Why Should I Share My Testimony? - John 9:1-41 - July 12, 2026

Nik Baughn: I think I'm a pretty smart person until my son turned three and started asking all of these questions that if I'm honest with you, I had no idea what the answer was. and it started pretty normal. It's like, hey daddy, why is the sky blue? I'm like, I don't really know the answer to that question. Then it goes Hey, how can birds fly if they're fat? I'm like, I don't know. Where does the moon go during the day? I'm like, okay, well, sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't. Then he starts getting into the hard ones. Why can't I see my eyes? I'm like, I don't know. And then one that stumped me and stumped some of our pastoral staff. And could Jesus see me in the bathroom? It's like, he's like, I don't I I gotta use the potty. I don't want Jesus to see me on the potty. And then the last one, which he said the other day, and his best friend was at our house last night and asked me the same question. It's hey daddy, if Jesus lives in my heart, when I drink water, does he get wet? And I'm sitting there like, Man, I don't understand how a two-year-old and a three-year-old is asking all these questions, but I'm trying to answer them confidently because I don't need the kid who I'm taking care of to realize that his dad knows nothing. ⁓ And then he keeps asking questions and I give him an answer and he says this thing all kids say, why? And so I answer again. And then he asks why. And I answer again. He asks why. I go to Chat GPT to see what ChatGPT says. Then he says why. And finally I look and say, Hey, because God made it that way and ask your mommy. And just push him off because I'm tired of answering the same questions. I don't have the answer to everything. But many of us, if we're honest about our lives, can act the same way when it comes to Jesus. Especially when it comes to talking to someone about Jesus. What if they ask me a question that I can't answer? Man, what if they ask, why does God allow suffering? What if they start asking questions about other religions? Man, what if they bring up the thing that they saw on TikTok and I don't know how to answer that? What if they start asking out some random verse in the book of Leviticus that I honestly haven't read in a while? And when we're answer when we come against those questions, what we do is often we just stay silent and we stay quiet and we don't say anything. Because we believe that we have to know everything about Jesus and know everything about the Bible before we can tell anyone about Jesus. But today we're gonna be in John chapter nine, and in John chapter nine, what we see is Is a man who does not have the answer to every question, but he knows what God has done in his life. And he starts telling people about Jesus. Because when Jesus changes your life, and this is the big idea of the sermon today, when Jesus changes your life, your story becomes a witness to who he is. Your story becomes a witness to who Jesus is. So beginning in verse one, it says this: As he passed by, he being Jesus, saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind? And Jesus answered, It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the work of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day, because night is coming where no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. So Jesus is walking by and sees this man who is blind from birth. And apparently the disciples see Jesus seeing him because they see him as well, and they ask Jesus a question that was pretty common back then. A simple question of, hey, who sent? Was it him or was it his parents? Because in the first century there was an a inaccurate belief that anytime someone was sick or injured, it was because of the direct sin. And honestly, And we can read this and say, okay, that was then, this is now. But if we're really honest, many of us act the same way in our life. Like we see someone who's sick, someone who's suffering, someone who is dealing with some kid pain, or someone who's just kind of lost everything they had to stand on. And in the back of our mind, many times we go, they probably did something to deserve it. If we're honest, they probably did something. This is probably the result of their own actions. So the disciples are asking Jesus. Whose actions cause for this to happen? And Jesus goes into saying, it was so that God's glory could be revealed. Man, when we see this text, many times we can also ask the same question. Man, why does sin and sickness and suffering happen in this world? Is it because we've done something? And the answer to that question is that sin and sickness and suffering in this world are a result of sin. In Genesis chapter three, when Adam and Eve sinned and ran against from the direction that God has for their life, sin came into this world. Because of Genesis three, we have wars, we have death, we have sickness, but a particular suffering is not always connected to a particular sin. And in this case, no one sinned that this man was sick. And Jesus answers them that it was so God's glory could be on display. Jesus does not tell us why every painful thing in this world happens. But he does show us that pain and suffering in this world never get the final answer. Because in the hands of Jesus, our pain can become a testimony to who God is. And our pain can become a testimony to God's power. But in your life, the very place where you might have asked, God, why is this happening to me? God, why are you allowing this to happen? May become the very place where God chooses to do the thing that only He can do. Man, it could be that the very place in your life and in your story where you would want to erase is the spot where God wants to come into and reveal Himself. Man, the Apostle Paul says, We are jars of clay, man, that we're