Force Multiplier – Faith vs. Fear

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

It's gonna be an incredible day.

Today I'm kicking off a series that I want you to make a decision now to be a part of every week in the month of November.

The series is called Force Multiplier, and here's the idea for the series.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul writes something that is so profound, it is so powerful.

If you get this principle, it changes everything.

Let me read it to you.

It says this Ephesians 3, verse 20.

Ephesians 3:20

It says, Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we could ever dare to ask or even dream of.

Infinitely more beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.

I want you to see a couple things in the series because this is where we're going to be for the next four weeks.

First of all, I want you to see this.

And if you miss this, you miss everything.

God is able to do more than you could ever hope, dream, imagine.

God is able.

But I love the second principle.

It's that God is at work, but He's at work within us.

And I want you to get this is that God, next life for me, God is at work within us.

He is doing something in us.

So for the next few weeks, I want to talk to you about what is that part that happens in us that unlocks all that God is able to do.

You see, God is a God of dreams, and the verse ends by saying that God can do more than we could ever wrap our minds around.

He is infinite, our minds are finite.

And if God can do more than we could ever hope, dream, or imagine, then we should all start dreaming some really big dreams, and we should trust him for it.

Early on in my marriage, I was sitting in my living room just chilling with Liz, and I said to her, I was like, babe, I got a weird question for you.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

And and you know, like think about that question for a moment.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Some of you'd want to fly, some would want to be invisible because you're probably a pervert or whatever, but like you just like like what would you want?

What superpower would it be?

And I'm telling you, the sentence wasn't even out of my mouth.

Like in one nanosecond, I said, babe, if you could be any have any superpower, what would it be?

And without missing a beat, Liz goes, the ability to eat anything I want without gaining any weights.

I changed mine that day.

That's what I want too.

You know what I'm saying?

Like that sounds good, right?

Here's what I want you to understand over the series.

There is a supernatural superpower that God gives to every follower of Jesus, every Christian.

It's what I would call the force multiplier.

If you don't know what that is, here's the definition for this series.

A force multiplier is something that dramatically increases one's impact.

It is something that, when added to everything you have, it makes your efforts more effective.

That a force multiplier, when you have it, it takes what you do and it makes it so much better, stronger, faster, easier, it makes it incredible.

Like, like it's it's a really simple principle.

Like, for example, if there was a nail and a piece of wood, and I said, Do you nail this in, but you have to use your hands or you have to use your iPhone to nail it in, could you get it in potentially someday with some effort?

But but a hammer serves as a force multiplier.

If there was a giant oak tree out in front of your house and I said, Here is a saw, but it was a rusty old saw, and I said, Cut the tree down, could you do it?

The answer is maybe eventually, but it cost lots of effort, lots of energy.

Could you do it?

Yes.

But but if I substituted that saw with this saw, it would be a lot easier.

A chainsaw serves as a force multiplier.

If I were to say to you, you are a fan of a really terrible, terrible football team.

Um, I don't know, hypothetically, like this one or this one.

And I were to say to you, there is a better way, there is a force multiplier, it is God's team, it is the Dallas Cowboys.

You understand, like, let's pray.

God, the Cowboys play at 4 30 today versus the Eagles.

Bless them, help them in Jesus' name.

All right, so we we covered that, okay?

Like, thank you for coming to this church.

It is really just a social experiment for me.

Um, here's the point.

There are some things that when are added, it just makes it more effective.

You understand this, right?

In the same way, in the life of a believer, there is something that when added in, it changes everything, and it's simply faith.

For the next few weeks, I want to talk to you about this idea of faith, and here's why.

Scripture talks about faith a lot.

Here's two key verses.

In the book of Hebrews 11, it says, without faith, so if you don't have faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

So you have to have it because without it, it doesn't please God.

The next verse in the book of Romans, chapter one, says, For in the gospels, the gospel of righteousness of God is revealed.

A righteousness that is by faith from its first from first to last, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith.

Essentially, without faith, according to Hebrews, it's impossible to please God, but also in Romans, without faith, it is impossible to live in right standing with God.

