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Amen and amen. And amen. Happy easter. Church of 1122 how you doing this morning? Good. He is risen. Amen. Well, you look great. You look way better than you normally do. So take that the best way you possibly can. If you got your Bibles and I hope you do go to the book of Matthew. We are studying through the book of Matthew all year long. If you didn't bring a Bible, that's fine. There's one right there in front of you, feel free. If you don't have one of your own, take that home with you. If you want a nice one, you can go buy our lost and found and get you a nice leather bound Bible with somebody else's name engraved on it because they're obviously not reading it. So you could take that one home. So this is gonna be a kind of a non typical Easter sermon because we're starting through the book of Matthew the whole year. So what we're doing, we're in Matthew chapter nine. So if you're the kind of person that only goes to Easter services, I got good news. You're getting a brand new sermon. We're not going to be in Matthew 28 where he comes out of the grave, but every single time the church gathers together, we gather together to celebrate and worship a resurrected Savior. So basically every Sunday should be Easter Sunday. But today we're going to talk about this miracle that Jesus does. And even though we're not primarily talking about a typical Easter sermon, I know and I believe that the message that God has for you is exactly what you need. Cause every single time you open the word of God and you teach the word of God, God gives you exactly what you need. And here's my hope, and here's my prayer. And here's what we have been experiencing over the dozens of services that we have already had, that there's some of you and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior yet. And today is your day that you are gonna meet him. And to some of you, you go, whoa, whoa, whoa. Well I mean, I don't know if I need to be saved cause I'm a good person. You're actually a liar and full of yourself. But if you think that it is your good behavior or your right deeds that make you right before God, then by definition you are self righteous. And nobody likes a self righteous person, even God. And so even if you're a good person, you go to church a lot, you can get good, you can get saved too. It's a lot Harder for you, but you can get saved, too. And then some of you are like, well, Pastor, that might work for those people, but you don't know the things that I've done. I probably do. But here's what you don't understand. You don't know what Christ has done for you. That no matter who you are or what you've done, there is more grace in Jesus than sin in you. And there is nobody too far gone. And I am praying that today would be the day, if you've never surrendered your life to Christ, that today would be your day. And on your way in, at all of our locations, you walk by a bunch of baptismals to get into here. And so today, if you have never been baptized as a believer, then today, I'm hoping and praying today would be your day that you're gonna go public with your faith. Even if you're not ready, you're like, I just got on my Easter dress. No problem. We'll give you a T shirt. You can get dunked in your Easter clothes. That'll be awesome. You can explain it to your waiter at lunch, what a testimony that would be. And so start praying about it right now. But at the end of the service when we leave, if you've never been baptized, I want you to have the opportunity to renounce the sins of your past, the ways of this world, anything dark or demonic that you've ever been connected to, and proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And that's what we are going to do. If you haven't found Matthew 9 by now, just give up. I mean, it's the first book of the New Testament, so I'll read it for you. And then we're actually gonna study this passage out of another text. I'll explain why in a second. Matthew, chapter nine says this. In getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, my son. Your sins are forgiven. And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, this man is blaspheming. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He then said to the paralytic, rise, pick up your bed, and go home. And he rose, and he went home. And when the crowd saw it they were afraid and they glorified God who had given such authority to men. Let's pray. Our good and gracious heavenly Father. Lord, just like you had all kind of people crowded into this one little house 2,000 years ago, Lord, you have all kind of people crowded into your house this day. People came for all different reasons, but Lord, this day they encountered the living Christ. And that's what we pray. We pray that we would encounter the living Christ because he's the only one that can give us what we need. And so, Lord, I pray for each and every one of us that you would soften our hearts, that we may have ears to hear what you have to say to us. I pray it in Jesus name. Amen. So if you're new to Bible study, you may not know this, but we have four different gospels in the Bible, okay? They all describe one event, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. But they're from four different perspectives. There's Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And so what we're actually going to do today is we're going to study this same event out of the Gospel of Mark. I'll tell you why in just a second. You see Matthew, the one that we're studying all year. Matthew was an eyewitness to Jesus. He was one of the original 12 disciples. In fact, when you come back next week, you'll hear about how Matthew was called to be a follower of Jesus. And Matthew was born an insider. He was born a Jewish guy. He became an outsider because he worked for the Roman government against his own family and against his own people. And yet God still extended his grace to him. And he wants his people, the Jewish people, to understand that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the greater Israel, the greater Moses. There was one other eyewitness that wrote one of the gospels named John. John was one of the original 12. He was an eyewitness. And John is the one that we know as the disciple whom Jesus loved. The only weird thing is he's only called that in the Gospel of John written by John. So, you know, John likes John. That's fine. But then there's also two other gospel writers. And again, they're all the same events. They just decide to include different details. Like if you went to the Jags game and watched