2020 Vision!

Listen, I just want to share for a minute Noah and Ivy Cleveland.

We met them a few years back at Summer Camp.

They serve and lead worship for our students at Go Tell with Rick Gage and Togoa, Georgia.

And we've had them now the last two years for the winter retreat and had them for a special night another time.

And the ministry heart that they have is hard to find.

And I'm just gonna be honest and transparent with you and ask you to do something for us.

When we're done here today, why don't you go buy a book and help them?

Go look at their merchandise.

They're literally here for nothing today.

They were jumping on on our retreat, and it costs to travel, it costs to fill up a tank of gas, it costs to come out, and they just are doing this to be friends to us.

And I said, man, come meet our people.

Our people are all our church is awesome, and we wanted to just expose their ministry to CCW.

And uh so if you would when you leave today, um go be a blessing and um check out their merchandise, buy up that book.

I I've been selling out of that book everywhere she goes, so I don't, it's liquid gold in there, um, but buy up that book and uh it'll be a big help and a blessing to them.

And you know, one thing that showed me that the heart they have a few months ago, and some of you in the church has helped with this, but any anytime a person opens their heart to adoption, it's a big deal.

And uh, you know in this church that we believe in that, so I know that they're still not totally there yet.

And uh, if it's okay me sharing that, but anyway, if you can be a help in some way to that, um, you know, pray and ask the Lord to lead you.

If you've got your Bibles, turn them to John chapter 9.

John 9 · chapter mention

As you are, I do have a prayer request I need you to be praying for.

Um our hearts are really sad for the Neely family.

Um and Jason's, is it your cousin, Jason?

Okay, Jason's cousin, 39 years old, um, passed away in the night a few days ago.

Very sudden, very unexpected, and his family is just really broken up about it.

So be praying for them in the next few days as there will be funeral services, but um, you can imagine when someone that young passes the pain that's being felt.

So please be in prayer for the knees, their family, and that passing.

John chapter 9, as you're turning there, um I want to share with you a message this morning entitled 2020 Vision.

John 9 · chapter mention

2020 Vision.

And as you're looking at John 9, I was thinking about married people and driving.

Kind of funny, right?

Married people.

Some of it's not really.

Some of y'all have been married a long time.

There's two types of people when you're driving, right?

I I don't hold the Jesus bar.

Okay?

You know what I'm talking about, the little bar on the side.

Some people call it something else, okay?

Um, I don't gasp, I don't go, okay?

I try my best to relax when I'm a passenger.

Now that's one type.

This is suffice to say there's another type.

Okay?

There's the other type.

I'm gonna give all the details, but I'm not, I will say this and I'm not gonna lie, my wife is a phenomenal navigator.

She really is, okay?

I'm not the details, like I like to get things done, but sometimes the details for me are just boring.

I'm just gonna be honest.

She has gotten us out of some jams with old paper maps before, y'all.

The young people in here won't understand that, right?

Like, I'm talking about before MapQuest printed maps with the step-by-step.

She pulled out a map.

I'm like, what's she doing?

What are you doing?

We're lost.

We're just gonna, what are we gonna do with that?

And she has gotten us, and and and I understand that.

So, but the funny thing is, after 14 years of marriage, out of nowhere, suddenly, I can't park a car.

I just can't, I don't know why.

I well, I do kind of know why, but I can't park a car, so we'll go somewhere.

And Heather's like, you're over.

And I'm like, what?

And she's like, You're all over the place, you're over the lines, and I'm like, and like, I don't got the time to care to pack it up.

I'm like, it's okay, it'll be all right.

She's like, this is so inconsiderate, and I'm like, so you know, we'll pull in, I'm all over lines.

If there's another car there, I'm good, right?

Because I judge by that car whether, you know, mostly I'm 50-50 if there's another car there, but what is happening is I have mirrors on my car, and I don't got time to be adjusting and playing with mirrors.

I got to get where I'm going.

Y'all feel me?

Is there some men here that are like this?

Okay, you're the man that on Christmas Eve you were putting together the gift that broke already?

Y'all see me?

Okay, because you put it together backwards first, okay?

Listen, I don't have, and here's the thing, we have mirrors, but I haven't been using them to see clearly.

There's a problem in America, almost 2020.

The light is shining, church, but vision is distorted.

The light is shining, but people are not seeing.

The light is shining, but people everywhere have no vision.

I want to kind of coin a phrase through this sermon today, and this is the phrase to be the vision, you have to see the vision.

Say that with me.

To be the vision, you have to see the vision.

And so in John chapter 9, I want you to catch up with me to a man who was born blind.

John 9 · chapter mention

John 9, we're going to read verses 1 through 3 here.

It says, This.

Now, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth.

And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned?

