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Seeing Your Future With Faith, Not Fear with Pastor Rick Warren · Voice of Rick warren

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Speaker 1: Happy New Year, everybody. You know, the first thing I
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Speaker 1: wanna say in this brand new year is congratulations to
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Speaker 1: you for surviving this last year. You did it, congratulations.
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Speaker 1: 2020 was a difficult year, but you made it through.
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Speaker 1: The second thing I wanna say is I wanna thank
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Speaker 1: all of you personally who volunteered in ministry in any
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Speaker 1: capacity at Saddleback Church in 2020. our Light of the
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Speaker 1: World Christmas experience, all of you who volunteered for that,
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Speaker 1: our food distribution, all of our other ministries. Thank you,
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Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. I wanna thank our worship teams
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Speaker 1: who did an amazing job this past year. Every single week,
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Speaker 1: they just kept growing and giving us more and more
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Speaker 1: beautiful worship services. Now, you know, as a church, we
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Speaker 1: didn't merely survive 2020, we actually thrived. Yep, in terms
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Speaker 1: of ministry, evangelism and mission, it was actually our most
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Speaker 1: productive year out of all of our history. In 2020,
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Speaker 1: the number of people participating in worship at Saddleback actually
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Speaker 1: more than doubled. It more than doubled as you invited
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Speaker 1: your friends to watch online. And in serving our community,
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Speaker 1: God opened doors for us to get a dozen new
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Speaker 1: ministries started, including ministering to more than half a million
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Speaker 1: people who needed food. And while we couldn't meet on
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Speaker 1: the weekends, our campuses were busy seven days a week
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Speaker 1: serving our community. And as a result, get this, 24,404
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Speaker 1: people committed their lives to Christ for the very first
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Speaker 1: time and found forgiveness and salvation in their purpose in life.
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Speaker 1: That's amazing, that's a record for Saddleback Church in one year.
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Speaker 1: Now listen, 5,560 of these new believers came to Christ
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Speaker 1: through these online worship services. But three times that amount, 18,844
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Speaker 1: other new believers were led to Jesus through your personal one-on-witnessing,
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Speaker 1: the witnessing of our members during COVID. And I'm sure
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Speaker 1: there's no other church that could claim that. That's a
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Speaker 1: record for Saddleback's 41 year history. More people came to
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Speaker 1: know Christ through Saddleback Church last year than in any
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Speaker 1: other year. So I ended this year being very grateful
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Speaker 1: for your faithfulness, being amazed at your compassion and being
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Speaker 1: astounded at your creativity. Now, In a normal year, Christmas time,
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Speaker 1: about 60,000 people attend Saddleback Christmas services. But this year,
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Speaker 1: just at the Lake Forest campus, over 120,000 people experienced
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Speaker 1: our Light of the World drive-thru presentation. And it was
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Speaker 1: the talk of the community. And that doesn't even include
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Speaker 1: all the other Christmas events that we did at our
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Speaker 1: other campuses. Now, as we start this new year, I
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Speaker 1: wanna begin with a mini series on clarifying God's vision
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Speaker 1: for your future. So I'm gonna teach a short series
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Speaker 1: on vision, the power of vision. And before we launch
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Speaker 1: into our major book study of 2021, which is by
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Speaker 1: the way, gonna be the book of Acts, and I'm
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Speaker 1: super excited about that. But one of the stories we'll
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Speaker 1: learn from Acts is the results of Paul giving his testimony,
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Speaker 1: a courtroom testimony to King Herod Agrippa, an official of
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Speaker 1: the Roman Empire. And Paul explains how Jesus transformed him
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Speaker 1: from being a religious terrorist who was out murdering Christians
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Speaker 1: to becoming a Christian missionary. That's pretty big U-turn. And
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Speaker 1: he details the vision for his life that Jesus gave him.
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Speaker 1: And then he concludes by saying this in Acts 26,
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Speaker 1: verse 19, he says, so King Agrippa, this is the
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Speaker 1: guy he's talking to. He says, I have not been
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Speaker 1: disobedient to the vision God gave me. I have not
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Speaker 1: been disobedient to the vision God gave me. In the
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Speaker 1: message paraphrase, Paul says it like this. What else could
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Speaker 1: I do, King Agrippa? I couldn't just walk away from
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Speaker 1: a vision like that. So I obeyed it. Now I
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Speaker 1: want you to listen. As your pastor who loves you deeply,
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Speaker 1: I wanna help you, particularly in this new year, 2021,
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Speaker 1: I wanna help you Get to the place that you're
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Speaker 1: able to say the same thing one day when you
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Speaker 1: stand before God to give an account of your life.
