When Hunger Meets Heaven

Good morning.

How y'all doing?

I've been different places, and I was in a place that was kind of in revival, you know, wild things were happening.

And I remember standing on the stairs looking down at, oh, I don't know, in this meeting, you know, that I was just there to drink myself.

But there were there were thousands of people there.

And I remember climb- I remember you had to go to the bathroom, you had to go upstairs, and I was on the stairs just looking out there.

And I'll be honest with you, how many of you know what I mean when I say a Grateful Dead concert?

You ever heard of Deadheads?

The Grateful Dead back in the day attracted the strangest looking people.

And we used to call them deadheads.

Well, I was looking out of this crowd, and honestly, it was a beat-up looking bunch of people.

It looked, yeah, how many ever heard this one?

It looked like life had rolled them hard and put them up wet.

But I was standing on the stairs looking in the presence of God, you could feel it in the room.

And I just began to weep.

And here's the thought I had.

Jesus, if you were on earth today, you would like this place.

Because of how it makes people feel.

And you guys have that kind of place.

You guys kind of look like a deadhead concert.

I'm not not entirely.

But whatever.

I can't.

How do I get out of that one, right?

The bottom line is you create you create an atmosphere that's very welcoming.

And I just think that's very, very cool.

We're going to be reading from Mark chapter 10, verse 46.

Mark 10:46

I think they're going to throw it up on the screen for you there in a second.

But here's what I told you we're going to do this week.

I told you we're going to talk about the anatomy of a miracle.

I want to introduce you to a friend of mine, and he's a person in Scripture that I met years ago, and God used him to kind of crowbar my heart somewhere.

I was stuck somewhere, and he used this story to push my heart somewhere else.

Today, last night, praying, preparing, mulling over what we're going to do today, I really felt like the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, said that he wants to do some things today.

How many of you are there's a difference between when God wants to say something and when he wants to do something?

How many of you need God to do something for you?

How many of you sitting right there this morning have at least one area of your life, or a loved one's life, or a friend's life, or a coworker's life, that you know what?

If God doesn't do something, this is not gonna end well.

Raise your hand if you know at least one of those.

All right, please, just open your heart.

We're just gonna read this section of scripture all the way through, and then I'm gonna come back and walk back through it making some comments.

And my trust is this.

I believe God can, you know how you just light a match and put it to the charcoal, whatever.

I believe as different thoughts are shared, God's gonna strike a match of just how much how much faith would it take for God to do a miracle for you?

Do this one time.

That's all it would take.

Well, I believe as we talk, God, not me, but God, is gonna just strike a little match of faith in your heart.

And when we end today, we're gonna pray and we're gonna trust God to do some things.

And we'll talk more about that when we get there.

All right, we're gonna read about, I don't know, six, seven verses here.

Verse 46, Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Then they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples in a large crowd, of course, this is Jesus, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road.

When he, the Bartimaeus, heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus stopped and said, Call him over here.

So they called the blind man, saying to him, Take courage, stand up, he's calling for you.

Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus.

And answering him, Jesus said, What do you want me to do for you?

And the blind man said to him, Raboni, teacher, master, I want to regain my sight.

And Jesus said to him, Go, your faith has made you well.

Immediately he regained his sight and began following Jesus on the road.

Now, I just want to break this down, talk our way through it a little bit.

If they can, just kind of follow along up there.

But if you go back to verse 46, it starts by saying, Um, then they came to Jericho.

What's the next thing?

It's a period.

Because then it says, and as he was leaving.

Here's the deal, folks.

He didn't walk into Jericho and then walk out the other side.

When he came to Jericho, guess what he did?

Over in Matthew 4, 23 to 25, it says this Jesus went into all the cities, he taught in the synagogue, he preached the gospel, he healed the sick, he cast out devils, etc.

And then it says, great crowds followed him.

Now, why is that?

How many of you believe a period at the end of a sentence can be important?

Jesus, the Bible says they came, Jesus in his entourage came to Jericho, period.

