All right, well, good morning, everybody. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. If you were here this morning, thank you so much for braving the elements and coming. You had to really, really want it. If you're home watching in your warm, dry sweatpants, nobody likes you today. You made a selfish choice. But we're glad you're joining us online. This is the second part of our series called Mark's Jesus, where we're walking through the Gospel of Mark all the way up through Easter. So for several more weeks, we're going to be entrenched in the Gospel of Mark, and we're calling it Mark's Jesus because it's a view of Jesus through the lens of Mark, which comes through the lens of Peter. And I realized in the fall that we have not spent time together in the gospel of Mark. And so it's high time we do that. And so what I would say to you as a disclaimer is the way that I laid out the series is just to go through the series or go through the gospel of Mark and kind of make a note. Anytime I got to a passage that I thought, yeah, I want to teach that. Yes, I think that could help grace. Yes, that's something that we need to talk about or discuss or bring up or whatever it is. And so I just kind of went through and haphazardly just kind of wrote things down and then planned out the 12 or 13 weeks or however long it is. So what I would say is I'm not going to cover every chapter of Mark. I'm not going to cover every story. I'm not going to encapsulate the whole book in this series and in what we're trying to do. So I would highly encourage you, if you're going to be a part of Grace for this whole series, grab the reading plan. Kyle, I assume the reading plan is going through Mark, yes? Twice. Okay, two times. There you go. Kyle does our reading plan. It's back there on the information table outside the doors. Grab that reading plan and go through Mark with us. Allow God to speak to you from the gospel of Mark in ways other than what is dictated by the whims of Nate. All right. Let God walk you through that book as we go through it as well. As we approach the text this morning, I'm reminded of a story that happened about 10 years ago, I think maybe even a little bit before that. This is back when I lived in Georgia outside of Atlanta, and one night, I'm somewhere in the threes, 3.30 or so, Jen jostles me awake, and I can tell that it's a little bit urgent, and she says, I can't remember if she said, your sister's on the phone, or I just talked to your sister, but for some reason, my sister had called in the middle of the night, and I looked at my phone, and I had several missed calls from my mom, and at the time, my phone was on silent, so it didn't wake me up. So somehow it's relayed to me from my sister that mom has fallen. She's home by herself. She's fallen going to the restroom in the middle of the night and she's called the ambulance and somebody needs to get over there and I lived really close. So I scramble downstairs. I get in my car and I go see my mom. And when I get there, she's on her bedroom floor. My brother-in-law's there, but he doesn't really know what to do. She's on her bedroom floor laying on her back with a gash over her eye. And her glasses kind of shattered. And there's a big old split in her forehead. And there's blood everywhere. And it was a big, scary mess. It's not the way you want to see your mom. And she had gotten up to use the restroom in the middle of the night and came back and had lost consciousness. And when she did, she fell against the wall and hit a doorframe with her forehead. And there was a big pool of blood there where she had hit. And then she managed to get over to the bed and call the ambulance and start calling family. And this is not something that was expected. My mom would have been 53, 54 at the time, which is not when you expect people to start falling in the middle of the night. I don't know what the age is that you get to where when your family gets the call that mom and dad fell in the middle of the night, they're like, yeah, that probably checks out. It's probably Doug's age. Whatever Doug, whatever you are, Doug, that's probably what it is, where Molly would be like, yeah, that makes sense. Walker, go check on dad. But it's not 54, all right? That's not it. And so it was a little bit unusual. And I'm with mom. The paramedics get there, and I'm trying to walk them through some stuff. And they get her loaded into the ambulance, and I decide to follow. I'm going to the hospital, following the ambulance to the hospital. And I'm praying the whole time. I'm thinking about her. I'm thinking about, like, let's not let the scarring be bad. Let's get her stitched up. Let's let her be okay. Let's not let her have a big, gruesome scar over her eye because dudes think scars are cool. And my understanding is that women are not as inclined towards scars as we are. So she probably didn't want that on her forehead. So I'm worried about that. And I'm just worried about in general that she's going to be okay. And so I'm praying for her. And we get there and they put her in the ER. And I'm standing next to the table holding her hand. And a nurse comes in and starts stitching her up. And there was a few different times where I had to kind of like look down or sit down because I was about to lose consciousness too. I would make a terrible, terrible nurse. I cannot do that. I can't handle it. But we got through it. And the whole time, I'm just kind of, God, let this go quick. Let somebody get to her quickly. Let us not have to wait for a long time. Let's let her be taken care of. I'm talking to my dad. He's out of town. He's on his way back now in the middle of the night and all those things. And so they get her stitched up, and she's fine. She's lucid. She was good the whole time. But they said, we want to try to figure out what was going on. So they asked her, like, what was happening? And she said, well, I was just having severe abdominal pain, and I think I passed out just because of the pain coming back from the restroom. And so they ran some tests, and they found out that she, is it pancreatitis? Is that what it is? When your pancreas is going to burst? What is it? Appendicitis, thanks. Yeah, she had appendicitis. Pancreatitis is a different thing. She might have that, I don't know. But at that time, she had appendicitis, and her appendix was going to burst, and it was causing a great deal of pain. And because she was at the hospital, they were able to get in there and remove it and get that out. And it was actually turned out to be a good thing that this is what happened. I've got a good buddy who goes here to the church, and some of y'all know him, know his story as well. A few years ago, his appendix burst, and they didn't know about it until it ate away at his intestines. And then he ended up in the hospital, and his wife was told he might have a bag for the rest of his life. That's bad news. And what he's had to walk through for the last two years is way worse than a gash in the head. I guarantee you he would trade a few weeks of recovering from a gash over his eye for the last two years that he's had with his guts and his organs because his appendix did burst. And so this whole time when I'm going to mom and I'm seeing her on the ground and I'm looking at her and I start to pray for her and I start to be concerned with her, in my mind, her most urgent need is this gash over her eye. Her most urgent need is to get that stitched up, to get that healed up, to get that knot scarred up, and to move on with her life. That's her most urgent need is we're going to the hospital. That's the thing I want to get addressed the most. As we're there and I'm holding her hand, that's what I want to get done the most is let's get this thing stitched up. What I did not know is that there was something far more urgent going on with her that I couldn't see and that I wasn't aware of. And if I'd have known that, I would have been praying that that got healed up. But because I didn't know that, if you somehow made me aware that mom was up in the middle of the night and that she was experiencing some pain trying to get back to her bed and that she was about to pass out, I would have prayed, God, don't let her pass out. Let her make it to her bed. But what she needed to do is pass out to go to the hospital so she didn't wake up with a burst appendix. God was actually, I believe, moving in that moment to get her where she needed to be because she was home alone and too stubborn to call the hospital and get there on her own. And it could have been a very different story had that fall not happened. And I bring that up because I think we see a similar dynamic in this story in Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter 2 is home of what I believe to be the most audacious ask for a miracle in the whole Bible. And when I say that, I'm just going to let you guys in on this because it's driving me nuts. I said that when we were going through the walkthrough. I said, hey, I was telling Laura who's running the slides, hey, I'm going to talk about the most audacious ask that's ever been made about yada, yada, yada. And then Greg Roberg, the keyboardist, said afterwards, he goes, did you say bodacious ask? And I said, no, audacious. And he goes, oh, because all I could think was good gracious ask bodacious. So if you are from a generation that knows why that's funny, laugh it up. All right. If you don't actually hear, let's make this easier. This side of the room, ask this side of the room after the service. They've got you. All right? So now that's messing with me. And I was like, Greg, you couldn't tell me that after the sermon. You had to mess me up before I get up there and preach. But in this chapter, we have, I'm going to call it a bold ask for a miracle. And you probably know what it is, but I think we have some lessons that we can learn from this. So what I want to do is kind of go through it a few verses at a time and talk about what's happening and see what we can learn from this person getting healed by Jesus. Starting innaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door. And he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing them a paralyzed man carried by four of them. Okay, so here's what's going on. I read one verse extra. I just want to set the scene. Jesus is going back home to Capernaum. We know that Jesus is from Nazareth, but at some point in his adult life, probably being trained in the temple there in Capernaum, he made Capernaum his home. Capernaum is on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. So if you go to Israel and you think about the type of topography and landscape that you would expect to see there, what you'd probably expect is kind of a desert, rocky, mountainous terrain. And in the southern part of Israel, that's absolutely the case. But in northern Israel, it's very lush. And there surrounding Galilee are green hills and mountains and trees and vegetation. And it's really, really pretty. And so nestled into this, along with the villages all around the Sea of Galilee, is Capernaum. It's a prominent fishing village in north Israel. And that's where Jesus is. And he goes home, it says, to preach to the crowds. And it's standing room only. People hear that Jesus is coming back, and they start clamoring in. There's no room anywhere. It's like the opposite of this room this morning. There's no room anywhere at all. Everyone's coming in. They're standing out in the lobby. They're standing outside. They're standing on the roof. They're standing on the front porch. They're all craning their neck to try to hear this Jesus teach. There's no space at all. Everyone's clamoring in towards Christ. And in the midst of this, we see this happen probably a couple of hundred. And these guys show up with their friend. Four of them are carrying him on a mat, ostensibly a cot, one on each corner. And they're trying to carry him to Jesus to ask Jesus to heal him because he's paralyzed. And I don't know if they were disorganized, hopeful miracle receivers and just got there late. I don't know if they found out late after everybody else. But for whatever reason, when they get there, they can't get to Christ and Christ can't see them. So they start figuring out what to do. And it's always been wild to me that they decided, this version says to dig a hole in the roof. Some versions say to cut a hole in the roof. I could do, I thought about doing some research on what ancient Israel, Israelite roofs were made out of. So I could give you the correct way that this happened, but I decided that would be pretty useless because it doesn't matter to help us understand the story. So they're going through the roof, digging through it, cutting through it, whatever it is they're doing. And I've always wondered this. I don't know if you guys have wondered this, those of you who have heard the story, like what was it like in the room? Like if I'm just in here and then all of a sudden, like a saw just shows up, you know, like I'm not going to keep teaching. I'm going to stand. I'm going to be, let's get out. Let's evacuate. All of us, all of us leave right away. This is how it happens. Let's go. But like, is there debris coming down? Is rubble involved? Like, how long does Jesus just keep going? And then you have to imagine this is not a short process. They didn't have power tools. It wasn't a quick process by which they cut a hole large enough for a grown man to be lowered by some sort of elaborate pulley system down in front of Christ. But at some point or another, his friends get up on the roof with a body on a cot, and then they cut the hole in the roof with some tools that they probably had to find. I doubt any of them brought shovels and saws. And then through a great effort, lower this person down into the middle of an assembly where all the focus was on them. That is a lot of effort to get your friend healed. And in their mind, what was their friend's most urgent need? That Jesus would help him walk. That Jesus would heal him physically. They got up that morning when they heard Jesus was coming. And they said, Jesus can heal. Let's take our friend. Let's take him to Jesus and let's let Jesus heal him. He will, if we can get to him. I just know that he will. This is the most important thing we can do with our day. And they marshaled all of their resources to get that man up on that roof, down in front of Christ, so that Christ could help him walk again, could perform a miracle and heal him physically. And instead, when that man lands in front of Christ, Jesus says, because of your faith, you may rise and walk. No, because of your faith, son, your sins are forgiven. And now we're going to read the verses that follow in a second. But what we see in the narrative is that it takes a beat between your sins are forgiven and rise and walk. And I want us to put ourselves in the position of the men who had just lowered him down. And they hear Jesus say, because of your faith, and then their hearts leap in their chest, yes, rise and walk. Because of your faith, your sins are forgiven. What? That's not the need, Jesus. That's not what he needs. He needs to walk. That's not what we're asking for. That's not what we're praying for. That's not what got us up this morning. That's not what got us up onto that roof. That's not what we were praying for, hoping for when we were digging. That's not what we were implying when we lowered him down, that you would forgive him of his sins. That's not what we wanted, Jesus. And in that moment, whether it lasted a couple of seconds or a couple of minutes, in that moment, I think we stand united with those men who lowered their friend in front of Christ because to be a Christian for any length of time is to pray a prayer that you believe is urgent about a thing that matters very much to you only to hear Jesus not give you the answer that you were expecting. No, Jesus, that's not it. This is far more urgent. Again, if I'm somehow able to pray for my mom, don't let her fall. Let her get back to her bed. And Jesus lets her fall anyways. In that moment, I feel betrayed by Christ. No, that's not her need. Her need isn't a gash in her head so she has to go to the hospital. That's not what she needs, God. This is more urgent. Why don't you see what I see? Why don't you understand what I understand? Why don't you do what I think you ought to do? In this moment, we can share in their disillusionment in Christ because he didn't do what they thought he was going to do, what they thought he should do, and what they had been hoping and praying that he would do. And it reminds me of one of my most favorite moments in Scripture. Early in Jesus' ministry, we find the story in the Gospel of John. When John the Baptist is arrested, and he's being held as a prisoner in Herod's dungeon, in Herod's palace. And he has a pretty good sense that he's going to die down there some way or another. And so he gets one of his disciples, John had disciples, and he sends one to Christ. And he says, will you ask Christ if he is the coming one? And this is a, this is a Ram as it's a hint or a clue. It's an allusion to an old Testament text in Isaiah, I believe maybe 35 or 43, where Isaiah prophesied that the one who is to come, the coming one, when he arrives, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk, the blind will see, and the prisoners will be set free. So John sends his disciple to Christ to say, hey, are you the coming one? Are you the one who is to come? Because if you are, then I should be set free from prison and not die here. So are you the Messiah? Are you the guy? Or should I keep waiting? And Jesus tells the disciple, go back to John and tell him that the lame do walk, the blind do see, the deaf do hear, and the prisoners will be set free, but not you, John. And then Jesus says this, and I think it's an amazing, amazing line. Blessed are those who do not fall away on account of me. What that means is, blessed are those who get disappointed by me because I don't do what they think I'm supposed to do. Because I don't do what they think they want me to do. Because I don't do what they think I need to do. And yet they choose to follow me anyways. Do you see that? Blessed are those who do not fall away on a part of me. Blessed are those who are disappointed in me because I do not meet their expectations in the way that they think I should and still choose me anyways despite not understanding. This is the moment that these men are having. This is the moment that we've had. When we're sitting in the middle of a situation and there is a very clear and urgent need and Jesus doesn't meet it and God doesn't answer it that way and we're thinking, no, don't forgive him of his sins. Help him walk, man. That's what's needed. Let's do that instead. We've all been in a place where we've been a little bit disillusioned with Christ. That's why it's important, I think, to continue the story. If we pick it up in verse 6, here's what happens. Now, some of the 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? Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, why are you thinking these things? Which is easier, to say to this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up, take your mat, and walk? As soon as he says your sins are forgiven, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law begin to conspire. And they go, who does this guy think he is? Only God can forgive sins. Who is this guy? What is he doing? This is blasphemous. And Jesus knows their thoughts. And so he looks at them very pointedly. And he says, why are you upset? What's harder to say? Your sins are forgiven or rise and walk? Which one's more difficult? If I say your sins are forgiven, nothing happens. You can't see anything happen. You don't know if that worked or if it didn't. But if I say rise and walk and he doesn't, then you know that I am impotent. He stops them and he says, what do you really think is the most urgent thing here? What do you really think is most important? Why are you thinking this way? The harder thing to do is to heal them, not what I just did. To you is to heal them. And physically, not what I just did. But I'm telling you that the harder thing to do is to forgive him of his sins, and it actually carries weight and merit and warrant. So then he continues in verse 10. But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home. He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this. I think it's really important to understand that Jesus didn't heal this man of his paralyzation until after he had been challenged about forgiving his sins. And he healed him to prove that he had the authority to forgive him. Do you see that? He said, which one's more difficult? It's harder. It's easier for me to just say, I forgive your sins because nothing happens. You don't know if it worked. But if I say rise and walk and then he doesn't, then I'm up a creek. Then I'm exposed. So here, tell you what, because of their faith and because I want you to know that I'm the son of man and I have the power and the authority to forgive sins. And that phrase son of man is from the book of Daniel. It's a quote where he's claiming to be the Messiah, the divine son of God. And he says, because I'm the son of man, I have the authority to do this. Rise and walk and go home. And the paralyzed guy wakes up, rolls up his mat and walks out in full view of everyone that he just got carried past on the way in. And the people saw it, and they were amazed, and they praised God, and the implication is they believed and the kingdom was grown. But look at me. Jesus healed that man to prove that he had the authority to forgive sins. He did not heal that man for the sake of healing that man. And I think that many of us probably think that that's what Jesus should have set himself about doing. Do you ever wonder why Jesus didn't go around ancient Israel with all of these maladies and all of these sicknesses and early infant death and low life expectancy rate and probably terrible cavity issues and all the different maladies that would afflict a low income population like this, why didn't Jesus just set up shop in Bethany just north of Jerusalem and let the whole country come and just heal, heal, heal, heal all day long? I have a feeling that if we were to walk around with Christ and watch how he spent his days, that we in our piety would have a real issue with his priorities. I'll bet that if we were to follow Jesus around and saw how few people he healed that asked him, and saw how few miracles he performed when he could have. And he didn't offer an explanation to us that satisfied us. I bet, and I'd be the first one in line gossiping with the rest of the disciples, I bet we would disapprove of how Jesus spent his time. Because sometimes things to us are far more urgent than they are to him. What Jesus knew is, if I heal this man of his sins, I give him an eternity. And in that eternity, he can walk and hop and skip and run in his new heavenly body. And this life is a mist or a vapor. This suffering compared to eternity is nothing. It doesn't matter. It's inconsequential. And so if you said, if you asked his friends, would you rather him help your friend walk or would you rather him forgive your friend's sins? The implication is that they would have said, no, make him walk. We'll figure the sin out thing later. And Jesus is like, no, you don't understand. That's not the most important thing here. And so what I see in this story and what I want us to reflect on and admit is we are not always right about what is most urgent. We are not in our finite human, always right about what is most urgent. And we have, all of us, prayed prayers where the issue was simple. Heal them, protect them, make this thing go through, make this thing fall through. Heal that marriage, heal that relationship, heal this, heal that, God be in this, God be in that, where we see the most urgent need, protect my children from these things, protect my husband from those things, protect my wife from that pain. We see these things that feel so urgent to us and we lower them down in front of Christ and we go, don't you see what I see? And then Jesus answers those prayers in that urgency in a way that we would not expect and that we would not choose and that we would not ask for. And then we get disillusioned with Christ because he didn't meet our expectations. We don't know what's most urgent at all times. If I could have protected my mom from that fall and saved the gash on her head, I would have done it. And in so doing, I would have made the decision that ruptured her appendix and put her in much more grave danger than that fall. Because I don't always see what's most urgent. It's why I'm so grateful that Romans chapter 8 and verse 26 tells us this, that in the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans or groanings too deep for words. We are taught in Romans, the greatest chapter, Romans 8, that the Holy Spirit, we don't know what to pray for as we ought because we don't know what the most urgent need is. And so the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. The Holy Spirit is literally in the throne room of God as we pray, saying this is what Harris prayed, Lord, but this is what he really wants. This is his heart, but this is what he needs. It tells us that Jesus is our high priest and that he sits at the right hand of the Father and he intercedes for us. This is what Anna prayed. This is what she really needs and wants, God. This is what's going to be best for her. Don't give her what she asked for that's going to be worse. And listen to me. It makes me so grateful that there is a Holy Spirit in heaven who hears my prayers and translates them correctly to the Father. I am so grateful that I have a Holy Spirit interceding on behalf of Lily and John, my children. That I have a Holy Spirit interceding on behalf of Jen. How many things would I choose as a father or as a husband to protect them from? How many things would I choose to fix? How many things would I choose to just wave a wand and make go away? Because clearly it's the most urgent need in their life. If you're a parent and you've ever watched your child go through pain, and listen, Lily's nine, so the kind of pain we're talking about is pretty minimal. Some of you have watched your kids struggle to have children or deal with addictions or deal with failures or deal with hardships or deal with being alone. You've watched your children walk through real pain. And if you could wave a wand because it's their most urgent need, you would wish that away. But aren't you glad that the Holy Spirit is interceding for you at the throne of the Father to make sure that your prayers are the right prayers when they get to God's ears. I know that I am. Because I don't want my wisdom and my viewpoint to dictate what happens to my children and to my church and to my friends and to my wife. I want to entrust that to a Jesus that has a different plan than me, that sees things more urgently than I do, and that correctly prioritizes what me and the people around me really need. We have a hard time with this, and I know many, many people, me included, and close friends, who have entered into a rocky time in their faith because Jesus didn't see an urgent need that they did. Because Jesus didn't think something was as urgent as they did. Because Jesus didn't answer the prayer the way that they had hoped he would. And because of that disappointment and disillusionment in Christ, they've moved sometimes away from Jesus, sometimes further away from Jesus, sometimes they've allowed that disappointment to drive a wedge between them and Jesus. And I just want to submit to you that if God isn't answering your prayers the way you'd like, maybe he has better plans. Some of you have petitioned God hard for things, and you've not gotten the answer you wanted. Is it possible that he sees a more urgent need than you? If I think about the things that my parents would have prayed away for me as I was growing up and some of the different struggles that I had, I'm so grateful now that there was a Holy Spirit interceding that allowed those things to go on because they made me into who I am. Now this doesn't work, and I'll be the first to admit, this doesn't make sense of every unanswered prayers. There's some prayers in my life, there's some things that were urgent in my life that I took to Christ and I took it to him for years and I saw it as very urgent and he could have healed if he wanted, he could have prevented if he wanted, and he didn't. And it still doesn't make any sense to me that he didn't. I still don't see the better good that came out of that. So this idea doesn't cover every unanswered prayer that we'll encounter in our life. But for a lot of them, if not most of them, maybe Jesus isn't answering our prayer the way we want because he's got a better plan. And if we'll just wait and see, one day we'll see it. I'll close with this story I'm a great time in there. I Had a friend growing up named Jenny pain and As adults we ended up in the same church and she was a small group leader for me and and she told me this story one time and a testimony video that she did. And I did not know this growing up. But Jenny was a little girl, I don't know how old, four or five years old, and she had two brothers. And she found out that her mom was pregnant. And so she immediately, in the way that earnest children do, she immediately got on her knees and started praying every day for a baby sister. She desperately wanted a baby sister. And she even went as far as to ask for a baby sister named Jessica. That's what she wanted specifically. I would like for that child to stop making that noise. Pray with me about that. Thank you, Ms. Erin. Don't we have a hallway czar? This is unbelievable. I can power through. I can power through normally. This is great. Yeah, go bang on the wall there, Haley. All right, we're going to agree to be grown-ups and tune that out. Jenny prayed for a baby sister named Jessica. And however many months after those prayers began, her mom had a baby. That was a little boy named Johnny. And Jenny was devastated. It took her several years to believe in the power of prayer again. Her parents could not convince her to pray because she had prayed, and she got John, not Jessica. John grew up, got to the age where you go to college, went to college, started making some poor choices with poor friends. I mean low-quality friends. I don't mean they were low socioeconomically. And he washed out of college. And those bad decisions caused him to join a construction crew down in Florida where he continued to kind of let his life not reach its potential by continuing to make poor choices. And at some point or another, he met a girl. And that girl really wanted him to go to church. And through her influence and her being a little bit different cut of cloth than the girls that normally talk to him, he started to get his life back together. He started to pursue God and make wise choices. And before you know it, Johnny's a respectable adult. He's engaged. And Jenny finds herself sitting in the wedding party of her new little sister named Jessica a few months after that. God had a plan. He knew that Johnny was going to need that Jessica more than Jenny did. And so even her most urgent prayers didn't get answered the way she wanted because God saw something different. And I don't know what you're praying for. I don't know what you're lowering down in front of Jesus. I don't know what you see as most urgent in the lives of the people around you. But I do know that Jesus may not see it the way you do. And because of that, you should be grateful. You should be grateful that you're trusting things to the wisdom of Christ and not yours. And in time, he will answer those prayers in the way that is best for us because we know that for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, all things work together for good. On this side of eternity or on that side, we know. We can trust a Jesus who sees things differently than us. Keep praying your prayers. Keep your faith. Blessed are those who do not fall away on account of him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your servant Mark who wrote these stories down for us. We thank you for a Jesus who sees us and who knows us. God, we thank you for a Holy Spirit that intercedes for us and groanings too deep for words. And that we are entrusted to their wisdom and not our own. God, if we find ourselves in a situation where we're praying and we feel like something is so urgent and we know exactly what you should do and we know exactly how you should address it and we can't stand to see this pain and we can't stand to see this hardship and God, don't you care too and can't you not stand to see it? God, give us patience for your perspective. Give us a faith in your sense of urgency and let us entrust ourselves and those we love the most to you and watch your plan unfold in their life. Give us faith, God. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right, well, good morning, everybody. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. If you were here this morning, thank you so much for braving the elements and coming. You had to really, really want it. If you're home watching in your warm, dry sweatpants, nobody likes you today. You made a selfish choice. But we're glad you're joining us online. This is the second part of our series called Mark's Jesus, where we're walking through the Gospel of Mark all the way up through Easter. So for several more weeks, we're going to be entrenched in the Gospel of Mark, and we're calling it Mark's Jesus because it's a view of Jesus through the lens of Mark, which comes through the lens of Peter. And I realized in the fall that we have not spent time together in the gospel of Mark. And so it's high time we do that. And so what I would say to you as a disclaimer is the way that I laid out the series is just to go through the series or go through the gospel of Mark and kind of make a note. Anytime I got to a passage that I thought, yeah, I want to teach that. Yes, I think that could help grace. Yes, that's something that we need to talk about or discuss or bring up or whatever it is. And so I just kind of went through and haphazardly just kind of wrote things down and then planned out the 12 or 13 weeks or however long it is. So what I would say is I'm not going to cover every chapter of Mark. I'm not going to cover every story. I'm not going to encapsulate the whole book in this series and in what we're trying to do. So I would highly encourage you, if you're going to be a part of Grace for this whole series, grab the reading plan. Kyle, I assume the reading plan is going through Mark, yes? Twice. Okay, two times. There you go. Kyle does our reading plan. It's back there on the information table outside the doors. Grab that reading plan and go through Mark with us. Allow God to speak to you from the gospel of Mark in ways other than what is dictated by the whims of Nate. All right. Let God walk you through that book as we go through it as well. As we approach the text this morning, I'm reminded of a story that happened about 10 years ago, I think maybe even a little bit before that. This is back when I lived in Georgia outside of Atlanta, and one night, I'm somewhere in the threes, 3.30 or so, Jen jostles me awake, and I can tell that it's a little bit urgent, and she says, I can't remember if she said, your sister's on the phone, or I just talked to your sister, but for some reason, my sister had called in the middle of the night, and I looked at my phone, and I had several missed calls from my mom, and at the time, my phone was on silent, so it didn't wake me up. So somehow it's relayed to me from my sister that mom has fallen. She's home by herself. She's fallen going to the restroom in the middle of the night and she's called the ambulance and somebody needs to get over there and I lived really close. So I scramble downstairs. I get in my car and I go see my mom. And when I get there, she's on her bedroom floor. My brother-in-law's there, but he doesn't really know what to do. She's on her bedroom floor laying on her back with a gash over her eye. And her glasses kind of shattered. And there's a big old split in her forehead. And there's blood everywhere. And it was a big, scary mess. It's not the way you want to see your mom. And she had gotten up to use the restroom in the middle of the night and came back and had lost consciousness. And when she did, she fell against the wall and hit a doorframe with her forehead. And there was a big pool of blood there where she had hit. And then she managed to get over to the bed and call the ambulance and start calling family. And this is not something that was expected. My mom would have been 53, 54 at the time, which is not when you expect people to start falling in the middle of the night. I don't know what the age is that you get to where when your family gets the call that mom and dad fell in the middle of the night, they're like, yeah, that probably checks out. It's probably Doug's age. Whatever Doug, whatever you are, Doug, that's probably what it is, where Molly would be like, yeah, that makes sense. Walker, go check on dad. But it's not 54, all right? That's not it. And so it was a little bit unusual. And I'm with mom. The paramedics get there, and I'm trying to walk them through some stuff. And they get her loaded into the ambulance, and I decide to follow. I'm going to the hospital, following the ambulance to the hospital. And I'm praying the whole time. I'm thinking about her. I'm thinking about, like, let's not let the scarring be bad. Let's get her stitched up. Let's let her be okay. Let's not let her have a big, gruesome scar over her eye because dudes think scars are cool. And my understanding is that women are not as inclined towards scars as we are. So she probably didn't want that on her forehead. So I'm worried about that. And I'm just worried about in general that she's going to be okay. And so I'm praying for her. And we get there and they put her