The Cost of Sight

Hello everyone. My name is Pastor roderick caesar the third on the lead Pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york. And my prayer is that you would be blessed. You would be encouraged and strengthened by this word. Hope you enjoy God bless. Hello! Everyone praise the Lord. Today we are going to be talking about the cost of sight. The cost of site. Uh, today’s text comes from the book of Mark, chapter 10, Mark, chapter 10 verses 46 through 52. Let’s read together And they came to Jericho and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd. Bardem ius a blind beggar. The son of thomas 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 saying, Son of David, have mercy on me. And jesus stopped and said, Call him and they called the blind man saying to him, Take heart, get up! He is calling you 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? And 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 his sight and followed him on the way. We’re looking at the cost of sight. Dear God, I thank you so much for this word, I pray that you would be glorified as I speak. Uh blessed the individual that’s listening the hero and we pray that you would just be glorified in this time. We thank you in jesus name, Amen, Amen and amen from this portion of text, we’re gonna talk about the cost of sight. The cost of sight. The term woke is used to describe usually but not always a minority or just someone who understands that there is a racial construct that was created a hierarchy of sorts and society follows that society follows and they understand that within this construct not all races are seen as equal. James baldwin once said to be a negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be enraged almost all of the time. And that that lets us know that there is a cost to having sight a cost to having the veil pulled back a cost to seeing something, There was a slogan some years ago, perhaps it still stands today but it said, if you see something say something, if you see something wrong, if you see something out of order, if you see something that looks suspicious, go tell an authority. If you see something say something, there’s a cost to having sight a cost to realizing that things are out of whack or out of perspective or a cost to having the ability to see Uh something and the same thing happens and applies spiritually. So we see that they came to Jericho verse 46 and as he was leaving Jericho, his disciples were with him, a great crowd was with him. But there was a man in the crowd bar to me is a blind beggar. The son of Timmy’s was sitting by the roadside bar means son of, son of thomas, thomas means honored one. And so we see that he was a blind individual. He was unable to make ends meet in this day in age due to his blindness. And so he was then disabled. He was on the road, he was begging, he was poorer than the poor. He was sitting by the roadside asking for assistance. He didn’t have his sight. But what he did have was his voice. He didn’t have his sight. But what he did have was his voice. And this shows us that we can use what we have to get what we need. We may not have this, we may not have that, but there’s something that we have that can get attention. There is something that we have that we can get what we need, use what we have to get what we need. And when he heard that jesus was there, he began to cry out with a loud voice saying, Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me. The son of thomas cries out to the son of David. You see in this text, they were defined by their lineage. We see that jesus reputation had obviously preceded him. He was known as a healer. He was known as a teacher. He was known as a deliverer. He was known as someone that could heal blind eyes. And so as he’s walking through the son of thomas, asked the son of David for mercy. And obtaining site is going to cost you amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me? I once was lost, but now I’m found I was blind. But now I see making that switch from being blind to having site is costly. It’s costly. Uh Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote about the contrast between cheap grace and costly grace and many times we abuse the grace of christ as if it didn’t cost something. It’s going to cost us something. So, obtaining our site is going to cost us our feelings. So what we need to do is flex our faith, obtaining our site is going to cost us our feelings. So what we need to do is flex our faith. We cannot walk by sight. We walk by faith to get site. You can’t walk by just your sight. You have to walk by faith to activate true sight. Many rebuked Barnum as he was hollering to jesus and they told him to be quiet. They told him to be silent. But there’s a contrast here. But he cried out all the more they told him to be quiet. But he was not quiet. They told him to be silent, but he was not silent. He cried out all the more Son of David have mercy on me. What’s interesting in this texas bar thomas was already blind. So they try to make a blind man mute. They tried to take away his voice, take away the one thing he had, they tried to silence him and he said, no, no, no, this this is what I’m going to use to to give me this site to to bring this site and restore my eyes. Uh this is what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna use my voice. So he cried out all the more what this shows us is that people won’t always agree with you, but you need to press on anyway. People will have a bad word to say about you, but you need to push through anyway. People will try to silence you because they don’t understand what it is you’re doing but you need to press on