What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

Harris Creek, how we doing? Let's go. If we haven't met before, my name is Cameron Coe. I have the chance to serve on our staff team here at Harris Creek, and I wanna start with a fun fact. 16 years ago, my family, I was in middle school, we moved to Waco, and I started coming to Harris Creek. And I have some proof for you by a picture from Harris Creek's youth account on Instagram, March 8th, 2014, so if you can identify me, I'm the one in the back with the hat that looks a little too cool for school. That was kind of the role I played in the youth ministry. And then something sweet and funny about this picture is the person on my right, that is my now wife. How about that? That's Hannah, my wife, and we didn't start dating, we're not high school sweethearts, we didn't start dating while we were in youth ministry, so we're not that success story, but we got married later. So man, it's so good to be with you, and it's really special to get to teach this morning with just being at Harris Creek for such a long time. My role at Harris Creek, I get to oversee global missions. I'm working with our global missions team, and I think I have the best job at Harris Creek because our team dreams, thinks, and plans how can we reach the utmost parts of the earth with the gospel. If you think about our mission statement,

we exist to help everyone follow Jesus. Our team's thinking, how can we make that everyone as literal as possible? We're going to the ends of the earth, reaching all peoples and places with the gospel. And in fact, about three weeks ago, I got back from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a country in South Asia. It is the country South of India, if you know your geography. And we went to visit a team in Sri Lanka that lives there and lives to share the gospel, make disciples, plant churches in Sri Lanka. And our goal was to move about in the city, find English speakers, and share with them. And so we would go to campuses, we would go to malls, we would go to parks, anywhere that we could find people to interact with and engage with. And so a common practice that we would go with is a practice called care with prayer. It's really simple, it's just like it sounds. We would ask people, is there anything that we could pray for in your life? And we would care for people by praying for people. It's a tool that you can use day to day as well. But we were at a park one day and we met, we rolled up on a guy sitting on a bench and we said, hey, sir, do you speak any English? He said, I do. And we smiled and said, well, we like to pray for people.

We believe in Jesus, we follow Jesus, and we believe he hears us and can answer our requests. Is there anything in your life that we could pray for? And the guy's name was Amika. And Amika told us that he had just finished a job interview and that he would love prayer for that. So we ended up having more conversations with Amika, more questions with Amika to learn about his life. We learned about his family, his friends, his hobbies. And then we asked him, Amika, do you have a faith? And Amika said, I am a Muslim. And so we said, okay, have you ever heard of Jesus? We know Jesus is a prophet in Islam. Have you ever heard of him? And he said, yes. And we asked him, what do you know about Jesus? And Amika said, I don't really know much about him. And we asked him if we could share his story. And we got to share the gospel with Amika in this park in Sri Lanka. And by the way, in this park, there's a massive statue of Buddha in this park. So we're proclaiming Christ in this park to Amika. And we asked him, hey, is there anything holding you back from believing this yourself? And he just said, I think I need more time to think about it. And so we said, that's great. What if we got together and read the scriptures together? How about that?

And he said, that's great, I'll give you my number. So we get his number, we reach out and we don't get connected to him. But we passed him off to the team that we were visiting and they followed up with him a week later. And when they met with Amika, Amika expressed a desire to follow Jesus. Yeah, come on, praise God for that. I mean, it's an incredible story that we're praising God for. And it started with a simple question. Is there anything we can pray for? What can we ask Jesus to do in your life so that you might experience him in a personal way? And the reason I start with that story this morning is because we're gonna be looking at a passage in Mark chapter 10, where Jesus is the one asking the question, what do you want me to do for you? What do you want me to do for you? We were asking Amika, what do you want Jesus to do for you? And we're gonna see this morning that Jesus is the one asking Bartimaeus personally, what do you want me to do for you? And we're gonna interact with that question this morning. This morning, if you weren't with us last week, we started a new series called Answering Jesus, where we're looking at the gospels and when Jesus asks his disciples or asks a character in the gospel story a question,

