June 23, 2019 | Dr. Jack Graham | Whatever It Takes | Mark 2:1-12 | Sunday Sermon

take your Bibles please and turn with me to Mark's Gospel chapter 2 the Gospel of Mark chapter 2 and again we welcome all of you who are watching on a line and we would just encourage you to stay connected with us as we preach God's Word I love the line and that song you just heard it sung if you gave your heart to love them so will I and that's really what this message is about the love of Jesus Christ who came to seek and to save the Lost and if that's what God has done in Christ then he is called and commanded every one of us to say so will I Jesus said as the father has sent me so do I send you we're about to see in mark chapter 2 a miracle a miracle by the hand because of the heart of God for a man who was paralyzed broken and ruined his own sin holding him back and yet loved by God and loved by four of his friends who cared enough about his soul his life his brokenness his helplessness his hopelessness to do whatever it takes to get this man to Jesus so in Luke chapter Mark chapter two verse one it says and when he returned to Capernaum that is when Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days it was reported that he was at home Capernaum is now known as the hometown of Jesus we know Jesus was born in Bethlehem and he was raised in Nazareth but somewhere along the way apparently Jesus adopted this little fishing village called Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee as his own personal home and after traveling all throughout the Sea of Galilee and preaching and great multitudes and masses of people were following Jesus wherever he went he was you know if I might say it was like he was a rock star people everywhere wanted to get close to Jesus his powerful words the proclamation the preaching of his word the touching of lives changing of lies the miracles that were taking place everyone wanted to get close to Jesus and so as Jesus went to his hometown and he was there a few days verse 2 says and many were gathered together we don't know how many but so many that there was no room not even at the door Jesus was in the house and people were trying to get in just to get close to Jesus and the Bible says that he was preaching the word to them imagine that the Word of God preaching the Word of God and he's preaching God had one son and he made him a preacher and of course the Savior and so many were there to hear him that they couldn't get in there was a great crowd there now never minimize the impact of crowds when they're coming to hear Jesus I know some people don't like crowds some people don't like crowds at church but Jesus loved the crowds he had compassion on the multitude and thousands and thousands of people were coming to meet Jesus I'll never forget as a small boy the first time I heard Billy Graham it was in a stadium War Memorial Coliseum in Little Rock Arkansas and I was amazed when I saw thousands of people coming to that stadium to hear the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and and somehow even then that that God in my heart that we should do everything possible whatever it takes to bring as many people as possible to Jesus Christ I know some people say they like church cozy and small and comfortable but you need to check on your motivation there why do you like it cozy small and comfortable is it because you're more comfortable because you don't like the crowds because you think it's more intimate no that's not the right motivation don't you want to see thousands and thousands and thousands of people coming to faith in Jesus Christ don't you want to take the gospel of Jesus Christ not just to a few but to the whole world to the multitude don't you now there's nothing wrong with a small church we partner and plant churches and our prestonwood network and typically their startups and difficult areas are maybe then the countryside somewhere in county seat towns and and we support and we pray and we're grateful for it there's there's really no such thing as a small church if that church is significantly reaching people as best they can in their community for Christ so hear me say that there's nothing wrong with a small church but there's nothing wrong with a big church either if that big church is truly proclaiming the gospel and bringing hundreds if not thousands of people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we built this building 7,000 seats and of course we have multiple services now multiple venues and we have multiple sites and as a matter of fact let me encourage you to pray for our North Campus because next week Connor bales will begin as our new lead pastor at the North Campus Connor is returning to Preston wood and he'll be our new pastor there which side about the North Campus and all that God is doing there so we have multiple sites and multiple venues and a lot of people coming but this big room I was asked when we first moved in here well why did you build 7,000 seats I said because we couldn't afford to build more we wanted to build it as big as possible to reach as many people as possible and that's always been the heart of the intent because the heart of God is for everyone and you know why because everyone needs a miracle everyone needs Jesus not just a few and ultimately it's not about