Get Your Confidence Back // ViewFinder // Ps Jonathan Lambert

[Music] so [Music] psalm 27 verse 13. i remain confident of this that i will see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living all day i've been trying to get a little bit of swagger uh when i say that verse because i feel like you can't you can't make a declaration like i will remain confident and read it um in a timid fashion so i'm gonna need you to help me a little bit this is this is my best sort of i use the word swagalicious earlier today i don't know if that's a term that's gonna work itself into my my day-to-day vocabulary but it felt good in the moment still feels good so my best sort of swaggy is that a thing um i don't that might that might be a bad thing uh my this is my my best swagalicious way confident way of reading this scripture uh something like this like you gotta you gotta own it a little bit right it's possessive language there's some eyes in here like i remain confident of this right this is kind of like owning it that i i will see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living i want you to read it with me i want us to read it out loud together and i want you to swag it up just a little bit okay not too much i know some of you like i don't know if i'm swaggy you are you are we're pulling the swag out of you right the spirit of swag okay so so i want you to i want you to read it with me let's be kind of confident about it here we go one two three i remain confident of this that i will see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living come on we're going to see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living we're going to see the goodness of god in our city we're going to see the goodness of god in our relationships we're going to see the goodness of god and our families and our businesses and our education on our street on our block through our church we will see the goodness of the lord let's pray jesus thank you so much for every person in the room tonight we know that there's not a single person here by accident but you've brought us together on purpose for a purpose we lean into you as you speak to our hearts in your name amen amen confidence confidence definition of confidence to have full trust belief in the power or reliability of a person or a thing now as a dad i want to raise confident kids i don't want timid little wimpy i don't want those kids okay they can be somebody else's kids those are not gonna be my kids okay i want confident kids i want like head high shoulders back lamberts are here we have a cheer every morning we pray for the kids before they go out the door and then we're in a huddle and we go lamberts are the best lamberts are the best land just gets louder and louder right now we're living in a condo and so the neighbors can for sure hear all six of us like lambert's are the best it's it's awesome so we're raising confident kids um you know what a couple things that are important when you're trying to raise confident kids is you know you have to you have to support some of their interests be an encourager you got to remind them how loved they are those are sort of base level things but my kids have a lot of different interests we got singers and musicians and artists and and teachers someone wants to be an astronaut that means it's a variety of things my son still thinks he might be able to make a living playing xbox 360. i don't know so we got to get them we got to get them moved up a little bit but uh don't tell them um but but my youngest has decided she wants to be a skateboarder so she's watching the olympics and there's all these 11 12 and 13 year old girls skateboarding at the olympics she's like dad i'm seven if i get a skateboard now and really get after it i could be in the next olympics i'm like all right honey let's do it so she gets an amazon gift card for a birthday she orders a skateboard comes and it's i mean she's never skateboarded she's not rollerbladed she can barely ride her bike but she's into it she's ready to go okay so she gets all the stuff she gets the protective gear she's got the elbow pads the knee pads the little the little shin or what's that that's not your shin your wrist you're at the shins her legs you know she's got the wrist protector she's got the helmet on and so she's she's up in our house the skateboard is not yet seen outside it has no exposure to natural light and she's on the skateboard she's like i'm a skateboarder i'm a look at me she look at me siblings i'm i'm the only skateboarder in our family now that's not entirely true because their dad was a skateboarder um because when i was a kid i had a quasar veriflex skateboard from kmart and it was blue and i mastered the art of like rolling down my driveway and then turning onto the sidewalk that was my only move that's all i could ever do brandon you'd be so proud someday man i'm gonna come skate with you and i'll just i'll be that old guy just you'll pretend you don't know me um so i mean anyways this kind of inner blood is what i'm trying to say and so uh now now that there's this process because she was like all about it when she's in the house and she's got her gear on but then we get outside and it's time to go for a skate and she's nervous she doesn't want to fall she doesn't want to hurt herself and there's a few things that i'm not going to do as a dad who's trying to raise confident kids a few things i'm not going to tell her she's awesome when she's not okay we don't need american idol syndrome up in my house okay we don't we got no time for that my mom said it was great you can't sing on key you're terrible no we don't need that we're not raising those types of kids okay so so i don't i don't but i and i listen my father heart wanted to tell her she was awesome like when she's getting ready to go for that first skate i wanted to be like honey