1. "And I found out when terrible circumstances come into a person's life, they either embrace it. They embrace those things and work through the trial, or they allow themselves to become bitter. And I could imagine being blind, you could be bitter or you could be better. And Stephen and Mary Beth, they both have outgoing personalities. They love to laugh. When Stephen introduced me the first time I ever met Mary Beth, he told me, he said, Brother Brock, this is my wife, Mary Beth. I said, hey, Mary Beth, how are you doing? He said, whoa, whoa, whoa. He said, don't be flirting with my wife. I got mine. I got my eye on you." [44:17] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "I love hanging out with people that makes bad situations better, don't you? But you know what I really love? I love hanging out. I love hanging out with people who make me better. There's an old saying that show me your five closest friends, and I'll show you your future because you will be like them. I love hanging out with people that helps me and makes me better." [46:02] (23 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "How many of you have made up mind this morning that my trial is not going to determine my relationship with the Lord? I'm not going to come with a relationship that says, God, if you do good in my life, I'll do good to you. But if bad things come my way, I'm going to blame it on you, and I'm going to get discouraged. And I'm going to walk away from the relationship. But I want to have an attitude. How are you going to live if you know that you're dying? And if God's not going to heal you, are you still going to worship?" [47:47] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "To overcome adversity, instead of blaming God, you must trust God. And so we need to, some of us, I'm not preaching to all of us, but some of us need to stop blaming God for everything that's going wrong in our lives and start trusting Him that He holds you and steadies the sail of your life in the middle of the storm." [48:41] (23 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "We can't take it for granted. We can't take Him for granted. We've got a God. Look, you've got a God. He's not desiring to. He's not desiring to curse you. He's not desiring to push you down. He's not desiring that you fail, but you've got a God. Don't take Him for granted because He's desiring to bless you. He's desiring to encourage you. He's desiring to strengthen you. He's desiring to take you through to the other side of this troubled water." [50:08] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




6. "I would dare say this, that we experience a measure of love, we experience a measure of happiness, and we experience a measure of joy, but until God fills you with the Holy Ghost, you'll never really open your eyes. You'll never really see how magnificent, you'll never really see how beautiful and glorious it can be. We take for granted the things that we don't see. And I'm going to tell you something, we need to change the way we see things." [51:44] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




7. "If you can't see tomorrow, you can't live for today. Oh, come on, don't let that go over our heads. If you can't see God doing something great in your life, how can you live for him in the moment? We come to church. We put smiles on our faces. Man, it's good living. It's good and it's easy to live for the Lord, but I don't see a lot of people around church folks, ain't it? But I don't find a whole lot of Holy Ghost filled people on the job site." [53:13] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




8. "Your voice will determine your life. It's the things that you say. They're very important. I want to pause here and just teach for a moment and say this. I never allow or try. It's a vice of mine, probably a vice of all of us. But I never allow. I never allow the words of my mouth to give the enemy a weapon against me. I never if the if the, you know, I've been told detrimental stuff by doctors, but I never walked out and said, well, I'm going to succumb to this. This is what's going to do me in." [54:06] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




9. "Blind Bartimaeus didn't say I wasn't, he did not say I am not a blind man. He just said that I don't have to remain blind because I know a man. Come on, somebody. Come on, somebody. When listening to what a person says, when you listen to what a person says, it's very important that you listen to what they don't say. Blind Bartimaeus didn't say, hey, I'm going to remain blind today. What he did, his actions was before he ever got up off of the road to Emmaus, he took that blue cover off." [59:45] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




10. "Faith begins to open a window. Long before you're in the presence of the man. Bartimaeus could do one thing. He's the first person that I ever know that he could see before he could see. He saw himself as being a man of sight. He saw himself going back home and being productive for his family. He saw himself on the job site instead of begging for bread. He saw himself being better. Instead. Instead of being bitter." [01:04:33] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Praise the Lord. Can we all stand to our feet this morning?

Let's give the Lord a huge hand clap of praise in the house of the Lord today. Oh, hallelujah. Lord, we just magnify the name of the Lord in Jesus' name.

Let's pray together right now.

Lord, we just praise and magnify, glorify your mighty name, God. Lord, I pray that your spirit come into this room in a powerful way today, God. Lord, let your will be done, God. Touch every heart, every mind, every spirit. Touch every need in this house, God. And let us come to lift up everything, put everything beside, God, and just lift up your name and begin to praise and magnify and glorify you.

