[0:00] All right. Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter 2. It's been a couple of weeks since we've been here.! We're talking about the four men whose names we do not know.
[0:16] ! And letting the guy down through the roof of the house. Look with me beginning at verse 1. Mark chapter 2 beginning at verse 1. It says, And again he entered into Capernaum after some days.
[0:28] And it was noise that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together. In so much that there was no room to receive them. No, not so much as about the door.
[0:40] And he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him bringing one sick of the palsy. Which was born of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press.
[0:51] They uncovered the roof where he was. And when they had broken it up. They let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith.
[1:02] He said unto the sick of the palsy. Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there. And reasoning in their hearts. Why does this man thus speak blasphemies?
[1:14] Who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in their spirit. That they so reasoned within themselves. He said unto them. Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
[1:26] Whether it is easier to say to the sick of the palsy. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Or to say. Arise and take up thy bed and walk. But that ye may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sin.
[1:39] He said unto the sick of the palsy. I say unto thee. Arise and take up thy bed. And go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose.
[1:50] Took up the bed. And went forth before them all. Insomuch that they were all amazed. And glorified God saying. We never saw it on this fashion. We'll stop there.
[2:02] Let's have a word prayer. Father. We just thank you for this time to be together this morning. Lord. I pray that you would help us as we. Look at this passage Lord. And try to finish it up today.
[2:13] Lord that we would. Be reminded. Here's four men. We don't know their names. But they played an active part. In a miracle. Lord we see them.
[2:24] Doing what they believed was the right thing to do. Getting their friend to Jesus. And Lord I pray that that would be our goal. To get our friends to Jesus. Lord whether we are the ones who get the credit.
[2:36] Or somebody else gets the credit. Does not matter. What matters is. Getting them to Jesus. And so Father help us. As we look at this passage this morning. To be reminded. We can serve God.
[2:50] In so many different ways. And we can see people's lives changed. If we will just. Serve you. No matter who gets the credit.
[3:00] Lord. Thank you for the work that you do in people's lives. In Jesus name. Amen. Last time. When we. Well. A couple times ago. When we were talking about this. We said.
[3:11] The main thing to remember is. Dying to self. Is the key to living for Christ. Dying to self. Is the key. To living for Christ. And we were talking.
[3:21] Been talking about these four guys. Who. Did basically that. First. They did it by showing. Unselfish compassion. They had compassion. On their friend. They were concerned about their friend.
[3:33] They wanted to see him. Helped. And. They did it. First of all. By. Denying. Selfishness. They might have liked to have time with Jesus.
[3:45] They might have had some things that were wrong with them. They'd like to see Jesus healed. But their concern was for their friend. They didn't. Weren't concerned about themselves. They were concerned about this friend.
[3:56] And what was going on with him. And we talked about the fact that. The Bible says. In the last days. Perilous times shall come. For men should be lovers of their own selves.
[4:07] And that describes the day that we live in. People are just. Concerned about themselves. I don't really care about anybody else. And what's going on with them. In Philippians. We talked about Philippians.
[4:18] Chapter 1 and 2. Chapter 1. Verse 21. It says this. For me to live is Christ. And to die is gain. Chapter 2.
[4:29] Verse 21. Says this. For all seek their own. Not the things which are Jesus Christ. So we said. What type of Christian are we going to be? Are we going to be a.
[4:39] Living for Christ Christian. Or a. Seeking your own Christian. Which one are we going to do? Then we talked about the fact that. When we get that right.
[4:52] When we learn to deny ourselves. Not be selfish. Then. Service can be delivered. We will go out of our way. To help people. We will go out of our way. To try to do things for them.
[5:03] First Corinthians. 10. 24 said. That no man seek his own. But every man another's wealth. We're not seeking for ourselves. We're looking to help others. We're looking to.
[5:13] To make sure that others can come to Christ. We're trying to get the gospel message to them. And we're trying to help them. In any way we can. We'll talk about that some more. Actually in the morning service. This morning. As we continue on.
[5:24] About the fruit of the spirit. Second thing we talked about. Was the fact that. Not only did they. Deny themselves. But. They had a unified. Cooperation.
[5:36] A unified cooperation. Cooperation. One of them. Working by themselves. Was not going to be able. To take care of this problem. They learned. Very quickly.
[5:47] One person. Trying to pick up. This man. Who's nothing but dead weight. And try to get him. Through that crowd. Wasn't going to work. So we found out. First of all. Individual.
[6:00] Inadequacy. We cannot do everything. By ourselves. As much as we like to think we can. You know. The American thing is. I can pull myself up. By my bootstraps. I've always wondered. About that term. How do you do that?
