Faithful Friends

A challenge toward true friendship from Dr. Michael Yousaf. Your greatest expression of love for a friend or a loved one is to bring them to the feet of Jesus and leave them there. You and I can't convert anybody. You and I cannot change anyone's heart.

You and I cannot force anybody to know Jesus. But our job is to be bringers, to bring people to the feet of Christ. And just like these four friends, like these four men, Jesus will do the rest.

Friends, people with whom we share common interests, passions, and simply enjoy doing life together. Today on Leading the Way, a very practical message from Dr. Michael Yousaf called, Faithful Friends. You'll look at what several men were willing to do when they knew the only thing that would help their hurting friend was a personal encounter with Jesus.

Here's Dr. Michael Yousaf revealing the compassion of these faithful friends. I want you please to turn with me to Mark chapter 2, beginning at verse 1. Some men came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus.

And after digging through it, lowered the mat that the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now some of the teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that?

He is a blasphemer. Who can forgive sin but God alone? Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts. And he said to them, why are you thinking these things? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven or say, get up, take your mat and walk.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And he said to the paralytic, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.

This amazed everyone and they praised God saying, we have never seen anything like this. I want you to imagine with me this scenario in this small Palestinian home of the first century. Here are four friends, each of them holding a corner of that flimsy mat. In some translation call it bed, it's not much of a bed.

It's a very flimsy mattress. And this man was obviously quadriplegic because if he was paraplegic, two people would have carried him and they would have taken him everywhere. You remember in the book of Acts, we told about the man when he sat in front of the temple and two people carried him in and placed him and then picked him up at night and took him back. But when a person is quadriplegic, he had to be carried on a mat with four individuals holding each corner of that mat. This quadriplegic man comes to Jesus by his friends.

He obviously could not come to Jesus by himself. So they came looking for Jesus and they saw that it was impossible to make their way to Jesus, even by themselves, let alone carrying that mat. This was a solid wall of humanity. This wall of humanity was imperitable.

This wall of humanity was immovable. And these four friends, the bringers, I like to call them, these are the bringers. These bringers come and they could not go in. They could not make their way.

You know what? They could have easily said to themselves, we came all the way, we're not sure how long they carried their friend. They probably walked a long distance. They were probably exhausted. They were probably tired. They probably looked at the situation and said it's impossible. We cannot do this.

They probably looked at the crowd, more people outside than inside and they said, look, we gave it the good old college try and it's not working. We gave it our best, but we can't do a thing about it. We have already taken so much time of our busy schedule to care for our friends. We've got our own problems. We've got our own difficulties. We have our own lives to think about and we have come and we have sacrificed and we can't do a thing about it. And I can imagine one of them probably a pious one that says, you know, oh, probably it is not the will of God for this friend of ours to see Jesus.

And you know what? They could have had any excuse and none of us would have been able to blame them. I can't blame them. I wouldn't be able to blame them.

None of us would have blamed them one bit. They've done their best. And I think every one of us in our honest moments, we know a time in our lives when we're tempted to give up. I know there are times in my life when I have given up. When you pray for something, when you know in your heart and in your mind and in your spirit that you are praying according to the will of God, that you are praying consistently with the Word of God. And then when God does not answer your prayer in your own time, you gave up. You and I have been there when we saw things, looked at the impossibilities and looked at the mountains in our lives and said we can't do it. It cannot be done.

It's impossible. You know, that is why people like George Mueller has been a challenge to me throughout my Christian life. Since I was a young Christian I would read his biography. He was a man of prayer. He was a man who trusted God.

He had prayed for things and within minutes God answered his prayer. We don't know much about these four guys. We know really very little about them. We don't know their names. We don't know where they're from. We don't know their professions. We don't know their religious convictions. We don't know their background, their family background.

We don't know much. But you know what? Jesus made one statement that told us volumes about their faith. Now let me summarize this in two points. Two points that I want you to remember.

Write them down. Their faith in Jesus was unconquerable by the circumstances. Secondly, their faith in Jesus gave them the unexpected. Their faith in Jesus was unconquerable. These four friends were determined to bring their friend to the feet of Jesus no matter what. They knew in their hearts that if only the friend can come to Jesus, Jesus will take care of the rest. They knew that only Jesus could meet his most desperate needs. They knew that only Jesus could perform the real miracle that he needed. They knew that only Jesus could heal the inside and the outside. Only Jesus could deal with the physical infirmity as well as the spiritual infirmity.

Only Jesus could have truly performed the real, the real extreme makeover. I wonder how many of us would have that kind of faith on behalf of others, on behalf of the kingdom of God, on behalf of the work of God, on behalf of the glory of God. And so, they would not allow the difficulties to stop them. They would not allow the obstacles to hinder them. They would not allow the perplexity of the situation to deter them. They would not allow their faith to be conquered.

