How you can pass with all F’s
Introduction
What does it take to succeed in life? There are many things that are necessary ingredients for us to live lives that are rewarding, meaningful and fulfilling. Today I would just like to address three that I feel should be at the top of everyone's list. I call them the Three F's. We will read out of Mark 2:1-12.
Success in life requires Friends
A. Our story begins with Jesus’ fame beginning to spread, especially after the leper told people that He was a miracle healer. And so, a few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that He had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and He preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. The focus of the story is mainly on this last phrase, the paralytic and Jesus healing him.
B. But I want to focus for a moment on his friends. They didn’t like to see their friend lay there unable to move. They wanted him to have a better life, so they took him to Jesus. I don’t know how big this paralytic had become from inactivity, but it took four of them to carry him on a mat to get to Jesus. When they got to the house where Jesus was, they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd. So what did they do? They made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. Palestinian houses were built with flat roofs and outside stairs up to the roofs. The roofs were constructed of tiles and covered with sod. These men were determined to get their friend to Jesus, so they carried him up stairs, got their fingers dirty and dug through the sod and and lowered him down to Jesus.
C. If we want to live healthy lives, we need to get an F on our report cards. The F is for friends. No matter how we live our lives, we are going to have times when we are in need. We may be physically sick, spiritually sick, emotionally sick and without friends to help us, our potential for healing is greatly diminished.
D. This whole story and the miraculous healing that took place was brought about by the friends this paralytic had. When it says Jesus saw their faith, we know these are not just hired hands, these are friends who want their friend healed and will do what it takes to help him get this healing.
E. It is because of friends that these miracles still happen today, every day. Many of you sitting here today are walking miracles. Some of you were destroyed by hate, caught in a web of habitual sins. Some of you were alcoholics, drug addicts, thieves. Some of you looked good on the outside, but were full of sickness on the inside. Yet on a special appointed day, a friend invited you to church or talked to you about God, and God touched you and you were healed. You became born again.
F. Some of you were scarred and sinfully twisted . Yet someone carried you to Christ. As a result your life changed. A miracle took place. That man or woman sitting across from us that is a kind, loving, serving, forgiving man and a faithful follower of Christ was once a paralyzed man, but a friend reached out to him and a miracle took place. Some of you were making bad choices and heading down a road to destruction, until a friend came along and helped you out.
G. Do we have friends like this in our lives? Do we have people who would carry us to see Jesus if we were in need? Do we have friends who would come to our house and pray for us if we were sick? Do we have friends that love us enough to talk to us, when they see us making bad decisions? Friendship is a valuable thing, and we cannot be healthy if we don’t have friends. We were made to be social people, we need to have good relationships with others, strong relationships with others if we want to live healthy and full lives. It is not an option.
H. How can we go about making friends? Well to be sure it is hard and it takes a lot of time and energy. You don’t make life-long friends in a week. We have to be committed to making friends with people. This is why at Vineyard we are so committed to encouraging all of you to get involved in a small group. We want to encourage you to meet people and make friends, especially Christian friends. We all need people in our lives that care enough about us to be there when we are in need. It is too late to try to make friends once we are in need.
I. The next question to ask ourselves is, “Are we a friend like this to someone else?” I want you to think for a minute about the people in your life, what if they were like that that paralytic, physically or spiritually. Maybe they’ve been paralyzed with guilt, over the divorce they went through or paralyzed with guilt over the bad choices they have made. Maybe they’re paralyzed with laziness, not wanting anything out of life but luxuries. It could be a paralyzation of indifference. The point I’m making is that they are paralyzed. You can’t expect them to make it to Christ on their own. They need YOUR HELP. Unfortunately, how often do we approach such situations with a more hands off approach. You know someone is having problems in their marriage or their work, and they need some hope, some light in their lives, but you say to yourself, “I don’t want to get involved.” Or you say, “I don’t have the time, I have enough problems of my own.” You think to yourself, “there’s no way I’ll be able to help.”
J. Bringing people to Christ takes work. Being a friend takes work. You might need to get your fingers dirty. You might need to do some heavy lifting. You will have plenty of obstacles.
K. The four men could have found a lot of excuses NOT TO bring their friend to Christ, He was too busy, they were too busy, there was no room, he was too heavy, but they didn’t. They recognized a need and they zealously sought to get him to Christ. Good friendships are able to overcome obstacles to helping one another. They stick it out until help arrives.
L. One more thought is that these men could not have helped their friend if they were not healthy themselves. This is true for us. If we want to help others the first thing to make sure of is our own health, especially spiritually. We can’t give people something we don’t have. What kind of relationship do you have with Christ? There will come a time where you are needed to help someone spiritually, it happens to us all, the question to ask ourselves is, “Will we be healthy enough to help them?”
Successful living requires Faith
A. We are told that Jesus “saw their faith.” I believe this would be in reference to the faith of the paralytic and his friends.
B. Those four men would never have brought the paralytic if they felt Jesus would do nothing. If you bring friends to hear God’s Word, things will change. The Holy Spirit will give them spiritual life. He will give them confidence and hope.
C. If we want to live healthy lives, we need another F on our report cards, we need an F for Faith.
D. Faith is an action verb. It can be seen. If I say I “believe in this chair” but I don’t sit in it, then do I really believe in it. Many people say that they believe in God, what they really mean is that they recognize that He must exist somewhere. But do they really believe in Him? To believe and to have faith is to rely on trust in adhere to. The Epistle written by James says that we show our faith by our works.
