Faith That Follows

Two blind men trail Jesus through a crowd, shout for mercy the whole way, and then walk straight into a house where they were never invited. That one scene in Matthew 9 exposes a question that still messes with us today: how can someone with “less” status, less certainty, and less welcome sometimes recognize Jesus more clearly than the people who think they have it all together?

We start by pulling wisdom from Brother Lawrence and The Practice of the Presence of God, where prayer stops being a scheduled activity and becomes a steady, honest conversation with God in the middle of normal work. From there we read the healing story of the blind men and connect it to Isaiah 11, Jesus’ compassion, and the way the Messiah judges differently than human systems do. Along the way we talk about Jairus, the woman who touches the hem of Jesus’ garment, and how Jesus keeps stopping for the people who “should not” be there.

Finally, we draw a line between believing in God’s power and trusting God’s compassion, because faith that moves toward Jesus is often rooted in believing He is willing. If this challenged you, share the episode, subscribe, and leave a review.

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Transcript

Welcome And Where We’re Going

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone, I'm Ben. And I'm Logan, and we're the Robins. Welcome to the Resting Place Podcast. And we're gonna go immediately to Matthew chapter 9. And I'm going to hang my hat there in Matthew 9. And we'll go from 27 to 38, Matthew 9, 27 to 38. And then I may make a reference again to uh Isaiah 11. And then we may go into Matthew 10. We'll just see what time allows and we'll see kind of where I'm at. If I've said everything I need to say, then I'll quit saying things. So that's how we'll do it. I want to read something from Brother Lawrence before I get started. I was uh looking at this book and just opened it up and I found this, and I think this will frame really nicely uh, hopefully, what I'm trying to say today. And this is from Brother Lawrence's book, The Practice of the Presence of God. And this is a Christian classic. It's easy to read. Everybody probably should own this book. This is one that everybody should have. It's incredible. Uh brother Lawrence was a was a monk and he worked in the kitchens at his monastery and lived a very busy life. It wasn't like we think of monastic life as like they're just always praying and they're always meditating. That was the exact opposite of what he was doing. And this man so learned the uh so learned how to practice the presence of God in his daily life. So he didn't just wait until he was praying, he was always praying, and he did away with the line of separation between the holy and the secular, and he did away with the line of separation between what's prayer and what's not prayer, and all became prayer to him. And there would there would be pilgrims that would travel from miles to his monastery to watch him wash dishes. They didn't come to hear him speak, they didn't come to they didn't they they didn't come to hear him give a homily, they came to watch that man wash dishes. That is a level of the presence of Jesus that I am jealous for. And I just I I my mind goes crazy when I hear those things. I'm like, what kind of frequency was coming off of him? And what kind of light came out of his eyes that he could wash the dishes and people's lives would be impacted by the way that he washed food off a dish? That's unreal, man. Um but he wrote this. So this is at the back of his book. This is spiritual maxims, it's just short little short little uh paragraphs here, and this is what this one says. All things are possible to him who believes, still more to him who hopes, still more to him who loves, and most of all to him who practices all three. All things are possible to him who believes, and still more to him who hopes, and still more to him who loves. And most of all to him who practices all three. All of us who believe as we should and are baptized, have taken the first step toward perfection. We will attain perfection if we practice the following principles of Christian conduct. And he just talks about being perfected as though it's nothing. He's just like, We've just already started, we just got to practice these three things, and you'll be alright. It's he doesn't make it any more complicated than that. He doesn't give us 55 Greek words and seven creeds to memorize, although the creeds are valuable. He doesn't do that, he just said, just practice faith, hope, and love, and you'll be okay. Literally, that's all he just practice all three of them, and anything will be possible to you, and you'll be okay. That is the the best, the best. And then one more, because this one blessed me too. And this is from his uh section, Essential Practices for the Spiritual Life. The most uh not that one, uh, this one here. We must try to converse with God in little ways while we do our work, not in memorized prayer, not in trying to recite previously formed thoughts, rather, we should purely and simply reveal our hearts as the words come to us. Golly. I'll read that one more time. We must try to converse with God in little ways while we do our work, not in memorized prayer, not trying to recite previously formed thoughts. Rather, we should purely and simply reveal our hearts as the words come to us. If that's not the best explanation of prayer I have ever heard, I don't I don't know what is. And Brother Lawrence had that figured out. At this point, when was he a long time ago? That's that's all I got, a long time ago. I don't I don't remember exactly when he lived, but it was a while back.

unknown 5:41

And in the Midwest.

