I hope I'm allowed to do this. Is this a break of tradition? Is that allowed? Alright, it's not allowed. Oh dear, I've just broken a cardinal rule already. Well guys, thank you for letting me come and hang out with you this evening. If you've got a Bible, you can open it up to Luke chapter 5. We're going to be looking there. I want to talk a little bit about friendship this evening. I've got a friend of mine, he's about 5 foot 3, he's balding, he's about 62 years old, his name is Leslie. And Leslie's a fascinating, interesting character. He is a man that is, when I'm around him, he inspires me, you know, he makes me want to be a better man. You know, he's just one of those guys. you know, when you're around him, he makes you want to give more of your life to Jesus. Leslie, I think, well, I know this, he lives in a land that is a war-torn land, a land that has been in civil war for 25 years. Leslie has planted 32 churches. He's seen hundreds of people come to faith. And if Leslie was here today, he would probably be sitting there, quiet. You wouldn't have a clue. He's not an extrovert. He's quite a quiet man. Leslie has seen a number of terrorists come to faith. He lives in Sri Lanka and God is using him in a wonderful way. I love Leslie. He's like my adopted or he's adopted me. He's my Sri Lankan dad. You know, it's like, hello Gen Z, you know. And I love being around him because he's a friend that inspires me and I just want to be more like him. He's a bit of a Pauline figure, you know. I want to follow him because he's following Jesus radically. So I want to talk a little bit about friends because we need friends like Leslie. We need to be like him. We need to be like him who are willing to lay down everything for the sake of the gospel. Leslie doesn't own a house. He gives all of his money away. We help support him as a church, City Church. I know he gives it all away to his co-workers. He lives on next to nothing. But he's utterly convinced that Jesus is the solution to Sri Lanka's issues and problems. And when I'm around him, I just think, Wow! We need to be like Leslie. He will do anything and everything to bring people into the presence of God. And recently I've been re-reading some really well-known stories in the Bible, and we're going to come to them, and they're in Luke chapter 5, and as I've been reading through some of these, there is a bit in it that I believe is a picture of what the church needs to become, or maybe a bit more like. And as you read through Luke chapter 5, the first bit is all about Peter's call. Here he is, you know, he's fished all night, he hasn't got a thing and Jesus rocks up and invades his space. Tells him to throw his net over the other side and catches this amazing catch of fish. Blows him away, blows his conceptions away. And all he can do now, he's compelled to follow, to become a disciple. to follow after Jesus. And Jesus says to him, Peter, you're not going to be fishing for fish any longer. You're going to be fishing for men and women. And as you read through that, then you ask a question. What do those fish look like? Where are you going to find them? And in the very next paragraph of Luke chapter 5 verse 12, we start to get a picture of what that fish, what the fish look like. And the first person that we come across is a man with leprosy, an outcast, someone who's been disowned by society, a lonely figure, an isolated person, someone who has been disenfranchised and with no hope. Until Jesus turns up and transforms. These are the people that Jesus calls us to look out for. These are the people that Jesus is calling. And then if you read on, you come to another one. Matthew. A tax collector. And you guys are scholars, I know. And under a good teacher. And people who were tax collectors were again, disowned. They didn't want to be around. They had a bad reputation. You couldn't really be associated with a tax collector. It wasn't the done deal. And yet Jesus, calls Matthew and he becomes part of his merry men. He becomes part of the twelve. He becomes a man of amazing integrity. A man who is perceived to have no integrity becomes a man of integrity because Jesus transforms his life. And so, these are the kind of people, these are the fish that we're called to reach out to. And sandwiched in amongst all of this, there is this amazing story. And I call it the how-to. This is a story about four friends. How do we see others come to Christ? How do we bring them into the presence of God and see their lives transformed? Well, maybe there's a few principles we can pull out of this chapter in Luke chapter 5 verse 17. And we're going to read it. Put yourselves in the story tonight, guys. Let me ask a question. Who are you in this story? Jesus. One day, while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. It seemed that these men showed up from every village in Galilee and Judea, as well as even from Jerusalem. And the Lord's healing power was strongly with Jesus. Some men came carrying a paralysed man on a sleeping mat. And they tried to push through the crowd to Jesus, but they couldn't. They couldn't reach him. So, they went up onto the roof, took off their tiles, and lowered the sick man down into the crowd, still on his mat, right in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, Son, your sins are forgiven. Who does this man think he is? The Pharisees and teachers in religious law said to one another, this is wrong, this is blasphemy. Who but God can forgive sins? Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, why do you think this is blasphemy? Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven or get up and walk? I will prove that I, the Son of Man, have authority on earth to forgive sins." And Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, stand up, take your mat and go on home because you are healed. And don't you love this? And immediately, as everybody was watching, the man jumped to his feet, picked up his mat and went home praising God. Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God saying over and over again, wow, we have seen amazing things today. Wouldn't you like to be in a church service like that? I would. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall. A man who was lame was brought in and left dancing. I believe that this moment is a little bit of a picture for us as to how the church should actually be operating. There are some things about these friends that grip my heart and I pray that I'll be able to somehow impart them to you tonight. I love their passion, their tenacity, their compassion, their care and their connectedness. I love their great expectation and the sense of urgency that these friends had. Nothing was going to get in the way of them seeing their friend restored and made well. So hopefully I'll be able to unpack this a little bit. You know, their belief and their trust in Jesus' transforming power is reflected in what they did. in their tenacity, in their creativity, in their perseverance of getting their friend in front of Jesus. For them, that's all that was ever going to count that day. It's an amazing and wonderful example of genuine compassion and care. You know, when I look at this and I look at these four friends, I want to be like them. When I grow up, I want to be like them. As a church, we need to find again compassion. Genuine compassion. With no strings attached, compassion. A compassion for our friends. A compassion for those around us that compels us to reach out and to love them. That's what these guys did. You know, often we I think over history in the church, one of the things we've done is, and I've mentioned it before, is that we've preached a message. A message that we fully believe, but often the love and the compassion has not always gone with it. Jonathan Lamb, who used to do a lot of work with UCCF, has just recently written a book on integrity. And he tells this amazing story of a man called Max Dupree and his daughter, Max Dupree's daughter fell pregnant and the boyfriend legged it, he disappeared. And so he realised, obviously his daughter is going to have a baby and the father is no longer around. Master Kree's daughter actually has this baby and it's incredibly premature. This baby is like barely 30 weeks. I think it might even be 28 weeks or something like that. really tiny fragile baby and Max de Prie is brought in to the room where the baby is lying in the incubator and he feels absolutely useless and hopeless and he doesn't know what to do and the nurses are there and they're gathered around this tiny fragile baby so small he could pick this baby up practically with one hand and the nurse says to Max de Prie, you have got an incredibly important role to play she says, I'll do anything, whatever it takes And she simply says to him, this is what I want you to do. I want you to come in here every day. I want you to bend over this incubator, and I want you to say these words over this little child. I love you. Baby, I love you. I love you. And he said, I can do that. And so he went every day, spent an hour just saying over this child, I love you, I love you, I love you. And the nurse said, Anna, I want you to add something to this now. As you're saying I love you, I want you to take your little finger and I want you to begin to stroke this baby's arms and this baby's legs and body because this baby needs to connect your voice with your touch. And so he begins to say I love you and he's touching this tiny baby because the baby needs to connect a loving message as well as caring hands. And so that's what we need to become. This is what Jesus calls us to be. Embodied in the life of Christ is the perfect, most wonderful message of hope. But it wasn't just a verbal message, it was a message that embraced society and genuinely brought care and help needs. And so we need to become a church like that, don't we? And I know some of us are stirred about that, and we need to get out and do that. And we don't just do it in a church context corporately, but we need to be doing this in our everyday life. And doing the multiple opportunities that God gives us in our different spheres of influence. And so I see here, amongst these amazing friends, a passion, a compassion, But I see a connectivity. You know, when Jesus came to their village, they were connected to somebody who they knew needed help. That's a challenge for us. It's a challenge for us. Because often, we've become disconnected from the world around us. You know, in church we talk about the state of our world. We talk about the sin in the world. We talk about the pain and all of that. But we're not called to get disconnected from it. Actually, when we become a Christian and follow Jesus, we become more connected to it. Because we're called to bring life where there's death, love where there's hurt and pain. And so there's a challenge I see in these four friends They had an immediate relationship. They had relationships, they had friends. Most of us in this room, if we didn't grow up in church, if we hadn't come to church, if we hadn't grown up in church, most of us who have come to faith in Jesus came because a friend loved us, cared for us and showed us Jesus and told us about Jesus. We're at a time, a paradigm shift, if you like, here in the UK, where the vast majority of people are not banging down the door of the church any longer. But you know what? You sit next to people that have a silent scream in their hearts. You sit next to them in your office, on the bus, and at uni, and probably some of them don't even know that you love Jesus and your life is being transformed. And so you have an opportunity. Let's be a church that builds friendships, not because they're projects, but because they're friends. So that's what I see. I see that they had compassion. They're connected. They had great expectation. You know, we don't know very much about these guys. We don't know their names. They're kind of unsung heroes. But what I get from this is, when they heard Jesus was in town, they were going to seize the opportunity. I don't know, and there's a bit of creative license, I don't know if they had heard Jesus talking, if they'd heard him teach and thought, wow. I don't know if they saw him doing miracles and thought, this is incredible. I know this is when Jesus came to Capernaum their immediate reaction was he is the solution to our friend's lameness and we have to do everything in our power to get our