What Are You Looking At?

The New King James Version Chapter 29

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Before we get started I would like to thank God for choosing me to sharing His word with His people.

Honor to our Bishop and Spiritual Parents Dr. Paul Crites and First Lady Crites. Lastly, My beautiful wife who has decided to love me everyday for the rest of our lives. Renae.

PACE YOURSELF

Turn with me to the Book of but before I go to our scripture for the day let me share with you about someone I know:

This guy at the surface seems very good and focused.

Man this guy has a clear vision it appears.

He’s got a game plan or what you would call a system.

He sounds like he has it all together but there’s one problem. 

He seems to point out all the flaws of others he’s around or been around that have done better then him.

Matter of fact he paints the picture that these people aren’t as good as him.

Wait I got one further for you he even will tell you that these individuals have stolen some of his ideas.

Yet there seems to be one problem I have with this person.

HE SEEMS TO NOT HAVE ANYTHING THEY HAVE.

I MEAN NOT EVEN A QUARTER OF WHAT THE PEOPLE HE CLAIMS STOLE SOME OF HIS IDEAS HAVE.

SO WHO IS THE PROBLEM I ASK YOU THIS SIMPLE QUESTION TODAY FROM THE SUBJECT:

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?

Now turn with me to

The New King James Version Chapter 29

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

The New King James Version Chapter 29

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

New Living Translation Chapter 29

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

American Standard Version Chapter 29

11For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end

Now I know many of you have heard this scripture before. This is one of my favorite scriptures in the bible by the way. However, God revealed something to me in this scripture that I didn’t get before. Hope you are ready for me to share what He showed me. Let’s go. I am going to talk about me a little bit if you don’t mind. I am going to ask you again What are you Looking At?

PACE YOURSELF

1 DISTRACTIONS

You see my social media got hacked some months back (distraction or diversion)

trying to work to get it fixed on my own (distraction)

Appearance of business down turn (distraction)

Initially Failed real estate test (distraction)

Thinking I need to make more money (distraction)

Daughter acting out (distraction)

Exwife Complaining about my daughter to me but truly doesn’t want my help (distraction)

Again I ask what are you looking at?

See the circumstances of life will have you looking at all the wrong stuff. Like a:

Busted Kitchen Pipe

To adult children being dishonoring

Or whatever has you looking at it.

I know your hampster wheels are going How does this apply to me or this scripture. Don’t worry I am coming to that part.

2 FAITH

In this scripture God is laying out a foundation that we all should live by daily. Our focus or looking should be FAITH. I know this scripture says nothing about faith or does it???

Let’s take another look at it again, but before we go there let’s understand what is faith or the definition of faith which can be found in ,

The New King James Version Chapter 11

11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

The New King James Version Chapter 11

3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

So I ask you WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?

our Scripture today was

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

The New King James Version Chapter 29

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

I ASK YOU AGAIN WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?

The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

In this scripture today Future= Unseen and A Hope= Faith.

Now that is not even the best part. You see there’s another part to this story or scripture. We will get there shortly. You see most of us including myself have been so focused on what is going on around us and to us and not focused on what we don’t see that we have entered into coming to us. That’s right we are not looking at the FUTURE WE ARE NOT USING OUR HOPE (FAITH) TO GET US moving AND KEEP US MOVING. In other words God has already worked out the future you desire you just have not seen it manifest yet. Well one reason is What are you Looking At? If you spend your time looking at how things are going you will ultimately be looking at the wrong thing. You see our focus should be on What God has for us and our HOPE and FUTURE.

Let’s take a moment and close our eyes and envision our future. What does it Look Like? Now LOCK THAT IMAGE IN YOUR HEAD DON’T STOP LOOKING AT IT. You see the man I told you about in the beginning is so focused on these other guys he isn’t focused on his own future. Meanwhile, the people he’s talking about are progressing grabbing at their futures while he sits on the sidelines. What’s the Difference? It’s Simple WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?

3 GET YOUR EYESIGHT ON GOD AND YOUR FUTURE AND DON’T LOOK BACK

Now before I close let’s finish this whole thing and put it all together. Let’s move onto

The New King James Version Chapter 29

12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Clearly God is saying here that if we go after Him we will find Him. He will also bring us out of our captivity that He has allowed because we have lost our focus (looking on him).

Matthew 6:33 ESV

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

See our Future is tied to our Kingdom Focus they go hand and hand. As I close here What are you Looking at? Understand that according to scripture

HEBREWS 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

SO I ASK AGAIN WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?… Your desired outcome of your life is hinged upon what you look at. You decide what you will look at FUTURE(FAITH) OR AROUND YOU AND WHATS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.