Latest / Voice of Rick warren / Why So Many People Are Turning to Faith Right Now (1)

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Why So Many People Are Turning to Faith Right Now (1) · Voice of Rick warren

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  Speaker 1: Faith doesn't always take away the pain. Faith gives you
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  Speaker 1: the ability to handle the pain. Faith doesn't make life
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  Speaker 1: heaven on earth. This world is never going to be
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  Speaker 1: heaven on earth. But faith gives you the ability to
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  Speaker 1: handle it. It doesn't take you out of the storm.
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  Speaker 1: It calms you in the storm. Now the Bible says
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  Speaker 1: this on your outline there, Romans chapter 1 verse 17.
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  Speaker 1: The gospel shows us how God makes people right with himself.
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  Speaker 1: And by the way, the word gospel, simply the only
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  Speaker 1: English word for good news. That's all it means, good news.
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  Speaker 1: The gospel shows us how God makes people right with
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  Speaker 1: himself and that it begins and it ends with what? Okay,
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  Speaker 1: circle that. It begins and ends with faith. That's how
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  Speaker 1: we get right with God. The scripture says that those
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  Speaker 1: who are right with God will live by trusting him.
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  Speaker 1: The just shall live by faith. And then look at
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  Speaker 1: the next verse, Hebrews 11, six. Without faith it is
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  Speaker 1: impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him
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  Speaker 1: must believe that he exists and that he rewards those
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  Speaker 1: who earnestly seek him. Did you know that God wants
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  Speaker 1: to reward you for earnestly seeking him? And if you
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  Speaker 1: believe that, the Bible says the just live by faith.
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  Speaker 1: Now if the Bible says the way to live is
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  Speaker 1: by faith, the way we connect with God is by faith,
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  Speaker 1: and without faith it's impossible to please God, what in
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  Speaker 1: the world is faith? Well we're gonna take 10 weeks
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  Speaker 1: to talk about that. And faith is like a diamond,
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  Speaker 1: it's multifaceted. But one of the evidences and one of
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  Speaker 1: the elements of faith that I want us to start off,
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  Speaker 1: this is just an introduction this weekend, I want you
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  Speaker 1: to write this down. write it on your outline, faith
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  Speaker 1: is seeing from God's point of view. Faith is seeing
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  Speaker 1: from God's point of view. And I'm gonna come back
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  Speaker 1: to that in a minute. Let me tell you first
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  Speaker 1: what faith is not, okay? Faith is not desire. You
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  Speaker 1: can wish for something, you can hope for something, you
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  Speaker 1: can pray for something, you can sincerely desire and crave something,
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  Speaker 1: that doesn't mean it's faith. Faith is not desire. Desire
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  Speaker 1: may lead you to faith, but desire isn't faith. For instance,
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  Speaker 1: I remember as a kid, my desire as a teenager
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  Speaker 1: was to get a car. And that was a great
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  Speaker 1: big desire, a huge desire is to get a car.
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  Speaker 1: But it wasn't faith. And desire is not the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: Another thing faith isn't is it's not pretending that something
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  Speaker 1: is true that isn't true. You know, I could have
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  Speaker 1: some butter sitting right here and I could say, I
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  Speaker 1: believe that that's chocolate. and I have faith that it's chocolate. No,
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter how much faith I say I've got,
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  Speaker 1: it's not chocolate, it's butter. And it's not gonna be
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  Speaker 1: chocolate no matter how much I say, it's chocolate. And
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  Speaker 1: so faith is not psyching yourself up and pretending something
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  Speaker 1: is that really isn't true. You're not conning yourself into
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  Speaker 1: believing something. Faith is not a feeling. Now this is
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  Speaker 1: really important, in fact, you need to understand that feelings
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  Speaker 1: often get in the way of faith. Because you feel
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  Speaker 1: a certain way, then you want to go that way
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  Speaker 1: whether you have the faith or not. And feelings are
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  Speaker 1: what we tend to rely on instead of our faith.
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  Speaker 1: And a lot of times faith says, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: move ahead in spite of my feelings. I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: do the right thing in spite of my feelings. That's faith.
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  Speaker 1: And faith is not bargaining with God. It's not saying, God,
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  Speaker 1: if you'll do this, then I'll do this. God is
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  Speaker 1: not a gambler. Lord, if you'll do this, then I'll
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  Speaker 1: do this and make a bribe or a bargain with God.
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  Speaker 1: That's not faith. We're gonna look at what faith is.
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  Speaker 1: And this weekend, we're looking at the fact that faith
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  Speaker 1: is a way of seeing. Faith is a way of
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  Speaker 1: looking at the world from God's point of view. It's
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  Speaker 1: having God's perspective. Let me show you a couple verses.
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews chapter 11, verse one says this. What is faith?
