Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - God's Plan - Luke 18:31-43

We've been going through the Gospel of Luke, looking at

the carefully investigated and documented life and historical account of

the person and work of Jesus Christ. Our hope in

the series is that as we look at his life,

his teachings, his ministry, and the work of Jesus done

on our behalf and for our benefit, that our faith

in the truth of who Jesus is and what he

accomplished would grow us into a maturity and strengthen our faith.

So last week we looked at a pretty interesting text,

I don't Know about You, as a pretty challenging text,

looking at the rich young ruler and how as we

saw that he ended up choosing his stuff over Jesus.

But we also last week looked at a promise to

those who choose Jesus over their stuff that they would

receive more than what they've lost, and even better than that,

that there'd be eternal life in the age to come.

This week we're gonna be looking at Jesus continuing his journey.

He's almost to Jerusalem, but he's got one pretty much

one big pitstop left, and that's in the city of Jericho.

And so that's what we're gonna be looking up. But

before they ever even get to Jericho, Jesus has something

to tell his disciples, and it's gonna be the third

and final time that Jesus tells his disciples that when

they reach Jerusalem that he's gonna be killed, that when

they reach Jerusalem that he's gonna die, that he's gonna

be rejected. So he tells them for the third time,

what's gonna happen before they ever get to Jerusalem, and

then we'll see him enter or start to enter Jericho

and have this really cool encounter with a blind man.

So if you would turn with me, we're gonna be

in Luke chapter eighteen Versus thirty one through forty three.

If you do not have a Bible, please go grab

when we have some out on the desks for you.

Take it. It's yours to keep. We'd love to have

you follow along with us. Have God's word in your hand.

But anyways, let's read it and then we're gonna pray

and bring it down together. Does that sound good? Awesome?

Says now they were, Oh no, that was before sorry,

verse thirty one, and taking the twelve he said to them, see,

we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is

written about the son of Man by the prophets will

be accomplished, for he will be delivered over to the

Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon,

and after flogging him, they will kill him, and on

the third day he will rise. But they understood none

of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and

they did not grasp what was said. As he drew

near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside, begging,

and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.

They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, and

he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him

to be silent, but he cried out all the more,

son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped

and commanded him to be brought to him, And when

he came near, he asked him, what do you want

me to do for you? He said, Lord, let me

recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, recover your sight.

Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered

this site or his sight and followed him glorifying God,

and all the people when they saw it gave praise

to God. This is God's word. Let us pray. Lord,

We just ask you in this moment, as we open

your word, to open our ears, to open our eyes

and hearts to receive the word that you have for

us today. Help it be clear, help it grow our affection,

help it grow our understanding of who you are, and

help us grow in our relationship with you. So we

just asked that your presence would be here with us,

your spirit would be here with us, so that we

would hear your truth, that you would make your word

come alive inside of us. Lord God, please be with

us to your glory and Gee's name. Everyone said amen.

So singing about it this last week, do you guys

remember twenty twenty all that fun stuff hard to forget? Right? Yeah?

Twenty twenty was singing about it specifically, who remembers the

first couple of months before everything that January February. It's

kind of weird because like, we don't think about those

as much. We tend to look back and we kind

of remember all the bad stuff. But we had like

two months of like, oh things are kind of being funny.

People are talking about stuff in the news. But I

was thinking about kind of all that, thinking about that

January and that February, and I was trying to put

myself back there, And I think it would be helpful

for us to kind of put ourself back there. Let's

say it's February fifteenth of twenty twenty, and I want

you to go there in your mind. Go there with me,

February fifteenth of twenty twenty. Put yourself back in that place.

And now imagine that someone comes up to you and says,

in one month's time, the entire world will begin to

shut down bit by bit because of an unknown virus

coming from an unknown place, and everyone will be required

to stay home and wear masks. People will only be

allowed to leave their house to go to the grocery store,

where they're going to fight over toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Now,

for us, obviously, all that's really easy to believe. It's

easy for us to reconcile. But why It's because it happened,

we lived through it, and now we're on the other

side of it. But if we're honest, if anyone had

come to us and told us that then that all

that was about to happen. Even though they were spot on,

even though they were exactly right, there's no way we

could fathom it. There's no way we could fathom it.

