Calvary Chapel River Oaks

Pastor Grady Clark: Good morning everyone. I don't know if you noticed the songs this morning, but they began with the themes that because You have overcome, it is well with my soul, so I can sing hallelujah, so that when I cry out, You hear. The Holy Spirit works in all things. When I was deciding on the scripture reading this morning from Ephesians, I was talking with someone in the back about how it is one of those books where you read a verse and you absorb it, then you go back and read it again and absorb some more, and you never truly get it all.

Please stand for our scripture reading from Ephesians chapter 1, verse 19. "And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Amen.

We are going to pick up Mark chapter 2 this morning. Our title is "Jesus Is Our All in All." Father, we come this morning seeking Your presence, which we have, and I am so grateful for that. Thank You for the Spirit of God being here this morning. I ask, Lord, that You would open our ears and our hearts to receive Your word, the word of truth, for Your word is truth. When Your word is taught and studied, that truth breaks down these fleshly walls in our minds and in our own beings, in the depths of our souls, the places we have walked, lived, and established as our hiding place. All that is broken down because You are our hiding place. So we come today asking for walls to be broken, for ears to be opened, and for lives to be transformed through the power of Your word and the power of Your Holy Spirit. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

In our last study as we closed out chapter 1, we saw how we have to be careful to keep our eyes on Jesus in a personal and intimate relationship, in that closeness, not being just followers of the crowds. When a spiritual movement comes or something pops up here or there, and they happen around us, the crowds followed not only Jesus, they were following Him in the sense that they wanted to see what He was going to do next and what they were going to get from Him, but they weren't following Him in relationship.

I was pondering this morning about how Jesus called the twelve. He called them all to Himself. That was His plan and His purpose, so that was the focus of His intention when He called those twelve. But I do wonder if any of the other ones in the crowds that were following hung around and became a thirteenth or fourteenth person when the other crowds left or when Jesus went and departed to other places. Were there any in that crowd that were really hungry for Him versus hungry for what they could get from Him? The scripture doesn't give us an indication that they did. We don't have all the records, obviously, but we have what we need.

The crowds went wherever He was, and they weren't necessarily going to know Him or to believe in Him, but again to see what they could get from Him: healing, deliverance, food. They are all good things. They are wonderful things because only God can heal, only God can bring forth deliverance from demonic possession, and only God can feed five thousand people from a handful of bread and fish. We know that all that was God doing these things, but it is easy to get wrapped up in the things of God and not be wrapped up in a relationship with God. Those are separate.

Excitement, entertainment, and a great show feed the senses of man, but none of these things bring forth transformation, and transformation is what is needed. Jesus used the miracles to bring attention to the gospel, just as the gifts of the Spirit are used today—not to save people, but to get attention so the gospel can be preached and hearts can be turned. Being born again is not an addition to our fleshly life, but a new life altogether. It's not the things of God that bring it forth; it's God Himself.

In our studies, we are seeing that human nature is the same in every culture and in every time period. Our culture is different, obviously, with technology and the way things happen and information spreads so fast, but the whole aspect of being born again is a transformation, and only God can do that. Most of the culture is not looking for transformation. They are looking for something that is going to be added to their life to make their life easier, more productive, more profitable, with better relationships, better health, and better money. All of these things are what the world is looking for, and they will add God for that. But that is not what they need. They need transformation by relationship with God Himself.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? That is the mindset of the culture today. That is what is happening in our culture. The heart is deceitful, people are looking for something and they're not finding it, so they'll go to something else and they're still not finding it because they are searching in the wrong places. But the passage goes on to say, "I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings." God knows all, sees all, understands the heart of all, and you can't fake Him out. He knows the pretenders, He knows the ones who are not sincere, and He knows the ones who are.

As we get into our study this week, we're going to see the crowds are still coming around, and we're going to see Jesus continuing to display His authority over all things. So far in these studies, we've seen His authority over sickness and His authority over demons. Today, we're going to see His authority over healing and the forgiveness of sins.

