Do You Want to Be Healed?
Our Lead Pastor, Whit George, begins week one of our new teaching series, Breakthrough.
John 5 shows how long-term patterns of brokenness can become familiar, and how freedom often requires courage, responsibility, and real change. Healing isn’t about trying harder or making vague intentions; it comes through specific obedience to what God asks us to do.
In this message, Pastor Whit explores the following Scriptures:
JOHN 5:1-15 ESV 1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
JOHN 10:10 NIV 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
JOHN 5:1-2 ESV 1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
HEBREWS 10:26-27 ESV 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ I'm afraid ♪ ♪ That kind of day of inexpectation ♪ ♪ That every prayer I make ♪
♪ Is only to see the rain ♪ ♪ That's the power of your name ♪ ♪ Just a vision that's a way ♪ ♪ Giant's fall, these strongholds break ♪ ♪ And they be stealing ♪ ♪ That's the power that I bring ♪ ♪ It's the shame that'll roll the grave ♪ ♪ There's no power like the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ There's no power like the name of Jesus ♪ Give you a little voice in this place today, come on. ♪ I see you taking a ride and I see you press ahead ♪ ♪ Your power's dangerous to the enemy's head, come on ♪ ♪ You stand to be made close, you will do what you say ♪ ♪ For you're the same God now as you've always been, yes ♪ ♪ You're speedily breaking out, your kingdom moving in ♪ ♪ Your victory claims the ground at the end of the earth, yes ♪ ♪ You stand to be made close, you will do what you say ♪ ♪ For you're the same God now as you've always been, yes ♪ ♪ That's the power of your name, just a mention makes a way ♪ ♪ Giants fall and strongholds break, let me see it made ♪ ♪ That's the power that I play, it's the same now all the way ♪ ♪ There's no power like the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ There's no power like the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ There's no power like the name of Jesus ♪ Can you give him praise today? For there is no one like you, Lord, there is none beside you. And we, as your people today, we want you to be honored and be glorified in this place for you are good. For there is power in your name and we worship you today.
It's great to be gathered here. We're gonna continue this morning by reading scripture together. Our call to worship comes out of Psalm 146. And part of the reason we read this each and every weekend is to be reminded of who God is, of what he has done. So why don't we read this together? Psalm 146, will you say this with me, church? Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day, his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners. He upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations. This is the word of the Lord, and we say today, let's continue singing. ♪ You give light when you are low ♪ ♪ And you bring light to the darkness ♪ ♪ You give hope when you restore their hope ♪ ♪ You give light when you are low ♪ ♪ Every heart that is broken ♪ ♪ And you bring light to the darkness ♪ ♪ And pray, are You Lord? ♪ Let's sing that verse again. ♪ You give life, You are love ♪ ♪ You bring light to the darkness ♪ ♪ You give hope, You restore ♪ ♪ Every heart that is broken ♪ ♪ And pray, are You Lord? ♪ ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ And so we pour out our praise, pour out our praise ♪ ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ And so we pour out our praise to You only ♪ ♪ Oh, only You are worthy, Lord ♪ ♪ You give life, You are love ♪ ♪ You bring light to the darkness ♪ ♪ You give hope, You restore ♪ ♪ Every heart that is broken ♪ ♪ And pray, are You Lord? ♪ ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ And so we pour out our praise, pour out our praise ♪ ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ And so we pour out our praise to You only ♪
♪ It's Your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ And so we pour out our praise, pour out our praise ♪ ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ And so we pour out our praise to You only ♪ ♪ Oh, cause You're worthy, worthy, worthy, worthy ♪ ♪ Jesus, You're the desire of our hearts today ♪ ♪ Put everything that is within me, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout Your praise ♪ ♪ And our hearts will cry, these bones will sing, sing it ♪ ♪ Sing it, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout Your praise ♪ ♪ And our hearts will cry, these bones will sing, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Great are You, Lord, the church singing today ♪ ♪ All the earth will shout Your praise ♪ ♪ And our hearts will cry, these bones will sing, sing it ♪ ♪ How great are You Lord, how great are You Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout Your praise ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout Your praise ♪ ♪ And our hearts will cry, these bones will sing, sing it ♪ ♪ How great are You Lord, how great are You Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Whoa ♪ ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs so we call out, praise You Lord ♪ ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs so we call out, praise You Lord ♪ ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs so we call out, praise You Lord ♪ ♪ It's Your breath in our lungs so we call out, praise You Lord ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout Your praise, all the earth will shout Your praise ♪ ♪ All the earth will shout Your praise, all the earth will shout Your praise ♪ ♪ All the earth, all the earth ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout Your praise, all the earth will shout Your praise ♪
♪ Watch always, your hearts will cry ♪ ♪ These walls will scream when you fall in love ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ Pour out our praise, it's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to you only ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ Pour out our praise, it's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to you only ♪ ♪ Oh I'm ready for you Lord, oh I'm ready for you Lord ♪ ♪ I'm ready for you Lord ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise ♪ ♪ Pour out our praise, it's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ Pour out our praise, it's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to you, holy Lord ♪ ♪ Cause great are you, Lord, there's no one like you, no one ♪ ♪ Great are you, Lord, great is your name, Lord, great are you ♪ ♪ Great are you, Lord, so great are you, Lord, so great are you ♪ ♪ So great are you, Lord, so great are you Lord, so great are you ♪ ♪ So great are you, Lord, so great are you, Lord, so great are you ♪ ♪ So great are you, Lord, oh so great are you Lord, so great are you Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made, I see the stars ♪ ♪ I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe display, then sings my soul my Savior God to thee. ♪ ♪ How great thou art, how great thou art, then sings my soul my Savior God to thee. ♪ ♪ How great thou art, how great thou art. ♪ ♪ And when I say that God his Son not sparing ♪ ♪ Sent him to die, my spirit's containing ♪ ♪ That on the cross my burden gladly bearing ♪ ♪ He let it die to take away my sin ♪
♪ With everything you have, sing it out ♪ ♪ Then sing to my soul, my Saviour God, to thee ♪ ♪ How great thou art, how great thou art ♪ Let him know how good he is. Sing to my soul. ♪ Then sing to my soul, my Saviour God, to thee ♪ ♪ How great thou art, how great thou art ♪ ♪ When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation ♪ ♪ And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart ♪ ♪ Then I shall bow in humble adoration ♪ ♪ And then for you, my God, how great thou art ♪ ♪ Then sing to my soul, my Saviour God, to thee ♪ ♪ How great thou art, how great thou art ♪ ♪ Then sing to my soul, my Saviour God, to thee ♪ ♪ How great thou art, how great thou art ♪ ♪ Then sing to my soul, my Saviour God, to thee ♪ ♪ How great thou art, how great thou art ♪ ♪ How great thou art, how great thou art ♪ Before we continue this morning, let's just take just a moment to be still in your own way. Thank the Lord. Tell him how great, how strong, how mighty he is. We've got all sorts of people in here. In your own way, let's take just a moment before we continue. We don't want to move on too fast because I believe this is a holy moment. If that means lifting your hands, if that means kneeling at your side, Seat, just begin to tell the Lord how great he is. Let's take just a moment to do that today. How great you are. My heart wants to sing, you're the name above all names.
