Participants:
Series Code: NP
Program Code: NP200104S
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00:11 >> Let's stand together on this first Sabbath 00:13 of the new year as we pray. 00:25 Morning has broken, Holy Father, on this first Sabbath 00:28 of a brand-new year. 00:31 And where better to come than right here in this house of prayer for all people? 00:36 And "all people" means not only here in the Midwest, but also over there 00:40 in the Middle East. Oh, God, peace on Earth, goodwill to mankind. 00:45 That Christmas gift sure got broken awfully early, didn't it? So now what? 00:51 Only You know what lies ahead this new year. What we know 00:56 is that here with You, we are safe, and that with You, all things do work together 01:01 for good to those who love You. So please make this house a prayer a house of peace 01:06 on Earth. This new year for the sake of Christ Jesus, 01:11 who is the foundation of this house forever and ever. Amen. 01:16 >> Amen. >> Happy Sabbath. Happy Sabbath. 01:25 And happy New Year. 01:27 You know, at the beginning of the year, we often are -- 01:30 It's a time of excitement, you know, sometimes a bit of fear, 01:33 trying to figure out what's gonna happen this year, right? 01:36 But, you know, God has been faithful to us. He brought us through 2019 01:41 now to 2020. So, you know, at this time, we're gonna sing praises, 01:45 and I just invite you to sing with us these marvelous hymns. [ "Holy, Holy, Holy" begins ] 01:53 ♪♪ ♪♪ 02:08 [ Congregation singing ] ♪♪ 02:20 ♪♪ ♪♪ 02:37 ♪♪ ♪♪ 02:55 ♪♪ ♪♪ 03:13 ♪♪ ♪♪ 03:31 [ "The Lord Is My Light" begins ] 03:37 You may be seated. ♪♪ 03:42 [ Congregation singing ] ♪♪ 03:54 ♪♪ ♪♪ 04:13 ♪♪ ♪♪ 04:32 ♪♪ ♪♪ 04:51 ♪♪ ♪♪ 05:10 ♪♪ ♪♪ 05:29 ♪♪ ♪♪ 05:48 ♪♪ [ "To God Be the Glory" begins ] 06:00 ♪♪ [ Congregation singing ] 06:12 ♪♪ ♪♪ 06:31 ♪♪ ♪♪ 06:49 ♪♪ ♪♪ 07:08 ♪♪ ♪♪ 07:26 ♪♪ ♪♪ 07:44 ♪♪ [ "The Church Has One 07:56 Foundation" begins ] ♪♪ 08:04 Please stand. ♪♪ 08:13 [ Congregation singing ] ♪♪ 08:25 ♪♪ ♪♪ 08:44 ♪♪ ♪♪ 09:03 ♪♪ ♪♪ 09:22 ♪♪ ♪♪ 09:40 ♪♪ ♪♪ 09:59 ♪♪ ♪♪ 10:18 Amen. You know, at the beginning of 10:20 the new year, we want to make sure that we set 10:23 off on the right foundation. Isn't that correct? 10:26 On Jesus Christ. And, you know, setting aside 10:29 all the things that were probably plaguing us 10:32 throughout the last year, you know, we know that we can 10:34 only conquer those things because of Christ 10:37 and because of His grace. So let us continue on and 10:41 sing about His marvelous grace. [ "Marvelous Grace" begins ] 10:46 ♪♪ ♪♪ 10:57 [ Congregation singing ] ♪♪ 11:10 ♪♪ ♪♪ 11:29 ♪♪ ♪♪ 11:48 ♪♪ ♪♪ 12:07 ♪♪ ♪♪ 12:26 ♪♪ ♪♪ 12:45 ♪♪ [ "Draw Me Nearer" begins ] 12:58 ♪♪ ♪♪ 13:09 [ Congregation singing ] ♪♪ 13:21 ♪♪ ♪♪ 13:40 ♪♪ ♪♪ 13:59 ♪♪ [ "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" 14:10 begins ] ♪♪ 14:17 [ Congregation singing ] ♪♪ 14:29 ♪♪ ♪♪ 14:48 ♪♪ ♪♪ 15:06 ♪♪ ♪♪ 15:24 ♪♪ 15:37 >> Well, good morning, boys and girls, on this first Sabbath of -- 15:41 What's the number for this year? The number. I'm having hard time 15:44 remembering. What's the number? Tell me. 2020. 15:48 Oh, I can't believe it's 2020. Well, that's gonna be an easy one to remember. 15:54 Don't you think? We'll keep writing "2019." But it's easy to remember 2020. 15:59 Nice to see you. Did you have -- Did you have a nice holiday break? 16:04 I can tell looking at you. 16:06 You got some rest? School starts up 16:09 in just a few hours. Yeah. 16:14 Yep, few hours till Monday. We got any visitors here? Oh, I see some visitors. 16:21 Nice to have you. We were in Kettering Church last Sabbath, where our son and 16:27 his wife -- but really what's important -- Ella and Izzy go to church. 16:30 So that's where we were. Beautiful day. Okay, so this is from 16:35 Sharon Dudgeon. She's the lady that runs WAUS, keeps it on the air 24/7. 16:42 Oh, wait a minute. This is about a family from Georgia. 16:45 Anybody here from Georgia? Georgia, Georgia, down South. The family said -- It just 16:52 happened just a few weeks ago. They said, "Okay, Mommy, Daddy." 16:55 Little India and her brother Jack. "Mommy and Daddy, we got to get 16:59 a Christmas tree. It's time to get a Christmas tree, and we want a live one 17:02 again, please. We want a live one," so they go to the store and they get a live 17:05 Christmas tree. What did they do with it? They bring it home. 17:08 They set the Christmas -- Did you do this, too? They set the Christmas tree 17:11 up in their house. Can you imagine that? In their house. 17:14 And then Mother, she collects these little owl -- You know what an owl is? 17:19 Little owl ornaments, and just she puts them all over and had the lights, 17:23 and, oh, it's their favorite, favorite Christmas tree. So just a few days ago, 17:28 they were having supper, and little India got up, and she went out to the living room. 17:35 So she went by the Christmas tree, and Mother heard a scream, and little India comes running 17:40 back into the room, and she's crying. She says, "Mama, that was not -- 17:45 that was not nice to do." Mother says, "Nice to do what?" She says, "You know those owl 17:48 ornaments? It just looked at me and winked." 