Jonathan Evan's Easter Message: How to Use Obedience to Achieve Miracles | Jonathan Evans

to do. He may not come when you want him, but it'll happen in his timing. You have to keep going. And under the sound of my voice, there are people who are quitting. There are people who are throwing in the towel right before their cleansing comes. They stop.

Praise him in the building. give him glory because he's good. He's awesome. He's great. He's faithful. He's wonderful. He is God and he's a great God. Does anybody have a testimony that he's a good God? We're not ashamed to worship him and praise him in the house because he's worthy to be praised.

Give him glory. He's a great God yesterday. He's a great God today. And he's a great God forever more. I'm so thankful that he's unchanging and immutable. So that in the future, we can just expect the same greatness we got in the past. We give you the glory, Lord, to all the saints.

In Jesus' name, we lift you up. We give you glory for who you are. You're a great God. Oh, how you loved us. Thank you, Lord, for waking us up this morning and starting us on our way. Help us to not take it for granted that we are here today.

We give you the glory in the house. 
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 because you are a great God. Help us not just to say it, but help us to live it. Help us to not say that you're great, but then rely on ourselves, leaning on our own understanding, but help us to always acknowledge you in all of our ways because we know who did it before is faithful to do it again.

So help us to trust you, our eternal wise father. We give you the glory in Jesus name. All God's people said, amen. Amen. Give him a hand clap of praise in the house if he's been good to 
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 you. Are y'all ready for the 
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 word? Y'all still sitting down?

Stand up on your feet as we read the word. And we're going to be reading today from Luke chapter 17. As we get ready and prepare to conclude our overflow series. Has anybody enjoyed the overflow of God in your life? Luke chapter 17. I'll be reading starting at verse 11 from the NASB.

And it says these words. It says, "While he was on his way to Jerusalem, he was passing between Samaria and Galilee and he entered a village, 10 lepous men who stood at a distance met him. And they raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priest."

And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, he fell on his face at his feet, giving thanks to God. He was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, "Were there not 10 cleansed?

But the nine, where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, "Stand up and go. Your faith has made you well." Today, OCBF family, I want to talk to you from the title overflowing with gratitude.

Overflowing with gratitude. You may be seated. I want to make sure today for those of you who are in the room and those of you who are online that we are not in church but just like the nine. Hopefully Jesus doesn't say about us. They were in church but where are they?

As we're talking about the overflow series, it all comes through the conduit of gratitude. People who are grateful for what God has done in their life, and that itself overflows. You're going to see in our text today, there was one who had an overflowing of gratitude because of what had been done in his life.

We just shouted, "He's a great God." And while we're shouting, is he looking at us and saying, "But where are you?" That's the question today is, are we as a church and as individuals overflowing with gratitude? In our text today, you see verse 11, it starts out and it says, "While he was on his way to Jerusalem, he was on his way to today."

He was on his way to Jerusalem for the triumphant entry. He was on his way to fulfill scripture. And at the moment he came and was going into Jerusalem, people were praising. He's a great God. They were saying, "Hosana to the son of David. Hosanna forever." They were laying down tree branches and coats while he was riding in on a young donkey, displaying his humility as the salvific king who would come in for his people.

And as they were saying hosana and they were praising him and laying down the palms and laying down the coats and making way and saying hosana to the king and they were celebrating on Palm Sunday. It would only be a week later that the people who were laying down the coats and the people that cut the branches would go from praising him to crucifying him.

Which lets me know that it's quite possible for you to praise him this Sunday and crucify him by the next when he didn't meet the expectation they had in their head. because they thought that he was going to come as a right now political leader who would get them out of Roman oppression.

They thought that he was going to do something different and they counted it blasphemy that he claimed to be God. And the people that were praising him one week were crucifying him the next. May it not be said about us that he's saying, "Where are they?" And that we celebrate him on Palm Sunday only to crucify him by the next one.

And here he is heading towards a great destiny and a great destination. Not only Palm Sunday but Easter Sunday as he would enter Jerusalem. He had a great destination. Did he not? That he lived to die. He was born to die. He was born for this weekend that we have now and the weekend that is to come.

His destiny was huge. But on his way, it says in verse 11, he stopped for 10 lepers. I don't want you to miss this. That on his way to his great destiny. He stopped for these 10 lepers. Don't you know that a lot of Jesus's miracles he did on the way somewhere else? that that while he was on the way to heal Jerus's daughter, he stopped for the woman with the blood issue.

