See Your Way Out

Are you ready to jump into God's word together today? All right today, we're going to the book of habakkuk everybody

The book of habakkuk by the way, sometimes it's habakkuk and sometimes it's habakkuk and I say both

And the reason is I was raised like growing up. I always heard everybody say habakkuk

And uh, then I went to seminary and everybody seemed to say habakkuk

So I say both sometimes I say habakkuk and sometimes I say habakkuk and it really just comes down to what emphasis

I want to put on what syllable you understand what I'm saying? And so um, and so

So anyways habakkuk is where we're going to be

And so let me give you just a little background because I think it's so important that how many know it's so important

We read the word of god, but it's so important. We understand the context

Because if I have a text without a context i'll get conned

And there's a lot of scripture grabbing in the church

I've heard a lot of pastors do scripture grabbing where they just grab a verse and they preach it and they um

Re-textualize it, but I really think they mis-contextualize it. And so I think it's just so important. So, um, so

Habakkuk is one of the 12

minor prophets

So, um, if you want to know how your old testament is organized if you can remember 5 12 5 5 12 5 12

5 5 12

Five books of law 12 books of history

Five books of poetry five major prophets 12 minor prophets 5 12 5 5 12

So habakkuk is a minor prophet now what you need to understand about bible history and this will just help you

I'm not going to walk you through all the bible history

But after so there's king the first king over god's people we know is king

Right saul, right and then we know king david and then david's son solomon

After solomon though the kingdom is divided into a northern and a southern kingdom

A you guys and a y'all an unsweet and a sweet tea. You understand what i'm saying?

So as a northern kingdom and southern so the northern kingdom is called israel the southern kingdom is called

juda solomon's son was rioboam he becomes king over juda and then a

Guy named geroboam kind of defects and and leads a rebellion and he takes over israel

Which is the northern kingdom so from that point so you can say roughly a thousand bc

So from about a thousand bc when you move forward through the bible

You'll have a king over the northern kingdom a king over the southern kingdom and there's always a prophet to the northern kingdom and a

Prophet to the southern kingdom so as you're reading chronicles and kings and judges in those books

Sometimes it can get a little bit

Confusing if you don't basically understand that basic formula, okay?

So, um habakkuk is actually a prophet to juda

He prophesies in the late sixth century bc

Probably 604 to 609 is where I I personally think there's some other

Scholars, I'm not a scholar but scholarship usually puts him there our son will say around 6 30

And and it's he didn't date himself and because we don't have an exact

He doesn't name some things that would help us date him, but he gives us enough contextual

Information that we kind of can place in one of those two places. I put him

It's six, you know, oh four to six. Oh nine bc

Or six oh nine to six oh four bc since the timelines moving that way counting down everybody and so um, so what's going on?

well

um

Assyria emerged as a world power and in

In 721 the assyrians overthrow israel and they take over the northern kingdom of israel

And so that was a little over a hundred years ago. Now. Babylon is emerging as a world power

Under king nebuchadnezzar. He's actually king nebuchadnezzar too, but the other king nebuchadnezzar is not in your bible

So king nebuchadnezzar

Um, and so nebuchadnezzar too, uh, he's the one you read about in the book of daniel

so now babalon is emerging as a world power and um,

Is egypt has kind of been driven back assyria is being defeated. Babylon is emerging

And so as that now the northern kingdom is suffering at the hands of the babalones

The world is suffering at the hands of the babalones and habakkuk sees the babalones are going to overthrow juda

Like there's a bad day coming here. We have problems

um, and it actually did happen, uh

Uh when babalon becomes a strong power

Uh israel had had our sorry juda had had a good king joseiah

He became king at eight years old

And he ruled for 30 something years and he leads a revival

And reformation and a return to god's word. He tears down the high places. He they get rid of the cultic cultish practices all those things

Um, and then uh from that there's a couple of kings. They don't stay kings very long

Uh, and then we get to joe joe hoekin and he's a he's a terrible king

In fact, he cuts a deal with babalon to stay in power as a puppet king

But they have to pay all their taxes and stuff to babalon and then he rebels and so in

597 bc is when king nebuchadnezzar comes and uh besieges jerusalem and takes juda

Uh, and then there's a revolt and then uh in 586 he comes and destroys

Uh jerusalem and that's that's when he destroys the temple

Um, so that was the first temple period, right? So habakkuk habakkuk is writing

Uh during this time and he sees what's going on and what's really interesting about him

That's different from really all the other prophets is all the other prophets receive a word from god to deliver to the people

Habakkuk actually takes an inquisition of the people to god

He speaks to god on behalf of people and the ultimate inquisition was god. I can't believe you're gonna let babalon

Take over, you know harm your people and enslave your people and um,

But it was prophesied because the people's rebellion against god that god would use

Essentially assyria than babalon to bring judgment on israel remember this is old covenant not the covenant of grace

So judgment right comes and god says yeah

I'm actually gonna you know, so so the chapter one if you will of habakkuk is this inquisition of god

Chapter two god actually answers

And we're gonna read just a portion from that but in chapter two god answers and then he says i'm actually gonna do that

Uh, because I said I was and but don't think babalon's gonna get away

In other words his question was why are the evil people prospering in god's people suffering now?

