This sermon is a powerful call to see people through the hands of Jesus, emphasizing the need for renewed vision and compassion in a time when many are spiritually blinded by societal influences. The message challenges believers to be led by Christ out of the influences of the world, to see people with God's eyes, and to be moved with compassion, commitment, and the power of Christ to make a difference in their generation.

Mark chapter 8, please, if you'll go there in your New Testaments, Mark chapter 8. I'm going to speak to you this morning on seeing, seeing through the hands of Jesus. Seeing through the hands of Jesus. Father, God Almighty, I yield my whole body, my mind, my everything to you. I'm asking, Lord, that you be glorified and the purposes of your heart be realized. I yield to you, Lord. I ask you to take me far beyond any of my own thoughts. Lord God, I'm asking you to expand the borders of this tent in every direction. That there may be room to receive in my heart the things that you want to speak. I'm asking you to be glorified, Jesus Christ, Son of God, be glorified. Have a people in the earth through whom your name can be praised. We thank you for this in your precious name. Amen. Mark chapter 8, beginning at verse 22. This is about Jesus and the blind man. And he cometh to Bethsaida, and they bring a blind man to him and besought him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of town, out of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught or anything. And he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking. After that, he put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. And he was restored and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town. Now, beloved, I want to start just by making a statement this morning. You and I are living in a time when many of God's people need renewed vision. And you might be among those that are here this morning. You say, Lord, I don't see the way I should see. I'm clouded in my vision of humanity, of my purpose of actually being here in the world. I'm clouded in my vision of people that are all around me. I have a feeling in my heart that I don't see as I should see. And you see, when we are willing to admit this, if we are willing or if you're blessed enough to be at this point this morning, then there's something that the Lord is able to do. David in Psalm 38, verse 10. Now, keep in mind, David is anointed to be king. He is a sweet psalmist of Israel. But there's a season in his life, too, where he said, My heart pants, my strength fails me. And as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. David says, I saw something, but circumstances of life seem to have come in and they're taking away this vision from me. I don't see the way I used to see. David is perhaps thinking of the days when he ran into the valley and he saw something of God. He saw something of the honor and glory of God that needed to be realized through his life. And he saw the trembling fear on those who had a wrong perspective on God even and on humanity. And David had this light in his eye, and it enabled him to write these beautiful songs of praise to the Lord. But he went into a season, as we all do from time to time, where he said, Something is wrong. My heart now is failing me. My strength is going away. And I don't seem to have the vision I had one time in my life. Today, perhaps more than ever, you and I need a renewed vision of God and of the people he created. And we don't need it just to get through, but we need it to be able to have an effect on our society today. Folks, it's got to be the desire of your heart and mine. The true church of Jesus Christ, there has to be an awakening in our generation where we say, Lord, you've got to do something within me to make my life of an effect in this generation. I don't want to just be caught in the flow as it is of a perishing society all the way around me. And so much of what purports to be knowledge and direction is simply rebellion against God. And you say in your heart, I don't want to go that way. And I do believe that's why many are here this morning. You don't want to be caught in this incredible tide of rebellion against God that is earmarking humanity in these last days of time. Now, in order to change this man's situation in the story we're looking at this morning, Jesus started by doing something and they brought to him this man and besought him to touch him. I can't help but wonder, is this cause of the church being brought again to Christ? Are we living in a moment where God is saying, oh, I want to touch you again. I want to do something in this last day church that will cause you to be a mirror image of the church when it was born after Calvary and on the day of Pentecost. I want to touch you in a special way. And so the first thing he did to this man, you know, Jesus could have just touched him. He could have just spoken a word. He's God. He created the universe. All power is his. He didn't have to go through this whole procedure we're about to read, unless, of course, there's a lesson in it for you and I today. Unless it's a teaching, it's something he's trying to get across to us. He had the power just to say, see, and that would have been the end of it. He could have just kept on walking and the blind man could have seen we'd have a line instead of five verses of Scripture, but we'd be a little less wiser for that. He took him through a process. And I want to follow this process so that you and I can begin to understand