Sermon: The Messiah is God

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Praise God. If you would, open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew.

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Gospel according to Matthew chapter 9. As you guys get there, remember that through the inspiration of the

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Spirit of God, Matthew writes this gospel to tell a story, not a myth, not a story of a hero that is to come, but he tells you the story of what took place in time and in space on this soil, in this world that God has made.

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He tells you the story about the hero who has finally broken into history and accomplished our salvation, and he orders this story in such a way as to convince you, again through the inspiration of the

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Spirit of God, that Jesus is in fact Mashiach, that he is the Messiah, that he is

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God, that he brings salvation, that he's fulfilled all the promises, that he has all authority.

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Let me remind you of really the last thing that Matthew says. At the end of the gospel according to Matthew, Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20, it can really in some sense be the summary of the entire story.

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Remember that Jesus has accomplished salvation, he's died, he has come back to life again, he has walked among his people after being resurrected from the dead as promised in the

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Old Testament scriptures and even in his own promises. So he's accomplished everything and now he goes to take his rightful place on the throne of the universe, the throne over heaven and earth.

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Here's the words that can again be the summary of what Matthew is telling you all along.

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He starts in chapter one, he has authority, he has the royal right to the throne of David, that place, that position of authority over the world,

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Matthew chapter one. And the story moves towards that final answer of who has the authority, all authority.

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And Matthew's telling that story in bits and pieces. You're going to see that through Matthew 8 and 9 that that is what Matthew is getting at.

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And in Matthew 28, 18 through 20, again that summary, Jesus says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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Go therefore because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

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And he says lo I'm with you always even to the end of the age. And so that's really the summary, all authority.

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And that is what Matthew is going to be telling us here through the circumstances, through the actual historical narrative of what

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Jesus actually did and said. And so the text is Matthew chapter 9 verses 1 through 8.

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Matthew's account, just so you know, is the shortest of the synoptics. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell this story.

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And you're going to see all three of them today telling the story for more details from each one. Matthew's is the shortest.

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Gets to the point quickly. Hear now the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold,

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Matthew likes to do that. Look. Some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed.

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And when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, take heart my son your sins are forgiven.

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And behold some of the scribes said to themselves this man is blaspheming. But Jesus knowing their thoughts said, why do you think evil in your hearts?

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For which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say rise up and walk. But that you may know that the

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Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He then said to the paralytic, rise pick up your bed and go home.

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And he rose and went home. When the crowd saw this they were afraid and they glorified

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God who had given such authority to men. Thus far is the reading of God's holy word.

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Let's pray. Father thank you so much that you've given us your word. Lord I know that we all just take advantage of these blessings and these gifts that you've given to us.

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And in particular we take advantage of the fact that we know you. We're forgiven by you. We have salvation and we actually have your words, your message, your good news.

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We have it in our hands. Lord I know that we at times can be indifferent.

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We get jaded to these glorious truths. Lord we can be selfish at times. We can be prideful.

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We Lord sometimes are consumed by our circumstances and we forget to see just how glorious you are.

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Lord we miss so much of you because of a lack of faith.

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God please grant to us today faith, the ability to trust you.

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Lord let us see how unbelievably earth shattering this is right before us.

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I pray that people leave here and they forget me and remember you. I pray that I would decrease,

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Christ would increase. I pray that the words would be words from you God. In Jesus name, amen.

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So Matthew, Mark, and Luke we've talked about over the last couple of weeks are part of what we call a synoptic tradition.

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Synoptic means seeing together. So when you hear that word, that fancy word synoptic gospel, synoptic tradition, just know that synoptic means seeing together and it essentially means that you could line

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Matthew, Mark, and Luke up at certain points and you can have them telling the same story from their own vantage point.

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So the differences sometimes will just be in terms of what's highlighted. Sometimes Matthew doesn't feel the need to tell you the entire end of the story but Mark really wants you to know what happened to the guy.

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And so for example last week we talked about Matthew, Mark, and Luke and the account of the demonic possession.

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And Matthew only has one emphasis but Mark and Luke want to tell you what happened to the person who was freed from the demonic possession.

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He received Christ. He believed in Jesus. He experienced salvation. He was freed and so those those accounts want to tell you that.

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But Matthew, Mark, and Luke can be lined up side by side and you can see the stories from different angles.

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So Matthew 9, 1 through 8 is our starting point today but Mark 2, 2 through 12 is

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Mark's account of the same event. Luke 5, 17 through 26 is

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Luke's account of the same event. And we're going to be going in and out of those today so you want to go ahead and get your hands ready, your fingers ready, if you want to stick them in your

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Bibles if you still carry a Bible and they're not on your smartphone or whatever you have.

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Stick your fingers there in those because we're going to go back and forth through there. A quick recap, just a quick one.

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The authority of the Messiah is what's being highlighted by Matthew. So remember now where we've gone, right?

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Matthew starts, he explains to you that Jesus is the Messiah. He has a right to the throne. Matthew chapter 2, you immediately have the story on full display.

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What's the story? That Jesus is the King. He's the Messiah. He's going to bring salvation and the ends of the earth, the

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Psalms say, all the families of the earth will return and worship the

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Lord. Isaiah 2, all the nations streaming up to the mountain of God. Isaiah 9, a kingdom that never ends.

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There's an increase of his government and of peace. It'll never end. The zeal of the

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Lord of hosts will accomplish this. God's going to do this in the world. They knew the story. They knew that the promise to Abraham as the singular promise to focus on was that Abraham would have descendants as numerous as the stars.

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Not just Jews, Gentiles also. In Matthew chapter 2, Matthew puts that right in front of your face because he has the first people coming to the

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Messiah, pagans. The Christmas story, we're going to celebrate it like we're going to be fanatics about.

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I am. I am. In the next two months, right? The Christmas story, the birth of Jesus. We love that.

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You go to the mall, you go to like places where they're not Christian but they're still singing the songs about silent night.

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They're singing the songs about the Messiah. You know the story and so does the world. Joy to the world, the

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Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. Not let Jews receive their king but let earth receive their king.

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Jew and Gentile together and Matthew screams that at you. He's got the authority. Pagans are coming and they're like, where's the king of the

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Jews? We've come to worship him. And then you have Matthew moving that story along till finally he gets to the

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Sermon on the Mount and Jesus sits and begins to teach his people. He begins to bless them.

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The beatitudes are there. Blessed are you. Blessed are you. Blessed are you. And then the Sermon on the Mount is over now and Matthew moves now into what?

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The historical narrative. Jesus walking among us and what does it say is his practice?

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What is his method? It says that he's teaching in the synagogues. He's proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and he's healing all their sicknesses and diseases.

