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[Music] [Chorus singing] ♪ God is a good God ♪ ♪ God won't ever change ♪

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♪ God is a good God ♪ ♪ And whatever praise he gives ♪ ♪ The king will tell it to his son ♪ ♪ God is a good God ♪

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♪ And I won't ever change ♪ ♪ Oh, he's a good soul ♪ ♪ And forever praise to him ♪ ♪ He's alpha and omega ♪

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♪ He's the beginning and he's the end ♪ ♪ He'll save your soul from a burning hell ♪ ♪ And he'll cleanse you from all of your sins ♪ ♪ He was telling you that God is a good God ♪

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♪ God will never change ♪ ♪ God is a good God ♪ ♪ That's why I'll never break away ♪ ♪ Mm, God led the children of Israel ♪

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♪ He led them across the mighty Red Sea ♪ ♪ He led them to the promised land ♪ ♪ And He can do it for you and for me ♪ ♪ Jesus tell it to them ♪

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♪ God is a good God ♪ ♪ God won't ever change ♪ ♪ God is a good God ♪ ♪ God will never break his peace ♪

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♪ Oh, there's nothing too hard for God ♪ ♪ There's nothing that he cannot do ♪ ♪ He's still working miracles ♪ ♪ And if you need one, he'll work one for you ♪

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♪ I keep on telling you that God is a good God ♪ ♪ Oh yes, he is ♪ ♪ God will never fail ♪ ♪ God won't ever change ♪

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♪ Oh, God ♪ ♪ He's a good God ♪ ♪ That's why I'll ever praise his name ♪ ♪ Oh, God ♪

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♪ God ♪ ♪ He's a good God ♪ ♪ Oh, yes, he is ♪ ♪ God won't ever change ♪

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♪ He's a good God ♪ ♪ That's why I'll ever ♪ ♪ Praise his name ♪ ♪ Oh, that's why I'll ever ♪

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♪ Ever praise his name ♪ ♪ That's why I'll ever ♪ ♪ I'll ever ♪ ♪ Praise his name ♪

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- Amen. - Amen. [inaudible] I was in the darkness. I could not see my eyes or the wishes of my heart.

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I was a prisoner of darkness. Suddenly, there was a great light. Amen. James Weldon Johnson begins his poetic and sermonic account of creation with the words that,

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As far as the eye of God could see, darkness covered everything. Blacker than a hundred midnights down in a cypress swamp, darkness. God said, "Let there be light." This message is based on an account in the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospel according

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St. John the ninth chapter, in which the writer says that as Jesus walked alone, he saw, he saw a man. And this man was blind from birth. And the rest of it is an account of what happened to this man. What is it going to mean to be blind, to be unable to see? It is to be in dark, to be unable to comprehend, unable to perceive. It's a wonderful thing to be able

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to see. Every morning I look in the mirror, and I tie my tie like to look in the mirror Be sure of tying it the right way, and it fits as it should fit. To be blind is to be able to see. The kind of blindness that John is talking about, being able to see.

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Adam of Suhr, who would often say to me when I would come in, "Rev. I'm glad to see you." He was blind. But he would often say, "I'm glad to see you." Here is a man that is by the side of the road,

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and there are many passing by, But Jesus sees him. Now, the others may have looked at it, but Jesus sees him. He is able to see as a result of that encounter.

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So, to be able to see is to be able to understand, to have self-understanding. And you know how many people don't have that? There are many people who don't understand themselves. They do not have the kind of self-understanding that enables them to rightly relate to themselves.

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Jesus sees this man who was blind from birth. He had never seen himself, never knew what he looked like. He was blind. He had never seen his parents because he was blind. He had never seen the world around him because he was blind.

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So, this man needs self-understanding. He needs to understand who he is. He needs to understand whose he is. He needs to understand why he is placed in the world,

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what is the divine design for his life. He needs that understanding. Here he is by the side of the road. But there comes one who sees him, who understands him, who knows how to relate to him.

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Now, the disciples are there, and they watch this encounter. They notice that this man is blind. They notice that Jesus sees him and stops where the blind man is. And they raise what I consider a rather philosophical question.

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"Master, who did sin?" This man are his parents. We always want to attribute what may be some abnormal situation to some sin that someone has done.

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And of course, the ancients believed that whenever one was caught in that kind of queer quirk of circumstance, that it had to be something that he had done or his parents before him had done. Who did sin?

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This man or his parents. And Jesus says neither. or his parents. And Jesus says neither. Neither this man or his parents. But this has happened in order that the glory of God may be manifested in your midst.

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And he says that not only is that true, but that one must work while it is day, while While you have the light, while you have the opportunity, while you have this chance, one must work. But one must seize what one philosopher calls the present moment and make the most of it.

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must work. This is the time while there is daylight. And Jesus Christ himself is the light. He is the daylight. He is the opportunity that we have in our midst. And he gives the warning that night is coming. In other words, there will come a time when darkness will surround everything. This is sort of the drama of life, light and darkness. In fact, it starts

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darkness, because in the beginning there is total darkness, it says. Darkness. And God's, according to the poet, God sees this darkness. God sees the darkness and creates light. Isn't And there's something where there's total darkness that God sees the darkness. That's interesting.

