Our tears will be over in God's eternal day. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. The strife we'll see, so small, when we take pride. One glimpse of Easter break, all sorrow will erase. So bravely rise. March day will soon be o'er. All storms forever pass. We'll cross the great divide. To glory safe at last. We'll share the joys of heaven. The tempter will be finished, we'll lay our burdens down. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. The tribes will seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse of his dear face, all sorrow will egrate. Amen. Do we have another one? Yes. Page 412. We praise thee, O God, for the Son of thy love, for Jesus, who died and is now gone above. Alleluia, thine the glory. Alleluia, amen. Alleluia, thine the glory. Revive us again. Fill each heart with Thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Alleluia, Thine the glory. Alleluia, amen. Alleluia, Thine the glory. And do we have one more? Yes, brother. Page 574. There is sunshine in my soul today, more glorious and bright than those in any earthly sky. For Jesus is my God. ♪ Sun, shine, blessed sun ♪ ♪ Shine when the peaceful happy moments roll ♪ ♪ When Jesus shows his smiling face ♪ ♪ There is sunshine in my soul ♪ ♪ There is gladness in my soul today ♪ ♪ And hope and praise ♪ ♪ For the blessing which he gives me now ♪ ♪ For joy's light above ♪ ♪ Oh, the sunshine, blessed sunshine ♪ ♪ When the peaceful, happy moments roll ♪ ♪ When Jesus shows his smiling face ♪ ♪ There is sunshine ♪ Bella Phelps, would you ask the blessing on the offering? Heavenly Father, thank you once again for this day, for your goodness and mercy. Father, thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your work, to give back a portion of what you've given us, renew it to the fullness of your glory. Father, bless the gift, bless the giver, I pray in Christ's name, amen. Amen. Good afternoon. Our scripture reading, Mark chapter two, verses one through 12. Mark two, one through 12. Stand if you can when you find the word of the Lord. And again, he entered into Capernaum after some days, and it was noise that he was in the house. And straightway, many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them. No, not so much as about the door, and he preached the word unto them. And they came unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts. Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, why reason ye these things in your hearts? where it is easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, he saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately heroes took up the bed and went forth before them all, insomuch that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. Thank you, and you may be seated. All right, everybody is full, and you better stay awake, hopefully. This is gonna be a challenge, I tell you what. That's why I gave it to Brother Nelson the other day, and he's used to people falling asleep, so it's all right. Hey, we're all used to it, right? It happens. Anyway, good to have Brother Wes Potter with us tonight. He slipped in here a little bit late. We'll talk here, meet a little bit later, a little more. Anyway, thanks for coming by tonight, and we'll visit here in a little bit. Pray for us, we're going to be taking a drive through northern Arkansas, hopefully, Lord willing, Monday or Tuesday, and there's some areas down there that just, I think, could use an independent Baptist church, and we need to pray about that in some of those areas, and you never know how the Lord leads, and it might lead there or it might not. So anyway, just a prayer, and that would be great. So but until then let's take just a moment and we'll pray right where we are. Let's get ready for the service here and We'll just take a moment to pray and I'll close this up here in just a second. So let's pray oh Well, Father, we thank you once again for the opportunity just to be here, for the wonderful meal we had this afternoon, and just a great time of fellowship. We thank you for those that you've added to the body here today, and we just pray you would bless them in a special way, and Lord, that we just all grow together and just seek to remember the reason that we're here is to preach the gospel and seek the lost. We pray you'd help us to be vigilant in that on a daily basis. Father, we just pray for the preaching that's coming up here in just a moment. And I just want to lift up Brother Nelson and ask you to give him just the freedom and the liberty to preach here tonight and just give him the help of the Holy Spirit. And I pray as we listen and receive the word that you have for us tonight, Lord, changes would be made in our own hearts and lives would allow you to do the work that you intend to do through your word tonight. And Lord, that we leave here, as I said, even this morning, as doers of your word, not hearers only, and that we might keep from layering upon ourselves deception. That's what happens when we take in the word and we don't do the word. Your verse said there later that we deceive our own selves. And so, Father, would you help us to keep from that and that we would leave here more equipped and ready to do what you've called us to do. We just thank you for everything. We just pray everything would glorify you here tonight. Thank you for the songs already. and the songs to come, we just pray that Jesus would be, just have the preeminence here in every aspect of the service. We'll thank you for what you do tonight, and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Stand one more time for the speaker comes, and turn to page 75. Age 75. Never lose without purpose or plan. When trying you serve a demon, death a man. Give thanks to the Lord, through your testing seems long. Rejoice in the Lord, He makes no mistake. He knows the end of each path that I take. ♪ I shall come forth as gold ♪ ♪ I could not see through the shadows ahead ♪ ♪ So I looked at the cross of my Savior's head ♪ Instead, I bow to the will of the master that day. When the beast came, the tooth fled away. Rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. He may rip me in half. And dried and purified I shall come forth as gold. No, I can't see that you're testing my love. God's strength in His children and purchase in love. My father knows best, and I trust in His care. So mercy. in the Lord, he makes no mistake. He knoweth in the end each path that I take, for when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as glory. If you think about it, Brother David is preaching tonight in Wichita, so if you have a thought to pray for him quickly, I'm sure he would appreciate that as well. And so it'll be good to see them back. All right, Brother Nelson, why don't you come along. No more, put your game away, okay. Thanks. You know, being tone deaf has some blessings to it, because you don't hear everything that somebody's saying about you. I'm just, you know, being honest about it. So losing my hearing aids is devastating, but it also is a blessing to a point, because for that purpose, I honestly don't hear my wife sometimes, and I go, what? Her favorite word, by the way, in case you don't know that, so every time she speaks to you, just say what, because she likes that word. anyway. You don't? Probably not. Okay. So, we all got our reading in Mark chapter 2. And before we begin talking about Jesus here in a moment I want to say thank you for those that have prayed and are continuing to pray for us, and going through the surgery, and dealing with falls and trying to figure things out, you know, and that. And sometimes I feel like I have a good day. I don't need my cane and I fall. Sometimes I feel like I'm having a bad day. I take my cane and I don't fall. So maybe it's the cane's fault. I don't know. But either way, appreciate your prayers. Thank you, Pastor, for the opportunity to open the Word of God and proclaim it. And I'm thankful for that. Don't pay attention to me up here. Pay attention to God. And I think you'll hear something a lot better than I could do. So we'll get right into it. The weather was good this morning when you came out, wasn't it? Anybody had to anybody enjoy the storm last night besides me open the windows just enjoy you know and I'm telling you we live in a menagerie of zoo and with four cats and 115 pound dog that was at the vet this week and when that thunder hit at that one time and and and the wagon that we live in actually the RV shook and I mean everyone came running to where we were in the bed and got up to where we were and I thought the whole thing was just gonna topple up like this you know and and that dog I mean y'all think he's mean and ferocious he only protects the truck but he is a scaredy cat He is, I mean, he runs from anything, unbelievable. But anyway, hey, let's start here. Mark chapter two, we got into that, and the Bible says, I wanna catch up here, give you a little bit of background, not a whole lot, because I wanna get moving. I don't think I'll finish, but I'm going to try my best here. But Mark chapter two starts out with the words, and again. And again, so because it says and again, there was something first. So in order to have an and again in your life, and again, I went to get some bacon. That means you went to get bacon earlier. right? Does that make sense? So and again, how many went for seconds besides me? All right. And again, we filled our plate, right? And, and again, we're looking forward. Well, I can't say that yet, but we are looking forward to dessert. Um, that's coming up, but, so I will try to hurry because actually the longer I take, the more you digest, the more room you have, the more dessert you can have. I appreciate that. One, we're going to go for it. So, as if you'll notice, if you've read Mark, Mark is the Gospel of the four that pays attention to or will write down. We don't worry about taking space up in the pages. I don't want to say it that way, that sounds derogatory. But Mark starts out in the ministry of Jesus. Mark chapter 1 we'll talk about how Jesus gets His ministry started and with meeting of John the Baptist and that and He begins to do some things. And so, but His public ministry began in a city called Capernaum. I want to tell you something here. I'm going to give you the title here in just a moment. he entered the town and immediately the Bible says that he began to preach about the Kingdom of God. Now I wouldn't expect Jesus to preach anything else. I don't really expect if I'm walking with Jesus to hear Him talk about anything else but God and His Kingdom. And then He's going to tell you how to get there. And I'm excited about that part because how He said how to get there was how I got there. And if you and and there's only one way so I know that if I'm going to heaven and you say you are we all Had to go the same way Right, so we all had to go to Jesus himself in order to get to God the Father But where's God the Father? Well God the Father is sitting on the throne in heaven. And if you want to meet him Jesus says hey, hello me You go through me Well, he didn't quite do it like that, but follow along here for a moment, will you? Like I tell my kids in junior school, junior church, and vacation, Bible school, listen, eyeballs. If I don't see your eyeballs, you ain't looking at me, you ain't paying attention, you're doing something else. Now, there was a preacher back in the day that if he saw you taking notes, he'd call you out, tell you put your note pen down, Bible up, you can take notes later. I'm not that guy. I like to take notes while there's preaching going on. All right. In chapter 1, Jesus demonstrates great power. And I say great power because you might have seen some power before you saw Jesus, but you'll never see anything ever again like it after you've seen Jesus. You might have known power before you got saved, but I'll promise you if you'll think about it, that power got elevated after you met Jesus. Jesus power we can't even model it. He should never be on a scale to measure up against something else He's separate which is why I have an issue with The New York Times saying that the