The Cost of Sight

Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Roderick caesar the third on the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york. And I’m so excited that you decided to join me for the full Gospel hour. Right here on Global Seven. My prayers that you will be blessed, you would be encouraged and inspired by this message. Thank you so much for joining and God bless so for us. Today we’re going to be speaking about the cost of sight. The cost of site, it does not come cheap. The cost of sight from the book of Mark, chapter 10 Mark, chapter 10, verses 46 through 52. Mark, chapter 10 verses 46 through 50 to the cost of sight. And they came to Jericho and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, bar to me is a blind beggar. The son of Timmy’s was sitting by the roadside and when he had heard that it was jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out. All the more Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus stopped and said, Call him and they called the blind man, saying to him, Take heart, get up! He is calling you throw off his and throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to jesus and jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my site. And jesus said to him. Go your way. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered himself his sight and followed him on the way. The cost of sight. Dear Lord, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you for your people. I thank you for who you are. I thank you for who you called us to be. I pray Lord that as this word goes forth that you would be glorified and everything that is said and everything that is done. I thank you father for the way that you love us, your people, the way you love us, your church, this church. And I pray father that as the word goes forth, Lord, that you would be uh glorified that you would be lifted up and the souls will be drawn to you. We thank you, We praise you, We give you glory, honor and praise. We ask these things in jesus name, Amen men and amen there was a common phrase that was used. It may actually still be used today, but uh, if you see something, say something, I mean, how many of you are familiar with that? The slogan or phrase, If you see something, say something, it’s usually used to imply or show if there’s something wrong. If you see some sort of danger. If you see something that seems like to put like it poses a threat. If you see something that’s out of order, uh don’t be afraid to speak up, don’t be afraid to say hey uh this is what’s going on, don’t be afraid to run to an authority and say, hey uh this person you know left their bags somewhere or something, something along those lines. If you see something, don’t be afraid to speak up because it could save your life and the lives of those around you. Uh and there comes a response this, this shows us that there is a responsibility with having sight, there’s a responsibility when you see something, when you realize something, it causes you to be in a position where you have this task of stepping up and doing something about it, stepping up and saying something about it stepping up and maybe changing the direction if you see something wrong. Uh and it’s it’s very interesting that the Lord gives us this site and the site isn’t just something that’s used for our benefit, but it’s used for our benefit and the benefit of others to have responsibility, responsibility. The same thing applies spiritually spiritually. There is a cost to having sight, there is a cost to have insight. The text says that they came to Jericho, this is jesus, the disciples, they’re walking uh and traveling through and they came to Jericho and as jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, bar timmy’s a blind beggar the son of timmy’s was sitting by the roadside Bar to me is his name means the son of Timmy’s. So bar meaning son of and Timmy’s uh meaning the honoured one. So the son of this honored one bar to me is blind bar to me is he was begging why? Because he was blind leaving Jericho, the disciples and a great crowd, they ran into a bar. To me is the blind beggar, the son of Tommy’s, he’s sitting by the roadside, he’s blind and he’s begging because he is blind in this time and in this day and age there was little to no work for individuals that did not have site. This is a different time, a different culture, a different custom and there was very little that they could do so because he did not have his sight. He was reduced to begging, holding out a cup to saying, hey, help me out here, can you spare some change? I need to make some ends meet, I need to feed myself for the day. And he was actually, if you’re, if you’re begging in this day and age and time that you’re poorer than the poor people of the day, you’re sitting by the roadside and he did not have his sight, but he used what he had to get what he needed. He didn’t have his sight, but he didn’t let that stop him. He used what he had to get what he needed and the same thing we can do. This is a valuable lesson that we can learn. Use what you’ve got to get what you need. And he says, when he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby verse 47, he began to cry out saying, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. So he’s sitting by the roadside, begging, begging, begging, begging, begging. I need some money, I need some money, I need some