Citizens of Courage

[0:00] Bring your Bibles to John chapter 9.! Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.! John chapter 9.

[0:13] Talk about marvelous things. Listen to this historical account He saw a blind man from birth.

[0:33] His disciples asked Him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

[0:55] As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

[1:11] Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. Go, he told him, wash in the pool of Siloam.

[1:25] This word means scent. So the man went and washed and came home seeing. His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?

[1:41] Some claimed that he was. Others said, No, he only looks like him. But he himself insisted, I am the man.

[1:54] How then were your eyes open? They demanded. He replied, The man they called Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes.

[2:05] He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed. And then I could see. Where is this man? They asked him. I don't know.

[2:16] He said. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been born blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath.

[2:32] Therefore, the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He put mud on my eyes, the man replied, and I washed, and now I see.

[2:43] Some of the Pharisees said, This man, speaking of Jesus, is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.

[2:55] But others asked, How could a sinner do such miraculous signs? So they were divided. Finally, they turned again to the blind man.

[3:08] What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened. The man replied, He is a prophet. The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents.

[3:28] Is this your son? They asked. Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that he now can see? We know he is our son, the parents answered, and we know he was born blind.

[3:43] But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age. He will speak for himself.

[3:55] His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

[4:09] That was why his parents said, He is of age. Ask him. A second time, they summoned the man who had been blind.

[4:22] Give glory to God, they said. We know this man is a sinner. He replied, Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know.

[4:35] One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see. Then they asked him, What did he do to you?

[4:46] How did he open your eyes? He answered, I have told you already, and you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?

[5:01] Then they hurled insults at him and said, You are this fellow's disciple. We are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from.

[5:17] The man answered, Now that is remarkable. You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners.

[5:30] He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

[5:46] To this they replied, You were steeped in sin at birth. How dare you lecture us? And they threw him out. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out.

[6:02] And when he had found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? Who is he, sir? The man asked. Tell me, so that I may believe in him.

[6:16] Jesus said, You have now seen him. In fact, he is the one speaking with you. Then the man said, Lord, I believe.

[6:29] And he worshipped him. Jesus said, For judgment, I have come into this world so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.

[6:41] Some Pharisees who were with him heard that he said this and asked, What? Are we blind too? Jesus said, If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin.

[6:56] But now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. I'm going to begin with an abrupt question.

[7:08] So I want to prepare you or have you prepare yourself for it. Are you a coward? Are you afraid to stand up against the crowd?

[7:22] Are you afraid to have people mad at you? Do your convictions only last as long as it takes for people to sneer at you?

[7:37] Just read this past week of a high school freshman who before the first day of school with great courage and zeal sewed on a patch onto his backpack that says, Jesus saves.

[7:51] He walked into school the next day, first day in high school, and a senior saw his Jesus saves patch and with a sneer said, you freak.

[8:05] And our brave freshman spent the whole rest of the day covering up his patch and as soon as he got home he tore it out. So what do cowards do?

[8:21] Cowards are brave when it doesn't cost you anything. Cowards are brave when it's safe They're bold when it's convenient. But when hostility comes they come up with excuses.

[8:36] Plausible denials. I don't want to drive them away. I want to win them. You need to be careful.

[8:49] Be careful. That seems to be the coward's motto. Cowards lack conviction to stand. But one of the strongest and honestly most frightening words in the Bible come from Revelation 21.

[9:08] And God is on the throne and he's speaking to John and he speaks for us to hear him. And he describes heaven and he describes the new Jerusalem.

[9:19] He describes the celestial city. We've been talking about that on Sunday mornings about our pilgrimage. That's our ending place. That's our goal. That's where we want to go. And he's describing the people that make it in and he says he who overcomes will inherit all of this and I will be his God and he will be my son.

[9:39] He who overcomes. But then he gives a list of people who won't make it. Who won't arrive there. Who won't be allowed in.

[9:50] Who won't inherit all of this. And he says the unbelieving. You don't believe. Jesus isn't everything to you.

[10:02] He's not the center of the fountain the rock of your life. You don't take my word seriously but you just go on thinking I've got this I know I can do this I'm going to keep trying.

[10:13] You think you don't need Jesus as your salvation the center of your life. He says you're shut out. shut out. The unbelieving. I'm talking to some of you.

[10:31] The unbelieving. The vile. The murderers. The sexually immoral. And he goes on. But before he says any of that he says but the cowardly but the cowardly.