Matthew 9 Reading And Setup

Why Blind Men Follow Jesus

Isaiah 11 And God’s True Nature

SPEAKER_00 5:43

We do say it in the Midwest, too. I sometimes still get made fun of for saying Southern things while I'm here in the Midwest. I'm like, guys, I am a Midwesterner. I'm more Midwest than all of you, I promise. The 1600s, he had that figured out. Good lord. So just after Columbus found the United States, he's 1492, so a little while after 1492, he's figuring this out before we were before we were even a country, this man had it figured out. Goodness. That's incredible. Um so hopefully let me let me the first one again and then I'll if I can find it again. Gosh. Um Yeah, the yeah, in the 1600s, people are traveling by by by foot, probably. Most of these pilgrims probably traveled by foot. They're walking to go see this guy. It's not like he's ten minutes down the way and they can just jump in their car. There's no live stream. There's no there's there's none of that. They heard a rumor that there's a man who glows while he washes dishes. Let's go see him. Golly. All things are possible to him who believes, still more to him who hopes, still more to him who loves, and most of all to him who practices all three. All things are possible to him who believes, still more to him who hopes, still more to him who loves, and most of all, to him who practices all three. Amen. You're dismissed. That's probably that's probably all we need today. Um so I want to frame a little bit of what I'm saying through the lens of all things are possible to him who believes, still more to him who hopes, and still more to him who loves, but most of all to him who does all three. So Matthew nine, and let's get going in verse twenty-seven. After Jesus left the girl's house, so whose house did Jesus just leave in Matthew nine, twenty-seven. If you back up, Jesus had just left Jairus' home, where he had raised Jairis' daughter, who was twelve years old and on the verge of death, back to life. Jesus walks into the house, says, She's not dead, she's just asleep. Everyone starts making fun of him. Jesus boots everybody out of the house, says, get out. That's an interesting thing he did before he would do the before he would do it. He got rid of those mocking that he could that he could even think about it. She's just asleep. And they start. It's crazy. They went from wailing to mocking in a split second. Oh. Shocking to me. If some if my daughter had just passed and Jesus walked into the room and says, Hey, don't worry, she's just asleep. She's gonna be okay. I don't think my first reaction is going to be make fun of the man for saying she's just asleep. I think I'm probably gonna give him a second to do the thing he's about to do. Their first response is, Yeah, bullcrap. She's dead. Nothing you can do about it. And Jesus said, Get out. So Jesus kicks him out of the house, raises her back, says, Little girl, I say unto you, get up. She gets up, tells her parents to give her something to eat. They don't say that in Matthew, they do that in another account of the gospels. Give her something to eat. They give her something to eat, and then he says, Don't tell anyone. Then he moves on. So what does he move on to do? He says the report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside after Jesus left the girl's home. So Jesus is on his way somewhere. He's on his way and he's going to go stay in a home he's been invited to. Okay? Watch what happens as soon as he leaves. After Jesus left the girl's home, two blind men followed along behind him saying, shouting, Son of David, have mercy on us. After he left the girl's home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, Son of David, have mercy on us. And I have questions immediately about how two blind men know how to follow him. These are the immediate questions I have. There was surely a crowd following, there were surely his disciples following. He would have had at least the twelve, and maybe and maybe more, because we know he had more than just twelve disciples, he at least had seventy that he would send out in pairs. So there may be there may have been 140, as many as 140 of his disciples. He sends out seventy in pairs. There's a crowd following. But the issue we run into, I just did some Rick Steiner math right there. If you all have never seen that promo lance, you know what I'm talking about. Um look it up later. It's funny because I just butchered that. That's it's hilarious. Um Jesus leaves, these men follow, but they would not have just been accepted into the crowd of followers. They're blind. And the blind, the lame, and the sick, leprous, those specifically were viewed as being under the punishment of God for either their sins or familial generational sins that the Lord was judging them for. So they were viewed as cursed and under the judgment of God. These were people that would not have been accepted by followers of a rabbi. And we can see even the disciples' attitude towards the blind when they say, Whose man Father, whose sin caused this man to be born blind? Was it his sin or his parents' sin that caused him to be born blind? I mean, he's just he was born that way, so either he can maybe he kicked his mom one too many times while he was in the womb, and that was enough. Lord said, All right, blind. You've you've kicked one too many times, blind. I told you to stop it blind. So that was that was their attitude. So the their attitude is that's straight to jail. That's right. That's straight to jail. Straight to jail. Parks and Rec is so dumb. Straight to jail. Straight to blind. Blind. Kicks too many times, blind. Believe it or not, blind. So these guys are not, they're not accepted part of the following crew. They would have been on the outskirts, and it's not like they were helping him. We can see that they're not too eager to help the blind by the way that he uh heals blind Bartimaeus. Blind Barnabius outside Jericho starts crying out, son of David, have mercy on me, and everybody pretends he's not there. He starts making a scene. He takes off his beggar's robe and starts screaming, making a scene, and they pretend like he's not there. They're not interested. If now, if I'm rolling with somebody who's healing the blind regularly, I'm like, hey, those two guys, I'd like to see that hat, that thing you do, I'd like to you to do it again. I'd like watching it when people get healed, so I'd like to see the thing again. Do do tell them to come here. That's me. The disciples were like, why would I why would I waste my time interacting with someone who's under the curse of God? They can stay away. Let's just hang out. And so there the point is they're not eager to help these men. There's no helping hand coming along saying, hey, follow along this way. If you follow long enough, Jesus will heal you. They'd rather they weren't there. They'd rather they weren't there. Two blind men followed along behind him shouting, Son of David, have mercy on us. And it doesn't say how long they followed or how long they shouted. We get no numerical like mileage on this. How many hours walking's not fast. Walking's not even speed walkers, y'all are not all that fast. Walking's not something you're getting somewhere quickly, and these men followed, shouting the entire way, son of David, have mercy on us. They went right into the house where he was staying. How did they know how to