Doesn't that sound like a relevant question for today?

Right, and so it's really a cool book if you read god's response, but god says yes

But here's what god says in everything you see i'm actually working my plan when it looks like evil is succeeding and righteousness

Is failing don't worry. I'm still working my plan. And so he says i'm actually working my plan, but he actually gives five

Theologically called they're called the woe statements of babalon in chapter two gives these five it has to do with their economical

because it's shady economical

Um practices and their security

and it has to do with their uh

Pleasure or drunkenness and their idolatry, but he basically says oh i'm gonna take care of babalon

Don't you worry about that?

But i'm working my plan and so just because god it doesn't seem like he's moving in a way that makes sense to us

Come on somebody he's still moving and it will make sense in the end and then chapter three

Habakkuk kind of gives this this poem psalm to the lord

And so we're going to read in chapter two

Uh something that that god says the way he starts

Uh really his answer to habakkuk

Um, and then we're going to kind of contextualize that for our life

So why don't you stand habakkuk chapter two everybody verse two i'm just going to read verse two and verse three

Um, but verse two it says and the lord answered me

Write the vision down now. This is one of the familiar

verses in habakkuk

Uh, there are some others that are very familiar like the just shall live by faith

Paul says it but it actually is a quotation from habakkuk

But habakkuk says uh chapter two verse two and the lord answered me write the vision now make it plain on tablets

So he may run who reads it

For still the vision awaits its appointed time it hastens to the end

It will not lie

If it seems slow

Wait for it. Come on. Here's your word for the day if it seems slow wait for it. Come on

It may not be here yet, but that doesn't mean god's not working

Come on god is the slowest person i've ever met to always be on time, but he's always on time

Are you understand what i'm saying?

um

If it seems slow wait for it. It will surely come it will not delay. Come on

We're in a series that we called unstuck

Today I want to talk uh along these lines see your way

Forward or see your way out. Okay, let's pray together father. Thank you so much for your word

As we open it god, we open our hearts

I believe you have a word for everyone that's here and everyone that's watching online

Lord help us to hear it and receive it

And help us to hide it in our hearts

In jesus name and everybody said amen you can be seen

Amen, you can be seated. Thank you so much for standing to honor the word of god

See your way out see your way out

We haven't I haven't got to go in a couple years but but for several years in a row

The guys in my life group or some of the guys in my life group

Uh would go on a hunt and I remember

One hunt we went on and if you understand about going on hunting you get up before it's

Daylight and you go out and you you know you hide

And you wait on the animals and then you and then you uh, you uh love them and um

And you uh, we'll use the word harvest them and you harvest the animal because the lord gave it to you

and um

And if you're with peta, I I don't care

and um and so

Uh, but I remember coming back in uh to the to the house where we're gonna have breakfast that morning after hunting

I saw this like rent a car in the middle like we're in west texas. It's terrible terrain. You don't drive

Cars certainly you don't really don't even drive trucks out to where we were we were using atvs

And side by sides and um, and this car is just kind of beat up and it's beat to death

And it's just kind of stuck and I said what's the deal? Obviously it didn't belong there

Look, what's the deal like they said well this guy came in last night

To hunt and he took a wrong turn in the entrance and just drove out through the wilderness

Until he finally got stuck and then I guess he got out and walked

um, and and he

What I realized is he got out and walked and left the car there because he was stuck and he couldn't

See his way out

Because a lot of times when we're stuck what we need is we need to be able to see a way out

We need to be able to see a way forward maybe feel like in life between 2020 and this

We've just never seemed to recover and we're still like we talked about last week living a little bit reactive to the world instead

It's almost like we're living in reaction to the world instead of in response to god's calling on our life

And maybe you just still kind of feel a little stuck like i'm just waiting embracing for the next thing

I'm you know, just trying to survive

Well, maybe that's just because you haven't seen your way out

Your way out you haven't seen a better way to go

And so what I want to talk about today is really the power of vision in our lives and how we all

Not only need a vision. That's true, but we can all have a vision

in fact, i'm going to end by giving you some steps to take to really um,

kind of

To really get some clarity and really understand the vision that god has for your life

Um, I think when we're talking about vision, let me just start by saying a few things

I think there's a danger in not living with vision

And and let me try to explain this if I could if you could imagine being blind for a minute

And i'm not saying blind people don't have vision. In fact, one of my favorite quotes from helen keller is

Is this quote where she says?

