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Ridgecrest Baptist Church is located in Dothan, AL and exists to Reach the lost, Build the believer, and Connect people of God to the mission and purpose of God.
I want you to take your Bibles, if you will, and open up to Mark's Gospel, Chapter 2. We'll read our text in just a bit. And while you're doing that, let me just mention something. We received a call this week from the Dothan Eagle, and they informed us that Ridgecrest was voted by our community, the Wiregrass and Dothan, as the best place to worship. And I couldn't agree more with that.
But then maybe we're probably a little biased, don't you think? But I also think this. Let's receive that humbly from our community. We thank you for that. May our boast always, though, be in the cross of Jesus Christ, as Paul said, and to Him be all the glory forever. Have you ever thought about expressing your faith in Christ as an opportunity? Have you ever thought that when I face something that requires faith, that that faith, expressed as an opportunity? It's an opportunity because when I have to walk by faith or trust God with something, guess what? I put myself in a place to see Him reveal Himself through my life and through my circumstances. Now, faith is not tangible in the sense that it's not something that you can physically hold, but it is visible, isn't it? Now, think about that. It's not tangible. You don't hold it. You don't say, well, I'm holding this faith. But it is visible. You can see. You can see faith. It can be displayed. It can be seen in the way that we live and the way that we behave. And that's what the Scripture means when it tells us to walk by faith. It means to display faith in how you live and how you behave. Now, there's a difference between what we sometimes refer to as saving faith. You've heard that. Saving faith is when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone for our eternal souls and our salvation. That's saving faith, we say. No one gets to heaven. If they haven't expressed saving faith. But the kind of faith that I want us to talk about today is what we would call living faith. And that is trusting Christ day to day because we have put our faith in Him. Then we walk in the same manner, Paul told us. It is living faith. It affects the way we act, the way we think, the way we see our world, the way we behave, how we face our circumstances, trials and tests and all of those things. Now, the word faith can be either a noun. Or a verb. So, it's a noun if we say the faith. The faith that I hold or the faith that I believe. That's a noun. We're referring to it as a belief system. But then when we say by faith, we're talking about a verb. Something is done by faith. For example, one of the best expressions of this is the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, which repeatedly uses the phrase by faith. When it references men and women of scripture. By faith, they did this. By faith, by faith, by faith. That is faith as a verb. They believed God. And they subsequently acted on that belief. You may not know the name Robert Cheeseborough, but you have probably used his products through the years. He invented Vaseline. I bet you've used Vaseline. Now, what's interesting is that Vaseline, Vaseline or petroleum jelly was really rod wax that was refined from the ooze that comes off the shafts of oil rigs. And I don't know how he determined that this would be medicinal, but he did and he so believed in the healing properties of his product that he became his own guinea pig. He burned himself with acid and fire so he could put this petroleum jelly on himself. He cut himself. He scratched himself so often and so deeply that for the rest of his life, he bore scars of his test on his body. But he proved his product worked. People had only to look at his wounds that were now healed to see the value of his work and the extent of his belief. The fact is, you can say you believe something as much as you want, but until what you believe alters how you act, you're just talking faith and not walking faith. Faith is something that you display, on purpose. And that's what I want us to talk about this morning. If you're physically able to do so, why don't you stand with me as we read God's Word. Mark chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, it says, And when he, that is Jesus, returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And what he said was, When they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, note that, when he saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned, within themselves, said to them, Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your bed and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, I