money, I need some help. Could you assist me? Could you help me? In my in in my situation? And he hears somebody uh in front of him saying, oh my gosh, jesus is coming. Did you hear that? Jesus is approaching? Did you hear they’re they’re they’re talking to each other. And he overhears it and he says, you know what? Forget what they’re talking about. I’m gonna use what I have to get what I need. I don’t know how far off he is. I don’t know how close he is. I don’t know if he’s approaching nearby if he’s coming soon, but I’m just gonna I’m gonna make this count, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me! Many of us. We despise what we have because it’s not what the next person has, you despise what we have because it’s not as grandiose as maybe the other person have they. They say what comparison is the thief of joy. So he didn’t have his sight. But he had his voice and he needed to get the Lord’s attention. And so he used his voice to do that and many of us for us in our, in our day to day lives, the Lord has gifted us with some things and we may say, oh it’s not gonna do anything, oh it’s not gonna amount to much. But what God has given you, you need to use what you have to get what you need, use what you have to get what you need. And so we realized that he cries out to jesus. He says jesus, son of David, have mercy on me, the son of David uh in this day and age in this time, uh you would say bar to me is the son of timmy’s jesus, the son of David, you were known by who your daddy was, who your father was. Right, you go, bye bye lineage. That’s why it was so important that even though Jesus was born of a virgin birth, born of mary, that he had a natural covering. We know he had a spiritual father, God the father right? But we also know that he had a natural covering joseph. And joseph’s line was very important to who Jesus was and who Jesus was seen as. And so we realized that yes, he was uh he was physically the son of you. You see joseph and in a sense they would look at joseph and say look at jesus and say, oh that’s that’s joseph’s son the Carpenter’s son right? But but spiritually, if you if you read through the text and you understand what Jesus is saying and who Jesus is saying he is. The messiah was the one that was gonna be the son of David. The one that the one that the Lord promised to David that I’m going to have your someone from your line sit on the throne and of his kingdom, there will be no end. So when you refer to jesus as the son of David, you’re coming in line with what God said to David all those years ago, you’re confirming him to be the messiah. Jesus, son of David, the one that was promised. The one that can deliver the one that can set free. The one that can open blind eyes have mercy on me. So he acknowledges all within that one breath, jesus, you are Jesus, the son of David, the messiah. The awaited one. The one we’ve been waiting on the anointed one, the Christ, the one we’ve been waiting on all these years. Son of David, the son of Tammy’s calls out to the son of David, have mercy on me. He realized his state. He realized that he could not get out of his situation of his predicament of his problem by himself. Many of us, we we we wrestle, We try, we we do it in our own strength. We try and trick and connive or we just try and have a inner resolve to say, okay, it’s gonna be me and only me and I’m gonna make my way out of this. Ask for help, ask for help. And so he realized that in order for him to get out of the situation that he was in, in order for him to receive sight, he had to be at the mercy of someone else. And we don’t like that because we want to be in control, we want to be able to know you know what our next steps are. But being at someone else’s mercy, that’s that’s an uneasy feeling. It involves trust. It involves you saying, okay, I don’t have all the answers here whose mercy better to be at than jesus. Right. And so he says, jesus son of David, have mercy on me. He asked for mercy the cost of sight getting your site obtaining sites. Spiritual site into your situation. Many of us, we may have sight physically But spiritually into our situations into uh maybe some of the circumstances that we’ve been going about maybe to some of the things that have happened in the past. They say hindsight is 2020. But maybe sometimes in our lives we’ve been blind to some spiritual attacks or blind to some vision that the Lord is trying to impart to us or blind to maybe some direction that we need. And in order to get the site it’s gonna cost us the first thing that’s going to cost us according to this text is it’s going to cost us our feelings. So flex our faith, obtaining site is going to cost you your feelings. So flex your faith. So he cries out to jesus and this is a wonderful thing. It it sounds wonderful. It sounds great. He says, jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And we applaud them. We say, that’s wonderful, That’s great brother. You cry on, you go right ahead. But what does the text say happened? That’s us right here years later, removed from the actual context in the situation. But what does the text say happened? He cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. They didn’t say, Alright, brother, go on. Jesus is right here. They said, be quiet. Can’t you see he’s busy, can’t you see, he’s got people to attend to. Can’t you see, he’s trying to get somewhere. Can’t