God's Vision for You

You and I are immersed in the physical realm. It envelops us. We can look up, we can look down, we can look within. We live within this range of the physical realm. And we, as the median size at six feet of all things, large and infinitesimal, fit right in the middle.

We are the median size of everything. So we have this great perspective. We also are equipped to have opportunities, the opportunities to pursue whatever it is that we want and essentially to dominate the other things in the physical realm. What is your life like within this physical realm? What are your ambitions and what are your goals and how do they fit within the environment that God has made, both the natural environment, the human environment, the spiritual environment in which we all exist? If you stop and you think of a young person, some of you are young, some of you have been young recently, and at times we get up in the morning and we think, I feel young again and we charge out.

It's like a new day, a new opportunity for life. We're going to pursue some things today. Now, it might be something fun, it might be a project, it might be something we want to acquire, something we want to do, a personal pursuit, a certain relationship, a career, a hobby. Oh, the mind gets going of the choices and the opportunities. And we can just bury up ourselves and think that we are really living a great life. Now, I would like you to do something, something that is very difficult for humans to do. I'll do it with you.

I want to take away your eyesight for a minute. God made it possible for us to remove that one sense that we depend on probably more than any other, which is our vision, our eyesight. We can do it simply by a thing He created called eyelids. We are reticent to do so unless our head is on a pillow in a very comfortable, safe place.

And imagine as a speaker up here, and those of you watching me now are recorded, I'm going to close my eyes and I ask that you will. Let's just do something here just for a second. Close your eyes and let's leave them shut just for a minute. It feels awkward, doesn't it? No, we're not praying. We're just currently without vision. Now imagine that you will decide to never open your eyes again, ever. You just keep them shut. You have that option? Or let's say that you're unable to see from now on just what you see right now. What is your vision for your future?

What will your life be like from here? Where will you go at the end of the service? How will you get there? What will you determine to do in this world, this creative, physical world? Stop and think for a minute.

You won't be driving. You may not be using a computer anymore. You won't be reading books with your eyes anyway. What about those relationships? How would you ever get to meet another person? And what would that person be to you? You wouldn't see them. How would you go about a career? How would you study? What ambitions will you have from here on in your life?

What will you do? What will you become? What will you amount to? Vision. Vision, by definition, is the ability to see or to perceive what will happen in the future. And right now, you and I have no real vision. Now let's open our eyes. Suddenly everything comes back. It's like, whoo, what a relief! I have my vision back. I'm able to do things that I otherwise would never be able to do. Vision, the anticipation of what can be for us, what may come to be.

Vision in the Bible, in the New King James Version, is used, it is mentioned, 93 times. And in all of those 93 times, essentially, it's talking about a divine revelation. You know, like, I was in a vision. Vision is something that is of God, in a sense, through the Holy Spirit, that God can live in us and lead us to be able to see and do things that weigh with our own eyes and in this physical realm would not know how to do. It says in Romans chapter 8, 8 and verse 14, For as many as are led by the Holy Spirit, these are the sons of God.

How can you be led by something that you can't see? How can you be led in a realm that is just as dark and invisible to you and me as if we closed our eyes? And yet, by the very fact that you are in church today, the very fact that you pray to God, you believe in a world in which you cannot see, you cannot guide yourself any more than the Egyptians could sit down and create the route to the afterlife that they would take when they died.

See, in reality, our eyes are shut to be able to see and perceive what lies outside the physical realm. And if we are to be sons of God, we need to be led by a spirit and do things that we cannot see. In a world of darkness, which symbolically we live in, it's a world without God's direction. People who do not see where they should go and how they should live. The one who sees and knows all wants to lead you. If our eyes are essentially closed to those things in the spiritual realm and the things that we need to be doing, then we need someone to lead us.

We need His eyes. We need the eyes, the goals, the vision of someone else. Going on in verse 16 of Romans 8, that we are children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, that we may also be glorified together. That means being turned so bright, we would be as bright as God and no human could look at us. Now, when your eyes were closed and you thought about where you're going to go from here, did you think about that?