[6:12] How do you pull yourself up. By your bootstraps? I assume you're wearing the boots. So. How do you. You know. I just don't see how that works. But it's. Huh? Yeah.
[6:31] Can't get off. Or off the chair. Huh? Pull yourself up. Up off the coin. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Anyway. Individual inadequacy.
[6:43] We can't do things. Yeah. It's. It's difficult. Trying to do it. By ourselves. Yeah. Second Corinthians. Three. Five. It says.
[6:54] Not that we are sufficient. Of ourselves. To think anything. As of ourselves. But our sufficiency. Is of God. We can't do it on our own.
[7:04] But God helping us. God giving us power. We can. We use this as an illustration. From Exodus 18. Remember Moses was sitting down. Every day. And he was judging the people. People had problems.
[7:15] They'd come to Moses. And ask him. And they'd come. And they'd come. And they'd come. And his father-in-law. Watched this for a little while. And said. You're. And. You're not smart. Doing this.
[7:27] You're going to wear yourself out. People are going to get frustrated. You can't. You need to train some others. To help you. With doing this. And so. Moses learned. From his father-in-law. You know what?
[7:38] It's easier. If we have more people involved. It's a whole lot easier. When we have other people involved. Then the second thing was.
[7:49] We have increased industry. And then for example. For that. I use the horses. Remember the draft horses. That. One of them weighs 2,000 pounds. And.
[8:00] He can probably pull. 7,000 to 8,000 pounds. Himself. And you get another horse. And he can probably pull. 7,000 to 8,000 pounds. But you put the two of them together. In a harness. They can.
[8:12] Do over 20,000 pounds. So instead of. 14 to 16. They can. Do even more. When they're working together. And that's what church is. Church is a people.
[8:23] Working together. Ecclesiastes 4.9. Ecclesiastes 4.9 says. Two. Are better than one. Because they have good reward. For their labor.
[8:34] Philippians. 1.27. Philippians. 1.27 says. Only let your conversation. Be as becometh. The gospel of Christ. That whether I come.
[8:45] And see you. Or else be absent. I may hear of your affairs. That you stand fast. In one spirit. With one mind. Striving together.
[8:56] For the faith. Of the gospel. We have one mind. Focus on Christ. We have one mind. Whose goal is. To make Christ. Known to others. And he says. And as we strive together.
[9:09] We can get a whole lot more done. We can accomplish more. Suppose. Those missionaries back there. Came. And they said.
[9:20] Jared. We need your help. To go to the mission field. Jared says. Okay. Here's. You know. I can give you this. Okay. Is that going to get them. To the mission field?
[9:31] No. No. No. But all of us. Giving. Toward those missionaries. Can accomplish. A whole lot more. So we need to do that.
[9:42] Which brings us to. The third thing. Which is where we left off. I believe. The third thing is. They had. Unstoppable. Creativity.
[9:52] Here's the thing. They've got the right heart. They've got the right attitude. They're working together. To do these things. But sometimes.
[10:04] You have obstacles. In the way. Sometimes. There's things. That happening. That. Put a restraint. On you. And you have a hard time. So. First thing they had. Was a restraint.
[10:15] A restraint. What was the restraint? All those people. Who were there. To see Jesus. There was no way. They were getting into that house. There were no way. They were getting through the door. And even outside.
[10:27] Near the windows. There was lines of people out there. They were not getting in. Here's a man. Who's paralyzed. He had to be carried there. Even one of those guys.
[10:40] Taking him. And throwing him over his shoulder. Like a fireman's carry. He still wasn't getting through the crowd. How are we going to get him. Up there. So they had to find. A way to be creative.
[10:51] You know. There's always going to be barriers. To serving the Lord. There's always going to be things coming up. When it comes to serving the Lord. There's always going to be some kind of hindrance.
[11:02] And sometimes we have to get creative. And how we're going to take care of that. Proverbs. Talks about. Sometimes. People look for excuses. Proverbs.
[11:14] 26. 13. Says. The slothful man. What does that tell you about him already? Seth. Seth. There is a lion in the way. A lion in the streets.
[11:25] I can't do anything. Because there's a lion out there. Now whether there really was or not. Because he talks about being a slothful man. He wasn't really going to try. But just. Let's take an example. That it was.
[11:37] Putting our day and age. Suppose here we are in Maine. And for some reason. Somehow. You get up tomorrow morning. And you look out in your driveway. And there's a African lion.
[11:49] Sitting in your driveway. By your front door. And your. And your garage. What are you going to do? Go get a gun. Go get a gun.
