The Switch of Faith 2 | Pastor John Greiner

In this message, John Greiner continues his series on the switch of faith, teaching from Mark 2 on the healing of the paralyzed man lowered through the roof by his four friends. He walks through the scene in vivid detail, the crowded house, the friends hauling their paralyzed companion up and cutting through the roof, and Jesus first forgiving the man's sins before healing him, framing faith as a switch that turns on the power of God. From there he draws out three more switches: love, showing how the friends' sacrifice and Jesus' forgiveness model a love that faith cannot work without; fellowship, urging believers not to withdraw from church community the way many did after COVID, comparing each member to a puzzle piece the picture is incomplete without; and praise, pointing to Paul and Silas singing in prison as an example of praise that invites God's presence even in hardship. 

Transcript

Opening Prayer And Confession

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Lift our Bibles up, wave them around. Let's say this together. Say, Heavenly Father, so glad to be here today. Oh, you are holy, God. There's no one like you. So glad for the blood of Jesus that has made me worthy to stand in this place today and receive revelation knowledge. My faith is being built. My spirit is being developed. I have eyes to see, ears to hear, and I'm the better for it. In Jesus' name. Amen. You can

Scripture Setup For Faith Series

SPEAKER_00 0:35

be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles to today's scripture. I'm teaching a series on the switch of faith. This is a second message. Let's look at Mark chapter 2 today. Praise God. Mark chapter 2, we'll start reading with verse 1. And he, Jesus, entered into Capernaum after some days, and it was noise that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them. No, not so much as about the door. And he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. I like what Brother Mark says. Four crazy friends. Everybody needs four crazy friends. He was born of four. Just think about a man that's paralyzed, and four friends are hauling him down the road, and they get to the house. And when they could not come near unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why did this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your heart? Whether it is easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and take up thy bed and walk. Which is easier? Is it easier for me to forgive him, or is it easier for me to heal him? But you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise and take up thy bed and go thy way unto thine house. Glory to God. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they were all amazed. See, all the doubters, all the, you know, one version says the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Couldn't Sees, and the Woodensees were all there. And they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. Glory to God.

Faith Turns On God’s Power

SPEAKER_00 3:27

The switch of faith. Everybody say the switch of faith. So you know, faith is a switch that turns on the power of God. Now, you know, Jesus was teaching the word to them. One version of this uh wonderful testimony says that the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Even though they were, you know, a bunch of uh they were there really to catch him in some kind of uh thing that they could accuse him. And of course they thought they had it. Oh, he's blasphemed, he's forgiving sins. Oh, he can't do that. So that's the crowd he's preaching to. And in one version says the power of the Lord was present to heal them. There's no record of them being healed. No record, there's no faith in there. There's doubt and unbelief, there's a lack of honor, but he's still preaching. Why? Because Jesus is sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This is part of the lost sheep. And he's preaching to them. Why? Because they're never going to have an excuse they didn't hear. They'll never be able to stand before God and say, well, we didn't know. Yeah, you knew, and you saw a miracle right here. He proved it to you. He proved it to you. And so, uh, you know, faith is a switch that turns on the power of God. So you see that that faith made that connection so that the power of God not only healed this man with a palsy, but forgave his sin. Now remember last week we talked about the woman with the issue of blood. She'd been, you know, sick twelve years, and had spent all she had with many physicians, with nothing better, rather grew worse, but she heard of Jesus, came in the press behind. For she said, if I can just touch his clothes, I shall be whole. And so when she touched him, she felt, and he felt. She felt and he felt a power of God. See, the switch of faith. We talked about that last week, and how we need to turn on the switch of faith in our eye in our lives. And uh and we talked about Jesus visiting Brother Hagin and told him this, gave him this uh this example, and said there's four things right here. If you do these four principles or employ these four steps, anybody anywhere can receive anything that they desire from God. I mean, that's a pretty powerful statement. Who made it? Jesus made it. And so we turn on the switch of the word, we the switch of action, the switch to receive, she received, and the and the testify.

