4 Friends you need

Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

What a story.

In fact, what is taking place here is so exciting.

Jesus had really just launched his ministry.

And boy, is he going around into Yeah, everybody's got one.

Everybody got a worship guide.

One in the back, need one in the back there.

All right.

Make sure they get a worship guide.

And we got another one right here.

Are we out?

No, we're not.

I got one.

I got one.

All right.

And anyway, while y'all make sure everybody gets one.

Here, hey, the excitement's on.

Jesus has launched his ministry.

For months, he had been going around in the region of Tiberias into Jerusalem back, just in that whole region.

He's been ministering.

In fact, when you go back to the kind of the end of chapter one, we see in verse 23 where Jesus' power is exhibited over evil spirits, and he's delivering demons out of people.

By the way, if you don't believe in demon possession, you don't believe in the Bible.

Hello?

Now I know we don't like to think that way, we don't like to talk that way, but I'm here to tell you demons are real.

Ask, hey, I'll tell you who you need to talk to about demons.

Ask Ben.

Ask his daddy.

Every time I've been in Dar Salaam and Tanzania, you ought to have to deal head on with witch doctors.

I've had that opportunity.

That's not fun.

I've literally seen a couple of people have demons cast out of them.

I really have, folks.

So I'm not talking makeup stuff.

I mean, it's real.

So Jesus is taking on the demons, literally.

And he's casting out demons.

But the key thing that he's really doing, when he'd go into the region, he had one purpose, and that purpose was to preach the word of God.

He wanted to exalt the word of God because he knew when he was exalting the word of God, he was exalting himself.

And if he in John 12, 32, Jesus said, if I be lifted up, what?

I'll draw men into myself.

And so he's really getting popular.

He's getting kind of, hey, the word is spreading.

And if you look at verse 28 in chapter 1, and it says, and immediately the fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.

I mean, here he is.

He's doing it, buddy.

He's preaching.

And now here's the problem.

The problem is he's beginning to get famous, and he's getting famous for doing all these miracles, casting out demons, healing people.

I mean, it's running rampant all through Galilee.

Have you heard about the man from Galilee?

Have you heard about the man named Jesus?

And so everywhere he would go, crowds would start coming.

They would start coming.

And so it got to the point that he'd have to not even go on the main roads or main cities sometimes if he wanted to rest.

And so he had been ministering for months and months, and so basically, I think he was ready to take a rest.

And he was going to go back where he really, I think, was his main headquarters, even though we know Jesus didn't own a house, didn't have a house, he had no place to lay his head.

That's what the scripture says.

But he really had a real good friend named Peter.

Impetuous Peter.

Which I'm very familiar with.

I'm just like him.

No patience whatsoever.

Now I didn't know.

Was that about me or you that said amen?

But anyway, my wife said amen.

But now notice, so he decides, let's go and rest a little bit.

So let's return to Capernaum.

And Capernaum was located on the east side of the sea.

And I've had the privilege of being in Capernaum a couple of times and on the sea there, the Sea of Galilee.

And so, anyway, he's coming back into Capernaum.

And look what happens.

This is the setting of the first paragraph in chapter 2 of Mark, and also in Luke chapter 5, it's repeated.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

But notice here, as again, verse 1, and he entered into Capernaum.

After some days, months he had been preaching and ministering and healing people.

And there was, I love the King James word here.

The King James word here says, there was a noise.

That he was in the house.

And I thought to myself, wow, there's a noise.

In other words, people say, Jesus is here.

Jesus is in Capernaum.

Jesus is at Peter's house.

And I thought to myself, what a reputation that would be if people in Westover said at the church at Chelsea, Westover, that Jesus is in the house.

Jesus is in a house.

There's a noise going on over there on that property that Jesus is in the presence.

People would come from everywhere.

And they're starting to do that.

But you hadn't seen anything yet, folks, if we really let God be God.

You can't play church and watch, hey, hey, see God show up in miraculous power.

You got to be the real church, and then God not only will show up, but he'll show out.

Amen.

Yes.

And so all of a sudden we see he shows up.

And look at verse 2.

And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them.

No, not so much as about the door, and he preached the word unto them.

Notice anytime he got a crowd, the first thing he did was preach the word of God.

You ought to thank God that you and I have the privilege of being a part of a church that every time you walk in these doors, the word of God is preached.

