This morning I'm going to continue what I did in Sunday school a little bit, in that we are going to be looking at scripture through Jewish eyes. And this is a doctrine and a way of approach to scripture that's rooted in the Incarnation. And the reason for that is when God And so in order to better understand our Savior, we have to understand both his deity and his humanity, his perfect humanity. And he was the only perfect Jewish person that ever lived. I know a lot of Jewish mothers think it's the child. But that's not quite it. And so I've been thinking a lot. As I watch some people struggle, I go through my own, and sometimes you question, and not that we would admit it to most people, but sometimes we question whether or not this whole thing is worth it. Is it worth it? I mean, think, you could all be multi-multi-millionaires, No, well. But if you think about it, actually, I had this little conversation with a friend. I said, you know, when I became a believer, I didn't know that I would then have this obligation to, like, the entire world. You know, you get saved because you feel you're lost, and you want relief from your sin, gives you hope, then you find out all the things you've got to do. I mean, I would love it if I could just sit on a plane flight, fly for four hours, and not worry about the salvation of the person next to me. I want to just read a book. And yet, the Lord saves us and gives us a calling. And we become his arms and legs, his voice. And he is going to do this great work of touching the lives of others and bringing people into heaven through us. I think he could have done better, certainly than with me. But the Lord gets all the glory, you know, if anybody comes to know him. you the question, how many of you really feel like you pray enough, raise your hand. How many of you really feel like you witness enough, you can raise your other hand. All of us as believers, that no longer you are a believer, understand that we have obligations that go beyond our human capability. And yet the Lord gives us strength And at the end of it all, I hope that we all believe it's worth it. And so in light of that, I want to take a look at an interesting passage from what I think is the most Jewish of the Gospels. And that's the Gospel of Jonah. A lot of people have argued that Matthew's the most Jewish of the Gospels. And it certainly was a Jewish Gospel because Matthew was Jewish. Well, quite a few chapters of the Gospel of John all take place at a Passover Seder. We call it the Unlearned Discourse, but it actually was a Passover Seder. And Jesus did some of his major teaching at Passover. And so I want you to open up to the Gospel of John, Chapter 9. In Chapter 9 in the Gospel of John, And hopefully we'll get to know him better as we go through this chapter. I did go to seminary like 40 years ago, I guess. I don't know, a long time ago. And I actually have forgotten how to preach. And so I have reverted back to my childhood. And so Jewish preaching is you just stumble around the text. They're more committed to the text sometimes than even the best of our evangelical preachers. Because that's what Jewish people do. We just look at the text, we look at the words, and we talk about it. You know, do we try and make them look pretty in the way we talk about them? Not really. We can stumble through the text. And John is very story-like, so it's going to be very story-like this morning. But Chapter 9 is sandwiched between, you ready? This is going to start with Chapters 8 and 10. But Chapters 8 and 10 are pretty accurate chapters. And in Chapter 8, you have one attempt to kill Jesus. And in Chapter 10, you have another attempt to kill Jesus and get him out of the way. And you ask yourself, what did he do that was so wrong? I mean, what did he really do? And I think what we're going to see that what Jesus really did was he said that you guys are wrong. And that you've taken power that you shouldn't have, religious authority you shouldn't have. to God himself, and I am God in the flesh, and therefore, I have the last word. And I think it was a power struggle between Jesus and the Pharisees. I read something the other day, and I finally wrote a complaint letter to a Christian magazine. I tried to be nice, but... So I wrote about it, because they accused the Pharisees of being so evil, just that all Pharisees do all these evil, wicked things. Now, in Judaism, just so you know, the Pharisees were good guys. And so sometimes the word Pharisee becomes a synonym for somebody who's good, bad, or evil. And you can read the text in that way. But I'm here to tell you that there were a lot of good at a certain view on religious authority and religious life. And Jesus had some really tough encounters with them. Look at one of them with me in chapter 8. OK? In chapter 8, I want to teach you a little bit about how to read this. So there was a confrontation with Jesus and the Pharisees in chapter 8. And in verse 56, Yeshua, we call him by his Hebrew name sometimes, said, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. Now that got their attention. We thought Abraham died a long time ago. So he says, so the Jews said to him, now, whenever John uses the word Jews, he's speaking about those Jewish people that are against Jesus. And the use of the word Jews as a negative term created, or viewed as a negative term, created tremendous anti-Semitism within medieval