The Joy of Seeing Lives Changed

Thank you so very much. What a beautiful song.

If you have your Bibles, look with me this morning to Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

And let me just tell you what we're going to do.

We're going to look at the first five verses.

I'm going to do a hurried exposition of this passage.

And then after we do that, we're going to stand back and notice some things

about the focal principles of this passage we're dealing with today.

If I were to give the message a title,

it would be the joy of seeing lives changed.

When you read Luke's Gospel, chapter 15,

there are my three favorite parables in all the Scripture.

It's the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin,

and then the prodigal son who returns home.

And the teaching in all that is clearly this,

that there is joy in heaven over that which was lost being found.

It's a joy, isn't it, to see something that's lost discovered again,

to see something that's lost purpose and meaning in life,

and it's just going down the tube, so to speak,

suddenly to be renewed and to find new life and vitality,

to see someone's life change.

Man, it just doesn't get any better than that.

In fact, I can tell you with assurance today,

the greatest joy I ever had as a pastor

was not in seeing a building packed with people.

That's exciting.

It's invigorating.

But what really and truly is exciting

and what really and truly is joyful

is to see somebody whose life was out of order

and suddenly see them come to know Christ

and see the huge difference He makes in their life.

Well, if you've never had that joy of witnessing that,

I hope you will in the days to come.

It's something you're going to see in the story we look at this morning.

So if you have your Bibles,

turn with me to Mark chapter 2,

Mark 2 · chapter mention

and let's begin our reading in verse 1.

When He entered Capernaum,

and He is referring to Jesus,

Capernaum is the home base of His Galilean ministry.

He lived, grew up in Nazareth,

a stone's throw from Capernaum.

But when Jesus begins His ministry,

He works in and out of Capernaum.

He leaves Capernaum, comes back to Capernaum.

And so verse 1 of chapter 2 says,

When He entered Capernaum again,

after some days He's been away,

and if you read the chapter prior to this,

you know He's been preaching,

He's been healing,

doing all kinds of miracles.

It was reported that He was at home.

Some of you may be using the King James Version this morning,

and I typically use other translations,

but I want to tell you,

I like the way King James Version puts verse 1.

It says,

It was noise that Jesus had come home.

I like that term,

it was noise,

because it tells you it wasn't a computer,

it wasn't something on Facebook,

it was something that people said to one another.

It's a little bit gossipy sounding, isn't it?

In other words,

this person told that person to tell,

this person who told yet another person,

and pretty soon all over the region of Capernaum,

word has gotten out,

Jesus is back home.

He's come back to Capernaum.

Well, it stirs up all kinds of excitement,

and we see that in verse 2.

So many people gathered together,

that there was no more room,

not even in the doorway,

and He was speaking the message to them.

I mean, when word got out,

the whole area wanted to see Jesus again.

They'd heard of these miracles He'd done on this Galilean tour,

they'd heard about His preaching,

all kinds of things were happening.

Everybody wanted to come and hear Jesus.

So when they hear He's in this local house,

there in the town of Capernaum,

everybody rushes there to see Jesus.

It was a standing room only crowd,

what we call an SRO crowd,

standing room only.

Now, we've got a good crowd here this morning,

but we are,

what we Baptists like to say,

comfortably filling this room, right?

You know what that means, right?

There's enough room for you to lay down and take a nap

beside somebody else.

This place was packed.

If this had been the room that He was in,

and I'm confident it was a much smaller room than this,

probably less than a third the size of this room.

I mean, they're jammed in there,

tree to tree,

treetop tall.

There are people everywhere.

There were people behind Him,

people in front of Him,

people to the side of Him.

I dare say Jesus probably had to stand there

as they, in all likelihood,

sat or kneeled or maybe lay on their side on the floor

if there weren't chairs available to them.

And they just jam-packed that place,

so much so,

you could not get one other person in that room.

Now, we who attend Baptist churches,

that's kind of hard for us to imagine, right?

And I've only seen it one time in my life.

I've seen at Easter huge crowds,

assuming the church I pastored,

where we had to bring in chairs,

we had people on the floor,

we had people behind us in the choir loft.

But only one time in my ministry,

when I first started preaching,

Western Avenue in 1978,

we had truth come to our church.

Some of you will remember that group.

They were a wonderful, wonderful singing group,

and we advertised all over town

that truth was going to be there.

