Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus

6 · Provides historical and geographical background on Jericho—the oldest inhabited city, lowest elevation, an oasis rebuilt by the Herodians, and positioned on the road to Jerusalem—establishing the physical setting for the encounter

So let's take a look. Mark chapter 10, verse 46. I'm gonna go through this like verse by verse or little section at a time as we move through here. So let's look at the first couple of verses starting in verse 46. And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho, with his disciples and a great crowd. So let's just stop right there. So Jericho, very interesting town. It's the oldest existing inhabited town on the face of the earth today. The history of Jericho goes back 4,000 or 5,000 years or more. It's actually the lowest point geographically where people live on the face of the earth. 824 feet below sea level. It's in an oasis. It's a very fertile area. At the time that Jesus was alive walking on the face of the earth, the Herodians had rebuilt Jericho. So it was a beautiful town. It was flourishing. So this is the town. It's on the road to Jerusalem.

7 · Explains the composition and mood of the crowd around Jesus—pilgrims heading to Passover, followers of the rabbi, and people who recognized Jesus as a special prophet, all creating an atmosphere of excitement and expectation

In Luke chapter 9, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. And so he was on his way to Jerusalem knowing what laid ahead for him. So as we read this, he is coming to Jericho, and then he's coming out of Jericho. And the verse here says that there's a great crowd following Jesus. Well, this was probably 2 weeks, more or less, before the annual Passover feast, and Jews from all over the country were making their way to Jerusalem. Jerusalem. So not only was there this large crowd around Jesus, but there are other people coming along the road to Jericho, making their way to Jerusalem. It was very common in that day for rabbis to have their guys that follow them travel with them on the road. So it was not uncommon for someone like Jesus to have a group following him. However, Jesus was not just your everyday rabbi. Rabbi. He was someone special. He had been ministering now for 3 years. Word about him had spread. People knew that something special was going on. There was a teacher. There was a prophet sent from the Lord that was different than others. So people were gathering to him. So this crowd around Jesus was excited. They were looking forward to being with him. So that's the crowd that we read about right here.

8 · Introduces Bartimaeus by explaining why Mark names him (unlike Matthew), defines his name, and describes his desperate daily existence as a blind beggar sitting outside the city gates—a forgotten, overlooked person completely dependent on others' charity

So let's continue on. And they came to Jericho. He was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd. Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. So here is this man named Bartimaeus. In Matthew's account of this, Matthew doesn't name Bartimaeus. In fact, he says there were two beggars that were sitting by the roadside. But Mark picks out this one beggar and gives us his name, Bartimaeus. Church history says that perhaps Mark does this because Bartimaeus has a special meeting with the Lord and something that we'll talk about a little bit later in the message as far as what happens to Bartimaeus afterwards. But Mark, in conjunction with the Apostle Peter, who collaborated with Mark on this Gospel, names this man Bartimaeus. Bar meaning son of, Timaeus is his father. Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus. We know that about him. We know that he's blind. We know that he's poor. He can't work because he's blind. So what does he do for a living? He begs. He wakes up early every morning. Someone leads him out, outside the city gates. He spreads his cloak. Cloak out and people toss coins at him. That's his life. Imagine that. He's a forgotten, overlooked individual.

9 · Traces the title 'Son of David' back to the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7 where God promised David an eternal kingdom through his offspring, explaining that for 1,000 years Jewish families taught their children to look for this Messiah, and Bartimaeus recognized Jesus as that promised Son of David

