A Second Touch

This is North Way tape number 436. This message on checking our spiritual eyesight. Was delivered by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian community on October 27, 1985. Mark 8:22. I don't know if you noticed or not, but we added 100 chairs this week. That's why there's a change in arrangements. There's more seats now to invite people to come and be with us. There's not a lot more, but there's enough that you can over here, particularly. There's a good 40 or 50 chairs. We can invite some more friends and visitors to be with us. All right. Mark 8, 22. And they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he spit on his eyes and laid his hands upon him, he asked them, do you see anything? He looked up and said, I see men, but they look like trees walking. Then again, he laid his hands upon his eyes and he looked intently and was restored and saw everything clearly. And he sent him away to his home, saying, do not even enter the village. Dave Lloyd, who's one of our elders here at North Way, came to us a few weeks ago and said, pray for me, something happened to my eye. Turned out he was, as the story goes, he was just going through his normal routine of a weekend and noticed some flashes that started to happen. He said, almost like on the back of my eye. I really couldn't see it, but I sensed it was there, that kind of a thing. And then they were up at Grove City on Saturday. And the way I understand this story, just all of a sudden he had a cloud over his eye. It was murky. He couldn't see, like a white cloud. There was just no real sense of acuity at all. He just saw light. That's all he could make out. Of course, that, as all of us know, would alarm any of us, our eyesight is so precious. So Dave came home that day and was concerned, called an ophthalmologist and went and had a visit. And turned out that there was a tear in his retina. And the ophthalmologist assured him that it could be treated. And so he called us for prayer. We prayed he was treated by the doctor and to the glory of God, is pretty much 100% healed. Now, this situation. Now, the interesting thing was when Dave came in on Tuesday to the elders meeting, I fully expected him to have this huge Patch on his eye, you know, because I've had eye injuries and you always cover them, they heal fast. But I looked at the guy that night and he looked perfectly normal. I wasn't, you know, the lid wasn't hanging down. He just looked absolutely normal. And so everything that was happening to Claude, his vision, was unseen to those who were looking at him. I want you to know this morning, beloved, that the Lord put on my heart something very profound. I believe out of this life circumstance. And it has to do with. We see with what we perceive spiritually with our eyes of insight. What you see determines where you go physically speaking, and especially in the kingdom of God. Jesus said, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You cannot move in and enjoy the blessing of God unless you're seeing it. I can sit down and talk to a person about a God who heals, but if they don't see that, if they don't perceive him as a God who heals, they don't receive. You are limited in what you can receive from God by what you see, that is perceive spiritually. I love this story where Elijah Elisha Rather is out there with. I forget the army commander's name, but they're surrounded by all of the Syrian army on the mountain. And this servant is saying, elisha, my Lord, we are surrounded. Elisha says, this is Second Kings, chapter six. He said, lord, open his eyes, let him see. The Bible says that the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he saw encamped around the rim of this big bowl like a canyon. The multitude of the legion of the army of God kind of reassured the servant a little bit. No problem for God. You see, what we see and perceive determines what we move in and enjoy in the kingdom of God. Now, the last several weeks, we've been exhorting the body saying, the Lord is raising up an army. He's giving us a vision to go forth and be all that God wants us to be. Last week, Fred talked about courage, stepping out as part of that army. But, beloved, I believe with all my heart today that unless you see with clear eyes a vision of God, you will not be able to move in what God has for you. And I don't believe God is raising up an army that's going to fumble along because they can't see properly. I want to talk today about what it means to have 2020 eyesight in the spirit of God. There's three areas in which I believe this comes right down to where we live. The first one is in our relationship with God, how do you see God? I'm going to talk about that. And secondly, I'm going to talk to you about how you see yourself. And finally, I'm going to talk about the way we see others. Now, this story in Mark Chapter 8 is a beautiful picture of what I think God wants to teach us today. I don't need to go