Foundation of Our Faith

Access Granted

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Dinzey (Host), Jamie Kowlessar

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Series Code: FDOF

Program Code: FDOF000006A


00:20 Hello, and welcome to Foundation of our Faith.
00:24 My name is John Dinzey
00:25 and it's a pleasure to be with you
00:26 to study God's word together.
00:29 Our speaker for this series is a blessing so far,
00:33 I'd heard him in the last sermon.
00:35 And my first time hearing him and I'm looking forward
00:38 for the sermon that we have today.
00:42 It is a message called Access Granted, Access Granted.
00:46 Our speaker is Pastor Jaime Kowlessar
00:50 and he is with us
00:53 with this message from God's word
00:56 and we are blessed also to have
00:59 Sister Sherice Tomlin- Bloomfield
01:02 that will be singing in a moment.
01:03 I would like to tell you a little bit about
01:06 Pastor Jaime Kowlessar, he is a native of New York.
01:10 And the Lord has blessed his ministry
01:13 as a highlight of what God has done.
01:16 Yeah, if my memory serves me correct,
01:18 the Lord brought him through several churches
01:20 including the Ephesus Church in New York
01:23 but the... church prior to the one that he--
01:28 Bethany in New York.
01:30 He came in, there were 27 people as members,
01:34 but the Lord blessed in such a way
01:36 that about 300 people were there
01:39 after he left the church.
01:40 And the Lord blessed his ministry.
01:42 He is currently in Dallas
01:44 serving in the City Temple Seventh-day Adventist Church,
01:48 Dallas, Texas.
01:49 And he will be sharing a message
01:51 from God's word in a moment.
01:53 We would like to invite you
01:54 to pray before we continue, so therefore we ask
01:57 those that are present to please stand,
01:59 if you are able
02:00 and those that are joining us wherever you may be.
02:03 We ask you to pause and join us in prayer.
02:06 We want God's blessings for you
02:08 and we encourage you to pray with us.
02:10 Let us pray together.
02:12 Our loving heavenly Father,
02:14 we approach Your throne of grace in Jesus' name.
02:19 And Father, we ask you to bless each and every person
02:22 that is joining us
02:24 whether here or anywhere in the world.
02:27 We pray that your Holy Angels would draw near to them
02:31 and that your Holy Spirit
02:33 will illuminate their minds as they hear
02:36 Your words spoken through your servant Pastor Kowlessar.
02:40 We pray that You will speak to our hearts,
02:42 teach us, instruct us, give us courage
02:45 and help us Lord that if a warning is needed
02:47 in our lives to help us understand
02:50 that we must walk the narrow way.
02:53 We pray that your Holy Spirit
02:54 will bring that vividly to our attention.
02:57 And we pray for a blessing upon all
02:59 and we ask it
03:01 in the wonderful name of Jesus, amen, amen.
03:05 You may be seated.
03:06 We're going to ask Sister Sherice to come forward
03:10 and bless us with a song "The Lion and the Lamb"
03:13 and shortly after that you will hear
03:15 the preaching of a God's word, with Pastor Jaime Kowlessar.
03:17 God bless you.
03:33 Who is He
03:36 Who's the mightiest of all?
03:41 Who is He
03:44 Creation trembles at His call?
03:48 Who is He
03:52 The lowly sacrifice, who paid a victim's price
03:59 His name is Jesus
04:04 Jesus from the Father's own right hand
04:11 Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man
04:19 Jesus who died and rose again
04:26 Jesus, He's the Lion
04:32 And the Lamb
04:36 Who is He
04:39 With the power none can tame?
04:44 Who is He
04:47 That every foe would fear His name?
04:51 Who is He
04:54 Who was humbly led away
04:59 To suffer that dark day
05:02 His name is Jesus
05:06 Jesus, from the Father's own right hand
05:14 Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man
05:22 Jesus, who died and rose again
05:29 Jesus, He's the Lion
05:34 And the Lamb
05:46 He's the Lion and the Lamb
06:03 He's the Lamb that was slain
06:07 He's the Lion that reigns
06:11 My Savior and King both the same
06:19 Who is He
06:22 With the eyes that burn like fire?
06:27 Who is He, oh the wonder He inspires
06:34 Who is He, who bore the guilt and shame
06:41 For those who've gone astray
06:45 His name is Jesus
06:49 Jesus, from the Father's own right hand
06:57 Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man
07:05 Jesus, who died and rose again
07:12 Jesus, He's the Lion
07:17 And He is Jesus
07:21 from the Father's own right hand
07:26 Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man
07:33 Jesus, who died and rose again
07:41 Jesus, He's the Lion
07:47 And the Lamb
07:54 He's the Lion and the Lamb
08:01 He's the Lion and the Lamb
08:19 Happy Sabbath.
08:20 Happy Sabbath.
08:21 Praise God for the Lion and the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
08:26 That He is a Lamb that is there to comfort all of our needs
08:29 and also He's a lion to fight our battles, amen.
08:33 And so we thank God that we have--
08:35 we have Him on our sides to fight every enemy
08:38 and every foe that comes up against His children
08:41 that He's a might warrior, He's never lost a battle.
08:44 I thank God for this wonderful Sabbath,
08:46 I want to say goodnight to those
08:48 and greetings to them
08:49 that are watching us on the television.
08:51 And I pray that they will find blessing and comfort
08:54 in our message for this evening.
08:56 With that being said,
08:57 I'd like to invite you to take your Bibles
08:59 and we'll go to the Book of Mark 10,
09:02 Mark 10:46-52.
09:06 It's a popular story,
09:08 I'm sure many of you have read over and over,
09:11 but I believe that we can draw
09:13 some fresh water from this well,
09:15 if you don't mind to indulge with me this evening.
09:19 Book of Mark 10:46-52
09:23 and I'll read and you'll be hearing.
09:26 The word of God says, "And they came to Jericho,
09:31 and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples
09:34 and a great multitude, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar,
09:38 the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.
09:42 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
09:46 he began to cry out and say,
09:47 "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
09:51 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent,
09:55 but he cried out all the more,
09:58 "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
10:02 And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."
10:05 And they called the blind man, saying to him,
10:08 "Take heart, rise, he is calling you."
10:11 And throwing off his mantle
10:13 he sprang up and came to Jesus.
10:16 And Jesus said to him,
10:17 "What do you want me to do for you?"
10:20 And the blind man said to him,
10:21 "Master, let me receive my sight."
10:26 And Jesus said to him,
10:27 "Go your way, your faith has made you well."
10:31 And immediately he received his sight
10:34 and followed Him on the way."
10:37 With your prayers this evening,
10:38 I want to talk to you on a topic entitled
10:42 Access Granted.
10:44 Pray with me please.
10:45 God Almighty, we do thank You for this moment.
10:49 And we do thank You for your word.
