Theological Status: DEAD ORTHODOXY / DECISIONISM
Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Sardis
❓ What do these grades mean?
🔍 Biblical Discernment: The 7 Church Parallels
The Cold Orthodox Parallel
Ephesus
Teaching that upholds doctrinal precision yet parallels the loss of the "first love"—the vital, motivating power of the Gospel (Rev 2:4).
The Compromised Parallel
Pergamum
Teaching that parallels churches tolerating the "doctrine of Balaam" through cultural accommodation (Rev 2:14), characterized by weak boundaries, sloppy theology, and worldly compromise.
Why strictly "Mark & Avoid"?
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
🧐 Overview
Theological Verdict & Summary
Sermon Summary: A call to bold faith and overcoming excuses, illustrated through personal anecdotes and the story of the paralytic.
Pastoral Analysis: While the sermon contains encouraging illustrations and a clear call to action, it fundamentally compromises the Gospel by teaching that spiritual breakthrough is achieved through human effort and decision-making. This synergistic approach replaces the monergistic work of the Holy Spirit with a works-based framework, leading to a 'Sardis' state of dead orthodoxy where the appearance of faith masks a lack of true reliance on Christ's grace.
Biblical Parallel (Archetype): Sardis — The sermon exhibits 'Dead Orthodoxy' by replacing the sovereign, monergistic work of the Holy Spirit in salvation with human decisionism. By framing spiritual breakthrough as a result of human effort ('kick the excuse in the butt') rather than divine grace, the message shifts the ground of salvation from Christ's finished work to human performance, characteristic of the Sardis church's state of having a reputation for life but being spiritually dead.
Big Idea: Believers must take bold steps of faith to overcome excuses and circumstances in order to experience the remarkable breakthroughs that Jesus provides. 00:46:19 ▶️ 📄
📖 How they Handle Scripture & Jesus
- Primary Text: Luke 5:17-26
- Usage Classification: Thematic
- Text-to-Talk Ratio: Moderate
- Pulpit Decorum: ✅ PASS - No coarse language or pejoratives detected.
✝️ Christological Focus: Moralistic/Imitative
"The sermon focuses on imitating the faith of others and taking bold steps, rather than pointing to Christ's finished work as the source of power."
Scripture Saturation: Verses Read: 3 | Referenced: 2 | Alluded: 2
📖 View 1 Passages Read Aloud
-
Luke 5:17-19
00:21:25 ▶️ 📄
"as he was teaching pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from every village of galilee and from judea and jerusalem they were sitting there the power of the lord was present before him they killed the sick verse 18 some men carrying paralytic on a mat and tried to take him to the house laying in front of jesus when they did not find a way to do this because of the crowd they went up to the roof and lowered him in on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of jesus"
Key References: Luke 5:20-26, Mark (implied reference to digging through the roof)
🎙️ Sermon Content & Delivery
Word Count: 2,385 words
📌 View 6 Key Topics Addressed
-
Faith and Breakthrough
00:33:33 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor discusses the concept of 'breakthrough' in the context of the biblical story of the paralytic, emphasizing that faith requires persistence ('Why quit now?') and that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins and heal. -
Contagious Faith
00:43:34 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor argues that breakthrough is contagious, citing his own conversion as a result of someone else's boldness, and urges the congregation to be bold in their faith rather than making excuses. -
Overcoming Circumstances
00:42:16 ▶️ 📄
> Using the analogy of a power outage during a stormy Sunday, the pastor illustrates how believers must block negative circumstances and not let them stop their faith or attendance at church. -
Overcoming Excuses
00:46:19 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor challenges the congregation to identify and reject the excuses they use as hurdles to breakthrough. -
Taking Steps of Faith
00:48:27 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor emphasizes that taking a step of faith is necessary to experience God's power, citing the paralyzed man and biblical examples. -
Faithful Response to the Word
00:50:00 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor notes that while he speaks the word, the congregation's ability to be faithful is what allows the message to take effect.
🖼️ View 5 Illustrations & Stories
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Sermon Illustration
00:22:31 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his high school years, where he and his friends would climb onto the roof of an old gym to look for a lost football, illustrating the effort required to get to Jesus. -
Sermon Illustration
00:40:43 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor recounts a story from his previous church where a storm caused a power outage, yet six people still came to the altar, illustrating that true faith persists despite adverse circumstances. -
Sermon Illustration
00:44:15 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor shares a personal testimony of how he came to faith, attributing it to a friend who was bold enough to call him to church, demonstrating the contagious nature of faith. -
Sermon Illustration
00:45:55 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor shares a personal anecdote about a man who posted on Facebook that he was 'filled with God' but wasn't attending church, prompting the pastor to comment that he should 'get back to church.' -
Sermon Illustration
00:53:14 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor recounts a story about a nineteenth-century church with a broken organ, where a man grabbed a guitar and wrote a silent hymn, illustrating how God can work through broken circumstances.