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Speaker 1: I want you to be able to say to God,
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Speaker 1: I fulfilled the vision that you gave me for my life.
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Speaker 1: That's why we're gonna do this mini series. You can't
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Speaker 1: fulfill your life vision, of course, until first you see
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Speaker 1: it and then you understand it. Proverbs 29 verse 18
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Speaker 1: says this, where there is no vision, the people perish. Now,
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Speaker 1: what does that mean? Well, there are at least three
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Speaker 1: results of not having a vision for your life. I
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Speaker 1: want you to write these down. An unclear vision leads
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Speaker 1: to three things. It leads to indecision, it leads to division,
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Speaker 1: and it leads to a collision. First, an unclear vision
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Speaker 1: leads to indecision. Do you remember this verse from our
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Speaker 1: study of James? James 1, verse eight, double-minded people can't
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Speaker 1: make up their minds. They waver back and forth in
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Speaker 1: everything they do. Without a vision for your future, you're
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Speaker 1: just drifting. You wander, you ramble through life. You're not
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Speaker 1: really living, you're just existing. You don't have any goal
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Speaker 1: or purpose or plan or meaning. You just kind of
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Speaker 1: let life happen to you. I don't want you to
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Speaker 1: do that in 2021. When you don't have a vision,
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Speaker 1: you waste time and you missed opportunities. You don't make
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Speaker 1: the most of what you've been given. And without a vision,
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Speaker 1: you're a poor steward of life. You end up just
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Speaker 1: coasting and you're all, and you know, when you're coasting,
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Speaker 1: you're always headed downhill. So it causes this indecision. Second,
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Speaker 1: an unclear vision leads to division. Division, it causes people
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Speaker 1: to go different directions in different ways, to be divided
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Speaker 1: on things. If you aren't sure where you're headed, don't
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Speaker 1: expect anybody else to go with you or to marry
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Speaker 1: you or to agree with you or to partner with
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Speaker 1: you because everybody's just gonna head off in a different
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Speaker 1: direction because no one has a clear path. You know,
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Speaker 1: this lack of clear vision is one of the causes
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Speaker 1: of all the division in America right now. Here's an
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Speaker 1: interesting verse from Proverbs 28, verse two. In the message
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Speaker 1: it says this, when a country is in chaos, everybody
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Speaker 1: has a plan to fix it. Okay, they're all going
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Speaker 1: in different ways, different directions, division. But it takes a
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Speaker 1: leader of real understanding to straighten things out. Vision is
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Speaker 1: the answer to division. The third thing that happens when
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Speaker 1: you don't have a clear vision for life is a collision.
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Speaker 1: In other words, without a clear direction for your life,
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Speaker 1: it is inevitable. that at some point in your life,
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Speaker 1: you're gonna crash into some kind of dead end. And
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Speaker 1: you know, for many people, when you think about it,
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Speaker 1: I've met a lot of people, life's just a series
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Speaker 1: of collisions, relational collisions, confrontations, financial crashes, personal crisis, just
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Speaker 1: one after another. They go from one dead end relationship
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Speaker 1: to the next or from one dead end job to
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Speaker 1: the next. Life's kind of like a bumper car ride.
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Speaker 1: You just keep bumping into everybody else and you get
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Speaker 1: hit from all sides. Now, the Bible warns us of
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Speaker 1: the damage of not following God's vision for our lives.
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Speaker 1: 1 Timothy 1.19 says this in God's word translation. Some
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Speaker 1: people have refused to let their faith guide their conscience
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Speaker 1: and their faith has been destroyed like a wrecked ship.
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Speaker 1: That's a collision. On the other hand, having a vision
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Speaker 1: for your future requires hard work. That's why a lot
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Speaker 1: of people don't, don't have one, it requires faith, it
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Speaker 1: requires thinking, it requires prayer and seeking God, all the
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Speaker 1: things we're gonna talk about in this series. If you
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Speaker 1: just make up a vision for your life, well, that's
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Speaker 1: no better than coasting. What you want is God's vision
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Speaker 1: for your life. And that is the result of seeing
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Speaker 1: things clearly, seeing with eyes of faith rather than eyes
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Speaker 1: of fear. We're gonna look at that today in just
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Speaker 1: this introduction message. You know, in the Bible, Jesus has
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Speaker 1: a lot to say about your vision, about how you
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Speaker 1: see things and about blindness. In fact, in the Bible,
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Speaker 1: blindness is always a metaphor for having a closed mind.
