Our Vision Series

INTRODUCTION

• Ancestry DNA VIDEO

• SLIDE #1

• In recent years, discovering family trees has grown in popularity. People want to know where they come from to help them understand who they are.

• In previous weeks, we said that DNA tells us who we are and where we come from. In this Ancestry.com commercial, Kyle learns the heritage of his DNA, and it changes how he sees himself and what does in the future.

• He even changes his style of dress, from lederhosen to kilts!

• We have spoken about the DNA of our mission and our values, but let’s talk a little bit about what that would look like visually.

• Vision deals with the future and what we can imagine. Imagination isn’t just for fantasy novels and your art class. Faith is an act of the imagination.

• In an article from Christianity Today, from July 26,2011 entitled, “Can You Imagine?—Why Imagination is Crucial to the Christian Life,” author Brandon J. O’Brien wrote:

• “If reason changes our minds, imagination changes our hearts…touching the imagination can inspire us with a vision of God’s reality that will compel us to act”

• Today we are going to examine the three things that happen or need or happen as a result of being driven by vision.

• This subject, as all in this series not only apply to the church, but they apply to each of our individual lives.

• Having a vision of what the future can look like is important because it can inspire us to reach deeper than we ever have to fulfill the vision.

• A life or a church without vision is a life or a church that is missing something important. No vision equals no direction as well as no excitement for what the future holds.

• Last week we talked about our values, love, truth, fellowship, and transformation.

• Those values are things we should build our lives and our church upon.

• Vision comes to play in this way, HOW do we envision these values play out.

• What would my life and my church look if these values were successfully implemented?

• Imagine a church where people are known by their love. Imagine a church where truth was cherished and proclaimed in all we do. Imagine a church that feels like a second family, a place of fellowship.

• Imagine a church where lives are changed. Where love, truth, and family culminate into people being transformed at the core of their being.

• Today we are going to be in the book of Joshua chapter 1.

• Joshua spends most of his life being Moses', right-hand man. Moses is now dead. The nation is about to enter into the Promised Land after 40 years of wander in the wilderness.

• The leader of the nation, Moses was dead, what now?

• God speaks to Joshua and lays a vision for him in the first nine verses of Joshua 1. Basically, he was to lead the people into the Promised Land, be strong and courageous, and he was told not to depart from the Word of the Lord.

• Given this vision by God, we find Joshua preparing the people to enter into the Promised Land.

• Driven by his vision from God, Joshua is ready to roll!

• SLIDE #2

• Joshua 1:10–15 (CSB) — 10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people: 11 “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get provisions ready for yourselves, for within three days you will be crossing the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you to inherit.’ ” 12 Joshua said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh: 13 “Remember what Moses the LORD’s servant commanded you when he said, ‘The LORD your God will give you rest, and he will give you this land.’ 14 Your wives, dependents, and livestock may remain in the land Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But your best soldiers must cross over in battle formation ahead of your brothers and help them 15 until the LORD gives your brothers rest, as he has given you, and they too possess the land the LORD your God is giving them. You may then return to the land of your inheritance and take possession of what Moses the LORD’s servant gave you on the east side of the Jordan.”

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. Vision offers direction.

• Can you imagine the spot Joshua was in? Moses, the leader of the nation, was dead, now it all falls into the lap of Joshua.

• In Verse 1, Joshua was referred to as Moses’s assistant. Joshua saw all the garbage Moses dealt with, and now it is all in HIS hands!