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  Speaker 1: Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for
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  Speaker 1: is going to happen, not might, not hopefully, but what
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  Speaker 1: we hope for is going to happen, and to be
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  Speaker 1: certain of the things we do not see. I want
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  Speaker 1: you to circle the phrase we do not see. Faith
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  Speaker 1: is being certain of things we do not see. It
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  Speaker 1: has to do with your vision. The Bible says that
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  Speaker 1: faith is a way of seeing. Now, would you agree
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  Speaker 1: that there's always more than one way to look at something?
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  Speaker 1: If you're married, you really know that's true. And if
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  Speaker 1: you've got kids, you know that's true. There's always, always
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  Speaker 1: more than one way of looking at something. Sometimes there
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  Speaker 1: might be a dozen different ways of looking at something,
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  Speaker 1: but what really matters is not how you see it
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  Speaker 1: and not even how I see it, but how God
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  Speaker 1: sees it. And faith is learning to see things from
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  Speaker 1: God's point of view, having his vision. Ephesians 1.18 is
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  Speaker 1: the master verse on this, and it says there, I
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  Speaker 1: pray that the eyes of your heart will be flooded
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  Speaker 1: with light so that you can see, so that you
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  Speaker 1: can see, so that you can see the wonderful future
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  Speaker 1: that God has promised to those he called. Now, we
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  Speaker 1: just sang about this verse. Open the eyes of my heart. Lord,
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  Speaker 1: I want to see you. Now, what does that mean?
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  Speaker 1: We're singing this great song. What does it mean? I
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  Speaker 1: don't have eyes in my heart. What in the world
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  Speaker 1: is he talking about? What that verse is talking about
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  Speaker 1: is that there's an unseen realm in the world that's
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  Speaker 1: more real than the seen realm. For instance, you can
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  Speaker 1: see this chair right now because it's made out of
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  Speaker 1: wood and it's got paint on it, but you can't
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  Speaker 1: see the Holy Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit is more
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  Speaker 1: real than this chair. And the Holy Spirit is gonna
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  Speaker 1: live for eternity because he is God. This chair is
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  Speaker 1: gonna break down and wear out. The Bible says that
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  Speaker 1: everything you see is temporary. Your body, your hair, and
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  Speaker 1: a lot of other things. Anything you see is temporary.
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  Speaker 1: It's not gonna last. The things that last are actually unseen.
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  Speaker 1: And this is where the faith realm comes in. And
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  Speaker 1: the Bible has many, many examples of what I call
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  Speaker 1: seeing with spiritual eyes. Or seeing with the eyes of
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  Speaker 1: the heart. Seeing from God's point of view. The Bible
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  Speaker 1: tells us over in Genesis 21 about Hagar and her
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  Speaker 1: son Ishmael who had been cast out by Abraham. And
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  Speaker 1: because of jealous Sarah, she's sent out into the desert
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  Speaker 1: and she's there in the desert with no water and
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  Speaker 1: she's gonna die. And Sarah calls out to God in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of the desert and she says, Lord, don't
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  Speaker 1: let me watch my child die. And all of a
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  Speaker 1: sudden it says, God opened her eyes and she saw
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  Speaker 1: a well of water in the middle of the desert.
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  Speaker 1: And they lived. The Bible tells us in 2 Kings
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  Speaker 1: chapter six about and Gehazi and how an enemy nation
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  Speaker 1: was coming against the army, was coming against Jerusalem and
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  Speaker 1: the Jews. And Gehazi, who was Elisha's servant, gets very,
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  Speaker 1: very frightened and very, very upset. He's having a panic attack.
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  Speaker 1: And God, I mean, Elisha says to Gehazi, Gehazi, I
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  Speaker 1: don't want you to be upset. Instead he prays this. Lord,
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  Speaker 1: open the eyes of my servant. And all of a sudden, Gehazi,
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  Speaker 1: it says his spiritual vision is opened up, and it
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  Speaker 1: says he could see a realm of angels circling the
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  Speaker 1: city of Jerusalem. And all of a sudden, he wasn't
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  Speaker 1: afraid anymore. Well, you wouldn't be either if you saw
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  Speaker 1: a realm of angels. God opened his spiritual eyes. The
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  Speaker 1: Bible tells us that in Genesis 13, God takes Abraham
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  Speaker 1: up on a hill and says, look up at the stars.
