The Cure We Need Most

You are listening to the sermon podcast from Rocky Creek Church. Find more resources online at Rocky Creek dot church. I thought you would turn with me on my favorite passage of scripture. We're going to be in Luke chapter 5, looking at verses 17 through 26.

As we were going on the 15th sermon in our series through Luke, we're going to be talking about the cure that we need most. In 2018, sometime in the middle of the night, there was an individual who stole or Mercedes Benz from a QT downtown Greenville and trying to get away from the people that he stole the vehicle from. He started driving that vehicle about 110 miles per hour downtown. He, he came into contact with a guy named Matt who was homeless guy on his bicycle trying to get from point A to point B.

When Mercedes Benz hit Matt on the bicycle, they obviously the bump happened and then the man drove into a building and so most of the attention went to the building and the flames and all the other kind of stuff like this. When the police arrived on the scene, they began to hear screams of pain that they could not see where it was. They started to look and try to trace where that car had been and then all of a sudden they found a bicycle where they flipped on it. Completely just severed this guy's leg that was attached to the bicycle and they couldn't find a body.

So they continued to search through this and finally came upon Matt who was over there on the side of the road about to bleed out and die. This guy Matt had been homeless due to some decisions that he had made through the years. Alcohol and drugs and whatnot, went to the hospital, had multiple surgeries, somehow survived all the things and then they put him back on the street with a bunch of painkillers. Which is a real great situation for a guy who struggled with drug abuse for many years.

So I ask you a question, you can you read that news article in 2018 like I did. What does Matt need most? What does the greatest need in Matt's life? And some of you say, well there's a lot of needs.

I agree with you, right? What's the deepest need of Matt's soul? Some of you say, well he needs to get clean. I agree with that.

So we go, he needs to get off the streets. I agree with that. So we go, he needs physical health and what about a prosthetic and how can he get around? I will agree with that.

But also he would realize all these situations and all these things that sometimes we can look at the external things and never really realize that Matt is someone who's going to live longer than this life. And one day, the biggest concern of his life is not going to be how many legs that he has or where he puts his head down at night. The biggest concern is, is he found peace with the Almighty God. That's the most important thing.

Now all the other things are obviously important and these things have got to be addressed. I'm not going away from that, but I'll tell you sometimes that we'll see needs like what was in that newspaper article and going, you know what Matt needs? If he could just get this and this and this, everything would be okay. Have you realized that sometimes people in this world get those circumstantial things, those physical elements fixed and you know what?

They're still broken on the inside. All those things are important. Jesus has been showing that so far in this gospel. Hey, I'm going to meet physical needs, but he also wants to address the spiritual ones.

We looked last week and how Jesus embraced the leper before he cleansed him. And in effect, the uncleanliness has now moved over to Jesus and he is going to bear that on the way to the cross. While this leper is now clean, Jesus is ceremonially unclean. He's not afraid to get in the middle of the messes and that reputation begin to spread all over the place.

Even so, there's a guy who's been paralyzed, who heard the news that this wonder working rabbi was nearby. He wondered if maybe after all the times of thinking and praying and hoping that today could be the day where he would hear the magic words he'd been hoping to hear all his life, pick up your palate and go home. Let's read what happens in Matthew 5 or 17. On one of those days, while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee in Judea and also from Jerusalem.

And the Lord's power to heal was in him. Just then, some men came carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed. They tried to bring him in and set him down before him. Since they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the roof tiles into the middle of the crowd before Jesus.

Listen to his face. Seeing their faith, he said, friend, your sins are forgiven. The describes and the Pharisees began to think themselves, who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?

What perceiving their thoughts? Jesus replied to them. Why are you thinking this in your hearts? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk.

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he told the paralyzed man, I tell you, get up, take your stretcher and go home. Immediately he got up before them, picked up where he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. That everyone was astounded and they were giving glory to God. And they were filled with all and said we have seen incredible things today.

You know, there's some folks that showed up that day to that house where Jesus was preaching and teaching and there were certain things that they wanted. There were folks that came in, honestly, with kind of preconceived expectations of what they were going to see when they finally saw this guy named Jesus up close and personal. It said that the power to heal was on Jesus and Pharisees and teachers of the law had come from every village of Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem. This is enough rumors has gone to the streets.

