Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / December 17, 2017 | Let There Be Light - Christmas Sunlight

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December 17, 2017 | Let There Be Light - Christmas Sunlight · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Topeka Bible Church.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to see you this morning.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So in the 9:30 service and in the 11 o'clock service, uh how many of you have been to the light show so far?
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Quite a few.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you've seen the way the cab auditorium looks right now.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's all this stuff in there, and it's really cool.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We came last night and saw it.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, because of some of the uh technical, you know, the LED screen and some of the other stuff in there, 9:30 service and the 11 o'clock service, I will actually be preaching over there.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll be sending it back this way via video.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the thing.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: After you leave today, your friends that go to those other services, if they say anything about me not being live in Mulvane, argue with them.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Don't tell them which service you came to, just say, I no, he was right there, I saw him.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't on the screen, he was live.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you get for getting up early and coming to church.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I say that and I normally go to the 9:30 service, but hey, that's young kids for you.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we are in a series called Um Talking About Light.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Let There Be Light.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to talk about Christmas sunlight.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about how the light of Jesus really doesn't just illuminate our lives, it illuminates everything for us to see it clearly, uh, kind of as as God intended for it to be seen.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to tell you a quick story.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my wife and I uh earlier this year uh got the chance to take our kids uh down to Blanchard Springs Caverns.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Mountain View, Arkansas.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Has anybody ever been to Blanchard Springs Caverns?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, wow, cool.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Quite a few people.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh how many of you in general have been in a cavern where you go down under the ground?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, almost everybody.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't, then you may not, you may think that I'm exaggerating this, but it's very likely that if you have been in a cavern, you'll understand I'm not exaggerating this at all.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, it was really beautiful.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: You see some really beautiful rock formations, and actually our littlest son, Levi, who is seven, uh, is just fascinated by rocks.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's one of those little boys.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: When you do laundry, there's all these rocks in the dryer, right?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because he he's never seen a rock he didn't like.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he picks them up and he puts them in his pocket and he takes them with him.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so he, I don't know if he's gonna be a geologist or if he just likes rocks.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so he loved it.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: We all loved it.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: We had a blast.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I want to show you another picture.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I thought this was fascinating.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that is called, does it those of you who've been in it, somebody tell me what this was the battleship, right?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or that's what they told us it was, anyway.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is called the battleship, and I think you can see why it's a rock formation, and that was taken with a phone, so it's not the best quality, but you get the idea behind it.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there were two things about that trip to Blanchard Springs that really kind of struck me and stayed with me.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the first was the rock formations.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my wife and I had gone into some caverns uh in Tennessee years ago, but this was really different.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just it looked different underground than some of what we saw, and I don't know if it was the lighting or if it was just you know a difference in the type of uh soil and rock that is here versus further east.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but it just looked different.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was a really fascinating thing to see.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: These rock formations were just amazing to look at.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing that I actually already knew, but I was reminded of, uh, and if you've been into caverns, you've noticed this probably.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it probably stayed with you the way it stayed with me, is the absolute, utter pitch black that you get when you go underground and they turn the lights out.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to describe it, but if you've been there, you've experienced it, you've seen it as well.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in fact, I I kind of racked my brain as I was getting ready for this sermon and thinking through uh telling this story.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I wish there was a way to recreate for you uh what that experience was.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad to see that most of you raised your hands because so you've already experienced it.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I wish there was a way to let you experience what absolute abject black darkness is like.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but I have no, I I wouldn't even know how to go about that other than to take you, you know, several hundred feet underground, turn the lights off.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how else to do it.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen to be in an environment that is 100% devoid of light.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it reminded me again why light is so important.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when we were there, and I'll talk more about this in just a few minutes, but when we were there, and you know, they they take us to this area that kind of had this these stadium seats, and they talked to us a little bit about what we were seeing, they pointed out some different rock formations and told us some stories, and then they gave us a warning and said, hey, you know, we're about to turn the lights out.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when they did it, when they flipped the lights and you just go into pitch black darkness, it reminded me that light is important not just because I want to be able to see it, but because with it I'm able to see everything else.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just the light itself, it's not just that light is beautiful, although it is, it's that light really helps us live in very practical ways and in ways that maybe we can take for granted.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, as I mentioned, we're in a series called Let There Be Light.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is the third week of a four-week series.