He Pays Attention
by Kevin Allen
January 15, 2022 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: John 9:1-13, Numbers 6:24-26, 1 Corinthians 1:26-27, Isaiah 53:2, Genesis 16, Genesis 16:13, Psalms 34:15, 1 Peter 3:12, 2 Kings 14:26, Job 10:4, Job 23:8-10, Job 28:10, Job 31:4, Job 34:21, Psalms 94:9, 1 Samuel 16:7, Matthew 6:6, Matthew 9:36, Matthew 14:14, Luke 5:20, Luke 5

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--he-pays-attention
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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John chapter 9, verse number 1, says: "Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.' And when he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with a saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man. He said unto him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Shalom,' which is translated Sent. 'So he went and washed and came back seeing.' Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that it was blind said, 'Is this not he who sat and begged?' And some said, 'This is he,' and others said, 'He is like him.' He said, 'I am he.' Therefore they said to him, 'How were your eyes opened?' He answered and said, 'A man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me to go to the pool Shalom and wash. So I went and washed and received sight.' And they said to him, 'Where is he?' He said, 'I do not know.'"

For a little while this evening I want to preach on the title: He Pays Attention. He pays attention.

A few Christmases ago I was trying to prepare and make sure that I had a gift for my wife. It's a bad day if you don't have a Christmas present for your wife. So I'm doing my best to make notes. I don't know how every man is in the room, but as the months approach, heading towards Christmas time, I start paying attention to things that my wife mentions, and hoping that she may indicate that there's something that she wants. And on this particular day we were driving down the road, and she was showing me a few things on her phone. And she showed me this little, little purse thing. You know, I live with a lot of women, and I know a lot about women's clothing, more than I sometimes care to admit. But I live in Estrogen Acres, so it's just part of it.

So I was noticing what was going on and seen this, and I was trying to make a mental note of the brand and the model of what was there. And then she, she was telling me how much she really liked this particular purse, and how cute it was and adorable, and all of the subtle details and intricacies that make up a purse. I mean, I was, I was struggling. Terry Freeman, if we'd have been talking about a car or truck or something like that, I'd have been more in tune. But I'm, I'm really, really trying to pay attention, because I'm thinking to myself, well, maybe, just maybe, this is something I could try to go and buy, and then I could be, you know, "Hey, and my husband, he paid attention." So then, then, then she said this: "Well, it's, it's sold out everywhere." I'm like, "Well, then why are we even talking about it? I mean, I've made all this mental space in my head to make sure that I understood and had all the details." But I couldn't get away from, from the look on her face, and she was disappointed that it was sold out. So I'm like determined in this point that I'm going to find that purse. So I did my due diligence, and it took me a few days. I signed up for websites that no man should ever sign up for. I got on news mailings and things, and I'm learning all this. And normally I'm pretty good, but man, I was really struggling to get this one. I had to work really, really, really hard. I'm still getting emails from things I signed up for because of that. But I found it. Diligently I searched, and I found it. I ordered it, and I got in. And on Christmas Day, when she opened that box up, it was all worthwhile to see her face. And she's asking, "How did you find it?" And I told her, I was like, "I don't even know how to explain all that I did, all that I signed up for." But it was love, all for that moment, to see on her face that I paid attention to what was going on, and I hopefully earned a few points there.

Attention is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Along with water and food, there has been much research that has shown how critical it is, when newborn babes are developing, that they sense that they are being paid attention to. The attentive gaze of a mom and a dad play a pivotal role in the development of a small child. In fact, they learn how to understand joy and anger and sorrow, because they are watching the face, and it's reflecting back to them, and they develop these things. Psychologists speak of this as attunement: that the baby realizes that it is possible to be connected, to be in tune with someone else in this world.

We see this as we often will play what we used to call peekaboo with kids. Don't ever do that. He kind of put your hand in front of your face, and you hide for just a minute, and then you peekaboo, or pea pie, or whatever your version of that is, to watch a child's face — when of course we can look through the fingers and see them as we cover up for just a minute — to see a little bit of concern, only to, to remove our hands for a minute and see their face hopefully light up. I mean, for sometimes they cry, but for the most part they're happy to see that there's an unobstructed view in that moment, that the face has returned.

