Who Are Your Four? - Pastor David Crank

[Music] it's a great weekend excited you have you ever went to a restaurant and asked how many is in your party raise your hand if you've done that how many is your party oh y'all it's always embarrassing when you go one it doesn't sound like a party at all because it's not a party until you have more people at the party can i get an amen to that party one today i want to talk about who is your for who is your for it's very very important you hear me say it a lot show me your friends shout out with me what let's show your future one more time show me your friends i'll you gotta have people that that spar you on that uh move creativity in you that encourage you and by the way in today's society make sure it's happy people my grandson he's nine months old and he's so funny he's just so stinking cute and you're just gonna hear stories about him for the next 18 years but i taught him a trick and the trick is i go where's your nose and i hold up my thumb and he goes and then i go and he's like sometimes he just goes he's so proud of this he goes he can't talk but that is can you believe i can do that i think i i'm killing the game here right now my point is is i just made you laugh about some dude you probably don't even know and it relieved and it released endorphins on the inside of you instead of all the negativity so if you're walking around in today's society thinking this is going to kill me and that's going to kill me and there's so much segregation going on it's a demon it's jumping from house to house from place of blaze and i say you get around some four crazy friends and say guess what god's still on the throne the lord's doing miracles who's going with me on this i'm gonna i'm gonna teach you a here's your nose trick look at your neighbor and say where's your nose i want to go to this passage in mark chapter 2 it says and again he entered into capernaum and after some days he heard they heard the people in the area heard jesus was in the house and immediately they many people gathered together and there was no longer room to receive them not even at the door and he preached the word to them which is important and they couldn't get near because of the crowd but they had a paralytic man and he was carried verse 3 says he was carried by four by the way sometimes you have to have other people carry you when you can't carry yourself have you ever been down raise your hand if you've been down you know it's like how many all are married or at least in relationship raise your hand on that and so you the deal is you can't both be jacked up at the same time some days i'm in a good mood some days nicole's in a good mood very rarely if we're both in a good mood but when one's down the other lifts you up friendship is so stinking important you got to know who your friends are sometimes what you do is you kind of back off okay man i don't know i've been hurt so many times people always do this especially as you get older right now liam's going where's your nose but as you get older you're like i know where my nose is actually i need a nose job just kind of mad and upset instead of going around with this optimistic feeling oh you never know what god's going to do and this man was paralyzed and he heard that jesus was in the house but he could not get there but thank god he had four people in his party that said i got an idea here's my idea uh let's all carry you to the jesus meeting where jesus heals people he's all for it if he hadn't had four crazy friends in his group he wouldn't have got there so these guys four strong men started carrying them when they get there we just read that there was there was no room they couldn't even get near the door let me say that sometimes there's a door of opportunity and you think you're going to be able to go where everybody else went but that door has now closed but just because the door is not available you've actually got to have some creative thinkers in your life to go we can't get in there but perhaps we could get in over here perhaps we could get in over there come on somebody give god praise today verse 4 where first says and they could not come near because the crowd they uncovered the roof so when they had broken through broken through they let down the bed this is a visible moment here here's what's happening these these four guys these are kind of i don't know how to describe it these aren't like regular dudes these aren't prius driving khaki pant wearing guys in my mind these guys are from jefferson county can i get an amen right now they got a jacked up four-wheel drive with a big rifle in the back anybody know what i'm talking about right now raise your hand if you're married to that guy come on that that guy so they go hey we can't get in over there but you know maybe we go around the back or back over there if you reckon we could go over there and on the back i didn't see no security cameras on the back of that thing so we could go up over there and we could probably get in but then they said don't talk so loud because the the paralyzed guy is listening so they're like don't talk so loud i don't want to talk about it maybe falling off of the mat and i don't really just be quiet also i want to pause there and say sometimes you have to be careful about telling everybody every detail of your plan because they won't understand your plan until the plan works somebody ought to shout hallelujah to this right now you can't tell everybody that's why the