And I'm going to tell you,

I got there about 45 minutes

before the performance started.

We had one of these old churches

that had a wraparound balcony.

Remember those?

How the old churches were,

had a wraparound balcony.

I was fearful as I stood there on the platform

thinking,

I hope nobody falls out of the balcony.

They were leaning over the rails of the balcony.

It was really a scary situation.

All the floor space was taken.

The choir loft was filled.

We had two vestibules in the back of the church.

Both of those were standing back.

People standing in the stairwell.

Every place is taken.

Fire marshal shows up.

A few minutes before the performance,

he got word of it.

He comes down there,

takes a look at it,

comes to me and says,

you let one more person in this building,

we're going to close it down.

It was genuinely a standing room only crowd.

Well, that's what's taking place here in Capernaum.

It's a standing room only crowd.

They're packed to the max.

Well, look at verse 3.

Verse 3 says,

Then they came,

and we don't know anything about this group called they.

And then they came to him bringing a paralytic carried by four men.

All we know is their number.

We don't know their relationship to the paralytic.

We don't know anything about their paralytic.

We don't know their name.

We don't know his name.

We don't know how long they've had relationship.

We're going to make some assumptions here in a few moments that I think are logical and reasonable.

But you can make up your own mind about these men.

We're just not told any of the other details.

This is what we know.

They come bringing this man, probably a friend, on this cot to where Jesus is at this house in Capernaum.

Look at verse 4, if you will.

Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd,

they removed the roof above where he was.

And when they had broken through, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic was lying.

Now, that ought to take you back.

If it doesn't, you, my friend, don't have much imagination.

I'm telling you, that's one weird, weird scene.

These four guys have brought this guy, probably a friend, to Jesus.

They want to have Jesus take a look at him, see if Jesus can help him.

When they get there, the front door of the house, there are people standing in the doorway.

They no doubt approach those guys, hey, could you let us in?

This is a guy we brought to see Jesus.

Sorry, pal, you're out of luck, too late, can't get in the house.

They walk around the house, the windows, they're jam-packed, the back door, you can't get entrance there.

And they wonder, how can we get our friend to Jesus?

Now, you'll recall months ago, three months ago, when I began as interim here at Pickens,

we preached then from Mark in one of those opening sermons,

and we told you that huge crowds often came to where Jesus was,

and that Mark was the gospel writer who was not about theology so much or philosophy like John is.

He's the guy who's telling a narrative,

and he goes from one story quickly to another, to another, to another.

He doesn't give us neither the details any of the other three gospel writers give us.

In fact, this is the word that you find more often in Mark than you know the word,

the word immediately or straightway.

He says, and immediately Jesus did this, and immediately Jesus did this, and immediately Jesus did this.

So when you're reading this story, here's what you get.

Jesus comes home, word gets out, everybody shows up,

these guys pick up this guy on the cot, bring him to Jesus, get there, can't get in,

and in the very next verse he says,

and they go up on the roof, and they tear the roof out,

and they lower the man into the presence of Jesus.

Now, I hope you've got enough imagination to know

that while he's accurate in telling that,

he's left out some stuff, right?

I mean, who of you in this room,

if you're in the position of these four men,

say immediately, when you can't get in the front door,

oh, I know what I want to do,

let's go up on the roof and tear out the thatch

and lure him into the presence of Jesus, right?

It just doesn't go down like that.

There had to be a time where they stood back,

and they looked at that, and they thought,

well, man, this guy needs to see Jesus.

How are we going to get him into Jesus?

What are we going to do?

And they mull that over,

and ultimately come up with a solution

that Mark tells us about very hurriedly.

They go up on the roof, they tear out the thatch,

they lure him into the presence of Jesus.

But I assure you,

it didn't take place just that quickly as we read it.

Well, what happens?

Look at verse 5.

Seeing their faith,

Jesus told the paralytic,

Son, your sins are forgiven.

Interesting phrase,

if you underscore in your Bible,

underscore that second word,

seeing their faith.

The plural pronoun there.

Not seeing the paralytic's faith.

That's how we normally think.

That if I get a miracle in my life,

it's because of my faith.

But what Mark says is,

seeing their faith.

Can I give you a picture of what I think happened?

Jesus come home.

The crowd has gathered.

