Thank you so very much. What a beautiful song.
If you have your Bibles, look with me this morning to Mark chapter 2.
And let me just tell you what we're going to do.
We're going to look at the first five verses.
I'm going to do a hurried exposition of this passage.
And then after we do that, we're going to stand back and notice some things
about the focal principles of this passage we're dealing with today.
If I were to give the message a title,
it would be the joy of seeing lives changed.
When you read Luke's Gospel, chapter 15,
there are my three favorite parables in all the Scripture.
It's the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin,
and then the prodigal son who returns home.
And the teaching in all that is clearly this,
that there is joy in heaven over that which was lost being found.
It's a joy, isn't it, to see something that's lost discovered again,
to see something that's lost purpose and meaning in life,
and it's just going down the tube, so to speak,
suddenly to be renewed and to find new life and vitality,
to see someone's life change.
Man, it just doesn't get any better than that.
In fact, I can tell you with assurance today,
the greatest joy I ever had as a pastor
was not in seeing a building packed with people.
That's exciting.
It's invigorating.
But what really and truly is exciting
and what really and truly is joyful
is to see somebody whose life was out of order
and suddenly see them come to know Christ
and see the huge difference He makes in their life.
Well, if you've never had that joy of witnessing that,
I hope you will in the days to come.
It's something you're going to see in the story we look at this morning.
So if you have your Bibles,
turn with me to Mark chapter 2,
and let's begin our reading in verse 1.
When He entered Capernaum,
and He is referring to Jesus,
Capernaum is the home base of His Galilean ministry.
He lived, grew up in Nazareth,
a stone's throw from Capernaum.
But when Jesus begins His ministry,
He works in and out of Capernaum.
He leaves Capernaum, comes back to Capernaum.
And so verse 1 of chapter 2 says,
When He entered Capernaum again,
after some days He's been away,
and if you read the chapter prior to this,
you know He's been preaching,
He's been healing,
doing all kinds of miracles.
It was reported that He was at home.
Some of you may be using the King James Version this morning,
and I typically use other translations,
but I want to tell you,
I like the way King James Version puts verse 1.
It says,
It was noise that Jesus had come home.
I like that term,
it was noise,
because it tells you it wasn't a computer,
it wasn't something on Facebook,
it was something that people said to one another.
It's a little bit gossipy sounding, isn't it?
In other words,
this person told that person to tell,
this person who told yet another person,
and pretty soon all over the region of Capernaum,
word has gotten out,
Jesus is back home.
He's come back to Capernaum.
Well, it stirs up all kinds of excitement,
and we see that in verse 2.
So many people gathered together,
that there was no more room,
not even in the doorway,
and He was speaking the message to them.
I mean, when word got out,
the whole area wanted to see Jesus again.
They'd heard of these miracles He'd done on this Galilean tour,
they'd heard about His preaching,
all kinds of things were happening.
Everybody wanted to come and hear Jesus.
So when they hear He's in this local house,
there in the town of Capernaum,
everybody rushes there to see Jesus.
It was a standing room only crowd,
what we call an SRO crowd,
standing room only.
Now, we've got a good crowd here this morning,
but we are,
what we Baptists like to say,
comfortably filling this room, right?
You know what that means, right?
There's enough room for you to lay down and take a nap
beside somebody else.
This place was packed.
If this had been the room that He was in,
and I'm confident it was a much smaller room than this,
probably less than a third the size of this room.
I mean, they're jammed in there,
tree to tree,
treetop tall.
There are people everywhere.
There were people behind Him,
people in front of Him,
people to the side of Him.
I dare say Jesus probably had to stand there
as they, in all likelihood,
sat or kneeled or maybe lay on their side on the floor
if there weren't chairs available to them.
And they just jam-packed that place,
so much so,
you could not get one other person in that room.
Now, we who attend Baptist churches,
that's kind of hard for us to imagine, right?
And I've only seen it one time in my life.
I've seen at Easter huge crowds,
assuming the church I pastored,
where we had to bring in chairs,
we had people on the floor,
we had people behind us in the choir loft.
But only one time in my ministry,
when I first started preaching,
Western Avenue in 1978,
we had truth come to our church.
Some of you will remember that group.
They were a wonderful, wonderful singing group,
and we advertised all over town
that truth was going to be there.
