Matthew 9:1–8Scripture
Talking about it in Matthew for quite some chapters, for quite a few chapters. And each of you have got have a picture in your head of what faith looks like. But in this text, it's different because Jesus sees something that everyone else can see as well. See the difference? Because in previous verses, Jesus sees something that no one else sees. He sees the faith of a centurion. He sees this faith of a person who's not well. He sees their faith but no one else can see their faith.
But in this text, not Jesus is not the only one who can see the faith because this faith is active. It's doing something and it's carrying weight. And I think honestly today that's what the church needs. It needs a faith that is not invisible. It needs a faith that's very visible for the world to see. There is a faith that carries weight.
Can stand up under the pressure of the issues of your day. Real faith carries weight. Some faith is easy to talk about until it has to pick something up. We talk about and if I were to tell you today, particularly if you've been in church any amount of time, if I were to ask you about your faith in Jesus, you might profess much about your faith.
But what happens when your faith has to carry weight? What happens then? I spent several years in ministry and youth ministry. Nothing will test your faith like working with youth.
Nothing will test your faith like work thinning with not old people but a bunch of crotchety old people because there's a difference between sweet old people and crotchety old people.
Introduction
One's a pleasant to be around. One's pleasant to be around and one's not. You know, and I would say the way we would not demarcate elderly people, we should not demarcate young people. But it did test your faith at times. Working with young people. I worked quite a bit with young people. I experienced a lot with them. It will test your faith. I remember getting up every single Wednesday night preaching about what faith was.
Faith in Jesus. That sounds so simple, right? I mean just believe in him. But what happens when nothing is going right? What of your faith then? See, I think
The greatest test of your faith is not when everything's going right. I think the greatest test of your faith is when everything's going wrong.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 2:59
That's the weight I'm talking about. I mean, honestly, it's the weight we see in the text. Everything is going wrong for this guy. Nothing's going the way that he intended. His legs don't work. Everybody else's legs work, but his legs don't work. That's a bummer, man.
You can't run to meet your kid when your kid's running to meet you. Some of you don't want a job, but he can't even work a job if he wanted one. He can't dance with his wife if he had one. I don't know. Let's pretend like he did. He can't do the walts with her. You know, like listen, sometimes I want sometimes I wish my legs didn't work whenever we go to a wedding and Brooke wants to get that one dance.
But as much as I don't like dancing, as much as I don't like being a spectacle, as much as I don't like and the older we get married, the longer we stay on the dance floor. And let me just tell you, that's pleasant. I mean, I'm I don't like dancing, but it is a blessing to be able to do it even though I don't like it. Can you imagine not even being able to share that moment with somebody you love?
And so there is a weight that comes in your inadequacy. I'm going to talk to you about this. It's very easy for us in our life to speak about our physical inadequacies and understand the gravity of that. But what about your spiritual one?
It's easy for us to have compassion for people who are missing out on life because of their physical inadequacies. But you know there is much greater crippling spiritual inadequacy that is affecting your life and you don't even know. And Jesus has this way of piercing through the temporal and getting to the heart of the issue. The things in life that have more of a crippling effect than anything else. And I'll just be honest with you. So we were in ministry quite a while. I talked a lot about faith, but I actually learned about faith not from school, not from my sermons, not from my study. I learned about faith when all hell broke loose.
And faith, listen, and I'll I'll set you free today.
Faith is not being happy in every moment. That's not what faith is. Faith is what you're able to do in spite of the fact that you don't feel goosebumps.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 5:45
When all the goosebumps are gone, what does your life do? Is your faith visible in the midst of your weight?
Can it stand under the burden of trouble and still be visible? I mean, I think that's the picture of the text. We see a faith here that's visible. It functions in the midst of trouble in a way that makes people turn their head and notice. I remember going through a particular season of the life realizing that faith is not about feelings at all.
