Mark chapter 10 is where we are this morning and we'll read our text in just a bit.

You know, during the COVID crisis, because many people were working from their homes, a lot of urbanites, you might say, took advantage of that and they began to move out from the cities.

 In fact, they began to buy homes in a lot of smaller cities.

They could work from anywhere, and so they began to move across the country even.

And as a result of that, I don't know if you remember, but there were a lack of available homes.

 And because so many people were moving out and trying to find new homes.

And Glenn Kelman, who is the chief executive of Redfin, he broke down some of the observations of how unusual the housing market was at that time.

And this is what he said.

He said the inventory was down 37% that year over the previous years.

The reason, again, it was down is because people weren't selling homes.

 because they could work out of their homes.

People who had been in downtown areas were trying to get out and buy homes.

And so there was a 37% low.

It was a record low historically for available homes.

 The typical home at that time sold in 17 days, which was also a record low.

And home prices went up a record amount of 24% year over year.

And that too was a record high.

And still homes sold on average for 1.7% higher than the asking price, which was also another record.

And he added this about all of that.

He said it was hard to convey how bizarre the US housing market became.

 And then he said, for example, listen to this.

A Bethesda, Maryland homebuyer was so desperate that included in her written offer was a promise that if they would accept it, she would name her firstborn child after the seller.

Actually, in the contract.

 By the way, they still rejected her offer.

But I got to thinking about this, I read that, this whole idea of desperation.

I want to talk to you about desperation that led to restoration.

And the fact is, desperation changes a person's priorities and values, doesn't it?

It changes the way they look at things and what they're willing to do.

Now, desperation can be good or bad, right?

I mean, there's a good kind of desperation, there's a bad kind of desperation.

It's bad when it causes us to believe a lie

 instead of the truth.

On July 30, 1945, the battle cruiser USS Indianapolis was returning from a mission delivering enriched uranium.

It was part of the Fat Boy bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima.

And it was returning from having delivered that enriched uranium, and it didn't make it home.

It was torpedoed by a Japanese warship on its way back.

 By the way, I don't know if you've read the book.

I read it many years ago, the USS Indianapolis.

It's a chilling and stirring book.

I think they even made a movie out of it.

But the boat was torpedoed.

It sank in 12 minutes.

300 of the 1,200 men died.

900 of those men went into the water, enduring four days and five nights without food, without water, and under the blazing sun of the Pacific.

 Of the 900 men that went into the water, only 316 of them survived.

The lack of water and sharks took them.

One of those who survived was the chief medical officer, and he recorded his own experience in his journal.

This is what he wrote later.

Quote, There was nothing I could do.

Nothing I could do but give advice, bury the dead at sea, and save the life jackets, and try to keep the men from drinking the water.

You see, when the hot sun came out,

 and we were in the crystal clear ocean.

We were so thirsty, you couldn't believe it wasn't good enough to drink.

I had a hard time convincing the men they shouldn't drink the water.

The real young ones, you take away their hope, you take away their water and food, they would drink the salt water and they would go very fast.

I can remember striking the ones who were drinking the salt water to try and stop them.

They would get dehydrated, and then they would become maniacal.

 There were mass hallucinations.

I was amazed how everyone would see the same thing.

One man would see something, and then everyone else would see it as well.

Even I fought the hallucinations off and on.

Something would bring me back, but I fought them too.

Believing a lie.

The water's good.

You can drink it.

It looks good.

You ought to be able to drink this.

I'm dehydrated.

I need this.

The lie was...

 It looks like you can drink this.

Their desperation forced many of them to do so.

And subsequently resulted in their death.

Their desperation caused them to exchange a lie for truth.

And so desperation can be bad when we believe a lie instead of the truth.

But desperation can also be very good.

It's good when it stirs our souls and motivates us to move closer to God.

Do you agree with that?

 It can be very good.

In fact, most revivals are in some way connected to a sense of our desperate need for God.

Some of you remember back in the fall we had a prayer summit here.

And many of you told me afterwards how powerful that evening was as we knelt and wept and we sought God.

Now, we've done a lot of prayer summits through the years.

And by the way, we're planning one right now to follow up.

 We've done a lot of them.

We've had good, powerful summits over the years.

But that one, that false summit, was marked with unusual power.

