Encounters With God: "We Have Never Seen Anything Like This." | Part 1

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna uh talk about the Bible.

I'm gonna read to you what it says.

Hopefully, we can talk about what it means.

Um, and then obviously I'll tell you what to do based on a microphone, and that's what people who have a microphone do.

They tell you what to do.

Um, and then we'll pray and cry.

Mostly that'll be me.

And then I'll get you out of here.

Sound good?

Here's what's gonna happen.

Uh, this isn't on the slides, but I'm gonna read it to you.

If you were at church last week, I read it as our call to worship.

Um it's 2 Corinthians uh chapter 10, it's just two verses.

Uh the Bible says this there.

Uh we are human, but we don't wage war as humans do.

We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly ones, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.

We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God.

We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

Then I'll go back to that part in verse 5.

It says, we destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God.

New King James or King James, I'm not sure exactly which one it is, but it reads the scripture and it says, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, right?

They're not flesh and blood.

Um the whole idea of this is there are things that are happening, right?

Obviously, we have this physical world where you can see me and I can see you, and we can talk to each other, but in the unseen realms, in the spiritual places, right, and in the heavens, there's another place where things happen.

And in that space specifically, there are obstacles to knowing God.

And my hope is not necessarily just like preaching or teaching to you.

We'll see a lot of scripture, and I'll say things that you've probably heard before.

But my hope is that like we encounter these scriptures, we have this conversation, um, I make bad jokes, you laugh anyway to make me feel good, you know.

We cry, mostly me, again.

Like we do these things, we're gonna focus on Jesus, and as we talk about these things, we'll use this these spiritual weapons, this warfare, this worship, this preaching, this teaching to actually get rid of some of the barriers to knowing God.

Are you okay with trying to do that with me today?

Literally, you slept in.

You should be awake.

Are you okay with trying to do that with me today?

Yes.

Thank you.

Some of you that didn't say anything.

You I know you're a libertarian, right?

No one tells you what to do, but gosh.

Come on.

Uh we all know it.

Come on.

Love you.

All right.

Here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna read the scriptures and then I'm gonna talk, and then actually we're gonna read the scriptures and pray because I probably shouldn't have said that.

Um, and then we'll talk.

Okay.

Um is what I affectionately refer to as the servant's gospel.

All four gospels kind of have like um have a direct audience, right?

They have the people that they're intended to encounter.

They're also written to portray Jesus a certain way, right?

So Matthew, you'd see, like, shows Jesus as king.

That's what it talks about, like the lineage, you know, from David's line and all like him, obviously.

He's king, he's like David's heir, you know.

Mark shows Jesus as a servant, like serving people, doing lots of things like that.

Luke has is really descriptive, lots of detail, so it shows Jesus as a man, and then John, the Gospel of John, really portrays Jesus as God, as divine, right?

Um, I like Mark.

Number one, it's the shortest, amen.

Uh and number two, I just really like Jesus as a servant.

That really appeals to me.

You know, so anyway, we're gonna read this.

Um, because I was raised apostolic Pentecostal, you I'm gonna ask you to stand up and honor the word of the Lord, okay?

So when we read the scriptures, that's what you do.

You're not gonna have to read it aloud, though, because I can't read that well, you can't read that fast.

It's it's gonna be fine.

All right, Bible says this, Mark chapter two.

When Jesus came back to Capernaum a few days later, it was heard that he was at home, and many were gathered together so that there was no longer space, not even near the door, and he was speaking the word to them.

And some people came, bringing to him a man who was paralyzed, carried by four men, and when they were unable to get to him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after digging an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralyzed man was lying.

And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven.

But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking it over in their hearts, why does this man speak that way?

He's blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins except God alone?

Immediately Jesus, aware in his spirit, what they were thinking, and that they were thinking that way within themselves, said to them, Why are you thinking about these things in your hearts?

Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and pick up your mat or your pallet and walk, so that you may know that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.

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

And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out into the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and they were glorifying God, saying, We have never seen anything like this.

It's Mark 2, 1 through 12 in the NASP.

While you're standing, let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, uh, thank you for your word, thank you for your scriptures.

I pray that they would encounter us.

Lord, that um as we read these scriptures, as we talk about what they mean, Lord, that uh by the power of your Holy Spirit you change us from the inside.

God like Isaiah, would you touch my lips with hot coal?

Lord, that so you purify them and clean them so that everything comes out is of you.

Lord, if there's anything God that would seek to distract us, um, I pray that you just silence it, that you'd focus our attention um God on your voice, on your words, God on your will, and we would be responded to in a change according to your image in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You guys can have a seat.

Thanks for standing with me.

Um I kind of came up in a Hillsong church.

Like I, you know, I got saved to Apostolic Pentecostal, but I left it.

Clearly, the services are three hours long, and you have to dress up.

It's like 50 degrees hotter than this room, which is crazy.

And you're wearing like a three-piece suit, it's a mess.

