Overcoming Obstacles Along the Road

Recognize Wade and Barbara Wickre.

Honor/recognize Wade and Barbara for all their years of service and their contributions to FBCC. They will be greatly missed.

Sermon

Back in the Fall of 1990, it was my Freshman year in college. I was walking across the main open grassy area on campus at Georgetown University, an area called Copley Lawn and I noticed a group of people doing stunts and tumbling across the lawn. I had done gymnastics a little bit in high school, and although I wasn’t very good, I could tumble, so it caught my eye. I walked up and found out that the Georgetown Cheerleading team was having tryouts, and on a spur of the moment, I decided, “why not?” I ended up making it on the JV squad, and a couple of months later when one of the Varsity guys dropped out, I moved up to the Varsity team. As a cheerleader, I got to go to the basketball games and cheer on our university’s team. That year we had a couple of great players, Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning. We called them “The Twin Towers” and they were a force to be reckoned with. There were many exciting games and victories that season, but even though at the end of many games we could declare, “We won!” there was no question that it was the players on the court that had won the game, not the cheerleaders, and not the fans in the stands. As much cheering and egging on of the crowd that we did, we couldn’t take credit for those wins. It didn’t matter how well we did our stunts, we didn’t directly contribute to that victory. In the end, we were all spectators, not true contributors.

Being a spectator is also easy when it comes to church. It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of reaching the lost for Christ and the idea of missions without realizing our personal role in the mission. For example, many love sports. They sit on the sidelines and pull for their favorite team but never step foot on the playing field to make a contribution themselves. They are great cheerleaders but not actual contributors. Sadly, the same can be said for many members of the local church as well.

What I’m afraid of is that a lot of us, we’ve become really good cheerleaders, but not good contributors to the mission of God. Many of us are really good at standing on the sidelines, throwing up our pom poms (or pumping our firsts, in the case of the guys) and cheering, while others are hard at work on the frontlines. What I’m hoping today is that we would stop being cheerleaders, and we would start becoming contributors to a great movement of the mission of God, right here in Creedmoor and to the ends of the earth. Here’s the thing, it doesn’t start with the masses. It starts with one. It starts with one. It starts with one person.

INTRODUCTION:

Last week we introduced a new sermon series entitled, “Who’s Your One?” where we’re looking at what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, and we learned that the early church was known as disciples of Jesus, not as Christians. Being a disciple seems to cary more meaning to it than the word we use more commonly today, “Christian.” One of the things disciples do is they try to be like their teacher, or rabbi, and we saw last week that Jesus stated that he “came to seek and save the lost,” so we should also make it our purpose to do the same. Of course, when we talk about “reaching the world” for Christ, or we use phrases like, “We want to reach our community and the ends of the earth,” it makes the task feel overwhelming and impossible. So the purpose of this emphasis is to help us put a realistic goal in front of us. Just one person who you feel God wants you to pray for this year, but not just pray, also spend time with growing your friendship with them, and not only becoming their friend, but intentionally seeking opportunities where you can share Jesus with them and help lead them to faith in Jesus. We’re not doing this in one sermon series that will last a month or two, this is an emphasis that we will continue to promote even after this series, for the rest of the year and even into next year, so you have time to pray, and spend time, and share your faith. We can only do our part, but we trust that God is the one who changes hearts, so that pressure of bringing someone to Christ isn’t on your shoulders, we only do what God tells us to do, and then we pray and ask God to do what He does best: Transform lives.

Today we’re going to look at a group of friends that had a mission, and they encountered obstacles along the way, and how they dealt with those obstacles. If you have your Bible with you, please turn with me to Luke 5. Healing the Paralytic Luke 5:17-26 MAIN TEXT:

Let’s Pray... PASSAGE OUTLINE:

Let’s look at this group of friends and what they did in this passage. The first thing I want to point out to you is that…

I. THESE MEN HAD A MISSION.

This group of friends had heard about Jesus and what He could do, and they had a friend who needed what Jesus had. They set out that morning and they may not have known all the things that would happen that day, the ups and downs, the challenges they would face, but they knew in their hearts what their ultimate goal was. They wanted to see their friend walk again. That was their mission, and their actions that day were determined by whatever it took to see this mission completed.

