I invite you to turn to the Gospel of Mark this morning, chapter 8, as we return to our study in the Gospel of Mark after a few weeks, and I've decided to take a larger section this morning. We'll look at the first 26 verses of Mark, chapter 8. New Testament, Matthew, Mark, second book, chapter 8. This is the word of the Lord, beginning Mark, chapter 8, verse 1. In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away. And his disciples answered him, How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? And he asked them, How many loaves do you have? They said, Seven. he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people and they set them before the crowd and they had a few small fish and having blessed them he said that there also should be he said that these also should be set before them and they ate and were satisfied and they took up the broken pieces left over seven baskets full and there were about four thousand people and he sent them away and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went into the district of dalmanutha the disciples came and began to argue with him seeking the pharisees excuse me came and began to argue with him seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him and he sighed deeply in his spirit and said why does this generation seek a sign truly i say to you no sign will be given to this generation and he left them got into the boat again and went to the other side now they had forgotten to bring bread and they only had one loaf with them in the boat and he cautioned them saying watch out beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? They said to him, 12. And the seven of the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, seven. And he said to them, do you not yet understand? And they came to Bethsaida and some brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored and he saw everything clearly and he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. May the Lord bless this morning a hearing of his word well this is an extremely important section of the bible because jesus when we look at the big picture of what he is doing he is training his disciples to take his gospel message to the ends of the earth and what we've been noticing in this section of mark what we have here in front of us again today this is why i wanted you to see the big picture of this is that he is walking them through now their own problem. I said that last time in the sermon that the most effective workers of the Lord and servants of the Lord are able to preach to themselves. They are able to understand what their own problem is and they have having been received grace are able now to help others with great compassion and understanding. And essentially in Mark chapter 8, he is showing them and teaching them what major obstacles they are going to face that will stand in the way to being the success of the gospel to the ends of the earth. Those obstacles that will be a hindrance to that, that they are going to have to be aware of and that they are going to have to understand. One of the ways that he is walking them through this problem is for them to experience themselves what has been the problem of Israel. This is really important that we understand this because there has been a lingering problem that we have seen with Israel. What was the problem? Well, I was reading through some Old Testament passages and one was made known and stood out to me from Ezekiel chapter 12. When Ezekiel was speaking years previous to this and he made a sweeping indictment against Israel that I thought, wow, that is really big for Mark chapter 7 and 8 and what Jesus is doing here. Here was the sweeping indictment of Ezekiel 12. Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house which has eyes to see but does not see and ears to hear, me, ears to hear but does not hear. How many times are we going to come across this to get the point, right? It's all over the place. The only way salvation would then be possible was that the Lord would come down and he would have to remedy this problem himself. And that's exactly what Ezekiel prophesied. That's exactly what Ezekiel promised to the people, that in the midst of such deafness, in the midst of such blindness, that God Himself would come, and He would come down and put a new spirit within people. And He would take out that very hard, stony heart, and He would give a heart of flesh so that people could see and hear and believe. That was the promise. The problem that we're studying in Mark is that Israel has been deaf, and Israel has been blind to Jesus. And everything they have been doing has been in radical opposition to his ministry of the Word and Gospel. Well, following now what's happened, the disciples have been sharing in the same problem. And so where we have been since that incident in chapter 7 is Jesus takes his disciples and he departs, remember, to Gentile territory. He has been on, we don't know much about everything that he did in this period of his earthly ministry, but we know that he took them deep in the Gentile territory into what I have called dog country. Remember? Syrophoenician woman who admitted she was a dog. He's deep in dog country. And this is an intense time of training his disciples. Intense time. They have been deaf. They have been blind. It's remarkable, isn't it? The disciples, this whole time. And Jesus is now about, which he's been doing since that incident in chapter 7, he is now about to train them in the message of divine grace and his power to open up eyes and unstop ears so that they would hear and see that tongues