Faith is about what you do in spite of them. That's what it is. You can get a real good snapshot of what kind of faith you have in the midst of your trouble. I think sometimes God sends us trouble just so we can see our faith. It can become visible to us. I think sometimes trouble just happens because we're living life and it's just I mean life is just tough.
But it does become an opportunity to see what kind of faith we have.
It's easy to speak the language of faith when nothing has to be carried, when no burden has to be shared, when no sacrifice has to be made.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:25
When no inconvenience has to be endured. But then Matthew here places before us the kind of faith that does not remain in the mouth.
It moves into the hands. It becomes visible. It bends the back. It takes hold of another man's weakness and brings him to Jesus. This is a beautiful text. In Matthew 9, a paralyzed man is brought to Christ by others. He cannot walk. He cannot make his own way. His body will not obey his desire. And whatever hope he has must come through the hands of someone else.
So his friends pick him up. They carry him and they bring him to Jesus. And when they finally lay him before Christ, Jesus does something that no one else expects.
He does not first speak to the man's legs. He speaks to the man's soul.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:37
And I know I mean I know I think I know your prayer life because I know my prayer life. I'm praying a lot for my legs and Jesus is immensely concerned with my soul.
I'm trying to get him straightened out. I've been working on it for several years, several decades. And I just can't get him to value what I value as much as I value it.
And then Jesus says, "Take heart, my son. Your sins are forgiven." They carry him because of his paralysis, but Jesus forgave the thing no one carried him for. See, I want to say this. See, some of you believe because you've been in this culture long enough. And you live in an American culture and your American the American culture has put lenses over the way you interpret Scripture and the way that you see God and the way that you interpret life. And you believe that accomplishment is the wheel that steers your life.
What you do affects what you receive. But in the kingdom, it don't work that way. I mean, at the end of the day, if you're dependent on someone else, you're toast. Let me move it to make this more personal.
At the end of the day, if you're dependent on you to do the right thing, you're toast.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:03
What I love about this is that they bring him a man with a particular desire for Jesus to move a specific way and Jesus moves another way just because it's always like I said and I'll say it again and over again. It's always opposite day with Jesus. That's just what it is. But I love two things. One that they don't force his hand to respond in a way that they want him to respond. That's number one. Number two, healing is not dependent on the heart of the people who mean well.
Okay? They didn't have to come to him with the right heart. They came wanting the wrong thing really. And God healed another thing. Another thing is you're not going to force God's hand to do what you please. It just doesn't work that way. I want to talk about three different types of caring here that I noticed in this text. I think it's kind of interesting when faith carries weight. Number one, and I don't have slides up there, I just didn't do it.
Because number one, Jesus saw the faith that carried him.
Jesus saw the faith that carried him. Matthew says it this way. And when Jesus saw their faith, I love this. He saw it, not merely heard it. Not merely felt it, he saw it. Let me ask you a question, and maybe this will get to the point before I get to the point, and maybe that's bad. Let me ask you a question. When Jesus looks at your faith, what does he see?
It's fascinating. And I'm listen I'm far from a person I'm far from a person that ever wants to put myself in a place to judge another man's heart. Oh, I don't want to do that because I know my heart. Are you with me today? But let's let's have a conversation, shall we?
I'm troubled today in the church because we're very quick to profess our faith and then live a life that no one can see it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:46
I think this is problematic because I think faith is visible.
Are you with me? I've known people. I'll just be candid with you and I'm not making a judgment of another man's heart, but I do think at some point if the Bible says that he makes you a new creation, I think that affects the way you talk, the way you walk, the way you live, the choices you make. Are you with me?
It affects that. I'm not saying it does it overnight. And I'm not ne trying to be ultra critical. And I'm not trying to get you to a place where you try to do everything right and work your way to heaven. That's not what I'm trying to do. Sanctification is real, but that doesn't even happen by your will and your fortitude.
