Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / When God Breaks Through Your Blindness - John 9

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When God Breaks Through Your Blindness - John 9 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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Good morning. My name is Danielle.
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I'm going to lead pastors here at Resurrection Church.
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Welcome. If it's your first time joining
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us, welcome. We're excited you chose today to
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come and join us. We're in John 9 today.
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Have you, have you ever had kind of an epiphany, like like just a
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moment where all of a sudden you, you saw something with
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maybe some incredible clarity, like like maybe things that you
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thought about before, but just for some reason in that moment,
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you, you kind of came to this shocking realization, almost
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like like you came to this point of like, man, how come I've
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never seen this this way before? Like, I don't know if you know
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what I'm talking about. Like I, I've had a lot of those
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moments in my life where all of a sudden I kind of saw something
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went. How come I've never seen it this
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this way before? About like a year ago.
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And I, and I, I've forgotten to share this already a couple
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times, but about a year ago, I came to this, this moment in my
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life, like a moment of cold clarity where I realized that I
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was an alcoholic. And, and I came to that
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realization because I just, I, I realized that the definition of
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alcoholism is one of the, the signs is that you don't have the
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control over it that you think you have.
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And I came to the realization of like, I don't think I control
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this as much as it controls me at the end.
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That moment. I, it's almost like I could see
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the cost of holding on to that. I could see what it would cost
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in ministry. I could see what it would cost
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in my family. I could see what it would cost
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in my personal health. Like I could actually, like, I
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begin to realize that the freedom that I had in Christ to
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enjoy drinks was actually hurting me.
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Like all things are permissible, but not all things are
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beneficial. Amen.
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And so I could I begin to actually look at this and went,
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you know, if I become casual about this struggle and I
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dismiss it, there are going to be implications for this.
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And so here's what I've learned in moments like that in my life.
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And, and I think every one of us that is in Christ has moments
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like this. And I don't want you to miss
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this in moments like that. It's not me becoming smart.
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It's not me suddenly having wisdom in moments like that.
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That is the Holy Spirit breaking through distractions in my life
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to grab hold of my attention. And my only job in that moment
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is to respond in obedience. That's my job.
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And so here's what I would tell you, Christians in the room.
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If you're a Christian, we say that we want to hear from God,
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but why would he talk to us when we make a consistent habit of
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ignoring the things he says? Come on, I'm just, I'm just
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asking like, I really want to hear from God.
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He's speaking to you all the time and you made a practice of
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ignoring it. I mean, the hard things, not the
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easy things. Those I do all the time.
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The hard things, the, the, the ones that require me to change
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or die to my preference or die to myself.
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And, and, and because he speaks through his scripture and I'm
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really good at ignoring that when it requires me to change,
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why would he speak to me in some other way?
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We say we want to hear from God, but then we hear from him and we
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start playing this game. Maybe you don't, but I start
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playing this game where I decide like, well, maybe, maybe I
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should, I should reason with myself whether or not like, I
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should obey God, you know, like, well, I don't know if that's a
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good idea. I don't know if God has thought
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that all the way through. I know you don't.
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Maybe you could relate to me. Maybe you know somebody like
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this. Not you, but somebody else.
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Look where I decide. You know, I'm probably smart
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enough and wise enough to weigh whether or not the God of the
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universe is right. Seems reasonable and I've got a
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lot of excuses personally about why I don't think that that's
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such a good idea, Lord. And so here's our big idea in
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this sermon. If you leave with nothing else
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today to leave with one idea, I want you to remember this one
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idea and it's this My role is to respond when God rings.
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My job. My role is to respond when God
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rings. You're going to see that all
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throughout our our scripture today.
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We're going to be in John 9. And in fact, we're going to see
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multiple examples in John 9 of both sides of this reaction.
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So, so the positive side when, when God is supernaturally
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communicating, prompting someone and they respond.
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And then we're going to see the opposite where God is trying to
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get someone's attention and they reject him.