And I was asked, why do you think that was?

And I believe it was because there was an unusual sense of desperation.

 And as I said, we're going to do it again.

I told the head of our prayer ministry, I said, let's do a follow-up.

Because I said, you know, one of the things Christians are bad at is getting desperate and seeking God and then say, okay, we feel pretty good now about the backside of it instead of staying before God like we ought to.

 So we're going to do that again.

And at the end of the month of April, we're also going to do something here in the city.

I met with some pastors this week.

We're going to do a Pray Dothan again.

Some of you remember we all went to the Civic Center.

We're going to do that on Wednesday night.

Churches from all over this area.

And we're going to close down here and we're going to all go down there.

I hope you'll be a part of that.

But desperation gets the attention of God.

 And in the story we're about to read today, we see how one man's desperation got the attention of Jesus, and that led to his restoration.

If you're physically able to do so, why don't you stand with me as we read the story this morning.

Chapter 10, beginning of verse 46, and they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.

 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.

But he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.

Jesus stopped and said, call him.

And they called the blind man, saying to him, take heart, get up.

He is calling you.

And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up.

He came to Jesus and Jesus said to him, what do you want me to do for you?

 And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight.

And Jesus said to him, Go your way.

Your faith has made you well.

And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, that is Jesus, on the way.

Father, thank you for this story to remind us again.

In some sense, all of us are like Bartimaeus.

We're blind, and until we call out to you and cry out to you, Father, there's no hope for us.

Would you speak to us and teach us the principles and the truths and the precepts of your word this morning?

 Cause them to bring conviction, change where change and conviction are needed in our lives.

And Father, we pray that you'll teach us something new about you, about us, and about you and us together.

Speak now, Father, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you.

You can be seated.

 Now, Jesus is passing through the city of Jericho, which was at the time a major thoroughfare.

It was located between the Jordan River and Jerusalem.

And it actually was one of the world's leading commercial highways at that time.

 is highly traveled and it was perfect place for beggars to appeal to those who were headed to places like Jerusalem and in particular on this occasion they're headed to Jerusalem for the forthcoming Passover festival.

Thousands of pilgrims were passing right through the city of Jericho and so blind Bartimaeus knew that these people would be coming here and he most likely strategically placed himself along the road because he knew these pilgrims going to Jerusalem

 or are more likely to be sensitive to his needs, he understood something, and that is religious people generally are more helpful to those in need.

So he put himself in a place, in a posture, where those pilgrims headed to Jerusalem would see him and hear him and possibly bring some aid to him.

That's how he made his living.

 And possibly Bartimaeus knew that Jesus would pass that way.

And so it's obvious, I think, as I'll mention in a moment, that he certainly knew who Jesus was.

And so he sat by the roadside desperate, desperately begging and hoping for help.

Even possibly something to change his life.

So I want to show you five things from our story this morning.

First of all, I want you to notice in verse 47 the cry of the blind man.

 The cry of the blind man.

It says when he heard that it was Jesus, he began to cry out.

Because of the way that verse reads, there is no doubt in my mind that Bartimaeus knew about Jesus.

 There's no doubt when Jesus is coming by, he begins to cry out.

The implication is he wasn't until he heard that Jesus was coming by, which indicated that he knew about Jesus.

Jesus' reputation had certainly spread.

And he believed that Jesus could do more for him than simply give bread or money.

You notice when Jesus asked him the question, what do you want me to do for you?

He didn't say, well, you know, a month's salary would be mighty good.

 He didn't say, you know what, if you could put a 401k up for me, that'd be mighty good.

I wouldn't have to do this anymore.

No, what he said is, I need to see.

A remarkable statement because anybody else that said, what do you need?

He would have said, I just needed some money.

But Jesus, he knew about Jesus.

He understood who Jesus was.

Bartimaeus believed that Jesus could change his life.

Let me just say this to you.

When you get desperate, desperation changes your expectations.

 Desperation changes what you expect.

He expected just some pittance from people passing by, but when Jesus came by, he expected something altogether different.

Bartimaeus' cry was an expression of a couple of things.

Number one, it was an expression of his faith, his desperate kind of faith.

 He had never seen Jesus, obviously, but he had heard about Jesus and he believed the reports about Jesus, even though he had not previously met or seen Jesus.

