Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: We have a little fun today.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna take you to a Bible passage that.
Speaker 1: We can all relate to.
Speaker 2: Turn in your Bible or just watch the screen, whatever
Speaker 2: you need to do. Let's go together to Mark chapter two,
Speaker 2: verses one through twelve. And this passage practically preaches itself.
Speaker 2: So God, get me out of the way. Say what
Speaker 2: you need to say to your people. Help them hear it,
Speaker 2: even if they're hard headed in Jesus name. Amen, that's
Speaker 2: an honest preacher's a Two days later, when Jesus again
Speaker 2: entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.
Speaker 2: So many gathered that there was no room left, not
Speaker 2: even outside the door. And the word to them. Some
Speaker 2: men came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four
Speaker 2: of them. All right, and since they could not get
Speaker 2: him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an
Speaker 2: opening in the roof above Jesus, and after digging through
Speaker 2: it lowered the mat. So we've got four men and
Speaker 2: we've got a matt. This is March madness. It's the
Speaker 2: final four. Whoa, you're so hateful, You are so hateful.
Speaker 1: I worked on that joke for about three hours this week,
Speaker 1: and look how you treated me.
Speaker 2: I'll find me another church where they appreciate advanced humor.
Speaker 1: I am one of these days, you're gonna look up here.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be somebody not as funny as me, taking
Speaker 2: my wit for granted. Kidding, I'm kidding. I see some
Speaker 2: of the guests look at me. Now, let's get back
Speaker 2: to the text. When Jesus saw their faith, he said
Speaker 2: to the paralytic son, your sins are forgiven.
Speaker 1: What did their faith have to do with his sins?
Speaker 2: Is it possible that your life affects more than your life?
Speaker 2: Is it possible that your example affects more than your existence?
Speaker 2: When he saw their faith, he said, your sins are forgiven. Now,
Speaker 2: some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves,
Speaker 2: why does this fellow talk like that. He's blaspheming who
Speaker 2: can forgive sins? But God alone? Immediately, Jesus knew in
Speaker 2: his spirit that this is what they were thinking in
Speaker 2: their hearts. And he said to them, because he is
Speaker 2: such a savage that he wins an imaginary argument.
Speaker 1: He responds not to what.
Speaker 2: They said, but to what they thought that they didn't
Speaker 2: get the chance to say.
Speaker 1: So, he knows your intentions.
Speaker 2: Touch somebody say, you can't fool You might be able
Speaker 2: to fool me, but you can't fool God. He knows
Speaker 2: your motivations, and he knows your thoughts too, So he
Speaker 2: said to them. He responded to their thoughts, why are
Speaker 2: you thinking these things? Which is easier to say to
Speaker 2: the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up,
Speaker 2: take your mat, and walk, but that you may know
Speaker 2: that the son of Man has authority on earth to
Speaker 2: forgive sins.
Speaker 1: Dot dot dot.
Speaker 2: He said to the paralytic, I tell you, get up,
Speaker 2: take your mat, go home. And he got up, took
Speaker 2: his mat, and walked out in full view of them. All.
Speaker 2: This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, we've never
Speaker 2: seen anything like this. This is remarkable, this is miraculous.
Speaker 2: But verse two is really where my sermon hinges. So
Speaker 2: many gathered that there was no room left, not even
Speaker 2: outside the door. Touch your neighbor, give them my title.
Speaker 2: Say I got good news. I know your heart was broken,
Speaker 2: I know you lost some things, but I got good news.
Speaker 2: There's another door. Turn to your next neighbor, the one
Speaker 2: you really wanted to talk to, and tell them there's
Speaker 2: another door. So let's lay a principle here, overlay it
Speaker 2: on this narrative from Mark chapter four. Here's the principle.
Speaker 2: Life's biggest opportunities aren't always obvious. Life's biggest opportunities aren't
Speaker 2: always obvious. After the fact, they seem obvious. You know
Speaker 2: that it was an idiot that cut Michael Jordan from
Speaker 2: the team, But life's greatest opportunities are and always obvious.
Speaker 2: Holly paid me a compliment Friday. I think it was
Speaker 2: a compliment. She said, I didn't know what I was
Speaker 2: getting when I married you. What I took that to
Speaker 2: mean is is so much better. What I took that
Speaker 2: to mean is it's an Ephesians three twenty kind of thing,
Speaker 2: exceeding abundantly above all that she asked or imagined. I
Speaker 2: think that's what she meant. I did not clarify. Sometimes
Speaker 2: assumption is a beautiful marriage tool. But I just took
Speaker 2: it like that anyway. She said, I didn't know what
Speaker 2: I was getting when I looked across the North Greenville
Speaker 2: University cafeteria and saw that silly boy with a buzz
Speaker 2: cut and an extra large Superman T shirt that I
Speaker 2: bought for a dollar twenty five at Goodwill. She didn't
Speaker 2: know that there was a Superman inside that silly shirt.
Speaker 2: I'm just talking a little bit.
Speaker 1: This is what she said.
