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John chapter 9. And I'm going
to go ahead and hit the ground running so I can get you out
of here by 6 o'clock. That's an early time, ain't it?
Now with the sun staying up and all that stuff, praise the Lord,
6 o'clock and we're out of here. And then you'll stand around
until 7 or 8 talking, so might as well preach longer, huh? There
it is, Jesse, I was waiting for it. I told him he failed me this
morning, because he's usually pretty vocal, and today he got
all quiet on me. Yeah, he got all quiet on me
this morning, so he's going to make up for it tonight. All right,
let's go. This is what it would be like
pastoring down south, but there would be like 50 people doing
it at one time, so. John chapter 9. John chapter 9, verse number
1, and Jesus passed by, and as Jesus passed by, He saw a man
which was blind from his birth, and his disciples asked him,
saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that
he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath
this man sin, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him
that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man
can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of
the world. And when he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground,
and made clay of the spittle. And he anointed the eyes of the
blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go wash in the
pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He went his way therefore,
and washed, and came seeing. Let's pray. Father, I love you
tonight, and I thank you, Lord, for this church. I appreciate
it, God. I know that I don't deserve to
stand in this pool, and I don't deserve to have this many people
in church, let alone, Lord, when everybody's here. You've already
given me more than I deserve. There's no doubt about it. And
Lord, like I was thinking about this afternoon, I want to just
be faithful with what it is that I have. I want to be faithful
with what it is You've given to me today. So I pray tonight
that You'd make me a blessing, that You'd help me, Lord, to
bring out of this passage those things that You've shown me,
that You'd help my spirit to be right. Lord, I'm not praying
for any specific emotion or any specific lack thereof, but just
that my spirit throughout the message would be right. That,
Lord, when you stir my heart up about something, if it be
in anger, or if it be in joy, or if it be passion, or whatever
it might be, God, that it be right with you. And that, Lord,
you'd help me to bring this passage alive to the people that are
here. We know this book is alive, but I don't want to get in the
way, Lord. And so I pray, God, that as I preach this passage,
You'd be in control and that You'd minister to hearts and
that You'd help us, Lord, to keep it simple around here and
just feed the sheep, God. Give them what they need. Give
every single person in this room exactly what they need tonight.
I even pray for the kids, God, the young ones that easily get
overlooked, that Your Holy Spirit would not overlook them tonight,
that You'd get a hold of their attention, plant some seed of
the Word of God in them during the preaching bear fruit with
them, Lord, now and later in their life. We ask in the name
of Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, here in verse number 1,
right out of the gate, as you hear me say often, I noticed
when I was looking at verse number 1 that Jesus Christ is passing
by a certain place. And immediately I got thinking
about the Lord passing by. We sing a song, Pass Me Not,
O Gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on
others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Now, I got thinking
about that. I don't want the Lord to pass
me by. I believe the Lord's looking. I mean, I think the eyes of the
Lord are still running to and fro throughout the whole earth,
seeking to show himself strong on behalf of them whose heart
is perfect towards him. And I don't want God to pass
by me. I want to make sure that whatever I'm doing and however
I'm doing it in such a way that when God passes by, I want him
to see me because he passed by and saw a man. And what he saw
about that man was that that man was blind. Now that got me
thinking, because I guarantee you one thing right now, every
person in this room has a blind spot somewhere in your life. It is so easy to look at each
other and pick each other apart and recognize what everybody
else needs to work on, but it is so hard for me to honestly
see Mike Reagan and recognize what it is that Michael Jasper
Reagan, amen Sammy? All right, needs to work on. I don't want my blind spots to
go unhelped. I want my eyes to be open to
what it is that I need to see. And notice in this text, this
man was blind from his birth. And the question the disciples
asked him is, Lord, we know how it works. We know when somebody
has something bad happen to them that it means they sinned. So
who sinned, Lord, this man or his parents? In other words,
did his mom and dad do something so bad that you cursed them with
a blind child? Or did you know something about
this guy that he was going to do, and you said, since he's
gonna be that wicked, I'm gonna make sure he's born blind? Because
that was the mindset of the disciples. It reminds me of the mindset
of most of the Christians nowadays. You see somebody else going through
a problem, and the first thing you and I think is, well, I wonder
what they did wrong. God must be judging them. Boy,
we're awful hard on everybody else, but we sure are awful easy
on ourself. We're awful quick to throw the
stone at the sinful woman who's taking an adultery, but we're
awful slow to get our eyes open to what it is that we need to
change, what it is that we are doing wrong, and that meaning
you. What do you need to change? I told you before, Grace and
I don't get the privilege of doing too much marriage counseling.
Because nine times out of ten, when a couple comes to us, it
doesn't take long at all for one or both of that couple to
wind up saying, we're out of here. Because most of the time,
they always want to talk about the other person. Well, you need
to fix them. And you need to tell my wife.
Well, you need to tell my husband. You need to fix them. And we
can't really get anywhere like that. There's no way to help
that at all. What we have to do is we have
to talk about you particularly. And then you have to say, thank
you. I got the help that I needed to go change what I need to change.
And you've got to leave the other person to Jesus Christ. But most
of us don't want to deal with our blind spots. Amen. I'm preaching now. I know, and
it gets real quiet when you get really preaching. Because we
don't want to face them. Be honest. It's hard to face
your faults. I know that feeling when my ears
start to burn and I can feel my face turning red. I realize
I'm guilty. I realize what they just accused
me of is right. And man, I need to fix that. Man, that is a hard
pill to swallow. He says, the disciples say, what's
his fault, Lord? The Lord says, actually in this
case, this is a result of sin, this is a result of the curse,
but this man didn't sin, nor did his parents sin. This guy
wasn't born with this problem because of sin. You guys got
this thing all wrong. God didn't allow this to happen
to this individual because of something he did or because of
something his parents did. But what's the cause? The reason
for that thing he said in this text is but that the works of
God should be made manifest in him. He said he had this blind
spot and I've showed up to fix his blind spot so that everybody
can see how great God is and not because of him. In other
words, you're not the issue. Ain't that a hard thing to deal
with? I mean, when you're going through a hard time, when you're
the blind person born from birth that way, when you've been carrying
this burden, when you have this heartbreak, it is hard to step
out of that. I mean, sometimes there are times
in life when it's okay to be a little bit selfish. Sorry to say that, but when your
world falls in, it's real hard to think about anything but yourself.