The Bible says that we are to be a lot like Bartimaeus in that we are to walk by faith and not by sight.

 You see, it's easy for us to look at Barnabas and say, well, there's no way he could walk by sight.

Of course not.

Which meant his faith had to be all the more powerful.

And which reminds us, as the Bible says repeatedly, that we live by our faith.

We don't live by the physical sight, our physical eyes.

In fact, a lot of times you and I know that we get ourselves in trouble when we trust what we see over what our faith tells us.

 And so we walk by faith.

We don't walk by sight.

Listen, it's more important to trust God whom you do not see with physical sight than it is to see God with physical eyes and not trust him.

 Remember Thomas?

You remember Thomas and the resurrected Christ?

You remember the story, you know, after Jesus had been resurrected and the disciples come to Thomas.

It says, so the other disciples told him, we've seen the Lord.

But he said to them, unless I see the hands, see his hands and the marks of the nails and place my finger into the marks of the nails and place my hand to his side, I'll never believe.

And then Jesus said to Thomas, put your finger in here.

See my hands.

And put out your hand and place it in my side.

 Do not disbelieve, but believe, Thomas.

And Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God.

And Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me?

Thomas, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

This is the pattern Jesus asked for, is that we believe without seeing, that he doesn't have to continually prove himself to us that we believe.

 You know, the Pharisees would try to trick Jesus from time to time.

And it was interesting because on several occasions in the Scripture, in the Gospels in particular, they asked for a sign.

Show us a sign that we might believe.

And the word sign there in the Greek is a word that means an attesting miracle.

In other words, prove yourself.

Give us a miracle that causes us to believe.

And you know what Jesus said to them?

He said, look, to him that seeks a sign, no sign will be given.

 Except for the sign of Jonah.

You know what the sign of Jonah was?

The resurrection.

It was the resurrection.

We'll celebrate the resurrection real soon here in the next few weeks.

But Jesus said to them, you need a sign to believe.

But I say, blessed is he who believes without needing a sign.

He just believes because of the word that's been distributed.

The word that has come to him.

And that was the case with Bartimaeus.

 I want to ask you this morning, are you in a desperate place right now?

You may be.

A lot of people may not even know about that.

You may be watching us on television or live streaming.

You say, man, I'm in a desperate place right now.

Well, it may be that God has you there for a reason.

He's got you there to cultivate your trust and faith without sight.

And He's trying to develop that.

He's trying to get you to say, I believe even though I don't see.

 It was an expression of desperate faith on the part of Bartimaeus, but it was also an expression of desperate need.

Listen, Bartimaeus, he acknowledged his need.

He acknowledged his helplessness, and he publicly confessed a need that only Christ could take care of.

He understood that he had this desperate need.

Nobody had been able to resolve that, but he believed Jesus could.

 And difficult places are a perfect place for us to humble ourselves and for us to confess that our only hope is in Christ Jesus.

Our only hope is in Him.

This was an expression of desperate faith, but it was also an expression of desperate need.

And that leads to the second thing that I want you to see this morning, and that is the crowd's rebuke.

Look at verse 48.

So he begins to cry out.

He hears.

Somebody said, Jesus, there's Jesus.

Jesus is coming.

He begins to cry out.

 And the next thing you know, when he begins to cry out, he is rebuked.

Look at verse 48.

And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.

But he cried out all the more.

I love that part.

You know, some things never change.

I got to preparing this message.

I thought, some things just never change.

You know, it's no different today.

2,000 years down the road, here we are.

And it's no different today.

The more you pursue Jesus, the more people around you will try to silence you.

 Would you agree with that statement?

The more excited you get about Jesus, the more people around you will try to tone you down.

Settle down.

Calm down.

Don't get so excited about Jesus.

I had a family member years ago or a relative who told my mom that you need to watch Ray.

I was a teenager.

I loved Jesus.

And she said, you need to watch Ray.

He's going to become a religious fanatic.

 Because I want to talk about Jesus.

I want to talk about Jesus around my family.

I want to talk about Jesus.

I want to study my Bible and read my Bible.

I want to go to church.

I want to do all those things that a sane follower of Jesus wants to do.

But guess what?

It looks so abnormal to this family member, she thought I'd lost my mind.

And she was right about something.