It's not a natural thing to equate Jesus, it's natural for us, But it's not a natural thing to equate Jesus with Son of David. Jesus is who Jesus was. That was his name. He was from Nazareth. But there were a lot of prophets. There might have been Simeon from Bethany. There might have been Judah from another town. This was Jesus of Nazareth. But Bartimaeus knew something. We don't know when he knew it, but in his heart he was believing that Jesus was the Son of David. Who is the Son of David? Let's look at 2 Samuel chapter 7 and see where this term Son of David originated. What does that mean, Son of David? It's one of the terms for Jesus. It's one of the terms for the Messiah. 2 Samuel chapter 7. This is the covenant that the Lord made with King David. Verse 11, moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make I will build you a house, talking to David, a house of generations. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, when you die, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. So this part of the prophecy took place with David's son Solomon, who rose up after David and built a temple. For the Lord in Jerusalem. He shall build a house for my name, which Solomon did. But listen to the rest of this: and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. So that part of the prophecy changed the nature of the prophecy. It wasn't just what God was going to do through Solomon. Something was going to happen where David's throne would be established forever. Verse 14: I will be to him a father. And to him, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, so this is talking about Solomon, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And then look at verse 16. So all that was about Solomon, but look at 16. And your house talking to David, and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words, in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. So the Lord, through Nathan, is prophesying to David that he— that through his line, he is going to establish not only a kingdom in Israel, but a kingdom that will last forever. So generation after generation after generation after generation— this was spoken 1,000 years before Jesus was born— but each generation, each generation of Jewish young people were looking forward to the Messiah, to this person who would establish his kingdom forever. That word forever meant that this was not going to be just an earthly king, but a godly king, the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. So generation after generation, Jewish young people around their home, as they would study the Word, they would talk about the Messiah who would be coming. And one of the names for the Messiah came to be Son of David. Bartimaeus knew that.

10 · Shows that when Jesus healed a demon-oppressed blind man, the crowd's response was to question whether he could be the Son of David, demonstrating that healing miracles prompted messianic speculation and anticipation

Take a look at A couple more scriptures. Matthew 12, a couple more places where this term is used, this title. Matthew 12:22, then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and Jesus healed him so that the man spoke and saw. And all the people were amazed and said— look what they asked— can this be the Son of David? Could this be the Messiah? This person Jesus is healing people. Could it be the Son of David? The anticipation. Could this be the Son of David?

11 · Parallels the Canaanite woman's cry for mercy to Bartimaeus's plea, emphasizing that even a Gentile recognized Jesus as Lord and Son of David, demonstrating that messianic faith was not limited to Jews and that both desperate outcasts cried out the same way

Look at Matthew 15. Here's a Canaanite woman, a Gentile, not even a Jewish person. But listen to what she says. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew from the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying. Very similar to what Bartimaeus cried. 'Have mercy on me, O Lord.' O Lord, recognizing that Jesus was God. O Lord, Son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. Jesus delivers that little girl from this demon. And she is saved. She is saved from this terrible oppression. But even this Canaanite woman somehow knew that Jesus must be the Son of David, the Messiah. So that's what Bartimaeus— that's in Bartimaeus's heart.

12 · Narrates the crowd's opposition to Bartimaeus, his persistence in crying out despite rebuke, Jesus stopping and calling him, the crowd's sudden reversal to encouragement, and Bartimaeus casting off his cloak and leaping toward Jesus

People have told him it's Jesus of Nazareth. He cries out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! The crowd says, be quiet, you're a nobody. Be quiet, don't bother him. But Bartimaeus wouldn't be silenced. He cries out again, Jesus, 'Son of David, have mercy on me.' Now let's look at the next verses. Verse 49, 'And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying to him—' So now the crowd changes its tune a bit. They're not saying, 'Be quiet.' Jesus had said, 'Call him.' So now the crowd changes and says, 'Take heart,' to Bartimaeus. 'Get up. He is calling you.' And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

13 · Applies the crowd's fickleness to contemporary life, warning against following popular opinion and urging wholehearted commitment to Jesus regardless of what the crowd thinks or does

I mean, just a word of advice: don't follow the crowd. One day the crowd's for you, the next day the crowd's against you. Know what you believe in your heart about Jesus and follow him wholeheartedly. Don't follow the crowd at work. Don't follow your friends unless they're following Jesus. Don't follow the crowd. The crowd's a fickle thing. But thankfully, this crowd turned from discouraging Bartimaeus to encouraging him. Take heart, Bartimaeus. He's calling you.