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But Matthew does something. He shows you the authority of Jesus. Not just his teaching authority, showing you this majestic sermon, the most popular sermon in the history of the world on the lips of Jesus.

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Doesn't matter who you are, what religion you are, this is the most downloaded sermon in history.

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The Sermon on the Mount. And he tells you about the authority of Jesus. First, Jesus going to heal a leper.

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Matthew chapter 8. And he moves through the leper and he shows the sick slave and he shows

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Peter's mom being healed of a fever. And so what's Matthew doing there? He's showing you Jesus' authority over our sicknesses and diseases and he says specifically, it was in fulfillment of Isaiah 53 that he's borne our illnesses and diseases.

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By his wounds we are healed. So Matthew shows you the authority of the

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Messiah over sickness and disease. Chapter 8 verses 1 through 17. Next he shows you the

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Messiah's authority over our lives in discipleship.

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Matthew 8, 18 through 22. And where do you see that? You see that very clearly in those calls of Jesus starting in Matthew chapter 8 where he says things to people like, foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man is nowhere lay his head.

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You sure you want to follow me? I'm homeless. Jesus does that, right? He guts you of your idolatry.

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He shows you your hypocrisy. He shows you just the shell of a person sometimes you are and I am.

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Because he actually goes for the heart. He goes for the jugular every time with every person he's talking to and he would do the same for you.

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If he were here speaking to you today in the flesh, he would go right after your gods. He would go right after your hypocrisy.

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He would show it to you and he'd call you to leave it to come to follow him. He doesn't let people come to him halfway.

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He doesn't let people be almost Christians. As a matter of fact, you know the story. I've said it so many times. When large crowds would follow

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Jesus, he would actually tell them to go away. In a sense, he would talk people out of following him.

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We don't do that anymore. We do everything we can to give people popcorn, bubble gum, and cotton candy to come to church.

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We do everything we can to make the experience something they'll enjoy so they stick around. We do everything we can not to confront and Jesus shows his authority over your lives and then he tells you to abandon everything to come to him.

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Your mom and your dad have to be less than me. You have to love them less than me.

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Your children, they have to come second to me. Your lives, your career, your money, your home, everything has to be secondary to me.

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No other gods before me. That's what Jesus gets at. So the authority of Jesus over our lives. Next, Matthew shows you the authority of Jesus over the physical world and now here's the thing.

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We know that there's more going on in that text of Jesus asleep on the boat than merely

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Jesus stilling the storm and telling the waters to calm down. We all know that.

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Every one of us can find ourselves in that story of Jesus on the boat. The disciples are there freaking out.

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Here's the Son of God, the Lord of glory, the Bible calls him. He's God himself asleep on a pillow on the boat and here's the disciples freaking out because of the waves.

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But it really happened. They were really on a boat. You can go to that place today. You can get on that water and the same kind of thing could happen to you.

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A storm could rage and you can get tossed back and forth and maybe lose your lives.

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It's a real place. You can touch it. You can smell the air. You can feel the dirt.

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You could splash around in the water. That's what Jesus is about. It's the real world.

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God touching the earth. It's not myths. It's not private revelation that exists in the mind of the person giving it only.

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This is Jesus in earth's history and when he came, he split it.

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But in that account, Matthew shows you the authority of Jesus over the physical elements. He's got it over sickness and disease.

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He's got it over our lives. He's got it over the world itself. He spins it. It says in Hebrews 1 that Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power and what that means is he carries everything along to its intended destination.

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It doesn't make any sense from a human perspective. Just think for a second about this.

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The more that we discover today in science, observation, not only does it confirm everything we know because of what the

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Bible says, but the more we discover, we discover how unbelievably small that we are and insignificant in a sense that we are.

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And here's the crazy thing. The deeper we go into the universe, great example, oh my goodness, this year we got asked to go to the

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Ark Encounter with Ken Ham. We got to go and do an interview. Some of you guys saw that on Apology at TV. We got to be there and walk through it while they're constructing it.

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We also got to go to the Creation Museum. If you ever get a chance to go, yes, it's worth it.

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You really should go to the Creation Museum. It's amazing. It seems like it's unending. It gets bigger and bigger the more you walk through.

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Where was all this outside? It's just huge. But they have this one thing where it's this, what do you call it?

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Is it a planetarium? Is that what you call it? Where it's this big like bubble you're in and you're lean back into the chairs and you're looking up and they have this film that you watch above you where it takes you from like earth all the way out to the deepest parts of the universe that we've been able to see.

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And at a certain point, I remember I got near the end of that, and I had this moment where I was kind of beside myself.

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I had a moment where I felt fear, awe, overcome.

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I had a moment where I almost had an out -of -body experience. Don't read too much into that. I mean in the sense that I discovered in that moment watching this how small

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I really am and how big God is, and it terrified me. I genuinely had a moment where I was terrified.

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And we look at that and we think about how ginormous this universe is. And listen,

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Jesus is right now holding up and controlling the largest sun in our entire universe.

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By the way, our sun is so small compared to the greatest suns in the universe.

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We haven't even begun to understand. And Jesus, He's hanging it together.

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Right now Saturn and its rings are hanging out doing what they're doing, looking amazing for Jesus because He's upholding it.

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And there are things in the universe right now that Jesus is guiding and directing that we will never ever see.

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And it sits there glorious and screaming the glory of Jesus Christ, and it's for Him.

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It's for Him to look at. It's for His glory. It's to shout how amazing He is, and He just spits it into existence.

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He says a word, and it goes into existence. And when He was on that boat on that pillow, here's a raging storm, and here's

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Jesus' disciples freaking out. Don't you care that we're perishing, Jesus? And Jesus rises up and speaks

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His authority over the waves. And what does He say? He says, Be still, and in a moment the waters hush.

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They have to. He commands them. He made them, and He speaks, and they obey.

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Jesus controls the storm. He shows His authority over the physical world.

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Next, Matthew chapter 8, 28 through 34. Matthew shows you Jesus' authority over demons, the evil spirits.

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Now this was something that was interesting because, listen, they got to see, and they felt like they can handle the stuff that Jesus had already done.

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He heals sickness and disease. He controls the physical world. They got to see it in front of them, but one of the things that was a fear for them is what they could not see.

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And what was that? Demons. They could see the manifestation of it in front of them in their time, because this was the time where Messiah was coming to bring

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His salvation. There was a fervor of demonic activity, and Jesus has control even over that.

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He says a word, and the demons flee. And did you notice in Matthew chapter 8, the demons immediately recognized

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Jesus. They knew who He was. They knew what He could do, and they knew where they were going.

