Words of Jesus Podcast - Wholeness Is Not Free

Episode Date: December 24, 2021

Honesty is a rare commodity. Do you want to be made whole? It's a serious question. Infirmity can become an identity with distinction. There are limitations and perhaps discomforts, but after many years there are reduced demands in life. "I'm handicapped" is a great excuse; "I'm whole" restores a flood of responsibilities - and expectations. Obedience and faith is required to become "little Christ's". Keep the commandments, take time every day to hear the voice of God and never, ever violate what we know is the right thing to do. ***Wilt Thou Be Made Whole (Part 3)CHAPTER 15:  JESUS HEALS A LAME MANIN JERUSALEM, by the sheep market, was the Pool of Bethesda.  Beside it lay a great multitude of invalids—the lame, blind, withered, and bedridden—all waiting for the moving of the water; because at certain times an angel went down into the pool and troubled the water.  Then, whoever was the first to enter the water after its troubling, was cured of whatever disease or infirmity he had.            Jesus, one day, walked beside the Pool of Bethesda and saw a man there who had been infirm and lame for thirty-eight years.  Realizing that he had been so long infirm, Jesus spoke to him, saying;             “Wilt thou be made whole?”            The lame man answered:            “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.”            Jesus said to him:            “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”            Immediately the man was healed.  He took up his bed and walked away.            This miracle came to pass on the Sabbath.  The Jews, therefore, stoppedthe man who had been cured, saying:             “It is the Sabbath day.  It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.”            He answered:            “He that made me whole, the same said unto me, “Take up thy bed, and walk.”            The Jews asked him:            “What man is that which said unto thee, ‘Take up thy bed, and walk’?”             But he who had been healed did not know who his benefactor was, because Jesus had left to avoid the crowd in that place.            Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him:            “Behold, thou art made whole.  Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”             The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris, your host. I'm excited to share the series of the Words of Jesus with you. It's a wonderful little book, a compilation of all of our Gospels and the stories of Jesus, his life, his friends, his ministry. and you're going to get to know him himself by his words. Pretty soon, you're going to find, I'm going to get an email from you,

and you're going to say, hey, I'm starting to think red ink. Well, that's exactly what I'm here for. I think if many of us thought in red ink, in other words, we thought like Jesus thinks. We say essentially what Jesus said. We handle a situation like Jesus handled a situation. You know what happens when that all occurs? We become what the Bible, or at least our understanding of the original languages, says that we have become little Christs.

You remember he says they were called Christians at Antioch. Well, it's because we're just little copies of him. And really, that's what we're supposed to be doing. Well, we've been talking from chapter 15 about Jesus healing the lame man. And I was telling you last time that sometimes when Jesus says something, the text will tell us why He said what He said, or what He was thinking

when He said this. I can only believe that at the end of the day as the disciples sit around the campfire and talk about the day and talk about what they've done and He answers questions that His disciples have and that kind of thing, that the situations of the day become the conversation of the evening. And I think that the one who wrote the words here that Jesus seeing him,

this lame man, realizing that it's been a long, long time, 38 years is a long time, that he was crippled for 38 years is a long time. That he was crippled for 38 years. His whole life was revolved around his condition. And so it became necessary, at least in the mind of our Lord, and perhaps in yours as well, as people come to you, they do and say, pray for me.

And there's a lot of people that say that because that makes them feel better. I don't understand. I've never understood except in the days that I was a conventional Christian and I did yak, yak, yak all the sayings and stuff. Pray for me. Pray for me, brother. Or somebody says, I'm going to pray for you. Just to say those things to one another in order to make us

feel better. I don't know what it's for, but man, in a lot of cases, you know, people just say pray for me, and they're actually saying, get off my back. You know, I'm concerned about, you know, I was with you the other day, and you were talking to your husband, and wow, you know, that was tough to listen to. Do you always talk to him that way? You know, I can hear a couple of ladies sitting there talking like this. And one lady, you know,

the one that's been nagging her husband or treating him badly or sassing him and disrespecting him is feeling defensive at this point because her friend has noticed, my goodness, how do you get this guy to come home in the evening? I'm surprised he comes back. And she's saying, you know, I'm concerned about that. You know, what's that all about? Is there some way that I can help in this situation? Because that kind of tete-a-tete you're having with your husband, that's not going to last. It's going to destroy things between

you and him. Your children need to see that you two are united here and all they see is the mom government and the dad government and this is a problem. Well, what's the perfect way to get out of this? What's the perfect way not to deal with the problem? She looks at the other one and if she can muster a few tears or if she can act like her little heart's broken or whatever else and evoke some emotion from her friend

