Desiring Breakthrough | Breakthrough - Seeking Spiritual Breakthrough

We're glad you're here today. We're going to continue this journey of pursuing breakthrough. We're walking through Luke's gospel, looking at the prayer life of Jesus, learning how to pray like Jesus, what Jesus taught on prayer. And really, this is a preparation for us. And next Sunday, we're gonna enter into, starting at 7 p.m., 21 days of prayer and fasting for spiritual breakthrough. We are praying and asking God to do the impossible. Breakthrough both personally and our individual lives, corporately, together as a church family. How many of you would just recognize in your life there is something in your life, a barrier, an issue that you know, I need Jesus to show up in this area of my life? Raise your hand if that's you. Look, if you didn't raise your hand, you didn't understand the question, I promise you. I think every person in this room, if we're honest with ourself, there is a need for spiritual breakthrough in our life. God to show up and do the impossible. And so it could be relationally, it could be physically, it could be emotionally, it could be financially, it could be spiritually, it could be strongholds in your life that you just need God to come through

and give breakthrough. We're asking God to do the impossible. I just wanna remind you, by the way, did y'all realize that the tomb is still empty? Listen, if Jesus resurrected on the third day, there's nothing he's not able to do, right? Like, he can do anything. Because the tomb is empty, the impossible is now what? It's now possible. And so we're going to ask him for that. And so grab your Bibles, let's go to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18 is where we're gonna be today. And here's what Jesus is gonna do. He's gonna tell us two stories, two parables. And these stories are gonna show us what it looks like to pray breakthrough prayers. What does it look like to pray breakthrough prayers? And what we're gonna see is that breakthrough praying, listen to this, it is rooted in desperation. Breakthrough praying is rooted in desperation. You say, what is desperation? I've seen a lot of definitions of desperation. Here's my favorite one, listen to this. Desperation is a feeling of extreme need or urgency, excuse me, or urgency, usually related to a difficult or desperate situation. So when we find ourself in a situation where we're needing an urgent help, someone to come through and break through. Hand me that bottle of water right there, guys.

Thank you, Craig. I'm in desperate need of water right now. This is not an illustration, it just happened to happen. So it's when we find ourself in a difficult situation and we're in urgent need for someone or something to change and come through for us and do what we cannot do for ourself. And so really when we understand where breakthrough begins, it begins when we're urgent for God to come through because there's something in our life or something in our family or circumstances we're facing that only God can do something about it and so we're desperate for him to show up. So this was illustrated for us a while back, a couple of years ago, but last night, my wife and I had like a 45 minute window where we were chasing kids around at different activities where we could actually go have a little dinner date and so we drove to Gilmer and we went to a restaurant we've not been to in a few years and the reason is because we had a traumatic experience there the last time we were at this restaurant. So we were, my wife was eating chicken fried steak and man, she I guess swallowed too big of a piece and it lodged right in here. And so my son and I, we're at the table, it's her, the girls were somewhere else and we're eating and all of a sudden, I noticed Adrienne wasn't talking, I look over and she literally has her hands on the table

and she's doing this and she's turning blue and she stands up and when she looks at me, it's like complete desperation and can't talk, she just looks at me and points and I'm like, okay, something's wrong, she's turning, so I turned around, did the homily, dislodged and it was over, but it was one of those moments where she looked at me and even though she couldn't say anything, everything in her face was you gotta do something and do it now. I mean, she didn't have words to say, I wasn't like I was in that moment going, hey, you gotta use your words here, I'm not, you ask me, it wasn't one of those moments, it wasn't one of those moments, tell me what's on your heart right now, babe, you know, she's like, so she's desperate. So in that moment, here's what she does, she looks at me because she recognized that unless someone intervened in the moment, it was going to get really bad for her and she needed me to step in and do for her what she could not do for herself and my son who was sitting there was the funniest moment, like where she sits down, she's finally like, she's in tears and I'm in like, what in the world just happened and my son who hasn't like put his food down looks at her, looks at me and goes. That was embarrassing.