And the reason there's no way we can fathom it

is because some of us, or a lot of us,

were going through it and we couldn't fathom it, And

a lot of us look back on it and we

still can't fathom that it even happened in the first place.

But now for our text today, we see a very

similar situation where Jesus tells his disciples exactly what is

about to take place, but as disciples don't understand, his

disciples don't get it. But we're gonna see, unlike my

twenty twenty example, that here there's something deeper going on

than just a lack of understanding or comprehension of future events.

And today we're actually going to see our texts split

into two different parts. Each section has a lot of

cool things that we've actually covered multiple times in this series.

So some of the things we're gonna kind of just

kind of walk through. We're not gonna spend a lot

of time on him. This is the third time Jesus

is saying, hey guys, I'm gonna die now, definitely beneficial

for us to go through that. We'll still talk about it.

But this is the third time he's doing it, right,

This is the one hundredth time it feels like that

we've seen Jesus going to be miraculously interacting with someone

and healing someone who calls on savior. But today there

is something that sticks out in both portions of today's

text that I think actually will be good for us

to see that they're there and good for us to

spend time on because I believe it's going to grow

our faith in who Jesus is, grow our faith and

who God is and how he operates. So both sections

today are going to be highlighting God's sovereignty, and that

is God's complete power, that's God's complete authority over his creation.

But actually we're going to see it highlight two different

aspects of his sovereignty. Specifically, we're going to see that

God sovereignly conceals and God sovereignly reveals. So God sovereignly

conceals things and God sovereignly reveals things. We're gonna learn

that and we're gonna go like, okay, and then we're

gonna learn what to do with that, okay, which will

be helpful. I'm not just learning about stuff. So if

you are taking taking notes today, today's message is titled

simply God's Plan. God's Plan. So we're gonna dig into it.

We're gonna start with the first verse, Verse thirty one

says in taking the twelve he said to them, see,

we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is

written about the Son of Man by the prophets will

be accomplished. Now, honestly, we can probably just stop right here.

We'd stay right here for the rest of the day

and time, because this is an incredible, incredible thing that

Jesus is telling his disciples. If we remember, since about

chapter nine, Jesus has been headed for Jerusalem. We've been

following his different encounters and pit stops along the way

over the last couple of months. But now Jesus is

getting even closer to reaching his destination. And right before

he gets there, he tells his disciples for the third

and final time, what is going to happen when he

gets to Jerusalem? And what does he say? He says, well,

before he gets there, Before he gets there, he Jesus

says in great detail, what's going to happen. He says,

everything that has been written will be accomplished. Jesus says,

there's a plan in place. I'm headed somewhere for a

purpose to accomplish a plan. That is, all of the

prophecies that had been made hundreds of years years before

were about to be fulfilled. God had revealed hundreds of

years ago that he had a plan to redeem and

save Israel, and he was going to do that through

his Messiah, his chosen one, his anointed one, which translated

into Greek is where we actually get the title Christ.

So just in case you thought that that was his

last name, it's not exactly. It just kind of is.

It's Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the King, Jesus Christ. So

Jesus says he's going to Jerusalem to fulfill his mission,

to complete the plan, to accomplish what has been written,

and now Jesus is going to go into detail of

what those things will be. Look at verse thirty two

through thirty three, it says, for he will be delivered

over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully

treated and spit upon, and after flogging him, they will

kill him and on the third day he will rise.

Jesus completely lays out the plan that he's going to

be handed over to the gentiles, mocked, mistreated, spit on,

flog that's whipped, and finally killed in a horrendous way

on a cross, but that after three days he would rise.

But once again, we read this and we hear this,

and we go, yep, checks out, that's what happened. But

we need to put ourselves back in our twenty twenty shoes.