Mark chapter 2, beginning with verse 1. "And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. 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." Notice what He's doing. He's preaching the word. They're all flocking in, they're hearing what He's saying, but they're wanting to see what's going to happen. They can't even get in the front door, and He is preaching the word to them.

"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. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven you.' And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning 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 reasoned thus within themselves, He said to 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 has power on earth to forgive sins'—He said to the paralytic, '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 they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, 'We never saw anything like this!'"

As we saw in our last study, Jesus healed the leper and told him not to go out and tell everybody what happened, but to go and be cleansed as he should be so that it would be a witness to the Jews and the leaders that God had healed this man according to their law and their process. But what did he do? He went out blabbing, and the crowds got so enlarged that He could no longer meet in the towns like He was. He had to go out into other areas. Now He's outside of the town, but it appears He's in a home or a house at some point. People flocked and surrounded this house, and nobody could get in the front door.

If you look at this little place, it would be packed all the way here, all the way down there, and the bathrooms would have people peeping out of them. We would have people packed all the way down the aisle, all the way out the front door, blocking the entrance so nobody could come in. We would have to turn up the sound so they could hear out there. That's the image of what we're seeing here. He didn't have a microphone, but obviously with God, He didn't need one because He can project. When Jesus spoke, whoever was around would hear it. I believe that's a God thing, just raising that volume up.

Through all these people packed around where Jesus was, there were seekers—those who were seeking something from God or something about God. Others were watchers, watching this whole thing to see what was going on. Others were doubters who were coming because so-and-so said something and they didn't believe it and had to see for themselves. And then you had the spies. So you had four groups of people that were coming to wherever Jesus was. They were all there for a specific purpose.

This is what exciting movements bring. When you have big movements that happen, you have these same groups of people: the seekers, the watchers, the doubters, and then the spies to come back and tell everybody how bad it was. This is how our culture works, this is how human minds work, and this is the same then as it is today. All kinds of people are looking for something.

This particular story is one we've all read and studied. I remember hearing this story when I was a child because it's a miraculous story, it's an encouraging story, and it's a story of faith. In this particular story, it's a remarkable story of five men: one who could do nothing for himself and four who wanted to see him healed. He also wanted to be healed. That reminds me of another time when Jesus was walking by the pool. In that culture in that day, they believed that when the waters were stirred, an angel would come down and everybody would jump into the water, and the first one in would get healed. There was a man who was paralyzed and couldn't get into the water, and Jesus said, "What do you need?" Jesus healed him.

People are there, wanting to be healed, but the thing is that these four men brought the man and they couldn't get to Jesus, so they made a way. Back in those days, I believe most of their houses were like those tiles that lay down. They just picked up the tiles and moved whatever the layers were to get a hole big enough to drop him in. That within itself stopped the crowd. A lot of people, probably some of those doubters, thought this was all a setup. You go to some of these places and these things are happening, and people say it was planned. In some cases, unfortunately, it is. But with Jesus, it was all real.

There were no situations with Jesus where it was a random act. Jesus knew about it ahead of time, and He put Himself in the place He needed to be when He needed to be there to do what needed to be done when it needed to be done. So it was all planned on His part. He had it all organized. People were coming, and it was a divine appointment, just as all the other times when Jesus would meet with people like the lady at the well. That was a divine appointment. He went way out of His way to get there. The disciples didn't want to go. "What are you doing even talking to a woman like that? She's not one of us." But Jesus had a divine appointment. The same thing is true here; this man was to meet Jesus this day through the roof.

The story addresses everyone in the crowd that was there. It addresses the seekers and the watchers—they were all amazed. The doubters scratched their heads, wondering if it was real, and the spies were upset that He'd gone and done something else. But the real story here is not the fortitude of the four men lowering their friend down through the roof, or even the man taking up his bed and walking. The real story here is the power and authority of Jesus, who used this event not only to show that He could heal the body, but that He can save the soul. He can forgive sins. He's the only one that can.