And he hasn't been back to the restaurant ever since. He's like, I'm done. Here's the thing though. She didn't care in that moment who saw her stand up. She didn't care, why? Because nothing in the moment mattered other than intervention. I don't care who sees me. I don't care who recognizes this. The only thing that matters is if you don't do something, I'm gonna die. When was the last time you talked to God like that? You were so desperate for him to come through for a need and a situation in your life. You're like, God, you gotta come through. I don't care who sees, I don't care who knows. I don't care what it takes. I just need you to move in my life and do whatever you want. This is what we're gonna learn this morning in these two parables. I want you to jump in if you would. The first parable really begins, before the first parable you see verse one kind of sets up the parable. Look what Jesus says here. If you're in chapter 18, say the Bible is true. Amen, all right. And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. They ought always to pray and not lose heart.

Now, something interesting here that Luke does, a lot of the parables that Jesus tells, he tells the parable and then we're kind of left going, what in the world was that parable about? And then the disciples come and say, hey, what was the parable about? And then Jesus tells them the point of the parable. But not here. What we see right here is that Luke is telling us, hey, Jesus is gonna tell a parable, and I'm gonna go ahead and tell you before I tell you the parable that Jesus told what the parable is about. Here's what it says. They ought always pray and what? Not lose heart. So the point of what Jesus is gonna show us, and I believe in really both of these parables that we're gonna see, but the first one for sure is that the point Jesus is making here is that breakthrough praying requires persistency. That we ought always to pray. That prayer should not be momentary incidences in the life of a Christian, but rather be the lifestyle of the Christian. That prayer is to be a way of life. Like, we don't just have our quiet time with the Lord where we pray, and then a little later on I'll pray again, and a little later on I'll pray again.

But rather what Jesus is emphasizing here in verse one is that we ought always to pray and not lose heart. Why? Because there are times when you'll pray and you won't see the result of your prayer, and we quit and we give up and we get discouraged, and he's saying, look, no, no, no. Make sure that when you pray, you continue to pray, you have this ongoing dialogue with the Lord, and when you get discouraged, pray more, not less. Prayer should be a way of life. Paul would say it like this, pray without what? Without ceasing. It means that prayer is meant to be, see, what Jesus wants from us is not just our quiet time, he wants to be in a relationship with us where throughout the day, there's this communing going on. Isn't that how some of our relationships work? Like, it's not like when I leave the house, like, I'm just like my wife, I have this formal conversation with her, and I'm like, okay, and now I'm gonna leave, and we're just not gonna talk. No, it's like throughout the day, there's text, and there's phone calls, and there's messages, and there's, you know, and we're just this dialogue that's going throughout the day. This is what Jesus wants for us in regards to our communication with the Father. And let me just tell you what I'm learning.

I'm learning the power of this in my life, really for the first time. I've confessed this before, it's not gonna be news to those of you who've been a part of our church, but I, like, one of the things, ways the enemy attacks me is typically my worst moments with the battle with the enemy is between 2.30 and three in the morning. Like, I'll wake up, and there'll be just this unreasonable anxiety, there'll be this, the voices in my head making every issue that I have going on in my life or everything on my schedule magnified, every conflict, like, all of a sudden, this is bigger than what it is, and, man, the lies of the enemy creep in, and self-doubt, all of those things creep in. And what has historically happened is I've allowed the enemy to have space, and rather than holding every thought captive to the authority of Scripture or the authority of who God says and what God says, a lot of times, you'll let your mind go to those places, and it just compounds the issue. Anybody ever struggle with that? For you, it may not be 3.30 in the morning. For you, it may be three o'clock in the afternoon. But here's what the Lord's teaching me in the last several weeks as I've been kind of walking through and preparing for this fast

is that I need to allow the three o'clock wake-up calls to be a reminder to talk to Jesus. So as soon as I wake up, and that first thought of, what about this? I just go, okay, Jesus, let's talk about that. And rather than letting the enemy have full reign in my head, rather than go to Jesus with that and start talking, here's what I've discovered is that if I wake up, and rather than, even if it's the enemy trying to attack me, I use that as a signal that I need to depend upon Jesus to begin a conversation with him. you don't end up doing falling asleep talking to Jesus. And then an hour later I wake up again and there's that thought, okay, I'm gonna pick up where I left off. Where were we, Jesus? And what I found is the peace of God will enter into the bedroom at 3.30 in the morning and give peace that you can't explain. Well, where does that come from? We want always to pray and not lose heart. And so Jesus now is gonna give us a parable that helps us understand the posture of this. So here's what we're gonna see. In each of these parables, he's gonna show us what breakthrough praying requires, what it means to pray in desperation. I want you to see the first one. Look what he says here in verse two.

