Remember that You Are Surrounded (Pastor Vann Trapp)

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Morning. How are you guys?

Yeah, good.

Hey, um, want to know how many you guys have

and you don't have to raise your hands. I just want you to think about it.

But how many of you guys have just come through just a great week?

Great week with God where you're kind of, you're walking through it.

You knew he was there. You heard him speaking to you.

You saw him working through your life. Anybody have a week like that?

Okay, how many, because sometimes we do, we have those kind of weeks, right?

We come in and we're just filled up. We're ready to tell everybody.

How many of you guys had a week this last week where you feel like you got hit by a truck?

Anybody, right? Because we have those weeks too, right?

And there are some times that we come in and we're on a high.

There are some times that we're coming in and we're just kind of on a low.

And the question is, why does God continue to call us back to this place?

We're going to look at a story this morning from the life of Jesus.

It's about a guy that, um, he wasn't just having a bad week.

He seemed to be having a bad long time.

I mean, it seemed like there was a truck that had gone through his life and taken him out long time ago,

and it had really laid him out.

It's in Mark chapter two.

And so stand with me.

We're going to look at Mark chapter two, verses one through 12.

This is from the life of Jesus.

So when Jesus had returned to Capernaum several days later,

people heard that he was there and gathered to the house where he was staying.

And there was no more room for them anywhere, not even near the door.

And he was teaching them the word.

Just then four men came carrying a paralyzed man.

However, they were unable to get to Jesus because of the crowd.

So they dug a hole in the roof above him and lowered the pallet down on which the man was lying.

Jesus seeing the faith of these men said to the paralyzed man,

son, your sins are forgiven.

Now some of the scribes are sitting there and they began to grumble.

Why does this man speak this way?

That's blasphemy.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

And immediately Jesus became aware in his spirit that they were reasoning in that way.

And he asked them, why are you reasoning about these things in your heart?

Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven.

Or to say, get up, pick up your pallet and walk.

But so that you will know that the son of man has authority on the earth to forgive sins.

He said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.

And immediately he got up, picked up his pallet,

and he walked out in the sight of everyone so that they were all amazed

and glorifying God saying we have never seen anything like this.

Let's pray.

Father, this morning, I don't know what we're coming in from.

We may be coming in from a great week where we've seen you at work

and we had no doubt of who we belong to

and of just kind of what you had called us to

and we saw you working through us and around us.

And it was amazing.

Or we may come into this week and we've just had kind of that average week

where it's just a little of this, a little of that, nothing too spectacular.

Or this may have been a terrible week.

God, it may have been one of those weeks where we've gotten through

and we just feel like we barely crawled into this place this morning

hoping to find something to kind of raise us back up

and bring us back to life.

Father, no matter what we come into this day with,

we know that you're here to meet us.

And Jesus, we thank you for your faithfulness to us

and that your faithfulness includes the way that you take your word

and you speak it to us.

And so we want to give you our attention.

We want to give you our eyes and our ears and our hearts

so that you might speak and that we might not only be encouraged

but your word is life to us, God.

It's what brings us strength.

It's what renews, it gets our eyes back on those things

that give us courage to remind us of who we are.

So Father, we ask that through your word you might speak

to our hearts, raise us up,

help us to live into that life that you have called us to

as your children, as your people.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen. Have a seat.

So, let's say you're one of those that's had a great week.

Why did God bring you here this morning?

Let's say that you're one of those that's had a terrible week.

Why did God bring you here?

Why does God seem to constantly call his people

to gather together with one another?

He did in the Old Testament.

He said, I want you to regularly gather together with one another.

He did in the New Testament.

He said, don't forsake gathering together as my people.

And we say, why?

Why did he do that?

It's not for his sake, right?

He doesn't need a crowd to kind of boost his ego

so that he knows that he's kind of doing good at being God.

He doesn't need that.