I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it and then I don't know where it is

But she says essentially

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision

So so I the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision

But I want you to imagine if you were blind for a minute

There's when we don't have vision we could liken it to being blind

Because in a way you think about it when you're blind you're more um

You're more open to being injured

Because you just can't see obstacles and you can't see things

And so and so when we don't have like the number one danger of vision is it in it increases the opportunity for injury

And I think this could be true a lot of people you were injured by a bad decision by a bad business decision by a bad life decision

By a bad relationship because you just didn't have clear vision

Right so when I can't see when I don't have vision it increases the opportunity for for injury it also inhibits acceleration

For instance if I said right now everyone just pack up your stuff and exit the room as fast as you can

Then you'd get up and you would take off like this

But if we turned off all the lights and I blindfolded everybody and I said now exit the room as fast as you can

It would be more like

Right are you with me you understand what I'm saying and so when I don't have vision listen it increases injury

But it also inhibits acceleration meaning I really can't reach my potential I don't move as fast through life

Because I'm not sure which way to go and the third danger of vision is that it demands

Or the third danger of not having vision is it demands assistance when I can't see I need a lot more help

I don't know the plan for my life I need somebody to help me I need someone to point me in the right direction

In fact if we're being honest sometimes when we don't have vision not only do we need assistance but it makes us codependent

And it also makes us susceptible to people sometimes who say they have a vision for us

Well that's good because I don't have a vision for me I'll go with your vision for me except for me

I'll go with your vision for me etc and so there's some dangers to not having vision

I think when we're talking about vision you say well what are we talking about well I think there's a principle in vision in that

I really think the first thing God wants to do is to give vision the first thing God does in all of creation is he turns on the light

Essentially he enables sight because sight is possible when there's illumination or there's light

In fact in Genesis 1 God said let there be light and I think the first thing that God does is that God turns on the light

He wants to give vision when you think about the great patriarchs in the Bible or the great people in the Bible you think about

You know Abraham God says God comes to him and God in a way turns on the light by saying Abraham I want you to be a great nation

Moses God is literally just living his life in the wilderness he's a shepherd and God lights a bush on fire

But it doesn't burn but he turns on the light if you will gets Moses attention and says hey

I want you to lead my people out of Egypt and you could walk through God

David is just in a shepherd field minding and taking and tending care of taking care attending sheep

When God calls him out and says I want you to be a king by the way a point here might be made

If you really want vision be faithful because all those men were faithful where they were

Which is why God came to them to give them greater vision than what they had

Are you with me? The point is though you walk all through the Bible and God starts by giving vision

If you think about it the apostle Paul the way he becomes the apostle Paul

Remember as he's on his way to Damascus he's actually persecuting Christians

And God blinds him in order to give him vision

He says no you're going to preach the gospel and he ends up being really the apostle to the Gentiles

Which for most of us that's us and we're so thankful and grateful and so the first thing God does is

He gives vision when we're talking about vision vision is a conceptual view of the future

In other words you could say it's kind of like a picture it's not everything about the picture

Or the future it's not everything about the future and it's not everything that's going to happen

And it's not every step that I'm going to take but it gives me something that's in the future

Just like what we just read in Habakkuk he said write this vision down he said it's for an appointed time

It's not going to delay but it's not yet it's coming but it's not today in other words it's a future that's out

It's a picture that's out in the future and it's something to start giving some context to your life

And meaning to your life and so when we're talking about vision what we're asking God for is we're asking God

Hey give me that picture that I'm working towards that I'm moving towards that I'm you could say living towards

And so when we're talking about vision you need to understand that vision comes from God

Ultimately vision is not determined it's discovered

Now here's what you need to understand about you that may help with the vision conversation

You need to understand that you are here because God had vision

You actually were created from God's vision and for God's vision

Let me explain so what is God's vision well simply put on earth as it is in heaven

So God is the sovereign ruler of the universe but he decides I want to create a physical planet

In other words God is spirit he's incorporeal that's the doctrinal name the incorporeality of God

But because God doesn't have a body he's spirit he's the ruler of the universe but he decides

I want to make a physical planet and I want to rule over it and in order to do that now watch this

So there's my vision I'm going to expand my kingdom and my rule in my reign over a physical planet

So he says let there be light and he creates the heavens and the earth and all these animals and all this

And then day six comes and he says now in order to really reign over earth what I want to do

Is create a family in my likeness and image but they will have physical bodies and to them