say to you, Rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and he went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw anything. We never saw anything like this. Father, thank you that you have the power through our risen Savior over both sin and death and the grave and the ailments of the physical world. We thank you for that. Father, we pray this morning that you would open your word to us, enlighten our hearts and minds. Father, convict us, deal with us, teach us about what it means to live by faith on purpose. And Father, let us put it in motion. Let it not just be our belief system, but let it be the belief system that becomes a verb in our life. So speak now. We're listening. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. Now let me just quickly give you the context or the setting for this story because it is the seaside village home of Jesus in Capernaum. There were really two places where Jesus resided, Nazareth and Capernaum. And most likely, he had come back here for just a bit of respite, just some rest. But the word got out. People heard where he was. And this is in his, what we call, season of popularity. And so people were tracking him down. They were finding out because he was healing people and because of the miracles that he was doing. And so people were, they were really into Jesus, you might say. Where is, where is Jesus? Let's find Jesus. And they were needy people. And that's okay. Jesus loves needy people. That means us too, right? And so they were seeking him out. And they came, they found out he was at Capernaum. And he was there, most likely, again, as I said, to take a bit of a rest. But the people just wouldn't let him rest. And it says that he was preaching to them. Now there is in Capernaum, if you've ever been there, there is Peter's house, by the way. And right across from Peter's house is a, a synagogue. And it's an ancient synagogue. There, the ruins are there. And one of the things we do, and I've taken Holy Land trips there, is we sit. There's still places where you can sit in that synagogue. And then I tell the people, I read part of this story and say, this is where Jesus was preaching that day. And you can actually see, if you go down, you can look outside the ruins, you can see the black basalt foundation, which was most likely the very foundation that Jesus stood on. And I said, some 2,000 years ago, you would have been, if you were in this place, possibly sitting under the ministry of the word by Jesus himself. Imagine that. And so he's speaking, he's preaching, the Bible says what he's doing. He's preaching, he's teaching them. And no one else could get into the house. They wanted to, they wanted to be there. I thought about it as I was working on this message, a trip I made some years back to Havana, Cuba, actually to several places in Cuba where we were doing pastor's conferences to the, the pastors there, the poor pastors. Many of them had been persecuted and we were doing pastor's conference there and it was a remarkable and amazing and very humbling thing to see their hunger and their desire for, for the Lord. And as we're there, we begin to hear reports of people showing up for this three-day conference for these pastors. And some of them had ridden for eight hours in the back of a flat board truck over the worst road, you can imagine, just to get there so they could spend time with each other and so that they could sit under the ministry of the, the word. Some of them had been persecuted. I saw the scars on some of them. They showed me their backs. Some of them had lived in prison for a long time. Their families had suffered. They were poverty stricken. The government had allowed them to begin hosting Bible studies in their houses, but they would not let them open up buildings for, for large-scale worship if the building didn't already exist for that purpose. And what was amazing on one of those nights, it was actually a Saturday night, and one of our guides that was there said, would you like to visit some of the churches who are meeting tonight in their houses? And we said, of course, and we began to walk down the back streets of Havana, Cuba, and they would say, there's one right over there, and we'd go in and knock on the door, and when we'd come inside, they were packed, and they were very small houses, and maybe three rooms at best, three small rooms, a bedroom, a kitchen, and some small living space, and they would be packed. The kitchen would be full, and the room would be full, and this living space would be full. We could barely get inside, and they were doing everything they could to accommodate us. So we had a place to sit, and they were praising God and worshiping, and it was very humbling.
