Message - Seeing God

Next Sunday, we're starting a new series called Wonderful.

We're going to be jumping into this amazing section of Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

It might be like the entire climax of that book of the Bible for sure.

Some would even say it's like the climax of the entire New Testament.

Today, though, we're going to have just a self-contained conversation about the necessity to see what God is doing.

The necessity to see what God is doing.

One of the things that I've learned over the years is that there is never a season in life in which God doesn't have something really important planned for you.

In every season of life, God has something for you.

And here we are at the start of a new season.

God has something for you in this season of life.

He has something for you to learn.

He has something for you to experience that's going to take you to a place with him that you've never been before.

He has something to encourage you.

He has something for you to enjoy.

And he probably has something to challenge you and to grow you.

He has something that he desires you to overcome.

In every season of life, God is working.

In fact, Jesus was criticized by the religious leaders of his day for working all the time.

Because in their culture, you know, you take one day a week and you don't do any work.

And when Jesus would heal people or teach, they would criticize him and say, hey, you shouldn't be doing this.

It's Saturday.

That was their day to rest.

And Jesus said, Look, that might apply to you, but my Father in heaven is always working, and so am I.

There's never a moment that God is not at work.

Now the challenge, though, is for us as people to see what he's doing, to discern what he's actually up to.

Because let's be honest, we've all had moments in life.

I have these moments all the time, I'll admit it, where I'm like God, I don't really see what you're up to.

Whatever you're doing, Lord, I'm sure it's great.

I'm sure it's awesome.

I don't see it.

It's really hard in this moment, in this season, to figure out what you're doing.

And frankly, Lord, sometimes it feels like you're not doing anything.

And what I find often in those moments is God's just not doing what I want him to do, right?

I give God a lot of advice.

He doesn't take it all the time, but I give it.

But man, if if we could be people who see, if we could be people who have our eyes open to where we we see what God is up to, we see the ways that He's moving, we can respond to that.

I don't know about you, I want to be someone who sees.

I want to anybody else like, I want to be someone who sees what God is doing.

Yeah, what God is doing is awesome, and that's what we're gonna talk about today because one of the interesting things that Jesus' life tells us is that God himself can be standing right in front of you doing amazing things, and you can still miss it.

Because it happened all the time with Jesus.

In fact, I want to read John chapter 9, and some of you were like, did he just say John chapter 9?

John 9 · chapter mention John 9 · chapter mention

Not verse, yeah, the whole thing.

It's great.

Um and if you have the mobile app, you can follow along here.

We've got it on the screens for you too.

John chapter 9.

John 9 · chapter mention

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.

Rabbi, his disciples asked him, Why was this man born blind?

Was it because of his own sins or his parents' sins?

Their culture believed that if you had an issue like that, uh it you'd done something to deserve it.

But this man was born blind, so whose fault could it be?

And Jesus corrects him and says, It was not because of his sins or his parents' sins.

This happened so that the power of God could be seen in him.

We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned to us by the one who sent us.

The night is coming, and then no one can work.

But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.

And then it gets gross.

Then he spit on the ground, made mud with a saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man's eyes.

But the dude couldn't see it happening, so it's fine.

He has no idea.

He's just like, What's that?

Don't worry, don't ask.

He told him, Go wash yourself in the pool of Saloon.

Saloom means sent.

And so the man went there and washed, and he came back seeing.

His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?

Some said he was, others said no.

No, he just looks like him.

Can't be.

But the beggar kept saying, Yes, I am the same one.

They asked, Who healed you?

What happened?

And he told them.

The man they called Jesus made mud, he spread it all over my eyes, and he told me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.

And so I went and washed, and now I can see.

Where is he now?

They asked.

I don't know, he replied.

So they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees.

These were the religious leaders of the day, because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him.

The Pharisees asked the man all about it.

So he told him, He put mud over my eyes, and when I washed away, I could I could see.

Now some of the Pharisees said, This man, Jesus, is not from God, for he's working on the Sabbath.

Others said, But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?

So there was deep division among them.

Then the Pharisees all again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, What is your opinion about this man who healed you?

And the man replied, I think he must be a prophet.

Like it's, what do you mean?

What is my opinion?

What would your opinion be of a man who healed you from blindness?

I hate him.

I can't stand him.

I think he's annoying.

I wish he had never done this to me.