anyway. What they didn’t understand was the reason behind why he was yelling, why he was crying, why he was shouting to jesus. And so they tried to shut him up but he said no, no. With this resolve I will cry out all the more with this resolve, I will yell from the mountain tops to this God to jesus, the christ who is my savior, who can have mercy upon me, who can look upon me a wretched sinner, look upon me! Someone that needs assistance, look upon me! Someone that is need some help. With a hand extended he can extend his arm and help me. He could turn my mourning into gladness. He can turn my darkness into light. He understood that, but the people around him didn’t. So they tried to silence him. They tried to make a blind man mute and people will not always understand the reason behind your press. They won’t understand the reason behind your push. They won’t understand the reason behind your zeal. They won’t understand the reason behind your grind. The reason behind your hustle. They won’t understand. But don’t let their lack of clarity stop you from moving forward. Don’t let their lack of clarity stop you from pushing beyond your boundaries. Don’t let their lack of clarity stop you from doing what you know you need to do. People won’t always understand the reason behind and so why do you work so hard? Why are you doing this? Why do you have this, this, this and this? Why are you pushing so hard in this direction? Why are you always talking about such and such? Are always moving in this lane. Why are you know? They can ask those questions that’s fine, but don’t let that stop You don’t let that slow you move forward and push anyway. So he yelled from the mountaintops, he yelled as loud as he could jesus, son of David have mercy on me. And this was near Jericho. And the last time in scripture we see shouting near Jericho walls came down. Don’t miss this. The last time they were shouting near Jericho walls came down. Now borrow me a shouts near Jericho and the scales of his eyes fall off, the scales fall from his eyes and he has his sight and he can see the walls came down and borrow Mia’s sight is restored. We serve a God who from age to age is the same, who can work one miracle in one season and another miracle in another season. That’s just as powerful. That’s just as timely. That’s just as needed. That’s just as necessary. We serve a God that is an ever present help in times of trouble in your time of trouble in my time of trouble, our God is with us to strengthen us. He is still still to this day, a miracle working God. Just as he worked a miracle in Jericho all those years ago with Joshua, he can work a miracle with bar to me is just as he worked a miracle with you years ago when you needed him, he can work a miracle with you again. Now in your present circumstance, in your present storm, we serve a God who was the same. A miracle working God! What I love about this is jesus, loves the fact that Barnabas takes initiative that when they try to silence him, he cries out all the more you see, you have to have a resolve within you. That’s like a no matter what they say, kind of praise, no matter what they say, I’m going to give him glory, no matter what they say, I’m gonna worship him, no matter what they say, I’m gonna cry out, I will not let them stop me, I will not let the rocks cry out in my place, I will, I will sing praise to the true and living God. I will cry out for mercy from the true and living God, I will intercede on the behalf of others to the true and living God. I will cry out to God because it’s that real and you can’t let what they say, silence, you can’t let their words silence you, you can’t let that happen. You have to have no matter what they say, praise and jesus, the text says, which is so important, Jesus stopped, jesus stop, don’t miss this, he didn’t have his sight, but he had his voice. And as jesus was moving through the crowd and Barnum es is calling him and he stops in his tracks and says, who’s who’s this that called me, jesus says, call him whoever he is, call him and bring him to me and imagine Barnabas joy, his glee when they said to him, Take heart get up, he is calling you, take heart get up, he is calling you what’s amazing is the same people that were trying to shut him up before are now the same people now that he’s on the come up, trying to get on his side and say get up. He’s calling you and encourage him Get up. He is calling you Take heart. He’s calling you. Why would you need to tell me to take heart When I took heart from myself in the first place, I called out when you try to shut me up, I pressed on when you try to pull me back and so they say, get up and strengthen yourself in the Lord. The amazing thing is we have to uh be able to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. We have to be able to do that sense of God. You cannot rely on a word from me as your pastor or a pastor or you can’t rely on a word from somebody else. You have to be able to strengthen yourself in the Lord David said, why are you downcast on my soul? Take hope in the Lord. And we need to be able to do that Saints of God. We need to be able to have those difficult conversations with difficult moments with ourselves and say no, no, we’re not gonna stay down cast. We’re gonna lift our eyes to the hills from where our help comes from. We know that our help comes from the Lord. We cannot stay down. We cannot stay bound. We cannot stay stuck. We cannot say despondent, we cannot stay there. We have to get up and sometimes other people are going to be the ones that kick you when you’re down. Other people are going to be the ones that pass you on the road side. You have to be able to say for yourself. No, I