February 15, 2025 • 26 mins
Today on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, you will discover the keys to turning from fear and raising your voice in faith. Mark has spoken a lot about this topic in his book Unstuck and he will share stories in this message that will help you come out of your cave and into your call.
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S1 (00:00):
Today on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Discover the
keys to turning from fear and raising your voice in faith.
S2 (00:08):
Even though I can't touch it, feel it, know it
right now I still believe. That's faith. We struggle with that,
don't we? But it's the key to so much in
our life. In fact, I believe it's the key for
us to have boldness to speak up in the spiritual realm.
S1 (00:36):
Welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Mark is
president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of
New Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, Mark,
you wrote a book titled unstuck. So obviously you've got
a lot to say on this topic, haven't you?
S2 (00:52):
I do, because there's been many times in my life
that I've gotten stuck.
S1 (00:56):
Saying, you know what it's.
S2 (00:57):
Like, and I know what it's like to get stuck
on the journey to somewhere, but you just get snagged up,
tied up, and you just stop right there.
S1 (01:07):
Kind of paralyzed.
S2 (01:08):
Yes, exactly. And that's what this story is all about.
A man that's on his way to a destination, but
gets stuck and can't seem to get going again until
he encounters the power of Jesus.
S1 (01:21):
We're going to hear the story now. Our message is
called speaking up starts right now.
S2 (01:27):
Uh, a couple of years ago, we had a major, major, massive, uh,
storm snowstorm here in Chicago, and it happened to fall
on a weekend, I believe it was the, uh, year
that Lakeshore Drive turned into a parking lot. People abandoned
their cars. It was snowed in. How many of you
remember that? How many of you had a hard time
getting out of your house because of shoveling? All right,
(01:48):
so it was a Sunday morning, I remember. And I
looked out the door and it had just snowed a lot.
And so I told my sons, grab a shovel. We're
going to shovel our way out of this. We got
about five feet into it. Half hour later. I mean,
snow was high and we said, we're never going to
get out of this. I happen to live on a
(02:09):
cul de sac. And so for some reason, they don't
shovel the cul de sac until last. They do the
streets first, and they had done the major streets first.
And so I thought, well, I have an idea. I
can't shovel my way out. And so I told my family,
get in the car, I'm going to like, I'm going
to rev it up and drive out of my driveway
(02:31):
as fast as I can. I'm going to slide across
the cul de sac and try to get as close
to the road as I can. So I rev it
up real high and then I said, okay, put it
in reverse. And I just flew out of the cul
de sac, kind of like turned around a little bit,
and I got stuck right in the middle of the
cul de sac. And so he got out the shovels.
(02:52):
We started to shovel. No way were we going to
be able to shovel our way to the to the road.
And I thought, I got to get to church. I mean,
we're stuck here. And so I decided I saw a
plow guy from the city plowing, and I made a
crucial decision. I decided to speak up. And so I
(03:14):
went over to the the plow guy, and and I
knocked on his window. He looked at me like a
guy that had been up all night shoveling a little tired,
a little cranky kind of discouraged me from speaking up,
but I said, I'm going to speak up anyways. He
rolled down his window. He said, yeah, what do you want?
I said, sir, I'm stuck. He's kind of like, yeah,
join the crowd. Everybody's stuck. I said, no, you don't understand.
(03:35):
I'm a pastor. I gotta get to church. There's a
congregation waiting for me, and I can't get my car
out of here. So I was wondering if you could
shovel my way to the main highway and I'll just
follow you. He looked at me and he said, sure.
And so he started shoveling, and I got right behind him,
(03:58):
and I followed all the way to the main highway,
where it was already clear, and I made my way
to church and showed up with the two other people
that were here. No, there was a lot of other
people here. Yeah, I made a crucial decision. I spoke up.
Here's the thing. There are some of you right now,
(04:19):
at this moment, that you're you're not stuck in a
driveway in snow, but you're stuck in life. You find
yourself on the way to your destiny and you've hit
a hiccup. You're stuck. You've gotten. You're unable to get out.
You've been there for a while. So some of you
have accepted. This is my destiny. I guess I'm just
(04:44):
slated to be stuck. I guess I can't make it
to what God has called me to. To do. To be.
I guess this is just the place that I'm at.
So I'm just going to sit here and wait while
everything else is going on, because I can't get beyond that.
And I believe that believe that God is telling some
of you today in a very clear and powerful way,
(05:06):
that in the spiritual realm, you need to speak up,
because there's something that happens when we raise our voice
in faith and say, God, I will not accept this
place of being stuck. I'm going to raise my voice
to the only one plow man that can get me
(05:26):
out of this place, and that's God Almighty through his
incredible power and might that can pull me out of
this place. So I want you to take your Bibles
and turn to mark chapter ten. We're going to be
looking at verses 46 through 52 of Mark chapter ten.
