 Okay you ready? Mark chapter 2. We're going to be looking at this morning the blessing of forgiveness and we find that in Mark's gospel and so I'll begin reading here in Mark chapter 2 at verse 1. I'll read to verse 12 and I'll be sharing concerning the blessing of forgiveness out of Mark chapter 2. Mark writes again he entered Capernaum after some days and it was heard that he was in the house immediately many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them not even near the door and he preached the word to them then they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men and when they could not come near him because of the crowd they uncovered the roof where he was so when it when they had broken through they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic son your sins are forgiven you and some of the scribes are sitting there and reasoning in their hearts why does this man speak blasphemies like this who can forgive sins but God alone but immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves he said to them why do you reason about these things in your hearts which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven you or to say arise take up your bed and walk but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralytic I say to you arise take up your bed and go to your house immediately he arose took up the bed and went out in the presence of them all so that all were amazed and glorified God saying we never saw anything like this and so as we begin let me give you a backdrop you need to have kind of a context in which to understand what Marcus talking about here when he says in verse one that he had entered Capernaum after some days when you look in chapter one you're going to see that Jesus is already doing a lot of ministry he's been healing he's been teaching he's casting out demons preaching throughout the region called Galilee when you look at a map of Israel it's usually divided into three basic sections in the in your Bible you'll see the southern portion it's called Judah Judea the center portion normally would be referred to as Samaria and all and then when you get up to the north it's the Galilee and so Jesus is in the north in Galilee when all of this is taking place and and he's been he's been ministering teaching preaching casting out demons he's been ministering throughout that region and what is happening at this time is his famous spreading and people begin now to seek after him they're hearing about this man called Jesus and they're beginning to follow after him if you looked at chapter one you'd notice in verses 32 and 33 how that mark points this out when he says that evening when the sun had set they brought to him all who were sick and those who were demon possessed and the whole city was gathered together at the door so you'd see he's making an impact in other words in mark one again in verse 37 it speaks concerning his apostles looking for him and it says in mark 137 when they found him they said to him everyone's looking for you and then when you get a little further on into verse 45 Jesus had cleansed the leper and all and it told him not to say anything well in mark 145 it says that he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the matter so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city but was outside in deserted places and they came to him from every direction so when mark says he was outside in other places he went to other places and that's why it would seem that it was difficult and he withdrew and he went and did other ministry so Matthew speaks about the fact that he had gone to a place called the gatherings and he had cast out a demon out of demons out of a couple of men and all and now he's returning from the gatherings and once again re-entering into the city so he is now returning notice in verse 1 again he entered Capernaum after some days and it was heard that he was in the house immediately many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them not even near the door and he preached the word to them and so the people have discovered that he's there and as they've discovered it was heard that he's there and so they came to see him he's more than likely in the home of the Apostle Peter but he can't move around freely anymore people are looking for him it says in verse 2 immediately many gathered together there was no longer room to receive them so word had spread that Christ is back in town a crowd has gathered to hear him this modest home is now filled there was a courtyard or porch area in the front that's even filled and so when he sees all of these people that they're pressing in to try and hear him and all of that notice what he does in verse 2 when he sees all these people notice he preached the word to them he preached the word to them let me give you some application about that for just a moment as I mentioned earlier on Wednesday nights we're doing a series on the history and ministry of Calvary Chapel and as a young man I was 20 years old the first time I ever entered into a Calvary Chapel it was the only Calvary Chapel it was with Pastor Chuck Smith and he had a young man who worked alongside of him his name was Lonnie Frisbee and so as a young man I went to that church after being saved I can still remember the first time I walked in because I wasn't a believer there were people who are bringing friends to hear the gospel that's the heart by the way of the Jesus movement the heart of the Jesus movement is the word of God the power of the Holy Spirit and inviting people to know Christ that's the heart of our movement that's the way it was that's the way it's always been and so my friends who