Thank you, Joshua and West Destination Church. Good morning. My name is Josh Myers.

I'm the lead pastor here. And I got a round of applause. That's very nice. I We're in this message series, if you're just joining us, called Who is Jesus.

And it's answering one of the most important questions every single person in this room will answer. It is not what is your career choice, where you're going to live, where you're going to vacation. The most important question you and I will ever answer is this question. Who is Jesus.

And so we've been looking at the book of John and we've been going through it. And what I'm told is all of you skipped last week going through it. So just a little premise here. Last week was my first week off ever of Destination Church and then you guys took the week off. Like off the head.

You were supposed to, you know, keep going. But I'm told the snow was too bad to get to church. So, , but we had a really good time. I got to watch my kids, , eat way too much candy and sweet treats. , and my wife and I got to go to a church planting conference, which was a really great time.

Just hear about all of these amazing stories of different churches that are multiplying and planting churches just like this one. But one of my favorite parts of the trip was to get to see my kids' faces on their first ever airplane trip. Okay, so by show of hands, I want to know this question and then I'm going to tell you how my kids answered it. When you sit in you choose your seat on the airplane, do you sit on the aisle seat, the middle seat, or the window seat.

Okay, >> raise your hand for the aisle seat. Who is the aisle seat. Aka, I need to get to the bathroom seat. That's what I call that one. All right, aisle seat.

>> Who is in the middle seat. We got to have a conversation. And I don't even know why. Whose window seat. , see who doesn't choose the window seat.

You get to look out at everything, right. My kids chose the middle seat. I was like, what are you doing. Like that's that's the one you don't want to see.

And so, of course, on the way down, my daughter wanted to like lean over me the whole time just to like look out the window. But the problem was we flew out during a snowstorm. So, guess what she saw when she looked out the window.

Nothing but white. It was a white wash. You could not see a single thing.

And then the window seats just kind of like, eh, this isn't worth it, right. Cuz you can't see the ground beneath you. Now, on the way home, it was clear.

We could see every single thing beneath us. And this is kind of where we find ourselves in our relationship with Jesus. Some of us feel or experience almost blindness, cloudiness to who Jesus actually is.

And so some of us in the world are living blind, not seeing the real Jesus. Some of us are living with a cloudy vision. Like we might have some pieces correct, but some pieces we may be still trying to figure out.

And so the big question for today is how do we become blind to who Jesus is. How do our lives get clouded and just get confused on who the real person of Jesus is. And to do this, we're going to do what we do every week here at Destination and open up the word of God.

So if you would open up to page 921, we're in John chapter 9. We at Destination believe that we're helping people find and follow Jesus. And the best way to do that is by opening this book every week is what we do. If you don't have a Bible, take this one home. It is our gift to you.

And I pray that you would open it. But here's the the weird thing that we got to address is we're in John chapter 9. Last week we were supposed to be in John chapter 8. So, we got to do just a quick little catchup here.

, John chapter 8, what's happening is, wow, this never happens in the book of John. This has been the whole book of John. There's been arguing about who Jesus is. Jesus finally sets the record straight and says, "I am the light of the world.

I am the son of the living God. Before everything came to be, I am. I am the great I am. Jesus made these huge claims about himself and finally just kind of put a period on all of this you know, religious people talking and all of the crowds talking about who Jesus actually was. Now, what's going to happen in chapter 9 is we're going to see a demonstration of that.

We're going to see that lived out. So, let's start in verse one. It says this.

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned. This man or his parents that he was born blind.

" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus. But this happened so that everybody say so that. >> So that >> this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.

Night is coming where no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. This is what he said in chapter 8.

Now look at verse 6. After this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. Can we just pause here for a second. That's gross. Also, can we just say, is this where Queen got the lyrics like mud on your face.

Like, I I legitimately want to know. Anyways, verse seven. Go, he told him, wash in the pool of Sylum, which means scent.

So the man went and washed and came home seeing. >> Did you catch the miracle. >> Like mud in his face, he goes and washes the mud out of his face.

He was born blind and now he can see. >> That is the miracle. But here's what happens. I want to go back even further in verse one.

When the disciples see that this man is blind, when they see his deficiency, they look at him and say, "Hey, Jesus, who sinned. " In other words, who messed up. This man or his parents that he would have to suffer a life of being blind. And I think this is how you and I become blinded to who Jesus is, is from the pain of the past.