and we're interacting with those questions as if Jesus was asking us himself. Last week, Cooper shared about the story of the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus turned to his disciples and asked them, how many loaves do you have? And we translated that question for us, what do you have? And we talked about how we can steward what we have to use it for the kingdom, steward what God has given us to use for his purpose and his kingdom. And by the way, Cooper's in my life group, and so we've been doing life together for the past four years, and it was so much fun getting to learn from him last week. And this week, we're gonna be looking at the question, what do you want me to do for you? Jesus is asking blind Bartimaeus, and so I'm really excited. And the thing is, we all have needs in our life. Like every one of us walked through those doors with needs in our life. And we can either bring those needs to God in faith, or we can say, I think I can figure it out. I think I can take care of those needs myself. And maybe you walked in here and you're like, I know exactly what I need. I know exactly what I need. I'm very aware of the needs of my life. And maybe you're a little bit more like me.

It's a little bit more difficult to parse out, what are my needs? I'm a little less aware, I feel like. What are my needs? And hopefully this morning, as we interact with this question, we can assess what our needs actually are so that we can have an opportunity to bring them to Jesus, because I believe that that's what Jesus would want us to do with our questions. And so maybe you came in here and you need peace in the middle of anxiety or peace in a conflict. Maybe it's wisdom for a decision. Maybe it's patience with kids or with a spouse. Maybe it's freedom from temptation or boldness to share your faith. Or maybe it's something a little bigger than those things. Maybe it's a diagnosis healing, or maybe it's a prodigal to return, or maybe it's restoration in a broken marriage or freedom from a lifelong addiction. These are all things that we can bring to Jesus. And it's not that all of us have needs that we can and should bring to Jesus. It's just simply, are we going to bring those things to Jesus or not? Or are we gonna rely on ourselves? And so wherever you're at this morning, I want you to know that Jesus wants to hear from you and he wants to help you with your need.

And so this morning, we're gonna be looking at a story at the very end of Mark 10, story of Jesus in blind Bartimaeus, picking up in verse 46. But before we do so, Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem from Galilee, where he was doing a lot of his ministry and they're passing through the city of Jericho. In the very next chapter in Mark 11, Jesus, that's where Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem happens, where he comes in and they have palm branches and they're saying, Hosanna, which just means Lord save us. He's coming to Jerusalem for that purpose. And while they thought he was gonna be accomplishing their peace in the world, he came to truly accomplish their peace on the cross for eternity. It's a beautiful picture. He even says this right before the story that we read today, he says to his disciples, picking up in verse 33, to give us a little bit of context. He says, we are going to Jerusalem, he said, and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later, he will rise.

And so this is the backdrop of our story today. He just finished telling his disciples why they're headed to Jerusalem. And then we see an interruption on their way. And so the three points that we're gonna be learning from our passage this morning that serve as applications for us to walk in is one, to pursue Jesus in desperation, two, to ask Jesus in faith, and three, to follow Jesus in response. So let's do it. Let's get in the word. Verse 46, Mark 10. Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples together with a large crowd were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus, which means son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "'Son of David, have mercy on me!' Jesus stopped and said, "'Call him.' So they called to the blind man. "'Cheer up, on your feet, he's calling you.' Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus."

Now we're introduced to this guy named Bartimaeus. We don't know much about Bartimaeus, but we do know he's blind from this story, and we know he's a beggar, and we also know that he is the son of Timaeus, but we also don't know much about Timaeus. But we see a few things about Bartimaeus that give us a window in on his life. One, he knew who Jesus was. He had heard the stories, enough to be able to call out to Jesus to help him. Two, he confessed Jesus as the son of David, which is a messianic profession. A commentary says the title of son of David is more than a statement of physical genealogy. It is a messianic title. When people referred to Jesus as the son of David, they meant that he was the long-awaited deliverer, the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies that a savior would come from David's lineage. Bartimaeus is claiming Jesus to be this savior. And then Mark preserves an interesting detail in the text. It says Bartimaeus throws off his cloak to go and come to Jesus. And the cloak for a beggar would be two things. It would be protection from the elements. So whether it's rain or whether it's too much sun, a cloak would protect them, and it would kind of be their means of shelter. And then it would also serve as a way for them

