Vision

.”"Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. "-Proverbs 29:18.

I have often felt that we do much better as Christians if we have vision.

MArtin Luther King once said I have a dream - it simply changed a nation.

Vision genuine vision will attract followers.

Napolean once said – I found the crown of France rolling in the gutter and I picked it up with my sword.

The crown of Holiness in this world is rolling in the gutter and we need to pick it up with the sword of the Spirit.

Derek Prince.

To live the Christian life we need vision – vision how to live a Godly and good life.

This week two athletes – 16 year olds won bronze medals at the Winter Olympics – as we listened to these athletes we find that all their efforts in recent times has been driven by the vision of success at the Olympics.

For the Christian we need a clear and understandable vision – Paul talks about

Winning a crown in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Well there is a vision – a crown in heaven – the crown of holiness might be rolling in the gutters of this world but in heaven there is a crown waiting for you – there is a vision and that vision is worth living for.

Our vision is to be a caring church family who will do whatever we can to help people to become wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ.

Vision is important - What caused 41,000 people to flock to a paddock at Waimumu in recent weeks? It was vision – the vision of a sense of belonging to the rural community a vision of new innovations a better life with better equipment and a vision of free lunches. That kind of vision works but it is temporary.

When you meet a new Christian they are excited and happy – why? Because they had hope but now they have hope and they are infused with vision!!!

Philippians 1:6 New International Version (NIV)

6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. God can complete his vision

This confidence of Paul stretches forward with a vision of God’s , began in his listener’s, will be completed.

Where does Paul’s confidence come from – I believe it finds it’s source lying flat on his face on a road to Damascus where he encounters Jesus.

It is the revisioning of Paul that propels him right through his life – How is Paul revisioned?

He hears the voice of Jesus and it isn’t what Paul wants to hear – I think many of us lack vision because we may be uncomfortable at what we are hearing.

In the book of Isaiah chapter 6 we find Isaiah who is a believer and gifted prophetically but without direction.

But something happens. He sums up that something with – “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord.” This is a ground changing moment in Isaiah’s life – He saw God – Some people have amazing Spiritual moments that envision them for the rest of their lives. But we should not ignore the less ordinary experiences we have for example:

There was a businessman who lived during the depression. In one moment he lost his business, his family, his wife, and house. The only thing he had left to hold on to was his faith. While out walking one day he observed some construction workers building a stone church. One man had a triangular shaped piece of rock in his hand and was working with a chisel. “What are you going to do with that piece of rock?” asked my friend. “You see that space way up near the spire” he said, “I’m shaping this down here so it’ll fit in up there”. Isn’t that like God to shape our thinking, believing, following, obeying, doing, walking, talking, seeing down here among the mediocre and mundane so it’ll fit in up there where there is the vision of God waiting for us to catch hold of it? Up there to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple, i. e., to seek him. Up there vision is ripe for the taking by the one who has that deep abiding ache for it. You see this man’s friend had to come understand why he was going through this ordeal at this time. He left that construction with tears in his eyes and thanked God for the message from this construction worker.