Tear Off the Roof: How Far Would You Go for Your Friends? // Pastor Joby Martin

- So now, how are we doing two cities? Doing good? You look great. I wanna say hey to all the people that are in the parking lot, welcome those guys. I love these folks in the VIP boxes over here. And then what really gets me excited is this student section right over here. Let's go. Let's go. I see most of you wore my favorite color. I love that. Hey, it's such an honor to be here. I love this church. I've never been here before. I love this church 'cause I love Jesus and you love Jesus and I love your pastor. He is a, you don't know this. You just go here all the time. You take it for granted, but I'm just telling you, he is a brilliant humble man. And I know a lot of brilliant people. And I know a lot of humble people. I know very few people that are brilliant and humble. And a part of the reason that you were experiencing the harvest that you were in is 'cause the anointing and the gifting that you have in your lead pastor. And I think we should honor him way to go. (audience applauding)

Seriously, bro. All right. (audience applauding) He did tell me I can preach as long as I want to. So we could turn this thing in a lock-in, all right? (audience laughing) If you got your Bibles and I hope you do, I want you to go to Mark chapter two. Mark chapter two, you can turn to a real Bible or scroll to Mark chapter two. I want you to go there. I want you to see these very words. But before I dive into what we're gonna talk about, 'cause here's the thing, is some of your group in Sunday school, and God bless Sunday school, but the moment I go Mark chapter two, you already know how it ends. And so I need to bring to you the emotion that accompanies this event. This is not a Bible story. The Bible's not full of stories like flannel graph or veggie tales depending on your generation. These are actual events that actually happen. These are real life people. And so let me ask you this question. Have you ever found yourself in a desperate situation? Now the moment I say that, some of you don't have to imagine anything because you walked in here in a desperate situation.

You got a desperate financial situation. Some of you got a call from the doctor this week. Some of you feel like your marriages are hanging on by a thread, so you know exactly what that feels like. Or how many of you have ever had a time in your life where something was going on with your kids? And can we just all agree there's no pain like kid pain? And listen, the reason, let me tell you, the reason there's no pain like kid pain is because there's no love like kid love. And you don't know that yet. So you think your parents are goofy, they are goofy, but you don't understand how much they love you. 'Cause you're a teenager right now and God loves you and you're the best and you're dumb. That's what the Bible says, you're dumb. It's not your fault, you can't help it. You're just a youth and so you're a fool, it's fine. One day you're gonna grow up and you're gonna realize how brilliant your parents are. But here's what you don't understand. You have no idea how much your parents love you. And it hit me, but listen, man, I've been married to Gretchen for 26 years, she's the love of my life, she's awesome. I mean, it's better now than it's ever been. It's unbelievable who I got to marry. Of all the decisions I've ever made, I nailed the most important one, this is awesome.

If you saw her, you'd be like, "How'd you pull that off?" Well, my Bible says the prayers of a righteous man availeth much, okay? And we were young and it's a covenant and she can't get out. And somehow, she has aged like wine and I've aged like milk. She's better and I'm just chunky and white. So that's me, all right? So. And I thought that when I married her, I thought, "Well, this is what love is." And if you've ever had a baby, you realize, especially us dads, man, you realize, wow, there's like a whole 'nother gear in here that I didn't even realize I had, right? I mean, the happiest day of my whole life, man, I find out we're pregnant, mostly Gretchen. But I went to all the appointments, all of them, went to every one of them. And we finally get to that one where you're finding out the sex of the baby. And so, I go in there with her and they put her on the little bed and this little doctor lady comes out and puts that goopy stuff on her stomach. She's got that Wong on wall. And man, I'm like, "Johnny Bench," like, "Look it." I'm like, "Oh, look at this TV."

And I'm like, "What?" She said, "What do you see?" I said, "I think we're having ET. This don't look good. I don't know what I'm looking at." And then the doctor said, "Congratulations, Mr. Martin. You're having a boy." And I got so excited, I said, "You dang right." So I put her down. And I was pumped, man. I walked down to the hall, I called my daddy, and here's what I said, "Daddy, I made a boy." And he said, "I knew you had it in you, son." That's what he said. My dad's junior, I'm the third. We named my boy the fourth. We're into me at my house. You understand? And then came to the day where he was born. Now people will tell you it's a beautiful thing. They're liars. It's a NASCAR wreck. But eventually when they get everything all cleaned up, and then you know what they do, mama. They put him in that little thing that keeps the fries at Chick-fil-A warm, you know what I'm talking about? And then eventually to wrap him up in that little burrito of love, and they hand him to you. And I remember looking at him,

and I thought, "Oh my goodness." I mean, something just exploded in me. I looked at him out of an overflow of my love for my wife and her love for me. We created an image bearer. This is what had happened. And when he was born, he had a scull it. You know what a scull it is? It's like bald on top, mullet in the back like Hulk Hogan. And I remember thinking, boy, you could take the boy out of the country, but look at him. Look at mine, man. (audience laughs) It's probably one of the great saves of my life. And then we find out we're pregnant again. Again, mostly Gretchen. We're back at that same lady's doctor's office, man. She's got the goofy thing on there, and I'm looking at the TV. And for number two, she says, "Congratulations, Mr. Martin. "It's a girl." And Gretchen said, "You gonna be okay?" I said, "Oh, I'm gonna be okay." Now listen, there's no greater gift in the world than being a girl dad. I mean, I'm just telling you. But you got a cowboy up a little extra these days, 'cause of this lunatic world that we live in.