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

Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

And so what we see here is a man who was born blind.

And letter A, or the first point this morning is, Allow God to change you.

In 2020, to have a vision, we have to allow God to change.

And this man has an encounter with God, and the disciples begin a debate.

The disciples begin a debate on darkness.

Verses 1 through 3, we see that.

And this is their question.

Why is this man blind?

And they have a big assumption about his blindness.

They say, Whose sin is it?

This man's blind.

Well, whose sin is it?

They immediately assume this man has a calamity, so it's the result of sin.

Is it his personal sin?

Is it because his parents sinned?

And they're going back and forth on this debate.

Now, I'd press to say, church, that probably that same assumption lives 2,000 years later.

People see somebody in a situation and they start to debate, well, why is this person like this?

Why are they so broke?

Why are they in this condition?

Well, it must be because they did this.

It must be because they had parents like this, right?

That's why it happened.

And so they're having this debate.

And I got to ask this question because I think this is the practical point we're supposed to draw.

Why are so many people spiritually blind?

Why in 2020 are so many people spiritually blind?

And the Bible lists four types of darkness.

I want to point them out this morning as we jump into it.

And the one thing, the first one is this mental darkness.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4 3, if the gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded.

Satan's blinding, men.

And they do not believe.

1 Corinthians 1.18 says it this way, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

But to us who are saved, it's the power of God.

Here's what mental darkness is: the light is shining, but men can't see it.

The light is shining, but they just can't see it.

Have you ever met someone who, for every answer you give them to a problem, they have a reason why that answer won't work.

Y'all with me?

You ever had that discussion?

Before it was over, you felt like you were as discouraged as them, but it wasn't your problem?

Right?

You start giving this and this, and no, that I tried that.

That won't work.

And no matter what you say, it's not the right thing.

In John 5, there's an interesting story leading up to this passage in John 9.

In John 5, there's a lame man who's laying on a mat.

And the lame man who's laying on his mat wants to be healed.

And there's a pool that's sitting in front of him where people are going to be healed.

And he encounters Jesus, and Jesus asks him a really strange question.

He asked the man, Do you want to be healed?

Been lame for all his life.

Do you want to be healed?

That sounds crazy, right?

You've had a calamity, you've had a trial, you've had a struggle, and someone says to you, Do you want this to be well?

What do you think his answer would be?

Well, yeah.

No, well, this man on the mat, you know what he says?

He says, I can't get to the pool of waters.

I can't get up.

I can't get in that water.

And he begins immediately to throw excuses.

And this is what I think happens sometimes.

I think people believe that the problem is a problem, but I think some people start to get comfortable on their mat.

I think they get they start to get comfortable in their complaints.

And if they don't have something to complain about, are they even going to call?

And so I think the lame man, he began with an excuse.

Jesus says, Do you want to be well?

And in 2020, church, do you want to be well?

Because we all got an issue, right?

We all got some problems.

The question is, do you have an excuse or do you believe that you can be well?

You see, it happened with Lazarus in John 11.

Mary and Martha are crying that Jesus didn't make it in time, and Jesus shows up and Jesus begins immediately to jump into action.

He says, Hey, why don't y'all move the stone?

You're about to see something let loose, move the stone.

And you know what they said?

They didn't, you don't see Mary and Martha start stretching, or all right, we're gonna move a stone, what are we gonna do?

You know what happens in Scripture?

They said, but Lord, and you miss this if you don't have the KJV, the old English, but Lord, the body stinketh.

They immediately share an I'm about to raise this boy from the dead.

And you know what they got time to say when they've been wanting Jesus to do something?

But Lord, it stinks.

Lord, that's dirty work.

They have an immediate reason why that the answer can't be the answer.

In Luke 14, there's a parable, and the parable is an invitation of a feast, and the parable illustrates Jesus' invitation of us to come to his dinner table.

It's an invitation of salvation for lost men.

And you see in the parable three immediate excuses when people were invited to come to this feast.

And the excuses are pretty simple.

One was I bought a piece of ground.

Okay, I gotta go see about something that I bought.

I can't make it to the dinner party.

The second one is I bought five oxen and I have to test them.

I gotta go to work.

I got a dinner, I can't make it because I bought something, I bought something, and I gotta test it.

And the third one is kind of funny to me.

I it is basically this I have a wife and I can't come.

I got a wife, I hadn't checked.

Well, I can't make it to the party.

And so they all come with excuses.

And here's the the point of the parable: the invitation from Jesus is come.

All things are now ready.

Jesus has died, the just for the unjust.

He's come to bring us to God's table.

But those in mental darkness come with an excuse.

If I become a Christian, Pastor Rick, then I'm gonna have to give up all my pleasures.

Or I've done so much wrong, and there's no way my past can be forgiven.

