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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.
Fredo Ramos:Just the other day, my brother-in-law got to take me to an NBA game. It was a really rare experience that we got to do together. Of course, I was watching the Clippers and Suns play, so I didn't I was hoping they both would lose, honestly, as a Laker fan. But with these tickets came, a rare fan experience where you got to go into the stadium a few hours early and watch them warm up. And And they place us essentially on courtside right near the tunnel where the players come in and out so that when they're done shooting around, they get to walk by you.
Fredo Ramos:You can, you know, dab them up. You've got a jersey. You hang over the rail, and maybe they'll sign it. You got a card. Right?
Fredo Ramos:So Kevin Durant's done, and everyone's there to, like, see him and get his attention because he's going by. And so what I saw there in this moment was quite a lot of desperation. People were saying anything and doing anything they could to get his attention as he was going by them. And so here he comes. I got my phone out.
Fredo Ramos:I'm going, Kevin. Kevin. And then right across from me, there's this kid. And he's like,
Fredo Ramos:KD, I'm just a kid, KD. I'm just a kid. Sign my jersey.
Fredo Ramos:I'm like, what am I gonna say? I can't beat that. So I'm like, I'm just
Fredo Ramos:a middle aged man, Kevin Durant, with a wife and 2 kids. But it
Fredo Ramos:was crazy in that moment the kind of desperation I saw in terms of what people were willing to do and reach out for in that moment to get his attention as players are going by. And I think we all know what it's like to be in moments of desperation. There comes a point in our lives where we all experience a form of desperation. Maybe it's you. You've opened that email and checked your messages for a hundredth time to see if that new job came through or looking to see if your checking account has enough until you get paid again?
Fredo Ramos:Hello, somebody. You're asking. Or you've seen 4 different doctors for the same illness, and for whatever reason, no one seems to have an answer as to how to treat you and deal with your diagnosis. Or maybe you just got out of a serious relationship with the person who you thought was the one, and now you can't possibly begin to imagine how you're gonna start over at your age. So you get desperate.
Fredo Ramos:And anything that'll look at you, you'll look back at. Right. But no matter how hard it is, as a parent, you still can't get through to your kid, and now they're 15 years old. We get desperate. And it's not so much do you get desperate, but what do you reach out for in the rails of your life when you're desperate?
Fredo Ramos:What do you cling for? Because if there's anything we know about desperate people is that they will grab for anything. Now I say that realizing that some of you here today probably are unaware of how desperate you actually are. Meaning your life feels good, things are going okay, but still why is there that ambient anxiety that kinda just hums beneath the surface and that spirit of frustration. Could it be possible that below all that is a soul that is desperate for the divine?
Fredo Ramos:And the danger is that the comfort of your life is distracting you from your own desperation. You don't know it. You don't see how desperate you are, which is why as a church, over the last several weeks, we've been in this series called miracles where we've been wanting to become open as a church to how God wants to move and and miraculously show up in our lives. Believe in not just of what God did in the past through the life, death, and resurrection of his son, but what he's still doing today every day through our lives. And so we bring that series to a close today and we're going to look at a story in which people were reaching out for Jesus, desperate to get his attention as he was going by, desperate to grab anything that they possibly could to hopefully have their lives changed.
Fredo Ramos:And so we need this word because whether you realize it or not, you are far more desperate than you can possibly imagine. Our souls need a touch of the divine today. Amen. Yeah. So we need this word.
Fredo Ramos:And so I'm gonna ask that if you are willing and able that you would stand with us for the reading of God's word, we're to be in Matthew, the gospel according to Matthew. So if you got a Bible, you can turn there with us. If you got the Sandals Church app, you can open that up to the notes. If you don't have either, god bless you. It's okay.
Fredo Ramos:We have the notes and the passages on the screen. So let's read together and then I'll pray. Matthew writes these words. As Jesus and his and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. 2 blind men were sitting by the roadside and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, lord, son of David, have mercy on us.