into much detail. I don't think about the fact that when the Bible talks about things being blind, it's just as true spiritually as it is physically. Jeremiah said, behold a people who see but don't perceive. Jesus talked In Revelation, Chapter 3 about buying SEV to anoint our eyes that we might see. We all know what it means to be spiritually blind. And so let's look at this and just develop it a little bit. We see a man here, Bethsaida. The text doesn't tell us this, but I don't think the man was born blind. Because in every instance where a man was born blind, we have evidence that the scripture says so. There's five or six particular stories of blindness being healed. The man was blind. He couldn't see. I want to ask you a question. Were you once blind? Were you once blind to the things of God? Were you once, like so much of humanity that basically tried to tell everyone else what you saw? And in what you saw, you were so far off now that you look back, you, I can't believe that you were there. Jesus said that we're blind. And the worst kind of blindness, he says in John 9, is the blindness that thinks that it sees. You know, people like that, people that you begin to share with. And they say, hey, I already have this down. I already understand it all. I mean, we just developed from little protozoa, and this all just kind of the chance factor came together and here we all are, and I've got my life in order, and I see clearly what I'm all about, and I'm going ahead in it. Beloved, we're blind without Jesus Christ. And we were all that way. I was that way, you were that way. We were blind. We didn't see God as he is. We didn't see him as a God who had a plan for us, a plan of goodness. Ephesians 1 said, A plan to unite all things together in Christ. We didn't see ourselves as God sees us, as the possibility of being the temple, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. We didn't see one another as God describes us, as the very essence of life in God. Honoring one Another, more than we honor ourselves. We were blind to all this. In fact, 2 Corinthians 4, 4 says that the God of this world has blinded their minds. Do you know someone right now whose mind is blinded? No matter what you share with them about the goodness of God, they can't seem to receive it. They don't ever seem to take a step forward. They always rebuff you. They always have an argument. They're blind. One of my most consistent prayers for the lost is that God would cause them to be able to see. Do you pray that way, Lord? Because you can appeal. You can have all the rationale, you can even show them evidence. But if they can't see, it doesn't matter. Right now I'm just curious about all this fuss again over Noah's Ark. I think Fred even alluded to this, perhaps all this. Well, we're going to find it this year and have these teams out there. Now, how many of you believe that if they find it and some scientists document, there's going to be another one that's going to say, no, that's not really it and it's not going to matter one hoot to people who don't want to see it. I tell you. So just relax. Don't buy stock in it or something. I just don't believe it's going to matter at all. Because people don't want to see. They're blind. How do I know that? Because the Son of God walked in the face of the earth and looked people in the eye and they still didn't see. There's no more convincing evidence than what Jesus did. So we're like this man, we're blind. Now look at verse 23. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit in his eyes and laid his hands upon him, he asked him, do you see anything? Do you remember the day that Jesus laid his hands and touched you and that spiritual blindness began to lift? And for the first time you could see what God was all about. You could see him, you could see the love of God. You could understand for the first time his grace, his forgiveness and his mercy and the fact that you were special to him. I remember that time in my life. I remember what it was like to go out of darkness into light. And at first, you know, gee, I don't even believe this. How did I miss this all along? My eyes, you know, they just had to rub them some and cover them a little bit. It was so glorious. The light of God entered in and I saw him for who he is. And I began to see who I was in him. And my attitude about myself changed and then my attitude about others changed. And I saw them not as objects to be competed with, but as those to love and to receive from. And you know why we hug a lot around here? Because we see the worth of another person. And God puts love in our heart for them. And that's just a natural expression. Didn't your life change when you saw the blindness that was lifted from you? Didn't you shout, hallelujah, I'm free. God set you free. There may be a few here today that that's never happened to you. And right now God is just all confused in your mind and you don't really see what I'm talking