I will delegate the authority to rule and reign and expand my kingdom over the earth

So because God wanted to expand his reign and kingdom over the earth it necessitated

Adam and so Adam came from the vision of God but he was created also for the vision of God

And ultimately this is what the Bible talks about you in the same manner because when the Bible talks

We have wonderful scriptures about Jeremiah where God says hey before I formed you I knew you and

Before you were born I appointed you as a prophet to the nations meaning Jeremiah created you from my

Vision for my vision but we all love to claim the promise and we should Jeremiah 29 11 that God has

A plan for us and it's a good plan to give us hope and a future well what are we talking about hope

And a future and a good plan sounds like we're talking about a vision that you too are called

Just like Adam we are all given a commission Adam was given a commission we're given a commission

Go into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples teaching them to obey everything

That Jesus has commanded that that's our commission well we then were created from the vision of God

For the vision of God in fact Hebrews 2 verse 10 says we are his some versions say craftsmanship

Hebrews 2:10

Some versions say masterpiece I kind of like masterpiece because I've looked in the mirror y'all

You understand what I'm saying and when I looked in the mirror it didn't look like a masterpiece

But I'll take God's word over my opinion any day amen God wants to call me a masterpiece I'll say

You're exactly right praise God right and so but this is what Ephesians 2 and it's talking about you

And it's talking about me but it says we are his masterpiece now watch this that he created

But what did he create us for he said for the good works that he created beforehand

So that we should walk in them so this tells me yet again God had good works for you and good

Works for me and so he created me to walk those out so how many understand we've said it before

God doesn't start with a person he starts with a purpose right God starts with a vision and a purpose

And then creates persons and he created you so you were created from the vision of God and you

Were created for the vision of God if you don't get anything just nothing else you get from me today

That's okay but would you write that down so that you go here I want you to go home with God's

Opinion of yourself and not your opinion of yourself and not someone else's opinion of yourself

I want you to have God's opinion of yourself and if nothing else Ephesians 2 verse 10 God thinks

Ephesians 2:10

You're awesome you're a masterpiece and God has a purpose and a plan for you okay are you with me

God thinks pretty highly of you I wish you thought as highly of you as God thinks of you amen

And so we we need vision now I can't say that without saying this because this is true too

God has a vision for your life right I hate to tell you this but Satan has a vision for your life

And while God's vision is hope and and God's vision is a future Satan's vision is death and destruction

So you need to understand there are some competing visions in your life and I think really

Significance success meaning whatever you know word you want to assign to it I think is found in

When my vision is God's vision when there is a synergy and a congruency between my vision and

God's vision which also protects me from Satan's vision are you with me and so I want you to

Understand God has a vision for your life let me give you five values of vision you can write these

Down five values of vision number one is vision identifies vision identifies ultimately vision

Starts to help me identify God's purpose for me in other words it helps me to start understanding

Why God created me what I'm working towards if you think about for instance the people in the

Bible that receive vision some of the ones we talked about Abraham was the father of our faith

David if you think about his significance in leading God's people really to you know encounter

And in a relationship with God and expanding God's rule and kingdom you can think about

Moses and the deliverance of God's people but but vision is where we really start to understand

The purpose that God has for us and listen here's this is a life principle but it's also a leadership

Principle you can't measure I'm sorry you can't manage what you can't measure

Right so for me to know if I'm managing my life we would use this word stewarding that's more of the

Church word if I'm stewarding my life correctly I need something to measure it against and and I

Don't listen I don't measure my vision against someone else's nor do I measure my life against

Someone else's Paul even said this comparing each comparing ourselves with each other is not wise

But I need something from the Lord that I'm measuring my life against and that something is vision

That something is vision I remember when I was 19 years old I was in college at the time

At the time I really wanted to do something in the medical field and so those were the classes that I was taking

But that was where God really clarified and gave me the vision for this church where we're at now

Was when I was 19 years old now it was for a time appointed obviously it wasn't for that time

I didn't know when we would get here I didn't know what the buildings would look like I didn't know

Those things but I had the vision for the church but once I had the vision for what we now call pathway

I didn't have that name then once I had that vision it started identifying oh this is the reason I'm

Existing this is this is what I'm living towards this is what I'm living towards this is what I'm

Living towards this is this is something now that's giving me a sense of purpose and understanding

Of why God made me and it gave me a way to measure am I getting closer or farther away

So now I can steward my life better and I can manage my life better because now the vision gives me

A sense of measurement to know am I living on purpose am I living according to the vision am I

Living according to God's plan you know God can give you a vision but if you don't ever move towards

It you'll never reach it are you with me I've met a lot of people that have visions from God and my

Question is but what are you doing because come on Jonah you're on the wrong boat going the wrong way