You see, this man lived in this past life of just being blind, not being able to see, and there's no modern-day conveniences for blind people. There's no braille, there's no anything. They were a complete kind of write off to society. And so, what the disciples want to know is what most of us want to know about our situations. Why did this happen.

Do you ever say that. Why me, God. You say that, we say that. And the disciples want to know what what happened for this guy to deserve being blind. And I think this is where we get really kind of this idea of karma.

This idea that there is a cause and effect. I'll give you an example. If the, you know, if there's garbage all over my house, it because I didn't take the trash out, there's a cause and effect.

I didn't take the trash out. Therefore, the effect is that I have garbage all over my house, right. And so, we think in those terms.

There needs to be a cause and effect. But there is a big difference between consequences for our actions and karma. And I think this is kind of where we maybe sometimes get a little twisted up because consequences are a cause and effect. They are a natural result of something that we maybe neglected.

But karma is this idea that there is some kind of, you know, mythological something that's keeping a tally up in the sky on all of the good things and the bad things that we do and making sure they somehow level each other up. Friends, listen to me. God is not a God of karma.

God is a God of showing discipline. But God is not a God that would keep a score that would completely underwrite his grace. And how do I know that. Look at verse three. But this happened so that the works of God might be be displayed in him.

See, the good news for you and I is our past, the things that have happened that have made us say, "Why me God. " Our past isn't about payback. It's about purpose. And when we start seeing how God uses all of the pain in our past for his purpose, we start to begin to live as changed people. >> Can I kind of give you an example of this.

, I don't like talking about my past. It's not something that I enjoy doing when I'm up here because I don't have the typical pastor path past. Oh, I, you know, went to youth group, went to seminary, did all of those things. No, I had a hard past. I grew up in school, bullied, , I dealt with depression, anxiety, ADHD, all of these things that I don't feel comfortable talking about.

And then I really kind of just started to screw up in my early adulthood. And and I got married way too young and and got and and had my wife leave and commit adultery and all of these crazy things from my past. I don't enjoy talking about the failures.

I don't enjoy talking about the struggles in parenting. But you know what's funny. Not for me, by the way. This is this is like a God kind of funny. Okay, are you with me.

Those are the times when God uses me the most. >> Because as I've been in youth ministry, do you know who he's brought me to. He brought me to the kids that were bullied.

>> The kids that felt less than. The kids that felt like I felt. >> Do you know who I've gotten to help a lot is freshly divorced or marriages that are on the brink of divorce.

Do you know when I talk about my failures, it opens up an avenue for somebody to say, "Me, too. How did God move. " And you have that same thing living in you.

That as you share about the ways that you've fallen short, God wants to use those to help other people, that means that your mess becomes your ministry. You hear me on this. That your pain that you go through ends up becoming praise because God is using it to build his kingdom.

>> Come on, guys. This is exciting. This is good because that means we're not punished for our past like karma would have us believe >> like the disciples were even believing in this moment.

But it would happen so that the works of God may be displayed in you. >> God wants to display a mighty work in you and he does in this man. Now, what this man does is what we should all do with pain from our past.

We should then use the pain of our past to tell somebody. And that's what he does. Look at verse eight. His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging because blind men had to beg.

Asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg. " Some claimed he was. Others said, "No, he only looks like him.

" By the way, when you give your life to Jesus, it starts to become unrecognizable to some people who used to know you. That's what's happening here. But he himself insisted, "I am the man. " This is my dad's favorite Bible verse.

He had it memorized before he even read the Bible. I'm the man. He used to say growing up.

Anyways, I had to work that one in there. , verse 10, he said, "How then were your eyes opened. " They asked. He replied, "The man they call Jesus.

" Which, by the way, he didn't even see Jesus. Remember this. He went to go wash at the pool.

Jesus didn't come and >> escort him to the pool. He has not seen the face of Jesus yet. He told me to go wash. And so I went and washed and then I could see.

Where is the man. They asked him. I don't know, he said. So his neighbors, think about this.

Instead of celebrating his life changing for the better. Instead of celebrating him in that moment, they decide to question him and give them an opinion instead. This is an example of how you and I become so blind to who Jesus is is because of the opinion of people.