Ultimately, every person that Jesus healed died at some point. Poor Lazarus had to go through it twice. But ultimately everyone that Jesus either raised from the dead or healed or delivered, they all passed on because sin came into the world a long time ago, and when sin came into the world, death came into the world. All the physical miracles that Jesus performed are in the past as far as what we're reading about. I do believe He still performs miracles today, but even those miracles are past tense from the standpoint that whatever that miracle is, that person is still going to face death unless Jesus returns.

Sin is the source of every problem this world faces. It's not the sickness that's the main source of the problem. Doctors diagnose the disease or what is wrong, but that's still not the problem. The problem is the fact that sin entered the world, and where sin came, death came. For many, this is too simple of an answer. We have to bring in the psychologist and those who specialize in human behavior to analyze and break down the whys and the wherefores that men do what they do.

These are theses, those long things you have to write to get a degree. They spend time writing these things, books, and articles by the hundreds, videos, and movies. They're all made to answer the question which everybody has: "Why? Why is this happening?" That's the question that everybody wants an answer to, and that's the question that without a relationship with Jesus Christ, you'll never have peace with because there is no answer otherwise. It is a simple answer. Why are people dying? Why is there evil in the world? It's because sin is in the world. And why did sin get here? You have to backtrack on that. Adam and Eve disobeyed God's word. Very simple.

Somebody who is not a believer would look at this and say this just doesn't make any sense. One couple, created by God, put in this one place, made one little mistake, and all of us are affected by it? Yes, it is that simple. We can't blame Adam and Eve, because if it had been Grady and Jennifer, she probably wouldn't have taken of the fruit, but I probably would have and we'd still be in a mess. But others would, too. We can't say it was them. We are the same. Temptation comes, the word is manipulated, the command was given, but we still want to go in a different direction.

Everything that happened in that garden goes way beyond the garden. It went way beyond them. It's all the way down to us. Adam and Eve's sin didn't just cost them the place of paradise where they lived in perfection. It affected every man and every woman born into this world from that day forward. It brought death.

Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." Romans 5:17-19 goes on and says, "For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

The one who brought forth the sin to us all is Adam. The one who forgives that sin is Jesus. And that's what we're seeing in our text this morning. He's showing His authority over the core problem. It's not just that the man needed healing, but that the man needed to be saved. He needed to come in repentance and receive that forgiveness of sin. In our text this morning, He's proclaiming that He's the answer to the core problem of mankind. He is the answer. Not the things that He did, not the things about Him, not the things that we try to add to it to try to explain things. The simplicity of the matter is that Jesus is God and only God can forgive sins. That's what these spies were upset about. Sickness, disease, being paralyzed, or being demon-possessed—all of these things are symptoms. Jesus addresses the cause.

Nothing is random with Jesus; nothing is just a coincidence. Everything He did, He did because it was the will of the Father for Him to do so. Jesus knew that there were scribes in the house, and they were the spies. They were trying to find a way to find fault. Really, from this point forward in the book of Mark, and in other places in Matthew and Luke, it says the same thing. When Jesus said this, they plotted against Him from that day forward. They were out to get Him because this is something that goes against everything they believe. They did not recognize Him as their Messiah. Nothing about Jesus resembled what they were looking for.

They denied even their own scripture, Isaiah 53. It's not spoken of from the leaders in the Jewish culture. They don't even acknowledge it because that talks about a weak, suffering Messiah. No, our Messiah has got to come on a horse with a sword. He's going to drive back with the power and the authority that He has, and all nations will fall at His feet. The leaders of the Jewish leaders will be raised up to serve with Him, and everything's going to be hunky-dory. That's what they're looking for. But because Jesus came in mild-mannered, they could not see Him for who He was because He didn't represent their expectations.

It's very important that we grab ahold of that because all of us have expectations. We have expectations of ourselves that we can't meet, we have expectations of those in our life that they can't meet, and sometimes we have expectations of what we think God is supposed to do or not do or how we want to see Him and make Him be what we want. He created us in His image. We have no ability to create Him in ours. But that's what man does, and so we have to be careful. The Jewish people had their expectation, and it was so high that here comes Jesus, their Messiah, bringing healing, deliverance, and all of these things, and they cannot see it. They're blinded. But He continues to do what He's doing; He continues to preach the word.

