Samuel Rodriguez - Your Mess, God's Miracle
John 9, this is, I ask the Lord, "Lord, give me. What do you have for me for Orlando"? This is what the Holy Spirit placed in my heart, and I say that with fear and trembling. Again, you'll hear this, I know it looks messy around the world right now, and even in this nation, we're about to see a miracle out of this mess. And that's not hype, it's not, like, rhetorical exuberance, it's not like prophelying. We're about to see this. John 9, let's make it legal. Here's the story, "As Jesus was walking, he saw a man who had been blind from birth".
You have to underline that part. He had been blind from the moment he was born. Let's jump down to verse 6: "So, Jesus spit on the ground," unorthodox way to facilitate a miracle, that's messy. "He spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva," that's even more messy. "And spread the mud," you gotta be kidding me. "Over the blind man's eyes". He spread the mess. Verse 7: "He told him," after he does this, "Go wash yourself. So the man went and washed and came back seeing"! I'm gonna speak to you on the subject matter today under the collective canopy as this conference as we awaken. I wanna speak to you on the subject matter "Messy miracles: when the mess becomes your miracle". And here's the subtext, "Are you ready to see what you've never seen before"?
Now, let me confess something. I am a bit OCD, and my wife would attest to that. My mind works in a very linear, sequential manner. I may preach like kirk, but I think like Spock for all the Trekkies in the room. So, I find it to be a bit challenging to reconcile what I perceive as chaos with order. In other words, how can a miracle emerge out of a mess? This is why this biblical narrative speaks to me, because it speaks to our current reality. Let's begin with the first point. If you're taking notes, and good luck with that, open your eyes to what you have never seen before. "As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth".
It's important to note this. This man was not losing his night, this man did not lose his sight, he never had it in the first place, he was born blind. This circumstance facilitates the environment for Christ to reveal a functional, an ontological extension of the creative nature of providence. In other words, with the woman with the issue of blood, he gave her back her health. With the indolent man at Bethesda, he gave him back his walk. With Lazarus, he gave him back his life. With the other blind man in Mark 8, he gave him back his sight. But with this man in John 9, Jesus did not give him something he had lost, he gave him something he never had in the first place.
You gonna get this in a second. There's a difference between God restoring something you had and God giving you something you never had in the first place. Our God is not just a God that restores: our God is a God who gives us what we never had before. He is the Lord of the new thing. Isaiah 43:19: "Behold, I do a new thing. Do you not see it"? Some of us focus our time in getting back we lost. We start focusing on that when we should be asking God to give us what we never had in the first place.
Ladies and gentlemen, God is not interested in renovating your past, he is more interested in releasing your future. And the question we have to ask ourselves as we come out of this global pandemic, as we come out of this cuckoo for coco puffs scenario, are we ready to see what we've never seen before? Are we truly poised and ready to see what we've never seen before? For the past year, we know what we've seen. We have seen darkness, we have seen ruins, the ruins of a global pandemic taking over 500,000 lives in this nation alone, the ruins of racial and social unrest destroying properties, families, dividing communities, and even fragmenting the church: the ruins of political unrest where the donkey and the elephant temporarily succeeding and dividing what belongs to the lamb, the ruins of a cancel culture that insists in silencing everyone and everything that refuses to tow the line of morally, relativistic, ideological world view that runs counter to the word and the spirit of the living God.
The ruins of secular totalitarianism that explicitly states casinos and liquor stores are essential but the church is not. In other words, jack Daniels, yes: Jesus Christ, no. The ruins of a generation targeted by the architects of darkness with the message that there is no such thing as truth, gender, holiness, and personal responsibility. We see the ruins. Turn on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS. We don't discriminate here, and you will see the ruins. For over a year, that's what we've been seeing, the ruins blinded by the reality of melees, and chaos, and moral relativism, and cultural decadence, and spiritual apathy, and even to a great degree with the exception of this church, Ecclesiastical lukewarmness. We have seen the ruins, the ruins, and you know what we did for the past 14 months? We wept. We wept, we wept, we wept. But here's this thing about weeping according to the Word of God.
The Psalmist said, Psalm 30:5, that "Weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes with the morning". I'm here to tell you, put a shout on your lip, we're coming out of this in the name of Jesus because nothing can stop the sun from rising. Church, in order for us to see what we have never seen before, I'm here to tell you don't drink the Kool-Aid. We're about to see some great stuff. But in order to see it, it behooves us, we have to reconcile our eschatology over missiology.
In other words, I do believe that Jesus is coming, but permit me to remind you, he's not coming back for broken church, he's not coming back for a whining church, he's not coming back for a depressed church, he's not coming back for a fearful church, with great due deference, he's not coming back for a church waiting for a vaccine, he's not coming back for a politically correct church, he's not coming back for a comfortable church, he's not coming back for a dying church, he's coming back for a glorious church, a thriving church, a powerful church, a mighty church, a holy church, and anointed church. Is that church in the house here tonight? And while we are waiting for Jesus to come down, he is waiting for his church to stand up.