Amen.

Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

Hey, let me tell you what's the main thing at CCW.

The main thing is the main thing, and that's preaching the word of God.

Now, I love music, I love programs, I love sports, but that's not the main thing.

The main thing's the word of God.

It never returns void, Isaiah 55.11, but it accomplishes what it is sent to do, Isaiah 55.11.

His word is with power.

Luke 4.32.

So he preached the word.

And then we see, and when they couldn't, and they look at verse 3.

And they, here's the friends.

Come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy.

He's paralyzed.

We don't know why.

Could have had a pull up, we don't know.

But he's paralyzed.

He can't walk.

Which was brought by the four.

Title of the message this morning.

Four friends you need.

And by the way, you're going to see a powerful application here.

And when they could not come into the house because the people were so tight, they were pressing in on one another.

You didn't have those clouds and third and above the concerts.

When it was finding that we had to find to get into the house of God to hear the word of the Sudden.

And then we say that they couldn't get in.

So guess what they did?

Look at verse 4.

When they could not get in.

They uncovered the roof where it was.

When they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.

And when Jesus saw their faith, the four friends and the paralyzed guy, all their faith, but really he's bringing attention to the main attention is brought to the four that had brought him.

He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

Now notice something here.

The first thing he did was save him, not heal him.

Can I get an amen?

Because the main thing's the main thing.

And the main thing is preaching the word of salvation.

It's preaching the good news, the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The healing was just a confirmation to prove who he really was.

Powerful.

Powerful.

And then, but there were certain of the scribes sitting there.

They had come from, you read Luke 5, they had come from all over the region.

The educators, the seminary grads, the theologians, the scribes, the Pharisees, I'm talking about the elite of the religious sect.

They had heard about this Jesus, so they decided they were going to come and meet him face to face.

In fact, they came there not to, hey, hey, with open eyes and hey, to see and an open heart to receive and ears to hear.

They came to confront him and to criticize him and to, I call it, debunk him.

And ultimately they crucified him.

Same sect that starts right here.

So they were reasoning.

They're thinking about how they can catch him.

How they can catch him in a lie and prove that he's not this miraculous teacher.

They wanted to catch him in a lie, catch him in false truth that they taught.

And then look at verse 7.

Why does this man thus speak blasphemy?

Now notice the progression.

First thing he starts, they start saying, Well, you know his teaching.

I don't know about his teaching.

And then, and do you understand what he just said?

He told the man, his sins be forgiven.

Do you realize there's only one person that can say your sins be forgiven?

And hey, it's God.

He is blaspheming against God.

He's literally, they never said it, but they were indicating it, he's claiming to be God.

Wow.

And immediately.

Wow.

Do you know he knows what you're thinking right now?

You said, oh my goodness.

George, you made it.

Let's give George a hand.

Amen.

Now that guy can preach.

I was, I do the homiletics on these guys that plant churches and their wives, and uh, I'll let you share it after we get through.

I got a gift for you, church has for you too.

But but listen to me, listen to me.

Here he is, and he knows what they're thinking before they say anything.

Does that not scare you?

God knows the secrets of our hearts.

Some of you thinking what I'm thinking now, get this thought out of my mind.

That's why he says, Paul says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

2 Corinthians 10, 4.

And then notice what takes place next.

Why reason ye these things in your heart?

In other words, he's telling them, hey, why are you thinking this?

Whether it is easy.

Then he said, to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and take up thy bed and walk.

But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.

He saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, take up the bed and go thy way into thy house.

And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, Woo, we never seen anything like this before.

See, not only did he say your sins be forgiven, anybody could do that.

The scribes and Pharisees could do that.

Aye, Pastor Danny could say your sins be forgiven to this paralyzed person.

But ladies and gentlemen, what confirmed him being God was when he said, Arise, take up your bed and walk.

And the guy got up.

Come on.

That's a miracle.

Now that's God.

That's not me.

That's not the preacher.

That's not the scribes.

That's not the Pharisees.

So he confirmed who he was.

They were saying that this is a lunatic.

He's saying, I'm not a lunatic.

I'm not a liar.

I'm the Son of Man.

I'm the Son of God.

And he proved it.

Jesus will always prove who he is.

Can I get an amen?

He'll never leave you doubting who he is.