There are certain times in life when we crave and desire to have attention. We can even see when this sometimes plays out when a child is not receiving the attention, or even the teenager or the adult, that they feel like they need. No, don't point fingers into place tonight, but some people require more attention than others. But one of the things that I have learned from my 46 years of life is that all of us, at one point or another, desire to have his attention. Something about knowing that our God pays attention to us makes a lot of difference in what I'm dealing with in my life. One of the greatest miracles in life is that God pays attention to you and I.

God instructed his priest to bless Israel this way. It was about a year and a half ago there was a song that came out called The Blessing. It was based off of Numbers chapter 6, verse 24: "The Lord bless thee and keep thee. Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace." The Message version of the Bible says it this way: "God bless you and keep you. God smile and gift you. God look you full in the face and make you prosper."

To turn your face to something is not a casual thing. It is something that is focusing in. I, we have all, every one of us, at some point or another, have been talking to someone, and we realize that that person is not listening to us. Anybody been there? Anybody have said to your kids before, "You just look at me for a minute"? "What, I got to look at you?" Because I know if you're looking at me, there's a better chance at what I'm saying sinking in your head. It's not just about repeating the words I say, but comprehending what I'm trying to say to you in this moment. It's, it's undivided. It's wholehearted attention. It's signaling and saying, "I'm fully devoted to you in this moment." God's face is not just turned to us; it's shining on us. It's shining in delight, and he's proud in that moment.

We, we have seen this before when we have, uh, come into the presence of someone that we love and we haven't, we haven't seen in a long time. In fact, I've seen this right before church, when, when, when Matthew Robinson and his sweet wife and baby came in, and Katie Sane comes in, and her face was shining and glowing, and she began
 to cry. I hope I don't embarrass you. Nobody look at Katie right now. But just know, you were playing a part into the message that I was preaching tonight, as I began to see this unfold, as if God was confirming that there's something special about being in the presence of someone you love. It's, it's shown in your face. You can't help, you can't hide it. It's just there. It's, it's a part of how we are created, and God designed us uniquely in that way. And I love to see when God's love is being poured out, and when you and I realize in these moments during worship that he loves us, and as we engage, it changes our face. It's evident that we have, have, have reached a place where I have pushed away the cares of life and the worries for just a moment, because that's what worship is supposed to do. It's supposed to, to take your mind off all of the things that you can't control and focus in on the one thing that matters the most: worshiping God Almighty.

Over and over the psalmist says, "Please do not hide your face from me," because he realizes and understands that it's something that I simply cannot bear, the thought that you would turn your face from me.

If I go back to our opening Scripture that I read to you just a few minutes ago, the Gospel of John tells a story of a man that no one paid any attention to. He had spent his entire life being ignored. He simply was not worth noticing. He was blind. He was someone who, who could not fully operate with all of human ability, and because of that he was resorted to just simply being a beggar. He had spent the majority of his life simply being ignored. He wasn't worth anyone noticing. To say that he was lonely would have been an understatement. He was blind. He was a beggar. People would look the other way. But he would try to do his best to try to get their attention. After all, he was dependent on someone else helping him make it in life. He was used to being ignored. It's what he did, the life of a beggar. He was simply just another face in the crowd.

But not to Jesus. Not to Jesus. I love how verse number one says, "Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man." Jesus sees everything. He doesn't let the small subtleties of life simply pass by. There may be others in this world who have ignored you, who think you're not valuable or you have no worth because of your circumstances and situations, that you're just simply not worth their time. But that's not how Jesus views you. Regardless of the circumstances, he still sees the value of the person that is there. How powerful it is, at the very beginning of this chapter, as the story starts, we see immediately that Jesus was passing by and he saw the man. He didn't just pass him by, but he acknowledges there's somebody there who has value to me.

Oh, I'm here on this Saturday evening speaking to somebody here. I want you to know: nobody else may place any value on your life, but to Jesus Christ you have value. To God Almighty, you are one of his children. You are the very reason he went to Calvary and paid that price he paid. If nobody else would have acknowledged it, he still died just for you. He loves you. He pays attention.