And I'm going to tell you,
I got there about 45 minutes
before the performance started.
We had one of these old churches
that had a wraparound balcony.
Remember those?
How the old churches were,
had a wraparound balcony.
I was fearful as I stood there on the platform
thinking,
I hope nobody falls out of the balcony.
They were leaning over the rails of the balcony.
It was really a scary situation.
All the floor space was taken.
The choir loft was filled.
We had two vestibules in the back of the church.
Both of those were standing back.
People standing in the stairwell.
Every place is taken.
Fire marshal shows up.
A few minutes before the performance,
he got word of it.
He comes down there,
takes a look at it,
comes to me and says,
you let one more person in this building,
we're going to close it down.
It was genuinely a standing room only crowd.
Well, that's what's taking place here in Capernaum.
It's a standing room only crowd.
They're packed to the max.
Well, look at verse 3.
Verse 3 says,
Then they came,
and we don't know anything about this group called they.
And then they came to him bringing a paralytic carried by four men.
All we know is their number.
We don't know their relationship to the paralytic.
We don't know anything about their paralytic.
We don't know their name.
We don't know his name.
We don't know how long they've had relationship.
We're going to make some assumptions here in a few moments that I think are logical and reasonable.
But you can make up your own mind about these men.
We're just not told any of the other details.
This is what we know.
They come bringing this man, probably a friend, on this cot to where Jesus is at this house in Capernaum.
Look at verse 4, if you will.
Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd,
they removed the roof above where he was.
And when they had broken through, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic was lying.
Now, that ought to take you back.
If it doesn't, you, my friend, don't have much imagination.
I'm telling you, that's one weird, weird scene.
These four guys have brought this guy, probably a friend, to Jesus.
They want to have Jesus take a look at him, see if Jesus can help him.
When they get there, the front door of the house, there are people standing in the doorway.
They no doubt approach those guys, hey, could you let us in?
This is a guy we brought to see Jesus.
Sorry, pal, you're out of luck, too late, can't get in the house.
They walk around the house, the windows, they're jam-packed, the back door, you can't get entrance there.
And they wonder, how can we get our friend to Jesus?
Now, you'll recall months ago, three months ago, when I began as interim here at Pickens,
we preached then from Mark in one of those opening sermons,
and we told you that huge crowds often came to where Jesus was,
and that Mark was the gospel writer who was not about theology so much or philosophy like John is.
He's the guy who's telling a narrative,
and he goes from one story quickly to another, to another, to another.
He doesn't give us neither the details any of the other three gospel writers give us.
In fact, this is the word that you find more often in Mark than you know the word,
the word immediately or straightway.
He says, and immediately Jesus did this, and immediately Jesus did this, and immediately Jesus did this.
So when you're reading this story, here's what you get.
Jesus comes home, word gets out, everybody shows up,
these guys pick up this guy on the cot, bring him to Jesus, get there, can't get in,
and in the very next verse he says,
and they go up on the roof, and they tear the roof out,
and they lower the man into the presence of Jesus.
Now, I hope you've got enough imagination to know
that while he's accurate in telling that,
he's left out some stuff, right?
I mean, who of you in this room,
if you're in the position of these four men,
say immediately, when you can't get in the front door,
oh, I know what I want to do,
let's go up on the roof and tear out the thatch
and lure him into the presence of Jesus, right?
It just doesn't go down like that.
There had to be a time where they stood back,
and they looked at that, and they thought,
well, man, this guy needs to see Jesus.
How are we going to get him into Jesus?
What are we going to do?
And they mull that over,
and ultimately come up with a solution
that Mark tells us about very hurriedly.
They go up on the roof, they tear out the thatch,
they lure him into the presence of Jesus.
But I assure you,
it didn't take place just that quickly as we read it.
Well, what happens?
Look at verse 5.
Seeing their faith,
Jesus told the paralytic,
Son, your sins are forgiven.
Interesting phrase,
if you underscore in your Bible,
underscore that second word,
seeing their faith.
The plural pronoun there.
Not seeing the paralytic's faith.
That's how we normally think.
That if I get a miracle in my life,
it's because of my faith.
But what Mark says is,
seeing their faith.
Can I give you a picture of what I think happened?
Jesus come home.
The crowd has gathered.
Place is filled to the max.
