When Nothing Else Is Working... God Is - Heaven Part 13

Good morning class man. It's going to be a good Sunday.

I'll celebrate a few things. One, this season of church has

been so exciting just to see heaven get into people.

And what I mean by that is that it's not only coming to Jesus,

but this fire that those who are in Jesus are living for heaven.

And there's this passion around that that's being shared and

some humility and just some some grind and just getting with

Jesus. And I'll just share with you, if

people are heaven bound, I've noticed in the season, if they

get heaven into their bones, they actually help other people

get heaven found. They actually have a way of

saying you just need to have a drink of the water.

I've been drinking from that. You got to get in the presence

of Jesus. And so since the beginning of

the year, this is pretty cool. So we're at what, 3 months in?

We've had 27 people start a relationship with Jesus since

January 1st. That's pretty good.

Amen. That's pretty good.

I mean, this is just exciting. Like God continues to move.

This next week is Easter Sunday. And it's always amazing that we

get a chance to baptize and all of these people come to Christ

and people come to church. We have 10 people, 11 people.

I always look at Holly because she last I heard was 10.

But now it's 1113, right? Whatever.

Just I missed 12. Apparently we have 11 people

getting baptized next Sunday. And what's amazing is we, we

just baptized the very last week of last year.

So if you think about this number 11 people were 12 weeks

in the year. That's almost somebody every

single week that's deciding to get baptized through our church.

That's Amen, Amen. Give it up for Jesus for that.

That's just amazing. So over the course of the

series, this is the longest by far series I've ever preached.

I mean, after 12 weeks then, right?

I mean, I started this the beginning of the year.

It will end OK with eternity in heaven.

So you can be like, you're wrong or right.

We can talk later, you know what I'm saying, But I've been

passing out this book to probably a dozen times or so to

different people that are just, I don't know, maybe we'll say

they're staring down the barrel of heaven like they're, they're

in a spot where they're, they're maybe are going through a hard

season with health. Or there's a family that passed

away and they're they're doing their funeral or sibling or I

had a son that passed away gave to a father.

So many different scenarios. And all I tell people I get in

the book is can you just let me know what God's showing you?

Just give me some feedback. And so you know, we're not

hopefully do and almost everybody's gotten back to me

and it has given me feedback of God moving in their life.

I just want to share with somebody reached out.

This is randomly last week. It just wasn't like send me some

feedback. Still this person to read in the

book and this this is what they said.

It says take me a take me a little longer than usual to read

because I'm highlighting all the scripture passages, rereading

them, and writing notes about them in my new Heaven Journal

book. I don't know what the Heaven

Journal book is. Maybe it comes with it.

We'll have to find out. But she's writing a Heaven

Journal book, looking at the Scriptures and taking notes.

That's Amen, right? That's amazing, since one thing

I've noticed is that the book has made it a little easier to

understand more of what the Scripture says.

I think I was trying too hard to understand the message Jesus was

trying to convey. In fact, I've gone back to read

some parts of the Bible that I found confusing and hard to

understand just to discover several aha moments.

That's amazing. And you know, I also encourage

you as a pastor when when you read the Bible, it is makes

sense. Like don't try to seek any other

sense. Like it's written to everyday

people. You do not need a degree or be a

scholar or be educated. I mean, it is made for everyday

people. Amen.

And so you just get a little piece of like, oh, wow, this is

just, it's a lot simpler than I thought.

We don't need to overcomplicate the Scripture.

This is gold. That's what she said.

Reading the Bible now has stirred an excitement in myself

that have never really had before.

Not to say it wasn't excited. It's just that now it seems

easier. Look at this.

It's stirred an excitement in myself that I've never really

had before. That's a good day, is it?

Follow Jesus. Amen.

You're excited to walk with Jesus, She said.

Once I finished the Bible in its entirety, there's a goal.

Come on, somebody. This being the third or fourth

attempt. Now I'm going to read it again

because I believe I found it a bit easier next time to

understand, not to mention a whole lot more enlightening.

Amen. It's pretty cool.

So here's what I do. I want to pass out one of his

books today for somebody that's like, hey, you know what?

This series is blowing my mind. I've just been really

encouraged. I want to go deeper in heaven.

I want to just learn for myself, you know, you may not be a

reader and you're like, man, I'm going to try it.

You may be a prolific reader and like want it.

And so I'm going to do I'm going to who?

Who would like this book? I'll give you.

I'll give a copy out. Just put your hand up real high.

That's you. OK.

We'll go all, all in the back because that's what we're going

to do today. So Holly can help me out.

Well, you can tell us about when we get there.

She gone, right? Oh, man.

So you talk about getting heaven to people.

We have a great opportunity next Sunday to bring heaven to

people's lives. It is just absolutely amazing.

If you just invite somebody to share the gospel, just ask

somebody how how they will be open.

Hopefully. Like, I mean, last year we do

not like huge and like put a bunch of marketing on stuff.

