Louder Than Words | Pastor Robert Bradow | Week 2

Well, good morning and welcome to the Orchard Online.

I'm so excited to be with you today and I'm so glad that you've tuned in.

We're in week two of a little series that we started through the summer that's called Louder Than Words, where we've been looking at some of the songs that we sing.

We're looking at the the background behind the songs and understanding the deeper theological context and most importantly how those things apply to our lives so we can be a little bit more in tune when we sing them.

So last week we did a song, as Pastor Chip said, from the 1900s.

It seems like a long time ago, but it was a song Heart of Worship.

And man, when I left from church, I have to tell you something, I was extremely convicted.

Let me tell you why, because there's one little line in that song that though I've sang it a thousand times, it hit different on Sunday.

And it was the line that said, I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it.

I'm sorry, Lord, for what I have made worship.

And it caused me to think a little bit deeper because I felt like the Holy Spirit was really hammering on me with this question.

What have I made worship?

My question is, what have I made it to become it?

You see, because worship was never ever meant to become an it.

Christianity was never meant to become it.

Jesus was never meant to just become it.

Yet somewhere along the way, it seems that we have made our faith where it is limited to our attendance or our traditions or performances or preferences or all of those things that surround what we call religion.

I think the easiest way to say that is very simply, we have made Christianity something we do instead of someone that we know.

And when that happens, we can talk about Jesus without actually knowing Jesus.

We defend Jesus without actually following Jesus, and we can sing about Jesus without actually loving Jesus.

And somewhere along the way, I'm afraid that we have made him it.

We speak about Jesus from a distance.

And as I struggle through this, I came to one powerful conclusion.

To truly make Jesus, what we're going to talk about this week, my Jesus, it requires ownership.

Now, I'm not talking about owning Jesus like we own him, like we own a boat or we own a vehicle or we own a home.

But we own Jesus as we own our part of the covenant relationship.

You see, it's kind of like my wife, Danelle.

We're in a covenant relationship.

And I don't own her as far as I possess her, but I own her because I'm required to own the relationship and own my responsibilities in that relationship.

She is my wife.

She's my Danelle.

If you think about it, nobody really says my Jesus unless they've experienced him personally.

And that brings us to today's song, My Jesus, a song that was written and sang by Ann Wilson.

Let me share with you a little bit of the story behind the song because it's powerful.

At 15 years old, her brother was in a really terrible automobile accident, and he actually died from that.

And at that moment, everything in Ann's life changed.

Her dreams changed, her plans changed, and her future that she had imagined was just gone.

But in the middle of that grief, she started reading back through her prayer journal, and she realized that she didn't refer to just God as God or Lord or Savior, but she constantly and consistently wrote the word my Jesus when she referred to Jesus.

You see, it's the stewardship through that ownership.

And in this time of loss, all the religious language in her journal was stripped away, and she was left with something that was very real.

She discovered that Jesus wasn't just a doctrine, he wasn't just her savior or just her Lord.

He was personal.

And that's exactly what happens in the story we're going to look at today in scripture.

In John chapter 9, we're introduced to a blind man, and he doesn't just learn about Jesus, he has an experience with Jesus, and it became very personal.

John 9 · chapter mention

And by the end of the story, he can't explain everything that happened, but he knows enough to call him his own.

Let me read this text to you right now.

John chapter 9, beginning of verse 1.

John 9 · chapter mention

It says, as he, Jesus, was passing by, he saw a man who was blind from birth.

His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned?

This man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Neither this man nor his parents sinned, Jesus answered.

This came about so that God's works might be displayed in him.

We must do the works of him who sent me while it is still day.

Night is coming when no one can work.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

And after he said these things, he spit on the ground, made some mud from his saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes.

Go, he told him, wash in the pool of Salaam.

So he left, washed, and came back seeing.

His neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, said, Isn't this the one who used to sit begging?

Some said he's the one.

Others were saying, No, but he looks like him.

He kept saying, I am the one.

So they asked him, Then how were your eyes open?

And he answered, The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, Go to Saloam and wash.

So when I went and washed, I received my sight.

Where is he?

They asked.

I don't know, he said.

So they brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees.

The day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was on the Sabbath.

And when the Pharisees asked him again how he received his sight, he put mud in my eyes.

He told them, I wash and I can see.

Now at this point in the story, something amazing happens because the religious folks of this day, the Pharisees, they said for the parents.

They're saying, Let's get somebody who's responsible, who's got it all together.

