Samuel Rodriguez - Raise The Volume
So, right now, real quick, let's expedite the process. Mark 10, verse 46, here it is. I'mma break this down for you. "They reached Jericho," somebody say, "Jericho". Touch your neighbor, the one you like the most, tell 'em, "Jericho". Touch the other one, the one that thinks you like 'em, but you actually have issues with them and just say: Jericho. "They reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus was sitting beside the road. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, 'Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me"! Verse 48, this is the push back. This right here is the cancel culture, Amplified exponentially via the conduit of one verse, "Be quiet"!
And by the way, it has an exclamation point in the original language, which means the person who was offended by the shout, shouted, ironically enough. "'Be quiet'! Many of the people yelled at him. But he only shouted louder, 'son of David, have mercy on me'! When Jesus heard him," he heard him, he heard his shout, "He stopped and said, 'Tell him to come here'. So, they called the blind man. 'Cheer up,' they said. 'Come on, he's calling you"! Verse 50, "Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus. 'What do you want me to do for you'? 'Rabbi,' the blind man said, 'I want to see'! And Jesus said to him, 'go, for your faith has healed you'. Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road".
I wanna speak to you on the subject matter in the next 30 minutes, 29 minutes and 11 seconds, "Raise the volume". Raise the volume. Raise your volume. I don't care what you're going through right now, I don't care what's been happening in your life, somebody in Melbourne, Australia, is about to experience victory, breakthrough. Somebody shout like the blind man, Bartimaeus. Prompt Jesus to look your way. Raise your volume. The subtext for the message is, "Jericho and the shout 2.0". You gotta go back, you're gonna, get that. "Jericho and the shout 2.0". And the second subtext would be, "Silence is not an option". You may be seated for just a couple here.
Number one, open your eyes by opening your mouth. Open your eyes by opening your mouth. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout. Shout, "Jesus, son of David have mercy on me"! Did he whisper? He nodded? He engaged in a golf clap? He did what? Because your eyes will never open until you open your mouth first. Vision is connected to praise. I'll repeat that for the hearing impaired, vision is connected to praise. He worked with what he had. He could not see, but he could praise. He could not see, but he could shout. His optics were weak, but his vocal cords were strong.
And here is the word, planet shakers, stop focusing on what's weak in your life. Stop focusing on what you do not have. Stop focusing on what's broken in your life. Here is a word for some, use the blessed area of your life in order to attract God to the broken area of your life. It's not about what you're missing, it's about what you have. Stop whining about what's missing, start shouting about what you already have. Mature Christians don't just give God glory for what he gives, they give God praise for what he takes away. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "Be thankful in all circumstances". You already have what you need. Touch your neighbor tell 'em, "You already have what you need".
Here's the word for someone, tell your other neighbor, "Stop whining, stop complaining. Start praising for what you already have". You already have what you need in order to see God show up in your circumstance. I'mma tell you what you have, you have a faith that moves mountains. I said, "You have a faith that moves mountains". You have a shout that brings down walls. You have a joy that cannot be explained. You have a peace that passes all understanding. You have a grace that is sufficient. You have an anointing that annihilates the yoke. You have a gift that cannot be revoked. A destiny that cannot be stopped. You have mercies that are new every morning. You have the strength of the Father, the grace of the Son, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Hey, you have Jesus. You have everything you need.
Colossians 3:11, "In this new life, it doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters". The Bible doesn't say that, "Jesus was attracted to the man's blindness". I'mma mess up your, never, do your biblical due diligence, Greek exegetical extrapolation, he wasn't attracted to the man's blindness. And it wasn't that he didn't have empathy or compassion, no. He was, they were en route. He wasn't attracted to the blindness, he was attracted, explicitly to the man's shout. This is gon' mess you up a bit. He wasn't attracted to Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, he was attracted to Bartimaeus, the worshipper. The problem is that we want God to focus on our need instead of provoking him to focus on our praise. You attract God by your praise, so he can focus on your need. You attract God by your worship, so he can focus on your weakness.
Psalm 47:1 "Shout to God with a joyful noise. The shout of triumph with the loud voice of praise, with a shout of celebration". There is power in a holy shout. Isaiah 54:1 "Sing, o childless woman, you who never given birth! Break into loud and joyful song, o Jerusalem, you who have never been in labor". Your shout says, "My season, my life is about to radically be changed". Now, I wanna point something here that very few touch. He was at the entrance to what city? We read it. Somebody say, "Jericho".
