Please turn your Bibles to John chapter 5, beginning at verse 1.

Jesus walks up to this man who has been paralyzed for 38 years, and he asks him a most unlikely question,

do you want to be made whole?

On the surface, as you look at that question, it's very strange.

It is very strange to ask a man who has been paralyzed waiting to be healed for so long,

sitting there, waiting for the water to be stirred, waiting for the bubbles of that spring water to come up,

believing that he could be healed

once he touched that water. It is strange to be asked, do you want to be made whole?

On the surface, it appears to be very unusual question. What kind of a question is this?

The man has been waiting for so long to be healed, And Jesus says, do you want to be made whole?

Yet having met so many people who are emotionally paralyzed, people who are spiritually infirm,

having met so many people who run from counselor to counselor, claiming that they're looking for healing, they're

claiming to be looking for wholeness, running from doctor to doctor, without any apparent

improvement, without any apparent healing, I have come to understand the deeper meaning of

that question that Jesus asked that man who was paralyzed for 38 years. I remember one

time an older and a wiser woman many years ago when I was coming to the end of my ropes about

somebody who said who wants to be made well again. This old and wiser woman said to me,

she said, don't forget, this lady enjoys her bad health.

That woke me up.

Jesus obviously perceived that this man been waiting for so long to be made whole that he lost hope.

Jesus knew that this man who was paralyzed in the mind and in the soul as well as in the body.

This man's infirmity is in his will as much as it was in his limbs.

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