Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) says, “Without vision the people perish.”
- Vision according to John Maxwell is
- Awareness- the ability to see
- Attitude- the faith to believe
- Action- the courage to do
- George Barna says “vision for ministry is a reflection of what God wants to accomplish through us to build His kingdom”
- Vision here is the Hebrew word
- Which means divine revelation
- Or direction, insight from God
- Without God showing us, we are bound to perish
- The Hebrew word for perish means to loosen, be without restraint. Let loose as well as perish
- The NIV puts this verse this way. “Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint.”
- Another place where this word is used is in 2 Chronicles 28:19
“ For the LORD humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had brought about a lack of restraint in Judah and was very unfaithful to the LORD. “
NASU
- The term is translated brought about a lack of restraint”
- One could paraphrase this to express the meaning of this verse by saying, “Ahaz loosened or led Judah to sin by being unfaithful to the Lord.”
- Ahaz turned Israel away from the Lord and by his example led the people to cast off the restraint of the Law
- What was the result of their unrestrained living?
- Captivity
- They perished and their country and land were destroyed
I think this proverb has a profound message for us
The Word of God makes it clear that when we as His people do not get a fresh vision from Him
- When we fail to seek Him on what He wants to do through us,
- Then countless people around us will perish
- Because they will not have heard what God is offering to them through us
- We must keep our focus on heaven and what God desires
- To do through us
- Or we can become selfish and lazy
- The church takes on the pursuit of “me”
- “I’m okay and this is my church”
- You cannot go from coast to coast
- Without finding churches that are dying
- Closing up shop or simply maintaining the flock
- Looking only to serve themselves
- Saying, “I like things the way they have always been”
- Such a church needs a fresh vision
- Needs to be fired up by the Lord
I don’t think God is pleased with such thinking
- It probably grieves Him
- I believe God calls His people to be a people
- Who hear Him and understand what He wants them to be and to do
- A church with vision is a church
- That is impacting the natural and supernatural for the kingdom of God
- And accomplishing His will
- If we do not seek to see what God is doing
- If we fail to seek to have our eyes opened and our ears unstopped
- We will miss God’s vision- His unique purpose and work for us
- And we will perish
- We may go on for years doing whatever we choose
- But we will miss joining God
- And we will miss the opportunity to see Him do great things in our midst
- We will perish
- We will be caught up in a captivity of our own making
- We will find ourselves wondering where the Lord is
- And we will find ourselves wandering around looking for the reason we are here
- You see the problem with human institutions is that they can go on for years
- Long after their purpose for existing has ceased to be
- People in their own strength and power will sustain an institution well beyond its usefulness
- (British Artillery tradition for crew drill)
- The church is not supposed to be an institution
- It is the living Body of Christ
- But any time people are involved
- Things tend to get institutionalized
- Those things that God used in the past
- Become the standard for things forever
- Even if people change, culture and times change
- Even if our needs and the Lord’s direction change
- We try to carry on the same old way
- We call it custom, tradition or the “way we have always done it”
If God is not in it
- If He is not leading us to do something
- Whether we have never done it that way before
- Or if we have always done it that way before
- If He is asking us to do something
- And is moving in our midst to accomplish His purpose
- Outside our comfort zone, outside our tradition
- Or outside our normal way of doing things,
- We need to respond to Him or we will perish
- He will work around us and leave us to our own ways
I know that many of us think that the way we do church
- Is the only way
- Or is the biblical way to do church
- That Christians have always done it that way
- At least the ones who were true to the Bible
- But I have news for you
- Our form of the church organization and worship
- Is only a few hundred years old at best
- The church has had buildings only since the time of the Roman emperor Constantine
- When he gave the church old pagan temples to use
- Hymns as we sing them have only come into use since the late 1600s
- At that time they were considered too radical and different to be acceptable
- They were written to the popular music of their day-
- Drinking and dancing songs of the bars and pubs
- Sunday School is a modern invention
- The use of little individual cups of grape juice is also a modern invention
- To meet the needs of modern scruples
- Organizing worship around the sermon
- Came into practice with the Reformation
- Traditionally the church’s worship was organized around the Lord’s Table
- After the 2nd century until about the 4th century
- Baptism was only done once a year at Easter
- And converts spent a year preparing for it
- Those who were not baptized were excluded from the second part of the service
- When the Lord’s Supper was celebrated
- They could only come to the first part of prayer, singing and teaching
- That part was for seekers
- Believers had a separate part of the service just for them
So what has that to do with us?
- Good question
- I am not advocating
- Returning to the customs and traditions of another time and place
- No, I am only trying to show that God does His business in differing ways sometimes
- At different times and in different places.
- Christians do not worship or organize the same way in Africa or Asia as they do here
- Neither is wrong
- Both are right because they are following God in the context of their culture and time
So again what does that have to do with us?
