Matthew 9:1-8

[0:00] We're starting today, Matthew chapter 9, and right since the Sermon on the Mount, we have seen Jesus confirming his Messiahship over and over and over again.! He has made it clear that no one can enter the kingdom of heaven under their own steam.

[0:17] He took the most holy men in the land and said, if you're not more holy than them, you've lost it. You're not going to heaven. And it became clear that they needed a change of heart. They needed a supernatural change within to bring about the righteousness that would get them into the kingdom of heaven.

[0:37] You may remember when he spoke to Nicodemus, he said, unless you're born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. That's in John chapter 3. And so he took their breath away by teaching them entirely from his own authority.

[0:56] And the line of his teaching was, no matter how righteous you think you are, it's not enough. But there is a way of attaining righteousness. And then he set off and he started to demonstrate by this series of miracles.

[1:11] He healed the leper. He healed someone who was paralysed when he wasn't even there. He didn't even go into the room. He didn't lay a hand on him.

[1:23] He healed Gentiles and women who were the downtrodden end of society. And he took charge of the weather and commanded the weather.

[1:33] And through all of this, he demonstrated his divinity. He was saying, this is not just man, but I'm God too. I am the Messiah that was promised.

[1:45] And then when we left off last time, you probably remember, because it was a memorable study for me to do, certainly. But it finished off with Jesus dealing with approximately 2,000 demonic presences contained within two men.

[2:00] And if that was evenly divided, each of them would have had 1,000. And that has got to be a tormented life, hasn't it, when you're possessed by 1,000 demons. But all the time, he's showing that he's divine.

[2:13] And for the purpose of today's session, what we need to remember is what I said, I think, a couple of weeks back, that the Jews had a way of investigating messianic claims.

[2:27] And the first stage of that was what was called the observation stage. So as these events, particularly the healing of the leper, got back to the religious authorities, they would have been saying, this is a messianic possibility and we need to investigate it.

[2:45] And so they would be now, as we enter into chapter 9, they would be embarking on this observation stage. And it's in the notes later, but I'll mention it now.

[2:56] Notice that when the scribes and the Pharisees start commenting about what's going on, they don't address Jesus with their comments. They are having comments between one another.

[3:07] And they're muttering and mumbling amongst themselves and thinking thoughts in their minds, which Jesus is aware of. But he has led them, like mice into a mousetrap really, he has led them to this point where he's making a statement about who he is.

[3:25] Not just by what he says, but by what he does. So Matthew chapter 9. And we'll start reading it. We're going to do the first eight verses.

[3:41] And so he's, in the last verse of the previous chapter, he's been implored to leave the region because he cast all these demons out of these pigs, cost somebody an absolute fortune because they lost 2,000 pigs into the sea.

[3:58] And they're saying, please leave the region. They were afraid of his power. So getting into a boat, verse 1, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to his own city.

[4:10] Now, pause for a moment. His own city, some people say that's Nazareth. It isn't. It's Capernaum. He was Jesus of Nazareth. He lived in Nazareth for a long time.

[4:20] But he made his ministry HQ in Capernaum. And Capernaum was ideally positioned for a ministry HQ because it was a crossroads of trade. So there were roads and boats going in all directions for him to spread the gospel.

[4:36] So let's read on. And they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, Take courage, son.

[4:47] Your sins are forgiven. And some of the scribes said to themselves, This fellow blasphemes. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why are you thinking evil in your heart?

[4:58] Which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven, Or to say, Get up and walk? But so that you may know That the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, Then he said to the paralytic, Get up, Pick up your bed, And go home.

[5:14] And he got up and went home. But when the crowd saw this, They were awestruck and glorified God, Who had given such authority to men. And I'll add my own comment there.

[5:25] It's a shame that the scribes and the Pharisees Didn't have the same reaction. But the people had the right reaction. So, He's come to Capernaum, Which is his ministry HQ.

[5:40] And then this account tells A simple version of this event. This paralytic man who was Carried to Jesus, Suffering from a palsy, And Jesus raised him up.

[5:54] But this event is recorded in two other Gospels. So if you turn to Mark chapter 2, Because there's a lot to gain By filling out some of the detail.

[6:11] So we go from Mark chapter 2, And the first 13 verses. And I know we're going to be reading The same story three times, But it's worth it, I think.

