Where Will Your Desperation Lead You? | Mark 2:1-12 | Denim Trncic

I know you guys saw that just one bumper. We just got back from Honduras. Honduras was unbelievable. I mean if you and your family everyone to go to Honduras please let me my wife know and we'll take you guys on a mission trip. But this last time we went to Honduras this was actually my family in their eyes first time traveling internationally and so my little son his name is Luca. I mean he got to meet all of his Honduran family in Honduras so it was amazing. But how many of you have ever traveled with the toddler anyone in here ever travel with a toddler? Oh man guys why didn't you warm me why didn't you say something? So my wife and I we decided to fly a day earlier than everyone just to beat the team there and we wanted to set up and so man we fly to Honduras. Our first flight is smooth, second flight is smooth. We get to Honduras. We go through customs, we go through baggage claim and because I have a kid I also have like a million bags with me and so we finally get through everything. We get to our rental car. I take out the car seat. I strap in the car seat. Everything is good. We get in the car. We start driving to our hotel. We get to our hotel on the load. Have a great first day. Now the next day the team is flying in to Honduras and so my wife and I were at breakfast that morning and we're like man should we should we go visit the team as a family? Should we go welcome them as a family? And my wife's like that's such a good idea. Man let's do that and so that morning we breakfast we get in the car. We start driving. Now mind you Honduras at least where we are in El Sucoro. It is literally up in the mountains. So I mean you're climbing up a mountain for about an hour before you get to the village where we work in and so we start driving but we're going to the airport in the airports an hour away so now instead of going up the mountain we're going down the mountain. We start driving down this mountain and as we're driving man there are these mortar cycles guys and they are flying by me. I'm nervous. I'm scared. I'm like man if I hit one of these guys off this road I'm for sure going to kill them. So we're driving down this road and we're coming to a really sharp turn and as I'm coming to the sharp turn I take this sharp turn a little too hard. Man next thing I know I look in the rear rear mirror and the car seat is not there. Talk about panic. Talk about desperation. My wife looks at me. She looks in the rear rear mirror. She's like the car seat's not there. Guys we look she looks because I was driving I couldn't look. She looks. My son is happy as all can be but he's upside down in the car and man I got to tell you I'm freaking out I'm panicking. I'm like trying to swerve off the road to pull off. She is just panicking in the front seat. My wife takes off her seat belt. She jumps in the back. She flips Luca packs it upright. I know parenting 101 guys. It was my biggest failure yet. But man have you ever had that moment that desperation? Maybe it was a frantic search for your kid where you throw dignity into the win and you run and you search and nothing's going to stop you or maybe if you're a mom maybe your kid was in the pool and you saw them maybe you struggling in the pool right and you jump in that pool with all the clothes that you have on or if you're a dad if you saw your kid in a burning building. I don't care who you are you're going to run into that burning building because there's this sense of desperation. That horrible feeling of desperation. It's one of the most powerful things on the planet. Like you ever hear those legends of moms who lift cars off their kids? Why won't you know man those aren't legends those are real. Like this is crazy. But in 1982, Angel Cavallo she lifted a vehicle off her son and when they interviewed her after after she couldn't even come close to ever lifting a car before the situation. But man her son's life was on the line and that desperation kicked in. Or I think about another lady Lauren Cornelki in 2013 she lifted a BMW off of her father. You know what's crazy? A firefighting department they came and they tried to do the same thing that she did alone and they couldn't recreate it with four firefighters and they call it this hysterical strength. I want you to know that your brain limits your muscle output to protect your limbs and your tendons. But when you're desperate that limiter it drops and so adrenaline spikes and pain is ignored because you're desperate. And desperation that always drives you to something that you can not know otherwise never do. Desperation that's what we're going to be talking about today. Desperation that state of intense need the most uncomfortable yet powerful feelings. And man believe it or not it's this very feeling that God Almighty he wants to awaken our souls. And my prayer is that as we go through this text and as we read through this text that God is going to start to steer your heart. Today we're going to be in Mark chapter 2 verses 1 through 12. I mean I encourage you if you have a Bible open up your Bible if you don't we have these blue cover bibles in the chairs in front of you. I also want to just hit real quick next week next week is going to be so good. Next week we're going to be looking at you know how Peter's oftentimes look at like the first Pope. You guys ever heard of that Peter's considered the first Pope. Well next week we're going to look