- Times, people, and culture have changed
- People no longer think and act like they did when I was young
- People are still spiritually oriented
- 60 to 80 % of people believe in the spiritual
- But few think the church is the place
- Where you can find spiritual meaning
- People are not rejecting the spiritual
- They are rejecting the church
- You see the church is acting and looking and sounding like an institution of the1950s
- But few people today think, act or sound like that any more
- We are failing to demonstrate the vitality and life we have in Christ
- Because we are in a rut of “the way we have always done it.”
- I read a definition that a rut is just a grave with open ends
- “The people perish”
- We need to seek God for a fresh vision of what He is doing
- Of what He is inviting us to join Him in
Now the opposite extreme is also wrong headed
- Change for change sake is not biblical either
- Running after the latest fad or trend is not the way God works either
So what are we to do?
- First we need to remember who is our Head
- Who is the head of the body here at Moncure Baptist Church?
- It is Christ
- Romans 11:36 (NEB) says, “Source, Guide and Goal of all that is- to him be glory for ever!”
- God is our Source
- He is our Guide
- And He is our Goal
We need to first realize and believe that God in Christ is going to guide us to His goal by His means
- He will be the source of vision
- It is His vision for us we need to seek
- He will guide us to fulfill that vision
- By His power and strength and resources
- It is always His goal to bring people to Himself
- To introduce them To Him, to equip them and to send them to serve Him
- Isn’t that what the Great Commission says?
Matthew 28:19-20
19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
NASU
Second we need to realize that He will guide us to the right path
- He will show us the way
- Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
- “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…”
- Put our trust not in our own wisdom
- But turn to Him, acknowledge Him
- As our Savior, our Guide, our Goal
- Do not depend on our own ideas and thinking
- But first seek Him
- Acknowledge Him in all our ways, in all our planning
- Put Him first, above our habits, customs and traditions
- And He will make our path straight
- He will put our feet on the right path
- He will prepare the way and show us where to go
- And how to start, how to get there
- Or as Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
OK, He is our Source, Guide, and Goal
- We will trust Him, acknowledge His ways are not our ways
- We will seek Him and put Him first in all things
- And He will put our feet on the right path, point us in the right direction
- Then what?
We need to do what David said in Ps 46:10
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
- Stop! Quit!
- Whether it is squirming to get on with change
- Or whether it is clutching to the old ways
- Be still! Hush, quiet!
- Until we can sense His presence
- Until the silence screams His being
- Until all the noise, fear and turmoil inside subsides
- And we are able to hear His voice
- And it will be then that we will be able to hear His voice
- Only then will the hubbub allow His voice to come forth
- God has a plan for us
- He has a part in His kingdom for us to play
- If we will stop and listen He will tell us about it
- Jeremiah wrote, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jer 29:12-13
- Come let us seek Him with all our heart.
- Let us come into His presence and call upon His name
- Then carefully and quietly listen to what He tells us
- He will reveal all we need to know and see to follow Him
Isaiah said of that moment, “but with your own eyes you shall see him always. If you stray from the road to the right or to the left you shall hear with your own ears a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; follow it.’” Is 30:20b-21
- In that place we will hear Him point out the way
- With His own voice He will guide us on the road to His goal
- He will walk with us and direct our going and coming
- He will be the one who keeps us from straying
- Now that does not mean the road will be easy
- Nor does it mean we can’t miss His voice
- If we hang on to the baggage of our own desires,
- If we start doubting or quarreling
- We can drown out the small voice saying “This is the way, follow it.”
Earlier I told you about some of the changes the church has experienced in history
- I told you that much of the way Christians have worshipped has varied over time and space
- But there are some things that never have changed
- God never changed
- God’s Word, the Bible, has never changed
- It is just as true today as it was 2000 years ago
- Christ has not changed
- He is still the Savior of the world, the only way to the Father
- His salvation has never changed
- It is still found in faith in His saving work on the cross
So no matter what changes in the way we do things- the externals-
- God’s truth must not be changed
- God’s Word will not change, but will remain ever true
- Ps 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light on my path.”
- Whatever God leads us to do, it will always be true to His Word
- His Word, the Bible, is a light to help us discern the Lord’s direction and purpose for us
- It will always be a measure of His truth against which we can measure all that we do
Maybe this story will help us understand better
- When I was a young 2LT I joined my battalion’s cross country team
- I really enjoyed running
- And our Major organized this team to compete against the community college team in Monterrey
- I remember one race in particular
- We went out to a park to run and the course started out flat and fairly easy to run
- Things were going well for us until suddenly
- We came to a very steep hill- almost straight up
- I really wondered if I was running or climbing at that point
- We managed to get to the top and ran along a ridge
- Then we went back down and back up
- Things started to go badly for us
- I was completely exhausted by the time we finished
- Just plain glad to have finished the course
- I was not even concerned how we did
You see a runner may run one race
- But over varied terrain
- The race never changes
- But the ground will
- He has to run the entire race and have the endurance to finish
- His endurance will be tested more on the rough terrain
- But he has to endure the long flat stretches too
- He does that by fixing his eyes on the goal of finishing the race
- Not on the terrain he has to run over
- That is what Hebrews 12:1-2says, “and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, ”
- We need to not worry about the changing landscape
- But fix our eyes on the Goal- Jesus
- And run the race well
- We need to allow Him to decide the course of our race
- And if it isn’t what we want or expect
- We trust Him because He knows where the finish line is and He will provide the endurance and strength to run
Vision is very personal or particular to a church
- God has a vision, a purpose common to all the churches, the Great Commission for example,
- Yet also unique to each local church body
- We are different from other churches in make-up, temperament, gifts etc
- And that makes us unique and special
- It also gives us a responsibility
- And calls for us to make a commitment
- Vision never becomes reality without action
- “A vision without a task is but a dream, a task without a vision is drudgery, a vision with a task is the hope of the world.”