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  Speaker 1: And he says, just imagine this. This is going to
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  Speaker 1: be your ancestry. These are going to be the number
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  Speaker 1: of people in your nation. As many as you can
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  Speaker 1: count and even more. And the Bible says God opened
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  Speaker 1: his eyes. He had a moment of spiritual clarity. After
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection, the Bible tells us that two disciples are
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  Speaker 1: walking down the street And they're all upset and they're
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  Speaker 1: all discouraged because Jesus died on the cross. Their hopes
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  Speaker 1: have been crushed. Their dreams have been dashed. They are
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  Speaker 1: in despair. And all of a sudden Jesus comes walking
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  Speaker 1: with them and they have a conversation. They invite him
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  Speaker 1: in for dinner. They don't recognize who it is. They
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  Speaker 1: sit down, they have a meal together and it says
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  Speaker 1: then when he blessed the meal, it says God opened
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  Speaker 1: their eyes and all of a sudden they realize Jesus
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  Speaker 1: is right here in my midst. That's what God wants
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  Speaker 1: to do in faith in you. He wants to open
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  Speaker 1: your eyes when you see, oh, Jesus is right here
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  Speaker 1: with me. Oh, the angels are circling around me. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: God has a plan much bigger than my plan for
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  Speaker 1: my life and on and on and on. And so
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  Speaker 1: I want us to do a couple things today. I
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  Speaker 1: want us to look at what happens when we see
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  Speaker 1: with eyes of fear and look at what happens when
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  Speaker 1: we see with eyes of faith. Just kind of as
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  Speaker 1: an introduction because Until you understand how important it is
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  Speaker 1: to see everything in life through eyes of faith, you're
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  Speaker 1: not gonna be looking for that. Now a good example
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  Speaker 1: of this is in the Old Testament in the book
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  Speaker 1: of Numbers, chapter 13 and 14, a book that isn't
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  Speaker 1: read much by people, but it's got a lot of
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  Speaker 1: spiritual truth in it. And here's the background of Numbers
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  Speaker 1: 13 and 14. Moses has led the nation of Israel
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  Speaker 1: to freedom. He's got them free from Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
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  Speaker 1: They've crossed the Red Sea. They've been traveling for about
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  Speaker 1: two years, not 40 years, just about two years from Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: taking a very slow pace, because it certainly wouldn't take
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  Speaker 1: that long to walk from Egypt to Israel across the Sinai.
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  Speaker 1: But they got a lot of people and they're slow
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  Speaker 1: and they're going along and they're coming up to a
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  Speaker 1: place called Kadesh. And at Kadesh, they're getting ready to
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  Speaker 1: cross the Jordan and go into the Promised Land. This
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  Speaker 1: is the land that's been promised to them for 400
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  Speaker 1: years that they would have their own country, they would
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  Speaker 1: have freedom, they would be free from slavery. When they
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  Speaker 1: get up to the edge of the water, before they
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  Speaker 1: go in, Moses says, okay, before we go in, I
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  Speaker 1: wanna send in a spy team. I'm gonna pick 12
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  Speaker 1: guys to go in and spy out the land. They're
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  Speaker 1: gonna do reconnaissance. They're gonna do the due diligence. They're
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  Speaker 1: gonna check out what's going on and do a little
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  Speaker 1: fact finding. And so 12 spies are connected, are chosen
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  Speaker 1: by Moses, and they are sent in to go visit
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  Speaker 1: the land. When they come back, they give a mixed report.
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  Speaker 1: Two of the spies say, it's incredible, let's go take it.
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  Speaker 1: It's ready for our taking. God has given us truly
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  Speaker 1: the promised land. And those two spies were named Joshua
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  Speaker 1: and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb. The other 10 spies come
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  Speaker 1: back and say, yeah, it's a great place, but, and
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  Speaker 1: they have a whole list of problems on why they
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  Speaker 1: can't go in. They're not seeing with eyes of faith.
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  Speaker 1: They're seeing with eyes of fear. Now, let me read
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  Speaker 1: you the names of these guys. Raise your hand if
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  Speaker 1: you've heard of any of these guys. Shaphat. Nobody. Egal. Palti. Gadiel. Emiel. Sether. Nabi. Gelu. Shamu. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: not the whale. Shamua. Okay. And then Caleb. Caleb. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and Joshua, yeah. Here's the point, nobody remembers the negative guys.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody remembers the critics who say it can't be done.
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  Speaker 1: The only people who get remembered are the guys who said,
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  Speaker 1: let's go do it in God's name. They saw with
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  Speaker 1: eyes of faith, the others saw with eyes of fear.
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  Speaker 1: Now what happens when we see with eyes of fear
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  Speaker 1: and see with eyes of faith? Let's go over these
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  Speaker 1: real quickly. First, five things happen when we see with
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  Speaker 1: eyes of fear, and they're all here in in Numbers
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  Speaker 1: chapter 13 and 14. Number one, write these down. First,
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  Speaker 1: we exaggerate our difficulties. We exaggerate our difficulties. Now, here's
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  Speaker 1: an amazing thing. God has just delivered them from Egypt,
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  Speaker 1: the most powerful nation in the world, and yet now
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  Speaker 1: they're worried about some local tribe? They've just defeated Pharaoh,
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  Speaker 1: and yet now they're worried about somebody else? And how
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  Speaker 1: quickly we forget. When you look at your problems with
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  Speaker 1: eyes of fear, they get bigger. And the more you
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  Speaker 1: look at your problem, the more exaggerated it gets. Somebody
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  Speaker 1: criticizes you, the more you think about it, pretty soon
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  Speaker 1: you think the whole world's criticizing you. It grows by proportion.
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  Speaker 1: Numbers 13, verse 27, 28. Here was the negative report.
