The Miracle That Christians Need - Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Maranatha Shabiba Conference 2021)

Alright. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this conference. I'm sure many can testify in this room tonight that if there is a way to describe how we've been feeling, the word rest comes to mind. We just feel rested in your presence.

We feel a grace as we are in the presence of one another. And, Lord, we pray that as your word continues to shower over us, we would feel a greater grace, Lord. And, Lord, as we speak about this particular miracle, this specific encounter, we pray that it would be replicated tonight. You would perform this very same miracle in the hearts of of your people in this place. Lord, I am weak, and it's very likely that many people in this place are weak because of a long weekend, and our bodies are demanding so much of us even now.

But, Lord, we pray that you would quicken us. Quicken us to receive from you, Lord. Let not our flesh betray us now. Protect us, Lord, from any distraction, even our own, and arrest every thought that would, resist these truths or not hear these truths, Lord. And so as we've been praying every session, let the power of your Holy Spirit Lord, if your Spirit doesn't come, we will not be changed.

We know that you are in us but we also know that you can come upon us. And we ask that you would come upon the ministry of this word so that it would not be delivered in word only but in power and in full conviction and in the Holy Spirit. And so we surrender this time to you. Thank you for the souls that you touched last night. Thank you for the word that you've been giving us every single session.

Now, Lord, speak and have your way again. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. The miracles of Jesus. The miracles of Jesus. You and I have read them.

We have heard them. We've memorized them from Sunday school up if you grew up in the church, and the wonderful, glorious, powerful interventions of the Son of God while he was on the earth give us many reasons why we should know them. One of those reasons is that you see the sheer compassion of Jesus where he is willing to use an otherworldly power to alleviate the pain of those who are in suffering and those who are in misery. And that is one thing that we see is compassion. You read that he had compassion over the crowds.

There are some times when you read specific miracles, and I'm moved to tears, especially when a leper would come to Jesus. Are you willing to make me clean? Jesus says, I am willing. I I can almost hear it when I read it in the gospel of Matthew. More importantly though, these miracles, especially specific ones, do not just show us his compassion.

They declare and they leave no room for debate about his divine nature. One miracle comes to mind regarding this when those 12 disciples were nervous and anxious losing their hair on that ship while it was being tossed to and fro by a raging sea, and there is the precious lamb of God taking a nap. And as he's sleeping there, like how we feel sometimes in life, they came to Jesus. Do you not see? Do you not care that we're perishing?

Oh, it's all about me. Right? Jesus, do you not see that I'm perishing? Don't you see that I'm lonely? Don't you see that I have needs?

And Jesus gets up from his nap, walks to the end of the boat, and with one word silences the wind, the sea, and everything in between. And these men said to themselves, who is this man? And that would have been a fascinating sight for anybody, but for the Jewish mind, especially because here's their rabbi, their teacher, who eats and drinks and sleeps, and all for a sudden he's performing a work that according to Psalm one zero seven is only attributed to God himself. Listen to these words, and you can imagine that if you knew your Bible back then, it would have shocked you. It says in Psalm one hundred and seven twenty eight to 29, Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. That's attributed to Yahweh. Jesus performs the very thing that is only attributed to God, and you can imagine how those disciples on that ship that probably heard this psalm in the temple were like, who is this man? Who is this man? But even more than that, when we read certain miracles, there's another reason for them.

It goes beyond just showing his compassion and his love, which is an amazing thing. It goes beyond him just defining and demonstrating that he is, in fact, God in the flesh. When we see Jesus performing certain miracles, there are times when he is using that miracle to illustrate a spiritual principle. He uses the miraculous in the physical sense to parallel what you and I can experience in the soul, in our faith, in our walk with him. And that is certainly true with one miracle that we're gonna discover today in the gospel of Mark.

And I encourage you to turn your Bibles there in Mark chapter eight beginning here in verse 22. You know what's amazing about this miracle in the gospel of Mark? Many things, and here's one of them. It is the single miracle that is found in this gospel alone. You will not see this miracle written in John.

You won't see it spelled out in Matthew, and you will not see it in the gospel of Luke. This specific miracle that took place in just a few short verses happened only as recorded by Mark himself. And as you and I read these verses, we're gonna consider at least three things that we're gonna take away from this. So let's read beginning in verse 22 in Mark chapter eight. And they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.

And he took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the village. And we had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. Now in these few short verses, we're gonna see three things. Number one, the faith of this blind man's friends. Number two, the faith of the blind man himself. And lastly, Jesus Christ and his handling of the faith of this blind man.

Consider verse 22 again. They came to Bethsaida, him and the disciples, and some people brought to him, being Jesus, a blind man and begged him to touch him. You know, you read a verse like this, like we do in many scriptures, and we are we are quick to just kinda ignore the realistic possibilities of what's going on behind the scenes. We kinda take it at face value, and we don't sit and meditate long enough to try to to to realize what is happening, perhaps potentially even, that led to this moment. Jesus and his crew come to this town, and they are familiar with this town, and the people of this town are familiar with him enough for these people to realize Jesus Christ is here, and we know, we've seen it before.

He can heal the sick. And so they bring to him a person that is blind. And it is always a hard stirring thing to witness in the Scriptures people that love someone else enough to make the effort to bring them to Jesus. And that's what they're doing essentially here. But do we consider, like, what it is for us?

I mean, they didn't just show up. They didn't just come and appear out of nowhere and say, Jesus, could you heal this blind man? I wonder what kind of time they set apart for this meeting. I wonder what kind of energy was spent. I wonder what kind of sacrifices with other plans were put aside.

I wonder what these people had to do. Perhaps. I don't wanna speak for the bible. I'm just thinking. Perhaps even to sit with this blind man and try to convince him, you know, Jesus can heal you.

