 Hey man, so there you are in John chapter 9. We're going to look at that story tonight in John chapter 9 where Jesus heals the blind man. But I want to pick up the last few verses of John chapter 8 if you would just to catch, not leave anything behind in our study through John here. I want to pick up John chapter 8 and verse number 45. Of course Jesus is having this great back and forth with the Pharisees here in John chapter 8. But look at verse number 45. Let's just do a little bit of a study for a few minutes before we get into the story of the blind man. We're going to take a couple of weeks at least to look at that story of the blind man and we'll start that tonight. But look down to John chapter 8 and verse number 45 to look at the end of chapter number 8. The Bible says in because I tell you the truth you believe me not. So of course we looked last week at the truth that Jesus was saying here and always pointing out the truth. Which of you convinced with me of sin? And if I say the truth why do you not believe me? Look at verse 47. Jesus says he that is of God heareth God's words. He therefore hear them not because ye are not of God. So Jesus here is saying to the Pharisees he's saying ye are not of God and what does he mean by that? The Pharisees I'm going to show you in just a few verses down that they're claiming, you know they claim chapter number 9 they claim Moses. In this chapter they're claiming Abraham. They're saying that they're of God because of their lineage who they're related to. And Jesus is telling them you are not of God. He's saying ye meaning a plural group of people these Pharisees you're not of God. Then answered the Jews and said unto him say we not well that thou art a Samaritan not as the devil. Now they're just getting mean. Jesus answered I have not a devil but I honor my father and ye do dishonor me. He's just kind of showing this contrast of how you know they are completely different than him. So one of them is a liar is what Jesus is pointing out. He says I seek not my own glory there is one that seeketh and judgeeth verily verily again truly truly I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see death. And they just have no idea what he's talking about. Verse 52 it says the Jews said unto him now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead and the prophets and thou sayest if a man keep my saying he shall never taste of death. So they don't even understand spiritual life from spiritual death because again they bring up Abraham saying you know he says that you will never see death if you know he if a man keep my saying if you believe on him you'll never see death. He's talking about being passed spiritually from death to life. They're saying well Abraham is dead are you saying that you know Abraham you know didn't see death. But Jesus is talking spiritually here. He's talking about you know the second death as Revelation talks about that we bring up when we're out soul winning and they just completely miss everything. Look at verse 53 are thou greater than our father Abraham which is dead and the prophets are dead. Whom makeest thou thyself? So he's saying what are you talking about all these great men of God who you would even say are men of God are dead is what they're saying. Jesus answered if I honor myself my honor is nothing it is my father that honoreth me of whom ye say that he is your God. So if you take verse number 54 up there with verse number 47 where he says ye are not of God he's saying that's what he meant he's saying like look you're saying you're of God but you are not of God. You know they're saying oh because Abraham is our father because we have that genealogy that he's our God. So if you combine verse 54 and verse 47 Jesus is basically saying that God is his father that he is literally the son of God and that they are liars basically is what he's saying. He's saying God my father honors me is what Jesus is saying. Look at verse 55. Yet ye have not known him. He's like you have no idea who God is is what Jesus is saying to them but I know him and if I should say I know him not I shall be a liar like unto you but I know him and keep his saying. So he's saying if I said that I know I don't know who God is and he's not my father then I'm a liar he's like but I'm not a liar God is my father so he's basically just saying here if you don't accept the truth that I'm telling you you are a liar is what Jesus is saying showing again that there's no gray area with God. Look at verse 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. Now he's hidden close to home. Now he's saying oh this father Abraham this genealogy this forefather of yours that you're claiming he's like I know him I've met him before then said to Jews unto him they are not yet 50 years old and now has seen Abraham turn to Genesis chapter 14 turn to Genesis chapter 14 this is really what I want to point out before we jump into John chapter 9 I don't want to leave this one behind but Jesus says a couple things here in the last couple verses of John chapter 9 he's basically going to say like hey I was before Abraham but he's also going to he's also telling them I've literally met Abraham look at Genesis chapter 14 in verse number 17 there's kind of this neat little story that I kind of like you know how sometimes you get stories in the Old Testament or if you didn't have you know a little bit more explanation in the New Testament you really wouldn't think much of it so if you've read this story in Genesis which it's funny because I had read Genesis many times before I've actually read the whole Bible so I'd read the story many times in Genesis before I'd read the whole Bible look at Genesis 14 17 it says this is when Abraham takes his men and he goes and he rescues Lot from these invaders and the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Tadoralomer and the kings that were with him and at the valley of Cheve