10:51 We ask now Lord that as I speak Your words,
10:55 I pray that You would show up and show out
10:59 and that we would understand that You have given us
11:02 access to all the wonderful things
11:04 that You have in store for us.
11:06 Hide me behind Your cross,
11:07 may I not be seen but may You be lifted up.
11:10 And this we pray in your name Jesus Christ, amen
11:13 There's nothing worse in this life
11:16 than going through it feeling disconnected.
11:20 I mean there's nothing worse
11:21 than having a feeling of emptiness, unfulfilled,
11:26 without a reason or purpose to live anymore.
11:30 You see that's what I had to find as being
11:33 what's known as disconnected.
11:35 When you feel no connection with yourself
11:37 and no connection with God
11:40 and then it's hard to feel connected
11:42 to anything else in this world
11:44 because when you have lost that connection what God,
11:47 it's like you've lost all power.
11:49 I remember reading a story
11:51 and the story that was written in the book
11:53 called Spiritual Fitness.
11:55 And in that book the story was about some gypsies
11:57 who went to a conference in the United States.
12:01 You see these gypsies were from the Middle East
12:03 and they were glad to fly over to the States
12:05 for this conference.
12:06 And already these gypsies were desert dwellers,
12:09 but at the conference
12:11 they stayed at a beautiful hotel
12:13 and were blown away by the furniture
12:15 that was inside the room.
12:16 They were blown away by the queen size bed
12:19 and blown away by the chair
12:21 and the television that was inside their room.
12:24 But the most fascinating part of the room
12:27 was when they went into the bathroom
12:29 and they saw the faucet.
12:31 And when they saw the faucet their eyes lid up,
12:34 because they saw that
12:35 water was coming out of this faucet.
12:38 And so a light bulb went off one of the gypsy's head
12:41 and they said that if we could take this faucet back home,
12:44 it would make life for us so much better
12:47 and so believe it or not they unscrewed the knobs
12:49 and unscrewed the faucet head
12:51 and took it back to their desert.
12:53 And when they took it back to their desert,
12:55 they called everybody from the neighborhood and said,
12:58 come and see what we have brought home from the States.
13:01 And they put the knobs on a rock
13:04 and a faucet on a rock as well
13:06 and then they said, one, two, three
13:08 and when they turn the knob guess what happened?
13:11 Absolutely no water came out
13:14 and so reason why I'm telling you this story
13:16 is because the water in the knobs or on the faucet,
13:20 it was not connected to its natural resource.
13:23 And so when you are not connected to your resource
13:27 that gives you power,
13:28 it leaves you feeling disconnected.
13:30 And I guess what I'm really trying to say
13:32 to you this evening
13:33 is that when you move through life disconnected,
13:36 you don't have the resources to make it in this world.
13:40 And that's the truth for so many people today
13:43 that's in this world that we live in.
13:45 They move from day to day without the resources
13:48 needed to open doors
13:50 of opportunity for them to have a better life.
13:53 Because people live without the resource of insurance
13:56 which excludes them from proper healthcare.
13:59 People live without the resource
14:01 of adequately funded schools
14:03 which excludes them from a education
14:05 to make it fit for them to survive in this world
14:08 that we live in right now.
14:10 And so I chose this text today,
14:12 because here I see a man
14:14 who was born without a resource.
14:16 Here I see a man who was born blind
14:19 from day to day he has entered this world.
14:21 And he has never beheld the beauty
14:23 of the sun rising or a full moon.
14:25 He has never saw his mother or his father's face,
14:28 no employment, no prospects for marriage,
14:31 no social honor,
14:32 he was if you will at the bottom
14:35 of the social ladder of acceptance.
14:38 His world has foreclosed on him.
14:40 He has no icing dog.
14:42 He has no braille books
14:43 but he spends his nights and days
14:45 begging on the money,
14:47 begging for money on the street corner.
14:50 And the Bible tells us that his name is Bartimaeus,
14:54 son of Timaeus.
14:55 And so one of the distinct features
14:58 about the story is that
14:59 Mark goes out of his way to name this man
15:02 and when you look at different stories in the Bible.
15:05 It'll often just identifies individual by their problems
15:08 but Mark feels like
15:09 it's important that we know his name.
15:11 His name is Timaeus.
15:13 As a matter of fact his full name is Bartimaeus
15:16 but we'll focus on Timaeus right now.
15:18 When I looked up the word
15:19 and etymologically broke it down,
15:21 in the Hebrew the name Timaeus means
15:24 to be foul or unclean in a religious sense,
15:28 unpresentable to God.
15:29 So the name Bartimaeus in Hebrew bar means son
15:34 and so when we break down the name
15:37 and look at what it actually means,
15:39 it would be a better definition to say that
15:41 Bartimaeus' name actually means air of uncleanness.
15:47 His name means that
15:49 he's nothing of anything of nature of anything good.
15:52 Not to mention to make it worse
15:55 is that Mark goes out of his way to say
15:57 that he's blind.
15:58 So he is a man who is blind, who has a air of uncleanness.
16:02 He is the son of his father Timaeus
16:05 who is blind and unclean.
16:07 And so understanding this,
16:09 he is simply known as the poor one.
16:11 The son of a unclean man, the son of a pauper.
16:14 He inherits his daddy's dilemmas
16:16 and this daddy's trauma.
16:18 He inherits his daddy's name
16:20 because his daddy's name is like hand-me-downs to him.
16:23 It is like, it is Velcro
16:24 and all the negativity that has preceded him
16:28 is now stuck to him
16:29 and now it is stuck with him for the rest of his life.
16:33 Mark doesn't help his case either
16:36 because Mark identifies him as a blind beggar
16:39 and so to make matters worse,
16:41 Mark just wants you to know
16:42 that he's the disconnected from life's resources.
16:45 He is born disconnected
16:47 and because according to history,
16:49 Jews believe that blindness and poverty
16:53 was a direct result of God's displeasure.
16:56 And so if you were poor and blind
16:57 that meant God didn't love you.
16:59 If you were poor and blind that meant that God
17:01 didn't want anything to do with you.
17:03 As a matter of fact,
17:04 your situation is a result of the fact
17:07 that God wants nothing to do with you.
17:09 And if you would allow me to hang out here homiletically
17:12 and write this idea to the wheels for love.
17:14 We know and understand that everybody in here
17:17 probably from good grounded homes.
17:19 Good grounded stable situations,
17:21 names that only carry and exude greatness and power.
17:25 You didn't inherit anything bad that your parents have done
17:28 because you came from good places.
17:30 People don't know about what the past
17:33 or what people have done before you
17:35 because when you say your name, doors open up.
17:38 When people see you, they begin to smile
17:41 but yet still there are people that we know
17:44 and people that we have seen that.
17:46 If we mention their name,
17:48 people are reminded of who their parents are.
