Vision for the Mission
by Raymond Sloan
January 22, 2026 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church
Kind: teaching
Scripture: John 12:9-19, John 12:20-21

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/raymond-sloan--vision-for-the-mission-2
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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I know there's lots to pray for, lots to pray about, but God is faithful. >> We have so much to be thankful for. I am convinced that the psalmist was absolutely right. A grateful heart is not a hateful heart. He doesn't say it that way, but >> if we give thanks for what the Lord has done, what he's doing, makes all the difference in the world. If you've got something to pray about, something that you've been asking God for, then this is a good time to pray about that. You don't need our prayers to join with it. You can pray that yourself, but we would support you in that because we're praying for our stuff. At the end of service, of course, when we go into our worship time, we'll have the prayer requests that we'll pray for corporately. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you so much for another another time together. Thank you, Lord, for our time that we gather to go to your word, for the promises that are in your word. Lord, thank you for the goodness, the joy and the mercy that you show us, God. You're kind to us, and we're thankful for that. You're longsuffering. You're patient. You're gentle. Everything, God, about you is right. We are learning, Lord. We are growing. We are maturing, God. We're getting closer and closer to you. I love you, Jesus. Tonight I pray for every heart and every home represented in this room. Bless Lord in all of our sessions tonight. All the classes, our kids, Lord, our young people. Pray God your blessings upon each one. Lead us Lord in the plain path. Show us God. Deliver us from evil Lord. Give us victory God over ourselves and over our enemy God that would try to come against us. I plead your blood over this place tonight. In the name above every name, Jesus. We are thankful. We're grateful, God. Just to be able to speak your name, Lord, is so so important. We love you for that and we are thankful. Let God arise in this room tonight. Let our enemy be scattered. We love you and trust you in the name above every name. Jesus, we pray. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Turn around, shake somebody's hand, and tell them it's in Jesus. >> All right. You can be seated if you feel like you need to. Um, for those for those notetakers, if you have your journal, you're welcome to turn to it. Um, in your uh calendar, come on in   calendar in here. Then on the back of, of course, you have prayer request, places you can write notes. Uh, there's plenty of room now for note takingaking and so forth. Uh, we should have the Wednesday night the 21 today. Thank you. So take notes if you like anything of that nature you can write down. Okay. The journal is for your use. Anybody uh making notes yet in there? I know my wife's got pages and pages in hers. That's her. Very cool. All right. We're going to get into our lesson tonight. Again, uh we tried to make the room set up to where you could see the screen and see the person talking about the screen. So, we'll see if it works. Uh the month of January, uh as you guys know, here at CAC, we have a theme for the year. Somebody know the theme. >> Girders is what somebody said to grt. Graater. >> Graders for the year. But for the month of January, we go we bring all the the overall is greater and then every month we have a topic that keeps us and this month is vision. We set the vision first week then all of our lessons are focused on our vision. Brother Gibson last week did a fabulous job talking about it. I covered the week prior. Um so I am picking it back up tonight. Uh Ella Um, as we continue in this, we're talking about v. Now everybody's nervous about she's not bothering me. Um, when you when you hear the word vision, u I think I asked this a couple weeks back and brother Dan may have. Vision. What do you think of quickly? Think of vi when you hear the word vision. >> Future. >> Future. Call it that. What else? >> The big picture. What else? Get basic somebody. >> What you see? Simple enough. Vision. Anybody? >> Okay. Life's okay. Anybody know how vision works? Yeah. Me neither. Um >> Oh, that there you go. Okay. >> There you go. Um the term vision of course can have multiple multiple different meanings. Uh in the biblical sense is what we are going to talk about. Uh the biblical sense of it is it's it's a lot more than just your pupils dilating. It's a lot more than your iris opening. It's a lot more than your retina and the back part of where your your eye begins to to receive information and so forth. Uh fun fact, I don't I don't know that my wife would mind me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me ment ment ment ment mentioning this but many years back she had some strokes u that affected her vision