I don't know about that. No. Jesus can heal you. Listen. He's in town.

We don't know how long he's gonna be here for. Why don't you get up and come with us, and let's just see what can happen? These people, without a shadow of a doubt, made some level of sacrifice to make sure that their friend, that this individual, would be exposed to the loving person of Jesus Christ. And it is a clear reminder for you and I that if we have any hint of stirring in our hearts to see someone come to Christ, it will not happen apart from some cost on our part. It will.

We cannot just say, Lord Jesus, do this work, and Lord Jesus, bring them in and sit in our pews and warm our hands. There has to be a level of participation. And sometimes the only thing that is holding back somebody from receiving a touch from the gospel is our willingness to do whatever it takes to make sure that they're exposed to it. And these men are willing to do whatever it takes so that this man would at least come into contact with Jesus. There is no such thing as us seeing a harvest for the kingdom of God if we have a casual attitude about how it should happen.

It's gonna require guts. It's gonna require blood. It's gonna require disappointment. I know some guys from our own church, when when we try to bring people to our church, they would have to drive so long to go pick someone up, and sometimes they would cancel. Sometimes they would cancel the night before.

Sometimes they would cancel the morning up. All of that is part of this process. It takes something from us to bring people to Jesus. And once this group led this man to Christ, they don't just bring him to Jesus. Look at the request that they make.

They ask Jesus to touch him. Jesus, can you touch our friend, please? Because love is also seen for souls, not just in our efforts to bring them to see Jesus, hear about Jesus, but to inquire on their behalf and say, Lord Jesus, touch him. Lord Jesus, I'm standing in the gap and I'm interceding. Would you do a work in my friend?

Would you do a work in my sister? Would you do a work in my mother? You've heard it before. Jesus loves us enough to pray for us, and you and I are proving our love to others when we take the time to pray for them. And what we see here is is actually something that is not just demanded of us, but is filled with so much promise, with power.

I know there are different people in this place that hold different soteriology in terms of how someone comes to faith. But if you were to ask me how does prayer work in this realm of God's sovereignty and our us having the free agency that he's given us, how does my prayers for someone else work? Again, you might disagree. I'm sure we can still worship together. How does God's sovereignty and my prayers on behalf of someone else work without him infringing upon their free will, but still wanting to see them come to Christ even when they don't wanna come to Christ.

How does that work? How does that work? And I believe what happens when a man prays for someone else who's not praying for themselves, God honors that man's prayer, and what he does for that lost soul, what he does for that backslidden person is that he will intensify his conviction. He will manifest his power and his love and his mercy in greater ways that would not have happened if you had not prayed for that person. Disagree with me if you'd like, but I think there's some backing in scripture for that.

One of the greatest examples of that is seen with Abraham and his nephew, Lot. There is Lot in sin soaked Sodom and Gomorrah, drinking sin, being surrounded by sin. Yes, scripture tells us that he was a righteous man, but we also know that he was a person that shouldn't have been in Sodom. And what happens? Two angels come into town.

They come to his address. They take him by the hand, they pull him and his family out, and then when you see the whole place come to ash, the scripture tells us in Genesis 19, near the end of the chapter, that Lot had been delivered from Sodom, but how? Because God remembered Abraham. God remembered Abraham. Abraham wasn't in Sodom.

Abraham wasn't in the same house as Lot. Abraham was at a distant place standing before God one on one pleading on behalf of the righteous of Sodom. And what happened? God was willing to send two angels to bring Lot out of his house. And here's where the free will comes in.

Even though God extended his mercy to Lot, he grabbed them by the hand. Yes. That sounds like force, doesn't it? No. Because when he says you're coming out, make sure you do one thing.

What was that? Don't look back. That's the choice. There's the choice. And his wife made the wrong choice, and she turned and became a pillar of salt.

Regardless, what a wonderful thought to know that if someone is not willing to listen to my preaching, there is a God who's willing to listen to my praying. What a wonderful thought to know that if I stand in the gap for someone, if I really believe in this thing enough See, we don't include prayer in our evangelistic plans. It is a great part in evangelism. There's a message of someone that I once knew who passed away, a great evangelist, and he had a sermon that the title alone the title alone convicted me. The title of his sermon was this, If You're Saved, Someone Prayed for You.

Interesting thought. Right? If you're saved, someone prayed for you, and he began to just give anecdotal stories of people who have been saved because someone in the background was praying for them. Now whether that's true or not for every case, that's I don't know. That's up for debate, I guess.

But it's still true in light of the scriptures. When you pray for someone, really, no matter where they are, even though you don't have access to them face to face, God is willing to hear the righteous man's prayer, and it has great power. And he's willing to even go to the extent of sending two angels to someone's nephew to bring them out of that place. And what we see here is that these men come to Jesus and they pray in some regard, touch him. Touch him.

But we learned something else about prayer. They brought him. They brought him and they asked for him to be touched. But look at the language. They begged him.

They begged him. Like, if that doesn't spell holy desperation, I don't know what does. But how do you go to begging? How do you go to a place where you're you're so yearning for something to happen in someone else's life When you are fully convinced that man's only remedy is Jesus, that's when you're convinced. When you realize that God, God alone has the ability to transform a life no matter what kind of trauma, no matter what kind of horrific things they endured in their childhood.

When you're truly convinced that the only sole remedy is Christ himself, you will birth begging in your life. You will birth begging. Let's be honest. The reason why many of us don't pray is because we don't really believe in prayer. Let me prove it to you.

If you know at least one person that you love dearly and you know that they're not saved, you wouldn't miss one prayer meeting at your church. You wanna miss one prayer meeting at your church if you truly believe that your brother was going to hell. You wanna miss one prayer meeting in your church, that one weekly night prayer meeting where you can join with the faith of others and intercede for your lost mom if you really believe that prayer works. They believed prayer could work. They believed that Jesus was willing to touch, so they begged him.