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  Speaker 1: It's a magnificent land, said the negative spies, but, and
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  Speaker 1: there's always a big but, It's a magnificent land, but
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  Speaker 1: the people living there are powerful, and their cities are
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  Speaker 1: fortified and large, and what's more, we saw Anakim giants there. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the Anakim were of the tribe of Skywalker. And the
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  Speaker 1: force was strong with them. And that's another story, sorry,
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  Speaker 1: I got confused there. The next verse, 31 and 32, says,
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  Speaker 1: other spies said, they'd crush us. So the majority report
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  Speaker 1: of the spies was negative. I wanna point out something here.
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  Speaker 1: The majority report is almost always negative. Anybody who's gonna
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  Speaker 1: get something done in this world is gonna have to
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  Speaker 1: go against the majority report. Because the majority of people
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  Speaker 1: are going to be looking with eyes of fear, not
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  Speaker 1: eyes of faith. And they said, we say these people
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  Speaker 1: and they'd crush us. That word there actually in Hebrew
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  Speaker 1: is akal, which means to eat up. It means to devour. Man,
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  Speaker 1: they'd eat us alive. They're like cannibals. They're bullies. They're tyrants.
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  Speaker 1: They're NFL backers. They're going to take us on and
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  Speaker 1: we'll be crushed. Only two of the spies have faith,
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  Speaker 1: Joshua and Caleb, and And yet the people always trust
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  Speaker 1: the minority. No, they always trust the majority report because
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  Speaker 1: there's always more worriers and there's always more naysayers and
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  Speaker 1: there's always more critics and more fearful, fretful, negative people.
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  Speaker 1: Now here's the problem. Negative attitudes are contagious. When they
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  Speaker 1: walked up there to the edge, everybody was excited about
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  Speaker 1: going into the promised land. It was only when 10
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  Speaker 1: come back and said we can't do it that everybody
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  Speaker 1: changed their mind. And they began to get infected with
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  Speaker 1: a negative attitude. Now here's what's ironic. They said, this
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  Speaker 1: place is filled with giants and we can't take them
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  Speaker 1: on and they're too big for us and too powerful. Ironically,
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  Speaker 1: 38 years later, when the next generation did get to
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  Speaker 1: go into the promised land, you know what the enemy said?
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  Speaker 1: They said, we have lived in panic for 40 years.
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  Speaker 1: Because we heard about the 10 plagues of Egypt. And
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  Speaker 1: we heard about what your God had done against the
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  Speaker 1: most powerful leader in the world, Pharaoh, and we were
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  Speaker 1: scared to death, and we were ready to surrender. We
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  Speaker 1: were ready, we were ready to surrender. So you needlessly
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  Speaker 1: walked around in the wilderness for 40 years, because we
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  Speaker 1: were scared to death of you. We exaggerate our difficulties.
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  Speaker 1: Second thing we do when we see eyes of fear,
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  Speaker 1: we underestimate our own abilities. We exaggerate the problem, but
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  Speaker 1: we underestimate our own abilities. And in verse 33 of
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  Speaker 1: Numbers 13, it says this, We seemed like grasshoppers in
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  Speaker 1: our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.
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  Speaker 1: Now you talk about low self-esteem. That's saying we're insects.
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  Speaker 1: We're just a bunch of bugs compared to those guys.
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  Speaker 1: They're gonna eat us for lunch. We can't do that.
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  Speaker 1: And notice they say, we saw ourselves like grasshoppers in
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  Speaker 1: our own eyes, that's their own self-image, and it says,
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  Speaker 1: and we looked the same to them. How do they
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  Speaker 1: know how they looked to the enemy? They didn't. There's
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  Speaker 1: a word for this. It's called projection. You tend to
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  Speaker 1: project your fears on everybody else around you. And that's
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  Speaker 1: what they're doing there. They're projecting their fears. They'd been
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  Speaker 1: slaves for 400 years. They'd been freed for 40. But
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  Speaker 1: they're still mentally enslaved in a condition they still see
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  Speaker 1: themselves as helpless. And they still see themselves enslaved. They're
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  Speaker 1: enslaved not by a Pharaoh now, but by an idea,
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  Speaker 1: by an image, by a self-concept. Now, Let's just stop
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  Speaker 1: here for a minute. Because many years ago, people said
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  Speaker 1: things about you and to you and behind your back
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  Speaker 1: that you overheard that were not true, but you believed them.
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  Speaker 1: They're not even in your life anymore. Some of them
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  Speaker 1: are even dead. And you're still believing their lives. You're
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  Speaker 1: still enslaved to their image of you. And you had somebody,
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  Speaker 1: a parent or a partner or a friend or a
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  Speaker 1: brother or sister who said, you're uncoordinated. And so you
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  Speaker 1: think you're uncoordinated. Or you're never gonna amount to much,
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  Speaker 1: so you think you're never gonna amount to much. You're
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  Speaker 1: not good at speaking, or on and on. They told
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  Speaker 1: you all those things. You're not in Egypt anymore. That's
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  Speaker 1: a self-imposed prison. If you go to AA, they keep
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  Speaker 1: you saying for the rest of your life, you stand
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  Speaker 1: up and say, hi, my name's Joe, and I'm an alcoholic.
