Have you ever witnessed a moment so poignant that it altered the course of a life? Our latest episode takes a heartfelt look at such transformative encounters with Jesus, drawing inspiration from a scene in the Chosen series where the faith and desperation of a few friends lead them to lower a paralyzed man through a roof for healing. We go beyond scripture, bringing in real-life reflections of public figures like Kat Von D and Hulk Hogan, whose quests for meaning amidst fame led them to embrace faith. The episode also delves into the kinds of relationships that nurture spiritual growth and the vital role that the church plays in shepherding people towards the embrace of Jesus Christ's grace.
As we narrate a day spent at a child's wrestling meet, we uncover the nuanced battle between secular obligations and our spiritual walk. With scriptures from 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Romans as our map, we traverse the transformative power of faith and the calling to lead a life of righteousness and holiness. We challenge you, our listeners, to introspect and rebalance your life's priorities to amplify your faith's role. Join us for this compelling journey as we affirm that while transformation is inherently God's work, it thrives through our active engagement and readiness to embrace the shifts that come with true faith in Jesus.
Have you ever witnessed a moment so poignant that it altered the course of a life? Our latest episode takes a heartfelt look at such transformative encounters with Jesus, drawing inspiration from a scene in the Chosen series where the faith and desperation of a few friends lead them to lower a paralyzed man through a roof for healing. We go beyond scripture, bringing in real-life reflections of public figures like Kat Von D and Hulk Hogan, whose quests for meaning amidst fame led them to embrace faith. The episode also delves into the kinds of relationships that nurture spiritual growth and the vital role that the church plays in shepherding people towards the embrace of Jesus Christ's grace.
As we narrate a day spent at a child's wrestling meet, we uncover the nuanced battle between secular obligations and our spiritual walk. With scriptures from 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Romans as our map, we traverse the transformative power of faith and the calling to lead a life of righteousness and holiness. We challenge you, our listeners, to introspect and rebalance your life's priorities to amplify your faith's role. Join us for this compelling journey as we affirm that while transformation is inherently God's work, it thrives through our active engagement and readiness to embrace the shifts that come with true faith in Jesus.
Speaker 1:
If you haven't watched the chosen series, you should. I love the way that it depicts especially this particular scene. You know, as I was thinking about it a couple about a month ago now, there's a song by Brandon Lake. Actually, cody sung it at the beginning of a service called Tear Off the Roof and that's exactly what it's dealing with. It's looking at the desperation in the moment of how willing and when you look in the scriptures, the lengths that people were willing to go to to get to Jesus, right it. And so Mark. Chapter two is where we find this account, starting in verse one.
Speaker 1:
So a few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, 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 him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get to him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat and the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man son, your sins are forgiven Now. Some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins? With 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, this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say get up, take your mat 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 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.
Speaker 1:
Like I said, I love this particular account and there's a few reasons why. But one of them and I think they depict it well is imagine that you're a homeowner and you've invited Jesus into your house and all of a sudden and so Mark is a really short gospel it's only 16 chapters, and so Mark kind of jumps right in. So in Mark, chapter one, jesus has already gained a reputation for healing and teaching. And so this homeowner invites Jesus into their house. And there's so many people that have showed up that it's impossible to probably even look in a window at this point. Just like a. It's like a crazy concert venue, right. It's like full of people and just they're surrounded and he's teaching, and then all of a sudden, there's a noise on the roof and I could tell you someone who's on their home. Whenever you hear a noise on your roof, the first thing you do is you go outside and you start trying to figure out what the noise is. Or maybe there's something in your attic, and so there's a group of men standing on the roof and they have this paralyzed man and then they make the decision to tear a hole in the roof of this house that they don't own.
