Higher Ground

Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish." The NIV translates it different but equally as powerful. "Where there is no revelation, the people cast of restraint."

"Where there is no vision the people wander aimlessly."

"Where there is no vision the people fall apart; they lose all consciousness."

"Where there is no vision they go to pieces spiritually and morally."

Going into 2001 I See…..

 Our nation is drowning in moral decay. Babies are being murdered in the most sacred part of a woman’s body. Crime is at an all time high. Drugs and violence, alcohol, divorce is racking our nation. Rising problems with our youth culture. Satan is after our young people. Add to that the terrible race tensions that are literally felt around the world.

 America and even the church has lost its respect for God. We have lost our fear for God. There was a time that we feared the Lord, but we’re taught now just to love Him, but not to fear and revere God.

 Sin and sin’s lifestyle are being flaunted today. There is no shame in sin anymore. Sin is gladly exposed to the world. The problem of homosexuality is government is trying to make it a lifestyle instead of a sin. Persecution is truly on it’s way. The antichrist crowd has become so bold that I believe the church will be persecuted unless the trend is reversed in this country.

 The church has become very soft on sin. Preachers are not mentioning sin anymore and the church had literally become full of sinners who have feel comfortable in the church. Yes, they should feel comfortable. This is the place to come for healing, but preachers are not calling sin, sin anymore. We were afraid lest we offend the affluent ones.

 We have preachers trying to preach great sermons instead of messages from God and being the mouthpiece of God. Religious activity has replaced prayer, and the moral fiber of our ministers in many cases has followed along the decline of society.

 Sunday night attendance has gone down. We have become obsessed with being served instead of serving others. And without a sovereign move of God, many churches in our denomination will not no longer be, but they will not be what God intended them to be.

As I share my heart with you I realized that God’s people have not reached their potential. We have not met the promise that was given in the word of God for Jesus said that, "The works that I do shall you do also." Then He went on to say that, "Greater works you will do because I go to the Father".

Do you think that God gave that to us to frustrate us? God never gave a promise that He was not willing to fulfill and if we meet the conditions that they were met.

I believe what we are seeing today in the world and in the church is testimony to what Paul said when he proclaimed the "The whole earth is full of the glory of God, but it’s veiled to some they can’t see. And the result is not only are people perishing and walking aimlessly as spoken by Hosea, but Paul said that because of their lack of vision they became futile in their speculation and their foolish heart was darkened.

In other words, it is not that the whole earth has ceased to be filled with the glory of God, the problem is really the veil that lies over our hearts, and because that veil is over our hearts man sees

Pauls says in 1 Cor 13 “Man sees through a glass darkly.”

I can’t explain it but it’s like when it’s rainy. Everything that you see is distorted, it’s eerie and spooky. Then the daylight comes and the rain ends, and the sun comes out, and what was once was distorted is now in proper perspective. Paul says that when we return to God, the veil will be removed and we will see things from God’s perspective.

Our text this morning says. "I will lift up my eyes to the mountains."

I feel like there are people here this morning that feel what John was feeling on the Isle of Patmos. You remember John was in prison and tradition says that they sought to kill him, but they failed. So they sought to put him in a vat of oil and boil him to death, but he wouldn’t cook. Finally they decided if they couldn’t kill him they would banish him to the Isle of Patmos.

What does he do? He gets a vision and they call him John the revelator. He receives his revelation because he was overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of the suffering of the believers. As a matter of fact he was about where some of you are right now. There was pain, suffering, and problems. They were in a bad way. Here is what happened to John. He didn’t run from his difficulties. He didn’t run from his circumstance. But he went up a little higher.