Which character are you in this story?
- Are you one of the FOUR FRIENDS ? (Mk 2:3-4)
- Are you a SRIBE ? (Mk 2:6-7)
- No one meets your STANDARD.
- You are known more for what you are AGAINST than what you are FOR.
- You look down on those who don't know as much BIBLE as you.
- You are obsessed with the SINS of others.
- Are you the PARALYTIC ? (Mk 2:5,9-11)
How would I know if I'm a scribe?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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We're just going to dive right into the text today, okay?
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No introduction.
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This is your introduction, all right?
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Introduction's over.
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Mark chapter 2, verse 1.
00:11-00:25
It says, "And when he returned to Capernaum, after some days it was reported that he was at home." Okay, so things had cooled down a bit.
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You see at the end of chapter one, the crowds are just getting more and more and more intense, and that totally makes sense, right?
00:32-00:40
Here you have somebody casting out demons in the synagogue, healing people with the word, and word's getting out, right?
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You got to come and see this guy.
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You got to come and hear this guy.
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Oh, you know Aunt So-and-So who is sick?
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Bring her, okay?
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Just one encounter with this guy will change her forever.
00:51-01:03
Word was getting out, the crowds were getting huge, and well, it cooled down a little bit, and he went back to Capernaum, and it says it was reported that he was at home.
01:03-01:04
And you're like, "Oh, question.
01:05-01:09
I thought Jesus said he didn't have a home." And that is true.
01:09-01:16
Jesus said that foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.
01:16-01:19
It's talking about Peter and Andrew's home, okay?
01:21-01:24
It's just he was back to headquarters, so to speak.
01:26-01:34
It says in verse 2, "And many were gathered together," here we go again, like how full was it?
01:34-01:48
"So that there was no more room, not even at the door, and he was preaching the word to them." Okay, so here we go again.
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Jesus is back in town.
01:49-01:58
"Hey, Jesus is back in town!" And everybody shows up again, crowded, mobbed, stuffed in, and what's Jesus doing?
01:58-02:01
He's sitting in the house preaching to them.
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And they came bringing to Him a paralytic carried by four men.
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And when they could not get near Him because of the crowd, now stop for a second, here's a problem, the crowds have become an obstruction.
02:24-02:26
Now can you put yourself in this scene?
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So imagine all these people are standing like stuffed in trying to hear Jesus speak, and here come four guys carrying a paralyzed guy.
02:37-02:39
Okay, like if you're in the crowd, what would you do?
02:42-02:42
What would you do?
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Make way, right?
02:45-02:47
"Hey, hey, hey, let's clear a path, okay?
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Paralyzed guy, let's clear a path." Okay, you get the sniffles, back of the line.
02:52-02:55
We get a paralyzed guy here, clear a path.
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But I go to front row seat to hear Jesus teach.
02:58-02:59
"Look, just move aside.
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We got a paralyzed guy here." Totally didn't care.
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Totally didn't care.
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I got my seat.
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I ain't moving.
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I ain't moving for nobody.
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Do you know how long it took me to squeeze myself here?
03:11-03:12
I'm not moving for anybody.
03:13-03:16
Paralyzed guy's going to have to wait, right?
03:16-03:17
Isn't that what it says?
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They couldn't get near him.
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So they turned and went home, lamenting the fact that they couldn't get their paralyzed friend to Jesus.
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Is that what your Bible says?
03:37-03:38
I love this.
03:39-03:42
I've got to tell you, this is one of my most favorite accounts from Jesus' life.
03:46-03:53
It says, "When they could not get near Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him.
03:56-04:10
And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay." Okay, so this… so Peter and Andrew's house probably wasn't like your house, okay?
04:10-04:17
It would have been a one-story house, and they actually had an external staircase, okay?
04:17-04:26
So get this picture, they're trying to get… they have their paralyzed friend on a mat, they're trying to get through, and they're trying to get through, and they just can't get in, and what are we going to… we've got to get them to Jesus.
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We just got to get them to Jesus.
04:29-04:34
I'm sure they're standing outside, and they see the staircase, and I see these friends stopping and looking at each other.
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Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
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Like yeah, but we haven't done anything like that since our frat days at college.
04:50-04:56
I think, I think we should go up on the roof and just like tear their roof apart.
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Crazy, right?
05:00-05:01
Well, that's actually exactly what they did.