Place is filled to the max.

Jesus, in all likelihood,

has taken a position

in the center of the room.

Now think about it.

Probably a low ceiling.

It's a small house.

A lot of folk.

So how, if you're a speaker,

are you going to talk to those folk

unless they're kneeling, lying,

and you're standing up,

and you're somewhere

in the center of the room.

I've had occasion where

a real large crowd had gathered,

and when I was speaking,

I'd be speaking to people here

and here and here,

and I would just keep turning

back and forth

in order to try to make eye contact

with everyone that was in the room.

I have a feeling,

can't prove it,

but it seems reasonable to me

that's probably what Jesus did too.

He's in the center of the room.

People gather around him.

He's talking, right?

You ever been in a Baptist meeting

where somebody's talking,

they're up preaching,

they're teaching,

and somebody does something

they didn't intend to do?

Or maybe they did intend to do it,

but it just wasn't

the smartest thing in the world to do, right?

Somebody's phone goes off.

What happens?

Ryan cuts your phone off, right?

Everybody looks in that direction.

Or somebody gets up

and they go do something

that you wonder why in the world

didn't they wait

until the church is over

to do that, right?

And yet, everybody turns

and they look in that direction

because they're distracted.

So Jesus is up teaching

and all of a sudden

they hear footsteps.

This is not a solid roof, obviously,

because they break through it pretty easily

and lower this man into Jesus.

So they hear footsteps on the roof.

They can hear voices, no doubt.

Hey, then you're not going to drop him, are you?

I mean, you okay?

Are you all right?

And they hear these voices outside.

And now they hear walking on the roof.

And all of a sudden,

somebody gets hit in the head

with a piece of thatch.

And they look up.

And everybody in the room follows suit.

They're all looking up.

And now, if I'm Jesus,

I don't know if he did or not,

but if I'm Jesus,

I quit talking

because I know I've already lost a while anyway, right?

And I'm watching the same thing

everybody else in the room is watching.

I'm watching this little tiny hole

through which daylight is coming

get bigger and bigger

and bigger and bigger

until finally,

you can lower a cot down through the opening

and four faces suddenly appear.

Hey, Jesus.

Got a buddy here.

He needs to see you.

And they lure him into the presence of Jesus.

Now, I'm going to tell you,

that's a meeting I'd like to have been at.

Wouldn't you?

That is one cool, cool story.

That's what we get here in Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

Well, what do we make of this?

Uh-oh.

I lost my microphone.

That's one of those distractions

we were talking about.

Just cut it off.

Now it's back on.

Okay.

Here's my question to you.

Having looked at this story this morning.

What in the world?

What in the world

possessed those four men

to do what they did?

I mean, can you imagine?

Can we just be honest?

Is there anybody in this room

that can envision you doing that?

You going up on somebody's roof

who probably you don't even know

and tearing a hole big enough in the roof

to put a cot through

and to lure this paralytic

into the presence of Jesus.

When it's Jesus,

it's the Son of God

and He's teaching

and you're interrupting Him.

Is there anybody here

that can imagine?

Yeah, I think I could do that.

I'm going to tell you,

I'll do some wild, crazy things.

I don't think I'd have been in on that one.

That's pretty out there, you know?

Can I tell you something?

If every one of us in this room

could come to have the same traits

I see these guys demonstrate in our life,

Pickens, First Baptist Church,

wouldn't have to talk about

reaching the people of Pickens.

You would reach the people of Pickens.

Can you imagine what it would be like

if this church could really take seriously

the mission that you stated

to evangelize the world

and you really began to see

week in and week out lives change

because you were reaching your neighbors

and your friends and your relatives

and people who've never heard about Jesus

here in this community.

Can you imagine how exciting that would be?

Can you imagine what that would be like?

I want to show you six qualities

these guys possessed

that I think made that possible.

First of all, these were men.

I don't know a lot about them,

but I know this.

They had to be men of great compassion.

I mean, I don't know if they were related

to this guy, if they just knew this guy,

if they were close friends with this guy,

but they saw that paralytic

and they heard about the things

that Jesus was doing

and they believed,

as we'll say in a moment,

with all their heart

that Jesus could help them.

And so I want to tell you something.

They had compassion for him.

They looked at him

and they saw a guy,

you know what?

He can't walk the way we can.

He can't get to Jesus

if he wants to.

