Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
Introduction
Giotto, a famous painter and architect of the early 14th century, once did a particular fresco on the walls of the Basilica in Assisi. The subject matter was the death of St. Francis, who founded the Order of Franciscan Monks (the ones with the funny haircuts). The fresco, though, shows all of the brothers of St. Francis mourning as the saint passes away. Some are watching his changing from life to death, others are examining his ‘stigmata’, or wounds that were supposedly supernaturally on his skin like the wounds that Christ had on the cross. But only one man is looking towards the sky, seeing the vision of comfort that Francis had as he lay dying. The man shields his eyes, for he is the only one besides Francis who sees the vision that is being given for comfort.
Vision is important. When asked what of the basic five senses of the body that would be hardest to lose, most people would likely say vision. It impacts how we literally view the world. It impacts how we perceive daytime and nighttime. People who are blind have a particular disorder for sleep where they have a difficult time discerning what time of the day it is, and how to cope with their sleep schedule. But also, not having a Godly vision is as important to our lives. When we do not focus on what God wants us to do in our lives, we are losing focus of the vision that he has in our lives. Today I want to share some thoughts that I have on this using our verse as our starting point.
Vision does not come where there is poor leadership
The first thing we must realize is that vision does not come where there is poor leadership. Leadership is something that I am extremely passionate about. It’s something that I could talk for hours on end on how to be a good leader, and how to learn to lead. And this statement is absolutely true.
How many times have you been in a job where you had someone leading you that did it VERY poorly? I’ve had a few places where I’ve worked that were like that. It seemed like every day was a drudgery, and you never quite knew what you were supposed to be doing. You knew what the job was, but perhaps you didn’t know WHY you were supposed to be doing it a certain way. This is what I mean when I say that vision cannot come from poor leadership. One of the other translations of this verse reads, instead of vision, when people don’t follow God’s way. So, think of it this way: when people don’t follow God’s way, then they will perish. God’s vision, not only in the literal sense, but in the supernatural sense, for our lives is perfect. He gives us a way to live our lives, but also gives us purpose in it to do His work. When we don’t do it, then we will have frustration, disappointment, and heartache in our lives. But take this a step further: if we don’t follow God’s vision for ALL of our lives, which is to trust Jesus Christ as our personal savior and be saved from sin and the death that is the sentence for that rebellion, then we truly are truly doomed to perish.
God’s leadership is always perfect. When I was in seminary, I took a course that analyzed the leadership qualities of various Biblical figures. Some of you may know what I am talking about, because I used some of these figures in our Wednesday devotionals a few weeks ago. In short, there are many different types of leadership styles that are in the world. But the perfection of all of these leadership styles is given in Jesus Christ. Whenever Jesus had a situation come up, he would adapt to it without ever losing his vision that God had given to Him for his earthly ministry. Jesus knew exactly why he had been sent to earth: to die for the sins of man. And to establish his church through the people around him so that people would know what they must do to be saved when Jesus’ earthly ministry was done. It is through Jesus’ leadership that we know what OUR vision is even to this day! And it was done because there was great leadership by the greatest leader ever.
Vision does not come when doubt prevails
We also have to know that vision does not come when doubt prevails. Do you remember last week that we talked about wisdom, and the only proviso in James was that we cannot doubt that God will give it to us? The same thing applies here today. Jesus himself talked about the vision that God has for us, in a way. In Matthew 21, the day after the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus is heading back to the city and spots a fig tree. We know that he tries to find some of the late fruit that the tree produces, curses it when he does not find anything on it, and it withers right then. And not to chase a rabbit here, but some of you might have wondered when I preached on that a while back what that cursing of the fig tree meant. Think of the way that Jesus was dealing with the Pharisees and Sadducees during this week. They paraded as religious, but there was no fruit of God with them. Just as we know from John 15:2, branches that produce no fruit are cut off. Jesus was making a point that those who did not have God first in their lives were doomed to be cut off from the Father, and that they would wither and die a spiritual death.
But I want us to focus mostly on what Jesus says to his disciples when they marvel at the fact that they saw the bush wither in front of their eyes. Jesus answers them in verse 21-22 saying “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” Jesus gives two points here. He says that we must have faith. This is obvious. We cannot do anything without Christ in our lives, and we most certainly will not be privy to God’s vision without being connected to Him. But the second part is this: we cannot doubt that God will do what he says he will do.
I had a conversation with a friend this week about this topic. I have a friend who is, in certain ways, a young Christian. One of the things that he has to work on continually is that he will doubt that God will do what He says He will do for this man. Now, I know that some of you will think poorly perhaps of this person, but do we not also doubt sometimes, or have doubted in our lives when we were younger that God would do what He said He would do? But here is something we can grasp onto when we have doubts: look at what God has done for you, especially repeatedly in your life. Jude 1:22 exhorts Christians to “have mercy on those who doubt”. We can have mercy on those people because they are struggling with that doubt, but we do know that with doubt we cannot fully see the vision of God.
