Leave The Garment - Kingdom Identity

Turn over to Mark chapter 10. Amen.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 10. Praise God, Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention Mark 10 · chapter mention

We'll start in verse 46 to 52. I'll read the whole account and

then we're going to come back and break down this particular

account in Mark chapter 10, starting in verse 46.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And it says, and they came to Jericho and as he and as he with

his disciples, a large crowd went out of Jericho blind barn.

Emmaus, the son of Timaeus was sitting by the road by the side

of the highway begging. 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 warned him that he

should be quiet, but he cried a great deal more.

Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and

commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man,

saying to him, Be of good comfort, rise up, he is calling

you. And casting away his garment, he

rose up and came to Jesus. And answering, Jesus said to

him, What do you desire that I should do to you?

And the blind man said to him, My Lord, that I may see again.

And Jesus said, Go, your faith has healed you.

And instantly he saw again. And he followed Jesus in the

way. Hallelujah, I said.

Instantly he saw again, and he followed Jesus in the way.

Instantly he saw and he followed Jesus.

Glory to God. Now, in this passage of

Scripture, they're leaving Jericho.

OK, And as they're leaving Jericho, there's a custom of

someone by the name of Barn Emmaus.

And it could be that he's seen so often that he was known by

his condition. We call him Blind Man

Bartimaeus. Now, it could just be that the

scripture says Bartimaeus is a blind man.

However, it also can mean that he was known as Blind Man

Bartimaeus, because a lot of times when people have things in

their life, they begin to identify with that which they

have. We do this all the time,

especially when it comes to disease or sickness.

We say I have, you know, cancer, I have, you know, leukemia.

We say I am ADHD, I have PSPTSDI have it.

Say it again, I have it. Now, I'm not belittling any of

those things. Those things are real, no doubt

about it. But they can become our

identity. They can become our identity.

And what it means is then we begin to wear something that we

become identified that even the world sees it on us.

Now, you have to understand this.

These scriptures here are not in in today.

There is set back in time and there were customs and there

were things that people did. And I'm wearing this as a

representation of a cloak. This is definitely not what the

cloak look like. I just pulled this off my couch

in the office. OK.

So please do not act like this is what he was wearing.

This is just symbolism. All right?

And so this garment that Bartimaeus had actually

represented something, OK, he by his garment, by just the garment

he wore, identified him as a professional medicant, which is

just a beggar. That's a bigger word for beggar,

a professional medicant. He was a professional beggar.

You know, when my father, who was in painting, he was a

professional painter. He went to work in all whites,

white pants, white shirt in white.

He's a painter, but he wears white now, you know, like, why

do you pick white? Why is white?

I mean, you have all these colors to pick from, yet the

painter profession is in white. So they're, you know, just

white. And then every time he had a

different color, it'd show up on his pants and and his jeans.

And then all of a sudden, you know, there's colors all over

him. You know, when you go to the

doctor, why are nurses and they're different types that are

wearing different colors when you go into a hospital.

Now the medical professions, they know what those colors

represent. Are you hearing me?

They know it. They so when they walk in, they

see a person in a different color scrub.

They know what they're specialized in.

Correct. Even in the automotive industry,

you know, they're just uniforms. When I go fly on a plane ride, I

the, the, the stewardess, they're, they're all in uniform.

You know who is serving you and who's part of the plane.

I've never had someone in plain clothes come and say, what would

you like to drink? That's never had they're

identifiable. They are in a professional

uniform. Same thing with our pilots.

I know the difference between the stewardess and the pilot

because they're not wearing the same outfit.

So you understand this gentleman is a professional beggar and his

outer garment identifies who he is, which means from a distance

people will say, oh, that's a beggar, that's a beggar.

And so that outer garment was really significant because,

number one, it would give them warmth at night because again,

if you're begging, you may not have the means to have a place.

In fact, a lot of people who are begging had already lost their

property and all kinds of things have taken place.

And so this outer garment was really significant because it

was really kind of like their whole livelihood.

It's how they kept warm at night, So much so that there was

a law that protected this outer garment.