05:02-05:07
This would have been a major demolition project and their roof wasn't like your roof.
05:07-05:20
There would have been beams and then there would have been, between the beams, smaller pieces of wood that would have had thatch and mud and then covered with tiles.
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Get this picture out of your mind that there were shingles and gutters and all those kinds of things.
05:26-05:30
But get in your mind wood and sticks and thatch and mud and tiles.
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they would have gone up and they would have removed that top layer of tiles and it would have become a digging project.
05:37-05:37
Okay?
05:40-05:56
Verse 5 says, "And when Jesus saw their faith," okay, so they removed the tile, the mud, the sticks, they lower him down, I imagine they probably had four ropes, lowered him down on his bed, boom, like right on top of Jesus.
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It says that when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Notice that Jesus didn't take note of the loyalty or of the creativity.
06:18-06:20
What did Jesus notice about these men?
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the paralyzed man, he noticed the faith.
06:29-06:41
Interestingly, the paralyzed man is laid down before Jesus, and Jesus' first response is, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Why did He say that?
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Well, many people in Jesus' day believed that illness was always a judgment to sin.
06:51-06:56
You know, anytime you were sick with any affliction, it was a judgment from God.
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And the truth is that's not always the case.
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We are fallen people.
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We live in a fallen world.
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Disease and illness and cancer and unfortunately those kinds of things are normal as we're fallen people in a fallen world.
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And perhaps in this man's case, the illness made him serious about spiritual issues, and maybe this paralyzed man in his mind wanted to come to Jesus for more than the physical healing.
07:30-07:39
And you're like, "Well, how would Jesus have known that?" Well the answer is, Jesus knows what's in your heart.
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Look at the next verse.
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It says, "Now, some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning," notice it says, "in their hearts." Why does this man speak like that?
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He is blaspheming.
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Who can forgive sins but God alone?" I want you to notice it says they were questioning this in their hearts.
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It's not like they were having a verbal conversation.
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The Bible says they were thinking this, okay?
08:25-08:36
It wasn't like one leaned over to the other one and Jesus is like, "I heard that." They were questioning this in their hearts, and Jesus still heard it.
08:37-08:38
Now, who were the scribes?
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Well, the scribes were the experts.
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They were the seminary professor Pharisees.
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They were the professional religious people of Jesus' day, okay?
08:52-08:59
And they were right about God, but they were wrong about Jesus.
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When they said, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Is that a true statement or a false statement?
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That's true.
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Only God can forgive sins, so on one hand they're right.
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But the problem is, Jesus is God, and that's where they were wrong.
09:25-09:49
Look at verse 8, it says, "Immediately Jesus, perceiving in His Spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question these things in your hearts?" Could you imagine, like, being in church with Jesus?
09:50-09:57
Like He's preaching, and you're just sitting there thinking something, and Jesus just, He's like, "Bob, why are you thinking that?
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Do you think it's appropriate for you to be sitting there thinking about that while I'm trying to preach? That was Jesus, right? That was true or false? True or false?
10:11-10:49
That was Jesus. I can't believe you'd come to church and sit here and think like that. And, "Why are you sitting there thinking like that?" Jesus said. Well, look at what he says next. "Which is easier?" Jesus is like, "Okay, quick pop quiz for you. Which is easier? To say that the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." Which is easier?
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Well, I've thought about that a lot this week.
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While you're doing what you're doing through the week, I've been thinking a lot about this.
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is easier to say.
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You know, like with the sin thing, you know, your sins are forgiven.
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I guess there's something easy about saying that, right?
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Because you can't prove or disprove that.
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You can't see anything there, right?
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When sins are forgiven, you don't visibly see something take place, right?
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If I'm just like, "Your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven," you know? Maybe they are, maybe they're not, you just can't see. But, but if you have a paralyzed person laying here, hey, get up and pick up your mat and get out of here. That's something that requires instant verification, doesn't it? That's his attention to this man to see, "Is it going to happen or not?" We can see that.
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He's either going to get up and take up his mat and leave, or he's just going to lay there like a deer in the headlight saying, "Why are you talking to me like that?" So which is easier to command away, sin or disease?
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Which is easier to command away?
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Well, both of them require God.
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And Jesus said in verse 10, "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." He said to the paralytic, Jesus was saying here, "Look, I want you to know something, and I'm going to say something that's going to require instant verification." Verse 11, "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this." Jesus was saying, in essence, "If I've done the one that you can see, you have to know that I've done the one that you can't see," right?