These people were looking for fault, looking for something they could hold against Him, and they thought they'd done just that. When Jesus said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you," some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, "Why does this man speak blasphemies like this?" That was blasphemy because they knew that only God alone can forgive sins. They were right about that one aspect of their question, but they were blinded that God was among them.

That is what tripped them up and they thought they had Him because from now on, they're not going to believe anything He says. He's proclaimed Himself to be God here. This is important that we grab this because there's many religious groups out there who do not deny Jesus as a person, that He was born, and they don't deny His teaching in a lot of ways. They don't deny the miracles that were performed, but they do deny His deity. They do not receive Him as part of the Godhead. Jesus is God. This is one of the places in scripture where it's being revealed.

If we deny this aspect of who Jesus is, then we cannot believe that God has forgiven our sin. If you can't believe that it's God Himself that went to that cross and took your sin upon Himself because there was no other sacrifice that was going to be suitable, if you can't believe that, then ultimately you're saying that you don't believe it was God on that cross. You probably don't even believe He rose again. Therefore, you're still living in your sin because you also are denying who Jesus is, what He did, and why He did it. It took a perfect, sinless sacrifice on that cross to be offered up for the redemption of sin. No man could achieve that as man alone. No fully human man could measure up; we're all sinners. We all know that.

Regarding the condition of mankind, Romans 3:23-26 tells us, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

What does this mean for us? It means that it's not about us; it's about Him. When you ask somebody on the street if they're a believer or if they're going to heaven, and you ask them how they know, they might say, "Because I did this," or "Because I believe that." They're missing the point. It's not because I believe it; it's because He did it. Yes, I choose to believe it, but He did it, and therefore it's all about Him. It's always been about Him, not about ourselves.

A perfect sacrifice had to be God Himself. There was nothing else available to bring justification. This is all part of what Jesus is revealing in this story. The people are amazed, the scribes are offended. In a crowd, you're going to have that whole range: the amazement, the doubting, and those who are going to try to stir up something against it. But Jesus, in His perfect wisdom and perfect timing, always knew what He was doing. His timing was always perfect. Our timing is not always good. Timing is important when you're delivering a message, and with Jesus, He didn't have to think about timing or go in and rehearse it. He was perfect in it. He knew what they were thinking, He knew what He had to say, and the timing was perfect.

So what He does is He backs up the unseen with the seen. The unseen in this moment is that Jesus forgiven this paralyzed man. His sin is forgiven. You don't see that forgiveness. We also have that same forgiveness. Can you describe what it feels like to be forgiven? There is a feeling, emotion, and a peace, but you can't touch it, handle it, smell it, or taste it. The senses of man are completely off the table on a faith walk. When Jesus said your sins are forgiven, you believe it—not just in your mind to be a believer, you believe it in your core being. "I am forgiven because of what Jesus did." But all the people around, they're standing there saying, "That's mighty fine, but how do you know?"

Jesus, knowing that that's what the scribes were thinking, addressed it. "Immediately, when He perceived in His spirit what they reasoned among themselves, He said to them, 'Why do you reason about these things in your heart?'" Can you imagine? They got called out and they didn't say a word. They spoke loudly with their scoffs and their looks, and Jesus knew. He asked, "Which is easier, to say 'Your sins are forgiven' or to say 'Rise up and walk'?" Jesus backs up everything He says with His actions. He called them out because He had to give them a chance to answer. What were they going to say? Well, it's easier, obviously, for you to say "I want to see that man get up and walk."

Jesus is revealing His authority from physical healing to spiritual healing. He's revealed a nugget. For those who have ears to hear, we understand what that means—He's proclaiming Himself to be God. For those who don't, they're still going to scoff at Him. Which is greater? Obviously, the forgiveness of our sins supersedes the healing of our bodies. We may be healed today, but that healing, while you may not ever see that issue again in your body, you're still going to die. I'm not trying to be discouraging here, but I'm trying to make the point that no matter what God does for us today, the eternal plan is what's important.