🚀 View 2 Calls to Action
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Pastoral Charge
00:48:22 ▶️ 📄
> Stop self-pity and surrender circumstances to God. -
Pastoral Charge
00:50:00 ▶️ 📄
> Reject excuses and take action in faith.
🧭 Biblical Alignment Dashboard
Overall Verdict: Fundamentally in Error
| Category | Status | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Gospel Framework | ❌ FAIL | The sermon presents a synergistic error by teaching that salvation and spiritual breakthrough are attained through human effort and decision-making, specifically through the exhortation to 'kick the excuse in the butt.' This approach effectively replaces the monergistic work of Holy Spirit with human will, thereby distorting the core Gospel framework of Christ's substitutionary sacrifice and salvation by grace alone. |
| Soteriology | ❌ FAIL | The sermon promotes Synergistic Soteriology, teaching that human effort is the primary engine for spiritual breakthrough, contradicting the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. |
| Bibliology | ✅ PASS | The sermon references Scripture, though the application is flawed. |
| Hermeneutic | ⚠️ WEAK | The hermeneutic is moralistic, extracting behavioral commands from the text without anchoring them in the indicative of the Gospel. |
| Theology Proper | ❌ FAIL | The sermon implies a limited view of God's sovereignty in salvation, suggesting that human will is the decisive factor in spiritual breakthrough. |
| Sacramentology | ✅ PASS | No sacramental errors detected. |
| Confessional Depth | ❌ SHALLOW | The sermon lacks depth in explaining the nature of grace and the role of the Holy Spirit, relying instead on motivational rhetoric. |
⚙️ The Core Gospel Framework ⚠️ Incomplete / Compromised
What is the Gospel Framework? This section audits whether the sermon proclaims the essential foundation of the Gospel: Christ's substitutionary sacrifice, humanity's spiritual need, and salvation by sovereign grace alone.
How this is evaluated:
How this is evaluated:
- Essential Gospel Pillars: The framework is verified intact when the sermon substantively preaches Christ's atonement, declares human inability (articulated through either Total Depravity or the Law's condemnation), and guards salvation by grace alone against works-righteousness.
- Historic Confessional Depth: Deeper theological distinctives (such as the Active Obedience of Christ) enrich theological depth when expounded, but their absence in a focused topical or expository message is not an error and does not compromise the Gospel Framework.
🏛️ Essential Gospel Pillars
❌ The Cross & Atonement (Penal Substitution): Not observed in the sermon.
❌ Human Inability & Need: Not observed (neither human inability nor divine judgment was contextually proclaimed).
❌ Sola Gratia (Salvation by Grace Alone): Compromised
Soteriological errors detected regarding salvation by grace alone.
📜 Historic Confessional Depth
⚪ Active Obedience of Christ: Not explicitly expounded in this sermon.
Assessed under Confessional Depth diagnostic (SHALLOW). Its absence does not compromise the Gospel Framework.
⚠️ Theological Concerns
🔴 Critical Synergistic Soteriology
Root Cause: Synergism
"What happens if you kick the excuse in the butt and take a step forward?" 00:50:00 ▶️ 📄
The Belief/Behavior: The pastor teaches that believers must 'kick the excuse in the butt and take a step forward' to experience breakthrough, implying that human willpower is the primary engine for spiritual progress.
Why It's Dangerous: This creates a works-based framework for salvation and sanctification, leading to spiritual exhaustion and despair when human effort fails, as it ignores the supernatural enablement of the Holy Spirit.
Biblical Correction: Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
✅ Commendations
Illustration | Personal Anecdotes
The pastor uses relatable personal stories (climbing the gym roof, the storm power outage) to illustrate the concept of faith persisting despite circumstances.
Application | Call to Action
The sermon provides a clear, actionable call for the congregation to identify and reject excuses for not pursuing faith.
📜 Full Sermon Transcript (Audit)
Use the 📄 icons next to quotes above to automatically jump to their location in this raw transcript.
[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] We think of the unspoken requests as answers or setbacks, and we just ask that you be with these individuals and their doctors, their families, and let them individually allow them to be positive in what seems like, from the outside, a negative situation.