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, today I'm gonna go ahead and give you a warning.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're gonna be in John chapter 9.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to grab your Bibles and turn there, we're gonna read quite a bit of a story.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be reading out of the English Standard Version.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're reading a different version, that may explain why uh what I'm saying may sound different to you.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's okay.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um I do want to give you a warning also, though.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I love, love, love the story we're gonna read today.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when Pastor Jim uh sat down with me and he was talking about uh these four Sundays, which are, you know, I hope you've already enjoyed this series and his wrap-up next week's just gonna be incredible, and you need to be here for it.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but when he mentioned John 9, I just kind of leapt up and he kind of looked at me and said, Why so excited?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I just I I've preached this story a few times.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: I love the idea behind it.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I love the stories in general in the New Testament of Jesus performing miracles, but I think this is one of the most fascinating and in some ways maybe one of the most pivotal stories that he tells because of what happens after the miracle.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a quote from C.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: S.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis that you're probably familiar with.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote a paper called Is Theology Poetry, and maybe you didn't know that's where this quote is from, but here's the quote.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: C.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: S.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis said, I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love the idea behind that.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just that we can see Christianity, but that it's really because of our beliefs as Christians, because of uh our uh beliefs and what Scripture teaches us, we have the ability to put on this lens.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: We have the ability to put kind of put on this filter that allows us to see everything else more clearly, and that's the idea that we're gonna examine today.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just whether you're, you know, in Blanchard Springs caverns or another cavern or just you and I living day-to-day life figuratively and literally.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just about looking at the light, but it's also about using the light to look at everything else and the way God intended for us to be able to look at it.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: See, in those caverns, the light was beautiful, but it was also incredibly functional.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And to be quite honest, uh you you you know, it illuminated not just where the path was, but it illuminated where the path wasn't.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's really useful information, especially when some of those, you know, if you have a misstep, it's you know, bye-bye.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you later.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I really need there to be light as I'm trying to navigate these things.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing, and I and I want you to think about this, because this is what we're gonna unpack today.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: How often are you and I guilty of navigating life as we walk out of here, navigating culture, and navigating, you know, all the things that get thrown at us without always using the light of Jesus?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not that we're not believers.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's obviously an application here for those of us who aren't sure about Christianity and maybe we're just investigating, and maybe you came because maybe you came to the light show and you just wanted to check out church.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there's an application there, but I think it's so easy for those of us who have been believers, and maybe like me, you've been a believer for a few decades now.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so easy for us to think, oh, we've got it figured out, oh, we're okay, all these types of things don't apply to us.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: But they do.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes I'm guilty of seeing things through my own eyes, through my own lens, and not allowing God to shed his light on some of the decisions that I make, on some of the views that I have, on some of the choices that I make.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna examine an idea this morning.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a there's a uh word that's used in the New Testament, it's phonera'o in the Greek, and it literally carries with it, obviously, shining light on something, seeing or giving light to something, but then it kind of expands beyond that.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: The context, when the writers wrote this and when the people who read it saw it, what they understood that it this wasn't just literally shedding light on something or being able to see something, but it really moved into the cognitive domain of making something fully known, making something fully evident, making something fully clear, that we've not just shined the light on something, but because we've shined the light on it, we're able to see it for what it really is.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is the idea that we're talking about this morning.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: This word is used a couple of times in the New Testament.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: It actually is used several times.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna grab a couple of those and look at them.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, first of all, in 2 Corinthians 5.11, uh, it tells us that who we are, who you and I are, is revealed in the light of Jesus.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: It says, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others, but what we are, what does it say, is known to God.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Fanara'o.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: What we are is known to God, and I hope that is also known to your conscience.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to remind you of something that you most likely already know: that you and I have the ability to fool a lot of people.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: We can't fool God.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: What we are is fully known to God.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: God sees us not just on the outside, not just our behaviors and our words.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: He sees our thoughts.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: He sees our heart.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: He sees the things that we held back from saying, which sometimes was the right decision, right?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: He sees it all.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: He knows us for who we really are.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if that makes you nervous, stay tuned because we're going to kind of wrap this.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to circle back to this at the end.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: The second time that we see this word used, or the second time that we're going to talk about this morning, uh, is in Romans 7.13.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: It talks about our sin being revealed.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: The fanara, this word is used in the context of our sin being revealed.