Welcome to the official podcast of the Church
of Christ Wheeler area. We're so glad that you've
tuned in for today's message. Whether you're
on your morning commute or if you're relaxing
at home, we're here to share the strength and
truth of God's Word with our community. If you're
in the neighborhood, we'd love to meet you in
person. Come see us at 1500 South Allen L. Bean
Boulevard right here in Wheeler, Texas. We gather
every Sunday morning at 10 .30 a .m. and in the
afternoon at 2 .30 p .m. We meet again on Wednesdays
at 7 p .m. Right now, let's open our Bibles together
and dive into today's sermon. This afternoon,
I want to start with a question. If Jesus was
here today and he asked you, do you want to be
healed in a physical sense, what would you say?
I've been trying to think of an answer why someone
would say no, I don't want to be healed I kind
of enjoy her and I enjoy this thing that's happening
to me But I cannot think of any reason why anyone
would say I don't want to be healed You know,
I have some problems. I have psoriasis. I really
don't like that stuff, but I have it I got a
wrist that's been messed up. My hand will go
numb. It's kind of annoying I would love for
that to be healed I bet you you could think of
something that you're going through or have some
sort of element on Why you would want to be healed
and I think that we would all do it without even
thinking about it asking any questions we would
just say, yes, make me whole, heal me Jesus.
And we see this in the New Testament quite often
where Jesus heals people. And we're going to
look at an example of that, and we're going to
be in John chapter 5, and we're going to start
in verses 1 through 4. After this there was a
feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market
a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue,
Bethsaida, having five porches. And these lay
a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind,
haught, wither, waiting for the moving of water.
For an angel went down a certain season into
the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then
first after the troubling of the water stepped,
it was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."
So we see folks here that are sick. They're by
this pool and an angel comes down, he stirs up
the water. If they get in there, they're made
whole. And Jesus is here and he's here at this
pool. So he sees a guy here in verse 5 it says
in a certain man was there which had an infirmity
38 years So we see a guy he's been sick and he's
been sick for a while 38 years When Jesus saw
him lie and knew that he had been now a long
time in that case He said unto him will thou
be made whole do you want to be healed? Do you
want to be made? Well is what some other translation
says The impotent man answered him, sir, I have
no man when the water is troubled to put me into
the pool, but while I'm coming, another step
it down before me. So we see a guy, he goes,
yes, I want to be healed. I would love to be
healed, but I have this problem. And people say
he was paralyzed, he was lame, and he could not
get to the water. He said, I need help. I need
someone to get me into this water so I can be
healed. In verse 8, it says, Jesus said unto
him, Rise, take up thy bed and walk, and immediately
the man was made whole, and took up his bed,
and walked, and on the same day was the Sabbath.
So we see this amazing miracle, don't we? Brandon
talked about Jesus this morning and all the great
things he's done, and about how many miracles
he has accomplished. But this one miracle, there
was a man who had been sick for so long, and
he said, Get up and walk, and he walked. That's
an amazing feat. You know, if Jesus was here
today and said, Do you want to be made whole?
Do you want to be healed in a physical sense,
it would happen like that. Now I want to tell
you Jesus isn't quite saying that right now,
but I mean we pray for people, we do things like
that, but Jesus is here today and He's saying
do you want to be healed? Do you want to be made
whole? But He's doing it in a spiritual sense.
He's given us something greater than healing
the body. He's given us eternal life with Him
in heaven forever, for all eternity. But what
do we do on the spiritual side of it? Well I'm
not ready yet. I got to think about it a little
bit longer. Maybe after this season I have all
this stuff going on, then I'll come to the Lord.
We make excuses when it comes to the spiritual
side. And you may be thinking, well, I've already
been baptized. I'm already a saint, so it don't
apply to me. Christians, they put Jesus in the
back burner, don't they? But God over here, they
fall trapped to sin. And they fall away from
the Lord. And you know what Jesus is saying?
I already made you whole. I can heal you again.