Like, what's he supposed to say?

What's your opinion?

I think he's he's probably a prophet.

And the Jewish leader still refused to believe the man had been blind and can now see.

So they called his parents.

They asked him, Is this your son?

Was he born blind?

If so, how can he see now?

And his parents replied, We know this is our son, and that he was born blind, but we don't know how he can see or who healed him.

Ask him.

He's old enough to speak for himself.

His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue.

That's why they said he's old enough, ask him.

So for the second time they called in the man who had been born blind and told him, God should get the glory for this, because we all know this man, Jesus, is a sinner.

I don't know whether or not he's a sinner, the man replied.

But I know this.

I was blind, and now I can see.

But what did he do?

They asked, How did he heal you?

Look, the man exclaimed, I told you once, didn't you listen?

Why do you want to hear it again?

Do you want to become his disciples too?

And then they cursed him and said, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

Why, that's very strange, the man replied.

He healed my eyes, and yet you don't know where he comes from.

We know that God doesn't listen to sinners.

Now, he's repeating right now the teachings of the Pharisees.

This is something he would have heard them say over and over again.

So they've they've kind of trapped themselves because they've said God doesn't listen to sinners, and so they've called Jesus a sinner, but clearly God listened to him.

We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but he's ready to hear those who worship him and do his will.

Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind.

And if this man were not from God, he couldn't have done it.

You were born a total sinner, they answered.

Are you trying to teach us?

And they threw him out of the synagogue.

Now, when Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked him, Do you believe in the Son of Man?

And the man answered, Who is he, sir?

I want to believe in him.

You've seen him, Jesus said, and he's speaking to you.

Yes, Lord, I believe.

And he worshipped Jesus.

And then Jesus told him, I entered this world to render judgment, to give sight to the blind, and to show those who think they see that they are in fact blind.

Some of the Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, Are you saying that we're blind?

Yeah.

Like pretty clear.

You know what I mean?

They're offended.

Are you saying that we're blind?

And if you were blind, he said, you wouldn't be guilty.

But you remain guilty because you claim that you can see.

So this story is really interesting.

Because it actually teaches us about a kind of blindness that is far more serious than physical blindness, and that's spiritual blindness.

See, these men, the Pharisees, they were blind in a way that very few people are.

Maybe more people than than we know, but they were so blind that they had spent their entire lives studying the scriptures.

Jesus actually once told them, you search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures just point to me.

They spent their whole lives studying the scriptures.

They spent their whole lives studying about God, learning about God.

They spent their whole lives anticipating the coming of this figure they called the Messiah.

And here's a man in front of them doing things that no one has ever been able to do before.

Here's a man performing miracles, teaching people in a way that just drops people's jaws.

They're amazed at what he says, they're amazed at what he does.

He's healing the blind, he's healing lepers, he's taking people who have never been able to walk before.

He's saying, get up and walk, and they're walking, and these guys are like, I wonder if he's from God.

And Jesus says, You're blind.

And what he says at the end is really challenging.

He says, That I came into this world to give sight to the blind and also to show those who think they can see that they are blind.

And that makes us ask a question of ourselves which one am I gonna be?

Am I gonna be the kind of person who realizes that I'm blind and I need Jesus to open my eyes?

Or am I gonna be one of the people who swears that I can see, who refuses to admit that I need Jesus' help, and if that's the case, then I'm the worst kind of blind you can be.

Which one am I gonna be?

The one who says, Yes, I'm blind, please let me see, or the one who refuses to admit that we need his help.

If you want to be a person who sees Jesus, if you want to be a person who sees what God is doing in your life and in the world around you, you've got to overcome spiritual blindness.

How do we ensure as people that we don't miss it?

I mean, I think about the Pharisees, and and just it's easy for me to say, oh man, if I were in their shoes, I never would have done that.

I I clearly would have responded appropriately to Jesus.

But I mean, apparently it's it's easier to miss him than than you would think.

Because he was right there.

I mean, he was right there.

They saw him with their own eyes, and I don't want to be like them.

I don't want to miss what God is doing, I don't want to miss a thing, and now that Aerosmith song is gonna be stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

You're gonna be driving home.

Don't want to close my eyes.

No, Justin.

Yeah.

Hey, at least it's not Chicago.

That's all I can say.

At least it's not Chicago.

Okay?

I'm gonna keep that joke going for a long time.