to store the possessions that they have been getting from begging. And so this is a pretty profound thing that Bartimaeus is doing, throwing off his cloak, leaving that behind to go to Jesus. It's a pretty fascinating thing because it's before Jesus has done anything for Bartimaeus. He's leaving it all behind to come to Jesus. And so my first point is to pursue Jesus in desperation. Pursue Jesus in desperation. That's what we see Bartimaeus doing in this passage. And what is desperation? Desperation is when you've come to the end of yourself and realize there is no hope for satisfying your own needs and desires. You're out of answers. You're out of options. And this is where Bartimaeus finds himself. God, I'm out of options. I'm helpless and without means in and of myself to fix this. And this is an important truth for us. We will not pursue Jesus until we recognize our desperate need for Jesus. We will not pursue Jesus until we recognize, until we rightly see our desperate need for him. And if we fail to recognize our need, we will fail to pursue Jesus. I've heard JP say,

need is the only thing you need to come to Jesus. It's all you need. Because he's all sufficient to meet all of our needs. The only prerequisite that we need is need itself, an empty hand and open palm. That's all we need to come to Jesus. And it's good news because truly it's all we have. I was listening to a podcast this week. You might've heard of it, Becoming Something Podcast. It's our podcast here at Harris Creek for young adults. And they had a pastor on from Dallas named Matt Chandler. Matt Chandler was talking about the B attitudes. And he mentioned Matthew 5, 3. Matthew 5, 3 says, "'Blessed are the poor in spirit, "'for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'" And what was really interesting whenever he brought this verse up, I mean, I'm listening to this podcast this week, writing on this message. And he said that word poor in spirit quite literally translates to beggarly. Beggarly is what he said. I thought that was fascinating. And that word had always tripped me up, but it brought new meaning to me of what it means to be poor in spirit. Like you're coming to Jesus like a beggar, open hand, nothing in it. Jesus, I need your help.

That's the state. And it says that we are blessed when we are in that state, that ours is the kingdom of heaven when we're in that state. And so this is Bartimaeus physically and spiritually. He's a beggar and he's poor in spirit. He was physically blind, but he was. spiritually perceptive, and the irony of this story is that the blind man sees who Jesus is better than the crowd around him. He sees Jesus for who he rightly is. I love the image that we see in this text where Bartimaeus is pushing through the crowd, pushing through the pushback to get to Jesus. In verse 48, we see it, "'Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, "'but he shouted all the more, "'Son of David, have mercy on me.'" Just this resiliency to get to Jesus. When I was four years old, I was in a daycare, and daycare was an all-day daycare. My mom was coming to pick me up at the end of the day, like she normally does. And when she comes to the classroom, she goes through the normal doors, she talks to the normal people, she gets to the class. She's like, hey, I'm here to pick up Cameron. And the teachers are kind of looking back. Hey, Cameron, mom's here to pick you up. No response.

They're like, where's Cameron? No response. They're asking other teachers, hey, have you seen Cameron? Where did you see him last? I thought he was with you whenever y'all were out on the playground. Was he with you last? And come to find out, I'm nowhere to be found. They can't find me. Which for my mom, as you can imagine, that's a pretty difficult position to be in, to realize your son is not there, nowhere to be found. And so she starts roaming through the hallways, just saying, Cameron, Cameron, shouting my name. She's jiggling every door handle to see if she can get in that room to get to me. She's looking at the elevators because what four-year-old doesn't like riding the elevators, right? She's looking at the elevator. She's looking everywhere. She's on the top story, the bottom story, looking everywhere for me. Come to find out I had been out at recess and me and a friend wandered off without anyone seeing us. And so we were missing. And in the desperation that my mom was in, she looked out the window of the top story and saw a police car pull up with me in it

