B.L.E.S.S. // Sharing Your Story

So I'm so reminded of that.

So John chapter nine.

John chapter nine, I don't know about you guys.

Tell me how about to get up and walk out.

You're like to I don't know about you guys, but there's I have some favorite movies and TV shows.

You guys have movies, TV shows, you like.

I have some favorites.

One of my one of my favorite TV shows is on TNT.

It's on TNT.

It's called Inside the NBA.

Anybody like inside the NBA?

Anybody.

One person, I have one guy up there in the balcony.

I don't know who that is.

I can't really see faces, but that's my boy.

Let's go.

A second a second show that I really like is Sports Center.

Sports Center?

Yes.

Some of you're wondering, that's God's favorite TV show.

I also have a favorite TV show that I watched the reruns again and again and again and I've seen every episode three or four times, but I still watch it.

Do you guys have shows like that?

Okay.

So this show like that for me is a show called impractical jokers.

And practical joke here.

And proud I'm glad you guys are with me.

Nine o'clock service just looked at me like, oh, what's that?

Okay.

Progyny.

And the funny thing about shows and and movies is is a lot of times how they portray Christ followers, how they portray people that follow Jesus.

A lot of times they're the weirdo in the show.

Are they the big hit?

Are they the person that's jamming their beliefs down people's throats?

And I really wanna hit this idea today of Christ followers jamming their beliefs down people's throat.

I really wanna hit it head on.

Because there's a way that we can communicate our faith without shoving it down people's throats.

And the way that we can do that is simply by sharing our story.

By sharing our story of what got done for us.

Now we've been in this series the last several weeks.

It starts with a b.

The series is called bless.

It's called bless.

And what blesses, blesses in a caustic and every letter stands for a word, stands for a phrase.

So when we're having conversations with people about Jesus, this kind of gives us a little framework of how do we begin this?

What does this look like?

And b, we've learned it.

We need to start praying for people.

Right?

We begin with prayer.

Let our l is listen to them, let our e's eat with them, let our asses serve them and then we get to the last letter here and it's ass and that's share your God story with them.

Because when we share our God story with somebody, that's not us shoving somebody's our beliefs down somebody's thrown, it's simply sharing what God's done in our life.

And sharing what God's done in us and sharing that to other people.

I don't know if you've ever thought about the power of somebody's story, but the power of our stories is oftentimes not even realized.

In fact, in Revelation, it says this.

It says the way that devil was overcome is through people sharing their story.

It says this in Revelation chapter number twelve.

It says they conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the what's that word?

By the word of their testimony.

That is powerful.

How how was how was the enemy overcome?

It wasn't by their theological knowledge because they could quote every single verse in the entire book of Psalms.

It wasn't because they're perfect church attendance.

It was because of their story.

Wow.

Who's a thought about that?

Their personal story about God's done in them.

Here's what we're gonna do today.

We're gonna learn about somebody that was not a pastor.

They were not a theological whiz They couldn't have given an answer to every single bible question, but they had something that you have.

They had a story.

And because they shared their God's story of what God's done in their life, Their life was used to impact other lives.

Here's what I want you to do today, and listen, we're gonna kind of take this journey together.

I want to teach you today based on John nine, how you can articulate your God story.

How you can articulate your story so you can make Jesus Stone to other people.

And then you're in this room and you're like, I don't even have a God story.

I don't know if I believe you need this stuff.

Somebody dragged me here.

Okay?

I want you to know that God loves you and that God can change your life and God can give you a story like he's given so many of us in this room.

And we're gonna see this today in John chapter nine.

And if you're ready for the word, would you say amen?

Then John chapter nine, it says John nine verse number one.

It says, as he was passing by, he saw a blind man from birth, anybody wanna take a guess who that he was.

We've been talking about him the last several weeks.

That he is Jesus.

That's right.

Jesus was passing by.

He saw a blind man.

He was blind.

From birth, couldn't see.

His disciples, his followers, asked him, rabbi, who sinned?

Was it this man?

Talking about the blind man?

Or was it his parents?

That he was born blind.

Here's the thought.

If somebody's experiencing suffering, Somebody did something bad.