I don't want to miss anything that God is up to.

And it's easier to miss it than we might like to admit.

So, how do we ensure?

What can we do as people to make sure that when God is up to something in our lives, we see it?

And I got a few really, really simple, very straightforward steps.

Number one, it's a word that everyone loves.

I'm joking.

No one really likes this word, but we shouldn't be afraid of it.

It's a great word.

It's the word repent.

Repent.

Now, this is a word that has taken on certain connotations in our culture.

When you think of the word repent, do you think of someone like just being really kind and nice and just being like, oh, you know what you ought to do?

You ought you ought to think about repenting.

Or do you think about someone with their finger in your face, probably holding a sign, yelling at you, repent?

It's like turn or burn.

It's usually that.

But in Jesus' day, that word was not an offensive word at all.

In fact, what's really interesting about the time in which Jesus lived, and I think this is part of why Jesus came when he did, the timing that he came, because it's an era of history that we actually can study really, really well.

We have all kinds of writings from that time period preserved.

The writings of Julius Caesar, the writings of a lot of other philosophers at that time, and so we can kind of see how the language of the day worked.

And so it's interesting, right now in America, things are pretty divided politically.

I don't know if you guys are aware of that or not.

Uh you'd have to be pretty blind not to see that.

But but you want to talk about political division in Jesus' day?

You know, every couple years, uh, whoever was the emperor would be, you know, stabbed by somebody else who then wanted to become the emperor.

And can you imagine if that was like your normal political structure?

Like, oh yeah, our president, well, he killed the last president.

Um, then if you kill the president, you get to be the president.

That's the way our country works, right?

That's crazy.

But that happened all the time in the Roman Empire.

It was a big deal if you were gonna try to overthrow the emperor of Rome, the most powerful empire that maybe has ever existed in terms of the scope of all that they they controlled.

Well, your first priority, if you wanted to do that, would be to make sure that you had the backing of the military.

If you overthrew an emperor but you didn't have the support of military, you weren't gonna last.

And those military men, they they had pledged their allegiance to the previous emperor.

And so we actually have preserved in history letters written by usurpers in the Roman Empire, written to the army, trying to convince the army to follow them and let go of their allegiance to the emperor that they had sworn allegiance to.

And those letters often begin with a call to repent.

Now, if you were trying to get this entire army on your side, would you offend them?

Would you begin by saying, you're wrong, you guys better change your mind, or else, or else what?

It's the entire military.

What are you gonna do?

Right?

This word was not a word that was that was meant to offend.

It was a word that literally means rethink.

That's actually what the word repent means.

It means rethink.

So these these emperors, these would-be emperors anyway, would write to the military saying, Hey, I think you might want to rethink your allegiance.

And let me explain to you why I would be better for you as emperor than the one that you currently have.

It wasn't this in-your-face offensive thing at all.

It was a call to rethink, to change the way you think.

Romans chapter 12, verse 2 says, Don't copy the behavior and the customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Romans 12:2

Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

In other words, it says, if you can be a person who allows God, who gives God permission to change the way that you think, to see things from his perspective, not your own.

That is what repentance is.

Changing the way you think.

Then you will see, you will know God's will for your life.

There is something about having a heart that is quick to repent.

Quick to repent.

Quick to rethink, to re-evaluate, that makes it possible to see God.

That's that's why Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5, verse 8, God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

Matthew 5:8

You want to see God, have a pure heart.

You want a pure heart, be a person who repents a lot, who rethinks.

Because let's be honest, we we all get we all get messed up in different ways.

In fact, that word pure, it means unmixed.

It would be a word that you would use of a metal that wasn't mixed with anything else.

And it has the idea that you're a person with pure motives, that you you don't have mixed motives, you know, that you're not doing something, and in the back of your mind, you're like, well, I'm really doing this so that later on I get I get a return on this.

It's not like that at all.

You're just you're pure.

But naturally, as people, we we're not like that.

At least it's hard to be like that.

It's really easy to always have in the back of our mind some other angle, but if you're a person who repents and repents consistently, you can just have this way about you with God that you very, very easily, for lack of a better phrase, bow before Him and say, Lord, help me change the way I think.

I repent.

If you do that, you're on your way to seeing God, you're on your way to being able to discern what God is doing in your life.

That's number one.

Number two, very closely related to repenting, it's to humble yourself and ask.