at verses that make people think that. But something really interesting happens because Jesus calls Peter the first Pope but then it's funny like right after that he calls him Satan. And so we're going to look at those few verses next week so make sure that you're here next week. Also as you walked in I know that our ushers they gave you our midpoint guide. Man it is so cool. We are halfway through our hoist to sail initiative. We started this initiative about a year ago and it's been an amazing journey for our church and the foot of people in our church. This series that we're doing called Gofish. It's almost like a refreshing meditation at a marathon. Like man we've been running hard for a whole year and now it's time for us to regroup and to be recharged. And I want you to know maybe you just started coming here and you're new and maybe this is going to be your invite to jump in. Our primary goal remains the same we want 100% engagement from every single person who comes here to the bridge but our secondary goal. It's grown by $2 million dollars from 20 to $22 million over the next two years. And this goal will just continue with a lot of us to do the ministry that we're doing now but it also gives us the ability to reach new communities through opening new locations and it helps us impact our community and the world before we, before us and even we know. And so we're hoisting to sail man we're going to let God's win blow us wherever He wants and we're just getting started. But let me pray and then we're going to jump in today. God thank you so much for bringing us here. Thank you for all the individuals in this room and God I don't know what kind of day we had maybe we had a hectic day maybe we had a crazy day but you brought us here now and Father I pray that you would calm our hearts that you would calm our minds. I pray that as we open up your word that your word it would convict us and more than anything Father I pray that we would walk out of here different than the way that we walked in. I pray that we would be changed. Thank you for your word thank you for who you are we love you and it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Well welcome to first century cappernum. The city is electric. People they're running around they're doing their work. The marketplace is crowded. It's just been filled with fresh fish. Construction crews are expanding infrastructure in this busy fishing village. You have women who are going around from table to table at some of the stores and they're looking for sales for some spices for the things that they're going to cook that night. Kids that are running through these small narrow streets trying to get to school on time. But beyond the normal there's an eagerness that fills the city of cappernum. Jesus just recently he returned and people are saying that he's staying at Peter's house and that he's teaching. And so the marketplace soon dies down. The harbor empties the streets go empty and not far from cappernum synagogue. Crowd gathers around Peter's house. This house is soon jam packed. People are shoulder to shoulder, the doorways blocked, windows are filled. And then people are standing outside just trying to catch a word of what Jesus is saying. And so Mark he brings us in. In verse one. And when he returned to cappernum after some days it was reported that he was at home and many were gathered together so that there was no room not even at the door and he was preaching the word to them. Now if you were to go to cappernum today what's pretty crazy is that you can still see the foundations of this house. And the reason why we're confident that this is actually Peter's home is because not long after Jesus we found that a church was built right over this site. Which makes sense because man if this really was a place where Jesus thought where people gathered to hear Jesus teach Jesus would want a church there. And so after he died man there were some church people church fathers who actually came and they built one right over that. And this house is actually just blocks away from the local synagogue. And you know what's crazy about this synagogue? This synagogue was built by the Centurion who served in Jesus' healt. So there's a lot of crazy stuff going on in here. There's a packed house. It's an introverts nightmare. Any of you going in here introverted? Yeah right it's like man leave it to the introverts to raise their hands. They're not going to do that. Now this is just my opinion but whenever I read through scripture one thing I do recognize about Jesus is I do think that Jesus was a little bit of an introvert. Because when you read scripture he's often sneaking away from the crowds to recharge. I mean you see him go to Jerusalem but then he sneaks out of Jerusalem to go to the Mount of Olives. But periodically and it happens Jesus he's going to press into the crowd. Now this isn't something that Jesus particularly enjoys but he pushes through his introverted humanity because Jesus he felt this desperation. I mean can you imagine Jesus in that crowd? And as he's looking at face after face and he's wondering man how many of these people are on their way to hell. And that question, it stirs a deep desperation in Jesus. And this desperation, it drives him past his comforts. It's this desperation that's actually going to drive him to the cross. So this house is packed, Jesus is there, he's teaching, and then look at verse 3. It's us and they came. Now who's