The Vision For The Future

Introduction

What a glorious morning it is. Wonderful to see all of you. It’s encouraging. It’s so encouraging that you’ve chosen to be here. And of course, we’re used to seeing each other every week. But it’s encouraging to know that you’ve chosen to be out, particularly at this 9 o’clock hour. And it’s it’s always encouraging to be together as the Lord’s people to sing together. First thing on our Sunday together and to encourage one another in our song. I want to uh a couple of things before I begin. Uh if if anybody doesn’t have an outline, um, and we we have a couple of people who will be handing these out, so just let them know if you need one. Also, I want to encourage everyone to get some of the business cards in the back that have the church information on it, and always have those on you.

Have them in your wallet, men or or ladies, uh, have them in your purse. And that way, if you’re ever talking to somebody about church, then uh you’ll have the information to give them uh when they ask, well, where do you go? Uh it’s there have been times when I’ve found myself uh without a card and wish that I had one, and many times that I was glad that I did and had the opportunity to give them an invite. Inviting is something that is simple and something that we all can do, regardless of age or ability, and sometimes it results in the salvation of souls. I’ve seen that happen time and again. There was a young man in Monticello, Florida, who was in a wheelchair selling uh candy bars, and uh I I bought five of them from him because I figured it would give me an opportunity to invite him to church and that he would be more receptive.

And I gave him a card, and a few months later he showed up. Cerebral palsy, couldn’t walk very well. Young man, 15 years of age, he became baptized, and then his parents became converted. So you never know what can happen from from just handing out a card to somebody. Let’s be inviting. If you don’t mind, I want to have a couple of words of correction or you might even say criticism for this group. I don’t mean to do this in a discouraging way. Right now, the number of people in here is uplifting compared to the number of people there were when the first scripture reading was done up here and so on. So I want to encourage us all to think about being here more on time.

And I know things do happen from time to time, but when that becomes a habitual uh process, then uh it’s kind of gonna just happen every time. And and it’s been something that I’ve learned to expect here that you’re gonna have pretty much double the amount of people by the time I get up here than you do when the nine o’clock hour begins. And I and I know we we all have our our lives in our situations that I don’t know your situation, but sometimes we might make excuses to ourselves. So let’s try to make an effort to leave ten minutes earlier as a habit or 15 minutes or whatever it is, to get here on time. Uh maybe that’s just my personal opinion, but I think it would be more encouraging to us as a whole.

And I hope you don’t take that in a in a harsh way, uh, but just as something to think about. Another thing in connection with that, I’ve noticed that a lot of times when our services begin and we have scripture reading up here, that we have people in the back who are talking. And I understand we have our ushers who who stay back there, uh, but I think when somebody’s up here reading the Bible, that even if you’re in the back, you need to listen. And when the singing starts, I think you need to do your best to try to participate. Uh, and so I want to encourage us to be thinking about uh when we’re in the back, uh not doing so much visiting while we’re trying to worship God together in here.

I think that’ll be a way to encourage us more as a group. And again, I hope you don’t take that in a harsh way. Uh and maybe it’s just my opinion, but I do think that it would be more effective if we keep those things in mind. Thank you for taking it for giving me the opportunity to say those things and for hearing me out. Well, I come across, I came across a very good article by Brent Hunter in the Newest Biblical Insights magazine. And this article, part of it was talking about how to shape the culture of a church to become more active and to pursue its goals and its vision. And it got me excited. And as one of your leaders, that’s something that I need to have is excitement.

And so I text or emailed Brent and told him I appreciated that and kind of asked for a little bit more direction. And he sent me to his website. He preaches in Washington, a church called Kirkland, Church of Christ. And so the Kirkland website has a wealth of information there about how to really grow the kingdom as a group. And he begins suggesting this lesson that I’m going to preach to you this morning. And I’ve changed it and altered it quite a bit, but it originally came from Brent Hunter. And in fact, I plan to sort of follow his suggestions because he told me that the membership had increased, well, at least the attendance had increased by about 60 people in one year’s time of his being there.

And that was a group that was just a little over a hundred that increased to being about 167 was the number that he gave me was present the last Sunday morning when we had talked. And so whatever is going on there, it’s working. And I thought that’s something that we need to try to emulate. So, uh, these lessons I will be stepping out of my comfort zone a little bit, or you might say, my uh style of preaching. I’m usually, I like to take a text and just delve in and dig our teeth in, and I like to give you a lot of depth if I can. Today, and in some of these lessons, it’s not going to be quite that way. It’ll be more topical, and some of you aren’t going to like it as much.

