Overcoming Obstacles in Community

The mind is something else: if you have a negative mind, you do not expect anything from God; if you are not convinced that God works in a certain way, that is what is going to happen in your life, because your mind is powerful. As you think, so you are. Whatever you expect to see and receive, that is how it will happen in your life. That is why we must ask the Lord, broaden my faith, broaden my expectation of what You can do, broaden the parameters of what I believe You are capable of doing. So that then You can do it, because if your faith is tiny, that is what your reality will be like. If your faith is great and powerful, that is what your possibilities will be like as well. Write that down; I’m giving it to you for free.

Chapter 5, Luke, verse 17.

The famous, well-known passage about the healing received by a paralytic who was brought to Jesus. It says, “Now it happened one day that He was teaching, and the Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem…” and here is something very, very important: and the power of the Lord was with Him to heal. Hallelujah!

That was the difference between Jesus and the other teachers who were in Israel at that time. The power of the Lord was with Him to heal, “and it happened that some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed. They sought to bring him inside and place him before Him, but finding no way to do so because of the crowd, they went up on top of the house and lowered him through the roof with his bed, placing him in the midst, before Jesus. When He saw...” What was it that He saw?

When He saw their faith... say it again: faith! When He saw their faith, “He said to the man”—to the paralytic—“Man, your sins are forgiven you. Then the scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ Then Jesus, knowing their thoughts, answered and said to them, ‘What are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Rise and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,’ He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, rise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’”

“Immediately, he rose in their presence, took up the bed on which he had been lying, and went home glorifying God. And they were all overcome with amazement and glorified God. And filled with fear, they said, ‘Today we have seen marvelous things.’” May the Lord bless His holy Word. Amen, amen.

We continue, we continue talking about faith.

That is another sermon too, about how God sometimes cleanses our sins, and when it gets there, our prayers are in stereo, they are perfect, because the Lord’s grace makes it possible.

We are talking about faith, brothers and sisters; we are talking during this time when we want… and I—and my goal is that in this year 2009, we continually meditate on themes that build, strengthen, and edify our faith and make us an increasingly powerful congregation, increasingly effective in the things of God. So this sermon is also, through this passage, an illustration of principles of faith that we can apply to our lives.

And this passage, like the previous passage we discussed about the woman with the flow of blood—do you remember that passage? The woman with the flow of blood who had been ill for twelve years... No doctor could heal her. Many obstacles stood before her as she tried to reach Jesus, but she made an effort, overcame the obstacles, touched the edge of Jesus’ garment, altered Jesus’ agenda, and was healed. And not only was she healed, but she was also comforted in the end. The Lord said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

And it is interesting because this passage, although it recounts an event very different from that woman’s, involves four men. One of the parallel passages in Matthew, and the one in Mark, indicates that there were four men; here it only says some men. In that case, it was a solitary woman; here there is a community of people. How beautiful it is, brothers and sisters, when the Christian life is lived in community! There you have a first lesson that is occurring to me now; it did not occur to me while I was recounting—or meditating on—this sermon.

The truth is that life’s battles seem to go better when we fight them as a family, when we do so with a family of other believers, when we share our burdens with others. How good it is to have a fellow soldier in the trench, isn’t it? When things get fierce, you have someone there, and even if it is only out of embarrassment, you shoot so he will not think you are a coward, right? It is good to have people there behind you, supporting you, praying for you, sharing the burdens, worshiping the Lord together; that is the principle behind the church. The Lord Jesus Christ says that where two or three are gathered in His name, what happens? He is there!

There is a very important principle of community: never try to carry your burdens alone, whether you are a woman or a man, amen. Because do you know what happens? The devil often wants to isolate us.... You know? When you are going through a problem, the devil wants you to hide away in a corner there all alone: “Poor me! Nobody loves me. I am the only person suffering in the world,” so that then he can give you a good whack and knock you down completely. The devil likes people who isolate themselves, and it is important, brothers and sisters, when we are going through problems... that we look for someone, that we look for another shoulder. Let us look for someone who understands our problems, someone with whom we can pray, weep, cry out to the Lord, and share life’s burdens.

