Do I know who my friends are? - Joe Thompson

🤓 Choose Your Friends Wisely 

In this message from August 9, 2026 Joe breaks down friendships through the story of Jesus healing the paralytic. He pulls from Mark 2:1-12 and Isaiah 43:25. The story can also be found in Luke 5:12-26 and Matthew 9:2-8. As you listen to this message think of your own friends but also evaluate yourself as a friend. 

• Are your friends willing to work through obstacles to get you to Jesus?
• Don’t settle for friends who simply like you. 
• Your worldly friends deserve Jesus as much as your Jesus friends do. 
• Your faith can help save others but you are not their Savior. 
• Just because you plant a seed doesn’t mean that you are the one with the watering can. 

Full Service: https://youtu.be/_IUJwfFeSPM?si=K5PrUK_Yy1ijOqgf

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well it's good to be in church again this morning. It's good to see some people, some families I haven't seen in a little bit, and some new faces this morning. That's uh that's good to can you hit the lights for me, please. I'd like to see everybody. I don't want y'all be in the dark. Like I'm standing in a freight train up here. Alright. Before I get started, before I release the kids, I want to I want to pray first. I want to pray while the children are in here. Um just bow your heads, please. Heavenly Father, I just want to thank you for this beautiful morning that you have created. Just thank you for this divine appointment that we are all here for, Father. It is not by accident, by a purpose this morning, Father. So just let everybody's hearts and their ears and their minds to be opened up toward you, Father. I pray that the confusion leaves and the clarity comes in, Father, that when your words are spoken here today, Father, that there is clarity, there is understanding in here this morning, Father, so that there's growth, Father, there that there's healing, and that there is um the author, that your authority is here, Father, and it's for your glory this morning, Father. So I just want to thank you for that. Be with the children that are in here, Father, dear Lord, as they get ready as school begins this coming um week, Father, that I just pray for them, that there's protection on them, Father. Just pray that your blood is covered in them, Father, that your mighty angels brought down to protect them. It says in Psalm 91, Father, that when they go into these schools, that they are protected through you, Jesus, that nothing will be harmed them, Father. So I just want to pray over them and be with the parents as they go as this week comes for schooling, Father, that there is protection over them, Father, that your mighty blood and your angels are over them, that helps guide them and lead them in the direction for them, for their children, Father. Because we should always look for you for the direction as we go and as we lead our children, Father. So I just want to just pray for that. Pray for the teachers that are in here and the ones I pray for that your mighty blood is poured on them, Father, for protection and healing. And that your angels are called down in Psalms 91, 11 again to protect them, Father, to protect them at these schools, Father, that they're here. Because the dark works, the demonic spirits that want to attack our children, these teachers and our parents, that they will not stand anymore because we are standing in the gap, Father, because we are the warriors for you, Father. We will put on our armor that you have given us and we will fight, we will stand in the gaps. And as this church right here, and then Venus, and then online and the churches around us that we are there, we are supposed to stand up and fight the darkness back because we are the light, because we have you in our hearts, Jesus. So I just want to thank you for that. Father, just be with this word that you have laid on my heart, Father, that you use me, Father, that I step out of the way, my flesh steps out of the way. Holy Spirit enters me. And it is your words, it is your way and your will that happens this morning, Father. So I just want to thank you for that. Thank you for all the many blessings you've given us, Father. Father, I just pray that there's healing be released today, Father. Let these words that flow today, that they flow on and will not turn back void. That just like the rain that has been fallen to replenish and to restore the earth, that your words do the same in here today, Father. It's in your precious and holy name Jesus we say. Amen. Nursery and potty train to fifth grade, you may be released. So a lot of uh good encouraging words this morning already. I mean, starting out with Luke, with uh um with us's parents, and um having children can be very time consuming, even not even have uh kids, work or anything like that can really help uh are just time consuming, and things get away, and uh trying to reconnect to our our um our significant other, our wife or husband, um, can kind of slip away and uh we kind of turn into a different um type of couple and not the actual intimate couple that God wants us to be. So um so it's very good and try to be very mindful because sometimes that's what life does, that's what Satan wants, is he wants us to be tied up in the earth, and um, and just like as um Jordan's um Alex had said this morning, do