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Welcome to the live big broadcast with Derek Greer. We believe this teaching from God's Word will empower you to live a full, impactful life in Christ. Let's dig in. Today we're going to talk about how a man came to Jesus and got unstuck. We're going to be in Luke chapter 5 and verse 17 and ready for the Word. All right, now, it happened on a certain day as he was teaching. Jesus was in his second year of ministry. His popularity was going through the roof. It was skyrocketing. But with it came growing controversy. Somebody said the only way to go through life without receiving any criticism is to stand for nothing, to say nothing, to do nothing, to be nothing. Those who make a difference in this world don't necessarily like trouble, but they don't hide from it either. And in these verses, we're going to see Jesus not hiding and doing just that. So as he was teaching, it's as if the camera was at first focused on him, but then it kind of pans out and you see the entire room and setting. And in the room there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by. These were the nation's watchdogs. These were in fact, the top dogs of the nation. They were the most powerful, the most educated group of men in the entire land. And then the Bible tells us more details. It tells us about where they came from, and it lets you know how important this meeting was. Because they had come from every town, Galilee, that means all the towns nearby. They had their leaders in the room, also Judea and Jerusalem, which is pretty far away. So they traveled long distances to listen to this young rabbi for themselves. And if you understand anything about the culture, they didn't just come to listen. They also came to inspect. On a human level, this was an extremely high pressure, a very high stakes situation for Jesus. But then the Bible says, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Jesus did not shrink back because of his audience, and neither should we. You see, if God is for you, it really doesn't matter how many are against you. And if God says yes, even your enemies can't say no. When you're in the will of God, doing the will of God and what God's assigned you to do, the question is not what will they let me do, but who's going to stop me? Verse 18. Then behold. Now, the term behold is used in the Bible. Now, we don't use this type of language unless you're about 185 years old. No one says you know, behold anymore. But what it means is don't miss this. It means pay attention, stop looking, listen what's ahead. And the term was used to alert us to pay close attention to what follows. When I was in middle school, sixth grade, my teacher, you know, want us to pay special attention to certain points and certain things. And when she wanted us to do that, she would say, put your thinking cap on. And sometimes we'd have to do the little thing, you know, and pretend. And that got everyone's attention. And in a few moments, we're gonna have to do just that. But hang on till we get there. Then, behold, men brought on a bed. A man who was paralyzed. I don't know if he was born this way, if he was made this way. All I know is that this man was stuck in a very bad situation and Jesus was about to get him out. And here's the deal. I don't know how you got into the situation you're in. I don't know if it's bad luck. I don't know if it's bad genes. I don't know bad people. I have bad choice. I really don't know. All I know is that I'm very glad you're here today because Jesus is not here to judge you. He just wants to get you well. So they brought this paralyzed man whom they sought to bring in and lay before him. But the problem was there were so many people in the house that he couldn't get through the door. And this is important. Sometimes God allows certain obstacles in our lives to see if we want it badly enough. The Bible says that in the spirit, there's neither male nor female. God is a spirit, so he's neither male nor female, though we refer to him in the Bible as a he. And that was his choice. And that's a good choice nonetheless. He represents. Both genders get something of their major attributes from God. So that's why certain times, you know, God would liken himself to a nursing mother. Other times he likened himself to a warrior. So all of these images, it takes a man and a woman to capture the full image of God. I'mma mess with folks today, but let me say this. Two men will never capture the full image of God. Two women will never capture for their children the full image of God. It takes a man and a woman to reflect the fullness of what God wants our children to see. But I'm saying all that to say that God in some ways is like a woman in a man's life. She will Test him on purpose sometimes. Over and over again. I'm looking at the first row right now, over and over again to see whether he will fight for her. I'm not saying fight with her. That's easy. I'm talking about fight for her. And men, will you fight for your marriage? Will you fight for that woman in your life, stepping into her destiny? Will you fight her all the way? And sometimes God, again, he'll allow obstacles. Just like she'll drop something just to see if you