17:55 Mother says, "What are you talking about?" "Well, you need to look at --" 17:59 So Mother said, "Okay. Just stay right here. I'll go out and look." 18:02 So Mother looks. There's the lovely owl ornaments. 18:04 She loves saving these and putting them up every Christmas. And all of a sudden, one of the 18:08 ornaments went like this. [ Laughter ] "What? 18:14 There's a live owl in our tree." The whole family came running. "Stand back, stand back." 18:21 There's that little owl. "How long has this owl been in here?" 18:26 "Well, we haven't had the tree anywhere but in here since it came from the store." 18:30 "No, can't be that long." They call up a nearby nature center. 18:34 They say, "Listen we got -- You're not gonna believe this. We have an owl in the tree." 18:36 Oh, the guy on the other line says, "I know what that is. That's the eastern screech owl." 18:41 "Eastern screech owl? We haven't heard a peep." "Well, that's what you got." 18:48 "Oh, what are we gonna do?" "We'll send somebody out tomorrow." 18:52 So that somebody came out, 'cause it takes somebody special to take little owls 18:56 out of big Christmas trees. They have somebody that does that for a special work. 18:59 And this specialist came, and he looked at it -- "Hmm." Said, "Yeah, oh, yeah, this 19:05 is an eastern screech owl. Now, there's only one way we can remove it. 19:09 First of all, you got to feed it. He's very skinny. 19:11 He must have been in this tree a long time." No food. 19:14 So they fed it some food. He told them the kind of food. And then he said, 19:18 "Okay, now, here's the deal. I'm gonna get him. I'm gonna put him in a box. 19:23 Do you have a box?" "We got a box." "Okay, I need you to keep the 19:26 box with a blanket over it. And tonight when it gets dark, dusk outside, I want you 19:32 to take the box outside. Put it there with the blanket on it 19:36 and then take the blanket off, go back in the house, and wait." And that's exactly what they 19:41 did. The expert little owl remover got the little owl, 19:45 put it in the box. There goes the blanket. There goes the box to the back 19:49 room. "Okay, now, tonight when it gets darkish, that's what I want you 19:54 to do. Okay? All right. See you later. Bye." 19:57 And that's what they did. When it began to get twilight and dusk, they said, "Okay, come 20:02 on, kids." They carried that box out, set it down. 20:05 They took the blanket off, and the little owl just didn't do a thing. 20:14 "Okay, let's just leave it here. Maybe he likes to be alone when he leaves." 20:19 They go back in the house. Nothing happened, nothing happened. 20:22 Got dark. Finally, late at night, they said, "Well, we better go out 20:24 and check." Guess what. The owl's gone. Hallelujah. 20:28 The owl flew away. You're saying, "That's just a made-up story." 20:33 No, it's a true story. I got a picture of the owl right here. 20:35 Look at the big screen right now. That's the owl. 20:39 That's a real live eastern screech owl. You don't want them screeching 20:43 in your ear. But that's where it was -- in the Christmas tree. 20:48 Hey, now, wait a minute. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Sometimes when you go 20:51 from Christmas to New Year's, little owls get in your heart. That's what happens, really. 20:55 Little owls. Little owls of naughty thoughts, little owls of bad habits. 21:03 They get inside your heart over the holiday because everybody's just kind of relaxing, not 21:07 keeping an eye out. And the little owls get inside of us, the things we don't want 21:11 inside of us in the new year. Do you know what we got to do? We got to call the little 21:16 owl specialist. And what is the little owl specialist's name? 21:20 >> Jesus. >> Oh, you knew this one. Of course, it's Jesus. 21:24 And when you say, "Jesus, I have some bad thoughts. I have some naughty habits. 21:28 Could You take them away?" Jesus says, "That's what I do. I'm a little owl specialist." 21:35 But you have to ask Him. If you don't ask Him, He can't do that. 21:40 He has to have your permission. Oh, I know a little prayer I'd like to pray all this year. 21:44 "Dear Jesus, take the little owls out that came in today. Just take the little owls out." 21:50 Okay? And will He do it? Every time 21:54 you ask Him, He'll do it. You have to keep asking every day. 21:58 Oh, who wants to thank Jesus for being the specialist that can remove 22:03 those little owls from us? Is there anybody here? Are you putting your hand up? 22:09 Yeah. Come on. Let's do. Let's pray. Let's thank Jesus for being 22:15 that friend of ours who is a specialist with little owls. What's your first name? 22:20 >> Sam. >> Sam. We're gonna pray with Sam, all 22:22 right? Could you close your eyes, please, and fold your hands? 