Matthew Pt. 76 - Blind Men Cry Out

You can turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter 20.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

We have been marching through Matthew, of course, as you know.

So in Matthew chapter 20, remember Matthew the Jew who was

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

a tax collector traitor, so he sold out to the Romans who are

ruling over the Jews, and Jesus walks up to him.

This is early on. It says come and follow me.

And Matthew has been following him.

Matthew's Gospel is written to the Jews.

So the different gospel writers had different audiences in mind,

although of course, the Holy Spirit had all of us in mind.

But Matthew in particular was writing this gospel to the Jews.

So we've continued to point out as we've walked through verse by

verse from Matthew, why is that significant?

What's really happening there? What could you and I, as an

American modern reader, miss in the text?

And we've continued to see the glory of Jesus, the kingship of

Jesus. We're going to see it, of

course, again today. Last week, the mother of the

sons of Zebedee came up and they said, and she said with her

sons, please give my sons a seat in your Kingdom sitting beside

you. They clearly still didn't

understand that the Kingdom is to be focused on Jesus and not

about their own positions and who they can be and what kind of

power they might have over others.

Jesus, the ultimate servant, now continues.

We've said that we were just days away from the crucifixion.

Certainly last week happened within 10 days of the cross and

he's about to go into Jerusalem. So this is the context.

This thing has been building. This thing has been swelling.

Thousands and thousands and thousands of people are

following Jesus at this point. It's not just a small crowd.

How do we know it's that many? Because we know one gathering

where they said there's a lot of people there.

Another time they said, well, it was 5000 and that was just the

men you. It's very safe and conservative

to assume it would have been at least 10,000.

It's safe and conservative probably to say 15.

Still some say it's upwards of 20.

The point is, it's not the 12 walking around.

There are many, many people. Jesus has reshaped this entire

region. He has enemies who hate him

because they're jealous of him. And he has all these people who

have been changed. You know somebody who knows

somebody who's been healed by Jesus throughout this region.

You know somebody who knows somebody who has heard Jesus

preach and teach. At this point, everybody's

going, what's up with the Jesus guy?

Are we starting a revolution? He doesn't really talk that way

about the Romans. Is he establishing a Kingdom?

He said some stuff about a Kingdom.

Of course, we know when he comes into Jerusalem in a couple of

days, he's going to go full nuclear on everybody all week

long in his mission and his purpose to go to the cross.

But he is still moving forward like a man on a mission to go to

the cross. He is not flinched.

And although I'm sure there is probably dread being

experienced, he is not afraid to do what he has been called to

do, what he's going to ultimately willingly and

joyfully lay down his life to do.

So here we are in verse 29. And as they went out of Jericho,

a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind

men sitting by the roadside. And when they heard that Jesus

was passing by, they cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, son of

David. The crowd rebuked them, telling

them to be silent, but they cried out all the more.

Lord, have mercy on us, son of David.

And stopping Jesus called them and said, what do you want me to

do for you? They said to him, Lord, let our

eyes be opened. And Jesus in pity touched their

eyes. And immediately they recovered

their sight and followed him. God, thank you so much for your

powerful word. And God, thank you so much for

this moment that actually happened for these two blind men

who are actually healed, who cried out.

Holy Spirit, I pray you would help us to to rejoice in the

work of Jesus, to understand the work in the ministry of Jesus

and to claim it for ourselves, to enjoy his mercy and his

kindness to us today. Lord, I pray you would help me

to make right application that would bless your people, that

would strengthen them, that would build them up, that would

equip them for your work. Glorify your name through the

preaching of your word. In Jesus name we thank you,

Amen. So the great crowds following

him, it's probably Friday. Which Friday?

It's probably the Friday before Good Friday.

Good Friday, when he's crucified, he's probably 7 days

away from the cross. At this moment, the Master is on

his mission to the cross. He's got about a day's worth of

travel ahead of him. So he's in Jericho right now.

He's about 15 miles away from Jerusalem, about 13 or so miles

away from Bethany. So Bethany is where he's

heading. It's the place just outside of

Jerusalem where he's going to stay outside.

You can look into Jerusalem from up on the hill of Bethany.

This is where his friends are. This is where he's just recently

raised Lazarus from the dead. So he raised Lazarus from the

dead. And remember, this was a big

moment where all the Pharisees and he said, pastor, we didn't

cover that yet. So Matthew didn't even record

that. But he's raised Lazarus from the

dead. Everybody says, all right, we've

got to kill Jesus. And these geniuses also say, and

we're going to kill Lazarus again too.

So Lazarus died on his own the 1st poor guy and now people want

to murder him because Jesus raised him from the dead.

So Jesus wisely says it's not yet my time.

Nobody takes Jesus life from him.

Remember that he lays it down. Jesus didn't get beat up by a

bunch of bad guys because he was a wimp.

Jesus is strong and he gave himself over deliberately

because he loves you. And he reminded Pilate of that

very thing. Pilate said, don't you know that

I have the power over you? And Jesus said, all right, I've

been quiet and now I have to actually correct something.

You have no power over me except that what was given to you from

above. Let's clarify that.

And Pilate's going, Pilate's wife is saying, have nothing to

do with this man I saw in a dream.

And Pilate's going, I'm kind of spooked.

I've never been about to kill somebody who wasn't afraid of me

or afraid to die. This man is a man on a mission.

That's the King, that's the Lord, that's the Master.

