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I Want to Be Healed!

Updated: Feb 23


In this sermon series, “Tell Me What You Want,” we learn that God sees and cares about our brokenness, hurt, and need. He invites us to turn to Him for help, and the process is simpler than we might think.

Tell Me What You Want”

“I Want to Be Healed”

Jeff Jones


Hello everybody! Welcome to our series, Tell Me What You Want—What You Really Want, which comes from a Jesus story we covered the first week of this series where Jesus looks at someone who is blind and says, “What do you want me to do for you?” It may have seemed obvious, but Jesus ended up doing way more than just make the guy be able to see. So, the idea of this series is, “How would you answer that question—what you want?” And are you open to all that Jesus has for you? From feedback, we build this series around what you would say, and today is the most popular one and whenever we ask for prayer requests this category is also always at the top. Today we are talking about healing, like physical healing—but also other ways God heals what is broken in our lives too.


Some really good news today is that God is way more like my wife Christy than me—in at least one big way. Christy is a repairer, a fixer. I’m not. If something is broken and it looks like it is going to take a whole lot to fix it, I’m pretty quick to say, “Well, we need a new one of those!” I hate fixing things, and I usually just make them worse when I try. Our vacuum cleaner broke the other day, a back wheel snapped off. I was ready to push the Amazon app and take care of it by getting a new one right away. But I knew that Christy would want to try to superglue it back on. She’s pretty convinced that she can superglue anything, and she will always try because she is not a throw-away-er. She is a fixer. And she is pretty good at it. That’s great news by the way for me because last week I had a cold, and she didn’t just throw me away because I was broken. She did superglue my nose shut to keep it from running, which was kind of a problem, but she didn’t throw me away.


God, even more than Christy, is a repairer, a redeemer, a healer. He doesn’t move away from our brokenness but desires to move toward it--when we open up that part of our life to him. That’s great news because we are all broken. We all have areas of life that need healing and help. Some of you feel that in a big way right now. Maybe you or someone you love is physically sick and getting better is beyond your control. It’s a scary time. We are going to talk about that. Or maybe the brokenness is not physical. Perhaps you are broken emotionally, relationally, in your marriage, family, or career. It might feel beyond repair, even with superglue. Maybe you feel spiritually beyond repair right now. Whatever is going on, God cares about. We can go to him for healing and help, and today we are going to see how that works. Today is a little different around Chase Oaks because today is a healing service. That may sound really scary, and some of you may be thinking, “I knew I shouldn’t have tried church!” This is not the kind of healing service you may be thinking about. No snakes involved and I’m no faith healer, which is why my hair isn’t slicked back. And you can give me money if you want to I guess, but it won’t help you get healed because that’s not how the New Testament says it works. But the New Testament does tell us how it works, and we will simply do what it says to do. We will see this illustrated in another time Jesus asks a really big question, and then go to a very clear instruction we are given in the book of James on what to do when we need healing.


So, let’s do this! The Jesus story with the big Jesus question is in John 5,


John 5:1-5

“Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.”


The ancient pool of Bethesda is one of the places that we visit on our church trips to Israel, and it is one of the places you know you can walk where Jesus walked. After our Immerse Series at the beginning of the year a lot of you have asked about when our next Israel trip will be, and it looks like Christy and I will be hosting one in October 2023. More details to come, but pencil that in if you are interested. The pool of Bethesda was a very popular place for people who wanted healing because of a popular rumor that is reflected later in the story. Every now and then the water level would quickly rise up and then fall back down, which would make it a little more like a jetted tub. The rumor spread that when this happened it was an angel who stirred up the water, and if you were the first one into the water when that happened, you would be healed. It was a magic pool of healing, which is why a large number hung out there, hoping to be there at the right time for the angel magic to happen to them.


Jesus comes to the pool, and he sees all these people desperate to be healed. For whatever reason he zeroes in on one paralytic, who had been unable to walk for 38 years. Imagine that, especially 2000 years ago when there were no wheelchairs and no social safety net. We don’t know how long he had been hanging out at the magic angel pool—we just know he was there when Jesus visited and that he had been there for some time, unsuccessfully trying to be the first one in when the waters stirred. Jesus walks up to him and asks a big question:


John 5:6

“When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, ‘Would you like to get well?’”


A strange question, “Do you want to get well?” Why does Jesus ask it? Why doesn’t he just heal him? We can’t be completely sure, but there are a couple of possibilities. It may be because a lot of people really don’t want to get well—they just want to stay sick. A lot of people just choose to be stuck in their brokenness. You’ve probably heard the horrible stories about some parents who keep their children sick because the parents are codependent and prefer their children to be that way. Terrible. A lot of people though do that same thing to themselves. We just choose to stay broken because it becomes our identity. It’s comfortable, and we get the kind of attention we want. We like the role of the victim because we don’t have to take responsibility. Our problems are someone else’s fault, not our own. Playing the victim card seems trendy these days. So, we stay addicted. We don’t move from anxiety or depression to get help. We always have the most dramatic prayer requests in any group of people praying. We refuse to forgive and let go of hurt, because our hurt is part of who we are. Some call it Stockholm syndrome, where people are more comfortable in prison than they are free. God will heal those who are open, but a lot of people really aren’t open.