the crowds the crowds are exciting and expect that we love the crowds but elderly is not the crowds is about the one and the focus here is on the one Lord Jesus Christ and also the one that these four buddies these four friends brought to Jesus and so we're told in verse three and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men and when they could get near to him because of the crowd they removed the roof above him and when they had made an opening they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay and when Jesus saw their face say their faith he said to the paralytic son your sins are forgiven now scroll down to verse 10 but that you may know that the Son of man Jesus has authority on earth to forgive sins because no one can forgive sins but God the one forgiving the sins of the man is God Almighty he said to the paralytic 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 they were all amazed and glorified God saying we never saw anything like this would to God that we would leave church on Sundays saying we never saw anything like this because we believe in a miracle working God God still answers prayer God still heals bodies God still saves Souls God still changes lives God is a miracle working God and God still forgives sins and that's what is happening here as Jesus Christ changes this man's forever our faith the Christian faith is a super natural faith it was born in a miracle in the virgin birth of Christ it was ignited with a miracle the resurrection of Jesus Christ it's all about the supernatural it's all about the great miracle of who Christ is and why he came to die on the cross to rise again on the third day if this is the miracle and the greatest miracle of all it's not a physical healing though those are powerful and great and God still heals physically but it's the miracle of salvation that God could forgive sins that God could change lives and make us whole and clean again that he could forgive us in His mercy and His grace because of his blood because of his cross is supernatural you know you can't can't order it on Amazon you can't get it at Costco if you can't get it at Costco you just can't get it right and if you can't get it in a pill or in a bottle this salvation is in Christ and Christ alone and so this man meets Jesus in his life is forever changed but the reason that he met Jesus because he was helpless hurting and hopeless the reason he met Jesus is because he had four friends who cared enough to get him there to experience the power and the presence of Christ for himself fact is God uses ordinary people these are nameless men we don't know the name of the paralytic we don't know the names of the four friends just four guys where did they meet I don't know maybe in a Bible study maybe they met at church when Jesus was preaching in a synagogue maybe they've been friends a long time but these four men were broken and burdened over the brokenness of their friend he's a paralytic he can't move he can't get to Jesus he can't help himself they said what if what if we would do whatever it takes to travel the distance to get this man to Jesus and then when they get there the crowd is so big and I have often said this pictures to me sometimes the crowd is so big and everybody there's loving here in Jesus but they're in the way if they're just they are just for a blessing to hear Jesus and sometimes Christians get in the way of people coming to Jesus because we're more interested in ourselves and our comfort our seed our parking space our stuff our time so we crowd in and we miss the miracle then there were Pharisees their religious types they criticize the whole thing the very idea that Jesus claimed to forgive sin only God could forgive sin got it because Jesus is God he can forgive sin they're always unbelievers who are the haters and the critics and the cynics who who are in the way of people coming to Jesus so these guys had to get through the crowd they had to get through the carnal they had to get through the critic say and then they'd go to the top of the building the roof and these buildings were these homes were like Foursquare and and then a fast roof kind of you know made up of branches and and dirt and mud and so on so it makes sense when they when one of them had the idea can you imagine this they said hey you know if we can't get through let's go up and let's take him down through the roof whatever it takes and so Jesus is preaching away of course I'm you know he knew everything that was going on but as Jesus is preaching people are listening all of a sudden debris starts coming down from the roof and more debris and everyone's looking up by now and then there's a little hole and then a big hole in a roof at roof and a man and his stretcher being lowered down to the feet of Jesus they get into the feet of Jesus and Jesus looks up their faith went down and Jesus looked up and when he solved their faith not the faith of the man on the pallet we don't even know but he had much faith but when he saw the faith of the four men the faith of those four guys who did whatever it takes to get their friend to Jesus I'm just certain that this huge smile creased the suntan countenance of Christ he looked up and smiled he saw the faith of those four men and he said to this man on the ground your sins are forgiven because