14 · Explores the interior drama of Jesus's journey—the excited crowd expecting political deliverance, the enemies plotting, and Jesus himself carrying the weight of knowing he was walking toward rejection and death—and then emphasizes the stunning fact that in the midst of all this, Jesus stopped for one forgotten beggar

When Ricky asked me to speak on this passage, I read through it the first time, and this is the passage. These are the words. Jumped out at me. Jesus stopped. I mean, think about this. Jesus had set his heart to go to Jerusalem. He's surrounded by this crowd. One commentator said the crowd was like an ovation. They were probably calling out, "Hallelujah!" We know that when they got to Jerusalem, they were crying out, "Hosanna!" That's when they put down the palm trees, and it was a festival of entrance for the Messiah to come. They thought Jesus was gonna overcome the Romans, set up his kingdom, this kingdom that we read about in 2 Samuel. But that wasn't his plan. He was going to Jerusalem to die. So this crowd was filled with excited people. We also know there were people that were enemies of Jesus. The Pharisees had been plotting to take him, to capture him, to take him away. So this crowd was a mix of people. Jesus was in the middle of it. What was going through Jesus's mind? I'm sure there was a sense of anticipation, but we know there was also a sense of deep sorrow. When Jesus got to Jerusalem, he wept over the city. He knew that this city, his people, would be rejecting him. He knew that betrayal, arrest, torture, and a terrible death awaited him. So there had to be a sadness in his heart. As he's marching on this road, as he's walking towards Jerusalem. And as he's walking, he hears from someplace in the distance, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus stops. The Savior stopped and turned.

15 · Extended personal testimony of the preacher's conversion at age 18, describing years of playing church, partying, and planning to get serious about God at age 30, until the Holy Spirit confronted him through Matthew 24-25 one night, convicting him that if he died that night he would go to hell, resulting in immediate repentance and radical conversion