fragile, that we're easily broken to show that the power that's in us is from God and God alone. And sometimes. The broken part of your story becomes the place where God is most clearly revealed. And that's what's happening here. We're seeing the story of a man who's been born blind, and his entire life has been defined by that. And it's the source of his pain, it's the source of his poverty, it's the source of probably his shame. And Jesus is about to turn the darkest part of this man's life into the clearest demonstration of his power. So verse six, it says this. Having said these things, Jesus spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva, and he anointed the man's eyes with the mud, and he said to him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sin. So he went and washed, and he came back safe. Man, the disciples are standing around this guy talking about his entire life, if he's sinned, what's caused his blindness, and you know what I realized when I read this text? It says the guy was blind, not that he was deaf. I mean, he's hearing them talking about him right there in front of him. They're not even talking to him, they're just talking about him. And then all of a sudden, it gets a little quiet in my mind. And all of a sudden, he just hears Jesus go and hears it a couple more times. Like, if I'm the man, I'm like, what is going on? And then he hears some sloshing happening. And then all of a sudden, he gets smacked in the face with mud. He didn't even see it coming. And he's got mud up okay. Yeah, he didn't even see it coming. And he gets it on his eyes, and I always wondered, man, why was it mud? I mean, all Jesus had to do was say, hey dude, you're healed, and he could be healed. I think the reason it it's mud is it kind of goes back to the imagery we see in the book of Genesis. In the book of Genesis, it is God's creating everything. He does it by the word of his voice, but then it says he made man out of the dust of the ground. Look, man, if you get shot in the eye with a BB gun and you've had sight and you go blind, it's gonna be painful and hard to get your sight back. But there's already stuff there. There's pathways, you already got eyeballs, you've got already already got all those things. But here, this man from birth was born blind. So when Jesus reaches in and makes mud and puts it in those guys' eyes, it's reminding us hey, God is creating something out of nothing here. God is making something, he's building something. And and all of a sudden he goes and says, Hey, go to the pool of Siloam, which means sent. And I'm like, why is this path? Why is that in the Bible? Why does it say sit? And clarify that. I think it's because in John 8 and 9, what we see is that Jesus is talking about the mission that he's on from the Father. That the Father has sent him into the world. And so here, the true sent one is sending a man to the pool called sent. But how in the world does he get there? He's blind. I mean, maybe he's stumbling. I mean, history says it's about a half mile walk downhill to where he needs to go. And so he's walking there, probably tr stumbling, passing, laying down, falling. I mean, it looks like he's lost a fight with a sandbox. And he finally gets down there. And he gets healed. He washes and his sight comes back. He trusted Jesus. Man, his first response to Jesus speaking to him was obedience. This man had to walk by faith before he was ever able to walk by sight. And he goes and God heals him, and this is what happens. And he comes back. And the neighbors who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, Is this not the man who used to sit here and beg? And some says, yeah, it's him. Others said no, but he is like him. And he kept saying, I am the man. So they said to him, How then how were your eyes open? And he answered, The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes, and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight. And they said to him, Where is he? And he said, I do not know. And these people in his own neighborhood that he was around could not even tell that he was the same man. They realized something was different and that everything had changed so much so that he had to look at them and say, Hey, it's actually me. Because when God moves in your life, other people notice it. When they notice something was different about him, they started asking him the questions. Because when the miraculous happens in our life, people begin to ask questions. Because when they see something different about us, when they see something different about you, it makes them start to wonder. Because a changed life is the greatest testimony to the power of Jesus. And on Father's Day, ⁓ I got to spend a couple hours with Jace Robertson from Duck Dynasty. It was just really cool being able to do I don't know if has anybody ever watched Duck Dynasty? Okay. About half the word. So his dad, Phil, who passed away a year ago, ⁓ and was a quarterback in college, a great dude, and all of a sudden started spiraling. into living a life that was so d diametrically opposed to the gospel. And he was a drunk, he was rude, he was lawless, he had a lot of alcoholism, infidelity, he was violent, he owned a beer joint as when Jace and the brothers were little kids. And he just stayed drunk. He cheated on Miss Kay all the time. And there was one time where he got into a fight with his bar owner and left the state and ran to Arkansas to hide from the law. And Jace was just telling me about how his mom took him and his brothers and they left the house because his mom was like, We can't stay in this. And Phil was gone and over some time and God started moving in Phil's life. And he came back and looked at Kay and said, I can't do this anymore. I really can't live without my family. And there was a preacher in the city that they were in