Bible again is the number one best-selling book ever It shouldn't even be on that category. It's a separate book all by itself. I There's nothing that you ought to put up to it and say, well, we compared you to a novel by Ann whoever. No, it is nothing like any novel any man has written outside the men who wrote the Bible through the Holy Spirit. demonstrated His great power, and He cast out demons, and He healed diseases of every sort. We learn that in the book of Mark in chapter 1. And we learn that Mark chapter 1, verse 32, if you want to read it you can. And it's going to say this, and that even when the sun did set, they brought unto Him, that Him is Jesus, all that were diseased. They didn't leave anybody out. had a disease of any kind they brought you to Jesus. And he says this here, and them that were possessed with devils. And then verse 34, He healed many and healed many that were sick of diverse diseases, and many, and cast out many devils, and suffered not the devil to speak, because they knew Him." I want to tell you that Jesus must have healed maybe all, or nearly all, every sick person in Capernaum. Can you imagine that? That you've been dealing with something for years and you go to Jesus and you'll never have that issue again. As a matter of fact, I personally believe this, that if you're touched by Jesus when he heals you physically, you probably are a healthy person until you die. I'm just thinking. Because that's Jesus' power. That's his power. And you're like, I want that. Well, I'll be in line, too, because I want that. And I can tell you that Jesus has healed in many ways in my life, but there are still some difficulties that I'm facing. Can Jesus heal those? Sure He can. When it's time. When it's time. That's why I tell my doctors, why are you always happy when you come in here? Because I know who my doctor is and it ain't you. And they know that, they laugh with me. My autoimmune disease doctor, she called me, Pastor John, hey preacher, what's going on? Isn't that just great when I come in and in front of everybody? She doesn't care. I don't care either, let it be known. She asked me how the church is going. I told her what we're doing now. She's excited about it. And we talk a little bit about that. And it's a good thing to know that Jesus can heal and that doctors know they can't do it all, but keep praying. His miracles eclipsed in the eyes of everybody that saw Him, His message. They wanted to see the healing. They wanted to see the casting out. They wanted to see the blind man look again, and the lame man walk again, and the dumb. They wanted to see all that. Okay, you can preach, but we want to see you heal somebody. Jesus wasn't no circus act. was treated that way. If we can say it that way because multitudes of people came not for the message but they came for the miracle. I need Jesus to speak to me. I need Jesus to talk to me on a daily basis. I need to open up the Bible and say, okay God tell me something. Show me something. Illuminate my eyes to something I've been reading forever that maybe I didn't see before. And God will do that. He'll make it look like you've never read that portion before because He just shows something to you. And you wonder why you've been skipping it all these years, but you haven't been. God said you just weren't ready for it yet. So, don't give up reading your Bible just because you can't figure it out. God says, one day I'll show you. People quit reading their Bible simply because they can't get it all the time. want the miracle instead of the message. But now that his preaching tour in Capernaum is over, after he left and then he comes back to Capernaum he says, this town is an important place in the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus. If you've done any study at all in Jesus you'll understand the importance that Capernaum served as the northern headquarter for His ministry as He would return back and forth to frequently. here that He put His great healing power on public display. It was here in Capernaum that He preached in power. It was here in Capernaum that Jesus Christ made His very public claim to be the Messiah. But I'll tell you if you know anything about a town that gets a preacher that town has a problem. And those problems come to surface. You see, this city valued the miracles more than the message or even the Messiah. They wanted the spectacular, but they rejected the Lord's offer of salvation. And as a result, many churches today would put on a display of, you know, and not that anything in these items are wrong, but it's just how they're used. We'll have inflatables, or we'll have a dunk tank, or we'll have a mini carnival, or a petting zoo, and we'll attract people to come in because of that, and they barely get a message at all. and we'll feed them, we'll buy them gas for their vehicle, we'll have a homeless appreciation. That doesn't sound right, does it? But we'll do that. That didn't sound right at all. I gotta remember it though, I gotta write that down. But anyway, so they'll have that, but they won't get the preaching they need. But we have to be careful that when others see us have an activity, that it's the message first, then the spectacular. But I'll tell you, there might be a spectacular in the message because someone could find salvation. And y'all ought to think that is more spectacular than anything we could set up outside and play with. Someone coming to the altar and getting right and getting their life right getting their family going in the right direction Ought to be a lot more important than what we got going on out there Someone coming up here and says preacher. I know I've been saved but right now I don't think I am Something's wrong. Can you help me? They get it fixed. We ought to think that's a whole lot better than something We've blown up outside for kids to play on We've got to get back to thinking that the message is a lot more important than the spectacular. I like Jesus' message. I like His first preaching message. You see, His first preaching message is something that only