Humble yourself and ask.

It's one of the funniest things being a parent, watching your children try to do things they cannot do and refusing to ask for help.

And even getting angry with you if you try.

Now, my my youngest is three, Eli.

And uh Eli has a gigantic head.

I'm just gonna go ahead and say this.

Now we're we're hoping that his body grows into it.

Um and this is not, by the way, this is not my just opinion.

Uh, the very first thing, this is true, very first thing that the doctor who delivered Eli said, like instantly, someone measure that baby's head.

And as a parent, you're like, is that good?

Is that what you want to hear?

You know, he's a huge head.

And we've actually taken the doctor, his body is, he's he's on the taller side, uh, but uh his head is in like the 90th, he's a 95th percentile.

He's got a giant head.

And so shirts are a problem for Eli because most children's shirts are designed for the 50th percentile of head.

And Eli is in the 95th, right?

Really smart kid, big brain.

And uh, and so at home, very often he's at this age now where he'll want to change his shirt, you know, to put his pajamas on, and he wants to do it himself, but like he can't.

Like physically, it like I have to pull pretty hard to get the shirt off the head, unless he's wearing a tank top, you know?

But he gets so angry if I try to help him.

He, you know, he sits there and he's like, no, I I want to do it, I want to do it, let me do it.

And then he'll just the shirt will get stuck, you know, like it's like on his chin almost, and he's just like, it's actually really funny to watch, you know, this like kid in a pull-up and he's shirtless and he's running around your house.

And he's like, if you walked into my house that moment, you'd be like, this is interesting.

Uh but he does not want my help.

You know, it's hard to ask for help, it's hard to humble yourself and admit that you need help, but humility, oh my goodness.

Humility is like a superpower.

It gets you out of almost any situation in life.

Like the ability to be humble and just say, I'm sorry, and not keep talking.

Which is something I have not mastered.

Right?

Like the ability to say, I'm sorry, and not follow it with a but, and then tell someone why you're really not sorry, how actually, you know, it's if they would just rethink a little bit and repent on your behalf, they would realize that it's their fault that you're saying you're sorry in the first place, you know, or you say, I'm sorry, I'm sorry you feel that way.

Uh translation, you're wrong, right?

That's what that means.

But if you can have the humility to just be a person who can say very quickly, I'm I'm sorry I was wrong.

I'm sorry.

It's like a superpower.

It actually is something that God values very much.

In fact, in uh Matthew chapter 23, verse 12, Jesus says, Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Matthew 23:12

Humility matters to God.

It takes humility to ask for help.

When you want to see God, you want to know what God is up to, you want to discern what he's doing in your life and in the lives of those you love, the world around you, you've got to humble yourself and ask him.

Because God loves to give his children what they ask for.

Especially, by the way, when that the thing that they're asking for is something he already wants to give them in the first place.

I mean, Jesus says it so clearly in Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

You fathers, if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead?

Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion?

Of course not.

So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

See, the Father already wants to give us the Spirit.

He already wants to give us the perspective that we need.

The question is, do you think God wants you to see what he's doing or not?

Do you believe that God the Father loves you enough that he actually wants to let you in on what he's up to?

If that's the case, if you do believe that that answer is yes, then you should ask him.

Lord, show me what you're doing.

Show me what you have for me in this season.

Show me what you need me to do in this month, in this week, and in the rest of this year.

I want to see it.

If you ask God to show himself to you, I believe this with everything inside of me.

If you ask God to show himself to you, you will see him.

Now you may not see him in the way that you want to see him.

He may show you to himself in a different way.

We have all kinds of stories in the Bible about that.

But one thing is certain, when you ask God to show himself to you, you see him.

Now, if you demand God to show himself to you, that's a little different.

I want to say that's a caveat.

But if you humble yourself and say, Lord, please show me who you are, you will see him.

In fact, there's a really uh interesting story in 2 Kings chapter 6, and guys, we don't need to bring this on the screen.

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

I'll just sum it up for you.

But it's in your mobile app if you want to look at it.

Uh, or you can bring it on the screen if you want to.

It's up to y'all.

Um but uh but 2 Kings chapter 6 tells the story of a man named Elisha.

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

Elisha's awesome.

He's one of my favorite people in all of Scripture.

If you're not that familiar with him, he's got to be maybe the most underrated uh character in the entire story of the Bible.