I don't even know if he wanted to.

But I know this.

He can't get there on his own.

If he's going to get to Jesus,

if Jesus is going to impact his life,

it's going to be because somebody

cared enough about him

to bring him to Jesus.

He's dependent on their compassion.

Can you for one second

separate yourself from the life

that you now have

and wonder what it would be like,

just dare to imagine

what it would be like

if you could do nothing for yourself,

if you were absolutely dependent

on someone else

to take care of you

and sing about your welfare?

When I was pastor in Statesville,

there was a lady in our church,

Betty Sue Sharp.

She's going to be with the Lord years ago.

Betty Sue, at the time I knew her,

was about 48.

She had been injured

in an automobile accident

when she was 18 years old,

just out of high school,

severed her spinal cord.

She was a paraplegic

for the rest of her life.

She would lie in bed.

Her elderly mother, Mrs. Speece,

would take care of her.

And occasionally,

because she wouldn't turn her enough,

she would develop these bed sores.

They would have to carry her

to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem.

When I would go over and see Betty Sue,

can I tell you something?

They had her on a striker frame.

Let me just describe

what a striker frame is

if you don't know what that is.

It's just a little cot,

probably very similar

to what these guys

carried this paralytic on.

It has a bar on one side,

a bar on the other.

The person lays in the middle.

It's got canvas in the middle

and a place cut out in the canvas

for a person to put their face

through that canvas.

Then they take another identical cot

and place it on their back.

And then they lace

those two cots together.

They put it on a swivel

so that it can flip

so that half the day,

changing it every few hours,

a person is lying there

facing the ceiling

and the rest of the time,

they're lying there

facing the floor.

Only two positions

they can be in.

They're either facing upward

or facing downward.

When I would go to see her,

regardless of which position

she was in,

when I would get there,

the nurse would come in

and she would change her

so she could talk with me

so that she was facing up.

On one occasion,

I'm visiting Betty Sue

and we're having a conversation.

It's lasted about 30 minutes or so.

And she turns to me.

I'm praying with her,

getting ready to leave.

And before I leave,

I say,

is there anything I can do

for you, Betty Sue?

And you know what she said?

She said,

Pastor, I hate to ask you this,

but yeah, there is.

Would you scratch my nose?

My nose is itching.

Would you just scratch it?

I'd be glad to.

And I'm going to tell you,

I had to fight back tears

as I touched her nose

and began to rub her nose.

Because I put myself

in her place

and I thought,

my goodness.

I complained about this

and that and the other

and I can't imagine

what it would be like

to be lying here

on this striker frame.

And I can't even

scratch my own nose.

Can I tell you something?

There are people

all around Pickens

who are just that helpless,

just that disabled,

emotionally and spiritually

and mentally.

And I'm telling you something,

if they're ever going to come

to Jesus,

it's going to be because

somebody who knew Jesus

had the insight

and the compassion

to bring them to Christ.

They're never going to get there

on their own.

It's going to be because

somebody cared enough

to bring them to Christ.

These were men of compassion.

They were also men

of deep, deep conviction.

Now, in a Baptist church,

it's not hard to get people

to raise their hand and say,

I believe the Bible.

I believe every word

in the Bible.

I have great confidence in God.

God can do anything.

And I want to tell you something.

If we're honest about it,

there is a crisis of faith

in the church today

unlike we've ever witnessed

in the history of Christendom.

If we're honest about it,

I don't think we any longer

know even what we really do believe

about Jesus.

Can I tell you what Paul

believed about Jesus?

Paul said in Romans 1.16,

He is the power,

the gospel is the power of God

unto salvation

to the Jew first,

to the Roman,

and to the Greek.

And that's the reason

unashamedly,

everywhere he went,

he proclaimed the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know why?

Because Paul believed this.

If a man can get to know Jesus,

if Jesus can get into a man,

the Holy Spirit can come

into a man's life.

He can regenerate that man,

and he can bring him

to life again,

and this man who was lost

can be found,

he can have a meaningful life

if he just knew Christ.

And I want to ask you something.

Do you have conviction about that?

Is this just something

we show up on Sundays

and say that we believe

Jesus can change the world,

He can change lives,

or do you really

and truly believe that?

Because I want to ask you,

if you really

and truly believe that,

how do you see people

who are helpless

like this man was

and not speak to them

about the Lord Jesus Christ?