[00:18:09] We think of Tina Brown this morning, who's got three upcoming appointments that are follow-ups that her cancer's gone, so she's still nervous about that.
[00:18:19] of that, some style changes that sometimes feel insurmountable, and so God, I just pray that you be with her now, calm, ease her mind, her anxieties, just remove those completely.
[00:18:34] She told me this morning, she said, God's got this, so God, just continue to remind her of that in her everyday life, so those thoughts come in, God, we just pray that you remove them as fast as they were left, we just thank you in advance for all that you're
[00:18:48] going to do. Everything good, everything unseen, just to be thankful and live in a thankful mindset and a thankful heart. We love you today. It's your name I pray. Amen.
[00:19:00] For our kids to come on up this morning.
[00:19:28] On the count of three today, say the word faith. One, two, three, faith.
[00:19:52] Okay.
[00:19:54] Stay as quiet as you can. I'm just curious.
[00:20:00] You never know.
[00:20:00] The state is quiet here. It had not been a quiet weekend. We went up to Kentucky Friday afternoon and got back yesterday. My niece's birthday was yesterday. And a four-year-old birthday was called, the state calls them her friend cousins. It was not quiet.
[00:20:22] And so, the benefit of that, though, is that she's been waking up every day between 5, 30, and 6, which some of your parents are like, that's sleeping in.
[00:20:31] But for her, that's really early.
[00:20:33] With the French cousins and staying up until 10 last night, she slept almost past us today.
[00:20:40] That was wonderful.
[00:20:41] So, 3, 6, and road trips are not what they were much longer, so I'll tell you that.
[00:20:50] So, all right, enough of that.
[00:20:53] Today we're going to be talking about a story in the scriptures that has always intrigued me for many different reasons.
[00:21:04] We talked last week about a religious deconstruction, right?
[00:21:11] And so I don't know if my heart was just still on that thought process, but there's part of this story that involves some deconstruction, but not in the form we talked about last week, which is why it's intriguing.
[00:21:25] me there are two different i'll point to two different sections of scripture but our main source of scripture today would be in luke chapter 5 starting verse 17 as he was teaching pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from every village of galilee and from judea
[00:21:54] and jerusalem they were sitting there the power of the lord was present before him they killed the sick verse 18 some men carrying paralytic on a mat and tried to take him to the house laying in front of jesus when they did not find a way to do this because of the crowd
[00:22:13] they went up to the roof and lowered him in on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of jesus as a teenager that often got on roofs anybody else climb on roofs roofs
[00:22:31] Now, so this empty parking lot was where my high school used to play and they built the gym onto the high school.
[00:22:54] So this was like the gym from the 20s, 30s, 40s era.
[00:22:58] And we would go and none of us were good at football, but we all loved it.
[00:23:02] So we were like, if we had any chance of being on the team, we had to be a kicker or a punter.
[00:23:07] And so we would go and we'd practice kicking and punching in this parking lot.
[00:23:11] And on the rare occasion that we got one good enough, it had the ladders that would pull down and then you'd go and you had to hop on like three different blocks of the bridge.
[00:23:33] So we loved being on to the roof and we couldn't find the football and so one of us would holler down for somebody else and look as long as the rest of us could be up here. So the one on the
[00:23:47] ground had to help you from like falling from like it's like 10 feet from the ladder and didn't kind of catch it. So now on the roof you still can't find the football. You look in what used
[00:23:58] to be the glass on the sides that if you look down you can see the side of the court. We saw two people walking inside the gym. This gym is a banner. Well at this point do we see a crime scene?
[00:24:13] Do we see squatters? You have no idea. Late in the evening we're kind of hunched down. We're just watching these two people. We can't tell anything. It's really high up and all of a sudden one of my
[00:24:23] friends sneezes. We literally just forget the person at the bottom. We jumped off the ladder, ran home, ran to some place you couldn't get. Getting down. The state championship was won and the banner for that the original was still hanging on the wall praying for the new so here's
[00:25:19] the story what jesus can do i don't know about you but jesus can do some cool things i've heard that too so they decided to make a way five or six years ago maybe longer that way some way maker
[00:25:47] miracle worker promise keeper light in the darkness i love that song so they decide this is this is jesus so they get on the roof this story this way now it seems a lot more like a crime scene
[00:26:58] yes because he took a step towards jesus but he took that step the people in the crowd well he's a sinner he's cheated us all here the guys go to the top of the roof they break through
[00:28:47] the ring they're framed in front of jesus i'm going to imagine the pharisees said more than something just jesus you imagine they had talking to them and all of a sudden he had the power to
[00:29:15] heal it did mention that so it makes me wonder if it mentions that because pharisees and teachers hear jesus teaching and all of a sudden the roof starts shaking the house down the best revival
[00:29:31] teaching ever you've ever been in an apartment flicker they're sitting in this room hearing jesus talking and loudly coming from above probably debris dropping down and then practical me then the conversation you still have string over there do you have rope all right let's get
[00:30:18] it meanwhile the pharisees and teachers will all have to be panicking and actually jesus is sitting everyone all this is cool a friend your sins are forgiven verse 22 jesus knew what they were thinking which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk and has the
[00:30:58] authority on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralyzed man i tell you get up from your mouth and go home there are many takes on what he was talking to or who he was talking to first
[00:31:15] when he said your sins are forgiven wasn't the sins of breaking the roof Because then he talks to the paralyzed man.