had recently begun going to this church called Calvary Chapel invited me I can still remember the first time walking in in a in a small chapel that that was built to hold maybe a couple hundred people that there were people on the floor there were people on the side there were people in the aisles there was no seating for them there were that many and they were all young they were all young people and so I remember all the way back then back in 1970 in the summer of 1970 walking in and being basically ambushed by this atmosphere and it wasn't because there was some some oddness going on it wasn't entertaining there wasn't smoke being billowing out during worship and and somebody coming down from you know out you know from the from the ceiling you know being dropped down with a white robe or anything weird I've known people who do that I remember one of my guys I know who rode his motorcycle up the center aisle you know to get attention and just as odd it was none of that I told Raul you shouldn't do that bro it's not a good thing but anyway it it wasn't anything like that it what it was was the presence of the Lord it was God we had come to hear about Jesus we hadn't come to hear the stories of the preacher we didn't come to be entertained by his humor we didn't come because he would march around that platform and and draw us in with his entertaining style at all pastor Chuck was just you know to me he was an old man he was 43 you know so it wasn't his his personality and there was something else there it was a presence of God you see we learned from a very early age that what people need is God they need his word they need his spirit and so church was not and is not an entertainment for us church for us was meeting God in a special way and that's what's taking place here excuse me it's the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom I'm looking for water there it is I have to drink salute God moves through his word I was a young man I was at Biola and I had a professor that was very dear to me his name was dr. Moore I was about well our church had just started I was 31 and dr. Moore and I were having lunch and dr. Moore said to me Dave I want to ask you a question why is your church growing now you need to know that back in 1981 it was still unusual 82 was still unusual to have a rapidly growing church it is to this day what we in California have gotten used to is large church environments but you need to know that the average church in the nation on a Sunday morning has less than 80 people the average church has less than 80 people attending you may not know that we're a bit of an anomaly here but the average church has less than 80 the the number has been noted at around 65 so when your church is growing and you have more than 100 or 200 people especially when it's just been planted that was unusual and so my friend dr. Moore was a professor of church growth at Biola so dr. Moore wanted to ask me questions so he said Dave let me ask you why is your church growing now he's a professor of church growth a friend of mine and I had read seven books on church growth I knew what he was fishing for I knew the 10 signs of a healthy church and things like that I knew those things by heart and so he said can you tell me and I was about to speak to him the way I thought he wanted me to to validate his points the things that he teaches he said but just a minute I have to get up I'm gonna get something I'll be right back as the Lord is my witness the Spirit of God spoke to my heart when he got up and walked away and he said if you say anything to take glory for me I will take my hand off your ministry I sensed that that and I just sat there thinking oh okay and dr. Moore came and sat down and put his tray in front of him and he said now where were we oh yeah why is your church growing and I said I don't know I got no idea it's all the work of God you know it's just him dr. Moore I really don't know because the Holy Spirit is the one who draws people listen wherever Jesus is people want to be if Jesus is the center people are drawn to him because we may be able churches are able to get very good speakers who can hire him who will come they can have great bands people will come for a price but that doesn't cause the people to be in love with Christ you see when Jesus came and he would speak people would hear then the man who is preaching the man who is teaching with such authority the man who has power to cast out demons to to heal those who are sick is here amongst us they would come and they would show up so many that they began to crowd in and try to get to him which is again what what I experienced as a young believer going to Calvary there with Pastor Chuck and and Lonnie and all to see the young people who would they would line up we would line up if you didn't get there a half hour early you were late you were late and there were so many people showing up that they actually took the wall and removed the wall and put glass windows and they put speakers so that the latecomers would actually be seated outside hearing the Bible study because you couldn't get inside because wherever Jesus Christ is people are drawn to him and that's the secret of church growth if you will is preaching the gospel and presenting Jesus Christ and we would come we would come for this this Bible study we would come to to hear about Jesus Christ because the center is Jesus and he had said in in chapter 1 verse 38 and I'll read it to you Jesus had said let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also because for this purpose I have come forth let's continue to go out and take the word you see the center of the ministry