and says, pray for me. Well, there's really nothing else to talk about, is there? And there's certainly no more advice that can be given. And the other person just says, well, yeah, I'll pray for you. And then the more spiritual will say, well, let's pray right now, or whatever else. Look, you don't need to pray about this. You need to make changes in your life. Well, we don't know if we want to be made whole. I kind of like things the way they are, which is a wonderful

thing to ask people, by the way, when they ask for prayer. Do you like things the way they are? Have you made the best of your situation? And a lot of people do make the best of their situation. And I mean best as in big quotation marks around the word best. But they make the best of their situation and they realize, okay, I've been lame for 38 years, but shoot, man, I'm on welfare. If I got healed, I'd be looking for a job tomorrow.

I don't know. Wilt thou be made whole? I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Now, like I say, you're not going to meet somebody this honest. It's not going to happen. They're not going to admit to this, but you can bet it's churning in the wheels behind their eyes when they're thinking about this. You know, I'm on welfare. I got Medicare. I got Medicaid. I got a government check. Right? You know, I don't know. Well, you're going to make me better? You're going to heal my eyes?

You're going to heal my body? I'm going to lose my handicap parking sticker. Look, you're not going to meet anybody dishonest, so don't look for this to happen. But you can bet these things do happen. People make the best of their situation. One of the ways that they do it is just simple notoriety. You know, the guy with the walker? The guy with the

solid gold cane? You've seen him, right? You know that guy. Yeah. And what, I'm going to put my cane down? This is my image. This is my, I know that sounds silly, but there's a lot of people that feel that way. Their infirmity is such a part of their life. It's a part of their personality. It's a part of their identification. It's their excuse in every situation. Oh, so-and-so's house burned down the other day. We're all going to go over there and clean everything up and try to get things straightened out and maybe got to replace a wall and some wiring and stuff like that. We're all going to get together.

I'm going to have a good time. Lady's going to bring sandwiches. I can't do that. Why? Well, I'm crippled. Or I can't do that. Why? Well, I'm crippled. Or I can't do that because of whatever infirmity that they happen to have. It's an excuse for laziness. It's an excuse not to do anything. Have you ever seen someone who does not let their infirmity stop them from doing things? We're just amazed when we look at them.

You know, we have a local fellow that, I'm telling you, you know, he's been in a wheelchair for a long, long time. But wow, man, you ought to see him go. I think the guy could outwork three men. Throwing that wheelchair around and driving his truck and pitching that wheelchair around and making people around him just, you know, you want to hold the door for him?

He doesn't need you to hold the door for him. You know, he'll pass you up. You can't help but admire that spirit. You can't help it. Nothing's got him down. I'm sure he deals with depression. I'm sure he thinks about his situation, but not for long. Can you imagine walking up to a guy like that and say, do you want to be on your feet? You know, outside of the idea of it

being notorious, I mean, and in some cases even meritorious, you know, a guy like that is thinking, well, heck yeah, you can put me on my feet. I got stuff to do. Well, you see, there's differences in people, and we need to know this. I wouldn't waste time praying for somebody that's concerned about their welfare check or whatever check. I don't know how those systems work.

I don't know who gets paid for what or why and how much. But in a lot of cases, we have made our lives around our infirmity, and our infirmity becomes a part of our life. This very well could have been the case with this man who laid here for 38 years. Jesus was taking no chances. He saw that he was in that condition and also understood that he'd been in that condition

a long time. Jesus has been around. He knows human beings. As a matter of fact the Bible says that what was peculiar about him is he not only knew men but he knew what was in man. And he's not taking any chances here. He looked at this guy and says do you want to be made whole? Because you know it's very very possible that he didn't.

Now, if Jesus had prayed for this guy arbitrarily, let me pray for you, brother, or whatever else. You know, let me anoint you with oil or let me do whatever, you know. Okay, fine. But do you really think that would have taken place if it wasn't the will of this person to be made whole? Yeah, I know that many times in scriptures when Jesus performs a miracle, he will look at that person and says,

thy faith has made thee whole. But I want you to know that faith comes by our daily will to what? Keep the commandments, not disobey our conscience, and take time every day to hear the voice of the Lord. That's how our will is formed. By us deciding to do something, we develop what's called a will. This is what I want. This is what I will. This is where my life is going. If I take a step, I'm taking a step toward this. That's a person's will.

As a matter of fact, there's a saying, and I don't know if it's Hebrew. I don't know if it's just, you know, 16th century, 15th century English. But it uses the term having a person's face set. You remember reading this in the scriptures? They were upset with Jesus because they were asking him to stay there in Mount Gerizim. The Samaritans were asking him to stay.

