Skip to content A Blind Man's Encounter: An Eye-Opening Process - Jesus Encounter, Part 2 Jul 16 · 52 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 Jesus encounter part 2, Mark chapter 8. We are looking at specific encounters that Jesus has with people in the gospel. If you think about0:12 it, all of our lives are shaped by Jesus encounters. If you're here today, wherever you are on the journey of faith, and I believe it's a0:23 journey, it's because of Jesus. Somebody started this church because of Jesus. Somebody who started this church came from another church and that church started because of Jesus. And0:35 here we are 2000 years later, about 2000000000 people on the planet, they worship the name of Jesus. He's divided history. Amen. A B C A D.0:47 Every atheist that ever writes down the date is acknowledging that Jesus is the Lord of time. So when we talk about Jesus encounters, we're talking about anything0:59 is possible with Jesus. Anything is possible with Jesus. What will he do in your life when you encounter him? This is where we are. Mark chapter 8, we're gonna look at a story,1:11 1 of the stranger stories in the gospels. And it looks like Jesus messed up, but he didn't. He never does. Everything he does is with a purpose. Let's stand for the reading of God's word at1:23 all of our locations. Mark chapter 8, we're gonna read verses 22 to 26 for now. Verses 22 to 26 in Mark chapter 8. Here's what it1:34 says. And they came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him and he took the man by1:46 the hand and let him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see1:58 anything? Everybody say that question with me on the count of 3. 1, 2, 3. Do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people but they look like trees walking.2:11 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 sent2:23 him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. This is God's word. Let's pray together. Father, speak to your servants and speak through your servant2:35 and help us to hear your voice and help us to know your word and help us to see Jesus. We ask this in his precious name and everybody said,2:47 Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a seat. Jesus encounter, I wanna talk to you about the blind man's encounter, an eye opening process. An eye opening process. This is a strange2:59 story, right? I mean this is a strange story. What happened here? What what what's going on with the 2 touches Jesus? You are Jesus. You3:11 have always healed and it's been immediate. I mean sometimes Jesus didn't even have to touch the person. He just said it. When lepers came to3:23 him and said will you make me clean? He said I will, be clean. And they were clean immediately. Sometimes Jesus didn't even have to be in the presence of the person to heal. The3:35 Roman centurion came to Jesus from a a great distance and he said, look, my servant's at home and he's sick and I need you to come and heal him and Jesus gets up to go heal him and and the servant says and the3:47 centurion says, you know what? Actually, know how authority works. I just say it and it happens. So I know that if you just say it, he's gonna be healed and he did. And he wasn't even in the presence of the person that3:57 needed healing. And the centurion went home, the scripture records, and the servant was healed at the very hour Jesus said, he's healed. Sometimes Jesus didn't even have to be in the presence of4:09 the person, didn't even have to touch the person. So what gives here? In Mark chapter 8, what is Jesus doing in this moment that he has to to4:21 double tap the blind man? Anybody ever see zombieland? Double tap. It's a double tap for healing, not blowing out a zombie's brains. Anybody know what I'm talking about there? And and so this is a weird4:32 moment in Jesus' record and it's the only place in the bible where this happens. Where Jesus starts the healing process, doesn't complete it, and then brings it to completion4:44 on a second time. And I think what's the deal here with this passage is simply this, Jesus is teaching through the miracle. Everything Jesus did was teaching. Everything that he4:56 does is on purpose. He's trying to lead us to know him. And so the first thing I want you to write down in your notes is that this is more than a miracle. This miracle is a parable for5:07 discipleship because here's where you are, here's where I am. We are there but we're not there yet. We are we are on the way. We are in process and5:18 here's what I want you to understand about encounter, an encounter with Jesus. Sometimes you need more than 1 touch to get a hold of what God wants to get into your life.5:31 I wanna talk to some people who have beaten themselves up. You don't know the bible like you should know it. You don't understand the scriptures like you wish you could. You see all the people, they look so much further5:42 in the faith than you and you wonder is God done with you? Is this as far as you go? I got good news for you, just because you're paused doesn't mean you're stopped. God's