So Jesus, he's raised Lazarus, he leaves town, he does some

more ministry, he does some more preaching and teaching, and now

he says, now it's time. I'm going all the way in for the

week of Passover. So Jews from everywhere travel.

The region's packed, Everybody's coming in, everybody's coming

into Jerusalem, everybody's traveling, big caravans, big

groups, but everybody's still. For three years now, people have

heard about Jesus at Passover. Did you hear about this guy?

Did you hear about this guy? I think he's the Messiah.

No, he can't be the Messiah. Here's why I think he is the

Messiah. I trust him.

I'm following him. But now, after this miracle of

raising Lazarus has shaken the region, he's left and now he's

returning. It's probably Friday, most

likely Friday morning. He's probably going to travel,

walk for walk for the day. It's about a day's walk for the

average adult. They're going to walk to Bethany

and then they're going to call it a night and they're going to

rest on Saturday, the Sabbath and then comes Sunday morning,

Palm Sunday. Blessed is he who comes in the

name of the Lord. That's what we're going to hit

next week. But for now, you know the

context of where we're at and we're leaving Jericho.

The crowd is following him. We know is a mixed bag, right?

That's always the case in a crowd.

It's always the case in a crowd. That's the case in a that's the

case in a congregation. We trying to say pastor.

I'm just saying it is what it is.

If the shoe fits, put it on. But every group of people is a

mixed bag. Different levels of devotion,

sincerity, understanding, clarity.

It's not a condemnation, but it's a fact that we have to come

to terms with. There are the faithful in this

crowd. There are the zealous.

There are traitors. There are those with many

misunderstandings. Everybody who's around Jesus

does not have the same motive. Many are spiritually blind, and

it's true, unfortunately, in the body of Christ as well.

Well, and let me clarify that statement.

That's true oftentimes on Sunday mornings as well.

Everybody who's around the church body of Christ doesn't

have the same motive. That applies to pastors, that

applies to members, that applies to many people who are

spiritually blind. I've heard tragic and beautiful

testimonies. There was a ministerial

association I was in years ago, and it's just where local

pastors are gathering. One of these brothers, beautiful

testimony was he had been in ministry, he had graduated from

seminary, and he had been a pastor for decades, decades.

When he actually came to Christ and got saved, he said, I found

that I was a churchman for decades.

That gives everybody pause for a second, as it should, to inspect

your own heart and go, are you really in the faith?

I don't intend to put doubt where it shouldn't be.

I just intend for for the certain.

You go. Well, yeah, I understand.

The Lord has rescued me. It's by his blood and it's by

his name. But a title, a pastor and a

pulpit don't tell you anything about the internals of my heart,

about where my walk with the Lord is.

So the same is true. The crowd can always be a bit

misleading. And certainly in this crowd,

we're going to see that we have a mixed bag as well.

Back to verse 29. As they went out of Jericho, a

great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind

men sitting by the roadside. And when they heard Jesus was

passing by, they cried out. Lord, have mercy on us, son of

David. So blind, blind men would sit

and they would beg. They had permission to do so.

This was a legally regulated thing to do.

Anybody couldn't just sit around begging all the time.

The Romans wouldn't have permitted that.

Even even the Jews probably would have had customs and rules

to say like, this isn't appropriate.

And there would have been, you know, maybe a, a shame unless

you had a deep need. But these guys would have been

approved to do so. Their, their blindness is their

life and their begging is their job.

These men are not prized by society.

There are no programs to help them.

They're begging each day is their survival.

So they're not begging. And then, you know, like a lot

of times there's controversy around people who beg for money

in the modern age. They probably got a, they

probably got a Lamborghini up the road or, you know, they

probably got a smartphone in their pocket.

Well, there was no such misunderstanding in this case.

Everybody understood exactly what was going on and exactly

who these men were. And these men have to survive so

people would have pity on them. People would say, like, yeah, we

want to, we want to take care of this.

This is a human being made in the image and likeness of God.

So decent folks would have given to these men and provided for

them and in charity. But their life is still a sad

life. Their life is still a hopeless

life and that they're surviving to beg.

They're begging to survive. They aren't dreaming about a

beautiful future. Every day is the same for them,

and they're hopeless to ever have a good life.

This is our first point that we can make in our first

application for us. Maybe you're not sitting by a

roadside begging, but you know what it's like to feel stuck.

You know what it's like to feel discouraged.

You know what it's like to feel hopeless.

You know what it's like to lose hope.

And hope deferred, the Scripture tells us, makes the heart sick.

And heart sickness is a dangerous thing as well.

Just trying to make it through the day.

You've lost hope for something great from God.

Maybe it's physical healing like it was for these men.

Maybe you're in survival mode in some other area of your life.

But somewhere along the way, maybe you stopped expecting from

God if there's an area of your life where that's happened, if

that applies to you today, for some of you, go, no, pastor, I'm

good, praise the Lord. Do you realize the blessing that

that is? Do you realize the joy and the

rarity that that is? But if there's an area of your

life where you have accepted despair and you have fully

accepted it is how it's going to be, and it cannot change and it

cannot improve. The good news that I get to

bring to you today is that faith comes by hearing.

And that as you hear the word of God today like these two blind

men did, you're going to believe.

And if you will cry out to the Savior, Jesus is going to stop

for you as well. Jesus does not love the two

blind men more than He loves you.

They are not special in a way that you are also not special to

Him. God cared for them.

