Do You Want to be Healed? - Chance Cole

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

John 5 · chapter mention

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

Ecclesiastes 12:7

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

John 5:10–11

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,

John 14 · chapter mention

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

John 5:15

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

Proverbs 1 · chapter mention

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.