The Faith Walk

Jonathan Evans: The question is, how does someone who's stuck find their way to Jesus? How does someone who can't move make it to the person of Jesus to experience the power of Jesus? It tells you in verse three, so I'm glad you asked.

Guest (Male): You're listening to the Faith Walk with Jonathan Evans. In a moment, Jonathan will continue today's message. But first, to thank you for your support of this ministry, Jonathan has a couple of gifts for you.

The first is the audio series called The Message in the Miracles, equipping you to shift focus to Jesus as your ultimate source and letting his breakthrough happen. The second part of this gift is the book Victory is Yours. In this book, you'll find 100 uplifting devotions packed with Scripture and daily motivations. I'll tell you more about these later in today's program, or you can call right now at 1-800-800-3222 or visit tonyevans.org to learn more. Now, let's get started with Jonathan's message.

Jonathan Evans: In the miracles, God is making a macro point. Jesus is making a macro point in these miracles, and that is to say, "I am the Christ, the Son of the living God, who comes to take away the sins of the world and to take you to the Promised Land. I am the one you should listen to. I am the one you should follow, and I'm proving it to you by these signs."

Just like Moses in the Old Testament, he came and he did the signs to let the people who were in bondage know that "I am the one sent from God that you should follow." Because I am doing these signs to let you know that the power of God resides with me, and you should break free and follow me because I'm going to take you out of the bondage of Egypt, and I'm going to take you to the Promised Land.

Jesus in the New Testament is coming to let everybody know, "I am sent from God, the Christ, the Son of God, God himself, who is coming to take you out of the bondage of sin and take you to the Promised Land." I'm doing these miracles as a sign to you to listen to me and follow me. I am the one.

Even when John the Baptist asked the question in Matthew 11, "Are you the one we've been waiting for or should we expect someone else?" Jesus' response to John the Baptist was, "Somebody go tell John the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the leper is cleansed, and the dead are raised." He didn't have to say, "Yes, I am." He just said, "Tell John about what I'm doing."

All John is going to do is think about Isaiah 35 that says the one will come and he will give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, the leper will be cleansed, and the lame will walk. So John would be able to look back 700 years. Isaiah was written 700 years before Christ showed up. Christ, all he had to do is say, "Look at the works that I'm doing and you'll know that I am the one."

The Book of John chapter 20 has a thesis statement in verse 31. It says, "These things are written so that you believe that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and by believing, therefore have eternal life in his name." That is the thesis. That's the macro of the reason why Jesus was doing the miracles, to let you know who he is.

But inside of the macro is micros, and the micros can still have a major impact on your life. As you go through these miracles, we're going to be looking at the macro, but we're also going to be looking at micro messages that can have a major impact on your life. If he's good for eternity, certainly he's good for time. If he's good enough to save you from your sins, certainly he's good enough to keep you from sinning. If he's good enough for tomorrow, that means he's good enough for today.

We're going to look at this miracle in Mark 2. We're going to start with the paralytic. In Mark 2, I want to give you a thesis verse for this passage, Mark 2:11. It simply says this. I love this verse. It spoke to me. It said, "I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home." If you read the Bible too fast, you'll miss Jesus' mic drops. This is a one-hitter quitter. He says, "I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home."

The reason why that hit me and the reason why it should hit you is because some of us are the paralytic. Jesus has a word for us that are stuck, and he's saying, "Get up, pick up your pallet, and go home." "Get up" means you're not up, but you should be, because by this time I've already done the work in your life where your positioning should be changed. You shouldn't be the same as you were before my work. So I need you to get up.

Then I need you to pick up your pallet. The thing that you used to be carried on, now you should be carrying. It's still in the story, but it shouldn't be in the same place because of the work that I've already done. He says, "Go home." You can go back to the same place, but you shouldn't go back the same way. Some of us need to hear this because some of us are the paralytic.

You're lame in sin. You're disabled by fear. You're immobilized by self-sabotaging thinking. You are stuck because you have cultural alignment. You're numb in your marriage, your relationships. You're numb to the things of God. You are stationary when it comes to your spiritual alignment. You have not moved and you're stuck. Jesus says, "I'm talking to you. Get up, pick up that pallet, and go home."

This is the way the passage ends, so by the time we end this message, I want you to know what he's telling you to do. But how did the paralytic get to this place where he would be ready to do it? It starts with Mark 2 and verse 1. It says that when Jesus came back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that he was at home. And many were gathered together so that there was no longer room, not even near the door, and he was speaking the word to them.

It was crowded because Jesus was giving a word. Jesus is giving a word. There was nowhere to go when he shows up to give a word because there's no better word than the living Word teaching the written Word. They came in and they crowded around because Jesus was in the house. It was crowded in there to get a word. This passage is only about one man's miracle, which means it's got to go beyond the word.

It's got to go beyond service and traditionalism. It's got to go beyond "This is Sunday and this is where we gather." It's important, but if you're a paralytic who needs a miracle, you need more than just a word. You need to find your way to the person because you can have a word, you can have doctrine, you can have understanding, and still be stuck.