Right? I can imagine that that blind
man has a real hard time thinking about anything but himself, and
I'd give him plenty of grace on that one. No problem, man.
But the point Jesus Christ wanted him to get is, it's not about
you. This whole problem is not about you and it's not about
your parents. There's no guilt on your behalf. I actually got something
with you that I want to do specifically because I want to show this world
the work of Almighty God. And I had to allow this painful
thing. I had to allow this heartbreaking
thing. I had to allow this thing that has wrecked you and destroyed
your life and destroyed your soul so that I could show the
power of God in your life. That's what he's saying. Now
I got thinking about this and boy I got some blind spots and
you got some blind spots, I already said that. Some of the things
that have happened to me in my life and I'm not trying to cry
or complain, I certainly have had a blessed life. I can honestly
say that. And I can honestly say few and
evil have been my days like Jacob said. You figure that out because
I can't figure it out, but when I say few and evil have been
my days, I'm being honest. And when I say I've lived an
unbelievably, ridiculously blessed life, I'm being honest. And I
can't make heads or tails out of that mess, but I know that
that's not just my testimony, that's the testimony of a whole
bunch of you. You've had some hurt in your life. You've had
some pain in your life. There's all kinds of people here
with more background and baggage than you need to know about.
In other words, you don't need to share your background and
baggage with everybody. If you need to talk, there's safe places
to go to do that, but that's not with the general public,
or even if they are church family, be very careful and guarded and
slow about dishing out your information. But there are a lot of people
in this room that have been hurt a lot, and it's not always your fault.
But I'm here to tell you that when Jesus Christ passes by,
if he gets his eyes fixed on you, he's gonna take your problem,
and he's gonna work the work of God so that other people can
see how wonderful God Almighty is, and he's gonna use your blindness
to help you out. And that's what I want. I want
not just the blindness of my faults. You can apply it that
way, and it's real good. I want the blindness of things
that just kinda came on me in life that aren't my fault. I
want the blindness of my sin that got me in trouble. That
is my fault. I want all of the things in my
life that are negative and that are a curse to turn out for the
glory of God Almighty. That's my desire. But I realize
some things tonight that if I'm going to do that I have to be
careful because there's two sets of people in this passage that
are an illustration to you of what not to be and then there's
one man who's an example of what to be. The example's the blind
man, we're gonna get to him last. But if you're like most born-again
Christians, and if you're like the Pharisees in this passage,
then you will not get help from Jesus Christ when he passes you
by. Whether your blindness just be something that happened to
you, not your own fault, whether your blindness be your own mess
ups, your blindness and sin, and your blindness to what you
were doing that destroyed your life, or whether your blindness
just be like, hey man, happenstance happens to all of us, overlooked
an area of my life, or something somebody else did to me, doesn't
matter what the background of your blindness is, when Jesus
Christ passes by and he sees you, he's the only one that can
help you and can take your problem and your pain and make something
good out of it. And boy, he's got a way of doing
that. And I think when that happens to you, then you understand what
I mean when I say, yeah, few and evil have been my days, and
yes, I've been ridiculously blessed to God out of the exact same
mouth and from the exact same heart with a smile on my face
about both of them. Why? Because the works of God
can be seen through your blindness. One thing that drives me the
most crazy, it's me. It's me. I know as I go through
my life and I go through my day and I go through even ministry
and trying to be a pastor, that's just a whole animal in and of
itself. I don't think there's any way to put it into words.
Trying to be a pastor, and man, that's a scary thing because
here you are in a pulpit, here you are doing your job, and you're
called to God to do it, and you open the Bible and you represent
the Lord, especially in a Bible-believing church like this where the whole
thing is about preaching. Every time you come, it's about,
okay, open your Bibles, open your Bibles. We got really nothing
else going for us. We don't have the fancy rock
band. We don't have the greatest music on the planet. We don't
have the worst either, but we don't have the greatest music
program. We don't have all the programs for the kids we'd love
to have someday, but we don't have all that right now. Timing's
not right. I know a sense of timing and the timing is off.
We don't have a whole lot going for us, but what we do have for
you by the grace of God is that, man, open up the Bible and let
me show you something the Lord showed me this week. And man, God's
been so faithful to show me something. You folks keep on praying for
me because it's amazing how one chapter after the next chapter
after the next chapter, through a book of the Bible, three different
books of the Bible. God keeps opening them up and
showing me stuff. You need to keep praying for me. That's what
this thing's about. That's a blessing, man. But when
you have that kind of a setup like we have and a personality
like I have that I'm working on, I really am. Now, don't help
me. You're gonna peel the wrong side
of me, all right? But I'm working on some stuff. But I realize
that then people aren't, you're not always the most approachable
person. I'm saying that because I want the white elephant out
of the room. I want you to approach me. But I sit back and I go,
man, what am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? And you
know what frustrates me half to death? I mean, it frustrates
me almost to tears. I'm being a little bit transparent
with you tonight. The politicians always use that word and it's
a stinking lie. You'll know I'm telling the truth. You know what
frustrates me to tears? Is that I don't know. I'm trying to figure out what
I'm doing wrong as a pastor and what I need to change and where
steps I need to make and how I need to grow so that God will
continue to bless you and bless the church and things will go
well and folks will get in and get plugged in and be faithful
and come back and grow and just get the right point and the right
message and some good sound doctrine in them. And boy, it just drives
me crazy when after years of being in church, some people
all of a sudden pop up out of nowhere and it's like, well,
I never really believed that. I'm like good night, man. Where are
you been all these years? How badly did I fail? I don't
know if it was me if I need to change something if I'm doing
something wrong or if they're just sitting there Daydreaming and
thinking about their TV programs all through the server. I don't
know what in the world's going on But man, I'm going God if I got
a blind spot here open up my eyes I don't want Jesus Christ
to pass me by and open up somebody else's eyes if you're in the
eye opening business Then good night. Open up my eyes. I'll
get it right. I'll straighten it up I want
to grow. I want to be better. I'm not
happy where I'm at. I want more from the Lord. I
didn't say I'm not content with what God's done for me. I said
I'm not happy with where I'm at in my spiritual growth. I
want more from Jesus Christ. I want Him to open my eyes up.
