The Ways of Wisdom: A Critical Theological Review

• Vision and Revelation 00:01:22 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor defines vision as prophetic revelation from the Holy Spirit, citing Proverbs 29:18 to explain that without vision, people lack restraint and direction.
• God's Nature and Creation 00:02:31 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that God always works in the light, citing Genesis 1 to show that God's first act was to bring light, establishing a pattern for His work.
• The Five Virtues of Vision 00:07:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor introduces a framework of five virtues (Clarity, Energy, etc.) to measure and understand the impact of having a clear vision in life.
• Clarity of Purpose 00:08:02 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor discusses the importance of having a clear understanding of God's will, contrasting it with living on a 'conveyor belt' of societal expectations.
• Energy and Focus 00:11:00 ▶️ 📄
  > Using the analogy of a shotgun versus a rifle, the pastor explains how writing down and understanding a vision focuses one's energy and effort.
• Energy and Focus 00:11:00 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that having a vision focuses energy like a rifle, whereas lacking vision scatters energy like a shotgun.
• Purity and Restraint 00:12:41 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that a clear vision naturally restrains negative behaviors and desires, citing a professional golfer's visualization technique as an analogy.
• Unity in Relationships 00:14:18 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal story about his marriage, explaining how aligning visions with his wife eliminated division and created unity.
• Victory and Joy 00:21:25 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor asserts that keeping God's law and having vision leads to rejoicing, victory, and happiness.
• How to Get Vision 00:21:43 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor advises stopping current activities to pray and ask God for wisdom, sharing his own journey of realizing he lacked vision for his church.
• Seeking Vision First 00:21:41 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that vision is the most important thing to get first, citing his own experience of having no vision until he read a book and stopped reacting to fear.
• Prayer and Faith 00:22:56 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor instructs the congregation to stop and pray for vision, citing Matthew 6:33 and James 1:5, emphasizing that God gives wisdom liberally to those who ask in faith without doubting.
• The Nature of Faith 00:25:17 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor defines faith as believing God is present and a rewarder, contrasting this with the devil's concept that God is angry, and emphasizes that asking in faith is essential.
• Sources of Vision 00:30:43 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor outlines three ways people get vision: being 'seers' (seeing), 'hearers' (hearing), and 'feelers' (feeling), noting that God speaks in the language of the individual.
• Redemption of Scars 00:33:54 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that God speaks vision through scars (past failures or struggles), using his own marriage and his father's absence as examples of how God redeems brokenness for ministry.
• Vision and Parenting 00:33:31 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares how he gained vision for fatherhood by observing other fathers and godly leaders.
• Redemption of Scars 00:33:57 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that God uses personal failures and scars (like his own near-divorce) to help others in similar situations.
• Writing Down Vision 00:35:09 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor instructs the congregation to write down visions from the Holy Spirit, citing Habakkuk, to keep them in front of them for motivation.
• Prayer for Wisdom 00:36:07 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor leads a prayer asking the Holy Spirit for wisdom and vision, citing James 1:5, and affirming God's forgiveness and love.

• Sermon Illustration 00:00:26 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his 52nd wedding anniversary with his wife Karen, noting they were married on May 11th, 1973.
• Sermon Illustration 00:11:56 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts a personal vision he had at age 19, where a sheet dropped in front of his face and he saw himself preaching to a multitude, which led to his calling to preach.
• Sermon Illustration 00:11:13 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a shotgun (shooting at everything) versus a rifle (focused energy) to illustrate the difference between living without vision and living with vision.
• Sermon Illustration 00:11:56 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about being a 'class clown' and not a good student until age 19, when he had a vision of preaching to a multitude, which gave him passion and energy.
• Sermon Illustration 00:12:50 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts a story about playing golf with a professional golfer who explained that sports psychologists prove you cannot turn a negative thought into a positive action, illustrating how vision provides positive direction.
• Sermon Illustration 00:14:37 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes his early marriage struggles with his wife Karen due to differing visions, and how they resolved it by attending a 'vision retreat' to align their goals, resulting in a year without fighting.
• Sermon Illustration 00:15:42 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes a 'vision retreat' he attended with his wife, where they surrendered their marriage to God and discussed every area of their life (money, kids, schedules) to align their visions.
• Sermon Illustration 00:22:04 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his early days as senior pastor of Trinity, admitting he had no vision and was only driven by fear of failure until he read a book that changed his perspective.
• Sermon Illustration 00:29:17 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts a specific incident where he told his wife Karen to leave the house during a fight, and the Holy Spirit guided him to teach him how to be a husband, resulting in a healed marriage.
• Sermon Illustration 00:34:01 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of an alcoholic or drug addict to illustrate that the best help comes from someone who has been set free from that same struggle, applying this to his own ministry of helping others in marriage.
• Sermon Illustration 00:34:22 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares his personal story of how he and his wife Karen almost divorced but were healed by God, which now allows them to help others in marriage.
• Sermon Illustration 00:34:01 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy that no one can help an alcoholic or drug addict better than someone who has been set free from those addictions.