17:51 You see sometimes you may not understand it
17:53 but it may not affect you
17:55 but maybe something you have done
17:57 but it affects your children.
17:59 And when you get ready to drive them up
18:01 to their universities,
18:02 Southwestern or Oakwood or Loma Linda or Walla Walla
18:06 and the professor sees your son or your daughter's name
18:09 and then say I know that name, I remembered his daddy.
18:13 I remember his momma.
18:14 I remember the things that they used to do
18:16 when we were in college with them.
18:18 And now as a result of what their parents had done,
18:22 the child is now living with those effects.
18:25 You see that stuff is real.
18:26 It happens all the time and here is Bartimaeus
18:29 who is living with his father who is living with the name
18:33 that his father had
18:34 and now it is passed down on to him
18:36 because the text reminds us
18:38 that people will use the history of your heritage
18:39 to judge you in the present.
18:43 The text reminds us that people will not forget
18:46 and they will do everything in their power
18:47 to remind you of your past
18:50 and folk will always take excerpts of your life
18:54 and judge your entire existence upon that.
18:57 And so the Bible tells us
18:59 as we go further in the story that Jesus is leaving Jericho
19:03 and His disciples are with them,
19:04 and a great multitude is following Him.
19:07 And now allow me to remind you
19:08 about this place called Jericho.
19:10 Since you all are Bible scholars,
19:13 you know and understand that Jericho is a same place
19:16 that Jesus spoke about,
19:17 where a Samaritan was lying by the roadside
19:20 and that some individuals
19:22 did not want to help this Samaritan.
19:24 You see Jericho was not a place
19:26 that you wanted to be in late at night.
19:28 Jericho if you will, was a kind of place
19:31 if you were riding on your donkey,
19:33 you had bet to be careful
19:34 'cause you might get donkey jacked by
19:36 some of the criminals over there.
19:37 And so that's what Jericho is.
19:39 And so here Jesus is in the Jericho
19:42 and he is in a bad neighborhood.
19:44 And Jesus is there and he's ministering
19:47 and I love the ministry that Jesus had.
19:49 Because Jesus had a ministry
19:51 that was willing to hangout with some bad folk in Jericho.
19:55 You see, Jesus is hanging out with the people in Jericho
19:59 and Bartimaeus is there.
20:01 And that Jesus does not only go
20:02 or to find a wealthy places of society,
20:05 but Jesus chooses to visit some of the places
20:08 that none of us would even go to.
20:10 And here is Jesus in Jericho
20:12 and blind Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth
20:16 was passing by and he cries out.
20:19 And Mark plays around with words alignment,
20:21 he mentions Jesus of Nazareth.
20:23 Now because you are full of aware
20:25 that Jesus was a popular name
20:27 that there were other people claiming to be the Messiah.
20:30 As a matter of fact when Jesus walked the earth,
20:32 the name Jesus was a very popular name.
20:35 It was only because of the life of Jesus
20:37 and where we live and where in the society
20:39 that we live now that people tend not to use
20:42 that name commonly to name their children
20:44 but Jesus was a popular name.
20:46 Matter of fact, when Pilate had Jesus in front of him
20:51 and Barabbas in front of him as well.
20:53 The Greek original manuscript says,
20:55 whether of the twain would you wish for me to release?
20:58 Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Barabbas.
21:02 You see Jesus Barabbas was his first name as well.
21:05 And so you understand that when it says Jesus of Nazareth,
21:09 Mark is identifying that this is the real deal,
21:12 the real macoy because there was only one Jesus
21:16 that came from Nazareth and so I love this.
21:19 And so Bartimaeus cries out for Jesus of the Nazareth
21:23 as he was passing by to him.
21:25 Remember Bartimaeus can't see him
21:28 and he can't confirm him
21:29 but he has to go on the word of others
21:31 that he is in the neighborhood.
21:33 You see sometimes you just got to believe
21:34 that God is present.
21:36 Look, I'm telling somebody in this church right now,
21:39 or somebody that's watching on television
21:41 that you don't have to see God to know that God is near.
21:45 You just got to look around and realize
21:46 that the evidence of his existence
21:49 is not predicated on whether or not
21:51 you can physically touch or see God,
21:53 but the evidence is knowing that when I look around
21:56 and I see my surroundings
21:58 and I understand that I'm alive in here today
22:01 that there is a God that is out there somewhere.
22:04 When I look around and I hear people testifying
22:07 about the goodness of God,
22:09 when I hear songs of deliverance
22:10 and the word is preached with power,
22:12 I just got to keep telling myself,
22:14 I may not be where I want to be,
22:16 but I can praise God anyway because I'm alive today.
22:20 I could take advantage of God
22:22 because now I can worship Him in freedom,
22:24 in spirit and in truth.
22:26 It's evident that God woke me up for a reason
22:29 and because God woke me up this morning,
22:31 I'm gonna give Him praise
22:32 because God allowed me to get home safely.
22:35 I'm gonna give Him praise
22:36 even if He doesn't bless me with what I want.
22:39 I'm still gonna give God praise.
22:41 I'm gonna give God praise even if I don't have no shoes
22:44 because I got two feet to stand up on the ground with.
22:47 I'm gonna give God praise
22:49 even if I don't have my legs to stand with,
22:52 but I can still wheel myself in a wheelchair
22:54 that's still enough to give God praise,
22:57 because you have got to understand.
22:58 I'm not what you call a circumstantial praiser.
23:02 No, I'm not a flakey praiser. I'm not a feel good praiser.
23:07 But I'm a praiser in the morning
23:08 and a praiser in the evening.
23:10 I'm a praiser when I'm on a mountain
23:12 and I'm a praiser when I'm in the valley.
23:15 You see you don't know what I've been through
23:17 because there's a story behind my glory.
23:19 And when I give God praise,
23:21 I really don't care who is around me
23:23 or who is judging me because God understand
23:25 what I've been through and how he has brought me out.
23:28 Because I've been through the fire
23:30 and I've been through the flood.
23:32 But I've got a whole lot to praise God.
23:34 As a matter of fact
23:35 I praise God in the midnight
23:37 because it brings me into the sunlight.
23:39 Most of you are so smart and you know this already
23:42 but I'm gonna bless you with it anyway.
23:44 There is a difference
23:45 between a humming bird and a nightingale.
23:47 You see a humming bird only sing songs
23:50 during the day but it sleeps at night.
23:53 But nightingale sings its loudest song
23:55 when it is the dark.
23:57 When its pitch-black outside,
23:59 the nightingale lifts its voice in a upward crescendo
24:02 and that it sings highly when its at night.
24:05 But as I talk to a nightingale,
24:07 the nightingale explained this to me.
24:09 Yes, because you know Shakespeare says
24:11 there are sermons and stones and good in everything.
