In this sermon, the preacher reflects on the state of the current generation and their response to the word of God. He mentions the Billy Graham conferences in the 1950s, where many people came to know Jesus Christ. However, he also acknowledges that despite the preaching and the blessings, society is failing and becoming something other than what God intended. The preacher emphasizes the need for a deeper understanding and a genuine encounter with God, beyond cultural experiences. He encourages listeners to come to Jesus, who offers rest and invites them to learn from him. The sermon concludes with the promise that those who are humble and willing to seek God will experience the power of God in their generation.

This morning, if you'd turn to Mark chapter 8, please, with me. I'd like to bring you something. I'm just entitled, A Message for New York City. Message for New York City. Now, Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart, that in my weakness your strength is perfected. I don't stand here with any boast other than you, Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm asking you for strength and wisdom and the ability that only you can give to convey this word that you put on my heart in a way that will bear witness with the hearts of your people. Help me, Lord, to stay away from my own thoughts and to simply be a vessel through whom you can speak. This is an hour in which we need to hear from you. Our hearts are open, and we ask you, Lord, to speak clearly to us. I thank you, Lord, for this in Jesus' name. Mark chapter 8, verse 22, a word for New York City. And he cometh to Bethsaida, and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked if he saw aught or if he saw 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, Bethsaida, where this miracle of touching a blind man twice, realistically, there was a first touch that came into his life, and it didn't fully restore his vision. Now, you and I know that the Son of God was not lacking in power. The God who created the word of his mouth was not short of power that day. Now, everything that Jesus did has a reason, has a lesson in it. And this week, I've been meditating on this passage of Scripture and say, God, what is the lesson in this? What were you trying to teach the people then? And what are you trying to teach us now? Why was it necessary to touch a blind man twice to restore his sight? And why are you willing to touch a blind man twice? Now, Bethsaida, the name of Bethsaida means fishing house. That's actually what the town was called. And perhaps it was a place that many people had come to. They came there to earn a living and in the hope of a better life for themselves and for their families. I suppose it could be said that maybe Bethsaida was somewhat the New York City of its day. Mark chapter 6, for example, verse 45 tells us that a water crossing was necessary for Jesus and his disciples at that time to get there. And you and I can't help but think of the comparison, in a sense, to Bethsaida in that particular portion of Scripture in New York City, where the Statue of Liberty has this inscription on it as people from all over the world would come into the harbor. And the inscription would say, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. If you don't want them, I will take them. That was technically, if I want to say, the theme of New York City. And you and I, if there's not much history, real history taught in our generation, but if we had the eyes to go back and see the masses of people for generations coming into the harbor of this city, looking for a better life, looking for hope, looking for a future. Some today, that's exactly why you came to New York City, hoping to be free, to be made free. In any event, Luke chapter 9 tells us that it was a place where Christ himself not only spoke to those who wanted to hear him, but he fed them miraculously. That was in the vicinity of Bethsaida, where the five loaves and the two fish were taken by Christ and multiplied, and thousands were fed to satisfy their weariness and hunger. So it was a place, in a sense, where the hungry were fed. And they were fed miraculously. They were given what they knew in themselves they couldn't possess. People had come from all over the place. They were hearing the word of God, and suddenly there was a multiplication given to them, and abilities, and such like opened up to them that they knew had to come from the hand of God. It's in Mark chapter 6 that we're told for a season in the region of Bethsaida that that everyone who reached out to Christ in their desperation, and some were so weak that they had to be laid in the streets, but all who did so, everyone who reached out were made whole. So in other words, not only were they satisfied in their weariness, not only were they provided for in their hunger, but all who touched him, there was a wholeness that came into their lives. Bethsaida was a place of miracles, this fishing house as it is. Testimonies of strength and hope regained. Supernatural provision was found there. People were both given and led into places which they never could have gotten into in their own strength. Think of all that's been accomplished in New York City in only about 300 or so years. When other societies have existed by