The Book of Matthew • Matthew 9:1-34

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Well, good morning, everyone.

Yeah, well, today is Father's Day.

Like many of you, my father growing up was a very hard worker, long hours at his job, long

hours fixing up the house, keeping up with the chores, and of course, raising us kids.

And I'm very thankful for the father that I have, and I hope to be the father that he was

to us, to my kids, the way he showed me how to be.

And I don't know what anyone's relationship is with their father here this morning, but

I am thankful we have a great father, that I have a great father, and that I have a great

father-in-law.

But that's not the case for all of us.

And while we are thankful for good dads today, we are here this morning to talk about the gifts

of our heavenly father.

It should not be lost on us that he is called our heavenly father.

It was Jesus, when teaching us how to pray, who first said this, saying, our father, who

are in heaven.

So we have permission to call God our father, and I believe we should be thankful that we

can.

Because God the father is the greatest father of them all.

He will never leave us.

He will always do what is best for us.

He will love us unconditionally forever.

Fatherly love, that is what we see from God the father.

But we also see that from his son, Jesus.

We see the same compassion from God the father coming from Jesus.

And that's what we're going to learn about today in Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

It's the compassion of Jesus for us.

Let's pray.

Heavenly father, I just thank you for this opportunity to come to read your scripture.

Lord, that we are in a country where we can openly read your scripture.

Lord, that we not take that for granted.

Lord, we do thank you so much for good fathers today, but we thank you so much more for our

great father in heaven.

Lord, I pray that he will be honored by the words that we have this morning.

Pray these things in your name.

Amen.

All right.

This morning, we'll be reading from Matthew chapter 9, and we're going to be reading verses

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

1 through 13.

I'm going to be reading from the NIV this morning, so it might look a little bit different

from your scripture that you're reading, but it's the same.

So let's open the word this morning and read from chapter 9, verses 1 through 13.

It says this,

Jesus stepped onto a boat, crossed over, and came to his town.

Some men brought to him a paralyzed man laying on a mat.

And Jesus saw their faith, and he said to the man,

Take heart, son.

Your sins are forgiven.

At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves,

This fellow is blaspheming.

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said,

Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your heart?

Which is easier to say?

Your sins are forgiven?

Or say, get up and walk?

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

So he said to the paralyzed man,

Get up, take your mat, and go home.

Then the man got up and went home.

When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe,

and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

And Jesus went on from there.

He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth.

Follow me, he told him.

And Matthew got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house,

many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.

And when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples,

Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

On hearing this, Jesus said,

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

But go and learn what it means.

I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

So we're going to break this down into two sections.

And as we look at verse 1 through 7,

we see Jesus healing a man because of his faith.

This story many of us have heard before.

A paralyzed man brought to Jesus.

And as we look closer to the story,

I want to make sure that we don't miss something that is here.

And it's scripture tells us that Jesus heals the man

because he saw their faith.

Now the man who was paralyzed may very well have had faith.

There's no reason to believe that he didn't.

But we know that he was not alone.

Because what Jesus says is he saw their faith.

Their.

That's plural.

It could be that the paralyzed man had faith,

but we know he was not alone.

These men who were with him also shared that faith.

It is helpful often that we have four gospels.

So we can see this story from different points of view.

We see the same story in Mark chapter 2 verses 1 through 4.

Mark 2:1–4

And some additional information is given.

It says this.

Starting in verse 2.

They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left,

not even outside the door.

And he preached the word to them.

Some men came bringing to him a paralyzed man carried by four of them.

Since they could not get to him or get him to Jesus because of the crowd,

they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and lowering the mat the man was lying on.

So here's some additional information.

We know there were crowds.

There were four men.

And that they lowered this man through the roof.

And I think this creates a very interesting picture.

One that shows their faith.

And that's our first point this morning.

It's that Jesus delights when we have faith in him.

Now I have a good imagination.

And it's a helpful tool when I'm thinking about these different scriptures

and how they might actually play out.

All that I'm about to say is not in scripture.

But I imagine it would have been an encounter that could have gone something like this.

We know that there had been crowds following Jesus.

And we know many of them turned to follow Christ.

But we also know that many of them followed him because he was healing people.

And many people wanted to be healed.

Now we have these crowds.

And they have surrounded the house.

And these men, before they got there, had made a plan.

We just want to get our friend as close to Jesus as possible.

Because we know that if we do that, Jesus will heal him.

I'm sure they thought, easy peasy.

But when they got to Jesus, the crowd was so great that they could not get in.