24:14 You can find a blessing in everything
24:16 so I'm having a conversation with a nightingale.
24:19 And a nightingale told me that I begin to sing louder
24:23 when I'm in dangerous situations.
24:25 When I find myself in urban areas
24:27 and I'm liable to lose my life,
24:29 I sing louder
24:31 because the enemy does not like when I'm singing,
24:33 they think that I'm awake and I'm awake and not sleeping
24:37 and so they move away from me.
24:39 And I said nightingale thank you for that word
24:41 'cause I'm gonna bless the folks
24:43 over a day to dream with that.
24:44 God expects us to sing when it's dark in our lives.
24:48 God expects us to lift our voices
24:50 when we feel like we're down. Why?
24:53 Because it keeps the enemy far away from us
24:55 because that tells them that
24:56 we are in tune and on pitch with our savior God.
25:00 And so I'm going sing my praises to God
25:03 in the morning and in the night.
25:05 And so here is blind Bartimaeus and it cries out,
25:08 son of David, have mercy on me.
25:11 Many rebuked him and told him shut up, close your mouth.
25:15 Jesus don't want nothing to do with you.
25:17 Can you imagine the audacity of these folk?
25:20 These are people who are following Jesus
25:23 but yet still they had the audacity
25:25 to tell Bartimaeus to be quiet
25:27 because Jesus wants nothing to do with you.
25:30 What we need to understand from this part of the text
25:33 is that just because we're on the same team
25:36 doesn't necessarily make us teammates.
25:39 What do I mean by that?
25:40 Just because we serve the same God
25:42 doesn't mean that
25:43 we are interested in the same things.
25:46 Because isn't that amazing that there are sometimes
25:49 in our lives that some of the meanest folks that we will
25:51 ever meet are church folk.
25:54 Some of the most judgmental and most critical folk
25:57 that you will ever meet are people
25:59 right inside of the church.
26:01 And here are they telling just blind Bartimaeus to be quiet,
26:07 God wants nothing to do with you.
26:09 In other words you are too low on the ladder of success.
26:13 Jesus has better people to heal.
26:15 Jesus has better people to deal with.
26:17 Just sit down be blind and stay in your position
26:21 and be glad that you are alive.
26:23 In other words what they are saying
26:25 is that you need to be quiet and leave Jesus alone
26:28 because He wants nothing to do with people
26:31 who are on income assistance by the government.
26:34 As a matter of fact be quiet
26:36 because Jesus has no time for the folk down in Ferguson,
26:39 Missouri that are marching for the rights of their son
26:42 that was shot blatantly.
26:43 Be quiet Jesus because he has nothing to do
26:46 with the alcoholic or a drug addict or a prisoner.
26:49 No, Jesus prefers to serve the have gots
26:52 and look over the have nots.
26:55 But the God I serve does not love--
26:57 does not show impartiality to anybody,
27:00 He loves everybody.
27:02 And so what we have done as a people
27:04 is that we have not accepted all people as children of God,
27:08 whether good bad,
27:09 educated or educated, uneducated,
27:11 female or male.
27:13 But we have become respecter of purses,
27:15 preferring those who flatter and reward us,
27:18 bloat it with our own conceal,
27:19 blinds of Bartimaeus lying by the roadside
27:22 and corrupted by our own desire for personal gain.
27:26 There is a perplexing
27:27 and pending problem in our world.
27:29 We love to talk about hunger and poverty in Africa.
27:33 But we have not done anything to address the problem.
27:36 We love to talk about the lack of fathers
27:38 not being visible in this world.
27:40 But have not started
27:41 mentorship programs for our youth today.
27:44 We love to talk about Danroy Henry,
27:46 Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis,
27:48 Michael Brown and lastly Victor White
27:51 who they claim shot himself
27:53 while he was in the back of a police car.
27:55 But we have not been on the frontline
27:57 fighting for their rights.
27:58 There's young people that are crossing the border
28:01 for a chance at a better life.
28:03 The countless girls
28:04 that are kidnapped and sold into slavery.
28:06 The text also reminds us by blind Bartimaeus
28:10 that it is a responsibility upon the church
28:13 to have ministries that reach to deaf,
28:15 to have ministries that reach to mute.
28:17 They have ministries that reach to blind.
28:20 We have overlooked these individuals.
28:23 And we have told them to be quiet.
28:26 We have told them that we can't do anything for you.
28:29 We can't get interpreters for you.
28:31 We can't get people to learn sign language for you.
28:34 And these are God's children as well.
28:39 And so in Exodus 2:23, you see the Israelites,
28:43 the Bible says the Israelites grown in their slavery
28:45 and cried out and they cry for help was
28:48 because of their slavery went up to God.
28:49 Exodus 3:7 says,
28:50 "Then the Lord told him, "I have certainly seen
28:52 the oppression of my people in Egypt.
28:54 I have heard their cries of distress
28:56 and their harsh slave drivers.
28:58 Yes, I am aware of their suffering."
28:59 There are people crying out today
29:02 and they are looking for us to hear their suffering.
29:05 There is still racism in America.
29:07 There is still things that we need to fight for.
29:10 There are still undercurrents of challenges
29:12 against people that we are indirectly,
29:15 may not directly call them
29:17 but we trick them in a certain way.
29:19 We may not use the end word
29:20 but we treat them as the end word.
29:22 I've learned the other day
29:23 that the I word is a bad word in our society today
29:27 that if you call somebody who is crossing the border,
29:30 a Latino or Hispanic person
29:32 and he legal that is just as bad
29:34 as calling the African-American the end word.
29:38 And every time I turn on the news,
29:40 I hear that word.
29:41 And God is calling us
29:42 to remember these people that are crying out for help,
29:46 to remember these people that are crying out
29:48 and not to tell them to be quiet and sit down.
29:51 Because when we do that
29:52 when we tell people to be quiet,
29:54 we are daring to say that
29:56 we are turning the church into a old boys club.
29:59 Therefore if you are part of the old boys club,
30:01 then you can be a part of our congregation.
30:04 And we have turn the church into some crazy country club
30:07 and Jesus is our country club president.
30:10 And our leaders who was entertained
30:12 by our special days our special rewards
30:14 and our special programs, someone who is entertained
30:17 by our religious shows but absolutely not,
30:21 God is not moved by our programs,
30:23 He is moved by our praise.
30:25 The word tells us
30:26 that after the people tell him to shut up,
30:27 he cries out louder and louder and said son of David
30:32 and he refers to God as the same title.
30:35 Don't ever let what people say
30:37 about you to change what you say about your God.
30:41 And so he cries out to the Son of David.
30:43 He says I'm gonna block out
30:44 all that chatter, that background noise.
30:46 I'm gonna cry out Son of David.
30:48 You see I understand because
30:50 I need the Son of David to cry out
30:52 and to help me get through this situation.
