We continue on in our series. We've spent the last two weeks kind of laying a foundation, kind of a groundwork of what Mark's gospel was about. And I wanted to try to continue to beat this verse into your heads because it really sums up exactly what Mark was focused on as he penned his gospel. Mark 10, 45 says, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. and to give his life a ransom for many. And so we see that the servant serving others by sacrificing his life is really the key theme of what Mark wants to get across to us. We see Jesus came to serve others and he did that sacrificially by giving the ultimate sacrifice of his own life. But it certainly lays the principle for us to follow that we ought to be servant-minded people who are sacrificially loving one another. And so keep that in mind every week and throughout the week as we look at this gospel. But today I want to get into chapter 2. We covered most of chapter one in the last two weeks. And what we saw in those verses was Jesus kind of hitting the ground running. Mark moves very quickly, which is why you see the word immediately or straight away so often used in the gospel of Mark, because it's snapshot and it moves boom boom boom right through Jesus life and we saw that we saw in chapter 1 that he was on a miracle working mission so to speak I mean he was going from place to place largely in Capernaum and he was healing people they were showing up to see these miracles they were concerned about getting their physical needs met and Jesus drew large crowds because of that but there came to a point right in the middle of all this popularity and all these people showing up that Jesus said to His disciples, it's time we move on. Now that may not be the way that most of us would react if we had a successful ministry and people were showing up and the church was full. We probably wouldn't show up one Sunday and say, well, it's time to pack up and move. But Jesus was concerned in getting the word out to the entire world. He didn't want to stay in one little spot and just preach to the same crowd, so to speak. He had a message to get out and a mission that he was sent on, and he stayed focused on that. And we see Jesus moving into Galilee to preach the gospel. And he does that for some time, and he does some healing there as well. But we pick up in chapter 2 this morning, and we're going to see that Jesus is now back in Capernaum, which is his home base, so to speak, where he kind of centers everything that he does. And I want you to see with me right off the bat what happens in chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 as we begin in a message titled the men that raised the roof the men that raised the roof verse 1 and 2 says and when he returned to Capernaum after some days it was reported that he was at home or he was at the house probably Simon Peter's house and many were gathered together so that there was no more room not even at the door and he was preaching the Word to them. I want you to see a couple of things in those verses. There's two ways that a church will grow. Carnally or supernaturally. That's really the only two options. Now there's a lot of different things, but if you put it in two categories, it's basically going to fall in one of those two areas. Your church is going to grow carnally through worldly means and fleshly inventions, or you're going to rely on the Holy Spirit and in prayer for God to use His Word to move and to supernaturally change hearts and save people. Only two ways it can happen. We're either going to compromise the Word, or we're going to preach the Word. We're either going to be man-centered or we're going to be God-centered. We're going to be self-reliant or we're going to be Holy Spirit-reliant. We won't be both. We can't be both. And you see, Jesus comes along and it is voiced, it is heard that he is in the house. and people flock to that place. And I believe, still today, when people know and experience that Jesus Christ is being preached and proclaimed and the Holy Spirit is at work in a church, You won't need to go out and have campaigns to get people to come in. I believe that as we as God's people begin to proclaim the word, begin to get excited about what's going on in our church as we should be, as God has blessed us immensely, that you will see God grow His church. without any type of carnality or compromise or man-centered teaching. I believe that God will bless the preaching of His Word. John 12, 32, Jesus said, And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself, because Jesus has a drawing power about Him. And when He's lifted up as He was on the cross, and as we lift Him up in praise and in worship, People will be attracted to that. They'll be attracted to that because the gospel good news is what the world is desperately seeking and searching for. And we've got it. But the reason it doesn't have any effect is because we've been silent for so long. We've been silent about speaking the good news to people. And I don't know that there's any quick answer to that other than to get on your face before God and ask for boldness and courage and opportunities and take advantage of them when they come. We talk about any and everything under the sun, but we clam up and get frozen when it comes to sharing the gospel. And that ought to be the first thing that's on our lips in the morning is rejoicing and giving thanksgiving to God. And these people knew that Jesus was in the house and he was preaching the word to them and they came. They came to hear. And I want to introduce you to four gentlemen this morning that had extreme faith and extreme love and extreme determination. The same things that we ought to have. They had faith for their friend that if they could just get him to Jesus, good things would happen. They had love for their friend. They didn't say, well, man, you know, you're in a tough place and I hope things work out for you. I'll pray for you. Good luck. They loved him enough that that love led them to action. Faith and love and hope are action words. We talk about those things a lot, but it never really goes any farther than words sometimes for us. And all those things ought to drive us to action. It ought to move us. Look what happens with these men in verses 3-5 as Jesus is preaching. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four men, And when they could not get near Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him. And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. You see, their faith leads them to action. And they come to this house, and the building is packed full. And you know, sometimes we pull in the church and the parking lot's full and we turn around and go home. We don't even have enough faith to pull in the grass and still come on in. But these guys saw a full house and they said, we're not going home. We're going to find a way because Jesus is in there. And if he's in there, that's where we need to be. And that's where our friend needs to be. And so they climb the stairs that most houses in those days had, and they go to this roof, which would have been timbers covered by some type of thatch and mud, maybe even some type of clay on top. And they began to dig into the roof, you know. They were making a hole in this house. And can you imagine all the religious people and all those that were sick and all those listening and Jesus right in the middle as dust and dirt begins to fall down on top of them and all of a sudden the sunlight starts to peek in through the hole and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger until finally there's four guys looking down in the hole and everybody's staring up at him. And then they take this man on his mat and they lower him down and set him at the feet of Jesus. Can you imagine that scene? Can you imagine what people must have been thinking? Can you imagine that kind of thing happening? Now, certainly it wouldn't happen quite that way, but just the disruption in a church service of somebody wanting to get to Jesus. We wouldn't have it. We wouldn't have it. But these men were determined, and they did whatever it took. And I want to read to you from James, the epistle of James. Chapter 2, verses 17 to 22. I want you to think about this in relation to what these men did, what James says about faith. We've sung about it a lot already and talked about it a lot this morning. James says, so also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. If you have faith and it doesn't produce action, you don't have faith. You have something, but it's not biblical faith if it's not leading you to action. Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. So James says, well, they can be mutually exclusive. You can have faith and no works. I can have works and no faith. We're good. Is that true? He says, no. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder or they tremble. Even the devil. believes in God. He knows Jesus intimately. It doesn't mean he has a relationship with Him. It doesn't mean he desires to repent and live for Christ. He has some type of knowledge, but it's not a biblical faith. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works? when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar, you see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works. So think about the example that James uses with Abraham. God said, I want you to take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him on the altar. And you know, Abraham could have said, okay God, I don't understand that, but that's good. will do that and never went. But you see, as difficult as that was, not only did Abraham obey by believing it, that belief and obedience led to action. He walked with Isaac all the way to the altar and laid him on the altar and went so far as to raise the knife. and he was going to carry it out because he believed in the promises of God that he would raise Isaac up again. And you can read that in Hebrews 11, the great chapter on faith. He even told his servants, you stay here, me and the boy will go and worship and we will come back to you again. He didn't think this was the end of his son. His faith led him to obedience, but his faith also believed in the promises of God. And if we claim to walk by faith, then I would ask you this morning to examine your hearts and say, what does your faith cost you? That's a question that only you can answer. But your faith will have to cost you something. Or it's not real faith. If everything you do in your Christian life is things that you can handle on your own, it's not faith, it's you. If you say, well, let me look in my checkbook and make sure we've got enough. Yep, everything's covered. That's not faith. If God calls you to do something, to teach something, to work for something, and you say, yeah, man, I can do that. God, I've got 12 years of schooling in that area. I'm great. I'm a great speaker. I'm great in the know. I'm good. I'm good with that. It's not faith. You're relying on your education, on what you can do in your own strength. But when God calls you to do something, when He calls a shy, backwards, uneducated dummy that lived in the world to come up here and preach the gospel, that's going to have to be God or we're in trouble. Because I have no qualifications to do what I do other than to walk by faith with my Lord and Savior. And you're going to have to step out of your comfort zone and you are going