So they had to come up with a new plan to get their friend before Christ.

And it's hard to know exactly how it went.

But something probably happened before their final solution of going through the roof.

I think they probably would have started by asking the crowd, excuse me, we have a friend who just needs to be before Jesus.

But to no avail.

So maybe they thought, well, what we'll do is we'll hoist him up on our head and we'll push through.

But the crowd might have been too dense.

So maybe the smallest of the four guys said, all right, you three create a wedge.

I'm going to throw this guy on our shoulder.

We're going to power through this.

They may have had tons of ideas before they came up with the final solution.

This solution where they would come through the roof.

I wondered on this.

While I can totally see myself coming up with a plan like this,

I thought, is this something that commonly happened in that time,

lowering people through the roof or using the roof in that way?

And a little research tells us that ancient Middle Eastern architecture,

this is the way that the homes were.

They were flat roofed.

And there were ladders that went up the side.

Often people would get up there and they would talk to one another

or they would lay their fruit or vegetables out to dry or they would take a nap up there.

But coming through a roof would have damaged the whole house and damaged the roof completely.

So these men, again, who had faith, so sure in the result, dug through somebody else's roof

to get their friend closer to Jesus.

Because they had one idea, that if we can get him closer to Jesus, he will be healed.

One author that I read called this a roof ripping faith.

And I like that.

Now I said earlier that we don't know if the paralyzed man had faith,

but I believe that he probably did.

He and all his friends.

Because the final plan that they came up with would have required me to have a lot of faith.

Okay, buddy, here's what we're going to do.

I'm going to throw you on my shoulder.

I'm going to climb up a ladder.

Then once we're up there, we're going to dig through the roof.

And once we dig through the roof, we're going to lower you down to see Jesus.

I can't imagine that they would have had that plan ahead of time,

where they would have bring pulleys and ropes and things like that.

So getting him down probably would have been pretty scary.

And that's where I feel like faith comes in.

They had faith, all these men did,

that all they would need to do is get their friend close to Jesus

and that Jesus would have compassion on him and that he would be healed.

It was their faith that pushed them to tear open the roof,

to carry that man up there, to create some makeshift way to lower the man down

because they knew there was no doubt in their minds

that Jesus' response to this would be healing.

And then Jesus follows that up by accrediting their faith as to why he was healed.

This faith was powerful.

This faith we see again later in Matthew 9, verses 20 through 22,

Matthew 9:20–22

as a woman suffering from bleeding

knew that if she could just touch the garment of Jesus,

that she would be healed.

And when she did, verse 22 says,

Jesus said, take heart, daughter.

Your faith has made you well.

And then we move on in Matthew 9 to 27 through 30,

as two blind men cried out to Jesus,

asking for healing.

And Jesus did heal them.

And he said again, according to your faith, let it be done.

So a paralyzed man, a woman inflicted, two blind men,

all healed as Jesus responds to their faith.

So how does this apply today to our faith?

Well, faith isn't something like a magical formula or a tool that we can use to force God's hand.

That's for sure.

We don't get to say, I have faith, Jesus, heal my physical ailments.

Instead, faith is trusting in God and that he is sovereign.

That he loves you.

That he is using both afflictions and triumphs to perform his will on our lives.

So that we will have a deeper understanding of who he is.

Before we move on, we need to see that it was Jesus at the beginning

who stated, I need to heal something beyond the physical.

All the way back at the beginning of the story,

Jesus goes to the root of the pain of this world, sin.

Jesus again in 9.2 said,

Take heart, my son.

Your sins are forgiven.

You see, Jesus started with,

because the issue was sin,

it was not physical pain.

Jesus knew the real problem with our world.

After all, isn't that why Jesus came?

He came and he died on the cross for sin,

not to heal the physical pain of the world.

And when we accept Jesus,

there's no assurance that our physical pain will go away.

And while I'm spending this time

and I'm highlighting the different ways that Jesus had power then

and he has that same power now to heal us physically,

he didn't come to heal us physically on this side of heaven.

He came to heal our sins.

As I look around the room this morning,

I love that this is our whole body.

And when I knew that today was going to be one where we all got to share,

I was pretty excited.

We have little kids in here with us this morning.

We have the youth.

We have young adults.

We have older adults.

We have slightly older adults.

But we're all here together.

And this is our body.

This is our family.

This is the Willow Ridge Church family.

And it's easy to know that this is our body

because it looks a lot like the family that I have at home.

We are loud.

That's exciting.

We spill stuff.

And that's okay.

