Restoring Vision

Y'all may be seated in the presence of the Lord.

Hello, there we go, all right, so y'all looking good today.

Y'all looking good today.

Some of y'all know it.

Some of y'all better tell your spouse In case you haven't yet.

My baby girl knows, told y'all on the 4th of July when I told our story about her telling me no, going to date me more.

And then I showed up at the 4th of July event with a lawn chair.

That was not a regular lawn chair, it was actually a pool chair, but I was broke in a joke and she didn't think it was funny.

I called her my boo thing and I embarrassed her a little bit.

That's my girl.

Hey, baby, come on somebody, before I get in trouble and get kicked off of Facebook.

Just kidding, if you've seen the stuff that's been on Facebook, it won't get kicked off for that.

First of all, thank you, pastor Aaron, for stepping up and doing the.

So this guy, I have to twist his arm to get up here in front of y'all not to embarrass him, but next time when he tells me no, it will embarrass him worse.

So he said I just got to mentally prepare.

Man, I get it.

It's nerve wracking to be looking at headlights.

But God is good and I'm so glad for the team that God has put together here at Connect Church, like from top to bottom, we just have a people that serve and love people, and that is what we should be about.

We should not be about numbers or growing a church.

We should just be able to just look at somebody and love them the way God loved us when we were in the depths of our sin.

Because my wife is the picture of perfection.

She never did anything bad.

I don't even know if she's ever cursed before.

I know she's wanted to, but we've been married for six years now.

I know at least twice she's wanted to, but she didn't.

She didn't go down the path that I went down.

So for me to look at somebody else with judgmental eyes when God saw me and Jesus knew me while he hung on the cross and still died on the cross, for me I have something to praise and shout about Like, no, I'm going to act like I have more to praise about than you do, because in my mind I do.

And so we've been talking about, uh, the mind we have been talking about.

On 4th of July it was the.

I'm going to dive into it in a minute.

First of all, like Pastor Aaron said, thank you all for being here.

Give it up for these.

My old church right here.

They filled up 15 pews with their whole family.

I'm glad they're here.

I did not know they were coming today, so no pressure.

They already know who I am, so they know what they're getting, and so been over there many years with them and grateful they came and graced us with their presence today, especially brother Chris.

He's a he's a good man.

He always gets me to try to come back over there and watch movies.

So if you're here for the first time like they are greatly appreciated If you're online, if you are a seasoned member, make sure you always get it in your mind to go and find someone that you do not recognize and introduce yourself, because a connection will make someone call a church a home.

So make sure that you are being vigilant in your mindset.

Please remember Pastor Phil.

I don't know if you've heard he did post something in the Team Connect if you're on Facebook or I sent a text out kind of explaining he had some tests ran.

He was going to be here this Sunday and I think it was Monday or Tuesday I think it was Monday he actually went to the ER.

His wife texted me and said will you please get people praying?

Monday he actually went to the ER.

His wife texted me and said will you please get people praying?

I haven't heard any test results, except for it was not a stroke and it was not a heart attack.

So his blood pressure was higher than normal.

So they keep an eye on that.

He just he says he feels really weak.

So be praying for him that God will continue to strengthen him.

We are seeing miracles in this church.

I don't know.

Two months ago I'm going to brag, I keep saying it because it excites me Like you better be telling people about this In the middle of worship.

A couple months ago, somebody was healed from psoriasis In the middle of worship.

That is something to honor God about.

So we are continuing praying and believing that what God says in his word is true.

Can I get an amen?

If nothing else, he hasn't done a miracle in your life.

Salvation alone is a miracle in itself, and he did it for you and he did it for me.

Most of you know my story, me being up here on this platform, whether as a musician or whether, as a preacher, is not what I ever thought God could use me in the capacity of doing.

But in God's hands, what we don't think is good enough is more than enough, and he just takes care of the rest.

All that he asked for and requires is obedience and willing vessels.

That's all he asked.

That's all he asked.

He said if you will just obey me and trust me, I will supply your needs, and I think it's very smart that he said needs and not wants.

How do your toes feel?

Because we get in a prayer mode of praying for what we want and we forget to add God's will to the equation and we pray for things to happen and God says, okay, you asked for it, here it is, and we're like God.

What happened?

I answered your prayer.

