I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
by Pastor Donny Granberry
Good Morning. If you are our guest today, thank you for choosing to worship with us today here at Central, where we are striving to make Christ the center of our lives.
If you are searching for a church home, we invite you to prayerfully consider Central Church as your home church and come and grow with us.
It is our desire that you have already been made to feel welcome and enjoyed the warmth of being in the Lord’s house today. We pray that you sense the presence of the Lord and are challenged with the word from God today for your life.
Let’s make our profession; this is my bible….
Habakkuk 2:1-3 NIV
I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
2 Then the LORD replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.
3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end
and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.
The Message
What’s God going to say to my questions? I’m braced for the worst. I’ll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon. I’ll wait to see what God says, how he’ll answer my complaint. Full of Self, but Soul-Empty; and then God answered: “Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time.
(Outrunning your vision)
1. Your Vision Will Contain You
Too often people confuse desire with vision.
Far too many people desire to do something or desire to see something happen and do nothing to make it happen.
Desire will fail. If it is merely a desire it will be self-driven, but if it is a vision, it will drive you.
Psalm 37:5 NIV
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this.
One person said this; “Vision is knowing who you are, and what your life is about.”
*ILLUSTRATION*
When he was 88, the Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes found himself on a train. The conductor called for tickets, but Justice Holmes couldn’t find his and seemed terribly upset.
He searched his pockets and fumbled through his wallet without success.
Knowing who he was, the conductor was sympathetic. “Don’t worry, Mr. Holmes,” he said. “The Pennsylvania Railroad will be happy to trust you. When you reach your destination you’ll probably find the tickets and you can mail it to us.”
The conductor’s kindness did not put Holmes at ease. He said, “My dear man, my problem is not ‘Where is my ticket?’ It is ‘Where am I going?’
Horses wear blinders to keep them from being distracted by obstacles around them.
Vision- a conscious, mental and spiritual picture of a possibility of what we can become; why we need to take this journey and how we are to attain the idea and concept.
Paul on the road to Damascus received a vision that changed his path.
Before his encounter with God on the Road to Damascus he was self-motivated to disrupt, discourage and destroy the church.
• He was a persecutor of Christians
• He asked the high priest to give him letters to the Synagogue in Damascus to arrest believers.
Yet after his encounter with God, he became spiritually-motivated to equip, encourage and enlarge the church.
• Acts 9:15-16 NIV
But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen
instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their
kings and before the people of Israel.
A vision can only develop from a God given burden.
2. Your Vision Will Command You
When God gives us a vision, something inside us begins to change.
It consumes our thoughts, every move we make we dwell on the burden.
• Vision points you in a direction.
• Vision gives you an opportunity to become more than you already are.
• Vision means that you are not living life merely for yourself.
• Vision has a self-fulfilling destiny when it is connected with God.
• Vision will wake you up in the middle of the night calling out to you.
• You will not be able to get away from a vision because it will pursue you.
Simply put, you live your life connected to something else.
Psalm 37:5&6 The Message
Open up before God, keep nothing back; he’ll do whatever needs to be done: He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high noon.
Vision releases you to run the race with a future.
Proverbs 29:18 KJV
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Habakkuk said, “Write it down.”
In other words, make it plain, clear, easily readable.
“Know who you are, and what your life is about.”
3. Your Vision Will Connect You
When Jesus came from Heaven to Earth, it was because of vision.
The Father had a vision to reconcile Himself with man, yet there were many things trying to get his vision unclear.
• The Prince of Heaven was not born in a palace, but in a stable with the lowliest of beginnings.
• No one here on earth made a big fuss over his birth, but the angels of Heaven began a chorus singing “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth to all people.”
• He grew up with such insight of the word that he boggled the minds on scholars and religious leaders. (Why is because he was the word)
• At 12 years old he is teaching them in the Synagogue because He had a vision, “I must be about my Fathers business.”
• Luke 2:49-50
"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you
know I had to be in my Father's house?"
• He performed many healings and miracles because He had a vision, knowing He was about to pay the price for healing.
• The Lord’s Table held His vision of what they would do together again in Heaven.
• The Cross paid the price that redeemed mankind.
• The Empty Tomb held His vision of His promise, “If I go away, I will come again.
Coming to earth was Christ’s purpose, but His vision connected Him with His divine destiny.
Christ was connected to something greater than just himself.
• Simon Peter
Matthew 16:18-19 NIV
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
After Simon Peter connected to his vision, he became a voice for God.
Elijah – told his servant, “Go and look again.” Don’t give up.