which is the Kingsdale and McKilsadec the king of Salem brought forth bread and wine so we see this this man the king of Salem he's called here and he was the priest of the most high God so in verse 18 we see that McKilsadec king of Salem and the priest of the most high God goes out to meet Abraham and he blessed him and said blessed be Abraham of the most high God possessor of heaven and earth of course God being the possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be the most high God which had delivered thine enemies into thy hand and he gave him tithes of all so it's interesting because I mean if you understand who he is and who's doing what here basically this McKilsadec king of Salem priest of the most high God kind of seems to come out of nowhere here in Genesis chapter 14 and for some reason he blesses Abraham and he tells him that you know God gave you this God gave you this great victory and then Abraham gives 10% of all the spoil to this priest to this man to the king of Salem and that's really all we get from the story in Genesis and then we see in verse 21 through 23 which I'll just read for you I'm really going to dig into something else on that on Sunday morning but the king of Sodom now who's really this wicked king I mean he's this wicked king and Abraham wants to have nothing to do with him Abraham was there to rescue you know his nephew right and the king of Sodom said unto Abraham give me the persons and take the goods to thyself so he's already given 10% of the spoil to McKilsadec king of Salem and Abraham said to the king of Sodom I've lift up my hand unto the Lord the most high God the possessor of heaven and earth that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet and that I will not take anything that is thine less thou should say I have made Abraham rich so Abraham basically says I don't want any of it so I don't want any of it and I'm going to talk to you about why he said that on Sunday morning but now turn to Hebrews chapter 5 turn to Hebrews chapter number actually go to Hebrews chapter number 7 so we see that this guy kind of comes out of nowhere this king of Salem and you know Abraham like clearly understands who he is and we don't we're not really told who he is in Genesis chapter 14 but Abraham gives him ties of everything he's the priest of the most high God the the Bible says but look down at verse number 1 of Hebrews chapter 7 I'm going to first read for you Hebrews 5 6 where the Bible says as he saith also in another place thou art a priest forever after the order of McKilsadec so here we see in Hebrews we're getting this idea that there's a new priesthood coming in so there was the priesthood there was the Levitical priesthood that we read about in the Old Testament where they would do all the sacrifices and do all the ceremonies and do all these things and I preach through that a lot on how all that foreshadows Christ but now Hebrews is talking about how there's this there's another order of priesthood coming now look at Hebrews chapter 7 in verse number 1 for this McKilsadec now look at this king of Salem so now we see that we're talking about the same McKilsadec that Abraham gave ties to the king of Salem priest of the most high God the exact description given to him in Genesis chapter 14 when this guy suddenly comes out of nowhere and Abraham just reverences him and gives him tithes of everything who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him just what we read to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all first being by interpretation king of righteousness and after that also king of Salem which is king of peace so now we're getting a bunch more detail here on who this guy was you say okay yes king of Salem that's what Genesis 14 said priests of the most high God that's what Genesis 14 said but now it says king of righteousness whoa you're like what's that all about and then it's king of peace now look at verse number 3 and really this answers the question for us here without a doubt who this McKilsadec was in Genesis chapter 14 says without father without mother without descent having neither beginning of days nor end of life who was this this was an Old Testament appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ so when Jesus Christ is talking to the Pharisees in John chapter 8 he's like oh yeah Abraham this name they just keep dropping this name their name dropping you know it's got to be irritating for Jesus they're sitting here name dropping Abraham all the time and Jesus is like I know him I've met him I've literally met him before and they're just like Abraham this Abraham this and they're like you're you know you're not even talking to we're not even talking about the same God you're not even of this God that you claim to be of and Jesus is like I've literally met him before now consider how great this man was unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the 10th of the spoils Abraham knew who he was to this is what the Bible is telling us here go back to John chapter 8 that's what Jesus is talking about he's saying that Abraham saw my day he knew who I was he knew I was coming and he's watching this whole thing from heaven this is what Jesus is telling the Pharisees and they understand none of it Jesus said unto them in verse 58 verily verily I say unto you now he gets even further with it he says before Abraham was I am of course I am is a name for God in the Bible but he's basically saying like I wasn't created I was before him they said you're not even 50 years old how could you know Abraham he's like I was before Abraham just as Hebrews chapter 5 says that he had neither beginning of days nor end of life then took they up stones to cast at him but Jesus hit himself and went out of the temple going through the midst of them and so passed by so I just wanted to point out that exchange there at the end with the Pharisees and Jesus just showing