We like to pray to God for things we want and then, when it happens, then when it makes a mess and we make a mess of it because it was not ordained by God to happen, it was not his permissive will for us then we allow selfishness to come in even deeper and get its hooks in our minds and we say, god, will you clean up this mess?

That was free.

That wouldn't even in my notes.

That was free.

That wouldn't even in my notes.

So let's get into the word today.

I hope God speaks to you, like he's been speaking to me in these past three weeks of this series we've been doing called Thought Wars, because it is a war in your mind, whether you passively let it happen to you or you aggressively attack it and wrestle it to the ground.

It is a war.

Will you get my stuff and put it up here?

Thank you, forgot to ask you.

Before service.

She disappears.

So, okay, when I'm not doing worship and I'm just preaching, my mindset is okay, I don't have to go to worship practice because I'm not on the worship team.

Today she will correct me and say no, I have Bible study at 930.

And so, if you don't know, it may be a full class right now.

No, no, I need it.

I don't want to do it there.

Yeah, it's okay, I'll push it back.

Y'all, that was 500 pounds.

She's lifted it, just kidding.

So if y'all fall asleep, I got a stick right here.

So, just kidding, just kidding, sorry, sorry, I'm calming down.

So I want to read in Proverbs 3, 5 through 6.

And if you'll stand just for a second, I know we were standing for a minute and I told you to sit down, but now you're getting in your squats in for the day.

Proverbs, chapter 3, 5 through 6 says do we have it up there?

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

Okay, if you'll stand for the, just stand for the reading of God's word.

This is my notes.

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and do not lean on your own straight.

Let's pray.

Father, I ask today that through your words, that we are transformed and we have a renewing of our mind that no one here today, the way they came in, they will not leave the same.

In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.

I have been praying for y'all for this week and I hope the word of God penetrates.

Yeah, you may be seeing it.

It penetrates your heart, as it has been doing to mine.

Last week I said that a lot of things 95%, 99% of the things I preach on are things that God has been working on in me and it is a battlefield in the mind.

This is something that I feel that we overlook.

So for the past two weeks we have been diving into the mind, the way we think, our thought processes, both voluntary and involuntary.

Has anybody ever had a thought pattern that you did not know that you had until someone my wife brought it up and said that you're doing this.

Last week I told you that I love this woman with all of my heart, but I never knew that I had a spiritual gift of telling her how to do jobs better at the house.

When she had a project, I would come by.

I would come by and say, hey, baby, you know you could probably do this, and then go on my merry way to where I was going.

I never on purpose wanted to encourage her in such a negative way.

I never thought anything about it.

I never thought that I was treating her like she was my subordinate instead of my partner in crime.

That right there, when she shone the light in the darkness, I woke up quick because it resonated in me that I, how many, how many more things are like this in my mind?

How many more things have I just let slide or let become my, my, the wrinkles in my brain, my thought processes?

And I'm not addressing these because I'm used to it and comfortable is easy to do.

So we have voluntary and involuntary.

Sometimes we just look up and don't realize.

When I got deep into drugs, I never set out.

One day I didn't wake up and say you know what, I think I'll be a meth head one day.

That never crossed my mind.

Not one day did I wake up and say you know what, I think I'm going to be an alcoholic.

This week it was a slow study of the wrong people, the wrong things that I allowed to creep into my doors of my heart and my mind.

To slowly.

It got me to where I no longer knew even who I was anymore, and these things that we allow to just happen to us is a direct attack and manipulation of the enemy.

We don't always do this on purpose.

It's a slow path, small little choices, small little ways that you allow things to creep into your mind in the way that you think end up being long-term issues and problems.

If you can't stop looking at pornography or at women or men or whatever your issue is, or you can't stop smoking, you can't stop drinking.

You need to not try to cover it up with a bandaid on the surface of what the product is of what't stop drinking.

You need to not try to cover it up with a Band-Aid on the surface of what the product is, of what your issue is.

You need to dig deep into the roots and pluck them out so they no longer can grow.

If you cut weeds at the surface, you will have weeds again soon.

See me, smoking meth was only a Band-aid on the depression that I was feeling, and the friends that I ended up hanging around was a yearning I had inside of me that I needed connection with other people, and so when I covered my depression up with medication, then it gravitated me towards the people that accepted me at that level of medicating I was doing.

And that's what we do.

You gravitate towards people who are like you.

You start to go towards people.

If you have a friend who was an atheist, most likely you probably don't hang out with them a lot because you believe in God.

