0:07 I think the children should be able to answer this. Who are the sons of God? Yes, Darius. Those who are being led by the spirit. Yes. Yeah. 0:26 Um I want to show you two verses family before I begin. One is in John chapter 1. It's very important that we know uh what these verses mean. Romans 8 is a very very powerful chapter 0:46 and I'm so excited that the primary class is actually teaching me a weekly reminder even before we get up and hear the message about the life we're called to live. I'm going to look at Romans 8:14 in a second, but I want you to start by 1:02 looking at John chapter 1 verse 12. This is a verse that many Christians know. I remember memorizing this when I was a new believer and it's absolutely true. John 1:12, as many as received him and let's skip to the end of that verse, 1:23 even to those who believe in his name he gave the right to become children of God. So here we see about two things, receiving and believing. Receiving and believing. 1:41 If you receive and believe and I believe that true belief true receiving Christ and true believing in Christ implies repentance. You cannot receive Christ unless you're turning from sin, unless you're turning from yourself, love of self and love of 1:57 this world. You cannot love Christ and love this world or love yourself. So to receive and to believe in Christ is to turn from sin, receive and believe in him. And I want to start before I go on any further, children, if any of you are old 2:13 enough to understand what I'm saying and you haven't turned from your sin, received Christ and believed in him, you can do it today. Nobody here will put pressure on you. Nobody should. Even your parents won't put pressure on you. 2:30 But I hope you will. That's the reason we meet like this. To remind all of us. See, the danger children is that you'll grow up in a church like this that preaches the truth or in any church for that matter and think that just because you go to 2:46 church, you're a Christian. Many people across the world think that because they go some particular place on a Sunday morning that makes them a Christian. It's a lie of the devil. He's deceived so many people. Adults, if you're sitting here and you 3:04 haven't made a clear re- confession of your hope, you haven't turned from your sin and said, "Lord Jesus, I forsake my sin. I forsake myself. I want to be yours. I want you to be the Lord of my life." Adults or children, if you haven't done 3:23 it don't delay any further. And so children, I hope you'll grow up in this church knowing that that's where the journey begins. And I hope that you you will also be a light to your friends around you, many of whom will also go to 3:41 churches, church buildings really is all they are on a Sunday morning thinking that therefore they will go to heaven or they're pleasing to God. The only way to be pleasing to God we make it very very simple, the only way to be pleasing to God if his spirit 3:59 is within you. If you have good works, a good marriage good home, you take care of your children, you don't cheat on your wife you're a moral person, that's not pleasing to God. And one day at the end of your life you will see 4:17 you weren't pleasing to God. The only thing that's pleasing to God is the righteousness of Christ in us. Plain and simple, we sang about it. That's the only thing that's pleasing to him. And so whether you're a child or an adult here 4:32 and you've never received Christ into your the spirit of Christ into your heart don't delay. There are many people who thought, "Nah, not quite ready." And they never had the chance to get ready because that was the last time 4:47 they had. Met a car accident or something happened that took them into eternity in a moment. And I hope that nobody sitting in this room or listening to this that that will be their eternal destiny, that they put off for one more day 5:05 what they should have done today. I'm not trying to threaten you or force your arm into the kingdom of heaven. Please, even God himself doesn't do that. God knows about hell more than any of us do. He knows the the fearsomeness of hell. 5:20 It's a scary place. It's the most horrible experience anybody will ever have and it's forever. But even God himself, knowing how horrible hell is, does not force people into his kingdom. And he won't force you. We won't force you. 5:36 But we appeal to you. "Be reconciled to God," Paul said. "Be reconciled to God." It It you don't have to work hard at it. You don't have to try. Jesus has already finished that work of reconciliation. You just have to turn to him 5:53 and be reconciled to God. Reconciled is a big word, children. That means everything is good between you and God. If you haven't repented of your sins you haven't received Christ in your life. I want to tell you the truth. 6:08 Everything is not right between you and God. He's a good God. He's a loving God, but everything is not right between you and God if you haven't repented of your sins and you haven't turned to God and received Christ's spirit within you, everything 6:22 is not right. But everything can be right simply turning to him and believing and receiving, having repented. Immediately he says, "You're my child." And you will have the Holy Spirit within you. Little children especially, I want 6:40 to speak to you. You will have his Holy Spirit within you telling you, "You have a daddy in heaven." I tell you I have that. You talk to us adults who are born again, who are truly born again, we have a voice within us, a 6:53 little voice saying that Santos has a daddy in heaven. That's much greater. I have a wonderful father, earthly father, but my heavenly father is even better. And you children in this church, you have tremendously good fathers, but I 7:06 want to tell you there's a father that's even better. And you can have that father watching over you. Somebody you can talk to every day, even in the middle of the night you can talk to him and call him daddy. Oh, he'd love to hear you call him 7:22 daddy. It begins by repenting and believing and receiving. It says John 1:12. I hope this verse will be one you'll never forget. If as many that means it could be all 7 billion people in the world today and all the billions that have lived 7:39 before that, as many. There's enough room in heaven for everybody. Unfortunately, many people more people will turn away from it than will receive it. And I hope you won't be one of them. As many. There's enough room for you, 7:54 dear child, dear brother, dear sister. If you've been wandering from God for a long time putting it off been waiting thinking, "Ah, you know, it's for the adults or if it's for somebody else." Or you know deep down you haven't made 8:09 that profession of faith, that turning you can't say for sure the Holy Spirit dwells within you. Yeah, I know your outward life looks good, but you don't know for sure, then today is the day, my dear brother, dear sister. Today is the 8:21 day of salvation. As many. I love that phrase, as many. As received him, he gave the right. You have a privilege. You have a right. You know, in this in this country we hear a lot about rights. Don't tread on my rights. You'll see bumper stickers. 