How cruel and insensitive

and filled with hate

must we be

to really believe

the things that we say

about Jesus,

but then tell no one

about Jesus?

Do you understand that?

These were men of conviction.

I don't know

what they believed theologically,

I don't know if they believed

He was Messiah or not,

but I do believe this,

they believed with all their heart,

they'd heard enough,

they'd seen enough

of the miracles of Jesus.

If we get our friend

in the presence of Jesus,

Jesus can heal it.

Do you believe that spiritually

about Jesus healing people

in your life?

Thirdly,

they were people

who were determined.

They were people

who were determined.

Now when I say determined,

we recognize

there are levels

of determination,

right?

There are things

even this last week

you said,

you know what,

I'm determined

to lose five pounds.

Are you really?

The proof will be

if you lose five pounds,

right?

If you really,

really do mean that.

We say,

I'm determined

to get more sales

on my job.

Really?

Is that just something

you're saying

to make the boss

feel okay

about your effort?

Are you really determined?

Last week,

remember how I closed

the service?

I said,

would you do me a favor?

Would you go out

and invite everybody

you know

who hadn't been here

in a while

and get them to come?

Because I'm going to tell you

something really important

next week,

and I don't dare say

there were some of you

who went out

and you made some calls

and you said,

would you come?

But I want to ask you,

how determined

were you about that?

Some of you probably

never thought about it again.

Some of you probably

never agreed to do it

to begin with,

and that's okay.

It's just me asking.

I think you're not obligated

to do what I ask you to do,

but were you determined

about it?

Because I dare say

there have been times

in your life

that you really have been

determined about something.

In fact,

it was such a matter

of importance to you,

you knew this,

I've got to find a way

to do that

or it's going to be horrific.

What if tomorrow morning

you went into work

and your boss looked at you

and said,

I want to tell you something,

you will have this done

by Wednesday

or you're gone.

I'm going to let you go.

You're going to lose

your house.

You're going to lose

your job,

your income.

Boy, I guarantee you,

you would give it

your best area.

It wouldn't be something

you say you'd really try to do.

You'd be determined

to do it.

How determined

are you to bring people

to Christ?

There's a fourth thing

I want you to see

about these men.

It's one of my favorites.

They were imaginative

and creative.

I mean,

that just goes

without saying, right?

They came up

with this novel idea

after they'd stood back

and looked at it a while.

Let's go up

on the roof.

That's the biggest reason

I believe

they didn't just walk up

and try to get

in the front door

when that didn't work

and go up on the roof

because I'm going to tell you

it's just too creative

an idea.

Here's what had to happen.

When they checked

all around the house

and they couldn't get in,

they had to stand back.

They probably put their friend

down on the ground.

You got any ideas, buddy?

They looked at that house.

They thought about it.

After a while,

probably one of them said,

hey, you know what?

We could...

No, that wouldn't work.

Well, we could...

No, that wouldn't work either.

And I can just see

the light bulb

come on in one of their minds,

don't you?

All four of them

didn't think of it.

The others agreed to it,

but it was one person's idea,

I guarantee you.

Hey, you know what?

Boy, this is crazy,

but I saw a ladder

in the back

and I saw some rope

over there on the side

and we could get that ladder

and we could go up on the roof

and we could tie the rope

to the ends of the cot.

If you're willing,

we can horse you up on the roof.

What are we going to do then?

We're going to tear out the roof.

We're going to what?

We're going to tear out the roof.

We're going to let our friend

into the presence of Jesus.

That's creative.

That's magic.

That's thinking,

as we like to say today,

out of the box, right?

Can I tell you something?

We Baptists are not good

at thinking out of the box.

We Baptists are not imaginative.

In fact, we people,

not just Baptists,

you see those first little kids up here?

Weren't they cute?

You think they've got imagination?

They sure do.

I mean, those kids are low.

I guarantee you,

the one on this end

didn't give a nickel

what the one on that end was doing.

He's doing his thing,

she's doing her thing, right?

They don't care about anybody else.

They're just pioneers.

Everything's an adventure.

My grandson,

he's got a wild imagination.

You Christians probably

don't want to hear this,

but he's as excited

as he can be about Halloween.

I mean, he wants to be a skeleton

and all that jazz.