So before we even jump into the topic today, let me ask you the question: what is faith?

Like, really, what is faith?

My guess is if all of us were to go around and write down our definition of faith, we'd have lots of different definitions.

Many of them are probably right.

The reason I know that's true is faith is like a multifaceted diamond.

A beautifully crafted, cut diamond has so many different sides and angles.

Each one is beautiful and revealing something about the character of the gem.

In the same way, faith is multifaceted.

And you might say that faith is stepping out, trusting God.

Faith is full dependence on God.

Lots of good definitions.

Today I want to give you a definition.

As I read through a lot of the verses in scripture on faith, I kept noticing a theme.

This is something that I've never really thought before, but here's a different working definition of faith for today.

Faith is seeing, but it's seeing from God's point of view.

Faith is seeing.

And a lot of us think of faith, and we don't think of faith as seeing.

We think of faith as trusting without seeing, but I want to flip that definition on its head, and I want you to understand that faith is actually about sight.

Faith is about seeing, but it's not seeing from your limited purview.

Faith is about seeing from God's perspective and God's point of view.

Like what we tend to do is we tend to only see through our natural eyes.

We we get the doctor's report that it's something scary, and we see all the trauma, we see all the fear, we see all the medicine we're gonna have to take, we see the path forward, but God sees it from an entirely different perspective.

We see our lack.

We look at our bank account, and there's not enough money to get through the end of the month, and we see it from our perspective, and so fear sets in, but God sees it from his perspective.

What is his perspective?

He's our healer, he's our provider.

Like God sees from a different perspective.

So faith is getting on the side of God and seeing through God's eyes.

So let me tell you what faith is not.

Okay, let's define faith.

Faith is not, number one, faith is not desired.

Because a lot of us want a lot of things, and so we kind of assume and conflate the idea that faith is just wanting something a lot.

Faith isn't desire.

God is not a genie in a lamp that we get to like rub and watch him come out of the magic lamp.

It's not how that works.

Faith is not desired.

Number two, faith is not pretending that something is true.

Okay, so like when you're facing circumstances, like if you get a diagnosis of cancer, if you get a diagnosis of a disease, it's not denying the fact that that disease exists.

It is just saying that there is a God who has the final say.

It's it's not turning a blind eye to what we see.

No, no, it is saying that I'm not seeing this through my eyes, I'm choosing to see it from God's point of view.

Number three, faith is not a feeling.

And there's nothing wrong with feelings.

But let me say this to you: feelings are not always truth tellers, they're just feelings, they're just indicators.

They tell us what is happening, but they're not always telling us the truth.

And then here's the fourth one: faith is not bargaining with God.

This is not shark tank.

You're not trying to make a deal with God in order to get something from God.

How many times have you done that?

God, if you do this, then I will do this, right?

God, if you'll come through, I'll always be a tither.

God, if you do this, I'll never say another bad word about my friends.

God, if it's like we do these if-then propositions with God, but faith isn't a bargaining chip.

You don't get to like talk God into doing what you want.

I want you to understand, here is uh Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

This is often called the chapter of faith in the Bible.

Hebrews 11, verse 1 says, faith is confidence.

Hebrews 11:1

Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

So, so all throughout scripture, when we read about faith, it's often connected to sight, it's connected to seeing and not seeing.

You could say it like this: faith is a way of seeing.

This is a new way forward.

Now, you know this because you've lived long enough to know that there's always multiple ways to view the same thing, isn't there?

I was talking to a really sweet man in our church this morning, and he's one of the most positive people I've ever met.

When you ask him how are you doing, he's like, I'm great.

Everything's great.

His whole world may be falling apart around him, and he says, everything is great.

He says, if I woke up this morning, everything is great.

And I realized in talking to him that all of us have a choice of perspective at every part of our life, don't we?

Like, you will always find what you're looking for.

If you're looking for a reason to be upset today, let me give you a lot of reasons.

There's war happening on the other side of the world, there's all kinds of economic uncertainty, inflation is really high.