gonna move you5:54 forward into a new place in faith. And sometimes we're so thick headed we need to see it in somebody else before we receive it in ourselves. Aren't6:06 you glad when you meet another Christian who's jacked up? Some of you tell me this, you say pastor I love the best part of your preaching is when you're telling me all the6:18 ways you screw up. I'm like I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or if I should take that as a warning because I can relate to that. I don't know about you, I can relate to people6:29 in process. I don't want any finished products around me. You know what I'm talking about? I I I If they look finished, they're faking it. I'm just letting you know.6:41 We're all in process. And this story, this miracle is a process and it's speaking about blindness. Blindness.6:53 Here's here's the problem with where we are in our process. We just have yet to see things more clearly. You wanna grow in Christ? Ask him to give you eyes to see7:05 what you're not presently seeing. It's why at the end of every time we stand for the reading of God's word, what's the last thing I pray for? Help us to what? That's intentional you7:16 know. That's not just ritual. I want you and I to see Jesus. That's what we need. We need to see better than we're seeing right now. Every7:28 marriage in this house could be healed to a greater degree if we saw Jesus better Cause he's the true bridegroom and we are his bride and7:40 if we saw how he loved us, we would love our spouse the way far better than we do right now. Every parent in the house needs to see Jesus to raise their kids in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.7:53 Every person going through a trial and a trouble right now. You understand that the trial and the trouble in the physical really isn't the trial and the trouble. There's a spiritual unseen reality. You gotta8:05 do battle there to see victory here. I told this to our location that we're starting in Travelers Rest, South Carolina. I told Josh and the team, and I know they're listening. So listen up.8:16 Before you start a church in the physical, you gotta win the battle in the spiritual. Churches don't start because of great charisma or charismatic leaders. Churches start because people hunger and thirst after8:28 almighty God. In fact, ways this church and all of the expansion of this church is actually predicated on the prayers of our location in Norwood. Norwood used to have Sunday night prayer8:40 meetings. All they would do is pray and do battle in the spiritual realm. And you know what they prayed for? They prayed that the church would spread across the globe. They prayed that this church would reach people from8:50 different nationalities, different areas of the country. They prayed that this church would raise up pastors that would that would go to the far reaches of this land to bring the gospel. And now what we are seeing is9:01 happening because they won the battle in the unseen realm. Now now that's the good news but here's the bad news. There are some things that I'm not currently seeing that I need to see.9:13 And the only thing that's holding me back from moving forward in faith is that. I don't know about you but you men in the house, married men in the house,9:25 are you here? All locations? You see how quiet they are? Yeah yeah. Be you know why? You know what? Because they're shamed. They're shamed on a regular9:37 basis. My wife has the gift of sight that I don't have. I lose stuff all the time. I lose stuff all the time and then9:49 I look for it and I look for it and I get frustrated and I can't find it. Anybody, any men in the house who are married, you know what to do in this moment, right? You gotta ask the wife. Because for some reason God10:01 has gifted the wife with a bloodhound sense to know where stuff is that you will never find.10:13 What happens in my house is I come home and I say, honey I can't find my keys or I can't find my wallet or I can't find my this or I can't find my that and I'm always like, well I can't find my AirPods. AirPods is10:21 usually the thing. I can't find my AirPods, where are my AirPods? And I start to freak out and then I do the find my devices thing, that's worthless. They need to extract whatever they put into a woman's brain and put it10:31 into this thing so it can find something for once. And so I always have to do this because my wife will usually be reading a book or she'll be watching a television show or she'll be Instagramming or whatever, and10:43 I have to kind of do the thing where I guilt her into getting up because she won't. And so I have to say, Cheryl, I can't find it and she doesn't move. And I said, Cheryl,10:51 I can't find it.10:51 I have to get I have to get weepy and10:53 Cheryl, I can't find it. I need to hurry up. I don't know what I'm gonna do, Cheryl.10:58 And finally he's like, okay fine. And I you know, it's just like, why don't you just do it earlier? Because in 13 seconds, she gets up, she walks over, here it is.11:10 Finds it. I said it ticks me off but but there's 2 