"Vision Will Change Me”

Various Passages

March 5, 2000

Introduction: Once upon a time, the brothers Grimm had a dream. Jacob and Wilhelm wanted to study law. They dreamed of becoming attorneys. Even though each was offered a scholarship to the University of Marburg, the brothers wanted more. They realized that language and culture were the keys to law, so they set out to master German literature and folklore.
It wasn’t long before Jacob and Wilhelm fell in love with their subject and decided to put all their energies into understanding the stories of the German people. In the course of events, they wrote a book called “Kinder and Hausmarchen” or in English, “Children’s and Household Tales.” Their stories included “Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Hansel and Gretel.”
The book of the brothers Grimm became a huge success in part due to their attention to detail. When Wilhelm was recording the story of “Sleeping Beauty” from Marie Muller’s version, she said that everyone in Sleeping Beauty’s castle fell asleep. When Wilhelm asked, “Who, exactly, fell asleep?” She replied, “Even the flies on the wall fell asleep!”
As a measure of their success, by the 1870’s, the book was being used to teach reading in schools all over Germany. By the beginning of the 20th century, it was second only to the Bible as a best seller in Germany, and it holds that position to this day. (Amy Reynolds, Investor’s Business Daily, Jan 1, 2000)
Two brothers who had dreamed of becoming attorneys found their dream completely changing their lives. A dream or a vision can and will change the dreamer!
According to World magazine’s Lynn Vincent, the book, Darwin on Trial, began “peeling back the thin curtain of science that shielded evolution to reveal what lay behind: Darwinian philosophers churning out a powerful scientific mirage.” The book’s author, Phillip Johnson, would say in an interview with Vincent, “I could see that evolution was not so much science as a philosophy that Darwinists had adopted in the teeth of the facts.”
Johnson is one of a cadre of proponents of what is called “intelligent design” that argues that the world and its creatures are evidence of a Designer. The ‘intelligent design’ movement is forcing Darwinists onto the defense in many of the debates that are making headlines in Kansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.
So, who is this Phillip Johnson who is behind so much of this stir? He is a man whose vision changed his life. In 1987, the UC Berkeley law professor asked God what he should do with the rest of his life. Part of the answer to that question involved a fateful trip to London where Johnson passed a bookstore and became hooked on a comparative study of evolutionary theory. In the early 90s he made contact with other scientists and theoreticians to form alliances around the issue of intelligent design. These were men like Michael Behe (Darwin’s Black Box), William Dembski (“God’s mathematician”, The Design Inference), and Steve Meyer (DNA by Design).
In 1993, Johnson’s book, Darwin on Trial, was published. This summer, his new book, The Wedge of Truth, will be released, and Phillip Johnson’s life will continue to be the answer to the question he asked God in 1987—“What should I do with the rest of my life?” A vision from God will change a person’s life!
When we look at some of the famous folks of the Bible, we see vision making dramatic changes in the rest of their lives! And vision holds that prospect for us as well. Would we be willing to ask the same question of God – “What should I do with the rest of my life?” What kinds of change would we be willing to undergo if we knew God had called us to something new for the next season of our life? What kinds of obstacles could keep us from exchanging complacency or the comfortable confines of what we now know for a fresh call of God?
Let’s look at a few men from the Book and draw some lessons from their experiences.
The first person I want us to consider this morning is a man called Jacob. His story is found in the book of Genesis. We see him at Bethel in chapter 28, verses 10-22. He is fleeing from Esau, having stolen the birthright by conspiratorial deception with his mother, and he is on his way to his uncle Laban’s place in Paddan-aram (Mesopotamia).
Readers of this account remember that Jacob has a dream one night while on the way. (He’s using a stone for a pillow (11); perhaps that’s the reason for his dreaming!) He sees a ladder spanning the distance between heaven and earth, and the angels of God are ascending and descending on it. Jacob also sees God standing at the top of the ladder, and God makes some heavy-duty promises to him. These promises are the extension of the promises God had given to Abraham back in Genesis 12, promises about numerous descendents, a great land, and the blessings of a great future.
When Jacob awakes, he says, (Gen. 28:16-22), "’Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. He called the name of that place Bethel...
Verse 20 -- Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father's house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.’"
Jacob’s life is going to be significantly altered because of this vision he is given of God and this gateway of heaven. We see more of those alterations when we come to chapter 32. This is that famous passage that tells of Jacob’s wrestling match with God Himself. We pick up the story in 32:24 – “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.
Then he (God) said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’ But he (Jacob) said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ Now skip down to verse 30 – “So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.’ Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh.”
