James Greer: 00:00 Good morning, Journey Church, Amen. Let’s hear it for that praise team, man, that was a home run today wasn’t it? Man, I’m so proud, we had that Be the Church online course, I can’t believe we already had over 300 people sign up, and they’re just going through it like crazy. If you haven’t, you can just sign up in your bulletin, and drop it off at the kiosk center in the back, The Next Step Center.

James Greer: 00:21 Man, I’m going to tell you what, Wednesday nights have been fantastic. I mean we did one Wednesday night on drinking, we did one night on tattoos, and one Wednesday night on divorce. Guess what the largest watched service was? Let me tell you, yeah. Also welcome Alexandria, amen, you all are rocking the house over there. But the largest one was tattoos, we had almost 3000 people online watching. By the way, we want to welcome our online church people that are watching, man you all really make a difference and giving a lot of feedback. This Wednesday night 6:30, at this campus, will be teaching and preaching on what the Bible says about abortion, because there’s a lot going on with that right now.

James Greer: 01:04 Well, this is the last Sunday on 40 Days of Prayer. Next Sunday, we’re going to start Marriage Boot Camp, and whether you’re married or unmarried, divorced, thinking about getting married, it’ll apply to everybody. But there are six things that we’ve really learned so far. We learned that prayer can prolong your physical life. In other words, King Hezekiah, he prayed and went to God, and God gave him 15 extra years. Prayer can enhance our spiritual life, we learned about that. Prayer can improve our marriage life. Next Sunday, we start our new series called Marriage what? Bootcamp, amen? Prayer can improve our sexual life? Prayer can improve our financial life, and this Sunday we’ll learn how prayer can change our life, prayer can also change the life of our loved ones. And prayer can actually take your problems, and turn it into unbelievable power.

James Greer: 02:08 So what are you willing to do to help change somebody’s life? Let’s me tell you what we’re going to do, we’re going to learn about four guys that had a friend, and they love this friends so much they were willing to go to church or wherever Jesus was preaching, and it was so full they couldn’t get in, and they tore the roof open and dropped him down. These guys were crazy. Amen? But they were crazy for Jesus. I mean, you know, why would you go to that much trouble? Why would these guys go to so much trouble to carry a paralyzed person to where Jesus was speaking, and then couldn’t get him in, and they still didn’t give up. So they went to all problems, all the trouble, of letting him down through the roof.

James Greer: 02:39 Let me tell you a couple of reasons. First of all, everybody here has some problems that are too big for you to handle. Everybody here has a problem that only Jesus Christ can handle in your life. Second of all, everybody here has a loved one or somebody they know, that they need to do everything they can to get them to Jesus. I mean, we all had these big problems. Some of them are marriage problems, and you know what? If you’re here today on unbelievable marriage problem, the same Jesus that allowed this guy that was paralyzed to walk, is the same Jesus that can heal your marriage. But also you got to remember Psalms 127:1, it says, “Unless the lord builds you house, you labor in vain.” In other words, it fools you, it’s a false sense of security, unless you’re allowing the Lord to build your house. So God wants to do that.

James Greer: 03:22 It could be your financial situation. The Bible says, God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory. Jesus is not broke. The government might be broke, I might be broke, you might be broke, but Jesus is not broke. He said, I’ll supply. And Jesus said, I’ve got a financial plan for your life, and if you’ll allow me, I’ll help meet every single need in your life. It might be you’re here, and you’re lonely. God said, I’ll never leave you, never forsake you. So he says, listen, what he does is tell us this, you might be alone, but you never have to be lonely. And so see, there’s this guy, and they said, man, if I can just get my friend to Jesus Christ, his life will change. And can I tell you? I don’t believe there’s any problem too big for the Lord. Amen.

