Healing the Paralytic

your one.

That is what we are challenging you with right now.

That question, each of us is facing, who is our one?

And basically what that means is, who is the one person that God is going to lay on your

heart to see turn from darkness to light, turn from sin to the Savior, turn to Jesus

and place their faith in Him for forgiveness of sins to become God's child?

Would you take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 5, the Gospel of Luke, third book of

Luke 5 · chapter mention

the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke.

We began this series last Sunday talking about who's your one.

You just saw Pastor J.D. Greer, that's who the sermon came from last week that I preached.

Today, this is the second sermon in that series that he preached to his church many years ago.

The Summit Church in Raleigh, Durham, North Carolina.

And this second sermon was preached by a member of his staff, but I'm going to share it with

you today, a little bit personalized for us.

But it's easy to get caught up in the idea of something without actually being an active

participant in something.

Let me say that again.

It's easy to get caught up in the idea of something without actually actively participating in

that.

Would you let that kind of bounce around in your brain for a little bit while we read Luke

Luke 5:17

chapter 5, verses 17 down through verse 26?

Luke chapter 5, I'm reading out of the Christian Standard Bible.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

On one of those days while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting

there.

They had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and also from Jerusalem.

And the Lord's power to heal was in him.

Just then, some men came, carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed.

They tried to bring him in and set him down before him.

Of course, the him here is Jesus.

Since they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the

roof, lowered him on the stretcher, threw the roof tiles into the middle of the crowd before

Jesus.

Seeing their faith, Jesus says, friend, your sins are forgiven.

Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to think to themselves, who is this man who speaks

blasphemies?

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

Well, they asked the right question, didn't they?

It was God standing in front of them.

But perceiving their thoughts, Jesus replied to them, why are you thinking this in your hearts?

Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you?

Or to say, get up and walk.

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he told

the paralyzed man, I tell you, get up, take your stretcher, and go home.

And immediately, he got up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home

glorifying God.

Then everyone was astounded.

And they were giving glory to God.

And they were filled with awe and said, we have seen incredible things today.

You think they saw something incredible that day?

I would have loved to be in that room.

And let's pray and ask God to give us wisdom from his word today.

God, I pray that you would enlighten us to your truth.

I can get up here and give it my best shot.

But unless your Holy Spirit reveals your word to us, it'll all be in vain.

So I pray that you would speak to us through your word, by your spirit.

And if anyone is here today who needs to turn to you in faith, let today be the day.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

We read here this idea.

Hold on, I need to turn this on.

We read here this idea of actively participating.

See, these guys saw a need in their friend's life, and they did the very best thing they

knew to do about it.

So, by way of review from last Sunday, we looked at Matthew chapter 6 and verse 10.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

We read this verse, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So we're setting the stage for what this whole series is about, God's will being done on earth

as it is in heaven.

And we kind of said this statement together.

Can we read it again out loud?

Ready?

His will be done.

Who's your one?

Let's try it again.

His will be done.

Who's your one?

That's what I hope each one of us can ask.

If we want God's will to be done, not only on this earth, but in our lives, then who is

the one that right now he wants us to go share him with?

These friends that we read about in Luke chapter 5 had one, didn't they?

Luke 5 · chapter mention

They all had the same one.

They said, this guy needs to get to Jesus.

Is there someone in your life that you can point to and say, we need to introduce Jesus

to this person?

And our takeaway last Sunday was threefold.

Said, what is your next step?

Come and see?

Come and die?

Or go and tell?

You see, God has placed a calling on each of our lives.

We find them recorded in his life on this earth.

His first calling that he issued was, come.

Come and see.

And that's what we talked about last Sunday as he was calling his disciples and they left

everything.

They left their families.

They left their jobs.

And they walked with him because his call was, his invitation was, come and see.

I'm going to show you great things that you've never seen before.

But then along the way, his calling changed.

His invitation changed from come and see to then come and die.

