Ever
heard the saying life is a journey? Life is a journey and every journey has a
destination. Everybody ends up somewhere in life, a few people end up somewhere
on purpose and others end up places by accident.
A clear vision, along with the courage to follow through, dramatically increases your chances of coming to the end of your life, looking back with a deep satisfaction and thinking “With God I did it. I succeeded. I finished well. My life counted.”
Without a clear vision, odds are you will come to the end of your life and wonder what you could have done – what you should have done. And like so many, you may wonder if your life really mattered at all. That's a legitimate question. Vision gives significance to the otherwise meaningless details of our lives. It’s not always about what we’re doing, but rather why we are doing it.
This may seem silly, but, how many of you would be excited to spend all day filling bags with dirt?
How many of you would be excited to spend all day filling bags with dirt to build a dike around your city to keep it from being flooded?
There’s nothing glamorous or fulfilling about filling bags with dirt, but saving a city is another thing altogether. Building a dike gives meaning to the chore of filling bags with dirt.
The same is true of vision. Too many times the routines of life begin to feel like shoveling dirt. But take those same routines, those same responsibilities, and view them through the lens of vision and everything looks different.
A clear vision, along with the courage to follow through, dramatically increases your chances of coming to the end of your life, looking back with a deep satisfaction and thinking “With God I did it. I succeeded. I finished well. My life counted.”
Without a clear vision, odds are you will come to the end of your life and wonder what you could have done – what you should have done. And like so many, you may wonder if your life really mattered at all. That's a legitimate question. Vision gives significance to the otherwise meaningless details of our lives. It’s not always about what we’re doing, but rather why we are doing it.
This may seem silly, but, how many of you would be excited to spend all day filling bags with dirt?
How many of you would be excited to spend all day filling bags with dirt to build a dike around your city to keep it from being flooded?
There’s nothing glamorous or fulfilling about filling bags with dirt, but saving a city is another thing altogether. Building a dike gives meaning to the chore of filling bags with dirt.
The same is true of vision. Too many times the routines of life begin to feel like shoveling dirt. But take those same routines, those same responsibilities, and view them through the lens of vision and everything looks different.
It's not just a job, it's a job that helps lead others to Christ. It's not just my crazy family, it's my family that god wants in His Kingdom. I’m not just teaching Sunday school, I get to teach Sunday
school for God. I’m not just on the worship or media team, I get the privilege
of being on these teams so I can give God glory in what I do. What about
helping others in our community who need help? We get the privilege to share
the love of Christ to others through spiritual and physical needs. If you are serving God
with the attitude that this is just another thing I have to do, then you need
to refocus your vision and life so it counts for Christ.
Vision brings your world into focus. Vision brings order to
chaos. A clear vision enables you to see everything differently. While the average person may have the right to dream his own dreams and develop
his own picture of what his future could and should be, we as followers of Christ have surrendered our lives to follow Christ
and His plan. We gave up our right to be in charge when we accepted Christ and
agreed to follow Him.
Remember the movie Santa
Claus with Tim Allen. The head elf hands him a card and says read the fine
print. There in little words around the card it tells him, you broke Santa you
are now the new Santa. God didn’t hide your job description on a card
with little letters around the edges. He laid it out pretty clear in the bible
what His expectations were of those who would chose to follow Christ. Paul made
it clear in Ephesians that when we accept Christ as our personal savior
something new happens inside us.
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God's masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
God has a vision for your life. God has a vision for our church. Why would we want to do our own thing? What could be more fulfilling than the plan that God has for you?
In Andy Stanley’s book Visioneering, he says - “Without God’s vision, you may find yourself in the all too common position on looking back on a life that was given to accumulating green pieces of paper with pictures of dead presidents on them. Accumulating money or stuff is a vision of sorts. But it is the kind of vision that leaves men and women wondering if there was more. Wondering what they could have done – should have done – with their brief stay on this little ball of dirt.”
As Christians, any vision that we can think up, will always fall short and leave us wondering what could have been. We serve an intensely creative God. We talk about the fact that no two snowflakes are alike, but God has never made two of anything alike. God’s vision for you does not include trying to fit you into someone else’s mold. Unless you discover God’s unique vision for your future, your life may very well be a rerun.
This would be the same for a church. God didn’t call this church to be any other church then the one it is. We can’t be copycatting others actions; instead we must be seeking God for our churches vision, this churches direction for our body and community. That’s why this morning this story is so encouraging about Nehemiah, he was just a regular guy who caught a divine glimpse of what could and should be. And then went after it with all his heart.
What is vision?
Where does vision come from?
A Vision is born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be. Anyone who is frustrated, or brokenhearted about the way things are, in light of the way they believe things could be, is a candidate for vision.
In fact, that is how the vision for this church began. Pastor Richard Sexton way back in 1982 had a vision to start a church, this church. His vision was to bring the gospel to a then small rural community. We find ourselves sitting in an amazing place in west Richland. We have five acres of property right in the middle of everything. The city is growing and God is preparing us for great things this year. But we don’t stop seeking God’s vision because one was given in 1982. We are seeking vision for 2014 and beyond that I believe God wants all of us to be a part of. More tomorrow...you are loved!
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God's masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
God has a vision for your life. God has a vision for our church. Why would we want to do our own thing? What could be more fulfilling than the plan that God has for you?
In Andy Stanley’s book Visioneering, he says - “Without God’s vision, you may find yourself in the all too common position on looking back on a life that was given to accumulating green pieces of paper with pictures of dead presidents on them. Accumulating money or stuff is a vision of sorts. But it is the kind of vision that leaves men and women wondering if there was more. Wondering what they could have done – should have done – with their brief stay on this little ball of dirt.”
As Christians, any vision that we can think up, will always fall short and leave us wondering what could have been. We serve an intensely creative God. We talk about the fact that no two snowflakes are alike, but God has never made two of anything alike. God’s vision for you does not include trying to fit you into someone else’s mold. Unless you discover God’s unique vision for your future, your life may very well be a rerun.
This would be the same for a church. God didn’t call this church to be any other church then the one it is. We can’t be copycatting others actions; instead we must be seeking God for our churches vision, this churches direction for our body and community. That’s why this morning this story is so encouraging about Nehemiah, he was just a regular guy who caught a divine glimpse of what could and should be. And then went after it with all his heart.
What is vision?
Where does vision come from?
A Vision is born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be. Anyone who is frustrated, or brokenhearted about the way things are, in light of the way they believe things could be, is a candidate for vision.
In fact, that is how the vision for this church began. Pastor Richard Sexton way back in 1982 had a vision to start a church, this church. His vision was to bring the gospel to a then small rural community. We find ourselves sitting in an amazing place in west Richland. We have five acres of property right in the middle of everything. The city is growing and God is preparing us for great things this year. But we don’t stop seeking God’s vision because one was given in 1982. We are seeking vision for 2014 and beyond that I believe God wants all of us to be a part of. More tomorrow...you are loved!
No comments:
Post a Comment