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- [00:02]
A
All right. Proverbs chapter number 29, verse 18 says this. Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint, but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom's instruction. I'm going to see if the 1145 feels like talking back to pastor today. I want to talk from this subject. God, don't like ugly. Clap your hands everywhere. Everybody don't like ugly.
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I want to launch into this lesson.
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By articulating a few axioms that will aid and assist me in articulating the essence of today's teaching. The first one is simply this. Living without vision is like walking without direction.
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You may move, but you never get anywhere.
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This second one is credited to a biblical philosopher and a thought leader named Dr. Myles Monroe. He says, the poorest person in the world is a person without a vision. But. But the most frustrated person in the world is a person with a vision that never becomes a reality. And this final axiom is attributed to a strong scholastic savvy southern sister who didn't allow her limitations to limit her. She was blind and deaf, yet became the first blind and deaf woman to graduate with a bachelor's degree, became the author of numerous books, became a lecturer in a number of different spaces and circuits. Her name was Helen Keller. And Helen Keller says, the only thing worse than being blind is having sight with no vision. These axioms articulate the importance and the imperative nature of vision and vision. Family is a picture of God's preferred future. It is a mental picture of God's preferred future. It is a sneak preview of the coming attraction.
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God does not show you the whole movie, but he does show you a trailer. And a trailer is enough to let you know something good is on the way. Vision.
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It is one of the most invaluable.
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Assets that anyone could ever acquire.
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Why, pastor?
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Because the one thing we don't want to get wrong in life is what we're supposed to be doing with our life. And the enemy understands this.
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And this is why I think he.
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Aggressively wields a weapon called confusion and uses confusion as an act of spiritual warfare. The Bible is clear. God is not the author of confusion.
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So if confusion doesn't come from God.
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Where does it come from? Because the enemy is not just unnerved and upset if we're successful. He's unnerved and upset when we can see. The devil's scared of you seeing, because when you start seeing, you start moving different. When you start seeing, you start talking different. When you start seeing, you respond to adversity different. The Bible says even about Jesus, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. So there was something about his ability to endure the cross on Friday because he knew a resurrection was coming on Sunday. And I don't know who I'm talking to today, but there might be some seasons and some situations where you would give up if you had not had the testimony of David, who said, I would have fainted unless I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. So wait on the Lord and be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart. Somebody say vision?
- [04:29]
A
The enemy understands the importance of this because he knows if I don't know what I'm supposed to say yes to, then I won't know what I'm supposed to say no to. Did you hear what I just said? Vision reveals to me what I'm supposed to say yes to. And if I don't know what I'm supposed to say yes to, then I won't know what I'm supposed to say no to. And the more gifted you are, the more options you have. And the more options you have, the more easy it is to be confused. So Solomon seems to articulate this in Proverbs. Here in Proverbs 29, listen to what Solomon says. He says, where there is no revelation, this word here, revelation, refers to vision. But the word revelation suggests something about vision that we can't afford to misunderstand. Revelation. So watch what he's saying here. Vision isn't something I create. Vision reveals what I've been created for.
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That vision isn't something I make up. Vision is something that comes down from God to me. Did you hear what I just said? See?
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So it means now that there is a difference between my vision for my.
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Life and God's vision for my life. God will back my vision if parts of my vision aligns with His. But did you hear what I just said? But parts of my vision that don't align with his, he's not obligated to back. Because vision is a picture of God's preferred future. God says, you don't get to make up a vision for your life because my vision reveals what you were made for. I made you with vision in mind, so I made you with my vision in mind for your life. So you can get in this life and come back to me and tell me what I'm supposed to be doing with what I made. You can't tell me what I'm supposed to be doing with what I created because I know what I created you for. I tell you what's best for you. You don't tell me what's best for you. And if you trust me, I'll do exceedingly and abundantly. Above all you ask or think, get out of my way and let me bring my vision to pass. Watch what Solomon says. He says where there isn't revelation. So it doesn't mean a person doesn't have vision. It means a person doesn't have God's vision for them. Got me. Most people have vision. The question is, who gave it to you?
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Does that make sense?
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Because if I don't know who gave it to me, I'll have an expectation for God to underwrite something he never agreed to. So I'll be mad at him for not doing what he never promised to do. God, why are you not helping me? He said, I help you with what I've assigned you to. Y'all better come get me here. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah. The help is for what you've been assigned to. Even the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit come called the anointing. The anointing is for what you've been assigned to. When I step out of my assignment, I step out of my oil. Did you hear what I said?
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So the Holy Spirit helps me teach.