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And they're both in our story in John 9 today.
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So we're continuing to steam. We we were in John 8 before
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this. There's a whole theme about
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light and dark in John 8. And we had this example in the
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temple of these torches. And so actually we have some of
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the same concepts and illustrations, except instead of
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a torch, which was a couple weeks ago, we're actually going
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to have a blind man as our this is a live illustration in John
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nine of a blind man. Join with me to read God's word.
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John Chapter 9 verse one says this talking about Jesus.
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As he Jesus passed by he saw a blind a man blind from birth.
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And his disciples asked him Rabbi which means teacher who
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sinned this man or his parents, that he was born blind.
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And Jesus answered it was not that this man sinned or his
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parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
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We must work the works of him who sent me.
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While it is day, night is coming when no one can work.
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As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
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So continuing from John 8, Jesus is walking somewhere in
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Jerusalem and he stops. And more than likely he's kind
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of considering staring at this blind man who's just standing
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there. And his disciples see this.
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And so the conversation starts with their commentary where they
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say, who's sinned? Now, the reason they ask this is
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that the Jews in the 1st century and, and from before that time,
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they believed that disabilities were a result of sin, either the
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sin of the person or generational sin.
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And so they treated all disabled as such.
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Very compassionate society. This man wasn't just blind in
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that culture. He was an outcast.
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He was invisible. He was kind of written off and
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forgotten. And, and, and I mean, we're
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being really honest, but we, we do a lot of this today, this
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sort of like assignment of blame.
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We see someone struggling with an addiction, with mental
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health, with a difficult marriage, with financial
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trouble. And our first thought is not,
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how can I help? It's more of like, I wonder what
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they did, but I do want you to see this because I do think it's
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easy to miss this part. And that's this.
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The man is not calling out to Jesus.
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The the blind man is not searching for help.
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He didn't, he didn't prompt the conversation at all.
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He doesn't ask to be healed, doesn't do anything at all.
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He's literally standing there. He's probably in need of money
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or food. And then Jesus says this to his
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disciples. He says, but it's not that the
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man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be
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displayed in him. And I read that.
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I don't know if you read that the same way, but I read that I
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went, wait, hold on. You're telling me that this man
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was born blind, has lived decades in blindness as a social
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outcast, as a pariah in this community, in loneliness, maybe
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in poverty, certainly in shame, and all of that was allowed in
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his life so that God in this one moment in John 9 could do a
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miracle and everyone would see it?
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Doesn't that make you a little uncomfortable?
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Like, like, Dang, man, that's a little cruel, isn't it?
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Like a little cold? Like, wait, the implication of
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that is, are you telling me that, that, that medical
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diagnosis that I got that, that, that cancer, that someone just
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found out about the death of a loved one, the, the failed
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relationship that, that pain that you went through, the
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suffering that was allowed to happen in your life was for, for
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what? On a whim?
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Like I, I've had some, some really difficult moments in my
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life, some loss. I've had two like really
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significant surgeries, one on my torn Achilles, one on a torn
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pectoral. Whereas like long gruelling
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recoveries, like just stuck in a cast for 6-8 months and you get
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into some really dark places where you start asking some
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questions about like, why in the world did this happen to me?
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And like there's a moment in this suffering, if you look at
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it, where you you begin to go, maybe God is cruel.
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But what if, what if it's not cruel?
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If, OK, if you're here, you're visiting, maybe maybe
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Christianity is something new to you or foreign to you and you're
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just kind of checking it out. The story of the Bible is that
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life wasn't always this way. Humanity was not always in the
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midst of suffering. That actually the way God
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designed it originally in the garden, humans weren't
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suffering. There was no death and pain for
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humanity. But we rebelled against God and
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now we live in a world that is cursed by sin and death.
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We were not designed for this so so so God did not bring this
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evil or this suffering in. We did What?