[00:31:23] Get up.
[00:31:24] Go.
[00:31:25] Some theologians believe that he was talking only because sometimes people believe that if you ended up in a state like that, then you have sins in your life that cripple your ability to do anything.
[00:31:36] So because of the way you live, you've ended up in the state that you are.
[00:31:40] That was a big foreign belief then.
[00:31:42] Christians were throwing such a fit about what was happening.
[00:31:48] Jesus forgave the man who broke the roof to get to him.
[00:31:53] Without further clarification, this word immediately.
[00:32:14] and it's followed with that word that starts with I immediately.
[00:32:19] And in translation, this one means instantly.
[00:32:35] It took what he had been.
[00:32:38] Everyone was amazed. They were filled with awe.
[00:32:44] We have seen remarkable. Say so.
[00:32:48] Say so.
[00:32:54] Being carried on a path. Not good living.
[00:32:59] Get there. It's going to be your day.
[00:33:18] In free groups, things can happen too.
[00:33:22] So you know they were coming.
[00:33:24] There's an easy way on this roof.
[00:33:25] You've heard Jesus do some things.
[00:33:31] We've made it this far.
[00:33:33] Why quit now?
[00:33:35] So they get on the roof, and according to Mark, they start digging.
[00:33:44] We're digging, and like the visualization.
[00:33:55] When they're digging, and they're digging, and the rock's away, and they can finally see in and see Jesus.
[00:34:11] Breakthrough.
[00:34:12] It's funny, but I love to get to this point with Jesus, because you have faith in everything you've heard.
[00:34:28] You have breakthrough.
[00:34:37] I just know you've smiled on the whole time.
[00:34:43] You're forgiven today.
[00:34:43] If every pastor is honest, they make that same sound.
[00:34:57] Because the church, far too often today, focuses on everything that's wrong and forgets everything that's right.
[00:35:08] So Jesus has to quickly remind them that I love that he did.
[00:35:12] And just to let you know, he ends it in such a, I love it, the authority on earth to forgive sins.
[00:35:22] I just picture a slight smirk when he said that.
[00:35:24] What he did, and he went away to his family, praising God, and everyone there said, wow, he experienced something fantastic today.
[00:35:41] Why did I say they experienced a breakthrough?
[00:35:48] They thought they were going into, these Pharisees and teachers of the law, they thought they were going in for probably this conference-style meeting with this man named Jesus.
[00:36:00] And if you've ever been to conference-style meetings, one in ten are good.
[00:36:05] Like that one makes you pay to go to the next one.
[00:36:19] They expect this conference-style meeting with Jesus.
[00:36:21] They're going to learn.
[00:36:24] It's like a grilling question.
[00:36:33] Experiencing something seemingly stretching you to a point that you don't understand how that works.
[00:37:45] It's not going to make a lot of sense.
[00:37:47] I'll say it every time.
[00:37:55] I need to fly on the wall train.
[00:37:59] Conversations around the event.
[00:38:01] I would absolutely love that.
[00:38:02] Hopefully in heaven there's a great library and I probably won't leave it.
[00:38:06] I just want to read all those stories.
[00:38:10] The one friend that probably...
[00:38:11] If anybody remembers Rugrats, Chucky, that's not a good idea.
[00:38:22] Anybody remember Phil and Mel?
[00:38:24] So for you, tell me a story that you went on a trip through.
[00:38:43] Every one, every day, your faith was stretched to the max and something happened because you didn't give up.
[00:39:12] A story wrapped in intrigue of what is...
[00:39:16] And even after lying around in the...
[00:39:37] Because there's still part of...
[00:40:01] ...this way for a reason.
[00:40:06] ...sentence in that...
