Untitled sermon

Have you ever found yourself in a dark room, trying to move around, bumping into things? You know, Jane and I had a serious clash one night. It got tense. So we made a rule. When things get heated… just stop. Wait. Let your eyes adjust. Then move. Twenty years later, we haven’t clashed heads since. But we almost did last night. Most people never take that pause. They just keep moving in the dark… and wonder why they keep getting hurt. I remember when I hit my forties. Something started going wrong with my eyes. Presbyopia. It didn’t happen overnight. It crept up slowly, and I didn’t even notice. What did I do about it? Nothing. I didn’t want glasses, so I just kept living my life. And do you know what happened? My world got smaller. I lost confidence. I never announced it. I just quietly stopped doing things. That’s what a loss of vision does. It doesn’t announce itself. It just shrinks you. Nobody decides to live a smaller life. You just stop raising your hand. Five years later, your world is half its size, and you can’t even pinpoint when it changed. Some of us are living in a smaller world than we were three years ago, and we’ve never called it what it is. Let’s look at Mark chapter 10, verses 46 to 52: “As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’” Many rebuked him, telling him to be quiet. But he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately, he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. Now, this is the last person Jesus heals in Mark’s Gospel. After this, there are no more healings. Mark placed this story right at the doorstep of the cross on purpose. Hold on to that thought; I’ll come back to it. You see, sight is not the same as vision. Sight is about purpose and control. It’s what allows you to step out. You take a man’s eyes, and you don’t just take his sight. You take his courage. “To be blind is bad, but worse is it to have eyes and not to see.” “I will not just live my life. I will not just spend my life. I will invest my life.” “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” No sight at all, yet more vision than most of us in this room. Sight enables your heart to act on conviction. But how do you know your vision is failing? I couldn’t tell you the year my vision slipped away. But I can tell you the day it came back. It wasn’t a check-up or a doctor visit. It was frustration. I got frustrated about the things I couldn’t do anymore. That’s the diagnosis. I didn’t notice my vision going. I noticed my frustration arriving. The irritation had to get strong enough to break through. For seven years, it was there, just not loud enough. Some of you are feeling that irritation, and you don’t know why. Snapping at loved ones. Offended by things that wouldn’t have bothered you five years ago. Discouraged, and yet nothing actually went wrong. This week, you’ve got a good excuse for it. The first week back. Everyone’s tired. But let’s be honest… was it really just this week? You explain it away — it’s the season, the pressure, just how you are now. But hear me: it isn’t them… and it’s not your temperament either. What’s really happening is that you’ve lost your vision. Your world got smaller and smaller, and you never called it that. Now, that smallness is pressing down on you. That irritation? It’s the walls of a shrunken life squeezing in on you. A person with vision can absorb enormous irritation because they see something beyond it. Take the horizon away, and every little thing becomes a big deal. Let’s take a fun example: Ever played paintball? If you can’t see where you’re going, don’t be disappointed when you can’t remember the last time you felt excited about anything. That’s not your marriage. That’s not your job. That’s not this church. That’s your middle distance. And here’s the good news—this is why I’m preaching today: that irritation is not your enemy. It’s an alarm going off on purpose. Jesus wants to help you regain your sight. He’s not annoyed with you for being annoyed. He put that alarm there. Now let’s look at another story. In Mark chapter 8, some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. After spitting on the man’s eyes and laying hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more, Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. This story is about reaching out to those who cannot see. It’s about you telling your friends about worship in the park, looking for moments to share Jesus. Most people won’t find Jesus on their own. They must be led to Him. Jesus did something shocking—He spat on the man’s eyes. But that’s Jesus! Always doing more than the normal. There was something about the man that needed to be shocked. He was changed, but still partially blind. He could see, but not clearly. Eventually, I went and had LASIK surgery. I remember crashing my car because I couldn’t see the middle distance. It changed everything. I could see! But I only had one eye done, just in case. I was still half impaired, and I knew it. But I decided I could live with it. For seven years, I couldn’t see the middle distance. I missed turn-offs. I had a real healing in one eye, and I settled for half. I called it normal. But I wasn’t seeing… I was coping. How many of you have had a real encounter with God but settled into half? It went blurry, you worked around it, and you called it normal. Don’t buy baggier clothes! I don’t buy bigger clothes when I put on weight. I keep wearing the ones I have, and they get tighter. I suffer in them every morning… until I’ve had enough and lose the weight. Hear this: I refuse to give my decline a comfortable place to live. The moment I buy bigger trousers, the pressure comes off. The discomfort is not the problem. The discomfort is the signal. You can’t see where your marriage is going, so