Purpose, Living the Vision God Set You Apart For (Developing a Vision of Faith, not Chaos) pt.2
All Scripture taken from the New Living Translation
Today is part two of our new year’s sermon series on finding our purpose in the Kingdom, and living the vision God set each one of us apart for.
We started this series last week talking about what needs to be done as a starting point to live out the plans God has for us, so that we are in sync with His leading…
If you are totally into a new year, a new you… Setting goals, and joining God in the plans He has a vision for you to carry out…
I highly encourage you to check out last Sunday’s message, part one of this series… Because it will help with what we are talking about today and the weeks to come, as these messages are in order of importance…
For today’s topic of discussion, we are looking at how to develop a vision with a mindset of faith and not chaos.
For starters, it’s very important to understand that God has a specific vision for each one of us to carry out for His Kingdom…
Each one of us have been uniquely created by Him with characteristics that match the vision He has for us…
We are a masterpiece created by Him to do the good things He planned for us long ago (Ephesians 2:10)!
As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul, who was once such a devout Jewish religious leader that he became a terrorist toward Christians…
He hunted them down, went from home to home, arrested, tortured and even killed them for their faith…
Paul then has a radical encounter with Jesus, becomes a believer, helped start the early church, and writes most of the NT!!
There was a time when he had been arrested by the very religious leaders he once was and gets a chance to plead his case to a Roman king… King Agrippa….
He begins his story from the beginning, how devout a religious leader he was to the point of hunting down Christians… Up to the point Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus…
And he says to the king what Jesus told him…
Acts 26:16 – … For I have appeared to you to appoint you as My servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen Me and tell them what I will show you in the future.
Jesus then gets a little more specific in His plans for Paul… And then Paul tells the king.
Acts 26:19 – “And so, King Agrippa, I obeyed that vision from heaven.”
I obeyed that vision… This is very important to get because we must understand the complete and total change in life Paul made for His calling in Jesus…
This is why telling his story from the beginning was so important… This is why our story is so important.
Paul had a radical encounter with Jesus and made the decision to obey the vision God set him apart for…
He completely changed his way of life for the Kingdom of God!!
Can you imagine the chaotic thoughts and mind games he had to wrestle with?
How many of us can say we are obeying the vision God set us apart for?
To make this a reality we first must learn to develop a vision of faith and not let chaotic thinking take over.
Because we cannot carry out a vision, unless we see it first… We think it through… We map it out… And have a clear understanding of what it entails.
Vision takes faith… But with faith comes chaos… There’s always an element of chaos… Something that rattles us, or throws us off balance when joining God in what He has for us…
So how do we combat this… How do we overcome this?
James 1:5-8 – “5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”
When developing a vision of faith, following last week’s message, we then seek God for the wisdom needed to carry out the vision He is laying before us…
And as we can see… God is generous and will give us the wisdom needed…
But our faith must be grounded in Him… When unexpected obstacles happen… Or a hindrance that rattles us…
We often take our focus off Him, and focus on the setback, the obstacle…
Or maybe our sinful nature is drawing us back in its world of darkness…
Causing our loyalty to be divided between God and the world…
We must stay strong in obeying the vision God set us apart for… In the same way Paul said he did!!
When unexpected setbacks happen… When we face opposition, or things that cause us to second guess what we’re doing…
We cannot get caught up in the chaotic thinking that takes our focus off God…
This divides our loyalty to Him, and causes us to be unstable in carrying out the vision, the plans God has for us…
Let’s look at a classic example of faith filled vision versus chaotic thinking…
This comes from an OT story… Moses has led the Israelites out from bondage of Egypt through the Red Sea God parted, and across the desert…
They have seen miracle and miracle by God, but even then, there is still a lot of chaotic thinking amongst the millions of people…
A lot of doubt and complaining against Moses and even God!
And now, they have reached the edge of the land God was giving the Israelites, His chosen people… The Promised Land, the land of Canaan (the land of Israel)
God gives Moses the instructions on how to carry out the vision, and Moses in turn gives the leaders he chose to carry out the vision specific instructions on what to do
Numbers 13:17-21a – “17 Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 See what kind of land they live in. Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls, or are they unprotected like open camps? 20 Is the soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do your best to bring back samples of the crops you see.” (It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.)
21 So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.”
Here’s why this is so important… More times than not God has a vision plan for us that seems impossible to carry out…
This is how our faith in Him grows… And this is how we learn to rely on the wisdom of God to see the vision succeed…
What seems impossible to us is possible with God…
Kingdom of heaven vision plans build our faith, and teach us to rely on God for the wisdom on working the details of the plan out…
Moses wanted the men to get an idea of what everything looked like… This land was their future… Find out what it’s like and bring back a detailed report.
