CHAZOWN

Each year at this time I normally gear my message toward the new year. It seems to make sense to do that. This year, I knew far in advance that I would be using biblical principles that I was gaining in my own personal study. I have been reading the book: Chazown, by Craig Groeschel. It has been a great help and challenge to my spiritual growth, especially as it pertains to fulfilling the plan God has for me. Chazown is the Hebrew word for "vision", and the book is to help people find the vision God has for their life and motivates them to pursue the fulfillment of it.

So, I felt led several weeks ago to prepare this message for the new year. I chose a few biblical stories that seemed to fit the idea of God giving a vision and man going after it. I always find that when I have applied a message to myself first, it has a greater impact on me and God seems to use it on others as well. This message was preached yesterday, December 30, 2007.


CHAZOWN

Videos:
· New Year’s Resolutions: Kid’s Edition [1.25 minutes]
· What About Resolutions? [1.5 minutes]

Please turn in your Bible to Genesis 12. The first book of the Bible – Genesis, and find chapter 12.

I don’t know if you feel like New Year’s Resolutions as those on the video characterized them; but this can be the time of year when we decide on whether or not we are going to make resolutions. And most people see it as the videos showed – almost laughable. They are hard to make because very rarely do we actually keep them. Most of us have come to the place where we don’t even give New Year’s Resolutions a second thought. This morning, I am not going to try to change your mind. But, what I am going to do is use a few biblical examples to challenge you – not to go after New Year’s Resolutions, but to go after your CHAZOWN.

The title of this message is taken from the book: Chazown: A Different Way To See Your Life by Craig Groeschel. It is a book that has been a great challenge to me. It is the basic idea from this book that I want to share with you today. And in doing so, I want to share some of my life and heart with you today – what God is doing in me. And, as always, I am going to challenge you to apply the principles of God’s Word as you consider, not just where you are headed for this next year, but the direction of your life.

Chazown (Khaw-Zone), is a Hebrew word that means “dream” or “revelation” or “vision”. Today, I am using it as it relates to the vision that God has for your life; and the vision that you receive from Him. Today, I am going to challenge you, not to think of New Year’s Resolutions that are supposed to last a year but normally last 2 weeks. I am going to ask you to begin the process of thinking about what God wants you to accomplish, from now until you die. That may sound like a big job; but it really is a process, with some beginning steps that all of us can do.

Craig Groeschel, the author of the book Chazown, said – “Everyone ends up somewhere. But few people end up somewhere on purpose.” He encourages every reader to consider the vision that God can give you for your life. He lists some of the benefits he believes come with the vision God gives you:

· Focus to your life
· Endurance for tough times
· Peace to know who you are and why you’re here
· Passion

A very helpful exercise that I have used before and read before is also mentioned in the book: think about what you want to be known for at the end of your life in order to understand how to pursue that vision for the rest of your life. What would you want your epitaph, written on your tombstone, to say? If what was written was a true summary of your character, of what you accomplished in life, from today forward, what would you like it to say?

Let’s consider some of the real epitaphs out there from some famous people who once lived. Listen to these epitaphs and consider what was important to them. Here is how their epitaphs read:

That’s all folks! The man of a thousand voices
Mel Blanc – Hollywood Memorial Park – Hollywood, CA

Truth and history. 21 men. The boy bandit king. He died as he lived
William H. Bonney - Billy the Kid
Fort Sumner Cemetery – Fort Sumner, New Mexico

My Jesus. Mercy.
Alphonse Capone
Mt. Carmel Cemetery – Chicago, ILL

The entertainer. He did it all.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Forest Lawn – Glendale, CA

The body of B. Franklin, printer
Like the cover of an old book, its contents turn out
And stript of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms
For, it will as he believed, appear once more
In a new and more elegant edition, corrected and improved by the Author
Benjamin Franklin
Christ Church burial grounds – Philadelphia, PA

