We Are Access – Unstoppable Faith

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason and Liz Burns in Access Church in Lakeland and Bartow, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Well, hey, I'm excited to preach.

I'm excited to be with you this morning.

Here's what I need you to understand is that I preach at night and it's 10, it's oh, it's 11.02.

It's the 10:30 service.

So I need you guys to talk back.

I need you to be energized, ready to go, because I'm tired, y'all.

Because early.

My voice is tired and it's early.

So I need y'all to be with me.

Let's do this thing together.

How's that sound?

10:30.

All right, we'll work on it throughout the message.

We'll work on it throughout the message.

That was good.

We we'll get better as we go.

But we've been in a series called We Are Access.

And so this whole series is leading us up to Easter.

And so here's what we've been talking about during the whole month of this month in the last three weeks.

This is what we've been talking about.

We're talking about this.

If this is what you're if this place is what you're going to call home, which is Access Church.

If you didn't call this place home, you just need to know what we're about.

If you're going to go all in with this place, you need to know what we are about.

And so we've just been talking about we are Access, and here's who we are.

And so here's our goal by the end of this message and by the end of this series is that hey, I'm going to go all in and I'm going to be on mission with Jesus together as a church, and we're going to build God's house together.

And so if you've missed the last few weeks, I'm going to challenge you.

Go back and go listen.

You go on YouTube, you can find all the messages that we have preached.

Go back and listen to it.

But if you missed, if you missed last week or if you've been with us last week, and we handed out some shirts last week.

If you had a shirt, come on, let's make some noise.

1030 service.

And so this is what it's going to sound like.

This is going to be like a part two of last week's message.

And so here's what Pastor Jason talked about last week is that we are here for the 863, that we are here for our city.

And so here's what we're going to be about.

We're going to bring heaven up there, down here to earth into our city.

And so he challenged us with we're not just wearing these shirts because it's cool and it's great merch, that we're wearing these shirts because we are on mission together to reach our city for the glory of God.

And so the shirt is a reminder of that.

And so we talked all about last week about how people matter to God.

And so they're going to matter to us.

We're going to bring up there down here.

And so it's going to feel like a part two this morning because people matter to God.

If people matter to God, they're going to matter to our church.

And so to get us started today, um, yesterday, I had the great pleasure to riding a hundred miles on my bike and participating in a race doing a hundred miles 1030 service.

I need y'all to be excited.

I need y'all to be excited.

And so I'm gonna brag on myself because I got the metal to prove it.

I did it.

I finished, I ran the good race.

Well, I rolled the good race.

And so if you see me just drag the TV to the piano, don't question me.

My legs hurt.

My legs hurt, so don't question me.

If I if I sit at the piano production, get the lights ready, I'm gonna be over there by 12 o'clock.

I promise.

But during this ride, it was it was a fun time, it was great.

We started at 7 a.m.

It took us like six, a little over six and a half hours to do this thing.

It was insane, it was wild, but we did it and we finished.

But something happened during the ride at mile 84 for me.

And it was a long day.

Mile 84 hits.

We got 16 miles left until 100.

And so like I feel my legs slowly locking up, and I was like, no, I my watch says 84, and I'm not stopping till I hit 100.

And so I just keep going, I keep going.

And then my legs just like locked up on me and like cramps, but also like I can't feel my legs, it's this weird thing.

And so, like, I somehow I'm clipped into the bike, and so I'm like, I'm like doing this to try to get my foot out, finally get my foot out.

And so, Matt, that's on the camera, he rode with us, and so he's with me.

He's like, bro, how can I help you?

I was like, Well, first of all, I can't move my legs, and I got a lot of weight up here.

I'm not fat, but I'm horizontally gifted, and so there's a lot, there's a lot going on here.

And some of y'all gonna use that.

I used that it's a good line.

It's a good line, and so I'm just not I'm I'm not the lightest person.

And so I was like, I can't move my legs, and so he's like, hell, he's like kicking my legs out from under me, holding me, trying to get the bike from under me.

And then he like, I have my arms like this, and he starts dragging me to the grass.

And so I'm just laying there, like, what am I doing?

I've been on this bike since seven o'clock, everything hurts.

Cammy's about 16 miles away from me, but she has to carve.

If I just call her, she'll come get me, and I could drive the next 16 miles.

And so I was just in pain.

Like I was learning long suffering.

That's where I was at.

But Matt, he was helping me out.

