Mark 2:1 And again he entered into Capernaum, after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. 2: 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. 3: And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. 4: 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. 5: When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. 6: But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 7: Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? 8: 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? 9: Whether is it 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? 10: 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,) 11: I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. 12: And immediately he arose, 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.

Introduction

Every day, 365 thousand children are born in the world. But it is estimated that around 59 million people die each year — an average of 2 people every second. While we don't know when we will die, one thing is certain - statistically, 10 people out of every 10 people die. If Jesus does not come in our life time no one is leaving this world alive. Now the big and more important question is how many people that die each day are going into eternity without a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? 

I will dare say this morning that every one of us knows at least one unsaved person residing here in Murrieta and its neighboring community. The question is what are we going to do about it? Will we care enough about them, so they can hear the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and give them opportunity to be saved? My prayer is that God would awaken us and revive us as we prepare for our Anniversary Sunday, so that we may impact our community with the saving grace that is in Jesus Christ.

In this familiar story that we read in Mark chapter 2, there are at least six principles that every one of us as children of God can learn and apply to make a difference in our community for Jesus' sake. There are six significant things I want us to see in this narrative. We will consider three this morning and the other three, God willing, next Sunday.

I — Crisis

There is a man in crisis. He is paralyzed. He is immobilized. He is a man of palsy. Palsy is a condition that is marked by uncontrollable tremor and quivering of the body. The man in our story is a palsy. He was paralytic, so that he cannot stand or walk, making him helpless. We don't know much about this paralyzed man, all we know is of this man is that he was unable to move, unable to get around on his own. His real dilemma is that he could not get to Jesus on his own.

Isn't that the situation of humanity this morning. There are people who are paralyzed. Men and women, boys and girls in a desperate state, a world that is diseased, disabled and dying. No, I am not talking about physical paralysis. I am talking about spiritual paralysis. This man of the palsy is an illustration of people who are paralyzed because of sin and its crippling consequence. The paralyzed man is a picture of men and women, boys and girls paralyzed by sin and corruption. They are paralyzed by prejudice, paralyzed by ignorance, paralyzed by success, paralyzed by self-sufficiency, paralyzed by self-righteousness, paralyzed by man-made religion. And we need to bring them to Jesus Christ.

The paralytic man, even if he wanted to get to Jesus he couldn't. He was utterly dependent upon others. Do you understand that it takes people to bring people to Jesus?

If you read through the gospels you will find that many who got saved and healed by Jesus Christ because someone else brought them to Jesus.

In Matthew 4:24, as Jesus' fame went throughout all Syria: and people brought all kinds of sick people to Jesus and He healed them.

In Matthew 8, a centurion brought his servant to Jesus. 

In Matthew 17, a father brought his lunatic and sore vex son to Jesus.

In Matthew 19, little children were brought to Him.

In Mark 8, they brought unto Him a blind man ...

In John 1:41, Andrew finds Peter and brought to Jesus ...

In John 4, an adulterous woman who just got saved and went to Samaria and brought the whole town to Jesus.

And then in the story we read about the four men who carried the man of the palsy to Jesus.

Mark 2:1 And again he entered into Capernaum, after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. 2: 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. 3: And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.

So, you see, it takes people to bring people to Jesus. But to be more specific it takes caring Christians to bring people to Christ. It's Christians bringing their non-Christian friends, family, coworkers, neighbors. And some of you, you know people who don't know Jesus and you need to bring them to Jesus and the question is, what are you willing to do to make that happen?

But in this story, it begins with a crisis and out of that crisis these four men came. This leads me to the next thing I want to see in this story which is ...

II — Compassion

The next thing I want us to see in this story is the compassion of these four men who carried the man of palsy. Compassion means to suffer with; to put yourself in the place of another.

Mark 2:3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. 

We don't know much about these four men. We don't know their names. We don't know where they came from and how far they carried him. There is much we don't know about these men but what we do know is this, they cared enough for their friend that they carried him to bring Him to Jesus. They were moved by compassion for their friend. Compassion made the difference. Because four men cared, one man got to Jesus. It takes compassionate people to bring people to Jesus.

