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2/14/2024 11 AM
Pastor Peter Havnen
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Rest your upon his holy word them solders rally around the banner Ready Steady pass the word along onward forward shout aloud is captain of the mighty throne hold on hold on before we go on to that second verse let’s see if I don’t go too
Low this time let’s get it a little bit lower though there we go sound strong to meet the flow strong no that’s the same verse that’s the same tune right there let’s try it again strong to meet the marching on we go we know must Prevail shield and
Banner bright gleaming in the light battling for the right we can fail then solders rally round the banner Ready Steady pass the word along onward forward shout aloud Christ is captain of the mighty Throne oh thou God of all hear us when we call help us all by thy Grace when
The batt done and the vict won may we wear the crown before thy face R then solders rally around the banner Ready Steady pass the word along onward forward shout aloud hosana Christ is captain of the mighty throne amen father thank you uh thank you for each one that’s come tonight
For uh that we can come together that we have a place uh Lord we uh thinking of all those that will be lifting up before your throne tonight we pray father that you be with us and what we hear and Lord all that we do give you honor and Glory
We pray in Jesus name amen good evening everybody and Happy Valentine’s Day thank you all right so today’s missionary letter comes from Jason man our missionary to Macedonia dear church and friends today we do not stand before Giants we do stand before truth as David did then
When I surveyed the cause for the gospel in North Macedonia I ran across an article is an article about the abuse of women in North Macedonia the article explains that every third woman in Macedonia is a victim of domestic violence while I understand the need for the gospel is
Great I can’t help to think about walking around in this country knowing that every third woman is in a situation of abuse according to this article this abuse comes from broken homes broken homes as a result of broken people we are called commanded and commissioned to bring the gospel to North
Macedonia the gospel is is great news of Jesus Christ and his salvation if you are reading this letter I trust that you are a born again Christian but that is not true for 99.9% of North Macedonia who have never heard the gospel one time according to the Joshua
Project cont North Macedonia is a Pioneer Nation with limited access to find the truth from God’s word a country that is full of religion but will burn in hell as we continue our deputation Trail this year we are reminded that the need for the gospel is a need for the
Salvation of souls that Jesus Christ died for this is our motivation as we travel many miles as we shake many hands as we preach the message of missions that are calling us to be like David and say is there not a cause please continue to pray as we strive to raise our
Support and bring the gospel to North Macedonia thank you Jason man thank you well good evening everyone I was telling Mike I thought it might have been a two song Wednesday night service in other words buy me some time but how’s everybody doing tonight good good I don’t know about about you
But I woke up a little disappointed this morning it was very cold 20° is too cold right like Saturday was beautiful the kids said oh can we go for a bike ride and take a walk and I couldn’t really tell him no in good conscience so we
Went and had fun together and and Julia said can I go swimming I said no that I can say no to that I can definitely say no to so all good glad you guys are all here tonight Mike can you bring me up a uh um prayer list
Please so so keep Pastor Prime in prayer he uh he’s not feeling well uh it might be Co it’s still going around than gu sir so I told him to go to Mo because MO is health food and it’s you know it’ll it’ll really help your immune system you
Know rebound no don’t do that so uh take your bibles if you would and uh we’ll go to John chapter 9 tonight and uh while you’re turning there uh just think with me about a couple things here have you ever heard somebody ask a question or
You know make a statement and it just kind of left you stunned and you’re you know not just mouth open wow but you know chin to the floor stunned like how did you come up with that conclusion right um you’re left wondering how did you think that or
Like I said how did you come up with that conclusion uh you might have seen some of the comedy segments on TV uh they have like a man on the street where he goes around asking people questions and some of the more funny ones uh Jay
Leno used to do a a j jaywalking type deal and he would ask people really basic questions and it would really um it would really bolster your support and perspective of public education because he would ask questions like how many days are in the year and you know one of
The recent ones I saw the answer was 2,000 and the the guy asking questions he wouldn’t say no he probably didn’t want to get assaulted right but he would just uh say yeah okay and one of the other questions he asked was uh during the Revolutionary War you know who was