Fredo Ramos:The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. Jesus stopped and called them. What do you want me to do for you, he asked. Lord, they answered, we want our sight. Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes.
Fredo Ramos:Immediately, they received their sight and followed him. This is the word of God. Let's pray together. Heavenly father, we gather here today and take a moment to pray realizing that you have gathered with us too. And we ask now, God, that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear all that you have for us in Jesus.
Fredo Ramos:We pray these things in his name. Amen.
Danielle Crowley:We are so glad that you are with us today. If this message has served you in any way or you would like to be a part of the work that we are doing here at Sandals Church, I wanna invite you to give today. You can do that by going to give dot sc@anytime. And for right now, let's get right back into the message with Pastor Fredo.
Fredo Ramos:Amen. Thank you so much. You can be seated.
Fredo Ramos:Now I
Fredo Ramos:don't know about you, but one of the great things that I love about Jesus is his ability to be completely unbothered when he gets interrupted by people. I would love to have that gift in my own life. I just don't. But there is something sweet about you and I being around those who don't see interruptions as that, but they almost seem as invitations. Like, no matter what you got to say, what your question is, what time of the day it is, they're just okay with you interrupting them.
Fredo Ramos:And that's exactly what we see here in this story with Jesus. It picks up where Jesus seems completely unbothered by an interruption. In fact, he really takes it as an invitation. We're told that he's moving from Jericho to Jerusalem. Now here's what you gotta understand.
Fredo Ramos:Geographically, Jericho is about a day's walk to Jerusalem. So there's no Uber in sight. He's got a lot of steps to take. He's got somewhere to be and he's going not just with his disciples, but with the crowds. Now here in the the timeline of Jesus's life, this is before he enters Jerusalem for the last week of his life before he's to be betrayed, crucified, buried, and then resurrected.
Fredo Ramos:So he's got a lot of important things to do. He's on his way with a with a purpose. Because at this time, many Jews would have gathered around Jerusalem for the sake of the Passover. So they're all on their way to celebrate the Passover, but Jesus has got much more than just that in my in his mind. He's going not just to celebrate the Passover, but to become the ultimate display of the Passover.
Fredo Ramos:Amen. To be the final lamb that was slain for the sins of the world. To be the sacrifice that sets everyone free. He's got a plan yet he's interrupted. He's interrupted by beggars that we're told that are along the side of the road who are desperate and their desperation leads them to shout out.
Fredo Ramos:You ever been there before? Desperate enough to cry out to anybody and anything to help you. Here's what I want us to see first in the story. Desperation will have us unashamedly crying out for a miracle. Unashamedly crying out.
Fredo Ramos:2 blind beggars, they cannot see. That's kind of the, you know, point taken. So they don't know where Jesus is at, but they heard he's going by, and so they begin to shout. They just they just start to shout in any direction. They don't know if Jesus could even hear them, if he can see them, but they start to shout out, lord, son of David, have mercy on us.
Fredo Ramos:A better translation is to say, take pity on us. Look at who we are. Take pity on my situation and help us. And it says there, the large crowd who was traveling with Jesus, what do they do? They rebuke them.
Fredo Ramos:Imagine telling a blind person asking for mercy to shut up. That's astounding. Now here's what we want to consider when it comes to this word rebuke. There are 5 times in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus, either uses this word or other people do. The first, we're told Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves.
Fredo Ramos:You might remember that. He tells the storm to be quiet. There's another instance where Jesus rebukes the demons to be silent. There's another instance where Peter rebukes Jesus, surprisingly, because apparently Jesus' life is not what Peter would have imagined for him. And then there's another moment where the disciples actually have the audacity to rebuke the parents of the children who are running up to Jesus to get into his lap.
Fredo Ramos:You remember that scene? What's interesting to me is now we have the scene where the crowds are rebuking the blind man, telling them to be quiet. When it comes to Jesus, you never see him rebuke hurting people. It's always God's people who tend to be doing that. Why is it that we have a tendency to rebuke the very people God is desiring to care for?