22:26 Thank you, Sam. >> Dear Jesus, thank you for this day. 22:29 Please bless us all good days, using for service. And please help us -- 22:33 that people will not be sick. We love You. Amen. >> Amen. Thank you, Sam. 22:41 We love You, Jesus. It's a beautiful prayer. You can say that in your heart. 22:45 "We love You. Keep those little owls out, Jesus, this new year." 22:50 Happy New Year Sabbath to all of you. 22:57 ♪♪ ♪♪ 23:16 ♪♪ ♪♪ 23:35 ♪♪ ♪♪ 23:54 ♪♪ ♪♪ 24:13 ♪♪ ♪♪ 24:32 ♪♪ ♪♪ 24:50 ♪♪ ♪♪ 25:09 ♪♪ ♪♪ 25:28 ♪♪ ♪♪ 25:47 ♪♪ ♪♪ 26:06 ♪♪ 26:20 >> Let's pray. And then we go. Oh, God, that's our prayer. 26:26 Beautifully rendered by these three musicians, your disciples, your children. 26:33 Be our vision. 2020... is the year, and 20/20 26:40 is the vision we long for. Grant it to us. Teach us how in these few 26:45 moments we have together with You now. We pray in Jesus' name. 26:49 Amen. 26:51 Speaking of vision, I suppose it's safe to say that everybody 26:56 in this space, I'm just guessing -- I don't know what 26:59 the age is -- but I'm just guessing probably from 10 and on 27:01 up has stood before one of those ubiquitous eye charts 27:07 in a doctor's office somewhere. Have you done that? 27:10 You know what I'm talking about? Come on, let's see it on the 27:12 screen. 27:13 Bring back good memories. There it is. It's called the Snellen chart. 27:17 You've seen it. Snellen chart, and you know the drill. 27:21 The nurse comes, and she says to you, "Now, listen, listen, sir, put your feet on that line." 27:26 That's not hard to do. Okay. She says, "Now, I want you to 27:29 put the left hand over your left eye." I can do that. 27:31 "All right, now, look at the wall, the chart." Now, look, when you get to 27:36 that point, if you say, "What wall?" it's pretty much over. You just say, 27:39 "Well, give me those glasses." She said, "Okay, wise guy, tell me what's the top letter." 27:46 And I'm telling you the truth. I've seen a lot of these charts. The top letter's always "E." 27:50 I don't know why that is. It's always "E." So when you go in, if you don't 27:55 remember another thing, just remember the first line is "E" and just say "E." 27:59 You got it. It'll be "E." They say, "Keep the hand -- Keep 28:04 the hand on your left eye. Okay, now, tell me what's line two." 28:07 And I went and wrote them down. Line two -- "F," "P." "What's line three?" 28:14 "'T,' 'O,' 'Z.'" "Mm-hmm, how about line four?" "'L,' 'P,' 'E,' 'D.'" 28:19 I'm telling you, they're all on Google. Just memorize the chart 28:22 before you go to the doctor's office, you're gonna be fine. But if you get down 28:27 to the eighth line -- if you get down to the eighth line -- 28:30 This is the one you got to memorize 'cause this is the 20/20 line. 28:33 "D," "E," "F," "P," "O," "T," "E," "C." You'll learn that. 28:39 That means you have 20/20. What does 20/20 mean? Well, I don't know, either. 28:44 I did a little bit investigating this week. Jet fighter pilots -- 28:48 You got to have 20/20 minimum so you can be a jet fighter pilot. 28:51 If you got 20/20. 20/20 means you standing 20 feet away see that sign and others 28:57 standing 20 feet away also saw the same sign and saw it the same way. 29:01 Just means you're average. That's all it means. Now, you can have a 20/40 29:07 vision. And that's when the test subject sees at 20 feet 29:11 what a person with normal vision sees at 40 feet. In other words, your vision 29:15 is half worse than the normal vision. 20/40 -- You don't want 20/40, 29:20 but you can pass any driver's license eye test in all 50 states with 20/40. 29:26 You can have 20/80. That means you're able to read an alarm clock at 10 feet. 29:32 By the way, that's a good way to get up in the morning -- put the alarm clock 10 feet away. 29:36 And when you turn it off, you're up. Or you could have 20/200. 29:39 Oh, you don't want 20/200. You're legally blind with 20/200. 29:42 But you're able to see the "S-T-O-P" on the stop sign when you drive by. 29:47 20/20. Yeah, you drove by, so you didn't see it. 29:53 You didn't see it. You caught that. Or I just caught it. 29:59 Isn't that something? Here we are at the year of our Lord 2020. 30:03 And there's not a one of us here that isn't in desperate need for 20/20 vision. 30:10 My, oh, my. The year has come. This is your year. 30:14 This is my year. And guess what. Two things, two realities. 30:18 Number one, God is very big on 20/20. And He has a perfect prayer 30:27 for 20/20 vision in 2020. Open your Bible with me, please, to the middle of your 30:31 Bible, Psalm 119. So that's the middle of the Bible, the longest 30:35 chapter in the entire Bible, Psalm 119. Let's drop down to verse 18. 30:41 This is the perfect prayer for 20/20 vision, Psalm 119. I'm in the NIV, verse 18. 30:56 Oh, wow. Open my -- Isn't that beautiful? 