Sermon
Lanier Christian Church
June 26, 2011
David Simpson
The Vision is Jesus
Hebrews 12:2
Ten years ago our water fountain (in the church hallway) sprung a leak and flooded the building, I came in to find my old office area
covered with an inch of water. Much of my filing system then and now consists of stacks and piles of books, notebooks, files, and papers scattered around the office floor. I had to do something that is uncomfortable for me at times….throw stuff away.
I threw away seven large trash bags of papers and material that was ruined. I needed to get rid of that baggage. It served no
good purpose other than to weigh me down.
Then a few days later, John and I were moving some of the book shelves in one of the classrooms back to their proper location, and the shelves broke loose and collapsed sending books and notebooks everywhere. I had saved material from the 70’s in that pile and John encouraged me to throw it out. I filled five bags of trash with that cleansing.
It is so easy to hold on to the past. It is so easy to think of how it used to be, rather than the way things can be. To look backward instead of forward.
The lesson I learned is very simple: God wants me to look ahead, not get bogged down with the victories or the hurts of the past. The challenge He has given all of us is so simple:
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." (Heb. 12:2) (NIV 1984)
“Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end.” (Good News Translation)
Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! (The Message – Hebrews 12:1-3)
It is clear then from numerous Bible passages, including this one today, that God wants us to move forward – not backward. He even gives us a specific target – a specific focus: Fix your eyes on Jesus!
The vision is Jesus. The goal, the direction, the plan is Jesus. Our dreams, our hopes, our goals, our direction our purpose as individuals and as a church must be Jesus. Let’s look at some basic truths that will help us to make sure that Jesus is our vision.
1. HAVE A VISION
Helen Keller, who was born blind, was once asked: "What would be worse than being born blind?" She replied, "To have sight without vision."
I believe in vision. I believe that God blesses our lives with a vision of what can be and guides us in that direction. But He wants us to have a vision!
Lanier Christian Church began as a vision in the eyes of Lowell Moore in 1974. He and I were students at Atlanta Christian College. Lowell’s brother, who lived in Gainesville, challenged him to start a church in Gainesville…so he did. Along with Lowell’s family, two other families responded to an ad in the paper to start a Christian Church. Two years later, Lowell resigned to work full time at Delta, leaving eight members meeting in the home of James & Hazel Hamrick.
Lowell asked me in class one day if I was interested in preaching for this church that was just getting started. I jumped at the opportunity. Why? Vision.
Lowell was so excited about the potential of the church that he got me excited. His vision excited my own vision for what could be. The church had recently borrowed money and bought some land on Browns Bridge Road, there was no church building yet, and there was less than $100 in offerings each week.
Since the church didn’t have the money to pay for a full-time preacher, Faith and I volunteered to travel around the state and sing and try to raise support for this ministry endeavor. One of the members said: "If you can raise the money, we’ll hire you." Well, lo and behold, the missions support started coming in, and the church took a vote – (7-1) to hire us to come at a salary of $100 a week.
To be quite honest with you, most of the people that I asked, including my preaching professor, said not to go to this church. The risks were too great, and I was too young (the one no
vote felt I was too young). But, Faith and I were excited about serving and we felt the Lord’s strong leading. It was a vision that kept me going then…and it’s vision that keeps me going today!
- A vision of a church that would offer people the opportunity to
develop a relationship with Jesus and offer compassion and love to those who were hurting.
- A vision of a new church building that was to be built my first official month with the church. Mt. Carmel Church-builders had offered to construct our first building labor free. I got to help with that and be a part of that excitement.
- A vision of a church family that loved the Lord and each other and wanted others to know about it.
When many said to me that coming to this church of eight members and staying with this church through difficult days was a mistake – the vision has always kept me going.
I want you to know that my vision has been renewed. I pray that Lanier Christian Church will be a church of excellence in all we do. That our eyes are firmly fixed on Jesus. That lives are changed because of Him. That Lives are encouraged because of Him. That families are strengthened because of Him. That this church will be a place and a people that others will flock to so they can be a part of the greatest church family anywhere around!
John Maxwell writes about FOUR VISION-LEVELS OF PEOPLE
1. Some people never see it. (They are wanderers)
2. Some people see it but never pursue it on their own. (They are followers.)
3. Some people see it and pursue it. (They are achievers.)
4. Some people see it and pursue it and help others see it. (They are leaders.)
2. BE A LEADER WITH VISION
I want to be a leader and I want you to be a leader too! I want this to be a church filled with leaders, each one leading and involved in their own unique ministry and service to the Lord.
All great leaders possess two things: one, they know where they are going and two, they are able to persuade others to follow.
I want this to be a church of leaders that persuades others to give their lives in faith to Jesus. I want this church to be a church of leaders that nurtures people in their faith walk with the Savior. I want this church to be a church of leaders that doesn’t stop in its pursuit of excellence for our Master.