Look over in Exodus chapter 22, verses 25 to 26.

Exodus 22:25–26

It says it this way. It says if you lend money to my

people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor

to him. You shall not charge him

interest. If you ever take your neighbor's

cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the

sunsets. Why?

For that is his only covering. It is his cloak for his body.

What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that

when he cries out to me, I will hear him, for I am gracious.

Meaning if you've taken it as a pledge before nightfall, if you

kept it and they cried out, the Lord would heal, hear them and

it would not bode where for well for the one who is still holding

on to the outer garment. Are you hearing me?

So these things are not like, you know, our coats that we

throw on and off and don't think nothing about it was

identification. Another thing that the cloak did

is it allowed them to be able to hold it out in order to collect.

So not only was it a sign of protection for them, a place of

protection for them, a place of security, a place of war, but it

also was the means by which they could capture anyone's

generosity when they went by. So it was very significant

garment in the days that he lived.

It was this identification that people knew.

This person was struggling, this person needed help, this person

was poor, this person didn't have much.

And because of that, they were treated not always extremely

kind. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

So because Bartimaeus was blind, he obviously could not develop a

trade. He had to.

His whole life was centered around begging.

He could not see a thing and so he would make his way.

However, there's no indication that he had someone who took him

there. Not like a lame person who had

someone sit them somewhere he could get around.

So apparently he learned how to get around, to get to this place

where he could by all rights be able to hold out his cloak and

look for the benevolence of someone else.

There may be many days that Bartimaeus went by with nothing

in his coat. There could be other days that

maybe there was more. But this is all that he can do.

And as much as he would love to do something else, he cannot.

And so this cloak, which is extremely powerful in the sense

of identification, it was his very, how can we say it, social

identity. What he was on the outside was

identifiable to everyone and to himself.

Are you hearing me? But the scripture tells us that

as he's on this highway, Blonde cannot see people starting to go

by, which is a custom. But apparently enough went by

that he recognized something's going different today.

This road's being traveled by more people.

There's enough commotion going on that had him asking

questions. The Luke account, he says what's

going on, what's happening? And in the Luke's Gospel, it

says that they say, oh, Jesus of Nazareth has passed, has passed

by now. He, Jesus, has already passed by

him, which tells us that Jesus did not hear by the Holy Ghost

beforehand to stop and heal this guy.

So Bartimaeus represents something a little bit different

in Scripture. And so here Jesus is passing by

someone who is not even aware that he has gone by.

But once he heard, I said, once he heard that it was Jesus,

there became there came something that rose up in

Bartimaeus. He did not have to see

something, but he sure did have to hear something.

Now we can conclude in Scripture that he this is not the first

time he's heard the name. Are you hearing me?

It's not the first time he's heard the name because when they

tell him who it is, there was an association with that name.

Are you hearing me? There was an association with

that name. So he could not see, he was

blind, he didn't had no reality based upon seeing something that

Jesus had passed by. Which tells us a lot of times

you'll never notice God just by your seeing.

Which also tells us if you keep going through life trying to see

God, you can miss God because seeing is not required, but

hearing has more power. Are you hearing me?

Was it not Jesus who said to Timothy, he said you believe

'cause you see more? Blessed are those who believe

not because they see, but it's obviously because they've heard

Hallelujah. And so we live in a world where

there are many that are blinded to Jesus.

They do not recognize him. This is why every time you as a

believer shows up at a restaurant, every time you show

up at a place of work, every time you show up in a store, you

can be walking past people and they do not recognize God in

you. They are not even aware that God

has passed them by. Now I'm not calling you God, I'm

just saying you are the temple of the Holy Ghost.

God lives in you. You have the glory of God on you

and that can be seen by those who have perception.

Typically it's seen more by those that are born of God.

Because I remember when my wife and I, we went to Israel and we

were blessed with a trip to go there.

And so I looked at my wife. I said, we are only Earl and

Marci here, OK? We don't want nobody to know.

We come from the ministry. What we're going to do is we've

we've come to learn, we've come to grow, we've come to see the

sights and walk the same places that the Apostle Paul did, the

Apostle Peter, Jesus Christ himself.

