October 4, 2026 - On the Inside - Pastor Darren Aucoin

[00:00:00] Well, good morning again. [00:00:04] It's always good and a privilege to have the opportunity to preach God's word. Always excited to do so. [00:00:11] Pastor Paul and Patty are traveling in Virginia this week to visit some of Patty's family. [00:00:21] I've been told it's very lovely there this time of year, apparently. So hopefully it's not, you know, it's a family thing, but hopefully they're getting a little bit of R and R when, you know, whilst there. Right. And enjoying themselves. So pray for them as they travel and they'll be back a little later this week. And so tag, Darren, you're it. Go ahead and preach. All right, now, if you have the Bible, your Bibles turn to Mark chapter one. [00:00:43] We're going to be hanging out there for a little bit today. As you can see the text on the screen, mark 1:40 to 2:17. [00:00:50] I'll give you a moment to get there. [00:00:54] It's always a good idea to bring your Bibles to church. [00:00:59] Of course we will have it on the screen for those who didn't bring one. [00:01:03] But we all know the serious Bible thinkers bring their Bibles, right? [00:01:07] Okay. [00:01:09] All right, Mark chapter one. Now we're going to have a little bit of scripture to read here. So bear with me. Don't fall asleep. There's three stories we're going to read and they're going to actually kind of be sandwiched together for a couple of themes that we want to look at in these passages. And so bear with us as we read down through this text and we're going to get an idea of this theme. One of the main themes where I kind of want to focus in today is that it's called on the Inside. It's the title of the sermon today, basically saying that Jesus calls us, welcomes all of us to be on the inside with him. [00:01:44] Alright? No one needs to stay on the exterior. This is not an exclusive club of holy super saints that everybody, no, Jesus welcomes all to his table. Are you glad for that today? [00:01:57] All right. You know, we're not worthy to come before him, but he welcomes all through his grace and his mercy. And so this is the main thing today on the inside, he calls us to be there. So mark chapter one. We're going to start in verse 40 and it says a man with leprosy came to him being Jesus and begged him on his knees. And if you are willing, can you make me clean? [00:02:21] Jesus was indignant and he reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing. He said, be clean. Sorry, I Forgot my clicker down there. [00:02:32] Sorry. I'll just do that. I know you got me in the back there. Thank you. [00:02:37] Where were we? Yeah. I am willing. Jesus said, be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. [00:02:45] Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning. See that you don't tell this to anybody, to anyone. [00:02:53] So do you think the man listened? [00:02:55] No, he did not. But go and show yourself to the priests and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them. Instead, of course, he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. And as a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places. Interesting. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. Okay, that's story number one about Jesus in the leopard. Story number two, today. A few days later, when Jesus entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. And they gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door. And he preached the word to them. And some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. [00:03:41] This is amazing. Since they could not get to him, to Jesus, because of the crowd. They made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowering the mat the man was lying on. [00:03:53] And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven. Do you notice that when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, your sins are forgiven. [00:04:07] Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? [00:04:16] Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts. And he said to them, why do you think. Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier to say to this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven. Or say, get up, take your mat and walk, Basically is saying, listen, I can, like, theoretically pause here for a moment. I could say to someone, your sins are forgiven. [00:04:38] I can't forgive sins, but I could say that to them. But if I say, get up, you know, take. Pick up your mat and walk, and they don't do it. Guess what? [00:04:46] You know, I don't have. I don't have much authority in this matter at all. You can see it right there and then, right? But Jesus says, take up your mat and walk. And of course, what does it say? You know, I want you to know that the Son of Man, not manna, but man, typo, has authority on the earth to forgive Sins. He says, I want to show you that I have authority. [00:05:04] So I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. And he got up, took his mat, walked out in full view of them. And this amazed everyone. [00:05:13] And they praised God, saying, we have never seen anything like this before. So this introduces basically somewhat of the second theme. The theme being on the inside with Jesus, okay, Is not exclusive. The kingdom of God is inclusive whosoever, okay? [00:05:31] But the second theme of the morning is that of the divine authority of Jesus. And this is really one of the things you see throughout the Gospel of Mark. Third story coming up. Okay. You still with me? We got two stories down, one story left. [00:05:44] Once again, Jesus went out beside the lake and a large crowd came to him and he began to teach. [00:05:49] As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector's booth. He was a tax collector. Follow me, Jesus told him. And Levi got up and followed him. And when Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors, not just Levi, but many and sinners, were eating with him and his disciples. For there were many who followed him. And when the teachers of the law, who were Pharisees, saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked the disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And on hearing this, he, Jesus said to them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Can anybody say Amen to that? [00:06:34] God saved me in the depths of my sin right while we were still yet sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. Thank you, Jesus, that you do not hold our sins against us, but you paid for them on the cross. Let's pray before we go any further. Father God, I thank you today for your word. Thank you, Lord, that it has great power to change us, to transform us. But, Lord, only if we read it, apply it, and obey it. God, I pray we would do all three here today, Lord, transform us by your word. [00:07:01] We thank you now, Lord, for this fall season that's upon us. [00:07:04] And thank you, Lord, for all the good things that you have planned for us in Jesus name, Amen. [00:07:10] Amen. Well, it is a wonderful time of year this fall season and the nice crisp air. I love fall. It's been a beautiful fall so far. [00:07:18] Very grateful for that. Of course, one of the things that happens in the fall that many of us look forward to is the beginning of hockey season. [00:07:24] And, yeah, that is true. And the Oilers actually won last night and only Gave up one goal. How about that? Right? That's. Miracles are happening today in Alberta. All right, that's not what we're preaching on, but another thing that happens in the fall season is, hey, for the five of us who are into this basketball, season starts up soon. And you know, I'm a basketball guy as well. And for the Raptors, made some big trades here this off season and brought back one of the key guys who helped bring him a championship in 2019. For the five of us who are excited about that, all right, that's great. [00:07:56] But I remember when the Raptors won the championship in 2019, one of the things that most casual fans would not know, that in the NBA there is this exclusive club, okay? And I never thought that my team would ever be a part of this club, but there's this exclusive club in the NBA that when a team wins a championship, that they are now allowed forever for as long as this team exists now, they get the golden tab on the back of their collar of their jerseys to indicate they're part of the champions club. [00:08:29] Amazing. Never thought my team would get in this exclusive club, okay? But they're there. Take a look. You can Google it for yourself if you don't believe me. [00:08:38] If a particular team has never won a championship, they will not have that tab. But, but the Raptors, they have that tab, all right? And so I'm very excited about that. And the Raptors are going to probably not win the championship this year, but anyways. [00:08:50] But I always figured that my team would be on the outside looking in, in this club, okay? They're never going to make it a part of this exclusive club. But I'm here to tell each one of us here today that when it comes to Jesus, there's no exclusive club. [00:09:09] If you feel like you're on the outside and you can never measure up and you can't fit in and you can't do what you need to do to be in some exclusive Christian, let me tell you right now, Jesus accepts you, he welcomes you. He wants you to be part of his family, period. Amen. [00:09:25] There's no exclusive club with Christ. [00:09:30] And this is again is the big theme that I want to bring bring out here today. [00:09:36] Romans 2, chapter, chapter 2, verse 11 says, God shows no favoritism. [00:09:43] You know, God's not just going to bless and provide for me just because I'm the pastor or preaching a word. No, no, no, no. All of us who come to Christ with faith in our hearts and accept Christ as Lord and say, come to him for forgiveness. Guess what? God wants to bless each one of us. God wants to pour out his spirit on all of us. Amen. [00:10:01] We're all called to this faith. We're all called to the kingdom of God. And again, you know, we're looking at these three stories from Jesus about Jesus, from Mark's gospel. Now it's worth noting. Like, why would you preach on three separate stories like this? I don't know if you've ever noticed this about the Gospel of Mark, but it happens really quick. You ever notice those stories, they actually happen? Bang. There's a lot of. In Mark's gospel, there's a lot of immediately this happened, and then when this happened, and immediately that happened, and it's just happening very quick. It's kind of like a Hollywood blockbuster, you know, action movies. Just bang, bang, things are happening, right? And at. At first glance, it kind of seems like there's not a lot of. [00:10:41] Like, if you compare it to the Gospel of John, if you've ever through John, it's. That's pretty deep, right? And there's a lot more deep character. Things happening about the person of Christ in John. And Mark's gospel can seem like it's more concerned with the actions of Jesus more so than the character of Jesus. But if you. How many know that if you pay close attention to someone's action, you can learn a lot about their character, right? You start paying a close attention to Jesus's actions and the things that he did, you start seeing very quickly the character of who he is. And now I think there's about. There's again, three out of these three stories that we read here today. [00:11:15] There's three aspects about the character of Christ that I would like to kind of hone in on for the next few minutes. And if I can get my notes straight and I think we'll be okay. [00:11:26] And the first one, the first character aspect has to do with the fact that he's moved by righteous anger. You ever experienced a righteous anger before where you just see something that you know is just not of God. [00:11:39] This is ungodly, or this is, you know, someone is. I don't know. But in this case, what are we talking about? Leprosy. The man had this condition of leprosy. And it says in the scripture, and we read it a few moments ago, that Jesus was so moved. It says that he was indignant. [00:11:57] He was mad. He was angry at what? At the guy who had leprosy? [00:12:03] No, no, he was indignant. Just he was mad at