Europe and led to a lot of persecutions of the Jewish people, which led to the Jewish people closing themselves off to the gospel. So there were tremendously negative implications for the way you understand this. who were Jews. And some modern Jewish scholars understand that this was a family battle. It wasn't Jews as opposed to Gentiles. It was these Jews as opposed to those Jews. So it's not all Jews. It's those Jewish people who were against Jesus. That's all. So the Jewish people who were against Jesus said, you're not yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said, I love this. He said, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. Wow. Well, I guess he wasn't afraid of antagonizing them. Before Abraham was, I am. And John knew his tenses. That's supposed to be the present tense. And that speaks to the eternality of God wrapped in flesh. So before Abraham was born, I am. So what was the response? people against. Jesus picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus sent himself. But Jesus hid himself and went out to the temple. Well, what transpired there? When I have discussions with ultra-Orthodox Jewish people in the Holy Land, Brooklyn, where I live, when I have in-depth, decent conversations where they're not yelling at me There can actually be a discussion about heaven and hell. There is a Jewish view of hell, and there is a Jewish view of heaven. And some more honest, ultra-Orthodox Jews will just outright tell me, you know, I do believe you belong to hell. I say, well, that's OK. I feel the same way about you. You tiptoe around these things, but if you say it in the right way, it's okay. And I said, you know, you don't believe Jesus is the Messiah, so, you know, that's it for you. And, of course, then they say, well, you believe Jesus is God, right? I said, absolutely. They said, well, that's it for you. It's called abodzerah, abodzerah. It is an evil work, evil belief, because Jewish people are so against worshipping human beings, that the idea that God could wrap himself in flesh and be worshipped by a human being as God coming in flesh is reprehensible to a Jewish person. And so that's the biggest trouble. And it's the only thing that puts a Jew in hell. Because it makes me an idolater. An idolater. And that's why they picked up spells. Because you were claiming to be God. You're a human being. You are not only guilty of idolatry, you're guilty of causing idolatry among other people. And so they said, that's worthy of capital punishment. Now, in chapter 10, we see the same thing, same kind of dialogue. And it's during the Feast of Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication. And verse 22, the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking the temple of the portico of Solomon to the Jews that gathered around him who How long will you keep us in suspense? If you're the Messiah, tell us plainly. Jesus said, I told you. And you don't believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, please testify of me. That's going to drive us back from chapel nine. But you do not believe me because you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. They follow me, and I give eternal life to them. And they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my Father's hand. Verse 29, my father who has given him to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch him out of the father's hand, and then he just completely blows it. Such impact, really antagonizes. It's not like Jesus didn't know what he was doing. He said, I am the father of our one. Whoops. What do you mean by that? Well, he had just told them. Now he tells them again. I am the father of our one. So what's the, again, civil discourse response. So verse 31, the Jews against Jesus picked up stones again to stone him. And Jesus said, I show you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you stoning me? The Jews answered him and said, for a good work, we don't stone you, but or blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God. But the whole idea of incarnation, the idea that God can become a man, is considered idolatry by Jewish people. Now, the only salvation you have in talking to your Jewish friends is they don't know enough about Judaism to throw stones at you. But it is a cardinal anti-Jewish doctrine to believe in the incarnation. And why? You know, sometimes we think about evil motivation, but this really comes from good. Because it says in the Ten Commandments, no other gods and no forms. Right? And so the Jewish people, who are saying no to Jesus because he claims to be God in the flesh, feel that they are acting in accord Even though, in the Bible itself, we read a multitude of passages, Isaiah 7, 14, about the virgin conceiving, the bearing of a son. You'll call his name Immanuel, God with us. Isaiah 9, 6, and 7, his names will be called wonderful counsel, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. It's not that it's not in the Hebrew Bible. It's just that this overriding tradition of not believing a man can be God is just so important to Jewish people. And in Judaism, it's worthy of capital punishment. So I'm lucky I'm still alive right now. It's hard to do capital punishment in New York. Get arrested. We have this power encounter. We have the Messiah coming, revealing himself, saying that he's God in the flesh. And we have religious Jewish people who are trying to serve God, trying to be faithful, saying, whoa, whoa, that is a completely awful resurrection. And so you're worthy of punishment. And so that's the nature of the topic. Now, sandwiched corned beef in between the rhyme is in John chapter 9. And in order to understand John chapter 9, you kind of have to understand Isaiah 35. Don't bother turning it, because it'll take you a while. But Isaiah chapter 9. God placed these words in the mouth of John the Baptist when the disciples of Jesus went to see what John thought about Jesus. And so John quoted from Isaiah 35. He said, save to those of anxious heart, take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come in vengeance. The recompense of God will come. But he will save you. He'll save you. What else? First Bible. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout with joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams from the heart of God. In other words, when this Savior comes, when the Messiah comes, he will perform miracles that can only be done in the power of God. So if you're asking whether or not Jesus is the Messiah, look at what he does. Look at what he does. If he does what a human being could not ordinarily do, then he's the one. Then he's the one. And so it's not just that he claimed to be God, it's just that he also did the works of God. Now we have a very interesting power encounter in Brooklyn. civic sect who died about 20 plus years ago. Nobody ever claimed that he was God in the flesh, but they did claim that he did miracles. He did miracles. And he used to bless dollar bills, and people's businesses went well. have words of knowledge, he would heal sometimes. And you hear these stories. I've never actually encountered somebody that I could actually say it really happened. But there is this sense that the Messiah could do miracles, but not go as far as to say he's God in the flesh. So chosen people likes to do surveys. gotten into it in my own age, you know? And we genuinely want to know what people are thinking so we can speak to them intelligently. And so we've done a lot of surveys of evangelicals and how they feel about Jewish people in Israel and things like that. And maybe you've seen some of that data. You can look on our website. We've done some major, major surveys. And so we finally did a survey that was just completed this past week. And you are now the first group to hear any of this information, OK? So don't do an interview or let us control the information. So I'm working with two not yet believing Jewish scholars. One is in sociology of religion. Guy in the other is a PhD in statistics and politics. He's Ukrainian. The other one is Israeli. And we've been doing a bunch of these surveys, and they've been helping to interpret them. They're brilliant guys. They're very, very nice. They're not believers, but they're incredibly interested in what Christians think about Jewish people, particularly as it might impact Israeli politics. And then they're very interested in what, therefore, what average Israelis think. So we kind of, they do the work, we pay the money. And so we just finished a first-ever survey in Hebrew of over 1,000 Israelis by phone, screamed and then by phone, on what they think about evangelicals, Jesus, and Christianity in general. And of course, my two friends, they wanted to swing it a little more political than I really care about, although it's interesting. And I wanted to get in. missionary kind of questions. I'm witnessing to them constantly. And so we ask the question, and I can only tell you this one. And that is, how many of you think that the Messiah is still to come and will bring in world peace? Now, I don't know how you're going to take these numbers, but It was 55% said yes to that, 45% said no. Wow. Now, it's interesting. I can't believe it was 55% because Israel is so secular. Now, you might say, what was the Orthodox number in there? The ultra-Orthodox number, because we asked what kind of Judaism they practiced, was 14%. So it's an astounding number. I think. So that makes me think that we should continue preaching the gospel to Israelis. Just saying. Letting them know that Messiah has come. And he brought in one sense of peace. He's coming soon to bring in another one. You want to be on the right side of that. The second thing we asked And this completely floored me, because we're dealing with very secular Israelis, for the most part. And we asked, do you believe that the Messiah will do miracles? I slipped that question. And they reframed it, but it was in a good way. Almost 70% said yes. Can you imagine? We're talking like your everyday Jewish friends and workmates neighbors who are very secular, maybe celebrate the holidays. And you know more about the Bible and the Old Testament than they do. But 67%, almost 70%. So this whole tradition of the Messiah doing miracles goes way, way back and continues, at least among Israelis, till this day. We're about to do a similar survey of American Jews. You'll have to invite the bad Jews. So, this whole issue of the Messiah doing miracles as an attestation of who he is, is something that is really deep in the consciousness and soul of the Jewish people. And in John chapter 9, we have a major miracle. A major miracle. A blind man is about to see. Now, I'm just going to work my way through the text. And when I'm done, I'll just watch the time. If I finish it, I'm done. If not, I'll just be