LUKE 5:17-26 HELPING A FRIEND IN NEED2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 5:17-26 Helping A Friend In Need

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011.

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Well, this morning as we look at our portion here in Luke chapter 5, we're looking at the account of these guys who bring a paralyzed man to Jesus. And if you want to later on check out the parallel passages for this account, you can check it out for yourself in Mark chapter 2.

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Matthew chapter 9.

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Helping a friend in need. That's what we really see taking place here. These guys who care for this person who is paralyzed and so they help their friend. They work really hard to bring their friend to Jesus. And so there's four things I'd like to share with you about helping a friend in need. And the first of those is that we are to bring them to Jesus creatively. To bring them to Jesus creatively. You have to close the PowerPoint show, George. Sorry. Sorry.

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To bring them to Jesus creatively. Verse 17, look at it with me again, please. It says, Now it happened on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

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Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before him. Here in verses 17 and 18, we get the background information of this story. Jesus is back in the area of Capernaum, which is where he's set up his home base and he healed Peter's mother-in-law there.

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And as he's there back in Capernaum, another big crowd has gathered. And Luke points out specifically, this crowd includes Pharisees and teachers of the law. These guys were the religious leaders of the day. They were experts in the Word of God. They knew the Old Testament really well.

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Now they were very religious and they knew the word, but as we see throughout the rest of the gospel, their hearts were far from God, but they took great pride in how well they knew the word and they took great pride in their outward religious actions. And so their hearts were off, but they knew the things that God had written in his word and that becomes important later on.

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And so specifically, this group of experts in the word, experts in the law, are there as this crowd has gathered. They want to know, who is this Jesus and what is he teaching the people? And so in the midst of this crowd, in the midst of this gathering together, we see in verse 18 that there were some men who brought to this place where Jesus was,

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a man who is paralyzed. He was laying on a bed. And so these guys take this man, they bring his bed with him, and they carry him to the place where Jesus is. Now we know from the other gospel accounts that it's actually four men who were involved in bringing this paralyzed man to Jesus. And so what we see, first of all, is these guys who desire to bring a friend of theirs to receive some help. They have a friend who's in need.

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He's paralyzed. Now the scriptures don't tell us exactly why. Many Bible commentators speculate that it could be as a result of sin, specifically a sexual sin that resulted in a type of disease that left him paralyzed. But it doesn't say that specifically. All we really know is that he's paralyzed. And he has four friends. Four friends who care for him. They want to see him to be able to walk. They want to see him healed and touched.

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And so for whatever reason that he's paralyzed, they're reaching out and they're doing their best to bring him to find the help that he needs.

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Now as we look at this account, these four guys are really an excellent example for us. They're an excellent example for you and I to reach out and to help people around us, our friends, people that we know and people that we love who are paralyzed. Do you have any paralyzed friends? Well maybe not physically paralyzed, although that may be the case, but physically

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People also can be paralyzed spiritually, emotionally, financially. Sin and problems in life paralyze people all around us. They're in a position where they're stuck. They're unable to help themselves. They're unable to pick themselves up. They seem to be like frozen in this cycle, in this problem. They're lost. And the need that they have has paralyzed them.

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Now that's an important point because it's very often, as I'm sure you could testify, when we are in that position when we're helpless, you know, when you hit rock bottom and there's nowhere else to look but up,

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That's when you and I are most receptive to the work of God. That's when typically we're able to finally say, okay, Lord, yes, please come and work in my life. You have free reign. You know, I've made a mess of my life. Now it's yours. You can do with it whatever you want to do.

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Usually we don't like to surrender to God until we're paralyzed, until we've hit rock bottom, until we have no other option. Now we don't have to wait till then, but very often for us as prideful humans that we are and stubborn humans that we are, that's what we wait for. We wait for that point. And so there's people around us. There's people in our lives who are paralyzed. They've reached that point. They're stuck in this situation. They're in this place and

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And they cannot help themselves. And they cannot get out of the situation. And so from the example of these four guys, I want to encourage you today. It's our opportunity. It's our responsibility to then bring them before the Lord so that God can do a work in their life.

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We see here in verse 18, it says that they sought to bring him to Jesus. They sought to bring him in to where Jesus was. This word sought, it means to seek in order to find. It's not just a casual desire. It's not just a, you know, well, we hope to maybe one day at some point, you know, if it's convenient, get this guy before the Lord. But they're seeking in order to find.

