Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Well, hello, chirch,
Speaker 1: my name's Seth Pete. I'm the campus pastor at Elevation
Speaker 1: University City and I have the honor of being able
Speaker 1: to preach today. Hey University City. Hey, you see, it's
Speaker 1: such an honor to be able to preach this weekend.
Speaker 1: But before we move forward, can we take a moment
Speaker 1: and thank God for our pastor. Pastor Stephen, you can
Speaker 1: do better than that. You can do better than that.
Speaker 1: We all get to benefit from hearing him preach every
Speaker 1: weekend on this stage, but very few get to see
Speaker 1: how he pastores people personally off the stage. And this week,
Speaker 1: this week he encouraged me. He looked me in my
Speaker 1: eyes and said, chat, I believe in you. I'm check
Speaker 1: God has a call on your life, and I believe
Speaker 1: that God has given you a word that our church
Speaker 1: needs to hear. That's the type of pastor that we
Speaker 1: have and started the year off with Flip the Flow.
Speaker 1: Who was here for Flip the Flow? Road right into
Speaker 1: Maybe God. It's been so powerful, so you know it.
Speaker 1: Throughout Maybe God, God was just dealing with me. And
Speaker 1: as we kind of ended the series last week, I
Speaker 1: wanted to share a little bit about what God has
Speaker 1: best kind of revealed to me throughout this series of
Speaker 1: how do we discern God's voice and recognize the will
Speaker 1: that He has for our lives? And we're gonna be
Speaker 1: in this text. Mark chapter ten, verses forty six through
Speaker 1: fifty two. If you have your Bible and want to
Speaker 1: pull it out, you can do that now. If not,
Speaker 1: the scriptures will be on the screen. Mark chapter ten,
Speaker 1: versus forty six through fifty two. Story about a blind
Speaker 1: man named Bartimaeus. In verse forty six, it says, then
Speaker 1: they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together
Speaker 1: with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind
Speaker 1: man Bartimaeus which means son of Timaeus, was sitting by
Speaker 1: the roadside, and he was begging. When he heard that
Speaker 1: it was Jesus of Nazrath, he began to shout, Jesus,
Speaker 1: son of David, have mercy on me. Many rebuked him
Speaker 1: and told him to be quiet, but he shouted, all
Speaker 1: the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus
Speaker 1: stopped and said, call him. So they called to the
Speaker 1: blind man, cheer up on your feet, he's calling you.
Speaker 1: Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and
Speaker 1: came to Jesus. What do you want me to do
Speaker 1: for you? Jesus asked him. The blind man said, Rabbi,
Speaker 1: I want to see go. Jesus said, your faith has
Speaker 1: healed you, and immediately he received a sight and followed
Speaker 1: Jesus along the road. The scriptures that I really want
Speaker 1: to focus on for our time together are forty eight
Speaker 1: and forty nine. It says many rebuked him and told
Speaker 1: him to be quiet, but he shouted, all the more,
Speaker 1: son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus stopped. What
Speaker 1: could be in your shout that could make Jesus stop?
Speaker 1: What could be on your lips that would make the
Speaker 1: Messiah stop in his tracks? He stopped and said call him.
Speaker 1: So they called to the blind man, Cheer up on
Speaker 1: your feet, he's calling you. The subject of our conversation
Speaker 1: today is called blocked calls, blocked calls, block calls. Now,
Speaker 1: before you take your seat, can you look at your
Speaker 1: neighbor and find out if they're a Duke fan or
Speaker 1: a tar Hill fan? Can you find out? Find out
Speaker 1: real quick, find out real quick. Now I understand, I
Speaker 1: understand that the tar Hills won last night, and this morning,
Speaker 1: I'm more concerned about a different devil that needs to
Speaker 1: be up underneath our heel. So can you go ahead
Speaker 1: and give them a hug and put your hands together
Speaker 1: as we get in to God's word today, Give a
Speaker 1: couple hugs right now, and then you can be seated.
Speaker 1: You can be seated, You can be seated. Understand, you
Speaker 1: lost an hour of sleep last night, but it didn't
Speaker 1: seem like you lost your spirit. It seems like you
Speaker 1: came in ready, ready to praise God and ready to
Speaker 1: hear from him. But as I was reading this text,
Speaker 1: the the thing that kind of caught my attention was
Speaker 1: this fact that Bartimaus is crying out to Jesuz, Jesus,
Speaker 1: son of David, have mercy on me, Jesus, son of David,
Speaker 1: have mercy on me, and he doesn't hear Christ respond.