you got this you're a great skateboarder but the lord stopped me from lying and i just held it and i said go for it you know because i i didn't want to lie to her she she wasn't any good and uh so so don't don't lie to your kids that's not helpful um the other thing i didn't do is she's like dad will you hold my hand i said honey no i will not hold your hand you know seven years old you're not gonna have somebody to hold your hand the rest of your life you don't need you don't need to you don't hold my hand right now you gotta learn how to skate honey you're gonna skate you can't you can't i'm not gonna hold your hand at the olympics so so i said no i said you know i believe in you i believe in you just go for a little just go for a little skate she's pretty i mean she's so nervous right and dad will you catch me if i fall probably not i'll help you get back up i probably honestly i'm probably not gonna catch you you're gonna be fine okay so she's all timid and stuff but then she starts going and i'm watching and you know like when you see you start to get that first wobble like she's kind of drifting towards like a rock or a car or you know off the sidewalk into traffic i'm like is this when i jump in should i jump in now and but i just left it and it was against every fatherly instinct but then she fell and at first the shock of like falling off her skateboard was like i'm never gonna do it again but like five seconds later she realizes whoa my gear protected me i didn't hurt my wrist then she starts to get a little bit of confidence she's like dad i'm gonna try again she goes again falls again she's like dad it doesn't even really hurt my knee because i got my knee pads i think i'm i'm okay dad my wrists are okay dad i could hit my head really hard and i've got a helmet it's not this honey no see we didn't wear helmets as kids so it's so she's good so she but her confidence started to grow as she understood the level of protection she had she's something started to shift and so so there's now she's at this spot where she's she's you know she's been she's been going for like a month she's not bad she's i don't know if she's olympic ready but like we can we can skate to the mailbox we can we can not we she skates i walk we can get to the we can go to the park and she's just like you know doing her thing that's me skateboarding you know she she's all about it now she's she's looking for opportunities to go for a skate she's feeling pretty confident and and and and this is the thing uh i i feel like um the church and christians that that we have become so inundated and overwhelmed by what's happening in the world that we've actually forgotten how protected we are by the power of god to live with confidence that that something has shifted and because of the constant narrative and the even about the church and about christians and all these other things we've grown a little bit timid we've shrunk back we've stepped back and we start to want man does it work like what if what if i fail what if what if this hurts what if people judge me what if people don't understand what if people don't agree with my stance what are people no no no so we've pulled back we've grown so timid in our christianity that for many of us we're saying i'm a christian like zara was saying i'm a skateboarder and she's not moving anywhere you're not a skateboarder just because you've got the gear you're not a christian just because you show up to church on a you're a christian when you are moving confidently in the expanding kingdom of jesus christ and helping to establish his rule and dominion in the world that you live in that's a christian and we're all at different stages of the journey i get that but we've got to be moving and so i feel like in the next few weeks god wants to help us grab our spiritual swagger back he wants to help us find our confidence for some of us as we read i remain confident in this it's like oh i don't even know if i am confident in this listen we're going to get it back we're about to get it back we are confident that god is good and that his goodness is gonna be on display in our lives we are confident we're gonna get it back second kings chapter six verse eight i love this story it's a great story and i think it's going to teach us a little something about confidence it says now the king of aaron was at war with israel after conferring with his officers he said i will set up my camp in such and such a place the man of god sent word to the king of israel beware of passing that place because the arameans are going down there so the king of israel checked on that place indicated by the man of god time and again elisha that's the man of god warned the kings that he was on his guard in such places so now elisha the prophet is doing some like recon work for the king of israel every time the arameans are moving their army around trying to grab a military advantage the lord sort of downloads the location gps to elisha and he notifies the king of israel so what's happening is that the army of israel the nations they're never caught off guard they avoid conflict they avoid casualties because elijah's tipping off the king every time the arameans move into position and so i i find it really interesting especially in this time and climate that we're in right now where we are in a very politically charged season obviously politics are at the very forefront of a lot of what's going on and even in our country and around the world right now especially in our country that elijah the prophet was very engaged politically he was very involved i mean this guy had an audience with the king now just because he was engaged politically does not mean that he supported the corruption in every agenda of the monarchy but it would appear that he had at least a base level understanding that it was better to work with this king than be ruled