Was that part of your vision or my vision? We are humans and we tend to think short-sighted. We tend to think in the realm of the grass that fades, of the life that's short, of the vapor that we live. And yet, from God's vision, we're children of His, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, in all that exists in the spirit realm, that we may be glorified and made into the sons of God in the divine form.

How's that provision?

It makes my vision a little short-sighted. What I might charge out to do with these eyes would be very, very short-sighted. Today, I'd like to talk to you about vision, real vision.

The title of the sermon today is God's Vision for You. We're going to look in Scripture and we're going to see from God's perspective that He actually has mapped out your future should you care to be led by Him. He has actually mapped out and laid out and has long planned for you life, blessings, eternity, that all you need to do is have His eyes to lead you in.

Take, for instance, God's plan of salvation. Let's turn in the Bible and read God's plan of salvation, shall we? Let's just turn right over there. Let's do that. Got it? Are you there?

Well, you know that there's no passage that just says, well, here's God's plan of salvation.

You know, God's plan of salvation is actually quite a mystery.

God's mystery has not been actually discovered by humanity or by theologians.

If you look at the religions of this world, because God has placed in us a desire for life, eternal life, people will look through books, they'll look through the Bible, and about the best they've come up with is, this is the only hope. There's some raging war between Satan and God, and Satan seems to be winning. And in the end, you either go to heaven if you're good based on God's laws, which you're not supposed to keep according to that religion, so I'm not sure how that grading works. Or if you're bad, you go to hell and you burn up there forever. But again, I'm not sure the grading system, because the same theologian says there essentially are no rules or laws to keep. And then some say, well, we're not even sure about that, so you might get stuck in the middle and just hang out somewhere in limbo.

Okay? God's plan of salvation is revealed to those that Jesus said, blessed are your eyes and your ears, for they are open. It is through the keeping of God's holy days that the plan of salvation is revealed. Beginning with the Passover, Jesus Christ died just as the Passover in the Old Testament was done by the killing of lambs, so that through the blood, those who came under that Passover and those who are baptized and released and attached to Christ Passover may walk free from bondage and slavery to sin and begin a journey. May begin to be led by God, led into acts of righteousness, acts of love, loving God and neighbor, becoming like their elder brother, Jesus Christ, becoming children of a new Father in heaven. That's the opportunity of the Passover. The journey of our life is typified in the days of unleavened bread, where we, like the Passover bread was unleavened, we too are to be unleavened. We're to get the sin out. We're to put that out and to put the bread of life, the righteousness, in. And in doing that in life, we get all the way to the edge of the Red Sea on the end of day six and we're still stuck.

God will still have to part. God will still have to do the miracle of the resurrection into his family. It's not something we can earn or do on our own, but we do have to make the journey.

We do have to be led. We do have to follow. We do have to walk the narrow path of Jesus Christ up to the difficult and very narrow gate.

You and I then keep the Feast of what's called Pentecost. It was the New Testament name for it that the Jews used, but the Old Testament was the Feast of Harvest. The Feast of Harvest of the First Fruits. There was an early harvest, a small group who would follow Christ. They're called the First Fruits in Revelation chapter 14 and verse 1. This early harvest will be resurrected to become the Bride of Christ and reign with him for a thousand years on earth, working with humanity. The timing of that is the Feast of Trumpets. It's on the seventh trumpet that the dead in Christ will rise first and Jesus Christ will begin to reign. The Feast of Atonement or at-one-ment, the putting aside of the God of this age, the God of this world, who will no longer deceive humanity, will then usher in what we celebrate at the Feast of Tabernacles, the seven-day representation of the thousand-year millennial reign of Christ on earth. What a wonderful time that will be for people actually to learn and to live God's way, to sample it. And the knowledge of the Lord, it says, will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, followed by the most surprising thing that will ever happen to humanity, and that's the second resurrection. It says in Revelation chapter 20 that after the thousand years, all who had died will be resurrected, and the books of the Bible will be opened, their names will be written in the Book of Life, they'll receive God's Holy Spirit, they'll have a chance to finally come to know God themselves.