Four Friends Put Faith In Motion

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She told about it. You know, our testimony is so important. Your testimony can make the difference between life and death that people around you, you don't even know what effect your testimony has. What testimony? You mean my whole thing? No, just sometimes you just need to brag on Jesus, what he did for you. You ought to have a continual testimony. And you ought to talk about it, especially to people that you think are hard, people that you think are disinterested. You just never know. You're probably not as spiritual as Jesus. Jesus could. He knew they were doubting. He knew it. Maybe we don't know it. Well, we can do is read body language. Body language will tell you a little bit. But I tell you, I've had people respond to me their body language lousy, but you know, they wound up receiving. Are y'all with me now? So this week we've got this paralyzed man. He's got the palsy, which was a terminal disease. There's no cure for it. It was a horrible way to die. You just declined, and now he's to the point where he is paralyzed and can't even move. I mean, you know, he even if he heard of Jesus, he cannot come, he's paralyzed. But thank God he's got four crazy friends that loved him enough to take him to where Jesus was, in the house. They get there. Just get a picture of them. They get there and there's no room. They can't even get through the door. I don't know how far they hauled him. Did they haul him half a mile? A mile? Two miles? Five miles? I don't know how far they hauled him, but I just know that hauling a man on a stretcher, I mean, that's you know, you you got one on each corner, and it's, you know, it's so they get there and they would not be denied. I mean, they could have said, oh, Harry, I'm sorry, we can't get in the door. Let's just go back home. No, they went over to the side of the house. I tell you what, we're gonna get up on that roof. Come on, let's, guys, let's they put him down. Just think about now. Let's let's let's think about this. Put yourself. See, that's do you read your Bible like that? I always put myself right there. Like I'm one of the ones. And I I lay him down on the ground. Now I've got to figure out a way to get up on the roof. I've got some somewhere, somehow or another, I don't know why, but I've got rope. Why would you have enough rope? You had to have rope. I mean, the house is what, 10, 12 foot tall, at least on the outside, probably taller than that. So, and all those houses had flat roofs, and people would get up on them. It's so hot at certain times of the year they could get, but there was no opening to get there. There's no there's no opening there. So when they get up on the roof, they've now they've got to haul him up there. Now, I don't know how they did, doesn't go into detail, but I'm thinking rope. I'm thinking maybe some rope on each corner and all four of them pulling them up like that. Can you imagine how precarious? I mean, he's riding that cot and it's going like this, and he's getting higher, and he, I mean, you know, he had to have enough faith to trust his friends. And they get him up on the roof, now they gotta get him in there. They gotta they gotta knock a hole big enough. Now let's think about the hole. You see, the hole's not this, the hole's not like that. The hole is three feet uh by six foot at least, minimum. I mean, you know, it's gotta be that big in order to lower the guy down horizontally. He can't go like this, he'd fall off the cot. So you've got to have a gigantic, they they broke a gigantic hole in the roof. I mean, how long did it take? I don't know what tools did they have. It doesn't say. It doesn't say, but I can just think about Jesus. I I put myself where Jesus was. I was preaching one day. I'm I'm I'm saying I'm Jesus in this in this story, and I'm preaching there, and all of a sudden there's some some sawdust flowing, you know, falling down, there's sheetrock dust falling down, there's two before's come crashing down, and insulation, and I look up and I see daylight, and here's this man coming down. And when he saw their faith, see, I'm telling you, action's louder than words. I mean, words are words are necessary, but action is necessary. They had to put action with their words and their faith. Harry, we're gonna get you to that house and Jesus is gonna heal you. Come on, let's get let's get down there. We're tired of watching you die. We don't want to watch you die. We love you, Harry. We're gonna get you where Jesus is. We're gonna get you healed. We're not gonna let you die, Harry. Do you understand me? We're not gonna see, sometimes you can carry people on your back or on your faith. You can carry them until they get ready to receive. Some people just don't have the faith yet. But if you do something on their behalf, see, that's the value of being a member of a church. You've got more than four crazy friends here that will rally around you. We all need some four crazy friends, they're great ones tomorrow. So uh he gets there and Jesus saw their faith. And, you know, I'm sure they expected him to heal him, you know, but no, he said, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. And that blew their cork in the in the room of unbelievers, and there are all the Sadducees and all the ones that thought that they were so spiritual. They were there to catch Jesus and they thought they had him. Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. And uh and so he forgave them. Rise. And so next thing, I said, Well, you you doubt that I can do this? Well, let me just show you and that I do have power to do it. Rise, take up your bed and walk. And go home. He said, tell him, told him to go home. So guess, I mean, he had to walk home with his cot on his back all the way that the guys had carried him. I mean, just think about that miracle. And so uh, he had to choose to make an effort. He went from being paralyzed when Jesus told him to rise, he had to begin to wiggle a toe, he had to begin to raise a leg, he had to begin to lift himself up, and I mean, he's coming off the ground. He's not coming out of a bed. The thing is laying on the ground. You know how hard it is to get up off the ground if you're flat on your back. I mean, it does take a little bit of doing, even when you're healthy, much less when you've been paralyzed. We don't know how long he's been in that condition, but somehow he got up to his feet. You see, he had enough faith to begin to take the first movement. He had to have enough faith to do what Jesus told him. Jesus said, Rise, and he said, I'm a rising. And he started rising. The more he rose, the more strength strength he felt, and by the time he got out the front door in front of all of them, he just walked right out, the you know, walked right out through the all of the unbelievers with that cot on his back, right down the front porch and right down the road back home. Glory to God. Come on, lift your hands right now. Praise God. He acted on the word. He obeyed the voice of the Lord. That's faith, is is just that simple. Just acting like uh the Bible is true. And here's the there's really the miracle part that we kind of skip. Everyone there glorified God. Everyone, man, we ain't never seen nothing like this. Fred, have you ever Fred, have you ever seen it? I mean, they were amazed. They glorified, they had to give God credit. I said they had to give God credit. Don't tell me that miracles are just not important. Miracles are more necessary now than they were then. We've got to have miracles. The church must be sparkling with the power of God and with the gifts of the Spirit. And not just from the pulpit. It's got to be out there among believers. These four friends weren't rabbis, and they had an important part to play in that miracle. Without them, that miracle wouldn't have taken place. I said, without them, that miracle would not have taken place, and all those people crowded in the house would have had no reason to glorify God. Just think about how important that was. So turn on

