38 - Horizons

When you look out - no, further - what do you see? Do you see a limit? A place you're not supposed to go? Or do you see an invitation? Imagine if the original disciples, turned apostles, only saw one horizon: Judea, or Galilee? Turns out, Jesus had other plans for them to go further than they could have ever imagined. While this teaching isn't about those guys pushing themselves further out, it is about you seeing yourself out there, standing on that outer limit to see...more horizons. 

Email me at mike@menrestored.com if you'd like more information about my 90-day Exodus Freedom Journey pathway and cohort. It's built for men in ministry, just like you and also the Christ-follower still feeling enslaved by pornography. 

Together, let's reclaim your freedom! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if you're a man in ministry, but I want to invite you, if you are, and this is a problem for you, pornography. I want to invite you to this cohort that I have. It's safe and it's confidential, and you need that. You need a place to go to talk about this and to get some deep learning and brotherhood to fight together with other men. That's what I want to offer to you. Stay tuned at the end of the episode to find out how to be in touch with me so that you can learn more about this cohort. I don't want you to have to ever live in isolation like I was living for so many years as a young pastor. I want you to know that you don't have to be alone in this anymore. So I'll see you on the other side. Listen in and let's get into the episode. You are a man seeking freedom from pornography. You know what's at stake if you don't break free. Your marriage, your family, and your faith. Welcome to the Exodus Freedom Journey Podcast. Here you'll discover insights and tools to help you find lasting freedom, starting in as little as 40 days. You are worth the fight. Your marriage is worth the fight. Your family is worth the fight. Together with God's mighty hand, let's reclaim your freedom. Welcome to session lesson 38. We're about to wind down this whole series here in just a couple of uh more sessions, so hang on tight, we'll uh keep it going here. Have you ever um hiked before? My first uh summit that I ever did, big summit I should say, was I was 17 years old, was Mount Washington in New Hampshire and living here in Colorado for more than 20 years now, I have um gotten up to 26 Fourteeners. A Fourteener is uh a mountaintop that is more than 14,000 feet, 14,000 or more. Uh-huh. That's a summit. And uh I've done twenty-six of them. There are about fifty, I don't know, I forget the number, fifty-four, I think depends on your definition of them here in Colorado. It's more than any other state. I was thinking about this uh as after I re-listened to the session on horizons. Uh-huh. And the horizon that you can see from the summit of a 14er is still uh many miles away, but there's still a limit to that horizon. And when I look out over that beautiful landscape of seeing hundreds and hundreds of uh mountaintops up there, there's still plenty of limitations because you can only see so far, especially with the human eye, and you can only travel so far, of course. Then there's the horizon that's enclosed where you currently are, perhaps. Your horizon may be as far as the end of the street or over that hill that you see. That's what I talk about with this particular teaching, and that is where does your horizon lie? Where's your horizon go? And if you'd like to see the video of this, uh I let me know, please, because I have some video, this is all this audio is drawn from video, and I have this is the only one that I actually have some uh illustration that I use. It's a whiteboard, and I'm just drawing um I'm just drawing dots and then a horizon with a um uh what do you call it? Dry eraser, and you're the dot and the horizon is what you see, and then you move to that horizon, then you can see the next horizon. It was just a simple illustration, and it shouldn't be too hard to visualize. And somewhere along the way, there are other dots, there are other people as well. So you'll see that, you'll you'll get that when you're listening to it. So if you really want to see the video, I can get that to you somehow. Um, I have the video file, of course, so if you want to watch it, you're more than welcome to. I hope you enjoy this lesson. I hope it's helpful for you. There's some pretty good insights about like what is next for you and what about those horizons? How can God move you out of those? Welcome to session eight here in module four. I'm getting excited. We're almost done. This is getting to be pretty good. I'm really looking forward to this session this time. This time we're going to be talking about horizons. What do they mean to you? Why is a horizon important to consider and think about? And that's what we're going to be talking about with this session. Notice also I've got something else here. I've got my whiteboard that we're going to be looking at toward the end of this session. Really looking forward to that. A really simple illustration that will be very powerful and meaningful for you. It'll just illustrate where we're going and what we're going to be talking about when it comes to horizons with this one. But we're going to start with a question. And I'm going to return to this question in this form or in different ways throughout this session. So here's the question that I want you to sit with and think about, contemplate, meditate on during this session. Think about this. What horizon can I yet achieve with my freedom? What horizon can I yet achieve with my freedom? You've been limited up to this point. You've been limited by the slavery that is pornography up to this point. Your horizon, very small, your horizon very close in. You didn't know it because no one's told you about it. You thought your life was just that horizon, and it's not. But the reality is we can only see one horizon at a time. That is just the reality of living the human life. We've only got perspective on one horizon. I can look out of my windows and see just the one horizon of