• Pastoral Charge 00:09:26 ▶️ 📄
  > Pray to God to reveal the purpose and mission of one's life.
• Pastoral Charge 00:10:32 ▶️ 📄
  > Attend a vision retreat.
• Pastoral Charge 00:22:56 ▶️ 📄
  > Stop current actions, pray for God's wisdom and vision, and ask God to provide it.
• Pastoral Charge 00:20:33 ▶️ 📄
  > Contact Kimmy at xomarriage.com to either attend the retreat (if affordable) or sponsor a couple (if unable to attend).
• Pastoral Charge 00:22:56 ▶️ 📄
  > Stop current actions started without prayer and ask God for vision regarding career, education, relationships, and business.
• Pastoral Charge 00:28:25 ▶️ 📄
  > Pray for wisdom before entering meetings or making decisions.
• Pastoral Charge 00:30:52 ▶️ 📄
  > Ask the Holy Spirit for vision and revelation in specific areas of life.
• Pastoral Charge 00:35:09 ▶️ 📄
  > Write down the vision and keep it visible.
• Pastoral Charge 00:35:32 ▶️ 📄
  > Write down the vision and keep it in front of you.
• Pastoral Charge 00:36:33 ▶️ 📄
  > Bow heads and pray for vision and wisdom.

[00:00:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:08] And happy Mother's Day to all the mothers. You deserve a wonderful day and I hope that this is a great day for you and a great year.
[00:00:19] Isn't it beautiful outside this morning? My goodness, we deserve that, don't we?
[00:00:23] After all the weather we've had, we deserve a pretty day.
[00:00:26] This today, May 11th, Karen and I, this is our 52nd wedding anniversary today. Isn't that great?
[00:00:33] and she's watching happy anniversary to my precious wife and we were married May 11th of 1973 and so we've got the Lord had blessed me with a wonderful wife and we just had a wonderful marriage we're very thankful for and I'm going to continue in this series the ways of
[00:00:51] wisdom last week I preached a message on a teachable spirit I made a statement related to Jesus when he stayed back in Jerusalem when his parents came and found him I want to make a
[00:01:02] clarifying statement of that in the interactive state in the interactive service next service and so if you want to hear it you can hang around for that or you can see it online it's going to be
[00:01:12] on youtube and all over the place but i just wanted to clarify a statement that i made that some people asked me a question about and so this message today is called the wisdom of vision
[00:01:22] i want to talk about vision having vision in your life and this is what solomon says in proverbs 29 18 where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint but happy is he who keeps the law
[00:01:37] where there is no vision where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint but happy is he who keeps the law the word revelation here literally means prophetic vision prophetic revelation from the holy spirit spiritual vision a knowledge of god's will
[00:01:52] and direction for our lives on a spiritual level that's what it means and let me paraphrase proverbs 29 18 here where there is no capacity to see beyond the natural realm people lack the ability to restrain their sin natures and to stay dedicated and unified in doing god's will for
[00:02:12] their life let me read that one more time where there is no capacity to see beyond the natural realm people lack the ability to restrain their sin natures and to stay dedicated and unified in doing god's will for their lives it's absolutely true in in every area of life and so the principle
[00:02:31] here is everything that god does he does in the light everything god god always works in the light he always works through revelation and vision and you see this the kingdom of god is called the
[00:02:43] kingdom of light the kingdom of satan is called the kingdom of darkness satan wants to keep us in darkness and confusion the lord wants to bring us into the light and give us revelation let me
[00:02:54] just read some scriptures here just kind of proving this point genesis 1 1 in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the
[00:03:04] face of the deep and the spirit of god was hovering over the face of the waters then god said let there be light and there was light and god saw the light that it was good and god divided the
[00:03:15] light from the darkness so the first thing that god did in creation was turn on the lights that's what he always does genesis 1 this is verse 26 god said let us make man in our image according
[00:03:25] to our likeness let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air and over all the cattle over the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so god created man
[00:03:36] in his own image in the image of god he created him male and female he created them then god blessed them and god said to them be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it have
[00:03:46] dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth so god didn't just create adam and eve he told them exactly what their purpose was
[00:03:56] he gave them a vision for everything he wanted them to accomplish isaiah 46 beginning in verse 9 remember the former things of old i am god and there is no other i am god there is none like me
[00:04:09] declaring the end from the beginning from ancient times things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and i will do all my pleasure declaring the end from the beginning i want to
[00:04:22] give you a vision for the end at the very beginning proverbs 8 this is beginning with verse 1 does not wisdom cry out and understanding lift up her voice she takes her stand at the top
[00:04:33] of the hill beside the way where the paths meet she cries out by the gates at the entry of the city at the entrance of the doors to you o men i call in my voice to the sons of men this is now
[00:04:44] verse 22 the lord possessed me at the beginning of his way before his works of old i have been established from everlasting from the beginning before there ever was an earth when there were no depths i was brought forth when there was no fountains abounding with water before the mountains
[00:05:00] were settled before the hills i was brought forth when yet there he had not made the earth or the fields or the primeval dust of the earth and so again wisdom is there at the beginning when we're
[00:05:12] beginning something god wants to give us wisdom and vision so we don't waste all of our time and fail acts chapter 2 this is the day of pentecost verse 15. these are not drunk as you suppose
[00:05:23] since it is only the third hour of the day but this is what was spoken by the prophet joel it shall come to pass in the last days says god god i will pour out my spirit on all flesh your sons
[00:05:34] and daughters shall prophesy your young men shall see visions your old men will dream dreams on my men servants and on my maid servants i will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy
[00:05:45] so on the day of pentecost when the holy spirit fell what you know peter is saying here is god is pouring out his spirit on his people so that they know the future so that you have a
[00:05:56] sense of vision about what you're doing the young men see visions the old men dream dreams young men see visions because they're going to do what god is saying old men like me dream dreams because
[00:06:09] it's going to be the next generation that does it we're dreaming it but when i was a young man i saw a vision see the problem is i'm dreaming dreams and so that's how i know i'm old and so the spirit
[00:06:19] of revelation is birth god's church god god works within that spirit of revelation this is john 5 this is jesus jesus answered and said to them most assuredly i say to you the son can do nothing of
[00:06:33] himself but what he sees the father do for whatever he does the son also does in like manner For the father loves the son and shows him all the things that he himself does.