who started caring for Phil, started talking to him, started sharing the gospel with him. And then one night, Miss Kay took the kids to church. And at the very front of the church, they see their dad standing forward, talking to the pastor, saying, Hey, I want to follow Jesus as Lord in my life. I want to change. I want to be baptized. And Jay said, as a little boy, he looked up at his mom and said, Mama, is the devil out of daddy now? She said she looked at him and said, Hey, Jesus Christ is now in your dad. Man, his family did not need Phil to explain every theological question. They knew that the man who had walked out on them, the man who had walked out on their family, was different than the man coming back in their house. And they might not have understood everything that had happened, but they could not deny that Phil Robertson had changed. And that's what a changed life does. It makes people start asking questions. It makes them look into your life because when Jesus changes your life, your story becomes a witness to who he is. So they want to know who Jesus is. The same way Phil's family want to know what was different about him. The neighbors are asking. And so the man tells them about Jesus and they want to know where he is. And the dude's like, I don't know. I've never even seen the guy. I mean, up until 10 minutes ago, I couldn't see anybody. And they're like, okay, well, where is he at? And so They see but have no idea, and verse thirteen says, So they took the man, they brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, He put mud on my eyes and washed and I see. And some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, talking about Jesus, because he does not keep the Sabbath. But the others said, How can a man who's a sinner do such signs? And there was division among them. So they said to the blind man, What do you say about him? Since he has opened your eyes. And he says, He's a prophet. So they bring this man to the Pharisees, to religious rulers. And the Pharisees had very strict requirements on what could happen on the Sabbath. On the Sabbath day, you could not ⁓ Couldn't light a fire, you couldn't put out a fire, you couldn't tie shoes, you couldn't do anything that was connected to work. So the fact that Jesus healed and made mud on the Sabbath, they would say was a level of work. Now they were trying to follow the command of remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. So the religious rulers started putting examples in place for people to follow just to make sure that they weren't stepping into sin. But the religious rulers did is they started leaning on their man-made thoughts over leaning on the word of God. And so what they're doing is they start questioning the man who Jesus healed on the Sabbath because the i religious leaders had an issue with Jesus in that moment. And now the man has to answer the question for the second time. At this point, if I'm the man, I'm getting frustrated that I'm having to answer the same question time and time again. It's like when you go to the doctor's office. And you come in, y'all know where I'm going with this, and and you fill out that little piece of paper at the front, or now it's a tablet, and you hand it back to the lady at the front desk. Then you get back to the room, and a nurse comes and asks you the same questions you already filled out. You give her the answers, then the doctor comes in and asks you the same question. And finally I just look at him and say, Hey, do you people not talk to each other? Like, read your chart, see what it says, and that's in my mind what the this blind man is doing to the Pharisees. He's like, Man, I've already answered this. I'm going to answer it again. And the reason he has to is because they're debating it. Because they completely miss the point. A man who has never seen in his entire life can see. And instead of throwing a party, these guys just launch into an investigation. Because they're more committed to their system than celebrating transformation in this guy's life. Man, may that never be said about us. Man, when someone When we encounter someone whose life has been radically transformed by the gospel, man, let us never lean into, man, all the questions of, and what if they've got their theology, don't have their theology right? What's their belief about this? What's their belief about this? And I'm not saying that to downplay theology. If I was, I wouldn't have spent the past 10 years of my life studying it. But the thing we have to see is, man, if someone comes from death to life, the first thing we should do is celebrate the heck. Of them coming from death to life. Man, we can disciple them and help them understand their theology later, but let's never be like the Pharisees and saying, hey, you've got to have everything right to follow Jesus when Jesus says, Hey, if you come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened, I will give you rest. And but so many times as churches and as Christians, we want to nitpick on things instead of celebrating the change that God is doing in their life. And the Jews, it says in verse 18, did not believe that he had been blind. And had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight, and they asked him, Hey, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? And his parents answered, We know that this is our son, that he was born blind, but how he sees we don't know. Nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him he's of age. He will speak for himself. And his parents said these things because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore the parents said, He's of age, ask them. I mean, in my mind, this is like grown man humiliation. It's like, hey, we don't believe you, so we're gonna call your mama and your daddy, and we're gonna ask them the same questions