Now think about it. This man could have because of the opinion of others lived back into his deficiencies. This is sometimes what we'll do is we'll encounter God in some kind of awesome profound way and then as we try to live out that change we'll have the opinion of others kind of downplaying that. And so we'll think I feel really good. I feel free from depression.

But then you have friends or friends around you reminding you all of the things that you need to be depressed about. Or if you're trying to get free from some kind of addiction, drugs or alcohol or whatever it is, and you feel like you're making progress, but then somebody in your circle reminds you, "Oh, you are this. You are an alcoholic.

You are addicted. " And that is all you'll ever be. That is not again the gospel.

This is not what the what Jesus would want in this situation. And so we have to admit that the opinions of others sometimes clouds our view of God and our effectiveness in spreading the gospel. We need to be above the opinion of others so that God can use us in amazing ways.

I'll give you a story of this. I once know knew a guy named Cliff. And Cliff worked at a factory. It was a really bluecollar job.

And Cliff was the only Christian in his in his place of work. And every lunch break, he would sit down at the lunch table, he would open his Bible, and eat his lunch. Now, because all of his co-workers knew he was Christian, they coined the name Christian Cliff, and they started making fun of this guy.

Day after day, they'd say, "Oh, you going to get mad, Cliff. Are you going to you going to slip a swear word. " You know, they would just give him a a really hard time. This went on for almost probably over three years, he said.

, and the one guy who used to give him the hardest time while on the job was just the worst to be around. He used to say, "This guy would would drive me almost to quit some days. I just wanted to be done.

I wanted to cuss him out. " He had all of these, you know, different emotions about him. And he one day sat down for his lunch, opened up his Bible, and then this guy sat right across from him at the table, and he thought, "Great, he's going to start making fun of me or doing whatever he's doing again. " And he said, "Cliff, I noticed you open your Bible every single every single lunch break.

, I'm going through a really hard time right now. My wife left and I I lost my house and I don't really know what to do, but I just feel like I need to talk to you about about God. And Cliff through a long story, but Cliff got to lead this man to Jesus. >> And that's because he didn't care about the ridicule or the opinion of others. He just wanted to live his faith loudly and his his story loudly so that people could see it.

And so what is it for you. Maybe it could be as simple as taking this book and opening it up for your co-workers to see. What is it for you. Do you need to start talking to your family, your friends, your co-workers. Who is closest to you but furthest from Jesus.

And so this man rises above the opinion of others. And so what do these neighbors do. What they're going to do now is they're bringing this blind man before the religious leaders.

This would be like the equivalent of somebody coming up and telling a testimony about how God moved in their life and then you saying, "Okay, let's take you to the courthouse so that we can really get this questioning. " That's what's going on here just as a setup. So the blind man tells his story again. And then look, let's just go down to verse 16 here. This is what happens.

Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. " But others asked him, "How can a sinner perform such signs. " So they were divided.

Like every other chapter of of John, they're divided about who Jesus is. Then they turn to the blind man again. This is where they're asking him for his story. By the way, this is the second time.

We skipped the first time. This is the second time. He says, "What do you have to say about him.

" It was your eyes that were that he opened. The man replied, "He is a prophet. " I want you to notice this. Notice how he went from I don't know the the man that they call Jesus to he's a prophet. He's been telling his story.

Now, what's going to happen is the religious leaders still aren't convinced. So, they're going to bring the parents in. Look at this. They still did not believe that the man had been born blind and received his sight until they sent for the man's parents.

Is this your son. Is this the one that you say was born blind. How can he see.

He know we know he's our son. Okay, we can confirm that. The parents answered and we know he was born blind. Believe me, it was a pain trying to, you know, parent this kid.

That's what they're saying. But how he can see now or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Super dismissive.

He is of age. He will speak for himself. His parents said this. Look at this. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders who had already decided that anyone who acknowledged Jesus was was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue, that is the church.

That was why his parents said he is of age asked him. So he's got the opinion of his neighbors, his friends, his community not in his favor. Right now he has the religious leaders. Now you would think that if you came in here on a Sunday morning and you came up to me and you said, "Pastor Josh, guess what happened to me this week. I encountered Jesus and I was radically healed.

