How To Get Your Vision Back — Part 1

SPEAKER 01 : 0:02

Hey everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. We’re so glad you’re here. Today, Rick continues in a series called Preparing for Your Future, where he shares how God’s destiny for your life is good and how you get to choose much of your destiny. All right, let’s go right to Rick with part one of a message called How to Get Your Vision Back.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:24

Many of you can identify with this letter. Dear Pastor Rick, When the recession began a couple years ago, I was already feeling pretty low and spiritually drained. And then when my wealth was cut in half by the stock market plunge, and the value of my house turned upside down, I began to become more and more afraid of the future. The final blow was losing my job. Now since then, I’ve just been going through the motions. I’m no longer hoping for the best in life, I just wanna avoid the worst. I guess you could say that I haven’t been able to see my way out of this mess. And I don’t really see any hope for my future. Can you help me? Now the word that sticks in my mind when I read this letter is the word see. I just haven’t been able to see my way out of this mess. and I don’t see any hope for my future. So many people have lost their vision. They’ve lost their vision for their job. They’ve lost their vision for their future. They’ve lost their vision for their finances. They’ve lost their vision for their family. They’ve lost their vision maybe for their health or some other area. Now the Bible tells us in Proverbs 29, 18, one of the most famous verses in the Bible. It’s here on the screen. Where there is no vision, the people perish. Where there is no vision, the people perish. You have to have vision if you’re gonna make it in life. Now the word vision in this verse, where there is no vision, the people perish. The Hebrew word is the word hazon. And hazon literally means a dream. You’ve gotta have a dream for your life. You’ve gotta have a goal for your life. You’ve gotta have a vision for your life. You have to know where you’re going in the next 10 years. in this next decade. Otherwise, you’re just drifting around. Where there is no dream, where there is no vision, where there’s no goal, no life objective, no purpose, the people perish. And we all know what it means to perish. You’ve bought fruit and vegetables and put them in your refrigerator and forgotten them. And after a while, they perish. Whew. and they stink when they perish. Now, the word perish here is actually the word para in Hebrew, and the word para means literally out of control. That’s what the Hebrew word means, out of control. Where there is no controlling dream in my life, my life is out of control. Where there is no clear objective, where there is no vision for my future, my life is out of control. It is perishing. And so many people feel today their life is out of control. They feel like everything else, the environment, the economy, the government and everything else is controlling and they’re just kind of little pawn in this situation. Why? Because I can’t see my way out of this. Now, let me give you the background on the story we’re gonna look at today. This story is about a blind man. Mark tells us in his book, the guy’s name was Bartimaeus. The story’s actually covered in two different books of the Bible. Jesus is in the last week of his life. He is heading and marching toward Jerusalem where he knows they’re gonna arrest him, they’re gonna kill him, they’re gonna crucify him, he’s gonna die and resurrect three days later. It’s the whole purpose he came to earth. So he’s got a lot on his mind. It’s the last week of Jesus’ ministry and the crowds are enormous. They are following him everywhere. And as he’s walking south to Jerusalem, he’s going through all these different cities and he comes to the city of Jericho and there’s a huge crowd following him. And he comes up to the city gates. And at the city gates are sitting a bunch of blind beggars. Now this is not uncommon. There are blind beggars at the gate of every major city in the Middle East. Because in those days, blindness was the worst curse you could possibly have. It met you at the lowest level of the status pole. Today, a person can be blind and live a highly productive life. because of all of our technology. We have seeing eye dogs. We have braille on street lights where people know when to cross the street, when it’s red and green. We have all kinds of disability conveniences. We have audible books and we have computers that will talk to you. And you can live a very productive life today and be blind. But in those days, blindness meant absolute poverty. Because if you were blind in those days, It meant you can’t read anything, you can’t write anything, and you have no work to do, and all you are left to is at the mercy of everybody else. And so blindness meant you were gonna be a beggar most of your life, if not all. And you would sit at the gates and depend upon the mercy and pity of other people. It was a very miserable life to live a life without vision. Now, let me read the story to you in Luke chapter 18. As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And when he heard the crowd was going by, he asked, what’s happening? And they told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. He cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Now those who led the way, in other words, the people who were at the front of the crowd that was with Jesus, those who led the way rebuked the blind man and they told him to be quiet. But he shouted all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. So Jesus stopped and he ordered the man to be brought to him. And when he came near, Jesus asked him, what do you want me to do for you? Very profound question, and we’re gonna come back to it in what Jesus wants to ask you that question. What do you want me to do for you? Lord, I wanna see, Bartimaeus replied. And Jesus said to him, well, receive your sight. Your faith has healed you. And immediately he received his vision and followed Jesus, praising God. And when all the people saw it, they also praised God. Helen Keller, that famous philanthropist who was blind from birth and in death also, was once asked, isn’t it a great tragedy to be blind? And she made the famous reply, it’s a greater tragedy to have eyes and not see. There are a lot of people who can see physically, but they have no vision. They have no vision for their life. They don’t know where they’re going. They have no vision for their marriage. They don’t know where it’s going. They have no vision for their kids. They have no vision for their finances. They have no vision for their health. They have no vision for their ministry. They have no vision at all. Most people go through life without vision, spiritually blind. Now, we’re preparing in this three or four weeks prior to getting started with Decade of Destiny. And I believe this is gonna be the most