How Do You See Life?

So let's get into the word, let's start out in prayer, father.

God, we just thank you, lord, for your word tonight.

Lord, I thank you that your word is sharp.

It is life to our bodies.

Father, as we dig into your word, I thank you that you reveal yourself in a fresh and mighty new way.

I thank you that our hearts are open to your word and what it is that you want us to do here in today.

Today's a brand new day.

Your mercies are new every morning, father, and I just thank you, father, that our footsteps are directed by you, father, and we just thank you for everybody watching, lord, that they make it closer to you as we hear your word tonight In Jesus' name, amen, amen.

And so we have a new theme in youth, which is Zoe, life.

And our theme scripture is John 1010.

It says and then you're living that these purpose is to steal and to kill and to destroy, but my purpose this is Jesus is to give you a rich and a satisfying life.

And so the Greek word for life is Zoe, and so it means the God kind of life, and it doesn't mean like oh, when you get to heaven, you know you'll have eternal life.

No, but you can have a good.

God wants you to have a good and a rich and a satisfying, a wholesome life here, where you're 100% and so a good quality of life.

And the title of my message tonight, if you're taking notes, is how Do you See Life?

How do you see life?

And you know our perspective, how we view things, is very important, and I have a couple of scriptures for you tonight.

My first scripture is Matthew 6, 22 and 23.

In the New, king James says the lamp of the body is the eye.

If, therefore, your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If, therefore, the light that is in you is dark darkness, how great is that darkness?

And then the New Living Translation says your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body.

When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light, but when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness.

And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is?

So here he's saying hey, you know, our eyes are a lamp that provides light for our bodies.

And so how you view things, how you see in life, is important.

Your natural eyes and I wrote this down are governed by your spiritual eyes and so, the way you know, you can put two people in the same situation with the same circumstances, and one person can view that circumstances.

You know what we're going to get through this.

We're going to make it, I believe, the best in that person, and then another person, the other one could be like it's over, it's done, they're not ever going to change.

It's going to be the same Again, same circumstances, but how they view life is totally different.

And so God sent his son, jesus so we can view life as down in the Moli Grubbs.

No, he wants us just like John 10,.

10 says that he came.

He sent Jesus so we can have a rich and a satisfying and an abundant life, amen.

And so, if you like to turn to Numbers 13, starting with verse one, and I'll go throughout the whole chapter and the Lord spoke to Moses this is the spies being sent out into the land of Canaan.

The Lord spoke to Moses saying verse two send the men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel From each tribe to their fathers.

You shall send a man, everyone, a leader among them.

And then it talks about the next couple of verses to verse 16.

It talks about all the tribes and then verse 17 says then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and sent to them go up this way into the south and go up to the mountains verse 18, and see what the land is like, or say see.

So they went.

He told them go up, and then see and see what the land is like, whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many, whether the land they dwell in is good or bad, whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds, whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are forests there or not.

Be of good courage.

I'm in verse 20.

Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.

Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zen as far as rehab, near the entrance of hemath, and they went up through the south and came to Hebron, amin, shisha sorry if I'm butchering these names Tal, my descendants of descendants of anek.

Where they're.

We're there now.

Hebron was built seven years before Zohan and Egypt verse 23.

Then they came to the valley of East coal.

They're cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes.

They carried it between two of them on a pole At a visual there.

You know, we go to the grocery store, we just buy these little bag of grapes, but here it took two people to carry these huge clusters of grapes.

They also brought some of pomegranate, pomegranates and figs.

The place called the valley of East coal Because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there.

And they returned from the spying out of the land.

After 40 days now they departed and came back To Moses and Aaron, all the congregation of the children of Israel and the wilderness, the Puran and Kadesh.

They brought back the word to them and all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

Now they told them and said we went to the land where you sent us.

It truly flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit.

Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and are very large.

Moreover, we saw the descendants of a neck there, so they're saying what they saw.

Hey, these cities are strong and they're fortified.

And this is what we saw.

We saw the descendants and the Malachite's dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites and Jebusites and the Amorites Dwell in the mountains and the Canaanites throughout by the sea, along the banks of the Jordan Verse 30.

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well Able to overcome it.

And that guy, he says we are well able to overcome it Verse 31.

But the men who had gone up with him said we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.