[00:06:44] And he will show himself greater works than these that you may marvel.
[00:06:47] So even Jesus was saying, I see the father, what he's doing.
[00:06:52] And that's the model that gives me vision for what I'm doing.
[00:06:55] I only do what I see the father doing.
[00:06:58] So let me tell you why, you know, why, why is vision so important?
[00:07:03] Why is it that God works the way that he works?
[00:07:05] Let me give you the five virtues of vision.
[00:07:07] why does god only work within the context of vision and he does he never works in the darkness he says i don't i do nothing unless i reveal it first to my servants the prophets so god wants
[00:07:20] to tell us at the beginning what his plan is for our lives for our marriage for our church for our business for whatever it is that we're doing wisdom shows up at the very beginning cries out
[00:07:31] at the gates of the city hey listen to me i want to tell you i want to tell you what it is that you're doing. Here are the five virtues of vision, five benefits of living our lives according to
[00:07:41] vision. And this is also five ways to measure the vision level in our life. So as I'm giving these five, you can just kind of ask yourself the question, is this true of me? I mean, do I have
[00:07:53] this? No, I'm just saying all of us have made mistakes and I had a zero vision level when I got saved. But this is something that has completely changed my life and changed the church.
[00:08:02] number one virtue of vision is clarity a clear understanding of god's will in every area now and on the future now and in the future you live your life on purpose and with confidence and
[00:08:15] so uh here's here's the question how can you succeed if you don't know what you're trying to accomplish clarity vision brings clarity and i think for a lot of us we kind of live our lives
[00:08:27] on this conveyor that says i go to school i get an education i get a career i get married i have kids i prepare for retirement i retire you know i'm just on this conveyor belt but i never really
[00:08:42] understood the exact purpose so there was a poll that was done many years ago this is a secular poll and they ask americans if you could ask god any question what would you ask him okay and the
[00:08:55] number one response to that was why am i here people said i i would ask god why am i here did you know that you can ask him and he'll answer that question psalm 139 says that god knit us
[00:09:06] together in our mother's womb we're fearfully and wonderfully made and he has so many thoughts about us when he created us in our mother's womb see god detailed our lives in our mother's womb he has so
[00:09:17] many thoughts about us they're like the sand of the seashore which cannot be measured and so you You can go to God and say, why am I here?
[00:09:26] He's the only one that can answer that question.
[00:09:28] He knows the purpose for your life.
[00:09:31] And so you go to God and say, why am I here?
[00:09:34] What is the purpose of my life?
[00:09:36] Why did you create me?
[00:09:39] What is my mission here on the earth?
[00:09:41] The graduating seniors, a lot of seniors are graduating.
[00:09:44] Our two granddaughters, Abby and Eldest, graduated from Tech yesterday.
[00:09:48] Our granddaughter Kate graduates this Friday from high school.
[00:09:52] of graduating seniors it's the perfect time to pray and to say if you're going to college lord which major do i take here just let me say this he says i don't think you ought to choose a major
[00:10:03] based on what pays the most i think you ought to choose a major based on what god says because some of the jobs that pay a lot right now may not pay much then there may be a robot doing
[00:10:17] it by the time you graduate lord what what is it that you want me to do and so clarity do you have a clear understanding in your marriage in your business in everything that you're doing do you
[00:10:32] have as a parent you know i want to talk to you about vision retreats and vision here in just a minute do you have a clear understanding of your child when your child is born what what is the
[00:10:42] purpose of this child and the lord will speak to us concerning our children number two number one virtue of vision is clarity i have a clear understanding of what it is that i'm trying to accomplish number two is energy so this is habakkuk 2 2 the lord answered and said to me
[00:11:00] write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it take the vision and write it down and when you write it down and you understand it it's going to give you energy
[00:11:13] here's what happens it focuses your energy when you don't know what you're trying to accomplish it's just like this big shotgun that you're just shooting at everything you know when you have vision it's like a rifle it focuses that energy and the other thing is this god's vision for your
[00:11:30] life is custom made for you when god when god shows you the the vision for your life it will excite every cell in your body when god creates you he gives you he gives you the tools to do
[00:11:44] do what he wants you to do and so when i was growing up i was very add kid very class clown kind of a kid was not a good student uh you know i just i don't know i just i was who i was
[00:11:56] and so at 19 years old a week after i got saved uh the lord i was sitting in the backyard of my house and just kind of a sheet dropped in front of my face and i saw myself preaching to a multitude
[00:12:09] to people. And that's when the Lord called me to preach. And so I'm saying what I do right now, I love every second. I mean, this is what I was created to do in my mother's womb.