Oh, I believe we're about to see what we've never seen before. Church, we're about to see what we've never seen before. And we've been praying and fasting, we're coming in agreement, but I'm telling you, we see something different. That's why you can't believe it's all bad news. I mean, it's bad news, it's bad news. Everything you see is just one negative thing after the other, it even got me. I looked at my wife, my wife of 31 years, so, I looked at her a few weeks ago and said, "I'm gonna stop looking at a certain app that I...", every single day, it's a news feed app. Because every day, bad, bad, bad, and you get into a funk, you do. I mean, I'm being honest. And you start, and I went, "No"!
I actually had a conversation, so help me. I talked to my church about it. George knows this. Hi, George. So, anyway. Like, hi. So, I had a conversation in my church because I was actually getting into, like, the pit of every single day, bad news, bad news, and I had this thing with the Holy Spirit where one morning, the Holy Spirit just said, "Sam, I'm still here". And I went, "What do... What do...", he goes, "No, no. I'm still here. Like, Sam, like, whatever you're reading, it doesn't matter. I'm still the most powerful, I don't know if you get this. The most powerful spirit in America and the world today". Don't drink the Kool-Aid. It's not Jezebel, it's not Herod, it's not Absalom, it's not Goliath, it's not COVID. The most powerful spirit is still the Holy Spirit of Almighty God! The Holy Spirit of God!
So, I see a church, I see something different, let me tell you, and I say that great, with fear, again, with fear and trembling biblically substantiated, but it's driven by the... I see a church, I see a church poised and ready, fully cognizant of the fact that the next thing to fill the nations will not be COVID-21, 22 or 22, it will be a move of God. What if I tell you we're about to see God show up in such away that it will make Azusa look like an opening act and the Jesus movement look like a rehearsal? You think that's hype? It's not. Do you realize that Gallup, a few weeks ago, just reported, and for the first time since Gallup has been taking a survey, less than 50% of Americans attend church regularly. The number was 49%. The prediction, same polling, the prediction is that even after COVID, American churches, Bible believing churches will lose approximately 30 to 36% of their prior constituents.
Not temporarily, not like they're gonna come back after three months or after a year. Like, "Oh", I don't even know who would answer that survey. Like, who would say, "I'm never going back to church again"? Like, who would do that? I have questions about the legitimacy. Nevertheless, they reported that churches should get ready to lose over 30% of their people indefinitely. I'm here to rebuke that in the name of Jesus. I'm here to tell you to get ready. We are about to see more people receive Jesus as Lord and Savior than ever before, and I'm here to declare that Sundays, instead of being the day with the least amount of traffic, Sunday morning will be the day where people will flood God's houses. I see a church confronting the Pharaohs of the 21st century, declaring, "Let my people go so they may worship the living God".
I see a church declaring, I hear the sound of the rattling of bones coming together, the sound of black, white, Latino, and Asian together as one church. I may not get invited again, but I'm gonna tell you 'cause I'm gonna push back on the darkness, I'mma make this clear. We gotta stop believing the hype. There is no such thing as a white church, a black church, a brown church, a yellow church. There's only one church, the church of Jesus Christ! Only one church! And the gates of hell shall not, will not, cannot ever prevail against the church! We are that church. Oh! So, we are about to see what we have not seen before. So, by faith, through Christ, permit me to declare by faith that driven by the Spirit of God that we're about to see something different. "Pastor, what are we gonna see"?
Instead of riots, revival. Instead of lockdowns, open heavens. Instead of destroying property, building altars. Instead of political affiliation, prophetic designation. And instead of storming the capitol, we're about to storm the gates of hell in the name of Jesus. If you believe it, say, "Amen". What if I tell you to get ready in your family, in your community? We're about to see what we have never seen before. 1 Corinthians 2:9: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined is what God has prepared for those who love him".
Let's do it real quick. Raise your right hand, repeat after me, "I'm about to see what I have not seen before in my family, in my faith, in my finances, in my relationships, in my church, in my community, in my thinking, in my actions, in my words, in my health, in my surroundings, in my nation. I'm about to see the glory of Jesus like never before". If you believe it, praise like you believe it, and shout like you believe it, clap like you believe it, worship like you believe it, rejoice like you believe it, act like you believe it.
The God of the outcome is the same God of the process. The process is temporary, but the promise is permanent. And do not make the temporary permanent. Do not make and confuse the process with the promise. Do not confuse what you're going through with where you're going to. Permit me to remind you that if you're going through what you've never been through before, it's only because you're about to step into what you've never stepped into before. Now, there're a couple of elements here. First, he spit.
Somebody, say, "Holy spit". That's what it was, he spit. This is wild man. I just, as a produced, I would love to capture this in a 21st century context wineskin 'cause this is wild. This is Jesus the Messiah, God incarnate, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the way, the truth, and the life, and here it is. He could have done like... But no. He does this process where he spits on the ground, spits, then he spits, and he combines it with dirt. Let me illustrate this here. Ready? Your pastor loves you, you know that, right? This would not qualify has pastoral abuse, would it? I mean, I'm just saying. Is it? Liability and insurance and all that, we're covered right?
