Your Vision vs God’s Vision

✝️ Unpacking Truths: Episode 109: Your Vision vs God’s Vision 

Welcome to another enlightening episode of "Unpacking Truths"! Today, join Pastors Kendall and Mo as they delve into the profound topic of discerning our vision for our lives versus God's vision. Through personal anecdotes, biblical insights, and thought-provoking discussions, they navigate the complexities of aligning our desires with God's divine plan. 🎙️📖 

In this episode, you'll hear stories of personal struggles, divine guidance, and the importance of humility in discernment. Discover how God's vision often surpasses our own, leading us on unexpected paths filled with purpose and fulfillment. 🙏✨

From reflecting on the story of Balaam and his donkey to exploring the depths of scripture, Kendall and Mo offer invaluable wisdom on how to surrender our plans to God and embrace His vision for our lives. They challenge listeners to consider the deeper significance of their aspirations, emphasizing the importance of spiritual growth and character development over mere career pursuits. 📚💡

Through engaging dialogue and practical insights, Kendall and Mo encourage listeners to continually seek God's will, even in the smallest decisions of life. As they discuss the importance of loving others and honoring God in all aspects of life, they remind us that our ultimate purpose is to reflect the love and character of Christ. ❤️🌱

Join the conversation and share your thoughts in the comments below! Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to "Unpacking Truths" for more enriching discussions on unpacking God's truth for our lives. Let's journey together in discovering God's vision and purpose for each of us. 🌟

Stay tuned for the next episode, where Kendall and Mo explore the connection between our physical health and spiritual well-being. You won't want to miss it! 💪🙌 

#UnpackingTruths #GodsVision #Discernment #DivineGuidance #SpiritualJourney #FaithPodcast #ChristianLife #PurposefulLiving #BiblicalWisdom #VisionaryLiving #TrustInGod #AlignWithGod #CharacterDevelopment #LoveOthers #HumbleHeart #SeekGodsWill #MindfulLiving #InspirationMonday #SpiritualGrowth #FaithfulFriday

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Transcript

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today on Unpacking Truth we're gonna be looking at our vision for our life versus God's vision for our life and how do we discern and how do we work through those questions and trust me God's vision is often far better than our own hi I'm Pastor Kendall and I'm Pastor Mo and we are unpacking truths where we unpack God's Word and God's truth for life today everyone is seeking and we are here to help you find hope and power in God's work so most we're jumping in this topic I just wanna go off topic for a quick second because today I've got my Diet Pepsi with me and I'm hoping that when we go viral we're gonna get product placement yes from Pepsi for this so I wish I would have thought of that yeah you got some silly mug yeah what is this yeah just be careful or you'll be in my sermon yeah I love that line so so today we're talking I think about your version your vision versus God's vision yeah and I just wanna start with a story my vision is amazing by the way of course it is yeah of course I have no doubt um but just a story yeah it is both personal but it's it's also for light of Christ that we we sense that god gave us as a church yeah vision back in 2003 um of relocating our church and uh it there was a lot of prayer that went into a lot of study a lot of conviction the variation voted yeah we need to move so we started this journey and we began looking for land people made commitments financial commitments for buying land they didn't even know where it would be yeah um and then god delivered the land the property that we're on right now and uh and so we got the land we thought we were fast tracking on to relocating this new campus thought by 2010 2011 at the latest what happened and then it all stopped and we um part of it was just the Great Recession that happened and we just had to go like okay we couldn't sell our old building yeah so we couldn't go forward with this and so we were living in this tension place of hold up we we've been on like 5 7 years eight years of living into God's vision and then it just wasn't possible and we really struggled with leadership around here because we were praying about it we're gonna like hold it did we misunderstand god yeah and some leaders later Christ just sort of stepped away from the church they said this they're not going forward but we didn't want to get ahead of God's timing yeah and we basically had like our people of Israel had 40 years in the wilderness yeah but we had our 10 years in the wilderness but you but God gave you Mana right and yeah and then me God gave you me yeah yeah um yes I did but it was we thought it was God's vision yeah then we ran into questions we believed it still was God's vision but we had to wait on God's timing so um but there are times we have to wrestle with is my vision for my life God's vision for my life or am I just pursuing what I want yeah so let's talk about some of that today yeah well it's funny that you say that because I often think that it like we confuse God's vision for our heart's desire right and I hear so many people quote Jeremiah 29 um I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord their plans um to prosper you and not harm you to give you hope in a future and the hope and the future is of course the hope and future that I envisioned for myself right and so of course it's not gonna harm me and what came to mind is a good friend of mine who was in her 30s she was in her mid 30s and she had really wanted to be married she knew since she was a little girl she wanted a family she wanted kids and you know she was in her mid 30s already and she had found this great guy and he loved the Lord and she thought this is it and so they dated two years and you know something had happened where they kind of took some time apart he he kind of was like let's take some time apart and she thought we'll come back together and she felt on her heart this desire to be with him and she would pray all the time and bring him in prayer to God and then she found out he had you know started talking to someone else and started dating someone else and um so she was really upset thinking I'm so confused why would God let me feel this way and have this desire on my heart to be with him if it wasn't part of God's plan and I reminded her also in Jeremiah and I love this one Jeremiah 17 9 the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick who can understand it and I reminded her that it's not our hearts desires are something that we have to explore but at the same time it's also our responsibility to guard our heart we're told in scripture and to guide our heart