He does amazing things, he has an incredible amount of faith, and he has this experience with God that's unlike what most people could have ever hoped to experience.

And part of that is because he asked for it.

That's the cool thing about Elisha, he wasn't afraid to ask and to ask big.

In fact, we used to have a joke that we were a big ask church, and you have to really enunciate the K on that when you say it, because we want to be a church that asks God for big things.

We don't use that language as much anymore because sometimes you forget to enunciate the K, and people hear a very different thing.

Um, but Elisha was someone who was willing to ask God for big things.

He was the understudy of a prophet named Elijah, and Elijah was like a legend.

Elijah had done things with God and through the Spirit working through him that no one had ever done before.

And right before Elijah's time on this earth was done, he was with Elisha.

And Elisha, Elijah rather asked Elisha, hey, what do you want me to give to you?

What do you want?

And here's what Elisha said.

He said, I want a double portion of your spirit.

I want twice as much of the Holy Spirit than you have.

Now that's a lot to ask, right?

I mean, honestly, that's like that's like that's like going up to the most talented person in any area of life and then having the audacity.

To ask to be twice as good as they are.

You know what I mean?

Like it just doesn't make any sense.

You should say, hey, I I'd like a little bit of what you got.

You know, Elisha, can I have like 10% of what you've got?

That would be amazing.

Or maybe half.

I don't want to be too presumptuous, but maybe a th maybe like two-thirds of the spirit.

That'd be amazing, or as much, but he says, I want twice as much.

And God honored that.

And so Elisha just lived with a portion of the Holy Spirit that Moses couldn't comprehend.

And because of that, he experienced and saw amazing things.

One of those stories in 2 Kings 6 is a story of this army surrounding where he was at because uh the opposing army was frustrated.

Every single time they would plan an attack on Israel, Elisha would hear from God, oh, this is what they're doing, and he'd go tell the king, and the king would like be one step ahead, and they're like, This guy keeps ruining this for us, let's kill him.

And so Elisha's servant looks out of his home and he sees this army that's surrounded them, and he freaks out like you would.

And he goes to Elisha and he's like, Elisha, there's an army outside.

And we're in a lot of trouble.

And Elisha doesn't even like flinch.

And the servant's like, Why aren't why aren't you scared?

This seems like an appropriate time to express a fear.

And so Elisha just prays, Lord, open his eyes.

Open his eyes and let him see.

And so all of a sudden the servant looks out, and not only does he see the army that's come for them, but behind that army he sees like an army of angels.

And they've totally surrounded the other army, and the servant's like, Oh.

And that's a cool story.

You know, and it's definitely one of those stories that's extremely literal and that he actually sees like real angels and and whatnot.

But the reality is that there's things happening around us all the time that we may not be able to see.

God is always up to something, he's always doing something.

And if you ask him to show you, he will.

And I know people who who have had similar experiences to that, and they're not crazy.

They've had really incredible experiences where God has allowed them to see uh things happening spiritually that that would blow your mind, but I also know people where it's maybe less um intense than that in some ways, but they they have a perspective that totally comes from God and what they're going through, or most would be downtrodden and hopeless, they have a tremendous amount of hope, or most people would be afraid, or most people would freak out, they have peace.

Why?

Because they they see they see what God is doing, they see that God has them, they see that God has a solution to every problem, and they see that because they have the humility to ask God for his perspective.

And so if you want to see God, you want to see what he's up to, you know, have that constant state of repentance where you're rethinking and letting God change the way you think, but then humble yourself on a daily basis, humble yourself and say, God, show me what I need to see.

Show me what I need to see.

There's a line in the song Hosanna, if you know that song, open my eyes to the things unseen.

Pray that.

Borrow that prayer from Elisha, borrow it from the song, but pray that on a regular basis.

Humble yourself, Lord, just show me what I need to see.

One final step and we'll we'll wrap up.

If you want to see what God is up to in your life in this season, uh the final thing you gotta do is this is gonna sound a little strange at first, but you gotta put your glasses on.

You gotta put your glasses on.

Alright.

I want you guys to think back about ten years prior to this moment.

At a time when uh all the rage in the like electronics world was 3D.

You guys remember that that time period?

Where like, let's just let's go ahead and get this out of the way.

Who bought a 3D TV?

Anyone want to raise your hand?

Don't be ashamed.

