[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. This is the next message in our series on the book of John, entitled, Jesus is God.
[0:15] Heavenly Father, I thank you so much, because I once was blind, but now I see. I don't know how you did it, Lord, but I know you touched me, and that today I can see. And I'm in a room filled with people, Lord, that you have given sight to.
[0:28] I ask that you'll be with us, Lord, as we look at the life song of a blind man in John chapter number 9. And we reflect upon the life song that we have. I pray that it will glorify you through every circumstance in life and all the sufferings that we may have.
[0:42] And in the urgency of the hour, Lord, we want our hearts given fully over to you for what you have done in our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. If you will join me in John chapter number 9.
[0:52] Our study of the day will be John chapter number 9, verses 1 through 15. What a wonderful song as we get ready for it today as we look at it. Because we're going to look at the life song of a blind man.
[1:04] We're going to look at his story. We're going to look at how God opened his eyes physically and got him out of darkness physically. And then later on in the chapter, we'll see how he opened his eyes spiritually.
[1:15] And he became one of the children of light. He became born again. He became a saved man. And it's just a wonderful passage. As we said in the introduction, it said there that a man going around punching holes in the darkness.
[1:28] And here Jesus improving his deity, proving that he is God. He's going to punch holes in the darkness. And he's going to do something that not only opens the eyes of the one man, but it opens the eyes of those that are around him.
[1:40] It opens the eyes of the disciples, what the true purpose of suffering. And by God's grace, I pray that through his word, it will open some eyes in this room today. So we look here in John chapter number 9.
[1:52] I read some verses. I'm going to read the first five verses, and we'll look through the other ones as it unfolds for us this morning. John 9, verses 1 through 5. And Jesus passed by.
[2:04] I could stop there all morning, and you know that I could. But aren't you thankful that Jesus passed by? Because that's what makes this story unique. He saw a man which was blind from his birth, and his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents?
[2:19] That was that he was born blind. Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sit me while it is day.
[2:32] The night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he sped on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
[2:47] We've already seen in John chapter number 8, around verse number 12, it's said that he is the light of the world. And those of us that follow after him no longer walk in darkness, but we walk in light because we have light in him.
[3:02] And now he's going to provide for us an example and show us. And today as we leave, we ought to think about what he has done in our lives. It's not for that blind man, but for us. So this morning we're in John 9 at a blind man.
[3:14] This evening we'll be with a blind man. When Pastor returns, there'll still be more verses about this blind man. And Brother Hewitt, when I was studying this, I was amazed at the proportion of Scripture given to one single blind man in the Bible.
[3:27] Because there's so many miracles in a book like Mark, where it goes real fast-paced, one miracle after another, you don't normally have this many verses given to a single blind man and one miracle.
[3:38] But as God began to do a work in my heart and I looked at the Scriptures, there is so much truth in this chapter. I wish we had more of it. I wish I knew more of the story. And I look forward to the day that I will get to see it all revealed to us and know it more fully.
[3:52] First of all, I don't want to pass over quickly the fact that he was physically blind. We'll look at spiritual blindness and blindness to some biblical truths. But this man was really blind from birth. And later on in the chapter, he says, nobody's been healed that was born blind like this.
[4:06] He says, the man was born blind. And when Jesus walks up, we don't know how he knows that the man was born blind. We don't know if it was through a conversation or just being God. He knew that. But it said this man was born from birth.
[4:19] So he didn't get some type of disease and eventually became blind to be healed of it. This man never had the ability to see. He wasn't restoring the ability for him to see. That God was having to create the ability for him to see.
[4:32] Because he was born blind. And as they walked by, it says that Jesus saw the man. And what a great way to start any story is that Jesus passed by and Jesus saw the man. And here with the disciples, as he looks at it, Jesus being moved with compassion, Jesus wanting to do something and help this man.
[4:49] And we find that it's the work that the father gave him. But for the disciples in the story, this opportunity to meet a need in the life of a man was an opener for a theological discussion by the disciples.