That happens because God is gracious and he's finishes the work he began in you. Right? And the more dependent we become on him, the more that faith becomes manifest. But this week was so this weekend we went to an arm wrestling tournament in Little Rock, Arkansas, and it was just fascinating to me. The further south you go and the closer you get to the Bible belt, everybody's a Christian or at least professes to be one, there might have been in a onem stretch 289 churches on the way to Arkansas. A gas station might have been a church. You just never know.
Philip 66, praise the Lord, come worship Jesus. I mean, it was just crazy. Just everything is Christian there or professes to be. And so we had this tournament. And it was wild because we get to the very end and I just absolutely I know I'm a pastor. I know. I know. I know. I'm I'm a pastor. And it's kind of like, dude, just give it a rest, man.
Let people be people and just get off people's back. I and I understand that to a degree, but somebody gets up at the end during the Okay, so during the pre like the they have like the what is it called where they interview all of the people that are arm wrestling is the what? The press conference. They had a press conference the day before. There were several people. Jesus is Lord. He's the Lord of my life. Praise his name. I love him so much. I came to give glory to him. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm going to win. It was really fascinating.
And then we get all the way to it. We get to the very end. Somebody gets up. You says it's the f-word 50 times. Talks about how he's going to it was bad. It was bad, guys. Then quoted Scripture. Dropped a couple more cuss words. Quoted Scripture again. Cussed again. And then said, "I'm here by the glory of God to win people to Jesus." Amen.
I have no intention to judge a man's heart, but I'm confused by that. Okay? I'm just confused by that. And you're like, "Well, you're a pastor. You should be confused. You not everybody's going to be a pastor, Sean. Some of us just, you know, we just drop f bombs. This is what we do." Okay. Okay. Well, let's talk about that.
Let's talk about that because I think the Scripture says, "Let no coarse language come out of your mouth." I think it says that we should dwell on positive things. How is that a positive thing? I think it says that it is not that is not what goes in a man that defiles a man, but it is what comes out of a man that defiles a man. I there's just a lot of Scriptures that just become problematic for us talking this way.
I'm staying here a little bit because out of the same mouth that you profess your faith, we don't see it. We see something different.
Are you with me today? I'm confused by that. There is a duplicity in life where Jesus actually commands us in the New Testament. God commands the new to kill the twin, the one that behaves opposite of the new creation. He says, "Put that one to death daily."
This faith is visible. It isn't just the type of faith that says, "I'm religious," but doesn't look like it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:24
And Jesus saw it. Their faith had hands. Their faith had feet. Their faith carried weight. This was not some sentimental faith. This was not a decorative faith because there it doesn't help me when someone walks around acting religious but is unhelpful when it comes to time for help. There is a decorative type of faith that doesn't get their hands dirty. Are you with me today?
Comes, dresses up really nicely, sits in church, but never gets their hands dirty. This here that we see in this text is a faith with sweat on it. Faith with muscle in it. Faith that bent down. Faith that picked up the corner of another man's weakness and said, "We're getting you to Jesus." See,
Some people only believe enough to talk about Jesus.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:35
These men believed enough to carry him to him. Who are you caring to Jesus?
Okay, some of you can't get to that answer to that question today.
Who are you carrying to Jesus? Because you don't even carry yourself there.
Church is hurting today. Because we talk much about faith that has no muscle. We talk about faith and proclaim and profess faith with no sweat. We have faith without hands.
And God is calling us to be something different. And Jesus added to their number daily those who were being saved. Why? Because this type of faith was visible. This is deeply convicting for me. I don't know if it is for you because much of what we call faith never gets under anybody's burden. We say we believe Jesus is merciful, but do we bring broken people to him?
We say we believe Jesus is powerful, but do we intercede for people who are too weary to pray for themselves? We say we believe Jesus saved sinners. But do we love sinners enough to carry them towards the savior. These men didn't have the power to heal their friend, but they had the faith to bring him to the one who could.