like every human being his number-one problem was not that he couldn't walk but the fact that he was a sinful man who needed salvation the walking would come later but the salvation always comes first and so jesus said get up and immediately he did and the people were amazed by this grace the amazing grace of God whatever it takes what's it gonna take for you and me to do whatever it takes to get our friends our family members to Jesus because I'm telling you if you will get them to Jesus a miracles on the way how do we do it number one is intercession intercession and the video we just saw from the students I love the fact that several of the students were saying they begin praying for their friend God put up burden on their hearts a passion for God a passion for their friends to know God to know Christ and this is where it always starts if you don't have a burden for lost people people far away from God then get on your knees and stay there till you do have a burden to cry out to God in behalf of that one who is long gone maybe you have a prodigal child in your wonder God can you even do a miracle in my child's life or you've got a marriage on the rocks I mean your marriages is falling apart and you need a miracle in your home a miracle in your family maybe you're addicted to alcohol or drugs and and are you a friend who is addicted to alcohol and drugs and you're thinking they're never coming back but you begin to pray for them and you begin to ask God to do something supernatural in their lives and you watch God work because what's going to happen when you pray and you get a burden you get up from off your knees and you'll go and then you'll have a conversation and that's the next thing that happens there's a conversation that we actually start telling people about Jesus we talk about everything we talked about the weather we talk about the sports we we talk about the stock market we talk about the weather boy do we talk about the weather we talk about our aches and pain you go to a 50th high school reunion like I just did like my wife just did this year and within 10 minutes 90% guaranteed they're going to be telling you about their medications we talk about everything but how many of us are talking about Jesus when we had the opportunity to bring up the subject of a conversation when is the topic Jesus the Apostle Peter and John when they were told to shut up stand down and never talk about Jesus again they said no way they said we cannot help but speak of those things which we have seen and heard when you have experienced the miracle of Christ in your life when Jesus changes your life and you believe that he can change other people's life I'm telling you can't stop talking about it because it's too good to keep and what's happened with these students and what can happen everywhere time we gather in every day of our lives when we begin to talk about Jesus not pushing not arm twisting but just simply in a normal and the daily traffic patterns of our lives start talking about Jesus just share your testimony everyone if you have a testimony you can share it in some way and all of us can converse enough to - to tell people to look to God to look to Jesus you just can there's no excuse for us not to be trained in evangelism we have plenty of training tools and techniques and all the rest but remember it starts with intercession it starts with prayer the prayer becomes a passion and then it becomes a conversation I know when I pray and I ask God to open doors of opportunity for me to share my faith it's amazing how alert I am and how the Spirit of God prompts me to talk to people about Jesus it's conversations gospel conversations and you can do it in the power of Christ because you're not on your own this isn't just you doing the best you can the Bible says after the Holy Spirit has come upon you you will be my witnesses a witness what is a witness a witness just tells people what they've seen and what they've heard the Apostle Paul brilliant mind great apologist he could say it all do it all but ultimately he kept it simple when he shared his faith he's told people what Christ had done for him we see his testimony three times in the in the in the book of Acts just sharing what Christ has done for me and if Christ has changed you if Christ has cleanse me of Christ has converted you have a conversation and then there's invitation there's an invitation which means you actually invite people to church actually invite people and bring them that's what these four men did they had the conversation they were telling people these this this paralyzed man about Jesus and they said hey let's go you want to go where they said I can't go look I'm I can't go so we'll get you there whatever take what is miles okay we're ready to go paid a price to count every cost to win the loss and then they get there and their friend is radically transformed I promise you this if you will invite and bring your friends to prestonwood they're going to hear the gospel they're going to meet Jesus you know that don't you and all these things that we have these programs and ministries from radio television internet sports ministries love our sports ministry our Bible teaching ministry our classes our group student ministry children's ministry there are hundreds and hundreds of you know