to have to get uncomfortable if you want to ever, ever live a life of faith. It's going to have to lead you to a difficult action where all you've got is God to trust him. That's all you're going to have. And that's all you're going to need. If you'll really put yourself in his hand and let him take you where he wants to take you. Listen, that's scary. Like Jeff said, the shadows sometimes are scary. But Jesus said, I am the light of the world. There's no shadows when the light is shining bright. He said, my word is a lamp unto thy feet and a light unto thy path. And if we'll follow him in obedience, he'll take us through the valleys, through the mountaintops, through the storms, through the sunshine. But he'll be with us every step. But that takes faith. And these men had that. They had faith, and it led them to action. Nothing was going to stop them. This obstacle that seemed to be too much? Uh-uh. They were going to get to Jesus anyway, anyhow. Faith leads us to action, and faith will lead to assurance in your life. It doesn't quit at obstacles. How many times do we start out so good? We have good intentions, and then something jumps up in front of us, and we fall down and just quit. We said, man, I've done everything. God, I've prayed. I've trusted you. I've done all the things that I ought to do. And then you do this to me. You've put this obstacle in front of me. You've put this roadblock in front of me. I'm done. I'm not going to do it anymore. I quit. How many people have we seen walk away? when maybe the finish line was just on the other side of that hill and they quit. They quit before they got there. Faith doesn't give up despite the difficulties. But listen, I'm not going to downplay this morning the reality that things in life get difficult because I've talked to a lot of you just this month that are facing things that are very, very tough. And frankly, may not seem to make a lot of sense. And I've been there myself. When you can't discern even what God's plan is in your life and you wonder sometimes why. I want to ask you in those moments, maybe where you're at right now, what happens? What happens to your faith? Have you returned to old habits? Maybe you know when you walked with God and you had forsaken the old man and you'd put those things to death, but now that things are difficult and your faith seems to have dwindled, maybe you've seen a pattern where you've kind of fallen away and you've returned back to old habits and your commitments have waned. Maybe prayer and church and Bible study and fellowship with the saints and all those things has dwindled as your faith has become smaller and smaller. Maybe you've completely gotten to a place where you doubt God altogether or at least doubt him in part. Maybe that's where you're at this morning. And what we can't do is ignore that. What we can't do is say, well, it'll just get better because you won't drift into holiness. It's got to be an intentional action because faith is an action. You've got to say, I've fallen down for a time, but I trust that God's going to lift me up. And I'm not going to stop. And I'm not going to let this obstacle keep me from moving forward. And I'm not going to let it paralyze me or put me into a place of non-service. I'm going to be active and I'm going to trust him regardless. Because everything, church, that we do and as a Christian is a walk of faith. That's the only way that we can walk. Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6 says this. That's really the basis of faith. It's not just a mental understanding, it's a complete trust in who you're following. It's saying, God, you've got me and I trust you. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Right? Trust in the Lord with all your heart. That's your entire being. That's not just the organ that's pumping blood. When the Bible speaks of your heart, it's your entire being, who you are. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. That's what the Bible tells us. When we trust implicitly in God, and lean not on our own strength and our own understanding of what we can see physically, He will direct and guide us and lead us in the way that we need to go. That's a promise. That's not a maybe. That's a guarantee that you can rest in. But we don't do that. And I know we don't do that because I haven't done it and I know you well enough to know that you're human and you don't do it. And so we've got to be intentional, church, about our faith. We've got to get to a place where we really trust God, because look at these men. They didn't let anything stop them from getting this man of Jesus. And in verse 5, it says, He saw them as they led Him down at His feet. And He said, Son, my sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven. Now, Jesus had just spent months on a miracle-working campaign. He'd went around and healed sick, cast out demons, all these things that He'd been doing. And so I'm sure when this paralytic was laid down at the feet of Jesus, everybody already knew what was going to happen. He was just going to touch him and this man was going to get up and walk. And here Jesus looks down in the face of this man. He doesn't touch him, heal him physically. He says, Son, your sins are forgiven because We look at the outside all the time. We look at our circumstances. We look at people around us. We look at all different things that we can see. And we think that is the problem with my life right now. That person that I can't stand is the problem in my life. My spouse right now who is just so difficult to live with is the problem in my life. My job right now is the problem in my life. My illness, my sickness right now is the problem in my life. If God, you would just