God also cares for you. Verse 30 and the two blind men

sitting by the roadside, when they heard that Jesus was

passing by, they cried out. Lord, have mercy on us, Son of

David. The crowd rebuked them, telling

them to be silent, but they cried out all the more.

Lord, have mercy on US, son of David.

And stopping Jesus called to them and said, Hey, guys, I'm

super busy. I got to go to Jerusalem.

And by the way, this blindness was the will of God for your

life anyway. And you're learning a beautiful

lesson in the process. So I love you, but just know

you're being sanctified and and I have to go take care of your

spiritual blindness, which is the most important thing.

It's the most important thing. I got to deal with spiritual

blindness. So your eyes like don't worry

about your eyes because your spiritual eyes will be open.

Everybody say pastor, that's false teaching.

You're such a good church. You read your Bibles.

So that's not what happened, is it?

So I listened to 4 sermons this week in preparation for this

one. And these faithful men of God,

who I love, respect and love the Lord and they love the body of

Christ, they did the same thing they do every time they come to

healing passages in the Gospels. They skip the primary

application and they go straight to the secondary application.

And they say the passage about the blind man and I go, here it

comes, is actually about a spiritual blindness in our

hearts. Well, that's absolutely an

application that should be made from this passage that is safe

and good and appropriate, but it's called a secondary

application. I'll prove it to you.

What do you think the two blind men that day thought that this

miracle was about? Do you think that they thought

it was about a spiritual application for later?

No. What do you think these two

blind men thought that was about that day?

Yeah. Yeah.

We're just, we're just, it's pastor obvious this morning like

always. We're just drawing straight line

conclusions here to go. Well, don't.

But doesn't it mean absolutely. Isn't spiritual blindness more

more terrible than physical blindness?

Absolutely. And 1000% yes.

One will do me to hell forever. And one just means you can't see

how beautiful the day is. So one matters more than the

other. And also the Bible still says

what the Bible says. And also that day, whatever

happened that day still happened that day.

So Pastor Bob, I love him, but all of his connections that he

wants to make here are unfortunately a, a backwards

working. He is a he's re engineering his

theology instead of taking what the scripture actually provided

from the get go. So we're going to be Bible

Christians and we're going to keep saying the word is

revealing to us what the Lord wants it to reveal to us.

This isn't the only passage in the Bible, but every time I told

you, if I would, if I had mapped out my preaching calendar, I

would never have put healing into the into the sermons this

many times. But because I'm preaching the

Bible, I have to preach healing this many times.

And I'm not sorry because the Lord's not sorry because the

Lord wants to bless people's bodies.

It's an important thing to him. I didn't invent it.

I didn't shoehorn it in here. The Lord did it because he's

good and because he's merciful and he's merciful to you.

All right, let's keep going. Now that I grinded that axe

there for a moment, it says they heard, they heard, they heard

that the word made flesh was coming by and they cried out.

They heard that Jesus was passing by.

That's where faith comes from, from hearing about it.

Now, where else did they hear? I don't know, but obviously they

hear the commotion, they hear the mob.

They stay here at Jericho. This is where they live, this is

where they stay. This is the roadside that these

two probably stumble together to each day and go, Yep, we're here

and it's probably a busy place. Jericho's a very nice place.

People are traveling in and out all the time.

So they're going, hey, could you help us out?

Hey, could you help us out? It's just a wise place for these

guys. Nothing wrong with that.

But now the crowds coming and they hear that the Lord is

passing by and they realize this is our moment.

But what if they hadn't? I just thought of that when I

was preparing this week. What if they hadn't have jumped

on it the way they did. You know Jesus healed.

We've already looked at this. There's only one more miracle to

come after this one, by the way. Or there's only one more healing

to come after this one. It's in the garden when he heals

Malchus ear after Peter cuts it off.

But what if they had waited? Jesus isn't coming back by this

way. Everywhere Jesus goes from this

point forward is a man who's never coming back that way

again. When you see a man carrying a

cross, one thing you know about that man is you won't see him

again. That's the last time he's

traveled this way. Jesus doesn't yet have the cross

on him. But thank God these men cry out.

Thank God these men are desperate in this moment.

You know, earlier in Matthew, we saw there was two other blind

men, very similar story. Matthew records it.

So we know it's not a confusion. We know it's two blind men came

before 2 blind men have come again.

And Jesus, it says they had to follow him.

It says they were crying out to him, but they had to follow him

and they had to pursue him. I have wondered what if these

two, what if those two blind men who are healed got word around

to the other blind men? Hey, when you hear Jesus is

coming, make sure you cry out. He'll have mercy on you.

He'll be kind to you. He'll be good to you.

But but hey, tell him the whole thing.

Yeah, Yeah. So we had to follow him though,

because if you go back and read, I can remember it was Chapter 9,

chapter 12. The thing is, Chapter 9, it says

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

they followed him. I don't know what it looks like

for blind people to follow Jesus.

I know what it looks like for them to sit tight and holler for

him, but for them to follow after him.

He didn't make it easy on him. Why?

Because he didn't want to heal them.

No, why did he make it? Why did he challenge them?

Because he is always testing. He's always checking, like he

did with the woman whose daughter needed healing.

He says it's not right that I give the children's bread to the

dogs mean old Jesus, right? It's the only person he ever

told no to. And we know that his motive was

not to tell her no. His motive was to test her, to

reveal her faith, to strengthen her faith, and then to bless her

with the very thing. So again, of all the people who

came to Jesus for healing, how many have we counted as we've

gone through the Gospels? How many have we counted that he

said no? It's not the will of the Father

if I say 0. Thank you, pastor.