in the ER. And I'm standing next to the table holding her hand. And a nurse comes in and starts stitching her up. And there was a few different times where I had to kind of like look down or sit down because I was about to lose consciousness too. I would make a terrible, terrible nurse. I cannot do that. I can't handle it. But we got through it. And the whole time, I'm just kind of, God, let this go quick. Let somebody get to her quickly. Let us not have to wait for a long time. Let's let her be taken care of. I'm talking to my dad. He's out of town. He's on his way back now in the middle of the night and all those things. And so they get her stitched up, and she's fine. She's lucid. She was good the whole time. But they said, we want to try to figure out what was going on. So they asked her, like, what was happening? And she said, well, I was just having severe abdominal pain, and I think I passed out just because of the pain coming back from the restroom. And so they ran some tests, and they found out that she, is it pancreatitis? Is that what it is? When your pancreas is going to burst? What is it? Appendicitis, thanks. Yeah, she had appendicitis. Pancreatitis is a different thing. She might have that, I don't know. But at that time, she had appendicitis, and her appendix was going to burst, and it was causing a great deal of pain. And because she was at the hospital, they were able to get in there and remove it and get that out. And it was actually turned out to be a good thing that this is what happened. I've got a good buddy who goes here to the church, and some of y'all know him, know his story as well. A few years ago, his appendix burst, and they didn't know about it until it ate away at his intestines. And then he ended up in the hospital, and his wife was told he might have a bag for the rest of his life. That's bad news. And what he's had to walk through for the last two years is way worse than a gash in the head. I guarantee you he would trade a few weeks of recovering from a gash over his eye for the last two years that he's had with his guts and his organs because his appendix did burst. And so this whole time when I'm going to mom and I'm seeing her on the ground and I'm looking at her and I start to pray for her and I start to be concerned with her, in my mind, her most urgent need is this gash over her eye. Her most urgent need is to get that stitched up, to get that healed up, to get that knot scarred up, and to move on with her life. That's her most urgent need is we're going to the hospital. That's the thing I want to get addressed the most. As we're there and I'm holding her hand, that's what I want to get done the most is let's get this thing stitched up. What I did not know is that there was something far more urgent going on with her that I couldn't see and that I wasn't aware of. And if I'd have known that, I would have been praying that that got healed up. But because I didn't know that, if you somehow made me aware that mom was up in the middle of the night and that she was experiencing some pain trying to get back to her bed and that she was about to pass out, I would have prayed, God, don't let her pass out. Let her make it to her bed. But what she needed to do is pass out to go to the hospital so she didn't wake up with a burst appendix. God was actually, I believe, moving in that moment to get her where she needed to be because she was home alone and too stubborn to call the hospital and get there on her own. And it could have been a very different story had that fall not happened. And I bring that up because I think we see a similar dynamic in this story in Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter 2 is home of what I believe to be the most audacious ask for a miracle in the whole Bible. And when I say that, I'm just going to let you guys in on this because it's driving me nuts. I said that when we were going through the walkthrough. I said, hey, I was telling Laura who's running the slides, hey, I'm going to talk about the most audacious ask that's ever been made about yada, yada, yada. And then Greg Roberg, the keyboardist, said afterwards, he goes, did you say bodacious ask? And I said, no, audacious. And he goes, oh, because all I could think was good gracious ask bodacious. So if you are from a generation that knows why that's funny, laugh it up. All right. If you don't actually hear, let's make this easier. This side of the room, ask this side of the room after the service. They've got you. All right? So now that's messing with me. And I was like, Greg, you couldn't tell me that after the sermon. You had to mess me up before I get up there and preach. But in this chapter, we have, I'm going to call it a bold ask for a miracle. And you probably know what it is, but I think we have some lessons that we can learn from this. So what I want to do is kind of go through it a few verses at a time and talk about what's happening and see what we can learn from this person getting healed by Jesus. Starting innaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door. And he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing them a paralyzed man carried by four of them. Okay, so here's what's going on. I read one verse extra. I just want to set the scene. Jesus is going back home to Capernaum. We know that Jesus is from Nazareth, but at some point in his adult life, probably being trained in the temple there in Capernaum, he made Capernaum his home. Capernaum is on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. So if you go to Israel and you think about the type of topography and landscape that you would expect to see there, what you'd probably expect is kind of a desert, rocky, mountainous terrain. And in the southern part of Israel, that's absolutely the case. But in northern Israel, it's very lush. And there surrounding Galilee are green hills and mountains and trees and vegetation. And it's really, really pretty. And so nestled into this, along with the villages all around the Sea of Galilee, is Capernaum. It's a prominent fishing village in north Israel. And that's where Jesus is. And he goes home, it says, to preach to the crowds. And it's standing room only. People hear that Jesus is coming back, and they start clamoring in. There's no room anywhere. It's like the opposite of this room this morning. There's no room anywhere at all. Everyone's coming in. They're standing out in the lobby. They're standing outside. They're standing on the roof. They're standing on the front porch. They're all craning their neck to try to hear this Jesus teach. There's no space at all. Everyone's clamoring in towards Christ. And in the midst of this, we see this happen probably a couple of hundred. And these guys show up with their friend. Four of them are carrying him on a mat, ostensibly a cot, one on each corner. And they're trying to carry him to Jesus to ask Jesus to heal him because he's paralyzed. And I don't know if they were disorganized, hopeful miracle receivers and just got there late. I don't know if they found out late after everybody else. But for whatever reason, when they get there, they can't get to Christ and Christ can't see them. So they start figuring out what to do. And it's always been wild to me that they decided, this version says to dig a hole in the roof. Some versions say to cut a hole in the roof. I could do, I thought about doing some research on what ancient Israel, Israelite roofs were made out of. So I could give you the correct way that this happened, but I decided that would be pretty useless because it doesn't matter to help us understand the story. So they're going through the roof, digging through it, cutting through it, whatever it is they're doing. And I've always wondered this. I don't know if you guys have wondered this, those of you who have heard the story, like what was it like in the room? Like if I'm just in here and then all of a sudden, like a saw just shows up, you know, like I'm not going to keep teaching. I'm going to stand. I'm going to be, let's get out. Let's evacuate. All of us, all of us leave right away. This is how it happens. Let's go. But like, is there debris coming down? Is rubble involved? Like, how long does Jesus just keep going? And then you have to imagine this is not a short process. They didn't have power tools. It wasn't a quick process by which they cut a hole large enough for a grown man to be lowered by some sort of elaborate pulley system down in front of Christ. But at some point or another, his friends get up on the roof with a body on a cot, and then they cut the hole in the roof with some tools that they probably had to find. I doubt any of them brought shovels and saws. And then through a great effort, lower this person down into the middle of an assembly where all the focus was on them. That is a lot of effort to get your friend healed. And in their mind, what was their friend's most urgent need? That Jesus would help him walk. That Jesus would heal him physically. They got up that morning when they heard Jesus was coming. And they said, Jesus can heal. Let's take our friend. Let's take him to Jesus and let's let Jesus heal him. He will, if we can get to him. I just know that he will. This is the most important thing we can do with our day. And they marshaled all of their resources to get that man up on that roof, down in front of Christ, so that Christ could help him walk again, could perform a miracle and heal him physically. And instead, when that man lands in front of Christ, Jesus says, because of your faith, you may rise and walk. No, because of your faith, son, your sins are forgiven. And now we're going to read the verses that follow in a second. But what we see in the narrative is that it takes a beat between your sins are forgiven and rise and walk. And I want us to put ourselves in the position of the men who had just lowered him down. And they hear Jesus say, because of your faith, and then their hearts leap in their chest, yes, rise and walk. Because of your faith, your sins are forgiven. What? That's not the need, Jesus. That's not what he needs. He needs to walk. That's not what we're asking for. That's not what we're praying for. That's not what got us up this morning. That's not what got us up onto that roof. That's not what we were praying for, hoping for when we were digging. That's not what we were implying when we lowered him down, that you would forgive him of his sins. That's not what we wanted, Jesus. And in that moment, whether it lasted a couple of seconds or a couple of minutes, in that moment, I think we stand united with those men who lowered their friend in front of Christ because to be a Christian for any length of time is to pray a prayer that you believe is urgent about a thing that matters very much to you only to hear Jesus not give you the answer that you were expecting. No, Jesus, that's not it. This is far more urgent. Again, if I'm somehow able to pray for my mom, don't let her fall. Let her get back to her bed. And Jesus lets her fall anyways. In that moment, I feel betrayed by Christ. No, that's not her need. Her need isn't a gash in her head so she has to go to the hospital. That's not what she needs, God. This is more urgent. Why don't you see what I see? Why don't you understand what I understand? Why don't you do what I think you ought to do? In this moment, we can share in their disillusionment in Christ because he didn't do what they thought he was going to do, what they thought he should do, and what they had been hoping and praying that he would do. And it reminds me of one of my most favorite moments in Scripture. Early in Jesus' ministry, we find the story in the Gospel of John. When John the Baptist is arrested, and he's being held as a prisoner in Herod's dungeon, in Herod's palace. And he has a pretty good sense that he's going to die down there some way or another. And so he gets one of his disciples, John had disciples, and he sends one to Christ. And he says, will you ask Christ if he is the coming one? And this is a, this is a Ram as it's a hint or a clue. It's an allusion to an old Testament text in Isaiah, I believe maybe 35 or 43, where Isaiah prophesied that the one who is to come, the coming one, when he arrives, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk, the blind will see, and the prisoners will be set free. So John sends his disciple to Christ to say, hey, are you the coming one? Are you the one who is to come? Because if you are, then I should be set free from prison and not die here. So are you the Messiah? Are you the guy? Or should I keep waiting? And Jesus tells the disciple, go back to John and tell him that the lame do walk, the blind do see, the deaf do hear, and the prisoners will be set free, but not you, John. And then Jesus says this, and I think it's an amazing, amazing line. Blessed are those who do not fall away on account of me. What that means is, blessed are those who get disappointed by me because I don't do what they think I'm supposed to do. Because I don't do what they think they want me to do. Because I don't do what they think I need to do. And yet they choose to follow me anyways. Do you see that? Blessed are those who do not fall away on a part of me. Blessed are those who are disappointed in me because I do not meet their expectations in the way that they think I should and still choose me anyways despite not understanding. This is the moment that these men are having. This is the moment that we've had. When we're sitting in the middle of a situation and there is a very clear and urgent need and Jesus doesn't meet it and God doesn't answer it that way and we're thinking, no, don't forgive him of his sins. Help him walk, man. That's what's needed. Let's do that instead. We've all been in a place where we've been a little bit disillusioned with Christ. That's why it's important, I think, to continue the story. If we pick it up in verse 6, here's what happens. Now, some of the 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? Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, why are you thinking these things? Which is easier, to say to this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up, take your mat, and walk? As soon as he says your sins are forgiven, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law begin to conspire. And they go, who does this guy think he is? Only God can forgive sins. Who is this guy? What is he doing? This is blasphemous. And Jesus knows their thoughts. And so he looks at them very pointedly. And he says, why are you upset? What's harder to say? Your sins are forgiven or rise and walk? Which one's more difficult? If I say your sins are forgiven, nothing happens. You can't see anything happen. You don't know if that worked or if it didn't. But if I say rise and walk and he doesn't, then you know that I am impotent. He stops them and he says, what do you really think is the most urgent thing here? What do you really think is most important? Why are you thinking this way? The harder thing to do is to heal them, not what I just did. To you is to heal them. And physically, not what I just did. But I'm telling you that the harder thing to do is to forgive him of his sins, and it actually carries weight and merit and warrant. So then he continues in verse 10. But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home. He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this. I think it's really important to understand that Jesus didn't heal this man of his paralyzation until after he had been challenged about forgiving his sins. And he healed him to prove that he had the authority to forgive him. Do you see that? He said, which one's more difficult? It's harder. It's easier for me to just say, I forgive your sins because nothing happens. You don't know if it worked. But if I say rise and walk and then he doesn't, then I'm up a creek. Then I'm exposed. So here, tell you what, because of their faith and because I want you to know that I'm the son of man and I have the power and the authority to forgive sins. And that phrase son of man is from the book of Daniel. It's a quote where he's claiming to be the Messiah, the divine son of God. And he says, because I'm the son of man, I have the authority to do this. Rise and walk and go home. And the paralyzed guy wakes up, rolls up his mat and walks out in full view of everyone that he just got carried past on the way in. And the people saw it, and they were amazed, and they praised God, and the implication is they believed and the kingdom was grown. But look at me. Jesus healed that man to prove that he had the authority to forgive sins. He did not heal that man for the sake of healing that man. And I think that many of us probably think that that's what Jesus should have set himself about doing. Do you ever wonder why Jesus didn't go around ancient Israel with all of these maladies and all of these sicknesses and early infant death and low life expectancy rate and probably terrible cavity issues and all the different maladies that would afflict a low income population like this, why didn't Jesus just set up shop in Bethany just north of Jerusalem and let the whole country come and just heal, heal, heal, heal all day long? I have a feeling that if we were to walk around with Christ and watch how he spent his days, that we in our piety would have a real issue with his priorities. I'll bet that if we were to follow Jesus around and saw how few people he healed that asked him, and saw how few miracles he performed when he could have. And he didn't offer an explanation to us that satisfied us. I bet, and I'd be the first one in line gossiping with the rest of the disciples, I bet we would disapprove of how Jesus spent his time. Because sometimes things to us are far more urgent than they are to him. What Jesus knew is, if I heal this man of his sins, I give him an eternity. And in that eternity, he can walk and hop and skip and run in his new heavenly body. And this life is a mist or a vapor. This suffering compared to eternity is nothing. It doesn't matter. It's inconsequential. And so if you said, if you asked his friends, would you rather him help your friend walk or would you rather him forgive your friend's sins? The implication is that they would have said, no, make him walk. We'll figure the sin out thing later. And Jesus is like, no, you don't understand. That's not the most important thing here. And so what I see in this story and what I want us to reflect on and admit is we are not always right about what is most urgent. We are not in our finite human, always right about what is most urgent. And we have, all of us, prayed prayers where the issue was simple. Heal them, protect them, make this thing go through, make this thing fall through. Heal that marriage, heal that relationship, heal this, heal that, God be in this, God be in that, where we see the most urgent need, protect my children from these things, protect my husband from those things, protect my wife from that pain. We see these things that feel so urgent to us and we lower them down in front of