So, with that said, I want us to look at three things this morning.

With this whole paragraph.

First of all, I want to look at the crowd.

And I know you don't have a place for the word crowd.

Because I thought about it after I'd already turned in the outline.

I said, man, I got to talk about the crowd.

I wasn't going to talk about the crowd, but I got to talk about the crowd.

There's always a crowd.

Always.

And guess what?

There's three types of people in a crowd.

Are you ready?

There's three types of people right here today in this crowd.

Watching online.

There's three types of people.

Every crowd has them.

Number one, there's the curious.

All these people, they're curious.

And you know why these people were curious?

They had heard the, hey, all that, hey, you want to go see a man that cast out demons?

You want to go see a man that, hey, hey, has healed people?

You want to go see a man that his words are phenomenal, they're unbelievable, they draw you to him.

This this man's, there's no man like him.

Oh, he's not like the scribes.

He's not like the Pharisees.

He's different.

I'm curious.

Let's go see who he is.

Who is he?

You always got the curious.

You know what the curious do?

They come see what's going on.

That's good.

Because guess what?

When they show up, hey, God, why do you think he always preached the word?

That's the first thing he did.

Because he knew there was a lot of people there and they were curious, and he knew that the word would pierce a lot of the curious heart and they'd get saved, they'd have a life-changing experience, and become followers of him.

So you got the curious.

Now let me tell you what curious people do.

They're in and outers.

They'll come for a while, come back a while, leave a while.

If it something's interesting to them, oh, we got a good, something's going on over there.

We got trunk or treat.

We got friend day.

We got the Martins.

I mean, they're curious.

They're gonna show up.

And and and and preachers, preacher gets that, oh, we don't look for the, we don't try to draw a crowd.

I like drawing a crowd.

Why?

Because you get a chance to preach the word everywhere I go.

I was standing there with 185,000 people in line with Chip Fuch, who is the owner of the overhauling, and some of you, all you old card guys.

And you know what I did?

I had my Jesus is awesome band on, and the first thing I asked him, I said, Chip, I think you know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

And he says, I do.

I said, I could tell, because you're the one shows you never cuss, and you, I mean, you help people.

And the long story short, now we're talking about a line of probably 500 people, and I'm there.

I happen to get there an hour and a half because I just wanted to meet him.

And I'm sitting there and I'm sharing with him and talking to him, and I said, You know, my heart's desire.

And I know I can't since you're in California, I'm on the eastern United States, would be for you to draw a picture of my El Camino.

My Chevale.

Now, some of y'all say, What is a Cheville?

It's an old car.

My wife calls it a crook.

But it's a souped-up crook.

396, 375 horses.

It's bad.

Bad to the bone.

And I said, it would be my desire for you to draw my truck.

God is my witness.

He looked at me, he took that pen he was fixing to sign my t-shirt, and he started drawing my El Kamina on my shirt.

Amen, brother.

And drew my car and then signed it.

And I said, Jesus is a sign.

And everybody just looked at me like I was crazy.

And he just smiled.

He said, He is.

Thank you.

Whatever you're saying, wherever you go, you get a crowd around.

Preach the book.

Exalt Jesus.

Exalt him wherever.

I didn't care what those people thought.

I just wanted to know that he's awesome.

And then I showed him a shirt.

Amen.

That's a big deal, folks.

So Jesus likes the crab because it's a big deal to him.

For him to exalt himself.

There's a second group of people.

You ready?

The critical.

They show up for one reason.

To see what they can pick and criticize.

Well, the preacher preaches too loud.

He preaches too soft.

He preaches too long.

I feed you, so don't worry about it.

Hey.

That's right.

But I mean, they're always criticizing.

I don't like their music.

I don't like this.

I don't like that.

I don't like, I don't like.

Well, why don't you do this?

Why don't you just find one thing you like and dwell on that?

Don't worry about the rest.

Praise God.

Hey, the seat is comfortable.

Woo-hoo! Hallelujah! My back side's not hurting.

My bag feels good.

Amen.

Find something.

Ben looks good, even though all you can see is his teeth, but he looks good in that booth.

I mean, really, folks, come on.

If all you do is get up in the morning and look for something to criticize, you're living a miserable life.

They couldn't wait to criticize.

Listen, don't that's nothing but Satan.

