Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / I Once Was Blind. Now I See.

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I Once Was Blind. Now I See. · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad I found out that God is good.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: How about you?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: It uh it really changed my life.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I used to read the word, and it would, you know, we used to read it and we thought it was telling us what to do.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh to give thanks in everything.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, oh, okay, I'll try, boy.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: But something happens to us when we when we find out how good he is, and his the gospel, his story, his grace, the work of Jesus, it reveals such a beautiful, unending goodness, and we behold that, we look at that, and and it affects us.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it and it's not hard to give thanks in everything.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some things we give thanks for, but sometimes we just have to give thanks in what we're dealing with.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: But we can because we see him.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: We see him.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk about seeing, I want to talk about vision, sight, and um uh and you know, of course, we see what the opposite of that is, and that would be spiritual blindness.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the word of God does say a whole lot of things about that.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we want to look at that and be thankful, be thankful for what we do see this morning.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm excited about continuing to see forever and ever and ever.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh heard a statement that you know Clark said some time ago, and he said, You will be abs we are all going to be absolutely amazed at how good God really is.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that excites me.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to start this morning um by uh looking at the story of a man that we call blind Bartimaeus, and this is found in Mark chapter 10.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we're all familiar with the story.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I wonder, excuse me, um, you know, Bartimaeus is, I don't even, I don't know if they if they even called him by a name.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Bartimaeus means son of Timaeus, so that's all they knew him by.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was the Timaeus' son that was that was blind, and of course he was he was begging.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And in verse uh chapter 10, verse 46, he says, Now they came to Jericho, and as Jesus went out of Jericho, his disciples with his disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartamaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to make a few points right here.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And by looking at this, uh we see, we see, we we we look at the the results of not being able to see.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we're talking about spiritually.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh one of the one of the obvious ones is that that the man in that time uh was a beggar with a beggar's garment, and and uh that was that was common because of his his condition.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, when I look at that, I think of what we what we see, and I look at my own life and and where I was at one time before I saw.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: We were we uh um were talking to some some people a couple of nights ago, and the the the husband was saying, you know, I just I don't I have a hard time knowing that God loves me.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: I have a hard time believing that, I have a hard time feeling that.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I can read that, and uh, and that's a common thing that we run into.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's it's uh it's kind of painful uh to hear.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so all you can do is just talk about the goodness of God and and how, you know, it it really doesn't matter.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's loved you anyway, and he's good to you anyway, and he's always gonna be that way.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: But not being able to see, it gives you, it made me, I'll just say it this way, it made me a spiritual beggar.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: My prayers sometimes, many times, were like, God, please do this.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: God, can you help me?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it gave me a sense of lack.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was always needy, always wanting, always longing, lusting, trying to get somewhere, trying to get more blessing, trying to get more favor, trying to please God more, always more.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it gave me a sense of lack.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I was I was essentially a spiritual um beggar, uh, like we see with Bartimaeus.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and we have that idea of lack.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Then it goes on and it says in verse 47, when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so they called the blind man, saying to him, Be of good cheer, rise.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's calling you, and throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now get the picture of this.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Here's this blind man, and now he's called out into the street where Jesus is, and he's making his way there.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Picture him walking there.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't picture Bartimaeus throwing his garment off and then just kind of sacheting through the crowd and dodging everybody and and and and walking gracefully and nimbly, because when you can't see physically, it does affect your your uh your movement.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're you you don't you you you may not you can't see where you're going, so you're more uh uh you have more trepidation, you're much more cautious, you you're not moving quickly, you're not uh you're not navigating with great ease, uh not as nearly as much as you would if you could if you could see physically.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so another thing we see is that when we don't see spiritually, we it it affects our our our our our movement and it affects how we walk.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And there again, I look at myself and I see that my walk for like the first 20 years of my Christianity is absolutely different than my walk this this last 20-something years.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And really, it it all comes down to it.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: It just is amazing.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I'm so excited about it, why we're so excited about it around here, is that it makes such a dramatic change.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I first got saved, it made a change from where I'm at because it was so, it was about as low as you could get before that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it did make a change.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: It sort of raised my station and I got happier and all.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: But compared to what I, after I saw the goodness, the grace, the love, the that undemanding love and the bigness of God's heart and the bigness of the work of Jesus, it changed how I walked.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: It changed, it took, it took me out of a lot of ritual, right?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And ritual, and took me really, it's when I first really, really started to know God Himself.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because I believe that you you you can't know him unless you know how good he is.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know how good he is, then you you got a lot more knowing to know.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: But when I found out that he was good and I believed it, I've been growing ever since.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been totally different.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: My movement has been much more gracious and graceful.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've had a lot more fun.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: How about you?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I finally I love the fact that I love God.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: I can enjoy God now.