Blessing your neighbor by Listening with Care|05.31.26|Blessed to BLESS pt.3

And I'm gonna bring up and invite our guest speakers today, Pastor Joan, and as she comes up, I wanna invite you to open up your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, or you can grab the Black Seabag Bible in front of you and find it on page 62 of the New Testament. We'll be in the Gospel of Luke today, but I wanna introduce to you, Pastor Joan Scheffler has been married to her husband Jerry for 44 years. They've raised four kids together, and she just retired from Pastoring Lutheran Church in Ashton just a few months ago. But Pastor Joan also serves to coordinate our Illinois Fellowship of the LCMC, the Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ, our association that we're part of. There's almost 50 churches in Illinois that she helps coordinate and bring together for us as well. And one thing that I would love for you to know about Pastor Joan that I really appreciate about her is that she truly loves God's word. And so can we just give Pastor Joan a welcome today? (Audience Applauding)

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Well, thank you. It's good to be here. And I(...) really thank you, Pastor Drew, for inviting me to speak today.

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It is an honor to be here. Excuse me a second. I'm having a little technical difficulty with my own hearing aid.

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Anyway, so I will invite you to stand at this time, and we will hear the Gospel according to St. Luke, Chapter 18, verses 35 to 43.

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As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."

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Then he shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

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"Those who were in front "stirly ordered him to be quiet, "but he shouted even more loudly, "'Son of David, have mercy on me.'

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"Jesus stood still and ordered the man to be brought to him. "And when he came near, he asked him,(...) "'What do you want me to do for you?'(...) "He said, "'Lord, let me see again.'(...) "And Jesus said to him, "'Receive your sight, your faith has saved you.'

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"Immediately, he regained his sight and followed him, "glorifying God, and all the people, "when they saw it, praised God."(...) The Gospel of the Lord. Praise God. You may be seated.

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Again, I would just wanna say thank you, Pastor Drew, for inviting me.

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It's always fun to come to a contemporary service. Our little church in Franklin Grove, where I worship now since I retired, we have strictly a traditional service, because we're too small to have two services, so we just have one, but that's okay. We all worship the same God. We worship God with praise and glory, and all of our hearts and all of our minds, and that's what counts.

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But I have to tell you, Pastor Drew invited me to speak, and he told me the topic of your current series is blessed to bless, and the topic today was listen with care.

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I immediately thought of a conversation my husband and I had, oh, approximately two years ago.(...) And now, some of you are probably too young to appreciate this, but I think I see a few faces in here who probably do, will appreciate it. But one day he told me, he says, you know, you need to go get your hearing tested, because you're not hearing me.

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And I thought, hmm,(...) you know, I've always been aware that I could have a hearing loss, because it runs in my family.

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But, and I had been monitoring it for some years, and never been bad enough to do anything about it.

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So,(...) I knew,

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I knew that he was telling me to go and get my hearing tested, to get hearing aids. But there was another side to this story.

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I had thought that he just wasn't listening to me when I would speak to him, if he was not directly looking at me. And so, I just thought that he just wasn't listening. But this, he gave me a good idea here. I just told him, and I did this first before I told him, I called and made us both appointments at the audiology clinic. So, he had to go get tested also. And you know what? We both needed hearing aids.

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(Audience Laughing) So,(...) I find that that has been a huge help to me, especially in my ministry at Ashton, because we had a lot of small children there.(...) Probably 15 to 20, under seven. So, it was just amazing. But they talk so softly, and I could not always hear them. And so, hearing aids make a huge difference.

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But I'd always thought that I was a good listener.

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And people at the churches I've served over the years have told me that, that I was a good listener.

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And now I could even hear the little children.

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But you know,(...) Jesus does not need hearing aids to hear someone when someone calls to him.

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But first, before we talk about that, I wanna set the context for(...) the passage. You know, it's just days until it's Passover in Jerusalem.

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And Jesus and his disciples are making their way there for what was to be Jesus' final days.

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Now, if we go back a couple of verses to verse 31, we read that Jesus took the 12 disciples aside and he said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, "and all things which are written through the prophets "about the Son of Man will be accomplished.(...) "For he will be handed over to the Gentiles, "and he'll be mocked and mistreated and spit upon. "And after they have scourged him, they will kill him." (Children Chattering) And the third day, he will rise again.