But I'll tell you this much, if I get like the Pharisees and
if you get like the Pharisees, you ain't gonna get your eyes
open. They got the Lord standing right in front of them in their
self-righteousness. is causing them to judge, listen
to me, their self-righteousness causes them to judge the work
of Jesus Christ based on their preconceived notions, their preconceived
ideas of what it should and shouldn't be. Do you hear me? Look at verse 13. They brought
to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind, And it was the Sabbath
day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then again
the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight.
He said unto them, he put clay upon my eyes and I washed and
I do see. We're going to come back to that in a little bit.
Therefore said some of the Pharisees, this is not, this man is not
a God. Okay? Because he keepeth not the Sabbath
day. Others said, how can a man that isn't a sinner do such miracles?
And there was a division among them. Now what you got to understand
is in the Old Testament, under the Old Testament system, you
are considered a sinner if you violated the law willfully and
didn't apply the law to get it right. Does that make sense?
Somebody who would not live under the law was considered a sinner.
In the New Testament, Paul makes a completely different distinction.
Paul in the New Testament says, hey, you've all sinned. You've all come short of the
glory of God. You're all sinners. Even after you're saved, the
law is gone. And Paul says, you are sinners. Now, I'm not saying that if you
live by the law, you weren't a sinner. I'm saying the title
that they gave to sinners were those who rejected the law and
did not try to get it right. Am I making sense to you? I'm
not saying the Bible says they weren't sinners. The law is our
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law was there to constantly
show them their sin, but a sinner was not just a guy that sinned,
that was everybody. A sinner was somebody who refused
the law and continued in sin. So what the Pharisees were saying
under their system was, Jesus Christ is a sinner. And what
the response was, the debate that they're having, well, how
can a sinner work these kind of miracles? He couldn't work
these miracles if he was a sinner. So the debate was whether or
not Jesus Christ had broken the law. And he hadn't. Because the Pharisees had a preconceived
notion of what they thought spirituality was, that when Jesus Christ himself
was standing right in front of them, when a man who was blind
and is now can see was healed miraculously by the almighty
power of God himself right in front of them, and those Pharisees
could not tell what the truth was when it was right in their
face. You know why? Because of their
preconceived notions. I'll just tell you, to be perfectly
honest with you, every single person in this room has got preconceived
notions that will get in your way of truly hearing from Jesus
Christ and truly having him stop and see you and open up your
eyes. No matter what your background, I don't care if you're an atheist
before you got saved. Your background will cause you
psychologically to naturally have a preconceived attitude
and idea towards everything in life. You view things through
the spectacles of your past. And those guys were so steeped
in their religion that when the truth was right there in front
of them, they couldn't swallow it. I told you, I think it was
Wednesday night. I'm not 100% sure. It was some
recent service. One of the hardest things for
me in my life wasn't trusting Christ as my savior. That made
a ton of sense, man. I was under conviction. I knew when he was
dealing with me, and I knew when I got saved. One of the hardest
things in my life was when I'd been raised a certain way my
entire life, then I went to a Christian college that preached all kinds
of stuff. It was like the Christian fundamental
Baptist law of how to do things, and I'm not knocking them. You
know, I mean, they're my brothers in Christ. We're all gonna get
along in heaven, because the Lord's gonna tell them that I
was right, and then there'll be peace and all that stuff, you know?
Just kidding. I might have some apologies I
have to dish out. I don't know. I'm not looking forward to the
judgment seat for some of that stuff. You know what I'm saying? But
I had been raised under all that stuff, and I bought it hook,
line, and sinker. Somebody would jump in the pulpit, and they'd
preach a message, and they'd preach with such fervent, vehement zeal,
and I'd get all caught up in that, and I'd just start running
with some of that stuff and naturally going with my convictions. Now, hang on a minute. you ought
to have some convictions. If everybody thinks the same
thing, nobody is thinking. If we all, if every person in
this room dresses the same way, thinks the same way, we all have
the exact same standard, you know what you know about this
church? These people don't have a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. because everybody's getting to
lockstep with what it is that our club, our culture, our denomination,
our preacher thinks we ought to do so we can fit in with the
crowd. I'm getting to that in a minute in my next point. One
of the hardest things for me was this. Is what I believe Bible? I'm not just talking about doctrine,
of course. And boy, when I left the college
I was in and I went to Brother Lentz's institute, I started
over again in my head. I said, God, I want to start
over again. I want you to show me everything.
King James Bible, pre-trip rapture, seven-year tribulation period,
millennial reign of Jesus Christ. I want it all, Lord, rightly
dividing, salvation in the Old Testament, salvation in the church
age, salvation in the tribulation period, salvation in the millennium.
I want all of it, God, and I want it right. I don't care what the
truth is. I want the truth from that book.
