WHAT ARE YOU BECOMING?

We challenge ourselves with a simple, uncomfortable question: what are we becoming based on what we keep looking at. We connect spiritual transformation to attention and identity, and we push past striving toward a life that naturally reflects Jesus. 
• 2 Corinthians 3:18 and the link between beholding and transformation 
• The mirror idea and why reflection follows focus 
• How experiences, fears, voices, and habits form us daily 
• Genesis as a vision problem and how distortion shapes identity 
• Jesus redirecting people from lack to abundance and from condemnation to restoration 
• Why the biggest struggle is not information about God but captured vision 
• The lamp of the body is the eye and how focus shapes the soul’s environment 
• Knowing Christ versus being formed by Christ 
• Why living like Jesus matters more than sounding spiritual 
• Asking what has our attention and choosing a new focus 

Transcript

Beholding And Becoming

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Uh we've been talking about what it's like, what what it means to uh behold. And I will say this, I don't have a Father's Day message this morning. I'm gonna carry on with what I've been talking about, uh just because it it's something I feel like God's laid on my heart to continue to speak on. But we've been talking about you know the verse and we're gonna touch on it again this morning a little bit, but about beholding and what that means to to behold uh the Lord. Um But I changed the message up a little bit this morning. I changed I changed it up the way we're gonna look at it. And the title of this morning is What Are You Becoming? And I want you to think about that this morning. What are you individually, when you look at your life, what are you becoming? And last week we talked about the lens that we often look through uh when we look at scripture, uh, about how our starting point shapes our understanding of what we're reading, how questions, when we read scriptures, the questions that we have and that we approach scripture with will often determine the answers that we find. The way that I look at scripture and the questions that I have when I begin to approach it is going to determine what I'm gonna get out of that scripture.

From Lens To Mirror

SPEAKER_00 1:21

But today I want to move uh from really talking about the lens that we look through to I want to focus on the mirror. And I want you to think about a mirror this morning. And we're gonna get into that verse in a minute that talks about that. But I really want you to think about that this morning because instead of asking what are we seeing, uh let's go a little bit deeper today and ask, what am I becoming because of what I am seeing? When you're looking in the mirror and whatever it is that you see in yourself, what are you becoming because of what you're seeing? Because of that image that you see. Because we're all being formed daily. Uh everybody in this room, whether we realize it or not, something is shaping us. It could be our experience because our experiences shape us every day. It could be uh our fears, our relationships, the voices that we listen to shape us every day. The things we constantly focus on will always shape us. So it's not a question of whether we're being formed. We know that we're being formed daily. What we should be focusing on is what is forming us. So I'm gonna go back to

Transformation Comes From What You See

SPEAKER_00 2:46

the verse. I know y'all are probably getting tired of this verse, but I'm telling you, there's so much in this verse. Uh so I want to go back to it briefly this morning and look at it. Because Paul gives us a very, very powerful picture uh in 2 Corinthians uh chapter 3 verse 18. And I do it seem like I do that a lot. I find a verse, but there's so many different ways to look at it. There's so many much uh revelation in it that we just we seem to stay on it and just start pulling stuff out of it. But in 2 Corinthians 3 and 18 it says, but we all, every one of us, we all, with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, or being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now I want you to see something here. Paul, and we've talked about this briefly, Paul connects transformation with what we behold. We look at transformation in all kinds of different ways, but really we got to go to scripture and find out what is transformation based on what the word of God says. And it's not by working, it's not by striving, but it's based on, we transform based on what we behold. It's not just uh what we know or what we believe, but what we continually see, what we continually look at. Because what we behold eventually becomes what we're gonna reflect. So again, think about a mirror. And I chose that because I'm thinking about it this morning really because of this verse, but also when you look at a mirror, a mirror does not create the image. Now think about that. A mirror, when you look in it, it does not create the image. It reveals the image that is placed in front of it. So anytime that we look into a mirror, it is not creating anything. But what it's simply doing is revealing what is looking into it. It's revealing back something that is already in front of it, but it's not creating anything. And Paul says that as we behold Christ, something begins to happen. And that's what I love about this verse, because it says, as we behold him, something begins to happen within us. We begin to reflect what we are seeing. This is why Jesus, if you look back all through scripture, this is why Jesus was so concerned with what people were looking at. And I'm gonna give you a few examples in a few minutes. Because whatever captures our vision eventually will shape our direction. And I began to think about this, and this really goes back, and you know, again, some people would say, well, you're turning and twisting that, and you're trying to turn it into something new. This is not anything new talking about this, okay? And I begin, and I wanted to show you

