January 15, 2023 / Real Church / A Real Church is Engaging

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest

questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search

and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead

pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth

for the life we're searching for. So glad that you're with us this morning. If you

have your Bibles, please take them and turn to the second chapter of the gospel of Mark.

Mark chapter two today, as we continue in our real church series, we're going to be

talking about a real church is engaging. A real church is engaging. That means that we

are engaging people, conversing with people, reaching out to people all over the area.

The real church is engaging. As you turn to Mark two, beginning in verse one, in preparing

for that message, let me share something that's happening in just three weeks. You're hearing

all about Healthy Home and we have lots of information for you today. Please take this

brochure. It's a list of the breakouts that will be taking place on that particular day.

Now keep in mind, Healthy Home is a conference that takes place on Sunday morning, so we

don't have our normal services, but built into our overall schedule that day, our Healthy

Home sessions. Ken Ham is going to be here live. He and part of his team from Answers

in Genesis will be leading the breakouts, but Ken Ham will be leading the main sessions.

That means he'll be speaking at 8.30. He'll also be speaking at 11 and then again at two

o'clock in the afternoon. We have lunch that will be served. You have to reserve your lunch

for that, but all the information is right here in terms of the breakouts and the messages

that we'll be sharing at different places. There's a QR code that you can get onto on

our website. It's on the screen as well, and you can simply just lift your phone up and

capture that image. It's okay to do that in church, by the way. Just lift it up. If you

don't know how to do that, just think about this. Take a picture and when it comes into

focus, push the button and you'll end up on that website. You can register and you can

let us know that you want lunch or don't want lunch, but what sessions that you may want

to attend. We need to know that so we can schedule everything. Now I'd like to say this

about Ken Ham. He's only one of two men who have ever built an ark before and the only

one that's available for us on February the 5th. I hope you get that. I mean the reality

is Noah built an ark and then this guy built an ark. Actually, literally his organization

built the Ark Museum that's in Northern Kentucky. It's just an amazing, amazing replica of the

original ark, but behind all that insight and wisdom is a man that loves God's Word,

majors and focuses on Genesis 1 through 11. He's going to come answer questions like who

is God, what is truth, and what does the first 11 chapters in Genesis tell us about life?

It's going to be really amazing and I hope every single one of us will plan to be here

on that day. So as you have that information, take some time to think through it three weeks

away. It'll be open for everybody in the community as well, so we'll have a full house that day

and you want to reserve your breakout sessions as soon as you can. Well, what's a real church?

Our series called Not Perfect Church, but Real Church is a look at what the church ought

to be. We looked last week at the fact that the real church ought to be relating well

to God and to others. The fact is we need to know how to love one another and know how

to love one another unconditionally because God has loved us. But a real church is also

engaging. We not only love God and others, but we know how to converse with them, how

to interact with them, hoping that they can come to know the same Jesus that we do. In

Mark chapter two, we have a perfect example of that. I want you to stand as I read God's

word together today. Mark chapter two, and as we stand, I'll begin in verse one. These

days are the days of Jesus' ministry in the Capernaum region. It says, when he had come

back to Capernaum several days afterwards, it was heard that he was at home and many

were gathered together so that there was no longer any room, not even near the door. And

he was speaking the word to them. And they came, bring to him a paralytic carried by

four men, being unable to get to him because of the crowd that removed the roof above him.

And when they dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.

And Jesus seeing their faith, this is a key phrase, Jesus saying their faith said to the

paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. But some of the scribes were sitting there and

reasoning in their heart, why does this man speak this way? He's blaspheming. Who could

forgive sins but God alone? Immediately Jesus, aware in his spirit that they were reasoning

that way within themselves, said to 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 and pick up your pallet and walk. But so that you may know that the son of man has

authority on earth to forgive sin, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick

up your pallet and go home. And he, that is the paralytic, got up and immediately picked

up the pallet and went out of the sight of everyone so that they were all amazed and

were glorifying God saying, we have never seen anything like this before. That's a great

passage of scripture. It really starts with a problem and ends with a solution. And the

solution in the middle is Jesus Christ. That's a great passage of scripture. It's also a

prescription of your life and my life and a picture of the church as I'll show you in

just a moment. Father in Jesus name, by the power of your Holy Spirit, teach us what we

need to know about being Christ's followers in this world at this time from this text.

