The Context

There’s a story in the Bible that what from I can tell, is most often used to illustrate the importance of perspective. God’s people are about to enter the land He promised them, so their leader Moses assigns twelve guys to go spy it out. Two of them come back saying the land is GREAT, “You guys! It’s finally time to settle down, we can stop wandering through the desert, you should SEE this place, it’s amazing! Look at these grapes, they’re bigger than my head!!” (That’s the Johanna version).The other ten spies? Completely terrified. They tell everyone there’s nothing but huge giants there. They say (roughly), “OMG those guys are MASSIVE next to us! We were basically grasshoppers next to them, so they definitely saw us as grasshoppers. Grasshoppers, right Bob? Yeah, definitely grasshoppers. We should probably get out of here, like now.”

So what was the difference between the ten and the two? (Yup, ten and two, like they teach you in driver’s ed). I’ll tell you what I think: The two were making decisions based on vision, the other ten based on fear. Obviously, everyone wants to be a person of vision, but consider the following characteristics to see where you fall on the vision – fear spectrum (I just made that spectrum up, but sounds good right? Anyway…

The Characteristics

1.) Risk Taking:

1. Fear = A person who makes decisions based on fear will frequently protest
   anything out of their comfort zone. They like their routine, they know what’s safe, and stick to that, thank you very much.
   ii. Vision = A person who makes decisions based on vision is willing to take risks. This is a person who constantly challenges themselves and is always trying to stretch and grow his/her self.

2.) Perspective:

1. Fear = A person of fear has a narrow, day to day perspective. I’m cupping my hand around one eye to show you, they can only see what’s immediately in front of them. They are in “survival mode” (to be fair, usually with good reason) and cannot see past the next demand or crisis.
2. Vision= This is the person who has the 5 year, 10 year and 20 year goals all set. And probably more goals in between. They regularly assess where they are in light of where they want to be.

3.) Self- Image:

1. Fear = Fear gives a skewed view of personal strengths and weaknesses. This is where the excuses come in: “I couldn’t possibly do that, I’m too…(old, young, uneducated, inadequate, tired, busy, etc.).” The excuses might have some validity, but typically are used to put a nicer face on the underlying cause: I am afraid.
2. Vision = A person of vision typically has a strong sense of self- awareness. They have worked to become familiar with their strengths and limitations and use both as fuel to get to where and who they want to be.

4.) Character:

1. Fear = This is where we see fear as something that can cripple or paralyze a person’s potential. A person of fear lacks confidence, is inconsistent, indecisive, and tend to be people pleasers.
2. Vision = A person of vision tends to disregard the opinions of haters, “No offense, but I know who I am, I know where I’m going, I would thank you kindly to remove yourself and your negativity from my path, sir.”

5.) Commitment:

1. Fear = When you are allowing yourself to be guided by fear, take yourself to the laundromat, because you, my friend, are wishy-washy. (HA! That was a good one!). Fear makes committing to ANYTHING, especially a big dream, SO uncomfortable. As a result, the person becomes conditional and immature (if this, this and this happen in this exact moment in this exact order, then and only then will I move forward). So, a person of fear never sticks to anything because they run when things go wrong.
2. Vision = A person of vision has the ability to see the long-term result of “staying the course.” Think of your most loyal, dedicated, dependable friend. Good person to have around, yeah?

6.) Speech:

1. Fear = Ooo this is a good one. Fear can’t help but to leak out in speech. This leads to negativity, gossip, backstabbing, and complaining without offering solutions. Ouch! Like the ten negative spies, a person of fear can only talk about the bad stuff, regardless of how much good stuff there is. Before you start thinking about your grumpy co-worker, remember this is a *self* assessment!
2. Vision = Contrarily, a person of vision is the one who offers hope in a tough situation. They aim to encourage and ease burdens rather than add to them.

7.) Action:

1. Fear = For a person stuck in fear, their action is inaction. They will sit, worry, and count all the reasons why not.
2. Vision = A person of vision is driven by that vision. If you’re convinced going and conquering a land full of giants is the right thing to do, you will simply find a way to do it and conquer the barriers as they come. Rather than wasting time worrying, people of vision surround themselves with smart, encouraging friends for a sounding board, they are off and running. Chances are, the next time you see them, that thing they were chasing after they now hold in their hand.