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 7.13 said, Did that which is good?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now the context here is Paul's talking about the law.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Did the law then bring death to me?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: We want to blame the law.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, the law's not bad.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: The law's not evil.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, by no means.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was sin producing death in me through what is good, through the law, in order that sin might be shown to be, there's our word, sin.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: That the purpose of the law is not to make you evil, and the law is not evil.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: The purpose of the law is to reveal sin for what it is.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And even for you and I, as believers, as people who are forgiven, as people who are never going to, you know, jump out of the hand of God who's holding on to us, we can still be reminded that sin really is sin and it really is odious to God.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus makes this statement in John chapter 8.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he identifies himself as the light.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's easy to maybe brush past this or to rush past this and to miss the polarizing aspect of what he was saying.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus himself intended that he would not be marginalized the way that in many circles he today is marginalized.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just another good teacher.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wasn't his intention at all when he made statements like this?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: John 8 12.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I am the light of the world.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever follows me, say it with me, will not walk in darkness.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, time out.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: What does that tell us about people who won't follow him?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: That they are walking in darkness, right?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't come out and say it, but it's implied.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's implied.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the light of the world.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: But the rest of you, you are, in fact, walking in darkness.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you follow me, you won't walk in darkness, but you will have the light of life.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have the light of life.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus sums it up very clearly that walking with Him is the only way to walk in the light.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, without the light of Jesus, our perspective is severely impaired.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: It is as if we are in that underground cavern and somebody shut the lights out.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this is for all of us.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is not just for people who haven't put their faith in Christ.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is not just for people who aren't sure about the Christian thing.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Without the light of Jesus, our perspective is severely impaired.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if we don't allow him to shine his light into all the circumstances and all the nooks and the crannies of our lives, we may not realize it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you and I are indeed fumbling around in the darkness.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to shift gears.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: We'll jump into this story from the book of John 9.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: I uh hopefully you found it.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't, you may just want to look on the screen behind me.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh John chapter 9, story takes place in Jerusalem.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh fascinating story.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's in the autumn of Jesus' third year of ministry.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Charles Ryrey tells us that it was A.D.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: 29.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he got the year right, but I know he got the context right.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was the autumn of his third year of ministry, and in fact, he would go on later that spring to be crucified.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he was in Jerusalem at this time, and in fact, not long after this, and as you move into John 10, you'll see that Jesus celebrates the feast of Hanukkah.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he feasted the feast of the dedication of the temple, and not long after that, he would have this run-in with the religious leaders.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: He would leave Jerusalem, and then the next time he came back to Jerusalem, he would be coming back to be crucified in the spring.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And because of the context of Jesus' ministry, we know that when he first started out, he was uh started out obviously unknown, but as he gained in notoriety, gained in popularity, uh, the word spread far and wide.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: But you see this increasing tension if you think about the whole trajectory of Jesus' ministry, you see this increasing tension between him and the religious leaders, and obviously that would culminate in them crucifying him.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: So now think with me about the context.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: If we're laid on in his ministry, what's happening with that tension with these religious leaders?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty high.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty high.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's starting to reach a fever pitch, as we've said.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: So in John 9, we jump in and we start reading, it says, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who had been blind, what does it say?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: From birth.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's very important for us to remember that.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: For the context of this story, this fellow had been blind from birth.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: This man or his parents, that he was born blind.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, maybe it's easy for you and I to get frustrated.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think we give the disciples a bad rap sometimes.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I uh we get frustrated when we read things like this, but this was a common belief then, and believe it or not, this could be a common belief now, because listen to Jesus' answer.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered it was not that his man sinned or his parents.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know how easy it is for you and I to ask questions like, why is this happening to me?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I going through this?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we setting one less place at the table this year for Christmas?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why is the pain and the difficulty, maybe it's been medical difficulty, maybe it's relational difficulty, maybe for you it's a job, it's vocational difficulty.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: But most of us have stories that we can tell where in our weakest moments we've asked questions like, God, what did I do?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: What did we do?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus' words here are so pivotal for us.