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of always working hard to try to appease him.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy the fact that I can enjoy life now instead of always needing and wanting and always trying to climb this high mountain.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, you get something happens to you when you when you see.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: It takes away the beggar and it affects your movement.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're able to navigate life much more gracefully because you can see.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: In Mark chapter 10, verse 51, it goes on and it says, So Jesus answered and said to him, Here's a good one.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want me to do for you?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now pause right there.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Did any of you ever think?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: First, get the picture.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a blind man, obviously blind, sitting by the road begging, got the beggar's garment, he drops the garment, and he makes his way to Jesus.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you can tell by the way he's moving that he can't see.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is standing here, and here's a blind man begging for help, comes to Jesus.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: This blind man walks up to Jesus, and Jesus looks at a man who's obviously blind and says, What do you want?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember reading this one time, and I thought, with all due respect, sir, he's blind.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why would you even have to ask?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then I realized very quickly that just because you're blind doesn't mean that you're asking for your eyes to be opened.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because there were a lot of other things that he could ask for, right?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, when he was sitting by the road there begging before this encounter with Jesus, he was asking for things before Jesus ever showed up.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Asking for money for one thing.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he could have asked for money, he could have asked for food, he could have asked for a kind word, he could have asked for encouragement, he could have asked for for a lot of a lot of things, because I'm sure he needed a lot of things.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus asked him, What do you want?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I bring that out is because when we don't see, there again, looking at my own life, before I saw what I do see now, I was asking for a lot of things and not asking for my vision.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because I needed a lot of things.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so my my attention was on the things.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, Lord, if you can take if you can uh take care of this, if you can give me this, everything will be good right now.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Things will be better.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: I really need this, and I really need that, and I really didn't need them, and thank God Jesus says, you know, don't worry about it because God does know that you need these things.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that we don't need them.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: But now I would just say, you know, when I after I began to see the grace of God and things were changing, and people started asking me, you know, Rick, what can we, what can, how can we pray for you?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: What can we pray for you?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, do you need anything?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I need some things, you know.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my wife could use a new washer and dryer, you know, thing.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I said, you know, really, if pray for me all the time that I'll just see more.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because the more I see, the better it's going to be for me.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and so Jesus asked him the question, and good for the good for the blind man, he says, What I want is I want to be able to see.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because really, if he takes care of that, the man doesn't have to sit there and beg anymore.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: If he takes care of that, he'll be able to walk.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: If he takes care of that, he'll be able to get his clothing and his food.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: If he'll take care of that.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so he asked, he answered the question correctly, because what if the man would have said, Jesus, you know, when he says, What do you want?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: He would have said, Jesus, I'm hungry.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Can you give me some food?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe Jesus would have looked at his disciples and said, Give it to him.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes he did give food.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: But we have this story here that the man answered it correctly and said, Give me my vision, because my vision will take care of all that other stuff.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And as believers, this is what's taking care of everything for us.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for vision this morning.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: When I think of Thanksgiving, I love this month.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I love November because my wife was born in November.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it is a time when the attention is on thanksgiving.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's always talk about giving, thanksgiving, thanks, giving, thanks.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, giving thanks is the highest expression of faith because it comes from somebody that knows that they have got something from God.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing that this man was thankful for, I bet you, after this encounter was, I bet you he was thankful for his vision, his sight.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I once was blind, but now I see.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Just like the lovely song that we we love, Amazing Grace.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I once was blind, but now I see.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: As a side note, I think it's a little maybe it's not.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're seeing an ever increasing uh ever-increasing way.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um when I first came to the Lord, I came into a church that that was, uh came into the kind of church where we sang that a lot.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing grace, and I still think it's a great song.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I once was blind, but now I see.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: We were so thankful, we were so happy that that that we you know, we're different now.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we were so lost in the dark, and now we see, and you know, it's brought joy to our hearts.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and then those same Christians, 20 years later, were coming to church saying, Open the eyes of my heart, I want to see you.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're still confessing blindness.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, maybe we should celebrate what we see, because to him that has, even more shall be given.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should celebrate more.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I understand, I'm not, I hope I'm not being too critical.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I I understand that we want to always see more.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: I do, but it but it becomes more graceful.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like this, this like, oh God, help me.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like it just keeps increasing because because when your eyes open to the grace of God, things get set in motion.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Your growth starts happening.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: The the the increase, just it, it it I don't for me anyway, my experience has been I haven't even had to ask for it so much.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: It just it's it's it just it just happens.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: It gets better and better.