That while he was passing through Samaria, he stopped for the woman who was at the well. That while he was on his way to Dicapus, he healed the man who was deaf and and wasn't hearing and and and he healed that person. And he did it while he was on the way while he was on the way to Na.

He raised the dead widow's son from her his casket. He did all of these miracles while he was on the way somewhere else. Why am I telling you that while he was on the way to Jerusalem, he stopped for these 10 lepers? Because you need to understand that Jesus never saw and was so focused on his destiny that he missed out on the miracles in the journey.

Amen. That many of us need to understand that we often times miss out on the miracles God has for us along the way because we're so focused on where we're trying to go. Many of us are so focused on being married that we miss the miracle of the time we have to serve God while we're single.

We're so focused on graduation that we miss all of the miracle we have of the divine revelation and the relationships he's calling us to build and how he's building us up along the way. And we spend most of our time frustrated thinking about the destination. He's like, "Do you know and understand that on this journey I have a miracle for you?"

It was just like my dad used to say. He said, "When you're a child, you're dying to grow up and move out." Then you're dying to go to college, and then you know how it is. Once you're in college, you're dying to graduate. Then after you graduate, you're dying to start your career.

Then after you start your career, you're dying to get married and have children. Then after you have children, you're dying for them jokers to get up out your house. Then after they leave, you're dying for them to get married so you can have grandchildren. Then after that, you're dying to retire only to look up one day to see that you're just dying and you've never come around to living because you're staring at the destination and you don't realize all of the profit is in the journey.

But that's not the only reason I got excited when I started reading verse 11 and I didn't get further than the phrase, he was on his way to Jerusalem because that means that he will stop for you if you call on his 
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 name. He can be on the way to heal somebody else, but if you stop and call on his name, he'll do a pit stop by your bed.

He can be on the way to answer somebody else's prayer, but if you call on him, he is faithful to stop to answer yours. He could be on the way to bless somebody else or prosper somebody else. But if you call on him, Jesus is faithful to do a pit stop with you and give you the blessing and prosperity that you're calling and asking him for.

That Jesus is faithful to stop for you and not pass you by. I need you to understand how precious this is because I was the kid who struggled. I was the kid who who who didn't have it all together. I was the one I had issues in my life.

I always wasn't living like I was saved. And I'm so glad I'm only on this stage. I'm telling you, I'm so glad that when I called on him, he didn't just pass me by. I wonder if there's anybody in the house that's grateful that Jesus didn't just pass you by, but he took a pit stop and he said, "I'll be there for you.

I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I will not forget you. I will stand with you. I will heal you. I will touch you. The reason why you're here today is because you serve a God. While he's on his way, will stop for lepers." It says that there were 10 lepers while he was on the way.

Leprosy is a critical disease. And let me help you understand it because if you're going to be overflowing with gratitude, you need to understand leprosy. This was a disease that ravaged you from the inside out. Your skin decaying, your bones decaying, your flesh decaying. This was a disease that kept you outside of the camp.

You had to stay outside of the gate less you infect someone. This was a disease that left your nerves numb. That you wouldn't even be knowing when you're scratching yourself that you're hurting yourself. You wouldn't even recognize that you're creating more harm for yourself because you were numb by the reality of the disease that they had.

This was an incurable disease. This was an incurable disease and only death would follow for lepers. They're outside of the camp. They're being ravaged from the inside out. They're not even realizing that they're hurting themselves. It's incurable and only death is the only thing that they can look forward to in their life.

This was the great equalizer. If you had leprosy, it didn't matter if you was young, old. It didn't matter if you was rich, poor. It didn't matter what your race was, your nationality was, your class was. If you had leprosy, you just had leprosy. It was leveling the playing field.

These 10 men who were together, who had leprosy, only death was what they had to look forward to. Okay. As a leper, only death is what you have to look forward to. Leprosy is a biblical correlation to sin. 
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 When you're a sinner, you're ostracized from the family of God.

Adam and Eve, you sin. Get out. There's a separation between you and God. When you're a sinner, you're decaying from the inside out. When you're a sinner, you can be hurting yourself and not even realize it because you're numb to the lifestyle you're living. When you're a sinner, you're literally in an incurable state.

And the Bible says only sin follows. That there's only sin for the sinner. That's the only thing they have to look forward to because for the wages of sin is death. It is the great equalizer. I don't matter if you're rich, poor, black, white, Asian, Hispanic. I don't care what your class is.

If you're a sinner, you're incurable and only death follows. Unless Jesus enters the village. I still don't think you understand leprosy. There's nothing that can help them. There is no doctor. There is no human being. There is nobody on the planet. There is no leaf you can find in some jungle.