day? We don't know man, we got to keep reading. And they came bringing to him a paralytic who was carried by four men. And they couldn't get near him because of the crowd. And so they removed the roof above him. And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And so are you picturing the scene right now? Like hours ago, it was just the typical day in Capernaum until the whisper started. He's here. Hey Jesus is teaching at Peter's house. And man, people get excited. People last time that Jesus thought at Peter's house, it was so crazy. He was healing people on his porch. I mean, the disciples, they literally got to see people. The first time Jesus was at Peter's house, they literally got to see people who were blind their whole lives start to see. People who couldn't walk start to walk. And can you imagine being there on that unbelievable day? Man, it's a day that you soon wouldn't forget. People drop what they're doing and they start to head over to Peter's house. And now far from Peter's house, there's another house. But this house is a little rundown home. And inside of it lay a man. He spends his day staring at his ceiling. He relies on his friends to come and pick him up to prop him up in the public center. So that way, maybe he can score a few mites to be able to provide for some bread. But somewhere in the midst of this crowded little street, stands one of the paralytic's friends. And he hears and he sees this Jesus who's coming into town and what he's doing. And his immediate thought is, I need to get my friends to Jesus. I need to get my friends to Jesus. And so he quickly runs against the flow of traffic. Man, he's pushing against the crowd. And finally, he gets to three of his other friends. And he says, guys, man, drop whatever you're doing and come and follow me. We've got to bring our friends to Jesus. And these four friends, they race across town. They get to the paralytic's home. They barge in. One of them is grabbing their structure. And you're probably like, the paralytic's like, guys, what are you doing? Like, where are we going? What's going on? And they're like, buddy, you'll see no time to talk. Come on, man, they lift them on and they quickly start walking. I mean, they walk past the marketplace, past the synagogue, and they finally get to Peter's house. And these guys are trying to catch their breath. And the moment that they get there, they start to get discouraged. They look around. And this crowd is so massive. People are shoulder to shoulder that they can't even walk through. And their buddies, they're trying to make their way through and they start getting shish by people. People are trying to listen. So these four friends, here there are. They have this desperation in their heart, right? But they're met with this obstacle. They don't know what to do. They can't even come close. Crowds are pressed to tight. And I can imagine the paralytic at this time. He probably looks at his buddies and he's like, guys, hey, man, I appreciate you guys trying. It's okay. Just take me back home. It's okay. And these four men, they're standing on this corner and they're thinking around their brain storming. And one of the guys, he looks up at the roof. And he's like, let's go through the roof. And you know the other three guys were like, man, that's a good idea. But can you imagine what the paralytic was thinking? He's like, you guys are going to take me up through a roof? And that's what's going on here. And these four friends, they smile and they do. I want you to understand that houses during this time, they were mainly made of stone. Now some could have been made of baked clay. And the roof, it usually had these wooden beams that thatch would lay over it then. And then what you would do is you would take mud and you would mud this in. And that mud, once it starts baking and that Mediterranean sun, it would harden. And so walking across a roof, it wasn't the safest because you can literally fall through the roof. The only way to walk across the roof is to make sure that you were on one of the beams. And so these four friends, man, with their paralytic friend, they had their work cut out for them. Like first, they have to hoist this guy up, a feet into the air onto an angled roof. That right there is hard enough. But then that's just the start. Because once you have him up on that roof, that's angled. Well, you've got to keep him straight up or otherwise he's going to roll off. And not only do they have to keep their friend level, but they have to make sure that they're walking on the beam so that they don't fall right through where Jesus is staging. And so what's going on here, man, is crazy. But this holy desperation in these guys, it pushes them to do something that they wouldn't normally do. And somehow they pull it off. So there's five of these guys, man, they're standing on a roof, they're balancing. And below, there's a crowd listening to Jesus. And as they're listening to Jesus, they're holding on to every single word. So as they're sitting there, they start to hear some muffled voices among them above them. And then not only do they hear some muffled voices, but then they hear digging. And not only do they hear digging, but now pieces of the statue are starting to fall into the floor. And not only is the statue falling, but man, now you have dirt falling on people's heads. This kind of reminds me of a couple of years ago. I was preaching here. And there was a lady in the third