FaithWalk Radio

Ron Susek: Jonathan Swift said, "Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others." Seth Berkley said, "Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power." We have some very important things to talk about today. Stay with me, I'll be right back.

Guest (Male): Finding and knowing God is a faith walk. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Our hope lies in the coming Messiah, who will establish God's peaceful kingdom on earth.

This is FaithWalk with Ron Susek. Dr. Ron is an evangelist committed to encourage and equip your faith walk as we pass through these turbulent end-time days, awaiting that soon-coming kingdom. Here again is Ron Susek.

Ron Susek: What I want to talk about today is how to establish your life's vision. It is critical. It's one of the most important areas of your life, making sure that you have a vision that is a worthy vision, one that can keep you challenged over the years.

Proverbs chapter 29, verse 18 reads this way: "Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint. But blessed is he who keeps the law." No prophetic vision—prophecy is seeing into the future. It is knowing where God is heading. It's also knowing where you believe you need to be heading. And if you don't have that, you're going to end up in a very terrible place.

Think of all the people that are living on the streets today. There are many reasons for that, but I will tell you one underlying reason is a lack of vision to give the drive to throw off the drugs and throw off the alcohol and throw off all the depression and all the anxieties and all the things that are attached to that, and rise up and say, "No, I have my eyes on a vision. I'm going to go for that vision."

Where there is no vision, the people perish. A good vision binds a nation together in oneness. A good vision binds a family together in oneness. Now today, I want to talk to you about the importance of vision and how a clear vision brings unity to families and nations. Let me illustrate what I mean by vision.

Years ago, before we had tractors, we plowed by horses. A farmer would sit on a plow behind the horse and begin to cut a furrow through a field. How did he get a straight line? He put his eyes on the tree at the end of the field. And he drove that horse directly toward that tree. That's how he got a straight row.

It's imperative that you and I commit ourselves to establishing a tree at the end of the row. What do I want at the end of my life and beyond the grave? Think beyond the grave. What do I want when I stand before God? What is my vision?

Now my personal vision, and I hope that it'll become yours eventually, is to see at least 100 million people come to salvation, to do my little part in helping to fulfill the great commission that was the vision of Jesus Christ. I can't think of a vision greater than that of the vision of Jesus Christ.

But in light of that, we're going to look at three areas lifted up from a story told by Jesus. Area number one: What are bad visions? Area number two: How vision defines your whole life. Area number three: How not to define vision. Those are our three goals in the next few moments. But first, I want to set the stage by reading the story that Jesus told, and it's in a very particular setting. Follow this carefully. In Luke chapter 12, beginning with verse 13.

Guest (Male): Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." But he said to the man, "Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?"

Ron Susek: And he said to them, "Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions." Pause there just for a moment. This is so critical. This is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, addressing a man in a crowd who wants him to become the arbitrator to help him get what he believed was his fair share in a family inheritance. And Jesus said, "Who appointed me with that authority?"

There's a whole message behind this that I'll bring someday. Jesus did nothing outside of what his father gave him authority to do. You and I must be very careful not to cross the bounds and get involved in something God has not given us his authority to do. Jesus lived his life in absolute submission to his father. You and I must also live our lives in absolute submission under God and follow where he's going. And then we read in verse 16. He begins this story.

Guest (Male): And he told them a parable saying, "The land of a rich man produced plenty, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops.' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and all my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry."'"

Ron Susek: There was his life's vision.

Guest (Male): In verse 20: "But God said to him, 'Fool!'" Called him a fool. "This night your soul will be required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

Ron Susek: Let that closing phrase sink in deeply. The one who lays up treasures for himself and has not invested his life with a vision of serving God and he dies and is not rich toward God. Listen, I am here today to talk to you about how to be rich toward God, how to set a vision in your life.

Now let me talk to you for just a couple of moments about what bad visions are. A bad vision is no vision. People who do not allow a leader to lead them if the leader is foggy in his thinking. They need clear vision. A foggy thought is not leadership. It's not vision. It's foggy. And if a leader is foggy in his thinking, he's not a leader. He's like a drunk stumbling along trying to help another drunk stumbling along. No vision is a disaster. It's a wreck.

Secondly, conflicting visions. Listen carefully. Let's get practical. Eliminate a lot of the great ideas you have. You may be a genius with a million great ideas, but that will only make you a shotgun and not a rifle. That will not get your eyes on a tree at the end of the row. The key to vision is to harness all of your intellect, harness all of your capabilities, harness all of your abilities for one goal. So conflicting visions will not only limit your life, it will frustrate your followers.

Thirdly, confusing visions. You must articulate your vision with simplicity and clarity if you want people to follow you. They cannot follow a complex vision. A good vision normally only has three words to it, at the most five at the very most. Something that when you say those words, you can easily remember the whole concept of where you're heading, why you're going there, and how you're going to get there. So confusing visions are very difficult. They will fall apart. People won't be able to follow them. You won't be able to follow it yourself.