by a foreign king and so i only mentioned that as a reminder to all of us because we're you know we we're we're christ followers or we're i mean you're in a church so even if you haven't made the decision to follow christ yet and we're going to give you that opportunity later there's at least some interest or leaning i want to encourage you in a democratic society we should be engaged politically but not consumed by politics engaged but not consumed now i would never ever from this stage tell somebody who to vote for you want to know who to vote for come and talk to me after i would never say it from this stage right that's that would be that would be an abuse of the privilege and opportunity i have to be the pastor of this church i would never do that but i do have some thoughts on how we should vote not who but how that we should participate first this is like a little sermon in the sermon all right so if you're taking notes you can start now number one how should christians approach the election we should pray we should be praying if you are not praying don't vote i'm serious like as a person of faith if i am not actually praying about how i should vote in the election if i'm not praying for our prime minister if i'm not praying for the people that are leading the different parties if i'm not praying i went for a walk this week and i just as i was walking i just said a little prayer for all the different signs i saw in my neighborhood am i voting for all of them no you can't do that i'm going to vote for one but i said a little prayer these people have chosen to be public servants they've chosen to put their names out there they've chosen to say i want to try and serve my community to the best of my ability and so pray for them there there isn't a worse i don't think there's a worse job in the world than being the prime minister of canada you know we've got this system where you can have a minority government you you could be the prime minister and like two-thirds of the country hates your guts that's a terrible job like that's nobody wants to work that gig so listen regardless of where you sit and who you support pray for the people involved pray the second thing is prepare we got to prepare i had a i had a great call and i had an mp call me this week and we had a great chat got to pray together just about the election for his family it was wonderful and i said hey what are some things like how what would you suggest how do we how do we prepare well for an election and he said well you really got to do he said there's a few things i would suggest number one don't be a single issue voter and i thought that was really great advice i'd encourage you as you're preparing look beyond single issues you know what's on facebook and instagram single issues look up platforms understand the whole of what's being offered and what parties are running for let's just just do your research he he said that he actually suggests that people look up his voting record look at how he's voted on significant issues so so people can understand what his values are and do they align listen without doing some preparation and research you're not going to know who actually aligns with some of your ethics and your personal values and and your position on things so do do some preparatory work and then the final thing is participate participate in a democracy the responsibility of our future rests on the shoulders of the ones who can vote so take it seriously let's pray let's prepare let's participate okay that's a bonus sermon back to elisha and the king of aram verse 11 second kings chapter six um so you remember just bring up to speed elisha's been messing up all the all the plans of the enemy okay so this enraged the king of aram he summoned his of his officers and demanded of them tell me which of us is on the side of the king of israel he thinks he's a traitor none of us my lord the king said one of his officers but elisha the prophet who is in israel tells the king of israel the very words you speak in your bedroom that's creepy go king's upset it says find out where he is the king ordered so i can send men to capture him the report came back he's in doth and then the king sent horses and chariots and a strong force there they went by night and surrounded the city so the king of arum understandably frustrated elisha's completely removed positional tactical military advantage and elisha has become a threat to the enemy king notice when someone becomes a threat to the enemy the enemy will retaliate that's what's happening here the enemy shifts into attack mode where is he let's capture him sends out horses and chariots a strong force this is the most sophisticated military might available at that time in history and he sends this army after one guy one guy one man one prophet puts this kind of terror in the enemy's heart that an army is in pursuit of him now i'm not gonna suggest that every problem you face is the devil the truth is if you ran out of gas yesterday it's your fault you're dumb okay that's not i can't help you god's not just gonna fill your tank okay like don't don't expect that if you're late all the time it's just because you don't have good time management skills to set your alarm a little earlier leave a little earlier pull your stuff together you're an adult okay uh and sometimes we are our own worst enemy and our attitudes our our actions our thoughts our decisions get us into tough places but but there are moments in life when the plan that god has for you and the anointing on you is so significant and so big and so divine that the enemy of our souls the devil is threatened by your very existence like we had a great week here at the church and some of you i mean you come into a revival night setting and you you know god has anointed you and you feel like man he's raising me up to be an influencer in this time in