31:02 Does that strike you as a beautiful prayer? "Open my eyes that I may see 31:06 wonderful things in your Torah." Because it's in the Hebrew. That would be "Your law, 31:10 Your Word, in Your book." Open my eyes. I want to see what I've never 31:15 seen before. I want to be able to see what You see, God. 31:18 Would You be able to grant me that kind of vision where I can see what You see? 31:23 "Open my eyes that I may see." Robert Alter, the Hebrew specialist, 31:32 in his magnum opus -- It's a four volume. He just came out with this 31:35 one calendar year ago. In his magnum opus, the translation -- one-man 31:42 translation and commentary on the Hebrew Bible. Somebody graciously anonymously 31:47 gave it to me. In his translation -- Put this on the screen for you. 31:53 Here's how he renders Psalm 119:18. "Unveil my eyes," oh, God. 32:00 I like that. "Unveil my eyes that I may look upon the wonders of Your 32:06 teaching." God, God, God, something is veiling my sight. 32:09 Something is obscuring my vision. Take it away, whatever it is. 32:14 Take it away. I have to see You clearly. Now, he makes a comment 32:18 on this one line. Put his comment on the screen. 32:21 "Throughout the psalm" -- 119 -- "the speaker not only affirms 32:25 his adherence to God's teaching but prays for the capacity 32:29 to understand it." I want to know what this book is saying. 32:33 I can't. I need help. Open my eyes that I may see. 32:38 Something's obscuring my understanding. It's keeping me 32:41 from seeing clearly what it is that You're trying to tell me. Unveil my eyes. 32:46 Open my eyes. I have to know Your will this new year. 32:49 I have to know Your will. Open my eyes that I might see. Wow. 32:55 In fact, there's an old hymn. We sang it in first service. ♪ Open my eyes that I may see 33:01 ♪ Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me ♪ You remember that one? 33:05 Yeah, you're a boomer, you grew up with that. But the modern version is -- 33:11 the modern version is -- ♪ Open the eyes of my heart, Lord ♪ 33:15 Isn't it? ♪ Open the eyes of my heart ♪ I want to -- What? 33:19 ♪ I want to see You ♪ I want to see You Beautiful, beautiful prayer, 33:27 perfect prayer for the new year. Here's the good news. The opening of our eyes 33:32 is a very big deal to God, and I'm gonna show you that. Just boom, boom, boom. 33:38 Big deal to Him. Watch this. In the beginning, it was a big deal. 33:42 "Psst, you, girl, look up here. I'm talking to you." It's the serpent. 33:47 He's got Eve's attention now. And notice what he says to Eve. Let's put it on the screen. 33:51 Genesis 3:5. What does the serpent say? "You know what, girl? 33:54 God's afraid that if you eat this fruit, it will open your eyes 34:01 and you will be like God." And so guess what. She ate the fruit, 34:04 little knowing, Eve and Adam, that the fruit of disobedience is eyes blinded, 34:11 not eyes open. It worked in the reverse. But, of course, that was the 34:14 lie. Gotcha, gotcha. So this eye-opening business, 34:20 God's in the business of opening eyes. So this is a little later 34:23 in the Book of Genesis, and we've got this fugitive on the lam. 34:29 Young handmaiden from Egypt. She's wandering now in the wilderness 34:35 with her little boy Ishmael. They're gonna die of thirst because there is no water. 34:41 God comes along. Look at God. Watch this. Genesis 21:19. 34:54 I'm telling you what, God loves to answer the prayer, "Open my eyes." 34:58 He's in the business of opening eyes. He's doing it all the time. 35:01 He did it that time when that obstinate, incalcitrant prophet is flailing. 35:10 He's gonna beat this beast to death. [ Imitates whip cracking ] 35:14 "What were you thinking? You just crushed my leg on that wall. 35:18 Didn't you see the wall, you blind beast?" [ Imitates whip cracking ] 35:23 And the beast says to him, "Why are you beating me?" What's really comical about this 35:29 is he actually answers the beast. He's so mad. 35:32 "Because look what you just did. That's why." Oops. 35:36 Who's the donkey? And then all of a sudden, shoo! Watch this. 35:43 Numbers 22:31. "The the Lord opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the Angel of 35:49 the Lord." That's the pre-incarnate Christ Himself standing right there. 35:52 Shoo! "Take another step, buddy, you're dead meat." 35:57 He now sees what the donkey's been seeing. God loves -- God loves 36:03 to open eyes. He does it -- He does it for a living. 36:10 I mean, the boy comes walking in there. I'm guessing he's a teenager. 36:12 He could be in his early 20s. I don't know, the young man. He's hyperventilating when he 36:15 steps into the prophet's bedroom. [ Gasping ] 36:18 "Oh, we're doomed, we're doomed, we're doomed. We're surrounded. 36:21 Prophet, you gotta come and see." And I love this about Elisha. 