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Both things would require God at work.
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Instantaneous healing, forgiveness of sins, "I'll do the one that you can't see, and you're You're going to have to believe that I'm able to accomplish the one that you can't see." That's the text this week.
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And as I've been reading through this and studying through this, do you know what I thought a lot about?
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I thought about video games.
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You're like, "Well, Bible study must be really interesting.
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It's your house." Yeah, I'm 38, and in my lifetime, video games have really changed a lot.
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Maybe some of you can relate.
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How many people remember Pong?
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How many people remember Pong?
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You remember Pong?
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You're a stick.
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Your opponent is a stick.
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And you're batting a little square back and forth.
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How many people when you were kids thought Pong was like the greatest thing ever?
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That was me.
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I was like, "Pong!
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Darren, let's play some Pong!
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Kids with our plans, let's play some Pong!" And then, at some point, they came out with Pac-Man.
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I love Pac-Man.
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I mean, seriously.
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How many people are with me?
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Pac-Man?
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Love Pac-Man.
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My phone's ringtone is the song from Pac-Man.
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True story.
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I love Pac-Man.
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And then, you know, through the years, right, you had Donkey Kong, and what were some of the other ones?
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Q-Bert, and...
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Some things really happened, though, recently in video games that, if I can be honest with you, has quite prevented me from growing up.
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Pray for my wife.
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The thing that's hard now, you know, just when I'm at the age where I'm like, "I can put the video games down." Video games have advanced to a point that you're no longer like Atari 2600, you're no longer a stick trying to avoid another stick, or a different game is a stick trying to chase another stick, or...
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Those days are done.
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You know what you can do now in these games?
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You can actually put yourself in the game.
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Did you know that?
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And that brought my, like, nerd level to a whole 'nother realm.
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Because now, when I pop in the NHL game, I'm actually playing on the hockey team.
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I actually create myself, and my guy's right there.
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He's got his jersey on, and he looks just like me, and I'm on an online league.
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And I actually, I have a wrestling game that I spent a lot of time creating myself into wrestling.
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Let's put a picture of that.
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Let's put -- there I am.
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In my mind, that's what I look like.
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You're like the guy on the left or the guy on the right.
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I don't even care which one you go with on that.
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But you see, these games have gotten so fun because now it's no longer I'm a third person spectator playing these games.
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Now I'm actually in them.
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I was thinking about these video games.
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Okay, you can get that down.
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Thank you, Brooke.
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I was thinking about that this week, and you know, when you look at this passage of Scripture, you're actually in this story.
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Did you know that?
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A lot of passages in the Bible you can kind of step back and read, but as I was studying this this week, I thought, "You know what?
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We're all in this story somewhere." So I just want to ask you today, which character are you in this story?
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Because you're one of them.
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Number one, let me ask you this, are you one of the four friends?
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Are you one of the four friends?
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Question, how far are you willing to go to bring somebody to Jesus?
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How far are you willing to go to bring somebody to Jesus?
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You know, you have a friend that you know needs to be here worshiping and getting in God's Word with us.
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You have a friend that you know needs to be in Jesus' presence.
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What are you willing to do to make that happen?
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You don't need to dig a hole in the roof here and kind of like lower them down in the middle of service.
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You don't need to do that.
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However, these guys in the story had two things that you really have to commend, and that's creativity and perseverance.
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Creativity and perseverance, and I'm not a crowd person.
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So for me, if I was one of those guys bringing my paralyzed friend and I saw the crowd the The Bible describes, honestly, I'm just being honest with you, I would have said to the other three, "Let's just try to catch Jesus at another time." That would have been me.
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"Let's just come back when less people are here because there's no way we're going to fight our way through there." Not these guys.
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You see their persistence?
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Like we're here, we're not leaving until we get them to Jesus.
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You also see the creativity.
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I would commend those to you.
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Creativity and perseverance, who do you know that needs to be here?
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Like, "Oh, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I work with this guy and I tried inviting him once like back when we launched and he wasn't really interested." Invite him again.
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You know, the circumstances of life ripen people to the gospel.
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And maybe that guy wasn't ready at that point in his life.
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Maybe he's ready now.
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Maybe at that point in his life, just a couple short years ago, he thought he didn't need God.
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Maybe the circumstances of his life since then have shown him that he does.