[00:40:07] ...things today.
[00:40:12] If you've ever been somewhere where Jesus did something remarkable, you don't leave remembering...
[00:40:18] ...remember.
[00:40:19] There was a lot of, which direction did this story go?
[00:40:31] And then it ended with, man, we have seen remarkable things today.
[00:40:43] But the Cambridge church, the church we came from, and it was a stormy Sunday morning.
[00:40:48] Pastor, if you've ever had a stormy Sunday morning, it's kind of a bummer at the beginning because you're like, there's probably not going to be many people here.
[00:40:56] People don't drive out in the storms.
[00:41:01] You see your devil already kind of starts getting you apart.
[00:41:03] You try to fight it.
[00:41:05] And then you get up, and wow, people pray today, and you feel good.
[00:41:09] You overcome that hurdle.
[00:41:10] The horse was done, lightning strikes, and the power goes out.
[00:41:15] The temptation, that Sunday, and so I stood sideways and talked, hoping that the voice would carry.
[00:41:41] And six people come to the altar one by one.
[00:41:44] And the temptation, what if the mic doesn't work today?
[00:41:54] And they couldn't get in the temptation.
[00:41:59] Sources of thought here, they're having a real, please, Jesus, do some breakthrough.
[00:42:16] Second, there are so many people, Jesus, already, the power's out, let's go.
[00:42:28] The other one just said, let's just go.
[00:42:45] you've got to block their circumstances stop them from allowing their faith to continue to believe that jesus can do things that we can't the personalized what is stopping you from breakthrough church i don't want to believe that if individuals find breakthrough they bring that
[00:43:34] in i don't know if you've noticed breakthrough is contagious jabbing way to say it i've been kind of bold reason make excuses and can't do something the reason i'm as a christian i believe today
[00:44:15] is because somebody was bold enough to call me church. I just, I didn't understand it.
[00:44:25] I like to go on Sunday mornings because I got my donuts. My grandma was the donut lady in the group because it's just another day of church.
[00:44:57] I said, hey, we missed you tonight.
[00:45:14] And he said, no, but I've got your name.
[00:45:18] My parents. And so, yeah, in that sense I do. So I'll see you next week.
[00:45:32] Guess who hasn't missed me since?
[00:45:33] Like, let alone vacation, I'm at church even before I was a pastor.
[00:45:38] That was it. It got built into me.
[00:45:40] but because of that I've gotten kind of bold the excuse there's a guy that went to our last church and he doesn't go there now he posted his video on Facebook last week that he'd really been
[00:45:55] filled with God and so I just commented for everybody to see then get back to church if I was there as a pastor I would have done it anyway I'd like to think I'd build a good enough
[00:46:06] relationship with him to do it so I say all that to say instead of what's stopping you what excuse are you making to take that next step in faith what excuse do we come up with
[00:46:19] as a hurdle for the breakthrough.
[00:46:21] Very popular, very easy to do.
[00:46:31] I experienced something remarkable today.
[00:46:39] You would?
[00:46:40] Thanks.
[00:46:46] It's what you're looking for.
[00:48:19] Circumstance is different.
[00:48:20] And I am sorry for yours.
[00:48:22] Stop being sorry for your own and just give it to the Lord.
[00:48:27] Took a step of faith.
[00:48:37] The paralyzed man.
[00:48:40] Because they took steps of faith.
[00:48:42] So who knows?
[00:49:01] Because you continue to pursue, and continuing to step forward in this faith journey because you decided to take a step of faith.
[00:49:28] I'm going to continue, Gene, this is already in the series I was talking about this morning, but now it's stuck in my head.
[00:49:34] People that take steps towards Jesus, amazing things happen.
[00:49:38] Peter took a step towards Jesus and walked on water.
[00:49:40] Zacchaeus took a step towards Jesus and his whole home found salvation.
[00:49:44] These people took a step towards Jesus and a paralyzed man was able to get up and walk.
[00:49:48] What happens if you kick the excuse in the butt and take a step forward?
[00:50:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:50:00] Yes!
[00:50:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:50:00] at someone. So the pastor can say the word, but the congregation is, that gives us the ability to be faithful. The excuse is scarce. We don't know what that is.
[00:53:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:53:14] Nineteenth century church that had a broken organ. So some guy grabbed a guitar and wrote a silent hymn. Many of us heard of that song and are familiar with that wonderful Christmas that never would have been written if they had just said, God, you're broken.
[00:00:00] We think of the unspoken requests as answers or setbacks, and we just ask that you be with these individuals and their doctors, their families, and let them individually allow them to be positive in what seems like, from the outside, a negative situation.