And then I really cut my teeth at a Hillsong, may they rest in peace.

Um, and then if you know, you know, you've seen the documentary.

Anyway, so I'm gonna tell a story, then we're gonna talk about how it applies.

If you watched it, so did I.

All right.

Um, I'm gonna tell a story about my friend when I changed her name to Chriselle.

Shout out to my Selling Sunset girlies, if you know you know.

Um, no one here watches Selling Sunset?

A couple?

Thank you, thank you.

I'm gonna rebuke you for it later, so I'm so glad.

But anyways, don't worry, I'm way worse than all of you.

We'll talk about it.

Anyways, not my story.

I'm gonna call my friend Chriselle.

It's like 10 years ago, living in Ohio.

Um, Chriselle graduated college, was working, wanted to go to grad school, applied to grad school, right, uh, and got an interview.

And so she's like, Oh, I'm so nervous.

I need time to like prepare, so I'm gonna go pray and read my Bible, spend time with God.

So I'm gonna go to this cool coffee shop.

Coffee shop's called Ghost Light.

And Chriselle's like, here's the thing, Ghost Light's around the corner from uh UD, University of Dayton, where she applied.

She's like, I'm gonna go there and then I'm just gonna spend some time reading my Bible, get some coffee, then just walk across the street and go to school, have this interview.

So she gets there, you know, and Ghost Light's really cool.

It's like it's really like an old house.

Um and so you walk into like the side door, like the side of the house, and there's a hallway.

Um and to the right, there's like a room that would have been like a bedroom or something, but they've turned it into like a quiet study area.

And if you turn left when you go inside the house, you like walk down the hallway, and where the kitchen and living room uh and like dining room would be, they've gutted it and it's like opened up into a real, like just like coffee shop space.

And where the kitchen is is kind of like where they make the coffee, you know, all the things like that.

So anyway, so she goes in, orders a drink, sits down, is talking.

I mean, not talking, talking to God, reading the Bible.

Um, and she's like, Uh-oh, coffee's a diuretic.

I have the potty, you know.

So she gets up and she walks back down the hallway to go.

And no, she doors locked.

And she's like, ah, maybe it's one of those places where you need a key, right?

Goes back around and she talks to the girl working, and she's like, uh hey, do you have a key for the bathroom?

And the girl's like, no, no key for the bathroom.

If it's locked, that means that somebody's in there.

And I like, or Chriselle, whoopsie! Did that first hopefully she hasn't watched this.

Anyway, so she sits down, uh, man leaves the bathroom.

At this point, she says it's in a hurry.

We don't actually know.

Either way, Chriselle's like, ah, left the man left the bathroom in a hurry.

I have to, I'm in a hurry, also.

I've been waiting, I need to go.

And so she goes to the bathroom and goes.

Um, and so she's in there and she says, Looking back, I should have known, because like telltale sign of a clogged toilet is like toilet paper swirling around, you know?

You go to a public restaurant and you're like, there's toilet paper in there, it's probably not going down, you know.

She didn't think anything of it.

She went.

She went.

Okay.

Um, and so she's finishing and she you know, finishes up.

And this is a classy lady, I'm telling you, velvet everywhere, you know, corduroy velvet, she's fancy.

She goes to flush and the water starts to rise.

And she does what any reasonable person would do when like you know, the the toilet starts to rise.

You flush it again, hoping that it actually goes down, you know, and it didn't.

It kept going.

And she's like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, this bathroom has clogged, it's got my junk in there.

You know, like what am I going to do?

And so she's like, Ah, I know when the bathroom would clog, you know, at home growing up, my dad would just like open up the commode and like jiggle the handle a little bit or something.

So she's like, I can do that.

So she takes off the commode, being the handywoman that she is, and she starts jiggling like you know, the chain inside the commode inside the commode, not knowing that that's actually the mechanism that makes water keep flowing.

And so in this moment, she jiggles and it flows, right?

She says things are mm-hmm, it's swirling around at the top, water's coming out of the bowl, and she's like, Yeah, please, please, please, please, please.

And I don't know who she was pranking to, but he didn't answer, okay?

Because at that moment, the chain broke, okay?

And the mechanism just keeps going.

So it's overflowing at this point, continually.

Water's just flowing, and it's like that kind of water, okay?

It's going, it's going.

She doesn't know what to do.

She's getting wet, you know.

Crazy.

All of a sudden, her eyes open, sees the plunger next to the toilet that she should have used in the first place.

But this point, it's no use.

But she's gonna try it anyway.

She maneuvers around, okay?

You know, water's still coming out at this point.

That's continuous.

And she's plunging, plunging, plunging, plunging.

Water is getting everywhere.

Not only is it continually flowing, the bowl is full, okay?

So she's splashing poopy water everywhere, okay?

She's going, she's going, she's like, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do?

At this point, she's sloshing around, okay, like singing in the rainstile, you know, like and the water is everywhere, and she's like, I have to go.

I have to leave.

I have an interview.