A genius of comedy
His talent brought joy and laughter to all the world
Oliver Hardy
Pierce Brothers – Valhalla Memorial Park – CA

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of American Independence
Of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom
And father of the University of Virginia
Thomas Jefferson
Monticello, Virginia

The Cowboy’s Prayer
Oh Lord, I reckon I’m not much just by myself
I fail to do a lot of things I ought to do
But Lord when trails are steep and passes high
Help me to ride it straight the whole way through
And when in the falling dusk I get the final call
I do not care how many flowers they send
Above all else the happiest trail would be
For you to say to me – Let’s ride my friend
Amen.
Roy Rogers
Sunset Hills Memorial park, Apple Valley, CA

What do you want said of you, remembered about you, when you are gone? Do you want it to be a good character quality or something you have accomplished? Whatever that is, it will help you begin to find the vision that God has for your life.

The author of Chazown provides us with some thought provoking questions in order to consider what you would like your epitaph to say. These are on the back of your outline:

Plan your epitaph:
· The thing that was most important to me was…
· People say I stood for…
· I made a difference in my world by…
· God was glorified because I …
· People knew I loved them because…
· The reason I expect God to say ‘well done’ is…

The first main area that the epitaph challenges us to consider is that of: core values. You may be familiar with businesses that have core values. Churches, us included, have core values. It is a list of what is most important to you. And as you consider what is most important to you, you begin to capture the vision God has for your life.

Here are some of the questions from the book that helped me determine my personal core values: These are on the back of your outline:
Core Values:
· What makes you angry?
· What makes you happy?
· What do you treasure?
· What do you stand for?
· What would you fight for?
· What do you know is so important that you’ll let go of everything else in order to grasp it?

And here is what I came up with:
My core values:
· Grace
· Mercy
· Preaching
· Friendship
· Lasting spiritual impact
· Family

This was a beginning step in helping me see God’s vision for my life. Let’s take a look at our first biblical story of a man that was given a chazown by God.

We begin with Abraham.
Genesis 12:1-3 – “Now the LORD said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This is a truly amazing thing that God gave to Abraham. Understand that many times, when God gives you a vision for your life, it will include incredible sacrifice, and it will definitely include a process of walking by faith. You will not always know what the vision of God will look like in detail or what it will require of you in the end. In this case, God made one thing clear: Abraham was to leave his home and just follow God’s leading. Do you understand what He was saying?

It would be like God asking you, today, to sell all you have, get in the car with your family, and begin driving. He promises that He will let you know when and where to stop and for how long. Can you even imagine? You are to leave your home, your extended family and your friends. You are to leave everything familiar to you. But, what Abraham did not understand at the time, was that the Chazown, the vision that God was calling Him to, would not only change his life and that of his family, but it would have a lasting impact on the world. In fact, since Abraham is the father of the nation of Israel, he is having a major impact in our world today.

There were 3 major things God promised Abraham here in Genesis 12; and He repeats these promises in chapters 15 and 17 as well. God said: I will give you land, seed (children that will grow to be uncountable) and blessing (for you, your people, and those who are kind to you).

Now, here is the hard part. Not only did Abraham have to leave and go to an undesignated place somewhere out there; but he also had no children and no human hope of having any. He could not see any of God’s vision for his life as anywhere close to becoming a reality.

But, God continued to confirm this vision for Abraham. In Genesis 15, Abraham thought he needed to take things into his own hands in order to see God’s promises come to fruition. Since he did not have children of his own, perhaps he could make his servant boy his heir. But God said:

Genesis 15:4 – “…This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be. And he believed the LORD…”

God said – no – I told you – you will have your own son and from you will come this new nation – a greater number than the stars in the sky! And then the key phrase that indicated the faith of Abraham - although sometimes faulty, he did believe in the vision God gave him. Even though he still could not see it. In fact, Abraham still took things in his own hands. At the advice of his wife Sarah, he took one of her handmaids (Hagar) and had a child (Ishmael) through her, thinking that is how the promises of the LORD would be fulfilled. But again, God said no.