36:26 What Eric Friedrickson calls "non-anxious presence." The prophet gets up. 36:33 "All right, all right, all right. I'll come, I'll come." 36:35 So the boy gets the prophet out. Said, "Look, the enemy is surrounding us." 36:41 Non-anxious presence. The prophet says, "Let me pray a prayer to Jesus right now." 36:45 Let's put it on the screen. What are the first three words of this prayer? 36:49 Say it out loud with me. 36:56 Open her eyes, Lord. She's actually praying the prayer right now. 36:59 Open her eyes so that she may see. He's in the busi-- 37:05 He loves opening eyes. Oh, man. 37:14 So I suppose nobody's surprised that when you get into the 37:21 heart of the Old Testament and God starts promising about the coming Messiah 37:25 that God would actually link this to the Messiah's mission on Earth. 37:30 Watch this. Isaiah 42:6-7 on the screen. God speaking to the Messiah. 37:35 "I will make you a light for the Gentiles," to do what? Let's read this one out loud. 37:41 "To open the eyes that are blind." That's the Messiah -- 37:47 That was to be the Messiah's mission. No wonder -- In fact, you're 37:53 probably gonna challenge me right now. Correct me if I'm wrong. 37:58 I'm quite sure that in this case I'm not. But some of you are mean. 38:02 You say, "Okay, give me the challenge." So here's the challenge. 38:06 Have you noticed -- Has it ever occurred to you it seems, doesn't it, that Jesus 38:11 dealt more with blindness than any other human ailment. Oh, yeah, he healed a few 38:21 lepers. I know those stories. So do you. 38:24 He cast out some demons. I know those stories. You know them, too. 38:27 He healed a few crippled. Yes, yes. I remember those stories. 38:32 He even raised three people back to life. But more than all of those -- 38:39 you check the record out -- He's healing blind people. I wonder why He concentrated 38:46 on the blind ailment. You remember some of these blind stories? 38:53 Sure, you do. Blind Bartimaeus. Our youth pastor, 38:57 Pastor Lindsey, just a few weeks ago did a beautiful job with this. 39:01 Bartimaeus. Jesus coming out of Jericho. By the way, Matthews tells 39:06 the story later than Mark. And Matthew says, "By the way, guys, I know Mark said just -- 39:10 you thought it was only Bartimaeus. I'm telling you, I was there. 39:13 There were two blind men." It's very interesting when you compare the responses, 39:17 because Jesus asks -- in both accounts, Jesus asks, "What do you want me to do for 39:20 you? What do you want?" And Bartimaeus answers. 39:23 Bartimaeus -- It's almost a direct quote of Psalm 119:18. "Open my eyes that I may see." 39:29 Direct quote. The two blind men in Matthew, they cry out, "That our eyes 39:35 may be opened." ♪ Open the eyes of my heart, Lord ♪ 39:42 God loves that prayer. It's what Jesus did more than any other miracle. 39:46 He opened eyes. You know, it makes you wonder. Do you suppose Jesus focused on 39:51 our physical ailment of blindness because what we really have a problem with 39:55 is our spiritual ailment of blindness? And maybe that's the point 40:00 He's wanting us to get. I'm looking at your eyes now. They're trying to stay open, 40:05 but... I'm looking at your eyes right now. 40:11 I'm wondering if you can really see out of those. Yeah. 40:16 So Jesus comes along and He does a blind man in John chapter 9. 40:18 You remember that. Spits on the ground. Makes this yucky concoction 40:24 and then He [Imitates squishing] all over the closed eyelids of a man who was born blind. 40:29 Young man, I'm imagining. Never seen in his lifetime. And Jesus says, "Yo, 40:33 go to the Pool of Siloam, please, and wash this off. That's all I'm telling you." 40:38 "Man, go -- Can you point me in the direction of Siloam? 40:41 Where's Siloam? Help me. Help me, please. I got to get to Siloam right 40:44 away." He gets to the water. He washes it off. 40:47 And guess what. This man who has never seen a lick of light his whole life 40:53 can see everything in 20/20 vision. Can you imagine the joy 41:00 that was in his heart? I know the joy that was in his heart, 41:04 'cause I saw a YouTube about three or four weeks ago. I don't know how I stumbled 41:07 into this YouTube. Maybe you sent it to me. I don't know. 41:11 But it's of a kid. True story. You can go online. 41:14 Not now. Every time I say, "You can go online," people go, "Okay, sure. 41:18 What's that site again?" No. Forget it. You can check it out for 41:23 yourself. You'll start crying. There's this kid who 41:28 was born color-blind. No, really. Some of you have seen it. 41:32 He was born color-blind. People were nodding in first service. 41:34 I said, "Wow, man. There are a lot of YouTube watchers in first service." 