You can listen to this message by clicking the link below, or you can catch up with the notes. Either way, we encourage you to discover your motivation to Wreck the Roof!
To read our pastor's notes, just scroll down past the audio.
Last year, there was a famous pop star who embarked on a world tour. She is still on this tour. Everywhere that she went people would pack out the stadiums. There was literally no room left for another person. They would stand for hours to listen to her music and watch the entertainment. People would spend hundreds and thousands of dollars for an experience that last 2-3 hours.
At the end of the night, they would file out of these arenas and stadiums happy that they had the experience, but honestly, not one thing would change in their lives. Yet, they would share the pictures of this night and will continue to talk about it to everyone. The became evangelist for this artist and in many ways would argue with you if you didn’t agree.
Yet every week, there are gatherings all over the country. Hundreds of thousands of people gathering to be in the presence of the One. They have felt his power and His glory. Their lives have been changed, but yet, they don’t act or live like people who had experienced that. They do not even acknowledge the greatness of being there with Him at times.
It’s time for the people of God start to WRECK THE ROOF once again. We that have experienced God’s power and His presence have a unique opportunity to share this experience and to do whatever it takes to get others to have the same experience.
I am entitling this series, “WRECK THE ROOF”. We are going to be looking at Mark 2:1-12 as our jumping off point every week.So if you have your bible today, go ahead and turn to that text. And let’s look at it together.
Mark 2:1-12 (ESV)
As we read this account in the book of Mark, I believe we see the reactions of 3 people or people groups to the paralytic man. The first group is his friends. These are the 4 guys that took on the task of getting the paralytic man to Jesus. The second is the response of Jesus to this man. The last was the reaction of the religious people in the house that day.
All of these people saw the paralytic man but had different reactions. When we think about the paralytic or a man with palsy, we need to know what that would have really meant to a person.
A paralytic person by definition has no ability to move. They are left motionless or without enough power or personal ability to move. Because of his condition, he would have been:
Shamed by others (what could he bring to anything)
Judged by others (it would be assumed there was sin or family sin)
Would have been suspected of wrong doing (he was being punished)
The truth is, we do the same things at times today. You see not every paralytic that we come into contact with is paralyzed physically. They may be paralyzed in the spiritual life and has left them with the inability to move. They can’t get to the place where Jesus is on their own because nothing is working right for them. They are paralyzed to try something different.
When we come into contact with people that Sin has caused them to get stuck, we have tendency to blame all their problems on what we can see in the moment or what we perceive to be the reasons for their problems. In those times, that we have a choice for how we will respond to their need.
Without Jesus, it is impossible to walk in an abundant life, you can’t act the way you would like to. Your words and intentions will become unhealthy and even harmful to yourself and others.
Christians in general tend to avoid these kinds of people.
But today, I want us to look at how these 4 friends reacted to this paralytic mans situation. Now we don’t know the guys names or what the circumstances were that led to this man being paralyzed. But what we do know, is that they had faith that if they could get him to Jesus, He would change this man’s life. He had the power to heal and to restore.
To get this man to Jesus would take effort, it would not be easy. The bible says that they had to carry him on a bed, or what we call a hand stretcher probably. I always seen this as like the stretchers they use on the battle field with a man on each corner.
When they get to the place that Jesus is at, they find that it is a packed house. Basically there is no room in the inn for them. It even says it was so full, that you could not pass the doorway. I think it is safe to say that the house probably would not have passed fire marshals inspection that day.
These guys could have stopped at any point. Think about it, they had to carry their friend there. Then when they get there, there are no seats, not only are there no seats, but you couldn’t get past the door. Many people would have said, we tried, but it’s just not going to happen today.
But there must have been some major connection with these 5 guys. Because the four that carried him to the house, didn’t stop at any obstacle. They just kept looking for how it “could” happen.
They did the unthinkable, they climbed on to the roof and the bible says that they removed the roof above Jesus and made an opening. I saw one version that they had to break through the roof or dug through the roof to make an opening. You see it wasn’t just a one step process. To think outside the box for their friend, took effort.
It took effort to get him on to the roof. It took effort to remove the panels. It took effort to dig through to get him to Jesus.
What motivates a person to take that kind of effort for another. I was talking with a group of pastors the other day about this message. One of them said to me that it was a held belief that these guys may have been thieves together. It would explain some of the knowing how to break into a home that the doors were not available. And that in the course of their thieving, the one man may have been injured and left him in the state he was.
That may be just a long held belief or how the story was passed down or maybe just someones conjecture of the story.
But for whatever reason, these guys were motivated to do something!