Vision does not come to an unconcerned heart
We have to know, too, that vision does not come when we do not have a concern in our hearts for others. It is plain as day to me that Jesus Christ had a concern for others during his earthly ministry. Why else would he have gone out of his way to heal, to teach, and to do all that he did? I know that may sound a bit elementary to some of you, but have you ever stopped to think that Jesus did not have to do any of that to show his concern to the people on this Earth? Did you ever stop to think that the reason that He did that was because he wanted us to do the same?
Look for a moment at Matthew 25:31-40. I’ll let you read that while I talk, but Jesus talks about here where he will establish his Kingdom, and will tell those who have always walked in His ways, which is to care for others in both the spiritual and physical ways. He says that the righteous, or as the Amplified Bible translation puts it so well, the “just AND upright” ask him, when have we seen you sick, hungry, or hurting? And Jesus replies in verse 40 “truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Now, what does this have to do with the vision that God has for our lives? The vision that God has for us in our lives, just as he did in the times of Proverbs, is to live more like Him each and every day. And since we know that Christ came to show us the way to live our lives, we know that we must do just as he did. Just like the verse says, no vision, the people perish! And that applies to our lives as well.
Vision does not come to a self-satisfied life
One of the phrases that my brother uses often when talking about leadership in a church is that no one should get too comfortable in it. This is not to say that we shouldn’t be comfortable in life, or that it is a sin when things are easy in our lives. But rather, his point that he made to me was that when we get self-satisfied, we tend to shy away from the vision that God has for our lives. It is a phrase from him that has challenged me almost daily to never be satisfied completely with myself, or my walk with the Lord.
Let’s look at it this way: there are so many verses in the Bible that talk about how we should hunger for God in our lives. Jesus said himself in Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” That satisfaction is in the same vein as the water that will cause the end of thirst, the food that will cause the end of hunger, and the salvation that will save us from death. When we hunger for righteousness, when we hunger for what God has for us in our lives, and when we hunger to do His will, we will truly be satisfied!
One other verse comes to mind as well. This somewhat goes hand in hand with our previous thought of having an unconcerned heart. Philippians 2:3-4 says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” In other words, we are not to be satisfied with ourselves. One of the greatest things that Jesus had against the Saducces and Pharisees was that they were greatly satisfied with themselves. They had attained a great rank, and it made them feel as if they had “arrived”. They felt like the work to get to their position was plenty, and that the basic work to help others was beneath them. When we are satisfied with ourselves too much, we truly miss out on the vision and then the blessings that God has for us!
Vision does not come when God’s Word is forgotten
One final point is that vision cannot come when we forget God’s word. Now, I know that our VBS workers will know this very well, but how many of you know the Pledge to the Bible? There is two parts of this that I want to tell you about. First, did you know that that pledge is based partially off of Psalm 119, verses 11 and 105? Verse 11 reads “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” and verse 105 reads “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Now, this will be familiar to you if you have ever done the pledge to the Bible. But what you may not know is that this pledge was originated by a Georgian named Dr. Homer Grice. He was called from his church in Washington, Georgia to lead the Southern Baptist Convention’s Vacation Bible school movement. He took those two verses and created the pledge to the Bible in 1925, and it has become the standard pledge to the Bible across denominations. Why did that happen? Because Dr. Grice took God’s vision and did truly make it a light unto his feet and a light unto his path, and hid the words of God in his heart so that he might not sin against God.
God’s word, as we know from Hebrews, is living and active. That verse is Hebrews 4:12, and it reads “for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” What a verse, right?! Now, we have been talking about vision, and we have been talking a lot about how it affects us when we are following God in our walk. But when it comes to belief, it is the Word that leads us. Look at the end of that verse. The writer of Hebrews states that the Word is discerning and knows the intentions of the heart of mankind. Why is that? Because the word is alive! The word is living! It is not just some nebulous thing, it is embodied into a living, breathing person, and that person is Jesus Christ. John 1:1, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, states “in the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What is the Word? Jesus Christ! And because we know that Jesus Christ is alive today, we know that the Word is worth our time, our effort, and is essential to knowing the vision for what God wants in our lives.
Conclusion
I’ll finish with this today. Often I have thought about what the vision for our church is. I’ve been asked numerous times about it. It was a question that deacons asked me before I became your pastor. It’s something that weighs heavily upon me to stick to it. What I think our vision is for our church, what I have prayed for, and what I feel God has revealed to me is this: our church must continue to grow closer to God, continue to grow in His word, and to do so in deed and by the words we speak. This is not something I say as something that is coming from me particularly. And I do know that it sounds vague. Perhaps it is too vague, but it gives us the opportunity as a church to define exactly what our vision is as a congregation and as members of the body of Christ. Vision only comes from the Lord, and it only comes when we are truly following Him. It comes when we are not jealous of our neighbors. It comes when we are reading and truly putting the Bible into our hearts and into action every single day. God’s vision comes to us from the Lord himself, and He will continue to guide us as we do our best to take up that cross daily and follow Him. Let’s pray.
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