Someone said: God’s gift to me is my potential. My gift back to God is what I do with that potential. Let’s not lose our vision. Let us really fix our eyes on Jesus.
3. DON’T LET ANYONE CAUSE YOU TO LOSE YOUR VISION
If there is one glaring fault in my ministry, it has been to allow others
to blur my vision and that of the church. To take away any enthusiasm and joy. No matter what you do in life, you are going to have critics. The only people who don’t hear criticism are the ones not doing anything.
Paul was so concerned about the lack of grace among the Galatian Christians that he asked them a question: "What has happened to all your joy?" They had lost their vision for grace filled loving Christianity that changes lives and instead were bogged down in rules and ritual and regulations. Don’t allow critics to cause you to lose your joy or your vision. Rise above such situations with the strength of Christ.
In a Leadership Magazine article, Lynn Anderson described what happens when people lose their vision.
A group of pilgrims landed on the shores of America almost 400 years ago. With great vision and courage they had come to settle in this new land. In the first year, they established a town. In the
second, they elected a town council. In the third, the government proposed building a road five miles westward into the wilderness. But in the fourth year, the people tried to impeach the town council because the people thought such a road into the forest was a waste of public funds.
Somehow these forward-looking people had lost their vision. Once able to see across oceans, they now could not look five miles into the wilderness.
"Many great people began life in the poorest and most humble of homes, with little education and no advantages. But they had a vision that no critic could quench.
Thomas Edison was a newsboy on trains.
Andrew Carnegie started work at $4 a month, John D. Rockefeller at $6 a week.
The remarkable thing about Abraham Lincoln was not that he was born in a log cabin, but that he got out of the log cabin.
Beethoven became deaf, as did Thomas Edison. Charles Dickens was lame; so was Handel. Homer was blind; Plato was a hunchback; Sir Walter Scott was paralyzed.
What gave these great individuals the stamina to overcome severe
setbacks and become successful? Each person had an inner dream that lit a fire which could not be extinguished.
Great visions begin as an "inside job".
Napoleon Hill said, "Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements." (John Maxwell – Developing the Leader Within)
4. PROFIT FROM THE PAST – INVEST IN THE FUTURE
I love history. I love to reminisce. But, I also understand that God gave us eyes only in the front of our heads, so that we could always move forward. I like what John Mason said: "It is always our own choosing to allow the past to keep us from living to the fullest in the present and future.
Failure is waiting around the corner for those who are living off of
yesterday’s successes and failures. We should choose to be forward-focused, not past-possessed. We should learn to profit from the past…but to invest in the future."
There is much to profit from the past in my ministry. I have learned so much. I hope I have gained some wisdom along the journey. We have all profited from life’s journey – both our successes and failures.
There is still one continuing vision …one continuing investment we need to make for the cause of Christ and His church….that each person who becomes a part of this fellowship understands the importance of developing a relationship with Jesus our Savior.
Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship with the one who loves us most. I have been saying that for 35 years.
I know because I found one of my first sermons from May 23, 1976. There were 17 people in attendance sitting on lawn chairs in our new building because we didn’t have carpet or pews yet.
In that sermon I said:
"Every Christian can have a personal relationship with the eternal friend – Jesus Christ. In John 15 notice that Jesus calls
us his friends, not his servants. Jesus wants a more personal relationship with us rather than one in which we serve him as we would any other king or master."
At Buddy Camp this weekend, we had as our theme verse, Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Andy Stanley said in his book: “Visioneering”
“Don’t let this slip by you. You are his workmanship. Say it out loud, “I am God’s workmanship.” Do you know what that means? It means you are the product of God’s vision. God has decided what you could be and should be. You are the outcome of something God envisioned. And through Christ he has brought about, and continues to bring about, changes in you in accordance with his picture of what you could and should be.
But his vision for you is not complete. You have a part. Look at the next phrase. We have been envisioned and then crafted for a particular purpose. And that purpose is to do good works which God has envisioned us doing.”
Folks, God wants to use us in a way that brings honor to His name. The vision for our lives and this church should always be about Christ. Not…what’s in it for us….but what’s in it for Him?
In the future, whether it’s new buildings, new programs, new ministries, new opportunities, the vision must always be about people developing a relationship with Jesus that enables them to say: "He is my constant friend, the strength of my life, and the savior of my soul."
In fact, Paul said to the Galatians (that wrestled so with what was most important in their walk with Jesus) - (Galatians 5:5-7)
"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."
That’s a vision that I hope will always remain for this church…
– that people here would understand the love of Jesus, grow in that love, and share that love with everyone they meet.
Let’s "fix our eyes on Jesus" and move forward in faith!