If you're supposed to be in Nineveh you got to turn around are you with me and so vision identifies

The next thing number two value of vision is it clarifies well what does it clarify well it clarifies

Priorities it can clarify convictions it can clarify values but it also clarifies a directionality

I remember then when when I you know okay well I'm supposed to I'm supposed to be a pastor someday

Well it since I was supposed to be a pastor someday going to medical school didn't necessarily

Seem the right path anymore right nothing wrong I mean if God calls you you should go to medical

School nothing nothing wrong with that at all but I'm saying when all of a sudden you thought you're

Going this way and God's like well I need to adjust this is actually what I want you to aim towards here

Well all of a sudden it changes priorities in other words what's first in my life and what's second in

My life and what's third in my life and all of that is is based on on vision it also changes values

Because at the time I was in a secular college and I was you know a nice person and so I got invited

To places that people who want to end up as pastors probably shouldn't go are you with me

But because I knew I you know was it because I knew well the plan for my life the vision for my life

Is to be a pastor and I knew that then I was like well these values don't work for me I've got to have

These values over here does that make sense and so when I have vision all of a sudden it starts

Clarifying what needs to be first in my life what are the priorities of my life and and what are the

Values I mean I remember I almost had my amp1 textbook memorized I can almost name every part

Of the body because I thought people are going to die if I don't know what that is

Right and all of a sudden I realized with the same veracity that I have been trying to memorize

The amp1 textbook I better get in the bible and I better memorize some scripture it created some

Priority it created some values it created some um some directionality so it clarifies the third

Value of vision is it restricts now this sounds negative but it's really very helpful let me tell

You what I mean by this proverbs 29 18 says where there is no prophetic vision people cast off

Restraint but blessed is he who keeps the law where there is no vision the people one version

Says perish I believe there's been a lot of lives lost I'm not saying they were lost early I'm saying

They never reached their potential because they never found vision they perished without vision

And where there is no vision people perish but this version I like the sv because it says they

Cast off restraint in other words when there's no vision there there's there's nothing telling

Restricting my movements and my behaviors there's nothing there's nothing refining if you will

The direction of my life that we're talking about and so here have you ever you know I don't know we

We all went to school with that one guy that had a new major every semester

Was at college 37 years and still never graduated because every week he had a new dream a new idea

A new vision he was this and then that well that makes more money I'll do that well I don't know

Why I got hard I think I'll try this in other words there's no there's there's no focus

Right we're just all over the place with our lives we're just wandering aimlessly through our life

But when there's when there's vision there's there's focus right when there's vision it

Restricts have you ever have you ever gone on maybe like a if you've seen horses um we were in

New York a couple months ago and you can do a carriage ride around central park but they put

The blinders on the on the horses right and that's so they don't get spooked by something going on

The peripheral and take off the wrong way or so they don't see somebody eating an apple and decide

They want to go eat their apple I don't you know what I'm saying so it restricts their vision so

They can be more intentional with their movements and and really more successful really with their

Movements and this is what vision does it puts some blinders on that brings focus to my life it

Restricts my vision so that I'm always moving with intentionality in the right way listen if you don't

Have vision you don't have focus and if you don't have focus everything's an option and everything

Can be a distraction are you with me so so the third value of vision is it restricts the fourth

Value of vision is it simplifies vision narrows your opportunities and it narrows your options

But that's really good vision makes decisions for you if you I don't know if you're a business owner

Or you're in management especially I know our pastors probably run into this a lot I do you can

Get decision fatigue right because we make thousands of decisions a day and if you run a business

Or if you run a company and you have to make not only your decisions like you had to decide

What shoes you're going to wear but you also have to make decisions for many people in your company or

The managers in your company or maybe all the employees in your company as far as who's going

To do what when where and how or or what you know how you're going to manage you know your your you

Know if you have an inventory I mean there's obviously all these decisions and sometimes you can

Just get decision fatigue where it's like man and literally psychologically this exists where it's

Just I can't make good decisions I can't make any more decisions I'm just tired of making decisions

And by the way if you haven't ever managed a company if you've had kids you've had decision fatigue

Amen are you with me? But the point is this that when I have decision when I have vision

It starts making decisions for me I don't know if you ever thought about this but vision will

Actually make relationship decisions for you come on I am some of us in our lives could have saved

Ourself from some pain if vision would have said no to somebody are you with me right I mean it is

Because you start saying well this is not where I need to go but sometimes this I don't need to be

In a close relationship with this person for single people sometimes if you if you really know

The direction you're supposed to go then all of a sudden this person is not going the same direction

So no we shouldn't be in a relationship with them or we shouldn't date them because we have a vision

How can two walk together if they're not agreed in other words how can you really walk with someone