He was dra he was like, hell, he's like, How can I help you?

How can I help you?

How can I help you?

And so he's just a good friend, and he cared about me, and so because he cared about me, that he was living out that very thing.

For us, we if we care about something, it's shown through our actions.

See, I love my wife, and so I'm gonna show my wife love by the actions that I choose.

If I want to lose weight, you gotta put some action towards it.

You gotta eat right, you gotta work out, you have to do certain things.

You live what you care about.

And so if we are access, you need to understand this that we are people of faith.

That here at Access, we are people of faith.

And you and I, we have to live that out.

See, your faith, your relationship with Jesus, it's it's a personal decision, but it was never meant to be private.

That your relationship with Jesus should be shared and told to people, your family, your co-workers, the people around you that you are with, the people at your schools, that your faith has to be something you live out.

And so here's where Hebrews chapter 11 is, this is what we would call the hall of faith.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Here's what Hebrews says about faith.

It says, faith is what makes real the things we hope for.

It is the proof of what we cannot see.

And God was pleased with the people who lived a long time ago because they had faith like this.

And so if you read, if you continue to read through this scripture, this portion of scripture, you see people like Noah.

He mentions people like Noah that built an ark and was obedient to God when God told him to gather things and build this thing.

And so Noah does it.

We see people like Abraham, that it's mentioned with Abraham that God tells him, Hey, I need you to take your son Isaac and go put a sac, go put him on for a sacrifice, and Abraham was obedient.

We see Moses, Moses was helped the Israelites get out of captivity.

Each one of these people that we see in this portion of scripture, they live the faith that they believed.

If you're taking notes this morning, church family here, I want you to write this down.

Your life changes when faith becomes the very thing you live out.

That your life changes when faith becomes the very thing you live out.

Again, your relationship with Jesus is a personal decision, but it was never meant to stay private.

That you and I, we are called to live this thing out and tell people about Jesus.

We're accessing we are a people of faith.

And so for the next five hours, here's what I want to do.

Oh, yeah, some of y'all are sleeping.

9 30 caught the 9 o'clock caught that quick.

They all started laughing.

No, for the next few moments, here's what I want to do.

I want to take us throughout a portion of scripture in the New Testament, and I want to show you what faith looks like.

This is what it looks like to live out faith.

And so we're gonna be in Mark chapter 2, and I just want to give you a little bit of context to what's happening in the scripture.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

In Mark chapter 1, this is the gospel, and this is the story, the good news of Jesus.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

And so in Mark chapter 1, this is the beginning stages of Jesus' ministry.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

And so Jesus, he goes out and he's preaching to people, he's performing miracles, and so this is the beginning stages.

So people are asking questions: who is this man?

Who is this dude?

And like, what is he all about?

And so by the end of Mark chapter one, Jesus had performed so many miracles and has preached to so many people that word is spreading like wildfire.

And everyone is hearing about Jesus, everyone wants to see Jesus, everyone wants to see what he's all about, and so Jesus he goes back to his home base, to his home place where he was based out of.

And so word catches that Jesus is back home.

And so people hear about this and people start flooding.

And this is where we pick up in Mark chapter 2, verse 1.

Mark 2:1

It says, When Jesus returned to Capernaum, several days later the news spread quickly that he was back home.

Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there were no more room.

There was no more room even outside the door.

We're gonna come back to this in a second.

While he was preaching God's word to them, four men, everyone say four, arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat.

They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head.

Then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus, seeing their what?

What does that say?

Faith.

Somebody say faith.

Somebody say faith.

Somebody say faith.

Jesus said to the paralyzed man, My child, your sins are forgiven.

But some of the teachers of the religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, What is he saying?

This is blasphemy.

Only God can forgive sins.

Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking.

So he asked them, Why do you question this in your hearts?

It is is it easier to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or stand up, pick up your mat and walk.

So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.

Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, Stand up, pick up your mat and go home.

And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and he walked out through the stunned onlookers.

And we're gonna finish this sentence and the rest of the story in just a few moments.

So Jesus, he's what we would assume from scripture, this is Peter's house.

He's at Peter's house chilling, and we see three different people, groups of people throughout this story.

We see the crowd, we see the four friends, and we see the paralyzed man.

And there's each we can learn something from each of the groups of people.

So if you're taking notes, and here's what I want you to write down, we're gonna get we're gonna jump right into this story.

The first group of people we see is the crowd.

The crowd is there.

