The Way Back Home: The Merciful | Part 5

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.

All right, well, what we're gonna do this morning, you're in the Beatitudes, and uh we're gonna talk about one of them in Matthew chapter 5, verse 7, and then we're gonna look at something in the book of Mark.

Matthew 5:7

But I want to start out and say, you know, all of us have had the experience of like seeing something or experiencing something that we can't help but want to share with other people when we see it or experience it.

It might be a movie that you've seen, like you've seen like some fantastic movie, and I'm gonna like want to share with other people about what it was, or it might be a book that you've read and I want to share with it, or a restaurant, like uh in Santa Cruz where I live, you know, on the wharf, there's a new restaurant.

It's like two years old called Mackay.

It's like a Hawaiian restaurant at the end, and I'm always saying, you've got to check out Macai.

And a lot of it's the interior design, and there's a if you ever go there, I'm recommending it.

Like, you know, let's say I get excited about a restaurant.

And you sit on the, there's a thing that just spins around.

You're in your table, you don't even know, you're going around like spinning you around.

And so it's like, there's things like that.

They're like, I want to tell people about this.

It's a fun thing.

Or it could be like a TikTok video that you see, like, oh, look at this, and you end up messaging and sending it off to people.

There's things that we experience that we want to share with other people.

I was down the beach once, and it was probably about like where that guitar is, about that far away.

And it was a sunset, so you're like walking around, and all of a sudden, some lady, like about that far away, goes, like, hey, and I'm like, huh?

And she's looking at me and she's like, Do you see it?

And I'm like, what?

And she comes like walking over fast, and then she keeps like hitting my shoulder.

She's I'm very introverted, so she's like hitting my shoulder.

I'm like, what?

It's like there's a whale, there's a whale.

And I'm like, oh yeah, okay, you know, but it was, I found it so intriguing that because she was by herself, she saw this whale and she had to tell somebody else, this total stranger on the beach, like, look at the whale, right?

So it is in us that when we experience something, we want to share it with others, right?

Now, if you're a Christian in this room, and I know in churches there's those that are, it's wonderful a church like this, there's people that may be exploring faith in your here, but if you're a Christian in this room, um, we have the opportunity of sharing like something that is the most like important, life-giving, transformational, paramount, catastrophically changing us, profound, monumental, eventful, eternal, infinite, everlasting, continuing forever and ever thing that somebody could ever experience, and that is when we understand and experience the mercy of God, it's like we gotta, we want to tell people.

Now, um this morning I'm gonna talk about sharing the mercy of God with others, but it's not gonna be a typical sort of like here's what you do.

I'm gonna look at this a little differently and you'll see.

Um, because it should be something that when we understand God's mercy, that we just can't help but feel like I really want others to know about this and experience his mercy as well.

So let's start out and we're gonna look at the verse, Matthew chapter 5, verse 7, because you're going through the Beatitudes.

Matthew 5:7

I'm gonna start there and then take us into a story with Jesus.

And Matthew 5, verse 7, it says, Blessed are the merciful, for they should will be shown mercy.

Matthew 5:7

All right, experiencing mercy, blessed are the merciful who experience it.

You know, this word mercy, when we say it, the word mercy, it's up on the screen.

It means to have compassion or to show pity to another who is in deep need.

Um it could be, like, for example, a judge might show mercy on a criminal offender who is granting a more lenient punishment than they may deserve.

And so there's that sense of the judge has mercy and maybe makes the punishment not as severe as it could be.

Now, for me and for those that are Christians in this room, it's kind of like we experience his mercy by, I think, I'm gonna share a little bit of my story in a couple minutes, but it's like experiencing that sense of like, oh, I know when I have gone against God's guidance, sometimes unintentionally, sometimes intentionally, if I sin and then I think of God and realize his mercy.

Thank you, God, that you're merciful, God, and through Jesus I'm forgiven, and there's grace and there's second chances, and there's no shame, and just like constantly thinking of like his mercy.