What are you implying? I'm not.

Let me be. Let me be on the nose here.

It's God's will to heal. Where'd you get that from?

The same Bible that you and I've been reading together with no

fancy footwork up here, no bobbin and weaving, Right?

We've just said the life and ministry of Jesus reveal the

will of God the Father Almighty. That is plain spoken

Christianity. I wonder what God is like.

I wonder Good news. You can look at Jesus Christ and

his earthly ministry and know what the will the Father is for

humanity. And then even then, be

encouraged to know that it ain't even done yet.

That's just the taste of God's fullest glorious finale that He

has for everybody. So people have heard that the

Word made flesh has come by and they've cried out.

They call him Lord. Lord have mercy on us.

Lord could be used in multiple ways.

It was always used to address a person of higher status though,

so it could apply to the property master, like the

parable of the vineyard we've read recently, or it could apply

to God. How do they mean it?

Lord, you remember the rich young ruler?

Oh good teacher, do you really know who I am?

That's why Jesus said, why do you call me good?

It wasn't to say I'm not God. Don't speak to me that way young

man, as some have misunderstood. He's saying why do you say good?

There's only there's none good but God and he doesn't take him

up on the offer and go, I'm calling you good because I know

exactly who you are. He didn't step into it with both

feet. He just goes, well, you know,

what good thing do I need to do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus goes, ah, and of course Jesus loved him, had

mercy on him, tried to help him, but he wasn't desperate enough.

We see a a huge difference in example here between the rich

young ruler. I'm pretty great.

Is there any other great thing I need to do to be greater to now

the two blind men? Desperate, humble and small.

I don't care what you think about me.

I don't care if the whole crowd tells me to shut up and stop

calling on him. I'm desperate and I'm childlike.

Children don't mind throwing a fit in public, right?

Little ones, they don't care. They like, man, that kids out of

control. Yeah, but he doesn't care

because he's a little baby or he's a toddler and he's throwing

a fit. He doesn't care what any of us

think. We wish he did.

And we're going to train him to care over time.

And we will use healthy cultural shame to get kids to act right.

But in the meantime, they just don't care.

In that sense, it's good for us to be childlike.

In that sense, it's good for us to learn from the two blind men

and their desperation and their humility.

How do they mean it when they say Lord?

Lord have mercy on US, Son of David.

Boom, Matthew, the Jewish writer writing to the Jews.

Everybody again knows what this means.

Son of David is Messiah language.

Son of David, these guys are saying this is God, and they're

saying it in front of this whole mob.

They're not like, hey, I think you're the Messiah.

I know the Pharisees don't. I know a lot of people don't.

I know it's kind of controversial, but just so you

know, I'm with you. They're saying, Lord have mercy

on us. Son of David, they know exactly

who they're talking to. And in his great love, Jesus

stops in his tracks. Son of David means that you're

the descendant of King David. To be David's descendant is to

be the king of Israel and to be the Messiah, the Savior of the

world. And again, in just a couple of

days, he's going to enter Jerusalem.

People are going to shout hosanna to the son of David and

that is going to trigger everything for the entire week

because they said son of David and the Pharisees are going to

go tell them to stop saying this Jesus.

And he goes, if I told him to stop, even the rocks would cry

out at this point. Why was it such a problem?

Because the Pharisees and everybody understood.

They're calling you the son of David.

Tell him to knock it off. You're just a guy who can do all

these things and preach with perfect wisdom.

Tell him that you're not the son of David and said I won't lie.

I'll keep telling the truth. So this is who Jesus is, and

these men understand it fully. What do we need?

We need revelation in our heart of who Jesus is, not just

information in our heads. Plenty of people have

information in their heads. That pastor I told you about who

had pastored churches for decades with knowledge,

knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. Plenty of knowledge knows stuff

I've told you before. That's the danger.

That's a danger for me. That's a danger for you who are

seasoned in the church. What a blessing it is to be

seasoned in the church. And also what a razor's edge

there is there. What a danger to go.

I know how to get through a church service.

I know how to preach a sermon. I know how to lead a service.

I've done this before. I'll do this again.

I'm comfortable with it. I'm familiar with it.

Careful. You don't sound like a hungry

man. You don't sound like a needy

man. You don't sound like a desperate

man. You don't sound like a man who

actually needs the Spirit of God to move and to speak and do

something. You sound like let me just dust

one of these old sermons off. It'll it's true.

I mean, I'm not going to get up there and tell lies to the

people, but what a stale place to be.

Does that sound like fresh bread?

Does that sound like daily bread?

Does that sound like fresh oil in your lamp?

Does that sound like fresh wine and a new wineskin?

So this is the, this is the the risk of being lukewarm.

Just it's not hot water, it's not cold water, it's just blah.

It's not good. It's just the wrong temperature.

You need revelation in your heart of who Jesus is, not just

information in your head. Jesus is always king, but who he

is to you will determine what he does for you because that will

determine how you approach him. Jesus is always king, no matter

what you think about it. My truth, their truth,

everybody's truth, There's just the truth.

And his name is Jesus. So Jesus is always King.

But who he is to you determines what he does for you, because

that is how you will approach him.

Because if you understand who he is, if you understand that he is

the Son of David, you'll approach him like they did.

I know he's merciful. I know this God is merciful.

I know this God is gracious. I know who this God is.