row, one of the sweetest ladies I think I've ever met. But man, she was sitting there. And I'm preaching and her phone starts ringing. And typically when your phone starts ringing, you're setting like this, I got a silence. But no, she just sat there and it rang. And then it rang. And then it rang. And then it rang. And I'm like, and you know when you're talking, but you're trying to get the person's attention, but you want to give them to it? And so I kind of looked at her. And then in that moment, she leisurely starts to pull out her phone. And I'm like, awesome. I'm like, she's about to hit the turn off button. And you know what she does? She picks up the phone and she's like, hello? Hello? Hello? And here I am. I'm in the middle of trying to teach. And there's someone who's interrupting me right here. Now I have to tell you that. I couldn't out speak a lady in a phone. Now can you imagine these four guys? Is there tearing through a roof? I mean, come on. I've been there to have experienced that. Finally these friends, they get a hole just big enough to squeeze their friend through. And I can imagine they wrapped their friend up in a blanket. They start to lower him with these ropes. And they're paralytic. He's proudly like, guys, don't put me down there, man. There's an angry crowd. And their friends are like, sorry, bro. We've already made it this far, man. We can't go back now. And to be in that room, there's a paralyzed guy. He's dangling from the ceiling. His face is probably filled with embarrassment and fear. You have these four determined friends who are holding him with all their might. They're holding onto these ropes. What? Roaps. There's pieces of tatch and dirt all over the floor, all over the people. You can't make this stuff up. And look at how Jesus handles this moment. Verse 5. And when Jesus saw their faith. Now there. Who's the there? Like, man, if it was just the paralytic, Mark would have said that he saw his faith. But he's not talking about the paralytic here. Now maybe he's in there because he would have had to have faith in Jesus. After all, I mean his friends. They just shoved them on, shoved them through a roof, threw a little hole that they made. So this guy has to have faith. Like, I don't know about you. But I have four friends. And these are four really good friends. But I would never let those four friends carry me on top of roof and then let alone lower me down into something. And so we see that this paralytic, he has some faith. But it's not their faith. And this is such an incredible moment in Scripture that Jesus is teaching something extremely powerful that's often overlooked. Jesus, he noticed their faith. Jesus notices about something about these guys who are on that roof. I mean, these are some really good friends that this paralytic has. And that's, and there's not much as valuable as a good friend. Like I thought this was our high school before. But I always encourage our students. And I encourage even our adults. As you're going through life, make sure that you have four friends who are always going to carry you to Jesus. I mean, have four friends who are going to pick you up, who are going to kick you around, who are going to drag you. But man, you know that they're going to drag you to their cross and they're going to drag you to Jesus. Every single week, there's four guys here who I meet with. We have accountability. These guys, they get into my business. They ask me hard questions. They hold me accountable. They call me out on my stupidity. But they drag me to Jesus. My wife, Maddie, she loves them because she knows if I ever did anything stupid, I mean, those four guys, they would be at my house ready to kick my butt. Now these friendships, I want you to know these friendships, they're not easy to find. It can take some time. It can take some work. But those friendships are worth pursuing. But here's the question. Because I think it's really easy to sit here and to read the story and to think, man, I really want four friends like that. I really want four good friends like that. But my question for you is, are you a good friend to someone? Are you a good friend to someone? Like man, is there anyone in your life who would point to you and say, hey, they led me to Jesus? Like I know that they're going to come, they're going to pick me up and they're going to put me through that roof in order for me to be in front of Jesus. Are you carrying anyone to Jesus? And let me ask a deeper question. When's the last time you invited someone to church? Was it a week ago? Was it a month ago? Was it three months ago? When is the last time you invited someone to church? Do you feel that deep desperation in your soul to introduce them to Jesus? This is the driving force behind why as a church we've hoisted the sale. We're going to go fishing, we're all in, we're going to build bigger rooms, we're going to engage our community more, we're going to push our one more because we want to be a community that Jesus would look at and say that he saw their faith. A group of people who are obsessed with bringing people to Jesus that will tear off the roof, will build bigger rooms, will sacrifice, will put ourselves out there because we want people to meet Jesus. That's the desperation, that's the faith that Jesus loves. And then look at what happens next. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, he said, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now, I'm pretty sure the friends of this guy are probably a little bit disappointed if I'm being honest, right? I mean, come on, they literally just tore a roof and they're expecting a healing, but what does Jesus say? Jesus says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." They thought he was going to say, "Get up and walk." What Jesus says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." And these friends are probably like, "What?" And I think everyone's probably thinking, "Well, Jesus, that's not why they tore the roof." I mean, they didn't tear the roof to hear that. This guy's paralyzed. He wanted a miracle. He didn't want to sermon Jesus, but Jesus, he sees something deeper. Why does Jesus say this? Because he's communicating a massive message that's often missed and that message is this. Sin is our greatest disability. Jesus, he looks past the service, he looks at the heart, and he knows that this man's biggest problem isn't that his legs don't work, although that is a problem. It's that his heart is still bound by sin. And that's what Jesus, he came to fix. Because this man's physical paralysis is really a picture of all of us. See, you and I, we might not be lying on the mat, but every single one of us has been spiritually left paralyzed. You and I were stuck. We can't walk back to God. We can't make it back to him on our own. We can't try to clean ourselves up and try to get everything perfect in our lives. We can't do any of those things. And you might even say to me, "Well, then I'm a pretty good person." Like, you know, I give to charity. I donate to the local food bank here and there. Like, man, all that clothes that I don't want, salvation, army gets it. Then I'm a pretty charitable person. But, man, let's just go back to the Ten Commandments. What God gave Moses. And I'm not even going to name all Ten. Let's just ask you, have you ever lied, cheated, or stolen? Have you ever lied, cheated, or stolen? Well, man, the Bible says that you and I are wretched. The Bible says that you and I were sinners. There's nothing that you and I can do to make our way back to God. There's nothing that we can do. Well, that's the beauty of the gospel. That Jesus, He left heaven. He left this perfect throne and He came down for you and I so that we can be reconciled to the Father so that we can have a relationship with the Father. So there's the paralytic. I mean, this poor guy, he's dangling from the ceiling. And Jesus knows that this guy's paralyzed. He knows that this guy can't move. He knows that he can't work. He knows that he can't make a living. Jesus knows that this guy's completely dependent on the four friends who are up there. And yet Jesus says, "Son, your sins are forgiven. You got some big problems, but that's your biggest." And Jesus, He makes this awkward situation, I would say, even a little bit more awkward. Think at verse 6. Now some of the scribes they were sitting there and questioning in their hearts and they don't say this out loud. This is literally what they're thinking. They said, "Why does this man speak like that?" He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus perceiving in His Spirit that they thus question with them themselves. He said to them, "Why do you question these things in your heart?" This is a pretty wild scene because unfortunately, that still happens here a lot today. You know, you don't have realized being an industry and being a pastor. I've realized that it's never the people who are working hard to get their friends to Jesus that are complaining, critiquing, and negative. The people who are complaining are usually the people who are comfortable, they're focused on what they want and they're usually not getting what they want. Like rarely do they ever bring anyone to Jesus because they don't really see the church as a hospital, they see the church as a country club in need of their input and feedback. And that's kind of what's playing out here. And what I love about Jesus is that Jesus, he doesn't give into the critics. Most people would, but that's what's really going on here. Many people, they give into the critics and maybe that's true about your company, maybe that's true about your boss, right? When you have complainers or critics, most people, they'll cave to that because success to some people is not being complained about. But here, Jesus says, "Man, forget that." Like I'm not here for you. I'm here for this guy who's dangling above you, but all too often Christians we can do the opposite. We can cater to the critics. And we just think, man, if everyone's happy, if everyone can just get along, then everything's going to be fine, but I want you to know that that's impossible. That's not the mission. The mission is to empty hell. And if you do that right, you better believe that the enemy, he's not going to like that and you're going to be criticized. And so not only does Jesus not bend to his critics, but he actually comes back at them a bit and look at what he says. He says, "Which is easier? To say to this paralytic, your sins are forgiven or to say, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." I mean, Jesus, if we're being honest, that's a tough question, but it's a good question. Because in some ways, it's a lot easier for me to say, "Hey, your sins are forgiven." But a lot of you, you wouldn't even know if that worked. You wouldn't be able to tell. It's an invisible thing. I can say, "Hey, your sins are forgiven." And you wouldn't even know