0:02

I'm going to dive into a passage of scripture

0:04

in the Gospels in Mark. Mark

0:21

chapter two. And before I get there, let's have a look

0:23

at Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one,

0:25

Jesus has been doing his ministry around

0:27

the region of Galilee and he has

0:29

been preaching and teaching and he has

0:31

been healing and he has really been

0:33

causing a stir in this region. Like

0:36

loads of people are coming to faith. Loads

0:38

of people are wanting to know who this

0:40

Jesus guy is. And

0:42

so people are coming out in the

0:44

hundreds and thousands and places are getting

0:46

packed wherever Jesus goes. It's

0:49

no different when we get to Mark chapter two.

0:52

And in Mark chapter two, Jesus comes

0:54

into this town called Capernaum and

0:56

Jesus is there. And after all of

0:58

this stir that is going on, he

1:00

gets to this house. And

1:03

I don't know how big this house was, but

1:05

I'm guessing it must have been pretty big. But

1:07

we read in verse two of Mark chapter two,

1:10

it says that when Jesus got there,

1:12

when people had heard, they gathered in

1:14

such large numbers that there was no

1:17

room left, not even outside the

1:20

door. I love this picture.

1:23

The picture of the church

1:25

being so packed, so full

1:28

of people wanting to come in and

1:30

be a part of the body of

1:32

Christ. Man, I know images, I've seen

1:35

this when we was in London, but

1:37

before one service had finished around the

1:39

block of the building would be a

1:42

line of people waiting to get into

1:44

the next service. It was incredible. Reminds

1:47

me of times of the Welsh Revival.

1:50

Anybody heard of the Welsh

1:52

Revival? The Welsh Revival took

1:54

place and within six months,

1:56

100,000 people committed their life

1:59

to Jesus. I

2:01

don't know about you but that

2:03

excites me. When I think

2:05

of Fayetteville, when I think of Coer, when

2:08

I think of all these other areas, I'm

2:10

thinking, man, imagine in six months if

2:13

a hundred thousand people gave their

2:15

lives to Jesus, man,

2:17

you would be like this inside

2:20

this place. There

2:22

was this guy named Evan Roberts and Evan Roberts

2:24

was a big part of this Welsh Revival. Evan

2:27

Roberts comes to preach at a church

2:29

one day and the place is so

2:31

packed from the outside to the

2:34

inside that Evan Roberts had to climb

2:36

over men and women in the aisles

2:38

to get to the stage, climb over

2:40

the pulpit in order to preach

2:42

the gospel. The

2:45

place was packed, ram

2:47

jammed we would say in London. It

2:51

was rammo jammo. I just made that up. It

2:55

gives you a picture of what Mark chapter two looks

2:57

like. The

3:00

house that God was in was

3:03

packed to the rafters and

3:06

I dream of a house that

3:08

is packed to the rafters of

3:11

men and women wanting to be

3:13

under the word of God and in fellowship

3:16

with Him. We get to verse 3

3:18

in chapter 2 and it says this. It

3:22

says, some men bring

3:24

into Him, who's Him, bring into

3:26

Jesus a paralyzed

3:29

man carried by four

3:31

of them. So

3:34

these guys come approaching

3:36

the house of a friend

3:38

who is paralyzed and four of

3:40

them are carrying him. Here's

3:42

the truth. To

3:46

be paralyzed is really the inability

3:48

to be able to use something

3:50

as its designed function. Meaning

3:53

that it is powerless. And

3:55

when I think of that definition, I think of

3:57

you and me. I

4:00

think of humanity, that

4:03

maybe we're not physically paralyzed,

4:06

but we've all been spiritually paralyzed.

4:09

That we were not moving and working

4:11

in the way in which we were

4:13

desired. We know that in

4:15

the Bible, in Genesis, God created the heavens and

4:18

the earth. He created everything in it, the animals,

4:20

the fish in the sea, the birds in the

4:22

sky, the stars. He created everything. And

4:24

then He created you and

4:27

me. And He created

4:29

us out of what? Out of His image.