Genesis 17:16 – “…I will give you a son by her [Sarah]…”

Genesis 17:17-19 – “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, Oh that Ishmael may live before you! God said, No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac…”

God kept telling him the vision, and Abraham kept believing, but trying to bring God’s vision about his own way. Abraham was human and failed, just like us. But, the Bible tells us that he was a man of faith, believing in God’s vision; and that gives us hope, that we can do the same.

Hebrews 11:8– “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

Not only that, once God gave him his son, Isaac, he then asked Abraham to sacrifice his son by killing him. And Abraham responded to this unbelievable request this way:

Hebrews 11:17-19 – By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead...”

No, Abraham didn’t follow perfectly; but he did keep taking the next step by faith, knowing that God would fulfill his vision in His way and time. The nation of Israel was born, and the world would never be the same.

Please turn in your Bible to Acts 16. In the Bible in front of you, it is page 960 or 983.

In our history as a nation, many people have had a vision of what they could see in the future. And in some cases, their dreams are still being fulfilled and remembered today. Do you remember this Chazown?

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood…

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today…

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together…

When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last’!”

Those words were spoken by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His vision was so powerful that it is often referred to; and on January 21st of every year, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is observed. There is power in a life vision.

God is in control. He loves you. He knows you, and His plans and vision is going to be accomplished through you. Listen to what God says about Himself:

Isaiah 46:9,10 – “…I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.”

Listen to what God says about you. David said this to God:
Psalm 139:13-16 – “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

God has a vision, a plan for your life. He wants you to find it, embrace it, and pursue it. The worst thing you could do is just float through the rest of your life, and just kind of “see what happens.” That is pretty easy to do going into a new year as well. If you don’t know what you are shooting for, you may hit the wrong target.

Did you watch the 2004 Summer Olympics? If you did, you might have seen an American athlete named Matthew Emmons. He was solidly on track for the gold in the 50 meter three position rifle final. Emmons was up for his final shot. He was so far ahead of the other competitors that all he had to do was send a bullet anywhere through the inner ring of the target. That would seal his gold medal. He prepared himself mentally. He paused his breathing. He took aim. Then he fired. The bullet passed right through the bull’s-eye.

But he was puzzled when the tone indicating a hit didn’t sound. Emmons then realized that the bull’s-eye he had hit was on the wrong target. He dropped from first place, and a virtually guaranteed gold medal, to eighth. The right shot hit the wrong target.

Many people are aiming at what seems to be a good target. It looks good to them. But, they are not shooting at the right target, because it is not God’s chazown for them. They have not consulted and followed God’s vision for their lives. Don’t let that happen to you.

Beside the area of core values, the author of Chazown also challenged me to look at my spiritual gifts as a part of the process of finding God’s vision for my life. The Bible tells us about the importance of finding how God has gifted us and using them for His service and glory.

Romans 12:6 – “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…”
I Peter 4:10,11 – “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies – in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

He asked the following questions to get the reader thinking about how God has gifted them:

Spiritual Gifts:
· What do you absolutely love to do?
· What do you do that has a significant impact on others?
· What do you do often that is a blessing to others?
· What do you secretly believe you can do, but have never tried?

In answering these questions and in looking at a list of spiritual gifts in the Bible, I came up with this list for me:
My Spiritual Gifts:
· Preaching
· Teaching
· Listening
· Administration
· Leadership

There is another biblical example of a man that understood God’s vision for his life, and pursued it with everything that he had. At one time, he was a murderer, Killing people who claimed to be Christians. But God changed his life around and gave him a Chazown that would have an eternal impact on many. Because of his faith in Christ, he was now persecuted for it. His name was Paul – the Apostle Paul. And I want you to see how his vision from God affected how he lived. In Acts 16, Paul and his missionary partner Silas were put into prison for their faith. In those tough, unfair, circumstances, here is what they did:

Acts 16:25 – “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

When an earthquake released all the prisoners, a jailor was ready to commit suicide, when he saw that Paul had remained behind. Because of Paul’s testimony, the jailor asked:
Acts 16:30 – “…Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Look at:
Acts 17:16,17 – “Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.”