their record for thousands of years, and yet in just a few years huddled masses as it were coming looking for a better life, were given a sovereign ability of God to do something that literally almost no other place on the earth has ever been given that ability. To become the financial engine, for example, of the whole known world in such a short time. Technology and science and the ability to govern, wisdom given, and the ability to do it collectively when individual societies coming here hadn't been able to find in measure, in great measure, that strength sometimes within their own borders. It was a place that should have borne witness to the world, to the mercy and the power of God. But go back with me to Matthew chapter 11. The whole world should have known. It was designed of God to be a testimony. Bethsaida had seen the miracles of God, had had the word of God. It was a fishing house. But something happened in chapter 11 of Matthew. Jesus said, From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. In other words, there was a word brought to Bethsaida and subsequent regions, not just Bethsaida, but the whole region of Israel. And in spite of that word that clearly revealed Christ. And of course, what was the word of John? The word of John was turn from your own ways of doing things. Turn from your own visions of even righteousness. And if you're willing to humble yourself before God, suddenly your eyes will be open and you will see the Lamb of God, which is exactly what happened at John's baptism. The moment people humbled themselves in the presence of God, suddenly their eyes were opened and they had a vision. They saw the Lamb of God. John himself said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And then he told his disciples to follow him. But it's from the days of John. John clearly showed the doorway to where life was. But so many are not willing to go through that door of humility in a living relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ. And so they feel that by human effort, they can violently in a sense, take the kingdom of heaven by force. And that's always been the problem of fallen man. This desire to be as God is and to know the way of good and evil and somehow to arrive at a utopian end when it's all over. Jesus said, I am the door, but not wanting that door by force trying to make another entrance way into an everlasting and eternal kingdom. The word of God had come to many, but many had not received it. And in verse 16 of Matthew 11, Jesus said, But where unto shall I liken this generation? In other words, what is this generation like? And he said, Behold, we've piped you and you've not danced. We've mourned to you and you've not lamented. In other words, I came to you every way I knew to come. I came to you with rejoicing. I want to think about many years ago in the fifties, the Billy Graham conferences that were held in New York city, that night after night filled stadiums and thousands upon thousands came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, apparently so. He said, I came to you with joy. And then I also came to you with mourning. Think about this city has known some of the greatest preaching in the history of the world. Charles Finney preached here, a man with an indisputable anointing of God. He would have to lower his voice because there'd be such wailing and weeping would break out in the meetings as people became aware of their sins. You think about 1857 when there was no human instrument whatsoever in a massive prayer meeting that literally swept hundreds of thousands of people in this city into the kingdom of God. It began here in New York city and swept through most of this country and changed the tenure as it is of the culture of many people at that time. But Jesus now is speaking in this region as it is of the Satan says, I came to you rejoicing, but you wouldn't dance. I came to you with mourning and you wouldn't lament. In other words, no matter how I approached you, it didn't produce any lasting result. It didn't produce a change of heart that moved itself into the future. You kept moving away from the word of God and kept trying to take the kingdom of heaven by violence. And now he says, the son of man, verse 19 comes eating and drinking. And you call me, you call me gluttonous and a drunk and a friend of publicans and sinners. In other words, now, now he said to this, that age, he said, I've come to you now in person. And he said, now all you do is mock me. All you do is call me a man who's virtually intoxicated with himself. And all of my friends are now marginalized. Everybody who wants to associate with me is now culturally inferior, not to be considered worthy, just drunks and cheats and sinners. People without a clear mindset. He said, all that I've done all these years, that's all it has brought this place to. Woe unto you, he says in verse 21. If the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. And thou Capernaum, which are exalted to heaven shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which had been done in you and thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in that day of judgment than for thee. But then something happens. Jesus said at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you've hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and you've revealed them unto babes. In other words, there's still a truth. There's still a power. The glory of God is still present. There's still hope. There's still a future. But the wise in their own sight are not going to see it. And the strong in their might are not going to taste it. And those who walk in their own wisdom won't understand it. But those who know they're weak, those who are willing to be considered among the winebibbers and the publicans and sinners, those who are willing to crawl through the crowd of the religious and the arrogant and the mockers and the scorners, you're going to know the power of God again in your generation. There's a cry from the heart of God, and he says, come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Remember the inscription, give me your tired, give me your poor, give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The same cry now comes from the heart of Christ. He says, come to me now. Everyone who's working and not finding any satisfaction in it, everyone who's burdened down and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I'm meek and lowly in heart and you'll find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. One more time, one more time, a cry went out from the heart of Jesus for those who were again weary and once again long for the promise of new life and meaning that only God can give. Only God can give it and a sudden realization comes into the heart. Yes, thank you for this wonderful place and thank you for all that this secular world has been able to provide for me, but it has left me with a labor that does not gladden my heart. It has left me heavy laden. It has left me with a restlessness in my soul. And one more time, everyone who is weary and willing and can still have the ears to hear, here's this cry coming from the heart of Jesus. Come to me, come to me and I'll give you rest. Come to me and I'll teach you my ways. Come to me in humility for I am lowly in heart and that's where you're going to find me. Come to me and I will show you that I've had something for you all along that this city cannot offer you. Even if you're able to glean the best of its fields, it can't offer it to you. I have a rest that can only be found in God and I have an eternal rest for you that you will never find. Scratch the streets of the city all you want, achieve and get to the highest rung on the ladder, but you will never find this rest apart from God. You'll never take the kingdom of heaven by violence. You'll never be able to dig another door through into eternal life. You'll never be able to be God in your own strength. I've destined you for more than this. In our opening text in Mark chapter 8, what we really see here is coming to Bethsaida, this house of fishing, they brought him a blind man and the blind man besought him to touch him. And I see in this a type of a people coming to God from a place of former blessing and seeking a new touch for blinded eyes. Perhaps may I call it the last generation coming and saying, God, thank you for the history. Thank you, Lord, for the multitudes that came here. Thank you for those that you fed in days gone by. Thank you for lives that were transformed. Thank you for people who were healed in the streets. Thank you for the preachers that once rose up and preached in this city. Thank you for the great conferences in 1958 and such like. Thank you for the great prayer revival that once swept New York City. And that is a wonderful thing. And I thank you, but God, I want to see. I want to see you now. I want to see your ways. I want to see your work. I want to see your power. Jesus, I want to see what you have for my life. I want to know why I've been brought here for this time. I want to know what the purpose of my life is. Show me something, Lord, that I've not seen yet. Please, God, give me spiritual vision. Please take me deeper than I've gone. Please help me to see more than I've seen. Please, God, help me to understand something in this generation. For it seems to me that everything around me is failing. It seems to me you brought us here and you blessed us beyond measure. I know that. We all know that. But our society is failing. We're falling. We're faltering. We're becoming something other than what you intended us to be. So I don't care who says what. I don't care if they hang you on a billboard in Times Square and declare you to be a myth. I know that you're the Son of God. And let the mockers mock and let the scorners scorn and let those who are trying to take heaven by violence keep trying to take it. And I don't care what they say about me. I don't care if they call me blind. I want you to touch me again, O God. I want to know what I'm supposed to be. And it says in verse 23, He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of town. And that's the very first thing that's going to have to happen in this generation. If you and I want to see again, we have to be willing to let Jesus take us by the hand and lead us outside of that which has caused such spiritual blindness in our generation. The lust for power, the lust for fame, the lust for money, the lust for comfort without God, the lust for religion without relationship. Whatever it is, O God, take me by the hand and lead me outside of this. Bring me into a place, O God, where I can hear again and where you can speak to me again. Lead me outside of this New York City. Doesn't mean you go outside to New Jersey. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about God leading us in the spirit away from that which makes everybody run in the streets. You ever notice that? Everybody runs here. Where are they running to? What are you hoping to achieve? What's the goal of it all? What is it pointing to? Where is it leading? What is the purpose? Lead me outside of this. I want to see something, Lord. I want to know more than I know. I want to walk with God. I want to walk with the real God. I want to see what the real God wants me to see. I want to know what you want me to know. I want my life to count for something more than myself. And all this labor and all this running in the streets now, it's just producing fear in the hearts of people and confusion and a seeming lack of direction to go forward into the future. Lord, lead me outside of this. He said, let him out of the town. And he spit on his eyes and put his hands on him and asked if he saw anything. And he looked up and he said, I see men, there's trees walking. In a sense, we might say the first touch of God in New York City failed because it didn't produce in the people what God really wanted us to see. This was more than just a cultural experiment, experiment, folks. There was something in the heart of God when this city was founded. I know it's never been perfect and it's been far from it at certain periods in its history. But there was something of God here, something that he wanted us to see and something this city was supposed to have represented perhaps to this generation. But we ran away from it. I, maybe it could be better said that he did touch us, but we didn't fully want to see that which the touch of God would have given us. We were happy to go to the stadiums and have Billy Graham tell us that God loved us and wanted to save us. We're happy to go to the churches in the city where Charles Finney preached and others, great, great preachers throughout history. We're even happy to come to Times Square Church and have David Wilkerson warn us that the city was under the judgment of God. We were happy. But did we really want to see what God wanted us to see is the question. All of us, collectively, myself included. He saw men as trees walking. He saw people without the eyes of God. That's really the point. He didn't see them as anything more than the buildings, the cars, the places of commerce. He just saw people as trees walking. He had an incomplete vision of that which is the burden of God. God is not burdened for brick and stone. None of these things are going to remain. No, the Holy Spirit is telling us that the burden of God is and always has been the souls of men and women and children. And he asked him, he said, how do you see now? Now this man could have lied and said, yeah, fine. I see everything just fine. And we can leave church. We can go to church on Sunday and we can walk out. And the Lord says, how do you see? Oh, I see everything just fine. Well, how do you see people? Well, I see them like trees walking. No, this man, by his declaration, he had no burden yet on his heart. He had no clear vision. And it said, after that, he put his hands again on his eyes and made him look up. This man had to be willing to let Christ touch him again. He had to be honest with God, first of all, and say, look, I don't have a clear vision yet. I do see, but I don't see clearly. And he had to be willing to let Jesus touch him again. Lord, would you touch me again? And I happen to believe that God is willing to touch New York City again. I believe that in my heart. But it's going to require a willingness in you and in me. It's going to require an admission that, yeah, Lord, thank you. It's been an awesome life, but I don't have a burden for people. I don't see people clearly. I don't fully grasp the work of God. I see people just as numbers. I see them as something swaying in the wind. I see them as something to be counted. I don't really see the way you would have me to see. And the scripture says he put his hands on him again, on his eyes, and made him look up. Look up. Look up, for God so loved the world. Look up and see what it cost the Son of God to lay aside his robes of royalty and come down to the earth and walk among us as a man. Look up and understand something of the heart of God. That the burden of God was not about saving a physical planet, but dying to save those men and women and children created in the image of God who have been resisting their own salvation in this and every other generation. Look up. Look up. Look higher. Look higher than the Empire State Building. Look higher than the new tower being built downtown. Look higher than these things and see something of God. The scripture says he looked up and he was restored and he saw every man clearly. He looked up and he said, Jesus, you've got to give me your vision. I need your eyes. I need your heart. I need your mind. You've got to touch me again. I want to see people with the same value that you see them. Help me in my poverty. Help me, God, in my lack of vision to see people, to see the incredible value of a person, no