I'm late, my shoes have poop water on them.

Like, what am I going to like?

But I have to leave.

Like, what am I gonna do?

What am I gonna do?

And so she's like, I'm gonna muster up the courage, go outside, tell them sorry, scram.

Okay, that's what I'm gonna do.

Now, she sloshes over, swims, mind you.

Like, you know, she sloshes over to the door and opens it up.

I told you the ghost light had a hallway, right?

Uh-huh.

She opens the door, and little poopy river is starting to seep out from under the door and down into the hallway where everybody's sitting.

Yeah, it's disgusting.

And so she's like, oh my god.

So she hops to the Poopy Jordan River, okay?

And she bums out.

And she's like, oh my god, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.

She was like, I was gonna leave, but I can't.

I asked the girl for the bathroom key.

She knows that it was me.

So she goes back to the girl.

She's like, hey, sorry, like the bathroom.

I think it was clogged before I went in there and used it, but I used it, and now it's clogged and overflowing.

I tried to fix it, I couldn't fix it.

And now it's overflowing out into here.

Like it's really, really, really, really, really bad.

Please you have to fix it.

But I would love to take it out, but I can't have to go.

I have to have to go, I have to go, I have to go, go.

And the girl's like, no worries, it's okay.

And Chriselle's like, no, you don't understand.

This is bad.

And the girl, the girl's like, no, don't worry about it.

And she goes, I obviously can't do anything else.

Obviously, she'll probably like slosh around in it, too.

You know what I mean?

Before she realizes there's a problem.

Christelle hops back over the river, okay, and then runs outside.

Happily ever after.

She gets into grad school, gets her dream job.

It's absolutely amazing.

I mean, it was amazing too, because like uh she said she goes back like six months later, bleached hair, wore glasses, cut the bangs.

Whole situation.

She was like, I was expecting to walk in and see like a most wanted picture.

And like, girl, poopy shoes, like she did it.

Don't let her back in.

Why do I tell you all that?

No reason.

But really, really, no reason.

Because you don't know her.

You won't know her.

Like, she lives across the country at this point.

Like, you are in no way informed by any of the details of that story.

You don't even know if I'm telling the truth.

I am, I swear.

But like you have no idea.

And I tell you that, in a similar way, that you heard this story, that I heard this story, that we experience this story together, for better or for worse.

Okay.

Um like I want us to be moved by the accounts of scriptures the same way we're moved by stories.

Right?

There's so many stories that we hear, so many things that we're passionate about, so things that we're really moved by, so many causes we'll spring into action for.

And maybe it's just me.

I doubt it.

I don't, you know, but it might just be me.

Most of the times, nine nine times out of ten, those things are not about Jesus.

And they don't have any life in them.

Much like this poopy story.

I'll give you an example.

A couple examples, actually, a whole list.

We talked about emo night a few months ago, right?

I go to that thing every every month, just about.

It seems like they have them all the time, at least once a quarter.

And all those lyrics are so sad about being depressed and being lonely.

And what do I do?

I gather in a room with hundreds of other people and scream at the top of my lungs about how sad that I am.

I'm not that sad.

Not anymore, at least.

It really was a phase, a little bit.

You want to know your thing?

I told you about Beyonce at a leadership event, I think like a year ago, team night.

First 10 seconds, she comes out out of the ground.

I'm screaming, lost my voice.

I have never screamed that way for Jesus.

Not for worship, not my favorite worship leader, not for a good sermon.

Never in my life.

I've seen Coldplay like four times at this point.

Coldplay.

Screaming, tear stream, your face, crying.

Chris Martin doesn't know me.

He won't know me.

But I'm spending my money and my time and my effort and my energy getting caught up into these lyrics, and they have no life in them.

None.

Concerts aren't your thing.

How about sports?

My wife casually wears um an LA Dodgers hat all the time.

Don't boo.

We'll have a problem if you do.

She's great.

All the time.

So many of you and people in this city, right?

In Giants territory will be like, go Dodgers.

You know what I mean?

It'll be like, LA really, Britta?

It's crazy.

The Giants don't know you.

They won't know you.

There's no life in a Giants game.

We'll move on.

We'll move on.

Tough crap.

Football, 49ers territory, right?

You guys will skip church to go watch the 49ers.

On a regular basis.

Football season, half y'all, not here.

It's crazy to go watch some men run around in tights.

And then you'll be mad when they lose for days.

Days.

There's no life in it.

None.

It adds nothing to you, nothing of eternal value.

And they don't know you.

You're about to argue with somebody who has on like a Rams t-shirt.

I did it one time.

Okay, we moved it from LA.

Mad at me.

Still, to this day, I hear people, me wearing that Rams t-shirt.

I don't know them, they don't know me.

And it doesn't really matter.

Sports is a little tough though for this crowd, so I'll keep going.

Game of Thrones?

House of Dragons.

Anybody watch that?

Mm-hmm.

I know you do.

That's okay.

