You know, when I see statistics about the number of people that die everyday; when I see those numbers I just wonder; what would God do if we would just see the reality of people that we know right now, that maybe next week, or maybe next month, or maybe next year, that we may not ever have the chance to share Jesus with them again. And in these days we’re talking about, what does it mean to have an ’Only God’ life? I was thinking about my life and how I came to Christ twenty years ago in 1988. I came to Christ, and like some of you, my heart was broken and I genuinely wanted to go tell people about God. I mean, do you know that feeling when you just, when there’s that sense in you?
Well, God would bring people in my life and would, you know, kind of share with some of them. But there was this one guy, his name was Doug, I never shared with him. I mean, God would give me opportunities. I would run into him at a restaurant and I’d share something with him; and he’d talk and I’d feel the spirit of God, kind of encouraging me, "Tell him about Me," and I’m like, "Next time." Then we’d run into each other again and it’d be like, "Next time." We went to junior high, elementary school, and high school together so it wasn’t like we didn’t know each other, but we weren’t like super close. We were really good, kind of, acquaintances. But I’d run into him, and I really believe God has these divine appointments in all of our lives; and how many times do we say, "Next time." Why is it that we can’t see people in a way that’s real about them; that everyone is someone that will spend eternity somewhere?
Well, it was about a couple years into being a Christian, and all of a sudden I ran into his brother; not him, his brother David. I said, "Oh dude, I haven’t seen...how’s your brother Doug?" He does a one-eighty and says, "Dude, you haven’t heard? My brother died." I made a commitment at that point: One, I was just riddled with guilt as you could imagine, but I made a commitment that I would never again, to the best of my ability, with the Spirit and the strength of God, I just made this kind of thing with God, "I will never miss another opportunity for You for eternity." God agitated my heart with what I call, ’holy agitation’ and I said, "I’m never going to miss again a chance to tell someone about God."
You see, we all have relationships and God wants us to bring those people to Him. It’s one thing to say we’re an ’Only God’ church, but I want you to have an ’Only God’ life. I want us all to, in this moment right now, just bow our heads, and we’re going to spend just a minute and I want you to think, ’who’s the person for you?’ Who’s the one person you say, "Next time," about? Who’s the brother you’ve said, "You know, they’re never going to come to God." You know, you’ve kind of given up on them?
I want you to get that person in your heart right now. I want you to get that person in your mind right now and I want you to see a picture of them; and I want to ask you, will you believe for them? Will you have faith, right now, that God could save their life? Would you do that? And would you tell God kind of, "I will do whatever it takes." Maybe it’s a husband, maybe it’s a wife. Maybe it’s somebody, as students, you go to school with and there’s this person that God keeps, somehow, making this divine appointment.
I want you to pray right now with me and commit these names that are in your minds, that are written on the heart of God; and when we have broken hearts, we will have breakthrough faith. When our hearts are shattered by the reality that the story is real, that you were a sinner redeemed by the blood of Christ. When that reality sinks deep into your heart, not much else will ever matter than telling people about this unthinkable love.
PRAYER: Father, I want to pray right now. You know, I think about God, if you had a list, a bucket list of, it would absolutely be people. You can’t read the story of the Bible and miss that You always were about people. You can’t say that you’re mature in your faith and say that the people that matter to you, that you know, that we know, that may not be here next week, or next month, or next year. So I pray that the words, ’next time’, or ’tomorrow’, that we wouldn’t have in our vocabulary. That we would take ’today’, and we would take ’today’, and we would allow our hearts to be broken ’today’, and we would have a faith that’s breakthrough faith ’today’, for You and only You God. That you would do what only You can do God, as we bring people into the presence of Jesus; that there would be this kind of subtle revolution that would just kind of turn the world upside down. Because we would be people that are free from religion, and are pursuing a relationship with the God that put breath in our bodies. I thank You for this, in Jesus name, amen, amen...
If you have a Bible, turn with me to Mark chapter two. I want to take you to a story in the Bible that’s familiar. You all know the story, you’ve read it, you’ve heard about it. It’s a story of desperate faith. When people ask me, what’s the one story in the whole New Testament; what’s the story in the Bible that you think is really like Living Hope? What would it be? And I would say, this is the story that best depicts who we are. It’s the story of total creativity; it’s the story of friendship; it’s the story of being intentional and being invitational; it’s the story of courage. It’s the story of people who were courageous, but also contagious in their faith. It’s the story of people who were messed up, especially Living Hope Church.
