God’s Vision

As you’re taking a seat, I want to welcome you to the Broward Church. If you’re new here, you’ve chosen a great Sunday to first join us because today we’re going to talk about vision and we’re going to talk about our church and where we’re headed and the direction where we’re going. We have a lot to cover today. So I asked the worship team to open us up for some good songs and then for the rest of the time, you’re going to hear speakers, not just me, but other people in our church talking a little bit about who we are and what we do. And then we’ll close up with something that I hopefully will spark in you, some motivation and some direction about where we’re going. We’re calling today Vision Sunday. And today it’s significant because our hope is that this service can unite us, also give us some perspective and some focus about what God is calling us to do in his church here. When I think about the word vision, there’s a load of words that come to mind, but I want to tell you why we hold in such high esteem this idea of having, cultivating, and delivering a vision.

There’s things about vision that are very special. The first thing is that vision gives us significance. See, vision is the thing that gives significance to the otherwise mundane details of life. You can take the minutiae of this day and drop it into the cauldron of a God ordained vision, and all of a sudden there is significance. I think about a person building a house versus a person just laying bricks. The person building his own house feels this sense of pride in doing the same task as the person who is just laying bricks. Rather, the person who’s laying bricks doesn’t feel the sense of pride because there’s no significance in the work. But the second you say, Today, I’m building my own house, that brick laying process becomes something that is very valuable to the person. Vision brings that type of value to the mundane details of your life. It brings your world into focus. The outside fades and men and women are able to endure more and struggle more because they see on the horizon something that is great. Vision gives life significance. The other thing I’ve learned about vision is that vision is a great motivation.

With a healthy vision, you can suffer a little bit more, can’t you? You can deny yourself a little bit more. You can make more sacrifices. I think about the vision of someone who’s thinking, I want to get a college degree. I’m an adult person and I want to go back to school and get my Masters or my doctorate. You sacrifice a lot to finish school, don’t you? You’re striving for that piece of paper. You read books, you write essays, you abstain from things you could otherwise do that you would consider fun. You make hard decisions because there’s a sense of motivation about where you’re going. Tell the person at the end of the day, you don’t get anything for reading all these things, and you don’t get anything for writing all these papers, and you don’t get anything for sacrificing, and all of a sudden, no one wants to put in the work anymore. Vision is a great motivator. Also, I’ve learned this about vision that it provides purpose. Vision prioritizes your values. Vision brings what’s most important to the surface. Vision makes you more purposeful, and it gives you a reason of getting up and of showing out, of being the person you want to be with a great vision.

If you have a vision to buy a house, you’re willing to sell things that otherwise you wouldn’t be willing to sell. Because what is valued raises to the surface and the rest of the stuff just fades away. I’ve learned this about vision that it gives significance, it gives motivation, it provides some purpose. Now, all of this stuff could be in a self help seminar. You could fit into a Tony Robbins talk. But as disciples, as people who follow Jesus, there’s an additional element of vision that I want to mention because vision also connects us with the plans of God. This is the divine element, right? The average person has the right to have their own dreams. The average person has the right to have their own vision for their lives. But as disciples, Scripture tells us, we were purchased at a price. We were bought and then we were brought into the vision of God. And today, that’s the element of vision I really want to talk about. I hope that you will feel a sense of the divine today. I want to present to you a vision of our church, also a mission within our church, and how it relates to why in the world God puts you in the world.

I’m so excited about this. I hope that you’re going to feel, again, motivated and inspired by the time we leave, but I want to set it all up first. It’s going to take a long time for us to set it up because we have to talk about where we are before we can talk about where we’re going, and it takes some time to do that.