Speaker 2: She said, I didn't know what I was getting when
Speaker 2: I married you. Because life's greatest opportunities. I'm having fun
Speaker 2: to enjoy my life. This is scriptural. This is scriptural.
Speaker 2: This is thoroughly scriptural. Life's greatest opportunity. Moses deliver a nation.
Speaker 2: I am calling you to deliver an entire people group.
Speaker 2: So what will you give me as a sign? Your stick,
Speaker 2: the stick in your hand that you are using to
Speaker 2: shepherd sheep is the sign that I'm going to give you.
Speaker 2: But I am going to point to your calling through
Speaker 2: something that to you seems common. So God disguises calling
Speaker 2: as common. God wraps calling in diapers and allows the
Speaker 2: Savior of the world to be born in a barn.
Speaker 2: So much so that the people he came for missed him.
Speaker 2: Because life's greatest opportunities aren't always obvious. It was interesting
Speaker 2: to me that callings can appear common on the surface,
Speaker 2: to the point that Gideon was called a mighty warrior
Speaker 2: while he was hiding in a wine press. Why would
Speaker 2: God hide such a mighty calling in such a wimpy man.
Speaker 2: Because sometimes Superman wears a baggy shirt. Sometimes God uses
Speaker 2: earthen vessels to release something that has precious value. I
Speaker 2: preaching to somebody today who has been deceived about your destiny.
Speaker 2: You thought God was going to show up in your
Speaker 2: situation looking like Superman. Instead, God shows up in your
Speaker 2: situation looking like a mustard seed. The seed doesn't look
Speaker 2: like the tree. It shares the genetic code of the tree,
Speaker 2: but according to the exterior, there is nothing to associate
Speaker 2: the seed with the tree. And might it be that
Speaker 2: what God is doing in your life right now is
Speaker 2: not obvious. But that does not mean that there is
Speaker 2: no opportunity for He says, when I open a door.
Speaker 1: No man can shut it.
Speaker 2: And when I decide to do something through your life,
Speaker 2: no season, no person, and no human limitation can stop me.
Speaker 2: I was always interested to learn that. After David made
Speaker 2: his biggest mistake by sleeping with Bethsheba and having her
Speaker 2: husband Uriah killed on the front lines of battles, he
Speaker 2: went in and had another baby because the one that
Speaker 2: was born from his mistake died. But the next one
Speaker 2: he had was named Solomon, who was the wisest man
Speaker 2: who ever lived at that point in time. And David's
Speaker 2: greatest wisdom was born after his biggest mistake. Now, it's
Speaker 2: not always obvious. It's not always obvious that you are
Speaker 2: becoming wiser. Usually wisdom feels like dumb decisions. While you
Speaker 2: are gaining wisdom, often you have to gain will at
Speaker 2: the expense of today for tomorrow. It's very powerful. It's
Speaker 2: the principle I preach a lot, and I forgive you
Speaker 2: if you're a little bored right now, because this is
Speaker 2: pretty much what I try to say every single week.
Speaker 2: I try to show you how reward dresses as responsibility.
Speaker 2: God is not going to put the reward right in
Speaker 2: front of you. He is going to wrap it in responsibility.
Speaker 2: David had no clue that Goliath was waiting for him.
Speaker 2: He just knew he had bread to take to his brothers.
Speaker 2: It was his responsibility that unlocked his reward. If he
Speaker 2: had waited for the possibility of an opportunity to demonstrate
Speaker 2: his warriorness, if he had waited for Goliath to show up,
Speaker 2: he never would have had the opportunity to see what
Speaker 2: God could do through him. But it was in his
Speaker 2: assignment that his giant was waiting. Now, if this is true,
Speaker 2: it gives a whole new meaning to what John chapter
Speaker 2: eleven says that when Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, he
Speaker 2: stayed where he was a little while longer, because Jesus
Speaker 2: is about to show all of those in Bethany that
Speaker 2: resurrection is not an event but a person. I am
Speaker 2: the resurrection. But if Jesus shows up and heals Lazarus
Speaker 2: when they want him to, he will not have the
Speaker 2: opportunity to reveal who he is that they don't yet
Speaker 2: perceive him to be. And so, in his waiting, which
Speaker 2: seems cruel to Mary and Martha, he is actually staging
Speaker 2: a miracle so that when he gets there and Lazarus
Speaker 2: has been dead, it's a good thing, because resurrection dresses
Speaker 2: like death. Sometimes God lets something in your life die,
Speaker 2: but don't worry when it dies.
Speaker 1: Resurrection is who.
Speaker 2: He is and what he does. And if you can
Speaker 2: get the stone rolled away long enough to believe for
Speaker 2: a little while, I hear a voice calling Lazarus out
Speaker 2: of the grave. See the grave clothes wrapped up the
Speaker 2: revelation of who Jesus was. When he got on the
Speaker 2: scene and said, Lazarus, come forth, the grave clothes had
Speaker 2: no choice but to fall off, because the voice of
Speaker 2: the Lord unwraps death to present resurrection. Who he's a
Speaker 2: miracle today. I came to priest to you. And the
Speaker 2: greatest opportunities are not always obvious. The greatest opportunities are
Speaker 2: often hidden. Jesus even taught in parables to hide the
Speaker 2: wisdom of God from the people who wanted to understand
Speaker 2: it with their human minds. He didn't want the elite
Speaker 2: to get it, and so he put.