would then be loosed to go out and take his gospel to the ends of the earth. They needed that. Now, if the disciples needed that and could walk with Jesus for an amount of time and be blinded and deaf, is it not possible that we could have many people here today who've been attending church for a long time and are blind and who are deaf? Of course. I want you to think about whether that's you. And I want you to think about what Jesus must do for you. And I want you today to bow the knee and ask him if he's willing to unstop your ears and take away the blindness of your eyes. This is a big moment in Mark's Gospel. Last time, we looked at this deaf man who was healed. Remember this? A deaf man was brought to him. Jesus takes the deaf man, pulls him aside, and remember what he does. Remember the imagery of this. Deaf man can't hear anything. In front of his disciples, he goes right into the ears. and then he spits on his hand, and he touches his tongue, and then he looks up and goes, deep sigh, right in front of the disciples. It's a pretty powerful sermon illustration, isn't it? It's a powerful sermon illustration of their problem. It was a spiritual kind of sign language saying to this man, I see your problem, and I'm going to deal with it. and then he unstopped this man's ears and remember the result of that in the last sermon that all of a sudden the tongues were loosed and we know this about the death it affects speech all of a sudden the tongue was loosed and they're proclaiming everywhere which should have been the disciples by now proclaiming everywhere and they were getting now a foretaste of not only their future ministry but what they needed because you know your tongues will remain all stopped up until this happens and you'll never tell anyone about jesus now ears to hear before the tongue is loose to proclaim it's true of the church of jesus christ the church as a whole has a certain order here you have to have ears to hear first before you're going to do anything in the ministry you got to be unstopped you got to hear and there are a lot of hearing impediments that we're finding in the gospels but that had led in dog country ironically to the fulfillment of isaiah 35 where jesus was here in lebanon and isaiah 35 had said in lebanon he would unstop the years so that the lebanon people would then go out and proclaim the gospel isaiah 35 was being fulfilled right in front of their eyes we looked at this last time well now we have another sort of series of events and these two events the symmetry here which is absolutely beautiful now we have the healing of a deaf man so eyes and ears together the healing of a blind man and the healing i'm sorry today the healing of a blind man you have the deaf and now the blind and what does that lead to which i didn't read in the next section of mark the greatest moment in the gospels of the confession you are the christ finally finally we got there now jesus in these miracles is doing something that's somewhat puzzling to us he's communicating in his actions that this was a hard thing to do. Now, it wasn't hard for Jesus. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying, He wanted us to understand this took a lot of work and was a slow process. Which is really encouraging, by the way. You'll see. But it seemed to be that nothing happened quickly when it came to eyes and ears. And Jesus had now to make this very clear because now this concludes this section we've been studying that began last time with the healing of the deaf man. That concluded the section that began with the feeding of the 5,000. Today, everything's repeated again. This is deja vu. That's why I took the big section and big picture on this. It's a fascinating thing because now Mark is repeating the story. It starts with the feeding of the 4,000 and now ends with the healing of a blind man. There's two major sections here. So this is round two today. Will they get it? Will they get it? A feeding, a confrontation with the Pharisees, and a challenge that leads finally to you are the Christ. We believe. That's where we are. In verse 1 of chapter 8, we open up chapter 8 and we read that in those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, they had nothing to eat. And he called his disciples to them and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and they have nothing to eat. First feeding was in Israel. Second feeding is in dog country, Gentile country. Think about the training that's going on here for the future. He's opening up to the Gentiles. The Syrophoenician woman had said, it's not right, I understand to take what's holy and give to the dogs. I know what I am, I don't argue. And Jesus says, you're right, great is your faith. I open it to you. The same word now for the Gentiles is welled up with compassion in him, a deep word that he is so full of compassion and overtaken with compassion, this is what's being communicated, that in deep concern for them, he's now concerned to feed them. It really is a loaded sort of test. Again, for the disciples, I am really concerned about this multitude, dear disciples. I'm really concerned about it, that they're going to faint on the way. They've come from really far. I'm so concerned. What should we do? What should we do? This is the sense of it. Now, the first feeding, remember, when Jesus had fed the five early on, 5,000, the disciples were concerned that the multitude had nothing to eat. Remember what they said? They had come to Jesus and said, listen, the multitude's been with us now for these days. They're hungry. Send them away that they may go get something to