because the police had found me and I was handcuffed, walking like this. I'm just kidding. And my mom, I mean, just imagine the relief that she felt in that moment. She said there were probably 20 steps of stairs and she might've hit three of them, getting down those steps, ran to the parking lot, skid on her knees, break her, tear her jeans, bloody her knees, and then embraced me with great love. And if you think about that story, my mom was in desperate need for me because of her love for me. She was willing to push through any barrier, break any social norm. I mean, I bet the other teachers are like, hey, don't make this big of a scene. We don't, we kind of feel shameful that we lost a kid. She doesn't care. She's trying to get to me at all costs. My mom was desperate to get to me, pushing through every barrier, every hallway, every door, just to get to me because I was so valuable to her because of her love for me. And the same was true for Bartimaeus as he pushed through the barriers to get to Jesus. And so my question for you, my question for us today is, is that true of you? Does that mark your relationship with Jesus?

What are you pushing through to get to him? Are you pushing through comfort to wake up early and spend time with him? Are you pushing through busyness to prioritize him in the middle of a busy schedule? Are you pushing through the fear of what others think to share him in the classroom or at your job? Are you pushing through distraction to put down your phone and open God's word? Are you pushing through pride to confess your sin to those around you, to life group? Are you pushing through temptation to choose Jesus because his way is better? What are you pushing through to get to Jesus? Because the reality is if we're not pushing through anything we probably don't have a desperate need for him because the current of this world is pulling us away from Jesus, constantly and constantly. And we have to push through that current to get back to him. And so the invitation this morning, if that's not you, is to push through that current because he's worthy. And if you need some motivation, you don't have to look further than Jesus himself who came to this world, went through the temptation, faced all the temptation that you and I would face, never once sinned, went to the cross, was brutally murdered, died, rose three days to give us life. He pushed through to get to us

because of his great love for us. And we just respond because of how much he loves us. And that's my first point in summary is that we pursue Jesus in desperation. When we pursue Jesus in desperation, pushing through to get to him, we'll find ourselves faced with Jesus and an invitation to depend on him. Taking back up in the text with verse 51, what do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked him. The blind man said, Rabbi, I want to see. So this is the question that we're interacting with today together. What do you want me to do for you? Is the question that Jesus asks Bartimaeus. And Bartimaeus presents an ask. And this word want, what do you want me to do for you? Rabbi, I want to see. It's not the word that really describes like a preference. It's the word in the Greek, a fellow, a fellow. And it's someone's deepest desire. Tell me your deepest desire is what Jesus is asking Bartimaeus. And this is a vulnerable thing. Like if you're Bartimaeus, not because he's ashamed or embarrassed to be blind or a beggar, because everyone knows that. It's vulnerable because what if Jesus

did not meet his request? Jesus is asking, tell me the greatest need that you have. It's vulnerable to come out and say your greatest need because what if Jesus does not meet that request? But Bartimaeus, instead of being stifled by the vulnerability that it would require, asks Jesus for healing and faith, trusting that Jesus is good, that he is in control and that he is for his good. And so that's my second point. Ask Jesus in faith. Ask Jesus in faith. Jesus asks Bartimaeus to make a request of him. And it's the question we're looking at. What do you want me to do for you? In other words, Bartimaeus, ask me to do something for you and trust me that I can do it and that I have the heart to do it. And we see Bartimaeus respond in faith. Hannah and I have a dog. It's a golden doodle named Denver. And Denver is very good at asking us to do things for him. He actually speaks English. And so it's really, I'm just kidding. He doesn't speak English. But what he does do is he does this little, he'll get right in front of us. He'll sit, right? Doing what we want him to do.