Do not try to live life alone; always seek out the community of faith. That is why I love the church’s cell groups, those family groups that meet in homes. I love it when I hear that a group of brothers and sisters is meeting to fellowship, pray, and seek God... and that they are building community. I tell you, brothers and sisters, I… would love to see our church, as the years go by, form into groups of people who have an affinity with one another and who meet, even if only once a week or once a month, to share a book, pray together, share their problems, or whatever it may be. That is beautiful.... Life must be lived in community. Find someone, find a buddy, find a companion—people who will be there with you to share the burdens.

This man, this paralytic, had a community. I do not know whether they were relatives of his; they were probably his friends, perhaps neighbors—generous, kindhearted people who saw an opportunity here to help this man and bring him before that powerful man. They did not know exactly who He was, but He had power, and they brought the man to Him; they inconvenienced themselves to help this man and bring him there.

Another lesson: how important it is, brothers and sisters, for us to be generous toward others. Sometimes we see people suffering, barely scraping by, as we say. We say, “Oh, I am too busy. I have my own problems. I cannot make time to help this person or to call... I know so-and-so is depressed or sick, and we have not seen him at church for a long time, but I have too much work, too many things to do.” Brothers and sisters, share your resources with others. I believe this is a time in the life of humanity and society when generous people who share with others are needed. I hope that in these times of trial and financial difficulty, if you know that someone needs help, it is important that you—look... share your resources.

If you can lend someone a hand with a couple of dollars or invite someone to a meal at your home, do it in the name of the Lord. If things continue getting more difficult, we are going to need to help others, to reach out to others; we are going to need more and more to live life in community. You know, and that is very good; in a sense, we might even have to thank God for trials and difficulties. In our countries, people are sometimes poor, yet they are happier than we are, despite all that we have here. Is that true or not?

I see that everywhere, brothers and sisters, when one visits other countries... you see that the people seem joyful; they love friendship. You arrive at the house, and in no time they are cooking up something—or, as we say back home, with a little rice, two little pieces of salami, and they throw it all together with a little piece of pepper they have left somewhere. Before they know it, they are sharing a meal and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Here, with so much food and so many things, we live depressed, anxious, and sad; we do not sleep, we take pills left and right, and we are too busy to entertain people in our homes, to welcome people. Listen to me, we must break that. If poverty leads us to that kind of life, glory to God, you know? Because sometimes it is good to cultivate life’s beautiful values, and there is nothing like generosity, nothing like fellowship, nothing like friendship.

Brothers and sisters, the church of Jesus Christ was created so that there would be friendship, so that there would be fellowship. I ask the Lord, “Lord, make our church, more and more each day, a community of people who love one another.” Amen. People who seek each other out, visit one another, invite one another over, help one another, pray together, and enjoy being together. I do not want a church where people come here, each person crosses himself off on his own, and afterward everyone goes home, all scattered about. The Lord wants us, more and more each day, to become a closely knit community with one another and to cultivate that. That requires effort. The truth is that many times we are not going to want to do it, but we must do it on principle. Many people say, “Well, I am not inclined to go around seeking others out.” Sometimes it is pride, sometimes it is fear of rejection, and sometimes it is because we were not raised that way.

We must make an effort; we must exert ourselves; we must make ourselves vulnerable. The worst that can happen is that if you invite them, they tell you no, that they are not coming. Well, man, it is their loss. You eat the food and thank God that you have more for tomorrow. We must make ourselves vulnerable. For there to be friendship, for there to be fellowship, a person sometimes has to take a risk—yes, to expose oneself. Sometimes it fails, but every once in a while you hit the mark and gain a great friend for life. We must make ourselves vulnerable for there to be community, for there to be fellowship, so let us make an effort.