Scripture tells us that they hear about Jesus, they want they want to see and experience, hey, what is happening?

We want to see Jesus for ourselves.

And so what happens is they just show up to Peter's house.

Jesus is there, and scripture says it was so packed that these four friends couldn't get their friend to Jesus.

They couldn't get this paralyzed man to Jesus because of the crowd.

See, the crowd, they they weren't doing something bad, they were just a part of the problem.

The problem was that their four friends couldn't get the person to Jesus because they were so caught up with we want to see Jesus for ourselves that we don't care who else is around us.

Church family, if I can challenge you for just a moment, as I was studying and reading this portion of scripture, I started to look and I was like, man, sometimes we can be the crowd.

That we come to church on Sunday morning, we come in, we come to the 10:30 service because it's the it's the best service to be at, and it's the it's the one that's right in the middle, it's not too early, it's not too late.

And so what happens is we we kind of get caught up with ourselves, and the part of the problem with that is we can miss people because of it.

That we come, we could come to gatherings, we could have rooms like this that are full of faith but still miss the heart of Jesus.

Church family, if I can maybe challenge you a little bit, if our faith fills rooms but empties compassion, we have missed the heart of Jesus.

That we can have faith, we can be like the crowd, that we want to come and have an experience and an encounter with Jesus.

But if we miss people because of it, we have missed the heart of Jesus.

Here's what Jesus says in Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

Jesus says this that the Son of Man came to what?

Seek and to save the lost.

Can I tell you what the heart of Jesus is?

It's people.

The heart of Jesus is to care for people, to seek and save the lost.

If we are access and we are people of faith, we we can't be like the crowd that gets in the way.

See the crowd that were close to Jesus but far from his heart.

It is easy to be in proximity to Jesus and still miss the things of Jesus.

And if we're not careful, we can miss out on the heart of Jesus.

And so if we are access and we are a people of faith, we care about the things that Jesus cares about, which is all about people, because people matter to God and they have to matter to us.

We can't be like the crowd.

The second group of people we see is the four friends.

We see the four friends, and so what does the scripture tell us?

Scripture tell us tells us that they hear about Jesus, they see Jesus at Peter's house, and so the difference between the crowd and the four friends is that the crowd brought themselves, and the four friends brought somebody that said, Hey, we heard about this Jesus, we believe in this Jesus that can heal you, and so we're to bring you along the ride with us.

The difference was that the four friends knew someone and had someone in mind, and they brought him to Jesus.

The crowd just brought themselves.

And so the four friends, they get to this house, the crowd was blocking the door.

Scripture tells us that the house was so packed that they couldn't get their friend to Jesus.

And so, if I'm anything like the four friends, if I'm honest, I can't prove this theologically, this is just me thinking you have the story.

I'm carrying this paralyzed man, and if I'm honest, if that's me, I'm gonna say, yeah, let's go home.

This bro, you heavy.

Like, why like we're carrying you?

Like, that's a lot.

Let's be honest.

That's a lot of work.

And so I can't take you through the door, which is where people enter and exit of a house.

But their friends knew something and they saw something, they knew that Jesus was on the other side, and they said to themselves, we're gonna do whatever it takes to get our friends to Jesus.

And so, what do they do?

Jesus is preaching inside the house, through houses packed.

Imagine I'm Jesus.

I'm not saying I am Jesus, but imagine I was Jesus, and I'm preaching like this, and then all you hear is a thud on the roof, and you hear another thud, and then you see dust falling, and then you just see a man falling down from the sky.

I'm running.

Like, what is happening here?

This is crazy.

But their friends bring these four guys, bring their friend to the roof, and they lower him down at the feet of Jesus.

Can I tell you something, church family?

Real faith finds a way where there seems to be no way.

If we are access and we're all about people, we're gonna find a way where there seems to be no way.

Their friend said, Hey, I don't care that the door is blocked, we're gonna get you to Jesus because Jesus has something on the other side of the door that you need.

And they were willing to interrupt a moment to experience a miracle for their friend.

Church family, can I ask you a question this morning?

Who are you carrying to Jesus?

Who in your life are you carrying to Jesus?

And you're gonna find a way where there seems to be no way because we are access and we are people of faith, and we have the heart of Jesus, and we care about people, and so we're gonna do whatever it takes.

My second question for us is what are you willing to do for people?

Some of us, if I'm honest, we we we start praying for our friends and our family, and there's people in our life.

