All In, Week 1

Tim Rivers | January 14, 2024

Listen

Transcription

Can you give him a second of the year? Praise right now. Second weekend, you already made it. Can we talk about last week?

Come on now.

Y'all keeping that same energy or what? Yes. Welcome to church. I see a lot of turtlenecks, a lot of toboggans, a lot of overcoats. If this is your first time in a Texas winter, buckle up for the next two weeks about how long our winters are. Let me just tell you though, if you're from some other place where they got snow, snow and ice are not the same thing. Stay home. I don't care if you got four by four, you know what I'm saying? But it's so good to see you. If you're a guest with us, we want to say Welcome to Embassy City Church. If you're watching online in the comfort of your warm home, welcome, welcome, welcome. The vision here at this church. We believe that people ought to come grow and go, and that's our vision for this church. But that's not just the vision of this church and this house, but it's also a vision for you and your life.

God wants you to come into his prisons, come to know him, grow in your faith, and go change the world. And so if you're a guest with us and you'd like to know more about how we roll or you want to meet some people, make sure you stop by Guest Central. There are amazing, amazing, amazing people that are part of our serve teams ambassadors that are going to be there to answer any questions that you have. Can we just give it up for all those that serve and volunteer on a regular basis? Come on. It literally takes hundreds of people to make this thing go round and round. And I just want to say how thankful I am for anyone who serves in any area of our church. Thank you so much for giving of your time and your effort. You are making a difference and you are helping somebody meet Jesus and you are helping somebody know that they're loved. Do you feel loved? Yes. Have I told you that I loved you? Oh, thank you. I love y'all. I pray for you. You are a part of my heart. You're a part of my thoughts, you're a part of my motivation. So thank you for being a part of Embassy City Church. We made it a week in our 21 days of prayer, fasting. Come on, somebody give God praise.

We made it seven days down. We've got a few more days to go, two weeks to go. And God is going to continue to do amazing things in this time of prayer and fasting. And let me tell you, whatever you're doing, make sure that when you spend time with the Lord, that you have a notepad and a pen handy for when the Lord is speaking to you and when he's speaking to you, make sure that you write it down because I promise you it's going to be something that you're going to reference to the rest of this year. And somebody say amen. Amen. Alright, so today we're kicking off a new series and I want to prepare you really quickly because generally we've done series in the past and there's sometimes we do one-offs, whatever the Holy Spirit is leading us to do. But when we do a series, generally what happens is I will go to the Lord and I'll say, Lord, what do you have for your people in this local assembly?

And the Lord will start downloading and unpacking sermon series or series that we are in. And the reason why the Lord does that is because there is relevancy to the word of God for where you are right now. How many believe that the Bible is not just a book that was written a long time ago, but the Bible is relevant to you. And so when the Lord gives the sermons or sermon series or messages, it is to speak to you where you are at either right now or where you're going. This one is a little different because as I was praying about what the Lord wants to say at the very beginning of this year, I felt like the Lord impressed on me that this is not just going to be a sermon series, but this is going to be a theme or an anthem for our church for 2024. And as I prayed about, what is it going to be? I felt like the Lord impressed on me that this is going to be the year where we go, all in all somebody say all in, somebody say all in. We live in a culture full of half in people, half in marriage just in case somebody better comes along, half in your job in case you get a better offer somewhere else, half in church in case there's another church that's got better programming and a better preacher half in with Jesus

Because the world's still got some stuff I like. But this ain't the year. This is going to be the year where you go all in, all in with Jesus, all in your marriage, all in your disciplines. This is going to be the year where it's not just going to the gym for the month of January. Planet Fitness is making a killing right now. No judgment y'all. Some of y'all didn't even catch it, but this is the year where you take care of your body, soul, and spirit all year where you start creating good habits for your life, where you go all in at your job, where you go all in to your local church and your community. This is the year of all in. And so we're going to unpack this over the next couple of weeks of next few weeks, and I really believe that the Lord is going to do something special in your life. How many are ready to go all in? We went about halfway in. How many are ready to go? All in.

Come on. This is going to be somebody's all in here. You're going to get to 2025. Look back and say, yeah, I went all in. I went all in at my job, I went all in on my business, I went all in on my marriage, I went all into my church, I went all in with Jesus. I left nothing on the table, man. I just may just be preaching to myself. I better get on with this word. Alright, grab your Bibles. We're going to mark chapter eight, the book of Mark chapter eight, and let me just tell you, I'm going to teach a little bit. So if you have a notepad and paper, notepad and pen and get that ready. If not your phones, you're going to be taking some notes today. Alright, mark chapter eight, verse number 22. Let me just say this. This is the most note taken as church ever.