There's a story about a guy by the name of Bartimaeus.
(05:49):
Bartimaeus happened to be blind and he happened to be stuck. Now,
I believe that every story in Scripture is there for
a reason. This story happens to be repeated three times.
It's told in the gospel of Mark. It's told in
the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 20. And it's also
told in the Gospel of Luke three times. God felt
(06:11):
like this story was so important that three gospels repeat it.
Sometimes we see stories in Scripture, and we're not really
sure exactly why they're there and exactly what the message is.
But every story in Scripture has a, has a message,
has a meaning, has something that God is saying to us.
(06:32):
So as you read the story, I don't want you
to just read it like, oh, there's just a story
about a guy. No. Here's something that God is speaking
to us now, 2000 years later. There's a spiritual principle.
There's an insight. There's something about God or something about
you that you need to understand, because the Spirit of
God wants to speak to some people today, and I
(06:53):
believe it's about being stuck and being willing to speak up.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was on his way
to Jerusalem. He had passed by Jericho. Jericho is the
city where the walls fell hundreds of years before. As
(07:15):
they marched around seven times I've been to Jericho, or
the ruins of Jericho, which are in modern day Palestine
right now, and it's amazing to think that this occurred
so many years ago. Walls fell down so people knew
that it was a place of miraculous history. But how
(07:36):
many of you know that sometimes what happened in the
past feels like it's a long ways away, and we
live in the present. Hello. Sometimes it's like that in
your own personal journey. You can remember times where God moved.
You can remember times where God showed up in supernatural ways.
But you're in a different stage of life now, and
(07:57):
it feels like some of the things that God did
a long time ago Feel like they're a long, long
time ago. And we need a fresh touch, a fresh
move from God. Now Bartimaeus is on the other side
of Jericho as Jesus is leaving Jericho, walking through Jericho
on his way to Jerusalem. In a day or two,
(08:18):
they would be saying, Hosanna, Hosanna! Throwing palms before him,
throwing their coats before Jesus who was really on his
way to the cross. And then of course, a couple
days later there Hosanna, Hosanna would change to crucify, crucify!
So Jesus knew where he was going, but in the
(08:39):
process he encounters a man that's blind Bartimaeus. And I
want to pick up in verse 46 and just kind
of read you the story. In Mark chapter ten it says,
Then Jesus came to Jericho as Jesus and his disciples,
together with a large crowd, were leaving the city. A
blind man Bartimaeus, which means son of Timaeus, was sitting
(09:05):
along the roadside begging. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to shout, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy
on me. Many rebuked him and told him, be quiet!
But he shouted all the more. Son of David, have
(09:27):
mercy on me! If you're taking notes, I want you
to write this down. Speak up. Be bold. Don't let
people dampen your intensity. This blind man by the name
of Bartimaeus. It's interesting. We learn a lot from his story.
(09:50):
It doesn't tell us if he became blind later on
in life or if he was blind from birth. But
in the Jewish culture, people would name their name their children,
not by looking at a a book of names and
trying to choose the most popular, but they would name
their children with names that had significance to who they
(10:14):
thought they were going to be to their destiny. And
so the name Bartimaeus actually means. Bart means son of,
and Timaeus means valuable or highly prized. So his parents
had named him when he was born, maybe not even
aware that he was blind. Or maybe he became blind
(10:35):
later on in life. But when he was born, they
named him hey, son of high value. Like this kid's
got a destiny. Look at that jaw. Look at how
he kicks. Man, what a beautiful baby boy. We're going
to call him. This kid has a destiny. This kid
is going to do something. This kid has value. Oh, yeah.
(10:56):
We're so glad he was born. He's going to do
some great things with his with his life. We're going
to call him son of value. Son of destiny. Everybody's
coming over at the birth. High fiving. Giving them a
just a celebrating. Finally, a boy was born. Believing a
lot for this boy. But then it happened. They discovered
(11:18):
that this boy or this boy became blind. And you
live in a culture where there is no social security.
Where there's no school for the blind, where there's no Braille,
there's no computer programming that reads off your emails for you.
There's no instructions, no beeping lights. We live in a
culture that a blind person was the only destiny for
(11:42):
their life was to beg. The only way that they
could live was off of the mercy and compassion of
other people. And so, because of his disability, his lot
in life was to wait on the other side of
the road, In the dirt, waiting for the compassion of
(12:03):
people to throw them up a couple of pennies. So
the boy that was called son of Destiny, son of
high value, is a beggar. He's a street person. He's
barely able to eke out of life. He can't see.