And that matters because sometimes we confuse inability with irresponsibility. We say, "I cannot change them, so there's nothing I can do." But this passage reminds us that
While we cannot save, we can bring. While we cannot heal, we can pray. While we cannot raise the dead, we can carry the hurting to the one who can.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:32
You can't save your children who are lost. But he can. He can.
You can't regenerate your children, but you can carry them to Jesus in prayer. And don't forget this instruction.
Some parents think that's a dirty word. Instruction. Some of our children are hell raisers because we've never instructed them. We'd rather be their friend. Sometimes faith instructs. It prays and it instructs. And guess what else it does? Here's a really dirty word in our culture. You're going to hate this. Wait, hold on. This is going to land heavy on you. Discipline.
God doesn't I actually had a conversation with somebody the other day that actually told me, "God never disciplines his children." I'm like, "what Bible are you reading?" We're not reading the same Bible. We are clearly not in the same book. We're not in there together. I mean, you're in a different book. What translation are you reading? Bible actually throws this word rebuke.
Not even discipline. It just goes straight nuclear to rebuke. Oh my poor little ego. He rebuked me. This is part of it. This is what faith does. This is what faith does. See,
Faith is more interested in true healing than being cool and liked.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:26
Faith, let me here's here's here's another here's another crazy one because we as parents have been guilty of saying, "do as I say, not as I do." I think I've said that once and then I got called out for that.
But true faith is an example.
I want to talk a lot about how you should live kids and then I want to live the opposite in the house. It's faith without muscles. It's faith without hands. It's faith that can profess a lot out of the mouth but not live it.
This is not a true faith. Faith can be seen. Listen church.
You cannot fix every wound in your body, but you can help bear burdens and bring the weak before Christ.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:28
There are people around us who may not have the strength to get to Jesus on their own. Their grief is too heavy. Their guilt is too deep. Their confusion is too thick. Their shame is too loud. Their spiritual paralysis has left them stuck. They need someone whose faith has weight to it and you might be the only hope.
We should also notice that the humility of the friends and I think this is important and I'll move on to point two. They did not carry the man to themselves. They carried the man to Jesus.
They didn't carry the man to themselves. They carried the man to Jesus. Listen, sometimes in an attempt to help, we try to help oursel.
I don't know if you've if you've lived any amount of time, you know that innately we are glory seekers. Are you with me today? We are a people who want credit. Have you ever been in a situation either at work or when you were a kid? I remember being a kid and something I did something that was really nice like you know empty the dishwasher on my own accord. Ain't nobody tell me to do it. I You're like you should do it. Contribute man. Don't be lazy. But I and Bob about I don't even know if we had dishwashers back then. And I might have been the dishwasher, but I'm just saying here's an example. Like, so you did the dishes or whatever and or you did the dishwasher or whatever or I did some chore or something. And I remember there was a couple times that Tiffany got credit for what I did.
I didn't like that, man. How you going to go and give her credit? And how many of you were just like, "Oh, I'm okay with her having credit." No, you'd be like, "I did that. Matter of fact, the conversation didn't end there. Oh, well then, oh then, thank you, Sean. And then it was just like, now I don't even care now. I'm not even gonna help anymore.
You gave credit to the wrong person. I would go off on Tiffany and be like, how dare you just sit there and then take credit for that when you knew you didn't do that.
I wonder how much we do that in the church. We want to be so we want to be so useful to the Lord and helpful to him that we get engaged in trying to help other people through their misery and through their trouble that we take credit for it and we're really just interested in and in carrying them to us and not to Jesus to our own glory to our own edification to our own acknowledgement. We want credit and honestly it might there might be some degree of good in there because we're trying to serve the Lord, but we abort it with our glory seeking.
These men didn't carry the man to themsel. They carried him to Jesus. And that's important because true Christian love does not make itself the final answer to everything.
It brings people to Christ.
