Vision Restored 1981

I'd like to begin by reading from Revelation chapter 3, verse 14. And I feel threatened. John Kyros shared some really good things on Wednesday night about the need for joy among us.

And, lo and behold, he's sitting right in the front row up there, and I feel terrible to read this passage. This is a lot of joy, but bear with us. I think that what he shared Wednesday night was certainly something that we needed to hear.

It was helpful. I'm not in awe, but I thought, if John's there, I don't know if I'll be able to read this. So stick with it.

And I promise that before we get to the end, if we do get to the end of this, things will cheer up. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. I know your works.

You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. Not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen.

And salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Now, these words were addressed to the church of Laodicea, not to demoralize them or condemn them, but really to call them back to life. Here was a church which had begun to die the most dangerous kind of death, the death of the lukewarm, who are so comfortable they don't even know they're dead.

So how do you get back that flame? How do you restore that fire to a church which has sunken into a lukewarm stupor? Jesus says, therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen. And salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Gold refined by fire, in other words, truth that begins to dawn on us when we start getting a little bit uncomfortable again.

White garments to clothe you and keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, in other words, righteousness that comes from above, not our own. Salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see, in other words, vision which comes to us from God. Now today, let's just concentrate on our need for that eye salve.

I counsel you to buy from me salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. In other words, get your vision back, because if you get your vision back, that lukewarm stupor will go. Many of us in this gathering can look back on a time in our lives when our vision of God was far more clear and bright than it is now.

At some point in our past, Jesus himself broke through the darkness of our unbelief and manifested himself to us. We saw him. And seeing Jesus, we saw the Father.

We began to see the world around us with new eyes. We saw the kingdom at work in the midst of all the chaos. We saw the road we had to walk.

And as we walked in the light of that vision, having faith in God was easy. And touching the world around us with God's grace and healing was our joy. But somewhere down that road, the vision we had began to fade.

And we woke up one morning and found that our vision of God had fallen under a cloud. And instead of crying to the Father, Father, the vision you gave me is fading. Father, I can't live without that vision.

Instead of calling for help, we just accepted it. We accepted the fading of this vision as just another part of life. And settled down to a dull preoccupation with things these eyes can see, and these hands can touch, and these mouths can eat and drink.

But where there is no vision, the people perish. From Acts chapter 26, Paul is standing before King Agrippa in chains. And although he's in chains, giving an account of his whole life, Paul is the only free man in that magnificent royal meeting hall.

He's saying, thus I journey to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It hurts you to kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you, to open their eyes that they might have vision, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those at Damascus, then at Jerusalem and throughout all the country of Judea and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy of repentance. Paul is describing to Agrippa the turning point of his life, which was a vision of Jesus.

Now, that vision of Jesus came to him as a gift. It was not something that he earned or deserved. It just came.

But when that vision came to Paul, he did two things. First of all, he acted on that vision immediately. He went on into Damascus, and after his sight came back to him three days later, and he received the Spirit, and he was baptized, he immediately went to the synagogues and began proclaiming Jesus as their Christ.

Fantastic thing to do. And when they were about to kill him in Damascus, he ends up in Jerusalem, does the same thing, and then in Judea, and then on into the Gentile world. He continues to talk.

He acts on the vision. That's the first thing he does. And the second thing we see is that Paul kept that vision bright all through his life.

Now, the vision which came to us, in whatever way it came to us, any one of a million different ways, came to us also as a gift. We didn't earn it. We didn't deserve it.

It just came. But when that vision came, it was then up to us to act on that vision. And as we acted, as we responded, offering back our lives to him who had already offered up his life for us, as we began to worship Jesus and thank him and praise him and confess his name to the Father and to each other and to the world, and as we began to go out into the world and practice his mercy and show grace toward other people, the vision became ever more clear.

So that now it's not something on the outside, but it's inside. It's a flame burning inside, driving us really like a divine obsession, fitting us into a plan far bigger than we are, forming us into the body of Christ, guiding us to take good news to the poor and deliverance to the captives and sight to the blind and release to the oppressed. Then why didn't the vision stay? You know, how come it's not as bright today as it once was in so many of our lives? Paul's vision remained fresh.

Years later, Paul stands in front of a grippa wrapped in chains, but his vision of the Lord is brighter than it ever was because Paul acted on the vision, not just in the first couple of weeks or months, but right on down through the years. And once God gives us vision of his son, it's up to us to act on the vision, not just for the first three weeks, but through the rest of our lives. And if the vision at any point starts to get dull, it's up to us to get it back.

I counsel you to buy from me, son, to anoint your eyes that you may see. So how do we get that eyesight? How do we get that blazing flame that once burned in so many of our hearts back to where it was and beyond? The first thing we do. Is admit that the vision is gone or has grown dull or whatever the truth may be for each of us.

The worst possible thing we can do is go stumbling on through the darkness, pretending we have a vision that we don't have. Or you say, I am rich, I have prospered, I need nothing, not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Many of us have wasted years of our lives pretending to ourselves and to each other and even to God that the flame of life that once blazed inside is still there when in fact it's not.