He can't work, he can't marry. He can't have kids,
can't provide for them. And so everything that his parents
(12:25):
dream that he would be everything that they anticipated could
happen with his life. This son of high value now
becomes a destitute beggar. As some of you may feel
that way.
S1 (12:44):
You're listening to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, and
he'll continue our lesson in just a moment. Just a
reminder if you'd like to hear this message again, or
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(13:04):
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And to learn more, just visit Bold Steps. Now let's
(13:24):
get back into this riveting story with the blind beggar
Bartimaeus and his encounter with Jesus on the road to Jericho.
Once again, here's Mark Joe.
S2 (13:36):
I think we can all relate to how life has
curves and turns that are unexpected, that catch us by surprise,
that leave us numb, that wonder why me? I didn't
expect this to happen. I didn't map this out. I
wouldn't have put this in my year book. But I
(13:56):
what I love about this story is what happens when
Jesus passes by. You see, it's interesting that this man
that was beside the road. He hears that Jesus is
passing by. And I want you to notice this. Bartimaeus
(14:18):
speaks up. What causes someone to speak up? What causes
us to shut down and not speak up? I think
sometimes it's every time that you struggle with speaking up.
How many of you have felt like I have to
have this conversation? But you keep postponing a tough conversation.
How many of you know the feeling of like, I
(14:39):
got to do it, I got to do it, I
got to do it. And you start the conversation and
you start to go there and you say, I'm going
to leave it till later. Some of you have pending
conversations for about three years now. I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it.
And then you don't do it because sometimes it's hard. Fear.
What are people going to say? I don't want to
want to embarrass myself. What if they say no? What
(15:02):
if I make a fool of myself? So sometimes when
we're supposed to speak up, we don't speak up. We
get quieted down. And so Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of
Nazareth was passing through town. I want to tell you
give you an insight here. Write this down somewhere. I
believe that sometimes there's a nugget of faith that God
(15:24):
puts in our heart, and the presence of Jesus activates
our faith. Everything good that ever comes to us only
comes via faith. Faith connects the natural to the supernatural.
Faith is the divine highway by which everything divine comes
to earth. Nothing good comes to us except it's via faith.
(15:47):
Salvation comes through faith. Without faith, you cannot come to God.
Without faith, you cannot experience the grace of God. Salvation.
Without faith, you cannot experience the miraculous touch of God
upon your life without faith. Nothing. It is God's delivery
system via faith. Yeah, it's God's delivery system, but it's
(16:13):
so hard for us that operate in the natural mind
because we want to see it, touch it, know it,
feel it. And God says no. Hebrews defines faith as
the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things
not seen. In other words, faith is that which you say,
I believe that God is. And I believe that God
(16:34):
rewards those that diligently seek him. I believe God's promises
even though I can't touch it, feel it, know it.
Right now, I still believe. That's faith. We struggle with that,
don't we? It's hard for us, the intangible. But it's
(16:56):
the key to so much in our life. In fact,
I believe it's the key for us to have boldness
to speak up in the spiritual realm. And I want
you to notice that Bartimaeus doesn't just call after Jesus.
He doesn't say, Jesus of Nazareth. He says, I want
you to notice specifically that when he finds out that
(17:17):
Jesus is walking by, he begins to shout out, Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me! Now there's something
significant about that phrase that he uses. Son of David,
because it indicates that Bartimaeus already believed that Jesus was
(17:39):
the Messiah. The Jewish people use the word Son of
David to refer to the Savior, to the Messiah. Why?
Who was David? King David. King David lived hundreds of
years before Jesus was even born. But God had said
to David, I will give you an everlasting kingdom, referring
(18:03):
to the fact that the Messiah would be born through
the lineage of Jesus, and so Mary and Joseph could
trace their lineage back to back to David. So all
the Jewish people knew that the Son of David meant
the Messiah, the Savior. That's why, for example, if you
read the book of Luke, there's a genealogy there. The
(18:26):
genealogy means so and so had this son, and these
people had that son, and so and so had this
son that begat that son that begat that son begat that.
Have you ever read one of those genealogies? I never
have anyone. Tell me. I was reading a genealogy in
my devotion. I got so much out of it. Come on,
be honest. How many of you skipped the genealogy? You go, okay,
(18:49):
blah blah blah blah. Let's get to the real stuff.