Christ and we go, don't you see what I see? And then Jesus answers those prayers in that urgency in a way that we would not expect and that we would not choose and that we would not ask for. And then we get disillusioned with Christ because he didn't meet our expectations. We don't know what's most urgent at all times. If I could have protected my mom from that fall and saved the gash on her head, I would have done it. And in so doing, I would have made the decision that ruptured her appendix and put her in much more grave danger than that fall. Because I don't always see what's most urgent. It's why I'm so grateful that Romans chapter 8 and verse 26 tells us this, that in the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans or groanings too deep for words. We are taught in Romans, the greatest chapter, Romans 8, that the Holy Spirit, we don't know what to pray for as we ought because we don't know what the most urgent need is. And so the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. The Holy Spirit is literally in the throne room of God as we pray, saying this is what Harris prayed, Lord, but this is what he really wants. This is his heart, but this is what he needs. It tells us that Jesus is our high priest and that he sits at the right hand of the Father and he intercedes for us. This is what Anna prayed. This is what she really needs and wants, God. This is what's going to be best for her. Don't give her what she asked for that's going to be worse. And listen to me. It makes me so grateful that there is a Holy Spirit in heaven who hears my prayers and translates them correctly to the Father. I am so grateful that I have a Holy Spirit interceding on behalf of Lily and John, my children. That I have a Holy Spirit interceding on behalf of Jen. How many things would I choose as a father or as a husband to protect them from? How many things would I choose to fix? How many things would I choose to just wave a wand and make go away? Because clearly it's the most urgent need in their life. If you're a parent and you've ever watched your child go through pain, and listen, Lily's nine, so the kind of pain we're talking about is pretty minimal. Some of you have watched your kids struggle to have children or deal with addictions or deal with failures or deal with hardships or deal with being alone. You've watched your children walk through real pain. And if you could wave a wand because it's their most urgent need, you would wish that away. But aren't you glad that the Holy Spirit is interceding for you at the throne of the Father to make sure that your prayers are the right prayers when they get to God's ears. I know that I am. Because I don't want my wisdom and my viewpoint to dictate what happens to my children and to my church and to my friends and to my wife. I want to entrust that to a Jesus that has a different plan than me, that sees things more urgently than I do, and that correctly prioritizes what me and the people around me really need. We have a hard time with this, and I know many, many people, me included, and close friends, who have entered into a rocky time in their faith because Jesus didn't see an urgent need that they did. Because Jesus didn't think something was as urgent as they did. Because Jesus didn't answer the prayer the way that they had hoped he would. And because of that disappointment and disillusionment in Christ, they've moved sometimes away from Jesus, sometimes further away from Jesus, sometimes they've allowed that disappointment to drive a wedge between them and Jesus. And I just want to submit to you that if God isn't answering your prayers the way you'd like, maybe he has better plans. Some of you have petitioned God hard for things, and you've not gotten the answer you wanted. Is it possible that he sees a more urgent need than you? If I think about the things that my parents would have prayed away for me as I was growing up and some of the different struggles that I had, I'm so grateful now that there was a Holy Spirit interceding that allowed those things to go on because they made me into who I am. Now this doesn't work, and I'll be the first to admit, this doesn't make sense of every unanswered prayers. There's some prayers in my life, there's some things that were urgent in my life that I took to Christ and I took it to him for years and I saw it as very urgent and he could have healed if he wanted, he could have prevented if he wanted, and he didn't. And it still doesn't make any sense to me that he didn't. I still don't see the better good that came out of that. So this idea doesn't cover every unanswered prayer that we'll encounter in our life. But for a lot of them, if not most of them, maybe Jesus isn't answering our prayer the way we want because he's got a better plan. And if we'll just wait and see, one day we'll see it. I'll close with this story I'm a great time in there. I Had a friend growing up named Jenny pain and As adults we ended up in the same church and she was a small group leader for me and and she told me this story one time and a testimony video that she did. And I did not know this growing up. But Jenny was a little girl, I don't know how old, four or five years old, and she had two brothers. And she found out that her mom was pregnant. And so she immediately, in the way that earnest children do, she immediately got on her knees and started praying every day for a baby sister. She desperately wanted a baby sister. And she even went as far as to ask for a baby sister named Jessica. That's what she wanted specifically. I would like for that child to stop making that noise. Pray with me about that. Thank you, Ms. Erin. Don't we have a hallway czar? This is unbelievable. I can power through. I can power through normally. This is great. Yeah, go bang on the wall there, Haley. All right, we're going to agree to be grown-ups and tune that out. Jenny prayed for a baby sister named Jessica. And however many months after those prayers began, her mom had a baby. That was a little boy named Johnny. And Jenny was devastated. It took her several years to believe in the power of prayer again. Her parents could not convince her to pray because she had prayed, and she got John, not Jessica. John grew up, got to the age where you go to college, went to college, started making some poor choices with poor friends. I mean low-quality friends. I don't mean they were low socioeconomically. And he washed out of college. And those bad decisions caused him to join a construction crew down in Florida where he continued to kind of let his life not reach its potential by continuing to make poor choices. And at some point or another, he met a girl. And that girl really wanted him to go to church. And through her influence and her being a little bit different cut of cloth than the girls that normally talk to him, he started to get his life back together. He started to pursue God and make wise choices. And before you know it, Johnny's a respectable adult. He's engaged. And Jenny finds herself sitting in the wedding party of her new little sister named Jessica a few months after that. God had a plan. He knew that Johnny was going to need that Jessica more than Jenny did. And so even her most urgent prayers didn't get answered the way she wanted because God saw something different. And I don't know what you're praying for. I don't know what you're lowering down in front of Jesus. I don't know what you see as most urgent in the lives of the people around you. But I do know that Jesus may not see it the way you do. And because of that, you should be grateful. You should be grateful that you're trusting things to the wisdom of Christ and not yours. And in time, he will answer those prayers in the way that is best for us because we know that for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, all things work together for good. On this side of eternity or on that side, we know. We can trust a Jesus who sees things differently than us. Keep praying your prayers. Keep your faith. Blessed are those who do not fall away on account of him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your servant Mark who wrote these stories down for us. We thank you for a Jesus who sees us and who knows us. God, we thank you for a Holy Spirit that intercedes for us and groanings too deep for words. And that we are entrusted to their wisdom and not our own. God, if we find ourselves in a situation where we're praying and we feel like something is so urgent and we know exactly what you should do and we know exactly how you should address it and we can't stand to see this pain and we can't stand to see this hardship and God, don't you care too and can't you not stand to see it? God, give us patience for your perspective. Give us a faith in your sense of urgency and let us entrust ourselves and those we love the most to you and watch your plan unfold in their life. Give us faith, God. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right, well, good morning, everybody. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. If you were here this morning, thank you so much for braving the elements and coming. You had to really, really want it. If you're home watching in your warm, dry sweatpants, nobody likes you today. You made a selfish choice. But we're glad you're joining us online. This is the second part of our series called Mark's Jesus, where we're walking through the Gospel of Mark all the way up through Easter. So for several more weeks, we're going to be entrenched in the Gospel of Mark, and we're calling it Mark's Jesus because it's a view of Jesus through the lens of Mark, which comes through the lens of Peter. And I realized in the fall that we have not spent time together in the gospel of Mark. And so it's high time we do that. And so what I would say to you as a disclaimer is the way that I laid out the series is just to go through the series or go through the gospel of Mark and kind of make a note. Anytime I got to a passage that I thought, yeah, I want to teach that. Yes, I think that could help grace. Yes, that's something that we need to talk about or discuss or bring up or whatever it is. And so I just kind of went through and haphazardly just kind of wrote things down and then planned out the 12 or 13 weeks or however long it is. So what I would say is I'm not going to cover every chapter of Mark. I'm not going to cover every story. I'm not going to encapsulate the whole book in this series and in what we're trying to do. So I would highly encourage you, if you're going to be a part of Grace for this whole series, grab the reading plan. Kyle, I assume the reading plan is going through Mark, yes? Twice. Okay, two times. There you go. Kyle does our reading plan. It's back there on the information table outside the doors. Grab that reading plan and go through Mark with us. Allow God to speak to you from the gospel of Mark in ways other than what is dictated by the whims of Nate. All right. Let God walk you through that book as we go through it as well. As we approach the text this morning, I'm reminded of a story that happened about 10 years ago, I think maybe even a little bit before that. This is back when I lived in Georgia outside of Atlanta, and one night, I'm somewhere in the threes, 3.30 or so, Jen jostles me awake, and I can tell that it's a little bit urgent, and she says, I can't remember if she said, your sister's on the phone, or I just talked to your sister, but for some reason, my sister had called in the middle of the night, and I looked at my phone, and I had several missed calls from my mom, and at the time, my phone was on silent, so it didn't wake me up. So somehow it's relayed to me from my sister that mom has fallen. She's home by herself. She's fallen going to the restroom in the middle of the night and she's called the ambulance and somebody needs to get over there and I lived really close. So I scramble downstairs. I get in my car and I go see my mom. And when I get there, she's on her bedroom floor. My brother-in-law's there, but he doesn't really know what to do. She's on her bedroom floor laying on her back with a gash over her eye. And her glasses kind of shattered. And there's a big old split in her forehead. And there's blood everywhere. And it was a big, scary mess. It's not the way you want to see your mom. And she had gotten up to use the restroom in the middle of the night and came back and had lost consciousness. And when she did, she fell against the wall and hit a doorframe with her forehead. And there was a big pool of blood there where she had hit. And then she managed to get over to the bed and call the ambulance and start calling family. And this is not something that was expected. My mom would have been 53, 54 at the time, which is not when you expect people to start falling in the middle of the night. I don't know what the age is that you get to where when your family gets the call that mom and dad fell in the middle of the night, they're like, yeah, that probably checks out. It's probably Doug's age. Whatever Doug, whatever you are, Doug, that's probably what it is, where Molly would be like, yeah, that makes sense. Walker, go check on dad. But it's not 54, all right? That's not it. And so it was a little bit unusual. And I'm with mom. The paramedics get there, and I'm trying to walk them through some stuff. And they get her loaded into the ambulance, and I decide to follow. I'm going to the hospital, following the ambulance to the hospital. And I'm praying the whole time. I'm thinking about her. I'm thinking about, like, let's not let the scarring be bad. Let's get her stitched up. Let's let her be okay. Let's not let her have a big, gruesome scar over her eye because dudes think scars are cool. And my understanding is that women are not as inclined towards scars as we are. So she probably didn't want that on her forehead. So I'm worried about that. And I'm just worried about in general that she's going to be okay. And so I'm praying for her. And we get there and they put her in the ER. And I'm standing next to the table holding her hand. And a nurse comes in and starts stitching her up. And there was a few different times where I had to kind of like look down or sit down because I was about to lose consciousness too. I would make a terrible, terrible nurse. I cannot do that. I can't handle it. But we got through it. And the whole time, I'm just kind of, God, let this go quick. Let somebody get to her quickly. Let us not have to wait for a long time. Let's let her be taken care of. I'm talking to my dad. He's out of town. He's on his way back now in the middle of the night and all those things. And so they get her stitched up, and she's fine. She's lucid. She was good the whole time. But they said, we want to try to figure out what was going on. So they asked her, like, what was happening? And she said, well, I was just having severe abdominal pain, and I think I passed out just because of the pain coming back from the restroom. And so they ran some tests, and they found out that she, is it pancreatitis? Is that what it is? When your pancreas is going to burst? What is it? Appendicitis, thanks. Yeah, she had appendicitis. Pancreatitis is a different thing. She might have that, I don't know. But at that time, she had appendicitis, and her appendix was going to burst, and it was causing a great deal of pain. And because she was at the hospital, they were able to get in there and remove it and get that out. And it was actually turned out to be a good thing that this is what happened. I've got a good buddy who goes here to the church, and some of y'all know him, know his story as well. A few years ago, his appendix burst, and they didn't know about it until it ate away at his intestines. And then he ended up in the hospital, and his wife was told he might have a bag for the rest of his life. That's bad news. And what he's had to walk through for the last two years is way worse than a gash in the head. I guarantee you he would trade a few weeks of recovering from a gash over his eye for the last two years that he's had with his guts and his organs because his appendix did burst. And so this whole time when I'm going to mom and I'm seeing her on the ground and I'm looking at her and I start to pray for her and I start to be concerned with her, in my mind, her most urgent need is this gash over her eye. Her most urgent need is to get that stitched up, to get that healed up, to get that knot scarred up, and to move on with her life. That's her most urgent need is we're going to the hospital. That's the thing I want to get addressed the most. As we're there and I'm holding her hand, that's what I want to get done the most is let's get this thing stitched up. What I did not know is that there was something far more urgent going on with her that I couldn't see and that I wasn't aware of. And if I'd have known that, I would have been praying that that got healed up. But because I didn't know that, if you somehow made me aware that mom was up in the middle of the night and that she was experiencing some pain trying to get back to her bed and that she was about to pass out, I would have prayed, God, don't let her pass out. Let her make it to her bed. But what she needed to do is pass out to go to the hospital so she didn't wake up with a burst appendix. God was actually, I believe, moving in that moment to get her where she needed to be because she was home alone and too stubborn to call the hospital and get there on her own. And it could have been a very different story had that fall not happened. And I bring that up because I think we see a similar dynamic in this story in Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter 2 is home of what I believe to be the most audacious ask for a miracle in the whole Bible. And when I say that, I'm just going to let you guys in on this because it's driving me nuts. I said that when we were going through the walkthrough. I said, hey, I was telling Laura who's running the slides, hey, I'm going to talk about the most audacious ask that's ever been made about yada, yada, yada. And then Greg Roberg, the keyboardist, said afterwards, he goes, did you say bodacious ask? And I said, no, audacious. And he goes, oh, because all I could think was good gracious ask bodacious. So if you are from a generation that knows why that's funny, laugh it up. All right. If you don't actually hear, let's make this easier. This side of the room, ask this side of the room after the service. They've got you. All right? So now that's messing with me. And I was like, Greg, you couldn't tell me that after the sermon. You had to mess me up before I get up there and preach. But in this chapter, we have, I'm going to call it a bold ask for a miracle. And you probably know what it is, but I think we have some lessons that we can learn from this. So what I want to do is kind of go through it a few verses at a time and talk about what's happening and see what we can learn from this person getting healed by Jesus. Starting innaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door. And