We had just shy 600 people last year, which is insane, which is

insane. So I don't know what's going to

happen. I think the 10:00 is going to be

nuts. So just throwing out there.

If you want to come a different time, that'd be helpful, right?

But just getting heaven to people.

And this last week it was exciting.

I met with a developer in our city and you know, I'm, I'm

pastor. We're in the middle of a, you

know, building initiative, right?

So we're like wheel and deal, right?

So I see something happening. It's like, hey, what's up?

Like, let's sit down. And, you know, we're talking

about vision and direction and what they're doing and, you

know, all these different things.

Learned a lot about this, the mindsets on some things.

And he asked the question, Hey, tell him about your church.

Well, let me tell you, yes, Sir, you asked a good question.

So I just start bragging about Jesus.

Amen. That's about lives being

changed. People come out, addictions,

people, the number of people baptized last year, people come

to Christ and we're set up and tearing down and for eight

years. And this guy's like, dude, you

guys are so committed. Like, I can't believe the love

you have for the city and having almost 300 people every Sunday

come out to your church. I mean, it was just an exciting

conversation. And he shares his story and just

that heavy side of religion, legalistic church you grew up in

really pushed a lot of rules and just walked away from the church

and found his own spiritual journey.

And so I got a chance to just share Jesus, encourage him in

faith and invite him out to you start real life church.

Amen. As soon as we do just see what

God's going to do. You just you plant some seeds

and I feel like there's something special as a just a

minister, not me, but all of us. When you see somebody in their

pain, like when you find the struggle, like when you find

that that drives them, when you when you find the part that

hurts, there's something special.

Not just you point them to Jesus, but actually when you

carry them to Jesus, when you're praying for them, when you just

don't give up on them. When you get your phone out in a

week and you're like, hey, man, just been thinking about you.

I'm praying for you. Let's grab another coffee.

Like when you minister for somebody and there's something

special as a body of Christ, we get really, really good at and

it's really shepherding people's pain.

We have to get really, really good at realizing that what

makes people tick where they're hurting and then putting the

right medicine of the gospel, the good news of Jesus, the

things of God on the spots and people's lives that are hurting.

Amen. That's what church is all about.

And so I just excited to to play part of that story.

And that's what Easter is. So when you're working with

somebody, don't make it complicated.

You know, you're, you're ministering somebody, just

invite them out, speak into the hurt, speak into their life and,

and Share your story and talk about how God made a difference

and then say, you know, maybe God can make a difference come

out to church. And most people give up on

church to be honestly, they've kind of given up on the idea of

let's get together because I'm done with people.

But I don't think God is done with the church yet.

Don't think he's done with church yet.

Maybe doing a lot differently nowadays, but I think in our

culture, people are very open if we will just ask and just be

humble about asking people. So today my prayer is that you'd

be so moved by heaven, you'll bring others or carry others to

Jesus. You actually see this in the

Bible. It's found in Mark chapter 2,

Mark 2 · chapter mention

pretty amazing piece of scripture.

It says a few days later when Jesus again entered, compared

him, the people heard that he'd come home.

They'd gathered in such large numbers, there's no room left,

not even outside the door. And he preached the word to

them. You know, it's always a really

good idea when you get a crowd together to share the word of

God. Amen.

It made me feel like a little awkward if you're not a

preacher, but we all know enough Bible, right?

Just share Jesus, share the good news.

This what Jesus does. He got the crowd and he just

preached the word to them. Some of the men came bringing to

him a paralyzed man. Look at this carried by four of

them. And I'm just going to say is you

just pick the story up at the beginning here.

I love it when men lead the way. I love it and it's not an

indictment against the women. We have amazing women that lead

the way and cure the torch. Almost every person on our staff

team over the years has been a lady on our staff team.

A lot of churches that way. Women are make up 60% of the

tents of churches. And the reason I say that I love

what men lead the way is because most men don't just don't,

they're like almost like spiritually apathetic like this.

The, the wife, the girlfriend, the bringing them to church,

right? And it's just, it's just a

rarity to find a man that has his heart set on Jesus and chase

after Jesus. And I just started thinking

like, well, how did this story happen, right?

Like there's a paralyzed man that that gets to Jesus and it's

these men brought. So you got to think about this,

this hot guys operate, right? It was probably 1 dude that was

walking down the street and he saw that guy and he said, Hey,

guys, guys, hey, come on, Hey, everybody, come here, come here.

Dude. We got to get something.

We got to figure this out. Come on, let's go, let's go.

It was probably one person that had the idea, look, I got to get

this out of Jesus and then gathered a group of men to help

move that person to Jesus. Amen.

They're probably one of the committee formed.

We saw a problem, which is this person needs to be healed.

And some men got together and said, let's solve this problem.

That's a good day. Amen.

This is what men should be doing.

They should. I just never imagined our

church, like if every man just had the ability to see people's

hurt and then give them to Jesus.