30:55 Not only does he cry out more,
30:57 but he knows that this is Jesus of Nazareth.
30:59 And so let's go back to what
31:01 we were talking about from, he is from Jericho.
31:03 Jericho was a bad neighborhood
31:05 and then he says Jesus of Nazareth.
31:08 What did Nathanael say about Jesus of Nazareth?
31:11 Nathanael said, can anything good come out of Nazareth.
31:15 So that meant that Nazareth
31:17 was not a good neighborhood as well.
31:19 And so by Bartimaeus saying,
31:21 Jesus of Nazareth look at me, you are in Jericho.
31:25 In other words look at this,
31:27 from a brother to another brother
31:29 from a bad neighborhood.
31:30 You got to hook me up because I'm crying out to you.
31:33 And so the beggar refuses to give up
31:36 because he is unsatisfied and the question remains today.
31:40 Are you unsatisfied with your life?
31:43 How unsatisfied are you with your relationship
31:46 with Jesus Christ?
31:47 Are you willing to cry out to Him
31:49 and to call to Him and to say
31:51 God help me get over my lethargic situation
31:54 from hanging out in the same place
31:56 because I want to know you better.
31:58 I want to pet for you like David says,
32:01 "As the deer panteth after the water."
32:03 In other words,
32:04 I want to crave for you Jesus Christ.
32:07 I don't want shallow water.
32:08 I want the deep streams of Your mercy and Your grace
32:12 and I'm your hunger and thirst after it,
32:15 because after all the reason why we have shallow Christians
32:19 is because we just are,
32:20 we are just surfing the waves of God.
32:23 We are not deep sea diving into the word of God
32:27 and so we end up shallow.
32:29 And so when we end up shallow, any wave that comes our way,
32:32 it will blow us away and drift us to the other side.
32:35 But when you're deep-rooted in God,
32:37 when you're deep-rooted in His word,
32:39 you can stand up no matter what situation you are in.
32:43 Most of you are aware of what palm trees are in.
32:46 Palm trees are very tall
32:48 and they're very high and very beautiful.
32:50 And a palm tree has a bendable trunk
32:52 and so that's why palm trees in Florida
32:55 and in most places or in Gulf or wherever it may be.
32:58 When the winds blow,
32:59 a palm tree can simply bend to the side
33:02 and pop right back up.
33:04 It will bend to this side and pop right back up.
33:07 That's because the palm tree
33:09 has a bendable trunk that allows it to bend
33:12 when storms and wind comes it way.
33:15 And so what I'm saying today
33:16 is that we got to be like a palm tree that bends
33:19 and that's able to pop right back up
33:22 when the enemy comes in like a flood.
33:24 As a matter of fact,
33:25 what makes a palm tree even more beautiful
33:27 is that they say that the palm trees roots
33:30 are as deep as it is tall.
33:33 And so the palm tree is able to survive
33:35 in adverse conditions
33:37 because its roots taped into a well stream
33:40 that other trees can't tap into
33:42 that gives it power to stand up.
33:44 And all I'm saying to you this evening
33:47 is that I am like a palm tree
33:48 that's planted by the rivers of water
33:50 because I am connected to a well stream
33:53 that gives me power and strength to stand
33:55 even when storms come in my life
33:57 because I'm deep-rooted in God.
33:59 If I bend to the left I can say,
34:01 "No weapon formed against me shall prosper."
34:04 If I bend to the right I could say
34:06 "Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world."
34:09 And I'll always pop right back up
34:11 because I'm deep-rooted inside a word of God.
34:15 And so I'm loving this text because it gets gooder.
34:17 And why I love it
34:18 because the gooder it gets the better will I feel.
34:21 Yes, I made those words up.
34:22 I think I'm entitled to that every now and then.
34:25 And so here Bartimaeus refuses
34:27 allow the crowd to deter him or to give him up,
34:30 because the crowd pronounce a judgment on him.
34:33 And analysis of the verdict is that
34:36 because you are poor you don't deserve to have
34:38 your request even heard or granted.
34:41 Bartimaeus refuses to give up
34:43 and refuses to take their verdict.
34:46 And so what I love about the text
34:47 is that Bartimaeus understands that look here,
34:51 God you can do this for me
34:52 God, yeah, I'm not going to let anybody tell me to stop
34:55 because God I want you to bless me.
34:58 And so I've been reading this commentary
34:59 called Ched Myers.
35:01 And Ched Myers, the title of it
35:03 is a sociopolitical commentary on the Book of Mark.
35:06 And what Ched Myers is saying
35:08 is that you can't read Mark with a top down theology.
35:11 In other words you can't look at the eyes
35:14 or the Book of mark
35:15 from somebody who is outside looking into it.
35:18 When you read the Book of Mark,
35:20 you have to read it from somebody
35:22 who is in the story
35:24 and that you are looking for blessing.
35:26 And so that means you have to look
35:28 at the Book of Mark from a victim's eyes.
35:30 You have to look at the Book of Mark
35:32 from the eyes of Bartimaeus
35:34 and understand why his need was so important.
35:37 And so as Mark is saying,
35:39 and Mark is telling us the story of Bartimaeus,
35:42 Bartimaeus is crying out from the ground
35:45 and Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus
35:47 and Jesus looks and says I will part in you
35:50 because of what you've been through.
35:52 Because I love that,
35:53 because when you read the Bible like that,
35:56 you begin to read the Bible
35:57 from the place that you are supposed to do it from.
36:00 And it's amazing how God
36:02 can speak to you through situations
36:04 that where other people
36:05 are trying to tell you the opposite.
36:07 And so here Jesus hears a blind Bartimaeus
36:11 and he tells the crowd to go and get him.
36:13 As a matter of fact,
36:14 I love it because you notice earlier in the text
36:17 that this is the same crowd that told him to be quiet
36:21 but now this crowd
36:22 Jesus uses them to say bring him to me.
36:25 I love that because God sometimes will use your enemies
36:29 to bring you in the presence of God.
36:31 God will use the same people that talked about you
36:34 to bring you into His presence.
36:36 As a matter of fact I love to call it,
36:37 God can use your haters as your transportation,
36:40 your haters as your elevators
36:42 so that you can be at a better place.
36:44 You know I'm vertically challenged
36:46 and I love the text, one of my favorite text
36:48 is found in the Book of Psalms where God says,
36:51 "I will make your enemies your footstool."
36:53 Now what is a footstool? A footstool is beautiful.
36:56 You see God says,
36:57 "I will make you enemies your footstool."
37:00 Now being that I'm short
37:02 my wife and I have footstools inside of our houses
37:05 and so we use footstools to reach things
37:08 that we ordinarily could not reach without that.
37:11 Because we have things in cupboards
37:13 that we can get to,
37:14 so we put the footstool down and we step on it
37:17 and we're able to get to a higher place
37:19 so that we can reach something and pull it down.