Some of you might like it better, though. And I think that you’ll get something out of it one way or the other. We’re going to talk this morning about a vision for the future. And by that I don’t mean a vision, you know, like God gave to Peter while he was on that rooftop praying. Not that kind of a vision. I’m talking about a plan for the future. The future of this church is going to come, whether we plan for it or not. And so what we need to do is intentionally shape the future of where this church is headed. And that all begins with the leadership. I realize that. But it’s going to take all of us working together. The Bible has a lot of risk takers.

Consider Moses, who was a risk taker who killed an Egyptian in order to deliver his people. They rejected him. He fled to Midian. And then he came back and he went before the king. He went before Pharaoh with his brother Aaron. And that was a risk. But it resulted in something beautiful. The children of Israel were delivered out of Egyptian bondage and were led to the edge of the promised land. You think of Esther. She risked, risked her life to go before the king of Persia and to basically ask for the deliverance of her people. And the outcome, again, was a beautiful outcome. You had those four fishermen who became apostles, Peter, entered James, John, and they forsook all. They left their profession. What a risk they took.

But oh, how the Lord used them. You have the Apostle Paul. Look what he left this life as a Pharisee of Pharisees at really the pinnacle of respect of the Jewish community and of the Jewish world. And he gave all that up and considered it as dung that he might know Christ and share in his sufferings. And he took the gospel to Jews and to Gentiles and to kings because he was willing to take risks. Jesus, of course, who left heaven, who lived as a man, who gave up his own life and died on a cross in the hopes that he would see God and in the hopes that he would save mankind. He was a risk taker. These are visionary people. Compare these people with the one talent man in that parable of Jesus, who, unlike the other two servants, who doubled their talents because they were willing to go out there and trade and work with it.

He didn’t work with it at all. He buried his one talent. You might say he was a caretaker instead of a risk taker. It’s a caretaker to his fortune and an undertaker of his soul. Really, there are three types of people as you think about planning for the future. There are the caretakers, there are the undertakers, and there are the risk takers. The caretakers say things like, Well, we’ve never done it that way before. I don’t want to rock the boat. We’ve got our traditional way of doing things, and I don’t want to step outside of that traditional way, because that’s, I think, the best way to go about doing this. You’ve got the undertakers who just destroy any new idea. Well, that idea might not be a bad idea, but that’ll never work here.

But we could never do that. Then you’ve got the risk takers who say things like, Well, if this is the right thing to do, if this is scriptural, and if it’s the thing God wants us to do, then we’re going to find a way to do it. No matter how hard it is, no matter how much effort it takes, no matter how much pain it requires. That’s what the risk taker says. And that’s the attitude that we all need to have. So, what makes the difference between these three types of people? It’s vision. The risk taker is able to look and see the goal that he has for the future of where he wants to bring his life or help others to bring their lives or move the church along.

And he sees a goal that is always upward, always moving, is never stagnant. Paul had that attitude in the famous passage in Philippians 3, beginning verse 12. Not that I’ve already attained, he’s in the context there speaking of the resurrection. Not that I’ve already attained to the resurrection, or am already perfected or completed. But I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize or the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. Now, certainly we see the need to have that attitude in our personal lives that we need to say, you know what?

I am not there yet. Even the apostle Paul. He said, I’m not there. I haven’t reached the pinnacle yet. I’m not, I’m not done. You know. You ever see somebody that exercises all the time and they’re really in shape and all they do is continue to exercise. And you say, What are you doing? You’re done. You’ve already reached it. Sometimes we might begin to think of ourselves as, well, I’ve kind of done really good. I’m done. I don’t think you ever think that. But maybe we think that as a group. This is a good group. I am so blessed to be in the South Bummy congregation. I’ve told you that from day one. It’s a blessing to be here. I feel unworthy to be able to stand before you, but I’m thankful.

And this is an encouraging group. You hear that from so many people. And especially the 11 o’clock hour, we can become spoiled because we say, look at this place. It’s packed. Whatever we’re doing, it’s working. And in a lot of ways, you’re absolutely right. We have great leadership. We have excellent deacons. We have excellent classes and class teachers. And a lot of people behind the scenes doing a lot of things that we don’t see. There’s a lot of things that are going on here that are great and that are good, but if you’re not careful, as you think about that, you become complacent. Instead, we need to, as a group, have this attitude. We have not already attained. We have not become perfected. We have not apprehended.