bible says don't cast your pearls before swine because they don't get you they don't understand you they don't understand who god made you to be you're as unique as the thumbprint that you have you do the crime you do the time because the thumb print look at your neighbor and say i'm somebody so that now verse four one time they they could not come near so they uncover the roof notice also you need some friends that's going to help you uncover the roof that's too hard see most people would have done this when they got there and they couldn't get in they're like well bubba what do you think i think we need to go home i guess and they would look at the little paralyzed guy we don't know his name but he was on a map so let's just call him matt it makes sense to me and they said matt we're going to turn our back on this and walk away because it must not be god's will to heal you when in reality sometimes it's hard nobody's going to open the door for you nobody bought my tv time nobody built these churches it was hard i had to fight bureaucracy i had to fight politicians i had to fight a system i had to fight religious spirits but guess what we lifted ourselves up to another level and we built a church where regular people could go and say i don't have it all together but i know the one who has it all together and i need four crazy friends in my life to help me get where i need to go alone i'm preaching today as i am i hope weldon springs can hear me today now think about this you also need to have people in your corner that can see something you can't see because they had an idea the idea was we can't get in there we can't get in there we can't get in here we can't get in here but what if we check this south went up sometimes you got to go to the next level of thinking to realize i might not be able to do it like everybody else did it i might not be able to go in the door like everybody else went but if i would elevate my thinking and elevate my faith and get some people that will help me get to this level somebody ought to say amen to this right now even though i'm paralyzed even though i can't move i'm going to the other level but i need four people to help me because right now i got a little problem i ain't never walked think about the rejection guy's used to being disappointed disappointed i thought i could crawl i couldn't like other kids i thought i could walk i couldn't i've never danced i've never ran i'm used to disappointment he could have said just like always if it's bad it's going to happen to me instead of looking past that and seeing the possibilities he could have went into negative nancy come on help me right now negative nancy i feel bad saying that it just came out of my spirit because my mother-in-law her name is nancy but she's not negative i should have went with don't be a karen come on somebody help me right now but i didn't but but watch this faith is visible notice this if we continue to read it says that now verse 4 they could not come near they uncovered the roof so when they had broken and let down the paralytic man when jesus saw their faith he didn't hear a good game praise the lord brother optimistic thinking he said he saw their faith and he said to the paralytic man your sins be forgiven check this out he saw their faith jesus is preaching and all of a sudden he he hears something cracking and he hears something moving and then that's my cue guys all of a sudden there you go [Music] jesus looks at the guy by the way there's four other guys going hi jesus they got their instagram down they're looking like jesus is down there and he says your faith was visible but then he freaks everybody out because obviously we know what he needs he can't he can't walk he needs a healing and jesus says your sins be forgiven bubbing them up said i couldn't hear any did he say his sins be forgiven yeah i think that's what he said why would he say that i we didn't come to get his sins forgiven we came to get him healed do you know that sometimes jesus will give you what you don't think you need before he gives you what you think you need some of you think you need a husband and you need a healing some of you think you need money but you need a new way somebody ought to shout a man you need a new way of thinking right here and your faith needs to be visible and you've got to understand that sometimes god doesn't give you what you want when you want but he is an on-time god and he will bring it to pass at the right time i'll give you 10 seconds to praise it nine eight seven six five four three two what [Applause] so then uh you know bubba and billy bob and pete and i don't know the fourth guy's name but we'll just call him rufus since he was on the roof he says hey you know i wonder if he's going to say anything about him being lame jesus was actually fixing a problem because the haters of jesus had said who can forgive sins but god alone so god said hey i'm going to kill two birds with one stone i'm going to heal you and i'm going to make you right but first we're going to get this right to understand that you have to be forgiven to realize that god has forgiven you and once you realize he's forgiven you then you can receive the free gift of complete healing so now he says arise take up your bed and walk this is where this thing is is a is a is a robot it's supposed to get up right now i don't know why it's not and it's supposed to walk away but i'm just kidding we're not oprah we're not on a budget here this is but if it