20/20 Vision Series

SERIES: “DISCOVER VISION: SEEING WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO SEE”

TEXT: SELECTED

TITLE: “20/20 VISION”

OPEN: A. I want to ask for some audience participation..

1. Can anyone guess what the most popular surgery is in the world today?

2. Here’s another clue:

-- It’s considered safe, relatively affordable, and relatively effective

3. The answer is laser eye surgery

a. People are interested in getting their sight back to 20/20

b. They want their vision restored

B. Today is the final message in our series “Discover Vision: Seeing What God Wants You to See”

--each message has built on the next. Let’s have just a quick review:

1. Message #1 was “Eyes Wide Open”

a. Prov. 29:18 AMP – ““Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people

perish…”

b. We talked about what vision is, what it does, and how it motivates and moves us to do what

God is asking us to do

2. Message #2 was “Seeing Through the Lens of Faith”

--that our vision can be faulty if we’re not looking through the corrective lens of faith.

a. Heb. 11:1 – “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

b. We looked at how looking through the lens of faith demonstrated itself in our lives

--Faith shows itself in:

1). What we believe

2). How we live

3). How we give

4). How we serve

3. Message #3 was “What Are You Looking At?”

a. Heb. 12:2 – “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy

set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the

throne of God.”

b. We’re to look to Jesus

1). For our purpose

2). For our persistence

3). For our prize

4. Today’s message is “20/20 Vision”

1. Even more so than the people who want their physical sight to be accurate, we as Christians

should want our spiritual eyes to be accurate

2. What happens when our spiritual vision is 20/20?

--Let’s look at the Bible this morning and see

I. SEE DEFEAT TURNED TO VICTORY

--2 Chron. 20:20 – “Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat

stood and said, ‘Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the LORD your God and you

will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.’”

A. What happened?

--have to go back and see the verse in its context

1. We’re looking at the time period when the descendants had divided into two nations: the northern

kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah

2. Jehoshaphat is king of Judah

--He’s one of the good kings who tried to follow in the footsteps of his father Asa and worked hard

at keeping the people of Judah faithful to God

3. In our passage, we see several things

a. vs. 1 tells us that the Moabites, the Ammonites, and some of the Meunites have conspired together

to attack Judah

--they know that together, their military might is much stronger that Judah

b. Jehoshaphat is warned about the coming invasion

1). He determines to seek God for help and direction

2). He declares a fast for all the people of Judah

3). All the people of Judah meet together to seek help from the Lord

--vs. 4 – “The people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD; indeed, they came

from every town in Judah to seek him.”

c. Jehosphat prays in front of the assembly

--vss. 5-12 – “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over

all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand

you. O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and

give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? They have lived in it and have built

in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of

judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your

Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’ But now here are

men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade

when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. See how

they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance.

O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is