friend who we love into his presence and so they had expectation they expected if they managed to get over all the barriers Jesus would do something And I think for some of us, we need to get a hold of, again, a big Jesus. Jesus transforms lives. We need to be a church that is full on for that, understanding that, taking hold of it, not just as some kind of head knowledge, but actually we really believe it. I think if we really believe it, It's going to shape our lives. It's going to shape what we do on a daily basis. They had great expectations. And so, you know, I love the story. I love the movement and the action of this story. Jesus comes to town and this house is packed with people. And these four friends go and they grab their friend who can't walk and they pick him up and they're carrying him towards this house with great expectation. And they get there and they find that actually they cannot access it. There's a huge crowd involved. So much so there are people hanging out of the doors and the windows and they try to get in but they can't. How many of us that day would have turned back? How many of us that day would have said, There's always tomorrow. Not these guys. Not these guys. They thought, we have to do this today. We don't know if Jesus is going to be around tomorrow. He may go off elsewhere in Galilee. There's an opportunity. And they made the most of that opportunity. And in that moment where that crowd was, they get very creative. And this is what I love about it. You know, the normal points of access were closed. And so they get creative about how are they going to get this man in front of Jesus. Now here's just a thought, and it's a by-product, and it's maybe for another time. This crowd that was blocking the very people, the very person that needed to be in there with Jesus, this crowd was made up predominantly of religious people. Luke is clear. He says that some of these guys, these Pharisees and teachers of the law had come to this house, even as far as Jerusalem. There was a lot of religious people in that house that day. You know, there was a lot of religious people that were blocking access to Jesus. You know, as a street pastor, and our volunteers will probably tell you this, The greatest barrier that we come across to the Gospel is religiosity. It's perceived religiosity. It's become a barrier. And I think about that, and this is not really for tonight, but I was just thinking about that the other night. God, where am I religious in my life? Are there things in my life that cause blockages for my friends in coming to Christ? And I thought, what is religiosity? Religiosity for me is when I say one thing and live it a different way, is when I promise to do something and then I don't do it, when there is hypocrisy in my life, when I make tradition and the way of doing certain things more important than actually reaching others, when I judge people before I even know them or have even spoken to them. And so what we're finding, just like these guys, is actually religiosity is a major barrier. But you know what? It didn't stop these guys. They got creative. And so what they did is they took their friend and they threw, maybe put him over a shoulder And as a team, they worked together, they climbed up onto a roof, they knelt down and began to tear open this roof with their own bare hands. Now I want you to put yourself in this story now. I did this earlier on. This is my house. Jesus has come to my house! Woohoo! I'm proud as punch that Jesus is in my house, he's in my home, he's eaten my food. I've invited a few friends and all these other holy guys have turned up. And so we're here, and Jesus is teaching. And then suddenly a bit of dust falls from the ceiling. I think, hmm, what's going on up there? Suddenly a little bit of light. into the darkness and I see a face peering out and I'm going, what is going on here? This is my roof! This is my house! You didn't ask permission to tear open my roof and my house? That cost me! And a little face pops out, hello! And this hole gets bigger and bigger and suddenly as I'm looking up and I'm seeing a leg coming down, and another leg, probably from that view, a backside, and it's being lowered down, and this man, this man who's contorted, is being lowered down, right in front of Jesus. But this is my house, how dare they? And then I'm watching, and I get a chance to see the most extraordinary thing. a man's life being completely transformed. And now I feel somewhat ashamed of my ridiculous outburst about the price of my roof. Because I equate the price of my roof for the price of a man's life. You see, there's always going to be cost in reaching our city for Christ. Our four friends, the moment they decided to take their friend to Jesus, they had to count the cost. They counted the cost in terms of their reputation, because I guarantee when they slung that guy over his shoulder and the four of them clambered up onto that roof, onlookers would have been saying, what on earth are you doing? Do you have permission for that? Have you got a written note to say that's okay? Ah. They were sold out. They were expecting. They had to die to their reputation. Maybe these guys, maybe these four friends were well-known in Capernaum. Maybe they were shirt and tie kind of guys. where their compassion for their friend and their expectation that Jesus would change their life overruled everything else. And they died to themselves that day as they climbed on a roof and ripped it open. They counted the cost of doing it. I think this is what Jesus calls us to. I think, just maybe, this is what Jesus sees the church like. That we need to count the cost. You know, the greatest barrier that day was not the crowd. It wasn't the roof. You know what the greatest barrier that day was? It was the man, the lame man's heart. That's why Jesus looked into his eyes and said, Son, your sins are forgiven. You see, the reality is, guys, the church can't forgive sins. The church cannot restore people. Only Jesus can do that. Through his death and resurrection, he's the only one. And so we are called to do everything we can to take our lame friends, the people that we know who don't know Jesus. We're called to do all we can to