you lower your expectations. Baggy clothes. Every accommodation takes the pressure off the very thing that was trying to save you. For seven years, I accommodated one working eye. And do you know what that cost me? Seven years. Frustration is not your enemy. Frustration is an alarm clock. Now, let’s talk about the second touch. Research shows this is the only two-stage healing in all four Gospels. Every other time Jesus speaks, and it’s done. But here, it takes two touches. He put His hands on him again. Do you know what finally drove me to get the second eye? It wasn’t wisdom. It wasn’t a plan. It was getting sick of missing turn-offs. The next morning, everything was clear. Sharp. Colors I had forgotten. The closest thing to a miracle I’ve experienced in my own body. I had fooled myself. Because it was gradual, I never noticed how far I had really declined. Hear this, because this is grace: partial sight was not a lesser healing. It was a stage. The man who saw trees walking finished that day seeing perfectly. Because Jesus wasn’t finished with him. You are not at your ceiling. You are mid-healing. And His hands are still on you. I believe the Holy Spirit wants to give someone a second touch today. Not a first— a second. You thought half-seeing was the deal. It never was. But let me talk to someone else. Some of you are not here for a second touch. You have never had the first one. Hear this: Bartimaeus had never met Jesus. He wasn’t backslidden. He had never had a thing. The only qualification he brought was knowing he couldn’t see. You don’t need a past with Jesus to get His attention. You just need to admit you can’t see. Mark uses these two blind men as bookends to teach us a crucial lesson. The disciples are the first man—they get it, but they miss it too. Peter receives a revelation of who Jesus is, then misses it completely by telling Jesus not to go to the cross. He gets the person of Jesus, but not the mission of Jesus. This speaks about us. We can get a revelation about Jesus but completely miss the mission. We were rescued to be rescuers. We get disappointed when He’s not acting like we want Him to act. This is the story of alignment. Three times in these two chapters, Jesus tells them He’s going to die. It’s the chapter where the rich man comes wanting to follow Jesus on his terms. “Go, sell everything you have… then come, follow me.” At this, the man’s face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. Maybe that brought insecurity to James and John. Close access to Jesus, and suddenly unsure of their position—they ask Him to guarantee one. They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” Jesus said, “You will drink the cup I drink, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant.” He promised them suffering and refused them the soft seat. Ever watched someone get all the attention? This passage is for you. We look at people on platforms with great followings and think that must make them amazing in the kingdom. Mark tells us that no position in this life guarantees you anything. The only question that matters is whether you know Him and are living in His will. Mark is calling us higher. Don’t be satisfied with partial vision. Lean in. Long for it. Press harder. Get the mission. Jesus didn’t just come for you. He came so you could help Him reach others. Don’t be led to Jesus by someone else forever. Don’t just receive once. Lean in again and receive until you get the full vision for your life that Jesus wants you to have. Now, I want to ask you—what do you see? When you look to the future, what part does Jesus play in it all? This is the challenge for you today. And then Mark brings in Bartimaeus. His name means “son of Timaeus”—honor, respect, precious, highly valued. He’s the son of honor and high value. But he lives in a Jewish town, and there’s a word very similar to Timaeus—TAMEI. It means unclean and unwelcome. He was born as a son of honor, yet he heard all his life that he was unwelcome and unclean. And he wasn’t brought to Jesus. He brought Jesus to him. He shouted in recognition of who Jesus is. This is a story about what you must do if you want to experience complete and total healing. Three things went into the dust that day. He left all three behind. 1. He left his cloak behind. 2. He left his stick behind. 3. He left his begging bowl behind. His identity. His direction. His security. “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Three commands, and he did all three in one verse. James and John asked for a seat. Bartimaeus took a step. So here are three things for you today as we close: 1. Stop buying baggier clothes. Let the discomfort drive you back to Jesus for the second touch. 2. Shout! Stop being polite with God about the thing that is actually killing you. 3. Ask for the other eye. Don’t ask Him to make the roadside easier. Ask Him for eyes, and then get on the road. What I remember most wasn’t the operation. It was waking up and seeing the whole thing. And the sadness underneath it is the seven years. Seven years I didn’t have to spend half-blind. Don’t give me seven years. God is not asking you to fix your whole life today. He is asking you for one step. He is walking past today. He is stopping. And He is asking you one question: What do you want me to do for you? Tell Him what you actually want. Let’s respond. Let’s take action. Everything on that QR code is a next step. Not a life plan. Just a step. 1. Name the one thing you have not let go that Jesus is asking you to put Him first in. 2. Write down the names of two people you’re going to bring to Jesus. 3. Sign up for College. One night a week can change your life. 4. Get baptized—if you’ve never gone public with your faith. 5. Sign up for that next step. Let’s take that step together today.