There was nobody's little plan they give you on social media. There's absolutely nothing in the world that can help you as a leper sinner other than Jesus. If Jesus doesn't enter the village, they only have no hope but just to die. But because Jesus entered, all of a sudden their hope kicked up.

Yeah. Only because of Jesus. I need you to understand this because if you don't understand this, you will not live a life of gratitude. They understood that this one option. I'm so grateful that Jesus didn't regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped. But he'd emptied himself, taking on the form of a bond servant, being made in the likeness of man.

That humbled himself even to the point of death, even death on a cross, in order that lepers would have any way to live again. Y'all need to understand this is an Easter warm-up. Your only salvation when they came into the camp was Jesus Christ who is the only way, the only truth and the only life.

No one gets to the father except through him. There is only one name under heaven by which you can be saved and that is the name of Jesus Christ. So Romans 10:13, everyone who calls upon the name of Jesus will be saved. And let me help you understand, there is no other option for a leper.

Other than Jesus Christ, there is no other way other than Jesus Christ entering the village. And he entered the village. And when they laid eyes on him, they said, "Jesus, they went to church, they said, "Jesus, master, have mercy on us." In other words, they recognized two things.

They recognized Jesus because they had heard about him. Yeah. Yeah. And they also recognize that they were lepers. If you don't recognize both, you can't be saved. Some people know they're lepers, but they don't recognize Jesus. And some people go to church and recognize Jesus, but they don't even know they're sick.

Some people are too prideful and too defensive to be saved. At the cross, there will be no prideful people. In heaven, there will be no prideful people. There will be nobody who's able to boast as if they weren't a leper who was unable to cure themselves. You're totally unable to to to help yourself and heal yourself as a leper.

And they recognize Jesus, he's a master. Now, the word master there is an elevated view. It wasn't just teacher or rabbi. They didn't want him to teach. They wanted him to heal. The view of master they had was based on what they heard. One who has the power to do something that they viewed him as one who has the power.

When they called him master and then they said have mercy on us. Mercy means God is withholding from you what you do deserve. Mercy means and I don't know if anybody's had mercy in their life. It means that God is withholding from you that which you actually do deserve.

That means it's plausible that these lepers were not lepers by natural causes. That's right. They were lepers because of something they had done that caused them to be lepers. Which is why they're asking for mercy. They're asking for mercy at the feet of Jesus because Jesus, I I deserve to be a leper.

I deserve to die. I deserve for my situation to be ravaged. I deserve to have all of this wrongfulness come my way. I deserve it. I'm a leper. I understand that. But please have mercy on me. When you're asking for mercy, you're telling God, I deserve it. I'm I'm not entitled.

I deserve it. When I look back over my life, I deserve some of the problems that I'm experiencing. But Jesus, master, please have mercy on me. If you've experienced the mercy of God, that means you realize it's not because of your degrees. That means you realize it's not because of your goodness.

That means you realize it's not because of your productivity. That means you realize it's not because of your work. It's because he is faithful and righteous to cleanse those of all unrighteousness who are willing to say, "It's my fault." But please, Lord, have mercy on me. You you for the leper only death follows.

But God being rich in mercy with the great love in which he has loved us all. Even in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. For by grace you have been saved. See, if you don't think it's mercy and grace, you'll be ungrateful. These lepers understood the reality of their leprosy.

And these 10 lepers saw him and they met him. Um um remember that as a leper, you're outside of the camp because you ain't supposed to be meeting no people. And while everybody else would shun lepers away, Jesus would let them meet him. I don't care how bad it's been for you.

I don't care what you've done in the past. Amen. I don't care how sinful the sin is. While everybody else may reject you, displace you, while everybody else may send you away, Jesus will accept you. Trust me, you will not infect him. He let the lepers meet him and they cried out with a loud voice, Jesus, please, Lord, have mercy on us.

They say that in his word. And when he saw them, seemingly he saw them after they cried out. I didn't say this last service, but people wonder why I need to pray if God already knows anyway. Because he responded to the cry. He He already knows. But when his people cried out in Egypt, he heard their cry and then he delivered them.

I tried to catch my dad in these catch 22s. Why I got to pray if Jesus already know? He said he already knows, but he want to know if you already know who he is. I said, "Yeah, that sound good. You can get them with that, but you can't get me with that.