[5:02] You know, I think about that. I have a hard time looking at suffering. I have a hard time looking at poverty and all those things. And you know, if you're honest in here, you do too. We don't see it often in this community.
[5:14] But when you go down the road, you don't look at the man holding the cardboard sign that says that he's out of work. You turn your eyes from it. We don't look at it. And when I've traveled around the world of different places, as you know, I went to India.
[5:27] As I see that, I have a hard time looking at it. You know, Jesus didn't have a hard time looking at suffering because Jesus being God had no confusion in his mind that God was loving and just and could look at suffering because he saw something greater.
[5:42] He didn't just see a cause for it, but he saw a purpose in it. So when Jesus went by, he was able to look at the blind man and the disciples just had a theological debate about it. And there's much more discussion going on about what we could do for people in this world than there is action going on from people in church.
[5:59] And when he had been there, we'd drive away from it. Jesus saw the man. He can understand how a loving God can allow something. He knew something about this man. And there he takes something that is available. He takes spittle there.
[6:10] He makes mud and he applies it to the eye of the man. And is it an only fitting that the potter would modify the clay in this fashion? He made this man out of dirt.
[6:21] He was there. And through the Bible and the miracles, every time somebody's healed like a blind man, he uses a different method of doing it because he wants you to see it can't be replicated. He can do it any way that he wants to do it because he is God.
[6:34] He wants you to see him, the miracle maker, and he doesn't want you to get caught up on how he's doing it and he does it differently each time. So we take there from the quite obvious that he healed a blind man.
[6:45] He met a physical need for a man because he saw him. He didn't ignore the man. And he met it with available resources right there. And there's a lot to be said about that and what we can do and that we should look at suffering.
[6:58] We should not turn from it being confused that God doesn't know what he was doing. You know, God, Jesus here being God, he did not walk by that man that day in surprise and say, Oh, wow, Father, we have let a man be born blind here on this earth.
[7:11] I had no idea that I would cross paths with this man. I did not mean for this to happen. He's going to show there's something much greater going on here in the story. So the Pharisees, in verse number 34, were kind of looking ahead.
[7:25] But in verse number 4, when they begin to have a conversation with this blind man, and they can't, he's such a smart, he's such a witted man. As they're talking to him, they get so frustrated with this guy.
[7:37] And they say this, Thou answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sin, and thus thou teach us. And they cast him out. They were arrogant. They were egotistic.
[7:47] They said, How are you talking to us, Mr. X blind man? Apparently you were born in sin. Because if you were not born in sin, then you would not be blind.
[7:57] See, this was a common thought by the Pharisees here, that all suffering was a result of sin. And that's supported in Scripture, that thought.
[8:08] In Exodus chapter number 20, in verse number 5, it tells us that the iniquity will visit. It says, And I, God, and jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and the fourth generation.
[8:20] So taking this verse out of context, and not making it nationally, or for the whole nation, but just taking it particularly, that one father's sin applies to the next son, then they get this idea that either this man sinned, or his parents had to sin.
[8:34] But we also find in Ezekiel 18.20, the antithesis of this belief. And he's saying, You guys have misunderstood that. In the beginning of chapter 18, he says, You have taken what I've said, and you've misunderstood it, because neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son, that the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
[8:56] He says, You have taken a truth, that the nation of Israel, that their iniquity will visit, that their sins will continue to affect the nation, generation after generation. But he said, I'm not telling you that because your father sinned, that now you are going to pay for his sin.
[9:13] And Ezekiel even says the opposite. There was a saying that day that said that, If your father ate sour grapes, you would feel the sting of it in your teeth. Because your father's sin would affect you directly.
[9:24] And in Ezekiel chapter 18, he addresses it. And then in the New Testament, he addresses this. He says, Guys, suffering is not always the result of this sin here. But all of us in here know that suffering is always a result of sin that started back in the Garden of Eden.
[9:40] That suffering and pain was not God's plan for us as humans. But when sin entered into this world, so did suffering and pain. But he looked at it different. He's going to teach them suffering, something here about suffering.
[9:54] So what does the Bible say about sin and suffering? And I wish I could tell you that the opposite was true. I wish I could tell you that sin has nothing to do with suffering, but it has everything to do with suffering.