You are worthy of all praise. In my heart we'll sing, how great is our God. Every voice in this place, sing, you're the name above all names. You are worthy of all praise. In my heart we'll sing, how great is our God. Sing that chorus together as one. How great is our God. Come on. Sing with me, how great is our God. And oh, we'll see how great, how great is our God. Sing it one more time, one more time today. Sing how great is our God. Sing with me, how great is our God. And oh, we'll see how great, how great is our God. For all the moments in our life, Lord, where we've turned to other things, other ways, relationships, work for fulfillment. For all the times, Lord, we turned our back to you and walked another way, Lord, we repent. For all the times, Lord, we've forgotten how great and good you are. The times that we've questioned it, we repent. And Lord, as your people gathered here today, we declare who you are. We join in with heaven as they declare, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Would you say that with me this morning, church? Say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Say it with me.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Say it again. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. One more time. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Can the people of God today clap your hands, give Him praise today. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And as your people, we worship you. We thank you. We declare your goodness and your mercy and your love and your greatness forever and ever. Sing, you're the name above all names. You're the name above all names. Come on. Sing, you're the name above all names. Come on. And you are worthy of all praise. Here in my heart, we'll sing today. Oh, in my heart, we'll sing your praise. Praise our God. We offer it here. You see how great He's our God. Sing with me, how great He's our God. Oh, you see how great He's our God. He's our God.
He's our God. One more time together today. You see how great He's our God. Sing with me, how great He's our God. Oh, you see how great, how great He's our God. Can you lift up your voices? Hallelujah, hallelujah. Lord, you're good. We worship you in this place. Thank you for being here with us today. Thank you for being ever present, ever aware. To us, where we are, we worship you. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. One more time, can we clap our hands together? God is good, worthy to be praised. Those moments are always the hardest to end. You just want to keep going. But we've got a great message to hear. So why don't you do this? Greet the people you're seated next to, and we'll move along with this service today. Well, good morning, Church on the Move. How are we doing today? Well, you sound good. I can't think of anything better for us to do on the first Sunday of the year than just to proclaim and to stand upon and remind ourselves of the greatness of God in our lives. So thank you for joining with us in worshiping. My name is Lee. I'm up here with Priscilla.
We're a couple pastors here, and we just want to say welcome. Happy New Year. So good to see all of you. And you picked a great weekend to be here. We're kicking off a brand-new series. I can't wait for you to hear Pastor Witt's message. What a great way to start the year in a series called Breakthrough. How do we live into and walk into the life that Jesus has on offer to us? So excited about that. But there may be some of you who are here for the very first time, first weekend of the year. Maybe it's a New Year's resolution. We're coming back to church. We're really thrilled about that. We're glad that you are here. In fact, we've got something for you. You can take your phone out right now and send us a text message. Our number is 23101. Send us the word new. We're going to send you back a little Chick-fil-A gift card. Go get something on us this week, just a little treat, a way for us to say thank you for joining with us. And we would love to get to know you a little better. That's right. If you have a couple extra minutes after service, Leah and I would love to meet you personally. So we're going to be hanging out in the lobby right in front of our brand-new cafe. Stop by, say hello so we can just say hi face-to-face. But we know that oftentimes walking into a big church like this, it can be overwhelming to know how to get involved.
That's why we do a gathering every single month called Next Move. And when you join us in Next Move, you get to hear more about who we are as a church and where we're headed from our lead pastor, Whit George. We also get to share from our ministry leaders the different ministries that we have on offer for you and your family. And really our goal with Next Move is to help you decide if this is the church home you want to get rooted and planted in. So I can't think of a better way to kick off the new year together than by coming to the first Next Move, happening on January 18th right after the 1130 service. You can get signed up for that by texting NEXT to 23101. Child care and food is provided. So we really do hope that you'll join us in Next Move. Yeah, we would love to see you there. And I don't know if you guys feel this way, but around the holidays I start reflecting on the most important things in life. And I'm reminded that the most important things for me are my relationship with God and my relationship with people. That's it. If those things are good, everything else in my life is pretty good. It's January, and we're kicking off a brand-new groups season around here. Why do we do groups? We do groups so that we can come together in relationship, like build healthy, real relationships with people, as well as grow in our relationship with God. And so for some of you, maybe the best New Year's resolution you could have is to say, you know what, I'm going to start getting involved. I'm going to get connected to other people.