Paul’s heart went out to people who did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ; and that led him to constantly put himself in danger by talking openly about how to become a Christian. In fact, he went through incredible trials and suffering because of it. Paul describes a little of what he went through:

II Corinthians 11:23-27– “…imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received…forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked…in danger from rivers…from robbers…my own people…in the city…in the wilderness…at sea…from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”

And that is just a partial list! Why would Paul go through all of this? One reason. God had given him a Chazown that motivated him to keep going, no matter what. Look at Acts 20 to see what it was that motivated him to this extent:

Acts 20:24 – “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

This is what drove him – to tell others of the grace of God. And he was willing to go anywhere God led him, and to go through anything God allowed, in order to share the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ with another person. In fact, if you will go to the next book of the Bible and look at chapter 1. He was willing to give his life for this vision, because he believed in its eternal impact:

Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

God used the Apostle Paul to write the majority of the books of the New Testament. God’s chazown ruled his life. What about you? What are you willing to die for? What are you living for? Have you allowed yourself to be conformed into the mold of doing what everyone else is doing, following the course that everyone else travels down, just seeing where life leads? Don’t waste the rest of your life doing that!

Please turn in your Bible to John 6. In the Bible in front of you, it is page 924 or 944.

In the book Chazown, the third area to consider in recognizing God’s vision for life is to take into consideration your past experiences. Here were 3 key questions asked:

Past Experiences:
· What painful experience might God want to use?
· What good experiences have you had that God might want to use?
· What do your good and bad experiences have in common?

To think that our past experiences, even difficult ones can lead to an exciting chazown from God means that we have to fully believe:

Romans 8:28 – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for God, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

It means that we have to take the example of a guy like Joseph, who experienced all kinds of unfair things, even from the people that he loved the most. He was cast off, left for dead, sold into slavery, rejected by his brothers, lied about, cast in prison and much more. But, God used Joseph to rescue the nation of Israel; and in the midst of being put in position where Joseph could have had revenge, he wisely saw God’s vision for his life. He said this to his brothers who had hurt him:

Joseph: Genesis 50:20 – “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

The only way you could say things like this is if you fully trust God by faith. You must keep taking steps of faith toward the vision God has given, even if you cannot fully understand it, or see how it will turn out. Our decisions now do make a difference for our future. Our view of God’s plan for our lives make a huge impact, not only for the rest of our lives, but for the lives of others. Teaching pastor Rob Wegner uses a childhood game he played to speak to the importance of the decisions we are making:

DOMINOE VIDEO [ 5.5 minutes]

Don’t concentrate on your past mistakes. Consider your life from today forward. Your decisions. Your actions. Your words – will make an impact. Are you ready to plug into God’s design for your life? Are you ready to capture His vision for you? Are you willing to do the hard preparation work to see God’s vision and to pursue it?

Have you ever heard the statement: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life? Well, it also seems true that Everyone else also has a wonderful plan for our life! Other people think they know what God has for us. We all need wise counsel, including our parents and others; but God has a unique vision for you – for you to recognize and pursue. You must not allow the plans others have for your life to interfere with God’s vision for you.

The final and greatest example of someone who lived according to God’s vision was God in the flesh – Jesus Christ. Did you know that while Jesus carried out his public earthly ministry, that many others thought they knew what was best for Jesus? They had some wonderful plans for Him. However, He was focused, and was not willing to follow any other vision for His life than the one given by God the Father.

After Jesus performed an incredible miracle of feeding 5,000 men plus women and children with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish:

John 6:14,15 – “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world! Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”

Turn back 2 books to the book of Mark and chapter 8.