4:32

To be in perfect relationship with

4:34

a heavenly Father. And

4:36

He looked to us and He said, that is

4:38

good. That's

4:43

my perfect design. That

4:46

you would be in perfect relationship with a

4:48

heavenly Father. But then because of

4:50

the fall of humanity, because of our

4:52

sin, our selfish doing, our wants, we

4:55

reject that perfect relationship. We go and

4:57

do stuff by ourselves. And only because

4:59

of Jesus and His death and resurrection

5:01

on a cross, are we able to

5:04

enter it into a relationship once again

5:06

with a heavenly Father. When

5:09

we realize the weight of that, and

5:12

only when we realize the weight of our

5:14

sin, and the weight of our

5:16

destiny is death in eternity

5:18

in hell, that's

5:20

the only time we realize, understand and

5:23

respond to the goodness and the grace

5:25

of this free gift that Jesus has

5:27

given us on the cross. When

5:30

we realize that it changes

5:32

everything, you

5:35

see, to know something

5:37

is power, to

5:39

know something and do something about

5:42

it is power full. I

5:46

don't just want to know that Jesus

5:48

has saved our lives. I want

5:50

to live like Jesus has saved

5:52

my life. Anybody else with me

5:54

today, this afternoon? That's how I want

5:56

to live. So

5:59

these... You guys know that Jesus is in

6:01

the room. We

6:03

have a friend that is paralyzed, unable

6:06

to use a part of their body

6:08

or their spirit not working in the

6:11

way that it was designed. And

6:13

I need to get my friend to

6:15

Jesus. So what do I

6:17

do? What do these guys do? The

6:21

scripture tells us is that they

6:23

lift their friend to

6:26

Jesus. I

6:28

wonder as we're going through this talk this morning, if you've

6:31

got some people in your mind who

6:34

don't know Jesus. Maybe

6:36

you're in this room this morning, you don't know Jesus. Maybe

6:39

you've got some brothers or sisters, or maybe

6:42

you've got a mom or a dad or

6:44

children, an aunt or an

6:46

uncle or friends that you've been doing life with

6:49

who don't know Jesus. I

6:52

want you to stop picturing them in your mind this afternoon

6:55

and think about how am I going

6:58

to lift my friend, lift

7:01

my family to Jesus.

7:04

Think exactly what these guys did. And

7:06

the question I want to ask you is

7:09

do you lift? Do

7:11

you lift? Thank you, brother. And

7:14

if you know, I just, I had this

7:16

little harp thing going on like a few

7:18

months ago before Christmas and a little bit

7:21

of a scare and went to the, to

7:23

the hospital and had a little arp and

7:25

all that kind of stuff. And then I

7:27

couldn't exercise. And so, you know,

7:29

Christmas meals, you put on the

7:32

Christmas pounds and I

7:34

was putting on the Christmas pounds and

7:37

the January pounds and the

7:40

February pounds and they

7:42

were in March and I'm slowly stopping,

7:45

putting on the

7:47

pounds. And I went to the

7:49

gym, I signed up at the gym here in Trilliff. All

7:51

right. And I went there first

7:53

time back in a while. It's been a minute since I've

7:55

been in the gym and I thought, okay,

7:57

I'm going to go free. I'm going to do some chest press.

8:00

Get this chest looking... swole.

8:03

Thank you, Carmen. Anyway,

8:07

so I went and I went

8:09

and I got on the bench. I picked

8:11

up some weights. I thought, okay, this is

8:13

good. This is some good weights. And I

8:15

laid down on the bench and I started

8:17

pressing the weight. I felt good, you know,

8:19

like I was feeling strong. Until this 17

8:22

year old guy, kid,

8:25

baby, comes up next to

8:27

me on the next bench, goes

8:30

to the weight rack, lifts up, double

8:33

the way I'm lifting, starts

8:36

getting on the bench, lifting it

8:38

like it's a pancake, like it's

8:40

nothing. I'm over here and

8:42

I'm swaying and struggling and

8:44

shaking and he's over here and he's

8:46

just pushing and flexing and

8:48

he looks at me and he looks at

8:50

my weight and I look at him and

8:53

we look each other in the eyes. We

8:55

didn't say a word, but I know that he was

8:57

asking me one thing in his eyes. Do

9:00

you even lift, bro? And

9:04

I went home, I said, Joe, I said, this 17 year

9:07

old guy that would be beating me in the gym,

9:09

she said, you get back in that gym and you work out properly.