I'm going to learn what it looks like, not to do life on my own, but to be in meaningful relationships with others. You can go to cotm.info and get a view of all the different groups that we have going on throughout the city, different topics that we're doing. But one that I want to highlight, Priscilla just said something about being rooted and planted. We do a group around here, a mid-sized group that meets right here at the church once a week, that's called Rooted. It's meant to teach us the simple rhythms of a disciple. What does it look like to live like a follower of Jesus? And we learn to do that together, to grow in our relationship with Jesus through the process. I would encourage all of you to go out, get signed up for Rooted if you haven't done that yet. That's right. Lee and I have both been through Rooted. It really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you're new to the faith or you've been following Jesus for a while, you will grow spiritually if you join a rooted group. So like Lee said, go to cotm.info, you can get signed up for Rooted there or find a group that's right for you. Well, before we move on with the rest of our service, we wanna take a moment right now to honor God with our giving. And maybe you're new to the church and you're curious about why we give.
Well, we believe as the people of God that everything that we have in our lives, including our time, our talents, and our resources is a gift from God. And one of the ways that we honor Him biblically is by bringing a portion of our income back to Him, knowing that we are actively participating in the mission of God and advancing the gospel. And as we kick off a new year together, especially for those of you who call church on the move home, what would it look like for us to trust God with our finances in a deeper way? We just would ask that you would prayerfully consider going on this journey with us. That's right, and if you've never given with us before, it's easy to do. You can just text the word GIVE to 23101. You'll get instructions there on how to give electronically. There's also a black generosity card in the seat back in front of you. It explains a couple of different ways that we give, our compassion offering, our expansion fund, and it also explains how to give there as well. There's drop boxes at all the exits if you just wanna give in that traditional way of cash or check right here in the room. That's great too. We would just say thank you for all of you who give so generously around here. Well, it's time to jump into this new series.
If you've got your Bible, take it out. Let's bow our heads together, prepare our hearts to hear from the word of God. Heavenly Father, it's already been such a great morning to be together, first weekend of the year, to give you worship and remind ourselves how great you are, but now we want you to speak to us. We wanna break through the areas in our life where we're stuck. We wanna live out the capital L life that you have on offer to us, and so speak to us this morning. Speak to us what we need to hear. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, good morning and happy New Year, Church on the Move. Great to see you and worship with you this morning. Look around, this room is just about completely full, which is awesome. I know some of you love that, and others of you are like, I could use a little bit more elbow room. You're not used to crowds this size. We wanna be an introvert-friendly church here at Church on the Move. So, here's what I invite you to. If this is like too much for you, just know that we have services on Saturday night at five, and then we've got an eight-day service at five, and then we've got an 815 at Sunday morning, and then an 1130.
So, if you're looking for a little bit more space, and you're like, I like this church, or I'm interested in starting church this year, maybe starting this year off a little differently, but this is a bit much for you, we would love to invite you to come to those services. It's amazing that we're this full. I know there's a lot of people that maybe have something going on. Sickness-wise, you're watching online, or maybe you're traveling. I got family doing that this weekend. My wife Heather and Elliot are on the road right now, Elliot's going back to school. And so, welcome to everybody joining us online, and also welcome to our churches in prisons. If you didn't know, we have a church at Dick Connor, which is a men's prison, and Eddie Warrior, which is a women's prison. We've been doing that for several years now, and we consider them part of our church family. So, would you help me in joining everybody that might be joining us at a distance this morning? God bless you, glad to have you. We are starting a new series today that I'm really excited about. We just titled it Breakthrough, and it's kind of based on this verse from John chapter 10. Many of you will know this verse. Maybe you have it memorized, John 10, 10.
This is Jesus speaking. He says, the thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they might have life and have it to the full. This is sort of Jesus' mission statement. If you want to know why he came, this is why, that you might have life, but not just life, life to the full. And my question for us as we kind of get started this morning is, are you living that kind of life? Do you have that right now? Are you living this kind of life to the full, or are you just merely existing? Because what I find far too often is that so many of God's people are just existing. We believe in Jesus. We believe that he paid for our sins. We have trusted him for salvation, but we're still struggling with the same sin patterns, with the same hangups, with the same neuroses, if you will, that we've always dealt with. Our lives aren't really changing. We're not moving, as the New Testament describes, from glory to glory. We're just kind of coasting. We're in a holding pattern, or you might say we're stuck in a rut, and we don't know how to get out of it. We don't know even how to experience this kind of new life.
That's what we're gonna talk about today in this series as we kind of kick this off, and my hope is that this will be practical, that it will be something you can put into practice immediately, but also that it will stir. Turn your heart and imagination, maybe ignite a spark that things could be different, to trust that Jesus could do and can do, even in your situation, exactly what he claims to be able to do, to give you life and life to the full. So with that in mind, we're gonna look at John chapter five. Do you have a Bible? I wanna invite you to bring a Bible every week to this series, in fact, every week to church because that's what we're here to do, is to sit under the teaching of the scriptures. So if you have a Bible, bring it. If you don't have a Bible, you'll find them at all the exits. They're on the tables there. Grab one, they're free. These are our gift to you. We want you to have the scriptures with you as we're studying them and hearing what the Lord says to us. We're gonna look at the first 15 verses out of John chapter five. An interesting story here, fascinating story. Fascinating study into human nature, as we're gonna find this morning.
And I think we're gonna find some practical lessons about what breakthrough looks like from Jesus' interaction with this pathetic man, as we're gonna see. Here we go. John five, verse one. After this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five-roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and he knew that this man had already been there a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed? The man, or the sick man, answered him, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and walk, and at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked. Now, that day was the Sabbath, so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed, but he answered them, the man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk.