We're not the healer. We're not the redeemer. We're not the savior. We are carriers. That's all we are.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:57
Jesus forgave the thing no one carried him for
Jesus Christ. Number two, Jesus forgave the thing no one carried him for. Jesus forgave the thing that no one carried him for. Jesus looks at the paralyzed man and says, "Take heart. Your sins are forgiven." You misfired there, Jesus. If you missed that one, let me repeat myself in case you do not I do not stutter, but let me repeat myself in case you did not hear me the first time.
We need you to fix his legs. That's what we need. You missed his legs and you went to you went to the wrong thing, Jesus.
They carried him in because he could not walk. But Jesus forgave the thing no one carried him in for. I believe this. This first helps us acknowledge we do not know what's best for people. So just be very careful to not think you do. All right. The good news. Let me just go ahead and give you the good news before I keep talking about the bad news. Like your inadequacies and such. And I know that's kind of like my thing. The good news is God does what's best for them in spite of you not knowing.
So there is no special prayer or incantation you have to whisper to get God to move on behalf of another person. God sees their need when you can't even see it. When you think you can. I love this. We do not know what's best for people. Sometimes we'll look at a person and we'll say, "I see your trouble.
I see your issue. I see your problem." And we will go to them to try to fix the problem. But that is only the symptom.
That's not the root issue. That's right. Amen. Are you with me? And this person will live in false freedom because when they see the symptom gone, they'll think they're delivered, but they'll not know that now it will manifest in a different symptom, but the same problem is still there. And what has happened is you've gone to the wrong person and often time you went to that person and brought that person unto yourself. You carry that person unto yourself because you think you have the remedy for that person and they live in bondage because you wanted to get glory for something you were never equipped to do.
We do this inside the church. I'm not saying helping people's bad. I'm saying sometimes we help people in ways that actually harm them more than help them.
That's why you bring people to Jesus. Well, I can't be one of those people, Sean. I just keep pe pointing people back to Jesus. They don't like that answer. They come to me with a problem and they want an answer to the problem and I'm like, "have you read the Bible lately? Do you know Jesus?" And they're like, "Oh." And so then I have to come up with something different so that they will respect me and value what I have to say and think that I have something important to say. Sorry. The answer is the answer, folks.
There's only one true way to salvation and it ain't your solution.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:36
I've been I've been in Little Rock. I can say ain't for at least a day or two post that trip. Okay? You're lucky I ain't talking like this today. You know what I mean? So, this shows that Jesus is not limited to our prayer requests. He's not trapped inside of our diagnosis. He's not bound by what we think our need, our greatest need is.
We often come to Jesus asking him to fix what is obvious, what is painful, what is public, what's embarrassing, what's urgent.
We ask him to fix the body, our marriage, our children, the job, anxiety, finances, loneliness, conflict, circumstances, and he's compassionate towards all of it. I'm not saying he's not he's not indifferent towards suffering. He's not C cold towards pain, but
He loves us too much to only treat what we can see while leaving the soul untouched.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:43
This man needed healing, but he needed forgiveness more. You know, the hardest thing about my relationship with the Lord has been learning you can wait. Those that wait upon the Lord shall but this waiting thing, man, can't we just you shall? We often define our greatest problem by whatever hurts the most. If my body hurts, then my body's the greatest problem.
If my finances are in trouble, then my finances clearly are the greatest problem. If my relationship hurts, then people are my greatest problem. You know, you're a person, too, right? If my emotions hurt, then my feelings are the greatest problem. But Jesus sees deeper than the pain. See, I can I just talk to you about something in a culture where we have talked so much about anxiety in our culture.
Two things. Two things. And here it is. And you'll see it on t-shirts. And I'm not Listen, some of you are like, "but you don't understand, Sean. I'm I'm extremely anxious.
I know a Lord who's bigger than that. Okay.