I give you steps in the Bible how to come back
to me. And what do we say? I'm going to do it
on my own. I'll figure this out myself. You know,
after this season, I know I came to you, Lord,
to be healed, but now I'm going to go do this,
but I'll come back later on in life. We come
up with all these excuses on why we were not
going to follow Christ in the spiritual. We put
the physical over the spiritual, and the spiritual
means so much more. In Ecclesiastes chapter 12
verse 7, It says, then shall the dust return
to the earth as it was, the spirit shall return
unto God who gave it. This body that we're in,
one day it's just gonna be long gone. It's gonna
go back to the dust. You know, all the stuff
we worry about, all the physical things that
we worry about, the worldly things we worry about,
it's for nothing. You know, I gotta go to work
tomorrow, and you think about that, you're gonna
go work 12 hours, 10 hours, whatever it is, and
at the end of the day you go... Well, that really
didn't mean a whole lot, did it? In the big scheme
of things, you know, God tells us work to do
these things, but one of these days we're gonna
be in eternity and we're not gonna worry about
the things of this world anymore. It's for nothing.
It don't matter. But what does matter is our
soul one day is gonna go up to heaven. It's gonna
go back to God and he's gonna judge it and he's
gonna say either, you followed me, you're going
to heaven or you're gonna go to hell. But we
worry so much about the physical but we forget
about the eternal. Now I'm not a smart guy, but
I cannot usually wrap my head around eternity
and how long eternity is It never stops But if
I'm gonna be honest with you if we're honest
with ourselves, we really don't understand how
long this life is We know that it's short. We
know we don't have a whole lot of time But you
know what? I can look in the future say I'm gonna
do this this and this because I feel like I have
a lot of time But I may not we do not know what
we have James 414 says, whereas you know not
what shall be on the morrow for what is your
life, it is even a vapor that appears for a little
time, that vanish is the way. We don't know how
long we have on this earth. But if you ask me
right now, I'm going to tell you, I can't wait
to go to Texas graduation one day. I don't know
if I'll be there. And we do the same thing in
our Christian life. We go, well, I'll repent
later. I'll come to God later in life. I'll do
this. I'll do that. But we do not know how much
time we have. You know, I had a buddy pass away
not long ago. I got to go see him on a Friday.
I went up. I talked to him. We hung out. He was
at the hospital. He had stage four cancer. I
remember getting in the car with Alexis and I
told her, he's going to be okay. They got a good
plan ahead. They're going to go to Houston. They're
going to do these things. And a week later he
passed away. He found out about that diagnosis
and then two weeks later he passed away. You
think he knew that was gonna happen? He didn't
know. He thought he had all this stuff, all these
plans ahead of him. You know, he was 40 years
old. I'm 37. I start to go, maybe I won't be
around then. Are we putting the importance on
the spiritual life or are we really looking at
the physical and making excuses why we can't
follow God or do the things that he's asked us
to do? Colossians 3 2 says set your affections
on things above and not on the things of this
earth When we look at this when we look at the
healing of Christ in a spiritual aspect We got
to focus on things above and on things of this
earth We got to put the worldly stuff aside and
look at eternity. Look what Jesus is given to
us or promising us So we're gonna look at this
a story of the man who was healed and there's
a few points I want to make because I think we
can correlate the physical to the spiritual So
when this man was healed, what happened? In verse
9 it says, and immediately the man was made whole
and took his bed and walked, and on the same
day was the Sabbath. When he was healed, when
Jesus had given walk, what happened? It was like
that. He got up and walked. It was immediate
gratification, wasn't it? You know, us today,
we're immediate gratified. I want to be immediately
gratified. I guess I was trying to come up with
a word that's not even a real word right there.
But we want to be immediately gratified. You
know, I don't want to go eat. When we go eat,
I don't want to wait forever. You know, we took
Alexis out to a birthday lunch. Not going to
say the place, but you know, after a while everyone
goes, it's been 45 minutes. Where's our food?
