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#963 - Sermon – Calling · The Bible Study Podcast

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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Today's episode is a sermon I gave it
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Speaker 1: my home church, Bethel, Coupertino in California. Welcome to the
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Speaker 1: Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. This sermon
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Speaker 1: was on two different scriptures, one from First Samuel chapter sixteen,
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Speaker 1: verses one through thirteen, and the second one is from
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Speaker 1: John chapter nine, verses one through forty one. And we'll
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Speaker 1: get started right after a word from this sponsor. Good morning.
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Speaker 1: We have three lessons today, and the one that I'm
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Speaker 1: not going to talk about is the one you know best,
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Speaker 1: which is Psalm twenty three, which is written by a shepherd.
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Speaker 1: You may have guessed, and that shepherd was David. But
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Speaker 1: we are going to talk about the calling of David
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Speaker 1: and that first lesson from First Samuel. So when we
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Speaker 1: start the lesson from First Samuel, to notice the prophet Samuel,
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Speaker 1: what is he doing. He is mourning King Saul, which
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Speaker 1: is odd because King Saul is not dead. King Saul
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Speaker 1: will live on for at least another decade, maybe two
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Speaker 1: as king. So we need to back up a bit
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Speaker 1: and see what the context is for these verses. When
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Speaker 1: we start the book of First Samuel, there is no
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Speaker 1: king in Israel when they need extra leadership, God will
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Speaker 1: appoint a judge, a judge like Deborah or Gideon, or
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Speaker 1: Samson or Samuel the prophet. But the people say, we
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Speaker 1: don't like this, God is our king and having these judges.
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Speaker 1: We want a king like everybody else has. We want
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Speaker 1: to be like everybody else. And so God relents and
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Speaker 1: has Samuel appoint Saul as king. And Saul looked like
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Speaker 1: a king. Saul, they said, was about a head taller
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Speaker 1: than everybody else. And we may laugh and say that
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Speaker 1: that's not what makes a good king. But even to
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Speaker 1: this day, studies say that we are more likely to
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Speaker 1: make someone a manager, a CEO, or even a president
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Speaker 1: if they're tall. So but the problem with Saul is,
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Speaker 1: at the point of our story, Saul has been disobedient
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Speaker 1: to God and God has rejected him. And Samuel, who
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Speaker 1: was on team Saul so Samuel was hoping Saul would
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Speaker 1: be successful, is mourning Saul, and God says, enough enough,
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Speaker 1: it's time to move on. I'm going to send you
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Speaker 1: to Jesse's house and you're going to name one of
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Speaker 1: his sons to be king in Saul's place. And Samuel
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Speaker 1: points out, we have a king right now, this is
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Speaker 1: going to get awkward. And God says, take a heifer.
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Speaker 1: You're going to go make a sacrifice, and you're going
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Speaker 1: to invite them to the sacrifice. Everything's going to be okay.
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Speaker 1: So he goes to Jesse's house. Jesse lines up his
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Speaker 1: sons in order of importance, oldest to youngest, because this
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Speaker 1: is a big deal when the prophet of God is
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Speaker 1: visiting your house and visiting your town. And Samuel looks
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Speaker 1: at the oldest of Jesse's sons and says, this guy
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Speaker 1: looks like a king. Notice anything wrong with that. The
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Speaker 1: guy we've got looked like a king. That was not
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Speaker 1: the problem. What God says to Samuel is I see
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Speaker 1: things differently than you do. Don't look on his appearance.
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Speaker 1: He doesn't have the heart is his problem. He doesn't
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Speaker 1: have what we would say as a servant's heart. He
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Speaker 1: doesn't have the heart to be the leader of God's people.
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Speaker 1: It's not him. And then we play a game of
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Speaker 1: what about that guy? Well, what about that guy? What
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Speaker 1: about that guy? And we go down the line of
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Speaker 1: seven sons and God rejects every single one, and so
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Speaker 1: now they're standing there and Jesse is standing with seven
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Speaker 1: sons all rejected, and Samuel has to ask the awkward question,
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Speaker 1: got any more sons? They said, well, yeah, there's one more,
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Speaker 1: the youngest. But to be frank they didn't think he
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Speaker 1: was important enough to be here. When the prophet of
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Speaker 1: God came to town. They left him in the field
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Speaker 1: with the sheep. Call for him, and so he comes
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Speaker 1: and Samuel sees him, and he's a good looking kid,
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Speaker 1: little sunburned, says Ruddy read in inflection. Handsome doesn't look
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Speaker 1: like a king. He looks like a shepherd boy, because
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Speaker 1: that's what he is. And God says, that's the guy.
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Speaker 1: That's the one I'm calling, and Samuel annoints David as king.