[10:48] The unbelieving. The vile. The murderers. The sexual immoral. The cowardly. Not vile. Not vile. No one would put their finger on this person and say that's a vile person.

[11:02] Sexual immoral. Sexually immoral. A murderer. No. They just don't take a stand. They never overcame. They never faced an obstacle and then went over it with courage.

[11:15] They live in convictionless fear. So did you say I need to be careful. I need to fit in. I need to belong.

[11:27] But if you live in convictionless fear you're shut out from heaven. And you have no place there. Heaven is for overcomers who face hostility and look it down and keep going.

[11:43] It's not that you have no fear but you don't act on that fear. You're not conquered by that fear. You face that fear and you go through it. Others were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection.

[11:55] Some faced jeers and flogging while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. They were sawed in two. They were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins destitute, persecuted, and mistreated.

[12:09] The world was not worthy of them and so they found a better country. There was a world that was worthy of them. A heavenly one. In other words, heaven, the citizens of heaven are citizens who have courage.

[12:25] Who have conviction. They're men and women and boys and girls of conviction. That means they're not moved when the winds are blowing against them.

[12:37] So these, the Hebrew Christians, I just quoted Hebrews 11, these Hebrew Christians that that's talking to in the book of Hebrews, they were kicked out of the synagogue. They had had all their possessions taken away from them and yet they stood firm.

[12:53] They had lost everything. They had lost their physical possessions but to lose the synagogue was to lose your place in the community. To be shunned. To be shut off. So they lost their community, their heritage, their religious history for Jesus' sake.

[13:09] They had conviction. They had courage. They lost everything. A couple weeks ago I watched The Fiddler on the Roof and Tevye, the main character, slowly loses his three daughters to three different, his three of his, his three oldest daughters to three different suitors.

[13:30] And each one, the basis of the story is each one tests his hold on the traditions, on his way of life, on his way of thinking. And they push him further and further.

[13:41] And so, finally he gets down to the third one if you know the story. And the third one falls in love with a Gentile. Now, every time before that he had been able to talk himself into giving the blessing for the wedding, allowing the marriage.

[13:57] But he always has this argument with himself. He has to go back and forth and talk himself into it. He says, on the other hand, on the other hand, and finally he comes to the place of, okay, I'm going to let this girl marry this boy and give them my blessing.

[14:12] And so, in the third daughter, he starts again. On the other hand, on the other hand, on the other hand, how can I turn my back on my faith, my people?

[14:23] If I try and bend that far, I'll break. On the other hand, no. There is no other hand.

[14:34] And he drives his daughter away. To turn your back on your faith, on your people, on your community, on your history, on your past, to choose Christ over your whole life, that's conviction.

[14:49] That's what the Hebrew Christians had done. Now, I want to be bold. I don't want to be afraid of people.

[15:02] I don't want to be afraid of their frowns, their criticism, their scorn. I don't want to be afraid to witness. I don't want to be afraid.

[15:12] I don't want to be a coward. But, I need help. I don't have natural courage. Naturally, I like to fit in.

[15:25] I need help. And so, thank God for examples of courage that we have in the Bible. And, examples of conviction. Examples of standing against your enemies when they're scorning you.

[15:41] And that's why we have John chapter 9 open. Because, as I read this not too long ago, what struck me most was this man's brashness, his courage, his, I don't care what you are saying, and I don't care what you do attitude.

[15:58] The boldness in the face of hostility. Now, I don't think that's the main point of the sermon. But, this is a prime example of it.

[16:12] Now, this is a pretty familiar story and we just had it read. Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem and they see this man who's been born blind and he heals him. He tells him to go to the pool of Siloam and he goes and he washes and he comes home seen.

[16:26] And of course, when he shows up, and you have to use your imagination, and he shows up at his, where he lives and now he can see and the whole neighborhood is in a tizzy.

[16:38] They're in a flurry, gossip and everything is going back and forth and they're saying, is this him? It looks like him. No, it just looks like him. It's probably not him. And they're arguing and he's saying, it's definitely me.

[16:50] This is me. And so they say, well, we need to tell the Pharisees about this. And the reason they need to tell the Pharisees about this is because the Pharisees are the religious leaders of the community and they would have an interest in a miracle.

[17:07] And of course, they would go and tell him. I doubt that the people that went there ever thought that this man would end up kicked out of the synagogue. But that's how it ends up.

[17:19] It was a miracle. Wouldn't the leaders want to hear this? Wouldn't they be able to tell us what's going on? Wouldn't they be able to explain this whole situation? And so they go to the leaders and the leaders start asking questions.