They begged him not because Jesus is reluctant. They begged him because they had passion and they had desire and they had faith. But notice, they begged them to do what? Touch him. It's a beautiful thing.

It's coming from a sincere heart. But what I see here is that they are familiar, perhaps, of how Jesus has healed in the past. Jesus has been to Bethsaida before, as we're about to learn, and perhaps they've seen Jesus touching the sick, touching the demon possessed. And so they realized when Jesus touches someone, they're healed. And so they made the simple request, would you touch him?

Now what's interesting is Jesus doesn't answer it the way they want it to be answered. Right? Because he grabs the man by the hand, takes him out of the village, spits in his eyes, and then touches him. What a wonderful picture of what it's like when we pray sometimes. Because oftentimes when we pray, we don't ask God for something, we also tell him how to do it.

This is what happens to believers. We put conditions to our cries. We have a specific method of how it's going to play out. We think that it has to happen with the series of events that we think it should happen. And the thing is, as much as we might have to be specific with our request to God, we have to be open to how he will perform it.

And that includes something that will make you cringe. You ready? You're not gonna like it. Timing. Timing.

This took longer than they anticipated. Why couldn't Jesus just wave his hand over the man? They were already in Bethsaida. Why take him out? Why spit on his eyes?

Why lay on his hands lay your hands on him and then actually doing it again? Why can't you just you raised the dead with one word and you had to lay your hands twice for a blind man? I can guarantee that you will know nothing but frustration in your prayer life if you have conditions to how Jesus should answer your prayers, of when, how, who. Oh, you're setting yourself. Why?

Because he has something better. He knows you better than you know you. He knows the timing better than you you think the timing should be. And that's exactly what is occurring here. These men are setting conditions, and Jesus honors their faith enough where he says, thank you for your suggestion, but I'm gonna do it the way I know I have to do it.

Because that's what sometimes praying is. We're giving God ideas. Right? Lord, I know what I want. Could you make it happen, please?

And the Lord looks down, and if he sees a faith enough and he sees a humility enough, he's willing to bypass our simplicity and bypass our demands and say, I'm gonna do it my way. And I was thinking about this the other day. Have you ever had this happen to you? I it's happened to me. You're going through something.

Here is a long season where there's not something being answered, and it seems so painful. It seems so long. It seems so wearisome. And then when God kind he finally comes through, you know what happens? You end up apologizing the way you treated him.

Lord, I'm sorry I doubted you. I'm sorry I did it this way. I'm sorry It's amazing. It's amazing how we are stubborn sometimes even in our praying, but these men had enough faith to do that and God honored that. And so we transitioned from the faith of faith of these men to the faith of the blind man himself.

This blind man had the faith enough to do what? To listen to his friends and be led by them to this Jesus fellow. He himself took that time and he himself made his way to be able to be led perhaps one in front, one from behind, and to be guided towards Jesus. But what's amazing here is that he doesn't just trust his friends about Jesus, he comes to the point where he trusts Jesus for himself. You know why?

Because Jesus is there with his 12 and as these people brought this man, what does Christ do? He extends his hand without saying a word and he says, let's go. This man is blind. This man can't see a thing. This man can't see the first step forward.

He's never met this Jesus before and all of a sudden now this stranger, can you imagine what it felt like on his hand, Is being pulled and led and directed and guided by by someone he's never known. And there is no hint of petition. There is no sense of discomfort. There is no idea of protest. All he's doing is quietly letting Jesus lead him.

Isn't this not a beautiful picture of what it's like to walk with Jesus sometimes? The journey of faith, the journey of trusting the Lord where Christ takes you by the hand and you know you're going somewhere, but you don't know where you're going. Because if you wanna obey Jesus, listen very carefully. You wanna live by this book. You wanna say, Lord, let me live for you.

I'll tell you this. It will feel like what this blind man felt like. It will feel like I know I'm going somewhere, but I have no idea where I'm going. You know, the description of faith is given to us in Hebrews 11, and it is this. It is in verse one of Hebrews 11, the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not yet seen.

But in that same chapter that tells us the one definition of faith, the Holy Spirit takes more time to show us in that chapter what faith looks like more than the interpretation of the word. And so you know the Hall of Faith in Hebrews eleven, one example after the other of how faith manifests itself because faith looks like something. It doesn't matter if we get the theological definition right. It has life. It has breath.

It has lungs. And when we come to Abraham's life and we come to Abraham's demonstration of faith, we are told in verse eight of Hebrews 11 something wonderful. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive an inheritance, and he went out, what, not knowing where he was going. Not knowing where he was going. It's okay if you don't know where you're going.

It's okay if you don't know who you're supposed to be with as a marriage partner. It's okay if you don't understand how you're gonna pay your bills next month. That's okay. That's okay only if you're doing your part and you're not being lazy and you're not being unrealistic. If you're doing your part and just simply hanging on the thread of faith, welcome to what it's like sometimes to walk with Jesus.

Obedience will feel like that. And CS Lewis articulated it beautifully when he said that faith is the art of holding onto things when circumstances and feelings contradict. Faith is the art of holding onto things when circumstances and feelings don't line up. And what you have amazingly with people is that the moment something takes too long, they let go of Jesus. I didn't sign up for this.

Actually, you did. You didn't read Hebrews 11, what faith actually looks like. But here's the thing. In the midst of the unknown, you can know one thing, and that's the same thing that this blind man knew. I don't know where I'm going, but I know who's holding my hand.