In the middle of a conversation,

we're going to get up and use the bathroom

or more.

We're going to get some water.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's something else that I can see as I look around this room

is that our bodies are going to respond differently to pain.

What do I mean by that?

There's a 10-year-old in here, I'm sure,

that running full speed could hit that back wall,

bounce off that back wall,

hit the floor,

jump up and keep running.

Now, I know that if I graze that same wall,

I'm going to have a bruise on my shoulder for a week.

Tomorrow, when I wake up for some reason,

my hip's also going to be hurt.

And when I go to the doctor,

of course, my cholesterol has raised.

Not sure why, but I can tell you this.

My body reacts differently than a 10-year-old's body.

I'm going to wake up feeling broken.

They're going to wake up feeling fantastic.

Kids, if you're in here,

just understand that you're stronger than us.

But if we are both believers in Jesus,

both that 10-year-old and I,

and we're both saved,

and we both love God,

then we are both free from the pain of sin.

But there's no assurance

that I will be healed physically

this side of heaven.

But I can absolutely know

that my sins are forgiven

because I have faith

in what Jesus did on the cross.

That faith is what heals my soul from sin.

And if you are a believer here with us today,

your faith in the cross

heals you from that sin.

This is what Isaiah the prophet said

in Isaiah chapter 53, verse 5.

Isaiah 53:5

It says,

But he was pierced for our transgression.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him the chastisement

that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

This is what Jesus came to do for us,

to heal us from the pain of sin.

Now, if you're in here this morning

and you have not accepted Jesus,

then you are currently living in the pain of sin.

And Jesus wants you to be healed.

You only have to accept him into your heart

in order for that healing to begin.

And later we're going to have a time of response,

and we're going to bring the prayer encouragers up here,

and they're going to be ready and willing

to walk you through the plan of salvation

that Christ has for you.

That you too can be healed from that sin.

As John 3.16 tells us,

For God so loved the world

that he gave his only son

that whoever believes in him

should not perish,

but have everlasting life.

And although that's a very familiar passage to us,

but we've got to know what it means.

His desire is that the pain of sin

does not inflict us anymore in this life.

And it can go away by accepting Christ.

The next point what we're going to explore

is that Jesus demonstrates compassion to sinners.

So as I was processing this sermon,

I asked myself,

and I'm asking us today,

how do we treat those

who we perceive as sinners?

Those we might seem as messy,

difficult, hard to deal with

because of their sinful actions.

Because I think that how we treat sinners

is important,

and how we see sinners is important.

I think it shows a great deal

about who we are.

So what is a sinner?

This word in the context of Matthew

is used five other times in scriptures.

The Greek word is hamartalos,

and it stems from the word hamarte,

and it literally means this,

missing the mark.

These people,

these sinners,

they're missing the mark.

They're choosing to continually live in sin.

They are choosing sin.

And this sinful world that we just discussed,

that Jesus came to save,

he came to heal them.

This is why how we think,

and even how we talk to,

and interact with,

sinners may reveal a lot about

how we perceive ourselves,

and how we perceive Jesus,

and what he's done.

We read earlier,

and we'll read again,

Matthew 9, 10 through 13.

It says this,

While Jesus was having dinner

at Matthew's house,

many tax collectors and sinners came,

and ate with him and his disciples.

When the Pharisees saw this,

they asked his disciples,

Why does your teacher

eat with tax collectors and sinners?

On hearing this,

Jesus said,

It is not the healthy

who need a doctor,

but the sick.

But go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy,

not sacrifice,

for I have not come

to call the righteous,

but the sinners.

So first,

we must know this about Jesus,

that this was not a one-time thing

that Jesus offered compassion

towards sinners.

It's all through Scripture.

He has compassion for the woman

who's unfaithful in her marriage

in John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

He has compassion on the woman

who is anointing his feet

in Luke chapter 7.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

And he tells a famous parable

about a prodigal son

in Luke 15,

pointing to how the father

forgave the sin,

and he welcomed him

back into the household.

And there's many more

throughout the New Testament.

Jesus shows us,

he tells us,

he demonstrates to us,

he encourages us,

and then he commands us

to love the sinner.

Now we just talked about

seeing Jesus heal blindness,

paralyzed limbs,

physical sickness,

and for some reason

that's easy for us now,

and it's easy for the people

of the New Testament

to swallow.

Good.

Jesus is healing

a physical problem.

But when Jesus wants

to heal the heart

to forgive the sin,

people make that

more complicated.

As if we have the ability

or the right

to determine

whether or not it's okay

for Jesus

to heal sinners.

even where he would go

to heal them.