like is very clear I mean if you're you're we're only in John chapter 8 so far in this study and it's very clear that the Pharisees know exactly who Jesus is claiming to be and this is why they are upset and trying to kill him because he's literally claiming to be God and he just says it again and again and again and just different ways but they know exactly what he's talking about they know exactly what he is claiming they don't believe it but they know what he's saying look at John chapter 9 and let's look at this next story in the book of John John chapter 9 look down at verse number 1 this is a very important story in the Bible there's a lot of things to learn here we're going to take a couple weeks to look at this story of this blind man but there's about three or four verses here that we're going to get into and then I want to go back and really just do a sermon on this these verses here at the very beginning of this story but let's read through to about verse number 7 and then we'll go back and talk about this this evening the Bible says this in John 9 1 and Jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth and the disciples asked him saying master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind Jesus answered neither had this man sinned nor his parents that the works of God should be made manifest in him I must work the works of him that sent me which is we're talking about God the father who is just talking to the Pharisees about while it is day the night cometh when no man can work as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world when he had thus spoken he spat on the ground made clay of the spittle and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and he said in him go wash in the pool of salome which is by interpretation sent and he went his way therefore and washed and came seeing so he heals this man and we're going to look at this story and the reactions to this great miracle in the next couple of weeks but tonight I want to go back to the very beginning and I want to look at the conversation that Jesus had the very brief conversation in verse number two and verse number three that Jesus had with his own disciples about this man before he even healed this man so this man in verse number nine the the verse number one of chapter number nine he was blind his whole life so this man was an adult but he had been blind from birth he didn't become blind he didn't get in some farming accident or whatever or welding without a helmet he was born blind okay he was just blind and his disciples asked him saying master I mean this is really kind of a shocking question but I really want to show you that you know there's a lot of application for us this evening because a lot of people will do the same type of thing today look at verse number two is his disciples asked him saying master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind so they kind of say something kind of dumb here they case say something kind of kind of insulting here at least you know at least they ask Jesus and not like you know the parents of the child or whatever but I mean they said something silly and then Jesus answers them back but this really want to look at this thing is you know why was this man blind why was this man blind and what was the reaction of you know Jesus to the disciples and what did he mean by that so you know when someone is born blind or born with a disability the question is who sinned turn to Romans chapter 8 turn to Romans chapter 8 now it's true that somebody can be born with a disability because someone sinned that that can happen there's many children out there unfortunately and it's very sad cases where you know parent the mother did drugs or did was drinking alcohol during the pregnancy and the children that are born have very serious problems because of that sin that is true and I couldn't actually find like percentages on you know children with disabilities that were I'm sure you could find it out there somewhere maybe I should have asked you know the Google AI or whatever but you know the point is this that is not all you know children with disabilities not even close okay it's not just because someone sinned look at Romans chapter 8 for the first reason here look at Roman chapter 8 verse number 18 the Bible says for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time so here Paul is saying like you know there's just gonna be suffering in this life in this life that we're living there's suffering the prayer the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which I'll be revealed in us so he's saying whatever we suffer through in this earth you know in this body whatever it is is gonna be nothing compared to the glory the the opposite of suffering that we have when we get eternal you know when we're in eternity with Christ for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God so it's saying we're all in these fleshly bodies but we're waiting for this you know incorruptible we're waiting for this resurrection right we're waiting for heaven look at verse number 20 for the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption don't miss this okay he's talking about the creature what he's kind of talking about here is like creation he's talking about you know the created beings alright because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of the corruption so what is he saying he's saying the creation is in bondage the creation is corrupted right now the creation is not perfect but it's going to go into the glorious liberty of the children of God this is the difference between the way things are going to be you know in the millennial reign and then into eternity in the new heaven and the new earth compared to how it is now but right now the creature the creation is in this corrupted state that's what the Bible is saying here and then in verse 22 kind of sums it up it says for we know that