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that anyone sinned, this man or his parents.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: The purpose here is that the work of God could be displayed.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes on to say, We must work the works of him who sent me while it's day.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Night is coming when no man can work.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: He makes this statement as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we step out of the text for just a second.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna skip a few verses, but I'm gonna tell you what happens because I just think this is a fascinating story.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Here's this guy who's been blind from birth.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know who Jesus is, he doesn't know what Jesus looks like.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's just begging.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he does.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: He can't do much else.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus has this little interchange with his disciples, and he bends down and he spits in the clay and he makes some mud, and he puts the mud on this blind guy's eyes.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that's kind of gross, I think.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're blind, what are you gonna do about it, right?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: You don't see it coming.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: You just kind of go, okay, well, here we go.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have mud on my face.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: What do I do?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, go to the pool of Saloon and wash.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's very likely that Jesus, after he did this, he just kind of went on his way.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I love, love, love the way this is stated.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I it's one of those phrases in the New Testament that just keeps coming back to my mind.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: It tells us that the man went down to the pool of Saloon and he washed.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, and he came back seeing.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: He went and washed and he came back seeing.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And people started arguing.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: His friends and his family started arguing.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Who who is this guy?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is this him?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like him, but this guy can see, and our friend, our family member, wasn't able to see.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: He couldn't see anything.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's never been able to see.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this guy can see, so maybe it's not him, and the whole time he's gone, hey, listen up, guys and gals, it's me.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, I'm the guy.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: I used to not be able to see, now I can see.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: They say, How did this happen?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: What in the world happened?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Please hear this.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be mentally and emotionally detached from this story.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: This really happened.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: How would you react?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you had a friend or a family member who had been suddenly and irreversibly healed, what would you say?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: What questions would you ask?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: We'd say, What in the world happened?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me your story.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Okay, I'll tell you the part of the story that I know.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Some guy spat in the mud, and I thought it was kind of gross.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: He stuck it on my face, told me to go wash.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And when I did what he said, I was suddenly able to see.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: They say, Where is he?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Very important.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I don't know where he is.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what he looks like.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was blind when I interacted with him.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what he looks like.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door right now.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: So they kind of escalate this story up to religious leaders.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this probably takes a couple days.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's very likely that the rest of what we're going to read didn't happen on the Sabbath when Jesus performed the miracle.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: They probably wouldn't have investigated at that time.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: But we jump down to verse 13.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Says they brought to the Pharisees the man who had been formerly blind.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he answered them in the simplest way that he knew how.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can't heal people on the Sabbath.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's on the list of things you're not supposed to do, right?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: He was working on the Sabbath.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do that, but others ask a really great question.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: There was a division among them.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: As there probably should have been.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some people were asking some really good questions, right?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: So they again said to the blind man, What do you say about him since he has opened your eyes?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, first of all, this is a really dumb question.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine that you had been born blind and Jesus healed you, and then somebody asked you, What do you think about Jesus?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Will you help us defame him?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, I'm gonna go with what the guy who turned the lights on for me said, right?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever he is, I'm on his team now.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's done something that none of you were able to do.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: I can see now because of him.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: He said simply he's a prophet.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: I know what I saw.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know what I wasn't able to see and what I can see now.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he's a prophet.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: He healed me.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: It may be unpopular, but that's what I'm going with.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the religious leaders call his parents over.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they say, Is this your son?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And they say, Well, yeah, that's our son.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely our son.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us what happened.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And they say, they become Switzerland, right?
