All right guys, well, hey, what we've last week we finished our
series of spiritual warfare. But I want to tell you guys that
we are still in a war and we will be until Jesus comes back.
Amen. Right of the gate.
Here we go. So spiritual warfare series was
really helpful. But I, I want to, I want to
continue encourage you over and over and over again to be
vigilant to know what the enemy is doing.
I'll also be equipped in all those those those points that we
have talked about, go back and review those because the enemy
just doesn't stop because we're we're we finished a spiritual
warfare series. So we're going to go back into
the Gospel of John, John Chapter 9.
So go ahead and turn there. And I wanted to share with you
guys a few stories before we get started.
I think it would be helpful. Just this week.
It was cool in in our you guys, some of you guys already met in
your mission teams. So we have, we have 7 locations
this summer and the Japan team met, which was great.
And Jessica was just sharing, it's a small team, but she had
said that everyone went around, they shared their testimony.
They shared what God was doing in their life and what they're
hoping for, what they're believing for, for for Japan.
And a couple of people, Amanda is a part of that group and she
had just honored, they went around and shared their
testimony and they honored people so well.
They were again, that that that whole idea of like, man, the 40
days of encouragement continues. It's just a powerful some
powerful stories came out of that just that little small
meeting throughout the week. And you guys don't know it
because that's why I'm here to share with you guys some of the
things that are happening. And Amanda, who's a part of our
church, she was honoring Jamie from just from the from college
tabling. We, we table couple times a week
in the college ministry and we just hand out tracks, we hand
out information about our church.
And just so you know that and God uses that and he brings
people because of that. And she's still using the same
Bible that Jamie gave her. And this is a number of years
back. I don't know how where Jamie is
at, but I don't, I don't know how many years ago that was, how
many years ago was that? Just come up with a number.
It's about 6 years ago. OK, great.
And then and then Danny was just honoring Ainsley for bringing in
from a some sort of jazz night. I didn't know like, OK, like you
guys, Ainsley, you do jazz nights or still is that
something you still do? I don't know.
I don't know where Ainsley's at, but sounds cool.
OK. And then and then you also think
Mike Pabon for inviting the life group, life group before even
step foot and a Sunday service. And so man, people, just you
guys are a part of someone's story.
Amen. And then also Sean was just
which is Amanda's husband was honoring Hunter for just driving
him in the earlier days. Wife.
Sorry. Yeah.
What?
Huh. You're not married yet?
Beyoncé. In my mind, We just completed
the engagement class. They're married already.
This is they're not married. Yeah.
I'm just kidding. OK.
OK.
Yeah. Yeah.
OK. They're getting married in May,
so two months. OK, All right, so and then also
Lily Leestrom was just honoring Lily Lydia for inviting her from
tabling again, another tabling event.
And just if you're a college student going to tabling
matters, you never know who's going to walk by and become a
part of the church and not only just a part of the church, but
leading the church. And it's just cool to see the
Leestroms are are hosting a Japanese student.
I think we have shared that back.
She's here now. And so she's with us and she'll
just go and say hi to them and, and just welcomed her to the
United States and welcomed her to the church.
And just so thankful that just those small little yeses, those
small little invitations, what God can do with them.
I mean, it just literally just blows me away.
And I'm just honestly thankful for Jessica for going out of her
way to, to live out that culture and then share them with me and
then subsequently share them with you guys.
Because man, a lot of times you're discouraged, you're at
home, you're wondering, is God doing anything with me or is God
doing anything in this church? And he is.
And that's just one tiny 2 hour meeting that happened this week
and that came out of that. And then I called Michael Bone
this week. He was in New York for work.
And I just said, Hey, how does New York and everything, you
know, he's like, hey, I brought he's like, I was just like you.
I was just as you brought us on trips and everything.
I, I brought two guys with me, Felly and Anthony and those guys
rocking an evangelism. And I just want to share one
story. They were going out to lunch 11
afternoon and they went into I think it was a sandwich shop or
something, but they, they were, they're the only ones in there
and they're like, we got to share the gospel.
This is our opportunity to share the gospel.
And so they just shared and this guy, he's like, you're never
going to believe this, but somebody like you, you guys
shared with me months before and gave me a Bible and I just
hadn't read the Bible, but now I'm going to read the Bible.
And just as this reminder, this has got to be God.
This has to be God. And, and one thing that's cool
is this happening in Manhattan, It's happening in New York,
There's hungry people in New York.
And so just, you know, contrary to the news and everything else,
I, one of the things that I love about this story that I want to
just point out, and the reason why I'm telling you is that it's
not an event they didn't go on an they, they weren't on a
mission trip. This is, this is out of their
lifestyle. This is who they are.
This is who we are. We just we, and I love that.
It's just, it's our culture. It's just, it's not, it's not
just planning mission trips and then sharing the gospel because
we have to. This is what we're doing.
We're on mission, but we're always on mission.
We're always on mission. And I, it's just cool to see the
next generation leading that out.
And just so thankful for you guys.
I don't know where you fella and Anthony are you guys, you guys
where where they at? All right there you go.
Where's Anthony at? OK, thank you, man, way to go.
Oh, kids, mystery awesome. Just these guys they serve and I
want to I want to brag on them because just and and honor them
just because this is who they are.
And we're not like we're not we're not event, we're not an
event driven church, but we're we're a lifestyle.
It's a it's a lifestyle deal. It's, it's not a one time thing,
but it's something we do everyday and we wait on God and
we say, all right, Lord, give us an opportunity to break our
hearts for the loss and give us boldness.
And so this in light of Awaken coming this week, I think we got
about 150 people going this week to Baton Rouge, leaving on
Friday, Some are leaving on Friday, some are leaving on
Saturday. But one of the things that I
want to do is continue to put before you guys that God's
called us to multiply. And the way we do that is make
disciples. And so John Chapter 9 speaks
about spiritual blindness, but it really is about a man sharing
his testimony and sharing it with courage.
And the title of the message is why we lack courage.
And so we're going to, we're going to answer that question as
we go through this text together.
I'm just excited to get back in the Gospel of John.
There's something about getting back in the book of the Bible
and letting Jesus speak and it, it, it breaks our hearts, right?
I mean, he it it, it breaks down the pride is, is the text speaks
to us. And so we're just saying right
now, Jesus, would you would you open up our eyes?
Would you clear the distractions?