the distant hill out there. That's it. That's all I've got at any one moment of time, because, as all humans are, I'm limited by space and time, but space specifically. I can't be more than one place at a time. I can only be here now, and I can only see that one horizon. That's the same with you. Now, the perception is what we're going to be talking about, though, right? We're going to be talking about what it means to have that one horizon that's around you that's close in because of the slavery of a pornography habit or addiction. But the reality is, know this, and you know this also, there are more horizons out there. I know beyond that hill, there is another horizon. There are more horizons that I have yet to see or discover. That's the reality. Now, the reality so far, however, has been you've been limited. That horizon has been close in by your own choice, I remind you, but that horizon is close in. That is the only horizon you've been able to see your life with that limited horizon out there so far. What horizons could be out there? Asking the same question in a different way. God is standing on that horizon out there already. There's a really simple illustration from my own life that happened when my son Brandon was ready to go to college. Before he left home for the first time, he was expressing his fears. He was worried about where he was going to go where he didn't know anybody. He had been to the school many times before with his high school experience, going out to various basketball and soccer tournaments through the years. The actual school itself was not unfamiliar to him. Being in that dorm was not unfamiliar to him. But he was going to be in the dorm on the campus full time. That was going to be a new experience for him. And he was worried. And I told him, I said, Brandon, you know what? There are people out there that you haven't even met yet, that you don't even know exist in your life right now. You will meet them and you will be their friends. They will be your friends and you will have new relationships you had no idea that you were going to have until you got there. In other words, there are horizons out there that you just can't see yet that are there. Wait till you get to that experience. Then you will see. And this came true. His birthday is in February, so we sent him off to college, of course, in August. I believe he came home once or twice, so we saw him. But Christmas break came along, he went back to school. And so in February, late February is his birthday, we went out to visit him and we all had lunch at Chili's. And to our surprise, me and mom's surprise, there were like a dozen of us at this Chili's restaurant taking up this whole big long table. And I still remember talking about this to his mom, Kimberly, saying, I can't believe there are so many people here. Look at all these friends that he has, just a few months being at school here. He called it a prophecy, Dad. He said, You were prophetic with this. Yes, I'm not a prophet by any means, but I agreed that he made new friends that I had no idea he was going to have. He didn't have any idea he was going to have. And it showed up that day for his birthday celebration at the Chili's in Lincoln, Nebraska. Here's something I want to re-emphasize and emphasize so much to you with this. No matter the distance to that horizon, again, probably a small distance right now, because your life, if you haven't lived in freedom that long, that horizon seems really close. There's a lot of things going on in that horizon in your life. That's it. That's your life. It's kind of small. Only if you know that there's something else beyond it. We're going to take a look at a place in the Bible, but first, I just want to be clear on what a horizon is. This isn't my definition. I looked it up. There are a couple of versions here. Here's one. This is from dictionary.com, if you ever want to look it up. A line or a circle that forms the apparent boundary between earth and sky. So I look out there and I see that that line of some bushes and a couple of trees. That's my horizon right now between the earth and the sky above. Real simple, right? Here's the other one that I really like. It's a little more philosophical, if you will, or metaphorical. The limit or range of perception, knowledge, or the like. That's what we're aiming at here. And I want to key in on the word perception. Okay, remember that. Remember the story of the 12 spies. What perception did 10 of those 12 spies bring back? It was a perception of them being small. It was a perception of we look like grasshoppers. There was a perception that God couldn't handle it. Caleb and Joshua, on the other hand, well, Caleb said the words on behalf of both of them, we can take this land. His perception in the horizon that he saw was God was already there. God was going to take care of things. Unfortunately, we know what happened, right? Forty years later, that generation was gone, except Caleb and Joshua and their descendants, but that generation was gone. And they weren't able to go into the promised land. Forty years later, though, we have Moses giving his last words in the book of Deuteronomy that I want to share with you and highlight with you that's so important for you to get. This is why you can't let any horizon that's out there intimidate you. Remember the word perception. That's a perspective from our place. We have an advantage as Christians. Our perception and perspective must include God. It must include God's perspective. Even if we can't see what God sees, we can't actually look how God looks. We can by faith because we have promises. And here's one of the promises that I want to highlight. Go to the book of Deuteronomy and go to chapter 31. And I'll read to you the first eight verses. And I'm going to just stop and highlight a couple of things that are really important. They're pretty self-evident, so I don't even need to elaborate a whole lot, but I want you to take these words, think about them, and meditate on them because there's a very, very clear application into your life in my life. Now bear with me as I read these verses. Deuteronomy chapter 31, starting in verse 1. Then Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. Now remember, Deuteronomy is Moses speaking his final words. In the next couple of chapters, Moses is gone. He's done. Okay, so he's continuing his speech here. I am now 120 years old. Wow. I can no longer act as your leader. The Lord has told me, You will not cross the Jordan. The Lord your God is the one who will cross ahead of you. That's the key part here. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will drive them out. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, as the Lord said. The Lord will deal with them as he did Sihon and Og the kings of the Amorites, in their land when he destroyed them. The Lord will deliver them over you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded to you. Now that's important. Obedience was so, so important. They had to do exactly as they were told. Did they? We already talked about that. When they took Jericho and then they tried to take Ai, didn't work. The Lord will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I've commanded you. Now in verse 6, be strong and courageous. Don't be terrified or afraid of them, for the Lord your God is the one who will go with you. He will not leave you or abandon you. It's so important we get this. I'll read the last couple of verses here. Moses then summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, again in front of everybody, Be strong and courageous, Joshua. Right? He's telling Joshua, Be strong and courageous. For you will go with this people into the land the Lord swore to give to their ancestors. You will enable them to take possession of it. The Lord is the one who will go before you. Get that. He will be with you. He will not leave you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or be discouraged. This is the big thing I want you to get here, guys. Get this. That horizon, that may be your perception, and you have to get there. Remember this: no one can get there for you. You have to go there yourself. But remember, God is already there. God is on the other side. He's on that horizon. He'll be helping you to get there. God will be there. God will lead you there. We have both of these promises. There's two pieces to this promise in these verses. God goes ahead, he will cross the Jordan ahead of you, and he'll be with you while you go. Take these promises to heart. Is it scary to think about a life of freedom? Is it scary to think about a life without the comfort, so-called, of pornography, that medication that has kept you going all these years? Very shallow, very superficial, always having you come back for more like any drug you're addicted to. Life without pornography does not have to be a life of fear. God says clearly, have courage, don't be afraid. Why? I am with you. Number one. Number two, I'm going ahead of you. Clearly, God is trying to get across that He is at work. Remember, there are things that only God can do, and there are things that I must do, that you must do. There are things that God will not do for you. There are things only He can do, right? God goes ahead of you. You can't do that. You can't go ahead of yourself. God is the only one who can do that for you. But ask the question again: Am I a slave or am I free? Ask that question. Am I a slave or am I free? Well, I'm free. Therefore, I can move. Does a slave have the ability to move himself to the horizon? No, he does not. Not on his own volition. When you're free, and remember, freedom starts here in the head. Freedom starts in the head. Those ten spies, they were still slaves. Those ten spies, they never left Egypt. And everybody following with them. They never left Egypt. Therefore, they never made it to the promised land, the land that was promised to Abraham and their ancestors. So again, ask the question: Am I a slave or am I free? Well, I'm free. Therefore, I can move to that horizon. That horizon, in fact, is not a limitation. It's not my limitation anymore. It's an opportunity. That horizon is not the limitation that I see in my perception because God sees that not as my limitation. When I point, by the way, I'm pointing to just that horizon out there that I see. That limitation is how I have seen it. It is not how God sees it. And we have to take that same perception that God brings. It's not a limitation, it's an opportunity. It's not a limitation, it's an opportunity. Only someone who is free can say that. Remember, freedom starts in your mind. God goes ahead of you. He is with you. That opportunity is to take that promised land. All right, here is using the whiteboard here. I wanted to illustrate to you the horizons that you currently live with and what are the possibilities. Of course, this is only a one-dimensional perspective of what the horizons look like. Here's where I want us to start. This dot right here, this is you. This is currently your horizon when you're not free, when you're not living in the life of freedom. That is a small place to live. There are people in this world, yes, of course. There's always going to be people in your world living there with you. That's your world. It's pretty small, it's kind of limited, but you don't know it. Now remember, what's the worst kind of slavery when you're a slave and you don't know it? That's the worst kind of slavery. The second worst kind of slavery is you're a slave and you choose it. That's also there, too. But the worst is you're a slave and you don't know it. Now, are you still living? Of course you are. Is life still going on? Of course it is. But notice that is so small, but also notice the rest here. This is the point of the illustration. Notice that the rest of this is happening. There is more, way more life out there. It's not just to be limited. So when freedom begins, you start seeing holes in this horizon, if you will, your perception starts changing. Your perception as you you're approaching this horizon, generally speaking, not always, a horizon rises. From my house, I'm looking out and I can see there are uh there's a hill to climb. Your perspective actually changes as