I said, 'Really, if he already knows my problem, why do I need to cry out?' He said, 'Well, a mother knows that she's going to go get the baby when the baby cries, but she's not going to go get the baby until the baby cries. You won again.

You won again. I just headed out. You won again. Free will is you deciding that you need God and he'll let you decide that you don't need him. And when you make the decision that you do, he'll do a pit stop for you. He saw them after hearing their cry and he told them the instructions of their deliverance.

You need mercy. Okay. Go and show yourself to the priest. And as they were going, they were cleansed. Go show yourself to the priest. And as they were going, they were cleansed. Embedded in his instruction was their healing. Because the priest's job in the Old Testament was to be the purity inspector for the lepers.

So he's already giving them an assumptive variable that he's already done it beforehand. I've already done the work. I just need you to go to experience the declaration. In other words, everything that God is going to do, he's already done. But a lot of us are still sick because we're still stuck.

And until you go by faith to experience the declaration, you won't experience what God has already done beforehand because you don't have the faith enough to experience enough of what he's already done. He tells them to go show yourself to the priest. And as they were going, they were healed.

As they were going, they were cleansed. I need you to notice that Jesus saved them along the way. and they experience that salvation on the way. That a lot of this happens as you're moving, not as you're staying or sitting. You can hear the sermon, but if you delude yourself because you're not willing to walk out what you're hearing, you're diluting your experience of biblical truth in your life.

And a lot of Christians don't live the Christian life because they feel like it's not profitable. No, you ain't moving. Okay. You say, "Jonathan, Jonathan, I've been I I've heard the Lord. Um, and I started moving and my change has not come yet. What do you say to me who I'm doing the right thing?

I'm doing what God has called me to do, but I haven't experience what he said he would do." That means keep going. You don't stop. You have to keep moving because as you continue to follow his word, the word says your depression will fall, your anxiety will be stripped away.

Your problems will change. You will be transformed. Things will be different, but you have to keep moving. You maintain the faith. And the problem is the Christians don't maintain the faith. They don't continue to persevere to experience what God wants to do. He may not come when you want him.

But it'll happen and it's timing. You have to keep going. And under the sound of my voice, there are people who are quitting. There are people who are throwing in the towel. Right before their cleansing comes, they stop. You got to keep going. The body of Christ, the saints that are under the sound of his voice, keep going.

You cannot stop. Your change is coming. His word is true and he is faithful I just feel heavenly father I pray for the person right now who is quitting and they want to throw in the towel. I pray that they would keep walking that they would not quit on your word and they would not quit on your will.

They would not quit on your way. I pray that you experience they experience the transformation. They experience the change. Lord, I pray Lord that you come through soon Lord as they're walking. The struggle is hard but the journey is worth it. I pray Lord that you would keep them, guide them, instruct them, change them, train them, kept them going in the faith.

I pray Lord that you will underguard them by your spirit that you will strengthen them and guide them. I pray all of these things believing it in Jesus' name. Amen. The church needs strength to keep going. And I'm preaching this because I got to preach it to myself.

You get tired and you get weary. Keep going. Keep putting one foot in front of the other foot. Keep going. You can't get can't grow weary and doing good. Keep going until your change comes. And I'm telling you, church, it's coming. I'm telling you, church, he will do it.

I'm telling you church, he will make it happen. But you got to keep going. You cannot stop. You got to keep moving. He will work it out if you keep going. As they were going, they were cleansed. As they were going, they were cleansed. And one of them, there was one of them.

I don't know what the other nine were doing, but one of them as he was going, the scripture says he saw that he was cleansed. He saw that he was healed. Evidently, the other nine didn't see what he saw. They were cleansed. But he saw something different than they saw.

You know how I know? Because when he saw that he was cleansed, he did something the other nine didn't do. He turned back. When he saw what God had done, he said, "Oh, I can't keep going. I got to turn back. I can't keep moving away from him.

I got to go closer to him." What did he see? When he saw that he was cleansed, church, his heart started beating at a different pace. When he saw that he was cleansed, everything changed because he recognized something the other nine didn't recognize. He saw Jesus differently. He said, "This is not just a church service.

This is not just a slogan. This is not just a rabbit's foot. This is not just a musician. This is not just somebody. This is not just a regular person. This is Jesus the Christ, the son of the living God who comes to take away the sins of the world.

Like Martin Luther King said, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the king." Yeah. He saw something different. And when he saw it, he turned back. Yeah. He said, "I can't keep going to a priest when I got the priest. I can't keep chasing religion when I got a relationship.