you see? He’s trying to do something. The crowd rebuked him, telling him to be silent. Would you be quiet? Man is asking for help again? You think, jesus going, no man, be quiet. He doesn’t have time for you to be quiet. And what is your reaction to the rebuke? What will your response be when the rebuke comes? Because the rebuke will come. Let’s take notes from Bardem, as it says. But I love that it’s the contrast there, right? It says they rebuked him telling him to be silent. Didn’t say. And he was silent. It says, but that lets you know what’s coming up is gonna be the complete opposite of what they said. They said, be quiet. He said, no, no, I can cry louder than this. I can get attention louder than this. But he cried out. All the more jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And sometimes our situations will, will come in our lives. Sometimes, maybe people or come in our lives. Sometimes that voice within us will speak to us to say, oh, man, it’s not happening for you, It’s not happening for you. But what do we have to do? What is our response to the rebuke? It’s gonna cost us our feelings so flex our faith. Our feelings may say, okay, I’m I can’t do this. Our feelings may say no, no, no, no, maybe they’re right. Maybe I need to give up on this dream. Maybe they’re right. Maybe it is too late for me. Maybe, maybe they’re right. Maybe I did make all the wrong choices. Or maybe the the situation is looming and it seems like it’s going to win out? Or maybe I’m speaking to myself and I’m saying negative things to myself about myself, what is going to be your response to those reviews? Are you gonna rise up and faith and say, jesus, son of David. Mhm. I cling to you. I look to you, I won’t be overwhelmed. Give me wisdom. God, I look to you in the midst of my storm and the sea is raging. God, I look to you have mercy on me. What I think is interesting about this, this particular text is that Barnabas was already blind, he was blind, he could not see, I could not see, he heard jesus was coming and then when he yells and tries to use what he has to get what he needs, they try to shut him up. So they try to make a blind man mute. He already lost one ever since. They’re trying to take another one and he says, no, no you can’t have this. This is what I have, this is what I have and I’m gonna use what I have to get the healing that I need. He says, look, jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And this shows us that people will not always agree with you. People won’t always agree with your your method or why you do what you do. But if you have, if you’ve heard from the Lord on it and if you have a need for the Lord and you’re believing in faith, step out, step out in faith, press on. Anyway. They didn’t understand. People won’t always agree because they won’t always understand because they haven’t walked a mile in your shoes. People look and say, oh, you know, I can’t believe she’s doing this and that I can’t believe he’s doing this and that fasting again. Why? What? No, that’s ridiculous. What? Oh, they’re not coming here, But but everybody goes there, But why? But I don’t understand the reason behind why you do what you do and why you don’t do what you do. So they tried to shut you down and if they haven’t lived it or walked in your shoes, then it’s gonna be very difficult for them to understand it. And so, because they don’t understand it. Your praises and your your worship and your seeking God comes from a different place. You’re not praising so that they can understand you’re seeking God, you’re crying out to God because you need something from the Lord, because you want something from the Lord, because you want to draw closer to him because you’re blind in this area and you want site in this area and it’s gonna cost you your feelings. It’s gonna cost you maybe some friendship. That’s gonna cost you saying, okay, well, I just want to sit down and feel sad for myself. I want to throw myself a pity party today. That seems like a good idea, right? We know what to do. We know how to treat ourselves when we’re sad when we’re depressed. When were despondent. But let’s walk in the opposite direction of that. Let’s say, okay, despite how I’m feeling. I’m going to flex my faith. I’m not walking in fear. I’m not walking in shame. I’m not walking in defeat. I’m not walking into anxiety. I’m not walking in despair Instead, I will rise up and in faith declare, jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. I will walk in faith, I will walk in victory. I will walk in triumph. I will walk against the rebuke and I will walk the way the Lord has called me to walk Son of David have mercy on me and I love it because it doesn’t just say that he, he just shouted out again, It says he cried out all the more so I’m going to cry out louder. I’m gonna cry out again and again until you can’t stand it until I hear from the Lord and the last time this says that as he was in Jericho, almost exiting Jericho is when he, when, when we hear this, this, this situation takes place the last time in scripture we see shouting near Jericho, what happened? There you go. The wall, the walls fell down so there’s, he’s in an atmosphere for change. He’s in an area where change took place. He’s in an area where God moved mightily and in the same way the walls fell, he wants the scales to fall from his eyes. In the same way those walls fell. He wants