We want to eat. But you know, the food was really
good, so we got delayed gratification. And that's
what it means to be a Christian. Jesus promises
us... something great and what that is is a heaven
an eternal life with him but it's a delayed gratification
we're not going to get that reward right here
and right then you know if when you're baptized
you went straight up to heaven more people would
come and they'd follow christ wouldn't they but
what is it it's a journey it's a whole lifetime
commitment on being a christian people say i'm
gonna wait till later in life i'm gonna do it
later You know, I'm going to try to face this
same problem by myself and then I'm going to
get the help I need if I can't figure it out
myself. You know what we do? We try to work the
system. I'm going to do what I want to do and
then I'm going to do what Christ has told me
to do and follow him and let him heal me and
do these things. But you know what's crazy? We
don't know what time we have, how much time we
have on this earth. Today could be your last
day. Your last day could be 80 years from now.
We don't know. We've got to make sure that we're
following Christ now and doing what He's asked
us to do, even if we don't get the reward right
this second. In 2 Corinthians 4, it says, while
we look not at the things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen, for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which
are not seen are eternal. You know, the things
we see is temporal. The jobs, the worries. You
know, I don't want to tell people what I'm going
through because they might judge me. That's temporary.
It don't mean nothing. The things that we don't
see, that's eternal. What Jesus has promised
us. Heaven, that's eternal. You know, I got a
daughter, she asked a lot about heaven lately.
we're driving she goes you think we're gonna
drive in heaven there's gonna be cars in heaven
i was like i really don't know i've never seen
it maybe there are maybe hell you know maybe
get stuck behind a guy going 30 into 75 for eternity
i don't know i don't think that's how it works
but we have not seen heaven we have not seen
those things but we're promised those things
but they are eternal the things here on this
earth are just temporary galatians 6 9 says and
let us not be weary and well -doing for in due
season we shall reap if we not faint It's work.
You know Jace not long ago talked about Hebrews
the race of life have patience Beset these things
that easily but these things aside that easily
beset you It's a race you got to endure You're
not gonna be immediately gratified, but the gratification
you're gonna get an eternity That's never gonna
stop never gonna end is so much greater than
anything you can get here on earth We can look
at a bunch of different or a few different Places
where people in the Bible they wanted that immediate
gratification and it did not turn out good You
got the prodigal son. What do you say? I want
my inheritance now. What happened? He came crawling
back. It did not work out good Esau. He traded
his birthrights for a meal. Not a good deal When
we see these things we go well, I want this now
I want this now we need to look and see what
Jesus did and Jesus was tempted three times by
the devil After he fasted 40 days and 40 nights.
He was tempted. This is on the third one and
Matthew 4 chapter 8 It says, again, the devil
taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain,
and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world,
and the glory of them. And saith unto him, All
the things will I give thee, if that will fall
down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him,
Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only
shalt thou serve. You know, he was tempted with
everything. You can have this whole kingdom,
you can have it all. What Jesus said, no. I'm
not going to do that because I'm going to serve
God and I'm going to do what He has asked me
to do and what did Jesus do? He endured. He faced
the cross. He did these things because that's
what God wanted him to do. There's a book that
Shawn told me about so I've been listening to
it. I drive a lot so I get to listen to Audible
and it's Fox's Book of Mortars. If you want to
read a book about people who look towards Jesus
and weren't worried about the instant gratification,
I would tell you to read that book. It's about
people who were killed because they believed
in Christ and they weren't just killed, they
were tortured. It was horrible. You couldn't
believe people could do these things to other
people. And to make it stop, all they had to
do was denounce that Jesus was Christ. They didn't
do it They faced it all the way to the death
because they knew how important the spiritual
was and how unimportant the physical was and
that's what we need to do as Christians We can't
worry about that immediate gratification because
we were promised something so much greater You
know, we must follow Jesus in His commandments.