I mean, unstoppable force of nature, the church, it's just

every man's like man, that's not an eruption.

I noticed that person's hurting like it's I'll take some time,

I'll get on the phone, I'll meet up, I'll invite you in my life.

I'll set your story if need be right.

We can't just come to Jesus conversations.

I just think even if half the men in my church, we just say,

you know, I see some people's pain.

I I recognize what God is doing. There's a lot of wisdom in that

and I'm not and dying, you guys, but I'm Sean, I'm your friend.

Come on, somebody, right. But I think as guys, our culture

has kind of set us up. We stay really busy and focused

and carry a lot of weight. And oftentimes we miss the very

thing that God wants us to do. Just people around us enlisting

others to heal other people's lives.

This is simplicity is that you see whatever else saw and to do

what no one else was doing. It's just with compassion.

And they picked up this guy's mat.

They did for this paralyzed man what he could never do for

himself. He he never could get himself to

Jesus. It was going to be impossible

for him, his own strength and ability to actually get to the

presence of God. Here's the point.

Real love carries what most others critique.

Real love carries what most other people critique.

You think about this, Everybody knows the solution.

Everybody's like, man, I hope somebody picks them up or like,

I'll tell you what, man, that that guy's problem is this.

I kind of noticed that and everybody's got an opinion and

everybody's got everybody knows what to do.

And the Bible says that him who knows good and does it not to

him is is sin to whoever is the world's good and is compassion

to shut up and he doesn't give it to somebody else is in sin.

The love of God cannot be in him.

And so your life will be moved by moments of compassion.

It's how Jesus will move your life.

Your call will always be shaped by the level of your compassion.

The more compassionate, the greater the call.

More compassionate, the bigger the impact because you start to

see with the very eyes that Jesus sees.

So real life truly carries what other people just critique.

They love them where they're at, they're served without

conditions, and they step into the very mess that most people

want to avoid every single day. That was verse 3.

We'll go to verse 4 now. Since they could not get him to

Jesus because of the crowd, that is where most people probably

stop. They couldn't get into Jesus.

We did our best. We'll pack it up.

It's just too difficult. It says they made a what an

opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and they

lowered the mat the man was laying on.

I, I love the passion of these men because this took a little

bit of like thought they, I don't know how they, you know,

like there's more than four of these guys, by the way, because

it says the guy, the man and four of them carried the mat.

So there's a group of guys that said, I don't want to do.

And everybody grabbed a corner and they started going and

there's always a giant crowd. They're kind of pushing through

and it's like, damn, forget this.

What else can we do? And those houses are built on

the edge of, of hills. So they're like, well, let's

just go around the back and we'll, we'll go up the hill and

we'll just get out on the roof. So lay them down here.

Somebody find some ropes. Maybe they tore their tunics,

maybe some naked dudes on the roof.

I don't know what's happening here.

And they tied off. I don't know how they figured

out how to get rope. And somebody's in the roof.

Like he's right here. I think he's here.

He's right in this spot and right above Jesus this side.

No, there's some carpenters in the house.

Amen. They tore off the roof and Jesus

is right below him and then they decided we'll just lower them

down. So there's got to be these 4

ropes or how they roped them up and they lowered them to Jesus.

Imagine if these guys weren't very good and it just drops in

front of Jesus, right Doom. Then it'd be that two miracles.

You know what I'm saying? It's just difficult stop right?

But it's just amazing like all the little facets you don't

really see in the story until you really have to think about

what would that will intake, what it look like in these

thatched ribs right? You heard the saying like it

raining cats and dogs. You guys heard that before this

because these houses are on the side of, of pitches and the

animals get on top. When it rains, it gets real

heavy and the animals fall through the ceiling into the

floor. And so these, these men knew

like we can go through the ceiling if need be, like it's

not going to stop us. So there's a bunch of people in

the way like we're, we're, we're going to make room.

We're going to go a different direction.

And here's the point. Even though they could not, they

made an opening. And then when you're, when

you're like thinking about winning a soul or like sharing

Jesus, like we don't stop when you've hit the first obstacle,

like you don't stop because it's difficult.

You don't stop because of the door shut.

You find another way to get them in the presence of Jesus.

You know, sometimes the first step, and I will gladly say the

first step is not invite them to church because you are the

church. You invite them to yourself and

you say, why don't you come over and hang out?

Why don't you have a block party?

I was so bummed during the, the, the, the community week at life

groups that it was 31° high on my day to do my community night

because I'm like, I'm putting inflatables out.

I want the whole neighborhood to show up.

Amen. And they, they, they get around

the people, which is the church and then they're open to go.

Man, wow, I, I, I really appreciate what you said or that

was a light. I never seen it that way before.

Thanks for loving me. You treat me better than my

family does like, and then all of a sudden like I'll be and

they start coming together and realizing there's so much power

and being the body of Christ. That makes sense.