The Americans who was the US fighting and they said South America so that was another really good answer for that and you know everybody knows it was Central America but you know I didn’t want to correct them at that point so you know it really makes you wonder and uh
Election season isn’t too far away so I start thinking you know what their vote counts just the same as mine does so that really really helps you Sharon all of them good good if somebody said 365 I would say not this year you know 366 but uh so that makes me you
Know sort of brings up my mind here and why do I bring it up because we should never assume that people know what they’re talking about right uh we have this great thing called the internet and there’s internet experts you know if you say hey why is my car not running well
You’ll have 35 different experts and some of them are more vocal than others so that’s number one but number two it’s a reminder that even well in folks can think say or do things out of habit ignorance or lack of knowledge right uh the Young Generation knows best said no
One ever right but everybody knows things everybody has their strengths and weaknesses but sometimes we get into things and we don’t know what to do or we’re faced with a situation and we don’t know what to say right so sometimes what comes out isn’t the best
Answer and I won’t ask for everybody to go around and share an example of one that happened in their life because we might be here for a while right but sometimes we need to think and take a step back before we say something so in John chapter 9 Jesus finds I’ll call it
A teachable moment now we like teachable moments when it’s put that way right we would rather have somebody come alongside us and say hey let me help you with this instead of screaming you’re doing it wrong right I was uh I work with a lot of either military or former
Military folks and I thought it was rather comical I mentioned it on Sunday morning in Sunday school where I believe it’s the Marines they now have a stress card so if you’re going through training and your drill instructor or somebody is is just too heavy on you that day you
Can raise your stress card and then they’ll they’re supposed to back off and you know reduce the stress and um they only give a few of those out for combat situations uh because the enemy would have to recognize it and say oh it’s it’s too hot so I’m going to back off
Right now I’m not saying abuse or you know verbal or whatever is good but we have to deal with stressful situations sometimes and we don’t have any such thing as a stress card to wave you know that might get shot right but here it’s it’s still you know no excuse to to
Behave wrong and uh and misread a situation Jesus uses an example here something that he sees as the Bible says as he is passing by to make a big impact on a young man’s life show his disciples the proper way of thinking and also uh bring glory and honor to God the father
So really it’s a trifecta of three great things happening just by you know out and about walking around uh we see here he says uh in John chapter 9 he’s able to do all these things while recently having escaped in chapter 8 the Pharisees who once again were trying to
Kill him right in chapter 8 the Pharisees and a crowd of folks accused him of not knowing who his father was and I’m not going to say what the word is that’s associated with that but that’s what they were accusing Jesus of because they said well we know Abraham
But they didn’t come out and say it but you look at the way they phrase it and they’re basically saying yeah we’re not so sure about you right and it’s highly insulting to Jesus and then they accuse him of blasphemy because he says I am
And they knew right away who he he was referring to he was referring to God Almighty right he said that and if somebody says that and they aren’t God Almighty then yes they are guilty of blasphemy but when Jesus says it he fulfilled the requirements of the term
So he absolutely is I am Spurgeon has a little quote here it says Jesus was often reviled but never ruffled no matter what they said to him they could revile him they could say all manner of mean false you know awful things to him but he was never
Ruffled how many of us can say that I’ll wait yeah none of us can right because we’re human and you know as we try to walk in the spirit we try to do things the right way but still we can get ruffled sometimes but uh continue
The quote here Spurgeon says one of the things worthy to be noticed in our Lord’s character is his wonderful quiet of spirit especially His Marvelous calmness in the presence of those who misjudged insulted and slandered him right he could have BL bled them with the truth he could have came out and
Said do you know who you’re talking to but he didn’t right and we see that many times throughout scripture where even when he was on the cross he could have called 10,000 angels but he didn’t he he has reasons for doing the things that he did he has reasons for responding the
Way that he responded in this Jesus shows us that some of the most teachable moments can occur in the middle of a very stressful situation so if you have co-workers and everything is C crashing at work would that be a good time to say I’m so glad this is happening what can
We learn in this situation right probably not the best time but we should be at least aware of how we can learn lessons and try to be in a mindset to learn lessons every one of us and is in a spot where we can learn lessons every