is a preaching now why is proclaiming the message of the gospel so important well it's because the only it's the only message that provides salvation it's the only message you're not going to get saved by holding on to the the the the various religious philosophies of this age you get saved through the gospel and so Jesus Christ and he was preaching the gospel why because people need to hear it according to John 524 Jesus said I tell you the truth whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me as eternal life and will not be condemned he has crossed over from death to life whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and that's why Christ came he said I have been sent to proclaim this message and the crowds needed to become his converts or else they would have been forever lost he didn't want people to simply come and hear him speak he didn't want them to come simply to wonder at his works they needed to be saved now why why do they need to be saved well first thing is because people are totally lost without him the Bible teaches that the human race is completely lost in sin in Romans 3 10 through 12 as it is written none is righteous no not one no one understands no one seeks for God all have turned aside together they have become worthless no one does good not even one that's true that's human nature that's what we see today is that people really aren't good we are all lost in sin we're all in need of salvation we can tell ourselves we're okay because when we we may not be as bad as the person next to us but we're not as good as God we're not as good as Jesus Christ we're all lost there's none righteous no one understands no one seeks for God everyone's turned aside they have become worthless no one does good not even one we are lost without Christ second because of our sin nature we stand condemned we're already condemned as we if we're not saved we're already in the state of condemnation John 3 18 whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son and then third after death comes judgment and eternal punishment awaits unbelievers it's a point and a demand to die once after this the judgment Jesus in Luke 12 4 and 5 said it like this I say to you my friends do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more have no more that they can do but I will show you whom you should fear fear him who after he is killed has power to cast you into hell yes I say to you fear him that's from Jesus people are lost in sin we rebelled against God but God sent his son to rescue us Jesus in Luke 19 10 says the Son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost so when Jesus sees these lost people he doesn't want them to come for entertainment he doesn't want them to wonder at the gracious words that proceed out of his mouth alone he wants them to to receive that message to be transformed to be forgiven to know God and to have a new life because he knows that they are sheep without a shepherd because he knows that they're lost and he had come to save that which was lost he sees that crowd and notice what it says to us in verse verse 2 he preached the word to them preaching and teaching the word teach is speaking about an appealing to the mind with information when someone is teaching the word of God they're giving information appealing to the mind to assimilate that and be transformed by it that's teaching but preaching is an appeal to the will it's a it's a word that goes out that is speaking to you in such a way that you know that there is there's a decision you have to make and so when Jesus would come in he would preach he was speaking in a way to cause people to realize they have to decide to do what he's saying or reject it and so what Jesus is doing here in mark 2 is he's preaching the word of God to them he's speaking to them in a way so that they may know what truth is and embrace it so he gave the gospel the gospel has been called a word of repentance it's a word of grace it's a word of truth it's a word of life it's a word of eternal salvation and as he's speaking he's speaking to a mixed audience you see every time the word of God is spoken there is what would be called a mixed crowd a mixed audience in this particular case there were friends and disciples who came to hear his word these were people who wanted to hear him speak they were hungry for truth and that's still true today there are people who come to church who come to church because we want a bible study we want to know who christ is how can i live to please him i want to worship him but there are also there what we used to call groupies people who come to be just part of a crowd and again that's seen today in people who go to christian events but they'll leave when the teaching begins they'll come and they'll say well you need to hear this concert and so people come they like the singing but when the word is being taught they walk out years ago we had a well-known well-known music personality with us and i've shared this recently but we had a well-known musical personality and and when her set was finished i came out to the pulpit and i said well she won't be singing again for those of you who came to hear her sing but not the word we're going to take a moment to greet one another that'll be your opportunity to leave because if you're not here for the word of god and you just get up during the study it disrupts everything so why don't we visit for a second say hi to the person next to you and that gives you an opportunity to go without disturbing anybody else if you came for singing and not god's word and people got up and left my whole staff did i fired them all you know people people got up and left