If somebody's experiencing suffering, even if either Paris did something bad, or he did something bad.

This is their worldview.

Their worldview is if bad things happen, It's because somebody did something bad.

And Jesus is about to take this false narrative.

You just don't follow it up.

This tweet has in verse three.

Neither this man nor his parents sin This came about so that God's works might be displayed in him.

No.

That was your thinking.

The reason this guy's blind is because he did something wrong or his parents did something wrong, like, Maybe you're in the pregnancy, mom must do a little too.

You know what I mean?

Something was happening.

That's the reason why why this happened.

And they had these two dangerous tracks that I think that we can have a tendency to go on when it comes to suffering.

In fact, if you're a notetaker, I want you to write these two dangerous tracks down.

Here's the first track.

It's the blame track.

You can also call it the anger track.

The blame track.

The blame track, the anger track, is whenever I experience suffering, it's always because of somebody else.

Every time, it's my family, it's my boss, It's my kids.

It's the system.

It's the president.

It's always somebody, every single time I experience suffering.

But there's this other fact that That honestly is probably even more dangerous, it's the guilt track.

The guilt track says every time I experience suffering, it's because of me.

I'm a bad person.

I'm in the wrong.

It's my fault.

Maybe we grew up.

And we were either directly or indirectly told that that we have problems and that we're the issue and that we were blamed a lot.

So now what we think now is whenever I have suffering, it's my fault all the time.

The blame check?

Or the guilt track.

And then what can happen is this can seep into our faith journey So we think that that we're bad, that we're the problem that's always us, then you hear me get up and say, Aren't you thankful that God loves you?

Aren't you thankful that God's for and you're thinking?

God doesn't love me.

God must be mad at me because I'm always because I'm, you know I mean, I'm going through this.

I mean, I'm going through this issue and nobody else.

I mean, God must be mad at me because he's gonna get me.

He's trying to get me.

Because it's it's my fault.

And then what can happen is This can affect our mental health.

Like we see this whole world through this, that we're to blame for everything.

This can affect our emotional health.

This really affects our spiritual health because we're like, it's it's my fault.

And what Jesus does is Jesus goes on the scene and he sees all this and he blows it up.

Stop blaming.

Stop guilting.

It's not mom and dad and it's not the blind man.

The reason why he's experiencing this is for one reason.

So my words, God's words can be displayed in him.

The reason why the blind man's experiencing suffering is not because of consequences for being a knucklehead, which by the way, have you ever experience consequences in your life for being a knucklehead?

Yeah.

Yep.

Okay.

Four of you guys raise your hand.

The blind man, he's not experiencing blindness because he lives in a broken world, and that's the results of living in a broken world.

And We've all experienced suffering because we live in a broken world.

He says, that's not why.

The reason why he's experiencing suffering is so god's work can be displayed in him.

What?

Guys, if I'm a blind man, I'm thinking, is there another way your works could be displayed in me?

Like any other options?

Okay.

This was option a.

What about option b or c?

Did it involve me saying?

Right?

Maybe your works could have been displayed in me by allowing me to be completely physically well and having lots of money.

I could have displayed your works that way.

And sometimes what happens is god displays his works in us and answers our prayers.

Through seasons of suffering.

Grow me in my relationship with you.

Teach me to depend on you.

Help me to see that you are better than anything else in this world.

God says, okay, I'm gonna take you to a place where you're gonna realize that.

Lord help me help me to learn to follow you and love you above everything else.

Okay.

I'm gonna put you in the season right now.

And this this can happen to us.

We're in the season of suffering.

Why god?

Why god?

I didn't do anything.

Like, I'm trying to serve you.

And I'm trying to be able to, like, I didn't I've been getting better about, like, going faith being faithful to church.

Like, I'm taking steps in my faith.

I started serving that.

It was really hard for me to start serving that.

I was like, why and God said, hey.

Because I'm gonna let my works be displayed through your life.

I'm gonna answer the prayers that you're actually praying right now, but I'm a do it the way you don't even realize.

And then what gonna happen is we're in the season and we're just like, I'm suffering.

And then what happens is we bail out early on God.

Like, if this is how it is, I'm done.

I can't do this anymore God.