We have to be very careful not to get wrapped up into the here and now being everything—all our blessings now. I want to have the peace, I want to have the joy, all that the Holy Spirit's supposed to give. Awesome, we can get that when we're in obedience to Him. We have the joy, the peace, the love, the kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control—all of that is available to us in relationship with God when we're walking in submission and in obedience. But then we want more than that. "Oh, I don't want to be sick." Jesus doesn't want us to be sick, but also you have to understand that He's allowing the process to continue of consequences because of sin.

As He's going through those consequences, we're living through them. He's allowing them because of His mercy so that those who are struggling in this world, those who are hurting, those who are going through many things, they too can receive Him. He's not bringing judgment until that time. He's giving them time to come to know Him. That's mercy. He's revealing the power of who He is. But in today's world, some physical aspects of healings and miracles seem to take precedent over the spiritual aspect of the forgiveness of sin. We're all about getting the promises of God in this life and not fully realizing that our focus is backwards.

Matthew 6:19-21 says, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." And it's sad to say that there are many today who call themselves believers but they are all about the treasures of this world. Building your wealth today, building your security today, making sure everything you do today is going to pay off tomorrow. That is the cultural view, that is the world view here in the United States. "God wants this nation to prosper because we're His people now, and we're the ones that are going to be sending missionaries out, and so we're the ones that need all the blessings now." That's ultimately what they're saying. "Lord, because this nation was founded on Christian principles and because You've allowed us to be this large nation that pretty much supersedes powers all over the world, it must be God that wants to bless us this way, so therefore I want all of it. Give me, give me, give me. I want this, I want that." But that's not the attitude we're supposed to have.

Colossians 3:1-4 says, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." When we see Him face to face, we're going to be known as we are known. Our minds are going to be changed. We're no longer going to have these finite minds; we're going to have eternal minds. So we're going to understand who He is in the fullness of everything He's done.

We're going to be changed, no longer to be in this fleshly tent. We're going to be living in a body with no pain, no aches, no sickness, none of that, no death—all that will be behind us and we will be in that place in the present mode then. So we're looking to it by faith in the future as far as when those times come, but we know that by the Spirit of God and because we're born again, it's already taking place. We just can't see it yet. The whole thing comes back to what Jesus asked them: which is harder, to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk? Jesus confirms Himself in everything that He did.

We today have to walk out because we have the written word, we have the Spirit of God, and we have to take all of that and put it into perspective and say, "Listen, my mind says this but the word says this. Which is right? My body feels this but the word says I'm going to be pain-free. Which is right?" We're not experiencing it yet. It is a faith walk. A faith walk is taking the word of God, bearing it in our hearts, writing it upon the table of our heart as Proverbs 3 tells us, believing in our heart, receiving all that Jesus is, knowing that what we are receiving is a gift of God, not within ourselves otherwise we'd have to work for it. Paul says no, it's a gift of God, not of man's works lest any man should boast. We can't boast about the things we have because God gave them because of His Son Jesus who died and redeemed us.

All the things of God are from God, but we have to know God to receive them. It always brings us back into this intimacy, this relationship. God healed people, but we don't know if they were saved after the healing. Some of them disobeyed immediately like the leper. He didn't listen to Jesus; just went off and did his thing. And other times when Jesus healed ten lepers, only one came back. The other nine just took their healing and left. We don't know that all of the people that Jesus touched actually committed their lives to Him. They thought highly of Him, they appreciated it, but human nature is human nature.

Look back at Joseph. Look at all he had to go through with his own brothers. Then he gets in jail because of a lie that Potiphar's wife told. Then he has two dreams he interprets. He told the one, "Listen, when you're reinstated, remember me." This guy was on death row. Both of them are accused, they have the dreams, Joseph interprets, the one is set free, and he tells them, "Listen, when you get there, don't forget about me." What did he do? Forgot about him. He didn't remember Joseph until Pharaoh had a dream. And then all of a sudden Pharaoh has a dream and all of his soothsayers and magicians couldn't come up with any answer to it, and this guy says, "Oh, wait a minute. You know, a couple of years ago..."

