Introduction: Take a moment and look around the Worship Center this morning. 
•    Do you see people who have it together, financially, relationally, emotionally, spiritually?
•    Do you see nice clothes, pleasant smiles, confident demeanors?
•    Do you see well adjusted, solid Christian families? 

If you were to look deeper you might see what lies beneath the surface of perhaps some here today.
•    You’d see  those who are hurting and in need of comfort
•    You’d see those who are troubled and in need of peace
•    You’d see those who are sick and in need of healing
•    You’d see those with broken relationships in need of mending

If you look closely you’ll find people who are lonely, depressed, stressed out, discouraged, exhausted, and afraid. And one thing they all have in common is that they are all here to have an experience with God that will help them get through another week.

If you are one of those hurting this morning I have one question…Do you want to be healed?

My counseling background and training is in Reality Therapy. Reality Therapy teaches that we are a participant in our lives, not just an innocent bystander as life brings us the pain, hurt, depression, stress and anxiety that we believe we are unable to do anything about.

Transition: In the Peanuts comic strip, let’s listen in on Snoopy thinking to himself:
‘Yesterday I was a dog.  Today I am a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. There’s little hope for advancement.’

•    If you are hurting,
•    if you think there is no hope for a better, brighter tomorrow,
•    if you believe you are destined to live the same defeated, depressed, pain filled life,
•    then I need to tell you that there is healing available through Jesus Christ.
•    But you are part of the equation, you are part of the answer, as we will see.

Turn to John 5:1.

I. John 5:1-5 Do you want to be healed: Physically?
Read: John 5:1-5

Jesus is back in Jerusalem for a Feast. Feasts were religious celebrations that were often very festive. But notice where Jesus goes? Instead of heading out to all the best places to celebrate, he goes to a pool at the Sheep Gate. Let me give you a better picture of where Jesus went.
•    The Sheep Gate was the entrance to the city where people who traveled to Jerusalem would bring their animals to be sacrificed in the Temple.
•    The pool at the Sheep Gate was the place these animals would be washed before being sacrificed.
•    Does anyone here like the small of wet dog? Imagine what hundreds of animals...dirty and wet would smell like?
     Imagine the smell in this area since they didn’t have to clean up after their animals because it would make the person ceremonial unclean and they could not
     offer their sacrifice at the Temple?
•    Finally, imagine this area full to overcrowding with desperately sick people with open, gangrenous sores, vomiting…the smell…

Jesus left the festivities to go to the colonnades (porches) at the pool near the Sheeps Gate. Why? Because he has compassion for those who are sick, those who are hurting, those who need healing.

But, why were the people there and not in a hospital or something like it? Because there was a commonly held belief, a superstition that an angel would     occasionally come and stir up the water in the pool. The first person in the water after the stirring would be healed.  This was not in the Hebrew Scriptures, it was not a tradition handed down by Moses. It was an old wives tale. That’s why verse 4 is missing in most of your Bibles. It is not found in the best and most reliable     manuscripts.

Transition: Everyone who was sick and hurting was there, including one man who had been there for 38 years waiting to be healed. It’s to this place and to this man that Jesus came.

II. John 5:6-9a    Do you want to be healed: Emotionally?
Read: John 5:6-9a

•    Who asks someone hurting and in pain if they want to be healed?
•    Who asks someone who has been lying around this awful place for 38 years, if they want to be healed?
•    What kind of question is that? It’s as dumb a question as I used to hear from my mom when I was bad ‘Do you want a spanking?’ Well, Mom, can I think
      about it for a few minutes?’

The answer seems obvious…no I don’t want a spanking…Yes, I want to be healed. But as we will see, perhaps Jesus question and the appropriate answer is not so obvious…at least not to the man who has been ill for 38 years.

What was the man’s answer… ‘Yes, Jesus, I want to be healed, more than anything else. Yes.’ But that’s not his answer is it? Read vs. 7 with me again.

Read: John 5:7

This man never answered Jesus’ question…he just made excuses.
•    He was relying on what those around him said….stay by the water and you can be healed.
•    ‘But, I can’t, I need help getting into the water, I can’t do it by myself.
•    I’m not fast enough, there is always someone ahead of me.’

Actually Jesus’ question is not about the man’s physical condition. Jesus was questioning his will, his desire to be healed. Let me explain.