It could have been that for this guy, but I think for him it was another common trap—false hope. We know that was at least part of his issue by how he responds to the question, “Would you like to get well?” He replies:


John 5:7

“’I can’t, sir,’ the sick man said, ‘for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.’”


He thought his big problem was that nobody would help him get into the magic angel pool soon enough, because that magic pool was his big hope. But guess what? There was no real hope in the magic pool. The pool was a spring fed pool where water flowed into it from upper elevations. Every now and then natural cisterns along the flow would fill up, overflow, and inject a bunch of new water into the mix causing the quick up and down in the pool. That was it. No angels, and of course Jesus knew that. So, when Jesus asks him, “Would you like to get well?” there is a sense of “Would you (actually) like to get well—because it doesn’t seem like it. At least, it’s never going to happen in a mythical angel pool.” With some space and time, the guy’s false hope seems kind of silly…except for the reality that we all have our own false hopes that we stake our lives on. These are things that make us feel better but don’t actually make us better. They often make our lives worse. We might come home from a hard day and say, “Wow, I need a margarita!” Nothing wrong with a margarita. But if a drink, followed by another drink, and another drink becomes our way to try to dig out of life disappointment or difficulties, it’s not going to make us better. Hear Jesus say, “Would you like to get well?” Or Dr. Phil, “How’s that working for you?” There are lots of these, pornography, that feels like an escape but is actually trapping you. Henry Cloud calls these pseudoconnections, things we connect to for life that don’t actually give life. They can even be good things we use in a bad way, like relationships—one more guy or one more girl or spending time with people who only tell us how wonderful we are. Materialism, food, more money, more hobbies, a promotion at work…we probably get the idea. We all have places we go to make us feel hope that don’t give hope, that make us feel better that don’t make us better, that we are looking to for life that don’t bring life, that we hope will fill us which just empties us. False hope.


The wonderful news for this guy, who doesn’t realize it yet, is that the only sure hope is right in front of him asking the question, “Would you like to get well?” He can see that the guy of course does, so Jesus then gives a command:


John 5:8

“Jesus told him, ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!’”


Catch what Jesus is doing here. He gives him a command. He commands him to do something that he has no ability to do. He looks at the guy and says, “Stand up! Pick up your mat! Walk!” He has no ability to do any of that, and he hasn’t that ability for 38 years. Jesus doesn’t so, okay, “poof” I just healed you, so now try to walk. He says, “Get up and walk!”


That first step is a faith step, and he is either going to take it or not. He has no idea what will happen if he tries to get up and walk, but by faith he decides to take the step Jesus asks him to take. That’s what we read next:


John 5:9

“Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!”


One thing we must understand about Jesus healing our brokenness is that most of the time he will ask us to take faith steps. Faith is not simply a feeling. Faith is an action. Jesus asks us to step forward, to walk with him toward a new life. He will enable us to do that step which we have no power on our own to do, but we must take a step.


You can stay stuck in your brokenness if you want to, or you can hang on to false hopes. But Jesus is right in front of you saying, “Do you want to get well?” If so, walk with me. Take a step. Whatever step God is calling you to take, take it. So maybe you are struggling with addiction. Okay. God can bring healing and help, but you need to take a step. Maybe you are struggling with depression, which I have in my past, so I get that. And depression makes you feel helpless. But you aren’t helpless because help is right in front of you. So, follow Jesus toward healing. Take a step. Reach out to somebody. Talk to a counselor or a pastor. Maybe you are dealing with a broken relationship, a marriage or a parent child relationship. By faith take a step. Maybe you are struggling with guilt or shame, and, it has you trapped. You don’t have to stay trapped. Hear Jesus say, “Get up and walk!” Today is an opportunity to take an important step, and I’m going to challenge you take it. Because today we are talking about healing and how healing works.


We’ve talked about emotional and relational healing, but let’s talk about physical healing. Some of you are dealing with a sickness with you or someone you care about, and you would love Jesus to show up like he did for this guy and ask, “Do you want to be healed?” Jesus isn’t walking around the planet right now, so that’s not going to happen. So, does healing still happen? The answer is yes, and the New Testament tells us how.


In fact, it is so straightforward. It’s not what you see on TV with the slick faith healers with all of their drama, that get satirized like “The Righteous Gemstones.” We don’t roll that way, but we do have an approach to healing, and here it is from James 5.