If you don't share vision with them right that's why it's important especially marriage

Married couples like you should be at the marriage weekend because you leave with a sense of vision

For your relationship so that you can walk together because you're going in the same

Direction are you with me so so vision it simplifies and speaking to the relational

Component it creates unity as well that's just another one but but it simplifies and the fifth

Value of vision is it energizes remember what we said one of the dangers of vision is

That we have to slow down when we can't see but when we can see we can move faster

Well think about Habakkuk because what God says is after you write it down run

Once you have vision you can move faster once you have vision the people around you can move faster

And so he's saying hey vision expedites but why does it expedite because vision I think brings passion

Like when I really have a vision that comes from the Lord I get passionate about that vision

Because it is from the Lord and I get excited about it and I'm energized by it and I can't wait to get

Get moving right like for me all week long just the fact that I was going to get to talk to you about

Vision because this is what I love to do and it's part of my vision so the fact that I got to talk

To you today I was waiting all week long to get here to have this conversation because I'm like oh

I just got to tell them I just want to help somebody today there's probably one person that needs some

Clarity that needs some vision and God's going to give it to them and he's going to use me to help

Clarify some things and make some points and I was very excited because this is what I do it's my vision

So I'm energized by it like I'm excited to do it right and and and so that's what vision does it

It energizes because think about this um it is true I should say this it is true that

It is possible we all have desires in us that came from us that didn't come from God

Are you with me like like I don't think my desire for junk food really came from the Lord I think that

I don't I don't I don't think it's from him I do think he made the cocoa plant I do think that

I'm not sure you know he made sugar cane so I mean he made the ingredients you understand

Like everything an M&M is made out of came from the Lord and uh and I just want to point that out

Right now um and you know I'm not saying that God you know Janne eats ice cream and um like every

Night she eats ice cream it's it's her thing and and I started eating ice cream and uh then I started

Being larger and it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't affect her in that way I wonder the guys that will

Ice cream uh ultimately the cow eats the grass then the cow magically turns the grass into ice cream

Is somewhat of a miracle so technically ice cream is processed salad and uh and you understand I'm

Saying it's really not about what's right it's about what you can justify in life no it's that's bad

Don't write that down Pastor Marty says no he didn't um it is possible to have desires that are

Not holy and desires that are somewhat selfish because we are you know beings that do exist in

The flesh and we are being sanctified and we are working out our relationship with God

And God is transforming us into the image which has come but there's a process so there's the

Immediate work of salvation and then there's the progressive work of salvation and so I get that

But there are desires here's what I need you to hear there are desires that you have inside you

Right now that aren't from you they are from God they exist on the inside of you when scripture says

When God says you know he will give us the desires of our heart he's not saying if you serve your time

I'll give you what you want you know that's not like God's not making you a prison deal you

Understand like like you know what hey you hey you do really good I'm gonna all help you in the end

No what is he saying he's saying listen as I draw near to God and as I really build my relationship

With God I'm gonna come to realize that the the strongest desires of my heart probably exist

Because of him and they actually accelerate or expand his kingdom he put them on the inside of me

And that's why God says listen hey you you hang out with me you draw near to me right you you put me first

Yeah I'm gonna give you the desires of your heart because I put the desire there

I'm the one that you it didn't come from you it came from me and I didn't give you that desire to frustrate you

I gave you that desire to fulfill you because it came from me and so you need to understand that

That ultimately God gives us these desires and and ultimately they come from him when we talk about

Finding our vision what you and write this down this this will help you because now we're going to turn the corner

Into really finding our vision okay but write this down what I believe for the most part your vision is actually inside of you

How do I know that because where does your vision come from help me out everybody your vision comes from God

And who is inside of you and who made you and who created you and who is recreating you into the image of his own son

God and so I ultimately think so many times we're looking out here and we think well there's a good vision or there's a good vision

Or I saw this on TikTok or my friend did this or I saw this on Instagram and those may be wonderful for whoever they are

But if you want to find vision then you get with God and find out what did God put on the inside of you

Because listen to me listen to me I believe this would be good to write down I believe design reveals destiny

Let me say it another way God has a plan and a purpose we'll call that destiny

Well if God wants you to get there then he designs you to get there if God wants you to do that he designs you to do that

Write this down God never uses what you don't have

God doesn't need what you don't have because so many times we will sit in our pew and say well God I can't do that because

I'm not kind of like Moses I'm not good with words I'm not good with words either I have a terrible vocabulary right

But I can get really excited and make a point I'm not good with words I'm good with arguments

Are you with me like my mama said baby be a preacher or a lawyer it's your only hope

Right but the point is God I believe design reveals destiny and if God designed me in a way