There are things in your body that hurt that should not have hurt this morning when you got out of bed.

Father time is a jerk, everybody, right?

Like you can always find something to be upset about.

Like, like go to CNN.com or msnbc.com or usatoday.com.

Like pick your news channel of whatever you want, and then you'll find a reason to be upset.

But you can always see something from a different perspective.

Every day that I wake up is another opportunity to serve God.

Every day that I wake up is an opportunity to be loved to the people around me.

Every day that I wake up, I have hope that tomorrow can be better than today.

Like there's always a reason to celebrate, okay?

So every everybody knows, and especially every married couple knows, that there's always more than one way of seeing something.

You ever gotten into an argument or a fight with your spouse?

And the truth is, is you're fighting about something, but if you could step back from it, you both actually want the same thing.

You just see how to get there in a different kind of way.

There's always more than one way to see things.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul writes this, and I love this verse, Ephesians 1.18.

He says, I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light.

Other translations of this same verse say that I pray that the eyes of your heart will be open so that you can understand the confident hope that he has given to those he called, his holy people, who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

God, he invites us to pray something interesting and weird.

He's asked us to pray that our the eyes of our heart would be open.

What does that mean?

Like your heart doesn't have eyes.

Here's what he's saying.

Many of us live our life only seeing through our natural eyes.

We have the physical ability to see, to see colors and shapes and objects and depth.

We can see through our eyes, but what Paul's trying to inform us of is there is a whole reality happening around us that you can't see with your eyes.

But what you have to understand is that God is always at work around us.

Like I think, I think about Genesis chapter 13 or so, when God marches Abraham out into the wilderness and he says, Look up at the sky, see the stars in the sky, your inheritance will outnumber the stars in the sky.

Genesis 13 · chapter mention

For him, there's no way to visually get this, so the eyes of his heart had to be open.

I think about the book of, I think it's Luke, chapter 24, where Jesus has died, risen again from the dead, and he's now walking.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

People don't even know that he's alive, and he walks with some of his disciples, but he's kind of like hidden.

They don't really know who he is.

Later in the story, he goes with them to dinner and he prays.

And when he prays, it says that their eyes were opened and they saw him.

It's like there he was there the whole time, but there was something else happening.

When their eyes were actually open, they saw him.

One of my favorite stories in scripture is in the book of 2 Kings chapter 6.

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

In 2 Kings chapter 6, there's this prophet Elisha, and he and his assistant are out like they're just camping somewhere, and they wake up the next morning, and the servant goes out and he looks and they're surrounded by an army.

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

Here's what it says, 2 Kings chapter 6, verse 15.

2 Kings 6:15

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.

Oh no, my Lord, what are we gonna do?

The servant asked, Don't be afraid, the prophet answered.

So Elisha prayed, Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.

God, open his eyes, because he can only see through these eyes, he needs to see through your eyes.

It says, Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked, and he saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

The army of the Lord was surrounding, taking care of them.

It's like if you look through your natural eyes, all you will ever be able to see with is your natural eyes.

But if you understand faith as a way of seeing differently, you will see through spiritual eyes, and when you can see from God's point of view, anything is possible.

Okay, so here's the reality.

Most of us, if we could just be honest, we we live in this tension.

The tension is between what I see with my eyes and what I sense with my spiritual eyes.

What I see with my natural vision and what the vision that God has placed in me.

Another way to simplify this would be most of us see through the eyes of fear or the eyes of faith.

I want to give you a couple quick stories, and today I'm gonna give you two lists of five ways to know if you're living in the cycle of fear or the cycle of faith which perpetuates itself.

Numbers chapter 13 and 14 is a fascinating story.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

God is leading Moses, who is leading the people of Israel out of slavery towards this land that he had promised them.

They have to cross one more river, but they know that on the other side of the river there is a city that is a fortified city.

And so before going, Moses does the wise thing.

He sends out 12 different spies to go spy out the land to come back and give a report of whether or not the spies think it is going to be attainable for the people of Israel to go and to conquer this land and have the land that God has provided for them.