Maybe we go to work and we're like, man, I just don't know how this is gonna go if I try to ask them to come to church.

Man, every time I ask this family member, every time I ask this friend, even though I walk into my schools and I keep on talking about Jesus, they just keep on shutting me out and shutting me out and shutting me out.

Some of us we have given up on people because it's like, man, there's just no hope.

These four friends had every reason to leave their friend and just go home.

These four friends had every every right to say, hey, next time.

Maybe next time.

Next time we get to experience Jesus and see Jesus, maybe, maybe we can talk to him then.

But if real faith finds a way where there seems to be no way, we have to be persistent.

Their friends were persistent, their friends were willing to do whatever it takes to get their friend to Jesus.

Who are you carrying to Jesus?

Who are you praying for that you need to not stop praying for, but you just need to keep on praying that God will get their attention and their heart.

Because people matter to God and they have to matter to us.

We are access and we are people of faith.

And our job is not to just say we love Jesus, but we have to bring people to Him.

That is the heart of God.

Jesus came to what?

Seek and save the lost, and that should be our mission, the adherent access.

That is our heart.

That is our mission so that people can experience Jesus.

The last person we see in the scripture is the paralyzed man.

So I can only imagine, again, I can't prove this biblically or theologically, but this is just me thinking of the story.

I can't imagine being the paralyzed man in this moment.

My friends come to me and say, Hey, there's somebody that can bring healing to you.

There's somebody that can, like the condition that you have.

We don't know if if he's been, we can assume he's been like this most of his life, if not all of his life, but there's no other indication of how what happened to him in his story.

We just know him as the paralyzed man.

And I can't imagine there's there's there's some there's four of my friends come to me and they say, Hey, there's somebody that can help you.

And then he gets on this mat and they carry this man to this house.

And I can't imagine saying, just him thinking, man, this is this is finally my moment.

This is finally the moment where everything that I know about my life is going to change in a moment.

There's some hope, there's some excitement, there's probably some anticipation happening if I had to guess.

And then they get to this house is packed, and they can't get through the door.

If I'm the paralyzed man in that man, I would probably would have just told my friends, let's just go home.

Man, this is this is gonna be my life, this is how my life is gonna be.

Let's just let's just call it a day.

But their friends were persistent, their friends found a way where there seemed to be no way.

And so this paralyzed man is getting lowered at the feet of Jesus, and there's this moment where like the roof is off, he's disturbing Jesus because he was preaching, and everyone's sitting like this, like we're gathering, and there's just somebody from the sky being dropped down to the floor right in front of Jesus.

And the scripture says seeing their faith, the four friends, they had faith to believe that Jesus could heal their friends to access church.

Sometimes the miracle in someone else's life is connected to your faith.

That this man didn't get healing because of him.

This man, because of the four men that brought him, you never know what your yes is on the other side.

That this man received healing because of their friend's faith.

And so Jesus, he he looks, he looks at him, and so for some, Jesus looks at this man and says, Your sins are forgiven.

That's what he starts with.

And if I'm the paralyzed man, I can't I can't theologically prove this.

I'm confused because I did not come here for that, I came here so I can be healed and not paralyzed.

And so Jesus will always deal with the greater issue, which is our spiritual walks, that he cares about your life and eternal standing with him before anything else.

And so Jesus will always deal with the things that are deeper before he deals with the things that we actually need.

Because sometimes the thing we need most, we never realize it until we have an experience with Jesus.

And so Jesus looks at This man and says your sins are forgiven.

And then he tells him, Pick up your mat and walk.

The scripture says he jumped up and he walked.

And I love this story because what if Access Church became the church where people are carried and broken, but they walked out changed?

What if this was our story at Access Church?

That because of our faith being lived out, that the people that we invite, the people that we talk to, the people that we share our faith with, they might walk in different.

They might walk in different and broken and hurting, but they walked out changed.

See the very door this paralyzed man could not enter through, he walked out of.

This man had an experience with Jesus and it changed everything.

And here's how the story ends in Mark chapter 2, verse 12.

Mark 2:12

It says they were all amazed.

The crowd, the people that were there, they were all amazed, and they praised God, exclaiming, We have never seen anything like this before.

Church and family, what if this was our story that said we have never seen anything like this at Access Church before?

That the people that we bring into these doors, they leave different, they leave having an encounter with Jesus, and we can see a miracle after miracle after miracle after a testimony after a testimony after a testimony.

Say we have never seen anything like this at our church.

But how is this gonna take place?