The Conclusion

So, friend of mine, where do you fall on the vision-fear spectrum? Are you happy with where you’re at? I think all of us are more influenced by fear than we would care to admit; sometimes life is just a scary place. But I hope considering the seven characteristics above are an important step for you in shaking off the fear, and moving forward with the person you want to be. I hope you would fall in with the “unusual two” spies who saw and were determined to focus on the good (Can you imagine eating a grape the size of your head?). And I hope that, despite the fear and all the reasons why you shouldn’t, you fill your days running after and fighting for the vision that’s been placed inside of you.

God bless,
Johanna

Grounds for divorce:

If you know me then you know I love coffee, being a coffee roaster has allowed me to travel the country meeting other coffee roasters and tasting different coffee from all over the globe.  I am always on the hunt for a great cup of coffee, it is not unusual for me to take vacations around coffee shops that I want to visit. 

Fun fact:

Turkish Law in the 16th century stated that women could divorce her husband if he did not provide her with a daily quota of coffee.  Thankfully for me, that is not an issue in our house. 

What’s in the coffee pot: (what’s coming up)

We will be having a game night for family and friends on May 12th at 6 pm at the fellowship hall the purpose of this event is simple, to connect with each other and have a good time.  We hope you will join us. 

What brewing: (what we are doing right now)

Wednesday service has been amazing we hope you will join us sometime if you have not experienced a service yet.  We kick off a new series tonight April 25th about fear, how to overcome fear.  The question I want everyone to think about is this, what do you fear_______? The reason we are going to this series is because so many of us let fear control our lives, fear becomes a big stop sign that we cannot get past and fear has the ability to stop us from achieving our purpose.  I am even going to let my amazing wife Johanna preach on of the messages in this series so that will be exciting. 

My cup is empty (what we have just finished with our sermons)

We just finished our series on boldness, the main point was this if we want to change our community we need to be bold for Jesus.  What stops us from being bold is fear, fear of what people may think or fear that we may offend someone. 

The last week of this 4 part series we broke into small groups and discussed how to apply the sermons in our lives.  I want to leave you with a few of the questions I wrote out for our small groups.  My hope is you will answer these questions on your own and apply them in your life. 

I am so excited to be a part of this church we have an amazing future if we work together as one team that loves each other like a family while always looking ahead to Jesus. 

God Bless, Pastor Colby Sutter

The questions:

• We speak boldly about what we believe in. What do you speak boldly about?

                ______________________________________________________________________________

• Why don’t you share your faith in situations? Or why are you not bold in times in certain situations?

______________________________________________________________________________

• Peter and John start preaching about Jesus in the temple and get arrested. Their boldness made a statement.  What statement does your boldness or lack of boldness make at your job, your work, your family and in your life?

______________________________________________________________________________

The challenge: Pick 1 of these to do this month.

1) By this date__________, I will invite someone to church with a handwritten invitation.

2) I will tell __________________________, about Jesus by this date______________.

3) I will pray for someone else every day this month.

4) I will spend ________________ of time getting to know Jesus each day this month. 

Hello everyone I just wanted to say hi and see how everyone is doing.  We have been having a great month at our Wednesday night services.  we have been talking about boldness.  

Why is boldness?

Boldness is important because when the opportunity appears we want to be able to take it. Boldness fires up the hormones in our brain and body. It gives us clarity and energy and a feel-good feeling. When we take action based on the virtue of boldness we learn so much more than we would analyze and study. Boldness sparks a fire inside us and sets a fire in others regarding faith in God.  

I asked everyone a series of questions to reflect on that I would love to have you all reflect on. 

Questions to reflect on:

1)      Why don’t you share your faith in situations________?

2)      Why are you not bold_____? Example (work, home, friends)

I boiled it down to 2 reasons:

One: we feel like we don’t know enough

Two: we are afraid we will offend someone

The main reason, the root cause of both of those reasons, for whatever excuse you came up with is this… Fear, we are scared.

FEAR destroys boldness, fear stops us, and fear shuts us down.  You cannot be bold and be in fear it is impossible the two contradict each other. 

Being in fear = is being selfish = caring what you look like, what they will think of you, what if I do not have the answers to their questions, what if they laugh at me, what if I am wrong. 

Then I have been challenging the congregation and now I am challenging you: 

1) to invite someone to church 

2) to offer prayer to people 

3) to tell someone about the gospel  

April: 

I truly believe April is going to be amazing. Johanna and I plan to think about some outreach events we can do to get to know the community in the next couple of months.  I plan on teaching more on boldness and how to overcome fear since fear destroys boldness.  

scripture to think on about what it means to you: 

Provers 30:30 

                “A Lion, mighty among beasts, who retreats before noting?”

please contact me if you have any questions or comments I look forward to hearing from you and I am praying for this community to be transformed through our church and the gospel.  

Colby Sutter