It's as simple as that. I don't know what I'm going to walk into, but I know that there is one who knows all things, sees all things, and believes the best for me. And so I can trust even though I feel rocks and pebbles and I am walking into unknown territory, Jesus is holding my hand. And if you don't believe that, you will be terrified. But you can know this, that he does it with the compassion and grace, that he does it with this visionless fellow.

He grabs him by the hand. He doesn't grab him by the neck. He doesn't grab him by the ear. He's not kicking him from behind. He grabs him tenderly, graciously, protectively by the hand.

I wonder what he felt in that moment. I wonder how his heart was racing. I wonder what was racing through his mind. But you know what the scripture says in Psalm one thirty nine, that precious Psalm that so many people quote? We're told in verse eight, listen carefully.

If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, what, your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. Your hand shall lead me even when I'm on the mountaintops as though I am in heaven itself and as though I just whisper prayers and God answers. As though the presence of God was like John the Apostle where he laid his head on the bosom.

That's how I feel with Christ. When you're there, he will lead you. And even if you're in the deepest pit that you can even imagine where you can even smell hell itself, his hand is there. So it doesn't matter of the destination. It doesn't matter of the season.

It doesn't matter of the climate. All that matters is who's holding your hand. Some of you look so sad tonight. I don't know why. Did you have a rough afternoon or something?

His hand holds you. Yeah. But I don't see where I'm going. It doesn't matter. He has the eyes.

You don't need the eyes. There will be seasons. Mark my words and you're maybe there right now. Maybe we're all in the same room together. I like to use this phrase where God turns off the lights.

He turns off the lights. God wouldn't do that. Actually, he will. And if you're afraid of the dark, you're not gonna realize an experience that God wants you to experience. God wants to get out of you a worship when you can't see anything.

God wants to get out of you a devotion even when nothing is going your way. God wants to get out of you a simple trust and a smile when the world is wondering how can you stand the way that you're standing, and you say because he's worthy regardless. I didn't sign up for this thing for Jesus to do everything that I want at my time. He's worthy of me regardless. And that's why even Job himself, since he said he can even slay me, and I was still hoping him.

He can destroy my body. He can disintegrate me. He can crush me. He can create boils to rise on my skin where I have to use pottery to scratch in between. He can do whatever he wants, but I know who holds my hand.

Simple as that. And that's why Isaiah fifty ten, if you want the scripture for how God turns off the light, it's right there. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. You know what that's telling me?

That you can fear God, you can obey God, you can love the Messiah, and you can still walk in darkness. Not the darkness of sin, the darkness of a lack of direction. Not the darkness of your iniquity, the darkness of not knowing where I'm going next. No light. No sense of when this is going to take place.

And the one thing that you're called to do is trust in the name of God and rely on him. Rely on him. As you heard the other day, worship him in a way that you can't worship him in heaven, and give him that song and give him that adoration even though you can't see his work in your life. But I don't feel anything out of that. It doesn't matter how you feel.

Many people ordain their worship service to know how they feel. We're not singing for you. We're singing for God. What does he want to hear? What are the things that will please him?

Not what will please you. What will please the ears of the king of kings in heaven. If you don't believe that now, you're gonna be sorely disappointed when you get to heaven when the angels are gonna determine what we're singing, and you're not gonna be able to it's about him. We've made this thing about us, and we wonder why we're so frustrated. Even in our prayer lives, even in and I get it.

There are desires of the heart. There are holy requests, But you have to be able to trust God when he turns off the lights. I would have loved to seen that scene. Here's the friends. They brought him.

They said, Lord, touch him, please. And the Lord doesn't say anything to any of them, including the blind man. He goes and he just walks. And I wonder what those friends were like, like, okay. I guess so.

Alright. And here's this blind man just following Jesus and trusting in him without saying a peep. But then what happens is we see Christ now working with this faith. And if you up to this point are not convinced that the Lord works in different ways at different times with different people, you're gonna be convinced now. Because this is the only miracle, not just only in Mark, this is the only miracle in all the gospels, the only healing miracle that doesn't happen immediately.

It doesn't happen right away. It doesn't happen with one word. It doesn't happen with one touch. It's the only healing miracle in the entire gospels where it happens in stages. It's a process.

And so we have to ask ourselves two questions at least. When you come to this point, why did Jesus not heal him perfectly at once? And the second question is, why did he ask him if he could see anything? Jesus, you know all things. So Jesus doesn't heal him at once.

And even though he doesn't heal him at once, he asked, do you see anything? And here's where your mind can go. Perhaps this miracle was too much for Jesus to handle. Perhaps this miracle was too much of an obstacle for even Christ himself to question his authority over it, so he had to inquire to make sure that it actually worked. And if you know who Jesus is, you know that that option is totally absurd.

It can't even be a consideration. So if it's not a consideration that Jesus didn't know how much virtue would be necessary for this man to be healed, let's ask the question again. Why didn't you just get it over with at once? And this is where we come to the main point, because he's doing it on purpose. He's doing this on purpose.

Why? It would have been much easier and your power would have been proven much greater if you would have done it just immediately. But perhaps the clues surrounding this text will teach us why Jesus did it this way. You guys okay? What happened before this?

What takes place before this miracle? Well, look back at verse 14 down. You have your bibles. Right? And what you see here is that the disciples are traveling after, in the beginning of chapter eight, Jesus feeds the 4,000.

He feeds the 4,000 miraculously, and then they all get on a boat and they're traveling from one place to another, and they come to Bethsaida. But they get on the boat one night, and as they get on the boat, we're told that they only had one loaf of bread. And as they're paddling away and as they're ready to sail, Jesus says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of the leaven of Herod. And they hear leaven, which is an ingredient in bread.

They hear this and they think, Oh, we didn't bring bread. Lord, you reminded us. We should have got more after the miracle. And Jesus rebukes them. He says, what are you guys talking about?