And they begin to ask him, What's going on?

And they say, Yes, this is our son.

Yes, he was born blind, and we really don't know how this happened.

Go ask him.

It's his faith.

He can speak for himself.

And the Pharisees, they get pretty upset about this.

And what they say in this moment, they begin to sort of chastise this man who was blind and now can see.

And they say, Give glory to God.

We know that this man, speaking of Jesus, is a sinner.

And he answered, and I love this.

Whether or not he's a sinner, I don't know.

But one thing I do know, I was blind, and now I can see.

Now don't miss what's happening here.

The religious experts they were constantly hammering Jesus, interrogating him, investigating him, questioning him.

They were trying to take Jesus, the works of Jesus, the result of Jesus, and fit it into the religious box.

Do you see?

They were trying to make a person something that was a part of something that they could control.

I mean, and what's so amazing to me in this story is that they were the ones who knew the most who knew the most about God, but they were the ones who were struggling to see what God was doing most.

While the man who knew the least about God, he couldn't deny what God had done.

He was excited about this.

And the Pharisees kept saying, Tell us what you know about Jesus.

And the blind man replied, I don't know everything about him.

All I know is what happened to me when I met him.

Can I tell you that line in that story is what makes this song, My Jesus, such a powerful song?

You see, Ann Wilson, she wasn't giving a dissertation in theology.

She was writing from a testimony of her relationship.

She was saying, Let me tell you what my Jesus did for me.

And that's exactly what this blind man is doing.

He doesn't say, hey, I've got all the theological insights in the world.

I don't have all the doctrinal answers.

He's simply saying, one thing I know is I met a man and I was blind, and now I can see.

You see, there comes a point, I believe, in every believer's life, when our faith stops being borrowed and it starts becoming personal.

When Jesus stops being your parents' Jesus, or your pastor's Jesus, or even the Jesus of your church, and we take ownership in that and he becomes your Jesus.

And when that happens, you may not know all there is to know about Jesus.

You may not know about everything that led up to the story, the birth of Jesus, but nobody can talk you out of what he has done for you.

You see, that leads to the big idea that we've got to grasp in the story.

You may not be an authority on theology, but you are the world's greatest authority on what has happened to you.

So let me take you through this story because in it there's a powerful pattern that we see developed, and it's the same pattern that we see that happened in the life of Ann Wilson that led to this great song.

So my prayer for you through this, as you hear this, is you can resonate that we're probably walking many of those same paths as that blind man, as Anne Wilson did.

And I hope through this you will understand how you can make Jesus your Jesus.

Hey, point number one is this we've got to realize that my Jesus meets me in my pain.

So in verses one through three, the disciples see a problem here.

And they ask Jesus this question Hey, Jesus, tell us, what was it that caused this man, what was the sin in his life that caused him to be born blind?

Was it something he did, or was it something that his parents did?

Was it their sin?

And Jesus answers, he says, Neither this man nor his parents sinned.

So the disciples see a problem in the situation, but Jesus, I love this, he sees a purpose.

And when they ask who sinned, he says, Man, you got the wrong question here.

The disciples want to know the cause, but Jesus pointed to a purpose.

And this man who has spent his entire life wondering why he had been born blind.

I mean, blind as a child, blind as a teenager, blind as a young man, and now as a young adult, years of unanswered questions.

And Jesus says, Hey, sin, your sin didn't cause this.

And we know the big picture is that it was because of the curse of the broken world in which we live.

But Jesus says something so powerful.

This came about so God's works might be displayed in him.

You got to notice this.

Jesus doesn't try to explain the suffering, but what he does in this moment is that he enters into the suffering.

And that's what makes him my Jesus.

Everybody else just analyzed the blind man's pain.

They talked about it, they rationalized it.

They probably even avoided it, but Jesus, he didn't.

He stepped right into it.

You see, religion always asks, why am I suffering?

Why am I going through this?

Why does bad things happen to good people?

But Jesus is asking this question.

It's a reality, but will you trust me through it?

And Ann Wilson couldn't give an explanation of why her brother died.

The blind man couldn't give an explanation as to why he was born blind.

And you may be going something uh through something today that's pretty tough that you can't explain.

And whatever that may be, though that pain is hard and the suffering is tough, is it possible that God has created that as a doorway that the works of God can be displayed through it?

You see, oftentimes our suffering is what introduces us to a side of Jesus that many of us have never seen.