And they gave the children of Israel bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying the land Through which we had gone as spies is the land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

And there we saw giants.

The descendants of anek came from the Giants and they were like we were like Grasshoppers in our own site.

So we were in their site.

And so here you know, verse 33.

Hey, how they saw themselves.

We had we are up against these people, we are up against Giants, we are grasshoppers.

Who are we?

I mean, you know we're small, we're itty-bitty, we're spying out the land, but it doesn't look, you know, doesn't look good.

They're strongholds.

They're big, a lot of people there.

You know.

Here, back to verse.

You know where it go good and bad, camps or strongholds.

You know Rich or poor forest.

You know whether there are forests there or not.

So there was a decision.

You could either see it, look at those forests, look at those trees, I can't, I can't see anything.

Or you can be like look above the trees, oh, I see, I see what's going on.

And so how you view life is so important.

And so, god's word, we have to have God's word in our life.

It gives us a different perspective.

We have to have God's perspective on the situation, not our perspective, not what we think, not going by our feelings, not like, oh my gosh, look at these giants, look at this giant that I'm facing.

No, no, no, no, no.

God's word is bigger than any giant you will ever face.

And so I have two points tonight.

So how do you see life?

Number one check what you are saying.

What we say is so important.

Amen.

It may look desperate, it may look difficult.

The odds are against you, but it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter, stick with God's word.

Proverbs 18, 21 says the time can bring death or life.

Those who love to talk will reap the consequences.

And so you know how we, how you see, is determined by what you've been saying, and it really is, and I think a lot of people sometimes they just you know.

I just wanna encourage you read the word out loud.

Not only read the word out loud, but confess the word out loud.

Don't confess your opinions or what the situation looks like, or the giants, and oh, I'm just a grasshopper.

And they think I'm a grasshopper.

And that's a whole other message about you thinking you're a grasshopper.

And then you think and they're thinking you're a grasshopper.

No, speak the word.

Only Check what you're saying, because what you say, it matters.

God's word.

And Isaiah says my word doesn't return void, it accomplishes what I send it to do.

And so when you speak, the word of God in your mouth coming out, it's not gonna return void, it's gonna accomplish to what you have sent it to do.

So you have to check up what you are saying, because that's I think that's a major, can be a major trip, trip up in life and how you view, how you see life, your perspective, and even if it's just little habits of like, oh man, I can't ever get that right, like, oh man, just quick, little habits like you're saying those words Like if you say I can't ever get that right, then you won't ever get that right, instead of saying I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me, amen.

So we have to check what we are saying to make sure it lines up with the word of God.

I am well-able, I am well-able to overcome it.

That's a good confession.

I am well-able to overcome it.

And then, number two make the most of your time.

Ephesians 5, 15 through 17.

In the amplified it says look carefully, then, how you walk, live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise, sensible, intelligent people.

Verse 16, making the most, making the very most of the time, buying up each opportunity, because the days are evil, or do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.

And so how you view life.

Yes, what we're saying, but also what are we doing with our time?

Are we here?

The Word of God says make the most.

Don't be thoughtless, don't be foolish, don't go about your day just filling it up with stuff, but seek God, go to the Word first, amen.

I brought Mark Hankins' the God Kind of Life and I wanted to read a couple of confessions from it, on page 139.

Okay, I'll quickly, quickly turn there.

We'll see.

Galatians 6, 8 says for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.

He who soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap everlasting life.

And that goes with what we say.

You know what you say, you know you'll have.

And so if you cultivate the nonproductive patterns in your life, you will experience emptiness, meaningless and eventually spiritual decay.

But if you continue to live in union with the spirit, not only will you experience real life here and now, you will have life forever.

So I like that.

If you cultivate nonproductive patterns in your life, and so you have to think about what patterns in your life are nonproductive, you know what is it that you're doing day in and day out that's nonproductive, that doesn't influence the kingdom of God, because our real life is that you know you're a spirit being.

You're made of three parts, but the real you is a spirit, and so, whatever you're not, when your spirit man is not growing, when you have these habits and things you're not doing that are edifying your spirit, they're nonproductive and so, god, they're empty, they're meaningless.

And here it says they'll eventually cause spiritual decay.

So we don't want to be like that.

And another confession that was really good.