[6:26] Mark 2, starting at verse 1. When he had come back to Capernaum, Several days afterwards, It was heard that he was at home. And many were gathered together, So that there was no longer room, Not even near the door.

[6:40] And he was speaking the word to them. And they came bringing to him a paralytic, Carried by four men. Being unable to get to him, Because of the crowd, They removed the roof above him.

[6:52] And when they had dug an opening, They let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. And Jesus, seeing their faith, Said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

[7:03] But some of the scribes were sitting there, And reasoning in their hearts. Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?

[7:14] Immediately Jesus, Aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way, Within themselves, Said to them, Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven?

[7:27] Or to say, Get up and pick up your pallet and walk. But so that you may know that the Son of Man Has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic, I say to you, Get up, Pick up your pallet and go home.

[7:41] And he got up immediately and picked up the pallet And went out in the sight of everyone, So that they were all amazed, And were glorifying God, Saying, We have never seen anything like this.

[7:52] And he went out again by the seashore, And all the people were coming to him, And he was teaching them. And then finally, If we turn to Luke 5, I say finally, Like Paul did in the middle of Philippians.

[8:11] It's not finally really, It's the final introductory scripture. Luke chapter 5, Starting at verse 17.

[8:29] One day he was teaching, And there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, Who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, And from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present for him to perform healing.

[8:43] And some men were carrying on a bed, A man who was paralysed. And they were bringing, They were trying to bring him in, And set him down in front of him.

[8:55] But not finding any way to bring him in, Because of the crowd, They went up on the roof, And let him down through the tiles, With his stretcher, Into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, He said, Friend, Your sins are forgiven you.

[9:10] The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, Saying, Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But Jesus, Aware of their reasoning, Answered and said to them, Why are you reasoning in your heart?

[9:23] Which is easier to say, Your sins have been forgiven you? Or to say, Get up and walk. But so that you may know that the Son of Man Has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic, I say to you, Get up and pick up your stretcher, And go home.

[9:39] Immediately he got up before them, And picked up what he had been lying on, And went home, Glorifying God. They were all struck with astonishment, And began glorifying God, And they were filled with fear, Saying, We have seen remarkable things today.

[9:55] Now I've read all three of those, Because they all contain little bits, That help us understand more about What we're going to study today. The first thing I want to draw attention to, Is people who talk about the scripture, As if it's a load of myths, And a load of inventions, Of fairy tales, And kind of put Jesus alongside the tooth fairy, And Father Christmas in the great scheme of things.

[10:19] You couldn't get away with that, With an event like this. It's very likely that the house they were using, Was Peter's house. It's not proven, But it's very possible. Because Jesus didn't own a house.

[10:31] However, Whether it was or not is immaterial, It was packed, And it was so packed, That there were people outside, Who couldn't get in. So there was a crowd outside, A crowd inside.

[10:42] So there were loads of eyewitnesses, To this event. And then these people turn up, With a stretcher. And they can't get in. Come on, let us in. Come on, make room, make room. There is no room. Go away mate.

[10:54] So they go up on the roof, And the roof of Jewish dwellings, In those days, As far as I understand it, Was a sort of wooden structure, That was padded out with things like straw, And then covered in clay, Or mud of some kind, That had been hardened in the sun.

[11:12] And so this, One version says tiles, But that word is an ambiguous word, So don't worry about the translation of tiles. But it was, This roof was, Not like one of our roofs, But it was, The sort of roof you could dig a hole in.

[11:29] And so, When you're in, When you're packed into somebody's house, And a big crowd outside, And next thing you've got four guys on the roof, Their roof wasn't like our roof, It wouldn't have been a gable roof, It would have been a flat roof, And there'd have been a passageway up to it, Because they used to sit on the roof, And have their tea, And things like that.

[11:46] So they're on this roof, And they dug a hole in it. There would have been so many witnesses, Going, What on earth's going on? There's muck falling down on us, And this is mad. And then through the roof, Comes this stretcher.

[11:59] Now imagine the size hole you need, For a six foot stretcher to be, Somebody was lowered horizontally, I presume, Unless they did him feet first, But it seems like he was still on his stretcher.

[12:10] Big, massive hole in the roof. Big, Chaos inside. And all the people at the end of it, Said we have seen remarkable things today.