The story centers itself in a town named Capernaum. Capernaum was on the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum was a city that was a fishing village of about a thousand people. Capernaum was a city that, if you lived there? There were no secrets; everybody knew everything about you. Capernaum was this place where, a lot of miracles of Jesus actually happened in, or close to, Capernaum. Do you know what the name for Capernaum means? ’Village of comfort’.
So here’s this story, and Jesus is in a house. Scholars believe that maybe it’s Peter’s mother-in-law’s house that Jesus was at. But ahead of the story it says, "A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. "If you want to, You can make me well again," he said. Moved with pity, Jesus touched him. "I want to," He said, "Be healed." Instantly the leprosy disappeared,"[Mark 1:40-42]. It says, "He sent him on his way," and by Jewish law he had to present himself to a priest to be declared cleansed, or clean. "And Jesus says, "Don’t tell anybody what I did."" [Mark 1:43-44]
Now, I always wondered, and one of my first questions would be like, "Why did you tell people that Jesus?" Because the very thing He told them not to do? It’s sort of like telling your kids, "No more cookies," right? "But as the man went on his way, he was telling everyone what had happened to him. As a result, such crowds soon surrounded Jesus, that He couldn’t enter a town anywhere, publicly." [v. 45] See, I believe we’re the bride of Christ, and we have the Gospel and the Good News of Jesus. So wouldn’t it be true that every church around this globe would be packed because we’re sharing the message of God, and people are so amazed.
So then you think about that, and then several days later the Bible says in Mark chapter two. "Several days later, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and the news of His arrival spread quickly thru the town. Soon the house where He was staying was packed with visitors, that there wasn’t room for one more person; not even outside the door. And He preached the word to them." [Mark 2:1-3] Now here’s Jesus in a house that would have held fifty, sixty, maybe seventy people. And in that day, you’ll see as we read on in the Scriptures, the way they did things was different. So the Rabbi would sit, and the people would kind of gather around, and stand and listen. So here’s Jesus talking and sharing in a crowded room with people hanging on His every word.
If you want to reach people, do you know what it’s going to begin with? It’s going to begin with you being willing to have your life be interrupted for God. You’ve got to be willing to have your life get a little messy for God; you’ve got to be willing to take risks for God. I call it ’desperation’. Do you know the definition for desperate? To show extreme urgency or intensity, because of a great need or desire.
Can I ask you a question? What are you desperate for, or who are you desperate for? Because aren’t we all really desperate for something, and isn’t desperation something we all have experienced, something that we all know? If you’re a brand new business owner, you wake up thinking about your business; if you’re a brand new married couple, and on your honeymoon you, well, you know, fill the blank in on that one.
So, here’s this house and it’s packed. People are out the front door, wanting to see and wanting to hear this Rabbi. Jesus said, "I’m coming;" and Matthew eleven, "My yoke is different, my burden’s light. I’m not going to put this heavy burden of the law on you;" and they wanted that. They were under the law, they were under this total system of religion and Jesus is like, "No, no, no, it’s not going to be like that." So people gathered, and people loved Him.
You know it’s funny, when I talk to people about spiritual things, people never ever, have a problem with Jesus. They mostly have a problem with Christians. I don’t know, but I think sometimes we want to add to and give people the ’God list’, and give them the expectation thing; and Jesus just loved people right where they were at. He went right to them and it was less about waiting for them to come to Him, and more about Jesus going to them and ministering to them right where they were at.
The next part of the story is just awesome. It says, "Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat." Let’s just get this picture in our heads. The crowd, they’re all rushing to hear Christ. They hear Jesus is going to talk, that He’s going to teach, so they all want to get there to hear it. They want to be healed or whatever, and so they’ve got their thing and they’re getting ready to go, and there’s these guys holding this friend of theirs on a mat. Let me tell you, there was no recovery, there was no rehab, there was no surgery in the ancient world. If you were born paralyzed, you stayed that way for your entire life. This man’s whole life existed on one piece of real estate, a three-foot-by-six-foot mat.
Now, this guy had nothing of value in the physical, but you know what I suggest to you today? He may have had nothing, but he had everything because he had friendship. He had people that cared about him enough to carry their friend to Jesus Christ. Did it cost them? Definitely. It cost them, right? Who for you, carried you to Christ? For me, my mat, someone asked me last night like, "Who was your mat carrier?" You know, for me it was my wife, Dave, Duane. I mean, somehow I had several people that when I look back, "Yeah, they were the ones that loved me when I was just kind of a ’puke head’ guy.