And we ask this in Jesus name and everybody said, Amen. Amen. Be seated if you would.

Now typically when you hear a story about somebody tearing off a roof or breaking through

a roof and descending down into the building, you're going to be talking about a great robbery

or a heist because something's locked up inside that habitation, that house, and you have

to break open the roof to get down into the building to get it. And there is treasure

in this house, in this narrative, in this story, except it's not treasure that needs

to be stolen. It's not treasure that needs to be taken out to the exclusion of everybody

else. What we're going to talk about today is not really about robbery. It's not really

about a heist. It's not a movie theme. It's really about people trying to get to Jesus

and what happens when people get to Jesus. Now most of us in this room have some strong

feelings about that subject. What happens to people who get to Jesus and what happens

when Jesus encounters us? I have strong feelings about that. And I have strong feelings about

that because I have strong evidence that when I encounter Jesus Christ, lots of things change

in my life. Is that not true of you? How many of you would say the same thing? When you

encounter Jesus, things change in your life. That's always going to be true. And that's

what we have in this text. Now we've been walking through this series because we want

to remind ourselves of why we're here on the planet in terms of Christians and in terms

of our vision as a church and being real is part of that. I love our theme that we use

often real people finding real hope and real life in Jesus Christ. And I think we all resonate

with that because we are wanting to be real, authentic people, not pretentious, not hypocritical.

We just want to be real, but we really want to find real hope. And we really want to experience

the real life that we can find only in Jesus Christ. And we know the church is not going

to be perfect until Jesus Christ comes back. And you know the reason why the church is

not going to be perfect. It's not going to be perfect because we're in the church. I'm

not perfect. So the church can't be perfect. You're not perfect. So the church can't be

perfect. But when Jesus Christ comes back, he will complete his work in us and on us.

And the church will be made perfect. And he is coming back. So one day the church will

be perfect. But until that time, we can certainly be real. Now being real simply means that

we are authentic and perfect people who find hope and help in a perfect, loving God. And

he wants to help others find him also. It's one of the most important things that we can

be thinking about. We use a graph to kind of describe the R-E-A-L process in our church

and the first word, starting with the letter R is the word real. We relate well with God

and we relate well with each other as a result of this relationship that we have with God.

Relationship is the most important word in the English language we've said. So relate

is important. Secondly, the E is standing for engage. We need to engage laterally, horizontally

with other people with the hope of helping them find this real relationship that we have

with God. So we're going to focus on that word engage for just a few moments. And that

word engage is important and it's based on the ministry of Jesus. If you read the gospels,

Jesus is always engaging with people. He came to interact with them. He came to be among

them. He came to love them. So to engage is really to be about the ministry of Jesus.

He came for the hurting. He came for the ones that are unhealthy, the poor, as well as the

wealthy and the religious. He came to reach everybody. And when you look at how Jesus

engaged people, you'll see what he didn't do. He didn't shun them. He didn't ignore

them. He didn't push them away. He didn't dismiss them, but he engaged them in conversation.

He reached out to them. He touched them. He drew them close and hugged them. And today,

if you're a lonely person and you're in this building today, Jesus is here to engage with

you and to draw you close and hug you and hold you and help you in every way. No matter

what your need, Jesus is here to engage with you. He demonstrated that in his life while

on planet earth. In fact, he characterizes what he came to do in Luke chapter 19 verse

Luke 19:10

10. Most of us know that verse really well for the son of man has come to seek and save

that which was lost. He's come to seek and save that which was lost. He's always looking

around for those who need his help. Now this story is so interesting and I love it in so

many ways for so many reasons. First of all, I love it because it's a gathering place.