Then what I also want to look at and talk about here is the sense of I want to jump into the one of the most important ways that those who follow Jesus experience mercy, and that is our salvation is due to God's mercy.

And if we are a Christian, like our salvation, which means we're forgiven, God's Spirit indwells in us through our faith and what Jesus did on the cross, he took our sin, he rose again from the dead, God's Spirit is in us to help us live this life, and then one day for all of eternity we will be with him, right?

Like all of eternity.

And it's through his mercy, and the scriptures say, like in Titus chapter 3, verse 5, it says, He saved us not because of the righteous things that we have done or had done, but because of his mercy.

Titus 3:5

In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3, it says, In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

1 Peter 1:3

This mercy that we receive through Jesus.

1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 15 and 17, a guy named Paul, who was before he encountered Jesus and then believed in him and put faith in him, he was having Christians killed.

1 Timothy 1:15

So that's why he says some of the words here.

He says, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

This is what he says, of whom I am the worst.

But for that very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive not just a good life here, but eternal life beginning here and for all of eternity beyond when we're when we pass on from this life, we are with him in heaven for all of eternity.

It's like this mercy is eternal.

All the times that if you're a Christian in this room, that you have sinned against God, like I don't like bringing that up, but we have to bring it up because then it's just like we have mercy, mercy, forgiveness, grace, no shame, no condemnation.

It's just like thank I as I'm thinking of myself right now, because I know myself, thank you, God, for your mercy.

And here's what I want to say.

When we understand his mercy that is granted to us, we then can't help but want others to experience it too.

Right?

It really is.

If we can get excited about seeing a movie, a restaurant, a TikTok video, and have that burden to like, I want to show you this.

Certainly, if we understand his mercy, there should be a natural desire for us to say, I gotta tell you about this.

You have to hear about this.

And to show this, an example, I want to go to a story in the book of Mark in the New Testament of someone of some friends who wanted someone that was in need to experience the mercy of Jesus.

Um, in Mark chapter 2, verses 1 through 7, we're gonna look at that, is that Jesus was on the scene, like kind of new in his public ministry, and he was healing people.

Mark 2:1–7

The healing was so that people could have that his message was verified.

Like he is not just saying words.

Look, God is with him, and he is God in the flesh.

He is doing these miracles, verifying his message, and then he was having teaching that was so contradictory to some of the teaching back then, and there are crowds that were following him, and he they heard they were just healing, so they would want to bring people or go there to experience healing, possibly.

So let's read what's going on.

It says, A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, that's a fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, the people heard that he had come home.

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

Like, not even outside the door.

Right?

It was like, we're hearing us, they're packing out to see Jesus here.

And he preached the word to them.

So he's speaking, he's teaching.

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

Now, going back into that cultural world, like we have to just try to always place yourself when you're reading scripture.

What was that world like?

What was going on?

You know, unlike today, like back then, no wheelchairs.

They didn't have something in place or designed for that.

Um, when somebody was paralyzed or couldn't use their legs, they would lay on mats.

We see this at other times with beggars, and a mat could have been, not the same material, but a mat would have been something that they would lay down on like this.

Often in New Testament time uh homes, they actually would roll up mats and then you'd sleep on them on the floor because then have beds like we think of them today.

But so they carried someone on this on a mat that was something like this.

And what I would like to do is uh because I would like to say, like, let's visually think about this even more, um, we have four people who are gonna come on up here, five, and we're gonna have some folks like uh show us what this may have been like at that time period.

So come on up, who's being part of this?

And will you take this mat?

All right, here we go.

All right, and the uh and um your name on the mat is Calvin is in the mat.

And be careful now, because we're gonna do is now picture this.

Four people carrying a person.

Now don't drop him, don't bonk his head into a chair because they're like, hey, the speaker may just do this, like no.

Um just like as I'm talking, picture that these four people carried someone that they cared for.

And we don't know that scriptures doesn't say did they carry him a quarter mile?

Did they carry him a couple of miles?

Like, we don't know.

But what we know is they were taking effort because they cared about their friend to carry his mat and with this person on a mat around the room.

