Atlanta Bible Baptist Church

Guest (Male): Amen. Morning, Church. For the scripture reading, if you would, please stand. The scripture is on the screen, or I ask you take your Bibles. We're going to the book of Luke, chapter five. We'll be reading 17 through 26.

And the word of God reads: Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him.

And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. When He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you." And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise up and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"—He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."

Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today." May the Lord add a blessing to the reading of His word. You may be seated.

Pastor Ray P. Smith: If you have your copy of the Scriptures or the device that you use to bring them up, I invite you to take them and turn with me to Luke chapter five. We will talk about this particular instance. Luke chapter five, the passage that has been read already. What I'd like to do is break in at verse 12. We'll read 12 through 15, and it will become apparent to you why I read that in just a minute.

Luke chapter five: It happened when He was in a certain city, there behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately the leprosy left him.

And He charged him to tell no one, "But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded." However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

And now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. Father, thank You again for this day. I thank You for hearing us. Thank You for giving us an opportunity not only to gather together and approach You, but to praise You. You alone deserve our praise. You alone are worthy of our praise.

Father, now we ask for the additional blessing of being able to sit at Your feet and learn. Speak to our hearts, instruct us, teach us, thrill us, and then lead us in doing that which pleases You. Bind the evil one, that he have no part in that which takes place. Thank You for what You're doing. Thank You for our children and their singing. Thank You for Vicky and the work that she does in teaching them, and the parents who catechize their children. Thank You for the process.

Now, Father, we ask, speak to our hearts. Your servants are listening; we're ready to do all Your will. And we thank You for these things, promising, pledging to give You the praise and the honor and the thanksgiving. Asking them, of course, in Jesus' matchless name and for His sake. Amen.

We've been going through a series: Who Is Your One? This is actually the third in the series that will lead us up until Friend Day. Who Is Your One? I shared a couple of years ago this story about how people need good friends. Glynn Wolfe died alone in Los Angeles at the age of 88. No one came to claim his body. The city paid to have him buried in an unmarked grave.

This is sad, but not unusual. It happens all too often in large cities where people tend to live disenfranchised lives. Glynn's situation was unique, though, because he was no ordinary man. He held a world record. The Guinness Book listed him as the world's most married man, with 29 marriages to his credit. 29 times he was asked, "Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife? Forsaking all others, do you pledge yourself only to her as long as you both shall live?"

29 times Glynn said, "I do," but it never quite worked out for him. It didn't work out the way he thought. He died leaving behind children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, a number of living ex-wives, and innumerable ex-in-laws, and still he died alone. He spent his entire adult life looking for something he apparently never found, and he died alone.

Glynn Wolfe is an extreme example of how people spend their life drifting in and out of marriages, in and out of relationships, only to find themselves isolated and alone. We need friends. Everybody needs friends. Some people discount the importance of having friends. For instance, Marshall Mathers—you may know him as Eminem. He wrote this song, "If I Had," and he asked this question, "What are friends?"

Then he says, "Friends are people that you think are your friends, but really are your enemies with secret identities in disguises to hide their true colors. So just when you think you're close enough to be brothers, they want to come back and cut your throat when you ain't looking." You can imagine that if you feel that way, you are not going to have any friends. You don't trust anyone.

But there are good friends. How do you know when you have a good friend? Well, I put four things down. Number one, they won't reveal secrets about you, even though tempted with money or with chocolate. Number two, they know all about you but love you anyway. My wife is my best friend. They do their knocking before they come in instead of after they leave. And then they hide the pictures that make you look like a beached whale.

Most of us, if you are over the age of 40, it's probably true that there's more to you than there used to be, and it's not all character. But a friend won't make you look bad. There are people who are true friends, and in this particular passage today, we have a picture of true friendship: what it does and why it happens. We want to talk about that. Let's talk about the healing of the paralytic in Luke chapter five.

Of course, I went back to verse 12 and read down into this passage because I want to talk about the life of Jesus. In this passage, we see three things about the life of Jesus, three factors in the life of Jesus that you will take note of. The first one, I want you to notice compassion. That's why I went back to verse 12 and talking about His healing this leper. A man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus, and he fell on his face and implored Him, he begged him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."