I pray that this would be one of the best ones yet that we would
be transformed by the renewing of our mind by it says that
faith comes by hearing and hearing the words concerning
Jesus. All right, so let's let's start
off it's a 41 verses. So it's a little bit longer of a
text, but it'll be good. All right, so as he passed by,
this is Jesus. Jesus saw a man blind from
birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned this man
or his parents, that he would be born blind.
And Jesus answered, it was neither that this man sin nor
his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be
displayed in him. We must work the works of him
who sent me. As long as it is day, night is
coming when no one can work. While I'm in the world, I'm the
light of the world. And we had said this.
He spat on the ground and make clay of the spittle and apply
the clay to his eyes and said to him, Go wash in the pool of
Siloam, which has translated scent.
So he went away and washed and came back.
Seeing therefore the neighbors and those who previously saw him
as a beggar were saying, is not this the one who used to sit and
beg? Others were saying, this is he,
and still others were saying, no, but he is like him.
And he kept saying, I am the one.
So they were saying to him, How then were your eyes opened?
And he answered, The man who is called Jesus made clay, and
anointed my eyes, and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash.
And so I went away and wash and I received sight.
They said to him, Where is he? And he said, I do not know.
Then they brought him to the Pharisees, the man who is
formerly blind. And now it was Sabbath on the
day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.
And then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received
his sight. And he said to him, he applied
clay to my eyes and I washed. And now I see.
Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, this man is not
from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.
But others are were saying, how can a man who is a Sinner and
perform such signs? And there was a division among
them. So they said to the blind man
again, what do you see? What do you say about him?
Since he opened your eyes? And he said, He is a prophet.
And the Jews then did not believe of it or believe it was
of him. And he said, or he and he had
been blind and had received sight, until they called the
parents of the very one who had received a sight and questioned
them, saying, Is this your son who you say was born blind?
Then how does he now see? His parents answered or answered
them and said We know that this is our son and that he was born
blind, but how he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes
we do not know. Ask him.
He is of age. He will speak for himself.
It's just some humor in the Bible, right?
Yeah. His parents said this is because
they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed
that if anyone confess Jesus to be the Christ, he was to be put
out of the synagogue. For this reason he is.
His parents said he is of age. Ask him for a second time.
They called the man who had been born blind, and said to him,
Give glory to God. We know that this man is a
Sinner. He then answered, Whether he is
a Sinner I do not know. One thing I do know that though
I was blind, I now see. So they said to him, What did he
do to you? How did you open up your eyes?
He answered them, I told you already, and you do not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you not want to become his disciples too?
Do you? They raveled at him and said,
You are his disciple, but we are His disciples of Moses.
We know that God has spoken to Moses, but As for this man, we
do not know where he is from. The man answered and said to
them, Well here's an amazing thing that you do not know where
he is from, and yet he opened up my eyes.
We know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is
fearing and does His will, He hears him.
Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone
open the eyes of a person born blind.
And if this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
And they answered him, You were born entirely in your sins, and
you're teaching us. So they put him out.
And Jesus heard that they had put him out and finding him
said, Do you believe in the Son of Man?
He answered, Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?
And Jesus said to him, You have both seen him, and he is the one
who is talking with you. And he said, Lord, I believe,
and he worship him. And Jesus said for judgement, I
came into the world so that those who do not see may see,
and those who see may become blind.
Those are the fair. Those are the Pharisees who were
with them, heard these things and said to him, We are not
blind too, are we? Jesus said to them, if you were
blind, you would have no sin. But since you say we see your
sin remains, it's good, right? All right, So hey, I got we're
going to we're going to go through these points.
I got 11 simple points. I know you guys like list.
I do this for you, OK, not for me.
So I want to go through this and they're just, they're simple
prepositions that'll help you move through this passage.
So what I'm trying to do and try to help you is that when you
when you approach a text like this, I want you to learn how to
study the word, OK, line by line so that it does something to
you, it transforms you. And then there's of course
application because God doesn't want us to just know the word,
but live it. All right, here we go.
So the first point is this never see people is a project or a
case. Never see people as a project or
a case. Why is that important?
But see people as Jesus sees someone who is in need of a
savior. These guys were trying to do
this little theological debate. They're like, hmm, is this is
this did this guy? Is he born blind because of sin?
They're trying to figure it out and he's saying he's saying,
look, this is not a theological debate, guys.
Jesus is with his disciples and he's like, look, this is not a
theological debate. This man is in need.
He's blind and he needs to see. And so when you're looking at
people throughout, whether it's campus or Baton Rouge or
wherever we go overseas, they're not a project.
They're not a case. People get hurt by that.
I mean, I remember hearing stories and maybe just a little
bit more of an extreme case, but there are stories of like, you
know, people that, you know, maybe an evangelism.
There may be a little bit more obsessed with trying to heal
people. And I've heard people literally
say, man, we're going to pursue people and we'll look out for
the shiny things. And what was the shiny things?
The shiny things were like crutches, like how they glisten
in the sun or a wheelchair. So it's like, man, we're going
to look for people that are in need and we're going to try to
heal them. And they became a project rather
than looking at them with a heart of compassion.
Obviously, I don't think anybody does that here.
And that like I said, that's just a way of illustration of
saying we, these guys, they were, they were trained to think
that if somebody was born blind there, there's something either
their parents did or something they did.
Because there's even understanding that you can sin
as a Jewish thought was that you can sin in the womb.
So somehow like which sounds so ridiculous.
What do you think about it now? We are all born right with sin,
but I don't think you can sin in the womb like Margie is your
your your kid. Is he is he is he sinning right
now? She's like kicking you out.
Wham kicking mom? You know, like no, so like, so
this is a ridiculous thought, but it was a prevailing thought
that they they when they saw illness or leprosy, they're
like, dude, that guy is a Sinner, not us, but that guy's a
Sir. He did something to deserve
that. Now I want to take you guys
through because the, the second, the second point is don't assume
that you have all the answers to people's problems.
And, and I want to just share with you guys.
I'm going to help you see that there there are a couple, there
are a few causes of, of, of pain and suffering in people's lives.
OK, It's just kind of press pause for that in a second.
But let's not look at people like a project.
Let's not look at people just from a geopolitical mindset or
friend like frame of mind or American mindset.
Like when you see somebody like right now, if you haven't, if
you like living under a rock, I suppose you don't know.
But if you're not living under a rock, you would understand that
we are at war right now. Like we're in a war.