[00:12:21] But I remember back in high school and college and stuff like that. What am I going to do?
[00:12:26] You know, who am I? When God shows you who you are, it will so excite you energy. It will give a passion number three virtue of vision is purity is where there is no vision people can't restrain
[00:12:41] themselves and so but happy is he who keeps the law and so you naturally restrained so i was playing golf one day with a guy who is a professional golfer he was on the tour for seven
[00:12:50] years best golfer ever played with i don't think he would say the same of me and but i was not having a good day on the golf course that day so we were walking you know he said what is your swing
[00:13:01] thought you know what is your swing thought and i said well i don't know i think like don't lift your head or something like that and he got quiet for a minute he said well that's an interesting
[00:13:10] thing you just said he said now sports psychologists have proven you can't turn a negative thought into a positive action and i thought well no wonder i'm a bad golfer you know and so good golfers they'll sit there and visualize the shot and they're not telling
[00:13:28] themselves not to don't lift your head they're saying something positive themselves you can't live a successful life by a bunch of don'ts i don't want to be like my parents i don't want to be like my father i don't want to be this i don't want to fail i don't want to go bankrupt i don't
[00:13:41] want a divorce i don't want you can't live a successful life that way is that when you have when you have a vision for your life you don't want to do the bad stuff you don't have to restrain
[00:13:54] this out here you you have a vision and you have a passion and a clarity i want to do god's will for my life i understand what god's will is for my life and i want to do that and it just naturally
[00:14:08] restrains the bad stuff it doesn't mean we never make mistakes but i'm saying this to the degree that you have vision is to the same degree that you don't struggle over here number four virtue
[00:14:18] of vision is unity without vision this is proverbs 29 without vision you can't restrain people in other words you can't keep people together that's true of a church that's true of a marriage that's true in every area of life and so let me say this there's vision there's another word division
[00:14:37] you know what division means two visions we you're in marriage and this this was true of karen early in our marriage we just had two visions she had one vision for finances i had one another vision for finances she had one vision for our lives and our future had another vision
[00:14:55] over here so where you have amos amos says can two walk together unless they first agree the answer is no you're going to fight all the time and so when you have vision it's like head
[00:15:07] headlights on a car it aligns your headlights and all of a sudden before we we both had different visions and we're fighting all the time now all of a sudden we have the same vision and now we're
[00:15:17] walking in unity so karen and i uh god healed our marriage and then four or five years later i was doing i was a senior pastor here and i was doing some marriage seminars around the country i can't
[00:15:29] remember the year in probably late 1980s and so uh we had a good marriage uh and but we i had a friend and he and his wife went on a vision retreat every year i didn't know what that was
[00:15:42] and he told me he said yeah we go every away every year uh for three or four days they had five children and he said and we wake up in the morning and all morning long we pray and talk until we
[00:15:55] have god's vision for our marriage for the next year he said we talk about every area of our life we talk about sex we talk about our priorities we talk about money we talk about our schedules
[00:16:07] we talk about relationships he said and we pray for every child individually until we believe we have god's vision for every one of our children every year and he said evans is the most transforming
[00:16:19] thing that we've ever done he said you and karen need to try it so we did karen and i borrowed some friends house uh lake house and we went there for several days we had a good marriage but we had
[00:16:30] we had several areas of our marriage that were you know snippy at times and uh money you know that was an area that we just kind of had some stress and at times our kids our kids were young uh at
[00:16:42] at that time probably young teenagers or whatever um in my schedule being the pastor here at the church that karen did not feel like she was a partner in my schedule which she was not but you
[00:16:53] know i would make decisions and then tell them about it she didn't she didn't like that and so because i was busy and she always felt like you know if you talk to me that you wouldn't be so
[00:17:02] busy and all that stuff so we had our first vision retreat and we woke up in the morning and we the first thing you do in a vision retreat is surrender your marriage to god
[00:17:10] no one can dominate you have to be a partnership and so we began by surrendering our marriage to God and said Lord this is your marriage for your purpose we we exist for the glory of your kingdom and we surrender our
[00:17:25] marriage to you and so we just talked we just started talking now we have this Karen I wrote this vision retreat guidebook you can get this on amazon.com or XO marriage calm this this helps you to organize if you're gonna have a
[00:17:39] a vision retreat this helps you to organize your vision retreat record everything put it down to get ready for it to do it and also record what you did we didn't have one of these we just sit