I did become a fanatic.

Amen.

 And I still am all these years later.

I'm still a fanatic.

But I want to tell you something.

The more you pursue Jesus, the more you will find people around you, sometimes even those close to you, who will not understand.

They'll try to say, now, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Settle down.

Calm down.

The devil and the crowd will always tell you lies.

They'll tell you lies because they want to shut you up.

 What kind of lies will they tell you?

Well, let me give you a few.

The devil will whisper in your heart, don't bother Jesus.

Jesus has more important things to do.

Have you ever heard that one?

My stuff, Jesus, that's a little, you know.

Don't bother Jesus.

He's got more important stuff to do than your little problem.

I don't believe that.

 I stopped at Crispy Cream Donut to bring a dozen donuts into the office the other morning.

The parking lot was full.

I believe Jesus cares.

I prayed, Jesus, if you want me to take those donuts into the office for the secretaries and the staff and all those people that serve the kingdom.

 would you open a parking place right there in the front?

And I drove around the building seven times and finally there was a parking place.

I'm teasing, of course.

But, you know, the fact is we sometimes believe that lie that God's got more important things to do than to hear you or respond to you or whatever.

As if God can't multitask.

I can only do one thing at a time.

 I'm sorry everybody else, I'm getting donuts for the preacher.

Another lie that the devil will tell us is that you're not important enough for Jesus' touch.

That you're just not as important enough.

Others need him more than you do.

Maybe later on Jesus will move you up the priority list, but not right now.

 Now listen to me.

Jesus, just like he can multitask, Jesus is not restricted in his reach.

Jesus is not limited in his scope.

He's not limited in his capabilities and he's not limited in his scope.

The devil will also tell you this lie.

Jesus can't hear you among the noise of the world.

Now, Bartimaeus was sitting in a crowd.

I mean, there was, look, thousands of people passed this way.

 And I don't know how many were there, but it was a bunch because there was a lot of noise.

There was a lot of racket going on.

There was a lot of voices going on.

And the devil will tell you, Jesus can't hear you among the noise that you're living in.

But listen to what Isaiah the prophet said.

He said, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is his ear dull that he cannot hear.

 Never worry about what the crowd says or the noise of the world around you.

When you call out to Jesus, you can understand something.

Jesus can hear you.

And then sometimes he'll tell us a lie like this.

Jesus can't find you where you are.

He can't locate you where you are.

It's a lie.

It's a lie.

 Have you ever heard of GPS?

Y'all use GPS.

Isn't that a wonderful thing?

Now you just type in where you need to go and it'll tell you where you need to go.

What a wonderful thing, you know?

But did you know that God has a system similar?

It's not global positioning satellite.

It's God's positioning sense.

God knows where you are.

Listen how the psalmist put it.

 Where shall I go from your spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

The psalmist said, you're everywhere.

There's no place that you can be that God doesn't know.

And that his presence cannot go.

So the devil will tell you, Jesus can't find you.

 The devil will tell you that Jesus can't hear you among the noise of the world.

The devil will tell you you're just not important enough for Jesus to touch.

Others are more important.

The devil will tell you don't bother Jesus right now.

All of that is lies.

And it's all designed to shut you up or shut you down or undermine your faith.

It's lies.

Bartimaeus didn't believe them.

 And neither should you and neither should I. Instead, Bartimaeus taught us a couple of things.

He teaches us first to have an unwavering persistence to experience God.

I love this.

They said, be quiet, calm down, settle down.

He cried out all the more.

And the Greek word there means it's like a raven.

They tried to shut him down.

He said, no, you're not shutting me down.

I may never have this opportunity again.

 So I'm not shutting up for you.

And he teaches to have this unwavering persistence.

He cried out all the more.

I thought about it.

I referenced it last week.

I'm studying the life of Moses again.

I'm just having a wonderful time.

 I'm studying the life.

I may preach a series when I finish this one up in about six or seven years.

I may preach a series on Moses.

Man, it's just some good stuff.

But I referenced last week, you remember Exodus 33?

And we talked about our staff.

I've been practicing on them before I practice on you.

 And we're talking about Moses.

I was talking about Moses, Exodus 33.

You know, I told you last week about the cleft of the rock and everything.