[10:05] The Scripture describes at least five different types of suffering viewed in terms of causes and purpose. In Genesis chapter number 22, we see the story of Joseph. We find suffering as a proving or testing of faith.
[10:19] That the suffering that Joseph went through brought him to a place of testing so that he could help deliver his family. You know, every one of you in here, how many of you with me would say that God's done a lot of things in your life and some of them were not always pleasant, they were painful.
[10:35] But right now, on this day, you believe that you are in the right place in God's will. Would you raise your hand? You know, it required some suffering for me to get to this place in my life to bring me so that the decisions that I would make.
[10:48] Same here with Joseph. In Deuteronomy in chapter number 8 and verse number 2, as the children of Israel are going through there, it says, And thou shalt remember all the way which thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee and to know what was in thy heart.
[11:04] It was a suffering that was a testing that was a proving. Suffering as a means of improvement or edification. Hebrews 12, verses 5 through 8, we learn there that if you are one of his, if you're a child of light, if you're a child of God, then there will be a chastisement brought to those.
[11:22] It's the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. That because I am his child, he wants to chastise me and bring me away from sin because sin has a built-in consequence.
[11:34] And because he loves me, he will cause me to chastise me, to keep me so that I will not continue in that sin and keep moving forward. But we also see him as a punishment of sin.
[11:45] So we see it as a proving and a testing of chastising or edification, but we also find it as a punishment for sin. In John 5, 14, Jesus heals a lame man and he tells him, he says, go your way and sin no more lest the worst thing come upon thee.
[12:01] So what he is telling unto thee, what he is saying here is that if you continue in sin, things are going to happen to you. As I've already said, there is a built-in consequence for sin that even though you'll be in heaven, not paying the punishment for sin for all eternity, but on this life we have it built in that there is a penalty and there is suffering for sin.
[12:21] And then fourth here, suffering that shows forth God's glory. And that's what we're looking at today, is that there is a suffering that was designed to show God's glory. In John chapter number 11 and verse number 4, that's the story when God raised Lazarus.
[12:36] Remember they came to him and they said, you've waited too long, you won't be able to bring him back. And he says, guys, don't worry about this. When Jesus heard that, he said, the sickness is not unto death. The purpose of the sickness was not just unto death, but the purpose of it was for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
[12:53] That there was a suffering so that he would be glorified. And then the fifth purpose that we see at the end of this chapter is that there is a suffering when you bear the name of Jesus Christ. They're going to take this blind man and they're going to cast him out of the synagogue.
[13:06] Oh, I can't wait until the night. If you don't mind, we'll just stick around this morning for a couple hours and cancel evening service. I can't wait to tell you where they take this blind man and the synagogue says, hey, you made a choice now.
[13:16] If you're not going to follow our religious system, they threw him out and immediately Jesus found the man. The man that religion spit out, a false religion spit out. Jesus went and found and he really opened his eyes spiritually.
[13:30] And there was a suffering there. There was an excommunication from the synagogue, the society, and from his family. Jesus shifts the focus here instead of addressing the cause of the man's blindness, but he speaks of the purpose of the man's kindness so that the works of God may be displayed in verse number three.
[13:48] That's how we should look at suffering in this life. It is a platform for God to use for his purpose. How many of you in here today are football fans? Would you raise your hand?
[13:58] I know I've asked a lot of questions today, okay? How many of you in here are Tim Tebow fans? More than football fans. How interesting, okay? Everybody is familiar with Tim Tebow, and those of you who are asleep are with me now, okay?
[14:09] Tim Tebow. But those of Tim Tebow, he has a platform and he uses it well. He is demonstrating. You know, if you have a son that's growing up playing football, you have an example.
[14:19] If you're going to play football and be a light in that world, look at this example given to you. But you know what I find interesting about Tim Tebow? Did you know that before every home game and every away game, he flies a family in and pays for all their expenses, and that before the game, he talks to that family, and after the game, and it's always a kid or an adult that is suffering with some type of disease or setback in their lives.