the Fact that this poor man had to suffer through this, right? This is where the righteous anger came in that this poor guy had to live in this condition. [00:12:18] Now, some Bible translations translate that Jesus had compassion, but I think the. The Greek word is that. I think the niv gets it right here that he is indignant. He is. He's. He's angry. He's ticked, okay? He doesn't. He's. He's very upset that this man has to experience this horrible disease. [00:12:41] Now, as horrible as leprosy is. And some of you guys, most of us, I think, know that it, you know, it's a skin disease, but it's. It's worse than that. Like, it'll. You'll start losing limbs and. And it's. The disease, it grows and it's infectious, and it can affect other people. It's a terrible, terrible, terrible thing. [00:12:56] And as bad as that is, of course we understand then because it's so infectious that during this time when there was no, you know, solution for this, there was no drugs for this, or no, you know, nothing you can do. These people, of course, who had leprosy, what happened to them, Some of us know they were banished to the outskirts of the community, right? [00:13:16] They had to go live outside the city so that they couldn't come in contact with people and spread this disease. So they had to live as an outcast and didn't have contact with anybody. It was a very lonely, depressing thing. And I think that's bad enough again. But yet, to make matters even worse to the Jewish people, they likened leprosy to a deep sin problem. [00:13:43] So not only did you have this disease, but now you got all kinds of eyeballs coming at you with all kinds of condemnation because you must be spiritually, morally corrupt in order to even have this disease in the first place. So George McClure says leprosy was the outward, invisible sign of the innermost spiritual corruption. [00:14:02] A meat emblem in its small beginnings, its gradual spread, its internal disfigurement, its dissolution by dissolution by little. [00:14:12] Sorry, it's dissolution little by little of the whole body. [00:14:15] Isn't that what sin does, though, by the way? Right. It starts off little, and it kind of grows. And if you don't deal with it, it kind, you know, of that which corrupts, degrades, and defiles man's inner nature and renders him unmeet to enter the presence of a pure and holy God. [00:14:32] Now, we know that, you know, disease today, whether you're sick with leprosy or anything else, most of us here have had some kind of a health condition, some kind of sickness, some kind of thing, or if we haven't, you know, you're very blessed, but you know, someone who has, right? And this is not issues of sin person. Now, can sin result? Sure, but I would. But it's not normally, I venture to say most of the time, hey, guess what? We live in a fallen world where there's sin and. Or where there's sickness and disease, right? We know this, right? But the Jewish people, especially leprosy, they thought it to be a issue of spiritual corruption, of deep seated sin, morally corrupt in that person's life. [00:15:13] And because this was the way they viewed it, their view again, amongst the Jewish people, that only God, you know, or basically because of this. Sorry, I'm kind of stumbling here, because there was a direct correlation between leprosy and a person's spiritual condition. Therefore, the only thing that can bring restoration was God. God's healing. Does that make sense? Only God could heal leprosy because of the spiritual condition attached to it. Again, this is what they believe. So of course Jesus comes on the scene and not only did he break the social norm to touch the untouchable, you know, to reach the unreachable, this person that nobody in society would want to touch, he did it by making a statement, of course, of his divine authority to saying, guess what? If only God can heal leprosy. Hey, by the way, I'm God. Watch this zap. [00:16:11] He's showing them who he is. Right again. The people that they said only God can heal leprosy. And then Jesus went and touched the untouchable, you know, Sorry, my mind is going to some things that I'm like. [00:16:30] I don't know if I want to bring this up, but I will anyways because here we go. I got the mic. I can do this. [00:16:36] Don't throw stones at me. [00:16:39] Remember that thing that we had a few years back that. What was it called, Covid? [00:16:46] Bad thing. We know a lot of people got really sick and really died from it. Right, we understand that. [00:16:51] But I remember there were some churches that were, you know, and I know our church wasn't. We were very. I wasn't here then, but I know we did. We were very balanced. And some of you, I know people have different ideas, different things. Okay, whatever, you know, fine. [00:17:02] But you know, I read in the scripture that Jesus touched the leper, right? [00:17:06] Covid was serious. [00:17:08] But I think, you know, as a church, it was good for us to be there for people who were sick Right. I know some churches that, hey, follow the regulations, but there were some churches that wouldn't allow you to be in church. [00:17:20] You know what? Let's. Let's be responsible. Let's be good about it, but let's have faith here that Jesus can, you know, does this make sense? Right. You don't need to live in fear. [00:17:31] Be responsible, don't live in fear. We sang earlier, fear doesn't stand a chance in your love. [00:17:38] Right? God calls us to reach everybody. Right? Does that make sense? Can I say, is that diplomatic enough? [00:17:46] Okay, okay. I know we're still a little touchy on some of that. I wasn't here. Don't throw stones at me, all right? [00:17:54] Jesus. God deeply cares about the marginalized, the outcast, the outsider. He longs to bring them inside into his kingdom. Amen. This is the point, friends. I'll tell you right now, we have opportunities in our church to reach all kinds of people, and we do. [00:18:15] Right? And I pray that we would do so more. And we have all kinds of ministries designed to reach people in their time of crisis, their time of need. I think it's wonderful. [00:18:24] One of the things that