significant spiritual growth campaign we’ve ever gone through. You know, we do one every fall, every year, and this year we’re calling it Decade of Destiny because so many people have lost their vision. And I don’t think God wants you to drift through the next 10 years. In fact, I’m certain of it. I don’t think God wants you to be the same 10 years from today as you are right now. I’m certain of that. I don’t think God wants you to just be depressed and discouraged and just kind of go with the flow for another 10 years, wasting that decade. No, he does not. But I will tell you this, as we are preparing, It all depends on vision, how you see your future. The way you see your future is the way you will live your future. The way you perceive tomorrow is the way you will experience tomorrow. And it is no exaggeration for me to say to you that your vision, the way you see yourself and the way you see the different areas of your life your money and your relationships and your family and your time and your work, the way you see it determines your stress level, determines your success level, determines your stability level, and determines your spiritual strength. Success, stress, stability, and strength are all dependent upon how you see life, how you see God, how you see yourself. It’s all about vision. Some of you are kind of like this letter that I just read. And you say, Rick, I just don’t see it. I don’t see how I’m ever going to get out of debt. I don’t ever see how I’m ever going to get married. I don’t see how I’m ever gonna have the family that I wanted. I don’t see how I’m ever gonna reach my dream. Well, you just stated it. It’s in how you see it. Now, from this beautiful story of Jesus healing a blind man and restoring his vision, we get the process by which God gives you your vision back. You need this message. And God brought you here today, or you’re listening on the internet or wherever, because God wanted you to hear this message to restore the vision in your life. And there are six parts to the process. Now I’ve told you many times that every miracle that Jesus did, he did to teach us something. Not just to heal somebody, not just to help a person, of course he was doing that, but it was also a teaching tool. Every miracle is a parable of truth. And from this healing of a physical blindness, we also see some profound principles on how to get your vision back. Let’s look at these steps. Number one, if you wanna write this down, the first step to getting your vision back is to do what Bartimaeus did, and it’s believe Jesus can change my situation. That’s the starting point. I call this the hope step. The hope step is everything starts with hope. If you don’t have hope, you got no power to cope. You must have hope to change. If you don’t have any hope you can change, you will not change. And if things are gonna be better in the next 10 years than they were in the last 10 years, it’s got to start with hope. and hope is believing that Jesus can change my situation. Now this is what happened in this case. In verse 35, as Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. Now when he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening and they told him Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. He cried out, Jesus, son of God, have mercy on me. Now imagine this. There are lots of blind guys sitting here. He’s not the only one. This is nothing new. He’s not by himself. There are probably many, many blind beggars sitting here. But one guy, in spite of the crowd, decides to shout out, hey, Jesus, I’m over here. Earth to Jesus, see me. I’m right here. Hey, Lord, come on over here. Son of David, hey, you. And he’s making a scene. Now I’m sure the crowd looks around at this guy and goes, who is this guy? Let’s make him this scene. Come on, he’s being rude. What a cry of desperation. This was not a cry of desperation. It was a cry of hope. Because if he didn’t believe Jesus could heal him, believe me, he wouldn’t have embarrassed himself in front of a huge crowd. Now, you would not just stand up in a crowd of thousands of people and start going, hey, you, hey, everybody notice me. You wouldn’t do that in a million years unless you thought it was gonna get you something you couldn’t get any other way. This is a cry, not of desperation. It is a cry of hope. He goes, my answer is a few feet away and I’m not gonna miss this one. It all begins with hope. Now today, most people have lost their hope. And the reason why they’ve lost their hope is because they put it in the wrong source. There’s only one source that will never disappoint you, and that is God. If you’re gonna have a source of hope, You don’t put it in anything that can be taken away from you or anything that can disappoint you. Hope must be in only Christ alone because only He can meet all your needs. No human being, no man can meet all your needs, no woman can meet all your needs. Only God can do that. And the reason why so many people lost hope today and they’re just drifting is because they’re looking in all the wrong places for hope. Some people put their hope in the stock market and it tanked and there went their retirement. And some people put their hope in their job and they lost it and there went their hope. Some people put their hope in the economy and it soured and they lost their hope. Some people put their hope in the government and none of the three branches know what they’re doing right now. So they put their hope in the wrong things. And so we start looking, maybe if I can get in this relationship, I’ll have hope. Maybe if I go to this bar, I’ll have hope. Maybe if I could just do this. And they try all kinds of different things to find hope. There’s only one source of hope and it’s not the internet and it’s not a relationship and it’s not any person or any trick or any therapy. It is only in God. The Bible says this up here on the screen. First Peter chapter one, God paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ. In other words, he paid for your salvation when Jesus died for you. Because of this, you can trust. Your trust can be in God who raised Christ from the dead. Now that’s a pretty big thing. and gave him great glory. Now your faith and hope can rest in, read it with me, him alone. In Christ alone, my hope is found. If you start this decade of destiny with your hope misplaced, the economy’s gonna get better. The government’s gonna turn around. My business is gonna explode. And you’re putting your hope in stuff that you cannot guarantee and you cannot control. you’re gonna be disappointed. But the Bible says, whoever puts his hope, puts their hope in him, will never be disappointed. The Bible doesn’t tell us how this guy, this blind guy, Bartimaeus, lost his vision. But there are lots of ways to lose your vision, both physically and spiritually. You know, earlier this summer, I had a little vision loss because of a run-in with a poisonous plant. There’s lots of ways to lose vision, both physically and spiritually. But the key to