Let me ask you, do you remember when Jesus stopped for for you individually? When he stopped and turned his attention, his affection on you and called you? I remember. I was 18. If you're like between 16 and 25, could you stand up? If you're in that age group, 16 to 25, just, or you know, 15 or 12. You know, if you're between 10 and 25, stand up. More? So, okay, so I was where you're at right now. So I want you all, I want everyone in here to look at this crowd that's standing. Statistics show that the decisions you make where you are at in your life now will affect you for the rest of your life. Thank you for standing. You can sit down. So I was your age. I was 18. I was playing church. I had been in church every Sunday of my life, just about. My parents had us memorized Bible verses every morning before we went to school from the time we were like 5 years old. We had family devotions every night. We were in church Wednesday night, Sunday morning, Sunday evening. Whenever there was something going on at church, we were there. And I was really good at playing church because I didn't want to get in trouble with my folks. So I did everything I was supposed to do, Billy Graham came to El Paso when I was like 12 or 13, someplace in that time period. He had a crusade out here at Kidd Field. The Sun Bowl hadn't been built yet. His crusade was at Kidd Field, which is now the track arena for UTEP. I can remember on my own going forward and giving my heart to the Lord, but I wasn't converted. It didn't change. I mean, the Spirit was moving in my heart. No one made me go forward. I went forward. I knew I was a sinner. There was another time at a camp meeting outside of Fort Davis where one of Billy Graham's associates was preaching, and I went forward there as well. I was probably 14 or 15 years old. Lord was moving on my heart, but it didn't change me. When I got to high school, I partied a lot. So I was going— but I was still playing the game. I was still going to church on Sunday. I was getting involved in stuff. At church, but I was also involved in all kinds of stuff on the other days of the week. Two separate lives. In my heart, my mom was really big on Bible prophecy, so she taught us about the Second Coming. She taught us about the Rapture. She taught us about the Tribulation. I believed all that. In my heart I was saying, "Lord, when I get old, I'm going to when I get about 30— this is really what I was saying in my heart. I said, when I get old, then I'll get serious, but I'm having too much fun now. And so I continued to party and just live for myself, knowing the whole time that I was living two lives. But in my mind, I I knew that when I got to be 30 that I would get serious about God because I believed it all. I believed everything I'd been taught. Judy and I met when we were 17 or 18 at Burgess, and Judy started going to church with me. Her family was going to another church. She started going to church with me, so she started playing the same game. So she'd come to church and play the church game, and then during the week we'd do whatever we were doing with our friends. We drank a lot. We fought a lot. Our crowd fought a lot. I wasn't much of a fighter. I was more of a peacemaker. But my crowd, that's what we did. We fought and we drank. We fought with kids from Eastwood. Judy and I went to Burgess, the high school that all of you wish you went to. But that was our scene. A year after we graduated— we graduated in 1970, and drinking was the main thing. A year later, everybody was smoking dope. Changed in one year. But what we did is we drank and we fought. Judy and I were playing the game so well that a pastor from a little church in the Valley Brother Rosales, he was going to have an outdoor evangelistic crusade. And he asked— Judy and I were going down to First Baptist, and he came to First Baptist and he recruited some of the youth to help him in an outdoor crusade. So he recruited us, and I don't remember what we did. We like led worship or something. We were just part of the team. After the service, he had invited some guys from a Baptist Bible school to come in and preach. So these young guys preached, and then afterwards we went to Elmer's Coffee House on Montana, and we just talked about the service. And somehow the discussion came around to end-time prophecy. And I'd been taught by my mom one thing: pre-trib, pre-millennial, rapture, 7 years of tribulation, 1,000-year reign of Christ. I knew my stuff. 18 years old. These guys from Bible school believed something different. I didn't even know at that point in my life that there were different views of the end times. I just knew what I had been taught, and I thought everybody believed that. But these guys believed something else, and I couldn't believe that these guys from Bible school believed something else than what was in the Word. That was my thinking. So that night I went home, and for the first time in my life, I We just lived like 2 miles away from here in this neighborhood right over here off of Chelsea, right where the planes come in and land. Every day there were jets flying over. Maybe there weren't even jets back then, prop planes flying over. That was just part of my life. I loved to see those planes come over. When I was 4 years old, a plane crashed in our neighborhood. There wasn't anything between Timberwolf and Montana at that point was just all desert. And a guy was flying in, an Army guy was flying in on a dusty night, and he thought the lights on Montana were the runway. And when he realized that it wasn't the runway, it was too late and he crashed right in our neighborhood. I can remember when I was 4 years old looking out my window and seeing this plane in flames down at the end of our block. We've got pictures of engine parts, plane parts all over the neighborhood. So that night I come home, and I'm— in my mind I'm thinking, I can't believe these guys believe something that wasn't in the Bible. So for the first time in my life, I opened the Bible on my own and started reading. I mean, I'd been reading the Bible my whole life, memorizing Scripture, but I'd never opened it on my own. So I start reading in Matthew 24, which is the area where we were talking about, and And for some reason I read into Matthew 25 where Jesus says, "My second coming will be like this. It's like the man who leaves his property in charge of a servant and goes away, and that servant says in his heart, 'My Lord delays his coming.'" And I'm just reading. And the Lord starts speaking to me. He says, this is you. You're saying in your heart, Lord, delay your coming. And that's what I— because I believed Jesus was coming back. I just wanted him to come back after I was 30. So I'm reading and it says, Jesus says, but the Lord of that evil servant will come back in a day when he doesn't know. And will find him drinking and fighting with his fellow servants. And the lord of that servant will set him apart with the hypocrites, and there will be great weeping and gnashing of teeth. I knew what that meant. The Lord spoke to me and said this: If one of the planes that comes over your house every day crashes in 'When you die, you're going to hell because you don't know me.' I was out of my bed, on my knees, repenting of my sins, giving my life to Jesus. I woke up the next morning a totally different person. Jesus stopped for me that night. Yes. Yes. Amen. And he called me. He didn't ask me if I wanted to give my life to him. He ripped my heart open and forcibly brought me into his kingdom. So I want you to remember when Jesus stopped for you.

16 · Pivots from the personal testimony back to the biblical narrative, explicitly connecting the preacher's experience of Jesus stopping for him to Jesus stopping for Bartimaeus

This is what happened to Bartimaeus. Jesus stopped and came to him.

17 · Parallels Jesus's question to Bartimaeus with the same question he asked James and John, contrasting their request for positions of honor with Bartimaeus's humble request for sight

And he says to Bartimaeus, "What would you have me to do?" And Bartimaeus says, "That I might see." The same question he asked to James and John. What would we have— what would you have me to do? They asked for position.

18 · Reinforces the contrast between James and John's ambition and Bartimaeus's humility using two quoted authorities—Danny Akins and James Edwards—who frame the difference as extraordinary glory versus ordinary health

Is that quote up there? Where's that quote by— take a look at this quote. This is by Pastor Danny Akins. He said, James and John asked for the best seats in the kingdom. Bartimaeus, in radical stark contrast, has a much more humble request. He says, I want to see. James Edwards says it so well: The sons of thunder, James and John, asked for extraordinary glory. Bartimaeus asked for ordinary health.