you go toward that other horizon. Not always the case geographically, I know, but we're using this in the metaphorical sense, so I can use it however I want. You are going to be rising up to that horizon, and you're starting to see that there are other horizons out there. So before you know it, you actually lose that horizon because by definition, that horizon was a place that you hadn't arrived at yet, and you're moving, and now you're seeing that there is another horizon out there. Remember, you can only see one horizon at a time. Okay? So that is the next horizon, but you didn't know it was there until you got to that first horizon. That first horizon disappears because you're standing on it. By definition, that horizon went away. Now the next horizon appears. Look, it's it's bigger. And still you're you're starting to see that there's more out there. Little by little, you're starting to see that there are other horizons out there. So maybe not yet, but you're gonna start seeing these other horizons. You're gonna start seeing these other horizons. My pen's giving out. These other horizons that are out there. They're they're further up, they're further out, and they're further up. In fact, I would even suggest you're getting higher and higher as you go. But perhaps there are valleys that you have to go through in order to get to that next horizon. Of course, there are going to be valleys, but I'd like to think that that's an even higher horizon. You've got more responsibilities. You can see further. I love the illustration, of course, of mountains and valleys. Down in the valley, you can't see a whole lot. Life isn't going that great. You're in the shadow. There isn't absolute darkness. That's a cave. There isn't absolute darkness, it's a shadow. There isn't absolute darkness, and you can still see above you. I was just recently in the what I think is the prettiest part of Colorado, Uray and Telluride in that area, Ridgeway, beautiful part of the state. And you can look up and see these amazing vistas with horizons out there that I could eventually get to if I really wanted to. And they're gorgeous to look at, and I want to get there. They pull me towards them. That is the idea. So you get to this horizon here, and it disappears, and you start moving toward the next horizon. Now think about this. Your life is expanding out into this whiteboard, and in that world, there are other men. These are the other men out there. These are other people who need to hear your story. They're here, they're here, they're on this place, they're on this place, they're here, they're everywhere. You just don't know that they're there because you can't see them. But guess what? Those verses in Deuteronomy 31, God is already out there. One of these dots is where God is going to lead you because your story has that kind of power. It's an expanse that only God can see. And there are many other men out there at different horizons. Consider this horizon here, I'll just connect the dots. Consider this horizon here, I'll connect these dots. Consider this horizon here, I'll connect those dots. These are all different horizons. These are all different places that you can be that you can't see back here. You can't see them back here because you haven't left that area. And God is saying, you can leave. You don't have to be alone. You won't be alone. I hope that illustration helps you just a little bit. It's just a one-dimensional, simple illustration that your horizon is limited by you. You move toward that horizon. God can't move for you. No one else can move for you. There are people on that horizon, beyond that horizon, that are counting on you to get there, that you don't even know they exist. There's a man who needs to hear your story because the power of your story is going to change and save him. Let's go back to that first question that we started with. What horizon can I yet achieve with my freedom? Remember, it's a horizon that you achieve with your freedom. It's not a horizon you achieve within slavery. In slavery, you are limited by other people's choices. You are limited by an addiction or a habit that is holding you back. Do you remember when I asked myself the question and told you about in my story? And I think I've said it at least a few times throughout the curriculum, what could God do with me if I could just get free of this habit? Have you asked that question yourself? That's the same way of asking this question. Once I get to that horizon with my freedom, into my life of freedom, there are things beyond, way out there on that whiteboard in that horizon that expanse that only God can see. He is not only going before you, he is going with you. So you have no reason to be discouraged or be afraid. Your life of freedom is a life of adventure. Yes, we don't know where it's going to take us. We don't know how God is going to lead us, but you can always count on God being there, not only before you arrive, but with you when you arrive. God bless. Alright, I hope that teaching was helpful. And I hope maybe perhaps you even see horizons differently. They are, of course, literal horizons, and then there's the metaphorical horizon, that horizon that is part of our perceptions and where we believe we can go. And I also hope that the um the way I illustrated it, you know, you can only get it on the audio, that it made sense as well. Again, if you need the or want to watch the video, please email me, and that's uh also my offer as well. If you want to go into this group of guys and spend time with other guys, especially if you're a man in ministry and you need this safe place to be, that's what this is for. That's why I built this whole thing so that guys can have a place where they can learn, grow, have accountability, gain some insights, and there's always more insights when there are more people as well. So email me, Mike at menrestored.com, and let's have a conversation. Okay, we're about to wind down this whole thing, and I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to the Exodus Freedom Journey podcast. Together with God's mighty hand, let's reclaim your freedom.