But that's the opposite of what Jesus did.

But he had his mind right, his goal was set and he knew where God was ordaining him to be led.

But what do we know?

We know this that your life moves in the directions of your strongest thoughts.

There's no room for error, there's no wiggle room.

Your brain will end up making your actions follow suit.

And you don't guess what.

We know this we don't have a choice always of what happens to us.

Death in the family is scary.

It's a low time, you know it.

Just, I've had so many people die in my family.

There is not one time that I was able to control that happening.

I've had people that I loved rip my heart out and step on it in front of my face and hold it up and watch me in front of my face like, oh, what are you going to do now?

Like vindictively stomping on me because I would take it and I allowed these things to happen because I had something inside of me that needed to be liked.

You know you can't be a Christian.

If you need to be liked, you can, but it's very difficult to stay your path and to be who God's called you to be if you want everyone to like you, because we live in a culture today where they do not want to be offended by anything.

Yes, offensive hurts but it causes you to grow and mature and become what you're supposed to become.

The Bible.

Guess what?

It is offensive.

It is offensive.

It will mess your life up.

It will say change or this is the result I have better life for you, but you have to lay down what was to make room for what can become in the hands of God.

You don't always have a choice of what happens, but you always have a choice of what you do in the situation.

Every single time, even in temptation, the Bible says that the Lord will make a way out.

You always have a choice of what you do.

It's how you decide to look at it that really matters.

It's your choice.

Repeat it to me it's my choice.

It's my choice.

It is your choice how you handle a situation.

So a little recap.

I want to build on what we've already been talking about the last two weeks.

If you weren't here, every Sunday we go live on YouTube.

We can go to the church connect-churchcom, and you can see all of the messages if you want to check them out.

But also about this too, while I mentioned in the website, and I'm really excited about this.

So next month, in August, we are going to be launching the Connect Groups and we're going to be launching the Growth Track.

Okay, so we are going to be handing out these little books.

I didn't put one up here, I thought I had one, but these little books up here and they're spiritual gift tests You're going to be able to.

We did this in the ministry training for the church of God, you're going to be able to know who you are.

In spiritual gifts there's like 200 questions, uh, after the first, from wisdom of brother Vernon.

Thank you so much for all the wisdom at this church.

We're going to hand them out after you go to the first class.

The first class is who we are and what we believe.

Connect one-on-one.

We want you to know and understand that we believe in the blood of Jesus Christ washing away our sins, and he is the only way to heaven.

So we want to just pour into you a little bit and let you know what we believe and then we're going to connect you in connect groups.

So be ready for that.

It's coming.

So week one we talked about this was the 4th of July, about true freedom.

We recognized.

You know you have to really recognize what's going on.

You have to take self inventory Because if you never look inward, you'll always be projecting outward.

If you never look at yourself, you'll always be pointing on everyone else's faults.

We talked about last week about how easy it is to point.

I can see you all day long.

It is really hard for me to see me.

I have to make effort to go find the right mirror so that I can see me.

But I can see you all day long.

It's very easy for me to do that.

It's very easy for us to point things out, especially when we're in the middle of suffering, because misery loves company.

But if you take that right there and you want to warm yourself by that fire, it will eventually burn your house down.

This is a war that is happening every single day.

Where is it?

This is a war that is happening every single day.

Where is it In your mind?

Where is it?

Y'all got to learn something today.

It is in your mind.

So we talked about true freedom and what that looks like Taking captive every thought that it is obedient to Christ Not to us, but to Christ that through Christ we are made more than conquerors.

So now that we have determined who the enemy is and understand where the battleground is, we have defined it.

So now that we can defend and defeat those wild thoughts, I want to take them and wrestle them to the ground and beat the snot out of them.

I want you to be so assured of what the word of God says.

I want you to have anointing oil and slick everything up that comes against you.

There's going to be people trying to come up to you and trash on their back Like well I anointed all around me.

I want you to be so full of the fire of God and so assured in the word of God that you do not question what the word of God says.

We also discovered that the average thought.

Just a little bit of stats.

The average person thinks about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day, and over 80% of those are negative.

It is a upward hill struggle to be a positive thinker.

It is, and the 95 of those thoughts are exactly the same thoughts that you've had before.

So there is something about being repeated.

The more you believe, the more you hear it, the more you believe it, whether it is fact or fiction.