what these programs you know what these ministries are they're stretchers these programs are like a pilot like a like a stretcher that we can carry people to meet Jesus but we all need to work as a team and get our edge of the blanket our edge of the stretcher to do whatever it takes to get people to the Lord miracles happen when we pray when we converse when we invite and when we innovate there's innovation that's the last thing and that is we try new things try what the unusual you know the seven last words of the church we never did it that way before so we're always looking for innovations not just for the sake of change you know everybody let's everybody likes change and that somebody wants to change you and what you like but through the years we've tried to innovate and create new things new ministries new probes that take risk and had to pay the price I I've often said I wonder who paid for that roof somebody paid maybe one of those guys just picked his pocket said you know what I'll take care of the roof that's on me it costs cost whatever you have whatever it takes to bring people to Jesus last night Jared Stevens was talking about his brother he brought a message a great message down on our student worship building ultimately we're gonna move our Saturday night service to this new venue the great worship building we have down there so he was preaching and he was talking about praying and asking God to do a miracle when you think it was impossible maybe you think my friend is impossible well you know that's not the truth and Jeff's gonna tell you how someone very near very dear to him who he thought was impossible he got to Jesus and his life was changed come on Jer this Jared Stephen thank you so much and this whole idea thank you believing the impossible you know God forever sealed on my heart a few years ago five years ago this year six years ago in November that he can do the impossible and we talked about bringing our friends to Jesus and this context of the passage today doing whatever it takes there's no question that as you're listening to pastor preach God by the power of the Holy Spirit puts one two three people in your mind that you know you need to share Christ with but the reality is you're saying that person will never come to Jesus pastor I've already tried it I've given them every conversation I had I've given them every opportunity I've made the invite and they just say no and that person is just not going to come to church they're not going to receive Christ and sometimes we can get discouraged because we love them their friends their family members and we think God why aren't you doing this well I would encourage you this morning to do exactly what these friends did exactly what our pastors been talking about and don't ever give up on these people in your life that need to come to know Jesus my brother and I was raised in a home an older brother a younger sister great mom and dad who brought us to church we grew up going to the same camps the same Vacation Bible schools were a close family my brother graduated high school he went to the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg and became really what some of the statistics prove out that seven out of ten would they grow up in the church some leave and never come back and that's exactly what happened he was one that left and said you know what I'm never coming back and was a real burden to my family of course I was called to ministry going to Bible School my brother's doing his own deal in south Mississippi he had joined the Pi Kappa Alpha Pike house president there fast forward 10 years he had moved to new oil and still thought he was president of the pike house if you know what I'm talking about he was married had a great family at least on the outside everything is looking good and then six years November my grandfather passes away and you've heard me talk about my granddad before a hero to me and my older brother we went to his funeral in South Mississippi and we found ourselves outside talking after the funeral and he was getting ready to go back to New Orleans I was getting ready to come back here to Dallas and I'd shared Jesus with my brother before I had done exactly what we're talking about in the message today I've been praying for for 17 years I had friends praying for him some in this service right here that have prayed along with me for my brother's salvation and every time I would bring it up in a conversation whether it was on a summer break or a winter break when our families were together I try to bring it up and I can just remember it like it was yesterday I'm saying Jarrett's save it just save it and so all I knew to do was pray and again it was a burden for my family of course and my grandfather passes away and we're out there talking me and my brother and he says Jarrett man I really need to get back in church he brought it up and I said Eric listen I don't know much about anything but I know about church okay and I said we planted a church through our prestonwood Network down in New Orleans and the pastor's a good friend of mine I said if you would just go give it two times I'll never talk to you about church again that was the last conversation we had he drove back to New Orleans that night Saturday evening Sunday morning I got in my car I was