That's a great opportunity that God has given, a wonderful blessing. Now, what the Feast do is reveal to you and open our eyes to God's vision for us. That's God's vision. That's what He shows us. Through doing what He tells us, suddenly we begin to say, oh, this is our future. This is the future for humanity. Without God's vision, we're in the dark. It says in Isaiah 59 verse 10, we grope for the wall like the blind. Remember where we were with the closer eyes. It's like, okay, I'm going to plan on my life now. I'm really going to do this real bang-up job here.

How far would we get? We grope for the wall like the blind. We grope as if we had no eyes.

We stumble at noonday as it twilight. That's what humans do in pursuing happiness, peace, pursuing a quality life with themselves, others, the environment. Without God's vision for your future, we have what humanity has. It's breaking apart. It's fracturing. We've killed the oceans, basically. We've killed the air pretty well. We're killing each other really well.

We're just grinding ourselves down at the very best of our intellect. We need better vision.

How do we see? How do we see and understand? Jesus again said, blessed are your eyes. Blessed are your spiritual eyes. God has let us see His vision. It's not our vision. We don't come up with something out of this Bible. We don't come in and manufacture things. We don't make up our own rules. We don't oppress or cause people to do things. This is voluntary. We merely look in our lead.

Jesus said in Matthew 6, when He did that Sermon on the Mount, He said, I had not come to take away a flick of the law, but rather to magnify it. It's no longer just going to be the letter. Now it's going to include the Spirit.

God is going to give us His Spirit, His vision, His help. We're going to not just not kill anymore.

We're going to love our enemies and pray for them. We're not just going to not do something that one of the Ten Commandments says, if you don't do this, or don't do this, so we don't. He says, I want you to get in there and I want to expand this. I want to open this up.

So we've been called to actually have our eyes opened.

What will you become in life? How are we going to do in life? Matthew 6, 25, passing through that section, He says, therefore I say to you, don't worry about your life. See, we don't really have to create the vision. Yes, we have to be industrious. The Bible talks about go to the ants, talks about being very diligent, very loving, very serving. There's a lot in here that we're to do to imitate God and be good people and love and serve all people. So there's a lot for us to be focused on. But we don't have to worry about whether in this life will I accomplish my great mission, my great vision, don't worry about what you will eat or your drink or about your body, what you will put on, or about the size of your house or your car. Okay, I threw those in.

A little more modern. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Dropping down to verse 32, for after all these things the Gentiles seek. In other words, those who are not of God's calling at this time but will be at some time. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. You worry about being a godly son or daughter of the family, and God will bless those who are godly and diligent. That's a matter of faith and trust.

When I was young, my father taught me to ask God to direct my life and my career. And as a young boy, I didn't think I ever wanted to be a fireman. I didn't know what I wanted to be. You just go to school and you come home and you play with your friends, and it's another day.

And he kept saying, pray and ask God to direct your life and your career and your future.

And so I would. I would ask God. I didn't really know that much about it.

So I did that throughout my teenage years. When I was 17, just about to graduate from high school — okay, let me get my eyes closed here so I can remember this — oh yeah, I've got my vision now.

My best vision for my future at age 17, graduating from high school, was to build a dune buggy and drive it around the Mojave Desert chasing rabbits. That was going to really be great. And there was an old VW in Ohio that I was going to get shipped out, a friend had, and I think the engine had to be rebuilt. I didn't do anything mechanical. I had no idea what would have happened to that idea. But that was my idea. I told my dad, I'm going to build a dune buggy. Go drive it around for a year.

I know it seems silly, but that was important to me. That was my vision.