- God gives us vision to guide and direct us
- He reveals His will and His plan by vision
- He opens our eyes, hearts and minds by vision
- He gives us vision to show us our true potential
- Vision brings out the best in us
- And takes us to new levels of life and maturity
- It allows us to see the things as they can become
- And what God wants to make possible
- God never leads where He will not also provide
- Nothing is impossible with God
God often calls us to “attempt something so impossible that if God is not in it, it is doomed to failure”
- That is because He gets the glory when things happen His way
- And in the process we learn that we have to depend on Him and work in His strength and wisdom
Vision focuses on the future
- It moves us forward
- It helps us to mark and measure success and maturity
- It gives us the drive to push when we really would rather quit
- It stimulates growth
- The biggest problem most of us have is the fear to dream God-sized dreams
- All of God’s visions are God-sized
- So are all the tasks He gives His people to do
God wants us to become all we were meant to be
- To be fulfilled
- To be stretched
- To become mature
- To become better servants
So what do we do now?
- We need to implement what I have discussed with you
- We need to turn to our Head, Christ, and seek to know what He is doing around us
- What is the vision of His purpose He is giving us?
- We need to go to Him and discern what He wants of us now
- We need to believe and act on the fact that He will show us the way
- That He will put our feet on the right path
- I think we are already in position to move
- But we together need to acknowledge Him as our Guide
- We need to seek His mind and direction
- We need to collectively and individually be still before Him
- We need to release our grasp on whatever we hold
- As our ambition or dream for this church
- And be in His presence to see His vision for our church
- There we will find the fullness of His grace and love
- There we will hear His voice
- Then we can heed whatever He says
- We need to pick up and go
- Deliberately in the direction He is leading
- To be His people to reach our Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, even the ends of the earth
You know God has already begun this work here
- We are already changing
- God is already leading us into new territory
- Slowly He has given some of us here pieces and bits of His vision
- He already has begun the transformation of our fellowship
- Our music is changing
- Our focus and even our membership is changing
- You see wherever there are people whose hearts want to serve Him
- God will use them to accomplish His purpose
- Our choice is to join Him or be bypassed by Him
Let me conclude with this thought
John’s vision in Revelation included Christ moving among the lampstands of the churches
Revelation 1:11-13, “saying, "Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea."
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;
13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.”
NASU
- Jesus tells John the seven lampstands are the seven churches
- He then tells John what He wants each church to know and do
- He tells the church at Ephesus in vs 2:5, that if they do not change “I shall come to you and remove your lamp from its place.”
- It is interesting that none of those churches exist today
- In time each one’s lampstand was removed
- The lamp was extinguished
Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodecia
- All perished (Extinguish the other candles)
- What about us?
- Are we going to listen to what Christ is saying to us?
- Are we going to see what Christ is showing us?
- Or are we going to continue on as if nothing is happening?
-
Do you want to see where God wants to take us?
- Here are some steps we can take
- Dare to seek- be aware what God wants to do
- Pray and even fast for God to give us a new vision
- Dare to dream- become aware where God wants to take us
- Open your heart to God
- Dare to believe- develop an attitude of faith in God’s ability
- Have faith that God can and will do great things through us
- Dare to act- have courage for action
- Be courageous enough to stand and do what He leads us to
The seven last words of a dying church are “we have never done it that way before.”
- But God says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Cor 2:9
- Are we willing to seek our Source, our Guide and our Goal?
- Are we willing to be still before Him?
- Are we to willing walk the path He puts before us?
- Are we willing to listen to His direction and follow Him?
- Even if it is very different from what we would choose to do
Or would we rather remain the same
- And find our lamp someday extinguished?
- Because our ways were more important, our comfort more valuable
- Than being used by God for His purposes?
What will happen?
- Only God knows what He has for us
- But it will not be boring
- It will be exciting
- It will involve sacrifice
- But it will be worthwhile
Let us pray together
Lord, we are a people who desperately want your best for this church and for this community. We know that You are the best we can find and offer. Give us Your vision so that we might be able to see what You are doing in our midst and the direction we are to go. Guide us Lord for You sake and into Your purposes. We thank You and praise Your name. You are worthy of our love and obedience.
