Amen and amen and amen. Happy Easter Church of 1122. How you doing this morning? Good. He is risen. Amen?

Well, you look great. You look way better than you normally do. So take that the best way you

possibly can. If you got your Bibles and I hope you do, go to the book of Matthew. We are studying through the book of Matthew all year long. If you didn't bring a Bible, that's fine. There's one right there in front of you. Feel free. If you don't have one of your own, take that home with you. If you want a nice one, you can go by our lost and found to get you a nice leatherbound Bible and somebody else's name engraved on it because they're obviously not it, so you can take that one home. So this is going to be a kind of a non-typical Easter sermon because we're starting through the Book of Matthew the whole year. So what we're doing, we're in Matthew chapter 9. So if you're the kind of person that only goes to Easter services, I got good news. You're getting a brand new sermon.

We're not going to be in Matthew 28 where he comes out of the grave. But every single time the

church gathers together, we gather together to celebrate and worship a resurrected Savior. So basically

every Sunday should be Easter Sunday. But today we're going to talk about this miracle that Jesus

does. And even though we're not primarily talking about the typical Easter

sermon, I know and I believe that the message that God has for you is exactly what you need.

Because every single time you open the Word of God and you teach the Word of God, God gives you

exactly what you need. And here's my hope and here's my prayer and here's what we have been

experiencing over the dozens of services that we've already had. That there's some of you and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior yet. And today is your day that you were going to meet him. And to some of you, you go, whoa, whoa, well, I mean, I don't know if I need to be saved because I'm a good person. You're actually a liar and full of yourself. But if you think that it is your good behavior or your right deeds that make you right before God, then by definition you are self-righteous. And nobody likes the self-righteous person, even God. And so even if you're a good person, you go to church a lot, you can get good, you can get saved too. It's a lot harder for you, but you can get saved too. And then some of you are like, well, pastor, that might work for those people, but you don't know the things that I've done. I probably do, but here's what you don't understand. You don't know what Christ has done for you. No matter who you are,

what you've done, there is more grace in Jesus than sin in you, and there is nobody too far gone.

And I am praying that today would be the day if you've never surrendered your life to Christ,

that today would be your day. And hone your way in at all of our locations. You walk by a bunch of baptisms to get into here. And so today, if you have never been baptized as a believer, then today, I'm hoping and praying, today would be your day that you're going to go public with your faith. And even if you're not ready, you're like, I just got on my Easter dress, no problem. We'll give you a t-shirt. You can get dunked in your in your Easter clothes that'll be awesome you can explain it to your waiter at lunch what a testimony that would be and so start praying about it right now but at the end of the service when we leave if you've never been baptized I want you to have the opportunity to renounce the sins of your past the ways of world, anything darker demonic that you've ever been

connected to, and proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and that's what we are going to do.

If you haven't found Matthew 9 by now, just give up.

I mean, it's the first book of the New Testament, so I'll read it for you, and then we're actually going to study this passage out of another text.

I'll explain why in a second.

Matthew chapter 9 says this, and getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over and came to his own city,

and behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed.

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. And behold,

some of the scribes said to themselves, this man is blaspheming. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts,

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