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ask us.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's an adult.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can ask him because they knew who they were dealing with.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: These religious leaders not only had all the power, but they were really vindictive and they didn't like Jesus.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this whole conflict is reaching this fever pitch.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: So they've they uh somewhat wisely maybe backed off and said, We're not speaking about this at all.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's an adult, you ask him.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: So verse 24 says, For the second time they called the man who had been blind and they said to him, I love this, give glory to God.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: We know that this man is a sinner.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Listen, if you really want to glorify God, you'll agree with us.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: You'll agree with us that this Jesus is bad news.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, again, think in the terms of the blind guy.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's going, I just know that he healed me, guys.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're asking me to, you know, testify to his moral character.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't even know him if he walked in.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just know that he healed me.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I know.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's pretty suspicious because anyone who was from God would be able to do this, and I can't imagine anyone who wasn't from God being able to pull this off.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just going off what I've seen and using a little bit of logic here.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Give glory to God.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: We know this man is a sinner.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 25.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: He answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, I'm not going to be pulled into a religious debate.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be forced to make pronouncements about things that I'm not educated enough to make pronouncements about.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to tell you what I know that I know that I know.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: That this man turned the lights on for me.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: I once was blind, but now I can see.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: I won't be pulled into debates.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can say whatever you want to say, but this is really not more complicated than that.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is what the light of Jesus does for us.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: It reveals the world, as it really is.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, as we read this story, as we've already kind of jumped into it, but as we continue to read this story, the light of Jesus shining into this situation is going to reveal for everyone who's involved what's in their hearts.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And as you and I read it as followers of Jesus, we read it with the Holy Spirit.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just that the Holy Spirit inspired this when it was written.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is with you and I right now.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's helping us understand this as we read it.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to be able to see this for what it is.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: That the light of Jesus reveals the world as it really is.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy said simply, you can say whatever else you want, but it's indisputable.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Though I was blind, now I see.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: You and I can take instruction from this.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: The man's discernment to say, I don't know everything, but I know some big things.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know some important things.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I won't let those things go.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I won't be dissuaded.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know why?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was there.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I know how different my life is because Jesus came into it, because he stepped into it.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have all the answers, but I have a frame of reference because of these big things that have happened, these big things that I experienced.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it gave me a frame of reference that I will not compromise for anyone, for any argument, for any petty squabble.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: I won't do it.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here's one of the things you and I can learn from this.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe instead of starting with all the things that we don't know, I don't know if this is your tendency, but it's my tendency.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Do you ever get overwhelmed by the amount of things that you don't know?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Spiritually?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Religiously?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe scripturally?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Happens to me.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, you know what?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me a question recently, and it was a kind of honestly, it could have been a Bible trivia question.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I was caught off guard and I wasn't thinking in the moment.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I, oh my gosh, I don't know.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let me get back to you.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're not careful, we build a mountain out of all the things that we don't know, and we become intimidated by it.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: What was this fellow's response?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: I just know what to know.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure about all that.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: You guys can argue about it all you want to, but let me tell you what I do know.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: I once was blind and now I see.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: So let's turn the tables here.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: You explain that to me in any other context, and then I'll jump on the mountain of things that you want me to answer, okay?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, you go first.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Explain to me how I once was blind, but now I see.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: If this guy's not from God, this is huge.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'm saying to you.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: If what you and I are saying about Christmas really happened, if what we read in Scripture about Christmas really happened, it changes everything.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not able to reconcile everything and I'm not able to explain everything away.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: But if God really did come in flesh and dwell among us, it changes everything.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know what it tells me?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to be able to explain everything.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's not my job.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's not my job.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: In revealing the world as it really is, it does two things for us.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, it allows us to walk differently because of the light.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: We walk differently because of the light.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: In a few months, during Holy Week, during the last week of Jesus' life, he would say this in John 12.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: The light is among you for a little while longer.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Walk while you have light, lest darkness overtake you.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he was going.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: When they turned the lights off on us in that cavern, we were sitting on those stadium seats.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine if in the middle of this pitch black darkness some dude just decided he was going to get up and start walking down the path?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be a geologist to understand, right?
