Radical Faith That Breaks the Ice

Let’s turn to Mark, chapter 10. We’re going to verses 46 through 52, and again, we’re focusing on the subject of what… what subject are we dealing with, let’s see? These days… what subject? Everyone say it: faith.

Okay. Brothers and sisters, I hope that through our meditations, through our sermons, that concept of faith—and not merely a concept; it is a dynamic… it is a powerful spiritual principle—will become engraved on our hearts. I want you to keep meditating on it. I am trying to be at least somewhat systematic in what I am teaching, and perhaps some of you will be able to go online and listen to these sermons again so that they become firmly engraved on your hearts and so that you can gradually acquire the knowledge that is so necessary for living a victorious life.

Without faith it is impossible to please God, the Word says. That is to say, faith is the most essential thing there can be for a son or daughter of God. It is like the currency… the currency that allows one to buy, sell, manage, acquire… uh, everything originates in faith. Faith is the vehicle God uses to land on earth, to enter the realm of time and space. According to our faith it will be done to us, the Word says. And it also says, “the righteous shall live by his faith.”

Interestingly, it does not say by faith. Sometimes I have quoted it and said, “The righteous shall live by faith.” How many of us have said that at some point? But no, it is “the righteous shall live by HIS faith.” Because I believe there are different degrees of faith. Different people acquire and attain different levels of faith. And so, according to the faith you manage to attain through your reading of the Word of the Lord, through such resources as prayer, fasting, and reading the Word of God—I have already said that—serving the Lord, because all of that increases our faith; we acquire experience and knowledge; by rubbing shoulders with other men and women of faith, we acquire energy, we inspire one another… all these elements together raise our level of faith until they enable us to become powerful people, effective people in the spiritual realm.

Now, here we have a person who very clearly exemplifies that element of faith. One of my favorite characters: blind Bartimaeus. How many have heard of Bartimaeus? Raise your hand. Okay, about a quarter of you, perhaps a third. Wow! Well, it will be interesting for you to get to know him. I want to introduce you to blind Bartimaeus. He is a very likable man; I find him very likable, don’t you? He is an appealing man. He is like Zacchaeus to a certain extent; there is an aspect of Bartimaeus that we might call comical. But that is simply because of the situation in which he found himself. Yet, like Zacchaeus, he was evidently a very, very determined man. And that helped him greatly. I want to spend a little while giving a summary, because, as I have told you, I want you to keep accumulating knowledge and understanding many of these concepts. And then I will try to go directly into the event itself involving the life of Bartimaeus. But first I want us at least to look at the big picture.

In recent weeks, whenever I have been able to preach… Today I complete what we might call a trio of faith: these three individuals or people share certain common elements concerning faith. I have spoken about the woman with the flow of blood: she approached Jesus through the crowd, touched the hem of His garment, and received healing power from Jesus. We have spoken about the friends of the paralytic too, remember? In the same way, these men picked up their paralytic and tried to enter the house. They could not because it was full of people, so they climbed onto the roof, opened the roof, lowered their paralytic, placed him there before Jesus—and what could the Lord do? He had to heal him.

And now I want to speak about this man, blind Bartimaeus, who shares certain elements with these two… these characters I have just mentioned. Last Sunday, I believe—or was it the Sunday before last? One sort of loses track… I think it was the Sunday before last—the last Sunday we had something with Brother Pedro Julio Fernández. I have said that faith has certain qualities that we see here in this trio of characters. First, I have said that faith takes risks, as all these people I am talking about did. Second, faith overcomes obstacles. Remember that these are characteristics of a person who has faith, and in your own life you can think of a moment when one of these qualities took you to a new level of, so to speak, effectiveness, or helped you get out of a problem or overcome a difficult situation.

Faith takes risks, I have said. Faith overcomes obstacles. Third, faith sometimes acts desperately. There are times when you have to break through, you have to get into some place, you have to knock on a door, you have to present yourself to someone who has said they have no time for you, you have to call and make a second or third phone call. By the way, something funny occurs to me. This is even trivial, but you know what I always say: there is a… I mean, one of the things I say here that is related to this is that faith always looks for a solution. How many believe that there is always a solution in life?