get into the house? We've established they're not welcome guests. First of all, they've not been invited. Second of all, they're under the curse of God. Third of all, we have enough evidence in the rest of Scripture to suggest that no one was eager to help them. How did they know how to get into the house that he was in? It's just where my mind goes. They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, Do you believe I can make you see? If they followed that well, why do they need to see? Is my second question. It seems like you're seeing better than everyone else is seeing. It seems like there's some there's some folks that have failed to recognize who he is, that these men have a much clearer picture of the worthiness of this man to be followed, and it takes two blind men to be the witness that the Son of David has been made manifest among us, and they follow him right into the home. It seems to me like they're seeing okay. Do you believe I can make you see? Yes, yes, Lord, they told him we do. Then Jesus touched their eyes and said, Because of your faith it will happen. Then their eyes were opened and they could see. Jesus sternly warned them, Don't tell anyone about this, but instead they went out and spread his fame all over the region. When they left, a demon-possessed man who couldn't speak was brought to Jesus. So Jesus cast the demon out, cast out the demon, and then the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed. Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel, they exclaimed. But the Pharisee said he can he can cast out demons because he is empowered by the Prince of Dons. And I'll stop there. We may get to 38 here before before I'm done. Verse 27. After he left the girl's home, two blind men followed along, shouting, Son of David, have mercy on us. And there are two things that I immediately notice here, and I've already talked a little bit, but I want to want to touch this again. One is obvious. These two men are blind, but they followed a man they couldn't see. These two men are blind, but they followed a man they couldn't see. Two men everyone would have believed were under the judgment of God, were following a man they couldn't see. Who are you even following? And the second thing is this. They were effectively making the announcement that Isaiah eleven had come to pass in front of everyone who could see what was happening. Isaiah eleven says this There shall come forth a rod from the stem of from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow forth shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. So in righteousness he rightly judges that these two men who can't see that have been following me, and righteousness he says, I'm going to teach everyone who should be able to see me something about the nature of my father. And the nature of my father is far different than you believe it to be. Not everyone can experience the presence of God. We have to have a high priest that will go in one time a year and offer the blood on the mercy seat. That's the one time of year we experience the tangible presence of God. No one else may go in. Everyone else has to be separated. And they believed it was the Lord's idea. Secondly, they performed ritual sacrifice to avoid judgment. Their worldview was God is separated from us and he's waiting for a reason to judge me, so I must follow the law in order to avoid judgment. So in righteousness, he comes and sees two men who are following along when they can't see something that Jairus should have seen when he raised his daughter from the dead. Seeing something that these people that were mocking him when he said, Hey, she's not dead, she's just asleep. These blind men, the poor of the earth, are seeing something they can't see. And in righteousness, he decides I've got a judgment that I'm going to bring to the earth. And the judgment that I'm going to bring to the earth isn't against these men. It's against the disease that these people believe God gave them. I'm going to judge the disease and I'm going to judge the mindset, but I'm not judging these men. I'm judging the disease that these people believe I gave them because I have no disease to give. And I'm going to judge the mindset of the individual who would look at the poor and say they must be cursed by God because that's not the nature of my Father. John 1.18 teaches us that Jesus is the perfect representation of the Father. Elsewhere in Scripture, he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You can look through Hebrews 1, you can look through all of Hebrews and see that Jesus is the exact, he is the exact reflection of the nature of the Father, and He's so much higher than the rest of creation. That's all that Hebrews is about. Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, and then it just goes on for chapters about how much greater Jesus is than the rest of creation, that nothing compares. And he comes, he comes and he's healing St. Saint Veronica. J. Iris is falling down at his feet, saying, My daughter is on the verge of death. Please come and heal her. He says, I'll come with you. Saint Veronica grabs the hem of his garment. The issue of her blood is dried up. Jesus stops, and if I'm J. Iris, I'm mad because he's stopping and my daughter's circling the drain. And says to the woman that should not be there. God, that that always blows my mind. I have to stop every time. I have to I have to. It blows my mind every time she should not have been there by law. Should not have been. Everyone around everyone she touched bumping through that crowd became ceremonially unclean. And had they known what was going on with her, she could have been punished severely. Grabs the hem of his garment. Jesus says, Who touched me? Peter says, Lord, that's a dumb question. Everyone's touching you. No. Someone touched me with intent, and I felt miracle power leave from me. Who touched me? This woman. How they find her, again, Randy Clark does such a beautiful job talking about this and says, you know, he'd had his pocket picked when he was younger at a state fair, at a fair, at a local county fair, and couldn't find the pickpocket in a crowd of a hundred people, and this would have been a crowd of thousands. How they were able to identify her, she must have been shaking under the power of God after she grabbed hold of a live wire of the healing power of Almighty Jesus. She grabs him. The power of God runs through her body and dries her issue of blood up, and Lord says to her, daughter, be encouraged. Your faith has made you well. She couldn't help him. She could only hurt him. She couldn't help him. There's nothing positive that comes for his ministry and his reputation and the way people see him in the earth. He's already in trouble with the religious elites. He's already in trouble. He's been healing in the synagogues, he's been healing on the Sabbath, he's been having confrontations. They've taken him outside to a hill and tried to throw him off of it, and he disappears and walks through the crowd. They've already tried to kill him. They're already plotting to kill him. Maybe leave well enough alone and the ceremonially unclean woman, who many believe got that way because of an STD she contracted from a sinful lifestyle. Maybe leave well enough alone and don't cause more controversy while you're while you're traveling to a man's house who can help you.