How many years had it been since someone turned his face toward this man? Jesus actually stops and looks at him, and he sees the hope, or the hurt and the hopelessness, of a life that seems to have no hope there. A simple endless night. No one has ever seen like Jesus sees. No one sees your life the way Jesus sees your life. Jesus saw people that nobody else ever paid any attention to. Jesus seen people and the value they had, when everybody else had said they're simply not worth my time or effort. He saw tax collectors. He saw a woman desperate for a healing that up to him in his garment. He saw a widow that was given an offering. He saw children that the disciples wanted to push away. All of these things had value to him. He looked at the, at the circumstances differently than human beings did. He pays attention.

In Jesus' day, people believed in cause-and-effect type of relationships, because it was easier for them to process things this way, if there was a reason for why someone suffered, especially if they suffered in, in a, in a, in a horrible way. So we see in this moment, as his disciples notice that Jesus is paying attention to this blind man — I'm sure in the uncomfortable of the moment they said, "We should come up with a question." So they decide to ask, "Whose fault is it that this man is blind? Who sinned that caused this problem? Was it him or was it his parents?" Because we need to wrap our mind around why bad things happen. Now, don't act like you're different than they are. It helps us in our mind to understand why tragic things happen. It helps us to process those. We don't, we don't like it when things happen for seemingly no reason. There needs to be a reason behind it, so that we can better comprehend and understand. That way we can package it all together and put it on a shelf somewhere in the recesses of our mind.

These disciples were uncomfortable in the moment. Instead of trying to think and process, "Why is it that Jesus has stopped and lingered on this man?" and try to, instead of trying to understand that maybe he's just wanting his face to shine on, and allow this poor beggar to feel love for just a moment — that was something that was too uncomfortable for them. So they have to come up with a reason for why he's suffering the way he's suffering.

I'm here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen: sometimes you're going to go through some things that's not going to make sense on this side of heaven. It's not going to be something that you're going to be able to neatly package and put together and explain to your family and friends. Sometimes things happen in life that have consequences beyond the right now. They have, that have circumstances that play, they go beyond where you are. He was blind from birth. How is it possible that an infant is going to sin in his mother's womb? But yet there was a thought in the day that that was a real reality. We know this because the disciples themselves are bringing this point out: "Who sinned? Was it him or his parents?" Because we can't handle that someone could just simply be born blind. His blindness was too depressing for them. He was a beggar, that was too demanding for them. He was a product of sin in their mind, that was too disgusting for them.

John includes these details that tell us just how ignored this man had been. Matter of fact, it goes even further, because after he's healed and comes back seeing, they're debating amongst themselves: is this really the guy? How invisible do you have to be, to have spent your lifetime begging as a blind man, only to be healed and have somebody argue and say that it wasn't really you that sat there the hour, the entire time? You know, he's got to be going, "Are you kidding me? I spent my entire life sitting right there, and you don't even realize it's me."

This should speak to how human beings have ability to disassociate themselves with things that make them uncomfortable. And I love how my God's not afraid to step right up in the middle of a bunch of uncomfortable. He's not afraid of your uncomfortable circumstances. He's not afraid of whatever decision you've made that have caused things not to turn out the way you want them to be. He's not afraid to step right in the middle of the mess of your life. He's not uncomfortable with it. You may be uncomfortable. Those around you may be uncomfortable. But I promise you, Jesus is not uncomfortable. He's not afraid to step in the middle of your mess and come right up and look you face to face. Oh, somebody ought to be excited about what I'm preaching right now. That may be a simple message, but I'm here to tell you that he loves to come down in the middle of your calamity and get close enough to you that his face can
 shine on your face, so that even in the midst of everything burning down, what you feel is his love shining on you.

What the disciples were uncomfortable with is the fact that Jesus was showing him some attention. They didn't like the attention that was being shown. They're trying to somehow process why he's blind, when all Jesus is trying to do is let love flow in a moment. That man wasn't having to qualify himself. He wasn't having to go through some 10-step process. But the Creator of all stopped in the middle of his procession to let his face shine in the middle of this man's dilemma.