Brothers and sisters, I say that there is always a door in life that can be opened, even if it seems to be closed. Even if you have a mountain in front of you and your car reaches it and runs into the foot of that mountain, look, somehow… I believe that even if it takes an “Open Sesame” or something, I can pass through the middle of the mountain. Faith is something incredible; faith does extraordinary things. But, brothers and sisters, there are occasions when I use small things in life to learn the importance of faith—about taking risks, overcoming obstacles, and acting desperately. Let me finish; I am going to give an almost trivial, everyday illustration.

Faith is impolite and aggressive. Sometimes faith is intrusive; sometimes faith gets right in the face of things and people and does things that are impolite, so that people sort of say, “Oh! Where did this person come from, and why did they do that?” Faith also undertakes the improbable. Faith has this quality: when something seems to have no chance of success, faith leaps forward and says, “Well, the Lord already… and if I fail, the worst that can happen is simply that I am told no, but I’m going to do it.” And it leaps forward to undertake the improbable. And faith always looks for a solution, as I was saying. And lastly, faith always takes action.

Faith is associated with action, with doing something. Move, do something; break a glass, but do something. Do not remain sitting there, listless. Faith always does something. Now, as I was saying about those qualities of faith, I am always learning that there is always a solution in life, that one should not… How many times have we failed to do things because, as soon as the idea occurred to us, it was as though someone immediately threw a wet blanket over it: “Oh, that can’t be done. But they already tried that. I’ve seen others try to do it, and it didn’t work… Oh, those people don’t hire Hispanics, or a woman has never held that position; or many people have already tried to sell that product and have not succeeded. Oh, I tried to buy a house about ten years ago and failed, and now they’re selling this one very cheaply, but, ahh… I don’t want to try again…” and so forth, right?

Many times, what happens? When an idea occurs to you, the reasons why that idea will not succeed immediately rush into your mind. And if you give in, if you lose the battle in that millisecond between the creative idea and the thought that it cannot be done—if in that millisecond you allow the NO, or the thought that it probably will not happen, to come crashing down on you—you will not move on to the next step of considering it more deeply and perhaps trying it and discovering that yes, it can be done.

And it is important that you always resist the mind’s first no, because the mind is like that; it is very treacherous. But anyway, look, it is even trivial, but it is interesting. Years ago, literally… how many of you know what a greca is? It is one of those metal coffee makers that, you know, unscrews at the bottom and has a tiny chamber where you pour the water. Then it has a filter in the middle where you put the coffee. I told you it was an everyday illustration, didn’t I? Then you take the upper part and screw it on, and when the water boils, the steam… it turns into steam, passes through the coffee, and in the end, well, you have coffee to drink. You didn’t know the thing was so complex, did you? There is a chemistry lesson in it.

The fact is that years ago, we had several coffee makers like that in different sizes, and there was one that I liked best, but I do not know what happened: the metal filter in the middle was lost. And ten times I wanted to throw it away, because what good is a coffee maker if it has no filter in the middle? But something held me back and told me, “No, who knows whether one of these days, who knows, you might find a filter somewhere and some crazy person might have thought of selling replacement filters for when someone loses theirs.” One thinks—and listen, once again, there it is. Someone had to think, “You know what? People lose the filters from their grecas, so I’m going to make a few filters and sell them.” That too is faith, to a certain extent. It is probably secular faith, to a certain extent, but it is faith. The fact is that I had always said, “No, I’m going to leave it there just in case.” But I always thought it would be absolutely difficult to find one of those filters, and sometimes we had passed through the North End, the Italian district here in Boston. In fact, if you want to eat good Italian food, go to the North End; that advertisement is free.

And we had passed by a couple of places that carried them, because Italians use those grecas a lot. And Meches, my wife, had said to me, “You know what? They might have them there, and we’ll go one day.” But I kept putting it off, because I would start thinking, “No way… of all places, perhaps Hispanics might use those and perhaps have replacement filters for them, but these Italians around here, why would that ever occur to them?” and so forth. And we never… But once again, brothers and sisters, it is that brake, that subconscious brake that tells you it is unlikely that it can be done. And that is what often prevents us from living creative lives and doing the things God wants to do in our lives. How many understand what I am referring to?