I know he's kind. It's not like these other Pagan

gods who they might claim to be merciful, but they have no

mechanism for mercy. They don't have a cross, they

don't have a sacrifice. It's just dismissal of justice.

Well, that's not goodness then. There's only one God who can be

good and just and merciful and perfect.

It's only the Christian God. There is no other.

He is logically perfect. He's good.

It's because he is the truth. When you know who he really is,

you will approach him with faith and with expectation for mercy

and for healing, while others approach him with

misunderstanding. What you believe about God

matters is what we call our theology.

It's our thoughts of God. It matters what we think about

God. It matters a lot.

Now there's the primary things. Those those are those, those

matter more than anything. And there's secondary things.

Go, I see that differently, but the consequences aren't as

great. And then there's the third

category, the tertiary things. Well, I see that differently

than you see it, whether we get into more and more freedoms and

we love one another and all of our freedoms and all of our

disagreements, all of our differences, and we say, I got

grace for you. I got room for that because

we're so locked in on the primary things.

One of the primary things is that God is merciful.

That is the gospel messages that God is so merciful.

He is so kind and these men understood who that they who

they were talking to and his great mercy.

Do you understand that God is merciful to you or have you

forgotten it? Are you over it?

Is that a truth you've got locked into your brain, but it's

not fresh in your heart anymore. God is merciful to you.

We we've read the whole Gospel of Matthew.

We have seen the strict lines that Jesus draws, and I have

pointed them out to you on purpose because we are American

Christians and we are Western Christians, and we have often

gotten a very wimpy gospel message that's not super

biblical. So I've made sure to emphasize

what the Scripture emphasizes, and I'll do so again now.

God is merciful. He is extremely merciful to you.

He's extremely kind to you. He has pity on you.

You're precious in His sight. The Lord loves to show mercy.

The Lord loves to show kindness. Why?

Because He is gracious to you and He understands you and your

suffering. And also because it gives Him

more glory. He's big on His glory.

It's important to Him. Throughout Ephesians tells us

that throughout the eternal ages to come, He will always be able

to point to His kindness. Why did He show us all this

kindness? So He could point to His

kindness so that everybody could go.

God gets the glory. God gets the glory.

God gets the glory. That's the other perfection

that's in Christianity. God gets all the glory all the

time. Nobody else gets any glory for

anything. And if we do, as soon as we

receive it, we want to take it off and give it to him as our

crown and go, You're worthy. What could I do?

I'm a vine who bore fruit because I was connected to the

branch. I'm a branch who bore fruit

because I was connected to the vine.

What else? What else?

What I do? You provided the life.

You provided the fruit, God, you get the glory.

Humble, childlike, not worrying about what anybody else is

saying or what anybody else is doing.

God is merciful to you. You should cry out for God's

mercy. Keep going.

Verse 31. The crowd rebuked them, telling

them to be silent. Blind hearts telling the blind

eyes what to do. They were told to shut up.

They were told to be quiet. They're told they don't matter.

Jesus has important work to do. I don't know what the crowd was

thinking. I don't know what these people.

Shut up. Come on.

We're late. He's going to Jericho.

The crowd's moving. The mob is moving.

These guys are screaming, freaking out.

Lots and lots and lots of people.

They have to get their voices heard, but they double down.

They don't care who's watching. They don't care who tells them

to stay quiet. They cried out all the more.

Lord have mercy on US, son of David.

Lord, we know who you are. We've heard.

I don't know who they heard or where they heard, but they've

heard. Have mercy on US, son of David.

Maybe they heard from others that they needed to pursue the

Lord like those other two blind men.

Maybe they've just heard it from the crowd.

But this is heartfelt prayer and this passes the real test.

It's not polished, it's not rehearsed, it's not written

down. It's got snot and it's got

tears. And it trips and it falls and it

asks and it seeks and it knocks. That's what real prayer looks

like. That's how you know, man, it

feels like my prayers are just. Then pray for real.

Then pray. Actually, God bless the

squirrels. God bless the trees.

Is that, is that really what's bubbling up out of you?

Then by all means, full sinned, but be specific in your prayers

and be heartfelt in your prayer. What are what do you cry out

about? I'm not crying out of anything

right now. Well, be warned that that's a

sign of lukewarmness. So that's an alert.

That's a bit of a red. A red alert should go off to

you. And now what do I pray?

Well, now pray that God will make you hungry.

Let that be the prayer. God, I don't even feel hungry.

Could you please make me hungry? God, I feel bored in my

spiritual walk. I feel bored in my life with

you. He already knows it.

Pray it and humble yourself beforehand and go, God, help me

to hunger and feel a thing that I don't even feel.

That's what it looks like. Why don't we feel like praying

that? Well, then that's a very scary

place to be. Then that's a full lack of love

for the Lord that tells you that you're not in Christ.

That tells you that if you have no affection for him, then

you're not in him and he's not in you.

What can I do? We'll cry out for mercy.

Cry out for mercy, but don't rehearse it.

And you don't have to repeat after me.

I've led many people to to repeat prayers and I don't

regret it, but it's it's not a fail safe.

The most important thing is a prayer that comes out of the

heart because I've also LED people to repeat words after me

that did not come out of their heart.

How do you know Pastor? Well, because the fruit, the

fruit talks. There was 1 revivalist who they

would have thousands come and responded his altar calls when

he was preaching and they would say, wow, how many got saved

tonight? He said I'll let you know in six

months. Kind of sounds a little bit

cynical, but he also knew what he was looking at and he had

done this. He had been around for a minute

and he had seen. Time will tell.