And boy, you know when God started ringing my bell? Long before
all, because folks, rightly dividing makes sense, man. I mean, if
you got a hold of what Bible's God's and you're not willing
to change the words in it, then you're left with one thing in
order to believe that book and make it all make sense. You got
to know how to rightly divide that thing. That wasn't hard. You know what's the hardest thing
for me? The absolute hardest thing for me were my personal
convictions. I'll never forget, I got asked
to come preach at a church in Tennessee. And I got up there,
man, when I was walking in the doors of the church, there was
a big group of ladies out front, and they're out there, they're
smoking their cigarettes, right in front of the front door, man. Hi, brother,
how y'all been? You the preacher? Yeah, I'm the
preacher. Oh, heck yeah, I'm the preacher. Boy, I feel some
preach stirring up in my soul. You know, my head was just, it
was bigger than my Bible, really. I was carrying a big old Bible,
but my head was bigger than that. And I come walking in, I'm walking
down the aisle, and I'm looking down there, and this guy's got
a pack of marble lights in his pocket. This guy's got a pack
sitting right on the front row next to him, just wide out, and
he's just sitting there and got his song, him book out, and he's
ready to sing, and they're all just... I was out in the country
in Tennessee, and there's a tobacco area that grew tobacco. Now,
I don't think tobacco's okay. Do I have to go down this road
again, kids? You know my line, right? You're gonna be able to
quote this to your kids someday. You remember, our preacher used
to say, smoking ain't gonna kill you, because your parents are
gonna kill you first. Amen. Not okay in it. but I want you
to get the balance. I got up there in the pulpit
and, oh man, I let it rip, brother. Brother, I called them all out.
I let them have it. Boy, I was preaching my convictions,
and I preached a whole message on my convictions. I told them
that because of the way some of them were dressed, and because
of what some of them were smoking, people were going to go to hell,
and it was their own fault. Boy, when I got done preaching,
they filled that altar. I was shocked at it. The guys
are putting their cigarettes on the altar. They were better
Christians than I was. but their preacher ain't never messed with
it. Now, I don't know why he did or didn't, that's between
him and God, but I remember leaving there feeling a little bit sick
in the pit of my stomach like the Holy Spirit got on me when
I left. Like the Holy Spirit was telling me, you just ripped,
I mean, I ripped, I did everything but cuss him out. I ripped their
faces off. The preacher was sitting in the
back over there and I remember him just kind of sliding down in
the pew as I kept preaching. He kind of reminded me of a used
car salesman. Really, he was kind of like that kind of guy.
They gave past in offering for my love offering. I remember
seeing the plates. I was like, holy smokes, I can
use that because I was broke and trying to pay my school bill
and all that. And I got a lot of ones with a rubber band on
it. That's what the preacher handed
me at the end of the message. I'm like, I guess that's actually what I deserve.
So, oh yeah, oh yeah, you have no idea what goes on out there.
And I remember getting in that car and feeling so sick to my
stomach because I felt like the Holy Spirit was saying, did you
have fun? I let him have it, Lord. Yeah, you did, didn't you? Yeah, I did, Lord. Did you help
him at all? You know what, I remember the
Lord telling me as a 20, maybe 24-year-old young man, you just
beat up my wife. And I felt that flush conviction
come over me. Now, I don't think smoking's
right. You understand that, right? But you're in a tobacco town,
things are a little bit different when that's all they've ever
done to support their family for centuries and centuries,
all the way back. So I don't know that that was
the message I should have been preaching to them. I'm not their
pastor. I've told you before, I got a couple smokers who hate
it and they wanna get it right. Don't ask who they are, don't
even try to find out, ain't none of your business. But they have
been a blessing in my church and never run their mouth about
me, never backstab me, never got people to leave with them
and I've had some good, clean, moral, upstanding, standard bearing
Christians try to split the church half to pieces on their way out
the door, running their mouth against it, messing everybody
up. You tell me what's a bigger sin, that long tongue or those
cigarettes? I'm just talking about being
a Pharisee, thinking that because you meet the standard. I don't
smoke cigarettes. You understand me? You do understand
me, right? If I caught my kids smoking cigarettes,
I'd put them out in their face, boy. I'd lose it, and they know
it. They just die before they even
just think, you know what, Dad? I'm just going to die right now.
It's over. Goodbye. Boom. I'm not trying
to lighten their laughing, so you know I'm joking, OK? Relax.
I'm not trying to lighten the conviction or I don't want these
kids to get the wrong idea. Parents, I'm on your side. I'm
just trying to say that some of my pharisaical standards that
I thought made me spiritual weren't necessarily making me spiritual.
It was hard for me to go back and say, wait a minute, all these
things that I've believed, that I think everybody ought to do,
that I've preached on are those in the Bible. So I have some standards. But
how often do you hear me get up and say, well, this is what
you are and aren't allowed to wear, and this is where you are
and aren't allowed to, this is what you should and shouldn't
watch on your TV. You hear me preach that at you? My job is
to preach that book. I'll tell you again, the head
of the home ought to be the one setting the standard for the
family. I've been in plenty of churches where the women set
the standards. And everybody else just doesn't approach it
because they just don't want to ruffle feathers. I mean, even
the preacher backs off that thing or will throw a bone out to him
every once in a while on shooting at the women that wear slacks
or whatever he wants to do just to kind of keep them happy. But
the men, the husbands, don't even really believe that. They
just go with what the wife wants. Now, you ought to have a conversation.
If my wife came to me and said, my conviction is, how do you
feel about that, I'd say, That's fine. That's what you want to
do. But I'm not going to get up here and preach it as though
it's Bible. And I'm not going to force it on you. And I'm not
going to stop and think, well, the Lord's going to bless me.
He must see me because of my standards. That was the problem
with the Pharisees. They thought since they were,
you know, abiding by the law that everything was fine, they
could care less about the blind man getting any help. Why? Oh,
because he had a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. I mean, Jesus
can't possibly stop by and help him out. And if Jesus did it,
he couldn't possibly be on that front row saying amen and singing
the hymns and be right with God with cigarettes in his pocket.
Well, why not? When you got envy and strife
and division and a critical spirit and self-righteousness in your
soul, why can't God deal with him? You see, our preconceived
notions get in the way of Jesus Christ helping us. Some of you
got the opposite problem. You think that because you got
these problems in your life, the Lord can't help you. I've
been trying to get right and I keep struggling, I keep failing.
Stop it. You're thinking that your self-righteousness,
when you get your problems under control, then Jesus will show
up, and that's why Jesus is passing you by, and He didn't pass by
that blind man, but He's going to pass you by. Because you got
this attitude that like, well, I'm so messed up, and I keep
trying, and I'm such a train wreck, and I just, I self-loathe,
and I just... Stop! Stop! When you came to the Lord, you
offered Him nothing. Listen, my kids, I love my kids. They offer a lot more at the
ages that they're at than they did when they were first born.