driving back to Dallas I can remember where I was I wasn't driving through Longview Texas and I remember pulling up social media Twitter account and I saw there a finished church I pulled off to the side of the road to pull up the Twitter account and pull up the picture finished Church it says packed house we had to put people outside today and I just click on the picture and lo and behold there's my brother sitting there first time in church in probably years and we ramped up the prayers and what happens I got home I didn't know this my brother calls me said Jared I've been going to church and he said I got to be honest with you with Paul Paul passing away he said he began to tell me about his marriage and how it was disintegrating falling apart he and his wife were separating we had no idea and what God was doing is he does sometimes is he brings us to the end of ourselves right to where we're on our back and all we can do is look up and I just sense God saying Jared you need to be very forthright with your brother right here and I just told him I said Eric listen God's brought you to this point in your life and I didn't know if my brother was a prodigal who prayed to receive Christ is a little kid and he had that seed planted in him and he was just running away or if he was unsaved I have no idea there was certainly no fruit in his life to show that he was a believer but my responsibility was to pray and I just went along I said Eric listen God's getting ahold of you he's pursuing you and you're either gonna bow your neck and it's gonna get worse or you're gonna bow your knee and surrender your life to Christ not and that was the conversation that we had the next morning I'm pulling in here to the church I get a phone call from my brother and he's on the other line and he's crying and he said Jerry listen I got to get my life right and I need to go all in with the Lord and we begin to talk and pray together and then again six years ago in November I drove down to New Orleans Louisiana to the church that we helped plant they were meeting in a bowling alley at the time I preached the service that day my entire family was there and then right after the service we as an entire church vintage church went out to a church parking lot they had put a baptismal in the back of a truck and right there I got to baptize my big brother watch the screen personal way Eric your testimony you're being baptized today because you've trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior because of that public profession of faith in the Lord Jesus and obedience to his command i baptize you in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit where buried Christ in baptism so listen I'm here to encourage you nothing's too hard from God nobody's too far away you keep praying you keep having the conversations you keep inviting you keep inviting say I'll baptize you in the back of a truck at Preston what if I have to I'm telling you nothing is too hard from God let's keep doing whatever it takes amen and let's keep ringing let's keep bringing people to Jesus when when jarrett was talking about his brother away from God all those 17 years my I reflected on Mike not not only what God did in his brother's life but Michael Peron who is our life recovery minister here at prestonwood and for 17 years Michael who grew up in a wonderful home great family but he became addicted to alcohol to drugs and for 17 years he was hooked tried his best to get off get off out of the addiction for a while but right back in until he met some Christians who began to pray for him and help him and brought him to the feet of Jesus and now 18 years later Michael has been sober 18 years a year longer than he was addicted he's now serving and helping others in our church because we're going after his strong you know it's messy but they're broken people everywhere mental mental health issues depression anxiety addiction all the rest and too often churches have ignored these issues and we're not going to ignore them Michael is on our staff where we're doing some new things some innovative things some creative things and just some hard things frankly some Jesus things because Jesus cares about the addict Jesus cares about the broken Jesus cares about those who are hurting jesus cares about those who are helpless and we're to go get them whether it is a cross town to our bond town community where our church has been serving for many years to our bridge builders whether it is establishing a Pregnancy Center in South Dallas or right here in our community let me tell you about another miracle just stay with me a few more minutes a number of months ago a young woman walked into our prestonwood pregnancy center did a sonogram she is expecting she's 12 or 14 weeks but she said you know I cannot keep this baby I am going for an abortion and her parents wanted her to have an abortion you know unfortunately and these parents professing Christians but unfortunately sometimes parents support a child in this and I often say you know every Christian parent is pro-life until your own daughter gets pregnant and so the parents didn't want it boyfriend get an abortion and so she left our Center we spoke life into her our counselors there helped her tried to show her this is life within and and all the rest all the things