And I thought, they just want to get near Jesus. They want to get near Jesus, and this was going on all over the city. But not all over the city, because they couldn't get into buildings like we have. They had begun to multiply. Like the New Testament, these house churches were springing up all over Cuba, and still are to this day. And when you talk with them, they had nothing. They might get $6 a month to live off of. They had nothing. But they had the spirit of the New Testament, the gathering. Where is Jesus? Let's get and be near Jesus. They were seeing miracles, and they experienced the power of God because their faith more than a noun. It's a verb. And our passage today is a story of healing, but it's also a story of determination. It is a story of friendship, and it's a story about living faith on display. And as a result, they saw a miracle. They saw a miracle take place because the faith of a few men found a way to get to Jesus. They displayed their faith. They displayed it on purpose. I believe we're living in an hour where displaying our faith will become more important than ever before. And like these men and those gathered, we must find a way to display our faith before others and get to Jesus. And so I want to show you, a few things about this passage that I believe will be an encouragement to help you do just that. To display faith and to live your faith. The first thing I want you to note is found in verse 2, and that is, again, I've referenced the preaching of Jesus. It tells us what He was preaching. Jesus wasn't just preaching anything. He wasn't preaching the popular thing. The Bible says He was proclaiming or preaching the Word of God. He was standing before them, and He was saying, here's what God has to say. As it related to the Gospel and the Kingdom of God. How do we know what He was preaching about? Well, we could go back and look at chapter 1, verses 14 and verse 15. Tell us what the message that He was delivering was, and that message was about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. One reason, I believe, for the amount of biblical illiteracy in our churches today is because we've substituted a message of compromise and a message of capitulation and capitulation and of cultural comfort in exchange for the message of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God. Jesus wasn't there to cause them to like Him. Jesus was there to change them. And unlike Jesus, I'm afraid that we have often tried to be so culturally clever in our preaching so as not to offend anyone that we have missed proclaiming the simple, transforming message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's dangerous. Because the fact is, it is the Word of God that cultivates our faith. It's not the clever message of the age. In December of 2016, there was a ride at Knott's Berry Farm in California where 20 people were stuck on this particular ride 148 feet up in the air.
Seven of those were children. They couldn't get the ride to work. They couldn't get them down. They called the firefighters in to try to reach the stranded passengers. They hoped that they could extend a ladder up and somehow retrieve them that way. But they didn't have a ladder that was tall enough or strong enough for sure. And so they had no choice. What they had to do is lower these 148 passengers down one by one on a single rope.
The captain there was a guy named Larry Kurtz and he said, I know it sounds scary, he said, but we had to tell the people we have very, very strong ropes. You'd have to tell me that, wouldn't you? And he said, we had to convince them that our ropes could handle up to 9,000 pounds. He said, we had to build faith in those people stranded to put their trust in us. He said, if it were up to them without faith, they'd have remained stuck. Well, the Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. That means that we have to trust the truth of God's Word then act on it. In fact, if you think about it, you never express faith until you don't have an answer that you can put into play yourself. These firemen had to convince those people, look, you can trust this rope, but they had to convince them first. Do you know what God's Word is? It is the Word that convinces us that we can put our trust in the gospel rope, that we can put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's how, and this is why the Scripture said, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Now watch this. This is how it works. So we hear God's Word. This morning, you're hearing God's Word. Or in your personal time with God when you read the Scripture, you're hearing God's Word. And reading this book is not like reading any other book because it is alive, the Bible says. And it cuts away, it cuts away in our hearts, in our minds, in our soul. It's alive. And so when we read this book or we hear this book, we're hearing God's Word and listening to God is instrumental to being able to live faithfully. And that's because what you listen to determines what you believe and how you think. If you don't believe that's true, just look at your culture right now. And it affects how you behave. What you take in determines all of those things. And so that's why Jesus would sometimes say, he that has ears to hear, let him hear. And he wasn't just saying hear sounds, he was saying take in what I'm saying, the importance and the magnitude. So we hear God's Word, we take God's Word in and then we choose how we will respond to God's Word. We either choose to believe it and receive it or we choose to reject and neglect it. And our response determines the depth or the lack of our faith. So we hear it, that's one thing, that's part A, alright, but part B is how you respond to it. Part B is that you decide I'm going to trust God or I'm not going to trust God. And he's given you the ability to do either one. And then the third part of that goes like this, when we believe God's Word and we do it, then our faith grows. You've heard people say this, maybe you've said this before, well, I need more faith. How do you get more faith? Well, the way you get more faith is by believing the Word of God and acting upon it. Faith comes by hearing and by the Word of God. Alright? So why does your faith grow? It grows like this. So you hear the Word, you do the Word, and guess what? You see God do what He said He would do. So God gives you a Word, He says if you'll obey this Word, this is what I will do. So you obey that Word, God does what He said, and guess what? Your faith grows. You go, wow, it really does work. When you obey God, it really works. And so faith grows by obeying, receiving and obeying the Word of God. So the Word of God is important to display our faith. That's what Jesus was preaching to them. The second thing I want you to notice this morning is the path to Jesus. Verse 4, it says, and when they could not get near Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. The path to Jesus. Now these men could have given up They could have said, well, we're sorry, friend. We got here too late. The place is packed. But they were determined to get their friend to Jesus. Everybody needs friends like that, by the way. And they didn't give up. They didn't go, well, man, I told you we were running late. Church was going to start. We noticed that every week.