And Jesus says, "I am willing." I like that. He said, "You can do it if You want to," and Jesus says, "Yes, I want to. I want to make you clean. I want to make you whole." Unlike the ten who cried out to Jesus because they were lepers and Jesus says, "Go show yourself to the priest," and they went and on the way to the priest they were cleansed, Jesus didn't send the guy to the priest.

No, Jesus reached down and, doing the unthinkable, He touched him. In Leviticus, you're not supposed to touch a leper because then the leprosy is contagious; it could get on you. Jesus has no fear of that because He's the Master of everything. He healed the man with a touch. This might have been the first time this man had been able to be touched by another person in a very long time.

Jesus is so compassionate, and He cares even about the little things. This man needs a touch. Sometimes my little granddaughter and her brother, my grandson, go up to their mom and they say, "I need some love." They just want a hug. They need that especially when they're about to get into trouble. "I need some love." Sometimes we're like that. We just need somebody to be there to love us, to hug us, to hold us, to encourage us.

Friends do that, as well as relatives. Touching this leper also is meaningful because leprosy in the Old Testament is a type of sin. Jesus comes, and He who knew no sin actually became sin for us. He took the sin on Himself. He touched the leper, and taking the sin onto Himself, our sin, He brought healing to us by bearing our curse. That's exactly the statement that speaks of His compassion. Jesus cares deeply about people.

The second thing, or second factor in the life of Jesus, follows after that. When the word got out that Jesus had healed this man, it's amazing how things get out. Everybody wanted to come and get in on that. The next thing you know, He is inundated with people needing healing and teaching and all these things. As you read through the Gospels, you see how often Jesus was surrounded by people. People can be exhausting and unnerving.

But Jesus dealt with them so calmly and kindly and patiently. How in the world could He do that? Well, in verse 16, there is this little statement. It's just one of those "by the way" statements. I'll read 15 because it leads into 16. It says: the report went around concerning Him all the more; great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. And verse 16 says: So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

With all of the hoopla, all of the stuff going on, all of the people pressing in on Him, how was Jesus able to be calm and collected and cool? The secret was that often, not occasionally, not at specific times, but often, He pulled away from people and He spent time in prayer and communion with the Father. That stands out in my mind. Sometimes we're so harassed and struggling and hurried, and then you pause and you say, "Well, have I taken the time to go into the presence of the King of the universe?"

Draw on His strength, His wisdom, His insight, His patience, and allow Him to do in me what needs to happen so that I can continue to do the work He's called me to do. As someone said, paraphrasing Jesus' words to His disciples after they returned from going out two by two, He says, in so many words, "Come apart before you come apart." Good words for us. His prayer life speaks to me about the importance of a prayer life.

Then the third thing I put is His clout. I think there is a connection. His authority—you notice how Jesus, in loving people and in loving God. We talk about Friend Day, we say loving God and loving people, because it's all about love. Notice how something about loving God and loving people puts Him in a situation where now His authority is able to do something significant in the lives of people.

Loving God and loving people results in leverage for Him to act on behalf of those people. I don't want to miss that. I don't want you to miss that. Being much with God will allow you to be much in terms of influence and impact in people. Being little with God will result in you having very little impact in the lives of people. It begins with spending time with God.

From there we go to verse 17, and it says that it happened on a certain day while as He was teaching that the boys showed up. It says there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, and they had come from everywhere. All of the towns of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem. They were all gathered because word is getting out about this guy. "We've got to check Him out."

So let me mention three factors about the religious leaders. Number one, they knew a lot. In fact, the word for scribes is a word that means "teachers of the law." They knew a lot, but you know, they didn't care a lot. In fact, in Matthew 23, Jesus says that the Pharisees take all of the law and they bind them up like a bundle and they put them on the shoulders of people, and they weigh them down with those demands.

He says, "But you're not even willing to use so much of your little finger to help lift the load. You want to teach people what to do, and you want to heap instructions on them, but you're not willing to help them. You don't really care about people." They knew much, but they cared little. Secondly, they had these positions of influence because everybody looked at them as their teachers of the law.