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So I just encourage you to look for ways to bring people to worship.
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We have a series coming up on depression during the month of January.
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Maybe you know somebody that suffers from depression, or maybe that's an ongoing yearly thing, seasonal affective disorder or whatever, that's a great excuse for you to invite them to worship.
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Maybe upcoming in the holidays, you have a friend that you know isn't tied into a church, "Hey, come to church with me this Christmas." Maybe keeping an eye through the bulletin, seeing some of the upcoming passages we're going through, some of the subject matter we're going to be going through, you can see where that would really minister to somebody that you know.
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Or here's one, if you have a friend that you want to bring to church, invite them and then treat them to lunch after service.
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Lunch is on you.
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But be creative and be diligent.
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Persevere.
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Don't give up on the first try.
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That's what you really commend these four men for.
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So are you one of the four friends?
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Are you one of those people that are like, "You know what, I know people that need to encounter Jesus, and I'm going to do whatever I have to do to get them there." Is that you?
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Secondly, are you a scribe?
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Are you a scribe?
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The scribes were the self-proclaimed judges of all things spiritual.
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Now Bible students, when we get to these passages of Scripture where we read about the Pharisees Usually the scribes, I know a lot of us, immediately in our minds, we're like, "Bad guy!
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That's the bad guy!" Yep, I've read the Bible before, scribe, Pharisee, bad guy.
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The problem is, in Jesus' day, they weren't looked at as the bad guys.
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They were looked at as the elite, okay?
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It'd be like if you saw a priest walking down the street with his, you know, priestly outfit on.
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Most people in our culture today would look at that guy, "Hey, there goes a holy man," while I really respect somebody like that that would dedicate his life for the work of the church.
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That's how the scribes and the Pharisees were viewed.
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When they walked down the street, they weren't scored as the bad guys like they'd become in the church.
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To everybody, they were just like, "Hey, those are the religious people.
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We really respect those guys." They were very intelligent.
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They were very educated.
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They were very revered, but they were very blind.
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I want to ask you if you are a scribe.
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And even before I share this, I realize the obvious problem is that scribes don't see a problem with themselves.
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And more than likely, the people that are sitting in this room that are scribes are going to think that I'm talking about someone else.
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But we need to address this because the scribes keep popping up.
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And think of the scribes in this account.
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Think of what they would have been witnessing.
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They're sitting and listening to the Son of God teach.
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God is at work and people are hearing the Word of God from the mouth of God, and lives are being transformed.
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And they were looking for conflict.
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They were looking for things to just pick apart.
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Now, before I share these things, a couple of things you want to jot down here.
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First of all, write this down, "Yes to discernment, no to critical attitude." Yes to discernment, no to critical attitude.
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I'm going to share some things with you.
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I don't want anybody to leave here saying, "Well, Jeff's just saying, you know, everybody should unquestionably swallow everything that he's feeding, and it should be like that in every church everywhere." I am not saying that.
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I'm saying yes to discernment, but I'm saying no to a critical attitude.
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There's a huge difference.
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We're going to talk about that.
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I'm saying yes to "come to me and let's respectfully discuss spiritual matters," no to complaining.
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So, are you a scribe?
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Again, we're going to see scribes and Pharisees.
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They're going to keep popping up through the life of Jesus, so we need to kind of lay some groundwork.
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scribes and the Pharisees about, well, they were about legalism.
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That was their thing.
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You're like, "Well, what is legalism?" Well, legalism really is two things.
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You might want to jot these down because this is, again, this is going to come up again.
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But first of all, legalism is this, believing that keeping the rules makes God happy.
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That's legalism.
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Keeping the rules makes God happy.
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Did you know that these scribes and Pharisees had over 600 rules that they made up?
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These rules they made up were rules that were to help them keep the Ten Commandments.
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There was like 643 or something like that.
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So you keep our rules, and if you keep our rules, you keep the Ten Commandments, and if you keep the Ten Commandments, God is happy with you.
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The problem is their rules were ridiculous.
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Would you like to hear a couple?
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Here's one of their rules.
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You don't spit on the Sabbath.
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Do you know why you don't spit on the Sabbath?
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Because I don't mean to be gross, ladies.
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I didn't make up the rule, okay?
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But if you spit on the Sabbath and your loogie hits some dirt, that's considered plowing, and now you have worked on the Sabbath.