[12:00] Okay. That's. Depending on what the game was. And they declare. There's no such thing as state of Maine. That's right. I thought of that too. There is no such thing as state of Maine.
[12:11] Because we don't even have a zoo. That has one around. Do we? I don't think so. Anyway. He's sitting there in your driveway. After you get done taking pictures. And after you get done texting your friends.
[12:23] Hey. Guess what? There's a lion in my driveway. Somewhere along the way. You're going to have to stop and think. I've got to find a way to get rid of this thing. And like Craig said. You call the game wardens.
[12:34] Or animal control. Or somebody. And say. There's a lion sitting in my driveway. Can you come take care of this thing? The last thing you want to do. Is walk out there.
[12:44] And go. Okay lion. You grab him by the main. And you say. Let's go. You need to get out of my way. That's not going to happen. And shoot it. Shoot it.
[12:55] Then call the game warden. Because he wants to take care of it. That could be. You're right. That's why you grab him by the table. Or you at least call the game warden. And then you fire off the gun. And then you say.
[13:05] You need to get over here. You know. Somewhere along the way. He needs to move. He needs to get out of the way. You know. It's not a problem.
[13:15] I'm here in my house. I'm safe. You're going to run out of food. Somewhere along the way. You don't have enough in your pantry. Ah. Not a problem. We have this thing now called DoorDash.
[13:28] We'll call them up. They'll deliver. They can bring food to me. Are they going to stop at your driveway. When they see a lion. No. They're not going to do that. So there has to be a way.
[13:39] To have that lion moved. And we've called whoever. See. These guys. They were running into a problem. There was something going on.
[13:50] That they just could not get their friend there. Because of all those people. So what do they do? Okay. Well. I guess that plan is not going to work. So let's just give up and go home. No.
[14:01] Second thing. They became resourceful. There's a resourcefulness. That they had. See. When we have a restraint. An obstacle. That's. You know. It requires some resourcefulness.
[14:12] How to take care of that. Look at verse 4 there. And when they could not come nigh unto him. For the press. They uncovered the roof.
[14:25] Where he was. And when they had broken it up. They let down a bed. Where in the sick of the palsy lay. See. See. A closed door. Does not necessarily mean.
[14:37] That you can't get in. See. A closed door. Is it locked? You know. Or is it just closed? Paul saw. An open door.
[14:49] Even though. There were obstacles. In 1 Corinthians 16.9. He says. 1 Corinthians 16.9. For a great door. And effectual.
[15:00] Is opened unto me. And there are many adversaries. He said. There's a whole lot of people out there. Trying to keep me from taking the gospel. To the Lord Jesus Christ. But he says. But I see an open door. I see.
[15:11] A chance to. To go through that door. And I see a chance to. Spread the gospel. Even though. There's lots of obstacles. We have. Open doors. In front of us.
[15:22] We have open doors. Where we can take the gospel. To those. Around us. Put yourself. In an office building. And you're in a room.
[15:34] In an office building. You're in one of the offices. Okay. There's one door. To get out. Into the hallway. And then they make your way outside. Okay.
[15:45] So here's this one door. Is closed. Back to door dash. Oh. They won't work. Because the door's not open. So I can't do them again.
[15:56] What am I going to do? Is it locked? No. Is it nailed shut? No. Put forth a little effort.
[16:10] Walk over to it. Grab ahold of the handle. Turn it. And pull. Or push. Whichever. Do that with it. He says. You know.
[16:21] Find a little effort. Put a little resourcefulness. And you can find a way. To take care of that. See. The door's open. And the fact that. It's not locked.
[16:31] A barred. It may look closed. It may be closed. But it is still open. And Paul says. There's an open door. In front of me.
[16:42] Now. What's it going to take. To do that? A little resilience. Resilience. He says. Look. Here's these men. You got this man.
[16:53] Who's paralyzed. What in the world. Are we going to do? Are they going to meet some opposition. Even though. Trying to do that? Yeah. Can you imagine. They go to pick this man up.
[17:05] From his house. You know. We're going to take him to Jesus. And go pick him up from his house. His neighbors are probably going. Why are you moving that man? Where are you taking him? What's. You know. What's going on? How come you're. All kinds of questions.
[17:16] And things. How about. When they get to the house. Where Jesus is. They can't get in. Why are you guys going up on the roof?
[17:27] What do you think you're doing up there? You guys kind of caused us problems. What are you trying to do? Then they get up on the roof. And they start doing their thing. Wait a minute.