It has to start with us, it has to start with us living out our faith.

So let me give you some practical things, and then we're gonna close and be done.

Let's be a church that moves aside as the crowd should have.

Let's be the type of church that we create spaces so that people can encounter Jesus.

It might mean that we might have to, for Easter, we might have to go to a different service time so that we can have this, these, these rooms filled with lost people, so that they can have an encounter with Jesus.

Let's not be the type of people that we're just so concerned about us because we all do it from time to time, myself included.

But we can't be the type of people that are like the crowd that is just there for ourselves.

Let's be the type of church that moves aside as the crowd should have.

Let's be the type of church that acts boldly as the friends did.

That these friends said, Hey, I'm I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get my friend to Jesus.

I'm willing to do whatever it takes, even if I gotta tear up somebody's house.

Because I'd rather interrupt a moment to experience a miracle.

I'd rather interrupt a moment, I'd rather be an interruption so that somebody can experience Jesus so that we can be the type of church that people come in broken, they come in hurting, but they leave changed.

So here's here's the real practical handle we have one week until Easter.

We have services Friday, Saturday, and Sunday here at this location.

There's 15 different services that we can you that you can bring a friend to.

And for and for some of us, this is the 10:30 service.

This place is always packed, and you know it.

If you're not here at 1025, you're gonna be sitting in the back.

We all know it.

It might mean you have to pick a different service time, it might mean you have to pick a different service so that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus, so that somebody can have an encounter and an experience with him.

But here's what I want you to do.

I want you to invite somebody to the Easter.

Who's the who's the friend in your life?

Who's the family member?

Who's the person at your school?

Who's the person at your workplace?

That you know you should be inviting.

That God's already laying somebody in your mind right now, and you just know you have to do it, be obedient to that.

That's the Holy Spirit talking to you.

I I play pickleball a lot in the in the city, and I talk to a million people because I love talking.

Um that's what I do.

And um the question I don't like though is when someone looks at me on the pickleball court and I just start talking with them, and they're like, Hey, so like what do you do for a living?

Like, what do you do?

What's your job?

And I always, if I'm honest, I I don't sometimes I really don't love this question because it always leads to one of two ways.

I tell my own pastor, and it either goes, Oh, and they walk away, and I never talk to them again, or they ask me a million questions, and it's never in between.

But this week, I know there's some people that I'm gonna probably play pickleball this week, and I know I'm gonna play pickleball this week at some point after my legs are not dying, after I sit over there at the piano for a little bit.

But there's some people that I know I need to just invite, and this week I'm gonna do it because we're access and we are a people of faith, and this is gonna be something that we live out, and it starts with starts with us.

So, this week, who do you need to invite to church?

Who do you need to invite to Easter?

Because there's some hurting and broken people, and if we are access and we're all about our city being changed, let it be our story that we can say we've never seen anything like this before, and not because of how great we are, it's because of how great He is.

Can I get a good amen across the room?

So here's how I want to close.

I want to pray over us.

If you can just bow your heads and close your eyes.

Father, this week, would you help us to be bold?

Would you help us to have the courage of the four friends that says we're gonna do whatever it takes to get people to experience Jesus?

So, Father, would you help us for that person that you lay on our hearts?

Would you help us to just be obedient and act out of faith to invite that person, whether it's a family member, someone at school, our friends, the coworker, would you just give us boldness and the confidence just to invite them to Easter?

Father, would you help us to create space so that people can encounter Jesus in our city?

And we'll be quick to give you all the praise.

With all heads bowed and all eyes closed, you're hearing the message about this, and maybe for somebody in the room that you just you need to come back home, that we're talking about having a faith in so that people can encounter Jesus.

And maybe this morning that's your moment.

You need an encounter and experience with Jesus.

You just need to say, Hey, I'm I'm done doing this thing my way, I'm done doing this thing the way I want.

And God, today I'm gonna make you the Lord of my life.

So if that's either needs to start or restart a relationship with Jesus, I just want you to raise a hand.

No one's looking.

I see you in the back, I see you in the back.

Here's what I want to do here at Access.

We don't pray alone.

So here's what I'm gonna do all across the room.

Can you repeat after me?

Say, Jesus, today I give you my life.

Thank you that you died on the cross, and that three days later, you rose again.

For me, Jesus, today I make you the Lord of my life for the rest of my life.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, church family.

Look up, man.

We just got people for the first time say yes to Jesus.

I love it.