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It also means to seek by thinking, by meditating, by reasoning, and by inquiring into. And so the idea here in this word sought is that they're really thinking about, they're strategizing, they're trying to figure out, they're working out different ways to

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That they could get this man that they love, that this man that they care for, could be brought before the Lord. You could call this strategic, but I like to refer to it as being creative. They're being creative in the way that they bring this man to Jesus. Their goal, obviously, is to bring him before the Lord so that Jesus can work in his life.

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And the way that they end up approaching the Lord, I think is pretty creative. It's not a way that I would have thought of. They go through the roof in order to bring this man to Jesus. It's a creative approach to bringing him. They didn't use the front door.

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Now as we talk about people in our lives who are paralyzed, who need the Lord but they're stuck, they can't help themselves, I would share with you that the front door is rarely open. Here's what I would call the front door. The front door is when someone walks up to you and says, I'm spiritually paralyzed and I need Jesus. Will you lead me in a prayer of repentance? That's the front door. And let me just tell you, that rarely happens.

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That's not normal. God does do that sometimes and people respond to the Lord and praise God for that. But that is not normal. That's very, very rare. And so since the front door is not usually open, it requires then that you and I be a little bit creative and we try some different avenues and we try some different opportunities to share with them to find an opening where we can bring them before the Lord.

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We need to think and pray creatively. What is it that has them paralyzed? Where is an opening that we could find to bring them before the Lord?

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You know, for me, one of the things I've grown to appreciate is a funeral service. And earlier, I didn't like funeral services that much. They're very difficult because of the grieving. But you know, I've learned to appreciate the funeral services because it opens a door that is rarely open in a person's life. Because when a person is at a funeral, they're

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They're right on the edge of eternity. They are forced. They have to. They have no other choice but to deal with the questions that they run the rest of their life from. And so they're faced with

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the reality of death. They're faced with the questions of eternity. And so, there at the service, the door is open. There's an opportunity there to share with them, to bring them before Jesus like no other time in their life. Because normally, they bury that, you know. They don't want to think about that. It's not a subject that they'll entertain.

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But there they have to. And so I found that to be a very good open door in many cases where people can be brought before the Lord.

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Or another example of an open door, perhaps you've heard of Ray Comfort and the way that he approaches people on the street and the evangelism that goes on. He does so with the Ten Commandments. And so he'll go up to a person and he'll say, you know, hey, do you think you're going to go to heaven? And almost always everybody says, yeah, I think I'm going to go to heaven. And most often they think, I'm going to go to heaven because I'm a good person. And so he takes them through some of the commandments. Have you ever stolen? Have

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Have you ever lied? Have you ever had a lustful thought? And so, yes, yes, yes. Okay, so what does that make you? It makes me a thief. It makes me an adulterer. It makes me a liar. And as he walks them through this process, they begin to realize, I guess I'm not a good person after all, when you look at the standard of the Ten Commandments. And so he uses that as an open door to be able to share with them the good news and the need of a Savior. Okay?

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But those aren't the only ways. That's not the only open door. That's not the only opportunity to bring someone before the Lord. Some people will have really intellectual issues that need to be addressed. Maybe questions about evolution or the trustworthiness of the Bible and things like that. And answering those things, having answers to those things can really be an open door to be able to bring them before the Lord.

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Sometimes an opening that might be available is for you to share your testimony. And as you share just, you know, without judging them or preaching at them, but just share what God has done for you, it opens a door for them that wasn't previously open. As they hear about what God did for you, they wonder, they want that same type of work. And so it opens a door for you then to be able to bring them before the Lord.

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Sometimes an open door is to share with them, hey, Jesus loves you. But sometimes that doesn't matter to them at all. They already know that, but that doesn't mean that they're walking with him. And so just giving you a little bit of examples and to kind of further the examples that I'd like to share with you, I have a few videos I want to show, just real short videos that we recorded for the 20th anniversary and

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just some simple examples of some creative approaches to bringing people before Jesus and bringing them the gospel message. So take a look at the screen or pay attention to what you hear. One day, Darrell was telling me about this basketball team that the church had and that they were holding a raffle and that he in fact had bought a raffle ticket for me. And Darrell

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A couple days later, and I don't know if this was rigged by Daryl, but a couple days later, this guy from Living Water had called and said, hey, you're the proud winner of this Reebok duffel bag. And, you know, I thought, well, wow, if a church was willing to give away free stuff like that, maybe I should give it a chance. And, you know, maybe I should check it out and see what they're all about.