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Sorry,(...) got my papers out of order.

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So anyway,(...) I'll get this straightened out. There we go.

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The text then tells us(...) that the disciples didn't understand what they were saying, he didn't understand any, they didn't understand any of what Jesus said, and apparently,

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they've been with him for three years and they still don't understand.

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So I wonder, how long have you been with Jesus? And do you still not understand?(...) It's something to contemplate as we go through our week.

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So here's Jesus and all of his disciples walking toward Jerusalem and they have to pass Jericho where there is a large crowd of people gathered to catch a glimpse of this man who has been preaching and healing like none of their other religious leaders have ever been able to do.

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And this particular event is also recorded in Mark and Matthew,(...) but it is Mark who gives this blind beggar a name.(...) Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus.

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That's really the only identifying passage for this poor blind man(...) who was sitting by the road hoping that someone would just toss him a few coins.

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But Bartimaeus senses something unusual is taking place because there are more people, and remember he can't see them, he can only hear them and sense their presence.

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And naturally he starts asking people around him, what is all the commotion about?

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And they told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.

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Well, you know, there are any number of ways that Bartimaeus could have reacted to this, but I'll tell you one thing(...) he did not do,(...) he did not stand up and straighten all of his clothing out and fix his hair and whatever. He didn't do anything like that. He didn't stand up to Jesus and say, I've lived a pretty good life. I've always gone to synagogue. I've never hurt anyone. I've tried to do the best I can based on all that I've done. Will you open my eyes?

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Nope, Bartimaeus did not say any of that because Bartimaeus knew(...) that he was a blind beggar with no claim for healing,(...) as we all are too.

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We are blind with no claim to Christ except for the grace of Christ.

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And Bartimaeus had nothing to commend himself to Christ. He just cried out for mercy, which is what we do also.

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And Jesus heard him.

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With all the noise of that massive crowd and all the excitement and probably many people trying to push closer to Jesus, Jesus heard this blind beggar's cry.(...) Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

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And of course, those who were near him told him to just be quiet. Don't bother him.(...) But you know what he did? He shouted all the more, crying out to Jesus for mercy and compassion.

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Do you know that when Bartimaeus called Jesus the son of David, he was really referring to him as the Messiah?

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And at that time, to call someone the Messiah was significant for the Jews because it meant that that person was the promised descendant of David who will sit upon the throne of Israel.

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And you know in only a few days, the crowds surrounding Jesus at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem will shout out the same,(...) "Hosanna to the son of David."

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And indeed, other beggars had used the same words, but Bartimaeus, using son of David, indicates that he was expecting far more than money.

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He has faith that the son of David, the Messiah, will grant his request.

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And the response that Jesus gives,

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"What do you want me to do for you?"

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You know, there are any number of responses that Jesus could have given, but that one.(...) He knows exactly what this beggar needs, what this blind beggar needs. He knows exactly what he wants,(...) but yet he asks him what he wants.

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There might be a couple of reasons for that.

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One could be that he just wanted this man to speak and say exactly out loud what he wanted from Jesus, which would then indicate this man's faith vocally so everyone around could hear.

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The other reason might be that he wanted this man to be specific about what he wanted from Jesus.

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Because after all,(...) don't we all have multiple things that we would like for Jesus to heal in us?

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And indeed, Jesus's question, "What do you want me to do for you?"(...) That can be helpful for us as his disciples today in today's world in our own ministry to people.

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Because in this preaching series on Bless to Bless, listening to others is a key part of how we share our blessing that we know Jesus listens to us.

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And Jesus does listen.(...) It's what he does. He listens, he hears, and then he asks. You know, that's a good formula for us to use when we're listening to others. Listen, hear, and then ask.

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You know, out of curiosity, I had to join the 21st century at some time and get a computer, you know, but I looked on Google with the search line, "What happens when we listen?"

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And I found a website. Whoever thought there'd be something called the power of listening,(...) but it was there. And here's a portion of what I learned.(...) And this first one is no surprise because it said most of us are terrible listeners.

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And it's not because we don't care.