19 · Guides the congregation through an experiential exercise of closing their eyes to understand Bartimaeus's total darkness, then reveals the stunning reality that when Jesus healed him, the first thing Bartimaeus saw on earth was the face of Jesus himself, and it was faith that brought healing

Look at verse 52. And Jesus said to him, go your way, your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Close your eyes. So this is what Bartimaeus saw— nothing. Have you ever wondered what it's going to be like when you die and pass into glory? Have you ever thought, what's it going to be like to see Jesus's face right in front of me, face to face? I think about all of our friends, a number of our friends who have died this last year, some from COVID some from from other things, who are now in the presence of the Lord beholding Jesus face to face. Jesus is before Bartimaeus. He's seeing what you're seeing, nothing. And Jesus says, "Your faith has made you well." Bartimaeus opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was the face of Jesus. The first thing he saw on this earth was the face of Jesus. You can open your eyes. Imagine that, to see Jesus. The first thing in life— we take for granted everything that we see, but the first thing Barton May saw was Jesus. Jesus said, "Your faith has made you well." Jesus called faith out of his heart, and he was healed.

20 · Connects Bartimaeus's story to a blind congregation member who recently died and now sees Jesus, explains that Bartimaeus followed Jesus all the way to the cross and became part of the Jerusalem church, and applies this through song lyrics about meeting the Master and belonging to him—emphasizing that Jesus's way became Bartimaeus's way just as it becomes ours

Janice Clark came up after the first service, and her sweet mom Sue, who was part of this congregation, sat right over here in this area, was blind. And Janice was just in tears. She said, "I was just thinking about my mom who was blind, and when she went home to be with the Lord, she saw Jesus." I said, "I've been thinking about your mom all week." Jesus said, your faith has made you well. Go your way. And look what it says next. And he, Bartimaeus, recovered his sight and followed him, followed Jesus, on the way. Never be surprised how the most forgotten, the most overlooked people, the most unlikely people will respond to the grace of God. He opened up his eyes. Jesus said, "Go your way." Bartimaeus gets on the road to Jerusalem with Jesus. Church history says that Bartimaeus followed Jesus to the cross, watched his resurrection, watched his ascension, became a vital part of the church in Jerusalem. Jesus' way became Bartimaeus' way. Isn't that our story? We're following Jesus wherever he leads us. Listen to the words of this song. Like a blind man who walks in the darkness, I had longed, I had searched for the light. Bartimaeus. Then I met the master. Now I walk no more in the night, for all things were changed when he found me. A new day broke out all around me, for then I met the Master, and now I belong to him. That's Bartimaeus' testimony. I met the Master, now I belong to him. Jesus has a claim on our lives. He'll lead us where he wants to lead us. That may be a cup of suffering, a baptism of suffering, but he has claimed us. He has ransomed us. He took the suffering, the pain, the punishment, the wrath of God that we deserved. And now we're his. We belong to him. Since we met the master, we're no longer the same.

21 · Signals the structural shift from exposition to application, preparing the congregation for practical instruction followed by a prayer time

Let's stand up. Don't put the rest of it on the screen, Kathy. Just a couple points of application, and then we want to have a time of prayer.

22 · Delivers two concrete applications drawn from the passage: (1) cry out boldly to Jesus for mercy when you are in need, citing Hebrews 4, and (2) look for hurting people around you and minister to them one at a time as Jesus did with Bartimaeus, becoming an extension of Jesus's hands

There's two things that I want you to think about as far as application. Don't hesitate to cry out to Jesus when something's going on in your life. In our community group on Wednesday night, we went through this passage. I fudged a little bit and kind of gave it a trial run. We read the Scripture and I asked for input. I didn't tell anybody what I was thinking. And we had such great comments about what was going on in this passage. Marta Sanchez, towards the end, she says, "You know what I see? I see that Jesus stopped and ministered to a hurting person, a forgotten person." I said, "That's what I'm preaching about Sunday." There's hurting people all around us. You may be hurting today. Don't hesitate ever to call out for the mercy of God. Number 1, don't hesitate to go to Jesus for mercy. Hebrews 4 says we need to come boldly to the throne of grace, boldly to his throne to receive help and mercy. In our time of need. So never hesitate to call out. Just like Bartimaeus, he called out to God. He knew he was in desperate need. If you're in desperate need, call out to God. Number 2, look for the person who's in desperate need. They're all around us. They're all around us. Jesus ministers to people one at a time. So pray for people one at a time. Evangelize people one at a time. Clothe and feed people one at a time. Love people one at a time. Look for people in your life who are hurting and minister to them. Be an extension of the hands of Jesus one person at a time.

