Victory Starts With A Vision
2 Kings 5:1-1 Luke 22:39-53 2 Kings 5:1-19
Today we celebrate Victory Sunday in which we bring in the first part of our offering for our Excelling in Giving Campaign. This Sunday started with a vision at our leadership retreat. Saints at the beginning of the year there was a meeting of the pastors, the elders, the lay pastors, the deacons, and the heads of organizations regarding our church’s future.
We knew the Spirit was leading us to excel in the way we are doing our ministry for the cause of Christ. We also knew it was going to cost us money to move forward with our vision . Together we came up with our future Campaign Slogan, “Striving for Excellence, Excelling in Our Giving.” It took about 5 votes to get to that slogan and another three votes to choose the logo of the hands and the dove.
We then voted on whether or not we would have a professional campaign partner come alongside us as we had done when we did our last campaign 10 years ago. The price tag back then for that professional consultant was $26,000.00. As a group we decided that we had learned enough from the first campaign to be equipped to take a step of faith to do it on our own with the Spirit’s leading. We had confidence in the leadership ability God has poured into our church.
The large group of leaders then turned the next step of building a Campaign Team over to the staff. At our staff meeting, we took the position the consultant had in the first campaign and carved it into 4 slices. One slice went to Pastor Toby, one slice to Pastor Kellie, one slice to Sylvia and the other slice to me. From there we sought the Lord for who should be the co-directors and the heads of the different committees. One we secured Shannon and Gail as our co-directors, we knew we were on the right track. The committee heads chose people to work with them.
By us all having a shared vision we launched into our Campaign not knowing what exactly the Lord was going to do through us all. Some wanted to know how much money were we asking for. I didn’t want to come up with a figure, but the calls continued to come in for an amount. So we looked at what we wanted to do, and what we thought the cost might be and added it all up. It came to $200,000.00 There were those who said, now is not the time with the economy being what it is to ask for that much money. But when God says to do something, then it’s time to move forward and do it. Victory only comes about with a vision in mind.
We did not ask anyone for a specific amount of money. We asked everyone to be willing to make a sacrifice in their lifestyle so that they could give. Our sub theme was “not equal giving, but equal sacrifice.” Everybody can choose whether or not to make a sacrifice. We had our Kickoff Sunday in a combined worship service in September. This was followed with a Leadership Dinner, Pie Visits to almost everyone in the congregation who requested one, a 24 Hour Prayer Vigil, 2 Prayer Walks in the community , and a combined Celebration Sunday service and brunch afterwards.
The number of people who have worked on our Excelling For Giving Campaign has been awesome. Some of you poured your gifts and talents into the vision in a way that was so honoring to the Lord, that a party must have taken place in heaven itself. Every group in the church has played a role in the campaign which is exactly how it should be.
We began the round of pledges first with our two pastoral families, the Sullivan’s and the Gillespie-Mobley’s. A week later, our next group of pledges came from our leaders from the leadership banquet. A week later our next group of pledges came from the congregation On Celebration Sunday. That which began with nothing but a vision, now has a commitment of $175,000 in pledges which means we are at 88% of the goal we’ve set for the cause of Christ.
We have 12% to go in waiting for some of the others of you who have not pledged to join those already listed in today’s bulletin. Some of the 12% will be made up by many of you who wrote on your pledge sheet, this is the minimum I will be giving which means you’re believing God for even more. We say thank you for your willingness to go without something for the next two years so that we could be obedient as a church in excelling in our giving for the cause of Christ.
Our hope for what we are doing is that 1) we will be able to reach more people for Christ, 2) we will see our own lives transformed in the process, 3) we will grow as a congregation, 4) and we will have a facility that is better equipped for us to serve others in our daily ministry. For the next two years, we will be voluntarily making sacrifices for the work of the ministry through Glenville New Life Community Church. We encourage you to have your own vision for what you want God to do for you and your family in the next two years.
We have already seen some of the results coming out of our campaign. Let me ask you this, do you think it was by coincidence that during the prayer time, a group of men prayed from 1am to 7am during the Prayer vigil, and last week we had the most heart moving Men’s day with probably more males in church on a Sunday than ever before. God is on the move in our church.
Everybody can and should have a vision for the power of God to make a change in order to have a victory. In our Old Testament reading, we find the story of a Victory Sunday that almost didn’t take place. There are victories God wants to place in our lives, that we can miss out on, because we will not want to pay the price to hold on to the vision. Don’t think for a moment, your victory is going to come free of charge.
Young people, what price are you willing to pay emotionally and spiritually to be successful. Satan is not going to destroy you through your academic ability. Most of you will be wounded by him emotionally. You are going to fall in love with someone who does not care about your success, nearly as much about getting what they can out of your body. You don’t need to try to compromise with the other person. You need to have a strong enough vision to say, your plans are not God’s plans for me, and let the person go. Will it hurt to do so? Yes. Will the pain be there forever. No. Will you be glad at some point you made the choice. Guaranteed. Your victory will come about as you remove those things that hurt your vision.