9:14

True story, true story. But

9:17

you know, I lift, not

9:19

just for myself, but I lift because my

9:22

lifting stretches the people around me, it affects

9:24

the people around me. Get this, when I

9:26

go home, my kids, one of the

9:28

first things they want to do is they want to wrestle, they

9:31

want to fight and I don't like to

9:33

fight. I'll throw you around, but I can't do that if

9:35

I've got no strength and I've got no energy. You've

9:37

seen those memes where men are at the gym or

9:40

women are at the gym and they've got something on

9:42

their shoulders and something in this arm and something in

9:44

this arm and they're walking like this because all their

9:46

kids want to be carried and you've got to train

9:48

for that stuff. We've

9:51

got to lift because it's transfers the people

9:53

around you. Mark chapter two, we realize that

9:55

these guys see their paralyzed friends and they

9:57

think, man, we're not going to not do

9:59

anything. because we can't see a way into

10:01

the house, here's what we need to do, we need to

10:04

be able to lift.

10:08

Because it would have been easy for them to

10:10

walk away and say I'll come back another day. It

10:14

would be easy for them to go you know

10:16

what there's so many difficulties here, there's so many

10:18

reasons not to get into the room, there's

10:21

too many people, there's no way in, we're carrying

10:24

him, he's got too many issues, let's just leave

10:26

it. No, no, no, they knew who was in

10:28

the room and they knew that Jesus

10:30

and only Jesus could change the transform of this

10:32

guy's life. So they say

10:34

I'm gonna lift my friend,

10:36

here's my thing, we need

10:38

to be able to be people who

10:41

lift up our friends,

10:43

who lift up our family, who

10:45

lift up the people in our

10:47

world because they need you to

10:49

lift them. And I'm

10:52

not talking about physically because that

10:54

would be weird. Imagine you say

10:56

hey we're going to church, get on my shoulder,

10:58

let's go. And you walk to church, that's weird,

11:00

they'd be like put me down bro. But

11:03

I want to talk about a couple of ways in

11:05

which we can lift the people in

11:07

our world. The first way is this, if you take in those,

11:09

God bless you, you'll get to heaven for sure. Number

11:12

one is this, is we

11:14

need to lift in prayer.

11:18

Lift in prayer, we need to bring people, our

11:21

people, to Jesus in

11:23

prayer. Never underestimate the

11:25

power and importance of

11:27

prayer. Just the other week we

11:29

had the parent-teacher conference at our kids

11:32

school and we went to Bella's

11:34

class and fantastic and I went to Jude's class and

11:36

my son Jude is six years old and

11:39

a teacher was telling us all about Jude, how

11:41

he's getting on, what he's doing, all of his

11:43

movements, everything like that. It was incredible and she

11:46

says but there was this one incident. I

11:48

said oh no, not Jude,

11:51

not my six-year-old, you know,

11:54

not my angel. She

11:57

said there was this one time in the playground.