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going to end well for that guy.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when you and I try to walk without the light of Jesus Christ, it's not going to end well for us either.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: We walk differently because of the light.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: While you have the light, Jesus says, believe in the light so that you may become sons of the light.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the number one rule that they told us is once we turn the lights out, don't move.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's the rule.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: When the lights go out, don't move until the lights come back on.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because you act differently, you see differently, you walk differently when you have the light.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'm saying to you very quickly.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christian like me, give yourself permission to be weird from the culture around you.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna stick out.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we are.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know why?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're the ones walking around with the light.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is gonna make us stand out.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, take the advice from the bald guy, right?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to stand out.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to be different.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to be weird.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we are called to be it.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is the idea of holiness that we're moving away from something and we're moving towards something.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is what God's called us to be.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not to be condescending, and we're not to be religious, and we're not to act like we're better than anyone else.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: But we are to be different.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to be weird.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to stand out.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Don't apologize for it.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Embrace it.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, that's strange.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, it is strange.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a strange guy.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Nice to meet you, right?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Second observation.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: We don't just walk differently because of the light.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: We fear differently because of the light.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know what fascinates me about this story?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's that he wasn't intimidated by the religious leaders.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what I know.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: He should have been.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, as we're going to see, they were a little bit surprised that he wasn't intimidated by them.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't intimidated at all.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: This was the verse that came to my mind as I was thinking through this.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Philippians, one of my favorite books in the New Testament.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Paul wrote from a prison cell.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't in prison because he had broken any laws or done anything wrong.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: He was in prison because of his faith, plain and simple.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what he says in Philippians 1.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: He tells in the context of Philippians 1, he's talking about how the story of his imprisonment and how he's it's opened up new avenues for him to be able to share his faith with Caesar's household.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: And they're seeing good things come because of it.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: And word has started to spread that Paul's imprisoned, and this is what he says, Philippians 1.14.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the brothers, in other words, most of my fellow believers, most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Do you hear what he said?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was put in prison for my faith, and my brothers over here, who should be afraid because of that, actually has had the reverse effect.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: And they've seen what's happened to me as I've been imprisoned for my faith, and they've said, you know what?
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: That makes us more brave.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna speak more loudly, we're gonna speak more often, we're gonna say things that we normally wouldn't say because of all the cool things that are happening with Paul being in prison.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're happy that he got arrested?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're happy that he doesn't have freedom any longer.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that they weren't afraid of the Roman government.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's that their biggest fear was the fear of God.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what will happen if I don't speak up when God places that opportunity in front of me?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: See, here's the thing.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be faced with a lot of opportunity this week where you're gonna have to decide who you're afraid of.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can choose to be afraid of men or you can choose to be afraid of God, but you can't choose both.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: We fear differently because we've seen different things, because the light shines into our context, because the light has shown into our hearts.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: We fear different things, and we know that the most important thing that we could do is honor God.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so if that means putting us at wrong with someone else, then we choose to do that in love and with grace and with kindness and all the things that we're called to do.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: We do that.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because my biggest fear is not the fear of men, it's the fear of God.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's the most important thing about my walk.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can't fear God and men.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: You have to decide.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we keep reading.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jump back into the story, verse 26.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: They said to him, What did he do to you?
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: How did he open your eyes?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he answers.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think at this point he was just having fun with them, okay?