Amen? When I say offer a lot more, I'm talking about dishes,
and sweeping, and mopping, and vacuum, and feeding dogs, and
mowing lawns, and go get me a Zevia out of the fridge, because I
don't want to get up. Stuff like that. It's pretty
awesome. It's a blessing, and it helps our relationship. when
they pull their weight around the house. Anna can't pull hers
right now, and everybody's feeling it. We're like, man, we did not
realize how much that kid does around here. We're all crying.
Hurry up and get better. But let me tell you something
about my kids. If they don't pull their weight, if one of
them loses their mind and decides to go derelict, you know something
about their daddy? He's still going to love them.
You know why? It's because that's who I am. Do you get the illustration?
Your self-righteousness doesn't impress the Lord or get him to
stop. It won't stop him from doing the work he wants to do
in other people's lives. And your lack of self-righteousness
is sometimes self-righteousness. Well, I just struggle, and I've
always struggled, and I'm not that good of a person, and the
Lord can't use me. So what you're saying is when
I fix me, then the Lord will use me. Your mind ain't working
right. You got the same disease the
Pharisees got. You're just on the other side of the coin. Making
sense to you? The self-righteous Pharisees,
they sure enough ain't gonna get his help. They're always
judging on the wrong things. Here's a funny one. The Lord
spits in the ground, right, to heal the man's eyes. In verse
number 11, he called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and
said, go wash in the pool. Do you know under the Old Testament
law, when you go through there, run the word spit in your Bible.
When a father spit in the face of his daughter, she was to be
ashamed for seven days. Yeah, you yell at her, you get
mad at her, you get on her case and she gets in trouble, but
in the Old Testament, when she did something that made him angry
or disgusted him or she did something out of line, you go, spit in
her face. And that meant seven days she had to go, stay to herself
and be ashamed of herself. You know, in the Old Testament,
when somebody's unclean spit on you, there's a whole ritual
you had to go through of separation and cleaning up. You know what
the Lord did? He spit on this guy's eyes. He
spit in the clay. You're missing the point, aren't
you? What you were made of? The dust of the ground. He spit
in the dust, and when you spit in the dust and you mix the water
and the dust together, you get clay. You know what he's saying? Your flesh, Out of my mouth comes
the DNA of God. And when the DNA of God mixes
with that dirty flesh, and I put that on your blindness and anoint
it, you go wash, you come seeing. Under the Old Testament law,
what was a curse becomes a blessing in the New Testament law. Under
the law of Jesus Christ. Ain't that something else? He
does it in another case, he spits on the ground, he anoints a guy's
ears, and he anoints a guy's tongue, and the guy winds up
being able to hear and being able to see. He does it in another
passage, he anoints the guy's eyes, and at first, he sees men
as trees, blindly, and then God clears up his sight, and then
he can see clearly. But when Jesus Christ spits, I almost
titled this thing, Spit On Me. But I didn't, because a lot of
you might start, oh yeah, okay. Waiting for my chance, a preacher
told me to. Pharisees get all stuck in their self-righteousness
and as a result the Lord passes right by them. There He is right
in front of them and they can't get it. They can't get it. I'll never
forget being afraid when I decided I was going to stop preaching
Mike Reagan's convictions and standards and start preaching
Bible only. I remember what some of the brethren said and thought.
It's a brutal pill to swallow. Because the Pharisees, they're
concerned about politics and they're concerned about power.
Did you hear me? Pharisees are obsessed with politics. Go read through. I'm not going
to take the time because I got to get going, man. Time's fine.
You go read through there and you study. Do your own study
when you go home and look at the Pharisees. They were always
obsessed with politics and power. You know what you see in churches
nowadays? An entire group of Christians obsessed with politics
and power. There's more power struggles
in church than you care to know about. Why? Who's supposed to be, what's
there to fight about? It's pretty simple stuff around here, ain't
it? Ain't it all supposed to be all about the Lord? Why is
everybody always jockeying for position all the time? Because
when we get to church, it ain't about Jesus, it ain't about Lord,
I'm blind, and I really would appreciate it if today, this
Sunday, whatever this is, August 8th or 9th or whatever, probably
August 900th by now, time's going so fast. I can't keep up with
what day it is, man. Lord, whatever day this is, would
you pass by me right now and would you help me see something
that I haven't seen? Lord, help me not to leave here in 15 minutes
because I've wasted the whole day up till now. Help me not
to leave here in 15 minutes without you showing me something that
I needed to see about myself that I didn't see when I got
up this morning. But now Pharisees, they ain't worried about themselves.
They're worried about politics. They're worried about power.
Are you gonna reign or not? Are you gonna free us or not? Are
you the Messiah or not? Instead of, hey, can you fix
me? He couldn't get it. Notice another group of people
that can't ever get it. The people that are socially
connected. Look at verse 8. The neighbors therefore, and
they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not
this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he. Others
said, He's like him. But he said, I'm he. Therefore
they said unto him, How are thine eyes opened? He answered and
said, a man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes
and said unto me, go wash in the pool of Siloam. Go to the
pool of Siloam, excuse me, and wash. And I went and washed and
I received sight. And they said unto him, where
is he? And he said, I know not. You realize his neighbors, his
acquaintances, his friends, they were right there. They knew him
since he was a child. They knew he was born blind.
A medically impossible thing for somebody who's born blind
to receive sight, and there he is, and they're like, yeah, I
don't know. Looks just like him, but I'm
not so sure. You know why? Because they're
more worried about their social connections than they were worried
about Jesus seeing them. I am telling you right now, if
you worry about people, you will never catch the eye of Almighty
God. The fear of man bringeth a snare. Don't you ever forget
that. I can't tell you how many times
somebody's come to this church, well, I love it and I think it's
where I'm supposed to be, but my wife don't like it. Okay, let her
go where she wants and you go where God sends you. I'm the
head of my home, if we can't go together, I'll just follow
her. Does that make any sense? Hey,
I'm the head of my home. It is my responsibility before
God to set the standard. Honey, if you don't agree with
me, more power to you. That's where I'm going. Because
that's where God speaks to my heart. That's where I'm getting
convicted. That's where my eyes are getting
opened on how to handle you without being a jerk. And you make it
impossible. So I got to get a miracle from
God so I can be a halfway decent husband to an old bat like you.