Mission drives us, doesn’t it? It drives us as individuals, and it also drives our culture. Not only do we have a mission at times that we are trying to complete or fulfill, but sometimes people develop MISSION STATEMENTS that are a kind of overarching guide to everything else an individual or group does. Some of you have a mission statement for your family. You’ve even got them painted by some really artsy person, and it hangs over your fireplace. We develop mission statements for our companies to help keep us on course. When we get off course from our mission statement, all of a sudden, we’re not doing what our company was created to do. It defines the basics and essentials. For example, TED: You’r probably heard of or even listened to some TED talks. These are short, inspirational or interesting talks about any number of topics. Their Mission is: Spread Ideas Nike: We are all familiar with the athletic shoe brand that became an athletic powerhouse in general. Their Mission is: “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.*

*If you have a body, you are an athlete.”

Jesus had a mission statement:

Luke 19:10 CSB

10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

Many people would say that Jesus gave His disciples their Mission when He sent them out at the end of Matthew:

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

What did the men in this passage of Luke 5 see as their mission? At least in this moment in their lives, I would say that they had a mission to see their friend walk again. This mission drove them, and it determined their actions that day.

Let me ask you a question. Here are some things to ask yourself and ponder on. You can do it right now, but I recommend you spend some time this next week thinking on these questions some more, but here they are.

The first one is, “What drives you?”

What pushes you? What moves you forward in life? Is it to have a good job? Is it to have early retirement? Is it so you can maybe leave a good inheritance to your children? Those aren’t bad things, necessarily. God created work. Even before the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden, Adam was given work to do, and it is a good thing. That you would have a job that provides for you, and you provide for your family. And that you would be able to provide for your family for generations to come, but let me ask you, maybe in a different category. What things, spiritually speaking, drive you?

What things, spiritually, has God put on your heart that you long to see come to fruition in your lifetime?

QUESTIONS TO PONDER: • What drives you? • What things, spiritually, has God put on your heart that you long to see come to fruition in your lifetime?

Do you have kingdom dreams (such as people coming to faith in Christ), or being used by God for the sake of His kingdom in some way, or are your dreams all tied to this life?

What kingdom dreams do you have? What things in your life are you thinking about? And you’re dreaming about that are moving you in such a way that you’re not just living for the moment, but you’re living for eternity? That you’re saying to yourself, God, if this doesn’t happen, I don’t know if I could take another step. What are the things in your life that are welling up inside of you for eternity’s sake that are driving you and pushing you forward? If you’ve never thought about or dreamed about kingdom things, I encourage you to spend some time asking God what dreams He would want to give you that are of a spiritual and eternal nature.

Maybe at some point in your life, you have dreamed Kingdom dreams, but those have kind of faded over time. When was the last time you stopped to think about those dreams?

Today is Graduation Sunday, a perfect time to think about our dreams, not just for those young people who graduated, but for all of us. It’s fine to have dreams about education, and work, and a future family, and things like that, but we also should have dreams about how we can invest in things of eternal value. Those are the things that we get to take with us when we die.

Another thing we see in these men who helped their friend get in front of Jesus is that...

II. THESE MEN HAD AN EAGER EXPECTATION.

They actually believed that Jesus could heal this man. They thought, “Maybe, just maybe.” They took a risk because of the mission. This is true of men and women throughout the Bible

Examples:

Joshua leading the Israelites into the Promised Land - Joshua trusts God in taking out Jericho. A few chapters later the Israelites are asking God to stop the sun for them so they can finish their battle, and God does it. Experience with God led to expectations of what God could do.

Elijah on Mt. Carmel - Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Daniel 3:17-18 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.

These are the success stories we like to remember, but in Hebrews 11 we read about the great men and women of faith from the Old Testament. It names some of our favorites: Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, etc., but then it also talks about those who were faithful and didn’t meet such a rosy outcome.