What does that mean?

That's not very exciting, isn't it?

That's not very appealing.

It's not very alluring.

You're not going to win big crowds with come and die.

But the whole idea was, you've got to die to yourself.

You've got to die to your way of thinking.

You've got to die to your priorities.

You've got to die to everything you've known up until this point because it's gotten you

nowhere that I want to get you.

I want to take you to something that you don't know about.

I want to take you to a better way, a better life.

That's what Jesus has waiting for us.

So he said, come and die to the old self and live this new life that I'm offering you.

Come and see and then come and die.

Come and die is the hard part.

It's hard to kill off some of our old habits.

It's hard to kill off some of our old thinking.

We still struggle with that.

And we even see the great apostle Paul who wrote so many letters to those early churches

struggling with that old self in putting it to death.

But that's Jesus' calling.

Come and see and then come and die.

And then finally, the message changed to go and tell.

Go and tell.

That's the third phase.

So where are you in your walk with Jesus?

Is it come and see?

Do you need to take that initial step and say, I choose to follow Jesus?

We've seen so many people take that step lately in our church.

We thank God for it.

From children to adults and everybody in between.

We've seen people stand up and say, I choose to follow Jesus.

I'm going to stand before the church.

I'm going to get baptized.

I'm going to make my faith public.

I'm going to come and see the Jesus way.

Then all of us are called to come and die, right?

And that's the struggle.

That's the daily struggle.

But is the third part maybe where God wants to take you now?

Is it go and tell?

Go invite someone else to come and see.

Jesus is no longer walking on this earth.

He's no longer walking on the beach calling his followers.

He's now using his followers to help draw others into the kingdom.

And through you and through me, God can draw people that can do incredible things.

Isn't that weird?

What God can use you and use me to do for him.

It's amazing.

The things I found myself saying and doing that God called me to do,

and enabled me to do it, empowered me to do, have blown my mind.

I know many of you can feel the same way.

So is this where God now has you to take that next step in your relationship with him,

in your followership with him of go and tell?

You're not a complete disciple until you've come and seen,

you've come and died, and you're going and telling.

So maybe that's the third step we need to be in.

So let's get back now to Luke chapter 5 and see what healing the paralytic has to say about our series here,

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Who's Your One?

And what is God wanting to teach us from this?

Number one, these men that we read about in this passage had a mission.

They had a mission.

And mission drives us, doesn't it?

Before we dive into this mission part, I skipped over this, and I don't want to.

This is kind of fun.

First of all, what does this make you think of?

Football.

But do you see any football happening?

Isn't that funny?

We can put this up on the screen.

There's not any football being played.

I don't even think there's a football visible.

But what do you think of?

You think of football.

Do you know why?

Because we're looking at the trappings of football.

We're looking at the extras.

We're looking at the extra stuff.

None of this, except those boys standing in uniform facing the other direction,

none of that is essential to football.

First of all, you got the fans on the left.

And we make a lot of noise, don't we?

Now, if you're not a bearcat, that's okay.

All right, don't take it personally.

This is First Baptist Henrietta.

Okay, so we got a little bit of Henrietta favoritism.

But we accept and embrace everybody.

And if you root for somebody else, that's all right.

God will work on you.

So, I'm kidding.

But you've got fans in the stands, and we're shaking our rattlers,

and we're screaming, and we're making a lot of noise,

and we're cheering on the football happening.

Then you got the cheerleaders down there,

and they're doing it a whole lot better than we are.

They're trying to show us how to do it.

We're just not very good learners.

And, you know, they're out there cheering them on,

and they're doing a great job.

But they're not actually playing football.

You got the band out there playing every time they score,

and they come out and put on a great performance at halftime.

We got band members in this room, and they're doing an awesome job.

And they're all part of the organization.

They're all part of the effort.

But the band's not playing football either, are they?

None of that is actual football.

It helps.

It's part of what you expect.