He wasn't telling people you're not saved, you are saved.

He's saying praise the Lord for His mercy and walk it out.

Your spiritual walk is your spiritual walk.

It's not mine. That's why I told you when the

word came from the Lord about truly surrendering yourselves.

I said pray for yourself. I pray for you all the time, but

I can't pray for you. I pray for you, but I can't pray

for you. I pray for you, but I can't pray

instead of you. So cry out to the Lord for

yourself, cry out to the Lord in humility, cry out to the Lord in

desperation. And if you don't feel desperate,

cry out that he would make you desperate because God is

merciful to you. God will stop what He is doing

for you. Man on a mission, Jesus goes, oh

they got to my heart. Have mercy on me, son of David,

they know who I am. That's irresistible.

They know exactly who I am. I am the merciful. 1 So cry out

to God. Well, if God wanted to help me,

He would just do it. This is not a trick question.

I mean it. Do you believe that if these two

blind men had not cried out to Jesus as he was leaving for

Jericho, as he left their city forever, do you believe they

would have been healed? I don't.

I don't think so. I think they had some

participation in what the Lord did.

Their desperation is what made the difference.

And I think that's a very pastor obvious straight line connection

as well. No fancy footwork.

What are you implying? Again?

Just a straight line truth these guys received from the Lord

because they cried out to the Lord. 1 + 1 = 2 in this passage,

just like it does throughout all of Scripture.

Again, Well, can't the Lord who doesn't though?

Absolutely. Do we have some exceptional

moments where the Lord sovereignly does His own thing

apart from everybody. Amen.

Hallelujah. Thank you, God, nobody can stop

him. And yet often, most often, He's

participating with our faith, or as we've seen throughout

Matthew, our lack thereof. He could do no mighty work

there. Jesus could do no mighty work

there. Well, it's not that he couldn't,

it's just that yes, he couldn't because God chose to function in

relationship to our faith. If He had wanted to do it

differently, he could have. But because He has chosen to

function in a certain way, He did function in a certain way.

So he could heal no one there. He could do no mighty work there

except heal a few sick folk. The passage told us.

Because of why? Because it wasn't the will of

the Father. It's not what the Bible said.

Because of their unbelief. If he wanted to help me, he

would just do it. Well, unless he wants you to

pursue him. Unless he wants you to cry out.

Unless he wants you to pursue him with humility and faith and

be changed in the process. Unless he wants you to follow

him and to know him more. Not as a carrot on the stick.

By the way. It's not a carrot on a stick you

can actually receive from him. The blind men didn't just say,

He didn't just say, follow me to Jerusalem, follow me to

Jerusalem. And he's on the cross and

they're saying, are we ever been?

He's like you'll be healed in eternity as he gives up his

breath. Nothing.

They got to have it right then they pursued him.

Hebrews 11/6. And without faith it is

impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to

God must believe that he exists and that He rewards those who

earnestly seek Him. Your earnest search and pursuit

of God matters. It just does.

Well, does God pursue me? Obviously He started it.

And even the desire you have for Him is a gift that He gave to

you. So again, he still gets all the

glory, and still your earnest pursuit of the Lord matters.

It still counts for something. It still counts and it still

matters. And He'll still bless it.

He will reward those who earnestly seek Him.

But if these men had waited, I don't want to cause a scene.

Shut up y'all sit back down. OK, we'll shut up.

We'll sit back down now and we'll stay blind.

But thankfully they were desperate.

Verse 32 and stopping Jesus called them and said, what do

you want me to do for you? Hey Jesus, I don't know if you

noticed these guys are blind. Of course he knows that they're

blind. Why does he ask?

I think He wants you to be specific.

Then once he answers your prayers, you know that he did it

'cause if I only pray for him to bless the squirrels, Squirrels

seem blessed. Praise the Lord.

God answered my prayer instead of what are you really praying

for that actually requires faith?

What are you praying for that actually puts pressure on the

Lord? When's the last time you prayed

a prayer that made that would make you look stupid if it

didn't happen because maybe you prayed it publicly, maybe you

prayed it with your family, but you actually prayed something

that was like, oh, that wasn't vague enough that it's like, if

it happens, praise the Lord. And if it doesn't, we can kind

of like we're kind of spared of any risk here.

But that's not what faith prayers do.

Faith prayers are God. I'm praying it's not.

Fingers crossed. God, would you please?

I don't really know if you want to.

I have no idea what your will is.

I just hope that you do. That's not what we're talking

about here. We're not.

When we pray, we don't pray. Fingers crossed.

Like who knows what the Lord's will is?

Well, your Bible will tell you what the Lord's will is.

So when we pray in line, according to the Scriptures, you

know you're praying in line with God's will and you know you're

pray. If you're praying in line with

God's will, then you should have actual faith.

Faith. It is the substance of things

hoped for. It is the evidence of things not

seen. So although it's through faith

and patience, we inherit the promises.

Faith says it's as good as done. Well, you haven't received it

yet. Well, my 5 senses haven't fully

apprehended the thing I've been praying for yet.

But in the Spirit, according to the Word of God, it's completed

now. Now comes the waiting.

Welcome to actual faith walk. Because if it was instantaneous,

I push the faith button and it's instant every single time.

There is no patience, there is no walking it out.

There is no testing, there is no trial, there is no tribulation.

It's just I have faith. Boom, instant manifestation.

I have faith, instant manifestation.

