Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry
Speaker 1: of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we begin a series called
Speaker 1: the Awesome Power of Vision. In these lessons, Pastor Rick
Speaker 1: shows us how to pursue the amazing vision God has
Speaker 1: for each of us so that we can see our
Speaker 1: future with faith and not fear. But first, do you
Speaker 1: ever feel like you've lost your spark your joy? In
Speaker 1: just a few moments, We're going to tell you about
Speaker 1: an exciting new resource that will deepen your relationship with
Speaker 1: God and restore your joy. You can take a sneak
Speaker 1: peek right now by going to Pastororick dot com while
Speaker 1: you listen, and if you want, you can just text
Speaker 1: the word Daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand
Speaker 1: and four to find out more. Right now, here's Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick Warren with part one of a message called seeing
Speaker 1: your Future with Faith not Fear.
Speaker 2: I want to begin with a mini series on clarifying
Speaker 2: God's vision for your future. So I'm going to teach
Speaker 2: a short series on vision, the power of Vision. I
Speaker 2: want you to be able to say to God, I
Speaker 2: fulfilled the vision that you gave me for my life.
Speaker 3: You can't fulfill your.
Speaker 2: Life vision, of course, until first you see it and
Speaker 2: then you understand it. Proverbs twenty nine, verse eighteen says this,
Speaker 2: where there is no vision, the people perish.
Speaker 3: Now what does that mean?
Speaker 2: Well, there are at least three results of not having
Speaker 2: a vision for your life. I want you to write
Speaker 2: these down. An unclear vision leads to three things. It
Speaker 2: leads to indecision, it leads to division, and it leads
Speaker 2: to a collision. First, an unclear vision leads to indecision.
Speaker 2: Do you remember this verse from our study of James
Speaker 2: James Chapter one, verse eight double minded people? People can't
Speaker 2: make up their minds. They waver back and forth and
Speaker 2: everything they do. Without a vision for your future, you're
Speaker 2: just drifting. You wander, you ramble through life. You're not
Speaker 2: really living, You're just existing. You don't have any goal
Speaker 2: or purpose or plan or meaning. You just kind of
Speaker 2: let life happen to you. When you don't have a vision,
Speaker 2: you waste time and you missed opportunities. You don't make
Speaker 2: the most of what you've been given. And without a vision,
Speaker 2: you're a poor steward of life. End up just coasting
Speaker 2: and you're all and you know when you're coasting, you're
Speaker 2: always headed downhill, so it causes this indecision. Second, an
Speaker 2: unclear vision leads to division.
Speaker 3: Division.
Speaker 2: It causes people to go different directions, in different ways,
Speaker 2: to be divided on things. If you aren't sure where
Speaker 2: you're headed, don't expect anybody else to go with you,
Speaker 2: or to marry you, or to agree with you, or
Speaker 2: to partner with you, because everybody's just going to head
Speaker 2: off in a different direction because no one has a
Speaker 2: clear path. You know, this lack of clear vision is
Speaker 2: one of the causes of all the division in America
Speaker 2: right now. Here's an interesting verse from Proverbs twenty eight,
Speaker 2: verse two. In the message, it says this, when a
Speaker 2: country is in chaos, everybody has a.
Speaker 3: Plan to fix it.
Speaker 2: Okay, they're all going in different ways, different directions, division,
Speaker 2: but it takes a leader of real understanding to straighten
Speaker 2: things out. Vision is the answer to division. The third
Speaker 2: thing that happens when you don't have a clear vision
Speaker 2: for life.
Speaker 3: Is a collision.
Speaker 2: In other words, without a clear direction for your life,
Speaker 2: it is inevitable that at some point in your life
Speaker 2: you're going to crash into some kind of dead end.
Speaker 2: You know, for many people, when you think about it.
Speaker 2: I've met a lot of people. Life's just a series
Speaker 2: of collisions, relational collisions, confrontations of financial crashes, personal crisis.
Speaker 3: Just one afternoon.