8:38 They're usually talking about guns and uh whether I can do this or I can do that. Those rights will come and go. And even if you lived in a country where you didn't have those rights, it would be perfectly okay. There's one right 8:51 that matters in eternity. There's only one right that matters to me. I'll tell you honestly. Not ashamed to say it. There's only one right that matters, my right to be called a child of God. Jesus died and rose again for that. 9:06 And think what a tragedy it would be if Jesus died and rose again so that you could be his younger brother, his younger sister, little child, that you could also could be a child of God and you missed it. As many as received him, to them he gave 9:25 the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name. But as we saw, let's turn to Romans chapter 8. It doesn't stop there. And you children also know when you're born into your family, you're born as a 9:39 child. But you know, I was once a child, but I'm not a child anymore. Would you call me a child? No. You know, I'm in my 40s. I'm not a child anymore. Some of you can't wait to not be, you know we tease Xander that he's a little baby. 9:56 He says, "No, I'm not. I'm a big boy." I hope we all have that mentality spiritually. I'm not a baby anymore. I'm a big boy. For that, you need to turn to Romans chapter 8. Are you a spiritual baby or are you a spiritual big boy? That's a 10:14 question now for all of you who are born again. If you want to be a spiritual big boy, a son or a daughter, you must be led by the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:14, the children said it over and over again. How many times? 12 times 10:28 maybe we heard that verse this morning. Romans 8:14, all. There's that big word again. As many from John 1:12. Romans 8:14, all. Whoever. All who are being led by the spirit of 10:48 God, these are the sons of God. Now, he's not talking about children anymore. He's talking about sons and daughters. That word son represents maturity. It means that you were once upon a time a child and you were just content to be a 11:02 child of God. You repented, believed, received Jesus. But as you've heard often in this church, that's just the beginning. That's where the journey starts. Now, God wants you to grow up to be a son. Imagine if you knew that I was in my 40s, but I 11:20 was still kind of sucking my thumb, playing with toys, still had a diaper, wearing a diaper. You think, "Santosh, what happened?" Now, sometimes physically there are adults who because of a physical disability, they can't take 11:35 care of themselves. That's okay, but spiritually, there's no reason why we should still be in diapers, still sucking our thumb like a little baby, still taken up with childish things, still more interested in Monopoly money than 11:53 the real money. That was That's a child. And there are many Christians who've repented even, received and believed in Christ, but they're still children. They're not being led by the spirit of God. They still love money, earthly 12:09 money, dollars and jobs and careers, which from eternity's perspective is like Monopoly money. One day God will wrap up this earth, fold it up, and as many houses as somebody had, and if somebody else had no houses, it all goes into the box. And 12:26 after the box is closed, it doesn't matter who won or lost. What matters is eternity. It doesn't matter how many homes you have. Doesn't matter even if you never have a house, dear children, your brothers and sisters. Doesn't matter how much money you have. 12:41 You will see plenty of people in the world that have more money than you, others that have much less than you. Let's be humble and let's not be jealous. But remember that all of this, even the world recognizes it, that you can't take 12:55 your money with you. No matter how nice the suit is that somebody's wearing in their coffin, it doesn't matter. When you get to heaven, what suit you wear, whether you didn't even have money for a suit won't matter. Are you clothed in 13:11 the righteousness of Jesus? That's what will matter in heaven. And there's so many men and women that were clothed in nice dresses and garments and suits in their coffin, burning in hell today, suffering for all eternity, 13:27 cuz they refused to receive Christ. But as I was saying, as many are as are being led by the spirit. And that's why we speak in this church often. And if you aren't born again, many of you children, young people, and I hope all 13:40 of you adults truly are born again. The life of Christ is in you. The spirit of Christ is within you. But you must cry out for the power of the Holy Spirit. That spirit that comes within you, the spirit of Jesus, is like a little 13:54 seed. And now that little seed wants to grow into a little plant and a little tree that can feed you, that can nurture you. And the Holy Spirit wants to be somebody who can lead you. He's a person. It's not a thing. The Holy Spirit's not 14:09 a thing. He's a person. Just like I'm a person, your parents are persons. When you say, all of you children, I believe have fathers that live in home with you. When you say that I I have a daddy, what does that mean? Is it just something? 14:25 Like you say, "Oh, I have a car." Or I have a baseball bat. No. You have a daddy. That means he's a person. You talk to him. He plays baseball with you. There's a complete difference between having a baseball bat in your home, which can be useful, or or 14:40 a glove, or a nice little toy, a video game, Nintendo game maybe. It's completely different thing to have a father. And I'm sure anyone of you, no matter how old you are, would say, "I'd give up all of those things to have a daddy." 14:54 Some children don't have a daddy in their home. They grew up as orphans. And I think if you ask them honestly, they'd say, "Oh, you can have all the video games and baseball bats. I wish I could have a daddy." Orphans, they're called. 15:08 So, to have a daddy is a powerful thing. But it's a person. And in the same way, the Holy Spirit is a person and he wants to come and dwell within you and lead you. Not just be there. And I tell you, for many years, brothers 15:24 and sisters and children, the Holy Spirit was within me, but he was sort of like in a back room. I never heard from him. He was just there. This Yeah, I I know I let him in the door once, but I have no idea where he is now. 15:35 That was my testimony for many years. It's like, you know, let's say somebody came into your house and then a visitor. Sometimes that happens, you know, some of your families a visitor at home and and then it's time to leave and 15:47 like, "Hey, where's one of my children? They're somewhere in the house. I don't know where. We need to find them because they need to leave." Is the Holy Spirit like that? He rang the doorbell. He came in, but all of a sudden, you know, you kind of 15:59 lost track of where he is. He's in some back room over there. You're aware that he's supposed to be there, but honestly, you don't know if he's still there or not. That's not the Christian life. It's quite another thing if I were to 16:13 ask you children, "Do you have a daddy?" He says, "Yeah." If I come to your house and say, "Hey, where's daddy?" You'll say, "I'll take you right to him. He may be in the office right now working, but I know where he is." 16:23 Is the Holy Spirit like that to you? Do you know him? Can you If I If the If If I was to come into your heart or anybody else was to come into your heart and say, "Where is the Holy Spirit in your life today?" You say, "Yes, he's right here. 16:36 He spoke to me this morning about how I treated my wife, let's say." Or he convicted me yesterday about that that thought I had, that proud, self-centered thought. That's where the Holy Spirit is in my heart today. He's 16:49 there. I hear him. And not just the conviction of sin, but righteousness and judgment that the ruler of this world is judged. You can say, if I ask you, do you know that the Holy Spirit Do you know where the Holy Spirit is in the house of your 17:04 heart? You say, "Yes. Yesterday, when the devil came at with me with condemnation, the Holy Spirit came back at the devil and said, 'NO, YOU'RE JUDGED, DEVIL.'" Does the Holy Spirit speak like that to you? Then you know 17:15 him. You're being led by him day by day, hour by hour. Oh, that we would all come to this life, being led by the spirit. It's a powerful, powerful life. It's a life of freedom. It's the only way to live a life where nothing on this earth can 17:33 have control over you. No bad mood. No false No bad news from the doctor or from some other person. It's also the only life by which we can really love our enemies. I'm going to speak about prayer. 