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Speaker 1: This is the calling story of King David. Now, our
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Speaker 1: gospel lesson Today also has another example of God seeing
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Speaker 1: people differently than people see people. And in this case,
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Speaker 1: the people who don't look at people the correct way,
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Speaker 1: the way that God would are the Disciples. They're walking
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Speaker 1: down through Jerusalem and they see a man who is
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Speaker 1: not just blonde, but he was born blind. And they know,
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Speaker 1: without a shadow of a doubt, because of what they've
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Speaker 1: been taught by the religious leaders at the time, that
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Speaker 1: if this man was born blind, someone really screwed up,
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Speaker 1: someone sinned. Their only question is was that this man
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Speaker 1: or was it his parents? And Jesus says, no, wasn't
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Speaker 1: he the one? It was that the work of God
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Speaker 1: could be shown in him. And he calls the man over,
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Speaker 1: who hasn't asked for anything, who has probably never woken
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Speaker 1: up a day in his life, and thought, I wonder
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Speaker 1: if I'm going to be the first person I've ever
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Speaker 1: heard of born blind who getting his sight. But Jesus
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Speaker 1: calls him over, and he does something a little weird
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Speaker 1: and something a little gross. He spits on the ground,
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Speaker 1: He makes some mud, and he puts it on the
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Speaker 1: man's eyes, and he says, go to the pool of Saloam,
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Speaker 1: the pool that means literally scent. The man goes, he washes,
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Speaker 1: and he can see. Now, everyone at the time understood
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Speaker 1: that this was a miracle, but they didn't even understand
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Speaker 1: how big a miracle it was, which we get a
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Speaker 1: little more. So Jesus, somehow, with that mud, or with
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Speaker 1: that journey to the pool of Salom, not only fixed
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Speaker 1: whatever was wrong with a man's ocular system, his eyes,
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Speaker 1: his retina, whatever was wrong there. But because this man
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Speaker 1: has never ever, ever seen he would have to create
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Speaker 1: in him a vision system in his brain. He rewired
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Speaker 1: his brain somehow between wherever he was and the Pool
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Speaker 1: of Salom. Pretty big deal. Now we know where the
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Speaker 1: pool of Salom isologists have found it. If you go
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Speaker 1: to Jerusalem. Then if you go just outside of what
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Speaker 1: is now the old walls of Jerusalem, which are not
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Speaker 1: the walls from Jesus time, and you go just a
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Speaker 1: little south of the city of David, which is outside
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Speaker 1: those walls, you can find the pool of Salom. It
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Speaker 1: is connected to a spring via a tunnel built by
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Speaker 1: King Hezekiah mentioned in the Old Testament Hezekiah's tunnel that
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Speaker 1: he built when the Assyrians were besieging the city. So
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Speaker 1: we know where the man was sent to. We don't
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Speaker 1: know where he was sent from. But Jesus spent a
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Speaker 1: lot of time going from Bethany, the other side of
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Speaker 1: the Mount of Olives up to the Temple Mount, and
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Speaker 1: so probably they were along that road over there, and
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Speaker 1: Jesus sent this man across Jerusalem to get to this pool.
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Speaker 1: We don't know why it is convenient that the pool
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Speaker 1: is named sent I don't know if that's why he
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Speaker 1: sent him there, But he sent him. The man had
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Speaker 1: to get cross country across the city with no white cane,
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Speaker 1: no guide dog. Those haven't been invented yet, so he
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Speaker 1: is either stumbling across town or asking for help from
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Speaker 1: strangers or friends or however. He finally gets to the pool,
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Speaker 1: he washes this gunk off his face, and he turns
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Speaker 1: to Jesus and no, wait, sorry, Jesus isn't there. When
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Speaker 1: the man is healed, he doesn't know where Jesus is, right,
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Speaker 1: he's cross town. This is an interesting story because the
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Speaker 1: pastor Ben wanted to be really kind to our lectures today,
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Speaker 1: and so we have twelve verses of the story that
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Speaker 1: John tells. John tells it in forty one verses, and
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Speaker 1: it's like watching one of your favorite episodes of your
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Speaker 1: drama that you'll watch. It's that guest episode where the
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Speaker 1: main character is there for two minutes at the beginning
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Speaker 1: and two minutes at the end, and the whole middle
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Speaker 1: part of it is all guest stars. That's the way
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Speaker 1: John tells this story. The whole middle part of this
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Speaker 1: story is people going, is that the man born blind?
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Speaker 1: I don't think that's the man born blind. This guy
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Speaker 1: clearly sees no I'm the man born blind. Well, what happened, Well,
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Speaker 1: Jesus spin on the ground, he made some mud. He
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Speaker 1: put it on my eyes. He sent me to the
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Speaker 1: pool of Saloam. I went I Washington. Now I see,
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Speaker 1: he said, Well, where is Jesus? He says, I don't know.
