What do you really want?
John 5:1 ESV – After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Luke 10:2 ESV – Jesus said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers in to his harvest.
John 5:2, 3 ESV – Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids – blind, lame, and paralyzed.
John 5:5 ESV – One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
John 5:6 ESV – When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
John 5:7 ESV – The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me in to the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
What are the possible payoffs for not getting in the water?
- Consistent group of friends
- Doesn’t have to work
- Doesn’t have to pay bills
- Gets sympathy
- No big decisions
- Justification
- Something to complain about
But it also has a cost
- Adventure
- Meaningful work
- Mobility
- Friendships
- Intimacy
- Purpose
John 5:8, 9 ESV – Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
Where are you stuck?
What do you really want?
What are you pretending not to know?
