Man, go ahead and have a sea crossroads. Man, praise God that the Lamb of God is also the Lion of Judah. And the Lion, man, he is victorious and he wants to have victory in your life this morning. Welcome to Crossroads, everybody. I can tell you are here to worship, you're here to learn. We're here to be transformed by the teaching and the preaching of God's word. I want to welcome those of you who are watching online. Thanks so much for clicking play, for worshiping with us in that platform. I also want to welcome all of my Ontario friends over at the Ontario campus. Thanks so much for streaming over there. I'll be back there next Sunday preaching. So, Ontario, I miss you guys. We'll see you next Sunday. My name, if you do not know who I am, is Chris Standridge. I'm the campus pastor at our Ontario campus. And so if you don't know me, it's probably because I spend most of my time over at that campus. But I'm privileged to be here today with you, preaching to you and sharing God's word with you. I know he's gonna do a work in our hearts today if we will just surrender to him. Um, take your Bibles this morning, turn to John chapter 5. John chapter 5, as you're turning there, if you do not have a Bible, this is something that we do every week. Maybe this is your first time here at Crossroads, and so this might seem a little bit unfamiliar to you, but we got some volunteers that are gonna kind of roam the aisles a little bit. If you don't have a Bible for whatever reason, doesn't really matter. Maybe you forgot yours, maybe you left it in the bathroom, maybe you just have never owned one, uh, raise your hand. We'd love to place one in your hand. That is your Bible to keep. We want everyone to have a copy of God's word. As you're turning to uh John chapter 5, let me just go ahead and kick off our sermon by saying we live in a culture full of noise. Man, it seems like everyone has an opinion now, everyone has a voice, and everyone has a platform to now be heard. Am I right? Like with the invention uh and the ascent of social media, it almost seems like with the younger generation, almost as if if you have an opinion, if you have a voice, if you have a platform and you're not using your platform to speak your voice and your opinion, then you're somehow misusing that platform, and that's irresponsible. That's what some people think. So I got to thinking this week about how many of us are fighting, we're fighting to be heard, we're fighting to be relevant in the culture today. And as I was thinking about that, I I went to uh the internet and I did a little bit of search on the power of social media, and I found that if you took the the valuation of all of the main social media platforms that we now use on a regular basis, whether it's TikTok or Instagram or Snapchat or X or Facebook or something like that, if you take all of the big ones that are the heavy hitters, the impact that it has on our economy, man, those combined valuations would be worth $2.2 trillion. That's phenomenal, the impact that social media has. And I don't want to go into a whole diatribe about that. We all know how it has transformed our culture. Some for good, a lot not for good. But a lot of us use social media. We use social media for various different reasons. Some of you guys, you use it for a place to express your political views. Some of us use it for a place to start spiritual conversations. You see it as a place where you can share your faith in Jesus Christ. Others use social media to get their news. Some people look for connection on social media. Other people, they're looking for validation in their life. You know, they post something, and as soon as they get that like, or as soon as they get that comment, or as soon as they get another follower, man, it's it's it validates them, right? Some of you maybe you've monetized social media. You've figured out how to be an influencer and how to gain from it. Others, man, use it for entertainment for me. All right, I'm just saying this is for me. I use social media to engage in really serious conversations. Um, this week, I wanted to get to the bottom of a topic that is really important in the world. And we're very divided on this very thing, and it's it's tragic in some ways, how divided we are. So I was having a conversation with my wife and my daughter over lunch, and we got to talking about this debate, and there was some disagreement even at the lunch table, and I thought, you know what, I'm gonna put this on Facebook and I'm gonna see what the world says, what is the power of social media? And so I wanted to get down to the bottom of this and now and forevermore just settle on the answer. If you had one thing that you could eat for the rest of your life between spam and Vienna sausages, what is it? So I put that on social media and I got a I got a few hits on it. How many of you are are spam people in in the room? Um, I hear a lot of moaning right now. Um how many of you are Vienna sausage people? Okay, okay, okay. How many of you think both are disgusting? Okay, now we can agree on something. When I was a kid, when I was a kid, man, I would eat Vienna sausages like it was candy. Now that stuff absolutely disgusts me. Do you want to know what was the what was the popular one? It was spam by a mile. So if you ever if you ever want more information on spam, if any of you are like spam fans, go to Pastor Andrew Pacheco, that guy's from Hawaii. He has a stash of spam in his office. He will hook you up. So I say all of that. I really use all of that to say, man, we many of us we have a platform now to speak our voice, and social media is a modern-day platform for us to be heard. Now, Jesus, 2,000 years ago, had a message that needed to be heard. Now, we obviously know that his platform was not social media, but he did have a platform. He had a voice, and the culture was listening to him. Here's Jesus, he is heavenly royalty, right? He gives up the glories of heaven to come to earth in human fashion and to lay down his life to spread one message, and this was his message. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. This was the mission of his ministry. This was the mission of his life. This is all that he came to proclaim. He wanted to shout it from the rooftops who he was and what God has done, that hope had come into the world. And hope had come for those who had no hope. That the Messiah was here and he brought his kingdom with him. So in our text this morning in John chapter 5, Jesus is about to perform a miracle where he's gonna shout to the onlookers, to the listeners, not necessarily like literally, but more metaphorically, he's gonna shout who he is and what God has called him to do. And so this morning we're gonna look at John chapter 5, the first 15 verses. And I want you to understand that before we start reading, that up until now, the masses have been fascinated with Jesus. They've been curious about Jesus, they've seen some of his miracles, they've seen and heard some of his statements and his sermons, and they're just curious about him, they're fascinated with him. And yeah, he's ticked off a small group of Pharisees and they're keeping their eye on him, they're trying to discredit him, they're trying to get him to keep his mouth shut or whatever. But up until now, you know, Jesus has kind of been um, you know, popular to say the least, but what he's about to do is he is going to shout to the masses to get their attention about who he claims to be and what he's capable of because of who he is. Let's read John chapter 5, starting in verse 1. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheepgate a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed uh colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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? The sick man answered him, 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. 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 he 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, Hey, the man who healed me, that man said to me, Take up your bed and walk. And they asked him, Who's the 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, and there was a crowd in that place. Afterwards, 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 God. We believe this word to be true, we believe it to be trustworthy, and we believe it to be transformative. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, use your word today. Reveal to us what you have for us as your Holy Spirit moves among us. God, may we be open, may we see ourselves in Scripture, may we more clearly see who you are in Scripture and your Son, Jesus Christ. May you be glorified in the preaching of your word. May we be transformed as a result of it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So a little bit of context of where we're at in John chapter 5. Jesus has just come from healing a nobleman's son in the northern region of Galilee. John chapter 4, Jesus was in Cana, and the nobleman was from Capernaum, and he comes to Cana, which is 20 miles away, and he seeks out Jesus looking for help because he's desperate for his son to be healed. Jesus heals the nobleman's son, and then after that, he starts to make his way down south, around or through Samaria, again into the region of Judah or Judea, where Jerusalem was. So here is Jesus. He's coming back to Jerusalem. He's coming for a feast. Verse 1 tells us it's a feast. We don't know which one. Um everything I've studied about says it's probably one of the um the three main feasts, the high holy holidays on the uh Jewish calendar, either Passover or Pentecost or Feast of Tabernacles, because these were the feasts that all of the adult Jewish men were required to go to Jerusalem for every year. So Jesus is making this a priority. So it's probably one of those feasts. He's coming, um, he's coming south from the north. And if you don't know this, in old ancient Jerusalem, there was a wall that surrounded the entire city. And around that wall there were eight different gates. All of them had different names, but there was one gate in particular on the northeast side of the wall of Jerusalem that was called the sheep gate. Now, this the sheep gate was strategically placed there because it was in close proximity to the temple. Now, what did they do at the temple? They worshiped. How did they worship at the temple? They sacrificed animals. What kind of animals in particular did they sacrifice at the temple? Sheep. Lambs. So they place this gate close to the uh to the temple on the northeastern side because it's a strategic move. It's it's it's like it's close in proximity. So it's an efficient entry point. This is the point where Jesus comes near into the city. He comes through the sheep gate, and as you get to the sheep gate, okay, the reason they do this is because when little Bo Peep brings her sheep, they don't want her to lose her sheep as she's going through the city. So they keep the sheep gate close to the temple. And as you're coming to the temple to worship, there is a place in Jerusalem called the Pool of Bethesda. The pool of Bethesda is what we're going to talk about this morning. This is this is a place that is for ritual cleansing, okay? The pool of Bethesda, when it was first built, was considered a glamorous place to hang out. Like this is where there were all kinds of like mosaics. It was just a place for leisure. But over the course of time, the pool of Bethesda became something very different than what it was intended to be because it got a reputation. And all of a sudden, the sick people and the lame people start hanging out at this pool. But the pool of Bethesda was there for ritual cleansing as people were on their way to the temple to sacrifice. Now you didn't go to the pool of Bethesda for leisure at this point in history. You didn't go there because you wanted to take a little dip. You didn't go there for sunbathing. You didn't go there for a spa day or anything like that. You went there because you were on business. Like you were going there for business worship, if you will. Like you were working towards something. And if you didn't go there for ritual cleansing, then you went there because you were look looking for a miracle. You went there because you were looking for healing. And that's when the people in our story today or the person in our story today found Jesus. He was the one that they didn't expect, but he was the one that performed a miracle. I think it's no coincidence that Jesus shows up on this very day at this very moment speaking to this very, this very man. Jesus comes into Jerusalem, maybe through the sheep gate. This is this is what I love about scripture. If you look at it really closely and you study it, and you start to analyze it, and you start to get familiar with it, you start to find little signs and pointers and Easter eggs. You guys ever watch movies