done. So obviously, at this point in the story of the Gospel of John, the tension between Jesus and the Jewish leaders is getting fierce. They just tried to kill him once, and then they're about to try and kill him again, and then eventually So the power encounter is heating up between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. So here's the story. As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. That's very important, because it's not somebody who could see and then had an accident and can no longer see. This is someone who has never seen. So he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, So these are the Jewish disciples of Jesus. They asked him a theological question. Don't you wish you were that? I have a lot of theological questions I would like to ask Jesus personally. So they said, Rabbi, who said this man or his parents that he would be born blind? Talk about a trick question. Usually he was getting trick questions from the opposition. Now he's getting trick questions from the believers. Maybe they just don't know any better. Well, there was, there is a view in Judaism, it's not necessarily prevalent, but there is a view that children suffer for the sins of their parents. And so who said this man or his parents that he would be born blind? So Jesus answers. He said, I don't know the answer. It was neither this man, no, it was neither this man, that said, nor his parents. It's why I love Jesus. The first time I met him, the first time I read through the New Testament, I said, he is a shrewd shepherd. Never ask a New Yorker a straight question if you want a straight answer. You know, come on. It was neither this man nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Wow. So in other words, there are bad things that can happen to people that happen for a good purpose so that God is glorified. I mean, that is one of the toughest things to accept in life. We're talking very personal, you know, because some of us may have children who were born blind, or there's something wrong with that. And, you know, it's easy to say, well, God's going to be glorified through this, but it's another thing to live through. But there's no doubt that if we accept the Bible's view on life and reality, that this is true. And Jesus says, we must work the works of him who sent me. As long as it's day, night is coming when no one can work. I won't preach on that one. While I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. OK, now we're getting set up here. John is very literary. We don't know what's about to happen to this blind man, but Jesus is already giving a hint. So there's more to see. than being able to see. When he said this, he spat on the ground. And he made clay out of the spittle and applied the clay to the blind man's eyes. I don't know about you, but that's a rather weird response. And then he says, go wash in the pool of Siloam. So that's where there was living water coming in and out of it. What an odd way to do a miracle. You know, I'm just so grateful that a bunch of Christians are not selling Jerusalem mud for healing purposes. Jesus healed differently almost every time to try and make the point that it wasn't the technique, it wasn't the way it was done, it was the person. It's the healer, not the method of healing. He does this, but he has another reason for doing it this way, which I'll tell you in a moment. I know this sounds odd, but Jesus knows what he's doing. He's going to make a point. So, he went away and washed and came back seated. Very complicated process, really. So this is now one of the funniest parts of the entire Bible. If you can't laugh, then you're going to be miserable upon this one. So verse 8, therefore the neighbors of those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, isn't this the one who used to sit in bed? So there was such a transformation over the blind man who could now see. Maybe he found a mirror and combed his hair for the first time. I don't know. But something transpired. And I've actually seen this in people. I was just in England. I was with a guy who was a believer and then was not walking with the Lord for like 30 years. And he was the grumpiest guy you ever want to meet in your life. His wife was a buoyant Christian. His kids were buoyant Christians. He had been a missionary in the Jews for seven or eight years, but he was so far away from God, he was a chore to be around, you know? And I just went back to England, and his wife had told me, you know, my husband came back to faith, and I said, oh, that's good. I couldn't imagine him, you know? And I spent two days with him. He was like, oh my gosh, what happened to this guy? He was so joyful. He was so delightful. He was laughing and joking and praising God. I mean, before it was always like this, you know, and now he's just, you know, you can see it in his face. You know, sometimes when Jesus touches us, you know, we're transformed. Not just inside, it comes out. And so, verse 9, others were saying, this is he. Still others were saying, no, but it's like him. I wish I was there for that one. So there was no debate as to whether or not the man born blind was indeed the same blind man who was born that way, or whether or not it was some kind of imposter. But, look at what the text says, but he kept saying, the blind man said, I am alone. OK? So you had this debate. The Jewish people said, it's not him. The Jewish people