The more you hear something, the more you believe it.

Week two is bringing down the stronghold of unforgiveness.

This is a big one because this bears a lot of weight.

I'm not going to go through the whole sermon, but if you did not watch it, you need to hear what God has to say to you about unforgiveness, because it is not a game, because unforgiveness is trash, and to live in a truthful freedom in your mind, you have to get rid of the trash, all of it.

There's no wiggle room here.

The Bible says in the sixth chapter in the book of Matthew, and Jesus says this If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you.

That's awesome news.

The very next breath says this but if you refuse to give others, your father will not forgive your sins.

If you carry around the trash, I showed you a picture last week and there was a backseat full of trash.

No one ever buys a car and says I'm going to fill this thing up with trash, I can't wait.

But you slowly put things back there.

It's behind you, you don't think about it, but it's always going around with you in your car and when you allow someone else, you try to bring someone else along with you in your car.

You end up having someone in the middle of your trash.

You can't help someone else before you clean out your own or you will end up carrying your own and theirs.

Now I understand this is a great amount of trust.

Let's read that main verse again proverbs 3, 5 through 6.

It says trust in the lord with all.

Say all, all of your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your.

Acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.

So in this third week of the Thought Wars series, we have been digging and digging and digging of what is going on in my mind.

I have tried to show some light on you through the scripture so that you can make the change.

Because, guess what?

I can't do it for you.

I cannot do anything for you.

I'm just here to deliver what God has given to me.

But I want to today.

I hope God restores your vision.

This week is going to be restoring your vision.

We know that people perish without vision and some of y'all are drying up because you've lost the vision.

Can we get real for a minute?

It's easy to get cranky, complaining and not ever satisfied when you've lost the vision, because we are not meant to consume, we are meant to contribute.

Your vision has to be bigger than yourself.

Not just vision, but deeper and more accurate perspective, to see things in the way that God sees them, to see people in the way that God sees them.

Now, this decides me.

This next point I love when science and the Bible align.

Me and Brother Vernon were talking about this last Tuesday at prayer meeting, because so many people like to take science and try to debunk the Bible.

Well, guess what morons.

It validates the Bible.

I love it when they align.

I get really excited because it makes me so mad.

People are like oh yeah, what about this?

Shut up.

So check this out.

This is a validation.

So we've been studying on the mind.

So let's really dig into what science says about this.

Changing the way you think, changing your perspective on things, the way to see things, how you frame things up, the paths we're taking, is not easy.

This is tough and I know probably all of you are thinking like well, you just shut up and get off this mind stuff.

But I'll leave it when you learn it.

Okay, some of y'all don't worship like you've been set free.

Can I challenge you today?

Is that okay?

Some of y'all don't worship like God has set you free from your sins, like he has delivered you out of the jaws of hell.

And you know what A lot of times it is so hard to praise because we can't stop thinking of our home life.

Just because you're here, don't think for a second that I think everything there is good, because I know that things can get messed up at the house and you come in here with a brave face, like I have done before, and with a smile, and say, oh, god bless you, when really you're dying on the inside or I can't let go of what they did to me, I can't get past what was done to me.

You are probably it's probably very, very validated that you feel that way and you don't like that.

You were done wrong.

But guess what?

When you don't forgive them, you will chain yourself to them for the rest of your life.

Forgiveness is about freedom for you.

Forgiveness is about you stepping away from what has bound you in your heart, mind, soul and spirit.

And then you come into the house of God and you can't give true praise because you're not living in it.

Come on, and this is the one that I struggle with the most.

This is another point I struggle with forgiving myself.

Yeah, uh-huh, I know who I am.

I know what I have done.

It has been such a work that the spirit has been doing on me to just be able to shut up and let God speak through me, because I try to damn it up with who I used to be and I get so ashamed of who I was when God is saying shut up and trust who he is.

This has been working on me and penetrating my heart and changing me up and down.

And if you want to wait for your breakthrough before you begin to praise, you, don't wait to praise the God Almighty until after he does something for you.

That is a selfish, childish way of thinking, because if we wait until God does something to then give him the praise, that's a spoiled, child attitude.

I'm not going to do this unless God you do this.

That's a dangerous place.

See, here's the thing it goes against the wiring that we have spent years manufacturing in our minds.

So to change our perspectives, to restore our vision to where God, to where it measures up, to where God is trying to lead us, we have to do what is called it's a little bit more of science cognitive reframing.