James Greer: 04:04 So let’s look at it in Mark chapter two and we’ll start at verse one and we’ll read the first three verses. Okay? “And again, he, (That’s Jesus.) entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that he was in the house.” Man, that’s what I want to see said about Journey Church. We heard that, who was in the house? Jesus is in the house. Who’s in the house? Jesus is in the house. Because he is in the house. Amen? “And immediately many gathered together, so that there were no longer room to receive them.” That’s what I want, not only do I want Jesus in the house, I want there to be so many in the room, you can’t even sit down. Amen. “Not even near the door.” You know when people come in, they’ll sit in the back anyway. “And he preached the word to them.” Man, that’s where I try to do every Sunday, I want to preach the word. Because see, the word is what will change your life. “Then they came to him, (Here you go.) bringing a man that was paralyzed who had to be carried by four men.” What happened now? There was one man that had a problem that looked impossible, if you’re paralyzed and you can’t move and you have to be carried by men, you have a major problem in your life. Amen? The story is not just about a paralyzed guy. The story is about if you’re here, and you have a problem that looks impossible, the greatest thing you can do is to get to Jesus Christ. The four men believed is there’s nothing too hard for God. They believe, I don’t care what the problem, I don’t care if it’s marriage, finances, if I could just give them to Jesus, their life would be changed. Everybody in here fits in those two categories. You’ve got problems that are too big for you, and you’ve got friends that need to come to Jesus. The good news is every single man, woman, boy and girl can leave here changed, happy and healthy and holy.

James Greer: 05:42 Sometimes, I want you to get this, it takes more than one person to help get the other person healed or made whole. I mean, you know, our motto is I mess up, you mess up, what? We all mess up. But we want to take our mess ups, and turn it into a miracle. And one of the best examples I know is our DA Phillip Terrell. And Philip is a friend of this pastor, but he’s also a friend of Journey Church. He knows a lot of you already, but away. He almost hates to see me coming, he says what now? No, no, he’ll be here after while. But what you might know about Philip before he became the DA, he did some DA things, disappointing accomplishments. You all thought it was something else, didn’t you? I wasn’t going to tell what kind of DA that was. But anyway, anyway, he was a good attorney and he was a great judge, that had a problem. He went from drinking a little, to drinking a lot, and he became an alcoholic. He became such an alcoholic, you know, he would sit at work and he kept a fifth of whiskey in there and he would go in between trials, and he’d be drinking the whiskey. He said the horrible thing about it, here he is, I’m having to judge people coming to court, and sentence them for the very thing he was doing. But he had a wonderful wife, she kept talking to him, trying to get his life changed. And he kept saying, I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it, you know. But she loved him, and she got to experience, and knew how out of control he was. I love this true story of what she did, she got two or three other men, they got a plan. They walked to his office, he looked at him and said, what are you all doing here? They said, we’re going to literally bring you to rehab. He said, oh, I can’t go. He said, I got all these cases, who will take my cases? One of them had already called the other judge, and said, hey, he’s just said that he’s going to take all your cases. He said, I don’t even know where I’d go. The other one picked up phone, and said hey, we’ve already made arrangements for where you go. He brings his whiskey out, and says, I guess I’ll better take one more last drink. He said, it doesn’t matter, you can take it with you, because it’s going to be your last one. Then they went to the problem of getting him into the car, and actually bringing him to rehab. Where his life was radically changed through the rehab, and through Jesus Christ. The true story is this, Philip, that had this unbelievable drinking problem, had a praying wife who had a determined personality to free her husband, to see him different. The very one that we call Philip, now is the very honorable District Attorney Phillip Terrell. Is greatly there because his wife interceded and prayed for him, had enough insight that said, hey, I need to get some help for my husband, to get help and to get him healed. See the greatest help you can ever do, and I can ever do, is get somebody to know Jesus Christ in a personal and practical way. Sometimes, what I want you to know, you can’t do it alone. Sometimes your loved one is so bound up, or blind, or so in bonded. That you need other people to help you, to help them get out of that bondage, to where they can really get to Jesus Christ, and then Jesus Christ can radically change them. Let me tell you, so his wife Vicky was a type of lady, hey, it wasn’t for men. carrying a paralyzed guy, it was one lady and two or three minutes, carrying her husband to rehab to get help. Amen?