[12:21] Now you can't do that, With a made up story. Because people were saying, No, no, I was there, And that didn't happen. It would have been refuted. So it lends, It lends credibility, To the truth, Of an otherwise astonishing account, Of an event, That nobody would believe, Unless they were there, Or talking to eyewitnesses.

[12:45] And even then, It would take more than one eyewitness, Because if it was one eyewitness, You'd think, Well, he might be making it up. But, When there are loads of people, I don't know how many, 20, 50, 100, 200, How big was the crowd outside?

[13:01] We don't know. But lots of people, In a fairly small community, All saying, Did you know what happened yesterday? And wherever you go, You hear the same story.

[13:13] Almost as, Almost as good as a newspaper. Probably more honest than a newspaper. So, We've got the public nature of this, Which lends, Credibility to the fact, That what we're, Talking about, Is a true account.

[13:27] The other thing is, All three gospel accounts, Tell the same story. Almost identically, One adds a bit, One takes a bit away, But the, The nugget of the story, Is there, On three different, Published accounts.

[13:42] Which, Had it not happened, Would have immediately, Been, There'd have been, A counter press, That said, No, no, no, Matthew's lying, Mark's lying, Luke's lying, It didn't happen, The way he said.

[13:55] So, Then you've got, How does this feed into, Jesus is, Proving, That he is Messiah.

[14:10] And, Healing the leper, Was what would have, Drawn the attention, Of the authorities, To his ministry. Because suddenly, Those authorities, Have got to blow the dust, Off this old law, That they've never used, And administer that, To a cleansed leper.

[14:26] And so, They're kind of, Their antennas, Are twitching. There's somebody around, That is, Making messianic noises, We need to investigate. And so, What we read in the account, As we've just read it, Particularly, In Luke's gospel, That the scribes, And the Pharisees, Were there, From all over the region.

[14:45] They weren't, It wasn't just the local, The local religious, Hot shot that was there. But they come, From far and wide. And, It's not written, So I might be wrong, When I say this, But I would guess, That a lot of those, Would have been members, Of the Sanhedrin, Which is the sort of, Leading 72, Or 70, Depending on who you read, Pharisees.

[15:09] But there were people there, To see what's going on, And for the purpose, Of carrying out, This first part, Of this investigative process, The observation phase. And so, They're observing, And Jesus' first thing, Is to say, Son, Your sins are forgiven.

[15:29] And so, They immediately, Ascribe, Blasphemy, To that. You know, He's talking like God, This is blasphemous.

[15:40] Well it's only blasphemous, If the person's saying, It isn't actually God. And he was. So, It wasn't blasphemous, In his, Instance. But what he's trying to do, Is he's trying to say, To them, Yes, That's right.

[15:55] You have before you, The God, Man. Jesus, I am the Messiah. And his way of saying it, Wasn't to do what many would do, Which is, Is what a lot of people do today, When they claim to be apostles, Is they turn up, And they go, I'm an apostle.

[16:08] And they're flexing their muscles, And actually, If they'd shut up, And just minister, People would spot what they do, And say, Hmm, This might be an apostle. Do you see the difference?

[16:19] Most messianic claims, Involve somebody standing up, On their soapbox, And saying, I'm the Messiah. And there were loads of those, And mostly, The Jews would enter, Into this first phase, Of observation, And conclude, Actually, There's nothing to fear, From this bloke, He's a nutter, So we will ignore him, Because sooner or later, It'll all cool down, And go away, And we don't need to do anything.

[16:45] The only time, They move on to the second phase, Which is what we'll see, In future chapters, Is when this is a real, Contender, For the Messiah's, Role. But notice, Jesus' first words to them, Are, Son, Your sins are forgiven you.

[17:08] Now, There's room to suppose, That if you turn up to Jesus, Paralysed, On a bed, To be told, Your sins are forgiven you, Is not the highest priority, You have, Because what you really want, Is to get up and walk, You want to be healed, But Jesus makes, Forgiveness, A priority, And I want to, Call out something here, Now, I'm happy to take, Criticism on this, Because, I will admit, I haven't chased, This subject, Right through the Bible, But people often say, When people are not healed, You didn't have enough faith, And a lot of people, Conclude from this scripture, You had to have faith, To be healed, And I don't think, That's what this scripture, Says at all, What I think is, That Jesus saw their faith, And because he saw their faith, He said, Your sins are forgiven, Which is, Applying the same standard,