You understand? And so a few months later, we're back in that room with the NASCAR wreck, and I stayed way out of the way of all of that until it was my turn. And then I come up there at the end, and they wrap up little Reagan Capri in the burrito of love. When she was born, it was seven pounds on the nose. For all of you Bible scholars, you will know that seven is the number of perfection. And they handed her to me. And here's the thing, man. First of all, I looked at her, and I thought two things, I would die for you. And I might make somebody die for you. (audience laughing) I mean, we got three prison campuses. I could run our church from in there. No problem. All right? (audience laughing) Now here's the thing I was nervous about. I was really nervous about this, and you can't ask anybody this, 'cause they'll think you're crazy. But going into it, I thought, uh-oh, am I gonna be able to love the second one as much as I love the first one? Because I didn't really reserve any of my love

when we had the first one, and I poured it all out on him. Am I gonna be able to love the second one, like the first one? And every parent here knows, it doesn't matter if you have two or 22, however many kids you have, that you still have all the love to give, even though you gave it away, because love is an inexhaustible resource because God is love. There's no pain like kid pain, 'cause there's no love like kid love. Several years ago, we went to Atlanta, because the Bulldogs are playing, and I'm a bulldog fan, all right? (audience cheering) Yeah, well, it's 'cause I'm a Christian. (audience laughing) Well, my Bible's written in red and black, so I don't know what you're talking about. Now, the reason we like to go to the first game is because they usually schedule a cupcake like last weekend, and we're gonna win by 100. And I don't need to go to a tight game, I don't need stress, I have a church, you understand what I'm saying? I wanna go and sing glory, glory to old Georgia, 'til my lungs fall out, and so that's what we did.

So we go, we was in Athens, we beat whoever by a million, and then the Braves are playing, we're also Braves fans, so we went over to Atlanta, and we were gonna catch a Braves game the next day, and we're standing in this really fancy hotel, super awesome. Now, where I grew up, when you opened the door of the hotels we stayed in, you were standing at your car in the parking lot. This wasn't like this. This, when you opened the door, and there's this huge atrium, we went up 12 stories, really, really fancy. And my daughter and her friends were on the 10th floor, and we were down in this little restaurant, we'd just gotten home from the game, we'd ordered some refreshments, and about that time I'm sitting with a couple that we're with, and the fire alarm comes on, it says fire, fire, attention, fire. And I thought what all dads thought, it's not a fire, it's never a fire, and I've got refreshments coming, it's gonna be fine. My buddy goes out into the hall, out into the atrium, and looks up, and he comes running back in, kinda panicky, and this ain't a panicky dude, and he's like, bro, we got a problem. And I go out into the atrium and I look up, and you cannot see the ceiling,

because you see flames and smoke, and immediately I'm in a desperate situation. I'm down here, and Reagan Capri is up there, And so I run up to one of the workers and I go, where are the stairs? 'Cause the elevators are obviously stopped. And he points to the door and I run and I open the door and it's a broom closet. So I go to another worker, hey dude, where are the stairs? And he points to a room and I open it. It's like a conference room. And then because I'm a pastor, I laid my hands on the next guy. And I said, where are the agitive stairs? And he finally points me in the right direction and I start running that way and Gretchen comes running up beside me and I'm like, no, no babe, you stay here, I'll go up there. And then I realize I had on flip flops. My daddy used to always say, only thing you do in flip flops is get your butt kicked and that's a fact. But if John McLean taught us anything, you might need a flip flop in a desperate situation. And so I go huffing it up the stairs. I don't know if you can tell, I'm not built for stairs. And so I get to the third floor and there's a hotel worker says, sir, you can't come up this way.

I was like, that's adorable. I can run through you or buy you. They're like, help yourself. I finally make it up to about the fifth flight and they did a great job. And my daughter and her friends, they come down. And when I saw them, there was relief and I hugged them. And there was a lot of emotion. I mean, these are teenage girls. There was a lot of emotion and there was crying and there was whimpering and the girls were upset too, right? Later that night, we couldn't get Reagan. We had to go to another hotel. We're trying to get her to go to sleep. She just can't go to sleep. She's all worked up. And I told her, I says, listen, baby, here's what I need you to know. I would walk through fire for you. And there's nothing unique about me. Every mom, every dad, every uncle, aunt, grandparent in this place. You would do the same thing, right? What would you do when you found yourself in a desperate situation, particularly for someone that you love? This is how you have to come to this text. 'Cause this is not just a Bible story. We're gonna find a man here with some dear friends of his that are in a desperate situation.

And if you walked in here tonight in a desperate situation, there's no better place on the planet that you can be. Mark chapter two, verse one, it starts this way. And when he, that's Jesus, when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. He was probably staying with Peter. And many were gathered together so there was no more room, not even at the door. His ministry's blowing up. Why? Because lives are being changed. And that's what happens when lives are being changed. And he was preaching the word to them. By the way, two cities, you need to know this. The point of church is not full rooms. The point of church is transformed lives for the glory of God. And look around, it's like this. The place is packed, the place is full. That's what's happening here. Verse three, and they came bringing to Jesus a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. All right, just a little aside. If you are a believer, I wanna ask you this, do you have four friends like this in your life?