But one thing we do, we don’t look behind. We reach forward to what’s ahead and press forward as a group to reach high, higher goals than what we have reached before. And we can do that. Amen. We can do that. And I believe we must. Really, two things about there’s two aspects of vision here. One is a grateful appreciation of what has been, and secondly, a realistic dream of what could be. That’s what Paul had. A realistic dream of what could be. You think of Nehemiah when he came and saw the walls in Jerusalem, that he was to, of course, help to get the people to rebuild. He was to lead that effort. He was a visionary thinker. He didn’t really see fallen walls when he saw them.

He saw them finished. And he moved everybody along to see that dream through to its completion. So what we have to do is, in a way, we have to see the finished product in our mind and then work to that end. Before I press on to what I just put on the screen, Robert Kennedy famously said, some look at things the way they are and ask why. I look at things the way they could be and ask, why not? And that’s what we need to ask. Why not? Why can’t this church double in size? Why not? And not for the sheer importance of having numbers, but for saving souls and for reaching out to this community. Now, all of that was basically a very long introduction.

1. Dependence Versus Detachment

But they’ve got me timed, and so I have to stop at a certain time. So the rest of our lesson is going to be four keys to renewing your mind about leadership. These are four keys to visionary thinking. And the first of these is dependence versus detachment. Dependence versus detachment. So often we think that we can accomplish things if we are by ourselves and detached from the rest of the group. But the true visionary and the true Christian realizes that he cannot accomplish anything significant all alone. He needs the help of others, and the others is the local church. We need to be dependent on one another. We all know the acrostic of team. Together everyone achieves more. And this is certainly a biblical concept. In Philippians 1 and verse 27, Paul writing to that church said, Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

It’s a good definition for a mission of the church, isn’t it? Striving together with one mind for the faith of the gospel. Because when we strive together, more happens than when we’re all scattered and doing our own thing. You need the help of others. John Wooden, famous UCLA basketball coach, and I really know nothing about sports, so this is all new to me. But some of you probably have heard of John Wooden. He’s dead now, but he had ten NCAA championships in twelve years. When he was asked about one of the principles of his success, he said, the guy who puts the ball through the hoop has ten hands. It’s because it takes every player on the court to put that ball through the hoop every time.

And so we need to realize that whatever is accomplished here as a group, it’s not because of one or two people who are working, it’s all of us who are working together, and you need the help of others in order to accomplish those things. No matter who you are, no matter how talented you are, um, or capable you are, or spiritually minded you are, or independent you are, you need everybody else here. You may not even realize it. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 is dealing with this idea of supernatural gifts and the jealousy that was kind of going on between a lot of the members there at Corinth. They were, you know, with the attitude of some people thought, well, if I don’t have that supernatural gift, then I’m not as good as that person, and I wish I had that gift.

And the person who had that gift was saying, Well, they’re surely not as good as me, because I’ve got the best gifts. And that was sort of the attitude. There was this arrogance and jealousy going on. And in part of Paul’s dealing with that, he said, beginning verse 21, that and the I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Or again, the head to the foot, I have no need of you. On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor. And our less presentable members become much more presentable. Have you ever, you know, stubbed your toe?

Like hard. Maybe even broken it. You learn really quick how important toes are. I don’t mean just your foot. I mean the toe. And it might have been the little toe, the little pinky toe. And you begin to realize I need every single one of them toes down there. And I need them to all work properly in order for the functioning of the rest of my body here. And so we as a group, we need to realize that every member brings something to the table that is valuable. And sometimes it is that little pinky toe who’s over here doing something that not is not praised and recognized publicly, but that is vital. Just like my granny, you know, at Thanksgiving dinner, who’s running around behind the scenes in the kitchen.

You might not see her, but she’s doing stuff. And it’s very, very important. It requires humility to accept that you need the help of others. Up in Monticello, uh, through God’s grace, I was able to convert a man whose name was Chuck. He was the father of the boy with cerebral palsy, Ethan, that I was telling you about earlier. And you would never have expected this guy to be converted. I mean, he was a Harley Davidson kind of man. He owned one, actually. He looked like he could have been on the cast of Duck Dynasty, you know, he had the big long beard and uh the personality of uh of those guys, too. He was just very dry and country. And I just thought, you know, I don’t know if he’s really going to be receptive.