Switch Of Love And Forgiveness

SPEAKER_00 14:15

the switch of faith. So I've got three more places for you to turn on the switch of faith. We had four last week, we've got another three this week. I like to preach things in detail so that, you know, faith cometh by hearing and hearing. It's repetition. It's repetition, is what's necessary. Nobody gets it the first time, nobody gets it the second time. You might not get it in the first 50 times or the hundred times. You have to be exposed to this type of preaching all the time so that your faith is built and also protected from decreasing. I mean, the devil's going to try to rob you of faith. So you need uh Bible faith to face the things that you're facing. So the first one I see here is turn on the switch of love. I see love. Those guys loved that man with a palsy. They loved him enough to get totally involved with him and put themselves out and to uh inconvenience themselves, to risk. I don't know, you knock a hole three by six foot in somebody's house. I mean, I don't know. Were they arrested or were they they get sued? I don't I don't know the answer to that, but they were willing to lay it all on the line for this man. They would not be denied. What drove love. Love did. Galatians 5, 6, faith worketh by love. You know, without love, your faith ain't gonna work. I said, without love, your faith ain't gonna work. Not good English, but it's accurate. So here, Jesus, before he could do anything for the man, had to forgive him of his sins plural. We don't know what they were. But he had sins that obviously were an obstacle to him receiving his uh miracle. And he loved him enough to go ahead and forgive him. Well, you know, sons, thy son, thy sins, plural, be forgiven. Just like that. Boom. He didn't need to know. He probably knew what they were, but he's not gonna announce it. None of his business. But if he's like most folk, he's probably got some uh lack of love. That's the only commandment we have is to love. Love one another, as I have loved you. Love is the great commandment that we all have to have. It's not optional. And so love has been shed abroad in our hearts, agape love, the God kind of love, has been shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost when we got saved. So love is a fruit. Love can must be, should be developed. It should get greater, it should get more mature as we get older. That means that when we have challenges whether to do the loving thing. See, love is not an emotion, it's not goosebumps, love is a decision. Love says that you're gonna not return evil for evil. You're gonna forgive. Love forgives. Well, what is forgiven? Well, it's not your stamp of approval or God's stamp of approval on somebody's behavior, it's just your willingness to look past it and to not take uh, you know, vengeance on it, not try to get them back. Love. Love that's what we have to walk in love. Walking in love is so necessary. If you don't walk in love, it's the greatest and first, probably the first uh obstacle that you're gonna have to receive what it is that you're looking for from God, whether it's healing or anything else. I mean, lack of love will affect your finances. The lack of love will affect your marriage, it'll affect everything, every part of your life. It stops up everything. Men, if you don't treat your wife right, Peter said that you hint your prayers are hindered. I mean, you're believing for that promotion, you're believing for that new toy, you're believing, you know, you're you know, you're believing for whatever it is, and you don't treat your wife right, you don't treat her like she's a help meet for you. You don't listen to her, you don't consult her, you just make independent decisions that affect her. I'm preaching as one that did that. And she stuck with me, thank God she could have left, but she didn't. I had to learn better. I had to learn that God had uniquely gifted Gladys. I could tell her anything, and she wouldn't know really much about what I'm saying, but she's got the Holy Ghost on the inside of her, and she's got wisdom to help me. She's anointed to help me. I don't know who this is for, but you know, you you know, you can't ignore that. Jesus taught his disciples to Lord, teach us to pray, our Father, heart in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You know, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against. I mean, Jesus said in Mark 11, 25 and 26 that if if you have and when you stand praying, forgive if you have aught against any. In a minute we're going to have communion, we're going to have a chance to maybe get some things under the blood and release some forgiveness to people maybe that did you wrong, maybe they did you dirty, maybe they lied about you. You can forgive them. In fact, you have to. You have to because what does it do? When you hold that, it affects you. It doesn't affect them. They don't know. They don't know you've got a grudge unless you tell them, boy, you shouldn't tell them. You start telling people, then they've got a grudge against you. Now you've got strife. That's another obstacle that's got to be overcome. Are y'all with me now?