loving her talking to her about Jesus she came back several months later weeks perhaps and again we poured into her talk to her but she is so committed to this abortion she just couldn't see her way through she couldn't believe that God could do a miracle in her life and did you know by the way this isn't Ana by the way this is an oh my goodness thank you God in the 27 years of the president would Pregnancy Center 73,000 babies have been recorded as births as a direct result and ministry of pressin was work in this room 73,000 no not every one of them were abortion minded when they came in with not everyone but many many many of them were and those babies that's a stadium full now 73,000 so she comes back three times and each time she left say I just I just can't keep this baby I can't deliver this baby it's impossible our workers there prayed for a miracle in her life now she's she when she became about 34 35 weeks pregnant full term pretty much 40 weeks is full term as you know so she's 34 35 weeks and she goes to an abortion clinic over here in Dallas with a doctor who specializes in abortions and murdering babies but it was too late in Texas because our laws prohibit late term abortion like that in Texas so this this guy he's got a clinic in New Mexico where he can send people where they do them later and then of course you've heard about New York in the news and now in New York and also past in Virginia they celebrated the fact that you can now take a baby's life after delivery if the mother so chooses and so this young woman is sent to New York to have an abortion she spends the night there gets up the next day is prepping for the abortion the baby is now on the clock minutes away from death and the echoes of what our dear people at the prestonwood Pregnancy Center was saying to her begin she began as she would say later to hear this in her head all the words of life all the walk the words of Jesus and of miracles and of power and she fell under conviction of the Holy Spirit and got up and came home and because she came home a miracle took place and I want to show you on the screen this miracle a miracle she walked in she walked in carrying this beautiful child to say thank you and several of the members of our church in the covenant class taught by any call well heard about this situation and with Liane Jamison our director of our Pregnancy Center and by the way we're going to march in Washington DC in January I hope you'll sign up you can sign up right here I'm gonna go there and help lead the March all right so we're gonna be there from the March for Life in January of 2020 but here's the thing this girl walked in young woman with her baby saying thank you God and Thank You prestonwood because my baby is alive and this class the Covenant class they heard she didn't have she wasn't prepared to have a baby so she didn't have anything a baby bed a stroller nothing so this client our class got together and threw her the biggest shower you've ever heard of doubt in the Commons they carried off about five truckloads worth of stuff for this beautiful child and her mother miracle it's never too late for a miracle I want to love more pray more serve more witness more go more because you never know what could happen if you'll just be faithful to share the gospel I did a funeral service for a 17 year old boy young student who passed away in a car accident I was talking to the young man's dad and the dad as we were conversing he said you know pastor and he's so broken by son's death and he said you know pastor he said we have a Fort Worth connection you and me and I said really what is it because I had forgotten that I said he said well when I was a college student at TCU I owned an establishment in downtown Fort Worth called the seller and if you were raised in Fort Worth you know what the seller was it was a strip joint it was a club he said I also own bars up and down the Jacksboro Highway and he said but here's where you come in he said when you were a teenager you would come down on the street and stand on the street I remember doing this of course it was it was traumatized to stand on the street front of a strip club and preach OS Hawkins then known as butch Hawkins would join me and we would preach I would preach the gospel as best I knew how and figured I did absolutely no good but he said you know what Jackie said I used to tell my employees to go down there and pay you off where you could leave because you were hurting my business and that guy ultimately came to Christ and he's in our church and he needed God he needed God's grace and the death of his son you just never know when you're faithful to preach the gospel the influence you can have the ministry you can have if you just bring people and bite people so it's intercession it is conversation invitation and innovation whatever it takes amen to bring people to Jesus

Channel: Prestonwood Baptist Church

Views: 3,525

Rating: 4.7090907 out of 5

Keywords: YouTube, Prestonwood, Baptist, Church, Non-Profit, Ministry, Ministries, Jack Graham, Jack, Graham, PowerPoint, PPT, PowerPoint with Jack Graham, Dallas, Texas, Jesus, Christ, Bible, 2019, PBC, USA, America, Media, TV, Show, Offers, Daystar, TBN

Id: ndvuIH9d4xI

Length: 37min 28sec (2248 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 24 2019