Fredo Ramos:Now we can probably see why though. At some level, you gotta sympathize with the crowds. That's where we are in the story. They would rebuke them because their vision for Jesus does not fit with stopping. They're on their way to Jerusalem.
Fredo Ramos:They got plans for him to be the messiah in their version to politically liberate them. He doesn't have time to deal with this. And the misconception that we must resist is that god has other priorities outside of actually helping those who are hurting. But we have got to be really clear about all of this, especially when it comes to asking god for a miracle. Jesus does not exist for your agenda or my agenda.
Fredo Ramos:And the crowds had plans for him. They had big ideas for what they wanted to see him do. But contrary to the crowds, Jesus sees the blind men not as an interruption to his agenda, but his actual agenda. That's what he's there to do. That's right.
Fredo Ramos:And despite the the crowds even telling him to be quiet, they shout all the louder. They they get even more noisy. You ever had people in this like like this in your own life, trying to quiet you, especially when you find yourself in a in a vulnerable place? And to some people's astonishment, Jesus stops. Why does he stop?
Fredo Ramos:Simply put, I think because Jesus is the god who listens to our cries for mercy. He stops and listens. Psalm 6, the lord has heard my cry for mercy. The lord accepts my prayer. How about this from Psalm 34?
Fredo Ramos:In my desperation, I prayed and the lord listened. He saved me from all my troubles. Praise be to the lord, Psalm 28 says, for he has heard my cry for mercy. Psalm 116 says, I love the lord. I love the lord.
Fredo Ramos:Why? For he heard my voice and he heard my cry for mercy. The psalmist even go so far as to say that those who wait on the lord will never be put to shame. Think about that. Your waiting then is never in vain.
Fredo Ramos:That's right. It's never a waste. Your your waiting will never end in your shame. It will never end in your embarrassment. God responds to our cries for mercy, period.
Fredo Ramos:That's it. That's what we experience. Now if that's true, what are you crying out for in your life right now? Is there any place in your life as it is that you would say I'm desperate in this And and it would lead you to, without worry of embarrassment or what you might look like, like a blind person stumbling to stand up, just shouting anywhere for Jesus, what would it take for you to get to that place of desperation? Are some of us here today at Sandals Church too good and too put together to be humble enough to ask for mercy, for pity?
Fredo Ramos:In Everyday A Miracle, pastor Matt talks about a woman in our church named Natasha who had this kind of crying out. He he kind of referred to it in the 5th chapter as a soul cry where you have nothing left and there was no other option. You are reaching over the rails of your life, hoping that as Jesus goes by, he hears you. Can we get to that place today where we're willing to ask God for mercy? My concern, again, is that for many of us, the comfort of our lives is just distracting us from the true desperation that lies beneath the surface.
Fredo Ramos:But as our story continues, Mark actually accounts that Jesus called the crowd to go get them which is so crazy. The same people who were rebuking the beggars, Jesus is like, no, you go get them. Be quiet. You go get them. And Mark says that they told him, cheer up.
Fredo Ramos:Get on your feet. He's calling you. What a picture. And we're even told in Mark's account of this story that Bartimaeus gets up, but he leaves his coat. Now here's what you need to understand.
Fredo Ramos:Remember, they're leaving Jericho By by regular standards, it's not a a cold climate. It's a warm climate. So the coat is not so much for his own warmth, but what a sim would have been a symbol of his begging. And so it's almost as if Mark is perhaps signifying that transformation is already starting to happen. The closer this beggar gets, he's leaving his old lifestyle.
Fredo Ramos:He's leaving the cloak behind. Perhaps now, they're starting to see spiritually what they can't even see physically. That's what desperation is doing for them. Desperation has, perhaps, in this moment for the beggars, begin to stir faith and and given them a kind of vision that only faith can provide. You see, my thought is this.