[00:17:48] down and we started talking we we talked about every single area of our marriage but the three areas the money the kids and my schedule whatever we talked about those let me say this we came out
[00:18:01] of that vision retreat first of all you know you have god's vision when you agree it has to agree with a word but when you sit down and you talk first of all you're not reactively talking you're
[00:18:12] proactively talking so if you don't sit down and proactively talk all year long you're reacting the money you're reacting to stress you're reacting to kids you're reacting to all this kind of stuff there's there's proactive communication which means we're going to
[00:18:28] sit down and talk in advance there's reactive communication which means since we didn't proactively talk we're going to react and then there's radioactive communication which means because we didn't do this now we can't even talk about it it's so toxic and so we sat down and we
[00:18:44] had our first vision retreat let me say this we had a good marriage if our marriage was here we came out here and we did not fight for a year by the way the reason we knew we didn't have vision
[00:18:57] retreat is when we started fighting we did we did not have any level of disagreement because we were a team. We had a vision for both kids, Julie and Brent. Brent has Karen's personality and Julie has my personality. And so it was easy for me to understand Julie. It was hard for Karen
[00:19:15] to understand Julie. It was easy for Karen to understand Brent. It was hard for me to understand Brent. And so that created tension in our marriage. And so we sat down until we both agreed,
[00:19:26] here's what we're going to do as a team for Julie. Here's what we're going to do as a team. This is what we believe god is saying to brent and we did it and for the rest of the year we were a team let
[00:19:35] me let me say this so exo marriage this fall we're having our first vision retreat weekend at our facility in southlake texas and this is for 50 couples it's limited to 50 couples i think this
[00:19:48] information will come up on the screen here and so it's 999 a couple um october 10th and 11th and also november 7th and 8th and there are some dates there for next year also and so this this
[00:20:02] is the first time we've done this i'll be teaching there along with some of our other exo teachers you'll have time alone to have fun and also to talk and pray but we're going to guide you through
[00:20:11] this vision retreat weekend and so if this is something that you're interested in these will fill up and so you can go uh you see the exo institute.com and you can sign up now karen and
[00:20:24] are going to sponsor at least one couple for all of these visitor trades that means we're going to pay for somebody to go and so if you can't afford it uh maybe you can afford part of it you can't
[00:20:33] afford it just kimmy at the bottom there kimmy at xomarriage.com you just contact her and say we would love to come we can't afford it and we'll find a place for you if you want to sponsor a
[00:20:45] couple some of you might say well i we can't come but i'd like to sponsor somebody get a hold of kimmy kimmy at xomarriage.com and you say hey we'd like to sponsor a couple for the for the
[00:20:54] the vision retreat weekend let me say it will transform your marriage it is the best thing we ever did for our marriage and we're going to be doing these vision retreat weekends throughout the year now for couples and again it's 50 couples it's very very intimate very hands-on
[00:21:11] and it will be something that will bless your marriage so i'm talking about unity another Another benefit of vision is unity, is to walk in unity.
[00:21:22] Number five, virtue of vision is victory.
[00:21:25] It says, where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.
[00:21:30] It means you're going to rejoice.
[00:21:33] Whenever you're doing what God calls you to do, you're going to be happy.
[00:21:38] There's going to be victory and happiness and joy.
[00:21:41] And so I want to talk about how to get vision.
[00:21:43] okay so that's those are all the reasons that we need vision but but how do you get vision let me let me talk about it number one you get it first it's the most important thing you do so again i'm
[00:21:54] sitting here having this this talk and i know that there are some of you that just you've never heard this before and i mean i didn't i had never heard before when i when i first heard about it and i
[00:22:04] haven't never heard about vision retreats for marriage and so this is the most important thing when i became senior pastor of trinity i had no vision for this church what my vision was don't get don't get killed you know it's just literally the failure the fear of failure was
[00:22:19] the only thing i cared about i mean i just was terrified 29 years old i just and i and i read a book by this guy and he said if you don't have vision for your church stop until you have a
[00:22:31] vision for the church it's that important and so that that helped me to understand i needed to get rather than just reacting to fear and reacting to people and reacting i needed to get a vision
[00:22:42] for this church well and so it's the first thing you need to do so if you've started something and you did it without stopping and praying about it and asking god for wisdom and vision i'm just
[00:22:56] saying stop where you are now and you say hey lord i'm sorry i didn't know that i didn't know about this i want you to give me what i want your vision for for my career for my education for my
