What do you want me to do for you?  Mark 10.46-52

Just before I get back to Paul and the Philippians, I wish to take you with me on a journey I was able to make.  In a real sense, it began in the Spring of 2000, when my pastor recommended the book fresh wind, fresh fire to the Baptist church I attended in North California to ‘jumpstart our prayer lives.’  I read it, and it did!

You see, the author, Pastor Jim Cymbala was and is, as my Long Beach Crip friend says, “real, raw, and relevant.”  Cymbala simply told the tales of what happened when he and his little struggling band of Brooklyn believers came to the end of themselves and cried out to God to come and do what only he could do.  God loves that entry point.

Yes, Cymbala’s stories of faith-filled prayer to a faithful God armed me to fight the battle of my lifetime when my two-year-old was at death’s door and languishing.  I have continued to equip myself, as a believer and minister, by studying Cymbala’s subsequent books, which continue to teach the same basic thing:

         We serve a great, big God, and we are meant to know him

         and walk with him by being people in the Word and people

         of prayer.

For years, I have had a little cartoon pipedream floating above my head of what it might be like to visit the Brooklyn Tabernacle, the scene of God’s faithfulness to a faith-filled man.  I am not sure why, but I suppose I never really thought I would get there.  Well, I did—two weeks ago!   The conference was rightly called, “Be Encouraged”, intended to help ministers and leaders ‘stay at their posts’ …to serve God well, with passion and excellence.  Besides the teaching of Cymbala, Ravi Zacharias (apologist for the Gospel) and Francis Chan, (edgy contemporary sold-out pastor who is currently leading an amazing evangelistic effort on the rugged, depraved streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district), also brought the Word . . . and BRING IT, they did! 

Wow!  I wish I could take you with me, even now … yes, Ebenezer and Psalsford from Ghana, and Simon Gathanji from Kenya, Marites in the Philippines, and my dear Tomi down the street … I wish we could do a little time travel back to Sunday, November 13^th, when I walked into the three o’clock service, only to find every worshiper on his feet, joyously singing to God.  With the 200+ person choir, singing from the soles of their feet on the platform … oh, my goodness ... it truly was a foreshadowing of Heaven!

More than eleven and a half years have passed since I first learned of this place, and now I’ve gotten to experience it.  Being there, gave me an opportunity to examine myself: have I grown in my faith in these 11+ years?  Have my roots gone down deeper—like the Psalm One man? 

         àDo I desire to grow—to become more like Christ? Do you?

                           For that is the question.

Allow me to segue for a moment.  Recorded in Mark chapter ten, Jesus was walking out of the city of Jericho when someone who always sat near the city gate heard he was coming his way, and began calling to him … “Jesus, have mercy on me!  Jesus, help me!”  Many tried to silence Blind Bartimaeus, but Jesus stopped, and called for the man. 

         “Cheer up …” the others said, “he’s calling you.”*

So Bartimaeus jumped up and went to Jesus.  Now get this-“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.  “Rabbi, I want to see.”  “Go, your faith has healed you,” Jesus simply said.

Faith changes lives because it touches God.  Bartimaeus was healed because he put his faith in God.  Your faith can change your life, too, because it touches God, and it activates him.  Picture him now--even as Jesus turned to look at ‘Blind Bartimaeus’ near the Jericho city gate--turning to look at you and saying, “What do you want me to do for you?”   Hey, Friend, have you ever seen a tiny mustard seed?   It just takes that much faith to answer his question, and then see his love for you go to work.  [read that paragraph again.  When in doubt, read it again.]

What have you not realized in your life because you have not reached out to God in faith?  Well, as I look back, I will have to say, my faith has grown—it has grown a lot!  God has answered my prayers . . . he has answered my prayers that I would grow in him.  Go ahead . . . he is asking you the same thing you know, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Grace ... if you know his grace ... you will experience his peace.

Christine

*hey, maybe that is where the book jesus calling came from, eh?