Know The Vision (Life In Connection part 1 of 3)

I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said: "Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." (Habakkuk 2:2-3)

God has good plans for His people—and He reveals them through vision that must be tested, written, and lived out.

Habakkuk: A Prophet's Complaint

Habakkuk may not be a book you've spent much time in, but it is an important small book in the Old Testament. Habakkuk was a prophet to the nation of Judah. After King David died, his son Solomon reigned, and after Solomon died, his son Rehoboam took over—but the kingdom was divided. The northern tribes went under the name Israel; the southern tribes, including David's tribe, went under the name Judah. Judah held Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

By Habakkuk's time, the northern ten tribes had already been exiled by Assyria in the eighth century B.C. Now, at the end of the seventh century, the people of Judah had departed from following the Lord. The nation was filled with idolatry, and the people were openly walking in unrighteousness.

Habakkuk was a righteous man who sought the Lord. In chapter 1, he calls out to God on behalf of his nation's wickedness, saying, "God, you've got to do something." And God gives him a shocking vision—not that judgment was coming, for the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy made judgment a certainty—but that the source of judgment would be the Chaldeans, the Babylonians.

Habakkuk throws the yellow flag. "Time out—that doesn't work for me. The Babylonians are more wicked than us. We're wicked, but we're not that bad." The same prophet who had just said his people were so wicked now objects when God says He'll judge them with the Babylonians. So he's discouraged.

Setting Yourself on the Rampart

That brings us to chapter 2: "I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart." The rampart was the place atop the city walls where watchmen looked for invaders and sounded the alarm. Prophets in the Old Testament were sometimes called watchmen. Habakkuk says, in a spiritual sense, "I'm going to set myself as a watchman, and I want to hear what God has to say to me about this."

In essence, he prays a prayer of complaint. Have you ever prayed a prayer of complaint? Let's be honest. "Lord, I'm not sure I agree with your chosen course of action." But he does it humbly—he knows God has a plan, and he wants to know it and to walk in humility as he's corrected.

Then the Lord answers: "Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it." God says, "When I speak this vision to you, take time to write it down and make it plain, so anyone who reads it can carry it out."

The context may be different for us, but it is important that, like Habakkuk, we make time to hear from God—to set ourselves spiritually on the rampart and say, "God, I need to hear from you. Direct me." It is God's desire to be our God, to lead and guide our lives, to be the Lord of our lives.

A God Who Desires to Lead Us

We live in a culture where we all want to be our own lords, to direct our own paths. But as we submit to the Lordship of Christ, we recognize we don't always do the best job of leading our own lives. I find it comforting that God desires to direct mine. Like Habakkuk, I don't always agree with the exact plan—but I set myself on the rampart and ask the Lord to help me receive it humbly.

We've all heard Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." Before His ascension, Jesus said in John 16:13, "When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth... He will tell you things to come." God in heaven wants to be intimately involved in our lives and to give us vision.

It's important to note that God doesn't give us the five-year plan. He tends to unfold things one step at a time. Sometimes He takes us to a high mountaintop where we can see future peaks of where He's leading, but He doesn't show us all the details. He reveals the direction, not always the details.

God Has Good Plans for His People

Our good God has good plans for us. How do we know? Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." The New Living Translation reads, "For I know the plans I have for you... They are plans for good."

Not everything that happens in our lives is a good thing—there are trying, challenging, troubling things we go through. But ultimately God has good things planned. Romans 8:28: "God works all things together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose." The greatest good He has planned is the end of our salvation, the redemption of our souls, that we will be with Him for eternity.

God Makes Known His Plans by Vision

God makes known His good plans through God-inspired vision. The prophet Amos was not only a seeker of God but a mouthpiece for God. Amos 3:7 says, "Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets."

Don't get hung up on the word "prophets." There was a clear prophetic office in the Old Testament; there is no longer such an office in our day. I'm always a little concerned when someone tells me, "I am a prophet"—the two or three times that's happened, it's turned out a little strange, often with discouraging words. I don't see the prophet office in the New Testament, but I do see the gift of prophecy where God speaks to His people.

To the one who seeks the Lord, He answers. Jesus said, "Seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened." God told Jeremiah, "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know." Jeremiah 29:13 promises, "You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."

Joel 2:28 declares, "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." On the day of Pentecost, when God poured out His Spirit on the church, Peter stood and declared that this was the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. God reveals what He wants us to do.

We Would Be Lost Without Vision

It's good that God reveals His plans, because we would be lost without vision—we wouldn't know where to go or what to do. Leaning on our own understanding gets us in trouble, for "there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."

The book of Judges is a classic picture of this. If you've never read it, put it on your list this year—assuming you make it past Leviticus, which is usually the major speed bump to Bible reading. Judges repeatedly says there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The result was burdensome bondage under captivity.

Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint." The New Living Translation: "Where there is no divine guidance, the people run wild." There is a blindness that comes when we're not directed by God, because man walks in darkness—but the light of Christ has come into the world. Psalm 119 tells us God's word is "a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

Vision Must Be Tested by God's Word

In line with that, vision must be tested by God's Word. 1 John 4:1 says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

We should be like the Bereans in Acts 17, who were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they heard Paul preach and searched the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so. They knew Paul had studied under Gamaliel and was a rabbi from Jerusalem, but they didn't take everything at face value—they measured it against revelation.

Many well-meaning Christians have been led astray by someone else's vision, someone else's teaching, or their own emotion, because they did not test it against revelation. Let me be clear: I don't believe we need a verse of Scripture backing everything we do. I don't think you need a verse to take a job or move to a place. But nothing we do should ever be in conflict with God's Word. If someone says, "The Bible says you shouldn't do that," we cannot reply, "I'm doing it anyway, because the Spirit spoke to me." God's plan will always be in accord with what is revealed in Scripture.