not conform to this earth. When we've got to conform to this earth, that's when time starts slipping away, and that's when we start disconnecting with our husbands and our wives, or with our children, or with our friends and everything like that. So um so just be very mindful of that because just think of this as when you lay down as your body is resting, it is resetting, so you have reset for the next day. So everything that you have done, every all of the um uh the base has already been set. As long as we stand on the rock, our our it's already our pads have already been there, but we got to rebuild back up again, back where we started from the first. So that's with the armor, that's reconforming with your mind. That is getting relined back up, ready for the day, and that should be the first thing to do before anything else enters your mind as you wake up. So be very mindful of that reset and then let that just flow into your life as it goes on. So um really enjoyed that this morning. So Lord laid it on my heart. He uh this um this passage that we're gonna talk about when you see it, uh, that's a lot more verses than you usually do because you see that one is one through twelve, but that's what we'll be mainly focusing on this morning. I really fought back and forth about the Isaiah 40 through 21, but it I had I put it in there uh because that's what the Lord he led me. He said, Yep, I said I need you to put in there because I had a lot more verses in there, but I tried to narrow it down, but I put that one in there because it just needed to connect as we get further into Mark there uh to put it all together, try to get some more um not confusion but clarity there for everybody. So um as you can see, do I know who my friends are? And so I'm very glad that the youth are in here this morning too because this touches from y'all, even little kids, but they're in there now, but from youth, from everybody that's uh even the adults in here too. So it's all around type thing right here this morning. So I'm very glad that y'all are in here too because this is gonna go toward y'all as y'all go into high school and um and further on too. So uh as we go, we go on, let's go ahead and go to Mark 2 1 through 12. And I will encourage you, because I'm gonna give you these other passages, you can write these down because this story is found in the other parts of the gospel, but I like how Mark puts it. So that's what I'm gonna read. But you can find this in Luke 5, 12 through 26. Um, you can also find it in Matthew 9, 2 through 8. Okay, so um I just I like Mark's. I read all of them. I just like Mark's how he described it and how it just kind of fit on what the Lord was leading me to. So that's the one we are going to um read this morning. So this is about the paralytic healing. So when you start reading out, you start reading the story. If you've ever heard of it, you're gonna know it. If not, then um you're you're gonna you're in for a treat this morning. So uh just be with me as I read. I'm gonna read it all, and then we'll start breaking it down this morning. So the paralytic healed is uh Jesus returned to Capanium a few days later, the news went out that he was at home. So many people gathered together that there are no longer room for them, not even near the door, that Jesus was discussing with them the word of God. Then they came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, who had been carried by four men. When they were unable to get to him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Jesus, and when they had dug out an opening, they let the man down, which was paralyzed, which the paralyzed man was lying. When Jesus saw their act of faith sprang from the confidence in him, he said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven. But some of the scribes were sitting and debating in their hearts their implications of what he had said. Why does this man talk this way? He is blasphemy. Who can forgive sins, remove guilt, no file a sin? A penalty, a sign, righteousness, except God alone. Immediately Jesus, full of aware of their hostilities and knowing in his spirit that they were thanking this, he said to them, Why are you debating and arguing about this thing in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralyzed man, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and pick your mat and walk. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has the authority and power on earth to forgive sin. He said to the paralyzed man, I say to you, get up, pick up your map, and go home. And he got up immediately, picked up his map, and went before all. So they all were astonished, and they glorified and praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this. Amen. So a lot more than I'm used to, but that's fine. Um I promise I will get here, get out no later than our time. So I hope so. Or unless the Holy Spirit changes that. So I want to um got some points here to be thinking over as we're going through. This is the points that I got through. So uh first is friends. First thing I read in here, I read friends in here. Second point is faith. Next is forgiveness, um, with a side note, spiritual healing, and then the actual healing. So uh here we're gonna dive in here, so we're gonna start with friends right here. So friends in Greek. Um, so I was told, and I make