We have come to learn. And you know what, I was like

some good my old roots. You know where I sit in the back

of the bus like some sit, you know, as far away from, you

know, the one speaking as possible.

OK, now I'm not talking about anybody in the crowd.

I'm just saying in general. OK, so I was intentional.

Let me get away from the source of the communication.

And so we sat in the back of the bus and, and we were going, I

don't remember how many days it was, but we were coming up on

the day that we were going to be going to the Jordan River and

the day of the Jordan River. They said, now tomorrow we're

going to be for anyone who wants to be baptized in the Jordan,

it's really significant. A lot of people want to be

baptized in Jordan to follow what Jesus did.

Same place. Now we technically weren't in

the exact same spot that Jesus was in, but we are definitely in

the same body of water. And, and they said, but now I

would say this, that if you are a minister, it would really mean

a whole lot to the bus, you know, and I, you know, wanted to

sit on my hands, you know, I just wanted to put my head down

and, you know, like in your classroom, don't pick me,

teacher, don't pick me type stuff.

But on the inside, I said on the inside I heard the Lord say,

because then they asked this question, is there any ministers

with us? So on the inside I heard the

Lord say, Raise your hand, son. So I raised my hand and when I

did, our God looked and he goes, I'm not surprised.

I thought, well, there's something about the way we

carried ourselves, because again, those that are in the

light can see the light, but those that are in darkness

cannot. They may not be able to see the

light, but they sure can hear. Are you hearing me?

And so when he heard that it was Jesus, he began to cry out.

Now it could be that Bartimaeus knew of this Psalm that was

written, it says in Psalm 7212. For he will deliver the needy

when he cries for help, the afflicted also, and him who has

no helper, because this guy had no indication that he had anyone

helping. He could have been coming out

day after day on his own, using some kind of walking stick to be

able to navigate himself to some place developed by the sense of

hearing that he had developed, or through conversation.

Am I at this spot? Am I here?

Am I there? And once again, so everyone

knows who I am, My identity is I am blonde, I cannot see and I am

poor, broke, cut off from society.

This is who I am. Can you see it?

But when he heard Jesus came, he knew of this one that would come

that has been prophesied about and he begins to raise his voice

and says these statement, this statement, Jesus son of David,

have mercy on me now son of David's extremely significant

because son of David is title. He is recognizing that Jesus,

this is the one that is the Messiah, the Christ, the King of

the Kingdom, the one that's been prophesied about.

I've heard about this guy that's been going around healing

people. He has been causing the blind

eyes to see, the hearing, the deaf ears to hear.

He's been causing the lame to walk.

He's been causing demons to be cast out.

He has been raising the dead. This is Jesus.

This must be the anointing. So he addresses him as the

anointed one, son of David, cause David's name was famous in

the land that Bartimaeus grew in.

There was a king that would come from the line of David that

would set up his Kingdom and have no end.

So he is acknowledging the king has come in front of me.

How can I not address the king? Did I miss the king?

I must acknowledge that the king has passed me by and if there's

anyone who can help me, it's the king.

So he says, Jesus, son of David, our King, have mercy on me, have

mercy on me, have mercy on me, have mercy on me.

And man, when he called out, guess what?

He received backlash. He received backlash because he

has been in the society that he lives in day in and day out as

the beggar. We know who you are.

You're put, shut up. Who do you think you are calling

on the affluence? Who do you think you are crying

out? Shut your mouth, don't say

anything. It says that as he cried out,

son of David, have mercy on me. One trip, one of the gospel says

they rebuked him. It wasn't like.

It was the crowd turned on him and said shut up, man.

Shut your mouth. Don't be disrespectful.

Hush, Don't talk. What are you doing?

Quit talking. We're not here to give you any

money. Just sit there and beg.

Shut up. We got somewhere to go.

You're out of your place. You're not worthy to even talk

right now. Don't even open your mouth.

Shut up, say nothing. But the Bible says he raised his

mouth all the more. Jesus, come on, when you start

crying out for Jesus, don't you find that people try to get you

to shut your mouth? They don't want you to talk

about you, Jesus proclaim you Jesus want to keep you quiet.