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I first came to Living Water because my co-worker Tammy Craik invited me. It was in fall of 1996. She knew that I was having a little trouble at home in my marriage and so she invited me to a women's retreat. So after that I started coming by myself and then in about November around Thanksgiving Cisco started coming.

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I was in high school and Michael Ochoa invited us break dancers to come and session, have a break dance practice after youth group. It was my first time there. I arrived, I saw Lester break dancing and we were for the first time standing, a bunch of us high school kids, worshiping or singing songs to me at that time.

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and it felt really goofy doing it. And then Pule stood up, this guy with this funny accent stood up, and he shared the gospel on using archery, using sin to share the gospel, and about salvation, about sin and salvation. And it was there that I was watching that, I was listening, and it was there.

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There that I realized, this is it. This is what I've been struggling with. This is what, in my heart, I've been wrestling with. And my first night at youth group that night is the night that I received Jesus into my life. And it was the best first night at Living Water. It was the only first night.

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And it was to a basketball ministry that they had on Thursday nights. I happened to be passing by and Tim Newell, who's actually a pastor now in Japan, invited me and that's how I started to come.

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So that's just a couple examples. And I think those are pretty creative. I mean, with Marisa, right? You know, the raffle ticket. That's a really creative way to open a door to be able to bring someone before the Lord and allow God to work in their life. And I keep meaning to verify with Daryl. I don't know if he rigged it or not. But it is an interesting story account of what the Lord did through that.

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You know, we also have Mika, you know, so she's having marriage trouble and her co-worker knows about it. And so she invites her to a retreat and her marriage trouble is an opportunity to bring her before the Lord and allow God to work in her life. And then you have Tim, you know, he's into breakdancing. He knows really nothing about the Lord, but they're reaching out to him, inviting him. Hey, come, we're breakdancing at church tonight. And so it was an open door. It was a way to bring him before the Lord so that God could work in his life.

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And then Ronnie, I don't know if you guys know anything about Ronnie, but Ronnie literally used to live right across the street from the church. And so he's just walking by, not caring about us at all, not wanting anything to do with us. But Tim runs and grabs him and says, hey, why don't you come play basketball with us? And through that, it was an open door for God to work in Ronnie's life. And now we have a great brother, an awesome worship leader, and God's been doing an amazing work. And so I share those just as an example of

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Being creative, you know, that it's not just about walking up to someone, handing them a tract, and then walking away. Although God may use that from time to time, but I think we need to think and to pray creatively. You know, what has this person paralyzed? And where are some openings that I would be able to enter in, to lay them before the feet of Jesus that he might be able to work in their life?

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And you know, that's really a large part of what these outreaches that we've been doing are all about. We've been trying different openings here in our community, finding out where people are in our community, where the open doors are. You know, a lot of the older pastors around these days have been sharing about, you know, the concerts that would take place back in the 70s. Now some of you remember that time, I was a little bit too young, but you

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But the older pastors are sharing how, you know, the Christian concerts these days are really not as effective as they were back in those, that time frame, the 70s, where, you know, they would have a Christian concert and unbelievers would just come out of the woodwork. They would all go to the concert. They would, you know, come enjoy the music. Then they would hear the gospel and many of them would get saved. Right?

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But now, these days, Christian concerts are mostly just that. They're Christian concerts. Mostly Christians come and a few unbelievers come and of course the Lord's still working in their lives. But it's completely different. It's not the way that it was back in the 70s.

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And so we're looking for and we're seeking God. How do you want to reach people? What are some ways? And so one of the ideas that the Lord gave us was to have the free car wash. And that was a creative way. People were shocked. They were taken aback. It was a huge opportunity, a huge door as people were trying to figure out why we would not receive donations, why we would do this for free.

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Well, because it's an open door. It's a way to tear down a wall and to bring people the gospel message, to bring them before the feet of Jesus. And so I want to encourage you as you have people in your life that are paralyzed, that are in need. Now, it might be the need of salvation or it might be a Christian who has backslidden or lost their way and they've gone astray.

