Sermon Tone Analysis

! "Visionary Or Stationary"

Copyright 1999 \\ /by Pastor David Legge \\ /All rights reserved \\ /(Permission is granted to distribute this transcript unaltered, in its entirety)/

I have had a message on my heart from the moment that I received the call, and indeed responded to it.

That may seem strange, but it's the truth, and I want to give it to you this morning.

It has burned into my soul over the past weeks and months since that event, and I want to share it with you today.

It's found in Proverbs 29 - Proverbs chapter 29 - and it is only one verse of scripture, and even part of a verse of scripture, verse 18.

Now, I am breaking a rule here because when I went to college I was taught a lot of things and I've broken a lot of them already!

But one of the things you're taught is when you go into a church that you don't do anything too drastic or anything like that, or say anything too drastic.

But this message is, I believe, from the Lord - and because it's from the Lord I hope that you can take it this morning.

It's an encouragement to you all, that's what I want to do - I want to encourage you all in the Lord.

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

There are four names that come into my mind when I read that verse, in a human level.

The first is a man called Thomas Edison.

The second: a man called Alexander Graham Bell.

The third: Martin Luther King, and the fourth was a group of men who, in 1966, landed upon the moon.

Thomas Edison was the man who brought the light bulb to bear on humanity.

But that man, he made many mistakes.

He made many failures.

He was trying to do something: his vision, his dream was to transport electricity to every house in every nation.

Benjamin Franklin, before him, in the late 1800s was the man who, you remember learning at school, had the kite and he attached the cord to the kite and the key - and he discovered how electricity transmitted from the sky right to earth.

But the point I'm trying to make to you this morning is this: that Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin - they had a vision.

They had a vision to give something to humanity.

Alexander Graham Bell was a teacher to the deaf, and as a teacher to the deaf he had a vision that one day people all around the world, from one end of the world to another, would be able, in their own homes, in their own nation, to communicate one to another from a distance.

He, of course, was the creator of the telephone.

The men who went to the moon - one great step, one great step for all humanity, all mankind - and no matter what you think about it, it was a great step - but it came from vision that these men had, that scientists had, that one day human feet would land upon the moon.

Of course, Martin Luther King was killed for his vision.

Without going into all the details of the morality of it all, you can remember the day, or you know of the day when he stood before that great throng and what did he say?

'I have a dream'.

All of these men, all of these characters were men, or even women, of vision.

The verse that we read together this morning says this: "Where there is no vision the people perish".

Those were human visions but what does this verse mean, and what does the word 'vision' in this verse mean?

Well, the Hebrew word in this verse simply means this: 'a sight' - a mental sight in your mind, a dream, a revelation, an oracle, a vision.

It comes from the Hebrew root word 'to gaze at', to gaze upon or mentally perceive, to contemplate with pleasure.

Now, what it literally means in this verse is this: that without the word of God, without a revelation, without a vision for God the people are naked.

Now, if you think about it this morning that is true.

If we did not have the word of God I would stand up here - I don't know what I would say, I would waffle, maybe tell stories, talk about politics or the news - but you would go away from this place spiritually naked.

If you did not have the word of God to feed upon, the Bread of Life to feed upon day after day, you as a Christian would be naked.

But inherent within that meaning of the word 'vision' there is that idea of having a sight, of having a contemplation, of having a dream for the future.

I want to define that word for you this morning like this, that vision is this: a picture of the future that produces a passion within you.

What is vision?

It is a picture that makes your heart and my heart race as we think of what God can do in future days.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish".

There are two things I want to share with you this morning.

I want to ask you two questions.

Are you a visionary?

Or are you stationary?

Visionary or stationary?

When I use that word 'visionary' I don't mean a dreamer, I don't mean someone who sits around all day thinking of what could be, but don't get off their behind to make it happen - but when I use the word 'visionary' I mean someone who has a dream, someone who has a vision and will do all in their power to make it a reality.

I want to start with the second first: stationary.

Are you a stationary Christian?