You guys are talking about bread right now? I'm trying to tell you a spiritual truth that you have to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. You have to beware that their doctrine can just a little bit of it come into your life and infect the whole bunch. You're not getting it, and it goes, besides that, are you actually concerned about bread right now? You just witnessed me multiplying bread out of nothing, and here you are worried that you only have one loaf.

Love that he's aware of our conversation? Yeah. He is. Said to them, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand?

Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5,000? How many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?

And they're like stunned. They're like, 12. They just said one word. And the seven of the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, Seven.

And he said to them, Do you not yet understand? And then the miracle happens. The last question before, do you see anything with this blind man? Was him speaking to the disciples, says, do you not yet understand? And so what's happening here is that this moment reveals that although the disciples had their eyes open enough to follow Jesus, their perception of deeper truths was still an issue.

In essence, they themselves suffered from the partial blindness concerning the Lord's teachings and his faithfulness. They knew him enough to follow him, but they didn't know truly who he was and the deeper truths that he wanted to teach them. And so they were essentially showing their need to have their eyes recovered even more. Have you eyes but do not see? Is it any wonder that after this Jesus heals a man who has blindness?

Is there any wonder that after this he doesn't just heal him immediately, but he heals him in a process? Why? Because that's what the disciples needed. The disciples themselves would have to be healed from their partial sight of spiritual things. And just like in this miracle and just like in your life and in mine, it's a progress.

And it takes time. It takes more than one touch from Jesus. It doesn't happen instantaneously. And that is why this miracle doesn't speak about salvation. If you want a miracle that speaks about salvation, go to John nine where that man is born blind like how you and I are born in sin, and it happens immediately.

And I don't know how this all happened, but I know one thing. I was once blind, but now I see. This man is illustrating the picture of sanctification, that you and I are not just in need of one touch from Jesus but more than one touch from Jesus. And he needs to recover us and heal us and unveil things to us more and more and more. And I can tell you this.

Every single one of us in this place are in need of another touch from the Lord. In fact, if we're honest, we need that touch every single day. Lord, you need to heal my eyes. You need to help me see as you see because there is a way in which Christ longs for his children to perceive the world. And let me give you an example.

Here is a man that saw men and he didn't see them as men. I wonder what else was distorted to him. He saw men walking like trees. And you know what Jesus wanted to make sure? I wanna make sure that I touch you enough that you see people rightly.

And the Lord wants to do the same in us so that we would see people as he sees people. We would see our brothers and sisters as we should see them, that we would be able to love them to the degree that God wants us to love them, forgive them. Some of you have not forgiven somebody perhaps, and it has been a decade or more. You need your eyes to be touched. Some of us need to see the world events.

Some of us need to see what we've grown up with. They had Jewish traditions that they needed to be healed from. You would be amazed to know how many people who are who are struggling to come to know Christ, but what's holding them back? The veil of traditionalism. And the main point is not that we all need to be touched because Jesus's point is deeper than this.

You ready? Pay attention now because this might speak to some of you. The main point is not all of us need a touch. That is true. We need to touch until we come into that place where that veil is completely removed, and we don't see through a mirror dimly anymore, but we see face to face.

The point of this miracle is this, that they should have seen something by now, but they weren't seeing it. You've been walking with Jesus for this long and you're still not getting it? And that's why he rebukes them. Because there's two things that they didn't understand. The first thing was they didn't understand the teaching of Jesus.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of those who follow Herod. And they're like, oh, bread. We forgot bread, son. What? We didn't bring bread, Andrew.

And Jesus said, you you still are biblically illiterate. You have been a Christian for twenty years and you haven't read through your whole bible yet? Oh, I'm not really good at reading though. I I lose focus. You're really good at reading news articles.

You're really good at memorizing sports stats. Oh, yeah. But I'm just I can't focus. No. Your interests are somewhere else.

I'm not really good. I I lose focus. I have this thing. No. If God ordained that his people would grow from reading a book, don't you think he'll give you the grace to read a book?

Again, you heard me say that I wouldn't be paid to read a book, never mind the bible. But when the Holy Spirit comes in, he makes us the most attractive thing in your life. So you don't understand this whole leaven thing yet? You don't understand what I'm trying to say? I'm trying to get you to grow spiritually here.

And then the second thing was they didn't they didn't trust his dealings with them in their circumstances. We don't have bread and he's like, You just were exposed to one of the greatest miracles that I can perform in this earth, and you still don't trust me? You still don't trust me? After all that I've already shown you, after all the prayers I've answered, after all the things that I've pulled you out of, you're still doubting me. That's what Jesus is saying.

And you're saying, well, Jesus doesn't sound very compassionate. He is compassionate, but he's a teacher. He's a father. Fathers in this place, raise your hand, please. Do you have children if you're raising your hand?

If you're raising your hand, you have children, I'm assuming. Yes. Would you be satisfied if your child was at the same grade level for seven years straight? See, we hear that as a father, as a mother, when we say, no. I would be upset.

I know that there's so much more out of them. I know that that is not healthy. And then we look to our heavenly father, and we think that we can just coast along in our faith, and he doesn't demand us to graduate. He doesn't want us to grow. He doesn't want us to increase.

And so he looks at his own because he knows them and he knows that you've seen so much already. You've been to church for so long and you still don't understand the basics, and you still don't understand who I am. And these disciples here, as they were in the presence of Jesus while he was healing this man, perhaps perhaps they didn't get it, maybe they did, this miracle is speaking about us, man. We're the ones who need a touch from the Lord. We're the ones that need to have our eyes open.

The last question that Jesus asks is, do you not understand yet? Then he asked this blind man, do you see anything? Do you see anything? But what else does this miracle teach? It teaches this, that Jesus is willing to heal us and he's willing to do a work in us.