17:53 So, I hope what I said is is makes at least a little bit of sense to you, especially children. And if you don't understand it and you want to understand it a little bit more, and I hope I've conveyed to you the importance of it. 18:07 One day we will all be in eternity forever. There will be no more chance to repent. There will be no more chance to receive Jesus. It'll be over. It's appointed to man once to die and after this the judgment. And children, you know, there are some 18:25 children that didn't live to be 15. Didn't live to be 18. It's appointed to every individual once to die and after this the judgment. After that, what that means is after that, there won't be any more chance to live again. 18:40 And I tell you, the one cry from hell, the one cry from hell is, "Give me one more minute." "Oh, that I could have one more minute." This is the cry from hell. "Give me one more minute." They plead. "Give me one more minute and I'll ask 18:56 Jesus into my heart then." It's too late. It's appointed to man once to die and after this the judgment. So, it's a serious thing. Eternity is not something we play around with. If you mess up with what job you take or if you mess up in a 19:11 in an exam in your school and you get the wrong answer, even if you fail in an exam in a subject in school, that's okay. You can do it again. You can repeat even the whole year. Nothing wrong with that. It's okay. But you can't repeat your life. 19:26 You can never repeat your life. You can repeat fifth grade. You can repeat seventh grade. Any grade on this earth you you can repeat. You fail your driver's test. You can try it again. But you cannot repeat your life. So, it's a serious thing. 19:44 I'd like to talk about prayer, but before I do that, the preschool children reminded us that when you're not sure about what to pray for, you think, "Ah, you know, things are pretty good. I don't know what to pray for." I tell 19:58 you, think of an enemy. Somebody that's hurt you, somebody that's done some harm to you, somebody that taken advantage of you perhaps, stolen something from you, or tarnished your reputation, or spread false news about you, and pray for them. 20:14 I tell you, "Love your enemies and pray for them who persecute you," Jesus said. We say it again. Jesus said, "I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for them who persecute you." Now, this prayer life, where we're even praying for our enemies, 20:31 you can you can't manufacture it. You can pretend to say it. But when when the when it becomes like a well springing up within you, when you hear that somebody else has spoken evil of you, or or done something to you, and 20:47 you hear that somebody else has gossiped about you, someone that and your reaction is love and prayer, then you know that you're being led by the spirit. Otherwise, you know, like Jesus said, "If you only love those who are nice to you, what 21:04 difference is there between you and the Gentiles? What's difference is there between you and the person who doesn't even know about Jesus, who is nice to those who are nice to them, and unkind to those who are unkind to 21:13 them? But to have this life where kindness comes out from within me, when I am hit with unkindness, or for that, you need the spirit of God. And I tell you, I fall on my face anytime I hear somebody else that's speaking evil of 21:30 me, or spreading some rumor about me, or something else has spoken about me, I fall on my face and say, "Lord, I still find there's a little bit of this ah, reaction. Wha Why are they doing that to me? Why are they treating me like that?" 21:46 Somebody maybe doesn't smile at me, or they act in a way that I'm a little bit suspicious about. If you find that your natural response is ah, "Wha What's going on with them? Why don't they like me?" Fall on your face and say, "Lord, that's 22:01 an area in my life that I need to be led by the spirit. Give me your Holy Spirit, where the natural reaction to unkindness is love, is prayer, genuine prayer, where you want to want to pray for them, not you have to. 22:20 You know, you can graduate from speaking where people speak evil of you, where you speak evil back. Then you can go to the next level, which when they speak evil of you, you say nothing. Just silent. Give them the silent 22:33 treatment. Okay, that's a that's an improvement from where you speak evil in return. It says, "Do not return evil for evil." You used to do that. Now, you say, "Okay, I'm not supposed to return evil for evil. So, the best But the best I can do 22:45 is just not say anything in return. Just silent." Okay. Then God wants to take you up to another level, where you say, "Lord, I must love them. I must pray for them." And so you do that, but there's another level yet, where love and prayer just 23:05 comes out from within, because you're filled with the Holy Spirit. As many as are being led by the spirit, and these things that are not humanly possible, they are the sons of God. So, I'd like to talk about prayer. Um a few weeks ago, I took spoke about 23:23 prayer, that true prayer must begin by God planting his burden within us. Think about that, even within with with what we were just talking about. Praying for our enemies, loving our enemies, praying for those who persecute 23:37 you. The prayer that I pray for those who persecute you must begin from a burden for them. In other words, this person does some harm to me, persecutes me, and the time's coming when we will be persecuted for the sake of Christ. 23:50 They will speak all kinds of evil about us, and spread all kinds of rumors about us. But that prayer for them, in order for it to really be a prayer that's spirit-led, must begin with a burden, where all of a sudden, when this person treats 24:04 us badly, or persecutes us, or tortures us, we have a burden for them. And if I've been living a life where I've been constantly allowing Christ to lay his burden on me, like I was talking about that donkey that Jesus sat on, that became 24:21 uh Christ became the burden for that donkey. If that's been my way of life, and say, "Lord, lay your burdens on me. Lay your burdens on me. Lay your burdens on me." Then, when somebody mistreats me, my response is out of that burden 24:33 that Christ has for that person. And I'm filled with the love of God for those who mistreat me, because it's not so much about what they did to me anymore. It's more about what they've done to Christ, and the eternal destiny they 24:49 face without Christ, that becomes my burden. Um I'd like you to turn to Mark chapter 10. There's another picture of uh a story in the life of Jesus, a miracle, actually, that has become for me a picture of prayer. And it's really been helping me as I 25:07 think about how to pray. Mark chapter 10, we'll begin reading in verse 46. It's the story of Bartimaeus. You'll remember also, when I was speaking about prayer last time, I said that we saw in Romans 8 that we don't know how to pray. 25:22 And the more you pray, the more you get to know God, and the more you intercede for others, the more you realize, "I really don't know how to pray, and I need the Holy Spirit to fill me, who cries out within me with