Speaker 1:
I can tell you my initial reaction of that, if I was that homeowner, would be like why are you tearing off my roof? Why would you do such a thing? But in this moment they are so desperate because they've heard the stories, they've seen what Jesus is capable of they. In this moment they are literally willing to do whatever it takes just so their friend might have a chance to have an encounter with Jesus. And so that's one of the questions I think that has to be asked when we're looking at this story is what kind of friends do you have in your life? What kind of people are you surrounded by? Are you surrounded by other believers who are encouraging you to continue to grow in your faith? Are you surrounded by brothers and sisters? Are you surrounded by a church that wants to see you grow and be transformed? And then the question also has to be asked what kind of person are you? Are you the kind of person that, when you see someone who needs to know Jesus, that you take it upon yourself to do whatever it takes to help them get to Him? Those men, as they lowered their friend through the roof, understood that the only way that their friend was ever going to experience genuine transformation, the only way he could ever be healed, was if he had an encounter with the Son of man.
Speaker 1:
You know, the last couple months there's been a lot of different celebrities that have given their life to Christ. Some of them are more notable Kat Von D. If you don't know who she is, she's a tattoo artist model who formerly was part of the occult. She had a ton of books on witchcraft and wizardry and if you read her testimony, she gave all of that up because she realized that none of that could do for her. What Jesus could. Hulk Hogan if you ever watched any kind of wrestling Hulk Hogan recently, him and his wife gave their life to Christ and got baptized, and these are two people that are prominent celebrities. They probably have money and they've probably never had too many cares in the world, but they realized after looking at their life that what they were missing was Jesus. They're not the only ones. They're not the only celebrities that have made that decision. But imagine living life and having all of this fame, all of this notoriety in realizing that it's still not enough.
Speaker 1:
Kat Von D moved from Los Angeles to a small rural farm in Indiana when she made her transition, and what I love about that and what I love about this encounter is people are looking at their life, they're looking at everything that they have and they realize that the only thing they need is just to have that moment with Jesus. If they can just get to Him, their entire life could be changed. Listen, church. That is why we exist. That is why we are here. What we're looking at is we want people who don't know Jesus to find Jesus, because we believe with everything in us that the only way that they will ever experience grace, the only way they will ever experience transformation, is an encounter with the one who made them. Nothing else in life matters. I say this as someone and I know I've talked about this.
Speaker 1:
A couple years ago, I was climbing the corporate ladder. I was on par to make more money than I had ever done in my entire life, and I was sitting and I would come home every day overwhelmed with work. My relationship with my kids was not great. My wife and I were on the brink of divorce. I don't think I've ever said that out loud before, but I had everything the world wanted me to have, and I was a Christian and I knew, and so I was chasing all of this stuff. And then one day I realized at the end of my life, none of that matters to me. The only thing that I want to be known for, the only thing we should want to be known for, is whether or not we are bringing people to Jesus.
Speaker 1:
We don't even know the names of those who lowered that man, but that decision would change his life forever. So they lower him through the roof, they bring him down, they lay him in front of Jesus. And so the Pharisees are there and they're paying attention to their problem-causers. They start to have these thoughts, and what I love about what happened in this moment is not the first thing Jesus does. It's not the first thing he doesn't do. He doesn't heal him right away, and I think that that's significant because that's why he was there. He knew his friends knew he was paralyzed and Jesus was healing people. And so the first thing that Jesus does is not heal him physically, but instead he offers him forgiveness of the sins in his life. And I think that that's right, on course with exactly who Jesus is.
Speaker 1:
So Luke 1910 says For the Son of man came to seek and save the lost. Matthew 1.21,. She will give birth to a son and you were to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. John 3.16,. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And the scriptures go on and they establish this idea that when Jesus came, his goal, his purpose, was to offer us forgiveness of sin and in turn, that was going to restore us into a relationship with God. Paul uses the word reconciliation a lot because of the death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ and for those of us who have accepted it, we are reconciled to God, which offers us not only hope for eternity, but hope for here and now, that our life can be transformed, that our life can be changed.