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Have you come here to torment us before the time? They know that the final judgment is going to come, and that Jesus is the one who commands that judgment.

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And so they say, have you come here to torment us before the time? And then Jesus speaks, go, and they flee.

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He has full authority. And now Matthew 9. It's not an accident. It's not now a next part of the story in the sense of a change of the story.

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It's the same flow from Matthew, because now what do you see? Sickness and disease, our lives, the physical world, demons, and now

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Jesus has someone who's paralyzed, can't move. This is a time, by the way, don't don't forget, this is a time where they didn't have the medical advances that we have today, so they didn't know so much in terms of what's wrong.

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All they know is there's something wrong, and we can't control this. It's a part of our experience we cannot control.

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I can control my experience. I can build a business. I can try to make more money. I can try to do things in my life to change my destiny in a sense from my perspective, but the one thing

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I can't change, I can't change this sickness and disease, and I can't make my legs work again. I can't give myself vision again.

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I can't hear. I can't give that to my kids. I can't raise my little girl from the dead if she dies.

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I can't do any of these things. And now here's this paralyzed man, and the story ends with what

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Jesus is saying to him, my son, your sins are forgiven. I don't think that I get it.

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I have to confess that. I have a Bible. I read it as much as I possibly can, but I don't even think

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I handle it the way that I ought to. I think at times in my own sinfulness and my own finitude as a fallible creature,

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I think at times I get jaded to the fact that the words of God are sitting on my shelf. I get jaded to the fact that here's the story about God.

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These scientists today that are saying there are so many galaxies. We live in one.

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There are so many galaxies we can't even begin really to understand how big. We can't even understand the sheer size of our universe.

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It's so enormous, and they're trying to figure it out and look at it, and they're in awe of it, and I know the

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God who made it. And beyond that, I know the God who made it has given me

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His word, and I know this humble God who loved me so much that He gives me this story about this paralyzed man that He heals, and it tells me about His forgiveness.

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It tells me just how much He loves someone like me and you. This is

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God who spins creation. If He were to move out of the picture, all of it would collapse.

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And so here's, let's look at the setting. Come with me now. Matthew 9. Again, keep your fingers in Mark 2 and Luke 5.

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So the setting is this. Jesus has just finished now casting out the demons.

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Jesus is becoming a bit of a celebrity preacher. Think about it for a moment.

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No Twitter, no Facebook, right? No Instagram, no

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YouTube, no phones, no cell phones, no rotary phones, no walkie -talkies, no mass forms of communication.

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It's unbelievably difficult to get messages out, especially hundreds of miles away.

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And yet, Jesus now is healing people, teaching, preaching. He's doing all this, and His celebrity status is increasing.

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People know who He is. They want to get to Him. The Messiah is finally here. By the way, there were plenty of charlatan con artist

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Messiah in that time period. Josephus records it was happening all over the place, but now this seems legit.

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This guy isn't just talking a good game. Jesus is actually healing people. Do you see how Jesus healed this guy over here?

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Do you hear about Jesus taking away this person's death? Do you hear about this person over here?

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Jesus took away the fever. Jesus gave this guy legs. Word is getting out. Now people are saying, He's here?

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Where? Where's the Messiah? Imagine for a moment, you're waiting for the Messiah. You're waiting for God to put the world right again.

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You're waiting for God to bring salvation. And you hear that in town, five miles from you,

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He's at His house. Would you go? In a heartbeat, would you bring your kids?

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Would you bring your friends? Would you do everything you could to make sure you could show up? Would you look for people in your church who were sick?

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Who were paralyzed? Who couldn't use their legs? Would you bring to Jesus your addicted brother?

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Your addicted mom? Would you carry them to Jesus? That's what's happening.

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Word has gotten out by this point now. And now people know that Jesus has returned back to His home.

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Mark 2. Mark 2 .1. And when He returned to Capernaum, after some days, it was reported that He was at home.

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Matthew 9 .1. Mark 2 .1. There were huge crowds. Mark 2 .2. And many were gathered together so that there was no more room, not even at the door.

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Not even at the door. And He was preaching the Word to them. That's powerful.

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Think about it for a moment now. You've walked this long distance, and now you want to get to see Jesus. And all you know is

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He's in the house, and there's such a massive crowd that you can't even get into the door. Everybody wants a piece of Jesus.

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They're basically climbing over themselves just to see Him and just to hear Him preach.

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He was such an effective communicator. People would just sit down and listen to Him for hours. They just wanted to touch

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Him. There's an example in Scripture of a wives' tale, in a sense.

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When the Messiah comes, if you could just touch the end of His cloak, you'll be healed of any sickness.

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That was actually a rumor. It wasn't in the Bible. It was a rumor that was kicked around. And this woman with this blood disease actually does that.

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There's a large crowd, and she's just reaching through the crowd to get to the bottom of Jesus' coat to touch the edge of it.

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Because she heard a story that, if that's the Messiah, I'll be healed by touching it. And Jesus heals her because of her faith.

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And here's a sense, or this moment, where all these people are surrounding this home. They're filling the doorway.

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They're on top of each other in the house. Kids are crying and screaming. It's family -integrated. It's just loud.

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That's the circumstance that they're in right now. Jesus is hitting celebrity status now as a minister.

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He was teaching them God's Word, Mark 2. They bring a paralyzed man in, carried by four men.

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Now Matthew, Mark, and Luke are the synoptic gospels. Now, not all of them tell how many people were there, but there is an example of exactly how many men were there in Mark 2.

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Here, let's read it from Mark. Mark tells us how many were carrying the paralyzed man. In verse 3, and they came bringing to him a paralyzed man carried, watch, by four men.

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So Mark is the one that gives you the detail of four men. Now, let's think for a moment about this paralyzed man.

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It doesn't tell us specifically how he was paralyzed, but we know that they came carrying him on a bed.

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So here's what you know. It wasn't one arm. It wasn't something that we have today where you can get new legs and stuff to walk on.

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We have so many advances now in technology. It wasn't something he could roll out in a wheelchair.

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This was a guy who had to depend on people to carry him around. He had to just lay around on the ground.

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Can you imagine the bed sores? There's a person probably covered in them, covered in sores from laying on the ground all the time, dependent completely upon people to carry him from place to place.

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Four men carry this man to Jesus. Now most of us, maybe we look at paralyzed man and we think for a moment like, that's amazing, but I don't really understand that experience.

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Some of us do. Some of us have physical handicaps or we understand exactly what this man was going through.

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I remember once I was in Georgetown, Washington D .C.

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I just finished practicing karate. My karate studio was right off of M Street, popular street, and I went to Ben and Jerry's.