37:22 And so here God is saying, I will make the people
37:24 that talk about to your footstool,
37:26 so that you could be at a higher place above them.
37:29 So you can be closer to me and pull down my blesses
37:32 so that you can have a wonderful life.
37:34 You're gonna get that when you go home
37:36 and you think about when you step on your footstool.
37:38 But I love it, God says I will use your enemies
37:41 as your footstool to elevate you.
37:43 And here the text says in verse 50,
37:46 that "Bartimaeus threw off his cloak,
37:48 got up and ran to Jesus.'
37:50 I love that.
37:52 He threw all of his cloak
37:53 or the mantle that was identifying his problem
37:56 because in the Old Testament or in the New Testament
37:59 that the cloak was identifying you in your poor state.
38:03 Bartimaeus says Jesus is calling me,
38:05 I got to let go off the thing that is identifying my problem.
38:09 Because you can't move forward if you are holding onto things
38:13 that yank you back into your past.
38:15 As a matter of fact you got to understand
38:18 that you have to let go what you're holding to,
38:20 so that you can grab whole of the blessing
38:22 God is trying to give you.
38:24 And so blind Bartimaeus lets go off the one thing
38:28 that he only had in this world to give it up for Jesus.
38:31 And I want to ask the question tonight,
38:34 to anybody who is in here.
38:35 What are you holding on to
38:38 that you do not want to let go off,
38:40 so that you can receive what God wants to give you.
38:43 Maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's a person,
38:46 maybe it is an addiction to something,
38:48 in order to get the blessing God has for you,
38:51 throw off that old cloak
38:53 and receive what God is trying to give you.
38:55 But what's better about the text
38:57 is that the Bible says
38:59 that he sprang up and ran to Jesus.
39:02 Now hold on, wait a minute, pause for a second.
39:05 He ran to Jesus.
39:07 How in the world could he run to Jesus?
39:10 The text does not say
39:11 that the people brought him to Jesus
39:14 but he says he ran to Jesus Christ.
39:17 Why do I love that?
39:18 Because sometimes you got to be able to trust God
39:20 even when you can't trace Him.
39:22 He is blind and he is running to Jesus.
39:25 That means he is following or running to Jesus by faith.
39:29 He is hearing God
39:31 as though he is listening to what he hears,
39:33 so that he could get closer to God.
39:35 Friends, we got to be able to run to Jesus and follow God
39:39 not based on the fact because we are looking for Him,
39:42 but because we hear in His word
39:44 that He is near and that we must follow Him.
39:47 And so here Bartimaeus runs to Jesus
39:50 and he runs to Jesus and Jesus says,
39:52 "What is it that I can do for you?"
39:54 And while Jesus called him, it's because Jesus realizes
39:58 that Bartimaeus sees Him for who He really is.
40:01 And so the question of the text is that we need to ask
40:05 who is really the blind one in this passage?
40:09 Is Bartimaeus blind?
40:10 Or is it those that were trying to shut him up?
40:14 You see that's what Mark is doing,
40:15 Mark is trying to paint a picture here
40:18 to show you that it is not Bartimaeus
40:20 who is really the blind one
40:22 because Bartimaeus sees and understand
40:25 who Jesus is in the first place.
40:28 But it is the followers of Jesus,
40:30 the ones whose eyes are open,
40:32 the ones who try to shut him out,
40:34 they are the blind ones to those that are needing help.
40:38 And so here Bartimaeus runs to Jesus.
40:41 He says Son of David, have mercy on me.
40:44 Son of the Blessed One, Son of the Living One,
40:47 I'm son of the rejected
40:49 but you Jesus are Son of the Beloved.
40:51 I'm son of the downtrodden,
40:52 but you are Son of the Accepted.
40:55 I know you are the truth, you are the Messiah,
40:57 You are the Living One. Have mercy on me.
40:59 I've messed up a few times, I've messed up a lot of times,
41:02 but please have mercy on me.
41:04 And then Jesus says, "What do you want?"
41:07 He says, "All I want is my vision,
41:09 I want to be able to see again."
41:10 Jesus says,
41:11 "It's because of your faith that has made you hope,
41:14 it's because you didn't give up on your faith.
41:17 Therefore I give you access to God's unlimited weaponry
41:21 that's outside of this world.''
41:23 Because when you exercise your faith and trust God
41:26 even when you can't trace Him,
41:28 God opens the door for you that nobody in this world can.
41:32 Our faith is an admission ticket
41:35 to into the kindness of God and we receive access granted.
41:39 I love that access granted.
41:42 I remember when I was flying in over to Toronto
41:45 and I was late for my flight
41:47 and so as I'm rushing to get out of the car.
41:49 And I'm juggling all my luggage,
41:51 there come a brother and wants to have a conversation with me.
41:55 The brother says I noticed that you are struggling
41:58 and then you got a lot of luggage there.
42:00 And in my head I'm saying,
42:02 if you see me struggling with all these luggage,
42:04 why are you gonna talk to me
42:06 and hold me back from checking in to get my flight.
42:09 And so being the Christian that I am,
42:12 I said, yes I am, I'm struggling.
42:14 I need to get to Toronto
42:16 because I have a preaching engagement over there.
42:19 And so he said, well, good luck.
42:20 I hope you make it to your flight.
42:22 I said in my head, I don't need luck,
42:24 I need grace right now.
42:25 I need God to do something for me,
42:27 and so I finally got to check in
42:30 and put my bag in and run to the gate
42:33 because I was on the other end of the airport
42:35 only to discover that I had missed the flight.
42:39 I had missed the flight it had taken off.
42:41 I was about three minutes late, they had closed the gate.
42:44 And now I'm on standby
42:46 and I'm sitting down in the chair
42:48 and my name is last on the standby list.
42:51 But then as I'm looking at the kiosk,
42:54 I see a hand that goes like this.
42:56 And I'm looking closer
42:58 and I realize that it is the same brother
43:00 that was talking to me outside of the airport,
43:03 now he's behind the desk controlling the things for me.
43:06 And the brother said, come on to the front
43:09 and I came up to the desk and to the front
43:11 and he said, I noticed that you missed your flight.
43:14 I said yeah, I did. You were talking to me outside.
43:16 He said don't worry, I'm gonna take care of you.
43:19 I'm gonna move you
43:20 from the bottom of the standby list
43:22 on to the top of the standby
43:23 and I'm gonna get you on this next flight to Toronto.
43:27 And so after we wait for about three hours
43:29 the plane arrives and I'm getting on the plane.
43:32 And as I'm walking on the plane,
43:34 I didn't even board when I was supposed to.
43:37 I boarded late because I wasn't listening
43:38 to what was going on to the telecom.
43:40 Yes, I'm bad, I know it.