[18:10] To this man, This is before the crucifixion, Before all sin, For all time, Has been paid for, And yet he says, Your sins are forgiven, So he must have been, Applying the same, Parameter, As would be applied, To Abraham, And, In Genesis 15, Verse 6, Turn there, So you know, I'm not making it up, So this is when, Abraham is receiving, A promise of the son, From God, And verse, In verse 5, He took him outside, And said, Now look up towards the heaven, And count the stars,

[19:10] If you're able to count them, And he said, So shall your descendants be, Then he believed in the Lord, So then he, Abraham, Believed in the Lord, And he reckoned it to him, As righteousness, So belief in the Lord, In the Old Testament parlance, Was equivalent to salvation, You would be saved, Because you believed, In the Lord, Another way to put it, Is you believed in the one to come, We believe in the one who came, They would believe in the one to come, They believe in Messiah to come, So seeing their faith, They had demonstrated, That they believed in Messiah to come, And so it was quite okay, To say to them, Your sins are forgiven you, Obviously you could only say it to them, If you were Jesus, But, It, It tallies, If you see what I mean, The Old Testament, Test, Of belief, Had been met, By these people, Who turned up, And believed so strongly,

[20:12] That Jesus was Messiah, That they were prepared to go up, And cut a hole in the roof, And let the man down, To be healed, Has that made sense? Have I made sense? Right. Now, It's important that we take from this, That Jesus' highest priority, Highest priority, Higher than anything else, Is to get sin forgiven, We've got a paralysed man lying on a bed, It's far more important, That his sins are forgiven, That he's healed, In Matthew chapter 1 verse 21, It says, He came to, Deliver his people, From their sins, If you recall, Back in the previous study, In Matthew 5 verses 29 and 30, We went through that, Talk that talked about, If your hand offends you,

[21:12] Cut it off, If your eye offends you, Pluck it out, and by that what he's meant is if your hand makes you sin or if your eyes make you sin get rid of it why? because it's far better for you to enter heaven crippled than not enter heaven at all it's the priority in Jesus' eyes and the very reason he came was to get rid of unforgiven sin and of course at the time that he walked the earth all sin in one sense all sin was unforgiven they had this feast of atonement every year and you get the previous year's sins forgiven for the moment and then you start a new year where you rack up another batch of sins and then you go through another feast of atonement it was a never ending process of being forgiven but when Jesus came it was a once and for all sacrifice for all sin for all time for all men, done, dusted finished and the sole purpose of him coming and I use the word sole purpose advisedly because clearly yes he was going to heal but that wasn't his purpose the purpose of healing was simply to attest to salvation that he was bringing it was to give people a reason to rack up their faith for being saved it wasn't his purpose to come and heal but he had to heal because that's what God had told us through the prophets he would do and it was his one way of him establishing his credibility as the Messiah so he turns up and he starts to heal people but his primary reason for being there is to get sin forgiven and we lose sight of that when we when we do things like oh I don't need to bother with church it's a common thing isn't it

[23:04] I don't need to bother with church because I can meet with God on my own yes that's true but he said you'll meet with him better if you fellowship so don't forsake fellowshipping together and the purpose of fellowshipping together is to deal with sin it isn't just to have a nice time and we can have a nice time we do have a nice time but it's not the prime purpose the prime purpose is so that iron can sharpen iron so that you can tell me what I need to adjust in my life that I can tell you what you need to adjust in your life and that we can keep one another on path and we can pray for one another when we fall off the path and we can try to restore one another when we're off the path unfortunately that process is usually brutal when it should be kind restoration should be gentle all too often it's not Psalm 139 verses 23 and 24 just turn there

[24:18] Psalm 139 probably my favourite Psalm of all just because it reminds me that I have nothing hidden from God ever since I was in the womb and even before that he knew me but verses 23 and 24 say this search me oh God and know my heart try me and know my anxious thought and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me into the everlasting way it's an invitation for God to search me and pick out the bones pick out the nasty stuff the sin deal with it pick around in there and sort out the dross one analogy the Bible uses is that we are like silver and gold refined in the fire and silver and gold when it's refined in the fire you put a fire under it and you boil it and all the muck comes to the top and you scrape the muck off and then you boil it a bit more and more muck comes to the top and apparently a silversmith who's a Christian said when you can see the undistorted image of your face in the top of the silver or the gold you know it's pure and when Jesus can see the undistorted image of his face in us we're pure and I'm still over the fire