[00:18:09] We think of Tina Brown this morning, who's got three upcoming appointments that are follow-ups that her cancer's gone, so she's still nervous about that.
[00:18:19] of that, some style changes that sometimes feel insurmountable, and so God, I just pray that you be with her now, calm, ease her mind, her anxieties, just remove those completely.
[00:18:34] She told me this morning, she said, God's got this, so God, just continue to remind her of that in her everyday life, so those thoughts come in, God, we just pray that you remove them as fast as they were left, we just thank you in advance for all that you're
[00:18:48] going to do. Everything good, everything unseen, just to be thankful and live in a thankful mindset and a thankful heart. We love you today. It's your name I pray. Amen.
[00:19:00] For our kids to come on up this morning.
[00:19:28] On the count of three today, say the word faith. One, two, three, faith.
[00:19:52] Okay.
[00:19:54] Stay as quiet as you can. I'm just curious.
[00:20:00] You never know.
[00:20:00] The state is quiet here. It had not been a quiet weekend. We went up to Kentucky Friday afternoon and got back yesterday. My niece's birthday was yesterday. And a four-year-old birthday was called, the state calls them her friend cousins. It was not quiet.
[00:20:22] And so, the benefit of that, though, is that she's been waking up every day between 5, 30, and 6, which some of your parents are like, that's sleeping in.
[00:20:31] But for her, that's really early.
[00:20:33] With the French cousins and staying up until 10 last night, she slept almost past us today.
[00:20:40] That was wonderful.
[00:20:41] So, 3, 6, and road trips are not what they were much longer, so I'll tell you that.
[00:20:50] So, all right, enough of that.
[00:20:53] Today we're going to be talking about a story in the scriptures that has always intrigued me for many different reasons.
[00:21:04] We talked last week about a religious deconstruction, right?
[00:21:11] And so I don't know if my heart was just still on that thought process, but there's part of this story that involves some deconstruction, but not in the form we talked about last week, which is why it's intriguing.
[00:21:25] me there are two different i'll point to two different sections of scripture but our main source of scripture today would be in luke chapter 5 starting verse 17 as he was teaching pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from every village of galilee and from judea
[00:21:54] and jerusalem they were sitting there the power of the lord was present before him they killed the sick verse 18 some men carrying paralytic on a mat and tried to take him to the house laying in front of jesus when they did not find a way to do this because of the crowd
[00:22:13] they went up to the roof and lowered him in on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of jesus as a teenager that often got on roofs anybody else climb on roofs roofs
[00:22:31] Now, so this empty parking lot was where my high school used to play and they built the gym onto the high school.
[00:22:54] So this was like the gym from the 20s, 30s, 40s era.
[00:22:58] And we would go and none of us were good at football, but we all loved it.
[00:23:02] So we were like, if we had any chance of being on the team, we had to be a kicker or a punter.
[00:23:07] And so we would go and we'd practice kicking and punching in this parking lot.
[00:23:11] And on the rare occasion that we got one good enough, it had the ladders that would pull down and then you'd go and you had to hop on like three different blocks of the bridge.
[00:23:33] So we loved being on to the roof and we couldn't find the football and so one of us would holler down for somebody else and look as long as the rest of us could be up here. So the one on the
[00:23:47] ground had to help you from like falling from like it's like 10 feet from the ladder and didn't kind of catch it. So now on the roof you still can't find the football. You look in what used
[00:23:58] to be the glass on the sides that if you look down you can see the side of the court. We saw two people walking inside the gym. This gym is a banner. Well at this point do we see a crime scene?