James Greer: 08:55 Alright, back to Mark, chapter two, verse four true story. “Anyway, when they couldn’t come near him, because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed in which the paralyzed man was lying, I love this, I’d like to be preaching one day, and somebody let somebody down through the roof. I would really like to be the one to come down through the roof. You know what I’d really like though? I’d like for God to increase my faith to the point that I believe with all my heart that no matter how big the problem was, if I can just get them to Jesus the right way at the right time, God would take care of the problem. I wish I had men that loved me, like these men must love that guy, and I wish I loved men the way they loved him. See, it was also a picture of, I don’t care how bad it is, we need to do whatever we can do personally to bring our greatest burdens, our hurts, our sorrow and needs to the very foot of Jesus Christ. And the wonderful thing is today, everybody in here is going to have that opportunity.

James Greer: 10:06 Verse five. “And when Jesus saw their faith.” Whose faith? Was it? The paralyzed guy faith? No, it was the faith of the four that brought him. They said, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” I love this because our faith does change the lives of other people. It doesn’t say anything about the guys faith that was paralyzed. The faith that changed Philip was not his faith, he did not want to go. I learned the rest of the story, that I heard yesterday, that he doesn’t know I know. It took some other people to help get him in the car, and to getting him there, so see, it was the faith of his wife. That’s what I’m telling you, our faith can change the lives of other people that we love, if we love him enough that we say, we’ll do whatever it takes to get them to Jesus Christ. It doesn’t mean that we will not sin, but it means after we’ve been touched by Jesus Christ, we’ll always want to go back to him.

James Greer: 10:54 There it goes. You know this about happens, verse six, “And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God?”There’s always those people isn’t there? Always people getting upset. You know what they’re really upset about? They weren’t getting the attention, and the authority, that they felt they deserved. Free insight, better be careful, this happens in families and in marriages, it happens with kids, it happens with mates, it happens in jobs, it happens in church. Instead of enjoying, listen, instead of enjoying what God’s doing right in front of you, because you’re not getting the attention you miss out on it. Don’t allow other people getting attention, rob you from the joy that’s right in front of your life. There’s always going to be people who wished that he really wouldn’t of gotten healed, who he hadn’t changed.

James Greer: 11:53 As soon as he got out of rehab, I heard people said, guess what? Guess where he’s been? Look what happened to him? But see, at Journey Church we want do this, we want to learn to rejoice with those who rejoice, and we want to weep with those that weep. Amen? That’s what Romans 12:15 says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”

James Greer: 12:13 Okay, verse eight, but then it said, ” But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts?” By the way, can I tell you a secret? Jesus knows your heart, of every single person in here. He knows if you came in here and you have a hurting heart, if you’ve got a humble heart that needs ministering to, and he knows if you came in here and you have a hard heart. Okay, you ready? Hard hearts hurt people, humble hearts help people, and you can tell. That’s why it’s so important for us to guard our hearts. Hard hearts hurt people, humble hearts help people.

James Greer: 13:01 Verse nine, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’?” But that you may know, what? “That you may know that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sin.” Jesus has got some power. Amen? Jesus has got the power. “He said to the man that was paralyzed, he said, arise and take up your bed and go unto your house.” Are you all ready for another great free insight? Amen? If me and you, if we’ll obey the word of God, we get to experience the power of God. See, it’s the same Jesus, it’s the same power. See God, he became flesh and the flesh became the word. And so whatever we do, if you want to learn to do something, if you want your life radically changed, you hear from God, you obey God, and you’ll experience the power of God.