If you know the story, 12 go, 10 come back with the negative report, and two come back with the positive report.

Now, here's what I want to do just for kicks.

I want to read you the list of names of the 10 who came back with the negative report, and then we'll talk about them.

Okay, here's the list of 10.

Here they are.

Shemuah, Shephat, fat in his name, Egal, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddy, Amiel, Sthur, Nabi, and I don't know how you say that one, right?

Okay, just for kicks.

Is anyone in the room's name any of these?

Have any of you thought about naming your kid?

Any of these?

Have any of you named a pet?

Any of these?

The closest I can think of is Shamu the whale.

Like, there's none.

Why?

Because history doesn't look fondly upon people who don't live and walk in courage, in confidence, and in faith.

But there were two spies in the 12 who came back with the positive report.

Their names Joshua and Caleb.

Do you know someone?

Do you have a friend?

If you pull up social media and type in Joshua and Caleb, my guess is you have lots of friends with these names.

Why?

Because faith and confidence gets remembered.

But a lack of faith and a lack of confidence gets buried in the story of history.

So here's what I want to do.

I want to take you to the story because those ten go and they get a negative report.

They feel like they can't do it, so they come back with the negative report.

Word spreads like wildfire because confidence and a lack of confidence both are contagious.

So their lack of confidence gets spread.

And here's what I want to do: I want to take you on a quick journey of five things that happen when you see through the eyes of fear.

This will be a litmus test to know if you are literally not living the way God's called you to live through faith, but you're settling for the obscurity of fear.

Here's five things.

Number one, when we see through the eyes of fear, we exaggerate our difficulties.

We make our problems seem bigger than they actually are.

So when the spies come back to Moses, here's the report they gave.

They gave Moses this account.

We went into the land which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey like God had promised.

Here is its fruit, and they brought this fruit.

It was really big and beautiful and massive.

But, next verse, but the people who live there, they're powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.

We even saw descendants of Anak there.

They are stronger than we are.

They exaggerate the truth.

What's funny is if you keep reading later in the book of Numbers, they actually have this interaction with the people who are there.

And because they run away and because they don't have the courage to pursue them, later in the story we read that those people would have surrendered because they had heard the story of God's faithfulness to the people.

They allowed fear to stop them for taking their next step.

And they exaggerated the reality of what they saw there.

The second thing that happens when we see through the eyes of fear is we underestimate our abilities.

We tend to think less of ourselves.

So when these people, these 10 spies, come back and they give their report of what they saw, here's what they said.

They said, we seem like grasshoppers, tiny in our own eyes, and we look the same to them.

Now pause here for just a moment.

How in the world would they know how they looked to the other army?

How would they?

In psychology, we call this simple phenomenon projection, which is to push onto someone else our fears, our worries, our anxieties.

You'll know that you're living through the eyes of fear when you project onto others what they think about you.

It's funny, here's a good life lesson for you.

This is just a freebie that doesn't really fit into the message.

We tend to judge ourselves by our intentions, and we judge others by their actions, right?

Okay, I can explain it to you.

When you're driving and you're in a rush and you're going, I don't know, 15 miles over the speed limit, hypothetically, right?

Like you're going fast.

Everyone around you, you're like, if I I'm I'm there's a reason.

I'm running late.

Like my wife needs me, I gotta get home for my kids.

Like there's a reason, so we judge ourselves by our intentions.

But then there is that day.

It's always the day that you're coming home with a newborn baby.

You've got them tucked into the backseat of the car, strapped in, and everything's perfect.

And you're driving, and some idiot goes flying by five miles faster than the speed limit.

What do you do?

You moron! Don't you know we judge ourselves by our intentions, we judge others by their actions.

Projection does the opposite of that, it judges others by their intentions, and you have no idea what anyone intends, what they're thinking, what they're feeling.

The third thing that happens when we see through the eyes of fear is we get discouraged.

And I said it earlier courage and confidence, and discouragement and unconfidence or lack of confidence are both contagious.

They both tend to spread.

So, what happens when we see through the eyes of fear is we get discouraged.