said, yeah, it's him. The others said, no, it's like him. And then the blind men said, it's me. It's me. So they were saying to him first that, how the hell will he run so? He hasn't. OK. Remember, he couldn't see. He probably didn't have a lot of social interaction at the time. There was not a lot of government help for people who were born blind. And so the answer, straightforward. This is just straight out, almost in a naive way. Well, the man who was called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes, and said to me, go to Siloam and watch. So I went away and I watched. And I received sight. This is not what happens to everybody. I've never seen that before, but then again, I've never seen anything before. So plain, but here's the funniest line in the whole thing. They said to him, where is he? The guy was blind. How did he know where he was? He couldn't see him. So he said, I don't know. That's how you know the Bible's true. You can have really these high-level arguments, but just read the text. And you can say, no, no one would write this. It wasn't true. So verse 13, the plot thickens. They brought him to the Pharisees, the man who was formerly blind. Now it was a Sabbath. Ooh, ooh, OK. Now we've got some information. It was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Now, why is that a big deal? Because it's not that Jesus healed on the Sabbath. It's that he made clay on the Sabbath. There are 39 Sabbath rules you cannot break, and creating dust is one of them. Why? Because it implies work. And this is well done, it's well known that maybe they didn't have all 39 because the Mishnah wasn't codified for another 200 years. But we know that it was there. So the question is, did Jesus do that intentionally to antagonize the Pharisees? Well, of course he did. So then the Pharisees were asking again, how do we see this side? And he said to them, blindly, okay, well, So some of the Pharisees were saying, this man's not from God, because he doesn't keep the Sabbath. He broke not the Sabbath, but he broke the laws around the Sabbath. And even in Judaism today, this is where it really gets sticky, there's something called the saving of a life, the saving of a life. but they're driving on the Sabbath. How could you drive on the Sabbath? Oh, because you're saving a life. So there is that little loophole. You can't save a life. What they were saying was, no, he was just blind. You weren't saving his life. Jesus disagreed with the interpretation. So they said, this man is not from God because he doesn't keep the Sabbath, because he was just blind. But others were saying, how could a man who is a sinner perform such silence? And that's a little, this is, I'm gonna throw this in for free so that Jim knows that I can at least have some sense of what Greek word is. So this is the Greek word for sign that indicates that we would define as a testing miracle. It is a miracle, they're all about John. It's a testing miracle where these signs are miracles designed to reveal truth. Okay? And there was a division among them. Two Jews, three opinions. Verse 17. So they said to the blind man, what did he say about you since he opened your eyes? And he said, he's a prophet. Now, the blind man was not a theologian, just so you know. He never read the Torah. He couldn't see. And he probably didn't go to synagogue because he was viewed as someone that there was something wrong with. He had a defect. He wasn't allowed to go to the temple. He had a deacon. And so he didn't know a lot, but he knew that Jesus was a prophet. So the Jews against Jesus did not believe it of him that he had been blind and received sight. So, you know, this is to shoot the messenger. So now that they can't disprove the miracle, they say, well, the miracle never happened because he was never really blind. But everybody knew he was blind. So they called the parents of the very one who had received the sex. So now they're calling the parents in for an ad hoc court to prove that their kid was never blind. Do you look at this text like this? Anyway, do it. And they questioned him, saying, is this your son who was born blind? How's that for a question? Now, I know children. that we are their parents, I mean, at certain ages. Was that your parent who just came into the room and made that face? He said, I never saw the person. So is this your son who was born blind? Then how does he now see? Verse 20, his parents answered them and said, well, we know that this is our son. You know what I mean? Congratulations, you admit that that was your child. How wonderful. And that he was born blind. Yeah, okay, you got us on that one. We were there. Verse 21, but how he now seeks, we have no idea. Or who opened his eyes, we don't know. And here's the worst of it. Ask him. He's had a bar mitzvah. He's of age. He'll speak for himself. So, I mean, you know Jewish parents. I mean, if a doctor pulled out a tooth successfully, they'd be running throughout the neighborhood advertising the dentist. So this is not a neutral thing. Why did it happen? Well, verse 22, his parents said that because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews against Jesus had already agreed that if anyone confessed him to be the Messiah, he was to be excommunicated, put out of the synagogue. So there was a cultural threat, an existential threat to the parents because of this power disagreement