Genesis And The Vision Problem

SPEAKER_00 6:00

that. This goes all the way back to the very beginning, even in Genesis. Humanity was created in the image of God. And then the fall, so the fall itself, when Adam and Eve fell, when humanity fell, when they ate the fruit, when they ate the apple, whatever you want to call it, when humanity fell, this was not just a behavioral issue. It wasn't just a behavioral problem, it was a vision problem. The serpent offered a distorted picture of God. Think about what the what the uh serpent was saying to Adam and Eve. They had been, Adam had been walking with God in the cool of the day. I don't know how long, I don't know how long that lasted, but he had been walking with God in the cool of the day. He's gonna help me preach this morning. Come on. But he had been walking with God in the cool of the day, and then the serpent comes along, and what does the serpent tell him? The serpent gives him something different to look at. Okay, and and I wanted to use these words exactly with what he said. The serpent offered a distorted picture of God. He was telling them God is withholding something from you, he cannot be trusted. That was pretty much it. Okay, we're gonna pass him off to So He would the serpent was saying, he's holding something from you. He cannot be trusted. Okay, and here's the thing, they could have ignored that and kept walking with God in the cool of the day. They could have ignored it. But Adam and Eve chose to focus on that image. They focused on it, they believed it, and their perception shaped a new identity. Adam and Eve were not the same people that they were in the beginning. Something shifted, something changed, and the only thing that happened differently in the garden was the serpent gave them a new thing to focus on. And as they began to focus on that, they their their identity shifted. And then Christ comes.

Jesus Restores How We See

SPEAKER_00 8:25

As the listen to this, this is amazing. This is where things start connecting. Christ comes, but he don't just come as a as a person. He comes as the image of the invisible God. Think about that just a minute, because what we're talking about here is we're talking about vision, we're talking about image, we're talking about something that we we can see. So he comes as the image of the invisible God. So then Jesus reveals when he comes what God is actually like. He restores the vision. So when Jesus encounters people, all throughout scripture, you can look at it. When Jesus encounters people, when he's walking alone for the three and a half years, I love what he does. He constantly redirects what they are seeing. Now think about this. So many times, so many, there's so many times in the Bible where you can see this. I went through and I and I and I looked at many, many of them, but I couldn't, I couldn't read all of them. It was too many, so I just picked a couple out just to give you an example of what I'm talking about. In the book of John, we see Jesus moving people from seeing outward appearance to seeing the heart. What was he doing? He was changing their vision. He was changing what they were looking at. Also in John, he moves them from seeing lack to seeing abundance. He was changing their vision. He moved them from seeing blindness to seeing revelation. He always challenged what they were looking at and got them to look at something different. What about with Lazarus? People were seeing death. He changed it and got them to see resurrection. With the woman who committed adultery. People were seeing condemnation. She was seeing condemnation. He changed her vision to seeing restoration. He always challenged people to change what they were looking at. He keeps inviting people all through the word into a new way of seeing, because a new way of seeing produces a new way of living. As I stated last week, if we constantly behold fear, then we become fearful. Our life, the things that we do in our life, we all we do is live in a place of fear. If we constantly behold anger, anger begins to define us. If we behold our failures, then our failures will begin to define who we are, and we'll begin to tell a story about ourselves. And in that story, all that matters and all we talk about is all the times that we failed. Listen, I say this all the time, and I know people, I know some people take this the wrong way, and I don't mean it wrong. I love testimonies. I love to hear where people come from, and I love to hear, you know, but see, I think in testimonies, people have been trained so much to stay in the past of where you were, and we never get to hear about where you are now. I don't want to just hear about how bad it was. I want to hear what God's doing for your life now. How has God transformed you? How has he changed your vision from where you were and what you were to who you are now? I love testimonies, but testimonies can sometimes get in a place of keeping us in the past. It's fine to tell us a little bit about where you were, but what we really focused on is who we are now and what God has done in our life and what he's continuing to do in our life. And I think that's where we need to stay at, not in the past. But when so when Christ becomes our focus, something begins to change in us. Not because we're forcing it, but because we are being formed simply by what we are seeing. As that verse was stating, as we're as we're focusing on him, as we're as we're beholding him,