I can't keep going further. I got to come closer because he saw the Christ, the son of the living God. He saw it differently than everybody else saw it. Everybody can praise. Everybody can come to church. But my question is, will you turn back? My question is, what is your life doing?

Do are you really thankful? Because a lot of people in the church go do religious things. That's what the nine did. They went to the priest. They got declared. They went through all of that stuff. But then they crucified him a week later. Are you really grateful for his mercy?

Do you really know what he's done? Because when you see it, you should really see it. You should turn back. And it says he cried out with a loud voice. In other words, I don't care what none of y'all think. I just got healed by Jesus. He gave him glory in the house.

I could care less what any of y'all feel about me. I was a wretch undone. And he gave me mercy. He gave me grace. I will live loud. I will turn back. I will live humble. He fell on his face at the feet of Jesus. And he gave him glory.

Is there anybody in the house that can give him glory? That will live a loud life that will live in gratitude. that will live in humility because I've seen what I need to see and I don't care who you are. He said, "Was there no one willing to come back except this foreigner?"

In other words, the person you thought would be the furthest is the closest. All the religious people were far. The non-religious person was close. It's not about the suit and the tie. It's not about whether you got tattoos or not. It's not about your previous life. It's about whether you going to come back to Jesus.

It's not about the people who look like it. It's about the people who are like it. You come as you are because he can handle lepers. He can handle Samaritans. He can handle people that didn't grow up in church. They grew up in the club. He wants you, too.

If you see what he saw and he said, "Go Samaritan. Your faith has made you well." In other words, because he turned back, he didn't just get a physical blessing. He got a spiritual one. It just wasn't external. It was internal. We want to be whole in the church.

We don't just want to be walking around with nice cars and nice houses and nice purses and nice hair and nice this and I mean, forget all that. You got to be whole in your heart. We got to stop playing games in the church. I'm talking to myself.

Stop playing games. This is not a game. It's the calling of all of our lives to turn back and go to Jesus and give him the glory with a loud voice. You shouldn't care what nobody thinks. I don't care who comments on your page. You live for Jesus.

Because that's the call on your life. For those of you who fear far away, you can be close. It's the call on your life. See it and turn back. And many of you know where it is. You need to turn. Draw near to God and you will experience mercy and grace in your time of need.

Hebrews 4:16 says, he doesn't care who you are or where you're from. Give him glory for what he's done in your life with your life. If there's anybody in the house today, you say, "I need prayer." Come here. Come here. I need mercy. I'm a leper. I realize it.

You say, "I don't want to wait for Easter. I want to get saved today." Come to the altar. Come to Jesus. Turn back. Turn back. He will heal you on the outside. heal you on the inside. He's a lifecher and a way maker and a miracle worker. That's who he is.

And we're going to be overflowing with gratitude in the house. If we're grateful, we give. If we're grateful, we serve. If we're grateful, we show love. The life looks different. Lord, I'm just so grateful. for your mercy and your grace. Thank you, Lord, for what you're doing, continue to do, and have done.

Thank you for the cross. Thank you, Lord that you did for a wretch like me. I'm undeserving. It's all because of your mercy. It has nothing to do with our worthiness. 
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 And so we are grateful. If there's anyone here, Lord, that came for salvation. You came for salvation.

You don't know that you know Christ. You don't know that you've ever come to get your sins forgiven. Then I'm going to say a prayer. It's not the prayer that saves you. It's your belief in Jesus Christ. You've seen what you needed to see. You've heard what you needed to hear.

And now you're ready to turn back. Before I do this, if there's any church leaders, prayer warriors in the house, y'all come up and touch somebody. It's the body of Christ. If you need salvation, repeat after me and believe it for yourself. Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. And I'm in need of a savior.

I pray you be that savior today. I believe you lived a perfect life. You died a sinner's death and you raised from the dead for me. Lord, I accept it. I ask for your grace. I ask for your mercy. I give you my life. Cover me, Jesus. And help me now to live for you.

For all of those who come up to the front, you need prayer. You want to rededicate your turning back. Lord Jesus, we lift up those that are here and online that are turning back to you. They've seen what they needed to see. Lord, I pray that you help them keep going until their change comes, but not go to a priest, but the priest.

You are the true purity inspector. Heal us on the outside. Heal us on the inside. Heal our minds. Heal our emotions. Heal our children, heal our marriages. Lord, we return to you. And help us to overflow in gratitude in the house of God. And we'll be careful to continue to give you the glory and the praise and the honor with a loud voice in Jesus name. from all God's people said, "Hey,