her sight uh and I learned a whole lot in those few weeks that we were at the doctor and stuff and still to this day she has a portion that's kind of grayed out from the stroke she had and um so when she's if if she's looking at me and ignoring me I know where she's looking at she's I didn't know you was there because it's right there. But uh it's amazing how vision how vision works. Uh your body the fastest or the fastest healing part of your body is your eyes. >> You can scratch your eye and within hours it can it can wet itself and it can make a place. Um vision in the biblical sense though um takes us deeper into how who and what God made us and what he's making us to be. Vision is important. Without vision the peopleish >> can't see and perish. But uh if you can see the sunshine, what does that look like? Hope. >> Hope. Absolutely. What else? >> Bright. >> Bright. Yeah. What else? If you can see the sunshine, what does that look like? Confession. Ready? >> Positivity. >> Okay. Uh last week or this past weekend in my message when we were praying in one part of the message, I looked up and I went dead center those lights. True story. And I went, "Okay, listen." And we were praying and all that. I looked down. I had 700 dots. And I'm, "Okay, just keep praying. Just keep Yes, Lord. Yes." I kept going, "Oh, God. Oh, God." All these dots were sitting there because I don't know. I don't know if we could actually look dead at the sun for any length of time. Why not? >> How is that possible? I mean, you could look at a light bulb. Do we understand that? I mean, that dude's at least 10 miles away >> at least. Right. >> Is is it is it the energy that's attached to it? It's it's a question. Have you ever been in a solar eclipse? That is the most cra that is that is the most incredible thing. Several years ago, we had one here. Chattanooga and I it was at Igo Gap Church and I was inside working and I came out had the little glasses I bought for three bucks and um anybody would anybody remember that? >> And so I'm out in the parking lot and the street lights came on. The birds stopped chirping. >> It looked like the ground was shaking. They called them they call them eclipse shimmers. They said it's the effect of the sun being blocked, the ring of light around it, and the way that it cuts the air, it actually shimmers and as it passes, it gets it smooths itself out. Anyway, I'm giving you all that to say this, that as much as science can explain to us the atmosphere and how it affects the light that comes from the sun, um it still causes us to ask questions. For an example, if the sun is not shining, let's say you go two or three days with no sunshine to to say, how do you feel? >> Sad. Why? Because I'm the same way. Why? Why does that affect you? >> Yeah. What else? >> But isn't it funny how that affects people? >> I mean, it's it's true. It it affects folk because there's something about being in light more than just the vitamin D, more than just the the shimmering lights and all that stuff. The only reason I'm mentioning these things is because tonight I want I want to spend some time talking about what meets the eye, what we see. what we see, vision, colors, curves, edges, density, they are all part of the way that we see things. Now, interesting fact, and and some of you scientisticy guys in here probably know this stuff. I didn't. I'm trying to figure this stuff out. You realize that your eyeball doesn't actually see. Your eyeball actually allows the information to come in. And it is your brain processing that causes you to see. So as the image comes in, your brain is automatically identifying that this is a hand. Okay? So all this data and all this stuff that's coming in to your eyeballs passing through all the stuff that goes from here to here, it's actually firing things in the brain that says I know what that is. I understand that. I comprehend that. It's what makes you able to when I ask you for everybody give a thumbs up. Everybody can knows what that means because you look around and you see the thumbs up. I don't even have to technically say it, do I? And people people will do that. Drive down the street, man. I do other people. Why? Because they see that and it's something identified. Stay with me. The interesting part about that is it's the mind that does that. It's the brain that is pro. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Uhhuh. Uhhuh. I'm done now. I'm done. I ain't talking no more. It's the brain that is making the information. Now, I I think that if I may, spiritually, biblically speaking, I think that we all I'm getting really, really basic here. I think a lot of us have faith, but many times our faith doesn't see past our fear. >> Why? can't see it >> because you can't your brain your Come on in guys. Your brain doesn't know how to take the information and liter here. Let me ask let me say it this way. We good? Okay. Um God can heal you right now of the headache. >> Agreed. >> But you can wake up in the morning with a headache and guess what you're going to do? you're going to pray about that headache again and I thought God healed you of that headache. >> So a hundred times you can go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth because your mind and your ability to get past the fear and the questions and the doubt and all the stuff that your mind is causing you to see. It'll trip you up. Hey, it'll it'll make you stop praying. It'll cause you to mist it'll cause you to be hateful. It'll cause a multitude of things because the mind is taking the optics of what it's seeing and it's turning things. So when you see something happen in your life, you'll give God praise for it, right? But then why is it then a week later something else comes along and your faith won't let you and fear takes over? Why can't you at least accept the fact that that God is still moving in your life? >> Question. Children of Israel wandered around in the wilderness. How long? >> What did they eat? >> Why in the world did God feed them the same thing for 40 years? >> That's what >> I'm asking. Would you eat the same thing every day for 40 years? I have all >> I'd say that we we we all say, "Well, absolutely." Until about four days in, we're like, "Ramen noodles again?" >> Okay, here here's the thing. >> I'm not I'm not getting sidetracked here, but the thing about mana was what was what's the meaning of mana? What's it translate? What what is this? >> They had the ability in their mind to make mana taste different by how they perceived the mana for that moment. I I've tried that with birthday cake. It didn't work. Birthday cake tastes like steak. Seth it wasn't true. I even tried to to wish that tamali weren't so hot, but it didn't matter. It was still hot. Sorry, Seth. Here's the thing. The mind separates things. The mind controls things. The mind is what makes our vision, makes us see things. There's a lot to be said about the ability to see, but what really I want to talk about for a little bit tonight is how does your mind perceive what you're seeing? You can see the miraculous things of God and still not think God can touch you. >> You can watch a bird fly. You watch a bumblebee that scientifically should not fly. That ought to blow your mind every time you see one. But you don't. You know what most of us do when a bumblebee flies by? You run >> instead of considering the wonder of it. >> Okay, here's the thing. John, let's go to the book of John, chapter number 12. If somebody has a watch, uh, could you help? Just take it off and ignore I'm joking. John chapter 12 verse number 9. >> John 12:9 if you want to make note of this in your journal. Oh, they have it on a screen. Imagine that. Ethan, read for me, buddy. Hey, Ethan, you're going to read all the way to verse 19. Go. >> Loud. >> Louder. >> Much people. >> Louder. Sorry, I'm joking. Go. >> Much people. >> Yeah. Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there and they came not for Jesus sake only but that they might see Lazarus. >> Stop. They may what? >> That they might see Lazarus also. >> They wanted to see >> Lazarus. Keep going. >> Whom he had raised from the dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus al us Lazarus also to death because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. On the next day much people that were come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him and cried Hosana blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus when he had found a young a young ass sat thereon as it is written fear not daughter of behold thy king cometh sitting on an as these things understood not his disciples at the first but when Jesus was glorified then remembered they that these things were written written of him and that they had done these things unto him. >> Verse 17 keep going. The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his out of his grave and raised him from the dead bear record. For this caused the people also met him for that they had heard that he had done this miracle. >> Okay. 19. Read read slowly. >> The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. >> Say it like it like it reads. >> Perceive perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. >> Question go. The world has gone after him. >> Whoa. The world. The not 47 people, not one tribe or one nation or one culture, but the world is chasing Jesus. Okay? So, they came because they wanted to see Lazarus. Seeing is believing. Can we say it that way? They came because they wanted to see this dead guy who had gotten his voice or his name called by one voice and then overcame all of the stuff that death should have caused him to never be seen again. He even stunkth. That's the past tense of stinkketh. He he stank and uh he is now with Jesus >> and the church is trying to kill them both >> because the witness here says Jesus can do miracles. We want to see it. It was so powerful that the vision now that they are seeing has caused them to start chasing Jesus. The world has gone after him. And the Pharisees are mad, angry at this because their