Do you have four friends that when you find yourself on the mat that will do whatever it takes to get you to Jesus? Do you have four friends in your life that care more about you than what you think about them? And they are willing to do whatever it takes 'cause I'm just telling you, some people in our world make excuses and some people make stuff happen, you can never do both. And this brother on the mat has four brothers in his life that love him enough to pick up a corner of his mat and take him to Jesus. Do you have four friends like that? And I know a lot of you, like of course I do. Okay, write them down right now, write down the four friends names. We call them mat carriers at my church. So you have four mat carriers in your life. 'Cause listen, man, we're the worst. 'Cause you'll settle for buddies. You got golfin' buddies and fishin' buddies and huntin' buddies, but do you have the kind of people that we're willing to do whatever it takes to get you to Jesus? And if you have those, then you need to deputize these men. Ladies, you need to deputize these ladies in your life. So you, you, you and you, I need you to be mat carriers and they're like, what's that? Show 'em this sermon. I need, because here's the reality,

at some point every single one of us is we're gonna find ourselves on the mat one day. Financially, relationally, physically, spiritually. And listen, man, good Christian community. And let me tell you the three most dangerous words grown people can say in their life. I've got this Because guess what brothers and sisters you ain't got this I Mean the beginning of the gospel is I ain't I ain't got this Jesus says blessed or the poor in spirit Blessed are you when you realize I cannot do this on my own first and foremost I need Jesus But I need a band of brothers or a band of sisters around me How many of you have heard this very famous verse the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour First and foremost do you realize that we are at war? Every single day you wake up. We are at war and we have an enemy that only wants to steal kill and destroy That's Kyle mentioned that tomorrow morning in Georgia is deer season This is how much I love you that I'm here. I Think it's funny that they call hunting a sport You know why? Half the teams don't know that the game has started Yeah, like a deer just takes this going to get some corn. It doesn't realize it's going to my freezer. You understand what I'm saying and The average American Christian is just like that Doesn't realize that we are at war And here's the thing man if you try to fight alone You're gonna lose every single time the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour Have you ever watched the animal planet? Which is the one that the lion takes out every single time. It is the isolated one And so you and I we need Matt carriers in your life That will do whatever it takes pick up a corner of your mat and then carry people to Jesus Carry people to Jesus. So this is what they do. It's hard. It's expensive They tear a hole in the roof. They make the people that already have seats on very very uncomfortable And they don't care because they're willing to do whatever it takes to get that one more person to Jesus

Two city's church. God has been really really good to you really good to you and praise him for it But the moment you get more concerned about the seat that you're in instead of the person that needs to be here They hear the good news of the gospel you better watch out because it's over May this church always be the kind of church that's willing to get uncomfortable this willing to live Radically generous lives this willing to do whatever it takes to tear off the roof. You ever tear off a roof. It's very expensive But you do whatever it takes to get that one more person to Jesus And then look what happens Verse 5 and when Jesus saw their faith This is so big When Jesus saw their faith. He said to the paralytic son your sins are forgiven Now listen somebody else's faith cannot save you but in Ephesians chapter 6 the Bible says that we are at war That our battle is not against flesh and blood But it gets the darkness and principalities of evil and when we put on the The armor of God when he's talking about faith he calls it a shield of faith You know why because in the first century when they would fight a shield was not just for you ever watch like 300 I'm not condoning it. I'm just telling you What do they do? They leak their shields together where their brothers on the right and their brothers on their left So that if you got get knocked down then the shield of your brother could cover over you Jesus sees the faith of the four friends and then looks at the man on the mat and says I'm gonna do something about this You got to surround yourself with people like this. He says when Jesus saw their faith. He said to the paralytic son your sins are forgiven and I think the four guys thought neat It's not why we came We were thinking healing we were thinking legs not necessarily eternal life But how many of you know God God always gives us what we need maybe not exactly what we're looking for and Please don't miss this man He says son Your sins are forgiven In the first century they had a real twisted theology

about people who had ailments and illnesses we find this in John chapter 9 if you're familiar with that event in the Bible There's a blind man from birth and they're walking up on him in the disciples as Jesus Hey, why's this man blonde was it his sin or his parents sin that calls him to be blind and Jesus is like no This is not how this works at all, it is for the glory of God. This man was not allowed in community. This man was not allowed in the temple. In fact, the word they would have given him in Greek, translated to English would be invalid. Think about the etymology in English of that word. The majority of people that he came in contact with, would look at him and say, "You are invalid." And then Jesus comes eyeball to eyeball with him and says, "Hm, I don't call you invalid, I call you son." Somebody here needs to hear this. Listen, man, your past does not define you. In the kingdom of heaven, failure is not final. You see, the enemy always tries to define us by our scars. And Jesus is gonna say, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. "You're defined by my scars." So let me put this on the bottom shelf, whatever the worst thing that you've ever done, whatever the thing that you're most ashamed of, whatever label somebody else put on you. Listen, only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. This means you were not your past, you were not your sins, you were not your struggle, you were not your shame, you were not your propensity to do things outside of the will of God, you're not your failures, you're not your bankruptcy, you're not your affair,