about even now. But you're going to. Perhaps today. Today can be a day of beginning of seeing God for the first time. Now, this story is unique to us here because this man saw objects. He saw men. Who do you think those men were most likely? Well, who do you think probably went with Jesus to watch this? Probably disciples. He saw men, but they looked like trees walking. So he wasn't seeing clearly. He wasn't seeing perfectly at first. Now, why did that happen? That's a big question. Was Jesus having an off day? He didn't clear his throat and say, could we try this again? I did something wrong. Wrong formula. How many of you know, there's five, as I said, five different healings, all of them different, of blindness. This, by the way, wasn't a particularly tough one. I mean, if God can speak, if Jesus could speak and someone come right out of the grave after being dead four days. I don't think this blindness was necessarily one of the more difficult things. Why then did he have to do something twice? I know I've asked, I prayed about this this week. Said, lord, what is it? You know what? I believe it is so God could speak to us about his personal willingness to go the extra mile with you. You and with me. Because, beloved, the message today is that God wants to give many of us a second touch today. Many of us are just like this man at Bethsaida when it comes to these three areas that I've mentioned. We don't see clearly. Brothers and sisters, My heart just starts to burn when I see how people view God, their vision of God as one who somehow has saved them, but now is expecting them to work it all out. You know, like salvation is a free gift. Now get to work. Pay me back and there's so many people. There's people in our body who view God as one who is waiting to exact from them a price. And they see God as one waiting, just waiting to finally agree with them that they're a failure. Then there are those who see God as having a real economic crisis up in heaven, not able to meet their needs, really. I mean, I can trust you, God, with everything else but my job and my finances. And I just. I have this feeling that if I lay that over on your shoulders, that you've got a lot of people to take care of. And it grieves me to see how people hang on to their financial problems. Let me say that's what it is. When you see kingdom principles and choose to ignore them, you're just holding onto it. You can't believe that God wants to do it. And I just grieve so often, beloved, when I see people who see God not as being the one in whose presence is fullness of joy, but the one that I better shape up. These are the people that get on mailing lists of every angry prophet in the land. They'll get a prophecy about God's doom coming down, right? The start on the Spirit filled church. I mean, that's where the doom starts and it gets really heavy. And that's how they see God. They walk around waiting for the cloud just to pour hailstones on them. You know what I'm talking about? They don't see God clearly. You say, well, there's a lot of stuff in there about judgment and so on. But beloved, there's an awful lot more in there about who God is in terms of his love and his grace and his mercy and his forgiveness. And for those who've entered into the covenant love through Jesus, beloved, his heart toward you is all good. He doesn't want one bad thing to happen to you. It's a sick father that wants bad things to happen to his kids just to teach them a lesson. God disciplines us and corrects us. But beloved, it's always in the context of love. And I submit to you that many of us don't know that we have an image of God, a vision of God, eyesight of God that is blurry. And then this many times, many times is true about how people see themselves. Just talking the other day to someone who was saying, you know, when it comes to my Christian life, I'm a failure. I mean, I've blown it. My testimony to people around me is useless. I mean, my family sees me struggling. They think I'm A failure. You know, Jay, I think you think I'm a failure. I'm a failure. And beloved, you know something? If you keep telling yourself that enough and keep confessing that, it isn't long before your own heart believes it and you're unable to receive what God wants to do and what he wants to give to you. There's so many people that are lost in their own perception of themselves. You know, God so desires you to see what he says about you. His vision for you is spelled out right in here. And I'm going to talk about it in a minute. But let me just say this. The Bible says that when Christ Jesus entered your heart, the old passed away and all things were made new. So what are you now? A new creature in Christ. You're not what you were in the past, and you're not even just the same today as you were the day before. But you're changing in his image. And the same fountain of grace that forgave you in the bottom of the pit forgives you today. Now, if you can