scales to fall. He wants change to happen in his life if you’re on ground where God did a mighty move, you can tap right in there has been so many moves of God In this place, in this house were seated in your streaming from and watching a place where the Lord has moved mightily year after year, after year after year going into 90 years, this August and God has been moving because of the prayers that have been prayed because of the seeds that have been so by people that are sitting in these seats, but others that are no longer with us and because God moved then at that time and that place, God can also move right here right now, mm hmm, right here, right now, right here, right now, right here, right now mhm And the same thing applies in our lives as well. You may think, oh you don’t have to be tuned in to this church for God to move. Is that what you’re saying? No, we are the house of God, we are the people of God and where we are God is and if God has moved in your life before he can do it again. If God has moved in your life before he can do it again, let’s give God praise for what he is doing and what he can do. Let’s give God praise for the move that he wants to make in our lives in this house, let’s give God praise, jesus, son of David, have mercy on me, no matter what they say, you gotta lift up your voice and cry out to the true and living God, no matter what your situation tells you, lift up your voice and cry out to the true and living God have mercy on me, O Lord have mercy on me, O Lord! In my situation I have the faith to believe that you can turn it around in spite of how I feel, I have the faith to believe that you can reverse the situation in spite of how I feel. Oh God, I’m gonna have faith, I’m gonna move forward and flex my faith and cry out to you in spite of my feelings, I know you can move in spite of my feelings, I know you can move in spite of my fear, I’m gonna have faith in spite of my sorrow, I’m gonna choose to walk in joy in spite of my lack, I’m gonna choose to pursue abundance, no matter what they say, no matter what they shout, we can shout as well, no matter what your situation says, choose to walk out in faith. Now watch this when he cries out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me, Jesus stops, Jesus stops now, I imagine he can’t hear jesus stopping, right? He can’t hear jesus stopping, but he can he’s just still crying out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on Son. David, have mercy on me, he’s probably going crazy, just hollering and jesus stops, looks around his disciples and says, call him, call him okay and they called the blind man, watch this, watch this, they called the blind man saying to him, get up, take heart be encouraged. He is calling you Yo I could have sworn like two minutes ago, you’re always telling me to shut up like two minutes ago, you guys were like, okay, okay enough enough enough you let him pass, let him through. Now we’ll take heart. He is calling you what? Alright, I’ll take it. He’s calling me. And that’s why you can’t you can’t be so dependent on the opinions, the perspectives, the feelings of other people about your situation. What’s that song? Uh sometimes you have to encourage yourself, right? Like you’ve got to be the one to do it for yourself because other people sometimes won’t or can’t do it for you. So you gotta look yourself in the mirror and say okay, it doesn’t mean that no one is there for me. It doesn’t mean that I’m an island. I’m all by myself but I cannot be so dependent on other people for my own spiritual well being. I’ve got to tap in to what God is doing in my life. I’ve got to look at myself and say no, I am more than a conqueror through jesus christ no, no, no weapon that is formed against me will prosper and every tongue that rises up against me shall be refuted. No, no, no, no. These these these bones may look dry, but God is breathing new life into my situation, New life into my season. New life into what’s going on? take heart, speak to ourselves and do that. So he’s like, look, why would I, why would I need you to tell me to take heart when I’m doing this for myself? Right? So they get up and they’re excited, they say okay, but part of me is get up because he’s calling you and the beautiful thing about this is he was blind but had faith to see his healing before anyone else did he was blind but have faith enough to see what God was going to do. He he could see better than those that had sight. You can see better than those that that had sight ah throughout the the latter years of his life, many of you may not know, some of you may remember but may not, my grandfather was blind but the later years of his life um and it’s amazing this is a physical piece, but I do remember remember being younger and uh even hearing my my my father and my aunt just share with me about how he used to really engage with with scripture, even in his, even in his blindness, uh still being able to pursue God wholeheartedly through either listening audio or having somebody read to him or things of that nature where he was still constantly pursuing the things of God trying to get you know, vision for the latter years of his life. Vision for you know, even uh when he was blind, he’d sit right right there in this, this front row where my aunt bevin sister in a sitting and every, you know, couple of times he’d have a word to share like five like maybe like 