I can't do it your way, but here's what you gotta realize.

Your season of suffering might be a story one day.

You know the blind man story?

We're we're getting a little ahead of the game here.

Is it okay if we get a little ahead of the game?

Right?

The blind man's about to have the most remarkable story incredible story, but it happened because of his suffering.

And you know it could be that you are in a season right now or you've been in a season of difficulty in challenge and suffering.

And what God really is doing, he's setting you up for a story and he's about to teach you some incredible things in the process.

Because this is what is gonna happen right here.

He's gonna give this blind man something that's gonna change his life.

It says in the next verse, verse four.

It says we must do the works of him who sent me well in his day.

Night's coming when no one can work.

Jesus says as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world.

After he said these things, I want you guys to picture this.

This is Jesus.

He spit on the ground.

Let me demonstrate.

I'm just kidding.

Gotcha.

Tell me how I'm thinking.

He's been on the ground.

Made some mud from the saliva.

And he spread the mud and the blind man dies.

I'm the blind man again, I'm like his there other way you could have done this that didn't And then he does something.

It's all unusual.

I mean, I would think so.

Verse seven Jesus says, go.

Go.

He didn't heal him on the spot.

He didn't heal him in the moment.

He says, go and wash and the pool of salone.

Meaning, sent.

So he left, washed, and came back sing.

So the blind man wasn't even healed when the spit touched his eyes.

The blind man wasn't even healed when the when the mud was on his eyes.

He he he wasn't healed.

When was he healed?

When he left?

When he and washed.

When he oh, the prayer I heard it.

My said, when he obeyed?

Y'all saw that.

Right?

Think about you the line, man.

There's spit.

There's mud on my eyes.

And now I gotta go to that pool.

I don't even know how far it is.

And I gotta go over there and obey.

I'm like, Jesus can't you do it right now?

Like, come on.

You already put this on my eyes.

Jesus says, I want you to obey, and then I'm gonna heal you.

You realize that often our healing is on the other side of our obedience That often, Our healing is on the other side of our obedience.

Sometimes we say, God, I need help.

God I need this, God I need you to provide for me and God says, to obey.

Say, God, like, I mentally It's like, I'm all over the place.

Like, I'm just so I'm angry.

God, take away my anger.

Please take away my anger, and God says.

You're angry because you're bitter.

Forgive.

God, man, I'm like, I'm so worried about so many things.

Like, I got all of these crazy things in my mind all the time.

I don't God says, your mind is filled with social media and news and all this stuff.

And you need to fill my your mind with my word, my truth, and you can get that through the scripture and through worship music.

Fill your mind with that.

We say, God, like, will you provide for me financially?

Like, please bless me.

Please give me more and God says, Will you learn to give?

What I have already provided you?

Will you learn to trust me by giving financially and and giving out at that ten percent level, will you do that?

And sometimes what happens is we want God to do this right now and God says, I want you to obey me.

Do you see?

God has all the provision?

Right?

Like like God has it.

Like God has it limited with his provision or what he can do.

But a lot of times God is waiting for our obedience on the other side.

And what will happen is we'll ask God for help.

And God will God will lead us.

God will guide us.

God will give us some clear things he wants us to do.

We say, no, I don't wanna do this.

I want you to come through right now.

And then because we don't obey God, then we bail on God and we get mad at God because it's like, God, you didn't do for me, what I need you to do for me in this moment.

And God said, hey, just obey.

The blind man could have been like, Jesus, you got spit on my eyes right now.

And I gotta walk to that pool.

I don't even know how far it is.

It's not very comfortable for me to walk over there.

Nobody else is walking over there.

My friends aren't walking over there.

I gotta walk over there all by myself and I might chimp in the process.

Jesus, you got all the power to heal me.

Just do it right now.

Jesus says nope.

Obey.

And I want to say something in a very clear but loving way.

For some of us, what's needed most in our life is simple obedience to God.

And for some of us, a lot of our problems would disappear if we simply obeyed God.

It's getting quiet in here.

I know that there's a lot of excuses I know not everybody's doing it.

I know they can be uncomfortable.

I know these things can happen.

But if we'll just obey God, healing can be on the other side of our obedience.

