John Chapter 9 Verses 1 – 25

• A story that we are probably all familiar with. Certainly a statement that we’ve probably heard several times in our lives. His defense for his current situation. “I once was blind, but now I see…” And most of the time we associate this story with salvation. We place it neatly in our testimonies and I’m fine with that, that works, but what he says and what the Bible teaches on blindness is far more than salvation.
• Salvation though for sure. Before you come to your senses, face your sin and open your heart and mind and life to God, for sure you are blind…Jesus said, “Seeing they don’t see, hearing they don’t hear…,” puppet strings attached to every part of your heart and soul and Satan playing you like his personal hobby…
• And when you come out of the darkness of ignorance and self and come to the Lord your eyes are opened and for the first time you perceive your own slavery to sin (those puppet strings) and one by one you examine and realize you’ve spent a lifetime exalting them…that’s what the flesh does, that’s what the world teaches…to take what enslaves you and straight up exalt it!
• Money, sex, power, position, pride, materialism, drugs, booze, partying…superficial stature…the world prints it on magazines, features it in hundred million dollar films, saturates sitcoms and sales strategies…and in the end, these things leave you addicted, weak and desperate and yet this world goes after it, folks spend a lifetime strengthening their stupid strings…blind…and the Lord shows you the scissors man…

• But what I want to share with you is a bit further than that although being free from being a slave is absolutely essential…but we move on…past salvation and towards the Lord…don’t we? We grow up and what I see and what I have come through in my own life is episodes of what I call “blind sight.”

• What this man says in John Chapter 9 is much more than simply, “I can see.” What we see him doing is MUCH more than seeing, right? How many times had he in his life addressed the Sanhedrin with confidence and character? How many times had he greeted his mother before she spoke or touched him? How many times had he witnessed the presence and personality of his father? How many times had he addressed the crowd without begging them for support? How many times had he walked on his own accord into the Synagogue? See it now? There are countless more things going on here than simply him having his sight, right?
• And so what he says here in the Greek is astonishing…He says, “I once was blind,” and the word he uses is typhlos, literally meaning, “I once was mentally blind,” “but now I see,” “blepo,” literally meaning, “But now I have the power to understand!” So they asked him over and over again, “Who did this, how did He do this, what has happened,” and his response to them is so powerful, “before this would have intimidated me, scared me, defeated me but now I see you…I see what’s going on…and I’m able to stand!”
• I absolutely love that. Blindness is a stigma mentioned 53 times in the Bible. It’s all over the place and man it is all over the place even in those that have had their eyes opened. Jesus has put in some work on you maybe and yet folks tie severed puppet strings into pretty little boy scout knots all the time…I’m here today to call you to full sight. Full discernment and full surrender to the Lord. (Because those things go hand in hand)
• The church, especially men in the church, have slipped back into slavery and we tolerate it! It shouldn’t be so. What is drugs? Slavery. What is alcoholism? Slaver. What is porn? Slavery. What is pride? Slavery. What is DKDC? Slavery!!!!
• God has called us to lead. He has called us to walk in wisdom and eternal weight and glory of His Son who paid the price for our lives, man…and so what does it look like? This blindness even in those that claim to serve the Lord, talking about, “I follow Jesus?” Turn over to 1 Peter chapter 1…
• Verses 1 – 9. Folks lack diligence. Folks lack virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and in the end of it all…it’s really all a lack of love. And the walls begin to fall as strings go back into service with knots we tie ourselves…. Relationships end. Jobs end. Callings end. Inspiration ends. And what could be, what should be becomes a distant loss…ridiculous. It should not be so…
• Blindness sets in because it’s easier. It’s easier to close your eyes to what you’ve done, what you’ve squandered, how much you just don’t care…than to face all that has been wasted. But man isn’t that precisely what children do? You find a kid has gone off and done something stupid and you ask them about it and what do they say, “I didn’t do it.” Man it is high time that we face up to truth…put away this childish trend in the church…
• Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things…” That begins with rejecting “blind sight” and changing your name to diligence. Changing your name to knowledge…changing your name to perseverance and godliness and to love…and as your eyes clear man you awake to reality…That is what this man said!
• What’s reality? Slaves to sin are all around us…strings are all over them and they’re all holding scissors and yet instead of cutting their strings they’re cutting themselves or cutting each other…and the scars on your body show you’ve been right where they’re at…you see what I’m saying? Does that make any sense at all?
• The world has taught you to be all hard and to get yours and man the core of all of that is not only foolishness but you’re the joke! Those that serve others, love others, work hard, control themselves and see the big picture…those are the wise, the powerful, the followers of Christ…
• But you know what…that’s the problem right there…why we’re back into strings so fast as Christians…the key to seeing > is seeking and man following is seeking…it ain’t just walking…
• I’ve made my point, told you what God wanted me to tell you and to close, one example…turn over to Mark Chapter 8 verses 22 – 25.
• Is Jesus leading you? Are you following Him? Notice the work that brings clarity, where does it occur? Away from everyone else…just you and Him. One on one, man…and there is a good bit of following involved…do you see that?

• The sight we need, the sight the men in our text this morning spoke of…not available without following the Lord. Staying right where you’re at naturally you will mend the puppet strings that you’ve been freed from and find yourself right back out of control man…wasting time, losing more, falling back, being the joke…

• But Jesus says follow Me. Place your faith in Me and full clarity and restoration will come. Martin Luther once said, “God our Father has made all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing.”

• So this morning where are you? I once was blind, but now I see…are you at “once?” Or are you at “now?” I invite you to now….RIGHT NOW.