41:39 So he's born color-blind. They've invented glasses -- true story -- that enable color-blind 41:45 people to see color. Unbelievable. So the teacher, who is also 41:50 color-blind, in that classroom, this is a happy day for him, and he can hardly wait 41:54 for that kid to get here. And the parents have kind of sneaked in. 41:57 And so in front of everybody, the teacher presents these glasses to the boy 42:01 that's color-blind, and he kind of was a little nervous, like, "Why am I putting these on 42:05 in front of everybody?" But he puts them on. And then this smile 42:08 just goes from ear to ear. 42:11 You can tell he's seeing color, and all of a sudden, 42:15 he starts crying. 42:17 He just starts crying. So I start crying, 'cause that's the cue. 42:21 [ Laughter ] I'm so touched by this. And the teacher comes over 42:26 with tears in his eyes. And he just leans over to that little boy, and he just holds 42:29 him. And I'm saying, "Does it get any better than this?" 42:33 I can't imagine that guy who's never seen a lick of light 42:36 in his life coming back, saying, "Wow, wow, wow, wow." 42:41 Well, unfortunately, every party has a pooper. 42:45 That's why we invited you. 42:48 There was a party pooper there. They're called Pharisees. God bless them. 42:53 And they went -- they went postal. They went postal. 42:57 I mean, of all the audacity of this guy, who's the creator of the universe. 43:01 This guy on the Sabbath, the seventh-day Sabbath, in honor of the creation. 43:05 Why did He do this? So in rage, the Pharisees cross-examine this 43:12 now-healed former blind man. And when he keeps touché-ing right back, 43:19 right back, right back, they finally excommunicate him. "Get out!" 43:25 He goes to church, which is a good thing to do when you've been cut off. 43:30 He goes to church and he bumps into a man he's never seen in his life. 43:34 But when the man speaks, it's the one voice he will never forget 43:39 for the rest of his life. And he is down on his knees before Jesus worshiping 43:45 his healer. And then Jesus says these clue words. 43:49 Here comes the clue, now. John 9:39 on the screen. Notice what Jesus says. 44:07 Oh, boy, which is worse, to be born blind or to become blind? There's a thought question 44:12 for you.' Which would you rather be, born blind or become blind? 44:17 Oh, this is bad. Jesus says you can -- you can become blind. 44:22 Do you suppose Jesus focused most of His miracles on the blind, 44:28 wanting to make sure that we got it? That it's not just about 44:31 a physical ailment. It's about a spiritual brokenness, 44:36 a darkness that has crept over your heart. Some of you are doing something 44:42 in your life that you absolutely know right now God does not want you to do. 44:47 I never told you that. Nobody else told you that. But you have a conscience, and 44:53 that conscience is saying to you, "This is wrong. This is really wrong. 44:57 What are you thinking, girl, boy?" 45:07 That's why you're blind. That's why you need the healer. You can't heal yourself of 45:15 blindness. It won't work. Unh-unh. 45:19 In fact, Jesus wrote a letter once. The last love letter 45:23 in all of Scripture. He wrote it to a church called Laodicea. 45:26 He says, "I'm talking to you. I love you. I love you. But you are -- you are pitiful, 45:35 wretched... poor... naked... 45:40 and blind." Spiritual blindness is a big deal. 45:46 And we all suffer. That's why he keeps going after the physical -- 45:55 so that we get the spiritual. "Open my eyes, Lord, that I may see. 46:00 Unveil me. Something's blocking my vision." Jesus says, "You know exactly 46:04 what's blocking your vision. You want that vision unblocked, girl, you get rid of that. 46:07 Boy, you quit doing that." "Unblock my vision. Unveil my eyes 46:12 that I may see You. I may see You." We were worried this past 46:19 summer -- true story -- that Karen might be losing her sight. 46:24 Didn't talk to you about it, but we were concerned. She had gone for routine 46:28 cataract surgery on her second eye. It had gone well 46:31 with the first one, and we were sure it would be ditto for the other eye, but afterwards, 46:35 something was wrong. Her sight was not returning as it should be this time. 46:41 It became more difficult for her to see. It's out of focus 46:44 and kind of darkness here and there, and, oh, my. So we -- they sent her to a 46:51 retinologist. That's a specialist on the retina, as you can guess, 46:55 and they said, "Well, there's something going on with this retina." 46:58 So the surgeon goes in for the retina. Bandaged up. 47:04 I mean, when you come out of those surgeries, you're bandaged up like this, and 24 hours and 47:08 then you take this off. And we went through all of that, but when she took it off, 47:11 it was worse. There was blood seeping into the eyeball, and it was now 47:17 affecting everything. She was seeing it. Oh, the surgeon says, "Well, 47:22 this does happen sometimes. We gotta go back in again." And by this point, 47:28 I'm telling you the truth, we're praying for sight. We are saying, "God, plain and 47:31 simple, just sight, please, for Karen. Just sight. 