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What if though, as I try to understand suffering and and
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pain in my own life, what if? What if God allowed those
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moments in my life not to punish me, Not because I sinned, just
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like in this story? What what if I was allowed to go
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through those things so that I would be prepared to connect
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with others when they're hurting?
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What if God allowed me to go through those things so that God
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could prove his goodness in the midst of my suffering?
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Here's one of the maybe the hardest things that that we
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learn about about who God is and who we are here.
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Here's the thing. The moment, the moment I stopped
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making my life about me, I start to see God everywhere.
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Let me make it simpler. It's not about me.
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Say it with me. It's not about me.
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Now, Church, that's either the most terrifying truth you're
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going to hear today or the most liberating, because if it's not
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about me, then I don't have to carry around the way to the
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world. And I can stop assuming that
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every difficult circumstance, every pain, every suffering is
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pointless unless you know, I agree with it or I can
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understand it. In the moment that that starts
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to sink in, you are on the path to learning humility.
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Now God is about to, in this story, take this, this blindness
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that this man has been born into and lived through, and he's
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going to turn it into something more powerful and more beautiful
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than you would actually imagine. Look at verse 6.
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It says this. Having said these things, Jesus
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spit on the ground, yes, that's weird and made mud with the
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saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes
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with the mud and said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam,
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which means scent. So he went and washed and came
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back seeing. OK, just catch a couple things
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here. Again, the blind man is standing
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there and has not asked for help.
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And I just want you to put your yourself in the in the, in the
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shoes of this guy, right? He's standing there, Jesus spits
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on the ground, makes some mud and sticks it in the guy's eyes.
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We can all admit that's weird, right?
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Please don't do that to me. Guy didn't ask for help.
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Guy didn't ask for healing. Guy is not seeking Jesus.
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And then second thing, Jesus doesn't say, OK, you're healed.
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Then he's like, oh, you got mud in your eye, better go wash it
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off. And tells him to go all the way
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across town. It's about 1/2 mile.
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He's blind and they don't have Uber.
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Better go wash it off across town.
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That's what he's telling him in the Bible.
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If you, if you study like all the miracles that Jesus does,
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all the times he heals someone, there's a bunch of times where
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he literally looks at someone and goes you're healed and
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they're healed or he touches someone and they're healed.
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But he doesn't do that here. I mean, he doesn't need to make
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mud with his spit. He doesn't even need to touch
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the man. He doesn't need to send the man
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to a pool. Like none of those things are
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necessary. He heals people all the time
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with all those things. Why did he do all of that weird
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stuff? OK, I want you to see a couple
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things, OK? One, I do want you to realize
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like, and I think it's really important implication to
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understand that, that that the man is not not only not
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searching for Jesus, he doesn't realize that Jesus is the
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answer. And listen, there's a lot of
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stories in the Bible where where the person comes to Jesus to be
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healed. We see that over and over again.
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But what I want you to see here is Jesus seeks this man out to
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heal him. There are some of you sitting in
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the room today or, or watching this online and Jesus is seeking
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you out right now to save you. And you don't know that he's the
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answer and you're not seeking him and you don't care about
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him. And, and maybe you actually like
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think that all this faith stuff is ignorant or stupid.
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And I'm telling you that even in your blindness, Jesus is seeking
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to save you. And the second thing I want you
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to understand is that Jesus always takes the initiative to
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save us. Some of us think that in this
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moment where we realize that the God is speaking to us, there was
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something that we did. But I need you to understand
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that God was always at power and at work before you ever realized
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anything. My role is to respond when God
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rings. Now, the whole mud thing is it's
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a little gross. I mean, you just imagine you're
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standing there blind, destitute, probably hungry, and this guy
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walks up and they're kind of the disciples are kind of like, oh,
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look at this Sinner guy who sinned, right?
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And Jesus is like, cool, I'll take care of it.
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And then smashes his spit mud in your eyes.