“When people pain becomes our passion, we will start moving in purpose!” That means when we are motivated by love, you will do whatever it takes to help them experience Jesus. But you and I must understand that people are not projects to manage. They are people to love.
When you love the people around you, you will always be searching for a new door to get them to Jesus. You will be trying to create a new passage, that seems ridiculous just so they can have a front row seat to him.
To WRECK THE ROOF is about doing what it takes for the purpose to be accomplished. The purpose of our lives is no different today. We have been called to bring the hurting and the spiritually paralyzed to Jesus. And when the doors seem to be closed, we need to look for new alternatives.
You see everyone in that house saw the effort these guys took to get their friend to Jesus. They felt it. If you were under where they entered, you probably wore some of it from the falling debris. Those guys didn’t care. They were willing to take the risk of being maligned, misunderstood, embarrassed just so they accomplished the mission.
Our society today is so risk averse. I get it, there are a lot of things that have changed over the years when it comes to safety. These innovations were instrumental in bringing down death rates from common accidents. Let me give you a few.
Child safety seats. There was a day when small children did not have to be in a baby booster seat. They could roam all over the car and climb around even while the car was moving. My mother had a terrible car accident when I was just a toddler that cost her months and years of recovery. I wasn’t in a car seat that day because it wasn’t required. (No jokes) Today, they won’t even let you take your kid home from hospital until they inspect the seat.
Bicycle helmets…we jumped our bikes over ditches and friends most of the time with just a pair of shorts and no shoes. Let alone a bicycle helmet. Now I am guilty of fussing at the kids for being out without a helmet. Why, because we saw the damage and don’t want our kids to do the same thing.
We have pill bottles they are changed. Packaging for food that’s impossible to get into. During the height of the COVID pandemic, many would not leave their houses or be around people, because of the risk!
The Risk Aversion even carries over into our spiritual lives. We won’t take the chance to reach out to someone for fear of their response. It leaves the church and the Christian community immobilized itself these days. We go to church and fill up rooms because we like Jesus. Sometimes that even leads to the doors being open wide enough for the people who need to get to Him.
Avoiding risk will not only keep you from experiencing the miraculous, it will immobilize the church. We will miss what comes from advancing the kingdom.
No matter what we do, it really comes down to our faith. What we believe will happen. Faith is not just a word, it is an action. That means taking the risk.
1 Peter 2:21 (ESV) 1For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
We don’t take risk because we don’t want to hurt. It requires us to step out of the safety of our faith at times. A safe faith is not really faith at all.
Did Jesus play it safe for you life? No. He endured the torture and suffering of the cross in the hope that we would become Children of God. There was no guarantee that everyone would accept the salvation that comes through Him. But willingly He took all that on for you and I.
Luke 9:23-25 (ESV) 23And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
Jesus was proclaiming even before His death, that following Him, would been something different. That playing it safe may be more comfortable, but it would not yield the right results.
If these guys had not had the drive in them to continue looking for a way to get to Jesus rather than looking for excuses for why they couldn’t, it would have robbed God of the opportunity to reach more. They were proactive rather being on the defensive with their faith.
Those 4 men were not guaranteed an outcome. Just an opportunity. Their faith told them that if they took a risk, Jesus would heal their friend. No guarantees. But here is a guarantee, nothing happens when you don’t do anything. When we let the obstacle win, miracles cease to happen.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The church is only the church when it exists for others.”
What we say and espouse to believe, has to equal the actions that we are willing to do. You can’t say that you would do anything to see another reached for Christ, when you won’t even walk across the room for another person.
We say as a church that we exist for a great purpose. But what is that greater purpose? The greater purpose is all about the ONE. Its about getting those people that God loves to the ONE. And that means as a church we must be willing to do whatever it takes to get them there. Because the world does not have the ability to get to Jesus on their own. Someone has to get them there.
Romans 10:13-15, 17 (ESV) 13For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”14How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” …. 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Those that are paralyzed spiritually cannot get to Jesus without us. Faith comes by hearing! Hearing from us. Hearing from the Lord. Hearing the voice of God.
But like these 4 friends, we have to do more than just hope for people to find Jesus. That’s a big statement. Because we know people need Jesus, but that doesn’t mean that it will happen without us.
Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The great commission is all about action. He didn’t tell us to wait for something good to happen in someones life. But to go to them. It is not a task for someone else to undertake. We can’t look around and think, someone else will do it. It is the mission of everyone in the church of Jesus Christ, to reach out to others. To bring them in to Jesus.
If you are a guest here today, you’re here because someone loved you enough to reach out to you. Whether that was through a facebook post, phone call, a conversation…they were motivated by love. The love of God and the love of you.