history and when you start to take a stand for jesus and you start to have some convictions and some morals you start to honor god with your decision-making and your relationships and you begin to run after the calling and the purpose of god on your life all of a sudden the enemy will dispatch special forces to take you out make no mistake this is not this what the world that we live in is not just the world that we see there are spiritual forces at work behind the scenes your life my life are being influenced by spiritual forces and every now and then you got to take inventory on what you're facing and remind yourself man the the problems that are that are in my world right now are just confirmation of the purpose god has for me if there's some obstacles if there's some trials if there's some temptations and there's some things you're facing take inventory it's reminding you that god has a purpose there is a correlation between the size of the problem you face and the size of the purpose god is forming for your life it's because they're they're they're co-related i mean and i mean just for the person that might be feeling a little bit discouraged a little bit down maybe it's not it's not quite sinking in like listen i i'm trying to help you get your confidence back okay so just because you're going through a difficult season and it feels like it's over doesn't mean it's over generally when it feels like it's over just remind yourself that god's positioned you to overcome you get get your confidence back listen there's an entire army after one guy because he was a threat to their agenda the problem you face is a reflection of the potential and purpose that god is forming in your life that's why you can't quit that's why we can't give up that's why we're going to get up tomorrow and we're going to keep going and we're going to keep believing and we're going to keep praying because this is a spiritual war and you have a purpose that threatens the powers of darkness that are at work in our world and so the devil's going to try and slow you down and discourage you and get all up in your potential because he knows man if he gets up and prays one more time if she shows up and worships one more time man chains are going to break and walls are going to come down and the atmosphere will shift he understands he is terrified of the potential on the inside of you and god was using elisha to shift the balance of power between two kingdoms one man shifting the balance of power between two kingdoms imagine a room like this if a hundred hundred and fifty people decided i i've got the spirit of elijah elisha in me imagine if we took that responsibility seriously imagine if we understood that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of darkness are opposing each other but you and i have the potential to actually turn the tide and advance the kingdom of heaven in our city by our decisions and our commitment and our passion and our purpose imagine if one man can shift the power balance what can hundreds do what kind of impact could we have if we stepped up there are elisha's all over this room and god is raising you up for this moment you are a threat to the enemy verse 15 says 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 shall we do the servant asked um pastor kyle's at the back of the room if if you didn't know this he became a camper this weekend he went camping for uh ten hours in a tent um to be honest he's basically a woodsman now and uh so i would ask him about his his wilderness excursion he was living off the land hunting for his food is amazing um so check in with him on that i i sort of imagine uh i was thinking about pastor kyle when i read this text and thought about the servant stepping out of his tent early the next morning you know he's basically been on like a guy's trip with elisha they probably had a great night the night before roasting some marshmallows some hot dogs whatever um all beef though for sure uh and had a little fire everything sort of settles down elisha goes off to his tent the servant goes off to his tent great nights sleep it's all good then he wakes up the next morning and i mean when you when you're camping when you're like one with nature and you wake up man there's there's i you just you can you can taste the bacon when you're in the wilderness even before you've started to cook it it's beautiful i imagine that the servant woke up early and thought man i'm going to make some bacon for elijah elisha this is going to be awesome and he stepped outside of his tent with bacon on his mind and in his heart and looked and all of a sudden he is surrounded by an enemy army i mean everything changed so fast like they were having a a boys trip camping trip everything's good and then you wake up one morning and everything's different you are surrounded by enemy forces and his response is oh no i feel that way sometimes dude do you feel that way like man everything has changed so fast like so fast everything is changing so fast we did a uh we had a little 10-year anniversary party for a couple from the church here yesterday and i was looking back on things that were cool 10 years ago and adele uh was she like rolling in the deep was 10 years ago i was like what i'm still like there's a fire like i'm still all about it like i love me some adele like when i'm driving it just puts me in the zone i'm like yeah i'm bad you know i and i was like there's no way this is 10 years old man how did that change so fast our world is changing so quickly the anger the frustration the hate the vitriol the dissension and division it's crazy that a couple of years ago you had great friends and you had great memories and you had a lifetime of experiences and investment and then all of a sudden because of like one or two issues we're throwing away a lifetime of relationship because we disagree that's not