Powerful message in church yesterday for you

The pastor at my church who preached last night brought the house down! He used John 9.

I'll paraphrase:

One afternoon, Jesus and his disciples were walking along, when his disciples see a blind man and they get curious.

"Rabbi," they begin to ask, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

I'll give you some context. Back in that day, the high religious folk (Pharisees) had this idea that bad things happened to people because of sin. If you did good, prayed, went to the temple, acted like a good follower of God, there was no way possible that sin could afflict you. If sin was afflicting you, you must have had done something to deserve it.

Jesus came to this world to turn this idea all around.

He says, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."

Jesus then spits into the ground and makes some mud with his hands, puts it on the blind man who must be absolutely CONFUSED about what's going on around him, and then Jesus tells him to go wash it off.

The man went and washed and came home seeing. Jesus healed the blind man.​

I registered on this website yesterday, but this message at church yesterday is so timely.

I want you to know that whatever you're experiencing right now, the sexual urges, the lust, the guilt from rebooting, the condemnation from relapsing... you stand on a beautiful platform today to tell a story.

And who doesn't love a story about men or women who faced multiple challenges and ended up overcoming at the end?? Those are the best stories!!

The religious back then couldn't believed that the blind man was healed by Jesus because they didn't want to accept Jesus, but I'm telling you today, friends, for those who believe in him, you are a new creation today. You are wonderful TODAY. God sees you as wonderful TODAY, no matter what you do, no matter how you feel, and he wants to heal you.

The world looks at ordinary things and cannot appreciate the beauty in these things, but God sees our ordinary lives and he loves every detail about them.

So keep fighting! And whatever happens, be of good cheer. You guys got this.