because that's human hearts that's what they do they come for the event but not for the preaching of the word in teaching in the book of Ezekiel in in chapter 33 verses 30 through 32 this is what we read as for you son of man the children of your people are talking about you beside the wall and in the doors of the houses and they speak to one another everyone saying to his brother please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord so they come to you as people do they sit before you as my people and they hear your words but they do not do them for with their mouth they show much love but their hearts pursue their own gain indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear your words but they do not do them so you had the groupies there you had the disciples there and you had the critics there the religious sinners the Pharisees they were filled with envy looking and looking for ways to discredit him you see religious sinners are always difficult to reach because they think they're already saved and those are the people who are there immediately many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them not even near the door and he preached the word to them so the stage is set verse three then they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men so the man is a paralytic totally incapable of moving about on his own so four men carried him to Jesus as his friends they brought him to the one who could relieve him of his suffering as those who loved him they brought him to the Lord in Proverbs 17 verse 17 a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity remember this always guys true friends are the ones who bring you to the Lord not take you away from him so I'm going to give you pastoral advice at this moment choose your friends wisely because you influence one another for good or for bad in 1st Corinthians 1533 Paul said do not be misled bad company corrupts good character so develop friendships with those who lift your faith not those who encourage less of you because there are people who will encourage less of you I remember a young woman who at one time had attended our fellowship she'd been here as a little girl into her late teens and she had a boyfriend and she was beginning to wonder what her relationship was going to be with him and she had begun to consider the possibility of giving herself physically to him and she went to another young woman obviously this came to my attention after the fact but she went to another young woman she said I'm considering sleeping with them what do you think and her friend said you know I've slept with some guys and I don't feel any different about myself and so she slept with her boyfriend she lost her purity she made some bad decisions and ended up reaping the consequences be careful who you influence be careful who you allow to influence you be careful who you allow to speak into your life you know your your your pastor isn't necessarily me the guy who stands up there on Sunday your pastor very often is your best friend is your best friend that you go with afterwards and you go to the game today to watch it or or go out to eat after a church service it's your friend who very often is there talking to you after the service if you talk about it at all who may say well you know what he said I don't believe that because I've seen it different I've been in other places and they've taught this and they taught that and so and they pour into you things that keep you from doing the right thing very often because they refuse to do the right thing themselves do not be deceived because bad relationships will corrupt your life be aware of that we influence one another all the time and in church very often you've got people who tell you to do the wrong thing because they themselves choose not to do the right be careful with that so develop friendships with those who lift your faith not those who encourage less of you these guys were encouragers they actually believed that Christ could do something and they brought their friend to Christ it says in verse 4 when they could not come near him because of the crowd they uncovered the roof where he was so when they had broken through they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying now at that time the roofs very often had flat they were flat and the people would would rest on top of that roof on warm summer nights to receive the cool breeze it was flat it had beams that ran transversely they were normally overlaid with brushwood tree branches they were covered with a thick blanket of mud or adobe and so what happened is these people had this this man on this this uh palette and they walked up the side stairs and they placed him down and they knelt down and they figured out where Jesus would be and they began to dig on that roof and they began to open it up and they began to work and you could hear the noise above you and Jesus would have been speaking and as he's speaking there's a thin crack in the ceiling and now it begins to widen and it looks like worms are starting to invade the ceiling as you see their fingers as they're breaking up and moving that roof and now you see dust and and debris that begins to settle and the dust begins to fill the room and christ is just teaching and he stops and he looks and everybody is silent wondering what's going on now there's a hole in the rope and slowly and gently they begin to lower the bed on which the friend is lying and they have ropes that are attached it would seem and they begin to lower him down lower him and Jesus is there you can almost see the man being lowered he can't do anything to resist this he's just on the mat and i