The disciples and even Jesus at this time had yet

to go through any of this. This was all in

their future. And if you really really think about it,

you really put yourself there and you think about, like,

what Jesus is saying to them sounds crazy. You're like,

how can believe this? What are you talking about. One

of the reasons is that what Jesus just laid out

isn't exactly what the people expected. When the Messiah did arrive,

generation actually had all kinds of misunderstandings. And one of

the reasons we know that is because a lot of

Jesus's ministry is him going like, that's not right, that's

not correct. Let me correct that you've heard it said.

Let me say to you like he's correcting a lot

of their false expectations, false ideas. We saw that a

couple weeks ago when they're asking him about the kingdom,

what it's going to be like, and Jesus is like,

it's not really something that you can say, like, look

it's over there or here it is, it's not coming

in ways that can be observed, but that rather, the

Kingdom is in the midst of you. We're going to

see in a couple of weeks him tell them a parable,

because the people suppose that the Kingdom is going to

arrive immediately. In all the cases, he was challenging how

this generation was expecting God to show up. He was

challenging their expectations and how they thought God was going

to show up. Generation expected a war hero king, someone

who's going to come in and put Rome under his boot,

kick him out and establish the new kingdom. But Jesus

came as a lowly servant, healing sickness, disease, and preaching

repentance of sin. Jesus in all the things we have

seen him do and say proves over and over again

that he's the Messiah. When we look at the encounter

that he's about to have with the blind man, that

confirms once again that he's the Messiah because he opens

the eyes of the blind. That's one of the things

the Messiah can do. But here's the trouble. Jesus tells

the disciples the detailed plan, literally lays it out of

what's going to happen in Jerusalem, how he's going to

fulfill the scriptures. And here's the thing that stands out.

The disciples don't understand. They don't get it. But it's

not because of lack of intelligence. It's not even because

of wrong or incomplete expectations that they may have had.

And it's something more than that. As we see in

the text, it says they couldn't comprehend it because it

was hidden from them. It was hidden from them. Look

at it verse thirty four. But they understood none of

these things, and you go, okay, maybe they just weren't

that right. And then the next part says this saying

was hidden from them and they did not grasp what

was said. And actually, what's interesting is that if you

want to challenge me, that's totally fine. But here's the deal.

This isn't the only time this has happened. The second

time that Jesus told them he was going to die.

We see in Luke nine four through forty three five

it says, let these words sink into your ears. So

Jesus says, let these words sink into your ears. The

son of Man is about to be delivered into the

hands of men. But they did not understand this saying,

and it was concealed from them so that they might

not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him

about the saying. I think that part's kind of funny.

They just didn't get in there, like, but I'm not

asking now. The question could be asked, why did Jesus

tell them something if he knew they couldn't understand it yet,

I think that's a really fair question. If he knew

that it would be hidden from their understanding, why did

he tell him? Now here's the deal. We can speculate,

and we can speculate, but once again, that's all Any

actual answer would be speculation. But I want to tell

you what we do know. God wanted Jesus to tell them,

but he wasn't ready for them to understand it. Yet

God wanted Jesus to tell them, but he wasn't ready

for them to understand it. Yet. God had a plan,

and part of that plan is even in interesting instances

like this, we see Jesus tell his disciples what's going

to happen, but the meaning is hidden from them for

the time being. So we see God sovereignly for his

own purposes and plans, concealing the meaning of what he's

telling them. Not only is this obvious because this is

literally just what the text says, that it was hidden

or concealed from them, but because I believe one of

the reasons we look at these texts and kind of

turn our heads at them. We read this and go like,

how did they not understand it? How did they not

get it? Because if you read the text, Jesus says

I'm going to die like this, and he gives them

all the reasons in all the ways in which he's

gonna die, and they're like, do you know what he's

talking about? I do not know what this guy's saying.

He just said it, he just told you. So we

kind of turn our heads at them and go like,

what are you talking about? Even if you like, couldn't

You're like, maybe he's being metaphorical, or this is another

one of his famous parables, like maybe if you think

it's something like that. The fact is we read this

and Jesus like, I'm going to die, this is what's

gonna happen, and they go, I have no idea what

he's talking about. Something more is going on. It takes

an act of God that it takes a miracle in

this instance to go how do they not understand it?