But none of us are actually participating in the football game.

We're not out there in the uniforms, running up and down the field,

hitting, blocking, and tackling, and passing, and catching, and running.

We're not doing any of that.

We're not active participants.

We're on the sidelines cheering them on.

Do you understand there's a difference here?

It's not too deep.

I think you all get it.

But you know what the problem here is?

So many of us in this room find ourselves bystanders.

We're on the sidelines cheering on what God is doing in the world.

We're not actually actively on the field participating.

And that's not what God called us to do.

You know what the funny thing is?

There is a group that is reserved for being on the sidelines cheering them on.

Cheering on the active members of God's team in the world doing His work.

You know who that group is?

Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1 gives us a little insight into it.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.

So let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us.

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

You know who that great cloud of witnesses is?

It's the saints who have already gone on before us.

And their time on this earth has ended.

Their race has been run.

And they're now in heaven looking down and cheering us on and witnessing and saying,

Go build God's kingdom.

Go do God's work.

Go fulfill God's mission.

They're the great cloud of witnesses.

They're the cheerleaders and the bands and the fans in the stands saying,

Yeah, go get them.

You say, man, I did my time.

No, no, no, no.

Your time's not over.

It might be the fourth quarter for you in your life.

Some of you, it might be overtime.

That was a joke.

But that means it's the most important time because the game's almost over.

So don't quit now.

Thinking of a football coach, and we've got football coaches in this room.

Thinking of a football coach who'd say,

Guys, don't give up.

The game's almost over.

Don't quit now.

Give everything you've got left.

And you've got all you need left.

Because the Holy Spirit will empower you to finish your race well.

So don't ever take the stance.

I don't have to be an active participant.

I don't have to be an active player out there in the field of God's play.

Because my time's over.

I'm just going to stand back on the sidelines and cheer everybody else on.

No, no, no.

That's not your job yet.

That time will come.

And you'll join that great cloud of witnesses and cheer on everybody else.

But until that day comes, you get in the game.

You get in the game.

So let's dive back in and see these guys who took on this mission.

They believed in it.

They had a mission.

They believed in it.

And they executed it.

They had a burden.

And there's something that drives you, isn't there?

You have a mission.

This church has a mission.

Company you work for might have a mission.

Everybody has a mission.

They have something they believe in.

Something that drives you.

Might drive you as an individual.

Our culture is certainly driven by different values.

Some of you might be all-star Christians, man.

You might have a mission statement for your family.

It might be hanging up on your wall.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

You might have different things marked in writing and posted.

Places where you can see them.

And that is what drives you.

Sometimes we get away from our mission, don't we?

Sometimes the values, even though they're stated and they're lifted up for everybody to see,

hey, this is what we're about.

But when you actually put a magnifying glass on our lives, that's not really what we're about, is it?

Sometimes we get away from our mission.

We get away from our values.

So we develop mission statements.

We vote on them.

And we elect them.

And we say, this is what we're going to be about.

And when we get off course from those, all of a sudden we're not accomplishing the purpose that we set out to accomplish.

You see it in business.

You see it in social media.

Anybody familiar with this company called Instagram?

Part of the meta universe out there.

Mark Zuckerberg.

We don't have to dive into all that right now, okay?

We're just talking about Instagram and their mission statement.

You know what their mission statement is?

To capture and share the world's moments.

Do you think Instagram has accomplished that?

I'd say yes.

That's about what you do on Instagram.

You go on there and you capture and you share the world's moments.

So they have accomplished their mission.

I'm not really even a big user of Instagram.

Probably not of the age to do that.

But that's all right.

But they have a very clear, very simple mission statement.

Very accomplishable.

And they did it.

What is our mission statement?

Right now it's loving God, seeking truth, serving people.

Right here at First Baptist Church, Henrietta, Texas.

That's what we have adopted as our mission statement.

Loving God, seeking truth, serving people.