perhaps what needs to happen to us in this hour that we're living in. Now, I took him by the hand. And the first thing he did, the scripture says in verse 23, and he led him out of the town. That's number one. Now, it could be deduced that something in the environment of that town was keeping or would keep this man from seeing the way that Jesus intended him to see. And before you and I see the way God wants us to see for many, the very first thing that's got to happen in this generation, he's got to take us by the hand and lead us out of town one more time. Too many of God's people are so intertwined in the thinking and in all of the pursuits of a perishing society that in the midst of being caught in this flood, as I said earlier, you're losing your vision. Sometimes we just have to pray, Jesus, take my hand, lead me out of whatever is taking away the spiritual sight from my eyes, whatever is causing me to be less of a testimony than I should be. Whatever is making me of none effect in my generation, take me by the hand. You might be in the corporate world this morning and you're still playing the game of the corporate culture all around you that you're of no effect. You're caught as it is in the town and the Lord has got to take you by the hand. It doesn't mean you're going to lose your job. Don't get afraid of this, but he's going to lead you out of the culture as it is that is causing your sight to be taken away from you. Remember, the Laodicean church is the last church that's mentioned in the book of Revelation. This is a church that had found all that it felt that it needed in the ways and the things of this world. It's a church that said, I'm rich, I'm increased with goods and I have need of nothing. But the goods they had gotten were not things of the spirit. They've gotten all these goods from the world. They had good jobs, perhaps further in the context of their culture. They might have not nice homes, great work hours. I don't know what a deal all is. They have their food in the cupboard, no doubt. And they were coming to church and they were just a stone's throw as it is from the cross to as well. And they were saying, no, we have need of nothing. We have all that we've longed for. We found it all in the world. And Jesus said to this church, there's a blindness on you. And he said, I adjure you to anoint your eyes again that you might see. This was the cry of Christ. And he said, I'm standing at the door and I'm knocking now. In other words, I'm coming to the place where you are and I'm knocking at the door and I'll take you. I'll come in and stop with you if you'll open the door, but I'll take you out of this place and I'll anoint your eyes. And I'll give you something that can't come from any amount of men's learning. It can only come from the Holy Spirit. In 2nd Corinthians, chapter six and verse 14, it says it this way. Paul says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion has light with darkness? What concord is Christ with Belial? What part has he that believes with an infidel? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? You are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Verse 17, 2nd Corinthians six. He says, wherefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. And I'll be a father to you and you'll be my sons and my daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Be not unequally yoked. Now, we quite often perceive that in the context of relationships, boy, girl type things. But it's much deeper than that. He's saying, do not be in your mind, do not be in your spirit tied to or moving together with a society that's being led by its own fallen nature. That's what it means. Do not be pulling in the same direction. Do not bind yourself to the ways of this world, the thinking of this world, the philosophies and the cultural niceties as it is that are leading so many people astray today. Don't be bound together with them and moving and pulling in that same direction. That's what he's talking about. That's the uncleanness, in a sense, that is causing sin to keep its stranglehold on so much of our generation. Paul says in Colossians 3, let me read it to you. Verses 1 to 3. If you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits in the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. For you are dead and your life is hit with Christ in God. And Paul is just saying, if you are risen with Christ, seek the things that are in his heart. He's sitting now in the right hand of God. He has triumphed over the powers of evil. And he's made a way for every man, woman and child to come out of the captivity of death and sin and into the miraculous life that he provides. Not just for time, but for eternity. And he says, now you should be dead to this world as it is. That's living in it, Paul says, but not living by it. Let's put it that way. It's not governing you. It's not creating your core value system. You've died to this and you're now alive with Christ at the right hand of God. And the things that are in Christ's heart, as the scripture says, he ever lives now to make intercession for us should be in my heart. If Christ is in me and I am in Christ, I should be one in heart with him. He's sitting now and he's not resting in a sense. He's at rest from the labor of our redemption. But there's still in his heart this yearning for every man, woman and child born in his image to know this redemption that's been made possible to them. This should be the concern of the Christian. Not so much that I