"To renew our vision for what we are and what we are called to be; to reestablish our focal point and our ultimate purpose ."
Objective:
To realize the lack of vision that exists among so many Christians today and the opportunity and power that is available to obtain a greater vision.
References:
Proverbs 29:18; Mark 7; Numbers 24:4
Discussion:
While I believe that each of us must be involved in an ongoing exploration of Scripture in our lives, this study will not be a time of deep textual study or lengthy Scripture reading. We will spend our time together trying to evaluate ourselves and where we stand with God. I do hope that you spend time in this study of God's Word and measure our discussion against it.
I hope to capture your attention. I want to challenge you to think differently about who you are as a Christian and who we are as the Church. I believe with all that is in me that God is alive and working today. I believe the Spirit of God is in His people and moving among them - prepared to do great things. But I also am firmly convicted that Satan is here as well. And that he has bound the hands and feet of countless Christians - disabling them from doing the work of God - and many times, they aren't even aware of what's been done to them. Satan has convinced many of us to stop allowing God to inspire us and to lead us. He has convinced us to settle for so much less than what God has in store for us. The Spirit is not weak - and God still works; but they are waiting on the people of God to shake loose the fetters of Satan that bind us. They are waiting for the children of God to trust wholly and unreservedly in Him so that the church might fulfill its purpose. They are waiting for you and me to allow God to do what He is best at doing - shocking us, surprising us, causing our jaws to drop in wonder and awe.
I want to renew my commitment to allowing God to do His will through me. I want to allow the Spirit to guide me and change me into the likeness of Jesus. I want to be overwhelmed by the power of God in my life. I hope you share that desire.
For those of you who've been keeping abreast of the political milieu of the summer, you probably heard Bill Clinton's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. Throughout the course of his comments he mentioned the verse from Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." He seemed to strike a nerve in the general populace. People seemed to crave a vision of what we could be and do as a nation. The masses seemed to recognize that America has lost her vision - the vision that the forefathers of our nation laid out in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
And like the nation of which we are a part, the church has, to a large degree, lost its vision of what it was called to be. It is becoming harder and harder to distinguish Christians in the marketplace from anyone else. We have, as a whole, decided to blend in with our surroundings. Either because we are afraid of the consequences of doing otherwise, or because we simply don't know how to be different in the way Jesus called us to be different. We have convinced ourselves that we don't want to be grouped with the radical groups like Operation Rescue. We have convinced ourselves that we don't want to be identified with the teleevangelist crowds. And probably these are not bad decisions. However, we have sought so diligently to separate ourselves from these negative images, that we have settled for no image at all. The church, by and large, has become ineffective in reaching society because we have huddled for fear of bad press coverage and done nothing.
Vision. Jonathan Swift defined it as the ability to see the invisible. Jesus said of the Pharisees, "Though they have eyes they cannot see." Jesus spoke of a different kind of sight. Sight that penetrated the superficial and saw what was beneath. It is the capability to envision those things that are not obvious to the casual observer - or the observer who refuses to look beyond the ordinary events to see the extraordinary.
The church needs vision. You and I as disciples of the Son of God need vision. A vision of the world that cuts through the sound bites and the music video news coverage. Of all times in history, the church of God must be a people who see the unseen and act upon it. For too long we have allowed our vision to be the vision of men rather than the vision of God. How many of us are dreaming dreams about what the church can do to change the world? How many times do you catch yourself believing that God really can do something about the course of human events?
Remember how God worked in the Old Testament? Remember how His closest followers accomplished magnificent feats when they trusted in Him? Remember Daniel in the lion's den? David and Goliath? Is the God they served any different from the God we serve? No, I don't expect God to work miracles in the same way He did then, but I do expect Him to work miracles! I believe that when the people of God unleash the power of the Spirit in their lives, God will do amazing things.
So why aren't amazing things happening everywhere? Because only the minority of Christians have maintained the vision that God wants us to have. And God will only do as much in your life as you will allow Him to do. But there are people and churches that are surrendering themselves to God's vision:
In the recent hurricane, chruches across our region of the country have sent literally tons of supplies to the Florida and Louisiana.
In the inner cities of our large cities, churches across the nation are reaching out to those forgotten and downtrodden by society.
In hospitals around the world, weary Christians continue to serve the sick and dying and encourage them with their prayers and their presence. They are reaching out to AIDs victims, drug abusers, terminal cancer patients, people from every walk of life.
