NL Sermon 10.2.2022
Scripture: Nehemiah 1
Title: Vision
Speaker: Eric Not
1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.
Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
Now I was cupbearer to the king.
INTRODUCTION
We will talk about our church’s vision and we are
But today I want to talk about how to build your own vision for life
[1] VISIONING
“Everybody ends up somewhere in life. A few people end up somewhere on purpose. Those are the ones with vision.” – (Andy Stanley, Visioneering)
Wow. Powerful.
Everybody ends up somewhere in life. Does this quote make sense? I know it’s the morning/afternoon and you might still be waking up. But think about that statement.
Everybody ends up somewhere. We all have a destination we are heading to in life.
Illustration: You all ever see that thing called a “Lazy River”? All the water parks around the country usually have a lazy river. In fact I think over here in Lynnwood, they have this little indoor swimming pool. But they also have a few water slides and a lazy river. It’s called the Lazy River because basically you do nothing. You can just float, and the river will take move you sort of like a water conveyor belt if you would because there is a current in the water. And that water will take you wherever it decides to take you. If you stay still and do nothing, the lazy river has a current that will take you wherever it is that it wants you to go. But every now and again, I like to have some fun and go counter to the current. Everyone is flowing one way, but I like to be a rebel and I swim against the current. And sometimes if it’s a really nice lazy river. It takes a lot of effort to swim against the current. If you’re lazy you are taken. If you work hard you can swim against it.
“Everybody ends up somewhere in life. A few people end up somewhere on purpose. Those are the ones with vision.” – Andy Stanley
The world has a current. And if you’re lazy it will pull you in any direction it so desires, which is why Andy Stanley says that everybody ends up somewhere.
And this is why living like the world lives is so easy. And this is also why living for Christ is so difficult. Because you have swim up against the currents of our culture.
If you follow the patterns and the currents of the world…guess what? You’ll end up in death. Not that you will literally die. But rather spiritually your life will be filled with the fruits of death. Enslavement. And perhaps even eternal spiritual death if you follow the currents of the world.
But if your vision is guided by Christ himself, he will lead you to paths of still water. In other words, he will lead you to life and freedom.
James Clear a leadership guru says this “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Huh?
Meaning this: Let’s just say you have a factory that produces tires. All the systems and the robotic arms are geared toward making tires for cars. But one day you decide as the President and CEO of this factory that you want the factory to now make micro-processing chips for computers. And you will it super hard. And you’re like cmon! Let’s make it. Well that will never change what you produce. Because no matter how badly you want it, your factory systems are designed to pump out tires. If you want to produce micro-chips you have to change your systems.
In the same way, if you follow the systems and patterns of the world, well you’re going to produce what the world produces, and scripture tells us all that the world produces is darkness and death. (Not saying that non-Christians can’t do good. I’m just saying if we follow the culture and patterns of the world our lives will produce fruits of darkness and death)
This is why although we are technologically advanced and have cures for so many diseases, and have been able to save lives, the suicide rates keep climbing year over year.
Our culture is filled with so much outrage and self-righteousness
Our culture is filled with dreams of more so much so that you go into debt to acquire more
Our culture is filled with exclusivity. That if you’re not in my camp your outside my camp. I’m blue and if you’re not blue politically I cancel you. I’m red politically if you’re not red, I don’t want a friendship with you woke person.
Our culture is filled with cancel culture, which in essence is an inability to forgive. And this happens on both sides of the aisle by the way.
Our culture is all about consuming and buying and buying. So much so that you have to work more to consume more. And you never get to enjoy the things you actually buy. And so you have to buy a special storage space to fill up that place with all the things you bought but never got to use. And your filled with stress and anxiety because you don’t know how you can work and take care of all your stuff.
And if you find your life filled with outrage, self-righteousness, stress, debt, exclusivity. Unforgiveness, bitterness,
Than it’s because the systems of your life are producing it.
This is why the Proverbs says people without vision perish. Because you’ll just coast and follow the patterns of the world.
