Message: "Do You Want to be Well?" - 5/25/2025
Do You Want to Be Well? John 5:1-9; Revelation 22:1-5 In the series, “Rise Up -- How to Start Living Again” There's a question that cuts through all our pretenses, all our excuses, all the ways we've learned to make peace with being less than whole. It's the question Jesus asked a man who had been waiting by a pool for thirty-eight years: "Do you want to be well?" It sounds almost cruel, doesn't it? Of course he wants to be well. Who wouldn't? But maybe Jesus knew something we often forget—that sometimes we get so used to being stuck that we stop believing change is possible. Sometimes it feels safer to stay where we are than to risk hoping for something different. Picture this scene with me. It's Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, at a place called Bethesda—which means "house of mercy." There are twin pools surrounded by covered walkways, and they're filled with people who are sick, disabled, hurting. The word on the street is ...