groanings 25:35 too deep for words." We read that verse as well. Because we really don't know how to pray. And the world is full of people who know how to pray. You know, think about it. Let's say you we gathered for a meal, and somebody 25:50 says, "Hey, brother or sister, can you pray?" Is there a spirit of Yeah, yeah, I know what to pray. Oh, we'll just pray for the meal, right? Okay, yeah, I know I know what what the right words are. That's a dangerous place to be, where 26:00 you know what to pray. You can pray the synthetic prayer. Yeah, Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the food you've given us. Please bless it, blah blah blah. And that's a ritual prayer. But if you find, when somebody asks you 26:14 to pray, says, "Lord, what am I supposed to pray? I know they've asked me to pray for the food, but I don't know how to pray. Fill me, Lord, with your Holy Spirit. Fill me with a prayer that comes from heaven, not a prayer that begins here on 26:30 this earth. Fill me with a prayer that begins in heaven, and it's like a cycle from you, through you, through your Holy Spirit living within me, and back to you. That's the prayer that God hears. Meanwhile, I believe in most of 26:44 Christendom, there's prayer after prayer after prayer going on. I believe that most prayers that are prayed from this earth are not heard. I That's my personal opinion. Most prayers, even said in the name of Jesus, are not heard. We'll look at that 27:01 in a in a minute. Why? Why is it that, you know, prayer just just makes it up to the ceiling. That's it. Not even past that. And I never want to pray even one prayer that doesn't make it all the way to heaven, that's not heard at the throne 27:15 of God by the King of Heaven himself. Remember we looked at Jesus, who said, "Father, I thank you that you always hear me." He was always heard. Every single prayer that Jesus prayed was heard, recorded in heaven. And I want to make sure that every 27:29 prayer that I pray is also, likewise, heard in heaven. So, Mark chapter 10, you begin reading verse 46. I want you to see this situation with Bartimaeus like a picture of a prayer meeting, or even this meeting that we are in right 27:42 now, in a time of prayer. When they Then they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples, and a large amid a large crowd, there was Jesus with a large crowd. And sometimes these prayer meetings can feel 27:57 like a large crowd. Everybody's praying. Everybody's crying out to God. But in the middle of that large crowd is one person who cannot see. And I tell you, my dear brother and sister, dear children, if you are in a prayer meeting and say, "Lord, I cannot 28:13 see. There's an area of darkness in my life. Maybe you're it's complete darkness. You know the language, and you know what it means to sit in church and read your Bible, and you know how to pray the ritual prayer, but you you haven't 28:25 really seen Jesus. And this is the I want this is the point I'm trying to make here, and that is this, that true prayer is a burning desire to see Jesus clearly. True prayer, ultimately, must be a 28:42 burning crying out, "Lord, I want to see you. Yeah, I know I've got this healing that I need, and I've got that other situation, and I'm I need victory in this area, and my marriage, I need to grow in that area, my children need 28:54 this. But Lord, I want to see you." And if you're in a prayer meeting, or you're sitting here in this meeting right now, and you there's a an an a sense in which you don't really see Jesus. I know you know the truth. I know you 29:09 know the doctrine. I know you're here for a reason, but you're not seeing Jesus yourself, and you know it. Even your wife or your husband doesn't know it. Your children maybe don't know that, and you're the head of your home. 29:20 But you have you you're not seeing Jesus. He's sort of in a fog. If that's the case, then let's go to Bartimaeus as an example. Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son 29:39 of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. And he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene. And maybe you can even hear voice. What do you think? Imagine Jesus that was in his um uh imagine Bartimaeus that was sitting there 29:55 and he hears Jesus' voice in the distance. You know, people are talking that they're calling upon the name of Jesus and uh he maybe he can even hear Jesus talking to other people. There was Bartimaeus in this crowd and Jesus is talking to the others but not 30:14 to Bartimaeus. I've been in prayer meetings myself where I sense that Jesus seems to be talking to that person. That other brother seems to hear the voice of Christ and he's crying out to him and he's getting revelation of God's word, 30:25 but I'm sitting in the same church, sitting in the same prayer meeting and I don't seem to hear the voice of Christ. I don't seem to be led by the Holy Spirit. And my deepest burden, dear brothers and sisters, especially as members, those of 30:38 you who are members of this church is that we could sit here and God can be speaking to others. God can even be speaking to us elders and you're hearing from us from God through us, but not hearing from God directly. You're sitting there like Bartimaeus. 30:54 Jesus is talking to all the others. You can hear his voice sort of in the distance. You're not hearing him talking to you personally. Come to him. You hear his voice faintly, but he's not talking to you. What did Bartimaeus do? And if that is 31:10 your testimony today, you're sitting here even as a child and say, "Well, my daddy hears from God. My mommy seems to hear from God, but I never seem to hear from him." Children, you can take heart to Bartimaeus and I'll tell you this is 31:22 what you need to do, what you can do. Just like Bartimaeus, verse 49. When Bartimaeus was aware that Jesus was passing by when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me." 31:40 I hope that secretly from within many hearts this morning there will be that cry, "Jesus, son of David you died for me. You died for that other brother, that dad, that person, those adults, but you died for me also. Jesus, son of David, 31:57 have mercy on me. I can't seem to hear your voice. I don't seem to be led by you. Other people, when they have to make a decision, they they're led by the Holy Spirit, but I don't seem to be led by the Holy Spirit. Why?" 32:11 Don't just be content to sit in RLCR for year after year, day after week you know, decade after decade not hearing from the Holy Spirit. Oh, this is the Holy Spirit has been sent out, has been poured out. He's looking, going through every row 32:26 here saying, "Is there anybody that's wanting to cry out like Bartimaeus saying, 'Lord, I haven't been hearing you.'" Maybe I heard you when you first called me and I was born again, but it's been years since I knew the leading of the Holy 32:37 Spirit. I heard your voice speaking to me. Have you heard the voice of Jesus calling you by name? Have you heard him say Santosh, not Santosh, but your name there? If you hear him say Santosh, then the message is for you. 32:54 You haven't heard him with your name there. He calls you. I tell you he calls me. I'm not I'm not trying to speech preach theory or some fantastical thing like some mystical thing. It's a personal relationship where I hear him calling me 33:08 by name and it's a personal walk. He's walking with me. He's holding my hand day by day and I'm led being led by him and I tell you the reason this is a burden on my heart is because I tell you my the honest truth. I'm not afraid to 33:21 I'm not ashamed to admit it that as one who heard about these things for many years, it still took me well into my 30s probably before this became a reality in my life. And my only burden in sharing that this morning is 33:36 that you don't wait that long. Now, I'm not in I'm not condemned. I'm not in guilt or shame over it. I thank God that the times of ignorance he overlooks and now he calls me to repent. But I if if you can come to that place 33:49 where you know the power of the Holy Spirit and the leading of the Holy Spirit in your teenage years, OH, WHAT A WONDERFUL LIFE IS AHEAD of you, children. Where the Holy Spirit is speaking to you and leading you and he's walking with 34:01 you step by step by step. YOU DON'T HAVE TO WAIT TILL YOU'RE 30 even or 20. It's a life he wants you to have now beginning today. As many, he doesn't say for all the adults who are being led by the spirit. As many, children, I hope 34:17 you'll take Romans 8:14 that you memorize to heart. As many, and you say, "Lord, as many includes me. I'm 9 years old, but as many includes 9-year-olds, too." Because Jesus, when he was 9 years old, was led by the Holy Spirit. 