(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

The enemy's tactic is always to divide and conquer.

Come on.

To divide and conquer.

He wants to divide your family, he wants to divide your mind, he wants to divide your heart, he wants to divide your people, he wants to divide the world because if he can divide, he can conquer.

But we're unified because of who Christ Jesus is.

And we're unified in the diverse gifts that he gives the local church.

And we're unified in what we use those gifts for.

And we're excited about it here at Valorist Church.

So again, we are glad you're here.

If you have your Bibles with you today, open it up to Mark chapter two.

Mark chapter two, this is a story where Jesus has an encounter with a man forever changes his life.

And though he comes in the room one way, he walks out a different way.

And that is really my hopes in your heart and life today.

Maybe you come in here today weighed down.

Maybe you came in this room today and you're feeling life's pressures.

Maybe you feel like you're stuck.

You can't move forward.

Life has a way of doing that to us all.

But what we are to do is surround ourself with some people of faith, get to the feet of Jesus and then begin to watch the power of Jesus work in our life.

So if you feel discouraged today, you're in the right place.

Because God's word is going to encourage you.

It's going to lift your hopes in who God is.

And God's word is going to begin to manifest itself in your life if you'll choose this one thing today.

Choose to lean in to what God's saying.

Let's read the text, Mark chapter two, verses one through 12.

God says, when Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, he had been out ministering, the news spread quickly that he was back home.

Jesus had moved from the Nazareth area to the Capernaum area.

He moved from the southern region to the northern region and now he is in that area.

Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room even outside the door.

While he was preaching God's word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat.

They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd.

So they dug a hole through the roof above his head and they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus.

Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, my child, your sins are forgiven.

But some of the teachers of the religious law who were sitting there in the crowd, sitting there thought to themselves, what is Jesus saying?

This is blasphemy, only God forgives sins.

Jesus immediately, he knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, why do you question this in your hearts?

Is it easier to say to a paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or stand up and pick up your mat and walk?

Jesus says, so I will prove to you that the son of man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.

Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, stand up, pick up your mat and go home.

And the man jumped up, the man grabbed his mat and he walked through the stunned onlookers.

They were all amazed, praised God, exclaiming, we've never seen anything like this before.

Today, I wanna talk a little bit about moving forward with your life, moving forward with the things that God wants to deposit in you and do great things through you.

God wants to do miracles in every person's life.

God wants to unify you with his family, with his church, with his church, with his church, with his family.

With his church and display who he is to the earth around you.

And so today I wanna talk about how to move forward in the context of God working in your life and through your life.

Because God is at work in this world.

We just sung a song about way maker.

When there seems to be no way, he is working.

He is doing the work.

But the challenge of why so many of us don't see God working in us and through us, isn't with God, it's with our faith and our heart and seeing what God is doing.

I had an incredible conversation with a young man yesterday.

I stopped at a subway to grab me a sandwich.

We began to have a conversation.

He recognized who I was.

He recognized I was a pastor of a local church.

And you know, it's kind of quiet at a restaurant.

So he said, hey, can I talk to you for just a minute?

I said, absolutely.

And so he said, can I ask you a question?

He says, you ever hear from God?

He says, I'm not talking about like God talking to you, like you hear him with your ears, but do you ever hear from God?

I said, absolutely.

He said, I hear from God all the time.

I put my faith in God.

I hear from him through his word.

I hear through the movement of his Holy Spirit in my heart guiding and directing my life.

He says, well, that's good because I feel like, he says, I feel like I'm hearing from God, but it's not like I'm hearing these voices and all this stuff.

He says, I just feel like, as I begin to think one way in my own heart and I go that way, there's something nudging me to turn a different way and go a different direction.

And he says, I feel like there's energy when I turn and go in that different direction.

I said, that energy you feel, my friend, is what we refer to as the Holy Spirit.

That's the third person in the Trinity.

He is at work in your life.

God is working, my friend.

God is speaking.

God is doing what God says he will do.

But we have to be willing to move forward in this world with his purpose and his plan.

We just looked at a story of a man who was paralyzed on a mat.

And he wasn't moving forward.

Now, the mat represents a lot of things, but here today, I want the mat to represent the place that we often get stuck.

Because some people are moving along and then something happens, happened to our world just a little time ago.

It was called COVID-19.

