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Amen. 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 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 weeks at least to look at that story of the blind man. 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, and 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 how he's pointing out the truth. Which of you convinces 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. Ye 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 in verse number or 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, now ask 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 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 judgeth. 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, and they're saying, well, Abraham's 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. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? So he's saying, wait, 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 is 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 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. All right, look at verse 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Now he's hitting 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 the Jews unto him, thou art not yet 50 years old, and thou hast 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 where 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 this story many times in Genesis before I had 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 Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him and at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek the king of Salem brought forth bread and wine. So we see 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 Melchizedek king of Salem and the priest of the Most High God goes out to meet Abraham. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram 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 Melchizedek, 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 Abram and he tells him that, you know, God gave you this great victory. And then Abram gives 10 percent of all the spoil to this priest, to this man, to the king of Salem. And that's really all we get from this story in Genesis. And then we see in verse 21 through 23, which I'll just read for you. And 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 Abram wants to have nothing to do with him. Abram was there to rescue, you know, his nephew, right? And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. So he's already given 10 percent of the spoil to Melchizedek, king of Salem. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have 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, lest thou should say, I have made Abram rich. So Abram basically says, I don't want any of it. I don't want any of it. And I'm going to talk to you about why he said that on Sunday morning. Now turn to Hebrews chapter five, turn to Hebrews chapter number, actually go to Hebrews chapter number seven. So we see that this guy kind of comes out of nowhere, this king of Salem. And, you know, Abram, like, clearly understands who he is. And we don't, we're not really told who he is in Genesis chapter 14. But Abram gives him tithes of everything. He's the priest of the Most High God, the Bible says. But look down at verse number one of Hebrews chapter seven. I'm going to first read for you Hebrews five, six, where the Bible says, As he saith also in another place, thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. So here we see in Hebrews, we're getting this idea that there's a new priesthood coming in. So there was the priesthood 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've preached 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 seven in verse number one, for this Melchizedek. Now look at this, King of Salem. So now we see that we're talking about the same Melchizedek that Abram gave tithes 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 Abram 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 10th 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, priest 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 three. Really, this answers the question for us here, without a doubt, who this Melchizedek was in Genesis chapter 14, it 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 eight, 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 sending your 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'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, is what the Bible is telling us here. Go back to John chapter eight. 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 five says that he had neither beginning of days, nor end of life, then took they up stones to cast at him. But Jesus hid 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 eight 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 in 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 nine. And let's look at this next story in the book of John. John chapter nine, look down at verse number one. 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 of 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 seven, and then we'll go back and talk about this this evening. The Bible says this in John nine one, And Jesus passed by, 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 sin nor his parents, and that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, which is where he's talking about God, the father who he was 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 Siloam, which is by interpretation scent. 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 bar in 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 a 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, as 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 say something kind of insulting here. At least, you know, at least they asked 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 is really what I want to look at this evening 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 eight, turn to Romans chapter eight. 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 eight. For the first reason here, look at Romans chapter eight, 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 sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall 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 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, all right? 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 groaneth 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 is 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. It's just part of the curse. It's just part of the curse. So tonight is where we 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 are we to react to that? Look at verse number two. Verse number two. So here's how not to react. To just assume that someone sinned like the disciples did in 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. All right. No, it's less than 20%, but it's like, you know, 15 to 20%. All right. I 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 in 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 and how you should not react when you meet someone with one of these one in six. All right. Look at Matthew chapter seven, verse number one. The Bible says, judge not that ye be not, that ye be not judged. So if you would see somebody that had a child with a disability and you would immediately think like, well, they did 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 ye judge, ye shall be judged. This is kind of scary when you apply it to this type of scenario and what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why behold us the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider us not the beam that is in thine own eye. Obviously talking about hypocrisy here or how would, how would thou say to thy brother, let me pull the mote out of thine eye. Behold, a beam is in thine own eye. And I've preached about this, talking about hypocrisy many times. Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye. Then shalt thou clearly see to cast out the mote 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, 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, and I've, I've 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 preached a sermon on that. You know, don't, don't be taking advice from the divorced guy that wants to give marriage 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 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 if you do that, look, if you do that, people are not going to like you. That's just it. 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, this is, I'm glad these disciples asked Jesus and not anybody else that was around. But we just, we live in this era of experts today. You know, everybody, 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 that there's people that say things like, you know, the best, a new, a new special workout where you don't have to work out very long. You don't have to work out like, cause 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. And the guy's 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, ah, but 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 some 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, 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 uttereth 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 going to feel like you're a fool. They're going to, they're going to 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 nine, go back to verse number three. John chapter nine, look at verse number three. John chapter nine, look at verse number three. Jesus answers the question. He doesn't get all upset and bent out of shape. And he answers it pretty well. And Jesus answered and he says, neither half 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 going to show his works through this man is what and I'll get back to that thought in just a minute, but turn to second Corinthians, chapter 12, turn to second 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 going to 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 going to be shown here in this man. Look at second Corinthians, chapter 12, look at verse number nine. 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 nine, look at second Corinthians, chapter number 12 and verse number nine. I want to go back. Look at verse number seven. It says, look at verse five, it says, of such an one I, 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 of 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 lest any man should think of me above that he seeth me to be, or that he heareth 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 besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, Jesus answered him. If you ever read a 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 two. 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 seven in verse number two. God literally put this into action when Gideon was going to defeat the Midianites. We'll get verse number two. We'll just look at one verse here. The Bible says in verse number two, Gideon's got all of these men, hundreds and hundreds of men. And the Lord 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 in the last part of verse number two, he says, lest Israel, he explains why he doesn't. And he says, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me saying mine own hand hath saved me. Lest 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. Haven't 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, it's talking about some guy, like I remember the book of mice and men where the guy like kills the, was it a mouse? I think he actually killed 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. Look, 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. 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 foster. 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, and 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 they ended 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 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 TARE website. And man, I'd go through this website. I don't even know why I looked at this website, but I go through this website and 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 children deserve that. And it was, it just 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 four, one 45. 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 one 45 really encompasses the heart that we should have to children like this. And look at verse number eight. There's 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, well, it's a great sacrifice and amount of work to care for those children because look, those children, those children, many of those children with 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. 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 people with disabilities are miserable. You know, we assume that because we look at that and we're like, oh man, 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? Have you ever met a child with Down syndrome? Like I've met, I've met several children with Down syndrome in my life, and they're always happy. They're 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 look, 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 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 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. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's bow our heads and have a word. Let's