And congested visions will destroy your life. What do I mean by that? Listen. New ideas are exciting, and you can get people excited over a new idea. But if you come up with a new idea every day or every week, you're going to lose your people. You're going to lose your own direction. Why is that?

It's imperative that you approach life with this simple phrase: "This one thing I do." All the other things that I do must support this one thing I do. It's interesting how many businesses succeed at this one thing and then they feel they have to diversify. And before long, they have petered out and died as a business. They have degenerated.

The one thing they did well now becomes almost nothing. Whether it's a business, whether it's your personal life, whatever it is, it's imperative that you determine before God what does God want you to do? And say to yourself and say to your heart and write it down: "This one thing I do." I'm not going to engage in anything else. If anything comes along, no matter how promising it is, how much money, how much this, how much that, if it does not help me achieve my vision that I have from God, then I'm not interested. I won't participate. That's for someone else.

The second thing I want you to see: we've just seen what are bad visions. Now, how vision defines your life. Vision defines three things about your life: your achievements, your legacy, and your reward. Let's talk about those three, one at a time.

Number one, your vision will define your achievements in life. Michelangelo, the famous artist and painter of the Sistine Chapel, said this: "The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss, but it is too low and we reach it." What a genius of a statement. Did you get that? The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Oswald Chambers, a favorite writer of mine who's now with the Lord, said this: "Joy means the perfect fulfillment of that for which I was created and regenerated, not the successful doing of a thing." Success is not your key. Staying focused on what God has given you as your mission in life, your singular goal, your vision. You fulfill that. And by the way, a good vision reaches beyond the grave. If you can reach your vision in 10 years, it's not a vision. It's a goal. Vision is when you have stretched your mind and imagination and you've responded to what you believe God wants you to do and it's out of reach. It can't even be fulfilled until you're dead. It gives you a lifelong focus of where you're to go and what you're to be doing.

Here's a defining question: Are you fulfilling God's vision for your life or asking him to bless your vision? Big difference. Big difference. Are you fulfilling God's vision or asking him to fulfill your vision? This will determine whether or not your achievements go with you beyond the grave. I hope you're not living for this world alone. I hope you're living for your life beyond the grave and what will be waiting for you there. That's so important if you want to get through this life with a great sense of purpose.

Number one, we're looking at achievement, that your vision will determine what you're going to achieve in life. Secondly, your vision will determine your legacy. What are you going to leave behind? What impression will you leave behind? What will the memories in people's minds and hearts be? Will they be making up good things just to cover it all up, or will the memory of you give them a sense of stability and value and importance and direction?

Martin Luther King, the famed reformationist here in America, said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." The value, what value will you leave behind? How many people will be in heaven because of you? Are you focused on the great commission that was the vision of Jesus Christ that he gave to the whole church? Are you focused on that?

What transferable goods will you leave? We're talking about your legacy now. What transferable goods? What impression are you going to leave? What goods are you going to leave? In other words, what money, what memories, what values? More than money: memories and values. What are you going to leave that will be talked about long after you are with the Lord?

How much of your legacy has earthly value and how much has eternal value? I will tell you this: sons will talk more about a father who left them with fantastic leadership and memories than a big pile of money. So don't think you can buy people off just by leaving money when you die or giving money even while you're alive. Money's not the issue. That's not the saving factor. It is your vision and what you are and what you're leaving behind in the memories of your legacy of the kind of person that you were. What legacy will erode when you die? It just goes away.

Number three, we've looked at achievement, we've looked at legacy. Now let's look at... and by the way, before we move off of legacy, let me mention one more thing. Absalom became a fool, David's son Absalom. And we read of a man who made a horrible mistake in his life.

In 2 Samuel chapter 18, verse 18, we read this: "Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself the pillar that is in the King's Valley." I've seen that pillar. I'll talk about it in a minute. "For he said, 'I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.' He called the pillar after his own name and it is called Absalom's Monument to this day." Absalom tried to build a monument to himself. Well, I'll tell you what it is today: it's an eroding rock. It's useless. All tourists go to see it, walk away, doesn't mean a thing. What a horrible thing to leave behind. Make sure you are leaving a legacy that people can build their lives on. I'm talking about far more than money. I'm talking about your values and the person you were.

Thirdly, your goal, your vision will determine your reward, how God will judge you and your life. Galatians chapter 5, verses 7 and 9 says this: "Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatsoever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows in his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows in the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up."

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 35: "Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward." My friend, I don't know how I can encourage you strongly enough. And maybe you're already with what I'm saying. But I know of no vision in life greater than the one given to the disciples by Jesus Christ when he said before his resurrection, or before his ascension, "Go you into all the world and preach the gospel." There's a vision. There's a tree at the end of the row. That one goes beyond the grave. And there would be nothing greater than for you to walk into heaven some soon someday and see a whole gathering of people that you can hardly imagine who are there because you did your part in fulfilling the great commission.