Here he is in the crowd, or there's a crowd with Jesus as he's giving a word, and there's a paralytic who wants to get his healing. The question is, how does someone who's stuck find their way to Jesus? How does someone who can't move make it to the person of Jesus to experience the power of Jesus? It tells you in verse three. Verse three says, "And they came bringing him a paralytic, carried by four men."

We don't like this kind of stuff. If you're a paralytic, you have to be willing to be carried. If you're in the same place this year that you were in last year, you're stuck. If you live in the same lifestyle your mind said that we're not going to continue to live, you're stuck. If you have the same places, same people that still have you doing the same old things, you're stuck.

If your mind's been saying, "I'm going to be new this year than I was last year," but what your mind said and what your body did didn't agree, you're stuck. Because a paralyzed person can say things up here that don't work its way out down here. First you have to come under the recognition, "You know what? I'm stuck. I'm in the same place in my marriage. I'm in the same place in my finances. I'm in the same place in my lifestyle, in where I go and what I do and how I think and how I respond and my anger and all of these different things that I've been saying to myself that I'm going to get out of. I'm still doing the exact same thing." You are a paralytic.

You have to first be honest with yourself that you are doing the same thing, going to the same places, living the same lifestyle, caught in the same sins, entanglement like Hebrews 12 says. I'm entangled in the same thing. The reason why is because you can't move on your own. Paralytics can't move by themselves.

Guest (Male): Have you ever wondered what is God's plan for your life, or do you feel like you're not sure what to do when you're struggling? Right now, Jonathan wants to give you a book called Victory is Yours with 100 uplifting devotions packed with Scripture and daily motivations, helping you trust that your struggles aren't wasted in God's kingdom and he'll never leave you empty-handed.

This book is our gift to you as a thanks for your donation to help support the ministry of the Urban Alternative. Included in the book is Jonathan's four-part audio series, The Message in the Miracles. Discover how Jesus' miracles unlocked victory, restoration, and deliverance in your crisis through active faith, obedience, and bold action. Both the devotional book Victory is Yours and the four-part audio series The Message in the Miracles are our way of showing appreciation for the continued support of listeners like you who make this program possible.

Get all the details online at tonyevans.org. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or you can call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Find your way out of distractions and into God's purpose for your life. Now, here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Evans: The reason why is because you can't move on your own. Paralytics can't move by themselves. The only way someone who's stuck can make it to the position to experience the person and power of Jesus is if they're willing to be carried by somebody else. There is something that we don't like to say when we're stuck, and that is, "I need help."

First of all, we don't like to be honest and say we're stuck. Once we're stuck, we don't want to say, "I need help!" If I could move, I would have moved, but I haven't moved. That's evidence to me that I need help. I'm in the same place this year than I was a decade ago. I'm complaining about it, but I want to stay private with it. I don't want to pursue the help, ask for help. I don't want to allow myself to be carried because he could not get in position for a miracle without being willing to be carried by somebody else.

This is a biblical principle all over. Proverbs 17:17 says a brother is born for this, time of adversity. Proverbs 15:22 says the one that receives counsel, their plans succeed. James 5 says encourage and pray for one another so that you can be healed. Hebrews 10 says stimulate one another with encouragement. You need somebody outside of you to carry you so that you can stand up from your stagnant place.

That's what he's saying here. He was carried by four men. The problem is paralytics like to be private, and they want to be private because they're prideful. "I don't need you in my business." We make it sound modern. "I don't want nobody in my business." You make it sound modern, but what it is is pride. You're a paralytic that's private because you're prideful.

The pride keeps you away from the right people. If you don't have the people, then how do you get positioned? And if you're not positioned, then how in the world do you experience the purpose and power of Jesus? You're not getting the power. You're not experiencing the person. It's because you're out of position, but you stiff-armed the people because you're prideful that made you private, and so now you're still a paralytic.

We try to hide our issues around the strongest people. I can't tell you how many times I go into the Cowboys locker room and suddenly the conversation changed because I'm the pastor. I go in, they look, and all of a sudden everybody talking about Scripture. How y'all jokers that saved now?

I had this one dude I walked in, he didn't see me coming, he was talking about some girl or something. He was like, "Yeah, bro, she was spiritual, spiritual." He start singing. I said, "Man, you tripping. She was spiritual? What's that mean?" I said, "So what you studying?" He was like, "Oh, yeah, I'm in John. You know what I'm saying?" I said, "Oh, you in the Gospel of John or you First John, Second John, Third John?" He was like, "Nah, bro, I graduated. I'm in Fourth." Fourth? What are you talking about?

Because we'll do anything to hide from the people that can actually carry us somewhere. Or we'll use social media for it all day perpetrating, ain't nothing but filters, the whole thing fake. Your life don't look nothing like the stuff you be posting, and not going anywhere but still stagnant.