you're not your abortion or the paid for one, you're not your addiction, that's not who you are. The son of the living God, if you will put your trust in him, will look at you and look at me and he will call you son or daughter. And every single time the enemy tries to whisper those lies, who do you think you are? Do people really know who you are? Then you can look right back at him and go, it's actually worse than you think. You only see the external things that I have done. You don't even know the crazy going on here and here. And yet the cross has outed us all. Jesus chose me, Jesus redeemed me, Jesus lived and died for me. And so you don't get to tell me who I am, only Jesus gets to tell me who I am. In fact, John is gonna write this in first John. He goes, and this is love, not that we first love God, but God first loved us and sent his son as the propitiation for our sin. Say propitiation. One more time, propitiation. Propitiation is a theological term that means the payment that satisfies. At Pastor Kyle, when I was launching 11, 22, all of the church growth experts told me that I should not use large theological terms like propitiation. And I thought if you could order a Vinty caramel macchiato,

you can learn propitiation. Now, and by the way, if that's what you drink in your man, grow up, be a man, drink it black, and you should probably buy my book. Okay, so. Here's why it matters, it means a payment that satisfies. So if you believe that when Jesus, when he pushed up on his nail pierced feet and says it is finished, that that counted for you, then Jesus is the payment that satisfies. And here's why this matters, brothers and sisters, that means if you were in Christ, he is not dissatisfied in you. He calls you son, he calls you daughter, he says. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic son, your sins are forgiven. Everything's going great. And this always happens. Verse six, now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts. These are the religious people. You ever met any of those? Well, they're fun, aren't they? They're like the HOA members of the first century. That's what they are. And listen, man, if you're on the HOA, relax people, give me a break. They're just walking around with their clipboard. I can not suppose to do that on Saturday. That's what they're doing.

Jesus is changing lives and they're measuring shrubbery. That's what's happening here. Some of the scribes are sitting there questioning in their hearts. They didn't say this out loud. And God knows the heart of every man. In verse seven, here's what they're saying in their hearts. Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming who can forgive sins, but God alone. Here's the reality. They're right. Only God can forgive sin. The thing that they can't see is the standing in the room with them. Here's the scary thing about the Pharisees in the Bible, man. They knew the word of God. But they did not know the living word that was standing right there. Pharisees means separated, that they had decided that God's 613 laws of the old covenant were not enough. So they were going to add some more to it. So they looked at God's own and they're like, good try. And the craziest thing is, man, they had memorized the entire Old Testament. And yet, they were face to face with the living Word of God. They could smell the breath of God and they did not recognize Him for who He is. They said, "Who can forgive sin but God alone?" Verse 8, "And immediately Jesus perceiving in His Spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, 'Why do you question these things in your heart?'" Verse 9, Jesus says, "So which is easier to say to the paralytic? Your sins are forgiven or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk?'"

Well, the answer is, it depends on who you are. It's way easier for me to say your sins are forgiven. You know why? Because you can't tell if it works until you get to the Great White Throne Judgment, then we'll know. But it'd be really hard for me to say, "All right, I'm going to heal you in 3, 2, 1, and we're going to see if I can do that or not." But if you're the one that invented legs, how hard it is if you do legs, get going. It's not even hard. The lights in heaven don't even dim down a little bit on that miracle. But do you know what it takes for Jesus to forgive sin? So which is easier? Because here's what Jesus did to forgive our sin. Jesus seated at the right hand of God the Father steps up off of His throne, takes off His royal robe, lays down His scepter, takes off His royal crown, swan dives here to this planet to be born as a baby in a manger, lives in utter obscurity for 30 years, and then shows up on the scene. And every single time He lives a perfect life, He fulfills every promise and prophecy of the old covenant. Every single time He goes the Father's way instead of the world's way. Every single time He fulfills the law and lives a perfect life. And then He is arrested, He is tried, and He goes to the cross after He is flogged and a crown of thorns are pressed down on His head. And the Bible says that He doesn't merely die for us, He dies instead of us. The Bible says that God made Him who was without sin to be sinned for us, that we would be made the righteousness of God. He pushes up on His nail pierced feet, and He says, "It is finished, Father, into the hands." I commit my spirit. And then He is dead all the way dead, and they take His body and they put Him in a borrowed tomb. You know why they used a borrowed tomb? Because He only needed it for the weekend. Because on that Sunday He rolled that stone away and He came walking out of the gravy to send it to the right hand of God the Father. And that's what it took for Him to say, "Your sins are forgiven." So which is easier to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Rise, take up your embed and walk." Verse 10, "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sin." What He's doing here in the Gospels, every time Jesus does a miracle, He's never just flexing His raw power. He's always pointing to the redemptive purposes of God.