Within three months of making that statement, I was touring Europe, all of Europe, top to bottom, then staying in the UK and going to college, and then getting promoted immediately into one of the loves of my life, electronics, video, and then given opportunities to serve on the campus, off the campus. I had the best job in college. And then came back to California to continue college and went into television production. My head is spinning. And I befriended along the way the most beautiful girl as just a friend and a sister. She was great.

My head was spinning, all the places I was going. When I graduated, well, before I graduated from college, I suddenly found myself in Ohio working two jobs between, well, for a whole year. After my junior year, I'm all of a sudden out there. This is not part of my... Remember the dune buggy?

I'm out there as assistant national sales manager and quality control for a manufacturing company of commercial trailers for a year and serving in the church, free. Then back to Pasadena, California, working in video production. And when I graduated from college, I worked in video production. I was hired, well, asked to be hired to work in the U.S. field ministry for the church, asked to be hired to work full-time in the Canadian field ministry, and asked to start and oversee the operations manager of a new plant in California for the trailer manufacturing company.

And we moved to Canada in British Columbia, and I married that beautiful friend of mine all in the same month. My vision is small. It was very short-sighted. I never had any of those ideas. I never had any... I didn't even know to dream any of that. It just comes at you fast. What I had focused on was repentance and baptism and trying to do God's will and trusting and continuing to ask, what do you want me to do in life? What would you like? And trusting that He would know.

There's a hymn that we have in the hymnal. The title is, Trust in God, Stand in Awe.

That's what life will be like for those who use God's vision and let God have the vision and trust and have the faith and the confidence that if we are busy doing the things that He wants us to and being led by Him, amazing things will work out that will dumbfound us and will just stand in awe.

I'm sharing that with you because that's my life. Now, then, I can't... I just don't know. Every day is an incredible day. The assignments that I have here and there, I just get down and I trust that God's going to do that and I do my best and the miracles that take place just every day. I can't take credit for any of it. Don't ever give me credit for anything.

I'm just part of the ride. Okay? And I hope to share with you that this should be all of ours. Not that I am the example here, but we need to have God's vision because if we look from the start of our day, God wants us to have His vision. Let's go, for instance, to Matthew 6 and verse 8. We're going to look at the model prayer outline again. The model prayer outline is something that isn't just sort of the framework that we pray by. Because this is the way that we begin our day and continue throughout our day, and this is our focus, it really gives us the vision for the day. Think about this as your vision maker. If you don't come here, then close the eyes and try to figure out what you're going to be and do. But if we stop here, here's where we get the vision. Let's go to Matthew 6. Start in verse 8.

Therefore, do not be like them, others, people who are always wanting things.

For your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him. Now, there's an interesting concept right there. I don't know what to ask. I've proven that to myself through life.

The things that I would ask for are things really I don't want in the long run when God provides other things. They're more meaningful. They're more valuable. So, when we just even start, it says, your father knows. God knows. God knows best, in fact. How much do you trust him to know what's good for you and for me? In this manner, therefore... Oh, wait a minute. What is he saying? Because your father knows best, therefore, in this manner, pray. Our Father in heaven. Oh, there's our vision. We go to our Father. He is in the unseen realm called heaven, a different dimension. Holy is your name. Ah, this focus is about your name and building your name, not my name. Your kingdom come. That's my goal. I'm seeing through your eyes. This is what's important. Your eternal divine spirit kingdom. Bring it on and bring it today. Help me be subject to you as its ruler. Help me be subject to your laws. Help me to live as a member of that kingdom.

You call me a son. You call me a daughter now. Help me to be that. Your will. Help me to do your will on earth as it is in heaven today. What is his will? Well, God's will is in here. God's will is that we become like him, that we repent, that we grow, that we develop and put on the mind of him and his son. And there's lots to do. So that's help me do what you would have me do. That's my vision. That's my goal for today. Give us, not me, us, give us, all of us. Now it's family. Give us this day our daily bread, the bread of life, Jesus Christ, the living logos, the written logos. Help me jump in here and focus on being led by you today. And forgive us our debts or our sins in the same way that we forgive our debtors or those who sin against us. And do not let us be led into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Turns out every day we can be taken captive by the evil one. We can get our minds and get our thoughts and get our deeds back to the old way.