[14:43] And you know what Tim Tebow says? He says, those people are my heroes. Because anybody could use the platform of football. Many aren't, but anybody could use the platform of football. But to use the platform of suffering to glorify the name of Jesus, he said, now that is my hero.
[15:00] What a wonderful understanding of suffering and of using our lives to glorify the Lord. I'm sure you've seen it before. Walked down in a children's hospital, made a visit to a family when they were going through a horrible time, and you were there to encourage them.
[15:15] And then you walk out and you say, what was that? That was unbelievable that they used their suffering to glorify the Father. Jesus was doing the work of the Father.
[15:26] In John chapter number 10, there's some verses that help us show you. He says, I'm going about my Father's business, is what he's shown us in John 9. But in John 10, in verse number 25, he says, I told you and you believe not the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.
[15:40] He's saying, what I'm doing, I'm doing in my Father's name. John 10, 32. And Jesus answered them, many good works have I showed you for my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?
[15:51] He says, I am showing you my Father's works. I am doing what he told me to do. And they're revealing that Jesus is in the Father in verse number 38 of John 10. But if I do through, though you believe not me, believe the works that you may know, and believe that the Father is in me and I in him.
[16:08] And healing this blind man, he is showing his identity. He says, I am not like another man. And I am the Son of God. In the book of John, Jesus' identity and his relationship to the Father are always at the heart of what is being said and being done.
[16:21] John chapter number 2 and verse number 11, at the very first miracle, he's saying, I'm letting you know I'm doing these things so that you will know that me and the Father are one. So Jesus is looking at suffering and giving it a purpose that other people would not understand.
[16:37] And knowing Jesus must be far greater to us than having sight for us to properly understand suffering. If you're in here today and you don't understand that knowing Jesus is infinitely greater than having sight, then I understand why you will never understand suffering.
[16:55] Knowing Jesus is far greater than anything that would ever happen. And if anything in your life could help you know Jesus in a greater way, then we say thank you, God, for it.
[17:07] And if you're in here today and you'd say, I would much rather have had my eyesight than to ever met Jesus, then I'll tell you I can't help you this morning with your false understanding of suffering. That you will live life always confused about it because you'll always be looking at the cause of it like the disciples were and the Pharisees.
[17:24] Works are going on that are being displayed. Romans 8, 28, you're familiar with the passage. You know he's working all these things for good to them that love him, which is all of us in here, those that have put their faith and trust in him.
[17:34] And they're called according to his purpose, but together for good to them that love God. So he's working these things for good, but we don't see it. And some of it we don't even see all in this life.
[17:45] I think about this example so clearly. I remember in the hospital room with Tyler and Gretchen, and they didn't know their son was going to be born with a cleft lip. And we didn't know they were surprised by that.
[17:55] And in that room, I've asked them if it's okay if I share this with you here. But in this room there was a nurse or an intern or somebody that was in there that was writing a paper, I think, upon the causes of this when children are born.
[18:09] And so there's Tyler and Gretchen. They've got this news, and they know people have got worse news. But that's a big thing going on in your life. You didn't see it coming. And as they're there, there is a person trying to figure out the cause of Jutson being born with a cleft lip.
[18:23] And asking them questions about, have you handled this material? Did you do this? Did you do this? And as this person, since I don't know, I don't mind saying it's a very shallow response to suffering.
[18:35] As this person is trying to figure out the cause, there's Tyler and Gretchen with maturity saying, we don't care about the cause. We know that God has a purpose. Because anybody can fight about what the cause is and have a theological debate about it.
[18:49] Who cares what the cause is? That God is going to have a purpose. And also think about the time when it came up on my computer. And I saw a picture of my nephew, Luke Coffey. And he's at the grave of Wesley Tolson, the child that God took as soon as he was born, Mark and Natasha.
[19:04] And Luke was there at the cemetery. And he asked his mom, where did Wesley go? Where did he go to heaven? And how did I go to heaven? And Amy sat there, knelt down with him, and showed him how he could become a children of light and be saved.
