Replace Screen Time With Vision Time

Sermon outline

A life can look the same as any other until the storm shows its foundation, so align your ambition, goals and vision with God: ambition is the fuel, goals are the coordinates, God's vision is the destination, and the junk that steals your time has to be cut away.

1. By their fruit, and by their foundation

   False prophets are known by their fruit, but we cannot use the world's standard to judge fruit, because a crowd is not necessarily fruit. Not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom, only those who do the Father's will, so God's will must be primary in our visions and ambitions. Whoever hears and practises His words, not just in a crisis, builds on the rock.

   “In our visions and in our dreams and in our ambitions and in the different things that we do, God's will must be primary.”

   • Matthew 7:15-28

2. Everything looks the same until the storm

   In a country that is largely Christian, Christians still have high rates of divorce and fatherless children. Engagements, weddings and gender reveals look equally beautiful on Instagram and TikTok, but the foundations differ, and the storm comes to Christians and non-Christians alike. Jesus was speaking to believers: daily disciplines decide whether you built on rock or sand, and a family on the rock still gains God even in loss.

   Illustration: He shows two pictures of identical houses by the sea. Marrying someone who draws you out of church looks fine from outside, but inside the foundation shifts and the cracks begin. He adds that the highest divorce rates among Christian couples come in the first five years and again after twenty-five.

   “It's not a question of why, it's a question of when.”

   • Genesis 50:20

3. All authority is His

   Jesus told the disciples that all authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him, because He paid a very expensive price for it. We have no authority outside Jesus, so a Christian marriage, family or career without Him is not godly; it is a house on the sand. When everything is about my needs, I have no room to fulfil His vision of making disciples.

   “If I'm not doing it God's way, I'm not doing it at all.”

   • Matthew 28:1-10
   • Matthew 28:18-20

4. Ambition is the fuel, and undisciplined ambition will kill you

   Ambition is the internal drive, the why that gets you up in the morning, and everyone has some. Without discipline it drives you in circles: watching Netflix at work, chasing office scandal, using work resources to look for other jobs, which is stealing. Some demand faithfulness and total sacrifice from a partner while being selfish and unfaithful themselves. With God in it, ambition becomes the fuel that takes you where He wants you.

   “Stop stealing time. Stop stealing money. Stop stealing resources.”

   • Luke 16:10-12

5. Goals are the coordinates, and your workplace is your mission field

   If the vision is the destination, goals are the GPS coordinates: specific, measurable targets that tell you whether a night out is taking you closer or further. Whatever your work, it is your mission field, where you put the right scripture in the right ear.

   Illustration: A hairdresser with five clients who wants three salons cannot cut all the hair herself. She needs a system, then staff, then a measurable plan year by year. And since everyone tells their story in a salon, it is the perfect place to sow a seed.

   “Wherever we go, we are the church.”

6. Vision is the destination

   A vision you can already touch is not God's vision; His always requires Him. Like a marriage covenant, there is no plan B. Being a grandfather at sixty-five is a blessing, not a vision. Nehemiah carried a burden from God and his ambition to build became the fuel. "I want to be rich" is not a vision; ask what it is for, because a million rand will not even buy a car today.

   Illustration: When your friends' road sign reads NW, it means nowhere; God's direction is SW, somewhere.

   “God will never give you a vision where He's not necessary for the vision.”

   • Nehemiah 2
   • Matthew 6:33
   • Proverbs 4:20
   • Proverbs 11:30

7. Write it, align it, measure it, pray it, say it

   He returns to the principles: write the vision plainly with weekly, monthly, yearly and five-year plans; make sure every five-year plan carries a kingdom initiative; review it regularly and adjust; pray it through with supplication and thanksgiving, because it is mandatory, not optional; and let your confession say what you need to see rather than what you see.

   Illustration: Do not pray "que sera, sera" or "if it be thy will" as a shrug. Jesus prayed "not my will but yours" because He was laying Himself on the line for the vision.

   “I can't say what I'm seeing. I've gotta say what I need to see.”

   • Habakkuk 2:2-3
   • Philippians 4:6
   • Matthew 26:39
   • Psalm 68:19

8. Cut away the junk: replace screen time with vision time

   Every distraction on the road to God's goal, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, binge-watching, music that shapes a gangster identity, and friends who keep you where you came from, has to be cut. If you watch five hours of Netflix a night, cut it to two and give three hours to the vision.

   Illustration: Growing up in the eighties and nineties, he still feels the pull when an old favourite plays at a wedding, and has to change the music.

   “Replace screen time with vision time.”

9. Faithful in small things, and then rest

   Do not despise small beginnings: parents only notice their children growing when the T-shirt no longer fits. Be faithful with the small tithe and the small victories, because mismanaging small things means mismanaging great ones. Get into community and a cell instead of waiting for someone to call on your birthday. Then enter God's rest: you are a limited resource, so do the work, sleep, and give God the first fruits of every day.

   Illustration: Working from eleven at night to two in the morning gets nothing done. He runs a business and does many things, but time with the Lord is his first priority, because if you come before God exhausted you will be snoring.

   “God must get the first fruit of your life every single day.”

   • Job 8:7
   • Luke 16:10

In this message