Hearing God’s Voice from His Word
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 23:1-3 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Read the entire Psalm
Psalm 23 is probably one of the most familiar Psalms. Read it again slowly. As you read, place emphasis on the third person pronoun he and his. Let this emphasis remind you that He, the shepherding God, is present in your life. Read these verses again slowly and emphasize all that He does. He makes me lie down, He leads, He refreshes, He guides. Thank Him and praise Him for being the shepherd.
SCRIPTURE READING:
John 9 – Christian Standard Bible
The Sixth Sign: Healing a Man Born Blind
9 As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. 4 We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing.
8 His neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit begging?” 9 Some said, “He’s the one.” Others were saying, “No, but he looks like him.”
He kept saying, “I’m the one.”
10 So they asked him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”
11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So when I went and washed I received my sight.”
12 “Where is he?” they asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
The Healed Man’s Testimony
13 They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees. 14 The day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Then the Pharisees asked him again how he received his sight.
“He put mud on my eyes,” he told them. “I washed and I can see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.
17 Again they asked the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?”
“He’s a prophet,” he said.
18 The Jews did not believe this about him—that he was blind and received sight—until they summoned the parents of the one who had received his sight.
19 They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
20 “We know this is our son and that he was born blind,” his parents answered. 21 “But we don’t know how he now sees, and we don’t know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he’s of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews, since the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him as the Messiah, he would be banned from the synagogue. 23 This is why his parents said, “He’s of age; ask him.”
24 So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind and told him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”
25 He answered, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”
26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 “I already told you,” he said, “and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”
28 They ridiculed him: “You’re that man’s disciple, but we’re Moses’s disciples. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses. But this man—we don’t know where he’s from.”
30 “This is an amazing thing!” the man told them. “You don’t know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to him. 32 Throughout history no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
34 “You were born entirely in sin,” they replied, “and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.
Spiritual Blindness
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out, and when he found him, he asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, Sir, that I may believe in him?” he asked.
37 Jesus answered, “You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 “I believe, Lord!” he said, and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.”
40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?”
41 “If you were blind,” Jesus told them, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanksgiving to God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
- Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”) - Bring your personal requests to God.
(Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”) - Pray for someone in your small group.
- Join with others from River and pray for our small group leaders as they meet tonight and tomorrow to prepare for the upcoming semester.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
We have spent this week using a historically important atheist as a case study. Let’s finish today with a compare and contrast. Russell put his faith in himself. He believed his own ability to reason. Can you imagine how foolish this is? A man, made of the dust of earth, standing as a tiny, temporal being on one small planet in the cosmos and concluding that he has it all figured out? Well, in his heart of hearts he knew better, didn’t he? Read a poem he wrote:
Through the long years
I have sought peace,
I found ecstasy,
I found anguish,
I found madness,
I found loneliness.
I found the solitary pain
that gnaws the heart,
But peace I did not find.
Russell was a spiritually blind man who believed he could see. This meant he lived in spiritual darkness. Now, read the response of the man born into physical blindness who found his sight in the Lord Jesus:
“Who is the Messiah, Sir, that I may believe in him?” he asked. Jesus answered, “You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” “I believe, Lord!” he said, and he worshiped him.
We are not strong, smart, or good, but we worship a Savior who is all of those things. Rejoice in your weakness today; rejoice in your Savior today.