the whole creation growneth and travaileth in pain together until now in Romans 5 12 you know the Bible basically says death passed upon all men you know one man sinned and death passed upon this is when the curse came in when the first man sinned against God the creation then entered this cursed state that's what Romans chapter 8 is showing us it's talking about the curse of creation things there's death now everything's not perfect now there's death there's sickness there's disease there's all these things now so look while sin can certainly cause you know something like this blind man birth defects disabilities you know through drugs drinking whatever is definitely not always the case probably you know not even I'm sure the majority of the case is caused by those things disabilities happen in a fallen creation is what the Bible is teaching us here he's just it's just part of the curse it's just part of the curse so tonight is really want to talk about you know how to respond to disabilities especially when you see someone with a child that has disabilities or is disabled from birth you know how how are we to react to that look at the verse number two verse number two so here's how not to react to just assume that someone sinned like the disciples did and asking Jesus who sinned and you know this man was blind from birth who sinned so that's the wrong way to do that so if you have seen somebody or know somebody that has a child that's disabled or even an adult that has been disabled from birth like this man the first thing well I mean first of all I looked it up like it's pretty crazy but one in six one in six children that are born have like a developmental disability one in six I mean that's not a few you know that's not a small number that's you know that's that's over 20% you know one in six right no it's less than 20% but it's like you know 15 to 20% alright almost got my math wrong there but the point is that's a lot it's a lot of people it's a lot of children that are born with a developmental disability now look at verse number go to Matthew chapter seven and verse number one so the first reaction that you should have when you see you know maybe somebody you know maybe a friend maybe family member that has a child has a one of these one in six children born is just be thankful for God's mercy in your life if you haven't experienced that just be thankful that you know you haven't experienced that but I want to point out Matthew chapter seven and I want to kind of give a kind of a a a different application of Matthew chapter seven in verse number one kind of giving you some advice on how you should react now you should not react when you meet someone with one of these one and six alright look at Matthew chapter seven verse number one the Bible says judge not that you be not that you be not judged so if you would see somebody that had a child with a disability and you would immediately think like well they had something wrong or God's upset with them or whatever you're judging in that case and you're not judging righteous judgment in that case look at verse number two it says for with what judgment you judge ye shall be judged this is kind of scary when you apply it to this type of scenario and what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again and why behold us the moat that is in my brother's eye but consider us not the beam that is in 909 obviously talking about hypocrisy here or how would how would I say to that brother let me pull the mode out of thine eye behold a beam is in 909 I've preached about this talking about hypocrisy many times thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye then shall thou clearly see to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye you see a sister application of this verse right here you know aside from hypocrisy is that if you haven't walked in those shoes if you haven't walked in the shoes of the the the people that are walking in the shoes of being parents of somebody with a child with a disability you should you should be silent about it that's that's the application of Matthew chapter seven upon what the disciples asked Jesus here see the problem today and maybe always the problem I don't know but the problem today is and look people are way too happy to give advice today and maybe it's always been this way but it's a definite problem today people and I have talked about this as well it's it's ironic but it's true that the people that many times want to give advice are the least qualified to give that advice so you need to be very careful in your life who you're taking advice from first of all that's a side note and I preach a sermon on that you know don't don't be taken advice from the divorce guy that wants to give married device advice constantly and you find that guy but the point is people are just way too happy to give advice people are too happy to give opinions on things that they know nothing about now let's just talk about our crowd like our not just us but our crowd of people that we hang out with our people great people great people are you know Christians Bible-believing Christians across the country we see them we know them you know these are our brothers and sisters in Christ look things that we talk about all the time are like you know there's a lot of environmental things around us that are bad there's a lot of things that are bad for our health there's a lot of you know food sugar you know gluttony is a real thing in the Bible I mean gluttony is a major problem in this country I get it gluttony is like the thing you know and all the junk people are doing to themselves and look there's even a lot of problems with the the industrial medical complex today that we talk about and I'll even talk about those things in light of the Bible but here's what you need to really understand looking at this verse number two in the Bible here don't think that makes you some kind