Speaker 2: They go from one dead end relationship to the next,
Speaker 2: or from one dead end job to the next. Life's
Speaker 2: kind of like a bumper car ride. Just keep bumping
Speaker 2: into everybody else and you get hit from all sides. Now,
Speaker 2: the Bible warns us of the damage of not following
Speaker 2: God's vision for our lives. One Timothy one nineteen says this,
Speaker 2: and God's word translation. Some people have refused to let
Speaker 2: their faith guide their conscience, and their faith has been
Speaker 2: destroyed like a wrecked ship.
Speaker 3: That's a collision.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, having a vision for your future
Speaker 2: requires hard work. That's why a lot of people don't
Speaker 2: have one. It requires faith, It requires thinking, it requires
Speaker 2: prayer and seeking God, all the things we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about in this series. If you just make up
Speaker 2: a vision for your life, well that's no better than coasting.
Speaker 2: What you want is God's vision for your life, and
Speaker 2: that is the result of seeing things clearly, seeing with
Speaker 2: eyes of faith rather than eyes of fear. We're going
Speaker 2: to look at that today in just this introduction message.
Speaker 2: You know, in the Bible, Jesus has a lot to
Speaker 2: say about your vision, about how you see things, and
Speaker 2: about blindness. In fact, in the Bible, blindness is always
Speaker 2: a metaphor for having a closed mind. When he talks
Speaker 2: about people who are blind, he's talking about their minds
Speaker 2: are closed. They're not open to new ideas, They're not
Speaker 2: open to.
Speaker 3: What God wants to say.
Speaker 2: Matthew, Chapter six, Verse twenty two and twenty three is
Speaker 2: the verse we'll come back to in this series on vision,
Speaker 2: because Jesus said this, Listen closely look at this verse.
Speaker 2: Your eyes are the lamp of your body. And if
Speaker 2: your eyes are open and good, your whole body will
Speaker 2: be full of life light.
Speaker 3: But if your vision.
Speaker 2: Is bad, I just got new glasses. I've got good
Speaker 2: vision again. If your vision is bad, your whole life
Speaker 2: will be full of darkness. And he says, and he says,
Speaker 2: if the light that you think you have is really darkness,
Speaker 2: is the worst kind of darkness you can have. Now
Speaker 2: Jesus is saying that if you don't really see things clearly, correctly, truthfully,
Speaker 2: you may think you're living in the light, but you're not.
Speaker 2: You're really living in the darkness, and you're missing all
Speaker 2: the wonderful things that God has in store for you
Speaker 2: for your future because you just can't see it. Now,
Speaker 2: we've all heard the expression what you see is what
Speaker 2: you get, and in many ways, that's actually a biblical statement.
Speaker 2: We're going to look at the implications of that idea
Speaker 2: through many scripture verses during this series on vision. But
Speaker 2: what I want to do today is just introduce a
Speaker 2: series on God's vision for your future future. And I
Speaker 2: want us to go back to a story in the
Speaker 2: Old Testament that involves Moses and the Jewish slaves who
Speaker 2: had been freed by God from four hundred years of
Speaker 2: slavery in Egypt. Now here's the background of the story.
Speaker 2: We're going to look at numbers thirteen and numbers fourteen.
Speaker 2: Here's the background in the Book of Numbers. God had
Speaker 2: promised these freed slaves a homeland of their own, and
Speaker 2: he calls it the Promised Land. I'm going to set
Speaker 2: you free from Egypt, and I'm going to take you
Speaker 2: to the Promised Land. It represented their future, It represented
Speaker 2: their inheritance that God wanted them to enjoy.
Speaker 3: It would become the land of Israel.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick will be
Speaker 1: back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.
Speaker 1: You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free email devotional
Speaker 1: at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 4: How do you feel spiritually right now now? Maybe you
Speaker 4: feel spiritually dry, like you're in a desert, or like
Speaker 4: you're just going through the motions. Maybe you've lost your spark,
Speaker 4: your joy. God knows how you feel right now. You
Speaker 4: are not alone. He knows. Even David and the Bible
Speaker 4: felt like that and Jeremiah twenty nine thirteen. God says
Speaker 4: you will seek Me and find Me when you seek
Speaker 4: Me with all your heart. When you seek God intentionally,
Speaker 4: it leads to a renewal of your relationship with Him.