But that's not how it works. But I fully believe, I am fully

persuaded when I am in heart faith, not brain knowledge.

What's the difference, Pastor? When you got this one that you

know the difference, would you agree?

You know when you when you go between have haven't you ever

prayed just brain prayers or is it only me?

I pray brain prayers this week, blah, blah, blah.

Jamaica, are you really trusting God?

No, I'm not. I'm just being a robot.

OK, well, why don't you get engaged, man?

Because I'm trifling, and it'll take time to actually cultivate

Bible faith in my heart, in that thing.

That's why you said the quiet thing out loud.

Yes I did because so many people do it.

They pray mouth prayers and brain prayers and go.

God didn't do it bro. Did you actually expect him to?

No, you didn't. AKA not faith.

I ain't mad at you. I ain't mad at you for not being

in faith. Not at all bro.

If I'm condemning you, I'm condemning me.

I don't know why I turned everybody into a bro, ladies,

sorry for that. If I were to condemn you, then

I'm condemning all of us. But we've all been there.

Well, one thing your pastor is though, he is honest, and he

will be honest about the difference in the distinction

between the two. Well, I know what to say.

I know what to say. I know what to say.

Congratulations. So does the devil.

But that's not the same thing as a heart faith that says it's

done, it's done. Not, not.

I learned that I'm supposed to say it's done.

It really is done. I know in my knower.

I believe in my believer because the word of God has persuaded me

in my heart. And then the mountains could

crumble and fall into the sea, the sun could fall out of the

sky. And when there's heart faith

present, you go. Ain't nothing but a thing

irrelevant considering the promise of God that I'm standing

on. Whereas if I'm just, I know.

I know what I know what it says in my brain like all the

Pharisees do. Congratulations.

They had it memorized better than you do.

They've got it all memorized beginning to end.

They can tell you where the verses are, not because they had

numbers, but because they just knew the passages.

But that wasn't enough. Brainiac faith doesn't get it

done. It's an honest, real walk with

the Lord where you really are talking, where you really are

praying, where you're really seeking, where you're really

asking, where you're really knocking, where you're really

stumbling. And you go, God, I'm not even

praying. Lord, would you help me to pray?

And he goes, Ah, we're getting somewhere.

That's the first real thing I've heard out of you in two months.

Now we're getting somewhere. This is about to get exciting.

If you'll keep this up. I can do something with this.

I can. I can heal you now.

I can open your eyes now. I can fill you with fresh oil

now. Before you were just saying it

because the church had been praying that prayer lately, but

now you want it, or you don't want it enough, but you know it.

And I can work with that too, because He's so merciful.

He's so merciful like he was to the Father who said, Lord, your

disciples couldn't cast this out.

Jesus comes down the mountain. Remember your disciples couldn't

cast the demon out of my son. And Jesus said that's because

the father wants this demon in your son.

Everybody said that's false teaching.

Thank you for reading your Bible.

He said that this one doesn't come out by fasting and prayer

and the and the man said Lord, if you can do anything, please

help in Jesus Stipe, stop right there.

You just said something super stupid, but I'm merciful.

You said if I can do anything you're mistaken.

There is an if here, but it's not on me.

It's actually on you. If you can believe all things

are possible for those who believe and this man instead of

going I can't believe and leaving or pretending to believe

and go. I believe when he didn't he said

I believe help my unbelief. That's a real prayer and the

Lord can meet that. And it was irresistible to

Jesus. Again, pathetic and

irresistible. I believe.

Help mine believe. Now we got a real man who's

really praying, who still knows the nature and character, the

one he's talking to, and who still is not letting him go.

I don't know if I'm fully there, Jesus, but help me get fully

there, Jesus, because all I have is you, Jesus.

Have mercy on the Son of David. Now we're talking.

Now you know who you're talking to.

And he goes, this is good. Somebody who knows how small

they are, somebody who knows how big the need is, and somebody

who knows who the real provider is.

Jesus goes, I like this. I can bless this.

What do you want? What do you want me to do for

you? They recovered their sight and

they followed him. And we're closing.

Physical healing is our primary application of the passage.

Duh. People were physically blind.

They got physical eyes opened. But it is so important to

acknowledge all the spiritual blindness that was around us as

well. All the people who said shut up,

don't say anything to the master.

He's busy, he's on a mission. Spiritual blind people

surrounded Jesus. That's the danger.

How do you know the difference? The desperate and hungry ones to

be desperate and hungry. The ones who cry out, not the

ones who are focused on looking good.

The Pharisees with all the right clothes and all the right beard

trimmings and all the right memorizations.

They looked good. They sounded good, and it

deceived all the people and it made Jesus sick.

You're so good. Like that churchman who shared

his testimony. He was so good at doing church.

I do new church ran church for decades.

He counseled people with the Bible.

That's crazy open scripture and say, whoa, the Bible says this

Bible says that Bible says this Bible says that.

And According to him, if he had died, he would have spent

eternity in hell because he had not been made new, because he

had not seen his own need. He had not been hungry and

desperate and thirsty enough. Y'all can go ahead and begin to

service the elements. Thank you.

So spiritual blindness is far, far, far more important than

physical blindness. If you had to pick, and you

don't have to, but if you had to pick between being spiritually

blind and physically blind, you would pick physical blindness.

We make that plain. We make that obvious.

Thank you, brother. Scripture says they followed

him. Thank you, sister.

They followed him. I guess so blind.