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Because that's what I'm supposed to do. And if I step out of teaching and say, Todd or Kim or Taylor or Charles, give me the mic and let me sing. The oil's not obligated to flow what I'm singing because he helps me do what I've been created to do. So instead of looking for the oil, I need to look for my lane. Because if I find my lane, I'll find my oil. Watch what he says. Where there is no revelation, where there.
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Is not divine disclosure of what God wants me to do with my life, the people cast off restraint. Do you see that? So what does it mean to cast off restraint? It means to live literally, ungoverned, uncontrolled and undisciplined. Ungoverned, uncontrolled and undisciplined. Ungoverned, uncontrolled and undisciplined. Now I see why the translators of the King James version of the Bible, which is not a more holy version of the Bible, by the way. It's called King James because it's named after King James. 1617. Right? So that's how whosoever willeth cometh to me, if. Now that's not the way God talks. God's not from England. That's how they talked in the 1600s. Right? Does that make sense? So some people argue about translations and, and even Bible translations. The translation is not from a translation. The translations are from original manuscripts. So the new King James is not looking at the King James and translating from the King James and Niv is not looking at the new King James. Does that make sense? All right, so anyway, anyway. But the King James says, where there is no vision, people perish. But the Niv says, cast off restraint. Why? Because where there is no restraint, something's going to perish. Does that make sense? I said, does that make sense?
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If I live any area of my life uncontrolled, ungoverned and undisciplined, something's going to lose life.
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In my relational life.
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If I live undisciplined, ungoverned and uncontrolled, something's going to lose life in my financial life.
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If I live ungoverned, undisciplined and uncontrolled, something's going to perish in my professional life. If I live undisciplined, ungoverned and uncontrolled.
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Something'S going to perish. And Solomon says, where there is no revelation of God's vision for my life.
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You and I will eventually cast off restraint. And that leads to something that could have lived, dying. Did you hear what I said? Everybody listen to Pastor. Restraint is my friend. Now listen to me. Here is a word that's used to describe people who are in a state where they can't live with restraint. The word that describes people who are in a state where they can't live. Restraint is a word called bondage. That's the word that describes the life of people who always say yes. Did you hear me? The word that used to describe the life of people that can only say yes is bondage. Because freedom is revealed in my ability to say no. If I can't say no, I'm not free. So when I have a picture of God's preferred future for my life, it.
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Helps me know what do I say yes to and what do I say no to?
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And we have to talk more about this.
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Does that make sense? I said, does that make sense?
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Right? So it's like I just, I was having, I just finished this program where I walk. So some faith based people through how to actually deploy spiritual and ministry gifts like in the marketplace. So let's say you got prophetic gifting.
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You can't go to Coca Cola and.
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Tell your co worker I got a word for you. You can. That's gonna be kind of weird. Does that make sense?
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Let me tell you what God told me about your mom.
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Time out. So we talk about how to have protection. Prophetic giftings, but spiritual gifts. But how do you deploy those in the marketplace, right?
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So an example would be you don't ask a.
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You don't make a prophetic declaration. You ask a prophetic question.
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So you don't go say, let me tell you what God told me about you and your mom.
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They're going to be like, I'll be back. But you can say, how's your mom?
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Simple.
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So I was talking about spiritual gifting, and I was like, hey, you can't use what you're not aware of. So one of the things I got to dismantle is this unhealthy or unbiblical view of humility. Because you sitting here walking around like you don't have nothing. Cause somebody taught you that's what it meant to be humble.
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That humble is that humility is denial. That's not spiritual. That's toxic.
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Y'all aren't even talking to me.
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There's a difference between self awareness and arrogance.
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I have to be aware of what.
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He gave me so I know how to use it. Come on. And people who don't understand that are people who will call people who are aware arrogant. Now, just because you're not aware and I'm aware doesn't mean I'm arrogant. It just mean you confused. Don't let me go over here. Don't be upset with me. Get clear. Go to God like I did and get clear. So good.
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Somebody say awareness. So people got to be aware. Because if you don't know, if you. If you unaware, there going to be so many different things you can do with your life. And if you're not aware of what you're supposed to do, you'll do anything you can do because you're confusing can with called.
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Does that make sense?
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My first year at Princeton Seminary, I got invited to this event. And I didn't know it was a recruitment event, but I got invited to this event. My first year at Princeton Seminary, I'm invited to this event. And I walk in the room and it's some PhD professors and they're da, da, da. And they're talking. And I found out at the event what they were doing is they were identifying people that they thought had PhD potential who would use their life serving the academy. Meaning, hey, come take this path. And we want people like you to be professors. And so they're Telling me all the stuff they see in me that makes them think I would be a good professor. So they're talking about the can, and.
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They'Re good people, and they love me, and it was right, but they're talking about the can. If I'm not clear on my called, I'll let people that love me talk me out of my called into my can. And I don't know who this is for, but in this season of your life, you can't move according to your can. You got to move according to your called.