live by the world, but I live by what's in the heart of God. I live by moving in unison with the heart of God. I live by seeing things as the way Christ sees them. Now, in verse 23, back in our original text in Mark chapter eight, he does something unusual. He led him out of the town and then he spit in his eyes. That's incredible. How would you like to be prayed for like that today? Why would he do this? Now, this isn't really necessary to do this. What could be the lesson in all of this? You're going to find this in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy chapter 25. If you go there with me just for a moment, Deuteronomy chapter 25. Why would he spit in his eyes? There's something he's teaching us about that this morning. This is not a vain display. It's it's something. It's a fulfillment of a judgment really that's recorded in the scriptures in Deuteronomy chapter 25. It talked about a man who dies and he leaves behind him a wife. But his wife is childless. It was his brother's obligation to take his former brother's deceased brother's wife to himself. And the first born child or the first born son of that union wants to be called after the brother who was deceased. Now, it spoke of a giving of oneself for the benefit of another, of not living our lives. You remember when Boaz, the kinsman redeemer in the book of Ruth, he went to the person whose first right it was to redeem all that belonged to Naomi, including Ruth. He wouldn't do it because he felt it might mar his own inheritance. He was a selfish man. In other words, I've got my goals. I've got my objectives and ambitions and pulling this poor family as it is who have had the misfortune of losing their provider, the misfortune of losing their future. Pulling this poor family into my circle is going to hinder me. It's going to take away from my objectives for my life. And so this particular man in Deuteronomy chapter 25, if he would not. Do this in verse seven, it says, and if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate of the elders and say, my husband's brother refuses to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if you stand to it and say, I like not to take her, then shall his brother's wife come to him in the presence of the elders. Verse nine, looses shoe from off his foot and spit in his face and shall answer and say, so shall it be done to the man that will not build up his brother's house and his name shall be called in Israel, the house of him that has his shoe loosed. It was a disgrace, in a sense, the man who will not build his brother's house. Now, this this blind man, for example, is coming out of a society. But but say that. And it was one of the towns that Jesus issued a solemn warning to because great miracles were done there. But there was nothing in the heart to turn to God. Want to say that the miracles had been done in Sodom and other places that have been done in you. They would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. It was a hardened, hearted society as it is that we're not willing to believe in. We had to take this man outside of that society because the interweaving of that society had blinded his eyes. It was a selfish society. We're living in a selfish society, folks. It's all around us. People now. Where's the ethic gone? People now will will will procure whatever financial scheme they can to personally gain irrespective of the harm it's going to do to other people. We're seeing it in the investment community now all throughout America and beyond. It's undeniable we're living in an extremely selfish time when the thinking is no longer what is good for other people or how can this help the disadvantaged or what can it do for others? No, it's all about what can it do for me? And Jesus had to take this man out of this society. And this intermingling in this society had in measure produced the blindness, the spiritual blindness that was upon this man. And spitting in his eyes was a judgment. It was a judgment upon the man who will not build up his brother's house. And, folks, I'm telling you, we're living at a time when especially now in some, at least of the Church of Jesus Christ, the theological perspective is towards oneself. It's not towards the betterment of others. And people come into the house of God and they see no reason why they should be given for the betterment of the widow and the betterment of the orphan and the betterment of the disadvantaged. And everything now they're pursuing is about themselves and it produces a spiritual blindness. And not only that, he was to have his shoe taken off and he was to be called the house of him that has his shoe loosed. And what it speaks about is a man who has no direction or any lasting value in his life. He has no direction. The man who is one shoe on and he has one shoe off. And it was a type. God says from this day forward, this man will have no specific direction in his life. And I'm thinking now, and I know I labor on this point, but perhaps the Holy Spirit is having me do this so people can begin to see where they've gone in God's name and in his kingdom. We see so many people have been running the roads all over America for over 20 years, especially in the Pentecostal and charismatic movement, as if they have no direction. They have no idea anymore, in some cases, who God is and who speaks for God. Is it possible that this is the house that has its shoe loosed? Is it possible? Because many people would not enter into the work of God. They would not go where Christ has