It's an excuse.

Or they'll look at people in church and say, if that's if that's what I'm supposed to be like, if if that's what's gonna happen, then I'm good.

I'm okay.

I'm gonna be okay.

I'll just do it later.

You see, the light is on, but they can't calculate it.

They can't see it socially, they can't see it working psychologically, they can't calculate it scientifically.

So they just say, I can't see it.

So that's mental darkness.

The second type of darkness is moral darkness.

Moral darkness.

And if you got a second, turn over to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

I want you to see these words.

John chapter 3, verse 19 through 21 about moral darkness.

John 3:19–21

It says this, and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light, and does not come to the light.

Why do you think churches are not filled to capacity overflowing, lest his deeds should be exposed?

But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen.

What this is saying is men not only live in the dark, but they love the dark.

The Bible says that in the end times people will be willingly ignorant.

That means stupid on purpose.

I like this darkness.

It's a denial of truth.

It's like me looking down at this, and this is what's happened in our world today, and I'm not calling out politics or any of those things, but someone living in moral darkness says, I know that you say that this is red, but that's blue.

You say that this is red, but do you understand?

I like for it to be blue, and because of the convenience of me liking it to be blue, I am going to call that red thing blue.

You may see it as red, but I see it as blue.

And so we live in a world today that is living in this moral darkness.

They are okay with the lies.

It's more convenient to live in that darkness.

They're not making excuses.

They are willingly living in darkness because it's convenient to this temporary life.

And oh, how I can't understand that someone would look at the temporary part of this life that is like the end of my fingernail compared to the stretching of my arms around this room and say, I want to live for that part of the fingernail.

The temporary part of this life.

But willingly choose darkness.

They've distorted reality, and somehow the cost of eternity to them, it's no big deal.

It's a shrug of the shoulders.

The whole time I was growing up, people would always tell me, don't play with fire, or you'll get burned.

You've heard that.

Don't play with fire or you'll get burned.

And the older I got, the more mischievous I got, the more I would try things, and the more if I got away, I would feel more and more invincible as I would throw my hand through fire or jump over a bonfire or whatever I was doing because somehow I didn't get burnt.

Well, one Thanksgiving.

Heather was cooking a big old feast, or maybe it was Christmas.

I can't remember Christmas Thanksgiving anyway.

We were frying turkeys, and uh, I've never fried turkeys before, but I'm a man.

Of course I can fry turkeys.

So I get this thing outside, this barrel, whatever it is, and I'm pouring the oil in it, and I get the first turkey, plop, plop the first turkey down, and all of a sudden things got very warm.

Next thing I know, I'm literally remembering my third grade teacher saying, Stop, drop, and roll.

I am in my backyard rolling on the ground, smacking my leg, and hoping nobody anywhere has seen what's happened.

I caught on fire.

I caught on fire.

Listen, I found out fire burns.

Jesus is the way.

But these people say, but fire has never burned me yet.

How scary.

Listen, I want to tell you something, church.

We are not invincible.

The light is shining, but people in moral darkness are saying, it's it's not that big a deal.

And let me tell you, when you get burned, it's a big deal.

There's a judicial darkness the Bible talks about, and we don't have time to go through it.

But that darkness speaks of our standing before God one day, and there's gonna come a time where it's too late.

God will judge you based on a choice to reject or accept his light.

And there's gonna come a time where that judicial darkness is gonna find us.

And then the Bible speaks of in John 3, eternal darkness.

It says that Jesus didn't come into the world to condemn the world, but he came into the world to save the world.

But those who will not believe are condemned already.

And what that condemnation is talking about is a real place called hell.

Eternal darkness.

The world is living in types of darkness.

So, what did Jesus do is the question.

They're debating.

Why is this man blind?

Why does he have this problem?

There's all types of darkness.

And Jesus does this letter B.

Divine and dirty deliverance is what we'll see.

Read verses 3 through 5 with me again.

He says, Neither this man nor his parents sin, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.

The night is coming when no one can work.

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

So he gives them, the first thing we see that he gives them is an answer.

The disciples are spending time debating the man's problem.

Jesus comes to him and he answers a man's need.

That's number one underneath of that.

He answers the man's need.

They're debating, but they're not doing anything.

Now it was Sabbath.

Jesus could have passed him by.

The religious principles of the day were don't do anything.

And Jesus, this is what I love about it, he didn't care about man-made religious stuff, observances.

So he answers the question.

What is the answer to the question?

He says, There is darkness.

This man is living in darkness.

He says, I'm the light.

The answer is this, I am the light.

And so we see a couple of things why these people would think he is in this position.

And I want you to understand, some people in this life are going to have physical trial.

It's just going to be that way.

