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Well, good morning. 
So glad to see you all sharing 

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your original moments. 
Are there any Forest Frank fans?

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I once was down, but now I'm no 
you all. 

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Oh, a few of you. 
OK? 

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A few of you. 
I do. 

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I do enjoy Forest Frank's 
energy, right? 

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He does deliver every time and I
really appreciate the movement 

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in that song. 
I once was down, but now I'm 

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thank you for that because our 
our whole theme in the Arise 

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series is this movement that 
that we were down, but God has 

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lifted us up. 
God is even inviting us up. 

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He says arise sometimes in the 
move of faith. 

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We have to deal with our 
situation 1st and we have to 

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come with grips to grips with 
what our reality is. 

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That can be difficult at times 
because when God does show up 

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and ask us what do we want, 
we're like, I did not expect you

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to ask me what I wanted. 
Don't you know what I want? 

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God? 
But God asked, what do you want 

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me to do for you? 
This is a really interesting 

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move on the part of God. 
But we see it many times in 

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Jesus life, and we see it in his
experience. 

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An encounter with a man named 
Bartimaeus. 

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Sometimes, as in Luke, 
Bartimaeus is just the blind 

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man, and so we're going to read 
his experience of encountering 

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Jesus from Luke chapter 18. 
But first, the Scripture tells 

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us Jesus took the 12 aside and 
told them we are going up to 

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Jerusalem and everything that is
written about the prophets or by

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the prophets about the Son of 
Man will be fulfilled. 

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He will be delivered over to the
Gentiles. 

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They will mock him, insult him, 
and spit on him. 

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They will flog him and kill him.
On the third day, he will rise 

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again. 
The disciples did not understand

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any of this. 
Its meaning was hidden from them

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and they did not know what he 
was talking about. 

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As Jesus approached Jericho, a 
blind man was sitting by the 

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roadside begging. 
When he heard the crowd going 

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by, he asked what was happening.
They told him Jesus of Nazareth 

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is passing by. 
He called out Jesus, son of 

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David, have mercy on me. 
Those who led the way rebuked 

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him and told him to be quiet, 
but he shouted all the more, Son

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of David, have mercy on me. 
Son of David, have mercy on me. 

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Jesus stopped and ordered the 
man to be brought to him. 

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When he came near, Jesus asked 
him, What do you want me to do 

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for you, Lord? 
I want to see, he replied. 

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Jesus said to him, Receive your 
sight. 

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Your faith has healed you 
immediately. 

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He received his sight and 
followed Jesus, praising God. 

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When all the people saw it, they
also praised God. 

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His name is Bartimaeus. 
He's on the Jericho Rd. which 

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the Jericho Rd. literally does 
go up to Jerusalem. 

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When Jesus said we were going up
to Jerusalem, he wasn't kidding.

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It was just going to be a steady
rising walk all the way to 

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Jerusalem. 
It was the common route of the 

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pilgrims who were going to 
Passover in Jerusalem. 

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No matter where they lived 
around Israel, they would go up 

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to Jerusalem. 
Jesus is going up by the Jericho

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Rd. 
As you may remember, the Jericho

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Rd. is where Jericho, the Old 
City, had fallen and so the 

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ruins of that city is what they 
would have passed by on the 

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Jericho Rd. 
On the way they would have come 

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close to the new Jericho, the 
new city, the new place of 

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Jericho where wealthy people 
lived outside the city of 

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Jerusalem. 
Maybe they kept a summer home 

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there, a second home. 
The wealthy and affluent 

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religious leaders and others 
would have had their place 

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there. 
Not a bad place to beg, if you 

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were a beggar. 
If you were in that class of 

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people considered Expendables, 
then you would want to be close,

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to be where you could be 
noticed. 

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And so, somehow Bartimaeus had 
made his way to the road and sat

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down. 
Maybe put a cloth out in front 

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of him, hoping that someone 
would give him a few alms or 

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something to eat. 
That was his place. 

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But Bartimaeus is a surprising 
character because he seems to 

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know something about Jesus that 
others don't know. 

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When he noticed, hey, there's 
some kind of disturbance coming 

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up the road, there's some kind 
of excitement among the pilgrims

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here, he asked them, hey, what's
going on? 

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What's going on here? 
He couldn't see it with his own 

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eyes. 
And someone said, oh, Jesus of 

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Nazareth, that teacher, that 
prophet, that Jesus from 

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Nazareth is coming up the road. 
And so immediately he begins to 

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cry out, Jesus, son of David, 
have mercy on me. 