But we we give up to like, well, I invite them out.

It's like, what do you invite them into?

Are you inviting them into your life?

Or you say we'll come down to a service.

You notice the very beginning, the message.

I said I was really excited to have this getting the people.

I didn't say I was really excited that people were coming

to church. There's a big difference.

Like we can have a crowd of people to come here and go great

job preaching and they do the same thing.

It's like heaven has to get into us.

Like the the power of God and the president of the Holy Spirit

of God to, to be changed by, by the word of God, to just be a, a

vessel like empty, like I'm the clay and you're the Potter.

Just mold me and shape me Jesus. Like that's what we're talking

about. Verse 5 when they saw when Jesus

saw their faith, somebody say their faith.

Yeah. What?

It wasn't to paralyze man's faith.

I mean, I, I'd love to know if that guy actually wanted to get

healed. Right, I mean, he's like, don't

take me. No, he's just like the grumpy

grandpa and you're like, no, you're going to you need

healing, brother. Who knows, maybe he got yelled

at by the grumpy paralyzed guy. He's like, you know, I'm just

going to get you to Jesus. Like who knows exactly right.

But Jesus saw their faith. This is all the friends that

were carrying him and stood around him and he said to the

paralyzed man's son, your sins are forgiven.

Is there any greater gift you could ever get at all of

eternity than your sins being forgiven?

I mean, what a gift of Jesus. That man received heaven that

day. There's a part of him that was

resurrected from the dead that day.

There's there's a part of him that's ever changed and eternity

was given to him. So Jesus recognized that these

bold faith and their love for this person that's compassion

was worthy just to say I am going to heal you from your

sins. And what you get real is about

Jesus where Jesus is heaven is that they're, they're

synonymous. Like he's the he is the one that

can only give you heaven. He is heaven, He is perfect, He

is righteous. And so you see this in the Bible

in John 638 So sure, I have come down from some of Jesus himself,

for I've come down from where you have come down from heaven.

He was already in heaven and he gave up all the riches, all the

glory, all the power, and he humbled himself and clothed

himself into humanity, wrapped himself in the flesh.

He says not to do my will, but to the will of him who what the

will of him has sent me. That is the that is the perfect

picture of what looks like to heaven.

Get in your life, by the way. Well, it's no longer my will,

but it's the will of God in my life.

There's this deep desire and longing to please the Father and

do his work and do his ways because you've been radically

changed and he is the son has given you life you don't

deserve. And you humbly say Lord,

whatever you want me to do, yes and Amen.

That blank contract, right? You sign the bottom and you put

it out in front of God and say whatever, you're right, I'm

going to go do that is what it looks like for heaven to be

inside of you. And this is what Jesus, he came

to our world to bring heaven to us.

And this is the mindset these friends have.

And there's maybe a lot of reasons for it.

It's all speculation, right? Like why had this mindset?

Because everybody else just pressed in, but they decided to

stop and bring this person to Jesus.

Their mindset was this, if I can just get the paralyzed man into

the presence of Jesus, because I know that Jesus can actually

heal this man, I, I know Jesus can change his life.

I, I, I know they don't need more religion.

Amen. I know in our world, we, we

don't need to give more people a list of rules and what not to

do. We don't need to say, well,

here's how you measure up, keep up your good deeds, pray, chant,

meditate, show up, read the Bible, pray.

Like, yes, some of those are good things, but that's not the

point. The point is to to be with

Jesus, that he will be our God and we will be with him.

That's the greatest promise of heaven, Amen, is that we're in

the presence of God and these men just recognize they knew

where Jesus was. There's the peace of heaven,

there's the healing of heaven, there's the forgiveness and

there's freedom of heaven. What the world does not need for

us to do is to give more like good advice or, or pep talks or

that boys, what it really needs is the mercy and grace and

freedom delivered through Jesus and the Gospel.

That's what the world's dying for, literally dying for.

There's so much depression, there's so much pain that

they're, they're lost. There's no footing.

There's, there's no, there's no rock to stand on and they're

wandering and you get to show them Jesus.

So we need to get people in the presence of Jesus, like to get a

word from the word like this man, he got a word from Jesus.

Son, your sins are forgiven. That's a good word, Amen.

How many guys had that word before that?

That's just like ever changing all eternity.

The word you hear from Jesus and and you just need something from

Jesus and he always knows what to say.

I mean, he's a healer, sick, the living hope, the freedom from

sin. And here's the thing, you got to

get people in the presence of Jesus, even if you have to do

extreme things to get people to Jesus.

Some of us have to. I mean, he makes it.

What's crazy. I could never be a missionary.

I can never, I could never, I could never.

It's like, what do you mean you could never?

Like if God asks you to do something extreme, are you not

so willing to do it? Is did did Satan call us to do

that? Right?

Like you could never do this or I could never leave life group.

I could never preach the gospel. I can never share.