35 minutes, something quick brief, you know. And my dad would get up after and say, oh man, I don’t even know why I’m up here. That was that was enough, you know. But it it’s amazing to see that physically the site may have been gone but spiritually he was still pressing on right. He was still searching for vision, searching for that. That continued connection with the Lord. And so for bar to me is to be able to be physically blind but still see his healing, see his deliverer stopping and say the reason why you’re saying something. David have mercy on me. You’re not gonna be surprised when he stops because you want this and for us in our lives and the situations that were in the seasons that we may be blind to or blind in calling out to God. Don’t be surprised when he stops. Take heart Get up, He’s calling you because of the faith is the substance of things. Hoped for the evidence of things. Not seen. He cried out in faith. He flexed his faith in spite of his feelings. He saw his healing before. They did. It’s gonna cost you your feelings or flex your faith having site is going to cost you your comfort. So cast your cloak, cast your cloak. So it’s he says, hey, they all say get up. He’s calling you. Take Heart Verse 50 says throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to jesus, throwing off his cloak. He sprang up and came to, came to jesus. What is it? What is his posture? He’s eager, he’s awaiting. He’s excited throwing off his cloak. He sprang up and came to jesus. He left his comfort behind. Your cloak was not in that day and age at that time. It wasn’t just like a a loose, you know, a garment that was just like, oh whatever, I’ll get another one. This was a big deal. Casting off your cloak meant something back then. It was an actual loss because you could actually get money for it. It was valuable even if he was blind for him. It was still valuable if you were to sell it, he can get some some some money for it. Uh And then also it was with him through the difficult times. This cloak kept him warm when it was cold out. This cloak kept him safe and secure when he had maybe some some difficulties with the temperature. This cloak was maybe he he wrapped it around himself when he was getting some sleep. The cloak was with him. The cloak, he grew comfortable with the cloak. But when jesus says call him, he threw it off now. We don’t know in the text whether he goes back to pick it up, we don’t know you know after what he does with it afterwards. But we do know that in this instance he threw it off, which means that Jesus took priority over his comfort. Jesus took priority over his comfort. This cloak that had been with him from time to time to time. He didn’t need the cloak to receive his healing. He didn’t need the cloak to receive his sight. He had to cast that comfort aside. And even if but for a moment God may be calling us to cast some comforts aside and we don’t know whether or not he’s calling us to pick it up later or leave it aside for good. But either way we may have to let it go in order to receive what the Lord is calling us to get. So cast our comfort aside to cast our cloak so he throws it off the cloak was a comfort to the blind man. But perhaps the blind man, perhaps the man with site didn’t need that cloak. He cast it aside in anticipation, in expectation and excitement of what he was about to obtain the cloak that he was perhaps clutching to. He was able to just let go. Why? Because the word from God, How much do we value a fresh word from the Lord when Samuel hears the word from the Lord in the book of Samuel and first Samuel, the text lets us know that in those days the word of the Lord was rare and with no vision, with no word from the Lord. What happens the people perish proverbs tells us. And so with word of the Lord is rare, there’s a downward spiral and morals, there’s a downward spiral because sin runs rampant where the word of the Lord is rare. It’s it’s difficult to uphold a standard. And so we see that the Lord speaks to Samuel and from that day forth, Samuel hears from the Lord and begins to grow in wisdom and and in power. And so how much do we truly value a word from the Lord? Do we value a word from the Lord? Enough to get uncomfortable to cast off our cloak, to cast off our cares to run to the true and living God. He says, come here, he’s not only gonna receive a word, but he’s gonna gonna receive some life. Change something that’s going to change the trajectory of his life. I once was lost, but now I’m found I was blind. But now I see it’s gonna change everything for this man. And at the word of the Lord he throws his comfort aside and walks to jesus. My grandfather used to say, don’t hold this cloak of life too tightly. Similarly to the to the blind man. We may hold on to the cloak of life, grasp on to the things that we hold dear, the material things that bring us joy, the friendships that make us happy, but are leading us down the wrong path. Many different things we may cling to, and God may say, all right, this is what you want. You gotta you gotta cast that aside and who knows? You may be able to go back and pick it up. We don’t know. The text doesn’t let us know that we can only assume what was done, but we do know that the blind man had no problem just casting it aside and walking to jesus, it’s gonna cost us our comfort. So cast our cloak. This man’s mind was renewed before his sight was