Luke 5:17-26

This church is in the business of making followers of Jesus Christ. God has created you and me to follow him and to help others to follow hin. Once you become a follower of Jesus, God wants you to pass it on. He wants you to bring others to Him just like somebody brought you.

Some of you have never brought anybody to Jesus Christ and you probably felt a little bad about it. You’re not going to have to feel bad any more. I’m going to show you an easy way – if you’ll get other people around you – you can bring people to Christ.

They Became Concerned for Their Hurting Friend. (COMPASSION)

Every mission has to flow out of compassion, out of love.

The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 "If I have not love I am as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal."

If we are going to build bridges to people, they need to know that we care.

1 Corinthians 10:24 (GW) "People should be concerned about others and not just about themselves."

The number one reason why most Christians never share their faith with anybody, is because we’re not concerned about them. We’re only concerned about ourselves.

They Believed That Jesus Would Save Their Friend. (FAITH)

"When Jesus saw their faith, He said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven’" (Luke 5:20, NIV).

There are a lot of paralyzed people around you and they don’t have enough faith to believe. So your faith is going to have to bring them to Jesus.

There is nobody beyond the reach of God's love and grace.

Jesus "is able to save completely those who come to God through him..." (Hebrews 7:25).

They Didn’t Just Pray for Their Friend, They Brought Him to Jesus. (Participation)

If you don’t have a plan to bring people to Jesus, you’re not going to bring anybody to Jesus.

"They brought to Jesus a man who was paralyzed and lying on a mat." (Matthew 9:2 NCV).

Bringing people to Jesus is not something you just do haphazardly - or when the mood is right.

"Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity." (Colossians 4:5 NCV).

"Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in so that My house may be filled" (Luke 14:23 KJV). God wants His house filled.

"God in his wisdom ... has used our foolish preaching to save all who believe" (I Cor. 1:21 NLT).

They Didn’t Let Difficulties Discourage Them. (PERSISTENCE)

They refused to be discouraged because they’re determined to get this man to Jesus.

Question: What discourages you from bringing people to Jesus?

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Gal. 6:9).

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

They Dared to Do Something Different. (INNOVATION)

Notice what happened here:

"When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus" (Luke 5:19).

People are ALWAYS more important than buildings.

The Church is not about buildings. A building is not a church and a church is not a building.

A church is people. People always come before buildings.

People matter to God, not buildings! Let’s build bridges not buildings!

Sometimes it takes extreme faith to reach some people for Jesus.

"Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity" (Col. 4:5, Message).

They Worked Together to Get the Job Done. (COOPERATION)

This is the power of not just sharing your faith on your own but having a group to do it.

Luke 5:19 "…they went upon the roof and they lowered the man on his mat through the ceiling into the middle of the crowd."

Some people are only going to come to Christ through a group effort.

They Were Willing to Pay the Cost of the Roof. (SACRIFICE)

Principle: There is always a cost of bringing people to Christ.

To reach people you must get out of your comfort zone.

The greatest way to leave a legacy is bring people to Jesus. Today I want to challenge you to make a new determination to work harder than ever before to build a bridge and bring people to Jesus. It is our job to bring them to Jesus and let Him save them.