Jesus, in all likelihood,
has taken a position
in the center of the room.
Now think about it.
Probably a low ceiling.
It's a small house.
A lot of folk.
So how, if you're a speaker,
are you going to talk to those folk
unless they're kneeling, lying,
and you're standing up,
and you're somewhere
in the center of the room.
I've had occasion where
a real large crowd had gathered,
and when I was speaking,
I'd be speaking to people here
and here and here,
and I would just keep turning
back and forth
in order to try to make eye contact
with everyone that was in the room.
I have a feeling,
can't prove it,
but it seems reasonable to me
that's probably what Jesus did too.
He's in the center of the room.
People gather around him.
He's talking, right?
You ever been in a Baptist meeting
where somebody's talking,
they're up preaching,
they're teaching,
and somebody does something
they didn't intend to do?
Or maybe they did intend to do it,
but it just wasn't
the smartest thing in the world to do, right?
Somebody's phone goes off.
What happens?
Ryan cuts your phone off, right?
Everybody looks in that direction.
Or somebody gets up
and they go do something
that you wonder why in the world
didn't they wait
until the church is over
to do that, right?
And yet, everybody turns
and they look in that direction
because they're distracted.
So Jesus is up teaching
and all of a sudden
they hear footsteps.
This is not a solid roof, obviously,
because they break through it pretty easily
and lower this man into Jesus.
So they hear footsteps on the roof.
They can hear voices, no doubt.
Hey, then you're not going to drop him, are you?
I mean, you okay?
Are you all right?
And they hear these voices outside.
And now they hear walking on the roof.
And all of a sudden,
somebody gets hit in the head
with a piece of thatch.
And they look up.
And everybody in the room follows suit.
They're all looking up.
And now, if I'm Jesus,
I don't know if he did or not,
but if I'm Jesus,
I quit talking
because I know I've already lost a while anyway, right?
And I'm watching the same thing
everybody else in the room is watching.
I'm watching this little tiny hole
through which daylight is coming
get bigger and bigger
and bigger and bigger
until finally,
you can lower a cot down through the opening
and four faces suddenly appear.
Hey, Jesus.
Got a buddy here.
He needs to see you.
And they lure him into the presence of Jesus.
Now, I'm going to tell you,
that's a meeting I'd like to have been at.
Wouldn't you?
That is one cool, cool story.
That's what we get here in Mark chapter 2.
Well, what do we make of this?
Uh-oh.
I lost my microphone.
That's one of those distractions
we were talking about.
Just cut it off.
Now it's back on.
Okay.
Here's my question to you.
Having looked at this story this morning.
What in the world?
What in the world
possessed those four men
to do what they did?
I mean, can you imagine?
Can we just be honest?
Is there anybody in this room
that can envision you doing that?
You going up on somebody's roof
who probably you don't even know
and tearing a hole big enough in the roof
to put a cot through
and to lure this paralytic
into the presence of Jesus.
When it's Jesus,
it's the Son of God
and He's teaching
and you're interrupting Him.
Is there anybody here
that can imagine?
Yeah, I think I could do that.
I'm going to tell you,
I'll do some wild, crazy things.
I don't think I'd have been in on that one.
That's pretty out there, you know?
Can I tell you something?
If every one of us in this room
could come to have the same traits
I see these guys demonstrate in our life,
Pickens, First Baptist Church,
wouldn't have to talk about
reaching the people of Pickens.
You would reach the people of Pickens.
Can you imagine what it would be like
if this church could really take seriously
the mission that you stated
to evangelize the world
and you really began to see
week in and week out lives change
because you were reaching your neighbors
and your friends and your relatives
and people who've never heard about Jesus
here in this community.
Can you imagine how exciting that would be?
Can you imagine what that would be like?
I want to show you six qualities
these guys possessed
that I think made that possible.
First of all, these were men.
I don't know a lot about them,
but I know this.
They had to be men of great compassion.
I mean, I don't know if they were related
to this guy, if they just knew this guy,
if they were close friends with this guy,
but they saw that paralytic
and they heard about the things
that Jesus was doing
and they believed,
as we'll say in a moment,
with all their heart
that Jesus could help them.
And so I want to tell you something.
They had compassion for him.
They looked at him
and they saw a guy,
you know what?
He can't walk the way we can.