and you're you're you're watching these movies or television shows and you see little things that are just placed in the in the movie or the show strategically to point you to something different? Man, scripture does this all the time if you're paying close enough. So I was studying this this week, and I came across one pastor's interpretation of what happened here, and I thought, man, what a powerful Easter egg for each and every one of us. So if we read between the lines just a little bit, we're not trying to uh misinterpret scripture, but we're trying to put context together. You can see Jesus' intentionality of why he's at the pool of Bethesda on this very day talking to this very man. So this could be a reach, but this is this is another pastor's interpretation of what happened. I want you to understand that Bethesda, again, was near the sheep gate. Bethesda is an Aramaic word, and that word means the house of mercy. Keep in mind it's the house of mercy. Who is Jesus often referred to as? He's referred to as the Lamb of God. So the Lamb of God comes into Jerusalem through the sheep gate to go to the house of mercy to show mercy to the very man who needed mercy. That's a really cool Easter egg for each and every one of us. Like it's it tells me that everything that Jesus does is intentional. It tells me that he does everything on purpose. There are no coincidences in scripture. And so this man who needed mercy was a paraplegic for 38 years. And every day, man, this guy was working from a deficit in his life. Every day he was falling further and further behind because of his disability. And he was completely worn down by his defeat. He had gotten beat to that pool, those healing waters, every single time. And he was just discouraged. He was just defeated. He felt like he was overlooked. He felt like no one appreciated him. He felt like he had nothing to offer society. This lame man was one of many invalids at the pool of Bethesda. Now, history tells us, scholars believe, that on a normal day at this pool, there may have been hundreds of people that were hanging out there looking for healing. Sick people, diseased people, people in pain, people that were blind, people that were deaf, people that were just desperate for hope. There would have been hundreds of them. Now you think about on a holy holiday like Passover or Pentecost or Tabernacles, where the city is just ballooning and bursting at the seams with tourists and worshipers, then there might have been thousands of people at this very pool at this very time when Jesus, when he shows up. And what I love about the imagery of this is that Jesus shows up for one man. One man who is not only an invalid, but he feels invalid. Like society doesn't see him for what his worth is. They were all overlooked at the pool of Bethesda. And the story shows us that Jesus shows up for the winners and for the losers. Because last week he showed up for the nobleman, the guy who was successful, the guy that had his life all together, the guy who was wealthy, the guy who was influential. He showed up for him last week, and now this week he's showing up for the losers. So just when he shows up for the heroes, he also shows up for the zeros. And that should bring hope and some sort of comfort to each and every one of us today. Because here's my guess. My guess is that some of you guys feel like right now, where you're at in life, you feel like you lean more toward the loser side of things. Maybe you feel a little bit more like a zero because of the situations that you're going through and the circumstances of your life that it's led you to. And you feel like, man, I'm just being overlooked. I feel like there was no hope for me. I feel desperate. So for anyone that might identify with the zeros in the room here today, I want you to know that Jesus sees you and he shows up for you. Maybe you're here today and you're feeling defeated in life. You feel like you're working from that deficit like the lame man was working from. You can't seem to get caught up. You can't seem to get to even, let alone get ahead in life. You're here and you're burdened by so many different things. And you might, you might, your burden might be financial, your burden might be relational, it might be emotional or spiritual or even physical. And you feel like you're just working from this deficit and you can't seem to get ahead. So Jesus shows up and he meets this man right where he's at, because he has a divine appointment with this one individual, but he also has a second divine appointment that's kind of a part of a bigger picture of what's going on. I believe he has a divine appointment with a group of spiritual elites, the Pharisees, because the Pharisees happen to be there, a group of them, and they're watching everything that Jesus is doing. They're following him very closely, and Jesus shows up because he wants to pick a fight. Jesus is not afraid of the religious elite. Jesus is not afraid of standing on what's true. He's not afraid of making strong and bold comments. He's not afraid of a little bit of back and forth, a little bit of debate. He's always got the answer, he's always got the solution, he always has the fix, and he shows up knowing that what he's about to do is going to kick up a hornet's nest. He knows he's about to raise a ruckus in Jerusalem because of the miracle that he's about to perform. And by healing this man, this lamb man on the Sabbath, he's making another statement. He wants to be heard. He's making a statement, and he frames the entire encounter that he has with this lamb man around one simple question. It's found in verse 6 of John chapter 5. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time. See, Jesus shows up, he knows this man's there, he's looking for him, he knows the guy's been there a long time, maybe as long as 38 years. And he said to him, Do you want to be healed? This is the question that this man has to wrestle with. And we're confronted with the same question on a regular basis. And this is a tough question for us to um to deal with sometimes because it forces us to pick a path. And as many, as many of us who say we want all that Jesus has to offer, if I'm being honest, there are some of us here today that we don't want all of Jesus. We just want to put a little Jesus in our back pocket. We want to keep him there for safekeeping, and we want to be able to whip him out whenever we get into a pinch, whenever we feel disappointed, whenever we're um uh defeated, whenever we don't know what way to go. Man, I don't need you, Jesus. I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. All of a sudden it's like, oh man, I don't know how to handle this. Hey, Jesus, I want to pull you out of my pocket. I need you to get me out of this bind. That's how so many of us approach a relationship with Jesus. But here's Jesus He says, You gotta answer the question. He demands a response. Do you want to be healed? As we look through our text, man, I want to show you how this crippled man responded to Jesus' very question and how we can respond. How the lame man was healed, and how we can be healed today. So if you're with me and you're taking notes, this is where healing starts. Number one, healing starts with reorientation. You have to think differently. You have to think differently. For this man to be healed, he had to come to terms with the reality of what he believed about these healing waters versus what Jesus just told him about him being the living water, him being the one who could heal and make him well. Man, there was no healing in these waters, but he believed it for whatever reason that we're going to talk about here in just a moment. So that kind of begs the question. Why would someone think that you could just run into a pool and all of a sudden if you're the first one in, you would be healed? Well, I want to show you something else that you may not have noticed as we were reading the text earlier. If you look on, if you look really closely, you might notice that something's missing after verse 3. Look in your Bibles. If you have the ESV, look in your Bibles. What's missing after verse 3? There's no verse 4. The ESV. Many of the manuscripts that we use, many of the modern day translations actually eliminate verse 4. And I know what you're thinking. What does that say? I want to know. Okay, well, the New King James Version actually tells us what verse 4 said, and I want to read the the, I want to, just for context, I want to give you verse 3 and verse 4. Says this in the New King James Version. Many of your Bibles won't say this. And these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. Verse 4. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. So the ESV doesn't include that verse. Why not? Because many of the original, like the earliest manuscripts of John's gospel, don't include that verse. Historians believe that centuries after these original manuscript scripts were written, that maybe a scribe came along at some point and said, I think I need to offer the reader some context. And so I'm going to tell them why they were hanging out the pool. I want to tell the reader why these invalids were hanging out at the pool. So the earliest manuscripts don't have that. And so that's why the ESV doesn't include it. But I want to give you a little bit of historical context, even outside of Scripture. For years and years and years, anyone that was critical of Christianity or Jesus' deity would look at the Gospel of John and they would try to find holes. They would try to pick at it. They would try to find fault with it. And this story of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda was one of those stories because for years, literally about 1800 years, nobody knew where the pool of Bethesda was. It hadn't been uncovered. And so people thought that John was just making this story up in order to help Jesus fulfill these messianic prophecies. But then in 1888, late 19th century, an archaeologist discovered the pool of Bethesda, just where the scripture says it was. And the pool was actually an artesian well with a spring that fed into it from beneath. Now, when you picture these pools, I say pools, because there was an upper pool and a lower pool right next to each other. History tells us, um, uh, you know, archaeologists tell us, you can look at pictures and everything online, these were big pools. They weren't tiny little, you know, hot tub type things. They were big, like almost like Olympic-sized swimming pools. And they were very deep at the same time. They say that they were as much as 20 feet deep. And so at the bottom of these pools, there was a spring that would bubble up and it would stir up the water. Now, what you need to understand contextually in history is that in this day and age, in the first century, people were highly spiritual and they were highly superstitious. So anything that they didn't fully understand or comprehend, like some sort of phenomena that they couldn't explain away, they would just attach the supernatural to it. Or they would attach a superstition to it. And so they couldn't explain what caused this, like this pool to the water to stir up. So they just believed that an angel would come down and touch the water and stir it up. And so the first person that ran to the water and got in the water first, they were the ones that were going to get healed. That's the historical context. Do any of you remember when you were a kid and you went to the public swimming pool? You remember what it was like when they had adult swim time only? Like they pulled all the kids out of the pool, and you're a kid and you're sitting here thinking, these people don't appreciate what they have. Like get them out of the pool, let us get in there. You're sitting there waiting, maybe it's 15, 20 minutes, you're waiting for that whistle to blow, and man, when the lifeguard blew that whistle, what did you do? You sprinted to be the first one back in the swimming pool. Because if you were the first one back in, it was winner, winner, chicken dinner, man. Like you were the you were the first one back. So that's what these people are doing, right? In some way. They're chasing a superstition. They're trying to be the first one back in the pool so that they could be healed. This lame man, here we are again, he has to weigh what he believed about this pool and the waters in it versus what Jesus just offered him. I think it's really easy for us to sit in judgment of the people at the pool of Bethesda, especially the lame man. We just think to ourselves, like, why can't he just orient his, reorient his thinking? Why can't he just believe what Jesus said? Why would he believe in this kind of a superstition? Well, it's really easy for us to be judgmental when we have the benefit of hindsight. Because our hindsight is 2020 and we know how this story plays out. But this is all these