Jesus says, "They sit in Moses' seat. They have authority because of their position, so do what they teach you that lines up with Scripture. But don't follow their example, because they say but they don't do. They're hypocrites." They had position, but they had no power, they had no authority. And thirdly, they were Jesus' worst critics. It's amazing how church folks can be some of the worst folks when it comes to dealing with people and their problems.

They had nothing good to say about Jesus. They were just like the law. All the law does is point out your error. It points out what you're doing wrong, but it doesn't have the ability to help you get right. Instead of being an instigator pointing out people's faults, I want to be an imitator of Jesus and what He does. Let's look at what He does. Four facts about friends we find in verses 18 through 26 here.

Notice, as He was teaching in this house, all these people packed together, it says in verse 18 some guys brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed. They tried to get him in to see Jesus, but there were too many people. It's too crowded. And they didn't get there early enough to get in early; they came late, and there were too many people. But you know, I said the first thing about these men is that they had a mission.

They had a friend who was paralyzed, and they wanted to get their friend to the only source of curing, the only source of help, and that was Jesus. I put down in my notes, we all need a mission statement. For instance, Instagram, they have a mission statement. They say their mission is to capture and share the world's moments. Facebook has a mission statement. They don't say it this way, but it seems to me that Facebook is a media platform for your grandmother to keep up with her grandchildren.

Because they are the ones who go on Facebook. The kids, they go on Facebook to put pictures up of the kids. They don't actually read anything on Facebook. They spend all their time on Instagram now and those other things. But they want the parents to see things that the grandkids are doing, so they put the pictures up on Facebook. That's why you have it. Jesus had a mission statement. Luke 19:10 says Jesus defines His mission as this: The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.

He cared about people. You and I, we talked last week about having a personal mission statement. Just as these men had a mission, let me ask you a couple of questions. Number one, what drives you? What is your reason for being? What is it that gets you out of bed in the morning? Someone asked Jack Wirtzen about his dad. He says, "What gets your dad out of bed in the morning?" And he said, "The thing that gets my dad out of bed in the morning is the thought that today somebody might come to faith in Jesus Christ."

That got him out of bed. What is it that drives you? What gets you out of bed? What gets you going? What are the things that are on your heart and on your mind throughout the day? I told you about Eugene Peterson, who says he was in church, he had been a missionary, he's back in the states. He was back in the states now, retired, and he said he had a neighbor who he wanted to reach for Christ.

The neighbor had a busy schedule, and the only time he was available was Sunday mornings. He jogged every morning. Peterson said, "You know what? I'm going to jog with him." So he told his pastor, "You're not going to see me in church for a while." No, because he had a neighbor who jogs on Sunday morning, and he was going to jog with him. And so he did. He disappeared, he started jogging with his friend.

He jogged with him for weeks and weeks, and then one day he walked in and he introduced his friend to the pastor and said, "He's given his life to Jesus Christ." That's why he didn't come, because he says, "I have a mission; I want to reach my friend for Christ." If I don't see you, it ought to be that you're jogging with a friend to reach them for Christ. I'm expecting that when you show up after a while, the two of you will come together.

If I don't see you between now and March 22nd, Friend Day, I'm assuming it's because you're doing whatever it takes to reach your friend. What drives you? What things spiritually has God put in your heart that you long to see come to fruition in your lifetime? What is it? You say, "Man, this is what I would really love to see the Lord do in my life before I leave this life." Do you have kingdom dreams, such as people coming to faith in Christ? Or are all your dreams all tied to this life?

"My dream is to make that second million, because you already got the first one. My dream is to get that big house, that bigger house." It's all about the things that you want to do and to have. You got your bucket list. Does your bucket list include reaching people for Christ? When's the last time you stopped to think about those dreams? These men had a mission, and in that mission, they wanted to bring their friend to Jesus.

Second thing, they had an eager expectation. The expectation was the thing that drove the mission. They actually believed that their friend's life would be better if they brought him to Jesus. They actually believed that their friend's life would be better if they brought him to Jesus. And so that drove them to spare no effort to get him to Jesus. I think about my own life and I think about the friends that I have.

