While Jesus was preaching the word of God, 3 four men arrived, carrying a paralyzed man. 4 But when they realized that they couldn’t even get near him because of the crowd, they went up on top of the house and tore away the roof above Jesus’ head. And when they had broken through, they lowered the paralyzed man on a stretcher right down in front of him. 5 When Jesus saw the extent of their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “My son, your sins are now forgiven.”
6 This offended some of the religious scholars who were present, and they reasoned among themselves, 7 “Who does he think he is to speak this way? This is blasphemy for sure. Only God himself can forgive sins.”
8 Jesus supernaturally perceived their thoughts and said to them, “Why are you being so skeptical? 9 Which is easier, to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are now forgiven,’ or, ‘Stand up and walk.’? 10 But to convince you that the Son of Man has been given authority to forgive sins, 11 I say to this man, ‘Stand up, pick up your stretcher, and walk home.’” 12 Immediately the man sprang to his feet in front of everyone and left for home.
When the crowds witnessed this miracle, they were awestruck. They shouted praises to God and said, “We’ve never seen anything like this before.” (Mark 2:1-12, TPT)
Our communities need to be saturated with the spreading (and demonstration) of Jesus love.
To be connected to community we need…
·
Faithful hearing (See Mark 2:1-3 above)
·
Faithful determination (See Mark 2:4-5 above)
·
Faithful attitudes (See Mark 2:6-9 above)
·
Faithful advise (See Mark 2: 10-12 above)
We all need to stand against injustice around
us (by being both the problem and the solution).
It’s important to look past the brokenness of
a community (to its actual needs).
Our goal with community is to: "Think about what we have in Christ: the encouragement he has brought us, the comfort of his love, our sharing in his Spirit, and the mercy and kindness he has shown us. If you enjoy these blessings, 2 then do what will make my joy complete: Agree with each other, and show your love for each other. Be united in your goals and in the way you think. 3 In whatever you do, don’t let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble, and honor others more than yourselves. 4 Don’t be interested only in your own life, but care about the lives of others too. 5 In your life together, think the way Christ Jesus thought.” (Philippians 2:1-5, ERV)[i]
[i] Inspired by the sermon “Staying Connected to
Your Community: Staying Together” (installment three) Sunday August 16,
2020, Pastor Josh Boyer, CenterPoint Lewis Center. All CenterPoint
churches are closed due to the Coronavirus, and are meeting online at 10am at
the CenterPoint Church Main Page on Facebook.)
Thanks to my wife for
taking the fantastic sermon notes today. It gave my painful right arm a break.
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