And now they follow. Remember the parable of the

laborers and the vineyard? Some started at 6:00 AM.

They worked all day and they got the $100 pay.

And the guys who came in and they worked at 5:00 PM, an hour

left. All they got to do is clean up

the tools and lock up the trailer.

They got paid $100. The same Look at these two blind

men coming in the last week with King Jesus and they follow him.

I hope they kept following. I hope they I hope they stayed

faithful. I hope they carried the message

of the gospel far and wide. But they got the same blessing.

They got the same reward that Peter gets.

They get the same blessing that the that the faithful apostles

get. You come in, you get eternal

life. Doesn't matter when you come in,

if you come in at the first hour of your life.

To the young folks, the young men, the young women, what a

blessing to love and follow Jesus when you're young.

And to those who say, oh, I didn't come in till I was older,

what a blessing to love and follow Jesus when you're older,

what a blessing. Eternal life is the gift for

everybody. Whether you worked in the

vineyard for 12 hours in the heat of the day or you came in

into the last hour, these men, they come in under the mercy of

God because God has mercy and he has mercy for you.

Why should we count on the Son of David to have mercy on us?

Remember, David was pursued by Saul.

So remember, Saul is the first king of Israel, and then David

is the next king of Israel, not Saul's son.

Saul's son Jonathan becomes best friends with David, a deep

brotherly bond between the two of them.

But Saul is attacking David, trying to murder David, trying

to destroy David. David eventually comes to the

throne. Usually when a king comes to a

throne, he goes and destroys the entire bloodline of the previous

king because he wants to make sure that none of his

descendants who would be rightful heirs to the throne,

some great grandson someday, doesn't come up and go, I'm

taking back what belongs to my family.

We're taking back this Kingdom so you would annihilate them.

Lions do the same thing. When a new lion comes in and

takes over the pride, he kills all the other Young Lions, kills

all the pups. He goes, everybody here is going

to belong to me and there could be nobody else to come and

challenge me. When David comes under the

throne, he's merciful. And not only is he merciful, but

he loved Jonathan, his friend so much.

He says to his servants, he says he's just, he's reminiscing.

He's thinking of his friend David and just how much he loved

him and how much he missed him. He said, is there no one in

Jonathan's house who I can bless?

I just would love to bless. I can't have Jonathan anymore.

But is there anyone who I could bless?

And they said, well, there is one, his son, when they were

fleeing from from an attack, his babysitter was carrying him as a

as a little boy. And she stumbled down the stairs

and he fell and he was paralyzed.

And now he's a man. He's been paralyzed his whole

life. And David said, bring

Mephibosheth into my house. He will sit at my table and he

will eat my food. Jesus, son of David, has more

mercy on you than even the King David did.

You and I are Mephibosheth, to be clear.

Broken, paralyzed, nothing to offer.

But will you cry out for mercy like the blind men?

Will you cry out upon the name of Jesus?

Will you cry out on the Son of David?

Know who he is, Jesus, son of David, David the merciful Jesus

is the greater David, and we are Mephibosheth.

And God will have mercy on you. He has been kind to you because

as we know, Jesus didn't stop there.

He healed those men and he said gave the invitation, come follow

me. It's going to be a rough week,

but I'm going all the way. And he did.

His body and his blood poured out for all of us to to cure the

most important disease, our sin and our spiritual blindness, our

lostness. God, you are so glorious, You

are so perfect, You are so kind, You are so wonderful.

Thank you for having mercy on us, for loving us, for caring

for us. Jesus, the Almighty One, the

Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world, the

greater David, the son of David. Lord, we cry out in humility and

hunger and thirst. I pray you would stir us to

greater devotions. I pray you would stir us in our

prayers. I pray you would break up any,

any ground in US. Lord, if there's any soil in our

hearts, it's just gotten so hard and compacted and it doesn't

have any nutrient in it. God, would you just stick in

your tools? Would you shovel and would you

cultivate and would you pour in the nutrient that we need, make

us rich soil so that the word would blossom again, so that we

would be fruitful for you again? Then we wouldn't stay where we

are. God, I pray for your people who

have physical need in their bodies that they would cry out

right now and receive the Son of David, the one who went all the

way to the cross, who took stripes on his back for our

healing. The one who doesn't break the

bruisery, the one who doesn't extinguish the flickering flame,

but the one who adds strength, the one who renews strength heal

bodies. Lord, I pray you would renew

minds. You would give us a fuller

picture of you and that you would clarify our thinking that

you would destroy the strongholds of the enemy that

exist in our minds. And God, I pray for our spirits

that you would pour in fresh oil and that we would be new

wineskins who can contain fresh wine, that we can expand again,

only to receive new wineskins once more so we could expand

again. Grow us and bless us.

Jesus, we honor your body, and we honor your blood, your

sacrifice on the cross that you went to innocent and pure the

guilty. All the guilty put upon you,

said all of your innocence could be put upon the guilty.

Or we receive with gratitude the purity of Christ and the

righteousness of God. Let's take the bread together.

And without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission

of sins. This is God's mechanism for

justice. In the cup you see Jesus, son of

David having mercy on you. And in the cup you see the wrath

of God, but not poured out on you.

And you see justice fulfilled, and you see love poured out.

God, you're so perfect. You're so awesome.

God help us to just enjoy you again, to honor you in this

moment. We love you and we love your

blood. Jesus, let's take the cup.

We're just going to close in prayer for the next 5 minutes

before I dismiss you and going to play a song as we do.