04-28-20 Kevin Goins - The Church's Ministry of Healing, John 9:7 part 2

“Anatomy of an Illness: The Church’s Ministry of Healing”
John 9:7 (Part 2)

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 action on our part (9:7).

-This verse makes four key points:

A. First, Jesus told this man to go.

1. Why did Jesus issue this command to the blind man to go?

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

b. Second, he commanded the blind man to go in order to motivate him to seek w_______________ for himself.

1. This guy in John 9 is doing nothing: he did not s________, he did not c___________ a tree, he did not unroof a r___________, he did not even a_______ Jesus to heal him.

2. There is a popular idea about God today and this idea is that, if there is a God, we need do ______________ at all to bring ourselves into line with his purposes or plans for us.

3. This means that all we need to do is to simply sit back and absorb his __________ and __________________.

4. The Bible does say that there are two blessings which do belong to everyone who is born into this world: _______ and ___________.

5. The Bible does, however, refer to many other blessings which do require some action on our part if we want to r_____________ them. In other words, there are things for which we must ___________.

6. And the most important thing for which people need to ask God is to be ____________, to be delivered from the power of ________ and ___________.

7. It is clearly the teaching of God’s Word that it is not by ____________ something that we are saved. Yet, at the same time, the Bible makes it clear that what we do ________________ greatly.

8. The solution which the Bible provides is that we come to God by ______________, not by works, but after we have come to God there is ____________ for us to do, but this work is not our own. It is a work orchestrated and empowered by __________ for his glory.

9. I believe Jesus is working in this blind man by getting him off his recliner and on to the road which will lead to a r__________________ with Jesus and s___________ for the Kingdom of God.

10. Leaving people where they are is what I believe can happen when we ignore the ministry of _______________.

11. I love the words of Oswald Chambers, who said, “Never try to explain God until you have obeyed him. The only bit of God we can __________________ is the bit we have _______________.