Testimonies That Trap Us In The Past

SPEAKER_00 13:03

something begins to shift. We see this throughout scripture. Moses spent time in the presence of God. Go back and read that story. And when he came down from the mountain, something about Moses was different. The people noticed that he had changed. And I like to ask the question, why? What did they notice? What was it about him that was different? Why did he change? Obviously the people could see the change in him, but why? Because encounters with God, they leave a mark. They cause us to change. What we spend time with shapes us. What we give our attention to will shape us. So the question is, what has your attention? That's a hard question to ask sometimes, but we have to be real with ourselves. What is it in my life that has my attention? Because whatever I continuously give my attention to is what's going to shape me. Now that's not saying that these people that that I can't be a Christian and

What Has Your Attention

SPEAKER_00 14:17

love other things too, and spend time with other things and with other people and different things like that. But what is it that truly has my attention? And I I changed years ago, I really it changed my thinking a lot because I really began to focus on and realize because so many other things had my attention. I'm just gonna be honest. So many other things had my attention. I still loved God, I still went to church, I still worshiped, I still read my Bible, I still done all those things, but there was other things that had my attention above those things. And I knew that. And I can remember specifically this revelation coming and saying, I cannot be all that I want to be and all that I can be to those things if this is not the top priority. I can still love those things, I can still do those things, but if I want to give it my all, then God has to be the top priority. You can love your kids, you can spend time with your kids, but if you want to be the best daddy, then spend time with the father first. And see, sometimes uh in today's generation, our kids come first. Our families come first, our jobs come first. And then when we when we get to a place we're lacking in those areas, we can't seem to figure out why. So what has your attention? Because your attention is one of the most powerful things that every one of us possess. What you repeatedly look at, what you listen to, what you meditate on, becomes the environment that your soul lives in. And I said it like that for a purpose. It becomes the environment that your soul lives in. What is the soul? Your mind, your will, your emotions. That is the thinking part of us. That is the vision part of us, that is what we see. Where is my soul living at? I ain't got nothing to do with my spirit. That's not questioning anybody's salvation. That's not questioning anybody's obedience or anybody's love for God. It's just saying, where does my soul live? It's gonna live on whatever I give my attention to.

The Eye As The Lamp

SPEAKER_00 16:50

So look at this powerful statement that Jesus made in Matthew 6 and 22. Simple little verse, but very powerful. He said, the lamp of the body is the eye. Now we'll read the rest of it, but I really just want you to stop with that one first sentence there. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. I love this verse. Jesus understood something about human nature. What we see affects how we live. What we focus on affects how we respond. What we believe about reality affects the way we experience reality. We can shift our life by what we look at. We can shift our life by what we listen to. But he says right here in this verse, the lamp of the body is the eye. I love this because this says exactly what we're talking about here. It's talking about vision. It's talking about what I'm looking at. It's talking about what I'm giving my attention to. It's talking about what I'm beholding. And I believe one of the greatest struggles believers in every church, every denomination, I believe one of the greatest struggles believers face is not a lack of information about God. Listen, we have we live in the information age. We have more information in the palm of our hand. There is nothing that you cannot get an answer to in a matter of seconds. We have more information than any generation before us. So it's not a lack of information about God, but our vision has been captured by something else. We know verses. We can quote verses. We know theology. We can know what we should believe. But what are we actually beholding? Now when I ask that question, some people may say still say, as much as we've even talked about it, some may say, I still don't really understand what that means, beholding.

