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