We have to be forgiven and we have to ask God, forgive me today and forgive everybody of everything. For yours is the kingdom and yours is the power and yours is the glory forever. You know what it's missing in the model prayer outline? It's me. Me and I don't exist in that prayer. But what about me? Praying that prayer like that, that would be a scary thing, wouldn't it?

Because I've got some things, I've got some issues, I've got some needs. I know you know them already and I know you told me, therefore, since you already know them, I want you to pray about this other stuff. But what about my career, my car, my house, my spouse? What about what about...

Again, with your eyes closed and my eyes closed, how well do we see our future? How well do we really know what we need? How well can you direct your steps? How well how much do you really need to get God to support your vision rather than God to get us to see His vision and support it?

It's interesting, he says there that if you seek first the Kingdom of Heaven, all these things will be added to you. Well, take care of that other stuff.

You do the will of God first. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9, 1 Corinthians 2 verses 9 through 12. There is a statement I'm sure we all have read many times, but let's look at it through the lens of vision. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9, as it is written, eye has not seen... Remember, close the eyes. Yep, we can't see. Talk about our future. Talk about what... I don't just mean after we leave this physical life. I'm talking about our future tomorrow, this afternoon, next year, next eternity. Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. So our vision is going to be limited, right?

Because we, as humans, can't even dream it up. But God has a vision for you. God has a plan, a vision. He's got a place for you. He's got a place in His home. Jesus said, I go back to prepare a place in the family house, as it were, the mansion. But God has revealed them to us. He has given us His vision through His Spirit, dropping down for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him. That's why we can think and have intellect and reason, write history, songs, dream, and vent. For what man? For the Spirit. Let's see here. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. So we can't see what God says. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. That is God's vision for you and man. He's revealed it in part. We can see the grand picture. We can see where we fit as first fruits. It's the intent. We also know that half of the bride is foolish and doesn't make it. There's wheat and tares and there's people who fall short. So we've got to push ourselves. But things God has for us in the future also include blessings for today. Because God wants to wow us. He loves his kids. If we are responsible to do his will, John said of Jesus, he has come that we may have life and life more abundantly.

Anyway, I'm forgetting right now who made that statement. But we are to have life, turn to life, life more abundantly, life forever, life now. He wants us to prosper and be in health. God can work out all things. So what's your vision for what's best for you?

It tends to be nothing really for the long term. It might be something that you want to acquire, something you want to do, something you think that will really be a big thing.

And yet all of the things in our physical realm are short-focused. Let's go to 2 Peter 3 and verse 10. And believe me, I am not putting down at all things of the physical realm. We need to be occupied. We need to dress and keep the garden. We need work to be busy about. But all of those things are very short. As the book Ecclesiastes says, they are temporary. They are useless in the long term. That word vanity. So in 2 Peter 3 and verse 10 it says, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and all the works that are in it will be burnt up. It's good to be exercised now. It's good to do things that are good now, but just realize that's very short-sighted as far as having any eternal consequences. Therefore, Peter continues, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, the elements will melt with fervent heat? Now, get this provision. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look. We use a different set of eyes. We use God's set of eyes, and we look for new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found in him in peace without spot and blameless. You know, the people who begin to see through God's view, they come up with a little different set of goals. That vision makes them want to reach out, stretch out, and have a purpose in life that is beyond what anyone here would come up on their own. Hebrews 11.16 talks about some people who seek a different country, a heavenly country, and their allegiance now is to something they've never seen, something with their own eyes they can't see or perceive, but through God's eyes they're devoted to it. They embrace it. They desire a heavenly country, and God has prepared a city for them, a new Jerusalem. We need to embrace God's vision and also do what we can for the here and now to love, to serve, to be responsible.