And what will help us to swim against the current, is vision.
Illustration: Go back to the lazy river illustration. My son Josiah and I were going around the lazy river. I happened to go in front of him. And he was on one of those tube things. And the tube thing capsized and he can’t swim. And when I saw that, I now had a vision. I now had a purpose. I now had the motivation to swim up against the current and to go and save him.
And similar a vision will help us to swim against the current.
Because God does have a vision for all of us.
And his vision is for us to participate in his kingdom and to expand his kingdom that is counter cultural. Counter current. It is an upside down kingdom, where up is down and down is up.
Last week we talked about how Nehemiah is a failed attempt at Revival. And if you have not listened to week one of this vision series, please go back to our podcasts or YouTube Channel to listen to week one.
And last week, we I brought up this quote by Bill Maher an Atheist Comedian. “we’re just looking to kill time till we die. That’s all life is. There is no man in the sky. And this is one of the ways I’ve chosen to kill time [speaking of watching football].” – Bill Maher
And if you were here last week or listened to the sermon last week, I want to try and clarify what I meant by this quote. I don’t believe that we’re literally just waiting to die.
But the reason why I mentioned this quote is because we are visionless. Purposeless. Wandering our lives without any purpose in it. And we live like Atheists. Atheists have no vision or purpose. And if they do, they have to understand that that purpose is manufactured. And I think Bill Maher is being real about that. That if you’re an atheist, you can’t really have this deep significant purpose. And he’s okay with that. But he’s stating the obvious. That if there is no man in the sky (AKA GOD). There is no purpose to life. Everything is random. Thus just live aimlessly. Just find the next best thing to do to bring pleasure to your life and that’s really all life is.
And what I was trying to argue for last week, is that we sort of live the same way. Purposeless. Aimless.
And yet do you know that we worship a God of vision?
He wants you to have a vision for your life.
He wants you to have a clear vision of your life
Think about the Gospels. What healing does Jesus do a lot of?
Healing the sight of the blind.
Why do you think he does so many of those miracles?
I’ll tell you. It’s because he’s saying I not only give physical sight, but you are to be people with incredible vision and clarity and purpose for your lives.
This is why Jesus says that Christians are light lamps. This is why we are called to walk in the light.
This is why the Bible describes the world as being in darkness
We are called to have a vision for our lives.
And one of the great things about the book of Nehemiah is that he is truly a great leader.
And there are so many leadership principles.
And one of the principles we learn here is how do we get a vision for our lives from God.
And if you’ve ever wondered, how do I get a clear vision for my life, I think Nehemiah gives us some very practical tools on how to do that. Especially here in the first chapter.
So let’s finally turn our attention to Nehemiah 1
[2] BREAKING
I love starting with the end. Look at the end of Nehemiah 1:11b “Now I was cupbearer to the king.
Every scholar I read, sort of almost laughs at the ending.
Because it sort of this twist in the story.
Nehemiah is praying. And in the prayer he’s worshipping God. He’s repenting for his sins. The sins of the people. And towards the end of the prayer he’s like God give me success. And you’re wondering. Hmm…Like what kind of success. Look here 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today
Ok, nice. You want success. Ok what kind of success? And then all of a sudden he brings up this man. And you’re like okay. He wants success in the sight of this man. , and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
And you’re like what man? Which man?
And then he ends with this climactic sort of plot twist.
“Now I was cupbearer to the king”
Oh! I see, the king! He wants success with the king.
What we’re going to find out next week when we explore chapter 2 of Nehemiah is that this task of talking with the king was an extremely dangerous task. Nehemiah was going to put his life on the line for this vision of success that God had given to him.
And yet one of the things that find fascinating is that Nehemiah already had success, in a worldly sense. And yet he was willing to sacrifice that success in order for a different kind of success.
See being cupbearer to the king sounds like a lowly position to us. Sounds like he was a glorified waiter to the king.
But this position of cupbearer, was one of prominence.
Most likely Nehemiah lived a nice comfortable life being cupbearer to the king. He was protected. He lived in safety.