reasons. There's 2 reasons why I can't find it. Okay? The first reason is because I don't look right and the second reason is11:22 because I'm a man. So don't blame me, it's how I was born. I'm blind to things. Here's the truth about scripture, we're all blind some way. We all can't see11:34 things that we should see And so take that ladies, you blind Jew. The old testament prophets talked about blindness repeatedly. Jeremiah chapter11:46 5 verse 21, hear this, oh foolish and senseless people who have eyes but do not see. Who have ears but do not hear. Isaiah11:57 chapter 6, Isaiah the prophet was sent to a nation and God says to Isaiah, go tell this people keep on hearing but do not understand. Keep on seeing but do not12:09 perceive. It's possible to see and still be blind. Some of you think you see but you don't see how you should see. And some of that is your fault12:21 but some of that is just ignorance to the reality of what you're surrounded by. There are 3 universal blinding powers. I want you to write them down at every location. Number 1, we are naturally12:32 born spiritually blind. This is what scripture speaks to. We don't see the spiritual realm naturally. The scripture talks about that we teach things that are12:44 spiritually discerned. The natural man cannot discern them. They're spiritually discerned. He thinks they're foolish. The gospel is foolish to those who think they see. The scriptures are foolish to those12:56 who think they are wise. Why is that? Because we are naturally born spiritually blind. Jesus said to Nicodemus, truly truly I say to you, no 1 can see the kingdom13:08 of God unless he is what? Born again. John chapter 3 verse 3. Sometimes we get frustrated with unbelievers because they don't see the world the way we see them, but we have to have some13:20 grace and compassion because the scriptures are very clear, they just haven't been born again. Some of you need to remember when you first came to Christ, remember this, that suddenly you saw things differently.13:33 Remember? Remember how you saw the bible differently? Can anybody testify to the fact that the bible was gibberish to you until you until you received Jesus? Can anybody13:45 testify to the fact you thought going to church every week was crazy until you receive Jesus? Anybody ever think, oh prayer won't work until you receive Jesus and then suddenly you just saw the world differently. What13:56 happened? You got born again. Number 2, there's another force. We are blinded by our own desires and sins. This is the Samson Syndrome. Poor Samson, he always gets called out on this because this14:08 guy couldn't see anything spiritually. He was blinded by desire. He desired what? Foreign women. He desired Philistine women, pagan women. And we always think it's14:19 Delilah that was the downfall but there was a Philistine woman before Delilah, we don't even know her name. And he got married to her first. Well the marriage actually never even happened. He was, the woman was given to14:30 somebody else and Samson flipped out because of that. And you would have thought that he would have learned that Philistine women are bad news Samson, they're bad news. But he14:42 didn't, he was blinded by his desires and sins. And so when he found Delilah, he fell head over heels. And then eventually those heels were shackled to a grinding stone in a Philistine prison.14:54 It is amazing how often times we can get blinded by what we want in life. Some of you are looking for a spouse right now and and if you're not careful, your15:06 eager desire to get married will lead you down a path of destruction that you can't presently see. The scripture talks about don't be15:17 unequally yoked. What does that mean? Don't be married to non believers. You're gonna yoke up with somebody who doesn't love Jesus and and this is another 1. Don't be15:29 yoked to false believers. You gotta check the receipt. You gotta read the fine print of their life. I know some people can15:41 get their spouse to come to Jesus, but it's rare. Thank God it does happen. But if you're single in this house, you gotta listen to me. Please, I'm begging you. Don't be so blinded by the15:52 desire to get married that you just settle for anybody because 1 of the devil's children is just waiting for you to drop your standards. You are a child of the most high God,16:04 daughters of Waters Church at all location. You are daughters of the most high. You are princesses in the castle of heaven. Do not lower your standard16:16 for the frogs from hell. Blinded by our own desires and sins. This is how people get up16:28 into adultery because they get blinded by their desires and their sins. Jesus said again to Nicodemus, he said this is the judgment, John 3 19. The light has come into the world and people loved16:40 darkness. They loved what they wanted. They loved darkness rather than light. They didn't wanna come into the darkness lest their works should be exposed. We are blinded. Isn't it amazing?16:52 How often we'll sell out our spiritual health for temporal pleasure? This is a daily struggle