E. These men had faith, how do we know? Look at their actions. They did something about their faith. They acted on their belief. What about you? Do you believe in the existence of Jesus or do we really trust in Him, rely on Him? Do you act on that faith? It is good to say, “I go to church on Sunday,’ but what about Monday through Saturday? Does our faith show in how we treat people? Does our faith show in how we handle our money, or make choices? Faith is a much larger word than most of us realize, and many are living unhealthy lives because they are not living their lives with “faith” in Jesus. They are trusting in, relying upon their own wisdom and their own ideas of what is right and what is wrong.
F. Without faith we cannot live healthy lives. We will be filled with doubt, confusion, and frustration. Another word for faith is confidence. Faith means to know something is true and to base you life on it, that is faith. If you want to live a healthy live you need to get this F. It is very important. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”
G. If you want live a life of faith then begin with the end in mind. The principle of sowing and reaping is the most foundational principle in the Bible. Everything in life in based on this principal. We reap what we sow. If we sow to a life of faith, acting on the teachings of the Bible, showing kindness and love and mercy then we will reap kindness, love and mercy. If we sow to a life of faith in our finances and learn to give then we will reap financially from God. If we sow to a life of faith learning to trust in God for all our needs then we will reap good health. Success in God doesn’t happen overnight. But it will come, just as surely as God’s law of seed time and harvest exists, if you have been planting seeds of faithful living in your life you will reap healthy lives.
H. The principle of sowing and reaping is one of the most foundational principles in the Bible. We live in a society that wants to reject this, because if it is true then it means that WE MIGHT actually be responsible for the bad things that happen to us, and that they could possibly be avoided if we changed our attitudes, behavior, and way of doing things.
I. We live lives of faith when we look ahead and see the end product of our choices, by faith we can see the fruit of our decisions. It is by faith that we make the right choices. It is by faith that we refuse to do things that are not right. Healthy living requires a life of faith.
Successful living requires Forgiveness
A. When Jesus looked at this man, He could peer through the physical problems and notice a much deeper need that the paralytic had, the need for forgiveness. That was Jesus’ main concern. So the first thing Jesus said to him was, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Jesus wanted him to know that he was accepted as part of God’s family. Why? Because his sins are forgiven, not might be, or could be if he turns himself around, but ARE FORGIVEN, sent away. He wanted this man to stop feeling so guilty, and to take comfort in the pronouncement of forgiveness that Jesus, the Son of Man, had given to him. This is a critical step in living healthy lives. Jesus took a hose of forgiveness and washed out this man’s soul.
B. Every problem in the world, whether it is marital problems, greed, anger, whatever all stems back to sin, in particular, unforgiveness. How many marriages could be saved if the spouses forgave one another? How many friendships could be saved if we forgave one another? How many lawsuits could be avoided if we forgave one another? Most of our problems have their roots in unforgiveness. Somebody hurts us and it becomes difficult to forgive them. We think we can live with it, but unforgiveness eats away like cancer. We need to learn how to forgive people. But the key to forgiving people is to learn how to receive God’s forgiveness. People who have a hard time forgiving others usually have a hard time receiving God’s forgiveness. You can’t give what you have not experienced.
C. The key to breaking the power of sin over your life is to forgive those who have offended you. The worst part about unforgiveness is that you end up taking on the sin as your own. You follow in their footsteps. This is often why children who have been abused become abusers. People who have been mistreated often mistreat others. Children of alcoholics often become alcoholics. Children of divorced parents end up divorcing their spouse.
D. A critical step to spiritual health is found in Jesus words, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” The beauty in this message is the total completeness of it, your sins are forgiven. That’s the wonderful thing about the gospel. Hebrews 10:10 says, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. It’s a done deal. God said through Isaiah "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” God says, “I don’t remember your sins, they’ve been paid for.” It’s a done deal. When you really come to that realization, a huge burden is lifted off your shoulders. My sins have been forgiven. Two thousand years ago the sins of the world, the WORLD, were wiped away. This is God’s proclamation to the world.
E. Some people don’t believe this news of forgiveness should be told to people. To them, forgiveness is only up to God, and we mortals have no business telling anyone they are forgiven, much less going to heaven. Mark says, “Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” What they didn’t realize is that Jesus IS God. Since Jesus was and is God, He has every right as the judge to pronounce forgiveness and heal this man of his guilt. Jesus told his disciples, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (Jn 20:23) With these words, Jesus gave all Christians the right to tell people that they are forgiven. If a king were to tell his ambassador with a signed document to tell his people, “no taxes this year,” the message would be as good as if it were from the king.
F. Confession of our sins consists of two parts. One is that we confess our sins. The other is that we receive the forgiveness from God Himself, not doubting but firmly believing that our sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven.
G. This is the only way to successful living. We need to continually hear we are forgiven. God wants to hear you say, “I forgive you” regularly in your household. God wants you to truly believe that God has wiped your sins away. Unless you hear and believe this, you’ll pursuit of sucess will continue to elude you. Forgiveness is a key element in living a successful life.
Summary
A. Successful living requires that we strive to get these three F's on our report card.
We all need friends, faith and forgivenes.