Speaker 1: And it made me realize that a lot of times
Speaker 1: in my life I'm praying and praying and praying, and
Speaker 1: I'm calling out to God and I don't hear him
Speaker 1: call back to me. It could be so frustrating. Ask
Speaker 1: myself the question, has Jesus blocked my call? Like cass
Speaker 1: he blocked me? Is he just sitting up there looking
Speaker 1: at his phone like, Ugh, that's Susie today, She's always sad.
Speaker 1: I don't got time for that. Why is Anthony so angry? Ugh?
Speaker 1: Don got toughing? I know what that feels like, just
Speaker 1: to be calling out to God over and over and
Speaker 1: over again and not hearing anything. We feel like something's
Speaker 1: blocking us from hearing it. And makes me think about
Speaker 1: you know, on my way home, I drive forty five
Speaker 1: on my way to the house in Charlotte, drive forty
Speaker 1: five and I get off on exit twenty three right here,
Speaker 1: and there's this one spot when I get off on
Speaker 1: the exit where every time if I'm on the phone,
Speaker 1: the call will drop. I could be talking the whole time,
Speaker 1: the whole time, and I get to this one spot
Speaker 1: and the call drops. I was talking to them before
Speaker 1: I got to that spot. And so what I realize
Speaker 1: is that maybe God is talking. Maybe God is talking.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's nothing wrong with the service, but something's blocking
Speaker 1: the signal. What is blocking the signal in this season?
Speaker 1: You know, cause I know what it feels like. It's like,
Speaker 1: does guy have a track phone or something. I just
Speaker 1: it seems like it's not getting through, you know, or
Speaker 1: maybe this is this will make you understand it. Me
Speaker 1: and my wife, we have identical twin boys, Carson and Carter.
Speaker 1: They are seven years old and we just got them,
Speaker 1: just got them an Xbox One for Christmas this past year,
Speaker 1: and they don't play Fortnite. I haven't did it. I've
Speaker 1: been trying to figure out what's the appropriate age for
Speaker 1: your kids to play Fortnite? You know, is it ten?
Speaker 1: It's eleven? Heard somebody say never never never, never never.
Speaker 1: But you know, they love they love it. They play
Speaker 1: NBA two K and they're constantly playing this game. And
Speaker 1: I've realized since they've had the game, I could be
Speaker 1: sitting in my room and I call out to them,
Speaker 1: Carson Carter, and I hear nothing. Hey boys, Hey hear nothing.
Speaker 1: Carson and Carter hear nothing. I get up out my bed.
Speaker 1: They ignoring me. What are they doing? And I walk
Speaker 1: in and they're so fixated on this game that they
Speaker 1: didn't even hear my voice. What I'm realizing in our lives,
Speaker 1: there's some things that were so fixated on and it's
Speaker 1: blocking us from hearing what God has to say. It's
Speaker 1: not that God isn't calling you, but there's some things
Speaker 1: that are blocking you from hearing His call. And so
Speaker 1: what I want to do today is talk about a
Speaker 1: few things, a few things in this text that I
Speaker 1: believe will help us understand what's blocking us from hearing God.
Speaker 1: While I open up this water, can we thank God
Speaker 1: for all of our campuses that are tuning in today?
Speaker 1: Can we thank God for e fam people watching on
Speaker 1: a cell phone right now getting the presence of God?
Speaker 1: But what is blocking you? What is blocking you from
Speaker 1: hearing God? I believe there's a lot that we can
Speaker 1: learn in this sext. The first thing that I want
Speaker 1: you to write down that may be blocking you is
Speaker 1: what I hear? What I hear and now you see,
Speaker 1: hearing is so important to Bartimaez because he couldn't see.
Speaker 1: It's so so vital to him that he hears well
Speaker 1: and he hears his surroundings. And it starts off saying
Speaker 1: that he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was coming through,
Speaker 1: and that's when he responded and started to shout. But
Speaker 1: then at verse forty eight, there's another thing that he heard.
Speaker 1: It says many rebuked him and told him to be quiet.
Speaker 1: It just made me think that there's some people. There's
Speaker 1: some people. There's some people, some negative people, some condescending people.