It's time to let you gotta bury the past, guys.

We gotta like own it.

You know, it was the unfortunate timing, those of us that bought 3D TVs, because there was a period of time about 10 years ago where all the rage, the whole future was, everything was in 3D.

Everything, every commercial was like now in 3D.

And and you went to Best Buy, and Best Buy just played that movie Avatar with the blue people like on repeat, and they had the little glasses, you know, and you'd sit down at the demo.

Who remembers that?

Like sitting down and putting those glasses on at the demo and being like, Whoa, this is cool.

And everyone bought 200 million people.

I looked it up, 200 million people bought 3D TVs and we're like, this is it, this is the future.

Everyone's gonna come over, they're gonna put special glasses on, they're gonna look at the TV, minds are gonna be blown, and then like five minutes later, they're like, Never mind, no one's gonna do this.

Sorry, guys, that you bought these, we're done.

And it all ended, and you can only watch Avatar so many times, right?

And so the whole 3D TV thing like came and went, but there was a period of time where it was the future.

And it just turned out no one wanted to put special glasses on.

But it's interesting, like those things are pretty cool.

Has anyone ever uh been to a 3D movie in 3D and taken the glasses off at one point just to see what the screen looks like?

You ever do that?

It's awful, isn't it?

It's like wow, this is the worst thing I've ever looked at in my entire life.

And you put those glasses back on and you see.

My daughter, my only daughter, just got prescription glasses a few months ago.

That's the cutest thing in the world.

I don't know, it's like she puts glasses on.

I'm just like, even more, like I will I will hurt someone one day who messes.

Like I just have that in me as a dad.

But but she's the only one of our kids that needs prescription glasses to be able to see what she needs to see.

And we learn that because doing her schoolwork, she would really have to strain to read.

And so once those are on, it works.

See, we're we're human beings.

And as much as we might want to, as much as we might try, as much as our motives might be pure, and we have that repentant heart, and as much as we we try to humble ourselves and ask, we still have impaired vision.

That's just part of life.

But there are things that God has prescribed to us.

And if we'll do what what he says, we'll see him.

In fact, this always reminds me of a dream that my wife had a few years ago.

Uh God speaks in dreams sometimes.

I've experienced that, Megan's experienced that.

And uh and usually when she has a god dream, is what we call it, when she's like, I had a god dream, I'm always like, Did he say something about me?

Is it like you know, did I do something wrong?

Uh what does that say about me?

Um that's what I think.

But but she had this god dream a few years ago, and I think about this pretty often.

In her dream, she she walked into a doctor's office and she said that she was there to see the doctor, and she understood in the dream that the doctor was God.

And the receptionist said, Okay, and pushed a pair of glasses toward her.

Put these on.

And she said, No, you don't understand.

She pushed them back, I'm here to see the doctor.

And this went on kind of back and forth for a little bit, and eventually the person at the desk said, You know what, okay, go to this waiting room over here.

And so she goes over to this waiting room, she opens it up, and there's all these people in the room who were saying over and over again, we want to see the doctor, we want to see the doctor.

And it was very obvious to her that they had been there for like years.

And she realized, like, oh no, I don't want to be in this room.

This is not a good room to be in.

And she was telling that that dream to someone, and they said, Man, isn't it interesting that you were asking to see the doctor and then you were handed a pair of glasses.

And it clicked, like, oh, if if I if I I needed to put those on to see.

See, there are certain things that God has prescribed to us.

And if you put on what he prescribes, you see him so much more clearly than you ever could otherwise.

And specifically, I'll just I'll just name two and worship team, you guys can make your way up and we'll wrap up.

It's uh it's two pretty basic things, but it's very rare to find these two things coexisting in our world.

In fact, I think it's it's easy to find one of these existing without the other, but if you can find these two things coexisting, you're probably somewhere where God is at work.

And it's truth and love.

You can think about truth and love like two lenses on a pair of glasses.

If you look at the world through the lenses of truth and love, you see what God is up to so much more clearly than you ever could otherwise.

We have to realize that we're always looking at life through lenses, right?

We always do that.

No matter what, we're looking at life through a certain lens, through a certain perspective.

And sometimes that lens is not healthy, it's not good.

In fact, if you want to know an example of that, a great story in the Old Testament, story of Cain.

He has a brother named Abel.

It's one of the earliest stories in the Bible.