And the Bible actually guarantees you in John 16, 33, he says, in this world you'll have tribulation.

He says, Be of good cheer if I've overcome the world.

But that's a promise.

We're going to have struggle.

It's not an if, it's a when.

And so we're going to have struggle, and some will have physical trial so that God would be seen by changing them.

The way that this blind man glorifies God, some will go through a trial, and some in our church have this year.

There's been people this year that have gotten cancer and been healed.

And this is what it is: it's healing so that light will be glorified and magnify God through their change.

Some people will be healed by God and he'll get glory because of what happened in their change by healing.

Now, some people, there'll be others who will have physical trial.

Same thing, so that God would be seen and he can change the world.

But in that person, God is going to be magnified through their attitude, through their trial.

They may never be healed.

But because in that person's attitude, God was seen, he's magnified, and he is glorified through a person.

Because Matthew 5, 16 says this let your light so shine before men that they will glorify your Father.

And so there's all kinds of trials, and I know this about Christmas time.

It brings up some stuff, right?

Some of you this Christmas had to display an attitude.

Some that glorified Christ.

Some display an attitude that may have been very different.

But you'll go through a thing.

I know things come out of the closet, family gets together that hadn't been together for a long time, all year, and all of a sudden there's hurt.

Right?

All kinds of stuff comes out of the closet.

Am I right?

Is anybody else's family normal?

Okay.

Yeah, that is normal, okay?

I think.

I don't know.

Okay.

And so I know this stuff happens.

Here's what you do.

How do we go through trial and glorify God?

This is what you can do.

You, church, I'm gonna help somebody here today.

You can't control anything that somebody else does.

You have zero control on any pain, any emotional pain, any physical, any pain that somebody else will inflict.

You have no control on what somebody else can do.

You have 100% control on how you respond to everything.

Your response is the thing that is the light that shines to all men so that they can see God.

You may not come out of a trial your whole life.

And that's just the bleak truth.

There may be a trial that goes with you forever.

But God can be seen through the attitude that you show.

Love can be seen.

And people one day they're going to be sitting here, you may never get to see it, but they're going to say, I don't know how that girl did it.

I don't know how, because I was about to go off on them myself, but she just kept it cool and calm and they stayed together.

You know how?

Because you love Jesus.

You can't do it if you didn't wake up this morning and get in the word, let me tell you.

If you do it in your own flesh, somebody's gonna get beat up.

So, number one, he answered the man's needs.

Verse 6, look at this.

It says, When he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay.

So we see in verse 6 the second thing he does to him, he agitates the man.

He agitates the man.

Jesus goes like this.

This is seriously the way I see it, okay?

Y'all haven't been youth pastors for 15 years, so but I have, and this is the way it goes down in scripture.

Right.

Picks it up.

That's what scripture said.

Am I wrong?

Okay.

He puts on, Jesus puts on some holy spit up in this man's eyes.

You remember grandma's magic spit when you were a kid?

Remember when you were a kid, a grown, mature, and educated human being came to you with their nasty spit-filled finger, gonna clean the germ off your face?

Right?

She's come here, sweetheart.

You got a little, you got a little something right there.

Like, you just put some of dinner back on me.

What?

Oh, honey, you just got a little something.

Look, my grandma, she had that magic spit.

She came by when I got a truck.

She said, Oh, baby, you got a little rust on that truck.

Let me get it.

I'm just scared.

Wow.

I need to meet his.

But Jesus, the first thing you see, he agitates the man.

Have you ever had one speck of dirt in your eye?

I'm talking one speck.

You're like, you get under the thing and you're pouring water and one speck of dirt.

Jesus spits down in the ground, pours around some clay cakes, picks it up, and puts both of them in the man's eyes.

You miss it again if you don't read the old KJV.

It says that he pushed down and he made spittle.

He put the spittle cakes in his eyes.

Listen.

This is what I see in this.

Jesus wants you and me when we got an issue to acknowledge our weakness.

And you know what?

For some people here, educated, smart people, that's just irritating.

When I look in the mirror and Jesus is trying to tell me that I need to stop being so angry, well, I deserve my anger.

You ever got in a fight with your wives, husbands?

Man, sometimes I just want to stay mad because I deserve that time of anger.

I don't have to go to you.

You come to me.

You made me angry.

That's real spiritual and scriptural, right?

Matthew 18 says, if your brother has ought against you, then you sit there and wait for them.

And what it says, right?

It says, you go to the person.

And so it's irritating.

And Jesus, the second thing we see is he agitates the man.

Verse 7.

It says this.

And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloom, which is translated sent.

So he went and washed, and he came back seeing.

Third thing we see that Jesus does to him, he makes the man take action.

He makes him take action.

Now listen, the deliverance of Jesus here is free, but it wasn't cheap.