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: This thing just keeps rolling, rolling on, all because of what we see.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jesus then said to him, Go your way, your faith has made you well.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately he received his sight, and he followed Jesus on the road.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we that's when he followed Jesus.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter is something I want to look at, and there again, look at this condition of blindness before I get to the good stuff.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter 1 of 2 Peter, verse 9, he's essentially talking about the fruit of the Spirit, I think, but he says, so uh, verse 5, excuse me, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 5, he says, so devote yourselves to lavish, this is this is the passion translation.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: So devote yourselves to lavishly supplementing your faith with goodness, to goodness add understanding, to understanding add strength and self-control.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Self-control add patient endurance, to patient endurance add godliness, and to godliness add mercy toward your brothers and sisters, to mercy toward and to mercy toward others, add unending love.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Since these virtues are already planted deep within, and you possess them in abundant supply, they will keep you from being inactive or fruitless in the pursuit of knowing Jesus more intimately.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: But if anyone lacks these things, it's because he is blind, constantly closing his eyes to the mysteries of our faith and forgetting his innocence.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: For his past sins have been washed away.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's grace.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: They're not aware of grace, not aware that they're clean, not aware that they're righteous, forgiven, holy, complete in him, forgetting their absolute complete innocence, that there is no more sacrifice for sin, that there's no more work for you to do.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: He is the one that has done the whole thing.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just like Jesus said in John chapter 4, one has already sowed.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: God has already done the work.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we do the reaping, the receiving.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's talking about all these virtues, these basically the fruit of the Spirit, patience and goodness and love.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it says enduring, unconditional love, godly kind of love.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And these are things that, and we can, you know, we're we're growing and we may stumble in them, but where we do stumble in them, those are those are blind spots.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Those are areas that we that that we're going to see more in, and we're and it's and it's going to get better and better.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: But the reason is simply because we're not seeing something yet.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where the struggles come from.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is one reason.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you're seeing yourself growing in this thing, you find yourself getting happier and happier.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: You find yourself feeling more free, more free.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: You find yourself feeling more innocent and clean.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: You find yourself less condemned, you find yourself very, very comfortable in your own skin.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: You find yourself really enjoying what you and God have together, and you really do feel like, you know, like the crocodile Dundee thing, me and God, we be mites.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: You just you just have this thing going with God, and you know it's real, and you know it's it's it's it's close, and and you know it's good, and you know that God digs you, and you know he's for you, and he you know that he wants your best and he knows what's best and he knows how to get do the best uh for you in your life.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: But we see these things, and the answer is right there is that is that when we are not looking at the mysteries of the faith, which we're talking about, is the grace, the goodness, the love of God, the goodness of God.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: When we forget that and what that means for us, and and and and and what condition we stand here today.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're clean, you're holy.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do you realize God will never, ever, ever, ever punish you for a sin?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yay! Hallelujah! He Psalms 103, he will not punish us for our sins nor reward us for our iniquities.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: We know that grace took care of that.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus took care of all that.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Does sin have consequences?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, obvious, obviously.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't, I'm not getting punished.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not having a I'm not having a date in the woodshed with God for it.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Ever.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Ever, ever, ever.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because the blood of Jesus is that powerful that I am still innocent, holy.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know it doesn't make sense to that piece of meat up in here, but it's just true.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And your heart knows it when you start knowing revelation.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Something happened.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Your heart, you know your heart can know things that your head doesn't know, that your head still is questioning, but in your heart you know it's true.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what's happening in our growth is that this is becoming this.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: We start starting to agree with what our spirit, our heart really knows.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Our eyes open with grace.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when the eyes open, it affects our walk.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the walk in in this way that he's talking about right here.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: What do we see happening to us?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: What is changing about us?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Simply because we see something.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is why it needs to be preached.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just because we all we have to do is just see something.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: All we have to do is just have open eyes and look at this.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the Bible does talk about people being willingly ignorant, willingly closing their eyes.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I think of a picture of Moses when he saw something he had never seen before.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Eighty years old.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: He'd lived rich, he lived poor.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: He lived in the city, he lived in the country.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: He lived with privilege, he lived without it.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: He lived with everybody working for him, and he worked, he lived also 40 hours working hard himself.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: He he he he knew about this world and he saw something one day that he had never seen before, something that was otherworldly, this thing that burns and it doesn't ever burn up or burn out.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: It continues to burn, it continues to go, it's everlasting.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he I love what he said.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I will now turn aside.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to look at this thing.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look at this thing.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I tell people when they say, I'm not getting it, I'm not feeling it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm saying, keep looking.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Turn aside and look at this thing.