If we go back to John chapter 5, verse 10 through
11, it says, The Jews therefore said unto him,
That was cured. It is the Sabbath day. It is
not lawful for thee to carry the bed. He answered
them, He that made the whole the same said unto
me, Take up thy bed and walk. The Jews of the
day said, You're not supposed to be doing this
on the Sabbath. He said, I'm doing what Jesus
told me to do. And sometimes that's hard. Sometimes
we're worried about that. Sometimes we think
we can't live up to that. How am I supposed to
do what Jesus is telling me to do? Because in
John chapter 14 -15, it says, if you love me,
keep my commandments. Well, I'm human. I mess
up. I make mistakes. You know what Jesus doesn't
say? You have to be perfect. You know, people
will say, I want to fix this problem. Then I
will come to the Lord. You know why you come
to the Lord? To fix your problems. That's what
you do. You know the the man that was healed
from being paralyzed from being lame Do you know
what he didn't do? He didn't get into the water
then come to the Lord and go hey I'm healed now
I can come to you. No Jesus came to him He healed
him we come to Jesus for that healing so we can
better understand his commandments and try to
keep them We're never gonna keep them all the
all the way and first John 1 8 tells us that
if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves
the truth is not in us We're going to make mistakes.
Jesus did not say that you had to be perfect.
He's perfect. He's what makes you perfect, but
he wants you to strive daily to walk like him
and to be as perfect as he was. This man, he
faced the persecution of the Jews. We're going
to face persecution in our life. It may not be
like the fox's book of mortars, but we are going
to face persecutions. It says, for I have now
persuaded men or God, or do I seek to please
men? For if I yet please men, I should not be
the servant of Christ." Are we doing it to please
men or are we trying to please God? You know,
people are going to persecute you. If you follow
Christ, you may lose family members. You may
not be invited to people's houses. People may
look at you differently, but we're not worried
about pleasing men, are we? You know, I've had
jobs where I said, I don't work Sundays because
I go to church. and there was people that I worked
with that looked at me like I was lazy and it
would make me very angry because I'm going I'm
not lazy this is just what I need to do but people
will do that to you though they'll ridicule you
and say oh you think you're better than me and
all this stuff but you know what we have to worry
about is the eternal we can't worry about the
worldly or what people may think of us we have
got to do what Jesus has asked us to do and it's
because he's promised us so much he's given us
so much that we can't worry about the stuff or
the worldly things that are just temporary. When
it comes to following Jesus we have to make a
change. John 5 14 going back to the story Jesus
finds the man who he healed and says after Jesus
finds him in the temple and said unto him behold
thou art made whole send no more lest a worse
thing come unto thee. He told him go change I
made you a new creature now you're gonna be a
new creature in me go and send no more and change.
What got me thinking about this sermon was I
was watching this was a video of a podcast called
unashamed It's the duck dynasty guys and y 'all
may have seen this There was a comedian talking
about this passage John 5 6 about being healed
And what these under what he was saying in this?
This video was that I know I need to change and
I know I want to be healed or I want to be healed
by Jesus But I don't know if I can change or
if I'm ready to follow him like that You know,
people are worried that they're not gonna be
able to change, they're not gonna be able to
follow Christ, they're afraid of change. You
know, change is not that bad of a deal. Change
is a good deal. You know, when we're buried with
Christ in baptism, what are we? We're a new creature
in Christ. Christ has given us a way that the
old man can die and the new creature can come
or be alive. What he's giving us a chance is
in a video game when you're not doing that good
you can hit reset It's the same thing that Christ
does for us We get to start over and we get to
make a change from the old self to the new self
Matthew 16 well, I skipped a few things Second
Corinthians 517 therefore if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature old things are passed away
behold all things are become new You get to be
a new creature in Christ. You get to start over
That's a glorious thing. That's a great thing.
We should want to change. I had up there Romans
12 too, do not be conformed to this world but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
You know what we have to do? We've got to change
our mindset. When it comes to change, you know
what you have to change is your mindset. And
what are we focused on? We're focused on eternity
and not on things of this world. 1 John 2 25
says, and this is the promise that he has promised
us, even eternal life. I've been talking about
this promise this whole lesson and I should have
probably put this at the beginning, but that's
the promise he gives us. He gives us that eternal
life. We change our mindset. We're a new creature.