It is as though there were an unconscious brake, made of pessimism and a kind of timidity, that prevents us from conceiving creative ideas, and when we do conceive them, it is suddenly as though someone comes and turns off the light on us. And so, well, every day is like that… But yesterday, while we were waiting for something, Meches thought of going into this store. And you know what? They had those blessed metal filters. So as soon as I got home, I tried it—perfect! And now I have a new coffee maker for the two dollars and change that the filter cost. So glory to God for Meches’s faith.

But what I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, is that, look, from simple things like that one can learn and grow, because my philosophy is that one should always try; one should always look for a solution. Whenever something tells you, “Look, I can do this,” do not reject it immediately. Go to the second step, go to the third step, and when the door closes after you have already knocked on it, then go home. But in the meantime, try, because the solution is where you least expect it, and many times throughout my life I have seen that: you must have faith.

Above all, if you have God with you—it says… someone has said somewhere, “God and I are a majority.” And that is true, brothers and sisters. People of faith always seem to have a positive attitude toward life. Do not let yourself be driven by your emotions. One of the things you must learn if you are a person of faith—look, do not let yourself be driven by your emotions. Emotions are spoiled little animals that, if you let them, will take over your life and make any lofty action impossible for you.

Emotions are a product of the fall of Adam and Eve. Our emotions are damaged, and people who live by their emotions, by the wounds of the past, by the appetites that control them, by negativity or depression or sadness or those things that seek to control us—brothers and sisters, do not think, as the Apostle James says, that such a person will receive anything from God. You cannot let yourself be carried away by them. One lives by principles, by what the Word of God says, by what one knows to be real. And that is very important if you want to be a person of faith and if you want to be enterprising and daring, to move to that new level in your life. You have to believe that God is with you and that there is always a way out. Remember that; that part of the sermon is free—I did not have it completely in mind.

But regarding that quality faith has, brothers and sisters, I encourage you in the name of the Lord: gird up your loins and say, “I am going to live a powerful life, a creative life, and I am always going to look for a solution. I will always undertake the improbable.” Train your mind, and when you see indications and lessons in your life showing you that it works, mark them, just as I marked that incident. I assure you that I am going to meditate again on that greca filter. Because right there I said, “Hmm, there is a lesson here. I can put that into my repertoire and learn from it. I am going to reinforce it; I am going to mark that lesson so I can grow in the area of faith.”

Very important. Now then, as you can see, people of faith generally have a dynamic, hardworking, enterprising quality. That is what I see: people of faith are not sluggish; they are not people who easily give up and act as though they are dying; they are not passive people; they are not people… people of faith are restless, they move with gestures that are a little catatonic and electric, and that is important because there is something there; it is not that… Please understand me; let me qualify that a little. Some people are very quiet, but they are people of faith—do not think otherwise. But what I mean is that, if you ask me to picture a person of faith, what I see is a flag waving, moving. It is not hanging there, all tattered and limp; no, it is a flag that allows itself to be moved by the wind of the Spirit, that receives the wind of God. That, to me, is the quintessential person of faith.

Bartimaeus… Bartimaeus is like that. Look at how he cries out, keeps crying out, jumps up when they call him—so many things here… like that. Look at the woman with the issue of blood: diligent, enterprising. Look at the friends of the paralytic, in the same way. All these people share that hardworking and enterprising quality. What did the Lord say to Joshua? He said, “See, I command you to be strong and”—what?—“courageous!” Because I will be with you wherever you go. That is the key, brothers and sisters. People of faith dare to do things because they know that God is with him or her. That is the key, but God wants… God likes hardworking and courageous people.

What did He say to Gideon? “The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor.”

Remember that I have always said that those words—strong and courageous—are definitive words for a son or daughter of God, a person of faith. I tell you, brothers and sisters, I want to associate with strong and courageous people because those people inspire me, motivate me, encourage me, and I get a great deal from them; I learn a great deal from them.