And like Charles Stanley says, and I bring it up often because I think surprised I think about it all time, is if we can just obey God and leave the consequences up to him.

Like, I was like, furlough, like, just obey God and lead the consequences up to him.

Like, for some of us, we need to take this this quote right here and like, write it on our mirror, tattoo it on our forearm.

Like, this right here, like, oh, thank God.

It'll leave the consequences up to him.

This blind man, all he did, he just obeyed, and now he's healed.

And now that he's healed, Things are about to get a little crank.

Right?

Okay?

He's healed.

People are starting to take note.

And his story is about to impact people.

This is what it says in verse number eight.

It says his neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, isn't this the one that used to say here begging?

Is that him?

Some said, oh, he's the one.

Yeah.

That's him.

Others were like, Nah.

Just looks like him.

Other than that?

Just just looks like him.

He kept saying, I'm the one.

It was me.

I'm the blind dude.

Verse ten, so they asked him, Dan, how were your eyes open?

That's a fair question.

Why didn't you ask that question?

How are your eyes open?

He answered, the man called Jesus, made mud, spread it on my eyes.

And told me, go to salom and wash.

So when I went and washed, I received my site.

I think it's funny.

The blind man left out the spit part.

Verse twelve, they asked.

Well, where is he?

I don't know.

They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees.

These are the religious leaders.

These are the ones that are real big on keeping all these rules and do this and don't do this.

What's the pharisees and the day that Jesus made the mud the mud and opened his eyes was aabbat day.

And the Pharisees, where I can't see any type of healing on theabbat day.

So verse fifteen is the Pharisees are getting involved in the story.

They asked him again how he received his sight.

He put mud on my eyes, he told them, I washed, and I can see.

Some of the fares he said, referring to Jesus, this man is not from God.

Because he doesn't keep the Sabbath.

But others were saying, How can a sinful man performs at signs?

So there's this division among them.

So now you got some Pharisees are like, I mean, like, he's got to be from God.

He just heal to dude.

The other rest of the Pharisees are like, he did it on this Saturday.

Again, they asked the blind man.

What do you say about him since he opened your eyes?

He's a prophet.

First eighteen, the Jews didn't believe this about him.

That he was a blind and receive sight until they summon the parents of the one who had received his sight.

So now mom and dad get involved.

Now we're like, okay.

Let's do a fact check on this one right here.

We got we got fact check this.

Bring mom and dad.

Bring mom and dad.

Lom and dad is up.

Is this your son?

Like from your womb, lady?

Is this Does this him?

Who is born blind?

He is born blind.

Right?

How does he how does he now now see?

Verse twenty.

We know this is our son and that he was born blind as parents answered, but we don't know how he now sees And we don't know who opened his eyes.

Ask him.

He's of age.

Like, oh, no.

Like, he's a grown man.

Like, why are you talking to me about this?

Right?

You know, parents here to have adult children.

It's like, somebody's coming to you.

It's like, answer for your, like, thirty year old son.

You're like, oh, no.

Ask him.

You know?

Come on.

Yeah.

They asked twenty one Where were we at?

What are we verse twenty two.

His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews.

The Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him Jesus as the Messiah, the one who could forgive sin, the one who was the son of God, he would be banned from the synagogue.

This is why his parents said he's of age to ask him.

So a second time They summon the man who had been blind and told him, give glory to God.

We know that this man is a sinner.

Give glory to God the father Don't give credit to Jesus.

Verse twenty five, he answered.

Whether or not he's a sinner?

I don't know.

And he's probably, like, exasperated to follow this conversation.

One thing I do know, what does he know?

He knows one thing.

Let's say it.

I was blind and now I can see.

Then ask him, what did he do to you?

How did he open your eyes?

How did it happen?

At verse twenty seven.

I wonder how he said I already told you.

I wonder if it was like, arms crossed corner of your corner of his eye already told you.

Or or was it kind of the, like, I already told you.

I don't know.

May you look.

I already told you.

Sorry.

I told you.

And he said.

He said.

And you didn't listen?

Why do you wanna hear it again?

You don't want to become his disciples too, to you.

By admitting that Jesus was the healer, he was the Messiah, he was the son of God.