Speaker 1: There's some people. There's some pessimistic people, some people that
Speaker 1: when I talk to they rip the spirit all the
Speaker 1: way out of me. There's some people. There's some people
Speaker 1: that just you know, I have to do everything about
Speaker 1: power to stay sane dealing with them. There's some people.
Speaker 1: You have to watch what you hear. You have to
Speaker 1: watch what you hear. You have to watch what you
Speaker 1: hear because there's some people around you that could be
Speaker 1: blocking you from hearing what God has to say. And
Speaker 1: it just made me think. It's just made me think,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help you guys out today. I'm gonna help
Speaker 1: you guys out with a little iPhone tutorial. Is that okay?
Speaker 1: A little iPhone tutorial today. Let me get this popped
Speaker 1: up on the screen for you really quick. You will
Speaker 1: see my phone mirror there it goes there it goes,
Speaker 1: and there's my family. Yeah. Stop, awe at them boys,
Speaker 1: Look at my beautiful wife up top right there. Thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus, you've been so good to me. Hallelujah, my God,
Speaker 1: bless your name. Let me help you out. Let me
Speaker 1: help you out. Let me help you out. Let me
Speaker 1: help you out. I'm gonna go into my contacts, and
Speaker 1: you know what I'm I'm gonna click on Jared Osin. Now,
Speaker 1: if you don't know Jared Osin, that's because he does
Speaker 1: his job so well. Jared Osin is our Valentine campus producer.
Speaker 1: Can we take a moment and thank God for Jared.
Speaker 1: Thank God for Jared. He's the one that leads the
Speaker 1: team that makes sure all the lights and all of
Speaker 1: this stuff works. I have no idea how my phone's
Speaker 1: on the screen, but it's on there. That's Jared that
Speaker 1: makes it happen. So I wouldn't normally, never, ever, ever,
Speaker 1: ever ever do this to Jared, because he's amazing. He's amazing,
Speaker 1: he's amazing leader, amazing friend. But for the sake of
Speaker 1: this illustration, there's this little button down to here at
Speaker 1: the bottom that says block this caller now when you
Speaker 1: click on it. It says you will not receive phone calls, messages,
Speaker 1: FaceTime from people on the block list. There are some
Speaker 1: people that you need to find this button because when
Speaker 1: you've block them, you're opening up a space so that
Speaker 1: you can hear what God has to say. Some people
Speaker 1: are blocking you from hearing what God has to say
Speaker 1: in this season. Everybody can't have access in this season
Speaker 1: because they're keeping you from accessing what God has for you.
Speaker 1: There's some people that has to go now. Some of you,
Speaker 1: you use this, you know where this is, and you
Speaker 1: use it very well. You might be petty, you might
Speaker 1: you might be petty. You might be petty. But there's
Speaker 1: some of you. I just save you a lot of headaches.
Speaker 1: I just save you a lot of headaches because you
Speaker 1: have the ability. You have the ability to block their call.
Speaker 1: You know what you should do tonight when you go home.
Speaker 1: You should go sit on your bed and you should
Speaker 1: go through your phone and have a good old fashioned
Speaker 1: block party. What would it look like if you took
Speaker 1: your time and went through your contacts. It said that
Speaker 1: there's some people that's had access in one season that
Speaker 1: don't need it in this season because they're blocking me
Speaker 1: from hearing what God has to say. There's some people
Speaker 1: that I cannot let speak into my life because they're
Speaker 1: holding me back for what my God has for me.
Speaker 1: There's some people in this season. There's some people like
Speaker 1: maybe JJ, maybe I should go ahead and block You're
Speaker 1: a Valentine campus pastor maybe I should block him right now,
Speaker 1: block this caller, because maybe right now in this season
Speaker 1: I normally wouldn't do it before the sake of illustration,
Speaker 1: Block JJ, bye bye. Or maybe I should go all
Speaker 1: the way to Ashville, North Carolina and let's just start
Speaker 1: blocking some campus pastors. You know, maybe this morning we
Speaker 1: would take some time to block them. Where is Brennan?
Speaker 1: Where's Brennan? Goddess at there? She goes, I'm sorry, maybe
Speaker 1: in this season you got wo would it look like
Speaker 1: if in this season you block some people? Now, this
Speaker 1: should be a joyous occasion. Now, when I said block party,
Speaker 1: some of you started to think about red cups and
Speaker 1: some of you started to think about some different things.
Speaker 1: Well what I and LB is calling me right now? LB?