unknown 25:04

J.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

Iris, a leader in the synagogue, could help him. This is the interesting juxtaposition Jesus always does. J. Iris comes and says, My daughter is on the verge of death. Will you come and save her? He says, Yes, I'm coming. Let's go. He had the power to change people's minds. He had the power to welcome Jesus, a rabbi, into their synagogue, affirm his teachings, and help Jesus' reputation in the region and also with the religious elites. He could do two things. He could help gather a crowd and he could help him with the religious elites. He could do both of those things for Jesus. And he could maybe help turn, change the mind of some of the other synagogue leaders, and maybe they come to a happy medium and maybe things start to work out, and Jesus gets more socially accepted by the religious elites. And on the way there, all he's got to do is behave. Just behave and raise the man's daughter from the dead, and you'll be okay, Jesus. Maybe something good will happen to your ministry rather than just having controversy all the time. And on the way there, this little woman who can do nothing but bring controversy to him grabs him. Golly, she wasn't supposed to. Was illegal. Everything about it was illegal. She absolutely not. She could do nothing. How could she know that she didn't? Exposure of touching the the controversy that surrounds touching a rabbi when you're unclean like that. That's a level of things I don't understand. The fact that he stopped is what gets me. That's that's the that's the thing that's that stops me through the whole story is Jesus stopped. He could have she's healed. No, no, you're right. That's exactly right. She's healed either way. He felt healing power leave his body. He knows she's healed. He could just move on.

unknown 26:58

But not what the father said.