[00:23:08] relationships for my business for whatever it is i can just tell you he loves you he wants he wants to give it to you matthew 6 33 one of the most powerful promises in the bible jesus says seek
[00:23:18] first the kingdom of god and his righteousness i'll give you everything else all these things will be added to you it's one of the most powerful promises in the entire bible the word kingdom there is the word basilea it means the rulership of god if you'll seek first god's will in god's
[00:23:35] rule you'll succeed in everything that you do and so get it first number one number two get it by faith james one if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of god who gives to all liberally
[00:23:46] and without reproach and it will be given to him but let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind let not that man suppose
[00:23:59] that he will receive anything from the lord he is a double-minded man unstable in all of his ways okay so that i pray that i pray i pray james 5 james 1 5 every day lord give me wisdom okay
[00:24:12] but it says if you're this is such a beautiful powerful promise if any of you lacks wisdom i lack wisdom every day they're they're every single thing i do i lack wisdom in that and so
[00:24:28] the beautiful promise is it says he gives to everyone that you know what everyone means it means you it means he gives everyone if you lack wisdom ask of god he gives to everyone liberally you know what that means he'll give you as much he'll give you all the wisdom you need
[00:24:44] and without reproach when you come to god and say lord i lack wisdom he'll say yeah i know dummy I've been watching you fail all these years you're the dumbest person I think I ever made
[00:24:55] you know he doesn't do that there's no reproach he's not going to reproach you for all your failures and for all your mistakes you come to God and say Lord I come to you today I need wisdom
[00:25:05] he'll say good I'll give you all that you need and I understand that you're failing and coming to me is the best thing you could ever do Hebrews 11 6 this is faith without faith it is impossible
[00:25:17] to please him for he who comes to god must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him so any of you lack wisdom let him ask of god okay who gives to all men liberally without
[00:25:30] approach but you have to ask in faith because if you come to god and you don't have faith you're going to ask and then you're going to walk away thinking well maybe he didn't give me as
[00:25:40] miserable maybe maybe this maybe i this person over here you know you're just going to go back forth and back and forth without faith this you can't please god and there are two absolute essentials in faith for he who comes to god must must believe two things he is and he's a rewarder
[00:26:03] he is what does he is mean he's right here he's with us right now hebrews 13 5 i will never leave you i will never forsake you therefore i will boldly say the lord is my helper what can man
[00:26:14] do to me here's the promise that god makes you he'll never leave you and he'll never forsake you leave his physical forsake his emotional he'll never physically leave you and he'll never turn his heart away from you regardless of what you've done okay so you have to believe see that god is
[00:26:31] number one he's he's a good god he's a rewarder so the concept that the there's a very important concept of god the devil needs you to have here's the concept of god the devil needs you to have
[00:26:44] god is up in heaven mad at you and he's ready to whop you for all this stuff it's very important for the devil that you have that concept but for the lord for the lord to work we must believe

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:27:26] that he's with us and he loves us he's a good god he's a good god he's a good father it's critical if god is going to work in your life you have to forgive yourself

[00:27:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:27:41] you have stopped condemning yourself it's not about me if it's about me i'm condemned i'm going to hell it's not about me it's about jesus it's not about how good i am it's about how great
[00:27:53] he is so i'm not going to sit around thinking about all my failures and all all the bad stuff about me that's what the devil wants to do you have to ask in faith and here's what asking faith
[00:28:07] means i'm coming to god he's with me and he loves me i know he'll answer my prayer i'm going to ask he's going to answer sometimes he'll give you just the answer right there sometimes it begins
[00:28:25] a process say lord give me wisdom it begins a process but i absolutely believe i absolutely believe that i'm going to get his wisdom when i go into a meeting an important meeting a board
[00:28:38] meeting or anything like that anything i say lord give us wisdom lord give us wisdom and when i come of that board meeting i know that we received the wisdom i don't i don't doubt that what happened in
[00:28:51] that meeting was the wisdom of god so you have to ask in faith okay number three get it from the holy spirit john 16 however when he the spirit of truth has come he will guide you into all truth
[00:29:07] he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak and he will tell you things to come now this is the scripture that i read the day that the lord healed our
[00:29:17] marriage so he began the healing in our marriage i read this one morning that night karen and i got in a big fight and i told her to leave when he the spirit of truth has come he will guide you into
[00:29:28] all truth he will not speak on his own authority whatever he hears he will speak and he will tell you things to come and the night that i told karen to get out of the house and leave i said