I'll watch it too.

I'm telling you all this because do the same thing.

There's no life in that show.

It's literally about like murder and treachery.

It's terrible.

For the soul.

Good for the enjoyment.

Thank you, HBO.

Not your cup of tea?

Bridgerton.

The Bachelor.

Too hot to handle.

We watch that all the time.

Terrible.

No life in it.

It's literally awful.

Selling Sunset.

Selling OC.

Selling Manhattan.

No, no, no, it's awning Manhattan, buying London, selling Tampa.

We watch them all.

All this money, so much Botox, so many fillers, right?

All of this stuff, no life.

Nothing.

And we're wrapped up into these stories.

I argue with people that go to this church about whether to believe someone or not in selling OC.

It's crazy.

We argue about it.

More than we talk about Jesus.

Isn't that crazy?

I know it is.

That's why I said it.

Alright, Bible says this in 2 Timothy chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

All scripture in the NSB, NASB, North American Standard Bible, it says this.

All scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training and righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable and equipped for every good work.

I like the way the message says it.

It says it like this.

There's nothing like the written word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful in one way or another, showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live in God's way.

Through the word we were put together and shaped for the task God had for us.

This book, this story, right?

This one book.

One collection, right?

Sixty-six books.

Like thousands of years, hundreds of people, multiple parts of the world, page after page, story after story in this book, we see that from the beginning of time, God has always made it a priority to meet with his people.

Right?

This has real life in it.

I left the Apostolic Pentecostal church.

Number one, it was too long, and I got tired of being told to speak in tongues all the time.

It was crazy.

Came to a church right here that has like an hour, 15 minute service.

It's great.

So what about Jesus?

But like, if the spirit is not really your thing, one day it will be.

I hope that you encounter God that way.

But this, at the very least, has life in it.

It really, really has life in it.

There are stories to get caught up in and to care about and to be changed by and to be moved by.

And I hope we do that over the next four weeks.

Clearly, right?

There's a few other people preaching.

They'll be much better than this.

Please come back.

But my prayer for you as an individual, for me as an individual, for us as a body, as a community, as a church, it's like through our studies and conversations that we really glean the wisdom from people that encountered God in the written scriptures.

And that we're changed.

Right?

That we're really corrected, that we're really strengthened, that we're really rebuked, right?

That God really rips some stuff up out of us and equips us for his work.

That's the whole reason we come here.

I'm gonna put verses one and two on the screens.

Bible says this.

Uh we'll just go by it verse by verse essentially and talk about it.

Um and two.

When Jesus came back to Capernaum a few days later, it was heard that he was at home, and many were gathered together so that there was no longer space, not even near the door, and he was speaking the word to them.

So coming up to Mark 2, uh, Mark chapter 1, uh servants gospel, right?

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Jesus gets commissioned, he has his baptism, Holy Spirit descends like a dove, and Jesus is literally going around doing his ministry, he's preaching the word, and he's healing people, healing, healing, healing.

Mark chapter 1 talks about Jesus healing a man that was uh afflicted by demons, okay?

Mark 1 · chapter mention

And they were Jesus was like, Hey, you've been afflicted, you've been set free, go back and mind your business.

Guys, like, actually, I'm not gonna go mind my business.

I'm gonna go tell the ten cities, okay?

Hold the copolis.

And people are like, Oh, this guy Jesus heals.

I'm gonna go follow him.

So Jesus is being followed by crowds, masses, continuing to do healings, continuing to preach.

Um, and so much so, he goes, like he normally does, to go get away and to pray to God.

And the Bible says um in verse Mark 1:38, he says, Um, his purpose in Galilee was to preach.

Mark 1:38

Simon Peter comes up to him with a few other disciples, with a few other of the disciples, and he says, Uh, Jesus, hey, they're looking for you.

People are looking for you, with the intent that Jesus would continue to heal.

And Jesus says, No, I came to preach.

I'm going around to the cities to preach.

Obviously, it's well within his abilities to heal, right?

Obviously, he's willing to do it.

He's done it so many times before.

But his purpose was to preach.

I want to highlight the last phrase right there.

Um verse two, he was speaking the word to them.

It really stuck out to me when I was studying it.

Because uh in the Gospel of John, it really identifies Jesus as the Word, right?

It says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God.

Through the Word, all things were made and sustains all things.

That word, right, was preaching the Word.

It's kind of crazy, right?

This eternal God, like this person, this this being, this thing, that's so amazing, was preaching himself.

And that was his intent.

Which takes us to the first point.

The primary purpose of an encounter with God is to know God.

The word, the living word, was preaching the written word so that people could really understand it.

Colossians 1 says it this way Christ.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.

For through him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.

He made the things we can see and the things we can't see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through him and for him.

He's quite literally everything.

And everything, put on flesh, right?

With a face that we could see, with eyes that you could really look into, with a voice that you could hear and understand, a person to walk with, right?

So that we could know God.

That's really amazing.