that it happened right here. So it's pretty easy to say, even to like this whole section, man, if I just pointed to you guys and if I said, "Hey, DJ, everyone sins are forgiven but yours." I'm just messing with him. But man, right? Like, you would feel that. You would feel that. But that's exactly what's going on here. On one hand, you can fake it, but on the other hand, you can't fake it. And so Jesus, he says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." But Jesus, he would go beyond that. He doesn't just tell this guy, "Hey, your sins are forgiven." He tells him, "Hey, pick up your mat and walk." And here Jesus does an invisible miracle. He forgives a guy for his sins. But then Jesus does something visible to prove the invisible. Look at verse 10. But then he says, "But that you may know, you little critics in the corner, that the son of man has the authority on earth to forgive sins." He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home." Then he rose and immediately picked up his bed and he went out before them. And so they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this." Can you imagine that moment? I mean, I want you to know, it's been decades. It's been decades that his mom she held him and she realized that her little boy was never going to walk. And for years and years, this guy, this paralyzed guy, he's watched kid run outside. He's watched kids run outside his window. He's watched his buddies go and find wives and get married. And then he's watched him go and find jobs to provide for their wives and have babies. And he could never do any of those things. He couldn't move. He couldn't work. And now he's living in the living room with this new skylight above him. And he's about to do something that his mom's been praying for for years. He stands up and he starts to take his first steps. And the only thing that's keeping him from walking better are the tears that are filling his eyes that he can barely see through. And in that moment, Jesus he sits there. And he says, "Yes, you can walk." But your greatest need, the most beautiful moment, wasn't him standing. It was him experiencing the forgiveness of sins. It was this man meeting Jesus. And those four friends, I'm pretty sure they're crying. They're high-fiving each other. They're hugging their buddy. Then it was the greatest day. The greatest thing that they did that day. No, the greatest thing that they did in their life that day wasn't helping their friend walk. It was helping their friend meet Jesus. And the same is still true of you and I. And that's been one of the coolest things about being in this church the last few years. It's like I've literally got to disciple guys in this congregation one on one that now I've seen their lives literally transformed. Like even in the next few months, man, you guys are going to see we have some unbelievable stories of what God has been doing in people's lives. And how can we go through life? How can we be followers of Jesus, man, and not be excited for what God is doing in people's hearts how he's changing their lives? This is so, so important. There's nothing more important that we can ever do than what we're doing right now. You know, initially the bridge, we typically have a three-point outline. Well, we're going to take things a different direction today. And we're going to have just one point. Before we hit that point, I want to ask you a question. And I want to ask you a question that's going to require some brutal honesty. A question I pray that sticks with you for years to come. And this might seem elementary at first, but I think if you do a deep inventory of your spiritual life, if you allow it, I think it can be so beneficial. A question for you is this. Which character are you in the story? We see there's five characters in the story, right? We see there's Jesus. There's the paralytic. There's the critics. There's the onlookers. You have the friends. And just to be fair to everyone, no one can be Jesus, right? No one can be Jesus. And so Jesus is off the table for all of us. But which one have you been? Because all four of these characters, I really believe that they're represented in our midst. And we have someone here like who, men, you're constantly, you're the friends. You're constantly bringing your one worse. Have you had people on your radar who you're focused, who you're loving, who you're bringing to Jesus? Typically not always, but I will say these are the newer believers in our church. Like, I love new believers because they're so excited about what Jesus has done in their life. They want to go and tell everyone what they've experienced. And so they invite so many new friends. Now some of you, you might be like those new friends. But some of you, some of you might be the critics. And I don't think we really have that many critics around here because we really don't mind chasing them off. But, man, maybe you become a little bit critical. And I've been there. I can be there. It's miserable. But maybe you're more concerned about your opinions, of your way of doing things. Ah, I could do that better. Meanwhile, there's literally people who are dying and going to hell. But there's not much thought that really goes to that reality. And then there's some of you who are on here, or maybe the onlookers, right? Or maybe you're the onlooker. You like the big crowd. You're sitting on the sideline. Like it's cool for you to see this paralytic come and see what God is doing