Like you never catch Jesus just like juggling camels, like, "Oh, hey, guys, what's up?" That's not what He does. In fact, in the Gospel of John, John never calls him. He never calls a miracle, a miracle. He calls it a sign because the sign always points to something greater than itself. And Jesus says, "Just so that you know I have the power to forgive sin, I'm going to fix this guy's legs." And He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home." Some of you, you need to hear this, man, that it is actually God's grace upon you that you are in a desperate situation right now so that you will realize the things of this world will never fully and find and satisfy you. And God has always been in the business of taking our biggest mess so that we could hear the Gospel message. And no matter how painful it is or how tragic it is, no matter what it is, if that's what it took for you to receive the forgiveness of Jesus, one day we'll be standing around the throne with all the pain and all the tears of our past and we'll look at it and we will say worth it if that's what it took to get me to the feet of Jesus. And the man rose and immediately picked up in his bed and he went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified God. By the way, that's what worship is. [BLANK_AUDIO] please hear this, this is not Christian karaoke in a TED talk, man, that we are amazed at all that God has done, and so we give Him glory for it. Here's why, because worship is war. You've probably never thought about it that way. Worship is war. Where do you get that pastor? Because the thing that got the devil kicked out of heaven, his name was Lucifer, he was the bright and morning star, and his job in heaven was to lead worship for the angelic host. Ezekiel says that he's covered with gemstones and his appendages are like musical instruments, and then one day, because of his pride, he got tired of being looked through and he wanted to be looked to, and he said, I will ascend to that throne. And God says, that's not your words, and he cast him out of heaven, lightning, and every single time we get together as a body of believers, and we make much of Jesus in worship and war, we are declaring war on the enemy. First and foremost, we're declaring war against our own pride. You know why? Because ain't nobody singing to us. I love it when people let my church, and when I say, I love it, I mean, I hate it so much, it makes me mad, when people are like, well, I don't like that song. That's adorable cupcake, we're not singing to you. We're singing to the only one worthy of our worship. And also, when we're worshiping, we're telling the devil of hell, you were not worthy of that

worship, so you can go back to hell, and I'm going to make much of the one that is worthy of my praise. And so, this is like, we're just saying it. When we sing that word hallelujah, you know what that means? Hallelujah means to lift up your hands and jump around, and Yahweh is the name of God, that the bite. Let me talk to the men for a second, because ladies, you usually lead the way. Men. My Bible says, Paul tells Timothy, men should lift holy hands in this sanctuary. Now, I know some of you worship, like you were weaned on a pickle. You just, and we're saying my heart, well, you should tell your face. The Bible says, we lift our hands. Well, I'm not comfortable. Well, I'm calling bullshkeeping on on that, okay? That's a Greek term. Because why do you lift your hands, man? Why do you lift your hands? Hey, man, tomorrow when the mighty mighty Bulldogs play and they score about a million on Western Kentucky, guess what happens when your team wins? You go, we won! That's what you do when you worship. Like I've read to the end, we won. How many of you remember when you were in school, and all the gifted kids, when they knew the answer, what did they did? They go, oh, I know. How many of you know that no matter what the problem is in this world, we know Jesus is the answer, and when we worship, we go, oh, I know. Hey, dads, I love that there's so many babies, you know, I love it so much. Remember when your kids were littles and you'd come home from work and your kid would run up to you and they would just lift their hands? Like, dad, sometimes that's what we're doing in worship. We're just, father, I need you. Some of you good old boys are really going to get this one. How about this? All right, you got me. That's what worship is, man. All right, God, I surrender. This is what they do. They're amazed and they glorify God, and here's what they say. We never saw anything like this. We never saw anything like this. My hope and prayer for two cities, church. The reason I got on a plane and came here is not for you to hear me talk, not for you to hear your incredibly talented band, lead you in worship, not for the cool tailgate. That's really cool, man. Tailgating for Jesus is really cool and sitting out in the parking lot and all of that. That's not it. My hope and my prayer is that you would encounter the living Christ. You would come eyeball to eyeball with Him. You would know that He calls you son and He calls you daughter and that God would move in such a mighty way in this church that you would walk away and you would say, we've never seen anything like this. We've never seen anything like this. Just imagine for a second. Imagine when they go home, of course, the man that was paralyzed that now can walk, he's pumped, man. He's pumped. He's

probably skipping and then dancing out of there. But can you imagine this? Imagine how pumped the four friends are. They're thinking we had no idea it was going to work. whatever it takes to get that one more person to Jesus because you have no idea what hangs in the balance. So here's some things that you could do. Number one, your pastor's already said this, man. Identify and pray for your one more. And you should pray like everything depends on it because it does. Write that person's name down and you start praying and praying and praying, put it in a place where you can see it. Now, don't necessarily put it in a place where they can see it, you know? I wouldn't put it up in my cubicle, like Ted and Ted's like, hey, why's my name on your desk? Well, you go in the hell and I don't want you to. And share your faith. And sometimes that just means just share that you'll pray for them. I still haven't met the person that'll turn that one down. Sometimes that means share your story. Oftentimes that means share an invitation. I wanna bring you into a place where I know you're gonna hear the gospel. I know you're going to experience Jesus. And if they turn you down, you're just building a bridge to that person. Keep inviting, you keep inviting, you keep inviting, why?

I'll tell you why, because you don't know when they're gonna find themselves on the mat and one day they're gonna find themselves on the mat. And you know who they're gonna turn to in your office or on your team, it ain't the fun guy. They're gonna turn to the prayer person. And here, I'm gonna give you a free hack. I'm not a big tips and tricks guy, but here you go. This Monday, when you were at work, you look at your one more and you go, what did you do this weekend? And they're gonna say stuff. And they are obligated by Southern hospitality that they're gonna say to you, and what did you do this weekend? And you're gonna say, I was at the heights and I heard the most amazing, good-looking, humble pastor I've ever heard of in my life. His name's Pastor Kyle. (congregation laughing) You wanna come with me? And you've gotta give an invite, not a non-fight. Do you know the difference? A non-fight is, you should come to my church with me sometime. There's no sometime on your calendar that you say, we're gonna meet it this time, we're gonna go to church together, and then I'm gonna buy you brunch or whatever it takes. That picks up a corner of the mat. Another thing is this,