Alright, close your eyes. He spit, he went, he did this. I don't know if it was allergy season or not, we can't make things up. But he spit, picks it up, and goes like this. He did this. I mean, to me, that's wild. I mean, that's wild. I mean, why would he spit. Like, I mean, why not the nod? Why not the bewitch way? Genie, the old school stuff going on here. So, why? What's in the spit? What's in your spit? Your DNA. I'm gonna drop the mic and walk away. To me, that's wild. He spit, he took his DNA, Jesus took, that's not, like, a metaphor. "Is that figuratively speaking"? Oh, no. I mean literally speaking, Jesus placed is DNA on his eyes.
Oh, boy. Let me put it in context. In other words, "With your DNA, you can't see: with my DNA, you're about to see my glory. With your DNA, you are a victim: with my DNA, you are more than a conqueror. With your DNA, you are limited: with my DNA, you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. With your DNA, you will make excuses: with my DNA, you're about to make history". Do you get this? He literally placed his DNA on a man who was born blind. He transferred what was inside of him. He transferred his DNA, whoop! To a man who was born blind.
Ladies and gentlemen, 2,000 years ago, Jesus died, resurrected, ascended, and he transferred something else. It wasn't his spittle, but he gave us something, it wasn't his spittle, he gave us something more powerful than his spit, he gave us his Holy Spirit. I don't know if you understand what this means. You have something, you have, better yet, someone inside of you. You just don't have the spit of Jesus, you have, the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you. Are there any Holy Spirit people in here tonight? You don't have the spittle, you have the Spirit, you have, literally, the Romans 8:11, Spirit, the one that took Jesus out of the tomb, which means if Jesus came out of the tomb, you can come out of anything.
You can come out of addiction, you can come out of depression, you can come out of anxiety, you can come out of fear, you can come out of shame, you can come out of condemnation, you can come out of generation of lies and curses, you can come out of anything! We are Holy Spirit people, we, who were spiritually blind, born blinded by sin, we likewise have received a spiritual, divine, supernatural, Christ ordained transfer. We have the Spirit, we have the Holy Spirit, not just the spit, we have beyond that. Oh, we have the Spirit. I'm here to you the most powerful people on the planet, acts 1:8, explosive power, dunamis. The most powerful people on the planet are not those with fame, fortune, and followers, the most powerful people on the planet are those filled with God's precious Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God is still moving, not just in America, but around the world.
I need to say this. Are we streaming, pastor? Gracias! We are? I'm gonna say it. With all the things that have happened in the past year and a half, and I'm in California, I've lived it, I know what it is. I'm not here to do anything political, God forbid. But I was there, I was in the front line when the governmental authorities not only said you can't go to church, that was easy, you knew that was coming. You can't go to church. Then they went to the next level of you can't have church in your house. In my state of California, the governor said you can't have a prayer meeting in your house, you can't gather with people in your house and pray, you can't sing, you heard about that, you can't chant, you can't sing, you can't pray. Like all these, I just wanna remind, and I know we're streaming, but I'mma do it.
There's not an executive order, a Supreme Court decision, a legislative initiative, there's not a law or a social media campaign that has the power to stop the Holy Spirit from moving. I'm gonna say that one more time. There is nothing on earth that can stop the Holy Spirit from moving! If you believe it, shout like you know! Nothing! Lift up your hands. Nothing can stop the Holy Spirit from moving! No one can stop the Holy Spirit from moving! We're about to see the glory of Jesus in this nation like we've never seen before. We're about to see God show up. This mess is about to become a miracle. If you believe it, lift up your hands. I sense the Lord, lift up your hands, lift up your hands. I feel God, I sense the Lord, I sense the Lord. We're done here, we're done, we're done. I wanna land this here.
This is... I sense Jesus. Oh, I sense the Lord. Oh! Ohhh! Oh! Oh, I sense God. Nothing can stop... Nothing can stop the Spirit of God from moving. Nothing. There's not a law, there's not a military force, there's not a political ideology or a world view that can stop God's precious spirit from moving. We are about to see God show up, we're about to see the Spirit of God move and the glory of Christ exalted and lifted. We're about, upon just rising. Arise, oh God, arise. We're about to see, we're about to see. Even in your family, lift up your hands, in your families. I sense the Lord. Oh, I sense the Lord. I need you to get ready, I need you to get ready. You're about to see God show up in such a way. Turn your porch light on, your prodigal sons and daughters are coming back home. Get ready! We're about to see our sons and daughters come back home! With your hands raised... I sense the Lord.
As you have your hands raised and you're with me, can I ask you a question? Did Jesus just spit directly into this man's eyes? He did not. He did that with the other blind man in Mark 8. "Wait a minute. Pastor Sam, what happened"? Difference. The other guy was already, he already had sight and he lost it, this one was born without it. You know what Jesus did here? Read it. He spit on the what? On the ground. Ladies and gentlemen, what did God made man out of? Jesus takes his spit, and he connects it to the original blueprint. "I'm gonna activate my original plan for you". In other words, in God's original plan, your children are not drug addicts. I'm preaching now. In God's original plan, you are not the byproduct of multigenerational infidelity. In God's original plan.