normal everybody i just because it's everywhere doesn't mean it's normal does not mean it's right does not mean it's the way it should be it's immature it's ridiculous it's divisive it's crazy this is changing so fast man for for some of you on an individual level things change so quick you've had moments you wake up and you've lost a loved one all of a sudden your whole world has changed you wake up and a relationship that you depended on is gone all of a sudden the whole world has changed you wake up and you lost your job all of a sudden the whole world changed the world changes quick and when the world is changing fast sometimes the only appropriate response is oh no what do i do what do we do now how do we keep moving forward what's the next move how how do i keep going and i love elisha's reply he says don't be afraid those who are with us are more than those who are with them don't be afraid now let's talk about this for a minute the servant wakes up he freaks out ah he runs back knocks on elijah's tent says elijah what are we supposed to do and elisha rubs the sleep out of his eyes oh that don't no no no why don't we what are we supposed to do don't listen before you can do what god wants you to do you have to stop doing something god some things that god doesn't want you to do sometimes we've got to actually obey the don't before we can follow the dew and a lot of the questions we ask the lord are like god what do you want me to do god what do you want me to do in this relationship god what what do you want me to do in my business god what do you want me to do in school god what do you want me to do with my finances god what do you want me to do with my living situation god what do you what do you want me to do god should i should i marry that girl should i date that girl well you should stop having sex with that girl oh see there's a don't before you're ever going to see the do clearly god what what should i well god god i got a promotion at work thanks so much what should i invest my money in well well what you should do is stop robbing me and start giving your tithe an offer you should don't don't rob me anymore and then and then i'll help you with what else you should do there's a don't that we have to respond to before god can release the do the next step the next level in your life so many of us don't move forward in our faith because when god says don't we said oh sorry what sorry what no that's not what i was asking i'll just do whatever i want to do elisha what are we supposed to do don't be afraid don't be afraid don't be afraid before before you can understand what god is doing before you can see the potential before you can see the magnitude of the plan he's got for you don't be afraid and on the surface what do you want me to do it's not even a realistic question like he's surrounded by an army like like run maybe scream just give up and elijah's like oh don't be afraid elisha strikes me in this story especially as one of those really positive christians you know always smiling just like loving it just got dumped hey feeling good you know walking into church got that smile on you know slap the kids in the minivan on the way but hey we're good kids are good everybody's happy going to ec kids we might never pick you up you know the ones that when somebody's life is falling apart they're like hey god works all things together for good for everyone who i mean you're fine he's gonna turn that around god of the turn around hey turn tables god he's gonna do it for you he's got you you know it's it's all gonna be okay in the end and if it's not okay brother it's not the end like he says he's i feel like he's got that kind of vibe right like he's just like don't be afraid it's fine i'm the servant i'm like whoa that's cute thanks but there's an army do you know that don't be afraid is a command that appears over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over in scripture all throughout scripture you see the command to not be afraid before joshua could do the calling the task the job the responsibility of leading the israelites god said don't be afraid oh you'll never be released in the dew until you accept the don't before david could do and fulfill the calling of being king of israel god said don't be afraid before mary could accept the responsibility of being the mother of christ the angel said do not be afraid listen ii timothy chapter 1 verse 7 says says god has not given us a spirit of fear but a power of love and a sound mind now notice what god contrasts with fear he doesn't contrast fear with faith those are not on on opposite ends of the spectrum he contrasts fear with a sound mind you can either have fear or you can have a sound mind you can either it's one but it's one or the other see god must know something about fear that we've been slow to catch on with when we're afraid we're crazy all of us you're crazy when you're afraid when we're afraid and worried and anxious and overwhelmed our judgment is i mean this is all scientifically proven now our judgment is clouded we think irrationally we get over emotional we get we reach this point where we're willing to do anything compromise any value any convictions just to try and get rid of the feeling of fear fear makes us crazy and so i want to encourage you when you see crazy in people in your world don't push them aside when they start to post crazy and live crazy and act crazy and say crazy and think crazy and dress all the different crazies don't don't separate yourself from them understand that there's actually just somebody on the inside who's scared to death of what's going on in the world then we see that a lot right now we see a lot of division it's because we haven't made space for crazy listen crazy's okay here you gotta have you got to be willing to have crazy in your life where you keep your s your heart soft to crazy