But as Jesus said, to seek first that kingdom and his righteousness, and the rest will be given to us.

When I was a teen, God began to teach me about things in the physical realm.

And it took me a long time. I was very hard-headed. I would pray for things and ask God for things.

When I was five, I asked God one time. I was with my family up in California, in a mountain environment in the wintertime, and it was snowing. We got out of the car, and I had the snow suit on. It was kind of like a little mummy, you know, you can't hardly move. I wanted to shoot a BB gun. My older brother had a BB gun, so I was given the BB gun. So here I am.

I don't like this. So I wanted to shoot a bird. It's wintertime. There's no birds.

And I was depressed about that. So I wandered off from the car a little bit, just into the woods a little bit, you know, tromping in the snow. And I prayed to God, and I said, God, bring me a bird to shoot. I want to shoot a bird. Please, would you bring me a bird to shoot?

And I didn't know any better, so I just asked him, bring me a bird. And as I walked along, there's a little sapling right there.

A little pine tree sapling. And on the pine tree sapling were about five to seven little birds.

Not on the limbs, on the trunk. There's little black-headed things. They may call them chickadees or whatever, but a little black-gray bird. And there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, I don't...

On this tree! Oh, well thanks! This is great! So I took my bead again, and I didn't have to shoot it, so I figured use both eyes. I put on my chin, and I lined up on the birds. And now I'll probably miss it. This is how I stepped forward a little bit. So I, you know, got a little closer, and now I'll probably miss it. So I stepped forward. Kept spectrum of a fly. So finally, long story short, I have the gun on the back of one of these birds, pressing on its back. And I thought, you know, this isn't very much fun. And it's not fair to shoot a bird. It's not even moving. So I turned around and hustled back over the car, and I told my parents. I said, you know, I don't want to shoot birds. It's not right. And, you know, it was just incredible that that happened. And so it's kind of set me up. Well, well, if you'll give me birds, maybe when I go fishing, I'll catch a fish. So, you know, as I got older, I was like, God help me catch a fish today. Never caught a fish. Okay, my brothers, my dad, they were big hunters, and shooting deer, and they had horns hanging on the house.

My turn came. Never a deer. Never saw a deer to shoot. God help me find a deer today. No deer.

So I was on the track team. God help me win the race today. Never won a race.

Help our team to win. Never win. Okay, this event. We're going to go do something. Help the weather to be good. So it rained. You know, years and years and years of this began to think, you know, God, are you there? You know, I'm rubbing the genie lamp here three times a day, and nothing's coming out. You know, nothing's happening. And it took me a long time to realize that.

Help me get the job. I don't get the job. I once prayed, God help this woman to fall in love with me. And she didn't. Does God exist? Well, it turns out, as James 4.3 says, you ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. And it's very short sighted, very selfish, very personal. That was my goal, somehow to elevate what I was doing. It wasn't according to God's plan. It wasn't looking through his eyes. Turns out, simple fact, just like the Apostle Paul said, he says, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.

My vision was so short and so limited, I didn't know what to pray for. It took a long, long time.

Turns out, I think we're kind of like hovers, you know, the vacuum cleaner. You know, I want this, and I want that. You take the fitting off, flip that hoover on you, we start aiming at people. I want your attention, I want your affection, I want your money if I'm in sales. I want all this stuff for my life. You get the Binford 2000 model and kick it up a notch. You know, now, you really just run around with these vacuum cleaners trying to take from each other, as it were, as humans on this earth. And then we aim them up at God. God, I got a list here, checked it twice. You know, here's a bunch of stuff for you. And maybe he tells Jesus, uh-oh, hold your robe, they're starting to pray. God's not about that.

God is about putting the setting on blow and giving. And he says, I want you to pray for others. I want you to help. I want you to love others. I want you to give, to be like me.