Wherever the king went he went which meant he most likely lived pretty nicely.
In fact Susa the citadel isn’t the capital of Persia. It’s the palce where Persians Kings would retreat to during the winter months. So he was in paradise.
And yet he would end up sacrificing all of this comfort and success for a different success.
What would drive someone to do something like this? Vision.
Look at verses 2-3 “2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
We aren’t a hundred percent sure why the walls of Jerusalem are broken down and its gates are on fire. It can’t be from the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. But most likely Ezra 4:7-23 are here in light. In Ezra 4:7-23 there is a story in which the Israelite folks make a plea to King Artaxerxes, the new Persian King to rebuild the walls. Because the walls had not been rebuilt since the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. But in a nutshlell that bid is promptly and swiftly crushed by “force and power” the scriptures tell us. And thus the walls and gates of Jerusalem are broken down and its gates on fire.
And now look at verse 4
4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
This news crushed Nehemiah’s heart. It broke his heart.
Now I think for so many of us, we have a hard time wrapping our minds around why this could have broken Nehemiah so much that he mourned and fasted for this long. But the walls broken down and the gates on fire mean that Jerusalem was all alone. Disarmed. No one to protect her. Defenseless.
Let me try and put it like this Illustration: Ezekiel when we lost him. He was defenseless. Left on his own and this caused panic.
What would cause someone to sacrifice their success for a different kind of success?
What would cause someone to swim upstream and do the kinds of thing that the world would never do? Because the world would have told Nehemiah stay in your comforts. Yea Jerusalem is in Ruins, but your in Susa the citadel. You’re hanging out. You’re having a good time. Don’t worry about that.
Vision.
And how do you get that vision?
Calling.
And how do you get that calling?
I think sometimes we think, Oh God will place something on my heart. Something I enjoy doing. Like I love children, so God will give me a vision for doing children’s ministry. Or I love playing the guitar, so God will give me a vision for joining the worship band. That’s my vision.
But actually the greatest visions arise out of our mourning. Over what breaks our hearts.
Listen to what Andy Stanley goes on to say in his book Visioneering, “in fact, for anyone trying to clarify the right vision to pursue, a good question to ask is simply this: “What breaks my heart?” Most social reform movements that I have made a positive impact in the world began with a brokenhearted leader. I think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his heart for the oppressed and black America. Every significant nonprofit organization that has positively impacted this world again with the brokenhearted leader. I think of the young man Bob Pierce in China, where in an impoverished woman showed him an abandoned child and asked, quote what are you going to do?” Bob Pierce, heartsick, gave this woman his last five dollars and agreed to provide the same amount every month so the woman could care for the child. He then went on to found World Vision so the same kind of help could be offered to needy children around the globe.”
What breaks your heart? This is where visions are forged. In the fires of agony where you mourn and weep over some kind of brokenness or injustice.
I’m going to say something now, but stay with me. Because it’s going to sound cold and calloused. But stay with me and let me finish. Because what I’m going to say is so unique to our modern day context. I wouldn’t say this at any other time in history. But I think in our day and age with social media, this needs to be said.
I think finding that thing that breaks our heart is so difficult in this day and age because we are told by social media primarily that in order to be a good person you have to care about all the things that are on social media. Your heart has to break for every single of the causes listed on social media. So if you don’t share that post, than your are committing violence. Because as we know silence is violence. In other words, we are told by culture that we have to care about everything in order to prove to be good people.
And if we’re honest. If I’m honest, that leaves most of us overwhelmed.
We can’t care about everything, so we end up caring about nothing.
And this one of the reasons why I stopped social media.
I stopped social media, because I wanted people to stop telling me about what should and shouldn’t break my heart. I wanted God to direct my heart. Not people that I don’t really know that much about.
I know this sounds cold and callous, but its better to care for one thing so passionately and to be called to that thing so passionately, than try to care about everything and in the end really doing nothing. In fact, I know so many of us resort of escapism and escapist types of activities like drinking, marijuana usage, video game playing, going down YouTube rabbit holes, watching and vegging out on Netflix. All in the name of escaping this world that constantly bombards us with messages that we have to be active in everything to be a moral person.