And so where does Jesus

go to heal the heart?

He goes to the house

of the wicked.

He goes to the place

where healing

is needed most.

Now I'm sure

that everybody has heard

about tax collectors

during the Roman Empire,

but I want to take a second

just to make sure

that we're all

on the same page

as to why

Jewish people

disliked tax collectors

so much during that time.

I think today

taxes in general

are a sore subject

for a lot of us.

We know we have

to pay them.

We don't love it.

But we feel like

we can pay the IRS

one time a year

and then we can forget

that they exist.

That wasn't the same

as the case

for the people

who were in the Jewish

communities

under Roman occupation.

They had to see

that frustration

every day.

Though it would be

the instruction

from Rome

to collect the taxes

from the Jewish people,

it would be somebody

in their community

that would be doing it.

It would be a neighbor.

And here's where

it got tricky.

See,

Rome was collecting

for the empire,

but the ruling body,

or the ruling body,

but the Jewish people

believed

that their only ruler

was God.

So why should they

have to pay taxes

to somebody

who wasn't God,

somebody who wasn't

their leader?

So anytime a Jewish person

was a tax collector,

they would be seen

as a traitor

to the faith,

a traitor

to the Jewish people.

Why would anyone

want to be friends

with the one

who works for the enemy?

But that's not

the only reason

that the Jewish people

had contempt

for the tax collectors.

There was another reason.

There were lots of opportunities

for extortion.

They clearly took it

as we read

through Scripture.

You owe Rome

120 pieces of silver,

or 100 pieces of silver,

excuse me,

I'm going to take 120

and I'm going to pocket

that 20 for myself.

I think anybody

would be frustrated

knowing that

that was happening.

The Jewish people

saw tax collectors

as evil.

Scripture even

categorizes them

as sinners

in Matthew, Mark,

and Luke.

So when Jesus

ate with the known

tax collectors

and other sinners,

the Jewish people

were surprised.

While not all Jewish people

were following

the teachings of Jesus,

he was a rabbi

and they expected him

to keep better company.

They were angry with him

that he did this.

And then this is where

we get to see

Jesus' incredible response

to that

in 9-2

where he says this,

excuse me, 9-12

where he says this,

on hearing this,

Jesus said,

it is not the healthy

who need a doctor

but the sick.

He's explaining

to the people

that a

spiritual need

needs a spiritual

doctor,

that he has come

to heal them

spiritually.

And then Jesus speaks

in verse 13,

but go and learn

what this means.

I desire mercy,

not sacrifice,

for I have not come

to call the righteous

but sinners.

The Jewish leader

would have taken note

of this statement

because it's something

that they had heard

before.

Now to understand

what's going on here,

we have to understand

the word mercy.

Mercy in the Greek word

is eleos

and it's translated

often mercy

but it's got other

translations as well.

It's translated

tender mercy.

It's translated

compassion

and in several instances

it's translated

love.

So when we hear

the word mercy,

we know that it is

an act of withholding

punishment from somebody.

Mercy is withholding

punishment that is

deserved.

So when we read this,

we may think

Jesus is saying

I am withholding

the punishment

you deserve

but Jesus is saying

much more than that.

He is saying

I desire compassion

and I'm going

to show compassion

but to who

is he showing

this compassion?

Well, Jesus desires

to show compassion

to others.

He desires us

to show compassion

to others

and we have already

established in this chapter

who those others are.

They're sinners.

Jesus desires

we have compassion

towards sinners.

Known sinners.

So I ask myself

are we sure

that this is what he means?

That we have this compassion

towards known sinners?

And the answer is yes

because he says it

but he also does it.

He says mercy,

love,

compassion

towards sinners.

then he eats

with sinners,

with traitors,

with thieves,

with liars.

In other scripture

he shows compassion

to those caught

in all sorts

of sinful acts.

You see,

Jesus is forever

the teacher,

he's forever

the leader,

he's forever

the pastor

and he's forever

the example setter

of what he wants

us to do,

how he wants

us to live.

His desire

is that we show

compassion

towards sinners

so much so

that he did it

as the example

for us.

So as I took

stock in myself

and I'm going to ask

you to do the same,

how do you view

others?

How do we view

others?

How do I view

others?

More importantly,

how do I view

sinners?

Now we all know

that sin is sin

but do we

divide

different sins

and different

sinners?

Do we categorize

the sinner?

Well this sinner

is speeding

in a car,

that's a little sin

so that's okay,

I'll still hang out

with them.