If you were a paralytic, your life would have been that of a beggar; literally, your life was dependent on what other people would do for you. No job, no influence, no family, no future, but friendship. Friends, who carried you to Christ? Who was the one that invited you to church? Have you ever paused to really think about the person that took a risk? There’s, maybe it’s a Mom that brought you, maybe it’s a Mom that loved you as a prodigal son or daughter. They loved you and that was their way of carrying you. Maybe it’s a husband or wife? You’ve just prayed for your husband or your wife, but nothing seems to change. I tell people, "You can say a lot when saying nothing. Tell them about Jesus, just use as few words as you can." Who did that for you?
So here’s this guy, and his friends are moving him and they wanted to get their friend in front of Jesus to be healed. I mean, they had already seen the guy with leprosy just a few days earlier in this story, so they wanted to have their friend healed, and isn’t that the truth? "Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places, yet people still came to see Him from everywhere." [Mark 1:45] Verse forty-five of chapter one of Mark. Why? To be healed!
Think about who brought you? Your marriage is healed because someone carried you to Jesus Christ? You’ve just got to pause and ask, who carried the mat for you? Who stood in the gap for you? Who prayed for you? Now then, just let me kind of turn, who’s mat are you carrying? Who’s the person in your life that you’ve been thinking about, that needs Jesus so much -- and you’ve given up praying for. Who’s the one in your life right now? Students; you go to school with someone, and I’ll just tell you as students? You fight the whole God thing because you want popularity. You know what I say? Forget popularity and put God first. You know, who cares about being popular. When the day’s over, all the people that you think are so whatever right now in your world? That’s a different sermon.
The fact is, we need to seize the moment today, and talk to your friends today, and tell them about Jesus today. Because if you do the ’next time’ thing? I did the ’next time’ thing, and for me, I look back on Doug and I wonder all the time, "Where is he right now?" I want to ask you a question, who is it for you friends? Can you get a picture, can you get them in your mind, and their name?
So these friends, not only were they great friends, but check out what happens next. "They couldn’t get to Jesus through the front door, though the crowd," this is verse four. "So they dug through the clay roof above His head and lowered the sick man on his mat right down in front of Jesus." [Mark 2:4] That is like a weird, crazy, wicked verse.
Here’s Jesus, I mean in our day, it’d be like this: Here you are doing a Bible study and all the people are gathered; and all of a sudden you know, sheet rock starts to fall, insulation starts to fall, and Jesus is sitting there like, "Whoa dude, what is going on? What is..." And all of a sudden it’s like, and can I just say, how big was the hole, and did they hurt him pushing him thru the hole? And was it like, "Oh, the hole, we can’t get you, alright go! We got to get (stomp) you (stomp) you got to get down (stomp) to see (stomp) Jesus! And you know like, his arm’s like, his arms all twisted and they’re like, "Don’t worry about your arm, Jesus is going to heal the whole body! (Laughter) No worries!"
They lowered him down and Jesus is like, you know, down like this level (on one knee), all of a sudden squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak... "Hey buddy, how’s it going?" And he’s like, "Jesus, I just dropped in to say hi! I just wanted to be healed." I mean, you know, that is desperation, is it not? His friends stayed on the roof and they never got to come in, but they loved someone enough to do whatever it took to get them in front of Christ. Can I suggest, can we be a church that will do that more? Let’s be a church that will do whatever it takes to reach more people for Jesus Christ. Let’s be a church that will be willing to risk all that we have, will risk all that we are to see more people come to Christ.
And you know, can I just say, it’s messy! And what was the homeowner thinking? Did they have a home owner’s insurance policy like ’Jerusalem First’? Allstate(r) maybe started there, I don’t know; ’Palestinian Insurance’, I don’t know? All I know is that it’s a mess; sometimes it’s a mess to get people to Christ. But can I just suggest, it’s a lot messier not to. Don’t chose safe, the village of comfort; don’t chose comfort friends. Chose to do whatever it will take, and I’ll tell you where it begins, because so many of you are like, "What do I do?" When your heart is broken by the things that break God’s heart, your faith will be breakthrough for God.
When your heart is broken; you have to be broken. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this, it’s this theory called ’The Broken Window Theory’. You have to be broken, and then you have to begin to hate what’s broken. You have to kind of begin to have a ’holy agitation’ in your life, where you’re just not content knowing people will spend eternity in hell; where you’re not content with it, you’re not cool with it, you become kind of ’holy agitated’ by the whole idea.