eat. They may go buy food and eat. Remember what Jesus said? You give them something to eat. What do you mean you give them something to eat? We only have a few fish and loaves. What do you mean give them something to eat? And then right in front of them, he makes them all sit in the green grass. And we're no longer in Israel because it's not green grass. And notice the symmetry here. Now we're just in the field, in the dirt with this group. But notice there that he sits them all down and he begins to break the bread, giving thanks and i mean that just kept flowing from the disciples hands they're handing it out very similar to how we do communion from the disciples hands are handing it out and they are just overfilled with food their bellies are stuffed they take up 12 baskets of food well mark kept telling us after that they didn't get it they didn't get it mark even would say later, the disciples' hearts were still hardened because they didn't understand about the loaves. Well, here we are again, round two. Roles are now reversed. I'm concerned for this multitude, dear disciples. They're hungry. What should we do? See the test? Ready? What do you think the disciples should say at this moment? Here's what they said. Verse 4, how can one feed these people with bread in this desolate place? You've got to be kidding me. You wonder, one pastor said that later on, you can imagine the apostles after the ascended Lord had happened, they're all sitting there around one day and they're hungry and they want to feed the multitude and they start laughing. Hey, how are we going to feed people in this desolate place? How stupid a question it was, right? They should have known by now. Jesus goes on to feed this multitude. And this same miracle is again repeated. You read that they all ate and were satisfied. And now seven baskets are taken up. Full. Now Jesus was never about filling bellies, was he? He cared about that. Of course he did. He cares to feed. But in every feeding event we've learned in the Gospels, Jesus was illustrating and teaching a spiritual truth. In the first feeding, what was his great concern? His great concern was when he saw that they were hungry, the next phrase was, and he went and he taught them. He spent all these hours teaching them about him. And John would explain this. Disciple John, who sat there and heard all this, And you know John 6 with these feeding events, how John spoke of these feeding events when he said, He is the bread come down from heaven, that whoever eats of this bread will live forever. Well, Jesus is now testing them. I'm concerned about their weariness in the wilderness, and I'm concerned about them being faint. What was the promise? Maybe some of your favorite Old Testament verses, one of them always made a promise about the Lord and faintness, didn't he? Didn't the Lord? But they will wait for the Lord. And when He comes, He's going to renew their strength. And they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not be faint. I'm worried about them being faint. Who's here? Who's standing here? Well, He's the bread, isn't He? The Scriptures have told us that he's the bread. I'm the bread of life, that whoever comes to me, whoever comes and believes in me shall never hunger. Shall never grow faint. Dear disciples, I'm worried about them. They're faint. What should we do? Well, how can somebody get bread in the wilderness? How do we do that? The disciples, dumb as a doornail. These miracles are a clear revelation of who he is. How could you see that by now? All this stuff and still say something like that? And it just illustrates the truth of our problem, I believe, and that's what Mark is wanting us. I think Mark delighted writing this, you'll see in a moment, that Mark was really showing their stupidity. You could tell people about Jesus until they're blue in the face. The natural man just doesn't receive it. He doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God because he's spiritually dead, spiritually discerned. And they will not hear and they will not see. What in the world is going on? That's my question as I was working through this this week. What is preventing them from seeing and what is preventing them from hearing? And I believe the answer to that comes in what follows. On the heels of this second great miracle, guess who comes barging out? Here come the Pharisees. And the Pharisees, we read in verse 11, came out and they began to argue with Him. And they came to Him. Hey, we want you to show us a sign from heaven. It says they're testing him. And you say again, are you kidding? Have you not seen them? Have you not seen them everywhere? He had just done one. 4,000 people could testify that their bellies are full in the wilderness from just a few fish. And the next thing we read from Jesus, now think of the deaf man when he goes, touches, spits, touches. The next thing we read from Jesus as he heard this is that he goes again in front of everyone. This was a giant spiritual lesson for his disciples. He sighs deeply over the blindness and the deafness of the Pharisees. And then he says to them, why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation. I'm not doing that. You stop and you say, well, signs have been given to this generation all over the place. What do you mean? You just did one to this generation. Signs have been given to this generation everywhere. What Jesus was simply saying was, I refuse to be controlled by your unbelief. I refuse. No sign will ever be given in response to that attitude. And not just that, you will never be able to perceive or hear or understand my signs when I do them because of that attitude. Well, now it starts to come together a little bit. He walked away from them at that moment, shaking the dust off his feet, illustrating, I do not put up with that kind of attitude and rejection. Done. They get into the boat, they go to the other side, and lo and behold, and here's the connection, The disciples are worried about their bellies. They forgot to take bread. Seeing this? They were worried because they only had one loaf of bread with them in the boat. Now this is two miracles now of feeding. Nine thousand people fed. Nine thousand. Mark, as I said, must have enjoyed this. Jesus takes the moment and I believe gives us the great explanation of what leads to people being blind and deaf to Him. Verse 15 is really big. And he cautioned them, saying, Watch out. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Dear disciples, I have got to tell you something. I've got a great caution for you. The bread you're seeking, it's tainted. You say, what in the world? What do you mean? Pharisees had just come saying, give us a sign. They didn't want to believe that. They didn't want to believe a sign about Jesus. All they cared about was to catch Jesus in a trap. Jesus looks at them and says, I've got a great caution for you guys. you need to know that there is something that is a great threat to you hearing and you seeing me. Remember, this is all training. It's the leaven of Herod and it's the leaven of the Pharisees. There are approaches to me that if you accept and you begin to entertain in your minds and you let it take root in your hearts, it is poison to the bread. It's a kind of unbelief that is deadly and you need to know about it. what is it well herod's is not real hard is it when we look at the life of herod he had one great intention what was it to kill jesus he hated jesus she said you tell that fox he hated jesus he was a threat to him all herod lived to do was stamp out the name of jesus the pharisees were the same of course but they were much more dangerous for theirs came under the guise of religion. What was the Pharisees' approach? Jesus in chapter 7 had assaulted their repulsive form religion. Remember this. In exposing they had dead hearts in their approach to God, they were constantly trying to undermine Jesus, undermine his message. They would never listen to it. They would never hear it. They were constantly criticizing it. And Jesus is now putting these two responses together and he's saying I need you to be aware of something you have no idea of the effect of this kind of leaven in the kingdom so please listen carefully he's saying carefully be cautioned about this kind of leaven it corrupts your view of the bread it blinds you it stops up your ears peter later on was so moved by this remember in second peter when he would write about the blinding and hardening effect on the human heart i read it last time i just want you to hear it one more time he says you guys have all been given precious promises great and precious promises so here's your responsibility in the christian life you need in all diligence to add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge self-control and self-control perseverance and a perseverance godliness and a godliness brotherly kindness and a brotherly kindness love. Why? Well, if you abound in that, you're not going to be lacking in the knowledge of Jesus, he says. But, here's what happens. He who lacks in these things, it has an effect on the knowledge of Jesus and he says, is short-sighted even to blindness. Boy, he learned it. There was a leaven that blinded him to Jesus. I think we're really getting at something big here. The Syrophoenician woman had come and he's training them and look at the simplicity with which she came to Jesus. Look at the heart with which she came to Jesus. I need to eat. I know I'm a dog. I'll eat the crumbs. You don't have to tell me I'm a dog. I know I'm a dog. Call me what you will. I'm still needy. As in a contrary to Herod and this of the Pharisees. See it? See the approaches that we have here. So consider the problem that on the throne of Israel, the leader hated Jesus. And then consider that in Israel, all the pastors hated Jesus. That's a lot of leaven in the lump. What does that do? I can tell you what it does. It raises a certain amount of doubt regarding Jesus. And you take in the criticism and you listen to it. It's easy to begin to listen and accept and all of a sudden you have all these doubts in your minds now about Jesus. It has a staggering effect of blindness and hardness and deafness to his word. Do you see the approach? I wonder how common it is today. Can it be that we're affected by a political environment and everything going against us that is ultimately antagonistic to him? Do you think that's leaven? And we listen and we listen and we listen and we get discouraged. And what kind of effect does that have? Can it be that our Christian young people run off to colleges that are Christian and professors and intellectual pride and arrogance are constantly seeking to undermine Him? If you don't think that can happen, the pastors in Israel were doing it. Doesn't intellectual pride and arrogance, academic pride, have an effect, a blinding effect on people's lives. I've seen this in the course of my ministry. People come back from some college that push nothing but contrary views to Scripture, and they come back all messed up. People in the academy have a deep problem with this. They don't come to sit under the Word in humility. It doesn't birth out and bring the kind of godly sorrow that leads