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And they need to be there before the Lord. And you and I need to pray and to think creatively, to approach them in a way that we're able to bring them before the Lord where the door is open, where there's an opportunity. Well, as we continue on looking at these four guys as an example, we see here in verse 19, not only were they creative in their approach, but they were persistent. And so we need to bring them to Jesus persistently. Look at verse 19.

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It says,

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But they ran into some obstacles. There were some roadblocks. And they were having a hard time finding a way in. Because the front door was closed. And I shared that with you already. Usually the front door is closed. That's pretty normal. People don't usually walk up and say, please lead me in the sinner's prayer. That's usually closed. But they didn't

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once they saw that the front door was closed. The place was so crowded. There's people packed in there. They couldn't get in. I imagine these guys trying some different angles, you know, like, well, maybe there's a window. Can we find a window that we can maybe squeeze him through to get him in before the Lord? Or maybe we could hold him over our heads and then he could crowd surf, you know, to the feet of Jesus and get healed that way. Or maybe we'll get some big guys and just kind of

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elbow our way through, you know, make our way to the front so that we can bring him to Jesus. Or how about a back door? You know, I see them in my mind, you know, trying to figure out different ways and attempting and oh, that's not going to work and then we'll go over here. Oh, that's not going to work. And so they're persistent. They keep on trying. They're not going to give up. In fact, they would not give up

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until they could present him before the Lord, until they could bring him so that he would be in a place where Jesus could touch his life. You know, I think of Pastor Rick as I think about this idea of persistence, because before he was a pastor, in fact, before we here at Living Water even really knew him, we kept hearing from Pastor Gil. And Pastor Gil was a co-worker of Rick's at that time, and

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Pastor Gil would come to us often and repeatedly on Wednesday nights. He'd be saying, hey, pray for my coworker. I'm having an opportunity to reach out to him and to minister to him, but he's really opposed to the things of God. And yet at the same time, he has some questions. And so there was this kind of back and forth. And Rick had lots of challenges and questions and excuses regarding the gospel.

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And really, it was a long process. It was, I believe, over a year of ministering and praying that Gil was doing. And all we knew here at the church was Gil kept telling us, hey, keep praying for my coworker. You know, God's doing this or this happened. And I was able to share this. And so we kept praying. And after about a year of ministering to him, then...

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The persistence paid off and the door was open and Pastor Rick actually received Jesus as Lord and Savior. And now, of course, he's serving the Lord in Okinawa and God's done a great work through him. But there's that persistence there that it kept on going. He tried one door. Yeah, Rick wasn't open to that. He didn't want to talk about that. So he tried another door, answer this question, cover those areas. And he just, you know, kept testing and trying different ways to bring him before the Lord.

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And so these guys are doing the same thing. They're trying the front door. They're trying the windows. They're trying these different things. They're not able to find a way in. And so finally, in verse 19, it says that they go up on the housetop. They break through the roof and then they let him down there and

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In the presence of Jesus, right before Jesus. In Mark chapter 2 verse 4, it says it this way, When they could not come near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. These guys really demonstrate some persistence. They're not giving up.

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Can you imagine, as we're sitting here in service, someone so desperate to get in, they break through the roof right in the middle of it? I mean, first of all, you start seeing pieces fall, you know, dust is going everywhere. You start looking up, what's going on? And then all of a sudden, here comes this guy being brought down or let down from the roof.

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Well, that's what happened. That's what these guys went to. Now the way the roofs were constructed in those days, it would be something like this. There would be beams, like we have beams of course in our ceilings and roofs. The beams would vary in space apart depending on how available the supplies were, how wealthy the builder was, that kind of thing. But usually they would be wide enough that a person could fit through them. So they would have these beams that would go all the way across the building.

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And then they would have a layer of reeds that would go, you know, opposite direction or perpendicular to the beams. And so the reeds would go across this way.

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And then on top of that, they would have this mud or this clay that they would mix together. In fact, there was three different types, three different mixtures that would go on in layers to protect the house, to keep it waterproof and that kind of thing. And so in order for these guys to get this, you know, to a position where they could let the man down, you could understand they weren't letting him down feet first. So they had to do quite a bit of work.