Fredo Ramos:Desperation cannot only lead us to cry out unashamedly, but desperation can help us see who Jesus actually is and what he can do for us. Amen. It says that as they got up that Jesus surprised them with this question. What do you want me to do for you? He asked.
Fredo Ramos:Lord, we want our sight. Ironically, it's the blind and the desperate who recognize Jesus in this moment even more than the disciples can. Here's why I make that case. Because just before this account where Jesus heals the blind and gives them their sight, he has a conversation with his disciples and for the 3rd time tells them, for the 3rd time, parents, for the 3rd time, what he must do in Jerusalem and his disciples still don't understand. The 3 gospel accounts that tell this story all take note of that.
Fredo Ramos:That's not by accident. There is a way to see spiritually what you can't see physically. Hebrews 11 bears witness to this. Now faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance of what we do not see. In other words, faith provides us this this anchor, this kind of stability that allows us to see spiritually what is not visible physically.
Fredo Ramos:And in this exchange, that is beginning to happen for these blind men. Now remember for just a sec for, just a second, they're beggars. That's how they're identified in scripture. Anytime you're reading a gospel story, pay close attention to how the author identifies and categorizes people. They're beggars, meaning their life has been marked by this.
Fredo Ramos:Because they're blind, this was their 9 to 5 Monday through Sunday on the side of the road, knowing Jericho was a kinda last stop before Jerusalem. So it would have been natural for them to be out there doing this all the time. They would have been used to being ignored, unheard. And then Jesus surprises them with this question. What do you want me to do for you?
Fredo Ramos:Imagine just for a second how their hearts may be pounding. This short interaction feels like an eternity. They finally are asked the question, what you want me to do for you? Now what's the safe thing to ask for? I'm a beggar with money.
Fredo Ramos:Surely, Jesus or someone in his entourage has some coin. Maybe shelter. Be nice to stay somewhere safe tonight. Maybe food. It'd be good to eat something.
Fredo Ramos:Like, when you think about your interactions and when I think about my interactions with those who are on the side of the road begging, they primarily are asking for things that will just help them survive.
Fredo Ramos:Right.
Fredo Ramos:But why in this moment when they're asked that question, they go for broke? They ask for everything. Every other encounter with another person would have been very suitable just to simply say, I'll take money. I'll take food. But with Jesus, they asked differently.
Fredo Ramos:The the the beggars in that moment, they started to ask for the moon. Now I don't know if it's because they fully understood that Jesus was in fact the messiah. It's hinted at because they say, lord, son of David. So that clearly they have some understanding. But how did they know to ask for sight and not bread?
Fredo Ramos:How do they know? Because for a lot of us, we know what it's like to to be, like, right there on the line when it comes to asking god for a miracle. Should I go for broke? Should I ask for the moon? What's appropriate to ask for?
Fredo Ramos:In other words, when you start to pray and ask god for things, you put your hopes on the line, you're exposed because you're vulnerably sharing, communicating out loud what it is deep down inside you want most. That's right. And they're doing that. And at some level, all of us know what it's like to lose sleep over
Fredo Ramos:the possibility that life will not work out as we've prayed for it to.
Fredo Ramos:Will god hear me? I I regularly am puzzled that maybe why Fredo is so drawn to the Psalms is because I regularly need to be reminded that god hears prayer. And that's just an open confession. That's not even in the notes that I don't know, Spirit just said that needs to come out. But there's a there's a deep part that struggles to believe that he'll actually do it.
Fredo Ramos:And so daily, as I'm reading Psalms, I'm being shaped by the reality, not just what I'm feeling, but by the reality that God hears prayers. And he's come not just to, you know, give us our wildest dreams, but to meet our deepest needs.
Fredo Ramos:Amen.
Fredo Ramos:In other words, Jesus asking, what do you want me to do for you is not a genie question. He's come to meet our needs. And so here's what I want us to wrestle with. What we ask for and don't ask for often reveals a lot about who we think Jesus is and what he can do. And so think for a moment.