We get to change in Christ and we get that opportunity
of being with Christ in heaven. Lastly, I want
to look at what the man who was healed is in
John chapter 5 verse 15. The man departed and
told the Jews that it was Jesus which has made
him whole people are worried about being healed
because like how will I ever talk to people about
Christ you know I grew up with an evangelist
sad he hung out with other evangelists and I
heard these guys talk I heard them quote scriptures
and I was like I'll never be able to do it like
these guys can they're they're so knowledgeable
how will I ever be able to talk to people about
Christ like these guys do but you know what we're
commanded to do it 2nd Corinthians 520 says now
then we are ambassadors of Christ as though God
did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's
stead be you reconciled to God we're ambassadors
of Christ we're supposed to go tell others about
Christ so they can be reconciled with God when
we're buried with Christ in baptism and his blood
washes away our sin you know what we are we're
reconciled with God and that's what we're supposed
to share with others and you may think well I
can't talk to others about Christ I can't do
or Talk to others about Christ or talk to others
about The the goodness of God because what if
they ask us questions that maybe we can't answer
maybe they ask us questions that stump us You
know some of the best people about talking to
others about Christ are people who just love
people You know Matthew 22 39 it says in the
second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself If you love others, you know what
you're going to do? This man healed me. He changed
me. He gave me a hope of eternal life and I want
to tell you about it too because I want you to
have eternal life. We don't have to be biblical
scholars to help people. We just need to be able
to tell them about Christ and tell them about
the glory there is in him and the glory of eternal
life. If you're talking to someone and they start
asking deeper questions, then we can get with
other people in the church that maybe can help
answer those questions. But we don't have to
be a biblical scholar. All we got to do is like
this man did. He was healed and what did he do?
He goes, this man was Jesus. He healed me. I
was lame and now I walk. We get worried about
what people might think. Luke 10 16, he that
heareth you heareth me, he that despises you
despises me. He despises me, despises him that
sent me. We worry what people are going to think
if we may get rejected. but it don't matter we're
told to just go share the gospel because why
because we love people and we want to tell them
about Christ and we want them to come to Christ
because we got eternal life through him if someone
rejects you they're not rejecting you they're
rejecting Christ and they're rejecting God God
sent Jesus here they end up rejecting him what
it really comes down to it has nothing to do
with us what we do is share the story Jesus saved
us he gave us this place he's given us his promise
of eternal home he's made our life better We
just want to tell others about that. In Proverbs
chapter 1, 24 through 29, it says, because I
have called you and you refuse, I have stretched
out my hand and no one regarded. We got wisdom
talking here, or the lady wisdom talking here.
Saying I have called you and you refuse I've
stretched out my hand and no one regarded because
you disdain all my counsel You would have none
of my rebuke saying I give you the council. I
told you the way to change I've given you these
things first 26 I also will laugh at your column
or calamity I will mock when your terror terror
comes when your terror comes like a store storm
and your destruction comes Like a whirlwind when
distress and anguish come upon you then they
will call on me, but I will not answer They will
seek me diligently, but they will not find me
because they hated knowledge. It did not choose
to fear the Lord You know what saying wisdoms
giving you the answer Do you want to be healed
do you want to be made whole wisdoms telling
you what to do? Do you need to make a change
wisdoms telling you you need to make a change?
One of these days, it may be too late. You're
going to look for that wisdom. You're going to
look for Jesus. And you know what's going to
happen? It's too late. You have an opportunity
today to come to the Lord. I want to ask you,
if you answered yes, if Jesus was here in a physical
sense and said, do you want to be healed? And
you said, of course I would. What's stopping
you from the spiritual sense? Is it the things
of this world? I'm not ready yet, but we jump
up and down to be healed physically But we're
gonna stop and think about it when it comes to
spiritually, you know This life is as a vapor
as it said you don't know if you got today or
tomorrow You don't want to be this at the end
of your life where you go I should have done
something be up there at Judgment Day and said
I've ran out of time You have an opportunity
today. If you haven't started your walk with
Christ. He will heal you he wants you to There
should be no excuse. If you have a struggle and
you need the prayers of the church Jesus gives
us ways to fix those problems and to get back
on that straight and narrow. You just have to
accept it.