people had. They didn't know Jesus, they didn't know what kind of miracle worker he could perform. They just knew the superstitions and they believed in the supernatural, and so they believed in these waters. And before we judge the people in the first century for how antiquated their beliefs were, maybe some of us should slow down and ask ourselves, how easily do we reorient our thinking? How easily do we change? Because I know me. I know that I'm a little bit stubborn, I'm I know that I'm a little bit stuck in my ways. I know that I don't like to be proven wrong. I don't, I know that I don't like change necessarily. And there's a lot of people in the church today that I believe you come here week after week after week after week, and you get a steady dose and a steady diet of truth from the word of truth, from God's word, and you hear it, and it's you know, it's truth in, it's truth right back out. Because for some of us, we come to this place and we hear the truth and we think, ah, that's good for somebody else. Yeah, I know what God's word says about that. I hear you, Pastor, but I don't know if that really applies to me. Man, that's a really hard truth. I'm not sure that I believe that. That one hits a little bit too close to home. That's probably for somebody else. Ah, you know, God, God understands my situation. God loves me, God knows my heart. Man, so many of us, we hear God's word preached from this very pulpit, from Pastor Andrew and our teaching team, and then we just go and do exactly what we want to do, anyways. And if I can confess to you this morning, I know some of you do that because that's what I do. I don't like to change. I don't like to reorient my thinking. And there are literally times in my life where I have to pull back and say, God, I'm just gonna confess to you. I'm gonna be honest. This is what makes me feel good. This is what I want to do. This is what makes me feel comfortable. This is what I want to believe about your word. Because this aligns with my agenda. And then I have to pull back to the center and say, God, if I'm out of line with your word, if I'm out of step with your word, I need you to change me. I need you to change my thinking. What is Romans chapter 12? We we quote this verse a lot around here. Romans chapter 12, verse 2 says this: do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed, be reoriented by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Set your mind on things that are different. You have to think about the way that God's word speaks about things. And if you're at a step with God's word, you have to change your thinking, just like the man at the pool of Bethesda. Let God's truth change your mind. Look at verses 5 through 7 as we're moving on to our second point. It says this is John 5. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. 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? The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I'm going, another steps down before me. So the second thing is this. The first thing is you got to reorient, you gotta reorient yourself, you gotta change your thinking. The second thing is you have to make a decision. You have to choose differently. You gotta choose differently. Jesus asks a very simple question Do you want to be healed? It seems almost ridiculous that he would ask that. This guy is a paraplegic, he hasn't walked in 38 years, he's hanging out at a place with other invalids and other sick people because they believe that they can find healing there. He's been there all this time. You'd think that that's an obvious question that the man wants to be made well. It's an honest question, but it demands an honest answer, and it's not easy sometimes for us to answer that. In fact, it can be difficult even for some of us to answer that question. Do you want to be made well? You guys ever heard of the concept of learned helplessness? Learned helplessness is a psychological condition that some people struggle with because they've just been disappointed and let down over and over and over and over again. They don't get their hopes up anymore. They don't believe that change is coming, they don't believe there's a better tomorrow. They've learned helplessness because they've just gotten so used to disappointment. There's another medical term for this that you may want to write down if you're taking notes. It's it's it's three initials, it's BFS, Brown's fan syndrome. Brown's fans, we're not well, are we? We're not well. We just expect disappointment in life. We've learned helplessness over decades and decades of being a fan. In all seriousness, some of you are in this place of helplessness. Some of you here today might be in a place of hopelessness. And what's even more tragic is that some of you choose to stay in that tragedy and in that ailment and in that sickness and in that disease and in that addiction, even after a lifeline has been offered. You know, when I lived in Durango, um, Colorado, I did ministry out there for about 10 years. Early on when we lived out there, I remember there was this man that stood on a certain street corner on a main thoroughfare through the town. He stood there every day for months on end, like it was his full-time job, and he just begged for money. He was a panhandler. The interesting thing about this guy is that I don't mean to be like stereotypical or judgmental or anything like that, but he didn't strike me as a typical Colorado panhandler. You see, in Colorado back then, that was when marijuana was first made legal. So people would come from all over the country, man, and all they wanted was weed. They just wanted to buy weed, they wanted to smoke weed, and so you know, many of them had a similar look. And this guy didn't look like that at all. This guy, I remember to this day, it was probably 13, 14 years ago, when I first saw him popping up on the street corners. He always had a cardboard sign that just said, you know, um, you know, need money or whatever. This guy was always well kept. He had a uh a Denver Broncos starter jacket. He was always, like his hair was always combed. He was probably in his late 50s, early 60s. He was always clean shaven. He looked like the kind of guy that could walk into many different establishments and probably get a job on the spot. He looked like the kind of guy that could not only get a job, but he could keep that job as well. And I remember talking to my wife, she worked at she worked