Hebrews 11:36–38 NIV

36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

But regardless of the outcome, they all stepped out in faith. They had an expectation of what God could do, but their expectation of God’s goodness wasn’t focused on this earth and this life, they were all looking forward to God’s promise and His reward in an eternal kingdom, not a temporary one.

When was the last time you took a risk on God? When was the last time you stepped out in faith?These four men in the story of Luke 5 had heard about the miracles Jesus could do, and they came with expectations. We now live on the other side of Jesus’ work on the cross and through the empty tomb. We know about the resurrection of the dead. How much greater should our expectations be?

QUESTIONS TO PONDER: • Do you have an eager expectation of someone coming to faith? • Does your eager expectation move you to action?

Here’s why this is important. if it’s just a doctrine in your head, if the truths of God are just here, and they never make their way here, into your heart, you’re not really following Christ. You’re just being consumed with information. The gospel transforms the mind. It transforms the heart, and it propels the feet. The gospel moves us forward, and the kingdom moves us forward. We’re not just cheerleaders. We’re competitors, and we get on out there and we contribute to the kingdom of God going forward.

But in our passage, these men also encountered an obstacle.

III. THESE MEN ENCOUNTERED AN OBSTACLE.

Because of the crowd, there was no way to Jesus. At this point, many of us give up. We throw up the white flag of surrender. There’s no way in—or so it seems. We assume that an open door is equal to the path of least resistance. Imagine if these friends had seen the crowds and the blocked door and if they had told their friend in the stretcher, “Sorry buddy, it looks like God has closed the door on our mission. It must not have been God’s will for you to be healed.” I mean, if as Christians we consider the easy way the right way for what God wants us to do, then maybe it’s not so strange that churches throughout our country are struggling so much.

Imagine for a moment if the apostle Paul would have only walked through open doors? Half of the New Testament would have never been written. If you read what Paul writes about all the struggles he went through during his life of following Jesus to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, you will realize that something being hard doesn’t mean it isn’t the way God wants you to go. It is in those hard moments that having a mission that drives us helps us get through the tough times in life and helps us achieve the things that God calls us to do. These men saw the obstacle, but because their hope and belief were so strong, they they didn’t kick in the door, they dug a hole in the roof instead.

I hope you have started praying for your “One.” You know, the one person you feel God wants you to pray for and spend time with; invest part of your life in and share Jesus with. And over the course of the next months, there may be times when obstacles get in the way. It might be that suddenly your work becomes incredibly busy, and it’s hard to find time to spend with your One. It may be that your One gets busy coaching t-ball or soccer, or that your One suddenly has a bad experience with religion because of some other situation in their lives, and it feels like there is no way that there will be an open door for Christ to get in. Maybe you used to see them a couple of times a week as they walked the neighborhood, but now it’s getting hot and they’re doing something different. Whatever it is, it does not mean that because there is a closed door, God is done with them. You might need to pray and ask God for wisdom on how to get past that door. You might need to take drastic measures, like going to watch your One’s soccer team play when that’s the least interesting sport to you, or going to a Jazz club when you’d rather be at a NASCAR event. Or maybe you end up apologizing for the behavior of other “Christians” and help them see that not all Christians are disciples of Jesus.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER: • What obstacles have derailed you from the mission? • What would it look like for you to dig a hole in the roof?

In Luke 5, these guys found a way around their obstacle, and when they got their friend to Jesus, they thought Jesus was going to do something (heal their friend), but He actually did much more than that.

IV. THESE MEN GOT MORE THAN THEY BARGAINED FOR.

The friends thought they knew what the guy on the stretcher needed. He heeded to walk again. But that was only part of what he needed. Jesus understood the deeper need in this man’s life. Jesus starts his interaction with the paralytic by telling him, “Friend, Your sins are forgiven.” Immediately Jesus went to the heart of the person’s deepest need: Forgiveness. When the religious people in the crowd started to judge Jesus because he thought he could forgive sins, a thing only God could do, Jesus proves to them that He has the authority of God.

Luke 5:24–25 CSB

24 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he told the paralyzed man, “I tell you: Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.” 25 Immediately he got up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.