And everybody got stuck.

Everybody didn't know what to do.

Everybody didn't know how to respond.

And that stuckness affected our world in a lot of ways.

There's still lots of people have not completely, now I'm not talking about the physical illness of it, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, haven't got over what that has done.

And I need to tell you today that God is greater than COVID-19.

God is greater than the things that are going on in your life.

But a lot of the world got stuck.

Some people get stuck when relational issues happen.

They're on the mats, feel like they can't move forward.

Some people get stuck in everyday life because something disastrous happens, something goes on, they get discouraged, and they never come out of that discouragement.

But God says, hey, lean into what I'm saying, and you'll begin to see life move forward.

So let's lean into this passage today, and let's see how Jesus can encourage us in a great, great way.

You might wanna write down a few notes.

If I'm gonna lean into what God's doing in the world, and what he wants to do in me and through me, I have to surround myself with the right people.

Look at your neighbor and say, are you the right people?

Go ahead and ask them that question.

Look at your other neighbor and say, I hope so, I hope so, come on.

Look at this passage.

This man was surrounded with some courageous influencers.

And I wanna show it to you, Mark 2, verses three through five.

Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat.

They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crouch, they dug a hole through the roof above his head, and then they lowered the man on the mat right down in front of Jesus.

Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, my child, your sins are forgiven.

Now, I don't know what this man's sins were.

But really, I don't know if this man had all kinds of things going on in his life, was his sins multiplied?

What were they?

But what I do know is this man ended up being surrounded by people who had faith in Jesus and what Jesus could do.

And so it doesn't really matter what this man's sins were.

These guys didn't go to him and try to explain to him of how to fix all his sins.

They didn't go to him and begin to speak to him about all his problems.

The Bible says these men are filled with faith that God is who he says he is.

They pick up this mat, they take this man to the one who can repair his heart, his soul, his spirit.

His name is Jesus, and they carry the man to Jesus.

Can I tell you, those are the right people.

All right, that's all right.

The Bible tells us this.

In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 33, it says, bad company corrupts good character.

Amen.

Bad company corrupts good character.

I'm gonna invite you to that.

If you wanna see God working through your life, then surround yourself, begin to make company with people of faith and know who God is and what he wants to do in your heart and life.

Get yourself around some influencers, people who have faith in Jesus and begin to see what God will do.

Some of us surround ourselves with all kinds of groups of people, but they're not predominantly people of faith.

I'm not telling you to exclude yourself from the world and never encounter a non-believer.

But what I am telling you is the reason some of you are stuck is because you're not in a faith community.

You're not in a community of faith that says, we believe that God can work in your life.

You're not rooted down.

Some of you don't have any friends because you don't root yourself down in a place of faith.

And can I tell you something, a friend will become a friend when a friend can begin to lean into you as you lean into them.

So get yourself around some people of faith, bad company, corrupts good character.

I wanna read to you a passage of scripture that's fascinating to me.

It's found in chapter three, verses three through eight.

And this is after Jesus has come, died on a cross, appeared to many people, ascended back to heaven.

And now Peter and John are sharing the good news about Jesus, they're in good company.

They're in the company of one another.

They're traveling around, talking about the power of Jesus.

And the Bible says one day they're going in at 3 p.m. to pray at the temple.

And I wanna read to you what it says here, what their encounter was.

It starts with verse three.

It says, there was a man there seen at the gate of the temple, and he was paralyzed and he was a beggar.

Says that some people would bring the man to the gate of this temple every single day so he could beg for money.

And the Bible says this, when he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money.

Look at this.

Peter and John looked at him intently and Peter said, hey, look at us.

That means look at me, like pay attention.

Peter looks at him intently and Peter said, look at us.

And the lame man looked at them eagerly expecting some money.

He thought, I got them.

And the Bible says, but Peter said, I don't have any silver or gold for you, but I'll give you what I have.

In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, get up and walk, he told the man.

And then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and he helped him up.

And as he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.

He jumped up, stood on his feet and began to walk.

Then the walking, leaping and praising God, he went into the temple with them in faith community.

So from a beggar to a believer, how did he become, he was a beggar one moment and a believer the next moment.

It's simply because he encountered the right people.

I want you to understand this today.

This man had sat at the temple of a religious building for who knows, decades.