What did Paul say to Timothy? He said, “I advise you to fan into flame the gift of God that is in you.” And what did he add? “For God has not given us”—what?—“a spirit of cowardice, but of”—what?—“power, love, and self-control.” That is a whole message and sermon in itself. But the idea is that Timothy seems to have been a little, well, somewhat subdued, a mild-mannered pastor there, and, you know, whatever happens will happen; may it be God’s will. The “ay, bendito,” as Puerto Ricans say, right? And Paul said, “No, no, no, no, Timothy. You have to be a strong and courageous man. God has placed a gift there within you; now fan that gift until it bursts into flame. Be enterprising, because God has not put within you a cowardly or timid spirit, but a spirit of power.”

Brothers and sisters, let me tell you: inside you, whether you know it or not, you have the engine of a battle tank. It is not a Volkswagen in there, or one of those tiny little Smart Cars, all scrunched up; no, no. You have a battle tank inside you. Say amen, even if it is just to convince yourself. It is in there; the problem is that many times we do not use it, we do not use it. We are like those little old ladies who have a sports car and drive it to church at ten miles an hour on Sunday, park it there, and then take it back home and put it away. And there that blessed car sits idle, wanting someone to take it out to an open field and step on it—look, there are no police—and zoom, if only so it can know what it has inside. Do not get any ideas now, brothers and sisters, no.

But many of us are like that. We use one percent of the power of God that is in us, and the apostle Paul and the Holy Spirit tell you, “Look, you have all the power of the kingdom of God inside you. Dare to act! Take initiative, live a powerful life. Do not say, ‘I can’t.’ Do not say, ‘Oh, that’s just how I am,’ and all that… that is from the devil; that is from the flesh. You can, in the name of Jesus. You have everything you need.” Perhaps I will not even be able to get into the text about Bartimaeus, but look at another important thing. This is a very important principle that I want you to learn about the principle of faith, and it is this… It has to do with the nature of the kingdom of God.

How many of you belong to the kingdom of God? Raise your hand. I hope all of you do, except perhaps those who are asleep and did not hear me. But everyone… everyone, I hope that everyone here feels that they belong to the kingdom of God. And if you do not belong to the kingdom of God, look, become a member right now. Raise your hand and I will pray for you; I will anoint you with oil right now if not, if you… Is there anyone who is unsure? If so, get up and run up here right now, because we are going to dunk you in the baptismal waters this very afternoon. You are a member of the kingdom of God, aren’t you?

So… now, if you are a member of the kingdom of God, how are you going to feel comfortable within the kingdom of God? Well, I imagine it will be by taking on the same qualities as the kingdom of God, right? Because if the kingdom of God is one way and you are another, there will be a clash; there will be a clash of power, of nature. You feel at ease where there is harmony with what you are. For example, what is the body’s temperature, more or less? Who knows? I think it is 98.6 or something like that, right? Normal? Ninety-eight… And why is it that people do not like being… if an environment is 40 or 50 degrees, why do you feel uncomfortable at that temperature? Because it is not in agreement with your body, right?

But when the temperature is at 75 or 80… it is as though you feel more… there is harmony between your body and the outside world. Now, if it is at 120, again, it is the same thing. If your body is asking for a temperature a little more in keeping with what you… then you are also going to feel uncomfortable at the other extreme. If you are a peaceful, gentle person, you like things calm and quiet, and you enter a place where they are playing rock music at full blast… you are also going to feel that way, because there is discord, because there is a lack of affinity between what you are and what the environment in which you find yourself represents.

Now, why am I saying this? Because as we understand what the kingdom of heaven is like, we are going to have to ask the Lord, “Father, adapt me; help me to be like the kingdom of heaven.” Many of us come and enter the kingdom of heaven, and we bring all the wounds, the baggage… the burdens, the problems, the deformities of the past, and we enter a kingdom that is power, peace, joy, life, truth, justice, and love, while within us there are all these different things, and there is a clash; and that is something we have to… “Lord, help me each day to adjust more and more to the nature of Your kingdom.” That is the task; that is the life of a son or daughter of God. It is to become more and more like the kingdom of heaven.