Going back to what we say in our confession, as I sow to the word of God into my spirit, I read more and more of the life of God out of my spirit.

Let me read that again.

As I sow the word of God into my spirit, I read more and more of the life of God out of my spirit.

God's word contains God's life and energy.

I am full of that life and energy.

It pulsates out of the inside of me in ever increasing measure.

The word of God is penetrating to the core of my being and exploding there with life.

The life of God is radiating out of the inside of me and I thought that was so good that the word of God, as we sow the word of God, it's into our spirit.

We reap more and more of the life of God out of our spirit.

So whenever we sow, you know that's what.

That's the answer that's going to come out.

The more we, the more you know how we view life, how we view every circumstance, how we view people.

You know nobody's hopeless.

We're not hopeless.

Somebody else isn't hopeless.

You know, we don't give up on people, we don't give up on ourselves, we don't give up on the situation, the circumstance, but we, we speak to that mountain.

We don't just talk about the mountain, we don't go around the mountain, but we speak to it.

We don't say, oh, I'm just a grasshopper around this mountain, I can't ever go around this mountain, this mountain is never going to be moved.

No, no, no, no, no.

We will be.

We are more than conquers through Christ, and so I just want to encourage you keep speaking the word, keep.

Don't allow the enemy to come into your mind and tell you lies.

He's just like John Tintin says, right the beginning.

You know the enemy comes to steal, to kill and to destroy.

He wants to steal from you.

He wants to kill you and ultimately destroy you.

But Jesus came that we may have a rich and a satisfying life.

And so you know I can sit up here and tell you you got this.

God loves you.

You're more than a conqueror through Christ, you're not a grasshopper, but it's up to you.

You know, you have to believe it, you have to take it.

When you look in the mirror, do you tell yourself that, or did you just replay the past?

Or do you just replay, you know, failures or whatever the devil throws at you?

No, you have to believe it.

You have to.

You know, believe that you're the righteousness of God in Christ Amen.

And so the more we dig into the word and the more we allow the word of God to penetrate our heart, the more we change from the inside out.

You know, the world tries to put things on us, but God wants us to change from the inside out, and the only way we can do that is by the word of God, is by saying you know what I am able, I'm well-abled, not in my own strength, but in the Holy Spirit that's inside of me, that makes me a giant, that makes me strong, that changes my personality, that the life of God in me penetrates my heart and changes me from the inside out.

And so that's how, you know, we can step closer and having God's perspective on things and seeing life the way he wants us to see it.

Not just, however, and not just going through life with whatever, but it's by the word, it's the word of God that's going to produce life and healing and joy and peace.

And so, anyways, I just want to encourage you with that.

How you see life, zoe, life, the God kind of life, it's in you, you have it.

God wants us to have a good, a quality of life, like maybe you're just living life, but God wants you to have a good quality of life, like he knows the desires of your heart.

He wants to you know if they line up with His word.

He wants to give you those desires.

And so we just have to stick.

We have to stick to it of newest.

Stick to it of newest.

However, you say that, like faith, we just have to be faithful.

We have to stick with the word.

We can't just go to the right, go to the left, whatever's popular.

You know.

We have to stick with the word, not be tempted to go here, go there.

No, stick with the word of God.

Stick with the local church, stick with the pastor.

You know when things get tough, you stick with it.

That's when you're going to produce fruit, that's where you're going to see fruit in your life and that's how, when you're going to start seeing things from a different perspective, from God's perspective, the more you dig into the word of God.

And so how, how do you see life?

You know, is the glass half empty or half full?

You know.

And so I just want to encourage you don't, no matter the situation that you're going through, it's not hopeless.

God is the God of hope, god is the God he.

He wants us to be hopeful, he wants us to be full of faith and not give up.

And so, whatever the circumstance, no matter how difficult it is, god doesn't want you to give up.

God wants, you know his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, but he doesn't want us to stay down here.

He's like come up, you can think like me, come up hot, you know we can.

We can think like him.

We can, we can come up higher.

And so I just want to encourage you don't, don't lose hope, don't give up.

See it from God's perspective, and he loves us.

He loves us because he has so much love.

I mean, he loves you, he gave you his very best, he gave you Jesus, and so we should see ourselves the way he sees us.

And so I hope that encouraged you tonight.

We love you.

God gave us his very best so we can have Zoë life.