Speaker 1: Why are you calling me in the middle of my sermon?
Speaker 1: You know what, some people I can't block. I can't
Speaker 1: block LB. But some people I can ignore because right now,
Speaker 1: I love LB. LB means a lot to me. But
Speaker 1: what's important right now is for me to take a
Speaker 1: moment and tell you what God has laid on my
Speaker 1: heart for you and some people in this season I
Speaker 1: have to ignore because some of you might have been thinking,
Speaker 1: I'm ready to block my husband right now. No no
Speaker 1: no no no no no no no no no no
Speaker 1: no no no no no, I'm not. I'm not saying that.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that because there's some people that you
Speaker 1: live with, there's some people that you work with, and
Speaker 1: it's not that easy just to block them and cancel
Speaker 1: them out your life. But what Bartimaeus does in this
Speaker 1: text is when they rebuked him and told him to
Speaker 1: be quiet, he shouted. All the more he shouted. He
Speaker 1: ignored them so that he can focus on calling out
Speaker 1: to his father doing what his father said. What would
Speaker 1: it look like in this season if you paid attention
Speaker 1: to what you hear because they're blocking you from hearing
Speaker 1: what God has to say. You know, there's this repelling
Speaker 1: you can blo for your shoe sneakers. There's a repelling
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, that repels things. Why would
Speaker 1: I be so focused and by things that we can
Speaker 1: repel things off my sneakers, that can keep them things.
Speaker 1: And I won't repel people away from my spirit. I
Speaker 1: won't repel people away from my heart. There's some things
Speaker 1: in this season. There's some people, some people that I
Speaker 1: have to get blocked because they're keeping you from hearing
Speaker 1: what God has to say. It's easier, it's easier to
Speaker 1: ignore others. But you know, what I found is very
Speaker 1: it's very harder. It's much much much harder, is to
Speaker 1: block the thoughts in your head, and so that the
Speaker 1: next point are you know, it's it's it's my thoughts,
Speaker 1: it's my thoughts, what you think, what I think, what
Speaker 1: I think, what I think. It's it's so harder to
Speaker 1: do that. It's so so much harder to do that.
Speaker 1: And as I as I read this sext there's some things.
Speaker 1: There's some things that it tells us about Bartimaeus. It says,
Speaker 1: when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he
Speaker 1: began to shout, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We find the right verse bring
Speaker 1: me up forty six, forty six I apologize what I think.
Speaker 1: What I think. It says when they came to Jericho,
Speaker 1: as Jesus and disciples were together a large crowd, we're
Speaker 1: leaving the city. Now, it's going to tell us a
Speaker 1: couple of things about Bartimaeus. The first thing that is
Speaker 1: says is is that Bardimaez was blind, and then it
Speaker 1: says Bartimaez, which means Senator mass And then it says
Speaker 1: that he was sitting by the roadside begging. So it
Speaker 1: tells us a couple of things about Bartimaus. It says
Speaker 1: that he's blind, and then it says that he's begging,
Speaker 1: and we tend to just call him blind man Bartimaez.
Speaker 1: What makes me realize is that we tend to identify
Speaker 1: people by their condition. We tend to identify people by
Speaker 1: their actions. And what I realize is that Bartimas has
Speaker 1: been sitting here, He's been sitting by the roadside begging
Speaker 1: for a long time. And I wonder, and I wonder,
Speaker 1: I wonder what were the thoughts going through his head
Speaker 1: all of those years, just sitting there. He's blind, he
Speaker 1: can't see, so he has this voice in his head
Speaker 1: and it's saying, you're blind, and you're beggar. You're blind
Speaker 1: and you're begger. That's all you'll ever be. Just go
Speaker 1: ahead and hold the cup out and y'll for some change.
Speaker 1: You're blind and you're a beggar, and that's all you'll
Speaker 1: ever be. You're you're an addict, You're a failure, You're
Speaker 1: you're a divorce c You're a dropout, and that's all
Speaker 1: you'll ever be. That's that's what that voice sounds like.
Speaker 1: And that voice, that voice is loud. That voice is loud,
Speaker 1: It shouts. That voice is piercing. And those thoughts in
Speaker 1: your head that you go over and over and over
Speaker 1: again on repeat, you know what my voice was telling me,
Speaker 1: that voice right here before I came on stages. Nobody
Speaker 1: wanted to hear anything you have to say. They wish
Speaker 1: pastor Steven was here. Anyway, you're not qualified to preach
Speaker 1: the word of God. Who do you think you are?