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Really, bro? And then he's like, now go
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across town and wash it out. But but here, here's what I do
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want you to see. And you're going to see in the
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text here both those things, the making of mud pies and the
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washing were considered work by Judaic law, and it was the
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Sabbath. So Jesus not only breaks Judaic
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law, he makes the man break Judaic law so that he can set up
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the next interaction. That's how we know how
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intentional this was and you'll see it in just a minute.
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The third thing, I want you to see this.
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Jesus could have healed him. Even at the point he put mud on
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his eyes, He could have healed him.
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He could have taken the mud off. He could have seen.
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He didn't. He required the man to respond
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in faith until that man walked all the way across town, 600
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meters through Jerusalem, blind and washed off that mud.
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He was still blind. And I want you to catch that
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because often times, often times man, God is doing something
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powerful in your life, but he requires you to respond in
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obedience before you're going to really see it fully.
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In fact, often times you're not even going to you recognize that
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God is at work in your life in power until you do that.
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You're not going to receive the, the blessing or even understand
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the move of God in your life until you respond in obedience.
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Often there's an act of obedience that is necessary to
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fully realize God's Providence. You couldn't start it.
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You didn't want it. You didn't know what was going
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on. Jesus was doing it.
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God was at work. But you are required to take a
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step forward in obedience in order to realize the power of
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God working in your life with a blessing of God in your life.
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And it's listen, as long as you stand there with mud on your
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eyes doing nothing, debating over whether or not obedience to
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God is worth it, you won't receive it.
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You won't experience it. And I want to encourage you.
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Some of us, some of us in here, are going through a really,
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really tough season in our life right now.
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Amen. And yet God is at work trying to
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convict you or encourage you or move you or prompt you or
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motivate you. And man, some of us are standing
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right now with our hands in our pocket and mud on our eyes,
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wondering whether or not God's going to move.
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In my life right now, God is at work and has been at work for
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some time, convicting me and moving me towards some some
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tough decisions in ministry, some some discernment stuff
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about where He's leading our church and where He's leading
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me, and some stuff that I frankly been trying to ignore
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for a while. But I see His hand even in the
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really hard stuff, and I'm trying to be obedient so that I
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can see where He's leading me. And what you and I have to do in
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these moments is we have to take the hard step of obedience.
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It was not easy for that blind man to stumble his way all the
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way through Jerusalem to get to that pool, but he did it anyway.
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And for some of you, there are some hard steps ahead in
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obedience to Christ. But if you want to receive what
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God has for you, if you, if you want to see what he's doing in
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her life, if you want to put your arms around a move of God
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in your life, you're going to need to respond.
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The result of this story in John 9 is supernatural science has no
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recorded cases of someone being born blind and receiving their
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sight 20-30 years later. And, and the result of this, if
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you read the story, is noticed by the whole community.
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And so people start to celebrate this until a couple days later,
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the Pharisees who are like the religious rulers of the day,
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they hear about this and they get all up in arms in verse 14,
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because now it was a Sabbath day that Jesus made the mud and open
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the eyes. Uh oh, you done messed up.
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A a Ron, you did a miracle on the Sabbath.
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How dare you? I can just see the head bobbing
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right now, right? A miracle of supernatural
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healing, and the Pharisees hear about it, and they're ticked off
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that a rule got broken on the Sabbath.
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Think about this, God does this miracle to get the attention of
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the people, not only to to see that he's at work, but to see
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that Jesus is offering salvation and they're stuck on religious
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rules, missing God at work. God wants them to see Jesus and
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all they can see is it couldn't be God because like these men
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broke a rule, therefore they couldn't have earned this
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miracle. That's what they're thinking,
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but they couldn't have earned this miracle.
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Listen like it's easy to look at them and look down our nose and
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go so dumb. But but but you and I do that.
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We look at a Co worker, a relative, a neighbor, another
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church that gets blessed where God's doing something miraculous
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and instead of giving glory to God and letting it build up our
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faith, we start to question we're like that person.
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No, but they do they do they really deserve that?