And then he'll go, bruh. So it's not a full bark. It's like a half bark. It's like, bruh. And he'll kind of stomp whenever he does it just to get our attention. And he's asking us for something. He's asking us for breakfast in the morning. He's asking us to open the door for him to go to the bathroom. He's asking us for his bone to play with him. He's asking for dinner, second meal of the day. He then, once he has dinner, he's asking to go on a walk. Something recent that we discovered is on our Saturday mornings, we like to sleep in. And sometimes I let my wife Hannah win and let Denver sleep with us. And he will get out of bed, go stand by our door and bark and do his little, bruh, right? And I'm thinking, oh, he needs to go outside or he's hungry. So I get up like the good dog dad that I am. I open the door for him and he kind of looks at me and just goes right to my spot in the bed. And he just wanted me to get up. And so the story, the theme that we can learn from Denver is that he asks me in faith with the faith that I can meet his request. And it's not just one time in the morning. It's constantly. And what he's not doing,

he's not trying to get his food on his own. He's not trying to fill up his water bottle on his own. He's not trying to open the door on his own. His first reflex, his first inclination is just to ask for it. It's like, what if our faith looked like that with Jesus? Like what if our first reflex was to ask him for our needs, the things that we are wanting to do instead of trying to figure it out on our own. And now you might be thinking, but can we really just ask for anything? Like, can we really just ask for the things that we want? And I would say, you can ask for anything, but your motives and your asking matters. Your motives matter. Why you are asking, it matters. Jesus cares much more about our heart asking for the right things and not just asking for things that make our lives better and more comfortable. And we actually see this heart of Jesus in this chapter. So if we back up a few verses, he's actually now, before interacting with Bartimaeus, he's interacting with his disciples and he asks them the same exact question that he asked Bartimaeus. Look at it with me in verse 35. So it says, then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Jesus' disciples, came to him. Teacher, they said, we want you to do for us

whatever we ask. Which is kind of like, what? That's kind of a weird, like, you kind of say that whenever you're like trying to juke someone out and make them say yes, right? Before they even know what the request is. So Jesus replied, what do you want me to do for you? It's the same exact phrase, sentence, words. What do you want me to do for you? He asked. They replied, let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in glory. You don't know what you are asking, Jesus said. Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with? So the disciples here are asking something very different than what Bartimaeus asked for. Disciples are asking for status, position, to be exalted. It's a selfish want that they have. But Bartimaeus, he's asking for healing and mercy, a helpless need, saying, God, I'm desperate. I have no other way to turn. I'm desperate to have this and you are the only one that can provide it. So our motivation matters when we pray. When we're asking for something, it's always a good idea to ask ourselves, why are we asking Jesus for this thing? Is it just to make our life better or to be exalted? Or is it to make our lives more aligned with his

and to be humble and follow him with it? And in fact, James 4, 2 kind of gives us a little bit better of a picture that says you do not have because you do not ask God. Now, this is an invitation for us to pray big and pray specific. You do not have because you do not ask. And in praying specific, it's different than Lord be with them, right? Like God's everywhere. God's with people, it's Lord be with them, give them wisdom in the decision that they're trying to make as they navigate where to go to school or what job to take. Lord, give them comfort as they mourn the loss. Like those are different specific prayers that we can ask God. But verse three, it says, when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. And so the motive of our asking in faith, it matters. And I've heard JP say that we should always feel the freedom to ask Jesus for anything, but let's also make sure to ask him what he wants. God, what do you want? As I have this need and I wanna ask you for it, I also want to ask you, what do you want me to ask? And align our hearts with his hearts. So point number two, ask Jesus in faith,

the same faith that we see in Bartimaeus. Let's keep moving. 52, Jesus says, go, said Jesus, your faith has healed you. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. This is an incredible miracle. Received his sight. Jesus answered his request. But what specifically does Jesus say healed Bartimaeus? Bartimaeus, what does he say? His faith, isn't that interesting? Your faith has healed you. Not necessarily the size of his faith or the amount of his faith, but the object of his faith being solely in the hands of Jesus. We see that his faith healed him and then his faith led him to follow Jesus. And that's my third point, follow Jesus in response. Follow Jesus in response. Bartimaeus doesn't just get what he wanted from Jesus and leave. He responds by following Jesus, revealing the motivation of his request. His request was to be fully deployed for the kingdom, to follow after Jesus. It was never about just getting what he asked for. It was about getting more of Jesus in his asking. I think genuine faith doesn't say,