[17:30] How did this happen? And as soon as they find out it's Jesus and he healed on the Sabbath, their attitude changes. And they ask this man, what?

[17:42] I love all the back and forth and as you read it, did you see like there's all these back and forth of I don't know this and I know this and I don't know this and who's this? And so they're asking this man, well, what do you think of him?

[17:56] We can't decide what kind of man he is and he says, he's a prophet. He's a prophet. Jesus is a prophet. Now, this is where I want you to start to see this man's boldness.

[18:09] Is that a majority opinion? That's not a majority opinion. That's a minority opinion. Not everyone agrees. He already knows that. He was there.

[18:21] He had heard them arguing. He had heard them say, you know, this man is not from God. But despite the fact that he wasn't going to get 100% approval, he said what he had figured.

[18:35] He was open about what he thought. He is a prophet. And now, the Pharisees, they aren't too sure, they don't take that too seriously.

[18:47] They don't really care what this man thinks. And so they come back to the question of, well, we don't even know if this man is born blind. Because if he wasn't born blind, then that really, you know, severely hampers the idea that this man was a prophet.

[19:01] So we're not even sure if this man had been born blind. So they call his parents. They'll know. And his parents come in and we see what would normally happen. We see a normal reaction.

[19:14] What do his parents do? Again, you see this, we know, but we don't know. We know he's our son. We know he's born blind.

[19:26] But how we can see now, we don't know that. We don't know that. Ask him. He's a big boy. He can talk for himself. Now, they're just trying to get out of there as soon as possible.

[19:42] They're probably like us if we ever were called into the courtroom or called to a deposition. We're just like, I don't like being here. I don't want this. I'm not asking.

[19:53] I just want to live my life. They're just trying to get out of there ASAP. We don't want anything to do with this. Our son was born. Now, their son had been born blind and he'd been healed by Jesus and they knew that.

[20:06] And you would think that that would make them stick up for Jesus to be a bold witness for Christ. Their son had been born blind. We don't know how old he was, but they had seen him wrestle and struggle through his whole life.

[20:22] Now, moms and dads, you know how it breaks your heart when you see your children struggling with something serious for a long time. Some of you know that.

[20:34] And you know what a relief it is and a wonder and an amazing blessing when something goes well in your child's life and there's some sudden healing.

[20:49] Jesus had blessed these parents, but instead of standing up for them, instead of saying, Jesus did it, I don't care what you have to say. I don't care what you do to us.

[21:01] We know the truth. Jesus healed our son and we're willing to argue with you about it. It's, we don't know. We don't know. Don't ask us.

[21:13] It's cowardice. Now, why? What are they so afraid of? Look at verse 22. You see the reason of their fear. Verse 22, the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

[21:33] Now, that isn't very frightening to us because we don't understand that culture. I think we normally would think of it as, oh, you're going to be put out of the church and it's a bad thing to be put out of the church, but, you know, it's not a end of the life thing.

[21:47] We can go to another church, can't we? we think of this as a purely religious activity. We don't understand what the synagogue meant, what was so, such a threat.

[22:04] No, in the first century, the synagogue was the hub of community life. This wasn't just a religious threat, this was an existential threat, this was a life and death kind of threat.

[22:17] To acknowledge Jesus as the Christ would cost you nearly everything. The synagogue in the first century wasn't just a church building, it was the place where people went to school.

[22:34] So, they were the schools. This is where you sent your children to be educated. So, imagine, in our own culture, if you say Jesus is the Christ, if you are a Christian, guess what, you can't come to public school.

[22:49] Now, some of you, that wouldn't matter, but some of you, that's a big deal, it's a big deal to be cut off from. Your children can't go to school. The synagogue was a place for communal meals, for banquets, for parties, for birthday parties, for everything that you could imagine.

[23:09] This was the place that you met and you met with your friends, but now you're not even allowed to go in. Now you're not allowed to go to your children's parties. You're not allowed to go to family banquets.

[23:20] They were hostiles, something like hotels for visitors and travelers. They were courts. So, you weren't just getting cut off from the church, so to speak.

[23:33] You're getting cut off from the judicial system. Now, if you are not allowed in the synagogue, you are not allowed any legal recourse. So, imagine if you're a Christian, now you can't go to court for anything.

[23:51] You are not allowed that. You have no legal protection. Anyone who wants to do something to you can do it. And you can't say otherwise.

[24:03] recognize. The synagogue was the place where charity was collected and distributed. So, if you're poor and you don't have a family that, well, you're out of luck, so to speak.