Where I'm telling you, if you've been born again, you know this feeling. You see the world differently. We were talking about this the other day. Right? When you got saved, you were an atheist before, and when you got saved you said, I see everything differently.

When I got saved, it was the same thing. Everything was different. I'm telling you, when I got born again, music sounded different. Snow looked different. The the air of Toronto, Ontario in February smelt different.

There was something different. Life came. Life came. And Jesus here is showing through this miracle, I'm willing to touch you again. Two conditions though.

Two conditions, and these two conditions are the reason why some people are in the same place that they have been since 1975 or 2005 or 2008. Condition number one is this, we have to come into the presence of the Lord and be honest about our condition. Jesus said, do you see anything? And this man saw, and he could have been satisfied. He could have said, you know, it's a little fuzzy, but I can live like this.

I can see that there's still there's a silhouette. I know they're not trees because trees can't walk. Lord, thank you so much. I appreciate you bringing me out here. I don't know why we had to come so far, but I appreciate you touching my eyes.

And if he had done that, you know what the Lord would have done probably? I don't wanna speak on his behalf, but he did it with the rich young ruler. Okay. Go ahead. And you have so many believers today who are satisfied exactly where they are.

They don't believe that they can see better. They don't believe that they can see more clearly. They don't they don't believe that there's a deeper work that can be done. And so they're happy. Their eyes are open enough where they where they realize that they've been touched by the Lord, but they don't see as he sees and they're just walking through this life not realizing the Lord wants to do a deeper thing.

And so what does it require? To be honest and hungry enough to say, Lord, I have to be honest. I don't love people the way I'm supposed to love people. Help me see people as you see people. Lord, to be honest, there is a specific kind of glare and there's a shine to materialism, and I know that you speak about these things differently, but I don't come into agreement with my vision.

Help me see as you see. Touch my eyes again, please. Touch my eyes again, please. And if we want our inner eyes to be ministered to by the healer, the demand is no different than it is for this man. What do you see right now?

Do you realize that in this moment because again, we need to be touched every day, but I'm asking you tonight, you tonight, I'm asking you, do you know that at this point in your life, you should be somewhere else but you are not where you're supposed to be? This message applies to you. This message applies to you. You know that it's been a long stretch of time where things have been extremely blurry. Christ is not as beautiful as you know he should be.

You're holding onto things of this flesh, holding onto feelings that you've had when somebody's sinned against you. Nothing has changed. The Lord wants to heal you. You have to be honest before him though. But what's amazing here is that that is not going to happen just miraculously.

The miracle happens also through his Word. The Word of God, please hear me, the Word of God. You know what the scripture says in Psalm nineteen:eight? That the commandments of the Lord are pure, enlightening the eyes. That, yes, when I come to this Word and when I hear the Word and when I come into the presence of the Lord, those are the wonderful ingredients that he wants to put on our eyes.

In this case, it was spit. But the ingredients for us is the word of God, the preach word of God, a submission and a humility to hear the word of God. And not just say that's for them, but Lord, this is for me and if there's anything in me, please do it in me. And to come into the presence of the Lord, to separate yourself if need be. Lord, touch my eyes.

I wanna see more clearly. It's been too long for me to see the way I've been seeing. But there's another condition. The condition here is that we have to be willing to walk away from what Christ tells us to walk away from. Look at verse 26.

And he sent to him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. Lord, what do you have against Bethsaida for you to, one, pull the man out of there in the first place, and then, two, make sure that you don't go back to where I met you? It makes no sense unless you marry this text with what Jesus says in Matthew concerning Bethsaida. Jesus has been to Bethsaida before this miracle. And when Jesus has been to Bethsaida, he performed powerful miracles, glorious interventions to heal and to deliver and to shake the entire city, but they refused to do what?

Repent. And that is why in gospel of Matthew chapter 11, listen to these words, and it's gonna make sense in verse 20. Then he began to denounce cities. Jesus began to condemn cities where most of his mighty works has been done because they did not repent. Verse 21, Woe to you, Corizon.

Woe to you where? Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Christ has been in these streets before, and he performed his deeds. And after all the miracles, after all the supernatural events, the people still were willing to remain in their spiritual blindness.

They were still willing to stay where they were, and they said, We're not going to surrender to your lordship. And so you know what Jesus does? He seals their fate. He seals their fate. This might mess with your theology, but it's Bible still.

There is a point in this life where you can so resist Christ that at that point, you cross a line where you're irredeemable. Proverbs twenty nine one tells us that he who continually stiffens his neck, he who continually stiffens his neck will suddenly be broken beyond healing. So somebody who refuses to respond to reproof and is stubborn in their unbelief and stubborn in their sins, I don't know what the line is. I don't know when it takes place. It's different for every person, but there is a line in which you can cross where you are sealed in that condition until you meet Christ face to face in judgment.

You're saying, brother, I don't know how that makes me feel. That is exactly why we are urgent with the gospel. Paul didn't say tomorrow is the day of salvation. He says today. Today is the day of salvation.

I remember hearing this testimony from a preacher, and this preacher said that he was preaching the gospel once in his church, and he made the appeal for salvation. He called for the people in that congregation that Sunday morning to come to Christ, and he made the observation that up there in the balcony, there was a young man, and he was visually and observably under conviction. He was closing his hymn book. He was ruffling with the pages. He would put it down.

He looked like he was gonna go down, and then he stopped himself. Finally, as this preacher's making this appeal can you imagine in this room right here as a preacher looking back and seeing somebody under clear conviction? As this preacher is observing this man, this young man finally picks his stuff up, and and as the preacher thinks that he's gonna come forward to receive Christ, he makes a u-turn and exits the building. He exits the building. And a few months later, he gets a phone call from somebody that asked this same preacher to visit a young man in the hospital because he attracted a certain disease because of his sinful lifestyle that was going to kill him.