I'm sorry, not around the room, around the villages to bring him to Jesus.

Um, I'm gonna get a picture of this because it's so interesting.

Okay, there we go, let's see.

All right.

Um thank you, Calvin, and thank you, the four friends of Calvin, that are carrying him around.

Now, as this was going, there's a photo up, it's a recreation of what this may have looked like at the time.

Like, you know, because they have archaeology and people understand New Testament architecture, and so it's likely looked something like this.

This would actually be Capernaum, and what this would have looked like.

And you can see the architecture of these homes, they're flat roofs.

Um, you can see on the top of some of them, they were laying out fish to dry up.

They had usually stairs that were going up, but this is what it most likely, and you can see a door there, like say to the next to the uh stairs there.

Now just imagine, so Jesus is inside one of these units, and there's probably a crowd that's filling up the kind of like that courtyard there, and so like he's inside, and it says there's so many people that they couldn't get in.

So again, we don't know how long they traveled, what was there, but these four Pete men had such care that they brought him on a mat there.

And some, as they brought him here, I want you to ask um a couple of questions here.

Because let me ask you this.

Uh, for those that who are Christians here, somewhere along the line, someone carried your mat to introduce you to Jesus or bring you to Jesus.

Most likely it would have been several people.

Like it could have been, it could have been a mom, a dad, it could have been a friend who brought you to a youth group or something, like it might have been a little grandma or a grandpa, like it might have been a series of conversations, Sunday school or something, like and it might have been a series of your mat being carried to eventually, in all likelihood, there's probably some point, not all of you, but you can identify like I'm now putting my faith in Jesus, I'm I'm understanding his mercy, and there is probably other people involved in carrying you along the way for that decision to happen.

And as I was thinking about this with myself in my life, I was going back to like I was not raised, I grew up in Paramus, New Jersey.

It's a town, suburban town right outside of New York City, and my parents were great folks and parents, they they didn't have beliefs, they would have said there's God, and I never questioned it was the God or not, I didn't think about it much.

But I remember the first time I was ever like had, you could say, somebody start carrying my mat.

And that was when I was in a uh Paramis Park shopping mall with my buddy Ralph, and we were there, I think we're in eighth grade, and a guy, he looked like Daniel Boone to me, came up, and I found him trying to have a picture of him, but I'm like, what's Daniel Boone?

So, like, we have a picture of Daniel Boone up here, and he was actually wearing like a fringe jacket.

He kind of looked like that without the raccoon hat.

But I wanted to elaborate, he didn't carry a gun, he had a Bible, so I'm like, I put a Bible there instead, right?

So, like, this guy walks up to me and Ralph in the shopping mall, and I remember he goes, I remember this really clearly, do you know Jesus?

And I'm like, it was such an odd question because I'm like, how do I know Jesus?

Like, that's asking me, do I know Abraham Lincoln or do I know George Washington or something?

It made no sense for him to ask me that question.

And he had a little Bible, and I remember he's like, Well, let me tell you, and he I don't know what he said, but I remember he was reading from the scriptures, and then he actually prayed, and I'm like, wow, that was like such an interesting thing, and then that was it.

And he was gone.

Daniel Boone left.

And I just went on my life and didn't think about it much.

But I remember Daniel Boone talked to me about Jesus as somebody that was like living almost, like I should know him, not a historical person that died.

Then in college, I went to Colorado State University, and while I'm at Colorado State, if you go to, you know, if you go to school, like normally the first day or two they'll have tables set up and like you know, the school clubs, you know, show their what they can what they have.

And there was one, look, like, so there's a girl.

I just found this randomly.

I typed in like, you know, tables at college, and I put the Bible in that one too, because that was there.

Um but there is a a Christian club, like they remember the square dance club, then there was the Christian club, and um, and I they had like little pamphlets out, and so I'm just like walking around and I just picked, I'm like, thank you.

And I didn't talk to her at all.

I just picked up the little pamphlet, and I walked over, sat in a planter, and I remember this pamphlet because it said something like, Jesus is the only way, or something with Jesus the only way.

