Pastor Craig Groeschel
March 22, 2015 - W1512

I'm honored today to talk about you having greater influence, and so we're going to look in Mark 2:17:

“On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

Now I want to show you a picture taken by a police officer who happens to go to our church. He went on a drug bust and came into a guy’s house and arrested a person that went to our church. There was drug paraphernalia, a book written by a friend of mine named Pastor Steven Furtick, a Bible, a bulletin from our church, and some contraceptives.

That picture is so important to me because it represents exactly who I was about 28 years ago. I was the guy who was being drawn to God, and yet there was so much baggage pulling me back.

You see, I grew up going to church but didn't know Jesus at all. And so when I went off to college, I fell into a lot of hard sin.

Now, how many of you know that sin can be fun for a little while? It's like a sneeze. It feels good coming out; but then there's snot everywhere. And that's what sin is like. I mean, it's fun for a little while, but it will mess you up bad. And I was messed up bad, and so I was really curious about Jesus. But how was I going to get to know Him?

Since I was in college and all of my fraternity brothers weren't followers of Jesus and none of my teammates were, I decided to actually start a Bible study.On top of that I was the president of the fraternity, so I could actually arrange that. They didn't have to come, but I would try to get them to come.

Well, when Tuesday came, I woke up and realized I didn't have a Bible. And so as I walked into one class, a gentleman wearing a suit and tie from an organization known as the Gideon’s reached out to me and said, “Young man, would you like a free Bible?” I was so dumbfounded but I did take my new Bible to the little Bible study at seven o'clock Tuesday night

We started reading through the New Testament.

And I got so excited reading, I read ahead. I read Matthew, and I read about the crucifixion and the resurrection. And then I read in Mark, and I saw Jesus died and rose to life again. And I read in Luke.

And I got all the way to Ephesians, and I read Ephesians 2:8-9 that talked about the grace of God that saves us, not by works, but actually through faith. And suddenly the lights came on in a supernatural way, and I called out to Jesus. And I'm telling you, one moment I was one person, and the next moment I was a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old was gone. Everything became new. And I'm not going to tell you that I stopped partying overnight. I'm not going to tell you I stopped saying bad words overnight. But I'm going to tell you I entered into a spiritual battle where Jesus owned me, but the sin of my life was trying to pull me back. And by the power of God, light overcame darkness, and Jesus started to change me.

When I see a picture like that with drug paraphernalia and the Bible nearby, it just moves me with great emotion because Jesus didn't come for the righteous. He came for the sick. He came for those who are sinners in desperate need of a savior.

And that's one of my favorite things about your amazing church is that probably 3/4ths of you were born into the kingdom of God through this very ministry. Some 74,000 people have called on the name of Jesus because this church has existed on these islands for all these years. And today I want to talk to you about that kind of influence from Mark's gospel, a crazy amazing powerful story from Mark chapter 2.

In Mark 2:1-5 it says,

“A few days later when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came bringing to Jesus a paralyzed man carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”

We're going to see that Jesus actually heals the man as well, but before He heals him physically, He heals his great spiritual need and forgives his sins. I believe with all my heart that God wants this amazing church to have a greater influence not only on the islands but in the Pacific Rim and well beyond as God is using you. And I want to ask every single one of you because the influence starts with you.

How much do you love people who are without Christ? When I show you a picture like that with a Bible and drug paraphernalia in it, how do you feel about that? How much compassion and love do you have for people who are very far from God?

So what do we do if we want to have a greater influence? From this story I want to show you two things the follower of Jesus will do.

The first thing, is that God wants us to bear some burdens.

Verse 3 says this: “Some men came bringing to Jesus a paralyzed man carried by four of them.” What I want you to notice is that it took four guys to carry this one paralyzed man to Jesus. Why did they do this? Because they loved him. Because they recognized he needed help. However, what we see so often in our world today is that people do what I call “drive-by witnessing”. It's like, “Hey, Jesus loves you”, and they drive on by.

Someone once said that people don't care how much you know. They want to know how much you care. And as followers of Jesus we're going to bear some burdens. We're going to care for those who are hurting. We're going to get involved in their lives. We're not just trying to convert them to Christianity as much as we are to love them to a living relationship with a God who transforms by the power of the risen Jesus Christ.