is that you can serve right here at two cities. Do you know how many people it takes to pull off something like this so that we could tear off the roof and make room for one more so that people could come face to face with their creator? Listen, a good church service is like a duck. You never thought about this if you just attend. It looks real smooth on top of the water and under the water, people are paddling like crazy, man. So there are all kind of people that serve at this church, man, they're rocking babies and they're teaching our kids and they're serving midweek and they're cleaning up 'cause you people are a mess, you don't even know this. And then you could clean up before between services and little do you know that God could use your service in this church to be like you picking up one of the corners of the mat for him to draw people to himself. And another thing, and your pastor did not ask me to talk about this and you could sacrificially give, be rich towards God. I don't even like to use the word give 'cause you can't actually give anything to God. Theologically speaking, we only bring back a part of what he has entrusted us with. What do you give God? Money, a dollar, he's got it all, he owns it all. If he wanted your money, you'd be a greasy spot and all your money's staying here, you realize that. No, no, no, we joyfully bring back our first and our best,

our ties and our offerings to the Almighty God as an act of worship. And then gospel center churches like this leverage every single bit of it to push back darkness and advance the kingdom, to tear off roofs so that more people can hear Jesus, to launch churches all over the place, to launch campuses everywhere they're go. This has been, you're not giving to God. I mean, think about how silly it is when you think you give God something. That would be like, if you asked to borrow my truck, first of all, there's no chance, but just for the sake of illustration. I was like, of course, bro, here take my brand new GMC pickup truck and then you use it for two weeks and then two weeks later, you come back to me and you're like, pastor, Joby, do I have a generous gift for you? Here are the keys to a slightly used GMC pickup truck. From cover the cover, the Bible teaches the tithe. People fight about this all the time and the people that fight most often about it are doing harmonious gymnastics so that they can try to keep more for them. There's three attitudes when it comes to money, man. There's what's mine is mine. That's called selfishness. There's what yours is mine. That's called stealing. When the government does it, it's called socialism, but I don't have time to get into that, okay? Thank you.

What the Bible teaches is what's mine is God's. It's all his. When the Bible talks about the tithe, technically in Hebrew, it means 10 percent, but it doesn't just meet a tenth. It means the first that you bring him your first, and every single person tithes to something. What we're looking for is satisfaction and security. The majority of people tied to a mortgage or paying off an education or a lifestyle. What the believer in Jesus wants to equip the church to reach every single person, every tribe, tongue, and nation, what we do is we say, "God, I want to bring you what yours first and best as an act of radical generosity so that I could be a part of you working in people's life that they would come to know you." Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been on the mat? Because let me tell you who loves a church that's a growing church, a church that's willing to tear off the roof, to reach one more. Let me tell you who loves that. The person that's praying for there will be one more. Those of you with a prodigal son or daughter, boy, you love a church like this because you know you can bring him, him or her here and they will hear the gospel. Let me tell you who else loves a gospel center, Jesus loving church like this church, is if you've ever found yourself on the mat. Few years ago, my elders made me go on a sabbatical, not to be punished, but they just thought it was a good idea because everybody else does it and they're like, "Well, you need to do it." And I didn't like it because I'm more of a work dog than a lap dog. But anyway, I was like, "Okay, I'll go." And so I just went on a bunch of hunting trips, imagine that. And I took my best friend Brad Bowen with me. I met Brad Lee about 10 years ago, I led him to Christ on a mission trip. I took him on a mission trip because he was a general contractor and I had overcommitted

to build things in places and so I took him. He came to Christ there, I baptized him. He is spending his whole life building out the campuses of the Church of 1122. And we were in Scotland hunting red stag like where William Wallace grew up. It's pretty awesome. Then one morning, Brad Lee and I go hiking up into the highlands and I come back with a stag and Brad doesn't come back. He died of a massive heart attack and I was on the man. I went mad at gun, but I was certainly confused. I was like, "Lord, what are you doing?" I mean, there's a long list of people that I would love for you to take out. Brad was not on the list. I don't understand. I don't understand why, like, help me understand why Christians get cancer. That doesn't make sense to me. God, if I were in your place, what I would do is Christians would always be cancer free or heart disease free and if you're a terrorist, you would get cancer. That's how it would make it work. They'd be like, "I got a bomb," right? That's what I would do. I've been in full-time vocational ministry since I was 19 years old, okay? Like, I get paid to do this. You're good for nothing. I'm a professional. You understand? And I walked into church that weekend different than I'd ever walked into a church service before in a desperate situation. And here's all I wanted to do, man. I just wanted to be with my church family. I wanted to sing the songs.

I wanted to pray the prayers. I wanted to hear the words spoken over me. And much like your church, we have these kneelers and carpets at the end of it. I have one of my friends, Ryan Quan, was preaching. I have no idea what he talked about because all I could think about is when we get to that response part of the service, I've just got to get down there and get on my knees and get on my face before the king of the universe who looks at me and calls me son and let the spirit of God just minister to me in that moment. Two cities may we always be that kind of place that is willing to do whatever it takes to tear off the roof for that one more. Nothing that you ever do in your life will help deepen your relationship with Jesus like getting real serious about getting people that are on the mat into the presence of Christ. Here, I'll close with this. Years ago, three or four years ago, my son, he's about to be 21. He was a junior in high school. He was 17 years old and he and my daughter, Reagan, were going to school. He went to this little private Christian school kind of around the corner from our house and they hopped in the car early in the morning and they pull out of our neighborhood, they take a right, they're sitting at the stoplight and it's a very busy intersection and he's in the pole position about to take a big lift. And listen, some of you, you'll have this, some of you, you'd have this complete misunderstanding of like what pastor's kids are.

