Through the Roof: Luke 5 - Jayden Zwerner

In this week’s message, Jayden walks us through Luke 5:17–26 and the powerful story of the paralyzed man lowered through a roof to meet Jesus. As the crowd gathered to see a healer, Jesus revealed something even greater about Himself: He came not only to heal broken bodies, but to forgive sins and restore people to God. Through the faith of a few determined friends and the authority of Christ on full display, we’re reminded that our deepest need isn’t simply for our circumstances to change, it’s for our hearts to be made right with God. And when we truly see Jesus for who He is, our response can only be awe, worship, and trust in the One who changes everything.

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Transcript

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I know I said this earlier, but I really am glad you're here. And I don't know what brought you here. I don't know necessarily what young adulthood looks like for you. You might be uh fresh on the scene, you might be a brand new young adult. Um you might be uh somewhere in your latter years of young adulthood, wondering when the word young falls off. So um wherever you find yourself in the middle of that, um, I'm really glad you're here. Um I'm Jaden, I'm the pastor around here, and uh my my one uh favorite part of my job is just getting to be um uh someone who goes before the Father on your behalf. And so if there's a way I could be praying for you, if there's um something that you're navigating in your life that you could use a friend or uh um just someone to listen and and and pray for you, um would love to. So um when I said come find me, it's not just to say hi, it's really to get to uh do life together. And so um, all that being said, we're gonna uh read through our entire scripture of uh we don't normally do this, but we're gonna do something a little different tonight. And so if you have your Bibles, turn to Luke chapter five, um, and we're gonna read through our whole text and then we'll get to dive in together. Luke chapter five, starting in verse 17. As you turn, they all start reading, so you can listen and find the page three, two, all right. Starting in verse 17, one day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up onto the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles in the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, Friends, your sins are forgiven. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, Who is this fellow who speaks of blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say your sins are forgiven, or to say get up and walk? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the paralyzed man, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. Immediately he stood in front of them, took what he had been lying on, and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, We have seen remarkable things today. God, we thank you for who you are. Thank you for what a joy it is to get to be with you tonight, to be with your people. Um God, I pray that tonight would glorify you. That we would um bring our our full, real, honest, total selves to the to the table tonight into your presence. And would you see us? Would you love us? Would you meet us in the in the cracks and the bruises and the hard parts of life? And would you share the joy of the places where you are clearly at work and we are enjoying your presence? I pray that we would um learn more about who you are and we'd be better because of our time spent in your word this evening. So, in your mighty name we pray. Amen. Um anyone like to read? Anyone book people? Yeah. Some of you are like, no, I'm in school, Jaden. Books are meant to be consumed when I'm forced to. I don't do that for enjoyment. Well, I promise you, if you're in school, there is something that switches when all of a sudden like reading is not required. I'm not saying for everyone, but once it becomes an option, some of you might enjoy it. Um I love to read. I just came back from vacation and I plowed through four books on vacation, like nobody's business, because there's just something so captivating about a book. And some of you, I've totally lost you, and that's okay, but some of you, uh, you're so with me. Um and here's what I like about books. And so if you're a movie person, this is no shade to you. But here's the thing about a book. You can't like, you can't think about something else while you're reading. Like that's the whole point, is as you're tracking with the words, like your brain has to be reading them and comprehending them and thinking about what they're saying. You can't just, like, you can like totally gloss over a movie, you know, but when you're reading, you I mean, you maybe could just flip pages, but that's not reading a book, that's just flipping pages. And there's something that is really enjoyable about almost like walking into a book where the characters kind of become your friends and you're invested. And I like swear I went to Rhode Island last week. I didn't go to Rhode Island, but my book was set in Rhode Island, and so I felt like I was in Rhode Island. You know that feeling where you're like, these characters, I feel like I understand them, and when when they're stressed, I'm stressed, and and you're just waiting to get to, it's usually about like 80% of the way through a book where like the plot starts to ease up a little bit, and you're like, okay, it is going to be the end of the end is near. And you're just kind of holding your breath until you get, if it's like, you know, until the people fall in love or the thriller finally finds some peace, or the hero saves the day, like whatever it is, you're just you're so deeply invested once you've actually read a whole book. You're so deeply invested, and