When I finally figured that out, what God's vision was, was if I do what his children are to do, then he has got an incredible life for me. And as long as I want to go around and make it about me, guess what? There's nothing. There's nothing. I'd like to give you a challenge. Here's your challenge.

Look up the word, pray, in Scripture. Look up the word, pray, in Scripture. Now, you may forget to do this. So I'm challenging you just to look up the word, pray, in Scripture. When we think about what we should pray about, it's a pretty good idea if you look up the word, pray, and see what the word, pray, is associated with. I'll give you a little overview. Pray is associated with praying for your enemies, those who spitefully use you. Pray for laborers of the harvest, that your flight is not in the winter or in the Sabbath day. Pray that the love of the brethren will abound. Pray that the brethren will grow in faith. They'll grow in knowledge and discernment.

Pray that the brethren's faith is complete. Pray that the brethren don't stray. Pray that they are filled with the knowledge of God's will. Pray for the ministry. Pray for the gospel. Pray for all men. Pray for all leaders. Pray for one another that they may prosper and be in health.

Okay, that's a synopsis of what the word, pray, is associated with in the New Testament.

There's a challenge for you to do a study on that. Now, I'll give you a dare.

Some people don't like the word, dare, okay? But I think, for me, I needed a dare. I had to dare myself to pray about those things the Bible talks about prayer with. It wasn't just good to say, well, it'd be a good idea if I did it, because I didn't do it. So I had to dare myself. I dare you, John Elliott. Pray about those things. Focus on those things. Get it off of yourself.

So if we don't use the word, dare, okay? I double dare you.

In that sense, I think we have to push ourselves out of our comfort zone to do what God tells us to do and embrace his vision and trust him, to trust him.

Focus your prayers on such things and trust God with your future.

That is sort of going without a lifeline, as it were. That's taking off the safety belt and saying, okay, God, I'm going to do and I'm going to focus on, I'm going to pray about, I'm going to think about, I'm going to be involved in what your vision is here, and I'm going to fulfill your vision, and I'm going to trust that I'm in good hands and that all things are going to work out well. So I hope you understand the term, and in a dare in that sense, it kind of takes that little nudge, because when you're in a safety situation and someone says, okay, now instead of you being clamped to me skydiving, I'm going to give you a parachute and you're going to jump out of the plane by yourself. It's kind of a little bit of a dare. You have to stand there and you have to dare yourself, you know? And you say, I don't know. Do I? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not sure. At some point, you kind of have to push yourself and say, you know what? I'm going to trust that if I do all that I've been taught and all that I've been told, this is going to work out very well. Catch God's vision. Jump into his life, into his work with all your heart.

He says to dare him, in a sense. Remember over in Malachi 3, where he says, test me, try me. I dare you. Test beyond this. Put the tithes in my storehouse and see if I don't open up.

I'm going to see if I don't open the windows of heaven so that you receive so much you can't even receive it all. It's kind of daring us to test him. And at some point, we have to step out. At some point, we have to say, all right, this is what God asks of me.

I'm really going to do it in a trusting way. Ask God for his vision.

We need to understand that God is pulling together a family.

That he has put all of his energies into this physical realm for one reason, oneness.

Christ said that they may be one in us, I in you, you in me, them in us, us in them.

That this body can pull itself together and it ultimately will be forever as a family.

In the kingdom of God. That's big. God could have a hundred billion children once he resurrects everybody who's ever lived in the second resurrection and gives them the vision.

You're called to see, and then you're called to do. I'm called to see and called to do.

It's those who are the doers of the law that are justified, not the hearers only. So we have a lot to do. We've got to love and serve all people.

Humanity can't see how to live and prosper in peace. We can't either. One of Jesus' names is light. I am the light of the world, he said. The very beginning of the Bible, day one, he said, let there be light. And I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't mean that God showed up. And as the bookmarks or the bookends, he is the beginning and the end. He is the author and the finisher. And when he shows up as the light and he came as the light that led Israel out of Egypt in the darkness, and he comes as the light in a dark world to lead you and me on the difficult path, we need to follow him because he can see and we cannot. God wants us to be like him.