And let me tell you, there's a whole world out there that are

blind without God and all the sudden is he comes through and

the message of Jesus. And they say, you tell me a

little bit more about that, but their peers say, who do you

think you are? Are you're just like us?

You run with us, you party with us.

You talk like us. I mean, seriously, do you think

God's going to forgive you? Of all the things you've done,

what you've been? You need to quit.

Don't even hang around those church people.

Quit listening to them. Quit listening to their

preaching. Don't be asking these questions.

Just sit there and beg. And the world will always try to

quiet those that know there's an answer somewhere else and just

hadn't found it yet. Something about this blind man

Bartimaeus, he knew some things. In John chapter 8 verse 12,

John 8:12

Jesus spoke and said to them, I'm the light of the world.

He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have

light. In Second Corinthians 4/4.

Has he not done this? Well, the devil, in whose case

the God of this world, that is the devil, has blinded the minds

of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the

gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

We need to know this church, is that if we are born of God, we

are the light of the world. We are to set our light on a

heel so that it can be shown, because those that are in

darkness need to come to the light and us walking along is

not enough for them to notice God.

We must be saying something because it's by faith, through

hearing that believing comes into play.

So it's not enough for us to just be seen.

We must be heard. Yeah, that's good.

And when you get around someone that, you know, based upon their

life is pretty identifiable. But if they begin to cry out and

say, tell me more, we do not shut them down.

We do not. In fact, we say, come on, we'll

take you to Jesus because Jesus heard the cry of Bartimaeus as

he cried out. He said, Son of David, have

mercy on me. And he kept shouting all the

more and all the more and all the more till Jesus stopped and

said, bring him to me. Bring him to me.

Now what's interesting is when he gets to Jesus, Jesus asked

this question, What do you want? Well, that should have been

obvious. But you know what?

It's really not obvious. It's really not obvious.

People need to know why you would bring them to church.

It's not obvious. Well, if they just come to

church, it's obvious they'll want to get sick.

No, no, no, no, no, no. I remember one time we had a

line where we were laying hands on the sick and a girl came down

that could not see. She was blonde.

She had the stick and everything.

And so as I went down, you know, and obviously you know how

believers are. You know, we want the miraculous

and we should, we should desire the supernatural.

There's no doubt about that. But we cannot desire something

beyond what's actually happening because God himself will not

override the will of man. Now He can engage in a place

that man's will is not through his gifts, like the man at the

pool of Bethesda. That man had no faith in Jesus,

didn't know who Jesus was, but he did want to be healed.

And the only way he knew to be healed was to go into this pool

when the Angel stirred it. But he had no one to help him.

So it's, it's not that he didn't want to be healed.

He just had no faith that Jesus Christ, who Jesus Christ was,

that he was the healer and that he could heal him.

But God by his mercy and through the gifts sent Jesus to the

place where a lot of people were sick that day.

But Jesus healed one man by the name, this man at the pool of

Bethesda, and said to him who had been there for 38 years, do

you want to be healed? He said, man, I don't have

anybody. Now his answer is, I don't want

to be healed. His answer was, I don't have

anyone to put me down in the water.

So he's answering I want to be healed.

He just thinks the only way this occurs is if you're the first

one in the water and I have no one in essence the guy saying

this, are you going to be the one that'll help me get down

first? But Jesus lets him know I am

that water. I am that water, right?

He said get up and walk and the man got up and walked, didn't

even know who he was. That healed him.

All he knows as this was the guy to help him and it didn't

require him to be picked up and waiting, waiting for stirring of

the water. He was water.

He was the water. He was the well that was a

spring of life that never runs dry, that is always producing.

Yet when I went down to that heal of nine, I said, what do

you want? And they said, well, I've had a

cold. I want to be healed of my, you

know, symptoms. Said nothing about their

eyesight. So I laid hands on them and I

believe and I know they were healed of their cold symptoms,

but they went back without their eyes being restored.