He can't get to Jesus
if he wants to.
I don't even know if he wanted to.
But I know this.
He can't get there on his own.
If he's going to get to Jesus,
if Jesus is going to impact his life,
it's going to be because somebody
cared enough about him
to bring him to Jesus.
He's dependent on their compassion.
Can you for one second
separate yourself from the life
that you now have
and wonder what it would be like,
just dare to imagine
what it would be like
if you could do nothing for yourself,
if you were absolutely dependent
on someone else
to take care of you
and sing about your welfare?
When I was pastor in Statesville,
there was a lady in our church,
Betty Sue Sharp.
She's going to be with the Lord years ago.
Betty Sue, at the time I knew her,
was about 48.
She had been injured
in an automobile accident
when she was 18 years old,
just out of high school,
severed her spinal cord.
She was a paraplegic
for the rest of her life.
She would lie in bed.
Her elderly mother, Mrs. Speece,
would take care of her.
And occasionally,
because she wouldn't turn her enough,
she would develop these bed sores.
They would have to carry her
to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem.
When I would go over and see Betty Sue,
can I tell you something?
They had her on a striker frame.
Let me just describe
what a striker frame is
if you don't know what that is.
It's just a little cot,
probably very similar
to what these guys
carried this paralytic on.
It has a bar on one side,
a bar on the other.
The person lays in the middle.
It's got canvas in the middle
and a place cut out in the canvas
for a person to put their face
through that canvas.
Then they take another identical cot
and place it on their back.
And then they lace
those two cots together.
They put it on a swivel
so that it can flip
so that half the day,
changing it every few hours,
a person is lying there
facing the ceiling
and the rest of the time,
they're lying there
facing the floor.
Only two positions
they can be in.
They're either facing upward
or facing downward.
When I would go to see her,
regardless of which position
she was in,
when I would get there,
the nurse would come in
and she would change her
so she could talk with me
so that she was facing up.
On one occasion,
I'm visiting Betty Sue
and we're having a conversation.
It's lasted about 30 minutes or so.
And she turns to me.
I'm praying with her,
getting ready to leave.
And before I leave,
I say,
is there anything I can do
for you, Betty Sue?
And you know what she said?
She said,
Pastor, I hate to ask you this,
but yeah, there is.
Would you scratch my nose?
My nose is itching.
Would you just scratch it?
I'd be glad to.
And I'm going to tell you,
I had to fight back tears
as I touched her nose
and began to rub her nose.
Because I put myself
in her place
and I thought,
my goodness.
I complained about this
and that and the other
and I can't imagine
what it would be like
to be lying here
on this striker frame.
And I can't even
scratch my own nose.
Can I tell you something?
There are people
all around Pickens
who are just that helpless,
just that disabled,
emotionally and spiritually
and mentally.
And I'm telling you something,
if they're ever going to come
to Jesus,
it's going to be because
somebody who knew Jesus
had the insight
and the compassion
to bring them to Christ.
They're never going to get there
on their own.
It's going to be because
somebody cared enough
to bring them to Christ.
These were men of compassion.
They were also men
of deep, deep conviction.
Now, in a Baptist church,
it's not hard to get people
to raise their hand and say,
I believe the Bible.
I believe every word
in the Bible.
I have great confidence in God.
God can do anything.
And I want to tell you something.
If we're honest about it,
there is a crisis of faith
in the church today
unlike we've ever witnessed
in the history of Christendom.
If we're honest about it,
I don't think we any longer
know even what we really do believe
about Jesus.
Can I tell you what Paul
believed about Jesus?
Paul said in Romans 1.16,
He is the power,
the gospel is the power of God
unto salvation
to the Jew first,
to the Roman,
and to the Greek.
And that's the reason
unashamedly,
everywhere he went,
he proclaimed the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know why?
Because Paul believed this.
If a man can get to know Jesus,
if Jesus can get into a man,
the Holy Spirit can come
into a man's life.
He can regenerate that man,
and he can bring him
to life again,
and this man who was lost
can be found,
he can have a meaningful life
if he just knew Christ.
And I want to ask you something.
Do you have conviction about that?
Is this just something
we show up on Sundays
and say that we believe
Jesus can change the world,
He can change lives,
or do you really
and truly believe that?