sure that I remember I will repeat myself since I'm a teacher. I need to repeat myself when I give out definitions so everybody hears me clearly and they know everything. So I have a lot, a little bit more this morning to break down because our focus isn't all friends here this morning. So we'll break it down a little bit more here. So friends in Greek is phylos, is a noun or an adjective, is a beloved friend, trusted companion. It appear it it appears in key moments like Jesus calling his disciples friends. So that's that phylos, that's that Greek understanding of friends right there, is whenever Jesus calls his friends, it's his disciples. That's the that that right there. So you can find that in John 15, 15. If you want some more little side notes there. So John 15, 15, you can write that down. You can find that where he is calling his disciples his friends, these these beloved, trusted companions that he has around him. Um so now we're gonna go into the Hebrew because uh the Hebrew has its own too. So uh Hebrew had actually three different ones. So the first one is Ray, so it's R-E-A. Um it's a shepherd or tend to a flock. It is someone who shares your field and walks the same ground under the same guide. So the example there is Moses and God. So you can find that in Exodus 33, 11. So that's that friendship, that thing right there in Greek, or in Hebrew is that of Moses and God's friendship. Another one is Chaver, is C-H-A-V-E-R, which is means to join, couple, or bind together. It is an act of partnership. And so this one right here, um, the example of is David and Jonathan. So this is King David or David and Goliath, as you may have known him. This is David here, and so he had his friend Jonathan, okay, and how their partnership, their friendship, was very deep. Okay. So that right there is that type of friendship there, and you can find that in 1 Samuel 18, 1, for an example there, for friendship. Um, and then the last one is uh yarded, yardid, y-a-r-d-i-d. So it is love, a beloved companion, or an intimate friend. So my thinking of that is is a um, so if you're married, your husband and your wife, um, that type of love, that beloved companion, or like I said, your friends, these you get these friends in here that can be that way too if you do not have the husband or the wife yet, or something like that along that pierce. But that's that connection there of that love there for that friendship. So going into this, you and we'll start back as going as these friends right here. They got these four friends, and um, so I'm gonna try to just paraphrase, trying to speed through here, um, on through some of these. But um, so they have gathered and they're in the house, and I've just learned, I was trying to figure out because as you start thinking about this, alright, so they're at this house and um trying to figure out whose house it was. So I come to find out last night it was Peter's house that they were at. So they were at Peter's house. He's Jesus was back in comparing him, and so now he's uh he's gotten quite a crowd here, so this place is packed out. Um, nowhere, there's all standing room, um, even outside, just can't get anywhere. And so these four men, um, these four friends, um decided to say, we're going to take our friend that's paralyzed, that cannot walk, or anything like this, we're going to bring you to Jesus. Okay? And so, this right here, you start thinking about their faith. And how just how strong their faith is. This is how, this is how when you need, um, if you're by yourself, sometimes faith is kind of, you struggle a little bit with your faith. When uh the Lord asks you to do something, you kind of like, um, are you sure, Lord? Are you are you are you really talking to me? Do I really need to take that next step? Um, what are they going to say to me? What is going to happen? Type of thing. These men, these four men are, I want to say that, I want to say all four of them, I don't know if they all had the same amount of faith because there's some that have, we, there's some of us as we're going in our journeys, our walks, some of our faith is real small, and then some of us we have a bunch of faith. And then there's everybody in the middle. So I want to thank that these four men were kind of a uh uh the the whole thing. You had this one man that had his faith was really strong, and you had a couple of them that were in the middle, and then one that was a little bit, and then you had the paralyzed man, which he was just alone for ride. So he may not, I don't think he had any faith. When you're reading this, I don't think he had any faith at all. So um, but it takes these four friends, and they're going like, no, we're going to take you to Jesus. And so when they get there, what happens? They run into the first obstacle. Now, uh maybe their first obstacle was is the trying to talk to their paralytics their paralyzed friends, saying, hey, we're going to take you. And maybe when his thing is, is if his face little, he said, Well, maybe he's scared. Maybe he was doubting himself, but why do you want to take me? Why do you want to bring me here? Like, this is something new for him, or whatever you're trying to do. But it that one guy in the faith, no, we you deserve help just like everybody else. It is not our job to judge on who gets saved and who doesn't. Okay? So the