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So they're like, "Don't spit on the Sabbath." There's another one, "Don't look in a mirror on the Sabbath." Why?
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Because if you look in a mirror on the Sabbath, you might see a gray hair.
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For some of us it's more likely than others, but you might see a gray hair and you'd be tempted to pluck it out, and that is work, and you violated the Sabbath.
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If you have a bug on you on the Sabbath, you don't just flick it off because that's considered work.
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They actually taught that you had to take the bug off and pull all of its legs off.
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And I said, doesn't that sound like more work than just a little flick?
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I was not consulted when they put these rules together.
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Okay, so when I talk about their rules, I'm not talking about like, look both ways before crossing the streets, like these rules were good ideas.
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Their rules were complete nonsense.
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But they thought, "Well, as long as you keep the rules, that's what makes God happy." The second part of legalism is this, church.
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Legalism is when you enforce your convictions on others.
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Enforcing your convictions on others.
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Do you have convictions about things?
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You should.
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I do.
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I have convictions about things.
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Whether it's about giving to the church, giving to missions or ministries, whether it's drinking, smoking, those kinds… Do you have convictions about those things?
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I have convictions about those kinds of things.
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Well legalism is when you start enforcing your convictions upon other people.
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I, you know, if I said, "I think it's a sin to dance.
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I don't think that.
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I can't dance.
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I'd like to say that because I can't dance.
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However, that is not my conviction, but hypothetically if I said, "I think it's a sin to dance, therefore if you dance and I catch wind of it, we need to have a conversation, sinner.
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I'm enforcing my convictions upon you." That's legalism.
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And that's what these guys were like.
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They had their rules and they had their convictions and they weren't shy about putting them on other people.
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And you're like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, that's not me.
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I hear what you're saying about the scribes, Pastor Jeff, that's not me.
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I would never do anything like that." Well, I would encourage you for a few moments to plug your ears lest you may encounter a truth about yourself that you're not ready for.
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So here it is, here's our test.
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How would I know if I'm a scribe?
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How would I know if I'm a scribe?
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You ready to take the test?
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Letter A, no one meets your standard.
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No one meets your standard.
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You are the end-all, be-all for all things spiritual.
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Here were guys that were face-to-face with Jesus, and all they could do was sit and wait for their opportunity to say, "Ah-ha!
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We got 'em.
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We got 'em." If you don't affirm my doctrine, I will not associate with you, but I will speak ill of you.
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No one meets your standard.
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You know, I was CC'd in an email this week that I want to read.
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I have permission to read this, because a lot of times you hear of pastors criticizing other churches.
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I hear a lot of that.
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Your church doesn't do things the way that our church does, or your beliefs are a little different, and it's just criticism, and I'll blog about you because I'm so brave.
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Instead of having a conversation with you about it, I'm so brave to hide behind my computer keyboard, I'll blog about you for the three people that'll read it.
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Lame.
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say lame, lame.
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Well, I got this email.
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This was from a pastor at Northway, Kent Chevalier.
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Like I said, I was CC'd.
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It was sent to Jeremiah Canfield from Harvest Pittsburgh East.
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It says, "Jeremiah, welcome to Pittsburgh, man.
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From one church planning pastor to another, I'm glad you're in town.
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I just got an email from James McDonald announcing that you launched Pittsburgh East.
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I was so pumped to read it, I wanted to reach out right away.
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I know that we're quite far away from each other, but I wanted to cheer you on from the North Hills.
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I've been hanging out with Jeff Miller the last year and a half, and then he has some other comments about that.
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He says, "I'm excited about what God is doing in and through Harvest.
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Welcome to the Berg, man.
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I'm cheering you on.
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Kent." Isn't this awesome?
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Isn't this awesome?
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Instead of like, "Another church.
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Well Harvest does things a little differently than we do at Northway, and oh, if only they were a little bit more like us." Here's a guy that's like, "Hey man, just an email to say welcome to the neighborhood." I think that is fantastic.
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That is certainly not the scribe's way, because nothing's ever good enough.
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If God's not at work in the way that I think God should be at work, then He's not at work at all.
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Is God doing some things up at Victory Church?
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Well, they believe differently about some things than I do, so He's probably not.
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What about over at Covenant Community?
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Well, those people are Presbyterians.
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God is most certainly not at work over in that church.
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You are so wrong.
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You are so wrong.
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But that's the way of the scribe.
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No one meets your standards, nothing's ever good enough.