And then as they're leaving, why is that important?

Because he turned the city upside down.

Do you realize most Bible theologians would say this is the last week of Jesus' life?

Less than a week from here, he's going to the cross.

He goes into Jericho, he preaches the word, heals, delivers people all over the city.

Then it says, as he was leaving Jericho, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, sitting by the road.

And then he heard Jesus the Nazarene.

Why did that matter?

Because this dude's been sitting in his little corner of Jericho, and guess what he's been hearing all week long?

Man, dude, did you hear what happened across town?

And how many of you think beggars probably had like a union or something?

At least they got together and shared their misery.

I don't know what.

But how many of you know somebody said to this blind beggar, dude, did you hear Joe the blind beggar got healed?

He's not blind anymore.

And this guy's hearing all these stories.

Wait, wait, wait, come back.

He can't see.

Come back.

Tell me more.

All week long he's hearing these stories, teasing him.

Maybe a relative came by.

Maybe an aunt came by and said, You know your cousin that was so sick.

We took him to a meeting that this guy was having.

Jesus, and he was from Nazareth.

And your cousins healed.

And this blind beggar sitting there hearing all this.

So days later, with all the city in an uproar, he hears commotion.

And then he begins to hear it's Jesus the Nazarene.

And what does he do?

He begins to cry out.

Jesus.

Now listen, he doesn't cry out, Jesus the Nazarene.

He cries out, Jesus, son of David.

Now, you and I can't fully appreciate what he just did.

He just connected Jesus, a man walking the earth with dirty feet like everybody else, to messianic Messiah prophecies.

He just connected Jesus the Nazarene to the foretold one, the coming one.

He just spoke out of his mouth.

It was a really big deal.

Jesus, son of David.

Anybody around him would know what that is.

How many of you think religious people were enjoying this whole revival?

So here's a blind beggar crying out, calling Jesus the Messiah.

And what did they do?

Be quiet.

Who do you think you are?

Listen, to believe you're going to get something from God.

Who do you believe you are to believe you're going to get something from God?

Now this next statement could be the most important of all.

Of all the things he could have yelled, Jesus, son of David, identifying him as the Messiah, and then the next thing he says is not, I've suffered so long, I've been a good boy, I read my Bible every day, I give to the church, I don't beat my wife.

What did he say?

Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

What did he say?

Mercy is when you don't get what you deserve.

Mercy is when you get something you don't deserve.

See what breaks my heart when I talk to people?

You and I, we set up roadblocks between ourselves and God.

And the roadblocks are a list of all the reasons I don't deserve for God to be nice to me.

How many of you could come up with at least three reasons why God shouldn't be nice to you?

I could tell a few of you some.

I'm just kidding, I don't know you that well.

Now think about it.

Here's Jesus, God in the flesh, healing.

And this blind beggar, number one, realizes this is not just some preacher.

Jesus, son of David, and then he also realizes the only chance I have is mercy.

Mercy.

Here's the thing, folks.

As long as you believe you deserve to receive, or are measuring yourself trying to deserve to receive, you're never going to receive.

The only way to receive from God is on the realization that I have no reason to believe I deserve to receive.

Say yes if that makes any sense.

It's critically important that we realize this simple little sentence.

Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Father, I'm not asking you to do something special because I read my word enough.

I'm not asking you to do something special because I've suffered more than most.

I'm not asking you to do something special because I pray X number of minutes or hours or whatever.

I'm not asking you to do something special because I give money.

I'm not asking you to do something special because I try to do good deeds three a day or something.

I'm asking you to do something for me.

Listen now, because of your goodness, not mine.

You know what I realized years ago about faith?

Faith is about him, not me.

Faith is about how consistent, faithful, available, approachable, generous God is.

So here we are, this blind beggar calling out the religious folks.

How many of you know religion hates the word now?

Religion will talk about what Jesus did way back then.

Religion will talk about what's gonna happen in the sweet by-and-bye.

But religion gets nervous when you start talking about now.