Everybody realize that. Does that concern anybody?
Probably not because you have all your stuff, you have
everything you need, but it's kind of a big deal.
The American mindset is like, it's only going to bother me.
And once it touches me, it's now it's, it's bothering you a
little bit because you know, your gas is, your gas has gone
up a little bit. So it's hurting, you're hurting
your wallet just a bit. But beyond that, you don't
really care. And as I, as I was, as I was
running the other day, I have an Iranian neighbor.
He lives a few houses down. We don't talk often.
I don't really see him all that much.
But as I was running, I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to stop
and turn and go talk to him. And I was like, you know how you
just argue with the Lord? You're like, I don't know, like
I got to get inside. I got all these things to do and
whatever. And I'm just like, you know
what, Lord, I just, whatever you say, I'll just got to do it
right. So I, I turned around and he was
outside. He was messing with his hose.
And I said, Hey, you know, with, in light of the war and
everything going on, like, how are you doing?
How's your family? And again, it's these guys
aren't our enemies and I just they're the, it's the nation's.
We need to pray for them. We need to pray for their
salvation. We need to believe, we need
maybe if the window opens up like, you know, it, just maybe
one day we'll be able to go to Iran.
I don't know. I mean, God, God only knows, but
to keep our hearts soft. And so as I asked him, he's
like, man, thank you for asking me about that.
Because I, you know, they shut the power lines down.
We can't talk to our family. There was just this little
window. I could talk to my mom, my mom's
there. I was there a couple years ago.
But man, I just, I, I'm, I'm torn because I'm excited because
the bad guys are going down. But at the same time, you know,
it's causing a lot of deaths and, and unsettling and it's
just, you can't go outside. Are you hearing there's bombs
and what not? And and then he said this, which
I was shocked. He's like, man, he he's like, I,
you don't have to be concerned about me because I'm a third
generation Christian. And I want you to know the
church is alive in Iran now if I want to stop that one, I would
have never heard that. But also just people aren't
projects, right? They're not projects.
They're not a case. They're people.
They're people in need. You need to see people through
the lens of Jesus as he's looking at people, he has eyes
of compassion saying these are people distressed without a
shepherd. And I want and he was teaching
his disciples how to look at people in this moment.
It's a discipleship moment. It's a teachable moment.
Say, hey, hold on a minute, I know what you think about this
guy, but it's not what you think.
And we'll move on to the second point.
Don't assume we have all the answers to people's problems.
These guys, they just assume that the blind man, a personal
sin or the parent said sin. And I want to just break this
down because I think this is helpful because we're all here
or, you know, people that are suffering and, and I, I wanted
to say that sometimes in the Bible, and I'll rattle off a
few, sometimes sin is suffering is caused by a specific sin in
our life, not all the time. So Jesus understood that he
wasn't saying, he's saying in this case, in this case
specifically with, because you have to have the Holy Spirit
with you, right to understand, don't just assume things.
Don't just judge, make judgements.
In this case, it's not because of his sin or his parents sin.
And we'll get to why that is. That's the Third Point.
But I want to show you that in Numbers 12, Miriam had leprosy.
Because of a direct consequence of sin, they rebelled against
Moses. She got leprosy.
You're like, whoa, that's not a contradictory to the Bible.
By the way, Jesus is not saying all the time when someone's born
blind. That's not because of particular
sin or someone has blindness, I should say, because I think it's
important to know that there are, well, I'll just, I'll,
I'll, I'll just pause there for a second.
But the second one is John 5 at 14.
The man was healed after 38 years.
But do you remember what happened when Jesus found that
man a little later? What did he say?
He said don't continue in sin because worse will happen to
you. So there is a direct correlation
at times that perhaps, and this is a this is a moment right now.
Listen, some moment when if you are going through something, it
is a moment to say, I don't think someone should just I
don't think in discipleship someone should say, hey, you
know, Christian Bravo is on crutches just recently and we're
like Sinner. That's why now we all know he's
a Sinner. We all know that.
Everybody knows that. But but that's probably not
maybe maybe it is why? I don't know.
But you should pause.
You should pause. You should pause and say, Lord,
what is it you want me to learn? And how do you want to use this
suffering for your glory? Amen.
But I don't think we should just go boom.
That's because of sin. You know it, I know it, You
know, don't do that. OK, So it'll I'm saving your
French. I'm saving you like, from a loss
of friendships, you know, like wisdom.
OK, so First Corinthians 11/30, it says this, that when they
were taking communion in an unworthy way, some were sick and
some fell asleep. Which means what?
Some died, right? Like when's the last time you
took communion and you took it in an unworthy matter, right?
And you found out that someone died because of that.
I mean, I suppose it could happen.
I don't know. I I mean, it did back then.
And then what about Ananias and Sapphira?
They lied to the Holy Spirit and said they sold everything, but
yet they kept some for themselves, right.
And they let made it seem like every that like how look at how
generous Ananias and Sapphira, they're so generous, they're so
amazing, but yet they kept a lot for themselves, or at least a
portion, and the Holy Spirit killed them.
So we do know that sin does have consequences.
It does have consequences not only just in sickness, but also
in death. But here's here's the good news.
James 5 says confess your sins to God because we know that when
you do that, confess your sins to the Lord and confess your
sins to one another, you'll be healed.
And it's often known for they're being healed of, of maybe from
God's discipline in their life, which he was 12 are you
following? So that's important to just
pause and say word, OK, what's going on?
Why am I in this situation? Just confess your sins to the
Lord, confess your sins to God. And this in this case, it was it
wasn't because of his sin and it wasn't because of his parents
sin. And then in Psalm 119, this is
one of my favorite verses. So good.
Before I was afflicted, I went away, but God afflicted me so
that I'll come back and that beautiful hurts.
But God is so loving, so gracious that he will sometimes
allow certain things that happen in your life that are
uncomfortable because he's bringing you back to him.
Some of you're like, man, I just want to feel close to God.
And then you wake up and your prayers being answered, your
prayers being answered through suffering because God's drawn
you back. So don't, don't be like, I don't
want anything to do with that. I'm, I like this passage because
Jesus is saying it's not because of sin.
Sometimes it is OK. All right, so then kids do
suffer because of natural consequences.
We all know that, right? Kids do suffer because of
natural consequences of their parents.
Like for for most. Margie, are you smoking right
now? No, It's probably why she's
pregnant. She's not smoking.