That’s not to say that many different things can’t make you sad and angry and cause your moral muscles to fire.
But I just want us to notice that this over active amount of caring that is almost imposed on us, leaves us to do this thing called virtue signaling, to just show that we are moral people but we end up never working for anything of substance.
And I want you to know that if you want to cultivate a vision for your life, it will require a focus and a clarity.
But look this is why vision matters. Because vision will provide you focus and clarity.
Illustration: Imagine a potter. Who has three things to make, but only an hour to do so. Either they can only make one thing well. Or they will make sort of three things that are not so good. Or they might get so overwhelmed because they know its impossible that they won’t even try.
This is why in Psalm 90, one of the few Psalms written by Moses he says this “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” In other words the person that understands that they have a limited amount of time and resources is at the heart of wisdom.
We don’t have unlimited amounts of time and energy. We can only really focus in on one thing in our lives anyhow. And this is why wisdom matters.
Paul was called to the Gentiles not to the Jews! Craz
Jesus was called to the lost children of Israel. If you remember the story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman. He didn’t preach to the Gentiles. In addition Jesus came to die on a cross and to forgive the world of its sins and to usher in God’s kingdom. But he was not there to tear down all the systems and governmental structures of his day though we could make an argument that Rome was evil.
Peter was called to the Jews and not to the Gentiles.
Jesus was infinite and yet finite. He was 100 infinite and 100 percent finite.
And he was teaching us that we are too.
And so what breaks your heart?
In fact lets ask the question: What does it feel like for God to break your heart?
“If it is God who has begun painting a picture of what could and should be on the canvas of your heart comma overtime you will begin to sense that not to follow through would be tantamount to an act of disobedience.” – Andy Stanley
Illustration: I remember there was a season where I came across this random guy’s story. Meaning I had no attachments. I did not know this particular individual. He was recently married. 33 years old. And he was diagnosed with cancer. His wife had started a blog. And I came across it randomly because I was on another church’s website and they had highlighted this particular man because he was a member in fact a worship leader at their church. And I remember for some reason God broke my heart. I don’t know why. I’ve heard so many stories of people getting cancer. And cancer is heartbreaking. But this one shattered me. I couldn’t shake it. I remember crying for them. And I even remember thinking, why? Like I don’t even know him. But I just couldn’t shake it. Over the next several weeks, I would regularly cry for this couple. And I would pray for his healing. I distinctly remember, a time when I just walked around the church office of the church that I was serving at the time, and just weeping for 30 minutes. In fact I felt bad when I didn’t pray for them. God kept bringing them to my mind. At the time, I was a poor seminarian. And every dollar mattered. In fact I remember when I went on my first date with my wife. I took her to a shooting range. Please don’t ask me why I did this. I was young and not bright. They gave me the total and it came out to $60. I still remember the price. Because my jaw dropped. $60! I couldn’t afford $60. So I looked at Jessica and I did the most ridiculous thing, I asked if she could pay for half! All that to say, I felt God asking me to donate money to them. And I remember giving to them like $30-$50 something like that. But I remember thinking this was a large amount of money. But it felt like I had to. I remember feeling like if I don’t do this, I‘m disobeying God.
[3] WAITING
So what? Now. God breaks my heart. That’s it. But Eric my heart does indeed break for so many things. How can I narrow it down to the one thing?
Wait.
Time.
Notice Nehemiah’s first action
Its inaction.
It’s nothing
It’s waiting.
Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel
In chapter 2 it says “In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes,”
So Nehemiah gives us the times to when his heart first broke till when he actually acted on it.
They are saying November of 446 BC. Winter time that’s why they are in Susa the citadel. Winter Retreat for Kings of Persia.
And in chapter two its roughly April of the following year 445 BC.
That’s 6 months.