Speaker 4: That's why Pastor Rick created a very special, brand new
Speaker 4: resource called Going Deeper with God, a personal renewal retreat,
Speaker 4: and it he'll personally leave you on a spiritual journey
Speaker 4: to help you seek God. Together, you and Maasta Rick
Speaker 4: will go through a series of audio lessons and after
Speaker 4: each session you'll take a little time to complete exercises
Speaker 4: in the Companion workbook. You can do this at home
Speaker 4: in short sessions, or you can get away for a
Speaker 4: day and do it in one sitting. Through this retreat,
Speaker 4: you'll experience a renewal of life within you. God will
Speaker 4: restore your joy. As he renews, refreshes, invigorates, and revives
Speaker 4: your spiritual life, You'll never be the same again. Will
Speaker 4: send you going deeper with God. A personal renewal retreat
Speaker 4: as our way of saying thanks when you give a
Speaker 4: gift today to help daily hope, share the hope of
Speaker 4: Jesus with a hurting world. Just call eight hundred and
Speaker 4: six hundred at five zero zero four or go to
Speaker 4: Pastorick dot com to get your copy of this great resource.
Speaker 4: That's eight hundred and six hundred five zero zero four
Speaker 4: or Pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Once again, here's Pastor Rick.
Speaker 2: Now after crossing the desert, they've gone through the Red Sea,
Speaker 2: crossing the desert, all these free slaves that come to
Speaker 2: the edge of the promised land. And so Moses chooses
Speaker 2: twelve representatives, one from each of the twelve tribes, to
Speaker 2: go ahead of everybody else and spy out the land.
Speaker 2: And he says, won't you go in, check it all
Speaker 2: out and return with the vision report? This is a
Speaker 2: fact finding mission. In other words, it's a vision trip,
Speaker 2: and Moses says, go into the new land that represents
Speaker 2: our future and find out everything you can. Find out
Speaker 2: what it's like, see everything you can see. Then come
Speaker 2: back and report to us on everything you have seen.
Speaker 2: This is a vision trip. Numbers thirteen, seventeen to twenty
Speaker 2: says this. Moses gave them men these instructions as he
Speaker 2: sent them out to explore the new land. Go northward
Speaker 2: through the Negev into the hill country and see what
Speaker 2: that land is like. And find out whether the people
Speaker 2: living there are strong or weak, few or many? What
Speaker 2: kind of land do they live in? Is it good
Speaker 2: or bad? Do the towns have walls? Are they unprotected?
Speaker 2: How's the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there
Speaker 2: mini trees? Enter the land boldly and bring back samples
Speaker 2: of the crops you see. If you're taking notes, circle
Speaker 2: that phrase you see now, why did Moses do this?
Speaker 3: Because Moses was a great leader.
Speaker 2: Why did he send these spies on a vision trip
Speaker 2: and ask for a report? Here's the reason. Listen to
Speaker 2: this if you're a leader. This is really important before
Speaker 2: people can succeed with the goal they have to see
Speaker 2: the goal. If you're a leader, you need to understand
Speaker 2: that we can only accomplish the impossible if we first see.
Speaker 3: It in our minds.
Speaker 2: Everything that's ever been accomplished in history started as an
Speaker 2: idea in somebody's mind. First, you have to imagine it.
Speaker 2: You have to see it. Sometimes you have to taste it,
Speaker 2: but you definitely have to visualize it. And that's why
Speaker 2: I'm going to teach you a new series on getting
Speaker 2: God's vision for your life now numbers chapter thirteen, verse
Speaker 2: twenty one, twenty three says this, So they sent spies in.
Speaker 2: They spied it out the land all the way from
Speaker 2: the wilderness up to Hebron, and there they saw circle
Speaker 2: that word. They saw the Almanites and the she Shites,
Speaker 2: and all the Tumites, all the families descended from Anak. Now,
Speaker 2: by the way, don't confuse these tribes with the termites
Speaker 2: and the parasites and the satellites and the stalactites. Those
Speaker 2: are different tribes completely. But it says what they came
Speaker 2: to Eskol. They cut down a cluster of grapes so
Speaker 2: large that it took two of them to carry it
Speaker 2: back on a pole. Can you imagine that a cluster
Speaker 2: of grapes. They also took samples of pomegranates and figs.