He heals paralyzed people and makes dead people come to life. I'm pretty sure he's got your anxiety.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:38
Okay. And I'm not trying to devalue the current storm you're in. I'm not trying to I'm not trying to insult you, but we have we have elevated to a degree of lordship trauma and anxiety.
Yes. To a level that's unhealthy inside the church. Listen to me today.
It's unhealthy. So we think that the problem is what we feel. If I feel this way, then this is all I think about. If my emotions hurt, then my feelings are the greatest problem. But Jesus sees deeper than the pain. He sees the soul. He sees the sin. He sees the guilt. He sees the separation from God. He sees the need beneath the need. And he speaks to that.
He says, "Take heart, my son. Your sins are forgiven. Listen. And there's a tenderness to this statement.
Jesus did not crush him. He leans into him. He does not shame him. Jesus does not expose him in cruelty. He calls him son.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:55
He cares for him. He gives him comfort before command. He gives him assurance before healing. He speaks pardon before movement. The first word this man hears from Jesus is not try harder. Stand up. Prove yourself. It's not what he hears. The first word he hears are, "You're forgiven." Track with me. And this is what really sets us free.
That is the heart of the gospel. Before Christ commands us to walk in new obedience, he grants us pardon. He grants us pardon. Th listen this means the deepest hope in this passage is not merely that Jesus can make lame legs strong. The deepest hope is that Jesus can forgive guilty sinners. That's the hope.
He can pardon what you cannot undo. He can cleanse what you cannot wash away. He can remove the condemnation that you cannot escape.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:58
Jesus made him carry what used to carry him
Number three, I just got to move on. Jesus made him carry what used to carry him. Oh man, I don't have enough time to talk about this. After Jesus proves his authority to forgive sins, he says to the paralytic man, "Rise, pick up your bed, and go home." Now, here's here's my point here that I'm trying to make. The friends carried him in, but they did not carry him out.
Whenever you have a reckoning with Christ, you do not leave the way you came.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:58
I'm not talking about perfection. I'm I'm pretty sure the guy stumbled. I'm pretty sure that sometimes in the duration of his life, he fell down, tripped over something, and stubbed his toe on a coffee table. I'm pretty sure that happened. His walk was not perfect, but he did walk.
That's why I just can't get down. That's why I'm just so confused by people who talk about the reckoning they had with Christ, but they look no different than the day before. Exactly the same. Living in a paralyzed state, professing a faith that came from a reckoning.
What is this? What is it? I'm confused. That's why I love this text because we get to see this faith have arms. This faith have hands. This faith have muscles. This faith sweats.
This faith carries and leaves different than it came. And I love this too because this will set you free. I really think this is the glory of the miracle. He came in dependent on others to carry him. He walked out dependent on the power of Christ. Yes. The bed that once held him became the bed he now carried. What used to carry his weakness now became a witness to Jesus authority.
And this will set you free.
The friends were faithful, but they were not final. They were loving, but they were limited.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:44
They could bring him to Jesus, but they could not make him whole. Be very careful, guys. Listen to me. Be careful, specifically those who are new in the faith. Be very careful to not attach your faith to a person.
There's a lot of things I've done wrong in ministry. You can say amen to that, right? I just I guarantee you it's a lot. And it ain't all pre-echourch.
I've pulled into stupidity station many times here. The caboose and everything attached to it. You know what I mean? Everything, the engine, it all. I pulled it all in there. Thank goodness for God's grace. Amen. He forgives us. He's He's gracious to us. He's loving to us.
We're going to do some stupid stuff. It's why we need to be dependent on him. And
Thank goodness that you can be faithful in one season and mess up in another and God's still bigger than your mess up.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:17
Right? This is really important. There is another kind of dependency that becomes a bondage. I remember well Brooke and I once again we've been in youth ministry a long time. We part of the thing that I really regret and you know God uses everything and he teaches us and I mean God's sovereign and he's his providential cares over all men and all that and everything doesn't rise and fall on me.