same thing as these guys are doing, it is our job to be there for them when they need us. And that they go on, like, oh, yeah, you need Jesus. I don't care what you look like or what you said, you still need Jesus. Because Jesus loves you and he loves me. We have to love our neighbors as ourselves. Okay? So, as they go in there, you have to have that faith. So he said, No. He said, We're going to carry you, we're going to bring you to Jesus. You need to know Jesus. You deserve to be healed too. So, they pick him up and they go. And this is where they get to the first obstacle, find all these people there. So now I'm thinking, alright, when we get there, sometimes we we grow in our faith and we start walking and say, all right, yeah, Lord, you've told us to go here, so we're walking this way, we're going there. And then when we finally get there, there is something there that we weren't not quite expecting. And you're still feeling that little answer. You're going, mmm, yeah, Lord, I made it this far, but I don't know if I need to go a little bit further. But then that's why you have these friends. There's this one guy, he's there. He has, just like as it says that you may um have the mustard seed of the faith of a mustard seed to do anything to move mountains, but you can have that same size mustard seed of doubt to bring it down. Okay. So this guy right here has the faith, he's ready to kick the mountain in the face. He's gonna like, oh no, I'm ready for a challenge. Bring it on. And he's encouraging the rest of them. No, hey, we're not done yet. We are here to let him see Jesus. That's what we're gonna do today. We're not gonna let this stop us. So, what do we need to do? We're gonna climb the house and we're gonna take the roof off. And they're gonna like, do what? Yeah, you heard me. We're gonna do it. It's okay. Strap up, let's figure out a way, let's get them to the roof. So that's what they did. Their faith keeps growing because of that one guy. That one guy's faith is so strong, he helps the ones that are weak. He's got his armor up, he's still in the gap. He's brought in, he's brought you back up. I'm gonna bring you back up. I brought you back out of hell, out of Satan, trying to try to draw you down. I'm bringing you back up to heaven, bringing you back up to God, bring you back up on the same level. It's where you need to be. So our faith keeps building. So these friends, alright, here we go. Our faith's building, we're still going. Then we get to the roof. Alright, now get to the roof. So these roofs were made out of straw, mud, um, some clay tile. So it probably was not easy to do it. So when they finally get up there, they're probably, I don't know, then there's different roof styles. There's some with just weaves on it. They were hoping it was going to be a little bit easier. But it's the next obstacle. That's what will happen. Satan's going to keep throwing you obstacles. He's going to keep deterring you. He's going to try to throw your faith off. But the good thing about it, you have them friends that are your Navy SEAL special forces, ready to kick Satan's teeth right. They are the ones that are ready to fight back. They're going like, all right, yeah, that's fine. There's four of us. We're going to do this. Get to digging. There we go. And then the whole time you're trying to think of the paralytic man, you know what? No telling what he's saying. Man, y'all have done so much. I thank you. He's probably being, I'm hoping he's probably being apologetic, probably thinking or whatever. Thank you for doing all this for me. But you don't have to go this far. No. You deserve this too. You deserve this too. So we're going to be here for you. It's alright. You just gotta lay there, buddy. It's alright. We'll take care of everything else. You're gonna get the healing. Okay. Then we start moving on. Then we finally get the hole dug. And then so this is this hole digging right here. Now you're thinking, because the whole time in my mind thinking that they're in there, and then you're thinking the homeowner, he has to be in there right there close to Jesus, and he's going like, what in the world's going on with my roof? So you know he has to be freaking out. Don't mention that, but I'm just just trying to paraphrase, trying to bring my mind if I was there watching all this, seeing all this. So now we know it's Peter, so no Peter, he's really freaking out. He's already shoot from the hip kind of guy as it is. So he's gonna like no telling what's going on. So they're all watching this, and probably they're just all in amaze that someone's digging a hole in the roof to just see Jesus. Right? So that's kind of where I kind of where I'm I'm seeing and looking at that that way too. But then you're all astonished of finally the hole is dug, then they start dropping him down. And then the awe-astonishment of their faith. He just said that when Jesus saw their act of faith sprang from confidence in him, he said to the paralyzed man as he dropped down, he said, Son, your sins are forgiven. Because of their faith, these four friends, and their unwavering faith. Because you gotta understand, when you when you're in faith, when you're doing um, when you're doing these things that Jesus calls you to do, at the moment you may not have the strength until you realize when you take that first step.