So the preacher goes. He sits with the young man. It was the same young man that he saw that Monday morning or that Sunday morning. He presents Christ. In fact, he reminds him, you know, you were there when I preached that sermon and I made that call, and I could see that you were clearly under conviction.

And the young man admitted it. Yeah. I I was. And he looks at this young man, he says, do you not realize the report that the doctors gave you? You don't have much time left.

I think it's time to make a decision. And the young man laid there and he looked at this preacher with tears in his eyes and he says, preacher, you don't understand. You don't get it. Because that day when you preach the gospel, I felt the Holy Spirit so strong. I felt conviction so deep, and I was wrestling with it because I had a sin in my life that I did not wanna let go.

But you have to understand something, that when I made the choice to walk out of that sanctuary and turn my back on Christ, the moment I stepped foot out of that door, something died inside of me. I can't accept Jesus. Don't mess around with this stuff, man. Don't mess around with this stuff. Do not enter the village.

Why? Because I want to, as an expression of judgment towards the city, to make sure that they will never be exposed to my work and my message. So as my condemnation against Bethsaida, don't go back and tell them what happened. They've already seen enough. They've heard enough.

And that's why he took him out of there in the first place, and that's why he says go home with a different direction. But I see a different principle here in light of the condition of being touched by the Lord because remember, he pulled them out of that village and he only performed the miracle outside of that kind of environment. Why is that important? Because here's what is required of us if we want the Lord to do a deeper work with our vision, and it is this. We must be willing to walk away from where Christ is not welcomed.

We must first be willing to walk away from the things and the people that do not honor Christ. I'm telling you, this is for Christians now. So many Christians are stunted in their growth because they are not willing to let Christ speak into their lives, take them by the hand, and pull them away from the things in their life that whether they realize it or not are actually hindering them from having a deeper eyesight, a deeper sensitivity, a deeper walk with the Lord. I talked to a dear brother that I know earlier this weekend and we were conversing about his testimony, and maybe he might share this tonight. I don't know if he will.

But he he had told me that he had been saved, but there was a turning point in his walk with the Lord, something so significant that even baptism didn't do in his life, and that's not to discredit baptism. And and when what he told me was the thing that changed the way I saw, felt, interacted, worshiped, known the presence of God, the very thing that helped me, the very thing that I didn't even realize for years I was used to it was the filthy music I was listening to of this world. All the junk, all the rap that glorified sex and murder and betrayal and rape and anger and viciousness, I was plugging that into my ears. In fact, I would pump that music in my car when I left the service. And for so long, I was in the same place.

And even as a Christian, I was filled with rage, filled with unforgiveness, filled with evil thoughts, filled with murderous meditations. But there was a moment where I got rid of it, and when I got rid of it, something opened. I was able to forgive. I was able to weep during worship songs, but I couldn't before because I was clogged with all that garbage. I can have a tenderness now.

I can have a softness now. I can actually read the word, and the word was attractive, and it was delicious to me from one thing, from one filthy vile thing that dishonored Christ. And you wonder why some Christians are so dead and numb. What are you allowing in your life that's not honoring Christ? Like this blind man, let Jesus lead you out of it.

Or who is in your life? Who's in your life? Are you hanging around with people that live in Bethsaida? People who are from Bethsaida. You're saying the work the world?

No. I'm saying people who have been familiar enough with the work of Jesus but are refusing to repent. Yeah. I'm talking about people in the church. I'm talking about even people perhaps in this place.

You've been buddy buddies with them for so long. Yeah. They're good Christian people. Maybe they're a little worldly, but they're not outrageous. But they have not surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

And you're wondering why you're not growing, and you're wondering why you're not falling deeper in love with him. Because whether you realize it or not, the pressure of those friends, the patterns of those friends, we are creatures of repetition. We are creatures that can mirror things so easily without it realizing it. You want proof? How many times has it happened in your life where you've hung out with somebody and they had specific mannerisms and you mirror those mannerisms?

Have you ever caught yourself doing that doing that? They laugh in a certain way and you catch yourself giggling in the same way. You're like, what am I doing? Or they say certain phrases and you say the same phrases. You didn't even meditate.

It's not like you went to your room and practiced it. Just by being in their presence, you've adopted some of their patterns. Last night you heard about a man who was testifying about another man in whom what? Whenever you were in his presence, he almost had this this this sense in which he was somewhere else. You remember that?

When you were in his presence, he was with you. He was attentive, but you had this strange inclination that he was somewhere with the Lord. What a wonderful thing to know that you can be in traffic and you can be in your work office and still be connected to the presence of God, practicing the presence of God, walking in the knowledge of him even though you're in a place that doesn't honor him. But the opposite is true. That although that is a glorious thing where you can be in a place where, yes, you're somewhere but Christ is with you, you can also be somewhere and Christ is not with you.

What do I mean by that? That there are people in settings just like this. They're present. They're here. They're sitting.

Sometimes they're distracted, but they're in this place, but they're not really here. And it's not because they're caught up with the Lord, it's because they are somewhere else. I see it happen all the time. It people think that when you come up and preach, you're blind. Like, it's just like a blank room and you're just, like, preaching to walls.

You'd be amazed to know what you see from this place. You'd be amazed to know. You think people can't you think like, oh, the preacher's invisible. He's looking at his Bible. No.

As one preacher said, hey, if you can see me, do you think I can see you? And I know this one thing, that there are people who are present, and they're not really here. Jesus wanted to heal this man's vision, but Jesus needed to lead him out of Bethsaida. Why? Because Bethsaida represented unbelief.