34:31 So, if you're there and Jesus is speaking to others and you hear his voice and you hear about him doing other miracles you're sitting there like a blind Bartimaeus, quiet, afraid to sing, afraid to cry out to God, afraid that 34:45 maybe you've been pretending to see. You know, some some people are able to their eyes are open, but they still can't see. Maybe people think that you can see. Spirit I'm talking about spiritually now. Maybe you're the head of your home, 34:57 you're the husband, supposed to be the spiritual leader in your home, but you haven't been able to see. Oh, don't be condemned. Don't be discouraged today. I hope that today you will lay a hold of God and say, "Lord, I'm not going to I'm not going to stop 35:10 crying like Bartimaeus until you open my eyes. I want to see Jesus. I want to see you, Lord. You want to be seen by me and I will seek you with all of my heart. I'll lay aside all of my past uh hang-ups. You know, like we sing that song, 35:25 "Bigger than all my hang-ups." We all have hang-ups. Bigger than all the mountains fears, worries, all of those things. God is bigger than any mountain that I can or cannot see. And say, "Lord, I want to see you. Remove this mountain. You're bigger than 35:39 that." And all that the Lord will that the Holy Spirit will peel away those scales from your eyes that you can see Jesus and know him, walk with him, know what he looks like spiritually. So, he cried unashamedly, verse 48 says. 35:55 He began to cry out and say "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me." And again, I you know, in this case, I think people knew he was blind, but what if this was somebody who really had eyes, but they couldn't see and their eyes were open, but they were 36:09 still couldn't see. And everybody And everybody thought, "Wait, why are you crying out? You've been walking around as if you couldn't see all these You mean you can't see either?" And that's perhaps where some of us are 36:21 spiritually. We've got a reputation to preserve. Oh, but I cry out for the power of the Holy Spirit and acknowledge my sin and my need of him, what will people think? What will my wife think? I've been submitting to you all these 36:33 years and you haven't been able to see Jesus. Oh, lay aside all of that. Forget all of your reputation. Forget all of that what you have to stand by and what people think of you and cry out to him because this eternity is at stake, dear 36:46 brother, dear sister. Your children, eternity is at stake. If you want to see Jesus, he wants to be seen by you. And I tell you the time came when I just said, "Lord, it doesn't matter what people think. I'm going to cry out to 36:57 you." And I was in a prayer meeting that I cried out to you and says, "Lord, I know I'm my last name is Poonen. I'm supposed to know these things, you know, right? Because I was of the home I was raised in." I say, "Lord, all of that doesn't 37:07 matter. I need you, Lord. What does it matter what my last name is if I haven't seen you, Lord Jesus?" And he poured out his Holy Spirit within in me and he's been pouring it out within me and I'm seeing Jesus. I tell you, I'm not here to God is my witness. 37:21 I one day God will hold me accountable for what I am just saying. I know it with all my heart. God will hold me accountable if I'm lying to you, but I'm not, dear brothers and sisters. I'm not. I know that. I can tell you Jesus is real and 37:35 he's revealed himself to me and revealing himself to me in a real way, in a way that he wants to do for you. Even if you've been born again for 20 years you come to him today and say, "Lord I know I gave you my life those 10, 15, 20 37:50 years ago, but there's something that's missing. There's a scale over my eyes that I haven't been able to see you. I want to see you, Lord." And he will open your eyes. Um I want to show you this verse in Psalm 62. It's a beautiful verse. 38:12 Keep a finger then Psalm 62. I want to I want to just read a little bit further in the story of Bartimaeus. Because it says in verse 48 that after they heard him crying out many were sternly telling him to be quiet. Imagine if one day we're singing like we 38:32 were just singing and we have a time of prayer and we're we're having that time of prayer and the prayer is being led, but all of a sudden you're crying out saying, "Lord, I need you. MY EYES ARE BLIND." AND YOU'RE crying out to him and all of 38:44 a sudden, what do you think? I I'm I'm I'm probably willing to admit that some of us will be like, "Hold on, what's going on over there?" And I don't think anybody in this room will ever try to tell you to be quiet. I hope not and I believe not. 38:59 But if you're crying out and you're you're crying out to God and it's genuine. It's not a it's not an emotional spirit. It's not an evil spirit, but it's the spirit of God within you. It's a need that you're crying out and you're falling on your 39:11 face. Maybe everybody else is just sitting there, but you come here and kneel down not to be seen by men or you run outside. That's even better. And go to an altar in secret where nobody can see you and you're falling on your face 39:22 before God. Or you have to drive home and say, "Lord, I need privacy with you where only you can see me and I need to fall on my face and cry out to you." And everybody wonders, "Why did they leave the meeting early?" And they don't know 39:33 and they don't need to know. But you need to get alone with God. That's the spirit of Bartimaeus. And the more they try to keep him quiet, it says that cried he cried out all the more. He kept crying out all the more. I 39:47 don't know how long this went on. But there is a sense in which it says um they were sternly telling him, that means it's multiple times. And he kept crying out all the more. That means for every time that they told him to be quiet, he cried even louder. 