And you and I are in a creation that's someone else's vision. This was not our vision. This whole universe and everything about it in its future is God's vision. And we need to be in sync with that vision in order to succeed. And if we sync up with it, then, as it says in Ephesians 1 and verse 3, He blessed be the God of our Father, or God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing and heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He has a vision for you. He has a whole thing mapped out for you since before starting this physical creation, he had that. That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to sonship as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. That's God's big view. And you are in the center of His vision, the center of His plan. Without God, we are clueless. We really are clueless.

But God gives us a vision that is really filled with meaning. I don't know if you've experienced this, but human vision is very short-sighted. The big things that we do, all the big things that we do terminate. The billionaires of the last century, all the things that they made, they're history. We don't sail in ships anymore. Things change. The things that you and I are about, we've got to realize, are human ambitions. The very jobs and the careers and everything keeps changing. The various things that we have. It'll all come down to eventually your body will expire, and you'll die. And all that expensive stuff you work for will get trucked and dropped at goodwill. It happens every day. Your grandkids won't want it. This stuff's dorky. It's already getting dorky. It gets dorky so fast, you probably don't want most of it. But that's that's kind of what it's like in this life. It's funny. It's sad. We drive around here, you know, you come up to the edge of the desert, and it's filled with old sofas, Chesterfields, reclining chairs, televisions that are shot out. I can show you a boat that probably once cost $100,000 sitting out there, all shot up, graffiti on it. I mean, these are somebody's dreams that they invested, probably took out big loans for.

That's us. That's what we as humans can accomplish with our best vision. But with God, you can have light, sight, vision. You can have his vision, and you can trust him to take you where it's best to go.

The way to do that is to grow. Repent, overcome, grow in godliness, mature in godliness, emulate the Father. Jesus said, become you like your Father in heaven is. He says in the New Testament, put on the mind of Christ that we are to seek those things that are above. If we do that, the path will be lit for us. We won't have to see. We just do. We need to learn that God knows best and trust him. So in conclusion, God has the view that you want. My view was pretty bad.

Driving around the desert chasing rabbits. That's what I came up with.

And that's just in the physical realm. When we look at what God's vision is, takes us to a whole new level we never even thought about.

Let's conclude by reading Romans 8, verses 28 through 31. Romans 8, beginning in verse 28. This is an interesting thing we experience. We think it's surprising. And yet, if God is the one directing our step, this is a reality every time, every day, in all situations that we don't step in and mess up. Romans 8, 28 says, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. I didn't say that all things are like a trip to Disneyland, but all things, the good, the bad, the negative, the lessons, the trials, and some things you just can't imagine why they happen. Later on, you can look back and you say, wow, that was a growth opportunity. That was a plateau for me. That was a step up. That was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Wouldn't wish it on a dead dog. But I'm sure glad that I've learned and grown from that. All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, for whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. There's a vision I didn't have when I was 17 or when I was trying to figure out the best thing for me in life. Conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many firstborn brethren, we find out. The firstfruits, a group that are so blessed, it says in Revelation chapter 20, oh, how supremely blessed are those who have a part in the first resurrection.

They shall reign with Christ as priests for a thousand years. Wow!

Moreover, whom He predestined, these He called.

Those He called, He has justified. And whom He justified, these He also will glorify.

Glorify into a God-being.

You know, God isn't creating little minions that aren't like Him. We're created in His image, in His likeness, we're called His children, we're going to be sons, full inheritance, and we're told we don't know what we'll be like exactly, but we know we shall be like Him. We will be like He is. Glorified.

And what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

So walk with God into your future. Let Him lead you like a sheep.

Don't worry about the valleys with the shadows of death and the trials and tribulations along the way. God is your eyes. He is your vision for the future. He is the one who has your life in its direction in His hands if you let Him. Trust God and hang on for an incredible ride into the future.