and your arms open to crazy then the church doors open to crazy and your small group opened to crazy and your friend group open to crazy because they're just scared fear makes us crazy and the narrative is everywhere it's not stopping it's not slowing down it's not a new narrative it's not like the media just got fear driven in the last two years it's not like politics just started using fear to manipulate people in the last couple of years this has been around forever but it's non-stop fear is the the driving narrative behind every news outlet every political press conference they're not trying to inform us they're trying to intimidate us so we'll do what they want them to do so we've got a world running around blinded by fear so in our blindness we're full of rage and anger and skepticism and uncertainty and pain you see when we're scared you don't see things right when you're scared you don't think strategically when you're scared you can't really problem solve but i love that elisha didn't say don't feel fear he said don't be afraid you know there's a difference see fear is an emotion that you have in a moment afraid according to my friend miriam webster is to be filled with fear catch the difference fear is an emotional moment afraid is when you let that em that moment take up residence in your heart and become an all-consuming part of your life to be filled with fear is very different than feeling fear in the moment see that that's that's why that's why i don't like the contrast of fear and faith i don't think faith is the opposite of fear but i i actually think that fear is simply an indicator that it's time to activate my faith some of us when fear shows up in the morning i mean you wake up and you're just flooded with fear from the very start but you know what for some of us when fear knocks on the door we've already got the guest room ready we've got the coffee on we just welcome fear in without asking any questions it just walks in goes into your kitchen grabs a snack and makes itself at home no no we don't have to let fear in we don't have to let fear take over man we gotta we got an alarm system and sometimes when natasha's coming home and i like to set the alarm and then i'll just sit in the house and wait and uh and so and so you know especially if she's got her hands full that's the best hey cause then she comes in and she'll open the door and then it's like 30 seconds and she's looking for her you know and then the alarm starts going she's freaking out i just get to sit and watch and it's wonderful you know fear is like an alarm system on the door of your heart that when you open the door and fear's at the door man the alarm should be going off saying man it's time for faith it's time for faith right now it's time for faith this is this is the moment i need to remind myself that that those who are with me are more than those who are with them i need to remind myself that with god all things are possible i need to remind myself right now that greater is he who's in me than he that is in the world fear should trigger faith we don't need more fear we don't need to get caught up in more fear we don't need to be afraid we don't need to be afraid elisha prayed open his eyes lord so that he may see then the lord opened the servant's eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire come on bryce [Music] [Applause] [Music] that was nice that was really great i love the prayer of elisha open his eyes lord help him to see what's really happening help him to see that beyond the surface you are actually present and moving and protecting and keeping help him to see with a supernatural perspective god i find i'm praying the same prayer for my own self right now god help me to see that what's in front of me is not all that there is god help me to remember that you're at work in the world even when i don't see it even when i don't feel it even when it doesn't seem like you're doing anything god you have a plan you are divine you are still in control god help me to see see faith sees what other people don't see we got to see differently why so we can remain confident confident that my situation is not all that's happening confident that even in the midst of chaos i will see the goodness of the lord confident that even in the middle of crazy i will see the goodness of the lord confident that when the world is ripping itself apart god still has a plan and god is still moving listen the world does not need an afraid church it doesn't need a scared church an overwhelmed church an anxious church a timid church a shy church the world needs a prophetic church who can recognize that god is still on the throne no matter who wins an election that he is moving and at every moment we are surrounded by the armies of heaven we've got to have eyes of faith so how do we have eyes of faith two quick thoughts and we'll pray together number one we need to rehab our vision you gotta rehab your vision time for some vision rehab did a little research there are some natural things that you can do to protect your natural vision i think they they parallel some spiritual principles um this is uh the first one of these like ways to rehab your vision naturally eating a balanced and healthy diet rich in antioxidants and vitamins uh a nutritious diet can help enhance vision and slow down age-related vision loss okay now stick with me for a second what you feed yourself spiritually will make or break your prophetic vision what what you feed yourself is determining what you see i'm telling you right now if all you see is is uh is terrifying you and its problems and its chaos then that is a direct result of what you're feeding yourself sundays are not enough to sustain your faith showing up at church i can't i cannot preach i could preach the best sermon of my life and it's not enough to carry you through till next sunday we got to