even for God's children. And17:04 Jesus warned very clearly, you're blind, so what you want can blind you to what you need. Number 3, we are blinded by the spiritual enemy. We got some issues with sight.17:17 We got natural blindness, we the lust of the flesh blindness, and then we've got an enemy who works in the spiritual realm who wants to blind us even further. Second Corinthians17:29 chapter 4 says, the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ who is the image of God. That's what's going17:41 on in our world right now. You look at what's happening in our country, in our culture, and you say, what is going how can people believe that? I don't get it. The god of17:53 this world has what? Blinded. And when you can't see, you'll stumble and walk into all kinds of dangerous places.18:05 We gotta have some compassion for the people in our world and some compassion for the neighbors and coworkers that we are near because spiritual blindness is a universal issue. And18:17 it was an issue here in Mark chapter 8, but not with who you thought. Mark chapter 8, let me give you some context. Last week I gave you a pro tip about studying the bible and I hope you appreciate these.18:29 It is not just my job to preach, it's my job to teach. And so I taught you last week that if you wanna understand the meaning of any passage of scripture, the point of any passage of scripture, what did I say?18:41 You had to understand the point of what? The whole book. Thankfully, over here, some people were listening last week. Okay. So in order to understand 1 passage, you have to understand the18:52 book's point. What did Mark write What did Luke last week write his gospel for? Well, what did Mark write his gospel for? This is written to Romans. 1 of the couple of things about Mark's gospel is you know who keeps19:02 seeing Jesus for who he is? Romans. Roman centurions. In fact, in Mark's gospel, in Mark's gospel alone, it talks about the Roman centurion who stood at the cross and when Jesus died and he saw the earthquake, it was in19:14 Mark's gospel that the Roman centurion said, surely this was the son of God. So he knows his target audience. He's trying to reach Romans with the gospel of Jesus. But anyway,19:27 there's another tip I wanna give you about studying the Bible. If you wanna study a passage of the Bible rightly, you gotta learn this, read before it and after19:39 it. So if you are ever stuck in a passage of the bible and you say, don't understand what this is saying. Okay, well read what happened just before and read what19:51 happens right after. So we're gonna do that today. That's why I said for now we're gonna read Mark 8 22 to 26. So now let's look at what's happened before this passage because this is gonna give us some enlightenment.20:01 This is gonna give us some eyes to see what's been happening. So Jesus is in a frustrating season. We're we're nearing the end of his ministry. The the commentators say this is the continental20:12 divide of Jesus' ministry. The continental divide of Jesus' ministry. What the heck does that mean? Here's what that means. Jesus for 2 years20:24 has been doing miracles publicly and powerfully. He has raised the dead, he has cast out demons, he has healed the lame and the lepers and he has opened20:36 mute tongues and deaf ears and and he has fed thousands with small bagged lunches and he has walked on the water and he has stilled with. And people have seen all the things that20:48 Jesus has done and yet they don't believe. And so Jesus makes a decision right around Mark chapter 8. And it's right here, here up on the screen because what happens20:59 is the pharisees, verse 11, came and began to argue with him seeking a sign from heaven to test him like he had given them sign after sign after sign. And they still weren't satisfied.21:12 They still didn't believe. And so Jesus, look what it says in verse 12, and he sighed what? This is an expression in the Greek, it's just21:25 Like it's not just, it's I mean he is frustrated and you could understand why after 2 years of doing thousands of miracles and people still wanna see21:37 more. Which just proves to you by the way, and if there's 1 thing that miracles prove in the bible, it's this. Number 1, they prove that God is real but number 2, they prove this, that the hard hearts of humanity won't21:48 believe in spite of the miracles. Some of you say, I have friends, they say if I would see God I'd believe him. No they wouldn't. They would just blame it on their own, you know, whatever, biologies, physiology. Well21:58 that was just some, that was an apparition. My mind was playing tricks on me, I didn't see They'll make excuses because that's the heart. It's not a physical issue, it's a spiritual blindness issue. So the Pharisees are22:09 in that camp. Give us a sign. Give us a show us that you're from heaven. And Jesus sighs deeply and he says, why do you ask for a sign? Truly I say to you, no22:21 sign will be given to this generation. And this is the continental divide in Mark's gospel because what's going to happen for the next