Now faith is.

How many believe Jesus is in this room with us right now?

We're gonna close, we're gonna close with this thought because we're gonna pray for each other.

But it says this where two or three of you are gathered together in my name, what does it say?

There I am.

There I am.

God's in this room right now.

Every bit as much as he was then.

God's in this room right now.

So, verse 47, when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus stopped.

One translation, I believe it's the message, says, Jesus stopped in his tracks.

Now, a little theology.

Who was Jesus?

Theologically, who do we believe he was?

In the flesh?

God.

The creator of heaven and earth came through a virgin birth.

The word, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God.

A couple verses later in John chapter 1, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

John 1 · chapter mention

Jesus was God in the flesh.

Now listen to me.

A blind beggar stopped God in his tracks.

Jesus leading his entourage and a blind beggar made him stop.

He heard something.

They asked me what to title this morning.

The title I told him to use is when hunger and heaven meet.

When hunger and heaven meet.

Stuff happens.

So what happened here?

Jesus stopped and he said, one again, one translation says, Jesus called loudly.

He's blind.

Maybe he wanted the guy to hear him.

I don't know.

But Jesus said, Bring him over here.

So they called the blind man.

Now, how many of you know the they that were telling him to be quiet a few minutes ago are now his friends?

Because he's about to have an audience with the man, with the dude.

Right?

So they called the blind man saying, Take courage, stand up, he's calling for you.

Verse 50, throwing aside his cloak.

Now, big deal.

Throwing aside his cloak.

Anybody know why that's important?

Raise your hand if you've ever heard anybody teach why that's important.

The bottom line is they had to get business licenses just like we do.

So for you to be a beggar on the public roads of the city, you had to go through a process to prove you were handicapped.

You couldn't work.

So he had gone through the process and proved that he was blind and couldn't hold a normal job.

And listen, the license wasn't in a wallet and you pulled it out.

The license was a garment that you wore.

It was a cloak that you wore that said to anyone passing by, this guy's an officially certified, checked-out beggar.

He's allowed to do this.

Why do I tell you all that?

Because when Jesus said, Come, guess what?

He dropped it and left it.

Why?

What was he saying in his heart?

I'm not going to need this anymore.

I'm not going to need this.

Now, lest you and I get all weirded out like I don't have that much faith.

I don't know about you guys, but I hadn't heard of Atlanta or the surrounding areas being turned upside down by people getting healed and raised from the dead and all that kind of thing.

This guy had raw, real, in-your-face reasons to believe if I can get to this guy.

Now, that's some of what we've got to overcome to believe God would do something special for us.

Now, I believe he still does and he still will.

Can anybody say yes?

So he throws aside his cloak, verse 50.

He jumped up and came to Jesus.

And answering him, Jesus said, Now, to be honest with you, to me, this is one of the most astounding phrases in the entire Bible.

How many of you think Jesus was probably a pretty smart guy?

How many of you think he could figure stuff out pretty quick?

How many of you think it's a little bit odd that he asked a blind beggar, what do you want me to do for you?

You know how I found this story?

I was having a pity party.

Anybody ever have a pity party?

I something, I think it was my church back in some time in the past wasn't going well, and I was just kind of walking around crying, and God, don't you even care?

Things are not going well.

And he took me to this section of scripture.

And he basically said, you know, read it.

I read it, whatever.

I'm a little thick, so it takes me a few times.

But I'm just kind of crying and, you know, blah, blah, blah, having a pity party.

And I'm reading through this thing.

And I get to this point, and it was like everything just stopped and got quiet.

You ever had that happen?

It's like everything just got quiet.

And inside myself, I heard God say to me, chipper, what do you want me to do for you?

You know what I've learned as a counselor all these years?

By the time most of us get to adulthood, by the time most of us get to adulthood, life, relationships, disappointments have so beat us up, weird way to say it, but for most of us, by the time we get to adulthood, our wantur is broken.

Do you know it takes courage to say I want?

Blank.

