Well, amen. What a privilege and a blessing to be here this morning. Thank you for inviting us. Brother David, where are you? Thank you. Where did he go? Huh? Oh, well, I appreciate he and his family for putting us up overnight. And, and it's so good to see so many old friends, you know, and I know none of my old enemies showed up. So we're good. We're good. I forgot how wonderful it is to sing in this auditorium. What a blessing. That's just amazing. It's okay if I sing? Are you sure? I don't know if I can. Linda, are you praying? O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands hath made. And I forgot it. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee. How great Thou art! Oh, that's so pretty. Amen. Amen. It's a blessing. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tom Schroeder. Okay. My other half, my better half is there. Raise your paw. Okay. That's Linda. And as the man said, long toe, take Tom if you have to, but get sister Linda, amen. So she's been with us for a long time now. December, 49 years. 49 years, yeah. A testimony to the grace of God, give the girl a medal, amen. All right, so we're grateful. Grateful for God's blessings. I want to mention a couple of things about the work, okay? I am one of your missionaries. And we are currently involved in ministry in Armenia. Very briefly, I would like to say, first of all, Armenia, how many of you actually know where Armenia is located? Excellent, excellent. That's better than usual, all right. I get a lot of blank stares when I say Armenia. For those of you who are not aware, it's in the Caucasus region, means nothing, okay. It's between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Now, that might get you closer, all right? But we border on the west, Turkey, on the south, Iran, on the east, Azerbaijan, and the Republic of Georgia is to our north, all right? Now, that may help, okay? Small mountainous country, completely landlocked and surrounded mostly by enemies. Okay, so that's where we work and where we live. We originally went there with the intention of ministering to the nations around us, reaching into the Muslim countries and into Central Asia. But when we arrived in Armenia, we, over time, discovered such a desperate need for Bible-believing, Bible-teaching churches that the Lord laid on our heart to start one and to begin training others to start them. So, we are now involved in a church plant in the third largest city in Armenia. It's the city of Banidzor. It's in the mountains. Everything in Armenia is in the mountains, okay? But it's in the mountains. And we are blessed. We've been at it now for a couple of years with the church plant, at least two, right? Maybe three. And it's still a small work. We're blessed. If we have a good Sunday, we'll have 20. If we have a bad Sunday, we'll have 12. All right? But they are growing. And the Lord is allowing us to get a good solid foundation there. So continue to pray for that work. We are blessed to have our own facility and that's been an amazing work of God. We were able to find an old house after years of searching. And in fact, when we bought the place, I wanted the property. I didn't care anything about the house because of the convenience, but we were able to remodel the house. And it's now and we call it the prayer house. OK, and we call it the prayer house to make that distinction between the building and the church. And for them, it's it's an important distinction. OK, so so we now have a prayer house of our own and we're excited about that. And we're going back there on Thursday. Now, for those that bring you guys up to date, I came home the first of September for knee surgery. They put it off, and they put it off, and they put it off, and they put it off, and they couldn't get to, anyway, they used up all the time that I had, basically, and there was no end to that time, apparently, so we'll try that again later. Our original plan was to go back on the 5th of December, and so we are leaving then. And so we're glad to have the opportunity to be here with you guys on the 1st of December. And we would ask you to pray as far as our trip back. If you have any experience with coach seats on an airplane, okay, sit in one for 15 hours. And that's the flight from Atlanta to Doha. So it's a pretty good ticket, okay? For those of you who know our family, our girls are still alive. They are still single. They are living together in Baton Rouge, okay? And they are, as far as we know, doing okay. We have seen them since we got back. Spiritually, they need your prayers. Spiritually, I need your prayers, all right? So, I would ask you to pray for them and to pray for us. Now, that's about all. Oh, I will mention, too, that we mentioned in Sunday school, we frequently have opportunities to work with Iranians. Because of that Iranian border we have, there are a number of Iranians who come into Armenia for various reasons. There is a group in Vanadzor that brings Iranians to Vanadzor strictly for Bible teaching. And they bring them in, they board them for a number of weeks or months, and frequently we're invited to come over and help with that teaching job, which we do with joy. They are wonderful students. They write really funny. If you've ever seen handwritten Farsi, that's amazing. There's a picture of that. Is there a picture over here? Yeah. If you get to go through the photographs, there's a picture of handwritten Farsi. It's unlike anything you have ever seen. But they can read it. Amen. So that's what we're doing now. And we're going back. I just had my 68th birthday. When I went, I had no idea how long I would be there. I still don't. Amen. We probably, when we go back, we'll be looking for a more permanent home for ourselves there in the city. We live in a rented apartment, and sometimes those are iffy, okay? We'd like to find a place we can be more sure that we'll be there when we get back, amen? So you might pray about that. All right, just briefly, for two minutes, does anyone have a question about the ministry there or what we're doing? Hello. Good. Good. Okay. Good. We try to make those beneficial. We send them out. Yes, sir. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's about this high, okay? We speak Russian. We were missionaries in Ukraine for eight years back in 92 to 2000, right? So we are Russian speakers, and that's very convenient. Armenia is part of former Soviet Union. There's a large percent of the population that are also Russian speaking, and so we're able to function perfectly, you know, fairly normally within the society. In church, it can be interesting, right? I usually preach in Russian because my Armenian is just not up to standard yet. It's not there, okay? In fact, we say I preach in Hayarousklyski, which is like Armenian-Russian-English all mixed together, and it's sometimes fun. And I have a young lady who translates my Russian into Armenian for those who don't speak Russian. So most of our folks do, we have some who do not, and so for them we translate. But there is a barrier. And what's his name? Bradley, yeah. He looked up some Armenian translation earlier today and he said, what is that for letters? And yeah, the grammar is no better. So yes, we're fighting that language barrier. I am a student of Armenian. I will be a student of Armenian until I die. okay uh... with god's blessing in his grace eventually i will be preaching in armenian uh... but i want to say this about that okay is a privilege for me to preach in english i mean it really is a preacher's tools uh... words are our tools and in english i have many more tools than i have in russian and many many more tools than i have in armenian when i run into an armenian i say i speak a little armenian much better russian and very good english you pick Okay, so whichever one you want to speak, okay. All right, anyone else? No, no, it's kind of funny, okay. I can buy anything in Armenia except agricultural land, all right, but I can't stay longer than six months at a time. Okay, it's it's it's weird. All right, we, we have to, I went to university for a while. And while I was university, our visas were covered by the school. But now we're in a position where I have to go out of the country every six months, but I only have to go out of the country long enough to get my passport stamped and come back and get it stamped again. Now, that's that's the practice. That's not law, but it's practice. And so far, so good. Okay, so yeah, but we can buy. We own, we bought the church building. I own an automobile. Okay, I can't get a driver's license, but I own an automobile. It's strange. Okay, if you have any practice with third world countries, you understand. If you haven't, you don't. Okay, anyone else? Okay, great, yes. Ma'am? You know what, safe, much safer than here. All right, now let me say something about Armenia. Armenia was a Christian nation before Rome discovered Christianity. They became a, Christianity was a state religion of Armenia around 300 AD. And they have a Christian heritage and a Christian tradition, okay. Over years, that has become a religion of ritual and tradition. And it lacks the living New Testament Christianity. But it has given the society a twist, an aspect, which makes it a very, very safe place. Our young ladies, for example, they will walk the streets 9, 10, 11 o'clock at night without fear. Okay. The kids play in the street outside of our apartment, and I love to hear them. I mean, we have an apartment on the first floor, and I have a whole bunch of kids out running and playing and yelling. I just love it, okay, because you just don't hear it. And so as far as safety goes, we're very comfortable there. Okay. All right. I think my two minutes is up, but I'll take one more if you haven't. Come see us. Amen. You don't have to sit in a coach seat for 15 hours. You can fly through Europe, and it's shorter. Okay. But you'll make more changes. Okay, all right. All right, good. Well, as I say, what a privilege it is to be here. And I'm going to encourage you this morning to open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter number 5. And I'm going to begin reading in verse 17. Now, I will tell you that there are parallel passages to this in both Mark and Matthew. Matthew's is pretty brief and Mark's is pretty detailed, so we will be referring to Mark as we go through this. But in Luke chapter 5 verse 17, we see the story of a paralyzed man, probably one that most of you are very, very familiar with. The Bible says, And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. And behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means to bring him in and lay him before him, that is, Jesus. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, Why reason ye in your hearts, whether it is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, he saith unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things today. Father, we thank you, Lord, for the scriptures and, Lord, for the Holy Spirit who provided them, who interprets them and applies them to our hearts. And, Father, I pray now as I speak, Lord, that I might simply be the voice. But, Father, it's you who are working. It is your word, your spirit. We are your people. And, Father, we desire to hear from you and to worship you this morning. Father bless us, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. If I can just set the context here briefly, this was early in Jesus' ministry, probably his very first year. In Mark chapter 2, which is the parallel passage, it tells us that this took place in Capernaum. Now, Jesus was in a home in Capernaum, and he's teaching and he's preaching and he's doing. And it's interesting, verse 26, they say, we have seen strange things today. Now, in looking at this passage this morning, I want to introduce you to five groups of people, okay, and say something about the Lord. Amen? But as I'm introducing these folks, I'd like for you to consider, okay, were you there, if you were there on that day, which of these groups would you have been a part of? And I trust that the Lord will speak to our hearts and say, you know, I like it when the finger of the Spirit of God comes down and says, that's you. Amen? Now, it's not always a nice thought, but it's good to know. Amen. So I trust that He will speak to each of our hearts. And by the time we're through, we will find ourselves in one or more of these five groups, maybe depending on the day. Amen? Amen. Well, first of all, in chapter 5 of Luke, verse 17, I want to introduce you to the Religious Investigative Committee. Amen? Now, it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem. Now, we know a little bit about the Pharisees. We don't know exactly where they came from. We suspect they were descended from Ezra's ministry. Okay, is his ministry of exposition and and their original intent of both scribes and Pharisees was to ensure that people knew the law and That they applied it correctly or appropriately to their daily lives now over time okay, this became a position of authority and Authority does what? Ah, yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. The saying is, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. This was by, I think, a fellow named Baron Acton. But it ends with, great men are almost always bad men. And so what happened was these guys, they got authority. And authority, they began to act and to do like men of authority. And over time, it really deteriorated into a grab. A grab for power, a grab for influence, a grab for wealth. And their position became much more Well, let's call it secular. How about that? Then religious. You know, Jesus had much to say about these men, the scribes and the Pharisees. Matthew 23, I believe he referred to them as hypocrites, fools, blind guides, serpents, and vipers. That's a pretty fair description. I mean, you know, one time we were in a situation and I remember the pastor, and I might have been the pastor in question, okay? But I said something to one of our ladies, and it should have been convicting, okay? And my wife said, my goodness, if my pastor ever said that to me, I'd be looking for a hole to crawl into, you know? And if Jesus had called me a hypocrite, a fool, a blind guy, that might have gotten my attention. Didn't seem to help these guys very much. Now, this is Jesus' first encounter with them, and what happened was his increasing fame had brought him to their attention, and it seems that they're doing their job. Deuteronomy 13, you're supposed to check for false prophets, confirm that this is actually a prophet of the Lord, and so the elders were given the responsibility to see that the teaching was sound. You remember, they did the same thing with John the Baptist. John the Baptist was in the wilderness, he was preaching and baptizing, and who did they send out to check? They sent a group of Pharisees and scribes. Okay, who are you? What are you doing out here? Why do you think you have the authority to baptize? They were checking on him, right? John, being tactful and diplomatic, answered them carefully, right? The Bible says in Luke 5, 17, they came to sit by, okay? And what are they doing? They're passing judgment. They're checking up, okay? They're saying, well, this is of God. This is not of God. This is right. This is wrong. They are not there to learn. They're not there to grow. They're not there to praise God. They're not there to worship. They are there to pass judgment. By the way, Jesus is going to give them a lot to think about. Now, the three critical points concerning this group, and this is this group everywhere. It was this group here, and it's this group here, and it's this group everywhere else, okay? First of all, they came to sit back. They just came to watch. They're spectators. They're not listening. They're not learning. They're not involved, okay? They're critical. They said, I know best. I am the authority. Amen? Okay. And they are the authority, they are censors, they're judges of what the preacher or the teacher is doing. And by the way, I would like to hear some of this teaching from these guys on authority. real authority, real biblical authority. I think that might be interesting. But I just want to tell you this morning, if you are a teacher or a preacher of the Word of God, don't be discouraged by this group, okay? Jesus had to deal with them too, all right? And so Jesus is teaching and preaching and the examiners are in the room, okay? I can't tell you, I've experienced this many, many times. I remember teaching a neighborhood Bible club in Ukraine, and we had a huge mob of children. And then around the mob of children, we had a mob of parents, and then around the mob of