I love it because people are there to listen to the truth. I love it because Jesus is there

in the middle of it. It almost sounds like church to me. Now I know this. I know this

is pre-church era. The church has not been instituted and kicked off yet. The Holy Spirit

has not come down at Pentecost yet as it will in the book of Acts after Jesus has ascended.

But Jesus is giving these disciples, these apostles, and giving us today a picture of

what he wants to happen and what he honors and the kind of faith we need to have when

it comes to engaging people. So many lessons to learn here. Let's begin first of all by

simply looking at the presence of Jesus. Look at verse 2 and you can't help but notice that

the story opens up with the fact that Jesus is in the middle of the room. It says he was

speaking the word to them. Now when you read the gospels, you're going to find this common

terminology that people are always seeking Jesus. In fact, Jesus and crowds are synonymous.

Where Jesus was, the crowd was. Jesus actually had to intentionally get away from them at

night or early in the morning in order to escape the attention of the crowds because

they were coming around wherever he was. And the reason was is because they knew Jesus

would love them, speak the truth to them, and that Jesus had power to help them. They

showed up when Jesus showed up because of the presence of Jesus and the power of Jesus

that was indisputable and they could find no other place on the planet. In fact, in

Mark chapter 1 verse 37, as I got ready to look at chapter 2, I see this line and you

Mark 1:37

read it as well where the disciples say to Jesus, everyone is looking for you. Everyone

is looking for you, Jesus. I mean, you've been offering to the Father, but everybody

is wanting to see you. They want to touch you. They want to be around you. And that's

just the way the gospels unfold. And Jesus was around those that were filled with unclean

spirits. He was around those that had a fever. If you read chapter 1, you'll see he was around

those with other diseases, those that were demon possessed, those with leprosy. Can you

imagine today how people would flock around Jesus if he were to walk on this planet today?

Can you imagine what it would be like if Jesus walked down the streets and everybody knew

about his power and everybody knew he was able to heal and able to forgive and to do

all the things that we've learned about Jesus? Can you imagine people coming out of the schools

and coming out of the buildings and coming out of the business to flock around and plong

around Jesus? The reality is, Jesus is a powerful figure and his presence is life changing. And

when you look at this little story here in Mark chapter 2, that becomes very, very evident.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

I would love to see Jesus walk in the room today and don't put it past him. You know,

the reality is Jesus is coming back someday and it'll surprise a lot of us when he comes.

And I don't know when he's going to come. I'm not going to give you a day and a time

if I gave you a date and a time that would guarantee he wouldn't come at that date and

at that time. Nobody knows today, but when Jesus Christ comes back, every eye will see

him. It's not a secret coming. He's coming back in full glory. I can't wait for that

moment, but his presence has not left the earth. Jesus is not here physically, but he's here

through the presence of the church and the Holy Spirit and the lives of every born again

believer. The presence of Jesus is here. Somebody say that with me. The presence of Jesus is

here. One more time. The presence of Jesus is here. He's here because you're here. And

if you're a born again believer, the presence of the Holy Spirit is in your life. One of

the great chapters of the Bible is John 14, where Jesus is preparing his disciples for

his crucifixion and later on his resurrection and ascension. And he's preparing them by

talking to them about the Holy Spirit. And the essence of his message is, all right,

I'm going to be leaving soon, but I'm going to leave behind another one like myself. He's

with you right now, but he will be in you. And you know him because he's here right now.