These four men with their paralyzed friend, who could give them nothing except trouble, are an example of that life lived in community—the principle of fellowship, which is the essential principle of the church. There are no Lone Rangers in the Kingdom of God. The Christian life must be lived in community. And it is true: some of those people in the community are sometimes not the most pleasant people; they will let you down, they will hurt you. Brothers and sisters, there is every kind of person in the Kingdom of God, you know? But it is what we have, and God has made His church, and we have to live with it; we have to love it, we have to love that family of faith. It is sometimes a neurotic and dysfunctional family, that is true, but it is what we have. Look, sometimes, because your brother or sister is difficult, you say, “Well, I do not want to see you; you are no longer my brother”... The blood is in there. The blood of Christ is inside you and inside His people. Whether you like it or not, we share the same blood, and that is why we are obligated here to put up with that community of faith called the church until Christ comes. And then something better will come: we will all be sanctified, we will have no problems, we will have no flaws... but in the meantime, we have to live here together. Amen. Glory to the Lord; that is free.

But it is true: these people, these men, were in community, and that made a great difference. So the first lesson from this passage is this: let us live life in community, both receiving and seeking love and also giving love, being generous, sharing our resources with others, and getting someone out of a tight spot when the need arises. Then the second thing I see here is this, specifically regarding faith: much of faith has to do with overcoming obstacles. One of the things that characterizes a person of faith is that he or she—a man or a woman—is a person who overcomes obstacles. When obstacles come, instead of giving up and throwing in the towel, they seem to rise to the occasion and say, as David said to Goliath, “Who is this...?” How did he say it...? “Who is this pagan, this uncircumcised man, that he should defy and insult the army of the living God?” When problems come into your life, look, rise to the occasion and grow strong. That is when you have to take hold of your faith more than ever and say, “I am not moving from here. You have to leave, but I am staying right where I am, because God gave this to us.”

So much of faith has to do with overcoming obstacles, as we saw with the woman with the flow of blood: she overcame obstacles. Everything stood between her and Jesus, but she said, “No, I want my blessing, I want my miracle,” and she did what she had to do and drew power from Jesus because she overcame obstacles. Much of faith has to do with overcoming deficiencies, overcoming difficulties that come into your life, overcoming problems and the inertia that places itself between you and what God wants to give you.

It is like those enemy tribes about which God told Israel, “This land is yours; Canaan is yours.” But there were tribes there that possessed that land and whom God had already rejected; He had cursed them because of their sin, filthiness, and impurity. That land no longer belonged to them. Those tribes symbolized those enemy forces that seek to come between you and the inheritance God has given you. And you have to decide whether you are going to let those enemy tribes, those enemy powers, establish themselves in your land and tear away what is yours, or whether you are going to rise to the occasion as Joshua and Caleb did and say, “In the name of the Lord, we are going to take that land because it is ours; God has given it to us.” That is how it will happen. God wants blessing for your family, God wants blessing for your children, God wants blessing for your finances, God wants blessing for your health, God wants blessing for your emotions; and you are… your faith will decide whether you are going to let the devil and the flesh get in the way, or whether you are going to overcome and move forward, and whether you are going to fight for your miracle, fight for your salvation, fight for your blessing, fight for that abundant life Christ has promised you.

Overcoming obstacles, not allowing what God has declared… God had healing for this man, but there were obstacles. Much of faith has to do with daring to undertake the improbable, something that does not have much chance of making history, but you have to dare. In many ways, these men faced the improbability of what they wanted to do. Much of faith requires risking things. Think of Esther when she had to appear before King Ahasuerus to, uh, intercede on behalf of her people, who were going to be exterminated, and there was no possibility that she… because the king had not summoned her, and in order to go before the king, even though she was the king’s chief concubine, the king’s wife, the law prevented her from approaching the king unless she had first been invited by him. But she had an urgent need and understood that God had placed her there so that she would be the one to do this, and she dared to do it and said, “Look, if they kill me, let them kill me, but I am going in there.” And she went in, and the king granted her request and more.

