In February 2024, Lewis Hamilton shocked the F1 racing world with his announcement that he would start racing for Ferrari in 2025. At a news conference during preseason testing, Hamilton explained that driving for Ferrari had been a dream of his since childhood. He said,
“I think for every driver, … growing up, watching the history, watching Michael Schumacher in his prime, I think probably all of us sit in our garage … and you wonder what it might be like to be surrounded by the red,”…
“Without a doubt, even as a kid, I used to play on Grand Prix 2 [a computer game] as Michael in that car.
“So it definitely is a dream, and I’m really, really excited about it.”[i]
Lewis had a dream for his life and, when the opportunity came to make that dream a reality, he grabbed a hold of it.
Having a dream, or a vision, for your life is a very powerful thing. It focuses your energy and attention, it inspires the goals, habits, and activities needed to move towards that vision, it guides our decisions, and it helps us to live life with meaning and purpose. Sometimes, as with Lewis Hamilton, a present-day vision is rooted in a childhood dream, but not always. Roshan Bhondekar, in an online article titled “Why is Vision Important?”, defines vision this way: “A vision is an active and on-going dream that you are striving to achieve.”[ii]
A vision for your life is not a set of goals, it is a preferred picture of how you want your life to be, in all its various aspects. Our vision for our life can include how we would like our health, relationships, finances, home, or work to be. Our vision is a reflection of who we are, our values, our beliefs, our personality, and our gifts. An inspiring vision for our life will pull us forward into the future, helping us to intentionally saying “No” to many things so that we can say a whole-hearted “Yes” to the few things, the hard things, that will help us to move toward the dream that we have for the one and only life God has given us. Because our life is so fleeting and precious, we want to live it with intentionality and purpose, and a having a strong vision for our life will help us do that.
It’s a cliché, but it is true, today is the first day of the rest of your life, and vision is only one of several factors that will help us to get a good start on living the rest of our lives, however long that may be. This month we are also starting the ministry work that we will do together as a church during 2024-25. Therefore, to help us get a good start, both as individuals and as a church, today we are starting a 5-part sermon series called Starting Strong. The theme verse for the series is Hebrews 12:1,Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, (Hebrews 12:1).
The Big Idea of the series is that our life in this world is like a race, and if we pay attention to the things that an F1 race car driver does, then we will be better able to make the most of the life that Jesus has given to us. During the five Sundays of the series, between now and Thanksgiving, we will be covering topics like Vision, Training, Focus, Perseverance, and Celebration. Today our focus is on Vision, and you might be wondering How can I have a compelling vision for my life? To answer that question, we are going to reflect on Ephesians 1:15-23. If you have a Bible or a Bible app nearby, I invite you to turn there now.
Praise to God for His Spiritual Blessings (Eph. 1:3-14)
As you do that, here is some background to the passage that will help you to better understand it. Paul is writing this letter to the Christian Church in Ephesus, which was, and is, a city in present-day Turkey. At that time, Ephesus was a large and prosperous city, and a commercial centre for that region, much like Vancouver is today. Paul loved the Christians in Ephesus for in many ways they were his spiritual children. Previously, he had spent three years in that city, building up believers there, and making the city a centre for evangelism throughout the region. That was a great strategy because Ephesus was located on the crossroads of major trade corridors both for land and sea.
Paul is writing this letter with a lot of love in his heart, and he is likely writing during his time of house arrest in Rome. With the outcome of that imprisonment unknown, Paul does not know if he will ever see the beloved people of Ephesus again. So he writes this letter to encourage them, and he may have written it as a circular letter to be shared with the other churches in the region.
Our passage starts off with the phrase, “For this reason…”, but what is the reason that Paul is referring to? For the answer, we need to go back to the previous section where we find a passage of praise to God for all the many spiritual blessings he has poured out on us. Blessings such as the fact that God the Father has chosen us, through Jesus, to be his holy, precious children. In accordance with his grace and love, he has forgiven all our sins and bought us back from sin, death, and condemnation. He has revealed to us the mystery of his glorious plan to redeem and restore all things at the end of time through Jesus. We were also chosen, as God works in and through us, to glorify him, and this all began when we first believed in Jesus. In that moment, God the Father gave us the Holy Spirit to guarantee our inclusion in God’s family and the inheritance of redemption that we, and all who look to Christ in faith, will receive at the end of time.
All of these spiritual blessings are available to anyone anywhere at any time. But Paul has heard and seen indications that these blessings have been received by the Christian community in Ephesus, and the evidence is the faith that community has in Jesus and the love that they have for each other. That prompts Paul to pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the Ephesian Christians.
