Mark 10: Crying Out Like Bartimaeus in God’s Presence

Introduction

The “7 à 9” at Impact Centre Chrétien Montréal is a weekly gathering for prayer and worship after the workday. That evening, Freslet Germain leads the congregation from praise to intercession, building on one central passage: the story of the blind man Bartimaeus in Mark 10.

His message comes down to one conviction: “We are in the right place.” God’s presence is here, the Holy Spirit is here. But being in the right place is not enough. Like Bartimaeus, you have to cry out, and refuse to leave the way you came.

Over the course of the evening, he invites us to cry out to the Spirit of God, to worship before asking, to give thanks, to let the Lord build us, to stay rooted in love, and then to make our needs known to God.

Message Outline

1. A Cry That Comes From the Heart

• The evening opens with a call to the Holy Spirit: “This is not about a song, but about a cry that comes from our heart.”
• The congregation asks God to set it free from bitterness, sexual immorality, impurity and resentment, and not to leave it in sin or in “pretense.”
• Genesis 4:7 serves as the anchor: sin crouches at the door and its desire is for you, “but you must rule over it.” The good news is that God gives mastery over sin.
• Every morning, sin lies in wait. The preacher invites us to ask for the grace to rule over jealousy, over unforgiveness, over everything that keeps us from looking like Jesus.
• “I don’t know if you have already reached perfection. But I have not arrived yet. That is why I am crying out tonight.”

2. In the Right Place, Like Bartimaeus

• Mark 10: Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside where Jesus was going to pass. He was in the right place and he made the most of his position to receive what he wanted: to regain his sight.
• “Being in the right place is not enough.” Bartimaeus kept crying out, and when the people beside him rebuked him to silence him, he cried out all the louder.
• In prayer too, things pull us back: tiredness, sleep, distraction, the phone. Let nothing keep you from crying out before the throne of grace.
• He is told that it is Jesus of Nazareth passing by. But because he knows the Scriptures, Bartimaeus cries out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” He understood that his hour had come.
• “You must refuse to come out the same way you went in. You must come out a different person,” with God’s grace, favor and anointing.
• Praying is a commandment. The road is narrow and few people take it, but those who serve God choose the better part. As the apostle Peter writes, the end of all things is near: be sensible and sober so that you can pray. “It is time to pray.”
• “We have not come to meet a man,” but the Creator, the Savior, the good shepherd. Whatever your social standing, he listens to you: “The Lord knows your voice.” Even what you say in your heart, he hears.

3. Worship Before Asking

• Before presenting our “lists of requests,” our complaints and our worries, the congregation is invited to lift up the name of Jesus. Philippians 4:6 asks us to make our needs known to God “with thanksgiving.”
• There is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:12). The name of Jesus saves, heals, delivers, and raises the dead.
• God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow (Philippians 2:9-11).
• The living creatures before the throne say: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come,” and the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne (Revelation 4).
• Psalm 8 is proclaimed: “Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe (Proverbs 18:10).

4. Giving Thanks for His Benefits

• Ephesians 5:20 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18 call us to give thanks in everything. “Yahweh has done great things for them” (Psalm 126:2).
• Sometimes the people watching you see everything God has done in your life, so much that they are jealous, and you see nothing. It is impossible to remember everything, but the Holy Spirit can awaken your memory.
• “Praise Yahweh, my soul, and don’t forget all his benefits!” (Psalm 103:2). He is the one who forgives, who heals, who redeems your life from the pit.
• Even when the enemy catches you in his net and begins to rejoice, the net has been broken and we have escaped (Psalm 124:7). “The Lord broke the net for you.”
• If Yahweh had not been your help, your soul would soon have lived in the land of silence (Psalm 94:17), and people would be speaking of you in the past tense.
• He hems us in behind and before, and lays his hand on us (Psalm 139:5). As the mountains surround Jerusalem, Yahweh surrounds his people (Psalm 125:2). Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91).