There is a false philosophy that says salvation is all on God.

No, sir, no ma'am.

We have to take action.

He said, go and bathe at the pool of Saloon.

It's like the lame man on his mat.

He says, you have to pick up your mat.

It's like Mary and Martha about Lazarus.

He said, move the stone.

But I want you to understand something about this place he tells him to go.

Now everybody knew that the pool of Bethesda, where the lame man was healed, was a pool of healing.

Okay.

Now Jesus tells him to go to a whole nother place.

He says, go to the pool of Salom.

And what we have found in 2004, archaeologists found.

Whatever they are, found the pool of Saloon.

And this is where they found out about it.

Number one, it's far outside the center of Jerusalem.

It's even further south of the healing pools of Bethesda to what's suggested by them that it was a muddy hole, a muddy swimming hole.

Alright, now picture with me.

Can you picture a blind man being told to go on a journey?

Are y'all with me?

Gonna go for a really long walk, a blind walk?

Blind people notoriously stayed stationary.

They stayed in a spot and they begged and hoped somebody would come and bring them some food.

He says, I need you to go to the pool.

And so he got on this journey.

Don't miss this.

It was vital.

This was his faith walk.

It was on this walk, I believe, well before the healing took place, that a blind man received vision.

Y'all hear me?

He received vision.

Oh, the things I will do if I could just have my dream, Pastor Rick.

He received vision, and in 2020, what will you do if you just start to dream again, church?

Did God ever give you a dream?

He didn't throw it away.

What has happened to that dream?

What has happened to our vision?

You see, I believe on that walk his thoughts came together and he started thinking, what if, what if, what if this really happens?

And I believe on his walk he started believing this is gonna happen.

I'm gonna be, I know I'm going to the muddy pool, but something about it, something about being in the presence of Jesus gave him goosebumps, something about this man's voice, and he said, I'm gonna be healed.

And he started believing all the things I will see because I'm gonna have vision.

I'm gonna, there's nothing gonna stop me.

I've been blind my whole life, been held back, been in trial and struggle.

And what has held you back?

That you're letting the enemy say, This is you, this is you, this is your lot, this is your mat.

This is your life, this is where you're gonna stay.

And Jesus says, Go take a walk.

You need a faith walk to receive vision.

And so we see that Jesus, the first point was this let Jesus change us.

The second point of the sermon today is allow others to see the change.

I want you to see what happens when the blind man came back.

It says, He went, he washed, and he came back seeing.

Allow others to see the change.

He had a complete change in his course.

Look at verse 7 and the first part of verse 8.

He said, Go wash.

He washed, he came back seeing.

Verse 8, therefore the neighbors and those who had previously had seen that he was blind said, Is not this he who sat and begged?

And so, why did they have this conversation?

Because he came back, and I want you to understand, number one, underneath that, Christ changes the way you walk.

When you have an encounter with Christ, he changes the way that you walk.

2 Corinthians 5.17 says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things are passed away, behold, all things are like new.

And so this man has an encounter and it's a complete change in the course of how he walks.

Let me help you.

Have you ever, anyone here, I know that you're here, ever got a joke like an hour after somebody shared it?

Some of y'all are here.

Like you laughed and played it off with everyone else that was in the room or at the dinner table time.

Yeah, yeah.

And you were like, I don't know.

I don't know what that meant.

And like an hour later, you're sitting somewhere and you're like, oh, yeah, that was funny.

Now I get it, right?

Like that happened, or maybe.

You remember being in school and you were studying all night long for tomorrow's big test, and then you got to the test, you're almost kind of, you're like nervous, excited, but you know that you studied, and you got to a question on the test, and you looked at it, and you're like, I know that answer.

And you're you're searching the recesses of your mind, you're like, I looked at that.

I was studying that, I was eating pizza and drinking Mountain Dew and I started, and you knew everything that's surrounded.

You were listening to music and playing video games.

I know I studied that.

You're like, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

And and and all of a sudden, there it is, it comes back, and you're like, ah! The trumpet sounds and everything, right?

You have you know you knew it.

Can you imagine being blind since birth and walking back?

How that looked.

All of a sudden the heavens opened, and a blind man who was blind for all of his life came back seeing.

Don't miss this church.

He came back seeing.

He was walking.

Oh my, and he's looking at everything and he goes, Oh, flowers, oh, green.

Oh, I've always heard people talk about green.

This is green.

I've felt this.

There's the goat.

I've seen the goat.

I've always wondered.

A goat, look at the goat.

Looked up at the sky.

Wow, can you imagine the sky?

This blue and everything that he's looking at.

He couldn't, he couldn't look the same, am I right?

He didn't walk the same.

He went in blind and he came out and he could see.