Come on, somebody begin to lift up the name of the Lord right now. We love you, Jesus. Oh, hallelujah. We praise your mighty name in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus.

It's so good. It's so good to see everybody in the house of the Lord today. Amen. Especially our guest here today, Brother Dale. Brother Dale said he used to go to the church. He used to go to the church when it was across the road. The church has been here as long as I remember, so that was a while back. Amen.

And then Brother Ryan, he came to help. Well, he came to shop at the yard sale yesterday, wound up working in the yard sale, and showed up this morning for church. So we appreciate you being here.

How many of you said this to yourself before you came into the house of the Lord? I've come to magnify the Lord today. I come to worship him. I come to give him glory. I come to give him praise.

Let's continue to praise the Lord with a praise theme this morning. Would you lift your hand up if you have a need in the house of the Lord today? Amen. Now, would you lift your other hand up if you believe the Lord will meet that need? Amen.

Let's pray right now. We also need a great offering today. And the Lord knows the need in our offering. So we just praise and magnify him.

Brother and Sister Mokas, we're stuck in Texas right now with transmission trouble. So we want to make sure that God, that we pray for them. That God knows the need and will send them to somebody that can help them and bless them.

And Lord, we just pray right now for every giver in the house of the Lord, God. Lord, that you expand it, God. And then you turn it back and magnify it in their lives, God. And bless their finances, God. Lord, bless the givers' finances as they give into your kingdom.

And Lord, there's needs in this house, God. There's needs. There's needs. There's healings of sickness in their body, God. Lord, there's things troubling our minds, God. Lord, there's things that are just burdening, weighing us down, decisions to be made.

And God, we just ask that you magnify yourself and show yourself strong in every need in this house. And Lord, we come to the purpose, God, that we're going to praise you before it ever happens. And we just magnify and glorify the name of the Lord in the middle of our circumstance.

We give you great praise. If I shout, if I shout, no, I'm shouting from a heart that's been redeemed to the world that... Hallelujah, how many of you got a reason to testify this morning? My past erased, amen. My name he changed, let's testify.

Oh, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Don't you love it when God fills you with the Holy Ghost? Other people say about you, well, that don't even act like they did before. Whew!

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Can we give our worship team a hand clap of praise today? Amen.

Somebody told me something this week that they went to a service and they said their music team was pretty good, but there was something different. And I said, what was it? What was the difference? And they said, our music team's not only good, but they are anointed of the Lord. Amen.

The anointing makes a difference, doesn't it? But how many of you glad that you come to church with an anointed music team? Amen.

Praise the Lord. Good to see everybody in the house of the Lord today. Amen. Brother Dale said that he used to go to the church across the street. Brother Tubbs pastored, and they dug Pentecost out around this area. Amen.

So it's good to see one of our elders in the house of the Lord today. And again, it's good to see Jeremy here. I mean, he came. He came to help us, or he came to shop, wound up helping us, and come back today to have church with us. And that speaks a lot. That speaks a lot to a heart and a life desiring better. Amen. Desiring better.

You know, I believe this. You've got to desire better before you receive better. Amen.

Very, very familiar place of Scripture, Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. And I want to, before I go any farther, Sister Tiff, Tiffany gave mention to a few names today, and I want to reiterate this.

When we put the yard sale stuff out Friday, I must admit and confess that I walked away saying, Lord, if we get $200 from this here, you're good, God. But I found out one thing, that Sister Tiffany could sell water to a goldfish, and Sister Renee could sell water to an Eskimo. Amen. Amen.

So praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Amen.

I want to preach something, a passage, or read a passage of Scripture, very familiar to some. I thought Sister Ashley was going to step all over it in her lesson this morning in Sunday school.

Mark chapter 10, verse 46, and this is Jesus when he heals blind Bartimaeus. But I want us to take on the role of this blind man. I want us to put ourselves this morning in the shoes of Bartimaeus.

Now, they came, picking up at verse 46, now they came to Jericho, and he went out of Jericho, that's Jesus Christ, went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude. And so you could imagine the crowd that followed Jesus, and blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging.

And I want to stop right there and just say this. When it says "son of" in the Bible, especially the New Testament, when it says "son," and this is especially when it says "son of Timaeus," what it means is Bartimaeus was named after his father and son of Timaeus, and evidently Timaeus meant a blind man, and we can assume through theology that Bartimaeus was born blind.