[00:24:13] Do we see squatters? You have no idea. Late in the evening we're kind of hunched down. We're just watching these two people. We can't tell anything. It's really high up and all of a sudden one of my
[00:24:23] friends sneezes. We literally just forget the person at the bottom. We jumped off the ladder, ran home, ran to some place you couldn't get. Getting down. The state championship was won and the banner for that the original was still hanging on the wall praying for the new so here's
[00:25:19] the story what jesus can do i don't know about you but jesus can do some cool things i've heard that too so they decided to make a way five or six years ago maybe longer that way some way maker
[00:25:47] miracle worker promise keeper light in the darkness i love that song so they decide this is this is jesus so they get on the roof this story this way now it seems a lot more like a crime scene
[00:26:58] yes because he took a step towards jesus but he took that step the people in the crowd well he's a sinner he's cheated us all here the guys go to the top of the roof they break through
[00:28:47] the ring they're framed in front of jesus i'm going to imagine the pharisees said more than something just jesus you imagine they had talking to them and all of a sudden he had the power to
[00:29:15] heal it did mention that so it makes me wonder if it mentions that because pharisees and teachers hear jesus teaching and all of a sudden the roof starts shaking the house down the best revival
[00:29:31] teaching ever you've ever been in an apartment flicker they're sitting in this room hearing jesus talking and loudly coming from above probably debris dropping down and then practical me then the conversation you still have string over there do you have rope all right let's get
[00:30:18] it meanwhile the pharisees and teachers will all have to be panicking and actually jesus is sitting everyone all this is cool a friend your sins are forgiven verse 22 jesus knew what they were thinking which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk and has the
[00:30:58] authority on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralyzed man i tell you get up from your mouth and go home there are many takes on what he was talking to or who he was talking to first
[00:31:15] when he said your sins are forgiven wasn't the sins of breaking the roof Because then he talks to the paralyzed man.
[00:31:23] Get up.
[00:31:24] Go.
[00:31:25] Some theologians believe that he was talking only because sometimes people believe that if you ended up in a state like that, then you have sins in your life that cripple your ability to do anything.
[00:31:36] So because of the way you live, you've ended up in the state that you are.
[00:31:40] That was a big foreign belief then.
[00:31:42] Christians were throwing such a fit about what was happening.
[00:31:48] Jesus forgave the man who broke the roof to get to him.
[00:31:53] Without further clarification, this word immediately.
[00:32:14] and it's followed with that word that starts with I immediately.
[00:32:19] And in translation, this one means instantly.
[00:32:35] It took what he had been.
[00:32:38] Everyone was amazed. They were filled with awe.
[00:32:44] We have seen remarkable. Say so.
[00:32:48] Say so.
[00:32:54] Being carried on a path. Not good living.
[00:32:59] Get there. It's going to be your day.
[00:33:18] In free groups, things can happen too.
[00:33:22] So you know they were coming.
[00:33:24] There's an easy way on this roof.
[00:33:25] You've heard Jesus do some things.
[00:33:31] We've made it this far.
[00:33:33] Why quit now?
[00:33:35] So they get on the roof, and according to Mark, they start digging.
[00:33:44] We're digging, and like the visualization.
[00:33:55] When they're digging, and they're digging, and the rock's away, and they can finally see in and see Jesus.
[00:34:11] Breakthrough.
[00:34:12] It's funny, but I love to get to this point with Jesus, because you have faith in everything you've heard.
[00:34:28] You have breakthrough.
[00:34:37] I just know you've smiled on the whole time.
[00:34:43] You're forgiven today.
[00:34:43] If every pastor is honest, they make that same sound.
[00:34:57] Because the church, far too often today, focuses on everything that's wrong and forgets everything that's right.
[00:35:08] So Jesus has to quickly remind them that I love that he did.
[00:35:12] And just to let you know, he ends it in such a, I love it, the authority on earth to forgive sins.
[00:35:22] I just picture a slight smirk when he said that.
[00:35:24] What he did, and he went away to his family, praising God, and everyone there said, wow, he experienced something fantastic today.
[00:35:41] Why did I say they experienced a breakthrough?
[00:35:48] They thought they were going into, these Pharisees and teachers of the law, they thought they were going in for probably this conference-style meeting with this man named Jesus.
[00:36:00] And if you've ever been to conference-style meetings, one in ten are good.
[00:36:05] Like that one makes you pay to go to the next one.
[00:36:19] They expect this conference-style meeting with Jesus.
[00:36:21] They're going to learn.
[00:36:24] It's like a grilling question.
[00:36:33] Experiencing something seemingly stretching you to a point that you don't understand how that works.
[00:37:45] It's not going to make a lot of sense.
[00:37:47] I'll say it every time.
[00:37:55] I need to fly on the wall train.
[00:37:59] Conversations around the event.
[00:38:01] I would absolutely love that.
[00:38:02] Hopefully in heaven there's a great library and I probably won't leave it.
[00:38:06] I just want to read all those stories.
[00:38:10] The one friend that probably...
[00:38:11] If anybody remembers Rugrats, Chucky, that's not a good idea.
[00:38:22] Anybody remember Phil and Mel?
[00:38:24] So for you, tell me a story that you went on a trip through.
[00:38:43] Every one, every day, your faith was stretched to the max and something happened because you didn't give up.
[00:39:12] A story wrapped in intrigue of what is...
[00:39:16] And even after lying around in the...