we've already asked you. And I think about his parents. I think about his parents being brought before the religious leaders, and probably for their entire life they've been wrestling with the same question. disciples asked Jesus. They probably sitting here thinking, it wasn't us. He's probably 30 at the time. He spent 30 years of his life blind because of something we did. And they probably carried that shame. They probably carried a level of doubt. They're probably a little bit of outcast from society because of what their son was going through. And all of a sudden, their son is healed. And in front of everyone, they're bought in for questioning. It says they're fearful. And they're fearful of being kicked out of the society that they're in. And if we're honest, many times when someone starts asking us about our faith, we kind of have the same thing. We get a little fearful. And they start fearing people more than they do God, and we can do the exact same thing. And so what do they do? And they don't answer. They say, Hey, he's a grown man. You can ask him. And so verse twenty five four for the second time they called the man who had been born blind and said to him, Give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner. Give glory to God is basically the first century of, hey, do you promise to tell the whole truth, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God. It was basically their way of saying, Hey, what you're gonna say is faithful and true. And so the man answered, Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. But one thing I know though I was blind, now I see. But what I do know is what happened when I met him. And that is his story, and that's a testimony that I was blind, but now I see. And the posture of this man is he is humble about what he does not know, but he is bold about what he does know. And he doesn't pretend to know every answer. He does not pretend to know everything that's going on. He doesn't know where Jesus is. He doesn't know who Jesus is. He cannot answer every question the religious leaders are asking. But what he knows is I was blind and now I see. Listen, you do not need to know every answer to tell somebody what Jesus has done in your life. And some of us, if we're really honest, and I find myself there more times than I can count, don't share our faith because we're afraid of someone asking us a question we do not know the answer to. It is okay to say, I do not know. You don't have to have the answer to every theological question. You don't have to have the answer to every objection or to every argument. A changed life is what people will see first. But what you should know is very simple. This is who I was. This is how Jesus met me. This is what Jesus has done in my life. And this is who I am becoming because of him. Be humble about what you do not know, but be bold as a lion about what you do know. And if you're a Christian, you have the same story as this man. And you might not have been physically blind, but spiritually you were blind. Second Corinthians 4:4 says, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. You could not see Jesus clearly for who he was. You were not also just blind. You were spiritually dead. Ephesians 2 says, We were dead. In our trespasses and sins in which we once walked, following the course of this world, following the course of the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Spirit of God came to us in the middle of that. That while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus opened your eyes and brought you from death to life. So every Christian in this room has the same testimony. I was blind, but now I see. I was dead, but now I'm alive. Man, what is your story? What is your testimony? What is the story that God has been writing in your life? Can you tell it? And honestly, when is the last time that you did? Because when Jesus changes your life, you everything in your story becomes a witness to who he is. And many times like we don't want to share our story because we hear all the other stories of how people came to faith. Like we hear the stories that honestly should be Netflix documentaries. Of like you you know what I'm talking about. This guy who ⁓ I was addicted to every drug known to man. I mean, he's like six foot five and three hundred and twenty pounds all muscle. He's like, I was addicted to every drug. I was with everything that could breathe. I was a terrorist. I murdered thirteen people and I was in prison. And Jesus found me. Hallelujah. Now I teach a Sunday school class. Like we hear those stories and we're like, Man, my story's not like that. Man, your story, if you're honest, is kinda like my wife. I grew up in church. I got saved at a young age. I followed Jesus. I don't really have a crazy thing of this is what I did, this is the life I lived before him. But here's the thing: every single story, every single testimony is miraculous. Because it's not stories of good people becoming better. It's stories of death to life. Man, your story doesn't have to be crazy, because it is. Your story is a story of death to life. And that's the story of this man. And so what happens? They said to him, Why, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? And he answered them, and I love this because he answers them the way I think probably I would. I've told you already. And you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too? Like that's just the way I read that. It's like, he's like, hey, you've asked this question a number of times. I think you want to follow Jesus. I can. I I know a guy, I've never seen him, but I know him, and I can make this happen. And they reviled him, saying, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but for this man, we do not know where he comes from. And they say the quiet part out loud that they're