Speaker 1: Who do you? Who do you think you are? So
Speaker 1: waste the time? She'd just sit back down, That's what
Speaker 1: That's what that voice is screaming and yelling at me
Speaker 1: before I step on this stage. And I want to
Speaker 1: take a moment to celebrate my wife, Whitney. We just
Speaker 1: celebrated eleven years of marriage this year, and she has
Speaker 1: this voice as well, And I asked her if I
Speaker 1: could share this. The voice in my wife's head, that voice,
Speaker 1: it's a monster. It's a monster, and it's so loud.
Speaker 1: She's so mean, and she's so hateful, and it screams
Speaker 1: at my wife, telling her that she's not beautiful, telling
Speaker 1: her that she's a horrible wife, telling her that she's
Speaker 1: a horrible mother, telling her that she will never be
Speaker 1: good enough. This voice is yelling loud, telling her this
Speaker 1: over and over and over again. And I've seen her.
Speaker 1: I've seen her fight that voice, because that voice has
Speaker 1: tried to take my wife out. If anybody talked to
Speaker 1: my wife the way that her voice talks to her,
Speaker 1: I'd be in jail right now. I'd be in jail.
Speaker 1: I would be locked up. And so I've seen her.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't for some of our friends and family,
Speaker 1: if it wasn't for our eGroup, if you're not in
Speaker 1: an egrop and you don't have people around you, I
Speaker 1: don't know if we would have been able to push
Speaker 1: through this thing, because it's tried to take her out.
Speaker 1: But I want to tell you one little thing that
Speaker 1: that that that she does, that has been monumental. And
Speaker 1: it might seem small, it might seem really really small,
Speaker 1: but it's made a significant difference. And what she did
Speaker 1: is she gave it a name. She gave she gave
Speaker 1: a voice a name. Now, when I tell you what
Speaker 1: this name is, if this is your name, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't know you when we came up with it.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't, So I apologize. But if you
Speaker 1: ever seen the movie Matilda, there's this woman named Agatha,
Speaker 1: and Agatha is ugly and she's mean. But what I
Speaker 1: realize is that when Agatha shows up, when she shows
Speaker 1: up on the scene, it starts to tell her things
Speaker 1: that doesn't line up with what God says. I tell
Speaker 1: Agatha to go back to the pit of hell where
Speaker 1: she came from. She has no place. Yet. What I
Speaker 1: want you to know is that you cannot defeat an
Speaker 1: unnamed enemy. And so what you have to do is
Speaker 1: put a name on that thing. You have to call
Speaker 1: it something. You know, when you get phone calls and
Speaker 1: it says unknown caller, and you're talking to people and
Speaker 1: you don't have a clue who they are, how can
Speaker 1: you silence them in how can you tell them things
Speaker 1: to shut up and go back to where they came
Speaker 1: from if you don't know who they are. I tell
Speaker 1: Agatha to get up under my feet. I tell Agatha
Speaker 1: what God says. So maybe what you need to do
Speaker 1: is is name that enemy, because that voice is terrorizing
Speaker 1: your home, he's terrorizing your life. You know why we
Speaker 1: call them terrorists when we're in a war, we call
Speaker 1: them is because we can't identify him. But once we
Speaker 1: identify him, we're able to do something about it. We're
Speaker 1: able to go and we're able to attack it. And
Speaker 1: so in this text, let me show you one interesting
Speaker 1: thing that they kind of caught my attention because it
Speaker 1: tells you more about Bartimas, but we never talk about it.
Speaker 1: It says in verse forty six, it says more than
Speaker 1: just that he was blind because me, it says a
Speaker 1: blind man Bartimaeus, which means son of Timaeus. That tells
Speaker 1: me that Bartimaeus was a son. That tells me that
Speaker 1: Bartimaus is his son. So when that thought comes up,
Speaker 1: you gotta remember you're a son and a daughter of
Speaker 1: a father in heaven. And Satan does not want you
Speaker 1: to remember your lineage. He does not want you to
Speaker 1: remember where you come from. Why don't we call him Bartimaeus,
Speaker 1: son of Timaeus? Why don't we call him son? Why
Speaker 1: don't you gotta look in the mirror. I'm a child
Speaker 1: of God. I was fearfully and wonderfully made my father
Speaker 1: in heaven. He loves me. So I don't care what
Speaker 1: Agatha says. You can go back to the place you
Speaker 1: came from. But it's these thoughts, see, it's these thoughts.