If I were to walk up to you and say

two plus two makes four and you're like, I don't

know what this guy's saying. I don't know what this

guy's talking about. Now, I would probably start, if you

were of a reasonable age, with reasonable considering skills, start

to question your mental capacity. That's just a reality. But

here the problem isn't their reasoning. It's because God has

his own reasons and plan for this specific moment. But

this was in the end, we see that it was

for a purpose, It was for a reason, It was

for a time. Is it the end of Luke's Gospel, Jesus,

after everything has taken place and has been raised from

the dead, comes and meets with his disciples, and this

is what Luke tells us, and it's incredible. Look at

this twenty four verses forty four through forty eight says,

Then he said to them, these are my words that

I spoke to you while I was still with you,

that everything written about me in the Law of Moses

and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And

we stop right there and go like, yeah, I remember that,

But then look at this next verse. Then he opened

their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them,

thus it is written that the Christ should suffer, and

on the third day rise from the dead, and the

repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in

his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are

my witnesses to these things, Jesus says, Remember those things

I told you before he opens their minds to be

able to understand, explains them again, and then says, you

are my witnesses. You are my witnesses, and he sends

them off. These people, who at one time, for God's purpose,

didn't understand what was happening, are now at this time,

for God's purposes, going to be used to share what

did happen to help us get a grasp on this.

I want to make this practical because we're like, that

sounds weird. How do I not, like, have I experienced

anything like this in my life? And one of the

best examples that I could think of is have you

ever read your Bible? Period? I guess that's just a

good question in church, right, have you ever read it?

Have you ever read your Bible and you come across

the verse and you're like, what is this talking about?

What is this saying? And you may even read it

a couple times, and every time you read it, you're like,

it's saying something. I just don't know what it is.

And then one day, for no reason that you know

to you, you read it and you go, oh my gosh,

this is exactly what I needed. Or you read it

and you go like it was so obvious and clear.

How could I not understand this text? Something's changed, something's

illuminated a sudden You're like, I didn't even know what

the problem was. This text is so clear, This text

is so obvious. There's a reason in purposing God's timing

for everything, and especially when it comes to our understanding

his word a verse that I knew meant something, but

I maybe couldn't tell you at the time, now means

everything to me at this point in my life. And

still there's some things that God has told us. We

need to think about this. There's still some things that

God has told us in excruciating detail in his word,

and we're like, what are you talking about? And let

me give you an example. You ever studied revelation, maybe

the last couple chapters of Daniel skimmed through Ezekiel very detailed.

Most of the time, I don't know what's going on.

I'm like, it means something. I know that. I know

that without a doubt, but I don't know exactly what

it means. So we need to understand that there are

times and reasons where God conceals certain things for his

plans and purposes. And in Deuteronomy we're told very plainly

Deuteronomy twenty nine to twenty nine that the secret things

belong to the Lord our God, but the things that

are revealed belong to us and to our children forever,

that we may do all the words of His law.

So what does this mean. It means that some things,

some secrets or mysteries belong to God, either forever or

for a time. That's what we're starting to see here,

but either way, as followers of Jesus were to trust him.

The things that the disciples didn't understand about the dying

and rising Messiah, though they didn't get it at first,

later had it revealed to them, and they benefited from

what God did. But still there's some things that happen

or written that we just might never understand. And it's

in those spaces that we need to continue, like little

children like we looked at last week, to trust him,

to take him at his word. What's interesting in this

text is here's the disciples, even though they don't understand,

they don't throw following Jesus away. How many of us

do that? How many of us know people like that.

They're like, I don't know what this thing's talking about.

There's some stuff that I'm like, I don't know what

he's talking about, either, but I love them. I'm gonna

follow him. So they were walking by faith, not by sight,

as they continue to follow Jesus even though there were

things they didn't understand yet, which brings us to the

next part of our text. And I think the irony

of scripture is just so fun you do read your Bible.