In fact, if he needed a crowd, he could do a better job

of gathering a crowd than we could, right?

Jesus came down.

He'd get like 5,000, 10,000 people that would show up

just to get like food from him.

He didn't...

He doesn't need us to help him out with that.

So why?

Why does he call us together?

It's because, and I want you to hear this,

because when God wants to move in power,

he often gathers his people around us

so that he can show his power to us through them.

Did you hear that?

When God wants to show his power,

most often, he gathers people around

so that he can show his power through them.

He's not trying to...

It's not about our abilities.

It's not about our inspiring words.

It's about his Holy Spirit speaking his words

and doing his acts through us.

When we join him in what he's doing

so that he can show us to be his hands,

his feet, his voice in this world.

In the case of the paralytic man, right,

those friends of his, they were literally his feet.

He could not get to Jesus.

They literally carried him.

But did you catch that other piece?

They were literally also his faith.

When he didn't have maybe the faith to go,

they brought him because they believed

that Jesus could, was willing to,

and could raise this man up.

And so they brought him.

Have you ever had a day like that?

Have you ever had a day where that truck came through your life

and it seemed to just kind of knock the faith right out of you

and you needed a brother or a sister in Christ

to come alongside so that they could almost like

believe for you the things that God had for you?

Could believe as they came with you to Jesus

and said, Jesus, this one needs to be raised up.

That's why we're here.

That's why God says he wants his people to come together.

Sometimes we're the paralytic and we need to be carried in.

Sometimes we're the friends.

We have that faith that can carry someone else into Jesus.

Now, many of you guys know that football season, right?

It started about a week and a half ago.

Some of you guys care.

Some of you guys, those of you who do care,

I just want to say this may be the season

you pay attention to the Bears.

I'm just saying.

Just a side note there.

Just to let you know.

But those of you who do watch football,

you've seen those plays, right?

We've seen them already this season where somebody gets hit

and they just kind of stay down a little bit longer.

They're okay, they're moving, but they just kind of stay down

and you realize that there's a bell that's been rung

and it seems to still be ringing pretty loud for them.

What happens in that moment?

The whole of the training staff comes running out, right?

The medical staff comes out and they check the guy out

and they help him up and then they help him off the field.

And on the way off the field, a lot of times this guy,

a lot of times he's like, no, no, I got it.

And then you're like, whoo.

And they're like, and then they rush back beside, right?

Because there are times in our lives

and this is not just in football.

There are times in our lives when we need people

to come alongside of us, not because we're incompetent,

not because we're weak,

not because we can't walk on our own,

but because we just got our bell rung.

And that can happen, that can happen spiritually,

it can happen physically, it can happen financially.

There are so many ways that these trucks

seem to come through our lives, right?

Amen? Anyone?

And there are times that we need others to come alongside.

We need them to carry us to Jesus

so that he can raise us up.

We need them to carry us with the faith

that they know that Jesus can and will do something for us

because we're not able to.

That's why we're here, right?

That's why God calls his people together

because most often when he wants to show his power,

he gathers people around us

so that he can show his power through them

because he calls them alongside of what he's doing.

Now sometimes God surrounds us to rescue us, right?

There are not many stories you're going to hear

about how someone came to Jesus that go like this.

Well, one night I was sleeping and Jesus came to me in my bed

and he says, you need to follow me.

So I became a believer in Jesus.

There aren't many of those.

They're around.

Apostle Paul seemed to have one of those.

I met a girl in high school that had a story, kind of like that.

I hear stories about in the Muslim world.

They were irregularly.

Jesus is coming to people in their dreams and visions

and he's saying, you need to follow me

and their life is turned to follow him.

But most often, how does it happen?

Jesus surrounds you with people that make it impossible

for you to deny that he's there, to deny that he loves you,

to deny that he is pursuing you.

So slowly chipped away as the power of God is shown through them

and you come to Jesus.

You know, sometimes God surrounds us with others to restore us.