Especially if you think about the history of like Israel and the church.

They messed it up in the garden and walking with Jesus like this, walking with God like this.

And so over the course of time, God has continually been making ways for people to meet with Him.

At first it was a tent, then it was a tabernacle.

Then you have Jesus, like face to face.

And now, like us on this side of the gospel on the cross, like have the presence of the Holy Spirit living on the inside.

God, the purpose of an encounter with God is to know God.

Does that make sense?

Thanks.

We're going to keep going, verses three through five.

And some people came, bringing to him a man who was paralyzed, carried by four men.

And when they were unable to get to him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after digging an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralyzed man was lying.

And Jesus, seeing their face, said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven.

Imagine this.

God's coming to your house.

Okay?

Him and his friends, he's been going around.

God's coming to your house.

And so you clean up, right?

You tidy up.

He always has a gang with him, so you rearrange your furniture.

Okay?

You know that he likes wine and fish and loaves and you know, quail eggs or whatever.

Some unleavened bread, that's really his thing.

Okay?

And so you make it enough for him and his friends, and you're anticipating God coming to your house.

And then God gets to your house.

And not only does he bring the gang with him, it's everybody around town.

All the neighborhoods.

Campbell, Willow Glenn, South San Jose, the Boonies, literally.

Willow, Morgan Hill.

Like they came up.

Hollow, Morgan Hill.

They came up.

Like everybody's in your house.

They're eating up your food.

They took your spot next to Jesus.

Okay.

They're dirty, right?

Ain't no roads.

It's dusty.

You know they smell bad.

They've been walking around for days.

It's hot.

They smell, and they're in your house, taking up space, eating up your food, on your good furniture.

That's crazy.

And after all that's happening, after you've slaved your entire way, your entire day away to meet with God, which was your pleasure because it is the Lord, okay?

Someone is opening up your roof.

Some hoodlums get up on your roof and start ripping it open.

And they lower their friend down.

So not only have you spent your entire day, they're messing up all your stuff, you have structural damage to your home.

And you know Judas Iscariot is stingy with the coin purse.

So it's not like you're getting reimbursed.

Okay?

I would be upset.

I would use a different word, but this is a microphone and this is on the internet.

I would be upset.

Right?

I'm not upset though, because it's not my house.

I just get to be amazed.

Because these people were desperate to get their friend to Jesus.

They were gonna do whatever it took to get to wherever he was.

And not only were they gonna do what it took to get to where he was, right?

Their friend needed a healing.

Their friend was paralyzed.

This guy, like he was like, oh, condition, Jesus fixes those.

I'm gonna get you there.

They were desperate.

Imagine climbing upon the roof with someone who can't move, ripping it open, and lowering someone down.

That's amazing.

And the most amazing thing about it is that God responds to it.

Next point.

God responds to faith-filled desperation.

Psalm 51 is a song of repentance.

Uh you probably heard it before about like purge me with hyssip, don't take your Holy Spirit away from me.

It gets toward the end at 16 and 17.

Um, and the psalm is, it's David this time, and he says, He's like, Oh, if you delighted in burnt offerings and sacrifices, I would do that.

But that's not what you want.

What a broken and contrite heart you won't deny.

And uh and a or a broken heart you won't deny, and a broken and contrite spirit you won't despise.

God really, he's like, I would do all the extra, I would do all the things, I would do all the stuff if that's what you wanted, but that's not what you want.

You really want my heart.

You really want my desperation.

God loves when we know that we need him.

The other thing, um, Hebrews 11, uh, verse 1 says, for faith is the what?

Substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.

What would it be like if people like you and me really embraced our need for God and like were confident that he could fix them, that he could do it, you know?

Maybe it is like paralysis or healing or something, something physical that really needs to be in working order, whatever it is, right?

Whatever it is, like fill in the blank.

What would it be like if I took that thing to God?

Gosh, I can't pay my bills.

God, I know that you're gyrup.

I have I literally, there's nothing that I can do.

I know that you're a provider.

What would it be like if I actually took those needs to God?

You know?

Patience.

I have a wife and kids now, they get on my nerves.

God is patient.

He's the most patient, he's the most loving, he's the most kind.

I'm continually at a deficit.

What would it be like if I recognized my need for love and patience and kindness and grace for the people that matter to me most, just like Jesus did and knew that he could give me that.

Wouldn't that be amazing?

Casually, I've been struggling with like mental health stuff for like 20 years.

Like, I think it was 11 or 12.

I was like diagnosed with like ADHD and depress like a depressive disorder and all sorts of stuff like that.

And I'm kind of ashamed to say, like, even like standing up here, um, and it's been ups and downs over the last 20 years.

Most of them have been okay.

Um, but like I I've never, I could probably count on my fingers the times that I actually took that to God.

It's like, oh God, I'm really sad and I can't do anything about it.

My body doesn't work the way that it should.

I don't produce the things that I need to produce.

I don't have what I need, God, but I know that you actually do.