Speaker 1: It's these thoughts in your head that can block us
Speaker 1: from hearing what God has to say. The last thing
Speaker 1: that I want to talk about that could be blocking
Speaker 1: you is what I see, is what I see and
Speaker 1: hearing that you may be like Bartimaus didn't see anything.
Speaker 1: He was blind. But what Bartimaeus lacked an eyesight, he
Speaker 1: made up for an insight. There was something in this
Speaker 1: text that he saw that nobody around him saw. In
Speaker 1: the way that you see someone will determine how you
Speaker 1: respond to them. And so just to just to give
Speaker 1: you an example, you know me and I told you
Speaker 1: my wife is an amazing mother, amazing wife, but me
Speaker 1: and her both have vastly different parenting styles. We approach
Speaker 1: raising your kids a little bit differently, and I feel
Speaker 1: like most parents fall into one of these two categories.
Speaker 1: One category, which my wife falls in. I like to
Speaker 1: call the I'm gone us, the I'm gone us, the
Speaker 1: I'm gonna whoop your butt, the the I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: the xbox, the I'm gonna you know, I'm gone us.
Speaker 1: Is there anybody that will identify yourself as I'm gone up? Now?
Speaker 1: The other group, the other group which I fall in,
Speaker 1: is the I have and I will. I have bee
Speaker 1: your butt and I will do it again. I have
Speaker 1: taken the Xbox and I will do I have any
Speaker 1: I have in our wills that knows. What would it
Speaker 1: look like if you looked at God? Is I have
Speaker 1: blessed you and I will bless you again. I have
Speaker 1: healed you, and I would heal you again. What if
Speaker 1: you walked in and you looked at God as I've
Speaker 1: seen you do it before and I believe you'll do
Speaker 1: it again. What if you looked at him? He's the
Speaker 1: Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and Deen. What if
Speaker 1: you looked at Him that way? What would it happen?
Speaker 1: How you see God determines how you hear God. And
Speaker 1: I believe in this season it's the way that you
Speaker 1: see God that's blocking you from hearing what he has
Speaker 1: to say. And so how did Bartimaeus see God? How
Speaker 1: did he see him? And it's very interesting. In verse
Speaker 1: forty seven, it says, when Bartimaeus heard that it was
Speaker 1: Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, Jesus, son of David.
Speaker 1: He heard Jesus of Nazareth. He shouted Jesus son of David.
Speaker 1: Why would he shout something different than what he heard.
Speaker 1: You see, Jesus of Nazareth speaks to this prophet, this priest,
Speaker 1: this holy man, but it doesn't speak to Jesus son
Speaker 1: of David. Now Jesus son of David speaks to the Messiah,
Speaker 1: speak to the prophecy that there would be a king
Speaker 1: that would come out of the house of David that
Speaker 1: would reign forever. I'm talking about the one that would
Speaker 1: deliver us from all of our sins. The power and
Speaker 1: authority that's in Jesus son of David is who Bartimaeus saw,
Speaker 1: and nobody else saw it. Everybody else was running around
Speaker 1: seeing him as common. But Bartimaya said, that son of David,
Speaker 1: that's the Messiah. This is my opportunity. How you see
Speaker 1: God determines how you hear him. How you walked in today.
Speaker 1: Some of you walked in and your perspective of God
Speaker 1: was that he was mean, that he was hateful, that
Speaker 1: he didn't love you. How you see God? You walked
Speaker 1: in today with a different perspective, and you hear us
Speaker 1: say Father, and you look at him in the context
Speaker 1: of the father that you didn't have, or the father
Speaker 1: that you had that was mean and hateful him. That's
Speaker 1: how you see him. What would it look like if
Speaker 1: you flip your perspective, you would lean in in church,
Speaker 1: You'd be here early, You'd be ready because you're expecting,
Speaker 1: because you know when you walk in, something can change.
Speaker 1: If I see him as a healer, I can get
Speaker 1: a healing today if he's in the presence. I don't
Speaker 1: know how you see him, but I see him as
Speaker 1: a deliverer. I see him as a restorer. I see
Speaker 1: him as a provider. I see him as Jehovah. I
Speaker 1: see him as Jarrah. I see my God as somebody
Speaker 1: that could change my life, that could change my situation.