It's probably wise if you're if you're not pregnant, don't go
back to smoking after pregnancy. I'm just kidding.
She doesn't. She doesn't smoke.
No Fairmont. No Fairmont, No.
OK, so OK, so but also like if you're obviously if you if you
drink and you're pregnant, you know, your kids could have
issues or problems. We do know that kids do suffer
because of their parents sin. And also, I think that disciples
probably got this thought from Exodus 34, right, that, you
know, the God will, will, will visit the, the generations of
those parents who are in sin. What that just means is that
there are natural consequences if your dad or your mom struggle
with certain sin. And they're very open about that
and they're struggling with the likelihood of a kid copying mom
and dad is high. That's that's what I'm saying.
But still, God could could redirect that and change that
when there's repentance. But this is what it says in
Second Chronicles 25 four. Everyone shall be put to death
for his own sin. It's kind of a wake up.
Good morning. There you go.
But it's that's actually, that's a good thing, guys, because
we're everyone's responsible ultimately for their own sin.
Like, we can't blame mom and dad, we can't blame our
teachers. We can't blame our pastors.
We can't blame anyone else but ourselves.
But there's a way out. There's grace.
You can always come back to the Father.
The cross is the great equalizer.
You can all come back. OK, So don't be like Job is all
his friends, right? I mean, after the first week,
the first week is good, right? Seven days, quiet, just bringing
coffee to Job, breakfast, hanging out, not saying
anything. And then literally that was like
the first two chapters or chapter 2 three, I think it's
chapter 3. And then the rest of the 39
chapters is just they're saying, well, Job, I mean, literally
they're I just read through job because of McShane plan.
But it's just it's like, man, these jokers, they're like
constantly on job saying it's because of this, because of
this, because of this, because. And Job's just like, you know,
it's not because of my saying I'm, I'm trying my, you know,
like it has nothing to do with that.
In fact, one of my kids was just asking me about that on the way
here. He was just saying he was just
asking questions about Job. And he's like, how did did, how
did that all happened? Like, well, I was like, what did
you remember that Satan and God had a conversation and Job never
knew about it. And we don't know.
There's a mystery. Don't assume you have all the
answers to people's problems. You can hurt your relationships.
Some of you guys are like, man, I have discernment.
No, you don't. You have stupidity.
Like, like, don't just assume that you know what's going on in
that person's life and why all these things are happening.
It's good to just pause and say, Laura, rebuke that thought.
I don't know what it is, but you know what it is.
And I'm not Privy to conversations that are happening
in heaven right now. OK, All right, so, OK, here we
go. Oh, and then one more, one last
one. This is a good one.
This is one of my favorites. Luke 13.
Do you remember the, the, the tower of Siloam that fell on
people? And they're like, man, those
sinners. That's why the tower fell.
And she's like, no, that's not why the tower fell.
But Speaking of the tower falling, we, we all are going to
be judged one day. So you better get right with
God. And the disciples are like, you
know, just don't assume, OK #3 no, God has a purpose in your
suffering. No, God has a purpose in your
suffering. For in this case, it was for his
power and glory to be displayed. Amen.
That's good. If you're suffering right now,
that is good news for whatever reason, whether it is because
you're sin or it's been for God's glory to be displayed or
whatever. And you're not going to know
until five years from now or maybe in until heaven.
God is not Privy to tell you why you're suffering.
But there's a purpose. There's a purpose behind it.
The Bible doesn't ignore suffering.
Thankfully, it doesn't ignore suffering.
You know, the the job lamentations.
There's so many psalms of lament.
I mean, he is sovereign and he allows it says here in Exodus
411. This might make people
uncomfortable, but I just, I have to say it because it's
true. OK, so Exodus 411 was to say I
made the deaf, the mute and the blind.
It doesn't say the devil made the deaf mute and the blind.
Some of you think that that would be better news if you if
you if you saw that the devil made those things.
No, no, no, no. It brings ultimately brings more
comfort to know God has allowed those things.
He brings about those things. Guys, this is so important to
our faith. I want us to mature.
God is not, does not owe us anything if we have children
that are born with all sorts of problems or we have spouse who
has young, who has, who has medical issues or, or you
yourself find yourself in some sort of whether it's physical or
spiritual, emotional suffering. Just know that God is behind
that. He's behind that.
But at the same time, listen to this you, you got to hold 2
truths at the same time. Exodus 411 says this, that he
allows the blind, the deaf, and the mute, and he sells Moses.
I will help you. I've made your mouth and I will
help you. I did not make you mute.
So you will speak and I will help.
I'll bring your brother to help, but he, this is the other side
of the truth, right? I love this.
And Lamentations 3. God does not afflict us from the
heart. God is both sovereign and our
suffering, but He's both good and compassionate in meeting our
needs during the suffering. It's good.
Genesis 50 verse 20 says what man meant for evil.
God meant for good to there's an evil purpose from the enemy.
So remember, God doesn't afflict from the heart.
He's not afflicting. He's allowing it to happen, but
he's not afflicting it from the heart.
He's like, I, I got you. So anytime you hear a voice in
your head like man God, why are you doing this to me?
He's not doing this to you. That's the enemy He afflicts
from his evil heart. You remember when he says to Job
or it says to Satan, you can afflict Job.
I'm not afflicting him from my heart, but you can afflict Job.
But do not, do not kill him. There's limits to your power.
That is such good news for for anyone going through something
and we all are going through something in some level.
OK, all right, So then he does use trials and pain and
suffering to transform you and mature you into the image of
Christ. Sometimes he heals.
We should contend for that as a culture.
If somebody is hurting in your life group, you don't say, hey,
you're going through this for a reason.
You don't do that. They they should theologically
know that your job is to come and comfort them.
Your job is to put them in the middle like we do in life group,
right? And pray for them.
Meet their physical needs, meet their emotional needs, meet
their spiritual needs, be there. All the while God's working out
something in their life that is something unbeknownst to us.
That's the culture. That's who we are as a people,
right? Sometimes he heals, sometimes he
allows it to remain. Like with Paul, He's just prayed
3 times. Please get rid of this thorn.
I don't know how many times I've prayed things like that.
And it's like I'm keeping it there so that you will know my
power and strength #4 live your life with purpose and urgency.
I love this. He says Jesus is getting their
focus off analyzing why the guy is born blind.
He's saying, let's move forward. We need to work the works of
God. So here's here's my admonition.