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And I find that true with myself. I think I care about that person, but as soon as someone starts talking to me, I start immediately trying to form my response and what that will be.

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So, but according to the website, that's because we've been trained to solve problems, to assess needs, and to move things forward.

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But you know,(...) real listening isn't just waiting for your turn to talk.

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It's not about thinking how to fix the other person's problem.

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And it certainly isn't about judging whether what they are saying makes any sense.

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When you're really listening, you are being fully present with someone. You're putting your own agenda aside.

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You're sensing what is underneath. You know, there are always those words that are not spoken, but you know they're there.

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But why do we need to listen?

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And I just have to share this with you. As I was visiting out there in the, I guess you call it the North X, or your big meeting room out there, as I was visiting with people, I found myself not doing what I just preached about in the first service. I found myself thinking about, "Oh, who's that over there?" Or, "Oh, I need to go visit them," instead of listening to the person that I was speaking with.

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And I thought, "Oh, boy.

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I need to listen to my own message here."

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But you know, we listen because Jesus blesses us by listening to us.(...) And so we pass that blessing to someone else by listening to them.

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You know, there are many biblical references to listening, and one is in the book of James.(...) I love that book because it's so full of practical application. And in the first chapter, in verse 19, James writes this,(...) "This you know, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger."

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And you know, that's another part of that formula that we can use when we're listening in order to be a blessing to someone else. Quick to hear, slow to speak,(...) slow to anger.

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But the book of Proverbs is also full of short, full of long-standing sayings about listening, and one is, "A wise man will hear, an increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel."

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And of course, there's a statement that Jesus often made, "He who has ears, let him hear."

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Then there's the well-known, "So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."

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Faith comes from hearing.

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When we take time to truly listen to someone, to another person,(...) we might just find that we have the opportunity to share the gospel. You're sharing it by listening closely to them and caring about them, but you could also share the words that Jesus loves you, He died for you, and He rose so you can have eternal life.

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Listening is the blessing.

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Listening honors the other person.

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It says, "You matter enough to me for me to stop."

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"You matter enough for me to ask."

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"You matter enough for me to hear your own words."

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As Jesus does in this passage with Bartimaeus, he gives faith time after time.

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He doesn't point to his own power, as so many modern-day healers seem to do.(...) He gives glory to God and often points to the faith of the person who is healed, which encourages their faith even more.

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It's as though Jesus is saying,(...) "See what your faith in God is able to do."

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But keep in mind when you're listening to someone, and if they seem reluctant to talk, you can always ask, "How can I pray for you?"(...) In fact, I think you should ask that anyway, no matter what.

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And then pray for them, out loud, and with them,

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because Jesus is a bridge to the Father,

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always pointing people to a relationship with the Father.

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And we, we, in our daily lives, can serve as bridges to Jesus, ultimately leading the listener to the Father.

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But coming back to Bartimaeus, remember how this encounter with Jesus ended for him?

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Immediately he regained his sight and began following him, glorifying God, and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.

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This once blind man now becomes a disciple and joins Jesus' group of followers.

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And as we read,(...) he became an encouragement to others.(...) Just think about this. When newcomers ask Jesus, or ask about Jesus to the disciples, they can just point to Bartimaeus and say, "Jesus healed him." Don't you know that? Jesus healed him.

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And that gives all praise and glory to God.

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The healing of Bartimaeus serves as a powerful example to us of how it pleases Jesus for our faith to see its opportunity and grab onto it and refuse to let it go until we receive what we need from God.

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Who would have thought this beggar would instantly become a giver?

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Think about how your faith can help you become an effective listener,

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to be like Jesus.

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You know, and Pastor Drew and I spoke before this a few weeks back.

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I learned that he must have asked you to create a blessed list of people in your life to whom you could be a blessing.

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So this week,(...) I challenge you to ask at least one person on that blessed list a real question(...) and then listen without offering a solution(...) or giving them an answer.

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And while you're listening at any time this week, practice your listening skills so that you don't try to fix, redirect, or even just be waiting for your turn to talk.

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Remember that to be heard is to be known.

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To be known is to feel loved.

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And that is exactly how we feel when we realize that Jesus is always listening to us.(...) Amen.