I can never pray in public. I hear all these things all the

time. I'm like, why not?

If God is willing, we should be too.

Amen. To tear the roof off to remove

obstacles, you know, I love the front door is blocked and they

go around, they tear a hole in the ceiling.

And here's the point. Compassion doesn't wait for it

to be easy. Compassion always makes a way.

Compassion always makes a way. You realize about life is if you

give up on people, you give up on the on the belief in the hope

and being part of the story that may change their life.

If you write somebody out of of your life, which is so sad to

see all the time, I'm never going to talk to them again.

It's so dramatic, by the way, like so selfish and we cut

people out instead of crossing lines to bring them in.

It's about compassion. Amen.

Compassion does what's not easy. I had this shirt in that when I

was half the man I used to be. It was a medium.

You don't want to wear it. I'll, I can if you want to look

like Tommy Boy. Chris Farley coming up here.

I had this shirt and it said awkward is awesome.

Awkward is awesome. It was about sharing the gospel

because oh, we don't share it. We don't bring it up.

It just makes it weird. Well, thank you, Jesus that

somebody got a little weird for me.

Thank you, Jesus that he got a little weird for us.

Like it. It's just awesome to to change

the culture and it takes like one person to change the

culture. It really does.

Like, I know it's like all these people never listen to us that

have you tried? Have you tried?

I mean, it's just like, have we made like fictitious persecution

to stop us from being the man and woman God's call us to be?

Like, why are we so timid to not just be a little more awkward?

The world is looking pretty awkward to me, by the way.

You got people dressing like whatever and things like this.

And like, they're, they're willing.

They're willing. And I, I, I think as Christians,

like maybe we just stand up a little bit.

Amen, just go little awkward the gospel, just bring it up and

maybe you barf it up and it's weird and you tried and you're

like, hey, man, sorry, that was the most terrible presentation

of the gospel ever, but man, God would probably use it.

God has I I don't know how many people have led to Christ.

It's got to be in the hundreds. If not, that means a lot.

And I've had some terrible presentations of the gospel and

thank God it's not me that saves people.

Amen. You're like, well, I can never

do what you do. Oh, you could you're seeing my

thousandth attempt, right? Like you're, you're seeing,

you're seeing experience. But here's here's what

compassion does. The hope of heaven pushes you

past fear. It pushes you past rejection.

It pushes you back past making people happy.

It pushes you past being too busy.

It pushes you past self centeredness.

It just pushes pushes you back from following your dreams and

not God because you see people exactly where they're at.

Compassion finds a way to get other people in the presence of

Jesus. Go to verse 6 is going to kind

of do the antithesis of these these friends.

So there's now some teachers of the law.

These are the educated religious kind of teacher pastor like

people in that generation. They were sitting there.

So these people were in the room.

These people took up space to criticize what other people

should mean. They're getting healed and

they're thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like

that? He's blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

And they're mad because, like, this guy's claiming to be God,

so he's a blasphemer because he's saying he is God.

And immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what

they were thinking in their hearts.

It should be humbling, scary and exciting all at the same time

that Jesus knows your thoughts and I'm the ones in your mind,

the ones in your heart like the deeper things.

And Jesus responds to those idle words in their hearts and he

says this out loud. And he said to them to their

absolute shock, why are you thinking these things?

Can you imagine Jesus say that to you?

What things Jesus, he says, which is easier to say this

paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven or to say get up, take

your mat and walk. But I want you to know, look at

this is the point. He's going to use this as a

lesson. He's going to teach them

something. He wants them to know that the

Son of man has what authority on earth to forgive sins.

Everything he does from here on out is to remind them and to

show them that he's the boss, that he has all authority to do

whatever he wants to do, including forgiving sins.

How do you guys know just that one word of Jesus can change

everything? How do you guys know that?

I mean, you look at all of the gospels, right?

And, and you sleep on that awesome pillow.

I got to find out what that pillow's like in heaven.

Like I want that pillow and the bomb of that boat and the storms

raging. The disciples are rowing.

Nothing happened. He just goes up there and

they're all freaking out about faith and he says peace be still

over nature and just OK boys, hope you learned something and

goes back to sleep. He says Lazarus come forth and

Lazarus comes out. He says that the lady caught in

adultery as everyone to stone her there draws a line to sand

and he he probably wrote the name of all their, you know,

mistresses and other sins in the past and they walk away and

Jesus says neither do I condemn you.

That's hard to compassionate. Amen.

Like you, you sinned against the holy God.

You've lived a life of cold bakery.

You look nothing like God. But the God, the universe has

enough grace to get down the sand and tell you, I love you.

I don't condemn you go and sin no more.

So she's not trying not to sin because she's trying to God's

approval. She's trying to not sin because

she knows how much God loves her.

That's the grace of God. And by that word, she has

changed. I'm on the cross.

We'll sure we'll talk about this next week.