between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. And so the parents were threatened. And do I think that the parents lied? Absolutely. Was Jesus well known at that time as someone walking around Jerusalem doing miracles? Of course he was. So they lied. And they said, for this reason, ask him. So verse 22, 24. So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, give glory to God, we know that this man is a sinner. He then answered, now this blind man was like a glutton for punishment. He then answered, whether he's a sinner, I don't know. One thing I do know, that I was blind, but now I see. So try and persuade the other ones. So they said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? I mean, they're really trying to get a confession. verse 27. He asked and said, this is how I know that the blind man was actually a New Yorker as well. He said, I told you everything. And you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don't want to become his disciples too, do you? Whoa. You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We don't know that. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don't know where he's from. The man answered and said, well, here's an amazing thing. You don't know where he's from? And yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sickness, but if anyone has gotten hurt, it does as well to use it. Since the beginning of time, it's never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered, you were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us? So they put him out to it. This poor guy was in the synagogue and out of the synagogue on the same day. But nobody could back him down. No one could back him down. Now, I'm going to ask you a question, but hold on to it for a minute. Was he a believer? Was he born again? At this point, don't answer. OK, hold on to it. All right, so verse 35. But we could take all day on this. First of all, Jesus heard him. Heard that they had put him out and found him. Now, that to me is one of the most beautiful passages of scripture. It meant that Jesus had an eye on the man who could now see. In the midst of thousands, in the midst of a crowd, we have to remember that he counts the hairs on our head. And that he never loses sight of us. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. And so he found her. And he says, if you believe in the Son of Man, some of you mistakenly might think that that refers to his humanity and actually refers to his deity. If you go back to Daniel chapter 7, you will see that Son of Man was an appellative for deity because it goes back to seeing the Son of Man with the clouds of heaven coming. Do you believe in the Son of Man? And he answered, quite honestly, he said, who is it? By this time, maybe the blind man recognized his voice, but you understand, he had never seen Jesus. So who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him, you have both seen him, and he is the one who's talking with you. You've seen him, and he's the one who's talking with you. And what is the only proper response in his healing power. And knowing that it's him, hearing his voice, he had no other choice. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. It was the most significant thing the blind man could do. You see, the blind man, I don't think, was saved. I think the blind man got saved. He heard his voice and he saw Jesus because salvation is personal. Salvation happens when you give yourself to Jesus Christ. It's not just a matter of belief or doctrine or knowing the right things or the right words. It's knowing that he is who he says he is. And this man had experienced his And Jesus said, the judgment I came into this world so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind. Jim, that's the doctrine of judicial blindness. It is a reformed doctrine almost from the beginning. There are some people who believe we preach the gospel Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and said to him, oh boy, now it gets really personal. Remember, this is between eight and 10. Tension is really thick. So the Pharisees said, we're not blind too, are we? See, now they're starting to get the point. And Jesus said, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But since you say we see, or send remains. They were fully accountable for what they saw, for what they didn't accept, but what they saw. So, is it worth it? Well, ask the blind man. He'll tell you. It's absolutely worth it. Because in Jesus we have our life and our joy. I filled out a reference form for one of the most Godly, one of the Godliest men I know, my friend David. How do you measure his spiritual maturity? And I just wrote down, he loves Jesus with everything he has. It's worth it, dear brothers and sisters. He's the one who heals, he's the one who saves, he's the one who will bring us to himself to live for, Lord, we thank you that you are everything to us. And Lord, sometimes we talk around it. But Lord, we all want to confess that you are our greatest love, our greatest joy. You are the one in whom we have life. And without you, Lord, we confess we have nothing. And Lord, us, bring this message of your life and your love and your light to our friends and loved ones who are spurged and blind and who need a clear vision of who you are. Lord, if you can use us in any way to touch the lives of others as you've touched ours, Lord, we give ourselves to you. Who is the lion?