Some of those friends live in Michigan. I spent a long time in Michigan, 30 years there. And some of the friends that I have there, I only shared the gospel with once, some of them I shared the gospel with several times. I had a neighbor, and it was my goal to share the gospel with my neighbor. 30 years, it was my goal to share the gospel with my neighbor. And you know, when we left to come to Atlanta, my thought was, "You know, I had 30 years to share the gospel with my neighbor."

But I never got around to it. I started to and I would broach the subject and then I would stop because I didn't want to ram religion down his throat. So I start and stop and start and stop, but I never gave him the full gospel. I don't know where he is spiritually now. What drives you? Is there an eager expectation on your part that your friend will come to Christ?

The third thing, these men encountered obstacles. Notice it says, verse 19, when they could not find how they might bring him in because of the crowd. Too many people there, too much going on there. There were obstacles in their path. Sometimes when I'm assessing the will of God, I say, "This has got to be the will of God because our lights turned green, all the doors open up. As long as I have open doors, I say, well, this is the will of God."

Well, what if doors aren't open? What if there's something blocking my way? Do I say, "Well, obviously this isn't the will of God"? What if they had said, "Oh, man, it's too many people in there. Oh, man, maybe next time, dude," and turned around and gone back? That's not what they did. They spared no effort to get their friend to Jesus, and they didn't let the obstacles stop them.

Sometimes I look back on my life, and even as I examine my life now, there are things that get in my way to stand between me and the will of God. I know what God wants me to do, and things just jump in my way. What do you do? You say, "I'm going to be as determined to plow through this as Satan is to stop me." Sometimes you can determine the will of God by the things that can't happen.

Remember in Acts, Paul was trying to figure out where he was going to go next in his missionary journey. He wanted to go to the region of Galatia, and the Spirit wouldn't let him go there. It doesn't tell us how the Spirit wouldn't let him go there. We don't know if he couldn't get passage on a ship or if there was conflict. We don't know what it was, but the Lord stopped him. He could have said, "This ain't happening. Let's go back."

But no, he said, "Well, if not there, how about this one?" and the Spirit wouldn't let them go there either. He kept pressing. There's got to be a place until finally Paul gets the vision, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." That's where God wants us to be. They are trying to figure out what the will of God is. They're not saying, "Obviously this isn't the will of God," and going back.

Satan will do anything he can to stop you from reaching your friend for Christ. He'll allow you to come up with any convenient excuse you'll listen to to keep you from reaching your friend for Christ. There were some people on my job, I told you when I worked at the post office, all of the guys on the dock, all of them seemed to be against God. All they ever did was argue and curse and threaten and whistle at the girls who walked by on the bridge.

I was like, "Lord, there's got to be somebody here that You want to come to faith in Christ. I mean, I've been here six months and nobody's been saved. Lord, You just need to save somebody today." I parked my little car, walk over and check in, and here I am. I'm working and I'm looking, "Who can I talk to?" because we're busy. And then 30 minutes before it's time, we're almost done. Nobody.

My boss comes up and he says, "Smitty, listen, I'm going to take you from being with these guys and I'm going to put you over here doing the little conveyor thing." You mail in the little carts and you load the cart on, you push the button, it dumps the mail on a conveyor belt. And I'm everybody's over here and I'm like this, me and the wall. Okay, it's not going to happen. 30 minutes left, it's over. Lord, I asked.

And there were only two conveyor belts, and I couldn't even see the one behind me. And the guy at the conveyor belt behind me says, "Hey man, you're really religious, aren't you?" And I look back and I'm like, oh no, not him. He's the worst guy on the dock. He's the one that does the most cursing, the most threatening, the most fighting. He's voted least likely to be interested in Christ. And he's the guy behind me. It's over.

"You're religious, aren't you?" I said, "Yes, I'm a Christian." Turn back around. It's over. He says, "How did you get like that?" Well, so I start sharing. I had some friends, they shared the gospel with me. They were telling me I was a sinner; I knew I was a sinner. The Bible says that all have sinned. And I'm just walking through the Romans Road and dumping mail. And he hasn't said anything.

And I turned around and the dude is crying. Really? So I said, "You would be interested in receiving Christ, wouldn't you?" He said, "Yeah." So after we're done, I said, "Listen, when we're done, let's get together and I'll show you how." And so at the end of our work schedule, 8:30, we got together and I shared a little more and I led him in a prayer. We got on our knees and he invited Christ into his heart.