just grab a hold of that, you can live in a measure of love and acceptance that God has for you. Many people accept themselves less than God does. And finally there's people whose eyes sight toward others is really distorted. And Bob, this squeezed my heart. There's people who look around and they find fault. They see the speck and the other person's eyes. That's their first thing. They walk up. They eye someone up spiritually. Val, he's just. He's off. He's not hearing clearly. And you know what I find most often? Those people who always have a critical judgmental word towards someone are almost invariably the ones that are most insecure in who they are in Christ. They have not been able to accept that they're free. So they have to just impose that on somebody else. Now think of those three areas right now. Think about your own life. Just put those three areas up again, would you? Rhonda, Paula, God, yourself, and others. Which of those areas right now you feel I need to have that shaped in me. I need to have God touch me again because I'm not seeing clearly. Let me ask you, what causes our eyes to go bad? Church, physically speaking, what causes us to lose some of the ability to see clearly? Come on, say it. What's the number one thing? There you go. Age. Do you think that we who are more mature Christians, older in the Lord are impervious to this possibility of having our own eyesight get a little distorted? I want to submit to you that some of the Christians that struggle the most with inaccurate vision are the more mature because they've allowed themselves to develop a way of seeing things and they can't ever change from that. They don't allow the spirit of God to correct their vision a little bit. What's another way that eyes go bad? What. Weariness overuse you just wear yourself out. There are Christians today whose eyesight is going bad because they've themselves out so intensely. Nobody you see, nobody can ever say, well, I see clearly, always have, always will. There are those whose vision has never really been corrected by the Holy Spirit. I'm talking. I know people, I can name names and give illustrations. But people who want to serve God with all of their heart but get caught up in a way of seeing things and nobody else can tell them it's any different than that. All right, so what do we do? Where are you today? What do we do with this? Well, let's look and see what Jesus did in verse 25. Then again, he laid his hands upon his eyes and looked intently and was restored and saw everything clearly. What about this second touch? Beloved, I love this expression when Jesus says, do you see anything? Why did he ask him that question? Do you think Jesus wondered if he'd done it right? What was he doing? He was involving the man in the spiritual surgery and in the physical operation that he was doing, he was involving him. He was having him say, well, Lord, I don't quite see just the way I need to yet. Let me say to you, the very first thing to getting a second touch from God to get your eyesight clear is to say, lord, I don't see clearly right now. I mean, I don't see exactly the way I know I need to see. Ask God to open your eyes. Begin by saying, lord, I want to see how you see. I want to see you clearly, God. I want to see you as the God of grace and love. I want to see you as the God who says, he who gave his only Son up for you. Will he not give you all things along with him? Romans 8:32. I want to see you as the God who's for me, who lifts me up. Beloved, we hear so much about keeping down Christians, keeping them under control so they don't abuse their power. I believe God is for us to lift us up. I believe God wants to do something in us that's going to make us get out of our circumstance, not wallow around in it just so we can say, well, I'm glorifying God by Sticking it out in this lousy circumstance because I know this is really how he's going to press me down. He wants to lift us up. There's a message of grace right here. And the grace is to touch you again so you can see him as a God of love. He wants you to enjoy him and fellowship with him and embrace him. You want to see clearly. Ask God to open your eyes to see him. I'll tell you, God help us not to walk around with our eyes just hung down, moping with a false image of God. He loves us. He's for you, beloved. He loves you so much. And he wants you to see yourself as he sees you not as the miserable failure that the average Joe, so and so Christian, who, you know, I do go to church. He wants you to see yourself as he sees you as the righteousness of God in Christ. He wants you to see yourself as he sees you, a new creature with all new possibilities and all new hopes. He wants you to see yourself as he sees you as an overcomer in Christ. Thank you. I'm excited about this. And you can get excited about it, too. Just let yourself, because God is saying this to us today. Church. It's a word for us today. He wants to touch us again