It is finished that sin is finished, that the debt's been

paid, that every wrong is nailed to the cross and Jesus has paid

the wrath for our sin and is con conquered our sin and is done.

What about this today you lose me on paradise.

In paradise, potentially the first person that goes to heaven

with Jesus, Jesus dies and he's like, yeah, you're a little bit

behind me. You got here.

And the only way that that man got into heaven because the

thing about the first person to go into paradise with Jesus,

he's a man that looks nothing like God, the least likely

person, the the biggest Sinner, the person that was being

crucified because he's a thief, a robber, just the most like

ridiculous person in the society.

And Jesus says to debuting in paradise because he has faith.

And the only way you got in is because Jesus said he could come

in. Amen, his authority to let

people in to heaven. And so that's the point.

All these are authority. No one else has the authority

but Jesus. And so he says, son, your sins

are forgiven. Only one person can do that.

And I know we there's a lot of like methods like I'm a good

person or I try and I measure up and there's this other thing.

There's no other God and there's no other way to heaven but

Jesus. It's just is what it is.

He's the only one that has the authority to declare your sins

done halfway through 10 verse 10.

So he said to the man, so he's already kind of chewing on these

religious leaders. So he turns around with

authority. He says to the man, the

paralyzed guy, he said, tell you get up, take your mat and go

home. And he reiterates it.

He got up, he took his mat, He walked out in full view of them

all. And the reason he's riding this

over and over again is because they want to make it very clear

that you know that Jesus has the authority not only to forgive

sins, but also to heal people. This amaze everyone that and

they praise God saying we have never seen anything like this.

That's how you know, it's a good day at church, Amen.

Long as it's not like snakes come out of stage, right?

We've never seen anything like this.

But you've never seen the power of God, man.

I've never seen Tim like that before.

Like let's because Tim is different, Amen.

There's a Holy Spirit living in Tim.

There's a difference in his life.

It is amazing that when you think about the miracle, the

miracle didn't just happen for the purpose of the paralyzed

man, but the miracle actually happened for the crowd.

Like the purpose was that they know that Jesus has authority.

And so he said, I'm going to heal this paralyzed man.

And so he gets up and walks. He rolls up his bed and walks

out the crowd. Nobody can mistake the fact that

Jesus in his word and his voice had authority over human nature

and flesh in the Spirit of God. It's pretty amazing if you think

about for the respect of the friends that sometimes when you

carry others that that not only they receive a miracle, but

other people see a miracle. You know, when you have enough

compassion to walk long enough with somebody in the season and

it to be the person that that God let you kind of cross the

like a major milestone with them, their life begins to

change. Like you see somebody that once

was an alcoholic and you keep praying and you keep having

compassion. You don't like just cast about

your life and you serve people, even though it's hard and they

walk on you and it doesn't work and it's they have less

maturity. I get it, you know, and you care

for them, but then you see Jesus change your life out of a moment

of just your humility and just grinding it out, which is behind

the scenes. Nobody recognizes it's not very

sexy. That's ministry, Amen.

And you do that and then all of a sudden you see that their life

changes. All of a sudden, every person

that meets that person from now on, they are declaring a miracle

of God. Man, I used to be.

Aren't you the alcoholic guy? Aren't you that guy that lived

like that? Aren't you that person that

you're so bitter? Aren't you the person that hated

all that? Aren't you that abuser?

Aren't you that real mean person?

Yeah, but Jesus changed my life. And every person from here on

forth, they're declaring the miracle to the crowd in their

life. That that's what you get to play

a part of. And when you if you give up

because it's too hard, you're giving up on the miracle, not

for them, but for others because their testimonies also shapes

the next person. There's a very amazing verse in

the Bible. And I could probably preach this

verse like for the next year, but it's Proverbs 11/30.

It says this is I'll do KJ to be on this one.

But he that wins the souls is wise.

The question I'll pose to you and you can answer this probably

a billion ways, but what is the wisdom required to win a soul?

What's the wisdom? Because here's the thing, you

can go to church and know everything you want to know

about God. I got a lot of friends that,

that know a lot of things about the Bible, but they don't have

any wisdom. They, they, they know scripture

just like the Pharisees or maybe like even Satan himself, but

they don't have any ability to help anybody else see Jesus

there. There's, there's wisdom to it's

just not head knowledge. It's just like, well, I know the

Romans road or I know the part of the Gospel.

OK, But the wisdom, what's the actual wisdom?

I'll just give you some thoughts just right out of this, this

story we saw. Here's some wisdom #1 the first

thing about wisdom is to see the miracle before it happens.

That's wisdom. It's the wisdom to look at

somebody's life and to see the potential.

It's the wisdom to recognize that they're not just an

alcoholic, they're a son or daughter.

They're king. They're, they're not too far

gone for God's grace. That's the wisdom.

The wisdom to see the version of them that God so desperately

wants to have in their life. That's what that's what the

prodigal father is doing, by the way.