43:42 And so I'm boarding the plane
43:43 and I'm walking to the back of the plane
43:45 and the stewardess says,
43:47 Mr. Kowlessar would you like me to take your jacket
43:50 and I said wait a minute.
43:51 No, don't nobody take my jacket.
43:53 My jacket is my jacket.
43:55 And so when she's looked at me,
43:56 I said why do you want my jacket?
43:58 She said we often do that
44:00 for our passengers that are riding first class
44:04 because your seats says 1A, you are sitting over here
44:08 and then suddenly my countenance
44:09 and my face changed and I said,
44:11 it's about time you took my jacket.
44:13 It's time for me to sit down and so here I am
44:16 as I am sitting down in first class on a plane,
44:20 because while somebody
44:22 that who I had formed a little relationship with
44:25 had saw me in my distress
44:27 and decided to use their power to give me access to something
44:31 that I did not have in the first place.
44:33 Because what we got to understand
44:35 that God's delays are not His denials
44:38 and when you think God is closing the door for you.
44:40 He opens up something better and even greater for you
44:44 that you would never thought or imagined or accepted.
44:47 That's why the Bible says,
44:48 eyes have not seen, ear has not heard
44:51 nor has it entered into the hearts of man,
44:54 the things that God has prepared for him.
44:56 Now onto him that is able to do
44:59 exceedingly abundantly
45:01 above all that we can think or imagine.
45:04 And so I'm in first class
45:05 but listen to the story gets a whole lot better.
45:08 I'm in first class, I missed the first flight.
45:10 I land in Toronto and when I get to Toronto.
45:14 My person that was supposed to pick me up said,
45:17 it's a good thing that you were late
45:18 because if you have got here any earlier,
45:21 the meal that I was preparing for you was not ready
45:24 but now when you get there,
45:26 you're going to be able to eat a good and healthy meal.
45:29 And I said, hallelujah thank you Jesus
45:31 because sometimes I don't understand
45:33 what God is doing,
45:34 but I do know He is doing something.
45:37 And so you got to trust and cry out
45:39 and keep your relationship with God
45:41 because God will bump you up
45:43 and put you in from standby to being standing next to Him
45:47 and bless you in ways unimaginable.
45:50 And it's not because my ticket was special,
45:52 it was not because my ticket was another color.
45:55 It was not because of anything I did,
45:57 but it was simply because of a relationship
46:00 and a conversation I had with the man
46:02 that gave me access granted.
46:05 And here is Bartimaeus,
46:06 Bartimaeus has access granted why?
46:09 Because he had a conversation with Jesus Christ
46:12 and because of that conversation
46:14 with Jesus Christ,
46:15 he was able to ask God
46:16 the wildest dreams of his heart,
46:19 as we begin to wrap this sermon up.
46:21 I'm gonna close out with a story
46:22 of my three year old daughter.
46:24 My three old daughter's name is Katelynn
46:27 and Katelynn loves to dance.
46:29 And Katelynn always puts on the music
46:31 and she begins to dance by herself.
46:33 And sometimes as I am working on my sermon
46:37 or I'm working on something that I'm doing
46:39 or I maybe busy reading at the newspaper or a magazine.
46:43 Katelynn does this, Katelynn puts on the music
46:46 and Katelynn runs over to me and says daddy,
46:50 I want to dance with you and here I am,
46:52 I'm sitting there and I'm saying Katelynn,
46:54 I'm trying to do something right now, I'm busy.
46:57 And she says, daddy, I want to dance with you.
47:00 Why does Katelynn do that?
47:01 Because Katelynn understands that because you are my daddy
47:05 and because I have a relationship with you,
47:07 I could ask you the dreams of my heart
47:09 and anything that maybe outlandish and crazy,
47:12 but because you are my daddy,
47:14 I have know and I believe that
47:16 because this is not a bad request,
47:18 you will grant it onto me.
47:20 And because I know Katelynn is my daughter
47:22 and I'm a daddy that wants to make her happy.
47:24 I close my books
47:25 and me and Katelynn begin to dance
47:28 and we have a good old time.
47:29 And, friends, all I'm saying to you tonight is that
47:32 when you have a relationship with your daddy in heaven,
47:35 God our Father,
47:37 you could ask Him for the desires of your heart.
47:39 He says, "Ask and it shall be given to you,
47:42 seek and you will find,
47:43 knock and the door shall be given opened on to you."
47:47 Any good gift comes down from the father of lights.
47:50 And so if you wanted to say God dance with me tonight
47:53 and God will dance with you.
47:55 God open up a door for me
47:56 because I can't open this up for me myself
47:59 and God will open it for you.
48:01 If you want to say God,
48:02 just come and tabernacle with me
48:05 because he is your daddy
48:06 and because He have a relationship with you,
48:09 He will give you access granted to come into His room
48:13 and to invite Him and to doing anything
48:15 that you would like to do with Him.
48:17 And so here it is a beautiful story
48:19 of a man who started out on a street corner
48:22 who inherited his father's trauma,
48:24 who inherited all the bad in his life,
48:27 who people told him to shut up and leave Jesus alone,
48:31 but yet still Jesus overlook them
48:33 and said Bartimaeus come to me.
48:35 What is the desires of your heart?
48:38 And I believe that somebody
48:40 whether listening or here tonight.
48:42 There is a desire in your heart
48:44 to ask God to do something for you.
48:46 You need healing from something,
48:49 you've been struggling and you've been begging
48:50 and asking the wrong people to give you the right healing.
48:54 But now God is saying, you have access granted.
48:57 I'd die and when I die,
48:59 I split the veil from top to bottom
49:02 and what the blood of bulls and goats could not do,
49:05 I have done it with my precious blood.
49:08 Now you can come boldly before the throne of grace.
49:12 And you don't need a man on earth
49:14 to standing between you and I, you can bow right before me.
49:19 So tonight as you pray with me,
49:22 pray that you would have that Holy Spirit confidence
49:28 to go before God and ask Him for the desires of your heart.
49:33 And we're praying God Almighty, we thank You so much
49:38 that You look and that You see us
49:41 and that even Lord as You are passing by,
49:43 we pray that You would not overlook us.
49:46 We cry out to You Jesus of Nazareth,
49:49 Son of David, the Beloved One.
49:51 We know who You are and what You represent.
49:54 We know that You are an Almighty God
49:56 with all power in Your hands.
49:58 And Lord, yes, we have been blind,
50:00 we have been blind so long,
50:03 for such a long time that we have not even seen
50:07 our spiritual lethargic situations.
50:10 Yes, we are the blind ones, Lord,
50:12 that need our eyes to be open.
50:14 And even as a church, help us to open our eyes
50:17 and to see the suffering of our brothers and sisters
50:21 and not to ignore them or to tell them to be quiet,
50:24 but to invite them into the presence of Jesus Christ,
50:27 to remember that one day all of us Lord,
50:30 we weren't where we are right now.