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This is a really interesting 
phrase for him to use because it

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wasn't what the common people 
would have used if Jesus at that

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point, they would have just 
said, oh, this is Jesus the 

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teacher or Jesus the miracle 
worker who's from Nazareth. 

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But Bartimaeus calls out with a 
sense of faith. 

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It's really interesting that he 
has this insight about Jesus, 

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the son of David. 
It's a messianic title that 

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Bartimaeus couldn't have just 
known on his own. 

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It's sort of in that same 
category as when Jesus asked 

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Peter and the disciples, who do 
you say I am? 

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And Peter said, oh, you are the 
Son of God, the Messiah. 

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And Jesus says to Peter, well, 
you couldn't have come up with 

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this on your own. 
This has been revealed to you by

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my Father in heaven. 
And so we must assume as well 

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that somehow Bartimaeus had 
heard the stories of Jesus, and 

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he'd put 1 + 1 + 2 + 3, plus the
prophecies, plus the promise 

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given to David that he would 
have someone on the throne who 

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was from his lineage. 
And it would be an eternal 

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throne, not just a throne in 
Jerusalem, but it would be in 

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the Kingdom of God. 
And so this messianic promise, 

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somehow Bartimaeus who can't 
see, has insight. 

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He has an insight from God about
Jesus. 

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He has the eyes of faith. 
This is the terminology that 

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Paul used to speak of people and
to even pray for the church. 

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He says, I keep asking that God,
the God of our Lord Jesus 

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Christ, the glorious Father, may
give you the spirit of wisdom 

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and revelation so that you may 
know Him better. 

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I pray that the eyes of your 
heart may be enlightened in 

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order that you may know the hope
to which He has called you, that

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the eyes of your heart might be 
opened. 

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Thomas would later say, unless I
see, I cannot believe. 

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And Jesus said, blessed are all 
those who never see but still 

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believe. 
And so there must be some aspect

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and element of knowing that 
comes via faith. 

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Faith is a way of knowing, and 
it's a spiritual transaction 

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that's been enacted by God. 
We are a people of faith, 

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therefore we are a people of 
seeing with our heart, with the 

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mind's eye. 
And Bartimaeus seems to have had

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a little bit of this. 
In that moment. 

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He might not have known 
everything about Jesus yet. 

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He might not have known 
everything about his life yet, 

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but he knew something about 
Jesus. 

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And so he says have mercy on me,
that the son of David would hold

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a position of authority and 
could have mercy on him. 

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So he says have mercy on me. 
That is his cry, and it came 

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from a place of a little bit of 
faith in his life. 

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Now, as we go through the story,
it's really interesting to note 

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the characters at play and Luke 
sort of abbreviates here with 

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the the leaders of the pack, the
people who are out in front, the

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people who are walking ahead of 
Jesus. 

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And they were really proud to be
in front of Jesus of Nazareth on

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the way. 
Have you ever been with those 

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who walk fast? 
We like to be upfront. 

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We like to walk fast. 
I think Jesus was a little more 

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leisurely, sometimes purposeful,
but leisurely, always taking 

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notice. 
But the leaders of the pack are 

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resisting the cries of faith. 
Those who led the way rebuked 

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the blind man and told him to be
quiet. 

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In other words, they said shush.
They shushed him hush, but he 

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shouted all the more. 
Have you ever tried to tell an 

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excited and delighted child not 
to squeal? 

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Where'd she go, by the way? 
You, you can't manage it. 

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And somehow there was activated 
in the heart of Bartimaeus. 

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I shall not be shushed. 
I will call out. 

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Why do the leaders of the pack 
resist faith? 

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Why do we resist the cry of 
faith? 

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Why of those of us who know 
Jesus and have been hanging out 

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with him, who are walking on 
ahead, so glad to be a part of 

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his life and his journey? 
Why do we resist the cry of 

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faith? 
Why is it reflexive in us to 

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sort of hush the enthusiasm of 
others for God, for faith? 

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Is it that we're embarrassed and
a little judge mental? 

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You're breaking the rules here. 
Shush. 

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Maybe we're like Eli, who was 
watching a woman named Hannah 

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pray and just weep and cry and 
call out to God. 

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She seemed to be breaking all 
the rules of propriety. 

