God wants to use you to glorify His Name! (John 9:1-5)

As we read John chapter nine it is easy for us to maybe shake our heads at the disciples asking why is this man blind who sinned.  But we in many ways do the very same today, I was just told about a story the other day, that ended with this statement, they believe all their problems are from God punishing them for leaving the Church.  How many of us also like to say if they lived their lives differently then they wouldn’t have the troubles that they have.  The entire book of Job was an illustration on how God does not punish us for our sins while we are still on earth.  We do not go through hard times because God is in heaven looking at us and says I need to punish them now because they are disobedient.  In fact in the Book of Job we get a completely different picture.  In Chapter one of Job, we are told that Job is a man of God, and loves God.  We then see how God wants to show Lucifer that Job is not just following Him because of all He has given to Job.  He allows Job to be tested so that in the end He is glorified in that Job still loves Him. 

Here in Chapter nine of John Christ tells us that “He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him. All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned to us by the one who sent me, because there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end. But while I am still in the world, I am the light of the world.” (verses3-5)  This man was born blind so that the glory of God could be seen in Him.  Christ goes on to heal him in the following verses.  God allows us to go through tough and difficult time so that during those times we are going to glorify His name.  Not because we have done something wrong, trust me we are all sinners and all deserve eternal death.   It is easy to give praise to God during the good times in our lives but what about the tough times.  Instead some blame God and walk away saying if we had a loving a God then none of this would be happening, they forget that a loving God sent His Son to earth to glorify Him on a cross so that we may be saved from our sins. 

Christ came to be a light in a dark in a dying world; He came to serve the poor and the needy.  He healed those who were sick and feed those who were hungry.  We too must go and be  a light into this world, we too must go into a dark and bleak world and shine the light of Christ so that other may come to know Him be saved and enjoy true life.  It is time as a church that we begin to look outside our walls of comfort and begin to show compassion unto a dyeing world.  In a world where every five seconds a child dies of starvation, which is over 2.5 million deaths a year.  Where over 1.7 billion lacks access to clean and safe water to drink.  Let us bring it closer to home,  how many of us look down at those we pass because we believe we are better than they are.  Instead of sharing the love of God we have already decided that they are not worthy of our love or even a smile.  We don’t go out of our way to cross the street meet them and talk to them, to learn about their story.  Maybe it is time for us to begin to start to pray for God to shine through us to help have the courage to go out and meet new people and share the light.  To let them know of a God that loves them, by sharing that love. 

Lucifer wants to stop us from going out and sharing the love of God, he wants to be as self-centered as possible, so when he comes and brings troubles our way it is meant to stop us from going out and sharing the love of God.  But what if instead of when bad things come our way we started to praise God and thank Him.  That is what we are told to do in James, “dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.”(James 1:2)  What if when trouble came our way we praised God, give more and told more people about Christ and how He changed our lives.  We serve a God who is all powerful, we have nothing to fear not even death.  But we seem to want to stay in our comfort zone, where it is safe and everyone knows us and loves us.  We are afraid to go and tell others about Christ.  We think that coming to church is about doing the right thing, and that we are ok by just coming and that we need not go and share Christ with others.  We think that because of our past or troubles we are going through we can’t tell others about Christ.  But it is the very troubles and the problems we have had that God wants to use to work His glory through.    Let us Look at who God used to go and tell the world about His Son, a tax collector, a handful of fisherman, a man who took pride in murdering Christians.  God used all these people He also wants to use you with all your troubles and all the baggage you carry along.