And he was, after hearing Ken Craig present the big picture of the Bible, he was on fire. And he got baptized and began trying to convert one of his sons, his other son, Travis, who lived in Texas. And was telling him, at least start going to church. And Travis was saying, I don’t really need to go to church to worship God. I can just worship God, you know, on my own. Don’t a lot of people tell themselves that? They sure do. And Chuck’s response I thought was very good. He said, Well, you know, it’s a lot easier to serve God when you’re surrounded by other people who believe the same as you do. I thought that was a very wise response. And it is. It’s a lot easier.

2. Mission Versus Maintenance

But it takes humility to admit I need these people. I can’t do this all alone. It takes humility to accept that. So, dependence versus detachment. The second key to visionary thinking is mission versus maintenance. A visionary thinker always has a goal and has a mission before him that is clearly defined and that he is always moving towards. The Christian has the mission of the church and this kingdom agenda that is inspiring and motivating and that moves us along in our Christian lives. It’s not simply about marking the status quo. But that’s so often what happens within a church of the Lord’s people. Mission versus maintenance. What is our mission? You might say, you know, what’s the number one goal of any Christian? What would naturally be the answer?

Heaven. Heaven. That’s what we’re all about. And as a group, that is our goal. But not only to get ourselves to heaven, our goal is also to bring as many people with us as we can. Why did Jesus come to earth? He said, why in Luke 19 and verse 10? And I think I heard somebody say in the answer. With Zacchaeus, he said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That’s why he came. To seek and to save others. And so that’s what we need to be about. When I used to put the boys to bed when they were little, this is back when we lived in Monticello, and I’ve recently started this back up. I mean, very recently.

I would ask them after I’d hugged them and kissed them goodnight and done their Bible stories and everything. As I was walking out the door, I’d say, what’s the number one goal? And they would say, at least Tywood. I can’t remember if Stone was really old enough to be responding to this or not. To go to heaven. And I would say, what’s the number two goal? Bring as many people with us as we can. And brother, we need to keep that before us in our personal lives and as a group of God’s people that our number one goal is to go to heaven. And what’s our number two goal? Bring as many people with us as we can. And so it is growth. Numeric growth, yes.

But you know what? Sometimes numeric growth is not legitimate growth. Sometimes it is simply swinging as other Christians move into the area. That happens here a lot. Legitimate growth is the conversion of souls. That’s the kind of growth that we’re really interested in. We welcome the other, but we really want the adding of souls to the kingdom. But numeric growth is not even where it stops. The growth that we’re after is spiritual growth. And this is what Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter 4 and the reading that John did.

So here’s all these roles of leadership. For what purpose? Verse 12, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

The growth that’s being spoken of there, and that word is in that passage twice, is not talking about numeric growth. It is talking about inward growth, the growth of the inner man, spiritual growth. As we become more and more like Jesus as a group in our unified whole as we move toward that goal of knowing Christ. This mission that we’re talking about is not some South Bumby agenda. It’s not some agenda that your preacher said, now that’s something I think is a good idea, and so I’ll do it because I thought it was a good idea. What we’re talking about here is a kingdom agenda. The agenda of the kingdom of God that we need to be about. Jesus taught to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done.

On earth as it is in heaven. By the way, I think that’s saying the same thing twice. Your kingdom come, your will be done. The will of God is for his reign to be over all things. And really that’s what the kingdom is. It is the reign of God. And I realize the kingdom came in Acts chapter 2, but there’s a sense in which we need to pray that this kingdom, and I think we need to pray it often because it was part of the model prayer to pray that this kingdom would thrive and that we could be a part of that growth process. We as a local church are an outpost of the kingdom of God. To be light to a world of darkness, and to show to the world a contrast, that you don’t have to live in darkness, that you can live this way, and you can pursue a high and a noble cause to the glory of God, and to internalize the reign of God in our own lives as the kingdom of God dwells within us.

In a very general way, that’s what the mission of the church is. We simplify it too much when we say benevolence edification evangelism. And that’s true, but that’s more in terms of how we spend the Lord’s money. But the overarching mission of the church is to glorify God by spreading his kingdom. By the way, when Ty was little, I thought this was sweet. After I would say the first two goals, putting him to bed, go to heaven, help others go to heaven, he said, I want to add a third one. I said, What’s that, buddy? He said, give glory to God. And you talk about being a proud father of a four-year-old who tells you that needs to be one of your goals. So we added that one on the end.