Are we doing that?

Are we doing that as well as Instagram is capturing and sharing the world's moments?

It should define the basics.

Define the essentials.

This group of friends had a mission.

We have a friend who has a problem.

We can't fix his problem.

We need to get him to the one man who could fix his problem.

Now let me stop just for a moment and say,

do you have a friend who has a problem that you can't fix?

You know what problem I'm talking about?

Their sin problem.

I'm not talking about one specific.

I'm talking about the fact that they are sinners.

Just like you.

And just like me.

They were born with this problem.

And it's just manifested itself.

It's shown itself time after time after time after time in our lives.

We have this sin problem.

And it's never going to go away.

And there's only one person who can resolve it.

And his name is Jesus.

So do you have that friend?

And you say, I need to get them to Jesus.

That's what these guys were about.

That's where they found themselves.

So what drives you?

What drives you?

What thing spiritually has God put on your heart

that you long to see become reality in your life?

Do you have kingdom dreams?

Is that a weird thing to think about?

Do you have dreams that have to do with the kingdom of God?

I'm not talking about the weird random stuff

that pops into your mind when you're sleeping at night.

I'm talking about the dreams that drive you.

The dreams of having a comfortable retirement.

The dreams of having the truck you want.

Or the land you want.

Or the job you want.

Or the relationship you want.

Or the physical appearance you want.

Obviously, I haven't quite hit that dream in my life yet.

But I'm working on it, alright?

But what are the kingdom dreams you have?

What are the dreams of the kingdom of God that you have?

Do you have any?

If not, maybe God wants to give you a kingdom dream for your life.

Because he wants to accomplish something for you.

But you haven't stopped to recenter your life on God's thinking.

Are your dreams all tied up in this life?

Or do you have kingdom dreams?

And if so, if God has put something in your mind.

If God has put something in your heart.

Maybe it was recent.

Maybe it was a long time ago.

When was the last time you stopped and thought about that dream?

Is God accomplishing his dream in my life?

Or have I gotten in his way?

So these men had a mission.

And then these men had an eager expectation.

They weren't hesitant.

They jumped in and they ran straight to Jesus.

Look back at Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

These men came, verse 18.

Carrying on a stretcher, a man who was paralyzed.

They tried to bring him in.

And they couldn't.

But these guys had an expectation that they would get to Jesus.

And if they could just get to Jesus.

And we see it with their tenacity.

We see it with their drive.

And we'll talk more about that in just a moment.

But these guys had an expectation.

If they could just get their buddy to Jesus.

Jesus could help him.

Jesus could fix him.

Guess what?

God can't fix your spouse.

You believe that?

I don't.

I think he can.

I think he can fix your spouse.

But the way we live acts like we believe like God can't.

God can't fix your sin problem.

Do you believe that?

I think he can.

I think he can raise the dead.

I think he can fix your addiction.

I think he can fix that broken relationship.

But you've got to believe it.

You've got to have that eager expectation.

You've got to let it become your kingdom dream.

You've got to let it become your mission.

And then have an eager expectation.

If I can bring Jesus into this situation.

If I can bring this situation to Jesus.

He can heal it.

He can resolve it.

God can fix your spouse.

God can fix your addiction.

God can fix your son or daughter.

God can fix your financial problem.

God can fix whatever it is.

God can resolve.

God can heal.

God can bless.

God can change.

It's up to him.

In his timing.

As he sees fit.

He can help.

He does fix.

These guys had an eager expectation.

They actually believed Jesus could heal this man.

They probably thought maybe.

Just maybe.

If we can get our buddy to Jesus.

This great healer.

This great rabbi with shmeha.

Remember shmeha last week?

If you weren't here last Sunday.

You're looking at me like.

What are you talking about man?

This word shmeha means authority.

And it's what set aside.

The chief.

The best of the best.

The most impressive.

Most powerful.

Most prominent rabbis.

Who could do the miracles.