And Bartimaeus sat by the roadside begging, and when he had heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me."

How many of you have just heard about Jesus Christ? Amen. But to get his attention, you cry out to him. You ask him, "Lord, have mercy upon me."

Then many warned him to be quiet. And our adversary always says, "You just need to shut up. You don't have to live like that." But Bartimaeus cried out all the more. He said, "You're not going to stop me. Son of David, have mercy. Have mercy on me."

So Jesus stood still. Everybody say, "He stopped," and commanded him to be called. And then they called the blind man, saying unto him, now remember, this is the ones that told him to sit down and shut up. Their attitude changed when Jesus said, "Call the blind man to me."

And they said, "Well, be of good cheer. Rise. Jesus is calling you."

But I want us to bear down here in verse 50, and throwing aside his garment, he arose and came to Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus threw aside his garment and rose and came to Jesus.

So Jesus answered and said unto him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabbi, that I might receive my sight."

Then Jesus said unto him, "Go your way. Your faith has made you well." And immediately, Bartimaeus received his sight and followed Jesus. Can we say it like this? On down the road. Amen. I kept following the Lord.

And for the next few moments as we pray, I want to speak this message that I feel like the Lord has given me. See before you see.

Let's put everything down and pray together right now in Jesus' name.

Lord, I call upon your great anointing in this message in our hearts. Lord, let us not only be hearers of your word, but God, let us be doers of your word. And God, let there be a great anointing through this message today in Jesus' name.

Let's all give the Lord a huge hand clap of praise. You can be seated now.

Forgive me for a moment because I've got to pastor for a little bit. And in other words, what I'm saying is I got to start off slow. That's out of my nature. Everybody knows that. I'm going to try to start off slow.

I had a friend of mine. His name is Stephen and his wife's name is Mary Beth. There is Stephen and Mary Beth Wagner, and they are precious, precious people. We used to go to church together several years ago.

But since Stephen and Mary Beth, they've moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and they go to Great Commission Pentecostal Church in Phoenix. And if you went to their website, their church website today, you would see Stephen and Mary Beth singing on their platform.

And Stephen and Mary Beth, both of them, they are blind. Mary Beth was born blind, and Stephen, at a very young age as a child, contracted a disease, and it caused his blindness. So he went blind early in life.

And this year, my friends Stephen and Mary Beth, they celebrate their 10th year wedding anniversary. And that's so awesome. And so I'm just precious, precious, precious people.

Occasionally, you know, Stephen and Mary Beth are both blind, so this amazes me. Occasionally, Stephen will message me on Facebook. I'm like, how does a blind man have Facebook? Sometimes he'll text me, and he's wanting to know about two things, how me and my wife are doing and how's the church doing, all the way from Phoenix, Arizona.

And so these, Mary Beth and Stephen, they have Facebook, they have cell phones, and they dress nice. You would think that a blind couple would kind of dress, you know, like red pants, green shirt, you know, just stuff like that. But they dress very nice.

Again, I said they sing on their praise team. And the greatest blessing that they are is they are a blessing to their church, and they're a blessing to the kingdom of God. And Mary Beth and Stephen, they love the Lord with all of their heart.

And I found out when terrible circumstances come into a person's life, they either embrace it. They embrace those things and work through the trial, or they allow themselves to become bitter.

And I could imagine being blind, you could be bitter or you could be better. And Stephen and Mary Beth, they both have outgoing personalities. They love to laugh.

When Stephen introduced me the first time I ever met Mary Beth, he told me, he said, "Brother Brock, this is my wife, Mary Beth." I said, "Hey, Mary Beth, how are you doing?" He said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. He said, don't be flirting with my wife. I got mine. I got my eye on you." Amen.

And in Montgomery, after a men's conference, we found ourselves a bunch of men dressed in suits, found ourselves in a very precarious situation. And we walked into a restaurant, and the place instantly got very quiet. And every eye was on us.

And it was very easy to see that we were very, very, very out of place. And Stephen, he sensed that there was something wrong. And he said, "Brother Brock, what's wrong? What's the matter?" And I said, "We just don't look like we belong here. I said, number one, we're in suits. Number two, we're sober."

And Stephen said, "Well, wait till they find out that I drove."