He's the slanderer, he's the liar, he's the accuser, exactly.

So we see this.

But then there's a third group of people.

The committed.

You know what I love about the committed?

Two things.

They're selfless.

You know what I mean by that?

See, we have some that are committed, but they're not selfless.

What I mean by that, they're committed, so they want the platform and they want the acknowledgement and they want the praise of men and not God.

These men were committed, truly committed.

You know why?

They were selfless.

It wasn't about them.

We don't even know their name.

Hallelujah! One of the greatest miracles talked about is this miracle of the four men, and we don't even know their name.

And the most talked about miracle in the New Testament, John chapter 6, is a little lad that brought his lunch to Jesus, and we don't even know his name.

John 6 · chapter mention

You know why?

If we knew their name, guess what?

We'd have a statue of them and we'd be worshiping them.

We don't even know who they are.

Don't even know.

But they were committed.

They were committed.

They were selfless.

And they were, hey, and they sacrificed.

Committed people are selfless, hey, and they sacrifice.

They had to take off from work.

Do you know how hard it is to carry a heavy guy on a stretcher?

I've done it.

And they had to take him for miles.

We don't know where they were.

We're pretty sure they weren't in Capernaum, so they had to bring him for a while a long ways.

You say a long ways, two or three miles carrying a guy on a stretcher is a long ways.

True committed people don't care who gets the credit.

They don't care what it cost.

They just keep plugging and keep working.

Can I get an amen or owe me?

For me, oh me.

I kind of like the credit sometimes.

Oh, am I the only one that says I like the credit sometimes?

Nobody even appreciates what I do.

How many times have you said that?

How many times have I said that?

Too many?

I don't ever get any respect.

Who you doing it for?

Who you doing it for, folks?

Are we doing it for Jesus or are we doing it for us?

There's a big difference.

Because if we're doing it for us, we don't care.

And I can honestly say and I mean this sincerely.

And I'm not in the doghouse.

I'm not trying to get out of the doghouse.

My wife is one of the most selfless persons I've ever met to be so gifted and talented as she is.

She gives the credit to everybody but her.

She does stuff around here you would never know, and she doesn't want you to know.

She doesn't care if you know.

Me?

I like for you to say, whoa, look at my picat.

And that's nothing but pride.

And when you say that, I lose every reward I had.

Amen.

Boy, it's gotten quiet.

We're skinning the crowd, date.

Skinning us all.

Nobody appreciates me.

I'm the, and boy, here's the one.

I'm the only one.

God forbid you say that.

Elijah said it, and God said, get up out of your cave, you you cry baby.

I got 7,000 ready to take your place.

Now I don't know about you.

I don't want to lose my place.

Amen.

The crowd.

So you, if I had to put that crowd in there, you'd have missed that.

And somebody said, I wish you had.

So we see the crowd.

Now let's look secondly at the carriers this morning.

The carriers of the friend.

Now you can fill in your blanks.

The carriers.

The carriers of this miracle.

Boy, it's good.

They're good.

There's two things about the carriers.

First of all, they had great love.

Write it in.

Great love, verse 3.

And they came unto him, Jesus, bringing with them one sick of palsy, which was born of the four.

In other words, they brought their friend.

We don't, hey, we know he had to be a friend.

He could have been a relative.

We don't know.

But they brought their friend a relative to the Lord.

They brought it, they loved him.

They knew.

In fact, the Bible very clearly, and I got a couple verses I wanted you to see there.

Psalms 126, verse 5 and 6 says, and I love this.

Psalms 126:5

Is it up there?

Psalms 126, verse 5 and 6.

Psalms 126:5

They, hey, they went forth bearing precious seed, doubtless returning, bringing their sheaves with them.

In other words, they went with a broken heart.

They who sow in tears shall reap in joy.

And then they went and they brought their friend to Jesus.

They were hungry to bring him to Jesus.

They knew that Jesus had the answer.

They knew Jesus had been healing.

And you know, maybe they were, maybe they were thinking that, hey, Jesus, you know, their ultimate purpose, and in the context that fits, the ultimate purpose was to bring him to Jesus because they knew Jesus had been healing all these people, that Jesus could heal their friend or their relative.

So they knew they had to get him to Jesus.

Who, look at verse 6, who continually goes forth weeping, bearing precious seeds, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing the sheeds with them.

