Thankfulness John 9:35

Introduction

In Paul’s latter to the Galatians he talks about the fruits of the Spirit. The fruit of the spirit are literal fruit that are evident in the lives of those walking in the Spirit of God. They are evidence that you are indeed indwelled by the spirit.

Much like Jesus says in the gospels. All of us would be absolutely amazed if we were to walk out to an apple tree and see a watermelon hanging. We would also be amazed to squeeze an orange and have apple juice come out.

No one would think that is an orange tree or and apple tree. We would immediately think something is wrong with that tree.

The same is true of people that claim to be Christians, but their lives are marked with bitterness, ungratefulness, hatred, bigotry, and judgement.

Of course I am going to hone in on gratitude for a little bit today and also finish John 9 as well.

Gratitude is like a antidote to discontent. It is a medicine that opens your eyes to all the fruit of the spirit. and all the blessings God has given us.

We often tell our children in our house to be grateful. They often have the response that many kids do. They want more of something or they want the latest and greatest of something even minutes after their last birthday. But we instill in them the lesson that they shoukd be grateful.

The New International Version Chapter 9

35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

As I stated last week, the blind man was ignorant to the Spiritual things Jesus spoke of and didnt even know who He was. The pharisees asked him repeatedly who it was that healed him. His answer remained, I am not sure but I was blind and now I see. Surely He is of God. But thinking Jesus was of God and that he could perform Miracles was not saving faith. The call from Jesus is Do you believe HE is the Messiah, that He is the Son of Man. That He is God.

The Greek here is not just a mere question. it is emphatic. You should think of this question the same way when the pastor at a wedding asks “do you take this woman to be your bride” The question is asked and commands a response. It commands a response with an expectation of Joy and a resounding yes.

The once blind man wants so badly to believe but asks Jesus to reveal to Him who the Son of man is.

The New International Version Chapter 9

37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

Jesus reveals himself and the man immediately confesses his belief.

Pay attention to this though. The man believes in Jesus and IMMEDIATELY worships him. This is the natural response of a grateful person.

Tripps birthday presents

Peter after he walked on the water, the first thing he did was worship. The disciples when Jesus calmed the storm, they worshipped

When you encounter Jesus, the only response is worship and grattitude. What else can we say?

This is what seperated the blind man from the pharisees. The fruit was most evident. The pharisees would see the works of Christ and the call to believe and they would be filled with rage, judgement, jealousy and much of the like.

There was no fruit there and gratitude was never their response.

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I Know life is hard. I promise you I do. And I want each and every single one of you to know, that as your pastor, I care about the things that are hard in your life. The things that can keep you up at night and bring you down. God knows I have plenty of things that get to me.

I dont want this to seem like I am saying it is easy to deal with all of those things or that you should suck it up. Jesus’ words are indeed the opposite and he asked that we bring those things to him

BUT..... there are times that we spend our life only focusing on the negative so much. We are like eore and cant see our blessings the fact that Christ has redeemed us and given us sight through the vision that has been clouded by the negative in our life.

This man had no option but to walk away grateful

But he probably later was tempted like all of us to take his sight for granted.

We take the amazing things God has given us and take them for granted and I think it is so important that we take time to be grateful.

God commanded the Israelite observe days and feasts to remind them of what God did for them in the desert.

Each sunday ought to be a day we take time to fill our gratitude tanks and be grateful for what God has done and what He is going to do.

The New International Version Chapter 9

39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.