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Speaker 1: When he talks about people who are blind, he's talking
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Speaker 1: about their minds are closed. They're not open to new ideas.
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Speaker 1: They're not open to what God wants to say. Matthew
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Speaker 1: chapter six, verse 22 and 23 is a verse we'll
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Speaker 1: come back to in this series on vision because Jesus
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Speaker 1: said this, Listen closely, look at this verse. Your eyes
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Speaker 1: are the lamp of your body. And if your eyes
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Speaker 1: are open and good, your whole body will be full
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Speaker 1: of life, light. But if your vision is bad, I
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Speaker 1: just got new glasses, I've got good vision again. If
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Speaker 1: your vision is bad, your whole life will be full
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Speaker 1: of darkness. And he says, and he says, if the
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Speaker 1: light that you think you have is really darkness is
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Speaker 1: the worst kind of darkness you can have. Now, Jesus
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Speaker 1: is saying that if you don't really see things clearly, correctly, truthfully,
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Speaker 1: you may think you're living in the light, but you're not.
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Speaker 1: You're really living in the darkness and you're missing all
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Speaker 1: the wonderful things that God has in store for you,
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Speaker 1: for your future, because you just can't see it. Now,
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Speaker 1: we've all heard the expression, what you see is what
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Speaker 1: you get. And in many ways, that's actually a biblical statement.
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Speaker 1: We're gonna look at the implications of that idea through
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Speaker 1: many scripture verses, during this series on vision. But what
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Speaker 1: I wanna do today is just introduce a series on
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Speaker 1: God's vision for your future. And I want us to
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Speaker 1: go back to a story in the Old Testament that
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Speaker 1: involves Moses and the Jewish slaves who'd been freed by
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Speaker 1: God from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. Now, here's
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Speaker 1: the background of the story. We're gonna look at Numbers
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Speaker 1: 13 and Numbers 14. Here's the background. In the book
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Speaker 1: of Numbers, God had promised these freed slaves a homeland
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Speaker 1: of their own. And he calls it the promised land.
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna set you free from Egypt and I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: take you to the promised land. It represented their future.
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Speaker 1: It represented their inheritance that God wanted them to enjoy.
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Speaker 1: It would become the land of Israel. Now, after crossing
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Speaker 1: the desert, they've gone through the Red Sea, crossing the desert,
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Speaker 1: all these freed slaves, they come to the edge of
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Speaker 1: the promised land and Moses chooses 12 representatives, one from
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Speaker 1: each of the 12 tribes, to go ahead of everybody
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Speaker 1: else and spy out the land. And he says, I
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Speaker 1: want you to go in, check it all out and
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Speaker 1: return with the vision report. This is a fact-finding mission.
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Speaker 1: In other words, it's a vision trip. And Moses says,
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Speaker 1: go into the new land that represents our future and
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Speaker 1: find out everything you can, find out what it's like,
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Speaker 1: see everything you can see, then come back and report
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Speaker 1: to us on everything you have seen. This is a
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Speaker 1: vision trip. Numbers 13, 17 to 20 says this, Moses
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Speaker 1: gave the men these instructions as he sent them out
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Speaker 1: to explore the new land. Go northward through the Negev
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Speaker 1: into the hill country and see what that land is
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Speaker 1: like and find out whether the people living there are
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Speaker 1: strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land
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Speaker 1: do they live in? Is it good or bad? Do
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Speaker 1: the towns have walls? Are they unprotected? How's the soil?
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Speaker 1: Is it fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Enter
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Speaker 1: the land boldly and bring back samples of the crops
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Speaker 1: you see. If you're taking notes, circle that phrase, you see. Now,
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Speaker 1: why did Moses do this? Because Moses was a great leader.
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Speaker 1: Why did he send these spies on a vision trip
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Speaker 1: and ask for a report? Here's the reason. Listen to this.
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Speaker 1: If you're a leader, this is really important. Before people
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Speaker 1: can succeed with a goal, they have to see the goal.
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Speaker 1: If you're a leader, you need to understand that. We
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Speaker 1: can only accomplish the impossible if we first see it
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Speaker 1: in our minds. Everything that's ever been accomplished in history
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Speaker 1: started as an idea in somebody's mind first. You have
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Speaker 1: to imagine it. You have to see it. Sometimes you
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Speaker 1: have to taste it, but you definitely have to visualize it.