to repentance. They sit there trying to find something to discredit. You could have people sitting here today trying to find something. And what are we constantly bombarded with? Living in a world that assaults everything we're doing here is stupid. That affects people. Affects me. And we feel like we're losing. The continuous assaults on the person of Christ in the church. The continuous false doctrines that hit us. And what begins to happen? We listen to it. Jesus would even say that the love of many is going to grow cold. Why? Because lawlessness will abound. where are the people who come to sit under the word anymore? Believe his word, hide it in their hearts in humility like the Syrophoenician woman so that she will not sin against him. And you see how dangerous this is. It's the kind of stuff that we allow. I mean, think about all the agendas being pushed on us right now and you start to think, maybe it's okay. Maybe it's okay. Maybe it's all okay. And doubt set in. And that produces a hardening effect. Ask an honest question this morning. Since you're a profession of faith, are you hungering and thirsting more for Jesus? Do you love to be in His house, to hear His Word? Do you treasure Him? Do you pray to Him? Do you acknowledge Him in your life? He keeps showing you these people, like the Syrophoenician woman. But now consider the sour attitude of the Pharisees. No willingness to hear Jesus. I was reading J.C. Ryle last week. I just love J.C. Ryle. And he said, formal religion attaches excessive importance on that which is the easiest part of Christianity, the shell and the form. Man likes this. He wants something that will not meddle with his conscience and inner life. What then is the result when a person like this is pushed to come to Jesus for spiritual life? What is the result? Here's what he says. Heart religion is too humbling to be popular. It leaves the natural man no room to boast. It tells him that he's guilty, lost, hell-deserving, and that he must flee to Christ for salvation. It tells him that he's dead and must be made alive or born again by the Spirit. The pride of man rebels against such tidings. He hates to be told that his case is that bad. That is the leaven, beloved, Jesus is warning about. When he's offering you him for salvation. A pride that seeks to undermine and stand above his message rather than under it. Trying to get away from it even. Beware of that leaven. In plain terms, Jesus is saying, take very seriously, dear disciples, how you're being influenced by unbelief. That's what he's saying. take very serious how you're being influenced with who you hang out with young people all that very serious how you're being influenced by unbelief and now he directly calls out his disciples i think saying it's time to remedy this that's why i love this this is so beautiful this is the gospel listen to what happens he's speaking this warning we read they begin to say is he saying this because we have no bread you ever feel like you're getting nowhere with your children? Look, I told you a million times to stop that, right? I feel like you're getting nowhere in your teaching. It's like everything He's saying to them is a foreign language. Everything. And Jesus says it. Verse 17, Jesus is aware of the set of them. Why are you still discussing the fact you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Don't you get it yet? Are your hearts hardened having eyes do you not see and having ears do you not hear and do you not remember when i broke the five loaves with the five thousand how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up did you really not see that thing they said 12 and the seven for the four thousand how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up they said seven and he said to them do you not yet get it don't you understand yet can't you see it yet can't you see the sign can't you see what the sign is telling you about me? I'm the bread. That's what he's saying. Stupid sheep. Stupid sheep. Listen, if that offends you, I'm going to tell you right now I'm stupid. I'm stupid in natural things. You know how many times at the Parsonage we've had this reoccurring conversation about losing my keys in my wallet? Every time, I mean this just endlessly goes on every time my wife says to me don't you ever learn put them back in the same place chris and i never do it i mean i don't care how many times she has to say it i don't do it and then it just amazes me every time it happens i can't believe this happened again how did this happen again it's lost again i have no ability to keep my natural life straight what am i going going to do about Jesus? Do you realize how needy you are? You know this last week I was on vacation. We just got to get this out. And I had a terrible experience. I'm camping and this giant bug leaped from my arm into my ear. And it went all the way up into the ear as far as it could. And it completely blocked all my hearing out of that ear. Don't you find that just interesting? Can I read Providence once? They say those things lay eggs up there. I don't know what it did in my ear. But Darcy dumped about a gallon of olive oil in there and it died. And I felt it. We ended up at a nurse's station in Orderville, Utah. Three nurses are working to try to pull this thing out. First with a syringe, then tweezers, and then forceps. It's a great thing to hear. And as I'm sitting there, and this was a painful experience, the thing really did do some damage in the eardrum for a while. I'm begging. She says on the table, she says, I can't get it out. It's just way up there. She says, I'm