I know that sounds super deep, I know that sounds like really scientific, but follow me here.

So cognitive reframing is a technique used to shift your mindset so you're able to look at a situation, a person, a relationship from a different perspective.

It is something that you can do anytime you experience distorted thinking.

If you've been locked away in a closet somewhere.

You may not know this, but we have a world that is full of distorted thinking, and they have no clue that they're in the wrong.

Everyone else is wrong with them, everyone else is doing something wrong and hating, and all this other stuff.

I don't make up.

What I preach, say or believe.

It comes directly from the Word of God, and if that offends you, you can go somewhere else out of my face, because I will not back down from what the word of God says.

I will not, because one day, even though now, here I'm standing before you, I will stand before someone else who is mightier and greater than you, and you will too.

I would rather be in his good graces and be his servant than yours.

In particular, this is used if you're caught in a negative thought pattern.

Has anyone woke up in the middle in the morning and you just didn't.

It just wasn't the day.

You just want to lay back down and say, nope, not today.

Cover my head up, I'm going back to sleep, try again tomorrow.

And then, from there on, it's like every step you took, your foot got knocked out from underneath you.

You make a coffee, your coffee spills down in front of you.

So then you have to change, you have to shower again and then your spouse is like you spilled something on you.

I know, that's why I'm going to change and I'm going to clean up.

Thank you for that information that I already knew and was upset about.

And then there are attitudes and the way that we're thinking about something and that negative thinking.

You know what it is?

It's poison to the atmosphere of the people around us and then it becomes negative thinking times.

However many people you meet that day, somebody doesn't quite open the door for you enough at a gas station and you almost walk directly into.

It.

Happened to me yesterday, made me upset and I'm like you knew I was there enough to hold it open a few seconds, but you couldn't go ahead and hold it open three more People.

I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, but it's like every step you take it's like a slinky going down steps and it just keeps happening and keep happening and you're like what is going on?

Why did I get out of bed?

But this is what I told y'all before I have started.

And very first thing in the morning, I wake up with a prayer on my tongue.

Guess what?

That didn't just happen.

I had to train my brain to wake up with praise in my mouth so that I declared the blood over my day before I even began.

That did not just happen.

It took training.

Once we see each other through the eyes and the lens and frame it up as grace and mercy, and we understand that all of us are in training, so when one of us has a bad day, you can help theirs become better and push them back over towards the mark, you don't have to spew out what's being fed to you.

Get out of the negative thought patterns, because that's exactly what they are.

Once you have that wrinkle in your brain, you have to retrain yourself and your brain all over again.

I wake up with praise in my mouth and I, first thing after when I go in my office, I turn on my Bible and it reads to me a devotion, because I want my day to be set according to God, not according to how I'm feeling, because if we went by how we feel, we would not get up out of the bed.

Things are the older I get, the more things are popping and cracking and I didn't know they were supposed to.

I never knew my hip was going to pop so loud in the middle of a story.

Somebody think I have gas and I'm like and I have to announce oh my hip.

And they probably still think I'm lying.

There's things that happen to me that I don't like.

I can't choose for this to be different, it's just happening.

I don't know why, but I know it's age.

I understand, but I can control whether I get mad about it or whether I can just be like whatever.

So the lady at the store that just checked me out that I go here all the time now she thinks I'm just gonna pop off everywhere.

But but whatever, god has been too good to me for me to get upset about stupid stuff.

God has totally wrecked my mindset.

So essentially, the idea behind reframing is that we frame it up to where we view situations, people, circumstances.

We give it a new, it determines a new point of view.

So when our frame that frame is shifted, the meaning changes and our thinking, our responses, our mindset and our behavior changes with it.

Where your strongest thoughts are there, you will follow.

If you wake up every day and you say I am too used to be used, you will never see yourself in the capacity where God can use you.

If you wake up and say whatever happens today, lord, I am yours.

That will change your day and when you do it enough, it becomes a habit and it will change your life.

God loves when we pray about the day and these trips and things, but I believe God is still the God of stand, still son, in the old Testament, when, when Elijah prayed, god stand, just make the sun last a little longer so we can fight longer.

He is that same God.

When the frame shifts, everything changes.

We have to get to the root.

We often try to fix the symptoms instead of the actual cause.