matter who they are or where they come from or what they're doing. Help me, oh God, in a world that's filled with hate and divided by cultural and religious lines. Would you help me to transcend it all and to see the value of every person in this world created in the image of God? Would you help me in this house of fishing? Would you help me, Lord? And so this place called the fishing house, this place where Christ would have us become fishers of men, continued in that day to be a place where most continued to fish for their own glory and their own gain. Bethsaida, he said, if the works that were done in you had been done in some other places that have never known them, they would have so turned the inferences, they would still be walking with God today. But all of these works that were done in this great experiment of mercy and this incredible provision of God, this feeding and the satisfying, Bethsaida didn't produce in you that which God intended it to. But for anybody who's willing to be led by God outside of a fallen value system of a fallen society, he said, I'm willing to touch you again and I'm willing to give you the eyes of God to see all people as so valuable in the sight of God that he would send his son to die on a cross for all people of every culture, every race, every country, and of every religion that he died for them. I'm not suggesting there's a multiplicity of ways to God. I'm suggesting that God came to us in the multiplicities of our pursuits and made a way for us to eternal life through Jesus Christ. I believe with all my heart that God is willing to touch New York City again. One more time. He touched this man and then he gave him a strange instruction. He said, go back to your house and don't tell anybody about the totality of this encounter. In other words, let the fact that you were blind and now see be sufficient. Don't go into the details of how it happened, but just let the testimony of the fact that you can see how, I mean, realistically, if you look at it and says, don't tell it to any man. Well, I mean, everybody who knew him knew he was blind and would now know he can see. In other words, don't go into the details of everything. Just tell them you were blind and now you see and tell them that God is willing to touch them too and to change them and give them hope and a future that the motto of Christ is still, give me your tired, your poor, give me your huddled masses that are yearning to breathe free. Nothing in the heart of God has ever changed. It's been the cry of my heart in the last several months. And I've actually been praying this prayer, not knowing really I was praying this passage of scripture. Lord, touch me again. Touch me again, O God. I had a touch of the Holy Spirit once years ago in my life that took me out of a place of coldness and hardness where I really didn't care about anybody or anything other than myself. And I had an encounter with God in the kitchen of my farmhouse where he came to me so powerfully that I trembled and touched my eyes. I remember it as clearly as if it was yesterday. The power of God touched my eyes and I was never the same again. I never saw people the same again. I've walked a lot of years in a lot of places, seeing a lot of things, and I've seen a lot of people come to Christ, but I find myself at this juncture of my life, approaching 60 years of age in September, needing another touch from God. Take me deeper. Take me farther. Give me more than I've had of the heart of God. I'm not talking about ministry. Give me more of your heart. Give me the ability to see people. Jesus, the way you see people. Give me your mind and the inner desires of my heart. Let them be conformed to yours. And if this is the last tithe of my life, then I want it to count more than the previous part did. And even if it doesn't have a big display outwardly, let there be this incredible revelation inwardly. I want to die passionately caring about people. All people. All people. No exceptions. And so give me. Give me your huddled masses. Give me your poor. Give me your tired. Bring to me, O God, those who long to be free. And help me. Help me, God, to show them the entrance to the kingdom of God. Help me, Lord Jesus Christ. It will be something that begins in the church in New York City, and I'm trusting and believing will go far beyond that. But I know one thing for sure, that it doesn't go anywhere if it doesn't begin in me and you. Jesus, Son of God, touch me again. Touch my eyes. Give this poor blind man a second touch. Because I see, but I don't see clearly. And if that's the cry of your heart today, that is a cry that I believe that Christ will answer. I do believe it. But you and I need to be willing to be led by the hand out of everything that has brought blindness to our eyes and dullness to our hearts. And if we're willing, he will lead us. And if we're willing to be honest, he will touch us. That's the life I believe that Christ wants to give his church. We're going to stand in a moment, and if that's the cry of your heart, Lord Jesus Christ, I want to be a friend of publicans and sinners and tax gatherers. I want them to know that you love them. I don't want anybody to be shunned because of their lifestyle or their religious beliefs. If they choose darkness, then