Now this is an official investigation. Let's see this upstart preacher who did not go to our seminary. I wonder who this guy is who's not a part of our religious club. He didn't want trained by our crew.

He didn't read our books. He hasn't gone through our seminars. Let's find out who this guy really is. This is not just some random healing story.

This is going to be a public theological showdown, this is the huesus of the Jewish religious elite showing up and did you catch what they were doing? They were sitting there. I don't know if that's supposed to imply something, but most of the time when God inspires something to be written down in the word, I think it's supposed to be there, right? And most of the times when we've seen Jesus in a teaching situation, guess who's typically seated?

The teacher is and the students are standing and these Pharisees are sitting. I don't say they got their arms crossed, but I've been around enough religious people. They had their arms crossed. You know what I'm saying?

They had his face on them. They're not really wanting them. They're here to, all right, let me just say this way. You all know that some people come to church to hear from God and some people like to try to pick out problems.

In this situation, there's the same as true. Some come to Jesus to critique him. Others come to be changed by him. And in this situation, in this home, as they were, here they are and there are some that have come just sitting there, passive observers.

They're not active seekers. They're wanting to find out what they could see wrong and dismiss Jesus rather than surrender to him. Some came to see what Jesus will do. Others were coming to see what, well, he would do wrong.

They had their religious clipboard ready. You know what I'm saying? They call a flag on the plate. They call the violation.

Wait, doesn't mean our rules? Some were critical. Some were curious and some came desperate that day. You know, the same history for us, by the way, your posture towards Jesus determines what you received from Jesus.

If you came in today to check the box, say I was in church, I hope God's going to bless me. You know what? You're probably going to turn and leave here just the same way. But if you came because you're hungry and desperate because you want to have an encounter with a living God, you know what?

You might actually happen. But if you come in and go, you know what, I didn't like that song. You know what I don't like with a preacher, that illustration. Guess what?

I'll give you more ammo before the day is over. There'll be plenty of things hanging around me long enough. You will have I listen to myself every single week. It's the most painful thing that I do.

You know what I do? There's a lot of things that you could point out, right? But there are, that's what's the posture of these Pharisees, these religious leaders. And by the way, sometimes you can get so religious, you can't even smell your own stink anymore.

Sometimes you get so religious, you get so insulated, so to sanitize that everybody else has a problem, but you got it all together. That's how they came to the Bible study that day. And you know, it was interesting because what happens is, it says that there's another group of guys that come in and they definitely want to get their friend to Jesus. They are desperate to do this.

They are wanting their friend to be changed by Jesus. So what do they do? I have to just always try to get myself in the middle of the text and try to figure out what happened. But I do realize this, if you are a paralyzed man and you are good friends and you have good friends in your relationship, let me ask you a question.

Who initiates those meetups? Most likely the friends whose legs are working are the ones who say, how do you want to hang out to see it too? Because a guy who's paralyzed, he's not texting them. You all want to come over?

You know what I'm saying? Like if you're in a relationship with a paralyzed guy, you've got to do the work to make this happen. So I should imagine what it must have been like. These guys and his friends sitting there and doing the normal chit chat, what's been going on?

And I wondered if a question ever came up. I said, what's all the commotion? I see a lot of people walking down that way. Like what's happening on that side of town?

Have you heard about that guy named Jesus? I've heard a lot of people talking about him as they walk past me and just completely ignored me as they walk by. I've heard a lot of people and see that new teacher that's around? Yeah, I mean he's a teacher but there's something different.

Like I went over to the religious teacher one time and those guys put me to sleep. But this guy, like people are staying for hours, okay? They're forgetting about eating. And not only that, but people are walking out of the teaching and there was this leper that, I mean he went to Jesus' leper and he left and he didn't have leper.

There's a bunch of fishermen who used to make everything about their profit and their business that they laid left after the biggest catch of their lives because they thought Father Jesus was even better. There's a, you know, possessed guy? There's a guy who's monomile, like a mighty fever and wherever Jesus goes, like things are changing when he shows up. Oh yeah?

So where's he going? And why are y'all not getting me to him, right? At some point they think through like, could this happen? Who initiates this?