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I could, but I'm not called.
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That would have been a lot easier. That would have been a lot easier.
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Because professors don't have the brand hurdles pastors have. Professors are not adversely impacted by what every other person in their field do, but it's the call to. So where there is no vision, you cast off restraint. You become ungoverned, uncontrolled, and undisciplined, and you end up in the can and.
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Not the called.
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But divine compensation. Nobody pay like God.
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Pastor, I feel a storefront Pentecostal push in here today. I said, nobody pays like God. Divine compensation is the best kind of compensation. Because divine compensation isn't limited to finance. Divine compensation is. Is limited to fulfillment. And if you fulfilled, you got something on the inside that nothing on the outside is able to give you.
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Where there's no vision, we cast off restraint.
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Preacher.
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But the opposite is also true, right? If I do have revelation of God's vision for my life, it produces restraint because my vision is 2D. God's vision is 3D. So when I watch TV, that's 2D. If you're looking at the screens or the monitors, that's 2D. IPad, that's 2D. That's width, that's height. But 3D is not just width and height.
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When you watch 3D, you like this thing all up on me. What is you in the movies like? Because 3D has some depth to it, and you know, it's God's vision for you when the vision has some depth. And a vision with depth puts a demand on your development. Did you hear what I just said? What does that mean? Pastor? It means that God reveals in part what he wants to do, and then you look at what he wants to do, and you probably saying, like Gideon and like Moses, like Jeremiah, I can't do that. And God's like, right, that's why I showed you what I want to do. So you can see this version of, you can't do that. So now you Gotta become another version of you to do what I called you to do. This vision put a demand on your development.
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I got Bible.
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God had a vision for a man named Abram, but it required him to become Abraham to bring it to pass. God had a vision for a woman named Sarai, but she had to become Sarah in order to bring it to pass. God had a vision for a man named Jacob, but it required him becoming Israel to bring it to pass. God had a vision for a man named Saul, but it required him becoming Paul to bring it to pass. And I don't know what your name is, but I want you to know that God's got a vision for you and he's got to change your name to bring it to pass.
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Because the dream puts a demand on my development. Because God cares more about my development than he does the dream.
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Because truth be told, he can pick.
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Somebody else to do the dream. Uh huh. God's like you, special and all.
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Kinda. But you're not the only one that I can use to do what I'm doing. You don't think I can pick nobody else? You really want to talk about whether or not you qualify? Because me and you know what me and you know? Yeah. They talking about what they think they know. But me and you know what me and you know.
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So God's priority is who I become because I can't lose that. You can lose what you build.
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Did you hear what I just said? You can lose what you build in a second.
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If I got time, I'm gonna show you with Nebuchadnezzar who walked out on.
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His balcony and he looked at Babylon, did he not? And he saw the opulence of Babylon. He said, look at what I have built. And God said, oh, okay. You don't know how fragile what you built is. So you don't know you one natural disaster, one lawsuit, one sickness away from losing all that. You don't know how fragile this is.
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Lost his mind was eating grass like cattle. So what's a priority for him is who I become. Because I can build something in one season that was only intended to last for that season.
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But God uses what he wants you.
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To build, to build you. So when he builds you, you become a builder.
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And when you become a builder, even if what you. You look at what you built and all of a sudden what you built crumbles, you don't panic. You look yourself in the mirror and you say, because I'm a builder, I'm getting ready to do it again. I know we don't do this a lot at this church, but just high five somebody and tell them, do it again. I'm getting ready to do it again. If he did it before, he can do it again. If he used me before, he can use me again. The same God that built it the first time. It's the same God that'll build it again. See, they thought you built something. They didn't know God was making you a builder. I didn't just build something. God was making me a builder.
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So the demand of the vision produces development of me. I'm dontario. And that is God's. That's his priority. Does that make sense? That's who I become. And he wants me to have the governed life because the ungoverned life is unattractive to God. He loves you too much to take pleasure in behavior that's sabotaging your future. Now, when I say unattractive to God, I don't mean unloved by God. God can love me and not like that. And when I say unattractive to God, I'm not talking about, watch this relationship with him, but I am talking about fellowship with him. Because my relationship can stay the same, but fellowship can be impacted. And the biblical imagery for this is Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When they cast off restraint, did they not God say, out of every tree, you can eat except one? So they didn't restrain themselves. They cast off restraint and they ate from the tree God said, don't eat from. And God said, now you still my son and my daughter, but you can't stay in the garden, which means you still have me. You just rob yourself of my best. And let's be honest, don't say amen here because I don't want to start a fight just in case you sitting by somebody.
