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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

Paralyzed By Sin

I asked myself the question a while ago, now we don't have anything back here, but that's okay, we can make do with that.

In 1942, this young man, Poon Lim, he was 25 years old at the time, he boarded a British merchant ship, And while they were out at sea, probably only for about 3, 4 days, they left Cape Town.

It was bombed by a Nazi U-boat, and the boat went down very rapidly.

And so at that critical moment, he decided to jump ship, and for 2 hours, he was wrestling with the water, trying to figure out how he was gonna survive until he came across this little safety raft, or this is probably after he rigged it up, but he put something together that he would then live on.

He found certain supplies that were in this safety raft, a couple of biscuits, some water, and he rationed that water for a good 30 days.

He took some of the things apart for wire, ended up fishing, and by God's grace, he caught a fish, and that allowed him to use some of that for bait to catch other fish.

Before it was all said and done, he killed a shark with, I was gonna say the water bottle or the jug, I think, which I don't think would be easy.

But he was out on the water, from what I learned this week, longer than anybody else and survived.

Some of you may have been familiar with that book I read through unbroken by Louie Zamparini or something like that his story I think he was out for 70 some days long time out in the Sun blistered lips finally found and taken off to a concentration camp and so on.

This young man stayed out in the ocean 133 days.

He would go out, he'd swim twice a day to try and keep fit so his muscles wouldn't atrophy and so on.

And he said at 131 days, the color of the water changed.

Initially, some boats came by, he shot off some flares, nobody responded and came to his aid.

And so he realized, as he got into this thing, I'm just gonna have to wait till I bump into land somewhere.

131 days into it, he sees the color of the water change and some kelp and some different things, And at 133 days, he's saved.

But I wonder what it was like on day 7, day 14, Day 65, day 100, as he's etching on this little raft to keep track of how many days have gone by.

Do you think he would ever think to himself, this seems hopeless.

It's not quite what I wanted because there's a rock there, so maybe it's not quite as hopeless.

But if you've ever been, how many of you have been out in the middle of the ocean, and you can look this way, and there's nothing?

And this way, nothing, nothing, nothing, but sky and water and sea for miles.

Has anybody been in a situation they feel is hopeless?

In fact, I would submit to you that if this young man at age 25 would have given in to despair and hopelessness, He never would have survived.

But the devil wants to steal your hope and my hope.

And so today we're going to look in this sermon, the first of 6, no it's just 1.

That's the web that the devil wants to spin, isn't it?

He wants to paralyze you, He wants to paralyze me in sin.

And so entrench us in any issue, it really doesn't matter the issue.

But if He can so wrap around us and make us feel like it is hopeless.

Like we've tried this and we've tried that we've gone this direction in that direction We've read this book and that book we've gone to this counselor and that counselor.

It's hopeless That's what the devil wants us to think He wants to be us to be paralyzed in our sin.

And so this morning I want to look in the 31 minutes remaining, Mark chapter 2, a well-known story.

Join me if you brought your Bibles, if not there's a few Bible there in front of you, but we're in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 2, and we're reading how Jesus forgives and heals a paralytic.

And so the story begins there in verse 1 of Mark, Chapter 2, and again he entered Capernaum.

He left for a time, but now he's coming back.

And after some days, it was heard that he was in the house.

Now anytime people hear that Jesus is nearby, there's a crowd.

Have you ever been with somebody that is a high-profile person, where the crowds are always flocking?

And they have to slip this way and slip that way.

But word gets out that he's in the house.

And immediately, many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them.

Everyone's crouching through a window, through a crack, through anything, just to hear.

For some reason when Jesus spoke the word, this is unlike we've ever heard anybody say it before, and then they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by 4 men.

And when they could not come near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was.

So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.

Now let's pause right there because those verses go awfully fast.

Does that change life as you know it a little bit?

Yeah big time Think about what today would mean to be paralyzed.

How would you have gotten ready for church?

How would you have gotten up and used the restroom?

In fact, in Desire of Ages 267, it says, this paralytic had lost all hope of recovery.

You go to doctors, you go to physicians, you're hoping for something that will fix what is ailing you.

Give me a prescription, give me a therapy, give me something I can do to avoid this pain or this discomfort or this inconvenience.

So this paralytic had lost all hope of recovery.

His disease was the result of a life of sin and his suffering was embittered by remorse.

It's 1 thing if you are helping this old woman across the street and a semi takes a clip at you and now you're paralyzed.

But if it's your own stupidity, your own poor choice, and you can't be certain, but it seems as if under everyone's breath somebody's saying Serves him right he should have known I Mean the church has been preaching that that's not a good idea well You made your bed now sleep in it And he's been sleeping in that same bed year after year after year, feeling hopeless, embittered, filled with remorse.

He had long before appealed to the Pharisees and doctors, hoping for relief from mental suffering and physical pain, but they coldly pronounced him incurable.

God has done this to you, and now you must suffer the consequences.

So not only is he paralyzed, but he has this weight, this guilt, which weighs heavy.

In fact, the hardest thing I believe to bear is guilt.

Guilt has a way of producing itself or reproducing itself in the life in a lot of physical ways as well.

Doctors will tell you, yes, I'm treating this and I'm treating this and I gave a prescription for that, but I think there's an underlying issue here that's probably the root cause of all of this.

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Paralyzed By Sin

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