parents, we had policemen. And they're all there to see what's going on, okay? And Miss Linda's up there going, well, she's taking her philatelograph, well, this is Jesus, you know, doing her thing with a philatelograph. But they were checking us out, okay? I remember a missions conference in Ukraine with a representative of the Religious Affairs Office there present. That was when I got called into that office a little later. Another story, long story, won't tell it now, okay? But they were there and they were checking. And it's almost any Sunday morning in any church in America, okay? Including this one. You got the folks who didn't come here to contribute. They didn't come here to worship. They didn't come here to, they came here to check. They came here to pass judgment. They are, you are, if you are a member of that group, the Religious Investigative Committee. Amen? Okay, that's the first group. Then, in chapter 5 verse 18, we see a patient with the palsy. Behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means to bring him in and lay him before him. Palsy, as I was able to study it, is a paralysis. It's characterized by the loss of motion, the inability of your... If something affects the motor centers of the brain or the spinal cord, it is always serious. It's usually difficult or impossible to treat, and generally comes on the patient suddenly, without warning. Okay? The bottom line, though, is that this man was absolutely powerless. He laid on his bed. He's unable to move himself. He's unable to help himself. He's unable to do anything for himself. And even if he heard of Jesus, There was nothing he could do to bring himself to Jesus. Now, folks, maybe in this room, and certainly outside this room, there are people who are absolutely and utterly hopeless and helpless. Now, we call them lost. We call them unrighteous. We call them unsaved. Romans 3.10 says, as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. They can't fix it themselves. They are unable. Isaiah 64 says, we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fate as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. They are absolutely dependent. And John 644 says, no man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. Now folks, there are some folks here, I suspect, certainly outside there, who do not know God. who are lost in trespasses and sins, who are utterly helpless and hopeless, and who must be brought somehow to Christ. But the one group I'm identifying now is not the bringers, those come later. The group I'm identifying now is the one who is lost, the one who is sick of the palsy, the one who cannot help themselves. Can I tell you this morning that there is help. And if you're here and you're that group, the one who's never been reborn, the one who's never come to Christ, then today is a day when you can change that. The third group, and this may be my favorite group. We say this is a home in Capernaum. Capernaum, they've done a lot of research there, and the largest excavated home in Capernaum was 18 feet across. Now, for those of you who live in modern American homes, that's pretty small. For those of you who have been in a trolley bus, maybe not. You can put a lot of people in a trolley bus, all right? In this home, 50 people maybe. Okay, you know, and you think 50 people in a room 18 feet across? Yes, oh yeah, you can do it. Okay. But there were many more people here, I surmise, than just those 50. And we'll call this group either the multitude, The press, which is what they're called in Mark, are like the obstacle of the onlookers. Amen? Group three. In chapter 5 and verse 19, we see them, it says, when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude. Okay, so who was in the group? Well, the Religious Investigative Committee was in there, right? But that wasn't all. There were curiosity seekers. Hey, there were some folks who'd heard about Jesus. Say, hey, I don't know who this guy is, but I want to see it, you know? And so they came crowding in. Some of them came to see Jesus. Some of them, I think, came to see the Religious Investigative Committee, because they were those kind of people, right? And some just came to see. You know, any of you ever, any of you serve on an aircraft carrier? There's something I do on aircraft carriers, and I worked with several people who did, and an aircraft carrier, if you go by somewhere and you see a line of people, you get in it. You don't know what's at the other end, okay? And they never knew, but that was a rule that if you saw a line, you got in it, okay? So, I think that's, we hit some of these guys here. They saw a crowd at the house, they didn't know what was going on, so they, let's go see what's going on, okay? I mean, around the accident, any EMTs, right, EMTs? Okay, you guys know who the uh-oh squad is, right? The uh-oh squad, that's when there's an accident. If you're driving down the interstate and there's an accident on that lane, okay, the guys on this lane that are going 10 miles an hour, that's the uh-oh squad, okay? Because they're going like, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, you know? And we've got some of those here. I mean, there's just a lot of people that went to check and see what was going on. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. I've got to remember to tell it not to go dark when I'm trying to preach. I'm preaching from an iPad, and when my notes just blank out, I go, uh-oh. There were the networkers. There were folks who were there just to make contacts, okay? Now, by the way, as a former pastor, I really don't like these people. I'm sorry, brother, but I don't like these people. Okay. They, and I, yeah. Okay. We'll just leave that one alone. There are those who are pliable. Why are they there? They came there to make somebody happy. Okay. Hey, I'm going to go see Jesus. You're going too. I don't know. Is there a football game on there? No, you're going. Okay. All right. There's the board. Some folks who came to be entertained. All right. They're the faithful, okay? And these folks are genuinely seeking God with varying levels of maturity. But when you think about this multitude in this particular instance, there is one thing that they all had in common. They were all in the way of one paralyzed man who needed to see Jesus. Now, folks, you could be here, you could be part of this group, just the multitude, and you could be any one of those folks that I talked about from the Religious Investigative Committee to the Religious Seekers, but the question we need to ask ourselves is, am I helping or am I hindering God's work in this place at this time? And can I suggest this morning, if you came here with a bad attitude, okay, you might be hindering. You know, and we need to prepare ourselves for worship. And that preparation doesn't start when you get here. We should come here prepared to see God work, expecting to see God work, praying for God to work. And then we need to try to get out of the way when he does. Amen? I hope you're not part of the problem. The next group I want to mention is a group of faithful friends. Chapter 5, verse 20, okay. Let me see here. Yeah, they saw, let me go back to 18. Behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means to bring him in and lay him before him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop and led him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus." You know, there's something special about these guys, okay? And first of all, this group was disciplined. I mean, they had a plan. They were working together. They saw a man who had a need. You know, it takes more than one guy to carry a litter with a body in it or with a sick man in it. And God wanted this man brought to Jesus, and he touched the hearts of those four friends to do it. Now, we know that God wants all men brought to Jesus, and Matthew 28 tells us he wants us to bring them. Okay? So, he shouldn't have to touch our hearts to do this. This would be something we're already touched to do. We should be looking for opportunities. Okay? And these men, they were disciplined, they were listening, and they were obedient. Okay? And they grabbed this stretcher, and they headed off to take this man to Jesus. Now, before they could be disciplined or determined, though, they had to be discerning. They saw his need, and they understood his inability to save himself, and they sensed their own responsibility in the matter. Okay? Folks, we're going to see people every day, all day long, who are lost, who are without Jesus, okay, who need the gospel. All of us, all of us all day long, we run into these folks, okay? And we need to be aware of that condition. Now, God may not lead you to pin down everybody you meet and share the gospel with them, but at least we can be in an attitude of prayer about that. Lord, is there something here I need to be doing? That's a really good question to ask God. Our Sunday school lesson this morning was in Hebrews 11 about faith. And every time I think about faith, I think about John. I'll show you my faith by my works, my obedience. They saw their responsibility in the matter, and they acted. What would they do? They said, He needs Jesus. Acts 4, 12 says, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none under name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. John 14, 6, you all know it. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. They understood that. We understand that. That's not complicated. Okay? You know, I work around former Muslims and Muslims, and it's not complicated for them either. By the way, I want to say this about Iranian people. I've never met an Iranian person I didn't like. They are the nicest folks. The Iranians who are Christians are wonderful people. The Iranians who are Muslims, they're all right. They're still people. But you know what? The massive Iranians are neither. They're Muslim because it's legislated. They're Muslim because it's tradition. They're Muslim because their family's Muslim, but they're not Muslim by conviction. They're just nice people. They eat funny food, but they're nice people. Actually, the thing that surprised me was how much rice they eat. They eat rice in massive quantities. Yeah, I mean, if you sit down to eat with a group of Muslims, particularly Iranians, there's going to be a bowl of rice in the middle of the table like this, and you're going to cover your plate with rice and then add whatever else is on there. They like rice. They also like Americans. Isn't that the strangest thing? They also have pain. They grieve, they rejoice, and they need Jesus. Wow, just like us. You know, these guys, they knew where to take him, and they were determined to get there. And you know what, this is sometimes where we fall short. they were not discouraged by the circumstances. All right, now, here we go. We got this litter, okay? We got this body. Who knows how far we've carried it to get to this house, right? We're dragging this thing along. Okay, I'm basically lazy, so I'm really tired by now. And we come up to the door, and I'm looking at this door and these people and people who are