Do you remember my my leg how I couldn't walk. Look at me walk now. My reaction should be, "Praise God, that's awesome. Not, "Hold on. Go get your parents.

I want to see if you really couldn't walk. But that's what's happening to this guy. This guy is being questioned.

He has a pressure on one side from these religious leaders that should be in his corner. Then not only that, but he has the passivity of his parents. >> His parents who should be celebrating this moment for their son who they've watched suffered for years with blindness.

They should be celebrating that, but instead they are living in fear of the religious leaders. This is how we become blind to who Jesus is. Is the the pressure and the passivity from people. So let's look at this from two ways. You have the pressure again from the religious people and that pressure to kind of to kind of just say hey you you know that by acknowledging this that you're saying that Jesus is the Messiah and they want him to feel this pressure.

Now, when you're here in church, sometimes you might feel a little convicted by something. You guys know what I'm talking about. Or maybe it's just me.

Maybe I just I just sit sometimes in a church service and I'll hear somebody talk about something that I'm not doing enough of or I'm not doing the way that I should or I'm not living in the right way and I'll have this like icky feeling. You guys know what I'm talking about. That's not me by the way. So don't blame me for that. That's conviction of the Holy Spirit.

What happens is when we give our life to Christ, we get this gift of the Holy Spirit and this Holy Spirit tries to bring us closer to the person of who Jesus is. And within that process, we are faced with some of the reality that our flesh craves something that is in conflict with our spirit. And so as we move towards Jesus, there's this kind of yucky feeling. But now hear me when I say this.

Conviction is different than pressure. I never want you to feel pressured to read this book every day. I want you to feel convicted, >> but not pressure. You see, pressure says prove it. Prove that you're a Christian.

Conviction says, "I see it and I want to bring you deeper. " Pressure says, "Do this or else this will happen. " But conviction says, "Do this because.

" Let me just put it to you one more way. Pressure says, "Do better and try harder. " But conviction says Jesus is better so you can try again. >> Praise God. >> And that's what the church should be doing to this blind man.

Now on the other side of things, there's this passivity that's coming from his parents. His parents are just dismissing everything just so they can get out of the situation. Okay, passivity basically means knowing the right thing to do but failing to do it.

Okay, the reality is is we've all been passive at some point in our lives about something. This is like goes all the way back to Genesis in the garden when Adam and Eve were especially Adam was passive to the commands of God. Just dismissive of everything. And friends, you need people in your life that are not just going to yes and amen everything that you're doing.

>> You hear me on that. Yeah, >> you need people that are going to kind of ve up a little bit to get you closer to Jesus. >> What I mean by that is you need some people that are checking in on you.

How are you doing. How is your soul. How are you growing in your faith.

How are you doing at understanding this word. And if the answer is not good or I don't have that person, we got to go growth groups. Get involved with somebody who's not going to be passive about your walk with Jesus because now this man is before the pressure. He doesn't have his neighbors.

He doesn't have his parents. So look, it not not only a second but a third time. And they keep summoning this man.

Look at verse 24 to try and change his story. But he refuses to change his story. And he kind of gets like a little teenager attitude is what I like to say here.

Look at verse 24. A second time they summoned him the man who were born born blind and said give glory to God. Telling the truth they said we know this man is a sinner. He replied whether he's a sinner or not I don't know.

One thing I do know this is the gospel right here. >> I was blind but now I see. Then they asked him, "What do we what what did he do.

How did he open your eyes. " By the way, this is like the fourth time they asked him this question. You'd get sick of it, too.

He answered, "I have told you already, and you don't listen. " This is what we all say to teenagers. Why do you want to hear it again. Do you want to become his disciples, too.

Like, that's how I read it. >> Then they hurled insults at him because he was being disrespectful. They hurled insults at him saying, "You are this fellow's disciple.

We are disciples of Moses. We know that the that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from. " The man answered, "Now, this is remarkable. See, again, teenager attitude. I'm telling you, it's here.

You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. " We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. No one has ever heard of opening the the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

He is getting even stronger and more assured in who Jesus is. And what is their reaction to this. They replied, "You were stepped in sin at birth. How dare you lecture us.

And they threw him out. >> That was how they treated this man who encountered Jesus. Now, I want you to see the change. This is the most important part. I want you to see the change.