40:03 And they said, "No, NO, NO, BE QUIET." HE CRIED even louder. And the more they try to shut him down, the more he cried louder. Now, like I said, I don't think anybody in this room will keep try to keep you quiet if you're crying out loud, but you 40:14 yourself will. Your pride will want to keep you quiet. Your dignity, your sense of uh decorum will want to keep you quiet. And when you hear those voices and the devil instigating your pride to say, "Hey, don't don't cry like that. 40:31 Don't let those tears shed because, you know, what will people think of you?" And oh, set it aside. Cry out even louder. Now, I believe that the true crying of my heart, crying in your heart is perhaps something that you don't even hear. It's 40:43 a cry from within. Because you may be in a meeting and you don't want to bring a distraction and and and perhaps bring a false spirit into it or or uh you know, draw attention to yourself. But is there a crying within? I mean, I tell you, 40:57 sometimes when I'm singing there's a crying within me. It's so loud and I have to I I have to help lead the singing. And I'm still leading the singing and I'm singing the words, but within me there's a welling, there's a 41:08 it's like the Holy Spirit has got a hold of my heart and he's squeezing my heart. Does that happen to you when you sing? When you say, "Lord, were the whole realm of nature mine, if I had everything in the universe, all the 41:19 comfortable life that I could live, even that would be a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine demands my all, my life, my soul, every moment of my life belongs to you, Lord." This is the cry within your heart. And it's a crying out that 41:35 nobody else can hear, but God hears it. This is what it means to pray. Psalm 62. Verse five, "My soul waits in silence for God only, for my hope is from him. 41:53 He He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest, the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, oh people." So, what the psalmist David is saying 42:10 here is that over and over again, God is my only hope. God is my only hope. God is my only hope. It doesn't matter if other people hear me or don't hear me. God is the one who I want to hear and I haven't heard from him yet. He hasn't 42:22 given me that victory that that I'm due over my oppressor, over my flesh, over the devil. I don't seem to have that spiritual authority that I'm called to have. And so, what does he say in the middle of verse eight? "Pour out your heart before him. Pour 42:39 out your heart before him." This is prayer. Now, when I think of prayer, I think of myself with a cup full of stuff. And I say, "Pour it out, Lord." And I'm not going to leave until everything is completely empty from this cup. When it 42:54 says pour out, you know, like um if if you had a little bit of you were trying to empty a cup and you just tilted it a little bit, a little bit comes out, but there's still more in there. Have you prayed prayers like that? Where you tilt it a 43:11 little bit, yeah, prayer comes out. Oh, we've got 1 hour set aside for the Saturday prayer meeting. So, okay, let's just pray my 3-minute prayer and then let somebody else pray. That's a little tip tilting. But then you you you progress further 43:24 and you're saying, "Lord, but I'm not I'm not done." And even if the prayer meeting's ended, there's a burning within you and you want you can't wait to go back home and maybe lock yourself in the shower or the bathroom or a 43:34 bedroom somewhere AND POUR OUT YOUR HEART AND SAY, "LORD, THERE'S STILL STUFF IN THERE. I know the the the the the organized time for the prayer meeting ended or the meeting is over, but there's still stuff in here, Lord, 43:43 that's preventing me from seeing you." "Pour out your heart before him." It's a wonderful phrase. And I picture myself there pouring out my heart and say, "Lord, I give it to you. I pour out my heart before you." This is the man, the woman, the child 43:58 that God can meet with. Let's go back to Mark 10. Cry unashamedly and don't stop. That's what it means to pour out. Have you ever stopped praying for something? It means you don't have that pouring out spirit. 44:16 I'm done praying and like I got tired of pouring out, but the cup's still there. The problem's still there. God hasn't met with you. You haven't seen Jesus yet. And if you've been in those prayer meetings or been coming to this church 44:32 for some period of time and you know what the ritual is like, oh, there's a one thing I detest more than anything else is ritualistic church meetings. I don't want RLCF meetings to ever be like that. That's the heart of us elders, family. 44:45 Not just the ritual, okay, we've got this we've got to pray for a little bit. The meeting starts at 10:30. We sing for a little bit. I know what's coming next. Fight that. Fight against that, brother, sister, child. Fight against that. I 44:56 know it's in our flesh. I I see it in my flesh. Yeah, okay, we've got to you know, this is coming next and then the Sunday school and then we we have singing and all this stuff. Okay, then maybe there is some order to what we do and the Holy Spirit leads us 45:09 even in that. We believe it. But in the midst of that, if there is a a longing within you that's greater than what you sense here, what's happening, then get alone with God, your brother, your sister. And even if it waits, if it must wait 45:23 till the evening, that's fine. You say, "Well, I I'd still like to be part of the lunch and and play the games and all that, but your longing within you, even while we're having lunch together, says, 'Lord, I I need to get home. 45:34 I haven't seen you yet. I need to get with you. I want to close the door and tell my wife, 'Honey, can you uh can you let me be alone for 5 minutes?' Or go for a walk or something like that. Say, 'Lord, I I know the meeting's over 45:45 and there's no sermon going on, the prayer there's no organized time of prayer, but I need to see you, Lord.'" Why do you think Bartimaeus was crying out? Was it because there was a crowd of people there? Oh, it's a meeting time. Let's cry out 45:59 loud. Everybody else is crying out loud. No, HE WAS BLIND. THAT'S ALL. AND IF Jesus was the only person and Bartimaeus was the only person, Bartimaeus would have cried out just as loud. He wasn't crying to be heard. When you think about prayer, think about 46:12 the prayer that's saying, "Lord, I I'm not praying." I tell you, it's hard to pray out loud publicly. The more I pray, the more I realize that. Because we're praying out loud and we're aware that other people are listening to 46:25 our prayer, but as I pray, the more I pray out loud, the more I say, "Lord, I want to pray to an audience of one. I know other people are listening to my prayer and I'm helping them lead I'm I'm I want to lead them into prayer, 46:37 but Lord, this prayer is for you. There's a need in my heart that only you can solve. If you've seen Jesus is the only one who can solve your problem, the only one who's who really the prayer matters that he he hears. He's the only 46:50 one who it matters that he hears your prayer. Doesn't matter if nobody else hears your prayer. If you're praying and Jesus heard it, that that's what matters. Maybe other people thought, "Well, what kind of prayer was that?" 47:05 So, "Son of David, have mercy on me." He kept crying out all the more. Mark 10:48, "Son of David, have mercy be mercy on me." And Jesus stopped. I like that phrase, too. I believe the Holy Spirit of Jesus is moving through 47:22 the rows right now, even chair by chair. And those of you watching online saying, "Who is the one that I need to stop at?" You know, it says the uh the spirit The eyes of the Lord roam to and fro across the face of the earth. 