We know all the right words to speak. We know what motions to go through, the motions of praise and thanksgiving. But what do we have if we don't have the vision? When the words we speak are empty and when the motions we go through are empty and when people come to us with desperate needs, it's not just that we're giving them stale bread.

We're giving them no bread. We don't have anything to give them. God help us to give up playing games and admit the truth where it is the truth.

And admit that the vision is gone. If it's gone. Admit that the flame which was once burning there has turned to ash, if that's what's happened.

Because we can't get on to the next step until we do this, until we admit the truth. Once we admit that the vision has faded or that it's gone or whatever the situation is for us, then the next step is to ask God to restore the vision. Psalm 51.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Restore to me the vision I once had. Clear my eyes so I can see once again.

Put that salve on my eyes, Lord God. I've run out of bread. A friend has come to me on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.

Open my eyes, Lord, so I can see what I'm doing and minister the kingdom to this person. The promise is that if we ask for vision, we'll get it. Everyone who asks receives.

He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it is open. Provided we keep at it.

Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking.

The man who went to his friend for bread at midnight did not get the bread on the first knock. He had to keep on knocking and knocking and knocking until the dullness of his own soul, which had caused him to run out of bread in the first place, was overcome. Then the door opened for him.

And this is what has to happen, no doubt, for many of us. We have to just keep at it. You know, until we prove to ourselves as well as to the Lord that we genuinely desire long yearn for the vision restored.

And if it doesn't get back to us in full focus before we leave the building today, don't be discouraged. You'll get it. If you keep asking.

Created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from my presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Everyone who asks to have that vision restored gets it. Everyone. But there's one more thing we have to do to get the vision back.

The vision which God gave us and it came to us as a gift in every case. It's like a fire which was ignited by his hand in our hearts. And then the fire was allowed to die or almost looks like it's dead.

We look there and we see nothing there but ash. But if we begin to stir the ash. The fire comes back to life.

So the thing we're called to do finally is to stir up that dull vision. From Second Timothy one. Hence, I remind you, Paul says to Timothy to stir up the gift of God, which is within you through the laying one of my hands.

For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord. And often when we read this passage, we fail to see the connection between verse seven and eight.

God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. Don't be ashamed to testify to our Lord. These two things belong together.

Timothy had become weak and uncertain in his mind concerning his vision. So Paul tells him, come on, stir it up. By throwing off your shame of testifying to your Lord.

Now, that may sound like a gimmick to many of us. You know, all you have to do, come on, is open your mouth and start bearing witness to Jesus. Gimmick or no gimmick.

Nothing restores the vision as clearly and as rapidly as proclaiming with our mouths the vision which God put in our hearts. And I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, the son of man will confess before the angels of God. We often think of this as something eschatological.

It talks about the end of the world. When the end of the age comes, then he'll confess us before the angels. No doubt that's true.

But it's quite likely that it also applies to this very moment. Just as surely as Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us according to the will of God, he also ever lives to confess us before the angels. So I confess him before men, boldly.

He confesses me before the angels. And my eyes open and I begin to see afresh again. What's happened to many of us is that we've opted to be what we call, very piously, silent Christians.

You know, there's so many phonies around. Amen! So many of these people who, you know, we hear them testify to Jesus, and yet, you know, bigotry is oozing out on every side of their lives. They manifest hearts that are cruel and hard and mean and ugly.

And so we say, man, we don't want to be thrown in with those people. And so we're not going to talk like they do. Rather, we'll walk, we'll go through this world like Jesus did, doing good, we say.

Yeah, but Jesus did indeed go through the world doing good deeds, but he also opened his mouth and proclaimed the kingdom. And it was the words that came from Jesus' mouth that shook the world. Yes, the apostles went about doing good.

But it was the words that came forth from their mouths that shook the face of this earth. And it's the words that came forth from their mouths that kept their vision bright. Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those at Damascus, then at Jerusalem, and through all the country of Judea, also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy of their repentance.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. The vision will be restored to something brighter than it ever was. If we will admit that it needs to be restored.

If we will ask God to restore it. And if we will stir up the gift we've already been given by giving utterance with our mouths to the truth God has already put in our hearts. Hence, I remind you to stir up the gift of God that is within you.

For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord. Let's take some time of silence.

We're asking, first of all, Lord God, that wherever we need it, you would shake our unholy contentment with a holy discontent. Even as you give holy peace for an unholy disturbance in our heart. But we're asking right now, Lord, that you just, where we need to have this done to us, shake us.

Give us some, some vision of the vision we had and of what we're missing and what you want us to have. And Lord God, then give us the desire, help us to refresh that desire and the boldness to seek it. And not give you, Lord God, any peace until it comes to us afresh.

Help us to do whatever we need to do. And to speak whatever we need to speak. In order that our inmost eye may clearly see and rejoice in and worship and love Jesus.

We ask it in his name.