They're just normal teenagers. They're not sitting in the car sharing prayer requests and doing worship. You know what I mean? They're just doing whatever they do. And they're sitting there just waiting their turn at the red light and this little sedan with four nurses in it, head into the Mayo Clinic, is going through the intersection and a big F-250 dually blows through the light, slams into the sedan, it flips over on its side, on its top and it scoots about 30 yards into a gas station that's right next to it. Major wreck, my son JP looks at Reagan and says stay right here, throws it in the park, instinctively just opens the door and he goes running to the wreck. And when he gets to the wreck, again, it's upside down, it has that smell if you've ever smelled a wreck. There's people screaming, the four nurses are screaming, the airbags are deployed, the two nurses in the front are beginning to climb their way out. He looks in the back and one of the nurses is hanging upside down by her seat belt. So he goes to the door but it's kind of crimpled up and so he grabs it and he has to like lunge a couple times and he's a free safety, he's athletic, takes that for his mama so he's able to get that thing open. And then she's hanging there and he can't get it undone so he pulls a knife out of his pocket, he has a knife

'cause he's a martin and he cuts it and then he grabs her by the arms so she doesn't fall on her head. She's got a big head wound and you know how head wounds bleed? Her whole face is covered in blood. Her right leg is curled up like a candy cane and he puts his arms under hers and he's dragging her out and she's just looking at him going, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." And he's telling me this story that night when I got home from work and I'm like, "Way to go." But dude, were there not other people to help you? And he said, "Dad, I don't understand. There was one other man and me and then I could tell that a crowd began to form around and I'm 17 years old, I'm a junior in high school. I don't know anything about anything. I'm afraid the car's going to explode or something and I kept waiting for the adults to step in and act like adults. And when I pulled that poor lady out of the car, I looked up and everybody in the crowd was just there where their phone's out recording it for YouTube. And then his voice began to change a little bit. And he was like, "Dad, what is wrong with these people?" And he's real emotional like me, you know? I mean, some of you old heads, when you cry, you cry like Terminator with that one tear and it's like, "Bing!"

When I cry, I cry like a seventh grade girl that just watched the notebook. I'm like, "I can't function." And he's not crying 'cause he's sad. He's mad, the mad cry. John 1135 would say, "Is that that Jesus snorted?" It's literally what that means in Greek. And he's ticked, man, he goes, "Dad, what is wrong with people?" I mean, I'm a 17-year-old kid. I don't know what to do, I'm on my way to school. I can't wait for somebody to help. It's just me and one other man, and I look around and he looks at me and he goes, "Dad, they're just a buncha." And he's trying to decide what word to use with Pastor Dad. And I'm like, "Dude, just say it." And he said it. I'm not gonna say it 'cause I would never get invited back. But he said, "Dad, they're a bunch of adjectives, Greek word for wimp." That's what he said. "Dad, they're a bunch." You know what he said. And I was like, "Buddy, you're right." And listen, man, I'm so proud of you, dude. 'Cause in the moment when it mattered most, you played the man. When everybody else was playing the sheep, you played the man and you ran to the danger man. Way to go, bro. And then I walk into his sister's room, Regan.

She's 13 and I sit down next to her and I go, "Regan, what happened?" And she puts her stuff away. Now listen, if you own teenagers, you will know the 13-year-old is not in the habit of giving superlatives to the 17-year-old. And she goes, "Dad, JP's a hero." I'm like, "Baby, you're right." There is a revival breaking out in our land. It's starting with this generation, by the way. And you're going to have one of two options. I refuse to lead the kind of church that just wants to video it and watch it on YouTube and stand at a safe distance. Two cities may we be the kind of church that runs to the wreck, that runs to the mess, that runs to the blood, that runs to the place that needs it the most. It does whatever it takes, a great experience to yourself to drag people out of the wreck. Why? Here's why. Because every single one of us have been t-boned by our own sin and sinfulness. Every single one of us have run the red light and felt the effects of sin that separates us from an Almighty God. One of the things that JP said is, "I just can't imagine if I was hanging upside down in a car screaming help, I would want somebody to come help me." And our condition by nature and nurture is, "That's our lives. We're hanging upside down, going help me." And the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that he heard our cry and at great expense to himself, he got off of his throne in heaven and he didn't just tear a hole in the roof. He tore a hole in the cosmos and the God became a man and came on a rescue mission for me and you. And the moment we get rescued, we become a part of the rescue team.