Why is Jericho famous? You gotta go old school to find out here. Why was Jericho famous? Joshua and the Israelites, many years before, they did what to prompt the walls of Jericho to come down? They shouted. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the blind man in the same place, did the same thing. You're gonna get this in 32 seconds. It was part of a cultural metanarrative, this is why it's important. Your testimony must be shared from generation to generation. This is Jericho's shout 2.0. The same thing that his father's, father's, father's, father's, father's, father did many generations before. Do you think it's a coincidence there's a blind man who takes it upon himself to shout, right in the same region where years before his forefathers shouted and they occupied the promise when the walls came down? I'm here to tell you to get ready. Don't tell your children to pray, show them how to pray.
Let me wrap up and pray for you. There are certain people that would like, certain proponents, that would like us to go away. There are certain groups that would like us to lower our voices. There are certain entities, ideologies and proponents that would love us to stop saying that, "Jesus is the only way". There are certain critics just like Bartimaeus had, that would love us to stop saying that, "Every life is sacred from the womb to the tomb". There are certain haters out there, that would like us to stop saying that, "God men and women different for a purpose". To all those that would like us to stop saying that, "Jesus is the only way, and that his love and his mercy endureth forever, for every single..." are we streaming? Oh, great. Are we really? Thanks.
Well, to everyone out there who would love the church to lower our voices and to shrivel up in an echo chamber of mutual affirmation, and to engage in Sunday psychotherapeutic, narcissistic, self-absorbed, ritualistic habits, if you would like us to be silent, if you would like us just to be loud here, but not loud out there. I need to warn you, find some anxiety medication because the church is about to get louder than ever before. Somebody should break out right about now. The bride is about to get louder than ever before. The redeemed of the Lord are about to get louder than ever before. We are about to raise our volume! And it's not to annoy anyone, it's not to confront, it's not volume for the purpose of provoking, for exacerbating discord and hatred, quite the opposite. Love cannot be silent, truth cannot be silent, compassion cannot be silent, mercy cannot be silent.
Acts 2:14, "And Peter stood up and raised his voice". There is a generation of Christ exalting, spirit empowered, Bible believing, devil rebuking, demon binding, blood washed, cultural reformers and societal architects are about to rise up. If that's you, lift up your hands, if you're ready to raise your volume. On multiple occasions from the White House to Congress, to what we do at Hollywood, I've had people literally tell me. "Hey, Sam," quote, not making this up, "If you lower you volume", I don't mean about the volume, I mean, "If you stop being so vociferous about your commitment to Jesus". Like, I do a lot of interviews on Fox, and CNN, and different networks, and in every interview, I have a commitment with him that I will mention Jesus.
And so, all you gotta do is YouTube it, Google it. 'cause it's funny, 'cause I get, by the grace I've been brought in for different subject matters, not just faith issues. Immigration, education, global, geopolitical, a bunch of issues. And for whatever reason, and in the interview, I'm with Shannon bream on Fox News, or Sean Hannity, or whoever it may be and they're interviewing me, and it could be something totally non-faith, and I wrap up, and you'll see it, and at the end, and they'll go, and they go, like, "Yeah, and what do you think about the geopolitical implications for the Jerusalem, for the embassy being moved from Tel Aviv"? Blah, blah, blah, blah. And I go like, "Well, the geopolitical ramifications, blah, blah, blah," and then, I finish, "Because at the end of the day, there's still power in the name of Jesus". And it's like, and they look at me like, "What just happened"? "Like, what"?
But they bring me back. And Jesus that says, never lower your volume, don't lower you volume. Everybody stand with... You are standing. Open your eyes to leaving things behind. Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up and came to Jesus. He put aside his coat. To you, that may be a random act. To a poor blind man, who is a beggar, that coat is one of his few possessions. He threw away, he put aside, arguably one of the last things he own. He's conveying a message by putting away his beggar's coat. Just by hearing the voice of the Messiah, he's already saying, "I don't live there anymore". Ahh, you missed that. "I'm not that any, I just encountered, just, I'm not even, and already I'm not what I used to be".