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: He answers, I've told you already, and you would not listen.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you want?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe he said this.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you want to hear it again?
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Do you also want to become his disciples?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm talking about.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's throwing a little shade, right?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are you guys wanting to follow him too?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you keep asking to hear this story?
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've told you.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they reviled him, as they will, saying, You are his disciples, but we are disciples of Moses.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the man answered, Why, this is an amazing thing.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Listen very carefully.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's about to throw back to the book of Job and at least four different passages in the Psalms.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: He says, We know that God does not listen to sinners.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: But if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, I know that he caused me to be able to see.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: He healed me, he healed my blindness, and I can see now.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to have this debate, I'm just gonna bring what I know with me to the debate, okay?
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be my starting point.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: They answered him, You were born in utter sin, and would you dare teach us?
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they cast him out.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: See, they couldn't answer his questions, so they cast him out.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: The light of Jesus reveals the world as it really is, but it also reveals the misguided for who they really are.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: It reveals.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the question: How do you turn a miraculous story of healing into a petty religious argument?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just add a little pride.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's all it takes.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Just a little bit of pride, a lot of knowledge about scripture and a little bit of pride.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Miss the whole point.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Pride is what blinds you and me.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what they said.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, you are his disciples, but we're disciples of Moses.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they had missed the point that Moses and the law had pointed right to Jesus.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: They created a false dichotomy.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's one of these.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: It can't be both.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because Moses and the law pointed right to him.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: It revealed sinfulness and revealed to us our need for a savior.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love this quote.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe you're aware of this.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this week we lost R.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: C.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sprohl, who was a phenomenal Bible teacher, and you may not agree with everything he said, but that's okay.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: He was a phenomenal man, and I think he I think he finished well.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was reading through some of the quotes that he gave us, and I was reminded of this one, and this one just struck me.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, when I saw it, I had to immediately read it out loud to my wife because it just really stuck with me.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: He said, as soon as we think God owes us mercy, we're not thinking about mercy anymore.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty profound.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as we think God owes us, we're not talking about mercy anymore.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Friend, God doesn't owe us anything.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: And when we believe that He does, we're not allowing the light of Jesus Christ to illuminate our world, our hearts, our circumstances.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're not seeing the world the way God intended for us to be able to see it.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: See, I got to thinking about this this week as well, and this is a weird thought.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: If I really believed about Christmas, what Santa Claus teaches us about Christmas, that the most important thing is whether or not you're naughty or nice, I don't think I'd like Christmas very much.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know why?
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm naughty.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: And before you laugh too much, so are you.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not a Christian or you're not, I'm not sure about all this stuff, let me tell you a little secret.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: Those of us who are Christians, we're we're pretty naughty.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're bad people.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is the point of the gospel that we're bad people, we deserve nothing.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is a huge, overarching idea.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: See, contrary to Santa's philosophy, Christmas is for bad people too.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's primarily for bad people.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas is the story of God sending his son because we're bad.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because we can't do it on our own.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because we can't pull it together.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: We may be able to fool people for a little while, but we can't get it together.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I love the end of this, end of the story.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 35.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why, in verse 36, he says, And who is he, sir?