Possibly that side that can transition the way you see Jesus from just Jesus to my Jesus.

Second thing I want you to see is this my Jesus changes my story.

Man, when he becomes the personal part of your story, it changes.

So in verses 6 through 11, we see the action of what Jesus did here.

And while it may not be very dignified, let me remind you that this is in the Word of God.

So Jesus, you know, he kind of hawks a loogie, he spits on the ground, rubs it around in the dirt, scoops some of it up, and then he takes this mud pie of dirt and saliva, puts it in this blind man's eyes.

And on a side note, uh let me tell you why the blind man allowed this to happen.

You see, literally he didn't see it coming.

No pun intended in that.

But I think that that really reveals an issue that we deal with today.

Is that oftentimes we try to control what God is doing in our life, and it's in moments like this when maybe there's something that's happening in your life that you didn't see coming, maybe it's because God has blinded our eyes to that, so God can then do the work in us and through us.

Man, we like to control things, and I think we get so busy controlling the works of God that that's what makes our worship it.

That's why we say, I'm sorry, Lord, for the things I've made it.

Because we think we've got things figured out.

We we love being in control.

We love having a plan, we love having a timeline, we love to dictate things along the way, we love knowing how things are gonna work out.

But Jesus, he has a way of allowing our plans to become a dumpster fire, to get in this moment so he can then reveal his purpose through that suffering and that pain that we go through.

I mean, can you imagine this blind man?

He can't see Jesus, he can't see the mud.

Uh, the only indicators that he had that something that was going on was the conversation that was taking place between the disciples and Jesus, and then hearing the prerequisite to the spit that ended on the ground.

And even then, I'm sure he didn't know that he was about to have spit and mud put in his eyes, and then he hears a voice of instruction, a voice, an invitation to obedience, where he says, now go wash.

I mean, hold on, Jesus.

I came in here blind, and you done put some spit from a mud pie in my eyes, and now you're sending me on my way to walk under this authority.

All I have is my surrender and obedience in this.

And okay.

And he goes and does that.

He walks away as a blind man and he comes back and he's come back seeing.

And what we've got to understand in this story is that the miracle was not in the mud.

The miracle wasn't even in the pool of Salaam.

The miracle was released through his obedience.

The blind man had a choice.

He could have acted like many of us act today.

He could have reasoned with Jesus, he could have questioned Jesus, he could have ridiculed the process, and he could have demanded an explanation, but instead, he simply just surrendered to Jesus without having all the details.

I wonder how many miracles that God wants to perform in our lives that we miss because we get caught up in negotiating the process that He has ordained.

We keep saying, Lord, I need to know all the details when God is saying to us, you just need to learn to trust me.

So and Ann Will's story is no different.

She never planned to lose her brother.

She never planned to become a singer.

She never planned to write a song that would impact millions of people.

But when her plans died, she discovered that God's purpose was real and that it was alive and it was coming to fruition.

The blind man went to the pool blind and he came back seeing because every transformation begins with surrender.

That's exactly what happened in this writer's life.

And here's what I know is that though this man didn't understand theology, he hadn't attended seminary, he hadn't sat in Sunday school classes that we know about, he knows one thing.

I met Jesus.

And man, this story changed because Jesus entered into this pain and suffering.

You see, when Jesus enters into your story, your story becomes testimony.

That's the my Jesus story.

The tragedy that could have destroyed Anne Wilson became the testimony that introduced millions to Christ.

The pain may have remained.

Yes, the pain was real.

The suffering was in the midst of her reality, but now the pain revealed a purpose that was greater than her.

You remember what Jesus said?

This came about so that God's works might be displayed in him?

Man, it's the picture of Romans 8.28.

For we know that God works all things together for good for those who love him and those who are called according to his purpose.

You see, Jesus desires to change our lives and to change our story if we will just submit to the authority, if we will just be obedient through our surrender.

Let me show you the third thing.

To me, this is by far the greatest.

You see, my Jesus gives me a testimony that nobody can take away.

I love the words of this blind man that he says in verse 25.

If you remember verse 24, they're saying, hey, just give glory to God in this.

We know that this man, Jesus, is a sinner, and it doesn't rock this man who was once blind at all.

He says, Hey, whether or not he's a sinner, I don't know.

In other words, I don't know everything about him.

But what I do know is this I was blind and now I can see.

So the Pharisees, they continue their error their interrogation.

Uh they question him, they argue, they debate, they discredit, they pressure.