47:36 Just give her sight. Don't take it away." She went in for the third 47:41 surgery. Took the bandage off later. And guess what. 47:50 Sight was healed. Hallelujah. Praise God. 47:55 Jesus told -- Jesus experienced a story with another blind man where it did not take 48:02 three surgeries, but it took three touches. We're gonna end with this, okay? 48:06 Three touches. I want you to check this out. Most unusual. 48:09 Scholars are kind of scratching their heads and saying, "Well, this is very -- this is 48:12 strange." Took three touches. So open your Bible, 48:16 last passage here, Mark chapter 8. Find the Gospel of Mark, 48:20 chapter 8. And let's begin the story in verse 22. 48:34 Okay, hit the pause button right there. I have a book in my library. 48:37 I've had it for years. It's written by a man named Kevin Miller. 48:41 The title of the book is "The Second Touch." The title is based 48:46 on this story, okay? Now, I respect the author, but I humbly beg to differ with him. 48:56 I think he missed a third touch that's there. And it's the third touch 49:01 that makes a difference. Let's go. So now we pick it up 49:04 in verse 23. 49:05 So they brought the blind man to him, and Jesus 49:07 took the blind man by the hand. There is touch number one. 49:10 If you're keeping track of the touches, there is touch number 49:12 one. "And they led him 49:14 outside the village. When" -- oh, here it comes 49:16 again -- "he had spit on the man's eyes 49:19 and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, 'Do you see 49:23 anything?'" 49:25 The man looked up and said, "Yo, I see people. But they look like trees 49:32 walking around." Now, I'll tell you, many a sermon has been written 49:38 stopping right there. And the moral is clear. We can become so 49:42 self-preoccupied, so focused on ourselves that we lose focus 49:47 to everybody around us, and that's a wonderful point, I'm sure. 49:50 It's not the right point today. There still is a third touch. Here comes the third touch. 50:00 "Once more" -- Isn't that amazing? "Once more Jesus put his 50:04 hands" -- number three -- "on the man's eyes. And then his eyes were opened, 50:09 his sight was restored, and he saw everything -- he saw everything clearly." 50:16 ♪ I can see clearly now, the rain is gone ♪ Remember those words? 50:26 ♪ I can see all obstacles in my way ♪ ♪ Gone are the dark clouds 50:31 that had me blind ♪ ♪ It's gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day ♪ 50:38 That's what he said. "I can see." It's like the boy. 50:42 "I can see." Yeah. Well... 50:51 Truth is -- You help me out. If he had run away after the second touch, 50:56 how good would his vision be? No, he'd still be -- "It's all -- The world's 51:02 out of focus." He had to stick around for the third touch. 51:08 You and I can run up. "Yo, Jesus, nice to see you. Gotta go." 51:12 We're running off with only the second touch, and we've totally missed 51:17 the realization. It's the third touch that makes the difference. 51:23 How many of us, while we're wolfing down breakfast, are grabbing a little 51:28 devotional thought? We found it on an app or whatever. 51:31 So that's my worship today. Are you serious? Yeah. Oh, no. 51:34 I'm going to class, and we got the buds in, and we're listening to 51:38 a religious podcast on the way to class or on the way to work. "Well, that's my worship today." 51:43 You gotta be kidding me. We sit down with a little devotional book. 51:45 Next day, got it done. "See ya!" The point of the third touch 51:51 is you have to linger in the presence of the healer. Does that make sense? 51:59 You have to linger. I have people say all the time, "Okay, Dwight, so how much time 52:03 should I spend with Jesus every day?" I have no idea. 52:07 I know that if you're a college kid and you come stumbling in here and you say, "You know, 52:10 Pastor, my life is just burned out right now spiritually. I don't know what's going on 52:14 with my life. You got any counsel?" Yeah, I do. 52:16 For you, 15 minutes a day. 15 minutes a day. What I know is five minutes 52:23 won't cut it. If that's your worship in 2019, I got good news for you. 52:31 You're ready for a change. You've been running out after two touches, 52:36 and it's the third touch that makes a difference. It's the third touch. 52:40 You got to linger in his presence. Some of you got an e-mail -- 52:45 A bunch of you got an e-mail from me on New Year's Eve. Hope you've read it by now. 52:50 And in that e-mail is -- is a little announcement. Our new theme for the new year 52:56 is gonna be "Love on the Move." And in preparation for the big launch, which will be next week, 53:01 in preparation for that, let's all of us as a congregation read the little book 53:05 "Steps to Christ" through in 13 weeks. That would be one chapter 53:09 a week. What's so hard about that? That's just a few paragraphs 53:13 a day. Let's do that together. And at the bottom of the e-mail, 53:18 it said, "Click on here." Boom, I took you to the home page of our website. 