I don't know. Maybe it's a guy on the mat or maybe it's a guy named Bobby. He's like, I got an idea. You know what I'm saying?

Like they just pick him up. They walk across town. They go through, I don't know how long this was but I know it. To carry a guy on a stretcher, this takes a little bit of effort.

Is that fair? It takes a little bit of effort. Whether it's just around the block but I'm not just looking for them. They're walking through town.

They get all the way to this house and all of a sudden they get to the house and you think everybody goes, oh there's a paralyzed guy. Let me give him up. My seat. Have you been to church before?

You know what I'm saying? Ooh, okay. That's not typically how people do things. They're religious things.

You know, this is my my chair. So I mean, like, no, it wasn't even for the paralyzed guy. Now let's give him a spot. It's just like, sorry, he should have gotten here earlier.

My bad. No one invited me. And have you thought about how long it takes me to get here, right? And they just decided they're going to leave him out.

And then I just got to imagine as these four friends who looked at the paralyzed and came and we tried, you know, it's all full, whatever. Once again, I don't know why I've always named it. The guy probably was crazy. I guess his name is Bobby in this group.

Bobby is looking at me. I know how to do something. And all of a sudden he sees a staircase up in the ceiling. He's like, I got an idea.

You know what I'm saying? Do y'all have that friend? Whatever he says, he got an idea. Someone's going to get hurt.

You know what I'm talking about? Okay. If you don't know who it is, it's probably you friend. Okay.

So they decide and by the way, just envision what it must be like going up some type of ladder to a roof with a paralyzed guy on a stretcher. I could just imagine that there's probably, please don't drop me. Okay. I don't know how this is.

This is a lot of coordinated efforts for them to do. They get up to the roof. There is no ceiling. There's no skylights there on this guy's house.

So they decide to create him one. You know what I'm saying? They decide to start cutting through this. This is not shingles of plywood.

This is packed mud and tile and they literally are dismantling someone's ceiling. Folks, these are the type of committed friends that I want in my life and I want to be in my life. You know, hey, if you can't get, did Jesus? I'm going to get you there.

And here's what this guy had. When you can't carry on, you need someone who will carry you to Christ. This guy couldn't get there on his own strength. He couldn't even get there by getting a whole lot of help.

They had to get very, very creative this paralysis in this culture meant economic dependency. It meant social shame. It meant disregarding and debilitation. It's hard enough for someone that has some kind of paralysis in our day and time and there's so many codes about every single building that has to be built.

Can you imagine back in these days? And yet here's this guy who had something amazing what we all need. We need people in our corner who will get us to Jesus by any means necessary. I need some friends like Bobby, I need some people who are willing to get a little creative that when I can't get up, they're going to bring me to them.

There is something about this that where you have real godly friends, they don't just sit beside you in pain. They figure out how to carry you to the healer. If you can't walk to Jesus, you can't get to them. You want the type of friends who are willing to tear off the roof if they've got to.

This is at such a level of such desperation that they decide, you know what, we're just going to do this because this is our one shot. And so I just imagine as Jesus is preaching and doing his thing and everybody's enthralled and is every word. And then all of a sudden like special effects, here comes a spotlight. Here comes a light coming through with all the dust and the different kind of mud and straw and whatnot starts falling.

And I envision just right there pretty close to Jesus. And I can imagine that there was someone who went, this is not on the order of service today. I do not believe, no, no, no, no, we're going to see the dark solidity after this. This is not what's going to happen, right?

Here he comes. And I just visualized the roof coming off. Everybody look up and here's Bobby. Hey, you're saying, there's four sets of eyes looking down.

And then here comes this palette lowered probably like this, going down. And if you're just thinking, if you're this guy suspended like this, you finally get to a certain point where you're not so scared of the heights, but you're probably scared of the glances that you start to see. You see somebody's really frustrated because you just busted Jesus up between 0.2 and 0.3 and a sermon. Okay.

Somebody's really frustrated because they like order in sequential kind of deliverables. And this is not what anticipated. You probably see the looks like, yeah, I'm pretty sure this is her living room right now because she looks like she wants to kill me. Okay, right?