Most of the inner healing and the outer healing that happens

in our life happens because God draws people around us

and they pray for us to be healed

or else they walk with us consistently in love

and they just walk with us as we're acting out

in all kinds of crazy ways

and they just persist in it with us

or maybe they just sit down and they hear the words

that you need to speak and they help you process through

the things that you see going on in your lives.

But most of the time, God, when he wants to restore us

he uses his people to gather around us.

And he does his work and he shows his life through them.

Sometimes God surrounds us to equip us, right?

You can sit in your room in your prayer closet

and you can study your scriptures on your own

and you can find out a lot about Jesus

and you can find out a lot about who you are

and you can find a lot about what you're called to do

and who you're called to be.

But often God will surround you with a group of people

that will hold you accountable to those things.

That will help you wrestle through the scriptures

as you're going, I don't understand this stuff.

That will help you as you're trying to hear God

and discern what is his voice and what's my voice.

Because we know that you guys,

God, when he wants to show us power

he gathers people around to show that power through.

You guys, I want you to know this too.

Each one of you has been called,

has been gifted to become someone

that God can use to gather around others,

to rescue them, to restore them, to equip them.

He has called you to be that person.

He has wired you to be part of that process

to be used by him as his hands and his feet

because when he wants to do his work

he gathers his people.

You, you are his people.

You're his people.

We can't say, well that must be his people over there.

They get to do that, no.

If you've been called, if you have been called to Jesus

then you know you're one of his people

that have been called to be in this,

in this amazing movement where God shows himself

through his church, through his people.

Now there's one caution I want to give you here.

If you were to be driving home today

and you saw a building on fire

the best thing for you to do is probably not

to go running into that building, right?

To try and rescue everybody.

If you see this horrible accident on the side of the room

the best thing for you to do is probably not

to go in there and try your hand at CPR for the first time, right?

If you have a friend that says, hey, you know what?

I want to be a neurosurgeon.

The best thing for you at that moment

is not to say, hey, you know what?

I would like to be your instructor.

Why?

Because there are times that some of these things

we need to know that both in this world

and in God's program that the training is important.

Being equipped to do something well is important.

And so, you know, it's important for us

not only to discover our calling

and discover our ministry that God has wired us for

but it's also important for us to do the work

to put in the effort to be equipped

to do that ministry well.

It's not just to rush in and say, hey,

God has called me as a, you know, as an EMT

in this moment.

No training whatsoever, but let me know.

It's to do the work, to walk with God,

let Him develop us into the people

that can be used by Him

to rescue, to restore, to equip.

So, sometimes on the football field

we see another player come alongside, right?

One goes down.

We see this other player come up.

And what do they do?

They encourage, right?

They encourage.

They check in, make sure that it's not worse than it looks.

And sometimes they even get to help the guy off the field, right?

They help support because they can do that.

But you know what you don't see them do?

They don't go running and they act like

they're the medical staff because they're not.

If they wanted to do that, they need to get the training

to me and the medical staff to do that.

When we feel that God wants to bring us in on His rescue

and His restoration project and His equipping,

it's important that we are aware

of what we're actually capable of doing

and it's important that we're pressing in

to get better at the things that God has called us to do.

The men in our story,

they didn't just wake up that morning and say,

you know what, today I'm gonna have the faith.

I haven't put anything into this, but today

I'm gonna suddenly have the faith,

not just for me, but the faith

to bring this paralytic friend of mine to Jesus

and to believe that kind of faith, you know,

where that comes from growth, that comes from life.

That comes from having it tested

over and over and over again.

That kind of faith to believe for someone else,

that's not something you just kind of,

it doesn't pop on you.

It's not magic.

God says we intentionally say,

God, that's the faith I want,

grow it in me, and we walk through the process

that God trains us up through

to be His people,

the hands and the feet that He needs

to join Him in His work.

So, I want you to think about this.