Because of this rendezvous with God, Jacob will limp for the rest of his life. And that limp will always remind him of his encounter with God. His limp will always prompt him to remember that he struggled for God’s blessing, and he had emerged from the struggle victorious. What had begun with a dream in chapter 28 ends with a limp in chapter 32. The one who is Jacob in chapter 28 is now Israel in chapter 32.
Jacob’s vision produced some startling changes that impacted the rest of his life. The one word that had characterized his entire life up to this point is struggle. He had had conflict with his brother, with his father, with his father-in-law, and with God. He will be a different man from this point forward.
Another Biblical hero significantly impacted by a vision from God is Joseph. Joseph had a vision from God that certainly brought huge changes into his life. In Genesis 37 Joseph has two dreams. The first is found in verse 5 and the second surfaces in verse 9. Both dreams are slightly different, but they convey the same message. In the first dream (37:7), Joseph is speaking to his brothers, and we read: “…for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf." In the second dream recorded in verse 9, Joseph is again saying: "Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
Now everyone knows exactly what these dreams mean. In verses 8 and 10 we understand that both Jacob and his other sons realize what Joseph is saying: One day they will bow down to him, for he will be the ruler over all of them.
And the dreams do come true. And with their fulfillment, it is obvious to all that God was the author of this vision for this particular son.
For all of us who know Joseph’s story (that basically covers the rest of the book of Genesis), we know how this young man was changed. He went from being a shepherd and a farmer to being the prime minister of Egypt. He went from being his father’s favorite son hated by his brothers to being the patriarch of the family. He went from being a spoiled errand boy for his doting father to being the savior of Egypt and Israel. When God wanted to take Abraham’s family, numbering about 70 individuals, and make of it a nation of some 2 million souls, He gave a vision to a young man. Joseph would never be the same!
His experience in the pit where he was thrown by his brothers… his encounter with Potipher’s wife and subsequent prison time on trumped up charges… his long years of hard work endeavoring to rescue Egypt from a coming famine of 7 years duration… his forced separation from his family and the experience of starting his own family… My, how Joseph’s life changed because of the call of God upon him!!
I finished this week an autobiography of a Marine sniper who spent 13 months in Vietnam in the early 70s. J.T. Ward wrote his volume by compiling all the letters he wrote home to his mom while he was gone. He writes of seeing Viet Cong with wire bands around their arms and legs – wires that could become instant tourniquets if necessary for them to keep going in the midst of battle.
He writes of his own wounds from a grenade explosion that have to be kept open and cleaned for a couple of weeks before they can be stitched closed. He writes of the excruciating pain of that experience, and how at one point in a cleaning session an artery is nicked and he is able to watch his own blood spurting in rhythm with his heart beat as the nurse runs to get a doctor to stop the bleeding.
Now, J.T. Ward says nothing about the part that God plays in the unfolding drama of his experience, but I share part of his story this morning to highlight how events in our lives dramatically change us. Joseph had just such life-changing experiences that he recognized as being from the hand of God, and those experiences left him remarkably different from what he had been.
Consider with me for a moment another Bible hero: Moses had a vision from God that he would be the deliverer of Israel from the bondage, the iron furnace, of Egypt. We see Moses in Exodus 2 killing an Egyptian who is mistreating a Hebrew.
Many commentators think that by this time (the time of Ex. 2) Moses had had a vision of being the deliverer of the Hebrews. His actions here portray an attempt, a fleshly attempt, to be that savior. But Moses’ timing is wrong. It won’t be until 40 years later that he has the experience before the burning bush where God makes clear His plans for Moses and the Hebrews.
After quite a debate, after quite an argument and struggle, Moses embarks with Aaron on the mission to force Pharaoh to let the people of God go from Egypt to the Promised Land. That revisited vision and Moses’ conflict with God is recorded in Exodus 3 and 4.
My, how Moses’ life changed from living in the desert of Midian to bracing himself before Pharaoh in the palaces of Egypt! My, how Moses changed from being a shepherd dealing with sheep everyday to being a leader having to deal with Egyptian rulers and Hebrew tribal chiefs!
When God calls out to a man or woman, and when that call finds response in a tender heart, lives change!
We could continue on if we wanted. We could look at Joshua, we could look at David, we could look at Isaiah and Jeremiah, we could study Paul and Stephen and Peter and John, but the picture is clear enough, isn’t it? When God calls a person, when God gives an individual a vision for ministry and service, he or she undergoes profound changes.
One man limps as a constant reminder that his strength for walking in life must come from his God.
Another man becomes humbly dependent upon his God as he waits patiently for the dreams God gave him to become reality when everything he sees says they never will.
Yet another becomes the meekest man who ever lived, stepping way down from the power and influence of a prince of Egypt.