He just loves that stuff, right?

He's got a wild imagination.

Wild, wild imagination.

By the time they get a little older,

they lose some of that.

Do you notice how those older kids,

they did a great job singing?

They all stood in their place

because they learned,

man, the routine.

We got to do this.

Mom and Dad will get on to me

if I get home

and you know I cut up up here.

So I can't pull my dress

over my head, right?

And I can't do those kind of things.

And then you look at your choir.

Now, they have really learned

the routine, right?

They're not going to play

with their dress.

They're not going to,

they're going to sing

like adults, right?

Isn't it amazing

how when kids are in middle school,

they begin to lose

that creativity and imagination

by the time they get out

of high school,

they're just parrots.

In fact,

most of us in this room,

we're parrots.

I'm talking about myself.

We're parrots.

We do what others tell us to do.

We don't like to think

for ourselves.

Most Baptists are parrots.

You say,

well, preacher,

that's a little bit offensive.

It may be offensive,

but it's true.

Can I just prove it to you?

Those of you that are maids,

think back,

I'm 69 years old.

Think back in the day

when we were young

and we were going to church.

Remember what happened

in the early 70s?

I do.

I was a young preacher.

Early 70s,

a guy in Dell City, Oklahoma

by the name of Bailey Smith

bought some buses

and he began busing people

to church

and pretty soon

they were running thousands.

Down in Houston, Texas,

a guy by the name

of John Massonio

did the same.

And a guy by the name

of Jerry Falwell

up in Lynchburg, Virginia

did the same.

And a guy over in Hammond, Indiana

began to do the same.

And pretty soon

there were conferences

being held about buses

and people were learning

about bus ministry

and before that

nobody knew anything

about bus ministry.

And guess what?

Every church in Easley

by 1980 had a bus, right?

And we're engaged

in bus ministry

and nobody ever said,

were there any problems

associated with that?

And we found out there were.

There were a lot of headaches

that came with that.

And it worked in some places,

didn't work in other places.

And remember the gym phase

where everybody said,

we need a gym.

Well, why do we need a gym?

Well, because we need one, right?

We need a gym.

And it became a place

where we played basketball,

you know, a few times a year

and we had a gym, right?

And through the years,

I've seen that over

and over and over.

Some guy on the West Coast,

Rick Warren,

writes a book called

Purpose Driven Life

and it's a great,

great, great book.

And we began to have

these conferences

and everybody's duplicating that

and saying, okay,

we need to have a 101

and a 201

and a 301

and a 401 ministry

and do things

just like they do

out on the West Coast.

And so,

people like you find here

at Pickens

and in other places

like in Greer

and all over the country,

they say, you know what?

We need to get a guru

to come in here

and tell us how to reach

the people of our city.

And so they ran out

to the West Coast,

would you come and talk to us

and be the expert for us?

Or they call Columbia

or they call Atlanta

or they get Nashville

and a guy comes in

with a suitcase,

a briefcase,

and he's got the plan for you

and he lays it out.

But I want to tell you something.

Because it works in Atlanta,

because it works in Columbia,

because it works

in Bakersville, California,

it doesn't mean

it's going to work in Pickens.

Do you know that?

You know who the expert

on Pickens is?

It's not Ralph Carter.

I'm from Greer.

The expert on Pickens

are you folk

because this is where

you make your home.

You know the people

in this county.

You know the people

in this city.

You know the people

in this community.

You know your neighbors.

But what happens is

we get lazy

and we just want to do

what somebody else

has told us to do

instead of taking the time

to stand back and say,

we need to pray

and we need to,

God forbid,

think.

Right?

We need to come up

with a solution

that's right for our community

and a plan for

what would reach the people

of the Pickens community.

I'm going to tell you

a story out of my past

and I hesitate to tell it

because I'm so fearful

somebody will come up

and say,

that's what we need to do.

No, it's not what

you need to do.

It's what we did.

I'm in states

from North Carolina.

Went there in 77.

Left in 92.

Long about the late 80s.

We had relocated the church.

Run out of room.

Built buildings

and we had people meeting

in every Sunday school classroom.

In the auditorium.

Had a meeting in a closet.

Believe it or not,

a room closet.

A small class.

Had every staff person

forfeit their office

on Sunday morning,

including my own.