Jesus can do. He preached Himself. We've got a lot of preachers today on TV and the radio and even in books that you buy that preach them. They like to talk about what they can do for you. They like to talk about what, you need to leave them to me. I'll take care of that issue. They need me. You need me in your life. And I'm like, you need to talk about God. I want to stay away from that person. A lightning bolt may come down. It's always, always got to be God first. It don't matter what you do in life. It ought to be God first. I want the message before the spectacular. Yes, we're going to have it. But you got to learn to dissect your mind from what we're going to have later to what's more important in here right now. But we were having dinner. I didn't even know what we have. And so my mind couldn't even go there. So, I just knew what my wife bought, but, and I avoided it, by the way, sorry. I'll have to eat more later, make up for it. So, she'll be happy that I ate some. But anyway, but we got to think about what's going on here. Now, I'll share something with you that one time I did, and then I learned, oh, I ought to think different about that. you're in church and you hear a message and you go, oh, that is good. I wish so and so was here because they needed that. Oh, does anybody ever fall victim to that? Sure we have. But let me tell you this, if God put that on your mind, Instead of going to them and telling them, oh, you missed, you missed, you missed, why don't we go to them and tell them the message and be a help to them? That ought to seem better. If God put it on your mind that so-and-so should have been here, then God put it on your mind to go visit with them. take that message to them. And it's been a really good thing for me to learn and to be able to do when I think, oh, that reminds me of so-and-so. Hmm, you ought to go help them out. Tell them I'm praying for them. Tell them, hey, here's a verse of Scripture. Why don't you read this a couple times during the week? Maybe it'll be a help to you. You know, it might change us. Wouldn't it be great if something like that that's so simple changed us? we start focusing more on the Word versus the spectacular? I know there's a couple of events coming up but and I know that preachers looking forward to the summer and some of the ministries and the events. And I like that. I like the excitement that is starting to build and different things like that. But at the same time don't forget the message on the Sundays leading up to it. Don't forget to be faithful to the church before you're faithful to the spectacular. Get in here with both feet, get them wet so that when you get outside, people know you've been someplace and you've met with someone. And wouldn't it be great to say, hmm, I met with God today. because we focus more on the message versus the spectacular. Now, we're going somewhere with this and I've got to kind of hurry. But Jesus' very first message was Mark chapter 1, verse 15, the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. And here's what I love the best about it, repent ye and believe the Gospel. And we know the Gospel is Jesus. He said, repent ye and believe me. believe in Him to get to heaven. That's the Gospel. That's the Good News. That's the culmination of everything that Jesus did on the cross of Calvary and buried and rose again. Preacher was talking about how nobody ever rose himself. But we know that Jesus is the only one to do that. Exciting. We sang a song a little bit ago and I was getting heavenly goose bumps. Anybody ever get those singing? feel like you're just right. Oh, man, the Holy Spirit is taking over. I've got those Holy Spirit goosebumps in this song. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. It's a good feeling to have. So, let's get to, again, he entered into Capernaum. After some days, and it was noise that he was in the house. Now, because it's Capernaum again and it doesn't really tell us that whose house this particularly is, I'm gonna vote on the side that is Peter's house because of earlier in Capernaum, he was at Peter's house. So when they came back, I'm believing that he went to Peter's house because there was a familiar. He was welcomed and it was there. So we get that settled, let's move on. Y'all can have your own opinion, we'll talk about it. I love discussions, I hate debates. Debates make enemies. Discussions build. You can learn, you can grow. So we'll discuss that if you have a different opinion about whose house it is, but I'm gonna be on the side of Peter for the moment. But then it says this. It was noise. that he was in the house. What does that even mean? It was noise. That Jesus was in the house. Well that means somebody had to tell somebody else. Somebody had to go out and tell somebody else Somebody knew that Jesus was with the house The disciples were there and they began to publish it in the streets and I say published because published back in that day meant they verbally had to speak it and They didn't have no paper ready to roll out in two hours. They didn't have any of that, but they noised. Man, can you believe how loud it was? Hey, Jesus is here! heard about Jesus because he'd been there before. They'd all heard about his miraculous healings and maybe some many of them have seen that of his casting devils out and all these things. It had to be an exciting time for that city to get to Jesus as quickly as they could. Not because he was going to preach but because he might do something spectacular. I'll say this that Jesus already knew what was going to happen before it happened. So, He went along with what He had already planned. He didn't change His plan because of the crowd. He didn't change His plan because of circumstances. He just stuck with what He was going to do and He was going to preach. And I have an opinion that He began to preach salvation maybe. And it would have been Old Testament salvation. It would have been Can we just say that Jesus is the word and the word is the word you're handling right now in your hands So he already knew the word