I’ve been praying all weekend that people will have a new reality. That when they see God, and when they see what ’Only God’ can do? That it will change how we see people. The more you see God, the more you have an increasing vision and the more you’ll have decreasing options; and the more you will see people for how much they matter to God. You can’t grow in your faith, you can’t grow spiritually, and not care about people; you can’t do it. Because when you look at scripture, all through it, you can’t not see how much one lost person matters to God.
Jesus told a ton of parables; thirty-something parables. But only one time did He bank-shot them, back-to-back-to-back; the exact same story. In Luke fifteen, and you know the story: The shepherd that left the ninety-nine to go after the one lost sheep; the woman that had nine coins, but she turned her house upside down to find the one; or the father that had one son at home, but he was so about the one that was lost.
You see, increasing vision will decrease your options; and when you get this holy agitation that you’re willing to go out of your way to reach people for God? People that are leaders in industries, medical professions, construction fields, business owners; let me just ask you, do you think that it’s just about the business that you’re in? Do you think it’s the eight-to-five thing friends? Or, could you start to see your job, your place of employment, where you go to school, as your mission field? You are the salt of the earth. You, my friends, are the light to the world, and we’ve got to do better at being more intentional; and be more courageous. And when our hearts are broken, we will have breakthrough faith, it will happen. We’ve got to become roof-crashing kind of people.
I also want to say there’s no up-front plan and you can’t say, "Okay, I’m going to go to work tomorrow and talk to Rod about his faith, and I’m going to do this; and if he says "no" I’m going to throw a tract on his desk, and I’m going to put a big banner up and you know, "Have Jesus or die!" I mean, you know, you don’t need to get a plan, you just need to be available to what God wants you to do.
These men had no plan. All they had was, they just had a passion to see their friend healed. And the best part, and this is the part that’s just so fascinating. Verse five says, "Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "My son, your sins are forgiven."" [Mark 2:5] "Seeing their faith..." You see, the person in your life, the person that you work with? Have the faith that God could heal their life. Have the faith that God could forgive their sins. The contractors that you have associations with? Have you ever shared about God with them?
"Some of the religious leaders of the day, teachers of the religious law who were sitting there said to themselves, "What? This is blasphemy!"[Mark 2:6] Verse seven, "Who but God can forgive sins?"[v. 7] See, they would have known that nobody could say your sins are forgiven, nobody has that right to say that! "Jesus knew what they were discussing among themselves so He said to them, "Why do you think, it’s blasphemy? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man, "Your sins are forgiven," or, "Get up, pick up your Mac(r) and...your mat and walk."" [vs. 8-9] Your Mac, pick up your Mac... Pick up your laptop and go.
Verse ten, "I will prove that I, the Son of Man, have the authority on earth to forgive sins." [v.10] In other words, translated? "I am God," Jesus says to them. "And He turns to the paralyzed man and says, ’Stand up, take your mat, and go home because you are healed.’" [vs.10-11] You see, what he wanted was his body healed. He got that, but what Jesus always wants to do first is, He wants to free your soul; He wants to reconcile your spirit to God; He wants to secure that whole thing about eternity with your friends. The physical healing thing? It’s almost an after-thought. "Your sins are forgiven. What? What are you guys saying? Get your mat, walk. Go home. Anyway guys, let’s go ahead and keep teaching."
And the Bible says, "That they were stunned. The man jumped up, took the mat, pushed his way thru the stunned crowd, the stunned on-lookers." [v.12] Wouldn’t you be stunned? I mean, some guy you’ve walked past, probably haven’t given any money to or whatever, for all these years and all of a sudden. You’re watching this and you’re like... think about his muscles. Did he just like, I mean, he was probably like eighty-five, like Jack LaLaine (c) in shape or whatever, right? Because Jesus like, healed him! Then he gets up and he walks -- they were stunned. May I suggest, I want us to live lives where we are leading such ’Only God’ lives that people that see us are stunned. And the Bible goes on to say, "And they all praised God, and they said, "We’ve never seen anything like this before."" [v.12] I want to be a part of a church, where I hear stories, where you’re reaching people and you’re risking.
We’re going to be a roof-crashing church, because for us it’s about the message. And it’s going to be messy, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to reach people. It’s just as simple as that for me. And I really believe, there’s not six and seven and ten purposes, or things that we ought to be doing. There’s one thing that matters to God, and it’s people. There’s only three things that will be in heaven: God’s word, God, and people. And you have students that you go to school with that matter to God; that maybe will never have anyone tell them about God unless you do. Because when you carry people to Jesus, and Jesus does what only He can do, and then everyone looks stunned and they praise God in the process. And we all get to say, "Only God."