remove that person, that thing, that job, that obstacle, my life would be perfect. No, it wouldn't. Because your greatest problem is not external, it's internal. And that's what Jesus sees with this man. He looks at this paralytic, not because he's unmerciful, but because of his great mercy. The Bible says because of his great mercy, Wherein he loved us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. He looks at this man and he says, yes, your physical condition is a problem. But the real problem is your spiritual condition. He looks at this man. And He says, Son, your sins are forgiven. And Jesus Christ this morning is concerned with every aspect of your life. But the most important thing that He's concerned with this morning is your soul and your eternity. And whether or not you are ready to stand before God in judgment one day. And without Christ you're not ready. Because the Bible says you're condemned already because you have not believed in the only begotten Son of God. If you have yet to receive him as Lord and Savior, you're treading the broad road to destruction this morning, regardless of if you're here every Sunday, regardless of if you've read the Bible through in a year, regardless if you're a prayer partner, you sing in the choir, you teach a Sunday school class. Without Christ, your righteousness means nothing. means nothing. So Jesus looks at this man and says, I'm gonna deal with your sin. The Bible speaks very strongly about sin. Hamartia is the word. It means to miss a mark. It means if I got my bow and arrow out and tried to shoot like Jason, I would badly miss the target. Badly miss the target. And even the best of us miss the target when it comes to trying to live a godly, holy life. Sin is not something that God just comes along and says, well, you're overall a pretty good person. We just need to straighten up the rough edges. Sin has so corrupted us that we have to be remade and reborn. That's why Jesus said you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. You have to be made a new creature. It's not good enough to just clean you up. You have to be remade. Iniquity, the Bible speaks of a lot about iniquity. That's a moral uncleanness. It's not that just we do wrong things. It's that our entire being is corrupt. Sin has so stained us that it's not only when we do wrong things, we think wrong things, and we say wrong things, and everything about us is wrong in the sight of God without Christ. And transgressions, the Bible talks about. That's when we willingly sin against God. When we know what the Word says, when we know what God's will is and we say, This is just something I'm going to do regardless. It's my life. I don't care what the Bible says about that. I don't care if the Bible condemns it. I don't care if it harms myself or someone else or if it displeases God. It's my life. It's my life. I've heard that so many times. It's my life. And I don't know what you do with, your life is not your own, you've been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. I guess we cross that verse out. Or maybe we skip over it. But regardless, if you've come to Christ, your life is most definitely not your own. I hope you understand that. I hope if you are considering following Christ, that it's not just to come to get some of His stuff. I hope it's to come to get Him. And understand that when you get Him, you get everything you need. But you lose everything you had, so to speak, in the world. That's the sacrifice. But it's worth it. Because you gain eternity. You gain forgiveness. You gain Jesus. And so Jesus comes along and he does this for this man. And then the problems start, the controversy. Look at 6 through 10. It says, now there were some of the scribes, the religious leaders, the ones that would know the law and write down the law and teach the things that the Pharisees would speak of. Some of these scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts. They wouldn't say it out loud, but they certainly had intention in their heart. Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus, perceiving in His Spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, Why do you question these things in your heart? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise and take up your bed and walk? Look at verse 10. but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all. Do you see what happened in that exchange? These men said, this guy is absolutely blaspheming God. He told this gentleman that his sins were forgiven. The only person that can forgive sins is God. And Jesus looks at him and proving his deity right off the bat says, I know what you were thinking. Now don't do that, because we're good about trying to do that too, but we're not God. So don't go around and pretend that you know what somebody's thinking, because we don't. We don't know what's in somebody's heart, but Jesus did. And he proves his deity right off the bat. He says, you perceive in your hearts to say this, but what's easier, for me to say, your sins are forgiven, or to take up your bed and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins on earth? He's saying, Yeah, I can touch him. I could say it's, you know, be healed, stand up. But if I touch him spiritually and I heal his sin sickness first, then I'm more than just a man. And you have to recognize that God this morning is standing before you. And what I'm saying and what I'm doing carries more weight than just a rabbi or a scribe would. And that's what I want to ask you this morning, again, because we looked at another verse from Mark every week since we've started and will continue to. Mark 8, 27 says, Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? And I would ask