was a robot i would have it pick it up and i would have that thing that lame man i would have the thing that carried him in i would have him carry it out because that's exactly what happened he couldn't get in through the door but he came in through the roof but then he walked out because jesus had to rise and walk and so now everybody watched him walk out the door carrying the map that he couldn't get into i'm telling you that the end of this story is breakthrough the end of this story is somebody ought to shout hallelujah it's complete restoration look at your neighbors i like this sermon but it looked common it looked like i don't know but if he hadn't had four crazy friends he would have died the way he started and sometimes you don't recognize the opportunity in fact sometimes it'll fool you i was married at 18 years old and some of you heard this story and got divorced after eight years of marriage and then was looking for love and all the wrong places and then i met nicole i saw her immediately fell in love with her and then she didn't tell me she made good money until we're getting ready to get married because she didn't want me to marry her for what she could do for me by the way i didn't care because when interested money i was interested in what she could do for me [Laughter] just saying i'm keeping it real this sunday okay well y'all hear what i'm saying right now but when she saw me i i wasn't me like you know me i had on cut off shorts by the way it's a long time ago i had on some white socks about here and then i had on a kombu bat what do you call a combat boots and then i had on an orange jacket and long hair she saw in me what i could be that i didn't know i could be until the right person came into my life and told me who i could be oh yeah yeah yeah he said well anybody could have did that well i was married for eight years and they didn't do that so the the wrong they in your life can keep you paralyzed can keep you lame but the right day can get you up to where you know you're called to be but if you think church is not important if you think small groups is not important then you're going to still stay stuck laying on the mat instead of walking out with the mat where's your nose come on it doesn't always look that way but then also you got to make sure check this out that you're hanging around people that have integrity integrity is a big one integrity is a big thing people love you when you're down they love you when you're up they love you when you're happy they love you when you're sad they love when you're mad they just love you integrity is important joel osteen is a good friend of mine and recently he told me a story it's a good one and i'm going to use it today true story of a man who was going to world war ii but before he went to war he wanted to go to the library to get a book to kind of pass the time away and he was looking at various books and he just picked up this one and as he was reading it he noticed that there was cliff notes everywhere in the book and then he said man this person is so warm and so kind and he looks at the front as people would do back in the day she wrote her name wendy she lived in new york and he thought just he'd take a chance and he would write that personal letter and say hey i'm a soldier i'm going off to war is there any way that you would be my pen pal during this time she writes back says absolutely so she started writing him he started writing her and weeks turned into months and months turned into a year and now it seems like they're kind of falling in love so he says hey you know when i get out of here i'd love to meet you and hang out she said absolutely when you know when you i know you're going to be coming through new york when you soldiers get off the boat so at that point i'll i'll be there he said could you send me a picture she said no i'm not comfortable with that how many all know this scary he said he writes back and said well how will i know if it's you she said i'll have a pink rose in my hair so now the day comes and now he gets off the boat and he's walking and as he's walking off the boat there's this gorgeous brunette she's in fine shape she's tan tall and his heart starts pounding and he said could it be her and then she doesn't have a pink rose and she walks by he continues to walk and they're in the crowd there she is she has the pink rose she's older than he thought she's in her mid 40s and there's some some wrinkles showing and some gray hair but he thinks you know what she she was with me it's about the integrity of being a great person i'm in love with this girl so he just grabs her and hugs her and said i can't wait to go to lunch and get caught up she said oh i'm not the one that girl that passed you a minute ago she gave me this rose and said she wanted to know if you really were the type of person that she thought you were so if you said yes to lunch she's in that restaurant over there if you said no you wouldn't know where she went i'm here to tell you who you are behind the scenes really matters somebody ought to give god praise today and god does not look at the outward appearance he looks at the heart no matter what you look like where you came from how lame you are how paralyzed you are god is working behind the scenes to bring you to the right place the right space with the right people you've got praise in this house today [Applause] got to be friendly though sometimes they just go around mad people are so mad people have got