of expert for other people because and I've said this before and I want you all to listen very carefully if you want friends if you want friends look if you don't want people to dislike you you just you will never give unsolicited advice to people you will never just walk up to people and just start you know answering questions that you weren't asked like it if you do that look if you do that people are not going to like you that that's just it and and and with this one with this one especially medical advice I mean with this one even more on top of this even more on top of this if you don't want people to instantly despise you don't ever give parents of a disabled child advice on or even your opinion if it's not asked for I mean I'm glad these disciples as Jesus and not anybody else that was around but we just we live in this era of experts today you know everybody in these self-righteous people you know people get so self-righteous because look people are way too eager to give advice on the things that they're least qualified to do so example of this YouTube YouTube that's that's that's much of YouTube right there is people giving advice that they are not qualified to give and look watching YouTube doesn't make you an expert on anything that's what we need to realize I mean there are YouTube videos where you can you can go and find YouTube videos of someone these are serious videos where people are seriously saying stuff where they're saying that eating full sticks of butter is good for you just just dip it in spaghetti sauce and eat full sticks of butter it's real like there's really people that say there's people that say things like you know the best a news a new special workout where you don't have to work out very long you don't have to work out like because look it's painful to work out for 30 minutes or 45 minutes or whatever you can work out in four minutes all you have to do is punch yourself and slap your muscles all over the place as hard as you can and it gives you that it gives you that you know that response or whatever like this is real stuff you can find people saying this they're not joking they're not laughing they they're just they're probably selling something most of the time they're probably butter salesmen or whatever you know I mean there's there's one where like this guy like he's like you know you you don't have to work out you can just inject oil in like some kind of oil into your muscles the guys like this huge like looks like you know it looks like a monster you know it's like yeah you could be like me and it's like I mean these are these are stupid things but there's a lot of dangerous stuff out there too there's a lot of dangerous stuff there's like all kinds of like alternative treatments to serious disease and all these different types of things I remember one of the funniest one of the funniest examples of this Pastor Thompson was given a sermon one time and he was like he was like deathly ill he had like pneumonia or something and somebody just comes up to him with like unsolicited exactly what I'm talking about like unsolicited medical advice he's like needs to be hospitalized and they're like you need to just put garlic in your socks and he's like you know I got to go to the doctor you know or you know it's just look do this to never get sick and all these different things look watch what you want and you do what you want but until you've walked in those shoes just be silent you know don't tempt the Lord by the way you know don't tempt God I mean the worst thing that you could do as a friend of somebody especially with a child with disabilities it was number one assume it was something the parents did wrong you think it was the vaccines you joke you joke I mean you laugh about that no I mean that would be the worst thing you could possibly say to somebody that had a child that was going through you know a disability or something like that you know I mean the first thing that you could the worst thing you can do is actually think that it was something that parents did wrong and the next worst thing you could do is actually say that say what you were thinking you know I mean in Proverbs 29 it says a fool utter it all his mind you know you should install we need to make sure we install a gate between our thoughts and what actually comes out of our mouth people are just gonna feel like you're a fool look they're gonna they're gonna be disgusted with you so the first thing is if you haven't walked in those shoes just praise God be thankful be a blessing be silent though just be quiet about it turn to John chapter 9 go back to verse number 3 John chapter 9 look at verse number 3 John chapter 9 look at verse number 3 Jesus answers the question and he doesn't get all upset and bent out of shape and he answers it pretty well and Jesus answered he says neither hath this man sinned he's like you're wrong it's not that this man sinned nor his parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him it's saying this particular man God's gonna show his works through this man is what and I'll get back to that thought in just a minute but turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 so you say you know why does God allow it you know and I've already showed you that the creation has fallen that wasn't God's fault that the creation has fallen that there's imperfections that there's you know genetic things that happen that there's you know the creation is broken it's cursed it's corrupted for now it's not always gonna be that way but why does God allow it look at that that child and that child is innocent yes this is true but creation is still falling why does God allow it well God says here he's like the works of God are gonna be shown here in this man look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 look at verse number 9 so Paul he had a problem Paul had a problem and let me just turn there myself Paul had