you're just waiting for the characters to be able to take a deep breath so that you can take a deep breath, and you get to the last page, and you're like, why did I why did I feel like I just went to Rhode Island? And some of you are like, I have no idea what you're talking about. But there's something about like, there's just something about narrative, about story, and being able to be fully encapsulated in a narrative that is, that it truly invokes a level of your imagination that I would argue, and you could argue me this afterwards, I would argue it forces your imagination much harder than a TV show or a movie or anything, because you have to dream up the words that you're reading. You have to read between the descriptive words, and you you have to start to imagine the story, and a movie just kind of spoon feeds it to you. Not my soapbox for the day. I'll have other ones. But I love to read. And it's one of the reasons why I love the Bible because God, in full authority and in total control and full sovereignty, could have absolutely given us a Christian textbook. Like he could have absolutely just spoon-fed us the law and a bunch of things in which we would need in order to be good Christians, and it could have been written one, two, three, four, five, six, and gone all the way through, and we would have had everything that we need, just like we have in the Bible, to be able to live a holy and pleasing life. We would have had it. But he didn't do that. He instead gave us narrative, he gave us creation to restoration, he gave us people with character arcs and emotion and descriptive words. And so you have to sit there and read about Noah's Ark and try to imagine what it would have felt like to be there with the animals and what it would have smelt like to be there with the animals and what that patience would have felt like. And it starts to involve, you know, you're like your stomach kind of hurts because you're like, how long did they rock on a boat? Like I get seasick, and you have to think about it. Instead of just reading, like, you know, number 142 is you should be obedient. You're like, okay, that's number 142, it must memorize that one. But God didn't give us that. God gave us stories of real people where God intervened and changed their lives. And so we get to be involved in what that emotionally feels like. And so when we read stories like we just did in Luke 5, they're not just stories with made-up characters, they're narrative of history of real people, of a real God who intervened in real people's lives. And we get to go along on the journey of experiencing not only what God was doing, but also what it felt like to be a human in that moment, interacting with the presence of God, interacting with the human that was Jesus sitting with them, interacting with the wind and the waves as the boat started to sink, and all of a sudden Jesus said, be still. Like we get to kind of feel what it would have felt like to be a human in that moment and to get to understand what it would have been like to be able to experience the presence of God in such a way that it would fully captivate you. And so, if you're with me, I would love tonight to kind of go through this story a little bit like we're reading a book. Now, if you hate books, I'm telling you, just go with me here. Because I think there's something so beautiful about not just watching Luke 5 play out, or not just um analyzing Luke 5 play out, but actually putting ourselves in a position of saying, what would it have felt like to move through this moment by moment, scene by scene, and start to peel back the layers of what God was doing and who God was and who God is and what he could possibly be up to. Sound good? Awesome. Okay, verse 17. Starts this way One day Jesus was teaching, and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were sitting there. They'd come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Now, I love context. Context is really important when you read the Bible. Now, here's the thing about Luke 5. We are jumping into the middle of a whole chapter of Scripture. And so in Luke 5, what has already happened is if you were to peek up a little bit in your Bibles, you would have seen Jesus had just jumped onto Peter's boat with him, and they had been fishing all day long. I mean, they're fishermen, they know what they're doing, fishing all day long and coming up with nothing, no fish. All day long. Jesus jumps and he tells them, hey, other side of the boat. And they're like, seriously, sir? Don't you think we've tried that one? And they're like, okay, you're telling us what to do. We'll do it. They cast a nut on the other side of the boat. So many fish, it starts to break their nets. They're like, What? And Peter, instead of going, That was impressive, dude, he falls down and he says, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. Like, I you can't even be you can't even be near me. There's something so captivating about what just happened with Jesus on the boat that he doesn't just say, Awesome, he falls to his face in awe and in reverence. Next passage, we see Jesus heals a man with leprosy and someone who no one would even come close to, no one would begin to even reach out their hand towards Jesus, heals him and touches the untouchable. And so what this does is it starts to stir a frenzy, if you will. People hear that this guy can make fish appear and he can heal sick people. And so he's not just the guy on the boat anymore, and he's not just the guy who healed this one guy. He maybe could do another miracle. And so what you see is people are now coming from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and Jesus is now drawing a crowd. So he's not just the local pastor, he's not just like, you know, a classic teacher who's like