I mean, Jesus spoke in that way for those disciples. And if they were thinking about

this very well, then they would understand by the time Pentecost came that, wow, Jesus

was right. He's leaving, but he's leaving the Holy Spirit with us. But Jesus made a

statement in John chapter 14, verse 11 and 12 that most of us struggle with. But I want

John 14:11

you to see what it says. He said, believe me that I am in the father and the father is

in me. Otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly I say to you, he who

believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also and greater works than these he will do

because I go to my father. That's kind of hard to believe. All the great miracles of Jesus,

all the great works he did, he said, you'll do greater works than these because I go to the

father. And what he's meaning is that every person endowed by the Holy Spirit has the

presence of Jesus in their lives. I was able to bring the hope that Jesus has and the power of

Jesus to other people. And when we gather as a church, we are gathering as a group of people

full of the Holy Spirit. The presence of Jesus is in the room, whether you know it or not.

He's here today. He's always going to be here with us until that day when he calls us to be

home with him. And then we will be with him forever. We represent the presence of Jesus

on this planet. What an important role we have. Now I know this, I know that the presence of

Jesus is true and it's very real in the sense of his omnipresence. Theologically we know that God

is everywhere or he can't be God. God is everywhere at all times. You can never go to a place where

God is not there. There's a second sense of his presence in that he is with you in the indwelling

power of the Holy Spirit. So he's there with you individually as well as corporately everywhere,

all at once. Then thirdly, sometimes the presence of Jesus manifests himself in such a way

where it's not just that he's everywhere. And it's not just that he's within us, but we can actually

feel him and sense him and see his work in the room around us. You ever had that kind of experience?

It might've been when you were all by yourself and you were praying and you experienced

what I call the manifest presence of God in the room. You just knew that he was with you in a more

powerful way than you normally think of. Or at a worship service when we're worshiping him and

we're praising him and we sense his presence in the room in a powerful way. Or in a group prayer

time where you're praying with four or five other people and they're asking God together with one

heart and one accord. I've sensed the presence of God in a hospital room where we're praying for

someone to be healed. And all of a sudden it'll just seem like Jesus has walked in the room.

And I've seen at invitation times when we've had services and invited people to come to Christ,

I've seen people moved by the presence of God. They're weeping, they're crying, they're repenting.

They're knowing what the right thing is to do for the first time in a long time.

Folks, that's the presence of Jesus Christ. It's him. It's him.

Now I say all that to you today because I want you to know that as the church of Jesus Christ,

we represent his presence on this planet. The same way that men brought their friend to Jesus

in that day in Mark chapter two, it's always appropriate to bring people to the gathered

body of Christ as we come to worship to sense the presence of Jesus. It's very, very important that

we understand that his presence changes the game in so many different ways. Secondly, I want you to

notice the diversity of the crowd. The Bible says in verse two that many were gathered together so

that there was no longer any room, not even near the door. Now this is a smaller house, likely maybe

50 to 100 people in the house and no more than that. And they were all gathering in there to

hear about Jesus and they had various, various motivations for being there. That's why I say

that. That's what I'm talking about when I speak about diversity. They were all there for different

reasons, but the house itself was packed together. And I've been in small houses or small buildings

like that before, especially in India, where I would go to a meeting and the people would just

pack in. If you got there late, you weren't getting in. I mean, people were everywhere. They were

sitting on the floor because there was no room to set up chairs. There was no way that you could

wedge yourself in that room. They were so eager to sense God and to see how God was working. So I can

visualize in my mind what that looks like because I've seen it before, but notice the diversity.

Some are there because they are hungry for truth. They're there to listen to Jesus speak the word.

Some are there to argue with Jesus and debate and to create a ruckus and problem. And as we read the

text, you'll realize some of them are questioning Jesus. What kind of authority does he have to

forgive sins? Can't God alone could forgive sins? And so they're doubters. But there's a third group

of people that this text really calls attention to. Now this third group of people were the four

friends that brought their friend. They were there not just for themselves. They were there for their

friend. They came because they wanted to bring their friend, the paralytic, in order to bring

him to the presence of Jesus. I love this example that we have here because these guys are going to

experience some great things. They're going to hear the truth. They're going to be able to worship

and celebrate at the end of the story. But they're there not just for themselves. They're there

recognizing that they need to bring their friend to meet Jesus. I want us to pause and I want you

to pause to think of all the friends that we know who we need to be concerned about that they meet