[19:18] And I just got a small glimpse of what God was doing in that whole story. And we only get a small glimpse of what he's doing in the story in suffering. We don't see it. All around this world people are impacted. And we won't see it all.
[19:29] But we get a small glimpse. And we trust in him and our suffering. And we thank him. And the Bible also tells us, 2 Corinthians, in chapter 1, the second part of that chapter, that those experiences in our lives, they help us help other people.
[19:44] And that he is doing that so that in a time of need that we are able to help somebody go through that. We may be able to take somebody that doesn't understand God's purpose in suffering and show them a new life in Christ.
[19:55] So when you see that God has a wonderful purpose for your pain and you trust him, you have your eyes open to the true value of suffering. This assumes, as it says in Psalm 63, in verse 3, for you to understand suffering, you have to be able to say, because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
[20:15] If you can't say knowing Jesus is better than life, then you can't understand suffering. But as children of God in here, you should be able to say that. You can say there's nothing that compares to it. If you put a line and you put Jesus on one side of the line, nothing on the other side compares to knowing him.
[20:33] That my love for anything on that other side of the line is as of hate for my love of Jesus. And his lovingkindness is better than life. And that blind man, he knows that.
[20:44] You talk to that blind man, he would have been more than glad to spend his adult years as a blind man for that opportunity to know Jesus. So look, we see here, he heals a blind man, but now he's opening the disciples.
[20:55] He's always teaching, Jesus says, through the Bible, he's teaching the disciples about suffering. And he taught us as his disciples this morning about suffering. Forget about the cause and look at the purpose and trust in him.
[21:06] If you can trust him and love his lovingkindness more than life, then you will embrace suffering as it was men in your life, and you will grow. And as I mention those five things, and you say, I know right now I'm suffering, and it's not just, and I brought this upon me, can I tell you, he'll still use that.
[21:21] Because he's working all things to good to them that love him. So every form of suffering that comes in the life of a believer can be used to bring glory to his name. Verses 4 and 5 we look here, and now we start to get into the season that he is working in.
[21:36] And I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. Did any of you find it ironic that the eternal God, that doesn't look like things like this, but he can see it at any time, that he feels a sense of urgency?
[21:52] That he says, I must do the work while I have time to do the work? Because he is showing for us those who are not God. He's God, we are not. He is modeling for us the fact that we have a time frame.
[22:03] That we have a clock on the wall that is counting down that tells us that we must do the works that the Father has given us. Why it is still time to do the work. The Father, when he sent his son into the world, he gave him a work to do.
[22:17] And when God sends, he employs, for he sends none of us to be idle. None of you have been called to be idle. He did not call you out of this world and save you to sit idle. He has a work.
[22:28] And when you became a new creature, he made for you good works. That there are good works in there that he has made for you to do. And don't sit idle. This work Christ had to do were the works of him that sent him.
[22:40] Not only appointed by him, but done for him. He was a worker together with God. As we saw in chapter number 10, he said that he sent in the Father's name. He's doing the works.
[22:50] But not only is he doing the works for the Father in the Father's name, he's doing them with him. And he's modeling that for you. You have a work this week. You have a work in your life. You have a life song to sing that is a work for the Father in the Father's name and with him.
[23:07] How awesome is that? Is there anything more exciting for you as you look forward to 2012, knowing that you have a work to do with the Father? He was pleased to lay himself under the strongest obligations to do the business he was sent to do.
[23:23] It says there, I must work the works of him. He engaged his heart in it. He put himself under obligation. If Jesus Christ is not willing to be loose, then why would we be, he's willing to be bound, then why would we make ourselves loose from this?
[23:40] Meaning if he says, I have a work to do, I have a time frame to do it, I'm doing the Father's work, and he did the work, then why are we so flippant about the work he has given us to do?
[23:51] And why do we not know that there's a time frame? Why would you put off anything in 2012 to 2013 if he gave it to you to do this year? Why would you put off any work to do the day for tomorrow?
[24:03] Be like Jesus in what he models here. He shows us that there is a time frame. He works the work, he worked the works he had to do. He made a business of which was his business, and it is not enough to look at the work and talk over it, but we must work it.