Or if God destined me then God designed me and God gave me what I needed to get there

God never uses what you don't have he never asks for what you don't have and he never calls who you are not

He only calls who you are with what you have with where you have because God actually doesn't need you to do it

He needs you to surrender to it and if you'll surrender to it he'll use you to do it and he'll make up what you don't have

Like just like your your word says like Paul says his strength is made perfect when I can't in my weakness God can't

He needs listen he needs my availability a lot more than he needs my availability

But I think ultimately I think I think your vision is inside of you because God's inside of you

And remember vision listen vision vision comes from God

Let me give you some things to consider when you're when you when you want to consider you might ask these

You can ask yourself these questions you may want to jot them down I'll give you four questions really quickly

Number one what thoughts do I have that will not leave thoughts that will not leave what thoughts do I have that I've never got

They don't leave they don't leave I've had these thoughts for years and years and years

It's the first question here's another question what dreams do I have that that don't die

What are the dreams that I have they just don't die they just keep coming up again coming up again they just don't ever die

What thoughts do I have that won't leave what dreams do I have that won't die what ideas do I have that don't fade

These ideas just don't go away

Right and then what desires do I have that don't diminish?

I think these are four great questions to ask

On this on this path if you will to finding God's vision for your life if I have thoughts that won't leave dreams

That won't die ideas that don't fade desires that don't diminish

This really is helping I think me to understand what God has locked up on the inside of me another way to say it is

What desire do I have that would change something in the world?

What desire do I have that change something another another thing to say is if it if it's a problem that bothers you

Maybe you're called to do something about it

I mean sometimes finding God's vision for our life is that happy medium between what ticks us off and what makes us tick

Right like like for me like what makes me tick is

This like today makes me tick because I feel like here are people I see you leaning in you're writing things down

You're like, okay. We're with you preacher like we want to live the life

God called us to we want to live on purpose that fires me up what what ticks me off when I see people wasting their lives

Right and choosing to do that. No, I don't get mad at them. It just you know, it ticks me off

I'm like stupid devil. You know what I'm saying? Like, um, like I want to go get them

It's like God has a plan for your life. You know what I'm saying, but that's weird to do in Walmart. And so um

You know and and then what really you know, one of the things like I love another thing I get I realize

This really this last year. I'm so protective of of the big C church

So not just I'm obviously protective protective pathway, but the big C church because I see so many enemies of the church today

In fact, I think the thing that's threatening the church more than anything else

There are a few huge threats that I see one is today pastors care more about being famous than making disciples

And so so because of that they don't preach the truth. They preach for clicks

And this is this is horrendous and it is it's heretical in a lot of ways what they're teaching

But they won't actually talk about the right things the right way and we're leaving good sound theological doctrine behind because

All we're really interested in is being more famous

And so we're using the pulpit and all the church's resources to build our kingdom of fame

So we can write a book or whatever and leave the church and go do a podcast or whatever

And so to me that's something that's really bothering me

And then another thing is just the the doctrine of demons it happens

You know there was the liberal theology that came out in the early 1900s today

We have the progressive christian christian theology which undermines the deity of christ and the inerrancy of scripture

And that's by the way

That's what you need to do in order to have a fake gospel is you have to remove the deity the specialness

That is jesus the holiness that is jesus you undermine the

Essentially the authority of god's word and you undermine the the what made jesus jesus the fact that he was god incarnate

And so so to me these are these are things but I realized this last week

I was listening to a clip on instagram and I just got mad

I got mad I was like

Like I was about to go prophetically

Psycho billy ninja if I could have got a hold of somebody in that moment right like

Woof anyways, and I thought what is this? I thought man. I don't like it because it's false doctrine

It's bad teaching and it's motivated by selfish ambition

And it is actually in my opinion taking advantage of the church and I don't like that

And so to me, you know this it's between what ticks you off and what makes you tick everybody. Are you with me?

Let me give you three i'm going to call them three steps

They're very simple if you want to find god's vision for your life

Let me give you these three the the first one is this capture it

Capture it and what I mean by that remember what god told habakkuk right? He said write it down

Write it down guys. I don't have time to go through all the science of this. There's power in writing things down

If it wouldn't have been then god wouldn't have told habakkuk to write it down

Even david makes this comment. He said

These things I didn't understand until I wrote them down

King david said that and so by the way, that's you can't search it exactly like that because that's a paraphrase version

I think the actual quote would be he made known to me these things in writing

But he's by my own hand. I think that's going to be closer if you want to google that verse anyways, but the point is

There's power in writing it down. So capture it and you say well pastor. I don't know what to write down

Here's where I think people get blocked

You sit down and try to write a vision statement, but what you need to do is try to unpack vision

So when I say capture it you could say brainstorm it

In other words, i'm going to sit down now. You're going to sit down with god. Come on. Good vision is not dreamed up

It's prayed down. Come on somebody. Are you with me?