Jesus. And I want you to think with me for a moment what it means to bring others into the presence of

Jesus, into the prayers of people praying to Jesus, into the power where Jesus is at work changing

lives, hearing the gospel message or being prayed for for whatever burden they have. Just think

about that with me for just a moment and you'll be where those four guys were. So there's a diversity

in the crowd. Thirdly, we're going to really zero in on the friends or the faith of the friends,

the faith that these four guys had in bringing their friend. Look at verse three because it says,

and they came and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. That's a big part

of the story right here. Can't read this story without seeing these four guys. They came bringing

their friend who was paralyzed and on a pallet. And a big part of the story is that Jesus honors

the faith of these four friends. In fact, that's what the scripture says in this text that he

honored their faith. He began to interact face to face with this man who was paralyzed.

I think it's interesting that none of the four friends talk in this story. In fact, there's no

evidence that the man who's paralyzed can even talk. Nobody says a word. That's very brief story.

And of course, Mark could have left much of that out, but the reality is the emphasis is not on

what these friends said to this paralyzed man or what the paralyzed man said in response.

I just need you to know this. As we look at this, sometimes God uses us when we don't say a word,

but our faith has an action behind it in helping people come to Christ.

I hear this all the time. I'm not very good with words. They say, or I don't know how to share my

faith with somebody else. They say, or I try and I get tripped up and it's difficult for me to share

my faith with some people. And what I want you to notice right here is that these four men didn't

say anything. All they did was bring their friend and Jesus is going to do the rest.

Jesus is able to do the rest, no matter what you are able to do or not able to do.

Jesus can do the rest. Somebody say that with me. Jesus can do the rest. You do what you can.

Jesus can do the rest. So these four friends bring their friend to meet Jesus. And Jesus,

the Bible says, honors their faith. In other words, it's not just attending a great meeting

like this. It's important, but it's important also to be thinking about those who also need to be

there. And you see that theme going all the way through the gospels. I think it's amazing. Jesus

doesn't need any of us in order to reach another person, but it seems like every time he uses

somebody else to reach that third person. Let me ask you this question, a little poll, a little

survey. How many of you in your life and in your encounter with Jesus were helped by somebody who

told you about Jesus or who brought you to a place where you heard about Jesus? Would you raise your

hand if somebody helped you get there? Wow. Look at these hands, lots of hands. Somebody helped you

get to Jesus. God used somebody else's faith, somebody else's invite, somebody else's conversation

for you to come to Jesus. Now we know God's all powerful. He doesn't have to use you, but

isn't it great that he does? Isn't it wonderful that he uses you as a parent or you as a friend

or you as a coworker or whoever it might be that you are to that person in bringing others to Christ?

And here there's a question answered in this little story that I want to answer today. How is

their faith expressed? Jesus committed their faith, so how did they express their faith?

Let me give you some things that you can see in the story that I point out. First of all,

they believed Jesus could heal. That's the only reason they were there that day. They didn't bring

their paralytic friend because they didn't think Jesus could heal. They knew Jesus could do the

job. They knew Jesus could change his life. They knew whatever Jesus said, whatever Jesus did,

it would be enough to change their friend's life. And it was about their friend that motivated them

to come. They believed that Jesus could do and would do something, but the most important thing

is they just believed. Listen, we bring people because we believe Jesus can change their lives.

We reach out to people because we believe Jesus can touch their lives and revolutionize their

lives because he's revolutionized our lives. So they believed Jesus could heal. Secondly,

they brought their friend. This is the action, their efforts to time and energy,

and they were making arrangements and that's why they arrived late. The house was packed.

They couldn't get in. Everybody else was there. They were late. Now there are those that are

perpetually late to church. I get that. Sometimes it's complicated, but these guys had a really

good reason. They had a really good note to offer Jesus. Listen, we're late today, Lord, because

we're trying to get our paralyzed friend to church and he can't walk. We had to rig up a pallet.