of the Old Testament Especially when Isaiah in chapter 55 says these very can I say famous words because I like them. Oh Everyone that thirsteth Come ye to the waters And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. What's that mean? It's salvation. It's free. There's a price, but you don't have to pay for it. It costs something, but it's free to you. ought to be the same way. Ho, come to the waters, the living waters. Y'all thinking about the woman at the well now, aren't you? Come. I'm telling you, there's something exciting about when somebody wants to come and learn about Jesus and how they can have that living water. Are you ready to Do you know enough of your Bible right now or message of Jesus' Word to tell somebody how you came to Jesus so that you can share how they can know Jesus too? Listen, anyone can draw a crowd. We can put things up and make it shine and people on the highway be calling nonstop like, when is it? What's going on? But it's a whole lot different when God puts a meeting together. We can do things humanly in physical form to attract the eyes of everybody around here because that's what it is. The Bible talks about the dangers of the eye seeing. We want them to look at good things. We want them to see the good stuff. And it begins in here. Because this is what opens your eyes from being blind to the things of the world. And we want to show them, hey, what you've been doing, they blinded you. Here, let's open your eyes. We led a woman, a young lady to the Lord. She was going to Baker University there in Kansas in Baldwin City. And she called me like two days later and she said, preacher. And I said, what? She's like, I don't think I can go to school here anymore. And I'm like, why is that? And she's like, I can't believe what I'm seeing. It's horrible around here. I said, you've been there for a year. You've been in the middle of it all. Did you not see it before? Like what? She goes, no. She goes, it's like my eyes have been opened. It's a Christian university. It's a dry university, but there's alcohol all over the place. And she began to see it all. She began to see all the shacking up in the rooms, in the co-ed dorms, really? A Christian university having co-ed dorms. Someone don't know the Jesus I know. And they need to quit pretending they got it right. But she had to get out, so she got out and we housed her for about six months maybe, eight months, and she went on up to Masters Baptist College, graduated, and man, her life just changed. All because Jesus was allowed to get in and open her eyes. You know, it's clear to me that Jesus has a message that's far more important than miracles. Man, I'm glad you got healed. I'm excited about it. What's your message? And you be shouting hallelujah, that's important. You better recognize it was Jesus who did the healing. You better recognize that it was Jesus that took the limp out of your walk and made you jump. You know, those are things that we think are just simple, everyday things. You thank Jesus for going. Listen, do you take the time to thank Jesus that you got four tires on your car that are still filled up? Whoo! I mean, that's exciting stuff. Thank you, Lord, that my truck is operable today. Am I the only one that does that on a daily basis? Now, if you're driving a Chevy, you better do it a whole lot more times than me. All right, amen. Oh, I got a towing package if you need help today. All right, we'll move on quickly. Listen, anyone can draw a crowd, wrestlers, celebrities, musicians, even preachers can draw all kinds of crowds and people, but what are they getting? What's the message that they're sending to everybody? And straightway, you all know what straightway means. I don't have to explain that. Straightway means like right now, immediately, without haste. Straightway, like you tell your kids in straightway they behave. Is that wrong? Did I mess up? No, those are good kids. Those are angels, right? And straightway, they did what they were told. And straightway, without worry, you know it got done at the time you said it got done. You know, we don't have to say, hey, I wanted this done yesterday. Okay, we got good. Okay, how about some of y'all? God said, hey, straightway. God said, hey, straightway. Well, Lord, yeah, I know you got things in your life that are immaterial and that are not important to me. So make them not important to you. straightway do something for me Sometimes that's a hard pill to swallow Preacher said being a Christian is hard, but we all go saved and lost went through the same rainstorm last night The hopeful and the hopeless went through the same rainstorm last night but with my hope in the Lord I slept and The ones that, and I shared this with a preacher I think last week, I don't know how anybody goes through life daily and not know Jesus. I just don't understand how you can walk in this world that we live in today, see the things that we are seeing being activated and surround us constantly, and not know Jesus. Because they don't want Jesus to be their hope. They're looking other places to find hope. They're looking to their mom and dad for hope. They're looking into their science teacher for hope. They're looking in the bottom of a bottle for hope. Ooh, got it. They're looking in meth, and they're looking in drugs. They're looking at needles. They're looking at pornography. This will fix my day. But no, it won't, friend. Jesus will fix your day. And when He fixes your day, you know tomorrow is all better. You know, grace is only good for one day. You wake up He gives it to you again. Ah, it's wonderful. Wonderful. Preaching was central to the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus. I think it ought to be central to you and I if we really believe Him. The message of Jesus ought to be central to our life today as it was His if we really want to call Jesus our Lord and Savior. Now, I'm not trying to put anybody on pressure here, but it's the message of God's Word that, listen, if you don't have the message of the Lord Jesus as your priority in the central system