Get the point? A little bit of hyperbole. I've
been there. Wait for confessional later,
brother. We've all been there. And what
we need when we get here is God to speak to us. And if you worry
about what other people are thinking, you know what's funny how it
always works? You get in here and you get connected and you
start growing and your family is going to all of a sudden switch
the family get-togethers from Saturday to Sunday. It ain't no coincidence. I'm
not making this stuff up. Nine million other preachers
that always talk about it ain't making it up. Why does it happen? Because it's one of the devil's
ways of getting you, keeping you from getting the help you
need from God Almighty. If you worry about what people
think, you will never have Almighty God set his eyes on you, recognize
you, and stop to help you, because you're too obsessed with everybody
else to worry about the Lord Jesus Christ's opinion of you. That's the more important thing.
The neighbors are all debating, and I'll tell you this much.
Let me just say real quick here, the people that have known you
your whole life will discredit you the most. Don't ever forget
that. Oh, I know you. Every once in
a while, God lets me bump into somebody I knew when I was a
kid. And you know what I try not to do? Yeah, I know you.
I remember you. What are you talking about, man?
It's been 30 stinking years. You're lucky to remember me.
I Didn't look like this 30 years ago Cut my hair this afternoon. Do you notice my haircut? You
got a compliment me. I've been all nervous and uncomfortable.
Just kidding Johnny's looking at me like no, I'm gonna shoot
you man with your haircut. What's wrong with you? She's
cutting my haircut. She says you're all white. I
That's why I keep it so short, because I'm like, I'm not, I
didn't go, I skipped the gray, I went to white. I got that from
my grandpa Camerata, where I got my height. Yeah, and I'm still
bitter about it. Time changes people. My good
night, man. He was born blind. Now he can
see. You think he's the same guy as an adult who can see the
world around him now that he was when he was a little kid
who couldn't go anywhere and had to stunt his personality
development and had to stunt to some extent his brain development?
Everything was different because he couldn't ever see. There are
certain things that never came into his mind. But when Jesus
Christ showed up, and his eyes got open, he ain't the same guy
as he was. He can see things he couldn't
see before. He understands some things he couldn't understand
before. He may have some sense about him. You might get some
help from getting around him instead of just discrediting
him. Well, you knew you when you first started coming here. That makes me mad. Well, you
know, yeah, when I was 18, I was a thickheaded idiot. And so were
you. You just didn't have the guts
to do the stupid things I had the guts to do. But it all ran through your head
just like it did mine. I got to back up, man. Can't
be spitting with coronavirus distancing stuff. You worry about what people think?
You'll never catch the eye of God. And I'm not saying I don't
care what nobody thinks. I do care what people think.
I care about my testimony. I just don't care about my reputation.
He made himself of no reputation. There's a big difference between
your reputation and your testimony. You worry about your reputation,
you worry about what everybody else is thinking, you worry about
what everybody else says, you go ahead and train wreck your
life. and let Jesus Christ go. Man, I never taught her to do
that. Neither did her parents. I know where she was raised.
Man, I never encouraged him to do that. I was actually convicting
him. And his daddy, he knows his daddy's going to whoop the
snot out of him when his daddy finds out what he's doing at school.
Why? Because you're worried about
what other people are thinking. That don't make you a man. That don't
make you a woman. That don't make you a grown-up.
That makes you a fool. You worry about what others are
thinking. You won't catch the eye of the Lord. You'll never
find out your blind spots. You'll run your life based on
what everybody else wants you to do. His neighbors are going
on and on about him. Jesus Christ said it about himself.
He said, a prophet's not without honor except in his own country
and among his own kin. You know what you gotta do? Stop worrying
about what they think of you. Do you hear me? Don't worry about
it. Well, they think I'm, okay, so what, man? Good night, man. I'm 42 years old. My kids are
growing up so fast. I've been married 18 years. It's
going to be 20, Lord willing, another year and a half or so,
two years, a little less than two years. It's going to be 20
years, man. That's a nice chunk of time.
Do you understand what I'm saying? I got things to worry about.
I'm not going to stand around and worry about what everybody
else who's known me my whole life thinks. I'm not going to worry
about my family's opinion of me. I'm not going to worry about,
well, you know, we know how you are, brother. Okay. See you. You already got your mind made
up. Why am I going to convince you different? It's all right. You know what
I want? I want God to see me. I want God to say, hey, boy,
you got a little blind spot over there. Yeah. Do you see how you
just snapped at that girl? Yeah. Does she know about all
the stress you got on your life? Dumb kid. She ain't a dumb kid,
you idiot. She's actually pretty smart,
and she's picking up on your rotten spirit, and you need to
open up your stupid eyes to what a dumb idiot you are, and don't
take your frustrations out on your kids, because you're not
supposed to provoke them to anger lest they be discouraged. Oh.
Yeah, Lord, I kind of have a blind spot there, don't I? Walking around your house grouchy?
Oh, I'm preaching now. Look at you. Hey, can I get you
to relax? The older I get, the grumpier
I get. They start teasing me, calling me the grumpy old man. With respect, of course, because
I'm the head of the home. Anyhow. You ever have God say, hey, don't
you see you're raining on everybody else's parade? Don't you see
your spirits making the whole house kind of dark? Yeah, Lord,
kind of got a blind spot there, don't I? Yeah, you might want
to work on that, because over time, some of that stuff wears
on people. Hey, son, you ever notice all
your messages are really hard? Yeah, Lord. Every once in a while,
you might want to let them know that you love them, and that
I love them, and that I can help them. Yeah, Lord, kind of got
a blind spot there, don't I? Yeah, you do. Let's work on it. I never get there when I'm worried
about what everybody else thinks. You know what I do? Hey, you
know, your messages are too hard. Oh, is that what you think? You think my, yeah, okay, come
next Sunday. I'll show you hard. You ain't
gonna tell me how to preach. You see how if I worry about
what other people think, it gets in my way of being used and gone?