We had to be able to lift it with four men in order to get him here, and then we had to

break through the roof. I mean, we're arranging to get there as soon as we can. That's what was

going on here. So they brought their friend and they persisted in getting him to Jesus.

They persisted in getting him to Jesus. So their faith was expressed in action, but it was

complicated because they were late and there was a roof that kept them from getting to Jesus.

Their question must have been something like, so how do we get him in? I mean, the room is full.

People are not willing to part ways. They're not willing to get out. I mean, it's Jesus in the room.

He's in high demand. He's teaching them the word. And I mean, nobody's wanting to leave right now.

So how do we get our friend in there? So they climb up on the roof and they create a hole in

the roof and let their friend down. Now, if you want to think about what that looks like,

the typical Syrian roof was constructed of timbers and laid parallel with each other

about two or three feet apart, all running in one direction after the walls were raised.

And then they would take branches of trees and vines and all kinds of things to weave through

those timbers that stretched across the roof. They would use reeds. They would use pistols,

whatever they needed to use until it was almost impenetrable. Then they would pack on top of that

dirt. About a foot of dirt was on every roof and grass would grow on top of that in the appropriate

season so that you literally had a really well packed dirt roof resting on those timbers. And

that's what these guys were dealing with. So when they took their friends up to the roof,

they had to really, really work hard to get through that foot of dirt, through all those

timbers, through the pistols and reeds and everything else in order to break a hole in

the ceiling and get their friend to Jesus. And listen to that. I'm sure they heard a few people

responding to them like, what are you doing? As the hole opened up in the roof and the dirt began to

fall on the people that were in the room. And finally, the hole was big enough to drop their

friend down. I bet they created quite a disturbance in that room that day. Just imagine somebody

doing this on this roof right here. And you can imagine what a disturbance that would be. But

these guys did not care because the only thing they were concerned about was their paralyzed

friend and his need to come to the presence of Jesus. Man, this is a great story about persistence,

about dedication, about being willing to do whatever it takes to get somebody to Jesus.

Let me just say this to you today. I believe that we need to learn from this passage when it comes

to making the effort to help other people get to the presence of Jesus. I also believe that when

we look at this passage and when we learn from their example, we're going to see the same kind of

wonderful things that they saw when their friend was healed and his sins were forgiven. I mean,

this is a pretty big deal. His whole life was changed because of the faith of these friends

who persisted in getting him to Jesus. You know, you can't put a price on souls.

Every person is valuable in the eyes of God. And you have friends that you love that you care about

that are far from Christ. You have neighbors that you love who are far from Christ. I mean,

we should all be convicted. I'm convicted. We should all be convicted that we do everything we

can to bring people into the presence of Jesus Christ. Now they did this and then look what

happened. They were blessed to see him forgiven and healed. If you jump to the end of the story,

you're going to see all kinds of wonderful things taking place. And you're going to see

things taking place. But the bottom line is that people went out saying, we've never seen anything

like this in our entire lives. God has done amazing things. So let's think about the paralytic for

just a minute. What happened to him? Well, he was transformed. And that's really the heart of this

story as well. The transformation of the paralytic. You notice what Jesus says to him in verse five,

son, your sins are forgiven. Now for most of us, that might not be the first thing that we would

expect Jesus to say. A hole is opened in the roof. The four men let down this paralytic on a pallet.

So they had four straps of some kind, four ropes of some kind, four things tied together to let

him in. And they let him down right in the middle, right in front of Jesus. And the very first thing

Jesus says is son, your sins are forgiven. Now I want you to think about that with me.

I mean, when we read about the paralytic, the friends don't think of him as the sinful paralytic

or the depraved paralytic. He's just paralyzed. But when Jesus looks at someone, he wants to take

care of the biggest problem first. And the biggest problem is that we're separated from God by our

sins. Don't you just love it that Jesus with his compassion is going to heal him later on. But the

first thing he's going to do is set him free from sin. He says, son, your sins are forgiven.