I love hanging out with people that makes bad situations better, don't you? But you know what I really love? I love hanging out. I love hanging out with people who make me better.

I love, you know, there's an old saying that show me your five closest friends, and I'll show you your future because you will be like them. I love hanging out with people that helps me and makes me better.

And I'm not wearing out an old record, but I'm going to play an old record. I remember Sister Royster, and I said this last Sunday. I might say it every Sunday, but I remember when Sister Royster faced the greatest trial of her life, when they told her she would never sing again.

She'd have to learn how to talk. Her family told her, "Well, Mom, don't feel so bad about this. At least you can play the keyboard to the Lord. You don't have to sing again."

Sister Royster called me on the phone and said, "Brother Brock, we're not going through this." And she's talking to me now, not her.

"Brother Brock, we're not going through this in fear." Amen. Amen. Amen.

And when somebody that I miss with all of my heart, and I sincerely mean that, when Jason Burnett told me that he was dying, he said, "Brother Brock, I got a bad report this last doctor's visit that I got."

And I was trying to console Jason over his cancer, and he looked me in the eye, and he said, "Brother Brock, you're dying too." He said, "You're dying too." He said, "The question is not are we dying, but the question is how are we going to live?"

Come on, I want to hang around somebody that makes me better. I want to hang around somebody that makes me better.

Stephen Wagner told me, he said, "I know God can heal me, Brother Brock, but I'm going to live for God even if he doesn't." Amen.

How many of you have made up your mind this morning that my trial is not going to determine my relationship with the Lord? Amen.

I'm not going to come with a relationship that says, "God, if you do good in my life, I'll do good to you. But if bad things come my way, I'm going to blame it on you, and I'm going to get discouraged. And I'm going to walk away from the relationship."

But I want to have an attitude. How are you going to live if you know that you're dying? And if God's not going to heal you, are you still going to worship? Are you still going to get up tomorrow morning and serve Him, no matter if everything goes wrong in your life?

And something that Stephen said to me, and I gain. Sister Brenda, I get little things from people, and I make it big things. Stephen said this to me. He said, "To overcome adversity, instead of blaming God, you must trust God." Amen.

And so we need to, some of us, I'm not preaching to all of us, but some of us need to stop blaming God for everything that's going wrong in our lives and start trusting Him that He holds you and steadies the sail of your life in the middle of the storm. Amen.

I could imagine all of his life, Bartimaeus desired to see. I mean, just, it changes everything. And I'm not trying to be very elementary and act like we're all stupid here today, but just very eyesight changes a whole lifestyle, changes everything about a lifestyle.

But let me ask you another question. How many of us got up this morning, and we could see our surroundings, but we take our eyesight for granted? Sometimes because things are just there, we take them for granted.

Sometimes. Some of us were not in a wheelchair today. Some of us got freedom of every limb. We're in our right, well, some of us are in our right mind. We're in our right mind. Amen.

We can hear, we can speak, and we take those things for granted. And I would dare say that God is all around us. He never leaves us. Come on, somebody. He never forsakes us.

We can't take it for granted. We can't take Him for granted. We've got a God. Look, you've got a God. He's not desiring to curse you. He's not desiring to push you down. He's not desiring that you fail, but you've got a God.

Don't take Him for granted because He's desiring to bless you. He's desiring to encourage you. He's desiring to strengthen you. He's desiring to take you through to the other side of this troubled water. Amen.

No matter how ugly our world seems, it must be a thing of beauty for a blind man to look into the eyes of his wife for the first time. Often the blind feels the warmth of the sun, but to look up and see the beauty of the sky must be something more and more beautiful.

How beautiful to sense that there were flowers and have somebody tell you about the flowers, but for the first time open your eyes and see the lilies of the field and the flowers in the fields and the trees.

And the rivers and the streams. How beautiful is that, the things that we take for granted. How beautiful to see love for the first time. How beautiful to see joy for the first time. How beautiful to see happiness for the first time.

And I would dare say this, that we experience a measure of love, we experience a measure of happiness, and we experience a measure of joy, but until God fills you with the Holy Ghost, you'll never really open your eyes.

You'll never really see how magnificent, you'll never really see how beautiful and glorious it can be. We take for granted the things that we don't see.

And I'm going to tell you something, we need to change the way we see things. Somebody says, "Well, I don't see my healing." Well, you'll never receive a healing because you've got to see it before it happens.

