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At TF, we're all about following Jesus...
There was a study recently done by the largest church in North America, Willow Creek, in Chicago. They surveyed 175,000 people from over 700 different churches. All different denominations and styles. This study revealed that there were 4 different types of people in churches:
1) Exploring Christ - People with a belief in God but not sure what to think about Jesus.
2) Growing in Christ - People new to faith and exploring a personal walk with God.
3) Close to Christ - Christ is important and people rely on him for daily guidance and help.
4) Christ-centered - These are people for whom Christ is everything, they are working to align every value, every action, every detail of their lives around the teachings of Jesus.
The Reveal study found that the differences among these four groups are huge. There were obvious differences in attitudes about God and others. These attitudes then translated themselves into behaviors: how they spend their time, how they serve others, how they invest in those who don't know Jesus, how they manage their money.
So the researchers started asking, "how does a person move toward being Christ-centered (4)"? You'll be glad to know that their studies found that the church helped in that journey. Sunday morning worship, being a part of a small group, serving in ministry - all of those activities helped a person move closer to Christ. While those were all significant, there was one activity that blew the others away; engaging the bible.
They discovered that people went through a process of reading the bible. People started with occasionally reading the bible, to when you do read it thinking about it more deeply, to a daily study of the bible. Christ-centered people became Christ-centered through an increased engagement with scripture. They move from "I don't even know how to read the bible, it intimidates me" to "it's the most indispensable aspect of my life." The more committed they were to studying the bible, the more committed they became to Christ. In case you're wondering, the next three most important aspects of a person becoming more committed to Christ were prayer, relationships and serving.
Which sound a lot like our The 5 (ipod slide) Engagement with scripture comes under the discipline of Worshipping God. We worship God not just on Sunday morning, but the rest of the week as well.
Weekly - SOAP Christ-centered
With that in mind, we're going to approach the scripture passage a bit differently this morning. I'm not going to preach today, at least not in the usual way (I know you're all excited). This morning we'll be engaging the passage through the SOAP process.
If you're new this morning, I just want to let you know this is a bit different than what we usually do. I usually give an incredibly engaging, witty, life-transforming 3 hour monologue. And if you've never engaged scripture in this way, it's going to feel a bit awkward. It's like trying to learn how to ride a bike as a kid, it's not comfortable at first. Believe me when I say, learning how to engage the bible is worth the effort.
Scripture The S in SOAP stands for scripture. Read back of weekly Every Sunday in 2008, we're looking at a passage from the book of Matthew. Matthew is one of the books in our bible about the life of Jesus.
Matthew 9:1-8 reread together, aloud sit down David, I'll sit everyone down, I'd like to have you keep the passage on the screen for another minute, you'll probably have to switch back between screens
Is there one verse or phrase in particular that spoke out to you? If so, write it down on that half sheet of paper that's on your chair. Pause for one minute
Imagine you're one of these characters.
What do you think may have prompted these men to take their friend to Jesus?
How do you think the paralyzed man responded? Was he happy or frustrated?
How would you respond if your friends tried to drag you to Jesus? Would you be brave enough to hope for healing? Pause
When we read passages from the bible, we need to pay attention to their context. What stories lead up to this and what stories follow. Authors had reasons for the order of their stories. This story is the third in a trio of stories about Jesus' power. The story right before this one was about Jesus having power over demons. The one before that was about Jesus having power to calm the storm. This story shows the power of Jesus to forgive and heal.
We also pay attention to the important words. The most important word in this passage is the word "sin." What does the bible mean by sin? The literal translation of this word, "sin" is "to miss the mark." God has this target for your life, a trajectory he wants you to follow. Sin is missing that mark. Turning away from God's best for you. Veering off target.
When you're engaging your SOAP readings, read them several times. And then you'll be ready for the next step, Observation. Read from weekly
So let's take a minute for you to do that, to rewrite this passage in your own words. To write down any observations you might have. 2 minutes
I'll share with you some of the things that jumped out at me. Some of these are my own. Some came through my usual study methods. When I'm reading for my own spiritual growth, I don't usually use the types of books I use when I'm preparing a message. God speaks to me directly through this SOAP process. But when I'm preparing to speak to a room full of people, I need to share more than just my own insights, so I use other resources. So if any of these observations seem really insightful, it probably came from my study.