not well known outside of the boundary lines of the three neighboring streets. He's now like uh like a Joel Olstein, where you're like, uh, yeah, he's on, he's on TV. Like people, people know, people know that name. And sometimes what happens with a little bit of fame is skepticism. And so what happens now is these Pharisees and these religious leaders, they're coming not because they want to be healed, not because they need more fish. They're coming because they're like, nah, no way. There's something something's wrong. There's no, there's no, like, we, we, we know what to do. We we've figured out how to be followers of the law, we've mastered this. Like, who does this guy think he is? Rocking the boat, no pun intended. Like, like who did like who does he think he is? And so you see these people are being drawn in with an air of skepticism, with an air of wanting to be a little bit critical. And so he's gathered the crowds and they're coming in with a few different intentions. Some of them are coming with curiosity, like, who the heck is this guy? Some of them are coming in with needs. Like, if you can make fish appear, and if you can heal heal a man with leprosy, like, can you do this for me? And some of them are coming in with like their hands in their pockets, like, not sure. So that's important, right? When you're in the story, it's important to know who's in the audience because everyone in the audience is bringing a different assumption of who is standing in the front of the room teaching. And so they're all reading into something, they're all asking their own question, and they're all wanting him to be whatever it is that they've written up as who he can be for them. And the question begins to grow, and I and you'll see this all throughout this passage: who is this guy? Who is he? Because for some people, he's a magician, for some people, he's got a magical touch, and for some people, he seems to be rocking their religious boats. And so Luke brings us into this story. At the beginning of chapter five, people are amazed, and by verse 17, people are beginning to investigate him. And so in verse 18, here's what happens. We step a little bit, we step outside the room. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find any way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and they lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of Jesus. So the scene shifts. We are outside the room, and these men come carrying their friend who is paralyzed on a mat, and they can't get in because of a crowd, and so they're they're they're willing to find another way. And so they begin to create another path to get into the room by climbing up onto the roof. And as I was studying this, um, I came across this line in uh one of the commentaries, and it said, How tragic is it when spectators stand in the way of people who want to meet Jesus? And it just like took my breath away. That's so it was like not even the point of where I was heading in studying. And it just how, how tragic is it when spectators stand in the way. I mean, man, that's a word, that's a sermon right there. How tragic it is when people who are just coming with assumptions and and consumption intentions and and stand in the way of people who are desperate to meet Jesus. Again, soapbox and a sermon for another day. But stuck out to me. Now imagine this room. So you're standing here, it is packed wall to wall. Like imagine if all of us were down in our basement room. Like you would be like this, listening to Jesus talk, and it's it's probably sticky and sweaty because they don't have AC back then, and and you're just waiting for this Jesus guy to either heal you or make fish appear or say the wrong thing so you can yell at him. You know, like everyone has their own intention, they're just and they're all standing in this room, and all of a sudden the the ceiling starts to shake a little bit, and you're like, weird. If I was like a theater person, it would have been so cool to right now to have someone fall from the ceiling. But then, like, so you're so someone's teaching you, right? And then you just hear like things are rumbling and like the dust starts falling from the ceiling, and then it cracks open and tiles are being moved, and all of a sudden a man starts falling down and everyone's looking around, and Jesus is like, hi, I'm I'm teach- I'm teaching here, you know? Can you imagine the disruption that would be? It would have been a nasty nightmare. Like sweaty people are like, oh, sorry, it's like a like the worst, like the worst part of a concert, you know, when you're like person to person, and then that person who was in the front went to the bathroom, and they have to get all the way to the front, and you're like, oh, sorry, oh excuse me, oh sorry. Like I can only imagine it would have been just the most disruptive, annoying mess that this man just created. Well, his friends created it for him. And Jesus is in the middle of teaching, and so he probably had to pause because no one can hear, because the the roof is shifting, and now this house is ruined, and so let's like, let's pray it doesn't rain tomorrow or we have a leak. Like, there's a billion things going on, and these friends just don't care. They're like, get this man in front of that man. I don't care what mess it makes, I don't care who it makes, who who who gets angry, I don't even care if I disrupt Jesus, this man needs to be in front of that man. And these friends. This summer we're studying throughout our next gen spaces and as a as a community around here, just leaning into the idea of friendship, spiritual friendship, what what God designs for us to not just be on some solo spore of relationship with Jesus, but to actually do so united, do so with deep friendships and not just superficial