of your life, you're off base somewhere. You've stepped over a line that you shouldn't have, and you've got one foot with Jesus and one foot in the world, and when you do that, you might as well have both foot in the world because you can't serve both God and man at the same time. You're either all sold out to the Lord, you've got a piece rented to the devil then you're not all sold out. If you're giving the devil and this world part of your time then God has none of your time because you'll be focused on what you're doing for the world more and looking forward to it than you are the church. Nothing is should ever be allowed to crowd out Jesus. Nothing in our lives today, new boat, new fishing tackle, new hunting gear, whatever it is, a lady sewing machine, cricket, cricket, whatever that thing called, it doesn't matter. Nothing should replace Jesus and His message for you in that day. And you ought to look at Monday and say, I miss church already. And I gotta wait till Wednesday to get fellowship with my people again. I gotta wait till Wednesday to hear the message from the preacher and be with everybody. You know, in one sense, that's great that you miss it, but take the Bible and God's got a message for you on Monday. Take the Bible and God's got a message for you on Tuesday. Bible reading on Wednesday just because you have church and going to read your Bible. Keep your Bible reading and then add to it when you get to church and maybe share something. Jesus had all these people that were looking for a miracle. Now, And straightway, many were gathered together in so much that there was no room to receive them, not so much as about to enter the doorbell. Couldn't we have that problem here today? I'd like to see the preacher pacing around, maybe a little anxiety, because he can't find a place for anybody to sit, and we don't have outside speakers yet. And someone tells him he has to have two services today. I don't think it'd bother him. I think he likes to preach. I think he wouldn't mind preaching twice. We had so many people crowded up. Someone here had to park at the bottom. I told Lois yesterday that it wouldn't bother me a bit if I had to park at the bottom of the hill and walk up here, because I couldn't get a parking spot. And I was talking about that yesterday, about how the church could be just so crowded up. I don't know why God told me that, but it was just one of those things. And I'm looking forward to it. Not so much as about the door, and he preached the word unto them. Man, that's exciting stuff right there. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, that's the crowd, that's the multitude, it was so many people, they uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. middle of his preaching service something, here's the spectacular. Here's the spectacular happening right now. Right in the midst of everybody in that room. And if it is Peter's house I want you to get this because listen they began to dig a hole. And you've got to think that stuff began to fall on their heads. Eventually once they got so far down and then once they covered it up They got a little peek hole and I'm probably thinking just like you and I curiosity Would kill us if we didn't look And a lot of Jesus listeners were now Leaving the message to look at the hole beginning to widen up in the roof Peter's like, uh Better call State Farm You know, I don't know what he was thinking. His roof was being torn up. I hope, you know what, you put a hole there, you fix it. I mean, that's how I grew up. You fix it. You borrow somebody's tool and you break it, you either buy them a new one or get it fixed. Coughed me a lot of lessons that year. Anyway. Peter couldn't stop it. Finally, the hole got big enough, and nobody said a word. I kind of believe it was all silent. I kind of believe it was a hush in the crowd. And all of a sudden, whatever this man's laying on, some type of bed, began to be lowered down. And this man just laid there. finally got him down and and whether he they dig dug the hole close to Jesus or whatever I'm pretty sure that Jesus was allowed to make his way to the man with the bed but I wonder but back up a little bit because like you and I what would you be thinking service was interrupted and maybe not through a roof but they were able to make their way through and maybe they peeped through the window and they knew. They knew because it was noised about by Crimson Avenue Baptist Church that Jesus was in the house. You see we come to church here because Jesus is preeminent. He's prominent. He's He is everything this church bases, everything we preach about. If we ever leave the fact and put Jesus first, I think we better wise up and move on. Jesus needs to be at the foremost of everything that goes on in the church. They knew. Can you imagine us? They had heard. was faithful to spread the Word here, because somebody was able to tell somebody about Jesus, and how they could come to Jesus here. They couldn't get in the door, maybe they came to the window, and they saw that we were here, we're preaching, you know Brother Eccles is up here just hammering away. The window breaks. A gurney starts to slide through. Maybe it's not a gurney. Maybe they brought a friend who really didn't want to come to church, but said he would. And they said, OK, the only way you can get in there now is through that window. And the four buddies made him go through. He sits on the front row. His four buddies are there. They're excited. They're excited they brought their friend to church, and he's going to hear the preacher preach about. Jesus. He's going to get Jesus for the very first time. It's just going to get hammered on Him with love, and compassion, endearment, tenderness, but with a firmness too. That understanding that without Jesus you die in your sins, you end in Hell. And with a clear understanding think everybody knows they've been very clear on what they've heard here that every time you walk out this door you possibly could be facing Heaven. And you know very well from hearing the message here that you