year of his ministry is he will do no more public signs.22:34 He will do no more spectacular miracles for masses. From now on, Jesus will isolate himself with the 12, teaching them the principles of the kingdom22:47 and then head to the cross to die for our sins, giving us the last sign. The last sign that he gives us is what? His death, burial, and resurrection. That's the last sign he'll give. Point taken here, I hope, by some22:59 that there's a point at which God just says enough. I'm gonna turn off the spout of showing you all the things that you weren't responding to. That's where Jesus is. And so he's23:10 frustrated. And verse 13 kinda sums it up, and he left them. And he left them. Underline, and he left them. Cause this is again, the continental divide. I'm done with trying to show23:22 you the Lord's power. I'm going to isolate myself with those who are listening and paying attention. There is a great power to that. Just being willing to listen. There's a great power to that. Listen to23:34 me person who came to church today and you came with your arms folded. But right now God is starting to speak to you and you've already dropped your arms and your guard is coming down and you're starting to think maybe23:45 this is true. And I wanted to tell you something, that is the Holy Spirit knocking on the door of your heart. Do not resist this moment because you don't know what's tomorrow gonna bring. You don't know23:57 what next week's gonna bring. This might be your salvation gateway. Listen and pay attention before before God takes away what you've heard. That's what the scripture teaches. I know we don't like24:09 that. That's not very American. That's not seeker friendly but it's what Jesus taught. There comes a point at which God says, okay, enough, I'm done. You're not listening. I'm moving on to other people. So it says he24:20 left him. He got into a boat. Now this is where the story starts to really shape us for the man being healed of his blindness. Verse 14, now they, this is the disciples, had forgotten to bring bread24:33 and they had only 1 loaf with them in the boat. And so Jesus hears them speaking and I think what he does in boat, the disciples after a long day of ministry are in the boat with Jesus and24:45 I think that they start thinking, oh, I'm a bit hungry. Did anybody bring bread? Did anybody bring food? And I think somebody was like, maybe Philip and he said, I got 1 loaf. They're like, 124:57 loaf? We got a long trip across this lake. And I think that they just kinda did this thing where they had seen Jesus do some stuff and they just started thinking, Jesus, we got no food, we got no bread, and we're kinda25:08 getting a little hungry. There's a rumbly in my tumbly. And Jesus hears them talking about bread and he says, you know what, speaking of bread, verse 15, he cautioned them saying, speaking of bread, watch25:20 out for the leaven of the pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And this is Jesus being Jesus because you never really had a normal conversation with Jesus. He25:32 was always talking about heavenly things. And then the scripture says that they began discussing, verse 16, they began discussing with 1 another the fact that they had no bread. Okay, let me back up for a second. What25:43 does it mean here when he says watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod? Jesus is talking about 2 different kinds of people that walk away from God.25:55 The first 1 is obvious, Herod. Now leaven in the old testament was a symbol of corruption, an influencing a pervasive26:07 influence of corruption. It goes into the bread. Now we think of yeast. I've got some I've got some yeast up here. Yeast can be nicely packaged and used in your bread or in your in your baking. But leaven26:19 is a piece of the old loaf that you put on the shelf in the open air that would slowly gather bacteria and then you would take that piece and knead it into the new loaf and that bacteria would go to work during the26:29 baking process and raise the loaf. But if you let the leaven stay too long on the shelf, it became a dangerous object and a corrupting object and it would ruin your bread. So26:41 leaven could be good but it usually was a corrupting influence and here Jesus uses it as a corrupting influence and he says there's there's 2 ways that you can get corrupted. Number 1, let's talk about Herod. Herod's26:51 obvious. Herod is the guy who jailed John the Baptist because John the Baptist was calling out his adulterous affair with his wife's sister or with his with his brother's sister. And so he's he's the27:02 pleasure oriented, irreligious, secular, me first minded person. I'm gonna go do what I wanna do and I don't care what God says about it. And there's a bunch of people on this planet,27:14 that's where they are, yeah? They're called rebellious sons and daughters. They're gonna do what they want and they're gonna ignore what God says. That's the leaven of Herod. But there's27:26 another leaven that Jesus warns about, the leaven of the pharisees. The leaven of the pharisees