ones. And man, you want to talk about friendship? Think of what these friends had to do and the shame and embarrassment they were willing to go through to just get that man in front of that man. I don't care. I don't care if I'm in the talk of the town, I don't care if I ruin this person's house, I don't care if I make every person in that crowd have to wait to hear the next word Jesus has to say. He has to be he has to he ha he has to see him. Some of us are here today because we have a friend or had a friend like that, who carried us into the room, who broke the wall down, who um made made whatever your journey to Christ was possible. And it might not have looked like removing tiles from a roof and making it crazy, but it might have looked like not giving up on you. Or it might have looked like uh texting you the 400th time to say, hey, my church has free matcha and cold brew tonight. Do you want to come? Like I don't I don't know who it was that was the friend to you that maybe got you here. But can I tell you something? Maybe right now. Just if there's someone who pops in your brain, would you tell them that? Would you say, hey, I you were a huge part of me having a relationship with Jesus, and I just want to say thank you. That might be one of the most encouraging things you could do for them in their walk with the Lord. So that's your encouragement, okay? Mark that mark that person. If they popped in your brain, tell them this week. Tell them thank you and encourage them. But God might be inviting you to do the same thing for someone. And you someone might have drugged you in here, or someone might have even just made the name Jesus possible to you because they shared it, or they invited you, or they broke down a barrier. But that might be the invitation that God's inviting you to do the same with someone. And I don't I don't know who that is. I don't know what that looks like, but it might just be praying for them consistently. It might just be um inviting them again and and maybe just begging the Lord to soften their hearts that it would fall on a ready heart this time. It might look like not bringing them to church, but bringing them to coffee because this is intimidating, but Starbucks isn't. Like it you might not actually have to remove tiles from a roof, but it might look a little uncomfy and it might be a little embarrassing, and it might cause a little bit of a disruption, but is it worth it for you to get that man in front of that man? Because these friends, they did not care at all. They just knew that their paralyzed friend needed to meet this guy who apparently could heal people. Jesus said the word that no one expected to hear, verse 20. When Jesus saw their faith, not their effort, not their desperation, not the mess that they made, when he saw their faith, he said, Friends, friend, your sins are forgiven. Now, if you've read this story before, which you you might have or have you know watched it on the chosen, you're like, yeah, I'm a movie person, Jaden. Um you've maybe read this before this story before, um, this this line might not shock you. But you know what's really crazy? No one asked for forgiveness. Like they didn't bring him in front of Jesus to have him forgiven. No one in the room would have been like, that guy needs forgiveness. Like no one's chanting, forgive him, forgive him. Like everyone knew why he was there, and he was there for healing. And so when Jesus turns at him, this isn't the word that they expected. They expected them to, they expected Jesus to look at him and say, friend, you're healed. And instead, he turns to him and he says, Friends, your sins are forgiven. And the longer I sat with that, I thought, man, they must have been so disappointed. Like, Jesus, do you know what we just went through? To get this man in front of you and you want to forgive him? No, he needs to walk. He must have been so disappointed. And Jesus looks at this man with you know, eyes of compassion and kindness, and he sees the greater need. If Jesus was standing in front of you and maybe like a like a like a genie in a bottle, and he said, I g I'll give you one thing. I'll give you anything but one thing. What would be the thing you'd ask him for? Because the truth is, I don't know if my need-jerk reaction is to always say the thing that I need more than any other thing, if I have one thing from you and you alone, is the forgiveness of my sins. Sometimes I think that can get really cloudy, and I can say, God, I need this, or I need that, or I need that job, or I need that relationship, or I need this anxiety to heal, or I need uh you to allow me to just stop doing this thing that I said I would stop doing, or I don't know what it is, but I think sometimes when I come to the Lord, there is always a one thing that tends to be a little bit more important than the thing that he is, and that is the savior, the forgiveness of all sin. That he is the one who made eternal life possible, that he is the one who cares so deeply about my soul that there is no greater need that I have that I have than him and him alone. And I just wonder, maybe in the quiet of your heart, if you were to ask him, God, have I made something else the one thing that I would cash in for you upon that cross? Because Jesus in this moment, he saw this paralyzed man in front of him, and he knew how desperately he needed and wanted to walk, and he said, I see the one thing that everything else is possible for by and for, and that is that you need forgiveness of sin, and so, friend, your sins are forgiven. And this will always be the priority of our Savior. That you can have the relationship, the job, the the whatever it is that is the thing for you. But if your sins aren't forgiven through Christ, you've treated the symptoms, but you've never