unknown 21:59

And

SPEAKER_00 22:00

And then the strength that you didn't have, you had the strength of mountains to move mountains. And then that next step gets you even more. And that next step gets you even more. And then more. And then more and then more. You run into obstacles, that's fine because you've already seen where you've come from. You've already seen what God has already done for you. That's what helped build you to keep building you on more. That's the rock, that's the foundation you're building on. So the faith of the four friends, they were very encouraging, as friends should be. Friends should be encouraging, should lift one another up. Should not tear anybody down or think you're better than anybody else. You're encouraging. You're an encouraging friend. Now, there's a lot of us, there's um my wife can contest to this too, and then there's probably some other women in here, and probably some other men or whatever in here, that's how hard it is to try to find when we when you're younger, you're just trying to find friends that just like you. That's why I'm glad that the youth are in here this morning. Because do not settle for someone that likes you. Because guess what? You're not alone, you're not abandoned. God loves you. You're not alone, he's already with you. There's your first friend. You just got to accept him and allow him to walk with you. He's your first friend, okay? And will be your friend forever. Okay? So now don't try to settle. You set the bar. You find your own friends. That's why you come to church. That's why you try to bring your friends to church. You try to bring them so you're equally yoked as a friendship. People that encourage you, people that are there, when you are down, they help you up. They are power, they are pat with faith, with the faith of the friends and everything, they become very powerful. Because sometimes you will go through friends, you will go through different, as Christians, we go through a bunch of different seasons. Same way with friends, we're going to go through different friends in our seasons. There's going to be, most of the time, it's probably going to be you find some bad. You're going to find some tears in the wheat. But then you're going to find that wheat. You're going to find that harvest. That's going to be bountiful for you and for your friend. Now, will you have four friends? I don't know. You may be blessed with that many. You may just have one. Well, you'll actually have three because you have God already. So you already had the one there. So you may have three friends right there. Or will you get four, or will you get five? You may, you may have that many. You may not. You may lose, you may lose a couple friends here and there. Now, doesn't mean that you may have done something wrong or something, but there's something in their past that may have diverted you, or your path has diverted to a different direction. So do not hinder or anchor yourself up on that either. Okay? So it's as a church we're in here, we're supposed to try to find friends and try to connect with the people in our church. Because at least you see these to help build this church, help build each other up in times of need. Because I've had worldly friends, and they they will help draw you down instead of help lifting you up. So when you have these four friends, and when you're down, like I said, they are very powerful. They're the ones that help give you the faith that you need, the encouragement that you need, the help lift you up that you are going to need. Unstoppable. As you can see, as they were trying to, as they were climbing up and getting into this building, they were not allowing the crowds to stop them, they were not allowing to climb up to the roof to stop them, they were not allowing the roof itself to be to help to stop them because they had Jesus, and with Jesus, everything is possible. Nothing's impossible. So they were unstoppable. So when you get these friends that are here, start checking, and these godly friends with you, y'all become unstoppable. And y'all have each other's backs. Okay? Because you will have to understand we're in a kingdom and we are fighting, we are at warfare. When you have these special teams, these SEAL teams, these special forces, and all these people, they don't go in there alone. They have a team. And this team, and they know this team. They know each and every one. They are very personal, very intimate with each and every one. They know what they are thinking. Same way with these friends. You're going to get intimate with these friends. You're going to know what these friends are thinking. They're going to know what you're thinking. They're going to know whenever they walk into this, they walk into the room and they see you, they know something is wrong. And they know that you need help. So the faith that we feed from is because that we know Jesus and what he could do for us as friends. And what he do for them. So sometimes, as you are, I don't know, I'm trying to switch it up a little bit. So sometimes our friends are the lost friends, our worldly friends. They deserve Jesus just as much as our godly friends. Okay? And so do not let that deter you. Because maybe you're the reason that you're their friend. So that they see Jesus. Because that may be the only time they see Jesus. And it is through you. Okay? So now you have your, we'll say your four godly friends. You have that one worldly friend. So now you have all four of y'all to help this one. Or to help you. When things are going and you're trying to plant seeds and trying to help that one godly one. And sometimes Satan's going to fight back because you're taking one of his soldiers. He's going to fight back. So sometimes you may get a little down. I swear them other three help you back up. Or your other four help you back up and encourage you. And then they, and on top of that, you got them four. So did you shoot? You have them four, so there's five. They're all praying for him. So it was, as you can see, this it was these four friends, it was their faith that is what saved this paralytic man. So your same faith will help save others. So one of the first things you can do, like I