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Darkness, yes, blacker than a hundred midnights down in the cypress swamp, but God sees the darkness. This man standing by the way the Son of God comes and sees Jesus saw

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He saw What was in this man? he saw the the

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possibilities that Resided in this man. He saw the potentialities of this man. He saw not only who he is where he saw the man he could become, he saw this man. And after having made this statement, he says that this man is not only present at the right place at the right time,

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But he is open to having his life changed for the better. So Jesus takes a bit of dirt in his hand and makes a spittle and puts it over the man's eyes and says to him, "Go wash in the pool of Siloam." Now this name means "scent."

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"Go wash in the pool of Siloam." And he went off and washed and came back able to see. He was blind, born that way, not like whatever there be changed. But when he receives this word, "Go wash," in the pool of Siloam, he goes, he washes,

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and he comes from that pool sea. It's good for you to notice the sequence in which that happens. First of all, the man, he is the Word. He is the Word, "Gouache" in the pool of Shalom, and he obeys the Word.

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And he comes from the pool, after having been anointed, after having been washed in the spiritual waters anointed of Jesus Christ bathed in his Spirit, he comes forth from that pool of sin. Now a whole lot of people go to the pool and don't come out sinning. These unwashed believers, unwashed, they come to the pool, but they do not hear the Word.

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It is not in obedience to the Word of God that they come. They come trusting in their own righteousness. And they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. And he washes in the pool and comes from the pool singing.

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It's after he has heard the Word, he has obeyed the Word, he has been washed by the Spirit of God. And then, after all of that, he comes, "See, see." People say, "Don't you understand this?"

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"No, no." And then after a while they say, "Oh, I see." "I see." That's a wonderful revelation that has occurred when someone says, "Oh, I see."

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It's a wonderful revelation when someone can look in the midst of all of the crowd and say, "I see you. I really see you. I understand you.

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I perceive who you are. I can relate to the position that you take. I see you." He comes for seeing.

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He sees himself now. I suppose he has a new strut because he sees himself. He sees the purpose God has for him in the world. He sees who he is. Oh, so many people go through the world not really knowing who they are. They go through the world trying to be somebody else, trying to be somebody God never made them to be.

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But to be able to see themselves, and then to be able to see other people. This man now can see other people. He never had seen himself, but now he sees himself. and beyond that, He sees others as they are. There's another account where Jesus heals a man, there in the synoptic, and Jesus says, "What do you see?"

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He says, "I see men as trees walking." A whole lot of people like that. They've been touched once, and they see people, but not as they are. They see them as trees, as property, as decoration, as means to get what they want.

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They see them as trees walking. So Jesus touches them again. Touches him again. Some of us need a second touch. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.

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He touches that man again and says, "Now what do you see?" He says, "I see men as they really are." To see people as they really are. That's a wonderful thing.

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Wonderful thing. You see, people, if we had been seen as we really are, we wouldn't have had these segregated ghettos for us. You know, people, do you see this? Oh, yeah. And some actions we take we would probably not have taken if we could really see.

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Some of us have no vision of what this may look like. You know, in years to come this may be a neighborhood where you have $200,000 homes. You don't see that now. But if we could come back and visit a few years later, that's what would happen.

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And many people say, "Oh, if I had known that, I would not have taken this or that action if I could have been able to see." Yes. To see others and to see ourselves. As the poet said, "Oh, for some gift, some gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us."

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We're in the dark in the night and unable to see ourselves and unable to see others and unable to see the eternal reality, the eternal reality. You know so many things that parents say to you when you're young, and you think they don't know what they're talking about. And you get older, and you see, and maybe they've gone on, and you wish you could go and tell them.

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Now I see. I see what you were talking about! I see what you were trying to get me to do! I see! but it's... time has passed. To see the eternal reality. But so many of the things that we run after today, we miss church, we miss the most wonderful experience that God has arranged for us because we think that the most attractive thing is

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outside these hallowed walls, we don't see the eternal reality. And yet we talk about, in the end, standing before God. We stand before God, we see the eternal reality, that which is real. A lot of all, a lot of all, not much of many of these things in which we are engaged are superficial. Clothes that we wear, no matter how many of them we may have, closets may be filled with them,

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but they're all going to become threadware, become, leave them in there very long, they become morphine. But the eternal reality, that which remains the same, no matter how things may change, but to be able to see beyond the here and now, to the eternal reality, me, to see myself, to see others and to see the eternal reality.

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This, that's what this man comes for, comes for seeing. So, as he, as he journeys, he sees, as he journeys. Leave it here. You leave here going to Dallas at night in the dark. And one may think, "How are you going to make that journey?"

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Well, you at least have some lights on your car. If you don't, you can't make it at all. Have some lights. And those lights give you so many feet. And you travel those feet and behold there are more feet.