If you do read your Bible, you'll very quickly start

to see that things are interesting, things are funny, and

they can't be And I was noticing in this Texas

week because Jesus first tells the disciples something so unbelievably clear,

but they don't see it. And now we're about to

see a blind man who can see. Let's look at it.

Verses thirty five to thirty nine. He says, as he

drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by

the roadside, begging and hearing a crowd go by. They're

going by. He inquired what this meant. They told him,

Jesus of Nazruz, that is passing by, and he cried out, Jesus,

son of David, have mercy on me. And those who

were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent,

but he cried out all the more, son of David,

have mercy on me. So we get this interesting scene

where Jesus starts to come into town, starts a commotion,

and there's this blind man sitting by who hears the

commotion starts asking everyone, Hey, what's going on. They're like, well,

Jesus naza is coming by, and at this the man

starts crying out, son of David. When the blind man

cries out son of David, he is referring to all

the prophecies of the Old Testament that said that the

Messiah would come through the line of David. The Messiah

would be the one to sit on the throne that

would last forever. So this blind man could see who

Jesus was, who Jesus is. He was crying out to

Jesus as Messiah. And not only do the scriptures tell

us that the Messiah would be a suffering servant, as

Jesus had just told his disciples, but he's also going

to be a son of David. And the blind man

knows this. And also, if you know that the son

of David is coming by, you might also heard that

the Messiah opens eyes. You might start crying out, which

is incredible because it's also most likely that this man

would have heard stories about this Jesus and Nazareth, kind

of the talk of the town, talk of the towns,

talk of the country. There's this man going around healing

people of everything. You'd think news would spread pretty quickly.

And now this man hears that Jesus is here, and

he begins to call on the Savior, and he cries

for mercy. That's interesting, it says. The crowds tried to

hush him. The crowds rebuke him, tell him to be quiet.

But what's amazing is this man doesn't let the crowd

stop him from calling on Jesus. And Jesus answers the

one who calls on him. We see in verse forty,

he says, and Jesus stopped and commanded him to be

brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him,

what do you want me to do for you? He said, Lord,

let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him,

recover your sight. Your faith has made you well. And

immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God,

and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise

to God. Jesus comes to this blind man and he

heals him. This blind man has put his faith in

God's Savior. He was healed immediately, and he began to

follow Jesus and glorify him, which then led others around

him to start giving praise to God. And here in

this moment we see a huge contrast between the blind

beggar and the rich young ruler that we looked at

last week. Because last week we looked at the rich

young ruler come up to Jesus and say, good teacher,

he didn't know who Jesus truly was. This week we

see a blind man called Jesus, son of David. The

blind man could see who Jesus was. The rich young

ruler let his stuff get in the way of him

coming to Jesus, let his stuff get in the way

of him following Jesus, and this blind man won't let nothing,

nobody get it in the way of him following Jesus.

God revealed to this blind man who Jesus was. And

once God revealed that truth to him, there was nothing

stopping him from getting to Jesus. So how does this

fit into our point about God's sovereignty. Then, Well, just

as we saw that God sovereignly conceals, he also sovereignly reveals.

Many times during Jesus' ministry when someone correctly identifies Jesus,

Jesus doesn't give the credit to their intellect. He doesn't

give the credit to their vast knowledge. He doesn't give

the credit to what their eyes can see, but he

gives the credit to God who reveals. We see this

when Peter calls Jesus the Son of God. Matthew sixteen

thirteen through seventeen, it says, now, when Jesus came into

the district of Cesarea Philippi, he asked the disciples, who

do people say that the son of Man is? And

they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah,

and others Jeremiah are one of the prophets. He said

to them, but who do you say that I am?

And Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son

of the Living God. Literally just nailed it like you.

Just give them the perfect a plus answer. And Jesus

answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, For flesh and

blood has not revealed this to you, But my Father,

who is in heaven, we also saw earlier in Luke,

Jesus says Luke ten twenty one. In that same hour

he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father,

Lord of heaven and Earth, that you have hidden these

things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to

little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my father.