And you got to imagine, you probably saw one set of eyes that didn't look angry. He was there and he probably just locked in. I don't know that guy is going to keep staring at him because he's like, I'm so glad you're finally here. About time.

I guess lower down to his feet. And it says something very interesting that when this one verse 20, did you catch again, it doesn't say seen his faith. It says seen whose faith? Their faith.

They're up there. Okay. So Jesus is down with this paralyzed guy. He looks up at Bobby and the rest of the crew.

Huh. All right. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever sometimes been so low in faith that you needed some people around you who still had some?

You ever had some people when you didn't know what to pray? They said, I know what to pray. They kept believing in God's promises when you could not believe them anymore. If you hadn't had that, let me tell you what you need.

You need more than church attendance every so often. You need body-crisis in your life because personal faith may waver, but shared faith can withstand. No matter what's going on in your life. Like, if it's just up to you, some days you're going to be full of faith.

But the other 361 days out of the year, you're going to struggle and you know you need some people who are willing to still believe God when you're struggling to do so. When you don't know what to do, you still need some people who can go back to the power and authority of God's words and I can still stand on those promises when you've forgotten what they are. That Jesus responds to their faith. This collective faith matters.

Apparently, it cannot get to Jesus alone. His condition requires community to get him where he needs to be. And faith in this passage is visible even before it's verbal. It was obvious why.

Look what they were willing to do. Look how desperate they were. And one of the things I love about Jesus will keep seeing this and all these encounters he says with people. He never gets out of sorts when someone does something a little bit off-kilter because it's the only thing they know to do.

I love he's going, you know, he wasn't saying, guys, you should have just waited for me outside. You can. You can ask somebody. He's just like, hey, what did it show?

We are so desperate for answer and we believe you're the one who can do it. We've heard about what you can do and our faith is in you, Jesus. Can you heal our brother? And so I know that sometimes here at this church, we will remind you of the need that you have for community.

Getting into a gospel group, being a part of a men or women's cohort, being in a discipleship relationship and you're like, you know what? I'm fine all by myself. I'm just following Jesus all by myself. That's cute.

I don't believe you. But even if I did believe you, if you're that put together, then please get in relationship with the rest of us, train your ex as we can use somebody as matures you. But in reality, promise you this, we need each other because if you've never had a day where you don't feel like getting up and coming to Jesus by your own strength, one day it'll happen. And some days you need somebody who's willing to open up the blinds and read the Bible and pray over you when you've got nothing left.

You need it. You're going to have that day. So here these guys who are that committed to Jesus. Now, there are things that they wanted, right?

That the Pharisees are wanting an answer. These friends are wanting healing. This paralyzed guy, he's wanting healing. But Jesus knows actually what they needed.

And it's while having physical healing was great, it is what they wanted. But what they needed was something different because this is the first time in Luke that forgiveness is declared directly to an individual. In the phrase, your sins are forgiven. It's a passive phrase, which means what?

The guy's not doing it. God is. God is the one acting upon this situation. And so just imagine you were the paralyzed guy on the ground and all of your life.

You have been praying. You have been hoping. Some religious guy will say, get up, take up your stretcher and go home. Just got to imagine he's sitting there and Jesus looking passionate and everything has stopped in the service.

All the attention of Jesus is on him. And he's probably going to be back. You can say it. You can say it.

Jesus looks down on him and says, your sins are forgiven. Yay. Now what we came for? Very kind of you.

Thank you, sir. What about the legs? No. We came so I could walk out of here.

We came so I didn't have to be dependent on everybody else. We came that I could have a life and I appreciate the sentiment. But we came so that I could enjoy this life better. That I could function and do what I want to better.

And Jesus says, yeah, that's what you want, but not what you need. Jesus gives us what we need most, not what we want first. Jesus is willing to do the most important thing over what we think is the most helpful thing. Now, is it bad that this guy wants healing?

No. Is he coming to the right place? For sure. But is Jesus offering something better?

You better believe it. Jesus gave us what he needed. Not what he wanted. And how many times do we come to Jesus asking him to fix our circumstances?