[25:42] I think quite a lot of the time so Micah 7 verses 18 and 19 God's greatness is marked by his dealing with our iniquities in Acts 2.38 you've got this sermon might as well turn there sermon from Peter Acts 2 I kind of understand why people use electronic vibles I don't get on with them but you spend an awful lot of time flipping pages when you haven't got one Acts 2 verse 38 says and this is what Peter says to the crowd who are under conviction of sins he said repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit it's repentance and forgiveness of sins that brings the gift of the Holy Spirit to you far more important you can have all of that and still be ill and still be sick and still be in pain and be crippled but a repentant heart and asking God for the forgiveness of your sins can release to you the Holy Spirit and seal in you an eternity with God which of course you won't spend eternity in your crippled state because you will get a resurrection body and that won't be crippled so you can understand that why God's priority over the crippledness of this man would be his sin but then we get on to the other part of his agenda he's employing a strategy that's familiar to the religious Jews and what amazes me when you come to study a passage like this is how many bits and pieces

[28:07] Jesus manages to fit into just a few lines but when he says your sins are forgiven and then they say to him or they conclude he's blaspheming notice they haven't spoken to each other they've just muttered among themselves and he has discerned what they're thinking and has said why do you why do you say these things why do you think these evil thoughts what's easier for me to say your sins are forgiven or get up and walk now that that applies something that is known among Jewish religious people as kalvechomer I don't know how it should be pronounced kalvechomer but it means what it means is light and heavy and it means if I can do it in the heavy situation then I can automatically do it in the light situation and so when he says to them what's the easiest thing for me to say your sins are forgiven you or get up and walk if I can make him get up and walk

[29:12] I'm obviously powerful enough to forgive your sins because in either event you're dealing with God you're not dealing with just normal humanity here if anybody's got any sort of a legal background you've got a similar principle in British law called a fortiori which means that because it's true of the more difficult situation it must also be true of the lesser situation and that's something used in court today as a way of proving something so he's applying this and he's forcing them down that funnel where they have to decide is he Messiah or isn't he and he knows that's what they've come to watch out for he knows he's establishing his credibility as Messiah he also knows that they're going to reject him but that's further on so for any normal man both things are impossible for any normal man

[30:25] I can't forgive your sins because I'm just a normal man I might be able to forgive the particular sin you committed against me but I can't forgive your sinful acts in an eternal sense it's not part of my remit but neither can I make the paralytic get up and walk they're both impossible so the thinking is well if I can make the paralytic get up and walk that shows who I am and when I've shown you who I am that person who I am is also able to forgive sins because it's a divine intervention it's God who's intervening is this making sense?

[31:06] so by doing the one normally impossible thing he's able to show he could also do the other normally impossible thing the difference is I can't give you any evidence that your sins are forgiven but I can give you evidence that this man can walk do you see?

[31:23] so the the evidence of the one means you can take the other one for granted because the only time you'll ever see evidence of that man's forgiveness is when you're in heaven and he's there and you go ah you're the one I'm looking forward to that day and we must note that the crowd get it as they glorify God and they know in whom's presence they stand they are they have absolute conviction and what we read is that in I can't remember I think it was Mark's it was Mark's or Luke's gospel the crowd followed him a massive crowd follows him to hear his teaching doesn't say to see more miracles or to see more healings it says they followed him and he was teaching them and and God who elevates his own word above his name would want them to follow the word of God in the flesh and get taught by the word of God get taught the word of God by the word of God if you see what I mean so he's achieved in terms of ministry he's achieved a massive height and the Pharisees and the scribes are going away thinking what are we going to do next to investigate him because they are

[32:53] I doubt whether they are in doubt but they kind of have to be to maintain their position which is which is a very sad state of affairs so the scribes and Pharisees just move on to stage two and in the next section of the gospel that we deal with we're going to see that happening that they stop muttering among themselves and they start asking direct questions and challenging the actions of Jesus directly which is stage two of this investigative process and we'll also see it doesn't go well for them because he's far better at it than they are in fact in fact you could argue that what he finishes up doing is ridiculing them but it isn't ridicule in the true sense of the word it is he just puts them in their place is the best way to put it but following the teaching of Jesus is now and always has been the greatest and most important thing that there has ever been it breaks my heart that some people don't get it and people who you you invest your time and your heart in and they still reject Jesus breaks my heart because it is the most important thing that anyone can do at any time is to keep on pursuing