you again this morning, as I have each week, who is Jesus Christ to you? Who is this man called Jesus? C.S. Lewis said that Jesus was either a Lord, either the Lord, a liar, or a lunatic. That's the three options that you have when you look at the life of Christ. He was either a complete liar in everything that he said and did, he was a madman, or he really was the Son of God. And you've got to ask yourself this morning, who is Jesus to you? Would people be willing to die and lay down their lives for a liar, for a madman? Were these men who watched him be crucified on the cross and were huddled away in an upper room, scared to death, all of a sudden have boldness, the way that the disciples did, to go out in the face of Roman persecution and say, we don't care if you jail us, chop off our heads, feed us to lions. We've seen the risen Christ and we have believed now. And we are going to be willing to go and lay down our lives. These timid men were transformed overnight. Does that happen for a lie? Does that happen for a lunatic? Or would that happen because they truly had seen the risen Christ? You've got to deal with these things. Don't just sweep them under the rug and say, well, I don't really like to get too deep into that stuff. You need to get deep into it. Eternity is a long time to be wrong. I would challenge you this morning to consider that Jesus Christ is more than just a man. That we come to him sometimes and we think, God, if you'll just meet my physical needs, which he does at times. But sometimes he doesn't always say yes to those needs. And then we get mad. That obstacle, right? We pray for healing, we pray for deliverance, we pray for this and we pray for that and it doesn't come and we say, well, this didn't work. God's failed. Christianity's a joke. It didn't give me what it promised. The Bible never promises most of the things that people think it does. It promises forgiveness of sin, and it promises eternal life, and it promises joy, and it promises hope, and it promises assurance. And I can guarantee you if you'll trust Christ, you'll have all those. You'll have all those, and you'll find Him faithful. But to receive those, you have to be willing to take that step of faith this morning yourself. You have to acknowledge that you have sinned and fallen woefully short of the glory of God. And that someday there's coming a time where you'll stand before him in judgment. And the only question that will matter is, what have you done with my son? All the things that you've done in life can't buy your salvation. All the works that you've done in your strength will mean nothing to God who created you and everything in the universe. And the only questionable matter is, have you been washed in the blood? Have you been born again? Have you been made new? There's nothing, listen, the good news is this, there's nothing, nothing, nothing in this world keeping you from receiving Christ but unbelief. That is the only obstacle between you and eternal life, between you and Jesus Christ. I don't care what you've done. I don't care how bad you feel or how good you feel. It is a laying down of yourself, a laying down of pride, and saying, Jesus is enough. And I ask you this morning, is He enough? If He is, and you don't know Him, why not come and receive Him this morning? As we stand and as we sing. Let your faith lead you to action. If God is calling you to do something, it's not time to keep saying, I trust Him, I think He'll do it. It's time to take that step in following. As we sing. Is He all you need this morning? He's all I need. Do you believe that? Jesus is all I need. He's all I need. Jesus is all I need. Jesus is all I need. Jesus is all I need. He's all I need. He's all I need. Jesus is all I need. Jesus is all I need Bible says what's in profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul. Why don't you leave behind what's weighing you down and come and receive Christ? I want to thank you. Be seated for just a moment. I'm gonna have Shane and Angie and Chris come right back up here with me. I told you at the beginning of the service that God has really been blessing us, and I don't just say that lightly, because at the beginning of the year, if you were here and you remember, I challenged us to believe God to do something great this year, that I believe that God could save as many as He wanted, and certainly don't put Him in a box or limit Him, but I challenged you to pray for 15 to be saved and 15 to be baptized in 2015. Well, I'm proud and honored to tell you this morning that we've gotten the answer to another soul to be saved. I was privileged enough to get the call yesterday that Chris Thomas has given his life to Christ. I got to go over yesterday and talk with him at length over at their house. Everything, of course, was in order there. And he comes this morning asking to be a part of this fellowship here at Freedom Baptist Church and to be baptized into the body next Sunday morning. So that's amen. Exactly. We're proud. I want to ask this morning church, if you're all in one mind and one accord on that, just let it be known by saying amen. We love you guys. I'm very proud to see what God's been doing already in your life and in your family. We'll give you all a chance to come around and shake hands, give hugs as we always do. And like I said, just continue to pray. It's amazing that a church our size, that's four already saved this year and that'll be ten baptisms. I mean, that's tremendous, and we give God all the glory for that. So I'm going to ask this morning if you would stand to your feet. Mike Jordan, do you mind to dismiss us? And don't forget, Marcus has the meeting with the kids over there after church. Thank you.