This man had the right people. Listen to me, you can't just have any people, but the right people. In Mark 2:4, it shows you why they were the right people. It says being unable to get to him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.

They must have been called to this dude because of the process in order to get him in position. These were four men of faith who knew where to go, who were spiritually tenacious, would not stop just because they were obstacles, were going to walk this thing out all the way through fruition. They were strong where the paralytic was weak. They didn't share the same bed. They were able to carry him. These were the right people of faith who could walk this thing out to make sure he was in position.

They have to be the right people. The problem is most of us find comfort with other paralytics. It's comfortable when somebody shares your same issue, isn't it? That's why everybody in your friend group about to get a divorce. "Girl, me too. He said the same thing. He just—yep, that's exactly what I'm talking about. We see eye to eye." No.

Everybody got the same addiction. Everybody got the same struggle. You cannot run full speed in a field full of fallen people. It's comfortable, but it ain't going to get you nowhere. It's better to be around the right people that make you feel wrong than around the wrong people that make you feel right. Because hurt people like to be with hurt people and then wonder why they're still a hurt person.

They had to be the right people who could actually have strength where they were weak because this is a process. People think Jesus healed the paralytic. Well, not before they picked that dude up from wherever he was, carried him to where Jesus was, couldn't find a way in, then went to the outside of the Palestinian home where there would be a steep staircase, figured out how to maneuver him up the staircase, then got up there, and then dug through the earth and the thatch, and then dug up the tiles that were hard so that they could remove those and then figured out a way to lower him down without dropping him through a hole to Jesus. There was a process to get to Jesus. This thing didn't happen overnight.

Everybody wants these overnight miracles and you a paralytic and you don't want to go through no process? Now can he do it? Yes he can. He can do an overnight miracle. He can come suddenly. He's able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that you can ask or think according to the power that works in me. We don't like that clause. We jump over pews on the first part, though.

It was a process, so it had to be the right people. The paralytic had to be willing to say, "I'm good with being carried. I need help." And the four pallet-bearers had to be able to dig through to a breakthrough. To get this miracle took work.

People want a miracle in certain issues and places in their life. They want a miracle over here and a miracle over here. "And Jesus, I need you to do this for me." But don't nobody carry me, I ain't going up no stairs, I got fear of heights, I ain't getting dirty if they want to dig up no roof, I ain't going down, I might hit my head. Be quiet, you stuck.

We're trying to take you through the process in order to get to Jesus. They carried him, couldn't get in. That's one obstacle. But we need more than a word anyway, so we got to do this process differently. The word is good, but we need to go outside, get these steep steps, which means you had two men holding him here going up the steps making sure, and then you had the two men on the other side pushing him higher to make sure it was level all the way going up the steps. Because if it wasn't level, then what would happen? He going to slide right off.

So they had to use their strength. It's hot. They out there sweating, burning rubber trying to make sure that this person is getting to the power and person of Jesus Christ. Then when they get to the top, it's earth and thatch stuck together to make the roof. So now they digging up with their hands or whatever tools they have to create a hole through the earth and through the thatch so that they can get to Jesus.

But then, once they move the earth and the thatch, there's tiles, because they used to have parties on the roof. So you couldn't just have dirt up there or you'll fall through. They had a hard layer underneath the earth and the thatch that were tiles. What kind of work did that take to break up those tiles, to move them out the way to make sure that there was a hole to Jesus Christ? This is a process.

The paralytic can't be up there talking about "I don't want to get dirty, the sounds are too loud." What? We trying to get to Jesus. This hurts. We got to make things dirty. We got to dig up some stuff. We got to pull up some hard things, some trauma, some past, some history, some sins. We got to pull things up to find our way so you can see him clearly. Then we got to lower you down because you ain't going to get your miracle from up here. You better come before God humbly. We got to put you in proper position so that you can experience the power and work of Jesus Christ. That is a process of the right people walking with someone.

Guest (Male): That was Pastor Jonathan Evans. Before you go today, I want to remind you that we have a couple of gifts for you: Jonathan's devotional called Victory is Yours and his four-part audio series, The Message in the Miracles. The devotional can be your go-to for facing trials with Jesus' power, vanquishing obstacles, and living victoriously by claiming Christ's cross as your own triumph. You'll gain powerful reminders of his faithfulness to preserve towards his purpose for your life.

Plus practical steps and insights to win any battle. The audio series will equip you to shift focus to Jesus as your ultimate source, understanding obedient faith to let his breakthrough happen. Both the devotional called Victory is Yours and his four-part audio series The Message in the Miracles are a gift to you to thank you for your donation to help support the ministry of the Urban Alternative.

It's our way of showing appreciation for the continued support of listeners like you who make this program possible. Call 1-800-800-3222 anytime or get all the details online at tonyevans.org. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or you can call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Find your way out of distractions and into God's purpose for your life. Thank you for listening to the Faith Walk with Jonathan Evans. The Faith Walk is produced as a part of the Urban Alternative, a ministry of Dr. Tony Evans.