They didn't say that. They said, this place is packed. And they said, we got to find a way to Jesus. The path to Jesus. I bet there are people I bet there are people here today. I bet there are people watching on television or listening on radio or watching online and you're here and you're listening and you've seen circumstances that are transpiring in your life right now and you've either resigned and you've looked at the difficulties as impossible or you've said, nothing is impossible. I've got to get to God. I've got to get to God and you really have to make that choice. You can live. You can look at what's going on in your life right now and say, there's nothing. I don't know what to do. You can throw your hands up in exasperation or you can hit your knees and say, but God has a way. As the prophet said, God will make a way in the wilderness where there seems to be no way. God can make a way. There's no circumstance that you face that God can't make a path through. Now, I didn't just tell you He wants to make a path through every circumstance you face. He might want you to go through that circumstance. But the fact is, there is no circumstance that God can't take you through. And you know what this particular idea teaches us? It teaches us from these guys and their commitment to find a path to Jesus that faith doesn't quit. Faith believes even when the deck is stacked against you. It believes even when the path to victory isn't obvious. Faith doesn't quit. It continues. And then it teaches us that faith finds a way to get to Jesus. These men believed that if they could just get to Jesus, that Jesus could do for them what no one else could do. And I suspect that they had been to a lot of other places. But their faith, their belief was a verb and it moved them. It moved them to do something. Their actions displayed their faith. You can display your faith. And it was done on purpose. We sometimes hear this phrase, well, seeing is believing. You've heard that, right? Seeing is believing. Maybe you've used it before. Seeing is believing. But the message for God's people is believing is seeing. Do you remember what the Pharisees said to Jesus? Show us an attesting miracle that we might believe. You remember that? If you are who you say you are, you show us. And the Greek word means an attesting miracle. It means a miracle that proves who you are. If you are who you are, show us a miracle and prove it. And Jesus, you remember what he said? To him who seeks a sign, no sign will be given. You know what Jesus says to us? He doesn't say seeing is believing. He says believing is seeing. You believe and you'll see. Some of you have stopped believing in the power of God. Some of you are discouraged by what you've seen. I want to remind you again, the Bible says that we walk by faith, not by sight. So don't let what your eyes show you. Don't let what your eyes see keep you from getting to Jesus. Circumstances will always be more difficult than your sight can handle. That's why we live by faith. Don't you know that the healed man is glad that his friends didn't see the obstacles and didn't give up? You know, we may get to have this conversation in heaven. Hey, what do you think about those friends of yours? We may just have that conversation. But faith displayed says, I believe now, not after the fact. In fact, it's really kind of impossible to have faith after the fact. Well, I always thought God might do something. That's faith after the fact. They had faith before the fact. And it causes me to find the path to Jesus because I believe that if I get near Jesus, Jesus can do for more, or at least he can give me direction that nothing or no one else can. There's a third thing I want you to notice this morning, and that is the perception of Jesus. Verse 5 and 8, Jesus saw their faith. This reason I named this message, faith displayed. Jesus saw their faith. Verse 8, I'll tell you about that in just a minute. It's another kind of expression of this whole idea of Jesus knowing what's going on. Jesus, listen, sees both belief and unbelief.
