WW010902 A faith outcome John 9:6
Beginning:
What was your greatest faith step in 2001? Did you play it safe last year or did you take a giant step? If you know the exhilaration of a quantum faith leap you are probably jumping up and down waving your hand in the air saying, “Pastor let me talk.”
Sadly, most believers are sitting on their hands. The joy of the faith is not always evident. If you feel like a failure recently, I invite you to pull up a chair and listen to a story that has the potential to allow you to take the faith jump this year.
Burden:
This Bible study will encourage the disciple to step into a faith partnership with Jesus. The faith step opens three dimensions of life that maximize existence.
Basic Truth:
The first victim of sin is the strength of our faith
Burning Question:
What does renewed faith restore?
The possibility of a better life experience
6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Sin robs us of faith. The first victim of sin is our faith. Great churches, great families and great people have kept their sin under the blood of the Lamb and stood in faith.
Oswald Chambers is quoted as saying, “It is a great thing to be a believer, but easy to misunderstand what the New Testament means by it. It is not that we believe Jesus Christ can do things, or that we believe in a plan of salvation. It is that we believe him; whatever happens we will hang on to the fact that he is true. If we say, "I am going to believe he will put things right," we shall lose our confidence when we see things go wrong.”
Dwight L Moody says there are three kinds of faith in Christ:
1. Struggling faith, like a man in deep water desperately swimming.
2. Clinging faith, like a man hanging to the side of a boat.
3. Resting faith, like a man safely within the boat (and able to reach out with a hand to help someone else get in).
God gets excited about our faith. He loves it when one of His children actually lives by faith or acts in faith. If you want to get heavens attention you step out in faith and see what happens.
Life application:
If you want the possibility of a better life outcome in 2002 (one that lets you come home seeing) learn to obey Jesus completely.
Obedience is no accident. Obedience needs a strategy and follow-through.
Start with a very tangible project like tithing.
#1. Make a faith commitment to be obedient in 2002.
#2. Pick up giving envelopes and put them in a visible place in your home.
#3. When you get paid make your first check to God.
After you have begun in faith move to other areas of obedience that are less tangible: for instance get your relationships right.
#1. Start with The Lord and His church. You may need to begin a faith relationship with Jesus. You must start by coming out of denial about your sin.
#2. Step out in baptism. If you are a believer, but have never been baptized your follow-through needs some attention. Schedule a time to talk with me, or one of the Evergreen staff members, and set a time to be public about your faith.
#3. Commit to a body of believers and put your shoulder to the task and vision they have found.
Transitional statement
A renew faith opens an exciting life journey that was closed to the person with a weak faith. There are other unexpected benefits to a renewed faith journey.
A better understanding of yourself
8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?" 9 Some claimed that he was. Others said, "No, he only looks like him." But he himself insisted, "I am the man."
It is hard not to see a little humor here.
Have you ever had people discuss you or something about you while you were in the room? This is the scene here. This guy who could for the first time in his life see faces, saw those faces and heard them say things about him. He was being discussed. I can see him looking at the people talking and after a while he just explodes. HEYYYYYYYY! I am the man!
Let’s get inside his head and learn with him as a blind man joins the human race.
He knew the humbling experience of begging. He depended on others for his livelihood.
He used to sit and beg. Life had taken the starch out of his legs and he sat down, never to get up again. That is until he met Jesus. Now I’m sure he is standing, walking, running and even dancing for joy.
Notice here how no one had really looked at him in a way to really see him. He was just a beggar. Eyes glanced at him and moved on down the street to the next thing. The blind man had become less than human, that is, until he met Jesus. Now people are looking at him. They are even really listening to him.
In his blindness I’ll bet he loathed himself as a quasi moto (half man). Now he had his dignity back. Now he could give to the needy instead of being a life-long taker. He was now a full man not a quasi moto.
You will never know who you really are until you experience a faith walk with Jesus.
Transitional Statement
Everything gets better when Jesus is involved. Besides your life experience and you self-understanding taking a quantum leap the people around you benefit also because a faith journey adds to . . .
The vitality of your testimony
10 "How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded. 11 he replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."
Every man has a story. You have a story. Every life tells a story. What story are you telling?
This man told and retold this story for the rest of his life. Every time he told it people were blessed and their faith grew.
The vitality of your testimony depends completely on your contact with Jesus. The more powerful it is the more it impacts others.
Aaron Brown of CNN spoke all morning to the world about the most horrible attack ever on American soil. President Bush’s words to the nation a few after the attack still reverberate as he said to the nation, “Go about your business. Get on with your lives. We will find and destroy this evil.
Life Application:
You can debate theology with your friends and family and never turn a heart to Jesus. You can use apologetics and try to convince skeptical people that Jesus lived, died and rose again, but no one will ever be convinced until they hear your life story told. The one thing people can never debate is your experience with God. Tell them how you used to live and think. Tell them how Jesus change all that. Tell them how your life is now. Your story is the most powerful tool you have in evangelism.
What do I want you to know?
Step into a faith journey and find out who you really are. When you find out who you are you will be able to tell people who Jesus is.
What do I want you to do?
Make 2002 the best year in your life, your career, your relationships, your church and with your God.