Knowing Scripture Versus Being Formed

SPEAKER_00 19:30

So I want to say the definition of it. Brief definition, very simple. Beholding means looking at something with attention and focus. Often in a way that involves contemplation or deep awareness. It's more than just glancing at something. It's you know, you ever see somebody come by or something come by and you'll just give it a quick little glance. This is more than a quick glance. This is giving looking at something with attention, with focus, with deep awareness. In a biblical sense, it often carries the idea of fixing your attention on something. Listen at this, so it can shape you. Fixing, and I I love that definition, fixing your attention on something so it can shape you. I like to reword that and say, fixing my attention on something in hopes that it will shape me. I want to look on something in hopes that it'll change my vision, in hopes that it'll give me a new perception. Because there's a difference between knowing about Christ and being formed by Christ. There's a lot of people who know scripture. They know the Bible inside and out. But are they being formed by Christ? The goal of the Christian life is not simply having correct information, it's becoming a person whose life reflects the one that we've been looking at. How do we reflect something that we never behold? How do you reflect the nature of somebody that I never spent time with? It's impossible.

A Fatherhood Example Of Becoming

SPEAKER_00 21:35

And I used the example a couple of weeks ago, you know, and I made I I used the example that I can remember coming up and you know, especially as a teenager when I didn't think my daddy knew anything. And he was always wrong. And I can remember as I got a little older, I said, I will never be like that. My goal was to be total opposite of my daddy. But as I got older, as I become a daddy I noticed that I would parent and I would be a daddy in the same way that he was. Why? Because all those years of witnessing him had become a part of me. Even though I hated it sometimes. Even though I wanted so much to be different, to be something totally opposite, I realized that I was just like him. I thought like him. I talked the same way. I began to parent the same way. Why? Because I beheld that for so many years. I was around him. I was under, I was in his home for so many years. I began to reflect the only thing that I knew. So if I want to reflect the Father, I've got to be around him. I've got to spend time with him. I'm not just talking about, see, when we say that, people just want to grab their Bible and start reading. Nothing wrong with that. But grabbing my Bible and reading ain't the only way to be in the presence of God. That's a book. And I'm going to say that

Presence Over Performing

SPEAKER_00 23:20

looking, you know, looking straight into the camera because maybe somebody that hears this may take that the wrong way. But the Bible is a book. Jesus is the word. I don't want to spend all of my days with a book. I want to spend my days in the presence of the Word of God. That means sometimes getting in the book, but spending time with him and then allowing the book to confirm some of those things that I've learned in his presence. That changes things. Sometimes I think people spend so much time in the book they lose, they spend no time in his presence. And it matters. There's a difference between knowing Christ and being formed by Christ. And this is why Paul says in Romans 12, too, be transformed by renewing of the mind. See, that doesn't mean that we we transform ourselves. It means there is a work happening within us as our vision, as our mind is renewed. And you might say, what does vision have to do with that? That transform means a changing of the mindset. Repentance means changing the mindset. Transformation happens from within. But what does that verse say? The light of the is the eye. So when I read this, when I think about transformation, I don't just think about repentance and changing my mind. I realize that the way that my mind shifts is also affected by what I see, what I continually behold, what I set my attention on. That's why it's so important about the people that we hang out with. That don't mean we can't hang out with people that's not on the same level that we feel like we're on, or that maybe you're a Christian, but they're not. That don't mean you can't be friends with people. That don't mean you have to disown family members who's not born again. But it does mean what am I going to behold? What am I going to put my focus on? If I'm focused on those things so much, they're going to begin to dictate what I reflect. As we see differently, we begin to live differently.