almost can see him as his eyes meet Jesus as he's coming down and Jesus looks up and says hey what's up and the guy goes i don't know and he drops and now he's before him can you imagine that for a minute think think about that how interesting that would have been to be in that room to watch this take place and the people begin to wonder what's going to happen as Jesus begins to look at him but i want you to notice what happened verse five when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic son your sins are forgiving you when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic it's revealing how mark says that Jesus didn't see their work he saw their faith now there are times when genuine faith is something that is observable by our works in james 2 17 and 18 even so faith if it has not works is dead being alone but someone will say you have faith and i have works or show me your faith without your works and i will show you my faith by my works these men had faith and their faith was in action there were works that were coming alongside their faith their faith was provoking was provoking their works somebody said there are many who say they have faith in god but their faith never is accompanied by any works yet in scripture we see the faith of noah who has moved with fear and built an arc we see the faith of abraham who went commanded to sacrifice isaac prepared to offer him up knowing god was able to raise him from the dead we see the faith of moses who forsook the riches of egypt because he looked for a greater reward and we see the faith of elijah who withstood 450 false prophets of baal we see the faith of shadrach meshech and abednego who refused to bow before nebuchadnezzar's graven image and abednego who was cast into a lion's den faith is demonstrated by works and true faith is seen by lives of faith workless faith has been called worthless faith head faith and said faith is not genuine faith these men had true faith in jesus and jesus saw their faith he saw what they were willing to do to bring this man to christ again i got saved because i had friends who were willing to bring me to christ even when i was difficult and didn't want to go but they had an insistence about them and it's very possible that this man could very well have not necessarily wanted to be in that in the presence in that way drawing attention to himself but these men knew that the one who could take care of the needs of their friend was jesus christ and nothing stopped them from bringing this man to the one who could heal him it's interesting though in verse five how it says jesus saw their faith but spoke to the paralyzed man and he said son your sins are forgiving you you see this is what he desired and this is what he needed he didn't need to continue walking or to walk so much as to know the forgiveness of god he was crippled and his body was already in a prison but he needed a freedom that walking wouldn't give him there are a lot of people today who walk but are still in a prison they may be walking but they're the walking dead the people who are not spiritual alive they're they're in a prison and and they're in need of something that's deeper than just the ability to perform physical things and that's how it was with this man here jesus and matthew 1626 asked what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul what can a man give in exchange for his soul and so he says son your sins are forgiven your sins are done your sins are done away with they're driven away from you you see sins need to be forgiven not excused and sins should not become the norm of a society you see when we excuse sinful behavior we end up sending people to therapy and not jesus my dad when i was all messed up and i had been arrested again he he took me to a therapist he took me because he thought there was something wrong with my mind but there was something wrong with my soul and and this is what had to be dealt with you need to go to christ i needed forgiveness he needed forgiveness more than the ability to walk and that's why jesus speaks of this because jesus wanted to bring him a a a a joy in the soul that he didn't have in psalm 32 1 through 5 blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man to whom the lord does not impute iniquity in whose spirit there is no deceit when i kept silent my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long day and night your hand was heavy upon me my vitality was turned into the drought of summer i acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity i have not hidden i said i will confess my transgressions to the lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin so jesus knew that the man had cried out for forgiveness and he's granting it to him there's no doubt that this man on that mat had said i wish god would you help me god i need your help before i got saved that that was what was happening in me i can remember it god there is i this is my prayer i still remember it god there is something wrong with me there's something wrong with me god help me there is something i can't i don't know how to love i'm hurting my family i don't have any friends i don't have anything i can still remember praying like that i hadn't prayed for so long but now i was praying and i still remember saying that to him god help me and i still remember these words there is something wrong with me there is something wrong with me when i got drafted and i was going into the military and my mom my dad my two sisters were in the kitchen and i originally was supposed to go in august 25th my birthday is august 23rd and august 24th we celebrated my birthday along with the birthdays of two