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It was wintertime. It was ice everywhere. It was a storm. It was not good conditions to be out.

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It was so cold. It was the kind of cold that cuts you into your bone. Our Canadian friends will understand that kind of cold.

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That kind of cold where it hurts to be outside. And I remember that it was so bitter and so cold we like rushed into this

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Ben and Jerry's not to get ice cream but to get coffee and tea because it was so cold.

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And I looked across the street and I remember, I'll never forget this, I looked across the street and I saw the street is empty.

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Nobody's on the road. Nobody's really driving because it is just treacherous conditions outside. And I look across the street and I see this man in a wheelchair bundled up with blankets and he has stuff covering his head.

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He's just sitting across the street with his back against a wall in a wheelchair just covered in blankets and I felt awful for the man.

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It was so cold I couldn't take it and here's this man by himself in a wheelchair across the street and whether he should not be outside him.

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So I remember that I felt bad for him and I bought a hot cup of tea for him and me and my friend went outside.

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We crossed the street and I walked up to this man. I'm kind of nervous and I walk up to him to give him this cup of tea.

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And I go to hand it to him. I said, hey sir God bless you. I wanted to give you something hot to drink. And then I realized as soon as I go to hand it to him, as my hand gets close to him, he looks up at me and I realized that he's not only physically paralyzed.

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He has no arms, no legs and I realized that he's also mentally handicapped.

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He's sitting out there by himself. I don't know what he's doing there and I felt so nervous.

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I go to hand to him this hot tea and he has no arms to take it and he can't really understand what

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I'm saying to him. He just looked up at me. He sort of mumbled something and smiled and so I was so nervous.

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I didn't know what to do. I was only 16 years old. I sat it on top of him, all of his blankets.

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I sat it on top of him and I was like God bless you and I go to walk away. Don't judge me.

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And I walk with my friend about 10 steps and I turn the corner and then I realized how's he going to drink that tea?

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And so I felt awful and immediately turned back around and I go to walk and then he's gone. When I say gone,

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I mean gone. Vanished. There's not a store open on that side. I can see all the way down the street for at least a mile and a half.

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This guy is gone. There was nobody with him. He's gone. I'm telling you that story because to this day it still perplexes me.

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I don't really understand what happened to the guy but it was a moment in my own life when

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I thought about the healing ministry of Jesus and here's this man. The most I can do for him is give him a hot cup of tea and I'm so out of control.

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I walked away and I thought to myself he can't drink it. I'm out of control. I can't help him. The most I can do is maybe feed him that drink and here's a situation in a

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New Testament where Jesus is taking these paralyzed people and he's giving them legs again and sending them home.

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He's got that kind of power. That's the Messiah that you worship. That's the God you serve. Where we are powerless.

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Where we have no answers. Where we can do nothing to help somebody. Jesus can give somebody their eyes back.

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Their hearing back. He can give people their legs back but he can do something greater. He can forgive them of their sins and that's their greater need.

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It's more important than their legs. It's more important than their eyes and their hearing. It's the forgiveness of their sins.

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Paralyzed people are people who need our love but there's only so much that we can do.

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Jesus is the one, the only one who can actually do for them what none of us can and that's give them back their legs.

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Now something I want to point out here is they refused to let embarrassment control them.

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They knew what Jesus was capable of. Think about it for a moment.

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People are everywhere. Jesus is busy. He's busy preaching. He's in the middle of his ministry.

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He's sort of untouchable in a sense because there's so many people that want to get at him and here's these guys taking their friend that they love obviously carrying him on his bed and they come to this house to just make sure that Jesus can heal him.

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And think for a moment about how you and I respond to Jesus. Do you ever think that Jesus is too busy for you?

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Be honest with yourself. You ever think that Jesus is too busy to care about you? He's busy spinning

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Saturn and Jupiter. He's still busy looking at Pluto which is still a planet.

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He's still hanging that all together. He's still got us in our orbit around the sun. He's doing that and then he's got all the world to deal with.

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He's got people living, people dying, people being born. He's got people who are hurting right now, people who are rejoicing right now.

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He's got amazing little creatures in the bottom of the ocean floor that none of us have even seen yet that are entertaining him, that are bringing him glory.

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He's so busy and oftentimes you and I in the midst of our most broken places where we feel like God is the most far away, absentee landlord, we feel like we can't approach him because he's too far away.

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He's too busy. He's too busy being God. He's too busy ministering to somebody that's more hurt than me.

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He's too busy rejoicing with those who are before him. Something's keeping me away from Jesus and here's these guys with a broken and hurting friends.

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They don't care that Jesus is in the middle of a message. They don't care that Jesus is surrounded by so many people and they can't get through the door.

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They try to figure out ways around the situation. I know he's busy. I know he's giving a message.

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I know he doesn't know me personally, hasn't met me, but I know that if this guy touches my friend, he'll be healed.

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And so what do they do? They trust him. They believe he's the one. Think about how, listen, think about how simple that faith is.

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We oftentimes as Christians, especially as Reformed folks, we like to get our theological T's crossed and our

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I's dotted and we should because theology what? Matters. It does matter.

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What you believe about God affects how you live for the glory of God. It matters a lot, but stop and think for a second.

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Sometimes we break down faith and we break down theology so much that we blow it so far out of proportion in terms of what it takes to come to God in faith that we forget these moments where these guys only heard about Jesus and they knew the story of him being the

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Messiah. They knew he could heal and so what did they do? They believed he was who he says he was.

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They believed that he could heal their friends and what did they do? They actually climbed to the top of this house and they start pulling tiles away.

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They're vandals. They start breaking apart this person's house to crawl down into the house to drop their friend before Jesus.

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I want you to see it. Go to Luke because you got to read it to really get how amazing this is. Luke chapter 5 verses 18 through 19.

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Here's what the text says, And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus.

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But finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and led him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.

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Surprise! Right? Jesus is in the middle of teaching, right? People are there.

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They're in awe of what's happening in front of them. People are everywhere. Kids are strewn across the floor, eating crumbs off the floor, coloring, you know, everything else.

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And now Jesus sees someone being lowered right in front of Jesus.

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They didn't care that he was busy. They didn't think he was too busy for them.

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They thought their problem was important enough for Jesus to look into.

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And listen, what else? They knew that if Jesus could touch this man, he would be healed.

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Their faith was so small, so basic, so childlike. It wasn't spectacular.

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There was nothing about them in terms of, like, being theologically in the know. They really understand all these texts and all the

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Bible. All they knew is that's the Messiah. He can heal them. Let's get to him. And when Jesus, listen, it says, sees their faith, he responds.

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Now, the story isn't about you, and it ain't about me, but it is about him.