How Pride Blocks Prayer

SPEAKER_00 19:47

If you don't, he said, he said there in verse 26, he said, if you don't forgive, then your heavenly father won't forgive you. I mean, so it's it's a law. It's not something that's optional. You can't give yourself permission to violate the law of love and then receive from God. I teach people, you know, sometimes we might be, you know, I've run across right fighters. Do you know what a right fighter is? Somebody that just goes to war over their opinion. And they say, I'm right and you're wrong, and they get really disagreeable. And if you don't agree with, that's all Democrats. They're all that way. I mean, if you don't agree with them, you're the Antichrist. Did you see the guy in a marine uniform that stood up, he was running for con uh state house in Florida, and he said uh that Donald Trump is the Antichrist and needs to be killed. Yeah. On Facebook, he gets his stupid face and says that. They arrested him. Thank you, Lord. I hope he goes away for a long time. It's time we that's not freedom of speech. We need to start arresting these people when they say that. This is a man that's been assassination attempts. They've got a uh Iran has got a hit out on him. They've got a they got a billboard in Tehran with him in a casket. They've got people looking to kill him. And you get up there, you goofball. You've been in the military, then they found I found out that he had been had a medical discharge, probably because he's crazy. Well, what are you saying on the? Well, because I've teach people how to have resolution about being right. Maybe you're right about the facts, but the way you've attract uh defended yourself has been a violation of law. You've been you've been disagreeable while disagreeing. See, you can disagree with somebody without being disagreeable. And especially in a marriage. I mean, you just get, no, this is how it ought to be. Strife and division. And me and I, you know, this is how you do it. Honey, I was wrong. You're always wrong. Why don't you just get that? You're wrong. Number one, you're wrong. Number one, everybody's every husband. I'm wrong. Number two, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Those three little statements will set you free. I'm telling you, you never have to have strife and division. Well, whatnot, but I was right about the fact. Well, yeah, you can you can talk about the facts of it later, but in the heat of the moment, don't have heed over things. I mean, you if you disagree, you say, okay, and we're not quite on the same page. Holy Ghost is going to put us on the same page. Let's delay this decision for a while until we get the mind of the Lord on this. Do you want what God wants? Yeah. Well, that's what I want, honey. So we're not in agreement yet, but we will get in agreement. We're not going forward on this until we get in. See, I'm telling you, you're not going to get in trouble. You're not going to get in the doghouse with that. What keeps you from doing that? Pride? Well, I'm the head of the house. I'll be back. No, you're not. You haven't heard from God yet. Are y'all with me now? Everybody say I was wrong? I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Oh, it's a law. I tell you, it'll help you. All right, praise God. So turn on the switch of love. Number

Switch Of Fellowship And Church Life

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two, uh, turn on the switch of fellowship. And I see the lame man had fellowship with people. He had four really good friends who took an interest in him. He cared deeply for him. You know, Hebrews chapter 10 says, you know, neglect not the assembling of yourselves together. And one version says, as puzzle pieces. See, neglect as the manner of some is. See, there's a lot of people that after COVID, they gave themselves permission to distance themselves from the local church. They found ways to get offended. And also the woke and all of that. And we had churches that were just went crazy. They went nuts. The pastor went way off rails. Well, just because your church went off the rails, just because your pastor went off the rails, doesn't mean that Jesus went off the rails. You need to find your pastor. You need to find another church. Well, there's just not any other church. You know, there's just not any other church. Yes, there are. There's with this one. There's one I know about this one right here. And so if you don't, if you give yourself permission not to assemble yourselves as a puzzle piece, then the puzzle's not complete without you. If you don't get where you belong, the picture that's supposed to be there is not there. Can you you ever see one of these puzzles and there's two or three pieces missing right out of the middle of it? I mean, it ruins the whole thing. It might have a thousand pieces and 997 are there, but three are missing, and it just ruins the whole thing. You're not going to put that up in the, you know, in on display. It's not going to win the blue ribbon at the county fair, right? So some want to pull away when they're going through something. That's exactly the opposite of what you need to do. You need to get, you need to draw near to God. The Bible says draw near to God and He'll draw near to you. So we think draw near to God vertically. Well, how about draw near to God horizontally? God's right in everybody here. So you draw near to God that way, but you also need to draw near to God in the church. You need to draw near to God to believers. You need to have what? Fellowship? We're partners, we're sharers. And so, everybody say vertical and horizontal. We need each other. That's bottom line. We need each other. We need each other. And uh so uh turn on the switch of fellowship. I just think about these. What if he had just here he was paralyzed? So you know he's not going, probably not going to synagogue. You know, he's probably not going there. He's probably at home, most likely. And yet they knew him from other previous times when he was healthy enough to go, and they didn't release him. They didn't just say, oh, well, he's at home now. Uh, you know, we just have to forget. No, they didn't forget about him. And they were they their love compelled them to get him over to where he needed his miracle. And they didn't know he needed forgiveness. But he needed that first. He got that, and then he got his healing miracle. Are y'all with me now? So turn on the switch of fellowship.