You skipped the genealogy, but the genealogy is there for
a reason. The genealogy is telling you. It's pointing back
to the To the heritage, to the destiny, to the
lineage of King David. Bartimaeus had understood that Jesus was
not just a healer. He had understood that Jesus was
(19:13):
not just a good teacher, a man. He understood that
Jesus was actually the Savior, the waiting Messiah. And here's
what I want you to see about what happens in
this story. You see, I ask myself, where did where
did Bartimaeus faith come from? See, I believe part of
(19:36):
the problem is that God is building faith in some
of us, but some of us struggle with faith. How
about it? Between faith and doubt? The Bible tells us
that in Romans chapter ten, verse 17 it says. Consequently,
faith comes through hearing the message And the message is
(20:00):
heard through the Word of Christ. Where does faith come from?
Faith comes through hearing. What did Bartimaeus lost his sight?
But what did he still have? His hearing? Now, it
wasn't in a Bible study that he learned. But what
(20:23):
Bartimaeus began to hear is he began to hear rumors
of Jesus. There's a man. He puts his hand on
the lame and they walk. There's rumors that he's raised
the dead. He's like no other. Some people say he
walks on water. Others people say that when he was baptized,
(20:44):
a dove came down and a voice from heaven. Hey,
we've even heard that he touches the eyes of the
blind and they see again. Oh, really? You see, Bartimaeus
was hearing stories of a healer, Of a miracle worker.
He was depositing a seed of faith inside of him.
(21:06):
He was starting to believe. Yeah. He is the Messiah.
S1 (21:16):
Next weekend we'll hear the exciting conclusion of Bartimaeus story.
So please join us again right here. This is Bold
Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. And if you'd like to
revisit today's encouraging message or share these biblical insights with
someone you know, you can find all of our resources
at Bold Steps. Well, Mark, we have the authors with
us of Building Love Together in Blended Families, Gary Chapman
(21:39):
and Ron Diehl. So let's talk with these men.
S2 (21:41):
So, Ron, you have a powerful metaphor in building love
together in blended families where you say that blended family
couples swim in a different ocean than first marriage couples.
Can you explain what you mean by that?
S3 (21:56):
Yeah. There's a few more sharks in the blended family. water,
and they come out of nowhere. And it's the form
of a co-parent in the other household where your children
are moving back and forth between. Or it has to
do with pain of the past that is getting in
the way of the bonding of the present. That's another
thing about the ocean the waters are cooler. It's harder
(22:16):
to warm up in these waters. Take, for example, a child.
Just because a stepparent knows that a ten year old's
love language is physical, touch does not mean that the
stepparent on day one can hug that child the same
way that the biological parent can. Mhm. So you it's
a cooler temperature in that relationship than it is with
(22:36):
the biological parent. So the stepparent has to move in gently.
They have to figure out the physical touch that the
child can receive or respect. So we say pace with
the child. So maybe it's a fist bump. That might
be the physical touch that the stepparent can accomplish on
day one. We hope and pray over time that because
of their gentleness, that eventually the eventually the child will
(22:59):
warm up even more and the waters will warm up
and they'll be able to swim even more closely to
one another. But in the beginning you got to just
pace with the child.
S2 (23:08):
Mhm. That's so good and so true. So true.
S4 (23:12):
Well you know, I think that's one of the things
that I really discovered as we were doing the research
on all of this is the fact that, you know,
you do have to incrementally speak those love languages. So
fist bump, you know, then the pat on the back and,
and eventually you get around to the hug. But you've
got to build that emotional bond that was not there
from day one. You know, when you became the step parent,
(23:34):
they became the step child.
S2 (23:36):
I just talked with a blended family this past week,
and they were working through some of the very dynamics
that you're speaking about right now. So thank you so much.
S1 (23:44):
And we'll be happy to send you a copy of
this bold step gift today. When you give a gift
of any amount to support bold steps. Just give us
a call at 800 or give online at Bold Steps.
You can also send your gift and request building love
together in blended families by writing to us in the mail.
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(24:09):
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(24:53):
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(25:15):
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(25:37):
exciting conclusion of Mark's message. Speaking up. Learn how to
shut down the voice of fears and speak up boldly
for the things of God. It's coming up next time
on Bold Steps weekend with Mark Jones. Bold steps is
a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
Today on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Discover the
keys to turning from fear and raising your voice in faith.
S2 (00:08):
Even though I can't touch it, feel it, know it
right now I still believe. That's faith. We struggle with that,
don't we? But it's the key to so much in
our life. In fact, I believe it's the key for
us to have boldness to speak up in the spiritual realm.
S1 (00:36):
Welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Mark is
president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of
New Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, Mark,
you wrote a book titled unstuck. So obviously you've got
a lot to say on this topic, haven't you?