47:38 Second Chronicles 16:9, to see whose heart is fully his. Who's the one that's crying out most desperately for him today? Right now, the only voice you can hear is mine and maybe some of the children. But deep down within, dear brothers and 47:53 sisters, dear children, the one who's crying out most desperately, most desperately. Now, I know, maybe you're not bound by any sin. Maybe things are pretty good in your life spiritually. Jesus is precious to you. But do you 48:07 still have a longing? Is there still a crying out within you? "Lord, I need you. I mean, I know you've shown me more of yourself than I've ever seen before in this last year. That's wonderful, BUT THERE'S SO MUCH MORE TO YOU AND I WANT 48:19 THAT, LORD." THAT'S THE ONE that Jesus says, "Ah, I'm going to stop here." Imagine if Jesus physically was to walk in this room and you didn't even know that he was back there because your eyes are all this way. And he's just kind of spanning scanning 48:35 the room. I want to I want to sit next to somebody. And all of a sudden you find that he comes and sits somebody next to some next to somebody. And you knew that he could pick any seat and he picked that one next to that person. Wouldn't you be 48:47 jealous? Wouldn't you say, "Lord, why didn't you come sit next to me? I wanted you to sit next to me. Wouldn't it be And dear brothers and sisters, it is the one who's most desperately in need of the Holy Spirit of the spirit of Jesus 49:01 whom he will stop at. I think there were other people in need in that multitude, but Bartimaeus was crying out the loudest and Jesus said, "I'm going to stop here." The one who doesn't care what people think about him. He has no reputation or opinion of 49:15 what other people think of him. It doesn't matter. Jesus stopped and said, "Call him here." So, they called the blind man saying to him, "Take courage. Stand up. He is calling for you." Remember this phrase, too. Dear brother, dear sister, 49:32 dear child, if you are in that place of need, here's the word I want to give you through the Holy Spirit. Take courage. Stand up. Jesus is calling for you. Be bold. Come boldly to the throne of grace. He's calling for you. I know you've been 49:50 calling for him, but guess what? He's calling for you. You see the difference? When you cry out with such desperation, you realize he's the one calling for you. It's quite a different thing when you pray with such desperation and you 50:01 say, "Lord, now I know that you're going to answer my prayer not on the basis of how loudly I prayed, but because I heard you calling for me." I'm coming to the throne of grace not because of how how much of a need I have. I'm coming to the throne of grace 50:16 because you called me from your throne of grace. Take courage. Stand up. He's calling you to the throne of grace where he will supply all your need. What a wonderful comfort that is when you're coming to God because he's calling you. 50:29 And I tell you, you won't hear that unless you're crying out with everything within you. Take courage. Stand up. Maybe you've been bowed down. You're heavy. You're discouraged. You don't want to even want to stand up. Take courage, brother. Take courage, 50:48 sister. Stand up. Jesus is calling for you today. Throwing aside his cloak, that thing which he was weighed down by, hidden, embarrassed by, throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. 51:07 And answering him, Jesus said, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabboni, I want to regain my sight." Did you miss it? Regain. This is a man who could see once upon a time. He gave his life to Jesus once upon a 51:24 time. He received him, believed in him, but now Jesus had gone dark. Now the things of this world started to become brighter and brighter and and and and Jesus was becoming dim. He says, "Lord, I want to regain my sight. Restore to me the joy of my 51:44 salvation. I want to return to that first love that I had for you." Where it doesn't matter about how long I've been a Christian. I mean, when you first came to Jesus, when you were a wretched sinner and you knew that you 51:54 were wretched sinner, you had no no reputation to stand on. You came running to the throne of grace and said, "Lord, I need help." But today, are you a little bit better? And so you don't have to cry as desperately because you're not that that 52:07 wretched of a sinner like you were say 10 years ago. And that's why no wonder the Holy Spirit is not able to meet with us cuz we're not as wretched as we once were. And I believe you, brothers and sisters, more and more that the way to return to 52:22 our first love, the only way to return to our first love is to recognize how wretched I still am even today. How much in need of a savior I still am today. How much in need of the Holy Spirit's power within me I still am 52:35 today. And when I realize that I'm even more in need of the Holy Spirit's power, then Jesus says, "Okay, I can open your eyes." "I want to regain my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Go. Your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight 52:54 and began to follow him. You see the difference where Jesus is now talking to Bartimaeus? He cried out so desperately. What made Bartimaeus stop yelling? Very simple question. Very simple answer. Jesus spoke to him. And I tell you this, dear brothers and 53:13 sisters, what is it that will cause us to stop praying desperately? When we have seen Jesus. When we have heard him. You've heard him? Okay, then you can stop. But then you'll realize there's even more of him to know. It's say, 53:25 "Lord, I know you met with me. You opened MY EYES. BUT LORD, I NEED MORE OF YOU. I NEED to be more loving. I need to be able to love every single enemy of mine. I need to be able to humble myself and be a servant and go even lower than 53:38 I've ever gone. Lord, I need you." And then he'll say, "Okay. I want to re- You want to regain your sight? Here, I'll open your eyes some more." And when you can cry out like Bartimaeus cried out to see and hear Jesus personally, 53:54 if even a moment goes by in your day where you're not aware of the Holy Spirit's personal presence in your life. Let me say that again. The Holy Spirit's personal presence in your life. That means he's there as a person, personally 54:09 interacting with you, speaking to you individually, then cry out to him. Oh, that it won't just be an emotional stirring or an intellectual stimulation. Cry out to him and say, "Lord, it's been a day since I heard. Today I woke up and 54:23 I didn't hear anything from you, Lord." He's cry out to him. Unfortunately, as Christians, we can go days, weeks, months just relying on the sermon that they're going to preach, whatever the elder brothers or the brothers are going to 54:37 share on Sunday. That's where I hear from him and I get some something. See, that's here. I tell you that more and more, if you're only relying on the messages that we preach on Sunday morning, I want to tell you this is all you have. 54:52 I I I believe it. And I want to tell you in truth, you only have intellectual knowledge. If the only time you're hearing from God is when you listen to the preaching of some sermon or something on Sunday morning, it's intellectual and you must cry out to 55:07 God. You must. I beg you. I plead with you. Don't rely And And if I If I knew that was the case, I would tell you I'm going to be a little bit bold in what I say. If I knew that you were only hearing from God on Sunday morning, 55:25 if if if I really knew that was the truth, I would ask you to stay home. It's better to stay home if that's the case, dear brother and sister. Not to turn on the TV or go for a walk. No, to cry out to God. That's more important. 55:38 Now, I'm not saying therefore we're going to have an empty building next Sunday and nobody's going to be here. Santo said stay home. No, sit here with that mentality. Lord, I know the brothers are going to share something, 55:49 but I need to hear from you, Lord. That's why I'm here. I want to hear together with all the saints and all of us think what pleasure God would derive from this gathering here if we're not just here to listen to some pep talk or some other good sermon 56:01 or for children to go to Sunday school. We're sitting here, Lord, with empty cups THAT HAVE BEEN POURED OUT AND SAY, "LORD, FILL US. FILL US WITH YOUR POWER. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU." Then it doesn't matter if there's only 56:11 two of us sitting in this room. That's the meeting that God is pleased with. Then a thousand people that say, "Ah, we're going to hear another good pep talk. Have another good time of food and singing and all that." And let's be done with that type of 56:25 meeting. I pray by God's grace that RLCF meetings will never be like that. We're just a ritual, another time of singing, another time of prayer. Sermon comes next. Okay, children go to Sunday school. Blah blah blah blah blah. Oh, 56:37 what a disgrace it is to what Jesus died for us to give us. What is the first thing you'll do when you see Jesus? What did What happened to Bartimaeus? You know why when you say "He who If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must 56:54 hate his father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children, even his own self, all his friends." And then he must take up his cross and follow me. Do you know why that's so hard? Cuz we haven't seen Jesus. We're trying to take up our cross, 57:09 but we haven't seen Jesus and it's heavy. Ah, I got to deny myself again. I got to love my wife again in that situation. I got to die to myself in that situation again. Really take up my cross again, Lord? I I thought I did it yesterday. 57:24 I've been taking up my cross for the last 10 years. Again? When can I be done taking up my cross? These are the prayers who of those who haven't seen Jesus. Once Bartimaeus' eyes were opened, he didn't need anybody to tell him follow 57:37 Jesus. He says, "I've seen Jesus. He's opened my eyes." Immediately he regained his sight and began following him on the road. And dear friend, dear brother, sister, child, if following Jesus is burdensome, you must cry out like Bartimaeus says, 57:56 "Lord, I I know it. I've heard the sermons and all that stuff, but I haven't seen you." And it's no wonder in that situation when I'm in a conflict with my wife or with my husband or with that other other brother, I'm still trying or that other 58:08 sister, I'm still trying to preserve my dignity and my my rights and all this stuff that's going on in Christendom, sadly. Anybody who's trying to defend their own rights, I can tell you, has not seen Jesus. The one who has seen Jesus says, "I have 58:22 no rights except that I can be a child of God." I wish we we will can all have that sticker on our cars. Don't tread on my rights. I'm a child of God. That's the only right I want to have. Don't let the devil tread on that right. 58:38 I'm a child of God. I I I'm entitled to see Jesus. I'm entitled to walk with him. And I mean, imagine if if one of you had an older brother that you never got to see. And you're part of the same family. You know, you're you're also But there's 58:56 this brother that you're you're aware. Your parents tell you you have an older brother, but you never see him. You know what? I think any one of us would go to that brother's bedroom and knock and says, "Hey, you're my brother. 59:06 I deserve to know you." Go to Jesus like that. Now, he's not hiding himself from you. Don't get the wrong idea. He wants to be seen from you, but if you haven't seen him, you knock on the door and say, "Lord Jesus, I haven't seen you. You're 59:20 my older brother. I have a right to be called a child a child of God and I'm one to be led by the Holy Spirit to be called as to be a son of God. Lord Jesus, where are you? I I don't seem to have a relationship with you and you and 59:31 I are children of the same heavenly father. Oh, I I I think Jesus would jump out of his seat at the right hand of the throne of God saying, "I was waiting for you to ask so that you and I could have that relationship." Come to God that way. 59:44 Say, "Lord, I haven't seen you. I haven't known you. You've been a distant person. A savior who died for me 2,000 years ago, but isn't alive today in my heart. This is the Jesus that we preach in this church. And this is the Jesus you must 59:58 know. Somebody who walked the streets of Nazareth 2,000 years ago, but is walking the streets of my heart today. Today. And today if you hear his voice saying, "I want to walk down that pathway in your marriage relationship. That pathway in your work 1:00:15 situation. That pathway where you're you're looking for uh some healing for your child. Or there's some some resentment you have. Some bitterness or some uncertainty." Jesus says, "Today if you hear my voice, don't harden your heart. I know maybe maybe 1:00:31 you have you're you're not sure how it will all work out. But today if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart." John chapter 10. Verse 27. Jesus says in verse 26 that you do not 1:00:58 believe because you are not my sheep. Sheep believe. But the real mark of faith You You call yourself a believer? Oh, if you're born again, yeah, you're a believer. But what does it mean? It says the mark of a believer. Look at 26 and 1:01:15 27. The unbelievers are not his sheep. The believers are his sheep. And what is the characteristic of those sheep? My sheep hear my voice. And if you I know you probably know this verse. Children, it's a good good verse for you 1:01:30 to know. Lord Jesus, I just want to be your sheep. And you said that if I'm your sheep, I would hear your voice. You would know me. And I would follow you. You see the order? Many of us are trying to follow Jesus. Yes, Lord, I want to 1:01:49 follow you. I have decided to follow Jesus. I've decided to follow Jesus. I'm going to try by the by hook or by crook, by gritting my teeth, I'm going to follow you. And then the And then you try and you fail. And then Jesus says, "Come to 1:02:02 me. First hear my voice. Let me know you. Let me speak to you personally. Like he did to Bartimaeus. Quite a different thing when Jesus' voice was in the distance from when Jesus came in front of Bartimaeus and says, "What do you want 1:02:19 me to do for you?" And oh that you would listen and quiet all the other voices, even my own voice right now, and hear the voice of Jesus coming to you and says, "What is that need that you need? I know you've been pretending for so long. I know you've 1:02:32 been maybe putting on a front. But oh that you would fall on your face and ask me and say, "Lord, I want to regain my sight." And as I know them, they follow me. 1:02:50 True following Jesus comes as a result of Jesus knowing me. When I I say, "Lord Jesus, I I hear your voice. I came to you. And now it's like you're talking to me. You called me by name." If I I don't know if it's recorded that 1:03:06 way, but I I don't know if Jesus even knew his name. But if he did, he would say, "Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus." Not this general Jesus speaking to the multitude, but Jesus speaking to Bartimaeus saying, "Bartimaeus, I'm calling you by name. What do you want me 1:03:23 to do for you?" And this is the message that he's coming to each one of us, children or adults, brothers, sisters. No matter how long you've been a Christian or even if you're not a believer yet. He's calling you by name saying, 1:03:35 "Santosh." Put your name there. "What do you want me to do for you? What is it that you need? Ask me today." I know you've asked in a ritualistic sort of way, "Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit. Lord, I need your Holy 1:03:49 Spirit. I They say in this church that I need it, but I guess I'm asking that way." No, Lord, I I I'm tired of the pretense. I'm coming to you and crying out to you with everything within me saying, "Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit. I want to 1:04:01 hear your voice. I want to see you. And I want to follow you on the road ahead." Amen.