them beat whoever they beat, because we beat pretty much everybody last year until the end. Go jugs. I told you, if the tomb is empty, anything is possible then. But you came home and you watched the highlights. The ESPN highlights might be different than CBS sports highlights, but the Event was the same. And so there were two other gospel writers. One is named Luke. Luke was a doctor, a physician, and he was not one of the original 12. He was not an eyewitness. He comes along later. And so what Luke does is Luke enters a whole. He interviews a whole bunch of different people to put together an orderly account of the life, death and resurrection for a guy named Theophilus. And so Luke has probably more details than anybody else, because that's what doctors do. And then the shortest of all the gospels is by a guy named Mark. And Mark was not one of the original eyewitnesses. And Mark's original source material was the apostle Peter. He directly interviewed the apostle Peter. And so I want you to back. I want you to flip over to Mark, chapter two, because we're gonna find out that this miracle, this healing of the paralyzed man happened at Peter's house. And Mark interviewed Peter. And so that's a big deal. So now listen, I think you're gonna nail this because we wrote it on the wall for those of you that are a little slow on the uptake, but see if you can finish this sentence. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. We talk about this all the time, that if you're a Christian, if you're a believer. We don't have faith in faith. We have faith in an actual event that Jesus came out of the tomb. And. And if God can breathe new life into his dead son, then there is no thing that is impossible for him. And one of the things I wanna warn you about, if you've been around Bible study for a long time, and some of you look like you were in Sunday school with Abraham, that's cool. So we're so glad you're here. Love you so much. And so here's the thing, though. If you get really familiar with the Bible, the problem is. The problem is, is that as soon as I start reading the beginning of the account, you already know how it ends. So as soon as I start talking about these four friends tear off the roof to bring their friend to Jesus, you already know that the guy's going to get healed. And what sometimes we miss is we come to this thing like a story. And it's not a story, it's not a fable. It's an actual event. And so in order to posture our heart rightly towards this passage so you can feel the weight of it, let me ask you this. Have you ever found yourself in a desperate situation? I mean, like a really desperate situation, and some of you are there, right now, like maybe it's a financial situation and you need God to come through because you don't have enough money to pay all of your bills and you feel like you're drowning, right? And Turns out the 20th century theologian Biggie Smalls was right. Mo money, more problem. Cause if he ain't got no money, you ain't got but one problem. You ain't got no money. And you need God to come through in a really big way or maybe even way more serious than this. The greatest of all, if you've ever struggled with a sick kid, we all know if you're a parent, man, ain't no pain like kid pain, right? Cause there ain't no love like kid love. And if you've ever had to rush your kid to the emergency room or had something and you didn't know what was going on, you come to God in a desperate way, right? You pray different prayers. You're not praying now. I lay me down to sleep, you're praying. Dear God, please, I don't know how this works, but I will make whatever deal it takes if you will just come through for my child. Or maybe you're in a desperate marriage and you don't want this thing to die, but it seems like no matter what you do, it seems like it's heading in that direction and you are desperate. Or have you ever loved somebody that struggles with an addiction? I mean, it's like terrorizing, isn't it? Here's this person that you love and they're just torching their life and you wish you could like unzip them and pull their soul out and put yours in so that you could get in there and make different decisions because they're being led down a road that you know is gonna kill em. If you've ever had a friend, like a really close friend, closer than a brother, and you've prayed together and you go to church together and you've been on mission trips together and you share, share the deepest things in your life. And then one day, for no reason, no explainable reason, they begin to just drift away from God and drift away from community. And you would give anything to have that relationship back. Or maybe someone you love is in an abusive situation and you just cry out to God, God, please, please help. Or maybe this one, you're a parent, Everything started out pretty good, man. You know, you had these little elementary age kids and everybody's happy and everybody's getting along just fine. And then they hit those teenage years, those puberty years, and things begin to go dark. And they're so blessed and they're so loved by their mom and their dad, and they should be, based on all their circumstances, they should be so happy. And they can't turn happy on. And there's some serious mental struggles and you just can't understand. And you cry out to God, God, please help. And scary words like suicide are being thrown around. Have you ever found yourself in a desperate situation where, I stayed up way too late last night because right when I was going to go to bed, a news flash came on. Or imagine you're a U.S. fighter pilot and you get shot down in Iran on Thursday and it's dark and you're in the mountains. I don't know what that guy believes, but I can guarantee you he was praying, dear God, please help. I can't get me out of here by myself. So, dear God, would you please send somebody to help me, to save me? And then by God's grace, they rescued that US soldiers on Easter Sunday morning. Praise God. Praise God. This is the same thing. There's a man, and he's paralyzed. He's laying on a mat. He's been here for years and years and years and years, maybe his whole life. And he's got all these questions, God, why does everybody else get to run around and I don't get to run around? And then one day his friends come to him and they're, hey, dude, we got an idea. The miracle worker just showed up in our fishing town of Capernaum. And we've heard he walks on water and he calms storms and he cleanses leopards, and he feeds thousands with a little bit of fish and bread that he casts out demons. And what if? What if