S2 (00:52):
I do, because there's been many times in my life
that I've gotten stuck.
S1 (00:56):
Saying, you know what it's.
S2 (00:57):
Like, and I know what it's like to get stuck
on the journey to somewhere, but you just get snagged up,
tied up, and you just stop right there.
S1 (01:07):
Kind of paralyzed.
S2 (01:08):
Yes, exactly. And that's what this story is all about.
A man that's on his way to a destination, but
gets stuck and can't seem to get going again until
he encounters the power of Jesus.
S1 (01:21):
We're going to hear the story now. Our message is
called speaking up starts right now.
S2 (01:27):
Uh, a couple of years ago, we had a major, major, massive, uh,
storm snowstorm here in Chicago, and it happened to fall
on a weekend, I believe it was the, uh, year
that Lakeshore Drive turned into a parking lot. People abandoned
their cars. It was snowed in. How many of you
remember that? How many of you had a hard time
getting out of your house because of shoveling? All right,
(01:48):
so it was a Sunday morning, I remember. And I
looked out the door and it had just snowed a lot.
And so I told my sons, grab a shovel. We're
going to shovel our way out of this. We got
about five feet into it. Half hour later. I mean,
snow was high and we said, we're never going to
get out of this. I happen to live on a
(02:09):
cul de sac. And so for some reason, they don't
shovel the cul de sac until last. They do the
streets first, and they had done the major streets first.
And so I thought, well, I have an idea. I
can't shovel my way out. And so I told my family,
get in the car, I'm going to like, I'm going
to rev it up and drive out of my driveway
(02:31):
as fast as I can. I'm going to slide across
the cul de sac and try to get as close
to the road as I can. So I rev it
up real high and then I said, okay, put it
in reverse. And I just flew out of the cul
de sac, kind of like turned around a little bit,
and I got stuck right in the middle of the
cul de sac. And so he got out the shovels.
(02:52):
We started to shovel. No way were we going to
be able to shovel our way to the to the road.
And I thought, I got to get to church. I mean,
we're stuck here. And so I decided I saw a
plow guy from the city plowing, and I made a
crucial decision. I decided to speak up. And so I
(03:14):
went over to the the plow guy, and and I
knocked on his window. He looked at me like a
guy that had been up all night shoveling a little tired,
a little cranky kind of discouraged me from speaking up,
but I said, I'm going to speak up anyways. He
rolled down his window. He said, yeah, what do you want?
I said, sir, I'm stuck. He's kind of like, yeah,
join the crowd. Everybody's stuck. I said, no, you don't understand.
(03:35):
I'm a pastor. I gotta get to church. There's a
congregation waiting for me, and I can't get my car
out of here. So I was wondering if you could
shovel my way to the main highway and I'll just
follow you. He looked at me and he said, sure.
And so he started shoveling, and I got right behind him,
(03:58):
and I followed all the way to the main highway,
where it was already clear, and I made my way
to church and showed up with the two other people
that were here. No, there was a lot of other
people here. Yeah, I made a crucial decision. I spoke up.
Here's the thing. There are some of you right now,
(04:19):
at this moment, that you're you're not stuck in a
driveway in snow, but you're stuck in life. You find
yourself on the way to your destiny and you've hit
a hiccup. You're stuck. You've gotten. You're unable to get out.
You've been there for a while. So some of you
have accepted. This is my destiny. I guess I'm just
(04:44):
slated to be stuck. I guess I can't make it
to what God has called me to. To do. To be.
I guess this is just the place that I'm at.
So I'm just going to sit here and wait while
everything else is going on, because I can't get beyond that.
And I believe that believe that God is telling some
of you today in a very clear and powerful way,
(05:06):
that in the spiritual realm, you need to speak up,
because there's something that happens when we raise our voice
in faith and say, God, I will not accept this
place of being stuck. I'm going to raise my voice
to the only one plow man that can get me
(05:26):
out of this place, and that's God Almighty through his
incredible power and might that can pull me out of
this place. So I want you to take your Bibles
and turn to mark chapter ten. We're going to be
looking at verses 46 through 52 of Mark chapter ten.
There's a story about a guy by the name of Bartimaeus.
(05:49):
Bartimaeus happened to be blind and he happened to be stuck. Now,
I believe that every story in Scripture is there for
a reason. This story happens to be repeated three times.
It's told in the gospel of Mark. It's told in
the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 20. And it's also
told in the Gospel of Luke three times. God felt
(06:11):
like this story was so important that three gospels repeat it.
Sometimes we see stories in Scripture, and we're not really
sure exactly why they're there and exactly what the message is.