They asked him, well, who is that man who said to you, take up your bed and walk? Now, the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. This is the word of the Lord, and we all said, thanks be to God. Here, we get a fascinating portrait of a man who's been living in brokenness for a long time, 38 years to be exact. Many people didn't even live in that day to the age of 38. For this man to have been in his condition for 38 years is pretty remarkable. We don't know if he was born like this, we don't know if there was some tragic accident or perhaps he suffered from some debilitating disease, we just know that he'd been in this condition for a long time. But we also learn that he'd been in that place for a long time, laying beside this pool with a multitude of other invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed, the scripture says. Now, there's some context here that you are gonna need to kind of understand what's happening in this story. And to kind of give you that context, we need to take kind of a little detour through the text,
do a little bit of a textual analysis to sort of understand what's going on here. So if you have your Bible open, keep it open there to John chapter five, and I want you to look, how many of you, looking at your Bible right now, you can say, oh, look, there's no verse four in my Bible. It just skips from John five verse three to John three verse five. Anybody, or five verse, five verse five, excuse me. Anybody got that? Yeah, a lot of our translations omit verse four. And there's a reason for that. So let's look at the text. Here's how it reads in the ESV, the translation that I'm using. And these lay, and these colonnades lay a multitude of invalids. They're by a pool, and they're blind, lame, and paralyzed. But then you'll notice a little footnote there that kind of lets you know, oh, something's going on here. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. So if you follow the footnote, what you find in the ESV is this, this little, what they call a gloss. Now, what's going on here? Let me just kind of set your minds and hearts at ease. This is not a case of translators picking and choosing which verses they like and don't like. What they're doing is they're looking at
the oldest, most reliable manuscripts that. we have, and what they've noticed is that this insertion here, everything that's kind of grayed out here, is not in those oldest, most reliable manuscripts, which leads most scholars to believe that it is what is called a gloss. And that just simply means a comment added later by an editor to help to provide some context. So if you could imagine someone who's writing about Tulsa in present day, and they were talking about a crowd of people who met at the Golden Driller, or maybe a group who met down by the Blue Whale. We all know what that means because we're living in Tulsa in the present day. We know where those places are. But if you were reading about that hundreds of years later and those things no longer exist, you might wonder what does that mean, a Blue Whale in Tulsa, or a giant Golden Driller, what are we talking about there? So editors later came along and added this in so that we could kind of get a little context of what's going on here. Well, what was happening? Well, these sick folks were waiting for the moving of the water. They had gathered together for this purpose. For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.
Pretty remarkable thing. So you can imagine, if you were blind, you would now be able to see, or if you were lame, you would now be able to walk. Now what we've since learned is that under these pools is a subterranean stream, or kind of a river underground. And from time to time, it would cause those pools to bubble up. And these people said that that was the angel of the Lord. Now maybe it was. Maybe it was a supernatural thing, and maybe God used that and healed people. We don't know. We wanna be sure that we're careful not to read into these ancient texts our biased, kind of scientifically biased worldview, where they had a more supernatural kind of worldview. We don't know whether it was actually an angel or just a superstition. All we know is that they believed it. And so here are all these multitudes of people showing up with their different needs. Kind of reminds you of what happens in a church. Multitudes show up every week with different needs. We come looking for something. There's a brokenness that we hope that the Lord can heal, a need that we're hoping that he can meet. And sure enough, here comes the Lord. He shows up, and what we find is that he sees this man. He sees him in his special, unique condition,
and he knew that he had been there a long time. Now that's an important detail. This man had been dealing with twice. John is careful to emphasize the length of time that this man had been in this condition. And this begins to kind of surface for us the first principle of breakthrough that I wanna highlight for you this morning, and that's this, that long-term problems need breakthrough solutions. Long-term problems need breakthrough solutions. In other words, those longstanding habits or patterns of brokenness in your life are not going to be cured, healed, or fixed by you just trying a little harder of what you've already been doing. This man had been at this for a long time, and it had not been working. He was gonna have to try something else. There's a great phrase from the addiction recovery world. Maybe you've heard of it before. It goes like this. Your best thinking got you here. In other words, you are where you are because you kind of thought yourself into this place. Your best ideas have resulted in you ending up here. So you doing what you've been doing, only doing it a little bit more, trying a little bit harder, putting a little bit more effort into it
is not going to make the difference in your life in 2026. Long-term problems need breakthrough solutions. Why? Because long-term problems are long-term problems for a reason. They are often coping mechanisms, habits that we picked up when we were kids. And we pick these habits up when we're kids. If you wanna psychologize it and call these things neuroses or neurotic behavior, we could do that. We could talk about our self-doubt. We could talk about our anxiety. We could talk about our emotional outbursts. We could talk about our anger or maybe patterns of lust. Whatever it may be, brokenness in your life, these patterns are things that we often pick up when we're kids and we pick them up as defense mechanisms. Maybe you needed it as a way of kind of protecting your heart against an abusive or an angry parent or maybe the difficulties of life that you just didn't know how to deal with in your kind of childlike maturity and so you sort of picked up a defense mechanism but you've held on to it. And what happens is these patterns become like ruts in your mind and your behavior just kind of becomes sort of default mode programmed into a certain pattern. You're not going to break. Break out of that just by trying
what you've already been doing. You're going to need to do something different. And this makes Jesus' question to this paralyzed man, this invalid, all the more fascinating and penetrating. Did you catch what he said to him? Let's look at it again. Verse six, when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he'd already been in this way for a really long time, look at what he asks him. Do you want to be healed? Now what a fascinating question, because on the surface, it would seem at best maybe naive. Do you want to be healed? I mean, of course, what kind of question is that? Maybe at worst, insulting. Do I want to be healed? Can you imagine walking through a hospital, perhaps the IC unit, and saying to people that are lying in their beds there, do you want to be healed? How insulting would that be? Of course, they don't want to be here. Of course, they want to be healed. And yet, Jesus' question is not so simple to answer as you might think, because human nature is a tricky thing. We would say, of course, obviously, I want to be healed. But when it really comes down to it, the answer is not so clear. And we see that in this sick man's response. You would assume that the answer would be yes, please, heal me, I've been in this condition
for a long time, but look instead how he responds. Whining, sir, I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going, another steps down before me. In other words, rather than answering in the affirmative, he just offers Jesus excuses for why he is the way he is. Now, this is human nature. We like to live in this kind of ambiguity, this in-between place of longing for things to be different. Really, what we want, though, is our symptoms to change, but we don't actually want to change our behavior. Because if you think about it, healing comes always with some kind of cost. It's gonna require a change in you. It's gonna require a change for this man. How long has he been there? What kind of social status has he built up with these other sick, paralyzed people around him? Perhaps he had some kind of social standing. He hasn't had to work for how long, 38 years? He's relied on the charity of other people. That's going to change if he's healed. Do you really want to be healed? What we see here is what's called learned helplessness. That's where he's abdicating his agency. Do you know what agency is? It's taking responsibility for your life. And answering the question, do you want to be healed, requires some courage, because it requires you
to take responsibility for your life and say, I don't want to live like this anymore. I really do want to be healed. Learned helplessness, we can kind of describe it in sort of three different components. It's made up of this. One is contingency, which is a real lack of connection, key idea, between a person's actions and the outcome. In other words, you kind of disassociate. You stop seeing that your actions have anything to do with your present situation. Now, if you stop and really read this story, and I don't have time to get into all of this, but when you think about what Jesus is going to say to him at the end, sin no more, no more. You've been sinning. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. The Lord is attributing his actions, in some sense, to his condition. Let me just pause here and make it really clear that not every sickness or suffering or issue that goes on in your life is the result of sin. That's not true. Jesus is really clear about that, but we can't also say that it's never, that suffering in your life is never the cause or is never caused by sin in your life, because here he tells the man, sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. So what is he doing?