One of us should be humble enough to learn a lesson I learned a lesson when Pastor horn was here and we were working up in the ceiling and it was a Saturday and you know there was one spot where it was weak and that’s where my size 15
Found and it had to be right over the pulpit right here so Pastor horn could have read me the riot act I’m sure he had it somewhere but he didn’t he was gracious and you know I suggested putting a little uh heating crate over it so it would blend in but he decided
Just to fix it instead so great example of teachable moments of you know graciously handling uh tough situations so here a couple lessons I want to share and we’ll jump right in uh a couple lessons include number one why do I think the way I do about a given
Situation right and I’m not talking you know going against doctrinal things that the Bible teaches quite clearly but as situations arise you ever catch yourself saying something in response and then you think about it and you’re like wow I really shouldn’t have said that or really shouldn’t have done that you know
You see maybe I’m going to pick on Ford here for a minute you see a Ford in the garage and you’re like yep there’s another Ford towed off to the garage well yes but there’s how many millions of them on the road right so you have to
Think about the whole picture before you come up with these these statements that are all often just slip right out without thinking about how is this going to uh be received is the way you think about a situation is it based on fact is it bed based on folklore like oh this is
What I heard or is it based on Folly do you really not have an opinion number two how would my words and actions affect others if they heard what I said about them would they be encouraged and edified or would they be hurt and upset now everybody says you know sticks and
Stones may break my bones but words may never hurt and that’s a song but it’s not true you know you can really raise somebody up or you can pull them down quite quickly with words and number three we should not let what we don’t know prevent us from doing what we
Should with what we do know right if you can’t read every word in the dictionary does that mean you should stop reading books no right if you’re 45 years old still reading c-spot run you may want to try to step it up a little bit right but
Use what you have do the best with what you have to get to where you want to be that can be applied in work that can be applied in spiritual matters you know if somebody says well I’ve never been to Bible College so what you have a Bible
You have the internet which not always a good thing but you have opportunity for a lot of different resources you have spiritual mature people at church you have pastors that can help you have a lot of reasons so there’s really no excuse to not grow or to not use what
You have so if you take a look at John chapter 9 we’ll Jump Right In Here uh verse number one and as Jesus passed by there’s those words he passed by it’s An Occurrence it’s something that they just happen to see right as he passed by 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 that he was born blind so let me ask when you see somebody blind or maybe in a wheelchair or you know this is a
Probably a 20 something year old I’m not quite sure but it’s definitely somebody who is mature and they’re blind is that the first question that comes to mind gee I wonder who sinned was it him or was it his parents maybe it was his grandparents and I I bring that up
Because the question you know begs itself why do I think the way I do about a given situation now this is an easy one to sort of tear apart a little bit and then you know is it based on fact folklore or Folly um one of the
Commentators I was looking at for this says it was widely held that suffering and especially such a disaster as blindness was due to sin the general principle was laid down by Rabbi ammy uh there’s There Is No Death without sin and there’s no suffering without iniquity now that might sound true
Because sin does cause suffering but to say to raise that question did the baby do it did the baby sin before he was born is it the parents it doesn’t really pass the sniff test to be honest with you and it ties in with what we were talking about last Sunday
Morning in Sunday school you know we have suffering in the world that’s very apparent and we have a lot of thought thoughts as to why suffering happens we’re always looking for a reason and when you can find somebody to blame for something it makes it easier to justify
Why it might have happened even if they’re not to blame you know so what we see here is no different there’s five other suggested possible reasons behind their question these are some things that were culturally accepted at the time so number one some of the Jews at the time believed in the pre-existence
Of Souls and the possib ility that those pre-existent Souls could sin what better way to explain it away clearly you have no answer you know you don’t know so let’s mix something up and then we can feel better because we understand now right um Sunday morning
One of the things that I I said was when suffering happens randomly that’s when it hurts the most because you often say why why did this happen you know and I was going to put a little plugin for grief share you know grief share you have people from all walks of life and