And I'm like, this is what Christians believe?

Like, I had no idea that any Christian ever claimed like Jesus is the only way to God.

And you know, I had a couple of Bible verses, and I'm reading this thing, and then looking over at the table, and I'm just like, uh, is that what she believes?

I'm like, well, we're in Colorado, but is this just like suburban Colorado?

And you know, if she was in Thailand and going to school there, would she be giving out the brochure for Buddhism or or something?

But it got me like puzzled because I never thought that Christians thought they were the only way or Jesus was the only way to God.

And I couldn't shake it.

It was kind of like, huh.

And I had nobody asking me to go to any meetings or nothing.

But that table girl had a little pamphlet, and I took it and it started making me think a little bit.

Then um I actually went, it bothered me so much thinking that Christians said they they're the only way that they think that Jesus is the only way to God.

I went and I got a Bible, went down to a bookstore, and I got a Bible and got this Bible, and then I got some other kind of book about the Bible, and then I got a book about world religions, and I started reading this stuff, and then one day I come home from uh uh from school, and my friends uh and the girl I was dating at the time, like were they in the living room, and it all gets quiet when I walk in.

And I'm like, what?

Like, you know, like are they talking about you?

Like, what, what?

And they're like, we're getting worried.

I'm like, what?

You have a Bible and we're wondering about I'm like, what do you mean?

And they started saying they were concerned because they were afraid I was gonna become a Christian.

And then they started saying things.

Like at the time, there were a lot of television scandals, tele TV scandals going on with television evangelists, and they raised up like that's kind of how these Christians are.

And then there was also a big at the time fascination, which about the end times, like the apocalypse, and all this is gonna happen, and antichrist and all these things, like, you know, all this is good things to study, but it's kind of like the highlighted so that even non-Christians were hearing that this Christians what Christians are into.

I remember the girl I was dating, she said something like, You're gonna you're gonna lose all your creativity, they're not creative.

And then one raised up, like, yeah, it's like a cult.

They believe in somebody who died and came back to life, and we don't want you to join a cult.

Now, what I remember was thinking like, people in cults don't know they're in cults, right?

And like, well, how do I know I'm not getting in a cult if I start believing this stuff?

And so that actually interesting conversation led me to like want to study more because I'm like, how do I know this stuff's real?

So go ahead, I'm tracking forward, is the when I graduated school, I was playing drums in a punk rock and rockabilly band.

We moved to London, England for a year, and we're in England, and I had my little Bible.

I was still, I couldn't, again, I couldn't shake it, and I'm reading it, and I'm walking by a lunch, I was doing different jobs, and there's a sandwich board handwritten outside of a little tiny church building, uh squished between two big office buildings, and it said, like, Bible study inside today, lunchtime, free or something, and it was handwritten.

I'm like, oh, I've got a Bible in my pocket, and I'll uh I'll think I'll what is this?

So I open the door and I go in, and um uh here is who I saw.

And um he was a guy, and um, and he's there's three elderly people, and he looks up and I was gonna go like, oops, yes, wrong room, you know, like I was gonna leave.

And he looks at me and goes, like, here for the study.

And if he didn't say that, I would have been like, sorry, and I would have split.

But because he was so kind, I'm like, okay, I sat down, and then he had a uh, and he had like three other elderly people there, and he had like a um uh what is it called, a camping canister, you know, like of something in it, and he had a top, and then he pours something into a cup and he hands it to me, and he goes, like, Ovaltine.

And I'm like, oh, like what is this?

And he says, Ovaltine, and then um uh and then I drink it, I was nervous.

I'm like black black black black drank it so fast, right?

And then I put it down, and then he's looking at his friends like uh, like we got him, like a little, and then he pours me another one, and I'm not kidding, I'm like, oh my gosh, what if this is a cult?

And they just put something in my drink, and my friends were right, and I'm gonna wake up in the basement chained up with elderly people poking me with sticks or something.

Like, I didn't know what to think.

Um, but here's what I do know.

What they ended up doing was they took time and they started answering my questions.