That is the life of faith: you have to take risks; sometimes you have to stake everything, brothers and sisters, and take all the little things you have, your little pile of things, put them all on the table, and say, “Here it all is, Lord. I am going to take the plunge, and if I perish, I perish.” I do not advise you to do that every time, you know? But every once in a while, brothers and sisters, sometimes in life there are one or two occasions when you have to stake everything, you know? And you have to… a day will come in your life, perhaps only once, when you… when Egypt… Pharaoh is behind you, all the armies of hell are behind you, and the Red Sea is before you, and you simply have to take a step of faith and believe that the sea is going to open, because otherwise the Egyptians are going to devour you or something is going to happen.

You have to dare; you have to risk things. And there are other occasions in life when you have to risk lesser things, but faith always involves risk. These men risked being rejected by Jesus and even being sued by the owners of the house because they tore open their roof. That is how it is, brothers and sisters: faith risks things; sometimes faith looks reckless. Many of the people the Bible praises are reckless people, brazen people…

… statement says that I have to attend to the Jews first, and you are a pagan. “Yes, Lord, but remember that even a little crumb that falls from the table is also for the pagans…” “How great your faith is! Because of those words, your daughter is already healed.” She immediately left with her miracle, immediately, because she dared to be a little persistent, a little impolite. The friend at midnight—remember the story; we are going to discuss all those stories—the friend at midnight has family coming, visitors coming. There were no telephones in those days; there was no Internet so people could say they would arrive at such and such a time on such and such a day, right? They just show up there, knocking at your door, as they sometimes do in our countries, right? People arrive whenever they feel like it, and just when you are ready to go to bed, three or four cheerful friends arrive to talk with you and spend the night there while you are ready to sleep, right?

And that is what happens in that story of Jesus. Visitors arrive at the house; the friend opens the door to them at midnight, but he has no sugar, he is short on coffee, and he has nothing to serve them. So he says, “Wait, I am going to ask my neighbor next door for a little until tomorrow, when I will go to the grocery store and return it to him,” right? And he knocks on his door, and the other man is exhausted, sound asleep, and does not open the door. And he keeps knocking and knocking and knocking, and the man does not open it, until finally the neighbor says, “All right, so he will leave me alone, I am going to open the door and give him what he needs.” And the Lord Himself told that story, saying, “Sometimes, brother, when you have a need, you have to keep knocking on heaven until it opens for you.” And again, the Lord likes that, you know? The Lord likes people who believe in Him enough to pester Him, do you understand? God likes those brazen people who keep knocking on the Lord’s door: “Perform my miracle; I need something from You.”

I believe there are more people who fail to receive because they are timid than because they are impolite toward God. I would rather risk being impolite toward God than be more timid than I should be, because I know that God likes bold people—people who believe in Him enough to say that He rewards those who seek Him. So sometimes we have to be like these men; we have to be reckless, we have to be impolite, because there is a need. And that paralytic was more important than four roof tiles on those people’s roof. They dared, and God honors that kind of person. Faith often consists of desperate actions, actions by people who have nothing to lose because they have already lost everything anyway. If they cut off their head, it has already been cut off a thousand times before… and they have nothing left to lose. They lost their house, they lost their wife, they lost their children, they lost their car, their clothes are going to be taken away at any moment, and they have nothing to lose, so they do desperate things.

They cast themselves upon God’s mercy. Bartimaeus, the blind man, had nothing to lose because he was a beggar, and he dared to shout to Jesus, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me…” And everyone was saying, “Be quiet, keep it down; He is a very important man, He does not have time…” Yet he kept insisting until the Lord stopped, attended to him, and gave him what he was asking for. He had nothing to lose. What could that man lose? His profession as a beggar—that was the only thing he had to lose.

And sometimes, brothers and sisters, we… God honors people who have nothing to lose. I believe one of our problems is that we have much to lose, and that is why we do not dare to do things for God. We have lots of clothes, lots of houses, lots of refrigerators filled with plenty of food, this and that, and we are… we are, how shall I put it? Spiritually flabby—it is a five-holed word—weak. But when you remain there in the fire, red-hot in the Lord, that is where God blesses desperate people. These people were desperate because they needed a miracle, and they knew that Jesus was the only one who had it. That is to say, yes, that is what faith is: it overcomes obstacles, overcomes deficiencies, dares to attempt the improbable, risks things for God; sometimes it is reckless, sometimes it is desperate. Faith has that quality of intensity… And do you know something else that is interesting about that? Do you know why God has a special affinity for people like that? Because the kingdom of heaven—listen to me—the kingdom of heaven is like that. The kingdom of heaven is bold, forceful, violent, yes or no? Does the Bible not say that?