in his life. You really like how inspiring his friends are that they would bring him to Jesus. But you're not sacrificing. You're not charged up. You're not fishing. You're just a non-looker. And so based out of these four characters, which one have you been? Or maybe you're the paralytic. Or maybe you're in here and you don't know Jesus yet. And this is the perfect place to be. But wherever you're at on this, what I want to encourage you is to join the desperate mission. Following Jesus is adopting his desperation and embracing his mission. Like, I want you to know that life is short. Hell is real. Hell is hot. And forever is a long time. And we find ourselves right now in a sliver of eternity. And there's nothing more important than this mission that God has put you and I on. And that's the thing. Like you and I, man, we can sit here and I have and we can look at the story and think it's so easy. Like, man, I just want to have those four friends. Or I want to be the hero of the story. Or I want to be that guy who's carrying the paralyzed friend on the mat. I want to be one of them. What the question is, are you? Like, are you really one of those people? Are you bringing people to Jesus? Like right now, we live in a wonderful time where people are paralyzed spiritually. Their conditions are worse than they ever been. Are you bringing those people to Jesus? Like I love that picture of carrying a physically paralyzed person to Jesus for healing. But man, Jesus says that that wasn't the worst thing about him. It was his sin. Do you have people in your life who you know are entangled in sin and yet you have him brought them to Jesus? Are you bringing the lost to Jesus? Man, this is why as a church we've hoisted the sale. And we said, God, whatever you want, wherever you want, we're going to sacrifice financially to give to you more than ever before in order to say that we're in. Like, let's go, man, we're going to tear off roofs. We're going to build more buildings. We're going to give more space. There's going to be more outreach. We're all in. Are you going to join the mission? I pray that this church never be a place that's filled with onlookers. That's filled with critics. May this place be filled with friends who have desperation stirred up in their hearts. May this place be filled with paralytics who've been brought in. And God promises that He's going to meet us in our messy place. He says, man, I'm going to meet you there. I may what God has called you to. May it be something that others look at here in this text. I may make them say that we've never seen anything like that. And we've never seen what God is doing in the Chicago land like that before. We've never seen what God is doing in the splans. We've never seen what God is doing at Porter's Park, what God is doing at Randhurst, what He's doing at North Shore. We've never seen God do anything like this before. And not because we're so great, but because we have a great person who called us to something greater than ourselves to be on this great commission, to be on this mission of introducing people to their Lord and Savior. And that leads to our soul, what? And what I want you to do right now is I just want you to bow your heads, close your eyes. But which character have you been in the story? Man, maybe for some of you, you're the paralytic. Maybe you got dragged in here today by some friends, by some family who really love and care for you. But you've never actually surrendered. You've never actually let Jesus forgive your sin. You've never laid down control. And maybe you walked in here today like the paralytic in Jesus, he's calling you to surrender. Maybe even right now for the first time in your life, he's calling you to surrender right now to his Lordship as Lord and Savior of your life. Maybe for others of us in here. Man, if we are honest, we've been critics. We've been critical. Maybe not loud with it. Maybe we've been quiet, but we're more concerned about our preferences than people. More concerned about our opinions than eternity. I've been there. It's miserable. And meanwhile, people are dying without Christ. And so man, if you've been a critic, he calls us to repent and join this mission day you are the He's called to son. For some of you in here, you're onlookers. You're onlookers, man, you like what God is doing. You like seeing the baptism. You like watching the stories. You like hearing the testimonies, but you're not in the game. You're not fishing. You're not sacrificing. You're not bringing. You're not observing. You're not doing anything. Every lastly for some of you, man, you've been that friend. And I want to encourage you to keep going. Like even right now, you've got names in your phone. You've got people on your heart. You're praying for you're inviting. You're bringing your one more. You're tearing off the roof off this place and you don't care what it costs. You just want people to meet Jesus. And I want to encourage you, don't stop. Jesus, he sees your faith and he loves it, lead the way. A follow-up question to you is, man, what needs to change? What needs to change? Now I want to give you some time just to talk to God. Let's take a moment and just talk to him and be honest with him. Say, God, what needs to change in my heart? What do I need to change? Where are you calling me to surrender? I want to give you some time and then our band, they're going to close here with a song. Let's take this time between you and God.