And finally, this man who used to be blind, he gives one of the greatest testimonies in all of Scripture.

He says, All I know is this.

I was blind and now I can see.

You see, he doesn't say, I understand all the mysteries, I don't understand all the doctrine, I don't have all the answers.

He simply says, I can tell you what Jesus did for me.

I was blind, and he touched me, and now I can see.

And here's the thing nobody could argue with that.

Nobody could argue with you about what Jesus has done in your life.

Nobody can discredit the work that he has done in you, and nobody can discredit the work that he is doing in you and that he is doing through you.

That's why this song resonates.

Anne's and Wilson's song is simply her singing a testimony.

She's not introducing us to somebody else's Jesus.

She's telling us about her Jesus, the Jesus who walked with her through this grief, the Jesus who turned her test into a testimony.

And here's the question that I have for you today.

Can you honestly say those two words intermingled together?

Can you say it like this?

As an act of testimony, let me tell you about my Jesus.

You see, I think too often we want to tell people about somebody else's Jesus.

We want to tell people about our grandmother's Jesus.

We want to tell people about our parents' Jesus.

We want to tell people about the Jesus that our pastor talks about.

We want to tell people about the Jesus that we serve at church.

You see, here's what we have to remember is that the Jesus who found you in your broken, poor, and pitiful state, in your blind state, he's my Jesus.

The Jesus who forgave me of my sins, that's my Jesus.

The Jesus who carried me in moments that I were too weak to walk, that's my Jesus.

The Jesus who healed me in so many times in my life when I was broken beyond repair, that's my Jesus.

And most importantly, the Jesus that came into my life when I was lost as a ball in high weeds and saved me on a trajectory where I was headed to the fiery pits of hell.

He's my Savior.

He is my Jesus.

You see, because I believe there's a moment in everyone's life where we will arrive at this John 9.25 place.

There's going to come a moment where you're going to have to start arguing, uh, stop arguing theology and begin sharing your testimony about what Jesus did personally in your life.

You're going to stop saying, This is what I've heard, or this is what I've read, or this is the song that I sang, until you're pressed into a moment where you can say, Hey, there's lots of stuff I don't know.

But what I do know is that Jesus saved me.

I was lost, but now I'm found.

I was broken, but I've been healed.

I was hopeless, but now I have hope.

I was blind, but now I can see.

And when that becomes your story, Jesus is no longer it.

And our worship of Jesus doesn't just become it.

He's no longer just a religious figure or the greatest character in this great book that we read.

He's no longer simply just doctrine.

He becomes your Jesus.

That's why we can say that you may not be an authority on theology, but you are the world's greatest authority on what happened to you.

And I wonder, maybe you feel that tension right now that was felt in this John 9, 25 verse.

Maybe the enemy would love nothing more than to keep you at this place of stalemate between who you were and who you are now.

You see, because when Jesus steps into your story, silence is no longer an option.

When Jesus steps into your story, something wells up so great inside of you that what's inside of you must come out of you.

And I believe that the Spirit of God is bringing all of us to this John 9.25 moment now.

Back to the place that we stop defending and we start declaring.

Back to the place that we stop explaining and analyzing and we begin exalting and we begin worshiping.

You see, because when you really know what he's done for you, you can't just sit on it.

You've got to proclaim it.

And that leads to our final takeaway.

Yes, suffering may bring pain into your life, but when Jesus becomes personal, your suffering becomes the testimony, and your testimony becomes your worship.

My question for you today: are you willing to enter into this John 9 25 verse?

When the world is pressing you in so many areas to say, tell me about this Jesus, and you say, It's not this Jesus.

This is my Jesus.

And then you can begin to sing and proclaim the words of Anne Wilson that we see projected through this passage.

Let me tell you about my Jesus.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the day, and I thank you, God, for this passage of Scripture.

God, thank you for this song.

And God, while we identify that we live in a broken world, God, where we experience real pain and suffering, I pray today that our faith has been renewed to the point that you allow these things to happen so the works of God would manifest themselves and that you would receive all the praise, honor, and glory.

God, I pray for the one listening today who may be struggling with Jesus living in a distance in their life.

I pray that in this moment, God, that your spirit would ask them the question, Who is Jesus to you?

And that they would be bold to answer, He's my Jesus.

Father, thank you for all those that are listening today.

Thank you for this word.

God, we love you and we praise you for all that you've done and all you continue to do.

In Jesus' name I pray these things.

Amen.