[24:17] You're just cut off. So, put it into our context. No more disability. No more social security. No more Medicare. No more Medicaid.

[24:30] All financial, social support is just taken away from you. The synagogue was the place for political meetings. This is where the political processes of the community and the country took place.

[24:42] And so, now you're cut off from all the political processes. You've lost your political voice. Now you can't vote. Do you see what they're threatening?

[24:55] You lose all legal recourses. You lose all educational opportunities. You lose all political opportunities. You lose all social support. Your whole social fabric just gets taken apart and torn apart right from underneath you.

[25:12] This is no minor threat. Your whole town shuns you, ignores you, turns against you. You are abandoned.

[25:25] So you see why these parents are afraid. They count the cost. Should we say that Jesus did it? Should we say that Jesus is a prophet?

[25:37] Should we own him as from God or not? They count the cost. They say it's too much. And then they're like, we don't know anything. Ask him.

[25:51] So that's his parents. His own parents are afraid and give way to cowardice. God but then do you see this man's boldness?

[26:03] I hope I've painted the picture enough that his bravery, his courage, his conviction comes out. Look at what it says. Verse 24, give glory to God. That means tell the truth.

[26:15] Tell the truth. We know this man's a sinner. Now, if you put those two sentences together, they're saying, tell us the truth. Tell us that this man's a sinner.

[26:28] You better tell us that this man's a sinner. We're talking about prejudicing the witness. Tell us the truth, but it better be what we want to hear. It better be what we want to hear.

[26:39] This man is a sinner, right? Right? Well, I don't know if he's a sinner or not, but one thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see.

[26:50] Well, what did he do to you? How did he do it? Now, they already knew that. They already knew the question. They already knew the answers. They already knew what he was going to say.

[27:01] Now, they're giving him a second chance. You've seen situations like this. They ask the question, they build the pressure, now they ask the question again. They're looking to change his mind.

[27:14] They're looking for him to break. And at this point, it's ridiculous. They're trying to trap him. They're trying to pressure him. They aren't listening to him. They don't care what he says.

[27:24] They love the darkness. They love their own opinions. They just want to hear more of what they think. And this is where you see this man's courage and his audacity and his conviction really start to shine.

[27:40] I already told you. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to be his disciples too? Now, is he being serious?

[27:54] Some people have thought so, but I think it's complete. I mean, he's not being serious. They're not being serious, and he's just needling them.

[28:06] Now he's poking fun of them. Right to their face, right in the face of these people that have so much earthly power over them. He's making fun of them. He's saying, you want to be his disciples too?

[28:19] Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. He's getting lots of disciples. He's taking them right from you. I'm practically one of his disciples. Do you want to be one too? And they get it.

[28:30] They see what he's doing. They see what he's saying, and in verse 28, they just start insulting him. They know he's not being serious. You hear a little of what they say.

[28:43] We're disciples of Moses, but we don't even know where this guy comes from. We don't hear a lot of their insults. John doesn't record any of that. But you can imagine these are just the insults of someone who's high and mighty, and now they're all offended, and they're huffing and puffing, and they're insulting him, and they're like hornets nest, and it's all stirred up, and they're really angry.

[29:06] Now put yourself in this man's shoes. Think of their power. Think of how they're feeling.

[29:18] They've made it abundantly clear what they want. They've made it abundantly clear that they're angry, and they've made their threat known. Now if this is me, I'm probably starting to think, okay, I need to dial this back a bit.

[29:35] I need to walk back my words a little bit. I need to find some way that I can agree with these people. Do you ever say that? I need to find some common ground. That's what I need to do.

[29:45] So hey, they know that I'm not totally opposed against them. We're on the same wavelength. We want to sue them. in other words, chicken out.

[29:59] But not this guy. They say, we don't know where this guy comes from. And with the most sarcasm you can imagine, he says, now that is remarkable.

[30:11] You guys, you know it all. You know everything about anything. You don't know where this guy comes from. Hello. You don't know where he comes from. I was blind, but now I see.

[30:25] He opened my eyes. In other words, he made me see. Where do you think he came from? If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

[30:40] Now at this point, everything is being said to confront them. We know he's a sinner. And what does he say? He can't be a sinner.

[30:52] God doesn't answer sinners when they ask for miracles. We don't know where he comes from. He obviously comes from God because I can see and I was born blind.

[31:09] Or how could I be seen now? He's not afraid. He's not afraid at all. They insult him. And he doesn't go and nurse his hurt feelings.