In your life, do you have people

in these three areas that you can think about?

Do you have people that God has connected you to

that need to be rescued by Him?

Do you have anybody that's just kind of out there

in their life, they're wandering around without Him?

They seem to be lost.

They seem to be kind of in this darkness

where they're making, they're doing their best.

They need to be rescued.

Well, if you do, if there are people

that need to be rescued, what are you doing

to learn how to pray for them more effectively?

What are you doing to learn how to do that

to go into the spiritual realm

with the authority that you have in Christ

to learn about that authority

so that you can go into the spiritual realm

and that you can do the warfare on their behalf?

What are you doing so that you can learn

your story and how to present it in a clear

and compelling way so that you're ready

when they ask you about the hope that's in you?

What are you doing to prepare for that day

so that you know just the basics of the gospel

so that you can tell them how to enter into

a relationship with Jesus?

What are you doing to prepare to be that person

that can be used in that person

who needs rescue in their life?

What about people that they know Jesus,

but man, they need help.

They need help to be freed from those chains

that bind them, from those old thoughts

and those old habits.

Do you know anybody like that?

Has God connected you with someone like that?

And what are you doing?

What are you doing to prepare to be a shepherd to that person?

Some of you guys are gifted,

a lot of you are gifted in that way

or called to that, all of us are called to that

to come along inside people

and help them get closer to Jesus.

So how are you getting better at that?

You guys, we have C3 groups

and C3 groups are intended to have a group

of people that gathers around

and provides that kind of environment

so that people can have that kind of accountability

and have that shepherding in their life

that regularly can be spoken into their lives,

not just by a leader or something,

but by others as well.

But we constantly need new C3 leaders.

We need those who know how to facilitate

that kind of space

because there are people that need to be restored.

They've been rescued.

They just need to heal up a bit

so they can stand up

and they can do the work that God has called them to do.

So if you have people like that in your life,

you know those people,

could it be that God's calling you,

train up so that you can be my hands and feet?

I can gather you around these

and you can see my power work through you

so that they might be healed.

What about those who need to be equipped?

Do you know anybody?

Do you know anybody that might need help

growing in their gifted, right?

Might need to be growing in their effectiveness

of doing what God's called them to do.

Because some of you guys are called to be those

who are equippers,

but you need to be equipped to do that, don't you?

So what are you doing?

To learn the skills,

to learn how to do these things.

You guys, we have these groups that BJ had just mentioned.

We have alpha groups and rooted groups

that they talk about these things.

They talk about how do you develop your story

so that you can tell your story to someone.

How do you help someone to,

how do you become that group that can be that space

that holds people accountable in these things?

How can you pursue your own gifting

and find out what God has called you to do

and to be that part that has called you to play in this body

so that we can be that body of Christ

that God gathers around

and we can be that place where God heals people

and raises them up through his power

because when God wants to show his power in our lives

he most often gathers people around us

that he can show his power through.

So why do we gather together each week?

Well, one because God's here,

but also because his people are here.

We know that that's how God most often shows his power.

It's through his people.

Sometimes we gather because we need that power.

Sometimes we gather because we want God to use us.

We want him to use us in each other's,

in the lives of others.

And we need to know that he intends to use us

in the lives of others to rescue,

to restore, to equip.

So the only question left is just

so do we want to be a part of that?

Do we want to be a part of that?

What will it take to become,

to prepare, to grow into being that?

That body of Christ.

What do we do?

Well first, I'm gonna say it again.

Start with prayer, right?

If you guys don't have a wristband,

they're right out there on your way out.

It's in a little basket right there,

but we pray.

We pray first, everything.

You start in prayer.

You go to God, you say,

God, what do you want me to be?

You go to God, you say,

God, show me.

Show me the path of what I need to be doing.

What are some opportunities that I can take advantage of

to grow in this?

Pray first.

Start there.

Have the conversation with God.