is that you can miss God by being overly religious. This 1 is the far more27:38 subtle missing of God. The far more subtle leaven. You can feel like you're a good person. You can sense that you are doing the right thing in life,27:50 that other people applaud you. They look at you. They admire you. And you can have all the praises of people and you can fit into some kind of, I don't know, cultural or religious community and you can have everything28:02 looking right on the outside. But like the Pharisees, your heart is not right with God. Did you know ladies and gentlemen and everybody listening to me on the video, listen, you can miss28:14 God by being rebellious and you can miss God by being religious. You can miss God both ways. And Jesus says to the disciples, you gotta be aware of28:25 this. It's not about your sin. Your sin doesn't stop you from coming to God and it's not about your religious practices. Your religious practices28:37 cannot get you to God. You need 1 person who brings you to God. He takes the hand of a sinful man and the hand of a righteous God and brings them together through his blood. That's28:49 Jesus. And and then Jesus is full on talking about this with the disciples. And what does it say that they start saying in verse 16? Well, I guess it's because we have no bread. As29:00 usual, the disciples are missing it. And Jesus being fresh off the frustration from the pharisees is now frustrated with the disciples. In verse 17 it says this, Jesus aware of this said to them, why are you discussing29:12 the fact that you have no bread? He says, do you not yet perceive or understand and are your hearts hardened? And then he picks up from29:24 Isaiah and Jeremiah, the old testament prophetic language. Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? Don't29:36 you remember verse 20 19? He says, when I broke the 5 loaves for the 5000, how many basket pieces did you pick up? And they're like, 12. He said and for the 4000, the29:47 7 loaves, how many basketfuls did you pick up? The 7. And then he said to them in verse 21, do you not yet understand? In other words though they had been walking with Jesus there was still a29:59 resident blindness in their eyes. They needed, listen to this very carefully, another touch. So do30:11 we. I don't know where you are in your walk with God, but you're not done yet.30:20 There's still something God wants you to see. Wherever you are, however far you've come, where whatever you think30:32 you know about this savior. Can I tell you there are still things that he wants you to see and I want you to see them because when you get ahold30:44 of spiritual sight, it changes what's in the physical? It transforms your approach to life. It gives you faith to believe that all things are possible in Christ Jesus.30:57 That no weapon formed against you shall prosper. That you need to understand that you are in a spiritual battle and the battle is not physical. It's not with flesh and blood, but it's with the principalities and the31:07 heavenly powers of darkness in the in the in the spiritual realm. And we have to take up the armor of God and fight in the spiritual war that we are engaged in and take authority in the mighty name of31:19 Jesus Christ. Over my family, over this church. It's a miracle that we are having church right now. Some31:31 of you don't know what I'm talking about. Those of you who get to church on time know something wasn't up here in our North Attleboro location. We got up this morning, we came to church, wasn't working. Whole system31:42 wasn't working. And I don't know if you can tell, but we rely on sound a lot. We rely on technology. It was not working. They were running the scrambling, the team was scrambling all over the it wasn't working. And, we31:53 have a pregame meeting right here at 8 20 in the morning before service, and we pray. And so we got down on our knees and we just prayed. And then when I say, you know what? Let's create an atmosphere of worship, and we32:04 just started to worship God and praised God and glorified God. And sometimes that's all you can do when the enemy starts coming at you and putting up roadblocks in your life and he wants to discourage you. The best way32:14 to discourage the enemy is to praise in spite of the problem, is to worship when you should be worrying. Devil can't handle that. Devil don't know what to do with the praising saint that he's throwing the32:26 all the the damage of hell against him. He doesn't know what to do. So we started worshiping and praising. This team is scrambling. You gotta worship and work. Amen, somebody? You can't just pray, you gotta also work. So32:37 they worked on their product and we just prayed and worshiped right here in this. And I don't know if you know this other locations but you know it's 1 thing if you lose power but it's a real bad thing if the main 132:47 loses power. We can't send anything to anyone else. We got 7 churches hanging on this. And so we're praising him. I just said to the team, I said, I just feel like we should pray the Lord's prayer.33:00 Sometimes