See, he saw the belief of these four men who brought their friend. But look at verse 8. It says, And Jesus perceiving in his spirit that they questioned within themselves. Jesus not only saw the faith of the friends, he saw the unbelief, of the scribes. Perceiving in their hearts. He saw both belief and unbelief. And it's an interesting contrast. There are a couple things I think worth noting about it too. And that is one, some people are desperate to experience the work of Christ. Like those, the paralytic and his four friends. And if that's you, if you're desperate to experience the work of Christ, Jesus knows that. And he's aware of your desire, to experience his power in your life. These men were believers who let their faith direct their actions. Are you desperate to experience the work of Christ? Maybe you're facing some dilemma, some obstacle, and the devil has told you there's no way. I want to remind you this morning, God likes desperate people. Jesus loves it when we get desperate for his work in our life. Some people are desperate to experience the work of Christ, but other people are desperate to undermine the work of Christ.
You see, Jesus was also aware of the scribes. And he's also aware of your desire, if it is to undermine or not believe in his work. Now think about the irony of this whole thing. The scribes were the religious leaders who transcribed the scriptures. Do you know what their job was? It was to maintain the scriptures, the fidelity of the scriptures. It was to maintain the scriptures. It was to preserve the text. It was to transcribe them and keep them safe and secure and pass them on from generation to generation. These are the people who are the skeptics. These are the people who are undermining or trying to undermine what Jesus is doing.
They were godless. But they masqueraded as religious leaders, as keepers of the scripture. Some years ago, I had a man who attended church every week.
And he was always fact-checking me.
I mean that. He was always fact-checking me to see if he could catch me in a lie. And so if I'd tell a story, I told you the story of Robert Cheeseburger. He would go out and he would research Robert Cheeseburger and make sure that I didn't lie about that. He checked everything like that. And I mean, he would question my position. If I'd take a position on something that's going on in the culture, he would question why a Christian would stand like that. And if I spoke of any concerns I had, he would question that. The fact is, he had read an article during that time as well that there were pastors out there that were buying sermons from other pastors and preaching them. And it's true. But it wasn't me. But he accused me of that. I said, no, sir. I said, I'm not buying other preachers' sermons. I said, I put my study time in my study and I'm not buying other preachers' sermons. And the message you get, like it or not, is from me. And hopefully the Lord. But he questioned everything. And finally, I have to tell you, one Sunday, even preachers had their limits. One Sunday, I'd had enough. And I'm standing out in the Welcome Center and he comes up to question something that related to a community that the government was shutting down because they were trying to have a Bible study. And I'd spoke out on behalf of those people being able to have a Bible study in their community. And he came to me and said, you know what? I don't think you've thought through that. He said, that creates traffic jams in neighborhoods and those sorts of things. And that was a bridge too far for me. And I finally, I just looked at him and I just looked at him and I said, I want to ask you a question. Whose side are you on?
I said, declare yourself, man. Whose side are you on? Are you on God's side? Are you on Satan's side? And it stunned him. And he mumbled. he said, well, I'm on the Lord's side. And I said to him, I said, then start acting like it. And by the way, he never questioned anything else I did after that. And I will say this to his credit. He came to see me the next week and sat in my office with tears rolling down his eyes. He said, Pastor, I'm so sorry. I said, well, I said, you got to determine which team you're on. And he said, I never thought about it like that. And so the story had a happy ending, let me just say. But there are people out there today who want to undermine the message of the gospel. And part of it is because they know if they don't undermine it, they have to do something with it and they don't want to have to do something with it. Like change their life or change their behavior. Now listen, Jesus knows whose side we're on. He knows whether we are a man or a woman of faith or if we're just a religious person. There are a lot of religious people.