This man went from I don't know. I didn't see his face. I don't know who he is. To he's a prophet. He did something in my life and it changed me.

And then he went from that to an even deeper testimony of I was made new. I was blind but now I see. You see, as this man, listen to this, as the blind man gained his sight, he was growing in religious in spiritual insight of who Jesus is.

He was growing in his understanding. Listen as he told his story. Back to that again.

You and I each have a story that God wants to use. And this man said, "I can't go back to the way that things were. I can't go back to being blind again.

No matter what anybody says, my life has been changed. " And what is his reward for that. He's abandoned.

He's just left alone. You ever felt like that. Like you've just been abandoned, left alone, just completely like nobody is going to believe this story. Nobody's going to believe my faith. But look at verse 35.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out. He's coming back. Jesus had heard that they threw him out.

And when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man. Who is he, sir. The man asked.

Tell me so that I may believe in him. Jesus said, you have seen him. In fact, he is the one who is speaking to you. The man said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.

And Jesus said, for judgment, I have come into this world so that here it is again, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind. Now he sees Jesus face to face. >> Jesus healed him and he didn't even see who Jesus was.

And he grew in his understanding of who Jesus was. Can I tell you sometimes when you accept Jesus, it's going to take a couple of steps of faith before you really start to see some of the ways that he will move in your life. And this man sees Jesus and he he's he's changed.

He's changed from the inside out and he's trying to tell all of these people about it and no one's listening to him. And then Jesus meets him in that lonely space and he gets an encounter with Jesus. It's an amazing moment.

See, you and I need to live in this way. The way that we truly see the life that Jesus has for us is to live a transformed life. Let me to put it to you plainly. If you have said yes to Jesus, your life should look different.

There should be transformation. There should be a way that things used to be, even if they're small things, that you will never go back to living that way. And I don't think that we really grasp that when we sit in church and we we look at the word of God, we kind of leave with like, hey, that was good message, good worship, whatever it was. I had a good interaction.

But do we leave as if we are blind and now can see. >> I want to give you an example of this. I always get choked up at these these videos. This is a a video that I want to show about a a man who was colorb blind who received colorblind glasses.

Maybe you've seen one of these before. I want you to check out this video and and I'll come back up after. Color for the color blind. I am color blind.

>> I don't know. >> Now, these are these are special glasses. You're cute.

They have been engineered that when people wear them that are color blind, you get to see the color just like we all see. >> And it came with balloons and all that. >> I can put these on. It'll >> rock it where we're supposed to be. >> Direct your eyes so that you'll see how it's supposed to >> clear.

It's so clear. I can't believe Now think about that. Think about your whole life living color blind like that.

And then all of a sudden you get this gift of being able to see again. I guarantee you, and there's way more footage than that, that this man's life was never the same after those glasses. And your life should never be the same after Jesus.

>> That you have a new story to live. And so this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to invite the worship team to come up. I want you to just close your eyes, bow your head for a second.

This is something we do at Destination every week. Not meant to be a weird moment, but just a moment to pause and respond. The world is very noisy and loud and there's not much time to sit and reflect on how God is moving in our lives.

So maybe you're here today and maybe you're living with some of the pain from the past that you've been carrying and and it's kind of made you feel this guilt and shame about being with Jesus. Maybe you're here and you know that the opinion of others is something you care about way more. That to live like Cliff lived and live your faith out loud would be almost asking an impossible task. For some of you, you've had passivity in your corner. You've had pressure in your corner, and you've never really felt what it means to have a real relationship with Jesus.

I just want to invite you if you are in this room and you feel like you have just live lived in this place of blindness and you want to see you want to see Jesus you want to say yes to Jesus maybe for your first time maybe as a way to say Jesus I'm coming back I want to see again if that's you would you just so boldly raise your hand in this moment just so I can be praying for you. I want to see again, Jesus. For the rest of us, I'm going to pray. God knows what's going on in your heart.

God knows the the ways that have just blinded you to who he is. And so, let me just pray. God, I thank you so much for this church, for this place to meet and encounter you. God, I pray that for everybody sitting in these chairs that we would live our faith out loud. That we would be followers of you and that we would be helping others to find and follow you with everything that we are.

That we would live changed and transformed lives. That we would come out of this blindness and that we would see you, Jesus. It's in your name we pray.