Speaker 1: It in parables.
Speaker 2: He hid it hid, He hid the kingdom. The kingdom
Speaker 2: didn't come announcing itself with trumpets and red carpet. It
Speaker 2: wasn't obvious. It came looking like conflict now. Mark Chapter
Speaker 2: two is the first of five conflict dialogues where we
Speaker 2: see this carpenter from Nazareth doing ministry in Galilee. Having
Speaker 2: to confront the wisdom of this world to reveal the
Speaker 2: wisdom of God. He's teaching one day, and so many
Speaker 2: people have come to see him.
Speaker 1: The crowd has gathered.
Speaker 2: In Mark's gospel, the crowd is not necessarily a positive thing.
Speaker 2: We would think that if Jesus was trying to build
Speaker 2: a ministry, he would need a crowd. Jesus is so
Speaker 2: savage sometimes if the crowd got too big, he would
Speaker 2: start running people off by saying stuff they didn't want
Speaker 2: to hear. He really would, and you'll have to read
Speaker 2: how he fed people and they were happy. But after
Speaker 2: they ate their happy meal, he turned around and said,
Speaker 2: I'm not burger king. I know I'm mixing restaurants, but
Speaker 2: go with the illustration.
Speaker 1: He said, if you.
Speaker 2: Eat my flesh and drink my blood, then you can
Speaker 2: have this kingdom. And they say, WHOA. I was into
Speaker 2: the miracles, but this, uh, this took a dark turn,
Speaker 2: this cannibalism thing, and even the disciples couldn't understand that.
Speaker 1: But Peter did. After and when he was recounting to.
Speaker 2: Mark so Mark could write this gospel account, he talked
Speaker 2: about the crowd. The crowd had gathered and they were
Speaker 2: listening to Jesus preaching, and the Bible tells us about
Speaker 2: four men who brought their friend and they could not
Speaker 2: get in because of the crowd. They had high hopes,
Speaker 2: you could say that their hopes were through the roof
Speaker 2: ah great expectations. But then they were met at the door.
Speaker 1: There are, by the way, there are four.
Speaker 2: Doors in this passage that are not obvious, four doors
Speaker 2: in this passage, this passage, and in our lives that
Speaker 2: are not obvious, because life's greatest opportunities are not always obvious.
Speaker 2: So they come to the front door and they can't
Speaker 2: get in.
Speaker 1: This represents the door of disappointment.
Speaker 2: How disappointing it must have been that after you have
Speaker 2: carried your friend all this way only to find out
Speaker 2: at church that not only is there no room in
Speaker 2: the main auditorium, but they're not even seating in overflow.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, you can watch live stream.
Speaker 2: These men were met at the door with disappointment. And
Speaker 2: so if they had subscribed to the theology that many
Speaker 2: of us live our lives according to, they would have
Speaker 2: turned around and gone home because obviously everybody say, obviously
Speaker 2: it's not God's will for our friend to get healed today.
Speaker 2: If it were God's will for our friend to be
Speaker 2: healed today, we would have gotten in the door. But
Speaker 2: these boys, these boys, I wonder, do I have four
Speaker 2: crazy ones? Just four? These boys said, we did not
Speaker 2: carry you all this way with your heavy self to
Speaker 2: turn around and go home. Now, now I think these
Speaker 2: boys had a little bit of a well maybe this
Speaker 2: is the Monk's corner in me. But I picture their conversation.
Speaker 2: I picture these boys. These boys didn't drive a priest.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm trying to say. These boys, they're mad
Speaker 2: at the door with disappointment. Not to mention the man's disappointment.
Speaker 2: He's learned to deal with disappointment. His entire life is
Speaker 2: a disappointment. He can't walk, he can't dance, he can't
Speaker 2: do what other people do. But they've come this far.
Speaker 2: I said, they've come this far, and they didn't come
Speaker 2: this far to go home. So Bubba says the Tommy, Hey.
Speaker 3: Man, I was uh, I was looking around. I didn't
Speaker 3: see no security cameras right back right around the south entrance.
Speaker 1: Man, I reckon, wonder if you could.
Speaker 2: Uh Bubba and Tommy and who else? Uh ah rufus.
Speaker 1: Ruf rufous, that's the last one, I promise.
Speaker 2: He said, what what do you reckon? If we uh?
Speaker 2: If we get around there and they they're they're whispering
Speaker 2: because they don't They don't want the man on the
Speaker 2: mat to know what they're about to do.
Speaker 1: Don't tell everybody all your plans.
Speaker 2: Just sometimes sometimes you just got to do stuff. You
Speaker 2: don't always ask permission. Sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness.
Speaker 2: What if we what if we went up? I know
Speaker 2: we can't get in, so what if we went up?