And they never judged me for my hair.

At that time, it was like three times higher, and they and they they cared that I know Jesus and understand mercy and about self.

And they were and they brought me down to the basement like after on I started going on Sundays, but they were to have like lunch together.

There's like 20 people in this elderly church, and and the grand There were all like bringing me sandwiches, right?

And so they'd be like, Eat my sandwich, Dan, eat mine.

And I'll be like, and I'll have like a whole bag of these sandwiches.

I'm like, this is great, you know.

Have these moments.

I'm gonna be asking, like, to think of yours was when I was in the band, we're down, we're in a mall outside area, and we're walking along, and we're playing at a club later that night, and right in the middle of this outdoor mall was this group, like go back a slide, I think it's the one before, and like there's I put Bibles in their hands.

I just I found some stock image.

I just stuck there because they were like singing, I don't know what, kind of like it sounded like commercial jingles to me at the time, but it was like Christian songs, and they're all happy and they're singing.

And I stopped because I was you know in this exploration time and I'm looking at them, and I'm like, huh.

And then the girl with the tambourine, I put it actually, you can see it's kind of floating in the air.

I took a tambourine and put it up there for the uh to there's a tambourine girl, and then she goes, like, um uh are you a Christian?

And I'm like, no, you know, I I don't go to a church and I I don't, you know, so I don't really talk to God.

Or I said something, and she's like, you don't have to be in a building to talk with God, you know?

You can talk to him anywhere.

And then she starts still playing, and I'm like, all right.

And then I just kept walking.

I had to catch up with my friends.

But that was the first time I ever heard, kind of like, oh, you can talk to God anywhere?

I thought you had to go to like these meetings and the Pope and stuff.

Like, I didn't really know.

And I could say, like, for a moment, like, she helped me, because these are these moments I'm thinking.

So, what I want to just share is these little tiny experiences in many ways are like those four guys were carrying Jesus, I'm sorry, carrying their friend to go experience Jesus and meet him and hopefully receive his mercy.

And these people were helping me.

You know, the tambourine girl carried my mat a little bit.

I didn't know, she probably didn't even realize that was happening, but I remember this years and years and decades later, I remember what she said.

Just a sentence or two.

I remember the the table girl.

I don't know her name, we didn't even talk.

But she had a little pamphlet, and the effort she put out carried my mat a little bit to understand the mercy of Jesus later.

Um, you know, there was Billy Graham.

I remember like as I was getting interested, I he was on TV, and for those that don't know him, he was like this big TV evangelist in the you know six 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s.

He died about five or six or seven or eight years ago.

But he was really well known, and and he was on TV talking about Jesus.

And I remember I was like so I got, I can still remember there, because like, oh, who's this guy?

And I think I got like three inches.

I was like really close to the TV watching.

I don't know why I got so close, but I was like interested.

And then I think now about like not just him, but all the people that paid for the meeting to happen and the camera people that were working behind the scenes filming it, so that then it could be on TV, and then all the volunteers in these meetings, and boy, there's a lot of people involved, and in many ways, they were carrying my mat a little bit to hear more about God's mercy through what was coming through the TV.

And so, like in your life, I'm gonna ask you this directly.

You know, there are people who have carried your mat towards Jesus in different ways.

Uh, and I'm gonna actually ask you for their names in a few moments.

But let's go back now to the story of what happened with Jesus and these four fellows that were carrying the mat.

It says in verse 4, when they brought the fellow on the mat to the house, it says they could not, since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, like the crowd was so big outside, and I do wonder, you know, it's like no one seemed to want to help.

I don't know, they must have been like, well, we're here for our needs, and they're here's somebody that's obviously paralyzed being called.

Like they didn't say, like, oh, come on in, let's make room for you.

Everybody's so consumed with what they were, and but their friends then said, We're not gonna give up.

No one's letting us buy.

Um, we have a paralyzed person.

And so, like, you know, thinking of that photograph, they probably looks like they went up the stairs.

And this, if this was a common um, like kind of a built home, they went up the stairs and went on the roof, and they said, We are going to have our friend get to Jesus somehow.