little comfort zone has been shaken. They had they had the upper hand. You bring this to the temple and they sacrifice that and we get part of the sacrifice and we get to eat the bread and we get to partake of all of this. Nobody can touch us. We're exempt from all the stuff because we have the law of the Levites that protects us. On and on and on it goes. They had it going on. Jesus walks in and starts raising the dead and they're going, "The world is chasing this guy." What happened to their vision? The world. What happened to the world's vision? >> It became reality. >> And keep going. >> Why? >> Keep going. >> Are you with me? >> They see Lazarus coming out of the ground. And now everything about what they believe, what they think, who they are has changed because the mind began to process this information. Question 2026. If you knew somebody that was raised from the dead, would you try to go find them? Question. I think it'd be cool. >> I'd probably go with a camera >> and get a selfie >> because nobody would believe it. They'd be on all the talk shows. >> They'd be on all the podcasts. Why? >> That kind of stuff happens every day, right? >> Listen to me carefully, please. We're talking vision in the month of January. How we see in this instance in John the 12th chapter, Jesus is making his way through this group of followers. There are me, if you'll take time on your own, if you would write this down and read that entire account. There are people from different tribes, different groups, different cultures, different religious beliefs that have come together and something is happening. It's not just the Jews that are there watching Jesus do things. There's Greeks are in here. There's other nationalities in here. And the Bible says that it was Lazarus's raising from the dead that began to change people's opinion and and their vision of Jesus. I don't know about you, but I think that I would have been turned on when he took a couple of fish and a couple pieces of bread and fed thousands. >> I'd be, "Oh my, that's where I'm going. >> Lunch is good today." >> Are you with me? >> But now you got somebody that's come out of the tomb wrapped in grave clothes, bound, stinking, and now they're come. All of a sudden, vision changes. The mind begins to process things differently. Now to be honest, many of us would be scared out of our minds. You see that gray? hey everybody. >> I mean, I'm just honest. How many people's in this room? 30 or so. Probably about half of us would find a good exit. >> Why? Some of us think it's cool, but some of us would think, "What just happened? Okay, side note. Anybody making notes? Side note in your own time. Do you know the old law would have forbade them from touching Lazarus? >> Study that piece. Good one. They were so astounded. Needless to say, they were amazed. And now this multitude of folk are coming to look at Jesus. They're coming to look at Lazarus. So then they were so thrilled about this. This is a story that we know, the triumphal entry that we know that this is part of the prophetic that's come to fruition. He's riding in on this donkey that had not been ridden. Uh he's riding in on coats. There's branches now, peace offerings that's being waved to him. Recognition if you will, of his majesty in an earthly shape. And everybody's screaming, "Hosana, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord." I mean, they're having they're losing their minds. Vision has changed. Something has transpired in the multitude of people because Jesus was there. It was so powerful, this account, that the only thing the Pharisees could say about Jesus was, "This world is crazy about him." Now, >> what would it be like in 2026 to hear that? News update. hey, breaking news out of the Fox Newsroom. People are going crazy over this Jesus Jesus. Hoba elimin what you want. I could see it now. Yeah, we're going live to the street and here Jesus is being talked about. See that to us is pie in the sky. It's way out there. It'll never happen. H, won't it? Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. Vision will change. Notice something here about this story. It's very cool. The religious folk are mad. they don't know what else to do. All they're doing is griping about the folk. Notice what happens in John 12 verse number 20 21. Verse number 20 says this. And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came therefore to Philillip which was in Besada of Galilee and desired him saying what's it say? Sir, we want to see Jesus. These are Greeks. They're not yet permitted. But these Greeks, why were they here at this feast? The answer is in what we just read previous to this. Why? >> Because a dead man's out of the grave. You got folk from all over the place coming and they are just mind blown. So tonight in this session, I want to talk to you about why things have to be so profound for us to have faith to believe that Jesus can do anything. We would see Jesus. We want to see him. We want listen our vision, our perception, our understanding to