Will You be Made Whole
K. Doug Allen
Celebrate Recovery Month • Sermon • Submitted
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· 9 viewsLeaving the disfunction of your comfort zone.
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The Day of Change
The Day of Change
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 Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
Bethesda (beth-ez’-dah) = House of mercy; place of the flowing of water.
What an odd question, “Are you willing to be made whole?”
Thus says Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and mighty one. Together they lie down; they cannot rise. They are extinguished, quenched like a wick.
This is who I am, this is your destination in me - total victory!
Your situation is NOT your destination!
“You must not remember the former things, and you not must consider the former things.
1067 בִּין (bîn): v.; ≡ Str 995; TWOT 239—1. LN 27.1–27.26 (qal) realize, i.e., hear and apprehend information (Ne 13:7); 2. LN 28.1–28.16 (hif) have skill, i.e., have a specialized knowledge that is effectively implemented (1Ch 15:22); 3. LN 33.224–33.250 (hif) teach, instruct, i.e., cause knowledge and wisdom to be imparted
Look! I am about to do a new thing! Now it sprouts! Do you not perceive it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.
Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward. C.S. Lewis
You must be made whole to move on.
So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.
"To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing."
It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. “Mere Christianity”
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Ask God to show you your purpose, for purpose is the great sanctifier of all things. “PD”
"Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?"