And people were bringing in there so he could beg for money.

Now I don't know if that money was for them or for him, but it just says that he was there begging for money each and every day.

Here comes Peter, here comes John, walking along to praise God in the temple.

They see the same problem that everybody else saw.

When he asked them for money, somehow, someway Peter understood that that man didn't really need money.

What that man needed was an encounter with the living God and understand who Jesus was.

Peter spoke to him.

Peter didn't just say, I'm going to pray for you.

Peter didn't just say, hey, here's the answer, whatever.

He says, silver and gold, I do not have, but what I do have, which is the living God in me, he says, I give to you today.

And he tells the man to stand up and walk.

This represents move forward spiritually, my friend.

And some people aren't moving forward spiritually because, you know what, there's been so many people trying to fix their problem.

And here's the deal.

We need to be people of faith and we need to do all we can to help people and help people get to the one who has the power to change their heart and change their life.

His name is Jesus.

Church, church, let me say this today.

The church isn't an entity in this world just to fix problems.

The church encounters problems and does what it can to help problems, whatever they are.

But the church's main mission is to encounter your problem and bring you to the feet of Jesus so you can understand the one that can forever change your life.

And the church never needs to lose the power of the gospel.

You know, sometimes the church just becomes, you know, another giving institute into the world and never mentions the power of the one who can change their life.

His name is Jesus.

You know, we can have all the money in the world and throw it at all the problems we want to, but the reality of it is, if we don't cover that with the gospel, with the good news, then the reality is we're not helping anybody.

We're just enabling.

And there's nothing wrong with helping people.

If God tells you to pull $500 out of your pocket and pay somebody's light bill, you do it.

But as a believer in Jesus Christ, let me say this to you today.

Never just do it to fix a problem so they look at you.

Do it so they can have an encounter with the living God through the Christ Jesus who lives in you.

Man, man, you know, this speaks to my heart because the reality of it is, is the world's going around acting like they're just, or the church is going around the world acting like they're a benevolence organization.

And the reality of it is we are a benevolence organization and we do give to help people all over the world.

The Bible calls us to help the poor, to help the hungry, to disenfranchise the hurting.

We do it as a church, but our message as we do it, that is our platter to deliver the gospel, the good news of Jesus and Christ.

Man, it is not silver or gold we have, we have the living God living in us.

You know what, you may have walked in here with all kinds of challenges today, but I wanna encourage you today.

I wanna see God do miracles in your life.

Miracle maker, whatever that song goes.

The reality of it is, is you need to get around some people of faith that really believe that Jesus is who he says he is.

Really believe the word of God.

Really believe that Jesus isn't just a bumper sticker or commercial.

Really believe that he was God in the flesh and he came to this earth to die on a cross to give humanity of their sin, defeated death, rose from a grave so the Holy Spirit power of God could move in your heart and move in your life.

Are you around people like that?

Or is Jesus just a commercial, a bumper sticker?

See, people of faith really believe that God can do what he says he can do.

And we trust God for everything.

We trust God to do things we've never seen before.

That's what it means to live by faith.

Is I haven't seen it with my eyes, but I believe God can do it.

Because God says he can do it.

Surround yourself with the right people if you wanna move forward with your life.

The next one I wrote down is this.

We need to learn to lean into who Jesus is and what he is saying.

Watch this.

There was many in the crowd who denied, debated, wanted to destroy Jesus, where this man had this encounter with Jesus.

It says it this way in Mark 2, verses seven and eight.

It says, they ask a question.

What is he saying?

This is blasphemy.

Only God can forgive sins.

Jesus knew immediately what this crowd was saying and what they were thinking.

So he asked them, why do you question this in your hearts?

In other words, what Jesus is saying to them here is you're here, Aaron, you're here in this spot in this crowd and you're hearing me with your ears and you're listening to me, but you're not heeding what I'm saying.

You're not leaning in.

You know, there's people who attend church week after week, month after month.

They listen and they hear God's word, but they don't lean into God's word and let God's word transform them.

There's a big difference in hearing with your ears and listening to someone's voice and leaning in to what's being spoken and what's being said out of the word of God.

And so many people are paralyzed in life because they're not leaning in.

They're just listening.

They're not humbling themselves.

They don't have a hungry heart anymore.

