Welcome to our Palm Sunday service!  What is Palm Sunday all about?  It’s the day Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey.  It’s an event that is found in all four of the Gospels.  The reason it’s called “Palm Sunday” is because the people who came out to greet Jesus were carrying palm branches, which they either waved or laid down in his path.

A family was heading to church on Palm Sunday but their little boy Sammy stayed home with a babysitter because he had a sore throat.  When the family returned home, they were carrying some small palm branches.  Sammy asked what the palm branches were for and his father told him. “People waved them over Jesus and laid them in front of him as he came by.  To which Sammy replied, “Wouldn't you know it? The one Sunday I don't go to church and Jesus shows up.”

What is the significance of Palm Sunday for our lives today?  There are many lessons we can draw from this event but the one I want us to consider this morning is that in the same way the people proclaimed Jesus as their king or deliverer from the physical bondage they were experiencing from the Romans in that day and time, we are to proclaim Jesus to the world as the one who can deliver us spiritually from the bondage of sin today.

To help you understand how to do that, I’d like us to look at a story I shared with you a few months ago about the paralyzed man that Jesus healed.  In that message then, I spoke to you about how Jesus changes us on the inside when we decide to come to him.  This morning I’d like us to look that story from the perspective of the four people who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus.

You see, in the same way they brought this man to Jesus, we have the responsibility to bring others to Jesus.  Next Sunday is Easter and this week is one of the best opportunities you’re going to have all year to talk to people about Jesus and invite them to church.  So don’t miss it!  You don’t want to stand in front of God in eternity and have to tell him why you didn’t use Easter to tell people about Jesus or invite them to church.

The title of the message today is, “How To Change The World.”  How many of you have ever heard the phrase, “How do you eat an elephant?”  What’s the answer?  One bite at a time!  The way God intends for us to change the world is one life at a time.

That’s what happened when Jesus healed the paralyzed man.  His life was totally changed.  And part of the reason why he was changed is because of the four people who brought him to Jesus.  This man wasn’t able to walk on his own to the house where Jesus was preaching because he was paralyzed.  So, someone had to bring him to Jesus.

If you’re a Christian, someone helped bring you to Jesus.  In fact, right now you probably have a picture of that person in your mind.  It might have been a parent, a sibling, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor, a pastor or some other servant of God.

How many of you have a neighbor, co-worker, friend or family member who is not a Christian?  God put those people in your life for a purpose.  So you could reach them for Christ.  Do that this Easter!

(ER)  2 Corinthians 5:18 ...Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also. (TEV)

Jesus didn’t change your life just so you could go to heaven all by yourself.  He changed you so you could help bring others to him so they can be his friend too.  This morning I’d like us to look at seven ways these four people changed the life of the paralyzed man and how we can change the world by bringing others to Jesus.  The first way we can do that is...