The cognitive reframing can be a helpful way to turn problems and negative thoughts into opportunities of change and growth.

In Philippians, chapter one, we're going to start in verse 12, and it says this Now understand Paul's mindset.

This blows my mind.

Paul wrote this in prison.

Paul, he was a jailbird Dude, went to prison for so many things, the way he saw the whole situation and his framing and his vision.

So Philippians 1, 12 through 14.

And he's writing to the church of Philippi and he says I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything has happened to me here has helped to spread the good news.

He is in prison and he's worried about the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That is a frame change and a mind shift for everyone here, including the whole palace guard knows that I am in chains because of Christ and because of my imprisonment.

Most of the believers have gained their confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear.

I want to show you all something.

So if we can get that first slide up, okay, who sees the rabbit?

Anybody see a duck?

Some of you are like, oh, there's a duck.

So you're like, oh, there's a duck.

So whatever you saw first, you were right.

Whatever you saw second, you were also right.

Show the next one Now.

This may cause a church split.

I apologize in advance.

Go ahead and put the next one up there, all right.

What color do you see?

Go ahead and put the next one up there, all right.

What color do you see?

Who sees white?

Who sees gray?

Nobody.

Who sees pink?

All y'all are wrong.

Does anybody see the Nike as turquoise?

Really, that is all that I see in that photo is the turquoise.

Every little place you probably think is white or silver or whatever you see turquoise.

All right, two of us are right.

Took a minute for us to sink in for y'all, for y'all.

So it looks like to me, like a pink on the sandal, on the strap, the sole or the foot of it, the Nike check and the shirt back here.

All of that looks like it's turquoise to me.

Some of y'all are trying so hard right now to see it turquoise.

But you look at it and you're like there's no way that that's turquoise.

But yet if I was the only person, that would have been scary.

But we have another person that's one of the pastors of the church and hopefully he won't lie.

He sees the same thing I do.

It's probably the beards.

He sees the same thing I do, but all of y'all see something different.

Our perspectives are different.

Go to the next one.

I want you to look at the center.

Don't fall over in your chair.

You see that Does it look like it's moving?

Move your eye around to different dots.

When you're there, it's not moving, but it is around the other place.

When you go over here, there, it's not moving, but it is around the other place.

When you go over here, it's now swimming over there.

When you go over here, now it's over there.

You can't catch it.

The way you see things matters.

How you frame up situations it matters.

Paul goes on to say in this same chapter in this same chapter he says even some are preaching Christ to make my life worse and to cause more trouble in my imprisonment.

Are you kidding me?

The guy's already in prison, and they are literally.

They have the message of the gospel on their tongue and they're using scripture to make someone else's life worse.

Anybody ever heard that before?

Somebody twisting up scripture just so they can stick the knife a little bit?

Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.

So you know what Paul's secret was.

Now listen, he wrote this letter.

What I just read the verses up there immediately following that is when he said and they were out there preaching the gospel to make my life worse, in here in my imprisonment he knew, in the midst of him saying that where he was was exactly where God led him, that people were out to get him, using the very thing, the very message he was bringing.

So what was his secret?

How in the world?

Let me ask you let's get personal for a second While we're here how many of you would write an encouraging letter to others while you're in prison for preaching the gospel?

Yes, it would be a badge of honor and it would be awesome.

I've been to jail a few times, none of them for preaching, and he was in there for a righteous and just cause, and they still had people come against him.

What does that say?

That means you better get your mind right, because the devil is going to try to get you when you're on your high horse.

He will try to knock you down and get you so confused and then you'll start to question if what you are doing was in the will of God.

That's good.

He didn't let anybody change what he knew was true inside of him.

He did not allow external circumstances to manipulate his internal purpose.

I'll say it one more time he did not allow external circumstances to manipulate his internal purpose.

He would use what the enemy tried to make him lose his vision.

The enemy took him out of the equation from outside and he still was ministering on the inside, so much so that all of the palace guards knew about Jesus Christ.

It's easy to lose sight when you're in the middle of trouble.

It's easy to get your mind fixed on the wrong thing when all you can see around is negative bad circumstances.

Distort, can distort your vision.

When the enemy tries to make you lose it.

Use it, shove it right back in his face and let it fuel your faith, because we know that we can't control what happens, but we can control how we respond to what happens to us, how we see it, how we frame it up.

Romans 8, 28 says this and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

You see, paul framed things up so much differently than most.