let it be because they chose it. Let it not be because I didn't show them the door to eternal life. Father, I have delivered as best as I know how what you put on my heart. And I'm asking you, Lord, to take these few loaves and fish and multiply it and bring us to a place again where we know the provision of God, this supernatural multiplication of your life within us. Lord, you said that if anyone asks for bread, you'll not give a stone. And you said, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? So, Lord, we're asking for vision and for sight and for love that can only come from God, the ability to make a difference in the lives of many. Lord, we're sorry for what we let New York City become, but we thank you that you're still willing to visit, and you are still willing to lead those who want to be led, and you're still willing to touch us again. We ask you, Lord, one more time for your glory and for your honor. Forgive the shame of having portrayed you in Times Square as a myth. Forgive the ignorance, Lord, of those who did this. And let the power of God so be on your church that you will put to flight this notion. We ask you to touch every church of every denomination in this city. Ask you, Lord, to overwrite our boundaries that we've placed around you, overflow these borders. God, do the miraculous and do it so powerfully that as we sang today, we will dance in the streets of this city before you come. Father, I thank you with all my heart. I don't know how to do other than just deliver what you've given me. And now, Holy Spirit, you've got to make it real in every life, mine included. I can't do this unless you touch me. But thank you, Lord, that you are willing. Thank you in Jesus' name. If the Lord is leading you and what I spoke on today, you'd like this to be your portion. As a believer in Christ, I want to open this altar as we stand in a moment. In the annex, if you could step between the screens. The same thing in Roxbury as well. And for those at home, if you'll just get on your knees in your living room, and then we're going to pray together. God bless you. Let's stand, please, if we will. Hallelujah. Would you lift your hands with me, please? Lord, God Almighty, we ask you to glorify your name one more time in this city. Jesus, thank you for your kindness and your willingness, Lord, to receive us in our frailty, with all our struggles and our feebleness. But yet, for your holy namesake, Lord, you're willing to touch us one more time and give us the vision of heaven and a passion in our hearts that truly will represent you among men and women and children, O God, in our generation. Make us more than we are and give us more than we could ever hope to possess. Give us words, Lord, that will bring life and kindness, Lord, that will lead to you. Father, I thank you for this, O God. Help us, Lord, that we truly may represent you. We don't know what the future holds, but all we know, if you're in it, it will be glorious. And, God, we thank you for it. And we praise you for giving us sight, giving us vision and purpose and helping us to see people the way you see them. Thank you for your willingness to touch us again. Lord, we need a second touch. We're not too proud to say we need you to touch us again. We see men, but we don't see clearly. God, touch my eyes again, Lord. Oh, Jesus, Son of God, I'm not afraid to cry out. Touch me again, Lord. I want to receive my sight. I want to see, Lord, what you see. I want to walk where you'd have me to walk. I want to know what you'd give me to know. And I thank you, Lord, that with my brothers and sisters in this congregation and with other churches in the city, one day we will dance as David danced. One day we will shout like David shouted. For David lived to see the ark of God brought into Jerusalem again. He knew what he had done, had delighted your heart. And so, God, let us live to see the day where we know we've been a delight to your heart again, where many have been brought into the saving knowledge of Christ. Lord, do it sovereignly that no one could touch the glory, not even a fool would dare. Do it so sovereignly that all we can do is point to heaven and don't need to give the whole story, but we can just say, I used to be blind, but now I see. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, mighty God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We give glory to your name. We thank you for mercy. Thank you for your willingness, God. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for mercy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you for mercy. Thank you for mercy, Lord. Thank you for mercy. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Oh, God almighty. One more time. One more time for your glory. One more time for your name's sake, Lord. One more time. One more time. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. One more time. Might we be able to say behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. One more time, Lord. One more time in our generation. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Let's give a shout of glory to the Lord today. One more time. One more time. One more time. One more time, Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. One more time. Give him a shout of glory. Hallelujah.