change. If you go through again through John chapter 12, you'll read and you can you read the before and the after of this story. You're going to find it very intriguing that Jesus is literally rocking the world. It's just flipped up on its end. Be because all of the religious motions and notions and and and their rituals and the things they did to this point was wrote. It was just you got to do this and here. Now the Jews who had offices let's like you know in the temple or that did jobs in the temple they were very good at it and they were very very devout to it there's no other way they could have kept their job but the fact remains is that the the culture in and of itself though they had turned their back on the possibility that a messiah could come. Now they prayed for it. They they asked for it. They wanted it, but they weren't so sure when the angels declared it, "Behold, I'm sorry, we're in the south." Behold, >> okay? And in that moment, the vision they had was like this. And all of a sudden, let's let's let's stand on the hillside with a group of shepherds. And a host of of the heavenlies opens and they begin to sing. Glory to God. But that's what they sounded like in the high. Sorry, Ella. Uh they sing glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. And the shepherds are seeing this. Ready? Watch what happens now. And they said one to another, what? Let us go. Let's go see this. >> That's always I'm not getting sidetracked. I'm trying to help us understand how this works. They were so thrilled about the news. Let's go see. Let's go. Let's find this. As they're going to find this baby, their vision is like this. It's now growing. Imagine walking in and seeing this baby. All of heaven at attention. And it's the shepherds that get the first few. Talk about vision. Am I my again? I'm I'm I'm that flesh guy, that carnal guy. I got away. Where's y'all sheep? You leave them. Yeah. They come and they find Jesus and everything change. What did they do when the shepherds left finding Jesus? Where did they go? >> They went and did what? They went and said, "Hey, you should come and see what we just saw." Listen to me. Vision. Seeing is more than just letting stuff in. The mind has to process, has to declare, has to open it up. A boy, I'm trying to stay on time tonight. Um Neil Armstrong. Well, who is he? What' he do? >> Imagine. Oh my. >> Imagine that. I don't care if you don't believe it. If it's Hollywood's version, go with me. >> But imagine standing there on the moon or in a Hollywood set, doesn't matter. nobody else had ever sent data. Nobody else had ever said. And this guy's, can you imagine his vision? And now he comes home. He said, ' Man, we've seen the same things you've seen. No, no, no. It's a little different. It's a little different than standing here horizontal and looking down vertical. Right. >> So, we we all have prayer requests and we pray about some things and we ask God to intervene and to move in our lives and change us and and and to heal our bodies and to be God to us. >> Come on. Every one of us pray those prayers. Lord, I I just I just want you to be God in my life or I really have a need or something's going on. I really need and some of us might even in our prayer time said, "Lord, I just want to I just want to see you work in this situation." Well, here's the thing. When we have a tunnel vision, and it's a very narrow vision, we're not going to see a whole lot of stuff. We're not. Why? because because you don't stretch the outside marks. What if God Anybody here sick and have a disease and you need healed? There's probably several. What if God said, "Okay, ask." And that's all he said. Would you ask? And then if it didn't happen, what would you do? >> And then if it didn't happen, and then if it didn't happen, sooner or later, Sooner or later, it would be so wrote, it would be so, okay, I'm just going to pray for this again because I prayed for it the last 10 years that you might not even believe that it could happen. It's just become part of your vocabulary. And all the while, God's saying, you realize that I've not moved. I don't have to move because I can't. What do you mean God can't move? He can't move when you already possess all space. >> He He doesn't have to. Oh, excuse me. Pardon me. you walk by. No, he's he's there. You're going to you're going to he the earth is full of his glory. >> The problem is is that even if we're standing face to face looking at God, sometimes we can't see it. >> What these guys were saying, I'm Greek. I don't have any right to Jesus. I have no rights to get to him. But I came because I heard that he could raise the dead. Now, can we can we get carnal for just a moment? The Greeks had so many gods. They even had one to the Let's just make one that says unknown, man. They had a frog, they had a horse, they had a sun, they had a moon, they had a tree, they had a leaf, they had a dirt, they I mean they had all these idols and stuff. They were the Greeks and they walk up and they say, "You excu i got nothing. I