We all gave up our office

and said,

you can have Sunday school class

in the year.

Move chairs in there.

We don't have any more space.

But I'm thinking to myself,

God puts an idea

on my mind.

If I had another space,

I think I could reach people

who've never been to Sunday school.

They might come

to a class that I'd teach

if we had one

for just people

who've never attended Sunday school.

I asked the director

of our Sunday school

and our education director,

if you've got a room

for me or we don't have

any room, Pastor.

I don't mind the idea,

they said,

but you've got to find

your own room.

Well,

one day I'm leaving work.

I look to my left.

Our building's out

on the fringe of town.

Nothing but

a lot of acres

behind us,

open woods,

except

for this one man

that lives there

and this moose lodge.

It's about 250 yards

from our building

and it's about

a third the size

of this room.

And so,

I think to myself,

hmm,

I don't know any moose,

but I could find out

who runs that thing

and so I made a few calls

and pretty soon

I get connected

with the head moose,

right?

And it happens

he's a member

of a Sister Baptist Church.

So I told him

who I was

and I said,

listen,

you know,

you're building,

your moose lodge

is only about 250 yards

from my back parking lot

and I'm looking

for a place

to teach Sunday school

on Sunday morning.

Do you all use that place

on Sunday morning?

No,

we don't use it

on Sunday morning.

When do you use it?

Use it Friday night

and Saturday night.

Well,

would you be willing

for me to rent it from you?

Well,

I wouldn't charge you.

I'd just let you have it.

Well,

that'd be great.

Do you mind me using it?

No,

but you can tell

there's hesitancy

in his voice.

I said,

well,

what's the problem?

He said,

well,

you know,

I don't know how to put it,

but we kind of gather

and have social gatherings.

What he meant is

we party hardy

on Saturday night

and said,

we have to stop

the party at midnight.

I later learned

that was because

you can't drink in states

at that time

after midnight.

You know,

it's Sunday.

You can't have an open bar.

So,

he says,

we close up about midnight,

but when we close up,

we just leave things

just like they are.

So,

if you went on Sunday morning,

there'd be beer cans

and beer bottles

and whiskey bottles

everywhere.

I said,

I'm sorry to tell you that,

but that's just how it'd be.

So,

I don't guess it would work.

I said,

yeah,

it'd work.

I said,

would you let me

and a couple people

go in there

and clean that up beforehand?

Do you mind if we clean that?

No,

it'd save us

having to come back on Monday.

I said,

well,

great,

I'll just clean it up for you.

So,

I go to the deacon

and I say,

guys,

here's what we're going to do.

We're going to open a class

for anybody

who's never been in sun school.

You can't come

if you're already

in sun school class,

but if you're not

in sun school class,

we're going to open it up

to anybody who wants to come.

They said,

okay,

you can try it and see.

I could tell the way they said it.

They didn't really think

that's going to work

and I wasn't sure about it.

I mean,

it's just an idea,

but we tried it.

Me and a couple guys

went down there

and that Sunday morning,

we cleared out

all the bottles,

had two big garbage can bags

of beer bottles

and cans

that we took

and put in the dumpster

and then we opened

that building

for Sunday school.

You know what we called it?

The Happy Hour.

We sandwiched it

between one worship service

and another worship service

and some of those guys

that said,

I bet you won't have

over five or ten

were right.

We had 42

the first time

we met in that room.

Can I tell you something?

The secret to reaching Pickens

is not out there

in some book.

It sits right here

in this room.

when you care enough

to come out

for something

other than a worship service

and sit down

with your friends

and family members

and say,

let's develop a strategy

for reaching our community

for Christ.

The fifth thing

I want you to see

about these guys

is they were daring

risk takers.

That's one thing

to get an idea.

It's another thing

to see it through,

isn't it?

I'm confident

there wasn't a Baptist

among those four

because if there

had been a Baptist,

especially a Baptist

deacon or a pastor

or staff member

among those four,

you know what

they'd have said?

We can't do that.

That's never been done

before.

Somebody would have said,

do you know

whose granddaddy

built that roof?

I mean, wouldn't he?

And certainly

somebody would have

said this,

who's going to pay

for that?

Right?

We can't do that

because there'd be

cost involved

and somebody would

have to pay

for that roof.