They’re United in one thing in their grief some of them I’m sure if they you know share the details there might have been people that made decisions that sort of brought on some of that grief but other ones lived you know as we would say good they didn’t do anything
Bad they didn’t do anything deserving of this grief but grief and suffering find all of us because of the sinfulness in the world and we can’t always come up with a reason why it happens so we can either accept that or we can make up things like they did back then um does
Anybody here believe in the pre-existence of Souls and the possibility that those pre-existent Souls could sin does anybody want me to repeat that no so uh the next one some of the Jews at the time believed in some kind of reincarnation and perhaps that man sinned in a previous existence oh
That makes sense because he must have done something terrible in a previous life to to give him this right here again it doesn’t pass the the sniff test test number three some of the Jews at the time believed that a baby might sin in its in the womb right now we’re sort
Of grasping its straws here uh they they thought number four that the punishment was for a sin that the man would later commit wow and number five they were so bewildered that they threw out a wild possibility without thinking it through and that sounds more like it right
Because we can do that today too why do bad things happen I knew I should have not painted the garage white you know if I didn’t do that a car wouldn’t have run into it and we can just come up with all kinds of crazy explanations for why
Things happened the way they did instead of realizing sometimes we just don’t have an answer we just don’t have an answer so number two how would my words and actions affect others if they heard what I said about them would they be encouraged and edified or would they be
Hurt and upset how would you feel if someone said this to you you know the disciples these are Jesus’s disciples ostensibly they would know better right and they said who was it master that who sinned this man or his parents if you were the parent of this man you happen
To hear that and we’re going to get to that in a minute how would you feel because it’s almost like job’s friend are stopping by saying here job I want to be an encouragement to you let me tell you how awful you are right and they speak about things that they don’t
Know and they say things that they really shouldn’t have and they get to the point of well clearly it must have been your sin or your child sin those are really comforting words to a parent that is dealing with you know a son who has a lifelong infirmity such as
Blindness right it’s a terrible thing to say the polite response would be thanks for stopping by as you’re opening the door and you know sending them out the not so polite response would be if you know the mama bear starts coming out and they better run quickly otherwise
They’re going to see the wrath of of Mama Bear so we need to be sensitive and think about what we say how we say it and the impacts that it could have Jesus gives us a great example he didn’t take the bait he didn’t respond in kind he didn’t lash
Out but instead he stuck with the facts and decided to do something positive productive and profound in verse number three Jesus answered saying neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him I love that word manifest it
Means shown you know you uh tractor trailer they want to know what’s on your manifest and they open the doors to the truck and they show this is everything that I have here and we can try to hide things you know you could have a tract or trailer truck where they try to
Smuggle things in and at the very back by the doors they might have you know cases stacked to the roof but if somebody moves the cases out of the way they can look behind it and they can see what all is hiding back there Adam and
Eve tried to hide in the garden it didn’t work so well for them that’s a great example for us we can’t hide from the Lord right no matter where we try to go above water underwater Jonah you know there’s not much you can do to escape so
You might as well deal with it you might as well say hey I know God can see everything I’m going to live that way and if I haven’t lived that way God forgive me and please help me right because we we know everything is going to be manifest so here it says Jesus
Says that the works of God should be made manifest in him he says in verse four 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 am in the world I am the light of the world so
He gives a little discourse he talks about who he is and you know that he is the light of the world but he doesn’t leave him with that then he does something practical and says I’m going to fix this verse number six when he had thus spoken he spat in the ground and
Made clay of the spittle and he Anointed The Eyes of the blind man with clay and said unto him go wash in the pool of salom which is by interpretation scent he went his way therefore and watched and came seeing a miracle has taken place and this wasn’t a parlor trick it
Wasn’t something that oh you know I have ringing in my ears and then somebody comes and whacks you on the head and you fall on the ground and you know then next Sunday you do the same thing and we pick another volunteer it wasn’t that at all the Neighbors in verse number eight