12:00

At recess, Jude was there and

12:02

he was surrounded by a group of guys. And

12:05

I'm thinking, is he doing a deal? Is that what's going

12:07

on? So

12:09

he's surrounded by this group of guys, and Jude is

12:11

in the middle. And it's all

12:13

a bit hush-hush. And it looks like something's going

12:15

on, something's going on. And she was like,

12:17

no, not Jude. I'm going to have to discipline Jude. I'm going

12:19

to tell Jude off what's going to go on. And

12:21

she walks up, and she leans over

12:24

to hear what's going on. And she

12:26

said, in the middle of the circle

12:28

of guys, Jude was there going around

12:31

to each guy going, hey, what

12:33

can I pray for? Give me your prayer

12:35

request. Give me your prayer request. I'm like,

12:37

that's my boy. His

12:41

six-year-old boy understood

12:44

the power of prayer. The

12:47

prayer changes things. There is not the

12:49

love of us or beneath us. It

12:52

is not the last thing we do, but it is

12:54

the first response. I

12:56

want to have a childlike faith like my

12:58

boy Jude. I have a faith

13:00

to go, what can I pray for? Tell me

13:02

what's going on in your world. I'm going to

13:05

lift up. You lift you up in prayer. Oswald

13:07

Chambers says it like this. Prayer does not fit

13:09

us for the great work. Prayer is the

13:12

great work. Prayer

13:14

is not our last response. It's our first

13:16

response. And

13:19

I want to be a person that lifts

13:21

up my family and lifts

13:23

up my friends in

13:26

prayer. I put it like this. Prayer

13:29

is a gift. It's a

13:31

weapon that gives us direct access

13:33

to call on the only one

13:35

who is able. You

13:39

know you pray when you believe? You

13:43

know that? James tells us,

13:45

he says, when you ask, believe

13:47

what you ask for and do not

13:49

doubt. Do not doubt the

13:52

power and the euphoria in the majesty of

13:54

our God. And so

13:56

when you pray, do not doubt. And here's the reason

13:58

why so many of us doubt. and why so many

14:00

people doubt is we doubt because of what we see.

14:05

If we see that there is

14:07

a distance in someone's life, we

14:09

think it's too there, too far gone. If

14:12

we see that there is addiction, if we see that

14:14

there is a lifestyle, if we see that there is

14:16

pain, if we see that there is hurt, if we

14:18

see that there is no way, then

14:21

we doubt. But what

14:23

we also need to be able to do is

14:25

we need to be able to lift our eyes.

14:28

The scripture says, I lift my eyes to the

14:30

heavens because that's where my help comes from. And

14:33

so I may see the issues going on

14:35

in someone's life. I may see the issues

14:37

going on in my life, but I'm not

14:39

going to doubt the one who I'm calling

14:41

upon because I know he is able. Does

14:44

anybody believe that God is able this afternoon?

14:48

What I see is not going to stop me

14:51

from calling out to my God. Man,

14:55

I pray for my brothers. My

14:57

brothers are far, far, far, far, far,

15:00

far from the Lord. But

15:03

what I see does not

15:05

stop me from believing in the power

15:07

of God. That

15:09

in the name of Jesus, anything

15:12

can happen. Anything

15:14

can happen. These

15:17

boys are not too far gone. And

15:19

so I'm going to lift up my friend

15:21

Psalm 73 verse 28 tells us this. It

15:24

is good. It is good

15:26

to draw near to God. And so I

15:28

put my trust in him and I will declare

15:31

all of his works. I

15:33

wonder today what are the greater

15:35

works of God that you can declare? That

15:38

you know him as a redeemer, as a

15:41

restorer, as a healer, and

15:43

if he's done it before he can do it again. Do you

15:45

know that he's close to the broken heart? Do you

15:48

know that he can heal your pain? Do

15:50

you know that he can provide? This

15:52

is who our God is. He is able.

15:55

I'm lifting up in prayer and the second thing is this is

15:58

I'm lifting up my expectation.

16:02

I'm lifting up my expectation.

16:04

Everyone say expectation. Expectation

16:07

is a strong belief that

16:10

something will happen or be

16:12

the case in the future. And

16:15

I've realized this, the expectation, it

16:17

alters our energy and it

16:20

determines our actions. It

16:23

alters our energy and it determines

16:25

our actions. Look at these guys actions in verse 4.