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  Speaker 1: Now the guy may have been sober for 35 or
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  Speaker 1: 40 years, but he stands up and his first identity
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  Speaker 1: is Hi, I'm Joe and I'm an alcoholic. He's still
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  Speaker 1: identifying with his weakness, with his problem, with his struggle.
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  Speaker 1: with his sin or whatever. Your primary identity is not
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  Speaker 1: your sin. Your primary identity is not your fault, is
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  Speaker 1: not your weakness, is not your miscue, is not your failure.
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  Speaker 1: Your primary identity is in Christ. I am a believer
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  Speaker 1: who struggles with loneliness, struggles with codependency, struggles with worry,
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  Speaker 1: struggles with panic attacks. That's not your primary identity. You're
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  Speaker 1: seeing with eyes of fear instead of eyes of faith.
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  Speaker 1: And so we overestimate the problem and we underestimate our abilities.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's funny that it said that some of
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  Speaker 1: the spies saw these guys and said, they were tall,
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  Speaker 1: and they said, these guys are giants. What's interesting is
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  Speaker 1: later when they went in, they found out that the
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  Speaker 1: taller people were actually the most calm and the most peaceful.
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  Speaker 1: And they had nothing to be afraid of. The tall
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  Speaker 1: people were not even warriors. It's just they all had
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: it in their mind. Third thing that happens when you
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: see with eyes of fear, we get discouraged. First, they
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: overestimate the problem. Second, they underestimate their own ability. We're
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: like insects. We're just grasshoppers. Third, they get discouraged. And
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: in Numbers 14.1, it says that all the people began
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: weeping aloud and they carried on all night. They had
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: a giant pity party. Pull. us. And they're now crying
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and weeping because they don't get to go into the
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: promised land. What's keeping them out? Their fear. They're not
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: living by faith. We get discouraged. And then quickly we
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: move to number four and that is we move from
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: discouragement to griping. We start to gripe about all of
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: our and everything that's gonna go wrong in our lives.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: And in verse two, after the all night pity party,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: it says, then all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: They picked on the leaders. We wish we had died
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: in Egypt, they wailed. Or even here in the wilderness.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Now notice, first they mourned and now they murmur. First
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: they cry and now they can complain. What it is,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: it's discontent. By the way, let me just say this
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: to you. Highly critical people are always highly insecure people.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: It's dominated by fear. When you find somebody who's critical
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: of other people, it's because they're incredibly insecure, and if
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I don't feel good about me, I certainly don't want
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: you feeling good about you. So I'm gonna criticize, and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna complain, and I'm gonna be against any success
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: that you might have. But we underestimate our abilities, we
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: get discouraged, we gripe about our lives, and then eventually,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: number five, next verse, We give up and we blame God.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: We give up and we blame God. Verse three, they said,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: why is the Lord, notice, why is the Lord bringing
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: us to this land to be killed with swords? We'd
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: be better off going back to Egypt. You know what
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: they're saying there? We know better than God. We know
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: better than God. Notice, they're blaming God for not letting
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: them go into the promised land. God isn't holding them back.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: It's their fear that's holding them back. So they're second guessing.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: And now all of a sudden they're remembering the good
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: old days of Egypt. Good old days? What was the
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: good old days? 400 years of slavery. Why would anybody
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: want to go back to Egypt? It was slavery, but
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: it was safety. It was safe slavery. And a lot
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: of people get stuck in safe slavery. And they're enslaved
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: by a relationship, or they're enslaved by a fear, or
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: they're enslaved by a habit, or they're enslaved by a compulsion,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: or they're enslaved by a thought that I have to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: do a certain thing. And to let go of that,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: they really don't like it, but at least it's predictable,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: it's comfortable. And I know what's in Egypt. And some
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of you are doing that. Some of you are confusing
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: slavery and safety. They're not the same thing. You say,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I know it's a bad situation, but at least it's predictable.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: And I know this habit is self-defeating, but it's comfortable,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: it's just who I am, it's what I do, it's
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: who I am. There is no real freedom without taking risks.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Safety and freedom are on opposites ends of the continuum.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: And you're either moving more towards safety and slavery, or
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: are you moving more toward taking risks and freedom? God
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: made you to be a risk taker. God made you
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: to live by faith. Don't die in the desert. Now
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: let me contrast that with what the Bible says happens
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: when we start to live our lives seeing everything by faith.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Learning to be a dreamer. Learning to see God's vision.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Learning to look at things not as they are, but
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: as they could be. How do you do that? And
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: what difference does it make in my life? Well, let
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: me explain these to you. Write these down. What happens
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: when we see with eyes of faith? Six things. I
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: could give you two dozen, but let me just give
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: you six. Number one, faith shrinks my problems. The first
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: thing that I do when I begin to open the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: eyes of my heart, Lord, and I begin to see
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: what God is doing around me, and I begin to
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: look at things from God's viewpoint, it shrinks my problem.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: It gives you new perspectives. See, when you see your
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: problem from God's point of view, well then, everything gets
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: a whole lot more manageable. If you have a big God,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: problems get small. If you got a small God, problems
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: get big. Now, when you come to the Lord, and
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: you say, Lord, you're a big God, and you can
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: handle this problem, and I'm gonna give it to you,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna just let you work it out, I'm
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: trusting you, I'm seeing with the eyes of, let you
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: work it out, then you can relax. And you say, well,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: how's it gonna be solved? You say, well, that's God's problem.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: It's not my problem. It's God's problem. Faith shrinks my problem.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Genesis 18, 14 says, is anything too hard for the Lord?