The neighbors therefore and they uh which before had seen him that he was blind said is not this he that sat and begged wow they recognized it some said this is he others said he is like him but he the blind man previously blind man said I am
He it’s definitely me there’s no mistake here verse number 10 therefore said they unto him how are thine eyes open he answered her said a man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said unto me go to the pool of silom and
Wash and I went and I washed and I received sight pretty good obedience right um pretty excellent obedience verse number 12 then said they unto him where is he he said I know not so what does this man know he knows he was blind he knows this man named Jesus had mercy
On him and he made some mud pies and said put this on your eye and go rinse in the pool of salom and he thought I’m going to do this right he goes he he obeys and it’s amazing something amazing had just happened it was clearly a
Miracle some would ask the question was the man born blind so Jesus could heal him or was he born blind because sin is in the world and Jesus here uses this as a trifold example to number one heal the man number two establish himself as who
He said he was and you know the I am and number three give glory to God unlike the Pharisees Jesus did not have an it’s all about me attitude the Pharisees loved the greetings in the marketplace they loved to to you know drop the money
In the plate and they love to have the attention Jesus was not in it for that when they accused him of doing things and doing it for himself it only showed their foolishness and how unacquainted they were with the scriptures about who the Messiah was to be he’s pretty clear
About it in Philippians 25-8 which you know most of you know it reminds us of his humility of his desire to honor and glorify his father in Heaven and it’s a great example for us apparently here the Pharisees needed to know more they couldn’t just accept the miracle that
Had happened they want to dig in and find it they want to take it apart to where they can explain it away because if they could explain it away then they could deny that Jesus was I am they could say oh no no he’s a he’s a parlor
Master right they could take away the glory that was being generated by him to God the father so verse number 13 they brought to the Pharisees him that a four time was blind and it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes then again the Pharisees also
Asked him how he had received his sight he said unto them he put clay in my eyes and I watched and do see pretty straightforward right now he’s repeating the story again and again and again and the story hasn’t changed a lot of times uh you know police will ask somebody the
Same story many many times I think I asked my kids the same story many many times so tell me again how that really happened uh this they flew in there’s a good little barenstein bears book about it where they’re playing soccer in the house and they break a lamp and they
Were told not to play soccer in the house and then the mother asks and he says this this black and yellow bird flew through the window and and circled around the house and then it crashed and then the father asked the story and they
Said oh it was it black and white and he goes I thought it was yellow and he goes black and white and yellow and finally the whole thing just fell apart and they said we’re sorry you know and then they had to buy a lamp for the parents but we
See here he repeats the story he’s not adding anything to it he’s not taking anything away from it he’s giving them facts just as it happened he said unto them you put clay in my eyes and I washed and you see therefore said some of the Pharisees this man is not of God
Because he keepeth not the Sabbath day they like to refer back to that and I like to refer back to Jesus saying the Sabbath uh was created for man not man for the Sabbath right uh it’s clear yes the Sabbath day was set aside but if you
Were dying and you got a you know a camel ride to the Jerusalem Hospital the eer emergency room I would hope that they would open the doors and help you even on the Sabbath day right there’s some things that go above and beyond and this was definitely one of them others
Said how can a man that is a sinner do such Miracles and there is a division among them see they can’t even figure it out so what happens they start coming up with alternate theories I know how it could happen follow me follow me because they didn’t want to acknowledge the obvious
That Jesus was the am that he just did a miracle and that’s it they didn’t have any other alternative Theory um verse number 17 they say unto the blind man again what sayest thou of him that he hath opened thy eyes his answer here he
Said he is a prophet but the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents of him that had received the sight so they keep grasping at straws hoping something will explain this away when the simple fact of the
Matter is Jesus healed him but they could not they would not acknowledge that sometimes we present people with truth those that are you know without Christ the unsaved and you give them all kinds of truth from all different angles from all different parts of the Bible
And they try to come up with an answer to explain it all the way because the obvious the correct thing to do would be accept but because they can’t let themselves do that they choose not to let themselves do that they try to chase down any alternate Theory no matter how