The Prison Story And Real Witness

SPEAKER_00 26:08

See, and I'm learning the more I the more I get into this, the more I'm learning that it's not just about trying harder. I used to think that too. I used to try really hard. I told you we'd chase, we'd chase people around the the state every time they had a had a church service somewhere, every time there was a big revival going on somewhere, you know, you'd hear somebody say, you know, so-and-so is happening down in Florida, and we'd pack up and we'd take off. I jumped in my car many times and just took off to a conference somewhere. I took off down to Florida when it was the big revival down in Florida, right by myself, just take off. Spent the night in my car in the parking lot. Because I didn't have the money for a hotel, but I was chasing God. So I thought. Because it was it was just the mindset that I had was I always had to be doing something. At the time I really, I mean, I think about it now, I thought, you know, did I really have to go all the way to Florida and sit in my car to find him? I mean, he was here too. He was he was in me the whole time. It was a great experience going there. We even turned around and took the youth back down there to the to the revival. That was supposed to be a three-day revival and turned into, what was it, six months, four months, whatever it was. Every day. It was a great experience for a lot of people. We had a great experience at it. But if I'm just chasing him around, if my mindset is I've always got to go somewhere to find him, then I don't realize that he's in me. Nothing wrong with a conference. Nothing wrong with all these youth events that the youth go to every year. Nothing wrong with that at all. But that can't be a mindset that I have to do that to find him. He's in me. He's in every one of us. So as we see differently, we begin to live differently. It's not I don't look at myself anymore in the mirror since we've talked about a mirror a while ago. I don't look at myself in the mirror anymore and think, how do I how do I change myself? What do I need to do to be better? What do I need to do to make God love me more? Now I look out in the mirror and say, what am I constantly beholding? What is my attention on? Because what we behold will eventually shape what we become. It's not just that we believe the right things. It's that we keep looking at Jesus. The imitation of the gospel is pretty simple. Don't just believe in Jesus. But keep your eyes on Jesus. See, we're not just called to agree with truth. And this would be another area that some people would get their toes stepped on. And I don't mean to do that, but it's the truth. We're not just called to agree with truth, we're called to stay focused on Jesus. It's not just about belief. It's about beholding. Not just about knowing about Jesus, but about keeping our eyes on him in every moment. To allow his love, his goodness, his character, and his life to reshape us from the inside out. That's transformation. Behavioral changes outwardly, but from the inside out. That's what we're looking for. I was long last week, so I'm gonna try to be short this week. So I'm gonna end with this. It's not about believing in him. Oh Lord, what did he just say? He said we don't need to believe in Jesus. No, that's not what I'm saying. Listen to me. It's not just about believing in Jesus, it's about staying with him. It's about beholding him. It's about looking and gazing on him so intently in every situation. Does that mean I have to walk around at work with a Bible in my hand? No. Because you got the word in you. We don't have to walk around spitting out scripture to everybody all the time. Because I'm gonna tell you, people would get tired of that. Most people probably wouldn't want to be around you. That's just the truth. But when we learn, when we're beholding him, everything I do, everywhere I go, every step I take, I reflect him. And see, when I reflect him, this is where the mindset shift happens. When I realize that I reflect him, that his life is reflected through me, I don't always have to talk about him. Now, if somebody needs a scripture, do we give it to them? Yes. Sometimes I may have a prophetic word for somebody. Do I give it to them? Yes. I'm sure y'all heard the saying, and I may I may butcher it a little bit here, but it's always like when I know something about myself, I don't always have to go around and try to prove it to people. I don't have to go around and talk about how good I do my job. If I know that I do a good job, people see it automatically. It's sort of like that here. I don't have to go around and look spiritual and act spiritual and spit out Bible verses every other sentence to try to look all spiritual when I know who I am. And that would offend a lot of people. And I'm okay with that because I know what I mean by that. When I know that he's in me and I know I've been beholding him, and I know that my life reflects him, I want people to see the reflection. And then that may draw them into asking some questions and I can share some scripture. But if I don't behold him, if I don't gaze upon him, if I don't spend time with him, my life will not reflect him. And if my life don't reflect him, I told this story many times, but it just it just came back to me. When I worked in the prison over in Nichols, I can remember, and I hadn't been born again for very long at that point, but I can remember I was witnessing to somebody one day, and another detainee came in, and he, one of my orderlies, and he came into my office and he was listening and he looked at me, he said, he said, Coach, I didn't know you was a Christian. And I'm telling you, even back then, and this was probably 2005, I remember thinking when they walked out, wow. So when I walk around and you can't see that, I'm not reflecting anything. I shouldn't have to quote Bible verses to prove to you that I know him. I shouldn't have to quote Scripture all the time to prove to people that I'm a child of God. My life should automatically show it. My presence should show it. My my my the way I carry myself should show it. Scripture is just icing on the cake when I get an opportunity to talk to people about the Bible. But my life should demonstrate who I am. It should reflect who I am. So again, we're not just called to agree with truth. We're called to stay focused on Jesus. Because over time, what we keep looking at is going to shape our desires, it's going to shape our thoughts, and it's going to shape our reaction. And see, think about this now, what I just said. Our thoughts, our desires, our reaction. What do people see before they ever hear your scripture? They see the way you respond to situations. When something happens and I used to lose my temper, and all of a sudden I'm calm now. Now I'm not saying I don't still lose my temper, but not in the same way that I used to. I promise you. I don't think the same way that I used to. When we keep looking at him and we keep focusing on him and we keep beholding him, it will shape our desires, our thoughts, and our reactions. And I've never quoted a scripture yet. But the way people see me, the way I think and the desires that I have is shaped by what? Beholding him, being in his presence, gazing upon him, not looking at him and glancing at him every Sunday for an hour. Come on. But gazing upon him intently with the purpose that something's going to happen on the inside of me. With the knowing that the more time I spend around him, my life's going to begin to shift.