In communities, churches are feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and watching over the elderly who are left without family to care for them.
All this is being done without fanfare, news coverage, or hoopla. It is done in quiet submission to the Lord of Lords as He has called us to be His hands and feet.
In jail cells around the world, the Word of God still penetrates the hearts of men and women giving them freedom like they have never experienced. In the boardrooms of major corporations, convicted followers of the Galilean carpenter are sharing the message that brings real wealth.
In classrooms where humanism, naturalism, and Eastern mysticism are learned, brave warriors still clamor for their Teacher's lessons to be heard.
Beside beds, soldiers of Christ are on their knees interceding for friends, enemies, families and neighbors - and things are changing - God is answering prayers that most of us would think are foolish to even pray. He's healing people who medical science has given up on. He's redeeming people who society has outcast. He is changing things all around this world because somewhere, someone is trusting and praying with a Godly vision, rather than a human one.
In Mark 8, Peter tries to rebuke the Lord for even considering the idea of dying. Peter is so outraged he pulls Jesus aside to straighten Him out. Peter is simply being reasonable, isn't he? After all, Jesus is just beginning His ministry, this talk of death is simply counterproductive to all the work that has been done thus far. Peter is only acting in the best interests of the work, isn't he? He is if he sees things with man's vision. Read Jesus' response to Peter: "Get behind me, Satan! You are concerned with the things of men, not the things of God." Peter didn't lack faith, he lacked vision.
People in God's church can have a vision that lifts us from the mire of mediocrity, tradition, and ritual. All around you, everyday, God opens doors for you to live out the Second Incarnation of Christ as the Body of Christ. He asks only that you open your eyes and see things the way He sees them.
But so many of us never lift our heads long enough to notice the spiritual forces gathered around us. We are too much like the servant in 2 Kings 6. We never question our purpose as the Body of Christ and so, by and large, the cries of the helpless, the downtrodden, the oppressed, the wicked and the loser go unheard above the din of our hymns and liturgies. And the life of Jesus is confined to the pages of the Book, rather than written on the hearts of His followers.
Throughout history, those people who would follow God have had to stand up against the godless - and against those bogged down in empty, mindless religion and blaze a new trail of sincere commitment and divine vision.
I stand here not as an accuser of others, but as a confessor of failure. For too long I have allowed my vision to be obscured by my fears and weakness. For too long I have been satisfied at keeping the status quo. I had convinced myself that attending church and being moral and teaching a bible class or two would do the job God has convicted me to do. But I've felt the lingering anguish and the lack of joy and peace in my life that come from doing only enough to get by rather than fully commiting to living out the love of Jesus completely.
We must learn to fall before God so that He may open our eyes - Numbers 24:4.
The world is a dark place today. But I am hopeful. As Christians, we are prisoners of hope. What could have been more hopeless than that Friday some two thousand years ago. Yet, only three days later, God showed that no situation is without hope - and that all tragedies are transformable into victories.
The lesson tonight is to invite you to share with me the challenge of creating a new vision for who we are as His children. To stretch our minds and somehow grasp - in part, the great vision God has for each of us and for all of us as the church. We're going to have to look at things differently than we have before. We'll talk tomorrow morning, in Session Two, about the Roadblocks to Vision and tomorrow night, we'll discuss the Commitment to Vision. Hopefully, each of us will leave this weekend with a renewed commitment to being what God has called us to be.
Objective:
To understand and recognize the roadblocks and obstacles of our beliefs and attitudes that prevent us from having a godly vision
References:
2 Cor 4:18; 2 Cor 10:3-5
Discussion:
The word paradigm means model or foundation. I want to define it as the set of rules that we operate within. So each of us has our own paradigm that we operate under. And what is amazing is that you will do anything to prevent things from contradicting your paradigm. A paradigm is simply that set of rules that we construct to base everything else in our lives around - similar to the way the girders in a high-rise building are the infrastructure that everything else in that building is built around. Let me illustrate.
In 1967, the Swiss controlled 65% of the watch industry. They controlled 80% of all the profits. Yet, barely 10 years later, the controlled less than 10%. Why? What happened? In early 1967, two Swiss watchmakers demonstrated their plans for a new kind of watch based on the quartz timing principle and electronics. The management of the Swiss watch firms rejected the idea as preposterous. Less than a year later, the two Swiss inventors showed their idea to Texas Instruments and Seiko. The rest is history. What went wrong with the Swiss? Why didn't they seize this opportunity? Because everything that they knew about watches told them that watches had to be made a certain way - and the quartz watch completely went against their paradigm of watch-making.