Because I want to ask you,
if you really
and truly believe that,
how do you see people
who are helpless
like this man was
and not speak to them
about the Lord Jesus Christ?
How cruel and insensitive
and filled with hate
must we be
to really believe
the things that we say
about Jesus,
but then tell no one
about Jesus?
Do you understand that?
These were men of conviction.
I don't know
what they believed theologically,
I don't know if they believed
He was Messiah or not,
but I do believe this,
they believed with all their heart,
they'd heard enough,
they'd seen enough
of the miracles of Jesus.
If we get our friend
in the presence of Jesus,
Jesus can heal it.
Do you believe that spiritually
about Jesus healing people
in your life?
Thirdly,
they were people
who were determined.
They were people
who were determined.
Now when I say determined,
we recognize
there are levels
of determination,
right?
There are things
even this last week
you said,
you know what,
I'm determined
to lose five pounds.
Are you really?
The proof will be
if you lose five pounds,
right?
If you really,
really do mean that.
We say,
I'm determined
to get more sales
on my job.
Really?
Is that just something
you're saying
to make the boss
feel okay
about your effort?
Are you really determined?
Last week,
remember how I closed
the service?
I said,
would you do me a favor?
Would you go out
and invite everybody
you know
who hadn't been here
in a while
and get them to come?
Because I'm going to tell you
something really important
next week,
and I don't dare say
there were some of you
who went out
and you made some calls
and you said,
would you come?
But I want to ask you,
how determined
were you about that?
Some of you probably
never thought about it again.
Some of you probably
never agreed to do it
to begin with,
and that's okay.
It's just me asking.
I think you're not obligated
to do what I ask you to do,
but were you determined
about it?
Because I dare say
there have been times
in your life
that you really have been
determined about something.
In fact,
it was such a matter
of importance to you,
you knew this,
I've got to find a way
to do that
or it's going to be horrific.
What if tomorrow morning
you went into work
and your boss looked at you
and said,
I want to tell you something,
you will have this done
by Wednesday
or you're gone.
I'm going to let you go.
You're going to lose
your house.
You're going to lose
your job,
your income.
Boy, I guarantee you,
you would give it
your best area.
It wouldn't be something
you say you'd really try to do.
You'd be determined
to do it.
How determined
are you to bring people
to Christ?
There's a fourth thing
I want you to see
about these men.
It's one of my favorites.
They were imaginative
and creative.
I mean,
that just goes
without saying, right?
They came up
with this novel idea
after they'd stood back
and looked at it a while.
Let's go up
on the roof.
That's the biggest reason
I believe
they didn't just walk up
and try to get
in the front door
when that didn't work
and go up on the roof
because I'm going to tell you
it's just too creative
an idea.
Here's what had to happen.
When they checked
all around the house
and they couldn't get in,
they had to stand back.
They probably put their friend
down on the ground.
You got any ideas, buddy?
They looked at that house.
They thought about it.
After a while,
probably one of them said,
hey, you know what?
We could...
No, that wouldn't work.
Well, we could...
No, that wouldn't work either.
And I can just see
the light bulb
come on in one of their minds,
don't you?
All four of them
didn't think of it.
The others agreed to it,
but it was one person's idea,
I guarantee you.
Hey, you know what?
Boy, this is crazy,
but I saw a ladder
in the back
and I saw some rope
over there on the side
and we could get that ladder
and we could go up on the roof
and we could tie the rope
to the ends of the cot.
If you're willing,
we can horse you up on the roof.
What are we going to do then?
We're going to tear out the roof.
We're going to what?
We're going to tear out the roof.
We're going to let our friend
into the presence of Jesus.
That's creative.
That's magic.
That's thinking,
as we like to say today,
out of the box, right?
Can I tell you something?
We Baptists are not good
at thinking out of the box.
We Baptists are not imaginative.
In fact, we people,
not just Baptists,
you see those first little kids up here?
Weren't they cute?
You think they've got imagination?
They sure do.
I mean, those kids are low.
I guarantee you,
the one on this end
didn't give a nickel
what the one on that end was doing.
He's doing his thing,
she's doing her thing, right?
They don't care about anybody else.
They're just pioneers.
Everything's an adventure.
My grandson,
he's got a wild imagination.
You Christians probably
don't want to hear this,
but he's as excited
as he can be about Halloween.