Jesus declared, its not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. Too many times we can’t get the sick in the door because our churches are built for the healthy. A church should be a spiritual hospital where the broken can come to be healed. Not a social club where the healthy come to be entertained.
So let me show you today three ways that we can begin to WRECK THE ROOF
INVEST INTO EXISTING RELATIONSHIPS
People will always say, I don’t know where to start. I believe that the easiest starting point to bringing people to Jesus is to start where you are. Every one of us have relationships that are built in right now. They are people that you already trust and they trust you.
You what we call relationship equity. That is a powerful source. It doesn’t dozens of conversations with those people to gain the ability to speak into their lives.
Matthew 9:9-12, shows us the account of when Jesus called Matthew to be an apostle or disciple. Matthew was not a good guy. He was a tax collector, which in the eyes of the Jewish people, was the worst thing you could be. They robbed from their own people. And Jesus called the guy to be a part of the sharing of the gospel.
Immediately afterwards, we see that Jesus is having a meal with not just Matthew, but with with Matthew’s friends. V.10 says, “And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.”
Who were the first people that Matthew told about his experience with Jesus? It’s obvious it was the people he was connected to. Jesus invested into the people that were the most broken. He expects us to do the same thing.
We do that by asking ourselves, who has been placed into our lives or into our circle of influence?
2. INVITE THOSE WE CARE ABOUT TO EXPERIENCE WHAT WE HAVE
Again, around this table is the people that Matthew did life with. He had a life changing moment with Jesus that changed everything. He wanted to invite others to have the same experience.
We don’t know why those 4 guys felt like Jesus was the answer to the paralytic man’s problem. But we have to assume that they had seen and heard the news from someone that they trusted. Maybe even one of them had personally been touched by Jesus. We don’t know. But we do know that their faith drove them to bring someone to Jesus. Even Jesus commended them.
We all friends that their sin has kept them from moving forward. It has paralyzed their lives. We all friends that honestly are mired in sin.
We have the relationship and even can invest in them with your story and what God has done in your life. But it is a new level when you take the relationship equity that has been built and decide to invite them to come. The paralytic man could have said no to going to the house. He could have said no to climbing on to the roof. He could have said no to being lowered from a whole in the roof.
But he didn’t. When you are broken, you are open to the new, because you are doing usually is not working. All the preaching to them about the wrongs of their lives will not change the situation.
But an invite to meet the one who can, just might do it all.
Statistics tell us that only 2% of church goers will invite someone else to church. And that 7 out of every 10 unchurched people have never been invited to church with someone. Things about that…70% of those not in church have never been invited to go with someone.
Here’s the more damming statistics, that 82% of them would most likely come if someone asked them to.
Folks, a simple invitation may be wrecking the roof for someone that you know.
3. Lastly, INCLUDE THEM IN THE HOUSE
Too many times our churches are set up as holy entertainment venues. If we sing the right songs, have the right ambience, then there was a move of God. And what happens is, we shut the door on those who don’t get it. We make it about us.
The problem is that we fill the space with what we need so much, that we miss that there may be others waiting to get into the door with Jesus.
How many people probably saw those guys carrying their friend to the house. They could see the need. But they were unwilling to make room. So we include people by making room at the door and on the floor. And if we invite someone to meet Jesus and there seems to be obstacles, our next approach is to climb the roof and make a hole.
One common theme we see with Jesus over and over, is that when we get desperate, He shows up and shows out.
Woman with the issue of blood, crawled through people to get to Jesus and when she did, he healed what all here money and doctors could not. Just because she got close enough to touch him.
Blind Bartimeus, spent a lifetime without sight. When he close enough for Jesus to hear him, He cried out. Even when others told him to be quiet, he shouted louder. His desperation led to his healing.
Zacchaeus was a short man who could not see Jesus the way everyone else did. So he did the unthinkable and climbed a tree just to catch a glimpse. That desperation was met with an invitation to have fellowship with Jesus.
When we get desperate and won’t take no for an answer, is when God shows up and shows out in our lives. That’s what those 4 men did. They got desperate and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
You include people in on the party that Jesus is throwing when we care enough to share what He has done in our lives. Even when had his friends all around that table with Jesus was sharing what He had received.
The body of Christ is the church. It was designed to grow bigger and stronger. You are a part of the body. You have a role to play in making sure that it is healthy and vibrant.
We need to take some risks once again as believers and have faith that our God is still a rewarder of those who seek him in faith. (Hebrews 11:6) It was what Jesus said as he saw this man lowered…he was moved by their faith. And in that this paralytic guy found forgiveness and healing.
As we enter this Easter season, it’s time for THE ASSEMBLY to live out this greater purpose to WRECK THE ROOF.