God did it. No limitations on what God can do. Man, I was so happy I went home. I told you this story before. When I got home, I was excited. And I woke up the next day getting ready to go to work and I had this thought. Satan said, "You know that was going to happen anyway. I mean, that wasn't because you prayed that." So I'm like, Lord, I get to my spot, park, getting ready to walk. I said, "Lord, I know Satan is bothering me."

"So now I know I prayed yesterday, but I need You to do it again today. If You save somebody today, I'll know and I'll shut his mouth. Save somebody." I went to work. And of course we're on the dock and nothing happened the whole time. And we get within an hour of departure and the supervisor said, "All right, we don't have enough work out here. We're going to move you guys inside and you can help them."

We move inside and we're there and there's one guy, Gary Divani, graduated from high school with my wife. He was in her class, that is. And so I knew Gary. And we struck up a conversation. And then the guys who hate me—the guys who didn't care about my faith—they start riding me for no reason, just out of the blue, on my case about Smitty and Reverend Smitty and Preacher Smitty and going on and on.

And my friend Gary defends me. And he says, "You don't know anything about what God wants to do." And all of a sudden I'm like, "Gary, are you a Christian?" He says, "No." I said, "Well, why not?" He said, "Well, I don't know how." I said, "Well, would you like to know how?" He said, "Yeah." And so afterwards, Gary and I got together and I shared the gospel with him. We got on our knees and he invited Christ into his heart.

It's a God thing. Put no limitations on what God can do. When I went home, I said, "Take that, Satan! God is in control here, you're not. Shut your mouth." I share all that to say, Satan is going to put obstacles in your path. But it's not about what he does; it's about what God desires to do. What do you believe God desires to do through you with respect to the gospel and the people that you know that don't know Him?

If it's true that God so loved the world that He saved you and He placed you by them, with them, then that means He placed you there for them. And if you're there for them, even if the enemy tries to bring obstacles in your path, are you going to get discouraged because of the obstacles? Or are you going to plow through and say, "Listen, the best thing that I could ever do for my friend is to introduce them to Jesus Christ."

And that is true. Here are the questions: What obstacles have derailed you from the mission? What's gotten in your way so that now, instead of focusing on the mission of sharing the gospel, you're over here doing whatever? And maybe the thing over here needs to be done, maybe the thing over here has to be done. But if you do it to the exclusion of this thing that God has called you to do, are you where you should be? No, you're not doing what you should be doing.

What would it look like for you to do what they did? They said, "Let's go up here on this roof." Jesus is right there. Take the tiles off. "Wait a minute, it's not your house." No. "It's not your roof." No. "You're going to tear up some stuff." Yep. Why? Because his need outweighs this roof. He's more important. I can fix the roof, but he needs to get to Jesus.

Sometimes you say, "Well, my friend doesn't have a car, he can't get to church." Can you pick him up? Can you pick him up and say, "Hey, listen, I'll pick you up and then afterwards let's go out to dinner. I'll take you out to dinner." "Well, what if he wants to go to someplace expensive?" Well, is it worth it? What if he comes and gives his life to Christ? The meal is dirt cheap in comparison to his eternal life. Is it worth it?

"Well, he might not receive Christ." That's true. Maybe he doesn't. Is it worth fighting for him so that he can hear the claims of Christ that might change his life? What are the obstacles? And what would it look like for you to dig a hole and plow through any inconvenience? It'll make some folks mad. There'll be people who talk about you, but say you're crazy. But if your friend comes to Christ and is healed from their sin sickness, is it worth it? Absolutely. That's what real friends will do.

The fourth fact, these men got more than they bargained for. Look at this. This to me is the really exciting part. Verse 19: When they could not find how they might bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. When He saw their faith, He said to him, to the man, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."

He forgave the man's sins. Paralysis was what he had, but why didn't Jesus just say, "Okay, I will raise you up from your paralysis"? That's not what He said. He said, "Your sins are forgiven you." That stood out in my mind as I read this. People think that the primary need that people have is external, but Jesus knows better. The primary need is not physical; the primary need is in the heart. It's spiritual.