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: And the answer is obviously no. Nothing's too hard for
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the Lord. Luke 1, 37, Jesus says, for nothing is
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: impossible with God. You know, if you were to come
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: to my office and you were to go into my
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: library and pull out my dictionary and look up the
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: word impossible, you would find that the word impossible is
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: not in my dictionary because 35 years ago, I cut
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: it out. I said, if it's not in God's vocabulary,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: it's not in mine. The Bible says nothing is impossible
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: with God. Faith shrinks my problems. Number two, faith opens
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: the door for a miracle. Faith opens the door for
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: a miracle. Faith can move mountains. You know, if you
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: study the Bible and if you study history, you find
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: that every time God moves out on Earth and does
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: a miracle, it's because somebody believed. Faith opens the door
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: to miracles. Mark 11, Jesus said this, have faith in God.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: If you have faith in God and you don't doubt,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: you could tell this mountain to get up and jump
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: into the sea. And it would. It would. Whatever you
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: ask for in prayer will be yours if you only
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: have the faith. Now what's he talking about here? Telling
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: a mountain to jump in the sea. God has set
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: up the universe in a hierarchy of laws. And the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: law of faith is actually a higher law than the
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: laws of nature. And that's where miracles come in. Because
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: when faith is used, the law of faith goes into
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: practice and God set up the fact that the law
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: of faith can actually do more than the laws of physics.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: If you actually had the real faith, you'd say go
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: jump into an ocean and the mountain wood. And does
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: God still perform miracles today? Of course he does. Look
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: at this verse on the screen. Matthew 13, 58 says,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Jesus did not do many miracles. He's talking about that
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: town there. Because of their lack of faith. Their lack
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: of faith caused Jesus to not do many miracles. You say,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I don't see any miracles in my life. Hmm, I
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: wonder why. Are you seeing with the eyes of fear?
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Or are you seeing with the eyes of faith? Faith
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: shrinks my problems. It opens the door to miracles. And
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: number three, faith moves God to act on my behalf.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Faith moves God to act on my behalf. Now don't
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: get me wrong when I say this. It moves God
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: to act on my behalf. I do not believe, I
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: do not subscribe to the health and wealth theology where
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: God really ends up being a servant and that God
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: serves you rather than you serving God. And in many
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: versions of this, God becomes a genie where you rub
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the bottle and you pray the prayer or you drop
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the 50 cent piece into the into the slot machine
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: or whatever and then you hit the jackpot no God
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: is not your genie God is God and you're not
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: and he's not there to cater to your every whim
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: he's not he's just not but at the same time
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Matthew 9 29 Jesus said this according to your faith
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: it will be done to you God says you get
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: to choose how much I bless your life according to
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: your faith it will be done to you Do you
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: want to know why God has blessed my life? Not
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: because I deserve it, because I don't. Not because I'm
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: smarter than everybody else, because I'm not. Maybe because I'm
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: better looking, but no, just kidding. Not because of any
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: human thing at all. God has worked in my life
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: because I humbly expect him to. I expect him to
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: use me. And God does exactly what you expect him
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: to do. According to your faith, it will be done
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: unto you. If you expect God to do a little
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: in your life, he'll do a little. If you expect
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: God to do a lot, he'll do a lot. If
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: you don't expect God to do anything, he won't do anything.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: This is why I'm gonna push you on your faith
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: in this series. This is why I'm gonna stretch you
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: and challenge you. Because I don't want you to be
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: satisfied with playing in Kitty Beach in the shallows of life.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: I want you to put on your big boy swimsuit
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and dive in the deep end. And I want you
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: to challenge yourself to believe God more than you've ever
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: believed him for. I have believed God for some really
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: big things in my life. But it didn't start there.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: It started by developing the muscle of faith a little
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: at a time. And when I saw God did that,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: well then God could do that, and I just keep
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: pressing and pushing and stretching. And the Bible says according
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: to your faith, it will be done to you. Any
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: of you as a parent knows that as a mom
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: or a dad, fathers love to bring pleasure to their kids.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: and even more to their grandkids. And when they do that,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: it brings them pleasure. It gives God pleasure providing for you.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: It gives God pleasure watching you succeed. And he goes,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: that's my girl. She's being exactly who I made her
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to be. That's my boy, he's being exactly who I
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: made him to be. And the Bible says God takes
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: pleasure in the success of his saints. And so according
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: to your faith, it will be done unto you. See,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: the problem with us is we think the wrong thing
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: moves God. God is not moved by my complaints. God
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: is never moved by my griping, my complaining, my grumbling,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: my whining. None of that moves God. But God is
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: moved when I say, God, I'm trusting you and I'm
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: expecting you to keep your promise. You put your name
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: on that promise. And I'm expecting you to do it.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: That brings me to the fourth benefit of faith. Faith
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: unlocks all the promises of God. Faith unlocks all the
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: promises of God. You know, we've talked about this many
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: times here at Saddleback Church. There are over 7,000 promises
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: in this book, in the Bible, from cover to cover,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: over 7,000 promises. And they're like blank checks waiting for
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: you to claim them. And if you want to be
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: a person of faith, a man of faith or a
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: woman of faith, you must learn to become a promise person.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Memorize the promises of God so that you can claim
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: them in your life when you need them. And what
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: does God have to say about all 7,000 of those promises?