Jesus, give me what I want so I can be happy. Genuine faith is, Jesus, I'll take you even if I don't get what I want. Because I trust that you're good. I trust that you're for me. So as you ask, what do I want Jesus to do for me? I also want you to consider this question. If Jesus were to give you what you ask for, would it lead you closer to him or would it lead you further from him? Another way to think about it is, would it increase your dependence on him or would it increase your independence whenever you receive that need? And that could expose maybe some of the motivation behind your asking. I wonder if there are times when we ask Jesus for something, maybe with wrong motives, maybe with right motives, and in his wisdom, he chooses not to give it to us. Not because he doesn't love us, but because he knows if he gave it to us, it would bring separation to our relationship with him. It would be a wedge, it would be a distraction. It would pull us away from him. And maybe he protects us from the things that we're asking, because he knows the thing that we need the most is him, his presence in our life. And so do we trust Jesus to sort those things out in our hearts and do what's best for us? And maybe you're here and Bartimaeus' story

is like half of your story. Like Bartimaeus rightly sees and pursues Jesus, and then he asks and pleads for a need for Jesus, but he is sitting in an, but maybe you are sitting in a perpetually unanswered prayer. Like maybe you're like, I've been pursuing Jesus, I've been asking him and he hasn't moved. My circumstances haven't changed. And I would just say that is a hard position to be in. That's a really faith trying decision. And I don't know if I have any answers, truly. I don't know why Jesus chooses to say yes to some prayers and no to others, but what I do know is very clear that he asks us to ask him for things. And then he asks us to believe that he can say yes, to believe that he has the power to do it. I see those two things very clearly in scripture. And I think we're just entrust the result to him in faith. And it's hard to do that. I believe God looks at that struggle to fight, to trust him with great compassion and love for you. I can picture him saying, I know it's hard. I know it doesn't all add up, but I'm doing something good in it and with it. Thank you for fighting to trust me through it. I think his heart goes out in compassion for that posture. And when we find ourselves on the other side of an answered prayer, like maybe Jesus' response is yes, I think there's four things that we can do

to honor Jesus with the yes. I think we can thank him for it, tell others about it, use it for his kingdom, and ask him again. Thank him for it, tell others about it, use it for his kingdom, and ask him again. A gift from Jesus should always lead us back to Jesus, not away from Jesus. And I think that's a good framework for us to follow. As I was sitting with this part of the text, I truly think I'm convinced that an authentic faith would say no to an answer to prayer if it meant losing Jesus. Like I think if an authentic faith would look at an answered prayer or relationship with Jesus, and you can only choose one, and it's gonna say, I'm gonna take Jesus because he's gonna be enough for me in the middle of the unanswered prayer. And I believe Bartimaeus would said no to his physical side if it meant not having Jesus. I truly believe that. And it's challenging to my faith. Do I trust Jesus more for his presence than just what I'm asking him for?

There's a story that I was talking with one of our missionaries that we've sent out from Harris Creek, serving in the mountain area of South Asia. This area is unreached by the gospel, meaning the people that live there will live their entire life, and they will never hear about the name of Jesus. They will never meet a believer. They will never stumble across a church. They are without access to the gospel. So we wanna send people to these places because we believe God cares about these people. So she's there, and she told me recently about a story about a girl named Rena. And Rena is from a village outside of the city and had an opportunity to go to the city to study. It's a pretty wild opportunity, an opportunity that most people don't get in this country. She had an opportunity to go study. She excelled in school. She did a great job. And then she began to get opportunities to move out of the country, to make a name for herself, to make a life for herself, but also it would provide for her family. She was poor. She had an incredible opportunity in front of her.