They could introduce new teaching.

All this.

And Jesus was dripping with shmeha.

Usually you had to have it conferred on you.

By all these religious leaders within the system.

Jesus didn't go that route.

Of course not.

He broke all those rules.

He just had it.

Because God gave it to him.

And then God himself.

Said this is my beloved son.

In whom I am well pleased.

So they said man.

If anybody.

Could heal our guy.

It's this Jesus.

So they took a risk.

Because of.

Their mission.

This is true of men and women.

All throughout the Bible.

You realize that?

It's not just these guys.

Joshua.

Took a risk.

Leading the Israelites.

Into the promised land.

Elijah on Mount Carmel.

Remember what happened with Elijah on Mount Carmel?

We talked about it last.

Last fall.

Kind of late last summer.

Whatever it was.

We had the.

We had the emergency Sunday.

Over in the high school gym.

Y'all remember that?

Anybody here for that?

Emergency Sunday.

Over in the high school gym.

It was fun.

Wasn't it?

We had a good time.

Jamie.

Thank you again.

She was out of town.

But she still opened up the gym.

For us to meet in.

That was awesome.

Might try to make an annual thing out of it.

Just because it's fun.

You know.

Let's go have church in the gym.

It'd be awesome.

And.

We talked all about that Sunday.

Elijah on Mount Carmel.

And 400 prophets of Baal.

The false god.

Were gathered against him.

Trying to prove that Baal is the real god.

And Elijah the one prophet of god.

Stood against them and said no no no.

Baal is not real.

He's a figment of your imagination.

You made this idol and you called him God and he's not real.

And I'm going to show you what God really is.

And he took a real risk that day.

Could have been killed for his faith.

But instead God showed up in mighty power, sent down fire from heaven,

burned up this sacrifice that Elijah had made and proved himself the one true God.

When you take a risk for the kingdom of God, you know what happens?

God shows up in a big way.

When you take a risk for yourself, you win some, you lose some.

When you take a risk for God, God's got your back.

Peter learned that walking across the waves.

Joshua learned that walking around Jericho.

Gideon learned that leading his army against the Midianites.

So many times throughout the Bible, we see people with expectation of God to show up.

And God shows up.

We now get to live on the other side of the cross.

See, all these people we've been talking about,

they were looking forward to Jesus coming.

There was a promise that a Messiah, a deliverer, a king would come and die and save them.

And he came.

And we get to be on the other side of history.

And we get to look back at something that already happened.

A recorded historical fact and say,

Jesus did come.

The Messiah did come.

And then he died.

And then he rose from the dead.

And now he has proven that he is God.

And everything he said was true.

And so now we can put our faith in him.

And it still feels like a risk sometimes.

But we know that as we follow Jesus,

and as we bring people to Jesus,

God will show up.

And God will move.

And God will work.

And he will transform.

And he will heal.

So how much greater should our expectations be

than all those who came before us?

Do you have an eager expectation

of someone coming to faith in Jesus?

Who's your one?

Does that eager expectation

move you to action?

Does it move you

to go speak to them?

Does it move you

to invite them to church?

Does it move you

to pray for them?

Does it move you to your knees

and then move you to your feet?

I can promise you this.

It's not all sunshine and roses.

You're going to encounter obstacles.

As God gives you one,

and you have an eager expectation

that God's going to change that person,

you're going to encounter an obstacle.

That's what happened with these guys.

What happened?

They came to bring their friend to Jesus,

and it wasn't easy.

They got a paralyzed man on a stretcher,

and they can't get to Jesus the healer.

I mean, come on, people.

Move aside and let the paralyzed guy through, right?

But no.

Everybody said,

I got something for Jesus to heal.

Why is his more important than mine?

So they couldn't get through to the crowd,

through the crowd to Jesus.

And since verse 19,

they could not find a way

to bring him in because of the crowd.

These guys went home and said,

we'll try again next time.