What do you mean by that?

How many of you know the way our soul works, it's less painful to not admit we want something than it is to admit we want it and not get it?

Say yes if you follow me.

It's less painful to not admit to ourselves we want something than it is to admit we want it and risk nothing.

Not getting it.

Now, why am I saying that?

Jesus said to a blind beggar, what do you want me to do for you?

I hope you know where I'm headed this morning.

What do you want God to do for you?

Last night I was sitting, my wife had gone to sleep, had my earphones in with some wonderful praise, worship on.

And I was just thinking about you guys, and I've been here enough that I can feel the room, and I'm thinking about the room.

And, you know, Jesus said, I don't say anything unless I hear the Father say it.

I don't do anything unless I see the Father doing it.

So I was sitting there saying, Father, what do you want to do in the morning?

And I had a, you know, the little pad of paper they put in your hotel room, and I was just going to write on there, Father, what do you want to do in the morning?

And then just write down what came to me so I could pray that way.

And I started to write, what do you want to do in the morning?

And you know what I wrote instead?

God asked me, What do you want me to do?

What do you want me to do?

Now, I want you, if God were about to do something for you, what do you want him to do?

My wife and I have one of our children.

There's something specific we really want God to do for one of our kids.

All of them.

But there's one particular thing that's probably at the top of our list.

Would you agree, darling?

Well, here's what I decided for you.

You let me know if I did a good job shopping for you.

What do you want me to do for you?

And here's what I asked God for this morning.

God, if you could heal right in this room, who who could stand for God to heal something?

A back, a head, a knee, a leg, a whatever.

I asked God, wouldn't it be cool if you could just run disease out of the room?

How many of you'd like that to happen?

I asked God, God, would you just would you just touch some folks?

What do you mean?

How many of you know occasionally it's just nice for him to do something that lets you know he's there?

Not there, but with, how many of you like it when he tells you he's there?

See, I look at some of you and my heart is, I just wish I could touch you for God and you would feel God's attention on you.

Can I tell you with every fiber of my being, his attention is on you right now?

But we, no, no, no, you mean that one over there.

Not me.

It's on you.

The next thing I asked for, God, what do you, he asked me, you know, what do you want me to do?

I said, God, could you just encourage some folks?

Could you lift that spirit of heaviness?

Could you break through the clouds and just let them feel your sunshine on their face?

And then I said, God, how about an embrace?

Could you just hug some folks?

Could you, in a way that's just a tad beyond where they've ever felt it before, could you just come up to someone and put your arms around them and tell them how much you love them?

I feel that when I look out at you.

Who do you think put that there?

I'm feeling a little thimble full of what God wants to wash over you with.

See, moments like this, some of you feel your heart wanting to risk it.

You understand what I'm saying?

Some of you feel your heart like maybe me?

Again, remember, it takes courage to reach out for something that hasn't necessarily been consistently provided in the past.

Does that make sense?

So, what happened here?

What do you want me to do for you?

If the worship team would go ahead and head this way, what did the blind dude say?

Teacher, I want to see.

I want to see.

How many of you know everybody was watching?

And he had the courage to say, I want to see.

Now here's the deal.

I I would be like thrilled from my head to my toes and beyond if God just popped all over this room and did cool stuff.

But I'd be just as excited, believe it or not, listen, if some of you just decided I'm gonna wake up my wanter.

I'm gonna wake up my wantor.

Say this with me.

I'm going to wake up my wanter.

Say yes if you understand what I mean by that.

The first part of a miracle for you might be just having the courage to admit, I really do want that, God.

I really do want that.

So what happened?

I want to see.

Jesus said, Go your way.

Your faith has made you well.

Now here's the deal, folks, and immediately he got his sight.

We've beat each other all up about, well, you didn't get healed because you don't have enough faith.

Remember mercy, right?

Mercy is when you don't get what you do deserve and you do get what you don't deserve.

Here's my deal on faith.

Faith is not why God does miracles.

Let that settle on you a minute.