gone. They would not embrace what Christ embraces. They've lost the passion for fallen humanity. And so, therefore, they have no direction in life anymore. No spiritual direction. There's a blindness now that's come upon so many people. A strange, mysterious blindness of not being able to find out who God is. And they travel, and they seem so directionless. If that's a word, I guess, I hate to use generalities, but if there was a word that could describe much, not all, thank God, but much of our spiritual climate today is directionless. Idiocy in the last 15 years has risen up. And people will travel the country to hear somebody cluck like a chicken, thinking this is the Holy Spirit. Idiocy, absolute spiritual idiocy. It can only be the result of a deeper blindness. There's an intermingling among the people in the ways of society, and they've lost this vision of God. They've lost this heart of God. They've lost the sight of God. And because of it, they have no direction. He said to, after he had spit in his eyes and put his hands on him, he asked him, he said, well, do you see anything? And the man looked up and he said, well, I see men as trees walking. Now, it's not that Jesus was short of power that day, folks. This was for you that this was done. And for me, this was a lesson. It's not that the God who created the universe was just a little low on spiritual power supply and had to give it a second zap as it is, like somebody in the E.R. that's heart hasn't quite started yet. So we've got to give him a second shot of power. He's the God who created the universe with the word of his mouth. Could easily have made this man see, but he allows this progression to happen here. You see, here's a man who is seeing the way the society around him is seeing. The way the town, Bethsaida, that's why Bethsaida couldn't hear from God. That's why miracles were done in Bethsaida. And it didn't transform the society that he was part of. He said, I see men as trees walking. And that's that's how many people today are seeing humanity. I see them as prosperity passing by me or getting away from me. I see them as bodies filling wooden pews and something that can be used for my success or my parents success. I see them as a pulp and paper industry. Another man says, oh, listen, we could cut them all down. We could send them through the sawmill. We could grind them up and look at the wonderful products that can come into our hands through people. Another man might say, well, I see people as houses and furniture. These are all products of trees, folks. I see that I can use people and I don't see them as fallen humanity. They're just contacts. They're business contacts out in the community. I want to ask you a question. When you leave this church today, you walk down Broadway. How do you see people? When you walk in to your work environment on Monday morning, how, sir, ma'am, do you see people? Do you see them with the eyes of God or do you see them as a business opportunity? When somebody walks into your office, are you surveying? Are you constantly guarding and judging and seeing, ducking and peeping and seeing how I can best get into this person's heart? How can best get advantage over them? How they can add some furniture to my house, some wood to my pile? How they can give me some more of the things of this world? Another man might say, well, I see them as firewood to stack them up and count them and keep me warm all through the wintertime. Another man might say, well, I see them as fruit. You see, that can be harvested. Oh, listen, we can if we can harness this and harvest this for our own nourishment. How incredible this might be. You see, in Genesis 13, 10, it talks about a man who is of the family of Abraham. Call of God to be a blessing in the earth as you and I are. We're not called to have the earth bless us. We're called to be a blessing into the earth, into all nations, into all people. And Lot just found one day that he just said, I'm just too big, Abraham. I'm just too big, Uncle Abraham, for where you dwell. You're narrow, Abraham. You seem to have this sole focus that God is leading you to this place. And somehow through you, the whole world is going to be blessed. So I find that a little bit narrow, Uncle Abraham. So Abraham said to Lot, he said, well, then lift up your eyes. And he said, whatever you see, it's yours. Take it. So Lot lifted up his eyes and he saw a watered plain and he looked around. And you see, the things of the world captivated this man who was of the family of Abraham. And he separated himself from this family that God had destined to bless the earth. And instead, he chose to use the earth for his own blessing. The New Testament describes him as a righteous man in one of the epistles of Peter. I don't know how. It had to be an imputed righteousness, obviously, in this man's life. But nevertheless, his life had no effect on the society around him. And folks, I don't want to live like that. I don't know about you, but I don't want to live like that. I don't want to be a righteous man as it is and perhaps make it to heaven in this form of righteousness. But I've had no effect. Having to stand one day before the throne of God and remember the faces that were operating behind me daily. And I'm seeing them in the wrong perspective. I'm seeing people in the wrong way, not the way God sees them. The Bible says in Isaiah 53, in chapter 6, that the Lord laid on him, that is Christ, the iniquity of us all. In Matthew 26, 67, the scripture says the religious leaders spit in his face. And in chapter 27, verse 30, the soldiers spit upon him. Isaiah 53, 4 says, Surely he's borne our grief and carried our sorrow. Thanks be to God today that Jesus Christ took upon himself my spiritual blindness. Whatever area of my life that I still don't see, Christ in his mercy took that blindness upon himself. The spitting in my face that I truly deserve for the times I've not seen people the way God sees them. Christ took that spitting. He took that shame. I'm free from its guilt. I'm free from its condemnation. That's why I can look at this and not be condemned by it. That's why you should be able to hear this this morning and it should not condemn you. It should bring your heart help and it should bring it hope. But Jesus Christ was just as the blind man. He was led out of town as well. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 12 says that we're for Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, onto him outside the camp bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come by him. Therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Our testimony is a church age is that we have no continuing city here. Yes, we have to work as everyone else. And yes, by God's grace, we are given ways to make provision for our homes and for our families. These things are necessary. We are in this world, but this world does not give us our value system. This world does not tell us who people are. This world does not tell us what is right and what is wrong. This world does not dictate our future. The question that God puts to my heart is, do we have the courage in this generation? Can Christ take you and I by the hand and lead us to where spiritual site is found? Can we be led by him outside of the city? Can we go with him to a place of reproach? Are we willing to love the praise of God more than the praise of men? You and I are willing to be led by Christ. The Lord in Mark chapter eight and verse twenty five. He says he put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. Thanks be to God for his mercy. He made him look up, made him look a little higher than he looked perhaps the first time. And when it was through these hands that he began to see every man clearly because he asked him after this, he says, and his sight was restored and he saw every man clearly. And this is an amazing thing to have the hands of Christ put upon your eyes. I can't help but wonder as I've been reading this. What did he see through these hands? When Jesus put his hands upon his eyes, he spit in his eyes first and touched him. It doesn't say put his hands on his eyes the first time. It just has put his hands on him. But the next time he put his hands on his eyes. Did he see compassion? Is it possible in a moment of time he saw scars in these hands? Is it possible he was touched in such a manner that he began to think in his heart, Lord, I've never felt this kind of compassion all my life. God, I've never understood how much you care for us, even in our fallen or misguided condition. Did the compassion of this touch overwhelm his heart in a moment of time? Could he have been taken, transported to the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem? Because he saw people surrounded by stone walls of religion that were soon to be destroyed, as well as those who had placed their misguided trust in it. Did he feel the heart of Christ when he wept at Lazarus' grave because of people who are trapped in unbelief and under the dominion of death and the power of sin? Did he somehow start to feel the compassion? This is something that has to sovereignly happen. You know, I can preach a sermon here, and I've done it in the past. Not necessarily in this church, but in other places. I could preach, everybody would cry, and you'd come to an altar, you'd cry big tears. It'll last about an hour or so until your first nasty person you run into on the street, and then all of a sudden your benevolence is gone. The feeling of compassion is all gone because it was a superficial work of the flesh. It's got to be deeper than this. It's got to be something born in the spirit. It only comes from the hands of God when God touches us. Lord, the cry of my heart is, Jesus, you've got to touch my eyes, and you've got to help me to see what you see. You've got to help me to feel in my heart the compassion that you feel for fallen humanity, or I will never move to the poor. I will never move to the widow. I will never be able to do what is right. It would just be sporadic little bursts of kindness, but it will never be something that is entrenched in my character. I want something deeper than just sporadic bursts of kindness. I want something of God entrenched in my character, that when He shows me and when He looks through these eyes, because I do have the Christ of the universe living in this body, that I'm moved with the same compassion that moves Him, that I'm moved to make the same commitment. Did this man see commitment through the hands of Jesus? Did he see the scars? Is it possible he looked through the scars of his hands for a moment? What gave him sight? What did he see in those hands? Did he see Calvary? Did he see a Christ who's not just willing to be sorry as it is, or to weep for the captivity of humanity, but actually give Himself to the cause of making a difference? Folks, it's not enough just to weep. It's not enough just to feel sorry. But we are called, according to the Scriptures, to lay our lives down as a living sacrifice. That doesn't