restored. He said, I don’t need this, I’m just gonna cast this aside and run onto jesus. It’s like the price is right, right? He calls by the just excited, running down, go to jesus. You know, and you realize okay in order for him to throw this cloak aside and to run out, run down to cast this cloak, he had to have a different mindset than he did than he did before. He had to have a different mindset than he did when he was blind. Because when he was blind, the cloak was all he had the cloak was it. But when Jesus calls him, he cast it aside. What is Romans chapter 12 1 and two says Present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, what is acceptable and what is perfect? This man’s mind had to be shifted, mind had to be changed And then he meets Jesus in verse 51 and Jesus says to him, what do you want me to do for you? The blind man says to jesus, let me recover my site, jesus looks like a blind man. He says, what do you want me to do for you is just like, am I hearing you right? Do you do you do see the situation I’m up against right now? He says, let me recover my site. What I love about this is um Hamilton’s says what in the broadway play Hamilton? He says I’m not throwing away my shot, I’m not gonna waste my shot. Um and he got in front of jesus, jesus asked him a key question and he didn’t throw away what he truly wanted, what he truly desired. My father has this quote where he says, you know if you ever meet a famous person, someone who’s super famous, I don’t know how many of you have run into any celebrities or anything like that. Um but if you meet them and you lose your composure, you say, hey my name is, I just want to thank you. That just we just complete breakdown. You know, you knew you were like, okay, I’m gonna see them. I’m gonna say, this is gonna be my shot, you Hello, I thank you. You know you’re just done right? My father calls that being intoxicated by the proximity of greatness. That’s what he says. He says, oh, you’re close to somebody that you feel is grandiose, you feel they’re great and you see them and you just lose it. But Barton has kept his composure, kept his cool and he didn’t switch up. He didn’t say jesus, I want riches untold. All of a sudden you get to jesus and your whole agenda changed. No, no, no, he stayed firm. He stayed focused. He says, I want my site. He says, let me recover my site and then you know from then on out, things will change for us. We need to keep that same resolve they say nowadays, what we say, we keep that same energy, Same energy you had when you were saying jesus, son of David, have mercy on me from my sight. When you finally get that, that audience with the Lord, what do you want me to do for? You? Don’t switch up. Don’t switch up the same energy. You want to keep it and say Lord, this is what I need, Lord, I come to you a broken man. Lord, I come to you, a sinner. I need to be made whole, I need to be redeemed, I need to be set free. I need to be made new. I’m walking in darkness and I need to see the light? I need my sight. Oh Lord, let me recover. I need vision for this next year. I need insight for where I’m going. I need healing in my body, I need restoration in my finances. I need a relationship restored God. This is what I need. Keep that same energy. Right? Let me recover my site, casted his cloak aside. It’s gonna cost you your freedom. So follow jesus. It’s gonna cost you your your freedom. So follow jesus so to recover your site, first thing it’s gonna cost you your feelings. So flex your faith, secondly, it’s gonna cost you your comfort. So cast your cloak. Thirdly, it’s going to cost you your freedom. So follow jesus And Jesus says to him, he heals him. He says, go on your way. Your faith has made you whole. Yeah, that’s right. Going your way. Your faith has made you whole. The amazing thing. The amazing thing is jesus said it and then it happened, going your way, your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight, jesus said it and then it happened, jesus says, look what do you want me to do for you recovered my sight. Go on your way, Your faith has made you well, he doesn’t heal him and then tell him to go. He tells him to go and then the healing takes place. Go on your way. Your faith has made you whole. Can you receive a word from the Lord in gladness when your situation hasn’t shifted yet. So right. When the words leave his lips, boom, immediately recovers his sight. And then he follows him on the way. I love this part because it doesn’t say immediately he recovered his sight and then went to go get a job where immediately he recovered his sight, you know and go want to go, you know, see about a girl. Right immediately he recovered his sight and follow jesus on the way. You know, the first thing he did was follow his healer. The first thing he did was follow his delivery God’s way became his way because he found his site when he recovered his sight, he said, I’m not going anywhere. He said, go on your way. Your faith has made you whole blind man said no, my way is your way right like uh this is the way right, Mandalorian. So anyway, he goes, somebody There you go, somebody’s somebody’s tracking with me. So he immediately, he recovers his sight and he follows him on the way. The first thing he did was follow his healer. Follow his deliverer. Follow jesus, jesus says, what if any man, be my disciple, you have to take up your cross, deny