at a company that had um, you know, drop-in, you know, customers and stuff every day. And I remember her telling me that she had many conversations with multiple different people about that very man because everybody in town knew who this beggar was. And multiple people told my wife, you know what? I actually offered him a job, and he refused it. And the reason was they told him, or he he told them, the reason that he wouldn't take a job is because it was easier to just keep begging. It was easier to just stand on a street corner than it was to go find work. And it was more lucrative for him to beg for money than it was to go work a nine-to-five. You see, this guy didn't want to fix to his brokenness. He didn't want a way out. He knew that this was this was working for him. He preferred to stay in his situation. Then there are some people who don't want to be made well because even in your pain, even that pain, at least it's familiar. Some people don't want to be made well because suffering has become a familiar friend. Some people don't want to be made well because change is hard and it hurts, and maybe it even opens up old wounds. Some people don't want to be made well because healing eliminates opportunities for excuses and complaining. I don't know about you, but I am prone to blaming other people when things don't go my way. I'm prone to saying, God, this ain't my fault. God, it's so and so. God, why did you do this to me? We love to make excuses for the situation that we're in. We love to complain about our circumstances, and I know that because I've done it, but also we see this man in John chapter 5 doing the same thing. Look at verse 7. Jesus asks him a simple question. Do you want to be healed? Look at his very next answer. The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the waters are stirred up. And while I'm going, another steps down before me. This guy doesn't make a choice. He doesn't give a yes or a no answer. He just starts making excuses. He's complaining to Jesus. He's like, I got all these reasons as to why I'm not healed. And Jesus is saying, Do you want to be healed? He would rather stay stuck. He would rather make excuses than be healed. Man, some people, some of us here today, man, we would rather stay stuck and spin our spin our tires than get a solution that makes us uncomfortable. But man, if you want to step into God's healing and into God's fullness, you have to not only think differently, but you gotta choose differently. Number three. Number three is action. You gotta move differently. Look at verses eight and nine of John chapter five. Jesus said to him, Get up, take up your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed and took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. He took action, he moved differently. This guy had not moved his legs literally in nearly four decades. Thirty-eight years he has been stuck. And I believe that Jesus, again, I've said this multiple times. I believe that Jesus showed up at this very spot at this very moment for a very specific purpose. Remember, Jesus is not just here at the pool of Bethesda to heal. He's here to be heard. He is going to make a statement by what he's doing. He wants to be heard by the Pharisees and the crowds. He's making a statement through this guy who hasn't walked for 38 years, likely because of the sin in his past, or maybe in his presence. Think about this. If you go back to the book of Deuteronomy and the law of Moses, we know the story of the Israelites wandering through the wilderness, trying to get to the promised land. There was a group of people, the Israelites, who wandered. They were in the wilderness for 40 years, but they wandered in the wilderness for 38 years because of their sin of disobedience. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 14, says this. And the time from our leaving Kadesh Barnia, this is Moses saying, until we crossed the brook Zarod was 38 years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. Here's Israel. God promises them Canaan. He promises them this land that is flowing with milk and honey. He wants to give them victory, and they're like, God, we see the giants, man. We see the fortified cities. We see what we're up against, and we don't believe you can handle this. So in fear, they don't follow him in faith. And so God says, All right, if that's if that's how you're gonna do this, you're an unfaithful, stiff-necked people. Every one of you adults that are over the age of 20, you're all gonna die in the wilderness. Every one of you. So this is what happens. For 38 years they wander. The Israelites wander in the sin of their unbelief, but they never really move. They never really get closer to the promised land. They never really advance. They're just moving for the sake of moving because of their sin. And so here is another man, this lame man in John chapter 5, who has a choice to make. Do I want to stay in my sin or do I want to take a step? Do I want to take a step of faith toward Jesus? Man, sin has a way of stunting us. And some of us, I believe some of us want to be healed, some of us need to be healed, but we don't want to step into what God has called us to do. We don't want to step into what He asks us to do. Some of us maybe would rather stay sick than get uncomfortable. Some of us want to be healed, but we don't want to move where God calls. We want to step into the promised land, but we don't want to leave Egypt behind. We want freedom, but we we don't want to let go of that addiction. We want healing, but we want to keep that sin secret, you know, behind us that nobody else but God knows. Some of us, we want all the things that God has to offer, but we don't want to let go of our past. We don't want to move differently. And it's true, I believe it's true that we we suffer in this world for various different reasons. Sometimes you can't know why you're suffering and why you're sick. You know, there's there's many reasons. One reason might be because we live in a fallen world. Sometimes bad things happen just because of original sin. Everything that we see, everything that we touch has been tainted by sin. And so sometimes bad things just happen. Sometimes we're sick and we suffer and we experience pain because of somebody else's sin, because of what they've done to us. Others of us, maybe we've suffered and been in pain and we've been sick because of our own sin, our own rebellion against