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And he accuses her and says, oh,
you must be drunk. 

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And she says, oh, I'm not drunk,
but I'm desperate in front of 

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God that he would give me a son.
It was reflexive for Eli to 

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shush her. 
Maybe sometimes it's just it's 

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inconvenient and we're a little 
self important. 

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You're an inconvenience like 
you. 

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Don't you know that Jesus has 
greater things to do than deal 

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with you? 
And sometimes our own sense of 

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elevated self importance causes 
us to miss the small quiet 

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person, the person who seems 
expendable when they all of a 

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sudden get excited. 
It was inconvenient to them. 

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Do you know the disciples had 
fallen for this before? 

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There were a group of parents 
who brought to their children 

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and said, we want to bring our 
children to be blessed by Jesus.

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And the disciples were like, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 

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Jesus doesn't have time for 
children. 

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You know, he's about serious 
things. 

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And Jesus rebuked them and said,
let the children come to me. 

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The children were insignificant 
in the mind of the disciples at 

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that point. 
They were sort of puffed up. 

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This is the danger of leading 
the pack is that we get taken up

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with a bit of hubris in our life
and we're moving fast and 

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missing the people that Jesus 
wants to touch. 

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Now, fortunately, Bartimaeus 
kept calling out. 

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What was he saying? 
Son of David, have mercy on me. 

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He just kept shouting loud and 
finally Jesus noticed. 

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Jesus engages. 
Jesus stopped and ordered the 

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man to be brought to him, and 
when he came near, Jesus asked 

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him, What do you want me to do 
for you? 

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In fact, that could have been 
the question, that they were 

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afraid of What this blind man 
wants to ask, we're not sure if 

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Jesus will do. 
But Jesus was willing to stop 

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and hear him out. 
I think sometimes in the church 

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we get anxious about prayers for
healing. 

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We get anxious for the person 
who says I've heard about Jesus 

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and I want to ask you to pray 
for me. 

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You know Jesus, don't you? 
So why won't you pray for my 

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healing? 
And we get anxious. 

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Why? 
Because sometimes we've walked 

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with Jesus for quite a while and
we've not seen a healing yet. 

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Sometimes we've walked with 
Jesus quite a while and and we 

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have a long list of prayers that
we've asked that don't seem 

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answered yet. 
And so we're afraid of over 

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promising and under delivering. 
We'd rather under promise and 

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hope that somehow Jesus would 
over deliver, but that 

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opportunity is not available to 
us unless we will stop and bring

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them to Jesus and let them 
express their faith. 

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What do you want me to do for 
you? 

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The prayer team may ask, What do
you want me to pray for you? 

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Which is your invitation in that
engagement to discern what is it

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from faith that I'm asking God 
to do? 

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Pete Gregg says that many times 
in the life of 24/7 prayer they 

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have asked God for miracles and 
they've happened. 

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But they also, each of them have
a long list of moments and very 

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deep and serious prayers in 
their own life when they've 

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asked God for miracles. 
And it's like, no or wait. 

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And so, yes, as the church, we 
must exercise care and faith. 

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And we must give opportunity for
someone else's faith in God to 

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rise up, to be expressed, to be 
said. 

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And maybe we'll find our own 
sense of desperation, like, oh 

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God, I hope you hear this prayer
and heal. 

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I've had moments like that even 
in this congregation where we've

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prayed for healing. 
And in my own heart, I'm 

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wondering, I don't know if God 
will do that. 

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00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,400
And then they come back and say 
God did it. 

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And we've had the experience of 
praying for healing and having 

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someone come back and say God 
didn't do it. 

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But I have immense peace and 
courage for my life. 

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He's given me something else. 
But as the leaders of the pack, 

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as the people who are walking on
a head with Jesus to Jerusalem, 

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we must take care and note of 
those who come and say, Do you 

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think God would care for me? 
Do you think God would heal me? 

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Do you think God would help me? 
That's in the moment where we 

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join them with our own cry of 
faith. 

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Incredibly, Jesus heals the man.
Jesus said to him, receive your 

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sight. 
Such an interesting phrase. 

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Receive your sight. 
It's still required on the part 

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of the man, an openness to 
receive it. 

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And then Jesus affirms the man 
as an agent of his own healing. 

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This feels really hard and 
dangerous for us as a church. 

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If it hadn't happened, would 
Jesus blame him and say, well, 

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you don't have enough faith? 
But Jesus honored every little 

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bit of faith this man had, and 
he heals him. 