[17:39] Why are you destroying my roof? What are you doing with my roof? What do you think you're doing? Or. The people inside. When stuff starts falling through. Jesus is preaching.
[17:51] Why are you messing up? What are you doing there? You're disturbing him. We're trying to listen to him. What are you trying to do? See. All these different things. Things that they were going to face.
[18:02] But what was their goal? Their goal was to get their friend to Jesus. And they're going to get their friend to Jesus. One way or another. I mean you do all those different things today. You got a lawyer coming after you.
[18:15] Here. You know. I remember. Dr. Bob. Senior. When I was at. The university. He was already passed away. But. They used to have things about him.
[18:28] One of the things he used to say is. The test of a man's character. Is what it takes to stop him. The test of a man's character. Is what it takes to stop him.
[18:39] Paul. In Acts chapter 20. Verse 24. Talking about him. He says. But none of these things move me. Neither count on my life. Dear unto myself.
[18:50] So that I may finish my course with joy. And the ministry. Which I have received of the Lord Jesus. To testify the gospel. Of the grace of God. He said.
[19:01] You know what. Doesn't matter what comes up. I'm going to finish my course with joy. I'm going to go through the ministry. Which I received of the Lord. So is the Lord going to help me?
[19:11] Is the Lord going to give me the things I need? Is he going to help me get through. These doors that are closed? Yes he is. See when we face obstacles and things. We need to be ready. To come up with some creative.
[19:27] Ways of taking care of it. Which leads us to a fourth thing. These four men. We don't know their name. But they made a unique contribution.
[19:39] A unique contribution. To things that are happening in that. That lame man's life. That paralyzed man's life. Can you imagine being one of those four men? You're up on the roof now.
[19:51] You've torn the roof away. And you're looking down. Getting ready to lower him down. And Jesus is standing there looking up. At you. Watching what you're doing.
[20:02] And he sees. What you're doing. Mark 2 verse 5. When Jesus saw their faith. He said under the sick of the palsy.
[20:14] Son thy sins be forgiven thee. When Jesus saw their faith. Now. Bob Langley case. It was the faith. That brought the victory.
[20:27] It was the faith. That brought the healing. Question. Most people take that. When he saw their faith. Most people say that.
[20:38] When he saw the faith. Of those four men. That they were letting that man down. Through there. And he said under the sick of the palsy. Son thy sins be forgiven thee. Whoa whoa whoa. Time time time out.
[20:50] So Jesus forgave this man. His sins. Because of the faith. Of the four men. Anybody know anybody else. Who's ever gotten saved. By the faith of other people. I think.
[21:04] The guy who's paralyzed. Had just as much faith. As the four men. I think the five of them. Working together. So when he says. When Jesus saw their faith.
[21:16] Include the man. Who was on the stretcher. He could have stopped him. Way back in his house.
[21:26] Saying no. I'm not going out. You guys go away. I'm not doing this. But no. He had faith in the Lord as well. So. But so many times. People read this. And they say. Oh those four men. They had faith.
[21:38] And great things were accomplished. It's like us. Do we have faith to pray? Do we have faith to put feet to our prayers. And go and talk to people. But it's their faith. That's going to get them saved.
[21:48] Our faith helps contribute to that. Our faith puts us on the road. To take the gospel to them. Just like these men had faith. That Jesus could do this. He could heal them.
[21:59] But it took the man himself. Having faith. That Jesus could do it. So. Notice the increase. Of faith. The increase.
[22:10] Of faith. These people. Working together. Again. Go back to that. But working together. Their faith.
[22:22] Working together. Got him to Jesus. But also. If there was any doubters. In that group. Their actions.
[22:33] In Jesus. Reward. Showed them. Faith and action. Okay. Yep. Yep. Is anybody doubting? Which I'm sure. There were people down below.
[22:44] After they tore that roof apart. That were doubting. Yeah. And angry. Yep. And angry. And they're about to see. Something miraculous happen. So often.
[22:55] We. Need to be reminded. Of what faith can accomplish. Luke chapter 17. Verse 5. And the apostles said unto the Lord.
[23:08] Increase our faith. Increase our faith. Now. Question for you. Here's the disciples. They've been following Jesus. They've been going with Jesus everywhere.
[23:18] They've been watching him. Perform miracle after miracle after miracle. They've listened to the things that he's preached. Why are they saying increase our faith? Did they not have enough faith after watching everything he had done?
[23:34] Example. Out on the Sea of Galilee one night. Remember? Peter gets out of the boat. And walks on water. Does Peter's faith need to be increased?
[23:46] Yes. In this way. Not because he didn't have faith. If he didn't have faith. He never would have stepped out of there. But how long do we trust God?