So can you help me with this?

I don't think I've ever sincerely probably count on my fingers.

Sincerely, I don't think I've ever taken that to God.

And not saying that you can like pray it away, because clearly that doesn't work.

We'd all be in perfect health if you could say one quick prayer and everything go away.

Sometimes it does.

Praise be to God.

Supernatural spirit, like Holy Spirit does supernatural amazing things and healings and stuff like that really comes into working order sometimes when I pray.

But my story is that it isn't.

And I haven't actually really taken it to God that way.

Like, like, not like unseriously, but in a way that I really recognize my need for him and have faith that he can do something with it.

And I wonder what it would be like, you know?

If I if I actually was full of faith and desperate for his presence.

Like what would happen?

I'll keep going.

Uh verses 6 to 9, Mark chapter 2 say this.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

But some of the scribes, these religious leaders, were sitting there and thinking it over in their hearts.

What does this man, like, why does this man speak that way?

He's blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins except God alone?

Immediately, Jesus, aware in his spirit of what they were thinking that way within themselves, said to them, Why are you thinking about these things in your hearts?

Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up and pick up your palate and walk.

Obviously, there's some people in the crowd that are like, What is going on?

Specifically these religious leaders, right?

These people who are who really know the law.

And they have this growing negativity, this growing discomfort.

First are confused, what's happening?

A little bit uncomfortable.

What is he doing?

Full-on rejection.

This is blasphemy.

He can't do that.

He's not God.

And aside from them, which really makes sense for who they were, think about the rest of us, you know, in that room with the roof getting ripped open.

Obviously, Jesus, this man came here to be healed, and you're talking about sins and calling him son.

Why wouldn't you just do the thing that we need you to do?

Right?

I think the answer is this.

It's because God, right?

The Lord is the answer to whatever it is that you think that you need.

The first time I heard that, I was watching Jesus Culture Encounter in 2012.

Shout out to my charismatic millennials who would watch worship sets and listen to songs that are 20 minutes long.

Um me.

And Kim Walker was singing it.

She was singing Father of Lights, I think, like everything good comes from me, Father of Lights.

Anyway, she goes on to like the spontaneous worship moment at the end.

And she's like, Oh, if he's your peace if you need peace, he's your healer if you need a healer, if he's your provider, if you need provision.

Like God is love if you feel unlimited.

He's whatever you think that you need.

He is the answer.

He is the answer, he is the answer.

And it's really true.

At that moment in my life, I was sitting down uh at a little computer desk in like a room that was probably the size of a Harry Potter closet, okay?

And I had moved clear across the country because of a bad relationship with my parents, partially and partially because I wanted to pursue like a ministry opportunity.

And then the ministry opportunity wasn't happening, and I was alone in November in the dead of winter, which is November in other parts of the country, literally negative degrees, snowing.

I was there and I was alone, and I lived in that room by myself, had no friends.

I would take the bus an hour to go to a job where I worked at a cubicle.

Nine to five, no friends, no nothing.

Take the bus like an hour and a half back because of traffic, and then sit in that room.

And that was my life for months.

And I in that moment, I remember a friend who had mine had left a year before me when she graduated high school and moved on to college and stuff.

And she was like, Oh, you will not, you'll never know that like God is all that you need until He's all that you have.

We had a great life in Virginia Beach where we grew up.

You know, and she was like top of her class, really smart, great community at church.

Went away to school, no Christian community.

The churches there were preaching whack stuff, in her opinion, so she didn't really want to go and be a part of it.

She was struggling in school.

Everything that was in her life that brought any kind of safety and stability had crumbled.

And she was like, the Lord is really all that I have.

And I didn't know until this moment where everything was taken away from me that he was all that I need.

It was really amazing.

And so the people in the room, those friends, the spectators, the guy that's like paralyzed, you know what I mean, the religious leaders could only see the physical need.

The masses that had been following to him only saw physical needs.

Right?

And the issue is that they did see, I mean, they saw a need, and they were right, you know.

But the issue is they saw a need.

They didn't see the need.

Jesus took care of the thing, the root of his pain and suffering, right?

The root of everything that's negative and evil in this world, the things that we control and can't control is because of sin.

The man forgave him.

Like we were talking about earlier of like we tear down the things that would prohibit people from knowing God.

In the I like in that day, there would have been the idea that he had an unrepentant sin, which is why he was paralyzed, whether it was him or his parents.

Like he'd inherited some really bad sin and he'd done something wrong.

And I'm not conflating those two things.

I don't think that that's real.

I think that bad things happen sometimes because we live in a fallen world and we're separated from God.

And Jesus did what only he could do, taking care of this man's greatest need, addressing his sinful condition, the root of his pain and suffering, and said, Hey, you're forgiven.

And that's why he's asking, what's easier?

He's like, uh, why are you thinking about these things?

Like what like what's easier to say to the paralyzed man, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up your palate and walk?

It would have been way easier for Jesus, for God to just say, I'm gonna fix this thing, and you're good to go.