yourself and follow me. Mhm. It’s not an easy journey. It’s not an easy task. But it’s one that we must do. It’s one that we must engage in. It’s one that we must face, we have to pick up our cross and follow for this man. I I would assume it was out of a grateful heart. Heart of just gratitude. How many of you just stop for a moment when I think of the goodness of jesus and all he has done for me. My very soul cries out hallelujah, praise the Lord for saving me one more time. Oh and I think of the goodness of jesus and all my very soul. Mm hmm. All right. Yeah. Just out of that gratitude. Out of just just realizing, hey, this is this is the guy that did so much for me. How can I go my way? How could I do my thing when his way is clearly the way. So he gets up after receiving this and he goes and follows jesus. How do we flesh this out? It’s a beautiful story. It’s it’s it’s a beautiful thing for us to to read about and read through bar thomas journey. But I believe the first point we need to flex. Our faith flex our faith. It’s gonna cost us our feelings reflects our faith, flexing our faith takes practice. It takes practice. It’s not something that comes easy. It’s not something that often comes naturally. It’s like a muscle. It’s like going to the gym, the more you flex, the more you work out, the more you use this muscle, the stronger it becomes flexing your faith oftentimes requires opposition right? It requires something that you’re up against. So look out for those opposition moments and those oppositions are obstacles. But there are also opportunities to seek God and to flex your faith. Opposition can come from ourselves from self, from others, from circumstances and situations and remember what happened with they tried to silence him, they tried to silence his voice. And so for us our situation may try to you know, due to us like Earth legit Ariel, just take our voice. Alright nothing, you got nothing to say nothing to do. Just be silent, just be quiet. But in the midst of that we have a choice to flex our faith. Not just be led by our feelings reflects our faith rise up and flex our faith and say okay God this is the situation, this is what’s going on. But I have an inner resolve no matter what, I want things to change more than I want them to stay the same. Yeah I want things to change more than I want them to stay the same. A resolve that says look I’m not gonna go another day, I’m not gonna go another week, I’m not gonna go another month. I’m not gonna go another year living this way I’m gonna make the changes that I need to make. I’m gonna have that inner resolve that changes your name from Saul to paul, from Jacob to Israel to Abram to Abraham from Sarai to Sarah from the blind man begging to the man who received his sight from who you were to who you shall be. We need to have an inner resolve and flexing our faith looks differently. Yes. It looks like having those practical pieces in in in circumstances and situations. But it also looks like engaging in spiritual disciplines like prayer spiritual disciplines like fasting like worshiping the Lord, like sitting in solitude and silence and constantly encouraging ourselves and reminding ourselves that I am more. I am blessed and I am victorious. The second thing we need to do is cast our cloak, it’s going to cost us our comfort. So cast our cloak throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to jesus comfort. Can kill you comfort can kill you. Have how many of you have ever I’ve seen the show came on TLC years ago, my £600 life, £500 life, something like that. But anyway it’s to show about like very morbidly obese individuals that I don’t exercise, don’t run. And they usually each one a similar theme throughout each. Each one has an enabler. Someone that thinks they’re doing well by assisting them and getting them, you know all the Dunkin donuts, they can or something but in the end it’s literally killing them and they have to have this life changing surgery and it’s and it’s it’s it’s but some of them don’t make it. Some of them don’t make it so they’re comfortable. They’re living their best lives. They gave me this from me, this diet coke, give me this and that, you know. But in the end it it can kill them. And the same applies spiritually for us. If we don’t go outside of our comfort zone, we can only get But so far and outside of your comfort zone. Your dreams awake. Outside of your comfort zone. Maybe the the road that the Lord has called you to walk awaits and and many of us, we just want to stay within the comfort zone and we can stay too long. And some very important things may be buried within the comfort zone. If we’re not careful. So comfort can kill us. And it could be what’s holding us back. We have to be willing to let go of the cloak. Uh and you know, pick it up only if God says so. Therefore, since we’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and run with endurance. The race that is set before us. We have to run this race. Saints of God. It’s not one that we sit in a lounge chair waiting for God to come back. It’s active. We’re running forward to to the throne room of God. Like I said, my grandfather said, don’t hold on to this cloak of life too tightly but don’t be afraid to hold it to hold on to it with an open palm so it’s gonna cost us our comfort cast our cloak third and final piece for us. And as the team comes up we need to realize that it’s