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Consider that maybe God is this good.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Just consider that maybe he is that good.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe what Jesus said about it, maybe what Jesus demonstrated, maybe the love we see with him dying on the cross and doing all that work, maybe it does mean that God is good.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Look at it.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Turn aside and consider this thing because when you do, you're looking at something that is totally different from this world.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do, you take off your shoes because you're standing on holy ground.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: You are in a place of holiness.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not because of what you did, but because of him.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: He is our holiness.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Elizabeth Barrett Browning has a has a quote in a in a uh work of poetry that she did that Judy and I like to quote a whole lot.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: It sort of encapsulates what I feel about this and what I feel in my life.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: She says, she said, um the earth is crowned with heaven, and every common bush is a fire with God.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: But only he who sees removes his shoes.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: The rest sit around and plug blackberries in.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a matter of just to see.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And where is the see?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: How do I see?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: People always want to know the how-to's.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I wish I could give you three steps, but I don't it's not.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's just real, it's just relational, and it's there, and it's in your heart.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's a part of you that knows this, these things, there's a part of you that can see this, there's a part of you that does.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a matter of putting your attention on the things of the Spirit, on things above, putting your attention where you're together with Jesus in this whole thing, seeing this thing.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about imagining.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: When I sometimes I've been in places where I just where I would talk about vision and and I'd say, you know, I want you to see this.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just stand there and look at this.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: And people are like, I I I tried to look at something.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, what am I looking at?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to imagine a picture of God.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're seeing, you're being aware, maybe is the best word.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're being aware of the things that He's in everything that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's everywhere.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's all in all.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Even in your problem, when you see it, look at it.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because God is there.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: We have all those pictures in the Bible, right?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Elisha and his servant, Gehazi, and they were surrounded by enemies.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, Master, what are we going to do?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what did Elijah say, God?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Open his eyes.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let him see.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because God was in the midst of that whole thing.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he was greater than all of it.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And boy, when you can see God right in the middle of your problem, there's such joy, right?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Such freedom.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: A y'all hearing anything today?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: There is such joy and freedom.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of seeing because he's here, he's in you, he's with you, all around you.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's never, ever, ever going to change.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Just because you're in a physical body doesn't mean that he's not.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: He'll always be with you, just like in this body or out of the body.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: He will be there.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Your eyes open with grace.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it affects how we walk.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because heavenly vision, it sees God.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now we see Jesus, Hebrews 1 says, crowned with glory and honor.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: It sees God.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: When it looks at its problem, it sees God.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: When it looks at its blessings, it sees God.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: When it looks at its people around, they see the goodness of God.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: All with them and upon them.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: It sees God.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when you see, when you're aware, when you know, you wake up in the morning.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a fact you tell.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, I'm the guy that used to, when I would wake up in the morning, so often the first thought was, Well, at least I get to come and go to sleep at night.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was about getting through the day.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: But things change.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Vision affects you.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's just seeing something.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is why God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to deliver us, because it tells us this good news.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: It should always tell good news, shouldn't it?
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And nothing less than that.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Vision sees God.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Vision sees the kingdom of God.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: What is the kingdom of God?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: You see it.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: You see it.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're aware of it.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're aware of goodness.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: You start to become more aware of the kingdom of God and its reality right here and right now and in you than you do these things of the world.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that means that it affects you.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're not getting so upset and distracted and all entangled with the affairs of this world.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're looking right at it and you're seeing God, I right in the middle of all these issues and problems that we see going on that everybody's fighting about.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Look, look, God is there.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: God is right in the middle of all of this.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't say he's causing all of this, but he's there.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that gives you joy.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: That gives you peace.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: It gives you rest for your soul because the effect of the work of righteousness was to be peace, and the effect of righteousness would be confidence and assurance forever.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: You see the kingdom, you see people.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I like how Paul said it in 2 Corinthians 5.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Though we once knew Jesus after the flesh, we don't know him that way anymore.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: So now if anybody, if anybody's in Christ, he's a new creation.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: We know no man after the flesh.