Bethsaida represented a lack of repentance. Bethsaida represented a place that did not honor Christ. And so many believers are in the same place month after month, year after year for one simple reason. They're not willing to let go. But brother, you don't understand this is my only group of friends.

You don't understand I've known these people forever. You don't understand that if I do this and I walk with Jesus, I'm scared that I'm gonna be alone. Who am I gonna fellowship with? Well, walk alone for a while. It's not so terrible.

Let God mold you in secret. Let God do something in you, and in time, let God introduce you to true godly friends that will give you wings and not wait. We're so terrified of loneliness. Why? It's not gonna bite you.

Let God take you and lead you and mold you. One of the greatest prices of following Jesus is that when people don't wanna follow with you, you have to sometimes walk alone. But but it won't be for too long before he introduces you to glorious saints in which you can say like the psalmist, I delight. My delight is in the saints. Two conditions tonight.

To deeper touch with the Lord, not in the sense that we all need it every day, in the sense where you are aware I am not where I'm supposed to be, man. I don't need a theologian or a preacher to tell me I am not where I'm supposed to be. I've been in grade one in my faith, and it's been eight years. Come to the presence of God. Be honest with your condition.

Don't be satisfied with seeing men walking as trees. And be willing for the Lord to grab you by the hand and lead you out of Bethsaida. And the Lord will show you exactly what that looks like. And I can tell you this, I've known, very few, I've known that people who are willing to walk alone, man, what God done with that man, what God does with that woman. It's like, I can't explain it.

In a pastoral setting, you see it, but I can't explain it. It's like they get born again again. It's like you know they're saved. You know they have a testimony. But when they make that deeper decision that comes with another price, they soar.

They soar. And I had a conversation with a young man who made a decision in his life to do just that. And the the thing that he had said to me was this, I wish I made this decision earlier. All the ground that I missed, all the time that I wasted. I was afraid that leaving these peep people that I've made memories with but didn't honor God and didn't love God.

That's not I'm not saying be a loner and be a hermit and be mean to people. If I can give you an illustration, hopefully, this will help. I have often many people come to me saying, I know so and so. I know so and so. How do I know when to cut it off and how do I know when to remain?

Visualize a tug of war. Here you are on one end of the rope, and there's the other person on the other rope of the on the end of the rope. Your goal apparently is what? To be an influence for them. Right?

That's what you're telling yourself every day. Right? And you're desiring to bring them where you are, and you want them to come to experience Jesus and you think that your presence in their lives will be an influence to them, here's when you let go of the rope, when this stops happening and this starts happening. And many people even with good hearts, they enter into that place and they start this way. And because sometimes there are more people on the end of the rope, they they begin to and then you're like, what happened to you, dude?

You said that you were going into this with one mission, and now you become evangelized. Honestly, I don't know why we're going down this road about relationships and friendships, but let's just go with it. That might be true for your life and it might be something else in your life, like that testimony of that brother who's in this place who who just changed the tunes that he was listening to, and all for a sudden, men didn't look like trees anymore. Jesus touched them. You're willing to walk away from something that clearly blasphemes my name.

I'm willing to touch you in a way where you'll never be able to see the world like you did before. The lord will reveal it to you. And you might be in this place and you're saying, brother, I wanna be honest. This isn't false humility. I can't think of a thing that I ever already surrendered to Christ.

Praise be to God. Praise be to the Lord. Stay there. And there is still a degree of application and I'm there with you, brother. Lord, I still wanna see.

I still wanna see as you see. You know what's so amazing about this miracle? We'll end here. Go back to Mark eight. The last thing of this miracle is what?

He sent into his home saying, do not even enter the village. What happened before this miracle? The disciples were displaying that they did not understand. They didn't understand the teaching of the Lord. They didn't understand the person of the Lord.

Jesus performs this miracle, opens the eye of this blind man. The disciples are there witnessing it. And what happens after? Verse 27. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that I am?' And they told him, John the Baptist, another said, Elijah, and others, one of the prophets.

And he asked them, But who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, You are the Christ. Oh, somebody had their eyes opened. And we are told in another gospel where Jesus says, this wasn't because of flesh and blood, but the father in heaven has revealed this to you. Isn't that interesting that after this miracle of this man's eyes being opened, Jesus makes this question and Peter makes this confession, rightly seeing who Jesus is.

He will touch you. The Holy Spirit will touch you. All he wants to do is meet your honoring of him and God will do that. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for this miracle with a message.

And, lord, we can all say from the beginning, we need you to touch our eyes. We long to see you more clearly. We long to see our fellow man. We long to see ourselves the way you want us to see you. But Lord, more specifically, perhaps there are some perhaps there are some who know that they should be seeing in a way, feeling in a way, walking in a way, but they're not honest and they are satisfied with their condition.

And perhaps they are finding great difficulty to be led by you out of something that does not honor you. Lord, thank you for making the condition so simple. Thank you, oh God, that you're willing to do a work when we're simply willing to surrender. And Lord, in this place even if this message applies to one person who has been struggling in their walk with Christ, it's been the same. It's been the same.

And not because it's been a season where you turned off the lights, it's been the same because they have not pursued you as they ought. Lord, you're willing to touch us again. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, we all ask you tonight, if we're in one area not perceiving, not calculating, not esteeming something as much as we should or as clearly as you have prescribed. Lord, come and touch our hearts.

Thank you that you are patient. You show that with your disciples. They did not understand simple truth and you didn't forfeit their discipleship. You kept them close and you showed them through a miracle this is what you need. And Peter was able to confess you because he clearly saw you.

Lord, we ask that that would be done tonight. That leaving this place tonight, there would be clearer vision. Remove the dirt. Remove the filth. Remove the clog.

You will show us. We bless your name tonight as we meditate on these truths and sit in your presence now. Thank you for this conference. Thank you for your word. Blessed be your name.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.