Night means this. When he says night, he says that
in a verse. Where is that in for?
He says work, the works that I've been sent Jesus contrary.
There's there's a there's a guy that said like Jesus was very
relaxed in his ministry. He never ran.
Where's Kevin at? That's that's your message,
right? He never ran God.
God never ran. OK, that's great.
However, he had urgency. Maybe he didn't.
He was relaxed. In other words, he knew God's
timetable and he was walking in step with Jesus with God.
Jesus was walking in step with God, but he had an urgency.
He's like, let's work the works because night means death.
Night is coming for all of you, for all of us.
Death is coming, so let's live for the glory of God.
That's what he say. He's like, dude, don't spend
your life trying to figure out someone else's problems.
Meet the problem, meet it. Meet the need.
Meet the need quickly, like whatever it is, and I love this
verse. It's it's such a powerful verse
in Proverbs. You probably missed it in your
reading plan, but I'll, I'll give it to you now.
OK, so Proverbs 327 says this. Don't withhold good from those
whom it is due when it is in your power to do it.
And by the way, guys, it is in your power to do it.
You have the Holy Spirit living in you.
You have money in your wallet, you have time, you have, you
have time to meet needs. And this just says don't say to
your neighbor, go, I know your need, but go and come back
tomorrow. I'll give it when it is when you
have it with you, you're like, Oh, I'll have more time
tomorrow. Oh, I'll have more money
tomorrow. And then I have to just
literally be tomorrow could be next month or whatever.
I think the point is you have if you see a need, meet it, meet
it. That's what Jesus is saying.
He's like nights coming. Night is coming for everyone.
It is coming. And guys, when you read the
headlines like there's an there's like really a sad part
of war that's never exciting. I mean, it's never really
exciting. We should never get excited
about that. But there is something exciting
because it it it, it pushes people to to realize there's
eternity before us. It's coming at night is coming.
So let's work the works while it is still called today and we'll
while it's daylight, because you're going to give an account
to God one day. He's going to say, what did you
do with the life I gave you? Well, I was really selfish with
it. Yes, I know.
So minister as it is as if it was your last day, give as if it
was your last day. Preach as if it's if it's your
last day. That moment is like I'm running,
I'm going back to my home and the Holy Spirit prompts go talk
to your neighbor. It's just in those moments, are
we hearing the voice of God? Are we listening to Jesus?
Are we listening to the Holy Spirit?
All right #5 obey the simple commands of Jesus even when they
don't make sense. I love this.
It's like he's, why did you just have to go through all these
shenanigans to try to get the guy?
Like why didn't you just say open eye?
You know, like he could have done that, but he just did it in
such a roundabout way, right? I mean, it's kind of a gross way
when you think about it. You know, just the dry dirt of
the Middle East, he spits on it, right?
Makes mud, puts it on the dude's eyes and it says go to the pool.
That's, that's very strange. Hey look, please do me a favor
because we have a reputation in Oviedo.
If someone's blind, please do not spit in in the dirt and put
it on the guy's eyes and go tell him to go wash in the Oviedo
lake. That would just be really
disgusting and it they probably could get some worse thing from
washing their eyes from that lake.
So the point, the point of this guys, do not miss this.
The point is obey even when it doesn't make sense.
If God tells you to get baptized after you get saved, you do
that. If God tells you to go buy a
Bible for somebody, go do it. Do quickly.
If if you're hearing the voice of God telling you to do
something, if you don't do it right away, the next thought
will be like, this is ridiculous.
Isn't it true? It's so true because I as soon
as I started running, and again, it's such a simple illustration.
I have hundreds of stories, but I just for the sake of
simplicity, as I was running and I stopped, I saw the guy.
I felt like I needed to go talk to my Iranian neighbor.
But it was in that just because I had things to do is like, oh,
I don't want to bother him. I don't want to me feel like
kind of weird. This is what my thought process
is. I don't want to be like this
American suburban guy being insensitive and asking this
Iranian guy. I don't know where he is at.
I don't want to offend him in any way.
I don't want to make it awkward. But as soon as I start to
disobey God, the thoughts of justifying thoughts come and
saying, yeah, you know what? Maybe I shouldn't do it.
And what God is saying here is simply obey.
And I love what the Puritans say.
OK, Puritans again, I don't think anybody's really reading
the Puritans other than maybe Nesper.
But, but but right, you're reading.
Yeah, So these are these dudes right from England in the 1700s.
They just had their Bibles. They didn't have an iPhone.
They wrote amazing books. But this is what I love.
I love. They're just, they're catch.
They're catchy phrases. He says this the this man and
this blind man, he blindly obeyed.
He blindly obeyed. But that was good.
He blindly obeyed. They just, he simply obeyed the
next thing Jesus told them to do, even when it didn't make
sense. And that's why Jesus doesn't
repeat what the the way he does miracles, because we would just
come up with a formula then and just kind of figure out the
formula and do that. And that's not what it's about.
It's about obedience. So what is God telling you to
do? Maybe he's telling you to share
the gospel. Maybe he's telling you go to
awaken when it doesn't make sense, whatever it might be.
Or maybe give to somebody who needs it in awaken, but just
obey that next thing. Number six, your testimony is
powerful. Keep it simple.
This dude kept it really simple. I love this.
He's like, OK, they're like, how did this happen?
Like who did this? He's like, OK, The man applied
clay to my eyes. I washed.
And now I see some of your testimonies.
Just they're powerful. I mean, I can't think of
anything more powerful other than the, the gospel itself, the
anything more powerful than your testimony.
Tell people how you were transformed.
Don't glorify evil. Don't glorify.
Go draw it out. Like how all these things you
used to do, nobody really cares. All they care about is are you
changed? Are you different?
Is there something different about you now because you met
Jesus? So don't be dramatic
necessarily. Just give the facts.
I love this. Like just show people how you've
been transformed and that's all the dude did.
It's like, I don't know, man, how many times you want me to
tell you this? You know?
He told them five times. I counted it out like there's
five times these guys asked the question like, so how did it
happen? How did it happen?
Their hearts were so hard. So OK #7 be ready for push back
when there's new life in the church.
That's a good one. Are you ready?
We just did a spiritual warfare series.
We didn't just do that in vain. Are you ready?
And here, here's the here's the kicker.
OK, it's sadly, sadly the pushback comes a lot of times
from within. Do y'all get that?