And he said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And so this is not a good judge. And there was a widow in the city who kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, I want you to listen to this. He said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. Anyway, she ain't going away. And so I'm just gonna give her what she wants so she'll get off my back. I love that. Look what he goes on to say. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says and will not God give justice to his elect? Who cry to him day and night. Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith in the earth? Let me give you the first requirement of breakthrough prayer. Listen to this. Breakthrough prayer requires absolute dependency.

Breakthrough prayer requires absolute dependency. I want you to think about this story for a moment. You have a widow and Jesus is putting, in this particular day, the widows of that day were very helpless. Unless their family stepped in to give them aid, they were very helpless. They were very powerless. And what happened is that there was some sort of injustice that occurred to her by an adversary, by an enemy. And so there's a judge in the area and the judge is the one that you would go to to find justice. But the problem is this judge is an unrighteous judge. He's an unjust judge. He neither fears God nor respects man. Here's why that's important. This judge doesn't consider anyone but his own will or desires in what he's going to do in regards to executing justice. I'm not gonna be influenced by God. I don't care who you are. I'm gonna do what I wanna do. And it says that this woman, she needed justice. Well, if you need justice, the only one you could go to is the one who has the authority and the power to execute justice. And who is that? That's the judge, right? And so when she has this situation in her life,

who does she go to? She goes to the only one in the entire community that can do anything about her situation. She doesn't go to a neighbor. She doesn't go to a trusted friend. She doesn't try to find a relative. She doesn't go to some other leader in the community. There's only one person has the power and the authority to execute justice. And she goes to him, why? Because she's dependent upon the only one that can do anything about her situation. And when he denies her what she's requesting, she goes again and she goes again and she goes again. She's desperate and she continues to go to the judge over and over and over again, why? Because no one else can do anything but him. And it says eventually, the judge looks at her and is like, this woman is crazy. She is not going away. She will be at my door every single day. I'm tired of hearing about it. I'm gonna execute justice. I'm gonna give her what she wants. Now, when you hear that story, you're like, man, that's kind of odd. He's using this parable to talk about prayer. Here's the point of the parable. Listen, we have a heavenly father and guess what his position is.

He is the judge of the universe. He has all power and he has all authority and justice is in his hands and his hands alone, amen? But he is not an unjust judge. He is a just judge. He is a righteous judge. He is a loving father who is perfect and he is the one who's in control. And here is the point that Jesus is making. If the unjust judge will respond to the desperation of a woman who is persistently dependent upon him to execute justice on her behalf, if he will respond to her continual crying out for help, how much more will your heavenly father, who is the judge of the universe, do this very same thing for you? He will not do so because. he's annoyed by you, he will do so because he's loved by you. Dependency, listen, the heart of prayer is the recognition that God and God alone is who I am dependent upon for everything in my life. That he sustains the breath that I have, it comes from him. Everything that I own, it comes from him. There's nothing in my life that's not under his control. And when we come to the realization, whether we think that we are in control, we are in control of nothing. He is in control of everything. It will put us in a position where we begin to live in this life of prayer because we recognize

there's not one single moment and one single area in my life that I'm not fully, completely, and totally dependent upon him. You see, the problem is, here's why our prayer life is so inconsistent, especially in American culture, is because, man, we have so much that we can do on our own to temporary alleviate the stresses of our life that we don't know what it's like to just be so desperate for God. We don't know what it's like to recognize how desperate we are, rather, for a touch from God. So what do we do? We go to God and we're like, God, I need you to come through. My marriage is a wreck and I don't know what to do and I'm gonna come to you and ask you are the one who created marriage and I'm coming to you and I'm asking you to do this thing. And we pray and a week goes by, nothing changes. We're like, man, we still had an argument. I've been praying like crazy. Well, maybe prayer won't work. Let me go find some self-help thing over here and we'll do this for a little bit and then we'll do that for a little bit. And then maybe you're like, well, I tried. God didn't come through. I'm gonna step away, right? Because what we do is we bring our requests to God