I'm going to get off track. Have you ever felt unnoticed? That's an uncomfortable question, isn't it? I want to ask you again: Have you ever felt unnoticed? Have you ever been in a place where others in the room simply passed you by, as if you had no value whatsoever? Now I'm gonna get a little bolder right now. How many are willing to raise your hand and say, "I felt unnoticed in my life"? Yeah. Anybody here ever felt unloved? Yeah. Anybody ever felt unwanted? Yeah. So this is exactly what this man was going through in his life: unnoticed, unloved, unwanted. And it's in the middle of these circumstances that Jesus just simply stops and notices this man. I don't know about you, but something about that just makes me happy.

You would think that the ones that were following Jesus would have been taking notes and trying to pay attention to what was important to the Master, instead of trying to qualify the sin that was there. Try to understand the value and the worth of a human being. It didn't matter about the sin. What mattered was the Master was saying, "I think enough of you to stop doing what I'm doing so that you can feel love." For him, I'm speaking to somebody here: you feel unwanted and unloved, and on a Saturday night God is stopping and saying, "I'm willing to put my face on you right now." I think some of you are thinking, because it's not Sunday morning, God can't move. I'm here to tell you there's a Saturday night miracle in this place. Oh, I wish somebody buy in. There's a Saturday night miracle here. Something special wants to take place. You may have been feeling uncomfortable, but there's a God who is stopping. He sent a snowstorm to allow service to be changed, so that you can make it on a Saturday night.

I've talked to those individuals. I've counseled them, the ones that have felt like they have been ignored, unnoticed, unloved, and alone. Different faces, different details, but the same feelings. I've counseled with that person in the office. I've prayed with them at the altar. Have you been that person?

I want you to listen to what the Bible says. First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26. Paul writing here, reading from The Message. It says: "Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of the brightest and the best among you. Not many influential, not many from high society families. It's obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooked and exploits and abuses. Choose these nobodies to expose the hallow pretensions of the somebodies. The world may say you are nothing, but God says you're a something. The world may say you have no value, you're just used up and worthless and have no other value that is there. But he says, 'No, I refuse to believe that, because you're my child. You were created in my image. It's my blood, it flows through your veins. And even if you don't love you, I love you.'"

Jesus understands. We don't have some high priest that can't be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. But he came, left the splendor of heaven, robed himself in the flesh, came and walked the same way that you and I walked, though he did it without sin, but so that he could understand.

Isaiah 53 and 2 said: "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of the dry ground. He has no former commonness, and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him." I know Hollywood and others always try to depict a portrait of Jesus. There's the, there's that rock star Jesus, you know, with the flowing mane and the glow, with blue eyes. Like, come on, do you even read the Bible? He's from the Middle East. He's gonna have dark hair and dark eyes. Guarantee, it's just genetics. The Chosen, pretty interesting what they've done with that. I've been pretty impressed with it. But in hen they always have that handsome fellow that always plays Jesus, because we can't have an ugly Jesus. Like, we, we just can't process an ugly Jesus. But Isaiah says, "He has no form or cuddling in us, and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him." Now I know I'm messing with some of y'all right now, but I'm in the Book. See, you think he has to be pretty so that he can, you know, be right in your mind. I'm not saying he's dog ugly, but I will tell you what the word of God says: there wouldn't have been a physical attraction that would have drawn you to him, but there would have been beauty that would exude it out of him because of the love that he manifested that was there.

I was reading in my Bible this week, this past week. Of course, you know, if you're doing a Bible plan, you're probably somewhere Genesis, Exodus, unless you're just a big overachiever. You may, if you're doing chronological like I am, you probably went through Job, and then now you're somewhere probably with Moses close. So as I'm with you, I'm right there, right? I'm reading my Bible, going through it, and I love, I just love all the stories. But I was captivated in this moment with a story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar, Genesis 16. You know, this is just, you know, there's so much good going on there. And as, if, if you're like me, and even you've been reading these stories the majority of your life, I don't know how you — but I talk out loud when I'm reading. And even though I know what the story, I'll be reading — and y'all, I know y'all probably think I'm crazy — but I'm reading. So we're over here in Genesis. I'm reading, and I'm going, "Don't do it. Don't do it." So Genesis 16: Sarah comes, says, "Hey, we've been this" — I'm, I'm being historically correct here. So they've been 10 years back in the promised land, because, because there are some theologians that believe that the reason they thought that they were barrens, because they were not where they were supposed to be, that they had to get back to the promised land, and once they got back in the promised land, then it could happen. Now again, you put that wherever you want to. I'm just telling you it's out there. But now we're 10 years back in the promised land. And it's not like they're spring chickens, okay? I mean, they're, they're advanced. They get up and they hurt. They've reached that point of life. But there's still a promise. So as human beings go, sometimes we try to think through how we can help God. Isn't that something? Yeah, I know y'all haven't done that, but I have. Like, "God, I know what you told me, but maybe I could help you out. I was thinking, God, and you probably hadn't thought about this, but what about if we did this?" So this is one of those scenarios where, where, where she goes to, to, to Abraham and says, "Why don't you know what you're thinking about? Why don't you just get, why don't you just take my hand made in here, and, and just, just take Hagar, and you could have the child? Maybe that's, maybe that's how we can make this happen." I'm reading this, I'm going, "Don't do it. No, don't, don't, don't. No, no. Abraham, you're being good. You're beating, you're building altars. You're praying. You're dead. No, don't do it. Now he's, he's, he's being a stupid man. 'My wife said it was okay.' Don't do it. Don't do it. Have all the things you did right — why, why aren't you building an altar now? Boy, if you ever needed an altar, Abraham, now would be a good time for you to build an altar. But you're not thinking." So we know how it goes immediately.
 you know, she, he — you know, I don't have to paint that picture. She's with child now, immediately. Immediately, because we're in the chapter just a couple of verses later, she realizes that she has a baby. And what does she start to do to Sarah? They do the other thing that women do. My wife's not here, so I'm feeling a little bit liberty. Nobody text her right now. Let her be a bunch of dogs. Always turn it into her. You ever notice that when women are pregnant, even if they're not showing but they're pregnant, what they'll do — four weeks pregnant, that's just gonna blow my phone up later. Y'all bad. Now, this is what I see playing out. What's Saturday night in the boy? Here we go. So I see her, she's going in, Hey Guard's in, and she's going from here. She's like, it's morning sickness, something. She starts dealing contentiously with Sarah. Now, when you preach it, you put that however you want to, but it ain't good. It gets bad. Abraham has another man answer: "You do whatever you think you need to do." That's a man answering it. "I don't know, what do you think we need to do?" We find she leaves.

This is where I'm going with this, bro. I think, "Where in the world are you going with this in your message?" Genesis 16:13. She's there, she's trying to figure out — again, here's circumstances. She wasn't in control. She was, she was a servant. She, she didn't have rights to a lot of things. The circumstances were out of her control. Now, she probably could have behaved herself a little bit better after things unfolded the way they did. But how many of you have found yourself in circumstances beyond your control, wound up, it didn't work out the way you wanted it to work out? Now, maybe you could have handled things a little bit better, but you find yourself in a place where you're desperate for something to change. Am I speaking to anybody right now? She's desperate for something to change.

When we have our first instance of an angel showing up and speaking in the Scriptures, saying to her, "You need to go back. God knows where you are." And I love how she responds. Verse 13: "Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her: You are a God who sees." You're a God who sees. Somebody needs to grab a hold of that tonight in this place. God sees where you are. He knows what you're going through. Things may not be ideal right now, but you need to keep doing what you know is right. This is her instruction: go back to doing what's right.

I love what the Bible says in Psalms 34:15: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry." He hasn't left you alone. You may not have felt them in the moment, but I promise you, God knows right where you're at, just like he knew where Hagar is at. He knows where you're at, and he knows what you're going through, he knows what you're facing. And maybe you don't have it all worked out, but God still sees. He still knows. He, he still hears. Peter said in First Peter 3 and 12: "For the eyes of the Lord are all over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers." Somebody needs to take that Scripture to heart tonight, that God is still hearing you. And if your answer hasn't come yet, it doesn't mean he hasn't heard you. He knows where you are. He hears the prayers that you're praying in your life.