Like I'm talking to everybody that could possibly easily
become an older brother when good things are happening.
When the younger brother comes home and he got saved, there
should have been a celebration, not just with the dad and the
mom and whoever else is a part of the family.
But the older brother didn't want to come in and celebrate.
He was a part of the family. He wasn't a foreigner.
He's a part of the family. So be ready for pushback when
there's new life in the church and sadly, it comes from within
the religious spirit. Isn't this crazy?
The accused, they, they, they accused Jesus not being from God
because he didn't obey the Sabbath rules.
What were the Sabbath rules? Now do you think Jesus had any?
Is how many? How many?
No, Jesus never sinned. So we're not talking about like
the actual Torah. We're not talking about him
disobeying the first five books of the Bible.
What is he disobeying? Man made rules what people think
you should do. They've added on more rules.
And so this guy's like literally like all these Pharisees.
They know. OK, listen, I mean, there's,
there's so many things here I want to share.
OK. So and I OK.
In Isaiah, they said this, that you, you will know when the
Messiah comes, when the eyes of the blind are open.
Yeah, that's a good word. That's good.
This is showing you that. Hey, I hope you have a
relationship with Jesus because he's showing you right here.
He's God. He's God.
So please come to Jesus today because you need to make you,
you need to make things right with him.
Like he said, like, listen, the eyes of the blind are open.
They knew the word of God inside and out.
These are the Pharisees. These are religious leaders.
They study the Bible all the time.
And when this guy said my eyes are open and they're like, well,
how does this happen? How does this happen?
He, oh, he can't be God because he broke a rule.
Yeah, your rule, not God's rule. Your rule.
We broke your rule too many times, like church splits happen
because people are breaking man's rules, relationships that
are split and the people come in, they just want to find new
life. And then they were met with
religious people. That's not good.
It's just crazy. God moves powerfully, heals
them. And yet they said, OK, well,
hey, he, he, he violated Code 5, Section 32 rule #485 what is it?
I don't know, let me talk. You are not allowed to make mud
on Saturday. The heck is wrong with these
people? But that same spirit resides in
you. Same spirit resides in you.
Let me ask you something. Are you threatened by the life
of someone else in here? Do you resent them?
It's where jealous and envy starts.
You see life, the life that you're losing, You used to have
this energy, this passion, this zeal, and it's waning for some
reason. I don't know, maybe because it's
saying, maybe because of something, or maybe because
God's taking you through something and maybe perhaps he's
maturing you and growing you so you have more.
But instead you're jealous of somebody else's life, the
newness of life. You're seeing God move in a
powerful way and that's bothering you.
And you've got to ask the question, why is that bothering
me? One of the secret sins in the
church is a sin of jealousy, sin of envy, sin of comparison.
Everybody does it. And if it's destroying you, it
says cut off your arm or gauge out your eye.
If you're new we're that's not literal, but by the way, but do
whatever it takes to stay away from that.
So if social media is messing with you right now, if it's
causing you to compare and compare and compare, then
destroy it. Don't do it.
It's it's going to destroy you. It's better off you not have it
and glorify God and be thankful for what you what God's been
giving them and turning those into prayers and bless that
person that you might be comparing yourself with.
It's not worth it. And I just think we got to
tremble at his word again, Isaiah 66, just like taking it
seriously again saying God, I don't want to become religious.
I don't want to become hard hearted.
I don't want that to be my life. Amen.
Do you want that to become? Your life will destroy you.
You'll lose all joy, you'll be miserable and someone will
remind you. You used to be so joyful.
You used to be up here at the front just worshipping God.
Is it because everything just went well in your life?
Or is it because you really found God to be true?
I don't know. You got to answer that question,
not me #7 stand firm, be bold and courageous in the face of
opposition. Even though there's opposition,
it might be from even inside. You need to stand firm, be bold
and and courageous in the face of opposition.
Because here's the deal guys. Here's the the why we're
studying this. Why?
Why we're looking at this. Why do we lack courage?
Because your life may or may not be transformed.
The reason why we lack courage is because we lack conviction.
We need the and reason why we lack conviction is because we
lack transformation. When God transforms our life,
like does anyone doubt that this man's life was transformed?
He's just like, he didn't even know what hit him.
He got transformed. His eyes open all he's always,
he's just saying the same thing five times.
They even asked his parents. They're like, hey, you know,
bring mom and dad in. Mom and dad are like freaking
out. They're fearful, right?
They have fear of man because they don't want to be kicked
out. And that was like a big deal to
get kicked out. Basically said like you're no
longer a Jew. And then they kicked him out.
They kicked the parents out, they kicked the son out and he's
just like, what did I do? I just, I can see now what I, I
didn't do anything wrong, like right.
And what did that do though? That transformed life?
It put conviction in him. He's like, this is what
happened. And then that conviction of who?
God. And then we're watching the
progression. First Jesus was just a man and
then and then we find out soon enough that now he they see that
he's the Messiah and then they worship and he worships him as
God. Five times the man was was asked
and he just simply says, I don't know, I was blind, but now I see
and don't you love this that did you ever see somebody when
you're doing when they're doing this evangelism?
Like where do they get that boldness from?
Sometimes if it's an arrogant boldness, it's their own flesh
speaking and they're just trying to prove something.
We know there's people that are like that.
So boldness is not being loud. Boldness isn't is not trying to
prove something to anybody else. Boldness comes from love.
Boldness comes from conviction. It comes a courage comes from
conviction. Like Jesus has indeed changed my
life and I've read the scriptures enough to know who he
is. And I want to share this with
you and doesn't have to. You don't have to ever raise the
volume. You never have to get weird
about it. Actually don't get, just don't
do that. There's no reason for that.
But I love this. He's preaching to the prideful
leaders. Do you know, if you're faithful
with just your testimony, you never know what who God's going
to have you preach in front of. You never know.
I don't know what's going to happen in Baton Rouge.
You just never know who you're going to run into.
You never know who you're going to run into in the city.
You never know, you might run into somebody like, oh, I didn't
know that. And like you don't really care.
Like maybe there's someone famous or maybe there's
something like you just share the gospel because this is who
you are. Your life has been transformed.
Amen. And I love this.
He he preaches to those prideful leaders and he's like, he has so
much courage and he's basically saying like, what does he say in
verse? Where is it?
He says I can't, I lost my spot, but he basically says, like, you
guys know God, you should know that when you see a man come and
open up blind eyes, you should know this guy's from God.