It wasn't his purpose, it was God's purpose, it was God's vision for him.

He always framed it up to God's purpose and God's will.

He always allowed a place of opposition to become the soil of opportunity.

Why did Paul see things in this perspective?

Why?

What was the reason?

There was a dramatic experience that happened to him on the Damascus Road in Acts, chapter 9, where Saul, god, literally took his vision from him and then later used a prophet of God to restore the vision he wanted him to have.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

He literally took his physical vision, gave it back and then, with those new eyes, he could see things differently.

To reframe how he saw things.

Nobody A couple of y'all got that.

I thought I'd try it.

I wrote it and I was like, eh, all right, he had a new reframing and a new mindset.

I'm glad some of y'all did laugh.

That made me feel so good.

He restored his vision to God's purpose.

Some of y'all get that on the way home.

Then you fast forward through his missionary journeys and he learned to see things in a new way.

He had a perspective shift, a reframing.

He learned that he could be content in any context.

That is something we do not understand in today's society.

We have such an issue being content in wherever we are.

Paul knew this.

Paul understood this.

You see, we love the God of addition.

We love that, but we can't stand the God of subtraction.

It's great when God adds to your pocketbook, but then we struggle and we twitch when he takes his 10%.

Think about it, and that's what he requires.

That's not even above and beyond.

We struggle with this God of subtraction.

Surely God wouldn't take away.

We love things to pile up.

That's why they have hoarder shows.

If you're here, and that's you, god still loves you.

We're praying for you.

Jesus loves you.

It's fine.

But we oh God wouldn't do that.

We don't believe that God would take a young farmer boy and give him a vision of him being ruler over his brothers, and then that very vision that he had actually was what projected him to God's will when his brothers wanted to kill him, but they sold him instead.

And then it actually set up later to where, 22 years later 22 years later, you know I found that when I read something in the Bible I'm like, oh, that's a cool story, but I never think about the time frame of when actually God spoke something.

David spent about 15 years in the field of waiting after he was anointed to then become king, and then he went and fought Goliath, but in those 15 years it was not time for him to go yet, because he had several years of training to go through, 22 years later.

And then he ends up saving the very people that sold him, the very people that were trying to destroy him.

He was their savior and they didn't die in the famine.

So I want you to hear this, write it down on your hearts.

Whatever the vision is not for your vanity.

God's vision and purpose for your life is not so that you feel good about yourself, because when you start to follow God's vision, people will be out to get you.

I would be the worst minister in the world if I just told you everything was going to be humdrum, good rainbows and butterflies and everything's going to be perfect.

Liar, as soon as you start trying to follow God's will, everything will start to try to attack you.

But let that be your assurance and wear that as a badge of honor that the devil is starting to get scared of you because now you've got things going in the right direction.

We cannot allow the enemy to put these little bumps in our path and we start freaking out when it's just.

God's will Keep on trucking.

The vision is not for your vanity, it's not so that you can have something and wear it.

Oh, look at me.

The Lord's just using me.

He'll rip that off you quick.

In Acts, chapter 16, verse 9, we're still talking about Paul, because I believe that out of all of the writings he captured, out of the 13 books some say 14, but the books that were given to him or that he wrote, he always had the right mindset.

Acts 16:9

Chapter 16, verse 9,.

Paul had a vision.

Listen to this.

Paul had a vision.

A Macedonian man was pleading with him help us, help us, help us.

The vision in return led Paul and Silas to prison, the very vision God gave him led them into the mouth of the enemy.

Most of you know the story.

They were stripped and they were beaten.

Listen, there was no amen Don't come back here no more.

When they beat them first off, they were naked.

You are never more vulnerable than when you are naked.

They took the rods and they beat them.

These are grown men.

They are the enemy.

They didn't play games.

There wasn't no patty cake session.

They beat them because they did not want them to preach the good news of God.

They didn't want them to preach the good news of God.

They didn't want them to preach Jesus Christ here.

This is something that happened to them for the message of Jesus Christ, and we complain when it's too hot in the church.

We are so pampered in our Christianity.

No one has touched us yet.

We live in America and we will not speak out about truth Because we're scared of what someone will say on social media.

It is time For the church of God To stand up for what is right and stop bowing down to the enemy.

And if we do not have our mind and our thoughts in check and understand that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, we will be fighting the wrong battle.