Jairus Veronica And Who Belongs

SPEAKER_00 27:01

He could just move on and avoid the controversy, avoid the trouble, but he stops, recognizes her as a daughter, and says, You, your faith made you whole. The healing that would have gone on in her spirit from that recognition and the fact he cared enough to stop complete wholeness brought to that woman. So he's on the back end of that, goes to J. Iris' house, raises the girl from the dead. Now, if I'm J. Iris, I'm following him shouting, The Son of David has been made manifest among us, and I know because he just raised my daughter from the dead. She was dead, now she's alive, he did it. This is the root of Jesse. This man, it's the rod that has come forth from the broken stem of Jesse. This is him, this is Messiah, and it takes two blind men to do it. It's almost like the religious elite wanted Jesus to need their permission to be Messiah. I look at the interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees, Jesus and the Sadducees, Jesus and the synagogue leaders, and they're constantly slapping his wrist because they didn't give him permission. They didn't give him permission. And if I'm if I'm J. Iris and my daughter just got raised from the dead, I'm not letting a blind man who's under the curse of God make the announcement I should be making. Where was the one whose daughter just got raised from the grave? Where was he? That's that's that's a question I have. Where were you, J. Iris, when these two people you believed were cursed were making the announcement you were designed to make? Because he vacated his seat. Yahweh chose the poor of the earth to make an announcement that the religious leaders were designed to make. This one's Messiah. This is the one we've been waiting for. He's it. Fasten your heart on him, follow him, he's taking away all the sins of the earth. That's what they're saying when they're saying, Son of David, have mercy on me. This man is Messiah. Come and follow him. And the people who were designed to make the announcement were too busy waiting to give Jesus permission to be Jesus. Waiting to give him permission to be who he was. And Jesus was completely uninterested in their permission. It's this interesting thing. He's completely uninterested in my permission to do the things he's going to do. He's going to do them. So, in contrast to the announcement these blind men are making about Jesus, what are some of the interactions the religious established law following religious relites had for him? Who gives you the authority to cast out this devil? Who gives you the authority to heal this withered man's hand on the Sabbath? There are six other days you should come to be healed. Don't come here to be healed on the Sabbath. If your donkey falls into a pit on the Sabbath, do you leave him in the pit or do you get him out? How much more should a son of Abraham be made well on the Sabbath? He casts out demons by the Prince of Dem, and this is just a carpenter's son, are some of the things that the are some of the announcements the religious established order would make about Jesus. And we can poke holes in the way that the fair and I do it enough. We can poke holes in the way that the established religious elite interacted with Jesus and the way that they approached Jesus and the way that they judged the things that he was doing. We can poke holes in that all day long, and I've done that enough. I've done that enough for probably three lifetimes. How do we respond when he starts to do things that offend us? When it's actually his ways being revealed in our lives that start to cut against the grain of how our predispositions have led us. When he starts to cut against the grain of my personality, how do I respond? My response is who gave you the authority? Now that's funny, but that's often our first response is who gave you the authority to go ahead and step and cut against the grain of the way that I am. You are to leave well enough alone and let me be.

unknown 32:01

Where do you get off?