masks on and they're mad she's made everybody's dogs mad dogs are like like you were friendly pre-covered the dog's like i've been locked up in this house for a year and a half with these crazy people when are they going back to work dog's like please let the kids go to school i would be so happy to be happy to see them i'm sick of them you know i'm telling the truth these kobe dogs but what's happening is we we got the wrong people in our life he said well i don't have four crazy friends when i first started i didn't either i just had the father the son the holy ghost and myself and us fall made it happen and then the game came to us and then now my whole life changed when nicole said i don't like his outfit but i like what's on the inside of him but is your face faith visible if your faith is visible then you will actually start ripping through the roof and you'll have the right friends in your group that will lower you down but if you if you don't show yourself friendly then you won't be friends in fact here's a story you don't know there was a girl who i was just kind of hanging out with prior to nicole we were just friends it was going to be nothing i thought it was nothing she thought it was nothing but because i was hanging out with this girl she brought me to several different functions where nicole was that as soon as i saw nicole the first time i'll never forget it i walked into cyborg's wings first of all let's thank god for cyborgs god we thank you lord if you're if you're if you're watching somewhere else in the world just fly to saint louis and put it in your maps cyborgs they got sauce in there right now that i promise you is making my mouth water as we speak i walked into cyborgs thinking i was getting wings and i looked at her and thought look at the legs on that chicken i thought it was just another day i thought it was just common do you know that sometimes god out of a disappointment has the dna in the seed to bring the god appointment and if i could see 23 years 24 years down the road at that moment and i saw this guy i would have said hey you and me are leaving here today because i can't risk it but because i thought it was common i kind of treated it as comment and almost messed it up several times i'm wondering how many common situations that you're avoiding because you're standing behind a computer that you're not going to church that you're not going out and meeting people that you're keeping yourself back because you're afraid you're going to die well the question is are you really living anyway get out enjoy your life give me a thumbs up on this right now get on with your life stop being paralyzed stuck at home lame let's get back to our god plan give god praise [Applause] got to be today though proverbs 19 excuse me 18 24. a man that has friends must show themselves friendly and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother a man that has friends must show himself friendly now i realize that you might be a person who is an introvert raise your hand at any campus if you're an introvert raise your hand if you're an extrovert raise your hand if you're appropriate no don't do that i should have stuck with the stories joel told me to tell now i got nancy and karen and perverts i don't understand how i got here how many forgive me raise your hand if you forgive me raise your hand if you if you kind of even enjoy the comedic entertainment raise your hand if you wouldn't raise your hand no matter what i ask you today so yeah so you're shy i understand being painfully shy not because i am but because my dad was painfully shy my dad wouldn't look people in the eye he looked down because he stuttered just just a little bit especially when he was mad he's she she's just shut up sharon i would hear that he was telling my my my my mom she said shut up you know he's mad when he's stuttering he's like i'm i'm i'm gonna beat your butt anybody old enough to remember when they still whipped kids raise your hand anybody ever heard this lot this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you come on raise your hand let's see here you didn't raise your hand i understand why you have all the issues you do today so my dad was shy but then it was even more than just shy he felt paralyzed and lame because nobody had been his friend and he had been rejected [Music] by a lot of people now if you're an extrovert it's like i've been there done that but it does hurt a little i mean i also just pause the story and say that sometimes people don't deserve access to you so when people don't deserve access to you protect your spirit sometimes people on instagram they'll be like i don't think you ought to wear jeans i don't think you ought to say that i think you said i will have to unfriend people today because i ain't going to let you have access to my dms slide up in my dm slicing me and dicing me because i ain't joe i am not joe she ain't victoria and nancy ain't doty i ain't trying to pretend to be somebody else i'm me and i gotta be the best me that me can be and if some people like me and some people don't like me so the people that don't like me must not be called to me but i ain't gonna try to get the not likes over on the side of the likes because i need some people to help me lower our selves down in tv screens across america and around the world and people are people are moving there's a woman here today that moved a month ago from california not because she had a job she had a job that she could work from home