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And you travel that and you keep traveling until you reach your destination. That's the way it is, we're all traveling with God. He gives you just so much life. Travel that and then He gives you some more and then some more and some more

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and we look across the years 30 40 50 60 years and he's been doing it all the time you can say in the language of the psalmist the Lord is my life and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I

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I be afraid. That's what God does. This man is able to see. This man, God is able to see. And people look and say, "It was the fellow that was blind.

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It's the fellow we had to lead around everywhere he went. Is this the same?" I say, "Yes." "Well, what happened?" "Well, he was blind." But now he sees. He has a different view of life. He has a different perception of things.

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He has a better understanding of his relationships because now he can see. You say, "Well, how did this happen?" Say, "We better ask Him." You see, one thing is that nobody else can sing for you.

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They may give you their view. But nobody else. It's just like having someone to eat your meal. You can get someone else to eat your breakfast and tell you how good it is and all that. No, that may be all right for conversation, but it doesn't help your health.

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This man, see, ask him, ask him, man. See, aren't you the man that was blind? Yes, I'm the man that was blind. Well, what happened to you?

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What extraordinary occurrence happened in your life? What miracle took place that now you are able to see?" He said, "Well, I can't explain it." He said, "All I know is that I once was blind,

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But now I see. I can relate to this wall around me before it was a world of darkness, but now I see light in the night. I see stars.

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I see a life has been changed. It's amazing. I can't explain it. I can't explain it.

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I can't explain it. I just know it's true. This something in the end was written by Sister Camel years ago. And she said that she saw a blind man. He was just tapping his way down the street. come to a light, stop, and after a while go on across the street.

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So she followed the blind man. He did it again, the gate was crossing, and she stopped, and then after a while he went on across the street after the cars had passed. So she asked him, "How do you know how to do that?" He said, "I can't explain that." He said, "There's just something within."

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Something within, but tell me! Something within! Well, that's the way it is in the life! There's something within!

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Hold it, Zerrin. Something within. You cannot explain all that we know is that there's something. Something within. I don't have time to finish this sermon, but I just want to say thank God. I just want to say, "Thank God I can see. Thank God I can see the purpose He has for my life.

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Thank God I can see. Thank God that I can see the world around me. Thank God I can see. Thank God that I can see the hills. I know there's some hills, but thank God I can see them. I can see the hills and yet I can see the valleys.

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Thank God there's some valleys, but I can see them. Thank God I can see his presence. I can see how he works. I can see how he guides. I can see how he governs. Thank God I can see. In the night. It would be a terrible thing if we didn't have some light in the night. But God provides that light.

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He has sent Jesus Christ, his only Son, to be our safe and sure guide in the darkness of the night. So out of the darkness, the darkness that covers us, blacker than a pit from pole to pole, the poet could say, "I thank whatever God's may be, for us it is God who reveals

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himself in Jesus Christ, I thank that God for my unconquerable soul. Thank God I can see. Aren't you glad you can see? And you know, as the years go on, this physical vision, you know, changes. Oh, I can remember the time when they tested my eyes and the doctor I said, "Oh, how wonderful it is you've got such good sight.

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2020." There's no longer that, is that the case? Each time, it's good out a little more, and you find bifocals, and you have to watch where you step

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when you're stepping along, because you want to be sure that there is a vision that God gives us that never, never changes. It gets better and better with the years.

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Thank God I can see. Thank God. So as we come now to the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church,

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"Shine on Me." May that light that God gives us through Jesus Christ shine not just on the day when we accept Jesus Christ and become a part of the church, but as we walk a long life's way it continues to shine.

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Every day we need that light to shine. Every period of our lives we need that light to shine. Every condition and circumstance we need that light to shine. [chatter] ♪ Oh, I'm just a poor man ♪

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♪ I'm just a poor man ♪ ♪ I'm just a poor man ♪ [music] ♪ Shine ♪

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♪ On me ♪ ♪ Everyday, Lord, just ♪ ♪ Shine ♪ ♪ On me ♪

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♪ Never lie ♪ ♪ Round the white house ♪ ♪ Shine ♪ ♪ On me ♪

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♪ Let it shine ♪ ♪ Shine ♪ ♪ On me ♪ ♪ Every day, Lord, the sun ♪

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♪ Shine on me ♪ ♪ Let the light ♪ ♪ From the lighthouse ♪ ♪ Shine on me ♪

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♪ Oh, me ♪ ♪ I heard ♪ ♪ The voice ♪ ♪ Of Jesus ♪

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♪ Say ♪ ♪ Come unto me ♪ ♪ And rest ♪ ♪ Lay down ♪

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♪ Thy weary head ♪ ♪ Lay down thy head ♪ ♪ Upon my brow ♪ ♪ Let it shine, shine ♪

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♪ Upon me ♪ ♪ Every day, Lord ♪ ♪ Shine ♪ ♪ On me ♪

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♪ Let the light ♪ ♪ From the lighthouse ♪ ♪ Shine ♪ ♪ For me ♪

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♪ Let it shine, shine ♪ ♪ Oh, come with me ♪ ♪ Every day to a desire ♪ ♪ For me ♪

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♪ Let the light from the lighthouse ♪ ♪ Shine ♪ ♪ For me ♪ [Music]

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