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Don't say amen. Do not say amen.
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But some of you know it's possible for them to still have you and not have your best.
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I told y'all to be quiet.
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And.
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They have no idea.
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You got me, but you don't have the best of me. You lost me. I'm gone. But you can't tell because I'm still here. We done, Tario. We done. We done. And God's like, no, no, no. God's like, I want. I want you to be formed because the life without restraint is unattractive. It doesn't rob you of me, but it robs you of my best. And I was. I had this epiphany regarding attraction. So this was Some time ago, I think it was. I don't know, might have been a couple years ago. I can't remember. But my wife and I, we were with some couple friends, and we were talking, and somehow we started talking about attraction. And so the women started saying stuff. It was confusing to us. This might have been, like, two years ago, right? We were so confused. And so I had to. It almost stung me for a minute. I had to say, now, do you. You find me attractive?
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Wait a minute.
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Let me. Because we were talking about something, and.
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They was talking about not that looks.
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Didn'T matter, but, like, how it didn't.
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Matter the same to men and women.
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So I'm like, a curious person by nature.
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So sometimes I ask stuff you might not want the answer to. So I was like, so you saying y'all like men?
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That's ugly.
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And then she was like. She was like, no, like, a little, like, medium. I said, medium. I said, now, wait a minute. We've been married. Wait a minute. What medium?
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What?
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I said, you got to explain this to me, because I'm confused. I'm about to be offended. And what she said was.
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She said, no, we're not saying this doesn't matter. She's saying, there's the aesthetic, and then there's also the attitude. So if you got the aesthetic, but you don't have the traits that we find attractive. So it's like, okay, yeah, they may not be a GQ model, but they're.
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Kind and they're a leader, and they make me laugh and they make me feel secure. I was like, oh, you like ugly, nice people?
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And it was so powerful to me. And this is, like, a couple years ago, and it helped me understand something I didn't understand before. Because particularly sometimes as men, what we look at is the value of our contribution. What am I contributing? What am I bringing? And it's not that contribution doesn't matter. It's that traits matter, too. So no matter how much I contribute, my contribution in a positive sense doesn't override traits that are hurting people in negative sense. I was like, oh, so it's traits that you can find unattractive, and that keeps you from showing up as the full you. So we can have you, but not have your best because of traits. And I saw the exegetical implications of that for Scripture, because there's some traits that God finds unattractive. Proverbs 6 tells us what some of them are. Six things the Lord hates. This is ugly to God. He says seven that are detestable. To him, haughty eyes. That's people who look down on other people. Lying tongues, hands that shed innocent blood. What did those people do to you? A heart that devises wicked schemes. This is a person that creatively sits back and concocts plans to undermine somebody else's success. That's ugly to God. Feet that are quick to rush to evil. A false witness who pours out lies. This is a person who engages in character assassination. And God takes it seriously because character assassinations erode the credibility of some people in the eyes of people who hadn't had an opportunity to meet them for themselves. But can I share with you one thing? I know we're over time. Can I share with you one thing the Lord showed me with this? There's a scripture in Matthew. See if you guys can find it. It's in my notes media. There's a scripture in Matthew where they're like assassinating Jesus's character. They're accusing him past of what he didn't do. And he's hanging on the cross. I mean, he's not hanging on cross, but he's saying there and he didn't say a word. Like he's silent. I'm like, I be wanting to. He's silent. And then here's a revelation I got. Sometimes silence is the best strategy. Because sometimes the issue is not. You're not being silent to refute the claims of your enemy. You're being silent to reveal the commitment of your friends. Because I want to see. Because my. Come on here. I want to see. Are you going to allow what they said to override your experience with me? So let me not refute it to.
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See if you believe it.
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Because you really can't change the mind of an enemy, but you can see the heart of a friend.
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Do you know what they saying?
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Do you believe it? God?
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So good.
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Lord, I want your vision for me to make me like you. One that lives. That's my virtues, my values, my vantage point. One that loves. That is the great commandment. I don't even have time to deal with that. But here's what Jesus says. D Jesus says, by this shall all men know you're my disciples. He says, here's the marker that you have love for one another. Living, loving, and then leading. When God, if God brings certain things to pass in some of your life, it means you're stewarding power now. And the question becomes, how will you steward it? You're stewarding influence. How will you steward it? Will you steward it to abuse others? Or will you steward it to serve others. And God uses a vision to make me into that kind of person. Because God is attracted to God's self. Lord, make me like you. And he's not using vision just to get me to build something. He's using vision to build something in me. Father, I pray that you would help us all to send simply become more like you. Thank you for vision that you have placed in our hearts that which you want us to build. We pray that it will build something in us. In Jesus name, Amen. Clap your hands, everybody.