And that's the end of the story, right?

No, that's not.

These enterprising young men said,

we're going to the roof, boys.

We're going to the roof.

So they went to the roof,

and they lowered him on a stretcher

through the roof tiles

into the middle of the crowd before Jesus.

Jesus.

These guys had to have been young, right?

Because I think it's not only

the physical energy required

to get this thing done,

but just kind of the,

try to put it nicely,

just the dumb motivation

that would rise up in you to say,

we're digging a hole in the roof.

It's not our house.

We don't know these people,

but we're digging a hole in this roof.

Because last time I checked,

roof tiles, you can't just get through.

You have to remove them.

They made a hole in this person's roof.

They're like, whatever, man.

We'll deal with the collateral damage later.

We've got to get our buddy to Jesus,

and nobody's getting in our way.

Is that how tenacious you are

about seeing your loved one

come to faith in Jesus?

Jesus.

I'll deal with the collateral damage later.

I've got to get them to Jesus.

If you have that kind of tenacity,

if you have that kind of drive,

God will show up.

He will move.

I promise you.

I've seen it time and time and time again.

If you really care enough,

and you'll do whatever it takes,

God is unlocked for you.

And his power is limitless.

Well, it unlocked Jesus that day.

He saw the obstacles they had overcome.

What obstacles have kept you

from sharing Jesus with somebody in your life?

Have you given up?

Have you thrown up a white flag?

So there's no way in.

This person's heart is too hard.

The regulations at work are too severe.

Just never seems to be an opportunity.

I just don't see a way.

So you stop.

You go home.

You give up.

God hasn't opened a door for me yet.

You ever heard that one?

You know what we usually call open doors?

It's just the path of least resistance.

I'm waiting for God to make it easy for me.

That's what we're saying.

It might not be easy, folks.

But anything worth doing is probably not easy.

Do you care enough about that person's salvation?

Do you care enough about their eternal destiny?

Then are you willing to overcome the obstacles that pop up today, tomorrow, tonight?

Are you willing to put up with the initial resistance?

Are you willing to pray regularly, without ceasing, without stopping, for their salvation,

and then put feet to that prayer, put action to that prayer?

What will happen?

What's the fruit?

When Jesus was unlocked, what happened?

Well, these men, after they encountered their obstacle, here's what happened.

They got more than they bargained for.

They got more than they bargained for.

Don't settle for the mundane when Jesus wants to show you the miraculous.

Don't settle for the mundane, the boring, what you expect, when Jesus wants to offer you the miraculous.

Let's look back at the text.

Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Seeing their faith, Jesus said,

Friend, your sins are forgiven.

He didn't say you're healed.

He said your sins are forgiven.

The guy was paralyzed, and Jesus cared more about his spiritual problem than his physical problem.

But he recognized the faith.

The faith is what it took.

They didn't have a perfect record of Sunday school attendance.

They hadn't been to church every Sunday for the last 10 years.

They hadn't given all their tithe.

They weren't up to date on all their spiritual obligations.

But they showed faith in Jesus.

And that is what forgives sins.

Faith in Jesus.

So if you're trusting anything else to forgive your sins, you are hopeless.

But if you're trusting faith in Jesus, then you got all the hope in the world.

And I'm here to tell you that Jesus doesn't have a laundry list of items that you have to do, give, or accomplish to get to heaven.

Jesus just says, give me your faith.

Give me your belief.

And if you do that, I'll heal you.

I'll forgive you.

I'll help you.

I'll step in.

That's what we call the gospel.

It's the good news.

These guys didn't even know half of what they were going to get accomplished that day.

They just had enough faith to step out and fight through the obstacles that popped up.

And then they got much more than they bargained for.

So Jesus says, your sins are forgiven.

People thought his primary need was his physical problem.

But what Jesus did in this passage is true for everyone.

He shows us that the greatest need is an internal posture of the heart.