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Speaker 1: And that's why I'm gonna teach you as the beginning
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Speaker 1: of this year, a new series on getting God's vision
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Speaker 1: for your life. Now, Numbers chapter 13, verse 21 to
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Speaker 1: 23 says this. So they sent spies in, they spied
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Speaker 1: out the land. all the way from the wilderness up
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Speaker 1: to Hebron. And there they saw, circle that word, they
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Speaker 1: saw the Ammonites and the Shishites and all the Talmites,
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Speaker 1: all the families descended from Anak. Now, by the way,
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Speaker 1: don't confuse these tribes with the termites and the parasites
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Speaker 1: and the satellites and the stalactites. Those are different tribes completely.
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Speaker 1: But it says when they came to Eshcol, they cut
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Speaker 1: down a cluster of grapes so large that it took
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Speaker 1: two of them to carry it back on a pole.
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Speaker 1: Can you imagine that, a cluster of grapes? They also
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Speaker 1: took samples of pomegranates and figs. This promised land was
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Speaker 1: so fruitful and so incredibly prosperous, they're bringing back giant fruit.
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Speaker 1: You know, I grew up in Northern California, in the
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Speaker 1: Redwoods and in the wine country. And as a kid,
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Speaker 1: every season, I cut grapes in vineyards at harvest. But
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Speaker 1: I never saw a cluster of grapes so large that
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Speaker 1: it took two men to carry it. This is supernatural.
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Speaker 1: This is miracle grows crop. Numbers 13, 25, 26 says this,
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Speaker 1: after seeing, there's the word seeing, this is a vision trip.
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Speaker 1: After seeing the land for 40 days, the men returned
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Speaker 1: to Moses and Aaron and the people of Israel waiting
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Speaker 1: at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to
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Speaker 1: the whole community what they had seen and they showed
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Speaker 1: them the fruit they had taken from the land. Now
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Speaker 1: all this sounds really promising, but there's a problem. And
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Speaker 1: it has to do with their vision. That's why we're
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Speaker 1: sharing this story. Two of the spies, there were 12 spies,
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Speaker 1: two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, looked at their
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Speaker 1: future with eyes of faith. But the other 10 of
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Speaker 1: the 12 spies looked at their future with the eyes
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Speaker 1: of fear. And I wanna contrast that today as we
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Speaker 1: start 2021. Are you looking at this new year with
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Speaker 1: eyes of fear or with eyes of faith? After experiencing
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Speaker 1: the year 2020, are you looking at this new year
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Speaker 1: with fear or with faith? Are you expecting more of
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Speaker 1: the same? Are you expecting God to do something great
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Speaker 1: in your life this new year? How you see this
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Speaker 1: year will make all the difference in the world. And
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Speaker 1: this story shows us what happens when your vision of
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Speaker 1: the future is based on fear instead of faith. Okay,
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Speaker 1: so let's get into this. Now, you know the story,
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Speaker 1: looking at the future with fear, which 10 of the
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Speaker 1: 12 spies did, causes all kinds of problems. In fact,
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Speaker 1: this story illustrates, oh, five or so of the traps,
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Speaker 1: maybe six that we fall into. Why don't you write
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Speaker 1: these down? Here's what happens when you look at the
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Speaker 1: new year or you look at the future with fear
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Speaker 1: instead of faith. Number one, We learn from this story,
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Speaker 1: I overemphasize the negative. When I look at the future
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Speaker 1: in fear, I overemphasize the negative in life. Verses 27, 28,
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Speaker 1: it says, this was their report to Moses. We arrived
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Speaker 1: in the land you sent us to, to see, and
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Speaker 1: it is indeed a magnificent country. The land flowing with
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Speaker 1: milk and honey. Here's some of the fruit as proof. But,
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Speaker 1: now circle the word but, because now that you get
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Speaker 1: to but, you're gonna see with eyes of fear. Here's
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Speaker 1: the conflicting information. But the people living there are powerful,
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Speaker 1: and their cities and towns are fortified, and they're very large.
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Speaker 1: And we also saw the Anakon, the descendants of Anak,
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Speaker 1: who lived in the desert. Now, the Anakon were of
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Speaker 1: the tribe of Skywalker, and the force was strong with them.
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Speaker 1: If you believe that, I've got some land to sell
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Speaker 1: you too. When you overemphasize the negative, it creates a
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Speaker 1: lot more stress in your life. When you're looking at
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Speaker 1: everything with fear, you worry that the glass is always
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Speaker 1: half empty. Instead of being happy and grateful, the glass
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Speaker 1: is still half full. Look at what you have left,
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Speaker 1: not what you've lost. Now, of course, life is filled
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Speaker 1: with negatives. Everything is broken by sin on this earth.