Like the dude's been saved for 10 minutes.
That's what I love about this gospel is that, look, if you're
going to, if you're going to give your life to a religious
spirit, God will not use you. But if you just simply say,
thank you God for saving me and there's genuine conversion,
there's genuine salvation. There's no telling who God will
put you in front of and he will give you the words, but let God
transform your heart and he will produce that kind of conviction
and confidence. A lot of them are like, how do
I, I don't, I just want to do I do I have to read evangelism
books. Don't waste your time with
evangelism books. This dude never read an
evangelism book. You read an evangelism book?
Somebody find it. That's it.
Did he read an evangelism book? No.
They asked him five times. How in the world did this
happen? How do you see?
I don't know. This man came and he caused me
my eyes to open up. That's it.
How? Why do you follow Jesus?
Why do you give your life to the church?
Why are you so involved in your church?
I don't. I don't know.
But I met this man. His name is Jesus, He saved my
life, He's giving me a new life, He's giving me a family.
I can't imagine ever not following him.
This is so amazing. I'll do whatever he tells me to
do. That's normal.
What's not normal is to argue with God.
What's not normal is to just to believe things in your head
intellectually and not live them out.
That's not the normal Christian life.
Isaiah prophesied 3 times that when the Messiah come he would
open up blind eyes chapter 2935 and 42 and within 10 minutes he
just said the the one who opened up my eyes is of God.
How else can you explain what happened to me?
It's never happened before. You're the professing
authorities. You're the ones who should know
all this stuff and yet you can't answer this question.
Wow. I mean, aren't you?
Are you not, like, just floored and marveling at this man's
boldness? How long have you been following
Jesus for? I don't know.
Let's pick somebody. Eric, how long you been
following Jesus for? 10 years.
This guy is 10 minutes. This guy is more boldness than
you do in 10 years. Next.
Who else we had? Dick, How long have you been?
100 years. OK, 100 years. 100 years you've
been following Jesus and this guy 10 minutes.
You've got more boldness than you do That's amazing.
Don't lose that fire. Some of you guys have just
recently gotten saved within like the last week.
You know what's sad about the we we received churches received
new believers and they literally just it's it's like they
disciple it disciple all the passion out of them.
We want to steward passion here. We want to steward that fire.
It was just, it's immediately do not like if the person gets
saved and they have fire, just keep going out, keep sharing the
gospel. You got the stuff right as we
talked about a few weeks ago, like they have it.
Just keep going, keep stewarding it.
It's awesome. You got the fire of God on you.
We do not want to quench that. We don't want to pour sand on
that number 9, Thank God that Jesus finds us, not the other
way around. That produces confidence that he
found us. Jesus went out of the way to
find him. I love what he says is he's like
they've been put, it says they've been put out.
They put him out, they put his parents out, but Jesus heard, I
love this about him. Jesus heard that they had been,
they put him out and then finding him because this man
wasn't he. He didn't fully know who Jesus
was because he never, he'd never seen him.
He didn't even know what he looks like, right?
He was blind. And then he could see.
And Jesus quickly left the scene and he did that on purpose
because now we see this full circle.
He's like, Jesus finds him as he finds us and he's finding you
right now. And this is what he's saying to
you and everybody. Just pause for a second.
He's asking everybody in this room, Do you believe in the Son
of Man? Do you believe you can't just
know about this man who opens up blind eyes, makes you hungry,
makes you cum? He wants a relationship with
you, and he's finding you to finish the task in which he
saved you for. Which is what?
Fellowship, which is what we're all about at this church.
To never forget that intimacy with Him makes you great.
He's like he answered. Who is he, Lord, that I may
believe in Him? There's hunger.
Well, you both seen him and He's the one talking to you.
You know why that's so important?
Because Jesus is admitting His deity.
It's the whole purpose of John and why He writes this.
I love what he does. He said Lord, I believe, and
then he worshipped him. Now any old good Bible student
would ask this question. Did Jesus stop him from
worshipping him? No, we are.
We are at our happiest in life when we worship God.
We're at the pinnacle of our emotional state.
If, if you can have one, when we're worshipping God, that's
why it, this erupts with praise and it's exciting and it's just
fun to worship in this house. It's fun to worship in the House
of my father. That's what he's saying.
And then he says this for judgement.
I came into the world so that those who do not see may see and
that those who see may become blind.
What is he saying? He's got 2 messages.
He's got a message for those who know they're blind.
Message for the prodigal son who says, man, I'm blind.
I'm sitting here in a pit feeding pigs, eating carb pods,
pods that I can't digest. This is awful.
I'm blind. Do you know your heart should
break? For people who are blind, the
people who are blind right now in the Middle East, there's
blindness. They think they know God.
There's blindness. And they say those, those, those
who say I'm blind, I want to go back home.
God receives them. But those who say, ah, there's
no blindness. I see, What blindness do I have?
You know what Jesus says? You're blind.
You're blind and you're going to hell.
That's what he says. He says for judgement.
That's not why I came. I came first.
I came for salvation, but for judgement.
I came into this world. What is he judging?
He's judging your hearts right now.
Even as I speak, He's judging your hearts.
What is it? Do you want to admit this
morning that you're blind? Well, he'll say you know what
you see. Isn't that crazy?
Don't you love Jesus's teaching? It's like a puzzle trying to
figure it out. Like what is his name?
He's saying if you admit that you have a need, a spiritual
need, he said no problem. You come and I'll I'll fix it.
I'll fix it. I'll give you life.
But if you keep going like this and stiff arming God and saying,
I don't need that I, I see perfectly, then he's like, fine,
you know what? He's he's got a message for
those kind of people. Do you know what he says?
Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be
uprooted. This is what he says.
Let them alone. Guys.
I don't personally know a scarier phrase in the Bible,
Jesus, by the way, it's red letters.
He's saying let them alone. Do you want Jesus leaving you
alone? That's honestly the most
terrifying thought. But you know what he has to say.
For religious people who continually say I see but yet
they're blind, let him alone. Why does he say that?
Let them alone. They are blind guides of the
blind. And if the blind man guides a
blind man, both will fall into the pit.
The religious people of that day didn't care about people, they
just care about themselves. They were selfish, good for
nothing. But God saying that's not you.
Recognize your blindness this morning.
Recognize you have a need and just come to the cross, The
great equalizer. Jesus says this.