An internal posture of the heart.

How is your heart postured right now?

Is it postured toward you?

Is it postured toward the things of this world?

Or is it postured toward God?

His internal posture needed to be changed.

When Jesus addressed the deeper need, people were filled with awe.

Like, wow.

Jesus just jumped straight over this guy's obvious physical problem and just forgave his sins.

People were like, oh my word, did you see that?

And the religious leaders were like, how dare he?

Who does he think he is?

Sounds like religious leaders, doesn't it?

But this is the heart of the gospel.

Jesus goes straight to the root problem.

The real problem.

And then he can fix everything else.

How did others play a role in you coming to faith to Jesus?

If you have come to faith in Jesus, how have others played a role in that?

Somebody probably invited you.

Somebody probably brought you.

Somebody probably taught you.

Somebody probably introduced you for the first time to Jesus Christ.

Somebody might have prayed with you.

Somebody probably prayed for you.

Somebody was invested in you placing your faith in Jesus Christ.

Would you do the same for somebody else?

Would you do the same for somebody else?

This guy's got much more than they bargained for.

For their one.

And I'm telling you, God can do the same.

If you bring somebody to Jesus,

he can do more than you could ever imagine.

If he fixes their root problem,

they become his child.

He becomes their father.

God takes good care of his children.

He can help them in so many other ways.

In conclusion, I want to read this to you.

It's a little bit long,

but try to stick with me if you can.

And we'll be finished when this is over.

Now it came to pass

that a group existed

who called themselves fishermen.

There were many fish in the waters

all around that area.

In fact, the whole area

was surrounded by streams and lakes

filled with fish.

And these fish were hungry

and ready to bite.

Week after week,

month after month,

year after year,

these people who called themselves fishermen

met in meetings

and talked about their call to fish,

the abundance of fish,

and how they might go about fishing.

Year after year,

they carefully defined

what fishing means.

They defended fishing as an occupation,

and they declared that fishing

should always be the primary task

of fishermen.

Continually, they searched for new

and better methods of fishing

and for new and better definitions

of fishing.

They created clever slogans

and displayed them

on big, beautiful banners.

These fishermen built large,

beautiful buildings

called fishing headquarters.

The plea was that everyone

should be a fisherman

and every fisherman

should fish.

The one thing they didn't do,

however,

was fish.

In addition to meeting regularly,

they organized a board

to send out fishermen

to other places

where there were many fish.

The board hired staffs,

appointed committees,

and held many meetings

to define fishing,

to defend fishing,

and to decide

what new streams of fish

should be considered.

But the staff and committee members

did not fish.

Large, elaborate,

and expensive training centers

were built

whose original and primary purpose

was to teach fishermen

how to fish.

Over the years,

courses were offered

on the needs of fish,

the nature of fish,

where to find fish,

the psychological reactions of fish,

and how to approach

and feed fish.

Those who taught

had doctorates in fishology.

But these teachers

did not fish.

They only taught fishing.

Year after year,

after tedious training,

many graduated

and were given

fishing licenses.

They were sent

to do full-time fishing,

some to distant waters

filled with fish.

Many who felt the call

to be fishermen

responded.

They were commissioned

and sent to fish.

But like the fishermen

back home,

they never fished.

They engaged

in all kinds

of other occupations.

Some felt their job

was to relate to the fish

in a good way

so the fish would know

the difference

between good fishermen

and bad fishermen.

Others felt

that simply letting the fish

know that they were

nice, land-loving neighbors

and how loving

and kind they were

was enough.

It's true

that many of the fishermen

sacrificed

and put up

with all kinds

of difficulties.

Some lived

near the water

and you could smell

dead fish

on them every day.

They received

the ridicule

of some who made fun

of their fishermen's clubs

and the fact

that they claimed

to be fishermen

But they still

never fished.

Imagine

how offended

these people were

when one day

somebody suggested

that those

who don't fish

aren't really fishermen

no matter how much

they claim to be.