They don't get along very well.

Cain actually kills Abel.

He's the first person that ever murders someone.

And when God says, Hey, Cain, what have you done?

And finds out that he's murdered his brother, he sends Cain out of the garden and Cain protests and says, No, don't do that, because uh everyone out there will murder me.

And it's interesting because at that point, Cain's the only one who's ever murdered anybody.

But he's afraid that everybody's gonna murder him.

Why?

Because he's seeing everybody else through the lens of his own sin.

That happens.

I I've I've known people who were incredibly jealous people, just incredibly jealous, always convinced that someone was out to get them, and turns out, through finding out stuff going on, they they were actually being incredibly deceptive in their own lives.

But because they were being deceptive and unfaithful, they began to see everyone the same way.

And so that created a jealousy inside of them because they were looking at the world through the lens of their own sin.

Guys, sometimes we've got to take certain lenses off so that we can put the right lenses on.

We have to have the ability as human beings to recognize, oh, you know what, I'm looking at the world through the wrong lens.

And it's a lens that I've put on, it's a lens that's come about.

Maybe it was unintentional, maybe it was subconscious, but I'm looking at life through the lens of my own struggles, my own sin.

And it's it's shading everything that I'm seeing in the wrong way.

There's a lot of different lenses you can put on out there in the world, and most of them just leave you blind to what God is doing.

I mean, my goodness, I mentioned it earlier.

Half the time I mentioned it kind of jokingly, but you know, politics in America, that's like a lens that some people have had sewn onto their eyes, and they can't see anything if it's not through the lens of their political perspective, and that just blinds you to what God is doing.

Because you know what?

I'll just let Jesus talk for himself.

John chapter 18, verse 36.

John 18:36

Jesus says, My kingdom is not an earthly kingdom.

If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders, but my kingdom is not of this world.

Not saying that politics isn't important, but guys, if that's the lens that you choose to look at everything through, well, you're not gonna see what God's up to.

Because he has this way of circumventing the systems of this world.

His kingdom is not of this world.

We've got to choose better lenses.

And what those are, those are love and truth.

And like I said, you can find a lot of truth in the world without love, and you can find a lot of love without truth.

And if you have one but not the other, nothing much gets done.

But if you have love and truth together, you're somewhere where God is at work.

Because Jesus is the absolute perfect, perfect combination of love and truth.

He's love and truth in step.

He's both of those things all the time.

John 18, 37, he says, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth.

All who love truth, all who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.

And he promised of the Holy Spirit in John 16 that when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

If you can be a person who takes the lens of what do I feel, what do I what do I want to believe off, and replace it with the lens of truth, and truth, by the way, being defined by God, not being defined by you or anyone else, but God, what do you say is true?

I want to wear that.

Wow, that was allowed.

Yes, the notification to wrap it up.

That's what they're saying.

Come on, man, wrap this up.

But but if you can you can put truth on and look at the world through the truth of what God says, and I know sometimes in our culture it's really hard to do that, but if you can if you can know God's word and know what God has said is true and recognize that as the God of the universe, he actually has the right to define what is true and what is not, and you look at the world through that lens, and you have the ability to look at something and say that that that is not true, or that is true, based on what God has said, you will you'll have one eye open.

I'll put it to you that way.

You'll have one eye open because because God always tells the truth.

Our world lies constantly, but God never does.

But you have to have you have to have the other as well.

You have to have love.

First John 4 8 says, Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

And when you love like God, you see what He's doing, you see what God's up to, you see His movement in this world.

In fact, Jesus put it so well in Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

He says, The king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.

For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you invited me into your home, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison and you visited me.

And then these righteous ones will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you?

Think about what we're talking about.

When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink, or a stranger and show you hospitality, or naked and give you clothing?

When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?

And the king will say, I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you are doing it to me.

You want to see Jesus?

You want to see what God is doing?

Man, love people like Jesus loves people.

And that is an inconvenient thing to ask.

I'm gonna be honest, that's the most inconvenient thing I can ever ask anyone to do.

Oh, just love people the way Jesus does.

It's easy to say that, it's really hard to do it.

It's a God thing, it's a work of the Holy Spirit inside of you.

But I'm telling you, you want to see God, you want to see what he's doing, you want to be involved in what God is up to.

Guys, I've said this before, but years ago I was praying a prayer, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me as clearly as he ever has.