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Second Corinthians chapter one, verse 20. For no matter how
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: many promises God has made, they are all yes in Christ.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Circle that, yes in Christ. All of the promises that
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: God has made in his Bible, in his word, in
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: his scripture, are yes in Christ. And faith unlocks the
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: promises of God. Now let me just try to put
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: it this way. What if you were to find, you
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: were going through an old attic that you'd bought a
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: house and people had died and nobody claimed the leftovers.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: You're going through the attic and you find a letter
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: promising a million dollars to anybody who finds the letter?
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Would you be interested? Yes, yes, you would be interested.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: But would it be useful if you didn't know who
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: wrote it? No. It'd be worthless. You could be holding
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: onto a promise that says I will give whoever has
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: this letter one million dollars. No, you could only use it,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: claim the promises, if you knew the name and the
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: address of the person making the promise. The promises of
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the Bible only apply to those who know the author.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: to those who know the name of Jesus. All the
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: promises are yes in Christ. And when you know him personally,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: now you know the guarantor of all the promises of scripture.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And faith unlocks them. Number five, faith turns dreams, God-given dreams,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: into reality. Faith turns God-given dreams into reality. The Bible
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: is full of people who had God-given dreams. Abraham dreamed
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: of being the father of a great nation. Moses dreamed
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: of setting the people free. Joseph dreamed of saving the
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: nation and his own family. Daniel and Paul and David,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: over and over and over, all through scripture, all kinds
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: of people that were inspiring dreamers. But they didn't even
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: have a verse that we have today, and it's this verse,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Ephesians 3 20. Glory be to God. who by his
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: mighty power, his mighty power at work within us, is
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: able to do far more than we would ever dare
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: to ask or even dream of, infinitely beyond our highest
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: prayers and desires and thoughts or hopes. Now, if ever
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: there was a blank check verse in the Bible, that's it.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: He says, God is able to do far more than
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: we would dare to ask. What are you afraid to
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: ask God for? God is able to do far more
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: than we could even dream of. I don't know about you,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: but I'm a pretty big dreamer. I can think of
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: some pretty big dreams. I have in my lifetime. And
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: God says, Warren, you think of the greatest thing you
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: could ever dream of, the greatest thing you think I
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: could do in your life. And guess what? I can
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: top that. We limit God by our unbelief. I think
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest, if there were tears in heaven,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: it would simply because we would get there and we
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: realize all the things that could have done if we
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: would just believe God for a little bit more. To me,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: that would be hell. Hell would be to be shown
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: everything I could have accomplished and done and become and
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: been as a husband, as a father, as a man,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: as a pastor. All that I could have been and
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: all that I could have done good in the world
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: if I had just believed God a little bit more.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: I want to push you to believe God a little
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: bit more than you ever have before. Because God's able
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: to do far more than we would dare to ask
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: or even dream of. Number six, let me just end
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: with this one. Faith gives me power to hold on
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: in tough times. Why is this one important? Because faith
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: doesn't always take you out of the problem. You know that.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Faith often takes you through the problem. Faith doesn't always
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: take away the pain. Faith gives you the ability to
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: handle the pain. Faith doesn't make life heaven on earth.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: This world is never going to be heaven on earth.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Things are never going to go perfectly on this planet.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: You will always have pain and you will always have
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: suffering in your life. But faith gives you the ability
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: to handle it. It doesn't take you out of the storm.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: It calms you in the storm. I remember reading the
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: stories of Corrie ten Boom who was a young woman
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: sent to the Nazi death camps, the prison concentration death camps,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Buchenwald and Auschwitz. And she said that the people who
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: lasted in those camps were those who had the deepest faith. Why?