And really what that means in the context of our verse is this: a visionless Christian.

Are you a naked Christian, as the verse says - one who is not ordained with a sight, a perception, a contemplation, a dream, a vision for God in the future.

In all my years reading through the Bible I could think of four types of stationary Christians that the word of God brings before us.

I want to share with you, quickly, what they may be, and ask us individually, ask us internally: 'Could we, could you, could I be a stationary Christian?'

The first stationary Christian that I find within the New Testament is the traditionalist.

If you go to the book of Galatians, or you go to the book of Hebrews, you find there a group of people who were naming the name of Christ.

But the problem was that in naming the name of Christ, in claiming, as it were, the promises that were in Christ and in His salvation, they had a problem.

Because in one hand they were reaching out for that salvation, but yet in the other hand they could not let go of those things that were behind.

Of course, there are so many people who get saved and that's where they are, isn't it?

They get saved and they want what Christ gives.

Maybe they only profess faith in Christ, they're maybe not really saved and they try to strive after this Christian life and faith in Christ, but they cannot let go of their sin.

But there are so many Christians, and second Corinthians and chapter 3 and verse 6 talks about that.

That they are people who follow the letter of the law, follow the word of God, but the Spirit of God - the One who has inspired that word, the one who wrote that word - is missing.

Really what it is is something called 'doctrine without power'.

Harry Ironside, that great commentator on the word of God, said this in relation - he said: 'Lack of vision will manifest itself in a cold, dry, theological or philosophical treatment of the scriptures, as though given to exercise the intellect rather than the heart and the conscience'.

The old saying is true, isn't it?

That 'If you have only the word of God you will dry up.

If you have only the Spirit of God you will blow up.

But if you have both you will grow up'.

One writer says that in too many places the Bible is being thumped and doctrine is being argued 'til 3 in the morning, but the Spirit, the Spirit of that doctrine is missing.

The second type of person I find in the New Testament is quite similar to that - it's the sentimentalist.

You see, right throughout church history and right throughout the word of God there are always a little group of people and they look at one era of history as the time when God really shone.

I don't know what that era of history is for you; I have my own.

Many think it was the 1700s when Wesley and Whitefield were about.

Many think it was the 1859 revival and times of refreshing then.

Many think it was when Nicholson was in the province, when there were men who even stood in this pulpit in the early 1900s, 1950s.

Many believe that that was God's era, that was God's time, and that God needs to come.

Some of those people even try to emulate or 'conservate' that era in history.

If you went to North America today - maybe some of you have been, maybe some of you have seen this - there's a group of people called the Amish people.

Maybe you saw them in the films.

They have long beards, they wear sackcloth, they wear strange clothes, they don't believe in automobiles, they go into horses and carts.

They don't use electricity.

They don't believe in light because they believe that were was a certain time in history that was sacred, that was special, that was God-sent.

In fact, there are two types of Amish people.

There's the Button Amish people, and there's the Zip Amish people.

The Button Amish people believe they are better than the Zip Amish people, because zips are modern and buttons aren't.

That is the extent that they have got to - sentimental about an era of history.

I want to encourage us today, because many are downhearted.

Many, I believe, in the Christian community in Northern Ireland and even in our western community are down-hearted, are weary in the battle because years ago there were many more saved here than there are now.

Do we need to create that era again?

Do we need to conserve that era here?

Listen to the voice of God in Isaiah 43 and verse 19: "Behold, I will do a new thing".

You remember when the church was born, and there was a man called Gamaliel - a wise man.

Remember, Paul sat at his feet and learnt the Old Testament scriptures.

But you remember what happened - that there was an uproar because of this church, like a flame that was burning through Palestine and going throughout the world.

They were trying to stop it with arms, they were trying to stop it with philosophy, theology, everything - but they could not stop it.

You remember Gamaliel's words - 'If this is of God, no man will stop it!'

Sentimentalists don't have vision.

You remember in Acts 13:36 - what was written there?

What did the preacher say? 'David, King David served his own generation well'.