we're told in Proverbs 4: 4:55

23 guard your heart above all else for it is the source of life if we just give our heart away willingly or we place our hearts in places and spaces that maybe aren't the best for us or meeting our needs our life is gonna go in a different direction that maybe god had intended and to also direct our hearts

in Proverbs 23: 5:19

19 hear my child be wise and direct your heart in the way it's our responsibility to move our heart in the ways that God has put out in scripture right whatever that looks like um and also when we go to God at are we praying let your will be done god in this situation and handing it over or are we often as she admitted she was going to god and saying here are all the things I want and desire you know I hope it happen make it make it happen God kind of like that and so just sitting in that space and that reality that we are called to guard our hearts and guide our hearts and our hearts desires aren't necessarily God's plan for us yeah you know I think the one verse that most um most believers would like taken out of the Bible yeah um is Isaiah 55 8 for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are my ways your ways says the Lord then we just want God's ways to be aligned with my ways yeah absolutely and but God keeps calling us in scripture to align our ways to his ways yes and and and that's the tension that we live in is that and do we discern that and are we praying just God get on board with my plan yeah yeah or are we actually submitting and saying God help to get my will in line with your plan oh that's powerful yeah how well in Jesus set it up for us so clearly in the Lord's Prayer I mean when his disciples said how should we pray you know John taught his disciples how to pray how should we pray yeah and when Jesus gives them that that prayer you know our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name uh your kingdom come yeah your will be done we're asking Jesus invites us to pray for God's will to be done and then say give us this day our daily bread yeah that we're first praying for God's will and then asking for our needs so often we pray for our needs right but we're also projecting our will onto God because of course God's will is in alignment with what we want right you know and more I think that's where we struggle so much you know I know so many people who have really been drawn to and I love the verses from Proverbs three yeah from 5 to 10 but just even five and six trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own sin insight in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths yeah the struggle is God gave you and me brains yeah and we have to use we have to strategize we have to plan and how do we know when we're just living out of my plans my ideas or when am I letting God into that and and I right allowing challenging absolutely and I well what I have found works right is so the desire on my heart like diving deeper into that we are called to go inward we are called to say God you know search me test me um put you know reveal to me the things you know King David credit out reveal to me the things of myself that I need to change right that aren't in alignment with you and and or just explore them um you know I'll never forget Whitney Houston she went to her aunt who was a singer and she said I wanna sing and I thought it was priceless how her aunt said well do you just wanna sing or do you wanna be a singer because those are two very different things if you just wanna sing you can sing in the choir at church you can sing at school if you wanna be a singer that's a whole different ball game okay that's a that's sacrifice that's lots of work that's giving up other things and so as we dig deeper my friend that I was just talking about earlier she would started to do that work right with god she'd sit with god and ask these questions and and read scripture and she was able to discern that it wasn't so much that she felt the need for a family at that moment as much as she wanted to walk alongside at children and then so she started doing children's ministry at church and that really filled a big void and she ended up meeting someone else and it you know it worked out but she was able to fill her cup and get that need met and a part of her that god created her to give away felt it felt so right because she was able to align right the deepest desire of her heart which was also kind of connected to God's will for her but not in the way that she had envisioned it and and that is is how do we keep taking those desires of our hearts our visions for our lives our plans and keep putting them before God's throne and saying God am I seeing this right am I hearing this right or not do you need to shift something and and are we humble enough are we confident enough in who god is to submit trusting the God's plans are our best God's plan the best for us absolutely and you know I can't I can't help but think of it but one of the things that when when we label things right this is good this is bad um this shouldn't have happened so for instance one of the biggest things that happened in my life was in my 20s when all of a sudden I woke up I wasn't able to walk um my left leg wasn't working well I had had my first surgery at 9 so my spine uh had a Herrington rod a hole like cage on it and it was squeezing my spinal cord and so that was happening and so it I had to have it decompressed long story short if that had not happened and I had not had that spinal surgery I had an amazing job in sales I was making really good money more than I made when I was later in my 20s or just starting um ministry work for sure and um if I if that hadn't happened and I didn't end up then you know in a coma at one point I had a massive pulmonary embolism and all these other things like if that hadn't happened I never would have been able to experience a church family from when I was a child calm and be a part of that healing process for me and they were there for me when other people weren't and they would pray