Vision 2025

Hey, Church. I'm really excited because May is Vision Month, and I wanted to take a few moments now to hopefully get you excited about it as well. Because Vision Month is about more than just sharing plans. It's about asking God, what story are you writing in? And through Horizon Church, over the last six months or so, our leadership has been praying and listening to God about where God would take us next.

And I want to kind of get you excited by sharing two thoughts as we prepare our hearts for what God is going to say to us this month. And so two ideas about vision that we find in Scripture, and I'm going to give them to you up front and then we'll unpack them briefly together. The first idea is that God calls us to look ahead with vision. The second idea is that God gives each one of us a part to play in his vision. And so the first of those God calls us to look ahead with vision.

Over. In Isaiah 43, the Israelites find themselves in a bit of a tricky position. If you know your Old Testament, you know that that's not uncommon for them. But here, a time of exile is looming. And into that moment, God speaks through the prophet Isaiah.

And So in Isaiah 43, God reminds His people of something that was central to their identity. He says, remember the Exodus? Remember how I brought you out of slavery? Remember how I parted the seas and brought you through safely? For them, this was a great moment of salvation in their history.

But right after recalling that miracle, God says something unexpected in verses 18 and 19 of Isaiah 43 says this. But forget all that. It's nothing compared to what I'm going to do, for I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun. Do you not see it?

I'll make a pathway through the wilderness. I'll create rivers in the dry wasteland. What a powerful promise that is. I wonder if you notice, God says, remember the Exodus. Remember this incredible story of the way that I was faithful and I saved you.

But then he says, forget those former things. And I want you to see church. This isn't a contradiction. It's actually a correction of perspective. Because God isn't saying the past doesn't matter.

What he's saying is, don't get stuck in the past. He's saying, honour the past, but don't live in it. He's saying, be thankful for yesterday's miracles, but trust me, for new miracles today. I wonder if you've ever found yourself stuck in the past. For some of us, it might be a past season in our life.

Or perhaps a season, a time in our faith journey that we wish we could return to. I've had those moments too. We can find ourselves looking back and thinking, was that it? Or God, Did I miss it? Did I miss what you were wanting to do?

But then we hear these words echoing through scripture. Forget those former things. I'm doing something new now. There's an incredible picture here that we see through Isaiah 43, we read of a path through the wilderness and rivers in the dry wastelands. I remember years ago I was watching one of those nature documentaries and they'd set up a time lapse camera of this kind of desert landscape.

And all of a sudden you saw over. As the days passed, clouds form overhead and then this torrential downpour. The time lapse showed what happened next. Because coming up over the days and weeks that followed, all of a sudden there was these rivers that were flowing through this once barren landscape. And at those rivers, animals came to drink.

Grass sprouted, shrubs grew. Suddenly this barren landscape was living again. And in this passage, God is saying, that's how refreshing and unexpected my new work can be. I love the next line. It says, see, I have already begun it.

Do you not see it? God is saying, pay attention, I'm already at work. God's saying, it might not be obvious, but already something is growing. I picture a little shoot of a plant or a tree as it bursts through the soil. It's this tiny little glimmer of green in the dirt.

And this is what this passage is saying. Now it springs up. God's saying, not next year, not once everything is sorted and everything is fixed. Now it springs up. So church, our job is to be open hearted.

It's to be alert. It's to be ready and looking for what God is doing. Now if we wonder about how God is gonna bring it about, he says, he says, I make a way in the wilderness. He's the one who brings direction and refreshment. One biblical commentator put it like this, said, don't worry about the details.

God is saying, I have resources and plans you don't even know about. Leave the problems to me. And so maybe for you, it's felt like this year has been a bit of a wilderness year. Maybe it's felt spiritually dry. Maybe you've been asking God what's next.

And right here in Isaiah 43, God says, I'm making a way. I'm doing a new thing. And so God calls us to look ahead with vision, to look ahead, ready to see what he's doing. But he also gives us a promise, and that takes us to our second point. His promise is this.

Each one of us has a part to play in his vision. You see, it's one thing to believe that God is doing something new. It's another thing to believe that he wants to involve you and me in it. And that's where the Old Testament Book of Joel, particularly chapter two, speaks so powerfully. In Joel 2, the prophet is addressing the people of Israel.

And after he calls them to return to the Lord, he gives this incredible promise from God, one that looks forward, one that encourages the people to lift their eyes. He says this in Joel 2:28. And afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams.

Your young men will see visions. I wonder if this passage sounds familiar to you. It might sound familiar because we actually find it in Acts chapter two, as the Holy Spirit is poured out in power on the early church and on the believers. Peter actually quotes Joel Chapter two. But I want you to catch how radical this prophecy is, because God is promising something that the people thought was impossible.

You see, they had come to believe that God's spirit was only for prophets and kings, and very rarely for the ordinary person that had a special task from God. But here, God says to the people, what I'm going to do next won't be limited to the prophets and kings. I'm going to involve everyone. I'm pouring my spirit out on all people. And I love the details here, because God's spirit is for sons and daughters.

God's spirit is for the young and the old. God's spirit is for men and it's for women. This is God saying, I'm pouring out my spirit across all generations and all backgrounds. God's saying no one is too young, no one is too old, no one's too ordinary. If you're part of my people, you're part of my plan.

Let me say that again, Church. If you're part of my people, you're part of my plan. And I wonder if some of us need to hear that today. Maybe you felt like vision looking ahead is for leaders only. And maybe you've felt like it's for those who are younger.

Or maybe you've thought, oh, I'm too old. I'm past my time. But Joel reminds us that God's spirit is in you. And so you have a part to play now as we prepare to share the new vision for our church on the 18th and then on the 25th to talk about the five year plan of what lies ahead. I want to encourage you to be praying a really simple, simple prayer.

And that prayer is this. Would you pray? God, help me to see what you are doing. Help me to know my part in this and help me to carry the vision for a new season. So why don't we pray that together now, Our God, we thank you that you are a God of vision.

We thank you that you call us to look ahead, to remember your faithfulness in the past, but not to live there, to remember your miracles of old, but to expect new miracles for today. And so, God, as we press in this month to what you would say to us, what you would say to our church, we pray that you would help us to see what you are doing. Help each one of us to know our part in this. You've filled us with your spirit and so we have a part to play. Help each one of us to catch and to carry this vision for.

For this next season. And so we ask you this in your precious son's name. Amen.