VF: 2 The Responsibility of Visionary Faith

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Chapter 2 The Responsibility of Visionary Faith

Living Up to Our Calling

Table of Topics

A) Our position

B) Our purpose

C) Our power

D) Our potential

Extras & Endnotes

Primary Points

The responsibility of visionary faith is to live up to our unique God-given calling.
Our calling is who we are and what we have been given. Living up to that calling is making the most of these things. In other words, who we are and what we have been given is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.
Christians are the chosen and purchased sons and servants, daughters and disciples of Almighty God. There is no higher calling or position granted by God in the Universe than that.
Our purpose is the “bear much fruit” in order that our “Father is glorified” and we “prove to be [Christ’s] disciples” (John 15:8).
The purpose of our life is not for God to prove how much He loves us, but for us to prove how much we love Him. It is our love that is now being tested and evaluated.
Our power for our purpose is no less than God living in us.
Our potential will differ according to our God-given abilities.

Because of the return of Christ, we always pray that God will think you have lived up to His commanding invitation to experience your special privilege and responsibility as a Christian. (2 Thess 2:11)

Because of who we are and who God has made us, He has expectations. Who He has made us, what He has given us, and His resulting expectations are referred to in Scripture as our “calling.” This is an obscure word not often used in normal conversation. As demonstrated in the endnotes to chapter 1.1 it means God’s “commanding invitation to experience a special privilege and responsibility.” And we are to live so that when Christ returns we will be considered to “have lived up” to our Christian “calling.”

Likewise, Paul told the Ephesians, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (4:1). He described that calling as follows:

Before God the Father created the world, we were chosen in Christ to be dedicated to serve Him and without blame in His presence. Because of His love for us, God the Father predetermined that we would be adopted to belong to Him, through Jesus Christ. God the Father made this decision because doing what He wanted gave Him pleasure and would cause us to praise the greatness of His grace to us. (Eph 1:4-6) ^[1]

There is no higher calling or position granted by God in the Universe than that.

B) Our purpose

Because of our great position, we have been given a great purpose—serving, representing, and glorifying God. Surely Christ’s words apply to every Christian:

From everyone who has been given much, much will be requested; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:48)

Especially Christian leaders have “been given much,” and therefore, God’s expectations on our life are understandably high. He describes those expectations when He said to His disciples: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last” (John 15:16). He added, “My Father is glorified when you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My followers” (v. 8).

We should notice that repeated little word “much” (polu: “great in quantity, measure, much, extensive). God expects much of us. The King expects every disciple of His to “bear much fruit,” making a significant impact at least in the lives of those in their family and church, and perhaps in their community, nation, and world.

The “Father is glorified” and we “prove to be . . . followers” when we “bear much fruit.” What happens if we do not “bear much fruit”? What happens if we refuse to embrace our God-given identity, succumb to fear, sin, and laziness and waste our life? Then God our Father Who loves, chose, and adopted us will not be glorified, nor will we be able to prove or claim to the world or even ourselves that we love God the Son who died for us. There is no option here. In order to glorify the Father and back up our claim to love the Son, we must “bear much fruit.” That’s what Jesus said.

Who we are is God’s gift to us. Who we become is our gift to God. Or as John Maxwell has put it more specifically: “God’s gift to me is my potential. My gift back to God is what I do with that potential.” ^[2] There is no greater measurement of our gratitude to God than what we do with our life.

C) Our power

All of this could be rather intimidating and even overwhelming except for two things. First, this lofty purpose to “bear much fruit” is not only on account of our high position, but also our divine power–the Spirit of God living in us. Why should God expect so little of people who have Him living inside of them? Why should we expect so little of ourselves if we have God living inside of us? Our King said, “I am in you” (John 14:20). Either He is a liar or God actually lives inside of us! And we can be certain that God’s power in us is able to “bear much fruit” through us and accomplish God’s purpose for us.

D) Our potential

The second thing that helps us embrace the incredible challenge of living so that “God will think you have lived up to His commanding invitation to experience your special privilege and responsibility as a Christian” is that He will evaluate us fairly (even generously) according to our individual potential.

We are reminded of the Parable of the Talents (cf. Matt 25:14-30). Jesus tells us that His Return “will be like a man going on a journey, who gathered his servants and entrusted them with his wealth” (Matt 25:14). And of course, the King’s purpose in telling the parable is to teach us that our eternal reward is dependent on what we do, with what He gave us.

Jesus notes that each person was given a unique amount of money “according to each person’s ability” (v. 15). The word “ability” comes from the Greek dunamin and variously means “the potential, power, capability, or resources to function in a certain way.” ^[3] God knows the unique potential, capabilities, opportunities and resources each of us possesses. Accordingly, that calling that we are striving to be counted worthy of will differ with each individual. God is not expecting us to live up to the calling of another, but to make the most of the responsibilities, gifting, resources, opportunities, and potential He has uniquely given us.