I love the fact that Jesus talks about sin first. We're afraid to talk about sin. We almost

apologize for calling sin, sin, but we shouldn't do that. Jesus says, son, your sins are forgiven.

He meets the spiritual needs first. Notice the message of Jesus is not, I'm okay, you're okay.

And it's not, I accept your sin. Whatever you're doing doesn't matter. That's not the message.

The message is I can forgive you and I can change you. That's the message of Jesus.

Dealing with sin is the only solution and he's the only one that's able to do it.

Even those protractors that they knew that only God could forgive sin, even though they weren't

ready to accept that that was Jesus. In Mark chapter 10, verse 45, Jesus says, for even the

Mark 10:45

sin of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life. What a ransom for many.

I've come to pay for the price of the sin of mankind. Never apologizing for calling out sin,

never apologizing for saying that people need to be saved from sin. We all need to be saved from sin.

But the scribe's question was important. God alone can forgive sin. Who is this man for doing this?

God alone can forgive sins. And they made an accurate statement. They just weren't willing

to accept that Jesus is God in the flesh. But let me just pause here for just a moment. It reminds

you the church cannot forgive people of sin. The person you're offended cannot forgive people of

sin or you have sin. You cannot forgive yourself of sin by making up for it somewhere down the road.

Sin is only dealt with when a perfect God says, I forgive you of sin. No representative of God can

forgive you of sin. No priest, no preacher can do that. Only God can do that through the person of

Jesus Christ. So when Jesus said, son, your sins are forgiven, it was done. And I love the fact

that it was. Wow. A declaration by the son of God, your sin has been taken care of. This is the prize

you hold in your hand when you invite people to gather with us, to come to a service, to hear the

presentation of the gospel at an event that we do, or to sit down with you and listen to you,

tell them how your sins forgiven. What an incredible prize. What an incredible freedom

to have been given by Jesus himself. And then Jesus doesn't just do that. He does everything else.

I love that Jesus does everything else. He says in verse 11, I say to you, get up, pick up your

palette and go home. Not only does Jesus forgive him, and I love what else he does also. He not

only saves him, not only pardons him, but he pardons him plus he heals him. And in doing that,

he says, I have the authority to do whatever is necessary in your life. Jesus alone has that

authority. Somebody give Jesus a hand for having the authority to do whatever it takes in your life.

Now, Jesus didn't only do this here and now he did it over and over and over.

I want to remind you today that Jesus can do and supply everything that any man or any woman needs

to be healthy, whole, saved, and on a path for life. He's what everyone needs more than anything

else. And in doing this, this man walked away whole. He went away free from sin and separation,

completely forgiven by God. He went away leaping and jumping for joy while everyone else was

watching in amazement. He went away on his own, having been carried in with four friends because

he was not able to do that going in. But he went away telling other people about his encounter with

Christ, showing others what they'd never seen before. And everybody, the Bible says all of a

sudden, everybody is saying we've never seen anything like this in our lives. And this is what

happens when we bring people to meet Jesus. Jesus can do above and beyond what we even can imagine.

So if we believe Jesus has power in his presence, and if we believe Jesus can change lives,

and if we believe that Jesus can change the lives of those around us who need him so badly,

then we need to have the kind of prayer life and the kind of faith life that these four friends have

that leads to action, that brings people with us to worship Jesus. That's why a few moments ago I

ask you to think through and imagine in your mind's eye who is it around your life, who is it around

you geographically, relationally, vocationally, educationally, if you're in school, if you're in

school, whatever it is, who around you needs to encounter the presence of Jesus, and how can you

help them come? You don't have to put a hole in the roof to get them here into this building. We

have doors, lots of doors that you can bring them in. We have lots of ways that we can connect you

and them with the presence of Jesus. But think about the lives that have changed as a result of

people who come into the presence of Jesus. I've never forgotten a story of one of our own church

members came up to me, an older woman, and it was some months after a cross service that she and her

family had attended. Under that cross service we gave an invitation, and as some of you are familiar

with, I walked through the building and I asked people to follow me to the cross, and she had an

adult son with her that had lots of trouble in life, and he said to her that night and later on,

months later, which is she's relaying this story to me, he did not get up and he did not follow me.