Crazy it sounds you know we were I wasn’t going to share this with you but uh we descended from Aliens just so you know all right they helped with the pyramids over in Egypt uh now they’re trying to take over Washington DC again don’t tell anybody this stuff but please
Don’t but you get it right you can have the truth right in front of you but if you are so blind that you choose not to see it then your only alternative is to come up with alternate realities and try to ju toose them together it does not
Make sense and there was a division among them no kidding uh they said him to him you know what sayth thou verse number 18 but the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received the sight until they called the parents of him that received his
Sight and they asked him saying is this your son who ye say was born blind how then do he now see and I can just imagine these parents they’re not doctorates they’re not you know wealthy people people they’re probably just regular folks with a son who was born
Blind they probably had to deal with that his whole life you know it must have been life-changing for them the job prospects of somebody who was born blind were probably pretty dismal hence why he was begging while everybody knew who he was the parents had to deal with that
Their whole life they probably had to support him there’s a whole lot you could look at there and they say is this your son how do we know he was born blind the parents could defend say yes he was my he is my son yes he was born blind and that’s exactly what
They say in verse 20 his parents answered them and said we know that this is our son and that he was born blind but by what means he now seeth we know not or who hath opened his eyes we know not but we do know he is of age ask him
He shall speak for himself the parents sort of you know wiping my hands of this one because there’s some politics going on here too if the Pharisees weren’t happy with somebody they could be sanor from the temple from going to the synagogue so the parents are trying to
Ride a fine line you know they don’t want to get in the Limelight too much but they can’t acknowledge they can’t uh throw out that this was a miracle this was awesome and I bet they were so happy for their son they’re probably saying why can’t you just accept that a miracle
Happened and be happy for this man he’s no longer blind he’s no longer feeling like he’s a burden now he has his vision and maybe his life restored be happy right but they they can’t accept that he says he is of age as him verse 22 these words spake his parents because they
Feared the Jews for the Jews had had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ he should be put out of the synagogue therefore his parents that therefore said he said his parents he is of age ask him you think they would be done they’re not done
Verse 24 then again they call called they the man that was blind and said unto him give God the praise we know that this man is a sinner so now they’re trying to get him to jump on the bandwagon and disparage Jesus and say yeah we know he’s a sinner verse 25 I
Admire him for his testimony here he answered the blind man he answered and said whether he be a sinner or no I know not one thing I know that whereas I was blind now I see so this goes back to the third thing that it said we should not
Let what we don’t know vent us from doing what we should with what we do know he could have said you’re right this is terrible that I have my vision now what was I thinking but instead he said look this is what I know I don’t
Know much about him but nobody else was able to give me my sight so all I know is that I was blind and now I see verse number 26 then they said to him again what did he to thee how opened he Thine Eyes he answered them I have told you
Already and you did not hear kudos to him for taking a stand he’s not going to change the story he’s not going to fabricate something he’s not going to say you know what I had I had 2200 in this eye so I could kind of almost see
And now it’s only 2190 so things are great no he’s stuck with what he knew he’s stuck with what he saw he’s stuck with the miracle and he wasn’t backing down from it he said I have told you already and you did not hear you can only tell somebody something so many
Times and explain it to them before you realize that it’s not that they can’t hear it’s that they choose not to hear right and sometimes you know hypothetically with kids you tell them to do something and they don’t do it and they still don’t do it and the
Third time they don’t do it hypothetically at that point you might hypothetically feel that you’re being ignored and disrespected by these hypothetical kids now we’re not talking about any kids by name of course but you get the idea right if you’ve given clear instructions once twice three times and
It’s still not not done they’re ignoring right they’re not doing what they’re supposed to it’s called Disobedience uh so we see what does he do next he says you know he goes uh wherefore if you hear it again will he also be his disciples I would have loved to see
Their face when they heard that you want to hear it again will this change your mind to where you’ll finally get it then they reviled him oh here we go if you don’t like somebody’s answer it doesn’t say they insulted his mother but you know going back fact that