we're starting out, and you may have heard something about it here recently, but because I have, again, I have the mic, I will make a plug for. We are starting a prison outreach ministry. [00:18:36] How many think that people in prison are kind of the down and out of society, Right. [00:18:42] They've reached rock bottom in many, many, many, many ways. I would presume. [00:18:48] This prison ministry, by the way, we're not talking about going into the prisons. We're talking about a one on one discipleship. It's actually all based online and you can bring them to Christ, share them the gospel and actually disciple them all online. And it's pretty, it's really safe, you know, you. You don't have to give personal information all the stuff. We had an information meeting two weeks ago, but now that I got the mic, I'm getting one more plug for it. Here you go. If you want to be involved in it, come talk to me, okay. Afterwards, I'd love to hear from you because we want to do this and we actually having some training coming up in November for it. But why am I sharing this? Because God wants to reach everybody. Amen. [00:19:24] From those who are on the outs, you know, those who you think no one's ever going to reach them, guess what? God wants to reach them. [00:19:30] Amen. And I think, you know what? I know people who got saved in prison. God transformed their life, turned them around saved them miraculously. Now they're on fire for God making an impact in his kingdom. [00:19:41] God can do that. And so God could use you and I to help make that happen. There's my plug for this ministry. No more plugs here for the rest of the day. Okay? [00:19:53] The miracles in this section. This is David Garland talking about again the leper. [00:19:58] The miracles in this section also reveal that Jesus is not someone who is aloof, inaccessible or detached. Are you glad that God is not inaccessible to you? [00:20:08] Even in our sin, even when we mess it up big time, God is not aloof or inaccessible or detached. Our culture does not touch and many people live in isolation from others. We seal ourselves off from one another with our privacy fences and retreat to the inner sanctum of our own family room. Anybody guilty of that? No, no, don't raise your hand. [00:20:29] I love the sanctity of my home. I do. It needs to be a safe place. [00:20:33] The church sometimes is in danger of doing the same by retreating into its members only fully equipped family life center which becomes a safe cocoon from contact with the harsh realities of a disease ridden sin. Sick world. Boy, these are some difficult words. We want others quarantined from us so they will not infect us. But those who bear the name of Christ need to minister in the name of their Lord to, to those who are the untouchables in our society. [00:21:00] Now that doesn't mean every one of us here are going to leave this place and go down and, you know, no. [00:21:05] However, we all need to be the light of Christ, the salt on the earth. We need to be willing, okay, to go wherever Jesus wants to send us, to reach whomever he wants to send us. [00:21:17] Amen. [00:21:19] Nobody's beyond God's reach. [00:21:22] I don't care if you're the lowest society, whatever you just got out of prison or you're worth a billion dollars. It doesn't matter to me. Jesus cares for both of you. You know what I mean? He loves both of them. Amen. [00:21:33] We need to live our lives in such a way. And I think as a church family we need to do that too. And we do do that. And I think God has given us more opportunities to do that. All right. [00:21:45] Colossians 3, verse 12 and 14 says, Put on then as God, this is the challenge for us now as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience bearing with one another. [00:22:04] And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive and above all these, put on love, which binds everything together. [00:22:16] Perfect harmony. [00:22:17] Anyone say Amen to that? We need to be. [00:22:20] I was praying this morning we have this, you know, referendum coming up. [00:22:26] Not going to get into that, but what I'm praying for, you know, at the end of it all, the church will be united, whatever happens with any of it. [00:22:32] Why? Because our citizenship is in heaven before it's anywhere else. [00:22:39] True. [00:22:40] We need to have an eternal perspective on life, folks. [00:22:43] And anyways, again, don't want to get into that. Too controversial. Okay, move on. [00:22:49] Okay. The second characteristic of Jesus in this text here today, that he's moved by persistence. We see that he is moved by, you know, this righteous anger, but he's also moved by persistence. [00:23:04] And of course, at the end of. Before you read what's on the screen at the end of the previous story, we already read it, that Jesus told the man not to tell anybody about what happened. And of course we know he went and told everybody what happened. And the result of which was that the crowd started following Jesus even more so to the point where he had a hard time getting away and said he had to get away to lonely places just to get a bit of space, right? That's what Jesus had to do. But then we see at the beginning of chapter two in this story of the paralyzed man that the throngs, the crowds of people were surrounding Jesus so much that he goes into this house to teach and to preach. And the crowds were crowding in the house, outside of the house. You couldn't even get to the door. And this is kind of the scene that's going on. [00:23:58] And you can understand why Jesus didn't want him to tell anybody, right? Because it's almost like this. [00:24:04] I kind of joked in the first service say it's kind of like, you know, Jesus didn't want to be a reality TV show, the traveling road show. He was on a mission, and he didn't want to be distracted from that mission, right? And so. But of course, all these people are coming. And of course, the one man, the paralyzed man, was so desperate for a touch from Jesus was in so much need. His friends and their persistence, you know, they didn't just stop at the crowd, stop at the door. They say, no, we need