Are you still here? All right, fantastic. All right, I want to share with you, I’m ready to move on and to explain where we want to go. What I’m going to present to you in a little bit is a tag line, a sentence, something that informs the way we think about this church and why God has placed us here. This is something I’ve been thinking about for the better part of a year and have had much consternation trying to determine what exactly we wanted to do. But I’m excited to present it to you. We’re going to begin by looking first at a little bit of a Bible lesson in Philippians chapter 3. If you have a Bible, you could turn there. As you’re turning there, let me set up the context. Philippians chapter 3 is Paul defending his ministry. He’s talking a little bit about why he does what he does and why he acts the way he acts and why he serves the way he serves.

In Philippians chapter 3, that has reached a fever pitch. He’s about to present to the listeners, to the people who read this letter in Philippi, he’s about to present to them his driving motivation. I think that driving motivation speaks almost as an illustration to what our driving motivation should be. It says this in Philippians 3, verse 4, this is the middle part of it. It says, If anyone else thinks they have reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regards to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. Paul, in his address, looks over his history, his perfect religious pedigree, his national pride, and he explored the qualities that he has that qualifies him to not only lead churches and to advance whatever message he wanted to have, but also would allow him to be someone that could be independent based on his flesh. He goes, Look, I am free because I have it all. I can do whatever I want. Look at me.

Verse 5, I’m a Hebrew of Hebrews. I’m a student of history, a scholar of God’s word. Verse 6, zeal for God that led him to defending his religious cause. Obedience, faultless, flawless, perfect in every way. The modern equivalent would be like, I’m the man, I’m him. I’m the guy. Someone in my community group said, I’m that man or something like that. I don’t know if that’s a thing. I’m the person everyone would dream to be. Again, a modern equivalent would be, I have all the money, I have all the education, I have all the popularity, I got followers on every social media platform. I got a six figure salary, I drive the nicest cars, I hang out with the coolest people. I am everything everyone would ever want to be. And then he continues by making this really interesting turn. What’s the next line? Because I have it all, listen to me. Because I have it all, these are my plans. But this is what he says in verse 7, But whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss. Whatever was credited to my account as good, I now consider nothing at all. All of the stuff, my pride, the academic prowess, the zealous adherence, all of that is nothing to me.

Why, Paul? He says, I’ve lost it all. Lost it all for what? For the sake of Christ. I sold it all. I cashed in all my chips of the world and I did all of it for one thing. I am the perfect example of the man who sells all of his possessions to buy the field, or sells all of his possessions to buy the pearl of great price. I have given all of it up for one thing. I just want to be close to Christ. He says, What is more? I consider everything a loss, everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I might gain Christ. He looks back at all of his education, his hopes, his dreams, his understanding, his history, his righteousness, his religiousness. He says, I look back at it all and I say it’s trash. Trash. My education is equivalent to a used banana peel. My zeal is the equivalent to a dirty diaper. It’s trash. It’s gone. I don’t care about any of that anymore. It’s all garbage to me. Compared to what?

Compared to being close to Jesus. Paul looks at the landscape of his life and says, Look, I don’t want any of it anymore. All I want is to be close to Jesus. All I care about is to be close to Jesus. All I desire is to bring about Jesus’s will in the world. Christ, Paul will say, is his life. Then he continues in verse 12. He’s describing this whole thing in verses, the middle there he describes. He goes, I want to know the power of Christ. I want to understand his suffering. I want to be close to him. I want to understand it all. And then he says this is his goal. And he says, Not that I have already obtained all this. He’s like, It’s my goal. I’m pursuing it, but I haven’t gotten there yet. I haven’t already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me. I press on. I keep going to take hold of the thing that God has instilled in my heart, the need to be close to him. I’m not where I want to be, but I know exactly where I’m going.

My goal is crystal clear. I want to know Him. I want to be close to him. I want to understand everything about him. He says this, Verse 13, Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet having taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what’s ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. He shifts the illustration a little bit and he begins to talk about a runner. You could picture a marathon runner. A marathon runner at the beginning has a goal. The goal in mind is to end the marathon. That’s the goal in mind. Maybe a very accomplished marathon runner has a time in mind. But no matter who you are, if you’re a runner, the simplified goal is I want to finish the race. I want to make it to the end. And for him, the end is Jesus. And he goes like, I’m not there, but I am running. I may be in mile one, but I’m still running. I may be in mile 20, but I’m still running. I’m not there, but I know exactly where I’m going and I’m pressing on.