But every story in Scripture has a, has a message,
has a meaning, has something that God is saying to us.
(06:32):
So as you read the story, I don't want you
to just read it like, oh, there's just a story
about a guy. No. Here's something that God is speaking
to us now, 2000 years later. There's a spiritual principle.
There's an insight. There's something about God or something about
you that you need to understand, because the Spirit of
God wants to speak to some people today, and I
(06:53):
believe it's about being stuck and being willing to speak up.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was on his way
to Jerusalem. He had passed by Jericho. Jericho is the
city where the walls fell hundreds of years before. As
(07:15):
they marched around seven times I've been to Jericho, or
the ruins of Jericho, which are in modern day Palestine
right now, and it's amazing to think that this occurred
so many years ago. Walls fell down so people knew
that it was a place of miraculous history. But how
(07:36):
many of you know that sometimes what happened in the
past feels like it's a long ways away, and we
live in the present. Hello. Sometimes it's like that in
your own personal journey. You can remember times where God moved.
You can remember times where God showed up in supernatural ways.
But you're in a different stage of life now, and
(07:57):
it feels like some of the things that God did
a long time ago Feel like they're a long, long
time ago. And we need a fresh touch, a fresh
move from God. Now Bartimaeus is on the other side
of Jericho as Jesus is leaving Jericho, walking through Jericho
on his way to Jerusalem. In a day or two,
(08:18):
they would be saying, Hosanna, Hosanna! Throwing palms before him,
throwing their coats before Jesus who was really on his
way to the cross. And then of course, a couple
days later there Hosanna, Hosanna would change to crucify, crucify!
So Jesus knew where he was going, but in the
(08:39):
process he encounters a man that's blind Bartimaeus. And I
want to pick up in verse 46 and just kind
of read you the story. In Mark chapter ten it says,
Then Jesus came to Jericho as Jesus and his disciples,
together with a large crowd, were leaving the city. A
blind man Bartimaeus, which means son of Timaeus, was sitting
(09:05):
along the roadside begging. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to shout, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy
on me. Many rebuked him and told him, be quiet!
But he shouted all the more. Son of David, have
(09:27):
mercy on me! If you're taking notes, I want you
to write this down. Speak up. Be bold. Don't let
people dampen your intensity. This blind man by the name
of Bartimaeus. It's interesting. We learn a lot from his story.
(09:50):
It doesn't tell us if he became blind later on
in life or if he was blind from birth. But
in the Jewish culture, people would name their name their children,
not by looking at a a book of names and
trying to choose the most popular, but they would name
their children with names that had significance to who they
(10:14):
thought they were going to be to their destiny. And
so the name Bartimaeus actually means. Bart means son of,
and Timaeus means valuable or highly prized. So his parents
had named him when he was born, maybe not even
aware that he was blind. Or maybe he became blind
(10:35):
later on in life. But when he was born, they
named him hey, son of high value. Like this kid's
got a destiny. Look at that jaw. Look at how
he kicks. Man, what a beautiful baby boy. We're going
to call him. This kid has a destiny. This kid
is going to do something. This kid has value. Oh, yeah.
(10:56):
We're so glad he was born. He's going to do
some great things with his with his life. We're going
to call him son of value. Son of destiny. Everybody's
coming over at the birth. High fiving. Giving them a
just a celebrating. Finally, a boy was born. Believing a
lot for this boy. But then it happened. They discovered
(11:18):
that this boy or this boy became blind. And you
live in a culture where there is no social security.
Where there's no school for the blind, where there's no Braille,
there's no computer programming that reads off your emails for you.
There's no instructions, no beeping lights. We live in a
culture that a blind person was the only destiny for
(11:42):
their life was to beg. The only way that they
could live was off of the mercy and compassion of
other people. And so, because of his disability, his lot
in life was to wait on the other side of
the road, In the dirt, waiting for the compassion of
(12:03):
people to throw them up a couple of pennies. So
the boy that was called son of Destiny, son of
high value, is a beggar. He's a street person. He's
barely able to eke out of life. He can't see.
He can't work, he can't marry. He can't have kids,
can't provide for them. And so everything that his parents
(12:25):
dream that he would be everything that they anticipated could
happen with his life. This son of high value now
becomes a destitute beggar. As some of you may feel
that way.
S1 (12:44):
You're listening to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, and
he'll continue our lesson in just a moment. Just a
reminder if you'd like to hear this message again, or
if you'd like to send a link with today's program
to someone who might need to hear this message, you
can do that online at And if you haven't already,
be sure to subscribe to the Bold Steps minute. A
(13:04):
special one minute feature that you can hear anytime, no
matter what your schedule looks like. Add this convenient 62nd
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time of the day. Again, that's the bold steps minute.