That's how the mind works, and this is the same thing today. People will take their healing and run. They'll take their deliverance and run. They'll do whatever they have to do because they're not transformed, they're affected by what Jesus does or did. They're affected by the word of God. The seeds are sown; some fall on hard ground, some fall on this ground, some fall on that, some forget within a minute, some hang linger on for a while and then things distract them. We see all of that happen because human nature is the same. They don't want transformation for the most part; they just want something for themselves.

A true believer can't receive from God and forget God because a true believer understands what we just read: we're dead, we've died, our lives are now hidden away in Christ. If that's true, then we have to be in the word today and should want to be. We should be in prayer today and should want to be. We should be in fellowship today and should want to be. We should be doing the things of God, but not doing the things of God because we *need* to do the things of God, but doing them because God in relationship is giving them for us to do. Completely different from a religious experience or religious thing.

People today are looking to experience God. They're looking for these things that we're seeing in these miracles happening. They want that for themselves. They think that that is going to sustain them. "Oh, if I can only be in this movement and feel what they feel and receive what they receive and the excitement." But the excitement always fades. The excitement can't keep you. It's understanding the relationship of the One who created the event to start with, and you have access to Him. But that has to come with a choice, and that choice is dying to yourself or remaining in rebellion, claiming you want God but still wanting to be in control of yourself.

In this story here, we're seeing all of these things that's going on in the background. We're seeing Jesus doing three things particularly. Number one, He addresses the root problem of mankind. He took us all the way back to Adam. This man was a sinner. He was a paralytic sinner. Some would look at those who are paralyzed or sick or have different issues and say, "They're not a sinner, look at what happened to them." A paralyzed man without Jesus is a sinner. A man dying of cancer without Jesus is a sinner. We in our own ways want to try to rationalize people that are nice or good in our minds and say, "They're a good person, why would this happen to them? This is not right." They have to know Jesus, or He doesn't take care of it.

There's where the issues lie with mankind. So He addressed that this morning when He's talking to the scribes. "I'm not addressing just the physical healing here. I'm going beyond that and I'm going to the root of the problem." Number two, He reveals that authority over both the spiritual and the physical. He's already been demonstrating the physical all the way up to this point. Now He's taking it a step further and saying, "I'm not only demonstrating this in the physical sense, I'm going to show you where My authority really lies, over the soul of man and the heart of man and knowing that his sins need to be forgiven."

And then number three, it shows us the importance of the eternal position we have in Him. That relationship and that position that we're going to attain when we see Him face to face far outweighs our physical need today. It far outweighs our financial need today. It far outweighs the loneliness and the hurts and the wounds and all the things that this world has brought upon us and some we brought upon ourselves. We want all that gone, we want all that dealt with right now, but in Jesus, what's more important? The forgiveness of our sin so we can be in His presence for eternity, or suffering a little while right here?

We want it all. Human nature wants it all. We want it now. When a trial comes, we want out of it. When we're struggling, we want to move away from it. My personality is I don't like to deal with conflict; I'll try to avoid it. But you can't avoid conflict in this world. You can only unless you do go out and do some of the videos we watch about people building these cabins off in the middle of nowhere, only to find that we hear a truck go by real close. They ain't that all that far out. But the point is, they don't live there all the time full-time either, but there are people who want to live that way. I watched a video briefly on a guy who was somewhere up in Appalachian. He was a teacher and he fell in love with another young lady who was a teacher. Well, her father was a doctor and really wanted more for her, and he rejected that relationship. "No, you're not marrying him." So she followed her father's advice. This man went and lived in the wilderness for forty years. When his parents died and the estate was trying to be settled, the brothers had him condemned to mentally ill and had him locked up. They found him. He escaped, went back to the wilderness. But that was his way of dealing with the hurt. He just wanted to be away from everybody. It doesn't work.