Now, a question: What is the kingdom of heaven like? I have said many things, but look at Matthew 11, verse 12. Matthew 11, verse 12. It is a passage that I find very revealing. It says here, “From the days of John the Baptist…” This is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking: “From the days of John the Baptist until now”—and that can mean now, in the twenty-first century, because we are reading it right now—“from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven…” Here there is a problematic issue, a little problem that I am going to try to resolve right now. It says, “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence”—suffers violence—“…and the violent take it by force.”

Okay. Now let me ask you a question: What would you understand by this statement that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence? If I were reading it, I would interpret it to mean something like the kingdom of heaven has violence directed against it. That suffering is something like putting up with, something like enduring. It endures violence… It is a passive image of the kingdom of heaven. As though the kingdom of heaven were always receiving violence from outside, as though they were beating it… I see a bat there, smashing the kingdom of heaven. It suffers violence. I always felt uncomfortable with that idea, and that is why it is so good to go to the original Greek and understand a little of the grammar. Not everyone can do that or has the opportunity, but I am going to do the work for you this morning, and you are going to thank me; that is what they pay me for.

But I… looked in the original Greek of that text, and what it actually says there in the original Greek is interesting. It has been translated into Spanish, but, as you know, the Bible has been translated into many different languages. And translators, sometimes, when they encounter a complication, have to make a decision. Sometimes there are two possible ways to interpret something, and the person has to choose one option or the other, put it there, and discard the alternative. In the original Greek, that part that says “suffers violence and the violent…” In the original Greek it is viasetai kai vastai. Kai means _____. Viasetai is the word that has to do with violence, and vastai—some say that it was like a play on words: viasetai vastai sound very similar in Greek. Just as there are plays on words in Spanish: “suffers violence and the violent.” The Lord was playing with language.

Now, the word viasetai, which is translated “suffers violence,” is a verb that can be translated either actively or passively. How many of you have already fallen asleep on me? You are awake… okay. In other words, viasetai in the original Greek could have been translated “suffers violence” or “undergoes violence.” Or “does violence.” It advances violently; it advances forcefully, by force; it advances aggressively; it acts aggressively; in other words, it is aggressive. What happened is that I imagine some sluggish translator sitting there in his… “Oh, the poor kingdom of heaven suffers violence,” because he did not like the idea of the kingdom of heaven being violent. But you know, brother, the kingdom of heaven is violent.

The kingdom of heaven stands against—what?—the kingdom of darkness. When God enters the world, He comes to take away from Satan what the devil stole from man. Do you know that? When Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, the devil took control of this world. Why does Satan say to Jesus, “All the kingdoms of the world belong to me, and I give them to whomever I wish”? And the Lord did not say to him, “Satan, you liar.” No. The prince of this world is Satan—illegitimately, but he is. When Christ comes into the world—and that is why it says, “from the days of John the Baptist.” Why? Because John the Baptist was the one who began to announce the coming of God, yes or no? Look it up: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is coming.”

When they said that, imagine: It is like a person who owns some land in a distant part of the country and has not visited it for twenty years, and a whole group of people have moved onto it and are living there, and a neighbor took the land and does whatever he pleases with it, and no one has bothered him. Then, suddenly, the owner of the land says, “You know what? I am going there. That land is mine, and I am going to work it, plant it, and cultivate it.” But when he arrives, the people who seized and stole the land have become quite defiant, and they say, “You cannot come in here.” “Oh, no? I cannot come in here? We’ll see who is in charge.” And a fight begins, a battle; it may be a legal battle, or, if the owner is a little violent, they settle the matter with rifles and shovels and whatever else. But a conflict begins: the one who is entrenched there illegitimately, and the one who is the rightful owner, who comes to reconquer his land.

And that is what happened: when Christ enters history, He comes to reconquer what is His. How many say amen? Even if it is just to encourage me a little—good grief! The Lord says, “He came to His own!” In other words, the Lord came to what belonged to Him, to reconquer it, to seize it, to steal souls back from the devil, to take the world and the nations away from him, to wrest them from Satan because he had stolen them. And what happens? A power struggle had begun. The kingdom of heaven now advances; it had to use force. Why do you think the Lord Jesus Christ says that, in order to plunder a strong man’s house, what do you have to do? You first have to tie him up, He says, and then you can plunder his house, yes or no? Of course.