And so, what they then did was, you know, probably on that, go to that photograph, like probably on the photo, you can see how like they probably go back to the the outdoor one thing.

Yeah, they went probably like there's a big crowd, they somehow knew like that stairway of some sort.

They went up on the roof with him, like picture them, like probably like we don't want to drop him, like getting up to the top, and then they're not gonna give up.

They're like, we gotta get him to Jesus.

So they're carrying his mat.

And even when they came up to this obstacle of a crowd, they're like, we gotta get him in, and then they they went up, it says, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it, and they somehow figured out like we're gonna lower the mat down that uh that the man was lying on.

You know, and I found this uh artist illustration, you know, it's like kind of trying to picture what it would look like, you know, because at that time flat roofs in that day were made of beams with tiles in between them that had been covered with thatch and earth, and it was quite a project then for them to tear up that roof.

But these men, think of this, they would not get dissuaded from the goal of helping their friend on the mat get to Jesus.

And they actually like dug through.

I keep wondering, like, were they afraid, like, boy, they're gonna get so mad at us for ripping up the roof, or they're gonna charge us money, or we're gonna have to pay for this, or someone like they didn't care.

They cared that they were gonna keep carrying that mat and even lowering it down so this person would have an encounter with Jesus because they wanted her friend to experience his mercy and heal him.

They didn't realize what else Jesus was going to be merciful about.

And so I'm asking, and I'm gonna ask again, like, who in your life would you say you're carrying their mat?

Where are you carrying people's mats in your life?

And I'm not talking about going out downtown somewhere and holding up a sign and preaching or so.

I'm just talking about table girl, tambourine girl, um being aware of like that possibly a small little action might be part of carrying somebody's mat that you don't have no idea.

I can tell you like that tambourine girl, that table girl, you know, they had they probably have no idea that what they said, you know, was actually really impactful for me standing up in front of a group all a couple of decades later talking about that, they have no idea.

But what they said and their experience of just being there to carry a mat a little bit made a huge difference.

And these experiences you have all the time.

And you see, we are, if you're a follower of Jesus in this room, we are called in to actually be part of mat carrying.

Look at verse 5, because when Jesus then, they lower their friend down on the mat, in verse 5, he's then saying, when Jesus saw, not the guys on the mat's faith, look what it says, their faith.

All of them.

So, in other words, he's saying he saw the faith of those that were carrying their friend as well.

There was involvement.

And he said then, it's really great, like so.

He starts out not with, I will have mercy on you and I will heal you from the from your paralyzed uh situation.

He did do that, but look what he starts out first with the more important thing.

He says, Son, your sins are forgiven.

And to think of him saying that, son, your sins are forgiven.

One for the guy in the mat, it would have been like, I, my sins, like, wait a minute, that's the temple sacrifice, and and and only God can forgive sins, and I and I'm and I'm worthy of a person, and this person's telling my sins are forgiven, like, mercy.

It must have been this feeling of like, what?

That's crazy to think about that you're forgiving my sins.

Only God can forgive sins.

And this sense of like mercy being brought to this person for being like forgiven and reconciled and cleansed, like being cleansed to have a relationship with God through the words of Jesus to him.

And then we see, like, and it says again, Jesus saw their faith, but not just the paralytics.

One person's faith can help bringing knowledge of God's mercy and blessing to another.

It's like there's we're all part of someone else experiencing and understanding God's mercy to put faith in him.

And it's really interesting.

I have time to get into this.

I could speak on this part for an hour, but it's when you look at this, it's like Jesus saw their faith, and you just get a little glimpse of Jesus.

Remember, he's just at the beginning part of his ministry, and he hasn't revealed yet who he is, right?

And the resurrection and the cross didn't happen yet, so they're like just starting to figure him out, and he's little by little sharing who he is to people, and then Jesus could read their hearts and their minds, it says in chapter 2, verse 8, and then he could look to see like, are they having faith or just going to motions?

Like, nope, they actually have faith.