got nothing here. We We'd like to see that. Okay. Okay. Lazarus. That's him. That's the guy with the big badge on. Said, "I got out the grave." I don't know. Had the hat. Mary Marth t-shirt. I'm joking. I'm joking. Yeah. got a button on it. You would you want to raise the head? Here's the thing. These Greeks who had so many idols, so many gods, they're the ones that came and said, "I am almost certain that I have seen everything in my life because I have a God for all things, but I just heard and now I'd like to see because if I can see and hear this, I'm convinced that's that is probably where part of the Gentile revival started was these guys who were seeing seeing Jesus do things. Fast forward 2026. Do you still desire to see God move in your life? Or is it just not worth it? >> Is it just not worth it? >> Because to have faith, to believe, and to trust when you can't see >> is the hardest thing. >> Now, we can all say it. In fact, we'll have testimonies say, "I thank the Lord. He's been good to me all day and I'm just thankful and and everything and and and everything and and okay, what has God done? He's done so much for me. I cannot tell it all. all right, tell one thing. We I say this so many times. We had to pass the microphone. We'd all have so many things to talk about. Every one of us would stop at about 15 things because that's about all that we would think, you know, and the the rest of it you already know. Well, here's the thing. If you are thirsty, how much is a bottle of water worth? >> How much? >> A lot. >> A dollar, $500, $10,000. It all depends on what? >> How thirsty you are. If Jesus can do anything, can we see him like that? >> These two, these Greeks come and say, "Hey, listen. We know that we got all this and we're all messed up. We dress the way we do. We talk the way we do. We're strange. We know that. And we're not even part of any of this right here, but this is blowing our minds. >> Can we see Jesus? What do you want to see him for?" I just I I don't know. I I just want to see him. I just I just want to maybe I can hear what he's saying. Maybe I can interact with him for a minute. I don't know. I do know this. I am convinced that the revival that we desire and hunger for is not going to come when we are satisfied with what we see. If Jesus is truly everything, can we see him do everything? Does our faith say, "Yes, Lord, you can heal the sick." And then us walk away walk away sick. I mean, and we're okay with it. Some of us even have a badge. We have a we have a we have a label now. Yeah, I've got this disease and doing the best I can with it. Oh, I think Jesus said he could heal it. He may not, but he it would probably be pretty easy for him. That all depends on what how we see him. So vision 2026, the month of January. We we we fasted some things. We're going to next week we've got some more. Some of you are still going to do fast days this week. We're trying to get oursel out of the way so that we can see Jesus. Because I believe, church, that if we're going to be a part of an end time revival, let me be very frank. It is not going to happen with this level. It is going to have to take an incredible amount of I'm really not sure how this, but I can see it there. I can see it out there. My vision looks beyond all of this. And it's bigger than a building or or a street corner. It's bigger than that. It is so huge because God is in all of that space. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty for things to happen. But you got to believe that. See, your mind has to be able to process that information to say, "Yeah, you know, there are there's going to come a time, if it already hasn't, and I'm bringing the landing gear down, that you're going to have to simply step out in faith. By faith, by faith, Lazarus died and was buried because that's just what happened." Anybody notice that when Lazarus came out of the tomb, what what was required? Why? >> They should have not prepared him. They should have not bound him if they really believe that Jesus could heal him. It's almost a contradiction. And even when Jesus came and said, "Hey, I'm here and I'm glad I didn't come when you thought I should." And there, "Where is he? He's in the tomb. The stone's over. It's done. Don't worry about it, Jesus. We took care of it. We followed the ritual and the law and we got him wrapped up. He's got all those spices, an ointment on him, so don't bother him. Show them to me. Oh, no. Surely he stinks by now. Not if you did your law right. You would have put myrr on him. You would have had spices on him. The oil would have been there so he could have been kept. And no, you don't want to open that up. I wonder sometimes if we've got the same attitude and spirit that his sisters had. No. No. It's it's it's too late. It's impossible. It's impossible. I wonder what the Greek guys would have asked Jesus if he would have said, "What can I do for you guys?" Um, talk about being put on the spot. That's like That's like that infamous question that all the kids sit around talk about. If I had a million dollars, what would I buy? Come on. We've all thought that, haven't we? What would you buy? I'd give my tithe to the church first. I'd make sure the work of the Lord could No, you wouldn't. you think about it and you probably put it on your list about nine things down, but all of a sudden that Hummer, electric Hummer would come to mind. Or or that house that's got 19 bedrooms that you could never afford the furniture. All that stuff would come to mind. So, some of y'all some some of us are like this. I just pay off my bills. No, I'd walk away from them. Change my name. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm not getting I This is not recorded right now. Here's the thing. >> So many times our vision is so short and shallow. Short and shallow. They're standing there with a guy that was dead. Dead. Man, it don't get no worse than that. It does not get worse than graveyard dead. There's not another level of dead. Am I right? And Lazarus is standing there answering all these questions. They said he's pictures, you know, with people. I have no doubt that when they let him, you got to testify like Yeah. It's going to be huge. Sorry. Sorry. It's going to be huge. Um, sorry. Well, I just brought that all the way up to 2026. Sorry. Here's the thing. The desire to see Jesus, listen carefully, please. It has got to be paramount in your life. I I pray I pray I pray to God that Cornerstone Apostolic Church would begin to believe what we pray enough that our vision would say, "God, I'm pretty sure you love Chattanooga and you would that none would perish, but all would come to repentance." I'm pretty sure that's us. So, I'm going to believe you for that. I'm gonna lift my vision a little higher, a little wider because everywhere I look, I see you. The earth is full of his glory. I don't have to hunt for it. I don't have to dig it up. I don't have to conjure it up. When you walk into the sanctuary any given moment, when you walk into your prayer closet, when you simply get in your car and you breathe the name Jesus, something happens in the heavens. We can't explain it, can we? What if though we could see? What if we could see? I'm convinced that the Lord's very concerned about those who don't believe. But he's not going to move if we don't believe. the guy who said, "You know, I I believe in you, Jesus, but I need you to help me. Help what?" My >> get this unbelief under control. Help me to get this unbelief under control. Vision. I I want to see you, Jesus. I want my eyes, my brain, my mind. I want my processing to expect the miraculous and not simply beg for God to move in my life, but I want to to know with an expectancy that he's doing it. >> What if you prayed for something and the answer came? Would you give him praise? >> Okay. Would you then expect it the next time or would you expect less? Because here's the thing. Every everyone that testifies to me, "Pastor, you won't believe what the Lord did. He did this." And I said, "Of course he did." Isn't that great? Yes, it is. What if you had to pray that same prayer again for something else? Would you trust and believe it enough cuz he did it for this one? Does it have to be so amazing and astounding that it blows your mind? Or can you simply say, "Well, of course, that's what God does. >> That's how God is." Stand with me, please. i I pray that that we see that we actually see Jesus, that our vision rises above the norm, rises above the the same old same old, the the the status, if you will, and we actually get to a place that we can pray something and believe it and faith it into existence. Would you pray with that for? Lord, we thank you for our time together tonight. We're thankful for the word of God that is sharp and powerful. Thank you Lord Jesus that you have all the power. You can do anything Lord. You are more than able God to change all things to make things right Lord. You can heal. You can create. You can recreate. You can do. You are the miracle worker. And for that we're thankful. I pray Lord that you would help every one of us tonight to raise our vision. Lift our sights dear God. Let us see you Lord. Let us believe that you're working and that you can do great things in us. Help us, Lord. I pray that we would change our minds and our mentality, our expectations, Lord, that we would rise to the occasion, to the hour in which we live, Lord, and we could see you, Jesus, in what you're doing in our lives. In the name of Jesus, be glorified and exalted. Help us Lord with an expectancy God to come together in worship and praise and adoration to your name. To God be the glory for the things that he has done. In Jesus wonderful name we pray. Lord bless tonight our worship time. Go with us God. Show us the way in the name above every name. Jesus be glorified Lord. Be exalted. We love you Lord and we thank you. Somebody say in Jesus name. >> Amen. By the time you trick the two miles down to the to the other room, we'll be ready for our worship time. Thank you all so much. Love you guys.