Bartimaeus, he said, "Hey, I don't care what the naysayers say, for me to sit down and shut up and not make a spectacle of myself today, but I don't see myself as a blind man. I see myself as this man, Jesus Christ, touching my eyes and me seeing today." Amen.

Some of you say, "Well, I don't see the other side of my dilemma," but blind Bartimaeus said, "I see him on the other side of the road."

Somebody said, "I don't see this turning out well," but Bartimaeus said, "If I can just get into his presence, all is well with the Lord." Amen.

Somebody needs to take the advice of a blind man. If you can't see tomorrow, you can't live for today.

Oh, come on, don't let that go over our heads. If you can't see God doing something great in your life, how can you live for him in the moment?

We come to church. We put smiles on our faces. Man, it's good living. It's good and it's easy to live for the Lord, but I don't see a lot of people around church folks, ain't it?

But I don't find a whole lot of Holy Ghost filled people on the job site. I don't see them in Walmart and the grocery store. I don't see a lot of them in my circle of friends and in my family.

And so we come to church with a lot of questions of things that we don't see. But living for today, we trust that God sees light in the middle of our darkness.

We trust that God sees things that we can't see. And a bitter Bartimaeus remains silent. Bitterness, my friend, will steal your voice.

Bitterness will steal your voice. And can I say it like this? Your voice will determine your life. It's the things that you say. They're very important.

I want to pause here and just teach for a moment and say this. I never allow or try. It's a vice of mine, probably a vice of all of us. But I never allow.

I never allow the words of my mouth to give the enemy a weapon against me. I never, if the, you know, I've been told detrimental stuff by doctors, but I never walked out and said, "Well, I'm going to succumb to this. This is what's going to do me in."

I've always closed that old hard wooden door behind me of the doctor's office and thought to myself, "God's got a great opportunity to get a testimony here." Amen.

But if you become bitter, if you become bitter, the blessings dry up. If you become bitter, the anointing of the Lord stops. If you become bitter, you will sit down in your bitterness and you will dwell more on what happened to you than the potential of what God could do through you.

I can't be bitter. I can't look back and be bitter from where I come from, what I've been through. But I've got to say everything that life has done to me. He has set me up for a blessing one day. Amen.

Bartimaeus trusted God and his trust. And he said, "Look, they're not going to rob my voice. I've been bitter all my life, but I've talked myself away from it. I'm not going to sit down here on the road to Emmaus. I'm not going to sit down and be quiet because I'm going to take a voice against my bitterness.

I'm going to take a voice against my identity. I'm going to take a voice against my power. I'm going to take a voice against my past. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on a blind man. Amen.

Do you know what? Bartimaeus was crying out, "Lord, I know you can heal me, but I come to get your attention regardless of what happens on this road today."

How many of you walked into this building, into this room, and said this morning, "I'm determined that I'm going to get the attention of the Lord no matter who tells me to sit down, no matter who tells me to be quiet, no matter who tells me you're not worthy, you don't measure up, you're not capable," because when the crowd demanded that he got quiet and sit down, blind Bartimaeus said, "I refuse their unbelief to affect my faith."

Come on. Some of you, you have listened to the testimony of others over your life, the things that they've said about you, and you've stopped short from God doing some great things in your life because of what others say.

But I know this. There's a great voice on the road to Emmaus today. Jesus Christ said, "Arise and call the blind man to my presence."

Do you know how to turn unbelief into faith? They shut their mouths and started being real polite to a blind man when Jesus says, "I've got a voice on him now. I've got a different thing to say about the blind man."

Before he ever stood up, Jesus Christ said, "He's already healed. You just don't see it the way I see it."

I want to tell somebody today, your problem's already solved. You just don't see it the way Jesus sees it. You're already healed. You just don't see it the way Jesus sees it.

You've already come out of this trial. You just don't see it the way Jesus sees it. Somebody needs to rise and cast off the garment of unbelief.

And that's very important. I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. But a blind man, because, you know, you don't want to run over a blind man with a camel. Not in the streets of Jerusalem, not in Jericho, not on the road to Emmaus.

So a blind man had to wear a certain garment that labeled him as being a blind man. And you could imagine if, let's say it was a garment of blue. I don't know how I picked that color.

Let's say it was a garment of blue. Anytime you've seen somebody wearing the garment of blue to identify themselves as a blind man, you rush to take extra care and was extra special for this person.