And he starts by well, addressing and curing our condition, something deeper. The man's wanting mobility, but Jesus is offering him mercy. And so in this, I have to imagine when Jesus says this, there's probably confusion, not only for the paralyzed guy, not for Bobby and the crew, but everybody in the room. I don't think that's why he came, but there's another group goes, and that's not your right to give Jesus.

Okay. You have a friend in your life who says, you know, Jesus never claimed to be God. Continue to read this passage. Because the Pharisees are very, very confident in what he's doing.

Because they just start thinking in their mind, right? It says, who is this man who speaks what? Blasphemes. He's blaspheming right now.

Why? Because the next question, who can forgive sins but who? God alone. They knew very, very clear what Jesus was doing.

The Pharisees were right about one thing. Only God can forgive sins. And that's what Jesus did. The Pharisees caught it for all your friends who claim they know the Bible but don't know where theirs are and know better than you.

They would say, Jesus is never going to be God. The Pharisees go, yeah, he did. Page five of Luke's Gospel, he goes ahead and lays it out there for you. The Pharisees were right about the same.

They confirm what Jesus claimed. They know that in their mind that if he's not God in the flesh, he's blaspheming. The only person who could forgive sins is God himself. And Jesus goes, you're right.

Glad you read the Bible. Let me prove to you why I I can do this. In fact, I gave you a few cross references here. Isaiah 43, 25, God says, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins.

God can do that. Daniel chapter 9 verse 9 says, to the Lord your God, belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him. Well, I've sinned against a whole lot of people. No, but your sin debt is against the Almighty God and he's the only one who can release you from it.

My God chapter 7 verse 18, who is a God like you pardoning, in passings over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights us steadfast love. What does he say? Only God can forgive sins.

I love when I was growing up in high school in the 90s. We had a lot of t-shirts. We had a lot of rappers. We had a lot of celebrities that would say stuff like this.

Only God can judge me. I'm going, oh, you're right. You are correct. One day God is going to judge you.

It is humming, my friend. He is the only one who can forgive you of your sins. And you know what? One day you're going to spend eternity somewhere depending upon what you do with this good news right now.

Oh, yeah, God can judge you all right. And he will judge you and you need to take that very, very seriously. And in these verses, the Pharisees were very, very confident. They knew exactly what Jesus was saying and that's why they called him on the carpet.

There's only one who can forgive sins but got alone. And Jesus is right. And next point, oh, you got that? Now, this is pretty crazy too because you just see in verse 21, then the scribes and the Pharisees begin to think to themselves.

I don't know if he concerns you or not, but apparently not only Jesus can see what you do. He knows what you're thinking. Okay. He is aware of what you've thought about, what you've talked about, what you've done.

Let's be honest, some of us have forgotten some of the sins we have committed. He saw it. Some of us have had thoughts that would scare the person sitting next to us. He knows about them.

And so he knows this and he knows what they're thinking and they are thinking correctly because, and yet also an interesting thing in Jewish theology at the time, a lot of times, paralysis was sometimes associated with divine judgment. So they were probably sitting here, the reason why that guy is paralyzed and I'm not because I'm a better person than him. Now, I know that sometimes people will say, well, that's a different type of religion thinking there, kind of talking about karma and how if you do good things, good things will happen to you and if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. Most of you would not say that you're a Hindu or a Buddhist in any kind of way like that.

But a lot of times there are some Christians who are closeted those things because you'll see somebody who's struggling. Well, you know, the guy who's coming to you, are you ready to get what's coming to you, dear friend? Well, you know, they deserve it. Ask me, what do you deserve them?

You who have sinned against an Almighty God. You who think you know better than him. You who follow convenient commandments and disregard the ones that get in your way. Tell me what you deserve, friend.

I'll say what I deserve. According to the scripture, I deserve death and eternal separation from God. You're a pastor though. I know.

Welcome to Rocky Creek. We're glad you're here, okay? The pastor is saying what I deserve is hell. That's what I deserve.

I have to have my sins taken care of. But by forgiving sins, Jesus wasn't only hinting at divinity. He was claiming it very, very clearly here. So one group tearing off the roof, another group holding, okay, basically closing off their hearts.

And so what does Jesus do here? Verse 22, preceding their thoughts, he says, why are you thinking this in your hearts? Which is easier to say. Your sins are forgiven or big up, get up and walk.