He's at the he's looking at the window waiting for the sons and

daughters to come home and he runs to them because you

recognize that there's parts of people that are worth redeeming.

Amen. That's that's wisdom.

It's wisdom to look at maybe your prodigal daughter or son or

a family member. And it takes wisdom not to live

in judgement or to cast stones or to be like, well, I'm not

going to invite them anymore. It takes wisdom to serve and

love people. Amen.

And this is where it kind of gets wrong.

But those people, they saw the potential in the paralyzed man.

They knew that if I could give him to Jesus, that that boy is

probably going to walk again. That's, that's wisdom.

And here's the thing, The only people who are not surprised

that the miracle happened in that man's life were the people

that carried him to Jesus. They were not surprised.

Everybody else is like, oh, this is so amazing.

And the guys on the roof are like, yeah, we told you, boom,

high 5 chest pump, right? They knew, they knew.

And if you're a minister, right, like you have the heart of

heaven and like the things of God, you know, like you've seen

the glory of God and you just want to get somebody to Jesus.

Second part of wisdom is to thank God for people who carried

you. Like none of us are self-made.

Somebody prayed us to heaven. Somebody invited us to heaven.

Thank you, Tim, for pointing to the man that prayed you to

heaven. Exactly right.

You know, for all eternity you'll be like thank you, Dan

for not giving up on me. There's so many times as they

could have done that and you know that.

But the grace of God, Amen, that somebody prayed for you.

Somebody invited you. Somebody, somebody, somebody

made a room for you. They didn't say come to church.

I saved you a seat. They said come to my family.

I'm not going to give up on you. Be a part of my life.

I care about you like come to my table.

I I had a man in my life. He said, Sean, I will never let

you fail. Wow.

When I was a teenager, he was like a dad to me.

Like no matter what happens, as far as you run, no matter what

happens, I'll always love you because he had been down the

road. He he knew how how how terrible

his life was a far from God. He just knew that Gracie got so

good. He still tells me, Sean, if you

make the wrong decision, there's a couple options.

But if you make the wrong decision, guess what, I'll still

love you. That's a good man of God.

Amen. It's just like we have to thank

God for people that carried us. So here's my challenge for you.

We're getting the Easter week right?

And what greater thing could you do is to get out your phone and

just text or call that person in your life if they're still here

and say thank you so much for investing in me because it

wasn't for you. I was not where I am today.

That's a great phone call, by the way.

Thank you, Jesus. If you just text him, say hey,

you might even remember he's been so long, right?

Or thank you Dad for put putting all the time is then go in vain.

Or maybe they're not here anymore and you can call up

their son or daughter or family member and say, can I just tell

you a little bit about your old man because your dad was a hero

to me and just just honor and brag on heaven.

And maybe there's nobody you connected to and just go tell

somebody else. And let me remind you, this guy

named bitch like I I had nothing in my life, but I had this guy

that loved me for no reason at all.

I had, I mean, there's no reason to invest in shopping tree, but

he loved me and he cared for me and he opened his house to me

and he did all these amazing things.

He's still one of the greatest friends of my life.

He's never given up on me and all those stupid things I've

done in my life. He still loves me.

Amen. The grace of God.

So they have the wisdom. Know that you weren't yourself

made. Who brought you there?

Listen, sometimes God moves in someone else's life because you

refuse to give up on them. You refuse to quit.

You know, it may be years. I mean, there's a lot of moms

and grandmas and, and grandparents have prayed for

families for years for faith to take effect.

So The thing is, the miracle wasn't just in the man's life.

The miracle was in their faith. I don't know how it works in

God's sovereignty and plan. I don't know.

I don't, I don't even care. But their faith played a part of

the story. Amen.

I would like to think that if you're a man or woman of God,

that God does more around you just because you were there,

because the environment and culture and the humility and the

holiness and the honor you bring to God in your faith, that just

God just allows the Holy Spirit to move through to other

people's lives and touches people.

I'd like to think that God does that.

He does it right here in the Scripture.

The last part of wisdom, and like I said there, there is 100

more or if not millions more wisdom.

If you don't need the miracle, make room for someone else who

does. That room was full of Pharisees.

There was somebody who need to get healed and they couldn't get

to Jesus. And I was thinking about this

story. How many people would have been

healed if Jesus would have been more accessible because it

wasn't full of people take up dead weight critics instead of

worshipping Jesus. What kind of revival could have

started in that house if it wasn't full of critics?

It was actually full of faithful believers and then saw a

paralyzed man. They said, hey guys, part the

way somebody needs to get to Jesus.

So there's something about those friends that we have to start

understanding. Those friends had one of three

options. One, they already were healed by

Jesus themselves because heal people heal people.

They just do. So if Jesus has touched you, you

cannot help but to stop and help someone else get to Jesus

because you already been touched by him. 2 They're either really,

really wise like Simeon or Anne or the OR the OR the the wise

men. They just knew Scripture enough

to know that's the Messiah and I don't even need to be touched

from the Messiah because I know what he can do already.