I love it. I love looking around and seeing people writing down and letting the Holy Spirit talk to you. This is why it's important to write down. You'll forget most of what I'm saying statistically bye tomorrow because when you wake up and you're hit with life, you got to go back to something. Okay? That's what I wrote down. I'm going to be all right. Alright, mark chapter eight, verse number 22. And they came to Messa and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him and he took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored and he saw everything somebody say everything, everything. He saw everything clearly. Somebody say clearly, clearly. And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. It is very important that if you go all in, that you have clear vision for what you're going all into.

If you're going to go all in into something, it is very important and vital that you have clarity of vision and that you see everything clearly. Because if you don't have a vision, you will not be able to go all in. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Our message for the day is all in vision, all in vision. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for allowing us to be in your house. I pray that over the next few moments as we dig into your word and you reveal yourself to us through your word, give us ears to hear, a heart to receive and a mind to understand and what the spirit would say to us, help us to walk out of here different than the way we came in. Keep us safe on the roads in Jesus' name. And everybody say amen. Amen. Look at your neighbor and say, neighbor, neighbor, this is the year. This is the year we're going all in, going all in. Look at your other neighbor and say, neighbor, this is the year. This is the year we're going all in, going all in. And if that's you, give God some praise.

This is my all in year. I believe what hinders people from going all in and living an all in lifestyle is a lack of vision for where they're going. And what's interesting is that we live in a culture that promotes the idea of being half in. We live in a culture that promotes the idea that you have options. And when you have an options mindset, you will always do something knowing that you can get out of it. I mean, look at menus lately. Have you looked at menus, eating menus? You know how many options you have, you have a ton of options. But did you know that the most exquisite expensive restaurants have a set menu? Because they want you to know that if you eat here, you're going to eat what we give you

And you may not like it. And if you don't like it, go to McDonald's where you have options. But the reality is, if you don't have vision for your life, you will end up living in depression of the past, dealing with anxiety in your present and dealing with worry for your future. Why is that? Because when you don't have vision, you are blind. And when you are blind, you have no direction. And when you have no direction, you are overwhelmed by anxiety. And when you have anxiety, you will think of nothing else but your anxiety. Now I think when we talk about vision, I think what we're dealing with probably more so in our culture rather than a lack of vision completely and lack of total vision, I think we're dealing with a culture that is actually dealing with blurry vision. And sometimes oftentimes the blurry vision is more dangerous than no vision at all. Because when you don't have vision, you usually stay put. If you can't see, you're going to stay right where you are and be comfortable. But if you have blurry vision, you'll end up going directions that are detrimental to you because you are misreading the signs.

If I drive without my glasses, I can see, but everything is blurry, meaning that I don't see where I'm going until I get close to where I thought I was going. So if I'm driving down the highway without my glasses with blurry vision, I will start reading signs and thinking that they're taking me some direction. But when I get close and I end up seeing the sign, oh, that's not what I thought it was, but it's too late, I've already taken the exit. So now I got to spend time and energy and effort trying to make a U-turn to get back on the highway, to get back on the highway just to read more blurry signs.

Blurry vision will mislead you. Half vision will mislead you. So it is important that as we talk about being all in, that you understand that having clear direction and vision for your life is vital for you going all in. Now, there are two really definitions of vision. The first definition is the faculty or the ability to see clearly what's in front of you. Right now, if you're looking at me, it's because you have vision, you have eyesight, you have the ability to see what's right in front of you. But another definition of vision is the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom. So this is going to be our working definition of vision for this message today. Vision is the ability to see in the imagination that which cannot yet be seen in reality. Lemme say it again. Vision is the ability to see in the imagination that which cannot yet be seen in reality. It is a conceptual picture of the future in your imagination. In other words, it's a concept. It is something that you are hoping for, that you are envisioning in your mind about your future and it's imaginary glimpse of your purpose and your assignment. Can I tell you, you will never discover your purpose and assignment in life without vision.

