Vision – how are YOU doing?
James 4:13-17
God calls the shots
Alvin Toffler, is a futurologist. He makes his money by studying trends in business, science and sociology and telling people what the future holds. This makes him very influential – some say that, after one or two people like Bill Gates, he is in the top five most influential people in the world [1] .
Toffler once wrote this: “Confident predictions about the future are amongst the most disreputable of all human utterance”. He is right, of course, and in this he merely echoes the words of James nineteen hundred years earlier:
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.
James 4:13-16
The moment a church like ours writes a vision statement or a strategic plan we are brought back to reality by this verse. “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?” It is a sobering question!
In obedience to this some Christians just don’t plan for the future and let things drift. This seems very ‘spiritual’ – we are trusting God to work without any help from us, planning and dreaming are the carnal methods of those seduced by the business world. Sometimes this laissez-faire attitude works, but mostly it doesn’t. Here’s a question, is this attitude really ‘spiritual’?
I don’t think so, because this is not what James is saying; look what he goes on the write, “What you should say is this, “If the Lord wants us to we will live and do this or that”. James tells us to make our plans but never forget that God is in control. Planning, dreaming and forming strategies are to be encouraged; they are very ‘spiritual’ activities, if they are done in the right spirit. We need a humble heart that is attentive to God’s will and guidance as we make our plans and move ahead.
You can plan your destiny, you can imagine your destiny but you cannot take control of your destiny because you do not know what will happen tomorrow. Only God is really in control. Our vision as a church is always going to be provisional because it is God who calls the shots.
God calls the shots… it struck me recently that all our dreaming and planning as a community will come to nothing unless every one of us buys into the great vision for which our Lord Jesus Christ became flesh and died on the cross.
So this morning, rather than re-visit our vision statement and score ourselves out of ten (we will do that sometime) let me ask you some questions:
- Do you have a vision for your life?
- Are you active in bringing that vision to fulfilment?
- Is that vision in agreement with God’s plan for the human race?
Get a vision for your life!
Recently, one of our international students sent a text to Cathie and I, “What is the purpose of your life?” she asked! Over the centuries Christians have tried to get a handle on this question, and I sent her my favourite definition from an old puritan document called the Westminster Shorter Catechism – “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever” [2] . Cathie came up with her own answer; “To learn to love God and live a fulfilled life that pleases him”. I think that is pretty good, don’t you?
I don’t know about you, but I am not that interested in a fancy theory that has no practical use. So my question about those neat statements is this, “If you are glorifying God and enjoying him; if you are loving him and pleasing him; what does it look like?”
What does it look like? That is what vision is – a picture in your mind of how things could look, how you could be. My answer is that I want to be the kind of person that other people look at and say, “I like that, I want what he’s got”
Everything we do to influence our city and bring people to faith in Jesus depends on this; you being the kind of person that others recognise as different and attractive and they want what you have got.
Can you make that your vision for your life; Being that kind of person? This is what the gospel should do to you. Don’t believe me, well look at the gospels. There’s a very important description of Jesus in Luke’s gospel. So brief you can easily miss it, so important that we cannot afford to.
Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.
Luke 2:52
Jesus was someone people respected and liked. I want to be like that, don’t you? But I know what you are thinking, “That was Jesus and he was special, I couldn’t do that!” Well take a look at Luke’s second book, the Acts of the Apostles. This is how he describes a group of ordinary Christians.
They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
Acts 2:46-47
The church grew because people were looking at the first Christians and saying, “I like that, I want what they have got!” No excuses you can do this too! Can I invite you to make this your personal vision for your life?
Bring your vision to fulfilment 
How do you learn to be that kind of person? There is an art to it, it can be learned. Here’s a clue in John’s account of Jesus ministry in Samaria.
The disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.” But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.” “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other. Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.
John 4:31-34
This is a strange passage isn’t it? What an odd thing to say.