so she actually moved because of a church that woman got me so some people don't deserve access to you god has actually protected you from some people because the people that he wanted you to get around were going to be part of the miracle they were going to get their hands dirty and lower you into the next spot years ago when the church only had 180 people and they called and i took it over and it went from 200 to 2 000 in two years it was just pretty crazy and i i had the opportunity to go to miami florida to a round table with a bunch of people and here at this table i go to breakfast in the morning and there's a lot of the heroes in the church world i'm like oh my gosh look there's those four guys that i've been kind of studying that built this great organization i want to kind of take my breakfast and go sit by them because i'm an extrovert so it's not a problem so i went and said hi guys you know this is the cool table i never went to high school so i didn't know i go hi guys and they're like yes i'm like hi i'm david crane for st louis of faith church oh yeah we've heard about you i said hey can i sit down with you guys and they go nah probably not we're talking about some stuff have you ever felt like oh my god i want to die right now i want to walk out of the room my breakfast and so i started walking away and then i thought who in the world do you think you are i went back over near my table sat down got my phone i wasn't talking to anybody but i was pretending that i had stuff to do anybody ever done that come on raise your hand you liar anybody ever pretended to be on the phone so you didn't have to talk to somebody you pretended to talk to somebody and you forgot to turn the ringer off and it right my god but those people actually didn't deserve access to me so i sit down what i didn't know is a few years later the people that were was the head of that organization and the big dudes at the top they didn't necessarily like those guys i ended up being with the main guy and chris hodges the main guy loved me and we started traveling together started vacation together had i lowered myself down to where they were god protected me because he would have saw me even though he likes those guys he didn't love those guys i went past here because god had to take me there because what there had to speak into me we bypassed them at five thousand and eight thousand attempt somebody ought to shout amen sometimes you think you want to be at that table but god said that table's lame i'm taking you higher who's going with me today on this you got to have you got to have the right people may i suggest to you that your name is being mentioned in rooms right now that you never dreamed of people talking about you people making plans for you but if you go negative nancy on this if you go crazy caring on and now you're just eating what the world's feeding you and you're not eating what the words feeding you then you will think you're stuck with them when really you're stuck with him and he said i know the plans i have for you they're for good and not for evil and i'm getting ready to bring and show a difference between who you were and who i had you to be but who you were you're stuck there but who you be you've got to grow there and the only way you go there and grow there is the four crazy friends that are willing to go to the top with you so as i wrap this up in the next 12 seconds because i need to go to our city and preach then i'll come back here at the 11 40 and preach and i'm gonna go back to our city and preach to 12 30 and i'm going to go not to chick-fil-a because they're close cyborgs i will go to cyber thank you cyborg come on give it up for the brilliance that's a good idea when six when god closes one dog he opens up another [Applause] i just i just love this church so now we got we got to ask ourselves a question what's keeping us from getting with the right people is it fear rejection i've been rejected too many times i can't handle it one more time i can't have one more guy tell me that it's not you it's me i can't handle it again i would stay home eat ice cream until i can't walk i've been there but somebody needs to flip a switch in you today and say online church is great if there's no other access if you live in california and this is the church that speaks to you because joel's not going to say the stuff that i said and you feel like it speaks to you and it releases endorphins in your mind in fact we're getting ready to start a four-week series here in a few weeks on how to rewire your brain i'm going to tell you how i overcame anxiety and panic attacks and literally rewired my brain i'm going to give you the scientific data to change the way you think so you can launch into 22 23 24 and 25 and win again so you might not be able to get that at the church up the road but you can't stay at home and get what you need unless there's just no other way you need to move to palm beach county or st louis county and say i didn't move because of a job i moved because the world is so crazy and i felt so lame and i felt like my life was over and i had so much negative news i didn't control my mind properly anymore then you need to get on a plane you need to get on a train you need to get an automobile you need to hitchhiking because we already discovered that you're somebody you've got to get to a church because the right church will point you to the right jesus and give you the right word that'll change your trajectory forever i'm