to get to Jesus. And so, of course, what did they do? They managed to somehow. And I don't know if there was an easy way to do this or if there was a stairwell, but somehow they managed to get this guy, this paralyzed guy. [00:24:45] You know, you ever try carrying someone who's paralyzed. Very difficult. [00:24:51] Get this paralyzed guy onto the top of the roof and then somehow dig a hole in the roof. [00:24:59] Now, mind you, the roof, you know, as we read here, it wasn't like our roofs today. It had some wooden beams overlay with reeds, branches, dried mud. You know, it wasn't like a roof, but it was still takes quite a bit of effort to do what they're doing. Okay, let's not miss that, Right? Get the paralyzed man to the top of the top of the house and to the roof. Dig a hole in the roof and then somehow manage to lower him down. [00:25:22] Did they come with ropes or bungee cords or did they have a pulley system? Or, you know, like they managed to lower him down and so that he can get to Jesus. Right. I mean, how many think these are some good friends here? [00:25:35] How many would want some friends like that willing to go to this kind of extent for you, for me, you know, for our healing or for our good or whatever it is. [00:25:46] And it certainly got Jesus attention. [00:25:50] In fact, the scriptures tell us in this instance in verse 5 of chapter 2, that when Jesus saw their faith. [00:25:58] Whose faith? [00:26:00] Their faith. [00:26:02] Not just the man himself, the paralyzed man, but when he saw their faith, Jesus said, son, your sins are forgiven. Well, that's an interesting thing, isn't it? [00:26:14] It's an interesting thing. [00:26:16] Now, what this does tell me. [00:26:21] Well, actually, before I go, you know, some. Some scholars actually directly attribute the healing of the man, basically. Say, when he said their faith, was it the men plus the paralyzed man or just the. Or just his friends? I don't know. It doesn't really matter. But. But what. What we're saying is that, guess what, The. The faith of the friends there made a huge difference, didn't it? [00:26:42] When Jesus saw their faith, he forgave the man's sins. [00:26:48] Now, what does this tell me? Okay, I think it tells me, and it tells you that you and I can greatly touch the heart of God on behalf of someone else because of our faith. [00:26:59] Wow. Let me say that again. [00:27:02] You and I can greatly touch the heart of God on behalf of someone else because of our faith. [00:27:09] So my question then for you is, who are you praying for? [00:27:15] Who are you trying to help? [00:27:18] Who are you ministering to? [00:27:22] Because you never know. [00:27:24] That faith that you exhibit on behalf of someone else can very well be the thing that sets that person free, that can bring transformation in their life. [00:27:33] Amen. [00:27:37] Now, it's interesting how Jesus responded to the paralyzed man. Again, he didn't say, you know, be healed but rather he said, your sins are forgiven. [00:27:48] Now, Larry Hurtado says this. He says, the boldness of the four friends is matched by the strangeness of Jesus first statement, we expect him to heal the disabled men, but instead he forgives for the man's sins. And then this introduces clearly what the main value of the story is for Mark. Again, one of these central themes in Mark's gospel, Jesus, divine authority. [00:28:12] Again, just as only God could heal leprosy because this was a disease that God allows because of the sin corruption, Jesus proves he's God by doing that, his divine authority the same way here in this instance, he tells the disabled man, your. Your sins are forgiven, but who can forgive sins but only God, right? [00:28:39] Sorry, page is lost again. There we go. [00:28:43] Still lost. [00:28:45] I got to come up with a better system than this. [00:28:48] All right, So Jesus seeing the genuine act of faith from this man and his friends, cut to the heart of the matter. And on the basis of faith, you know, he forgives him. And again, you know what, you know what James says about faith, that faith without deeds is dead. So when it says, you know, based on their faith, Jesus saw their faith. Well, how did they demonstrate their faith? [00:29:14] By their actions. This is. This is the context here, right? Jesus isn't just looking at them saying, okay, based on their faith, I heal this man or I forgive his sin. Well, how did they show their faith? By their extreme actions that they took to help the man who was paralyzed. Again, this is the whole point. And again, this man went above and beyond what most of us would do, by the way, most of us, if we were in a position like that, okay, I think most of us probably. I'm probably safe in saying this. We'd get to the house, we'd see the crowd, we look, there's no chance of us getting there. We'd all go, well, we tried. [00:29:53] Most of us probably wouldn't do what these guys did. And yet look what Jesus did because of the actions that these guys took demonstrating their faith. [00:30:00] Right? [00:30:02] There's something to be said of persistence and the point that we're making here that Christ is moved by persistence. [00:30:11] God rewards those who diligently seek him. Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6. There's an element of being persistent before God that God notices. He takes notice when we're persistent, when we go the extra mile, when we do these acts of faith. [00:30:29] And of course, Jesus, the first thing he did was he forgave the man's sins, the spiritual condition. [00:30:35] And of course, when the Pharisees heard this statement from Jesus, they were very upset. Blasphemy. No one can forgive sins but God. And then it's almost like a picture, like, bingo. You know, Jesus is trying to show himself he is God. This is why he said it in the first place. But Jesus says. He doesn't say that. He doesn't go, bingo. That's my weird translation. [00:30:55] He says, look, what's easier to say? [00:31:01] Pick up your mat and walk, or, sorry, what's easier to say, your sins are forgiven or pick up your mat and walk again? I kind of said it earlier that, you know, I can