And it says that they got mad at him because his face was set to go to Jerusalem, obviously for the feast, and wasn't going to have it there. And so they were upset with him. His face was set. And he uses the term, their face is set. I don't know if you've ever seen determination come over a man or a woman's face but it can happen.

And when it does happen it's kind of obvious. And that is that have you ever been given somebody advice and realized they're never going to do what I'm saying. They're not even listening to what I have to say. You ever had that feeling? You know what you're seeing is somebody whose face is set to do their will. Jesus wanted to make sure that wasn't the case. And so in order to determine that wasn't the case, he was asking that guy,

how's your face set? What direction are you going here? What are you going to do? Do you want to be made whole? And like I say, on the surface, it sounds like kind of a foolish question. What could this guy want other than what Jesus is offering him? 38 years? Surely he wants up from there. Well, he may not. He may not. Now, you might ask, do you think Jesus ever encountered anybody who didn't want to be made whole? Well, I think so. I think so.

Because that's, I meet them all the time. There are people who just like things the way they are. They're not really interested in doing things because they're logical, and in some cases, doing them because they're not really interested in doing things because they're logical and in some cases doing them because they're right. There's some people that aren't interested in doing things because the Bible says so. It wasn't their idea. It's not their denominational practice. They're not interested in doing things the way the Bible

says. Well, I ask people all the time, would you like to hear the voice of God for yourself? Or do you just want to go to seminary? And many of them choose to go to seminary. I ask them, I say, where did your professor learn what he's teaching you? Well, from his professor. Where did he learn it?

Well, probably from his.. Where did he learn it? Well, probably from his. I wonder where he learned it. Well, and that conversation can go on to the entire history of the college. But somewhere along the line, there was some man that kept the commandments of God, didn't disobey his conscience, and took time every day to hear the voice of the Lord. And he received whatever revelation he received. I think many times people don't do this

three-step way. They don't keep the commandments. I wouldn't trust a guy to tell me to guess how much I weigh if he doesn't keep the commandments of God? There's no promise that the Spirit of God resides in a man that doesn't keep the commandments. Where can you find that? I mean, where can you find an assurance of salvation in the Scriptures that doesn't mention keeping the commandments? We know that we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren and we keep his commandments.

We keep his commandments and we know that we've been born again. I mean, the Spirit witnesses to our spirit, it says. There's only three ways. I mean, there's only three indications that you've been born again. Did you know that? One of them is that you keep the commandments. The other one is that you love your brethren which are six out of the ten of the commandments. And the third one is the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are indeed the sons and daughters and children of God.

Well how does the Spirit witness to our spirit are indeed the sons and daughters and children of God. Well, how does the Spirit witness to our spirit if Jesus says that the way that the Spirit comes into us and becomes a part of our spirit is by keeping the commandments of God? You can't just erase that off the end of there and say that people are filled with the Spirit that don't keep the commandments. No, they're not. Well, if they are, that little piece of information is missing from the Scriptures. I've never read it. So why would you trust that? Why would you go there?

Why would you want someone to teach you spiritual things if they don't do the smallest of things? they don't keep the least of the commandments. You know Jesus says if a man speaking about teachers, if a man doesn't keep the least of the commandments and teaches men so, in other words he doesn't keep the commandments

and he teaches you that you don't need to or that you can't. He's not teaching that you should keep the commandments. Do you know what Jesus said about that person? Doesn't say he's going to hell. Doesn't say that he's the antichrist or a false prophet or whatever else, but he does say that he's going to be known as the least in the kingdom of God.

Now if you're a hell dodger, that doesn't bother you at all. Fine. I'm not going to hell? Fine. I'm going to continue. Just like I'm doing. Now that's what I think makes people want to add the punishment of hell to everything they don't agree with in your life. So I would find myself asking people, do you want to hear the voice of God for yourself?

And if we go through the seminary conversation, you know, it eventually comes to, yeah, it would be nice to hear the voice of God. Well, if we're going to go by Jesus' instructions here, if you want the Father and the Son to manifest themselves to you, to lead you from the inside for the Spirit of God to be in you, you're going to have to do and the first step is the commandments of God. Now, if a person has never read those commandments,

and those commandments aren't really a part of their life, you can move on from there with an acknowledgement from that person, saying, yeah, okay, I'll keep the commandments. If they haven't been indoctrinated by then, that you can't keep the commandments, which is hogwash, or there's a particular commandment if they haven't been indoctrinated by then, that you can't keep the commandments, which is hogwash, or there's a particular commandment that's really not a part of their life, and if they were to keep that commandment it would separate them from all their friends and their church and their pastors and their preachers and their grandma and grandpa.