mean that you and I have to be nailed to a cross. What that means is that you and I, throughout the day, are open to the compassion of God, and our hands are open to doing something about what we see. Folks, it's not complicated. It's not a program. It's much deeper. You can't make a program out of this. It's something of the life of Christ that God alone can put within His church. He's the only one who can put it in my heart. He's the only one who can put it in your heart. Not only compassion, but commitment to make a difference. That doesn't mean you have to get radical all of a sudden. It just means you are saying, Jesus, as I walk through my day, see through me, and touch through me, and flow through me. God, don't let me see men as opportunities for my own good. God, help me to see every man clearly. Help me to see them the way You see them. Lord, You see them as created in Your image. You see them as destined for hell without You. You see them, the best of them, as captivated with no hope of the future unless they come to know that there's a Savior who loves them. God, help me to see men clearly. Help me not to be so intertwined in this society that I lose the vision that only the Spirit of God can give me. As His hands touched this man's eyes, did he all of a sudden see the power that was available to those who are willing to make the commitment? Did he see the complete power that's available to represent all that He has won for mankind? Did he see it all of a sudden that it's mine? I'm not called just to be compassionate. I'm not called just to be committed. But God in Christ has given me the power to do these things. I don't have to do this in my own strength. I never was called to do this in my own strength. My own strength will fail me. My own heart will, as David said, will lose its courage. My eyes will become dim. Paul said it this way. He said that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you might know what is the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power? Paul said, oh, that your eyes could be opened, that you could see this exceeding great power. Is it possible now that we need to see one more time? If we're going to make a difference, folks, in our generation, we've got to see beyond what we're looking at in the mirror We've got to see beyond our past failure. We've got to see beyond our own natural limitations. And we've got to see something at the right hand of God. We've got to see a Savior who defeated death and hell and the grave and human weakness. We've got to see a Savior who sits and has absolute and all authority and power in His hands. He brought it in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places. He's above all principality, all power, all might, all dominion, every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. He has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all. Praise God. You've got to be able to see the power. You've got to be able to see the power. If you are willing to be led out of the town, if you are willing to hear that because of this condition there's a judgment that's deserved, if you are willing to understand that Christ took this judgment upon Himself, therefore we are free to move forward. We are free to become everything that God has destined us as His church to be. If you are willing to be touched with the feelings that are in the heart of God, Christ who sits at the right hand of God this morning, and say, Lord, I want to be one and hard with You. I want to set my affection on things above and not on things of the earth. I want to make a difference in this generation, O Lord. I don't want men and women to go to hell on my watch. I don't want people in my office and apartment building to die in their sins when somebody who knows God is living across the hallway or working at the next desk to them. O Jesus, You've got to do something deeper in me than anything of religion can do. No program can do this. You've got to come and work that power that You wrought for me when You were raised from the dead. You've got to work that within my life. You've got to make me what I need to be. You've got to take me where I need to go. O God, You've got to do it in the power of the Holy Ghost. Paul said, O that Your eyes could be opened, that Your eyes could be opened, that You could see this, that You could understand the fullness of the victory, the incredible power that is available to those who call upon the name of God. It is Christ in me, Paul said, that is a hope of glory. It's Christ living in me, Christ flowing through me, just allowing Christ to be Christ inside of me. Then in verse 26, Jesus does something very strange. He sent him away to his house, and he said, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to anybody in the town. I thought, well, this is odd. I've heard a lot of theories about this, but here's what the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said, Carter, if I touch you this way, don't make a program out of it. Just go home, and starting there, see people the way I see them. Starting at home, see them with my eyes. Changes everything, folks. Changes the way you see your children. Marriages can be absolutely transformed by this very simple thing. Starting at home, and then take it across the hall of your apartment building to the single mother and her three kids who are struggling. Then downtown, the kid on the street is hanging around listless, looking for some kind of direction. Then take it onto the bus, then onto