and then when we don't hear from God as quickly as we desire, we go and take matters in our own hand. You know why? Because we think there's an option B. Not this woman. There was no plan B. Either the judge came through or she didn't get justice. She needed the judge to come through and so she kept on knocking on the door, calling on the judge, she kept on knocking on the door, calling out to the judge, requesting. Listen, this is how God is calling us to pray and so as we enter into 21 days, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna be like this widow. We're gonna go to our heavenly father who's the judge of the universe and we're gonna ask him to do the impossible. Why? He's the only one that can do the impossible. What I love about this story, one commentator made a comment that chapter 18, the first section is connected to the end of 17, the last section of 17 and why? We're not gonna go to 17 but why is it important? The last section of 17, Jesus is describing his return, his coming and he talks about the conditions of the world before he returns and he talks about how

it's gonna be increasingly more and more difficult for Christians leading up to the return. You know why these are connected? It's because as we try to align our life with the kingdom of God as we talked about last week, your kingdom come, your will be done. As we begin to align our heart with the heart of God, it will increasingly become more and more and more difficult in this culture to live according to his agenda. You know what that does for us? If we're gonna stay faithful, we need his intervention. We need him to come through and so all of a sudden, we become like this widow who's like man, we have no place to turn because God, the life you're calling me to in this world, it requires your power, your strength, your provision. I can't do this on my own. Which is I think one of the reasons so many of us, we're not praying desperate prayers, we're not dependent upon him, is because we're living a life, watch this, that we can manage on our own. But you begin to live your life full out for the kingdom of God, aligning yourself up with his will and not yours, all of a sudden, you're gonna get in some terrain and you're gonna be like man, I don't know what to do here and that is when you know you can live by faith and not by flesh. This is what we need.

A desperation, so that's number one. I love this, verse eight tells us, verse 8b says this, nevertheless, Jesus kind of gives an application. He says, when the son of man comes, when he returns, will he find faith on earth? Man, this little phrase here has just captured me for our church. What is Jesus saying here? He's describing this persistent widow as a way of illustrating how we should pray with complete dependency and desperation for God and then he asked this question, you know, when Jesus does show up, will he find his church looking like this widow? If Jesus would show up in your life right now, will he find the widow's faith in you? Would your prayer life look like hers? And my prayer is that man, God look with you, would you make us into that kind of church? We are completely dependent upon you for everything. Would you find that kind of faith in us when you return? Here's the second parable, the second parable. Down in verse nine, verse nine. If you're with me say uh-huh. Good. Verse nine, he also told this parable, to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Hear what he said.

Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, religious leader, and the other a tax collector, someone who was regarded as sinful and just out there. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and even like the tax collector. Imagine being in that prayer meeting. Like dude stands up and is like, God, I thank you that I'm not like all these other people, especially Bill. You know, like, why are you picking on me, man, you know? And he's standing up, all this arrogance and pride, and, lost my place. And he says this, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector has a different posture. Standing far off, he would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Now, listen to this. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. Whatever humbles himself will be exalted. Listen to this. Breakthrough prayers not only requires absolute dependency, listen, it requires complete humility.

Complete humility. You wanna pray with power, you gotta pray with humility. And that's what you find in these stories here. One man's prayers were heard, the other man's prayer was ignored. And the difference between the two men were the posture that they stood with before God. The first man stands up full of himself, full of pride, full of self-righteousness, and here's what he says. Man, God, look at me. Look at what I've done for you. I fast, and I pray, and I tithe, and I do all of this good stuff, and I'm not like this person or that person, especially this guy over here, and he's so full of self-righteousness. In other words, he is coming to God as if God is indebted to him. Of course, God, you're gonna bless me. Who wouldn't bless me? Look at all that I do for you. The other man, a very different posture. He didn't stand up with his head raised full of pride. He withdrew in a corner because he didn't feel worthy to even be in the room. He didn't lift his head. He bowed his head. He didn't pray some big, audacious prayer boasting.

He just says, God, have mercy on me. God, have mercy on me. You know what he's saying here is, God, I bring nothing to the table. I have nothing to offer. I'm just gonna relinquish myself and throw myself at your mercy. God, you don't owe me anything. Look at the condition of my heart. And he just comes clean before the Lord in humility. And here's what it says. And I tell you the truth, that man went home justified. In other words, God heard his prayer and answered his prayer. Which of these two men best describes your prayer life? You just barge in and God, I need, I need, I need, I need. I'm gonna go through all my list. And oh, by the way, I've done really good this week. And we may not say it out loud, but we sense it kind of in our heart, this sense of entitlement. And then we go about, and if God doesn't come through, we're like, man, I'm not even gonna try anymore. I'm doing all of this stuff for God. And I made one simple prayer request and he didn't come through. That's praying in pride. I just wanna encourage you. Your posture before the Lord matters.