I mean, he wants to be a skeleton
and all that jazz.
He just loves that stuff, right?
He's got a wild imagination.
Wild, wild imagination.
By the time they get a little older,
they lose some of that.
Do you notice how those older kids,
they did a great job singing?
They all stood in their place
because they learned,
man, the routine.
We got to do this.
Mom and Dad will get on to me
if I get home
and you know I cut up up here.
So I can't pull my dress
over my head, right?
And I can't do those kind of things.
And then you look at your choir.
Now, they have really learned
the routine, right?
They're not going to play
with their dress.
They're not going to,
they're going to sing
like adults, right?
Isn't it amazing
how when kids are in middle school,
they begin to lose
that creativity and imagination
by the time they get out
of high school,
they're just parrots.
In fact,
most of us in this room,
we're parrots.
I'm talking about myself.
We're parrots.
We do what others tell us to do.
We don't like to think
for ourselves.
Most Baptists are parrots.
You say,
well, preacher,
that's a little bit offensive.
It may be offensive,
but it's true.
Can I just prove it to you?
Those of you that are maids,
think back,
I'm 69 years old.
Think back in the day
when we were young
and we were going to church.
Remember what happened
in the early 70s?
I do.
I was a young preacher.
Early 70s,
a guy in Dell City, Oklahoma
by the name of Bailey Smith
bought some buses
and he began busing people
to church
and pretty soon
they were running thousands.
Down in Houston, Texas,
a guy by the name
of John Massonio
did the same.
And a guy by the name
of Jerry Falwell
up in Lynchburg, Virginia
did the same.
And a guy over in Hammond, Indiana
began to do the same.
And pretty soon
there were conferences
being held about buses
and people were learning
about bus ministry
and before that
nobody knew anything
about bus ministry.
And guess what?
Every church in Easley
by 1980 had a bus, right?
And we're engaged
in bus ministry
and nobody ever said,
were there any problems
associated with that?
And we found out there were.
There were a lot of headaches
that came with that.
And it worked in some places,
didn't work in other places.
And remember the gym phase
where everybody said,
we need a gym.
Well, why do we need a gym?
Well, because we need one, right?
We need a gym.
And it became a place
where we played basketball,
you know, a few times a year
and we had a gym, right?
And through the years,
I've seen that over
and over and over.
Some guy on the West Coast,
Rick Warren,
writes a book called
Purpose Driven Life
and it's a great,
great, great book.
And we began to have
these conferences
and everybody's duplicating that
and saying, okay,
we need to have a 101
and a 201
and a 301
and a 401 ministry
and do things
just like they do
out on the West Coast.
And so,
people like you find here
at Pickens
and in other places
like in Greer
and all over the country,
they say, you know what?
We need to get a guru
to come in here
and tell us how to reach
the people of our city.
And so they ran out
to the West Coast,
would you come and talk to us
and be the expert for us?
Or they call Columbia
or they call Atlanta
or they get Nashville
and a guy comes in
with a suitcase,
a briefcase,
and he's got the plan for you
and he lays it out.
But I want to tell you something.
Because it works in Atlanta,
because it works in Columbia,
because it works
in Bakersville, California,
it doesn't mean
it's going to work in Pickens.
Do you know that?
You know who the expert
on Pickens is?
It's not Ralph Carter.
I'm from Greer.
The expert on Pickens
are you folk
because this is where
you make your home.
You know the people
in this county.
You know the people
in this city.
You know the people
in this community.
You know your neighbors.
But what happens is
we get lazy
and we just want to do
what somebody else
has told us to do
instead of taking the time
to stand back and say,
we need to pray
and we need to,
God forbid,
think.
Right?
We need to come up
with a solution
that's right for our community
and a plan for
what would reach the people
of the Pickens community.
I'm going to tell you
a story out of my past
and I hesitate to tell it
because I'm so fearful
somebody will come up
and say,
that's what we need to do.
No, it's not what
you need to do.
It's what we did.
I'm in states
from North Carolina.
Went there in 77.
Left in 92.
Long about the late 80s.
We had relocated the church.
Run out of room.
Built buildings
and we had people meeting
in every Sunday school classroom.
In the auditorium.
Had a meeting in a closet.
Believe it or not,
a room closet.
A small class.
