Mar. 22, 2026

What happens when someone who can’t help themselves encounters the One who can do anything?

Pastor Dave Seratt continued his Easter series from Mark 2:1–12, where four determined friends tear open a rooftop to lower their paralyzed companion directly before Jesus. The heart of the message is straightforward and personal: Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, and He always speaks to our deepest need — not just our most visible one. This week the question is: what does Jesus see when He looks at us?

1. Everyone Needs Forgiveness

The scene is vivid. A man who cannot help himself is brought to Jesus by four friends willing to go to extraordinary lengths — literally through the ceiling. When Jesus sees their faith, He doesn’t lead with a physical miracle. He says, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Pastor Dave drew a direct line from that paralyzed man to every person in the room: “We’re the man on the cot. Every one of us is spiritually paralyzed.” In that culture, sickness carried shame — the common assumption that suffering was punishment for sin. Jesus flipped the script entirely, with words Pastor Dave summed up as “Shame off of you and grace on you.”

"As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12) anchored the point. We aren’t on parole, he reminded us — we’ve been fully pardoned. The sentence is never reimposed.

2. Everyone Needs Healing

Healing, Pastor Dave explained, means more than recovering from sickness — it means wholeness, restoring things to how God designed them. Forgiveness and healing travel together throughout Scripture. Isaiah 53:5 says “by His stripes we are healed,” and James 5:16 links confession directly to healing. Sin leaves invisible wounds: bitterness that destroys relationships, greed that drives workaholism, a desperate need to be accepted. With his trademark warmth, Pastor Dave had the room laughing when he noted, “You know anybody that’s hard to get along with? Don’t look around — I saw some hands going up.”

When Jesus spoke forgiveness to the paralyzed man and then said, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk,” the man didn’t slowly recover. He walked out immediately. That’s the picture of God’s healing — it restores us to how we were meant to live.

3. Have Faith in God

Closing with a word study on “faith” — trust, persuasion, assurance, belief, and reliance — Pastor Dave drew out the contrast between the four friends’ bold confidence and the scribes’ silent skepticism. The religious leaders were actually right that only God can forgive sins; their error was refusing to recognize that Jesus is God. As Pastor Dave put it with a grin, “Jesus just read their mail without even opening the envelope.” The man on the mat had faith. His four friends had faith. That faith brought them all into the presence of the One who forgives fully, freely, and forever.

He closed with a simple declaration: “He fully forgives. He freely forgives. And He forgives forever.” His final word to the congregation: “You’re a trophy of God’s grace. God can point to your life and say, ‘Forgiven.’”

<Praying> “Heavenly Father, reveal to me anything in my life that needs to change. Forgive my sin … Help me to let go of shame and accept the grace You have given. Bring healing to the broken places within me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”