Like grade school that was usually the end of the argument if you have somebody says something and you don’t have anything you know Wise or profound to say it usually resulted into personal insults right and that’s kind of still what happens today you see it in
Politics you see it in the news if somebody’s having an intelligent conversation and they’re getting outgunned or they they run out of things to say what did they end it with a personal attack and they’re doing the same thing here it’s nothing new then they reviled him and said Thou Art his
Disciple but we are Moses’s disciples and this kind of goes back to uh chapter 8 a little bit where they were saying how great they were because they were of Abraham now we’re of Moses right and verse number 29 we know that God spake unto Moses for as this fellow we know
Not from whence he is again you know disparaging his lineage you know where he’s from they knew exactly where he was they knew exactly who he was and they knew what his mission was they knew everything about him the only thing they didn’t know is well the only thing they wouldn’t
Know is to accept him as their savior right they would not do it verse number 30 the man answered and said unto them why herein is a marvelous thing that you know not from whence he is and yet Heath opened my eyes really he’s saying so who’s the
Blind one here right I used to be blind he physically opened my eyes but if you all can’t understand this when it’s been so clear to you then who’s really blind here right one of them was blind from birth the other ones it’s a I’m putting
My hands over my eyes so I’m invisible it doesn’t work for kids and it didn’t work for them verse 31 now we know that God heareth not Sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doeth His will him he heareth since the world
Began was it not heard that any man Open the Eyes of one that was born blind verse 33 if this man were not of God he could do nothing so he’s pretty much broadcasting it to the Pharisees if this wasn’t of God it never would have happened if you Pharisees are so good
Then why haven’t you done something I saw a Babylon B article uh this afternoon and it was um Benny hin apologizing for dressing up like a pastor and he he said I still want your money but I’m just not going to pretend and dress up like a pastor anymore you
Know Babylon be they have a lot of you know satirical you know pretty funny little things like that so I thought that was interesting but um Benny Hinn has has tried everything he could do I’ve seen some little clips and videos and um it’s funny when I first came here
We were downstairs cleaning up and somebody found a Benny hin you know VCR tape so I said to Pastor horn I said hey Pastor I found your tape and you know we didn’t go out to breakfast for a couple months after that but I don’t think there was a correlation no I’m kidding
But there was a tape and it was escorted off the property courtesy of uh County Waste over there but what do we see here uh we see in verse 34 they answered and said unto him thou was altogether born in sins there we go again blaming him
Now yes you know we are conceived in sin because of the sin nature but that’s not what they were saying they were saying you were you’re they’re reviling him once again they’re trying to disparage him trying to put him down um they said you know thou was
Altogether born in sins and dust thou teach us and they cast him out they couldn’t take the truth they couldn’t stand what he was saying because it led them to to a conclusion that they didn’t want to take if the conclusion that was there if they accepted it they would
Have had to repent they would have had to come to Jesus and humbly ask him to be their Savior and they wouldn’t do it as uh you know Theologian Barney 5 says not GNA do it right I think that was Barney 5 if not you can correct me later
But you get the idea how foolish it is to reject and to say no in spite of a a huge pile of evidence that they have basically seen with their own eyes so what do they do they cast them out what do you do with somebody when they’re
Speaking the truth to you and you don’t want to hear it anymore cast them out right now the Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t speaking truth so you can go ahead and cast them out but you know when he’s speaking the truth you know don’t cast them out when the Holy Spirit is
Speaking to you about something that maybe you need to do or not do don’t cast them out now if a doctor is speaking to you and says you know stop smoking or whatever else yeah them you can cast cast out just find another opinion no I’m kidding um but you get
The idea don’t cast out just because you don’t like what they’re telling you if what they’re telling you is biblical truth so we see in verse 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out and when he had found him he said unto him Dost thou
Believe on the Son of God and look at the answer verse 36 he answered and says who is he Lord that I might believe on him so the man that had that was once blind who had been miraculously healed is now asking well who is he that I
Might believe on him and Jesus said in verse 37 said unto him thou Hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee and that was enough for this previously blind man in verse number 38 and he said Lord I believe and he worshiped him so one of these men was