say your sins are forgiven, but not, you know, whatever, maybe they are. How do you see visually that someone's sins are forgiven? You don't really see that, but pick up your mat and walk. If the guy gets up and walks, guess what? You see that. You see something happen, you see a divine thing happen in front of you. So Jesus said, what's easier to say? What's easier to prove? But here, what? Guess what? I'm going to show you something. They're both impossible. Only God could do either of them. [00:31:37] Only God could forgive sins. Only God could heal this guy. So guess what? Pick up your mat and walk again. All of this dealing with the theme of the authority of Jesus. [00:31:48] Again, proving his authority, not by just saying the man's sins were forgiven, but by healing him in this way. [00:31:56] And then the last characteristic we have, we talked about, moved by righteous anger, moved by persistence. And Jesus is also moved by mercy. I'm going to say his mercy. [00:32:08] He moves in people's lives simply because he is merciful. All right, now in the last word, again, ignore the words on the screen. We'll get there in a second. [00:32:17] In the last story that we read, Jesus calls Levi the tax collector to come and be his follower, which he does. And then he finds himself eating at Levi's house with not just Levi the tax collector, which would be bad enough, but with many other tax collectors and sinners is what it says. [00:32:35] How many know that this is, you know, this is kind of taboo for a good Jewish rabbi to be doing. [00:32:43] He was sitting at the table of a bunch of despised people. [00:32:49] Why were tax collectors so despised? Well, for starters, they represented Rome. Okay? They were. They were collecting taxes for the Roman Empire, which was already not good. But a lot of them had a reputation for cheating and exploiting the people to pad their own pockets, right? I mean, it's not good. So people, they despise the tax collectors. And of course, you know, these other sinners, which we don't know they're just sinners, whatever that means. [00:33:18] Not godly people, let's put it that way. [00:33:21] But it doesn't seem that Jesus. It doesn't seem that Jesus cares too much about that. [00:33:26] He's not too concerned with perception at this point. [00:33:31] He's there to be with them, to hang out with them. [00:33:38] Why? Just to have a good time? [00:33:41] No. [00:33:43] Why? [00:33:44] Well, because I think that in his presence, guess what? In the presence of Christ, there's healing. [00:33:53] In the presence of Jesus, there's forgiveness, right? [00:33:56] In his presence, there is hope, man. I'm praying for people this morning who needing hope in their lives, their lives have gotten to a point where they're not sure if they want to live. Guess what? [00:34:08] No one here, by the way, the altar. That's not what. There's no one here like that. But praying for some situations that I know about, I'm like, lord, speak hope into their lives. [00:34:16] They need hope. Guess what? In the presence of Jesus, there is hope. [00:34:20] When you know Jesus, you know hope. Where in God's presence, there's truth, in the presence of Christ, there's grace. And guess what? When you're in the presence of Jesus long enough, all of these. When you're around it long enough, guess what? You'll never be the same. [00:34:34] When you know that there's hope, that there's truth, you've experienced it, you've been in that presence of Christ, guess what? There's a transformation that begins to happen, right? So when Jesus hung out with sinners, when he hung out with the tax collectors, it wasn't just because he was having a good time. [00:34:49] He was there to bring some of that hope. Amen. Some of that truth, some of that grace, some of that healing, some of that forgiveness. [00:34:58] And we read here from David Garland, Jesus then serves as the host of a ragtag assemblage of social pariahs. That's an interesting way, strong way of putting it. But in other words, Jesus does more than just preach repentance to sinners. He befriends them. [00:35:12] Jesus wants to be a close friend. [00:35:17] We used to sing that song. I don't know if we used to sing it here. I think we did. I am a friend of God. [00:35:21] Guys, remember that song, I am a friend of God, right? What a thing to. What a thing to say. I'm a friend of God. Like, almost sounds like a very bold, arrogant thing to say. But what does it say about Jesus in the scripture? That he's a friend that sticks closer than a brother. [00:35:37] Wow. [00:35:38] He wants to be that he wants to be friend. Friends. If you're here and you don't know Christ as your Lord and Savior, he wants to be your close best friend. [00:35:51] He wants to be your best friend. [00:35:53] I don't care what kind of sin you found yourself in, how you've messed it up, how far away you've walked away from God. [00:35:59] Christ wants to come close with you and befriend you. He wants to be with you. He wants you. He wants to adopt you into his own family. [00:36:07] There's, again, there's no outsiders with Christ. Amen. [00:36:11] This is. [00:36:13] This is what we're talking about. We're back. We're sandwiching in these themes here. Okay? The first thing we talked about, the man with leprosy, banished as an outcast in society. [00:36:23] Okay? We talk about the faith of the friends of the paralyzed man and all that. When Jesus proven his divine authority. And then we get to this next passage, back to the sandwiching in this, guess what? There's no outsiders with Christ. Even the hated tax collectors, the sinners of the day. Jesus wanted to spend time with them. He befriended them. [00:36:40] Not because he was condoning any sinful behavior, not at all. [00:36:44] But because again, in his presence, that's where transformation happens. [00:36:49] This is what he's doing. [00:36:51] Okay? [00:36:53] And I think, by the way, friends. [00:36:56] And there's. Sometimes there's, there's. And I'll say this, I said it in the early service. You know, we know there's a scripture that says, don't be unequally yoked. What does light have to do with darkness? You