He's connecting his actions, hear this, to his outcome. When you connect your actions, my choices, to the outcomes that you're having in your life, that's called agency or personal responsibility. A person who's living in learned helplessness doesn't do that. The second component is cognition. This is a person's internal interpretation that they have no control. Said another way, it's not my fault. It's not my fault why I am the way I am. We get really good at blaming other people, which results in, and here's the problem with blaming other people, is it results in this behavior, passivity or giving up. My life is in someone else's hands. Oh my goodness, I hear this so much. I see this in online. comments constantly, people complaining about what's going on in the world out there that's affecting them. Sure, the world out there affects us in here, affects who we are, affects our individuality, but let me just tell you something. You have a lot more control than you think, and the quicker you learn to take responsibility for your own life and stop blaming your family or the world around you to control what only you can control, the better off you will be. This gets you nowhere, living in this kind
of learned helplessness. Let me tell you why, because then you just become a passenger to your life. The world around you is making all the choices for you. What a miserable place to be. No wonder we're depressed. We feel like our lives are outside of our control. They're not, and that's what makes Jesus' question so powerful is he's handing agency back to the man. Do you want to be healed? But make no mistake, that question requires courage, because it's courageous to step up and say, you know what, I want to be healed. It's courageous to put your heart out there again and to actually hope that yes, things could be different. Maybe that's where you're at. Maybe you've been in this place, the current situation that you're in for so long that to even say the words I want to be healed would be to kind of open up your heart to the possibility that it could happen. And for you, that's just really hard, because you've been hurt and dinged so many times that you just can't even conceive of it. It requires courage, but that's what agency and personal responsibility demand of a person. Cowardliness, the Lord does not look kindly on it. Look at this comment from the Teacher's Bible commentary. I love this. It's a significant question, do you want to be healed? Do not too easily reply, well of course this man did.
Look at this, he who had received alms and had been carried on the backs of others for 38 years, he would now have to go to work. Was he ready for that? See, healing makes demands of you. It means that things are going to change, and if we're really honest with ourselves, and I can say this from personal experience, if we're really honest with ourselves, here's what happens a lot of the time. We don't like our brokenness, but on the other hand, we can't imagine a life any other way. I've been really open with you about my pornography addiction when I was in my teenage years and early 20s. I've talked about it publicly many, many times. And I remember being in that place where I was addicted to pornography, and I hated it. I hated that I did that. I would come to church, I would feel so guilty, I would feel so much shame, and I wanted out of it, but also, and I know this to be true because I remember thinking it, also I couldn't imagine a life where I didn't have that lustful pattern going on. And so we live often in this kind of ambiguity between I really hate this, but I also can't imagine a way out of it. Edwin Freeman writes about it like this. This is a book called A Failure of Nerve.
He writes this, this is powerful. There is no way out of a chronic condition, just read into that, whatever issues that you struggle with, whatever it is that kind of plagues you, goes on again and again and again and again. There's no way out of it, a long-term problem, that's what we're talking about here, unless one is willing to go through, look at this, an acute, temporarily more painful phase. Whether we are considering a toothache, a tumor, a relational bind, a technical problem, crime, or the economy, most individuals and most social systems, irrespective of their culture, gender, or ethnic background, look at this, will naturally choose or revert to chronic conditions of bearable pain rather than face the temporarily more intense anguish of acute conditions that are the gateway to becoming free. In other words, we've just made peace with the chronic pain that we live with, the chronic brokenness, we just make peace with it. We don't like it, but we've made peace with it because we can't imagine, we've become so accustomed to this prison cell that we're in that we would rather choose a familiar captivity than to step out into an uncomfortable freedom. I'll never forget, many years ago, 20, 25, maybe 30 years ago, I was in Los Angeles, we were doing some missions work there for 180, and we were with the Dream Center.
The Dream Center is an amazing organization, huge hospital, former hospital, that they take people in who are former addicts. prostitutes, off the street, homeless, help them get back up on their feet again. And it's really a remarkable ministry. Church on the Move over the years has donated a lot to that ministry. And I was there with Pastor Matthew Barnett. There was a group of us. We were at some kind of, I don't even know what it was. It was just a rundown, if I'm being honest, disgusting building reeked of urine. It was just gross. And there was all of these people, as I understood it, that lived on the inside of this. It wasn't a terribly big building, but families were in there. People stacked on top of one another. No privacy in terms of showers and bathrooms. A lot of not good stuff happened in there. And I remember, as I was kind of a bystander, someone just, a spectator listening to Pastor Matthew, who was talking to a man who lived in that home or that building, he was inviting him to come stay at the Dream Center. He's like, come, come with us. We'll get you a clean room. I'll get you a bed, a warm shower. We'll get you meals.