Jude 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22: And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

It always begins with compassion because compassion makes a difference. If you and I begin to care about those that we work with and those that we shop with and those that are in our neighborhood if we care people will come. But if we don't care they won't come.

We need to have compassion for the lost. Compassion is the only fuel that will enable us to fulfil God's will and finish the task He has set us. But how do we get compassion? We don't get compassion by reading books on compassion. Compassion cannot be taught in a class room. You cannot teach compassion. Compassion is not something you can work up. We get compassion by seeing. This is the first step to get compassion - it is by 'seeing'! Consider ...

Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36:  But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 37: Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

Matthew 14:14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

In these passages, Jesus saw the crowd as individuals, their pain, sickness, emptiness, loneliness, hopelessness. When Jesus saw the true condition of the lost and it affected His heart. You and I must see the awful condition of the lost. This is why many Christians do nothing, because they see nothing.

John 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

Jesus continually encouraged His disciples to 'see' something, to lift up their eyes, which would produce compassion and would in turn move them to action.

III — Cooperation

Not only do we see crisis and compassion in this story, we also see cooperation

Mark 2:3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.

Notice the paralytic man was carried by four people. It doesn't say, "and one came and dragging his friend." No, four of them came and together carried the man of the palsy into the presence of Jesus Christ.

These men were together, with one mind and one goal, that is to get their friend to Jesus. Winning the lost in Murrieta cannot be done by one Christian alone. You don't have to do it by yourself. Evangelism does not need to be a single individual effort. It can be at times and it will be at times. But it does not need to be. If everyone who has seen the crisis will together have compassion and cooperation what would happen in Murrieta and its neighboring community? I believe we will be more effective in winning the lost if we do it together. 

A study was done of the Canadian geese who fly on a V-formation. They say, why do they do that? And they did an aerodynamic study and they found out that the lead goose was up there and flies and somehow as he flies he creates a vacuum for those geese that fly behind him. And they fly until they get tired and then come back into the formation and another one will go to the front and he will create the same vacuum. And they did a study of that V-formation and do you know what they found out? They found out that flying together like that the geese fly 72% farther that one lone goose.

Brothers and sisters, you don't have to do it alone. Let's do it together, because together we can do more and accomplish more. 

Closing Thoughts

In closing I will ask you two major things that we do together leading up to our Anniversary Sunday.

1. Intercede

Pray for the service. Pray for the preacher. Pray for the people that are coming. Pray for your family and your relationships with each other.

Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. 32: And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

When the church prayed the place where they were gathered was shaken, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly. All the believers were united in heart and mind.

Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

How wonderful and how blessed it is if Christians are united, especially when we are united in our prayers.

Matthew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

Will you do your best to intercede?

2. Invite

We really cannot do anything to force people to come to church. All we can do is invite. But, when we invite, they come. When we don't invite, they don't come.

A survey was done, and it revealed that 82% of the unchurched are likely to attend church if invited. But there is more. Only 2% of church going people ever invite someone to church in a given year. Seven out of ten unchurched people have never been invited to church in their whole lives. I say we ought to do something about that.

We need to say what Philip said to Nathaniel. Nathaniel began to argue whether Jesus could be somebody based on the fact that he came from Nazareth. Philip didn't try to argue the point. He just said, "Come and see." Come and see for yourself.

The woman Jesus talked to at the well did a similar thing. She didn't give a lecture on 12 reasons to believe that Jesus is the Christ. She just said, "Come and see."

What a difference it would make if every member of Grace & Truth would intercede for and invite the lost to our Anniversary Sunday? You may not be able to get the crowd out of their house, but you can invite a friend or loved one. If each one brings one, we will double our attendance on our Anniversary Sunday. 

As we prepare for our Church's Anniversary, I challenge you let's labor together. Let's intercede. Let's invite. Let's go out and invite our unsaved friends and loved ones and neighbors and get them to Jesus.

Let's invite also those who are already saved but don't have a home church. And let's pray that as they come they will consider Grace & Truth to be their home church.

How many of you today under the authority of God would say, "I will intercede for this meeting. I will invite people to our anniversary Sunday. I will pick them up. I will sit with them. I will drop them off after the service. I will do whatever it takes to get them to Jesus."

May God bless you as you by the grace of God do your part!

AMEN!