And I'm going to

tell you something,

those four guys

through caution to the wind,

they said,

you know what,

this is the only way

our buddy is going

to get into the

presence of Jesus

if we go up on that

roof and tear out

that roof and lower

him into the presence

of Jesus.

And if we do that,

you know what,

I think Jesus

will heal him.

And boy,

they were right.

And so they

demonstrate

what it is

to be a risk taker.

Can I ask you

something this morning

personal?

When's the last time

any of us in this room

took any kind of risk

at all

in sharing the gospel?

Where you said,

I'm throwing caution

to the wind

and I don't care

what's ever been done

before,

so long as it's legal

and it's not immoral

and it has integrity

and character,

it's a viable way,

it's just not something

we've ever done before.

When have you ever

cared enough

to risk yourself,

to risk this?

You know what we

fear risking more

than anything else?

It's not our money.

It's risking embarrassment.

When's the last time

you risk embarrassing

yourself

to see someone

come to know Christ?

And finally,

and I close with this,

they worked as a team.

They probably

weren't completely

in agreement

about going up

on that roof.

I can't imagine

any three friends

that I've got

where I would be

the fourth

and any one of us

suggest,

let's go up

on that roof

and tear it out

and lower our friend

in the presence of Jesus

where at least

one or two of them

wouldn't have been

saying,

whoa,

whoa,

whoa,

whoa,

whoa,

whoa,

wait just a minute.

There were some

serious objections

I'm sure

that somebody

in that group

of four raised.

But in the end,

here's what impresses me.

when it came down

to crunch time,

they all grabbed

one end of that rope

and they all worked

together

to make it happen.

I want to tell you

something.

I've been so impressed.

I'm not saying this

to make you feel good.

I've told everybody

I've come in contact

with since I became

your interim pastor.

Those people

at First Pickens

are some of the nicest

people I have ever met.

I believe you have

that quality

of caring about people.

I think you have

the conviction

that Jesus can change lives.

I hope you have

the imagination

to do the daring

and are willing

to take the risk.

But I hope you also

have the ability

to work as a team.

I hope you're willing

to say,

you know what?

I may not get this.

I may not understand this,

but I know this.

I'm going to be

one of those guys

holding that rope

and going up on that roof

and hosting that man

into the presence

of the Word Jesus.

Now let me close

by telling you this.

What is the payoff?

You say,

what's the payoff

if we did that?

What if we began

to change how we do ministry?

What if we really said,

let's be serious.

Let's not just say this

in name only.

Let's be serious

about reaching

our community for Christ.

And let's get together

as a church

and let's map out a plan.

What would work here

in Pickens?

And then when we have

our plan,

let's begin to work

that plan

and let's be determined

and let's do everything

we can.

And if we fail a few times,

that's okay.

We'll back up

and we'll come at it

from another angle.

But our goal

is to reach the people

of Pickens

with the gospel

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well,

I'm going to tell you something.

It'd be a sacrifice.

It'd be daring.

It'd require you

to take some risks.

But if you do that,

what would be the payoff?

Here would be the payoff.

Jesus saw their fate,

the team's fate,

not the man's,

the team's fate.

And he said,

Son,

your sins are forgiven.

And a little later,

if you go home

and read the rest of the story,

you know what he says?

Take up your mat

and walk.

And here's the payoff.

Those four guys

on that roof

looking down

got to see their buddy

for the first time

they'd ever seen this

get up off that floor,

stand there,

and walk out

that front door.

Would that have been

cool or what?

I mean,

can you imagine

how cool that was?

There he goes.

He's walking down the road.

He's heading home.

What a cool thing.

I'm going to tell you something.

You'll never have a joy

as great as the joy

of seeing someone

whose life

was just going down the tubes

and you,

through the power

of the Lord Jesus Christ,

help rescue them

and bring them to Christ.

I'm telling you,

that's a hoot.

I believe some of you

this morning

would like

to have that experience.

It doesn't take everybody.

It takes four.

We're going to have Brian

sing a verse of a hymn.

If the Holy Spirit of God

has spoken to your heart

while He sings this,

would you be brave enough?

Would you take a big enough risk

this morning

you'd step out

and come and just kneel

here at this altar

for a moment

and just say,

by your coming,

I want to be one of those four.

I want to be somebody like that.

I want to be somebody

who dares to reach

this community

with the gospel

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's stand.

Let's stand.