They would not allow their faith to surrender to the circumstances. So, they went upstairs in the old houses in old Palestine. Most of the stairs were on the outside of the house. So, they went upstairs and got to the roof. They knew exactly where Jesus was. Now, can you imagine somebody kind of blowering something right there in the middle of my sermon?

I mean, here's Jesus teaching, teaching the word and all of a sudden this mattress was coming right in front of him. They knew exactly where he was. Now, just in case you're thinking, gosh, did they have chisels? Did they have mallets? Did they have hammers? How did they cut through the roofs back then?

Well, not like ours. These were all flat roofs and they had flat beams and these flat beams were about three feet apart. And on top of these beams, they put brushes. And on top of these brushes, they had a thin layer of clay. So, it wasn't as a huge thing of damaging the house as you might think.

They probably fixed it within a couple of hours. So, I want you to look with me at verse 5 of Mark chapter 2. That is the key verse here. I pray to God that no matter who you are, whether you're old or young, rich or poor, no matter where you are, a man or a woman, that you will open your heart to the Spirit of God to speak to you about faith in a new way.

Amen? Seeing the faith, Jesus said to the quadriplegic man, your sins are forgiven. Now, we don't know much either about the quadriplegic guy. We don't know anything about his faith. Jesus never referred to his faith. He referred to their faith, the faith of his four friends. And I don't want you to miss this.

Please don't miss what I'm going to tell you. Whenever you and I bring somebody to Christ, in all likelihood, that person does not understand what's going on. In all likelihood, this person may never be able to articulate his or her desperate need for forgiveness.

That person not able to comprehend the awesomeness of the grace of God that you and I have experienced in our lives. He or she may never be aware that you are exercising faith on their behalf. But God does, and that's all that matters. Jesus knew, and that's all that mattered. These four men didn't evangelize, didn't pull the guy by his lapel and say, repent, you sinner. No, they didn't do any of this. These four men didn't say, hey, you have to jump through certain hoops to get to Jesus.

No, no. These men did not know a whole lot of things, probably themselves, but they knew one thing, and that was enough for Jesus. What did they know?

Please hear me right. What did they know? They knew that if they just bring their friend to Jesus, Jesus is going to do the rest. Now when they bring their friend to Jesus, Jesus is going to perform an extreme, extreme makeover. And that is why, secondly, their faith in Jesus gave them the unexpected.

Gave them the unexpected. I have to confess to you, and I know some of you have seen that and probably wondered in your heart, I've seen church leaders on television, when they get interviewed and they're talking about faith, and I hear them talk about faith in such a way that, truthfully, I've got to tell you this, I want to puke. I really do.

I mean genuinely, not just in disgust, but in sorrow, deep down inside of me. Because the word faith and the way it is used, even by some folks in the church, most people view faith as a blind faith, and that's how they talk about it. Some see faith as a leap into the dark. Well, we don't know, we don't understand, but we have faith.

No, no, no, no, no. Some people talk about faith as if it's something mystical. No, my beloved, listen to me. Our faith is not like that at all. In reality, our faith rests on knowledge. Faith rests on reason. In fact, knowledge is the ladder on which faith climbs higher.

Knowledge is the springboard from which faith leaps further. And these men, their faith was based on knowledge of who Jesus is. It was based on the knowledge of Jesus' character. It was based on the knowledge of Jesus' identity. It was based on knowledge of the trustworthiness of Jesus. Now, to be sure, they did not expect the double miracle. But nonetheless, they totally, completely, without a shadow of doubt, trusted Jesus.

I want you to hear me right on this one. When you introduce a friend to Jesus, you can rest assured, Christ will do the rest. When you've done your job, you don't have to fret.

You don't have to agonize. You have to trust Jesus. And this is what these guys say, if we just bring him to Jesus, we know what Jesus is going to do.

We just need to bring him to Jesus. And you know what? Jesus will always surprise you by doing more than you expect or imagine.

Do you know why? Because your absolute faith in Jesus, always, not sometimes, not on occasions, always, just honors Jesus. You say, well, I have faith.

Let me ask you something. What did you do lately to demonstrate your faith, unwavering faith, unconquerable faith? What did you do in the last week, in the last month, in the last year to demonstrate your unconquerable faith?

Ask yourself that question and please do not give up until you give it the answer. Faith in Jesus will always honor Jesus. I want to confess to you something, that sometimes I pray for things. Sometimes I have faith to believe before the thing happens. When I know, without a shadow of doubt, I'm praying consistent with the will of God and the Word of God. And there are times when I know that what I'm praying for is consistent with the Word of God, is consistent with the will of God, but I can't seem to believe. I don't seem to have that faith.