If you don't understand where the battle happens, how can you fight it properly?

If you don't wear your helmet of salvation, your mind will go.

You will not be able to protect your thoughts if you do not submit them to God.

The vision is not for your vanity.

Where God ends up leading you is not always for you.

The path that God carves out before you is not always for you.

The path that God carves out before you is not always for you.

I never in my life thought of moving to Longview.

Texas Wasn't on my map at all.

And we have somebody visit and she's like I didn't know it was this big.

I didn't know what was here either.

It's funny.

Before we moved here people were like hey, you know this place over here.

They're trying to give me directions.

I'm like I only know where the food places are.

I don't know where anything.

I don't know Walmart because I have not had to use it.

Now I realize that the loop is pretty much everything I need right from down the house.

It's so good to be 10 minutes from the church.

Oh, my goodness.

Vision led Paul and Silas to the prison cell.

The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness.

If you think for a second that God is not going to lead you on the enemy's territory, then you're in the wrong game.

This is not for you to come and warm a spot in the church house.

We need to be prayer warriors who are seeking God's face for a mighty move of God here at Connect Church, longview, texas.

This is not a game to where you fit God in your schedule when it obliges you.

They were stripped and beaten.

It was for their calling.

The vision was not for their comfort.

As I close, if the worship team would come up, if you were here for the message.

Uncomfortable tables sometimes God sits you down in front of people.

We went from the story of Jesus and the one that betrayed him.

He sat down with him and Judas was in his face.

He even called him out a couple of times and he still stayed.

I would have ran then.

If Jesus was led and handed over to the enemy because that was his calling.

Who are we to have any calling above that?

That's right.

The uncomfortable vision that God has given this church.

You.

We are meant to serve those who don't know God.

It will get ugly, it will get complicated and quite physically and literally, it will probably get stinky.

But if we can't serve the least of these, who are we to even be here?

Because the vision is not for our vanity.

This uncomfortable vision.

It led them to a place of bondage.

But not only did their obedience lead them to an undesirable place, but not only did their obedience lead them to an undesirable place, it aligned them with God's divine destiny to reach a jailer family that would not have found God any other way.

There had to be obedience and sacrifice to be right, smack dab in the middle of God, where he wanted them to be.

But that only happened after they trusted the vision God gave them.

So the question I want to leave with you today is this Is your vision aligned with God's vision?

Are your steps being ordered by the Lord?

Are you taking steps according to your will and then asking God to bless them?

It's tough.

We do that very easily.

We want what we think is best.

Has the way you've been framing things up been driven by selfish ambition?

Bow your heads with me.

I know these are some hard questions, but I believe that true growth happens when we ask the hard questions.

Change really happens in a positive direction when we get all the negativity out.

I never want to leave a service without offering up the salvation of Jesus Christ.

If you are here today and you do not know Jesus, these altars are always open.

Never leave a service not knowing God.

At one point we have all been far from God or we've all been confused in what we believe.

We've all had a negative mindset.

We've all had our own selfish desires, and then we pray for God to fix it after we mess it up.

We've all been there.

This is not a point our finger.

This is a.

We can do better and we have to.

If you're struggling with negative mindset, I want you to lift your hand up and say pray for me, because I need to change.

I have been looking at things the wrong way.

I cannot get rid of my trash.

I keep following my own will instead of God's.

I'm not even considering what God wants in my life anymore.

Saints, pray with me.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you, god, for your vision.

I ask, lord, that every person under the sound of my voice, if they do not know you, that they come to a salvation of Jesus Christ, that they know you and they accept you, whether they have lifted their hands or not.

Father, I pray that they find you.

I pray, god, that you and they accept you, whether they have lifted their hands or not.

Father, I pray that they find you.

I pray, god, that you restore the brokenness.

You lift up the hopeless, you take in the homeless.

Lord, god, I thank you so much for your mercy and your grace that we do not deserve, but yet you give it freely.

We cannot earn it, but still you give it freely.

Father, we thank you for the service today.

You are so, so good.

You are such a good father.

We love you and appreciate you.

Lord, give us a mind shift like we have never known before.

Change our thought patterns.

Change the way we see things, that we see them through your eyes, that we have a heart chasing after you, that we trust you.

We lead lives that God are chasing after you and hungry and thirst for your righteousness.

In your name, we pray Amen.

They're going to cut the cameras.