Paul’s Prayer for a 3-fold Vision for God’s People (Eph. 1:15-23)
But he also prays that God the Father will give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they may know him better. In essence, Paul is praying that God will open the eyes of the Ephesians and give them, and you, a vision for life in which we clearly know three things: The first of these is rooted in the past. It is to know the hope of salvation to which God has already called us. We think of hope as a wish. So we might say, “I hope that I can go see Taylor Swift when she comes to Vancouver in December.” But, in the Bible, the word “hope” is used in a different sense. It refers to the absolute certainty of salvation we have in Jesus. To put it into a modern context, it would be as if someone has given us 2 tickets to see Taylor Swift at BC Place, we have them in our hand and we declare to others and ourself, “I have the hope that I am going to see Taylor Swift at BC Place in December.” The word “hope” is used in the Bible the same way that we use the word “guarantee” today. So we have the guarantee of our salvation, which God has given us by calling us into faith in Jesus through the Gospel.
The second key component of the vision for life we need from God is for the future, and it is to know the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in his holy people. Note that Paul is not referring to an inheritance that we will receive from God. He is referring to the inheritance that God will receive at the end of time when there will be “…a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,…” standing before God and praising him in the new heaven and earth to come (see Rev. 7:9).
It is easy for us to see the problems in the world and all the challenges we face in life and become overwhelmed and discouraged. Please understand, God is not asking us to pretend that those problems are not serious, because they are. But God is asking us to always remember that the story of creation will end well because of Jesus and that ending is never ever in doubt. Because of Jesus all of creation will be restored and renewed and everyone who trusts in him will be raised from the dead, fully healed and alive like never before, to live with God in his presence forever.
I like to watch F1 races, but a lot of the races are early on Sunday morning, so I record them and watch them Sunday afternoon when I get home from worship. By that time, the final result of the race is never in doubt. All that is left for me to do is see how the final result comes about. It’s the same with us in our life with Jesus. The final result is never in doubt. All that is left for us to do is see how Jesus will make that final result come about.
But the stakes are much higher. Most of us would say that we don’t have a great need for any particular F1 driver to win. But we do really, really need for good to triumph over evil, we really need healing for our broken bodies and our suffering souls, we really need for the world around us to be restored and renewed. And Jesus is going to make all those things happen for us, for the people around us, and for the world at the end of time.
The third key component of the vision we need is for the present. It is to know God’s incomparably great power for us who believe. Depending on your translation, you might see three extra words to describes God’s power: God’s power is “working” which refers to the energy of God’s power, God’s power is “mighty” which refers to its ability to overcome resistance, and God’s power is “strength” which refers to God’s ability to withstand great force or pressure. Also note that the passage tells us that God’s power is incomparable, there is no power anywhere that even comes close to God’s power, and God uses his power for and in us.
Paul then goes on to describe three ways that God’s power was demonstrated in Jesus. The first was when God “raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,” the second when “God placed all things under his feet,” and the third when God appointed Jesus “to be head over everything for the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Can you imagine that? The same power that God used when he raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you!
God is Inviting Us to See Ourselves & Our Life in a New Way
So what can we take from this passage and apply to our lives today? I believe God is inviting us to see ourselves and our life in a new way. First, we are beloved, forgiven children of God because of what Jesus has done in the past. Second, we live with God’s power for good working in and around us, because of what Jesus is doing right now in us and in his Church. Third, we are headed towards a glorious finish of redemption and renewal which Jesus will make happen at the end of time.
The Hope & Help We Need is Jesus
The recent tragic deaths of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau have prompted an outpouring of grief and support throughout the hockey world and beyond. Among the many statements made was one by Lanny McDonald. (Please understand that I am not criticizing Lanny’s words, I am only referring to them to illustrate a point.) In his statement, said, “Go easy on those legends in heaven’s hockey rink, boys. You’re getting there earlier than expected, but they will take good care of you. Godspeed Johnny and Matthew Godspeed.”[iii]
When tragedy strikes in this world, as it does from time to time, we humans often tend to look beyond ourselves for the help and hope we need to carry us through. We are blessed to that help and hope personally, his name is Jesus, and he will give us the vision we need to complete our race with confidence, knowing that he is running the race with us all the way to the end. Amen.
[i] Laurence Edmonson, “Hamilton: Childhood Ferrari dream stems from Schumacher,” ESPN.com (Internet; available at: https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/39582083/hamilton-childhood-ferrari-dream-stems-schumacher; accessed August 8, 2024.
[ii] Roshan Bhondekar, “Why is Vision Important?, Medium (Internet; available at: https://medium.com/thrive-global/this-is-why-having-a-vision-matters-5cbe65f13270; accessed August 8, 2024).
[iii] Lanny McDonald, “A Statement from Lanny McDonald,” Instagram (Internet; available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/C_UDdwWgUxc/?img_index=2; accessed September 4, 2024).
(This message was shared at Walnut Grove Lutheran Church in Langley BC and St. Luke Lutheran Church in Surrey BC on September 15, 2024. For more info, please go to wglc.org (Walnut Grove) or sllc.ca (St. Luke)).
Farewell to Shadowlands 