[24:18] So there's the disciples. They're looking over the work that had to be due. They're looking at the blind man. They're having a theological debate about why this man is blind. They're caught up in a cause. Jesus says, guys, forget about your cause.
[24:31] Look at the purpose. We have a work to do. Now let's do it. He had a work right then. It was appointed for him to meet that man and to do the work. It was a divine appointment.
[24:42] You have them this week coming. God has done something in your life, and you can be a person of truth that would share the gospel with those you come into contact with. He did the work in the time he was given.
[24:54] In John 12, 35, he tells them that while the light is here, it's only for a little while. And God, he said that you only have me with you a little bit, and while I'm here, I'm a light. And God has set us as a light, the Holy Spirit working through us to bear fruit.
[25:06] We must be aware of the clock as we look at it. You know, as you grow older, you must ask yourself at some point, when you see the sun, you don't know if that sun is still rising on your life or if it's setting.
[25:18] You know, how young you are in here, no matter how you may think that the sun is still going up, you have no idea which direction it's headed, that your life, you may have already crossed your halfway point in your life, and you may be in your last days.
[25:29] So we have no promise of when our life is. Our clock cannot be 70 years or 80 years. We don't know when that clock is. So the day we must do the work that he has given for us to do.
[25:40] Jesus is demonstrating God's glory in his activity on earth, as we saw in his first miracle that he has come here to do the work that the Father has sent him to do. And I just remind you, do you know that you're created, and you've been recreated at salvation for good works?
[25:57] And I ask you this week, have you seen an issue in life, and knew that you were created, given the resources, and urged by the Holy Spirit to meet the need? You've been there before, Christian.
[26:08] You've been in there. You've passed the person. You heard about the need. And you knew that the Holy Spirit was tugging on your heart and saying, hey, you see that opportunity over there?
[26:18] I created you. I created that opportunity. And you must be about the work that I've given you to do. And so many times we've walked away. And we walk through that opportunity. And we wait for the next one.
[26:29] Or we say, I have time. I will do it later. Those opportunities have a time stamp on them. And you need to take them while they're there. Because you are sin of God, not the sin idol. And we must be obedient.
[26:41] And the more and more you ignore that voice, and the more and more you say, I don't need to give the gospel tract to that person. I don't need to take a bag of groceries to that person. I don't need to write that letter of encouragement. The more and more you say no to that opportunity, the less and less you're going to hear that opportunity.
[26:54] Because you got so good at saying no to it. You know, people love the new year because they love new beginnings. If you watch it, social media on the news, they love to talk about the new year. Because people like a fresh start.
[27:06] So why don't you give them a fresh start, and it's showing them how they can have a new life. And that God has made us to do this. The power of a changed life. As a believer, you carry one of the greatest proofs of the power of the gospel with you daily in your changed life.
[27:22] As we see here in verse number 19, it says, and then they said unto him, John 9, 19, it shows us, it says, and they ask him saying, is this your son? Who you say was bored blind?
[27:35] How then does he now see? These Pharisees could not get over this story. They keep asking him over and over. So tell us once again, how did this happen? And the man says, I don't know. There's a man named Jesus, and I was blind, but now I see.
[27:48] And he keeps saying it over and over, and they don't understand it. And then the neighbors come, and they get the blind man, and they take him to the Pharisees, we'll see the night. And they take him to the Pharisees, because they can't understand a changed life.
[28:00] You know, people in the world can understand just about anything. They've seen anything. It is really hard to amaze people today, because of television and all that's going on. They've seen everything. But they haven't seen a changed life.
[28:10] You carry with you this week, the greatest resource for sharing the gospel, in a changed life. The Pharisees want to know, how can this be? All he says in verse number 25, he says, I once was blind, but now I can see.
[28:23] That's all I can tell you. Having sight cannot be replicated. He testifies that this has never been done before. The world has never replicated a changed life. And when we lower Christianity to a set of rules, and solely a behavioral change, we make it so that it can be replicated by the lost.