know, don't be unequally yoked with non believers. Okay? This, this means in certain close relationships in our lives, we need to make sure that we're on the. You know, I'll just say this is not the sermon, but here you go. [00:37:17] If you're looking for a spouse, you're looking for a wife, you're looking for a husband, and you're a Christian, you want to serve God. Don't be looking for someone who doesn't know Christ as savior. That would be unequally yoked. That will not go well for you in the long run. [00:37:29] That will present a lot of challenges. Okay? [00:37:33] You need to be on the same page, share the same value system. There's other key relationships where you should not be unequally yoked because it's actually going to cause some issue down the road. Does that make sense? Okay, but in that don't be unequally yoked, does that mean we abandon every friendship Relationship? That, that we. That with non believers. [00:37:50] What's the answer to that? No, no. Okay. Okay, good. You're with me. Okay, good. [00:37:57] But we don't just hang out with them just to indulge or participate in what they're doing. We hang out with them because guess what? We're carriers of God's presence. You guys know that. [00:38:07] What did I just say a moment ago? That in God's presence there's truth. In God's presence, there's grace. In God's presence, there's healing and God's. I just said all that. But we are carriers of God's presence. [00:38:18] We bring. We bring the Holy Spirit everywhere we go. [00:38:21] So guess what? We need to have that impact in people's lives as well. Now, Warren Wiersbe goes on to say this. He says there's three kinds of. When Jesus said, it's not the healthy that need a doctor, but it's the sick, right? And this is why he was saying why he was meeting with these people. Now there's three kinds of patients whom Jesus cannot heal of their sin sickness. Say what? Those who don't know about him, okay? They need to know about Him. True. [00:38:48] Those who know about him but refuse to trust him. [00:38:52] Pause here for a moment. [00:38:55] If I got broken areas of my life, alright, sin areas, areas. I need restoration. I got this issue, I got that issue. Guess what? If I'm not ready to trust Jesus, how can he heal me of those areas if I'm trying to grab, control the reins of my own life? [00:39:14] How does Jesus then begin to orchestrate, to bring healing, restoration, whatever the issues may be? Does that make sense? [00:39:21] Friends, we've all done this to some degree and some of us struggle with this a little more than others. But I'm here to tell you right now that if you want to experience true freedom and just a release from those things and experience abundant life, you got to give Jesus the reins of your life. [00:39:36] You really do. Okay? [00:39:38] We need to trust Him. Okay. And number three again, Jesus can't heal those who don't admit that they need Him. [00:39:47] We need to come to a place saying, Jesus, I need you. [00:39:49] We're all needy here. [00:39:51] I don't care who you are. In fact, you need God in His grace and his direction and his provision more than we could ever realize. [00:40:01] We absolutely do. Okay, Now I'm just about finished here, so we'll call Edsel up to play something nice and spiritual on the piano to set a move. Set a move. [00:40:15] And he's going to be ready. I'M sure I came across this story just this week, and this is an interesting study. In the 1950s and the 1960s, these doctors became just fascinated. There was this town in Pennsylvania, mostly Italian immigrants and children of Italian immigrants. And the people in this small town or the city had lower rates of heart disease. [00:40:51] Okay. [00:40:52] Even though the majority of them smoked and ate whatever they wanted, greasy foods, they did not live healthy lifestyles. [00:41:02] They did whatever they wanted with their health, and they paid no regard to this kind of stuff. Okay. And then researchers began looking just beyond that. And why are these people living longer, not having any, you know, heart disease, heart attacks, stuff like this, and what they found in this. It was a city called Rosetto, Pennsylvania, and the families lived very close together. Multiple generations lived under the same roof. Neighbors knew one another. People regularly gathered together. The community had a strong network of relationships and social support. [00:41:38] And they did a long study for decades and from 1935 to 1985, that this town's unusual low heart attack rate mortality gradually disappeared as the town's traditional family and community cohesion eroded. What are we saying? That as things got more modern in time, what used to be true then became less and less? Why? Because guess what? [00:42:03] I don't know if you noticed. We're not, generally speaking, as close knit of a society as we used to be. Maybe 100 years ago, people were not together as much in the same kind of community. People didn't hang around as much. People didn't live in the same homes quite as much. And as the family unit kind of got a little more fractured over time, these issues of heart disease and mortality, they begin to change, right? So at the end of this review, if you would, their finding was this, and I quote, social support and close family ties appeared to buffer people against the effects of stress and major life changes. Oh, no kidding. [00:42:39] So what are we saying here? Why do I say all this? Hey, there you are, brother. All right. [00:42:45] I knew he was going to come. He's faithful. [00:42:50] What am I saying is this? [00:42:51] That when we're invited into Christ's family, invited to his table, it doesn't solve every issue of sickness and disease. [00:43:03] We live in a fallen world. [00:43:07] It doesn't magically hit some button that you'll never have any problems or challenges or stresses, and you may not have the opportunity to live in such a community like this, Rosetta, Pennsylvania, where all of a sudden it's such. Doesn't sound so wonderful, right? This. This community that are so close together, not the smoking and the unhealthy lifestyle but this close knit family