3. Involvement Versus Inactivity

And we would say something like, What’s the overarching goal? Or what’s the most important goal? To give glory to God. And that is done when we as the Lord’s people are striving for the mission, the high and noble purpose for which he has called us. So mission versus maintenance. Thirdly, involvement versus inactivity. I’m going to move along a little quicker now. Involvement versus inactivity. Risk takers do more than dream, they act. In Proverbs chapter 20 and verse 5, a plan in the heart of a man is like deep water. But a man of understanding draws it out. Don’t you like that verse? I mean, everybody has dreams and high aspirations for this or that, but few people act on those aspirations and actually fulfill those goals.

And so what we as a body of the Lord’s people need to do is be people of understanding who draw those plans out of that deep water and make it happen. Earlier I talked about the fact that you need others. But the converse of that is also true. Others need you. We all need each other to be acting. God appointed leaders to equip the saints for the work of service, as I talked about earlier. The leaders are not here to do the work for the church. We are here to put tools in your backpack so that you can go out and in whatever situation you can take those tools out and you have them to use at your disposal to equip the saints for the work.

That means every one of us need to be doing what? Working. That’s exactly right. God expects every joint, every individual part to cause the growth of the body. And that’s the only way that it’s going to happen is if we’re all working together, if we’re involved in the work here as a group.

As we think about a church being a building.

What we’re in is not the church right now. This is brick and mortar. I like on the Kirkland website. They have a picture of the members. And every year they update that. Because the church is a living organism that is growing and changing. It is not a building. And so every last person is important. Sometimes we might tend to think of the church in some sort of corporate sense where you’ve got the elders as the CEOs and you’ve got, you know, the deacons as the managers or the preachers as the managers or what be it. And maybe the teachers are the shift managers or on down until you’ve got those down here that don’t teach and that don’t do this or that. And what do we do?

Well, I guess we’re just not that important. See, we need to be careful that we don’t think of it as some hierarchy, but we need to think of it as a circle of caring fellowship. Where yes, you have shepherds and you have preachers and you have deacons, but you also have the new converts and you have the encouragers and you have the family members and the work that the women do that is so important. And we all work together in this body and this sense of belonging. Every member is important, this sense of being a circle where we look to one another’s needs and we care for one another’s needs, and we work together as a living organism as the reign of Christ takes over our heart and soul.

4. Thermostats Versus Thermometers

That’s what the kingdom of heaven in a true church of Christ ought to be all about. Amen. So involvement versus inactivity. My final point, and I never give us 10 minutes, so you’ll have to break fast once we break. Is thermostats versus thermometers. I told you this is out of my normal style. I don’t usually like these cute little phrases and stuff. But maybe it’ll help you. What is a thermostat? Well, uh, a thermostat is a device that actually controls the environment. It influences the environment and brings it up to where it wants to be. Whereas thermometer simply conforms to the environment. So as a Christian, we are to be thermostats, not thermometers. We are not to conform. Of course, the famous passage in Romans 12 and verse 2.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that’s what we’re trying to do this morning. It’s trying to renew our minds so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So don’t be conformed. We are to impact this world. As Jesus famously said, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

That needs to be what we’re about. Influencing the world around us as a group of God’s people. Neutrality is not an option. Jesus said, He who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather with me scatters abroad. So there is no middle ground. You’re either doing it or you’re not. Edmund Burke said there is only one thing necessary for evil to triumph, and that is for good men and women to stand by and do nothing. One preacher talked about looking at tracts in a church building where he was visiting, and beside these tracts about how to be saved, there was one entitled What to Do to Go to Hell. And he thought, that’s interesting. Opened it up, and it was totally blank.

Conclusion

Let him who has ears to hear. Hear. And so that’s what happens when we do nothing. We are simply conforming to this world around us and letting it influence us. So here we have the four keys to visionary thinking dependence versus detachment, mission versus maintenance, involvement versus inactivity, and thermostats versus thermometers. Let’s be sure that we as a people of God are thinking about our future. Not only our own personal future and our eternal future, but as a group, that we think about where is this group headed? And are we going to participate in what the leaders of this church are going to present as goals for this church to accomplish? And I think you will participate in that. And I’m grateful for that. Would you bow your head with me in a word of prayer?

Our Father, our God, we thank you and praise you. Thank you for your grace when we have not been active, and we pray that you will strengthen us to be visionary thinkers and to be risk takers and to accomplish your will and your purpose in our lives. Through your Son we pray. Amen. At this time we’ll break for our Bible classes and we’ll reconvene at 11 for worship.