Fredo Ramos:What are some of the things that you've been asking for? What are some of the things that you haven't been asking for? And maybe that's a revelation as to who you think Jesus is and what he can actually do. In other words, have you been asking for bread or sight? Or maybe even worse, the comfort of your life has distracted you from how desperate you actually are.
Fredo Ramos:And under the surface of all of that is, again, your soul's need for a touch from the divine. Yes. Amen. Because how many more sermons do you need to hear? How many more things do you need to see God do?
Fredo Ramos:How many more answers does Jesus need to give to you before you just finally, with all the faith you can muster, reach over the rails of your life and demand his attention and ask him to give you sight. Ask him for what you need. For those of you who feel put together, again, I suspect that your greatest concern listen. It's not just the economy. Right.
Fredo Ramos:It's not just who you think the next president's gonna be or a decent living wage in California. Underneath all of that is a soul in the rubble of broken promises that needs to be rescued. For some of you parents in here, do you have any ability to see what your kids are desperate for right now? I would imagine the health epidemic that we're seeing is is displaying a way in which teens have been grabbing for things as a sign of what they're actually desperate for. And have we been paying attention to that?
Fredo Ramos:I love Jesus' response after they say we want our sight. He acknowledges their faith, and it says with compassion, he touched them. As we wrap, I want us to consider this, that Jesus responds to our desperation with compassion. Matthew notes that he had compassion on them and touched their eyes. One of the most beautiful parts of this story to me is that they asked for mercy and in response, they got compassion.
Fredo Ramos:Amen.
Fredo Ramos:Those are 2 different things. A judge can be merciful to someone in a courtroom. They can withhold what that person actually deserves. That's mercy. They can do that without being compassionate.
Fredo Ramos:Right. They're just being merciful with the power that they have to be merciful.
Fredo Ramos:Right.
Fredo Ramos:You you you can think about a boss. A boss could be merciful to an employee who's underperforming and not fire them not because they have compassion, but just because they don't wanna go through the hassle of letting them go. So they'll just show them mercy and not give them what they actually deserve. As a parent, I see this all the time with Eli and Ella. Often, I show them mercy.
Fredo Ramos:They don't know it is mercy, but it's mercy. It's mercy. I'm withholding a lot. And I'll be honest, I'm oftentimes not compassionate. I have feelings, but they are not feelings of care.
Fredo Ramos:They're feelings of frustration and bewilderment as to why I helped bring them into this world. But this is the point of the passage. Jesus is not just able to heal, but he actually cares deeply. The word in the Greek means that the inward parts of someone's stomach or bowels are moved and stirred. In Hebrew, the word is raham.
Fredo Ramos:It it's related to the womb of a mother as almost if to say compassion is a parental kind of connection to your children. Our English word compassion comes from the Latin that can be broken up in 2 parts. Come meaning with, passion meaning suffering. So with suffering or moved into suffering. Case in point, compassion is essentially Jesus steps in to our suffering.
Fredo Ramos:Compassion is both an action and a feeling. In other words, god just doesn't act with power and wisdom and might and majesty, but he actually feels deeply. He's not emotionally detached from the world. God has feelings for you. Now I know I say that in a current moment in which many people in our culture thinks we're we're just, like, got too much therapy going on.
Fredo Ramos:And for some, it's even bizarre to hear that god has feelings because of your religious tradition, maybe the way you were brought up, and they might even say that it's irreverent to talk about God who has emotions. But I would say it's far more irreverent to not talk about God the way he describes himself to us. Matthew 9. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. When Jesus landed across the water, saw the crowds, he had compassion and healed their sick.
Fredo Ramos:That's Matthew 1414. He goes on to say in Matthew 15, I have compassion for these people. Look. They've been with me 3 days and nothing to eat. I would be hungry at that point.
Fredo Ramos:It's Matthew 15. And then in Matthew 20, the passage we just read, Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. I say all that because, again, at a deep level, it's natural for many of us to come to terms with the fact that god actually feels for you.