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Can it, can it be real for if it's them, if it's so and so
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like the, the act, the very miracle that was intended to
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help them see Jesus has led to them just judging others in self
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righteousness. And, and So what happens in our
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text is that the, the, the, the Pharisees, they interview him
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and they don't like the answers. So they call his parents and
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they don't like their answers. So they call him back for like a
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second interrogation and they're just, they're pressing on him.
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And here's the crazy thing in the story.
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He was blind when he left to go to the pool.
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So he's never even seen Jesus. He's never seen Jesus, but
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they're asking him all these questions about Jesus and he
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keeps going. He's like, you knew I was blind,
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right? Like they're pressing him.
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And so he's just kind of making up answers.
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Like sometimes we do that too. People ask us hard theological
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questions. We're like.
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And so he's like, what? I think he's a prophet.
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And then in verse 25, he's kind of confused and they're still
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asking him all these tough questions and he answers this.
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This is one of the best answers in all of scripture.
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In verse 25, they're they're on him and he goes, whether he's a
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Sinner, I do not know. One thing I know though, I was
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blind and now I see. One thing I do know, I was blind
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and now I see you realize I was the inspiration for probably the
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most well known hymn in the history of the world, right from
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John 9. Amazing Grace.
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How sweet the sound that saved a Wretch like me.
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I once was lost but now I'm found.
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Was blind. But now I see that's my story,
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that's what happened to me. You don't have to know anything
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more to have a testimony worth sharing.
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Listen, studying and preparing to share your faith is
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wonderful. You should do that.
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But you should never miss an opportunity to tell people how
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Jesus changed you. This guy isn't qualified.
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He was an outcast of society, but when God moved, he responded
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in faith. And now not only does he have
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his sight restored, God is beginning to save his soul.
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In verses 30 through 33, he defends Jesus passionately, and
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he's still never seen Jesus with his own eyes.
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And he finishes his defense with this line.
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If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
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Oh, boy's preaching so, so, so, so God has now filled this man.
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He's, he's given him the words in the moment.
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He's standing in front of the most powerful religious rulers
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of their time who hold in balance, casting him out of the
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the temple, meaning they decide whether he gets excluded from
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all of this community or not. And he's standing there in that
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moment in front of all of them, emboldened because the Holy
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Spirit has given him these words and he is pressing back against
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persecution of Christ. Christian, listen to me.
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You have the spirit of the living God inside of you.
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You are a minister of the gospel.
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You are a royal priesthood, A chosen nation.
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You are an evangelist. You are a walking testimony of
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the goodness and power of God. And he only left you here on
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earth and didn't immediately take you to heaven when you were
25:07
saved so that you could spread the good news to a dark and
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fallen world. Somebody say Amen, you are
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called and, and, and think about who he picked in this story.
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He picks up a man who's been born in the blindness and lived
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as a social outcast his whole life, and then prepares him
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through that suffering not only to receive the gospel, but to
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become the story of the power of God.
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Because God equips those he calls.
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If you know God, it's because he saved you, not that you and I
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did anything. And the fact of the Bible is
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that he often chooses those who have nothing to brag about.
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Amen. In first Corinthians one, the
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Bible says it this way. God chose what is weak in the
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world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and
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despised in the world. Dirtbag like me, if for one
26:10
second you feel unworthy of the love that Jesus has given you,
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of the calling that He has put on your life, just remember
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this. He chose you before the
26:21
foundations of the world, and He loves choosing the worst of us
26:28
to display His power and His glory to the world through us.
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So don't you hang your head, don't you shy away from the
26:37
call, or run from the mission, or miss the position that He has
26:40
put you in. You step into obedience to tell
26:44
them about your Jesus. And you don't have to know
26:48
anything more than that. We sing this song all the time.
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Sing this with me. He makes a way where there ain't
26:55
no way. Rises up from an empty grave.
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Ain't no Sinner that he can't save.