have been warned about the dangers of Hell. And you know very well through every message that's ever been preached here that there's only one way to Heaven and And if you have not chose that way, then my friend, if you're pretending, because you don't want to go forward, you don't want to let the disguise go away. Well, for all these years, I just don't know if I can do it now because they believe that I'm saved. I just don't know that I can tell them I'm not. I would be so embarrassed. I'm telling you, God would not be embarrassed, but the angels of heaven would be rejoicing if you came forward and got saved. I've seen people 20 years in the church get saved. I had a man in my church one time come forward, and he said, preacher, he goes, I need to be saved. And I looked at him in bewilderment. I got shocked. And he's standing right here, and I'm looking down at him. And I said, but Brother Tom, you're our trustee. You're my treasurer. You taught King kids for 15 years in church. You're saved. And he says, no, preacher, I'm not. I'm not. You made me realize it in that message. And I just stopped. We both went down to the altar, and we prayed. And we talked about it, and he got saved. And he stood up a saved man. Right in the middle of the message. Well, close to the end anyway, but still. So we just ended the service right there. We played some music. We had an invitation come. Several came forward and prayed, thankful for Brother Tom and all that. Don't let guilt or pride in your life stop you. Your family will rejoice. They don't care if you've been fooling them. They will rejoice. Finally, they will be happy that it is settled. can I go to a church that preaches salvation every time? Don't they have anything else to preach? Yeah, Jesus loves you. And He'll love you all the way until you die and then He has to say, depart for I know you're not. I mean He told Judas Iscariot right before He deceived him He said, friend. He called him friend. Who does that? How did God enable Himself to call that which was going to deceive Him and give Him up friend? Because of love. Because God says that He wills that none perish. but all come to the saving knowledge. Can you just grasp that God loves you so much that he doesn't want you to die in your pride, in your selfishness. And Jesus is preaching the message. And I'm telling you, we know that he says, because of the faith of these four friends, these four men right here, he looks at the man and I'll tell you, let me give you the title when Jesus is in the house. When Jesus is in the house, you get more than you went for. I'm just gonna go for the fellowship today, but oh man, wasn't that mess good? Wasn't that food good? See, we got more than we bargained for when we got here. I don't know if I can walk again, I ate so much. We get more than we asked for when we come to church. Boy, I'm glad they didn't have dessert then, I'd be out by now totally, you know? We get more. when we see Jesus in the house. Can I tell you that you'll get more in your house at home when you put Jesus in there? You'll get more than just supper prayers for the food. get breakfast prayers in the morning. You'll get more in your house when Jesus is in the house. Y'all know. Man, I had some examples written out and I have no idea. Somebody play with my notes. I don't have any clue where anything is at. But remember, I'll close here real quick. Remember the houses that Jesus was in? And you can study this. There's more of them. I just wrote a few of them down. There was a young girl, died. Jesus came in and He said, no, she's just asleep. And He reached down and picked her up by the hand and she stood up. And oh, people were amazed. The miracle of Jesus. He said, she's just sleeping. Who does that? He walked by one day, and they're grieving, and Ladrus has been dead, and Lord, he surely stinketh by now. And he says, ah, don't worry, he's just sleeping. Ladrus, come forth! When Jesus is in the house, Ladrus came out. Jesus is in the house and Mary and Martha are getting ready and trying to get things. One sat at His feet and one kept busy. And things happen when Jesus is in the house. Remember Zacchaeus? I wanted to say Zacharias. Remember Zacchaeus? And Jesus said, "'Zacchaeus, make haste, for today I must abide at thy house.'" Whoa, really? He could have come to my house. I'm a publican. I'm one of the worst people this city ever thinks of me. And he's coming to my house? So he hurries down and he runs home and he tells the family, y'all, we ain't got time to clean. Leave it like it is. Jesus is going to be here any moment. And all of a sudden, hey, Jesus, can I come in? Help yourself. Make yourself at home. going to happen in Zacharias, what's going to happen in Zacchaeus' house? His whole family gets saved. Wouldn't you like it if your whole family gets saved because Jesus is in the house? I'm just trying to be a help to somebody today. You know the wedding, Jesus is in the house at the wedding. Lord we have no more wine. Anybody here have that problem? No? I'm just asking. I mean it was in the Bible, Jesus was there trying to help him. But I don't think anybody else here had prayed to God, said, Lord I'm out of wine, refill please. Better not. Okay? Anyway. See what happened when Jesus was in the house? What about at the temple in Matthew chapter 21? Matthew chapter 21, Jesus went and He saw that they were, had made it the den of thieves. It's supposed to be a house of prayer. And He kicked them all out. Well, He didn't more than just kick them out, but He got them out of there. Some He had to throw out, some He had to beat out, but He got them out. And by the way, the temple, know ye not that your body is the temple of the living God? Maybe Jesus has to come in and do some kicking out. another one. We'll get to that another day. But Jesus said, when He's in the house, He said, Matthew 21, verse 13, it is written, that my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. And you know that there is something special about that. Because before Jesus was in the house, He They were filled