The story goes on.

It says this it says, that night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.

Only ten had gone, but now the whole community is mourning, crying, wailing in fear, because courage and being discouraged are both contagious.

Number four, when we see through the eyes of fear, we tend to complain.

We tend to run our mouth in terms of paying attention to that which is negative.

The verse goes on and says, This says all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, their leaders.

The whole assembly said to them, Look, if only we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness.

It's like they allowed fear to cause them to rewrite their story.

You heard the term revisionist history?

Revisionist history is to look back at something and to retell the story in a way that makes you feel better in this moment.

They think to themselves, like, man, how I feel right now, I wish I was still in slavery in Egypt, or I wish I would have just died in the wilderness, and we turn into complainers.

The fifth and final litness test of a person who's living their life, looking through the eyes of fear, is we shift the blame away from us and we tend to blame God.

God, this is on you.

God, this is your fault.

God, you lied to me, God, you deceived me, God, this isn't about me, this is about you.

Why would you trick me like this?

And if you've ever said this before, you need to know this is a tale as old as time, because in Numbers chapter 14, here's what the people of Israel do.

Numbers 14 · chapter mention

Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?

Like, why would God bring us here just to kill us here?

Our wives and children will be taken as plunder.

Wouldn't it been better for us just to go back to Egypt?

Because at least going back to Egypt, we could be in control of our own destiny.

But being in control means going back to slavery and captivity.

Okay.

I want you to take just a moment.

I want you to ask a question.

Do any of those five realities of living through the eyes of fear feel like they apply to you?

All of us, if we can be honest, we have moments when we feel like we succumb to the obscurity of fear.

But today I want to teach you how to be and live a force multiplied kind of life.

The kind of life that when we live through the eyes of faith, it makes our world bigger, it makes our problems smaller, it makes God the center of everything.

I want to talk to you about what it looks like to live through the eyes of faith.

And if you came in today living life through the eyes of fear, my prayer is that you leave fear here and we walk out in faith.

Can I tell you something?

In the next couple of weeks, I believe that we are gonna see people healed.

I believe we are gonna see miracles.

I believe something is gonna break three, break free, and break out in your life.

Because as we learn how to apply faith to our life, it changes everything.

Here is what it looks like to live through the eyes of faith.

Number one, it shrinks my problems.

Remember what fear does?

Fear exaggerates my challenges.

Faith shrinks my problems.

I've said this before, and I'm gonna say it again over and over and over again.

I want you to think about the way you pray.

When you go to God, do you ever say, oh God, look how big this challenge is.

Look how massive it is.

Look at this debt that I've racked up, look at this medical situation, look at my marriage that's hanging on by a thread.

Oh God, can you do anything about it?

And what we do is we go to God and we tell Him how big our problem is.

Faith says to our problem, no, no, look how big my God is.

Can I say something to you?

This is really important for you to get.

There is no such thing as a big problem to God.

You get that?

Like that thing that seems like the biggest problem in your life, it might be a big problem, and I'm not minimizing it, I'm not making it light.

But it is small to God.

Okay, listen.

The God who spoke the universe into existence, the God who said a word and made beetles and palm trees and salt water, the God who spoke the world into existence and had the forethought to think of creating the prism of colors in the rainbow and clouds and sharks.

That same God has no problem handling your big problem.

Because to God, there is no such thing as a big problem.

So this week I started working on Christmas, and we're gonna have an amazing Christmas here at Access.

I want you to already start working on talking to people about coming with you.

And I was working through the Christmas story, and here's the funny thing like Easter and Christmas for pastors are kind of hard because we preach them every single year, and every year Jesus is born of a virgin.

Every year at Easter he dies and rises again from the dead.

It's hard to find a creative angle on that, everybody.

And I was reading the Christmas story, and I want you to see this line that's so important for you to understand.

This is when the angels show up to Mary and Joseph and to tell them that she will be pregnant and the father is not Joseph, it's that whole story.

Here's the line: the line is Luke 137, it says, For nothing will be impossible with God.

Okay, can you get this?