Speaker 2: Sometimes you gotta change levels. You let me get behind
Speaker 2: my pulpit. Sometimes the reason you can't get in that
Speaker 2: door is because it wasn't your door. God is calling
Speaker 2: you higher.
Speaker 1: Who am I preaching to?
Speaker 2: Sometimes the reason you got rejected is because it was
Speaker 2: the wrong level of relationship. And if those people would
Speaker 2: have liked you, it would have actually limited. I'm caffeinated today.
Speaker 2: High five. Somebody say go higher. Come on, when they
Speaker 2: go low, we go high. He's calling me higher. So
Speaker 2: they go up and they do not find a door.
Speaker 2: They make a door. Have you ever had to make
Speaker 2: your own door? Nobody gave me money to start this church.
Speaker 2: Nobody sponsored me officially, I wish they would have, but
Speaker 2: you know, I'm kind of glad they didn't because I
Speaker 2: had to learn how to dig. And sometimes one of
Speaker 2: the greatest things that can happen to you in your
Speaker 2: life is to be turned away at the front door
Speaker 2: because you discover another door. Somebody shot there's another door.
Speaker 2: This is not the normal door. This is not for
Speaker 2: normal people. This is not for people who want to
Speaker 2: quit because the Wi fi was a little slow, or
Speaker 2: skip church because it was forty three degrees. No, this
Speaker 2: is for the people who have determined. Somebody shot up determined.
Speaker 2: Now we have a fruit through view of faith. We
Speaker 2: think of faith as being something to fall back on.
Speaker 1: Not Mark.
Speaker 2: Mark mentions faith four times in his Gospel, and none
Speaker 2: of them represent an attitude.
Speaker 1: They always represent actions.
Speaker 2: Faith to Mark is something you can see. Actually, it's
Speaker 2: something that you can see in response to something that
Speaker 2: you cannot see. Faith is the substance of things hoped
Speaker 2: for and the evidence of things not seen. So it
Speaker 2: is something that you can see in response to a
Speaker 2: hope that you can't see. That's a series right there,
Speaker 2: there's another door.
Speaker 1: There's another door.
Speaker 2: And when Jesus verse five saw saw their faith not
Speaker 2: heard their faith. It wasn't that they talked about how
Speaker 2: much they trusted God, it's that they refuse to go
Speaker 2: home that easy. Yeah, I'll tell you this real quick,
Speaker 2: just a little side thing.
Speaker 1: Me and Chris were turning to write a song.
Speaker 2: The other day, and I said, I know this is
Speaker 2: the fifty first revision on this song, but I want
Speaker 2: the devil to know I'm gonna keep coming because I
Speaker 2: feel like we're supposed to finish this song. Chris Brown
Speaker 2: looked back at me and said, if that joker doesn't
Speaker 2: know that by now about us, he hadn't been paying attention.
Speaker 2: Because I'm gonna tell you something. I'm not always the smartest,
Speaker 2: but I don't turn around the first time somebody tells
Speaker 2: me you can't come in this story. That's just not
Speaker 2: how I'm wired.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: It's fine, it's fine. If you don't like me, you
Speaker 2: don't have to, but I'll find somebody who does. It's fine.
Speaker 2: Some people when I started Elevation didn't want to come
Speaker 2: because they said it was a cult. And that's fine,
Speaker 2: but I'll find another way. See if you just got
Speaker 2: four good friends, just four good friends, and sometimes if
Speaker 2: you don't have four, father son Holy Spirit and me.
Speaker 2: That's four. We're gonna do this. Those boys, those boys
Speaker 2: were like, we ain't going home. He's heavy. No, no,
Speaker 2: no sermon. We will put him up on that roof
Speaker 2: and we're gonna dig through that mud and we're gonna
Speaker 2: make a door.
Speaker 1: We're gonna make a door.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get through to my kid, one way or another.
Speaker 2: I'm not just gonna give up on him. Not that easy.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna find a way to get through. I might
Speaker 2: have to shut up. I might have to speak up.
Speaker 2: If that doesn't work, I'll do the other. I might
Speaker 2: have to hug him. I might have to hit I
Speaker 2: might have to try some different ways. But now we
Speaker 2: come to the to the door on the ceiling. There's
Speaker 2: another door. If you can't get in the front door,
Speaker 2: go up, it says another door. You gotta make it.
Speaker 2: It's to look like a door. You got to dig
Speaker 2: through it. There's a door, but you can't see it.
Speaker 2: It's not visible, it's not something you can see. It
Speaker 2: takes faith. If faith is something you can see in
Speaker 2: response to something that you can't see. So make a door,
Speaker 2: make a door, Make a door. Tet so much, say,
Speaker 2: make a door and make a door, make a door,
Speaker 2: and make a door, and Jesus respected their carpentry. Jesus
Speaker 2: liked their work. He actually in verse five, he's preaching
Speaker 2: and there's a distraction overhead. Now he's not even healing
Speaker 2: this day. It's not even on his agenda to see
Speaker 2: sick people. Some of life's greatest opportunities are not always obvious,
Speaker 2: and some of God's greatest invitations will.