Can again an amen?

You can make a difference.

You can.

And then the other verse that I wanted you to see was Psalms 142, verse 4, the psalm that says, Does anybody care for my soul?

Psalms 142:4

One of the reasons we do Friend Day is we want you to bring friends and relatives that hey don't know Jesus.

Or maybe they've wayward.

They know Jesus, but they've been out of church for a long time.

We have a lot of people like that.

And they're looking for a place that's real, not perfect.

My soul, we're people.

We got problems.

If you don't have any problems, you need to be preaching.

Then you'd have problems.

Amen.

So we see this, we see this.

Oh, it's so good, folks.

It's so good.

They they they had compassion.

They had compassion.

Notice the second thing.

Notice their capabilities in their service.

They hey.

And really, if you want to put it, well, wait a minute.

I almost missed my outline.

Go back.

I'm sorry.

I'm getting excited.

I want this to be so real in our church.

They had great love.

Let's go back to great love.

The carriers, A, they had great love.

Great love.

Excuse me.

Great love.

And then I gave you a little cross stick for love.

You gotta have this.

This has helped me more than anything.

In fact, let me say, hey, here, you know what?

As I was looking and thinking about our mission statement.

Our mission, there's a difference in your purpose statement.

Our purpose statement here at this church is sharing the good news to all generations at home and abroad.

That's our purpose statement.

But then our mission statement, and it's different, is loving God and my shirt, loving God and loving people.

That's it.

And Luke 10, 27 is our great foundational verse.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

And then how do we love our neighbor?

How do we reach out?

Other four core values.

That's how it all works.

That's how it all fits.

And that way, when somebody says, well, let's do this, if it doesn't fit in our purpose statement and our mission statement and fit in those four pillows of our core values, then we don't do it.

But they loved.

They loved, hey, their friend.

And let me show you what love is.

Ready?

Letter A, look for the good in others.

Can I get an amen?

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good.

Ephesians 4.29.

Oh, in the word love.

Offer Christ's love to others.

John 3.16, you know it.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And then let her be in the word love.

Visualize what Christ can do for others.

Because, see, a lot of times our friends and our relatives, they're lost and they're living like the devil.

You say, man, I don't know why they live like that.

I'll tell you why.

That's the way you're supposed to live if you got the devil in you.

If you're a child of the devil, that's the way you live.

You live according to the world.

They're just living like they're supposed to.

What gets me is Christians who said they're Christians that are living that way.

Uh-oh.

Visualize what Christ can do for others.

2 Corinthians 5.17.

Therefore, if any man be in Christ Jesus, he's a new creation.

Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new.

You wouldn't want to been around me before I got saved.

I guarantee it.

I wasn't that bad, but I was pretty bad.

Now, then letter E.

Exemplify a Christ-like spirit.

Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us.

Woo, that's good, folks.

Say that's good, preacher.

That's what love really is.

Look for the best.

Look for the good.

Offer Christ's love to others.

Visualize what Christ can do for others.

And exemplify Christ-like spirit to others.

And the second thing in your outline is not only did they have a great, I meant, uh, yeah, a great love, but number two, they had great faith.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he that comes to God must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

That diligently seek him.

Wow, that's good.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

That's exactly what those friends were, their faith was all about.

They didn't know how Jesus was gonna do it, but they knew he could do it.

And their job was to get his, hey, get their friend or relative to Jesus.

That was their job.

Folks, all your job is to bring people to Jesus.

Jesus will do the rest.

Can I get an amen?

Wow.

And we see that right here.

It's powerful.

We see it.

We see it.

So first of all, we see their great compassion.

We looked at that.

And then B, we see their capabilities.

Verse 3 and 4.

Their capabilities.

1 Peter 4.10.

Do we have that, Jason?

I think we do.

If not, I.

Every man, here's what it says.

Listen, 1 Peter 4.10 says, every man hath received a gift.

Even so minister one to another as good stewards of the grace of God.

There it is.

Now, leave that right there a minute.

As each one of us has received a gift.

Every one of us, once you get saved, you receive at least one gift.

Most of us more than one.

But you receive a gift.

Why?

To minister it to one another as good what?

Stewards of the manifold grace of God.

They were using their giftedness to bring their friend and relatives to the Lord.

You say, well, holding a corner of a stretcher, that's not a gift.