And no one knows who the son is except the father,

or who the father is except the son, and anyone

to whom the son chooses to reveal him. We've already

spent some time on these passages, going over these passages,

and I think these texts are fitting. As we looked

at last week, Jesus saying that the kingdom belongs to

those who are like children. God has a plan to

reveal himself to whom he wills, when he wills. And

here is this blind man, this outcast of society. Jesus

isn't even raised yet the ultimate proof of his deity,

and he lets his blind man see who Jesus is.

God chose at this time to reveal to this man

who Jesus is, and as a result, nothing could stop

this man from getting to Jesus. God shows us in

this text today that he sovereignly conceals and reveals as

he sees fit. And we see this because he conceals

the obvious and yet reveals true spiritual sight to a

man who who can't physically see. So we go like,

all right, that's cool. Now what do I do with that?

What am I supposed to do with that? That sounds

like a God thing? It is? You're right, So how

do we apply this text to our life? Well, I

believe we have two very specific applications from the two

sections of our text today, the first being we need

to trust God when things are concealed, that is, have

faith in God in his plan, in his purposes, even

if the end of the matter is concealed or hidden

from us, either for a time or forever. And then

one of the reasons we have to have faith is

because we don't know which ones which. I don't know

if this is a forever thing, I don't know if

this is a for a time thing. In the New Testament,

there are many great ministry, mysteries and revelations that are

made known to us, but there's also some past that

we may so find unclear, and we need to trust him,

just like we need to trust him when our lives

feel uncertain or the direction or goal of our life

feels uncertain. We can trust him why because he has

a plan. He has a plan for our lives, and

we can trust him that he's going to get us

through to the other side. There have been many seasons

in my life where I have no idea what God

is doing, and I look back and I go, wow,

I see everything you were doing that was crazy, That

was for your glory and my good Thank you so much.

And there's still seasons in my life where I look

back and I'm like, I'm still waiting to find out what

the heck that was about. But in those times, I

just have to cling to the verses that say that

we know that for those who love God, all things

work together for the good for those who are called

according to His purpose. So if the Lord decides to

keep something a mystery, I'll trust him nonetheless. Just but

just like we looked at the Deuteronomy text and said,

the secret things belong to the Lord, our God, but

the things that are revealed belong to us and our

children forever that we may do all the words of

His law. I needed the band to come up, please

and thank you. There are things that will be hidden

and concealed, and those belong to the Lord as he

sees fit. But what this Deuteronomy text tells us is

what we should concern ourselves with, and those are with

the things that are revealed. There's a lot of us

who get caught up in wondering about mysteries rather than

in obeying the things that are clearly revealed to us.

And I'm going to say that again because I need

to hear that there are a lot of us who

get caught up in wondering about mysteries rather than obey

the things that have been clearly revealed to us. But

as this text tells us, the things that are revealed

are for us to know his word, to follow it,

to be obedient to it. And today we see the

perfect example of what we should do when God reveals

something to us, that is leting nothing get in the

way of obeying that revelation from God. If God reveals

something to you, if God makes something very clear to

you through his word, through his moving, don't let anything

get in the way. There's gonna be stuff that's gonna

get in the way, things that might even seem unlikely.

You have a crowd who sees Jesus coming through the

guy who's known for doing cool stuff, and they're shushing

the blind guy. So those obstacles, those things that hinder

you also might not be from who you expect. But

if God makes something clear to you, if God tells

you to deal with a sin, if God tells you

he wants you to move in a certain way in

someone else's life, don't let anything stop you. Now I

need to say that, because obviously the most important thing

is that if Jesus reveals, or if God reveals who

Jesus is to you, don't let anything get in the

way of that. Don't let anything get in the way

of you coming to Jesus. The most important thing is

to know who Jesus is. Jesus is the only savior

who can save you from your sin. And all of

us have sinned, all of us are rebelled against our creator.

But He's made a way for us to be right

with him, and that through Jesus Christ alone. It's Jesus

who fulfilled the scriptures and was rejected, brutally beaten, killed

by death on a cross. And he did that to

take the penalty of your sin. He was sinless, He

deserves none of it. He took the punishment and wrath.