And that’s the quality needed to be a good runner. It’s not like all this, you don’t need the academics, you just need to press on. You just keep pressing on. You’re still straining towards the goal. He’s saying he’s committed, he’s passionate, he’s motivated. He has a vision in mind, and that vision is to be close to Jesus. And everything in his life is pushing him towards that goal. And he says, I’m not distracted by what’s behind. Meaning, he says this, he says, But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, people have thought this means he doesn’t think about his past. And that could be true. But another way to look at it is that he’s not distracted. He’s not looking at what’s behind him. In a race, who would be behind him? What would be behind him? Other runners. He’s going, I don’t need to look back there at all these people who are running because I know where I’m going. I don’t care what other people say would be cool, would be special, would be a good, better goal. The goal of knowing Jesus is an okay goal, but a better goal would be the goal to know Jesus and also to make a lot of money.

Yeah, whatever. I have one goal. I have one goal in mind, and it’s just to know Christ. He isn’t distracted by how much academics he has or how much education he has. He isn’t distracted by anybody else telling him to do anything else. He isn’t distracted by the standard of society because he is in a race to achieve a goal, a goal that has consumed his life. And what is the goal? To be close to Jesus, to know Jesus, to live for Jesus. Paul’s passion makes him single minded. Single minded. I want to know him. I want to understand him. And why? I think it’s because Paul believes the same thing that many of us in this room have discovered. Paul believes that Jesus is the only person who has proven faithful enough to lead another human life. I don’t need someone else telling me what to do if I have Jesus telling me what to do. There’s nobody else. I don’t need to listen to all of the societal pressure to push me in one direction if Christ has already made it clear that I need to go somewhere else. It’s so clean. It’s so clean for Paul.

I’m on earth to be led to heaven by Jesus Christ. He’s not distracted. He’s not distracted by other pursuits. For Paul, his whole life was about knowing Jesus. If you’d ask Paul, Hey, Paul, what’s your mission statement? Paul, what’s your mission statement? He’d be like, It’s very simple. I’m here to know Jesus. That’s what I’m here for. And then you might say to Paul, What about church growth? Paul, what about planting ministries? What about appointing elders in every city? What about preaching to the lost? What about healing the broken? He would say, That stuff is amazing, but I understand what comes first. What comes first is my pursuit of Christ. Everything else trickles below that. Everything else is the spring is Christ. Everything else is the river where it flows. He would tell us to put things in their proper place to make first things first. The most important thing to Paul is being with Jesus. And look, if you’re like me, you’re like, Wow, Paul, you are committed, dude. You’re awesome. But I live in America. I’m not sure. You’re intense, dude. Can we dial it down just one or two notches? That’s the temptation that I have.

He didn’t understand. If you’re a full time minister, your whole life can be Christ. If you’re working in the Ecclesiastical role, your whole world can be Christ. But me, I have kids, I have a job, I have to do this, I have to run errands, I have to deal with a lot of pressures, I have to deal with financial issues. You could easily go, yeah, that’s great for Paul. That’s great for other spiritual people. But I don’t know if that’s really good for me. But then Paul drops the hammer as Paul always does. Verse 15, and he does it in such a sly way that he hurts your feelings without hurting your feelings. You know what I’m saying? All of us then, verse 15, who are mature should take such a view of things. No, you don’t think it’s fine. You’re just not mature yet. What is he saying? I don’t think this is an attack. I think he’s just saying, Hey, the more your faith matures, the more simple your vision becomes. The more your faith matures, the more everything else fades. I don’t need riches. I don’t need more. I don’t need to be original.