James 5:14

“Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.”


That’s really straightforward. It’s not mysterious. It’s not flashy. Just call the elders, a church word for leader, and have them pray for you for healing and God will answer that prayer. We take James 5 very seriously around here, so you can reach out to the church when you want healing prayer, and we’ve seen God work in all kinds of ways.


God promises to always answer, though he doesn’t always heal the way we ask him to. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. I’ve shared before how I believe I was healed from leukemia when I was 12 years old as my pastor granddad prayed, and it is a dramatic healing story. I love those dramatic healing stories. You’ve also heard me talk about my dad, who died six or so years ago from ALS, and God did not heal him from that. Or my brother who had brain cancer and died a little over a year ago. We prayed for that cancer to be healed, but God did not choose to do that. They were both Chase Oakers, and the elders of the church prayed for them, so what’s up with that?


Haddon Robinson, a former professor at my theology grad school gave a very helpful way to look at how God answers prayers for healing. He says that God can bring his healing power to bear in one of three ways. Intervention, Interaction, and Innervention.


Intervention is always on the front of our minds, when God just chooses immediate healing. God can just heal right then and there, and we do see that from time to time. I have a really good friend in cancer treatment right now, and I would love for God to just heal her that way. And it is the one we expect, even feel entitled to it. But God often doesn’t do that, which is why we don’t have 2000-year-old Christians walking around who always get physically healed and never die.


Interaction


Another way God answers healing prayers is Interaction, which is a process of healing where he interacts with steps we take or that doctors take toward healing. So, with my friend, Susy, right now, I am also praying for interaction—that God will give the doctors wisdom and that the treatment will work. It’s amazing what God has enabled humans to do with medical treatment, and we should pursue that.


Innervention


The third way God will answer is what Haddon calls Innervention, where God doesn’t heal our sickness but does do something in our lives even more profound. We see that in the life of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:


2 Corinthians 12:8-10 “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”


He did not choose to heal Paul physically but gave grace in the sickness to bear it. It is not always God’s will for people to be healed. Many times, God chooses to not heal but to give grace to help the person endure the suffering. In such times God is wanting to do something in our lives that can only happen through the difficulty. I certainly saw that at work with my brother and with my dad, how he did things in their lives in the lives of others of us that were really profound that would have only happened in that kind of journey.

Bottom-line, God will always answer such prayers for healing, though he can do it any of those three ways. Praying for healing is a step that Jesus asks us to take if we want healing, and today we are going to do that in this service. Picture Jesus in the story we looked at today walking among all the sick and broken people, coming to you like he did that guy, and asking, “Would you like to be healed?” Today is that kind of opportunity, as we are going to encourage you to take one step that we are told in the NT, in James 5, to take. The leaders of the church are here, at each campus, and we are going to invite you to come toward the front of the room to ask them to pray for you so that you may be healed. We are about to sing a song, and during that song is your opportunity to slip out of your seat and come for prayer.


The truth is, we are all broken, and we all have areas in our lives that need healing. So, where do you need healing? Maybe you need physical healing for you or someone close to you. I invite you to come. You may need healing in your marriage or some other relationship, because it is broken, and one step you can take to walk toward wholeness is prayer. You might need healing from a recent loss or a broken heart. You might need emotional healing as you are weighed down with anxiety or depression. Maybe it is a failure that keeps haunting you, and it is weighing you down. You feel so much guilt and shame, and you are stuck in that. Maybe you’ve really messed something up, had an affair or gotten fired, and you need healing from that regret. Or perhaps you’ve been hurt by someone else, and you are stuck in that hurt. You don’t have to stay stuck. Maybe you are bitter and angry, and you need help to forgive so that you can be healthy again. We talked about false hopes that can entrap you, and you could need help to move beyond an addiction. Today may be the day you stop being a victim and take responsibility for your own life, to take a step you know God wants you take and you want prayer for courage to do that.


I don’t know, but I do know that God answers prayer. I get that it is easier not to come forward, because it is uncomfortable. Some of you may think, “If we come forward, people will know we have problems.” Guess what? They already know you have problems. That’s not news. The reason is that we all have problems. We are all broken. The smart people are those who are willing to bring their brokenness to Jesus. Chase Oaks is not a collection of perfect people who impress each other. It’s a collection of imperfect, broken people who are on an authentic journey with Jesus toward wholeness. Today is just an opportunity to take a step on that journey.


So, let’s go to God in prayer right now, and again, I invite you at your campus to come forward for prayer in this song. We do this from time to time, and God always works just as he promises he will. I will pray, and then your campus pastor and worship leader will take it from there. For those online and not in our area, you can reach out for someone to pray with you or even contact you if you want for prayer remotely. Let’s pray together.


www.chaseoakschurch.org. Used by permission.

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