They steal

or they lie,

well that's a little

bit of a bigger sin

maybe,

so we're not going

to hang out

with them as much

but we'll still

like them.

But what about

a traitor?

This is the word

that the Jewish

people use

to describe

tax collector.

Well I would argue

this is a big sin.

How do we view

them now?

Do we view

a traitor

with all the

anger that wells

up within our

souls?

You betrayed me,

you betrayed

our country,

you betrayed

our God

but then how

does Jesus

view them?

The great thing

is we don't

have to wonder,

we just have to

open scripture

and we find out.

He showed

mercy,

he showed

mercy.

So is this

us?

How are we

approaching

sinners in our

own lives?

Do we seek

out to share

the gospel

with them?

Is there

anyone in

our life

that we're

refusing

to show

that mercy

towards?

We don't

want to,

maybe it's

a parent,

maybe it's

a child,

maybe it's

a close

friend.

We are

not called

of course

to accept

their sin

but we

are called

to show

Christ's

love to

them

because that's

what he

would want.

He would

want them

to see

the sin

in their

life but

more importantly

he'd want

them to

come to

him.

Then he

will help

show them

that sin

and walk

them through

that.

So do we

have that?

Think about

the sinners

in your life.

Do you

avoid them?

Do you

yell at

them?

Do you

write them

off?

Or do

we show

compassion?

Do we

show love?

The truth

is preparing

to preach

a sermon

is a lot

of fun.

Delivering

is a little

bit more

difficult.

But reading

how this

story plays

out is

amazing.

And when

we see

what Jesus

said and

why the

Pharisees

would have

taken note

is because

he's quoting

Hosea the

Old Testament

prophet as

he says

I desire

mercy and

not sacrifice.

That's in

Hosea 6.

And understanding

the context

of what's

going on

in Hosea

and what's

going on

in Matthew

they share

a common

thread.

In Hosea

they didn't

want sinners

to be around

people.

And the

Jewish leaders

at that time

were showing

like they

were great

people but

they weren't

following God.

And then the

same thing is

happening again

in Matthew.

In Matthew

these Pharisees

these Sadducees

they were not

following God.

they were

instead putting

on a

religious

front.

And in

that they

were questioning

what Jesus

was doing.

That's why

Hosea said

this prayer.

He said

that he

trusts the

love of

God and

he sees

loving hand

of God

in correcting

people.

Though they

are in sin

he wants

to bring

them out

of this.

While God

does desire

a loyal

loving

relationship

with us

it

doesn't

come

from

spiritual

rituals.

That was

in Hosea

and now

we jump

back to

Matthew

and the

same

thing

is

happening.

Jesus

is

addressing

the

Jewish

leaders

of the

time

and

they're

questioning

him

why

on earth

would

you

do

this

thing?

Why

would

you

sit

with

sinners?

Why

would

you

eat

with

known

tax

collectors?

See

these

leaders

of the

Old

Testament

and

these

leaders

of

the

New

Testament

they

had

the

same

issue

they

had

the

same

mindset.

Sinners

should

be

avoided.

Sinners

should

be

cast

out.

We

need

to

stay

away

from

them

and

specifically

the

Jewish

leaders

would

have

said

we'll

have

nothing

to

do

with

them.

So

Jesus

comes

in

with

a

desire

to

change

that

view.

So

it

got

me

thinking

how

would

we

view

Jesus

today

in

that

same

scenario?

How

would

we

look

at

Jesus

today

if

he

was

sitting

with

a

known

sinner?

So

I ask

you to

think

in your

mind

of a

sin

that

really

bothers

you.

Something

when you

hear

about

it

gets

to

the

middle

of

the

core

of

your

body

and

you

just

makes

you

so

angry.

Now

let's

say

that

sinner

is

your

next

door

neighbor

and

the

love

compassion

and

forgiveness.

He

wants

to

and

he

has

the

power

to

forgive

them.

If

you

saw

that

today

if

I

saw

that

today

would

that

make

us

angry

at

Jesus

for

what

he's

doing?

We

would

think

how

dare

you

do

this?

Don't

you

know

what

that

person

has

done

many

times

or

just

once?

That

person

in

our

life

that

sinner

in

our

life

who

has

done

that

thing?

We

may

even

try

to

rationalize

it.

Well

Jesus

may

not

know

what

that

person

has

done

because

obviously

if

he

knew

he

wouldn't

go

in

there.

He

wouldn't

sit

with

them.

And

this

was

deeply

convicting

es

to

me

as

I

prepared

this

this

week.