5. Letting the Lord Build Us

• There are things the Lord builds and things he does not. “Unless Yahweh builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1).
• He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). The Lord has begun a work in each of us, but we need to ask him to continue it: “this building that we are has not yet reached perfection.”
• A building whose foundation is not deep is swept away by any flood. Built by God, whatever the winds and storms, we remain firm.
• God is the builder, the engineer, the architect par excellence. Like clay in the potter’s hand, we are in his hand: “Shape us as you wish.”
• The congregation’s prayer: “Do not leave us as we are.” We want to walk like Jesus, speak like him, act like him, walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

6. Rooted and Grounded in Love

• Paul bows his knees before the Father so that Christ may dwell in hearts through faith, and that believers, rooted and grounded in love, may grasp the width, length, depth and height of Christ’s love (Ephesians 3:14-19).
• A poorly rooted tree is uprooted by any flood. A house without a good foundation is destroyed by any earthquake.
• In the same way, a Christian who is not rooted in love can be turned aside by any situation. Many have abandoned the faith because they were not well rooted.
• Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ: not tribulation, not distress, not danger, not height, not depth (Romans 8:35-39).
• Even if someone offends you, you do not leave the Gospel and you keep coming to pray, because you have already forgiven. “God’s love in you is not a shallow love, a fleeting love, it is a deep love.”
• Neither money nor wealth should detach you from Jesus, even if you became a millionaire, even if you owned a piece of Montreal.
• God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), and love bears all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). The congregation asks for the grace to remain in Christ, whatever the temptations, seductions and attacks.

7. Make Your Needs Known to God

• “In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).
• Jesus asked Bartimaeus: “What do you want me to do for you?” He answered: “That I may receive my sight.” What is your pressing need tonight?
• God already knows your need, but he has set a principle: you have to tell him.
• “Whatever the challenge, he has the ability to lift it. Whatever the problem, he has the ability to solve it.” He solved Bartimaeus’s problem and made the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda walk.
• Maybe you have been praying about this situation for a long time. You who hear prayer, to you all people will come (Psalm 65:3). God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:2).

Key Takeaways

• Being in God’s presence is not enough: like Bartimaeus, you have to cry out, even when everything around you tries to silence you.
• God gives mastery over the sin that crouches at the door. This grace is something you ask for in prayer.
• Worship and thanksgiving come before requests: lift up the name of Jesus and forget none of his benefits.
• The Lord has begun a work in you and he can finish it. Ask him to keep building you.
• Rooted in God’s love, you stay firm in the face of offenses, money and temptations.

Personal Application

1. What keeps you from crying out to God right now: tiredness, sleep, distraction, your phone?
2. For which sin crouching at your door do you need to ask for the grace to rule over it?
3. Which of God’s benefits have you forgotten, ones that others may see in your life better than you do?
4. Could an offense today distance you from the Church or from prayer? What does being rooted in love mean to you?
5. If Jesus asked you tonight, “What do you want me to do for you?”, what would you answer him?

Verses Cited

• Mark 10:46-52
• Genesis 4:7
• 1 Peter 4:7
• Philippians 4:6
• Acts 4:12
• Philippians 2:9-11
• Revelation 4:8-11
• Psalm 8
• Proverbs 18:10
• Ephesians 5:20
• 1 Thessalonians 5:18
• Psalm 126:2
• Psalm 103:1-4
• Psalm 124:7-8
• Psalm 94:17
• Psalm 139:5
• Psalm 125:2
• Psalm 91:1-10
• Psalm 127:1
• Philippians 1:6
• Jeremiah 18:6
• Ephesians 3:14-19
• Romans 8:35-39
• Romans 5:5
• 1 Corinthians 13:7
• John 5:1-9
• Psalm 65:3
• Psalm 46:2

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Bartimaeus teach us about prayer?

Bartimaeus was in the right place, on the road where Jesus was about to pass. But Freslet Germain stresses that this was not enough: he cried out, and when people told him to be quiet, he cried out all the louder. Tiredness, sleep, distraction or your phone must not keep you from crying out to God.

Why worship God before presenting your needs?

The preacher invites us to lift up the name of Jesus before laying out our “lists of requests.” Philippians 4:6 asks us to make our needs known to God through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. Worship and gratitude therefore come first.

What does it mean to be rooted and grounded in love?

Drawing on Ephesians 3, Freslet Germain compares the Christian to a tree and a house: without roots or a foundation, any flood or any earthquake sweeps them away. Rooted in God’s love, you stand firm even when someone offends you, because you have already forgiven.