Speaker 1: Show up in the form of interruptions.
Speaker 2: And he's preaching, and he's probably doing a really good job,
Speaker 2: just going off context cluse. He is the word, so
Speaker 2: if he preaches what he is, it's probably pretty good.
Speaker 1: Got a big.
Speaker 2: Crowd, and all of a sudden, Peter says something Matthew
Speaker 2: doesn't say.
Speaker 1: Matthew describes the incident.
Speaker 2: Heh he simplifies in Matthew nine, verse two, Matthew says,
Speaker 2: some men brought to him a paralytic lying on the mat.
Speaker 2: When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
Speaker 2: what did Matthew leave out the fact that they ripped
Speaker 2: off this dude's roof. It sounds so nice when Matthew
Speaker 2: says it, It just looks so easy. And they brought
Speaker 2: their friend, and Jesus healed them.
Speaker 1: Now something, did you hear that.
Speaker 2: Jesus is preaching? You know?
Speaker 3: Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts
Speaker 3: them in PHPs like a wise man to builds house
Speaker 3: on the rock.
Speaker 2: Ranking down streams rows when blue begets that house, he
Speaker 2: didn'tvolvek that foundation on the rock. And right about the
Speaker 2: time he's right about the time he's making his point,
Speaker 2: here comes a sound. Remember that Mark is writing what
Speaker 2: Peter told him to write. And consider that most scholars
Speaker 2: believe that it was Peter's house that Jesus was preaching at.
Speaker 2: So Matthew remembered the healing, Peter remembered the roof. It's
Speaker 2: funny to me, it's perspective. Did you hear that? Keep preaching,
Speaker 2: keep preaching, keep preaching. We're gonna check it out. But
Speaker 2: about the time that the dirt starts falling from the
Speaker 2: from the mud on the ceiling, are you willing to
Speaker 2: get your hands dirty, by the way, or are you
Speaker 2: too afraid to mess up your manicure to go after
Speaker 2: your miracle? I could preach manicures or miracles. The choices yours,
Speaker 2: and they had to drop him. You can't get him
Speaker 2: all the way down, and here comes the dirt, and
Speaker 2: here comes the man.
Speaker 1: We'll call him Matt. We don't know his thing.
Speaker 2: Jesus says, I like your style, boys. That's what I
Speaker 2: did when I came down, through your dirt, through your shame,
Speaker 2: through your sin. I like it boys.
Speaker 1: And now.
Speaker 2: Rufus and Bubba, Willie and Jimmy all looking in. Now
Speaker 2: what's going to happen next? And Jesus leans down and
Speaker 2: says to the man, son, your sins are forgiven. And
Speaker 2: Willie says, what did he say? And Jimmy says, sounded
Speaker 2: like he says something about sins. And Willie says, did
Speaker 2: he say anything about healing? And Jimmy says, no, just
Speaker 2: something about sins. And Rufus says, that's good that he
Speaker 2: forgave his sins. But ken he fix his legs too
Speaker 2: while he's at it. Because they did not bring the
Speaker 2: man before Jesus to get him forgiven. They brought him
Speaker 2: before Jesus to get him healed. So the question is
Speaker 2: what do you do when God bypasses what you want
Speaker 2: to give you what you need. The most obvious thing
Speaker 2: to do is to heal the man, But sometimes before
Speaker 2: God can do what is obvious and change your situation,
Speaker 2: he wants to work within you so that when He
Speaker 2: changes your situation, you will be ready.
Speaker 1: To receive that.
Speaker 2: In the Jewish mind, sin and suffering were highly connected,
Speaker 2: so it was often assumed that if you were suffering,
Speaker 2: it was because of sin. Jesus dispels this in John
Speaker 2: chapter nine, when the man born blind was declared to
Speaker 2: be not a sinner, but blind so that the works
Speaker 2: of God and the glory of God might be revealed.
Speaker 2: We can't always connect situations with behavior. Yet it's something
Speaker 2: that he said, before I do anything for you, I
Speaker 2: want to do something in you. And that's where it
Speaker 2: takes faith, because the substance of things hope for and
Speaker 2: the evidence of things not seen to know that God
Speaker 2: is working. And you know, I think God for in
Speaker 2: this passage. I think God that this man had friends
Speaker 2: who believed for him what he might not have been
Speaker 2: able to believe for himself.
Speaker 1: And if I were preaching this at.
Speaker 2: At what's it called now youth X used to be
Speaker 2: called student takeover. I can't keep up with all the names.
Speaker 2: I would preach the message around who are your four
Speaker 2: that's really important? Who are your four. You got to
Speaker 2: have the right four because the wrong four would have
Speaker 2: dropped him off at the door.
Speaker 1: But the right for we're willing to put him where
Speaker 1: he belonged.