But it did actually

sound correct.

Is a person

a fisherman

if year after year

he never fishes?

More plainly stated

are we followers

if we aren't

fishing?

I don't think

I have to make

the application.

Is it time

to start fishing?

Is there a fish

in your life

that God wants

you to catch?

He'll help you do it.

You've got to get

them there.

You've got to get

through the obstacles.

You've got to care

enough.

Here's our takeaway.

Do you have a burden?

Do you care

about enough

about somebody

in your life?

Is it time

to dig a hole

in the roof?

Is it time

to get through

whatever obstacle

pops up?

And are you fishing

or are you just

talking about it?

Are you being

a Christian

or do you just

call yourself one?

Because you know

what a Christian does?

A Christian follows

Jesus.

You know what a

follower of Jesus

does?

A follower of Jesus

does what Jesus

did.

You know what

Jesus did?

He came to seek

and to save

the lost.

He went fishing.

Jesus went fishing

over and over

and over again.

He didn't fish

for fish.

Last Sunday

He said boys

you're not fishing

for fish anymore.

He said now

you're fishing

for people.

And that's

what Jesus did.

So if you're

going to call

yourself a follower

of Jesus

you've got to

go fishing

for people.

Let's pray

together right now

God.

God please

show us

right now

who our one

is.

God please

don't let

this church

get to heaven

someday.

and we don't

have any fish.

This church

this church

is not the

building.

This church

is not the

staff.

It's all of us.

It's every

one of us.

Down a little bit.

It's every one

of us in this

room.

God what a

crime would it

be if we got

to heaven

someday and we

didn't have

one.

There was a

woman or a

man, a

teenager, a

child who sat

in this room

heard your

word and

said no

I don't have

anybody.

Give us one

God.

God.

It means so

much.

We don't

care about

having huge

crowds and

impressive

property and

having the

latest and

greatest of

everything.

We care about

people.

And if we

say we care

about people

then give us

people to

reach.

Let it

start with

one.

None of

us are

exempt God.

Maybe the

one is in

this room

right now.

Maybe

somebody's

one is

here.

Maybe you

know if

you're the

one.

Maybe you

know yeah

people have

been working

on me for

a while.

People have

been praying

for me for

a while.

I finally

showed up

today.

If you're

the one

they care

enough about

you to try

to bring you

to Jesus

would you

let him

heal you?

Would you

let him

forgive you?

Would you

believe enough

to say I

believe that

I'm a sinner.

I believe

Jesus died

for my sins.

I believe

he rose

from the

dead.

He is

God and

he loves

me enough

to forgive

me and

make me

his child.

If that's

you today

would you

slip your

hand up

and I'll

pray for

you.

I actually

want to

invite you

to come

on up

here.

If that's

you today

thank you.

how about

the rest

of us?

Would you

say I've

got somebody

I've got

somebody on

my mind

I've got

somebody on

my heart

that's my

one.

I'm going

to ask

God to

help me

do whatever

it takes

to bring

them to

Jesus.

Would you

slip your

hand up

and I'll

pray for

you.

Thank

you.

Thank

you.

Thank

you.

You can

put your

hand down.

For the

rest of

you how

many of

you would

say I'm

going to

pray.

I'm

going to

ask God

to give

me

somebody.

Maybe

I started

last week

maybe I'm

going to

start this

week.

But I'm

going to

pray for

God to

give me

somebody to

bring to

Jesus.

Would you

slip your

hand up

now?

Thank

you.

Thank

you.

Thank

you.

All

right.

All around

the room

you put

your hands

down.

God

you see

the hands

you know

the ones

you know

us and

you know

how to

bring them

together and

bring them

to yourself.

Show us

how you're

going to do

it God.

we'll

celebrate it.

We'll give

you the

glory.

We'll

thank you

for it.

It's in

Jesus name

we pray.

Amen.