Now if you're just sitting out there like, Oh well, the Lord

didn't heal them. The Lord healed them exactly

what they wanted, exactly what they wanted.

And when this man comes to Jesus, Jesus does not assume.

Jesus asks, what do you want me to do for you Now?

Why does he ask that question? Because he says, you have

acknowledged me in my authority. Jesus, son of David, the king of

God's Kingdom, have mercy on me. What word do you want from me?

Because you know at my word it shall be.

He says, I want to see again. And he said according to your

faith, the faith that you believe in my word and my

ability to do what you're asking, it's done according to

that belief. And he instantly he began to

see. And that's a powerful healing

testimony that we love to preach when we go to lay hands on the

sick to let people know that God heals the sick.

But the thing I'm keying in on today is what happened just

before he was healed. That moment between his crying

out and God's call. He said, Son of David, have

mercy on me. And he cried out all the more.

Why? Because he had a desire, a

desire, a desire that was so real to him that he could see

it. And if he could just get a word

from the King, he knows he'll get it.

And Jesus stops and command and said, tell him to come.

And the Scripture tells us when this takes place.

Look at this in verse 50. Let's read it again.

Look at verse 50. It says in casting away his

garment. That may be the most powerful

display of faith in this context, is that here is someone

that he's always been identified with, that he is needed night

after night, day after day, the whole way he existed.

It keeps him warm. It keeps him protected.

It keeps it gives him income so that it sustains his life.

It's his very survival. It's the only way he knows how

to live in his condition. Yet at a word that Jesus says

come, he cast that life away. I am not going he he's blood.

He has casted. He don't even know where he

threw it. He didn't lay it down to say I'm

not 12345 that way when I'm done I can.

Are you here in case it don't work?

I'll come back to it. Let me get over here just in

case it doesn't work. Then I'm 32 steps away from my

identity. Oh y'all don't want to hear

this? See man, when Jesus calls you,

when you want to get right with God, you got to make a decision

before it happens That I never going back.

I never going back to that life, to that identity, that who I

was, that is never going to be associated with me ever again.

I'm never going back. I am never going to be known as

that. He cast that garment and he

stands before Jesus. He says, what do you want?

He says, I want to see. And it says immediately he could

see. And he does not run back and go,

I'm coming, Jesus, I'm coming. I'm going to follow you now.

OK, let's go. How many times have people come

to the altar because their insecurity, their prostitution,

their fornication, their drugs, everything they were ever

identified with, all that everyone knew you were that

they'll cry out to God and say, Lord save me.

And then after they say Amen. This is God never intended you

to take an old identity into a new life.

True lordship is casting off the old life.

Come on, can we see it here? Look what it says here in

Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 starting in

Colossians 3 · chapter mention Colossians 3 · chapter mention

verse form and give you the easy read version so you can get it

down. He said yes Christ is now your

life and when he comes again you will share in his glory.

So put everything evil out of your life, sexual sin, doing

anything immoral, letting sinful thoughts control you and wanting

things that are wrong and don't keep wanting more and more for

yourself. That is the same as worshipping

a false God. God will show you his anger

against those who don't obey him because they do these evil

things. You also did these things in the

past when you live like them, but now?

But now put these things out of your life.

Anger, losing your temple temper, a doing or saying things

to hurt others and saying shameful things.

Are you seeing this? We are to get these out of our

life. In essence, when we came to God,

we're like, I'm done with that. I'm getting rid of that.

That's not me. That's not who I am.

And I'm going to tell you the world would recognize Jesus more

in what they hear from you when you demonstrate what you're

saying. Because this man had heard about

Jesus, that Jesus only did what he said.

He always did what he said, which gave him the boldness.

I want to see again. Because anyone you've ever

touched that had blind eyes, they saw.

I want mine. God's not a respecter of person.

Jew, Gentile, slave, free male, free female.

I don't care what nationality you are, what race you are.

God's not a respecter of person. What he's done for one, he'll do

for all. He just requires one thing.

You get rid of the old self and come on into the new.

You don't bring your sorry sinners saved by grace existeth

in a walk with God. You cast that thing to the side,

you leave it out the order. You never go back to it.

