The Cross

The first Adam, originally created in the righteousness of God, by his stripped us naked.
The last Adam, suffering the shame of nakedness, by his obedience clothes us in the righteousness of God.

Esau & Jacob

Things to Note:

1. Prophetic positioning
2. Productive system
3. Purpose and value system
4. Impact of the 3 on their destinies

Prophetic Positioning

• Jacob & Esau are prophetic positioning of people and nations. There are Jacob people and Esau people. There are people who run their lives after the pattern of Esau; and people who run their lives after the pattern of Jacob.
• The Jacob system and the Esau system do not have equal strength - one will be stronger than the other. They do not have equal advantage. You cannot have the same result from the two. Although of a common origin/birth, they have different destinies.
• Do you operate by the strong or by the weak system?
• The old shall bow to the  new. The one operating the old system is disadvantaged. The one operating a new system is advantaged.

Productive System

• Esau is a hunter.
• A hunter has to work very hard. Hunters rely on their physical strength to produce.
• A hunter goes after one animal at a time.
• The hunter kills whatever he gets. He goes in for the kill.

• Jacob is a cultivator. 
• Cultivators use thoughtfulness to produce.
• A cultivator works with several animals at a time.
• A cultivator grows what he gets. He doesn't kill what he has.

• One system works with diminishing returns. Whatever he has got a limited life. God may bless him with abundance but he depletes it.
• You may start with little but grow it to much. Jacob asks for seed and grows it into a forest. Esau gets a forest and turns it into a desert.
• Jacob multiplies what he has.

There are Esau nations and there are Jacob nations. Singapore is just a city state yet it's per capita income is close to all of Africa. A nation can develop from nothing and a nation can destroy everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a6PexftP4M

Love is Patient

• Love always does what is best for others.
• Love changes our motivation for living. Relationships become meaningful with it. No marriage is successful without it.

Love is patient. Love is kind.

It is not envious, it is not boastful, it is not proud.

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

Where there are prophecies, they will cease;

Where there are tongues, they will be stilled;

Where there is knowledge, it will pass away....

...and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The Discipline of Vision

Discipline: self-imposed standards for the sake of a higher goal. A leader needs to be self-disciplined. A leader does not need external discipline.

The key to achieving one's vision is discipline. Discipline is key to achieving one's vision.

A man without a clear vision of their life lives a very loose life. A man with a vision leads a very narrow life. Vision controls your choices. Once you know where you are going, you know what roads won't take you there. Once you know what you ought to do, you know what not to do.

Vision defines your what to do in life.

Vision gives you a permanent address. It shows you the destiny. With a clear vision, it's easy to say no.

Your destiny dictates your decisions.

You were not born to do everything.

Stress comes from not knowing what to do.

Vision is from God. 

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed only one..."

"...you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed..."

All things are permissible for me, but not only things are beneficial.

You become a leader when you find the thing you are supposed to master.

Everything you do is supposed to be motivated by your vision. Vision is the primary motivator of human action.


Most people are poor because nobody knows who you are. Vision helps you identify yourself before the people...and because they know who you are, they know what to come to you for.

If you want to be successful, do not seek success. Seek to become a person of value.

Make yourself valuable, and they will pay for you.

Gold, silver, jasmine are valuable. Make yourself valuable like gold and people will be willing to pay for you - just like they pay for gold, silver, gasoline, water etc.
Develop a gift so valuable that people will pay you to perform it.

If someone had to think of something, that reminded them of me, what would it be? If they never think of me, I've never made myself valuable.

Become so good in an area that they can't ignore you.

For the next 20 years, I gonna curve a niche for myself that they cannot ignore me.


All true visions will be tested for authenticity.

• Challenges didn't come to stop the vision, they came to prove its true.
• Sometimes vision will take you to prison, like Nelson Mandela. His vision was so authentic to him. How much are you willing to pay for your vision.

True vision is discovering something to die for not just to live for.

Visionary leaders ask the question, "what kind of history do you dream of making?"

Do something they cannot erase from history. You were not created to just make a living and pay bills. You were created to give life and make a difference with your gift.

Vision chooses one's:

• future
• friends
• library
• use of time
• use of energy
• movies
• priorities
• hobbies
• diet
• investments
• to-do list
• attitude (if you know where you are going, it tells you what to think)
• lifestyle
• plan
• values

People with no vision in their lives throw off restraint

The Impact of Vision on Leadership

Vision:

• clarifies purpose
• gives direction
• empowers beyond assets 

Wise people make choices that protect their vision

Vision attracts resources. 

Once you know where you want to go in life, it decides your company. 

You can outgrow your friends.

• If you are the smartest in your group of friends, it's time to leave the group.
• People who are going nowhere, want you to go with them. People who are doing nothing, want you to do it with them.

The Power of Vision

Vision is seeing the future before it comes into being.

Vision means:

• you expect more of your world;
• to take bold steps of faith;
• to venture with risk-taking courage;
• to dare to hope for something beyond yourself.

Money, Sex, Power

Living in the Light

• All of creation was meant to communicate the supreme beauty and worth of God.
• God created the world for His glory. He created the world so that He would be magnified by the way His creatures find their greatest satisfaction in Him.
• Money, sex, and power exist ultimately to show that God is more to be desired than money, sex, and power.
• Everything hangs on what we value as supreme. What is our highest treasure? What is our greatest satisfaction? When God takes that place in our hearts (of the greatest treasure and satisfaction); then money, sex and power begin to find their true and beautiful order. 

Definitions and Foundations

• Money: not just paper and coins but the pleasures, advantages or status that money can signify.
• Money, sex and power are gifts from God. If they sink us, it's not because they are bad. It's because something happened inside of us to turn instruments of grace into instruments of sin, into altars and incense in the temple of pride.

Notes from John Piper's book: Living in the Light: Money, Sex and Power.

Fake Christians walk in darkness

1 John 1:5-10
This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we have say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

If we have fellowship with God, it's because we are united with Him in light and therefore cannot walk in darkness.

God is the light. He sent Jesus as the light of the world. Whoever follows Jesus will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
Life is given in connection to Jesus and it enables us to see and become.

John 12:36 says that while you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.
When we believe in Jesus, we are enabled to SEE light, and to SHINE with the true light of God.

John 1:14 - and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

• The Pharisees failed to see this light;
• Those who crucified Jesus failed to see this light.

When you see the light, life has come into you.

When you see the light, the glory, you become like it.

1 John 2:8-11

The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Love is the expression of the light. We become like the light when we believe in the light. The Light (God) is love. We become like the Light by loving others.

Flee from the Darkness

Hunger for God's Presence

• Sin invites separation from God and separation from God should terrify us.
• If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth.
• The presence of the Living God must be something you can't live without. Nearness to Him should be the most desperate cry of our hearts.
• If you develop an appetite for righteousness, God Himself will satisfy you. His presence and love will overwhelm you.