So I'm going to take this band with me.

Could have been that. It could have been that they

already heard the stories. There's other people that

already been touched by Jesus. They've been coming down the

roads for weeks and months or days and they heard about this

Jesus guy and how much he did and what he did for this person.

And they just thought to themselves, well, if he could do

it for them, he could do it for me and sure, he could do it for

him. So let's just grab him.

There's only three options. Amen.

It wasn't like some experiment like, well, let's go out of our

way and see if this works. Nobody is that determined unless

they know full of faith. Is there faith that healed them?

It's just thing about making room for people, right?

Like making room for the grace of God and the forgiveness of

God and the compassion of God and the love of God.

I'll tell you what it looks like.

How many guys went to the Rolls Parade 2015 November.

You guys remember that? Let me go down the Rolls Parade.

All right. Hope you had a better experience

than I did. I end up we we've been up with

Josh and Carrie Cubbly, Chuck and Jill.

We end up on Pershing and Maine, which is right in the corner of

the Union Station. It's in we're like between the

Marriott and the Union Station and we're in this like cyclone

of death. You want to call it?

OK. And and we're like in this, I

don't know, we're up by the gate, but they just get pushed

with the crowd. And there's this Hispanic gang

and they jumped and crushed the police car completely down to

nothing. Just the whole thing crushed

some dude had like a heart attack and Diamond trying to get

him to some medics. And it was like crazy.

And we were like in the crowd like, yeah, I've been 30 years,

right? And this picture is what we saw.

This is it. We saw confetti, some smoke,

some buildings. And we're there for like 8 hours

and there was like 15 porta potties for 2 million people.

You know what I mean? The lines forever long it it it

one time I actually saw a baseball healing balloon float

by, you know, the size of a car just like float above the heads.

And that's what we saw. You know, the reason that this

is all we saw, look at the picture is because everybody

else picked up the most important person in their life

and pulling their shoulders. That's what you do.

Like we'd have a view because they said, son, I'm not going to

be able to see it, but I want you to see the miracle team of

2015. I want you to a glimpse of the

team that made it with like through all the crazy endings.

And it should have been that way.

It was like angels in the outfield kind of thing, right?

And they mail away and everybody's so excited.

They put their kids up on their shoulders so you can see a

glimpse. We didn't see.

It didn't matter. We saw.

The kids saw. Amen.

There's just something is a church.

If you get just low and you're like, now I'm going to put some

of my shoulders so they can see Jesus and be a slave to Jesus is

what James calls himself so other people can see the glory

of God. So it looks like our church to

be part of heaven being us. Amen.

So we talked about Easter Sunday.

I'm like, don't be surprised if you carry somebody on your

shoulders next Sunday. They come here that two things

will happen. One, that they'll see a miracle

because God is going to move. And two, that they very well and

be the miracle themselves. That's good, man.

You can play part of that story. We all can, Amen.

Just bring somebody to see the power of God on display.

It's Easter, baby, He's risen. What greater news could we ever

share? And for somebody in that room,

the many people are going to hear, son or daughter, your sins

are forgiven. So Father, come before you.

We thank you so much, God, that heaven is in US and that we have

the ability just to simply play a part of the story.

God give us the wisdom of winning souls as Jesus follows

the house. Today I pray for great wisdom

with great patience, with great love and compassion that our

church would go out and be the hands of feet in Jesus, in the

highways and hedges, in the hard places, in the difficult places,

in the places that most people won't want to go.

The gospel will take effect and miracles will happen because our

church wants to serve with compassion those that need to

get to Jesus and help our church to tear the roof off our city

for you. I pray for one group, people in

the house, and that's those of you that say, you know what, I

need the miracle of God today. There's probably somebody in

this house that showed up and you've yet to be saved by Jesus.

You've yet to hear the word son or daughter.

Your sins have been forgiven and today the Bible says the day of

salvation. If you need new life in Jesus

that day, the Bible says he will save you for your sin.

He will cast your sins before the east in the West.

He will make you new and change an inside out because he's full

of love and compassion. Even at your worst, God is

always as best. And so today if you need Jesus

not be looking around like it weird to call you out, but you

need Jesus. We just raise your hand high in

this place. I need a relationship with

Christ today. I'm not going to walk out of

here without Jesus. I need heaven and Jesus and they

come together as a package. How many guys does I need Jesus

today across this space? If that's you, I'm not going to

call and make it weird. Let's leave through a prayer.

The prayer does not save you but your heart towards him to say,

Father God, thank you so much for Jesus.

Thank you so much for loving me that you send your Son with

authority to cast out my sin and to love me deeply.

God thank you for those that carried me to you today.

God I give you my life, I surrender to you.

I will live for your glory and Share your story.

I praise in Jesus name and the church said Amen.

Give it up to Jesus. Amen.