Speaker 2: At the feet of Jesus. Now are they bringing you
Speaker 2: to Jesus or driving you away? But to me, they're
Speaker 2: not the primary heroes in the passage, because other than Jesus,
Speaker 2: the most important people in the passage are the people
Speaker 2: who doubted him. I want you to notice something, and
Speaker 2: please pay attention to this. It's going to revolutionize the
Speaker 2: way that you see some of your resentments in life.
Speaker 2: When Jesus saw what the friends did for the man,
Speaker 2: he forgave him. But the man was still on the
Speaker 2: mat when he heard the thoughts of the critics, or
Speaker 2: we might say haters. What the haters thought got the
Speaker 2: man healed. What his friends did got him forgiven what
Speaker 2: his haters thought got him healed. I thought I'd give
Speaker 2: you fifteen seconds to praise God for your haters. You
Speaker 2: might want to do it. Did anybody ever doubt you?
Speaker 2: Did anybody ever walk away from you? Did anybody ever
Speaker 2: stop supporting you? Did anybody ever walk away when it
Speaker 2: got a little tight? Thank God? Right? Now because sometimes
Speaker 2: God will use judas more than he uses theater. This
Speaker 2: is a messy message. This is a message for the
Speaker 2: people who are ready.
Speaker 4: To thank God. Not just for the ways he blesses me.
Speaker 4: That feel good, But I think it for my pain.
Speaker 4: I think it for my heartbreak. I thinking for my disappointment.
Speaker 4: I thank him for my opposition. That's the second door.
Speaker 4: It's the door of opposition. One time Paul said, I'm
Speaker 4: staying in ephesis a little while.
Speaker 2: And the reason I'm staying is not because the temperature
Speaker 2: is so great and the cuisine is so wonderful. I'm
Speaker 2: staying because there is a great and effective door of
Speaker 2: ministry that God has opened for me. And you know
Speaker 2: how I know there's an open door because there are
Speaker 2: many who oppose me. The reason that I know that
Speaker 2: God is blessing is because the enemy is so busy,
Speaker 2: and he would not be busy if God was not
Speaker 2: blessing me. Come on, I'm gonna give you one more chance.
Speaker 4: Thank him for the conflict, Thank him for the confusion.
Speaker 4: Thank him, thank him, thank him, think him. Thank him
Speaker 4: for the thorn his crisis sufficient, thank him for the loneliness.
Speaker 2: Thanked for the wilderness, taken for the nose. Somebody say, yes,
Speaker 2: if there had been no haters, he wouldn't have got you.
Speaker 2: If there had been no weakness, you wouldn't be strong.
Speaker 2: If there had been no resistance, you wouldn't be so resilient.
Speaker 2: There are many who oppose me, but the opposition, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna calm down and say it for all the intellectual people.
Speaker 2: The opposition proves the opportunity. Okay, investment terms, the really
Speaker 2: good investments you don't know about unless you have money.
Speaker 2: It's a barrier to entry. The investments that most of
Speaker 2: us can invest in are not the best investments. The
Speaker 2: best investments are reserved for people. Now, I'm saying this
Speaker 2: about money, but I mean it about battles and trials. See,
Speaker 2: the biggest battles are reserved for the people that God
Speaker 2: has his hand on, that he put a deposit in,
Speaker 2: and you cannot be defeated because if he opened the door,
Speaker 2: nobody can shut it. So quit blaming your haters and
Speaker 2: write them a thank you.
Speaker 1: No, remember that.
Speaker 2: Youth pastor that stood up at inside elevation. Were you
Speaker 2: in here? Anna? He said, there's a lot of critics.
Speaker 2: I'm just getting started in ministry what do I do
Speaker 2: about the critics? I said, That's what I said to him,
Speaker 2: said right there, right in that section, sit down this
Speaker 2: week and write three thank you notes to him.
Speaker 1: From experience, I know.
Speaker 2: That God will use some of that stuff to strip
Speaker 2: away your self sufficiency. And if everybody is clapping for you,
Speaker 2: the crowd is not always your friend.
Speaker 1: So write them a thank you note.
Speaker 2: Because honestly, every time we have a baptism in the church,
Speaker 2: I think about it because the only reason we do
Speaker 2: baptisms every week instead of two or three times a
Speaker 2: year like we did for years, is because of that
Speaker 2: new story that they ran about us, where they said
Speaker 2: we fake baptisms in the church.
Speaker 1: I still don't know exactly what a.
Speaker 2: Fake baptism looks like, but I don't care because it
Speaker 2: gave me an idea. If you're going to hit us
Speaker 2: at the point of our baptisms, what we'll do is
Speaker 2: not two or three times a year, But how about
Speaker 2: if every single week we put it in the devil's
Speaker 2: face that you can't stop when God opens a door.
Speaker 2: I don't even care what they say. Let's just let's
Speaker 2: while we're at it, let's ban the word hater. Because
Speaker 2: most of us don't have haters. We just have people
Speaker 2: who don't agree with us, and we label that haters. Okay,
Speaker 2: your coach is not your hater because he is not
Speaker 2: going to play you right now.
Speaker 1: Your coach is a trainer.