But listen to this phrase. So that you may know that the son of who? Man. Sometimes Jesus is referred to as the son of man and sometimes he's referred to as the son of what?

God, okay, we'll get back in a second. Just so you know that the son of man has authority to forgive sins, get up and show these guys that I actually have the power to do what I've said I can do in both cases. Jesus says to acknowledge our situation, he addresses our sin. He gets to the middle of the situation.

Yes, he acknowledges the situation. He does heal this guy, but he goes down to the deeper level, addresses our sin, describes accusing him of blasphemy. It's exactly what's going on in your mind. Jesus knows it.

Jesus heals, not to impress the crowd, but to authenticate the forgiveness that he just offered this guy. The healing proves his power and forgiveness proves his loving, kindness, identity. Anyone can say you're forgiven, but I'll just tell you this. Only God can make it sick.

Only God can. Now, when I was younger and I'll read son of man by Jesus, I thought he was saying, hey, my mom's married, okay, like I am, yes, son of God, but I'm also just a regular guy like you. That's actually not what son of man means. If you've ever, if you like to get into apocalyptic, perfectical writings and whatnot, you go to Daniel chapter seven, you know what happens is that it talks about this central figure in the end times named the son of man who will appear before the ancient of days and all authority and dominion will be given to the son of man.

And so these Jewish people sitting in this Bible study that Jesus is teaching, they know the son of man. The son of man is going to be the gift from God Almighty to come down from heaven, to lead the people to the true and forever promised land. They were waiting on that cataclysmic event. I would take forth and there was going to be somebody who was referred to as the son of man and all authority will be given to him and Jesus going, just so you know the son of man has authority to do it, get up son.

Did Jesus know what he was doing and saying? Oh, you better believe he did. You better believe. He knew exactly what was happening.

He's not downplaying his divinity when he says son of man. He's actually invoking it, putting it on the record just in case you're wondering, Daniel seven, that's me. Just in case you're wondering, Messiah on the way, he's here. Just in case you're wondering, do I have the authority to forgive this guy, sin?

Well, only the guy who can get him up to walk could pick up your pallet and walk. This guy starts to walk. The command get up or rise echoes future resurrection language for each of us. The greatest miracle in the room wasn't that a man walk.

I'll be honest with you. It was that a sinner was forgiven. The greater miracle was harder to see, but it will last a whole lot longer than the second one. This is what people do.

He got up. Having Jesus says get up, you better get up. You know, and everybody, Bobby, whole crew, they all, what? What do you do the pallet?

You're saying like, we don't even need this anymore. He gets up. So he comes down to the room for the pallet, walks out without the pallet. They go home.

Everybody else says they go home glorifying God. Everybody's astounding. They're giving glory to God and they're all filled with all say, we've seen incredible things today. Folks, I just hope you know, God is still in the business of doing miraculous things.

I still believe it. I have seen him do amazing things this week that I've been praying for and then it happens. I'm jumping off to the next thing and whoa, let me stop for a second. God, I just want to stop.

I want to thank you because when God shows up to work, we ought to show up to worship, you know, when God shows up to work, that should be our response. We should show up to give him glory to literally live in all of this. When he moves amazement turns into worship. This man leaves glorifying God because he's restored physically, but oh, he's restored spiritually and he can't contain his praise.

Here's how I know your life's changed. You don't have to wait on somebody and say, sing with me. You're like, I'm so glad you asked. I've been waiting for this moment all week.

You know, I've been singing all week. I've been giving glory to God all week. I've been praying to him. I've been honoring him.

I've been thanking him for certain things. So we have to make sure that we see that there should be amazing all of what we have witnessed and experience. God changes the life. We ought to worship.

So people came in thinking they wanted something, but Jesus knew what they needed even more. So that brings us to you and me today. What do we need? What exactly is it as a result of this passage?

Because this is the first recorded direct conflict Jesus is going to have about his authority for give sins. It won't be the last. But from this point forward, forgiveness will increasingly lead Jesus to crucifixion. You know, this is the path he's taking.