going to have to ascend you to an ear, nose, and throat guy. And I said, Lord, please. And then she grabs it and she pulls out this giant moth bee. It was awful. And I was so thrilled with those nurses. I jumped up and down. I couldn't believe they got it out. Two days later, I woke up and I thought, you are absolutely stupid, man. Don't you see it? Your last sermon was on an ear being stopped up. Pastor, do you know your ears need to be unplugged? You gave more concern and panic over a bug in your ear and you begged the Lord to take it out and I had everyone say to me, I couldn't have handled it. Couldn't have handled it. They had to put me out. You gave more concern and begged the Lord to take it out of your ear. And how many times have you begged the Lord to take the stuff out of your spiritual ears? Boy, that struck me. This whole section began with compassion, didn't it? And I think that leads us to the end. You know what happens? Right in front of them, all of a sudden, a blind man shows up. And Jesus grabs him and takes him away. Intimate moment again with the disciples to close out the second feeding. He spits on his eyes this time. Puts his hands on him. Keep in mind, with the deaf man, he grabbed his ears, spit, touched his tongue. He cried out. His ears were unstopped and his tongue was loosed. Now he spits and he says to the blind man, what do you see? Well, I see men like trees walking. He spits on his hands and eyes again. Makes him look up. What do you see now? Everything clearly. I thought about that a lot. Isn't that your experience? It's not that hard. Seems so gradual, doesn't it? And Jesus is here showing his disciples. He's given the greatest sermon illustration he could ever give. You see how great your need is for me to open your ears, unstop your ears and open your eyes and you keep closing them. You keep closing them. But this is what I'm committed to do. The disciples just learned about grace, by the way, powerfully. Tongues will never be loose to praise him until your eyes are made to see and your ears are unstopped. And he had to do this for them and he has to do that for you. The question I have is what is your approach? Are you an antagonist like Herod? Are you a formalist who hates preaching that confronts your intense spiritual need even though you may have everything in this life and seem to have it all together? Are you a needy beggar? who knows Jesus must touch your eyes and touch your ears. Even the great apostle Paul, who was a Pharisee running around in zeal for religion, once he was saved, had something like scales fall from his eyes to teach you this truth. I love what Machen once said, our only hope is to throw ourselves unreservedly on God's mercy and trust Him for all. It's your only hope. And here's the good news today. It'd be one thing if he's standing back saying, I don't know. I don't know if I want to do it for you. That would really hinder my message. I don't know how I'd go forward. But that's not what we've learned in Mark. All the way back in chapter 2, somebody came to him who had a great physical infirmity and said, Lord, are you willing to heal me? Remember what he said? He reached out his hand and he said, I'm willing. I'm willing. I have a sincere challenge to everyone here today as we close. I'm asking you to do today, me too, we'll do it right now in prayer, to go home on this day of Sabbath and ask the Lord to remove what has stopped up your ears and what has blinded your eyes to Him. Is that a bad request? It will be if you think you see and you think you hear. But if you know what you are, you're going to be on your knees today. And I promise you, your experience coming back to worship will be entirely different. It won't be until they're open. You'll be critical like a Pharisee. You may even hate Jesus like Herod. But when they're opened and you see, you're going to love being here. When you come humbly like that, I promise you, He's going to show Himself to you. And your faith will be strengthened. And you're going to love him more. And you're going to grow more in holiness. And you're going to do what Peter says so that these blinding things in your life would have little effect. Isn't that where we've come with the disciples for the first time? They're now ready in the Gospels to finally say after this, you're the Christ. We see. And Jesus says to you today who are able to say that, blessed are you. You didn't do that on your own. You never could. I think I've proved that. My Father blessed you from heaven. And if you can confess Him today, He says to you, and I close with these words, blessed are your eyes, for they see. And blessed are your ears, for they hear. Now, with tongues loosed, we're going to pray and sing to Him. Gracious Heavenly Father, we fully confess that apart from your work, we remain stupid, blind, deaf. And even after we're redeemed, we'll pursue those things and listen to those things that have the effect of shutting our eyes to seeing and closing our ears to hearing. And so wherever we are in life today, we fully confess our constant need for your help. We are the Syrophoenician woman. We know what we are. Would you give us to eat from the master's table, the true bread from heaven, the fragments that are left over, and having eyes to see and ears to hear that our tongues would be loosed to praise you and acknowledge you in our lives and everything we say and do. Be merciful to us. We're that weak. Don't give us as our sins deserve. And may everyone here by your power be born again by the Spirit of God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.