Yes, it is a gift.

It's a gift that you're giving to your friend or relative.

It's something that you're giving to them to help them.

That's a gift.

But yes, there's spiritual gifts too.

But we see this by the grace of God.

1 Corinthians 4, 2, moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.

That's that committed group.

That's that committed person in the crowd.

That's what we see here.

Powerful.

And then notice the third thing.

Hey, their cooperation in their service.

Verse 4.

Their cooperation.

If you cannot work together in the Lord's work, you will not do much in the Lord's work.

If you cannot work together in the Lord's work, you'll never accomplish much in the Lord's work.

1 Corinthians 3 9, we're co-laborers together.

Can I get an amen?

That's why it's so important that you find a good church.

Whether it's CCW or a church that exalts the Lord, preaches the word, and being a light in the community.

Cooperation.

They were cooperating together.

Now think a minute.

If if one of them, just one of them, had dropped their end of the stretcher, it's over.

Their buddy, their friend, their relative, they don't get to Jesus.

It's over.

If two were to drop their end of the stretcher, it's over.

You say, well, one guy could pull it by himself.

Absolutely not.

The guy would roll off.

And you've got to understand, this is a unique bed.

Back then they didn't have the stretchers like we have today.

It was a roll-up mat that he had.

So somehow they had sticks that they had the mat on tied.

I mean, it was a complicated thing for them to get that mat on some board, I mean, on some probably tree limbs or or or walking sticks or something and carry their friend.

It was not easy.

You know what I immediately I thought about?

How many people may not have come to Jesus because I dropped into my mat.

I just quit.

I didn't pick up my mat or I didn't I let it down and I didn't pick it back up.

So far my whole family, God has allowed me to witness to everyone and let a lot of them to the Lord.

Saw my mother get saved right before she died.

Three months before she died, she got saved in my living room.

I preached at my daddy's funeral, my mother's funeral, my grandmother's funeral, my granddaddy's funeral, and I had the opportunity to literally preach the gospel to everyone in my hometown and to my family members one-on-one.

After even the funeral, but also at the funerals.

Trying to do my part.

They cooperated.

A divided church won't work, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, Ephesians 4.3.

And then Philippians 1.27, listen to this.

Stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

You know while we work together?

Hey, not to get our way, but to get people to Jesus.

Then look what else.

Their commitment.

They had a lot of obstacles to overcome.

Can you imagine the crowd was hindering them?

Sometimes the crowd can be a hindrance instead of a blessing.

Can I get a no-me?

They wouldn't let them in.

I don't know about you, but if I was standing there and I saw this cripple wanting to come to Jesus, I would have done everything I could to get him, you know, to let him pass by.

They didn't.

They weren't, uh we're not budging.

You're on your own.

I had a young man from Australia in line to see Chip Foosh.

And he had missed him twice.

He said, I've tried to see this, man.

I said, Well, I'll tell you what, I promise you.

Why don't you and your friend get in front of me?

That way you'll make sure, because I know we're gonna get this far, but I want to make sure you've been you've come from Australia.

I can go see Chip in his.

I won't really want to see him, I can go to LA and see him.

But you know, the Holy Spirit just, in my spirit, just said, let him out.

Let him out.

And I was sharing Jesus, and there was two little guys that picked kids behind them and trade school, and I said, come on, don't get in front.

Y'all need to see it.

You know what?

I got my Camino drawn on my shirt.

It works, folks.

It works, it works.

I was just wanting to see him.

If I didn't get to talk to him, that'd have been okay.

I saw him, I took a picture.

But see, when you do what you're supposed to do, God always does what he wants to do.

He honors you.

He honors faithfulness and commitment.

And then look at the fifth thing.

Look at their cleverness.

I meant, they decide we're gonna take the roof off.

Back then, let me tell you what the houses were made out of.

First of all, they would build stairs up to the side of the house because the roof was a flat roof, and they would put logs and big, kind of like beams, and then they'd cut trees and limbs and put on there, and then they'd take mud and put on top of that.

So, I mean, it was a pretty ordeal.

You could literally sit on that roof, you could walk on the roof.

It was kind of like a deck.

And now all of a sudden, Jesus is preaching, buddy, and all of a sudden, bam, poof, poof.

I meant mud, sticks, wood starts falling down on the people.