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Speaker 1: Not all news is positive, but you do have a
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Speaker 1: choice in choosing what you're going to focus on, what
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Speaker 1: you're gonna emphasize, and that is gonna directly affect your
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Speaker 1: happiness in this new year. So the spies brought back
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Speaker 1: conflicting news to the spies at eyes of faith, and
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Speaker 1: they gave positive news. But 10 of the spies had
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Speaker 1: eyes of fear and they delivered negative news. By the way,
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Speaker 1: I think that ratio in news is probably still true today.
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Speaker 1: For every one positive news story, you're going to hear
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Speaker 1: five negative news stories. And experts tell us that negative
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Speaker 1: news spreads about 10 times faster on social media than
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Speaker 1: positive news. So I focus on the negative when I'm
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Speaker 1: looking with eyes of fear. Number two, second trap. I
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Speaker 1: pay too much attention to what other people are doing.
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Speaker 1: I pay too much attention to what others are doing.
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Speaker 1: Numbers 13, 29 says this. They're focusing not on the
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Speaker 1: beauty and the value of the land. They say the
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Speaker 1: Amalekites live in the Negev and the Hittites and Jebusites
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Speaker 1: and Amorites live in the hill country and the Canaanites
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Speaker 1: live near the sea and along the Jordan, the Jordan River.
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Speaker 1: What are they saying here? What's the point? It's a
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Speaker 1: scarcity mentality. What they're saying is there won't be enough
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Speaker 1: for us this year. All the good land is already
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Speaker 1: taken by other tribes. There's really no room for us
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Speaker 1: in this promised land. There aren't enough resources for everybody.
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Speaker 1: We heard a lot of that this last year, panic
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Speaker 1: buying during the pandemic. There's not enough. Everybody's trying to
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Speaker 1: get it for themselves. Why didn't God bring us here? Now,
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Speaker 1: if you look at this new year with eyes of fear,
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Speaker 1: you too are gonna develop a scarcity mentality, which is
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Speaker 1: gonna create stress in your life. Like there's not enough.
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Speaker 1: And you know, say all the good experiences are gone.
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Speaker 1: All the good jobs are already taken. All the good
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Speaker 1: houses are already bought. All the good husbands are married.
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Speaker 1: You're gonna look around as a scarcity mentality. No, you
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Speaker 1: gotta look with the eyes of faith. Number three, third
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Speaker 1: trap that we see from this story. When we look
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Speaker 1: at the future with fear instead of faith, I understand,
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Speaker 1: excuse me, I underestimate the abilities that God has given me.
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Speaker 1: I underestimate the abilities God has given me when I
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Speaker 1: look at the future with fear. Because seeing life with
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Speaker 1: eyes of fear causes you to bury your talents. You
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Speaker 1: know that story that Jesus told. Numbers 13, 31, the
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Speaker 1: men who had gone with Caleb said, we can't. Circle that,
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Speaker 1: we can't. We can't attack those people. They are stronger
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Speaker 1: than we are. They're underestimating their own ability. Did you
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Speaker 1: know the people who always say, I can't, And the
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Speaker 1: people who always say, I can, are both right. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because fear creates self-fulfilling prophecies. You got a vision based
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Speaker 1: on fear rather than faith, it's gonna limit you for
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Speaker 1: your entire life. You're gonna miss opportunities. You're gonna waste
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Speaker 1: talent that God has put inside you. And you're gonna
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Speaker 1: set yourself up with self-fulfilling and self-defeating predictions. You know,
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Speaker 1: this happened, Job says in Job 3.25, he said, what
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Speaker 1: I have always feared has happened to me. And what
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Speaker 1: I have dreaded has now come to be. Let me
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Speaker 1: ask you a very personal question. What are you setting
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Speaker 1: yourself up for in this new year? What are you
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Speaker 1: setting yourself up for in just with your attitude? How
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Speaker 1: are you seeing yourself? Are you looking at your own
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Speaker 1: abilities as I'm inadequate? I'm incapable. Are you looking at
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Speaker 1: your life in faith or in fear? The spies with
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Speaker 1: fear-based vision saw themselves as inadequate. Verse 32 and 33,
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Speaker 1: they said, the land we explored devours those living in it.
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Speaker 1: What a hyperbole. The land we explored devours those living
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Speaker 1: in it? He says, all of the people we saw
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Speaker 1: there are of great size. He says, we saw giants there.
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Speaker 1: The Hebrew word is Nephilim. By the way, the Hebrew
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Speaker 1: word for handsome is Pastor Rick in Hebrew. We seemed
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Speaker 1: like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the
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Speaker 1: same to them. You see what they're saying here? We
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Speaker 1: see ourselves as insects waiting to be devoured. That word
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Speaker 1: devour in Hebrew actually means to eat up. They said,
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Speaker 1: these people are gonna eat our lunch. They're Nephilim, they're giants,
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Speaker 1: they're bullies, they're tyrants, they're NFL linebackers. It's a great size.