Speaker 2: He is teaching you that you are not good enough
Speaker 2: yet to get playing time. Timmy. The reason, the reason, Timmy,
Speaker 2: you're not playing, tim is because you're not a player yet.
Speaker 2: So thank your coach. He's not a hater. He's teaching
Speaker 2: you to be a player. So you need to thank
Speaker 2: that boss who was hard on you. My boss is
Speaker 2: a hater. No, you're late to work. Your boss is
Speaker 2: not a hater because she expects you to be on time.
Speaker 2: I saw a supervisor. Just give him some praise right
Speaker 2: there on the a throw and Valentine, thank God for it.
Speaker 2: Because the opposition is the opportunity. I'm so annointed to
Speaker 2: say this to you right now. It feels like a
Speaker 2: freight train. This word is coming through the roof, is
Speaker 2: coming through the teachers of the law. Jesus is preaching.
Speaker 2: Jesus is healing. Nothing can stop it. Jesus is preaching.
Speaker 2: Jesus is healing, nothing can stop it. And he uses
Speaker 2: the opposition to bring the man healing. Now, what is
Speaker 2: God using in your life right now that you are
Speaker 2: trying to get away from There's another door. There's another door,
Speaker 2: and this door, this door is called obedience. The first
Speaker 2: door is disappointment, the second one is opposition. This one
Speaker 2: is obedience, and it is the kind of obedience that
Speaker 2: has to trust God in an impossible situation. See what
Speaker 2: the friends did got the man forgiven, but there was
Speaker 2: something that he had to do to be healed. And
Speaker 2: it is by grace we are saying through faith. It's
Speaker 2: the gift of God. It's not of works, but faith
Speaker 2: expresses itself in works. Please don't sleep on me, brother,
Speaker 2: this is very important. It is your faith express Jesus said,
Speaker 2: so that they may know who I am. It's not
Speaker 2: even about you anymore. And it's not about your dysfunction,
Speaker 2: and it's not about your limitation, not anymore. This is
Speaker 2: bigger than you. So I want you to do what
Speaker 2: you can't do. I want you to do what you've
Speaker 2: never been able to do. And the proof of my
Speaker 2: presence is going to be in enabling you to do
Speaker 2: something practical. Get up, take that thing that they carried
Speaker 2: you in and lowered you down on what you came
Speaker 2: in on. You're going out with, but instead of it
Speaker 2: holding you, you'll.
Speaker 1: Be holding it.
Speaker 2: Help me, God, help me right now, because somebody's still
Speaker 2: lying on that mat. And you got resurrection power on
Speaker 2: the inside of you. It's on the inside of you,
Speaker 2: but you got to walk it out. That man came
Speaker 2: in through the roof, but he left out the same
Speaker 2: door that they wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Let him through when he got there.
Speaker 2: And what I'm declaring today by the spirit of God
Speaker 2: is if you will get up, you can get up.
Speaker 2: If you will forgive, you can forgive, if you will
Speaker 2: be whole. I'm not saying the mat will go away.
Speaker 2: I'm saying that you will not spend the rest of
Speaker 2: your life lying down on it and blaming others for
Speaker 2: the condition that you're in. So get up in front
Speaker 2: of all of these other people. Think about the courage
Speaker 2: that this demonstration requires. Because the people that are watching
Speaker 2: this man are not even cheering for him. They don't
Speaker 2: even like the fact that he interrupted the service, and
Speaker 2: that Jesus thinks he can forgive him. So now he
Speaker 2: has to get up and walk in front of people
Speaker 2: who don't want him to. Now he has to get
Speaker 2: up and take his first steps. When most of us
Speaker 2: took our first steps, somebody was cheering us on. But
Speaker 2: he has to do it in the face of conflict.
Speaker 2: He has to do it in the face of doubt.
Speaker 2: He has to do it in the face of critics.
Speaker 2: He has to do it in the face of people
Speaker 2: who didn't even want him in the room. And I wonder,
Speaker 2: are you willing today in the face of adversity, in.
Speaker 4: The face of weakness, in the face of everything that has.
Speaker 2: Been against your entire family, our whole life. Will you
Speaker 2: get up? Will you?
Speaker 1: Will you become a door.
Speaker 2: When God wants to show people who he is, he
Speaker 2: picks somebody with an issue.
Speaker 5: And he wants to show who he is through you.
Speaker 5: Somebody say, there's another door. This is the door of revelation.
Speaker 5: And the people were not amazed when the roof came off.
Speaker 5: They were amazed when the man got up.
Speaker 2: They were not amazed even by Jesus's preaching. They were
Speaker 2: amazed by the man's demonstration. And there are some of
Speaker 2: you that are about to become a door for people
Speaker 2: to see Jesus through your life. And here's who He's
Speaker 2: gonna pick. The people who were paralyzed, who have made
Speaker 2: a decision.
Speaker 1: I may not be able to get.