Look, look there at what it says in Matthew 11:12. It says, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and…” What? “…and the violent”—Roberto Miranda does not say that to justify himself, no. It says, “and the violent take it by force.” Now look at something interesting. In other words, let me, let me… The kingdom of heaven—that is, God’s system, the divine economy, God’s incarnation on earth, the relationship of the principles of the kingdom to the world—is based on opposition, force, and conflict. The Bible says that in this world there is a prince illegitimately established here whose name is Satan, who has illegitimately taken control of this world, because God gave the world to His creature, but His creature allowed himself to be deceived by the devil, and the devil stole the mortgage from him and now holds it; and it is an illegitimate kingdom. So the kingdom of God comes to wrest from the devil what belongs to the Son of God. And that is why the kingdom of God advances through violence; it advances through conflict. The very nature of the kingdom of God is violence and conflict with a dark, destructive, evil, deadly kingdom called the kingdom of darkness.

And when God lands in the world, He lands in power and in warfare, in opposition to the hosts of darkness. Now, what is extremely interesting is that in the original Greek this translation says, “From the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence…” You see that there: “suffers violence.” Do you know in what language the New Testament was written? Does anyone know, huh? In Greek—in Greek… everyone say, “Greek.” It was written in Greek, and how… why are we reading it in Spanish now? What happened? Someone translated it, right? Now, sometimes in translations a little something gets lost here and there; that would take a long time to explain. But it is there in the original, and that is why it is sometimes important to go to the original Greek to understand the word translated into Spanish, the expression “suffers violence.” In the original Greek it is “viasetae”; everyone say, “viasetae.” Now every single one of you here is an expert in Greek. Go to the factory tomorrow and say “viasetae” to the people, and you will see how quickly they take you to a mental hospital… “Viasetae,” the word translated here as “suffers violence,” “viasetae,” is a verb that can be translated in either an active or a passive form. In Greek, that verb can mean “suffers violence” or “proceeds with violence,” “moves with violence.”

And nowadays, most scholars, who have a much better understanding because of the many studies that have been done on Jesus’ original language and all that, understand that the correct way to translate it is “does violence,” “proceeds with violence.” In fact, the New International Version, in English, says, “proceeds with violence,” or “proceeds forcefully”; it says, “moves forcefully,” it moves with force. So it is much, much more appropriate to translate it, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven moves with violence, and the violent take it by force.” Do you understand? In other words, the kingdom of God moves with violence; the kingdom is for strong people. The kingdom of God is not for cowards, brothers and sisters. Do not let anyone deceive you by saying that evangelicals are people who are dropping dead, that they are fainthearted people—no. The kingdom of heaven is for heroic, strong, bold people. Because that is what the kingdom of heaven is like.

That is why God has a kind of special affinity for bold people, strong people, aggressive people, militant people—people who believe that God is more powerful than any situation and launch out in pursuit of His blessing. People who do not take no for an answer and stay there knocking on the door until justice is done for them, the door is opened, and they are given what they need. God likes that kind of person because His kingdom is like that. That is why throughout the Bible you will see that people like that—active, dynamic, enterprising, bold, aggressive people—are the people God honors and blesses. Now, not in the sense—let me clarify that a little—because, come to think of it, some of you need to be less aggressive, but toward other people. Aggressive in the right way, not aggressive toward your wife, your brother, or your coworker—no; but aggressive in God, aggressive in the things of the Spirit, aggressive regarding what God has said: “I take hold of what God said, and with that I am going to the bank, and it has to give it to me because I have the key of God’s Word.”