When Jesus Offends Our Defaults

Resistance As An Invitation Closer

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Where do you yeah, it's exactly right, Levi, where do you get off telling me I can't be that way? I would prefer that I could be however which way I wanted to be, and y'all leave me alone. No, I'm talking, I'm talking about when he can when he offends me by confronting me with ways that I with ways with ways that I am. Like just so, for example, like personality conflict or you can fill in the blank. There's almost anything you could put there. That's a very generic thing I just said, I suppose, and maybe I should be more specific. How about the way that I'm raising my children? And when I discipline my children, and the Lord would like me to be more Christ-like in the way that I respond in a stressful moment when they're acting crazy. How about that? That's that's good enough. And my response would be, sir, who do you think you are? I'll raise my children anyway in the way that I that's kind of a joke, but also it can be kind of true. Like conviction. It is a little bit conviction, yeah. That can be convicting, I suppose. Yeah. Correction. Correction is a good word as well. Illuminating, that that is falling short of my pre-designed plan for you, and you ought to do better. Yes, exactly. You want to be more like me. Let me touch this then. But I it's the one thing that I'd re I you can have everything. Why do you want to touch the one thing that I don't want you to touch? I the I I don't mind it. Like I'm really I'm dealing with it well. It's okay. We're doing okay with it. I'd prefer that you allowed me to act that way when I felt like it. Can we do that? 100%. 100 no, it's 100% the Christian walk. And I'm kind of being silly, but also kind of being serious, where like I can poke holes in the way that the religious leaders responded to Jesus by breaking the law as they saw it, flying in the face of their religious established law. But when he when push comes to shove and he comes, as they say in the South, the chickens come home to roost, and he he has something to say to me about the way that I have been. How what are my what's my first response? And is it openness to his correction, or would my response be more of defensiveness or justification, or we can fill in the blank of less than desirable responses there? But I think the point remains. We rationalize how we have been rather than just saying, you know what, you're right, and I'm gonna make that right. And Lord, please forgive me, I repent, and allow him to change our mind through kindness. Um so the established law-following religious elite wanted a Messiah who needed their approval. It's I I think that's clear through scripture. They wanted to be the ones who announced, This is the one we put our stamp of approval on him, he's the one we'll all follow. Jesus had no interest in getting the stamp of approval from a system he was finishing. He was busy doing the works of the Father, finishing the law. Finishing the law. Not one jot or tittle of the law will pass away until it has been finished. And Jesus came and finished the law. He's closing the book on the law of Moses, and he did not need the approval of the ones that claim to be following in Moses' footsteps to in order to close it. He had the stamp of approval of his father. So these blind men follow Jesus all the way past the threshold of a home they haven't been invited into. Now there are two problems here. One, they're blind, they're under the curse of God, they can't see, and they're under the curse of God. That's kind of all wrapped into one problem. You're blind, you can't see, you're under the curse of God, you're not wanted here. Two, you're not invited. And the the taboo, the cultural taboo of violating someone's space with your curse. Bring your curse under my home. Bring a filthy, cursed sinner into the home of a righteous Jew. The cultural taboo surrounding that would have been appalling. It's appalling what they did. I we don't we don't really have like a paradigm for how outrageous behavior that would have been considered. Outrageous. How'd they see to get in here? First of all. Second of all, I don't want that filthy curse in my house. Get them out. People were so ashamed of the blind that the man who's born blind, his parents wanted nothing to do with him even after he'd been healed. The Pharisees call them over and start to question them, and their only response is, hey, he's of age, ask him. That's their only response. If my son had been born blind and a Pharisee starts getting in a well-meaning pastor starts getting in my face about a healing that had taken place in my son's life and claiming it's fake and claiming, that man would not have walked home. I'm not that saved. He's not walking home. I'm not. I'm not that saved. I'm gonna I'm breaking somebody's lip. That's what's happening immediately. It's a fight immediately. I'm gonna break up, I'm gonna break a lamp over somebody's head. That's my immediate thought is why is he not swinging on this guy? Why is there not a giant brawl happening in the synagogue because they tried to say his son, who was born blind, is was not real, is it? Your son really wasn't born blind. No, he suffered. And you spit at him. That's the that's the thing. These guys got spit at by the religious. These blind men were spit at. That's a cultural custom would be for religious leaders to walk towards the blind and spit on the ground next to them so loudly they could hear them so that they could constantly be reminded of their disgust and the judgment of God that they were under. These dudes had been being spit at by J. Iris. And the one J. Iris spit at made an announcement J. Iris was designed to make because J. Iris couldn't humble himself to say, this is the one we've been waiting for. No, it had to be a cursed man. I can't, I can't do enough justice or have enough passion about what these men were doing when they're following him, saying, Son of David, have mercy on me. I can't do it justice because we don't understand what it was like. They'd been being spit at for as long as they'd been blind. And they, Jesus, they felt a presence that said, follow me. They're cursed. But there's something in the frequency that man's carrying that makes me want to follow him. The difference between the two worlds is shocking, and it's still shocking today. The difference between I feel something that I can't deny that's causing me to walk this way, and I heard he just went into a house, so I think I'm gonna walk into a house. Golly man. It took a cursed man to make the announcement. And every time they opened their mouth and declared, son of David, son of David, son of David, this man's Messiah, and I believe it. Son of David, this man's Messiah, and I believe it. Son of David, this man is Messiah, and I believe it. There is a principle. They got to go in where no one else went in. Why? Because resistance is not the father saying no. Resistance is the father asking, How close are you willing to come in order to receive what you're asking for? How close to me will you be willing to get? And they followed where everyone else who could see would not follow. The fact that they went in there means Jesus was willing for all of them to follow. But two men who couldn't see followed because they were willing to get as close as they needed to get. This is not a great mystery, Jesus is asking them. Do you believe I'm able to do this thing that you've been asking me to do? Well, Lord, I've been following you all this time. Yeah, yeah, can confirm. I've been following you all this time, asking you to do this, and I just walked into a house that I'm not welcome in because I believe you will. Yeah, I'd say I think I do believe you're willing to make me able to see. His response, his response is profound. As always, his response is because of your faith, it will happen.