God. Think about this. I believe that sometimes pain comes as a result of spiritual warfare. All around us, all the time, there is spiritual battle going on, and sometimes we're collateral damage in the middle of it. And I can't explain this, but sometimes God allows us to go through things that are hard, that hurt, simply so that he can get the glory on the other end of it. And that's not super comforting, but that's the reality. Sometimes we can't know exactly why we're sick and why we need to be healed. But I do believe that other times we can. I believe that the lame man in this story, I believe he was in his position that he was in because of a sin in his life. Look at verse 14. Verse 14 of John chapter 5 says this Jesus says to the man, Go and sin, sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. This sounds to me like this guy has been sick because of a previous sin or a current sin in his life. Some of you may be sick because of the sin in your own life right now. The question remains, do you want to be made well? Maybe you need to take some drastic steps this morning of confession and repentance because of the sin that's in your life that is eroding the quality of your life. Maybe your sin has separated you from God. Do you want to be made well? It's time to take desperate measures because you're in desperate times. And what I love about Jesus is that this man, I love about the story, is that this man actually doesn't take a single step. Jesus steps into his brokenness and says, Do you want to be healed? And the Bible tells us that he is healed at once, immediately, and he doesn't even take a step. But the thing is that if he's going to step into the fullness of that healing, he does have to move differently. He does have to trust. He does have to start wiggling those legs and trust enough to try to stand upon them. He's got to think differently, he's got to move differently because he is now. just made a choice and the fourth thing that we've got to do when it comes to when it comes to um being healed is deliverance we gotta live differently we have to live differently look at verse nine and then i want to jump down to verse um 14 and 15 we're gonna cover likely cover verses uh um 10 through 13 next week but if we look at verses 9 and then 14 and 15 i think it tells us a little bit more about this deliverance and living differently and at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and he walked now that day was the Sabbath afterwards 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 healed him and with a word of command this man was wholly healed in a moment sometimes healing comes miraculously just like that sometimes it comes through technology sometimes it comes through medicine sometimes it comes through a process sometimes it can come through Jesus just touching you and man this guy is wholly healed and Jesus tells him not only to get up and walk but he tells him to take up his mat and walk and I was wondering about that this week as I was studying out this passage. Why would Jesus tell him to pick up his bed mat? This is a mat that he's been laying on maybe for years and years if not decades. You know that this mat was probably beat up you know that it was probably mangled you know it probably stunk you know that it probably had you know all kinds of just like remnants of dead skin and everything on it you know there's a good chance that maybe it had bed bugs too or whatever. Like why wouldn't Jesus say man leave that thing behind Jesus instead says take up your mat he tells him to take up his mat and walk it's because Jesus again is making a point Jesus knows that by healing this man he's fulfilling the prophecies of the Messiah look at Isaiah chapter 35 verse 3 says this this is the Old Testament prophet Isaiah speaking about the coming Messiah who is and was Jesus it says he says strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees say to those who have an anxious heart be strong fear not behold your God will come with vengeance with the recompense of God he will come and save you then the eyes of the blind shall be open did Jesus not do this and the ears of the deaf unstopped did Jesus not do this then shall the lame man leap like a deer Jesus just did this the lame man is up and walking and he's telling he's telling the world like I am the Messiah I've come to reveal myself I've come to make a statement and he is breaking the law by healing a man on the Sabbath day. Jesus knows this is against the law of Moses at least according to the interpretations of the rabbis and the Pharisees and by healing the man he's breaking the law and then by telling the man to take up his mat he's telling that man to break the law as well. Because what you may not know is that we have the law of God in the Old Testament right but the rabbis would come along and they had rabbinic laws that were added to the law of God. There were actually 39 added rules or laws about the Sabbath day alone that the Jews could or could not do. And one of the things that the Jews were not permitted to do according to the rabbis and according to tradition is they were not allowed to transport something on the Sabbath day. So by taking up his mat, this man was now transporting his bedroll Jesus was telling him to break the law but Jesus didn't care about the law as according to the interpretation of men. Jesus is saying I've come to fulfill the law. I am the one you've been looking for I'm the one that you've been waiting for. And he's making a statement about the law but he's also making a statement about this this man's deliverance. He finds them in the temple they get separated Jesus and the layman they get separated. Jesus just kind of like fades into the background like he heals the man everybody starts getting stirred up and he just kind of fades. And then the the layman the first thing he does is he sprints to the temple because for 38 years he was not allowed to step foot in that temple because of his sickness and now he can worship. So he runs to the temple Jesus kind of makes his way there he encounters the man he sees him in the temple courtyard and he says sin no more he's like see you're well now don't don't leave that mat just to return to it don't go back to your old life in a day in a month in a year there's no going back to that bed roll you are new in Christ Jesus you're a new creation you have been completely healed there's no going back to that life