Those aggressive people receive from God, and that is why these men—people like Rahab, people like Jacob, people like Esther, people like Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi, people like Peter, people like Paul—are people like that… bold people. Paul was stoned and left for dead, and the next day he was preaching the gospel again. Listen, if someone throws just one little stone at me and hits me on the head, I am already in bed for three days or a week, complaining, “Why did God allow this in my life?” Paul was stoned, left for dead, and the next day he was preaching the gospel—and how many of us would do that?

Brothers and sisters, those are the people who… that is why God chose a man like Paul. Those are the people God likes, people who fall and come back and get up again. “Oh, they took my house away? Well, do not worry, because now I am going to give the devil twice as much so that he will not do it again.” And they get back up, keep moving forward, serve the Lord, love God, pray more than ever, and say, “The next one is going to be greater than the last.” They dare. They lose their job and then say, “All right, it is their loss,” and they begin looking for something better, believing that God will open a door, and they remain there until God gives the answer, gives the blessing.

The kingdom of heaven is violent, and the violent take it by force. Brothers and sisters, this is one of those things, and many of us need to be filled with that aggressive faith; we need to lose that baby fat we have and become daring in the Lord, daring in prayer, daring in fasting, daring in service, daring in giving, daring in confessing, daring in praising and glorifying the Lord, because the Lord likes those daring people, those aggressive people who do not stay down on the ground after they have fallen, but get back up.

The Word says that the righteous fall seven times, but rise again from every fall because their faith lifts them up. And that is extremely important: the kingdom of heaven advances with force, and forceful people seize it, take hold of it, receive its essence, its nutrients. So here we see that these men are an example of this. There we have the Lord teaching; Jesus Christ’s agenda that day was not to heal anyone, just as His agenda was not to heal the woman with the issue of blood, but these men and their faith… in a sense, prevailed over Jesus’ agenda. When they saw that the roof was an impediment and that there were too many people inside the house, they broke through the roof and lowered the poor man down on a rope. He must have been saying, “Why did I get myself into this mess?” They lowered him down, but they did lower him… Where did they put him? In front of Jesus. And it says that they placed him in the middle, before Jesus; that is how it was, brothers and sisters. They put him there as if to say, “Well, let’s see what You are going to do now; You cannot ignore him.” Just imagine it: the roof opens up, straw begins falling everywhere, the Lord is there speaking, and they put the man right there… Do you think the Lord would have been able to keep preaching with a dead man lying there in front of Him? He had to do something.

That is what I mean when I say that the kingdom of heaven is like that: it is violent. And these people prevailed, and it says that the Lord, “seeing their faith…” Seeing their faith… When you have faith, brother, it is impossible—God cannot, God will not ignore you, because He does not want to ignore you, because your faith honors God, and God responds to the faith of a daring person. “…and then they received their miracle.” Brother, this is such a rich passage. I am not… I am not going to expound all of it because it contains so many things. I am simply wrapping up now… before my brother Samuel comes by here. I am sorry to take your precious baby out of your arms there; she looks so lovely and so comfortable with her daddy…

But brothers and sisters, faith—it is important for us to dare to believe the Lord. There are moments when teaching will have to be set aside so that faith may fulfill its purpose and what needs to be done may come to pass. There are very good times to learn and read the Bible and study the Bible and study theology, but there are times when God’s action is needed—people who will do something, who will move, who will make a decision, who will dare in the name of the Lord. And I do not know what your obstacle in life is; I do not know what your need in life is… There is a paralytic you are carrying on your shoulders right now. I do not know what it is called: financial problems, work problems, marital problems, an emotional struggle, an emotional burden within you. Each one of us has a paralytic riding on our shoulders, and each one of us has a crowd standing between what we need and Jesus. And the decision we have to make is this: Am I going to let myself… am I going to lie down and die? Am I going to take my dead man back home because there was an obstacle, a difficulty? Or am I going to persist, to search, to knock, to investigate?