The only rational thing to do would be to follow him.

And if you're in this room and you understand that Jesus truly was the son of God, that he's the healer, he resurrected from the dead then the only rational thing to do would be to surrender your life to him, to trust him and follow him.

That's rational.

And this is what he tells and he's like, do you want to be his disciple too?

Verse twenty eight, they didn't like this very much.

Actually, I didn't like it at all.

This is what they did in verse twenty eight.

This is what these boys did all the time.

They really killed him.

They really killed him.

You're that man's disciples, but we're Moses' disciples.

We know that God's spoken to Moses, but this man, we don't know where he's from.

This is an amazing thing the man told him.

You don't I I wonder if there's like sarcasm at this point his voice.

You don't know where he's from, and yet he opened my eyes.

It's amazing.

You don't know where he's from, but he but he opened my eyes.

It's like, hey, hey, buddy.

I'll tell you where he's from.

He's from heaven.

He's the son of God.

And in this passage, The blind man, he didn't preach any sermons at all.

There was no sermon preached.

In this passage, This blind man, he wasn't like, let me tell you what the book of deuteronomy says about the Messiah and how Jesus is the Messiah.

There is no theological discourse here.

This blind man was not, by the way, I am a pastor as well.

This is what the blind man did.

The whole passage.

He told his story.

Here was a story.

I was blind, but now I can see.

That's all I did.

I was blind, but now I can see.

He told a story.

And here's the thing about history and here's the thing about your story.

Whatever that looks like, your God story, is that your story is powerful.

Your story is powerful.

Now, some of you thinking, my story ain't that powerful.

I was never physically blind.

But if god has done a work in your life, then that's a powerful thing.

And your story is powerful because it's unique to you.

And what the gospel does, the gospel causes us to go from being dead in our sin, to being alive with Christ.

And whenever something dead is resurrected, that's always a pretty powerful story.

And you might be here in this room and you might say, man, well, I I made that decision to to trust and follow Jesus.

When when I was a kid and I haven't done anything crazy, I haven't.

Gone off the rails or whatever.

Like, my story isn't that crazy.

First of all, you have the best story of anybody because God's ...phi's grace has protected you.

But whatever your story is, your story is a powerful story because it's a story of what God has done in your life.

Every person's story is a is a powerful story.

The moment when you came to Jesus Christ by faith and it began changing your life, this is so powerful.

Now some of you're hearing you're thinking, okay, how do I how do I share my story?

Like, how do I articulate my story?

What does this even mean?

What does this look like?

When we look at John chapter nine, there were three parts one two three to this man's story.

And this is how you share your story.

Here's the first part of your story.

What was your life like before Jesus?

What was your life like before Jesus?

Why don't you think about this?

For you?

Where you are?

Maybe you grew up in a home, that went to church, maybe you grew up on a home, that didn't go up, that didn't go to church.

Maybe before You came to Jesus.

Maybe your life was empty.

Maybe your life wasn't empty.

Maybe before you came to Jesus, maybe you We're going through lots of different things.

What was your life like before Jesus?

For this man, he was blind.

Part two, How did you meet Jesus?

What did this look like?

Like, what what drew you to Jesus?

Maybe what it was is you were going through a really hard season in your life and you knew you needed something spiritual.

Maybe for you, you weren't going through a hard season in your life, but you're just curious in your and in your mind, you knew there was something else out there.

And that took you on a journey that caused you to realize that Jesus was who he said he was.

Maybe what led you to Jesus is you had a friend that invited you to first Christian church and you started coming and you started hearing that short stubby white posture That likes the forty diners.

And he started talking about Jesus week after week after week and you came to a place where you realized how much you needed him.

What was your life before Jesus?

How did you meet Jesus?

Part three is what is your life like after Jesus?

After you entered a relationship with Jesus Christ.

You realized your sinner.

You realized you needed him.

You entered a relationship with him.

Now what is your life like after that?

Do you have purpose now that you didn't have before?

Do you have hope now that you didn't have before how has Jesus made a very real difference in your life?

And you don't just have to share all, like, the fuzzies.

Right?

All, like, the Jesus fuzzies all the time?