"Oh, they're blind. We'll open the door for them. They're blind. We'll make sure that they don't fall. We're blind. We'll make sure that we uphold them."

And so I could imagine that Bartimaeus got frustrated because others are doing for me what I desire to do for myself.

Oh, come on, somebody. Come on. How low, how low can your self-awareness go when everybody has to help you?

Somebody say, "He just pulled me right into a trap." When somebody else is paying your bills because you don't have the capability to pay them yourself, how low does that drive you?

When others are trying to, are having to give you things because you hadn't had that place in life to where you have things now. How low does that drive you?

When others are trying to, are having to give you things now. How low can you, how does it affect your self-esteem because you're dependent on somebody else to do what you desire to do for yourself?

Blind Bartimaeus didn't say I wasn't, he did not say I am not a blind man. He just said that I don't have to remain blind because I know a man.

Come on, somebody. Come on, somebody. When listening to what a person says, when you listen to what a person says, it's very important that you listen to what they don't say.

Blind Bartimaeus didn't say, "Hey, I'm going to remain blind today." What he did, his actions was before he ever got up off of the road to Emmaus, he took that blue cover off.

He took that blue coat off. He took off the garment of a blind man and long before he saw him being healed, he said in his self, "I'm no longer a blind man."

Why? Why? Because he had the opportunity that each and every one of us here have today. He stood in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I dare say it today. God's in the house. The spirit of the Lord is in the house. Some of us, our testimony is, "Well, I know God could heal me. I know God could help me."

Friend, you've got to decide who's going to be the winner. Are you going to allow unbelief to defeat you? Are you going to allow faith to carry you across the finish line?

Unbelief said, "Shut up, sit down, be quiet." Faith said, "Do whatever you can to get his attention." Amen.

Faith said, "I don't care if you make your neighbor mad. I don't care if they sit, sit down in church and they sit there like a statue. Don't you do that because you're trying to see something."

Don't you do that because you're trying to see something. Don't you do that because you're trying to see something. Don't you do that because you're trying to see something.

Come on. Hallelujah. Somebody said, "Well, why didn't you receive the Holy Ghost? I saw my family being saved. If I got saved, I saw my children coming out of this. If I come out of this, I thought my, I saw my life turning around."

When I begin to turn around, I begin to see things that I saw. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Bartimaeus said, "Hey, shut up." What you mean shut up? I'll cry even louder. It's the spiteful child mentality. Tell me to do something and I'm gonna do it a little bit more than you think I can.

Could I say it like this? Oh please help me. I'm walking on a theology line right now. I'm walking on a line of theology right now. Can I say this? Can I say that blind Bartimaeus might have got a little bit spiteful child mentality about him and said, "I don't care what you say, I'm gonna do it anyway."

Somebody, you need to tell that unbelieving spirit that's around you, "I don't care if you say God can't do it, I'm gonna see if God can do it anyhow. I don't care what you say that I don't care what you say about my attendance in the house of the Lord. I'm gonna keep showing up in God's house. I don't care if you say that God can't do it, I know that I'm gonna see if God can because Jesus will take your faith and heal you with it."

Oh, come on, somebody. Don't just sit there with that. Jesus can take your faith and heal you with your own faith.

Now, the reason I've used my friends Stephen and Mary Beth is because it's good to use illustrations that you know. You don't have to write them down. It's good to use illustrations that you know.

And something that's just ringing in my ears right now is Stephen saying, "When you become bitter over what's happened to you, you'll lock up the blessings of God in your life."

It's like going up to the windows of heaven and God saying, "I'll open this window and pour you out a blessing," and you're just forcing him to close that blessing because you don't believe he can.

My Lord, friend, bitterness will cause a person to be easily influenced to sit down and be quiet and not have a voice against unbelief.

And believe that, well, maybe they are right. I do just need to sit down. Maybe they are right. I don't need to put as much energy as I've been putting into serving the Lord.

Maybe they are right. This religion's not for me. Maybe they are right. Brother Brock don't need to be my pastor. Maybe they are right. I don't really need a church family.

Bitterness will begin to cause you to sit down and shut up. But faith begins to open a window. Faith begins to get. Faith begins to open a window.

Faith begins to open a window. Long before you're in the presence of the man. Bartimaeus could do one thing. He's the first person that I ever know that he could see before he could see.