He was around the king constantly. Serving him wine. Tasting the wine so It’s not poisoned. But also making sure the wine was actually good wine. Not sour or rotten or bitter. But sweet tasty delicious wine.
And yet never once did Nehemiah act
He waited.
“I talked to a lot of people with a lot of good ideas. In many instances I sense God is in the process of birthing a vision in their hearts. In almost every case, they are ready to start now! Once they feel their ideas are from God, they assume all systems are go and they need to quit their jobs, step out on faith, and begin. But the story of Nehemiah, along with numerous other biblical counts, illustrates the truth that a clear vision does not necessarily indicate a green light to begin. In fact, I have witnessed a good many people with what seemed to be God-ordained visions charge out of the starting gates too early period and the result is always the same. Failure. Discouragement. Disillusionment. A vision rarely requires immediate action. It always requires patience.” – Andy Stanley
Why wait? – (1) Maturation
Illustration: Pregnancy. We need the new baby to what? Mature. If it we give birth to it too soon, the baby is not mature enough to withstand the surrounding environment.
Although our church is simple, did you know anyone and anyone can start a ministry at our church. We have a ministry application form. And so we are in process with some men who want to start a men’s ministry. And it’s great. This is something we used to do at my former church as well. We want to keep things simple at our church, but also give room for God to move his Spirit. So many times I’ve seen it people are passionate about something at church. And want to start a ministry. Which is great. But then after a year maybe even several months it fizzles away. And the ministry doesn’t have steam. And it dies. Even sometimes, people want to become CG leaders or volunteer and they were motivated by a sermon and they end up fizzling out.
Illustration: Tyler. He’s been volunteering in youth ministries for many years. He’s a young guy but he started basically as soon as he came to college. And he’s been through the ups and downs of it. And this is why when we started talking about him doing youth ministry at our church. He said to me. I think I’m called to youth ministry. Not ministry, but just youth ministry. He was like, I think I’m going to do this for the rest of my life. And I was like, “Yes”. That’s a vision that had time. And this is why Tyler didn’t have to convince me that this burden of Youth Ministry
The vision not only needs to mature, but so does the person.
Illustration: I often wonder why God made pregnancy 9 months. Its like super excited! Pregnant. Pregnant. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. And more waiting. And I often times think God is maturing the new parents.
Because what you’ll find is that not only birthing the vision, but actually executing the vision will take an immense amount of pain and sacrifice.
I want you to notice what Nehemiah prays for. We won’t go into the Nitty Grittys. But big sweeping movements of Nehemiah’s prayer
Look at what he says in that middle portion. Verse 6b – 7a
“6b confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you.”
He’s coming to recognize the problem for why the walls of Jerusalem are broken down, but he’s maturing and realizing that he himself is part of the problem. He’s seeing the ways he’s contributed
I think recently God has moved my heart to want to deepen people’s relationship with Christ.
Our mission is to be a “Christ-Centered Community”. And as this vision began to mature in me. I realized I was part of the problem. In fact maybe I’m the problem. Maybe I’m the lid.
I was reading a book by John C. Maxwell, a leadership guru and pastor. And he has this book called “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”. Its one of his best books. Because basically its his highlights. It’s the leadership principles tha the says are like laws of nature. Irrefutable and constant. And the first law is the Law of the Lid.
“leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness. The lower an individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid on his potential.”
In other words, your organization will only grow to it’s leaders capacity.
In other words, if you are a leader, you are the lid. You are always the lid.
And when I started processing this in light of having people go deeper with Christ, I realized that my spiritual growth is the lid. That if I can’t go deeper, we won’t go deeper.
And through this process of vision casting for our church, God has been challenging and maturing me to a deeper relationship with him.
And the same will be true for you. As God gives you the vision, he will then equip you and mature so that whether or not you succeed in fulfilling this vision, you will be equipped to either fulfill the vision or to deal with the loss of that particular vision.