Speaker 2: Rid of my issue, but my issue is not keeping
Speaker 2: me from Jesus. See, there's another door. And when you've
Speaker 2: done all that you can do, and you've tried all
Speaker 2: that you know to try, and self help isn't helping,
Speaker 2: and people have stopped believing in you a long time ago,
Speaker 2: and truth be told, you've given up on yourself. But
Speaker 2: God called me to be like those four men and
Speaker 2: carry you today and put you at the feet of Jesus.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you about Jesus. Jesus is not your
Speaker 2: average preacher. He is the Way, the truth, and the life.
Speaker 2: He is the Resurrection, He is the good Shepherd. He
Speaker 2: is the true Vine. And in John chapter ten, verse nine,
Speaker 2: when he got ready to say who he wants, he said,
Speaker 2: I am the door. So if you want to come in,
Speaker 2: come on in. If religion locked you out, come on in.
Speaker 1: If your sin.
Speaker 2: Kept you out, come on in. I am the door.
Speaker 2: And because I'm the door, nothing can come into your
Speaker 2: life without first going through me. So I've allowed some
Speaker 2: things in your life that you don't like right now,
Speaker 2: but don't let them paralyze you another day, because all
Speaker 2: I'm asking you to do is walk through this door.
Speaker 2: That's all I'm asking you to do. I'm not asking
Speaker 2: you to be perfect, but I do expect progress. I
Speaker 2: am the door. Your ex husband is not your dad
Speaker 2: who wasn't there is not your own opinion of yourself
Speaker 2: is not. I am the door. And when I open
Speaker 2: the door in your life, no mistake, no sickness, no situation,
Speaker 2: even if they roll a stone to seal the entrance
Speaker 2: on Friday, I am the door. And when I speak
Speaker 2: up the resurrection power come. My praise is a door give.
Speaker 4: There's some praise right now.
Speaker 2: Don't you miss this moment? Assist the door. Stand up
Speaker 2: at every location. No one leaving shut those doors. There's
Speaker 2: another door. And the Lord gave me this message as
Speaker 2: an announcement, not as an intellectually stimulating conversation or amount
Speaker 2: of log for your entertainment purposes. But you are standing
Speaker 2: at an open door, and the door is open. But
Speaker 2: it's not always obvious. It doesn't look like a door,
Speaker 2: does It looks like a ceiling, looks like disappointment, looks
Speaker 2: like looks like teachers of the law, looks like opposition.
Speaker 2: It looks like a command to do something you can't do.
Speaker 2: It looks like obedience. It looks like Jesus. It looks
Speaker 2: like revelation. It looks like the word made flesh. This
Speaker 2: is your door. This is your door, This is your door.
Speaker 2: I know it didn't work out the way you plan.
Speaker 2: I understand that. I know it's disappointing. That's fine. Be disappointed,
Speaker 2: but don't die in it. Don't die at an open door.
Speaker 2: Something on the other side. There's another door. There's another door. Yes, Lord,
Speaker 2: I'll say it again, there's another door. It might not
Speaker 2: be who you expected, what you expected, when you expected.
Speaker 1: How you expected. There's another door.
Speaker 2: Fill your horn with oil and be on your way.
Speaker 2: For the one who has the key of bath and
Speaker 2: says what I open, no man can shut.
Speaker 1: And behold.
Speaker 2: Jesus said, I stand at the door. That's me knocking.
Speaker 2: That's me trying to get your attention through the circumstances
Speaker 2: of your life. That's me. And if you open it,
Speaker 2: I will come in, heads bowed, eyes closed. There's somebody
Speaker 2: in this place who needs a relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's him at the door.
Speaker 2: That's not a preacher, that's not an emotion that's the
Speaker 2: spirit of God. Heads bowed, eyes closed. Right now, if
Speaker 2: you're far away from God, you hear him knocking on
Speaker 2: your heart today he wants to come in. All you
Speaker 2: have to do is believe it's my grace through faith.
Speaker 1: Faith opens the door.
Speaker 2: So with hedge about and eyes closed on every location,
Speaker 2: I'm going to lead you in a prayer right now.
Speaker 2: If you want to come home to God or come
Speaker 2: to Him.
Speaker 1: For the first time, this is your moment. This is
Speaker 1: your door.
Speaker 2: All praying together as a church family, repeat after me,
Speaker 2: Heavenly Father. I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
Speaker 2: and today I make Jesus the Lord of my life.
Speaker 2: I believe in my heart that God raised him from
Speaker 2: the dead, and I confess with my mouth that Jesus
Speaker 2: is Lord, and I believe I am saved. This is
Speaker 2: my new beginning. With head still bout and eyes still closed.
Speaker 2: If you just prayed that on the count of three,
Speaker 2: shoot your hand up boldly, come forth, one, two, three,
Speaker 2: all over this room, all over our campuses, all over
Speaker 2: Lake Norman, all over Matthew's online. Right now, let's glorify
Speaker 2: God for this new beginning. Somebody just step through and
Speaker 2: open door. Somebody just stepped into a resurrected future. I
Speaker 2: can't hear your church. Let's praise God like somebody just
Speaker 2: came running back home. Thank you for joining us. Special
Speaker 2: thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 2: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
Speaker 2: can click the link in the description to give now
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.