overflowing the door, and I'm trying to say, how in the world are we gonna get this guy? Come on, we'll get him in there. They're not moving. Make a hole, folks. Come on, get out of the way. Still not moving. We can't get him through. Hey, how many of them you said so? Well, I guess we'll have to take him back home. I don't know. I don't know. I suspected a group of four men who were calling a litter that you'd find at least one who would say, well, I guess we'll have to take him back home or maybe we can get a donkey or something and pull him back home. I don't know. But there was one who said, wait, wait, wait. I got an idea. Stairs on the side. We go up on top. We'll head through the roof. And at least two of the other ones looked at him and said, what? Are you out of your mind? No, no, we can do it. We can do it." Up the stairs. They're on a roof, okay? And they began taking the tiles off of the roof and making a hole in the roof. Now, picture the folks inside the house, okay? I mean, they're all sitting here. Jesus is teaching, and they're all standing in this mob, and they're all, you know, packed in here, and things start falling from the ceiling, okay? I mean, there's dust and rocks and dirt, you know, and there's just appearing a hole in the roof. And eventually the hole is big enough, and these guys, they take this letter, and they start letting it down through the hole in the roof, okay? And the guys, you know, there wasn't room before then, there's room now, all right? Everybody's backing up, it's like, what in the world, all right? And the litter comes down through the roof and it hits on this floor in front of Jesus. And everybody's looking at this guy and they're looking at the roof and they're looking at Jesus. What would it take to discourage us in a similar situation? What does it take to make us quit? See, the urgency, the importance of the task would not allow those men to give up. It was urgent. Jesus wouldn't be there tomorrow. There is a time. Jesus told the city in Luke 19, thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And they understood that apart from Jesus' intervention, this man would lie on his bed all the rest of his life. There is for evangelists and would-be evangelists something I like to call a convenience trap. We live in a world where everything is molded to make it convenient, right? Drive-through windows. You know, funny, I just laugh every time I see it. Go to a restaurant or a coffee shop or something and you'll see in cars people wrapped all the way around the restaurant and all the way back out in the street when all you have to do is park your car, walk inside, get your food and walk back out before that guy in the street ever gets to order. We like sitting in the car. Oh, I'm not picking on anybody in particular. I don't know you guys, okay? I see husbands and wives going like this, okay? No, don't do that, all right? It's an illustration, okay? Not a condemnation. What about Amazon? I love Amazon. I love Amazon. Call it, buy it, bring it to the door. What? Well, not in my garage, I'm not giving them a key, okay? But they will, yeah, they will. Folks, we've reached a point where they not only send you a recipe, they will send you the food portioned out to prepare the recipe. It's almost to the point where if it's not convenient, we just don't do it. And can I tell you today that evangelism will never be convenient? It will never be convenient. If you're waiting for it to get easy, it doesn't. And yes, I have language barriers, okay? It doesn't excuse inactivity. It's never convenient. And these guys were determined, they understood the importance, and they didn't allow themselves to get trapped into, well, I guess it's just not our day. They went up and tore a hole in the roof. Go back to Luke 5 and look at the grace of the Savior. Verse 20. And I love this, when he saw their faith, and can I tell you whose faith? The guys who were carrying the litter. He said unto him, Man, thy sons are forgiven thee. Jesus met the most important need first. And then he dealt with the skeptics, the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? And when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether it is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk. Verse 24, But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, he said unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thy house. Jesus said, the murmuring Pharisee, he can't do that. Only God can do that. He can't do that. Jesus said, okay, let me clarify this for you. Which is easier, to forgive sins or to say, rise up and walk? And you know, as I studied the scriptures, particularly recently, Jesus pounded into them, pounded into them, pounded into them. See the works I do, know I came from God. And this is just another instance of that. He said, you want to understand? Yes, I can forgive sins. Stand up and walk. You get it? He was nicer than I am. But you know, he must have been very frustrated. I'm telling you, I'm showing you, I'm telling you, I'm showing you, I'm telling you, I'm showing you, and you just don't get it. That sign, that rising and walking, that was the proof that He was God and that, in fact, He could forgive sins. I had the opportunity to preach in a Christian school, I guess, last week. And I took it a little different tack than I usually take because sometimes in our gospel, we get limited in our scope. And I wanted to go a little farther this time. And I said, I said, God said, all people are sinners. I said, and they all look at me and I say, is God a