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Because faith gives me the power to hold on in
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: tough times, it produces persistence. It gives you the ability
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: to bounce back. Study after study after study after study
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: has shown that probably the most important characteristic you could
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: teach a child and probably the most important characteristic you
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: need in your own life if you're gonna make it
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: in life is actually resilience, resilience. It's the ability to
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: bounce back. It's the ability to keep going. Why? Because
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: nobody goes through life with an unbroken chain of successes.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Everybody has failures, flops, duds, mistakes. We all embarrass ourselves.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Nobody goes through life scot-free. We all have pains. We
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: all have problems. We all have pressures. The people who
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: make it in life have resiliency. There's so many times
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: over 35 years I wanted to just give up. There
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: are a lot of things I could have done easier.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: And after Purpose Driven Life came out, I effectively retired.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: I don't take a salary. So nobody pays me to
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: stay here. What is it that keeps me going? Faith.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: I want to see what God's going to do next.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: I don't want to miss out on it. That's why
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: I don't like to miss really any week at church
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: because I want to think, is that going to be
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the week that could change my life? I just never
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: know if that's going to be the message that might
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: just set the new direction for the next five or
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: 10 years. I just want to be there and be
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: there and listen. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4, 8,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: and 9, Paul's testimony, we're pressed on every side by troubles.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: but we're not crushed, and we're not broken. He said
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: we're perplexed, that means we're confused, we don't know why,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: why this happened. We're perplexed, but we don't give up
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: and quit. We're attacked, but God never abandons us. And
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: we get knocked down, but we're not knocked out. He
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: says we get up and we keep going. Where do
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: you get resilience like that? Faith. Now do you see
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: why you need to work on strengthening your faith probably
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: more than anything else. And why are we gonna spend
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: 10 weeks on it? Because it is faith that does
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: these six things. Shrinks my problems, opens the door for miracles,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: moves God to act on my behalf, unlocks all the
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: promises of God, turns dreams into reality, and gives me
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: the power to hold on in tough times. And by
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: the way, faith is the way we get to know God.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: John 3.16 says, God so loved the world, that he
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him,
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  Speaker 1: that means has faith in him, should not perish but
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: have everlasting life. It's how we get to know God. Now,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: as I said earlier, you can't claim the promises of
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: God unless you know the man who made the promises,
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  Speaker 1: and his name is Jesus Christ. And there might be
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  Speaker 1: somebody listening this weekend who has not stepped across the
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  Speaker 1: line and given their lives to Christ. You know, I
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  Speaker 1: remember when I was a little boy, and America started
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: the space race, and we were racing the communists, the Russians,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: to see who was gonna get to the moon first.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: And for a while, Russia was actually ahead. And they
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: were sending up cosmonauts before we were, traveling before our
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: astronauts went out into space. And I remember Yuri Gagarin,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: who was a very famous Russian cosmonaut, atheist, and he
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: was the first man to go up and circle the Earth.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: And when he came down, He said this, he said,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: I was an eagle. He said, I searched the heavens
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: and I found no God. I looked for God in
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: the heavens when I was up there and I did
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: not see him. There is no God. And all the
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: atheists applauded and said, yeah, Uri, you just proved there
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: is no God. A few months later, John Glenn, who
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: by the way was a Christian and later served as
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: a senator but was an astronaut in the Gemini program,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: went up and circled the earth three times. When John
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Glenn came down, his first words in his interview were,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: I saw God everywhere. I said I felt his glory
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  Speaker 1: in the heavens. I saw his presence in the stars.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: I felt his power in the sun. I saw God everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: Which one was telling the truth? The answer is they
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: both were. They both were. Because Jesus said in John
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: chapter three, unless you're born again, you cannot see the
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: kingdom of God. You can't see what God is doing
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes. You can't see the miracles. You can't
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: see the mighty things he's doing. You just can't see
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: it because you're not tuned in. You can't see the promises.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: So you need to give your life to Christ today
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: as we start this series. Let's bow our heads. And
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  Speaker 1: I've got two prayers that I want you to pray.
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  Speaker 1: First if you already know Jesus Christ and he's a
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  Speaker 1: part of your life and you're serving him as best
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  Speaker 1: you know how. I want you to just say this
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  Speaker 1: simple prayer. Dear Jesus help me to see with eyes
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  Speaker 1: of faith not fear. Help me to see with eyes
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  Speaker 1: of faith not Fear. You might even say, open the
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see you.
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  Speaker 1: And say, Lord, use this series to challenge and to
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: stretch my faith so that I might be more the
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  Speaker 1: person that you want me to be. I want to
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: bring pleasure to your life. If you've never opened your
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: life to Jesus Christ, then your simple step is to say, Jesus, yes, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: as much as I know how, I open my life,
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  Speaker 1: my heart to you. Just say that, Jesus Christ, as
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: much as I know how, I open my life to you.
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  Speaker 1: I want to learn to love you and trust you
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  Speaker 1: and follow you. I want to put my faith in you.
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  Speaker 1: Strengthen my faith. In your name I pray, amen.