Speaker 2: This promised land was so fruitful and so incredibly prosperous.
Speaker 2: They're bringing back giant fruit. You know, I grew up
Speaker 2: in northern California, in the Redwoods and in the wine country,
Speaker 2: and as a kid, every season I cut grapes and
Speaker 2: vineyards at harvest. But I never saw a cluster grace
Speaker 2: so large that it took two men to carry it.
Speaker 2: This is supernatural. This is miracle growth. Prop numbers thirteen,
Speaker 2: twenty five, twenty six. Is this after seeing? There's the
Speaker 2: word seeing. This is a vision trip. After seeing the
Speaker 2: land for forty days, the men returned to Moses and
Speaker 2: Aaron and the people of Israel waiting at Kadesh in
Speaker 2: the wilderness of Parenne. They reported of the whole community
Speaker 2: what they had seen, and they showed them the fruit
Speaker 2: they had taken from the land. Now, all this sounds
Speaker 2: really promising, but there's problem, and it has to do
Speaker 2: with their vision. That's why we're sharing this story. Two
Speaker 2: of the spies, there were twelve spies. Two of the spies,
Speaker 2: Joshua and Caleb, looked at their future with eyes of faith.
Speaker 3: But the other ten of the.
Speaker 2: Twelve spies looked at their future with the eyes of fear.
Speaker 2: Are you looking at this new year with eyes of
Speaker 2: fear or with eyes of faith?
Speaker 3: Are you expecting more of the same?
Speaker 2: Are you expecting God to do something great in your
Speaker 2: life this new year? How you see this year will
Speaker 2: make all the difference in the world. And this story
Speaker 2: shows us what happens when your vision of the future
Speaker 2: is based on fear instead of faith. Okay, so let's
Speaker 2: get into this now. You know the story looking at
Speaker 2: the future with fear, which ten of the twelve spies did,
Speaker 2: causes all kinds of problems. In fact, this story illustrates
Speaker 2: oh five or so of the traps, maybe six that
Speaker 2: we fall into. Why don't you write these down? Here's
Speaker 2: what happens when you look at the new year, or
Speaker 2: you look at the future with fear instead of faith.
Speaker 2: Number one we learned from this story. I overemphasize the
Speaker 2: negative when I look at the future in fear. I
Speaker 2: overemphasize the negative in life Versus twenty seven to twenty eight.
Speaker 2: It says this was their report to Moses. We arrived
Speaker 2: in the land you sent us to to see, and
Speaker 2: it is indeed a magnificent kind, the land flowing with
Speaker 2: milk and honey. Here's some of the fruit as proof,
Speaker 2: but a circle the word butt, because now what you
Speaker 2: get the butt you're going to see with eyes of fear.
Speaker 2: Here's the conflicting information. But the people living there are powerful,
Speaker 2: and their cities and towns are fortified, and they're very large.
Speaker 2: And we also saw the Anakin, the descendants of Anak
Speaker 2: who lived in the desert. Now, the Anakin were of
Speaker 2: the tribe of Skywalker, and the forest was strong with them.
Speaker 3: If you believe that, I've got some land to sell
Speaker 3: you too.
Speaker 2: When you overemphasize the negative, it creates a lot more
Speaker 2: stress in your life when you're looking at everything with fear. Look,
Speaker 2: you worry that the glass is always half empty, instead
Speaker 2: of being happy and grateful, the glass is still half full.
Speaker 2: Look at what you have left, not what you've lost. Now,
Speaker 2: of course, life is filled with negatives. Everything is broken
Speaker 2: by sin on this earth. Not all news is positive.