Fredo Ramos:He feels for you. In many cases because I think as
Fredo Ramos:a church, we've done a poor job stewarding how our emotions are meant to be experienced and acted upon. And so when we come to places in scripture where God seems to do things emotionally, we we either write them off or we don't know how to explain them. But bear in mind, in Exodus, when God decides to give a sermon about himself before Moses, he says, Yahweh, Yahweh, the lord, the lord, compassionate, gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. 80% of the time when the Bible uses the word compassionate, it's referring to God, not us. God feels for you.
Fredo Ramos:And I say that because I don't know what God will do for you, but he will meet you with compassion. Which is why in first Peter we're told to cast all of our anxiety on him. Why? Because he cares for us. Because he cares for us.
Fredo Ramos:Many times, the psalmist talk about, at night, they they just pour out their emotions. At one point, David says, my tears have flooded my bed because you're the god who cares. You're the god who hears. So much so that in his compassion, Jesus acted. And what does Matthew say he did?
Fredo Ramos:He touched their eyes. He touched the very source of their pain, of their shame, the very thing that had placed them into this kind of lifestyle. Now I don't know about you, but when I read that part, I squirm a little bit because of someone who will gladly wear glasses for the rest of his life. I don't like anyone touching my eyes. I can't stand to do it.
Fredo Ramos:It freaks me out. I do not like eye doctor's appointment. I'll go see the dentist a 1000 times before I see the eye doctor because I hate that dry puff, the that go, they do in your eye. What's the point of that? But I don't like my eyes being touched.
Fredo Ramos:And so every day, I'm just like, man, Ashley, you're a hero because she wears contacts. And she gets all close in the mirror and swiveling her eyeball around, touching her with that contact. It blows me away. I don't know how you do that. It freaks me out watching her do that.
Fredo Ramos:And then, of course, as I'm teaching on a passage that deals with not being able to see, my daughter gets pink eye in both eyes. And so yesterday, I'm literally shaking trying to pour the medicine into her eye, like prying her eye open. Like, Ella, just be still.
Fredo Ramos:And she's like, I'm trying, daddy. I'm trying.
Fredo Ramos:I'm like, I'm freaking out too, girl. Just be still.
Fredo Ramos:But I
Fredo Ramos:don't like my eyes being touched. But Jesus in this moment pushes through all of that, touches him in a very vulnerable spot to the point that what was once dark became fuzzy, then I'm sure it kinda became blurry. And then at one point, imagine this for a second, just a flood of light rushes into their eyes. Color, vibrancy, what they have longed to see their whole life. The first thing they see is Jesus.
Fredo Ramos:That's incredible. Before they were able to even see anything, that's who they saw. And before they knew he was seeing them, he actually saw them. And now in this moment, they can see that he can see them. It's an astounding moment.
Fredo Ramos:It's beautiful. And it reminds me, like, this is actually how prayer begins. Prayer begins not so much with us feeling like we have something to say, but the reality that God sees us. God sees where you're at right now. Amen.
Fredo Ramos:The desperation that maybe is finally coming into view for you, god has seen that all along. And he has been patiently waiting for you to, without fear of embarrassment or shame, cry out to him.
Fredo Ramos:Amen.
Fredo Ramos:To reach over the rails of your life and ask him as he's going by begging for his attention. I was somewhat embarrassed at what I was doing as a middle aged man holding a basketball card over this rail hoping Kevin Durant would sign it. And And I thought to myself, is this how I treat prayer too? Am I willing to get that vulnerable? At the end of the day, do we actually believe he's that compassionate and that he sees us?
Fredo Ramos:The witness of scripture of the new testament is that he is, and that his fullest display of compassion was there on the cross. Romans 8, Paul says it like this. He who did not spare his own son he didn't spare his own son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? In other words, this is the beauty of Christ's compassion.
Fredo Ramos:He not only enters into our suffering. In other words, he not only suffers with us, but he suffers for us. Amen. He not only enters into your pain, he also takes your pain for you.