To accomplish a vision, we must first see what lies ahead…
What are we getting into? What could be protentional setbacks, and what is our plan to deal with those potential obstacles? Where might there be opposition? Every step needs to be mapped out in a way we can navigate…
Proverbs 21:5 – “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.”
In spying out the land they found it was very fruitful… In fact, a single cluster of grapes was so big it took two people to carry it on a pole!!
Numbers 13:25, 27-28 – “25 After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned..”; “27 This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. 28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!”
Twelve leaders of each tribe of Israel were sent out to see what this Promised Land was all about…
They came back with the news that it was indeed a bountiful land… BUT the people living there are powerful… We even saw giants!!
The negative report overshadowed the good, and everyone started complaining that there was no way they could inherit this land… Chaotic thinking!
One of the leaders, Caleb, tried to speak out against everyone, and tell Moses that, “Yes, we most certainly can conquer these people!”
I want to ask you a question… As we put 2024 behind us and move into a new year…
What are you focused on? The open doors you believe God will walk you through.
Or all the closed doors you wish you could walk through? Are you focused on all the things that went wrong last year? And why nothing good ever happens for you…
What are you focused on… The positive or the negative… The successes or the potential failures… Are you going at it alone, or seeking counsel?
It’s much easier to get caught up in the negative… The report the spies brought back was sounding very promising until it got negative…
The land is indeed bountiful, BUT the people are strong!
Proverbs 15:22 – “Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.”
If you have big plans for 2025, and you’re certain God is laying out the vision for you to carry out… Seek counsel, map out the plan… Expect a setback or two…
Celebrate the victories and recalibrate when things don’t work out as planned.
The first thing the spies did was underestimate their ability to conquer the people in the land of Canaan…
The completely ignored the fact that God was part of their equation!!
Remember the passage from James we looked at earlier…
James 1:6-8 – (When asking God for wisdom) “… Be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”
When we lose focus on what God can do is how the chaos in our thought process starts to take root…
It’s easy to allow the negative to take root, but God’s Word says that when we remain loyal to Him there is stability in all we do…
When Job lost everything, he went into a chaotic mindset and took his focus off what God could do in his greatest of troubles…
Job 3:25-26 – “What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true. I have no peace, no quietness. I have no rest; only trouble comes.”
Look at what happened right before Job says this…
Job 2:11 & 13 – “When three of Job’s friends heard of the tragedy he had suffered, they got together and traveled from their homes to comfort and console him… Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.”
We might underestimate what God sees in us, but we need Kingdom-minded friends to help keep us focused…
When our loyalty is divided between God and the world, not only are we unstable…
But it becomes that much easier to focus on the negative…
The way we defeat the negative thinking is by moving… Continue to move forward… Trying whatever it is we believe the Lord wants us to do…
Seeking counsel, and moving in the direction that appears to have the most confirmation from those speaking into our lives…
I believe God honors a positive attitude that is moving forward, trying what we think it is God is calling us into…
As opposed to just giving up or being negative.
Out of the twelve spies, there were two young men who would not buy into the negative report… Their names are Joshua and Caleb…
Numbers 14:7-8 – “They said to all the people of Israel, “The land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land! And if the Lord is pleased with us, He will bring us safely into that land and give it to us…”
Joshua and Caleb stayed loyal to God… they trusted in the vision God had for them as a people.
The writer of Hebrews recounts this same story, and how the older generation of Israelites who were influenced by the negative report (Complained that God set them up to fail) were denied a place in this new land…
Only those of Joshua and Caleb’s generation were granted access into the land…
And it was because of their faith… Look what is written in Hebrews…
Hebrews 3:19 – “So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter His rest.”
Because of their unbelief they were not able to enter the rest God had for them
This land was their future… This land was promised to them by God… The result of this land was to be rest after 400 years of slavery…
But their unbelief in God’s promise caused them the miss it…
All because they wouldn’t step into the vision God had for them… Divided loyalty!
Here’s how I want to close this message out today…
Ask yourself, “Is my divided loyalty between God and the world causing me to miss out on promises God has for me?”
Be honest when asking this…
And if this question does not pertain to you then think about ways to dial in the vision God has for you…
If we want to go into the new year with eyes of faith…
We must learn to move beyond the mindset that we are not capable of carrying out the plans God has for us.
How bad do we want what God wants for us? How committed are we to staying focused on building a mindset of faith and follow through?