It's way more difficult.

It's way more serious, it's way better, crazier, more amazing miracle for Jesus to say, Oh, I'm gonna rip apart the thing that's separating you from God.

And that's what he does, that's what he's been doing.

That was his purpose in coming.

That's the that's like the faith and and the and the and the need that he's responding to.

That's what he came to reveal.

He wanted to rip the thing apart that separated people from God.

And that's what he's telling him, you don't get it.

I'm taking care of the important thing.

And he did that for me.

You know?

I was terrible for like six months, like in that way, but to look back at my life, I'd go back and repeat it.

If it meant that I could experience it again for the first time.

Because I didn't, I only know God the way that I know him.

He only prepared me in those six months, literally, of six months of winter and solitude.

I got to know Jesus in the scriptures in a way that I never knew before.

And then I got made friends and had like ministry opportunities, and and like I got put on a trajectory to full time vocational ministry, which I look back at that time, and that really is the genesis for how I ended up here.

God didn't give me what I wanted at the moment, but he really gave me what I needed, and it was better than I could have thought.

And isn't that like God always for you to ask for something, to want something, and him to not give you what you want, to give you something else that seems terrible, and it actually is the best thing for you.

Like they were crying out for a savior, and he gave them a baby, you know?

Like, we need a savior, we need a messiah, and they were like, she's pregnant, and that was it.

And they were supposed to be like, okay, thanks, you know?

But it was better than they could have thought.

Right?

Think about it.

It's amazing.

We'll go on to verses 10 to 12.

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralyzed man, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.

And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out into the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God and saying, We have never seen anything like this.

Not only did Jesus have the power to heal, clearly he demonstrated it before he got there.

He also has the authority to forgive sin.

Like power and authority like really does belong to him.

Right?

And by extension, you would imagine that, like, oh, if he said that, that must mean that he's forgiven, right?

If this thing, he'd be fixed the thing that we could see at his word, the thing that we can see, he must really be who he says he is.

Do you know Jesus identifies himself as a son of man?

Right?

He's saying, Oh, I am your Messiah.

Missed him.

As many times if I've read this scripture, I love this.

Mark Chapel is one of my favorite passages.

As many times as I've read this and seen this, I've never considered there about how Jesus identifies himself.

He says, I'm the Messiah, I'm the Son of Man.

He's calling himself the answer.

And it's almost as if to say, like, I don't identify with what you say that you want, but I'm actually the one that you need.

Hey, you you didn't really want me to do this thing.

You're critiquing me for forgiving sins, right?

I can do that.

You're critiquing me for not taking care of the need.

What's easier?

To do the thing that you want me to do or the thing that I came here to do that you actually need.

God wants you to know him.

You guys can come back up.

Chris, will you put the Philippians chapter 2 passage up there?

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

We talked about Jesus being the image of the invisible God, right?

Philippians says it a little bit differently, specifically talking about the gospel.

He's talking to the people of Philippi, and uh uh the Apostle Paul's talking to the people of Philippi, and he says, um, he says this like, take on the attitude of Christ, and this is the attitude of Christ.

He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a bondservant and being born in the likeness of men, and being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, death on the cross.

For this reason, God also highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

That's really the main thing.

We already talked about how amazing is all the stuff that he could do, right?

Which is really, really cool.

And it's amazing that we reap those benefits.

But he emptied himself.

Another translation says he accounted equality with God as something not to be grasped.

It says that he like he emptied himself.

He really was like, I am God, and I'm actually above you, but I won't be.

So that you could know God, so that you can actually know me.

I'm gonna remove every separation, remove every barrier.

I want you to actually know him.

I want you to know me, I want you to encounter God.

Because it's the best thing for you.

That's amazing.

Like, think about it.

It's amazing.

I can't not be moved by that fact.

He's really amazing, and not only is he amazing, right?

I can't grasp how often he actually is, but he gives me the chance to know him.

And on this side, it's way better than a healing, right?

On this side of the cross, on this side of the gospel, on this side of this book, he lives on the inside, he's changing me on the he's as close as close can be.

That's really amazing.

So, as we wrap up and then about the singing stuff, I want to talk to two groups of people.

I'm sure there's more of you in here, but these two get the attention today.

First is those of you who have encountered God, who know Jesus.

I want to tell you that the true mark of encountering God is wanting other people to know Him.

Like it's doing your best, as much as you can possibly do, to make sure that other people encounter God.

We have to be like full of faith and desperate for people to have what we have.

We have to be.

You know, it's like the Dead Sea.

I've never been overseas.

Not like that.

I've been to the Caribbean, but never been overseas.

Overseas is a sea called the Dead Sea.

You familiar?

Do you know why the Dead Sea is the Dead Sea?

Because it has such rich mineral deposits.

All the runoff, all the things in the surrounding land, they're so amazing.

So many minerals, so much amazing stuff runs off and runs down and populates.

