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What Do You Want?
Pray: Father help us to know what it is we truly want and help us to want what truly is good.
Amen.
I want to talk to you about how your response to God can change everything in your life.
Have you ever had a time in your walk of faith where you think that you are not where you want to be or where you think you should be?
Sometimes we experience situations and circumstances that are beyond our control.
There have been times where I’ve been hurt or hindered or thrown off track.
And these things can be physical, emotional, or spiritual.
These moments have the potential to stop us from moving forward.
We’ve seen this with the pandemic—people got used to being isolated and now struggle to return to community.
This happens with trauma from failure, or abuse, or sickness—these things can drastically impact us and make it difficult to keep moving forward.
This happens when leaders and heroes fail us.
Their sin and mistakes can make us wonder if there is even a point to going forward.
What God wants us to understand is that the change we need is dependent upon the posture we take and the choices we make.
It is true that God is working and God is drawing us toward Him.
But that work is so that we might see Him and seek Him and turn to Him in faith.
When we can embrace the truth that our answer to God, our response to Him, has the power to change everything then we will begin to walk in new life.
When God Comes Near
Often we get stuck in life and faith because we are waiting on God to come directly to us.
Unfortunately, God will often walk by us, where we can see or hear Him, but He will wait for us to make the first move.
In this moment, Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to what would be called, “The Triumphal Entry.”
People were going to cut down branches and palm leaves and throw down their outer garments on the road as He rode through on a colt.
They would cry out Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
They would celebrate and worship and rejoice that the King and Messiah had come (see Mark 11.7-10).
Faith pleases God (Hebrews 11.6).
It gets His attention and invites Him into our lives and situations.
This is why we need to learn how to believe God and boldly come to Him in faith.
God heard blind Bartimaeus.
His call of faith stopped Jesus in his tracks and caused Him to give the man an audience.
If this works for a blind beggar on the road to Jerusalem, think about what faith can do for us.
With God, all things are possible (Mark 10.27)!
We have the same spirit of faith, believing and speaking and we can experience the compassion and grace of God (cf. 2 Corinthians 4.13)
Moving in Faith
To leverage the power of our faith, here are some things we can do in order to get started.
Let It Go
Bartimaeus was blind.
Circumstances in his life had led to this moment.
His way to make it in life was to beg.
He was no one special.
Not of an important family.
He had no status.
When people walked by him, his oversized garment and requests for assistance identified him as a beggar.
He heard Jesus was coming and he began to cry out.
The original word came from the croaking of ravens, and meant a loud and raucous voice.
His normal requests became amplified and urgent and disrupted the crowd.
In response crowds began to harshly rebuke him.
They severely charged him to “hold his peace” and be silent.
Just like when the apostles told the little children to go away and leave Jesus alone, the crowds tried to prevent this man from engaging Jesus.
But he got louder.
This last verse is powerful.
When the blind man heard that Jesus wanted to speak to him, he threw aside his garment.
The beggar’s garment represented is condition.
It represented his past.
It represented is failure, inability, his weakness.
He had to let the past go so that he could get up and go toward a new life and new identity in God.
He had to push past the crowds and those who could only see who he was and not who he was meant to be.
Illustration: Proposing to my wife was kind of scary.
Of course you want to be accepted by someone you love and want to hear them say, “yes.”
But it’s also scary when you think about letting go of life as you know it.
When you think of all the unknowns and the work that it will require.
When you are single life is different.
You can do things how you want and when you want.
You can keep your place messy or clean or in order as you like.
You have less expenses and less responsibilities.
You have to let that life go to get married.
You are no longer your own.
You are in a partnership and have responsibilities and different expectations.
But to enjoy the blessings of marriage, you have to let go of the single life.
To move forward in faith, you need to let go of the labels.
You need to let go of your past failures, your mistakes, and the sins that so easily weigh you down (cf.
Hebrews 12.1-2).
Make a Decision to Move
The translation here is somewhat unfortunate in English.
Rose would better be translated as “leaped up” or “springed up.”
He didn’t just rise from the ground and throw off his cloak.
He jumped up and threw it off.
I think this is an excellent picture of faith.
Faith responds to the voice of God.
Circumstances hold us down but faith jumps up.
His jump indicated that he had expectation.
He believed that Jesus was about to do something.
Discouragement wants to keep you down, focused on what you don’t have or what isn’t working but expectation causes you to move.
Illustration: Salvation decision testimony.
He called.
I had to step.
I had to respond.
And because I did, I was saved.
Jesus didn’t come any closer to the man.
He called him.
The blind beggar could have been offended, or discouraged, or bitter but instead he was expectant, responsive, and bold.
Don’t get trapped by indecision.
Choose who you will trust.
Choose to draw near to God.
Make a decision to go to God with your needs and trust that He will respond to your faith.
Make Our Request Known
Jesus asked Bartimaeus a simple and profound question—“What do you want Me to do for you?” His answer is astonishing.
First, he responded to Jesus by calling Him Rabboni.
When you look at the story, there is a hidden request here.
Earlier, he cried out to Jesus and called Him, “Son of David.”
This was a messianic term.
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