I don’t need to be creative. I don’t need to be praised. I don’t need to be glorified. I don’t need to be known. I don’t need to be needed. I don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. I don’t need to be best looking. I don’t need to be the most powerful. I don’t need to be a great leader. I don’t need to be important. The more you’re mature, the more all of those goals fade away. And what is before you is all I need, all I need is Jesus Christ. I want to know Christ. I want to be caught up in that. I want him to be my whole life. I want him to be my passion. Those who are mature should take such a view of things. All of us have an expectation when we presented Vision Sunday, we had something, right? Something that came to mind like, Oh, here we go. The church is going to present all the things that we’re going to do. Maybe for some of you guys, that’s very exciting. It’s like, Yes, we’re going to go somewhere. We haven’t been going anywhere. We’re going to do something like we haven’t been doing anything.

Or you feel the reverse, which is why are we doing this again? I get that. I understand that. Normally, on a vision Sunday, the church is brought into the hopes and dreams of its leaders. That’s really what happens. It’s a day where passionate, faithful disciples are brought into the faithful discipleship of their leaders. I present to you something like, hey, when we talk about vision, we go, here are some goals. Here are some dreams that we have, here are some tangible achievements. Now, I want you to help us achieve them. That’s normally what happens. Typically, we’re like, we’re going to plant a region. We’re going to launch some new initiative, some awesome stuff. But what I’ve often overlooked is that, and I’m going to say this and I don’t want it to be offensive, but my point is very simple. I’ve often overlooked me personally, that Jesus already has a vision for his church. And it’s my job to partner with him to achieve his vision. Let me say it like this as I break down the little catchphrase. Here’s a principle. I no longer want to beg God to help me achieve my goals.

I want to beg God that he would allow me to be a part of his. I don’t want to get on my and I felt this before, like, Lord, can you just let us plant North Broward? This is 2020. God, please, we have 2018. We’re going to plant North Broward. It’s going to be an incredible. Everyone’s like, Wow. And then 2020 comes and this whole disease hits. And we’re like, We’re not going to plant North Broward. God’s like, I have a vision for the church. I know what I’m doing. Sure, we can have dreams, we can have plans, we can have all that stuff, but we have to put first things first. And the first thing is very simple. We are here at the direction of Christ Jesus, at the direction of Christ Jesus. And I don’t want to get on my knees and go, God, please let me do the things I dream about doing. I want to say, Lord, please let me be a part of the things you dream of doing. That’s who I want to be. And you may think like, that doesn’t sound like a direction for a vision Sunday. And I would say it’s not a direction, it’s a correction.

It’s about changing our lenses a little bit. It’s about going, yeah, okay, we see things. I’m editing the man centered way that we’re all tempted to engage in. I’m saying, look, we are all tempted to be more man focused than we should be. And it’s a declaration today that what Jesus longs in this church is what we will long for. And of course, we have plans and of course, we have dreams. But like Paul, everything needs to be put in its place. Every accolade, every achievement is just trash compared to knowing what Jesus wants. It’s about putting first things first. I’ve been battling with this, as I mentioned, in this vision statement for several years. I’m not kidding. I’ve presented to the staff, you can ask them 18 different versions of what I’m talking about here. I’ve like, What do you think about this? And everyone’s like, Yeah, I like that. And then next week I’m like, I don’t like that. What do you think about this? And they’re like, Yeah, I like that. They’re just like, Please, can we stop? And I get that, I’m terrible. But I felt like it just didn’t exactly fit who we wanted to be and why we were here.

There was this phrase out a year ago, I’m like, We want to be a family of a thousand disciples. And it’s like, Okay, Tony, it sounds good. I’ll take it. And the whole idea was we wanted to be a family, we wanted to grow, and we wanted to be disciples. I was like, Great. But the more and more I tried to fit the vision of Christ into my little axiom, the more and more I just felt like I was doing the work to edit what Jesus desires. And I just don’t want to do that anymore. What Jesus desires doesn’t fit into some pithy thought that we could put on a T shirt. What Jesus desires is what much more beautiful and much more amazing and much more complete. I just don’t want to confuse my plans with God’s vision. Anyway, something’s changing in me and so I’m redirecting all of these thoughts. Now I’m like, and look, I want to get up here and share with you some really cool plans. We have some awesome plans, but I want to put first things first. There’s so many things I want us to do in this church, but the truth is, the more and more I present what I want us to do, it’s like, Tony, who cares what you want to do?