Fredo Ramos:Amen.
Fredo Ramos:He not only enters into your life, but he takes your life on himself. He not only enters into our death and our suffering, but he breaks it on his own back. Come on now. That's the good news of the gospel And so what Paul is saying is that if God did not, you know, spare if he if he went to this great length to give us his son to do all this, what is keeping us from entrusting ourselves that he also won't give us everything else we need? So with that, the same question that Jesus posed to the beggars, now I think he poses a Sandals Church today in this moment.
Fredo Ramos:What do you want Jesus to do for you today? What do you want him to do? Now remember what it took just for a moment to get to that question. Jesus had people bring the beggars to him. In other words, oftentimes, our journey of healing is communal.
Fredo Ramos:It happens with other people. We do so with the help of others even with people who imperfectly understand us. It's not an accident that you might find healing with people at some level who have not been the best to you. Jesus had the crowds bring the beggars to him. I say all that because if you find yourself on your way to Jesus, to healing from an addiction such of substance abuse or some kind of sexual sin that your body cannot break free from, there's a community here that wants to take that journey with you.
Fredo Ramos:If you find yourself on the way to Jesus healing from a divorce, there is a community here who wants to take that journey with you. If you find yourself on the journey of healing towards Jesus, walking towards him as you process the grief and the loss of what cancer has taken away from you and your family. There is a community here for you. You don't have to walk that journey alone. Verse 34 says that they followed Jesus with the crowd.
Fredo Ramos:Their healing, the miracle they got led to a new life, a new community. And listen, for many of you, that first step starts today by coming forward and telling us what you want Jesus to do for you.
Fredo Ramos:And so
Fredo Ramos:if you're watching online, I wanna encourage you to share in the chat with all the courage you got left. Just tell us. Type it in. What do you want Jesus to do for you today? So our prayer team could be praying for you so we can follow-up with you.
Fredo Ramos:If you're at a Sandals Church campus, your your campus pastor is gonna lead you in this moment. So I wanna invite you to come forward and declare in desperation what you want Jesus to do for you today. In so doing, we want to take a moment, if you're willing and able, to anoint you with oil, either on your head or on your hand. And we do this for a few reasons. We do this because oil in the scriptures was a sign of god's presence on your life.
Fredo Ramos:Amen. It was a sign that you had been set apart for something, god's blessing was on you. It was a sign that something was going to potentially happen, that your life was going to be marked in a different kind of way. It's also, when you think about it, a a physical sign that points to a spiritual reality. And so when we anoint you with oil, we're essentially saying that it is not our power, it is not our faith, it is not our confidence that is going to do this work, but the holy spirit at work in us.
Fredo Ramos:Amen.
Fredo Ramos:And so oil is not a way for us to get the the potion right. It's not a way for us to sell doTERRA. Right? What we're simply saying is, god, we're open to your spirit right now. And it's a sign for you to be humble, to acknowledge that healing is going to come from outside of you.
Fredo Ramos:And so you need it. And so in just a moment, we're gonna invite you to come forward in desperation. And we're gonna ask together what Jesus wants to do and what we hope him to do in our lives. And I know for some of you, this might feel like, difficult, strange. The room's too crowded.
Fredo Ramos:The music might be too loud up front. I don't know who's praying for me. Please know that they're licensed ministers. There's pastors up front, people who we trust with this church who are up front who want to spend time praying for you. And so let's go before God in prayer now and first just confess our desperation and ask that he would move.
Fredo Ramos:Let's do that together. Heavenly father, we are grateful that you gave us your son, Jesus. And Jesus, we thank you for your life. We thank you that as you pass by, we can cry out for mercy and you can give us sight today. And so, God, help us now in this moment to confess our desperation, to even confess the ways that we have allowed our our comfortable life to distract us from just how desperate we are for a touch of the divine.
Fredo Ramos:And so please, God, would you come now and would do a great work in our church? We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.