You can get out of here. You don't have to live in this any longer. Come, come live with us. And he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. And I sat there, I was stunned. I couldn't believe it. And it was that day that I realized some people just want to be in the condition they're in. Hard as that may be for us, especially more empathetic types to believe, that if there's a way out, they wouldn't take it if they could. Some of you have seen videos of people going up to drug addicts, homeless drug addicts on the street saying, I'll help you get clean. We'll pay for it. We'll do everything. And they just meet me here at such and such time tomorrow morning. You'd be amazed at how few will actually take them up on the offer. We don't want to be healed because we know what healing would require. And that is change. And change is painful. So parable in the C.S. Lewis book, The Great Divorce. I recommend this book all the time. Some of you have picked it up and read it. It's kind of a fantastic telling
sort of a group of people from hell taking a bus to heaven. Obviously, this is not like trying aiming at theological accuracy, but more a parable of kind of human nature. And the idea is that all these people from hell, when they show up in heaven, they're kind of looking around and wondering what it's like. And what's amazing is how many of them find heaven to be unlivable. They don't like where they've come from. They're not into hell. But they look at what would be required to live in this place, and they just can't imagine it. They just don't want it. I highly recommend the book. It's a fascinating study into human nature. But the story that I've read many times before, I'm not gonna read it all to you today, but I'll just summarize it, is the story of a man who shows up there with a red lizard on his shoulder. And the lizard sort of represents the habitual pattern of lust in his life. That thing whispers in his ear. And as he's standing there at sort of the entrance to heaven, there is an angel who approaches him,
who he kind of openly admits the man does. It's like, I'd love to come in, but I got this guy. Can't make it in here. I'm gonna have to get rid of this guy. And the angel kind of, to the man's surprise, just offers on the spot, well, let me kill it. And the guy's like, okay, let's do it. And he's like, all right. And he begins to reach for the lizard. He kind of shrieks back. He's like, wait a minute, what are you doing? He's like, well, I thought we were gonna kill it. He's like, well, not now. Let's think about this for a little bit. You know, I mean, it's a great idea, and I would like to get rid of him, but I probably should think it over. Maybe I need to go back and just kind of have some time to myself and consider it. Maybe consult my doctor. And the angel just keeps saying, may I kill it. And the man just keeps making excuse after excuse after excuse about why now is not the right time. Why it just, we should better think it over. He eventually gets so worked up that he just, in a moment of panic, says, fine, kill it.
And the angel takes hold of that red lizard that had been attached to him for so long. The thing shrieks and screams, and the man lets out a guttural cry of pain. What's amazing is what happens after. Not only is he transformed, but so too is the red lizard, into a beautiful horse. It's a picture of what God does with your sin when you allow him to do to it what he wants to do. He can transform your iniquity into a testimony. But you have to be willing to walk through some acute pain in order to get to it. You know what it sounds an awful lot like to me? A cross. Jesus said, if any man would come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me. In other words, the pattern of salvation that Christ put forward is the same pattern of salvation for us. He went to a cross, so too do we go to a cross, where we die. Why? Certain patterns of behavior, iniquity, dies in us. Why? So that we too might live. The question is, do you really want to be healed? That's number one.
Number two is this, healing comes, as we'll see, through specific obedience, not vague intentions. Look at how Jesus heals this man, verse eight and nine. Jesus says to him, get up, take up your bed and walk. One, I find it interesting, again, putting agency back into the man's hands. You are gonna have to do this. Get up, take up your bed and walk. These are specific commands that can be obeyed. These are not vague intentions. And this is how the voice of the Lord sounds. He speaks in specific commands that you can obey. He doesn't speak through vague intentions. This occurred to me as I was meditating on this and having a conversation with my son, Elliot, this last week. He's been in town, obviously, Christmas break for about a month, and we got a couple of occasions to have some heart-to-heart talks. And we were driving around just talking about kind of this new semester and some things in his life that he wanted to make some changes in and grow. And I agreed. I felt like this is a very pivotal semester for him. And so I was asking him, all right, Elliot, what specifically, what are you gonna do? What can I pray for? What can I kind of hold you accountable to? What can I text you and say, hey,
are you doing that thing that you said you were gonna do? What is that? So he just began to reply. And I was like, well, I just kinda wanna, I wanna just make sure that I'm walking a better path this semester. I wanna avoid sin. And I stopped him. I'm like, good start, but let me just tell you something, son, honestly, that's going to produce nothing. Nothing will happen with that kind of vague intention. How many of you have found, because of kind of past history, that vague intentions, especially at the beginning of the year, produce nothing? How many of you have found that this one, I just wanna eat better in 2026? How many of you know that does nothing? That lasts about an hour. Maybe not even that, right? Because what does eating better mean? Without putting some teeth to it, without putting some specificity to it, you're going to fail because there's nothing really to apply yourself to. The same is true for the voice of the Lord. Do you wanna experience healing, freedom? How do I do it? Listen for the specific instruction from the Lord. It will be specific. Let me tell you what the Lord's voice won't sound like.
It will not sound like, just try to walk toward the light this year. It won't be, he won't say that to you, I promise you. He's not gonna say, work on being a better husband or a better wife this year. He's not gonna say that. That won't be what he says. It's too vague, way too general, and there's way too much room, hear this, for your flesh to hide in those vague intentions. And our sin kind of makes its living hiding between our vague intentions and our real life and our actions. And so what we gotta do is get specific and we gotta listen for the Lord's specific instruction. Let me tell you what the Lord's voice will much more likely sound like. It'll sound something like this. You need to get out of that relationship. It's unhealthy for you, what you're doing is sinful. You don't need to be with them anymore. You don't need to hang around those folks anymore. What they, they drag you into things that you know aren't good for you. You need to exit that friendship. Could sound like that. Could sound like you need to sit down with a counselor. You've known you need to do it for a long time. People in your life have been telling you, now's the time, you really need to sit down
and work through some of the things that have happened in your past. You need to get some freedom here. And you know it's time to take initiative and do it. That will be what the Lord's voice sounds like. Maybe the Lord's voice will sound something like this. Guys, you need to join a Catharos group. You might be saying, well, what is a Catharos group? Well, we started this, actually at Church on the Mover, several years ago, wrote a curriculum called Catharos. It is the Jesus path to purity. We at Church on the Move have declared war against pornography, particularly for our men. Men, you cannot become who God wants you to be with a secret porn addiction in your life. And so many men are plagued by this. They're cut off at the knees spiritually because they're compromised sexually. And so what we did is we put together this curriculum where guys. is go through, not heads down, ashamed, but chest back, chin up, saying I am getting free from this and by God's grace, a lot of guys at Church on the Move have experienced freedom by going through this. You're not gonna get there just trying a little harder at what you've been doing all your life. You're gonna, it's gonna take something radical. Maybe for you, it looks like the voice of the Lord sounds like get rid of social media off of your phone. Delete it and stop looking at it.