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And what can we learn from him? What can you learn from Jesus in this moment, in this story? What can you learn? Is this childlike faith and dependence upon Jesus, is something that Jesus responds to?

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He doesn't turn them away. He doesn't get upset like a mean dad or like a father who is impatient with his kids.

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Do you ever do that? Do you ever think about God? Do you ever think about Jesus like you thought about your awful dad?

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Your dad who couldn't be trusted maybe at times? Maybe you had a good dad. Some of us didn't.

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A dad who couldn't be trusted, a dad who was bothered by you, a dad whom you felt like you were interrupting most of the time.

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You ever start to project that upon Jesus? You ever start to think about Jesus like your dad?

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He's bothered by you. He forgives you because he's God, but he's still kind of mad at you.

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He doesn't really want you around him. And here's this moment where they say, I don't care. They're climbing on top of people's heads, getting on top of the roof, lowering a friend down, and Jesus sees it.

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He doesn't get upset like you interrupted my message. He doesn't get upset to say you're bothering me.

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I'm tired. Jesus sees their faith in him knowing what he could do, and he sees it and he blesses.

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How do you relate to Jesus? I'm serious. I want to ask you. Stop the story for a second, and I want you to ask yourself.

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This is response. This is worship response right now. How do you see Jesus? Do you see him as austere and far away and sort of not caring, or do you see him as Jesus who responds to your faith in him with joy?

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Do you see Jesus as leaping at your faith to bless it?

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Do you see Jesus as responding to your calls for help? Because if you don't, if you see

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Jesus as far away and bothered by you, if you see Jesus as not reaching out to your extended hand, then you see a

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Jesus that is an idol. It is a false god, because this Jesus, the real one, is the kind that actually looks up at your faith and points to it and then blesses.

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That's who he is, and listen, they didn't know much about him. They didn't read

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Calvin's Institutes about Jesus. All they knew is this is the Messiah.

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He can heal, and I'm going to step on your face to get my friend in. That's right.

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So listen, look what it says in Matthew 9 -2. Matthew 9 -2.

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I love this. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed, and when

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Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son. Your sins are forgiven.

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When he saw their faith, he said, Take heart, my son.

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Your sins are forgiven. I thought we were just coming to get legs back.

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You know what I mean? That's what they thought. They thought, he's paralyzed. He needs his legs.

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Can you please help him, Jesus? And then what Jesus does is he points to the deeper need. What you and I see on the external, on the outside, is

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I need eyesight. I need healing from my sickness. I need healing from my addiction. I need my family to start working in.

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And then what Jesus does, when you come to him and you cast your faith on him, he immediately receives you.

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He points to your faith, and he says, Your sins are forgiven. He always goes for the deeper need.

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What you think is a need for legs, Jesus says, that's a need for your sins to be forgiven. What you really need is your sins to be forgiven.

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What you and I think is a need for healing from leprosy is Jesus saying, you need to be healed from your uncleanness.

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Jesus goes right for the heart of what's wrong. What you and I think is this great big problem here,

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Jesus says, no, no, no, no. That's the easy problem. That's the easy problem. The bigger problem is your sins against God, your need for reconciliation.

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And when they come in, Jesus sees it, and he says, take heart. Your sins are forgiven.

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And what do they offer? They didn't pay them. So many of these charlatan, con artist, religious pretenders, they go, oh,

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I'll forgive you, or I'll give you healing, my healing ministry. You'll get your healing ministry.

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See, look what all the special things I can do. Now, ready? Cough it up. Cough it up.

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How much do you have to pay me? How much can you give me? Right? Jesus shows only concern for his great need.

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Your sins are forgiven in that moment. Now, watch. Their response, their response, believe in Jesus.

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Jesus points to it. My son, take heart. Your sins are forgiven. What did he see? He saw faith.

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The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God. What can you give the king of the universe?

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What can you do to impress him? What can you pay him back? What can you do to bribe him?

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Not a thing. What can you do to fill God's heart with something that he doesn't have?

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What can you do to give God that he doesn't already own himself? What God requires of you and me is faith, trust.

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And you might say, well, how much? I don't know what I'm capable of. I'm not very good at it. I blow it every day.

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I'm not a good father. I'm not a good wife. I'm not a good, I'm not a good husband. I blow it in every possible vocation.

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I blow it. How much faith does it take? Because I want to give it. It's the kind of faith that says,

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I know who he is. I know what he can do. I believe he can do it. That's all they had.

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Simple, childlike faith. That's it. Speaking of faith,

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I want you to see what the Bible says about faith. Instead of my own explanation, keep your fingers there, but go to Hebrews chapter 11.

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This is the famous passage. If you haven't read it yet, you need to read it. It's the faith hall of fame.

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I want to read it to you. Hebrews chapter 11. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

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Let me say it again. That's the Bible's definition of faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

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I know it's true. I'm assured that it's coming.

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For by it, the people of God received their commendation. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the

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Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith,

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Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous,

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God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

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By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him.

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Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

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There, that moment is amazing. You must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

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What do you think those guys who carried a paralyzed man thought when they dropped him before Jesus?

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They knew who he was, and they believed that he was a rewarder of those who sought him.

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And they believed. Now watch. Verse 7. By faith,

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Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

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By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. By faith,

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Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

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And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

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For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is

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God. The story goes, we can keep going and going and going. What's the point?

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Everybody in the Bible that's a hero is not different than you.

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They're called by a great God to do big things and they don't have the capabilities in themselves to do it.

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Every one of your heroes, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, name them,

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David, go down the hall of fame and every single one of them called by God to do giant things that they were incapable of doing on their own.

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And they were called by God to do what? To simply trust him, just believe him. What do you cast into this relationship with God?

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Your faith. You can't buy him off. You can't give him something that he doesn't have.

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And so he calls you to come to him in childlike dependence, believing that he exists and he rewards those who seek him.

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Abraham, you're gonna have a son. How's it possible? She's an old chick. Plumbing, not so good.

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Right? Sarah, same thing. She's like, it's so funny to her that God would say he's gonna give her a son, she'd laugh.

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And God says, why did you laugh? She's like, I didn't. Let's try not to argue with God.

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All these stories, right? Noah, build an ark. I'm gonna destroy the world. Build the ark.

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I'm gonna look like an idiot. Build the ark because the flood is coming.

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And what does he do? He says, yes God. And he builds. Abraham, I'm gonna give you the whole world.