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Yes, there are going to be differences in beliefs, differences in ministry practices, but I'll tell you what, I really don't care what's happening in other churches.
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There's exactly two churches in the Pittsburgh area that I care about, and it's Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North and Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh East.
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These are the churches that I care about what's being taught and promoted the way ministry's done.
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Those other churches, they are my brothers, we might differ in some things.
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That is so not my jurisdiction to step in and tell them how I think they should do ministry.
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If they want to get together and talk about it and pray about it, as we do actually, more than happy to share ideas.
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But I would tell you, church, there are a lot of babies being thrown out with the bathwater.
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No one meets your standard.
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You've been to twelve churches since September, there's nothing good about any of them.
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If you're visiting here for the first time and that's your story, I didn't know you were coming.
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But if this is your story, you sincerely do have to check yourself.
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I've been to twelve churches in the North Hills since September, haven't found a good thing about any of them.
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Really?
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Instead of getting involved in the church, scribes like to criticize the church.
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I'll remind you that criticism is not a fruit of the Spirit.
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There are some people walking around like that, that is the apportioned gift of the Spirit that they've received.
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What's your gift?
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"Oh, teaching?" Yeah, mine's criticism.
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"What's your gift?
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Mercy?" Yeah, mine's criticism.
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I get a double dose of that gift.
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You get caught up not in what God's doing, but in the way something was said, a preference of yours not being met, everything not happening the way that you would do it if you're in charge.
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Our church was visited.
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Very early on we were visited by, get this, professional church critics.
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Did you know that?
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I followed up with this couple.
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sat near the back and they said, I said, "What church do you go to?" They said, "We don't go to any one church.
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We just really travel around and like critique other churches." They said, "We believe that's a ministry that God's called us to." It certainly is not.
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I was really fired up about that until I read the review they gave us about our church.
34:52-35:06
We got like rave reviews and I was like, "Well, maybe that is a legitimate ministry." I've seen the Bible as getting involved in a church body and being part of the ministry of the church.
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No one meets your standard.
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What's your conversation on the way home from church?
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I'll just talk to your kids.
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You know what?
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You don't have to answer.
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I'll just ask your kids.
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When you're going home from church, what do your parents say?
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Is it, "I didn't like that one song.
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I don't know why they play so many of those types of songs.
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I don't really like the way he preaches, and if it's just picking apart every little thing, I got some news for you, man.
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You're a scribe.
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You're a scribe.
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Yes to discernment, no to criticism.
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Secondly, here's something else true about scribes, you're known more for what you are against than what you are for.
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It's along the same lines.
35:58-36:05
Not only do you have this standard that nobody can meet, but people know you for what you're against and what you're for because you have a problem with everything.
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"Yeah, the music was too loud.
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The music was too contemporary.
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I didn't like the Bible translation.
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I didn't like the pastor's clothes.
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There's too much of this.
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There's too little of that.
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I didn't like the communion bread.
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You know, the pastor at the end said, 'You're in love.' I really don't like him telling me I'm in love.
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You don't even know me." Those people were scribes in their own family too, by the way.
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Everybody in my family's got a spiritual problem.
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My sister's got this problem, and my uncle's got this problem, and if only my family listened more to me, but nobody in my family listens to me.
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What about your friends?
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Well, maybe you've burned more bridges than you've built with friends.
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Maybe the reason that you don't have many friends isn't because they don't meet your spiritual standard.
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Maybe they're just sick of being around you, Mr. Negativity." Like, "Oh, that was harsh." It might be true, though.
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Are you known more for what you're against than what you're for?
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"Oh, gosh, I don't want that to be the testimony of this church." Yeah, Harvest Bible Chapel, they don't this, they don't that, and they don't this.
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Like, "How about what we're for?
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We're for Jesus.
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We're for discipleship.
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We're for passionate worship.
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We're for the bold proclamation of God's Word.
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I'd rather we be known what we're for than what we're against.
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That's not how scribes are.
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They're thirdly, you look down on those who don't know as much Bible as you.
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This is true about scribes.
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You look down on those who don't know as much Bible as you.
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You're the one with the perfect theology.
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Paul, John, Peter all took notes from you.
37:52-38:00
There there little Christian, if you are one, you didn't conjugate the Greek verbs, so I'm wondering if you really even know Jesus.
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Oh, you have a regular Bible.
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I see you brought a regular Bible to church.