Now, let me give you some ways not to define your vision. There are countless needs that are calling upon our emotional sensitivities. And one of the ways not to define vision is by need. Need must not define your vision. What am I saying? If you just stand any place on this planet and turn yourself in a circle, you're going to see a thousand needs crying out, "Come over here! Help us do this!"

Oswald Chambers said this: "Need is never the call. Need is never the call; the need is the opportunity. The call is the loyalty to the ministry you received when you were real in real touch with him, with God. You will have to ignore the demands for service along other lines. If you're going to do this one thing I do, you gotta leave this one thing I do to someone else if it's something else. You've got to take the thing God has put on your heart and move in that direction." So need is not the call to your vision.

Secondly, your abilities do not determine your vision. Oh Ron, I'm a great basketball player. Well, maybe, maybe not. It's very interesting. There was a man named Charles Studd. And Charles Thomas Studd, they called him C.T. Studd. He lived in 1860 to 1931. He was a famed cricketer. And he was on the verge of great fame, great fortune. And he felt called with a vision to go to China as a missionary.

He forfeited fame. He forfeited wealth. He could have said, "Look, I'll be a great cricket player and I'll give a lot of money to missions." No, he was called to go. And so he laid down the fame and the fortune and he went to the mission field. And here's what he said: "Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bells. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell." I want to get right out there on the brink of heaven and hell and turn people from hell to heaven. I want to be on the front line of carrying out the great commission.

Thirdly, personal interest must not define your vision. Again, Oswald Chambers said, "There is no choice of service, only absolute loyalty to our Lord's commission." Loyalty to what you discern when you are in closest contact with him. Listen. God may call you to do something that really does not hold your personal interest. But you've got to learn to love that thing as Jesus learned to love you and love the world, for God so loved the world. You've got to love that thing that God has given you to do. And you might say, "My personal interest lie over here." Forget it. You fall in love with what God has given to you. Therein lies success of vision.

Number four, very important now. Listen carefully. Another person's success must not define your vision. To mimic the ministry or the life of another is to block Jesus Christ from the unique way he desires to work in and through you. You were not called to be like someone else. You were called to be like Jesus Christ. And God wants to use you in a unique way.

George Washington Carver was a famed man in American history and he was involved in doing things in working with peanuts. But here's what he said: "When I was young, I said to God, 'God, tell me the mystery of the universe.' But God answered, 'That knowledge is for me alone.' So I said, 'God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.' Then God said, 'Well, George, that's more nearly your size.'" Make sure that you're asking God for that which really matters and that God will place into your life. Don't be off in the universe somewhere.

And number five, God's call is what defines vision. Again, Oswald Chambers said, "Have I received a ministry from the Lord? If so, I have to be loyal to it. To count my life precious only for the fulfilling of that ministry." God has given you a calling. Everyone receives a vision from God. If you will seek him, you will find that vision. I have a close friend whose vision it is to serve God as a funeral director because he ministers biblically to people in their deepest hurt of life.

I don't know where God is calling you. It may be into the space industry, into the trucking industry, the farming industry, the ministry. I don't know. What I do know is that whatever we are doing in life, we need to have an overarching vision. And there is no vision to match the vision of Jesus Christ: "Go you into all the world and preach the gospel."

Let me close our thinking by rereading the story Jesus told. It's so critical. "And he told them a parable saying, 'The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, "What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?" And he said, "I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry.''" What an empty vision he had.

"But God said to him, 'Fool! Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.'"

My friend, make sure you seek God's face for the vision he gives you for your life. This one thing I do, that when you stand before God, you will be rich toward God and hear him say to you, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." God bless you.

Guest (Male): Thank you for your gift to help Dr. Ron in building lives by advancing the teaching of God's Word through the programs of FaithWalk. You may never know until heaven whose lives you've impacted somewhere around the world. So please accept and enjoy your copy of "God Will Answer" as our personal thank you for standing with us at FaithWalk.

You'll be encouraged and inspired as you open your gift book, "God Will Answer" by Dr. Ron Susek. Each week throughout the year, within the pages of this rich 52-chapter hardcover edition, you'll discover compelling spiritual truth and biblical insights, content that will enrich your life and challenge your heart to go deeper in your faith walk with God.

This has been FaithWalk with best-selling author, pastor, and evangelist Ron Susek. If you would like to know more about Dr. Ron and our mission, visit our website at faithwalk.org. We're certain you appreciate Dr. Ron's straightforward teaching of God's Word, along with his strong invitation to find salvation through Christ. But he needs your help in spreading the gospel to the far reaches of the world. Join our team by going to faithwalk.org and clicking on "Partner With Us."

Please accept and enjoy your copy of "God Will Answer" as our personal thank you for standing with us at FaithWalk. Well, thanks for being with us today, and we hope you'll join us again next week as we find courage for the journey in our faith walk.