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Your descendants are gonna own the entire world. Abraham has no son. His name is

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Abram. God changed it to Abraham, meaning father of many. Can you imagine for a moment,

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I told you this before, Abram to Abraham. Abraham means father of many. At the time,

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Abraham's basically the father of none. Can you imagine when he goes back home to the tents and to the friends, they're having dinner, he's like, guys,

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I know I'm kind of old now, but I decided to go through a name change. God told me, Abraham, father of many.

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They're like, where's your kids, dude? That's kind of a stupid name for you. Shouldn't it be father of none, right?

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And what's Abraham do? My name is Abraham now, father of many. My descendants are gonna get the whole world.

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Yeah, right. How about Abraham bringing his son

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Isaac up on the altar? It's talked about in Hebrews 11. Abraham, take your son, the son of your love, that son that I'm gonna bless the whole world through.

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Yeah, Messiah is coming through him. This son, take him over to this place, three days journey. I want you to go there and, you know, no big deal, offer him as a sacrifice to me.

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And so he takes him to this place, three -day journey, puts the wood on his son, the son of his love, his only son, carries it to the place, and his son says, well, look, the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for the sacrifice, father?

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And Abraham says what? He says, God will provide for himself the lamb, my son.

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And then he goes to slay his son, and the angel of the Lord, which is Jesus, by the way, shows up to that mountain, and he says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is

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Jeff Durbin translation, okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, do no harm to him.

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And then what happens, there's a ram caught in a thicket, not a lamb, and they slay that ram, and Abraham says, this is the place the

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Lord will provide it. And 2 ,000 years later, the son of God's love, God's only son, carried the wood to the place, exactly that mountain for the sacrifice, the lamb of God, provided by God.

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And what did he have, Abraham? Only the foresight to know that God says he's going to do this thing, and I guess

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I believe him. Faith. That's what these men have, simple, childlike dependence upon Jesus.

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It's the kind of faith that you and I need to recognize. Hang on, please, stop for a second.

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As grand as these things are, like, was God calling him to build an ark? No. Is he calling me to slay my son?

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Don't you dare, okay. Is he calling me to this ginormous, I don't know, I don't know, but I do know this, the simple, childlike faith that God is calling you to right now is

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John 5 24, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my voice and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.

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That's the faith. That's the childlike dependence. That's the reward, eternal life.

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Okay, quickly now. Who were they? Who are these guys now that start getting ticked to Jesus? I want you to see it now in Luke 5.

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Go to Luke 5. I think it's the better explanation of all of them in terms of who were these guys.

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Luke 5 17. Look, it says, on one of those days, as he was teaching,

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Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.

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These guys came from all over. Here are legal religious experts.

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Listen, these are the respected leaders of religion, of Judaism, put it that way, the

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Jewish faith in the first century. They come from all over. It's not just the regular people who are hearing about the

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Messiah. These religious leaders who actually were threatened, felt threatened by Jesus, they show up now and they're there too.

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It's not just crowds. The everyday person. It was the religious leaders.

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They show up from all over. He was a celebrity preacher at that moment.

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Now it says, watch here, in Mark 2 6 through 7. Mark 2 6 through 7.

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It says that they started thinking something. Mark 2 6 through 7.

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Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts. Where? In their hearts.

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Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?

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Who can forgive sins but God alone? First thing, when they say he's blaspheming, blaspheming is essentially slandering.

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So they're saying he's slandering God when he says that he can forgive sins. Do you know how audacious that is?

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What if you did that right now? You and I had a conversation together and while you're talking to me about your problems in life and everything that's going on, what if I said to you,

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I forgive you. What if I said that to you?

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Oh my gosh, fire me. What slander. If I was to say to you,

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I forgive your sins. All your sins are forgiven you. Find another pastor.

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But Jesus does it and means it. They said in their hearts.

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They're murmuring in their own hearts. They're thinking to themselves, this guy is slandering.

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He's blaspheming. This can't be real. He just said your sins are forgiven. Only God can do that.

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Now I'm going to say right off the bat, they were absolutely right. If he's not

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God, it is blasphemy. If he's not God, he can't forgive any sins.

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Embrace that. They were right. Their theology was actually exactly right.

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Only God can forgive sins and if somebody says they can do it, they're blaspheming

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God. They were right. Only problem is that they were wrong about who Jesus was. They were wrong about who was sitting in front of them.

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Let me go to a text to show you. Go to Isaiah 43. I want you to see it with your own eyes to understand why they responded the way they did.

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Isaiah chapter 43 verse 25. This is what was going on in their minds when they heard

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Jesus say your sins are forgiven. Isaiah 43 25. I. I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins.

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Who's speaking? Yahweh. He repeats it. I. I. I'm the one and I do it for my own sake.

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I forgive you for me. Another one.

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Isaiah 44. One page over. Verse 22. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like a mist.

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Return to me for I have redeemed you. This is God speaking about forgiveness.

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Now they were right theologically about the fact that only God can forgive sins. They were wrong about who

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Jesus was. They forgot Isaiah 53. That he'd be numbered among the transgressors.

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That he would be crushed for their iniquities. A chastening for our well -being would fall upon him and by his wounds would be healed.

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They forgot that it said that he'd be crushed. That the Lord was pleased to crush him putting him to grief.

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They forgot that the Messiah was going to bring salvation. What's it say? He would justify the many as he would bear their iniquities.

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Isaiah 53. They forgot the Messiah's vocation. His role was forgiveness. Now watch this.

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Isaiah 9. We've done this so many times so I won't belabor the point today. Isaiah 9.

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6 through 7. It says that he'll be called wonderful counselor which means what?

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What's that? The mighty God. The father of eternity. God himself was coming as a man.

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You shall call his name Emmanuel which means what? God with us. God was coming to redeem his people.

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What did they do before Jesus? They fell before him. They worshiped Jesus. Thomas after the resurrection doesn't believe for a moment what the women are saying.

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They're telling tales out of the schoolyard. I'm not going to believe unless I put my finger into it. And Jesus shows up and what's

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Thomas do? He says the Lord of me and the

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God of me. That's what he says about Jesus. Revelation chapters 4 and 5. The throne room scene.

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You have the father and the son being worshiped by the people of God. Honor, blessing, glory.

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Proskuneo is the word. They're bowing before Jesus and worshiping him. He's God.

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He takes the prerogatives that only belong to God. Remember that when someone tells you that Jesus Christ isn't the eternal

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God. If he's not eternal God he can't forgive sins. If he's not eternal

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God then it is blasphemy for him to say your sins are forgiven. Remember that.

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Notice how Jesus responds to people who actually say that he's not

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God and he can't forgive sins. I want you to see what he thinks about that. Go to Matthew 9 verse 4.

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What does Jesus think? How does he respond to people who don't believe that he's

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God and that he can't forgive sins? Matthew 9 verse 4. But Jesus knowing their thoughts said, why do you think evil in your hearts?