treated the thing. Tim Keller says it this way if you get your deepest wish, if you get the thing that you think will make you happy, if you get the thing that You believe will complete you, it may actually drive you deeper into despair because you'll finally discover that it wasn't enough. Jesus forces us to ask the question. Luke forces us to ask the question. The question is invited of everyone in this room. What are we concerned about? Are we concerned about what's visible, or is the invisible thing, sin, the most important thing that we would actually bring before the feet of Jesus? And this also causes a problem. Because not only did Jesus just do something that probably caused a lot of disappointment and really rattled, really rattled the room and uh ruffled some feathers, he also uh just made a really huge claim. It would be like going to your best friend's house and telling their mom, like, hey, could you go clean, could you go um, you know, wash the dishes? And your friend would be like, bro, you have no right to say that. Like, that's this is my mom's house, and you're a guest here. And everyone would have known, no one is allowed to forgive sins. You can be a healer, you can be a magician, you can make fish appear, but only God's allowed to forgive sin. It was all throughout, it was all throughout scripture. You'd read about it in Isaiah, you'd read throughout it in the Psalms. Like, everyone knows God alone is the one to forgive sins. And so Jesus just said something that would have made the Pharisees go, gotcha. And right now, they're probably the the ones with the most clear and real and true theology. Only God is the one to allow to forgive sins. And so this man, if not God, just made an absolute blasphemous statement by saying, I am forgiving your sins. And then Luke adds another detail. He says that Jesus knows what they were thinking, which is just so super cool, right? Like, wow. You just sitting there and could read their minds? God, you're so awesome. Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, Why are you thinking these things in your heart? We live in a world of such carefully curated content. Like, you know that you can like uh Photoshop in your photos app now? I thought you had to like pay for subscriptions to that. I found myself stepping back, going, How many times, how many times have I been catfished? Like, I had no idea you didn't have to pay good money to AI things out of your photos now. I thought that was like a luxury you had to have and be a graphic designer to do that. And so I was I was really blown away. But we live in such a world where, man, you can put on such a good show of convincing people about what's going on in your heart. And I just love in this moment, Jesus just cracks right through and he says, Hey, why are you thinking that thing in your heart? And he's probably like, Whoa, brother, I I I don't think you get to say that to me. I'm a Pharisee and you just committed blasphemy. He's like, What led you to believe? What led you to want to all of a sudden condemn me in your heart? Where'd that come from? And Jesus knows what everyone in this room is thinking, literally. Like, who is this guy? And who, why does he think he gets the right to do this? And everything in this moment points right here. Jesus says in verse 23, which is easier, to say your sins are forgiven, or to say get up and walk? But I want you to know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the paralyzed man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home. See everything in the whole narrative points right here. The son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. But as every person is walking in there going, Who is this guy? What is he, what can he do for me? That's the answer. He's not merely a healer, he's not merely a teacher, he's not merely your friend, he's not merely your hall pass. He is the son of God who has all authority to forgive sins. That's who he is. I um watched like 85% of Grays Anatomy. I gave up around season 19. But I did watch the majority of it. Um, and so if you're like a nurse or a doctor, I'm your worst nightmare. Because I think I know what I'm talking about, but I don't know what I'm talking about. But I'm convinced that I could walk into a doctor's office and solve a medical crime and be able to read all the all the machines that I'm sure are fake on Gray's Anatomy. Um so I I am, and I have been. Like there have been moments I've been in the ER and I'm like, I want to ask this question so bad because I've heard it asked on Gray's Anatomy, but there's no way it's right, and so I'm just gonna sit here and be quiet. But I really am. But I what I think what I love so much about it, and I it's even connected, I think, to my love of math, is I love the the way that it's like this big puzzle that sometimes medicine is a is a huge game, and you're trying to figure out through scans and tests and family history and a question after a question after a question and a symptom of what's really going on below behind the surface. And so, you know, like every episode had about three of these puzzles, and they were so fun, and by the end of it, you know, they would at least figure out what was going on. And I was always fascinated by which symptom or which answer it was that was able to get their minds spinning in such a way that they were able to pull all the pieces together. And it was always like the weirdest thing, like somehow a toothache was connected to like kidney failure, you know? And I'd be like, tell me more. Like, how is that possible? That is so cool. And you're like, where is she going with this? I promise I have a point. I love Gray's Anatomy for that reason, because there is a puzzle and a game and a correlated um argument that's going on here. Something