You have to have vision. In fact, throughout the canon of scripture, if you look at the scriptures, you'll find that God communicates vision before he does it. God will tell you what he's going to do before he does it. Why? Because God is very much interested in you believing the vision before you see it. This is why even God's preparation of making man, he said, let us make man in our image. And then he made, man God himself works with vision. It is the nature of God to tell you what he's going to do prior to it actually coming to pass. Why? Because vision requires you to exercise faith. No one never saw rain. The Bible never indicates that Noah was a boat builder,

And yet God tells him, listen, I need you to build a boat. Why? Because I'm giving you a vision right now of what's going to happen. Well, what's going to happen? Rain is coming, destruction is coming. So what am I supposed to do? I need you to believe division, exercise, faith, and then prepare yourself and get ready for the vision to become reality. When God speaks to Abraham, Abraham didn't have a son, and yet God says, Hey, I I'm going to make of you a great nation. Abraham doesn't see the reality right now, but Abraham believes the vision and then exercises his faith based on the vision that God has given him. We can talk about Moses. Moses didn't see the promised land and yet God told him the vision that I'm leading you to a land flowing withm and honey. And so Moses leads the children of Israel to the promised land, never having seen the promised land based on what vision. Every person in the Bible that you read about that exercised their gifting and their calling and that was walking in purpose, did so based off of vision.

Vision has a dual purpose. It requires an immediate response, an immediate response. When God gives you vision, he's not just saying, Hey, here's vision. Check back in a few weeks. When he gives you vision, it requires an immediate, let's take the example of Moses. God speaks to Moses from a burning bush and says, Moses, this is what's going to happen. I need you to go in there, tell Pharaoh to let my people go. This is my plan for you. This is my vision for your life. Now, Moses could have said, God, I need proof right now. No, God says, I need you to go. And as you go, I will clarify the vision more and more. So vision requires immediate response and it has a future reveal. So vision has an immediate response and a future reveal. Why is vision important? Vision allows you if you take a notes, write this down. Vision allows you to prepare for what is to come. Vision allows you to prepare for what is to come. Vision allows you to prepare for what is to come. If you don't have vision, you are not prepared properly. If you don't have vision, you're not prepared properly for the promise which is perpetually coming.

That took a lot of work.

So I want to tell you a story about the importance of vision. And in order to do so, I got to tell you about a ski story. Now let me prepare you. So a couple of weeks ago, my family, this would be me, my wife, our children, my brother, my sister-in-Law, their children, my mom, we all went on this beautiful ski trip. It was a lot of fun. There were some injuries, y'all pray for them, but it wasn't from skiing, it was from sledding the day after. We ain't young no more, let's just say that. But it was a fun time. We had a great time. The kids got to ski, but that wasn't our first ever ski trip. I need to take you all the way back to 2013 when we took our very first ski trip. Now let me set up the story here. I had been skiing for several years and I was heading to Colorado to preach for a place in Denver, and I had the opportunity to have some time to go a little ahead of time. And I thought, you know what? This would be a great time for me to introduce to my family who had never skied, which would include my wife of one month.

That's important to note.

My brother and my sister-in-Law, the three of them had never been skiing. I had been skiing for several years. And so we get to Colorado and when you're skiing, half of the battle for skiing is look like you know how to ski. That means you got to get the right clothes, get the skis, the gloves you got to look like if you don't do a single thing, at least show up looking like you know what you're doing. Fake it until you make it, until you don't make it. And then you shouldn't have faked it. So we're getting prepared. Everyone's got their ski gear on, we rent out our skis and our boots and everything's ready. So we go to a place called Keystone. And when we get there, I'm sitting there and I'm like, you know what? I don't think they need ski school. I teach for a living.

I'm in this book all the time. Surely I can teach them how to ski. Plus it was very expensive and I didn't have that kind of cash. So we get to Keystone, and when you get to the base of the mountain, they call the base of the mountain, which is where all the chairlifts start taking off. Generally speaking, there is what they call a bunny hill or a bunny slope. And a bunny hill is an area for those really who have never skied before to practice their skiing. And the bunny hill has a very slight gray down and you take what they call a magic carpet, which is like an elevator. It's like a belt. You get on there and it takes you to the top, you get off and then you learn how to ski down on a very slope, very slight grave. And if you fall, you're not going to get hurt.