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Faith is a big deal. 
Faith is that move in our lives 

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that says, I will trust you. 
Faith is that move that says I 

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will call out to you. 
Faith says I don't have anything

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else in life to be a embarrassed
about. 

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I'm just a blind man wandering 
along on the side of the road in

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the ditch, hoping that someone 
would extend their hand to me. 

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And now I've taken a little bit 
of action to get myself in front

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of God. 
Jesus, the son of David, Helen 

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Keller says this, or she said 
this. 

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She was both blind and deaf, and
she said the only thing worse 

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than being blind is having sight
but no vision. 

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The only thing worse than being 
blind is having sight but no 

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vision. 
This was said in the context of 

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having no dream for your life, 
no ambition for your life, no 

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movement for your life. 
But here I want to apply it and 

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say the only thing worse than 
being blind is having no vision 

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of God in your life, of having 
no vision of Jesus in the truth 

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and majesty and beauty of who he
is. 

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That's worse than being blind 
physically. 

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Spiritual blindness is an 
everlasting and eternal 

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devastating ailment, and we seem
to have a lot of spiritual 

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blindness around us. 
It is the common ailment of our 

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time. 
It's the common ailment of our 

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generation, seeing but not 
believing. 

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In fact, it was the problem even
for the disciples. 

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The disciples are wandering 
around with Jesus on their way 

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to Jerusalem with a level of 
blindness about them. 

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The writers of the Gospel 
accounts include these 

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statements from Jesus where 
periodically along the way he 

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would tell them, hey, I'm going 
to Jerusalem and things are not 

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going to go well in Jerusalem. 
In fact, the religious leaders 

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and authorities are going to 
take the Son of Man and do with 

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them as they will. 
They will embarrass him. 

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They will seek to take him down,
and they will kill him, but he 

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will rise again. 
And so they're on their way to 

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Jerusalem. 
They're only now a couple weeks 

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from this event, and the 
disciples don't get it. 

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In fact, Luke says the disciples
did not understand any of this. 

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Have you ever been to a lecture 
and the professor is speaking 

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and you're like, I don't 
understand any of this? 

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In fact, that's the moment the 
disciples were having as Jesus 

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took them aside and told them 
something privately. 

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He's teaching them. 
And they're like, I don't 

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understand a word you just said.
Jesus. 

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This makes no sense to me. 
It didn't make any sense to them

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to imagine that the Messiah 
would suffer a terrible and 

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apparent defeat. 
It didn't make sense to them 

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00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,520
that the the Messiah, the Son of
David, would go to Jerusalem to 

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take his throne and he would be 
taking outside the city and put 

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on a cross. 
It didn't make sense to them. 

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It didn't make sense that the 
man that they so loved and had 

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given their life to and had 
learned so much from and who 

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kept pointing to them to the 
realities of God all around them

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in the Kingdom of God. 
It didn't make sense to them 

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that others would turn their 
backs on him and kill him, that 

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Jesus would be treated as all 
the prophets had been. 

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00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:07,840
It did not make sense. 
They had no category for it, so 

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they did not understand. 
In fact, its meaning, Luke says,

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was hidden from them. 
They did not know what he was 

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00:26:16,360 --> 00:26:22,880
talking about. 
They were blind to the reality 

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of the Holy Week and the Passion
of Jesus. 

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00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:33,120
They were blind to what the 
suffering of Jesus was going to 

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00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:37,600
mean for them. 
They were blind to it. 

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They couldn't get it. 
Yet this is a common situation 

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for us. 
Maybe you have even walked with 

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Jesus for quite some time and as
we enter in the next few weeks, 

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you'll be like this whole issue 
of a cross and death and dying 

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of going down before coming up. 
Makes no sense to me. 

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00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:13,200
I want my life to only be up and
to the right, bigger and better.

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This makes no sense to me. 
One, that had happened to Jesus 

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00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:24,280
and that two, that it could 
happen to me that the great 

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movements of our life or 
sometimes down before we're up. 

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00:27:34,050 --> 00:27:39,250
The reality and the person of 
Jesus is who much of our world 

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00:27:39,730 --> 00:27:47,050
seems to be blind to. 
It's such a gift that Bartimaeus

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00:27:47,130 --> 00:27:50,450
believed. 
He believed twice. 