In Revelation 317. Jesus rebuked the lukewarm
congregation. I hope that's not us.
With these words, you say I am rich and I've become wealthy and
I have need of nothing. And then he says this, you know,
do you not know that you're a wretched, miserable, poor, blind
and naked. When you recognize that I will
come heal your eyes. I'll give you gold.
We're fine. We're fine by fire.
And I'll clothe you. The only thing, the only
response we have is from Luke 18 and just recognizing our need
and comes coming to the end of ourselves.
That's the only time we're justified.
Love blind Bartimaeus. He's like, what?
Jesus, please have mercy on me. And it's made the disciples so
awkward. He's like, Oh my goodness,
that's awkward. Stop it.
Like, he's like, no, no, those are the people I'm attracted to,
the ones who cry out for mercy. Those are the people I want.
Those are the people I want to change the world with.
Amen. All right, Why don't we stand to
our feet? Worship the Lord this morning.
All right. As we respond to him, I think,
all right, I can't think of it. There's just two categories
really in the room. It's just that if you want mercy
this morning, you're going to have to admit that you're blind.
If you want mercy this morning, if you want grace this morning
for everything that you need, you need to admit that you have
a need that you're blind. Come as a prodigal.
Love the father as he's even even though Jesus is harsh
towards religious people who have a heart and heart, he's
still in Luke 15. If you remember, he still
pleads. You still say come in older
brother, come in and celebrate Come in, come in and worship at
the House of my father. Come in, come in, come in.
You know, I was listening to a story this week I thought was
really helpful just to just to seeing that what is our, what is
the greatest motivation of following Jesus?
You know, there's a, a story of people who were invited by their
friends to come to a bar, which I don't recommend, but just, you
know, just to hang out in a, a bar and there's a sign that said
no spitting. And how many of you know that
the law is really is really powerful?
And what is the purpose of the law in the Old Testament and
even in the New Testament? What did Paul say about the law?
What does the law do? Does anyone know?
The law reveals our sin. The law is a mirror.
You know, when you when you look in the mirror, you know when you
just see like all, all it's going to tell you is something's
wrong, right? There's like a hair out of place
or your hair's up or whatever, or you got a booger or you got
like food on your face or whatever, or something in your
teeth. It just tells you what's wrong.
The mirror doesn't like pop through and be like, let me take
that out for you. The law is was meant to show you
you're a sinful person. The law was never meant to fix
you and bring you back to God. So the friends, they're at the
bar and they're looking and it says no spitting.
And they're like, now I want to spit, right?
Don't you want to do that? Like when you see like before,
they're like, no, we're chilling, we're good.
And then he's like, Oh, no spitting.
Now I want to spit and it's like the juices are forming in the
mouth even as you're as you're reading that, right.
Well, let's just say your friend, now you know a friend
who's in high places and he invites you to Buckingham Palace
in England. And he's like, hey, you got to
get dressed up for the occasion. Come, I want you to meet the
king. And so he gets all dressed up,
flies first class Orlando MCO, British Airways lands in London.
It's out of the car. Fancy cars, bring them black
vehicles, right? Motorcade goes directly to the
to the palace. How many there are tempted to
spit in that moment when you're eating all the fancy food and
the guys are coming with the trays giving you hors d'oeuvres?
How many guys are like, I just have this big urge to spit, but
there's no sign, at least as far as I know, in Buckingham Palace,
there's no sign that says no spitting.
Why is it that you don't want to spit in that environment?
Because you're royal and you're in the House of the King, and
you not wanting to spit comes out of love and royalty.
You're a part of the House of God.
You're His. The law is good, but the law
always shows you your sinfulness.
The greatest motivation to live for God in His Kingdom is a love
for Him, and He produces that deep into your soul.
Amen. We don't have to go around being
like, don't do this, don't do this.
Don't. It's not that we throw out our
Bibles, it's just we find fire and power to live this stuff out
because God's put a love and he's blessed you and transformed
you from the inside out. Amen.
That's what he's done. So guys, what we're committed to
is a love relationship with God. We'll just say, God, I want to
obey you. I want to live for you because
you've transformed me inside out.
But you know what? I'm going to sin.
I'm going to spit at times. I'm going to do something dumb.
I'm going to, I'm going to let my, you know, you're going to
find yourself there. And maybe you found yourself
there last night or yesterday or this week or this morning.
Even when you came, you're like, man, what do I do with that?
You come to the cross. It's the great equalizer.
That means every time there's going to be a moment in time
where you're just going to want to come to the cross in this
house. And I'm just saying that's the
great equalizer. Everybody's equaled when they
come to the cross. People might feel above somebody
else because there's somebody else confessed to them like, oh,
I've sinned, whatever, and made me feel a little bit better.
But then when you fall, you come to the cross.
You're like, wow, that just leveled everybody in the room.
It levels us all. We all need Jesus.
We're all children of God. We give our lives to him.
We're children that come to the cross daily, daily.
So let's just come to the cross this morning.
Amen. Let's just come to the cross.
Come to the cross. Come receive forgiveness this
morning. Receive His touch this morning.
Whatever it is that you need, whatever it is, let Him convict
you of sin. Let that conviction come.
The Holy Spirit is convicting right now.
That's great. That means you're his.
That means the Spirit of God is working.
Lord, we ask you right now that you would soften people's hearts
by the power of your Spirit. Right now we ask you, Lord, that
evangelism would would never seem hard.
It would seem easy as this man just simply just said the same
thing as I robot. I don't know.
I was blind and why? I see, I was blind and now I see
and now I want to follow Jesus for the rest of my life.
Why? Because he's been transformed
from the inside out. He's no longer living for law,
but he's living for love in Jesus name.
We thank you Lord, all across the room.
We just thank you, Lord, just thank him.
Thank him. Just come to him, come to him,
confess your sin, whatever it is, just confess.
He is right, He is faithful and just to forgive you of all of
your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
Lord, we thank you that that blood flows from the cross and
cleanses us. It washes us anew and makes us
white as snow. We thank you Lord, for the
cross. We thank you for what you're
doing. I just pray, Lord, you minister
to every person in this room who wants ministry, every person who
needs forgiveness, every person that needs power to live out all
you've called us to. And he needs the reminding
again, a reminder of how good you've been to them, how good
you are right now, and you'll never change that.
We could come to the cross every single time or receive
everything that we need in Jesus name.
It's worse of him.