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Haven't seen him yet.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Don't know what he looks like.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think he had a clue.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, You've seen him, and it's he who's speaking to you.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, that's me.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Don't miss the beauty of these three words.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I believe.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: I can't do anything, but I can believe.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: And because of what I've seen, I do believe.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I believe.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he worshipped him.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus makes this statement for judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and so that those who see may become blind.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: See, the light of Jesus reveals the world for what's really going on around us.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: It reveals misguided for who they really are, but it also reveals Jesus for who he really is.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: That is the point of his light.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: That he's the Lord of the outcast and the outsider.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's us.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said two things.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've come, see verse 39, that those who do not see may see.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, for those who are humble, if you're humble enough to admit your need, I came for you.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: I came so that those who do not see can see.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: But then he makes this statement.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I've also come so that those who see may become blind.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you think you can see, if you don't have enough humility to admit your need, if you still have this pride working inside of you, if you think you don't have a need, I came so that you would be humbled.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: I came to make up, down, and down up.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: See, here's what I know spiritual growth is not about acquiring knowledge or facts, it's about an increasing awareness of our spiritual need.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: We don't grow away from it.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: We grow toward it.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: We never become self-sufficient.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the light of Jesus shows us.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: And what I know about your holiday season and my holiday season is that they're gonna be based on something.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: For you and I, we're gonna go over the next two weeks, two and a half weeks, we're gonna go over those times and all the circumstances and the interactions and the opportunities that we have.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a mindset.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a mindset on something.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: And in Romans 8, Paul told us what that should look like.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, For those who live according to the flesh, set their mind on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their mind on the things of the spirit.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: You and I have this opportunity.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: We get to make this choice as believers.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: We get to decide.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit to God's law.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed, it cannot.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: If we're not willing to admit our need, if we want to carry our pride with us, we're not going to be able to please God.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: See, Christmas is not about who's naughty or nice.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's about the free gift of grace to save a wretch like me.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's about opening our eyes to the world that's around us, to the sin that's within us, and to the Savior who came to be among us.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the light of Christmas is.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's about, maybe for the first time in our existence, living a life where our worth, please hear this.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Living a life where our worth and our value is not tied to our performance.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: That train won't take you anywhere good, so the best thing you can do is step off.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to crucify your pride, but you can do it.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Step off and say, I'm no longer living according to performance.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna live in the grace and the mercy and the freedom that Jesus came to offer.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the light shines brightest in our lives.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not a Christian, if you're not a believer, I would say this to you.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know something's missing.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe why you came to church.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know something's not right.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know there's something in your heart, there's something in your life that's been missing.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's the light of Jesus.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's the light that he came to offer to you and me.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: And today, if you'll put your faith in him, just as simply as this blind man did, you can be one of his children.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can become a Christian.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the other thing that I would say.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: For those of us who have already done that, whether it was this week or decades ago, don't miss this truth.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: Don't miss the fact that it is entirely possible for you and I to live our lives without the light of Jesus shining in it.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not that we've lost our salvation, and it's not that God doesn't love us anymore.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: But in a very practical way, you and I can still make some pretty dumb choices, can't we?
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: We can all tell stories, you go first, right?
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: What would our life look like?
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: What would our effect on the world around us look like?
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: What would Topeka look like if we as a church decided that we were just gonna do as much as we possibly could, not just on Sundays and Wednesdays and when we go to small groups, but every day of our lives, if each of us individually just decided our passion was gonna be to live in the light that Jesus Christ sheds on our world.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Christmas is all about.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: May we experience it together.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: God, thank you that you gave us this story from John 9.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the observations that we can make from it, and they're you know a lot more than even those that we've made today.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your truth and for the way that it sets us free.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I pray for all of us in here that you would give us the courage to once again admit to ourselves and to confess to you that we need you every day.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just that we used to, and now we have you and we've been saved and we don't need you anymore, that we've got it on our own now, that we we needed Jesus to make us saved, but we're kind of can handle it from here.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: God, every single day we need your light shining into our darkness.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: We need your light illuminating the path around us so that we can take can continue to make the right choices, not so that you will love us more, but so that we can return our love to you through obedience, through a passionate heart that wants to please you, not so that you'll love us more, but because you already do.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the miracle of Christmas.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: We celebrate it every year as we should, but sometimes we get the contempt that's bred from familiarity.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Shock us out of that as we sing carols, as we go to the light show, as we interact with people, as we read the Christmas story together as our families, as we see our families that we don't see maybe the rest of the year.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: Remind us, impress us anew of the miracle that happened when the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for Jesus.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's in his name that I pray.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for coming.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: We hope you'll uh come out to see the light show tonight.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't already seen it, tonight will be your last night.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're dismissed.