the subway, then into the workplace. And just see people the way I see them. And then, as I speak to your heart, the Lord says, then do what I ask you to do. Now, he will show you, it will be an outflow of God's natural compassion that he is willing to give to your heart. Just do this. I tell you, folks, it could change much of our country today if God's people saw through the hands of Jesus again. Praise God. Praise the Lord. It's time, folks. We don't have much time left. It's time to see through the hands of Jesus. It's time for a simple prayer. God, touch my eyes. Make me look up. Because the scripture says he put his hands on his eyes and made him look up. Made him look up. I do believe, in a moment of time, something deep happened in his heart because it says he saw every man clearly. So it doesn't have to be a lengthy procedure. If you and I come and say, Lord, touch me with your hands. Give me understanding. You can walk out of the sanctuary today, the annex or whatever room you're in, and you can see every man clearly. This is a supernatural work of God. I want to challenge you on this. I feel the Holy Spirit asking me to ask you today to test God in this. Prove me, says the Lord. Test me in this. Test me in this. Prove me. If you have an honest heart, I believe you can walk out these doors and you'll know immediately you're not seeing people through the natural eye anymore. You're not looking at people for what they can give you or how you can gain. You're now starting to see people the way God sees them. It doesn't mean you walk around weepy and heavy. You just have a perspective that can only come from Christ. If this is what you want, we're going to worship for a little while. And as we do, I'm going to ask if you could just stand balcony, main sanctuary, annex. And those that want this touch of God. Now, this is you have to want this or it's pointless, really. But you have to want it. And if you want this touch of God in your life. I want it with everything in my heart. I want to see you the way God sees you. I do. I want to see my family the way God sees them. I want to see every person the way God sees them. I want to see every situation the way God sees it. I want to be delivered from the natural eye. Be taken into something of the spirit that only Christ can do. I want to see the future. When I look at a person who comes into Times Square Church, I don't want to see what you are. I want to see what you will be. I want to see beyond what the natural eye sees. I want to see what God sees. I need to look through the hands of Christ. You were a mess one time in your life. Most here. So was I, by the way. I'm including myself in that statement. But God saw me. Another man. And it produces in the heart when you begin to taste this goodness of God. The desire to go deeper than you've ever gone before. You begin to realize that all my life is in Christ. I want my affections to be set at the right hand of God. I want to make a difference. For you. For your home. For your families. But not just here in this pulpit. I want to make a difference on the street. When the times you don't see me. I don't always wear a suit and I don't always stand in the pulpit. My hair is not always as neat as it is on Sunday morning. I want to be able to make a difference. On those days. I want my heart to be moved with compassion. I want to be able to help a man who's eating out of the garbage. And you see a lot of them in the streets of this city. Whether or not he's on drugs, it doesn't matter. I want to be able to help him and say something that will move him towards God. I want to see what God sees. If that's the cry of your heart, I'm going to ask you to join me. If I could, I'd be here. I am here at this altar already. I'd ask you to join me. And as a church, we have an opportunity to make a tremendous difference in this city. Wherever it is that you come from. As we stand, please just come and join us. And we're going to pray, worship for a while. Then we're going to pray. The Lord's speaking to your heart. Slip out of wherever you are. Back sliders. Come home to God. You got willful sin in your life. Get it out. Come get down here. Confess it. Receive your forgiveness. And move on in God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. In our text today, the scripture says that Jesus put his hands on his eyes and caused him to look up. To the church of Ephesus, Jesus said, look up. Come back to your first love. As we were worshiping, the Holy Spirit was speaking to my heart. And saying, that was, do you remember when you knew that I loved you? And we walked together loving people? Do you remember that? That's what the Lord is saying to you. Do you remember when it was all just about loving people? When you first knew him, you knew he loved you. And a love to other people was a natural outflow of seeing every man clearly. And somehow over time and learning, that gets substituted for works and programs. And the church becomes a very dull candle in its society. And that's why Jesus said to Ephesus, now let's just go back to the beginning again with all your knowledge. And you let me love you. And let's love other people. Let's walk into this world and be kind to the unthankful and the unholy. Let's be kind to all men. I have had two homosexual men living next door to the apartment that we have here in the city. And very easy to judge some of the behavior and the lifestyle. But I always try to be kind. And one day I was just going to the elevator and I met one of