liar? Is God a liar? Okay, he said it right here. We read the scripture together. I said, is God a liar? And I got, I got good answers. No. Well, okay. And we went through the gospel piece by piece by piece. And now you answer that question every single time. Is God a liar? and you know that's that's more or less what jesus is doing here and jesus said god sent me and your work is to believe on me and he said these things and he did these things and he is not a liar and in jesus case he gave him the miracles to prove it By the way, in the apostle's case as well. Well, the Religious Investigative Committee, the one sick of the palsy, the mob that was in the way, the four friends, the grace of the Savior, and there's one other guy, one other group I want to mention. All this happened within a space of a certain period of time. By the way, this is not fiction. Okay, this is not a nice story. God is not a liar. All right? And at the end of the whole thing, everybody's gone. Jesus is gone. The man with the palsy's gone. The investigative committee's gone. And there's one guy left there. And he sits down in his chair in his living room. And he looks up at the roof. And there's a hole. I want you to put yourself at that guy's place for a minute. I mean, all this happened within somebody's house, right? And when it was all over with, he's looking up there, and there's a hole in the roof, and what was he thinking? Where, yeah, there's a whole, it's gonna get really wet in here, okay? No. You know, I don't know what he was thinking. The Bible doesn't tell us. But I know what I'd like to believe he was thinking. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God, did you see what happened here today? God did something amazing. Does he still have a hole in his roof? Oh sure, he got a hole in the roof. But that hole in the roof is part of a work of God that we are still talking about how many thousand years later? And I want to ask you this question. Are you willing, for God, to tear a hole in your roof? That's the last group. Did it cost him? Oh yeah, it cost him. Is there sacrifice involved? Yeah, there's sacrifice involved. But he had Jesus in the house. He watched God do an amazing miracle right there in his living room. And to get a hole in the roof is a small price to pay to see God glorified right here, right now. Now, how might God tear a hole in our roofs? I'm not sure. You know, it may be our jobs. It may have something to do with our families. It may be our health. Okay, I can't picture, I can't answer for any one of us how God might do that, okay? But I hope that every one of us, when it happens, can sit back and look at the whole and say, glory to God, he did something special. So, I asked you a question at the beginning. Which group? Which group? Now, I'm not terribly fond of the Religious Investigative Committee. I've got one of those. Can you believe in a church of 20 people, I've got that committee present in my church? Can you believe that? And I pray every day for this person, and I'm confident that God is going to do something with him. Because when God does it, it's going to be special. And he's going to do amazing things for God. But until he gets past that, until we can get him off the committee, it's just there, you know. There's one who's sick of the policy. If you're here this morning and you're not saved, and the Bible says that your spirit bears witness with his spirit. You can know. You should know. The whole book of 1 John is about how you know. And if you don't know, or you doubt, or if you're sure that you're not saved this morning, you're that guy. There was a whole bunch of people in the way. A whole bunch of people in the way. Don't be them. Don't be them. When you come here on Sunday morning, you be prepared to worship, and you be prepared to help somebody else find Jesus. And you might pray this prayer, Lord, if I can't lead them, let me not get in the way, amen? There were four friends who would not be discouraged. would not be deterred, would not be detoured, who are willing to go the extra staircase to get him to Jesus. And then there was that homeowner. I like that homeowner. I fully expect to meet him in heaven. There's a whole bunch of people in heaven I'm gonna talk to, okay? And I'm gonna ask him that question. When all that was done and you were sitting in a chair looking at the hole in the roof, what went through your mind, amen? Glory to God, okay? And I hope, I know that at any given moment we can be in any one of those groups, okay? But let's pray that God will put us where he can gain the most. Amen? Amen. Father, we love you. Lord, we thank you for the time that we've had. Father, thank you for these folks. Thank you for the scriptures. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who speaks to our hearts. And Lord, I pray, Father, as we come to a time of decision, that Father, whatever you have spoken to our hearts about, we would make a decision in response to your prompting. Lord, there may be one here who needs to be born again. Let them come and just tell us, Father. Tell Brother Bell. Tell one of the deacons here. Tell us that they need to know Christ. Maybe there's some here, and we're backslidden. We know we're backslidden. And we just need to get our hearts right. We need to get out of the way. Maybe the Lord's spoken to us about somebody special or whatever it is. Father, even if it's not related to anything that we said today, may you find us responsive and submissive and obedient. And we thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen.