Tear Off The Roof

If you would today turn in Mark chapter 2. If you've been in church very long, this is a very familiar passage of scripture. But when I felt God wanted to talk to us for a little bit here today upon Mark chapter 2, beginning at verse 1. And again, he entered Capernaum. And after some days it was heard that he was in the house. He being Jesus. Immediately many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And he preached the word to them. I'm so thankful that we come together and we can hear the word of God preached. But how better to receive it than God or Jesus himself standing and preaching the word? Then they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. I tried to imagine, Brother Taylor, if you were preaching and all a sudden somebody tore a hole in the roof and dropped somebody in front of you. that would be a distraction. Jesus saw their faith. He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." Some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoned in their hearts, why does this man speak blasphemies like this?

Who can forgive sins but God alone? But immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reason thus within themselves, he said unto them, Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven you." or to say, "Arise, take up your bed and walk." But that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, "If I say to you, arise and take up your bed," or he said, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all. So that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this." That's good church. And we can leave here today with that in our lips. We never saw anything like this. Not because I'm preaching, but because God is in the house. Because all things are possible when he shows up. And all things are possible when we get out of the way and allow him to do what it is he desires to do in the house. We see a story here of a man that had a need, a barrier to getting the answer to that need also stood before him. And I feel this situation is applicable to everyone that's in the room today.

We could all put oursel in this man's place. God is in the place and he's talking to each of us if we will listen at this very moment. We find time and we read his word and we hear it spoken here week after week and taught and instructed, explained to us. Yet there seems sometimes to be a barrier keeping us from reaching Jesus. We long and we desire to get into his presence and we understand that he is a healer. We understand that he is a fixer of broken things. But sometimes we say why am I missing out? What is it that separates me? Why can't I get what I need from Jesus today? And this scripture seems to speak into that story in our life. Many were gathered there so much that there was not even standing room at the door. And sometimes we come into a church service and it seems like we're in that case in our own life. I can't see him. I can't feel him. Where are you, God? And we're quick to just settle in to know that, well, I know he's here, but he's just unreachable in my life. We allow the enemy to deceive us and convince us that my need is so great and there's so much involved and I can't even unfold it all here for God. There's too much to bring to Jesus and we feel paralyzed in our situation in our circumstance.

Scripture says there was no room to receive them. The lie that the devil will tell each of us is there's just no room for you. There's no room for your recovery. There's no room for your seemingly endless chaos in your life. There's no room for you to be helped. No room to be fixed or delivered. But read the story again. Jesus didn't say there was no room. That was man's idea. There's always room when Jesus is in the house. And I've come to tell you that God is in the room and all things are possible. Nothing is too far gone. Nothing is too far removed. Nothing is too great or too small for him to touch you today. Hebrews 4:15 says, "For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. This verse, it beautifully highlights and points out the humanity and the empathy of Jesus Christ as our high priest. I'm afraid sometimes we get a misconception in our spiritual thinking of, you know, he's just so far removed from what I am and what I've been through and what I'm going through and what I face. And in ancient times, the high priest was a spiritual mediator between God and the people. But this writer of Hebrews, he makes it clear, our high priest, Jesus, is not distant.

He's not cold. He's not disconnected, but it says he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He feels what it is that you're going through. He feels what it is you're facing. He knows the pain. He knows the weakness and the struggles on that emotional level. He's not merely just aware, but he is touched by them. He is affected by what affects you. in all points tempted like as we are. We're so quick to say, "But nobody understands. Nobody knows what I'm going through. Nobody I know has ever been through this." But it says in all points tempted like as we are. Jesus faced every kind of temptation, loneliness, frustration, rejection, despair. You fill in the blank. He knows. He walked the full human experience. Come to tell you, don't believe the lie. You are not alone. You are not abandoned. You are not by yourself. He knows and he cares and he is concerned and he is affected by what you face today. It goes on to say yet without sin and defi despite him facing those same pressures he didn't give in to sin. And it makes him qualified to both empathize with us and intercede on our behalf. And I'm so thankful that we have a high priest who will intercede for us. He will go the length, the distance to reach and to touch and to move and to change our situation.

How many of us desire a change and are willing to do the effort to get that change? In 1956 during the Montgomery bus boycott, the tensions were high. Black citizens in Alabama were boycotting the segregated city bus system after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat up to a white man. Over a year, people walked to work, carpulooled, or rode wagons. Leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were arrested and harassed. Churches were bombed. And the civil rights movement was gaining steam. But one lesserk known moment happened in that time in a courtroom where lawyers for the Montgomery Improvement Association were arguing that bus segregation was unconstitutional. Outside, hundreds gathered in support. Inside, the room was packed. people shouldertosh shoulder, but many were still locked outside of the courtroom, unable to hear what was happening, unable to support the cause from within. So what did they do? They began to climb a top of the courthouse onto the roof. They tore off parts of the shingles and leaned in through the rafters to hear what was happening inside. Yes, they literally tore the roof off of the courthouse because what was happening inside was too important to miss. They weren't about to let a wall or a door or a ceiling block them from being a part of history that was taking place. And that day, the judge ruled in fla in favor of desegregation.

Bus segregation was declared unconstitutional and the boycott ended 381 days after it began with a victory for justice and equality. These weren't people just trying to be nosy. They were people who were desperate for a change, desperate to be part of something bigger than themselves, willing to risk discomfort and even a rest just to lean in and say, "We're not waiting outside anymore." Sometimes in life, history's changed because somebody decided and made a choice. I'm going to tear a roof off today. I'm going to tear the roof off of my situation. And I'm going to tear the roof off of this dilemma that I'm facing in my life that has paral paralyzed me to the point of knowing nowhere else to go, nothing else to do, but I'm tearing the roof off to get to Jesus today. The room in our text was full to capacity of people there to see and to hear the words that Jesus spoke. But there was also this man. He found room because desperation made a way. Desperation drove him to think outside the box to go outside of normal limits of man. He desired to get into the presence of Jesus. And this desire and determination opened the way. They tore the roof off of the house where he was. When you see no way, look up. when you can't feel him there, reach up. Jesus responded and was touched by the faith of these individuals on that day.

And I challenge us here today to exercise our faith to this very place, this very moment, to trust that God will respond when we exercise our faith in this place. He will come. He will touch. If we're willing to do the effort and the work to tear the roof off of whatever it is that separates us from what God wants to do in our life. Amen. Hallelujah. We've got to correct our perception of Jesus in our life and then correlate our life around him. Way too often we're guilty of just placing Jesus time on our list of to-do. Well, I spent time with Jesus. Check. I'm going to the next thing on my list. But I've come to challenge somebody. We've got to redo the list. Jesus is not an item that we check off and then keep going to the next and the next. Jesus does not want to be a check off on our list. Jesus must be the list that we live by. He must be the reason that we live and we breathe and we have our being. We must be the list that we work our life daily off of when he is that list. Everything that I do in my life is about Jesus. All of my relationships are influenced by what it is I believe about Jesus. My work life is based on what it is I believe about Jesus.

My marriage is centered on what it is I believe about Jesus. and everything in my life, all my relationships this way are based on this relationship being what it needs to be. We see in verse five, he spoke as he lowered him through the roof, Jesus spoke to the man. He said, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." Jesus doing what he does best at that instant. He was forgiving before dealing with anything else that the man had going on. Two time too many times we come to Jesus and we act like we're at the Burger King. I started to go get the little crown. How many wore the crown? Confession time. Yeah, the crown that you get at Burger King. I'll have it my way. I want you to do this, to change this, to add this, remove that, and I'll just sit over here and wear the crown. The problem with that mentality is we put God in a box and we limit what he can do and leave disappointed that he did not fill in the blank in our life. You see, at Burger King, they say you get it your way, but there's a very limited menu to choose from. And here's a eye opener. It's probably not the best thing to select. It's just fast and convenient at best. But if we flip the coin, we go to a doctor and we're sick or we're hurting and begin to examine us to help us feel better and we trust him even when he often insults us.

He says your knees hurt because you're fat and overloading them. Your cholesterol is high because Burger King is not healthy and you go there way too much. You're short of breath because you never exercise. You don't even get out of the car to go get that burger at Burger King. Yet, we listen to his advice and we take what he says and the medicine to prescribe and we pay to get better so that we can go get a burger later. You say, "Preacher, you done gone to meddling. You better get back in the bird. But when we come to church and God deals with us or a pastor calls us to the front for prayer, we're quick to put up a guard, we're quick to take offense. How dare he say that to me? How dare he call me up front. He's not talking to me. I don't need prayer. He's talking to the sinner on the other side. Glad so and so is here. You know, they really needed this word. I pay my offering and tithes and I know when exactly to say amen. I know all the words to the song. I I'm good. And we're just like the crowd mentioned here in the story today. We're near him, but we're not desperate enough to do what it takes to experience a change in our life. We're satisfied with just a nearness, but don't make me uncomfortable.

Don't make me have to do something drastic. Let me just go with the crowd. I fear too many are content to remain paralyzed because they're convinced that being here is close enough to God and this is all I really deserve anyway. But I've come to tell you that we serve a God that gives us more than we deserve. And I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful he does not give us exactly what we deserve. But because he loves so much, because he loves so much, he took what we deserved and made a way of salvation for everyone here today. All of humanity has a way because he made a way. He extended his grace that we can come boldly to his throne room and make our petitions known. And he's quick to just touch, to heal, to deliver, to set free. But it only comes when we're willing to surrender to his will and to his plan and to tear the roof of our own ideas and our own philosophies that interrupt what he wants to do in our life. We come in and we try to direct what takes place in his presence and is to our own demise. We say, "I'll have a side of feeling good and leave off repentance and I'll be about my way. Just fix the mess I made and not bring up the reason I made it to begin with."

We try to cover the sin and just want the benefits without the work. relationship without investment in sacrifice. But when we come to God, we have to allow him to be God in our life. Because if he can't be God of everything, he's not going to settle for something less. We've got to come wholeheartedly open up to him, surrendering everything, tearing the roof off of our own life that he can touch and heal. God will always deal with a sin issue in a person, but it's up to each of us to allow him to do so. God is a forgiver of those who seek him. But are we truly seeking him? Have we become comfortable with all our monu modern conveniences? Have we allowed them to lull us to sleep and to think, "Well, we're just a little bit better so we can get by with a little bit more. I'm okay. Nobody knows. I'll just go in and go my seat, do my motions, and be about my way. I'm afraid we've so many times missed what God wants to do in the moment of our life because in that moment, we say, "Well, I'm better than somebody else." So, we disregard what God wants to do for us. In we cannot mistake conviction for condemnation. Conviction is a feeling of guilt that motivates positive change. While condemnation is a feeling of guilt that leads to despair and self-hatred.

Conviction is often associated with the Holy Spirit and leads to repentance. While condemnation is associated with the devil and leads to self-loathing and hiding from God. Don't believe that you're being condemned when God's dealing with issues in your life. Don't fall for the trap of the devil saying, "Well, you're not loved. You're not cared." God loves every human being and he cares for you. He cares what you're facing and what you're going through and the struggles that you have. And he'll reach to any depth to reach an individual, a person who seeks God for forgiveness. And God is quick to forgive. His repentance is for all of mankind. And when we're filled with that wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost that he gives freely to those who seek after it, it's important that we understand that's the main thing. Be right in that relationship because if this is right, you can get to heaven. You don't have to be whole. You can be sick, crippled, blind, but if you got that sin issue taken care of, everything else, he can deal with. He is a God who heals. He can deliver. He can restore. But if we get that relationship right, that's what we got to keep right day in and day out to allow him to work and to speak through us and to have that relationship. Every morning we arise out of the bed.

We can thank him for another day. Thank him for his blessings and his benefits that he places in our life. I may hobble throughout the day, but I'm so thankful, God, that you loved enough to care for enough to shed your blood to cover my sins. We often reverse these steps because we fred over what others see about us and not enough about what God sees in us. 1st Samuel 16:7 but the Lord talking to Samuel said do not consider his appearance or his height for I've rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The devil has convinced some that sin is not a problem. Nobody sees it. So, just go about your day. But I've come to tell you, you're not hiding it because nobody sees it. God sees it. And you have to ask and allow him to forgive you of it. It's a you and God thing. It really doesn't matter what everybody else around you sees or not sees. When we come into his presence, God, see me as you see me, God, and cleanse me as you see fit to do so. God, wash me. Let me be pure and holy in your sight. Let nothing separate me. What is your heart condition? We in the room cannot see your heart, but God knows and God sees.

God will work in you and through you and he will bring about a miraculous testimony. There's testimonies all throughout this room of what God has done and delivered and brought you from. But I've come to tell you, if you've received the gift of the Holy Ghost, that testimony is just as great as any other testimony somebody may have. That gift of the Holy Ghost is freely given. And we can all have that opportunity in this place before we leave to make sure that that relationship is right. You might not could walk in. You may have needed help getting in. But when we see this story, you can have this testimony that you can walk out after Jesus touches your need. You can walk out of the situation that you never could have walked into, that you were paralyzed in the middle of. But when Jesus stepped into your story, when Jesus saw the need and saw the faith that you were willing to exercise, he can change it in an instant. He will make a difference. But you've got to be willing to tear the roof off of your situation. A real need requires a person to remove the mass, the facade, to get everything surrendered to God, to tear the roof off of their life and allow him in every part of your life. We can't compartmentalize God. Just take care of this situation.

I'm going to leave this one closed off. No. God, see all of me and fix all of me as you see fit. I'm not here to orchestrate how you do it and to tell you what my plans are so you can follow them. But God, I'm going to surrender my plan to you that you can in turn work through me your plan and your destiny and your purpose for my life. Yeah, this man, he arrived to a full house, no way in and paralyzed, depending totally on others to get him there. But he was miraculously healed and walked out of that house with his bed in his hand. Remember at the beginning of the story, there was no way in. But it's amazing when God does a work, you can walk out of a situation you couldn't walk into. Jesus always makes room when people say, "There's no room. There's no way. There's no situation that will work for you." God says, "Let me take control." When Jesus works in you, you will leave with the ability to carry what has carried you to this moment. Your testimony is something no one can take away from you. No one can change what God did for your life. Regardless what they try to tell you, you can say, "No, I remember the day. I remember the moment. I remember when he came into my life. He filled me with his Holy Ghost and I walked out a new creature in Christ Jesus.

I remember when I was sick and he touched and immediately health restored to my body. God is a healer. God is a deliverer. And regardless what you face, nobody can tell you that didn't happen in your life because he is the prince of peace. He is the way maker. He is the great physician. He is the deliverer. What is it that you need in your life today? And are you willing to tear the roof off and allow him to reach into your life and make that difference today? When firefighters arrive on the scene at a burning building, very often the first thing they do is they tear the roof open. on that building that's ablaze. They go up and they cut or they tear open the roof. Many say, "Well, that's just destructive." But actually, it's a lifesaving maneuver. It's called vertical ventilation. The re the reasons that they do that is number one, to let the heat and the smoke escape. In a fire, the heat and the smoke, they rise fast and they get trapped under the roof. They build up pressure and toxic gases that make it harder to see, to breathe, and even to survive inside it all. By cutting this hole, they create an escape path. So, the heat, the smoke, and the gases vent upward and out, making it safer inside for both the victims and the rescuers. The second reason is they prevent a flashover or a collapse.

When this heat has nowhere to go, it builds and builds until everything inside the room ignites at once. And it's very deadly when that takes place. Pressure can also build and cause the roof or the upper floors to collapse. And by tearing the roof off, they release that pressure and it makes the fire more predictable and easier to contain. And they also do it to save the structure. Ironically, tearing part of the roof off can save the rest of the building. It's controlled damage to prevent total destruction. It's better to lose part of the roof than the entire house. And as musicians come today and as you stand in our life, sometimes we have to go in and we have to tear the roof off and our life is in shambles. We tear the roof off to save what's inside. When things are burning in your life, when pressures are building, sin has crept in, and fear has be to take control, and these things begin to build up. Sometimes God directs you to tear the roof off and allow me to get in, to let the junk out and the healing in. Sometimes we have to remove what we've tried to hide. Sometimes the spirit has to break you open to release what's suffocating your faith. What looks to everyone else like destruction may actually be a divine rescue for your life. What feels like tearing is really ventilation, making space for revival once again, clarity once again, and life breathing salvation to enter once again.

And just like in Mark 2, they tore the roof off to get to Jesus. Just like the people there in Alabama that tore off the shingles to make way for freedom. And just like firefighters go in and they tear the roof off to save lives, God sometimes tears through the surface to rescue our soul. But we've got to allow that to take place in our life. God, remove whatever hinders what you want to do in my life. Whatever you want to live within me, God, I give you authority to work in me to come. Lord Jesus, peel back what it is I've tried to cover and hide and do and hold on my own. We have to come before him with real and raw faith, holding back nothing. God's in this place. God knows who's here. And God's dealing with somebody in this place right now. If you say and you've been convinced, God doesn't know. God doesn't care. I've come to tell you he does, but he's waiting for you to open yourself before him. It's time to tear the roof off of our own life and lay it all out before Almighty God, releasing control to him that he can work in every area of our life. And these altars are open. And it's time for examination. And if there's something that you want God to truly work through in your life, be willing to come and to open yourself before him to tear off that roof that hides what you've been holding silent, what has paralyzed you to this moment.

You can release to him and he in an instant can forgive. He in an instant can heal. He can work in that situation as only God can. It's time for prayer. It's time to tear the roof off of some things in our life. No more math. No more settling. No more just being near Jesus without encountering him as he intends for it to be. Matthew 11 and 12 says, "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force." I've come to tell you that today is your moment. Tear the roof off of your excuses. Tear the roof off of your fears. tear the roof off of those self paralyzing limitations and get into the presence of God where great and mighty things can happen where that testimony can be what you never imagined it could be. God is in the house and your miracle is in reach but it's up to us to open ourselves. Can we find a place to pray here today?