pick it up. She'll say something just to see if you're paying attention. And God's the same way. And when they could not find how they might bring him in. Watch this because of the crowd. So I'm sure these men that carried him probably prayed, they probably pushed, they pulled. And you know, these are good Jewish boys. They probably even argued with people. You know, get out of my way. You know, this guy has a greater need than. Than you do. But they could not get to Jesus. Here's the question. Is this man and I the only people who have ever felt locked out? Yeah. Watch what they did. Does the Bible say they fell down and cried? Did the Bible say that they began to picket the church? Does the Bible say that they cursed the Jesus crowd and said they're never coming back to church again? Because of my bad experience. Watch what these men did. These were practical men. They didn't have a religious attitude. Today, people just so soft, so soft. But these men were of a different age. And when the going got tough. What? Yeah. So what did they do? They went up on the housetop. Now, tradition says that when Jesus was in Capernaum, where he is at this time, and. And actually Capernaum became the headquarters of his ministry. Jesus lived with Peter's family. In fact, if you go to Israel today, you will discover a church on top of the remains of Peter's house. And actually, when you find Peter's house, you'll discover that his house was a little bit larger than the average home. And it had two courtyards and the ESV Bibles. And I think it's a great Bible, by the way, its architectural firm created a replica showing. As a matter of fact, it's on the screen showing us what Peter's house looked like. You know, I'm not an expert, but my guess is in that interior courtyard and in the house, in the rooms, and one place was for the animals. My guess is it could probably fit at least 100 people, maybe 150, I'm not quite, quite sure. But the point is there's a lot of people and these are the real starchy folks. I mean, these are the leaders of leaders. Matter of fact, Mark 2 and 2 gives us more detail. It said immediately, many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even at the door. And he preached what? The word to him. And here's the deal. When you focus on preaching God's word, not just your opinion, not just your assumptions, not just your traditions, but when you preach God's word, sincere people will come from all over to hear, but watch this, but also will your critics. And this was Jesus situation. Then they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. The people that surround you in your life or the people you surround yourself with in life matters. Because we're all gonna have moments where we feel paralyzed. We're gonna all have moments where we feel stuck. We're all gonna have moments where I'm not able to do this on my own. We all need moments where we're gonna need someone to carry us. I was in Columbia a few years ago with a group of leaders and one night I got a little too comfortable at the hotel and I really wasn't paying attention and I didn't notice that they put ice cubes in my soda. And if you've traveled to developing nations and around the world, you know, that is a no, no. You do not let anybody put ice cubes in your water because ice cubes are made out of the local water. So, you know, I went to sleep, but when I woke up, the room was spinning and I felt, you know, a little sick to my stomach. But you know, I wanted to be a trooper. And I'm like, I came too far just to stay in my hotel room. So I ventured down to the bus and my wife was with me. But the spinning only got worse as I got into the bus. Then finally we got to our destination and. And right when I tried to step off the bus, everything went black. And it just happened to be a guy I didn't really know, but he was probably at least 300 pounds, thank God, standing next to me, who caught me and I was out of it. Everything was about to exit me from every oracle orifice. Oracle orifice, whatever. More information. I'm sorry. Sorry. I should have cleaned that up. But it was a thing and I was trying to keep it together. So I checked into the hotel room above the meeting place and my wife, my five foot tall wife, I didn't really understand exactly what she was doing. But she saw my situation and she went out into the Colombian streets. It was a period of unrest. There was danger and police and all different types of things in the area. In the middle of that unrest, without knowing the language and really not knowing where she was going, she went out by herself to get me medicine. Thankfully, she returned in one piece. But a couple hours later, I was back to normal. But if it had not been for the man who caught me, a loving woman to support me, that trip could have ended very, very differently. What I'm trying to tell you is you'll never get so strong that you will always be the hero of your story. We need each other. Back to Luke 5 and 19. And when they could not find how they might bring him in because of the crowd, after they tried everything. And by the way, I hate this. I love God, but I hate this. Listen, I'm just like y'. All. I don't like everything God does in the way he does it. I'm