A prime example of paradigms blinding people is in the scientific community. Scientists have been trained to think in terms of the evolutionary model. Hence, despite the considerable (and mounting) evidence that calls this theory into question, they have become almost flippant in dismissing it. Why? Because their paradigm doesn't agree with this evidence - and they will do anything to prevent seeing things that disagree with their basic set of rules.
Just like the Swiss, I think you and I adopt a paradigm in our religious life. We come to believe that there is a certain way things are done and there is no other way. We also come to view everything through the filter of our paradigm. If church services are boring in your paradigm, then nothing done can make it exciting for you. We must learn to recognize our paradigms and, when necessary, break free from them.
You see, there is only one real paradigm, and that is God's plan for us. All other paradigms are either perversions of His or His with a lot of man-made stuff added on.
I believe that it is vital that you and I see God as a God who is interested in breaking us free from the self-imposed limitations and paradigms we put on ourselves and our churches. Today's English version of the Bible translates 2 Cor. 10:3-5 this way:
"It is true that we live in the world, but we do not fight from worldly motives. The weapons we use in our fight are not the world's weapons but God's powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds. We destroy false arguments; we pull down every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ."
Are you taking every thought captive - are you challenging every proud obstacle and every stubborn human vision that is raised against the knowledge of God?
What we need in order to see things as God sees them is not new things to look at - we don't need new areas of service, we don't need different worship services, we don't need new elders or new preachers or new missionaries; what we need is new eyes with which to see.
I've compiled a few optical illusions for you to study. In the same way that our physical eyes and mental processing of images can be tricked, our spiritual mentality can be tricked as well. Looking at the images, does you brain receive all the correct information? Yes. Are your eyes functioning correctly? Yes. So why do you not see what you are supposed to see? It is because of the misconceptions and assumptions that your brain is trying to force on the image. It is because you are using a paradigm to interpret the information - and the information you are receiving disagrees with your paradigm - so you simply reject the information.
Last night we laid the groundwork on why we need to have vision as Christians. I hope you spent some time in prayer about this weekend and the things we will study. I hope you spent some time in the Word - trying to see more clearly the vision God has called us to.
Bear in mind that this weekend is about changing not just what you think about things, it is about changing who you are. It is about committing yourself to taking every thought captive and forcing it into submission to the will of God and the love of Christ that possesses us as His children. We are here to try to practice what Paul told us in 2 Cor 4:18 - to see the unseen; to see beyond the obstacles into the part that really matters - that most people never notice.
The title of this lesson is "Roadblocks to Vision". By that, I mean those things that you and I practice and believe that prevent us from seeing things God's way. In your notebooks for this weekend, I have included a list of those "Vision Killers" that prevent us from seeing things new ways. (Also note the list of ten mental locks we put on ourselves that inhibit seeing things new ways.)
Tradition
One of the most popular and devastating barriers to true vision is the notion that God would never cause you to do anything differently than you have always done it.
In reality, God uses traditions to provide us with a sense of stability and consistency. Traditions can be the foundations upon which He builds the future. They can serve as a bridge between the past and the future, enabling people to retain a comfort zone while focusing on Him.
But God has no traditions that block progress. He blesses those traditions that build the church and His people, not because they are traditions, but because they serve His purposes. Indeed, He updates them with a more relevant and contemporary expression of those truths that made the tradition valuable initially. But His primary concern is not with the style or format of the tradition; His interest is in its ability to draw people closer to Him.
Fear
Grasping and implementing God's vision can be frightening. Vision requires change. Change means breaking out of the comfort zone, doing new things or operating in areas where we lack a track record of success or substantial levels of self-confidence. Change can be scary. Moving in new directions or attempting new methods of ministry is risky. Risk raises the possibility of failure, and none of us want to fail, especially in ministry.
Sometimes we are overcome by fear because we have failed in the past and dare not reach for the stars again. Sometimes we dwell on our past failures or our sense of limitation. Rather than define defeat as either repeating the same mistake or refusing to take a risk, we think of it as not reaching our goals. We then allow the fear of failure to restrict our universe of opportunity to those that are safe. By focusing on our failures, we miss out on our potential.
