If you've ever been put off by religious institutions, their politics, their gatekeeping, their self-assured certainty, you might find an unexpected ally in John 9.

In John 9:35-41, the religious establishment had excommunicated a man for telling the truth about his own experience. They had the credentials, the tradition, the community standing. And Jesus tells them directly: your confidence that you can see is precisely what blinds you. The man they threw out, the one with nothing left to lose, ends up worshiping the God they claimed to represent.

This text raises a question worth sitting with: is it possible to be deeply religious and entirely wrong about the most important things? And is it possible that the thing you've written off—genuine faith in Jesus—is actually more honest about human nature, guilt, and grace than anything else on offer? Pastor Dale preaches John 9:35–41 without softening the edges. It's worth your time.