You're going to get these people to balk at this. This is what it costs to hear the voice of God? No, no, I hear the voice of God now. Friend, you don't have any assurance of that. You know, I tell, they say, people will say, what, trust my conscience? Is that safe? It is if you're keeping the commandments of God.

If you're not keeping his commandments, oh, no, no, no. Please don't trust your conscience. You can't trust it. I can't trust it. Nobody can trust it because you're not doing it the way the Lord Jesus said to do it. Now, you want to do it the way he says do it? Yeah, absolutely. Trust your conscience.

It's fine. Go with what you know to do. But if you're not keeping his commandments, yeah, absolutely. Trust your conscience. It's fine. Go with what you know to do. But if you're not keeping his commandments, no, absolutely not. Now, do you want to hear the voice of God for yourself? Do you want him to guide your life? Do you want him to make things clear to you that are right now very, very foggy and you don't have any understanding about it at all? You can't get the preacher to answer your question. You can't get the deacons to even have a conversation with you about it. You know, your family says, oh, that again.

And you just need to have some resolution in that area. I don't know where you're going to get this if you don't spend time before the Lord. Now, here we go again with when I say, do you want to hear the voice of God? It's very much like Jesus saying, will thou be made whole? And you weigh it out and you think, I don't know. That costs a lot, doesn't it? I'm going to, things are going to change? How much are they going to change?

And, you know, I can see Jesus saying, well, this is not a candidate for faith. See, the misunderstanding of what faith is, I think that if we're not careful, we can add a description to or an idea of faith that makes it essentially unattainable. And usually that's with the understanding of what the scriptures say about faith. And we have kind of created an easy believism kind of a faith where faith means hope and faith means keeping a stiff upper lip.

Faith means don't cry when you hurt. Faith means believing in Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus? Yeah. Do you believe in God? Yes. Which means that you believe that they existed somehow. We've created an easy believism in faith

and so we take that plastic faith, we try to go to God about a particular situation, we try to exercise that faith and it falls all apart and people become very, very discouraged with God. So they run off and they say, miracles don't happen today. Well, they don't happen for you. And they run off and say, you know, whatever manifestation of the Holy Spirit, everything from speaking in other tongues to understanding

and seeing the heart of people and that discerning of spirits and things like that. None of that stuff happens today. That's all in the past. Well, it might be for you, but it doesn't have to be. These kind of things can be very, very real to you and change your life to the better. But you're going to have to answer the question. Now that you know how much this costs, will it be made whole?

Jesus says that a foolish man goes to build a tower and he doesn't count the cost. And so he doesn't finish. There's also a man that counts the cost and never starts. Now, although he's not a testimony in town that everybody can point at a big rusty tower and say, see there, he tried to build a tower, but he didn't have sufficient enough to finish it.

And so, you know, perhaps you don't have a negative testimony because you never started what the Lord's called you to do because you didn't have faith or whatever else, or you counted the cost and it was too much for you. Perhaps you don't have a bad testimony, but you're nowhere near what God wants you to be. We have to hear the voice of God in order to have faith. Otherwise, you know what you're doing? You're putting faith in this God. And that is hugely common today. The Bible says, and I believe it.

And that settles it. You know, here's what I want to hear. The Father told me this. This has been made clear to my spirit. This is what I've been told to do. And I have faith in the Word of God. Well, Don, didn't you just say that when you said you have faith in the Bible? No, I didn't.

No, I didn't. The Word of God is His voice in your ear, figuratively, but it is His voice in your ear. It's when He speaks to us and tells us what He wants us to do. That is the Word of God to us. You put your faith in that, and you you're gonna find, oh my goodness, things start to happen. It's not like he's sitting on

the edge of his throne wanting to do something wonderful for you and you just won't pray or you won't apply your plastic faith or whatever else. Listen, we're not talking about something that is the difference in your 17-year-old dog not dying. We're talking about people dying. We're talking about your family missing the kingdom of God, your family not enjoying eternal life. We're talking about people that we love and care about that are losing out around us because we have counted the cost

and no thank you, we will not be made whole. What an awful way to live. All right, time's gone today. We want you to join us next time for more of the Words of Jesus series. Let us know that you hear us, and we would love to hear from you. Go to thinkredding.com. If there's anything there that you think that we can help you with, just let us know. Info at thinkredding.com, or write to me, Don, at thinkredding.com. All right. We'll see you next time thanks for being a part bye-bye

you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you