with all kinds of people that needed him. They were filled in the temple with all kinds of people that needed healing, that needed help, that needed somebody to listen to, that needed a shoulder to cry on, that just needed something. But the priests there in that place in that time weren't worried about that. They were worried about their coffers. They were worried about what was coming in and how much they could charge for who was coming in. cleaned all of that out. And the Bible says in the very next verse, Matthew 21, 14, and the lame and the blind, those that had been coming earlier, it says, the lame and the blind came to Him. I love this. Y'all ought to make this your favorite verse if you don't, but listen, or one of them, and He healed them. What happens when Jesus is in the house? healing. There's a healing. In Jesus' ministry His first healing was always the salvation. Thy sin be forgiven thee, rise up and walk. And the man rose up, he picked up his bed. I'm pretty sure that that crowd, that doorway, everything that was pressed with people made way. I'm pretty sure that all of a sudden there was a way in and out. The man picked up his bed, carried it out. read just a little bit farther on down here in this chapter, listen, and they were all amazed. And they glorified God, and that they said they had never seen anything like this before. Now, I didn't quote that correctly, but it's the same, just follow it. Wouldn't it be great if we saw, because we got the message, we saw God do something. I think God is ready to do something right now to and whether it's with me or somebody else. But I really believe that here at Crimson Avenue Baptist Church, there's gonna be a happenin'. I believe it. I believe that God's hand is the happenin' part. We oughta let him. We oughta get ourselves out of the way and just let God be God so that we can get the message. We'll worry about that spectacular later. Get the message now, God will take care of the rest later. can only happen if you are willing to open your heart. If you are willing to set aside all of those things and maybe just have to get rid of them so that there is a doorway now from Jesus out, like we saw here with the man carrying, there is a doorway now for Jesus to get to you. Can He get to you? Does He have access to you? Have you ever said not today? I'm busy today. And I don't mean to God directly, but it could be an indirect where you say, you know, I know how long my prayer time is, but I just can't go that long today. I'm going to have to cut it short because I have this. Will you make it up? I'm not. Not our habit to make it up. It's not our habit to do it later. It's not our habit to, well, I'll put that on the back burner and I'll bring it forward here as soon as I can. That's not our habit. When we put something aside and we say, I'll catch up later and I'll do that, we tend to forget or we tend to just not even do it at all. Best is best is just to let God have his way right now and say, Lord, not here am I, but Lord, your servant listeneth. You've already presented yourself when you got saved. Now you need to tell God you're listening. My mama always used to say, because I spent a lot of time in the basement with games and different things and stuff like that and pretty much building things and getting in trouble. I had a science kit. Y'all know what I mean? So it's one of those things. And she would yell down and she would say something to me and I would just kind of answer back. would say this, she'd go, Johnny, I know you can hear me, but are you listening? You see I think that's what the Bible talks to us. Well I hear it, but am I listening? Are we putting a message first? Do you come here for the message first or are you looking for the spectacular? You want to shake someone's hand and you're more interested in getting a recipe exchange or talking about vehicles and all that's good and stuff, but our priority ought to be what the message comes, how the heart is open to receive it, and then our will chasing after God's will. God's will. because that's what I want in my life. It's for my will to get as close to God's will as possible so that I can see what He sees. So that I can be more and more like Jesus. Father, thank you for today. God, thank you for the time that you've given. Thank you for your help today. Your strength in your hand, your mercy. Thank you, Father, for how you provided today the meal. The fellowship was great. Thank you for the time that was given for us to fellowship. And God, we know that we don't do anything without your involvement. And we thank you so much for giving us a little bit of time for refreshment and relax. But then God, we thank you for the message. We came back and we were looking forward to hearing from you. I pray, Lord, that this message touched a heart that might change, might do a work. I pray, Father in heaven, that if there's someone here that doesn't know Jesus, they've never accepted Jesus, they don't know for sure that today's the day of salvation. God, I pray in your name for your glory to be amplified. In Jesus' precious name, amen. Preacher. Let's stand real quick here if you would please. The invitation is open. Who has preeminence in your life? Who has a preeminence in your life today? What extent do you go to to get to Christ on a daily basis? These men tore a house apart, they went through a crowd, they disrupted everything they could just to get to the only one they knew who had the answer and the ability for the need that they had in their life. And I wonder sometimes, I wonder how much of a second place so often Christ plays in our life, just number two. When I have a really big thing, then I'll find him. But, you know, he ought to be number one. We know that. We know that. We live in a busy world, don't we? Easy to get distracted, and it's easy to get to the Word of God takes number two in our life, and it's not preeminent. It's not the most important thing in us. The miraculous was there to undergird the word that was coming. And isn't it just like us? We got all excited.