of my friends and from early in the evening until three in the morning we were drinking and smoking pot i was real loaded and i went home and i went into the house actually i sat in my car watching my mom come to the window looking for her son and i waited until she turned the light off in the kitchen and went to bed and i still remember i was smoking dope and i still remember turning to a couple friends of mine who were there in the car with me and i said there's my mom look at her man she's looking for me and she doesn't even know i'm sitting here in the car and we're smoking and i waited for that light to go off and i went in the side door and i went into the room and i lay down on my bed it was three in the morning i woke up at 5 30 i didn't really sleep i still remember waking up in a pull of sweat and i walked into the kitchen it was six o'clock my dad my mom and my two sisters my dad was folding his arm just staring at me his arms staring at me my mom was crying and my two sisters were crying i remember that my dad just shook his head at me and my mom said to me you couldn't come home one night and i said to her i'm leaving now for a couple of years you won't see me again so you ought to be happy i'm out of your life that's where i was then i went into the into LA my dad drove me there gave me ten dollars drove me to the recruitment there uh recruitment uh building and i went in i had a friend named gary who was also there he had a lid he had some some pot i had ten dollars we were both rejected that day i had a criminal record that they were aware of and he also did and so we were both rejected we went out we smoked some pot i used my dad's ten dollars and you got to understand this back in 1970 it was worth a whole lot more than ten dollars and i bought us breakfast called a friend picked me up and gary took us home i came walking in loaded because gary had brought a lid with him my dad looks at me because he was on vacation and he says what are you doing here and i said even the army doesn't want me and i laughed and i slept it off i went into the room i hadn't slept i was loaded i was still loaded from the night before and that was my life and i finally began to say to god i can walk but i'm not alive i needed something more i needed something more than just physical life i needed forgiveness and that's when i started praying like many of you god there's something wrong with me i don't know what it is but there's something wrong with me i don't know how to love i don't know how to care i don't have any of that in me i don't have any of that in me this man's on a mat and he can't walk and his friends only know what's on the outside most of us don't tell our friends what we're really going through most of us don't call our friend up and say you need to know this we may throw it on facebook people like to do that but we don't tell real people this is where i'm at these are the secret things i'm dealing with this man was paralyzed not just physically there was something in his soul there was something inside him something deep that was eating at him and jesus looks at him sons your son your sins are forgiven you because that's what he needed to hear you see what is a prophet a man to gain the whole world and and loses soul what will a man give in exchange for his soul there there's there are worse things than than not being able to walk being crippled in sin is one of them and that's where Jesus began and as he says it to him he says your sons or your sins are forgiven you notice verse six some of the scribes were sitting there reasoning in their hearts why does this man speak blasphemies like this who can forgive sins but god alone what gives this man the right to do something like that they had gathered together they were going to formulate a charge against Jesus and now they have opportunity when Jesus pronounced forgiveness of sins for the man they reacted internally and they're saying within themselves this man blasphemes he's insulting the honor of god who can forgive sins but god only they're incensed mere men do not forgive sins only god can well daniel nine says it like this in verse nine to the lord our god belong mercy and forgiveness though we have rebelled against him i say a 43 25 i even i am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins no more jesus is claiming authority to forgive sin and the reasoning he is he is claiming to be god well immediately verse eight when jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned us within themselves he said to them why do you reason about these things in your hearts the reasoning amongst themselves wasn't lost on him he knew what they were thinking psalm 44 21 he knows the secrets of the heart he was 413 nothing in all creation is hidden from god's sight everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account he was reading them he knew it was within them and thus he addresses that in that way we sometimes think that we can hide things from god as if the lord doesn't see the other day my grandson walks up to me and he says papa he says can i can i have some gum he loves gum and i said well depends did your daddy say you could have some he goes oh yes i said oh really your dad's here i said um let's go ask him well you know he goes like that to me well you know um no we don't need to i mean you can see through it and i'm just a grandfather and you think we're hiding from god just because i'm good at wearing a mask before man just because i can put on my sunday best and appear to be righteous and loving and caring god knows my heart he knows what's really in there and jesus reads and he knows and he perceives what's going on inside of them he knows and that's why he speaks to them you see it's easy to say um your sins are forgiven it's easy to say a rise it's easy to say that saying someone's sins are forgiven may not instantly be seen though saying someone is healed is more easily verified because the healing will be visible and so he's asking the question what's easier your sins are forgiven or rise take up the bed but verse 10 that you may know that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralytic i say to you arise take up your bed go to your house how do you think he said that do you think he said and he just started shaking and quivering and he's no you know one of the things i see on tv sometimes that freaks me out is ministers who think they have to get dramatic at moments like that i the way i i really would believe it's more normal in the case of christ that he looked up and he said i say into your eyes take up your bed and walk i think it was a matter of fact kind of thing rise take up your bed and walk and something inside of that man responded immediately he rose took up the bed went out in the presence of them all so that all were amazed and glorified god saying we never saw anything like this the invisible forgiveness is demonstrated by a visible healing the man responded the crippled was made to walk through faith and obedience now here's some practical application for you i want you to remember and notice with me jesus gave an impossible command it was impossible for this man to do what jesus said impossible he could not do that he had to be carried in he could not do that it was impossible yet we see a response now there are times that jesus would give impossible commands notice in chapter three notice verse one of mark it says he entered the synagogue again a man was there who had a withered hand notice first five when he looked around at them with anger being grieved by the hardness of the hearts he said to the man stretch out your hand the man couldn't do it the man was crippled his hand was paralyzed that was an impossible command and yet he responded in in matthew 14 jesus says to the apostle peter walk on water impossible but he does it john five verse eight he told the man at the pool of Bethesda rise take up your bed and walk there are times that the lord will give an impossible command but he also supplies the power to keep it and this man responded because jesus spoke to him the man responded in faith and i believe that the lord still tells people to pick up their mats and to walk because he still forgives and there may be people in this room right now that are crippled that had a background of nothing but pain and hurt and rejection a sense of of not having any value a sense of being just so lost someone who's like i was so tired of of of living a life that is really really a lie a life of greatly desiring attention and never getting enough i was the guy who went to the parties i used to party a lot i was the guy who went to the parties who when everybody was just listening to music i would get up and i would by myself in the center of a room and i would dance around like a fool so people would laugh and think i was funny i was the guy who did the weird things to make people think that i was cool when in fact i was lost i was the guy who stood on the hood of a car while i was driving down the street and i stood like a living hood ornament drove by my parents house and my mom saw me on this car driving by standing on the hood and she hit the window so hard she almost broke it and when i came in she said you're crazy son you're nuts you're crazy and i remember looking at her going so what so what because that moment of attention was what i really wanted i was the kid who during lunchtime when you when i was six years old i was the kid who ate my lunch by myself because nobody would have lunch with me and i would sit there thinking of a sick mother who i thought was dying and i was alone for so long that i needed somebody's attention and i did anything for it that was me that was me i was the cripple i was the one who couldn't walk and i needed more than walking i needed forgiveness and that's what jesus gives you son take up that mat that has been carrying you and you carry it because i'm forgiving you of your sins and when that happened i want you to see this here rose took up the bed went out in the presence of them all and they were all amazed and glorified god we've never seen anything like this can you imagine the joy in this man's soul his sins were forgiven it's all done mica 718 who is a god like you pardoning iniquity passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he does not retain his anger forever he delights in mercy that's our god who forgives us of our sins and they were amazed luke 525 and 26 says here rose he rose before them took up what he had been lying on departed to his own house glorifying god they were all amazed they glorified god we're filled with fear saying we have seen strange things today so the miracle brought glory to god it drew people to him and it's silenced the Pharisees you see when you are made to walk people also will be drawn to christ this was made possible when four friends loved him enough to bring him to jesus and when i got saved that one was crippled on that mat i brought my family and i brought my friends to jesus sometimes we think it's through certain preachers or evangelists or meetings those are all parts of how the lord works but most are saved through friends who bring them to jesus so let's close by me saying bring your friends to jesus because he forgives sins and he makes us able to walk that's the savior that we worship