They're having faith in what they knew of him to bring there.

So there was action that resulted because of their faith.

And if we have faith in Jesus, those that are Christians, like, are we taking action at all on our faith?

Are we waking up in the day, you know, and just in the little things of like, how can I maybe be part of carrying somebody's mat today?

It might even not be a verbal thing you're saying.

You know, it could be a way of being kind to someone at your workplace, um, choosing not to spread gossip about somebody.

If somebody's hurting, maybe you, and if they know you're a Christian, even just offered to say a prayer for them.

When I was, after I became a Christian, I was working over off the Alameda in a in a office there, and I was doing landscape architecture and urban planning, and I was drafting things.

And I remember like I was excited about my faith and I believed, and I remember when there was one guy that was hurting all the time, I was taking little yellow stickies and putting verses on them and then putting them up behind his desk.

Like, I'm like, I want to do something.

Like I didn't realize I was kind of carrying this mat.

Um, there's another guy that was um like I remember he was leaving, and we talk about faith.

He was my age, we were both younger at the time, and and then he was moving, and I went and got him a Bible, and I put it in his Volkswagen, Volkswagen, I put it in that Volkswagen on the day he was leaving.

So he's gonna get a Bible from me, like you know, and I just remember like I don't know these little things that we can be doing to help carry someone's map.

But you see, Jesus here, and when he says, son, your sins are forgiven, he is then saying basically what happens, the teachers of the law, in verse 6, it says, Who does this fellow think he's talking about?

What is he talking like that?

He's blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

And that's who Jesus was: God in the flesh, making himself known with the ability to forgive sin.

Again, we could speak an hour just on that amazing thing that was going on there that became more and more clear as time went on of who Jesus really was.

Then in verse 10, it says, So he said to the man, I tell you, get up now.

Your sins are forgiven, take up your mat and go home.

And then he got up, took his mat, and he walked out in full view of all of them.

He was healed.

This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this.

Now, not everybody gets healed.

Jesus didn't, you know, there's so many people, um, we don't see all the records that just went on healing.

There's people in this day and age who that they don't get healed.

Some do and some don't.

It's a mystery of why.

But in this case, this person was healed and they were amazed at it.

Now, I'm sure when they went home, do you think those four folks were just going like, hey, honey, I'm home, right?

Or they'd have been, you gotta hear what happened today.

Would they keep it, you know, they they they must have been like excited and to share and and this the Holy Spirit wanted us to know this story.

2,000 years later, we're talking about it.

And so, my question again, I'm gonna wrap this up here, but if you're a Christian, think of who were the ones that carried your mat.

Um carried your mat?

On your seats, there's three by five cards, and I want you to do something with these.

Take the pen, and on your seats, there's a three by five card.

And what I'm gonna do is ask you two things.

I'm gonna have you draw on one side and then the other of these three by five cards.

And the first is will you draw on one side?

Actually, on one side, will you write out who can you think of that was part of here this morning?

Um, if you go up to the go show mine, the big one up on the screen, I have the two up there.

On the right, like I wrote, here's mine.

Stuart Allen and the grandmas.

They carried my mat for a little bit.

That table girl, she carried my mat.

They didn't even know they carried, she has no idea she carried my mat.

Be so funny.

You know, all these years later I'm talking about her.

Uh the tambourine girl carried my mat with just a few sentences and then it was over.

But she carried my mat in helping me move along.

Daniel Boone, he carried my mat.

Like uh then I have Billy Graham, but I wrote not just Billy Graham, I wrote the donors, the camera people, the volunteers.

There's a lot involved in that.

Write on this card the names of who you remember were part of carrying your mat so that when you experience the mercy of Jesus.

Then flip over the card and draw a little mat on it, like I did up here on the left.

I drew kind of a little mat and then I put some names.

And write on or want to carry.

Maybe you haven't taken any steps yet to carry, but you want to.

And you know, on mine I wrote a guy named Kyle.

And I can talk about Kyle, like if he's watching this somehow, he's one of my barbers.

I have two barbers in Watsonville, California, where I live.