so that he can help us to see ourselves as he sees us. And most of all, beloved, he wants you to see yourself as one who pleases Him. Oh, that we could be a sweet fragrance to God and see that we are. Why? Because we've done exploits? Because we've marched in and pulled down the strongholds of pornography and abortion. Do you think God loves you more because you do that stuff? He loves you just because he's redeemed you. In fact, he loves everybody, redeemed or not. But he loves you because you've responded to that love of his. A child of mine made for my fellowship, companionship, you're saying. Well, this sounds good, Jay, but it's really positional teaching. You're just talking about what I am in Christ, and I know I don't live there, but beloved, hear me when I say everything that you need to please God has already been given to you. And the only thing that's necessary is to receive it by faith. Do you believe that? And how do you then have the faith to receive it? Now, I want you to write this down. It will change your life. You receive the faith so that you receive what God has for you by opening to a revelation of this grace. Let me say it this way. God wants himself to be known when you know it, when you receive it, when you open to it, say, I see now, Lord. Then faith comes automatically. The reason Peter could step out of the boat and walk toward Jesus was because he saw him. He didn't sit back there in the boat and say, well, okay, I'm just about enough faith. Let's do a couple more choruses, cue the angels over here. And then I'm going to go. What did he do? He saw Jesus, and that gave him the faith to step up. Beloved, if you today hear me saying, look up and see God as He is, these things will begin to happen to you. You know, before we had children, I assume I'm like a lot of fathers to be. I mean, I was a little bit cautious about the idea. How about some of you? That's a big responsibility. Plus, it's a messy responsibility, right? There's a lot of things about having kids that just isn't all as glorious as it might seem at first blush, right? And so all this was happening, and it was time, and all the other external reasons to put it off were gone. And the Lord was blessing our marriage and everything, and it was great. So it was the right time. But I was going through some of this, like, what am I going to do when I get this baby here? Where are we going to put it? And all that. And, you know, we're going through. I'm not really big on, like, cleaning up things, right. So we made some agreements before the. Baby came. And this little bit of fear that I had about being a father and being sufficient and so on was there. But I'll never forget ever being in that delivery room. And though Carol knew the baby was there, and I could see the feet kicking around every once in a while when little Amy came out and there she was, a living, breathing person, all the fear and all the questions and all the I'm not so sure about this disappear. Because I saw that she was mine, that she was a baby, a person. And the revelation of who she was as my child made everything else seem really small. All the little things, no big deal. Beloved, it's the same way with God. When you see him, then all that you need to fulfill the responsibility is there. That's the message today. When God opens your eyes to see him, then all that's needed to please him, to obey him, to be the army, to be courageous, it all comes with that. And I want you to see God today, and he wants you to see Him. He wants to touch you again. We're going to just spend the last 20 or 30 minutes of the service, waiting on the Lord to touch us again, to move. And I don't care today how blind you feel you might be. The power of God is not limited today. God wants to restore eyesight today, you say. Well, you're making a lot out of this passage. Jay and I just had a great time going through the scriptures, seeing places where God said, I'm going to restore the sight of the blind. I'm going to restore my church in the last day. And I just want to receive for us, if you'll agree with me, not just a personal word of restoration of eyesight, but a corporate word. God, would you enable this church to have its eyesight adjusted? Touch us again, Lord, as a church, to see you clearly, to see ourself corporately as a body, and then to see, listen, our mission to the world clearly. Do you know the theme of the missions conference? Can I have one of those orange folders right now, please? It's right in the front. Lift up your eyes. What good does it do us to lift up our eyes if we can't see clearly? Church? And so I believe it's the sovereignty of God, it's the order of God to touch us right now together in this place so that we can fulfill our commission as a church. Amen. Amen. Let's come before the Lord together. Hallelujah, Father. Lord, I thank you right now and we just would prepare our hearts before you that you're a God of a second touch. A God