So you're going to sit down with god and you're going to try to unpack how god has designed you what the vision is

What makes you tick what ticks you off maybe look at some of these questions like what are the thoughts that don't leave the dreams that don't die

The thoughts that never go away

What are those things and you're not trying to get a sentence you're trying to fill a page or two

With things that are in your heart their desires of your heart. You're going to get them out on paper

You're going to capture them on paper, right?

And so you're going to write that down just you know, whatever like god. I'm really passionate about this

I really love this this kind of thing

I'm really passionate about this. I really love this this kind of annoys me like here's a dream i've always had here's a thought that won't go away

Here's a desire that just never seems to fade away, right?

And we're just putting this on paper with the lord processing with god in our quiet time

If it takes a month fine

It's we're not putting a time stamp. It's not like a drive-through thing

I know we live in the drive-through world

But sometimes vision is not necessarily something you just drive through and get on a sunday. Come on somebody

All right, you just can't order a number three at you know, chick-fil-a and walk away with vision

All right, and so I mean you can get away with chicken but not vision and so

And so capture it the next step is is consolidate

Consolidated and here's where i'm really weighing this out

And so I take all these different fragments and ideas and statements or whatever

And I try to put them in categories if I can and name the categories

Uh, I try to see what's alike about them or how they fit together

So i'm trying to consolidate trying to distill maybe that's a good word to distill this down

And ultimately I want to take all of that and and I want to get it to

maybe four

Sentences at most somewhere between two and four sentences one and one is great

But somewhere between two and four sentences five if you just have to but you consolidate it down

Um

And and and then once it's consolidated then here's the third one you contemplate

This is where we go back to the lord again

Really go back to the lord and say hey, i've kind of got a paragraph here. I've got four sentences three sentences something like that

But lord, I want to sit with you

And I want us to go over this because remember good vision is not dreamed up. It's prayed down

Are you with me?

And so god, you know, let's let's work on it and refine it, right?

Um, and then this is where you come on. This is a revision. Come on somebody division again, right revision

And that's where you just keep working it down and hopefully you leave here now with a sentence

It could be a complex sentence if you want

But it's a sentence and it's one that you feel like okay god and I have met right? I have captured it

I have you know, I have distilled this down. I've consolidated it

I've contemplated it with the lord and by the way contemplating may take a few weeks

I'm not saying this something that just happens on a monday morning

It could be that clear but it's okay to take some time with this because remember we're trying to get a a life vision a vision

For our lives if if we don't have one or even if we have one we're trying to make it as clear

Come on. That's what habakkuk said make it plain. God said to habakkuk make it plain

Right. I don't know about you. I need things plain. I'm pretty simple, right?

I need things plain and so when you get there then you can always come back and reevaluate it as you're walking through life

Because it is true at different seasons

God may nuance that vision a different way for a different people group or for a different company or for a different idea

Whatever the case may be god can I mean he can make in course corrections

So we this is something we walk out with him. It's not something that we walk out by ourselves

Are you are you with me?

Here's what I want you to understand is god if nothing else

God has this incredible vision for creation

And out of that vision you were created and I was created

And and we were created for god's vision

So god has a vision for you and god has a plan for you and god has a purpose for you and I think

Not just about getting unstuck as we're talking about

I think just life in general having success or fulfillment for life to be meaningful for us to sleep well at night

I think is about living god's plan and walking out god's purpose and we don't do that without god's vision

So I want you to understand god just doesn't call pastors

Right god calls everybody

You roman's eight says you are called according to the purpose of god

Well, if god calls you you had a vision because god starts with vision. He turns on the light first

And so church, I want us all especially this last week of the fast. Let's lean in to a god

born vision for our lives and really try to understand the plans like we read in jeremiah 29 that god has for us

For a hope and a future and that way if you feel stuck you can see your way out

If you're a little confused and wandering around you can see your way forward

But I want everyone to have god's vision for their life

Especially if you feel your way stuck today if you feel stuck today, you can see your way

out amen come on give jesus praise today

Hey pastor marty here from pathway church, and I just want to say thank you

For joining us and I want to encourage you to get connected and stay connected and there's several ways you can do that

Number one you can download the pathway app that we are all the time offering resources and information on that app for you

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Is that you walk in the purpose for which god made and created and redeemed you for

We love to connect people to purpose

We thank you for giving us this opportunity and if you're ever at long view or you are in long view

I'd love to invite you to join us in person each weekend listen

I pray god's best for your life. I believe if you follow jesus

Your best is ahead