Carrying Presence That Shifts Rooms

SPEAKER_00 37:23

That's why I used to love it when some of these big wig pastors would come around. And I shouldn't say it like that, but that's what that was kind of known as. But it was people that you could just be around them. And man, the air in the room was different. Now they wasn't no different than what I was. We were both Christian. But you could tell when some people walked into the room. I remember, and I won't call his name because I don't want to call his name and not call others, but I can remember this one specific person. And when he walked into the room, I remember even being a young Christian and saying, man, there is something different about that guy. And I had the opportunity to spend some time with him in the office. And, you know, I'm talking about not just listening to him from the pulpit, but actually sit with him and talk with him. And uh we went down to Florida one time and spent some time with him. And I can remember sitting there, we was at a restaurant eating, and I was sitting there and I was I was young and I was a young Christian and I was just I was amazed by him. I was amazed by his presence. And I didn't even really understand all this stuff at the time. But there was something about him, and I can remember all of us. It was a pastor's conference or something down in Florida, and I went with Pastor Dale down there to it, and I remember we was all sitting around a table, and there was probably 12 pastors, bishops, apostles sitting around this table. But that one guy, I mean, it was almost like he was just lifted up afloating in his seat. I mean, that's I remember thinking that. He was just something different about him. And then when you had the opportunity to talk to him, he didn't spit scripture out to you. But the words that come out of his mouth was just different. And even way back then I remember thinking, man, what am I missing? What is this guy doing that I'm not doing? And I really think it's because beholding the Lord, being beholding so intently on God that you're always in a different atmosphere. You're always in a different place. You look different when you walk into a room. When people look at you, they don't just see the old you. They see something, they feel something. That's what I want. And I say this all the time, and and some people take this the wrong way, and they they think you're being arrogant with it. And I'm not being arrogant, but my goal is that I want when I walk into a room, the room will shift. Because no matter what's going on in that room, it has to make room for my presence. For the presence of God that's on the inside of me. Things have to shift around. There might be some things in there that's got to go because they can't stay in the presence. They might be some people that's got to get up and walk out because they can't stand being in the presence. But I've never found that to be the case, actually. I found that the ones who need it most are the ones that's drawn to it a lot of times. When we when we used to go out and do the prayer, when we go into some of the neighborhoods, when you're thinking, man, these folks are fixing to run from us. Some of them may have. Some of them would close their curtains and everything. But some of them, it didn't matter if they were sitting down there drunk, and some of them were. They would push the bottle to the side and they would come to you. They were drawn to you. There was something on the inside of you that drew these people back to you, to you. And it was the presence that you carried. Over time, what we keep focusing and looking on will shape our desires, thoughts, and feelings, uh reactions. And last thing here, when Jesus becomes what we behold, we start to look more like him without even trying to. You don't have to put effort into it anymore. That's what I mean when we don't have to do the work. I don't have to throw Bible in your face all the time to try to convince you. I just walk in and just love on you. The presence, the Holy Spirit within me does the work. And it's not because we're striving hard to do it. This is where people get a messed-up mindset and they think, well, he's saying you don't have to work at anything. No, I'm saying when you've been beholding with the Lord and you've been in his presence, you're exactly right. I don't have to work at it. When I walk in somewhere, the presence of God just lights the room up. I don't have to work at that. That's what I mean when I say that we don't have to work at it. That don't mean don't go out and do good things. That don't mean that we don't still do Christian things in the community. It just means that it's a different kind of work. We're letting the Holy Spirit work. Not again, not because we're striving, but because we're seeing more clearly. And in the end, we really do become what we behold. If