It matters. Humility, recognizing. This is why when Jesus started talking about the kingdom of God and what it looks like, he starts out the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. How does he start the sermon? Blessed are the poor in spirit. Why? For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It means to recognize that we are bankrupt spiritually, that we bring nothing to the table. We have nothing to give, everything to receive. Isn't this how we're saved? Isn't this how salvation works? We don't go to God and negotiate. Some of you, this is where you are. You're like, I'm gonna give you a little bit of church, I'm gonna try to change some habits in my life, and I'm gonna ask you to forgive my sins, and I'm gonna do, so it's like 50% you, 50% God, or maybe 75% God, 25% you, and you're just kind of bartering with, man, this is what I bring to the table, this is what you bring to the table. Listen, we bring nothing to the table but sin. You don't want what God owes you. I know I don't want what he owes. What he owes me, he gave to Jesus, amen? Jesus took what I deserved,

and then Jesus gave me what I didn't deserve, which is eternal life, based upon his righteousness, not mine. This is how we enter into a relationship with God. Now, watch this. It's not just how we enter into a relationship with God, it's the disposition by which we live in relationship with God. So I come to him busted, broken, I have nothing to offer, everything to receive. It's all you, it's not me, and then that becomes the lifestyle. So what is my prayer life? My prayer life is a posture of saying, God, you and you alone, you reign, you're above, I need you, you don't need me, and I live under this banner of he is exalted, I am humbled, and when that happens, listen, God does great things in our life. He does great things in our life. When we come to the end of ourself, if we come to him with the exalted, with the you owe me, don't expect to receive anything. And what I've learned in my own life is my heart struggles with that. I don't know about yours, maybe I'm the only sinner in the room. Man, my heart struggles with that because I'll get on a streak where man, I'm doing pretty good spiritually.

Then that strut happens, right? Spiritual strut, like man, look at me. God must be so proud of me. Aren't you glad I'm on your team, Jesus? I mean, like, can you at least put my last name on the jersey, like, come on, right? And then pride comes before the what? Before the fall. What I found in my life is that the moments in my life where my heart is reluctant to humble itself before the Lord, in prayer, and this is gonna be helpful to you as you take this journey, what I've learned is if I will let my body assume the position that I want my heart to go, oftentimes my heart will follow. So there are times when I'm trying to pray and because of pride or self-sufficiency, I find myself like, I'm not really talking to God, I'm just kind of blabbing through getting to this moment so I can get to the other thing. And I have to go get maybe in a corner, put a pillow down, get on my knees, and I'll just sit on my knees before the Lord, bowed before Him because my body is telling my heart, this is the position you need to be in. And at times, I'll just stay there until I sense my heart is then following, then prayer becomes easy when you get into that position. And that's not a natural position for us, is it?

We fight against that. So oftentimes, people say, why are you calling us to the altar and kneel down? Because an altar in the scriptures is a place of surrender. And there's something about changing the physical posture of bowing low before the Lord, not that it's required or you have to, you're not humble if you're not doing it, but there's something about that lowly position that causes the heart to begin to see you where you really are. And here's why it's important. Man, you're gonna get into that fast and there's gonna be weak moments, there's gonna be moments where you're hungry and you're gonna be tired and you're gonna be like, but I'm fasting, look at me, look at what I'm doing. Like I'm crushing it right now. It's been like three hours, you know, like. And you're gonna begin to think, okay, because of that, I can skip prayer, I don't need prayer, and you're gonna get haughty. Listen, you've got, when we go through fasting, you've gotta fight the urge of pride to set in. Don't showcase your righteousness, don't showcase your, like just stay humble because that's where God meets people. Listen, the exaltation of Christ and the humility of man is where God loves to dwell. Where Jesus is exalted and man is humbled,