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What does Jesus think about the allegation that he's not

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God and cannot forgive sins? He says it is what?

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Evil. He says, watch this, by the way, don't you love it? They're thinking it in their hearts and Jesus knows their thoughts and he says, why are you thinking evil in your hearts?

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First of all, admit it, that's kind of creepy. Can you imagine how the disciples would have felt after a couple of those moments where Jesus is like reading people's thoughts?

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Can you imagine like being around the campfire with Jesus eating and probably like, or you have moments where you're walking with Jesus and you look over and you go, sorry, right?

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I mean that's amazing. He searches their thoughts but notice he says, why are you thinking this evil in your hearts?

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Why? When Muslims say that Jesus isn't

01:00:05

God and that you do not need him for your salvation, God calls that evil.

01:00:11

When liberal theologians deny that Jesus Christ is in fact Yahweh in the flesh and we need him for salvation and forgiveness.

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Know this, brothers and sisters, it is a wicked thought to have in your minds and God knows that it's there.

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Jesus says in John chapter 8, he says this, listen, he says, unless you believe that ego eimi,

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I am, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. Our sins, them being washed away and forgiven is connected very, very intimately with who

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Jesus is and what we think about him. And when someone denies that he's God and that he's necessary for salvation,

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Jesus says, evil thought. It's a powerful moment but watch, only

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God searches the hearts. You need to see that. First Chronicles 28 .9, we'll just do one passage here.

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First Chronicles 28 .9, the fact that Matthew is giving you these details means

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Matthew is telling you who Jesus is. First Chronicles 28 .9,

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and you Solomon, my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind.

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For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.

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If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

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Brothers and sisters, when Matthew introduces that Jesus knows their thoughts, can search their thoughts and hearts, know that Matthew is telling you a story about who walked among us.

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He searches the hearts. Another text you can record for your own notes, Revelation 2 .23,

01:02:08

Psalm 139 .1, only God searches the hearts in this way. Now what can you know about this?

01:02:17

Pause. This is so what? This is so what? This isn't just the text. So what?

01:02:22

Number one, you can have confidence that he knows your heart.

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Number one, confidence for the believer. You ever wondered?

01:02:35

Pause for a second, this is big. Especially our culture with this fictitious message that if you pray a magic prayer, you're saved.

01:02:46

First and foremost, you're saved the moment you trust in Christ, but it ain't a magic prayer.

01:02:53

And just because you were on your grandpappy's lap when you were four years old and he scared you about hell and you repeated his words, if you had that experience before, maybe it was legitimate, praise

01:03:07

God if it was, but listen, if you're hanging your salvation on the fact that you recited a magic prayer, that's not salvation.

01:03:14

But genuine faith, you can have confidence because God knows your hearts. If you were worried like, did I say it right?

01:03:20

Did I use the right words? My wife will tell you, she was raised in that experience, in that background.

01:03:25

She prayed that prayer 15 ,000 times because she was worried that she didn't pray it right. Did I say the words right?

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Did I put the sentence in the right order? I had those experiences. Did I say the right words?

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Did he really hear me? Did he really know that I believe? If you've ever had those thoughts and fears about whether God truly knows your faith and has received you, you need to know that this is the

01:03:49

God who searches the heart and the mind. He knows your faith. He actually gave it to you.

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Philippians 129, Ephesians 2, 8 through 9. He gave it to you. He granted it to you.

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But if you've ever worried, does he really know my love for him, my affection for him? Does he really know that I trust him and all

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I want is him? You can rest assured, this is the God who searches the heart and the minds.

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He knows your affections for him. You can have confidence. He knows all about you.

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And when he sees people come to him in faith, he responds. Your sins are forgiven. There's another way you need to look at this.

01:04:31

Call this point B on this. Jesus searching the hearts and the minds is that he also knows which of you is faking.

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In a room like this, in a room this size, it is undeniably the case that there are people in this room that fall into the category that Jesus describes in Matthew chapter 7 when he says, there are some who hear my word and they build on sand.

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Some build on the rock, they dig deep, they build a foundation, they build there, and there are some who just build on sand.

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There are some in this room who hear the word and they build on sand. And Jesus says the end of that is desolation.

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So the fact that you know Jesus knows your thoughts is confidence for those who truly believe and it's also condemnation for those who are faking.

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Which means this. Abandon it. Abandon the hypocrisy. Abandon the faking being a

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Christian. He knows your thoughts. You're not fooling him. Jesus isn't buying it.

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He actually tells people, don't come. Don't come. Don't pretend. It's better that you don't pretend.

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Which means it's acceptable to be here today to realize you're faking it and to turn to Christ and receive life now.

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Forgiveness. Peace. Because you need him and he responds to your faith. But it also means this.

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If I'm giving the same gospel as Jesus, it means that I have to tell you that if you're faking,

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Jesus knows your thoughts. Stop pretending. Don't come back next Sunday. Not for good, please.

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Not for good. Come to Christ. Receive life. But you can stop pretending because he searches your heart.

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He knows who you are. He knows the dark parts of your life. He knows what you hide. He knows what you're keeping from him.

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He knows about your resistance. He knows about your thoughts 30 seconds ago and last night.

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He knows about your childlike faith if you know him and he's already forgiven your sins and he knows about your lack of true faith if you've been pretending this whole time.

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And maybe you say to yourself, you know what? You know what? I don't feel like Jesus has ever even met me and I certainly don't feel like I met him.

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You know what? I don't feel like I've ever experienced his love. I'd never experienced what my parents say they feel in Jesus.

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I've never experienced what my friends said they felt in Jesus. I never felt any of that. Can I plead with you to think and consider the fact that maybe you never trusted him to begin with.

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It's not that Jesus didn't work for you or you just can't get it right. Maybe, and maybe this is

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God searching your heart right now, maybe you never really saw who he was, knew who you were and you've never ever repented and believed.

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You've never even been that person that came to him with broken legs to receive legs again.

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You've never come to him to actually receive life. It's all been external. It's been a church culture.

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It's been mom and dad. It's been a friend. It's never been you actually coming to Jesus because you actually need him and maybe you never knew your deepest need.

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You thought it was like more friends, a better career, more stuff. Maybe you thought it was like a bright and beautiful future and maybe you didn't realize that it wasn't so much the external things you really needed.

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It was the fact that you needed to be forgiven. You needed to hear from Jesus, your sins are forgiven.

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That was your deeper need all along and Jesus searches the heart and he's the kind of person, he's the

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God that actually responds to your faith when you come to him like a child. That's who he is.