said, you can be these four friends and everything. So it may be a little bit different now. You won't have to carry them, but try to think about this too. As your worldly friend, they have the same paralysis. And as, um, and I'm not going to take it away that uh as us Christians in here too, we can get the same paralysis. We can be become paralyzed. So just instead of having to tote them down with a mat up to the roof, you can get in the car. Hey, come on. You can invite you can invite them to church. Or you can invite them to lunch or dinner or supper. For some of you young ones, I did not say supper twice. I said dinner, that is lunch, and I got that from my grandpa. The first time that he told me we're going to dinner, I'm like, it's lunchtime. It's dinner. Okay then. So dinner. So, dinner's lunch. So there you go, a little bit of tidbit there for you. So, invite them to that. Plant them seeds. So, and then like I said, the first thing y'all can be doing as if you're praying for either either friends that you have right there, you start with prayer. Pray for your friend for help. To help get them back to the throne of grace. So that may help lead them to Jesus or back to Jesus. That's your prayer to help them with that. And like I said, don't let it just be your prayer to help with your friends. Tell them, like I said, you're supposed to be, when you have these godly friends, you they know your business. They're like, hey, dude, I have this guy, this friend, this, this, this, this guy that I've known for a while. I want him to come to Jesus. I don't want him to get left behind. I need you to help me pray for him. Need you just just, right now, I just need you to pray for him right now. I don't think the time's right that we need to get by said right now, I just want to pray. I want to get that seed plant. I want that to be working right now. Or, hey, you have a godly friend, like I said, he's become paralyzed through sin. That he may not see it or something like that, but we but I see it. We need to be praying for him. Need to help get him back to Jesus. He's kind of fallen off a little bit. Or she's she has, I'm not gonna leave you out, ladies, she has finally fallen off a little bit. There's something there. There's something wrong. I can just feel it. I can just, there's something there. I I need we need to help lift her back up. We'll start with prayer and kind of go from there. So then the next thing you can do is, like I said, is that you can um go and have a sit and talk with them. So first you can even try to invite them to church. Just invite them to church, see if they want to come. That doesn't hurt. And don't think that they don't deserve church because everybody deserves church. Don't think that that all he's too broke or there's something that no. We're all broke, we're all need healing. This is just one big hospital. We all need help. They need the same help. So we just need to get over that and say you want to help them. If you're a true friend, you want to help them. You're going to get them the help that they need. It's just we this is the help that we can't see because it's in the spiritual realm versus something that they are they're they are bleeding to death. They're bleeding to death. Oh my god, we we need to get you to the hospital now. Same mindset. All that sin, all that going in there, bleeding to death. Get them, they need the help. Need to get them. Hey, we're gonna pray and help you. Praying right there is trying to help patch you up. I need you, I really need to get you here. I need to get you to Jesus. I need him, he's going to heal you. And so we get into that. Get him here. So, but if you can't, if he doesn't want to quite go to church, that's all right. Like I said, we'll go, we'll go somewhere, we'll go eat somewhere. Go have something to eat. Hey, is there something going on with you? Is there something we can talk about? Something we can help you? Hey, can I pray for you? Just that little start right there. You can end it. Hey, you know, hey, we're going to church on Sunday. Starts at this time. Do you need a ride? Can I come come by, pick you up? And then when you then when you do get them here, get them here. Bring them in. Make them feel welcomed. Sit with them. Introduce them to your family your church family with some men that you know, or the four friends, or the four men, or the four women that you're with. Hey, I want you to meet this person. Or my friend right here, hey, I want you to pray for them. I want you to just be with them. Uh just welcome in here. Make them feel welcomed in here. Because sometimes they come in here and they don't feel welcomed. I'm not saying right here at Cowboy Church, but I've seen it at other churches. At Cowboy Church, we should not, we should welcome everybody, no matter who they are. So make sure they feel welcome. Make sure they are in here. Same thing with the friends. If you have a friend that comes in here and you know they're hurting and they're sitting alone, do not let them sit alone. Because they may think that they are the they are alone in here, but they are not. And then next. After you've done all that, all these efforts, you will watch and see what Jesus does. All these seeds and all these things. You'll see the chains break, you'll see the walls come down, you'll see the healing start to happen. And that's where we lead right into the next. And so he said, son, your sins are forgiven. And so that is the start of the healing right there. Everybody was waiting for the healing of his legs for him to get walked, but Jesus said, I need to heal you first from the inside. So your sins are forgiven. The spiritual healing needs to happen first. Sometimes we want the healing of the physical first because we want to see it, but it takes the healing of the sin, the forgiveness, the spiritual healing first to manifest itself and to take hold. For because after that happens, most nine times out of ten, when that sin is done, then you're already healed of that other stuff. That is a linkage of why things are going on, it's because of some type of sin. You need that spiritual healing of sin first. And that's why he forgave him first before he did anything