he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing them a paralyzed man carried by four of them. Okay, so here's what's going on. I read one verse extra. I just want to set the scene. Jesus is going back home to Capernaum. We know that Jesus is from Nazareth, but at some point in his adult life, probably being trained in the temple there in Capernaum, he made Capernaum his home. Capernaum is on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. So if you go to Israel and you think about the type of topography and landscape that you would expect to see there, what you'd probably expect is kind of a desert, rocky, mountainous terrain. And in the southern part of Israel, that's absolutely the case. But in northern Israel, it's very lush. And there surrounding Galilee are green hills and mountains and trees and vegetation. And it's really, really pretty. And so nestled into this, along with the villages all around the Sea of Galilee, is Capernaum. It's a prominent fishing village in north Israel. And that's where Jesus is. And he goes home, it says, to preach to the crowds. And it's standing room only. People hear that Jesus is coming back, and they start clamoring in. There's no room anywhere. It's like the opposite of this room this morning. There's no room anywhere at all. Everyone's coming in. They're standing out in the lobby. They're standing outside. They're standing on the roof. They're standing on the front porch. They're all craning their neck to try to hear this Jesus teach. There's no space at all. Everyone's clamoring in towards Christ. And in the midst of this, we see this happen probably a couple of hundred. And these guys show up with their friend. Four of them are carrying him on a mat, ostensibly a cot, one on each corner. And they're trying to carry him to Jesus to ask Jesus to heal him because he's paralyzed. And I don't know if they were disorganized, hopeful miracle receivers and just got there late. I don't know if they found out late after everybody else. But for whatever reason, when they get there, they can't get to Christ and Christ can't see them. So they start figuring out what to do. And it's always been wild to me that they decided, this version says to dig a hole in the roof. Some versions say to cut a hole in the roof. I could do, I thought about doing some research on what ancient Israel, Israelite roofs were made out of. So I could give you the correct way that this happened, but I decided that would be pretty useless because it doesn't matter to help us understand the story. So they're going through the roof, digging through it, cutting through it, whatever it is they're doing. And I've always wondered this. I don't know if you guys have wondered this, those of you who have heard the story, like what was it like in the room? Like if I'm just in here and then all of a sudden, like a saw just shows up, you know, like I'm not going to keep teaching. I'm going to stand. I'm going to be, let's get out. Let's evacuate. All of us, all of us leave right away. This is how it happens. Let's go. But like, is there debris coming down? Is rubble involved? Like, how long does Jesus just keep going? And then you have to imagine this is not a short process. They didn't have power tools. It wasn't a quick process by which they cut a hole large enough for a grown man to be lowered by some sort of elaborate pulley system down in front of Christ. But at some point or another, his friends get up on the roof with a body on a cot, and then they cut the hole in the roof with some tools that they probably had to find. I doubt any of them brought shovels and saws. And then through a great effort, lower this person down into the middle of an assembly where all the focus was on them. That is a lot of effort to get your friend healed. And in their mind, what was their friend's most urgent need? That Jesus would help him walk. That Jesus would heal him physically. They got up that morning when they heard Jesus was coming. And they said, Jesus can heal. Let's take our friend. Let's take him to Jesus and let's let Jesus heal him. He will, if we can get to him. I just know that he will. This is the most important thing we can do with our day. And they marshaled all of their resources to get that man up on that roof, down in front of Christ, so that Christ could help him walk again, could perform a miracle and heal him physically. And instead, when that man lands in front of Christ, Jesus says, because of your faith, you may rise and walk. No, because of your faith, son, your sins are forgiven. And now we're going to read the verses that follow in a second. But what we see in the narrative is that it takes a beat between your sins are forgiven and rise and walk. And I want us to put ourselves in the position of the men who had just lowered him down. And they hear Jesus say, because of your faith, and then their hearts leap in their chest, yes, rise and walk. Because of your faith, your sins are forgiven. What? That's not the need, Jesus. That's not what he needs. He needs to walk. That's not what we're asking for. That's not what we're praying for. That's not what got us up this morning. That's not what got us up onto that roof. That's not what we were praying for, hoping for when we were digging. That's not what we were implying when we lowered him down, that you would forgive him of his sins. That's not what we wanted, Jesus. And in that moment, whether it lasted a couple of seconds or a couple of minutes, in that moment, I think we stand united with those men who lowered their friend in front of Christ because to be a Christian for any length of time is to pray a prayer that you believe is urgent about a thing that matters very much to you only to hear Jesus not give you the answer that you were expecting. No, Jesus, that's not it. This is far more urgent. Again, if I'm somehow able to pray for my mom, don't let her fall. Let her get back to her bed. And Jesus lets her fall anyways. In that moment, I feel betrayed by Christ. No, that's not her need. Her need isn't a gash in her head so she has to go to the hospital. That's not what she needs, God. This is more urgent. Why don't you see what I see? Why don't you understand what I understand? Why don't you do what I think you ought to do? In this moment, we can share in their disillusionment in Christ because he didn't do what they thought he was going to do, what they thought he should do, and what they had been hoping and praying that he would do. And it reminds me of one of my most favorite moments in Scripture. Early in Jesus' ministry, we find the story in the Gospel of John. When John the Baptist is arrested, and he's being held as a prisoner in Herod's dungeon, in Herod's palace. And he has a pretty good sense that he's going to die down there some way or another. And so he gets one of his disciples, John had disciples, and he sends one to Christ. And he says, will you ask Christ if he is the coming one? And this is a, this is a Ram as it's a hint or a clue. It's an allusion to an old Testament text in Isaiah, I believe maybe 35 or 43, where Isaiah prophesied that the one who is to come, the coming one, when he arrives, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk, the blind will see, and the prisoners will be set free. So John sends his disciple to Christ to say, hey, are you the coming one? Are you the one who is to come? Because if you are, then I should be set free from prison and not die here. So are you the Messiah? Are you the guy? Or should I keep waiting? And Jesus tells the disciple, go back to John and tell him that the lame do walk, the blind do see, the deaf do hear, and the prisoners will be set free, but not you, John. And then Jesus says this, and I think it's an amazing, amazing line. Blessed are those who do not fall away on account of me. What that means is, blessed are those who get disappointed by me because I don't do what they think I'm supposed to do. Because I don't do what they think they want me to do. Because I don't do what they think I need to do. And yet they choose to follow me anyways. Do you see that? Blessed are those who do not fall away on a part of me. Blessed are those who are disappointed in me because I do not meet their expectations in the way that they think I should and still choose me anyways despite not understanding. This is the moment that these men are having. This is the moment that we've had. When we're sitting in the middle of a situation and there is a very clear and urgent need and Jesus doesn't meet it and God doesn't answer it that way and we're thinking, no, don't forgive him of his sins. Help him walk, man. That's what's needed. Let's do that instead. We've all been in a place where we've been a little bit disillusioned with Christ. That's why it's important, I think, to continue the story. If we pick it up in verse 6, here's what happens. Now, some of the 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? Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, why are you thinking these things? Which is easier, to say to this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up, take your mat, and walk? As soon as he says your sins are forgiven, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law begin to conspire. And they go, who does this guy think he is? Only God can forgive sins. Who is this guy? What is he doing? This is blasphemous. And Jesus knows their thoughts. And so he looks at them very pointedly. And he says, why are you upset? What's harder to say? Your sins are forgiven or rise and walk? Which one's more difficult? If I say your sins are forgiven, nothing happens. You can't see anything happen. You don't know if that worked or if it didn't. But if I say rise and walk and he doesn't, then you know that I am impotent. He stops them and he says, what do you really think is the most urgent thing here? What do you really think is most important? Why are you thinking this way? The harder thing to do is to heal them, not what I just did. To you is to heal them. And physically, not what I just did. But I'm telling you that the harder thing to do is to forgive him of his sins, and it actually carries weight and merit and warrant. So then he continues in verse 10. But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home. He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this. I think it's really important to understand that Jesus didn't heal this man of his paralyzation until after he had been challenged about forgiving his sins. And he healed him to prove that he had the authority to forgive him. Do you see that? He said, which one's more difficult? It's harder. It's easier for me to just say, I forgive your sins because nothing happens. You don't know if it worked. But if I say rise and walk and then he doesn't, then I'm up a creek. Then I'm exposed. So here, tell you what, because of their faith and because I want you to know that I'm the son of man and I have the power and the authority to forgive sins. And that phrase son of man is from the book of Daniel. It's a quote where he's claiming to be the Messiah, the divine son of God. And he says, because I'm the son of man, I have the authority to do this. Rise and walk and go home. And the paralyzed guy wakes up, rolls up his mat and walks out in full view of everyone that he just got carried past on the way in. And the people saw it, and they were amazed, and they praised God, and the implication is they believed and the kingdom was grown. But look at me. Jesus healed that man to prove that he had the authority to forgive sins. He did not heal that man for the sake of healing that man. And I think that many of us probably think that that's what Jesus should have set himself about doing. Do you ever wonder why Jesus didn't go around ancient Israel with all of these maladies and all of these sicknesses and early infant death and low life expectancy rate and probably terrible cavity issues and all the different maladies that would afflict a low income population like this, why didn't Jesus just set up shop in Bethany just north of Jerusalem and let the whole country come and just heal, heal, heal, heal all day long? I have a feeling that if we were to walk around with Christ and watch how he spent his days, that we in our piety would have a real issue with his priorities. I'll bet that if we were to follow Jesus around and saw how few people he healed that asked him, and saw how few miracles he performed when he could have. And he didn't offer an explanation to us that satisfied us. I bet, and I'd be the first one in line gossiping with the rest of the disciples, I bet we would disapprove of how Jesus spent his time. Because sometimes things to us are far more urgent than they are to him. What Jesus knew is, if I heal this man of his sins, I give him an eternity. And in that eternity, he can walk and hop and skip and run in his new heavenly body. And this life is a mist or a vapor. This suffering compared to eternity is nothing. It doesn't matter. It's inconsequential. And so if you said, if you asked his friends, would you rather him help your friend walk or would you rather him forgive your friend's sins? The implication is that they would have said, no, make him walk. We'll figure the sin out thing later. And Jesus is like, no, you don't understand. That's not the most important thing here. And so what I see in this story and what I want us to reflect on and admit is we are not always right about what is most urgent. We are not in our finite human, always right about what is most urgent. And we have, all of us, prayed prayers where the issue was simple. Heal them, protect them, make this thing go through, make this thing fall through. Heal that marriage, heal that relationship, heal this, heal that, God be in this, God be in that, where we see the most urgent need, protect my children from these things, protect my husband from those things, protect my wife from that pain. We see these things that feel so urgent to us and we lower them down in front of Christ and we go, don't you see what I see? And then Jesus answers those prayers in that urgency in a way that we would not expect and that we would not choose and that we would not ask for. And then we get disillusioned with Christ because he didn't meet our expectations. We don't know what's most urgent at all times. If I could have protected my mom from that fall and saved the gash on her head, I would have done it. And in so doing, I would have made the decision that ruptured her appendix and put her in much more grave danger than that fall. Because I don't always see what's most urgent. It's why I'm so grateful that Romans chapter 8 and verse 26 tells us this, that in the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans or groanings too deep for words. We are taught in Romans, the greatest chapter, Romans 8, that the Holy Spirit, we don't know what to pray for as we ought because we don't know what the most urgent need is. And so the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. The Holy Spirit is literally in the throne room of God as we pray, saying this is what Harris prayed, Lord, but this is what he really wants. This is his heart, but this is what he needs. It tells us that Jesus is our high priest and that he sits at the right hand of the Father and he intercedes for us. This is what Anna prayed. This is what she really needs and wants, God. This is what's going to be best for her. Don't give her what she asked for that's going to be worse. And listen to me. It makes me so grateful that there is a Holy Spirit in heaven who hears my prayers and translates them correctly to the Father. I am so grateful that I have a Holy Spirit interceding on behalf of Lily and John, my children. That I have a Holy Spirit interceding on behalf of Jen. How many things would I choose as a father or as a husband to protect them from? How many things would I choose to fix? How many things would I choose to just wave a wand and make go away? Because clearly it's the most urgent need in their life. If you're a parent and you've ever watched your child go through pain, and listen, Lily's nine, so the kind of pain we're talking about is pretty minimal. Some of you have watched your kids struggle to have children or deal with addictions or deal with failures or deal with hardships or deal with being alone. You've watched your children walk through real pain. And if you could wave a wand because it's their most urgent need, you would wish that away. But aren't you glad that the Holy Spirit is interceding for you at the throne of the Father to make sure that your prayers are the right prayers when they get to God's ears. I know that I am. Because I don't want my wisdom and my viewpoint to dictate what happens to my children and to my church and to my friends and to my wife. I want to entrust that to a Jesus that has a different plan than me, that sees things more urgently than I do, and that correctly prioritizes what me and the people around me really need. We have a hard time with this, and I know many, many people, me included, and close friends, who have entered into a rocky time in their faith because Jesus didn't see an urgent need that they did. Because Jesus didn't think something was as urgent as they did. Because Jesus didn't answer the prayer the way that they had hoped he would. And because of that disappointment and disillusionment in Christ, they've moved sometimes away from Jesus, sometimes further away from Jesus, sometimes they've allowed that disappointment to drive a wedge between them and Jesus. And I just want to submit to you that if God isn't answering your prayers the way you'd like, maybe he has better plans. Some of you have petitioned God hard for things, and you've not gotten the answer you wanted. Is it possible that he sees a more urgent need than you? If I think about the things that my parents would have prayed away for me as I was growing up and some of the different struggles that I had, I'm so grateful now that there was a Holy Spirit interceding that allowed those things to go on because they made me into who I am. Now this doesn't work, and I'll be the first to admit, this doesn't make sense of every unanswered prayers. There's some prayers in my life, there's some things that were urgent in my life that I took to Christ and I took it to him for years and I saw it as very urgent and he could have healed if he wanted, he could have prevented if he wanted, and he didn't. And it still doesn't make any sense to me that he didn't. I still don't see the better good that came out of that. So this idea doesn't cover every unanswered prayer that we'll encounter in our life. But for a lot of them, if not most of them, maybe Jesus isn't answering our prayer the way we want because he's got a better plan. And if we'll just wait and see, one day we'll see it. I'll close with this story I'm a great time in there. I Had a friend growing up named Jenny pain and As adults we ended up in the same church and she was a small group leader for me and and she told me this story one time and a testimony video that she did. And I did not know this growing up. But Jenny was a little girl, I don't know how old, four or five years old, and she had two brothers. And she found out that her mom was pregnant. And so she immediately, in the way that earnest children do, she immediately got on her knees and started praying every day for a baby sister. She desperately wanted a baby sister. And she even went as far as to ask for a baby sister named Jessica. That's what she wanted specifically. I would like for that child to stop making that noise. Pray with me about that. Thank you, Ms. Erin. Don't we have a hallway czar? This is unbelievable. I can power through. I can power through normally. This is great. Yeah, go bang on the wall there, Haley. All right, we're going to agree to be grown-ups and tune that out. Jenny prayed for a baby sister named Jessica. And however many months after those prayers began, her mom had a baby. That was a little boy named Johnny. And Jenny was devastated. It took her several years to believe in the power of prayer again. Her parents could not convince her to pray because she had prayed, and she got John, not Jessica. John grew up, got to the age where you go to college, went to college, started making some poor choices with poor friends. I mean low-quality friends. I don't mean they were low socioeconomically. And he washed out of college. And those bad decisions caused him to join a construction crew down in Florida where he continued to kind of let his life not reach its potential by continuing to make poor choices. And at some point or another, he met a girl. And that girl really wanted him to go to church. And through her influence and her being a little bit different cut of cloth than the girls that normally talk to him, he started to get his life back together. He started to pursue God and make wise choices. And before you know it, Johnny's a respectable adult. He's engaged. And Jenny finds herself sitting in the wedding party of her new little sister named Jessica a few months after that. God had a plan. He knew that Johnny was going to need that Jessica more than Jenny did. And so even her most urgent prayers didn't get answered the way she wanted because God saw something different. And I don't know what you're praying for. I don't know what you're lowering down in front of Jesus. I don't know what you see as most urgent in the lives of the people around you. But I do know that Jesus may not see it the way you do. And because of that, you should be grateful. You should be grateful that you're trusting things to the wisdom of Christ and not yours. And in time, he will answer those prayers in the way that is best for us because we know that for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, all things work together for good. On this side of eternity or on that side, we know. We can trust a Jesus who sees things differently than us. Keep praying your prayers. Keep your faith. Blessed are those who do not fall away on account of him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your servant Mark who wrote these stories down for us. We thank you for a Jesus who sees us and who knows us. God, we thank you for a Holy Spirit that intercedes for us and groanings too deep for words. And that we are entrusted to their wisdom and not our own. God, if we find ourselves in a situation where we're praying and we feel like something is so urgent and we know exactly what you should do and we know exactly how you should address it and we can't stand to see this pain and we can't stand to see this hardship and God, don't you care too and can't you not stand to see it? God, give us patience for your perspective. Give us a faith in your sense of urgency and let us entrust ourselves and those we love the most to you and watch your plan unfold in their life. Give us faith, God. In Jesus' name, amen.
Grace, good morning. This is a really special morning because we have the founding pastor of Grace, Craig Holliday, who's going to be sharing with us for the sermon. In 2017, when I came to Grace, I reached out to Craig because he was the founding pastor and I wanted to learn more about his experience and his relationship with Grace. And from the very start, he's been so gracious to me and so kind. He began to come back to Grace and refer to me as his pastor, which is incredibly flattering and generous of him. He said he wanted to help in any way that he could, served as a greeter and an usher, and I've always been so humbled by his participation in Grace. Back in March of 2020, he was scheduled to share with us and preach his first sermon back since leaving Grace, and I was so excited for that, and then COVID hit, and then the son of a gun moved to Costa Rica, which wouldn't we all love to move to Costa Rica? And several weeks ago, I was talking to Craig, and I realized that I was going to be out of town this weekend, and there would be an opportunity for someone to to speak in my stead and I thought it would be a great chance for Craig to come back and share his heart with us. So I've asked him to share his heart for Grace and his experiences that he's had and his heart for what he hopes happens at Grace in the future. So I'm really excited for you guys to get to hear from Craig. I'm excited to watch it. I hope it blesses you. I know it will bless me. Let's welcome Craig. All right. Well, to say I'm excited is an understatement. I remember back 27 years ago was the first time I stood to preach in front of this congregation, and I was excited then, and I'm just as excited today. Nate asked me to speak a couple of weeks ago. He said, you know, we're not in the middle of a series or anything. I don't need you to cover a certain topic. So what I'd really like to hear from you is, why are you excited about grace? Why have you been excited? Why are you? What are you expecting and looking forward to about grace? And that was an easy one for me. It took me straight to the mission statement of this church. And we'll go into that in just a moment. But Nate has been very generous to me. We've had a great relationship. Actually, he didn't give you the full story then just a moment ago. I've been offering to preach for quite some time now. Yeah, been offering to preach. And, you know, he first got in town, and the church was smaller and didn't have the full staff. I was like, Nate, you know, I want to help you in every way I can, any way I can. I'd be glad to be a greeter, be glad to preach. And Nate thought about it, and he said, well, that's very generous of you, but I know that you haven't been preaching a whole lot lately in these last years. Well, they went through some times with other associate pastors and interim pastors, and now I've been here. Craig, to put it bluntly, they've gotten used to a certain standard. And I'm just not so sure after all these years you're quite ready for it. But, you know, maybe you can go preach some other places and get it back under your belt, and then we'll have you back. And I said, great, great. So a couple of years go by. I have another chance to meet with Nate and let Nate know, you know, hey, Nate, I have been getting to do some preaching in some other places and been really good. I'm feeling pretty good about things. I would love to fill in some time for you. Surely you need a vacation or a break or anything else. He said, well, I'm sure that you have probably gotten a little bit better. It's come back to you a little bit, but we've got this really, really high standard. See, it's not just me preaching now, but Erin Winston's come in, and she's been preaching, and well, I mean, you know, they expect a lot, and I got the picture. Got the picture. You know how this goes. Came along a couple of years later. Nate, I know I'm ready now. I'm ready. Don't you think I'm ready? He said, well, now I got Gibby. And so I just don't need you, Craig. I just don't need you. I mean, we've got three really high standard people. And, you know, I don't want you embarrassed in front of the church that you started. And I said, well, Nate, think about it this way. If you give me the chance to preach, at least then the congregation's going to realize just how good they do have it with you. And he thought about it for a second. He said, you know what? You got a point there. You're ready to preach. So here I am. Well, of course, none of that's true, but what is true is how gracious Nate has been to me. Many times when a pastor leaves a church for whatever reason, they go on and are at other churches because they don't want to get in the other pastor's way. And I had done the same thing for a number of years after having to leave Grace. And when Nate arrived, one of the very early things that he did was to have me to lunch and said, Craig, you know, enough time has gone by. If you want to come to Grace, you're more than welcome. And I can't tell you how much that meant because this is home. Always had been. No matter where I was, this is home. And so I'm glad to be back again, and I'm so thankful to Nate, to the church, to the elders, and to all of you for having me today. So what's so good about grace? As I said, I could start listing a whole number of ministries I could go through. I could talk about the children's ministry. I could talk about what happens up here in worship. I could describe for you a week of one of the mission trips. I could tell you about the Bible studies. There's so many things and people and events that I could tell you that excite me about grace. And of course, there's one hanging up on the wall out there, a picture of a new facility. What excites me about grace? I'm glad grace is going to a home. And by the way, just let me remind you briefly, you're not building a church. You're building a home for the church. That's just going to be the facility. You are the church. We all got fooled as kids in Bible school when they told us that thing, here's the church, here's the steeple, open the doors, here's all the people. That ain't the church. That's the church. You are the church, and you're just going to be blessed by the chance to be in a new space to do ministry. What really excites me about grace is the right focus. Always has been, always will be, and that focus is Jesus. Is Jesus. Keeping our eyes on Jesus. And all the decisions we make and all the movements we have and all the things that we plan, keeping our eyes on Jesus. And in doing so, this church has made it a priority to see that first we want a commitment to Jesus from each individual person, for everyone to make an acceptance of Christ into their hearts, to grow deeper in that relationship with Jesus, not just to get saved, but to continue to grow and mature and learn as a disciple of Christ. And finally, in that same statement of connecting people to Jesus, we't help all of the members learn how to bring others to know Jesus as well. Whether that's directly telling the gospel story, whether that's inviting people, any number of ways, it's the entire church's job to multiply those who know Jesus. That was the Great Commission. Go into the world, make disciples of all nations. So our mission is connecting people to Jesus and connecting people to people. I want to take you through two Bible stories today of people connecting with Jesus and connecting with each other and see how they might apply to us. And the first one comes to us in the book of Luke. And I've got this up on the screen because for this, I'm using the New Living Translation. I usually use the NIV, but the New Living Translation. Let me just read it to you. A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding. She could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe and immediately the bleeding stopped. Who touched me? Jesus asked. Everyone denied it, and Peter said, Master, the whole crowd's pressing up against you. But Jesus said, Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me. When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble, and she fell to her knees in front of him. And the whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him, and that she had been immediately healed. Daughter, he said to her, your faith has made you well. Let's step back and take a little deeper look at this passage and understand about this woman who comes to an intimate, deep connection with Jesus. She suffered with bleeding, probably some menstrual issues for 12 years, and we learned in some of the other Gospels that she has been to multiple doctors. She's probably used up all her financial resources, and she can still find no cure. And for this woman in that day, it goes far beyond the physical issues that she's dealing with. It becomes a social issue. It becomes a spiritual issue as well. Because you see the law of Leviticus that was being lived out in those days was that if any woman going through that time was not to be around others, they were considered unclean. And so this woman, instead of being unclean for a few days or unclean for a week, had been unclean for 12 years. You can imagine what that means for her life on a daily basis, walking down the street with everybody knowing, moving away from her, no one to say hi to, no one to interact with. You can imagine what that does to her faith, feeling, Lord, you've left me in this position. Why? Why? And yet she still believed in Jesus. She had heard that Jesus was coming to town. The news had gotten around about the healings that he was doing, and he was probably coming to do more, and she was intent to be one of those out there to be healed. It says, coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. She knows the power of Jesus so well from what she has learned and heard and experienced that she doesn't even need to meet him. She doesn't have to have a hug. She doesn't have to even talk to him. She says, if I can just touch the hem of his robe, I'll be healed. Perhaps he's not wanting to get Jesus unclean either by touching him. If I just touch the hem of the robe, I'll be healed. What faith. And immediately the bleeding stopped. And when it did, Jesus says, all of a sudden, in a big crowd who have been following him around everywhere he's been going, all of a sudden Jesus stops and says, who touched me? One of the other disciples are like, come on. He says, look, we're packed in here like sardines. Look at all these people around. What do you mean, who touched you? Lots of people have been touching you. He says, no, someone deliberately touched me. It wasn't a casual bump. It wasn't an accidental. It was something that had been planned out, thought out. She, with purpose, had touched him, and I felt healing power go out from me. She'd heard about Jesus. She'd thought about Jesus. She'd acted on what she'd heard and thought and knew by reaching out to Jesus. When the woman realized she couldn't stay hidden, she began to tremble, fell to her knees in front of him. Here's the unclean woman that's been ostracized by the community. And Jesus not only heals her, but he goes one further step. He says, I'm not only going to heal you, I'm going to use you to minister right now. As the whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and had been immediately healed. And then Jesus does something beautiful here. He looks at her and he says, daughter, daughter, you won't find that word used anywhere else. It's not woman. It's not child of God. It's not Mary. It's daughter. It's that intimacy of you are mine and I am yours. We are one together. Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go. Go in peace. See, folks, when Jesus enters into our lives, he is about so much more than simple salvation. Well, I shouldn't say simple. He's about so much more than salvation. Jesus wants to be a part of every aspect of our life. His care for us goes into every aspect of our life. All the joys that we have, all the lows that we have, the highs that we have. Let me ask you a direct question. If Jesus were here sitting next to you and looked over at you, would he call you daughter? Would he call you son? Too many times we find that churches are filled with people who know all about Jesus but don't know Jesus. And if that mission statement of this church is going to be true, connecting people to Jesus, it has to start with the people who are sitting right in this room, the people who call Grace home, the people who are partnering and even watching online right now. It has to start with your personal relationship with Jesus. As I said, the woman in the passage had heard, she decided, she accepted, she acted. Now, I'm not going to go into all of this right now, but there's so many different stories and ways of how we come to know and accept Jesus. Some of you can't remember a time you didn't love Jesus. You grew up with Jesus in your family, and Jesus is just part of it. Some of you, like myself, had a dramatic experience where you're off at a camp, and there's an altar call, and you raise your hand, and it's a specific moment in time, and you get the goosebumps and all the things that goes with a dramatic story. Folks, neither one's better than the other. The question simply is, if asked right now, is Jesus your Lord and Savior? Have you made that known to him? I choose you, Jesus. Grace's church mission to connect people to Jesus has to start with us. That we don't just memorize the menu of what it looks like to be a Christian. We actually taste the feast and participate in what it means to be in that relationship. And then we have to connect deeper. We have to continue to grow that faith. The mission of grace about Jesus is not just to connect people to Jesus. It's also connecting us to each other in our deeper relationship. And there need to be ways and parts and programs of the church that help us do that. Because as we connect with other Christians, we're growing deeper in our own faith. My challenge today is for you to grow in seeing that your life needs to influence others to grow in Jesus. Whose life has changed because they bowed you? Whose life has been influenced to draw closer to Jesus because of you? I'm seriously asking the question. And for grace to be healthy, not only as it is now, but moving into the future. That's continually got to be one of the questions that is part of this mission. How is that happening? How are each of us doing it? If we asked your coworkers, would they even know you're a believer? If we asked the buddies down at the golf club, would they recognize that Jesus is in you? Whether you verbally shared it or not, Jesus needs to ooze from everything we are. Jesus needs to just be part of our being. So we needed our mission, as it says, to connect people to Jesus. The second thing that we need to do as a church and seek to do is we seek to connect people to people. As I've said to you, we grow deeper in our faith often when we're growing with others. There's so many ways in which being with other people is so important, and I'm going to give you another story from the Gospel of Mark about how important other people can be to our faith. Mark 2. When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room even outside the door. And while he was preaching God's word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn't bring him into Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, my child, your sins are forgiven. But some of the teachers of the religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, what is he saying? This is blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. And Jesus knew immediately what it was they were thinking. So he says to them, why do you question this in your heart? Is it easier for me to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven or stand up, pick up your mat and walk? But so I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins. Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, Stand up and pick up your mat and go home. And the man jumped up and he grabbed his mat and he walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, we've never seen anything like this before. We'll go verse by verse, but let's pick up some of the highlights through that passage. As Jesus has returned home, it says the news has spread quickly and the crowds were continuing to grow around him. He's at a house teaching one day when this event takes place. He often was. He would be in people's homes and he'd be in common areas. And he's at somebody's house to preach. And the crowd has gotten so large that they don't all fit in the room. They don't all fit in the house. There are people outside the house as well. And in those days, the homes were made of stones on the walls, but the roofs were mainly thatch and mud. They weren't nearly as solid as the sides were. They often also had a set of staircases going up to the roof area as if it was a terrace or a big porch up top. So that's the setting where we find that this is taking place. And Jesus is preaching God's word to him. Now, off somewhere else is a paralytic. A paralytic who needs what's happening over there, but can't get there. Now, there's a part of the story that's here I don't know the answer to. I wish I did. I don't know whether he willingly went or whether he was being taken there against his will. But for however it happened, these other men knew what he needed and knew that what he needed was Jesus. Knew that what he needed was Jesus. And so they've picked up this mat and they've carried them over to this home where Jesus is teaching. They've likely gone up the stairs and then it says they lowered him through a hole in the roof. That had got to be some kind of scene. Jesus sitting there teaching and crumble, crumble, crumble. Jesus teaches a little bit more, and that side caves in. I wonder how many people started moving out of the way, thinking maybe this isn't the right teaching going on here. But eventually the hole opens, and they lower the man down to Jesus, where he says, your sins are forgiven. See, the man needed to be healed from his paralysis, and he was. But the greater thing that Jesus came to do was to forgive him of his sins. He needed to give him the full treatment. Jesus wants to enter into our lives and give us the full treatment and be involved in all the aspects and areas of our lives that need help. This is one of the few places where Jesus in this gospel is called son of man as a title for himself. Usually when healing is taking place, it's the son of God to say, you know, God has these miraculous powers. But they wanted to also emphasize that here, this person who empathizes with humanity because he is one, the son of man, the one who knows what it is to feel bad, the one who knows what it is to come up against struggles, he is the one also who is forgiving you and taking part in that with you. Our faith is not meant to be lived on a solo basis. Can you be a Christian on a solo basis? Absolutely. Should you be? No. That's not God's intention for us. God's intention for us is that we live out our faith in community. And there's so many obvious benefits of living out in community and reasons we would want to connect people to people. We learn from one another. We encourage one another. We may challenge someone. We may even feel led to convict someone where we see something going wrong in their lives. We're there for each other in a number of ways, and that happens in life without Christ, but even more so is it important with Christ that we interact with each other. Let me give you just another simple example of why connecting us with each other is important. I think worship's a lot better with people. Now, the singing gets better and better. I would take a guess that those of you watching at home online probably are not singing out with gusto during the songs. Anybody been at home and done that? I would bet that those of you watching online, and I'm not saying that's not a good thing sometimes, but I bet some of those of you who are watching at home, when there's a prayer time, that's a time you're shuffling around or grabbing something else. You're not really engaged and focused in. But when we come together as a community, worship is better. The singing's better. The praying's better. We feel better being around other people and other believers. COVID exploded online worship. And at the time, it was a great thing. So thankful we had it. But since that time, across the country, church attendance is down 30%, in large part because of people continuing to worship online. And what I want to say very directly to you, those of you who are here and those of you who are in that camera, it's time to get your butt back in church. Online is when there's something that prevents you from getting here. It's not the easy out, the easy choice. Come back and be a part of this fellowship. One thing that I want to highlight for you as what I see is the best way for us to connect to people and within our community is small groups. Small groups. I cannot say enough good about small groups. Those of you who have been in one or are in one know what I'm talking about. Small groups where you intentionally are getting together with a smaller group of folks and you're intentionally sharing the faith, you're intentionally sharing scripture and prayer, but you're also intentionally sharing life. That's when we can influence and mold and meld with each other. And I will tell you that this church is going to get bigger and bigger. Not only is it growing because of the health of the church and the great ministries that are here. When you open up the doors just up the street, people are coming just because they want to see what's there. This church is going to be growing. And that's nothing to be scared of. In fact, be encouraged by it. Because here's the truth, folks. In a given church or any community, you may know at best, I'm going to be generous and say you might know a hundred names. You might have a casual interaction with maybe 50 people. No matter the size of the church, you've probably got about 20 that you would call, yeah, they're pretty good friends. No matter the size of the church, you've probably got three to five people that you would say, yeah, that's who I'm tight with. That's who I'm tight with. Are you tight with three to five people from this church right now? If not, you need to be. Are you not only getting that for yourself, but are you giving of yourself to three to five people in an intimate relationship? If you're not, you ought to be. Our mission is connecting people to Jesus. Our mission is connecting people to people because people connect Jesus to other people. Life can be so fun sometimes. It can be so difficult at times. I've asked this question in years gone by, and I'll ask it again. If something, a tragedy comes, there's an emergency that happens in your house tonight. There's somebody who's had something they need to go to the hospital for. Who from this church are you going to call at 4 a.m.? And it can't be Nate. Who are you going to call? Who have you developed a relationship with that you can say, I need you to come over and keep the kids because I've got to take Lucy to the hospital? Who have you developed that kind of relationship when there's been a death and you need to say, I just need somebody to be with me. Can you come over? Who are those three to five that are yours? If you're not that tight with others, you need to be, you need to get involved and connected in small groups. Bible study is great. Mission servant teams, great. Worship teams, greeters, all those great. Do they make connections that are deep? Not usually. And that's why I'm saying to you, in addition to all that, small groups is where it's at. The paralytic man found himself in a position where he couldn't do for himself what needed to happen. He needed other people to get him to Jesus. I share with you this part, and I chose that parable because being a Christian does not take away all life's problems. But scripture says in your life you will encounter many problems. And I can think of several events in my own life. I had to leave grace when I became disabled from a neck injury and had some personal issues going on as well. It was not long after that that I went through a divorce. Add to that depression. Boy, was I in a whammy of a space. I couldn't get myself where I needed to be. But thank God I had a group of tight friends and believers from the church community who were there with me. Said, we will get you through this. We will carry you. And I'm going to tell you, it didn't make those things go by quickly. But I can't imagine having to have gone through those without a group. Part of my story that some of you know, some of you don't, is that I lost a son in 2019. He just turned 17 years old. People ask me, was that a crisis of faith for you? And I say, no, actually. From God's mercy, it was not a crisis of faith, and here's the reason it wasn't. Number one, I knew my child was saved. We'd had a direct conversation about that less than a month before. The second thing was that I know God's got the big picture and that he's going to get me on. But the third reason that really got me through that time, and you never get over it, you just get better, got me through that time once again was my community of friends and believers who were there whatever I needed. Sometimes even when I didn't know I needed it. They were there to pray. They were there to bring meals. They were there to let me cry. They were there to help me have a fun time and learn that it was okay to be enjoying life again. I don't want to end on such a downer, but I use it to say to you folks, this connect to people to people is real. Take hold of it for yourself and want it for others. Want it for the people who are already here amongst you. Want it for the people who are yet to come. Keep Jesus the focus. And this church is going great places, greater than it's already gone. What's so great about grace? Jesus. Let me pray. Father, I'm thankful for this church. I'm thankful to be able to call it home. I'm thankful for the brothers and sisters here who also call it home. It is a great church. But we know that before we can give ourselves any credit for that, it first and foremost goes to you, the glory and the honor and the praise. Before we can say it's because of this or that that we get good or accomplished or any particular program, we have to know it's because of Jesus. You've kept that the focus in the years gone by. I pray your blessing on the years ahead that'll be one no less than one that focuses on Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.
Grace, good morning. This is a really special morning because we have the founding pastor of Grace, Craig Holliday, who's going to be sharing with us for the sermon. In 2017, when I came to Grace, I reached out to Craig because he was the founding pastor and I wanted to learn more about his experience and his relationship with Grace. And from the very start, he's been so gracious to me and so kind. He began to come back to Grace and refer to me as his pastor, which is incredibly flattering and generous of him. He said he wanted to help in any way that he could, served as a greeter and an usher, and I've always been so humbled by his participation in Grace. Back in March of 2020, he was scheduled to share with us and preach his first sermon back since leaving Grace, and I was so excited for that, and then COVID hit, and then the son of a gun moved to Costa Rica, which wouldn't we all love to move to Costa Rica? And several weeks ago, I was talking to Craig, and I realized that I was going to be out of town this weekend, and there would be an opportunity for someone to to speak in my stead and I thought it would be a great chance for Craig to come back and share his heart with us. So I've asked him to share his heart for Grace and his experiences that he's had and his heart for what he hopes happens at Grace in the future. So I'm really excited for you guys to get to hear from Craig. I'm excited to watch it. I hope it blesses you. I know it will bless me. Let's welcome Craig. All right. Well, to say I'm excited is an understatement. I remember back 27 years ago was the first time I stood to preach in front of this congregation, and I was excited then, and I'm just as excited today. Nate asked me to speak a couple of weeks ago. He said, you know, we're not in the middle of a series or anything. I don't need you to cover a certain topic. So what I'd really like to hear from you is, why are you excited about grace? Why have you been excited? Why are you? What are you expecting and looking forward to about grace? And that was an easy one for me. It took me straight to the mission statement of this church. And we'll go into that in just a moment. But Nate has been very generous to me. We've had a great relationship. Actually, he didn't give you the full story then just a moment ago. I've been offering to preach for quite some time now. Yeah, been offering to preach. And, you know, he first got in town, and the church was smaller and didn't have the full staff. I was like, Nate, you know, I want to help you in every way I can, any way I can. I'd be glad to be a greeter, be glad to preach. And Nate thought about it, and he said, well, that's very generous of you, but I know that you haven't been preaching a whole lot lately in these last years. Well, they went through some times with other associate pastors and interim pastors, and now I've been here. Craig, to put it bluntly, they've gotten used to a certain standard. And I'm just not so sure after all these years you're quite ready for it. But, you know, maybe you can go preach some other places and get it back under your belt, and then we'll have you back. And I said, great, great. So a couple of years go by. I have another chance to meet with Nate and let Nate know, you know, hey, Nate, I have been getting to do some preaching in some other places and been really good. I'm feeling pretty good about things. I would love to fill in some time for you. Surely you need a vacation or a break or anything else. He said, well, I'm sure that you have probably gotten a little bit better. It's come back to you a little bit, but we've got this really, really high standard. See, it's not just me preaching now, but Erin Winston's come in, and she's been preaching, and well, I mean, you know, they expect a lot, and I got the picture. Got the picture. You know how this goes. Came along a couple of years later. Nate, I know I'm ready now. I'm ready. Don't you think I'm ready? He said, well, now I got Gibby. And so I just don't need you, Craig. I just don't need you. I mean, we've got three really high standard people. And, you know, I don't want you embarrassed in front of the church that you started. And I said, well, Nate, think about it this way. If you give me the chance to preach, at least then the congregation's going to realize just how good they do have it with you. And he thought about it for a second. He said, you know what? You got a point there. You're ready to preach. So here I am. Well, of course, none of that's true, but what is true is how gracious Nate has been to me. Many times when a pastor leaves a church for whatever reason, they go on and are at other churches because they don't want to get in the other pastor's way. And I had done the same thing for a number of years after having to leave Grace. And when Nate arrived, one of the very early things that he did was to have me to lunch and said, Craig, you know, enough time has gone by. If you want to come to Grace, you're more than welcome. And I can't tell you how much that meant because this is home. Always had been. No matter where I was, this is home. And so I'm glad to be back again, and I'm so thankful to Nate, to the church, to the elders, and to all of you for having me today. So what's so good about grace? As I said, I could start listing a whole number of ministries I could go through. I could talk about the children's ministry. I could talk about what happens up here in worship. I could describe for you a week of one of the mission trips. I could tell you about the Bible studies. There's so many things and people and events that I could tell you that excite me about grace. And of course, there's one hanging up on the wall out there, a picture of a new facility. What excites me about grace? I'm glad grace is going to a home. And by the way, just let me remind you briefly, you're not building a church. You're building a home for the church. That's just going to be the facility. You are the church. We all got fooled as kids in Bible school when they told us that thing, here's the church, here's the steeple, open the doors, here's all the people. That ain't the church. That's the church. You are the church, and you're just going to be blessed by the chance to be in a new space to do ministry. What really excites me about grace is the right focus. Always has been, always will be, and that focus is Jesus. Is Jesus. Keeping our eyes on Jesus. And all the decisions we make and all the movements we have and all the things that we plan, keeping our eyes on Jesus. And in doing so, this church has made it a priority to see that first we want a commitment to Jesus from each individual person, for everyone to make an acceptance of Christ into their hearts, to grow deeper in that relationship with Jesus, not just to get saved, but to continue to grow and mature and learn as a disciple of Christ. And finally, in that same statement of connecting people to Jesus, we't help all of the members learn how to bring others to know Jesus as well. Whether that's directly telling the gospel story, whether that's inviting people, any number of ways, it's the entire church's job to multiply those who know Jesus. That was the Great Commission. Go into the world, make disciples of all nations. So our mission is connecting people to Jesus and connecting people to people. I want to take you through two Bible stories today of people connecting with Jesus and connecting with each other and see how they might apply to us. And the first one comes to us in the book of Luke. And I've got this up on the screen because for this, I'm using the New Living