Sermon Tone Analysis

Coming up...

21 Days of Consecration (Booklets)

Life Groups (Sign Ups)

Vision

What do you think of when you hear the word vision?

I think about the fact that I have to put something on each and every day to correct my vision.

I can read my Bible right in front of me, but if I don’t look through them you guys would all look blurry.

It has been tempting, but…Just kidding (for the most part)

STORY: The glasses signify something in our house a little different.

My kids know I need them to drive and practically do everything I do on a daily basis.

They know they are valuable and necessary to me.

So, when we want to rough-house a phrase has been developed, “Take your glasses off.”

Now they know that when the glasses come off the rough-housing begins.

It started with Judah but Ellie liked to get in on it as well.

Levi has now figured it out and is constantly asking me to, “Take your glasses off.

Take your glasses off.”

TRANSITION

There are times when we take off something of value because we don’t want it to get broken or misaligned.

But for the spiritual vision God has for our life, it is VITAL that we put it on, value its place in our life, and allow God to give vision, direction, and alignment to our lives.

DEFINE

As we start our series, as we start this New Year...Let’s define what vision is and isn’t.

Today, we will spend time discussing what vision is, how to know God’s vision for your life, and how to fulfill that vision.

In the coming weeks, we will talk about the vision for the church as a whole, the vision for our church as a local body, your role in that plan and vision, and how it overlaps into every area of our life and reaches to the ends of the earth.

So, let’s define vision.

SLIDE

It is simply being able to see.

It is the ability to think about and plan for the future (with imagination and wisdom).

A supernatural experience of seeing or knowing something otherwise unknown.

A sight of beauty.

#1 I mentioned briefly how important vision is to our everyday life.

And like many things in our life, we never realize how much we depend on something until it is gone.

We never realized how much we deeply cared about someone until we know distance from them or even loss.

We sometimes don’t appreciate our good health, our financial situation, our relationships, even our spiritual influences until we experience life without them or they begin to deteriorate for one reason or another.

Simply put, we take many things in our life for granted.

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

– Helen Keller.

Vision helps us prioritize well.

Vision helps us remind ourselves of where we are headed, what is really important to us, and help keep that in front of us so we keep moving towards God’s original design for our life.

#2 Vision also helps us see with creativity God’s best for our future.

I want to be careful and not take a sterile definition from Webster and assume we can make it happen on our own accord.

In 2020, if we do anything of value it is going to be because God was the originator, He was the builder, He was initiator, and we simply responded to what He was wanting to do in our lives.

That is vision with spiritual insight and revelation.

That is vision with heavenly (not earthly wisdom).

That is vision that actually has Divine Power to bring about change and transformation.

That is what we want for our lives.

QUESTION

Have you ever struggled to see a better situation than the current one you were in?

Have you ever struggled to have inspiration and creativity when you really needed it?

I HAVE.

STORY

Each month in my calendar is a reminder on the 5th to begin writing the monthly newsletter that we will send out from my work, KICKO.

I am constantly trying to keep notes and ideas of stories of impact, capturing photos, and backlogging sharable moment for these newsletters.

It will happen though, just as it did while I was in school, that I will sit down to write and seemingly nothing will come to mind.

Probably many of you have experienced something similar.

You knew you needed to express something, maybe even had a vague idea of what you wanted to share, but then nothing would flow out when it came time to express or share it.

In writing, we call this ‘writer’s block’.

Creativity ceases.

Inspiration is null and void.

If you are like me, you may even try to force some words out but they seem powerless and empty, not carrying the punch and connection you wanted.

This can happen to us in our lives as well.

We may move forward for a period of time with a real sense of destiny and purpose, but then find ourselves no longer ‘feeling it’.

We may go through the motions, but we can sense that we are detached from the destiny.

STORY

I have shared here before how when I was 14 (just before my 15th birthday) the Lord began to stir my heart for missions, specially working with groups of people that would otherwise be unreached by the church.

For many years, I thought my heart was being stirred to work in some sort of ministry that would focus on groups of people around the world that were unreached with the Gospel, which I still have a heart for to this day.

But there was a process I went through to find myself serving the purpose God has for my life right now that included having to re-interpret some of the things God had placed in my heart as a teenager.

That vision in front of me as a teen though propelled me forward.

It carried me toward missions trips and other mission experiences.

It led me to read books that fueled that desire and growing passion.

It led me to look for ways to get an education as a tool to do just that, missions.

Fast-forward: when I was working in Los Angeles at a HUGE ministry conglomerate, the Dream Center, I began to become personally numb.

I was tired, some of my spiritual soapboxes were being challenged, and I was weathering well.

I came home as a 21 year old disillusioned and confused on what to do next.

I thought I could kick-start my spiritual walk again with a great worship conference and some fasting (which is all good when God is in it), but God was trying to teach me that my hope was in Him and not in my ability to fix things on my own, even good things.

I attempted to work with my parents at KICKO, starting a new aspect of the ministry with the youth, but I floundered because I didn’t have God’s vision refreshed in front of me.

It had grown stale and lost its value in my life.

I finally went back to where I had previously worked, not knowing what to do next, and over committed myself to my boss at Chick-fil-A.

I didn’t know what to do next.

I didn’t know how to get to the next step of what God had for my life.

Have you ever found yourself in a similar place?

Have you ever felt lost in discerning and knowing God’s next step for your life?

You are not alone.

God wants to renew vision inside of you.

(Get Up.

Walk Around.

Stretch.

Change Scenery.)

My watch just told me to do that as I had been sitting for an hour studying for this morning.

Sometimes, spiritually we need to allow God to change things up.

We need to allow Him to bring a fresh perspective and outlook on things in our life.

21 Days of Consecration: this is why as a church we are dedicated these next 21 days to allowing God to do just that, to renew our vision, put the spiritual wind back in our sails.

These aren’t 21 Days of Do-It-Yourself ways to overcome evil with self-sustaining strength.

That won’t last.

Believe me, been there tried that.

For some reason, I still try that, and it doesn’t work.

This is 21 days of saying:

God, I am yours, and You are mine.

More of You and less of you me in ever area of my life.

In my insecurities Lord, I need more of your vision for who I am.

In my abilities to accomplish what I believe You are calling me towards, I need to trust you completely.