you don't know what to pray. Can I tell you this? And the Lord's kinda like been dealing with this with me for a little while. Pray the Lord's prayer. I don't know how to pray. What are you talking about? He33:09 gave you the exact words. It covers everything. It covers worship, hallowed be your name. It covers surrender, your will be done, your kingdom come. It covers daily needs, give us this day our daily33:20 bread. It covers forgiveness, forgive us, we'll forgive them. It covers spiritual warfare and leads us not to temptation but delivers us from evil. And it covers worship for yours is the kingdom and yours is the glory33:30 and yours is the power forever and ever. Amen. Covers everything you need. It's an it's a comprehensive prayer. So I said, let's pray. And and we prayed the our father. We prayed it once. I said, you know what? I just33:41 feel like we should pray it again. And we prayed it a second time. And then and then and and then here's where your pastor failed. The Lord said pray it a third time. I said, that's33:53 enough. Never tell God it's enough. Don't do that. So they're scrambling and we're and it's getting to 50 it's 834:04 55 AM, 8 56 AM. And the Lord said, I told you to pray it a third time. And I said, oh Lord, if I tell them to pray it a third time and nothing happens, I'm gonna feel really terrible. I I don't want34:16 you to let me down. He doesn't let you down. 8 56, 8 57, 8 58. I was making a deal with God. You ever do this? I said, if the if the clock strikes 8 5934:28 right now, I'll It did. So I said, know what guys, let's just pray. I just feel we should pray the Lord's prayer 1 more time. Our Father in34:40 heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us of our trespasses and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.34:47 As soon as we got to deliver us from evil, boom, the sound went on. Now, 2 things,34:59 we prayed and we worked. They worked together. Thank God for our techs who worked hard but let us not discount the fact that there's a spiritual battle in the works every day of our lives. And Jesus is35:11 begging us, there's more to see. In the words of the great transformer, there's more than meets the eye. Amen? Amen.35:23 So picking up the story that we just read, and they came to Bethsaida. Verse 22 of Mark chapter 8, and they came to Bethsaida. And we read this story so I'm not gonna read it again. We'll have the verses underneath the35:33 points. Why is this important? Because Bethsaida was the hometown of Peter, of Andrew, and Philip. And you have to ask yourself, is Jesus dropping them off? Is he done with35:45 them? Is he like, that's the end of this stuff. I'm done with these guys who won't list. No. He's setting them up for an encounter to see more than they presently see. And And that's what an encounter is. I want you to35:55 write this down. A Jesus encounter is a progressive spiritual eye opening experience. And I got 4 quick points and then we're done. And these points will help you see I'm telling36:07 you, gonna say them quickly so write them down quickly. These 4 points will help you see clearer. Number 1, spiritual sight develops when I stop focusing on physical things.36:20 You gotta close your eyes to the physical and open your eyes to the spiritual. If you wanna grow to the next level, if you wanna get stronger in the spiritual realm,36:32 you have to ask God to open your eyes. This is what the psalmist said, Psalm 1 19 18. Open my What is the prayer? Open my eyes. Hey, only God can open your spiritual eyes.36:44 Otherwise, the psalmist would have said, I open my eyes that I may hold behold wondrous things out of your life. No. God, I can't open my eyes. I'm praying that you open my eyes. So36:56 wherever situation you're facing, the finances are tight. God, open my eyes to see what's going on. The children are out of control. God, open my eyes to know how to pray for this37:08 child. The marriage is in trouble. God open our eyes that we can take this to you and and and and do battle in the spiritual to win the battle in the spiritual realm37:20 over open my eyes. Can we say those 3 words on the count of 3 at all locations? 1 2, 3, open my eyes. In other words, get me to stop looking at what I see physically37:32 and help me to see things spiritually. We can get so caught up in the temporal, we miss the eternal. There was a37:43 worker at a factory who was leaving the factory for the day and he was pushing a wheelbarrow and the wheelbarrow was a box. In the box was sawdust. He comes to the guard gate, the guard stops him. He37:55 says, hey, woah, where are thinking going? He says, I'm leaving for the day. He says, what's in the box? He says, sawdust. He says, I don't believe you. Open it. The guy says, I'm I'm telling you it's sawdust. You know,38:07 up on the floor did all the sawdust. I thought I would take it home. He says, open the box. He takes the box. He pours it out. Sawdust. The guard the guard says, go home. The next day, same thing. Brings the wheelbarrowShow more
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