And Kyle isn't a Christian, and he's we got, you know, because when you're going there time and time again, we get talking, and what do you do for a living?

And I get to kind of jump into it more quickly.

Well, I'm part of a church and I do this, and and then we talk about his life, and we've talked about God and about grace and little by little, you know, and then eventually I bought him a Bible, and I brought a Bible in, I gave it to him, and he was like, oh, and he gave me a big hug.

Because he's never had a Bible before.

Now he hasn't yet become a Christian, and I don't know if he ever will.

But what I know is I'm carrying his mat a little bit right now, and maybe he's gonna, I might switch barbers, or maybe he calls me Padre because he knows I'm a like he uh a religious leader, and and I haven't gotten him something, he doesn't feel we haven't gotten to the depth of the conversation, but when I'm sitting there cutting my hair, I'm praying for him.

He doesn't know it.

So if you're listening, um Beto, I'm I pray for you when you when you're cutting my hair.

I wouldn't mind you knowing this, right?

So um, and so I'm just saying this, like, so I maybe I'm carrying his mat by just sitting there praying for him.

You know, there's uh I wrote others down here, uh there's other names, and I gotta tell you, honestly, like I'm looking at one of these, I'm like, I am not carrying her mat well.

And I'm feeling convicted because I have opportunities too, and I'm just not.

And I'm really feeling like, boy, Dan, people carry your mat.

And maybe you need to think of some ways to just even be a blessing in a certain way so that she sees a good example of a Christian with all of some of the national news about the bad stuff happening to carry a mat.

Um you may only have a small part in one, and then later someone else is gonna take it.

I'll I'll close with this story and then Robbie, and then we can come up as we uh go into some more, finish up here.

Um, there's a guy named Evan at our church.

I just we just talked to him, he became involved with our church, he was a UCSC student, University of Cal.

And he, and the first time I met him, we had a little prayer group on our young adult ministry.

He's like, I don't want to pray, I don't want to pray.

And I'm like, oh, okay.

Like he said, I need to talk to you.

And he's like, I'm not a Christian.

I'm like, oh, that's wonderful, that's why I don't pray.

I'm like, oh, it's fine.

And he stayed around, he got very involved in the church, and then he stayed for a couple years, and then he was moving down.

He never became a Christian, but I can tell you this on the night before he left, my friend Zach and I, we sat, went out to Denny's on Ocean Street.

We were there at four o'clock in the morning.

Because I'm like, I got one more time.

I'm like, do you understand?

And I drew like, there's heaven, there's hell, and I know you've heard all of this in the gospel, and here's what it is.

Like, do you want to believe?

And I remember feeling like, all right, uh, if something happens to him and he died, like, there's no way, like, damn, you didn't try to carry his mat.

You didn't like, you know, but and then here's what happened.

I get a text from him about two years after he moves away, and it's like, damn, um, I did it.

I'm I now believe in God.

And then I wrote, like, which God?

Because I had to make sure, like, I didn't know.

And then he goes and he says, he's like, the Christian God, of course.

And it turned out that we carried his mat here, then he moved down there, and then eventually he ended up going into a young adult ministry of another church because he was wanting to meet people too.

They picked up his mat and then they carried him.

And through them continuing the carrying him, the putting faith in Jesus, and then he got baptized about three, four weeks ago, and then I went down there and I was part of his baptism.

And I carried, I had a part of carrying his mat, but then others carried his mat.

And it wasn't the pastors, it was just young adults in the church that see, we want to share mercy.

Okay.

Lord, as I wrap up here and I pray, I just thank you right now for the names that were written of those who carried our mats so that we could experience your mercy.

God, thank you for them.

I thank you for tambourine girl.

I thank you for the table girl, I thank you for the grandmas and that elderly kind of smelly basement too.

I thank you for the people in my life that carried my mat in little ways along the way until I finally understood your mercy and I put my faith in you.

I I pray for those, I thank you that we're recognizing those that do.

And now I pray for those that are written on there.

God, help us know how we can be mat carriers and the little things.

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