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they would have to break through this tile, this clay there on the top of the roof. And they'd have to be digging and breaking pieces off and removing big enough so that they could let down the whole bed there before Jesus. And once they got the mud or the clay out of the way, then they'd have to break through the reeds and then they would let him down between the beams there of the house so that he would be brought before Jesus. But the point is, they worked really hard.

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I mean, they dug in. They got their hands dirty. It was some hard work for them to bring this man before Jesus. They were persistent. They carried on. They didn't give up. They kept at it and kept at it until finally he was there before the Lord. You may have to do the same. With the people in your life that God has placed there,

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With the people around you who are in need, who are paralyzed. Again, maybe physically, probably more likely spiritually, emotionally, financially. They're in trouble. They're in need. They need the Lord and they need God to work in their life. And the front door is not usually open. And so you might have to dig in. And maybe you're going to have to do some research, some apologetics. Maybe you're going to have to have some of the answers to those evolution questions and

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the reality of the Creator, and some of those things you need to be able to understand, to be able to answer. That was one of the things that Pastor Rick shares about Gil that, that he appreciated. That, you know, he talked to Christians before Pastor Gil, but none of them had answers to those questions that he would ask. And he learned through that, that there was some reasonable answers. That, you know, it makes sense. That it's not just, you know, you have to

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Have a deer in the headlight look and then run away. You know, that there's reasons that you can share. And it's not, you know, without logic. It's not without reason. It's not unbelievable.

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And so, but you might have to dig in. You might have to learn some of those things. You might have to minister to them in practical things. You know, maybe before you can, you know, really meet their need and bring them before the Lord, you got to fix their toilet. And that's a dirty job and stuff like that. But you got to be persistent and willing, you know, to continue at it, to continue to work, to get your knuckles bloodied maybe in order to present the gospel to them or bring them before the Lord.

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And so we see these four guys. They bring this man to Jesus in a very creative way. And they're persistent. They work hard until they break through, until finally they're able to let him down there in the room in the presence of Jesus. Well, now as he's let down there in the presence of Jesus, we find the next thing that we see, the next point to consider. And that is we need to bring them to Jesus for their biggest need.

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We're bringing them to the Lord for God to address their biggest need. Look at verse 20. It says, when he saw their faith, he said to him, man, your sins are forgiven you. Consider this with me for a moment, please. It says, when he saw their faith. Whose faith did he see?

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Well, probably the guy who is paralyzed on the mat, we could assume that he had some faith, but it's also plural. So it's not just his faith, but the faith of the guys who are bringing this man to Jesus. He sees their faith and it prompts Jesus to respond and say, man, your sins are forgiven you. But let me highlight a different element of this for you for a moment.

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What does it say? It says, he saw their faith. Jesus saw their faith. It was visible. It was tangible. It was lived out. Let me ask you, those people that are in your mind, that you know they're in need, the Lord wants to do a work in their life. Do you believe that Jesus can meet their needs? Then the follow-up question to that is, so what are you doing about it?

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I mean, I could say, yes, I believe Jesus can meet their needs. I believe Jesus can work in that situation. But the very next question I need to ask is, what am I doing about it? Is that faith, the fact that I believe that that person Jesus could minister to, is that seen? Is it visible? Is it tangible? Can the Lord see your faith? James tells us in James chapter 2 verse 17, faith by itself...

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if it does not have works, is dead. Faith without works is dead. He saw their faith. Why? Because there were works attached to their faith. They believed so much that Jesus could help this guy, could minister to this guy, that they worked, that they were creative, that they worked hard, they dug through the roof, and they brought him to the Lord. They really believed that Jesus could help him. And that was proven today.

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by the extent, by the length that they went to, to bring him to the Lord. For you and I, we need to consider. I think, of course, we would all say, yeah, I believe Jesus could work in their life. But what are you doing about it? Is that seen? Is that visible? Is it tangible? Because faith without works is dead. And to say that, yeah, I believe Jesus could work in their life, but to have no works attached to that, that's dead. It's worthless. It's useless faith.

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It's no faith at all, James is explaining. And so we need to bring them to Jesus for their biggest need because we believe that Jesus can work in their life. Because we believe that He can heal. Because we believe that He can save. That He can transform. That He can redeem. We need to bring them to Jesus. Our action of bringing them demonstrates that we really have that faith that He can help.