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Let me tell you about my Jesus. His love is strong and His grace
27:08
is free. And the good news is, I know
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that He can do for you what he's done for me.
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Let me tell you about my Jesus and let my Jesus change your
27:21
life. That's all you got to know.
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That's all you have to know. If you will pay attention to the
27:34
Holy Spirit in your life, you're going to find opportunity after
27:37
opportunity to share Christ with others.
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Don't miss these opportunities. God is at work and He will
27:51
prompt you when when you recognize God is at work, that
27:57
is an invitation to join him in his work.
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My role is to respond when God rings.
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Verse 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out.
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Now that doesn't mean that they were just they cast him out
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meaning like, oh, we're done with you.
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That means he got cast out of community for standing up for
28:21
Christ and having found him. He said, do you believe in the
28:27
Son of man? That is the the title Jesus used
28:30
for himself a bunch in the in the New Testament.
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And the blind man answered, and who is he, Sir, that I'm able he
28:36
still hasn't seen Jesus that I might believe in him.
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And Jesus said to him, you have seen him and it is he who is
28:42
speaking to you. And he said, Lord, I believe,
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and he worshipped him. Don't, don't miss the, the, the
28:49
progression of faith. It's the first time the man has
28:51
even seen Jesus with his own eyes.
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He, he was not seeking Jesus when this story started.
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And then he's like, well, maybe he's a prophet.
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And then part way through the story, he goes, I don't know if
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he's a Sinner or if he isn't a Sinner.
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And then he gets the conviction continues to build and he's
29:03
like, listen, he must be from God.
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And we end the story with I believe and he is worshipping
29:10
Jesus. And that all happened not
29:12
because he did anything to start it, but because he responded to
29:17
Christ and he could have missed it.
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Like I'll just think about what he could have missed in that
29:24
moment with mud on his face, all the excuses he could have come
29:29
up with. Like, I don't know who this dude
29:32
is. In fact, if this guy is from
29:37
God, that's the God that allowed me to be born in the blindness.
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So he could have sat there in bitterness.
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He could have thought about, man, do you know how hard it's
29:49
going to get to go all the way across down to that pool?
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Why would I do that? There will always be excuses and
29:58
reasons not to respond to the call of Christ in your life.
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And oftentimes, oftentimes the greatest of those is our own
30:08
self-sufficiency, like our own desire to trust in our own
30:13
wisdom, our own intellect, and it causes us to miss Jesus.
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In fact, we actually have a need to be low.
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Oftentimes, especially as you read these stories in the Bible.
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It is only those that are low that are even able to see Jesus
30:28
at work in their lives. Charles Spurgeon said it this
30:31
way. It is not our littleness that
30:33
hinders Christ, but our bigness. It is not our weakness that
30:36
hinders Christ, it is our strength.
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It is not our darkness that hinders Christ, it is our
30:41
supposed light that holds back His hand.
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We think too much of ourselves and we miss Christ in the
30:49
process. His story finishes up last three
30:54
verses, 39 through 41. And essentially here's what
30:57
Jesus is going to say. He's going to tell people that
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he came into this world so that those who did not see would be
31:03
able to see. And the Pharisees are going to
31:05
hear this and they're going to go, wait a minute, are you
31:08
saying we're blind? And then Jesus in verse 41 is
31:13
going to respond to them. And I'm going to paraphrase it,
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but he says this. He says essentially how you
31:17
respond when Jesus shows up will become your judgement.
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That's what verse 41 really means.
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And the Bible will reinforce this concept over and over again
31:29
that that that it is going to be some point in your life where
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you're going to be confronted with the truth of Christ.
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And in that moment, your response will become your
31:40
judgement. Let me take it even further than
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just that. I would tell you this.