In the Old Testament, God was the God who sees. The New Testament, he's the Jesus who sees. His, his personality, he was there in flesh. Second Kings 14:26: "For the Lord saw the bitter suffering of everyone in Israel, and how that they absolutely had no one to help them."

You know, I'm, I'm finishing up the book of Job right now in my Bible reading. I was thinking about this as I was working on, on the sermon this afternoon. Job's change of heart, where he was going, on where he started out, everything's good. We know the story: Job is great, and there's nobody like him. And then everything goes away. And then he has those three grey guys show up. Man, the encouraging bunch right there. Boy, they're uplifting. And we see this whole, this whole conversation that's going back and forth and back and forth. "Well, if you just admit, and if you do this—" "Well, I've done this, and I've been righteous, and I would have him come down, I would talk—" on all this stuff. But I see this progression. I believe that Joe became more and more confident that even though he was going through the trial, God could see him. Job 10:4: "Has thou eyes of flesh? Or seeth as a man?" Job 23 and 8: "Behold, I go forward, he's not there. And backward, I cannot perceive him. On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right hand, I can't see him. But he knoweth the way that I take, and when he have tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Job 28, verse number 10: "He cutteth the rivers among the rocks. His eyes seeth every precious thing." Job 31:4: "Doth not see my ways and count all my steps?" Job 34:20: "And for his eyes are upon the ways of man. He seeth all of his goings." He understood that I may not like what I'm going through, and I may not ever have the answer for why I lost everything that I lost, but I know that my God has an idea of where I'm at. His eyes see me, even though I've looked forward and backwards, and know he knows the way I take. And when I come out on the other side, I'm going to be like pure gold.

Is anybody having a Job type life right now, where things don't work out the way that they were at one time? It was good and grand, and it seemed like you had it all figured out, but life threw you a curveball out of nowhere, things that seemingly have fallen completely apart. I want somebody to know: God has not forgotten you. God has not forgotten you. He pays attention. He pays attention. He pays attention.

Psalms 94:9: "He that plant of the year, shall not hear? Shall we not here? He that formed the eyes, shall he not see?" God doesn't look on with human eyes. Jesus looks beyond the mess and sees the masterpiece that can be. I'm going to say that again: he looks beyond the mess and sees the masterpiece that can be. He's not looking for you to be qualified for his love. He's looking for you to accept that his love is for you, that his love was enough. His love was enough to save you from your mess.

First Samuel 16:7: "But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, known as height of a stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man see it, for the man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." Jesus is not looking for you to use high-quality words of flattery when you pray to him. He's looking at your heart. He's looking at the interview, the part he knows. He pays attention. And somebody just needs to simply cry out to God.

Jesus said in Matthew 6, verse number 6: "But thou, and thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And when thou shut the door, pray to the Father which is in secret. And the Father which sees in secret shall reward thee openly." But is this, it? Is this all the comfort that is available? Should I just simply be content that God sees me? No. For there is more. The God who sees is also moved with compassion. He's not just seeing where you're at, but he's, knows where you're at, and he's moved with the compassion. Matthew 9:36: "When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them." Matthew 14:14: "And Jesus went forth, they saw the great multitude. It was a move with commassion, compassion towards him."

So what is it that God sees? What is it that he's looking for? I'm here to tell somebody — and I, I'm not going to be long on this Saturday night. Matter of fact, the musicians can go ahead and start making their way out, because somebody needs to know that he
 only sees, but he has compassion. And he doesn't just have compassion, but he's looking for somebody to have faith. Somebody to have faith. Does anybody have faith in this house tonight, that God's wanting to do something on a Saturday evening, on a non-service scheduled time? Is anybody in here exercising just a little bit of faith?