It lives in the Dead Sea.

And the Dead Sea is so dense and so full of amazing things.

But they have nowhere to go.

So it can't sustain life.

Like there's no outlet for the Dead Sea.

Like it doesn't, it doesn't flow anywhere.

Stuff just gets in there and it doesn't move.

So it kills everything in it.

That's what some of us are like.

We literally have the deposit of life within us, the most amazing thing, the most amazing contact with us, like they do to the Dead Sea, and they kind of sting.

And it's awful.

They have to wash themselves off.

People who get in the Dead Sea don't swim, they just float.

And then you get out and you have to quickly wash off because of all the crystal deposits on you.

They they hurt.

That's how the experience with some of us is.

We have everything that we need, right?

We get so much and don't give anything out.

We come to church, are sustained, and encouraged, get a little bit of life, and it's like our quick snack for the rest of the week.

And that's not the way that's supposed to be.

God made that relationship right between us and him, so that and it's expressed in our love for each other.

The real mark of someone that's encountering Jesus, that has encountered Jesus, is wanting other people to also encounter him.

That's really important.

It's crucial to the thing that we believe.

This means nothing.

None of this stuff that we do here in a ceremony means anything if we don't do that.

Nothing at all.

Second group of people I want to talk to.

I don't think that you're paralyzed.

Clearly, you walked in here.

I think.

Um, as people like I would identify you as the person on the mat.

You need to encounter God.

And I want to let you know that, not to pat ourselves on the back, but this whole shebang, this whole thing, is for you to know God.

Nick and the space team out here blazing heat every week.

And when it's not hot, it's bitter cold and rainy, every week, setting up these chairs, moving these lights, moving these tables, setting up these curtains, doing all this stuff so that people like you could come here and meet Jesus.

We don't get up here and sing songs and play music because we like to hear ourselves play guitar and like to hear ourselves sing.

We grow out of that in our emo phase.

Seriously, we do this and practice and don't sleep.

Get up at five o'clock in the morning and come over here, like to sing songs so that you can hear in a song form like what it means to know Jesus.

People prepare these sermons for weeks at a time, right?

This is only my I only do this one time.

I have another job.

This was crazy to do, okay?

To literally read this book to talk about what it means and to put it into a way that you can understand over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

It's also that you can know God.

Now don't do that to pat us on the back.

People watch your kids and teach them about Jesus.

So hopefully, like they have an encounter so that you don't have to worry about taking care of anybody, so you can really.

Come in here and meet Jesus.

That's the main thing.

It's really like the important thing.

It's the most amazing thing.

And so if you recognize today that you're like, ah, there's a part of me that needs to encounter God.

There's gonna be a prayer team in the back.

Some people that work here are gonna be all around.

You can talk to any of the people that have been on stage at all today.

Talk to him because God wants to encounter you.

It's true.

Those scriptures are true.

He is absolutely everything.

Emptied himself and put on flesh to live perfectly and die the most gruesome death you can imagine.

So that you could know him.

And all you have to do is believe it.

You want to highlight the end of verse 12 really quick?

They were all amazed and we're glorifying God, saying, We have never seen anything like this.

If you not, I'm pretty sure you've heard a lot of these scriptures before.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of you know this stuff, at least, like a general gist of it.

But it actually is amazing.

We get the chance to be amazed.

And we sing these songs, not because we want to make ourselves feel good, or at least I don't, that's why I don't sing them to make you feel good.

I sing them so you can encounter God.

There's a thing that happens.

The Bible says in the Psalms that the Lord inhabits, God inhabits the praise of his people, he lives there, right?

When you sing, he actually like meets us in a space in like in an unseen way that we can't actually grasp.

And we're doing work, tearing things down that are prohibiting people from knowing God.

And so if you know the Lord, if you're really amazed by the gospel, would you sing?

Would you worship?

You have no idea.

The Bible talks about in Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Paul and Silas were in prison, singing to God, and as they were singing to God, the prison doors, like they're in jail, like the chains fell off and the door swung open.

Other people are set free.

They really do get to encounter God when you worship him, honestly.

So in the next few minutes, before it's time to go, would you just cultivate desperation in your heart?

Would you cultivate faith that God actually is able to do it, whatever it is?

And you would you respond to the gospel and be amazed at the work that He's done?

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

God, you're amazing.

You've done amazing things, and you've put your amazing spirit within us.

Lord, we can be changed to live like you and to look like you and to love like you and to the things that you do.

So, God, in these moments, would you do that?

Lord, if there's anything that I'm saying that it's absolutely absurd, God, would you cast it out from memory and into the sea of forgetfulness, God, and leave only the things that really matter.

God, leave only the things that are true, that are life-giving and encouraging.

God, that really know or that really talk about the truth of who you are.

Lord, we I don't want any of that stuff.

God, I just want you to be revealed today.

So as we worship, as we sing together, Lord, would you reveal yourself a little bit more?

Would you teach us to respond to your spirit in Jesus' name?

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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