not following Jesus, they're not following God, they're just following Moses. And they're not, they're just following the one that God had used. They're following the laws and the rules, and they don't care about who God is. They care about what they want. In verse 30, and the man answered, Why, this is an amazing thing. You don't know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God doesn't listen to sinners. If anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began. Has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind? If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. And do you see what's happening to this man? The more they pressure him, the more clearly he speaks. At first he just knew, hey, it's a man named Jesus who healed me. And then he goes and calls Jesus a prophet. And now he's standing before the most religious and educated people on the planet. And he says this If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. And sometimes your faith gets clearer when you are forced to stand on it. Every single question that he faced made him start thinking more deeply about what he believed. And every challenge made him take another step towards Jesus. Pressure didn't destroy this man's convictions, it deepened them. And though, you know, their questions could have caused doubt in Jesus, their questions actually helped him have a deeper faith in Jesus. And when we pr face pressure with our faith, especially when it comes to sharing the gospel, it can actually grow our faith. I mean, this man is growing by the second in his understanding of who Jesus is. What he brings up is the fact that no one in history has ever been healed from being born blind from death. Now, being born blind from birth. Not blind from death. That was weird. ⁓ in the old testament, there's over 300 prophecies about who Jesus is. What the coming Messiah would do. And one of the most major prophecies that we see in the Old Testament is that he will make the blind to see. Isaiah 29, 18 says, the deaf shall hear, the eyes of the blind shall see. Isaiah 35, 4 through 6 says, the eyes of the blind shall be opened. And in Isaiah chapter 42, the Messiah would be a light to the world and open the eyes of the blind. This isn't a man who's getting his sight restored. This is a man who's blind from birth. For hundreds of years, the prophets would have pointed this out. They would have known, the religious leaders would have known that this is a major key of becoming Messiah. Now, Jesus is standing before this man who's blind, a man who had never seen a sunrise, never seen his parents' face, never seen his own reflection. And Jesus gives him sight. And now there's there's testimony. of the promised Messiah standing in front of the religious rulers and they do not even see him. And they knew what to look for. They knew what the Messiah would be, and they refused to recognize him standing directly in front of them. And verse thirty four says They answered him, You were born in utter sin. And you would teach us, and they cast him out. May they call him a sinner. They go back to the same question the the disciple was asked Jesus. Is he a sinner? Is that why? And they and they place that on him. And honestly, man, they're not wrong. This man was born in sin the same way every single one of us has been. And this man had no formal theological training. The Pharisees had all the credentials, all the authority, and all the arguments, yet they put this man possessed something they did not. An undeniable encounter with Jesus. This man had received his sight, the truth about Jesus, but it cost him his place in community. And following Jesus may cost you the approval of people, but it will never cost you the presence of Jesus. And it may cost you friendships. It may cost you a job, it may cost you popularity, it may cause tension in your family. It may mean you don't hang out with the same people you used to. But whatever you lose for standing with Jesus, there is one thing you will never lose, and that is Jesus. Verse thirty five says, Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? So he's kicked out of the synagogue. His neighbors don't recognize him. His parents have distanced themselves from him. And what happens to him, Jesus goes looking for him. And before this man ever saw Jesus, Jesus saw him. And when everyone else has rejected him, Jesus goes looking for him. And Jesus says, Do you believe in the Son of Man? And all through the Bible, specifically in like Daniel chapter seven, the Son of Man is the title of the coming Messiah. It's what the Jews would have known, like, hey, this is the Messiah. The Messiah is the Son of Man. And yet he had no idea what this even meant. He didn't have the right language. He didn't know all the theological categories, but he knew that he had been blind, and now he sees. He says, This, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and it's he who is speaking to you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. And think about it. Think about this man's first sunset that he ever saw. Think about the first time he saw his reflection. Think about the first time he saw his parents. Think about the first bird he ever saw. But the greatest sight in his life was finally seeing Jesus. And Jesus said, For judgment I came into the world that those who may not see, and those who may who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said, Are we also blind? And Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you are now that you say we see, your guilt remains. And the Pharisees go, Are we blind now? And Jesus says, Yeah. Because you're convinced that you can already see. And the man who had been born blind is standing in front of them and seeing his story, and yet they can't see Jesus clearly. The problem was they were too proud to