Speaker 1:
And so Jesus starts there. He says to this man he says your sins have been forgiven. Listen, if that was the only thing Jesus offered that man that day, it was more than enough and he did not understand that. But if the only thing that he was given was the forgiveness of his sins and the hope of an eternity with the creator of the heaven and the earth, then he already had everything he needed. But Jesus, knowing the crowd, hearing the thoughts of the Pharisees who were questioning who was this man, how in the world can he forgive anyone of their sins? He looks to them and he addresses them and says who are you? Do you not know that only God can forgive sin? But in order for you to understand, the Son of man has the authority to offer forgiveness. I'm going to show you something even greater. I'm going to show you that not only can I offer forgiveness of sin? But I can take this man who's been paralyzed and I can tell him to stand up where he is and walk out of this room, because none of you can do that. None of you have the authority. But you question mine. So that's what Jesus does he turns down, he tells the man to stand up, take his bed and go home.
Speaker 1:
Can you imagine in that moment? You know you're paralytic, you've been paralyzed for God knows how long, and then you're sitting here on a mat and you haven't walked and your muscles are weak and your legs are probably with seed and all you want is for something to happen. But in that moment the Son of man looks at you. He's forgiven you for your sins, which is great. You don't quite understand what's happening, but then he tells you to stand up and walk.
Speaker 1:
Can you imagine in that moment if the paralyzed man just said no, what if he stayed where he was? What if he didn't have faith that Jesus was who he said he was? What if he decided that it was just too hard? You know back then a lot of them, especially people who were paralyzed. They made a living by being carried around and they would take and hope. People were like beggars. They would give them money. That was probably his entire existence. And in that moment that he had to stand up, in that moment that his life was going to be transformed, imagine if he looked at Jesus and just said you know what, I'm not going to do it. I don't want that. Lucky for us, that's not how the story goes.
Speaker 1:
In that moment, the paralyzed man I love the way the chosen depicts it like his toe like twitches, and in that moment he sees his toe twitching. He has this realization that I think my legs are back and he gets up and he's a little wobbly at first. I think all people when they made Jesus a little wobbly at first. You know you're trying to get your bearings and full view of the entire crowd. He walks out and, surprisingly, the Pharisees are silent. How do you argue with that moment? How do you look at what Jesus just did and not think to yourself if he can make that man walk, surely my sins are not a problem for him either? And so that is such an important part of who we are. Not only did Jesus come to save us, but he came to transform us, and your transformation as a believer is a testimony to the rest of the world of what God is capable of doing. When people look at you, this paralyzed man, everywhere he went, I can only imagine he would tell his story, and people were drawn more and more.
Speaker 1:
Second Corinthians, 5.17,. This is therefore, if anyone is in Christ. The new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here. Ephesians 4, 22 through 24,. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to make new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self, ready to be like God and true righteousness and holiness. Romans 6, 4 through 6,. We are therefore buried, excuse me, with him through baptism and to death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his, for we know that our old self was crucified with him, that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, and we should no longer be slaves to our sin when you have a genuine encounter with Jesus, you can't experience anything but transformation, not only the forgiveness of your sins, but the realization that my life is no longer my own. We live in a world that is constantly fighting for our time and our energy.
Speaker 1:
My oldest wrestles and he's eight now third year doing it, and he had a meet yesterday and I think I got there at like 5.30 in the morning and didn't leave till 1. I love my kid but I watched him wrestle all of 30 seconds. He's still learning. He's eight, give him a break. But I remember sitting there and he's not here at the moment, so he'll be fine. But I remember thinking it's like three hours before his first match and then he gets on the mat and like 30 seconds it's over and I'm like, ok, cool, I'm going to appreciate that. And then he wrestled again for about the same amount of time and I was like I've been here for seven hours. And then, listen, I wrestled. And if you've ever done wrestling, the meets are long. The order you get, the later it gets right, but it's a good thing.