Speaker 2: But you do have a choice in choosing what you're
Speaker 2: going to focus on, what you're going to emphasize, and
Speaker 2: that is going to directly affect your happiness in this
Speaker 2: new year. So the spies brought back conflicting news to
Speaker 2: the spies had eyes of faith and they gave positive news, okay,
Speaker 2: But ten of the spies had eyes of fear and
Speaker 2: they delivered negative news. By the way, I think that
Speaker 2: ratio in news is probably still true today. For every
Speaker 2: one positive news story, you're going to hear five negative
Speaker 2: news stories. And experts tells that negative news spends spreads
Speaker 2: about ten times faster on social media and positive news.
Speaker 2: So I focus on the negative when I'm looking with
Speaker 2: eyes of fear. Number two second trap, I pay too
Speaker 2: much attention to what other people are doing. I pay
Speaker 2: too much attention to what others are doing. Numbers thirteen
Speaker 2: twenty nine says this. They're focusing not on the beauty
Speaker 2: and the value of the land. They say the Malakites
Speaker 2: live in the Negativ and the Hittites and Jebisites and
Speaker 2: Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live
Speaker 2: near the sea and along the Jordan the Jordan River.
Speaker 2: What are they saying here? What's the point? It's a
Speaker 2: scarcity mentality. What they're saying is there won't be enough
Speaker 2: for us this year. All the good land is already
Speaker 2: taken by other tribes. There's really no room for us
Speaker 2: in this promised land. There aren't enough resources for everybody. Now,
Speaker 2: if you look at this new year with eyes of fear,
Speaker 2: you too are going to develop a scarcity mentality, which
Speaker 2: is going to create stress in your life, like there's
Speaker 2: not enough.
Speaker 3: And you say, all the good.
Speaker 2: Experiences are gone, all the good jobs are already taken,
Speaker 2: all the good houses already bought, all the good husbands
Speaker 2: are married. You're going to look around as a scarcity mentality. Now,
Speaker 2: you gotta look with the eyes of faith. Number three.
Speaker 2: Third trap that we see from this story when we
Speaker 2: look at the future with fear instead of faith. I understand,
Speaker 2: excuse me, I underestimate the abilities that God has given me.
Speaker 2: I underestimate the abilities God has given me when I
Speaker 2: look at the future with fear, because seeing life with
Speaker 2: eyes of fear causes you to bury your talents. You
Speaker 2: know that story that Jesus told Number thirteen thirty one.
Speaker 2: The men who had gone with Caleb said, we can't
Speaker 2: circle that. We can't we can't attack those people. They
Speaker 2: are stronger than we are. They're underestimating their own ability.
Speaker 2: Did you know that people who always say I can't
Speaker 2: and the people who always say I can are both right.
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 2: Because fear creates self fulfilling prophecies. You got a vision
Speaker 2: based on fear rather than faith. It's gonna limit you
Speaker 2: for your entire life. You're gonna miss opportunities, you're gonna
Speaker 2: waste talent that God has put inside you, and you're
Speaker 2: gonna set yourself up with self fulfilling and self defeating predictions.
Speaker 3: You know this happened.
Speaker 2: Job says in Job three twenty five he said, what
Speaker 2: I have always feared has happened to me, and what
Speaker 2: I have dreaded has now come to be. Let me
Speaker 2: ask you a very personal question. What are you setting
Speaker 2: yourself up for in this new year? What are you
Speaker 2: setting yourself up or in just with your attitude, how
Speaker 2: are you seeing yourself? Are you looking at your own
Speaker 2: abilities as I'm inadequate, I'm incapable. Are you looking at
Speaker 2: your life in faith or in fear? The spies with
Speaker 2: fear based vision saw themselves as inadequate two and thirty
Speaker 2: three They said, the land we explored devours those living
Speaker 2: in it? What a what a hyperbole? The land we
Speaker 2: explored devours those living in it.
Speaker 3: He says.
Speaker 2: All of the people we saw there are of great size.
Speaker 2: He says, we saw giants there. The Hebrew word is
Speaker 2: nephelim for a giant. By the way, the Hebrew are
Speaker 2: for handsomest, Pastor Rick, in Hebrew, we seemed like grasshoppers
Speaker 2: in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.
Speaker 3: You see what they're saying. We see ourselves.