Don’t settle for the mundane when Jesus wants the miraculous. People thought the primary need was external. What Jesus did in this passage is true for everyone. He shows us that the greatest need is an internal posture of a heart that needs to be changed. And, when Jesus addressed the deeper need, the people were filled with awe!

At some point, you and I were the paralytic on the mat, and someone in your life, someone ... We can all trace a finger to some- one. Someone looked at you and they said, “My mission is to see that person come to faith in Christ.” And they were eager and expectant that God could do what only God can do in your life. And you know what? They’ve probably encountered a lot of obstacles. Your pride, circumstances in your life, things in the way. You didn’t want anything to do with it, but they kept persisting. They kept ... When the door was shut, they dug a hole through the roof.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER: • How did others play a role in your trusting in Jesus? • In what ways has Jesus transformed your life? • Why would you not long for this same type of transformation in others?

Who’s YOUR one?

Is it a parent? Is it a friend? Is it a child? Jesus told His disciples if they were going to follow Him, He would give them a new task. He’d given them a new mission. He’d give them a new direction. It was going to be one of the defining characteristics of every believer. And you know what that was? Jesus looked at His disciples, and He says, “Follow Me from the current state that you’re in. Follow Me, and I’m going to make you fishers of men.”

What He’s saying is, you’ve been fishing here for a long time. I’m getting ready to show you something greater. And it’s people. And it’s life transformation in the lives of people. I would say it’s time for us to get off the sideline and stop cheering and start fishing. Start moving the ball down the court. I came across a short story in a book called People Sharing Jesus by a guy name of Darrell Robin- son. I want to close out by reading that story to you.

“Now it came to pass that a group existed who called themselves fishermen. And lo, there were many fish in the waters all around.In fact, the whole area was surrounded by streams and lakes filled with fish. And the fish were hungry. “Week after week, month after month, and year after year, these who called themselves fishermen met in meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might go about fishing. Year after year they carefully defined what fishing means, defended fishing as an occupation and declared that fishing is always to be a primary task of fishermen. “Continually, they searched for new and better methods of fishing and for new and better definitions of fishing. They created witty slogans and displayed them on big, beautiful banners. “These fishermen built large, beautiful buildings called “Fishing Headquarters.” The plea was that everyone should be a fisherman and every fisherman should fish. One thing they didn’t do, however: They did not fish. “In addition to meeting regularly, they organized a board to send out fishermen to other places where there were many fish. The board hired staffs and appointed committees and held many meetings to define fishing, to defend fishing and to decide what new streams should be thought about. But the staff and committee members did not fish. “Large, elaborate and expensive training centers were built whose original and primary purpose was to teach fishermen how to fish. Over the years, courses were offered on the needs of fish, the nature of fish, where to find fish, the psychological reactions of fish and how to approach and feed fish. “Those who taught had doctorates in fishology, but the teachers did not fish. They only taught fishing. Year after year, after tedious training, many graduated and were given fishing licenses. They were sent to do full-time fishing, some to distant waters, which were filled with fish. Many who felt the call to be fishermen responded. They were commissioned and sent to fish. But like the fishermen back home, they never fished. “They engaged in all kinds of other occupations. Some felt their job was to relate to the fish in a good way so the fish would know the difference between good and bad fishermen. Others felt that simply letting the fish know they were nice, land-loving neighbors and how loving and kind they were was enough. “Now it’s true that many of the fishermen sacrificed and put up with all kinds of difficulties. Some lived near the water and bore the smell of dead fish every day. They received the ridicule of some who made fun of their fishermen’s clubs and the fact that they claimed to be fishermen yet never fished. “Imagine how hurt some were when one day a person suggested that those who don’t fish were really not fishermen, no matter how much they claimed to be. Yet it did sound correct. Is a person a fisherman if, year after year, he never fishes? More plainly stated: Is one really following if he isn’t fishing?”

It’s time to start casting our nets. Who’s the one you’re going to go after? Who’s your one?

Let’s pray...

Hebrews 13:20–21 CSB

20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.