Jesus had invited these people to follow him, spend time with him, watch him close-up and absorb his way of doing things in through the pores of their skin. They were his apprentices and spent three years working closely with him.
Throughout this time Jesus had a syllabus he was teaching them – it worked very well because in the end they had become the kind of people we are talking about. People looked at their lives and said, “I like that, I want to be like that”.
The syllabus was simple.
- First – they listened to God’s word, lots of it!
- Second – they learned to pray, fast, give – all the skills of Christian spirituality – so that they could enjoy the presence of God. As time went on they learned to appreciate the fact that Jesus was divine.
- Third – they were taught to practice what they learned in the service of others. They didn’t go to theological college, they were apprentices to an experienced practitioner [3] .
Jesus said that when you do this it is energising – it nurtures and sustains you even when you are knackered!
Ashley Liston is one of the busiest guys I know and during this last couple of years life in the National Health Service has been especially difficult for him. Every Thursday he shows up at Sunderland Free Church to set up for the Globe Café. He is honest about this, “Sometimes”, he told me once, “I just don’t want to go, I am tired, I want to go home and watch telly!” Yet every week he drives from his surgery to SFC, opens up and gets on with it. What he says about this is interesting, “I always go home after the Globe Café feeling that I have learned so much and enjoyed it so much – I wouldn’t have missed it for the world”
This is what Jesus was talking about when he told his disciples that he had food to eat that they knew nothing about, that his food was to do the will of the Father and to finish his work. Christian service sustains you… it energises and revives you.
Now, you have got to be sensible. Plan your lives so that you have time for word and worship as well as service. Plan in time for rest as well – don’t be a Sabbath breaker – you cannot sustain a spiritual life by being a workaholic. But if you want to grow, to enjoy the Christian life, get involved.
Some of us need to face this challenge because we have become inactive. We need to be part of a team of Christians that do the business come rain come shine, people who turn out because they are committed and reliable and who work with others to make things happen. It is work that refreshes your soul!
But what is the alternative? For most of us the alternative is not that great. We go home, switch on the telly and allow the world to pour its sewage into our minds and hearts. And we wonder why we are not happy!
This may come as a shock to you. No-one knows or cares what you believe or what you get up to on a Sunday. Jesus’ people only become visible when they do things – positive things that serve the world around them. That is when people notice.
Can I invite you to have a vision for your life… can I invite you to be active in bringing that vision to fulfilment?
Change your place of worship!
That’s right – go and worship somewhere else! All of you!
I was going into a beautiful little church in York recently and I noticed a sign on the door, it said, “You are now entering a place of worship – please respect this”. It was a lovely church and a very peaceful place, I was glad that the visitors there that afternoon respected the place; it was so peaceful. A place of worship; where is your place of worship?
Pete Chilvers told me recently about a church in London which displayed a similar sign at the door, “You are now entering a place of worship”. Except that the sign was on the inside of the door and you read it on your way out of the church! Some perceptive pastor had hit on a great idea to remind people that their lives were an act of worship to God.
Where is your place of worship? Sure we worship God here at the Stadium of Light, but when you leave where do you go? Wherever you go it is your place of worship.
If you see this simple point it will change everything! It will also change the way everybody sees you!
Take Brian Jones for example. He works for Northumbrian Water in a big office. Now imagine he drags himself unwillingly to work tomorrow and sits grumpily at his desk growling at people all day. Not an attractive prospect for the Kingdom of God is it? But imagine if tomorrow, as he slumps into his executive chair and he straightens up and says to himself, “This is my place of worship!” Do you think anything might change?
Take Denise Watson or example. She is a practise nurse in a busy surgery in Sunderland. Imagine Denise arriving in her consulting room on Monday morning and saying to herself, “This is my place of worship”. Do you think that might change anything?
Or think of Andrew Laws; he is training to be a cricket coach. He is going to spens hours teaching cricket to young lads and making friends with their parents. That is going to be his place of worship!
