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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

John Shin

Health or Wholeness

What a beautiful rendition of 1 of my favorite songs.

And God has been faithful, his hand will provide.

If there was ever a theme for my life, I think it would be those words.

So before I begin, please bow your heads with me so we can open with a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you so much for this Sabbath day.

I thank you for the opportunity that we have to gather here and worship you to focus on the things that really matter in life.

And so Lord, as we enter into this time of message, I first ask that you will help us to just cast away our burdens and the cares and concerns of the world, leave them outside.

Lord, I ask for your Holy Spirit to fill this room.

And I ask for you to put your words in my mouth, because you know that I feel inadequate to deliver this message today.

So I just pray that your message will shine forth and that your name will be glorified.

All these things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

It always feels like home when I come here.

And there are some faces here I haven't seen in a while, but I feel like we can always pick up where we left off.

And it's a real privilege for me to share with you this morning what I think has been on my heart for for quite a while.

And I just didn't know how to, I guess, summarize this topic.

And so please pray for me as I give this message and just pray that the Lord's will be done and and the truths that they can communicate.

When I was in training, when I was in training, I took care of a patient with breast cancer and I was meeting her for the first time.

And I remember during our initial visit, as I always do in all of my patient visits, I eventually get to the topic of lifestyle.

And I started telling her about dietary changes I would recommend, exercise.

I always recommend a whole food plant-based diet, and all of these things.

And as I'm talking to her, she's just smiling from ear to ear.

The moment I take a breath and stop, she leans forward and she's like, I am so glad you're my doctor.

There is this is no accident that we were paired up because I believe everything you just told me.

And In fact, I've been doing everything you actually recommended." I was like, that's fantastic.

And you know, she, not only was she plant-based, but she was vegan.

Not only was she vegan, but she was raw organic vegan.

Not only was she raw, organic vegan, but she was taking herbal supplements.

She was getting homeopathic medications from a holistic biochemist in La Jolla.

She was practicing mindfulness meditation, she was wearing crystals, and she was getting Reiki therapy from a practitioner who lived 3, 000 miles away.

Because you can do that long distance, apparently.

And so as she's going through a list of everything that she's doing, it dawned on me that in fact, her philosophy of health and mine could not be more different, even though they superficially look the same.

You know, Councils on Health, page 533 says, I wish to tell you that soon there will be no work done in ministerial lines, but medical missionary work.

And this is the reason why we as a church focus on the health message and medical missionary work.

But if we're going to focus on the health message, there are pitfalls that we must avoid.

Otherwise our work will be made of no effect.

So today my message is entitled, Health or wholeness.

And to illustrate this message, I want to stay in John chapter 5.

If you have your Bibles, if you would turn with me to John chapter 5, we're going to read verses 2 through 9.

And this is a story that we're all very well acquainted with.

But this will be the primary illustration for my message today.

So now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having 5 porches.

In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water.

Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had.

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, he said to him, "'Do you want to be made well?' The sick man answered him, "'Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.

But while I am coming, another steps down before me.' Jesus said to him, "'Rise, take up your bed and walk.' And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked.

You know, the ministry of healing gives us some more background about the cause of this man's illness.

On page 81 it says, But the Savior saw 1 case of supreme wretchedness.

It was that of a man who had been a helpless cripple for 38 years.

His disease was in a great degree the result of his own evil habits and was looked upon as a judgment from God.

Alone and friendless, feeling that he was shut out from God's mercy, the sufferer had passed long years of misery.

So the first point I want to make is that this man's illness was due to his life choices.

They were the fruits of what he had sowed.

And I think a lot of us have no issue acknowledging that frequently physical illness is the result of decisions that we've made.

We understand that smoking leads to lung cancer.

We understand that eating the wrong foods leads to high blood pressure and diabetes, heart disease.

However, I don't think many people are aware of the impact that spirituality has on physical health.

So Desire of Ages, page 824, says, to many of the afflicted ones who received healing, Christ said, Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee.

Thus, he taught that disease is the result of violating God's laws, both natural and spiritual.

The great misery in the world would not exist did men but live in harmony with the Creator's plan.

You see, when you break God's spiritual laws, the physical body also breaks down.

It seems like a simple concept, but it's very important to highlight because spiritual illness often manifests as physical disease.

But it's often misdiagnosed as a purely physical problem.

And So in order to bring true healing in these situations, we need to understand that there's a spiritual root to the problem.

And unless the spiritual root is addressed, how can you hope to address the physical malady?

So this is not to say that all disease is the result of our actions, right?

There are people who develop genetically linked diseases.

You know, there are sporadic diseases that arise as a result of living with DNA that has degraded over the millennia.

These are things, and we live in a toxic environment.

We're exposed to things we have no control over.

But in the end, all disease in some shape or form is the result of sin, of living in a fallen world.

So these were the consequences of the man's actions.

Now, let's focus on the Pool of Bethesda.

I submit to you that the Pool of Bethesda in this story represents the counterfeit health message.

It represents the counterfeit health message.

Have you ever read this passage and wondered about John 5 verse 4 in particular, right?

The part where it talks about an angel going down at a certain time, stirring up the pool, and whoever jumps in first is healed.

Have you ever wondered about that and asked yourself, is that really true?

Angel will stir up the water and becomes a mad dash.

Survival of the fittest, whoever jumps in first wins.

Now, If you have your Bibles, a lot of them will annotate that verse 4 is actually not found in the oldest manuscripts.

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Health or Wholeness

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