You're not going to go too fast. And so I knew that every ski resort has one of these. So we go there and I've got the three of them with me and I need to act like I know what I'm doing. And so I talked to the person that works here. I said, Hey, what got three new beginners skiers? Where is the bunny hill? And the lady tells me, oh, in order to get to the bunny hill, you've got to take the gondola or the chairlift all the way up to halfway, halfway up the mountain and there's going to be a bunny hill. Now, that didn't sound right to me. Everything within me said this ain't right. The Holy Ghost

Was telling me, this is not the way. But again, I figured, you know what, these are smart people, they're going to be able to learn it very quickly and then we'll make our way down and there has to be an easy way to come down. So we take the gondola up halfway toward the mountain and it literally looks like this and we get off and sure enough, halfway up the mountain there is a bunny slope or a bunny hill. And so I'm like, okay, well they can practice. So we go over there and I tell the three of them, Hey, listen guys, it's very simple skiing. Basically all you got to do is learn how to slow down. So when you go down the grade, just put your feet in and create a pizza slice. And that's how you stop. Just pizza, pizza, pizza. And you'll be all right.

And if you're in trouble, just fall to your side. You'll be ao. Okay? Right? So these are the only instructions I'm giving them. And then I set them free on the bunny slope and I just tell 'em, Hey, listen, just keep doing it until you're comfortable. As you're doing that, I'm going to figure out how we get off this mountain. So they're practicing. While they're practicing. I'm going to see if I can find a trail or some way to get down. And what I realized is that we took the chairlift up to the midway point where the only way down is to take a blue, which is an intermediate level slope. Now we're talking like this is a bunny slope, this is a blue. So I did what any good godly Christian would do. I started praying and I believed that I had faith. So they had been doing this for about like 20, 30 minutes. Now remember, this is their first time ever on skis. They've probably skied maybe 25 minutes, maybe 30 minutes up and down this bunny hill. And I come to them and I say, alright guys, are y'all ready? They don't know what they're getting into. So they say, yeah, I think we got the pizza down. I said, all right. I said, well, I've taken lessons in leadership and I know I can teach, right? So we'll get 'em down the mountain. So we get ready, alright? We're at the top of the mountain. They're looking down and they're looking at me like, bro, this is a lot steeper

Than a bunny slope. What are we doing? So we sit down, my brother's on this side, and then I've got my brand new wife right beside me, and then my sister-in-law. So I did what a normal younger brother would do. I looked at my brother and said, you're first. So they all were sitting on the snow, and I looked at my brother, I said, all right, bro, when you get up, make sure you make an immediate right. Go that way and do s's, do pizza, pizza, pizza to the right and then piece, piece pizza left, and you'll be fine. Just make big S down this trail. You'll be totally okay. You good? Steven said, yeah, I got it. Now what's ironic, he's actually in a sling this morning. So I said, all right, go ahead, stand up and then make a right. So he says, all right, so he stands up. Well, when he stands up, his skis are pointed straight down the mountain. So when he stands up, he starts to slide and I go, right, right, pizza, pizza. Too late. He takes off, I'm talking full blast down the hill, and he's going so fast that literally he's passing people by.

His skis are out on the side and I'm going slow down and God be with you. He is gone so fast that people are slow down and he's like, I dunno how

He flies. He hits this little flat spot and then he disappears. Literally, he's out of my sight. I have no idea where he is at. Now I got two options. I either chase my brother and leave my brand new wife and my sister-in-Law, or I just pray that he's all right. I prayed that he was all right. I had no idea where he was going, but I'm sure we'll find you someday. So then I look at my wife and my sister-in-Law, and I think, okay, now that didn't go very well. I wonder if I can make this happen better. So first of all, I say to my sister-in-Law, Hey, okay, remember what I said? Pizza, pizza, pizza, big Ss, and you'll be all right. She gets up and the same thing happens except she gets halfway down the mountain and she did what anybody should do.

She falls to sight when she does the skis, go off the poles, go everywhere, and then she falls again and again. And it got so bad she was getting altitude sickness. That ski patrol came and said, Hey, you're done. We're taking you off the mountain. They put her on a stretch gurney and took her down. So now it's me and Janice, my brand new wife of one month. I have a fail rate right now of two and one, and I'm like This, okay, I can get you down the mountain. So she gets up and I'm like, alright, pizza, pizza, pizza to the left, go to the right. And she keeps falling about every 10 to 15 feet she falls. Now, when you're newly married, it's cute because she's falling and I'm helping her up, and we give a kiss and isn't this romantic? And we do it again. And about the 15th fall, your lips are already cracked because it's cold and you're like, can you get this? At this point, we're halfway down the mountain. By this point, Janice and I are not talking to each other, and she is, well, let me pass by then. It was the greatest trial of our marriage so far.