I am a kayak coach. When I lived in Leicester I remember dark winter evenings paddling in the dark along the Grand Union Canal sharing the gospel with people I couldn’t see! That was my place of worship!
You see, you worship here at the Stadium of Light for one and a half hours a week; you worship at work for five days a week. And when you are at work you are at church; you are our man or woman in that situation.
Maybe like me you are a CSI fan. The forensics team move into a crime scene and start taking samples, swabs, photographs, you name it. They have a motto, “Every contact leaves a trace” – the traces lead the CSI team, inevitably, to nail the bad guys! This is how Christian witness works, every contact leaves a trace – the fragrance of Jesus sticks to the hearts and minds of our colleagues and friends [4] .
All this happens out there in your place of worship.
Can I invite you to get a personal vision for your life, to take steps to bring that vision to fulfilment and to change your place of worship?
One last challenge…
Embrace ‘messy church’ 
There are two kinds of churches, tidy churches and messy churches. Let me explain! Many of us will not rest until every single activity is pinned down with a date, a time and a place. Everybody is on a rota of some kind and every week of the year is accounted for. This is good – we have to be organised – but in our instinct for organisation and planning we must not kill the passion for grabbing opportunities and seeing where they may lead.
A couple of friends of mine recently decided to get married and were looking for a venue for the reception. Money is tight and they approached a local church with nice facilities and asked of they could have the reception on their premises. The couple went to see the church and chat with the people there, but the conversation only lasted five minutes before the couple left.
The girl, you see, is from India. She pointed out that most of her family would be flying in for the wedding and that the food would be prepared by a local firm of Indian caterers. There was a pause. Then the church people explained that it would not be possible to host the reception because the smell of curry would linger in the kitchen and upset people on Sunday.
That’s tidy church!
Now don’t get me wrong, messy church is organised. It has to be more organised than tidy church because they are so switched on! But messy church grabs opportunities by the throat. Messy church says… Indians… curry… yum-yum! Messy church says, “Dozens of Hindus in our building – never mind the smell, let’s order some literature!”
Tidy church is only a few miles from here – I wonder if you can guess who it is!
I was reading a biography of President John F Kennedy recently and came across this:
"Creative governments will always be 'out of channels', they will always present aspects of confusion... they will always discomfort officials whose routine is being disturbed or whose security is being threatened. But all this is inseparable from the process by which new ideas and new institutions enable government to meet new challenges. Orderly governments are very rarely creative, creative governments are almost never orderly." [5]
I have found this to be true in the life of the church. Orderly churches are rarely creative, creative churches are almost never orderly’. That’s messy church!
‘Tidy church’ is about neat rows of bums on seats, ‘messy church’ will embrace a little discomfort (like the smell of curry) to grab an opportunity.
We are committed to finding a permanent home for the life and work of the fellowship. But we mustn’t let our longing for ‘tidy church’ push us into decisions we regret later. We have to be patient and wait upon the Lord for this, when the right opportunity comes along we will know it, there will be no mistake, we will hear the ‘click’!
Meanwhile, these are the good old days! One day we will look back and say, “Do you remember when we used to meet in the Stadium of Light?” Every month brings massive opportunities… let’s grab them with both hands.
So here’s the challenge this morning – I believe its God’s word to me and to you:
Get a vision for your life. Take steps to bring that vision to fulfilment. Change your place of worship (I bet you’ve already decided to do that!). Don’t expect ‘tidy church’… embrace ‘messy church’!
[1] He’s been at it for ages, his most famous book, Future Shock was written in 1970
[2] You ought to get hold of this and read it – it’s a gem! You will find it here - http://www.shortercatechism.com/
[3] You may detect a certain criticism of theology courses here – you’d be right.
[4] Honesty time – I nicked this illustration and the pictures from Mark Green of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity - http://www.licc.org.uk/
[5] Arthur Schleisinger Jnr. commenting on aspects of chaos in Kennedy's administration - to NY Times editor - Quoted in John F. Kennedy, an unfinished life, Robert Dallek