But do you know before Moses was put in the cleft of the rock, when he made the statement, God, let me see you that I might know you.

Do you know what God's first answer was?

His first answer was, now Moses, you go back down and lead the people and I will go with you.

But see, that wasn't what Moses asked.

 But God said, now Moses, go back down and I'll be with you.

And Moses has this response in verse 15 of Exodus 33.

He says, basically, he said, God, if you're not going with me, I'm not going anywhere.

 That's not what I'm asking.

I'm not going to lead them.

I expect you to lead me.

I expect you to give me what I need to lead them.

But I'm not leaving your presence while I have this opportunity.

Well, Bartimaeus said he cried out all the more, unwavering, persistent.

And he was unintimidated by the crowd.

 They rebuked him.

The Greek word there means a stern reprimand.

Be quiet.

I mean it's stern.

Harsh even.

 But he cried out all the more.

He was unintimidated by the crowd.

He refused to let the crowd determine his approach to Jesus.

Listen, church.

Maybe the most important statement I could leave with you today is don't be intimidated by the world.

Don't let the world determine your approach to Jesus.

He was blind.

And he didn't care what the people thought.

He was tired of his blindness.

 And he knew Jesus could change that, not the crowd.

And in a similar way, there are a lot of Christians, I believe, that are living their Christian lives like they are blind because they have let the crowd or the world tell them how they ought to live and what they ought to believe.

And they've done it blindly.

I read this week about a 12-year-old girl in New York City

 And she's being held for bravery in a recent argument with a male classmate that almost turned violent.

Here's what happened.

The boy asked for one of her McDonald's chicken nuggets, and she refused.

And the police report says that after being denied once, the boy then followed this little 12-year-old girl into a nearby subway station, pulled out a gun, and pointed the gun at her head.

 Because he wanted a chicken nugget, McNugget or whatever they are.

Incredibly, listen to this, you're going to love this.

The reports say that the 12-year-old girl turned and slapped the boy's hand out of the way and told him to leave her alone, went off for the rest of her day.

Police found the boy and charged him for juvenile attempted robbery.

 And the chicken nugget loving little girl has since become an internet sensation.

She wasn't going to be bullied by that boy.

She's braver than me.

But she wasn't giving up those nuggets.

It's like a bunch of Baptists on Sunday after church.

Listen to me.

If you're tired of living like a spiritual blind person, stop being intimidated by the crowd.

 Stand up to the Christian bullies of the age.

And there are plenty of them out there.

Stop letting the world tell you how to behave.

Listen, church.

We let people that don't know our God tell us how we're supposed to behave toward our God.

We don't need to do that.

Be unintimidated.

Like this man.

Cry out all the louder.

Say, you think that was something.

 We should persist with the desperation to experience God in the place of our need.

Don't shut up.

Don't be intimidated by those who do not know God.

And then third, I want you to notice this from our text.

I want you to see the call from Jesus.

Verse 49 says, and Jesus stopped and he said, call him.

 Imagine with all the crowd clamoring about and probably many people trying to get to Jesus as well.

And all the distractions that came with all of that, Jesus still heard Bartimaeus over all of it.

And there's one key thing that I want to point out from this statement.

When Jesus stopped and said, call him.

Listen, here's what I want you to get.

Desperation gets the attention of Jesus.

 Desperation gets the attention of Jesus.

What does it teach us?

Well, several things.

Write these down.

I'm going to go real slow for you.

Well, maybe.

All right, are you ready?

Since desperation gets Jesus' attention, listen.

To get a call from Jesus, you've got to make a call to Jesus.

To get a call from Jesus, you've got to make a call to Jesus.

 Jeremiah 29, verse 13 and 14 say, You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

I will be found by you, declares the Lord.

So to get a call from Jesus, you've got to make a call to Jesus.

Number two, don't stop calling until Jesus answers.

Don't stop calling until Jesus answers.

Remember,

 He hears you through all the noise.

So keep calling until he answers.

Number three.

When Jesus calls to you, put aside anything that hinders you from responding.

When Jesus calls to you, put aside anything that hinders you from responding.

Look at verse 50.

So Jesus called to him.

 And they said, hey, he called you.

Take heart.

Get up.

He's calling you.

And look at verse 50.

And throwing off his cloak.

Now, what does that represent?