Vs. 2a - "faith" The paralyzed man obviously had no say in the matter, his friends just picked him up. "Dude, you're coming with us." Was he excited to meet Jesus, or was he thinking, "I'm just getting my hopes up again."
The real heroes of this story are his friends. These guys had to carry their paralyzed buddy through the thick crowds around Jesus. In fact, in one of the other book about Jesus in the bible, we read that they had to lower their friend down through the roof. And there were no paid vacations in those days. They would've had to skip work to get their friend to Jesus. It was hard work, it cost them money, but they were willing to do whatever was necessary to introduce their friend to Jesus. That's friendship.
We read that Jesus was impressed by the faith of the friends. Jesus didn't mention the faith of the paralyzed man, he mentioned the faith of the friends. The paralyzed man was too depressed to have faith, so his friends had faith for him.
When I read that, I thought of a story in our church. Travis Botcher shared his personal story on Easter and he invited several friends to be here that day. One couple came just to be nice but really expect much, they'd be glad to stay awake during the service. But God got a hold of them that morning. We've started meeting together for Bible studies, they've been in church every Sunday since Easter. It's Marty and Lindsay Mothersbaugh. Stand And you want to know a funny coincidence, they were on Travis' Fave Five. He was praying for them. He had faith on their behalf. But Travis' faith is now becoming theirs. And now Marty and Lindsay are started filling out their own Fave Five card.
When we met on Wednesday, we talked about this idea of forgiveness. My observation is that forgiveness is the main theme of this passage. Vs. 2b
How do you think the paralyzed man took this? "I don't need my sins forgiven, I need to be healed." But the wisdom of Jesus prompted him to move past the physical need to the even deeper need. Forgiveness is our deepest need.
We've all missed the mark. We've hurt ourselves, we've hurt those we care about, we've hurt God. Until we experience forgiveness, we're paralyzed just like this man.
I love what Jesus says to him, "you sins are forgiven." Which is different than, "I forgive you." Jesus isn't choosing right then to forgive the man, Jesus has already decided to forgive even before the man ever got there. Forgiveness was a foregone conclusion. It's God's nature to forgive. He's already decided to forgive. The question is whether or not we can hear him saying that.
Vs. 3 - this makes me laugh. Why yes, he does think he's God. Sometimes I crack myself up when I'm reading the Bible. Jesus clearly believed he was God. Either he really was God or he was crazy.
Vs. 4-6 Do you think Jesus is just showing off? He's backing up his words. This miracle proved that Jesus has the power to forgive. With just a word, Jesus made this man right again. And in case you missed this miracle, he died and came back to life. Christ is Risen He's showing the power that comes when we're forgiven. Only after the man is forgiven does he have the power to leave the sickness behind. The same is true of us. We're forgiven first, then we leave that pattern of sin behind.
After he's healed, Jesus tells him to pick up his mat and go home. "Home" is a powerful word here. For years, this man wasn't able to pick up his kids, hug his wife, shake hands with his friends. He was separated from his most important relationships. That's what sin does. Forgiveness allows us to go back to life the way it was meant to be. Vs. 7
Have you ever hurt someone? That's an obvious one. Have you ever heard that person say, "I forgive you."? It's like coming home after a long trip.
Application weekly
I'm going to ask you some questions based on the observations we just made.
1) Who is in your Fave Five? Is there someone you care about that does not yet have faith? Can you have faith for them? What does it look like to carry them to Jesus? Maybe it's telling them you're praying for them. Maybe it's bringing a meal to them. Maybe it's sharing your story with them?
2) Have you heard Jesus say, "your sins are forgiven"? It's already been decided, but are you listening? Or have you convinced yourself you've committed the unforgivable sin? Do you really believe Jesus has the authority to forgive sins?
3) Who do you need to forgive? The person who hurt you, God, yourself?
4) What would it look like to go home? Maybe home is being at peace with yourself. Maybe it's reconciling with that other person. Maybe it's connecting with a faith community, like TF. Maybe it's going to counseling to get help with that issue.
Are you ready to go home?
We're going to take a few minutes for you to write and apply this passage to your life.
2 minutes

Prayer weekly
For a lot of people, it's easier to write a prayer than to speak the prayer.
Maybe you prayer begins, "I need to be forgiven of _____." Maybe it's, "I need to forgive ____." Maybe you pray, "help me carry ____ to Jesus." Maybe you write, "God help me go home."

2 minutes
Prayers

You can continue praying if you'd like. While the band is playing these next two songs, I invite you (when you're ready) to walk to one of the tables and receive communion. Communion is our celebration of what Jesus did on the cross. It's a physical reminder of his forgiveness. The bread represents his body broken on the cross and the juice represents his blood shed on the cross.
If you're ready to accept Jesus' forgiveness, I encourage you to take the elements. There are also offering baskets for you to give of your offering.
As you taste the elements, may you hear "you are forgiven."