When these men saw the people—the house full of people—and they could not get in, I imagine they spent ten or fifteen minutes saying, “Well, how are we going to solve this problem? Because we are not going to leave with this guy again, since we are already tired of carrying him. Today we have to do something with this man.” And they searched and explored until, “Ah, the roof! Of course, the roof—that is it. Let’s take this poor man up; let’s take him up onto the roof.”

There is always a solution, brothers and sisters. You know, I always say… Look, my motto in life is: there is always a solution. I do not give up, brothers and sisters. If the doors close on me, I look for some little hole over there that a mouse left so I can squeeze through it. I say, something… something to… You have to—there is always something. I believe that in Christ there is always hope, in Christ there is always a solution, in Christ there is always a way out, there is always a possibility. Glory to the Lord. And when doors close on you, it is because God has a bigger door that He wants to open in your life. Yes, sir. When God takes something away from you, it is because He has something better for you.

There is always a solution. There is always a door; there is always hope. There is always an answer. Perhaps it will not come before the night ends; perhaps another day, another week, or another month will have to pass, but your answer is coming, my brother, my sister; your door is going to open. There is a roof that must be opened so that you can place your problem before Jesus. This is the last thing I will tell you: place your problem before Jesus. You have to pray; you have to cry out to God. Many… if we spent more time praying to the Lord and less time complaining, we would receive more answers from God. The problem is that when we have problems, what do we do? Then we stop praying, we stop crying out, we stop fasting, we stop worshiping, we stop coming to church, we stop serving the Lord because we have a problem. And when the problem is resolved, then, after my vacation, I come back to church.

Lord, rebuke the devil! That is not from God. The more problems you have, the more you should pray to the Lord, the more you should cry out to the Lord, the more you should fast, the more you should lift up your hands, as we said in that chorus, and the more you should remind the Lord of His promises. Oh, brother, sister, that is what God likes: those children of His who rise to the occasion when trouble comes and say, “I am going to find a way out.” Pray to the Lord, cry out to the Lord, present your need to the Lord. The Word says, “Be anxious for nothing, but…” Everybody say, “but”: “Let your requests be made known before God.” We must put things before God; we must put them before Jesus; we must put them in the middle of the room and say, “Now, Lord, I leave it with You. What are You going to do with it? That is Your problem, not mine. The problem is Your problem, Lord. There You have it; let’s see what You are going to do with Your problem, with Your problem… now it is Your problem. What are You going to do with Your problem, Lord?”

Brother, place your need before Jesus, and the Lord… I have never seen anyone come before Jesus Christ and ask Him for healing, provision, or an answer, only for the Lord to say, “Go home, because I do not have time for you.” The Lord always attended to the needs that were brought before Him. He is merciful. What is more, if He has done it for others, how could He not do it for me, since I am the apple of His eye? Huh? The Word says that He who did not spare even His own Son, how shall He not also freely give us all things along with Him? If God did not spare His only Son, He will not withhold a job from you, or provision, or an answer to your need, or healing, or a… a way out… Oh, brother, sister, there are many subtleties to what I am saying, but in the end the important thing is that Christ says, “Bring Me your problem.” Your responsibility is to bring the problem to Jesus. His responsibility is to do something with that problem, and whatever He does is good by definition. Believe.

Let us stand. Let us do what those men who brought the paralytic did. During the week, take that passage, Luke 5:17, and read it, meditate on it. Let its teachings—the ones we have not been able to draw out fully—let this passage speak to you this week. Make this passage your meditation passage; chew on it, ruminate on it—I do not know whether that is how you say it—like cows that take the grass, right, and chew on it. Let this passage release all its teaching and promise. Make it a goal in your life this week: “This week I am going to meditate on this passage, and even if I think I have already exhausted it, I am going to read it again so that its message may enter my heart, enter my mind, enter my spirit, and release everything it has for my life.” Sometimes that is good. Scripture, brothers and sisters, must be chewed on until the day… until we reach the marrow. We must suck the marrow from the bones of Scripture so that we may receive all the nutrients God has. So I encourage you, in the name of Jesus, take that passage and let it speak to you this week and reach the place where it needs to reach. So, let us sing that chorus that is playing…