overcome every barrier possible to get them in front of the living Jesus. That is what we're called to. We're called to do all we can. and leave the rest to Christ. I want to be a part of a church and a body of Christ that's like that. And let's just think of the rewards for a moment for those four friends. There was two, I think. The first one would have been this. When they're peering down, as they lower their friend down in front of Jesus, I see Jesus looking up. And what does He say? He simply says, because of their faith. I think Jesus is sort of saying to them, good and faithful servants. Good and faithful servants. Imagine the Master, Christ Himself, saying to you and me, good and faithful servants. That's what we want. That's what I want Jesus to say to me at the end of my days. James, you were good and faithful. You did what I asked you to do. You did it with urgency. You did it with expectation. good and faithful servant and I believe Jesus probably would have said it with a smile on his face because I think he's got a bit of a sense of humor I think the other thing is the other reward was for those four friends they saw a man transformed just remarkably their friend who had never walked ran home dancing and praising God with a whole new life, a whole new future. I'll tell you what, I think if I was a part of that, if I was one of the four, I'd have been dancing on the roof. Wouldn't you? To be counted as part of that? To play my little bit? Suddenly the cost of a roof means nothing. The cost of a reputation is diddly squat. It's nothing to see a life transformed. I want to be like one of those friends, and I believe that God is calling the church in Aberdeen to be like them. And so for some of us, you know what? This is a story about breaking in. Everything about it was about breaking into God's presence. I think for us as the church, and it's Pentecost Sunday, It's all about breaking out, isn't it? It's about breaking out of our religiosity. It's about breaking out and building new relationships and connections. It's about allowing the God deposit in our lives to break out and touch other people's. This church has got so much talent and gifts and passion and compassion in it. And I know for Dominic and Barry and the other leaders here, they want to see it unlocked, released to break into this city. That is what Pentecost was all about. That is what was going on here. And to be honest, that's a tiny part of what Streetpastors is about. We want to see our city and our friends transformed by the love and the forgiving power of Jesus Christ. Let's be friends. Let's be the best kind of friends. You know, if we don't unlock it, if we don't allow God to unlock what he's put in us, you know what? We move from friendship to pharisee very quickly. Let's no longer be the block. but let's be a group of people who rip a roof open and bring people into the presence of Jesus. Gilkinson South, whether you're 12 or 92, God has a role. He's got people out there for you to befriend. Do it with urgency and with passion and compassion. And let's see our city and our friends changed by bringing them into the presence of Christ. Can you say Amen? Guys, what we'll do is we're going to pray. And what we're going to do, maybe just for a moment, is I want you to just reflect on some of the things I've said. For some of us, we've been personally, maybe as individuals, we've been challenged this evening. And you might need to leave this church and do something about it. I just want to give you space and time just for a minute. And then we're going to stand and we're going to pray a prayer. A prayer of commitment. If that's okay. So maybe just spend a moment in silence and reflection. Maybe God's been speaking to you this evening. And we're going to pray a prayer of commitment tonight. It's actually Tozer's prayer of commitment. And what I'd like us to do, if you can, for those of us that God has been speaking to, I'd like us to stand right where we are tonight. Those friends laid everything on the line. And if God's been speaking to you, I'm not going to ask you to do anything other than just to stand this evening and then pray a prayer that's going to come on the screen. A prayer of commitment to the things that you know that God has been saying to you this evening. So if the Lord's been speaking, why don't you just stand quietly where you are, and then we're going to pray. Let's pray this prayer together. I come to you today, O Lord, to give up my rights, to lay down my life, to offer my future, to give my devotion, my skills, my energies. I shall not waste time deploying my weakness, nor my unfittedness for the work, I acknowledge your choice with my life to make your Christ attractive and intelligible to those around me. I come to you for spiritual preparation. Put your hand upon me. Anoint me with the oil of the one with good news. Save me from compromise. Heal my soul from small ambitions Deliver me from the itch to be always right. Save me from wasting time. I accept hard work. I ask for no easy place. Help me not to judge others who walk a smoother path. Show me those things that diminish spiritual power in a soul. I now consecrate my days to you. Make Your will more precious than anybody or anything, and fill me with Your power. And at the end of life's journey, I see You face to face. May we hear those undeserving words. Well done, good and faithful servant. I ask this not for myself, but for the glory of the name of Your Son. Amen. Father, I thank you for this evening. I thank you for Giltsouth's support of street pastors. Father, we pray for our city of Aberdeen. We thank you, God, that you have a heart for it and you want to see it transformed and you want to use each and every one of us to play our part. Father, I pray for this church. May your hand of blessing be upon it. Encourage it. Pray for its leaders. God, You would continue to inspire them and fill them with Your Spirit. And Father, would You send us out this week into Your world full of Your power and wisdom and discernment. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Please be seated. I'm just going to continue thinking, praying, reflecting as our offerings to the Lord's work are collected.