Luke 5 and 20: "And when he saw their faith, he said in them, 'Man, thy sins are forgiven.'" This story here in Luke chapter five is an interesting story, because it wasn't about that man's faith. And fatter fact, the, the house was so full that night that they were trying to get this paralytic in, and they couldn't. He was bed, but his friends had enough faith to say, "Hey, let's go up to the roof and tear it off and let him down." It was it, that faith. It was somebody else's faith that caused Jesus to move on this man's behalf. Who — I'm speaking to somebody to let you know: I have faith. If nobody else has faith here tonight, I have faith for you. I have faith for you. But I also know this: that he gave each man a measure of faith. You have faith also. It may have been a while since you've activated it. It may be in a while since you've operated in it. But I'm here to tell you that God sees you. He knows where you're at. He is paying attention. And even if you don't feel like it in this moment, I wish you would allow just a little flame of faith to begin to build up inside of you, because when that happens, nothing can stop what God can do.

It wasn't the paralyzed man's faith, but it was the atmosphere that his friends had created in this place. Who — there's an atmosphere. I pray faith in this house on a Saturday night. Stand with me right now. Here's the deal: he had to be willing to participate. He had to be willing to be a part of it. He didn't have strength on his own to make it. He was bed-bound. But thank God he had a friend. Thank God he had somebody to say, "I know you can't get there by yourself, but I'm willing to go with you. I'm willing to go with you. I'm —" God is here right now, and my faith is strong, and we're in an atmosphere where faith has been activated in this place.

Some people have a spiritual attention deficit dior disorder. They don't realize that God is moving in this house right now, because we're not, we're not shouting from the rooftops right now, and the praise team isn't going, and the band isn't cranking, that it takes all of that for God to move. I want you to know it doesn't take any of that for God to move. There's, there's nothing recorded in Luke chapter 5 that those people, as they were toting the band, the bed, had a band going with them. Nothing there. Nothing. And I don't care what version you want to read, what, what, what particular translation you like, but, but none of them read that they were singing Hillsong when they walked in, or that Carol Magruder was leading the band. Just had to make sure I get all my bases covered. No, it just says those boys had faith, and they refused to stop now.

At this particular moment in my life right now, I don't have anything to complain about. I'm healthy. I got a roof over my head. There's milk and bread in my house. There's no milk and bread at Kroger's over here, but there's milk and bread in my house. At this exact moment right now, I don't have one single pain in my body. My girls are here in the house of God. My wife is safe. I spoke to her just a few minutes ago. Mom and Dad are here. Like, I'm good. I don't have a complaint. But I know that's only me. I know that there are needs in this room tonight.

So here's what I want you to know: I got faith. I got faith that God's going to do something. Now don't you dare raise your hand on this if you don't mean it. And if you don't raise your hand, it doesn't mean you're going to hell. But boy, if there's ever a time that we need to be real, it's right now. Does anybody else besides me have faith that God wants to do something? All right, look at that. Look around the room. You see this? There is an atmosphere of faith.

Now for some of you, you're on that bed. Things aren't the way they're supposed to be. You need some help. I want you to know you're not alone. You got friends here that have created an atmosphere of faith. That means that all things are now possible. So they're getting ready to sing. I don't know what they're gonna sing. Better be something good. But even if it's not, God's gonna do something.

So here's my Saturday night altar call. I don't know what you have need of, but if I was you, I would have enough faith to know that I need to get from where I am up here. Whatever you need — you need salvation, today's the day of salvation. God will pour out his Spirit in this place. Somebody can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost here. If you need a healing in your body, I wouldn't stay back there when you've got friends here who have created an atmosphere of faith where God can do something. Rex, he pays attention. He pays attention, and he's paying attention right now. And who's exercising some faith?

So church, it's time to pray. Ministry and brethren, right now I want you to go among the people. Start praying. I want you to operate right now. I'm going to pray before we sing. In the mighty name of Jesus, I take authority in this place. Every distraction, every doubt, every hindrance, be gone, in the name of Jesus. I'll release the gift and the operation of faith in this place right now. Holy God, I pray that your will will be done in this place. Move in among us, oh God. Touch our lives. Heal our bodies. Fill us with your Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ. Man of God, woman of God, it's time that God use you right now to do a work, a miraculous work on this Saturday night. Hallelujah.