Jesus doesn't want religious people. He wants related people. Next, I want you to notice this. I want you to notice the problem with Jesus. It's articulated in verses 6 and 7. Now, some of the scribes are sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? They had a problem. Remember, these are the scribes. They had a problem with Jesus that demonstrated that they had no relationship whatsoever to God. And the warning is this. Don't confuse having a religious opinion about Christ with having a righteous relationship with Christ. Think about this. These scribes, the very keepers of Scripture and the very Scriptures that they kept testified of Jesus and yet they missed the message. They knew the Scriptures. They had the Prophets. They kept it. Many say they had most of the books memorized. They knew the stories of the Messiah. He was standing there right in front of them and they missed Him because they thought they were smarter than Jesus. And there are a lot of people today who allow the facade of intellect and knowledge to blind them to the simplicity of Jesus Christ. That's why the Bible says unless you come into the kingdom as a child, you'll not enter. Children get it. You don't have to persuade them. You don't have to intellectually smooth them to help them. They get it. They understand it. Jesus tells us it's not that complicated. The Bible says that God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Listen, God doesn't have to fit into your mind to be validated as God.
Listen, if you're a skeptic and you're going, well, I don't know. I just don't know if I believe. Let me tell you something. God is not in heaven wringing His hand saying, oh, no, what am I going to do? They're not sure they believe. God is not saying in heaven, God is not in heaven going, what am I going to do? What's the kingdom going to do? We've got to convince them. We've got to convince them. We've got to convince them.
Jesus' argument for you was when He stretched out His arms on the cross and He shed His blood for you. That was His argument. And it's a pretty simple one. And you just, you simply have to decide, well, He may not fit in your mind. By the way, that's why children get it. Because they don't, He doesn't have to fit in their mind. They just say, hey, He loves me and I love Him. And Jesus said, that works.
God uses the foolish things to confound the wise. The problem with the biblical Jesus for many today is that Jesus isn't woke enough. The biblical Jesus doesn't fit the woke definitions and the social understanding of sin. The social Marxist of academic institutions. And listen, even more frightening, an increasing number of evangelical churches and pastors and mainline denominations. Here's a major fact. If you have a problem with the biblical Jesus, you have an eternal problem that this culture and a woke Jesus won't fix for you. But then number five, let me move on. I want you to notice the power of Jesus. Verse is five. In verse 11, remind us of that. Verse five, Jesus says, your sins are forgiven. Verse 11, rise, pick up your bed. That's the power of Jesus. The faith that they displayed resulted in the power of God expressed. And there is a connection between faith in God and the power of God. You see, our faith is not a means to command or manipulate God. That's not what our faith is about. But faith is a means by which we enable the power of God. Do you understand the difference? Faith isn't, and we need to be, we need to understand this because there is some theology out there today that treats faith like a tool that manipulates God. That's not what faith is about. Faith is to enable God to do what God can do. It's an enabler that he's entrusted to us to express faith. On one occasion, listen, here's how we know this. How do we know that faith is an enabler, not a manipulator? Because on one occasion, the Bible says that Jesus went to his hometown of Nazareth and it says that he could not do many mighty works there. Why? Because of their unbelief. It enables Jesus to do what Jesus does. You say, well, I don't get that. That's okay. I don't get all of that either. I just know this is what he says. It is by faith. Jesus' power is unrestricted. Jesus' power was spiritual. Notice that Jesus touched the man internally first. He forgave the man's sins. I think it's worth noting that Jesus dealt with the most important sickness first by healing the man's soul. They brought him there so Jesus could make him walk physically. But the first thing Jesus dealt with was the man's sin. Jesus dealt with his sins because here's what Jesus understands for all of us. Your soul sickness is more important than your physical sickness. And you can get physical sickness right here and miss on the soul sickness and you're lost for eternity. Jesus dealt with the spiritual before he dealt with the physical. And then we see that his power was indeed physical. And after that, he touched the man externally. So he touched him first internally and then he touched him externally. And he restored the man's ability to walk. We always have that tendency. We just do that Jesus will fix our outer problems first. But do you know your outer problems are a secondary matter to Jesus? Your soul problems are primary. Because they're eternal healing. And listen, our outer man is going to pass away regardless. Think about this. If all Jesus touched was the outer man, the outer man's still going to die. You ever thought about Lazarus? You know, Lazarus was his friend and Jesus touched Lazarus. Well, you know, three days later, Lazarus came out of the grave and there's some theological implications of that in terms of the symbolism. But Lazarus came forth from the grave, right? Y'all know that story? Okay. Nobody ever talks about this part of the story. There came a day later on when Lazarus died again. You ever thought about that? Jesus didn't raise him physically forever. He died again. Somewhere down the line, Lazarus died. Why does Jesus deal with your soul primarily? It's because your soul is eternal. Your body's going to get better or worse. Paul says the outer man is decaying day by day, but the inner man is being renewed. Think about that statement. The outer man is wasting away. Our inner man, though, can be renewed day by day by day by day. See, this thing is going to pass away. But the soul forever. So Jesus deals with the soul. Listen, always first say, Jesus, deal with my soul. Heal me on the inside first.