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That's cute.
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I remember when I just used to use a regular Bible.
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Now I have the new inductive Hebrew lexicon amplified authorized study Bible.
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Oh, but yours just has like the Bible in it.
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That's adorable.
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Hey, I want you on my team in the Bible bowl, but I don't want you to bring your attitude of superiority into worship.
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Okay?
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That's the scribe way.
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Look down on people that don't know as much Bible as you.
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And finally, you're obsessed with the sins of others.
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You're obsessed with the sins of others.
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You look at your sin from a telescope.
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Do you have a problem with sin?
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You're like, "Maybe out there somewhere." But you look at everybody else's sin with a microscope.
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That's the way of pride, out to police, everyone else without taking personal inventory, without taking personal inventory, just...
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Look, there are some people with some problems in this church because they are a work in progress just like you and just like me.
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We're a work in progress.
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Now these things that I shared, somebody here is going to be upset about it enough that they're going to fall on their face and deal with it.
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Somebody's going to fall on their face and say, "God, I have been so harshly critical.
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God, I have been more concerned about my preferences than about seeing you at work." Somebody's going to really be repentant over that.
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Someone else is going to be criticizing me in a different church next Sunday, and that's okay.
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But this is your wake-up call if you're a scribe.
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So finally, there's somebody else in the story.
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You're like, "Oh, I'm Jesus." No.
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No, you're not.
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He is one of a kind.
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Are you the paralytic?
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Meaning you need an encounter with Jesus.
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This is the first mention, by the way, verse 5, "Faith in the gospel of Mark." Trusting Jesus hears you and is going to move.
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Faith is always, always, always linked to action.
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if our worship team would make their way forward.
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You know, someone came in today, someone came in today crippled by sin.
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Somebody came in today saying, "I hear what they say, but can I really be forgiven?
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Have I done too much wrong?
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Have I made too many mistakes?
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Am I too far gone?
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Well, here's the glorious truth for you today.
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Jesus has authority to forgive sin.
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Jesus Christ has authority to forgive sin.
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Your sin is not greater than God's grace.
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And God has promised that those who receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior by faith are forgiven.
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There's somebody here today that doesn't need a pat on the back.
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They don't need a pep talk, and they don't need cliche advice.
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Somebody today just needs an encounter with Jesus.
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And you have to know that no matter what you've done, no matter how badly you've screwed things up.
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No matter how many times you've screwed things up, there stands Jesus still saying, "I have authority to forgive sins." Just now if our ushers would make their way forward as well, we're going to receive the Lord's Supper.
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And there are certainly a lot of reasons that we do this.
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But one of the biggest reasons that we do this is the reminder that our sins are forgiven.
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How do we know our sins are forgiven?
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Because the perfect Son of God gave His body.
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Because the perfect Son of God shed His blood when He was on the cross.
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God was pouring out His wrath on His Son.
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And if you've received Jesus Christ by Lord in faith, you have to understand that sin is no longer an issue between you and God.
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God is not going to turn around and punish you for your sin if by faith you've received the gift that Jesus Christ has offered.
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God doesn't punish sin twice.
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the cross.
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The Bible a couple of times in the New Testament uses a big 25 cent word saying Jesus Christ is our propitiation.
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Do you know what that means?
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It means that God is satisfied.
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That's what that means.
44:46-44:52
It means that God punished His Son for our sin, but then God doesn't turn around and say, "You know what?
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enough, because she needs punished a little bit more.
44:58-45:09
Perpetuation means when God poured out His wrath on our sin by pouring it on His Son, anybody who receives Him, God says, "I'm satisfied.
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Payment has been made in full."
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 2:1-12
What is legalism? Why is legalism dangerous, individually and to the church?
(Answer: Believing that keeping a list of rules makes you a better, more “spiritual” person. It is also when you enforce your convictions upon others. Danger is when you start believing that you are righteous by what you do, and “enforcing” convictions upon others always causes disunity.)
What is a creative way you can invite/bring an unsaved/unchurched friend to worship service at HBC?
(No lying or “bait and switch” allowed!!!)
How should the church leadership best handle someone who is constantly looking for something to be negative about / complain / criticize? (Note: I’m asking for a friend.)
Breakout Questions:
If your friends dropped you in front of Jesus today, what would He rightly perceive to be the greatest need in your life right now? Pray as a group to bring it before Jesus right now!