Do your sin, took to the wrath, do your sin

on the cross in your place, and offers everyone who

calls on him salvation from their sin in a glorious

white robe of righteousness that frees you from guilt and shame.

And just like he rose one day, we two will

get to rise with him to everlasting life. So if

God reveals that amazing truth to your heart, and I

pray that he is right now, that you would see

Christ for who he truly is, that the blindness of

your heart would be healed, and that you would let

nothing stop you from coming to Him, that you would

be healed of your sin. And just like the blind man,

now follow Jesus and glorify God for what He's done

in your life. You need to have faith in the

things that are hidden, and you need to have faith

or when things are hidden, you need to have faith

when things are clearly revealed, and then let nothing stop

you from acting in accordance with the truth of God's word.

And this isn't the only personal application for our own lives.

These are the things that God reveals to us through

his word and in Jesus aren't just for us. We

need to realize that we might be the means that

God uses to reveal Christ to others. We sure we

definitely should not be those who hinder others from coming

to Jesus, the ones who are trying to get to Jesus,

and we say show stop. For whatever reason that could be.

You need to deal with that in your own heart.

But let it be known. Let it be clear that

we should not be among those who hinder others coming

from Jesus. We should be among those who help other

people get to Jesus. Romans ten nine through seventeen says,

because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,

and believe in your heart that God rais him from

the dead, you will be saved. If you're a Christian,

you believe that. If you're a Christian, you need to

share that. And there's a reason for what the heart

one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one

confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, everyone who

believes in Him will not be put to shame, For

there is no distinction between jew and Greek. For the

same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on

all who call on him. For everyone who calls on

the name of the Lord will be saved. How then

will they call on him whom they have not heard

or believed and how are they to believe in Him

of whom they have not heard? And how are they

to hear without someone preaching? And how are they preach

unless they are sent? As it is written? How beautiful

are the feet of those who preach the good news?

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord,

who has believed what he has heard from us. So

faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ,

because it's in the Lord's hands to conceal and reveal things.

We get to rest in faith knowing God has a plan,

but we also need to remember that He's called us

to be used as part of his plan. The only

way someone can call on Jesus is if they know

who he is, or if they've ever heard of him

and what he's done. So, as believers, not only do

we benefit when God reveals himself to us through his word,

but now we also get to take that word to

others with hopes that God would do the same thing

in their life. We need to have faith in what's

hidden or when things are hidden, when things are revealed,

But for us we need to remember that those things

that are revealed are the most important for not only

us individually, but also for us to share with others.

If God's doing something in your life, share it with others.

If God's moving in your life, share it with others.

If God is answering prayers or opening up the scripture

to you, you might be the means of helping someone

else understand what the heck is going on in there.

We see that with the Eunuch or the Ethiopian and

Philip and he shows up and hears him and he's like,

do you know what this is saying? And he jumps in.

He jumps in with him and he's like, let me

explain to you. And it was about Jesus. All scripture

points to Jesus. We can know that for sure. So

if you that's a pro tip, you don't know what

it says, You're like, probably have something to do to

Jesus at some point. But we want to share who

Jesus is. We want to bring Jesus to others. So

we should make what God knows, or what make what

God makes known, we should make known. So I just

hope that today that your faith would be built up

and trusting that that is how God operates. Their faith

would be built up to know like he knows what

he's doing, even if things seem unclear to us for

a time. But the thing I really want us to

focus on today is there are things that He's made

very clear. There's things he has to us, and we

need to examine in our life what we're letting hinder

us or get in the way of being obedient to

those things. Whether that's coming to cross a Christ, dealing

with that sin, being obedient to a call in your life,

I don't know what that is. And so we're gonna

go into a time of response where we're gonna sing,

we're gonna pray, we're gonna have people on the sides

to pray with you, and whatever God's moving in your life,

whether that's a sin that you need to repent of

that he's revealed to you. Now that he's been working

on you for a while and you've just been stubborn,

maybe you need prayer for just trusting Him more in

the season of life that you're walking through where things

seem so uncertain. So we're gonna use that time to

do that, And if you guys would please stand