leads to something, leads to something, leads to something, and a toothache leads to kidney failure. And in this moment, what we're seeing unfold here is the effects of a broken world. We're seeing people who are have hardened hearts, you're seeing people who have deep and broken lives and real needs, and you have crowds that are probably even just lured in by peer pressure. Like you're we're seeing some of just the real tangible effects of brokenness. That we live in such a world that has been infused with pain and disease and relationship drama and just you name it, and all the all of the ripple effects of what happened all the way back in Genesis 3. That the the garden, the dwelling, the delight, the harmony, the the beauty that God has had designed for us to be able to dwell with him in was broken and fragmented and fractured. And so now we live in such a way where there isn't something that isn't even just minutely tainted by the effects of sin. And so we're in this room, and what we're seeing is almost all of the symptoms of our greatest problem. The deep down at the very core, all of us have kidney failure, but some of us have toothaches, and and some of us, you know, have like gray hairs at the age of 12, and and like we all have different ways in which sin is affecting um and being thrown at us or being uh d welled up from within, and and we all live in a in a world where we are left with the effects of sin, and it has its own um tentacles and it has its own um ways that it maybe infuses your life. But the real thing at the bottom of all of this is all of us live in such a way where we have lost our ability to have a relationship with God. The intention for your design is to be in relationship with the one who created you, who knit you together in your mother's womb, who knows you better than anyone, and who deeply desires to love and be with you. And so your greatest need is for a savior to be able to bridge that back together, to make a way where you could be seen as blameless before his sight and be able to be taken in as son or daughter. And so it might feel like a toothache is the thing you need, but can I promise you, the thing you need is for someone to heal the greatest need in your life, and that is the sin that so easily entangles and has separated you from the Father. And so Jesus steps on the scene and he sees effects of sin over and over, and he looks at this man and he says, I want to heal your body, but I need to heal your soul. And what I love so much is he does that, and then he turns around and he says, But I'm also going to heal your toothache too. And he says, And I still will heal your body. Watch. And immediately, no therapy, no like stretches, immediately this man steps up, he grabs his mat and he walks away praising God. That God saw his greatest need, his the priority of the Savior when he stepped onto the scene was for his sins to be forgiven. That's always been why he came. That will always be what Jesus' greatest intention and priority in your life is to heal the greatest need that you have, and that is your need for a savior. But he's not also going to just neglect all of the other ways in which sin has tangled your life. But if he only ever gets to be the one who helps you with your toothache, there will always be your greatest need on the table. And so if this man could walk, someday his body would fail him again. If this man could have gotten his one thing he wanted, it was never going to be eternity. It would have just made life a little bit easier. God doesn't want to make your life easier. God wants to live and dwell and be with you now until forever. It's what Mark talks about when he says, what, when what Jesus talks about in Mark, when he says, what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and forfeit their soul? Like, what would have what good would it have been for this man to have been healed, but to never have had such an encounter with Jesus that his sins were forgiven? That's always been and always will be Jesus' top priority. And I love that he shows them, hey, right now what you're seeing is something so radical you're not gonna believe it. And so I'm actually going to heal him physically so that you can see the visible evidence of what I have just done radically, invisibly. And so he says, get up. I want everyone to see that you can walk, because I want them to know that all authority has been given to me to be able to be the forgiveness of sins. That the healing mattered, it was important, but it was the evidence for everyone in that room and for this man to see this is Jesus, this is the savior of the world, this is the man who came and has all authority to be the forgiveness of sins. Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on, and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed, gave praise to God, and they were filled with awe and said, We have seen remarkable things today. As the worship team comes back up and we lean into uh just another moment of worship. My invitation to you, and as we've even just gone through this uh this beautiful story, this radical story, this crazy story where God, God's power and authority is on display for all to see. My question for you is who's Jesus? Everyone in that room had to wrestle with that question from the beginning to the end. Who is this man? And maybe for you, there's you're curious about him, or he's been an object of your desire to study, or maybe there's been something that has lured you into just a fascination with who this guy could be. And lean into that. But can I tell you, he's not just a teacher and he's not just a good guy to study, and he's not just fascinating, but he alone is the way, the truth, and the life. That there is no one who comes to the Father except through him. And he