So what do you do? Disregard what they think. I'm
not saying in a flippant, arrogant manner. I'm saying disregard
what they think. And ask God what He thinks. You realize you
can disregard it in the right spirit? So, whatever. Okay. No, I'm not upset about
it. No, I'm not happy. No, I don't
like it. No, I'm not mad. Whatever. It's out of my mind. I'm done with that. I'm not even
thinking about that anymore. I'm not even talking about it. That's
done. but watch a TV show or something, forget about it. Why?
It doesn't matter. I want him to not pass me by.
Notice his parents, verse 18. The Jews did not believe concerning
him that he'd been blind and received his sight until they
called the parents of him that he received his sight. And they
asked them saying, is this your son whom he say was born blind? How then did he now see? It's
not possible. His parents answered them and
said, we know that this is our son. and that he was born blind. Don't rope us into his religion.
But by what means he now seeth, we know not. Or who hath opened
his eyes, we know not. He is of age, ask him, he'll
speak for himself. These words spake his parents, because they
feared the Jews. For the Jews had agreed already
that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put
out of the synagogue. Therefore said his parents, he
is of age, ask him. You see that? Are you joking,
you narcissistic parent? Your kid got help from Jesus
Christ, and rather than say, yeah, we got some help, that's
my kid. Don't worry about that kid, we've
been praying for that kid, carrying that kid around for years, and
my kid got help, glory to God. Oh yeah, well, where'd he get
help at? Over there, Bible believers? You know, they don't got the
right standards, you know that, right? They don't match our description
of what you're supposed to be, right? Well, you know, I mean,
I'm not saying, I mean, yeah, it's a good guy, and it's a good
ministry, and they preach, they believe the King James, and you
know. You coward. What's your problem? If I had a dime for every time
somebody's come here and said, you know, the Lord really spoke
to us, but the affiliation. But we've had more than one family
leave because I won't preach at them the standards they should
have. I put it on the head of the home and say, you man up
and figure out what standards God, what business is it of mine what
your wife wears? And why in whatever would you want me
to worry about what your wife is wearing? Ain't that your job? And if you're leading your home
right, you don't have to worry about your wife around anybody
because the standard is right, period. Literally, are you kidding me?
Yeah, all the churches where they preach standards all the
time, people are always leaving because we preach standards, and they
do. Guess what? On the other side
of the coin, we preach Bible, and we put the standards on you.
Modest apparel, that's Bible. That's the standard, that's the
position of this church. Oh, we're gonna find another
church. Okay, go. Why? Because my job is not, I don't
want anybody to go. Please don't take that wrong.
It breaks my heart every single time. But what I know is, my
job is to preach that book, and I'm not compromising that to
keep hind ends in a pew, or money in a box. because I'm gonna answer
Him for what I preach and I want Jesus to stop by and see you
and help you out and I want Him to stop by and help me out and
if I get caught up in my pharisaical rules of my own or in my opinions
and worries about what everybody else thinks of me and therefore,
well, I don't know, I'm just gonna take this neutral position, God's gone. Watch the last thing
and we'll go. Look at this sinner that got
converted. Boy, this is the guy I like here. First of all, I
want you to notice something. He kept it simple. You want Jesus
to help you out? Okay, three or four of us do.
Okay, there's more. They're shaking and smiling.
We're there, preacher. We're just looking at the clock
and you got two minutes, so... I'm just kidding. You guys have
never been that way to me. I put that pressure on myself. Look
at verse 11. He answered and said, A man that
is called Jesus made clay, and anointing my eyes, And said unto
me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And I went and washed,
and I received sight. How did this happen? Jesus said
it, and I did it, and voila. I can just see him standing there.
And I can see you guys, and in my mind before, you were a lot
better looking than you actually are, old man. You are one ugly
Pharisee, but that's all right, because I can see you. I couldn't
see you before. How'd that happen? Jesus said
it, I did it, and here I am. You want Jesus to help you out?
You better keep it simple. I don't know what's gotten into
these church members. They think there's so much to
it. It ain't that hard to serve God. It ain't that hard to get
a blessing. It ain't that hard for Jesus Christ to help you
out. You gotta want the help and realize it's simple. Why? Because he knows how simple you
are. And if he made it more complicated than it is, ain't nobody get
any help. How'd you get saved? The simple way. Look at verse
15. Pharisees asked him, how he received his sight? He said,
he put clay on my eyes and washed and I do see. There you go, three
points in a poem and we're out of here. 20 second message. He
put clay on my eyes, said wash, I washed, I see. Look at verse
17. They said unto the blind man
again, what sayest thou of him that opened thine eyes? He said,
he's a prophet. What do you think of Jesus? Oh,
he's God. Oh, you've got to have a better argument than that.
I mean, we need all the science, and we need proof that the Bible
is the word of God. And hey, I was blind. I could see. Jesus did it. Jesus
is God. End of discussion. Any other
questions? You know what he says to him? He's mocking him. He says, why
do you keep asking me? You want to believe too, don't
you? The scholars, the big shots,
the high muckety mucks. You keep asking me, it's in the
passage, you can go find it later. You keep asking me, you kind
of want to believe. You're going to believe on him
too? We ain't going to believe. That's
a convicting message that blind man preached. He got them all
riled up. Why? Because all he was doing
was testifying what God did for him. You realize that all you
got to do is stay simple? I was thinking about this. Danielle
got saved. Both her boys got saved. Matt
and Gabe got saved. Who else? There's other people
that got saved after you got saved. You brought them to church.
Michelle. Any more? I didn't mean to yell
at you. I'm still in a preaching mood
right now. OK. We're good. All right. There's
probably more, but we can't remember. Jesse. Jesse got saved. Samantha
got saved. Kids got saved. Tony Pepperoni
got saved. Karma got saved. Thomas' dad
got saved right before he died. Yeah, that was a big one, man.