we could just get you to him? And for them, the why not was bigger than the what if? And so he's like, all right. And they picked. Pick up his mat and they take him to Jesus because they think maybe, just maybe, this miracle worker can change everything. This is the posture of your heart that you've got to come to the text with. So not a story. Same veggietales. This is Peter telling Mark exactly what happened. Mark, chapter two. And when Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. He was at Peter's house. Verse 2. And many were gathered together so there was no more room, not even at the door. Ministry's blowing up. Why? Because Jesus is changing lives. And when lives get changed, people want some of that. And they begin to show up to see the Miracles. And he was preaching the word to them. One of the things you'll need to notice as we study through the book of Matthew is that Jesus lead foot was not the miracles that he could do, but the message that he brought. Like, every time he did a miracle, it was just a point to the message. Jesus never just flexes his raw power. He's always just revealing his redemptive purposes. That's what he did. And so he was preaching the word to them. And they came bringing him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd. Stop right there for just a second. They get to the house, and the house is full. Is this good? Not for the man on the mat. Let me tell you why this bothers me. In the role that I get to play as lead pastor of 11:22. We got full rooms all over the place. The point of church is not full rooms. The point of church is that people can encounter Jesus. And so the only person that likes a full room, honestly, is the preacher. Everybody else is like, it's crowded. And so we've always gotta be able to do whatever it takes to make room for one more. And so they show up and they can't get in because of the crowd. But I want you to see what they do. So they remove the roof above him. And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. Here's one of the things I love about this for the dozens of you that were paying attention when I was reading Matthew 9 earlier, if you'll remember, in Matthew's account, Matthew does not. He doesn't record anything about the roof. But in Mark's account, Mark makes a big deal about the hole in the roof. Why? Cause this happened at Peter's house. And who did Mark interview? Peter. Peter's like, hey, man, talk about my roof. You know how expensive it is to fix a hole in your roof? Them truckers throw a hole in my roof, man. Write that down in the book. Do you see the reality of the Scripture? Matthew's a tax collector. He's like, whatever, get a new roof. Peter's like, man, roofs are expensive. This is what's happening here. Now, before we go any farther, one of the things I want to point out to you is this man on the mat had four friends that loved him enough that were willing to do whatever it takes to get him to Jesus. If you are a Christian, if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus Christ, do you have four men or women. Four people in your life that would be willing to pick up a corner of your mat and tote you to Jesus. Around here, I call those mat carriers. You have four Mac carriers in your life. And if you think I probably do, then write those names down right now. See how nobody moved? What are we doing here? I'm not doing Mac tricks. Okay? I dare. Right now, write down the four names of your Mac carriers. And if you actually have them, then you deputize them. You tell them, you, you, you, and you. You're my Mac carriers. What's that? Give them this sermon. I'll explain it. And the point is this, that somebody would love you more than they love what you think about them. And. And when you find yourself on the mat, because one day you're going to be on the mat, physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually. One day you are going to need help. And God has put us in this thing together that we would be there to pick up a corner of the mat and at great expense to ourselves, carry people to Jesus. You got to have. And let me tell you who's the worst. And I could tell because you didn't move married men, you're the worst. Don't laugh, ladies. You're second. You see? Cause men, we settle for buddies. And when I say, you got some Matt Carries like, oh, yeah. I mean, you know, I got some golfing buddies, got a hunting buddy, got a poker buddy. And then I got Ted. I don't like him, but I see him every Tuesday at the office. Okay, that ain't what we're talking about, man. Buddies are fine, but I'm talking about people that are willing to go to war with you for you. The Bible says, confess your sins to one another, that you may be healed. Who are you confessing your sins to? When's the last time you had a spiritually significant conversation with somebody else? That might be why you walk around unhealed. This is what I'm talking about. You got to have some people in your life that are praying for you. Who's praying for you? And don't be like, my mama, bro. She don't know what's happening in your life. There's no way in the world you're honest with her. I mean, who's actually praying for you? And if you're like, well, I'm okay. Are you? Are you? You're arrogant. That's what you are. If Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, when all authority in heaven and earth was given to him, and he's Going before his father, saying, father, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me. He asked three of his dudes, Peter, James, and John, will you come and watch and pray? So if Jesus Christ needed somebody to pray for him. Who do you think you are to think you got this? You ain't got this, bro. You're arrogant and dumb, deputized for men. Do you have men in your life? Do you have people in your life? Ladies, this is for you, too, that have refrigerator rights. You know what refrigerator rights are? You got people in your house, they don't ask. They just go get in the refrigerator. Listen, in my house, you can't sit around in my house in your underwear. You know why? There's one of my elders will show up, and I don't want to tell you his names, but his initials are Lars Peterson. That joker don't know what a doorbell is, man. He just walks in like Kramer. Kramer was an evangelist in New York back in the 1900s. He just walks in, man, and he just opens. He knows he goes straight to the refrigerator, gets what he wants, knows where the K cups are, knows where the snacks are. And that is just an allegory for my life. He just barges into my life and opens up the doors and looks. He's like, hey, that