But I would go into a church. I had a set amount of tricks that I would unpack out of a backpack. I'd blow something up. We I knew how to get I knew how to get a group to grow from eight kids to 150 kids in a few months.
And we blow it up. We do that here. I'm not saying crowds are bad. But man, I've been learning a lot. One of the things that I noticed though whenever that happens and then we would leave because when the bag of tricks are up and then you got to actually disciple people. By the way,
We're called to make disciples, not called to make converts.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:44
So there's that.
But when you're called to when I get to the place where I had to disciple them, I'm like, I'll let somebody else do that. I'm going to go evangelize and then they can disciple them. But the mission was to go into all the world and make disciples. Are you with me today? So I would just go from one place to the next place to place. By the time I would get to the next place, I would hear stories, sometimes three places later, I would hear stories about young men that stood to make professions for Christ, joined our worship band, and now had left the church, and walked away from the faith because they had attached their salvation to the man of the house versus the man of the house.
This is really instrumental. This is why it's important to bring people to Jesus, not yourself. Okay? Okay. You don't even have to intentionally try to bring people to yourself. You can do this unintentionally while trying to celebrate Jesus. Are you with me? You could love, listen, you can love when somebody when a friend comes to you to provide counsel for them. I don't think godly counsel is bad. It actually says in the Bible to listen to godly counsel, which means you should go talk to people and get godly counsel. Just make sure that it's biblically based.
Yes. And that if that person is gone, you know where to go to get the same counsel because it didn't come from the person. It came from the Bible. And they're simply somebody who's shedding light on that which they have read because what happens when the people are gone?
There's a kind of dependency on people that becomes bondage. It happens when the people who carried us become the people we think we can't live without anymore.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:43
But notice Jesus calls him immediately after this salvation to not be dependent on them anymore.
He transfers. You were carried in, but you're carrying it out. There's a shift that happens. Young people, your faith can't be your parents' faith. You were carried to Christ. Now what are you going to do with Christ? Because you don't get to ride on the coattails of your parents' faith your entire life. Are you with me today? And parents, be very careful.
Be very careful that you don't unwittingly and unwillingly carry people to you.
Because what happens when you die? What happens when you're in a storm? What happens when you're in trouble? If what happens if you go down? Do your kids go down, too? This passage helps us see the difference.
The friends were a gift, but Jesus was the healer. The friends brought him near, but Jesus raised him up. The friends carried him for a moment, but Jesus gave him new strength.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 45:08
The goal of grace was not that this man would forever remain on the mat while others carried him. The goal was that he would rise by the power of Christ and walk in newness of life. Jesus can heal you beyond unhealthy dependency on others. He can free you from needing people to be what only he can be. He can use friends and pastors and parents and spouses and counselors and the church as instruments of mercy. But his aim is not to leave you permanently defined by your helplessness. His aim is to make you dependent on him in such a way that you're no longer enslaved to the people who carried you there in the first place.
Then Jesus tells him to pick up his mat. Jesus could have said, "Leave the mat behind." That's a symbol of something bad.
But he tells them to carry it home. Why? Because the bed had become evidence. It was a witness. It preached without words. Everyone who saw him carrying it would know that is the bed he used to lie on. That's the bed he used to define him. That is the bed that used to carry his weakness, but now he's carrying what once carried him.
That's what grace does.
Grace does not always erase the evidence of where you've been. Sometimes grace makes you carry it different.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:56
Okay. So, let me help you here. We talked about anxiety and trauma. Let me just help you here for a second since that's what our that's what our world wants to talk about so much. Sometimes God doesn't remove anxiety.
Sometimes he helps us carry it different, respond to it different. Not be ruled by it anymore. Some of you are like, you know that Scripture song where it says, "Take your thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ." Notice it doesn't the prayer, the command is not take your thought captive and make them invisible. That's not what it says.