I finally get to the point where I'm like, do you want me to leave you up on this mountain? She just said, go ahead. I said, how do I explain that to my father-in-law? Now I'll stay with you. So we ended up, it took us an hour and a half to make it down a run that should have taken us 10 minutes. We get to the bottom of the hill, we're not talking. Literally, there's no conversation at all. In fact, the next day I said, listen, I'm not teaching y'all anything. Y'all going to ski school. Needless to say, we made it down the mountain. Somebody give God praise all in one piece. Now, as I thought about the story that I was wondering what really went wrong? Because here's the thing, we had all the right equipment, we had all the right get up. We were at the right place.

In fact, we looked like we knew what we were doing. We had everything necessary to make the trip. But what was the missing ingredient? And the missing ingredient was I did not prepare them with vision for what they were about to face. And because I didn't prepare them with vision, they did not have the proper time to prepare for what was to come. How many of us are trying to ski down the mountain that God has prepared for us and we keep stumbling and falling and losing ourselves? Why? Because we have no vision and we made no preparation for where God was leading us to go. And the problem is, here's what Proverbs chapter 29, verse 18 says in the message translation, if people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves and when they attend, but when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed. For those of you who are KJV fans, this is what the Bible says where there is no vision, the people perish. You know why? Because when you don't have vision, you have no direction, and when you don't have direction, you cannot go all in. The reason why some marriages are breaking apart is because you don't have vision for your marriage.

I missed the hit on the nerve right there. The reason why you can't go in all in your job is because you have no vision for your job. You have to have vision in order to go all in. So I want to talk to you about how to have all in vision, how to get all in vision, and I want to go back to Mark chapter AR story where Jesus performs this miracle, and this is a very unique story. This is different than any miracle that Jesus has ever performed in Mark chapter eight. So let's read Mark chapter eight, verse number 23, the beginning part. This is what the Bible says, after the friends brought this man to Jesus, scripture says that Jesus, and he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Here's point number one of how to get all in vision. You have to remove distractions. You have to remove distractions. It's interesting that Jesus, when he was approached by the friends, didn't just heal the man on the spot, but Jesus led this man out of the village to be alone with him. Now, why would Jesus do that? I think there's a couple reasons. One is if you are blind, your sense of hearing is heightened because when you have no vision, you have to rely on what you hear to get where you want to go, meaning that you will listen to anybody

Who is willing to tell you where you should go. That's the message all in itself. You cannot hear clearly the vision from God if you're surrounded by people who are constantly talking to you about the vision that they think should be in your

Before you could hear the voice of God, and before you can get a vision from God, you got to remove distractions out of your life. Let me ask you this. What are the voices speaking to you right now that are causing you to miss out on the vision that God has for you? I promise you that there are a lot of people who will speak vision into your life that is not from God. It's their vision of you. Oh, you're such a good singer. You should really go do that. Is that what God has for you?

Wow.

Oh, you have such talent in this area, you should pursue this job. Wait a minute, is that what God said or is that what your vision is for me?

God will remove you from distractions before he can give you clear vision. That's one of the reasons. The second reason that I believe that he led him away from the village is because you have to pay attention to where this took place. This took place in a place called Beth Saya. Now there are about seven mentions of Beth Saya in the gospels. Two of them are in Matthew, one is in Matthew chapter 11, and the other is in Luke chapter 10. And in both of those instances, Jesus calls Beth Saya out and he says, woe unto you, Bea. And what Jesus was calling that village to was he was calling them to repentance. Why? Because they saw miracles and yet did not believe on the Christ. Now, remember, there are three miracles that took place in Beda. Near it was the walking in the water feeding of the 5,000 and this by man getting healed. But if you remember the story of the 5,000 getting fed, what happened right after they got fed? After the 5,000 got fed, Jesus disappears. He goes away. Then the Bible says that all day who experienced that went and followed Jesus, and Jesus looked at them and said, you're not following me because you believe in me. You're following me because you love the fish and the Lowe's. What Jesus was saying is, Hey, best say to him You love the miracles, but you don't love the miracle worker.

And when you're around people who just love miracles, who not the miracle worker, your vision will not be clear. God will remove you from people who only follow Jesus for benefits.