This is Jesus’s church. This is not yours. I’m not the visionary of this church. Jesus is the visionary of this church. I’m a humble servant to him. Anyway, I’m talking too much. Now you’re hearing my thoughts. Here is a new vision mission statement. Are you ready? Okay. We exist to fulfill Christ’s vision. It’s not very complicated. This is not This is not like… Again, I’m not going to put this on a T shirt. Maybe you should. I don’t know. Someone could put on a T shirt. But the point is, I am not saying we have discovered it all. But I want you to know, hey, when we say, what is the Broward Church about? Well, we’re just about fulfilling the thing Jesus desires. That’s what we’re about. We’re here to fulfill what Jesus desires. Well, what does Jesus desire? Well, take some time in meditation, take some time in studying the scriptures, ask advice from people who are spiritual and get in mind, discover what Jesus wants and then fulfill it. Do it. Put it into work. Try. Unpack it all and then push it forward. Well, what does Jesus desire in your family? Well, you got to figure it out.

Take some time, read the Bible, study it out, get advice. Come on Thursday night. Learn what Jesus’ vision is for your family and then fulfill it. What does Jesus desire? What’s my direction in my workplace? Okay, the answer is, what is Jesus’ direction for you in your workplace? You discover that, you got your answer. That’s who we want to be. Vision Sunday isn’t some gimmick. It’s not a rebranding, it’s a re centering, it’s a grounding back to the place we always should have been. In this church, we exist to fulfill Christ’s vision. That is our goal. That is our mission. He is our visionary. He is our master. We are his disciples. And what an amazing honor that is for us. Who are we that God could bring us into his wonderful plans? That God could say, I have a dream for your family and I’m going to use you to make it happen. I have a dream for your community and I’m going to use you to make it happen. I have a dream for your workplace and I’m going to use you to make it happen. I have a dream for Broward County and I’m going to make you I’m going to use you to make it happen.

Who are we that the God of the universe would entrust us with something so precious to be called his coworkers? Man, Lord, we are so humbled. We are so humbled to be given that task to be called his coworkers. Here’s the question for you. What is Christ’s vision for your life? You could start there and then build it through concentric circles. What is Christ’s vision in my family? How about in my workplace? How about in my community? What is Christ’s vision? Yesterday or on Friday, I had a sister call me. She was asking for some advice and she said, I’m struggling with a decision about my work and I’m trying to figure out, and this is what she said, I’m trying to figure out what is Christ’s vision for my life? I said to her, I’m like, this is the Holy Spirit because this is a mature sister who everything else has faded, and the one thing before her is Christ. And I’m like, That’s it. That’s what we’re talking about. And so many of us already have that. But that’s what I’d long for all of us is that we’re not like, My dream is to blah, blah, blah.

It’s like, What is Jesus’ dream for me? Because that’s what I want to go for because I know he knows how to lead. As our church matures, everything fades and Jesus becomes clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer. I want to challenge you to read, to pray and beg God. What do you want from my life? Lord, what is your vision for my life? Give me clarity in my role in this church. Give me clarity in my role in my family. Give me clarity about what I’m supposed to do. And if you don’t get clarity right away, you go back to the garden like Jesus over and over and over and over again, and you get it. And then you live it out because there’s never been a person who has led a life quite like Jesus. I’m going to invite the elders to pray for our communion and also just to bless us as a church as we strive towards this idea, which I did not put on the last slide, which is our goal existing. We exist to fulfill Christ’s vision. That’s why we’re here. I hope that idea sets root in your heart and you can build it not only in your personal life, but in your family and in your community.