else. Because that is more important than him getting back up and walking. That is more important as we become paralyzed of sin. It is more important that you be saved, that your heart is clean and correct with Jesus than anything else. So the four friends bring the friend to be healed from the paralyzed condition, but Jesus looked into his heart. He has looked into the friend's heart, and he said to Eve that he is going to heal his paralysis, the sin death, the sin disease first. Forgiving him his sin first was more important. So God, so to get his heart clean, to get it right, to get it in line up. And so from this, this helped build the faith off of, but going back to the faith, as we keep doing all this, as things happen like this, the faith continues to build. So the four friends' faith, after this is all paid off, we have finally got them to Jesus. Now you've gotten what you have been forgiven. That is right there, is the reward of your faith right there, seeing that. That's the blessing of that. Seeing God at work. That right there helps you build and helps you get better. And so in return to that, too, the paralyzed man seen off of his friend's faith on what Jesus can do, the crowd around, just seeing their determination, their unstoppable force, what they've done for this friend so their faith grow. So now we get into it. So the next part as we fix and turn to uh don't go to Isaiah quite yet, but here's going to Isaiah in a moment. So now I'm not can't leave this part out as I go through here that um as this is going on, and then they heard that this one part, son, your sin is forgiven. So there you gotta know that the scribes were in there. They're gonna stick their ugly head in there. So this is what they say. So they said, we're sitting there and debating in their hearts, implicating of what he had just said. Because when they just hear this, they're going, they our mind has just been blown. Boom. Going like, what in the world did he just say? Did we hear him right? So now they're trying to debate, going on like, what just happened here? Why did why did he say that? What authority does he have to say that? To do this? So they're just going just they're just going crazy because their world is just blown up. So it says, Why does this man talk this way? He's blaspheming. You you have forgiven sins, removing guilt, nullify sin, the penalty, and assign righteousness, except God alone. So now, right here, this is where it goes back to because Jesus had to speak this. Jesus had to speak this, this, the, this, um, this next part. That means you should have been full aware of his host of their hostilities and knowing in his spirit that they were thinking this, and said to them, Why are you debating, arguing about this thing in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up and pick up your mat and walk. So Jesus had to say this next thing. And so if they were not so busy worrying about their power and their social status, because sometimes we get kind of caught up in this too. We sometimes we become the scribes as Christians. As we go and try to talk to someone or these worldly friends or whatever, or how we want to do, we're wanting, we don't want to make sure that we don't diminish our power that we have already built up in this world either, or our social status we've already built. We're too worried about that and actually not worrying about what we're supposed to do is supposed to help save our friend. Or too worried about what they're going to say, because if we say this, that's going to just strip our power or going to strip our society standing. Should not matter. Same thing with these guys there. They're more inclined of listening onto what Jesus was doing there instead of really listening and trying to nitpick and try and worried about their social state and their power, they would have heard what he said coming from Isaiah 43, 25. And it says, I only, I am, he who is wipes out your transgressions and my own sake, and I will not remember your sin. So, right there, just says that God, he was God. He was God in human form, he was a son of man. There's his authority to wipe out the sin. This is, they they had this, they they read this, they they knew all about this. If they would have known that, because they were supposed to have known all that front to back, they would have heard that and would have known what he just said was a connection, and would have known that he had the authority, yet he had the power to do that through God. So, to be worried about power and their place in society, we can we can be that same way around the wrong friends, and so we need to make sure that we surrender and listen and to obey God when that time comes, when we go around with our worldly friends, and not to be trying caught up of what the world wants us to do, or what the world thinks, or what our power status is, or what our social status is with these friends. Because like I said, you're going to have seasons of where you're going to have these friends or not. Now, are you going to save all of them? No, you may only save one or two, but that's fine. Doesn't mean you don't stop praying for them, you still have to pray for them. And there may be a different season where these friends come back around and they help and you help save them then. Or someone else. That may be someone else's saving there to help save them. So now we get on to the last. So the physical healing now. This is what everybody was waiting for. To see. This is this is what I think the the the four friends they were all right we're bringing here because we want to see you walk again. Because we know the faith was if we get you to him, he you will walk again. So this is the physical feeling or healing that everybody is wanting to see. But the spiritual healing had to happen first. Like I said, this is the healing that we cannot see. This is the spiritual realm healing that has to happen first inside of all of us, either our worldly friends or the friends that we have that are hurting right now, that we see that they're hurting, that are because we because we're all sin. We all have sinned. Okay? We still sin. But that means we don't have to live in our sin