So, in other words, brothers and sisters, do you think Satan is going to hand over souls and nations and communities and young people and systems of government just like that? Absolutely not. It is a bare-knuckle fight. A fierce fight has begun in the world. And you know what? You and I are part of that kingdom of God. We are part of it. So, in fact, in the original Greek, what the Lord said was: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven advances with violence, and the violent take it by force.” Do you understand? Does that not make more sense?

Because if a kingdom merely suffers violence, then I think it would be the fainthearted, the timid, those who merely endure suffering, who take it. No, this makes much more sense: The kingdom of heaven advances with force. Look up, for example, the interpretation—the interpretation in the NIV Bible, the New International Version in English. Nowadays, Bible scholars are much more in agreement that the interpretation of that verb in the original Greek should be active, not passive. And the more modern Bibles, the more modern versions, interpret it this way: the kingdom of heaven advances forcefully, aggressively. And strong, aggressive, hardworking, and courageous people are the ones who take it by force.

It is like that car—that bus is moving, and the driver says, “Get on,” and you have to... either you jump on or you miss the bus. That is how it is: you have to take hold of the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is not going to wait around for you to yawn and get dressed—no, no. The kingdom of heaven keeps moving; you have to run and throw yourself inside, because otherwise it will leave and go look for someone else. That is the kingdom of heaven. That is why, when you look at the people praised in the Bible, they are always a little violent and rough around the edges. They do not want to panaa, as Caribbean people say; they are daring people, people who strive. Caleb, Jacob, David, Moses, Daniel, Saul... a guerrilla fighter there whom God saves because He needed someone like Saul. Why does God seek out Peter? Hotheaded, impulsive. Why does God seek out people like that, when He could seek out people who are more passive, calmer, gentler? Because God likes it; because the people He can use—the kingdom of heaven is an army, it is an Army, it is a battle tank that is moving forward, and it needs someone determined to climb in and operate it.

So, brother, sister, God wants to change your DNA. God wants to change your genetics. God wants to put a new and different program into you. God wants to give you the program of the kingdom of heaven. God wants to give you the genetics of the kingdom of heaven. I have said, look, for me, the image I have of the kingdom of heaven—do you know what it is? I do not know whether you have ever seen an icebreaker, one of those ships that sail through Antarctica, the North Pole, where the seas freeze and sometimes there is ice one foot, or two feet, three feet, ten feet thick in the sea, but the ships have to pass through there. And you know that those icebreaker ships have armor on the front made of iron, of steel, very heavy. And I have seen those ships as they move through the ice. Look, brother, it is like a hot knife cutting through butter, and the ice goes flying everywhere, moving aside; and the bow of that ship is shaped like a V, and it keeps breaking, breaking, breaking. And it moves forward, and everything that gets in its way it shatters, splits apart, and casts aside, because it has a purpose and it has to reach its destination.

Look, brother, that is the vision of the kingdom of heaven. That is the kingdom to which you belong; that is the Christ to whom you belong. Do not come to me with some little Jesus there, like a poor, battered little lamb, and... that is not the image of Jesus that I have. To me, Jesus is a powerful, strong man, sunburned, His skin parched from walking the roads of the Middle East preaching the gospel, who goes ahead of His disciples to the cross; He is not there complaining, “Why did You do this to Me?” No. He goes straight there, to the cross. See how the Lord goes ahead of His disciples to Jerusalem. He knows they are going to crucify Him there, but there He goes ahead of them. To me, Jesus is a resolute, strong being; He is a man who must be respected. His yes is yes, and His no is no. His words are clear; when someone says something He does not like, He lets them know it.

And it is not that we should be—I believe, brothers and sisters, that everything has to be tempered by the love, grace, mercy, and goodness of the fruit of the Spirit. But the people of the kingdom of God, even within that grace, that mercy, that love, have a quality of strength and a certain decisiveness in their character. The Lord is like that; examine the pages of the Bible. Brothers and sisters, He was a resolute man, clear and well-defined in His purposes; He knew what He had come for, what was going to happen to Him, where He was going, where He came from, and who He was. You do not see the Lord saying, “Well, I am not sure whether I am God or not, whether they owe Me or not...” No, no. He is perfectly clear: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Period. End of discussion.