will lift myself up in jesus name, I will lean on the true and living God in jesus name. I will cry out to him because he is the one that wants to assist in my time of need strengthen yourself in The Lord, encourage yourself in the Lord barney mays could see that jesus wanted to help him and he did not even have the site. He saw it before they did and he didn’t even have a site because He wasn’t looking and living by sight. He was looking and living by faith hebrews 11 1 says, faith is now the substance of things, hoped for the evidence of things not seen. So he couldn’t see it. But yet he saw his healing before they did. He couldn’t see Jesus passed him by, but he knew he was in the vicinity and he saw his healing before they did. You have to flex your faith, Saints of God, you have to flex, your faith. Saints of God. It’s gonna cost you your feelings. You can’t be trapped in your feelings and trapped in how you feel for the moment because your feelings are fleeting. Your faith is forever. Your feelings can move and so be fickle from one moment to the next. But your faith, Your faith. What is it you’re standing on? What is it you’re founded on? What is it you’re leaning on in difficult times, flex your faith, Saints of God. That’s what we need to do. It’s gonna cost you your feelings. So flex your faith and it’s gonna cost you your comfort. The second thing is going to cost you is your comfort. So you have to cast your cloak. Let’s look at verse 50. And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus, his posture, he was eager. He was anticipating he was awaiting. He threw off his cloak, the text says, and came to jesus. He was willing to leave his comfort behind. Think about this as a blind individual in this day and age. He was one of the lowest of the low he was unable to provide for himself. He was dependent upon the assistance of others. His cloak is what kept him warm during those cold nights. His cloak is what helped him during those kept him dry during those rainy, rainy times. His cloak is what helped keep him safe, helped keep him secure in those difficult moments. And when jesus called him, he threw it off when jesus called him, he casted it aside when jesus called him, he laid it down and went to jesus. The son of the living god, Why is this? Because he did not need it where he was going. He didn’t need it, where he was going. He didn’t need it with what he was getting when he was blind. He needed his cloak when he was blinded, helped to comfort him in those difficulties when he was blind and couldn’t see he needed the cloak. It was with him wherever he went. It helped him through those difficult moments. But when jesus called him that, that all that all went, went by the wayside, he left it and laid it down and went to follow Jesus. The cloak was the comfort of the blind man. But the man with site did not need the cloak. He cast it aside in anticipation. He cast it aside in expectation. And before he was restored physically, he was changed mentally. Before he even got his sight. He threw his cloak to the ground before his sight was restored, he threw his cloak to the ground. Why? Because his mind was renewed. His mind was renewed. His mind was renewed, Romans 12 1 and two. I appeal to you brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as 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. His mind was renewed. His mind was restored when jesus said, you come this way, barney meus, come to me. He left the cloak. That was a comfort to him for all those years. A cloak that was a comfort to him during those difficult times. And he went to the feet of jesus the christ because he saw himself with the power of faith restored hole and jesus said to him, what do you need me to do for you? And the blind man said Rabbi, let me recover my site. Duh, jesus, jesus asked this blind man, what do you need me to do for you, jesus and part of me says like uh give me some site, let me see what do you need me to do for you? Imagine this part of me is finally gets what he’s been yelling for, but he’s been shouting for but he’s been crying for but he’s been praying for, let me recover my sight. I’m blind, I cannot see mm hmm jesus, you’re in control and I know that from this moment on things will change. Imagine this, you’re going to jesus and jesus says, what do you want? And you have enough presence of mind, enough composure to say this, this is exactly what I need, if you ever if you have ever been in the presence of someone famous or someone well known sometimes your adrenaline can get the best of you and you begin to stutter or stammer over some words. If you ever nervous, my father would often say you’re intoxicated by the proximity of greatness, right? You’re you’re you get close to someone that you think is grandiose and awesome and you just lose your train of thought, you lose the confidence, the swagger that you had, right? And we see that jesus asks him, what do you want? And he doesn’t lose that at all. He says, I want to see, I want to recover my sight. Why? Why doesn’t he? What does that all go out the door when jesus asked him because that was the basis of his screaming in the first place. The basis of his shouting in the first place came from a need and he knows I need to recover my site. It’s gonna cost me some things, but at all costs. I’m ready to move forward at all costs. I’m ready to now see at all costs. I’m ready for my life to be changed at all costs. That’s why I yelled. That’s why I shot. That’s why when you asked me, I can say confidently Lord, this is what I need Lord, this is what I desire Lord, this is what I want. So he was, he was able to cast his cloak why? Because he was willing