gonna cost us our our direction. It’s gonna cost us um our freedom so follow him jake paul as he often writes calls himself a bond servant of jesus christ or slave of jesus christ you know for us as african americans and north America the word slave has a very very negative connotations and it was it was a bit different when paul was using it because let’s not forget this is a different customs, different culture, different time and everything. So when he says slave he does mean someone that is bonded to someone else but not in the way that we would normally think of it here. So he says it’s gonna he says he calls himself a slave of christ or a bond servant of christ. And for us following christ and and obtaining our site and walking in sight it’s gonna cost us our freedom. It’s gonna cost us our freedom and we’re fooling ourselves if we think otherwise we’re fooling ourselves if we think otherwise. And so it’s gonna cost us our freedom so will we choose to follow to follow jesus to follow jesus ah I remember years ago years ago I was Mhm I was helping someone move. It was myself a couple of my friends and uh Pastor john Sherrod and um we’re helping somebody move and um we’re helping you know, pick up the couches, you know, we’re moving into the truck, we’re picking up you know the tv and you know whatever and you know you help people in and move so that’s what we’re doing, we’re doing what movers do, all right. Um and something takes place where we we we lift something up and the bolts I think fall out of the of the T. V. Or something like that, something along the lines, something fell out and it was easily fixable. It wasn’t like it was it wasn’t like we destroyed the thing, we could just pick it up, put it back and I think we were stepping over it, you know, to to focus on what we wanted to do, get the tv out. And um Pastor john goes and he goes, now what are you gonna do with those bolts, son, what are you gonna do with those bolts? And you know, one of my friends was just like oh I was just going he goes, no son, here’s what you do. And that just threw, it comes to mind now because we have such a perspective of you know, I’m doing what I wanna do, like what are we gonna do with this this thing, what are we gonna do with our site? What are we going to do with what God has given us? What are we going to do with what the Lord has given us. So I’m gonna ask you the same question. What are you gonna do with your site? What are you gonna do with your side? You may say oh I was just gonna no no no no no. Think about the one that gave us this side. Think about the one that laid his life down. Yeah. It may cost us a lot the cost of sight. But what did it cost him? It caused jesus christ his life on the cross. He died on the cross so that we could be free from sin. He died on the cross so that we can have this site so that we can walk in vision and walk in purpose and realize that we are sons and realize that we are daughters and realize that our sin doesn’t have to weigh us down or keep us bound. We’re called to receive our site to walk on our site. For some of us. For whatever reason, we may have difficulty receiving site from the Lord. Maybe we can’t get past our feelings. Maybe we can’t get past our our difficulties. Maybe we can’t fully see what God is trying to do because we keep coming to him with our cloak for others. We want jesus to heal us and he does. But whenever we do we forget and we go on our way, we do what we want. So wherever you find yourself, let’s all just stand. I just want us to pray very quickly before we close out. So Lord, I thank you for wherever we are, Lord! Those that want to see those that want site. Father, I pray that you would do what only you can do in our lives and in our heart. Father that you would give us a spiritual sight to be able to see whatever is holding us back. Oh Lord! I pray that you would make it right. But I was holding us back. Oh God, I pray that we would have the strength to let go. Whatever is holding us back. Oh God, I pray that you would loose the chains, father and help us Lord, to receive the site that you’ve called us to receive. I thank you for us. Your sons for us, your daughters, for the people of God. I thank you for the foundation that you have laid for us. I thank you for this house. And I pray Lord that as we would go from here, but not from your presence that we would not fail to continuously say jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. You see my needs. Oh God. You see my situation. Oh God! You see my heart. Oh God, I’m not perfect. Oh Lord, I need your grace. I need your mercy. I need you. Help me, Father. Thank you. We praise you. We give you praise, honor and glory. We ask all of these things in jesus name and everyone said Amen. Amen and Amen. Give God praise. Thank you so much. I love you. God bless hello again and thank you so much for tuning in to the message at Global seven. Once again, my name is Roderick CAesar the third, the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle. My prayer is that you were blessed and encouraged by the message. And if you want to contribute and give to the ministry, you can text B G T F I 277977 again, you can text B G T F I 277977. We’re so thankful for you and my prayer is that God will continue to strengthen and empower and encourage you as you listen to this message, we hope you tune again later and God bless you.