Distractions will keep you half in and half out. Distractions will prohibit you from going all in with Jesus. And all of us have had to deal with distractions. Have you ever been walking with the Lord while looking back? Jesus said, if I'm going to give you vision, I got to remove distractions out of your life. I got to remove what you hear and where you're at because God vision can only come in isolation with God. Let me ask you this. What is distracting you from getting God vision? You may have to let go of some people in 2024. They may not be bad people. They may want what's good for you, but do they want what's God for you? That's a bar right there. They may want what's good for you, but do they want what's God for you? Let's continue. Mark chapter eight, verse 23. This is the latter half of this scripture. This is what Jesus does. He leads him away from the village and then the Bible says, and when he had spit on his eyes, ooh, yuck and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything?

Now, the friends of the blind man when they brought him to Jesus, the Bible says that they begged him to touch him. So the friends of the blind man had a certain perception or vision of what the outcome would be in terms of how the Christ would work, the miracle in their friend's life. They had an idea. They had a desire for how they wanted this man to receive vision, and yet when Jesus begins to work on him, Jesus does it in a very unconventional way. We don't really know why Jesus would decide that spitting in this dude's eye was the best course of action. Now, how many of y'all would throw hands at somebody spit in your face, some of y'all, you ain't raising your hand? Stop lying. I would really need the power of the Holy Ghost to hold me down. Sit on me, Lord, sit on me, God, because I'm about to go off on this person. Just spit on me. Can I get a witness in you? Now, what you have to understand in the culture and the Jewish culture in particular, spitting on somebody in particular in their face was the strongest display of contempt toward the person.

The strongest show of contempt with a person was to spit in their face. There are a couple of examples in the Bible where you can read about it. In one example, there was a man who refused to marry his brother's widow and continued to air she spit in his face, which was a sign of contempt toward him. And then two other examples that we find in the New Testament, one being when the soldiers spat in Jesus' face during the crucifixion and another were the Jewish rulers when they put Jesus on trial and falsely accusing him of not being the Christ they spit on his face, which was again, the greatest show of contempt toward a person. Now, why would Jesus? Now, there's also a theory that saliva had healing properties in it, but how would this guy know that's what Jesus was trying to do? And this is literally the only instance where we read Jesus doing a miracle like this. Now, this is what I think Jesus was doing in order for the man not to react to Jesus after getting spit in eye, that man had to exercise true humility and submission to how Jesus decided to give him vision.

What I believe is that if you want vision from God, you have to have the idea and mentality that I will submit with humility to the process that God chooses to show me vision. Because after he spit his eyes, then Jesus touched him, and when he touched him, the man said he could begin to see. Can I tell you that if you're going to get vision from God, you're going to go through a season of humility?

There is not a single person in this Bible that received vision from God, that didn't have to go through a season of getting humbled, of having to submit to how God decided to give them vision. There's not a single, you don't get to choose how God gives you vision. You just have to submit to the process by which he decides to do it, and sometimes it will feel like spit in your face.

The question is, can you submit to the process that God has decided to give you vision? A lot of people, we want dreams. Lord, give me a vision in my dreams. So you want an angel to show up, seven, five with big old wings, tall, dark, and handsome, waving a sword, telling you exactly what's going to happen. No. Sometimes he will speak through a donkey.

Sometimes he's going to talk to the person that you can't stand. Sometimes God will give you vision through people that turn their back on you. Sometimes God will speak vision to you through people that you have contempt for. Why? Because God is going to humble you in the process of receiving vision. The question is, can you exercise humility and submission to hear from the Lord? How do you know that you received the God vision? My second point is get God vision. How do you know that you received God vision? Let me give you three points for how you know it's God vision. Number one, it's big. Somebody say it's big, big. Do you know that God is a big God? Yes, he is. And when he gives you vision, he gives you big vision, meaning that you can't do it on your own. I remember asking a pastor one time when I was a young teenager, I said, how do you know something is from God? And I just made it up. He's like, can you do it on your own? Because if you can do it on your own, that's you. If it requires God, it's God number one. It's big. Number two, it requires faith. It requires faith. It requires you to believe that what God said is actually true. If you're going to go all in, you have to have a vision that's bigger than you. And here's the third point of how you know it's God vision. It benefits others.