getting your vision back is to do what Bartimaeus did. First is the step of hope. I must believe that Jesus Christ can change the situation I’m in right now. I don’t have to stay this way for another 10 years. Now the second step is what I call the resistance step. The first is the hope step. This is the resistance step and it is this. You must ignore all the negative voices. You must ignore all the negative voices around you if you’re gonna get your vision back. If you’re gonna see where you’re supposed to go with the rest of your life. You see, most of the people go through life without any vision and they don’t want you having any vision either. They don’t want you to have a dream for your life. They don’t want you to have a goal for your life. They don’t want you to go after the brass ring because they’re not doing it. And there are negative voices all around you that will pull you back, and if you’re gonna break out of drifting in the next decade, and you’re gonna break out of discouragement and despair and depression, then what you’re gonna have to do is disregard the people around you who say, who do you think you are? You gotta be kidding. You can’t do that. You’ll never be able to do that. Forget that dream. It’s a pipe dream. It’s never gonna happen. You’re never gonna be able to change. Your marriage is never gonna be able to change. Your future’s never gonna change. And there are all these naysayers who are going to criticize and suggest to you that to have a vision is actually stupid. You have to pay no attention to the dream busters in your life. And believe me, there are plenty of them who wanna bust your dream, wanna kill your dream. And when they start talking to you, if you listen to it, You’re gonna be filled with fear. You’re gonna be filled with anxiety. You’re gonna be filled with doubts about yourself and it’ll keep you from launching out. And one of the greatest fears that people fall trapped into is the fear of the disapproval of other people. If you fear the disapproval of other people, you will never ever have God’s vision for your life because you cannot please God and everybody else at the same time. You’ve gotta decide who you’re gonna live for, the audience of your peers or the audience of one. And if you decide that, then you’re gonna have resistance to it. Now, Bartimaeus knows that if he starts shouting out, he’s in a crowd, and he starts saying, hey, Jesus, yoo-hoo, over here, come over here, and he starts calling attention to himself, that’s not gonna be a popular thing to do in a crowd. Nobody’s gonna like that. In fact, everybody’s gonna disapprove of it. It’s gonna be considered rude, but it’s his only chance, and he’s desperate. And the Bible says this in verse 39. that those who led the way, those who were in the beginning of the crowd, when they heard Bartimaeus shouting at Jesus, they rebuked him. They rebuked him and they told him to be quiet. But he just shouted all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. Now, what’s the crowd doing here? Crowd’s saying, cool it, chill out. What are you doing? Jesus is an important person. You’re just a blind beggar. Who do you think you are? Shut up and be quiet. They’re telling him, they’re rebuking him. They say, do not try to get this guy’s attention. Don’t make a scene. What the crowd is basically saying to Bartimaeus is this. Surely Jesus would not be interested in a person like you. That’s what he’s saying. The crowd is saying to this poor blind beggar, surely Jesus would not be interested in a person like you. And friend… You say that to yourself all the time. Maybe other people don’t say it to you, but you say it to yourself, and certainly the devil puts it in your mind. Surely, you gotta be kidding. You think Jesus would be interested in a person like you? Maybe a nun, yeah, maybe a missionary, yeah, maybe a saint, yeah, but not you. Come on, give me a break. Jesus is walking to Jerusalem on his final week, and you think he’s gonna stop and talk to you, some poor blind beggar? Give me a break. Surely Jesus wouldn’t be interested in a person like you. If you’re gonna get your vision back, you’re gonna have to ignore the negative voices around you like that, or even the negative voices in your own mind that say that to you. Let me ask you a question. Whose disapproval do you fear the most in life? Who would you be the most afraid to be rejected by? Because whoever that is, is your God. And when anybody is God in your life who’s not God, that’s called an idol. And the Bible says in the Ten Commandments, no other gods before me. And the Bible says in the Ten Commandments, no idols. Anytime you fear anybody’s disapproval more than God’s, they’re your God. That’s your God. And that God is your idol. And that’s why so many people have no hope because they’re stuck in a rut thinking, if I really went after my dream, what would my boyfriend think? If I really went after my dream, what would my parents think? What would my kids, what would my husband, what would my wife, what would my dad think? Because my dad’s told me all my life, you’re never gonna amount to anything. You can’t do that. And I’m so afraid of failure because I’m worried about the disapproval of other people. The Bible says that when you fear the disapproval of other people, you are a disabled person. Did you know that? The Bible calls it a disability. The Bible says that worrying about the approval of other people is a spiritual trap. Look at this verse on the screen. The fear of human options, or human opinion, this is Proverbs 29, 25, the fear of human opinion disables. It’s a disability. You have disabled emotions if you’re caught in the trap of fearing, what would everybody else think if I did this? If I really went whole hog for God, if I really went totally sold out for Jesus Christ, if I took the vision God has for my life and I went after my dream, what would other people think? The Bible says the moment you ask that question, you’re dead in the water. The fear of human opinion disables you. Trusting in God protects you from that. You’re either gonna fear other people or you’re gonna trust in God. Those are the two options. And if you’re going to get your vision back, you gotta stop listening to all the negativism, which means maybe turning off the television. And maybe listening to a little less talk radio. Because I guarantee you, it’s not positive stuff. It’s about how bad everything is in the world, how negative everything is in the world. If you worry about the voices around you that tell you it can’t be done, you can’t go after your dream, it’s not gonna happen. You have to have the step of hope. I believe Jesus Christ can change my situation. And then you have to have the step of resistance. Just like Bartimaeus, I don’t care what the crowd thinks. I don’t care if they tell me to shut up and be quiet. I’m going after Jesus. And I’m gonna go after my dream. I’m gonna go after my goal. I wanna be healed. I wanna be able to see again. I want my vision back.