We're not trying to invisible our problems. We're not trying to do a magic trick with our problems. That's not what we're trying to do. Take your thoughts, which you can't control, and make them submissive to Christ Jesus. Notice the word used here is captive. What do you do with a captive? Just say it. What do you do with a captive? Prison. What else do you guys do?
Put them in chains. Prison. What happens? What does a prison look? What does a gel cell look like in prison? What does it look like? Has bars. It has what? Cake. Cake. Okay. Yes. Okay. Yes. A cage. Yeah. So, I thought you said cake. Sorry. I'm hungry for cake. Anyway, bars get How many of you have ever seen Andy Griffith where they put the key on the outside and then you could reach out and get the key. And the whole thing was you have to watch the people that were prisoners because they would take the key and they would unlock themselves and get out. How many remember the one episode where Barney gave them a metal working kit and they made a key to get out? That was hilarious. Anyway, but what happens in there is the bars. You can actually talk through those.
Guess what you can hear if an inmate is inside of there making noise? You can be a prisoner. You can be in chain.
You can take those thoughts and make them captive, but that doesn't mean they're silent. They're just contained and put in their right place.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 49:36
They have no ruling effect over your life anymore. Are you with me today? This is important.
See, I think sometimes we create misery in the hearts of men because we think that if we have an encounter with God or if we pray a prayer that what he's going to do is he's going to eradicate that which really what he wants to do is to make submissive to his lordship.
It's not about eradicating something. It's about making it submissive to it. Whi which one brings him more glory? That something is gone or that something is continually there and you make it bow to Jesus.
Which looks like a greater form of worship? What? Listen to me. We bring a sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. We bring a sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. I love that. What does that mean? This is true worship. If you
If all your problems were eradicated, what kind of praise could you offer worthy of his glory?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 50:57
I love this. Doesn't eradicate the bed. He helps him carry it different. Some of you have some stuff that you'll carry different. You some of you have stuff that used to carry you like your anxiety, but when you met and encounter him, you carry it.
Doesn't carry you anymore. And every time anxiety wells up, it becomes an evidential sign that you put it in its place and it bows to the Lord. Although it's still present and now it becomes a witness to who he is. This is important. Carry the mat. The mat does not carry you.
Carry it. Not with shame, not with pride. Carry it as evidence.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:03
Carry that problem as a testimony. Carry it as a reminder that you did not get yourself up. You did not forgive yourself. You did not heal yourself. Jesus had mercy on you.
This passage leaves us with three questions. First, what are you carrying to Jesus? Who are you carrying to Jesus? There are people around you who are spiritually weary, morally stuck, emotionally broken, physically suffering, and too ashamed to come near on their own. They do not need religious spectators. They need faithful carriers. Who are you carrying? Number two, what have you brought to Jesus?
And what deeper thing might he be addressing in your life?
You may have come asking him to fix what hurts, but he may be putting his finger on what's sinful in your heart.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 53:07
You may have come asking for relief, but he may be offering forgiveness instead. You may have come asking for a change situation in your marriage, but he may first be giving you a reconciled soul with him.
Third, what mat is Jesus calling you to pick up and carry different? What used to define you? What used to hold you down? What used to be the evidence of your helplessness? And in the hands of Jesus, that very thing can become a witness. The story does not have to end with you lying there. The son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He has authority to raise the helpless. He has authority to make you walk in the strength he supplies.
So thank God for friends who carried you. Thank God for parents who carried you. Thank God for family members who carried you. Thank God for the people who prayed when you could not pray, believed when you were too weak, and stayed when you were weary, and helped bring you to Jesus. Thank God for those people. But don't you dare become dependent on them.
Do not ever confuse the carriers with Christ. They are not the same. The friends can carry the man, but Jesus is the only one who can forgive him. The friends can bring him near, but Jesus had to raise him up. The friends could hold the mat, but Jesus must give the command.
The friends can help him get in the room, but only Jesus can send him home changed.
Real faith carries weakness to Jesus, even when it's your own.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 55:04
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