that's where God loves to dwell. Now, what does this look like practically in our life and how does this apply? to where we're going on this journey. There's a story at the end of chapter 18. There's a story that articulates both of these parables, and it's not a parable, it's a real story where Jesus encounters a very real man. I know you received this when you came in. You can put this in your hand. Don't look at it yet, but I wanna, if you got one, put it in your hand. You're gonna need it in a moment. Because if we're talking about breakthrough is on the other side of desperation, and breakthrough praying requires absolute dependency and complete humility, what does that look like for me? Like what does it even look like? And what are the things you pray for when you're in that position? Some of you have been praying for your breakthrough prayers and you're wrestling with that. Like what is that I need to be praying for, for my family, for my personal life, for my marriage, or whatever it is? I think this last story helps us. At the end of chapter 18, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. And as he's approaching a town called Jericho, on the outskirts of the city,

there's a blind beggar there. We find out in another gospel, his name is Bartimaeus. Blind Bartimaeus. And this man is a blind beggar. What do beggars do? Somebody answer that. What do beggars do? They beg. They live in a position of desperation. They can't feed themselves. They can't provide shelter for themselves in this particular day. They were completely dependent upon everyone to do everything for them. They needed food, they'd ask for it. Will you give me food? They need a shelter. Could you give me a place to stay? They needed some money. Could you share some of your offerings with me? This is a person who lived literally in desperation every single day for everything in their life. And one day, Bartimaeus is sitting at the outskirts of Jericho. And he hears a commotion of a crowd as they come into the city. And he recognizes there's more than just travelers passing through. There's an entourage. And maybe he asked the question,

and maybe he asked the question, hey, who's coming? Like, who's this entering town? And somebody answered and they said, Jesus of Nazareth is coming to town. And Bartimaeus, maybe he's heard the stories as people came through Jericho and they were talking about the miracles that he had performed and the teachings and the preaching that he had been sharing with the crowds and he gets excited and he can't believe he's coming. And then all of a sudden, as the crowd got closer, whenever Jesus was in earshot, you hear Bartimaeus make this declaration, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. I want you to notice something. When he asked who was coming, they told him Jesus of Nazareth. But when he cried out to Jesus, he didn't say Jesus of Nazareth. He says, Jesus, son of David. Why is that important? It's because Jesus, son of David is a messianic name. In other words, Bartimaeus recognized that Jesus was the Messiah. Maybe he had heard the stories in the scripture about what the Messiah would be like and the miracles the Messiah would perform.

One of the things the prophet says about the Messiah is that he would give sight to the blind. You know what I love about that moment is that when he asked who was coming, Jesus of Nazareth, they didn't recognize who he was. But when Bartimaeus called out to him, he said, Jesus, son of David. You know what I love about that is though blind Bartimaeus could see and though everyone else seeing, they were blind. And what you see in this moment is him crying out independently. In other words, he's saying, I need to get the attention of Jesus because I believe he is the Messiah. He's the only one that can step into my situation. He's the only one that can change my circumstances. I've heard about the things he had done. And if he did it for someone else, maybe he'll do it for me. And so there's this sense of dependency. No one else would, but Jesus will do. And so he cries out and then the crowd gets annoyed and they're like, you're a nobody. He doesn't have time for you. And they tell Bartimaeus, hey, just stop yelling, stop talking, stop making a commotion. You know what the scripture says? He cried out all the more. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

The persistence of the widow, the dependency of the widow. Jesus is the only answer for the problems in my life. He's the only hope for someone like me. There's only one person. Any of these people could give Bartimaeus food and water and clothing and shelter, but only one could give him sight. And when the crowd told him to shut up, he just cried all the more. That's humility. He's like, I don't care what you think. I don't really care about your opinion. All I know is, is I'm crying out to the only one that can step in and you can laugh at me, you can mock me, you can shush me, you can tell me to just quiet it down. I'm not changing anything. I'm crying out to the one that can help me. His opinion is the only opinion that matters to me. I love this story. He's crying out louder and louder and louder, then all of a sudden Jesus stops. In the midst of the crowd, all of the noise of the conversations happening around him, he hears the voice of Bartimaeus. And he stops the crowd and he says, I want you to go get him and bring him to me. Could you imagine Bartimaeus' face when they said, hey, Jesus wants to see you. Then nobody, nobody could hear him. Jesus wants to see you.