SPEAKER 01 : 23:38

Thanks so much for listening to Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. You know, your prayers and financial support have a huge impact on millions of people here and around the world. So we really appreciate that. Thank you. And now Rick’s going to share a letter from one of our listeners who says Daily Hope is making a real difference in their life.

SPEAKER 02 : 23:58

You’ve heard me say before that it’s not enough to just listen to God’s Word. You’ve got to apply it in your life, and that’s what leads you to your purpose. Let me share a letter from Ibanga, who listens to Daily Hope in Nigeria. She wrote, Dear Pastor Rick, I want to express my gratitude to God for what he’s done in my life through the Daily Hope broadcast. I listen to your podcast every single day, and your messages have blessed me immensely. I was a Christian who was living a compromising life. And as a result, I couldn’t fulfill God’s purpose for me. But through consistent application of the principles that you teach, I have been able to live daily for the glory of God. And I have also begun pursuing the dream that’s been in my heart since I was a child of becoming a minister of music. Wow. Just think about this. If Ibanga had ignored God’s word, she would have never been able to pursue her dream, the one that God had placed in her heart. You probably have a dream in your heart too. And what is the key that unlocks that dream? The word of God. Now remember, no matter how much you study it, it doesn’t matter if you don’t apply, act on, and practice the Word of God. The Bible says that without acting on the Word of God, it just leads to pride. So let’s walk together in humility and practice what we learn.

SPEAKER 01 : 25:28

God bless you. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God’s Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope and your generous financial support.