admit that they needed Jesus. And the great irony of this passage. Is this chapter begins with a man who is born blind being the only person in the room who can clearly see? And the Pharisees who thought they had sight being blind. And before this man ever saw Jesus, Jesus saw him and Jesus found him. And when he could finally see Jesus clearly, he worshiped him. And when we see Jesus clearly, we should worship him and share our story. And that's the action item out of this. Out of this passage, what did it mean for us? is we should worship Jesus and share our story. But there are people in this world right now who will come to faith in Jesus from hearing you tell of what God has done in your life. And it's not it it's not hard to do. It's telling, hey, this is who I was like before Jesus. This is where Jesus met me. This is what Jesus is doing in my life and this is what I'm hoping to become become because of Jesus. You do not need to have every answer. You don't have to win every argument, but what you can tell is the same thing like this blind man. I was blind, but now I see. This is what Jesus has done in my life. Because when Jesus changes your story, when Jesus changes your life, your story becomes a witness to who he is. So what we should do is we should share it. And we should share our story. And maybe feeling like sharing your testimony feels like a massive lift. And it feels like, hey, I'm a brand new believer, and I really don't feel comfortable doing that. Well, at minimum, what you should do is invite someone here so they can hear the stories of other testimonies. See how God is moving in this church. But also be bold, man. God will give you the words to say when you need to say ⁓ Man, be bold and step out and share your story. Because other people will come to faith in Jesus when they hear how God has moved in your life. Man, I ⁓ I grew up with two parents who and they loved us. But they did not love each other. My parents got divorced when I was in middle school. And on the outside, everything in my life looked perfect. I made the best grades. I played sports. ⁓ I was class president, did all the things that you would look at and say, Hey, this dude is doing great. But on the inside, I couldn't sleep at night. I was depressed. I was anxious. I was suicidal. I could hated myself and thought that I was the reason why my parents were getting divorced. I thought I was the reason for all these bad things happening in my life. And one week my mom was a nurse. This lady comes to her office and talks to her and just says, hey, my name is, I have no idea what her name is and says, this is what Jesus has done in my life. Here's an inviter card. Just a little card that had a name of a church and an event that was going on. And hands it to my mom and says, Hey, I hope you would join us this weekend at church. And my mom and my brother went, and we grew up really Southern Baptist, like true Southern Baptist, where like we had the robes and everything and the handbells. And so for me growing up, I thought church was just like the thing you do. Like we're in the South. We just go to church on Sunday. So my mom and my brother went, and that day my brother came back home and he looked at me and he said, Dude, they Video games. I'm like, what? He's like, this church is weird, man. They've got video games. Come to find out they just had worship on the screens and we had never seen that in a church before. And he's like, I'm going back next Sunday. And I'm like, all right, I guess I'll go. So that next Sunday I go and he's in elementary school, I'm in middle school, and they split us up. And I go into the middle school room and I know one person. And I come. And I see something different about these people. Something was different about them than the people in the church that was across the street from our house. Okay, I'm gonna hang out here for a little bit. I kept coming back and coming back and coming back and coming back. And that next Easter, the middle school pastor got up and he preached the gospel, and my life was changed from an instant. And I still wrestled with depre doubt and depression and anxiety, but God had done something different in my life. And over a a decade and more, God has moved in my life to a spot where now I'm married, I'm a pastor, my wife loves Jesus. I've got two kids who are growing up in a healthy church. My many of my family members have trusted Jesus since then. And my life and generations are changed. And the reason I'm here today is because one woman took the bold step of going and asking my mom to come to church with her and told her about what Jesus has done in her life. I would not be here today if it wasn't for that person. And sometimes we can get so afraid of sharing our faith or taking that next step. But there are countless stories like mine. That are waiting for you to take a step. Not on your own strength, but with Jesus behind you and Jesus empowering you. And so my prayer is that there would be hundreds of stories like mine because you are willing to just look and say, Hey, I was blind, but now I see this is what Jesus has done in my life. And will you follow him the same way I do? Let's go to the Lord in prayer. God, we thank you for your goodness. God, we thank you that even though we are blind, you gave us sight. Even when we couldn't see, ⁓ you made a way. God, I pray if there's someone here today who doesn't know you as their personal Lord and Savior, that they don't leave here today without placing faith in you. And God, for all of us, God, I pray that you give us boldness to go, to share, to invite, and to tell our story that we were blind, but now we see. Because God, you have done so much for us. Lord, we love you, we praise you, and we thank you. And the church says, Amen.

2 Corinthians 4:4 Isaiah 42 · chapter mention