either. Don't think sin has to paralyze you. Sometimes you think that sin has grabbed a hold of you, or things around you has got a hold of you, and it paralyzes you. Do not have to. To be set you free, you can be healed. And then when you start healing that, then you'll start seeing your physical self start to be healed. So the healing of the paralyzed man and having him get up and grab his mat and walk away was the healing that can be seen. That was the healing that had already taken place after his healing of his heart, the healing of the sin, the forgiveness of the sin. When that healing took place, the healing of his legs took place. And that his faith to get him there, his friend's faith to get him there, helped save him, helped him get saved in his heart, and it helped him to walk out there that day. Same thing, that same healing that we can provide everybody else. Worship team. You cannot forgive a paralysis by one word that you say or that you do. The only way that healing is going to happen is going to happen through God, through Jesus, acting in his authority. And that when you're doing going through all this, it is through you and the help of your friends that you get around you. That will help you build your faith. That will help start the healing of your friends around you, the church around you, and then the world around you. And then if there's times whenever your friends are getting down, you can help them too. Because God has given you an authority to help them, to heal them. But only understand that you have to heal, have to forgive, have to heal that sin first before you watch the actual physical healing take place. There's a lot of people that focus on the physical healing so long and so long and don't see anything is that you don't, you didn't, you did not get to the root of it. You are seeing the repercussions of what sin is doing to you. You got to heal the thing that's causing it first, to then see the actual healing start to take place. So, this is why it's so important to have godly friends to be there for you. Just as it says right here at the end, and he got up and immediately picked up his map and went out before all. So they are all astonished and they all glorified and praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this. That same praise and glory you can have today, too. And as you're with friends like that, you can go through that same praise and glory. When something happens and they have you've helped them conquer something, or you helped bring someone to Jesus, or you've helped forgive them, you're praising and you're going to glorify them with them. You're going to lift them up, you're going to encourage them. You're going to say, Thank you, Jesus, for bringing us closer. Thank you for bringing us back to you. Thank you for bringing this friend that you allowed us to be with to help bring them back to you, to save them, to help heal them. So that you can say that you have never seen anything like this every single time. Do not let that, everything that happens, do not let every miracle or everything that comes in. Most times you start seeing things happen, let it be a surprise every single time. Do not become dull or numb to it. Because Jesus Christ's power, God's power, is not dull or numb. It is something that we uplift, we praise and glorify each and every time that he does something. So that's what I'm saying. So do you know who your friends are? If you don't, you already got one. You have God. Do not, another thing too, I forgot to mention this too, because I know as with youth or whatever, and it still does with adults today, is that do not let some of your friends try to peer pressure you into things. Or at least not into, do not let them peer pressure you into the wrong things. Let's put it that way. So I'm not saying that you should peer pressure them into God because you shouldn't pressure them, but you may, you can be a little bit more that that way, but you're gonna like say, no, that's not lines up with God. It does not line up with what Jesus wants in my life. Same thing. Sometimes we go with our worldly friends, and sometimes they they may be doing something, and then knowing that you're trying to walk a little bit straighter, but they are not quite there yet, or they're not there yet, and they try to get you to do something or um or want you to do something else. You stand strong, look to God if that's the only friend you have. Or hopefully that you have, as you're walking your walk, you have godly friends that you can call or something and say, hey, I'm I'm feeling a little bit of pressure here. I need your help. Can you just pray for me? Or can we just talk? Okay. But check to see who your friends are. It's good to have some friends. Everybody, no one wants to be alone. No one wants to want to feel abandoned. Everybody wants a friend. Like I said, God's already there. He's that one friend, but sometimes we need that physical friend. We need that person that we can call or talk to. These are the friends, like I said, and these are the friends, I'm saying we're getting intermittent. These are the friends that you call at 3 o'clock in the morning and say, hey, something's going on. I need you to get here. Or, hey, I am broken down in Georgia. Can you come? Yeah, we're at. I'll be there. I'll be there when I can get there. These are friends that you help, like I said, these are your ride or die friends. And like I said, they're going to become seasoned. Sometimes you may lose one of them, one or two of them friends, or you may lose them all, and then you may have to regain friends again. But just know you are never alone, you're never abandoned. And that whatever friends he chooses, he helped put in your path, know that it is a growth for you and them too. Prayer team, you come up, please. So if you need prayer today, if you need a friend, come up here. We got the prayer team up here. They're your friends. They can help pray for you. If you're needing help, don't be ashamed. Everybody needs help. Everybody needs a friend. Don't feel alone, don't feel abandoned. We're here for you. And like I said, just think about and pray hard on the friends that God wants to align you with.