a problem he was sick he doesn't say why he was sick or what his sickness was but he tried he asked God to take this away from him it says in verse number 9 look at 2nd Corinthians chapter number 12 and verse number 9 I want to go back look at verse number 7 it says look at verse 5 it says of such and one you know one I will glory yet of myself I will not glory but in my infirmities so Paul is saying like look he had some kind of disability I mean you know what does a disability even mean I mean it's like I've got allergies that's a disability you know that's that's something that's wrong with me you know I'm allergic to certain things certain things you know make me get hives or whatever I had when I was younger I had asthma you know and I had to be hospitalized a couple times like that's I mean that was a serious thing my wife said to me the other day like she said meant meant she made a comment on the way we were talking about but she made the comment like it must be so terrible not to be able to breathe and I'm like it is terrible I can remember it feels like you're drowning like every single breath like you can just you can't hardly take a breath at all look that's a that's a disability thank God I don't have that anymore but it was a disability and look Paul said he had infirmities look at verse number six for though I would desire to glory I shall not be a fool for I will say the truth but now I forbear less any man should think of me above that he seeeth me to be or that he hearth of me and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh so this is interesting he's saying so I don't get too high and mighty he's saying so I don't get too big headed or think I'm so great that God gave me all these revelations that Jesus took me into Arabia and taught me personally for three years God gave me some problems God gave me some pain he gave me some disabilities he gave me some suffering and he says there was given to me a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure for this thing I be sought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me and he said unto me Jesus answered him your red letter Bible these are red words right here he says my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness so right there is a is a great reason that you know disabilities exist right there and Jesus literally says it himself when he answers Paul about his disability or his sickness or whatever it was whatever was wrong with his physical body Jesus says no no no he's like my strength is made perfect in weakness what does that mean what does that mean what it means is this if we were always strong we would never recognize strength this is what it's talking about turn to judges chapter 2 I'll give you an example in the Bible if we were always healthy and we were always strong and there was never anyone even around us that was sick that had a disability that had anything I mean I get it the creation is cursed but if the creation wasn't cursed and everybody just had no problems at all you never saw a child with disabilities look we wouldn't appreciate strength that's what the Bible is saying look at judges chapter 7 in verse number 2 God literally put this into action when Gideon was going to defeat the Midianites look at verse number 2 we'll just look at one verse here the Bible says in verse number 2 Gideon's got all these men hundreds and hundreds of men and the word said unto Gideon the people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands God literally says to Gideon you're too strong here he says you're too strong I need you to be weaker so God goes through in the following verses he goes through this process where he just he sends these people home and he sends these people home until there's only 300 people left but last part of verse number 2 he says less Israel he explains why he doesn't he says less Israel vaunt themselves against me saying mine own hand hath saved me less Israel say yes we won why we won because we were strong so God is saying here my strength is going to be a perfect in your weakness is what he's saying to Gideon he's saying to Gideon exactly what he said to Paul look it takes weakness to recognize and appreciate strength have you ever heard the saying that guy doesn't know his own strength you know what that saying means it's talking about that saying is talking about some guy like I remember the book of mice and men or the guy like kills the it was at a mouse I think he actually killed that the animal or whatever on accident this guy was just so big and strong but the saying that guy doesn't know his own strength is talking about somebody who's just always been strong he's always been strong so he doesn't appreciate that everything around him and things and other people are not as strong as him he doesn't know his own strength he goes around he breaks things on accident because everything is not strong because it takes weakness to recognize strength if we were all super smart and never had any physical trouble we would never recognize trouble free times if there was no trouble and if there was just nothing but strength and intelligence so the lesson is that we just need to have compassion on people that have you know these weaknesses we need to recognize you know our own strengths when we see weakness and be thankful for that okay we need to have like compassion on children with disabilities there needs to be no judgment there's no room for there's no there's no place that's not a place for judgment that's not righteous judgment I remember that I mean we did we did foster care for two two and a half almost three years and one of the things that one of the things that I learned through that process was I learned a lot about people that were trying to adopt children and one thing that I saw one thing that just really made me sad throughout the entire process was that most people that want to adopt because