situation and they're entered together and because of that they experience longer life and a healthy. [00:43:34] That sounds so wonderful, but not many of us don't. [00:43:39] But here's the good news, that in God's family there are no outcasts. [00:43:46] That God invites us all to his table, that God invites us all into his family. In fact, the scriptures teach us that he has adopted us into his family, right? [00:43:57] And now we can call him Abba Father and we can call him in anytime we want. [00:44:05] And there's nothing we can do today. [00:44:09] There's nothing we've done in our past and there's nothing we will ever do. [00:44:13] And I'm paraphrasing the apostle Paul that can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. [00:44:20] God invites us all. [00:44:23] And so today, I don't know if you know that love of God, I don't know if you've ever, if you're here and you've never invited Christ into your heart to be your Lord and Savior. [00:44:35] I don't know if you've experienced that friendship with Jesus. Maybe you are a Christian and this whole concept of that he's a friend that sticks closer than a brother, that close friendship that Christ wants to bring in our lives, it's a very, very powerful thing. [00:44:50] And so this morning I'm going to pray or this afternoon and we're just about done. Why don't you stand on your feet and thank you, thank you for your attention here today. [00:45:01] Can we just for a moment just close our eyes, bow our heads, not gonna do anything weird, but I do want to pray. [00:45:10] And friends, if you're listening to me right now and you've heard this message that Jesus wants to touch whom society says is untouchable. [00:45:24] And maybe you feel like you're an outcast or far away from God, that how could God or anybody else love me? [00:45:33] You're hearing this message. [00:45:36] I'm telling you right now that God loves you. [00:45:40] He loves you. He loves you and he wants you to be his own. [00:45:49] He wants you to be part of his family. [00:45:53] That in his family and his kingdom there are no outcasts, there's no outsiders. [00:45:59] He invites us all in. [00:46:02] I want to pray for you today. If you've been struggling with this and I'm not going to ask you to do anything weird, but if you want to invite Christ into your heart today, you see, that's me when it comes to God's family and God's kingdom. Right now I'm on the outside, but I want to be on the inside. Would you pray for me? If that's you, would you slip up your hand real quick today? And I want to pray for you just from here. I'm not going to ask you to do anything else. I want to pray for you. [00:46:24] Yeah, I see a hand. Anybody else? Few hands here today? [00:46:29] Yes, ma', am. I see your hand. [00:46:32] I'm going to pray right now. And if you've raised your hand, you can pray along with me. That would be great. [00:46:38] All right. [00:46:40] Father God, I thank you for every person who raised their hand here today. [00:46:44] So they want to be on the inside with you. They want to be part of your family. God, I pray right where they are at right now, God, that they would invite you in, that they could just say, along with me right now, Jesus, I invite you in. [00:46:57] Would you forgive me of my sin? [00:47:00] And I receive your grace and your mercy today. [00:47:04] Thank you for adopting me into your family. [00:47:07] Help me to believe it. Help me to live it. [00:47:10] Help me to know that you'll never let me go. [00:47:15] I want to be a part of your family. [00:47:17] Thank you for providing a way through Jesus. [00:47:21] Amen. [00:47:24] If you've prayed that prayer today, you said that words maybe for the first time, please come and come meet me afterwards, talk to someone afterwards. [00:47:32] Okay? Don't leave here. We want to. I want to connect with you. I want to pray with you. I want to maybe point you in a direction to get discipled and grow in your faith a little more. [00:47:43] Now, friends, one last prayer. We're almost out of here. I have one minute according to that clock. [00:47:48] Okay, let me pray one more time for everybody here. Father God, I thank you for every person who's here. God, if we just heard today that there's no outsiders, God, I pray you would put it on each one of our hearts. Help us, Lord, to be your hands and feet. [00:48:05] Help us, God, to know what it is to reach those who may feel unreachable. [00:48:10] Give us compassion, Lord. Give us eyes to see, Lord, where we can make a difference and how we can do it. God, I pray that you would put that on our hearts and minds, how we can be more effective for you. And not that we need to be some evangelist and up here preaching like I'm doing here today. But, God, in small ways, we can make a big difference. [00:48:26] In small ways, God, we can befriend people because we carry the presence of the Holy Spirit with us. And, God, where your presence is, is Lord, things happen. [00:48:35] So, God, I pray that we would do that in the days to come. And Lord, I pray that if there's any believers here who may feel like they're on the outside looking in, that they're on the. That they're. For some reason, they feel, perhaps, Lord, like. Like. Like they're not included in. For whatever reason. God, in your kingdom and your house, or in your God. I pray right now in the name of Jesus that those lies would be gone, Lord, because we are all included in your family. You died for each one of us. We were all brothers and sisters in Christ. We're united in Christ. We're part of your kingdom, part of your family. Yeah, sometimes families get dysfunctional. Sometimes church families can, too. [00:49:10] But, Lord, with your help, we're going to function in a godly, powerful, amazing way with Christ as the focus. [00:49:18] But we can love each other with a pure love and agape love. [00:49:24] Lord, I thank you for that today. And I pray a blessing now over everyone who leaves. Who's leaving here, who's here and who's leaving now to go our separate ways. We just pray this now in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Amen. God bless you as you leave today.