Few Christians reach that point where they surrender to God and let Him have the reigns of their lives. We often lack the faith of the mustard seed. In its place, we assert our authority over our destiny. We are paralyzed by fear, limited in our ability to forge new trails for God's glory.
Complacency
We often hear, "It doesn't matter what we do, God will bless our efforts to please Him." This statement is a prescription for half-baked, mediocre ministry - for individuals and whole congregations.
He does care what we do. If He didn't care, He would not have put certain passages in the Bible (cf. Jas. 2:14-17; Luke 14:28-32; Rev. 3:15-18).
The passion of visionary leaders such as Abraham, David, Peter and Paul is evident in what they did. Complacency is the extinguisher of that passion. Once the passion is extinguished, we are of little value in the raging fight between the powers of light and darkness.
Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish existentialist philosopher, said it this way: "Christianity will not fail in this age because of sin; it will fail because of a lack of passion."
Are you ready to give all you've got? Would you die for the chance to see God's vision become a reality? Would you change you career path? Your standard of leaving? Your country?
If you are serious about having a real passion in your life for the vision of God, don't surround yourself with people who are complacent - settling for the status quo (you know, the three-bedroom house, the wife/husband, and the 2.5 kids). Surround yourself with people who are willing to take chances in order to see the kingdom of God grow and expand.
Short-Term Thinking
God's vision is long-term.
Of all the difficulties of maintaining a godly vision, this is perhaps the most difficult.
I want Jesus to return now - not in ten, twenty, fifty or one hundred years. Yet I must continue to bring about the kingdom of God in my sphere of influence despite my tendency toward short-term thinking and impatience.
God's timing is different than ours. He is not pressured by time at all.
Shallow Bible Knowledge
There is no greater source of inspiration or vision than God's Word. Whatever tools the world offers to create and establish vision, they play a distant second fiddle to the Mind of God.
In His Word, the Lord has provided guidelines - a paradigm, if you will, for you and me to live under. The difference between our paradigms and God's paradigm is that His is perfect without exception. Obeying his paradigm and living within its constraints guarantees ultimate victory and success - none other can do that.
Until you and I are people of the Word, our vision can only be, at best, blurred.
Shallow Fellowship
Some have said that there is no greater witness for the reality of Christ than the existence of the church.
Of course, they usually follow that statement by saying that it is also the greatest argument against Him as well.
The church was designed to function as many things. It is called a bride, a body, an army, among other things.
But from a functional standpoint, it is undoubtedly most like a family. Where each helps another and trust and responsibility are paramount. The church is supposed to be the second incarnation of Jesus. By that, I mean that as we live out the kingdom of God here, we are living out the life of Christ to the world. Few will ever sit through a gospel sermon - but many will listen to the message you and I preach through our lives.
If we are to grasp and maintain a real vision of God's plan for us, it must involve a powerful sense of how vital true, deep, demanding fellowship is.
Perhaps the most lacking part of our fellowship is the accountability that the church once had. Leafing through the pages of Acts, you see how committed the were to one another. You also see the stern discipline administered - lovingly, of course - when a brother or sister would stray from the Way.
If we are to be God's church, we must return again to serious commitment to each other - and be prepared to take responsibility for our lives and have accountability to others.
The entire point of this weekend is to show you that we need to reanalyze who we are and what we are doing. We need to reanchor ourselves in the Bible and reallign ourselves with the Cross. There are no easy answers. But as His children, we must determine to be people who are willing to do whatever is necessary to fulfill the mission He has given us.
What I want to achieve by pointing out these things is to get you to think about your spiritual life as a process that you have control over. I also want you to realize that God has decided in His infinite wisdom to trust the church to you and me - and that means that we must take responsibility for its stewardship. For too long we have simply viewed the church as God's idea that He forced on us and we have grieviously agreed to be a part of. Instead, our attitude should be one of tremendous excitement as we surrender ourselves to the greater purpose of God's church and as we involve ourselves in finding His vision for us.
Objective:
To challenge each of us to renew our vision by the renewing of our minds by the commitment to serious discipleship - which can take place only when we draw near to Jesus and allow Him to control us and touch us - not just go through the motions of obedience.
References:
Hebrews 12:2; Phil 2; Revelation 4-5; Mark 8:22-26Discussion:
There are three basic steps to having vision: 1) knowing where you are; 2) knowing where you are going; and 3) knowing how to get there. Last night and this morning were spent discussing where we are - what our situation is and what our limitations are. Tonight, I want to touch, just briefly, on where we are going and how we can get there.
As much as it is possible, we must try to understand how difficult it was for Jesus to empty Himself and come to this earth as a man. The less we understand about Jesus - who was God - coming to this earth in human form, the less we understand the concept of dying to self.
You see, God could have visited us as God. He could have kept the Law perfectly. He could have done all the right things and yet never understood what it is like to be tempted. And so, Jesus, the Son of God, became flesh, and dwelt among us. He was tempted in the way you and I are. Yet without sin. And He knows our despair and our loneliness. He understands our desires and passions. He winces at our failures and feels the stabs of our doubt and rebellion. But still He emptied Himself - and suffered death - even death on a cross.
Perhaps the greatest lie Satan has told us is the lie of our discipleship. We might even venture to say that Satan's greatest accomplishment has been to convince us to follow rules and obey laws. You see, by getting us to follow the right rules, go to the right places, and say the right things, Satan has beguiled us into thinking that discipleship is a pattern of living. A series of disjointed actions that somehow, mysteriously, make a whole. And all the while, Jesus continues to whisper, "Deny yourself", "Deny yourself". We are called - not to obey, but to become. We are called - not to be a gathering of rule-keepers, but to be nothing less than the Second Incarnation of Jesus.
The world will know Jesus as you and I live out who He is in our lives. Rule-keeping is far too easy of a discipleship. We are called to a higher ground where the pattern becomes a Person. We are called to be imitators of Christ through our submission to Him. We become so frenzied in keeping the rules that we miss the point that the rules were meant to serve. The rules must be obeyed - but only as they lead us to a clearer image of who Jesus is. I know that this sounds very different. And I know that we are comfortable with our rules - we know exactly where we stand when we compare ourselves with them. But comparing yourself to Jesus - now that's frightening.
You see, the only way you and I are ever going to have God's vision, is when we become like Jesus. He is the Way to vision. He provides the Path that we must walk in order to reach our destination. There is no other way.
And until you and I are serious about following Him - in every way, we will not have the grand vision that God has planned for us. In mark 8:22-26, we see that just being near to Jesus isn't enough to give us vision, we must allow Him to really touch us; to really change us.
And, yet, you and I know that whenever we attempt to live like Jesus, we fail often - too often. Our ability to perform as he performed seems weak. But I know that if we commit ourselves to preparing for discipleship like Jesus did, that we can do better - that we can do great things for the Kingdom of God.
I believe that we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting as Jesus did. There is no substitute anywhere for becoming like Christ than spending time in prayer and fasting. You will never amount to anything in the Kingdom of God unless you are a person of devout prayer.
Second, we must commit ourselves to serious study of God's Word as Jesus did. The only way to know what God's vision is, is to learn what He has said.
Third, we must practice real fellowship - and that means that we are accountable to one another. We must have our deepest personal relationships within the body of Christ - not outside it. And we must trust in each other and rely on eatch other.
Finally, we must separate ourselves from all hint of immorality. You can fool a lot of people into believing you are a good person. You may even be able to deceive yourself. But you will never deceive God. He sees your heart. His vision penetrates your masks and deceptions. He has given us the tools and the power to overcome our weaknesses. He has shown us the way to obedience. Our excuses and rationalizations are inferior when held beside His commands. We will answer for our rebellion. God is not mocked or deceived. You and I must face our failure and allow Him to forgive us and change us. If we will not change, He will not forgive. If you are in sin tonight - and you have refused to change in the face of God's commands, you are not forgiven. You are not excused. And your salvation is a matter of debate.
If you haven't been doing these things, I hope that you will repent tonight. I hope that you will make a commitment to do what Jesus did in preparing yourself to be a part of the Kingdom. It is not easy or inexpensive - but it is necessary to be what God wants us to be.
But perhaps the most important step in maintaining godly vision is keeping our eyes focused on the prize. In Hebrews 12:2-3, we are told to keep our eyes focused - fixed on Jesus. We are told to consider Him who suffered - so that we will not grow weary. We read that Jesus suffered all the agony of the cross for the joy that was set before Him. I know of no better way to end our discussion about vision than by taking a few moments to look at our final goal. (Read from the Revelation of John, chs. 4-5.)