Why Wait – (2) Alignment with God
“O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments” – Neh 1:5
His plan has to bring God glory
His vision, cannot be a vision to enrich himself. His vision cannot be a vision that will make him feel better about himself because he is a more moral person
But the vision has to be purely motivated for God’s awesomeness and glory
My hope is to not teach you how to vision cast for your own gain and success, though I think an argument can be made that the principles in Nehemiah could be applied for worldly success.
But the hope is that you would be able to catch a vision from God for your life. That you would come to know why God placed you on planet earth
The Westminster Shorter Catechcism, a theological document this church aligns itself to, says this
Q. What is the chief end of man? A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
Our purpose in life is to glorify God. And our vision has to align with this purpose.
Why Wait? – (3) Prayer
Last thing in our waiting we must pray
The fact that Nehemiah goes first to prayer is astonishing.
To be honest for a long time, before my sermon prep I wouldn’t pray. I would just dive right into it. And it was revealing to where I thought the sermon would come from. You would think I’m about to do one of the most holiest things possible. Try to give people the word of God and I wouldn’t pray before writing. I did my devos, but I wouldn’t pray for the sermon to come. Why? Because I thought it came from my power, and my might. Not God’s
But the fact that Nehemiah takes time to pray first is revealing of who He is. See what’s interesting about Nehemiah is that God never speaks loudly here. He doesn’t split the red sea in the Book of Nehemiah. He doesn’t raise the dead back to life.
God never does some crazy miracle.
But it is evident in the book that God is working.
That God is setting everything up.
And in chapter 2 we will God’s hand moving to set up and to make Nehemiah’s vision come to fruition.
And similarly if we want to see our vision come about, we must pray.
How many of you pray for your non-Christian friends to come to know the Lord?
When Jesus Christ came. He did not live wandering around aimless. He came with great vision and purpose. In fact Jesus would use this phrase, “The hour is not yet.” The hour is here”. The hour. The hour.
And what this phrase is getting at is that our Jesus came with purpose and vision.
Luke tells us that Jesus matured.
Luke 2:52 “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man”
Stature comes from the word helikia which means to “Mature”.
This is why Jesus waited 30 years before starting his ministry. God had to mature him. Yes he was 100% God but he was also a 100% human. And I don’t know all the details of how that works out. But in some sense God had to mature Jesus to take on this vision.
In fact I often wonder why it took God thousands of years to send Christ to die. And it’s because God was patient to execute his vision
And when Jesus Christ came his mission was to ultimately glorify the father. Yes Jesus died for our sins. But it was to glorify the Father. Yes he ushered in God’s Kingdom but it was to glorify the Father.
And finally Jesus prayed. IN fact before he starts his ministry he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights being strengthened by the Spirit it says. Even before the cross, his hour, he prays.
And in order to execute his vision, Jesus had to sacrifice his riches. His comforts. His own throne and he had to ultimately sacrifice his life so that you and I can have life.
The beautiful thing about God’s glory is this, if you give life to others. You must die. But when you die to give life to others, you will glorify God.
When you feed the hungry. When you clothe the naked. When you adopt the orphan. When you befriend the widow. And you free the slave. You bring God glory when you point to Christ and you say, “He gave you life”
And here’s the thing Jesus, through his death on the cross, is bringing light into the world. IN fact John 1 says this that he is the “Light of life”
IN fact Luke 4 gives us Jesus’ essentially gives one of his first sermons and it’s a mic drop moment. He reads the passage from Isaiah and this is the scripture that Jesus reads, in other words, this is part of Jesus vision statement, “He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind” (Luke 4:18)
“20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”” – Luke 4:20-21
Mic Drop.
Shortest sermon ever, but the greatest sermon ever.
He’s saying I came to give sight.
And when Jesus Christ came he defeated all the powers of darkness, so that he could give us vision
In fact the book of Revelation says that Jesus will shine so brightly and give us so much vision that there will be no need of the sun because his glory shines.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. (Rev 21:23)
On the cross Jesus gave us vision. Light. And so friends lets not take advantage of that grace. But let’s pursue finding a vision for our lives. Amen.