human, okay? I don't always get it. And I've just found a pattern with him. He seems to wait till I get to the end of myself. Anybody know it? Only when I get to the end of myself, I can't take it just right there, Lord, I'm about to snap. That's the moment the big idea shows up, or God shows up and does his thing. So it's when they tried and they tried to do everything they could, and they couldn't get through the crowd. But finally, I believe the Holy Spirit dropped an idea in their head and they went up on the housetop. Now, in that period, most homes had stairs or ladders that led to the rooftops. Because the housetop actually became a very, very important place. The roofs were flat but tilted. And, you know, in that dry area, that's how you collected water, which was very, very, very important, from the rain. But it's also where folks hung laundry. You'd go there to be alone. Cause, you know, they didn't have a lot of privacy in the homes downstairs. They were pretty small and didn't have a lot of independent rooms. Also, people would sleep on the roofs on hot nights because, you know, it got stuffy. So you go up there, you get a breeze. And Peter was close to the water, so you can get the breeze off the water. So the rooftops was a place. But if you're on the roof, you couldn't hear Jesus. But these guys have another agenda going on. And the Bible says. And they let him down. Watch this. With his Bed through. See, that's the problem. We don't want to go through nothing. We want everything to just, you know, just like the Red Sea, you know, everything just. And you know, I'm here and I shouldn't have to go through anything. But these men didn't have that mindset. They let him down with his bed through. Watch this, the tiling. Now what's interesting here is you only found tiles, this is important on the ceilings of well to do homes in this period. In poorer homes, the roofs were only made of pounded earth. It appears as we read this text, Peter had some means. Now we can't say that Peter was rich, but it would also be wrong or ill informed to call him poor. He was probably in the mid to upper class like most fishermen, by the way, of his day. There really wasn't much of a middle class in the ancient era, but these fishermen kind of filled out that class. And the point I'm making is he was kind of in the middle like many of us today. But here's the big point. Even with all that, a rich man without God is just a poor man and a poor man without God is just poorer. So this idea that you can't have nothing to follow Jesus doesn't come from the Bible. But God doesn't mind you having stuff as long as stuff doesn't have you. But also, just because you got something don't mean you better than nobody else, you know. So you got to keep all that in your mind. And they let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus and when he saw ocular eyes, their faith. I don't know what it took for you to get here this morning, but God sees our faith may at first be expressed through words, but it's not matured until it expresses itself through action. Faith is like electricity and a light bulb. You can't see the electricity, but you can see the light. When he saw their faith. I want to have a faith that people don't have to guess at all. I want to have a faith so bold that people got to say, dang, what's wrong with him? He's just a little bit crazy. I want a faith that folks can see. I want a faith like the four friends who had enough faith not only to try to get to Jesus themselves, but they had enough faith to try to carry someone else. St. Augustine said, Faith is to believe what you don't see. But I kind of modified what he said a little bit. But the proof of faith is when people can See what you believe. So it starts one way, but it ends another. And if all you do is say, jesus, Jesus. But you can't love nobody. You can't forgive nobody. You can't be kind to nobody, you know what? I'm not so sure you really know him. When he saw their faith, if God looked at your life, if God looked at where you were spending most of your time, if God looked at your checkbook. I know we don't carry them anymore, but if he looked at the places you, would he see your faith demonstrated materially in the things you do? When he saw their faith. Watch what Jesus said. He said, man, your sins are forgiven you. Now, here's the thing. From the outside, it would look like this man's greatest need was his palsy. You know, the guy's in the wheelchair and I'm sorry, well, the bed and all the rest. But Jesus doesn't see things the way we see things and doesn't do things the way we do things. He looked at his deepest and most urgent and his greatest need, and there's some superficial needs we want met. But God's trying to reach deeper and look deeper, and he wants to deal with the ultimate thing. And over time, he deals with a lot of those minor things. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason. So you can have a right syllogism built on the wrong premise and it be wrong, meaning your logic could be perfectly right, but if it's based on the wrong premise, you got yourself a problem. So their reasoning was working. The problem was their premise. So in a moment, we're gonna have to put our thinking caps on and we're gonna work through some things. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, who is this? Or who. Yeah, who is this who speaks? What? Blasphemies. So their reasoning was, he's a man, he can't be God. But you read in Micah and the book of Isaiah, his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace. Throughout the Old Testament, there were hints that a virgin shall give birth, that the Messiah to come would be God and man. Blasphemy occurs when someone claims to be something that only God could be. Blasphemy occurs when someone claims that they can do what only God can do. So based on their reasoning, they're looking at this guy. It's like little Rabbi, you tripping. Now, I understand the miracles, that they're great and. But you've gone too far. And then they make this statement, which is the right statement to make. It's true. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Now, this is where we got to put on our thinking caps. So just, you know, if you could humor me and do that. Okay. All right, so thank you. So suppose me, Pookie, Ray Ray, and Minister Andre. Yeah, we're out at the park and we're playing a little four on four, and Andre keeps hitting these amazing three pointers. And yeah, I mean, Pookie's ankles are hurting the way that Andre is shaking him and all the rest of the. And you know, after the 10th time or whatever, you know, he gets mad and throws the ball. Pookie throws the ball at Minister Andre. But Ray Ray, who doesn't even like Andre. I didn't tell you about that. But, yeah, Ray Ray doesn't like you very much, Andre. He turned around and said, I forgive you, Pookie. Andre might throw the ball at Ray Ray. Why? Because only the one who sinned against can forgive the sin. Okay. All right, now you see. Oh, yeah, you catch it. You catch it. But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered and said to them, why are you reasoning in your heart? So they were reasoning, but they didn't understand. Some things they said, which is easier to say your sins are forgiven you, which is invisible, immaterial. No one can really prove that. Or for me to do something. See, I said something you say only God should say. But now I'm gonna do something only God can do to prove it. Okay. Some people say that the Book of Mark doesn't really talk much about the deity of Christ. But scriptures like this say everything about the divinity of Jesus. So he said, which is easier to say, you know, to talk. To talk or to walk. To walk, your sins are forgiven. Or to say, rise up and what? Walk. It is one thing for him for a person to say they're God. It's another thing to back it up by doing only what God could do. Watch this. But that you may know the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Now, the Son of Man, I know you've been trained that he's trying to say that he's human. That's not what he's saying. In Daniel, the Son of man was with the ancient of days. It was basically God talking to God. It was an amazing thing. And in the ancient world, there was a whole system in Judaism where they saw God as two powers. Now we talk about the triune God, but they saw two powers, the Word and the Father. Forgive me for getting a little Bit off track there. But Jesus says here that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to. To forgive sins. What Jesus is saying, he's claiming he didn't even know this guy. It's not like this guy could have ever done anything to Jesus personally. He never met the guy. But Jesus is claiming that every sin that has ever been sinned has ultimately been against him. In other words, Jesus is declaring divinity. If not, the Father needed to throw the ball from heaven and hit Jesus right in the head and say, prophet, you went too far. But because God, Jesus was God taking on flesh, the Father only confirmed with divine power. Yeah, you got it. All right, good. So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law rightly understood what Jesus was trying to say. They're saying, listen, only God could forgive sins. But they called it blasphemy. And Jesus didn't do this. Cause he was trying to hurt anyone's feelings or get people upset. But he couldn't lie about who he was. And he wasn't willing to hide the power he had to do what only God could do. So Jesus said to the man that was paralyzed, watch this. I say to you now today, when I pray for the sick, I pray in Jesus name because I can't heal nobody. I can't fix a thing. That's why I do it in his name. Jesus didn't say, in the name of the God, of Abraham, Isaac is. He didn't say any of that. He has these scholars standing in front of him. They've just accused him of blasphemy. And he said, well, I'm not just talking to talk. I'm about to walk the walk. And then he looked at the man and he said, I say to you, I am that I am. I'm the guy in the burning bush. I'm the one that created you. I know how to fix you. No other authority he appealed to. He said, I say to you, arise. Take up your bed and go home. You see, the proof of Christ's identity was not how good he looked, how smooth he talked, how great he might have sang, or how much he was liked. The proof of his deity was how much he helped. You know, somebody said, God doesn't love us