Who Fixed The Roof

He stood there staring up at the sky, he still couldn’t believe his eyes, and it was as if he was seeing the sky for the first time. In a way he was, even if it was the same old sky that he’d always looked at it, he was seeing it through a whole new perspective. Actually he was seeing it through a hole in the roof.

If you were here last week you’ll remember the story, how Jesus had returned to Capernaum and while at Peter’s home the word had gotten out that he was there. People started to arrive to hear and see this one that some had dared to call the Messiah, until finally the crowd was so large that you couldn’t get near the door. And into the crowd came four men carrying a friend who was paralysed and couldn’t walk. When it became obvious that they weren’t going to be able to get him through the crowd they managed to get their friend onto the roof of Peter’s home, tore a hole through the clay and lowered him in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their devotion he healed their friend. If you weren’t here a week ago you’re going to have to take my word for it. That was the story. And out of that story I spoke about four characteristics that those men had that we would do well to emulate.

Their Love. If you read through your New Testament you would discover that Jesus didn’t really lay down new commandments, he simply refined or clarified the old commandments. But Jesus did lay down at least one new commandment John 13:34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

Their Dream These four guys had a dream of what could happen if Jesus touched their friend. They knew that if Jesus wanted to that he could heal their friend and he’d walk again. If we are going to accomplish the things that need to be accomplished in this life then we will first have to dream of the way they could be. Remember “If you don’t build castles in the air, you’ll never build anything on the ground.” Just because it’s never been done before doesn’t mean it can’t be done. But before you can do it you have to see it and you have to leave the road of what is and venture down the path of what could be.

Their Commitment

What are you willing to do to achieve your dream? They probably could have been doing any numbers of things that didn’t involve carrying a man on a stretcher across town in the heat, climbing a ladder and tearing a hole in a roof.

Their Cooperation

Seriously it took all four of them working together, one couldn’t have done it, two couldn’t have done it and it would have been tough with three. Instead it took four people working in unity to get the job done. Notice I didn’t use the word uniformity, there is a difference between the two. Throughout the New Testament, Paul compares the church to a body, made up of different parts, doing different jobs, but all functioning for the common good.

Part of Christ’s last prayer is found in John 17:23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

That’s what we preached on last week, but that isn’t what we are going to preach on today. I truly believe that Cornerstone Wesleyan Church is a loving church, not to say we can’t become more loving, I mean we can never be too loving. And that’s not to say that we can stop loving people, cause you can’t store or bank love for a future use. If we are to continue to be all that God wants us to be we must continue to love people.

And I believe that the people of Cornerstone have a dream. Not just a dream for a church but a dream of touching lives and changing a nation, a dream of seeing people introduced to Jesus and of the difference He will make in the lives of people and families.

And I know that we share that determination. From the group of fifty who committed close to four hundred thousand dollars as a down payment on this building and property to those who are here every Sunday taking part in ministry, to our staff who if they were in it for the money would be somewhere else.

And as a church we are united and there is a sense of unity within the body here. We as a church have caught the vision for what God would have us to do and where God would have us to go. And we are pushing in that direction and sharing in the sacrifice.