Had every staff person
forfeit their office
on Sunday morning,
including my own.
We all gave up our office
and said,
you can have Sunday school class
in the year.
Move chairs in there.
We don't have any more space.
But I'm thinking to myself,
God puts an idea
on my mind.
If I had another space,
I think I could reach people
who've never been to Sunday school.
They might come
to a class that I'd teach
if we had one
for just people
who've never attended Sunday school.
I asked the director
of our Sunday school
and our education director,
if you've got a room
for me or we don't have
any room, Pastor.
I don't mind the idea,
they said,
but you've got to find
your own room.
Well,
one day I'm leaving work.
I look to my left.
Our building's out
on the fringe of town.
Nothing but
a lot of acres
behind us,
open woods,
except
for this one man
that lives there
and this moose lodge.
It's about 250 yards
from our building
and it's about
a third the size
of this room.
And so,
I think to myself,
hmm,
I don't know any moose,
but I could find out
who runs that thing
and so I made a few calls
and pretty soon
I get connected
with the head moose,
right?
And it happens
he's a member
of a Sister Baptist Church.
So I told him
who I was
and I said,
listen,
you know,
you're building,
your moose lodge
is only about 250 yards
from my back parking lot
and I'm looking
for a place
to teach Sunday school
on Sunday morning.
Do you all use that place
on Sunday morning?
No,
we don't use it
on Sunday morning.
When do you use it?
Use it Friday night
and Saturday night.
Well,
would you be willing
for me to rent it from you?
Well,
I wouldn't charge you.
I'd just let you have it.
Well,
that'd be great.
Do you mind me using it?
No,
but you can tell
there's hesitancy
in his voice.
I said,
well,
what's the problem?
He said,
well,
you know,
I don't know how to put it,
but we kind of gather
and have social gatherings.
What he meant is
we party hardy
on Saturday night
and said,
we have to stop
the party at midnight.
I later learned
that was because
you can't drink in states
at that time
after midnight.
You know,
it's Sunday.
You can't have an open bar.
So,
he says,
we close up about midnight,
but when we close up,
we just leave things
just like they are.
So,
if you went on Sunday morning,
there'd be beer cans
and beer bottles
and whiskey bottles
everywhere.
I said,
I'm sorry to tell you that,
but that's just how it'd be.
So,
I don't guess it would work.
I said,
yeah,
it'd work.
I said,
would you let me
and a couple people
go in there
and clean that up beforehand?
Do you mind if we clean that?
No,
it'd save us
having to come back on Monday.
I said,
well,
great,
I'll just clean it up for you.
So,
I go to the deacon
and I say,
guys,
here's what we're going to do.
We're going to open a class
for anybody
who's never been in sun school.
You can't come
if you're already
in sun school class,
but if you're not
in sun school class,
we're going to open it up
to anybody who wants to come.
They said,
okay,
you can try it and see.
I could tell the way they said it.
They didn't really think
that's going to work
and I wasn't sure about it.
I mean,
it's just an idea,
but we tried it.
Me and a couple guys
went down there
and that Sunday morning,
we cleared out
all the bottles,
had two big garbage can bags
of beer bottles
and cans
that we took
and put in the dumpster
and then we opened
that building
for Sunday school.
You know what we called it?
The Happy Hour.
We sandwiched it
between one worship service
and another worship service
and some of those guys
that said,
I bet you won't have
over five or ten
were right.
We had 42
the first time
we met in that room.
Can I tell you something?
The secret to reaching Pickens
is not out there
in some book.
It sits right here
in this room.
when you care enough
to come out
for something
other than a worship service
and sit down
with your friends
and family members
and say,
let's develop a strategy
for reaching our community
for Christ.
The fifth thing
I want you to see
about these guys
is they were daring
risk takers.
That's one thing
to get an idea.
It's another thing
to see it through,
isn't it?
I'm confident
there wasn't a Baptist
among those four
because if there
had been a Baptist,
especially a Baptist
deacon or a pastor
or staff member
among those four,
you know what
they'd have said?
We can't do that.
That's never been done
before.
Somebody would have said,
do you know
whose granddaddy
built that roof?
I mean, wouldn't he?
And certainly
somebody would have
said this,
who's going to pay
for that?
Right?
We can't do that
because there'd be
cost involved
and somebody would
have to pay
for that roof.