I don't teach them to not get out of the way.

Bam! And you know who was sitting on the front row?

The scribes and Pharisees.

When I get to heaven, I'm gonna say, I bet you, I'm gonna ask Peter, I bet them all that because they had their pretty robes on, I bet they got a All the dirt and everything right on them.

Oh my goodness, you oh the priest's garment, you heard?

Give me a break.

Amen.

Now watch.

And then they start lowering him down.

Now watch.

You can't do it on your own time.

You gotta work together.

Can you imagine if I'll let go before the other guy go?

Bright.

Now he's gotta raise him from the dead.

He can't just kill him, he's gotta raise him from the dead.

You're talking about cooperating.

Oh, the precision, the unity, the commitment.

And then think about the cost of the service.

It cost them.

Now wait a minute.

Think a minute.

Probably Peter's house, or Peter's mother's house, really, or grandmother.

But Peter's there, and all of a sudden he sees his home coming down, and I'm thinking, or if you're the chairman of the building committee, Bob, oh my goodness, who's gonna fix that roof?

Me!

Now wait, watch this.

It's gonna cost something to fix that roof.

Let me tell you something.

Christians complete the job.

I believe with all my heart those four men fixed that roof after their buddy was hill and left.

They didn't leave that hole in that roof.

They fixed that roof.

It cost them.

It cost them their time, their talents, and their treasures.

Listen to me, folks.

Listen to me.

Look at me.

You don't need to ask Jesus Christ to come into your life if you're not really ready for true commitment.

Well, you're just telling us then to leave.

No, I didn't say that, but I'm telling you, you can't half-heartedly serve God and expect Him to bless you.

You're either all in or you're not.

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 6: either you're for me or against me.

That's powerful.

You gotta be all in.

It cost them.

Then notice the next thing.

I forgot the number five, the clever the creativity.

They were creative by opening the roof.

Make sure you put that in there.

They were creative.

They didn't, hey, you know what most people do?

I can't get in.

Well, let's wait.

We'll have to find out where Jesus is going next, and we'll try to be there.

We'll just have to go home.

We can't get in there tonight.

They didn't do that.

They were creative.

They were clever.

They didn't give up.

They kept thinking, what can we do?

And one of them suggested, let's go up and knock a hole in the roof.

Now I'm sure if I was one of those carrying the stretcher, I probably wouldn't have thought of that.

And even when my buddy said, Let's go knock a hole in the roof, I probably said, Woo! I've never done that before.

And that's exactly what they said.

Never seen it that way before.

But just because you've never done it that way doesn't mean it can't be done.

And that's a holdy, goldy one.

Well, we can't do that.

We've never done it that way before.

Duh! Well, if you never, hey, you keep doing the same thing, you're gonna keep getting the same thing.

One thing about here, if it didn't work, we'll we'll do something else.

Create creativity.

It's awesome.

And then the last thing.

Honey, have I filled in all the blanks?

I'm so number seven.

Their carefulness.

They were careful.

What do you mean by that?

Folks, when we are helping people, we gotta be sensitive and careful.

Can I get an amen?

You just don't blow them away.

You love them.

They were careful on how they let him down.

They were careful on how they brought him to Jesus.

They took good care of him before he got to Jesus.

Can I get an amen?

Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God's sake has forgiven us.

Praise the Lord.

Ephesians 4:30.

Ephesians 4:30

Be careful.

Be sensitive.

Be caring.

Don't be a bully.

Don't be prideful.

Be careful.

Love everybody.

Can I get an amen?

Love everybody.

That's what I love about our church.

And then let me go back over and make sure you got them.

They were compassionate.

They were talented.

They had capabilities.

They were cooperative.

They had the commitment.

They had the creativity.

It cost them.

And they were careful.

They were caring.

Service sometimes requires inconvenience and sacrifice.

And it does.

You know what David said in 2 Samuel 24, 24?

One of my greatest Old Testament verses.

I will not offer up anything to God.

Now listen.

It does not cost me something.

Wow.

Wow.

When somebody needs some clothing, clothes, don't go to you and give them the old stuff.

Go buy them something.

Or if you want me, I can go to my closet and my I have tags still on the church adding more.

Brand new.

But I'm getting that, I'm about down.

I'm cleaning out, baby.

Be careful.

You know why I'm so excited?