You know, I've preached messages from this passage before, preached messages from a lot of passages in the word of God.

But oftentimes, you know, someone may have heard this story of a man on a mat, you know, Mark chapter two, verses one through 12, and four guys bringing him and dropping him through the feet of Jesus.

They heard the story, but they just kind of listened to the story and don't lean in to learn and heed something that God can change in their life.

Like, man, I've been in church all my life.

I heard this story 500 times.

But the reality of it is this, every time I read God's word, I'm not saying it says something different, but if I'm leaning in to God's word, Miss Linda, if I'm leaning in to God's word, I'm not just reading the words off the pages like I saw them before.

God's Holy Spirit at work inside of me illuminates something different, a different angle, let's call it.

And as he illuminates, not a different message, but a different angle, he begins to challenge me to lean in and learn something more.

See, when you approach the word of God, it's not just hearing the stories.

It's not just listening to all these things.

It's leaning in and letting God transform your life.

So how do you lean in?

Well, Jesus says, here's how you lean in.

John 14, verse 15, if you love me, he says, obey my commandments.

So that's the thermometer for you to see if you're leaning in to what God's saying.

Do you listen to what Jesus is saying, hear what he's saying, and heed to what he's saying?

Because he says, if you love me, you will obey my commandments.

Listen to what the scripture says.

This is a remarkable passage again in Mark chapter 13.

Jesus was speaking on the kingdom of heaven.

Told a bunch of different stories, parables, about what the kingdom of heaven is like.

In Mark 13, verse three, he tells a story of a man spreading seeds and how it fell on different kinds of soil.

And one soil was the good soil.

It sprouted, it germinated, it grew up, and produced a hundredfold to what it was sown into.

The soils represent humanity's heart.

The seed represents the word of God in this passage, in this parable that Jesus told, this story that Jesus told.

But the soils represent a people's heart and what the word of God can do in someone's heart.

The seed is always good, but oftentimes, you know what, it falls on a dull spirit, someone that's not leaning in.

They're just hearing the words and it doesn't produce anything out of their life.

This is why it's so important to lean in.

But this is what Jesus says in the passage according to those parables he told.

Matthew 13, verse three says, he told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one, listen, a farmer went out to plant some seeds.

A little bit later on as he tells the parable, says this in verse nine of Matthew 13.

He says, anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.

But I just told you a story that has some significant meaning in your life.

He told a crowd of people this story.

His disciples came and they asked him, why do you use parables when you talk to people?

So the disciples who were following him around, they had a question, Jesus, why do you use these stories when you talk to people?

He replied, you are permitted to understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but others are not, he says.

To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given and they will have an abundance of knowledge.

But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.

That is why Jesus said, I use these parables.

For people look, but they don't really see.

They hear, but they really don't listen or understand.

In other words, they aren't leaning in to what I'm saying.

This is one of Jesus's intentional features of his teaching ministry, where he could really tell if someone was leaning in.

In other words, because when he shared the story, if they were leaning in, what they began to do is heed what he was saying and go out and apply what he was saying to their life.

So the reality of all of this is this.

You can hear the word of God.

How does faith come?

Faith comes by hearing the good news of who God is.

And you can hear the word of God, but until you make a decision to lean in and say, God, what are you saying?

I'm intently listening to what you were saying, and I wanna apply it to my life, no matter what is going on in my life.

It's not your way and my way, it's your way or the highway.

Come on, somebody.

And again, we all have this tendency to wanna argue with God.

But the reality is this.

When you're heeding his word, he's speaking.

He's working.

He's doing what he says he will do.

But you have to heed, not just hear the word spoken.

Not like, I heard another sermon.

Well, great, go listen to 45 more on YouTube.

I don't, you know, the reality is, are you gonna take the one you hear right now and do something with it with your life?

Because God's speaking.

And I'm gonna do it with my life.

And I'm leaning into that today.

And my friend, if you said to God by faith, thank you for this gift of grace, His name is Jesus, just tell God right where you sit today and say, thank you God for this gift.

And then begin to expect and lean into what He's saying.

And trust Him all the days of your life.

He wants you to make you a part of what He's doing in the earth.

He wants you to begin to move forward with your life.

And so I invite you to get involved and see what Jesus can do.

Jesus, we pray all these prayers in your most holy and precious name.

Amen.