James Greer: 13:51 Do you know why? I’ll tell you, verse 12, what happened? He couldn’t get up. No, it said, “Immediately he rose.” Why? Because the word of God was then spoken. And we hear the word, and we obey the the word, we get to experience the power of the word. “He took up his bed, and he went out to the presence of them all, so all were amazed and glorified at God. Saying we’ve never seen anything like this.” That’s the kind of work Jesus does. Jesus wants to amaze you in your life. He wants to amaze you in your prayer life. He wants to see us, to where we said, man, that has to be the glory of God. In other words, let me ask you something. How long did it take Jesus to heal that guy? Immediately. How long would it take to use to change your life today? Immediately. How long will it take God to take your biggest problem, and change it where you can either go through it, or he would remove it? He can do it today, immediately.

James Greer: 14:39 So why in the world would these people go through all this trouble to get their friend to Jesus? Because number one, every one of us has a problem that only Jesus can help, I do, and you do. Amen? Why would you want to come into the presence of God, and carry your problem back? Wouldn’t it have been crazy for them to lay him down, and he said, take up your bed and walk, and he stood up, and then he laid back down and said, hey guys, carry me. See, I believe there are people come every single Sunday, and you come with unbelievable problem, and Jesus said, come unto me all that are heavy laden, I will give you rest. He says, come unto me and cast your burdens upon me, and you pick them up, and you go out with them. So he believed that nothing was impossible for God. God tells us that, he says, well there are some things are impossible with men, but nothing’s impossible for God.

James Greer: 15:22 This we’re going going to do, we’re getting close. When we get to the end, we’re going to give an invitation to every single person here at this service to come and give your greatest problem to Jesus Christ. The second reason those men did all that, is because they loved him. Man, if we don’t learn anything in the next few weeks at Marriage Boot Camp, I want you to know love is way more than an emotional feeling. True love is an action. Jesus said in John 15:13, he said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Okay, you ready? These friends, they loved this man so much, they carried him into the presence of Jesus Christ. Jesus loved me and you so much, he carried our sins and our burdens to the cross, and he wants to carry yours today.

James Greer: 16:07 That’s why one of my favorite verses is in Matthew 11:28, every single Sunday when I get to this point of service, I want to say, Hey, “Come unto me all that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Isn’t that something? Come unto me all, everybody here. Another translation says, man, are you tired of carrying your own heavy burdens? Why don’t you come unto me, and I will give you rest? So you got a choice, everybody here is one of two people. You’re here and you have a burden for somebody that you really, really love, and you need to start by coming in and seeking, and bringing them to the Lord. But then you need to take the initiative, like many have you done, and invite them to come where they can hear God’s word. They brought him into the presence of Jesus. Then some of you might, you have the burden for somebody that you love so much that needs to come. And then some of you, if you’ll be honest, you have a burden that is so big, apart from Jesus Christ, it’s impossible. And I believe this is the invitation from God, for you to bring that burden to him this morning.

James Greer: 17:14 So would you stand and let me pray with you and pray for you. Father, I just thank you for today, and I thank you for the power of your word, I thank you for the illustrations of the supernatural power. God, I thank you for those that have loved ones, that they’re willing to do almost anything they can do, to get them to Jesus. I’m thankful for those that come around and them, where you said two or three are gathered, there you are in the midst of them. And I pray now that you give some individuals some insight, they have a loved one that’s blinded or in bondage and they’re so far away from Jesus, that they’ll say, hey, maybe what I need to do is get with three or four other people and let them help me get that person to Jesus. And then God, how about those that are here with that problem? I pray now, God, that like you said, that they’d come onto you, and leave that problem here at the altar, God. Maybe those that have allowed Jesus to carry their burden, they’ve never invited Jesus into their heart. So whatever it is, maybe it’s to join the church, maybe it’s to follow through with public baptism. But man, can I tell you something? Jesus in the house, and it would be an absolute shame for you to go home the same way that you came. So it’s an invitation right now for you, from Jesus Christ, to bring your problems to the altar. Or if you want somebody to pray with you, and pray for you. Whatever God lays on your heart, it’s in his name I pray. Amen.

Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.