When

I

look

around

the

world

I

see

sin

everywhere.

I

see

sinners

everywhere

in

workplaces

in

schools

in

towns

in

our

city

in

our

country

in

the

world.

And

a lot

of

times

I

just

get

angry.

I

get

angry

because

I

think

what

these

men

and

women

have

done

these

hideous

sins

that

they

have

done

makes

me

so

angry

that

I

want

to

turn

off

the

news.

I

don't

want

to

know

about

what's

going

on

I

don't

want

to

see

it

I

want

to

avoid

what

is

happening

in

the

world

if I

can

I'd

like

to

ignore

it

I'd

like

to

pretend

that

it's

not

happening

I'd

like

to

build

a

wall

around

my

kids

around

my

family

around

this

church

around

my

town

and

I'd

like

to

escape

and

live

safely

not

having

to

face

or

engage

in

the

world

around

me

not

to

engage

with

sinners

but

that's

not

the

example

that

Jesus

set

as

Christians

Matthew

28

calls

us

to be

evangelists

to

go

out

into

the

world

we

must

be

flexible

in

the

way

that

we

do

that

as

Christians

we

must

meet

people

where

they

are

not

where

we'd

like

them

to

be

Jesus

didn't

wait

in

the

synagogue

for

people

to

come

in

so

that

he

could

share

the

good

news

we

can't

wait

in

the

church

for

people

to

come

in

so

that

we

can

share

the

good

news

we

must

go

out

that's

what

Jesus

did

we

don't

need

them

to

conform

to

what

we

expect

we

need

to

meet

them

where

they're

at

I'm

going

to

ask

the

prayer

team

and

the

band

to

come

up

and

I

want

to

spend

a

moment

here

and

just

recap

what

chapter

nine

teaches

us

Jesus

has

a

desire

that

we

have

faith

in

him

his

healing

power

in

our

sinful

lives

that

Jesus

desires

us

to

have

compassion

towards

sinners

meaning

we

must

meet

them

where

they

are

in

their

brokenness

with

compassion

and

Jesus

desires

more

than

that

he

desires

that

we

share

his

love

with

this

entire

world

what

we

can't

do

is

we

can't

say

Jesus

saved

me

but

now

I

don't

have

to

do

anything

with

that

we

can't

say

that

Jesus

saved

me

but

I

really

did

it

all

on

my

own

we

cannot

say

that

God

has

saved

me

but

I

don't

need

to

help

others

find

this

same

salvation

we

cannot

say

God

has

saved

me

so

now

I

will

cut

off

the

world

because

it's

sinful

and

I'll

protect

myself

to

live

safely

scripture

calls us

to be

transformed

that

we are

a new

creation

in

Christ

and

he

calls

us

to

follow

his

example

to

show

Christ's

love

to

this

world

that

love

that

he

demonstrates

that

same

love

that

his

father

demonstrated

to

us

by

sending

his

own

son

into

this

broken

world

to

save

sinners

so

church

this

is

our

challenge

do

you

have

the

faith

that

Jesus

points

out

that

no

matter

what

is

going

on

in

our

lives

in

our

world

that

our

desire

is

to

be

close

to

him

like

the

men

that

we

read

about

the

story

who

were

willing

to

carry

a

man

up

onto

a

roof

and

lower

him

down

simply

so

that

he

can

be

in

the

presence

of

the

Lord

is

that

where

we

are

do

we

desire

that

badly

to

be

in

the

presence

of

the

Lord

also

do

we

have

the

willingness

to

see

sinners

the

same

way

that

God

sees

sinners

the

same

way

that

Jesus

interacted

with

sinners

as

someone

who

needs

God

not

a

sinner

that

should

be

cast

out

and

then

the

follow

up

question

of

that

is

are

you

willing

to

share

the

gospel

with

those

sinners

to

change

somebody's

life

we

can't

hide

behind

fear

we

have

to

live

in

the

freedom

that

God

has

provided

we

have

to

live

in

the

place

where

God

has

showed

the

example

be

willing

to

go

in

where

it's

going

to

be

difficult

let's

pray

Heavenly

Father

I just

thank you

for an

opportunity

to

open

your

word

Lord

I

thank you

for an

opportunity

to

see

what

you

have

for

us

Lord

let

the

words

that

are

true

sink

in

our

hearts

challenge

us

this

week

Lord

to

live

in

the

faith

but

also

to

not

be

afraid

to

go

out

and

share

that

faith

God

you

have

called

it

on

our

hearts

to

share