for some of you in here today man you have been made new in Christ Jesus therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old things have passed away behold all things have become new but you're still living in that past life Jesus is saying stop going back to the mat stop going back to the sin stop going back to the thing that's keeping you down on the ground step into what I have called you to step into that deliverance step into living differently that mat kept that kept the man on the ground for 38 years it represented all of the things from his previous life it represented the brokenness it represented the loneliness and the isolation it represented his financial situation that was probably desperate. It represented the fact that he couldn't walk it represented the fact that he probably had sin in his life this mat represented all of those things in his life and Christian I man I believe that some of us today we each and every one of us have a mat. And some of us just keep going back to it it's time to throw off that sin stained mat and and move on and move on to a new lifestyle move on to following Christ in the fullness that he has for you live in your new identity you are no longer a spiritual invalid you are no longer spiritually invalid you are free in Christ Jesus you have worth and God has called you to step into this leave behind that old life that old that old way of living Ephesians chapter 4 in the New Testament says this in verse 22 to put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true in true righteousness and holiness Paul tells us to put on the new self when Christ makes you well when he heals you physically spiritually emotionally all of these things you don't go back to swimming in the old holes that you used to swim in he's changed you and transformed you he's delivered you from sin and from sickness. So take up your mat and never look back don't go back to that old lifestyle don't go back to swimming in those old pools. Each and every one of you have a mat. What does your mat represent in your life maybe you're still laying on yours and you're desperate for a miracle maybe you're here this very day and you need healing maybe your healing needs to come through um in an area where you're broken maybe your healing needs to come in your finances maybe it needs to come through working through a trauma you just can't seem to get past your past maybe you're here today and you need to be healed from your loneliness or the crushing weight of anxiety that's weighing on you. Maybe for some of you it's an addiction and you're so tired of it but you don't know how to beat it you don't know how to overcome it you need Jesus to heal you maybe others of you have unmended relationships like relationships that are broken and it's broken you inside and you just want to make them right maybe you need healing in some of these ways let me tell you Christian not all healing is physical healing sometimes it's spiritual sometimes it's relational and physical and sometimes it's mental and emotional and Jesus can heal you I want to remind you and let you know over and over and over again that the healer has come his name is Jesus his his hope has stepped into our world and he has healed many of you and he wants to heal many more of you so here's what I want to do as we close out this morning I want to invite forward our prayer team we have some volunteers that have come forward some of them are are going to be just prayer volunteers others are going to be pastors some might be elders some might be Stephen ministers that we have because I believe in this place this morning the question still remains do you want to be healed? And some of you guys you've tried everything looking for God to right whatever's wrong in your life and you've gone every direction and you've spent all kinds of money and you've done all kinds of research but you still have neglected to give your hurt and your ailment and your pain to Jesus in a moment we're gonna do what James the brother of Jesus said in James chapter 5. He said is anyone among you sick Christian that word sick in the Greek means weak, feeble powerless needy and poor can anyone identify with that this morning if you need to be made well Peter tells us cast your cares upon him because he cares for you you just need to bring your cares to the feet of Jesus and say Jesus reorient my thinking I'm stepping out I'm stepping into what you have for me I'm trusting that you have the power to heal my brokenness James in chapter five he goes on to say this if anyone among you is sick, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. Maybe your next step in this moment in the moments to come is to simply step out of the aisle and start walking forward. Find someone up here that would pray over you someone here that can take you to the throne of grace and give your situation to the Lord I'm gonna be honest with you I can't promise that you're gonna be healed. I can't promise that God is going to answer your prayer according to your will but what I can promise is this when you give your problem and your pain to the Lord you no longer have to carry it. You no longer have to be the solution God be the solution in our lives Jesus be the solution do you need a solution let's all stand the music is starting to play I want to pray a prayer as we're praying if you want to come forward and pray you can do that. When we're done praying and the worship team is singing you come forward and you find someone that will pray for you a prayer of faith Heavenly Father I believe that you are all powerful. I also believe that we live in a sin soaked world and we suffer the consequence the physical and the emotional and the relational and the spiritual pain of brokenness in our world and we need you. Some of us are so desperate that we have nowhere else to turn where we should have been turning to you all along we turn to you now Jesus we need a some of us need a miracle I pray that you would give courage to our people to step out to respond to what they've just heard to realize they too can be made well. Pray all these things in the name of Jesus amen. Friends step forward this is your moment don't put it off this might be your moment where you can stand and you can walk and you can put that bedroll behind you. This is a moment for you to worship and to give your problems to the Lord this is a moment where you can find healing simply through prayer