And to learn more, just visit Bold Steps. Now let's
(13:24):
get back into this riveting story with the blind beggar
Bartimaeus and his encounter with Jesus on the road to Jericho.
Once again, here's Mark Joe.
S2 (13:36):
I think we can all relate to how life has
curves and turns that are unexpected, that catch us by surprise,
that leave us numb, that wonder why me? I didn't
expect this to happen. I didn't map this out. I
wouldn't have put this in my year book. But I
(13:56):
what I love about this story is what happens when
Jesus passes by. You see, it's interesting that this man
that was beside the road. He hears that Jesus is
passing by. And I want you to notice this. Bartimaeus
(14:18):
speaks up. What causes someone to speak up? What causes
us to shut down and not speak up? I think
sometimes it's every time that you struggle with speaking up.
How many of you have felt like I have to
have this conversation? But you keep postponing a tough conversation.
How many of you know the feeling of like, I
(14:39):
got to do it, I got to do it, I
got to do it. And you start the conversation and
you start to go there and you say, I'm going
to leave it till later. Some of you have pending
conversations for about three years now. I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it.
And then you don't do it because sometimes it's hard. Fear.
What are people going to say? I don't want to
want to embarrass myself. What if they say no? What
(15:02):
if I make a fool of myself? So sometimes when
we're supposed to speak up, we don't speak up. We
get quieted down. And so Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of
Nazareth was passing through town. I want to tell you
give you an insight here. Write this down somewhere. I
believe that sometimes there's a nugget of faith that God
(15:24):
puts in our heart, and the presence of Jesus activates
our faith. Everything good that ever comes to us only
comes via faith. Faith connects the natural to the supernatural.
Faith is the divine highway by which everything divine comes
to earth. Nothing good comes to us except it's via faith.
(15:47):
Salvation comes through faith. Without faith, you cannot come to God.
Without faith, you cannot experience the grace of God. Salvation.
Without faith, you cannot experience the miraculous touch of God
upon your life without faith. Nothing. It is God's delivery
system via faith. Yeah, it's God's delivery system, but it's
(16:13):
so hard for us that operate in the natural mind
because we want to see it, touch it, know it,
feel it. And God says no. Hebrews defines faith as
the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things
not seen. In other words, faith is that which you say,
I believe that God is. And I believe that God
(16:34):
rewards those that diligently seek him. I believe God's promises
even though I can't touch it, feel it, know it.
Right now, I still believe. That's faith. We struggle with that,
don't we? It's hard for us, the intangible. But it's
(16:56):
the key to so much in our life. In fact,
I believe it's the key for us to have boldness
to speak up in the spiritual realm. And I want
you to notice that Bartimaeus doesn't just call after Jesus.
He doesn't say, Jesus of Nazareth. He says, I want
you to notice specifically that when he finds out that
(17:17):
Jesus is walking by, he begins to shout out, Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me! Now there's something
significant about that phrase that he uses. Son of David,
because it indicates that Bartimaeus already believed that Jesus was
(17:39):
the Messiah. The Jewish people use the word Son of
David to refer to the Savior, to the Messiah. Why?
Who was David? King David. King David lived hundreds of
years before Jesus was even born. But God had said
to David, I will give you an everlasting kingdom, referring
(18:03):
to the fact that the Messiah would be born through
the lineage of Jesus, and so Mary and Joseph could
trace their lineage back to back to David. So all
the Jewish people knew that the Son of David meant
the Messiah, the Savior. That's why, for example, if you
read the book of Luke, there's a genealogy there. The
(18:26):
genealogy means so and so had this son, and these
people had that son, and so and so had this
son that begat that son that begat that son begat that.
Have you ever read one of those genealogies? I never
have anyone. Tell me. I was reading a genealogy in
my devotion. I got so much out of it. Come on,
be honest. How many of you skipped the genealogy? You go, okay,
(18:49):
blah blah blah blah. Let's get to the real stuff.
You skipped the genealogy, but the genealogy is there for
a reason. The genealogy is telling you. It's pointing back
to the To the heritage, to the destiny, to the
lineage of King David. Bartimaeus had understood that Jesus was
not just a healer. He had understood that Jesus was
(19:13):
not just a good teacher, a man. He understood that
Jesus was actually the Savior, the waiting Messiah. And here's
what I want you to see about what happens in
this story. You see, I ask myself, where did where
did Bartimaeus faith come from? See, I believe part of
(19:36):
the problem is that God is building faith in some
of us, but some of us struggle with faith. How
about it? Between faith and doubt? The Bible tells us
that in Romans chapter ten, verse 17 it says. Consequently,
faith comes through hearing the message And the message is
(20:00):
heard through the Word of Christ. Where does faith come from?