[31:23] It doesn't even seem like their insults bother him. He doesn't care in the least. They threaten him. They insult him. He doesn't go off and pout or cry or dial it back.

[31:37] He doesn't have hurt feelings. It doesn't seem like he has any fear. He truly does not care what these people think of him. And I have to ask where does that come from?

[31:53] Where did this man get that conviction? We know he doesn't know Jesus very well. But he has this conviction. Why were his parents afraid?

[32:04] Everyone else is afraid. And he's not. Do you know the answer? Do know what the answer is?

[32:17] One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see. That's not the only place conviction and courage comes from, but it is a place.

[32:29] I know what happened to me. I know what Jesus did for me. I know how I used to be, and I know how I am now.

[32:41] So no matter what you say, no matter what you do, no matter what you threaten, no matter what you take away, you can't take that away from me. You can't take my sight away from me.

[32:53] He gave it to me. I know what Jesus did for me. Now, his parents didn't have that happen to them.

[33:04] They saw it, but he happened to him. And so why didn't he care about this whole kangaroo court? Why didn't he feel threatened by this group of huffing and puffing frauds?

[33:22] Well, he could see. He could see. A whole new life was out in front of him.

[33:34] A whole new life was out in front of him. His old life was gone. His new life was right here in front of him. And now standing between him and that whole new wonderful life is this group of people.

[33:46] He doesn't care about that. They're worried about their own honor. They're worried about what other people think. And he's saying, I'm talking about life. I'm talking about seeing the son. I'm talking about seeing mom and dad and my friends with my guys are talking about nothing.

[34:10] And I'm talking about everything. I'm seeing and it's all because of him. It's all because of Jesus. That's where this man's courage came from. Jesus found him begging with nothing.

[34:25] And he did what no one else could do. The parents couldn't do it. The synagogue couldn't do it. The Jews couldn't do it. The Pharisees couldn't do it. But Jesus did it for him.

[34:38] Now, do we have a story like that, brother, sister? Do you have a story like that? Did something happen to you that can only be explained by Jesus?

[34:54] Did you have something that happened to you that can only be explained by Jesus? Do you have a past past? And then do you have a future that just totally changed?

[35:12] The tracks just went off in a totally different direction? I know I have a story. I have a past. And I was blind, but now I see.

[35:24] Every Christian here can sing that, and we're going to sing it when we're done, Lord willing. I was blind, but now I see. So I grew up in this church, and I was a good enough boy.

[35:43] Fine, fine. Tried to answer the questions in Sunday school. Tried to make it through the sermons. But I was blind, spiritually dead, and I didn't care.

[36:01] I was into other things. other interests. I was into sports. I don't know why these memories sometimes come back to me, but I remember down on the other side, but out on the sidewalk out front thinking of myself, but I'm such an idiot.

[36:19] But I was thinking, you know, I'm a triathlete. I guess I'd watched the Ironman on TV, and I thought, you know, I'm just basically like one of those guys. You know, because I played a couple of sports, and I guess I went swimming in my backyard.

[36:32] I don't know, but my point was, I was so wrapped up into myself, into my own little world, into what I thought was cool and important, and I didn't care about sin.

[36:48] I didn't care about God. I didn't care about Jesus. I had no life. I had no eyes to see how empty and ridiculous my life was.

[36:59] blind to Jesus, blind to glory, blind to his importance, and I wasn't looking to be a Christian, and I didn't care about making my parents happy.

[37:14] That's something we have to worry about. I didn't, that wasn't a problem for me, and I was just like some of you, physically here, but far away, blind, careless, just living my life, doing what I've always done, sitting at the pool, sitting at the, just living my life, but then the lights came on.

[37:45] I didn't flip the switch, the lights came on. I didn't have a Damascus road experience, but you know, I had a Damascus road experience, you know, you know what I'm saying? I didn't see Jesus come down, it wasn't this powerful one moment, but you know what?

[37:59] Jesus came down and the lights came on. Something outside of my life and my mind broke into my world. That has happened to every person who is a Christian here.

[38:12] Something from outside burst in to the inside of my dark world. It was an invasion, an invasion of grace, an invasion of mercy, and I wasn't looking for him, but here he comes looking for me.

[38:29] I wasn't waiting to open the door for him, but he just decided to come on in, and come on in, he did, and I was blind, but then I could see, and all of a sudden, I had to have Jesus.

[38:44] Where did that come from? I had to have Jesus. I had a sin problem. I didn't know it before. I didn't see it before.