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Speaker 1: And they say, we saw ourselves as grasshoppers in our
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Speaker 1: own eyes. That's a pretty pathetic self-image. We're insects, we're bugs,
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Speaker 1: they're gonna squash us. We're gonna go smash against the windshield.
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Speaker 1: And then they says, we saw ourselves, notice that sentence,
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Speaker 1: we saw ourselves as grasshoppers and insects. We look the
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Speaker 1: same to them. What are they doing? They are projecting
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Speaker 1: their fears on others. That's one of the problem of
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Speaker 1: a fear-based vision is you project your fears on everybody else.
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Speaker 1: If you think you look a certain way, you think
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Speaker 1: everybody else thinks you look that way. That's a problem,
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Speaker 1: it's a trap. Number four, the fourth trap of vision
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Speaker 1: with fear instead of faith is I infect others with
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Speaker 1: my negativity. I infect others with my negativity. Did you
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Speaker 1: know that fear is contagious? Did you know parents can
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Speaker 1: pass on fear to kids? And it can actually be
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Speaker 1: passed from generation to generation. Verse 32, it says, they
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Speaker 1: spread a bad report about the land they had explored.
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Speaker 1: They didn't just keep it to themselves. This is what
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Speaker 1: happens when you become afraid, you start talking trash. You
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Speaker 1: start talking negative, you start complaining, you start griping. The Bible,
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Speaker 1: this is why, by the way, the Bible tells you
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Speaker 1: to not hang out with negative people. Did you know
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Speaker 1: that in Proverbs says many times, don't hang out with
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Speaker 1: scoffers and cynics. Don't hang out with negative people, critics
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Speaker 1: and complainers. You know, one of the things I noticed
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Speaker 1: in 2020, you probably noticed it too, How many conspiracy
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Speaker 1: theories popped up during the pandemic? Oh my goodness. We
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Speaker 1: had more conspiracies in one year than we'd had in
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Speaker 1: a decade or decades. And the problem was many Christians
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Speaker 1: were falling for those theories too. And they were actually
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Speaker 1: passing them on. Why? Because they were hanging out with
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Speaker 1: the wrong people. They were listening to negative reports. They
24:44
Speaker 1: were listening to negative news sources. You know what? if
24:49
Speaker 1: you start hearing some conspiracies this year, let me give
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Speaker 1: you a verse to go back to. It's Isaiah chapter eight,
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Speaker 1: verse 12. Here's what it says, Isaiah 8, 12. Don't
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Speaker 1: say that everything people call a conspiracy is a conspiracy.
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Speaker 1: And don't fear what they fear. Don't let it terrify you.
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Speaker 1: That's what God wants you to do. Don't think every
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Speaker 1: conspiracy is a conspiracy. Don't fear what they fear. Don't
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Speaker 1: let it terrify you. Number five, a fifth trap. If
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Speaker 1: you don't have eyes of faith is I make myself miserable.
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Speaker 1: When I look at my life and I look at
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Speaker 1: the future with eyes of fear, I just make myself miserable.
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Speaker 1: Here's what happened after they came back with this fear-based report,
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Speaker 1: numbers 14, one and two. Then all the people began
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Speaker 1: weeping aloud. Okay, they're crying. And they cried all night
25:51
Speaker 1: and they grumbled and they complained in a great chorus
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Speaker 1: against their leaders. Moses, the guy had led them out
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Speaker 1: of slavery against their leaders, Moses and Aaron. And they said,
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Speaker 1: we wish we died in Egypt or even here in
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Speaker 1: the wilderness. Are you kidding me? They wailed. They're having
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Speaker 1: a full-blown pity party. We would have rather stayed slaves
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Speaker 1: than have to face what we're gonna face in the future.
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Speaker 1: We would have rather died in the desert than have
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Speaker 1: to face the future because we're so afraid. Now, that's
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Speaker 1: a very important verse because you can know that you're
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Speaker 1: looking at life with eyes of fear when the four
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Speaker 1: warning lights that are in that verse show up in
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Speaker 1: your life. When these four things show up in your life,
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Speaker 1: you know, I'm not looking at the future with faith,
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Speaker 1: I'm looking at the future with fear. Notice the four things.