begging you today to move from that table of rejection and move to that table of elevation where god starts doing what he said he's going to do and the first thing he's going to do is say your sins are forgiven he's not pointing the finger at you this would go to hell me and preachers oh god's more like where's your nose and you're like god i went to church for three weeks it's like he thinks it's cute look at you you're not who you want to be you're not who you could be you might not be who you ought to be but thank god you're not who you used to be so now god is lowering you down to elevate you up to change your life forever here's what i'm saying get in a group today how do i do that i'm glad you asked you got to get the right people in your group there are different groups you can go to we got eating groups some of y'all can handle that cyborg's eating by the way they're not that expensive sometimes people say we're in any group we don't have any money we're going to sam's on saturday for free samples we get that uh we have we got all kind we got book groups you got bowling groups we've got every kind of grip you can imagine and then the groups are all over i just met this guy over here from alton illinois they drive an hour because the church alive is worth the drive i met some people from de soto today they drive over an hour because the church alive is with god so we have pockets the church is so big we have people in lake st louis we got people in ferguson we got people at alton they're everywhere they church people are everywhere we're everywhere so you need to get a group so today when you leave out the hallway at ferguson at weldon or earth city wherever even online on the app you can look at a group here's the cool part about it you're not stuck in that group you're not like joining a group forever you walk in and that person doesn't have the rows in their hair if you know what i mean you move on thinking about two guys that got in a group they didn't know they were getting the group i just invited one to a wedding because he was you know a new guy invited him to the wedding he met another guy at the wedding their wives got along and then a year later they started a business together and now they make a through coven they made a million dollars a month and now it is going through the roof even more than that don't tell me that the right people don't make a difference i think about many people at our church that were lonely and then they went to a group where there's just some single people were playing volleyball and somehow between the there was a [Laughter] joel won't do this come on go with me right now and then now there's little babies and now we need you to join a group because we need you to volunteer because love is in the air everywhere and people were at home with kobet and they got bored and they had babies but don't live your life thinking the world's over it's not over for the record the united states of america is still the greatest country in the whole wide world drop the mic on that somebody ought to shout amen and we still serve a guy that is on the throne drop the mic on that and guess what i've read the back of the book we win give god praise today come on give it praise everybody stand with me for one second if you're good looking if your ugly remains stan uh city all campuses hello every campus i want to pray for you first of all raise your hand if you say today man that spoke to me today raise your hand i want to see it everywhere it ever came come on real high put it back down father i pray right now god that you would touch the hearts of the minds of our church family whether they're online which is a real campus or they're in a physical brick and mortar location that jesus you will give them the revelation that to actually become unstuck to not be paralyzed anymore they need four crazy friends in their group god give them the courage today not to go out the side doors they always do may they walk out the front lobby and connect with people because we connect with god we connect with people and we discover our purpose and we make a difference because so many of them have been stuck and i don't want them to just keep on going i want them to get around the right people god to thank you today they're going to sign up for groups they're going to go through growth track and they're going to change their life not so their life could just be changed but so others lives can be changed because they're going to get their strength back they're going to get their confidence back and they're going to overcome this rejection and realize that you love them and you gave yourself for them god we see church not as a an option it's not optional if you came from heaven to earth and you lowered yourself down like the guys did through the roof you lowered yourself down and you came down you got your hands dirty and you died for us we will live for you we will serve you and we will be a part of your church forever in jesus name we pray and everybody says amen [Music] you

Channel: Crank Ministries

Views: 349

Rating: 4.6363635 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor David Crank, David Crank, funny preacher, faithchurch.com, Faith Church, church in St. Louis, church in Palm Beach, church in Missouri, 4 crazy friends, would God use me, connect groups, need a friend, lonely, elevate myself, want to go higher

Id: IwPGSD3Zkyg

Length: 38min 26sec (2306 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021