And you know what I do? I go before God on my face and ask Him to give me the gift of faith. And I have never, ever, in all the years that I've been walking with the Lord, not known the Lord, not known Him, to give me that gift when I ask for it. Let me challenge you that if you are walking by sight and you want to walk by faith, and you say, I just can't get it to go. Listen, faith is not works. It's not something you have to generate, but you can ask God for it.

He will give it to you. And so Jesus sees that incredible, this unconquerable faith, and He says to the man, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now, let me be upfront with you. Let's be honest with each other, okay? Had we been there, watching this, whether it be sitting on the roof or sitting on the side of the house, whatever we might be, I think all of us, with that exception, would be very surprised. I think we would be very surprised.

I think we would be shocked. Every one of us would have expected Jesus to heal the man first, then give him a sermon. Every one of us would have expected the physical miracle first, then the spiritual. But Jesus shocked them all by forgiving the man's sins, and then He healed him. Isn't that incredible?

Isn't that incredible? Jesus forgave the man's sins first. And that, of course, gave the Pharisees heart palpitation.

I mean, it gave them a case of the jitters. You know, who does He? Well, duh, only God can forgive sins. You got him in front of you. Let me explain something to you that is of uttermost importance. You see, most Jews, if not all Jews at the time of Jesus, believed that all physical infirmities, all diseases, all sicknesses, everything, was a direct result of sin. Do you remember in the Gospel of John when the disciples asked Jesus, they said, This man born blind, did he sin, or his parents, so he was born blind? And Jesus said, Neither. This is so that Jesus be glorified in the situation. And so Jesus forgives the man's sins first. Do you know what Jesus is trying to tell us?

Do you know what Jesus is saying to us? First wanting to remove the stain of sin first. He wants to remove the stain of sin and guilt first. He wanted to cleanse the man's spirit first. He wanted to release the man's conscience first. He wanted to bring rest to this man's soul first. He wanted to assure the man of his eternal life first. You say, But what message is Jesus trying to give us? What message is He trying to communicate here? I'm glad you asked.

I want to tell you. Here's what Jesus is saying. That He is saying to every one of us, every one of us, that where a person is going to spend his or her eternity is far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far more important than where they're going to spend the next few years. Now, beloved, I want to tell you, your greatest expression of love for a friend or a loved one is to bring them to the feet of Jesus and leave them there. You and I can't convert anybody. You and I cannot change anyone's heart. You and I cannot change anyone's eternal destiny. You and I cannot force anybody to know Jesus. But our job is to be bringers, to bring people to the feet of Christ. And just like these four friends, like these four men, Jesus will do the rest. The real extreme makeover, only Jesus can do that. Only Jesus can do that.

Let me tell you. Jesus wants to cancel the bond of sin and death for you today. Today, Jesus wants you to know that when you come to Him, He forgives you all of your sins. He cleanses you. He restores you. He heals you. Jesus wants to say to you first, your sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven.

And then He wants to say to you, get up, take your mat and go home. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for a convicting message on Leading the Way audio. You can listen to archived messages by Dr. Youssef through the Leading the Way app or your favorite podcast platform or online. Learn more at ltw.org. Well, as you heard, it takes the loving actions of friends to bring someone to the feet of Jesus. And that is what happens every single day because of your support of Leading the Way. One of those stories comes to us from Tunisia where a woman who works as a university professor had been deeply touched by the character of Jesus when she was in school. She connected with our team behind the Leading the Way Facebook page, and she began an online conversation where she learned even more about Jesus. She began to understand the basics of faith, and she experienced a life-changing conversion. She still corresponds with the team, digging deeper into living a faith-filled life so that she can further impact her husband and her children. So friends, know that when you support Leading the Way, you are making it possible for ministry to continue right there with your own neighbors and with people all around the world, people in places like Tunisia, where this woman found and now lives and serves Jesus.

Learn ways that you can stand with Dr. Youssef. Give us a call at 866-626-4356. That's 866-626-4356. And online, we are at ltw.org. ltw.org. As we bring today's episode of Leading the Way to a close, allow me to invite you also to watch Leading the Way television.

Each week, dig into the truth of God's Word and be challenged to love and serve the Savior. Leading the Way television is available in most areas on TBN, Daystar, NRB, INSP, TCT, God TV, as well as NewsNation, Fox Business, Lifetime, and more. Visit ltw.org for details. Once again, that's ltw.org. Well, that's all we have time for today, but thank you so much for being with us. And make plans to join Dr. Youssef next time right here for more Leading the Way. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. You can connect with us via television, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. Learn more by going to ltw.org.