looks a little out of date. You want to talk about this for a little while? Do you have these kind of people in your life? Cause you need them. That's what this brother has. And then I want to ask you, are you a friend like that? Because the best way to find friends like that is to be that kind of friend. And the place that you're going to find friends like this is the local church. It's astounding to me the number of people that are moderately involved in the church and then wonder what. While they feel moderately close to God, these things go hand in hand, bro. You got to have a band of brothers, some foxhole brothers around you. And look at these kind of brothers when they get there, and it looks hard, hard. Don't stop them. Some people make excuses. Some people make a difference. You never make both. You gotta have the kind of people in your life that are willing to do hard things to tear off the roof to get you to Jesus. And if you were a regular at 11:22, like, if you consider this your church, then when they begin to tear a hole in the roof, guess who was made the most uncomfortable? The people that already had a seat. It was the people that got there first and knew where to park and knew how to check your kids in fast and sat on the front row and took notes and mooed at the good part of the. Mmm, so good it was you people. And then the roof stuff starts falling on those people and it made them uncomfortable. If you ever get into the mentality that this church is for you, you ain't gonna play for Team Jesus anymore. We are here for him. And we've gotta be willing to do whatever it takes to tear off the roof so that one more person can come to Christ and so we can listen. We literally at San Pablo here, the old Walmart, we literally tore the roof off of this place. The roof used to be where that line is, right there. We couldn't fit enough people, so we tore off the roof so that we could have 3,001 seats here. And this is why we have campuses all over the place. And we're opening more campuses in August of this year. We're opening a brand new campus in Orlando, Florida, the happiest place on earth. You ever seen a happy person in Orlando? They need less Mickey, more Jesus. That's what they need. There we coming. We're building a permanent location for our Ponte Vedra campus. Right now they're meeting at Peavey High School. We're building a permanent location there. And honestly, probably two right down the road from each other. We're building a permanent location up at Wildlife in Yulee. We've got outposts. We've got over 25 outposts all over the country and all over the world. We have 20 prisons in Florida, our outposts of 1122. Why? Cause we're a movement for all people and all means all. We have an opportunity. So pray about this. We just hadn't signed the stuff yet. But I'm believing God it's gonna happen, that we're gonna be able to open a campus in Riverside and the downtown area within the next 18 months. Let's go. And right here at San Pablo, beginning in August, we're adding another service time at 5:22pm on Thursday nights. And so we need some people listen. Normal people go to church on Sunday morning like you. We need some of you to be less normal and come on Thursday at 5:22 so that when people show up, they don't hear. There's no more room in the end. That's a neat thing to hear in a Christmas pageant. That's a terrible thing to hear when you're trying to encounter Jesus. And we're going to listen, man. I'm telling you, we're going to keep doing campuses and planting churches. When Elon gets us to the moon, I'm putting a campus on the moon. Moon. People need Jesus, too. And we're moving for all people. Moon people, too. So my least favorite question to get about you, people ask me this sometimes. Not you because you're here, but sometimes people will be like, why has it got to be so big? Well, who do you want me to uninvite? Because right now you're trending at number one on my uninvite list. All right, you Pharisee, let me tell you who loves a church that's willing to tear off the roof so one more can come. Somebody's got one more. Somebody's got that prodigal grandchild. And, you know, we're gonna make room for them, and we're gonna preach the gospel and they're gonna hear it in such a way that they can understand. And they're not going to be condemned, but they're gonna be offered the good news of the gospel. The person that's got a spouse that doesn't know Christ yet, a family member that doesn't know Christ yet, that's who loves this kind of church. And so these four guys tear a hole in the roof and. And they lower the man down. And check this out, verse 5. And when Jesus saw their faith, he's gonna see the faith of the friends, and then he's gonna heal the dude on the mat. See what a big deal this is. If Jesus were to look at your friends, what is he gonna see? And if you're like, it ain't faith, then you ain't got the right friends. You see faith. Now, you can't get saved based on somebody else's faith. But I'm gonna tell you, sometimes when your faith is low, you gotta be surrounded by the kind of people where their faith can cover you and surround you. You're like, where do you get that, Pastor? I'm not making it up, man. Ephesians, chapter 6. When the apostle Paul is talking about spiritual warfare, about standing firm against the devil and his evil schemes, he talks about putting on the full armor of God. He talks about attributes of what it means to follow after God. And they relate to Roman armor. And when he gets the faith, here's what he says, and. And you take up the shield of faith to protect yourself against the devil's fiery darts. But in the first century, like a Roman warrior, a shield was not an individual thing. It was a group thing. You ever watched 300 used to watch it to the glory of God. Don't you love that thing? When they all link their shields together, they put them together like this, and it's like one big wall. This was called the phalanx is what it was called it. And they would line you up for war. Then what they would do is they would put you together by family units. So, like, if I went to war, I would be here. My dad would be next to me, my son would be next to me, my brother Russ would be next to him. Here's why. Because they knew if one of us went down, the other one would not run. We would lay our life down for our family members. And if somebody had to take a knee because they took a shot, then what we would do is we would join our shields of faith together to protect the God that needed it. This is the kind of faith that these brothers had. And faith is not a feeling. Faith is acting as if you actually believe that Jesus is who he says he is and he always keeps his promises. So they get there and they go, it's hard. Do hard things, man. If you're a Jesus follower, we do hard things. If you want to be comfortable, please don't be a Christian, because you're going to be thoroughly disappointed. Disappointed. If you want to make everybody in your world happy, sell ice cream for a living or something. But they see the crowd, they see the roof, and they go, we're going to do what it takes to get you to Jesus. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic son, your sins are forgiven. Now, that's a big deal. But I think the friends were probably like, neat. It's not why we came. His legs don't work, boss. We were hoping for maybe a leg miracle, not a soul miracle. But you know what's really good news? Jesus doesn't always give us what we want, but he always has for us what we need. And what this man needed was for his sins to be forgiven. Because if his sins are forgiven, guess what? He's going to walk on streets of gold forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. And so God doesn't always give us what we want, but he gives us what we need. And see, our culture believes that our biggest problems are psychological and financial or relational or political. And therefore, our culture offers solutions of therapy and self improvement, education, medicine, social change. And our culture doesn't talk about sin as the main problem, just systems and circumstances. And then religion says that our greatest problem is morality and behavior. And so if you grow up in a religious system that is apart from Christ, then all you'll ever hear is God is good and you're bad. Try harder, see you next week. And you know, some people are good at that and they become arrogant and look down their nose at everybody else. And then the rest of us get exhausted by that kind of therapeutic, moralistic deism. And the Gospel says that our main problem is not just our circumstances and our behavior, but our sin, because sin separates us from God. And our solution is not self improvement, but our solution is the Gospel forgiveness through the blood and the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus doesn't make bad people better. He forgives people and makes spiritually dead people alive. You see, if our greatest need was physical, God would have sent a doctor. And if our greatest need was relational, God would have sent us a therapist. And if our greatest need was financial, God would have sent us a banker. If our greatest need was political, God would have sent us, God help us, a politician. And if our greatest need was morality, God would have sent a life coach. And if our greatest need was religion, then God would have sent a preacher. But our greatest need is that we're sinners before an almighty God. And so he sent a savior. And Jesus looks at this man. Now see, if you're from the south, if you're from the north, welcome to America. But if you're from the south, you grew up around here, it's not a big deal to hear the word son. Like when I was growing up, every old man like my age now would call me son. Hey, son, you'd be at Walmart, son. Move. You know, whatever everybody call you son. Not in the first century, not a paralyzed man. I don't know when he got. He stopped being called son. The names that he would be called would be unclean. He'd be called unfit, unwelcome, because he was paralyzed. They had this really faulty theology. You can see it in John chapter nine. They believed if you had any kind of physical disability, it was punitive from God. In John chapter nine, there's a boy that's been born blind, and he's been blind from birth. And the disciples say to Jesus, Jesus who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born this way. And Jesus is like, no, dude, that ain't how this works at all. This is for the glory of God. And so this man would have been called an outsider, unfit, unclean. In fact, we know this. We'll get here in a few weeks. Jesus is walking into Jerusalem one day, and he goes by the pool of Bethesda and there's a bunch of people laying on mats like this guy was on, and. And the title that the community had given them was this Invalid. And if you look at the etymology of that word, it simply is this. You are invalid. And this is what the religious system called him, and this is what the people called him. But Jesus is not on my watch. You're not invalid, son. Your sins are forgiven. And here's why I say this. Only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. But here's why this matters. Listen, I don't know what some mean preacher told you, but you are not your past. You're not your sin. You're not your addiction. You're not your criminal record. You're not your orientation. You're not your affair. You're not your divorce. You're not your bankruptcy. That's not who you are. That's not primary. You're not your abortion. Whatever. The thing that you have the most shame about, the most guilt about, the enemy is always trying to get you to define yourself by your scars. And Jesus comes along and says, no, no, no, we're gonna define you by my scars. That only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. So don't believe the lies of the labels of this world, because the blood of Jesus has a better word over your life. And if you will trust him, he, his word over you is son and daughter. And he says, son, your sins are forgiven. So far, so good, right? And then some religious people show up and jack it all up. You ever met these people? Verse 6. Now, some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts. So as we study through Matthew, we're going to see the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees show up. These are the religious leaders. They're like the HOA of first century religious life. Then every single time Jesus does something, they got their clipboard and they're like your shrubs, do not match coat, you know? And listen, if some of you serve on an HOA board, repent. We're supposed to be grace people. Good grace. You ruin everything. All right, here we go. Now, some of the scribes are sitting there questioning in their heart, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone. Here's the thing. They're right. Only God can forgive sin. And immediately Jesus, perceiving his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, why do you question these things in your heart? By the way, Jesus knows your heart, like, right? Now, like, right now, if you're like, how late he gonna talk? Jesus knows. You better check