybody is doing, well, nothing.

Saul's son, Jonathan, decides that everybody can wait on something to happen if they want to, but he is going to do something. And so he gets his armourbearer and they sneak away. And Jonathan tells his armourbearer:

And so Jonathon says "we'll go between those rocks and let the enemy see us and if they say something like 'stay there till we come to you' then we will know that God is not with us. But if they say something like 'come down here and fight' we'll know that God has given us the victory!" And so they go and show themselves to the enemy and the Philistines that see them yell "come down and here and we'll show you something" and Jonathon and his armourbearer -- two men, mind you -- attack the army in the cleft of the rock. The scripture says:

They were tired of waiting on somebody else, so they decided to step out in faith and just see what happened! And the scripture says that:

Did you catch that? When these two men attacked, a great fear came over the enemy and the earth began to shake! God stepped in and began to fight for Israel when two men decided to the be the first to attack! And the Bible says:

In panic, the Philistines began to kill each other and then Saul's army finally began to fight. And look at what else happened:

There had been some backslidden Israelites that had joined the enemy but when Jonathon and his armourbearer attacked, they turned back to the Lord's side! And the men of Israel's army that had been so scared that they were hiding in the hills, came out and began to join the battle! All of this because a young man decided that he wasn't going to wait on somebody else to trust the Lord, but that he would put his faith in God no matter what the rest of the army was doing!

And so I close this message by telling someone today:

Stop waiting on somebody else to go! If nobody in your family is saved, then you be the first one! If nobody has ever broken the generational curse, then you break it first! If nobody is praying and fasting, then you pray and fast! If nobody is winning souls, then you win souls! If nobody is on fire for God, then why don't you catch fire for God? If nobody is moved by the Spirit in a service, then you be the first to tune in to what God is doing. If your friends are treating it as a game, then you be the one who respond seriously! If nobody is dancing, then you dance. If nobody else is being faithful, then you be faithful. If nobody else is living holy and separated, then you do it!

What would happen if everybody stopped waiting on someone else? I can tell you from this story what would happen: God would step in and begin to fight with you! God would cause the enemy of your soul and of His kingdom to flee in panic. God would begin to perform the supernatural! Furthermore, those in the church around you would suddenly spring to action and get on board, doing what they should have been doing all along. Not only that, but backsliders would suddenly come back to God's merciful side and rejoin the fight! And some people who should be an active part of this church but who are not faithful to the things of God would suddenly show up and make it priority to come out of their caves of unfaithfulness so that they could be a part! Such is the result of everybody stopping waiting on somebody else! Such is the result of someone willing to step out in faith regardless of what others are doing! God is looking for someone who will lose the spirit of "everybody waiting on somebody else" and step out on His promises and claim them as true!

You can point your finger at somebody else if you want to, but really we have nobody to blame but our own selves if we don't have revival. We have nobody to point to except ourselves if our community does not catch fire with the Holy Ghost. It will take someone getting radical with prayer and fasting and witnessing and faithfulness. It will take someone being sensitive to the Holy Ghost. It will take someone willing to stand up and pay the price in both time and effort. You can have the attitude of the man by the pool of the Bethesda and spend the next four decades waiting on somebody else to bring the revival, or you can decide like Jonathan, "I'm going to start a revival right now by letting revival fire consume me!" Which will it be? We will decide. I don't want to be known as a church where everybody waited on someone else until they all died and somebody else saw the promises come true. I'm going to be the somebody that steps out in faith no matter what everybody else is doing!