04-25-20 Kevin Goins - John 9:7, Part 1

“Anatomy of an Illness: The Church’s Ministry of Healing”
John 9:7 (Part 1)

I First, sickness gets our attention and it gets the attention of Jesus (9:1).
II Second, sickness makes us uncomfortable (9:2).
III Third, sickness is caused by alienation (9:2).
IV Fourth, oftentimes our best theological or commonsense explanations for sickness are not good enough (9:3a).
V Fifth, sometimes sickness happens for a good reason, so that God can be glorified in our life (9:3b).
VI Sixth, all believers in Jesus are called to help sick people find health (9:4).
VII Seventh, sickness is a work of the kingdom of darkness; healing is a work of the Kingdom of light (9:5).
VIII Eighth, the how of healing is very important (9:6).

IX Ninth, sickness can be overcome by divine healing, but healing does not happen without some a_______________ on our part (9:7).

-This verse makes _________ key points:

A. First, Jesus told this man to __________.

1. It would take t________ and a lot of e________________, for the blind man to make his way to the Pool of Siloam, because he was just as blind, every step of the way, as he was when he first b___________.

2. Why did Jesus issue this c__________________ to the blind man to go?

a. First, he commanded him to go to get the blind man out of his r________________.

1. A rut is a h____________ or p_____________ of behavior that has become dull or unproductive, but which is very hard to c______________.

i. “A rut is just a ____________ with both ends knocked out.”

ii. Jesus Wants him to break out of that d_______ e______ existence.

iii. “Problems are often God’s way of p____________ us out of our rut.”

iv. And being in a rut is not only a bad thing for a blind man, it is a bad thing for _________________ as well.

2. Could it be that the reason many of us have not experienced God’s healing power in our life is because we have crawled into the rut of a particular sickness and now our very i_____________________ is tied up with that sickness?

3. What the doctor says may be ____________; it may be God’s will for us to lean on his ____________ in dealing with a particular sickness.

4. Nevertheless, throughout his ministry Jesus encountered many people who suffered sicknesses and disabilities which Jesus did not expect them to t__________________.

b. Of course, it is not just sickness we learn to tolerate. We may have also learned to tolerate a lack of s______________ g___________ in our life.

c. A rut is a place of b__________________ and r_______________ and d_____________.