I got vision for my life. Okay, does it include other people? Because if it doesn't include other people, that's just you. That's goals. That's milestones. And ain't nothing wrong with that. You can have goals. You can have milestones, but we're talking about God. Vision always includes other people because God is others oriented. It is not good for man to be alone. Let's go to the third point, mark chapter eight, verse number 24, and he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored and he saw everything. Somebody say everything, everything. He saw everything clearly. Here's point number three, commit to the process. Commit to the process. This is the only miracle recorded by Jesus that didn't have an immediate result.

And every other example where Jesus is working a miracle, it's immediately and immediately he took up his bed and walked, and immediately his hand was unweathered and immediately there were cleansed, and immediately he came out of the tomb and immediately the spirits left him and immediately she got up. Every instance where Jesus works a miracle, it's immediate, except for in this instance. Now, there's a lot of speculation on why Jesus would give him blurry vision, but again, if I read the scripture, it seems to me like the reason why Jesus would give him a half miracle or half vision is to test and see if he was committed to the process enough for Jesus to touch him again, to clarify his vision. That man could have walked off and said, you know what? That'll do.

I didn't see before. It's a little blurry, but it's more than what I had. So let me continue. But remember what I said about blurry vision. If you have blurry vision, you'll mislabel things because you don't see it clearly, and you will go wrong directions because you can't read signs. So when Jesus asked him, he said, Hey, you good? Do you see anything? The man said, yes, I see people, but they look like trees walking. This also gives us evidence that this man had seen before because he was able to identify what people look like and what trees look like. So at some point he had vision. He lost vision, and when God started to restore his vision, he could have just stayed at halfway point and been like, listen, I'm good with just seeing a little bit, and a lot of people are walking around. I'm just glad I see a little bit. I'm just glad that I see people as trees walking and Jesus said, I got another touch for you. The question is, do you want me to touch you again so that I can clarify everything? You see some things, but God wants you to see everything clearly. You know why? Because God does not want you to walk around blurry. You have no confidence when everything is blurry. Have you ever, those of you that have glasses, if you take your glasses off and you walk, you walk with hesitancy,

Right? Because you're trying to figure out, and my eyes ain't even that bad, but when you don't have your glasses on and you see blurry, you walk slower because you don't really know, is that a rock or is that a Lego piece or what is that? And then you got to, and you're squinting at everybody. You know how many Christians are walking around squinting, Hey, can you help me with this? And you got to ask everybody else who has clear vision to help you with your blurry vision. You don't have to live that way. God will fix it for you. He'll do LASIK on you. He'll clarify your vision so you can see everything clearly. The question is, are you committed to the process? Moses committed himself before he saw everything? Are you committed to the process? Here's my fourth and final point. This is how to get all in vision. Mark chapter eight, verse number 26. This is what Jesus does. He heals him. He gives him vision. The man can see everything clearly. Now he has perfect eyesight. 2020, he's walking with confidence. He's all good, and I'm sure the man thought, I'm about to go back to my friends and tell 'em, thank you for bringing to Jesus. I'm about to go roll up on all these people that walk by me making faces. I'm going to walk up on 'em and be like, listen, I see you now and I got my eyes on you, dog.

This is what Jesus says. Mark chapter eight, verse 26, and he sent him to his home saying, do not even, don't even enter the village. This is very peculiar. Why would Jesus heal this man and not want him to go show off? I think it's because the village already had a reputation of seeing miracles and not believing, and I believe Jesus was trying to tell him, listen, now that you have clear vision, don't you even think about going back to the place where you had no vision? Don't you even go back to where there's unbelief? Don't you even tempt yourself to go back with the people that don't see clearly? Don't you even go back to a friends group that didn't believe you in the first place? Don't you even go back to a village where they need to repent? Don't even when I heal you and I give you clear vision, I need you to go all in and to be all in means that you go that way and you don't turn back. Don't you even look back at Sodo URA when I pulled you out of it? Unless you turn in the salt. How many people are walking around with clear vision but still trying to go back?