16:29

Since they could not get to him,

16:31

to Jesus, because of the crowd, they

16:34

acted. They made an opening

16:36

in the roof above Jesus by digging

16:39

through it and they lowered the mat

16:41

the man was lowered on, was

16:43

lying on. They had

16:45

an expectation to see their friend in

16:47

front of Jesus so they did whatever

16:50

they could do to get their friend

16:52

in front of Jesus. Their expectation determined

16:54

their action. They said, I want to

16:56

stop but I'm gonna go. I'm gonna

16:59

press in. I'm gonna do whatever I

17:01

can do because the expectation that Jesus

17:03

and only Jesus saves and transforms lives,

17:05

they knew that. The expectation that if

17:08

Jesus is who he says he is, then I'm gonna

17:10

do whatever I can do to get my friend there.

17:12

They had a high sense

17:14

of expectation. But

17:17

here's the thing, there was

17:19

so many people in the room, we know that.

17:23

My question when I'm looking at this passage

17:25

and I'm asking questions that I may

17:27

never know the answer but I'm still gonna ask the

17:29

question, is I wonder what the expectation of the

17:31

people in the room was. I

17:34

wonder if their expectation was they came to just

17:36

hear another talk. They

17:39

came just because everybody else was coming to the room.

17:42

They came just to get some education

17:44

and leave. I wonder if they had an

17:46

expectation that at the end of this chapter

17:48

they're gonna go, man we have

17:50

never seen anything like this before.

17:52

The scripture tells us.

17:55

I wonder this afternoon, What's your

17:57

expectation? When.

18:00

You come into this place would you call upon

18:02

the name of God? What's your expectations? Are

18:05

we expecting that God is gonna

18:08

do some incredible and magnificent like

18:10

these guys? Something incredible, magnificence of

18:12

place they got documented in scripture.

18:15

The thousands of years later we

18:17

get to read and understand a

18:19

believe in the character of God.

18:23

Is a beautiful expectation. That

18:25

these guys have a want to be in the room but

18:27

I don't just want to be in the room, I want

18:30

to have expectation in the room. And

18:34

Warner encourages. This

18:36

have a high sense of expectation says. The.

18:39

We're not study in a god of

18:42

history. With. Said in a God

18:44

who was alive now and who is moving

18:46

now and it was actually now. Anybody got

18:48

some expectation for God's to do some of

18:50

this incredible in a through their lives. See.

18:55

We've got to be able to listen. Listen

18:57

is not easy, but it is worth it.

19:01

Let. Me say that it is not easy. But.

19:03

It is worth it. And when

19:06

we pray instead of worry when we ask

19:08

instead of assume when we forgive instead of

19:10

hate, when we trust, when we love when

19:12

we work hard, when we worship, something begins

19:14

to shift in our lives. Something

19:16

because the Chinese disarm says like I

19:19

said. Where. Does my help confirm

19:21

my hope comes from the lord Because on go lift

19:23

my eyes Hi the Y C right now. I

19:26

have the sense of expectation. The God can

19:28

do something incredible. See

19:32

the. Thing. Is is always. There

19:34

is only so much the weekend. the. Bronx.

19:38

We. Humans. We.

19:41

Can live our prayers. We.

19:43

Can lift our expectation was determines our

19:45

actions are we can bring their friends and

19:47

our families towards the Lord. But.

19:50

We have to let God. Because.

19:54

You. A Naga. I.

19:56

Am not God. We. Com and

19:59

they play in chains. We

20:01

can live, but God has to

20:03

do what only God can do. Picture this

20:05

scene, the house is packed. Jesus

20:08

is preaching the word the scripture tells us. And

20:11

then these guys go, we can't

20:13

get into the room, so we're gonna climb onto

20:15

the roof, and we're gonna break the roof down.

20:17

This roof is probably made by tiles and mud

20:19

and clay and all that kind of stuff, and

20:21

they start making a racket up there. Imagine it

20:23

right now. Imagine someone is on the roof right

20:25

here at the sound stage, and they are breaking

20:27

the roof. You're not gonna be looking at me.