You don't find that cloak. You ain't going to be

identified. You are not going to be

identified with that cloak. What you are going to be is

you're going to be a child of God and anytime something rises

up to that old life, you say, Nope, I don't wear you.

I don't wear you. See what it says in Ephesians

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4? Ephesians chapter 4, starting in

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

verse 22, he says regarding your former way of life, you were

taught to strip off your old nature which is being ruined by

its deceptive desires, to be renewed in your mental attitude,

and to clothe yourself with a new nature which is created

according to God's image and righteousness and true holiness.

Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, this morning

the Lord wants you to take off your garment, cast it aside.

If you're here today and you've never made Jesus the Lord of

your life. Jesus is in the room, the

Savior. He has passed by already, He

said. When did he come?

I didn't see him. He was in our praise because God

inhabits the praises of his people.

He's already been in the room moving through by his Spirit.

Now he's passed by in that moment.

But if you'll call out to him, he'll stop.

I said he'll stop dead in his tracks because no man comes to

the Father, no, not one. But as Jesus calls them, the

Spirit draw them. Jesus is calling this morning.

He's calling to say, Will you let go of who you are to become

who I've made you to be? Will you cast off this existence

that you're familiar with? Because here's the problem.

You've been seeing without seeing the great deception the

enemy has done, making you think because you can physically see,

you can see, yet He's kept you in utter darkness where you've

chased after jobs, chased after promotion, chased after

popularity, chased after, you know, natural stimulants to feed

your lust, to fulfill your flesh, to make you feel good.

It's always just giving you an alternative type lifestyle.

In fact, He will give you the world at the cost of your own

soul. And all the while you're doing

it with eyes wide open, not recognizing that even though you

see like this, you don't see anything.

But Jesus being rich in his mercy because of his love for

you, died for you, rose for you, paid the price for you, and has

passed by. And all you have to do is call

out and say Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

And salvation is casting your garment off your way of living.

It's not being saved, but live the same way.

It's being saved from the way you live and got to put a new

nature in you to where you'll have spiritual sight.

You'll begin to see the light and see revelation before I call

you up. If you've never made Jesus Lord,

I want to deal with a believer because although this

demonstrates a person leaving the domain of darkness and

coming into the Kingdom of his beloved Son, we all have to

admit as believers we have blind spots, blind spots in our growth

and development areas that maybe you could say today I did ask

Jesus, but I brought my cloak with me and there's areas I keep

covered because the world wants to keep you covered up.

When I look across this room, there are a lot of different

people in this room from the outside, and I can speak

narratives to the color of your skin, which are outer garments

the world's trying to keep you identified in.

And until you cast all of that off, you'll never walk as a true

son and daughter of God because a child of God can always

receive and have what the King says they can have.

And he does not care where they came from.

They are not limited by another race.

They are not limited by an upbringing.

They are not limited by a lack of parenting.

They are not limited because once you come into the Kingdom,

you have a Father that cares for you, that will never leave you

nor forsake you, that will always take care of you.

And it's about you concerning you.

And He will perform His word about you.

He's not like a human being because he's not a man.

He's God, and he doesn't care whether you came from the best

side of town or the worst side of town, whether you had a full

family or whether you didn't have any.

You don't even know your mom and dad and was raised by your

grandma. Doesn't matter to him because

he's taking you out of that system anyway and bringing you

into the system of the Kingdom of God.

But if you don't watch out, you'll want to heaven, life

without heaven on earth, and you'll keep a garment in the

world and keep identifying yourself as slow, inferior,

insecure, traumatized, victimized.

So much so that the blessings of God can never fully overtake

you. You have to abandon that

identity. You have to abandon it.

So I need you to be an example to the lost today because you

know, you've seen a glimpse of God's goodness, but you know, if

you're still wearing something of your past, today's the day to

cast that garment off. And that you refuse to see

yourself as CNN tells you, Fox News tells you, MSNBC tells you,

your coworkers tell you, your neighborhood friends tell you.

You're only going to see yourself as God sees you,

because you're a child of God.