(I recently bought a book on procrastination at the airport but I still haven t got around to reading it!)

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1 Page 1 Luke 5:17-26 Jesus heals a paralytic The paralysed man: lived life on a mat three feet wide and six feet long. Someone had to feed him, carry him, clothe him, move him, clean him. His was a life of begging. A life of dreaming. He would never know the independence that we cherish so dearly. Emotional paralysis: some of us suffer from emotional paralysis: overwhelmed with an emotion, a feeling so much so that we cannot act, we cannot decide, we constantly procrastinate. (I recently bought a book on procrastination at the airport but I still haven t got around to reading it!) Fear, worry, grief, loneliness, hidden anger or resentment leave us living a life of indecision and inaction of emotional paralysis. Emotional paralysis leaves us feeling that our life is out of control and that we cannot change it. You feel helpless and hopeless to change your situation. You say things like: My marriage is never going to get better. I m never going to get married. I will never get over that hurt and learn to love again. I just can t break this bad habit. I am always going to feel this dark and depressed. I guess I am not going to become what I have always dreamed of becoming Emotionally paralysed: you are unable to live up to the potential that you know is within you. 3 emotions in particular that can paralyse us: 1) Our fears about the future 2) Our regrets about the past 3) Our doubts about our ability

2 Page 2 Today, following this passage in Luke, we want to look at how Jesus can encounter us in this state of paralysis and how he can help and heal us. If I honestly asked God to change my life, what would happen? 1) Jesus will ease my fears Imagine for a moment you are the man on the mat. Many of us hate to stand out in crowds. Do you ever have that dilemma in the cinema where you want to go to the toilet but the thought of getting up in the middle of the film and doing the walk of shame keeps you stuck to your seat, until you can t take the pain any longer. The place is packed on this day. Standing room only. Jesus is teaching in full flow. You can hear a pin drop. The expectation in the room is palpable. 5:17 And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. There had to be a certain amount of fear in this man and in his friends. This was a risk. An audacious plan. This man is lying paralysed on a mat his friends are pulling apart the roof of a stranger s house, he is going to be lowered in front of Jesus. This is an all or nothing moment. He is not controlling the situation. He is vulnerable. And he is afraid. In a parallel account of this story in Matthew, Matthew records the words of Jesus: Take heart son. (Matt. 9:2) These are the words of Jesus to someone here today. Just this. Take heart son. It s going to be okay. I am here with you. You might feel paralysed and powerless but I am with you. Take heart. It s okay. Be encouraged. Don t give up. Don t be afraid. It s okay. The first thing that Jesus did was to allay the man s fears. He cared about how he felt. Jesus knows your heart and he cares about how you feel. I don t know how your prayer life is. I don t know if you sometimes feel the need to couch your prayer in certain phrases, or if you feel that you have to use certain language, or make sure you pray in just the right way, covering all the biblical bases: but there is something called: simple prayer. Arrow prayers to God: HELP, I m hurting, I m struggling even a sigh or a tear. God sees it and he hears it. If you are here this morning if you are listening to this message and you are discouraged, lonely, worried, frightened, anxious, weary of the fight. Jesus knows and Jesus cares.

3 Page 3 Engraved on our wedding rings: Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. (Psalm 55:22) Why does Jesus ease our fears before he does anything else? Why is fear and the command not to fear mentioned so many times in the bible? Because fear is a universal problem. We don t like to admit our fears and insecurities, but everyone in this room has them. What are you worried about this morning? Health. Future. Finances. Children. Past. Jesus understands and he says: Take heart. Look at God with Joshua he was very afraid. The great leader Moses was dead. Now Joshua was responsible for leading all these people. God spends most of his time telling Joshua not to be afraid. 7 lessons in effective leadership, by God. 1) Do not be afraid. 2) Be strong and courageous 3) Be strong and very courageous 4) Do not be terrified. 5) Do not be discouraged 6) Know that God is with you 7) Be strong and courageous. What should we do with our fears and anxieties, over and over: Give them to Jesus Christ. Give all your worries and cares to God for he cares about what happens to you. (1 Peter 5:7) 2) Jesus will eliminate my guilt Notice what else Jesus says to the paralysed man: Then Jesus said: Friend, your sins are forgiven. (Luke 5:20) What is going on here? The man is coming for healing, and he gets forgiveness. Often we concentrate on the externals. The symptoms. The visible. Jesus wants to deal with the cause and not the effect. He wants to deal with the roots.

4 Page 4 Are you stuck in the past? Are you overwhelmed with a sense of guilt? Have you done things for which you are struggling to forgive yourself? Have things been done to you where you are struggling to forgive someone else? Friend your sins are forgiven. You are forgiven. Most of the world is dying to hear these three words. Why? Because we have all blown it. We have all made mistakes. None of us is perfect. Guilt is an incredibly paralysing emotion. Probably the worst of all. It robs you of energy and joy and strength. It destroys relationships. It harms your body. Should a follower of Jesus ever feel guilty? Yes, for about 10 seconds. That s how long it takes to recognise you have blown it, that you have sin in your life, to confess it to God, to admit it and to say to God: I want to change. God does not want you carrying a load of guilt around all the time. Some people think that the more guilt they feel, the more spiritual they are. They are not more spiritual. They are just more miserable. Remember: 1) Jesus forgives you instantly Isaiah 55:7 God is merciful and quick to forgive. Not like us sometimes simmering, not wanting to accept an apology. Wanting the dirty sinner that has wronged us to turn and burn on the rotisserie of remorse. 2) Jesus forgives you completely He has forgiven all your sins. He has utterly wiped out the evidence of broken commandments which always hung over our heads and he has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2) 3) Jesus forgives you freely God says he will accept us and acquit us and declare us not guilty if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sin no matter who we are or what we ve been like. (Romans 3) Jesus can ease your fears and he can eliminate your guilt when you come to him.

5 Page 5 3) He will enable you to do what seems impossible The third thing that Jesus says to this paralysed man: I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, We have seen remarkable things today. (Luke 5:25-26) Jesus asked this man to do something he had been unable to do his whole life. He wanted to stretch his faith. Faith is not just something you believe, it is something you do. Faith is not something you think about it is something you act on. It is obeying God and doing what he says to do even when it seems impossible. What is God asking you to do that seems impossible? God is testing your faith. This is a test. Are you going to believe me? Are you going to trust me? I ll never be able to do it. I ll never be able to break this habit. I ll never be able to recover from that failure. Without God it is utterly impossible, but with God everything is possible. God will also use your friends of the mat. People that lift you. People that carry you. To whom you are vulnerable. People that break through the roof for you. This man was paralysed. There was a time that he could not have gotten to Jesus, no matter how much he wanted to. He was paralysed. It took others to carry him for a while, to lower him gently until his eyes met Jesus. I wonder who we might be able to introduce to Jesus? (Next Alpha) 1) Jesus wants to allay your fears 2) Deal with your guilt 3) Do the impossible in your life.