20:31

You're not gonna be, and if you are, you've got

20:33

really good attention skills. But

20:36

you're gonna be looking at where the noise is coming from. Like

20:38

there's some people down here, you're gonna get broken tall on

20:40

your heads. You're gonna be getting caught up, like it's gonna

20:42

be crazy. And everybody

20:44

maybe looks up, and it's

20:47

messy, and it's noisy, and Jesus maybe just

20:49

stops his teaching for a second, and

20:51

everyone's looking up, and they're seeing these four guys

20:53

like doing whatever they're doing up there,

20:55

and then they see this guy coming down

20:58

on a mat, and I don't think it was

21:00

as smooth as Mission Impossible. Just

21:03

put that out there. I think

21:05

it would have been clunky. I think this guy

21:07

would have nearly fell off the mat about six, seven times. They're like,

21:09

whoa, whoa, whoa, he's about to drop, stop! But

21:12

this guy gets lowered

21:14

down to Jesus, and

21:17

I love the first thing

21:19

that Jesus does, as this guy is in

21:22

front of him, the

21:24

first word Jesus says to him

21:26

is what? He says, son!

21:34

That's powerful. Son!

21:42

Not man, not nuisance that

21:45

you disturbed and disrupted my message.

21:50

But son, he

21:53

gives this man a position, a

21:55

title, he gives this

21:59

man a position. and a place in

22:02

the family. And

22:04

when you know your place in the family, it

22:06

gives you confidence in the world. If

22:11

we had time, I'd be at one pack a little

22:13

bit more about my family history, but

22:15

I'll just give you this little snippet. When

22:18

I was growing up, between the ages of

22:20

five and 10, my dad was

22:23

a wild man, like a wild

22:25

man. He was a detective in the police

22:27

force, but he was also an alcoholic and

22:29

a drug user and all this kind

22:31

of stuff. And from those ages of

22:34

five to 10 years old, there

22:36

was a lot of abuse in my household, like

22:39

a law. My mom would try and put us to bed

22:41

at 5.30 p.m. or 6 p.m. so

22:44

we wouldn't be apart or witness what was

22:46

going on at that time. So

22:49

I remember nights from that age

22:51

growing up where I would

22:53

come out of my bedroom and my brother would be

22:55

there and we'd be like shaking or whatever. And

22:59

it felt like a lifetime, but it was

23:01

probably 10 minutes. And

23:03

we would build up the courage to

23:06

go and save my mom. And

23:09

we would run into wherever they were. And

23:12

we'd try to be like Superman. I'd try and

23:14

push my dad away from my

23:16

mom. And my dad

23:18

being this big strong dude, he was

23:20

a boxer as well, would just push

23:22

us off of him. And he

23:24

would look at me in his eyes, and his eyes all

23:27

red, and he would say these two phrases. It stuck

23:29

with me for a long time. He

23:31

would say, who are you and get

23:35

a life? And

23:38

I would crawl off back to my bedroom. Now

23:43

imagine your

23:45

own father is asking who

23:47

you are. As a son,

23:50

I'm trying to figure out my position

23:52

and stay in life and in the world. And

23:56

so you can imagine. I'm

24:00

running wayward. I'm confused. Who am I? What am

24:02

I doing? Where am I going? What is this

24:05

this person says this about me this person says

24:07

this about me I am unsure but this is

24:09

what I love as soon as you come

24:11

before the face of Jesus He calls

24:14

you son. He calls you door.