Well, the cloak was probably the most valuable thing, by the way, that he owned.

It was a very heavy garment.

And he threw it off to go to Jesus.

What was he doing?

He...

 He was saying, I don't want anything to keep me from getting there.

And those cloaks were heavy, and you could actually get tangled up.

The writer of Hebrews even talks about that when he says, let us lay aside the sand that so easily entangles us.

He's talking about a runner wearing a garment that could trip them up.

The same idea is here.

This man said, look, I'm getting out of this cloak.

It's too big and bulky.

I don't want anything to keep me from getting to Jesus.

When Jesus calls, you put aside anything that hinders you from responding.

 And then number four, when Jesus calls, respond immediately.

Did you see what else it says after he threw his cloak off?

It says he sprang up.

He sprang up.

When Jesus calls, respond immediately.

Don't say, okay, he's called me.

Jesus, could we meet later on for a meal?

Jesus, tomorrow would be better.

 I'll have time to clean myself up a little bit.

When he calls, you respond immediately.

I firmly believe there are a lot of Christians that are outside the will of God, not because they didn't hear it, but because they didn't do it when Jesus told them to do it.

They didn't obey his voice.

And Bartimaeus sprang up immediately, and I'm sure he was excited too.

He was about to get his sight, or he assumed Jesus was going to do something for him that no one else had done for him.

 But those four things, listen, those four things we learn from this story of Bartimaeus.

That when Jesus called, he responded.

Jesus called because he had called out to Jesus.

Don't stop calling and act.

Number four on your outline.

Number four.

 The cure of faith.

Look at verse 52.

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

I said it under the first point, but let me say it again.

The man's desperation manifested his faith in the person and the power of Jesus.

Now watch this.

Think of it like this.

The man's desperation manifested his faith, right?

You got that?

The man's faith in Jesus then manifested the power of Jesus in his life.

 The man's desperation manifested his faith.

The man's faith then in turn in Jesus manifested the power of Jesus for his life.

And then the power of Jesus manifested in the man's life resulted in the restoration of his sight.

 You see the sequence there?

It starts with desperation.

Desperation manifested.

His faith was placed in the power of Jesus.

That power of Jesus was then manifested in his life.

And as it was manifested in his life, guess what?

He had his sight restored.

Now I want you to notice what I think is a very important principle in this whole passage.

And that is the principle of asking specifically.

Right?

 He asked specifically.

Sometimes our prayers are vague in their request.

Would you agree with that?

We just kind of pray this generic prayer.

I think there's a place for a broad kind of prayer.

But I always think it's better if you can to pray specifically.

You see, prayers that are vague are hard to identify when God answers, aren't they?

Jesus didn't ask him, what do you want me to do for you because Jesus didn't know.

 So don't believe when you read that and say, well, Jesus didn't know what the man wanted.

Jesus knew what this man needed.

Now watch this.

I want to show you something.

Why is Jesus asking that question if he already knew?

You say, well, he wanted Barnabas to, I mean, Bartimaeus to understand what he needed.

Well, there's probably some of that.

But really he asked it because he wanted Bartimaeus to declare, listen, precisely his need.

Now, are y'all listening?

 He wanted him to declare precisely his need so that there would be no ambiguity with the crowd or even Bartimaeus when Jesus answered.

It's a reminder to pray specifically.

 In 1 John, John writes and says, and this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him.

Listen, praying specifically means we get to see specific answers.

 Now, sometimes every once in a while, well, this happens frequently, but God will put some of you on my heart.

And I don't know where it comes from, except for God.

God will just put you on my heart.

So years ago, I learned that when God puts one of you on my heart, that I just ought to pray for you.

And so it's hard to pray for somebody, though, when they come to your heart and you think, well...

 I don't know how to pray.

And if you're not careful, you just pray some vague prayer, Lord.

I mean, look, it's always safe to pray, God, would you bless them today?

That's always safe.

But years ago, I started to say, God, I want to be more effective and more specific when I pray.

When you put somebody on my heart, one of my sheep.

So the Lord taught me something.

And that is, before I pray for that person, I ask God...

 to show me what he wants me to pray for them.

So now I start by saying, okay, God, what do you want me to pray for Chuck?

And it is amazing when you ask God and you start there and just wait a second and let God, suddenly something will come into your heart to pray for that person.