has come to make a way so that you don't just get to be enamored by him or fascinated by him or coming to him with maybe a want or a need. You get to come before him, sin in tow, and say, God, here I am, I need you. And he made a way for him to say, your greatest need, I've taken care of. Now let's go through all the other little ones that hurt too. And so if you've maybe never if you've maybe never taken that step, just in the quiet of your heart, would you talk to the Lord about that? God, I I don't necessarily know who you are or what or what I've made you to be to me. And can I tell you the door is flung wide open? He is ready to talk to you, he's ready to meet with you, and he has come and died and be been the sacrifice on your behalf so that he can be your savior. That's who Jesus is. Maybe for some of you along the way, somewhere Jesus was that, but somewhere along the way he kind of became a genie in a bottle. Or he became a place where you've taken just your toothaches when you have them. And just my encouragement to you on the precipice of summer in a season, would you just sit with a question in a room like this of God's somewhere along the way, you went from being everything to just something. Who is this man? God, you are everything. Help me my everything again. If that's you, man, there is no greater time to lean in. There's no greater time to just waltz right back into his arms of grace and say, I need you. And some of you maybe you would say, God, God is my everything, and I feel like I'm doing everything, and I just don't know where he is. And if maybe you're in that boat, I was reminded of this this morning when I was just even reading through this whole chapter again, of the story before the story before the story, of what it would have felt like to have been Peter in that boat, looking at Jesus, going, God, I'm I'm I know how to fish. Like I've done everything, I'm doing everything right. Why am I coming up empty? And he's like, other side of the boat. And maybe if you're in a place where like, I'm walking with the Lord, I'm spending time with him, I'm I'm I'm doing all the things that I think he's inviting me into, and for some reason this season just feels dry. Like I just feel like I'm coming up empty. Can I can I just encourage you? He might be saying one more time. Or he might be saying just one degree to the left. Or he might be saying, reach out one more time. Because it was just one more net that absolutely broke the scale of abundance. And so wherever you maybe be, wherever you may be tonight, if maybe you're like, who is this guy and I need to know him? Or somewhere he went from being my everything to just being something, or maybe you're like, he is my everything and feels like I'm not getting anything, I'd just love to pray for you. So with um, maybe just with a with an open posture of mind and even body, if you will, just before the Lord. God bring us through every season. And as we sit here and lean into a new one just in creation, I'm just so aware that all of us are in the middle of a different season. That for some in this room uh you have brought into your presence, you brought into the presence of people tonight to be just representations of you, to show them once again that you are after their heart, that you have made a way to be the fulfillment of their greatest need so that they could be reconciled back to you. That they wouldn't have to white knuckle through life and figure out how to try to fix all of the problems that they have, but they could surrender them and and pick up a clean slate, pick up a new identity, pick up a new life, one that is gifted by you. And so for anyone in this room who would say, This man has to be my everything, God, would you lead them in this moment of surrender? Would you invite them to lay it down and to just pray in their own words? God, I trust you. God, I acknowledge that I am someone who has the greatest need in the whole world and somehow you're able to fix it. Somehow you're able, you were able and willing to be the one who took my place upon that cross so that I could have life, I could have abundance. God, thank you. God, for some, they maybe find themselves in a season of just feeling adrift. Feeling like somewhere along the way, they lost the feeling of being enamored. That at one point you were everything, and now it's sometimes God. I pray that you would captivate their minds, that you would tug on their hearts, that you would invite them into moments of gladness and discipline and just invitations from your presence and your grace to run right back to you and say, God, I'm here again. And God, for anyone in this room who feels like they are in a season of running as hard as they can and constantly coming up empty, God, I pray that there would be an abundance. There would be an abundance of your presence, of your kindness, of your provision, of your protection, that they would continue to lean in, that they would not grow weary in doing good, that there would be just the feeling of the yoke being thrown upon them, of being tethered to you, that they could know that you are gentle and you are humble at heart and that you desire to give them rest as you run alongside them on this race. And as they keep casting out that net, God, why just pray? In your timing, you would bring the harvest, bring the abundance. Journey along with them with your presence. God, thank you for being not just a healer, not just a teacher, not just a wise guy, but our Savior. Would you continue to show us what that looks like? Walk us through your scripture as we desire to understand who you are and who we get to be because of it. We love you, we praise you, and we get to collectively worship you in gratitude and in reverence now. It's in your mighty name we pray. Amen.