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Speaker 1: Your sadness increases. It says they cried all night. They
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Speaker 1: were depressed. And sometimes fear is caused, or depression is
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Speaker 1: caused by fear. Depression can be caused by a lot
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Speaker 1: of different things. But one, sometimes it can be caused
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Speaker 1: by fear. Your sadness increases. Number two, your complaining increases.
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Speaker 1: Has your spouse noticed you complaining more lately? It says
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Speaker 1: they grumbled and they complained. Why? Because they were afraid.
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Speaker 1: They were afraid, okay? Third, you start second guessing your leaders.
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Speaker 1: It says they grumbled and complained in a great chorus
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Speaker 1: against their leaders, Moses and Aaron. They said, we wish
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Speaker 1: you hadn't led us here. You're doing a lousy job
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Speaker 1: of leading us. And fourth, you wanna go back Backwards,
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Speaker 1: you wanna go back to a prior time. They said,
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Speaker 1: it would have been better for us to have died
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Speaker 1: in Egypt. You don't want any of those things. But
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Speaker 1: those are signs that you're living based on a vision
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Speaker 1: of fear than a vision of faith. So what's the antidote? Well,
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Speaker 1: that's what we're gonna look at in the days ahead.
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Speaker 1: This is just an introduction. But the antidote in a
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Speaker 1: sentence is you need to develop a life vision of faith.
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Speaker 1: You need to develop a life vision of it. You
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Speaker 1: need to see with eyes of faith, not eyes of fear.
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Speaker 1: And I'm gonna teach you how to do that during
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Speaker 1: this series. As I said, this is just the intro. Now,
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Speaker 1: there were two guys who were the minority report and
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Speaker 1: they were Caleb and Joshua. They were the only two
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Speaker 1: guys who eventually got to go into the promised land.
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Speaker 1: The rest of them died in the desert. God let
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Speaker 1: them die out there. Numbers 13, 30, here's what Caleb
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Speaker 1: said in faith. Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses
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Speaker 1: and he said, we should go at once. We should
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Speaker 1: take possession of the land right now. We can certainly
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Speaker 1: do this. He said, well, let's do it right now.
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Speaker 1: Stop defeating yourself with the paralysis of analysis. Do it now.
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Speaker 1: You defeat fear, not by arguing against your fears. You
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Speaker 1: defeat fear with movement, not by discussing it, not by
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Speaker 1: focusing on it, but by doing, opposing it, doing the
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Speaker 1: thing you fear the most. That's what Caleb said. Then
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Speaker 1: in verse six to nine of Numbers 14, here's what
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Speaker 1: Joshua said. He's the other guy who had eyes of faith.
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Speaker 1: He said, we saw the land ourselves and it's very good.
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Speaker 1: He said, the future looked great. If we obey the Lord,
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Speaker 1: he will surely give us that land rich with milk
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Speaker 1: and honey. In other words, we're depending on the promise
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Speaker 1: of God. So he says, don't rebel. He said, don't rebel.
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Speaker 1: We have no reason to be afraid of the people
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Speaker 1: who live there. The Lord is on our side and
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Speaker 1: they won't stand a chance against us. One plus God
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Speaker 1: is a majority. God plus you, you know, if God
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Speaker 1: is for us, who can be against us? Now here's
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Speaker 1: the problem. Sadly, they chose to believe the majority report
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Speaker 1: of fear, not the minority report of faith. And they
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Speaker 1: all died in the desert over the next 40 years
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Speaker 1: until a new generation grew up and they would be
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Speaker 1: allowed to go into the promised land. One of the
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Speaker 1: saddest verses in the Bible is Hebrews 3.19 that says this.
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Speaker 1: So we see that they, the people, who were the
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Speaker 1: slaves that had been freed, they were not able to
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Speaker 1: enter the promised land because of their unbelief. That's one
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Speaker 1: of the saddest verses in the Bible. And it makes
30:40
Speaker 1: me wonder when I read it, what blessing of God
30:44
Speaker 1: am I missing out on, me personally, because of my unbelief?
30:50
Speaker 1: What blessing of God am I missing out on because
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Speaker 1: of my own unbelief? To me, hell would be if
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Speaker 1: God were to show me what he could have done
31:00
Speaker 1: in my life if I had believed him just a
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Speaker 1: little bit more. And I wanna ask you this question
31:06
Speaker 1: as we start a brand new year, what blessing of
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Speaker 1: God are you missing right now? Simply because you don't believe.
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Speaker 1: You don't believe it. You're unbelief. You're looking at the
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Speaker 1: future with eyes of fear, not the eyes of faith. Now,
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Speaker 1: the starting point, We're gonna get into all the details
31:26
Speaker 1: in this series. But the starting point for getting God's
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Speaker 1: vision for your life, obviously, is to first put your
31:32
Speaker 1: trust in Jesus Christ if you haven't done that. You
31:34
Speaker 1: need to ask him to put his spirit into your life.