It was unbelievable.

1 John 1, 6 says this.

If we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

The blind man had no choice but to acquire a new strut.

Y'all hearing me?

He had no choice.

Think about it.

Wouldn't it be strange if you've been healed?

Blind man was healed.

Wouldn't it be strange if he kept acting blind?

God healed and he could see everything.

What if he he came back and he still kept the stick?

Right?

Like, wouldn't that be weird?

He kept the stick.

He didn't want to give up totally.

I can't totally, you know, I can't go all in.

Like, I'm gonna have to wean myself of this blindness because I've been blind so long.

And he kept the stick and he's like, well, you know, I I really still need the seeing eye goat.

See, he kept the goat, right?

And he said, you know what?

I don't I don't want to learn phonics and how to read.

Uh and he's like, I'm just I'm just gonna keep reading Braille.

Right?

Like that, you'd say that's that's silly.

Why would someone act like that?

I don't know, church.

But when Christ changes a person, he illuminates a person, and their walk has got to change.

The way that you live your life should not look the same, it should be so different.

But somehow, in some way, some people are choosing to look like they live in darkness.

When he changes a person, he changes their walk.

Well, he doesn't always change their walk, he changes their talk.

The second thing.

You don't have a choice, but you just won't talk about the same things anymore.

If you know Christ all of a sudden, listen, I've been in youth ministry a long time.

I know when a student starts getting hungry, because students don't make it a hidden thing.

They start to ask questions.

Well, Pastor Rick, do you know what this verse means?

Pastor Rick, have you ever thought about this?

I know if they're reading their Bible because they have questions.

Well, if a if they never ask me a question, well, they're not reading their Bible.

If you're in church and you never ask a person, I'm not saying that I have all the answers, but if you never ask anybody a question, I'm just assuming.

Maybe that's a big assumption.

But you talk about what you're doing.

I know that.

Everybody's talking about the game last night.

I know what you were doing at 7 o'clock or 4 30.

I know because you came in and you talked about it.

How many of you came in and said, you know, I was reading this verse?

And uh, what do you think about this?

He had no choice.

He was changed by the living God, and so he came back and he just, everything he was saying and doing was different.

Are you any different, church?

And listen, this is why I know this is not just salvation, it's sanctification.

When God gets in you, he keeps on changing you.

You keep on walking different and more different, and you keep on talking more and more different.

You don't become sinless, but you do sinless.

And so your life continues to be changed, and you come to look more and more like Christ.

He changes a person.

The way they talk and the way they walk.

Well, let me show you what happens here.

Look at verse 8 through 10.

It says this.

Therefore, the neighbors and those who had previously seen that he was blind started saying, Who is this?

Some said this is he, others said it's like him.

He said, I am he.

Therefore, they said to him, How were your eyes open?

And so we see nosy neighbors take notice.

That's letter B.

Nosy neighbors take notice.

This is what I want you to understand about this.

Your life change is so important because people take notice.

The guy at the gym will take notice, no?

People take notice when you're different.

When you don't react in anger, people take notice.

And it's like end of eighth grade year, there was a guy named John Darling.

Last memory I have of John Darling is I'm in gym class and I tackle John Darling.

Okay, and John Darling gets up from the ground, and I can just picture it very vividly.

John Darling gets up from the ground, he's bald headed, okay?

He's got big, thick black glasses, he was kind of chubby, had braces, the whole deal that happens in junior high, and he's got grass all in his teeth for my tackle.

That's my last picture of John Darling.

I walk in my ninth grade year, right?

Now, y'all bear with me.

I was in a small Christian school.

I walk in and I'm like, ladies, I'm here.

You're welcome.

Come for your bidding, right?

And I walk in and something was a little different as I walk the halls.

I'm like, you know, by that point I dated most of the girls in my 40-person high school.

And so I'm like, where's all the girls?

Why aren't the girls flocking to me?

And I'm starting to have an inward temper tantrum, right?

And I'm like, this is not right.

And so I'm walking and I hear a buzz over here in the corner.

I'm like, what is it for what are what are all these people talking about?

And I look up and I'm like, I see these wavy locks.

And I'm like, who is who is this new guy?

People are supposed to tell somebody through the summer if a new guy's coming.

I gotta be ready.

Okay?

And there's this new guy, and I'm like, what is going on?

And this guy, like, he had it, it would, and somebody's like, it's it's John Darling.

I'm like, what?

What do you mean it's John Darling?

Long hair, grew his hair out, got rid of glasses, got contacts, the braces were gone, and the guy must have been working out all summer, and I'm like, I can't believe this.

My life came crashing to an end that day.

But this is what I know.

Change causes people to notice.

Change causes people to notice.

In 2020, what will the people be saying about you, church?