He saw himself as being a man of sight. He saw himself going back home and being productive for his family. He saw himself on the job site instead of begging for bread.

He saw himself being better instead of being bitter. And he saw himself saying, "I don't know what Jesus can do, but I know that I see it's possible that he can."

Alright, I'm going to try to close because we're a little over time. I'm going to try to close Mark 10 and 49. I'm going to re-read something.

So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man saying to him, "Be of good cheer, rise. He's calling you."

And throwing aside his garment, he's calling you. He rose and came to Jesus.

Do you know what he was activating? He was activating Hebrews 11 and 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen.

He was activating Luke 1 and 37. For with God nothing shall be impossible. He was activating Proverbs 3 and 5. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart. And lean not unto thy own understanding.

He was activating 1 Corinthians 2 and 5. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

He was activating Romans 2 and 5. Romans 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and 7. For we walk by faith, faith not by sight.

We walk by faith and not by sight. What garment of unbelief do you need to cast off here today? Before you can see what you can see.

Oh come on somebody. Amen. I see myself saved. I see myself living for Jesus. I see myself healed. I see myself being a member of new life on Eastern Valley.

I see myself belonging here. I see my life about to change. I see what I see before I ever see it.

Let's all stand for a moment. When you face impossible situations, faith says follow the way of the Lord. Get up blind man and cast away your garment.

When we make our way, Jesus' way, Jesus will make his way our way. Are you facing a situation where the odds are stacked up against you? The voices are piled up on you.

Why not try the way of the Lord? It's the way of change. It's the way of a blessing.

I close with this. Final time. Habakkuk 1 and 5. It said look at the nations. And watch. And be utterly amazed.

See the nations that the Lord speaks about is the voices in your head that tell you. Why trouble Jesus? Why cry out for him? Because after all. Just sit down and be quiet. He can't help you.

But the last part of Habakkuk 1 and 5. Habakkuk 1 and 5. Is seeing before you see. He said for I, this is the Lord, said for I'm going to do something in your day that you would not believe even if you were told.

Can I say this? There's a potential in everybody's life. And in this moment, God has a better testimony of what you can do than your testimony of what you can do than what you think he can do.

And if he told you, if he told you what was going to happen in your life if you surrendered to him and gave your whole life, you would not even believe it.

Because trapped in these human bodies, we can't see before we see. But by the eyes of faith, by the eyes of faith, I see God making me so much better.

I see God healing a body. I see God healing a mind. I see God changing and turning circumstances around. I see God just being who he is.

Could we all just pile up in these altars right now and just say God I need to see you. Just gather around the altar and say God I just need to see before I see God.

I just need you. I need you Jesus. Oh hallelujah.

Anybody desire to change their life today? Anybody desire just to say Lord, I just give you everything God. I see you doing something greater in my life.

I see you doing something greater in my life than I ever saw before. Come on somebody just lift up your arms right now. Lift up a voice.

Come on like Bartimaeus. It's not time to sit down and be quiet. It's time to say Lord. Have mercy on me a blind man. Have mercy on me a blind person God.

I want to see. I want to see you for who you are. I want to see who you really are. I want to see what you could do in my life God.

I want to see how you turn things around. I want to see the blessings that flow out of your throne. I want to see this window opened in my life God.

I want to see the things that just poured out that I cannot contain. Oh hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Come on somebody you got to believe it right now. You got to see before you see it. You got to see it. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.

Oh hallelujah. I praise you Jesus. Praise your mighty name.

Oh hallelujah. Hallelujah.

I want to, can I ask a favor? I mean you being here said I was your pastor. Can I ask a favor? Would you do yourself a favor today?

You know I started out and I said let's put ourselves in the shoes of this blind man. How would you act and what would you do if you just casted that robe of unbelief off and God just touched you and said you are healed.

You are healed. How would you act? How you going to worship him?

The Bible says that Bartimaeus followed him down the road and I don't think he followed him in silence. I think here's Bartimaeus following Jesus down the road.

My Lord have mercy. I can see the flowers. I can see you're a good God. You're a good God. You're a good God to me.

I can see things that I've never seen before. I can see my family being saved. I can see my husband being delivered. I can see my wife.

I can see my wife. I can see our situation being restored. I can see my mind. I can see my mind being healed.

Oh hallelujah. What do you see right now when the Lord has just healed everything that you've come for?