• 25:41
  unknown: Woo!
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's a big deliverance when you when you know so many times it was hard to see, hard to see goodness or hard to see God in them in their life because their flesh was too distracting.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: But vision changes us.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: With vision, you look right through that veil of the flesh and you see the glory of God.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it brings a spirit of love and it brings a spirit of understanding and empathy, and it makes us big enough to embrace all the dirt that's around the treasure.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like the man who esteemed the pearl so much that he bought all the dirt that was around it just because just for the good thing that was in it.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, we see what God sees.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can look out at your back porch, your backyard at night with the lights out.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Look out your window or your door, you look out there, and it says, Boy, it sure looks dark.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: But you know God sees everything that's out there with vision.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: You see through the darkness.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can still see the trees, the lawn patio furniture, whatever you've got back there.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's all still there.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: When you turn out the lights in your house, everything that was there before it was dark was still there.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the eyes of God look right through the darkness.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: The light dissipates the darkness and it brings it brings light.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: I remember driving to a meeting in southern uh Arizona one time, and there was a Saguaro forest all around it, and we were driving there for an early Easter morning thing, and we were driving from Phoenix on down, and I had been there before, and this was right after we were we were married, and I said, You ought to see this in the daytime.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: I said, This this saguaro forest, it's beautiful.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is the prettiest part of the desert I've ever seen.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's just gorgeous, but all we could see was dark.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I was telling her about that, and I said, and and we we talked about this very lesson.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, this just because it's dark doesn't mean it's not beautiful.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, hear that.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Just because it's dark doesn't mean it's not beautiful, because it is.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is see what's there.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when the sun came up, then we saw it.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: When the sun came up, it was beautiful.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it had been beautiful all night, but we just couldn't see it.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there's beauty in this world, there's beauty in your life, and there's beauty in the people acting ugly.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: But only he with vision, with got with a God's eye view, can see it.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you one last example.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: A man wanted Balaam to curse the children of Israel while they were down in their desert because he was scared of them.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Balaam said, I can only say what God shows me.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, So he looks at him and he says, I can't curse these people.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: God has blessed them.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can't curse whom God has blessed.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: The shout of a king is among them.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: So Balak, the king, goes, Here, I've got an idea.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Come down off that high place where you've got that God's eye view.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Come down here, he says, and I want you to look at them from here.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, then you can just see the outer part of them.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: You shall not see all of them.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just look at the outward part.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Surely you can curse them then.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Balak knew what he was doing.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I don't want you to see how God sees.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because the first time he went to the high mountain to get a God's eye view, he says, Come down here.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Just look at their outside.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Just look at what they're doing.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: These people, surely you can curse them.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, they made a golden calf and called it God.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: They've had this wild orgy party.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're doing all these things.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're always murmuring, complaining.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Look at what they're doing.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Surely you can curse these people.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: He that has a God's eye view sees what God sees.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited because this vision will not go away.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's only going to increase.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And this world will benefit from our vision.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because what heaven has brought through the goodness and grace of our Father who loves mankind and loves this world is going to change this world.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: I know it because it's changing this one.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Love you guys.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Want you to be happy every single day.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we share the goodness, the reality of our Heavenly Father.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let us give thanks right now.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you know what I'm talking about this morning?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know that you see things that you didn't once see.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And get excited about what you're about to see.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the increase of this government and of peace, there shall be no end.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we, thanksgiving, we give you thanks.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: We once were blind, but now we see.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for heavenly vision that has caused us to live.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for what you've done in our hearts, and there's no condemnation in this at all.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: You are in our vision.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: You are our love.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: You've shown us who you are, and it's caused us to fall in love with you.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: You've helped us to be more comfortable in our skin.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: You've given us joy in our lives.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we can never be thankful enough.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And to honor you, we're going to enjoy what you've given us.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: And right now we thank you.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you that we once were blind, but now we see and we behold the beauty of the Lord.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Bless you guys.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love you.