And I'm going to
tell you something,
those four guys
through caution to the wind,
they said,
you know what,
this is the only way
our buddy is going
to get into the
presence of Jesus
if we go up on that
roof and tear out
that roof and lower
him into the presence
of Jesus.
And if we do that,
you know what,
I think Jesus
will heal him.
And boy,
they were right.
And so they
demonstrate
what it is
to be a risk taker.
Can I ask you
something this morning
personal?
When's the last time
any of us in this room
took any kind of risk
at all
in sharing the gospel?
Where you said,
I'm throwing caution
to the wind
and I don't care
what's ever been done
before,
so long as it's legal
and it's not immoral
and it has integrity
and character,
it's a viable way,
it's just not something
we've ever done before.
When have you ever
cared enough
to risk yourself,
to risk this?
You know what we
fear risking more
than anything else?
It's not our money.
It's risking embarrassment.
When's the last time
you risk embarrassing
yourself
to see someone
come to know Christ?
And finally,
and I close with this,
they worked as a team.
They probably
weren't completely
in agreement
about going up
on that roof.
I can't imagine
any three friends
that I've got
where I would be
the fourth
and any one of us
suggest,
let's go up
on that roof
and tear it out
and lower our friend
in the presence of Jesus
where at least
one or two of them
wouldn't have been
saying,
whoa,
wait just a minute.
There were some
serious objections
I'm sure
that somebody
in that group
of four raised.
But in the end,
here's what impresses me.
when it came down
to crunch time,
they all grabbed
one end of that rope
and they all worked
together
to make it happen.
I want to tell you
something.
I've been so impressed.
I'm not saying this
to make you feel good.
I've told everybody
I've come in contact
with since I became
your interim pastor.
Those people
at First Pickens
are some of the nicest
people I have ever met.
I believe you have
that quality
of caring about people.
I think you have
the conviction
that Jesus can change lives.
I hope you have
the imagination
to do the daring
and are willing
to take the risk.
But I hope you also
have the ability
to work as a team.
I hope you're willing
to say,
you know what?
I may not get this.
I may not understand this,
but I know this.
I'm going to be
one of those guys
holding that rope
and going up on that roof
and hosting that man
into the presence
of the Word Jesus.
Now let me close
by telling you this.
What is the payoff?
You say,
what's the payoff
if we did that?
What if we began
to change how we do ministry?
What if we really said,
let's be serious.
Let's not just say this
in name only.
Let's be serious
about reaching
our community for Christ.
And let's get together
as a church
and let's map out a plan.
What would work here
in Pickens?
And then when we have
our plan,
let's begin to work
that plan
and let's be determined
and let's do everything
we can.
And if we fail a few times,
that's okay.
We'll back up
and we'll come at it
from another angle.
But our goal
is to reach the people
of Pickens
with the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well,
I'm going to tell you something.
It'd be a sacrifice.
It'd be daring.
It'd require you
to take some risks.
But if you do that,
what would be the payoff?
Here would be the payoff.
Jesus saw their fate,
the team's fate,
not the man's,
the team's fate.
And he said,
Son,
your sins are forgiven.
And a little later,
if you go home
and read the rest of the story,
you know what he says?
Take up your mat
and walk.
And here's the payoff.
Those four guys
on that roof
looking down
got to see their buddy
for the first time
they'd ever seen this
get up off that floor,
stand there,
and walk out
that front door.
Would that have been
cool or what?
I mean,
can you imagine
how cool that was?
There he goes.
He's walking down the road.
He's heading home.
What a cool thing.
I'm going to tell you something.
You'll never have a joy
as great as the joy
of seeing someone
whose life
was just going down the tubes
and you,
through the power
of the Lord Jesus Christ,
help rescue them
and bring them to Christ.
I'm telling you,
that's a hoot.
I believe some of you
this morning
would like
to have that experience.
It doesn't take everybody.
It takes four.
We're going to have Brian
sing a verse of a hymn.
If the Holy Spirit of God
has spoken to your heart
while He sings this,
would you be brave enough?
Would you take a big enough risk
this morning
you'd step out
and come and just kneel
here at this altar
for a moment
and just say,
by your coming,
I want to be one of those four.
I want to be somebody like that.
I want to be somebody
who dares to reach
this community
with the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's stand.