over me and they wanted nothing in return and they provided for my kids at different times and it it really opened my eyes to the church in a different way and brought me back to the church and it was it was really the beginning of so this thing that seems so bad became the beginning of my journey um into what it means to be a pastor hmm hmm yeah and so sometimes the things that we most want to avoid God can use for for good and sometimes we have to go through those to get to God's real vision for our lives interesting the you know I just I think there are times where we we try to force our plans forward oh absolutely you know and you know and do you have a story from that I do have a story yeah give it to us cause but Mo it's not a story from my life it's just great Bible story sorry not a story from your life and you're like God I know you think you got no because I cause it's Bailam and the donkey and that I know it's his weird Old Testament story but it's his powerful thing where this guy um uh uh is this prophet is being asked to go curse the God's people and when the bad army come the bad representatives come and say go do that and he goes says give me overnight he talks to God and God says no you can't go curse my people they're my people yeah and so Bailam says no I can't go with you so they go away but then they come back again with more money they're offering him money and and all this and they come back with more money the next time he goes to God and he goes well you told me before what do you think and God says well go with him but only do what I say and so Bailam's like okay so he starts going but then immediately scripture says and God got angry at Bailam and scholars have always wanted but if god said do it why is god angry and this is the whole point where Balam's donkey talks to him later it's his great story where is it numbers talking donkeys on No. 22 you're in but here's the thing I think Balam when the money got higher yeah suddenly he thought no that isn't what God wants me to do money got higher and suddenly he started hearing yeah oh now I hear you guys yeah that that I think we can sometimes manipulate what God is saying to make it fit what we want the vision for our lives oh yeah and and and so when we are so that's the danger even is when I say well I'm listening to God but are you actually surrendering your plans to say God really speak to me and I'm willing to give up my vision in my plan God if you have a different one until we're willing to surrender our plans I don't think we can fully hear God's well and I think that you know God does place things on our hearts or as we go to prayer reveals things but we think they're going to be laid out in a specific way that's true too and so when they're not laid out like that then like you said like Bailam we can start to tweak things or maybe we're like oh well of course if I'm offer this mucher you know it must be God wanted me to do this yeah and so um yeah just that's interesting cause we can't sit in that space so when it comes to discerning our vision versus God's vision for our lives um Frederick Beeckner um I think of kind of his process for discernment and I love it he says often you will know what is your will and God's will when what you cannot stop doing the thing that brings you joy the thing that you lose yourself in and you feel like your cup is filled when you can take that and it meets the world's need does it meet a need in the world when both of those align he said you can almost guarantee that's God's vision and purpose for your life like that's a beautiful connection you know and we hadn't talked about this before but that really aligns with my sense of God's leading in my life um in some of what I've experienced is my calling I was a math major in college I mean I did well so you love numbers so much I do I like numbers yeah don't you doesn't everyone um the so I did well in math I liked math I could have seen a path going forward I was having talked about being an actual aerial but everything I was reading on the side was theology was scripture it was trying to understand while I was wrestling with really big questions can I really believe in god how do I understand this and sort of all that I was learning from the world and putting that together yeah that's where I sense my passions were and but I went to seminary not because I thought God's calling me to be a pastor it's cause I was still wrestling with questions were you gonna come up with like a timeline for the end of the world no I was I was not I knew that was beyond me but but there was just I went to seminary I thought well maybe I'll go get a PhD and be a professor yeah but where the confirmation came is I went to seminary and when I did my internship and people said wow can we really appreciate how you're pastoring us I'm going like oh you actually want me to do this God because I just thought I was supposed to study it yeah but sometimes it's listening to other people we can discern I mean I sort of thought I knew which way I was going and God's had to adjust that along the way um and uh and so I I I think there is that continued sense to are we listening to God and prayer are we listening to what other people are saying around us so that we can be hearing um and so we don't just get stuck on our vision driving forward for my life my vision yeah how do we keep humbling ourselves to listen for God's vision and God's plan and um I think it is humbling ourselves and um in wrestling with that yeah absolutely and I and I think that you know so often when we think about this vision or the plan that god has for our lives we think of career hmm and I don't necessarily think that's the most important thing that God created us for is like cause you're going to do this job and only if you do this job or this thing or um that somehow you have fulfilled my purpose for you and rather I think it's um not what we do as much as who we become oh I love that we are all on this trajectory to look like Christ and so what does that look like