Translation. I usually use the NIV, but the New Living Translation. Let me just read it to you. A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding. She could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe and immediately the bleeding stopped. Who touched me? Jesus asked. Everyone denied it, and Peter said, Master, the whole crowd's pressing up against you. But Jesus said, Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me. When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble, and she fell to her knees in front of him. And the whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him, and that she had been immediately healed. Daughter, he said to her, your faith has made you well. Let's step back and take a little deeper look at this passage and understand about this woman who comes to an intimate, deep connection with Jesus. She suffered with bleeding, probably some menstrual issues for 12 years, and we learned in some of the other Gospels that she has been to multiple doctors. She's probably used up all her financial resources, and she can still find no cure. And for this woman in that day, it goes far beyond the physical issues that she's dealing with. It becomes a social issue. It becomes a spiritual issue as well. Because you see the law of Leviticus that was being lived out in those days was that if any woman going through that time was not to be around others, they were considered unclean. And so this woman, instead of being unclean for a few days or unclean for a week, had been unclean for 12 years. You can imagine what that means for her life on a daily basis, walking down the street with everybody knowing, moving away from her, no one to say hi to, no one to interact with. You can imagine what that does to her faith, feeling, Lord, you've left me in this position. Why? Why? And yet she still believed in Jesus. She had heard that Jesus was coming to town. The news had gotten around about the healings that he was doing, and he was probably coming to do more, and she was intent to be one of those out there to be healed. It says, coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. She knows the power of Jesus so well from what she has learned and heard and experienced that she doesn't even need to meet him. She doesn't have to have a hug. She doesn't have to even talk to him. She says, if I can just touch the hem of his robe, I'll be healed. Perhaps he's not wanting to get Jesus unclean either by touching him. If I just touch the hem of the robe, I'll be healed. What faith. And immediately the bleeding stopped. And when it did, Jesus says, all of a sudden, in a big crowd who have been following him around everywhere he's been going, all of a sudden Jesus stops and says, who touched me? One of the other disciples are like, come on. He says, look, we're packed in here like sardines. Look at all these people around. What do you mean, who touched you? Lots of people have been touching you. He says, no, someone deliberately touched me. It wasn't a casual bump. It wasn't an accidental. It was something that had been planned out, thought out. She, with purpose, had touched him, and I felt healing power go out from me. She'd heard about Jesus. She'd thought about Jesus. She'd acted on what she'd heard and thought and knew by reaching out to Jesus. When the woman realized she couldn't stay hidden, she began to tremble, fell to her knees in front of him. Here's the unclean woman that's been ostracized by the community. And Jesus not only heals her, but he goes one further step. He says, I'm not only going to heal you, I'm going to use you to minister right now. As the whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and had been immediately healed. And then Jesus does something beautiful here. He looks at her and he says, daughter, daughter, you won't find that word used anywhere else. It's not woman. It's not child of God. It's not Mary. It's daughter. It's that intimacy of you are mine and I am yours. We are one together. Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go. Go in peace. See, folks, when Jesus enters into our lives, he is about so much more than simple salvation. Well, I shouldn't say simple. He's about so much more than salvation. Jesus wants to be a part of every aspect of our life. His care for us goes into every aspect of our life. All the joys that we have, all the lows that we have, the highs that we have. Let me ask you a direct question. If Jesus were here sitting next to you and looked over at you, would he call you daughter? Would he call you son? Too many times we find that churches are filled with people who know all about Jesus but don't know Jesus. And if that mission statement of this church is going to be true, connecting people to Jesus, it has to start with the people who are sitting right in this room, the people who call Grace home, the people who are partnering and even watching online right now. It has to start with your personal relationship with Jesus. As I said, the woman in the passage had heard, she decided, she accepted, she acted. Now, I'm not going to go into all of this right now, but there's so many different stories and ways of how we come to know and accept Jesus. Some of you can't remember a time you didn't love Jesus. You grew up with Jesus in your family, and Jesus is just part of it. Some of you, like myself, had a dramatic experience where you're off at a camp, and there's an altar call, and you raise your hand, and it's a specific moment in time, and you get the goosebumps and all the things that goes with a dramatic story. Folks, neither one's better than the other. The question simply is, if asked right now, is Jesus your Lord and Savior? Have you made that known to him? I choose you, Jesus. Grace's church mission to connect people to Jesus has to start with us. That we don't just memorize the menu of what it looks like to be a Christian. We actually taste the feast and participate in what it means to be in that relationship. And then we have to connect deeper. We have to continue to grow that faith. The mission of grace about Jesus is not just to connect people to Jesus. It's also connecting us to each other in our deeper relationship. And there need to be ways and parts and programs of the church that help us do that. Because as we connect with other Christians, we're growing deeper in our own faith. My challenge today is for you to grow in seeing that your life needs to influence others to grow in Jesus. Whose life has changed because they bowed you? Whose life has been influenced to draw closer to Jesus because of you? I'm seriously asking the question. And for grace to be healthy, not only as it is now, but moving into the future. That's continually got to be one of the questions that is part of this mission. How is that happening? How are each of us doing it? If we asked your coworkers, would they even know you're a believer? If we asked the buddies down at the golf club, would they recognize that Jesus is in you? Whether you verbally shared it or not, Jesus needs to ooze from everything we are. Jesus needs to just be part of our being. So we needed our mission, as it says, to connect people to Jesus. The second thing that we need to do as a church and seek to do is we seek to connect people to people. As I've said to you, we grow deeper in our faith often when we're growing with others. There's so many ways in which being with other people is so important, and I'm going to give you another story from the Gospel of Mark about how important other people can be to our faith. Mark 2. When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room even outside the door. And while he was preaching God's word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn't bring him into Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, my child, your sins are forgiven. But some of the teachers of the religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, what is he saying? This is blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. And Jesus knew immediately what it was they were thinking. So he says to them, why do you question this in your heart? Is it easier for me to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven or stand up, pick up your mat and walk? But so I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins. Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, Stand up and pick up your mat and go home. And the man jumped up and he grabbed his mat and he walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, we've never seen anything like this before. We'll go verse by verse, but let's pick up some of the highlights through that passage. As Jesus has returned home, it says the news has spread quickly and the crowds were continuing to grow around him. He's at a house teaching one day when this event takes place. He often was. He would be in people's homes and he'd be in common areas. And he's at somebody's house to preach. And the crowd has gotten so large that they don't all fit in the room. They don't all fit in the house. There are people outside the house as well. And in those days, the homes were made of stones on the walls, but the roofs were mainly thatch and mud. They weren't nearly as solid as the sides were. They often also had a set of staircases going up to the roof area as if it was a terrace or a big porch up top. So that's the setting where we find that this is taking place. And Jesus is preaching God's word to him. Now, off somewhere else is a paralytic. A paralytic who needs what's happening over there, but can't get there. Now, there's a part of the story that's here I don't know the answer to. I wish I did. I don't know whether he willingly went or whether he was being taken there against his will. But for however it happened, these other men knew what he needed and knew that what he needed was Jesus. Knew that what he needed was Jesus. And so they've picked up this mat and they've carried them over to this home where Jesus is teaching. They've likely gone up the stairs and then it says they lowered him through a hole in the roof. That had got to be some kind of scene. Jesus sitting there teaching and crumble, crumble, crumble. Jesus teaches a little bit more, and that side caves in. I wonder how many people started moving out of the way, thinking maybe this isn't the right teaching going on here. But eventually the hole opens, and they lower the man down to Jesus, where he says, your sins are forgiven. See, the man needed to be healed from his paralysis, and he was. But the greater thing that Jesus came to do was to forgive him of his sins. He needed to give him the full treatment. Jesus wants to enter into our lives and give us the full treatment and be involved in all the aspects and areas of our lives that need help. This is one of the few places where Jesus in this gospel is called son of man as a title for himself. Usually when healing is taking place, it's the son of God to say, you know, God has these miraculous powers. But they wanted to also emphasize that here, this person who empathizes with humanity because he is one, the son of man, the one who knows what it is to feel bad, the one who knows what it is to come up against struggles, he is the one also who is forgiving you and taking part in that with you. Our faith is not meant to be lived on a solo basis. Can you be a Christian on a solo basis? Absolutely. Should you be? No. That's not God's intention for us. God's intention for us is that we live out our faith in community. And there's so many obvious benefits of living out in community and reasons we would want to connect people to people. We learn from one another. We encourage one another. We may challenge someone. We may even feel led to convict someone where we see something going wrong in their lives. We're there for each other in a number of ways, and that happens in life without Christ, but even more so is it important with Christ that we interact with each other. Let me give you just another simple example of why connecting us with each other is important. I think worship's a lot better with people. Now, the singing gets better and better. I would take a guess that those of you watching at home online probably are not singing out with gusto during the songs. Anybody been at home and done that? I would bet that those of you watching online, and I'm not saying that's not a good thing sometimes, but I bet some of those of you who are watching at home, when there's a prayer time, that's a time you're shuffling around or grabbing something else. You're not really engaged and focused in. But when we come together as a community, worship is better. The singing's better. The praying's better. We feel better being around other people and other believers. COVID exploded online worship. And at the time, it was a great thing. So thankful we had it. But since that time, across the country, church attendance is down 30%, in large part because of people continuing to worship online. And what I want to say very directly to you, those of you who are here and those of you who are in that camera, it's time to get your butt back in church. Online is when there's something that prevents you from getting here. It's not the easy out, the easy choice. Come back and be a part of this fellowship. One thing that I want to highlight for you as what I see is the best way for us to connect to people and within our community is small groups. Small groups. I cannot say enough good about small groups. Those of you who have been in one or are in one know what I'm talking about. Small groups where you intentionally are getting together with a smaller group of folks and you're intentionally sharing the faith, you're intentionally sharing scripture and prayer, but you're also intentionally sharing life. That's when we can influence and mold and meld with each other. And I will tell you that this church is going to get bigger and bigger. Not only is it growing because of the health of the church and the great ministries that are here. When you open up the doors just up the street, people are coming just because they want to see what's there. This church is going to be growing. And that's nothing to be scared of. In fact, be encouraged by it. Because here's the truth, folks. In a given church or any community, you may know at best, I'm going to be generous and say you might know a hundred names. You might have a casual interaction with maybe 50 people. No matter the size of the church, you've probably got about 20 that you would call, yeah, they're pretty good friends. No matter the size of the church, you've probably got three to five people that you would say, yeah, that's who I'm tight with. That's who I'm tight with. Are you tight with three to five people from this church right now? If not, you need to be. Are you not only getting that for yourself, but are you giving of yourself to three to five people in an intimate relationship? If you're not, you ought to be. Our mission is connecting people to Jesus. Our mission is connecting people to people because people connect Jesus to other people. Life can be so fun sometimes. It can be so difficult at times. I've asked this question in years gone by, and I'll ask it again. If something, a tragedy comes, there's an emergency that happens in your house tonight. There's somebody who's had something they need to go to the hospital for. Who from this church are you going to call at 4 a.m.? And it can't be Nate. Who are you going to call? Who have you developed a relationship with that you can say, I need you to come over and keep the kids because I've got to take Lucy to the hospital? Who have you developed that kind of relationship when there's been a death and you need to say, I just need somebody to be with me. Can you come over? Who are those three to five that are yours? If you're not that tight with others, you need to be, you need to get involved and connected in small groups. Bible study is great. Mission servant teams, great. Worship teams, greeters, all those great. Do they make connections that are deep? Not usually. And that's why I'm saying to you, in addition to all that, small groups is where it's at. The paralytic man found himself in a position where he couldn't do for himself what needed to happen. He needed other people to get him to Jesus. I share with you this part, and I chose that parable because being a Christian does not take away all life's problems. But scripture says in your life you will encounter many problems. And I can think of several events in my own life. I had to leave grace when I became disabled from a neck injury and had some personal issues going on as well. It was not long after that that I went through a divorce. Add to that depression. Boy, was I in a whammy of a space. I couldn't get myself where I needed to be. But thank God I had a group of tight friends and believers from the church community who were there with me. Said, we will get you through this. We will carry you. And I'm going to tell you, it didn't make those things go by quickly. But I can't imagine having to have gone through those without a group. Part of my story that some of you know, some of you don't, is that I lost a son in 2019. He just turned 17 years old. People ask me, was that a crisis of faith for you? And I say, no, actually. From God's mercy, it was not a crisis of faith, and here's the reason it wasn't. Number one, I knew my child was saved. We'd had a direct conversation about that less than a month before. The second thing was that I know God's got the big picture and that he's going to get me on. But the third reason that really got me through that time, and you never get over it, you just get better, got me through that time once again was my community of friends and believers who were there whatever I needed. Sometimes even when I didn't know I needed it. They were there to pray. They were there to bring meals. They were there to let me cry. They were there to help me have a fun time and learn that it was okay to be enjoying life again. I don't want to end on such a downer, but I use it to say to you folks, this connect to people to people is real. Take hold of it for yourself and want it for others. Want it for the people who are already here amongst you. Want it for the people who are yet to come. Keep Jesus the focus. And this church is going great places, greater than it's already gone. What's so great about grace? Jesus. Let me pray. Father, I'm thankful for this church. I'm thankful to be able to call it home. I'm thankful for the brothers and sisters here who also call it home. It is a great church. But we know that before we can give ourselves any credit for that, it first and foremost goes to you, the glory and the honor and the praise. Before we can say it's because of this or that that we get good or accomplished or any particular program, we have to know it's because of Jesus. You've kept that the focus in the years gone by. I pray your blessing on the years ahead that'll be one no less than one that focuses on Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.
