Vision 2025

Would you agree that having vision that having some vision and direction for your life is essential?

Let me tell you about the importance of vision for a guy named Roy. It was the 1929 Rose Bowl, and the California Golden Bears were squared off against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Roy was a middle linebacker. The Yellow Jackets were down a point but were driving toward the end zone. But on the next play, the ball carrier was hit and fumbled the ball… right into Roy’s. Roy immediately took off with the ball, juking and dodging his way down the field, breaking one tackle after another. He was finally tackled just as he crossed the goal line… by his own player. See, Roy had lost the vision of where his own goal line was, and in the crush of bodies he ran the wrong way. The result of the play was a safety, and the two points award gave the Yellow Jackets the winning margin. And it earned Roy a new moniker that has gone down through history. Does anyone know what he was called? “Wrong Way” Riegels.

Having vision for your life is essential.

One of the primary indicators of whether ppl feel happy and satisfied is the extent to which they feel their life is moving toward a positive direction and they have a goal they are progressing toward. When we lack vision it results in indecision, low motivation, susceptibility to external influence that might be inconsistent with your values, and most of all a general lack of fulfillment. Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist: “Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”

Having vision for your life is essential. Science and personal history confirm this. Here’s what the Bible says about vision:

“Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint...” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭29‬:‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭29‬:‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves...” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭29‬:‭18‬ ‭MSG‬‬

“Where there is no vision, the people perish...” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭29‬:‭18‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“Where there is no vision, the people decay...” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭29‬:‭18‬ ‭GNV‬‬

Seems to get progressively worse! All make clear that having vision is essential to life. Without it we become aimless, decay, perish, and stumble.

Look this morning at what God has been putting on my heart for the last 6 months. I’ve been sitting on it, letting it marinate in my mind as I’ve tried to listen to the voice of the Spirit and what he wants us to lean into going forward. None of these are new ideas. Makes sense as vision seldom changes. But it’s important to be reminded of what God is doing in this particular people called the Vineyard Fort Smith.

As I look forward to a new year, the Lord has laid out four priorities for our church:

Radically welcoming

Embrace tension of unconditionally accepting everyone while maintaining our convictions. Means we will continue to hold to what Bible says about human sexuality and marriage. Yet I want us to be radically welcoming to those who are in situations where they may not be welcomed in other churches.

Ironic that what we used to fear coming through the doors was someone with face tats and piercings. But as it says on our website, we don’t care if you are over dressed, under dressed, or cross dressed, you are welcome here. As long is someone is searching for Jesus we want to give them a safe place to do that, bc they’re not finding him where they are.

That’s means we will have to be mature ppl who can see past the outward appearance and see ppl as God sees them. Without a vision of being radically welcoming they will continue to stumble in the dark.

Unapologetically charismatic

I want us to embrace the “weird” in 2025. Not the excessive or fake, but with an eagerness for God to show up and move through the power of his Spirit.

“My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,”. 1 Corinthians‬ ‭2‬:‭4‬ ‭NRSV

‬Francis Chan writes, “I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know I couldn't be doing this by my own power. I want to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through. That if He doesn't come through, I am screwed.”

John Wimber said faith is spelled R-I-S-K. We need to become ppl of risk so that our lives are not explainable apart from the HS. Without a vision for being unapologetically charismatic we risk offering ppl what is only plausible, not what is powerful.

Kingdom multiplying

This is a big one. We didn’t baptize a single person in 2024. While many good things did happen last year, this shows a glaring deficiency in our ministry. We must be careful that we don’t get so consumed doing the good works of God that we forget reason we are doing them.

Nor can we assume that when ppl see our good works that they will just somehow encounter the gospel. The gospel must be demonstrated - I think we get an A+ here - but it must also be proclaimed.

Apostle Paul said, “Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.” Colossians‬ ‭4‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NRSV

Following Jesus as an apprentice means our mission is to create a thirst in others that only Jesus can quench. This means we need to learn to share the gospel with others in ways that actually sound like good news. Sharing religious platitudes and one line zingers on FB is insufficient.

I don’t remember who said it, but the phrase goes, “The heartbeat of your city is its pain.” We need to develop ear to listen to the pain that is around us in our weekly encounters with others and take risks to apply a little salt. Salt stings in an open wound, but salt also heals. Without this salty vision those around us can only continue to experience decay.

Uncommonly generous

I don’t need to say much here. You guys are uncommonly generous already. Ppl outside our church can hardly believe the things our small church accomplishes.

Uncommon generosity for me this year is less a statement about giving practices and more about statement of attitude. That we would walk in an open-handed posture toward God and others, seeing ourselves as a conduit where God’s gifts and blessings flow back and forth between God and others. That we would live in the daily confidence of God’s promise that, “He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?” Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭32‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

More than anything, I want us to grow in this confidence that as we empty our hands in generosity, God will refill it. This is true financial peace. Without this vision we will find ourselves continuing to perish in the soul-crushing consumerism of our culture.

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Radically welcoming

Unapologetically charismatic

Kingdom multiplying

Uncommonly generous

These are the priorities God has put on my heart. If the Vineyard is your church, how do you sense God asking you to relate to these priorities. Where is God calling you to stay faithful? Where is he asking you to stretch your faith?

What’s your personal vision? I hope it’s not something like more money, a nicer home, better vacations. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying any of those things. But they aren’t why God put you on earth. To turn to them is to buy into a secular vision of life. God wants you to lean into a sacred vision for your life.

What is God calling you to in 2025? Is your vision aligned with God’s vision? One practice that I believe God is calling our community into this year is silence and solitude. After the prayer, after the Bible reading, just sitting with/being with Jesus. I think sometimes we find it impossible to hear God’s direction for our life because we live at such hectic and hurried pace. We bounce between task after task after task, until we fall into bed exhausted. Silence and solitude is something the Spirit has been calling me to, and I believe it is a necessary and helpful practice for our whole community.

It’s not something we should over complicate. Simply take a few minutes as you begin or end your day to eliminate distraction - dinging cell phones, music and TV - and just be present to God’s Spirit. Be in a posture of just saying, “I’ve said a lot to you; now I’m here if there is anything you want to say to me.”

I know hearing God’s voice can be a struggle. I promise you won’t hear it amidst the noise of daily life. It will take intentionality to do as Jesus did and go be alone with the Father. But solitude and silence is where we hone our ability to recognize the voice of God. If you struggle right now with this, imagine what it could be like a year from now. Imagine the confidence you could have that you know what the Father’s voice sounds like - and that he is regularly speaking to you. I don’t know about you, but I want this in my life. As a community, let’s lean together into this practice for 2025, bc we can too easily lose sight of our destination.

The great scientist, Albert Einstein, was known to be absent minded. Students had to remind him to go eat. He often went to the cafeteria when an idea struck and he would forget where he was going. Once he was traveling from Princeton on a train. When the conductor came down the aisle punching tickets Einstein reached in his vest pocket; he could not find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn’t there so he looked in his briefcase, but still could not find it. He looked in the seat next to him, but it was not there.

The conductor kindly said, “Dr. Einstein, I know who you are, we all know who you are. I’m sure you bought a ticket, don’t worry about it.” The conductor then continued on his way punching tickets. Just before he went to the next car he turned around and saw this great man down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket.

The conductor rushed back and said, “Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry. I know who you are. No problem. You don’t need a ticket.”

Einstein said, “Young man, I too know who I am. I need my ticket because what I don’t know is where I am going.”

Do you know where you’re going in 2025? Let’s press into our vision as we learn to be people who know the voice of our shepherd.