get on our knees we got to pray we got to worship we got to cry out to the lord we got to get in small groups we got to have relationships we got to have people around us that are encouraging us in our faith you've got to feed yourself spiritually throughout the week or you're just going to get hungry you'll be malnourished if this is the only meal you have spiritually this week what are you feeding yourself to protect and enhance your vision the second thing you got to protect your eyes you know we all we all get that you don't look directly at the sun you wear sunglasses outside with uv protection when when you're out in the sun to protect from the harmful rays you don't want them to diminish your eyesight and all that stuff where are you looking are you protecting your eyes are you protecting your eyes of faith listen you will always lean where you look you'll always lean where you look zara learning how to ride her skateboard she still leans where she looks that's the battle right now honey keep looking in front of you what dad she just leans where she looks every time listen if you're always focused on the problem then you will be obsessed with the problem your life will lean towards the problem you will become a person that's defined by your problem listen i understand that even in the room tonight and i want to be sensitive to this there is hurt there are people have been abandoned and rejected and abused and there's all sorts of crazy things that have happened in your life in your story i can't imagine i can't imagine what some of you have walked to but we have to reach a point where we're going to stop looking at that and allowing that to make us a permanent victim and remind ourselves i've got to protect what i'm seeing i can't keep playing the scenario over and over and over in my mind because if i do i will keep living in the impact of that moment i have to shift i have to do something different i have to start looking here instead of looking there and let god begin to show me his real plan for my life the final thing this is from the american up top gosh i've just been struggling with this word all day uh tom the god the eye doctors in the united states optometric association they recommend that if you spend a lot of time looking at a screen i'm coming for you right now such as a computer or smartphone take a break and look 20 feet away every 20 minutes for two seconds at a time this can help prevent digital eye strain which can cause fatigue headaches neck tension and decreased vision now the spiritual parallel i don't really need to make it for you because it's already clear it's actually the same as the physical application get off your screen i love my phone it's a wonderful tool it's a terrible idol man i love it because it says you gotta you gotta take a break and look 20 feet away you got to take a break from just looking at everything that's right in front of you and have a little bit of vision to look beyond and understand that there's more listen we've got to get off our screens we get so obsessed with looking at other people's lives and comparing ourselves with how they're living that you might just need to take a break you are not meant you know why we struggle with jealousy and comparison and insecurity because we're not meant to be spying on everybody else you know why people cheat in relationships because you're not meant to have eyes on everybody else you're not meant to be sitting there looking and fantasizing and wondering about hey what if i had stayed in contact with that person from high school no no you're not you're not meant to carry that weight get off our screens stop looking for likes and affirmation and validation for people who don't really care about you and accept the fact that we have been validated and approved and purchased by our heavenly father on the cross we don't need the screen we have to rehab our vision the second thing is we need to develop to to develop eyes of faith we need to fix our focus on jesus i read this first last week from hebrews chapter 12 that that we need to fix our eyes on jesus the author and the finisher of our faith the one who's writing your story i'm going to read it next week i'm going to read it the week after i'm going to read it the week after because see we got vision drift we have a hard time keeping our focus but man if you want to remain confident we've got to decide now that when it looks crazy i'm going to focus on jesus when i don't know what to do i'm going to focus on jesus when when i don't have the answer and i don't know how to move forward and i don't know how to make sense of everything that's going on and i don't know which side to position i'm just going to look at jesus i'm going to stop looking at the natural and i'm going to start looking beyond to his supernatural provision and power second kings chapter 6 verse 18 says that the enemy came down towards him so i want you to catch this elisha is praying and the enemy continues to advance which reminds me that the presence of god is not determined by the presence of problems that that the presence of god does not mean the absence of problems that that that just because life is jacked up doesn't mean god isn't there elijah's praying and the problem is getting closer but the presence of god does mean the presence of power it does mean that we are protected it does mean that we are surrounded and god can surround the very thing that surrounds you even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death you are with me i will get through elisha looks up man more are with us than are with them oh if we could just see it if he would just open our eyes he'd restore our confidence [Music]

Channel: Experience Church

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Id: JPYZ_EkJXqw

Length: 44min 37sec (2677 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021