[38:56] I was blind to how bad I was. I was blind to so much. I didn't care about it before, but now with David in Psalm 51, I was saying, my sin is ever before me.

[39:07] I didn't see it before, but now it's ever before me. I can't get it out of my sight. and there was a God, and I had sinned, and I needed saved, and there was a Savior.

[39:22] Jesus became everything. The lights came on. I was blind, but now I see. I remember my mom asking me before I had been baptized or anything, but obviously God had been working in my heart and in my life, and I was seeing things, and she said, you know, if all this proves to be untrue, and all this Christianity proves untrue, what would you do?

[39:48] How would you feel? And I remember saying to myself and to her, my life would be pointless. Now, where did that come from? That's how I'd feel?

[40:01] Bereft. Take Jesus away, and I have nothing. Take Jesus away, and I have no sinner. I have no life, I have no meaning, no purpose, I have nothing.

[40:11] Where did that come from? Now, every Christian here has that same kind of story. Now, there's lots of differences, I've heard most of them, but every Christian here can say, I was blind, but now I see.

[40:25] The lights came on, the world changed, and that is where courage, that's one place, it's not the only place, but that's one place where courage and conviction comes from.

[40:36] the world Christian brother, sister, cannot take that away from you. They cannot scare that out of existence.

[40:51] You see, this I know, this I know. I was a great, helpless, blind sinner, but now I can see. it didn't happen to them, but it happened to me.

[41:06] Jesus gave me life, Jesus gave me sight, and there's no explanation for your experience, for something so radical and life changing, and life turning upside down.

[41:26] Like, how do you go from justifying yourself and saying, I'm a good person, I'm a good person, and that's why I'm okay, and that's why I'm okay, too. You know what? I do have a big problem. I have no excuse.

[41:38] God, you are justified when you judge. How do you go from that extreme, from doing nothing but defending yourself, to saying, I deserve condemnation?

[41:49] Where does that come from? There's no explanation except something supernatural. It didn't come from me. It didn't come from mom and dad.

[42:00] parents, you know that. You try as hard as you can, and you can't save them. But it happened. And some of you have lived for years and years without a savior, but now you're saved.

[42:14] Some of you lived for years and years blind as a bat, but now you see. Where does that come from? Now you see.

[42:26] Then have courage. Have conviction. Hold on to that experience that you had and say, you know what? Jesus did this for me.

[42:39] So why should I run? Why should I be afraid? Did Jesus do something for you? Then why let the world silence you? Let me end here.

[42:53] I was blind, but now I see. Can you say that? Can you say that for yourself?

[43:07] Can you say that? Or do you have to say, I'm like I've always been. I don't see anything differently than I ever have. My life has never changed.

[43:18] I've never seen anything new. I've done things differently. I've changed things about my life. Tried to be a good person.

[43:30] I'm here at church. But I've never seen anything new. Can I say to you, you're missing.

[43:43] There's life to be had. There's sights to see. There's glory. There's joy. There's life to be had. You're missing it.

[43:55] You know, he told this man to go to the pool of Siloam and wash off. But you know what he says to each one of you? This is what he says to sinners. He says, come to me. Come to me and I'll give you sight.

[44:09] Come to me and I'll heal you. Mark 10 has another man born blind and there Jesus asked him the question, what do you want me to do for you? And the man said, I want to see.

[44:24] Maybe that needs to be your prayer request. Jesus is standing here. He's saying, what do you want me to do for you? And maybe these are the words that you need to have in your mouth. Lord, I want to see.

[44:35] I don't see. I want to see. Jesus is asking you, what do you want me to do for you?

[44:48] Will you say, I want to see. I want to see. Let's pray. Oh, amazing grace, how sweet the sound saved a wretch like me.

[45:05] I once was blind. I was blind, but now I see. Lord, I pray that you would give us more courage, more conviction, that we would hold on to the things that the Lord Jesus has done for us.

[45:23] that you would give us courage and conviction to stand. This world is boiling over now with evil and hatred and malice.

[45:36] More and more, the darkness is raging against the light, and you have brought us into the light. Give us courage then to stand, to overcome, to not be afraid, and so to inherit eternal life.

[45:53] to gain eternal life. And Lord, there are people here. Lord Jesus, there are people here, and I would gather them into my arms, and I would present them to you, and I would say, have mercy upon them.

[46:09] They're blind. They're lost. They're going astray. You need to make them see. So give them sight.

[46:23] pour out your mercy upon them. Pray this for your own glory, for your Father's praise. Amen. Amen. Thank you.