The nobody, the outcast, the beggar. And they bring Bartimaeus to Jesus. And then I love this, Jesus, in this moment, he stoops down and maybe it's in my imagination, he grabs Bartimaeus' face. And he asked the question that would change Bartimaeus' life forever. Bartimaeus, what do you want me to do for you? What do you want me to do for you? And if I'm honest, that's a silly question. He's blind for crying out loud. Like what do you think he needs? Now, Bartimaeus could have backpedaled in this moment. He'd be like, give me a sandwich. I'm gonna make this easy. I don't wanna blow this moment. Can you give me a cup of water? Can you give me a shelter? But he hears the question and it penetrates his heart when he hears the words, Bartimaeus, what do you want me to do for you? And I'm just gonna use some conjecture here of why Jesus might have asked this question. Because obviously Jesus knows the answer. So why make him say it out loud in front of the crowds who may laugh and mock? Could it be that he wanted Bartimaeus to verbalize what he's always internalized? Maybe his whole life he has dreamed about what it would look like to see

what it would look like to see what it would look like to see the face of my parents? What it looked like to see the sunrise that everybody's talking about? What it looked like to see the landscape of the Sea of Galilee? Or to make a journey and actually see the temple? And he's like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I don't know what I'm gonna do. And maybe with his lips quivering in fear, he says the words, I want to see. I want you to restore my sight. And Jesus looks at him and says, son, your faith has healed you. And it says that in that moment, everyone saw the sight restored and Bartimaeus and the crowds began to worship and exalt Jesus and make much of Jesus and glorify God for what they saw, which is a reminder, listen to me. Your breakthrough is not about you. This thing we're asking God to do, it's not about you, it's not about me, it's not about what God does for New Beginnings Baptist Church. It wasn't about the eyesight for Bartimaeus, although it was a gift and a blessing to Bartimaeus. It was about the glory of God on display because there was no one that could do this but Jesus. And Jesus came through and whenever all was said and done,

no one celebrated Bartimaeus going, oh my goodness, I can't believe what just happened here. They looked at Jesus and they marveled and they were amazed at the power of God in his life. Listen, I truly believe what God is going to do. And listen, over the next 21 days, it could be the next 21 weeks. Your breakthrough may not come for another 20 years, but there is going to be moments where God comes through in your life, in the life of this church in a way that only he can do. And we're gonna sit and we're gonna go, look at what Jesus did. And there are gonna be people that glorify him and worship him. And sometimes, listen, he may leave you in your blindness, but may give you grace that's sufficient. And even that gives him glory. Because the breakthrough may not be what you asked, it may be what you needed. And so as we, we're gonna do some, I'm gonna give you a few moments here. What I'm gonna ask you to do is I want you to get this little paper and on the inside, there's a little bottom part that has some lines here, breakthrough prayer. If you have not identified what you're asking Jesus to do, you say, well, how do I identify that? And I want you to grab it, open it, and then I want you to look back at me for a second.

We're gonna spend a few moments in this. And I want you, you say, well, how do I identify, what is that breakthrough for me? Here's the question I would ask you. If those doors were to open in the back of the room, and you were to hear commotion, and all of a sudden, whispers of people around you that says, hey, Jesus is in the room. Like he's walking in. And all of a sudden, you turn around and you look and Jesus is walking down the aisle. And he walks over and he gets to where you're seated. And he leans down to you and he was to look you in the face. And he was to say, what do you want me to do for you? What do you want me to do for you? What would be the one thing or the two things that you would be scared to say out loud? That's your breakthrough. What would be the thing that's like, I don't know that I can put that out there. But Jesus, if you'll do something for me, Jesus, if you'll do something for me, this is what I'm desperate for. I want you to take a moment, our worship team is gonna come out. And I don't want you to feel obligated to stand. We're just gonna sit in this for a minute. Our prayer encouragers, I'm gonna ask them to go ahead and get in position to be available in case somebody wants prayer and needs prayer.

But I want us just to sit in this for a moment. I'm gonna pray over us. And when I say amen, I don't want you to feel obligated to stand. Or to sit or whatever. But you can come to this altar if you need to. I want you to just answer the question. If Jesus was to look at you right now and say, what do you want me to do for you? What would your answer be? How would you respond to that question? Father, I love you. And I'm asking now in the name of Jesus. Jesus, you would show us what that is for us. Show us what that is. In Jesus' name, amen.