You say, well, I don't know if that's anything they need prayed for.

If God put them on your heart and then you ask him to show you what to pray for, that's what you pray for.

 Okay?

Leave the rest of this up to him, okay?

And you don't even have to dial him up on the phone and say, hey, by the way, but I'll tell you what has been amazing, how many times within just a day or so, I have an unexpected contact with that person.

And then that's when you go, you know what, God put you on my heart.

Now, don't say, God put you on my heart, but I didn't pray for you.

Okay?

 I should have prayed for you.

He put you on my heart.

I ain't seen you in six months.

God put you on my heart.

Listen, so when God puts up, pray specifically, as specific as you can.

And you say, I got nothing, Pastor.

I got nothing.

Then say, God, pour out a blessing on them today.

You're always safe there.

I assume you want a blessing on your life, right?

So you're always safe there.

 People ask me, what can I pray for you about?

I always pray for the anointing of God on me.

That's the first thing, pray for the anointing of God on me.

And so ask God, what do you want me to pray for them?

Listen, praying specifically means we can see the specific answers.

Now, when we pray specifically, here's what happens.

We are able to identify the specific answer, right?

 So if you pray specifically, then you can see when God answers specifically.

When you pray specifically, then we can also praise God specifically.

Right?

Because you saw the specific answer, so you can praise Him for that.

And then we can testify specifically.

Specifically.

 Right?

We can say, well, God's answered a bunch of prayers.

No, we say, let me tell you about an answer to a prayer.

And so you testify specifically, not just like, well, you know, God's answered a bunch of prayers.

You see the power and the importance of praying specifically.

 So this is why Jesus asked Bartimaeus, what do you want me to do for you?

So Bartimaeus said, I want to receive my sight.

So when God gave him his sight, he could say, what did you ask for?

I asked for my sight.

Jesus gave me his sight.

There's no ambiguity.

Well, I just asked God to do something good in my life.

I've just been so rough.

You know?

Specific.

Desperation.

Prayer.

 by the way, and faith are catalysts to the work of God.

Here's the last thing and I'm done.

Last, I want you to see the commitment of the healed.

Commitment of the healed.

 He says in verse 52, look there if you will.

He tells him, he says, to go your way because your faith has made you well.

And immediately he recovered his sight and he followed him on the way.

He followed who?

He followed Jesus on the way.

And when he got his sight, he had a new commitment.

He didn't just have his sight.

He didn't just have his physical sight.

He had spiritual sight as well.

 And Bartimaeus' response was to immediately follow Jesus in this new way.

That is the way of God when it says he followed him on the way.

This is the new way that Jesus had introduced that was different from the old covenant.

And so it says that he immediately followed Jesus on the way.

I want to close by, I want to show you something interesting.

 that I discovered while studying this passage.

I've preached this passage, you know, in four decades.

You preach a lot of times.

I've preached this passage several times, but I saw something.

I love God's Word.

I mean, every time I study a passage that I've preached, and I'm going to preach it again, He shows me some new stuff.

He showed me something new.

Maybe you're smarter, and you got it a lot sooner than I did, but it was an epiphany to me.

The statement when He says, Your faith has made you well...

 It's from the Greek word SESO.

S-E-S-O.

And you don't have to write that down.

That word just means to be healed.

To be healed.

So your faith has made you well.

Your faith has healed you.

And listen to this.

Here's the remarkable thing that I discovered.

It carries with it the connotation of being saved.

 Now hang on, watch.

So what Mark is most likely doing here is using this word on purpose because he has an intended double meaning.

And that double meaning is that the man was healed physically and also saved spiritually.

And we can imply that because of what the word means, but also because of the statement that says, and he followed him.

 Listen, when Jesus touches us, he wants our soul healed more than anything else.

Now, he may bring some kind of physical health to you, so we pray for that.

We pray specifically sometimes for that.

But he may not according to his will for your life.

But listen to this, but all of his saints will eventually get a new body anyway.

That's the ultimate healing, right?

 I did a memorial service here, a home going for one of our members on Thursday, and I talked about that very thing, that the outer man's decaying, but the inner man can stay strong.

The outer man's decaying, but thank God we will eventually all get a new body, right?

We may not all be healed in this life.