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Now this is the last point I'll make. I love this. Oh my goodness,

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I love it and it took me forever to get it. I must be, I don't know, maybe I'm really mellow headed and maybe you guys all understood at the moment you read it but I didn't.

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It took me a while to get but when I got it, oh it was good. This is what Jesus does to these religious leaders who are thinking these evil thoughts within them.

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He searches their hearts, he tells them what they're thinking and he says this, which is easier? Which one's easier?

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Guys, help me out. Which one's easier? Your sins are forgiven or take up your bed and walk?

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Which one's easier? Now you know what they knew? Watch. If I said to you right now your sins are forgiven, you know what's crazy about that?

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Is it's actually the hardest thing to do because it's the forgiveness of sins and that's between you and God but you know what it is?

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It's actually very easy because you can't see it being done. So like watch this.

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When he says your sins are forgiven, you know what they were probably thinking? Whoa. Whoa. First of all, slander sinner.

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Calling yourself God, saying you forgive sins but whoa. Right? So spectacular.

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Your sins are... You gave us invisible magic trick that no one really can see. Right? Your sins are forgiven but how do we know?

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Right? Oh spectacular Jesus. What a wonderful display of your powers. Right?

01:10:00

But watch. They thought giving this guy his legs back is the harder thing.

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For me to know that you're legit, that's the bigger deal. You're invisible like waving of the hand.

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Your sins are forgiven. It's not really so spectacular but actually think about it. The harder thing is the forgiveness of sins for God.

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Right? In terms of what has to take place. The easy thing giving this guy his legs back.

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So Jesus does what? He says which is easier? Sins are forgiven or take up your bed and walk?

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And they're probably like... And so what's

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Jesus do? He says so that you know the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He says to the guy. He says take up your bed and walk.

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And the guy takes up his bed, stands up. Can you imagine that moment?

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They were probably like why? Because you know what that was saying?

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I said your sins are forgiven. You don't believe me so I'll show you I can do the easier thing for me.

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Take up your bed and walk. They couldn't have done any of that. And now here's this paralyzed guy getting his legs back which shows what?

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This is God. He can forgive sins and they were all in awe.

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And it says this. They were seized with amazement. They were pin drop.

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Pin drop amazement, fear, awe.

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Because you see every little sign that Jesus did. I told you stop seeing Jesus and his miracles like wonder working.

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He's not David Blaine. He's not Chris Angel. He's not doing tricks.

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He's not doing it so that you go whoa how amazing. You control the laws of physics. Jesus is doing all of these miracles because they're redemptive in nature and they're pointing to the reality of who he is.

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He gave the guy his legs back because he needed forgiveness of sins but he gave the guy his legs back because he was proving who he was and that he had authority on earth to forgive sins.

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That's why he gave his legs back so that you would know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

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Why does he give sight to blind people? Because it tells a story about every one of us.

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We're all blind and we need to see. Why does he give ears to deaf people? Did you ever hear Jesus say to a crowd of people or see him say?

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Well I love it. He says to crowds of people. Weird. Kind of weird. He says whoever has ears to hear let him hear.

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What was it like a crowd of people with like no ears on their head? They're just like just walking around like like they can't you know there's like this skin covered.

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Weird right? What does that mean? Whoever has ears to hear let him hear because there are people in that crowd that God has prepared to hear the message and he is allowing them to hear the message and Jesus is talking to them and not the other ones.

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Whoever has ears to hear hear what I'm saying. Jesus gives a little girl her life back because it's showing that he has the power to raise the dead and he will one day.

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Every redemptive miracle Jesus did was telling a story of who he was and this one was spectacular.

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You want to know if I have the power to forgive sins? I'll show you that it was real what I just did. Take up your bed and walk.

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The guy gets up and walks. No one can do that. No doctor can wave his hand and say a word and heal a person like that and Jesus does.

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What's the point? Finally this is it. Guys the most important thing is not your career, your home, your car.

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It's not in your plans for the future. It's not in you having better health. The most important thing is your sins being forgiven.

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That's the point of the story. What the man needed was his sins forgiven. Jesus actually took care of both.

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Your sins are forgiven and here's your legs back but the greater need for every one of us is our sins forgiven because the greatest problem that we have each and every one of us, listen, the greatest problem that you have is

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God and when I say the greatest problem I mean this. If you are not in Christ you are not a child of God.

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You're not a friend of God. You're an enemy of God and I know that you think well

01:14:30

I just heard this great story about the love of Jesus and this amazing beautiful Jesus but I have to tell you the reason why he came was to forgive sins.

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Sins don't put us in a place where we're kind of sick. They don't put us into a relationship with God where we're just not really okay.

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We're hostile. Romans 1. Enemies of God. Hostile to God. Ephesians 2.

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Children of wrath. Romans 5. Helpless. Sinners.

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Ungodly. That's our condition. See the beautiful thing about Jesus.

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Watch. Last thing. So glorious. Think about it. Every person who had their legs given back, they died.

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Every person who ever saw again because Jesus touched them, they died. Everyone that Jesus ever raised from the dead, they ended up dying again.

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All that stuff, temporary fix. Do you know what was lasting out of everything that Jesus did?

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Like truly lasting, truly significant, eternal lasting when he forgave their sins.

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That was unending, eternal, bliss, joy, hope.

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Your sins are forgiven. You don't need Jesus to give you legs. You don't need him to give you your ears back.

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You don't need him to cure your cancer as the primary thing. You need him to give you salvation.

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That's what he's about. Do you know him? Jesus died and rose again.

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Do you know him? Are you forgiven? Have you come to him in that faith?

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Have you? Listen. It doesn't matter that you come every

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Sunday and you sit here in these chairs. That doesn't get you closer to God. It doesn't matter that you read all these books on theology.

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It doesn't matter that you're showing up, that you're serving ultimately in terms of what's eternal and lasting and necessary.

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Here's what matters. Have you reached out to Jesus in faith? Have you come to him believing who he is and that he rewards those who diligently seek him?

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Do you know who he is? Have you cast yourself on him? Have you come to him saying,

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God, my legs are not working. God, I can't see you. God, my heart is broken. God, I'm not working.

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God, I'm broken. Have you come to him and said, help? Do you believe that he's going to receive you or turn you away?

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Because he's the kind of God that when people break the roof to get in front of him, he responds with joy and he blesses them.

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Come to him for life. Let's pray. Father, bless what went out today, please.

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Put into the hearts and minds of your people to encourage them, to equip them, and please,

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God, in this very moment, challenge those in this room and those who hear this message over their sin.

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Please show them their deepest need is Jesus, and please grant repentance and faith toward him.

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Amen. All right, we're going to go to the table now.