Because Jesus can heal you on the outside. You know, Jesus, you've got some infirmity. I do. I have. I'm battling back issues right now. We know what's going on. We found out this week what's going on. So I'm battling back issues. But listen, listen, Jesus could go, your back's okay. And by the way, I've asked him to do that.
But he could, couldn't he? You believe that? I mean, whatever your ailment is, with just a breath, Jesus could go, it's done. But he doesn't. Paul said he had a thorn in the flesh so that he would remember who God was. That was it. That would keep him humble. And so God can, but God is more concerned with your soul. See? And he can heal that. But here's the difference. With your body, he can go, with your soul, he says, I offer healing to your soul. You just have to decide to accept it. And all who accept it, receive it. It's the one healing that everybody can have if they'll take it.
Well, let me close. Let me close with this last statement. And that is the product from Jesus. Verse 12. And he rose immediately and went out. Jesus healed the man. He got up. He went out. He did exactly what Jesus said. Warren Wiersbe wrote this. He said, The people who jest about faith don't realize how big a part it plays in everyday affairs. It takes faith to get married because marriage vows are basically promises. It takes faith to send children off to school. It takes faith to get a prescription filled. It takes faith to eat in a restaurant, deposit money in a bank, sign a contract, drive on the highway or the circle. He'd never driven on the circle.
Or to get on an airplane or an elevator. It takes faith. He adds, Faith isn't some kind of religious experience for the elite. Faith is the glue that helps hold people's lives together. But remember, he writes, faith is only as good as its object. So if our faith is in people, we get what people can do for us. If our faith is in money, we get what money can do for us. If our faith is in ourselves, we get what we can do. But if our faith is in God, we get what God does. So let me ask you this morning, do you need what God and God alone can do? Have you forgotten to trust Him with everything? Maybe you're discouraged today. Put your eyes on Jesus. Trust Him. Are you hurting today? Trust Him. Are you confused today? Trust Him. Is your faith wavering today? Tell Him, like the man who came to Jesus, say, Lord, I believe. Help my own belief. Now, if you don't know, if you don't know Jesus, then you need to display saving faith. And we're going to partake of the Lord's Supper here in a moment. And then after that, we'll have our invitation. And during that invitation time, if you've never trusted Christ, I invite you to slip out a balcony or ground floor and come and say, I want to give my life to Jesus Christ. That's soul healing. You may say, I need that. It may be, that you've already displayed saving faith. You've put your trust in Jesus Christ, but you're not walking in living faith. And today, maybe what you need to do is say to God, God, I've been walking by sight, not by faith. And I want to walk in living faith. I want to keep my eyes on you. I want to display faith on purpose. And your faith can be both seen by God as it's displayed, but seen by others in your world. Father, I pray that we will be people who display faith. More than just talk faith, it's good to talk about faith. It's good to preach about faith, God, but Father, help us to live by faith, to walk by faith. So Father, as we partake of the Lord's Supper now, I pray that, Father, we'll be reminded that your blood shed and your body broken enabled us to express faith in the work you've done for our salvation. Father, Father, would you now, as we partake of this sacred meal, would you be honored through it? And Father, would you speak to our lives because of it? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I'll invite our deacons, if they will, to come down.