“I am the light of the world; whoever walks in Me will not walk in darkness.” Period. End of discussion. “You call Me Lord, and rightly so, because I Am,” He says. Now, there was also His gentle side: He wrapped the towel around Himself and washed His disciples’ feet, but there was no doubt in Him about who He was. He knew who He was. He is a resolute man. Brothers and sisters, God wants us to be like that. God wants us to be like that; the kingdom of God is like that, and you and I have to be like that. None of this wavering between two choices; God does not like lukewarm people. Why does He say to those in Laodicea, “I wish you were cold or hot, but because you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out of My mouth”? Because God does not like lukewarm people. God does not like people who have one foot in the world and the other in the kingdom of heaven, who believe a little but are not sure and arrange things just in case it goes badly for them, so they can get out in time.

God likes resolute, clear, determined, well-defined people. If I perish, I perish, but I am going to smoke this down to the very butt. I am going to be a member of the kingdom of God, and if I was wrong, at least I lived my life with purpose. And I do not know, brothers and sisters; you have to be or not be. And one thing God wants in this time is resolute and clear people. May our community be a community of resolute people. Let us stop playing at wavering between two choices: am I or am I not, do I give or do I not, do I have or do I not, do I live or do I not, do I decide or do I not... make up your mind once and for all. Decide to throw yourself fully into the waters of the kingdom of God and to be a resolute man, a resolute woman. Embrace this Bible; embrace its values. Do not simply be a religious devotee who comes here to hear a Mass and some priest there... Let me not say too much—no. I have respect. But, brothers and sisters, this business of coming here for some lukewarm little water, watered down—that never did anything for anyone.

God wants radical people. Committed people, people who are like the kingdom of God. Clear people, well-defined people, people who have already died and who know that this world is simply a little path leading to eternal life. We are pilgrims and foreigners; I have nothing, this is not mine. I am not going... I am going straight to the kingdom of God, and the life I live here I live, as it says, by faith in the Son of God and as one who has already died. Such a person decided that long ago and is now here to serve the kingdom of God and to do everything possible so that kingdom may advance—to snatch souls away from Satan. Wherever the kingdom has a need, that person says, “Present,” because everything he is, everything he has, everything he thinks, and his entire life are for the glory of God. He has already resolved to live for God; he is determined. That ship keeps breaking through opposition. Its destination is already clear. That is the kingdom of God.

And may the Lord grant, brothers and sisters, that my life and your life respond to that. We are going to be like Bartimaeus, amen. Again, no... no, perhaps next Sunday—we will see whether I have time; I will try. Read about Bartimaeus again; look at the passage and you will see that blind man. He hears Jesus passing by and cries out to Him, “Have mercy on me.” The Lord pays no attention to him. So he says, “Then I am going to shout even louder until You hear me.” The Lord stops. The people are telling him, “Do not shout so much; it does not sound right; you are waking people up.” He keeps shouting even louder. Finally, the Lord says, “Send him to Me; bring him here.” And the Lord asks him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” “Lord, let me recover my sight.” Period. Five words, or four—I do not know how many. You count them. “Lord, let me recover my sight.” And the Lord tells him, “Go; your faith has saved you.” Period, and on to the next thing. And that was all—five or six verses. But this man had a need, and to me nothing—and the musicians, please, if you can come up here—nothing exemplifies the character of my brother Bartimaeus like that little detail. When the Lord called him, what did he do? He threw off his cloak... he threw off his cloak and took off running after Jesus. Why did the Holy Spirit include the detail that he threw off his cloak? Because He could simply have said, “When they called him, he went to Jesus.” But it says, “Throwing off his cloak”—look it up and see whether it is there or not—he went to where Jesus was.