Like, when you've gone through heart seasons of your life, how has Christ been there for you?

And if you can learn how to share your story.

My life before Jesus, how I met Jesus, and my life after Jesus your story is powerful.

Now, this doesn't have to be like a twenty minute thing that you share because you might put some people to sleep.

I mean, let me tell you, I know what that's like.

But what this can be is this can be two or a two or three minute story.

This can be just a quick two or three minute story.

And this is what I really would honestly, I would challenge some need to do this.

If you've never articulated your story or you don't know how to share your God's story, I would actually challenge you to take some time and write it out.

And say, man, what does this look like?

What what was my life before Jesus?

How did I meet Jesus?

What is my life after Jesus?

Because there might be an opportunity for you to share your story.

And when that story is shared, It has the power to change people's lives.

It has the power number two to make Jesus known to others.

Now you might share your story with somebody and they might not be interested.

They might not be open.

That's cool.

That's alright.

But there might be times where your story can be a platform for you to be able to share the gospel with somebody.

For you to be able to share how Jesus came and he died and he was buried and resurrected and he offers life to all who will call on him.

Your story can open up doors to make cheese known to others.

Then we're gonna do something in about a week from now, a week from today.

We're gonna start we're gonna have one week.

It's gonna be called share week.

Share week at FCC.

Share week.

And this is what we are challenging people to do is for that week, for you to either share your God story or for you to share the gospel story with somebody else.

With just one person.

Just one person.

That every person at FCC would would share your God's story and or maybe both share the gospel story of what Jesus did for all of us with one person that week.

This is what once you do.

We don't want you to, like, feel pressured.

You're like, oh my goodness.

I I gotta do this or this is what we want your heart to be.

Lord, I know you're working in people's hearts.

Give me an opportunity to share my God's story and or share the gospel story with somebody else.

And we want to see every person in this church has got open doors for us to try to share a story.

Now here's why this is so cool.

Is that could what could potentially happen is during share week alone, if every person just shared their story one time, shared the gospel story one time, to about two fifty people would hear the good news of Jesus.

Wouldn't that be amazing?

It'd be amazing.

And at share, we we wanna encourage everybody to share their faith.

Now, there can be multiple ways to do that.

Like, you can share it with somebody in person.

That's an ideal way.

Or you can share it online.

You share it in social media.

Honestly, some of you guys, that your reach on social media is way further than if you're just talking to one person.

I mean, you could reach out and let a lot of people know about the good news of the gospel.

And here's our heart during share week, is all of us would make Jesus know to others.

And the Sunday After Share Week, that Sunday's a friend day.

So that so our heart is really that would kind of be a setup for you to invite somebody to come to a friend day where we'll have Cocoa Chek and Balsals and all kinds of good stuff.

Now as we wrap up this series, this blessed series today, I wanna I wanna remind us of something we said the very first week.

And then I wanna kind of give a framework for the days and months going forward.

Our job is not to change hearts.

But our job is to make Jesus don't to people.

That's our entire job.

Your job is not to change anybody's heart.

Your job is to make sure it's known to people.

You might be in this room and I talked to some of you and I mean, you've been praying for somebody for such a long time.

And you're so burden for them.

And that's awesome.

But don't put pressure on yourself to change somebody's heart because that's not your job.

They'll put pressure on yourself and guilt yourself to say, man, I I gotta do something or I gotta say this just the right way.

If I don't say this just the right way, it's gonna be my fault.

No, it's not.

It's the Holy Spirit's job.

And if we will do what Jesus did, if we'll make him known to others and do what he did, He's gonna change hearts and he's gonna work in people's lives.

And as we've talked about the last several weeks, here's the framework for us to do this, this year.

Begin with prayer.

Begin my praying for people.

Listen to people.

Eat with them.

Serve them and share your God story.

You say, pastor, like, how do I how do I make use no other?

Do this?

Like, live this out.

Live this out in your life and see what God can do.

Because this is how Jesus lived.

And if we will live how Jesus lived, we'll be able to make Jesus known.

To others.

And I'm gonna have a word of prayer, and I wanna invite you to spend some time in prayer in your life, praying that God would use you to make Jesus known