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And so Jesus sees their faith and he responds. And he says, man, to this guy who's laying there paralyzed, he says, man, your sins are forgiven you. Your sins are forgiven you. I wonder if those four guys thought, hey, that's not what we brought him here for. I wonder if they thought, hey, don't you see the need here? That's an important point to remember that we do not see as God sees. And so the person's biggest need is

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May not be the most obvious one. The most important need, the biggest need that they have is probably not the one that we can see. It's probably not the most obvious one. Because let me ask you this. What good would it be for this guy to be able to walk again but then to spend eternity in hell? Is that profitable? Is that worth it? Absolutely not. So his biggest need is his sin condition. And Jesus addresses that.

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He says, man, your sins are forgiven. Now here's the reality. This is the biggest need of every individual. Every one of us. The biggest thing in our life, the biggest need that we have is the forgiveness of sin. Because without that, we're all lost.

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In Romans chapter 3 verse 23, it tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We are all in the same boat. We all have a very serious need, and it's the need of salvation, the need of forgiveness. Why? Because we've all sinned. And because we have sinned, you and I, we deserve eternal judgment.

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Because we have broken God's word. We've rebelled against God. We've fallen short of the standard. And the standard is perfection. Now sometimes we like to kind of compare ourselves to one another, you know, compare ourselves to other people and we're like, yeah, you know, I'm not perfect, but I'm better than this guy. I'm better than that girl. But the Bible is very clear. It's really a package deal.

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It's not, you know, one here or one there. It's a package deal. Kind of like a breach of contract. It really doesn't matter which part of the contract you breach. When you breach the contract, you've broken it. The whole thing is now broken. It's void. In the same way, James tells us in James chapter 2 verse 10, "...whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he's guilty of all."

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You see, we've broken the contract of our existence. God has allowed us to exist on the condition that we walk with Him, that we obey Him, that we live in perfection. We've broken that. We've breached the contract. We've broken it in at least one area, but if we've broken it in one, James says you're guilty of all of it. The law.

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And so you can't look and say, well, you know, I don't sin as much. I haven't been as bad as this person. Because if you've broken it one time ever in your whole life, then you're guilty of the whole law. And so we've broken the law. We've broken God's word. We've breached the contract. And as a result, we've been served papers. We've been given notice. And we have two options. Option number one, we can settle out of court.

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That is, we can come to Jesus. We can receive the forgiveness that Jesus offers and obey Him and walk with Him and find forgiveness and life in Him. Or we can go to court. We can stand before God at the final judgment. We will certainly be found guilty because we have broken the law and at that point we'll be sentenced to eternal judgment. So that's our biggest need. We need forgiveness. We need salvation. We need a Savior.

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And so Jesus addresses the biggest need first, which is the issue of sin. And he says, man, your sins are forgiven you. You've sinned, you've fallen short, you deserve judgment, but right now I'm wiping the slate clean. You're forgiven. That's what's offered to us through the Lord. And that's what's available to the people around us. And that's why we need to bring them before the Lord, because he's the only one who can wipe the slate clean, as we'll see in just a moment.

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He is the way, the truth, and the life. And so when we bring that person in need in our life to the Lord, when we lay them at the feet of Jesus, be prepared for the reality that the issue that Jesus addresses will probably not be the most obvious one. You know, we bring someone to the Lord and we say, Lord, this person really needs a job. And that's what we want for them. That's what they desire. That's what we desire. But Jesus addresses something else entirely oftentimes.

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Because that's not the real issue. And it's not the biggest need. It's the one we see. It's obvious, but it's not the most important. You know, sometimes people will come to the church for some marriage counseling. And many times they're taken aback because very often one of the first questions that we ask after they go, you know, 15, 20, 45 minutes, you know, they're talking about, you know, their latest argument and

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Then they finally be quiet for a moment. And usually our first question or very early in the conversation is, how's your devotional life? Where are you at in your relationship with the Lord? How are things between you and God? And sometimes they get pretty upset over this because they're thinking, they're wanting to know. Sometimes they even say, hey, I want you to tell me who's right in this argument. That's why we're here. I don't need to talk about that.

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I'm here because you need to tell her that she's wrong and I'm right. Sometimes they don't say that out loud, but sometimes they do. But that's not the real issue. That's not the real need. The saying is very true. The heart of the matter is always a matter of the heart. It always comes back to where are you at in your relationship with God? Are you spending time with Him regularly?