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If you're a Christian, that actually is going to happen over
31:47
and over and over again. If you've given your life to
31:49
Christ, you're going to be confronted with Jesus calling
31:52
you into acts of obedience. And in those moments where you
31:57
have to decide whether or not to obey or to argue, whether or not
32:00
to obey or to have an excuse, whether or not to obey or to
32:02
delay, there's going to be a moment when we stand before
32:06
Christ. And we're going to answer for
32:07
all of those interactions too. Because it's a daily thing,
32:10
Christian. Sometimes it's an hourly thing.
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It's not one time in your life you responded to Jesus.
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Do you want to hear from God? Do you want to, do you want to
32:21
see him move miraculously in your life?
32:22
You want to experience love and satisfaction and contentment in
32:25
your life? Do you want to be healed of an
32:27
addiction or an overwhelming temptation?
32:29
Do you want to experience real joy in your life?
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Then I would ask you this, what is God calling you to do right
32:35
now? And go do it with no delay.
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We get caught up in the middle of it all the time.
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God's prompting us, calling us, convicting us, encouraging us,
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and we're like, let me pray about it.
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That is the Christian version of I don't want to think about that
32:55
right now. Let me give 5, just 5 little
33:03
practical things in that moment. I just want you to consider
33:05
these things. These are like life application.
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OK? Here's #1 when we have known sin
33:10
in our life that we won't deal with, we stop growing.
33:15
See, some of us right now in the room or online know exactly what
33:18
we're supposed to be doing. And we've been wrestling with it
33:20
for I don't even know how long. And let me just tell you this,
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Repent, confess it to somebody and get accountability in your
33:31
life. You've been hiding for way too
33:33
long and you've been wondering why God's silent.
33:36
He's not. You're just good at ignoring
33:37
him. Get accountability.
33:42
Get into a group, find a person, tell your spouse.
33:45
Come up front during prayer time.
33:47
Make it happen #2 the longer we refuse to repent, the harder it
33:55
gets to hear the Holy Spirit. God's not silent.
33:58
We have dull ears. Listen, it's super hard to hear
34:02
from God when you're doing this. When God is calling you to
34:10
something and you can make a habit out of refusing.
34:14
I'm not sure how you think you're going to hear or be
34:16
sensitive to the Holy Spirit. You're practicing being
34:20
insensitive to the Holy Spirit. I've gotten really good at being
34:27
insensitive to the Holy Spirit and then being mad at God for
34:29
not talking #3 If you know what to do and refuse to do it, the
34:36
Bible calls that sin. Let me say that again.
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If you know what to do and refuse to do it, the Bible calls
34:43
that sin. Man, some of y'all in here, you
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know you have a call in your life like God has been working
34:49
in your life and moving in your life and he's been calling you
34:52
into something, into a ministry to serve, to give, to change
34:55
something to take hold of something to.
34:58
I mean, you know that and you've been wrestling over it.
35:00
And I'm just telling you stop running.
35:05
Find someone else to tell about it.
35:08
Make a plan on how to actually do it.
35:10
Listen, the whole point of gathering together to encourage
35:14
one another is to stir one another up.
35:19
So stop internalizing that and talk to somebody about it and
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go, I need help to do the thing that's calling me to do.
35:25
We love doing that. You'll find that the people in
35:30
the church love helping you do the thing that God's calling you
35:34
to do #4 when God calls you to do something, stop making
35:38
excuses. It's for your benefit.
35:41
The greatest enemy to American Christianity is comfort.
35:48
Y'all we way too comfortable. You can have courage or you can
35:52
have comfort, but you can't have both.
35:55
You got to choose. And I'm just going to tell you
35:57
this, y'all jump in the water is fine #5 If you have no idea if
36:07
God is calling you, create time and space for him to speak and
36:11
then ask him. We live in the noisiest time in
36:15
human history. We have the shortest attention
36:17
spans in human history. Turn off your TV, turn off your
36:21
phone, open your Bible and ask him.
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It's a revolutionary concept. This song that came out a couple
36:28
weeks ago from Josiah Queen. I, I love the chorus.
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It goes like this. We got dust on our bibles, brand
36:35
new iPhones. No wonder why we feel this way.