Born blind one of these men was miraculously given Vision so he could see and then he did the natural only only right choice he accepted Christ he worshiped him and he believed him the other ones the Pharisees that had the advantage of being cited being able to
See if you can see you can read if you can read you can study all the scriptures the Old Testament they could study all this they had the information right there in front of them but what did they do with it they literally put the blinders on because they could not
They would not choose to humbly worship and to be saved and ask for forgiveness verse 39 Jesus alludes to that he says and Jesus said for judgment I am come into this world that they which see might not see and that they which um which see might be made blind and some
Of the Pharisees were which were which were with him heard these words and said unto him are we blind also I wasn’t around for it but I heard there was a show that had a big gong and they could bang the gong and and that
Was it right if they had a Gong back then it might have been going off at this Point ding ding ding you just realized it right but Jesus said unto them if you were blind you should have no sin but now you say we see Therefore your sin remaineth see he was reviled
But he was never ruffled if we get ruffled we don’t know what to say we don’t know how to respond sometimes here he had the greatest comeback and it wasn’t a comeback in a mean SoCal sort of way it was something to get their eyes open he says if you blind you
Should have no sin if you didn’t see what your sin was you wouldn’t be as responsible for it you wouldn’t know how to fix it but now you say we see Therefore your sin remainest you know your room’s a mess right again hypothetically you know your room’s a
Mess why didn’t you clean it up because it didn’t want to you know who Jesus is why didn’t you accept him because they didn’t want to right the lesson is there for us some smaller application lessons are there for us think before we speak you know think about how things will be
Interpreted right but the big lesson here is we should we all humbly need to respond to Christ the same way that this blind man did he said I don’t know who you are right but the Lord Jesus told him who he was that was enough he believed and he worshiped and he got
Saved so we can do the same thing I believe most most of us here are saved but if somebody’s listening on YouTube the Bible’s very clear heaven is real hell is real the choice of where we spend eternity is up to us Jesus came to
This earth he died on the cross for our sins he lived well lived a sinless life died on the cross for our sins and he rose again and now is in heaven with God the father if you ask him to be your savior he will do it and you’ll have a
Home in heaven if you continue to reject and put the blinders on you’ll be in hell and it will only be your choice your fault that led you there it doesn’t have to happen that way but that’s the way things work if they keep going down
The path they’re on so I’ll end it with this keep on keeping on use what you have scripturally speaking biblically speaking do the best you can with what you have don’t let that be a stumbling block don’t let that be an excuse oh well I can’t do anything else no we have
God’s word we have God’s complete Canon so use it right use what you’ve been given grow with what you’ve been given this man when he was given his vision do you think he stayed seated seated where he was for all those years if I was him I would be running as
Fast as I could where anywhere I want to see the world I want to see around me I want to see everything out there God’s word is exciting God’s word can give us Vision not crazy Visions but it can give us Visions to see the mind of God it can
Give us Visions to see the character of God on Valentine’s Day can help us to see the love go the love that God has for each one of us and how we should take that and give that love to our neighbor and love our neighbors as ourselves so some really good lessons
For us tonight um don’t stop praying I I think his parents I don’t know this from the Bible but I think his parents probably prayed for him you know I’m just thinking what I would do as a as a human being if my son was blind I would pray I would ask
God to intercede to try to make some way happen for it like you know do whatever I can do and here it was it was amazing for them you know God didn’t cause him to be born blind I don’t believe he said in eternity past you’re going to be
Blind you’re going to live X number of years before I come in like a hero and make you look better that’s not how it happened our loving God I don’t think would do that instead he saw somebody who was born blind because of sin that’s in the world not a sin that
He had done not because of the parents but he saw this and said I can use this to heal this man I can use it to establish me as I am as as the Lord and I can use it to glorify My Father which
Is in heaven it’s a great way to do it and he did all three so pretty awesome passage pretty encouraging for us too we don’t need to have all the answers we just need to be thankful for what God gives us and continue to praying and ask
Him to work in our lives so pretty cool stuff Let’s uh jump right into uh prayer requests and uh let’s