So what does all this mean for us?
If we want God to use us in this one life He gives, if we expect Him to speak to us and give us clear marching orders, if we hope to be an instrument useable in His hands, then we must be people (and we must be a church) that takes a healthy view of change. We saw last week that vision creates the future. It is now also apparent that vision changes us.
There are huge implications of this challenge for all of us. We must ask: So how important are traditions? We all know the seven deadliest words known to the church: “We have always done it this way!” Another variation isn’t much different: “We’ve never done it that way before!”
Of course, some traditions have noteworthy strengths. We will never be open to changing our concepts of our fundamental doctrinal positions. Suzie and I were invited last Sunday to join the lunch in the gym that our college volunteers had prepared for the college students to enjoy together. I asked the four fellows that were near me why they came to this church. One said, “We sing a lot of choruses in chapel, but I like the mixture of hymns that we sing here.” Another said, “My background is Brethren, and I want to be part of a church with Anabaptist roots.” Another student said, “I like my home church, and this church reminds me of home.” We can’t be all things to all the university students, but we can be what some are looking for.
And it may well be that some of those traditions that make us what we are will be stretched and tweaked and modified as God leads us into the future. BUT God will not share His dreams for us with us if we are unable or unwilling to consider change.
Another implication to the idea of vision and personal change comes in the form of another question: “How would my friends, those who know me best, say I react to new ideas?” How much am I in the grip of the known, the comfortable, and the normal? How easy is it for me to see the negative side of an idea instead of the positive? How strong are my tendencies to be critical rather than affirming? How much Pharisee blood runs in my veins?
In the invitation I received recently to minister in the Philippines, I noticed I was scheduled to lead an evangelistic healing service on the last Thursday night I would be there. Though I knew that I would be ministering in the context of a charismatic group, that kind of ministry opportunity had never crossed my mind, and my first reaction to it was not positive or healthy.
I was intrigued again recently to read the parable in Matthew 20 about the landowner who went to the marketplace to hire workers for his vineyard. You remember the story: He hired some laborers in the morning and agreed with them to pay each of them a denarius for a day’s work. Then the landowner went back to the marketplace at the third hour and hired some more, this time agreeing to pay them what was right. Again at the sixth, ninth, and even eleventh hours, the businessman hired more workers with the same stipulation: “Whatever is right, I will give you.”
You remember the end of the story: the landowner gave those who had come later in the day the same as he gave those who had worked all day. Even those who had only worked one hour since the eleventh hour received the same denarius. The landowner had some pretty upset people on his hands at the payday hour. But he said to one of them, Mt. 20:13: “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go…Is your eye evil because I am generous?”
The problem of those upset was their inability to think beyond their traditions and their limited expectations. Who had ever heard of such a generous businessman? Who would have imagined that a landowner might do something so unusual? Here was a man, representing God in the parable, whose outlook on life was neither critical, nor negative, nor traditional. He was positive, creative, generous, and committed to doing what was right.
And a final implication: If I hold too tightly to the wrong traditions, and if I’m too quickly adverse to something new and different, it is so easy to be self-satisfied. The Lord Jesus addressed the final church in Revelation 3, the self-satisfied Laodiceans, with the descriptive term “lukewarm”. The Lord Jesus would have preferred this church to be cold or hot. Cold water can be refreshing. Hot water is useful for many medical procedures. Lukewarm water is neither. It is hard for vision to grip a self-satisfied person. It’s even harder for vision to change a lukewarm person. Like the lady of last week, the mother of Matthew 15, we all need a bit of desperation in us, something to offset our natural tendency towards complacency. We need some sense of urgency to offset our affinity for lethargy.
I’m reminded of the two disciples in Luke 24 who are walking along the Emmaus road. Jesus joins them but they do not recognize Him. Finally, at supper time, as they eat together, their eyes are opened, they recognize Him, and then He vanishes. Do you remember their comments, one to another? “Were not our hearts burning within us…as He opened the Scriptures to us?” Dallas Willard calls this the “Jesus heartburn”, and if vision is to change us, we need it!
Conclusion: Vision, the call of God, the will of God for us – these are powerful revelation that promise incredible blessings. To know God more and more, to walk with Him according to His perfect plan for us… nothing else in life compares!
That vision, that call, that plan will change us --- IF it can get around our traditions, IF it isn’t discounted at once as something strange, out of the blue, IF it can get around our self-satisfaction and create a little heartburn!


DISCLAIMER: These messages are offered for your personal enrichment. There is no legal copyright on this material. You have my full permission to use any of this material as long as you cite the source for any substantial amount used. Enjoy!