[00:29:41] to the holy spirit teach me how to be a husband i don't know i mean i was an awful husband all by myself 23 years old 22 years old he taught me how to be a husband i'm a dang good husband
[00:30:08] because of him and he will tell you things to come he wants you to know the important things in your life let me tell you why he tells you things to come because he wants you to know who
[00:30:19] you are and what you're doing but he wants to be encouraged sometimes when he tells us things to come out here he shows us this glorious thing out here but there's some bad road between here
[00:30:28] and there and on the bad road it keeps us on the road and it keeps us encouraged knowing it's worth it what we're working toward is glorious the holy spirit so here's here's how vision comes
[00:30:43] you say well how do we get vision because some of you are thinking i don't think i'm that kind of a person okay yeah you are so you go the holy spirit you say holy spirit give me vision
[00:30:52] you know give me give me revelation about whatever area it is in my life that i need revelation in we need it all three three ways that people get vision they're seers they're hearers and
[00:31:04] they're feelers they're seers some people see you know some people hear and some people feel and some people do all three but let me say for karen and me i'm more of a seer she's a feeler
[00:31:16] so Karen and I when we're talking about vision we'll sit down and and I'll I either hear or I see in other words I have a sense that you know I'm seeing what God wants me to see or I'm hearing
[00:31:30] God say this and Karen hears God but Karen feels and her feelings are intense I'm saying she has very very strong passion and we'll sit down and talk about vision and a lot of times I'm talking
[00:31:44] about well this is what i see or this is right here and she'll say well this is the way i feel that's vision her feelings are god speaking through her this is and so when we agree that's
[00:31:55] god's vision what if we don't agree we don't have god's vision god's not going to cause division if we're both surrendered to god he's going to speak to me in my language he's going to speak
[00:32:06] to karen in her language we're going to sit down and when we come to that point of agreement that's God's saying that's my vision for you because it brings unity it brings clarity it brings passion
[00:32:15] it brings all the things that God so you may be a feeler but that doesn't mean you don't have vision it just means that's just the way God speaks to you you may be a hearer whatever you
[00:32:24] are but the different sources of vision first of all is the Holy Spirit okay that just like we read in John 16 there also scripture it says where there is no vision the people perish or they're
[00:32:37] unrestrained but happy is he who keeps the law the two primary sources of vision are the holy spirit and the word of god the holy spirit is a lamp into our feet a light into our path the the i'm sorry
[00:32:49] the word of god is a lamp into our feet a light into our path and so the scripture gives us vision and all vision has to agree with scripture god will never give you a vision that doesn't agree
[00:33:01] with his word okay so i'm going to get it by praying to the holy spirit i'm also going to get it by just reading the word of god and sometimes just something jumps off the page at me you know
[00:33:12] and that's god giving me a vision for whatever you also can get it from successful people and so uh marriage parenting ministry business health location character or whatever uh i i didn't my dad was not a great dad i mean he just wasn't a present father in my life and one of the
[00:33:31] ways that i got vision for being a father was watching other fathers is i would see other men in the way that they loved their children, in the way that they parented their children.
[00:33:42] And it gave me a vision for parenting.
[00:33:44] Counselors, mentors, leaders, whoever it might be, sometimes it's watching successful people and godly people.
[00:33:52] And God says, I'm calling you to do that.
[00:33:54] Sometimes it's scars.
[00:33:57] Sometimes God speaks vision to us through scars.
[00:34:01] No one can help an alcoholic by someone who has been set free from alcohol.
[00:34:06] No one can help a drug addict like somebody who's been set free from drugs.
[00:34:10] And with Karen and me, when God healed our marriage, we love helping people in marriage because that's a scar.
[00:34:16] And people relate to us because we've been there.
[00:34:20] We're not self-righteous.
[00:34:21] We don't talk down to people.
[00:34:22] We've been there.
[00:34:22] We almost divorced.
[00:34:23] We almost failed in marriage.
[00:34:25] And so sometimes God will speak to you through your scars.
[00:34:29] Now they have to be redeemed, which means that the Lord will have to have done a work in that area in your life.
[00:34:34] but you might say you know i failed in this area and i did this wrong and i did whatever wrong but the lord healed me from that that's one of the greatest things that god does in our lives
[00:34:44] are in the areas that we have failed but god has redeemed it because other people that are hurting the number one person that can help them is the person who's been there and so whatever area that
[00:35:00] you need vision you begin with the holy spirit and the word of god but the lord knows how to speak your language and the Lord will speak to you. Here's the last thing. Get it written down
[00:35:09] and get it in front of you. Write it down. Habakkuk. The Lord answered and said to me, write the vision, make it plain that he who runs may, who may run, who reads it.