Some say that a blind man’s cloak was his most important possession. You have seen homeless people, people who do not have a home. They generally carry a backpack or something else with them, do they not? And what do they have in there? They have their coat in there; they have a toothbrush in there; they have a few little things that are very important to them. That is their means of survival; they literally carry their home on their backs, and to them that is very... they protect it tooth and nail. That was what a blind man’s cloak was. The cloak allowed him to sit on it while people walked by as he asked for money; when it rained, the cloak covered him; the cloak kept him warm in the cold. That cloak was the most important thing a blind man possessed, and when the Lord tells them, “Send for him,” he immediately says, “I no longer need this cloak. That cloak is no use to me now. The most important thing now is for me to touch Jesus, for me to speak with Him.” He throws off his cloak and rushes forward. He does not pick it up; he does not take it with him just in case things do not go well, so he can come back and have it again. He leaves the cloak there. “That is no use to me anymore.”

Notice that whenever Jesus does something... what happened with the paralyzed man when he was healed? He picked up his mat, rolled it up, and went away carrying it. There is something special in that, brothers and sisters, a symbolism: many times, what served us in our sickness no longer serves us once we have an encounter with Christ. We have to set the crutches aside. Those things that give you security and that you keep there just in case—let them go, throw them away, make up your mind once and for all, and go after Jesus. And live the kingdom of God according to the values and principles of the kingdom of God. How many can say amen and understand what I am saying? Let me hear you. Glory to the Lord.

People conformed to the kingdom of God—that is what we are going to title this sermon. What do you think? People conformed to the kingdom of God.

Let us stand in the name of Jesus. God wants people conformed to the temperament of the kingdom. Resolute people, clear people, strong people, concrete people, dynamic people, enterprising people, radical people, militant people—that is what God wants in His kingdom, brothers and sisters. And God wants to do that. If you are a woman, a man of faith, ask the Lord to conform you to the values of His kingdom. And may the Lord grant us the character of Bartimaeus. Ask the Lord right now to give you that character. Ask the Lord to strengthen your spiritual temperament, to raise your spiritual temperature. Ask Him to take you into a certain dimension of spiritual life.

Father, in the name of Jesus... all right, brother, leave it there for a moment.

Father, in the name of Jesus, unleash Your power in us. Unleash, Lord, that character, that temperament of the kingdom of God; unleash the character of the kingdom of God in us. Make us resolute people, people filled with the Holy Spirit, powerful people. We renounce the timidity of the flesh. We ask You, Father, to raise up a church conformed to the character of the kingdom of God; raise up a resolute people, Lord. Raise up a powerful people; fill us with Your Spirit, Father. Father, these words that I have declared, I declare prophetically. I declare that this will be the mettle of this congregation, Lord. And Father, whatever You need to do, begin with me. But, Father, we have been called for such a time as this. And we need You to prepare a church that is like the kingdom of God.

A resolute church, Father, a church after God’s own heart. Father, I give You all the resources of this congregation, and I ask You to make us powerful people. May You know that You can depend on this church, Lord, for Your causes. Make us evangelistic people, Father. Make us aggressive people; make us people of worship and fasting; make us people of holiness, Father. Make us people of faith so that we can do what needs to be done in this time, Lord. We thank You; we thank You.

Receive the word, brother, sister. Receive the word of God in your heart right now; receive it and tell Him, “Father, that word is for me.” Receive that seed and say, “Lord, I bury it in my heart.” Say, “I believe that seed will bear fruit in my life. I believe that today You have impregnated me with a word that comes from Your mouth, and it is Your life that You have given me, Lord. And I receive that life; I am going to live this way. Help me to be like the kingdom of heaven. Help me to be a man, a woman, conformed to the kingdom of God. Today I put all indecision to death, and I give myself completely to living as Christ wants me to live. Help me; change me; change my temperament; change my character; change my vision; change the energy within me, and make me what You want me to be.”

Father, I declare that word over Your children, in the name of Jesus. Lord, I declare it over this church! Over those who are near and those who are far away, Lord! I declare that this church, Father, will be a fortress of the kingdom of God, a detachment of the kingdom of God, for Your glory, Lord. Raise up warriors. Thank You, Father. In the name of Jesus, and the people of God say: Amen.

Brothers and sisters, I am not even going to... I will simply ask you to greet one another and tell someone right now, “I bless you and declare the strength and grace of the Lord over your life.” Declare the power of God right now over that brother, that sister, and leave confident that you have everything you need in there to be the people God wants you to be. I bless you in the name of the Lord. Amen and amen.