John Ortberg writes of the amazing opportunity God gives us as portrayed in the Parable of the Talents:

There is a very important detail in this story, namely, why Jesus says the first employer responded “at once.” . . . He responds at once because the thought of losing the chance of a lifetime is intolerable. . . . The first servant realizes that as long as he lives, he will never have another chance like this. He resolves that he will allow nothing to interfere with his seizing this opportunity. He will not be sidetracked or distracted. Jesus says this is how it is with anyone who grasps what God offers.

This part of the story has very important implications. The Lord of the Gift has entrusted his property to you and me. Everybody receives a gift. This is not a story where some are gifted and some are not. We’re all called by God. . . .

The practical implication is, I must come to prize and appreciate what the Lord of the Gift has given to me. Let me get more personal: you’d better respond at once. The opportunity to use whatever gifts you have in the service of the Lord of the gift is the chance of a lifetime. But it will slip away from you unless you are very intentional. The time to respond is at once. . . .

This brings us to a second truth about the master. Somehow the third servant forgets an important fact of life. He forgets that the Lord of the Gift is coming back. But the day comes. . . .

Imagine watching all that God might have done with your life if you let him. . . . Imagine seeing what he might have done with your financial resources if you had trusted him to be generous. Imagine seeing what he might have done with your giftedness if you had trusted him enough to be daring. Imagine what he might have been in your relationships if you had trusted him enough to be fully truthful and fully loving. Imagine what he might have done with your character, if you dared to confess sin, acknowledge temptation, and pursue growth.

I know that I want my life to come as close as I can to realizing the goodness God intended for it. I know this is my only chance, and I know I want to minimize the gap between what shall be and what might have been as much as I can. . . .

You can drift: get up, go to work, come home, eat supper, watch TV, retire, and die. Or, you can take each moment and say, “God, this is yours.” You can offer him your spiritual gifting–not compared with anyone else–fully honed and developed as you can get it, identified with pristine clarity, cultivated with relentless perseverance, deployed with unstoppable vigor, submitted to sacrificial humility, and celebrated with raucous joy. (39-40, 47-49, 50-51)

All people are created equal in value, but not potential. God expects more of some than others. The man in the parable with “ten talents” was expected to produce twice as much for the King than the man with “five talents.”

Especially those in full-time ministry have by far the most responsibility. They are the “ten talent” kind of people and have certainly and relatively “been given much” more, and “entrusted with much” more time and ability to serve God than most Christians. Therefore, “much will be requested” and “much more will be asked” of them (Luke 12:48).

The Apostle wrote: “If a person is eager, their gift to God is accepted according to what one has, not according to what they do not have” (2 Cor 8:12). Surely this applies to all of the resources we have to give to others and God. Wisdom to accurately assess “what one has” is vital to a clear conscience. If we expect too little of ourselves we will not please God. If we expect too much we will be miserable, and constantly doubting that we are pleasing God.

Remember that God usually thinks we have been given more than we think. Remember the guy with “one talent” (Matt 25:15)? He didn’t think it mattered much what he did with it. He probably compared himself to the other two servants who had been given a lot more, and diminished the worth of himself and his God-given “talent” in his own eyes. Accordingly, he had no visionary faith for his life. No urgency to make the most of what God had given him.

This can happen when Pastors compare their churches to other churches. Because their church is smaller, they can feel it and they are less valuable. And they treat their ministry as less valuable. We must resist comparing and highly value the ministry God has given us to be faithful with.

Perhaps our great responsibility to live up to our unique God-given calling can be summed up in one of the most challenging phrases (actually commands) in Scripture: “Be very careful how you live. Do not be a fool but a wise person who is making the most of every opportunity God gives them” (Eph 5:15-16). “Every opportunity,” translates the Greek kairon which means, “a moment of time.” “Making the most of every moment of time” means making the most of every relationship, responsibility, and resource God gives you. It means grabbing every moment of your life and redeeming its worth somehow by loving someone, accomplishing something, and wasting nothing all in service to God. Which is why you must “be very careful how you live. . . making the most of every opportunity.”

So many Christians fail to realize how much freedom, responsibility, and power God has given them. They think the outcome of their life depends primarily on what God intends and plans rather than what they decide and plan. This sounds more spiritual, but it isn’t. It excuses us from taking responsibility for our lives, making hard choices, and risking things for God. The Apostle Paul wrote:

Through the special ability God gave me, I laid a foundation like an expert builder. Now someone else is building on it. But everyone needs to be careful how they build.

This is because no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² People can use a different materials to build on this foundation including gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay or straw. ¹³ But on the Judgment Day, the value of a person’s work for God will be revealed. Fire will test the quality of each person’s work for God.