Sometimes he does, and sometimes specifically, and sometimes he heals in eternity.

That is, he gives us a new body.

That's the ultimate healing.

 Jesus is far more concerned with the health of your eternal soul.

But like Bartimaeus, we have to cry out.

And that's why the Bible says, and you've heard me say it so many times here, I love to use it at the invitation time, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

 Whosoever.

Now he may heal you physically.

And I've seen it.

And we've prayed for it.

And all of those kinds of things.

And I love that.

But he's going to eventually heal you if your soul is healed.

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Not might be.

Not could be.

But will be.

So I ask you.

Has your soul been healed?

Like Bartimaeus said.

 Have you decided to follow Jesus on the way?

If not, why not?

How desperate are you for Jesus to touch down in your life?

Because desperation leads to restoration.

 Father, we thank you for that truth.

And we thank you that it's demonstrated by your touch of healing.

Health, physical health, spiritual health, all of those things.

And God, we need them all.

Father, I pray for any this morning that their soul has not been touched.

That, Father, today they would cry out to you just like Bartimaeus said, Oh, Lord, touch me.

I want to receive my sight.

 I want my spiritual sight.

Lord, would you hear our prayers?

There are those, Father, who have wandered off of the way.

Father, stop this morning and call them back.

And cause them to walk anew on the way.

Speak to us before we're gone in these moments of closing.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Would you stand for our invitation?

I'll be here at the front.

Staff will be on the sides.

 I want to encourage you to slip out from where you're seated, make your way down here to one of us, and maybe you say, I need to call on Christ.

I need Christ as my Savior.

We'll help you with that.

Maybe you're here this morning.

You say, I'm looking for a church family to belong to.

We'd love to have you at Ridgecrest.

Just come and tell one of us, I'd like to become a part of Ridgecrest.

You can use that worship folder.

There's a tear-off panel in there.

You can take that and make your decision.

Stop by the Welcome Center.

We have staff that will be there.

 But I'd love to invite you to come publicly.

Maybe you need to be baptized.

We won't do that today, but we'll schedule a time for that for you just as an act of obedience to God because He's commanded it.

Maybe you want to just come and pray around this altar.

Use it.

Take advantage of it.

Call on God.

Listen, remember what I said.

To receive a call from Jesus, you have to offer a call to Jesus.

 And maybe that's what you need to do.

Maybe you need to come and kneel before Him.

Maybe you're praying for someone.

Maybe there's something that you're praying about, specifically praying about.

You want to come and lay it at the altar before Him, whatever it may be.

As we sing, as our team leads us, you slip out.

We're here to receive you.

Come on, balcony and ground floor.

 Well, I'm so glad that you have tuned in to the broadcast today.

I hope you've been encouraged by God's Word.

It sure has been a joy to share it with you.

And even now, people at Ridgecrest are making decisions for Christ.

Perhaps as you've watched this broadcast, you've recognized the need for your own decision for Christ.

 The prompting of the Spirit has caused you to recognize that you need Christ as your Savior.

And the good news is you can receive Him right where you are.

The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Right where you are, you can call on Him.

Say something like this from your heart to Him.

Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me.

I know I'm a sinner.

 And I know that you came into this world and died on the cross for my sins.

And right now, I invite you to come into my life.

Forgive me and be my savior.

I can assure you, if you'll call on him, based on what God has already told us in the Bible, that he'll hear that prayer and he'll answer that.

And he wants to begin this new journey in your life with you, transforming you into his image.

 we'd love to help you with that decision as well.

You'll see a QR code on your screen, and if you would scan that, or you'll see contact information, or if you'll contact us about your decision today, we'd love to help you take next steps.

There are no strings attached, no fees involved.

We'd just like to help you begin that journey with Christ.

You may be watching this broadcast today and say, I need a church family to belong to.

I already know Christ as my Savior, and I'd like to be a part of the Ridgecrest family.

 Also, if you will, scan that QR code.

That'll take you to a location and we'll be able to help you make those kinds of decisions like becoming a member here or if you've never been scripturally baptized, those kinds of things.

So contact us through that QR code or through the contact information on the screen.

Well, again, it's been a joy to have you with us today and I hope you've been encouraged by God's word.

Whatever decision we can help you with, by all means, contact us.

May the Lord bless you.