to let go of his comfort. He was willing to let go of his comfort, scripture also says that when I was a boy, I thought like a boy, a reason like a boy. I acted like a child. But when I became a man, I did what I put away those childish things. Many of us are trying to take old things into new seasons. Many of us are trying to take old things into new seasons. He was able to put the cloak down because he didn’t need it. Where he was going, jesus talks about in scripture, the wine and the wine skins. And it’s interesting how he said, look, you can’t pour new wine into old wine skins because the old wine skins, it’s unable to contain and it’s unable to hold it. What the what what the new wine needs is fresh wine skins is something new. And we’re trying to drag along these old wine skins into new seasons. These old cloaks into new seasons, these old mindsets into new seasons. And it’s not. So what we need to do is discard our comfort. Get rid of our comfort and throw a cloak to the side. So it’s gonna cost you uh your feelings so flex your faith. It’s gonna cost you your comfort. So cast your cloak third. And finally it’s gonna cost you your freedom. So follow jesus. It’s going to cost you your freedom. So follow Jesus and Jesus said to him verse 50 to go on your way, Go on your way, Get on out of here, Get moving, go ahead. Your faith has now made you well you can see, go on your way, go be about, go ahead, do what you gotta do. Your faith has made you well go in peace. Power in jesus’s word, your faith has made you well I’ve healed you now go in peace and immediately after he recovered his sight he followed jesus on the way, he didn’t say okay now now I can go do everything I wanted to do. I’m about to go be about my business. I don’t know. He followed jesus with his sight. The first thing he did in response to obtaining what he’s been hoping for, yelling for praying for crying out to God for is follow the God that gave him sight. Follow the man that gave him sight, jesus the christ, he followed him on the way. The first thing he did with his site was follow his healer God’s way became his way because he found his site. After he was healed, he followed christ followed christ. Being a disciple is what following following jesus says, if any man must follow me, if any man would be my disciple, he must deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me. It’s not an easy journey, but it’s one that this man knows he has to take and I think that’s a beautiful picture for us to be able to say you know what, When my prayers get answered, this is this is a heart check when your prayers get answered. Do you remember who answered them? When your prayers get answered? When the miracle you’re praying for gets delivered to your doorstep. Do you remember who it was that worked the miracle? Or do you have suddenly a spiritual amnesia? Forget all those nights you cried out, Forget all those things you prayed for. Forget all of those things. Now it’s if I only in your possession and you go about your way, living your own life, doing your own thing, neglecting the savior, neglecting the provider Or are we in? Or instead are now we are we now in a place in a position to say, you know what it’s gonna cost me my freedom. God. But I want to see more than anything. I want to be a bond servant of jesus christ. I want to move forward and understand that with this site comes this cost. So let’s let’s flush this out just a little bit. Let’s flush this out. Uh It’s gonna cost you your your feelings. So flex your faith, flex your faith. It takes practice like like a muscle to flex your faith. The more you flex your faith, the more powerful it becomes. Now faith. The thing about faith is it requires opposition, opposition from self opposition from others, opposition from circumstances and individuals that may try to silence you that may try to silence your voice. Individuals that maybe have nothing to offer, nothing. Good to say, nothing. Good to contribute. They won’t listen to you. They’ll say God doesn’t care. They say that you’ll never change. Sometimes you’re yourself, you’ll say that to yourself or I’ll never change. Oh God doesn’t hear me. Oh my circumstances will always be the same. But you have to flex your faith because faith is the substance. It’s made of the things that we hope for and it’s the evidence of the things that we don’t see just yet. So we have to see past what we see in order to see. We have to see past what we see, see through what we see. That’s faith. It takes an obstacle. But we need to flex, our faith gets stronger every time we flex it, we need an inner resolve. We want things to change more than we want things to remain the same. And the resolve says, I can’t go another day, I can’t go another week, I can’t go another month. I can’t go another year. Living life this way, things must change. And in a resolve is what changes you from Seoul to paul. From Jacob to Israel from the blind man begging to now the man that receives site from who you were to who you are destined to be an inner resolve to remind you that yes, I am blessed. Yes, I am more. Yes, I am more than a conqueror. Yes, I am victorious. Yes, I am a son. Yes, I am a daughter. That is. It takes faith to say those words and to mean it and to know that it’s God that has transformed you from darkness into light. It’s gonna cost you your comfort. So, cast your cloak. I want to take a deeper look at this, throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to jesus comfort kills us. Comfort kills us. If you’re comfortable sitting on the couch chilling and you don’t want to move and you never move and you never get up any. You never get up to do the essential