Switch Of Praise In Hard Times

SPEAKER_00 26:19

And then finally turn on the switch of praise. You know, the whole crowd, even unbelievers, praised God after the miracle was wrought. I mean, you you can imagine those four crazy friends, they must have really shouted. Think about it. They were up on the roof and they had a they had a bird's eye view of the whole thing, they're looking through the hole and they see the whole thing unfold. They saw him get up, they saw, and you know they probably they probably uh shouted and and leaped another hole in the roof. I mean, they probably just the whole thing might have caved in. I don't know. But you know they were shouting praises of God. If all those deadheads were giving glory to God, how much more do the crazy friend? How about the man with the palsy? I bet he shouted all the way home. He's got a new lease on life. Not only does it is he not any longer paralyzed, he no longer, the sentence of death has been canceled over him. Glory to God. I mean, we have so much reason to praise God. Psalm 22, 3 said, God inhabits the praises of his people. You know, I think about Paul and Silas, you know, they heard from God. You know, first of all, they heard from God not to go to Bythynia, they heard from God not to go to uh Asia Minor. Two places don't go. Don't go, don't go there. Don't go there. We're trying to find out a place to go. Where do we go? Paul and Silas are on a missionary journey. Where do we go? Don't go there. Sometimes God will tell you where not what not to do before he tells you what to do. And so let's be let's, you know, when we know what not to do, let's not do it then. And so they waited. So, okay, we're not going to get in a hurry, we're not gonna leave and go anywhere without knowing exactly where we're supposed to go. And then they had a dream, he did, uh Paul had a dream. A Macedonian man, come over here and help us. Come over here and help us. I don't know how he knew he was a Macedonian. I don't know if it was some kind of headdress, some kind of uh, you know, I got I saw a guy from Brazil uh in the UFC and he was wearing his headdress. He looked like one of these Indians on the Amazon River, I guess. I guess that's what he represented. He had all you could tell he was Brazilian. And uh so I don't know how the Macedonian, but they obeyed. They went, and what they what did they get rewarded? Well, they were beaten with many stripes at the end, thrown into the inner prison, their feet were made fast in the stocks. I mean, it was, you know, they had, I mean, you know that hurt to be whipped with many stripes, not just a few. Their backs are bleeding. I mean, you know those whips, sometimes they would open the they would open the skin all the way to the bone. You don't have a lot of, you know, meat on your backbone. And uh, if they if they hit you too hard, I mean, it could go all the way to the bone. You talk about hurt. And what did they do at midnight? They they prayed and sang praises, and so loud all the other prisoners heard them. God inhabited the praises of Paul and Silas. He came down and broke them out of the stocks, broke their prison door open, and all the other prison doors. I mean, the entire prison shook because God came down to inhabit their praise. Come on now. I mean, when we praise God, awesome things happen. You might not be able to see it, you might not be able to hear it, but in the spirit realm, demons have to scatter. Oh, come on, glory to God. Quit weeping and giving yourself permission to have a pity party. No, that's that's worthless. Go ahead and shout and praise God right in the middle of the trouble, right in the middle of the trouble. Your back is bleeding, your ankles are locked up, and you're by in an inner prison, you're behind prison door. Go ahead and praise it. Go ahead and lift your boy. Glory to God. See, I've I put my I put myself there. I put myself in that prison. I thought, what was it like? Did they go? Oh, thank you, Jesus. Thank you. No, they shouted, everybody heard them. Glory to God. Praise. Turn on the switch of praise. So then turn on the switch of faith and watch God do great and awesome things in your life. Turn everything around that you're facing. Come on, lift your hands and receive today. Hallelujah.