53:21 There it is sitting there for everybody to access, a brand-new electronic 53:26 copy of "Steps to Christ" -- we call it our "Love on the Move" edition -- and a reading 53:31 guide, "Love on the Move" edition. You'll hear all about this next 53:35 week. But the "Steps to Christ" part starts now, because wouldn't it 53:39 be something if we were a congregation that spent the first 13 weeks of 2020 alone 53:44 with Jesus every week? Just a few sentences every morning from "Steps to Christ." 53:51 Karen and I have already begun. You say, "Who is this Jesus in 'Steps to Christ'? 53:55 I mean, is He kind of like --" Are you kidding? Let me show you. 53:59 This is just from the first chapter that we're reading for this first week. 54:02 You can go into the next week. The week's kind of off-balance with January 1 54:05 coming when it did. Let me put some words on the screen for you. 54:08 This is "Steps to Christ." From the first chapter, "The enemy of good" did what to the 54:14 minds of men? What's that word there? He blinded. 54:18 Ladies and gentlemen, that's what's happened to us. We have been blinded 54:21 by the enemy of all good. Come on, just admit it. Don't try to say, "No, I'm not 54:26 blind." No, we've been blinded. How did he do it? 54:29 Keep reading. "So that they looked upon God with fear." 54:33 They're not seeing clearly. Why are you afraid of God? "They thought of Him as severe 54:37 and unforgiving. It was to remove this dark shadow." 54:40 That's the language of blindness. "It was to remove 54:42 this dark shadow, by revealing to the world the infinite love of God, 54:45 that Jesus came to live among men and women. 54:48 Love and mercy and compassion were revealed 54:50 in every act of Jesus' life." This is so beautiful. 54:53 I tell you what. "His heart went out in tender 54:56 sympathy to the children of humanity. 54:58 He took our nature, that He might reach our wants. 55:02 The poorest and humblest are not afraid to approach Him. 55:06 Even little children were attracted to Him. They love to climb upon His" -- 55:10 Oh, this is beautiful. "They love to climb upon His knees and gaze 55:13 into His pensive face, benignant" -- that means bene-- 55:17 We don't even use that word. It means benevolent -- "with love." 55:23 That's the Jesus. That's your healer. That's the Jesus 55:26 you meet every morning. Take just a few sentences, a few paragraphs in every chapter 55:31 every day. In 13 weeks, we'll all be done together. 55:34 But we will have been with Jesus every day. Isn't that beautiful? 55:40 Listen, you're saying, "Dwight, I didn't get an e-mail. I'm not even a member 55:44 of your church." Okay. Let me put it on the screen, 55:46 those of you watching online, those of you sitting right here. Put it on the screen. 55:49 Here's our home page -- pmchurch.org. 55:52 Go to pmchurch.org. And there you'll see, 55:56 very attractive, right on that colorful home page, 55:58 "Steps to Christ" New Year Reading Plan. 56:00 You click on that, bingo, you're gonna have the e-version 56:03 of "Steps to Christ," and you're gonna have 56:05 the reading guide. I got it right here. 56:07 I printed it off for Karen and me. 56:08 You're gonna have this reading guide. 56:10 It'll take you every day through the journey. 56:14 Oh, my. Praise God. 56:17 "Open my eyes, oh, God, that I may see" 56:23 necessitates being alone with the healer every morning. 56:30 "Oh, God, open my eyes that I may see the wonderful things in Your Word." 56:37 Choose one of the Gospels. Read a story a day about Jesus, along with whatever you read 56:42 in that paragraph from "Steps to Christ" every day. Open my eyes, Lord. 56:49 Open my eyes I want to see You. I want to see You. 56:55 20/20 vision for 2020. You got to pray the 2020 prayer, and you'll have the vision. 57:09 >> Think of the last time someone said, 57:12 "I'm praying for you." Didn't it give you a sense 57:14 of peace and reassurance that, "Somebody cares for me"? 57:17 I know how I feel when I get an e-mail from one of our viewers 57:19 saying, "Yo, Dwight, I've been praying for you lately." 57:22 There's nothing like knowing someone is praying for you. 57:24 So I want to offer you an opportunity to partner -- 57:27 Let me, let us partner with you in prayer. 57:30 If you have a special prayer request 57:31 or a praise of thanksgiving you'd like to share with us, 57:34 I'm inviting you to contact one of our friendly chaplains. 57:37 Simple to do. You can call our toll-free 57:39 number, 877, the two words "HIS WILL." 57:41 877-HIS-WILL. That friendly voice 57:44 that answers, you tell him, you tell her what your prayer 57:47 need is. We'll join with you 57:50 in that petition. May the God who answers prayer 57:53 journey with you these next few days until we're right back here 57:55 together again next time. 58:00 ♪♪ ♪♪ 58:19 ♪♪ |
Revised 2020-01-14