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Are you reading the Word? Are you spending time in prayer? Are you walking with God? 90% of all counseling situations are resolved there at the relationship with God level. Going back to the basics, spending time in the Word, spending time in prayer, spending time in fellowship, living out in obedience to things that God has given to us in His Word.

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It's always a matter of the heart. We look and we see, hey, they need a job. We look and we see, hey, man, they're losing their house. That's tough. We look and we see, oh, this terrible situation. They've got this illness. They've got this sickness. They're in this predicament. But the obvious need is usually not the biggest need. The biggest need is really what's going on within the heart. And Jesus could have told this guy right then, you know, get up and walk, and he could have walked away. But his heart would have still been wrong.

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And so he would have helped him on the outside, but the real issue, the real problem would have still existed. And so Jesus gets to the heart of the matter, which is a matter of the heart. And he says, man, your sins are forgiven you. Now this causes some commotion there in the crowd that's gathered. Check it out in verse 21 through 24. It says, and the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason saying,

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Verse 1.

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Here is Jesus speaks to this man who's been lowered before him and he says, your sins are forgiven you. The scribes and the Pharisees, again, these are the religious leaders, the experts in the word of God. They begin to reason. They begin to question. They begin to have some doubts in their mind as they wrestle with this idea. Who does this guy think he is? They ask the question, who can forgive sins but God alone?

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Now this question that they ask is a valid question. It's a true statement. Only God can forgive sin. That's the reality. Only God can forgive sin. And you know why? Because all sin is against God. All sin is against God. And so if someone wrongs Larry, I can't forgive them because the wrong isn't against me, it's against Larry. He has to forgive them. I don't have any authority. I can't say, yeah, I forgive you. What does that matter? That doesn't matter.

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And then Larry has a wrong against me and then I'll have to forgive me for that one too. Trying to forgive sin that's not your sin to forgive. But all sin is against God. Even though we sin against others, ultimately it's God who set the standard.

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It's God who said, this is how you're to relate to one another. This is how you're to treat each other. He's the one who set the standard. And so all sin is against God. So only God can forgive it. I can't forgive it. You can't forgive it. Nobody else can forgive it. Only God can forgive sin. So what does that mean? It's a valid and true question that they're asking. So what does that mean? You see, Jesus here is making it clear. He's not just a good teacher. He's not just a good teacher.

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He's not just a great prophet. He's not just a miracle worker. Jesus is claiming to be God. He's claiming to be the Son of God. He's claiming to have authority to forgive sins, and only God can do that. And so as he's addressing these questions, these concerns that they have in their heart, he begins now to ask them a question. He says, what's easier to say? Your sins are forgiven you, or rise up and walk? Which one's easier to say?

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Well, rise up and walk has less words. So, no, not like that, right? Which one's easier to say? It's easier to say your sins are forgiven you. Why? Because there's no visible proof. So if I say, hey, your sins are forgiven you, you can't look and see if that was accomplished or not. There's no visible verification. But if I say to a lame man, rise up and walk, all eyes go on the lame man like, okay, let's see what's going to happen. There's some real accountability there.

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And so Jesus asks them a question. He gets them thinking, what's easier to say? Your sins are forgiven or rise up and walk? Now when you're looking at it from God's perspective, they're both easy. Neither of them are bigger than God can handle. Nothing's impossible for God. He can forgive sin and make the lame walk without batting an eye. It's not difficult for him without breaking a sweat. He can do it. No problem.

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Because the way has been accomplished. And so for God, it's the same. He could say, your sins are forgiven and rise up and walk. Now for man, it's easy for us to say, your sins are forgiven because nobody can really check and see if it's true or not. But it's very difficult to say, rise up and walk because everybody can tell if it works. And so he's challenging them. He's getting them thinking. And then notice what he says in verse 24. He says, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.

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So as he's got them thinking about which one's easier to say, now he gives them some proof. He says, look, here's how you can know that I'm able to forgive sins. And he speaks to the man now. He says, take up your bed, rise up, and go home. Get up and walk. Jesus did it this way. We have this account here in the scriptures. It's recorded for us this way. He accomplished it this way because he wants you to know

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He is able to forgive sins. He could have whispered to the guy, Hakem, your sins are forgiven. Don't tell anybody. Get up and walk. He could have told him to get up and walk without forgiving his sins. He could have done it a different way. But he did it right there in front of everybody. He let them ask the questions. He let them consider it. Why? So that you would know he can forgive sins. And since that's our biggest need, that's great news.