Maybe for you, it looks like get rid of your phone altogether, go to a flip phone. That device is killing you, you don't need it anymore. Maybe it sounds like that. I don't know what his voice will sound like, but it will be specific. If you want freedom, you're going to have to follow the specific instruction, go see a marriage counselor, you and your wife. Maybe it sounds like that, I don't know, but follow what the Lord says. I love this story in John chapter two, just a few chapters back, it's the wedding feast at Cana. You remember this, this is Jesus' first miracle recorded in John, and it's turning the water into wine, and there's this great little detail in John two where Mary, the mother of Jesus, says to the servants, I love this, because I think this is a word for us, just do whatever he tells you. What a great word for us at the beginning of 2026. Do you want freedom? Do you want new life? Do you want life and life to the full? How do I get it? It's right here, do whatever he tells you. Spend a little time getting quiet, listen for the voice of the Lord, whatever specific instruction he gives you, just do it. Trust him, and trust that what he wants for you is better than what you want for yourself.
Are you willing to trust him? I was with someone close to me several years ago, an older gentleman who's been in Heather and I's life for a while, and he's in so many ways a wonderful guy, but he's just been dealing with brokenness for a long time. Coping mechanisms that just began when he was young, he had an abusive father, difficult upbringing, and I can imagine a lot of the things that he learned how to deal with that abusive father when he was young, these have just kind of carried over into his adult life, and the result is that so many of his relationships, just a string of broken relationships. And on the one hand, he's amazing, I mean, he's funny, he's the life of the party, he's a great guy, he's got a great sense of humor, he's a wonderful encourager, I mean, just a great, but on the other hand, it's like, he'll go from one day just being like an encourager and loving you so well, and the next day you can't find him because he's just off sort of by himself down in the doldrums, nobody wants me around, I just can't do it anymore, and it's just, it's this high and low, and probably, like there's an actual condition there that needs to be addressed, but a lot of it is also just emotional and spiritual, and he's a Christian, like he believes in Jesus and loves the Lord, but it's just this continual brokenness that keeps him from loving, here's the thing, it keeps him from loving the people that he loves well.
He's unable to do it, and I remember, like sitting in a restaurant with him, we were having breakfast several years ago, and I was just like, dude, you can be free from this. You oughta see a counselor sit down with someone and process this, there is freedom on the other side, and I'll never forget like the look on his face, there was so much emotion, and there were tears in his eyes as he looked at me and just said, I can't. It's just too painful. Are you willing to follow the specific instruction that the Lord gives you? Maybe you've got a friend, a trusted counsel in your life that's just, it's been suggesting something to you, and you know it's right, you know that the Lord's in it, but you've just, can you obey, believing that what the Lord has for you, though it may be painful for a temporary season, on the other side of it, it will produce life. Now let me wrap this up by just, let's look at the back half, the finish to this story, because it's incumbent upon us that we do something with the healing and the salvation that, hear this, that has already been provided. I don't know if you've thought much about what Christ has already provided, do you realize you've been forgiven of your sins? Do you know that you stand righteous before a holy God? Do you understand what's been provided for you? The question is, are you living in the light of that grace?
Let's look at the finish to the story. As I was kind of preparing this sermon this week, I was hoping to myself that this finish was gonna be really encouraging. and hopeful and just end on a good note and it does not at all. But I gotta follow the text, here's where it goes. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed. I said this man was pathetic earlier, I want you to see, he is. This is, it's such weakness, such lack of courage, no spine, no backbone, no strength of convictions, just a weak, helpless man. They're challenging him and look at how quickly he shifts the focus. What does he say? He says, oh, it was the man who healed me. He is the one that said to me, it's not my fault I'm carrying this around. I didn't come up with this idea, he told me to do it. So they asked him, well, then who was that? Who said, take up your bed and walk? Look at this detail that John records. Now the man who had been healed, he had been healed, but he did not know who it was. Now that, we'll preach if you let it. That Christ can offer you healing,
forgiveness, grace, mercy, and yet in spite of all that he's done, we don't even really know him. We're missing him. He was right in front of us, working, and yet we missed it. Afterward, Jesus found him. This is fascinating because Jesus singles this man out amongst a multitude of sick. He singles him out and then he circles back. I can't think of another instance where something like this happens. He circles back to find this man a second time. And look at what he says to him. See, you are well. You have been healed. I have healed you. Mercy has been given to you. Healing has come to you. Freedom has come to you. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. And look at how this pathetic man responds. He goes away and he tells the Jews it was Jesus. He's the one who did it. He's the one who said that to me. What's going on here? What's happening here? Healing has been provided. Grace has been given. Mercy has been given.