[28:42] We are not just supposed to be good moral people, but we are supposed to be people that live of the fruit of the Spirit. We're supposed to live in such a way, that an unbeliever cannot live in that way. There's many things that can be replicated by them, but the Holy Spirit working in and through you, it looks different.
[28:57] Tim Tebow looks different than another player on that football field, because he is trying to live, knowing he's doing the work of a father. And you say, I work with a lot of good people. They don't know I'm a Christian. And let the Holy Spirit work through you, and he will identify himself with you, and it will be clear to them, man, there's something different about this person.
[29:15] We've never seen this before. You can't be good enough like this. Somebody, nobody is this loving. Nobody is this self-sacrificing. And you're right, nobody is. And you say, I'm not. But the Holy Spirit inside of me, it is.
[29:27] And I must do something. We must live a life that demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit. This man will have his eyes opened twice. In verses 35 through 38, he comes to him after he's cast out of the synagogue.
[29:41] And it says unto him, it tells him in John, we'll look at verse number 37, Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
[29:51] This is where his eyes are being opened spiritually. And he said, Lord, I believe. And the next thing he says here, and say it with me, and he, say it with me, he worshipped him.
[30:02] That when you go from being blind to being able to see, your only response is to worship the person that did that. Can I ask you, do your co-workers, and do your family members, and do your friends know that you were once blind?
[30:15] You know, you say in here, well, I've been saved for so long, I don't remember what that was like. Well, you were once blind, but now you see. Your story is amazing. Your story has a way of asking people.
[30:25] They say, we want to know this man. Take this to Jesus. They want to hear about him because they hear the story. Do the people that you work with ever know that you were once blind, and now they see?
[30:36] Or do they just think that you've had sight your whole life? You need to tell them, and they need to know that you have the testimony of a person that was once blind, but now you see. And I can you in here use every circumstance in your life.
[30:50] Can you recognize that the good days, the bad days, and your suffering can be used to the glory of God if you have your eyes open to suffering? This morning, will you open your eyes to the time clock that we have, that we have a work to do, and we have a time in which we can do it, and stop putting it off?
[31:05] And also, what I ask you in here, would you open your eyes to how amazing your story is? You once were blind, but now you see. God did something radical in your life. If you were saved at six, off the tricycle, at Vacation Bible School, it's still amazing.
[31:20] If you were saved, and later on in life, from a life of sin and drugs, or if you were just a good guy that never accepted Jesus, that's an amazing story, and the world needs to see it. And God will use that story to help open up their eyes.
[31:34] I once was blind, but now I see, and I can't explain it. That's my story, and that's your story. Some of you here may be dealing with suffering, that you get bitter and mad at God, you don't understand why it's in your life, or it's in somebody else's life, and you're always trying to blame somebody.
[31:46] Maybe some marriages are suffering, because you're hurting, you're going through something, and all you want to do is try to figure out the cause, or who did this, who put it in there. Forget about that. From this day, move forward, knowing that he has a purpose in it, and he wants to do something.
[31:59] And do it with all urgency. The decisions that you have to make today, make them. Don't put them off for tomorrow, because tomorrow there's new decisions that need to be made, and there's new opportunities that need to be taken.
[32:11] Heavenly Father, I ask that you'll be with us today. Lord, I pray that you'll use your word to open some eyes in here this morning. Lord, if there's somebody in here suffering, Lord, and they're going through a hard time, or they know somebody, and they have not put their trust in you, and they have not said, knowing you is better than life, I pray that today that they will, that they will come, and bow down at your feet, Lord, and just say, you alone are God, and I put my trust in you.
[32:36] Lord, there may be a teenager in here, somebody younger in life, and they have not taken seriously the clock, Lord. They think that they have many days to come. Help open their eyes today, Lord, to the fact that life is short, and we have a work to do.
[32:49] And open all of our eyes today, Lord, to our life song, and to our story, that we will know that it is important, and that it needs to be shared. You have been listening to Trent Cornwell, pastor at Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.
[33:07] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com. www.visionbaptist.com. www.visionbaptist.com. www.visionbaptist.com.