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Speaker 1: I have literally never seen the guy. Well, the Jewish
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Speaker 1: leaders call him in because, of course, Jesus did this
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Speaker 1: on the Sabbath, which is a lot of the tension
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Speaker 1: between him and the Jewish leaders. Now, just to be clear,
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Speaker 1: Jesus is allowed to spit on the ground, but as
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Speaker 1: soon as he mixed it up and made mud, he
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Speaker 1: was irrigating. I kid you not. They would see that
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Speaker 1: as a violation of the Sabbath, whether or not the
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Speaker 1: guy actually was healed. And so they call this guy
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Speaker 1: in and they say, what happened. He says, Jesus spin
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Speaker 1: on the ground, he made some muddy. He put it
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Speaker 1: on my eyes. He sent me the pool of sloam.
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Speaker 1: I went, I washed, And now I see. They have
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Speaker 1: a little trouble with his story. They've never heard of
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Speaker 1: anybody being born blind who can see again. So they
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Speaker 1: call his parents in and they say, is this your son?
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Speaker 1: They say, yes, he's our son. Was he born blind?
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Speaker 1: He was born blind? What happened? Will they dodge that
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Speaker 1: question because they have heard that if they give credit
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Speaker 1: to Jesus, they're going to get kicked out of the synagogue.
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Speaker 1: So they say, well, he's an adult, why don't you
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Speaker 1: ask him. So they turned to him and they say,
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Speaker 1: give glory to God, as we know this man, Jesus
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Speaker 1: is a sinner. And he says, I don't know about that.
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Speaker 1: What I know is Jesus spin on the ground. He
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Speaker 1: made some money, he put it on my eyes. He
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Speaker 1: sent me to the pool of saloam I went, I washed,
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Speaker 1: and now I see. They say, we don't even know
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Speaker 1: what this guy comes from, and he says, well, that's
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Speaker 1: interesting because we've never heard of anybody being born blind
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Speaker 1: who can see as a man born blind, that is
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Speaker 1: probably something that he was well aware of. He said
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Speaker 1: he could only do this if God was with him.
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Speaker 1: He is now up at the line about to cross
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Speaker 1: it here and they say again, well what happened. He's like, okay,
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Speaker 1: I have told you this story. Why do you want
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Speaker 1: to hear it again? And do you also want to
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Speaker 1: become his disciple? They don't take that well, they say,
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Speaker 1: how dare you try and teach us? You are clearly
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Speaker 1: a sinner because you are blind ish was used to be,
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Speaker 1: and they kick him out of the synagogue. And this
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Speaker 1: is the point where Jesus re enters the story in
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Speaker 1: John's account that last two minutes of the episode, and
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Speaker 1: Jesus here's the man who's been kicked out of the
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Speaker 1: synagogue and tracks him down and says, do you believe
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Speaker 1: in the son of Man? He says, I don't know.
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Speaker 1: I don't know who that is. And he says it
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Speaker 1: is I, and the man says, Lord, I believe this story,
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Speaker 1: like the story of David, isn't just a healing story.
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Speaker 1: This is a calling story. This man has become, as
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Speaker 1: he told the religious leaders, a disciple of Jesus. And
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Speaker 1: then Jesus says, I have come so that those who
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Speaker 1: are blind can see, and those who see may be
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Speaker 1: made blind. And the Pharisees understand that he is talking
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Speaker 1: about them, and they are none too happy. But they
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Speaker 1: were blind to the situation, as were the disciples, as
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Speaker 1: was Samuel when he's looking at the tall, good looking
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Speaker 1: son and saying, this guy looks like a king. They
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Speaker 1: weren't seeing the situation the way God sees the situation,
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Speaker 1: LUs we pick on them. We sometimes have the same
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Speaker 1: problem when we're choosing leaders. We sometimes choose people who
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Speaker 1: we think look like leaders to be a manager, or
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Speaker 1: a CEO or even a president, and we don't pay
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Speaker 1: attention to their heart. We don't see as God sees.
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Speaker 1: And when we're walking down the street and we see someone,
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Speaker 1: sometimes we are sure, we are convinced that we know
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Speaker 1: their story, how it started, and how it will end,
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Speaker 1: and we fail to see the child of God, loved
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Speaker 1: by God and called to be a disciple. So I
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Speaker 1: pray that this week we would see the world with
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Speaker 1: the eyes of God, see those the hearts of those
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Speaker 1: around us, and see those who are called and loved
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Speaker 1: by God, not limited to but including us. Amen. I
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Speaker 1: want to take just a second to thank the team
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Speaker 1: at Life Audio for their partnership with us on this podcast.
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Speaker 1: If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you'll find dozens
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Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
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Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.