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He believed when he called out 
Jesus, son of David, have mercy 

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on me. 
He believed again when he 

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00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:04,480
answered the question. 
Lord, I want to see. 

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00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:14,640
Did you notice that he bowed the
knee in front of Jesus with his 

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words? 
Lord, I want to see. 

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00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:38,560
The apostle Paul noted that when
he was bringing the gospel to 

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the people of Corinth and to 
that whole region, he noticed a 

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00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:48,440
reality, and he wrote about it 
this way. 

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00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:54,720
The God of this age has blinded 
the minds of unbelievers 

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previous to this, he said. 
It's almost as if the gospel, 

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the beauty and majesty of Jesus,
is veiled to them. 

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00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:06,280
They can't yet see it. 
It's behind a veil. 

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00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:11,240
The God of this age has blinded 
the minds of unbelievers so that

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they cannot see the light of the
gospel that displays the glory 

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00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,600
of Christ who is the image of 
God. 

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00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,080
For what we preach is not 
ourselves, but Jesus Christ as 

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00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:27,600
Lord and ourselves as your 
servants for Jesus sake. 

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00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:33,520
For God who said let light shine
out of darkness, made His light 

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00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:37,560
shine in our hearts to give us 
the light of the knowledge of 

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00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:43,000
God's glory displayed in the 
face of Christ. 

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00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:50,800
What a moment for Bartimaeus 
when Jesus said your faith has 

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00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:57,000
healed you and his eyes were 
seeing and the first thing 

340
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:03,920
Bartimaeus saw would have been 
the face of Jesus in front of 

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00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:16,640
him to see the face of God. 
This is our faith that Jesus is 

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00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:24,000
God, and those who looked upon 
his face saw him and lived. 

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00:30:33,890 --> 00:30:36,610
So how shall we live in front of
Christ? 

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00:30:36,610 --> 00:30:40,690
I'm going to invite the worship 
team to come on down and I'm 

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00:30:40,690 --> 00:30:42,730
going to invite all of you to 
stand. 

346
00:30:43,050 --> 00:30:48,850
And we're going to recall that 
prayer once again given on the 

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00:30:48,850 --> 00:30:55,400
wall of a 5th century monk cell 
in the deserts of Egypt. 

348
00:30:56,240 --> 00:31:01,360
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, 
have mercy on me, a Sinner. 

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00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:07,520
This is the cry of Bartimaeus. 
It is a cry of faith. 

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00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:16,200
How many of you would say, I 
know I need healing of my 

351
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:20,520
spiritual blindness? 
Maybe you would even be like 

352
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,240
Augustine who was following 
Jesus. 

353
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:27,640
And yet Augustine, when trying 
to share his life and writings 

354
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:32,760
with others, said, let the 
reader travel with me when she 

355
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:38,520
shares fully in my convictions. 
Let her search with me when she 

356
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:42,720
shares my doubts. 
Let him return to me when he 

357
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:47,080
recognizes that he is in error. 
Let Him call me back to the 

358
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:50,720
right path when he sees that I 
am in error. 

359
00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:54,120
In this way. 
Let us advance along the road of

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00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:58,880
charity towards Him of whom it 
is written. 

361
00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:05,040
You know, sometimes you may feel
like I don't know enough yet 

362
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:07,040
about Jesus to talk a lot about 
Him. 

363
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:12,120
I'm the blind leading the blind.
I just go from one ditch to the 

364
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,840
other, back and forth, hoping 
I'll make it down the road and 

365
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:22,840
someone won't run over me. 
But in our life together, Paul 

366
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:28,720
says, it's the church we pray, O
God, send your Spirit, that the 

367
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:33,240
eyes of our heart and mind might
be enlightened so that we can 

368
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:36,040
see the hope to which we have 
been called. 

369
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:40,040
And so I know I have blind 
spots. 

370
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:48,080
Even now I have blind spots in 
my life where I still need Jesus

371
00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:55,680
to lift the veil and help me 
see, to help me understand, to 

372
00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:01,160
help me walk with him into a 
greater healing and greater 

373
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:05,320
purpose for my life. 
So let's hold out our hands and 

374
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:10,040
pray this prayer, this ancient 
prayer again as a congregation. 

375
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:17,280
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, 
have mercy on me, a Sinner. 

376
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:24,120
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, 
have mercy on me, a Sinner. 

377
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:30,880
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, 
have mercy on me, a Sinner.