There were times when the people who witnessed Jesus’ great power and miracles, thought it would be great if Jesus would become their king and overthrow the Roman authorities! But, Jesus would not allow the excitement and plans of the people distract Him from what He was there to do. Many times, Jesus repeated why He was on Earth:

Luke 19:10 – “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Jesus said this in the midst of criticism that He was spending time with sinners. Jesus said: this is why I am here. The reason I am spending time with sinful people is because I came to deliver them from their sins. That is my Chazown! Just after that:

Luke 19:11 – “As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.”

They thought Jesus would set up His Kingdom right away; but instead, Jesus told a story about a future Kingdom, and first He would have to go away. This was not the time. The time would come for Jesus to come and reign as king; but that was not the time. Jesus remained focused on the vision He had been given. Look at:

Mark 8:31-33 – “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Even Jesus’ closest friends, His disciples, had plans for Jesus’ life. And when Jesus revealed His vision, they didn’t like it. Peter rebuked the king of kings and lord of lords for His plan to save the world! Jesus would not be distracted. And before you judge Peter too harshly, have you always agreed with God’s plan for your life? Or have you sometimes complained that things are not the way you want them to be? Are you really willing to follow whatever God calls you to do?

One thing I love is that Jesus Christ, although fully God, was also fully human; and He was honest with the Father about His coming sacrifice:

Matthew 26:39,42 – “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”…Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

“Not my will, but yours be done.” A great example for us. Yes, tell God what you would like. Yes, tell God exactly how you feel. But, follow Christ’s example and make sure that you are committed and that God knows that more than anything else, you want His will to be done; and you are willing to pursue it.

Keep in mind, that in the end, this is still the work of God. It is the work of God in you, but it is the work of God. This is not something you can do on your own.

Philippians 2:13 – “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

After looking at my 3 main areas (the book calls circles): core values, spiritual gifts and past experiences, the book helped me figure out God’s vision for me with this instruction: Bring your three circles together, and find the place where they converge. Then, finish this statement:

God has created me with a dream for my life, and I think it might be…

Also, there were 2 main questions the author posed for me to think about:

Question 1: If money were no object and I could do anything I wanted for the rest of my life, what would I do?

Question 2: Besides loving, caring for, and ministering to those who are most important to me, what is the number one thing that I believe God wants to accomplish through me?

Based on working through this process, and after a lot of prayer and counsel, I want to share with you the vision I believe has come from God for my life at this time:

My dream is to help people take the next step in their spiritual journey

This allows me quite a bit of flexibility but it also narrows my focus on what I want to accomplish in my life. Anything that gets in the way of this has to be set aside. I want nothing more than to help other people find out what their next step is toward Christ, and help them take that step. Right now, for me, that means focusing on my family, my close friends and my ministry here at Grace.

Craig Groeschel, the author of Chazown, says: “God’s vision for you is bigger than you can imagine and impossible for you to do on your own”

I agree. This vision is too big for me to handle on my own. I need His help. I need the support, encouragement and accountability of others.

Now, I know that I said this was not about New Year’s resolutions; but the fact is, once you find God’s vision for you, you will need to have some goals and action steps in order to pursue that vision. For today, my goal was to challenge you to ask God what, specifically, he would like for you to accomplish for Him. Don’t be general. Ask God for a specific vision that will narrow your focus and give you something to live for.

Will you take the challenge? I challenge you, for one week, to pray every day about the vision God wants to give you. If, after one week, you sense that God is giving you release from that and does not expect you to pursue it, then keep going the direction you are going. But, if He instead, gives you the sense that has something greater for you than what you are pursuing right now, then take the next step to pursue it.

On the back of your outline this morning, I have given you some suggested resources to assist you in pursuing God’s vision for you. And of course, the greatest resource is the Word of God, where we have story after story of God giving someone a vision for life, and the results of that pursuit.