these gentlemen. And he looked down and I said, you look sad today, what's wrong? Now he knows I'm a pastor in this church. And he said, it just doesn't seem like Christmas this year. And I said, well, why don't you come to church? Why don't you come to our church? And I said, especially a Christmas production and name the dates and times. And he looked at me in such shock that I would even be thinking of asking him. Now, why should the world be shocked? Why should it be a shock? God loves people, all people. From everywhere, no matter what. I felt in my heart a compassion. I said, just come to church. I said, you're going to find what you're looking for there. You're going to find God. And hopefully that will happen. This young man's life. I want to pray for the choir today. Pray for the orchestra. I want to pray for the elders and pastors of this church. And for you that we would be a first love. Ephesus Church here at Times Square Church. That we would have the, we would see through the hands of Jesus. Please don't lose that illustration. Whether you've got to hold your fingers like this, whatever you have to do. Or pretend there's scars and look through them. But we would see through these divine hands. People around us. And it would keep us with a perspective. Father, I pray today, God, for this choir. I pray, Lord Jesus Christ, that our songs never become a program in this house. I pray the passion of God upon this choir. I'm asking, Lord, you said whatever I ask, believing I would receive it. I believe it with all my heart. I pray for a passion for people to be in their songs. I pray there never be entertainment ever at any time, at any moment. But a true and genuine compassion for humanity that is born of men and women who are walking in the spirit. I pray for this orchestra. I pray for cleanness of hands. God, as these instruments are touched every week. I pray, Father, that there be an implanted desire of the Holy Spirit. To see men and women strengthened and encouraged. The poor, the rich, all societies, all classes, all races come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I pray for the grace to judge no man. Lord, that is your job to do that. I pray we reach out to all men. I pray for open arms in this church. That everyone from every persuasion and background may come and find the comfort of Christ. Freedom from sin and the acceptance of God. I pray, Lord, that this orchestra would be an exemplary illustration of that to the people. I pray for the pastors and elders of this church. God Almighty. Lord, put your hands on our eyes again. Lift our heads and cause us to see every man clearly. Help us, Lord, not to preach from any vantage point, but to see your kingdom advance in the hearts of men. Help us, Lord, to die to our opinions of ourselves and the concern of what people think about us. Help us to die to all of this and to live to Christ. I pray, God, that there be a pure stream come from this house, untainted by anything of the flesh. Father, I thank you for it, God. I pray that the holiness of Christ be our portion in the days ahead. And I pray for a compassionate church, a body of believers who truly represent Christ. God Almighty, you have a body. You say that you sit at the right hand of all power. Paul said all authority is yours and you've given it to us. You're the one who fills all in all. You have a body in the earth called your church. Lord God, I pray for this church that we see all men clearly. I pray for words of knowledge to be given of God that could only come from your heart. God, help us to understand what to say in every situation. Help us not to say too much or too little. Guide us, Holy Spirit. Lead us, Lord. These are difficult days. We can't be part of this world and minister to it. We have to be outside looking in with the eyes of God. I pray, Lord, that you lift our heads today. I pray, God, to be no one condemned in this house. Lord, you've delivered us from condemnation. You've brought us into this glorious life and liberty of Jesus Christ. I pray, God, for the courage to walk in it now. Oh, God Almighty, help us beginning today, Monday morning when we go into work or wherever we go, that we see people differently. Lord, we know that you'll not disappoint those who ask you for this. You'll help us, Lord, to see men and women differently. You'll help us, Lord, not to be angry in our spirit. You'll help us, God, to see the ignorance of those that are perishing, but yet to weep as you wept over Jerusalem, to be committed as you were to go to the cross. Lord, to be compassionate. Father, we thank you for this with all our hearts today. God, we praise you. I pray from this day forward we never be the same again. Let there be a dimension of God's life added to this church, Lord. Father, I thank you. God, I praise you. I praise you, Lord. I bless you, O God. I bless you with all my heart. Oh, Jesus. Oh, God. I pray in the spirit you give this church a towel and a bowl and that we would be people who wash the feet of those that are weary. We'd not be arrogant. We'd not know everything, Lord. We would be honest servants of God, the true compassion of Christ flowing through us. Help us in this, God. Lord, lift our heads. Lift our heads, Jesus. Lift our heads and let us see. Every man clearly, Father. We thank you for this. In Jesus' mighty name. Now give him praise. Thank him for his goodness. We'll never be the same. Praise God. Praise God. Hallelujah. Praise God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.