I was praying, God, I need you to get behind these things that I'm doing.

I had all these things I was up to, and I was praying, saying, Lord, get behind it, help it happen.

And all of a sudden, God interrupted me, and you have to do that, by the way.

If you're ever hanging out with me, never apologize for interrupting me.

It's the only way to talk around me.

Um, I'm working on it, but but the Holy Spirit just boom, Justin, you spent so much time trying to get me to get involved with what you're doing.

When instead you should be trying to get involved with what I'm doing.

See, I I wasn't seeing what I needed to see, I was mindful of everything I had going on, but I wasn't even trying to see what God was doing.

And I knew that was God and not me, because I'm not that smart.

That's how I know God's voice, just smarter than mine.

And so I'm a person who wants to see.

I want to see God at work, I want to see God things, I want to see miracles happen.

I want to see miracles in my life.

That doesn't make you a selfish person, by the way, to say, hey, I want to see miracles, I want to see my heart healed, my mind healed.

I want to see the areas of my life that I'm constantly frustrated with.

And guys, yes, I'm a pastor.

I have areas of my life that I'm almost constantly frustrated with.

But I can't seem to, I can't seem to to break whatever pattern's going on that it has me stuck.

I deal with that all the time.

And so I want to see miracles happen in my life.

I want to see, I want to see change happen in my life.

You're not selfish to want that, but it has to be of God.

I want to see what God has for me.

Do you want to see what God has for you in this season of life?

And if the answer is yes, if the answer is yes, then it's really simple.

You just gotta repent in your heart, be open to your mind, being changed, change the way you think, humble yourself and ask for God to open your eyes and then put the glasses on, put on the lens of truth, put on the lens of love, love people the way that Jesus does, and be committed to the truth that Jesus tells.

And I'm telling you, if you do that, oh my goodness, if you do that, you will be a person who sees.

Your eyes will be open, and you will be one of the rare people who discerns what the Spirit of God is doing around you, and it will change everything in your life.

Because you'll have these moments where normally you would go this way, but you discern, no, no, no, no, no.

No, God's got something going on here, and you move with that.

And there'll be people in your life that maybe normally you would discount and be like, I don't want anything to do with that person.

But all of a sudden, God will be like, No, no, no, there's something, there's something with this person.

You need to know this person.

He'll guide what you say, he'll guide what you do.

You will see and discern what God is doing.

And guys, there's nothing like that, there's nothing better than that.

Because whatever God's doing, it's good.

But it starts.

It starts with what we've talked about.

It starts with humility.

Honestly, we can sum all this up with humility and obedience.

And honestly, with that said, as we wrap up, we're gonna close with someone getting baptized, which is awesome.

And uh, I want to ask as a favor, guys, let me just say this like it's not that it needs to be said, but I think it's okay.

Like, when the person comes up out of the water, like, cheer.

Get loud.

This is a big moment because baptism is a moment of humility and obedience.

And if you're someone who lives that way, you start to see what God's doing.

It's powerful.

So let's let's pray together.

Father, thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Lord, for for what you're doing in our lives.

Lord, we want to be people who see.

Here we are, it's the start of a new season.

We're on the the last leg of 2021, Lord, and we want to be people who who walk in step with you.

Lord, I don't want to go down a path only to find out months and months in that I've been going in the wrong direction.

I want to go where you're going.

I want to do what you're doing, I want to be involved with what you have planned, Lord.

I'm tired of trying to get you involved with my plans.

I want to get involved with your plans, I want to see what you're up to, and I want to join in.

And Father, I pray that that becomes the desire of all of our hearts today to simply be people who see you so that we can follow you where you're going.

Lord, I thank you for this morning, and I thank you for the season that we're stepping into as a church and all the amazing things that we get to do together.

I'm so excited about it, Lord.

But none of it matters if it's not with you.

Lord, if there's anyone in the room, anyone watching from home, that hasn't humbled themselves and repented and allowed you to change the way that we think, and committed their life to you and stepped in obedience to following you, by trusting you, Jesus, by surrendering to you completely.

I pray that that happens today.

I pray that people just make that decision.

Because that's a surrender that that leads to a life we can never have without you, Lord.

And right now, as uh as Angie gets baptized, Lord, I just pray that you help us as a church family celebrate her and what she's doing and support her fully in it.

We pray this in your name of Jesus, amen.