24:16

You have a place you have

24:18

a position you have a place

24:20

in the family And

24:23

maybe today in this place. I

24:25

wonder if you know that you are a son. I Wonder

24:29

if you know that you are a daughter of

24:32

the king. I don't care what the world has says about

24:34

you You are

24:36

a son and a door of the king and

24:38

I wonder today who in your world needs to

24:41

hear that Who

24:43

in your family needs to know that you are a

24:45

son? That you are

24:47

a daughter of the king What

24:49

friends need to know I

24:52

don't care what they said about you Your

24:54

job does not define or dictate you your

24:57

relationship does not define or dictate you

24:59

your financial situation does not define or

25:01

dictate you In

25:05

his image you are a son

25:07

and you are a daughter So

25:13

Jesus calls him son and

25:16

then the next thing that Jesus does is Jesus

25:19

is son your

25:23

sins Everything that

25:25

separated you from the father. Oh

25:28

what? They're forgiven

25:31

Whoo, I Love

25:34

that That Jesus

25:36

doesn't deal with the external he deals

25:38

with the internal That

25:40

Jesus is about heart

25:42

transformation. No, no behavior modification

25:46

He wants to deal with your heart and I

25:48

wonder how many people in that room were expecting

25:50

Jesus to say that in fact I know that

25:53

many people were not expecting him to say that

25:55

because in verse 7 it says why does he

25:57

talk like that? Who

26:00

can forgive sins but God

26:03

alone? They

26:08

had no expectation of who was

26:10

in front of them. They didn't know there

26:12

was Jesus Christ, the

26:14

Messiah, God in flesh,

26:17

who has all for in heaven and on earth

26:21

to forgive and to redeem and to

26:23

restore and to reconcile. This

26:25

is the God that they stood in front of and they didn't

26:27

know. The man

26:29

looks at their outward appearance but God, he's looking

26:31

at your heart and

26:33

he wants to work on some stuff in your heart

26:37

and people may not see the change straight away

26:39

but you know that there is change that has

26:41

taken place in your heart. The

26:45

last thing that Jesus does is this, is

26:49

Jesus heals. Jesus

26:53

heals. Says to him

26:55

in verse 11, I tell you,

26:58

get up, take your mat and

27:01

go home. Get

27:05

up, take your mat

27:09

and go home. Get

27:12

up, take your

27:14

mat and go

27:16

home. I

27:19

can forgive and I can

27:21

heal. I

27:24

can forgive and I

27:26

can heal. And as I'm picturing this, and

27:28

this is not in there, so I'll just go with

27:30

my imagination for a second but imagine this guy, paralyzed

27:35

for however long, picks

27:38

up his mat, doesn't

27:40

say a word, walks

27:42

out, goes

27:45

to his home, he

27:47

finds himself in his home with

27:50

this mat. I don't

27:52

know what he's like Feng Shui was in his

27:54

house. Maybe you put

27:57

the mat on the floor. Maybe

27:59

You put it on the wall. Or. Maybe.

28:02

Is that the first thing that people stepped on as

28:04

they came into the house? Maybe

28:07

was at the this the back door and.

28:11

What against me Think it is. This is my wedding. Just

28:13

leave the man. That

28:16

doesn't lead them and. Guy

28:19

gets me think like this. Cause.

28:22

Has become human. And

28:25

go home. Every

28:28

time you look at that map. You

28:31

can be reminded of the goodness

28:33

faithfulness of your God. Either

28:36

reminded of where you were. No way

28:38

you are. He

28:42

reminded of the power and euphoria the

28:44

your God has. He

28:46

got a mojito once you are unable.

28:49

For. Was God You are able to. See

28:53

going to be reminded. That

28:55

this was your past the now this is your

28:57

future. That

29:00

when people come into your house and they look

29:02

at our matt was a new the time on

29:04

the math. The.

29:07

Wasn't the alcoholic. The

29:11

Moon Believe. Was

29:13

you them? And it. Wasn't

29:18

you. The girl does it. This was you that I

29:20

didn't hear. Their but look I

29:22

got. Look

29:25

at Goff. I

29:27

was there. but then I met

29:29

Jesus. Every cause I met Jesus

29:31

He told me get up a

29:33

lot and look I'm alive now.

29:38

But doesn't have to define. What

29:43

suits resist the fries with. And

29:46

now I work a baby. Look at

29:48

these links. nothing

29:58

is too Too much for our God.

