Life Change: Positioning Your Life For Change (Week 2) Mark 2:1-12 Last week we asked the question: Is there something in your life that needs to change? And the obvious answer to that question is a resounding YES! Yes, we have areas in our lives that need to change WE NEED CHANGE. And you know what we re going to change. Whether we like to admit it or not, we are change agents; constantly moving and developing and changing. Change is going to happen; it s a natural thing, but change isn t always a good thing. I can remember as a teenager, it seemed like I was always changing. I was one way in front of my family, one way in front of my friends. One way at school one way at church. I talked one way at home and another way on the baseball field. I drove one way with my Parents in the car and another way by myself I was constantly changing. When it came to WHO I was, there was a lack of consistency. My identity was determined by my environment. The Bible warns us against this kind of change. It says in Romans 12:2, Do not be conformed to this world. But the truth is our natural tendency is to change ourselves in order to fit into our environment. You will constantly change Your environment will determine your destination. *First Day of School School Supplies, Gum, looking for friends, a year later birthday party, bad decisions, cigarettes, beer, throwing mud balls at cars, COPS Your environment will determine your destination and let s be honest, many of us in this room are in desperate need of change: TRUE, MEANINGFUL, LASTING Life Change because our environments have led us to the destination we find ourselves in tonight. You say, it all started with these friends or my life took a wrong turn because of a guy or because of a girl Your environment will determine your destination! And that s what we re going to discover here tonight in the 2 nd chapter of the book of Mark. We re going to look at the life of a man who is suffering from palsy he was
completely paralyzed and he, like many of us, was DESPERATE for real change, meaningful change in his life. Mark 2:1-12 (NIV84) 1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. 6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 Why does this fellow talk like that? He s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? 8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up, take your mat and walk? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins He said to the paralytic, 11 I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this! So how do you position your Life for Change? How did this paralytic position his life for a much needed change? it all began with his environment. Your environment begins with the friends you surround yourself with, and it s true that the friends you choose to surround yourself with will determine your destination they will either bring you closer to Jesus or keep you away from Him. This paralytic understood that he understood that if REAL Change was going to take place in his life, then a couple things had to happen: 1. He was SURROUNDED by Friends with Faith Let s unpack it from the beginning: It says in verse 1, "the people heard that he had come home." Jesus was back in Capernaum, most likely in the house of Peter and Andrew, and he was preaching the Word! The Greek word, "preaching" here is actually translated to mean "conversational speaking," so he's having a conversation with a packed house.
Then, in the middle of His message it says: "They came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men." Now, this man was palsied. He couldn't walk. And this particular man was in this condition because of his personal sin. That's why Jesus said to him first in verse 5, "Son, your sins are forgiven" before saying to him in verse 11, "I say to you, get up, take up your mat and go home." He had to first deal with his sins before dealing with his sickness. First came forgiveness and then came healing. But don't miss the obvious here... in this man's life, healing wouldn't have happened if he wasn't surrounded by friends with faith. This man chose to surround himself with friends that believed in Jesus... they believed that Jesus was capable of changing his life. If this paralytic chooses to surround himself with friends without faith, the healing doesn't happen here. What kind of friends are you surrounding yourself with? Are they friends with faith or friends without faith? Are they friends who bring you closer to Jesus or friends that keep you away from him? If your life is in need of change... real change, authentic life change-- or healing, you need to be surrounded by friends with faith. You say, "Does that mean I need to disregard the friends I already have?" Maybe so. Maybe we don't disregard them as much as we distance ourselves from them... But a couple things are for certain, you become like the people you spend time with & the friends you're surrounding yourselves with will either bring you closer to Christ or keep you away from Him. Sometimes, the best things we can do to promote life change is to change our inputs: Identify Friends that keep you away from Jesus Identify Places that steer your life in the wrong direction Identify Relationships that prevent Jesus from being number one in our life Identify Habits that prevent Christ from being exalted in us and through us Identify the INPUTS in our lives that need to be changed AND CHANGE THEM! YOUR INPUTS WILL DETERMINE YOUR OUTPUTS-- There is no way you can get high-quality outputs if you feed your life with low quality inputs. Think about that: Who are the people 'inputting' things into your life? The paralytic had good inputs He had good friends!
This man had friends with faith and they heard Jesus was back in town... and because they were DESPERATE to see life change, they did WHATEVER IT TOOK to get their friend close to Jesus... they were desperate (the rules were changed). And after they went above and beyond to get their friend close to Jesus, Christ responds after seeing the faith of those friends by saying in verse 5, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Jesus SAW the faith of these friends. He saw it. I never really thought of faith being something people can see, but it really is. If you have TRUE FAITH, people ought to be able to see it. It says in James 2:18: But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds." If someone has faith, you can see it. This paralytic was SURROUNDED by friends that had a REAL FAITH... 2. He was SURRENDERED to his Friends with Faith I've read this story my entire life, but this week I realized something new. I learned that this man, this paralytic, wasn't only SURROUNDED with friends with faith, but that he was SURRENDERED to these friends. He was paralyzed... and he was fully dependent on these men. In verse 3, notice the phrase, "bringing to him a paralyzed man." When you look at the original language, you see that it's a present tense verb which speaks of a continual action. You could literally translate it meaning, "bringing and kept on bringing the paralytic..." In other words, they kept on bringing him until they could get him to Jesus because he was unable to take ONE STEP towards God on his own! Not ONE STEP! He couldn't get to Jesus without them. And don't forget... they brought him, but he allowed them to bring him also. He saw the faith of those friends and he caught it. Their faith... (the visible signs of their faith) rubbed off on him and he wanted the hope that they had... the hope of Jesus... the hope of Life Change. *Possible Conversation: FRIENDS: Hey, we've been talking. We heard Jesus was coming back to town and we believe if we can get you to him, that he can change your life. Now, it's not going to be easy, but with the 4 of us, we believe we can get you there. PARALYTIC: You know... I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I think I'll stay at home today. That's a tough trip, it's hot outside, The AMAZING RACE IS ON... and by the time we get there, Jesus will probably be gone already; after all, I can't walk...
No, that's not how it went at all- He said, "YES! Let's do it. Let me crawl on the pallet, you guys grab a corner, grab a rope and let's go. I believe in you men! I believe you're right about Jesus. I've seen your faith and it's inspired me to have a faith of my own. He was being carried to Jesus by consent. They didn't have to kidnap him or drag him to Jesus. They didn't force him to Jesus. They didn't argue him to Jesus. They brought him by consent... and now he's positioned his life for change. [Surrounded, Surrendered] 3. He was SAVED because of his friends with faith In verse 5, Jesus said, "Son, your sins are forgiven." He was saved from his Sins. In verse 11, Jesus said, "Take up your mat and go home." He was saved from his Sickness. Then it says in verse 12, "He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!" Can you imagine this scene? This guy jumping around, walking out of there carrying the mat he rode in on... amazing! He was SAVED! and his LIFE was forever changed. How do we position our lives for change this week? Remember YOUR ENVIRONMENT WILL DETERMINE YOUR DESTINATION. YOUR INPUTS WILL DETERMINE YOUR OUTPUTS Therefore SURROUND YOURSELF WITH FRIENDS WITH FAITH & MAKE SURE YOUR ENVIROMENTS LEAD YOU TO JESUS AND DON T KEEP YOU AWAY FROM HIM. Because in the end, if you desire true, meaningful, eternal LIFE CHANGE Jesus is the only one that can make it happen. [Invitation]