36:40
We walk with our eyes closed blind leading blind folks and
36:45
I'm done with those idols and dusty bibles.
36:52
There are two groups of people sitting in this room or or or
36:55
watching today. The 1st is a group.
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First group of of you is those who do not know Christ as your
37:04
Lord and personal Savior. You don't actually know him.
37:07
You know of him, you know about him, your grandma knows him, but
37:11
you don't know him. You've never made a decision to
37:15
respond to the call of God in your life.
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And I just want you to consider what the Bible is saying here in
37:20
John nine, that that your judgement is actually based on
37:23
how you respond. The Bible says at some point in
37:28
your life you're going to hear the call from the God, you're
37:30
going to, you're going to be confronted with the gospel.
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Guess what? Today is that day.
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How will you respond? The Bible says that we are all
37:45
born in sin apart from relationship with God, and that
37:50
nothing we can do on our own will repair that relationship.
37:53
So God sent his only Son to live a perfect life that we could
37:58
never live, to die the death that we deserved, to die, and to
38:02
rise again three days later in victory.
38:05
And it through him we could have a restored relationship to the
38:09
Father. But you ought to lay down your
38:12
life to call him Lord of it. And for some of you, you've
38:23
known Jesus, but man, you have been wrestling with an act of
38:26
obedience in your life and you've not wanted to give that
38:29
over to the Lord. It is the same surrender now
38:32
that started this whole salvation process.
38:37
You have to lay your life down. Yes, even that thing you're
38:41
holding on to. So I want to give both of the
38:44
groups in this room an opportunity to respond to this
38:47
today. If you don't know Jesus, this is
38:51
your opportunity. The Bible says that you must
38:54
place your faith in him. In Romans 10/9 to 10.
38:56
It says this because if you confess with your mouth that
38:59
Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised
39:02
him from the dead, you will be saved.
39:03
Because with the heart 1 believes and is justified, and
39:06
with the mouth 1 confesses and is saved.
39:11
So I want to give you the opportunity to respond.
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Would you please all bow your heads and close your eyes for
39:15
just a moment? We're wrapping up, but if you're
39:18
willing to ask Him for forgiveness and salvation with
39:22
every eye closed, with every head bowed, just quietly or or
39:25
silently repeat this prayer after me.
39:27
Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner and I can't save myself.
39:39
I want you to save me, so I surrender everything to you and
39:47
I receive your promise of forgiveness, of adoption, and of
39:54
eternal life. Be my Lord, Please Jesus, if you
40:01
prayed that prayer for the very first time right now, would you
40:03
be brave and raise your hand for me to see?
40:09
Thank you. You put your hands down in Jesus
40:13
name, Amen real quick. Whether you raised your hand or
40:19
not, if you just responded to the call of God in your life for
40:23
the very first time, welcome to the family.
40:33
In just a moment as we respond to this message, there are
40:35
tables in the back and say I raised my hand.
40:39
You just gave your life to Jesus.
40:40
We want to, we want to meet you. I want you to go back there in a
40:42
minute. We have a gift for you.
40:43
We want to talk to you and pray with you.
40:48
For those of you that already know the Lord and you've been
40:51
wrestling with that thing that God is calling you into, I want
40:54
to encourage you that you will never regret responding to
40:58
Christ. Imagine that blind man missing
41:03
out not only on sight, but on being saved because he failed to
41:06
respond. For many of us, there's healing,
41:08
there's contentment, there's satisfaction, there's
41:11
transformation. Waiting for us today to respond
41:14
to Christ's conviction and prompting in our lives.
41:16
So don't put it off. Our job is to respond when God
41:20
rings. A per team is going to be up
41:22
here. We would love to pray with you
41:24
about anything. We love praying for you.
41:28
It's not weird to get prayed for.
41:30
It's weird to go to church and not get prayed for.
41:33
Just saying, will you stand? We're going to sing you move as
41:38
the Lord leads you. We love you.