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Speaker 1: It's the only way you'll ever be able to see
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Speaker 1: with eyes of faith. And it's the only way you'll
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Speaker 1: ever be able to get God's vision. John chapter three,
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Speaker 1: verse three, Jesus said this, unless you were born again,
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Speaker 1: you cannot see the kingdom of God. You can't see it.
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Speaker 1: You can't see God's vision unless you're born again. So
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Speaker 1: you need this. You see, when you're born again, when
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Speaker 1: you're born physically, you get five senses, hear, taste, touch, smell, okay, see.
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Speaker 1: When you're spiritually reborn, born again, you get a new
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Speaker 1: set of eyes. You can see things you didn't see before.
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Speaker 1: You can hear things you couldn't hear before. You sense
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Speaker 1: things you didn't sense before. Unless you're born again, you
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Speaker 1: can never see. all that God has in store for
32:27
Speaker 1: your life. So here's the first step that I want
32:31
Speaker 1: you to start just this week. Stop listening to your
32:34
Speaker 1: feelings and stop looking in fear and start living in faith.
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Speaker 1: Believe that God's going to help you in this new year. Believe,
32:43
Speaker 1: believe God will help you and you will see God
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Speaker 1: help you. I'll end with this story. You know, Jesus
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Speaker 1: had some friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. They have two
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Speaker 1: sisters and a brother and Lazarus died and Jesus raised
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Speaker 1: him back to life. And when he did, he reminded
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Speaker 1: Mary and Martha in John 11, 40, he said, didn't
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Speaker 1: I tell you that you will see God's glory if
33:09
Speaker 1: you believe? You will see God's glory if you believe.
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Speaker 1: So here's my question. How badly do you wanna see
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Speaker 1: God's glory in your life in 2021? You gotta stop
33:22
Speaker 1: nursing your worries. They just get bigger. You gotta make
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Speaker 1: some commitments in faith. You gotta step out and move
33:28
Speaker 1: against your fears. I wanna pray a prayer and I
33:31
Speaker 1: wanna pray for two different groups. First, if you have
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Speaker 1: never given your life to Christ, it's time to be
33:38
Speaker 1: born again. Then you can start seeing with spiritual eyes.
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Speaker 1: And if you are already a Christian, would you stop
33:46
Speaker 1: listening to the negative reports? Would you re-go over these
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Speaker 1: five things we just talked about and say, God, I
33:54
Speaker 1: don't want that in my life in 2021. I don't
33:57
Speaker 1: want that in my life in this new year. Let's
34:00
Speaker 1: bow for prayer. Father, I thank you that you took
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Speaker 1: us through 2020. I thank you that you have a
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Speaker 1: great new future for us. You said, I know the
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Speaker 1: plans I have for you, plans for good, not to
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Speaker 1: harm you, but to prosper you. And so I pray
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Speaker 1: that today, as we start a new year together, that
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Speaker 1: we would lay aside the eyes of fear and we
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Speaker 1: begin to see with eyes of faith and that we
34:26
Speaker 1: would get your vision for our lives. We don't want
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Speaker 1: division in our lives. We don't want a collision in
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Speaker 1: our lives. We don't want the negativity of indecision in
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Speaker 1: our lives. What we want is you. If you've never
34:45
Speaker 1: invited Christ in your life, why don't you say this?
34:47
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, I wanna be born again. I ask you
34:51
Speaker 1: to put your spirit in my life. I realize I
34:55
Speaker 1: need you. Forgive all my sins and help me to
35:00
Speaker 1: follow you. I wanna learn to trust you and love you.
35:04
Speaker 1: And I wanna see your vision and your purpose and
35:08
Speaker 1: plan for my life in this new year. Please accept
35:13
Speaker 1: me into your family. For those of you who have
35:16
Speaker 1: already prayed that prayer, pray this, Father, today, I wanna
35:21
Speaker 1: switch from eyes of fear to eyes of faith. And
35:26
Speaker 1: I don't wanna fall for any of these traps that
35:28
Speaker 1: we just looked at in today's text. Instead, I wanna
35:33
Speaker 1: trust you and expect great things from you and attempt
35:37
Speaker 1: great things for you. I wanna be a man of vision.
35:41
Speaker 1: I wanna be a woman of vision in 2021. And
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Speaker 1: I ask you to give me your vision in Jesus' name. Amen.