Become Different By Beholding Different

SPEAKER_00 43:27

I want to become something different, I have to behold something different. If I want to change my perception, if I want to change my vision, if I want to change the way I see things, if I want to change what I reflect, I've got to behold him. If I'm beholding my past, if I'm beholding my failures, when I look in that mirror, what I'll reflect is a past of failure. That's what I'll see. I'll see somebody that's not good enough. I'll see somebody that never can do it. I'll see somebody who's disappoints God. I'll see somebody who God is angry at. I'll see somebody who's not good enough. I'll see somebody who's depressed. I'll see somebody who's angry. But if I get away from that and say, yes, that was a fact in my life at one time. But I am not beholding that anymore. I'm not intently focusing on that anymore, but I'm turning my attention to the Lord. And I begin to behold him. Now when I look in that mirror, the reflection is totally different. That's when you look in the mirror and say, man, I've never looked so good. Not physically, but spiritually. Maybe physically too, but we're talking spiritually here. He has begun to change what is reflected in the mirror. That's why this verse that we read is so important. If you want to change what you see, if you want to change what other people see, if you want to change what's experienced when you walk into a room, I'm going to ask you again today, where is your attention? What are you beholding to? This is not something to make you feel bad and condemn you if you don't, if you're if you say, hey, I know I I can't admit it. You ain't got to do it out loud, but maybe you're saying to yourself, maybe I can't admit I'm focusing more on this or that than I am God. Let's change it. It's not to condemn you. It's just to provoke people to really ask the question to yourself. Because I want to be different. I want to walk into a place and just boom, darkness has got to go. Why? Because light just walked in. I mean knowledge walked in. Ignorance has to go. Holy Spirit has walked into that place. So anything that's not of God, it's got to go. Or it's got to bow. Not to me. Again, I mean I say so much that people will take the wrong way. Because they won't listen to the whole thing. Kind of like politics. They'll listen to one little clip and all of a sudden, boom. They'll say, well, he said that, and that's never even close to what I said. Everything, every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that he is Lord. And we have the opportunity to be the light. Let's pray.

Closing Prayer And Blessing

SPEAKER_00 47:04

Father God, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for what you're bringing to us and the revelation that you're giving us week in and week out. Father, I thank you. Uh for the place that you're moving us into, for the things that you're showing us. Sometimes it's not what we would always think about or what we'd always focus on, but God, you're taking us in a different direction. It's almost like you're peeling it back and you're showing us, you're showing us more of who we really are and how to become that person that knows their true identity in Christ. We're not doing it with works and striving. We're doing it with identity. And Father, we thank you for that. I pray for every person in this room, Father. I pray that you just lift them up, that you continue to bless them, bless their homes, their finances, bless their families. Everything that they put their hands to, Father, we call it blessed. Every word that they speak out of their mouth, Father, I pray that it touches, uh, does a work, that it's not just empty words, Father, but it the it's the it's the words from you. That we speak your word with clarity. And we're not always speaking Bible verses, Father, but we're just speaking revelation. We're speaking wisdom, that when we walk into a place, Father, that the presence that is on the inside of us just changes the atmosphere simply because of who we are. And Father, we thank you for everything that you're doing. And we'll be careful to always give you the praise, the honor, and the glory in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.