[34:28] Jesus and pursuing him through his word and getting the word off the printed page onto the human heart which is what the prophecy in Jeremiah 31 is all about that I will write my word on their hearts Jeremiah 31 verse 31 and you can't get his word on your heart unless you pursue him with a whole heart so it's the most important thing you can possibly do and quite a lot of churchgoers don't get it and an even greater number of people out there don't get it because they just dismiss God as a myth and we must remember because I think how much time have I got left I must be nearly there oh right I'm finishing early today sorry oh right we must remember that in Matthew 24 verse 37 turn there as we speak stealing my own thunder for later in the chapter aren't I or later in the Bible

[35:35] Matthew 24 verse 37 well we'll start with verse 36 so they've asked him when are you coming back and he says of that day and hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven nor the son but the father alone for the coming of the son of man will be just like the days of Noah so although this is incredibly sad that people are paying so little attention to Jesus and even in the churches they're often put the jumble sail above the teaching of the word of God or the bingo session or there are lots of actions that churches do that are wonderful feeding the hungry and looking after the elderly and stuff like that I'm not decrying those actions but the priority must be to follow

[36:39] Jesus and to take his word off the printed page and put it on the human heart so that we can be Christ like in our communities and unfortunately we are living in the last of the last days and I say that I'm happy to be challenged and asked to say why I believe that but I believe it with my whole heart we're in the last of the last days and it's going to be like it was in the days of Noah and in the days of Noah no one was listening he was building a boat in his yard they all think he's mad and they won't listen to his word and you remember that you remember that occasion when they were trying to get out of Afghanistan and they were all hanging onto the wheels of the plane did you see it on the news hundreds of people clinging onto the wheels of the plane as it's going down the runway I wonder if it was like that when the floods came and the ark floated and I wonder if there were people swimming alongside saying let me in let me in I didn't mean to be such a stubborn so and so let me in

[37:42] I don't know it's going to be like that where people have got their ears blocked they're not listening and our job is not to be demoralised or discouraged by that our job is to preach the gospel anyway because there are still a few out there who need to be saved I have no idea how many and I have no idea when it's all going to happen but it can't be much longer so I guess what I'm saying in all this is we need to there are two groups of people here there's a crowd that are following Jesus for his teaching and there's another crowd who are following Jesus to try to kill him and we need to be sure which crowd we belong to because there'll always be the crowd that are trying to kill him if not kill him in terms of putting an end to his life to discredit the gospel discredit the bible discredit Christian things and unfortunately

[38:46] Christians cooperate with that too much because you find I mean I don't know if you've noticed it Sharon gets fed up with me saying it I'm sure when you see you'll see a thing on the telly like a drama and there'll always be a vicar who is quite often immoral quite often a woman quite often a blasphemous faithless doubting his faith there's very rarely a vicar or any man of God presented as a spot on righteous morally upright defender of righteousness because it'd be a boring film and nobody would want to watch it is their view but the media portrays Christianity as wet and not really worth the effort and men of God are portrayed as that too and unfortunately you go along to most churches and shake hands with the vicar and you get this sickly smile and limp handshake and you don't feel like you've met with a man of

[39:55] God now I'm not saying that every man of God has to have a firm handshake but yes Rob yes exactly superficiality describes it to a T because if they have to put if they have to put their foot down as to where their faith is they don't know and they have a nice heart they want to be good to people they want to embrace all they don't know the word of God they don't know what to expect they don't know what to say they don't know which direction to take the church in they don't know how to interpret the times in which we live but that's to be expected because of the times we're in and we just need to make sure we're in the right crowd father thank you for this word and thank you that you did put sin first dealing with sin first we love it when you deal with all the other stuff as well it magnifies you and we can glorify your name because you heal people and touch people and turn their lives around been privileged this week to have had a woman come to visit us because you've drawn her back to you after an absolute dog's life up to now and it's thrilling when you do those things but thank you

[41:21] Lord that you put the forgiveness of our sins at the top of your agenda so that we can spend eternity with you with our sins paid for and everything else rightly should fall into second third fourth place thank you Lord in Jesus name Amen voy