Vision Should Be Written and Clearly Articulated

God Himself told Habakkuk to write the vision and make it plain so others could run with it. It should be clearly articulated—not cryptic, not masked in metaphor—so that anyone can understand it, test it against the Word, and say yes or no to it.

Research has shown that vision and goals that are not written down are less likely to become reality. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, found that people are 42% more likely to achieve their goals when they write them down.

Why is writing it down important? Let me give you five reasons. First, it forces us to make the vision clear. Second, it motivates us to make the vision happen. Third, it challenges us to stay on track. Fourth, it encourages us to overcome obstacles. Fifth, it provides a way for us to celebrate progress.

Think of college. At a certain point a university requires you to declare a major—because they don't want you meandering there forever. Declaring a major is like setting a vision: it sets the direction, defines the course load, keeps you from veering left or right, and lets you chart your progress until you actually finish.

Vision Must Become Mission

Finally, vision must always become mission. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas travel through Galatia, where they pick up a young disciple named Timothy. Paul desired to go into Asia, probably toward Ephesus—but verse 6 says they were "forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia." They tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So they came to Troas, a coastal city, pressed up against the sea, unable to go left or right.

There, a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia, standing and pleading, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." This vision was not in conflict with God's Word—it was a fulfillment of His commission to preach the gospel to all people. Notice verse 10: "Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them."

Vision must become mission. It must be put to action. It can't just be a statement or even merely written down—eventually feet must be put to that faith.

The Story of This Church

This church was planted nearly 33 years ago to reach North County San Diego with the gospel and to the uttermost parts. To have been part of what God is doing here for more than 20 years has been a great blessing. When the church was planted in 1981, I was not the pastor—I was one year old. My family started attending around 1991, when some of you knew it as "the Donut Church," named for its location behind Winchell's Donuts on East Valley Parkway.

After the Donut Church, we moved to the Vineyard Shopping Center, which no longer exists. Then in 1994 we moved here, where we've been ever since. Pastor Pat Kinney took over a very small fellowship in 1981, then called Christian Chapel of Escondido. In 1985 it became Calvary Chapel of Escondido when we joined the Calvary Chapel family of churches. And in 2012 we changed our name a third time to Cross Connection Escondido.

Our Vision: Life in Connection

But what does that name mean? Why do we exist? Every year I stand before this church and say, "This is what we, the leadership, believe God is calling us to." As we come into 2014, the vision is that we would be a people living this life in connection.

Our vision answers why we exist: Because of the cross of Christ, we know that we have been connected to God and one another in life-giving and satisfying communion. In Genesis 1 and 2, God made man in His image to be in communion with God and one another. But in Genesis 3, that communion was broken by sin. Adam and Eve hid their nakedness in shame—community between humanity was broken—and God called, "Adam, where are you?"—communion with God was broken.

Man has been seeking to restore that connection ever since. This is why social networks like Facebook have become so big—they restore a sense of community. Yet research shows we're even more disconnected. Sit in a Starbucks and everyone is on their computer or phone, communing with people hundreds of miles away while ignoring those right beside them. Man longs for community, and it is only truly restored through the cross of Christ.

On the cross, even God the Father and God the Son experienced separation because of our sin, as Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" He experienced that separation for us so He could rejoin us to one another and to Himself.

Family of God: Know, Grow, Go

Now that we are restored, we have been made the family of God. 1 John 3:1: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God." As the family of God, we grow together into His likeness by worship and the application of His word.

Parents know their kids look like them—not just physically, but in mannerisms and sayings. My four-year-old Addison once told her two-year-old sister, "Life is hard, Evangeline." I wondered where she got it—until one day I caught myself saying, "Life is hard, Addison." She got it from me. As we are in fellowship within a family, we grow into its likeness. So too, as the family of God, we grow into His likeness through worship—because the God you worship is the God you become like, for good or for bad. The psalmist says the idols of this world are silver and gold; "those who make them are like them." You become like what you esteem.

As a community of faith, we go together on mission, laboring for the joy and justice of all peoples—and by justice we mean salvation. It's summed up in three words: know, grow, go.

Living It Out

But vision must become mission. Over the next five weeks we'll look at how we live these things out practically. We aim to promote a vision of worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, mission, and generosity—all rooted in a love for God, one another, and the world. Next week: worship. Then: fellowship—connecting with community; discipleship and ministry—serving the body; mission—engaging on mission; generosity—giving sacrificially.

There's coming a day when Christ returns, and I want to hear Him say, not just to me but to us, "Cross Connection, well done, good and faithful servants." The only way for that to be reality is to know the vision—to know what God is calling us to do.

So I hope you'll pray and ask: Is this who I am? Is this what I'm doing? The only way to live this life in connection is, first, to be connected to Christ and to maintain that connection by spending time with Him. It doesn't happen by coming one day out of seven; it happens as we say daily, "God, I want to be with you today. Reveal yourself to me through your word." Jesus died on the cross to restore that communion, and the enemy wants to distract us from it. But the abundant life—the life in connection—is only lived as we walk in communion with God and community with one another.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank you for sending your Son to die for us. Thank you that, because you became sin for us, you experienced the disconnection that we experience. By doing so, you are the perfect High Priest who can make the connection once again, bringing us into communion with the Father and into community with one another. Lord, I pray that as we live this side of salvation, we would be an expression to the world of that very thing—communion with you and community with one another. And Lord, it may be that some standing here today have not come into connection with you through the cross of Christ, have not put their trust in you for salvation. I pray you would draw them by your Spirit to put their faith and trust in you. Amen.