I need you to shake your neighbor tell 'em, "I'm not who I used to be". No, tell 'em, tell 'em. "I'm not who I used to be. I don't talk the way I used to, I don't think the way I used to, I don't walk the way I used to. I don't even pray the way I used to, I don't live the way I used to... I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," Galatians 2:20. You're not where you used to be because you're not who you used to be. What God places upon you is directly proportional to what you're willing to put aside for him. When you let go of the things that define you as beggar, he will place upon you the anointing that will define you as a believer. "'What do you want me to do'? Jesus asked". What a question. "The blind man said, 'I want to see'. And Jesus said, 'go, your faith has healed you'. Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road".
Follow Jesus. God conquers, we possess, our children inherit. All we gotta do is put aside the coat, let him open up our eyes to what we have never seen before, and follow him. And it all began because he was willing to raise his volume. So, here's how we're gonna wrap, right now. I'm gonna count to three, you're gonna raise your volume. Not in some expression, as part of just the gathering and the atmosphere, but as a prophetic act like, "God, I will never permit any circumstance to put me on mute. Who you are in me, with me, for me, and through me will never be muted. I will never be ashamed of who you are, regardless of who I'm with, where I'm at, whatever circumstance I'm going through, I will raise my volume. My volume will never be muted again, quite the opposite".
If the devil knew better he would leave you alone because every time he comes against you, you have a contract after today that if the enemy comes against you, you gon' raise your volume like you've never raised you again. Are you with me right now? If all hell breaks out against you, throw away, raise your volume, one, two, three, somebody shout like you know that Jesus is... Raise your voice! C'mon, planet shakers, shout like you know! Shout like you know, go! Raise it, raise it! Raise your volume. Raise, raise, raise. Shout like you know that the devil's been defeated. I said, "Shout like you know that the enemy's been defeated". Somebody praise like nothing can stand in your way. We got four minutes here. Anyone here who says, "pastor Sam, I've permitted things to just... Maybe just a little... Just... And today God's telling me to", the moment I refuse to lower the volume, the moment I refused, and I'mma be honest there was a temptation there, 'cause it comes with promises.
I was told, "You lower that, you stop being a Jesus freak, Sam, more movies in Hollywood, more stuff, more this, more that. And I'm", and God just said, "Ha-ha, hey"! He just reminded me, God reminded me, he just reminded me of a little thing, the Lord giveth, and the Lord... Yeah, so I said, "I'm not playing that game". Yeah, 'cause the same God who opened the door is the same God who could... It's his door. Privately and publicly, you should be louder Monday through Saturday, than what you are here on Sunday.
Again, this is way beyond, yes your praise and your worship, but it's about your testimony. The volume of your integrity, of your pursuit of righteousness, of exemplifying Christ which is the glory of God of you shining. Yeah, we're about to see something amazing take place. Put aside that beggar coat, you're not who you used to be. You don't live there anymore. That's not who you are. The moment Jesus show up, you're no longer a beggar. That's what the man, putting this aside. "I'm not who I used to be just by hearing him, just by him communicating". In his presence, you're no longer a beggar.
Lift up your hands. God's gonna open doors that no man can close, no man. There's not a devil in hell, or a demon on earth that can shut down what God is opening in your favor. You will change the world for the glory of Christ because your volume, your commitment to biblical orthodoxy, which is a fancy term for the truth of the gospel, the authoritative Word of God, your commitment to eternal truth, your commitment to the fullness of Christ, and never quenching the Holy Spirit, because of that God's gonna give you platforms where you can shine his light, Matthew 5:14-16, John 1:5. We're about to see darkness flee through your life. More people will come to Jesus as Lord and Savior this year, through your testimony than all your previous years combined, in the name of Jesus. The kingdom of heaven will advance in your specific area, like never before. So, with your hands raised repeat after me:
Today I open my eyes by opening my mouth. Today, I'm fully committed. Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, all that I am, all that I hope to be fully committed to raising the volume. I will never be silent. I will never be on mute. I will raise my volume on good days and bad days, on sunny days and rainy days, on days where everyone loves me and on days where I don't even like myself. I will raise the volume. The world will know you through me, in the name of Jesus, amen.