I pray to God, I pray to God that if you've ever looked into the eyes of Jesus and heard him call you son or daughter, you will be so seized with a greater affection for him that you will be obsessed with the rest of your life, trying to get as many people to have that experience, no matter what it takes. And so here's how we're going to close our time. We're going to celebrate communion together. I think you received the elements on your way in. And this is why it's so beautiful to close our time with communion. The Bible says that God demonstrated his love for us in this. That while we were sinners, Christ died for us. This is a tangible experience at the Lord's table. And let me just say this, this ain't my table. Say it's your table. This is the Lord's table. So if you don't know Jesus as Lord, then I would invite you to trust him now. And maybe one of the first activities in putting your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior that you would participate in communion with us. But if he is not your Lord, if you have not put your trust in the broken body and shed blood of Jesus, then you could just let this moment pass. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he gathers with the disciples in the upper room to celebrate what was known as the Passover meal. These boys have done this every year of their life. And after Jesus has demonstrated the full extent of his love by washing his disciples as he sits down at the table and he takes the bread and he breaks it. And he says, this is my body broken for you. Here's the thing, the disciples, these Orthodox Jewish boys are like, hold on boss. That's not the right words. We've done this our whole lives. We're supposed to say rabbi stuff about Moses and the Exodus and the blood of the lamb put on the doorpost of the house so that when the angel of death came by, he passed over

whoever had the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. And Jesus is like, yeah, I hear you, man, but you've got this thing backwards. You see that moment back in Exodus that you call the Passover was actually just pointing to me because I am, just like my cousin, John the baptizer proclaimed at my baptism that I am the lamb of God who's come to take away the sin of the entire world. And they still don't know what he's talking about. In my opinion, when he says, this is my body broken for you, but that next morning at the foot of the cross, it made perfect sense that God made him who was without sin to be deserve but because of his great love for us he stood in our place. He says this is my body broken for you and then he says and as often as you eat of it you do so in remembrance of me. Then at the end of the dinner he holds up the cup and the disciples are thinking what's he going to say now and he says this is the cup of the new covenant. I don't know if you know this but covenant and testament mean the same thing and Jesus is here to establish a new covenant with a new testament and the Bible says that the old covenant is a covenant of law but the new covenant is a covenant of grace and in the Garden of Gethsemane that night he's gonna go before his heavenly Father knowing what faces him at the cross the next day. He's gonna sweat drops of blood because he's praying with such intensity. Father if there be any other way let this cup pass from me the cup that he's talking about is the cup of the wrath of God stored up against sin and sinful humanity. Father if there be any other way for sinful man to be reconciled with a holy God can we go with that way? I mean if Oprah's right in all roads lead to heaven if you can align your shocker or obey the law or obey the five pillars if you can just be good enough it seems like an awful waste of my blood tomorrow on that cross. Father if there be any other way let this cup pass from me not my will but your will be done and then sure enough that next day on the cross Jesus endures the full wrath of God to pay the penalty for our sin. He drinks the cup of the wrath of God down to the

very last drop slams it down in eternity and says it is finished and because Jesus drink of the cup of the wrath of God believers you and I are invited to drink of the cup of the grace of God and when he says do this in remembrance of me it doesn't simply mean remember that. He says I want you to go back in time and I want you to grab a past action and I want to bring it into the presence it's kind of like when you celebrate an anniversary Gretchen I celebrate a 26th this year and when we celebrate the anniversary we don't just remember that we made a vow 26 years ago but we remember that that I do still does and every single time you eat at the bread and drink of the cup and he says you do so in remembrance of me not only do you remember that Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago and that you surrendered your life to the lordship of Christ whenever you did but that covenant with him still counts today and he says and often as you drink of this cup do so in remembrance of me. Now we're going to respond because I believe that the gospel demands a response and quite honestly many of you in this room the moment I said ever been in a desperate situation you've been waiting for this moment the whole time just like when I showed up to church after my best friend Bradley Todd or maybe for some of you complacency has set in and you know you know you're not doing whatever it takes in this church to tear off the roof to pick up a corner of the mat you know and you know a part of what you need to do is come down here and get on your face and repent before a holy god and say god I want to be the kind of follower of you that runs to the car wreck that does whatever it takes and again some of you right now are on the mat and what you need to do as we sing and as we come and pray is you need to come down and get on your face before god and say lord I need to hear your voice

over me call me son call me daughter and we're gonna sing and we are going to go to war against an enemy that does not like what's happening in this room and if you're saved we ought to sing like it I think tonight we ought to tear the roof off from the inside out, proclaiming that we give glory to the one that came and gave himself for us. So I'm gonna invite all of us to stand, let me pray, and then we will respond, our good and gracious Heavenly Father. God, I thank you and I praise you that that's exactly what you are. You are good and you are gracious. And God, when we had made a car wreck of our own lives by our willful rebellion against you, a holy and good God. And we find ourselves hanging upside down and bleeding out, crying, Lord, save me, God. Immediately you sent your son, Jesus Christ, to rescue us, to redeem us, to pull us out of that fiery hill and call us sons and call us daughters. And then God, you dusted us off. You empowered us with your spirit and then you sent us out to be the kind of people that run to the people in need. God, I pray for an outpouring of the spirit of God on two cities church. On the elders, on the staff, on the lead pastor and his entire family, that this place, this place would be sought in this community, would be light in this community. And Lord, I pray for hundreds and thousands of people that find themselves on the mat.

They would get picked up, brought in here, come face to face with you so that they would know that you so loved them, that you gave your only begotten son and that they would know that you call them son or daughter that they put their faith in you. We pray this in the only name that matters when we pray. We pray this in the good, strong, mighty name of Jesus Christ and all God's people said, amen, let's respond. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]