He did not come to the cross physically, but he said to his mom, when I saw that happen, I knew I

needed to give my life to Jesus. That night I gave my heart to Jesus. I just didn't tell anybody,

and then my life began to change. It had changed so much over the next few months. He said I knew it

was tied to that moment where I realized the presence of Jesus in that place, and I saw the

cross and realized what Jesus did on the cross for me, and his mom looked at me and said his life was

irrevocably, undebatably changed that moment where he had an encounter with Jesus Christ.

She said I'm so thankful that the presence of Jesus was there. I'm so thankful that the

presence of Jesus was in the room. That was her words.

For that mom invited that son because she was desperate for his life, and Jesus understood,

answered to prayer, showed up with his presence and power, and changed that man's life.

You know, this church has seen a lot of that happen over the years. What I want us to never

touch with is that the presence of Jesus has great power, that you have an incredible opportunity

to invite people, exercising your faith in his presence by inviting people and praying for people

to come to faith in Jesus. So being real, it's not that we're the perfect church. It simply means

we're authentic. We're imperfect people who find hope and help in a perfect, loving God,

and who want to help others find him also. Don't create a hole in the roof. Just invite people

to meet Jesus. He can use your invite to do that. I wonder today how many are in the room

who have never made that decision to put their trust and faith in Jesus.

Maybe today you have a sense of conviction that you're like this paralytic,

even though you may not look like a paralyzed person. Maybe your life is going nowhere. Maybe

you feel impotent to move forward in every way. You don't know what direction to take. You don't

know what you need to do next. Maybe you're like this guy who was on the cot. You've never had your

sins forgiven. You've always carried them with you. And I want you to know today, the presence of

Jesus is still powerful enough to do what he did in that day and time. Jesus' power has not diminished

and his presence has not diminished. He's just as available today as he was for that man on that day.

But it's important that you make the step of saying, I want that Jesus to touch my life the way

he touched this man's life. At the end of our service, we have decision stations and I want to

encourage you to stop by. Just stop by. You talk to one of those behind the station. They'll pray

with you. They'll answer questions that you may have about putting your faith and trust in Jesus

Christ. We really want to help you with that. That's one of the invitations I give you this morning.

Stop at the decision station on the way out and make a decision to follow Christ, to be touched by

him. I have a second decision I want to invite you to do and that is I invite you to come to our

guest reception center right outside the center exit doors across the hallway there. It's a glass

dead room and I'll tell you more about what God is doing here in our church. I'd love to meet you

personally and invite you to some other things. Thirdly, I want to invite you to pick up an invite

card. We have invite cards at every door because we want you to be able to do what these men did,

to have a way to invite others to come worship with us. You might be amazed at how opportune the

moment is that you invite someone to come. I've heard many times people say, you know, I don't

know what possessed you to do that, but the timing was perfect. I needed to find answers to my

problems and so I came because you invited. It's really amazing what God can do through the

witnesses that go out for him. Today consider those three things. Would you stand with me as we have

a closing word of prayer? Father, I'm so grateful today for all in the room, so grateful for the

decisions already made this weekend. Father, thank you so much for the baptisms that have taken place

at our other venues this morning. Thank you so much for people continually making decisions to

come to you, Lord. I pray today for those in the room that need to choose you today, give them the

courage and the boldness to do that. And then father, as we go out from this place, I pray that

you will put on our hearts, the names, the faces of people who need to have an encounter with you

and believe you enough to act on that faith. Lord uses this church to impact our world with the

gospel. We ask all this in Jesus name we pray, amen.