Speaker 1:
I'm not saying sports are bad, but what I'm saying is there's so many things in life that are fighting for our time, money, jobs, relationships and these are not bad things, but the one thing that we should want to be known for is the relationship that we have with God, and, in reality, that's the one relationship that often gets put on the back burner the most. And so, in this moment, when you look at this encounter, the transformation that happens, this paralyzed man as he stands up, his entire life is about to change. He has a new purpose, and it's not just to be a paralyzed man who can now walk. It's not just to be a better husband, brother I don't know what he was. It's not just to go out and get a job and to make a lot of money. His purpose is to go around and allow his transformation to be a testimony of the power of God in his life and how an encounter with Jesus changed him. That is his goal, should be, and so I think that the same thing applies to you and I is our life.
Speaker 1:
Once we meet Christ, once we step in to that transformation, our life is no longer our own. Instead, we are called by God to go out and be disciples and to teach other people about Jesus. That is the greatest thing that you and I have to offer him. That is the one thing that matters more than anything else in the world, because at the end of my life, god is not going to care about how much money I made. He's not going to care about how many kids I had. He's not even going to care if my kid went to state and won championship after championship. I will, and I want the best for my kids. But if I can teach my kids that sharing their faith is more important than anything else, they will ever do that I've done well, and that, as a church, should drive us.
Speaker 1:
And so the question is what are we allowing to get in the way of a true transformation into the men and women are called to be? What things in our lives, what things do we need to get rid of? What things do we need to prioritize? What relationships do we need to mend? What relationships do we might need to walk away from Right? So it's all about being transformed? Are we willing to do, at an individual level, whatever it takes for God to truly use us in the way that he wants to use us? Are we gonna keep prioritizing a relationship with him at the bottom of the list? Are we gonna keep telling ourselves that we'll get to it? Are we gonna continue to be believers and be Christians who, surprisingly, look nothing like Jesus? Are we just gonna show up, punch a time clock and feel like we've done enough? Are we gonna have enough faith to trust that, when we let God in and when we let Jesus change us, that it really is the best thing for us, that his life, his purpose, his desire for us, his desire for us, everything he is calling us to do, is what we need? At the end of my life, when I stand before the throne, I believe that God's gonna ask me who did you bring with you? Who did you tell about me? How did you try to be more like me every day? Because helping someone find hope for their eternity. Man, there's not enough money in the world that can buy that. There's not enough joy, there's not enough peace. Without Jesus, there is no hope. But it starts with us At an individual level. What do you need to work on this year to become everything God wants you to be? How are you gonna prioritize a relationship with him? Not only a relationship, but how are you gonna prioritize sharing your faith with other people? Because if we really believe that our focus should be his kingdom first. Then our transformation has to happen.
Speaker 1:
I like this quote from CS Lewis. It says when a man turns to Christ it seems to be getting on pretty well, in the same sense that some of his bad habits are corrected. He often feels that it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly. When troubles come along illnesses, money, troubles, new kinds of temptation he's disappointed. These things he feels might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days. But why now? Because God is forcing him on or up to a higher level, putting him in the situations where he would have to be very much braver or more patient or more loving than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary, but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous things he means to make of us.
Speaker 1:
Paul, 2 Corinthians 3.18 says this and we all who, with unveiled faces, contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Speaker 1:
Your transformation is your testimony. The person God is turning you into, the things that he's changing about you is so. The world around you knows that in the same way he can change you, in the same way he can transform you, he can do it for them too. But, just like the man who stood up and walked out of that room that day, we have to let him. That's our part. We have to have faith that not only he can do it, but we have to have faith enough to stand up and let him do it. The transformation we experience is always gonna be the work of God, but it's not gonna happen if you choose to be a bench warmer. I've said it before and I'll say it again, and I'll probably say it. I'll put to the moment I die Jesus loves you so much that he's willing to meet you where you are, but he loves you so much that he's not willing to leave you there. Let's pray.