I Have A Picture!
Tuned In • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 48:40
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· 32 viewsIn order to have a clear PICTURE, we must remove anything that blocks the full view of Jesus before us!
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Last week, we began a journey to understand how to hear God’s voice. We discovered that in order to “turn up the volume”, we had to consider the noice in us and around us.
This week, we are talking about vision!
Sermon in a sentence:
Sermon in a sentence:
In order to have a clear PICTURE, we must remove anything that blocks the full view of Jesus before us!
You can’t see Jesus clearly if something else is in focus. First, we must ask Him to help us restore His vision(not ours) in our lives, then we can move forward in obedience to His command.
I must also remind you that applying Joy, Peace, Hope & Love to every situation is critical! These are the fruits (action fruits) that must be at work in us! They manifest best when we spend time with the Holy Spirit and are led by Him.
Let’s stand for the reading of the word. (9 verses)
The Privilege of Discipleship!
11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “ ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ 16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.
18 When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful.
I want to be blessed and you’re here so I am hoping you want to be as well.
Jesus longs for open hearts that want to received MORE, while the closed heart would be blinded further. So let’s receive more prophetic vision/revelation in our life. THAT comes from the Lord!
> Jesus, open the understanding of my heart so that I can receive more of You!
Fix My Eyes
Fix My Eyes
A few weeks ago, I was reminded of the saying - “A picture is worth 1000 words.” Another one, “every picture tells a story”
So, let me show you…
> Plank Scripture and Example
3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Here’s another example for you.
When you think about the police stories where their searching for a suspect, they ask if there are any eye-witnesses. They then use the descriptions provided to create a picture to share to “be on the lookout” for someone who matches the description.
In this series, we’ve been using the TV example. Just as we had to walk over and adjust the volume manually and work on it a bit to get it just right, we also had to adjust the “rabbit-ears”. Otherwise our picture or view was fuzzy.
It’s critical to the process of Hearing God’s voice, that we keep our eyes on him. Sometimes, it starts with asking Jesus to fix our eyes so that the other stuff doesn’t hinder our picture.
What are Your Eyes On?
What are Your Eyes On?
In the book of Numbers, there’s a fantastic story that illustrates my point.
1 The Lord now said to Moses, 2 “Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes.”
17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? 20 How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.” 30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
Something we must take notice of -
He didn’t say that they didn’t see what was mentioned.
Caleb and Joshua just looked at what they saw with their eyes and it didn’t even come close to what they saw of God. They had unmatched perspective, because of who they trusted in.
Here’s another story, when Saul had sinned before the Lord and was rejected as king. This is what the Lord said to the prophet Samuel:
13 “You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”
17 Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.
Oh that we would all remain little in our own eyes!
What was the foolish thing he had done? Plain and simple - Listening to the noise around him and within him. Instead of following the Lord.
We are told in Acts 13:22 -
22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ The man after the Lords own heart would be King David, before he was king.
26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” 33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
David didn’t acknowledge Goliath for what he was! He simply said Philistine.
1 Samuel 24
At this point David has been on the run for his life, due to Saul’s jealousy. David is given a few opportunities to take Saul’s life, but here, he makes a powerful statement. ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’
That’s such a unique perspective that so many would miss, unless their eyes were on the Lord.
David is the author of Psalm 34, one of my favorites. I believe this is but one story where David has tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord. That became his strength and driving focus. It wasn’t until His eyes were off the Lord and on Bathsheba, that He sinned.
Jesus, would you remove anything that is obstructing my vision. I want to see you clearly and be led by You in all areas of my life!
Here’s Your Sign!
Here’s Your Sign!
38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” 39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
They wanted to see a sign, but I am sure that Jesus and His disciples were thinking…where have you been. Have you not seen everything HE’S BEEN DOING ALREADY???
Yet, still Jesus said you’ll get a sign! He foretold His death in the example He gave. Many missed it.
> Are we so busy waiting to hear the BOOMING voice that we’re missing the still small whispers before us?
In Genesis chapters 12 and 15, we see God showing Himself to Abram.
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
Then, in chapter 15:12. He spoke through a dream.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
So, this confirms what Jesus said in Matthew ch 17 earlier. The patriarchs and prophets saw in part and longed for the days we’re living in. Specifically, to have the Holy Spirit residing on the inside of us and the finished work of Jesus’ death on the cross.
Jesus, forgive me for all the times I’ve claimed that You don’t speak to me or to anyone else. Help me to see all the ways that you’re working in me and around me.
Closing - The Compass story
Closing - The Compass story
When I was training to earn my open water SCUBA certification, I, along with several other students, had to learn about night diving. It was all about relying on the compass, being relaxed and learning to believe the tool in our hands. We had to learn this 100 feet down in the middle of a flooded rock quarry in the dark, cold water! Our instructor explained that when we had descended to the proper depth and safely gathered around the starting point - which was a buoyed rope - we would turn our lights off. Our only sense of direction would be our compass. Our instructor had one rule: we could not turn our lights on. If we did, we failed the course and would have to start over. When our instructor had everyone in place, all lights went out. I’ve never seen dark like that! The only illumination came from little glow sticks on our tanks so our instructor would not lose sight of us.
So I began: the buoyed rope, the start and finish line, eyes on the compass, ten kicks out, ninety degrees left turn - three times. It was perfectly quiet and dark and I felt how serious and important it was to stay focused on my compass. When I finished, my head hit the rope. It worked! It was true! The compass kept me from getting lost in the dark.
The instructor was watching out for us all the entire time. He knew when a student needed help and when to give a student space to figure things out. There were many who missed the rope because hey took their eyes off the compass and tried to look through the darkness to find their own way. When they tried to do it on their own, the instructor had to go and retrieve them.
The Word of God, the Bible, is our compass. It will always have a true reading. It always points in the correct direction. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is our instructor. He can always be trusted. I have watched through the years and seen friends who have taken their eyes off the Compass, the words of their Heavenly Father, and have wandered blindly through the dark instead of stopping and waiting on the help of the Holy Spirit to retrieve them.
Swimming in the dark required total trust. Just like my instructor required me to not light my own way and trust the compass, I must rely on God as my compass and not rely on my own strength. I have many times lit my own way and had to live through the consequences of my own immaturity. Let us trust the Lord with our whole hearts. Believe, embrace, love and have confidence in the Word, our Compass, and our Instructor.
Holy Spirit, would you help me to see and hear all the ways you are teaching me. I know that the Word is truth and You are guiding me in truth. Help me to walk away from any false theology or ideas that I’ve made up or warped. Help me to see You and hear You clearly. Be my guide each and every moment.