Second, to rescue,

you're gonna need to be rescued, right?

To heal, you're gonna need to be healed.

Not perfect, but you can't, you know,

not paralytic, right?

In order to equip, you're gonna need to be equipped.

So one of the things is,

ask yourself, where am I right now?

Do you know Jesus as your savior,

as your Lord,

have you been born anew into his family

and into that new life?

That's the starting point.

That's the rescue point.

Drowning people can't help drowning people.

But if you've been rescued, you can be,

you know that God can start growing you

to be someone who can,

have you been in that space

where you've been held accountable,

that you've been able to just shed those chains

and just those habits and those thoughts

and those, have you been made yourself accountable

to growing into that healing

that God intends for you?

Have you allowed yourself to be equipped

in the things that God wants you to be involved in?

Because that's the third one.

The third is, so if the second is,

make sure that, you know, these basic baselines

are set in your life.

And the third step is,

well, get to a place then that you can be growing.

Get to a place that you can be equipped in these things.

You know, join like a rooted group

or an alpha group so that you can learn

you can start saying, okay,

because they talk about these things,

they train you to think about

the beginnings of these things.

Get into a C3 group where you can watch

and you can see what does it mean

to be in a group that is being shepherded

and to grow in that.

Take that five-fold survey

that we've been talking about for several months now.

That's online, it's on our website.

Take the survey.

And then plan on when Cheryl offers,

she has five classes coming up

that kind of do a deep dive into each one of these areas,

the apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, teacher.

Set time aside to do that

so that you can start to learn

what it is that God has called you into.

Plan on doing something.

Plan on doing something every quarter.

Don't take time off from this,

this, you know, we go to work

and we can go through the summer

because we kind of have to take a break from it.

And sometimes we think of God that way,

oh, I just got to take a break from church, right?

That's like saying I'm going to take a break

from eating for a while.

I'm just going to, man, I'm so tired,

I got to do that every day, I get so sick of it.

I'm going to just stop eating.

It's probably going to be nine, 12 months

before I get back to that.

That's just boring, right?

You can't do that.

This is life.

I'm going to stop moving, right?

I'm just going to lay on my bed like a slug.

I'm just going to, I'm tired of moving.

It wipes me out, right?

You know, I've looked over my life

and I've realized that the worst situations

I've ever gotten into were because I was moving.

So I'm going to just quit moving.

No, you can't do that.

Don't do that with God either.

Every quarter think, how can I be growing

into this thing that God's calling me into?

Last thing is this.

Not the least, but the last.

Show up.

Show up.

Now, I'm kind of preaching the choir,

so I've got to look at the camera at this point.

Show up, right?

Just be there with God's people.

Show up when you feel like you're the paralytic

that you just got hit by the truck

and you can't even barely move.

Show up so that God can gather his people around you.

Show up when you're having that great week

where you just feel like, man, I got a faith

that it's not just enough for me,

it's enough for this person too.

Show up.

Show up so that we can see what God will do

when his people gather together

because we are the ones who know

that when God wants to show his power,

in our lives, he is typically

going to gather people around us

so that he can show his power to us through them.

We want to be those people.

We want to be the people that see the power of God

as he raises us up.

We want to be those people who see God's power

as he raises those up who we bring to him

that we carry to him that we appeal to for him.

He does this through his people

and you, not just here, but you at home,

you're his people.

He needs you to show up and be his people.

So can we do that?

Can we do that?

Can we do that today?

You know, instead of going,

oh, maybe next week.

Maybe we'll start doing this next week.

Don't stand back from it.

Lean into it.

Say, God, what can we do today?

Can we pray together today?

Can we encourage each other today?

Can we go out into the lobby

and maybe you're not set up for anything yet this fall?

Maybe you can go online

and you just sign up for something

so that you start this process of growing

and that we become the people of God,

that he can use as his hands and feet in this world.

We can be the church that he intended us to be.