God is calling us to bear some burdens, to get involved in people's lives; and I know there are so many of you that are so good at this. When someone is hurting, you are there, and you don't have an agenda. Your only agenda is to love them, to comfort them, to mourn with them, or to rejoice with them when something good happens. If someone loses a relative, I mean, you're in their house. If someone needs to talk, you're listening to them.

In fact, I like the difference between we don't just invite people to church; we bring people to church. There's a big difference. You can invite all day long, but when you say, “Hey, I'm going to carry you. If it takes four of us, we're going to bring you to Jesus” that is bearing a burden for Jesus.

In fact, two weeks from now Pastor Wayne is going to talk about having a greater life. And there's probably no better weekend in the whole calendar year to invite people to come to church than on Easter weekend. I want to encourage you, don't just invite them but bring them, bribe them. Say, “I'll buy you lunch if you'll come to church with me.” You'll be surprised at just how many people will say all of a sudden, “Yes, I have a need.” So what are we going to do as a church? To have greater influence, we're going to bear some burdens because we care deeply about people who are far from God.

The second thing is we're going to break some rules.

Sometimes you have to break some rules---which is exactly what these guys did in verse 4. They got four guys who are dragging him up, trying to get him in, but the house is so full they can't get him into the house. And since they couldn't get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it. And they lowered the mat the man was lying on.

Now the rooftops in Palestine were made out of wood beams spaced about 3 feet apart. Between these beams, they packed clay and manure.Sometimes, metaphorically, you got to cut through a little manure to get people to Jesus.

What did these guys do? They dug through somebody else's roof to get someone to Jesus. At our church we say it like this. We'll do anything short of sin to reach people who don't know Christ, and to reach people no one is reaching, we're going to have to do things no one is doing.

I came to tell you that your church was named one of the top most innovative churches in America because you will do things that no one else is doing in order to reach people no one else is reaching. You're crazy aggressive. You will redeem technology all day long. You will redeem the arts all day long. You'll do crazy services with videos on the wall, multiple campuses all over the place because you are going to be a seven or eight or nine or maybe even a ten caring so much about people. We'll do anything short of sin to reach people who don't know Christ.

God is calling you to have greater influence in this city and beyond. I believe with all my heart that what's happened in the past 20 or 30 years is only the beginning, that what's coming ahead is going to be greater than you can imagine because we serve a God who will do immeasurably more than we can ask, think, or imagine according to His power. He is at work in His church to bring glory to His name for generations to become. We're going to bear some burdens, and we're going to break some rules.

So when your pastor comes up with some idea that's “outside of the box”, somebody should just say, “Praise God, we've got a pastor who will do whatever it takes to reach people.” Do you realize that there are over 3,500 people every week that watch your services and participate online? Over 3,500 people around the world. What if that becomes 5,000 or 10,000?

I'm so thrilled that this is a church full of people passionate about reaching others. God give me a heart for those who are far from God. God, give me a love for those who might be searching for you and still stuck and lost at the same time. God, give me a heart that breaks for the things that break your heart. God, I don't want anybody else to out love me. May I be a light that shines into this world? God, bring people into my path that need your son Jesus. We're going to break some rules and we're going to do anything short of sin.

I want to tell you about Armando. He is one of the New Hope shuttle drivers. This guy is incredible. He and Caroline cook for 100 people at Ala Moana Beach, right outside of my hotel. They'll go and just cook food and give free food away and then say to people, “Hey, if you aren't doing anything, there's also food at my church.” And they'll bring 40 to 60 people to church almost every single weekend. Guess what that is? That is an individual who brings somebody else along, who is willing to bear some burdens and break some rules. What would happen when every single one of us realizes that the church not only exists for us, but we realize that we are the church and we exist for the world? And suddenly we wake up and we realize that God is calling us to be a light in the darkness, and we will let his light shine through us because what God has done through New Hope church is amazing. It's a movement that no force of darkness could stop. But it's only the beginning because God wants you to have a greater influence, and it starts with every single one of you.

Questions:

1. Why can sin, at times, be fun but eventually messes you up?

2. What do you do if you want to have a greater influence?

3. Why is it important as a Christian to bear some burdens?

4. In what instances should we break some rules?

5. Why do we need to cut through a little manure to get people to Jesus?