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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

Revived to Serve: Get off the Couch

When He created you, He had precious thoughts towards you.

And today we're going to discover that His precious thoughts towards you is to be actively involved in His calling for your life.

As we open the Word of God and prepare for Him to speak to our hearts, let's pause, let's bow our heads together as we pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you that you have brought us here today, Lord, to worship you, to be in your presence in a very intentional way, to be together as a body, as brothers and sisters, to receive marching orders from you as our Lord and master.

We pray, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts, that you would revive our hearts to serve.

Awaken within us, Lord, a holy enthusiasm to be active disciples for you.

Is there any doubt that the human body is a magnificent structure?

Consider the following amazing facts about our body.

The lungs contain over 300 billion capillaries.

If they were to be laid end to end, they would stretch from here to beyond San Antonio, Texas.

That's the kind of distance we're talking about.

Every square inch of the human body has 19 million skin cells.

Each kidney contains 1000000 individual filters.

The focusing muscles of the eyes move around a hundred thousand times a day.

The brain has an estimated 100 million times a million linkages of nerve fibers connecting nerve cells together.

So why don't you take your hand right now.

Everyone take your hand, take the palm of your hand.

Just take a look at the palm of your hand and imagine a square inch area in the palm of your hand.

What you see there is you have at least 9 feet of blood cells, 600 pain sensors, 9, 000 nerve endings, 36 heat sensors, and 75 pressure sensors.

Wonderfully made, wonderfully made, no question, no question about it.

And so how could something that magnificent not have a tremendous purpose?

The psalmist wrote in Psalms 139, he wrote, I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are your works that my soul knows very well.

How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God!

If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand.

When I am awake, when I awake, I am still with you.

Did you realize that you were thought of and initially designed in the mind of God with absolute reverence?

Reverence in the mind of God before you were conceived.

Your life began with a holy purpose in God's mind.

You were fearfully made, created with reverence.

And then you were wonderfully made in approximately 9 months until the day you were born.

And from the very beginning, you were made to move.

That's because motion is life and life is motion.

You know, the the body of ours is composed of 50 trillion cells.

You know, paralysis is the complete loss of muscle function to 1 or more muscles and can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected areas.

A paralysis of that which was wonderfully made to move.

He doesn't even have his name mentioned in the Bible.

The Gospel of Matthew contains this man's story in Matthew chapter 9.

And here in this chapter is recorded an account of a man suffering greatly from paralysis of his lower body.

By God's grace, none of us here today can truly relate to someone who suffers from paralysis.

And the doctor said, I walked away from the hospital among 3% of individuals that walk away after having the injury that I had.

And so my heart is very sensitive when I hear stories or meet somebody who is paralyzed, unable to stand, Unable to walk, unable to run, a paralysis of that which was wonderfully designed and created to move, to move.

But as 1 reads the account there in Matthew chapter 9, you'll notice that Jesus does not only give him medical attention, but he also does something much deeper than that.

Believe me, he's just not your ordinary traveling doctor doing his daily rounds.

There's something about this gentle healer unlike any other doctor.

His story then is Matthew chapter 9, And we'll begin the story there in verse 1.

So he got into a boat, crossed over and came to his to his own city.

And there behold, they brought to him a paralytic laying on a bed.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, be of good cheer.

And at once some of the scribes and others said within themselves, this man blasphemes.

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts?

For which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, arise and walk.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.

Then he said to the paralytic, arise, take up your bed and go to your house.

And when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such men such power to men." Here we have in the story an account in which we find spiritual components Intermingled with the details of the story is so rich.

There's concepts of intercession sins forgiveness power to forgive sins some miraculous Manifestation beyond scientific understanding all these things are packed into this story resulting in the multitude glorifying God.

Evidently, the diagnosis was not only paralysis of the legs.

So if we dismiss the outcome of this story because we aren't paralyzed ourselves, we might miss the most important healing that takes place, which I dare say we all need.

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Revived to Serve: Get off the Couch

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