Faith is not why God does miracles.

Anybody want to guess what is?

Love is why.

Now, if you need something from God, don't focus on faith and whether you have enough.

Focus on his love.

Say yes, if that makes sense.

And because that's a that's I'm I'm building a bridge.

Now, faith is how, not why, how.

If you focus on love.

Now, let me give you my take on faith.

How many of you, I don't know where they are, but how many of you, if we asked you to, could probably find a light switch and turn it on?

Imagine you're in a room at your house and it's dark and you need to find something.

How many of you would probably be in your own house now?

How many of you could probably make it to the wall and turn the lights on?

Raise your hand.

All right, guess what?

I call it light switch faith.

Now, can you do everything that's necessary for those lights to come on?

Can you generate the power?

Can you string the wires?

Can you, you know, invent copper, you know, electricity?

You follow where I'm how many of you know there's a whole lot more to getting your lights to come on than flicking that switch?

But what's the only part you have to do?

Drag yourself over to that wall and flip a switch.

Now listen to me.

That's how much faith it takes.

You got to get to the wall and dare to say, I want.

You don't have to understand electricity.

You don't have to know how to how to how a capacitor works, or some of y'all help me.

You don't have to know how a, I don't know what all that stuff is.

How many of you know you don't have to know how God's gonna do it, when he's gonna do it, which way it's coming?

All you've got to have the courage to do, number one, admit you want it.

And number two, just say, God, this morning, we just want to flip a switch.

How many of you can do that?

I don't want you to think about it.

We're gonna close here and I'm gonna turn it over to the worship guys.

Here's the deal.

I believe God wants to do some stuff.

Whether it's right here in this room, you know what?

In a sense, I don't care.

Now you don't have to, but if you want to, just close your eyes a minute.

And we're just with God.

And just think about what do I want God to do for me?

Think about what short circuits your hope, your confidence, your faith, all the reasons that start pop, well, you know, I don't know, God doesn't do that anymore, he wouldn't do it for me, or I don't, whatever.

And then remember the simple little statement, son of David, have mercy on me.

That stopped God in his tracks.

What if God wanted to do something cool for you just?

Just to make himself look good.

Father, I just pray for my wonderful friends in this room.

I believe you're the kindest, gentlest, yet most powerful person, being in the entire universe.

And God, I believe you showed us Jesus.

And he said, if you've seen me, Jesus, you've seen the Father, you've seen God.

God, I believe you love to end people's pain.

So, Father, I just pray today.

There's ones all over this room that are the their answer to what do you want me to do for you is a healing for themselves or someone they love.

God, we don't have to get all weird and act strange.

We just ask you right now, would you please, sir, based on your mercy alone, would you heal that person, those people?

Heal them, Father.

Father, there's people right here that are just simply saying, I just need to feel you.

I just need the encouragement of your presence.

I need you to touch me in a way that deeper than I've ever felt and known it before, I sense you're with me.

You're for me.

You're for me.

Father, we pray for folks that just need a touch from you.

Please, sir.

And then, Father, those that have been going through challenging times, there may even be chemical imbalance, whatever, but their moods, their emotions just can't seem to kick out of the gray side of the scale.

God, we pray for a miracle of encouragement.

We pray that you lift off that spirit of heaviness.

And we pray that you infuse them with a spirit of joy.

And Lord, all of us need consistently, regularly, an embrace.

Just some way that you hold us, communicate with us that says, I love you.

Lord, I pray individually, eyeball to eyeball, between you and them alone, that you would let people in this room know.

I mean, they did dumb things yesterday.

They did dumb things this morning.

They're gonna do some more dumb stuff later today.

But Father, you're gonna let them know how much you love them.

How proud you are of them, how honored you are that they've taken you on their wagon to journey with them.

And you're honored to be there.

So, Father, I pray for this wonderful group of folks, and God, we just dare to believe that you're at work on our behalf.

And we thank you for it, sir.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Bless you guys.

Hallelujah.