My hope is that people will come to this church that has a vision and it'll be a place where people say, There's something different about CCW.

There's something different when you walk on the campus, the way the people act towards you, the hospitality, the way that there's not judgment, the way that they're welcoming.

I hope that there's something different in our vision, and I hope for you that God tells you to dream again.

There's a ministry for you.

There's a thing for you to do for God.

People notice that change.

And so I can reflect back and remember seeing that and being broken.

Will you say something with me, church?

Say, be the vision, see the vision.

Mark 5, 19 said, Jesus says this: go home to your family and tell them everything the Lord has done.

New life is newsworthy.

Psalms 22, the psalmist says this.

In Hebrews 10, 24 and 25.

Verse 25, everybody quotes it's the forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, church verse.

You have to come to church.

But the verse before it says, Let us consider one another to stir each other to love and good works.

Your story stirs somebody else up.

It's why you're so important.

God cares about your change and your testimony.

It says in Matthew 10, whoever acknowledges me before men, the same will I acknowledge before my Father, which is in heaven.

Acknowledgement and testimony and change matter.

The Bible says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

So when the blind man changed, his walk and talk changed.

He couldn't help but share his story.

He loved it.

We've heard this quoted.

Your life is a gospel, read by men a chapter each day, by the deeds that you do and the words that you say.

Men, read what you write, distorted or true.

What is the gospel according to you?

See, your story, church, is the key in 2020 that might unlock someone else's prison.

That takes us to the third point this morning.

Always be ready to tell your change story.

Always be ready.

Letter A underneath of that is nervous neighbors that we see, notify.

Look at verses 10 through 13.

Therefore they said to him, How were your eyes opened?

And he answered and said, A man called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes, and he said to me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.

So I went and washed, and I received sight.

Then they said to him, Where is he?

He said, I don't know.

And so they asked the story, Well, how did this happen?

We know that you say you were the blind man.

Well, how did this happen?

How did this happen in your life?

And this is what I like to see about this.

The blind man doesn't give some formal letter.

He doesn't give some theological exposition of how he was blind and yet this happened.

He didn't wait to be trained in seminary.

He didn't even go to Sunday school one time.

He didn't go to one special class on how to share his story.

It was just his story.

And he could say it in less than a minute.

You know what he said?

This is it, church.

He said, I met Jesus.

I was blind and now I can see.

There was a lot of weight to this, though.

Verse 22, we don't have time to go to it, but it says that the religious leaders had made it known to anyone that if you confessed Jesus, you'd be cast out of the synagogue.

It meant that if he shared this story, there was some weight to it.

It meant he could lose friends, he could lose families, he could lose all of the benefits of being in the Jewish tradition.

It's a simple testimony, but it bore a lot of weight.

He didn't hesitate.

You know why?

Because when you have an encounter with the living God, you're never the same again.

You can't help but share it.

You don't try to hide it.

You don't try to put something over that light.

You want people to experience the same thing because it's unbelievable.

Letter B is this we see the Pharisees' poor perception of what happens.

Look down at verse 13.

So he tells the neighbors, and the neighbors like kind of believe him, kind of don't, and they say, Well, let's drag him off.

We gotta take him before the religious leaders, we gotta take him to the church leader, because surely he will not lie in front of them.

And so look at what he says.

They brought him who was formerly blind to the Pharisees, it was Sabbath.

Then the Pharisees also ask in verse 15 again how he had received his sight, and he answers them.

And so the neighbors bring him.

They think, well, surely, in front of the important community leaders, he's not gonna tell this tale again.

And so the Pharisees they ask him, they say, tell us, sir, what happened.

You know what he said?

It wasn't formal, it wasn't theological, it wasn't from a Sunday school book.

He said, I met Jesus.

Man, I was blind.

I met him and he changed me.

I met him and he changed me.

Look at verse 16.

Therefore, some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.

About Jesus healing him.

Others said, How can a man who is a sinner do these things?

They said to the blind man again, What do you say about him because he opened your eyes?

He said, He's a prophet.

Verse 18, but the Jews they didn't believe concerning him what he has said about how he received his sight.

And so you know what they do?

They say, That's it.

Now, mind you, this man was in his 30s.

They say, Gather him up.

We're taking him to his parents.

Surely he will not lie in front of his parents.

Now you might lie in front of a lot of people, but you're gonna look your mama in the eye and tell lies, boy?

And so they gather him up, they march him on down to his parents, and they ask him his story again.

They think he's a liar.

They want to find another reason.

Okay?

Look at verse 20 through 23.

His parents recognize him and what's happened, but they also recognize what the religious leaders would do.

So his parents said these things because they feared the Jews, that they had already agreed that anyone confessed Christ, that they would be kicked out of the synagogue.