who would desire to give sight to the blind and to restore those whose eyes whose spiritual perception has become clouded. Lord. Lord, we thank you right now that you would choose to move in this place as you inhabit our worship and our praises together. Lord, I believe just as you've already touched several hearts this morning, that many more are going to receive a touch of having their eyes open to see you for who you are, to see themselves as loved and cherished by you and to see others as precious and honorable in your sight. O Lord, move us, touch us. Come and minister. Let's invite the Lord together. Let's stand together. We're going to sing. Here comes Jesus. Here comes Jesus. All hail King Jesus. Give him honor and glory and power. King Jesus, to his majesty we lift up holy, holy hand. Lord, we praise you. We love you, adore you. Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah Hallelujah. Adore you. Let's sing it again. Here comes Jesus Here comes Jesus. Lord, we praise you. We love you, adore you. Hallelujah. Let's sing it once more. Hallelujah. Holy. Sa. Ram. Jesus, exalt. We exalt you. Let's lift up a voice of exaltation. We exalt. Yes. Sa. Hallelujah. Oh, Lord, blessed be the Lord. The Lord would say I am far and away, beyond all you can imagine and think of me. I am the great. I am. I am he who has flung the stars into their paths. I am he who has taken nothing and created all things. But you, my people, you are my finest creation. As I see each one of you who believes in me, who strives after me, each one who praises and worships me, I say it is good. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. For I've called to you, for you are mine, and I am pleased to have you as my people. Yea, there is a day, and it is here now, when my people may weep. But remember that I am strong and the battle is mine. So come, my people, and sing to me your praises so we may rejoice together, you, my people and me, your God, says the Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to your name, Lord. You inhabit the praises of your people. Hallelujah. Let's sing it with all of our hearts. We exalt thee. We exalt you. Hallelujah. We exalt him in your praise. Oh, Jesus. Lord, we believe you in these moments. Right now, hallelujah. In fact, the Lord is just prompting me. I, like everyone, just lift your heads, beloved, but close your eyes a moment. Just as an act, a step, an expression of desire. Right now, as your eyes are closed, but your head is lifted, the spirit of the Lord is moving and touching. How many people today would say, jay, that message is where I am. I need my vision to be touched. Put your hand up. Would you bless the name of the Lord, Father? I believe this is far from accidental, Lord. Just leave them up there, Lord. I believe it's far from perfunctory, Lord, but I believe it's your purpose right now to begin to move by the glorious grace that's made known to us in Jesus, Lord, and begin to give revelation. Lord, of the person of God the Father, Holy Spirit. Lift right now the blinders that are on eyes, Father, to see our precious Savior, the God of all creation, who loves us and gives himself to us. And Lord Jesus, would you open our eyes to see you, to behold you, to worship you? Glory to your name, Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to you, Holy Spirit. God. Holy Spirit, wait. On you we stand. Jesus. Oh lord, I thank you. Praise God. Brother wants to share a word and a vision the Lord's just given him. This is Swayt and quietness. Please keep your eyes closed. As we were singing to the Lord, I saw a vision in my mind which I'd like to share. It's hard to share it. I saw a pasture and a cliff. The cliff was extremely high. In fact, I couldn't see where it dropped off. It just dropped off bottomless. And there were lots of people in the field and people were walking and they were walking towards the edge of the cliff. And some people were just falling. And I realized that the people walking were blind. They couldn't see. And there were screams and people were frightened, but it was confusion. And people were still walking blindly to the edge of the cliff. And there was a man standing and he cried out, lord, heal me. Heal my eyesight. And the Lord healed him. And he could see, but he could not see with farsighted vision. He could only see nearsighted. All he could see were the things around him. So though he could see and he could see the things in his immediate environment, he still didn't notice what was happening. People were still walking, though he had, and he was happy about his vision. He was rejoicing, but he could only see a short distance. Everything else was blurred. And after a while the Lord came to him and said to it's fuzzy at this point. But he asked to be healed again. The Lord said, I'm going to touch you a second time. And the second time he touched him, the man had full vision, farsighted, nearsighted. And he saw what was happening.