Why? Because you're still with yourself. If you're trying to outrun your problems, you can't outrun yourself because you're probably the core of most of them. Most people don't want to deal with that either, and that's the aspect of what Jesus says: "I'm showing you I have authority over an eternal position that if you receive Me, you're forgiven from all of these sins. You are transformed into a new creation. The old is passing away, behold the new is here."

This is what it really means when our title says, "Jesus Is Our All in All." Because He's all that we need here, and He's in all that we face, and He's going to be with us in all eternity. He is our all. There's nothing else that should satisfy us here. There's nothing else that we should be longing for that would give us some sense of eternal peace or even temporary peace. Outside of Jesus, there's nothing that we can glean, there's nothing we can find. But people keep searching, and they'll go from this door to that door, from this church to that church, from this relationship to that relationship, from this job to that job, constantly finding themselves in the same place they were in.

I had a buddy that he just could never find peace anywhere. They decided, "Well, we're moving up to the mountains. The mountains is where it's at. We're going to get a cabin up here on the side of the mountain and we're going to be up in the beautiful area of these mountains, and that's going to bring us peace." Well, he gets up there and then he had no peace. I told him, "Just remember, wherever you go, there you will be." Because that's where your issue lies. You need to find peace within yourself. The only reason you can find peace within yourself and the only way you can is through a relationship with Jesus.

Jesus has authority over all things, but we have to submit to Him, we have to obey Him to receive these things. And that's where we need to really make sure that our focus is when we're facing our daily battles and our daily work and our daily relationships. We have to come to the place of understanding that this is temporary. All of these things will be eternally dealt with, but for today, here and now, my life is hidden with Christ. Therefore, I can have peace in this conflict. I can have joy, I can have the fruits of the Spirit. I can have all of those things. They're all available. But my heart has to be soft enough to receive them.

Going back to Cain. This is interesting: after they were booted out of the garden and they had Cain and Abel, God still spoke to them one on one. When Cain was frustrated because his offering was rejected, his mom and dad might have sat down with him, but the scripture doesn't point it out. They didn't sit down and say, "Hey, this is why your offering wasn't accepted. Come on, Cain, get it together." God talked to him. He said, "Cain, why are you downcast? What's going on with you?" And He told him flat out, "Cain, sin is knocking at your door. You have to rule over it. You've got to master over it." And then the next few verses, he's killed Abel because he chose to walk in his anger, his bitterness, and not receive the word of God.

We need to receive the word of God for transformation, not just for changing of our circumstances, but transformation of our being so that we are that light in this world and Jesus is our all in all. Father, we come this morning and we do ask that You awaken ourselves to these messages when we're talking about internal conflicts and conflict in relationships. If self-examination is not a part of what we're talking about, then we're missing something because that means that we're blaming everybody else. You can't blame everybody else because they may be at fault, but we too are at fault because we are born into sin.

Thank You for Your forgiveness. For those who are believers, we come, we bow before You. Thank You for the gift of salvation, thank You for forgiveness of our sins. Thank You that You, Jesus, God, came down, You came as man, experienced everything that we experience, all the temptations, all the hurts, all the pains, all the suffering, and You took that as God to the cross, and You broke Your body, You shed Your blood, and we are forgiven when we believe. So we thank You, Lord.

I pray for those who haven't received You because they're still looking for an experience rather than a relationship, for those who are looking for something to make them feel good rather than a brokenness that they have to bring to the table when they come to meet with You. Because we're all broken, and if we can't accept that we're broken and that we're sinners, then we can't accept that we need a redeemer. Lord, we need a redeemer, and You are our redeemer. Thank You, Lord.

We pray for the lost, we pray for the sick, we pray for the broken, we pray for those who are being tormented spiritually by demonic forces. We come right now in the name of Jesus. If people are dealing with any of these issues, Lord, You pour into them right now. Whoever might be listening to this message or will listen to this message, know that Jesus is your deliverer, He's your healer, but He's also the one that forgives your sin. Receive Him, walk in Him, let Him change your life to become more like Him. We love You, we praise You, we thank You, and we submit to You in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.