in Romans 8: 18:21

29 it says god knew his people in advance and he chose them to become like his son like that is our that is our purpose that's God's vision for our life so what are we doing to spiritually mature and grow and then God's two greatest commandments are to love right not only god but love others love God's children even our enemies and so what are we doing in life where we're on that path to look like Christ to love others um even when it's hard to be forgiving to just live in that space and allow ourselves to die to ourselves really is what it is is to constantly die to what we really wanna do yeah it more I love that because I think there is you know people so often wrestle how do I know should I take this job or that job yeah and we wrestle at those what they seem like the big crossroads but maybe the big crossroads are how am I treating my neighbor right now am I loving them or am I not loving them right and do we wrestle as much with that the shaping of the character versus the shaping of the career the direction absolutely I I love Mother Teresa the little the little flower that they call her the little flower but she passed it 24 and she said that all I wanna do is love and love others little acts of love and a childlike trust is how we're to live our lives and she LED such a profound life in her short years and so I and I tell my daughters all the time when they were like oh you know they were kind of you know hesitant on what they were doing and where they were supposed to go as you know you're entering college and what do I major in and all that stuff and I said I don't think god cares what you do as much as god cares who you become I love that I think that is I I think I could go like Mo I could use you here or here or here yeah yeah absolutely but who are who's the person you're becoming Mo that's what I'm concerned right are we looking like Christ that's the big point are you looking like Christ and so you know um yeah this is it's good stuff but as we continue to discern and community and with God and that is the angle look like Christ love it one question before we go for all of you feel free to comment engage with any questions you want us to follow up with and taking a quick poll Coke or Pepsi please we want Pepsi to win Monster Monster Energy drink next time on unpacking truths if I'm eating too much right especially the wrong kinds of food I found that like a lot of sugar or a lot of sweets I get like lethargic and my brain can't process and so I think that there there is a way that God wants us to um honor I honor him in everything we do right glorify him in everything we do um and I don't think we could be used to the full capacity for which we've been created if we're not taking care of our temples right like our bodies because I mean we don't have the energy or the wherewithal or the you know stamina to do whatever it is we're being called to do thanks for tuning in if anything we said brought up any questions or ideas let's keep the conversation going in the comments below or email us at unpacking truths at Loc church and don't forget to like share and subscribe so we can continue helping people unpack God's truth for their lives