30:04

Nothing is too much for our God. No

30:07

one is too far gone. And

30:09

nothing is too hard. For

30:11

God to redeem and to work. Doesn't

30:15

matter what addictions, what

30:18

behaviors, what battles, what pain. When

30:22

you're before Jesus, He

30:25

said, I call you son. I

30:27

call your daughter. You

30:29

are forgiven and you are healed. Get

30:32

up and walk into your God-given

30:34

destiny. And

30:42

I love that all of this happened. Because

30:46

two men dared

30:49

to lift. They

30:52

dared to lift. And

30:55

I wonder in this place, would you live today? Will

31:00

you decide to walk out of this place and go, I'm going to lift.

31:03

I'm going to lift my expectation. I'm

31:06

going to lift my prayers. And

31:08

all of that is going to cause me to

31:11

move into action. Because at

31:13

the end of this, the beauty of

31:15

this in verse 12 is

31:17

everyone. Praise God. The

31:20

Daoists, the unbelievers. Everyone,

31:23

praise God. And the scripture

31:25

says that they have seen nothing like this

31:27

before. Another version says

31:29

that they stood amazed.

31:33

I want to come into church and

31:36

I want to stand amazed at

31:38

the goodness of God. Man, He done it

31:40

again. He saved another life.

31:43

He transformed another life. We

31:45

never thought He could do it for that person, but look at

31:47

God. He did it. We

31:49

never thought that they would come through, but look at

31:51

God. He did it. We're baptized again

31:54

and again and again and again and again and

31:56

again and again. Can so many people go from

31:58

death to life in Jesus name? This is

32:00

awesome. I

32:03

want to be a part of the church with him. God

32:06

gets the glory. But

32:09

God uses people. You

32:14

are his plan. Me.

32:18

I look in the mirror, I go, God, seriously? You're

32:22

going to use me to

32:25

help lift people towards you? Absolutely,

32:28

I'm going to use you to do that, but don't get

32:30

it twisted. It's only I who can change the transform lives.

32:33

I just need you to shine my face. I

32:36

just need to get that face in the place. So

32:41

I wonder, church, who

32:44

is it that you know that needs to be in the room? Who

32:48

is it that you know that needs to be in front of

32:50

Jesus? That

32:52

they could see him face to face? That

32:55

they could hear that there is some, that they are

32:57

forgiven and that they are healed. Two

33:00

weeks time, we have one of the greatest

33:02

windows of opportunity that we get as Christians

33:04

to invite people to church. We

33:06

have Christmas, we have like Mother's Day

33:09

and Father's Day, and we have Easter,

33:11

which is the biggest. Most

33:14

people will say yes to an invitation to come

33:16

to church on Easter than any other time. So

33:20

I want to put the challenge out there because

33:23

I know there are people in your well who

33:25

do not know Jesus. And if there are people

33:27

in your well that do not know Jesus, then

33:29

I want to challenge you, get out.

33:33

Go to your local coffee shop. I guarantee there's people in there

33:35

who do not know Jesus. Who

33:40

in your well could you

33:42

be invited to come into the room to

33:44

see Jesus face to face? We've

33:47

created rooms in

33:50

the next two weeks, our Easter gatherings, Easter

33:52

weekends. We've got 5 p.m. gathering

33:54

on a Saturday. We've got

33:56

9 a.m. gathering on a Sunday and an 11.30 a.m.

33:58

gathering. in on a Sunday.

34:01

Don't come to church along that week. Listen

34:04

people. Listen

34:07

people. Pray

34:09

for them. Have high expectation

34:12

for them. Let that expectation

34:14

lead you to action to

34:16

extend that invite. We have

34:18

this saying, if you bring them,

34:21

they will come. Who are

34:29

you going to bring baby? I'm not

34:31

calling you baby. I'm just calling, call

34:34

my wife baby. Who are you

34:36

going to bring? It

34:39

needs to hear that. You're a

34:41

son, you're forgiven, and you're healed.

34:46

If you were encouraged by today's talk, be

34:48

sure to rate us and hit subscribe on

34:50

iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you stream your podcast.

34:53

To experience other talks, videos,

34:55

and live gatherings, visit us

34:57

online at passioncitychurch.com or download

34:59

the Passion Movement app. And

35:02

again, thanks for listening to the Passion City

35:04

Church.