Vision

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Good morning. Pray for me again, even if your eyes are open. [00:00:42] Or continue to pray, and I appreciate those who have been praying. I can sense your prayers, big time, and I appreciate that. And I again stand up here. I know that God has put me up here, and I thank Him for that, but I sometimes have to wonder why. But I count it a privilege and an honor, and I just pray that I can share from God's Word how He meant it to be. [00:01:25] Um, was wondering if your mouths are wide open. I had to think of the Psalm 81 verse 10. Open thy mouth and God says he will fill it. What a promise. It will be filled. Your mouth is wide open. You ever have to think of those little birdies that are, mama bird comes flying back and all their mouths are just, their mouth looks as big as they are. Big old mouth, ready to be filled. [00:01:58] And day after day I want my mouth wide open, ready to be filled. Wanted to talk a little bit about, well today I wanted to talk about vision. And it's really neat how yesterday at a prayer meeting, talking about vision, this morning Jim's talking about vision. Revelation is vision. Leon had an interpretation of Revelation. [00:02:33] What is vision? What are you looking at? What are you dreaming of? What do you dream of, Jamie? I know when I was 15 and I was dreaming of cars and trucks and I better stay with my notes I'll get off track sorry for the last while if you remember back I talked about Ezekiel in Ezekiel about turning and living [00:03:05] turn ye therefore and live repenting turning ourselves around and as we do that as we turn ourselves to God we start seeing with not the eyes of our head but the eyes of our hearts and I'm going to be saying that quite a bit you may get tired of me saying it but we have to see with the eyes of our hearts And whatever we see, whatever we dream of, whatever our hearts is looking at, that's what we will have. [00:04:05] If you know what I mean. Whatever we pursue after. If you think of Olympian, oh my word, the training they go through to be the best of the best. That's what is in their heart. That is what they're after. Then I talked about, in Genesis 12, how Abraham obeyed God's call. [00:04:40] Well, in chapter 12, the first four verses, well, through the middle of the first part of verse 4, talks about, I want to turn to that, Genesis 12. Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. [00:05:15] I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who curse you. I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him. Last time I focused on the obedience part of it. But what was he obeying? [00:05:47] He was obeying the call from God, the vision. God gave him a vision of his heart, in his heart. And he was looking with eyes. The eyes of his heart, not just the eyes. If he would have been looking with the eyes. You know, if you think of the eyes of our hearts, when we look from our hearts, We can see a lot further than we can see with the eyes of our head. If Abram would have been looking with the eyes of his head, there's no way he would have lasted. [00:06:22] There's no, he would have, what the world are you talking about? He wouldn't have been able to do it. So he obeyed his vision and his call. Then in 1 Corinthians, last time I preached I talked about the evidences of a changed life. How do you know you have a changed life? 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11 where it says, You are washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord by the Spirit of God. [00:07:00] And how do we know that? And by our life, we can tell our neighbors, friends, people know what we're looking at. People know what our faith is. People know what our vision is by our life. I want to turn, let's all turn to Hebrews chapter 11. I think I'm going to read the whole chapter, all 40 verses. In here, it talks about all the great men of faith. [00:07:38] A couple of women too. And this is known as the faith chapter. I asked Verba, man, why do we call it the faith chapter? Well, it talks a lot about faith. But, what keeps these men in the faith? What's the secret? Was one of my questions. Hebrews chapter 11. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. [00:08:09] I'm going to read, it's 40 verses, it's going to take a little bit, but try, I know you have children and everything, but try to follow along and to think about what is keeping these men here. What's keeping them on the right road? For by it, for by faith, the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. [00:08:40] By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God, testifying of his gifts, and through it he being dead, still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken away, so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him. [00:09:14] For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Are you diligently seeking Him? Am I? What does that mean to you? What does it mean to me? Verse 7 By faith Noah, divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, preparing up an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. [00:09:50] I had to think of Noah. What kept him working on that ark for 120 years? I think it was 120 years. What drove him to keep working on that ark? And I heard someone say that they had never seen rain or something. Is that true? I'm not sure. No rain. Where's this water going to come from? What drove him? Think about it. Verse 8. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. [00:10:27] By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed And she bore a child when she was past the age Because she judged him faithful who had promised [00:10:59] Therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off were assured of them embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland and truly if [00:11:33] If they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. of whom it was said in Isaac your seed shall be called [00:12:07] concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from which he also received him in a figurative sense. You ever wonder what drove Abraham to offer up his son? What caused him to keep going, walking down the path? Who knows how far he had to walk with his son. He laid him up on the altar the time that it took. What kept him going? [00:12:39] Why did he do it? Verse 20. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each one of the sons of Joseph and worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command. [00:13:17] By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. [00:13:47] By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians attempting to do so were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, also of David, and Samuel, and the prophets, [00:14:28] Who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, Women received their dead raised to life again Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection [00:15:04] Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings Yes, and of chains and imprisonment They were stoned, they were sawn into, were tempted, were slain with the sword And I'm thinking, I have a rough life They wandered about in sheepskins and goats, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, and all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, [00:15:44] God having provided something better for us that they should not be made perfect apart from us. My question, how do we get through those fiery trials that produce genuine faith? How do we get through that? What is it? It's vision. Go back to verse 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promise, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, [00:16:19] I think King James says, persuaded of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Having seen them afar off, vision. I wrote some definitions of vision down and I couldn't decide on one. There's a couple different ones that you could say. [00:16:53] First of all, in verse 1, you could say that faith is believing in something you can't see. And vision, according to verse 13, is something that we see afar off, and I would add, vision is something we see afar off that keeps us believing in something that we can't see. [00:17:33] These men here, what drove them to keep on? Why did Moses keep building the ark? Why did Isaac, Jacob keep following after God? Why did these people, how could they allow themselves? Verse 35, others were tortured, not accepting deliverance. They could have had deliverance, but they didn't accept it. Why? That they might obtain a better resurrection. [00:18:08] They had a vision. They saw with the eyes of the heart what God laid on their heart. Vision is something that God puts on our hearts. It's all connected to eternity. I should be looking at my notes. Oh, I wish I could explain it the way I'm thinking it. Okay, successful people, people who do well in life, are successful, they have long-term goals. [00:18:52] And they have a vision. We as Christians, as believers, we need long-range goals, visions that connect with eternity. And then not only see the vision, but pursue it. And that's what it's saying. Seeing them far off, we're assured of them, or we're persuaded. And that's what conviction is. Conviction is being persuaded, believing, yielding to what we see afar off. [00:19:31] A couple other words in the Greek for persuaded was agree, believe, have confidence, obey, trust, yield. A conviction is something that has a hold of you. So, as we have faith in something that we can't see, we need a vision. God gives us a vision. God lays on our heart a vision. Whether it's for yourself, we could go many different routes. It's for your children, it's for the church, on and on. [00:20:06] And vision is something that we see afar off to keep us believing in something that we can't see. Conviction is being persuaded and believing in that vision. And then next it says embrace them. What does that mean? I think that's an action word. That's doing it. Abraham believed, yes, and it was accounted to him as righteousness, but he obeyed. He did it. It's not just going around talking about our vision. [00:20:47] I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do this, and we're going to do this. No, it's more than that. It's going out and doing it. And then, because we're doing it, our life is telling everybody else about our faith. Um, and I really had to wonder if we can have, what is faith and vision? Can you have a vision without having faith? And can you have faith without having a vision? You know, do you have a vision first and then you follow after the vision? Or do you have faith? I think that we have faith. Once we turn our hearts to God, we can start seeing with eyes of our hearts. And then God gives us a vision. We must obey. [00:21:43] I want to go to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 3. Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh that is of the heart. [00:22:20] God, the spirit of the living God, writes on our hearts a vision. God gives us a vision. It's not that we want it written in our heads. We don't need more knowledge. You know, and I used to live this way. You live this way because it's what is expected of you. [00:22:52] You come from a certain family or you go to a Mennonite church and you just need to live this way. Live this way and that way. But it needs to be written on our hearts. God writes on our hearts to see the things that God wants us to see. Spiritual dreams and visions that will last eternity Denny says that a vision is a mental image pressed upon the heart by God [00:23:28] I thought that was another wonderful A mental image pressed upon the heart by God Why do we need a vision? Proverbs 29, 18. I think we all know the verse. Where there is no revelation, the people perish. New King James says, cast off restraint. And if you look around at the different churches around here, which reminds me, I almost think Denny says, cast off, restrain, and live like savages. [00:24:10] Doesn't he say that somewhere? But if you look around at the churches, how they're casting off restraint, they're letting down their guard, they're opening up. That's the first thing that I have to think of. But then it hit me this morning, man, why am I looking around? What am I doing? What are you doing? Are you casting off restraint? Little by little, am I that maybe I don't notice it [00:24:41] and pretty soon it's bigger than what I thought it was. And just a good lesson to me to look at myself before I look at other churches. We need to have a vision. If we don't have a vision, we will cast off restraint. So, if we don't want to perish, we need to have a vision. [00:25:13] And if you say, I want to look at a verse in Revelation 3, verse 18, where John is talking to the church, Laodicea. Verse 18 says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. [00:25:45] These people did not have a vision. They couldn't see anymore. They were lukewarm. They were neither hot nor cold. God said, I will vomit you out of my mouth. The importance of having a vision. What if we don't have a vision? What do we do? [00:26:19] I right away had to think of the promise in Matthew 7 where it says, Ask, it will be given to you. Seek, you will find. Knock, it will be opened. There's three wills in there. You will. You will be given. You will find. And it will be opened. If we feel like we don't have a vision, what are we looking at? [00:26:49] What's our goals? What's our long-range goal for your life, for my life? What is my long-range goal? And after that, then we can start thinking about the goal of our family. Everything else will fall right into place, but it has to start with us first. Young people, you've got to start when you're young, otherwise you'll perish, run around like savages. We need to open up our hearts and cry out to God. [00:27:23] Opening up our hearts to God, what does that mean? That means, Lord, look at me, show me if there be any wicked way in me, and confess our sins, turn. You know, it's just a big, as we open up our hearts and notice that we need a vision, Lord, I don't know what I'm doing, God help me, God will give us a vision and write it on our hearts. In Ephesians 3, verse 20, it says, [00:28:01] Now to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. God is almighty. He appeared to Abraham and said, I am all sufficient. I am almighty, walk before me and be thou perfect He is all powerful It says that he is able to do a little bit more above what we ask [00:28:36] No, exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or even think I praise him for that and I thank him so much for that to seek a vision, to pray for a vision, to desire that. Look at a verse in a couple more verses. [00:29:10] Ephesians 1, 17. There's a couple of prayers. There's one in Ephesians here and there's one in Colossians. that I would like to look at yet in closing. I think I'll read verse 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, visions in the knowledge of Him, [00:29:44] the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? That needs to be our prayer. And in Colossians. Verse 9 and 10. [00:30:15] And for this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power for all patience and longsuffering the joy. It goes on and on. I just pray, that's my prayer, that we would have a desire for God, that we would remain faithful, that we would have a vision so we could remain faithful. [00:31:04] If we don't have a vision, Proverbs says we will perish, not might. You may have a chance. We need a vision. We need to see where we're going. It needs to all connect with eternity. And we need to see it with the eyes of our hearts. Let's not look only with the eyes of our heads. We'll become discouraged and want to give up. The eyes of our hearts. What's God laying on your heart? And what are you focusing on? What are you after? Oh, that reminds me. In Hebrews, verse 13, it says, [00:31:41] Embrace them and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Why would they say that they were strangers and pilgrims? For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. They were seeking a homeland, but yet they were at home? They saw that this world is not their home. They saw that they were just pilgrims. And what's the other verse of that? [00:32:14] Oh, verse 9 says, By faith he dwelt in the land of promise. So he was dwelling in the land of promise, but he says, as in a foreign country. So he didn't feel at home. He felt like he was in a foreign country. And how do you live when you're in a foreign country? You know, you're just there temporarily. We're not there putting down our roots. That's how I kind of feel about Conrad Road Forum, putting down some roots. Don't like that feeling. [00:32:48] I don't know. If you look at these people, 32 to 38, 39, being stoned and sawn asunder, the vision that they had to have to keep them going, to keep them, that's what had to be driving them. And I just pray that God gives us a vision. Praise the Lord.