What’s God calling you to do, friends? I don’t want to live in the village of comfort, it’s not a cool place to be. We have to intentional, we have to be creative, and it will be messy. But it will be messier not to reach our friends for Christ. It will be messier to somehow, put our heads in the sand and do the Chicken Little thing and say, "I don’t want to talk to them about Jesus!" Do it friends! Be desperate for your friends, reach them for Christ. Love them, accept them, and bring them to Jesus, and you won’t regret it.
What I love most about being part of this church is, when someone comes to Christ; because someone carried your mat, they carried you to Jesus. Then I love seeing someone else, when they’re healed...Do you think that that paralyzed guy, let me ask you, do you think he ever forgot that day? I want to take you back to the moment that your heart was broken by God. Students, some of you, your heart was broken and you realize the story’s real. I want to take you back to that moment where you, you were amazed by what God did.
And somehow, you were brought to the reality that it wasn’t about church attendance, and it wasn’t about what you did good, and it wasn’t about whatever. It was about God stepped out of heaven in the form of His son Jesus Christ; that He walked on this earth, that He was stripped naked and He was beaten beyond human recognition; that He was nailed to a cross, and hung there for six hours. That that moment that you said, "You’ve got to be kidding me, the story is real?" And they took Jesus off the cross and they buried Him in a borrowed grave; and then three days later He says, "Death will not win the day," and then He hands the whole thing over to His disciples who’d all abandoned Him, all walked out on Him. He says, "You will be, I will build My church on you Peter, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." [Matthew 16:18] And now today, two thousand years later, here we sit, being a church.
Friends, the church is the hope of our community, it’s the hope of the world. But let me tell you, it’s continuance lies in your hands; it’s renewal lies in your hands; and the people that you know, are people that matter to God. What will you do about it? I pray that God just does a holy kind of a Kenmore® agitation thing in your heart. That you can’t sleep until you take seriously the call of God to do what He’s asked you to do.
You know, it’s a story... We’re a church that started eleven years ago with five families. No advertising, no strategic plan. Literally, one messy living room at a time, breaking thru broken hearts, resulting in breakthrough faith, just one story at a time. Campuses were never a part, "Oh, let’s just start all the campuses;" we just ran out of room. Sometimes God just will give me a story where I’ll just remember it, and it just helps me kind of continue, kind of fighting this fight that God’s called us to together. It’s a war, and you can choose to focus on the roof that’s broken, or you can choose to focus on the person that matters to God. We all have the choice to focus on what’s temporary, or what’s eternal. Do you know what? Don’t worry about what’s bugging you; let the fact that lost people matter to God bug you more.
I haven’t preached for a couple weeks and I’m making up for it. I’m sorry, but I’m just so excited, and you know what I’m most excited about? When God puts it on a student’s heart to do something, God will give you what His dream is for your life and He’ll tell you what it is. Your only job is to risk and be willing to be a little messy for it. He’ll tell you and we’ll do it, and God will be glorified; and people will be saved, and eternity will rejoice; and heaven will be throwing a party for people. But friends, it must begin with you.
In these next few moments, I want to ask you a question; is your heart broken? I mean, really broken by God? And will you be willing to have kind of ’breakthrough faith’ for God, will you be willing to risk? When you do what only you can do, God will do what He promises to do; He’ll heal the people, but you’ve got to bring them to Jesus.
I want us all to write down the names of the people God has put on your heart. We’re going to take them from our hearts and our minds, and we’re going to put them here, believing that God will heal their life. We will lift these names up to heaven and we will pray for opportunity, and God will do what only He can do, right?
I’m going to ask you to bow your heads. Would you, right now, put the name of that person back into your heart? Would you be willing to be desperate, to be messy, to risk for that brother that you know; that co-worker that you see; a student that you go to school with, that you sit right next to in class? That person that God has entrusted, that you work with and they work for you, and now you’re going to go see them with a whole new set of eyes. Not as people to turn a profit, but as people that will spend eternity somewhere. Maybe you’re a student and you want to pray for your parents right now.
PRAYER: Father, I want to pray for these names, because You love the people we’re thinking about far more than we could. And You say God, that You’re waiting patiently for us to reach more people. And I pray that we would, today, see people different than we ever had. It would begin with a sense of just taking ink and writing down, what’s already on Your heart and believing that You can heal them. Help us to have broken hearts, help our faith to be break through, and help us to see the world changed Jesus, for You...