yourself, you. Hoo. People that are offended, you're always offended. But you better repent. I'm telling you. So the only reason that this makes sense is because Psalm 51 says, all sin is against God. Therefore, God is the only one that can forgive sin. I mean, imagine this. Like Elder Glenn and Joel, you're sitting right here, second row. Imagine. You're gonna have to imagine this. It's probably been a long time. But just imagine on the way to church, you had, like. I mean, a real fight. Not like a fist fight, but, like, just a fight. You know what I'm saying? You ever have one of those good on the way to church fights? It's crazy, isn't it? Maybe it's just so the Lord lets you know what a wicked, wretched, crooked, and depraved sinner you are, in need of a savior to let you just tear one down on the way to church. You know, sometimes when people fight, they get hysterical. Some people get historical. You know what I mean? Well, find it. I guess we'll live like a drunk, alcoholic mama from 1988, you know, just saying terrible things. But then you pull up in the parking lot, and you're like, okay, well, I am an elder. I might want to act like a. And so you get all, you know, huh? You walk up to the door, and the ushers are like, how you doing? I'm just blessed and highly favored. Joy's like, praise be. You know what I'm talking about? All right, so then imagine. I knew you guys got after it. And so I came out of my office. I went over to go, hey, hey, Glen, Joy, I know y' all been in a fight. I forgive you. You'd be like, that don't make no sense. You don't have anything to do with it. But Jesus loves, looks at this man. And because all sin is against God, what he is saying when he says, I forgive you, son. Your sins are forgiven, is that he is God. And then he's gonna prove it. He says, why do you question these things in your heart? And then he says this. Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk. Well, which one's easier to say? Well, it depends on who you are. It's easier for me to say, your sins are forgiven. Why? Because how do you know if it works? You're not going to know until we get to the great White throne judgment in the end, if I pulled it off. But if I were to say to you, stand up and walk, we about to find out in 3, 2, 1. Can I pull this thing off or not? But for Jesus to say, stand up and walk, how hard is that? I mean, he's the one that invented walking. He spoke everything into existence. Everything that has been created was made by him, for him, through him. And to him, he came up with the idea of legs. So for him to say, get up, boy, and walk, the lights in heaven don't even dim down. That's easy for him to do. But do you know what it took for him to forgive sin? The second person of the Trinity, God the Son, was sitting at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. And all of heaven was surrounding his throne, singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And. And at just the right time, Jesus gets up off of his throne, takes off his royal robe, lays down his crown, puts down his scepter, and swan dives down here on earth. And he's born as a baby in a manger to the Virgin Mary, weak and helpless as a baby, the sovereign king of the universe. For 30 years, he lives in utter obscurity. And he begins to grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. And then when he's 30 years old, he shows up on the scene. And John, his cousin, says, behold the Lamb of God who's come to take away the sin of the entire world. He begins to teach the message, the good news of the gospel, that he did not come for the healthy, but for the sick. He made audacious claims like he is God. He said things like, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. He did miracles to prove it. And then he gathers his disciples together. He breaks the bread, he drinks the cup. He says, boys, this whole thing is about me. But one of you is going to betray me. And sure enough, that night, Judas betrayed him. For 30 pieces of silver and a kiss. He's arrested by the Roman garrison. They take him to six different false trials at night because they know that he's innocent. But by the next morning, Pilate declares, what will you do with this man named Jesus? And they yell, crucify him. Kill him. And so they beat him. They pluck out his beard, they whip him with a cat of nine tails. It would kill most men. They put a beam over his back and make him carry his cross through Jerusalem, outside the city gate, to the place called. The place of the Skull, called Golgotha. And there, with like railroad spikes, they nail his hands and his feet to the cross. And they lift him up. They push a crown of thorns down on his head. And he pushes up on his nail to his feet. And he says, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He says seven things on the cross. The last thing he says is, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. They wrap him up in burial cloths and they put him in a borrowed tomb. And the Son of God, dead. But he said, it is finished. He didn't say he was finished. Cause guess what? He was buried in a borrowed tomb because he only needed it for the weekend. Because on the third day, the Spirit of God resurrected the Son of God from the grave. The stone was rolled away and Jesus put death to death. He went through hell itself so that you and I could be forgiven. He ascended to the right hand of God the Father. And right now he's praying for you, so what is easier? It ain't even hard for him to say, get up, boy, go home. But he went through hell itself. He didn't just die for us. He died instead of us. Verse 10. He says, but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sin. Here's the thing. He says, you want me to prove that I'm not a liar? This is what he's saying. Part of the reason he's saying this, there was this text, you can still read it today, called the Talmud. And 1st century Jewish rabbis would give their thoughts on the Scripture. And there was a very famous saying in the first century that God would not bless a liar. And so Jesus is like, all right, you want me to prove that I'm not lying when I say I have the authority to forgive your sins? Well, if I can do a miracle, then there's no way God would let me do a miracle if I cannot forgive sins. And also, you can't run by this too quick. He says, but that you may know that the Son of Man, this is a title. This doesn't just mean that Jesus is fully God and fully man. In Daniel, Daniel gives these prophecies about the coming Messiah. And the title that he calls the coming Messiah is the Son of Man. Daniel, chapter seven says it this way. I saw in the night visions. And behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came like a Son of Man. And he came to the ancient of days, and he was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. Jesus is saying, I'm him. And then these scribes would have known Psalm 103. All you Baptists, you've heard this one before. This is what you say after you eat. Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. This is Psalm 103. And he keeps going, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Well, how do you identify the Lord? It'll tell you. Here's what the lord does. Verse 3, who forgives all your iniquity and heals all your diseases. Jesus is like, I just forgave the brother of his iniquities. And watch this. I'm about to heal him of his diseases. Jesus is saying, I am the Son of man. I am the Lord. For all of you that had a junior college humanities professor that told you, well, Jesus never claimed to be God. They should stick to children's books because they don't know adult literature. Jesus is using the literature and the words of the day to say, I am God. I am Him. And so he says, but that you may know the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He says to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed. Go home now. You ever wonder why Jesus tells the man to pick up this mat? Can you imagine how nasty this mat that he's been on is? I mean, it's not like he can wipe it off. He lives on it. He's paralyzed. I mean, ladies, some of you have a yoga mat. It don't smell great. And you Clorox it every once in a while. And you would think Jesus would be like, hey, man, why don't you leave that behind and go live your new life? Well, here's the thing. When that man stood up and rolled up that mat, put it under his arm, everywhere he walked, he was toting around his testimony. And they could see his old life, and they could see his new life. And I don't know if you know this, but God is in the business of taking our biggest messes and using them as a platform for God's gospel message. And for those of you that are about to get baptized, for those of you that are about to walk out there, that's what's about to happen. You're going to sit in that tub, and somebody's going to ask you, are you ready to renounce the mat? Are you ready to renounce the sins of your past, the ways of this world, anything dark or demonic that you have ever been connected to. And do you believe in Jesus Christ alone? And you're going to say, yeah. Next say, who is Jesus? And you say, jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. And when you go down into that water, listen, that's just jaa water. Ain't nothing holy about it. But it is showing the world that the blood of Jesus have cleansed you from your sin. And just like Jesus was resurrected from the grave, when you come up out of that water, you're going to be resurrected to a new life. Jesus says, take that mat and go, verse 12. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified God. That's what worship is, man. So part of the reason we end the services the way we do is cause God does amazing things around here and he is worthy of our worship. It says, we never saw anything like this, man. We have seen thousands of people come to Christ just this year. Never seen anything like this. We see marriages restored, bodies healed, babies born, addictions broken, people who were enemies of God being reconciled to an almighty and holy God. He is worthy of our worship. We should be amazed and glorify God. And we should, every single week go, I have never seen anything like this. That's what we do. Amen. So, couple of thoughts as we wrap up. 1. No matter who you are or what you've done or what label some other religious organization gave you, you are welcome in this place, because this ain't my house. This is God's house. And in God's house, everybody's welcome. We truly are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. And if you are a regular here, if you call yourself an 1122 er, be ready to constantly be uncomfortable so that we can make room for every single person that needs Jesus. So, like, at the end of our services, if you're new here, we don't even take up an offering. And I know you're like, that's my favorite church. But every single week, if you're a regular, we say, we need to bring our first and best to him. Why? Roofs are expensive, man. And we're not a savings and loan. That's not what we do. We're trying to leverage all the resources that we have to glorify God by making room for one more person. And by the way, if you got invited here today by somebody, do you know why they invited you? Cause they love you. Now, they probably didn't say that. They probably played golf together, you know? And it's not like, hey, Leroy, before you make this putt, I just want you to know how much I love you. Cause you'd missed a putt and you'd never play golf with that weirdo again, you know? But what's really happening is maybe they don't feel like they have the words for it, but what they were hoping and praying is that you would encounter the resurrected God and you could experience the peace and the forgiveness and the healing that the resurrected Christ has for you. But the reality is this, only Jesus can meet that need. I don't care how many parking spots we have and how many campuses we have and how incredible the music are and how compelling the videos are and how engaging the sermons are or are not. It's only when you come face to face with the resurrected Christ that he has the ability to heal you and forgive you. And so if you're on the fence on this whole Jesus thing, it could be because you don't know what he actually offers. He's not just offering you a new way to live. He's not even just offering you a consolation prize in the sweet by and by one day when you die, he's actually offering you himself, Jesus. The last discourse he has with his disciples right after they do communion, the Last Supper. He says this in John 15, 13, 16. He says, Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. Yeah. Jesus is not offering a new religion. Jesus is offering a relationship with the king of the universe. Him. And so imagine for a second you've seen the chosen, right? Get your best, like, chosen imagination going on. And imagine if you were the dude on the mat and your friends came to you one day and you've had all kind of emotions about this thing, and they go, hey, man, we got an idea. Jesus is in town and what if we can get you to him? And you're like, yeah, but what if it doesn't work? And they go, yeah, what if it