Life Group Leaders’ Notes
Title: Why You Need God’s Vision For 2023
Key Text: Genesis 12:2-3, Genesis 15:5 & Genesis 17:7
We need God’s vision all through our lives, but at the start of the New Year, it’s very important that we are focused on God’s plans for us. When we have God’s vision, we can live every day with a purpose and confidence. Without vision we are in trouble.
As pastor Wes Richards has said many times, this is a Biblical vision rooted in the vision God long ago gave to Abraham. It is a vision for multiplication (Genesis 15:5), each generation (Genesis 17:7), a great nation (Genesis 12:2) and World transformation (Genesis 12:3).
At the start of this year, it is essential, in all the busyness of our lives, that we focus and refocus on this vision. How clear is your vision right now? Do you need to have a spiritual eye test so you can see more clearly? It’s important both naturally and spiritually to have the best vision.
Vision of who Jesus is (John 8:12, John 14:6, John 11:25, John 6:35)
Vision that can come into the family of Jesus (1 John 3:1, Romans 8:17)
A Vision to become like Jesus
A Vision to change the world for Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20, Proverbs 29:18, Mark 16:15-16)
Apply
1. Vision of who Jesus Is
Every Vision must be centred in Jesus. He was very clear who He was and who He is.
John 8:12 when Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”.
In John 14:6: “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”
In John 11:25: “Jesus said… “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;”
In John 6:35: “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Jesus was not just a prophet, or an influencer of his time, a teacher. He is much more than that, He is the Son of God, the Messiah. He is the one who can give us life, direction and fulfilment.
He is the one who loves us unconditionally and eternally. He is the one who will be our best friend who will never leave us. He is the one who will help us through every storm in life and bring us safely to heaven when we die.
There’s no one like Jesus and we should see clearly that we must always put Him at the centre of our lives.
2. Vision that we can come into the family of Jesus
1 John 3:1 NIV: 'See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!’
God’s only son Jesus gave his life’s blood to pay the price for us to be adopted into the family of God. We are no more orphans. We belong to the best family in the world.
When we know that we are God’s Children, we can confidently come to him. When we are family we have privileges. We should feel the same with God, sometimes we are shy to ask God, or feel guilty because we “don't deserve”, but the truth is - YOU'RE A CHILD OF GOD, you can enter in His presence confidently.
Romans 8:17 “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
3. A Vision to become like Jesus.
Jackie Pullinger was a British Missionary who arrived in Hong Kong in 1966 and came to a place called the Walled City. It was a small, densely populated, lawless area controlled neither by China nor Hong Kong. She spent more than 50 years working with heroin addicts, gang members and sex-workers.
She said: “I loved this dark place. I hated what was happening in it but I wanted to be nowhere else. It was almost as if I could already see another city in its place and that city was ablaze with light. It was my dream. There was no more crying, no more death or pain. The sick were healed, addicts set free, the hungry filled. There were families for orphans, homes for the homeless, and new dignity for those who had lived in shame. I had no idea of how to bring this about but with ‘visionary zeal’ imagined introducing the Walled City people to the one who could change it all: Jesus.”
- Made 287 places to house the poor
- 1000s came out of addictions
We must become more like Jesus, that wherever we go, we show Jesus, we must pray and change to have Jesus’ Character.
4. A Vision to change the world for Jesus.
Matthew 28:19-20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.””
Jesus gave us the vision to change the world, it was easy: MAKE DISCIPLES. If we want to change our community, our town, our city and country we must make disciples. As I mentioned at the beginning in Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish”.
We complain of how things are, what the government is doing or the economy, and our people are perishing, but we have the solution: Make disciples. Every Christian must have this vision. For Mark 16:15-16 says: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
God has a Vision for the UK, South Africa and every Nation. Pastor Wes & Adriana, they have a Vision for a multicultural church, a multiplying church, a church that affects individuals, families and the world. You too can be part of this vision. This year in 2023 step up and walk in this God’s given Vision to make disciples in every nation, starting in our homes and communities.
Do you have a clear vision of seeing the potential of great fruitfulness in your life when you are called by God?
Do you have a clear vision that God wants to bless each member of your family?
Do you have a clear vision that God can do great things God through your church and any church that is united and fully committed to Him?
Do you have a clear vision of playing your part in the growth of God’s kingdom? But above all at the start of this year I want to ask if you have a clear vision of Jesus?