If God can do that, your problem, not making it light, please hear me.

It's a big deal.

But to God, ain't no thing.

Are you with me?

He can handle it.

Okay.

Number two, when we see through the eyes of faith, this is so important, it opens the door for a miracle.

Some of you came in today needing a miracle from God.

Some of you need healing in your body, some of you have a child who's wandered so far away from God and it keeps you up at night in heartache.

Some of you are struggling in your career, some of you are struggling relationally.

Some of you look at your bank account and think there is more days than there is money to pay for those days.

Some of you have no idea how God is going to come through, but you, my friend, might just be the candidate for a miracle when you start living through the eyes of faith.

I think about this moment in Jesus' life where Jesus has started this public ministry and he's out traveling, doing the miracles and teaching about God in a beautiful way.

And it says in the book of Matthew that Jesus comes back to his hometown.

This is where everybody knows him.

He was little Jesus who played kickball down the street.

He was just little Jesus who had like snot running down his nose sometimes.

He was just little Jesus, right?

He was just a kid, got dirty playing with his friends.

He was just Jesus.

And he came home, and instead of people honoring him and celebrating the gift that he was, they dishonored him.

They took him lightly.

I want you to see this.

It says about Jesus, Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

So if this is true, the opposite also must be true.

If Jesus doesn't do miracles in environments where there's a lack of faith, one might surmise that he's going to do miracles in environments where there is a rising of faith.

Are you with me on this?

Okay, number three, this is the third way that you will know if you are seeing through the eyes of faith.

Number three, is it moves God to act on my behalf.

Now, let me be clear about this, because this is one where it can get kind of dicey and kind of hairy for some people.

God is not a bull with a ring in his nose that you get to lead around wherever you want.

God is God and you are not.

There is no magic prayer that you can pray to force God's hand to do what you want.

God is God.

This is the reason that when the disciples say to Jesus, like, hey, how did you pray?

Teach us how to pray like you prayed.

Jesus' prayer includes this line that says, Your kingdom come and your will be done.

So God's will is going to happen, but here's what I need you to understand.

This moves God to move on our behalf.

I love this verse in the book of Matthew.

Here's Jesus' teaching.

And it says, When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him and they asked him, Hey, do you Jesus said to them, Um, Do you believe that I am able to do this?

Yes, Lord.

They replied.

Then he touched their eyes and said, According to your faith, let it be done to you.

Jesus was doing miracles, but he asked them a question.

And the question is, Do you think I'm able?

Do you think I can?

Do you think it's possible?

And they said, Yes.

And it was the yes, which was a declaration of faith that led to the miracle of their physical sight being restored.

Okay.

Do you believe?

Because when you believe, it opens the door for a miracle.

Number four is a fun one.

Number four is it unlocks the promises of God.

Did you know that in your Bible there are over 7,000 promises of God?

This is so important for you to understand.

And the way that we receive those promises is through faith.

The book of 2 Corinthians, Paul says it like this He says, For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ.

He's essentially saying God can't outpromise himself.

He's not gonna write checks that he can't cash, he's not gonna give his word in the way that he can't keep it.

God's word is always yes, and you can bank on it when you approach him in faith.

And here's number five, and this one is so important.

Number five, when we see through the eyes of faith, faith turns God-given dreams into reality.

If you were to ask me, what are my top three or four topics to preach about as a preacher?

What are the things that have so impacted my life that if I could get them out of my heart and into your life, what would they be?

I'd probably first of all talk to you about the power of trusting God in the area of your finances because it changes your heart in a special way.

I love talking about money, not to get something from people, but because it takes you on the wildest adventure of your life with God.

And I want that for you.

I'd probably talk about marriage because I believe that a good God-honoring marriage might actually be one of the greatest and last testimonies the church has to the world around us.

And then I think this next thing would be the thing I would talk about.

It's the power of having a dream, but not dreaming in your abilities, but dreaming with God.

I think if we're not careful, sometimes church messages can become self-help messages with a little bit of like Jesus or faith sprinkled on it.

That's not how it was ever meant to be taught.

God's desire is to give you his dream.

Scripture teaches Genesis 1 and 2.

I told you earlier, God spoke the world into existence.

The world is the dream of God.

Ephesians 2 says that before God laid the foundations of the earth, he dreamed you, he had you in mind.

That means that God needed you and your giftings and your talents and your abilities right here, right now.

Told you the story before a couple years ago, my son Joey came to me, he goes, Dad, the world is so weird.

He was dealing with friends who were struggling in the areas of sexuality and gender and pronouns were a thing.

And all this was blowing my little innocent son's mind.

And he said to me, Dad, I just don't think I can do this anymore.

I said, You look at me.

Before God made the world, he knew that right now, in this space, in this place, in this time, the world was gonna need you.

That's why God gave you giftings and talents and abilities.

And when you dream with God, it changes everything.

I want you to listen to me.

So I started with this, and I want to end with this.

And as I read this verse, I don't want this verse to be a verse.

I want this verse to be a declaration over your heart.

As we read this, some of you, I believe, are gonna walk out today feeling like God has breathed life into the dreams that have fallen dormant in your heart.

As we read this verse, it's the verse we started with today.

I want you to read it and I want you to say, God, I receive that.

My prayer is that in a moment, as we read this prayer, that some of those dreams that are in your heart come to life again, and as a result of it, God will bless you in ways you can't even get your mind around.

I want to read it slow, and I want you to read this and declare it over your heart.

Ephesians 3, verse 20.

Ephesians 3:20

Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power, God's power, and by his mighty power at work within you, within me, within us, God is able.

Not your strength, not your effort, not your striving.

God is able to do far more than we could ever dare to ask.

Okay, let me say something to you.

If the dream in your heart isn't intimidating to you, it's possible that it's insulting to God.

Because He can do more than you can ever dream of.

Infinitely beyond whatever the highest prayer you've ever prayed is, God can do it infinitely beyond it, infinitely beyond whatever your greatest desires are, infinitely beyond your thoughts, infinitely beyond your hope.

Do you think he's able?

If you think he's able, then you start to see from his perspective, and when you see from God's perspective, that's called faith.

And when you live in faith, it's a force multiplier.

It dramatically increases what you can do in your own strength.

So I'm gonna pray for you in just a moment, and I'm gonna pray that verse over you.

I'm gonna pray that God will breathe life into your dreams, that he will diminish all of your fears, that you will have the courage to walk out of here different and to trust him and to see from his perspective.

I want to do something a little different today.

Would you stand up with me all across this room?

We're talking about faith.

Faith is seeing, and faith is dependence.

Think about a little child.

How does a child go to their parent when they're really little and they need something?

What is this saying?

This is saying, God, I'm dependent on you.

So can we end differently than we almost ever do?

But will you lift your hands towards God all across this room?

It's just saying, God, I'm dependent on you, and let's pray.

So, God, in this place we declare our dependency on you.

God, my prayer is that today this room full of people and those who are joining us anywhere in the world who are watching right now will walk out different because we've encountered you.

God, my prayer today is that there will be a spiritual LASIK eye surgery.

That we will walk out of here unable to see exclusively through our own eyes, but instead we will walk in faith, which is to see from your point of view.

God, for the person who came in today struggling with the diagnosis, help them to see healing, which is from your point of view.

God, for the person who came in today struggling with insecurity.

God, we pray for a holy confidence to flood their heart, because that comes from you.

For the person who's coming in in lack financially, God, we pray for your provision because that is your point of view.

God, whatever the need is today, if it is rest, we pray supernatural rest, if it is strength.

God, I ask for supernatural strength.

Whatever is necessary right now in the needs and lives of these incredible people, God, would you do it because we believe you can and because you are able?

And God, we reject fear in the name of Jesus.

Fear has to go, faith must rise.

We thank you for it, God.

May this church be known not for what we're against, not for a lack of confidence in you, but for what we stand for and for what we believe.

And God, we believe you can, we believe you're able, and we believe you will in Jesus' name.

Amen.