The reason why God gives us clear vision is because he wants us to go all in. Nothing left on the table, no hesitation at all. I'm not going back. I'm not in with Jesus halfway. I'm win with Jesus all the way. I don't care what it takes. I don't care what it looks like. I'm going all the way. Why? Because my vision is clear. I see everything clearly. I see the schemes of the enemy. The enemy can't prop up anything on me. I see all of his schemes. I see all of his tricks. I'm going all in with Jesus. The reason why I'm all in my marriages, because I'm not going back to being single. That ain't an option for me. Why? Because I'm all in. I'm all into this church. Lemme tell you something, I have no plans of leaving. Amen. Embassy City Church. I didn't come here saying, well, this is my two year plan. This is my five plan. I'm all in. You all are my family. I'm all into this church. I'm all into this community, and God wants you to be the same way. Have you committed yourself to be all into the vision that God has given you for your life?

Are there going to be trials and tribulations guaranteed? According to scripture, you're going to go through some hard times, but you know what's going to keep you clear vision. If God's given you a clear vision to start a business, are you going to face a hard time? Yes. Are there going to be moments where you don't know how you're going to meet payroll? Yes, but if you have clear vision, you take good lick and keep on taking you, not everything's going to be perfect in your life. You're going to go through hard times and that's okay because if you have clear vision, don't even go back to when you didn't because some people, when they faced a hard time, they want to go back to the village and consult their friends about what they should do next. They didn't have vision to begin with. Are you all in? Because being all in means that you start with a clarity of vision and then when you have vision, you go for it. The one who demonstrated this, the greatest

Is Jesus.

Jesus after being baptized, he was led into the wilderness by the Spirit. The Bible says that he comes out of the wilderness in the power of the Spirit, and then the Bible tells us that he goes into the house of God. He unrolls the scroll and he begins to talk to the people and he tells them the vision. He tells them, for the next little while, here are the things that I want to do. I'm going to heal the blind. I'm going to set liberty to those that are captives. This is what I, I'm going to preach the message of liberty to those. Now, up until this point, we have no recordings of Jesus doing any miracles. No signs, no wonders. The people around him are confused and shocked, and why in the world would you tell us about this? It's because Jesus had clarity of vision. Why do we know that? Because he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me, anointed me, anointed me, anointed me. My eyes are touched by the master. My eyes, my vision has been consecrated by the Lord. My vision has been anointed so that when I open my eyes,

Ooh, I see very clearly where God is leading me. When your vision is anointed, the devil can't stop it.

Hallelujah.

I don't trip because my vision is anointed. I've been touched by the master. I see everything clearly. What do you do when you get clear vision? Write it down. Make it plain. That's what the scripture says. Write it down. Make it plain. Can I tell you real quickly how you can do that? I know we sometimes hear that scripture and it's like, what does that mean? This is what I do very practically in my life. I divide vision up into five categories in my life, faith, family, finances, fun, fitness.

You can have your own little version. It's easy for me. What I do is I'll write it down on a piece of paper, faith. Then I'll go to the Lord. I say, God, touch my eyes so that I can see what your vision is for my faith to grow this year, and the Lord will begin to show me this is what you should do. This is a habit that you need to have. Alright, God, I got it down and then I'll write down family and I say, God, touch my eyes. Give me vision for our family. Where is our family going to do this year? Lemme give you, I'll give you a real example. I said, Lord, this year I really want to hone in on as a family for us to learn more of your word. We want our children to have good godly worldview in the world that's in chaos.

We want them to understand and know your word. Starting at a young, we've got seven foreign two, and I felt like Lord said, be intentional about teaching them deep principles. See what I did, I got online and I went to this website called Tiny Theologians. It's for little kids, and I bought a devotional package that teaches, it's called Tiny Theology, and it's systematic Theology for children, and it's a system that we get to sit at home and have Bible study in the evening. That's a vision. That's a clear vision that God gave before our house and our children for this year. It's that practical. It's that simple. You ain't got to overcomplicate it. You ain't got to go up to some mountain somewhere and expect God to just veil you with glory. That's what 21 days of prayer and fasting will do. God will just start telling you and then you just write it down and make it plain, and then when you do, go all in. Don't go halfway, go all in. Amen. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for your goodness and your mercy. We're so grateful for your word. I pray that as we prepare as a church to go all in this year into every facet of our lives that you would clarify our vision,

And if our vision is blurry, touches us again so that we may see everything clearly. I pray God for us individually and for us corporately, that we would have God vision, that we would see what you have before us and that we will walk in that direction. Help us not to get sidetracked or distracted by the seep of riches or the props of the world, but help us to stay focused in and zeroed in on you. We thank you Lord God for what you're doing in and through us in Jesus' name and everybody say amen. One more time. Give Jesus some praise in this place.