many people in the foster program were doing foster care to hopefully adopt a child and I mean that was a decent portion because we had to take all these classes and we got to know all these people and a lot of them you'll find some people that it's kind of their mission to be faster look and I'm not defending the government or anything like that if that's not what this is about but we met these people some people were just they did it as their mission to have you know just to foster children just through their house and other people were trying to adopt through foster care because not everybody has $30,000 that's what it costs back then to adopt a child that's what it costs it's super expensive and guess what not everybody can afford that especially people that want to adopt a child so I can't tell you how many times one of the wonderful things that we always saw in those classes I think we lost count of how many parents were trying to adopt because they couldn't have their own children and they got pregnant while they were trying to adopt and then end up adopting anyway but the point is one thing that I really learned and is really made me sad was that I mean and that I think there was a reason I did that it really gave me a compassion for children especially children with disabilities people that want to adopt a child they want to adopt a baby and they want to adopt a healthy baby and I remember we were in Texas at the time and there was this it was called the tear website man I go through this website I don't even know I looked at this website but I go through this website it was just all these kids that were just waiting to be adopted and it was kids like you know it was just all these kids with just these terrible disabilities and they're just they're probably not going to be adopted and they were 10 years old 11 years old 12 years old you know everybody wants that healthy baby but this site was filled with five six seven eight nine year old kids without parents and those weren't the kids and then you see somebody that comes along and adopts one of those kids you're just like thank God for people like that thank God that he put people like that on planet earth to fill this gap that needs to be filled because look all children need care all children deserve to have two parents that will love them all all children deserve that and it it was it is something I mean some people dedicate their lives to caring for children like that and I mean God bless those people you know I mean I pray that just God just blesses those people turn to Psalm chapter for 145 so I mean the lesson tonight is to just be thankful for your families you know be thankful for your children and be merciful to others that may not be as fortunate as you Psalm chapter 145 really encompasses the heart that we should have two children like this and look at verse number eight this is such a great verse here the Bible says the Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy and look I mean I think about those parents like was such great sacrifice and amount of work to care for those children because look those children those children many of those children with well those lifelong disabilities those are going to be just like this man in John chapter nine they're going to be adults with those lifelong disabilities so especially parents that have had a child like that born and we know several of these parents as well they that is a lifelong commitment and look they're not complaining about it they love their child just like we all love every single one of our children and here's another thing here's another thing we assume that that people with disabilities are miserable you know we assume that because we look at that and we're like oh man I that would be terrible to have that not be able to walk or to be in a wheelchair when you're when you're two or three years old and you know it really it may I mean I told you when I looked at that website it made me sad right but you know what we ever met a child with Down syndrome like I've met several children with Down syndrome in my life and they're always happy children but they're just like any other children they're happy you know what they're happy to see you and and seeing them makes you happy and that kind of brings me back to Jesus's answer here just like this man one thing that we need to realize with yes creation is cursed creation is corrupt these things happen people get sick people get diseases people some people die when they're 20 some people die when they're 90 some people die when they're eight but the thing that we need to realize is that God can greatly use a disabled child just like he used this disabled man who guess what used to be a disabled child God is saying about this man he this man was blind his whole life so God could simply show the power of his work through the example of this man so what this is a time when you see a child that is disabled when you see parents that have a disabled child when you maybe even see a child that doesn't even have parents this is something that we need to know that that God can God wants to use even that child because imagine if God can use you who is strong by most measures of any measurement how much greater would his power be to be shown through a disabled child or a disabled person and that's exactly what he did in this case they said no one's ever seen this but since the beginning of time when he healed this man every single day that that man walked around with a disability was a testimony to the power of God that Jesus showed when he showed up to heal this man and look when we see these situations you don't know what that's like you've never walked in those shoes it is not any kind of time for judgment it is a time for compassion for mercy and for grace that's it and God will use those situations why to show to manifest his power to show his works what's bar heads and have a word