[23:59] How long do we keep our faith on him? Peter. Got out. But then he started looking at the things that were going on. And his faith wavered. It wasn't a fact that he didn't have faith.
[24:10] It was how long it lasted. The duration of the faith that he had. You know. The endurance that faith had. So often things come into our life.
[24:21] And we say. I trust God for this. And then things start. Keep going on. And go. I trust God for this. I trust God for this. And we just kind of.
[24:32] I trust God. It's like a life. He trust God on his mouth. And doing the offering. God sent down the fire.
[24:45] He received everything. And then he's powering from Jezebel afterwards. Like he did tremendous things on the mouth. But he wavered.
[24:56] He wavered later. Yep. Good. and what do we learn from that when he got out of the boat he was looking right at Jesus when he got out when he got out onto the water he started watching everything else he took his eyes off of Jesus and started watching everything else keep your eyes hmm looking unto Jesus hmm we've never heard that before he was watching the world the influence of faith the influence of faith that man was healed because of faith the four friends did things because of faith in verse 5 again
[26:03] Jesus saw their faith and he said I'm sick of the palsy son thy sins be forgiven thee verse 11 I say unto thee arise take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house see these four men they helped encourage one another they helped encourage the person the person with the paralysis the five of them working together remember we talked about the horses there a little bit ago and how they're working together things can much more things much more weight can be moved these five working together in faith saw a great miracle happen that day you know there's a story about a young girl well we've already talked about the little girl Nahum's little slave girl we don't know her name but the things that were accomplished in Nahum's life because of her well there was another little girl and she was very sick not expected to live and she was sad in the fact that she believed in the Lord but she says
[27:19] I'm not going to get able to do a lot for him because I'm not going to be here I'm going to die I said what can I do for the Lord while I'm laying here in bed and the pastor suggested to her you can pray pray for people pray for people you know are not saved pray for whatever you know things come to your mind so she did and she made a prayer list after she passed away they found the prayer list underneath her pillow they opened it up look at it there's 56 names on that prayer list every one of them had been saved the last one the night before she died every one of them because of the faith she had that prayer would work and she wanted to see something that she could do that would accomplish things for the Lord you know we need to remember us working together again what can we accomplish by prayer what can we accomplish by working together
[28:28] Wednesday nights when we come together for prayer you often heard me say on Wednesday nights yes we have a prayer list that we get and you know this person needs healing and this person needs money and this person needs this and this person but get past the prayer list sometimes and pray about the fact that God I want to see you do a work in my life I want to see you do a work in this church I want to see you do a work in this situation that situation I want to see God's hand moving in things taking time to pray the power of definite specific fervent prayer do you pray like that God I want to see you do things Matthew 17 20 says this Jesus said unto them because of your unbelief for verily I say unto you if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall see this mountain say to this mountain remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you how big is a grain of mustard seed tiny tiny take a take a pencil and make a period there you go mustard seed that's how big it is he says you got this much faith you can accomplish all kinds of things you know do we have this much faith that God can do
[30:05] I heard a story about this what recently widow she had children and they bought a house and it was very inexpensive because there's a great big huge bill of dirt behind the house block in a beautiful view and she reliant on that message she said if I had faith of a grain of mustard seed that you would perform my miracle and her and her children prayed together every day that that mountain of dirt would disappear about I'm going to say 30 days I can't remember how long it was there is a knock on the door this gentleman says how much would it cost me to move that pile of dirt he says I need it for a building I'm building over here she says if you move it you can have it and within a week or so it was totally gone and they had the most beautiful view you could ever imagine yep
[31:13] I'd heard that story just recently yep so because you got a view yep yep when Ronald Reagan I'm wrapping this up when Ronald Reagan was president he had a plaque in his office it said how did it start there is no limit to what a man can do or where a man can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit you know too often we neglect to serve God because we want something for ourselves these four men they were concerned about their friend they were concerned about how they're going to help him they're concerned how they were going to get him healed how they were going to get him to Jesus we need to make sure we resist getting weary hungry you know I don't know about you but there are times I am tired and there are times
[32:14] I just like but we need to keep going in the strength of the Lord doing what he has called us to do four friends working together accomplish some great things we as a church might be small but working together we can accomplish great things if we center it around the Lord Jesus Christ keep our eyes on him follow him do what he has asked us to do he says look put me above yourself what did I say the key was dying to self is the key to living for Christ that's what we need to do so four men we don't know their names they had a great impact on that man's life and it's in the word of God it has a great impact on our lives as well all right let's have prayer father thank you