does? And they take you to the house and it's packed, and you think, okay, let's go. Home. They're like, no, no, no, we got another idea. We're gonna get on the roof. You're like, you gonna tear up Peter's roof? He'll be all right. Come on. They get up there and they start digging and digging, and all you introverts are already sweating because you're like, everybody's looking at me, and everybody's looking at you, and they tear a hole in the roof. And all the religious people, the scribes, are looking at you real mean, and they begin to lower you down. And you see the teacher, you see the one that you've heard walks on water and heals diseases and casts out demons. And you're really, really nervous because every time you've come eyeball to eyeball with the religious leader, it hadn't gone good for you. And you get down below the ceiling height and you come eyeball to eyeball with Jesus, and this one's different. It's like he sees through you. It's like he sees into your soul. And you believe, and he opens his mouth and you don't get condemnation. You hear, son, daughter, your sins are forgiven. Welcome to the family you're in. And you think, I didn't even do anything. Yeah, you did. You believed. See, at the beginning of the sermon, I said, imagine you were in a desperate situation. And I talked about physical and relational and mental and emotional and financial. But what if in this very moment, you realize, you know what? I am on the map. But the desperate situation that I find myself in is more than anything else in life. My. My life. I need to be forgiven of my sin and made right with God. And if that's you, I've got really good news for you. The kingdom of heaven is at hand for you. Because if you don't realize you're on the mat, then you'll never look for the miracle worker. If you don't realize that you're a sinner, then you don't even think you need a savior. If you're not lost, what good is a map to you? But if you realize my way's not working, I don't think me just trying harder is the answer. I need someone to do for me what I cannot do for myself. I need a rescuer. Well, I've got good news. That's why Jesus came. And the Bible says if you believe, then you receive the right to become a child of God, not simply have your sins forgiven. That's just the beginning. You get adopted into his family, you become a of. Part. Part of the family of God. And if you're like, well, I want to do that, what do I do? Well, the Bible has this prayer. Honestly, it's the only prayer in the whole Bible that I can find that God answers yes 100% of the time. It's in Romans 10:13. It says, for all who call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. For all who call, call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Name means savior. So when you admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a savior. And I believe somehow, Jesus, when you died on the cross, that counted for me. And when you say Lord, and when you call him Lord, what you're saying is, all right, I'm not the boss of me anymore. I give up. I surrender my life to you as my Savior and my Lord. The Bible promises you will not. You might be not. We'll see when we get there. Not. You gotta. If you do enough good things between here and there, you got a good chance. No, no, no, no, no. For all who call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. And what does this have to do with Easter? Here's what it has to do with Easter. We don't serve a dead rabbi that left us a set of teachings. We serve a risen, resurrected, living savior. And just like he saved that man 2,000 years ago, he can save you today if you will just believe. Trust that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for you. Call on the name of the Lord and say, lord Jesus, save me. And he promises he will. Will you bow your head? Would you close your eyes? And if you would say, that's me. That's me. I feel like today I have been laying on this mat and. And I have been lowered into the presence of the Almighty God. And I admit it. I'm a sinner. I need a savior. And today, for the very first time, I believe that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And right now, for the very first time, I'm ready to call on the name of the Lord, if that's you. Or if you were ready to call on the name of the Lord for the first time, would you lift your hand as high as you can and you say whatever words you want to say, Lord Jesus, save me. And God is a promise keeping God. And I see you right there. He promises that right now, right now, you are being saved. Your sins are washed away. You, daughter of God, are being adopted into his family forever and ever and ever. Our good and gracious heavenly Father, God, we love you. More than anything, because you saved God. I thank you that on the third day, you put death to death and you walked out of the tomb. And if the tomb is empty, anything is possible, including people like us having our sins forgiven, that your righteousness counted to our account, and us being adopted as sons and daughters into your family. And for that God, we give you praise. We've never seen anything like this. And we pray it in the only name that gets attention in heaven, in the good, strong name of Jesus Christ. Amen. It's a church. We're gonna respond. If you're a regular, you know, this part matters like crazy. We typically respond in three ways. We're gonna sing. We're gonna sing the sermon. We're gonna sing Tear off the Roof because we got a lot to celebrate because God saves some people. And we're gonna bring our tithes and offerings because roofs are expensive. And we're gonna do whatever it takes to bring people to Jesus. And we're gonna pray because if you know him as your heavenly Father, you can cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you. And we gonna get baptized. And so if you have never been baptized before as a believer, and today's your day, then right now, I want everybody, you can go ahead and stand up at all of our locations. Go ahead. Ready, Go. And if you're ready to get baptized, you can begin to make your way to the lobby. If your friends and family are with you, go with them. And then the rest of us go celebrate like crazy. We're going to put the baptisms up here on the screen. And when you see people getting dunked, you turn it up a notch. And if you're saved, you ought to sing like it, because we've never seen anything like this. That the fear of God should be on us. And we are going to give him glory because he is worthy. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's pray. Let's get baptized. Let's respond.