things for life. You will feel the repercussions of that comfort can kill you. Comfort gives you limited movement. It’s comfortable. Sure, But it restricts you from moving forward. It restricts you from gaining site. It restricts you from growing or expanding. Comfort can kill the cloak could be what’s hindering you could be what’s holding you back. You see, it wasn’t needed for where he was going. So he left it. And like I said before, we’re trying to bring these old things into new seasons. What is a hebrew? Say, the writer of hebrews 12 1 says therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us. My grandfather used to say this. He used to say, don’t hold on or don’t grasp the cloak of life too tightly, you see, he had a perspective that this life, it’s one of those cloaks that we can wear and it could be so comfortable to us. But there’s something beyond this life a life that’s that’s prepared for us that we’re walking into into eternity. So don’t grasp the cloak of this life too tightly because it’s temporary. Thirdly, it’s gonna cost us our freedom. So follow him as I close the blind man made Gods way his way, amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now I’m found I was blind. But now now I see, you know, uh years a couple of years ago, um when I was a teenager, I was hoping somebody move out and uh my uncle was there helping us out and you know, uh we get to the heavy lifting lifting, the couches and TVs and all these different things and one of the bolts fell to the ground. My uncle said, now what are you going to do with those bolts, son? What are you gonna do with those bolts? You know, he’s expecting me to pick him up and screw it back in and do all those things. And what are you gonna do with those bolts on that question? It sticks to me, It sticks and it comes back in a time like this because what are we going to do with our site, what are we gonna do with the site that God has given us the site that God has given us the ability to have because once you see some things can’t be unseen once you see, are you gonna willingly walk back into blindness? Walk back into darkness with your site knowing the truth, knowing that jesus christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords has delivered you from darkness into light. Are you now willingly going to turn back into the darkness? What are you going to do with your site? Who will you follow? It’s gonna cost you your freedom. So follow jesus too many of us. We get what we need from God. We go back to doing, we were doing right after, but we now need to be in a place where we surrender to God where we honor God, where we live for God, the thing about site is things and perspectives can look differently to everyone when your eyes are opened and spiritually you’re spiritually awake now things look different. Some people you realize you’re a son, you realize you’re a daughter. Some people you realize I’m not a victim, but now I’m a victor to some people. You realize I don’t have to to sin or feel weighed down by the things that held me down for so long. The biggest hindrance as I close to some of us receiving our site as we can’t get past our feelings of inadequacy of anger, of shame, of sadness and bitterness and we can’t flex our faith for others. The biggest hindrances, we can’t fully have our eyes open because we’re coming to jesus with our cloak and it’s obstructing our site. We want our cake and we want to eat it too for others. Uh the reason why our eyes can be open is because once jesus does what we need them to do, we go on our way. We need to know that jesus is the way the truth and the life wherever you find yourself in one of those three categories, I need us to know that there was a God who was willing to heal, willing to restore, willing to renew. If we are willing to to understand that there is a cost to our site of course of course it costs us something to get our site. But think about what it cost him to give us sight, cost him his life. The reason why he could do what he did is because he was the sinless, spotless lamb that took away the sins of the world that conquered death, hell and the grave in order to give us sight. He doesn’t give us sight without giving us life. He helps us to see. But then also helps us to live. And so if we want to move forward from darkness into light. I wanted to just pray this prayer. Dear God, I just thank you so much for who you called us to be, how you’ve called us to live. I pray that you would forgive us of our sins, that you would cleanse us from all in righteousness. You would make us more like you each and every day and help us to say these words, jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. I’ve been blind in some areas. I’ve been stumbling around in some areas, but now I’ve seen a great light and I want to make a shift. I want to make a change to you to see jesus the christ, thank you so much for forgiving me, making me new, making me hope and allowing me to see as you see. We thank you. We praise you. We give you glory in jesus name. Amen. Amen and amen. God bless you so much. Thank you for listening and God bless Hello again. Pastor Roderick CAesar third here, thank you so much for watching my prayer. Is that you were blessed. You are encouraged and strengthened by that message. If you would like to be a blessing to the ministry, you can text B G T F I 277977 again, you can text B G T F I 277977 to sow a seed into the ministry and we thank you, Thank you so much for your generosity or you can visit our website at B G T F. I dot us for more information. Thank you so much. Once again, I hope you were blessed. I’m praying for you. We love you here at Bethel, God bless.