YOUR VISION IS YOUR FUTURE

 Hebrews 11:13-16

 

Vision is something we all need to have. Your vision is a picture of your future (some call it a dream). The clearer your vision the more powerful its influence will be on your life.

1. Vision gives us hope.

2. Vision inspires us.

3. Vision gives us a sense of destiny

4. Vision gives us a sense of purpose.

5. Vision gives us direction.

6. A vision makes the difference between winning and losing.

Your vision is your future. If you have a bad vision, you will have a bad future ahead of you. If you have a positive vision, then you have a positive future. Therefore, if you have no vision, you have no future!

 

A PERSON WITHOUT A VISION WILL ALWAYS RETURN TO HIS PAST

A. Moses and the Israelites left the land of Egypt and set out for the Promised Land. God gave Moses a vision, to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. The problem was that the people didn’t have that vision of what God wanted for them. They were just following Moses. Moses was the man with the vision.

B. Moses failed to convey the vision that God had given him to the people. It is so important for a pastor or a leader to communicate their vision to the people.     

C. As they dwelt in the wilderness, there came a time when Moses had to go up to the mountain and talk to God. As he spent time with God, what happened to the rest of the people? They got impatient, and they returned to their past. They took the gold that was to be dedicated to God, and they built an idol. God had just led them out of idolatry. They had left the land of Egypt. But a people without a vision will always return to their past. They began to worship the golden calf, an idol. Why? Because with Moses gone, they had no vision, they had no future.

D. This is what happens when a pastor or leader fails in conveying their vision to the people. If the people don’t understand or have the vision they will begin to lose them.

E. God was miraculously providing food for them every day. Every day, God provided Manna for them. And they complained. "When we were in Egypt, we ate a whole lot better than this. We ate melons, we ate cucumbers, we were better off in Egypt."

LOSE YOUR VISION, YOU LOSE YOUR FUTURE

A. You see when you lose your vision, you lose your future, by losing your vision, you begin to think you were better off before God got a hold of your life. That’s the trap of the enemy. Your vision is important. Does your vision keep you looking back? Or does it keep you going forward?

B. When a husband or a wife loses their vision of what God has for their marriage, they lose hope and their future, one of the things they say is, "I was better off when I was single."

C. How about backsliding? Backsliding is what takes place when a Christian begins to believe that he has no future in God. And when they have no spiritual goals and no spiritual vision, they will return to their past, only to find that they no longer fit in.

D. When the police need to look for a criminal who’s on the loose, the first place they look is where he used to hang out. Because a criminal on the run is a man without a future and a person without a future always returns to his past.

   When the police interview one of these criminals, they make sure they find out everything about his past, so they know where to find him if he escapes.

GIANTS IN THE LAND

A. Years later, twelve men were sent to spy on the Promised Land. Two came back with a positive report, they were men of vision and ten came back with a negative report. They had no vision. These ten men began to say, "We can’t take this land, there are giants in the land." How many of you know that when God gives you a vision it is never easy? God was trying to teach them a lesson. The lesson was, "With my help, you can defeat those giants." But most of them didn’t even want to even try.

B. Why? They had no vision. Those with a vision saw the giants as an opportunity for God to prove His strength. It all deals with your vision and attitude.

C. A person that has a vision will always find a way. The person without a vision will always find an excuse.

D. You see, deep down in the hearts of those Israelites, do you know what scared them? When you see giants in the land, all that tells you is that to live in that land, you must become a giant.

E. What scared them the most was not the giants, but they were scared of what they had to become, in order to get what they wanted. And they didn’t believe that they could become that. And when they thought in their minds that they couldn’t be giants, they began to say, "We were better off in Egypt as slaves."

F. What must you do to capture your vision?

 

YOU MUST MAKE A BREAK WITH THE PAST AND MAKE A COVENANT WITH THE FUTURE

A. You must break with the past and make a pact with the future.

B. You must place your trust in the eternal, not the temporal: (II Cor. 4:18)

C. What happened to Peter after Jesus was crucified? (John 21:1)

D. Peter says, "I’m going fishing." All the time he spent with Jesus, three years, was forgotten. Why? With Jesus gone his vision was taken from him. A person without a vision will always return to his past.

E. If the devil can kill your vision, then he can kill your spiritual life too.

F. Peter lost his vision, and he went back to fishing and he took the rest of the disciples with him. He found company in misery. That’s Satan’s tactic: In his attempt to destroy you, he desires to bring others down with you.

G. If Satan can destroy a pastor he will destroy others in the church. If he can destroy a father he can destroy the family.

YOU MUST RECAPTURE YOUR FAITH IN GOD AND IN YOUR FUTURE (Jer. 29:11)

A. The devil knows that if he can place fear in your heart about serving the Lord, then he can capture your heart, and rob you of your future.

     The devil knows that if he can snatch your future from you if he can snatch your vision from you, he knows where you’ll go, back to your past.

B. If the devil can create fear and doubt in your heart, he will then rob you of your faith and hope.

C.  So what will the enemy do? He will create doubt:

1. about your marriage.

2. about your finances.

3. about your ministry.

4. about your career.

5. about your church.

6. About anything that holds promise.

D. He’ll bring giants into your land. Because a person who does not see things the way God does goes back to his past.

E.  In Luke 9:62, Jesus Himself said, “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Keep looking ahead – don’t look back. Don’t turn back. Pursuing a vision is not easy.

F.  In Luke 22:31 Jesus told Peter, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Sometimes the Lord allows the devil to sift us. But it’s only to strengthen our faith. Faith is tied into our vision. Faith is tied into our future. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” There it is. Faith is our future. Faith is our vision. And a person without faith will always return to his past.

FAITH=HOPE=VISION=FUTURE

A. Jesus said, "But I prayed for you, Simon Peter, that you faith may not fail. If your faith does not fail you, your future will not fail you, and you will not return to your past.

B. Judas betrayed Christ, and Peter denied Christ. In other words, both of them failed the Lord. They both returned to their past. But what was the difference? Judas committed suicide and Peter recaptured his vision.

C. One of three things can take place if you go back to the past.

1) You can commit suicide (spiritual).

2) You can live in misery.

3) You can recapture your vision.

D. Peter chose to recapture his vision, and nothing else mattered anymore.

IF YOU HAVE FAILED THE LORD, YOU HAVE THREE OPTIONS

1. You can commit suicide, you may not kill yourself, but you may put to death your spiritual life.

2. Or you can live in misery.

3. Or you can recapture your vision.

4. The choice is yours!