Speaker 2: As insects waiting to be devoured. That word devouring Hebrew
Speaker 2: actually means to eat up. They said, these people are
Speaker 2: going to eat our lunch.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy that
Speaker 1: you've chosen to study along with us today. If you'd
Speaker 1: like to receive rix free daily devotional, go to Pastorick
Speaker 1: dot com and sign up right now. Rick will be
Speaker 1: right back to close out our time today. But first,
Speaker 1: how do you feel spiritually right now? Maybe you feel
Speaker 1: spiritually dry, like you're in a desert, or like you're
Speaker 1: just going through the motions. Maybe you've lost your spark,
Speaker 1: your joy. God knows how you feel right now, and
Speaker 1: you're not alone. He knows. Even David and the Bible
Speaker 1: felt like that, and Jeremiah twenty nine thirteen. God says,
Speaker 1: you will seek me and find me when you seek
Speaker 1: Me with all your heart. When you seek God intentionally,
Speaker 1: it leads to a renewal of your relationship with him.
Speaker 1: And that's why Pastor Rick created a very special, brand
Speaker 1: new resource called Going Deeper with God, a personal renewal Retreat.
Speaker 1: Right now, here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you a very personal and serious question.
Speaker 2: Would you truly like to have a deeper relationship with God?
Speaker 2: Not a superficial one, a deep one Jeremiah twenty nine thirteen.
Speaker 2: God says this, you will seek me and find me
Speaker 2: when you seek for Me with all your heart. When
Speaker 2: you seek God intentionally, it leads to a renewal of
Speaker 2: your relationship with him. You're as close to God as
Speaker 2: you want to be, and if you want to be closer,
Speaker 2: it's up to you. That's why I created a Going
Speaker 2: Deeper with God Personal Renewal Retreat. Yeah, going Deeper with
Speaker 2: God Personal Renewal Retreat. It's retreat just meant for you
Speaker 2: where you can get alone with God and you can
Speaker 2: connect with Him in an intimate way that's going to
Speaker 2: refresh and renew and revitalize your relationship with God. It's
Speaker 2: going to give you a deeper understanding of His love,
Speaker 2: and it will also prepare you to be used by
Speaker 2: God in the days ahead. Now, as I lead you
Speaker 2: through this Going Deeper with God Retreat, my hope is
Speaker 2: that God will use it to completely revitalize and re
Speaker 2: energize your spiritual life. Together, we'll go through a series
Speaker 2: of audio lessons and after each session you'll just take
Speaker 2: a little bit of time to complete the exercises in
Speaker 2: the companion workbook that I've prepared for you. And you
Speaker 2: can do this. You can do it at home, you
Speaker 2: can do it at school. You can do it in
Speaker 2: short sessions, or you can get away for a whole
Speaker 2: day and do it all in one setting. My goal
Speaker 2: is to strengthen your relationship with God, deepen your commitment,
Speaker 2: and surrendered Him in affirm your commitment to live for
Speaker 2: His glory. You know, maybe you've never thought about this,
Speaker 2: but God's ready to go deeper with you.
Speaker 3: He's just waiting on you. Now.
Speaker 2: I want to help you get started by sending you
Speaker 2: a copy of Going Deeper with God today, and when
Speaker 2: you partner with daily, hope to take the word of God.
Speaker 2: These positive messages to people all around the world. My
Speaker 2: team is going to send you this very special spiritual
Speaker 2: growth tool just to say thanks. I hope you'll take
Speaker 2: advantage of this.
Speaker 1: Today we'll send you Going Deeper with God, a personal
Speaker 1: renewal retreat, as our way of saying thanks when you
Speaker 1: give a gift today to help Daily Hope share the
Speaker 1: hope of Jesus with a hurting world. Just call eight
Speaker 1: hundred six hundred five thousand and four or go to
Speaker 1: pastorick dot com to get your copy of this great resource.
Speaker 1: That's eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four or
Speaker 1: Pastorick dot com.
Speaker 3: Be sure to.
Speaker 1: Join us next time as we look into God's word
Speaker 1: for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor
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