¹⁴ If what a person has built for God survives the fire, the person will receive their reward. ¹⁵ But if their work is burned up, they will suffer loss. The person will be saved, but their works will be burned up. (1 Cor 3:10-15)

Through the preaching of the Gospel, the Apostle Paul had “laid a foundation” of “Jesus Christ” in the lives of the Corinthian Christians. But he warned them that not only were they responsible for building on that foundation, but for how well they built on it and the materials they used. Notice the emphasis here on the Christian’s “work,” choices, and responsibility, rather than God’s work, choices, and responsibility. Again, who we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to Him. This is why Paul wrote:

Because of the return of Christ, we always pray that God will think you have lived up to His commanding invitation to experience your special privilege and responsibility as a Christian. (2 Thess 2:11)

The great responsibility we have to live up to our calling of having God as our Father, and Jesus as our King, and the Spirit as our power is this: Making the most of your life by making the most of every opportunity, in light of who you are, what you have, and therefore what God expects of you, knowing that your King will evaluate you graciously, fairly, but meticulously on all of this.

And here is the essential difference between those who will, and those who will not live up to their God-given calling: What they believe. If we believe what God says about who we are, what we have, and what He expects of us, then we will live a completely different God-glorifying, truly meaningful, much-fruit-bearing, and challenging kind of life. Those children of God who do not know or believe who they are, what they have, and what their Father expects of them, will waste a good deal of their life.

Extras & Endnotes

A Devotion to Dad

Our Father, we are in awe of Your plan for us. We are not robots. We are humans made in Your image and expected to make decisions and respond to Your calling to become who we are supposed to be. Help us believe this. Help us pursue this. And help us to even plan it.

Gauging Your Grasp

What is our position?
What is our purpose?
What is our power?
How do we accurately assess our potential? Why is it important to do so?
How would you further explain: “Who we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God”?
Which one of the following “Pastor Practices” can you apply now?

Pastor Practices

It was stated that you and others are going to live according to what they believe. Therefore, do you see the value of teaching sound doctrine? Who we are and what we have are theological topics that every Christian must understand and be convinced of and it is our responsibility to ensure they do. Do not simply tell God’s people what they are supposed to do (the commands; e.g. Ephesians chapters 3-6), but also teach them what they are supposed to believe (the doctrines; Ephesians chapters 1-3).
The knowledge of the high calling of God on our life can be intimidating and confusing for a Christian. In particular they can be very anxious to answer the question: “Am I doing enough?” The challenge is to commend those who are doing plenty and correct those who are being lazy.

This can best happen by talking to them individually. This is part of pastoring. Knowing your flock, knowing their gifts and abilities, and helping them make accurate assessments of their relationship with God and their service to Him.

A Pastor of a church has a special responsibility to be pursuing a visionary faith. The church needs it, and it needs to come from the Pastor. Aubrey Malphurs, Professor of Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary writes:

Not much happens without an inspiring, compelling vision. Not much was happening in Nehemiah’s day. The people had no vision. Jerusalem lay in ruins, and no one was motivated to do anything about it (cf. Neh 1:3). Then along came Nehemiah with a vision from God to rebuild the gates and walls of the city.

Visions are exciting and they energize people. They ignite a spark, the excitement that lives in ministry organization out of the mundane. They supply the fuel the lights the fire under a congregation. Leaders are able to stop putting out fires and start setting a few. A vision from God has a potential to turn a maintenance mentality into a ministry mentality. And when your vision resonates with your values and mission, it generates the energy that fuels the accomplishment of the ministry task.

The right vision creates meaning in people’s lives, providing them with a cause and giving them a sense of divine purpose. There are a part of something bigger than themselves, something great that God is accomplishing at this time and place in history. . . .

With a shared vision, people see themselves not just as another “pew warmer” but as a vital part of a church is having a powerful impact on a lost and dying world. They are not simply in a church; they are on a crusade. They are part of a revolution that has the potential to change this world. . . .

Bill Hybels writes: “Vision is at the very core of leadership. Take a vision away from a leader and you cut out his or her heart.” If leaders cannot see where they’re going, maybe they are not leaders, at least not yet.

A vision is a clear, challenging picture of the future of the ministry, as you believe that it can and must be. . . . The vision is a picture of the future we seek to create. It depicts the church’s preferred future. While, outside of biblical prophecy, we cannot predict the future, we can create the future. That is the function of the vision. ^[4]

Create a compelling, challenging, and clear vision for the sake of the men and women in your church.

Publications & Particulars

“God the Father” is the object of Eph 1:4-6. “Dedicated to serve Him” is translated from the Greek hagios, “holy” and means just that. Holy in Scripture does not so much mean “sinless,” but “separated” from other people or things for God’s purposes. Which is why physical objects are often described as “holy” in the OT (see Exod 29:37; 30:26-29), which does not mean they were sinless, but dedicated to God. “Without blame in His presence” translates the lit. Greek: “blameless before Him.” “Adopted to belong to Him” is from the literal Greek: “adoption to Himself”. “Doing what He wanted gave Him pleasure” is based on God’s “will” here being “a genitive of source showing that the good pleasure comes from His will” (Ephesians, Harold Hoehner [Baker, 2002], 199). ↑
John Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You (1993). ↑
BAGD. ↑
Aubrey Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning (2005). ↑