"Dream No Small Dreams"

“Dream No Small Dreams”

In 2009 our mission continues to be: “Bringing people to Jesus, loving, equipping and sending them out to make more and better disciples.” BLES

Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision the people perish.” We might add: “Where there is vision people are being saved.”

Winnie the Pooh and Piglet were walking along he road in companionable silence. Then Piglet asks Pooh: When you wake up in the morning, what do you say?” I say, “What’s for breakfast, what do you say, Piglet?” Piglet answers, “I say, I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?”

Is that your view as we plan for 2009 in the Willow Vale Church? What are your dreams for this church? “Dream no small dreams they have no power to stir men’s blood.”

John 4:4-38 - Jesus traveled through Samaria to show God’s love and truth to a wayward Samaritan Woman. He crossed social and cultural barriers to talk to a Samaritan who also happened to be a woman. The woman was taken by surprise that Jesus even talked to her.

Jesus offered her living water and revealed to her that He was the Messiah. While Jesus was talking to the woman the disciples were in Sycar buying lunch from a farm market.

The disciples were shocked to find Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman and told him that he needed to take a brake and eat some lunch. Jesus told them that His nourishment came from doing God’s will.

Then Jesus said, “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest?’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:35

Vision is all about “looking.” “Look on the fields…”

Look – Sight is the ability to see as God sees.

To look on the fields requires adequate vision. A farmer can look at a wheat field and see one thing, and a computer analyst can look at the field and see something else. One understands what it takes to grow healthy wheat and the other knows how to analyze and compute how many bushels per acre.

In Numbers 13 God commanded the twelve leaders of Israel, one from each tribe, to go explore the land of Canaan and look at the fields that God was going to give Israel. Numbers 13:18, “Go spy out the land…are they strong or weak, few or many, is the land good or bad, rich or poor, fertile or desert?”

God wants us to see for ourselves the opportunities. Vision is seeing the potential. Without vision people perish. Vision is going to spy out the land and seeing the potential. Faith is claiming the Land for God.

Twelve spies went into the land of Canaan. Ten looked and gave their report: “The land flows with milk and honey. The land is beautiful – paradise on earth. But the people there are strong – the cities are protected with walls, giants live there. We are not able to defeat the people—they are stronger than we are—we are like grasshoppers in their sight.”

If we sent out 12 spies to check out San Jose would ten give this report: “The city is enjoying prosperity. Many millionaires live there. There are giant corporations what are not God fearing and put the profit motive above keeping marriages and families together. People are too busy for God and have no time to gather for worship. We need to just hold the fort until Jesus comes.

Two men, Joshua and Caleb, gave a faith report. “Let us go up at once, and occupy it. for we are able to over come it. The Lord will bring us into the land and give it to us. Do not fear the people. Let us go up and take possession for the land, for we can certainly do it.”

As we plan for the future of the Willow Vale Church what is your level of faith?

Little faith – God can do it.

Great faith – God will do it.

Active faith – God has done it.

Without vision we see our situation only from the human view. “We are like grasshoppers in their sight.”

• We are too small.

• We don’t have enough money.

• The economy is bad.

• We have too few workers.

• We must wait for better times?

Church growth doesn’t happen by accident. There are reasons why small churches grow into middle-size churches and middle-size churches grow into large churches.

John Polak in his book, The Future in Past Tense, says: “A study of the history of the people of God reveals an interesting fact—the wellbeing of the believing community was directly proportional to their obedience to God’s mission for them. When the people of God have a sense of mission things go well and the church is strong and healthy. When the church becomes introverted and loses its desire to minister in Christ’s name to those who are in need, problems set in.”