But Rena, during her time studying in the city, grew in her faith. She met the Lord, she became a follower, and she grew in her faith and her relationship with Jesus. And as she was being discipled, she became convicted to say no to the things that God was answering. Like she was praying for opportunity, for good motives, but she saw that her village and the surrounding villages where she's from did not have an opportunity to hear the gospel. And so she said no to that opportunity. She said, I'm not gonna go and take the opportunity. I'm gonna go tell people about my Savior. And today she's living in her village, teaching and preaching about the good news of Jesus, taking that to other villages, training believers to do the same. And her faith is encouraging. And it's the faith that I think Jesus is after. It's after Him more than what He can give. She had the thing everyone wants in that country, an opportunity to leave, an opportunity to provide for their family. Yet she gave it up to follow Jesus, to live for Him, and to truly give her family the thing that they needed the most, the gospel. And it's the same response we can learn from Bartimaeus, to give and live our life for Jesus,

following Him and His response in response for how much He has given us. And so in summary, point one, pursue Jesus in desperation. Point two, ask Jesus in faith. And point three, follow Jesus in response. And so I really just want to create a space for you to interact with Jesus's question for yourself. It'll be up on the screen behind me, but I just want you to sit there. Maybe you close your eyes. Maybe you just kind of look down, but I want you to consider Jesus asking this question to you. To you, Mitch, He's asking this question. Mitch, He's asking this question. I want you to consider Jesus asking this question to you. What would you say? He comes up to you, what do you want me to do for you? What comes to mind? After all the things we've covered, learn from this story, what's the thing that you feel led to ask Jesus to do in your life? And if you've got it, write it down somewhere. You can come back to it. Put it on your phone, write it down, send it to your life group. For me this morning, I was asking this question, is wisdom, humility, and peace to preach this morning. That's what I was asking Jesus to give me today. And also, I was praying James 1, 19,

that Jesus would give me a heart that is quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. Because guys, there've just been times this week where I've missed it with selfishness. Not looking at my wife's needs, but looking at my own needs and being quick, not being quick to listen. And there've been times this week where I've had pride to answer a question out of my own strength and out of my own pride, not being slow to speak. And there've been times this week where I've just been angry prone to becoming angry on the golf course, getting frustrated, not helpfully so. And I feel helpless with those things. Like I don't have the answer to fix those things on my own. I need the spirit of Jesus to help me. I'm in desperation for his help. So what is that thing for you? The beautiful thing is that, well, before I say that, here's what I want you to know. Likely, that thing is not your greatest need. Because I know that every single one of us in this room have sin. Romans 6, 23 says, the wages of sin is death. And that's a problem for us. Our greatest need is for a savior to save us. And the beautiful thing is we have a savior that did come to save us. And his answer to that need is yes, every single time.

It's yes, every single time. And so maybe that is the need that you have today. Maybe you're in that need right now. Maybe you're in that need tomorrow. you need to cry out to Jesus and say, Maybe you're in that need right now. Rabbani, Rabbi, I want to be saved. Maybe you're in that need today. Maybe you're in that need tomorrow. And Jesus is faithful to answer that request every time. And with those of us who have salvation, if we can trust him with our salvation, something that we're in desperate need for, we can trust him with all the other things in our life. We can trust that he is good, that he is for us and that he loves us. So let me pray for us that we would. God, thank you that simply you ask us this question, that you ask us to ask you to move in our life, to depend on you. I just think about all the things you've already done for us, God. I think about you leaving heaven, giving up your throne, walking on this earth, facing temptation from the enemy to sin and saying no to it all, never laying down once and giving in to temptation, going to the cross, being brutally murdered, whipped and beaten and dying a brutal death, rising from the grave. And yet you're still the one asking us,

what can I do for you? Thank you for being a God that is just eager and willing to serve us and help us to respond. God, help us to pursue you in desperation, help us to ask you for our needs and faith and help us to follow you as we see you move in our life. We need your help, we can't do it alone. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.