Listen.

We've got that whole educational way.

I just went down and looked our freezers in starting first of the year.

We're going to be brand, we're going to be loving people to Jesus through distributing food and helping people.

Oh, it's going to be awesome.

Next year we're going to have a mom's day out helping these young couples.

Everything we're doing, God has given us a vision five years ago, and now we're seeing it literally take place here in this community church.

Is that not awesome?

Don't you want to be a part of that?

And then I, third thing.

We had the crowd, we had the carriers.

Now we have the cure.

The cure of the miracle.

Verses 5 through 12.

First of all, we see the cause of the cure.

The cause of the cure is Jesus.

They knew if they could get their friend or relative to Jesus, he would help him.

He would help him.

Jesus says, say it with me.

I am the way, the truth, the life.

No man cometh unto the Father except by and through me.

John 14, 6.

Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Acts 4, 12.

Christ was the one who caused the healing and the miracle.

And then notice the condition for the cure.

Their faith.

When he saw their faith.

When he saw their faith.

Man.

Three things here God taught me about their faith.

They believed Christ was the only way.

Their belief was persistent.

They didn't give up.

They were determined.

They found a way.

And then the last thing, they sacrificed.

The sacrifice.

Romans 1.16.

They sacrificed.

They were not ashamed of the gospel.

They were not ashamed.

Can you imagine?

Hey, they didn't care what people thought of them.

Can you imagine what must have been going through people's minds when they saw them breaking the roof, knocking a hole in the roof?

They didn't care.

They didn't care.

It wasn't about them.

They didn't care what people thought.

All they cared was they knew that if they got their friend to Jesus, he was going to take care of them.

Now notice what Jesus did.

He forgave the sins first.

You know why Jesus would have to slip away?

Jesus knew that the majority of the crowd was coming for the wrong reason.

They were coming for the miracles, not the master.

He knew that.

A lot of people come to Christ for what, hey, they can get out of Christ instead of what Christ can give to them.

Or what they can give to Christ.

Amen?

Four friends you need in your life.

You just met them.

Two things.

They had great love and they had great faith.

Those are four friends you need.

Now let me ask you something.

Do you have those friends?

Let me ask you another question.

Are you that friend?

Are you that friend?

I know I got four friends like that.

I know.

I think I got a few more than that.

And I really believe in my heart that I am that friend to several people.

I really do.

And I hope I'll be that friend to you as your pastor.

I strive to be that to you.

Susan and I both do.

Do you have a friend that sticketh closer than a brother?

You have Jesus.

He is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

But do you have a friend?

They don't know?

Hey, they don't want you to say anything about their name.

They don't want you to say anything.

Hey, but they're right there for you.

They're right there for you.

They're right there.

Is there somebody you know right now you could call?

I don't care where they are, they could be in Africa.

They could be down the street, they could be in California.

You could call them and they'd drop whatever they needed and they'd be there.

You have those friends.

Do you have the character?

Those friends have those characteristics.

Great love, great faith.

Wow.

I'm telling you, that's comforting.

You know what God's Word says?

It's better to have a great name than riches and goat.

Can I get an Amen?

And you know what a great name is?

It's a name that's committed to Christ.

A person that is committed to Christ.

That's a great, hey, that's a great name.

That's a great freedom.

It'll be there.

Every head bow, every eye close.

You're here this morning, you say, Pastor Danny.

I don't know Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

I don't know Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

But right now I'm gonna ask you, Father, to come into my heart and my life and save me.

You're here this morning, and if you're to die right now, and you know for sure you'd go to heaven.

And the Bible says these things have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

1 John 5, 13.

If you know that to be a fact in your life, you know when you changed.

You know it.

You know it.

Would you slide your hand up?

Don't be ashamed all over the building.

Come on, all over the building.

Thank you, thank you.

I know that I'm saved.

You may be here this morning and watching online, and you are doubting your salvation, or you're you're there's there's not that surety that you're saved.

Would you pray with me this what we call the sinner's prayer that the thief on Calvary prayed?

It's very simple.

Would you pray this silently as I pray it out loud?

Would you say, dear Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I can't save myself.

But right now, Jesus, I'm asking you to come into my heart, come into my life, and to save me and to change me.

Thank you, Father, for saving me.

Now give me the courage to live for you.

In Jesus' name.