I mean, he wasn't big, but that was huge. He got saved right
before he died. That was exciting. Who else? Think that's it? We could keep going, but
we're not going to. No, no. I had a guy get saved at work. Didn't even come to church. Little thing
that happened at work, and when that was all said and done, I
wasn't sure if it stuck or not. And you've been saved for a year
now? So obviously, he memorized every verse in the Bible on salvation
and had all the Greek references to back it up. And he was showing
them like it's not Calvinism, it's free will, but it's not
free will to lose your salvation. I mean, he went through it all,
man. He went through all the dispensations, right? Super simple, man. I like it. You know what just
happened? Brandon bought Emily. Emily got
saved. Tony Pepperoni brought his girlfriend. She said she's
gonna talk to us soon. We're praying for her. Dan Kasich's
been saved about two, maybe three years. His dad just came and
got saved a month ago. Are you getting my point yet?
My point is you don't have to be the big shot Pharisee that
knows the whole law. Jesus Christ to notice you open
up your eyes and for you to go. Hey, guess what? He anointed
my eyes. I washed I see you want to see And when God's in it when
the Holy Spirit of God gets on you brother when you got a love
for Jesus Christ and a Relationship with Jesus Christ and a desire
for Jesus Christ and you know what he did for you and you just
tell him man God does some stuff How many people we just name
anybody know 12 15 20? in the last couple years, and a bunch
of those just came in the last six months. From what? Not from
some people that have been saved 30 years. Shame on you. Ooh, that'll preach right there.
We could just stop it right now and give an altar call. But the
new Christians who are still trying to figure it all out,
right? Still saying, Lord, open my eyes,
Lord, open my eyes, Lord, open my eyes, Lord, open my eyes.
Amen, preacher. Come on, preach for another hour. Do you have
to stop at six? Don't matter if it's 6 or 5. If they're mad,
send them to me. I'll take care of them, preacher. That's the
thing, that's the thing you gotta understand. It's simple. It's
that love for Jesus Christ. It's that recognition of what
He did for you. It's that willingness to say,
I don't have all the answers. I just know something. I was
blind, and I'm telling you what I can see right now, and I'm
happy with what He's done for me. He's bringing them in. Keep it simple. He wasn't just
simple, He's strong. I'm gonna wrap it up, I got more
points, but I'm gonna stop here. They said unto him, verse 26,
what did he do to thee? How opened he thy eyes? He answered
them, I've told you already. You did not hear? Wherefore would
you hear it again? You like my story, don't you?
Will you also be his disciples? They reviled him and said, Thou
art his disciple, but we are Moses. He said, We know that
God speak unto Moses, as for this fellow, we know not whence
he is. And the man answered and said unto them, Why, I hear it,
and it is a marvelous thing. I think he's being sarcastic.
That ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened
my eyes. You know what I think he's saying
to them? Why, ain't this something? All
you high-muckety-mucks, you self-righteous religious people that know all
the Bible verses and everything else, You don't even know who
this guy's from. But me, he changed my life completely. You might not believe on him,
but I do. Why? Because I was blind, and now
I can see. You know the last thing that
I noticed here is that he sought more from Jesus Christ. This
is my conclusion. Verse 35, Jesus heard that they'd
cast him out. When he found him, he said unto
him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? When they kicked
him out of church, when they threw him out of town, when they
wanted nothing to do with him, Jesus showed up and said, hey boy,
you believe on me? Well, Lord, everybody's rejected
me. Lord, I got nowhere to go. Lord, they're all talking about
me. Lord, my own parents ripped my heart out. My own parents
don't even care that I can see now, Lord. I ain't asking you about all
them. I'm asking you if you believe on me. He answered and said,
who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? You believe on
the Son of God? Who is he? He said, Lord, he said, Jesus
said unto him, thou hast both seen him, and is he that talketh
with thee? And he said unto him, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped. You know what I find interesting
about that? Just a little while ago, he said, where'd he go? He said,
I don't know. Who is he? I'm not sure. What do you think of
him? He's a prophet. Jesus shows up and says, hey, you believe
on the Son of God? He says, who is he, Lord? You know what he wanted?
He wanted to know more about the one that gave him eyesight.
Christian, I want to know more about the one who gave me my
eyesight. You know why I came back tonight? One of my kids is teasing around
today, and she said, you guys going back tonight? I said, well,
we were thinking about it, but we decided we're just going to
go to the beach. We've had a rough week. Of course, you idiot. We always
go. It was a joke. Well, listen, you know why I'm
here? Not because I have to be. See
these hands? They're functioning, right? These
legs, they're functioning. Had a friend call me this week
complaining because he's so backed up on work. He's turning down
jobs. He needs good help to get work
done. Making a ton of money. I don't have to come to church.
It's your job. You don't think I can quit? I know you write my paycheck
and I greatly appreciate it more than you know. But I am not here
for a paycheck. I'm here because I want to know
more about the one who gave me my eyesight. I want to know more
about the one that when everybody else is abandoned, he said, hey,
man, what do you think of the son of God? You've been watching me, ain't
you? Oh, yeah. You saw I was about to quit,
didn't you? You know why, don't you? I'm
not here to talk about them. Well, Lord, I want to talk to
you about them. I'm not here to talk to you about them. What
do you think of me? I think you always show up when
nobody else is there. I think you love me when nobody
else does. I think you love me when I hate myself. I think you
loved me when I was blind, you gave me sight. You want to know
more? Yeah, I'd like to learn a little
bit more about you. Okay? Now you're sent. Go tell them. Go tell the people at Bible Leaders
Church about South Lyon. You spend the rest of your life
telling them about me. Lord, I ain't worthy to do that. I know you're not. Just go tell
them. Just go tell them how you got your sight and tell them
to tell other people how they got their sight and learn more
about me. Let's stand on our feet
Open my eyes
Series John
| Sermon ID | 8920222101079 |
| Duration | 1:00:55 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | John 9 |
| Language | English |
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