unknown 41:56

Golly.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

So what was their faith in? This is interesting. What was their faith in? The first response that we would get in a scenario like this is their faith was in the power of God to heal them. And I think that's insufficient. I think that's insufficient because faith in his power has never been enough. Never been reason enough to bring the asked for result. The devil believes in his power. You believe, and so do the devils. You have done well, right? The devil believes he the devil believes in his power, and what benefit has is it to him? Demons believe in his power, and what benefit is it to them that they believe in his power? If you believe in his power, where does that get you? It gets you that you believe God is powerful, but what will happen when the ask for when the sought-for result does not materialize will do a couple of things. We'll either believe that he's removed and disinterested, or two, will believe that this is from him and I should learn to live with it. Is he willing? They followed into a place no one else would follow because they believed he was willing. His compassion moves him.

unknown 43:32

F.

Faith In Compassion Not Power

SPEAKER_00 43:33

F. Bodsworth wrote a wrote the most profound book on the healing power of Jesus that's ever been written called Christ the Healer. It's the most profound book on healing that you'll ever read. There's some things in there I disagree with, but FF knew more than me, so I forgive him and I'm probably wrong somewhere. That's how I handle that. If he knows if he knows more than me, I I disagree with some of that, but he might be right, and I'll just hold my disagreements. He said this. He said, The Lord would rather you believe in his compassion than you believe in his power. You won't find an example in all of Scripture where His power moves him to do something. The whole of the New Testament you will not see because of His great power, he decided to heal the multitude. Jesus looking on the multitude had compassion on them, and because of His compassion, He went into the crowd and healed all their diseases. And somehow we've lost in our age, we have lost the primary driving factor of the nature of God to intervene in our lives, and that is His compassion. We believe more in His wrath than we do His compassion. We believe more in His estrangement from us than we do His compassion. We believe more in His power than we do His compassion. You could ask any nominal person on the street, do you believe God is powerful enough to do this in your life? And if they're not an atheist or an agnostic, their answer would always be yes, of course. Yes, of course He can do that. Being convinced of His great compassion is what drove those men into that house. Presence and faith converged inside of a house, and two blind men got their sight. Don't tell anyone about this. But instead they did what J. Iris should have done. They went out and spread his fame all over the region. All things are possible to him that believes, still more to him who hopes, still more to him who loves, but most of all to him who practices all three. Faith and presence converge inside of this home they were not invited into. And his compassion heals them. It was compassion for him to ask, Do you believe I can do this? He's pulling something out of them. So when he asks us questions, it's not him asking us to prove we don't know or to prove we're not we're not good enough to receive the answer. No. When he asks us questions, he's pulling something from us with his compassion. He needed them to meet him with faith. And if they would meet him with faith, they would receive the thing that they were asking for. His compassion was ready. He had to know could they receive.