Live Free with Josh Howerton - Spiritual Blindness I See | Ep. 277 | Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

As the Pharisees continued interrogating the man Jesus had healed from blindness, his faith in what Jesus had done for him grew deeper. Eventually, the Pharisees, the ones who were supposed to bring the people to God, threw the man out of the synagogue. They were blind to the truth of who Jesus is. Take time to pray that God will open your heart to who He is today. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive. Hope your week is off to a good start, and you are walking in the awareness of God's presence with you throughout this day.

We are currently in chapter 9 of a book called The Gospel of John. It was written by a guy who got to personally hang out with Jesus for three years. He was an eyewitness to all these jaw-dropping things that Jesus did, and he writes that he's not able to write down all the things he witnessed. There are way too many things, but here are some highlights that might help you believe. And it's certainly not the same as SportsCenter Top 10, but that's the spirit of how and what he writes, kind of arranges his book around seven miracles and signs that Jesus gives.

We just saw one in the beginning of chapter 9, where Jesus heals a man born blind, takes some dirt, spits on it, makes it into mud, puts it on the guy's eyes, and tells him to go to the pool and wash it off. Well, when he does, the man can see for the very first time in his life. Well, the religious leaders, the Pharisees, are not happy for him at all. They aren't high-fobbing, they're not hugging this guy. They are irate.

Why? Because it was Jesus who did the healing. And he did it once again on the Sabbath, breaking their rules. By the way, these guys are an example of how rules don't change the heart. Now, rules do act as guardrails to keep us on track, but without knowing the heart of God, they really can serve to make us legalistic sticklers and self-righteously blind. So these guys keep on question, interrogating this formerly blind man. Verse 26, they asked, but what did he do?

How did he heal you? And I love this. This guy has had enough by now. He says, look, I told you once. Didn't you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples to? Well, that ticks them off.

It says verse 28. then they cursed him and said, You're his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We're on the right side. We know God spoke to Moses. We don't even know where this man comes from. Well, the man replies of verse 30, while that's very strange.

He healed my eyes, and yet you don't know where he comes from? We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind, If this man were not from God, he couldn't have done it. I mean, you've got to love. This man's perspective and faith.

Well, the Pharisees come back with you. You were born, a total sinner. Are you trying to teach us? And they threw him out of the synagogue. Honestly, when I read this, it made me a little sick to my stomach. I'm talking literally sick to my stomach. They berate this guy. They discount what he said.

They pronounce judgment on him as a sinner. They elevate themselves as non-scenters and throw him out of the place where you were supposed to worship and learn about God. I literally had the Papa Tom's after reading this. Like, really? Helen Keller once said, Better to be blind and see with your heart than to have two good eyes and see nothing. Dang spiritual blindness is a dangerous heart condition. You got two good eyes, but you can't really see anything the way it is.

Anybody else out there need readers? You know, the older I get I need them. I go to Dollar Tree, rather $1.25 tree now, and I buy a bunch of them and strategically lay them around the house. The condition is called far-sightedness, where you can see far away, but it's difficult to see things up close, fine print. Spiritually speaking, when you have this condition,

you can see the speck in your brother's eye from like 100 yards away, but you can't see your own stuff right in front of you. These guys, these religious leaders, could see everybody else's saying, sin from afar, but they could not see their own. Pride, power, self-righteousnesses will blind you to that. Verse 35. When Jesus heard what had happened that the guy had been interrogated by the Pharisees, he found the man and asked, do you believe in the son of man? The man answered, who is he, sir? I want to believe in him. Jesus said, you've seen him, and he is speaking to you. Yes, Lord, I believe the man

says, and he worshiped Jesus. Then Jesus, verse 39, with an earshot of the Pharisees, tells the man, I entered this world to render judgment to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind. Verse 40,

so Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, are you saying we're blind? If you were blind, Jesus said, you wouldn't be guilty, but you remain guilty because you claim that you can see. Whoa. Spiritual blindness is a dangerous heart condition, and I never want to let my heart get there. Makes me want to pray the lyrics from an old worship song, Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.

That might be a good prayer for all of us to pray today. See you back here tomorrow. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.