Just In Case You've Forgotten

Proverbs 29:18  Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

You may remember the series called the Ten Commandments of Vision. The first commandment was walking by faith. Walking by faith allows us to see the big picture, regardless of what's going on. If you don't have a regardless faith you won't go far FOR God. You have to faith in God and understanding that God can do anything but fail.

1. The second commandment of vision was staying in God's Word. You have to be able to stay in the Word of God. This is the reason this sermon is titled "Just in Case You Forgotten." The Word of God opens the door to faith and vision. You can't have faith and vision without God's Word.

a.   Romans 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

             i.        Don't get out of the Word, because if you get out of the Word, you will get distracted, and if you get distracted, you will stop walking in vision, and when you stop walking in vision you will not be in church!

b.   Sometimes we treat God like He's a chore. When everything becomes a chore it becomes a bore.

             i.        God's Word is the source that motivates vision. Without God's Word you can't even walk in vision.

            ii.        Having vision for your life means God puts you on a path or a course, and you will follow that course no matter what.

c.   Hebrews 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

             i.        How are you persuaded of something and embracing something that's invisible?

            ii.        Sometimes we live moreso for this world, than for the world to come. This life is but a vapor, and the early Christians understood that.

          iii.        We see more than the early Christians because we know about the resurrected Savior, and a lot of those people didn't even know, but they still embraced something that was afar off.

d.   When you embrace something that's afar off, it will change the way you see things.

             i.        According to the way you perceive things is the way you're gonna live. If you see things from a negative point of view, that's the way you will run your life.

            ii.        It's one thing to be in church with a pleasant attitude. It's another thing when you get into company of which you don't need to be careful, and then the real you comes out.

          iii.        We as Christians know how to hide the real us don't we?

2. As we walk this Christian life, God teaches us over and over again that the real "us" is gonna be dealt with.

a.   You can play the funk if you want to, but you can't do God like you do people. God looks beyond the tears and the fit that you throw, because He isn't intimidated by you.

             i.        A lot of people try to intimidate people by the way they are. Isn't it great that our God isn't like that? God will deal with it.

b.   The early Christians had passion because they didn't allow anything to knock them off their course. If you are gonna commit yourself to the Word of God, you also got to commit yourself to the trials that come with it.

             i.        It's not how you start something, it's how you finish it. How will you be six months from now? How will you be when the fun is over?

c.   You must be sure that the Word of God is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path, you must make sure that the Word of God directs your steps.

             i.        Make sure your steps aren't being directed to nobody else.

            ii.        We got the perfect Word of God, that's why you got to make sure that everything you do is done by the Book, not by whatever people say.

          iii.        People that aren't let by the Word will be led by something - frustration, fear, depression, bitterness, anger, everything but the RIGHT thing.

d.   People talk about being led by the spirit. It's easy to yield to God when everything is alright.

             i.        When everything is going fine, it's easy to come to church and shout, but how will you be when the storms come?

e.   If you say, as long as everybody's doing what I think they should do, we'll have a good relationship, you won't have too many good relationships, because you will find out that nobody will do what they're supposed to do ALL the time.

             i.        The sooner we can understand this, the sooner we'll live a happy life, because "my" happiness does not depend on "you." Happy is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly.

            ii.        Happy is the person who's sins are forgiven. Be happy not because of external circumstances, but because of an internal one.

          iii.        It's easy to yield when everything is okay, but how you respond when there's a problem is a tell tale sign whether or not you are walking in the Spirit.

f.    You don't need temperance when things are okay. Temperance just means that you have control over yourself even when everything is falling apart.

             i.        It's a sad person who walks around trying to control everybody else, when their own self is out of control.

            ii.        You want control? Learn to control yourself.

3. It's not the hardening of the arteries, but the hardening of your attitude that keeps you sidelined.

a.   Anger dwelleth in the bosom of fools. Where does the Bible say that? Ecclesiastes 7:9.

b.   People that are in the Word are people that know what it is to stay in control. It's not that they have control, it's that they yield themselves to the One who allows them to have self-control.

             i.        The Bible says that when Jesus was reviled, He reviled not again, when He was threatened, he threatened not, but committed Himself in Him that judgeth righteously. He set a powerful example.

            ii.        "Because I am committed to Him, I'm committed to everything He has for me and everything He wants for me to do."

c.   The Bible says great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. That means nothing will become a stumbling block to them, and everything will be a stepping stone.

d.   People say "I'm tired of the victim mentality." What do you think Christianity is all about? You got to be a victim before you can be victorious, you got to have something to overcome before you can overcome it. You have to have a battle before you can win it.

             i.        How will you become a living sacrifice without going through battles?

e.   The Bible is something that transforms them from earthly thinking to Heavenly thinking. Once that happens, we will stop living earthly, and start living heavenly.

             i.        There is not much worse than a leader who hasn't had their mind renewed, because they will jump back and forth.

            ii.        Anger is a type of manipulation. People manipulate people by their anger, so you get manipulated, and then you're afraid to deal with anything so the individual gets away with everything.

f.    You can't ask God for something new without getting rid of the old thing. You got to go to God and ask Him to change your faulty ways, because you will not receive a renewed mind, if you continue to show up in the new places in the old way of thinking.

             i.        Many of us are not where we're supposed to be because we're not allowing God to renovate our minds.

            ii.        You cannot continue to talk about going into another area if you keep showing up in the old areas the same way. That's walking around in circles.

          iii.        The situation can change, but until the mentality changes, we cannot move forward.

g.   The Bible will come in and renew our minds and start putting stuff in order, and rearranging stuff, so that when it's time for you to go into the next level, your mindset is ready to get there.

h.   Joshua and Caleb were 45 years old when they started, and they had to deal with rebellious and non-faithful people for 40 years, because the Israelites decided they didn't want to leave Egypt, they didn't want to deal with the wilderness.

             i.        They didn't understand that without the wilderness there is no promised land.

            ii.        We have to allow the Word of God to renovate our minds, because God really wants to do wonderful things with this church. But He cannot move a church into new places with an old mentality.

          iii.        Jesus said you cannot put old wine into new bottles. The old wine will burst the new bottles, because the bottles haven't been proven and the old wine has.

          iv.        Old stuff can't dwell in that which is new because it will burst it. We cannot go into new area with an old mentality because we will destroy what God is trying to build.

i.     The Bible says reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.

             i.        There are many teachers because they scratch itching ears. I'm not here to do that, but to exhort you to move forward in your Christian life.

            ii.        I'm not talking about what you do in church, I'm talking about your private life, the way you live when nobody will find out about it.

          iii.        All God to renew that side of you that is so secret that only a few people know about it, or even no one knows about.

j.    2 Corinthians 10:3-4

3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

             i.    You have to understand that there is a carnal weapon, but then there's a spiritual one, and the spiritual one is more powerful than the carnal one.

            ii.    When you learn how to give stuff to God, and how to pray for people, that is the most powerful weapon that you have at your disposal to use as a Christian.

k.        2 Corinthians 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

             i.        This is what the Word allows you to do, to renovate the things in your mind that aren't supposed to be there, and bring every thought into the obedience of Christ.

 l.        When you think ill of somebody, it's only a matter of time before it comes out in your actions and in your life.

Walk by faith by living in obedience to God's Word. Let God renovate your mind, so that we can stop spinning around in circles, and actually do something for Christ.