Here’s a man who for 38 yrs has lived on the porch at this pool. He has relied on the kindness of others for his support. He was a beggar.
If he were to get well,
•    he would have to start to make it on his own, start relying on his own abilities,
•    start taking responsibility for his own life…perhaps for the first time ever in his life.
•    He would no longer have the excuse that he is unable to help himself.
•    He would no longer have the pity and attention of others who feel sorry for him.
•    He could no longer beg, he would have to get a job.

So maybe ‘do you want to be well’, is not such a dumb question after all. Maybe it was a question that pierced to the heart of this mans very existence and exposed the motives that lay deep within him. 

Ever been by that pool? The pool of worldly wisdom telling you how to navigate life? Do you say to yourself that you want to be healed but in reality are not willing to do what it takes to be healthy? Do you find yourself by the pool making excuses? Instead of taking responsibility your health?

What is Jesus’ response? ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’. In effect Jesus is saying
•    Stop listening to other people’s ideas of what it means to be healthy.
•    Stop making excuses.
•    Start taking responsibility for your life.
•    Don’t just sit there…do something!

Know that this was not a test of this mans faith, he didn’t know who Jesus was.
•    It was a test of his resolve, his willingness to participate in his life, to do what he hadn’t done for 38yrs..take responsibility for his own life.

Please understand that I am not saying that we are the masters of our own destiny or that we have the power in ourselves to bring about effective and lasting change in our lives, to bring healing to our broken existence. But when we have Jesus you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Do you believe that? Then get up and do something about your life…And I will help you. That is what Jesus is saying to this broken man by the pool.. and it is what he is saying to you this morning as well.

You see, it was never Jesus’ intention to help this man get into the pool, the pool of the worlds view of how he should live. Jesus wants to get him as far away from the pool of worldly wisdom as possible. He wants to lead him to a practical faith. Remember James tells us that faith without works is dead.

I don’t know what Jesus would say to you. But I do know that we are afraid to ask for fear of what he might tell us. Trust him, believe in his word…then do as he says and you will be renewed, restored.

To this man by the pool Jesus said ‘Get up, take up your mat and walk.’  Move, don’t do what you have been doing for the past 38yrs…it’s not working. Believe in me and in what I say…then act upon it…Get up…walk!

Transition: But doing this doesn’t mean the end of trouble in your life.
 
III. John 5:9b-15 Do you want to be healed: Spiritually?
Read: John 9b-15

This man gets caught by the Sabbath police in Jerusalem for carrying his mat on the Sabbath…
that was against the law. The man is questioned and asked who told him to carry his mat and walk? Who healed him…on the Sabbath? Oddly enough, the man didn’t know who Jesus was. I guess Jesus never told him.

But, Jesus found the man later and told him who he was. Then, Jesus told him to stop sinning or something worse could happen to him than what had made him ill for the past 38 years.

Look, sickness, depression, exhaustion, anxiety and stress can be caused by your sin, by listening to the people at the pool instead of to God. Jesus was telling him to live differently or his health could  deteriorate to a worse condition than before. It is a word of caution that how we choose to live does effect our health…Christian or not. Jesus was concerned for this man. Lapsing back into sin would be detrimental to his physical, emotional and spiritual health…and ours as well.

Conclusion
Do you want to be healed from your constant stress and exhaustion?
•    I can’t because I need to make more money to pay for the things I bought, to upgrade the house, to make a better life for the kind…I can’t…

Do you want to be healed from the bitterness in your marriage?
•    I can’t because she needs to change before I can ever be happy. I can’t because he really doesn’t love me like I deserve to be loved…I can’t…

Do you want to be healed from your abuse of drugs or alcohol?
•    I can’t because it’s a disease. I can’t because it relieves my stress…I can’t…

My training in Reality Therapy and my understanding of God’s Word tells me that when you say ‘I can’t’ What you really mean is ‘I won’t’.

It is a matter of will, of choice. It is a matter of choosing to participate in your life…with the one who gave you life. “I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me.’

All things..even bring healing to a broken relationship with your spouse or children.

All things…even bring healing to a life broken by drugs or alcohol abuse.

All things…even bring healing to the stress caused in your life by your advancing career opportunities.
 
All things…even bring healing to your broken body.

•    But it requires change…God ordained change…and your participation in your health, in the healing process.
•    It also requires we look for healing in the right place…not by the pool of worldly wisdom, but in the pages of  Scripture. By trusting God’s Word and acting upon it.

Do you want to be healed?

Yes! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Repeat that with me.

Yes! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Again

Yes! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Once more

Yes! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.