He has the ability to do this because he's going to pay for this one day. So the moment he forgives a sin, crosses just one step closer. So where does this land for you today? For you who came in hoping and praying Jesus will fix your marriage by the time you leave the parking lot.

He can do that. You're probably going to have to say you're sorry though before it happens. Can Jesus heal what the doctor says there is no chance of recovery? Oh, you better believe this.

You can stand and testify right now. Yeah, you can do it. Circumstances you've been trying to fix and we always try to fix it. We can work hard enough of what will make it happen.

Just keep trying. Keeps getting worse. I'm maybe not telling your life. I'm not I'm going to fix it.

It just gets messy. It's messy. It's messy. I want Jesus to come in and fix things for me.

But what this passage is saying, we need forgiveness more than fixing. You need forgiveness more than fixing. I know you need some fixing. I get it.

Right? The person sitting next to you will agree you need some fixing. But on the deepest level what you need is you need forgiveness. A healed body.

Can I just remind you? It's still going to die one day. Jesus is going to return and this all ceases to exist or you are going to die one day. I don't know how many days or decades you have left.

But that is reality. A healed body still dies. I've forgiven soul. Those are going to live forever.

So that is a greater need. Jesus forgets because he's willing to bear our sin at the cross. The authority he proves there is the authority that sends him to Calvary and forgiveness is received by faith. It's not earned by effort.

You are trusting in the fact that he would die on the cross force. I am believing. He's willing to be my substitute. And he says I am willing to forgive you your sins.

The one who forgave will later pay for this on blood. David said in Psalm 51 verse 4, it gives you and you only have not sinned God, which is funny because David is sin against a lot of people. But he knew. The biggest step against God.

Psalm 1 of 3 verse 12, that reminds us that as far as the east is from the west, God has removed our transgressions from us. You don't have to even live with that sinful baggage. He can redeem you. Isaiah 38 says that he longs to be gracious to us.

Think about that. He's not begrudging. One who forgives you today. If you have lived like the devil himself for the last week or in your entire life, can I tell you something?

He's not going to have to find out. I am eager to. I want to forgive you. I want to remove the sins.

In fact, he was eager to go to the cross to pay you on your behalf. So we need forgiveness for the fixing. We also know this. We need a redeeming Savior, not just a religious system.

Jesus is not interested in meeting our religious expectations. He's interested in saving our souls. And we need a redeeming Savior, more than any religious system out there. Now listen, a lot of time the religion gets a bad name.

And I understand why. Religion can get a bad name when it's done outside the will of Jesus. But sometimes people want to put Jesus in a box and make him go work according to our expectations. That's not what Jesus is demanded to do.

Jesus is inviting us to a relationship with him and not a stuffy list of man-made rules of how we ought to behave when we're in need. He's not interested in meeting our expectations. He's interested in saving our souls. I love when people are so unsure of how things are doing church.

I remember one day somebody literally raising their hand in the middle of a service and saying, can I ask a question? I said, sure. And everybody else is panicking. I'm just glad they felt comfortable.

You know? Hey, it's just we want to meet with Jesus, right? And sometimes the rules we make just don't think that some people don't know. I'd rather correct that later than have somebody feel like they can't connect with him.

We also understand this. We need friends who move us towards Jesus, not away from him. And I'm just going to shoot as straight as I can from the youngest in this room to the oldest in this room. And no, I don't know which one you are.

Okay, by the way, we need enduring relationships with worthwhile commitments. And the concern I have for many of you at every age in this room is the moment when you can't get up because life has hit you so hard, my fear is that some of your closest friends are going to take you to places away from Jesus rather than to them. That's why you keep getting something to mess you are in right now. Because of the people that have closest to your ear are chirping all the time.

Don't go to church. You don't need to reach your Bible. You know what you ought to do is try this. Go around this.

You know, let's just kind of relax a little bit. Let's kind of have this coping mechanism here. Let's be a part of this group, be a part of this function. And you are surrounded with people who are trying not to get you to Jesus but get you on the other side of the town.

Some of you all have a really desire to get connected with Jesus. But your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your best friend or all the people you hang with all the time are trying to get you away. How do you think you're going to get there? Some of you've got to determine.

So is that are the text messages that counsel that I'm getting? Are they pointing me to Jesus? Are my friends who are sending me snaps and know the night? Are they helping me see Jesus clear or further away?