23 · Direct evangelistic and pastoral appeal addressing various spiritual conditions in the room—the unconverted, the church-player, the sin-trapped, the hurting—with urgent personal language declaring that Jesus is stopping for them right now in this moment

I don't know where you're at today, but the Lord is here. He promises to be with us whenever we need him. We meet. His Spirit is here. Jesus is stopping here today. Maybe you don't know Jesus. Maybe you're like me. Maybe you're a young person playing church. Maybe you're here because your parents brought you here. Maybe you didn't have any choice. I didn't have any choice. Every Sunday I was in church. I don't— maybe you've never received Jesus. Maybe you've never met the Master. Maybe you've never believed in his name, repented of your sin like I finally did that night. Maybe you've never received him as your Savior and Lord. Maybe you're trapped in some terrible sin that you don't want anybody to know about, you don't want to admit. Maybe you're going through a very difficult family situation, maybe a health situation. I don't know where wherever you're at. The Lord knows. He's stopping here today.

24 · Invites the congregation to identify themselves as needing prayer by raising hands, then directs people to move toward those with raised hands to pray for them personally, models vulnerability by asking for prayer for his own family situation, and begins corporate prayer time

We want to take time and just pray for one another. I'm not going to ask you to come forward. I'm just going to ask you if something's going on in your life, if you are hurting, if you're in pain, if you need the Master to turn his attention, his affection, his power on you, would you just raise your hand so that we can pray just for each other. If you need prayer this morning, just raise your hand. Raise it so we can see. So I want you all to look around, just move to these people who have their hands up. So keep your hands up until someone comes around. Just look around, see if someone around you has their hand up. I'm gonna go back with Judy, and even though Judy is now trying to pray for someone else, I would like to ask some folks to pray for us for a family situation. So just look around, make sure there's nobody that has their hand up that doesn't have someone around them praying. And let's just pray. Maybe you were embarrassed to put your hand up. Just cry out to Jesus. Have mercy on me, Jesus. Let's pray for one another for just a little bit.

25 · Extends the prayer time to include online viewers who cannot be physically present, expressing pastoral care for those watching remotely and inviting the in-person congregation to pray for them

I guess to take some time and pray for those that are watching us online. Some of our members haven't been able yet to come back and be with us in person. It's so good to be back in person. So back to be able to pray with one another in person. So I want all of us to thank the Lord for what he's done this morning, but also I want us to pray for our friends, our brothers and sisters who are at home watching. So let's take a moment and do that. So we love you at home. We look forward to the time that you're together with us. We want to pray for you this morning.

26 · Closing prayer thanking God for stopping for the congregation as he stopped for Bartimaeus, acknowledging that salvation is entirely God's work, praying specifically for online viewers' healing and restoration, and blessing the congregation in Jesus's name

Father, thank you Thank you for stopping, Lord Jesus, and being with us this morning by your Spirit. Jesus, you are a wonderful Savior. Father, thank you for calling us to yourself. Salvation, Lord Jesus, is all of you. It's your work, Father. You call us to you. You draw us to you. Like blind Bartimaeus, you open up our eyes and call us out of darkness into your wonderful light. Jesus, we owe everything to you. We pray for our friends at home who are watching by livestream. We pray, Holy Spirit, that that you would minister to their hearts. Lord, that you would open their eyes, that you would heal their bodies, that you would heal and restore their lives. Strengthen them, Father. Jesus, thank you that you are our Savior, you're our healer, you're our deliverer. Lord, you are establishing and will establish your kingdom forever. Forever. Thank you for calling us to be a part of that. It's in your name that we pray. Amen. The Lord bless each and every one of you. Amen.

27 · Transitions from prayer to worship, inviting the congregation to respond in song to the truths proclaimed about Jesus

Let's sing about our Savior together.