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Since our biggest need is the forgiveness of sins and Jesus is the one who can forgive sins, truly he could say, I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me. He is the Savior. He is our biggest need. Now the scriptures go on in Romans chapter 8 verse 32. Paul says, look, if God gave us Jesus, if he provided a Savior for our biggest need, which was sin, well how much more will he give us the other things that we need too?

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And so not only does he forgive his sin, but he raises him up and he causes him to walk. But understand, even if Jesus didn't say rise up and walk, that would have been okay. If Jesus forgives you of your sin and never does one thing more for you your whole life, that's still an abundant amount of grace, way more than you and I deserve. But that's not all that God does. He also provides for us our needs.

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And he makes the promise in Matthew 6.33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all these other things will be added on to you. He'll meet your needs. He'll provide for you. He'll take care of you. And so that friend in need, when they're brought before the Lord and Jesus addresses the heart, he deals with the heart and they seek the Lord. Then those needs began to be met as they seek first the kingdom of God. All those other things are added unto them.

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And so when we bring people before the Lord, believe God to meet their biggest need. It's not just the outward, not just the obvious, but it's the heart. And so they bring...

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This man to Jesus and he meets their biggest need. Well, the final point as we look at verse 25 and 26 is we need to bring them to Jesus for God's glory. Look at verse 25. It says, Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things today. Here in two verses we see

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God is glorified. God is glorified. This guy gets up, he goes home, he's praising God, he's glorifying God. The people who are there in the room that watch what took place, they're amazed, they're glorifying God. God is being glorified as a result of this. Let me take you back a few years to a riddle perhaps you've heard maybe in grade school days. See if you can answer the riddle, but don't give it away if you remember it, okay?

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As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks. Each sack had seven cats. Each cat had seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks, wives. How many were going to St. Ives? Seven wives, seven cats, seven times seven times. You're trying to do the math, right?

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But the answer is in the first part. It says, as I was going to St. Ives. You see, we forget about the first part as soon as we get 7 and 7 and 7 and 7. And we forget, oh, there's one person going to St. Ives. That's the answer to the riddle. We forget about the first person because we get caught up in the rest. This is how it's supposed to be as we bring people to Jesus.

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What color were the eyes of the men who brought this guy to Jesus? That's a reference to another kid's riddle. I guess you guys didn't get it. That's all right. You know, the bus driver, the color of the eyes. Anyways, we don't know anything about these guys. That's the point. We don't know anything about them. We don't know their names. They didn't say, hey, look at us. Look at how creative we were in bringing this person to Jesus.

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I mean, we took an avenue nobody else has taken. We took the roof. I mean, that's pretty impressive. Look how hard we worked and how persistent we were. They didn't say, hey Luke, Luke, make sure you put down our names. We don't know anything about these guys. All we know is they had a friend who had a need and they brought him to Jesus. We don't even know about this guy. Who is he? What was his name? What was his background? What was his story? We don't know. Here's what we know from this story.

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Someone had a need, Jesus met the need, and God is glorified. That's how it's supposed to be. Bring people to Jesus for God's glory. Not so that you get recognized for your incredible, brilliant arguments, your convincing cases, your amazing track record. Not so that people know about you, but so that people are amazed at what God has done. Bring them to Jesus for God's glory.

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Katie is going to come up and lead us in a worship song. And I want to share just a quote and a final thought with you. The quote is from J. Vernon McGee. He says this, There are many people who are not going to receive the message of salvation unless you lift a corner of their stretcher and carry them to the place where they can hear the word of the Lord.

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Consider this thought. Overwhelming evidence for this. 99.999% of the time.

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People do not go to Jesus on their own. Other people bring them. That's the truth. People don't just wake up and then go to Jesus. Just out of the blue one day, people bring them. Some of us sow, some of us water, and some of us reap the harvest. But it's us. We're the people that God has called to bring those who are in need to Jesus, that He can work. They don't come on their own. So let's bring them. Amen? Let's worship the Lord together.

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We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.