So his parents say this he is of age.

Ask him what happened.

And so they think in front of his parents, surely he will not tell a lie.

So they ask him again.

They said, tell us what happened to you.

And he's like, Oh man, come here close, please.

Come here close.

Especially you in the back with the bad ears.

Come close.

Listen, come here, come here, come here.

I met J E S U S and I was blind, but now I can see.

And maybe you need to meet him too because I think you're deaf.

You don't believe me, it's in there.

Read it.

Verse 25 through 27.

That's what he says.

You guys don't want to believe me.

Listen, this is what I know.

All of a sudden, through these scriptures, we see a transforming of this man's thinking and testimony.

And that's what I think God wants for CCW in 2020.

In verse 11, he's asked, Who is Jesus?

In verse 11, he says, Jesus is a man.

Now, on his walk telling his faith story, God starts transforming and changing him even more and more.

Just sharing his story.

And what I'm saying to you, God will change you if you just tell your story.

God will begin to better you in Christ.

You'll start to like your story and you'll like to tell it.

And so in verse 11, it says, Jesus is a man.

In verse 17, they asked him, he said, Well, I perceive he's a prophet.

He must be a prophet.

In verse 31 through 33, he says, Jesus is a man of God.

You've got to understand the weight of saying something like this.

These guys did not want any conflict with the way that they were running things.

And they believed in God, the God of Moses and the God of Abraham.

But to say that this man was of God, he said, this man is of God.

But I want you to see the final altercation between Jesus and the blind man in verse 35 through 38.

Now Jesus has heard.

They didn't like what he said the third time that he said it, so they cast him out of the synagogue.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, verse 35.

And when he had found him, he said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God?

Look at what he says.

This tells you, there ain't been no training.

He's not been studying, he's not read the Torah.

This is what it says.

He says, he answered him and said, Who is he, Lord?

That I may believe in him.

He knew the presence of the man he was in.

And he said, Do you believe in the Son of God?

And he said, Who is he?

Who is he?

Because if you're telling me that I need to believe in him, and I know what you did, and we know what's happened to me, tell me, and I'll believe.

And Jesus said to him, You have both seen him, and it's he who is talking with you.

Then he said, This, Lord, I believe.

And he worshipped him.

He went from Jesus as a man, Jesus a prophet, Jesus is a man of God, to Jesus is the Son of the living God.

And he believed and he fell to his knees and he worshiped him.

Why?

Because he had a real encounter with Jesus.

Have you, church?

Is your life telling that story?

It didn't take really long at all.

All it took was a walk.

All it took, this man was some steps with vision.

When Jesus changed his life, he began to grasp a vision.

When Jesus spoke and touched him, he said, Who is the Son of God?

If he's you, and I believe.

I believe.

Probably on his knees crying, seeing his tears for the first time, and singing and praising at the feet of his healer.

That he didn't worship the healing, but he worshipped the healer.

His transformed thinking and testimony kept changed because he was in the presence of Jesus.

And I want you to consider in 2020, church, what steps need to happen in your life?

God wants your thinking and testimony to transform you.

It's the time of the year that we all sit down and we set goals, and this is what I know about goals.

Goals are not about leaps, they're about steps.

And in 2020, we say at this church, and our theme is we're loving God and loving people.

Are we really?

What steps do you need to take to really be doing that?

Loving God and loving people.

We say our core here, and Pastor's gonna begin to preach a sermon series on our core.

We say our core is clear biblical truth.

Will you take steps in 2020 to discover clear biblical truth?

I'm not talking about coming to church.

I'm talking about a relationship, a daily walk with Jesus.

It'll change you.

It'll change others.

Our core is intimate fellowships.

Will you take steps in 2020 to get intimate with your church?

Maybe that means inviting somebody over for dinner once a month.

Just once a month.

We're talking an hour or two.

Are we so busy in 2020 that we've lost track of time for people?

We've lost track of things that God died for the church.

He loves his church.

Do you?

What about intimate fellowship?

Man, how do we bear one another's burdens if we don't ever get around each other?

Maybe it's steps.

Maybe you've had a fallen out in 2019 with someone in the body.

Man, have you thought about taking steps?

God will change you, but you gotta take action.

You can't lay on the mat and say, but it won't work.

It can't happen.

What about our worship?

Is your life a reflection of worship daily?

What steps do you need to take?

What about service?

Maybe this is the year that you take some steps to fulfilling a dream that God's put on your heart for serving him.

That's why you're here.

It's a news flash.

We're here, we're created to serve him and bring glory back to him.

That's you're looking for the house, or you're looking for the vacation, or you're looking for the magical thing.

That's the thing.

That's why we're all here.

That we would shine his light to a world of darkness.

We've got to be the vision and see the vision.