because we're valuable. We're valuable because God loves us. And what we see here is Jesus didn't come for the perfect. Jesus didn't interview the man about how well he behaved the night before. Jesus didn't ask the man any questions about his spirituality because the issue was not the Sin or the illness in the man, but the greatness of the God that wanted to extend forgiveness and mercy. Your sin, your issue, is never bigger than our God. Jesus did not come to seek the perfect. He came to seek and to save the lost. And immediately, you remember at the beginning, Genesis 1, and God said, and everything that was created was created. And then you got this man, and all he's doing, he's not even doing no hocus pocus, no da, da, da, da, none of that. He just says to a guy, be healed. And it's done. Those of you in this room, and perhaps you're in a room like this for the first time, the devil's lied to you. People have lied to you. Culture, all different people lied. Jesus is not trying to get anything from you. He's trying to get something to you. All Christ wants to do is swap your sins, your failures, all your ugly. How many y' all got? Some ugly. Yeah. With his righteousness, with his holiness, with his redemption. That's the reason he came. He didn't come to tell us we're messed up. We ought to already know we're messed up. He came to give us a path and a way forward because we messed up. Matter of fact. And listen, I'm not talking bad about people with advanced degrees. I got advanced degrees. But salvation is so simple, it takes a whole lot of higher education to get it confused. Salvation is just saying, I messed up. Jesus, you paid the penalty for my sin. I'm going to trust your payment on my behalf. It's not deep. Well, the fact he came and loved us is deep, but he paid the penalty for me. Jesus going to the cross is like you owing your mortgage and someone writing a check to the mortgage company and paying it off in full. And you won't even deserve it. The mortgage company will not refuse the check because it's not you. All the mortgage company requires is payment. And you owed a debt you couldn't pay. So Jesus paid a debt he didn't owe. Immediately, the paralyzed man rose up. What? Before them. Back in the day, when I used to put stuff together and the kids were little, I couldn't afford, you know, to get it done at the store. And I, you know, put the furniture, the beds together, the bicycle together, and all the rest of the stuff. And usually on the instructions, it would say somewhere that if you don't have an authorized agent, try to fix this product, it voids your warranty. And many of us, we going to Dr. So and so we going to getting our palms Red, we going to all. It's psychic, all these different places trying to get answers and wonder why God won't stand behind what you're doing. You have voided the warranty. But you see, when you bring your problem to the manufacturer, you see, the four men brought the paralyzed man back to the manufacturer, back to his creator. And the authorized agent said, rise up, take up your bed, take up your mat and walk. He didn't do no hocus pocus. All he did was release his word. And right now, if you receive God's word, hear what I'm saying. Be set free. You could be delivered. You can rise up for whatever got you down, but you got to trust him and get through some stuff to get into the presence of the Lord immediately. The paralyzed man, he rose up before them and he. Watch this. He took what he had been lying on. You see, God wants to remove every crutch in your life. He wants to heal you so good that what used to carry you, now you carry it. Talk. Come on, come on, come on. Make some noise in this room. Give him a praise like he can do something in a person's life. Come on, celebrate like he could change something. Like he could get you up, turn things around. Come on. Praise him like he's the only God. A wise God, a bird remover, a yoke, destroyer, mighty God. And he took up a man that had no strength when he came in. But when Jesus spoke a word, he's carrying stuff and he's walking, and he departed to his own house. Watch this. Glorify God. You have an opportunity to leave here different than you came in. If you would just press through all those crowded thoughts, get through whatever that doubt is in your mind, and meet Jesus at this open altar. He's the same God, yesterday, today and forever. What he did before, he'll do it again. Whatever he did before, he'll do it again. These stories are recorded because God doesn't change. And if you can see yourself in that story, he'll do the same thing. Thing for you. Give God a hallelujah and a hand clap. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He did it before. He'll do it again. He did it before. He'll do it again. He did it before and he'll do it again. Come on, receive from the Lord. Whatever it is you need, receive it right now. Lord, I thank you for it. Thank you for joining us. Until next time, remember you have what it takes in Christ to live big. We also invite you to partner with Derek Greer Ministries in bringing the life changing and impactful teachings of God's Word to the world. Get started by visiting Derekreer.com by clicking the link in the description.