August 17, 2024

·1 hr 50 min·5 clips

A pastor explains how assuming you know everything keeps you spiritually blind, using a story where Jesus spits in mud to heal a man.

The episode is a Sunday morning sermon by Pastor Jayde Duncan at New Life Midtown in Colorado Springs. It begins with communal worship, scripture reading from John 3:16, and prayers. Pastor Jayde transitions into the sermon, noting it is a standalone message but builds on a previous series about flourishing from Genesis. He introduces the theme of spiritual sight, arguing that humans cannot flourish without accurate vision of truth. He traces spiritual blindness back to Adam and Eve's choice of human wisdom over God's wisdom, which opened their eyes but distorted their vision toward self-obsession. Pastor Jayde discusses contributing factors to spiritual blindness, including blame, greed, and offense. He emphasizes that offense and bitterness entrench believers in darkness, using 1 John 2:9-11 to show that claiming to be in the light while hating a brother or sister keeps one in spiritual darkness. He references Mark 6, where offense prevented Jesus from doing miracles in his hometown. The sermon delves into John 9, where Jesus heals a man born blind by making mud with saliva. Pastor Jayde highlights the man's humility in obeying without full understanding, contrasting it with the Pharisees' spiritual pride and presumption of knowledge. He warns that assuming one knows everything is a tactic of the enemy to maintain blindness. The message concludes with Revelation 3:14-19, where the church in Laodicea is criticized for being lukewarm and blind to its wretched state. Pastor Jayde leads the congregation in a prayer of repentance, crying out for mercy and revelation. The service ends with communion, a song of thanksgiving, and announcements about church activities like table groups and Midtown Midweek classes.

As heard by us

A church service considers how offense distorts love before returning to communion, prayer, and blessing.

New Life Midtown's service frames love as the harder discipline of seeing people truthfully, especially when offense has begun to shape the story.

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Why you'd press play

When your inner jury has reached a verdict, you may want to reopen the case.

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