Are the people that I'm allowing to run? Where are they taking me to? Because I'm telling you friend one day you're going to be on the ground. You can't get up yourself.

Where are they going to take you? You better ask the folks around you that will get you to Jesus. And can I also say this? If you're not on the ground right now, you need to be the type of friend that will be willing to get people to Jesus.

We need those friends. We need to be those friends and understand this. The care we need most is not a fixed life but a forgiven soul. I know you've got some things that need fixed and I'm with you friend.

But today what you need to do is you need to repent and receive forgiveness. You need to stop bringing Jesus your symptoms only. You need to choose friends who push you toward Christ. You need to become the type of friend who carries someone to him.

And you realize this that you need your soul forgiven more than anything. I told you in 2018 about a guy by the name of Matt and asked you what did Matt need most? I'm at Matt in 2021 in this church. When finally the addiction and homelessness had gotten to him where he knew that he needed help.

I can remember where I was at the Overcomer Center. On a Thursday before Easter we were sitting there just talking and he says I think I need to be baptized. I said let's do this. We prayed right there.

He was ready to follow Jesus and we prayed to receive this and he's getting he's been clean now for months. He's been doing great. And I'm just thinking the Lord in a few days we were going to get baptized. Then you fast forward a few days towards Easter Sunday.

We were going to do our first outdoor baptism. We've done this the last few years and after all of our services we're going to do it again this year in just a few weeks. We're going to come back to the parking lot and anybody who's been trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation. Once we baptized we're going to do it outside and have a big celebration.

I remember I came up to church on that Easter Sunday morning and I see Matt out there in his wheelchair with one leg and whatnot and he's just staring at that tank. I said what you're thinking Matt you're going to get me in and out of that tank. I said we'll worry about that later okay. And we didn't think about it until he was number 30 on the baptism list that night.

Incredible night. I didn't forget that. I turned the hook down on my foot. We had thought this thing through.

Okay. So Matt got off his chair put on his crutches and started to hob them through and then two of his friends flanked them where he put his crutches down and put his arms down. And then the coolest thing for those of you in the room you remember outside you remember this. One of his friends leaned over like this and put that nub on his back and lifted into me.

I'm going here come to that. Okay. And here we really did not just going to work. Okay.

And Matt falls into my arms and neither of us fall and then the next photo is Matt standing on one leg in the tank. Parents and grandparents crying about 20 feet away from us. Matt whispering him out here that's the last hurdle that I was worried about getting to Jesus. That day because I it's similar they never trained you to baptize a one-legged man by the way.

Okay. It just never wasn't a class. I look for my notebook did not have it. There are folks that day that have now said that pastor Travis should be in the WWE because the way that I choke slammed him to make sure I could get him back up.

I got him down. I got him up. And he looked at me and said how are we going to get out of this? You and I just go stay here for a while.

They go to drink the pool. We're going to roll out because I don't know how we're going to do this. Matt by the way is serving Miracle Hill right now in Spartanburg. The ministry that helped be a part of his redemption.

It's engaged and married. Clean for about five years. Comes our Sunday night service. Amen.

It's awesome. Part of our five o'clock service and we're just texting the other day about what the Lord has done in his life and what the cool thing about this is. I want you to see I've got all the hurdles. Obviously Jesus redeemed him but I think that back that he leaned on to get in.

Your baptism probably didn't look exactly as dramatic as that one did but I promise you this it looked like that spiritually speaking. Because the only way any of us get to Jesus is because some people are helping us get there. Some people are bringing us closer to them. We can't see for ourselves.

I'm just asking to pray today some of you need to stop coming for these circumstantial things and you need to get your heart right. You need your soul forgiven. You need to cry out and say Jesus will you forgive me. We'll deal with the circumstances later.

That's where it's got to start. Some of us need to realize that for the next month when you really start praying and who am I sharing in Christ with? Who am I trying to get to Jesus and who knows? Maybe the next few weeks who might get baptized on Easter because of what you have done of helping people get to Jesus.

Francis do you want to be a part of stories like that? Let's not sit passively by let's do what we need to for the care that we need most. Let's pray.