50:32 And we're not even where we are supposed to be
50:35 that father God Almighty that You can bring us
50:38 and that You can redeem us from the pits of society,
50:42 from the cesspools that we are in,
50:44 clean us up and open our eyes.
50:47 And so God I thank You for access granted.
50:49 I thank You for opening up these doors.
50:52 Bless us and keep us, Lord, we pray
50:54 until we meet again, amen and amen.
51:03 Praise the Lord, pastor. Praise the Lord.
51:05 Praise the Lord.
51:07 Pastor as you were preaching
51:09 and you were talking about blind Bartimaeus,
51:12 I was rejoicing in the fact that the very first sight,
51:19 the very first thing that blind Bartimaeus saw
51:22 was the face of Jesus Christ.
51:25 The face of Jesus Christ, I praise the Lord.
51:27 I want to ask you pastor because we heard you say,
51:31 I never heard that illustration about the palm tree
51:34 and how it is deeply rooted.
51:36 And you said you were deeply rooted in the Lord.
51:39 So I would like to ask you this question because
51:42 some people maybe wondering
51:43 how do I get deeply rooted like Pastor Kowlessar in God?
51:49 Can you give us a moment of that?
51:53 It's the simple formula.
51:55 The simple formula is through prayer and study
51:58 to constant connection and communication with God.
52:02 And just always practicing what you read.
52:06 You see it's almost like, how I would say,
52:08 if you sit down in church or in any setting
52:13 or matter of fact if you go in some--
52:15 if you go to a music teacher.
52:16 The music teacher is showing you
52:18 how to play the piano and showing you all the keys.
52:22 It's no good to you unless you actually play it
52:25 and so sometimes what happens is that
52:26 we read the word God and we study the word of God
52:29 but we don't put into practice the word of God.
52:31 And so by practicing it and living it out
52:34 and reading and studying it gets you ground deep-rooted
52:37 so that when situations come, you won't even think about it
52:43 but text will come to your mind.
52:44 And you know how to handle situations
52:47 and you'll understand that
52:48 I know that this war is not against flesh and blood
52:51 but principalities and power and rules of darkness.
52:54 And so I'm gonna come out of character,
52:56 I'm going to stay deep-rooted in my savior
52:58 because you can't pull me out
53:00 because that's how deep my roots are.
53:01 Amen, praise the Lord.
53:03 I was born in Dominican Republic,
53:04 so when you gave the illustration
53:06 about the palm trees.
53:07 In Dominican Republic we have many palm trees
53:09 and I've seen them
53:10 sway to the left, sway to the right
53:14 but they remain steadfast because they are deeply-rooted.
53:17 That's right.
53:18 And so the blessing that we have is
53:22 that we can get deeply-rooted in Jesus Christ
53:25 just like you said
53:27 and when trials and tribulations come,
53:30 we turn to Jesus.
53:31 That's right. Those source of our strength.
53:33 That's right, that's right.
53:34 And no matter how far you've been,
53:36 you can pull right back up amen.
53:37 'Cause that's God made that palm tree.
53:39 'Cause you're holding-- you're holding on to Jesus.
53:41 That's right. Amen.
53:43 Amen, praise the Lord.
53:44 Pastor, we have about three minutes or so
53:48 and we would like to get a glimpse
53:51 of what the next topic is,
53:54 A Little Prayer That Made A Big Difference.
53:56 Oh, absolutely, I'm excited about the next sermon.
54:00 We're gonna be looking at the story of the father
54:03 who brought his son to Jesus Christ
54:05 and he says, Lord I believe but help my unbelief
54:09 and so that was a small prayer
54:12 but it made a big difference because here his son was healed
54:15 and so we're gonna break that story down
54:17 and look into it and understand that,
54:19 you know, it's not in the length of our prayers
54:22 or the verbs or syntax
54:25 or the predicates of subjects
54:27 but it's just in that communicating with God
54:29 and God response to that.
54:31 And so here we're gonna talk about our belief
54:33 but the part of unbelief as well.
54:36 Amen, amen.
54:37 Well, pastor I would like to praise the Lord
54:40 for this message that we heard
54:41 many things to look at, many things to consider
54:44 and blind Bartimaeus--
54:48 it's beautiful to see how Jesus completely changed his life.
54:53 You know, you mentioned that he left that cloak behind
54:58 that identified him with his past
55:01 and Jesus gave him a new beginning.
55:05 Now he could see, now he could appreciate
55:07 the beauties of the Lord
55:08 and appreciate the wonderful things
55:10 the Lord has made.
55:11 And so he had access granted.
55:15 That's right. Access granted.
55:16 And when we come to the Lord,
55:19 we have this access to the father
55:22 through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
55:24 And as you were preaching, it also made me think
55:28 about the wonderful blessing that when the Lord Jesus comes,
55:31 we're going to have access granted
55:34 to all the glories of heaven.
55:36 That's right, that's right, that's right.
55:39 And so God is telling us practice your access
55:44 that you have right now,
55:45 use it, I'm giving everything to you.
55:49 When I come in glory, you will see all those things
55:52 and I think that's the problem sometimes with us that
55:55 we live in a society that's based on empirical evidence
55:59 and the more we can touch it as the more we believe in it
56:02 but air is there.
56:03 We don't see it but we know it's there.
56:06 And so if we can trust and believe that
56:07 we have air to breath
56:08 and we can trust and believe in a God
56:10 who does show himself
56:12 but we have to have the eyes to see it.
56:14 And so God is saying here pray to me,
56:16 trust in me and believe in me
56:18 and if I've done it for Bartimaeus,
56:20 I can surely do it for you as well.
56:22 Amen, amen, well, I praise the Lord
56:25 when we hear Pastor Kowlessar preach.
56:27 We believe that he's preaching from the heart
56:30 and we believe that he believes what he preaches.
56:33 So I praise the Lord for that.
56:34 Well, brothers and sisters,
56:35 we thank you for being with us during this hour.
56:38 This is the program Foundation Of Our Faith.
56:43 This is the program brought to you by
56:44 Dare to Dream to encourage you
56:47 and to build up your faith in God's word, in Jesus Christ.
56:50 And so we want to encourage you to continue to follow Jesus,
56:54 consider this lesson of blind Bartimaeus
56:57 and you will find that
56:59 your strength is in Jesus Christ
57:01 and as you hear that messages like these,
57:04 you will find that you are becoming
57:06 more and more deeply-rooted in Jesus Christ.
57:10 So we thank you for joining us.
57:11 We ask you to pray for Dare to Dream
57:13 and support Dare to Dream also with your finances,
57:16 so we can keep bringing messages like these
57:19 and change lives all over the world.
57:21 Thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time
57:23 on Foundation Of Our Faith.


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Revised 2015-04-30