[00:39:37] Because there's still part of...
[00:40:01] ...this way for a reason.
[00:40:06] ...sentence in that...
[00:40:07] ...things today.
[00:40:12] If you've ever been somewhere where Jesus did something remarkable, you don't leave remembering...
[00:40:18] ...remember.
[00:40:19] There was a lot of, which direction did this story go?
[00:40:31] And then it ended with, man, we have seen remarkable things today.
[00:40:43] But the Cambridge church, the church we came from, and it was a stormy Sunday morning.
[00:40:48] Pastor, if you've ever had a stormy Sunday morning, it's kind of a bummer at the beginning because you're like, there's probably not going to be many people here.
[00:40:56] People don't drive out in the storms.
[00:41:01] You see your devil already kind of starts getting you apart.
[00:41:03] You try to fight it.
[00:41:05] And then you get up, and wow, people pray today, and you feel good.
[00:41:09] You overcome that hurdle.
[00:41:10] The horse was done, lightning strikes, and the power goes out.
[00:41:15] The temptation, that Sunday, and so I stood sideways and talked, hoping that the voice would carry.
[00:41:41] And six people come to the altar one by one.
[00:41:44] And the temptation, what if the mic doesn't work today?
[00:41:54] And they couldn't get in the temptation.
[00:41:59] Sources of thought here, they're having a real, please, Jesus, do some breakthrough.
[00:42:16] Second, there are so many people, Jesus, already, the power's out, let's go.
[00:42:28] The other one just said, let's just go.
[00:42:45] you've got to block their circumstances stop them from allowing their faith to continue to believe that jesus can do things that we can't the personalized what is stopping you from breakthrough church i don't want to believe that if individuals find breakthrough they bring that
[00:43:34] in i don't know if you've noticed breakthrough is contagious jabbing way to say it i've been kind of bold reason make excuses and can't do something the reason i'm as a christian i believe today
[00:44:15] is because somebody was bold enough to call me church. I just, I didn't understand it.
[00:44:25] I like to go on Sunday mornings because I got my donuts. My grandma was the donut lady in the group because it's just another day of church.
[00:44:57] I said, hey, we missed you tonight.
[00:45:14] And he said, no, but I've got your name.
[00:45:18] My parents. And so, yeah, in that sense I do. So I'll see you next week.
[00:45:32] Guess who hasn't missed me since?
[00:45:33] Like, let alone vacation, I'm at church even before I was a pastor.
[00:45:38] That was it. It got built into me.
[00:45:40] but because of that I've gotten kind of bold the excuse there's a guy that went to our last church and he doesn't go there now he posted his video on Facebook last week that he'd really been
[00:45:55] filled with God and so I just commented for everybody to see then get back to church if I was there as a pastor I would have done it anyway I'd like to think I'd build a good enough
[00:46:06] relationship with him to do it so I say all that to say instead of what's stopping you what excuse are you making to take that next step in faith what excuse do we come up with
[00:46:19] as a hurdle for the breakthrough.
[00:46:21] Very popular, very easy to do.
[00:46:31] I experienced something remarkable today.
[00:46:39] You would?
[00:46:40] Thanks.
[00:46:46] It's what you're looking for.
[00:48:19] Circumstance is different.
[00:48:20] And I am sorry for yours.
[00:48:22] Stop being sorry for your own and just give it to the Lord.
[00:48:27] Took a step of faith.
[00:48:37] The paralyzed man.
[00:48:40] Because they took steps of faith.
[00:48:42] So who knows?
[00:49:01] Because you continue to pursue, and continuing to step forward in this faith journey because you decided to take a step of faith.
[00:49:28] I'm going to continue, Gene, this is already in the series I was talking about this morning, but now it's stuck in my head.
[00:49:34] People that take steps towards Jesus, amazing things happen.
[00:49:38] Peter took a step towards Jesus and walked on water.
[00:49:40] Zacchaeus took a step towards Jesus and his whole home found salvation.
[00:49:44] These people took a step towards Jesus and a paralyzed man was able to get up and walk.
[00:49:48] What happens if you kick the excuse in the butt and take a step forward?
[00:50:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:50:00] Yes!
[00:50:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:50:00] at someone. So the pastor can say the word, but the congregation is, that gives us the ability to be faithful. The excuse is scarce. We don't know what that is.
[00:53:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:53:14] Nineteenth century church that had a broken organ. So some guy grabbed a guitar and wrote a silent hymn. Many of us heard of that song and are familiar with that wonderful Christmas that never would have been written if they had just said, God, you're broken.