[00:35:19] So not just in the area of your marriage. Again, we have this vision retreat guidebook that'll help you. Even if you don't come to our, the retreats that we're having, you can get this and go on your own vision retreat. I'm telling you it's, it's transforming, but in your business
[00:35:32] with any area of your life if you're in ministry or whatever just get out a pen and paper and just say holy spirit give give me a vision give us vision and when you believe that he's giving
[00:35:42] you a vision write it down and keep it in front of you and it's very important because it because it motivates you so what i want to do got a couple of minutes left i want to pray i want to pray for
[00:35:52] vision uh for all of us here and this is something that's so critically important for us to do as a priority for us to go to god and ask him for wisdom and i'm saying this if you've made a
[00:36:07] mistake he'll get you back on track he loves you he'll forgive you he won't rub your nose in it he'll get you back on track and you'll be a success if you're beginning something right now
[00:36:17] just stop and just say lord i want to do everything i do with your vision in that so i want you to bow your heads with me if you would holy spirit jesus said that when you came that you would give
[00:36:33] us vision that you would lead us into all truth and that you would show us things to come we need that lord we don't we don't have that we're not naturally wise people we're not naturally
[00:36:46] navigating people able to chart our own course so holy spirit i ask you for every man woman and child hearing my voice right now give us vision we don't deserve it forgive us for all of our
[00:37:01] failures but lord we come to you as our father is our present you're not up in heaven mad you're with us right now and you're a good dad and we according to james 1 5 we come to you right now
[00:37:17] we ask you for wisdom we don't have it but you you do and we believe the promise of james 1 5 that says anytime we lack wisdom and we come to you that you're going to give us all that we need
[00:37:34] need and you're not going to reproach us. You're going to love us. We believe, Lord, that you are and that you're a rewarder. You're with us and that you're a good dad. In our lives, in our health,
[00:37:48] in our character, in our priorities, in our relationship, in our education, in our pursuits, in our marriage in our parenting in our businesses in our ministries in every single area of our lives holy spirit i pray that you would give us the vision and the wisdom of almighty god and we
[00:38:19] receive it and we believe it in jesus name amen god bless you guys if you would just go ahead and

[00:38:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:38:32] keep your head bowed there and your eyes closed for a moment longer. Just allow Holy Spirit to continue to speak to you. I want to speak to a group of people who might be here today or watching
[00:38:44] online who have never made a decision to give their life to Jesus. Just as pastor was preaching and sharing that God did create you and wove you together in your mother's womb. And he has a
[00:38:55] purpose and plan for your life. And you can experience that the moment you give your life over to Jesus, who died for your sins, who rose again on the third day, who now is seated at the
[00:39:08] right hand of the Father. And the Bible says all you have to do is call out to Him, confess that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. And in that moment,
[00:39:23] you will be saved. So if that is you, I just want to give you an opportunity now to give your life to him. Just pray this prayer in your heart. Say, Jesus, today I believe in you. I believe that you
[00:39:39] are God's son. I believe that you are God. And I believe you died for my sin and that you are alive today. I put my hope and trust in you. Forgive me of all of my sin. Show me the life you have for me
[00:39:57] in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Church family, you can look up at me. Can we put our hands together?
[00:40:04] for everyone who made a decision for jesus today i want to encourage you if you did make that decision we want to we want to help you with some next steps so if you would just take out your phone
[00:40:14] and text the word decision to 88787 we'll have a team to get in contact with you and help you with some next steps as you continue to follow jesus all right everybody if you could we're going to
[00:40:25] take communion together so just go ahead and pull that communion element out and if you did not get one of these on your way in just lift your hand real high our teams are making their way down to
[00:40:34] the front we'd love to put one of these in your hands if you do have it you can go ahead and pull back that first layer revealing the bread that represents the body of jesus when you have
[00:40:52] i want you to lift it up we're going to pray over it together jesus we remember you today we remember that you chose to go to the cross that you had a vision for what it would look like to
[00:41:05] have us again in relationship with you and the father but also a vision of you being able to be seated with the father at his right hand we thank you for saying yes to it we thank you for
[00:41:16] taking all of our sin in your body so that we could be whole healthy and healed and we believe it and receive it today in jesus name you can take and eat now if you would you can flip your
[00:41:31] communion element over peel back the next layer revealing the cup that represents the blood of jesus as you get there you can hold it up we'll pray over it too jesus we say thank you thank you
[00:41:45] thank you for your precious blood. There is power in your blood. Thank you that your blood washed us and cleansed us completely. Thank you that your blood established a brand new covenant between us and you. Thank you that your blood still speaks a better word over our lives today so that we can
[00:42:03] hold on and remember and believe in who you say we are because of your sacrifice. We receive the power of being a blood bought in Jesus name. You can take a drink. If you would, let's put our
[00:42:22] hands together one more time for jesus we're thankful for him we're thankful for you a few things that are that are going on this week one on wednesday in this room at 6 30 p.m we're having a
[00:42:35] prophetic training and a prophetic training it's really an opportunity to grow in the gift of prophecy to learn what it looks like to operate in the power and the gift of holy spirit to hear
[00:42:46] god's voice clearly and to be able to step out in boldness in in daily life to to be used by god to encourage one another towards God's will and purpose for them.
[00:42:56] So if that's you, we will be in here at 6.30 this Wednesday night.
[00:42:59] We'd love for you to be a part, even if you're just interested to learn more.
[00:43:03] We want you here.
[00:43:04] Also, for all of the moms that are in the room today, as you leave, whatever direction you go in, we'll have a flower for you.
[00:43:11] We just want to make sure you know that we love you and we're thankful for you as a part of this house and also the call of God on your life to be a mom.
[00:43:19] So as you leave, you can grab one of those.
[00:43:21] Will you stand to your feet with me?
[00:43:23] i'm going to welcome our prayer team members to come down to the front and before you leave today if you need prayer for anything our team is here and we want to pray for you and so all you have
[00:43:33] to do is after i bless you is make your way down to the front so that we can get a chance to pray for you but let me bless you as you go today the father in the name of jesus christ i bless this
[00:43:43] church family with vision from heaven i bless them with ears and eyes and even senses that receive and follow the move of holy spirit i bless every area of their life to have godly vision
[00:43:55] and direction so they can run with energy and passion in jesus name amen and amen thanks so much for being with us we'll see you soon