Faith comes through hearing. What did Bartimaeus lost his sight?
But what did he still have? His hearing? Now, it
wasn't in a Bible study that he learned. But what
(20:23):
Bartimaeus began to hear is he began to hear rumors
of Jesus. There's a man. He puts his hand on
the lame and they walk. There's rumors that he's raised
the dead. He's like no other. Some people say he
walks on water. Others people say that when he was baptized,
(20:44):
a dove came down and a voice from heaven. Hey,
we've even heard that he touches the eyes of the
blind and they see again. Oh, really? You see, Bartimaeus
was hearing stories of a healer, Of a miracle worker.
He was depositing a seed of faith inside of him.
(21:06):
He was starting to believe. Yeah. He is the Messiah.
S1 (21:16):
Next weekend we'll hear the exciting conclusion of Bartimaeus story.
So please join us again right here. This is Bold
Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. And if you'd like to
revisit today's encouraging message or share these biblical insights with
someone you know, you can find all of our resources
at Bold Steps. Well, Mark, we have the authors with
us of Building Love Together in Blended Families, Gary Chapman
(21:39):
and Ron Diehl. So let's talk with these men.
S2 (21:41):
So, Ron, you have a powerful metaphor in building love
together in blended families where you say that blended family
couples swim in a different ocean than first marriage couples.
Can you explain what you mean by that?
S3 (21:56):
Yeah. There's a few more sharks in the blended family. water,
and they come out of nowhere. And it's the form
of a co-parent in the other household where your children
are moving back and forth between. Or it has to
do with pain of the past that is getting in
the way of the bonding of the present. That's another
thing about the ocean the waters are cooler. It's harder
(22:16):
to warm up in these waters. Take, for example, a child.
Just because a stepparent knows that a ten year old's
love language is physical, touch does not mean that the
stepparent on day one can hug that child the same
way that the biological parent can. Mhm. So you it's
a cooler temperature in that relationship than it is with
(22:36):
the biological parent. So the stepparent has to move in gently.
They have to figure out the physical touch that the
child can receive or respect. So we say pace with
the child. So maybe it's a fist bump. That might
be the physical touch that the stepparent can accomplish on
day one. We hope and pray over time that because
of their gentleness, that eventually the eventually the child will
(22:59):
warm up even more and the waters will warm up
and they'll be able to swim even more closely to
one another. But in the beginning you got to just
pace with the child.
S2 (23:08):
Mhm. That's so good and so true. So true.
S4 (23:12):
Well you know, I think that's one of the things
that I really discovered as we were doing the research
on all of this is the fact that, you know,
you do have to incrementally speak those love languages. So
fist bump, you know, then the pat on the back and,
and eventually you get around to the hug. But you've
got to build that emotional bond that was not there
from day one. You know, when you became the step parent,
(23:34):
they became the step child.
S2 (23:36):
I just talked with a blended family this past week,
and they were working through some of the very dynamics
that you're speaking about right now. So thank you so much.
S1 (23:44):
And we'll be happy to send you a copy of
this bold step gift today. When you give a gift
of any amount to support bold steps. Just give us
a call at 800 or give online at Bold Steps.
You can also send your gift and request building love
together in blended families by writing to us in the mail.
Simply address your letter to Bold Steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago,
(24:09):
Illinois 606 ten. And here at the start of the year,
we just want to say how thankful we are for
the incredible men and women who make this program possible.
They're known as our bold partners, and through their faithful
monthly donations, they help keep these Bible teachings on the
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if you've come to value the bold, Bible based teaching
(24:30):
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It's easy to sign up online, and when your gift
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(24:53):
sign up today to become a bold partner by going
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800 D.L. Moody. That's (800)Â 356-6639. Now, before we go, we
also want to invite you to join us throughout the
week on our daily Bold SIPs program. Hear Mark's insightful
teaching all week long on your way to work or
(25:15):
at home by listening to bold steps on your local station.
You can also hear it online, of course, by going
to Bold Steps org or by subscribing to the Bold
Steps podcast. Simply open up your preferred podcast app. Search
for bold steps with doctor Mark Jobe and hit that
subscribe button. I'm Wayne Shepherd, that's all the time we
have today, but join us again next weekend for the
(25:37):
exciting conclusion of Mark's message. Speaking up. Learn how to
shut down the voice of fears and speak up boldly
for the things of God. It's coming up next time
on Bold Steps weekend with Mark Jones. Bold steps is
a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
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