Psalm 37:5 – “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you.”
A Miraculous Valentine’s Story
by Beverly McNeff
© 1996-2025 Miracle Distribution Center
It was Valentine’s Day, and Joey was busy making Valentines for everyone in his class. His mother was happy to see her little boy so joyful, but she was worried that the other children would not remember to give a Valentine to Joey. You see, Joey was a little slower than the rest of the kids. He was often forgotten and not given much value by them, but that did not seem to stop him from getting into the spirit of Valentine’s Day. Joey was determined not to forget even one child.
Valentine’s Day arrived, and his mother waited worriedly as the time neared when Joey would be coming home. To lessen his disappointment, if no one had given him a Valentine, she had baked his favorite cookies.
Looking out the window with her cookies in hand, she saw Joey turn the corner. He was saying something to himself, but she could not make it out. As he got closer, she could see that he had a smile on his face. As he walked into the kitchen, she heard him say with glee, “I didn’t miss a one, Mom, I didn’t miss a one!”
She then realized that he didn’t have any Valentines in his hands. None had been given him. His joy was not in receiving a Valentine, it was in giving them away. Joey had made sure that every child was remembered. He didn’t “miss a one.” That was what brought him joy.
Years ago, when I first heard this sweet story, I was reminded of A Course in Miracles’ Workbook Lesson 67, “Love created me like itself.” This lesson, which is our prayer thought for February, reminds us that we are part of God’s definition of Himself. We are holy, kind, helpful, perfect, and any of the attributes which are in accord with God.
What the world shows us or tells us is not who we are. And we will experience God’s definition of us when we embrace the love that created us and share that love with those who walk this world with us.
Let us remember that we are complete, even if the world shows us loss…that we are loved, even if another shows us indifference…that we are “one,” even when others believe in separation.
Let us not “miss a one” this month. Let us share our love with all we meet and feel the Love of God that created us like itself.
A SIMPLE ACT OF LOVE
How often do we miss opportunities of showing a simple act of love to a friend at a crucial time, to visit someone who needs help, or to smile, or to speak to a stranger? As imperfect human beings, we all struggle in our relationships. Whether we are a parent or a child, single or married, we all grapple with expressing love the right way, saying and doing the right thing at the right time. We grow in love throughout our lifetime. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, the Apostle Paul outlines what perfect love looks like. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails. A simple act of love, we have Jesus Christ as our example. As He interacted with people with varying needs and issues, He showed us what a simple act of love looks like in action. As we walk with Him, keeping ourselves in His love and steeping our mind in His word, we’ll reflect more and more of His likeness. The Creator-God of the universe helps by giving us grace to endure, His word to sustain us, friends to encourage and pray for us. God destined us to be His adopted children through Jesus Christ because of His love. This was according to His good will and plan. God offers us unconditional love, support, and forgiveness, fulfills our needs, and never fails us. In fact, benevolence is central to the New Testament teaching about loving others. In reflecting on the law of God, Paul sees that love is the intent behind many Biblical commands: “Love does no harm to a neighbor, or a brother and sister; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Each day as we follow Jesus Christ’s example, our Savior, we are faced with choices that will affect the lives of others. When we choose a course of action, we should ask ourselves, “does this reflect a simple act of love concern for others or am I only concerned for myself?” Such sensitivity demonstrates the love of Jesus Christ that seeks to heal the brokenhearted and helps those in need by a simple act of love. What are we to do? Sometimes we “stand by idly when our neighbor’s life is at stake.” We can easily be remiss in serving the poor, hungry, thirsty, and the homeless, sick, and imprisoned. Sometimes we do something, but it is the wrong “something.”
We are busy about many things, but we may not have chosen the better part, that is, a simple act of love. We may do things at the wrong time. For example, we may try to remove the speck of sin from others’ eyes before we have removed the plank of sins from our own eyes. We should quit nagging and wasting our lives by doing nothing. We should love our neighbor as ourselves. Death may be right around the corner. Life is passing right before our very eyes. Have we done what is right, kind, and just, or have we camouflaged it all with lies? Our life should be a good example, full of love for our fellow countrymen. Life should be spent with family and friends, and always lending a helping hand to those in need by showing a simple act of love. And when our life is over and our epitaph is told, will it be one we’re proud of, or one we don’t want known? So just trust in Jesus Christ and believe. For whatever you ask in faith and love in abundance you are sure to receive a simple act of love.
Thank you very much for letting me share my invocational speech with you.
Sincerely written by Brother Willie Watson on March 9, 2017.