And the warning of Jesus is, you better do something with what I've entrusted you with. So great a salvation has been provided for you. There's not a one of us in here who can say, well, the Lord's not done anything like that for me. Are you kidding me? Are you aware of the cross? Have you heard of the resurrection? Do you know what Christ has done? Do you have any idea of what he's provided for you? It's on offer. The question is, what are you going to do with it? And to make peace with sin, to just kind of keep going back to your old way of living when the Lord has done so much, and to just do nothing about these ongoing, long-term patterns of brokenness in our lives is to, in some way, dishonor the very name and the gospel which we proclaim to believe. Look at what Hebrews, well, first, let me just put it like this. The statement I would make is this. To whom much has been given, much will be required. That's the principle. Now, here's the verse in Hebrews that I wanted to share with you. For if we go on sinning, look at this warning. This is strong. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth,
in other words, be careful. Be careful if you say, oh, I can see. I know the truth. Great, then let's hold you accountable to that. Are you acting in accordance with that truth? If you go on sinning deliberately, by the way, let me just set your heart at ease. This is not about you proclaiming Christ and then making a stupid choice and somehow you've immediately lost your salvation and you're going to hell. That's not what this is. This is talking about long-term, habitual, sinful patterns that we refuse to deal with. Look at what he says. There remains, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. In other words, healing was given once. That's what the Lord is saying. Look, I healed you. You've been healed, but do not presume upon my grace. In other words, don't flaunt, don't put it back in my face. Don't keep up with the life that you've been living because if you do that, if grace has been extended and you just continually reject it over and over and over again, what you should expect at a certain point is that next time you come to the Lord, there won't be grace, but that there will be an expectation of judgment,
a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. In other words, guys, like this is not just a, hey, wouldn't it be nice? And by the way, let me go in a little further. This is more than just for your sake. Do you realize that your very life is a witness to the one that you claim to serve? serve, what does your life say about your God? What does your life say about Christ's goodness? When we call ourselves Christians, but our lives look no differently than our unbelieving neighbors, when we suffer from the same afflictions as them, in the same way that we do, and yet we name the name of Christ, what does that say about who he is? What does that do to his name, his glory, his reputation? No, we have a responsibility to whom much has been given, much will be required. So we dare not just sit back and go, well, that's just too much, I'm just going to stay where I'm at. I would do that with great fear and trembling if you're going to make that choice. But just know that healing and grace and freedom has been provided, and you want to know when you're ready to answer that question. Do you want to be healed? Here's when, when you're willing to do anything to get it. When you finally come to the end of yourself and say, all right, come what may, whatever may happen, whatever the consequences are, I am choosing Jesus. That's when, that's when breakthrough really happens, and let me just give you a little bit of hope to end this thing. This man was healed because Jesus came near. Do you dare to believe? Do you dare to believe that healing could happen, that freedom could happen? Can I tell you, anything is possible.
Anything is possible. Why? Because he is near. Let's take him at his word. Let's expect that God can do great things, or maybe in the past we've just been trapped by these patterns. Let's expect that God could do something if we'll just fully surrender. Let's do that. Would you bow your heads? Close your eyes. I want us to take just a moment to put this sermon into practice. I think we ought to just spend a couple of minutes right now listening. What might the Lord say to you? What specific commands will he give you? Some of you, you already know. You already know. Maybe you need to write it down. I would encourage you to share it with someone trusted in your life. This is what the Lord has said to me. Would you hold me accountable to this? I'm terrified of it. Fine. So many of the things that God asks us to do are terrifying. Hold me accountable to it. I want to follow the Lord. What specific things is he saying? Let's take a moment and listen. Lord, we trust you. We are your sheep. We hear your voice.
Lord, speak. In Jesus' name. Lord, thank you for speaking to us. Lord, open our hearts to hear what maybe we have not previously been able to hear. Where we've kind of closed off whole possibilities in our mind. Lord, we open ourselves up fully to you. We dare to trust you. We dare to take you at your word. And if you're offering healing, well, Lord, we want it. Give us the strength, the courage of our convictions to stand up and say, yes, I want that. In Jesus' name. The heads bowed and eyes closed, you're in the room today, and you say, Whit, I can feel the Lord calling me, drawing me into relationship with him. What do I mean by that? Maybe you considered yourself a Christian when you were a kid. Maybe you've always thought yourself a Christian. But you're realizing today that you're very far from God. You've not been living for him. Maybe you've never been a Christian, or maybe you've been living for yourself. Either way, you're ready to bow your knee and declare, Jesus is Lord. Hear this. God's the one who does the calling. All we do is respond. Just like this. The Lord comes and finds this man where he is and asks him the question, do you want to be healed? That's what's happening this morning. He's found you right there at your seat.
He is near. He is present. And he's asking you, do you want healing? Do you want salvation? All you have to do is say, yes. But make no mistake, that requires boldness and courage. If that's you and you say, I want that, I am ready for a new life. relationship with Jesus. If that's you this morning, I'm gonna have you put your hand up, do it in a courageous way right there at your seat. Say, Whit, that's me, I see you over there, thank you. Just go ahead and put your hand up right there and say, that's me, I need that. Hands are all over this room, awesome, great. See hands from left to right, wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful, I see you all over the place. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Fantastic, God bless you, God bless you, thank you. We're gonna pray together today, church, whether you raised your hand or you didn't. Would you repeat this after me? Here's what we're gonna say. Say, dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to pay for my sins. I'm a sinner, I need a Savior, and you came for me. I give you my life, every part of me. I bow my knee, I declare, Jesus is Lord. Lord Jesus, take my past, my present, my future,
my hopes, my dreams, my sin. Take it all, I belong to you. Whatever you say, I will do. I'm following you. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me, amen. Now look up here, at the close of the service, our prayer team's gonna be down front. If you raised your hand today, or if you have a prayer need, we would love to be able to pray with you. If you raise your hand, we got a little book that will tell you what it means to be saved, how you can know that, and next steps that you need to take. So if you just stop by front, they'll be standing right below where I'm standing right now facing that direction. That's our prayer team, we're here every week. We would love to be able to minister to you. And if you have a need, we would love to be able to pray with you about that. Stand to your feet, next week we will continue, it'll be part two of this series, and we'll start to go a little deeper, get more helpful and specific as we go. But this is a good way to start us off this weekend. We're gonna conclude with this blessing out of Numbers chapter six, and we like to say it out loud together as a church community as we end.
So if you wanna join with us, words are on the screen, here we go. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless you, I love you. We'll see you next week, you're dismissed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Music Music
Recommended topics
- God Behind Bars Music+
- New to Pando+
- Ministry of the Week+
- Devotionals+
- Foundations+
- Mental Health+
- New Believers+