People are sick because of sin. And if you don't deal with that, then ultimately you don't help them. Just like they say, rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic. It doesn't matter how nice it looks; the ship is going down. A person may have an improved life until they die without Christ. Have you really helped them? The best thing I can do for my friend is to introduce them to Jesus, because that's permanent.

But Jesus says, "Listen, your sins are forgiven you because your friends cared enough to bring you to Me." That's a great, great thing. Okay, so the last three questions: How did others play a role in you trusting in Christ? People took a risk, right? They talked to you, they shared the gospel with you, they got in your face about something you were doing that was wrong. They cut you off, they confronted you, and they told you that the claims of Jesus outweighed your own claims.

And when they shared the gospel, the Spirit of God opened your heart and you understood that you needed a Savior. You couldn't save yourself, and so you surrendered your life to Jesus. In what way is Jesus transformed your life? Has He given you peace? Has He given you joy? Has He given you wisdom so that you can make sense and make good decisions? Has He set you free from some mal-addiction that has dragged you down into abysmal defeat continually?

Has Jesus given you liberty? Well, if the answer is yes, then why would you not long for this same type of transformation in others? If He's done something wonderful in your life, wouldn't you want something wonderful for your friends? And if you do, then you've got to tell them about Jesus. Can you imagine after Jesus heals this man? He says, "Your sins are forgiven."

Now the Pharisees, they get all in a tiff. "Who can forgive sins but God?" They don't understand who He is. And Jesus says to them, "Listen, which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or 'Take up your bed and walk'?" "Your sins are forgiven" is five words in the Greek. "Pick up your bed and walk" is three words in the Greek. It's easier to say pick up your bed and walk. But He says, "I deliberately said it this way." Why? So you can know that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.

I could have said, and then He looked at the man, "Take up your bed and walk." The brother took up his bed and walked. Jesus wants them to know who He is, and He wants others around him to know who He is. And He wants to use you to be able to do that. He set you free. Can you imagine this guy going about his business, going on and talking to his friends? "Dude, you see me walking? I used to be paralyzed! Let me tell you what happened!"

And he tells the story about his friends pulling up the roof and dropping him in and Jesus saying your sins are forgiven. And I'm sure he told that story not one time, not two times, not 20 times. He told it a billion times, because the story gets better and better and better. That's what happens when you lead people to Christ. God wants you to share your story. He wants you to share your story with your friends.

And He wants you to reach your friends and bring them to Jesus. When I was in college, my freshman year, there was a group that came by and they did a concert. And in the concert, they sang this song. I'm not going to sing it, don't worry, but I'll read you the words:

Forgive me, my friend. Forgive me, my friend, I failed you. I should have realized you were watching me, hoping for a glimpse of the Christ I know. Is all you see just patterns, mere routines and pious words, when what you sought was love? Forgive me, my friend, I've let you down. I haven't really shown what you wanted to see: a glimpse of Christ living in me.

Forgive me, and I'll try, my friend. Forgive me, and I'll pray that He will live His life in me, shining forth each day. So you will see the joy that He gives, so you will feel the peace that I know, so you will find the love He can bestow. So please forgive me, my friend, for Jesus loves you so.

Father, thank You again for this day. Thank You for Your word. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for caring. In Your care, You came and of course, in Your compassion, You touch, You bring healing. You're not afraid to be ridiculed by those who don't understand. You persist in Your mission of seeking and saving that which was lost. And as we walk with You, may that same spirit come forth in us. May we be bold in sharing You with others. May our faith in You be strong and determined and come to the forefront.

And may we care about them like You care, so that we will share with them how they can find release and eternal life through You. Father, I pray for any who might be under the sound of my voice who still are doing casual and perhaps hypocritical, maybe they're in disguise. And the truth is they've never really surrendered their hearts to Christ. May it be that You'll shake them up, give them no peace until they come clean about the fact that they need to surrender their lives to You.

And I pray that if there be one here who is perhaps completely in the dark as to what that looks like, may they not leave here until they get the matter cleared up and give their life to You. And finally, may those of us who know You, may we not be hesitant to show You and to show others how they can come into a saving faith through our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask these things in His name and for His sake. Amen.