Speaker 1: Has your neighbor, how do you see God today? How
Speaker 1: do you see him today? How you see. God determines
Speaker 1: how you hear him. I wonder what's blocking you this morning?
Speaker 1: What's blocking you this morning from hearing what God has
Speaker 1: to say? What's blocking you? Is it the influences in
Speaker 1: your life? Is it what you hear? Is it what
Speaker 1: you hear? And there's some of you, there's some of you,
Speaker 1: there's some of you. You're in school, you're studying, you're
Speaker 1: trying to do everything you can to graduate, and you're
Speaker 1: letting the influences around you talk you out of it.
Speaker 1: They're trying to call you talking about let's go to
Speaker 1: a party, let's go hang out, and you're like, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do something. What I hear is very important.
Speaker 1: That maybe blocking you today. So if you're in here today,
Speaker 1: you're trying to restore your marriage, You're trying to work
Speaker 1: on your marriage, and you're letting people around you talk
Speaker 1: about your spouse while I'm trying to do everything I
Speaker 1: can for God to restore my marriage. What you hear?
Speaker 1: What you hear? What you hear, and then what you think.
Speaker 1: There's these thoughts some of you've been in Chaine because
Speaker 1: of the thoughts in your mind. The word says, take
Speaker 1: every thought captive there's some things in this season that
Speaker 1: we have to take a hold of. You got to
Speaker 1: get some people around you. You got to name that thing,
Speaker 1: and then some of you. It's the perspective. It's how
Speaker 1: you see God, It's how you see him. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing that really really caught my attention. If you
Speaker 1: don't take anything else away from this sermon, this this
Speaker 1: piece right here, I started to think about the setting.
Speaker 1: You see, there was a crowd of people. There was
Speaker 1: a lot of people around. And remember earlier in the sermon,
Speaker 1: I said, what could be on your shout that could
Speaker 1: make Jesus stop? How could Jesus identify brought a Maais
Speaker 1: in the middle of a crowd like this, How in
Speaker 1: the world could he hear him? And it made me
Speaker 1: realize that in this season, some things could be blocking
Speaker 1: me from hearing God's voice. But nothing can block God
Speaker 1: from hearing yours. Nothing can block God from hearing your voice.
Speaker 1: When you call out to him, he hears you. I
Speaker 1: don't care what's around. He stopped in his tracks, looked
Speaker 1: around and saw his son and said, I see you
Speaker 1: in the middle of a crowd call out to me.
Speaker 1: Some of you stop calling because you hadn't heard anything back.
Speaker 1: He hears you nothing you've done. I don't care what
Speaker 1: you did last night. God hears you call out to him,
Speaker 1: call out to him, call out to him. And I
Speaker 1: want to take a moment. I want to take a
Speaker 1: moment to pray for you today because I believe that
Speaker 1: we could have a moment of ministry. There's some things
Speaker 1: that have been blocking you, and today we need to
Speaker 1: remove those blocks so that we could hear what God
Speaker 1: has to say. Everybody, stand on your feet. Stand on
Speaker 1: your feet. Want to take a moment and pause, secreate
Speaker 1: a moment for God to minister to you. He's here,
Speaker 1: He's here. Everyone, stretch your hands towards Heaven. God, we're here,
Speaker 1: and your servants are listening. We remove all distractions. God,
Speaker 1: we remove all distractions, all blocks right now in this moment.
Speaker 1: Speak to your people. Bartimae is called out to you.
Speaker 1: Right now. Begin to open up your mouth and call
Speaker 1: out to Jesus. Tell them you need them, tell them
Speaker 1: you love them. He hears you. Tell him what you need,
Speaker 1: Tell him what you need, Tell him what you need.
Speaker 1: He's listening right now. Nothing can from hearing your voice.
Speaker 1: He loves to hear your voice. Jeremiah thirty three to
Speaker 1: three says, calling to me, and I will answer you.
Speaker 1: Not I might answer you, not a maybe. I will
Speaker 1: answer you. So God, your people need you. You're here. Listen,
Speaker 1: Speak God, Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is
Speaker 1: because of you that this ministry is possible. You can
Speaker 1: click the link in the description to give now or
Speaker 1: visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and
Speaker 1: if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can
Speaker 1: share it with your friends. You can click the share button,
Speaker 1: take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
Speaker 1: and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you