The other scenario that happens to youth is this. You will go to college and hear some professor claim that everything in the bible is just mythology like Zeus and Hercules. Since your friends will be pressuring you to join them in the party life, you will find it easier to believe the professor, than to hold on to the truth of what we have been teaching you. If you looked at that professor’s lifestyle, you may not be so quick to put your faith in his or her words of discarding the bible. You will allow your spiritual life to go downhill to make way for your new intellectual position and lower sense of morality. Satan will have robbed you of the victory that could have been yours in your college experience.
There was a young girl who had been captured in battle and turned into a slave. She was the personal slave of a woman whose husband was the greatest military leader of his day for his country. His name was Namaan. He had won victory after victory because of a vision he had for his nation. Namaan was a national hero for a nation that was the enemy of God’s people, the Israelites at the time. Namaan had wealth, he had power, he had prestige, and just about everything else. The one thing he had that nobody wanted was a skin disease called leprosy. He would have done just about anything to get rid of it and be healed.
Even though this young woman was taken from her home and forced to live as a slave, she did not forget the God she had grown up with in her youth. She also knew that God was still making a difference in the land through the prophet Elisha. She felt compassion for the very man who had led the troops that had captured her and taken her away from her family. She didn’t know if God would heal Namaan or not, but she did know God was able to do it.
She told her master’s wife, now if your husband could hook up with the prophet in the land I come from, he would be healed of his leprosy. When Namaan found out about this, he could see the Victory that he had been waiting for to come to pass. He had a vision of living his life free of this disease that would no doubt lead his early death. His desire for victory sent him to his king, the king of Aram to ask for his help in finding that prophet.
The king of Aram shared in Namaan’s vision, and they both believed the words of this young girl who had a vision of what God could do. When you have a vision, you can set all kind of things into motion, but you’ve got to be willing to follow through. The king of Aram sent a vast amount of wealth to the king of Israel, with one simple request. He gave Namaan a letter that said, “I am sending my servant Namaan to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.” The king of Aram, just assumed the king of Israel would be in touch with the powerful prophet the captured slave girl had talked about.
The king of Israel was terrified of the request to heal Namaan. He thought the king of Aram was just looking to pick a fight with him and start a war. With no vision, The king of Israel went into despair. He tore his clothes thinking that all hope was lost. All the king could see was his limitations of what he could not do. He knew that he could not heal Namaan of leprosy. But the king had drifted so far from God, he didn’t think that maybe someone else might be in touch with the Lord who could help him out. I find it strange, that a slave girl in another country had knowledge of a prophet of God in the King’s country that the king did not know about.
Sometimes instead of saying, “I can’t do that.” We need to be asking, “God what steps should I be taking to make this happen.” We may be trying to figure out the big picture, when all we need is a simple obedient step in the right direction. Ask the question, what’s the next right thing to do? Do you know sometimes it is as simple as keeping your mouth closed. I have discovered, there is a lot a victory over temptation just be not saying something that can start a conversation that can go in the wrong direction. Sometimes the next right step is to simply choose not to go to the place where the temptation is located. Sometimes the next right step is to simply give up always having to be right.
The next right step for the King of Israel was to humble himself and listen to the prophet Elisha. Elisha sent a message to the king, saying “send the brother down to me and he will know there is a prophet in Israel.” The king was only to ready to send Namaan down to Elisha and wash his hands of the problem. Now if something went wrong, he could blame Elisha for Namaan not being healed.
Namaan arrived at Elisha’s house with all the money and designer clothes he was going to pay Elisha after the healing. Elisha’s house was nothing to go crazy over. One look and you could tell the brother could use the money. Namaan just expected Elisha to be impressed with who he was with his large entourage and all. But Elisha, didn’t even come outside of his little rickety house. He sent his servant outside with the message, “Go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River and your flesh will be restored and cleansed.” That seemed like a pretty basic next step to follow in order to get the victory
Namaan however felt insulted. First of all that he had to talk to the prophet’s a servant and not the prophet himself. Then he was mad that Elisha didn’t come out and do a show for him so that he could others about his great healing and how it happened. He expected Elisha to come out, wave his arms, doing a little shouting, a little hooping, and a loud in the name of and bang the healing would happen. He had a vision of what would take place, but his vision was not aligned with God.
Does your vision line up with what God has for your life, or is your vision shaping God into what you want God to be. Namaan also did not like the requirements made on him. He knew at least two rivers back home that were cleaner than the Jordan River was. Namaan is about to lose the victory that could have completed his vision, because he didn’t like the solution. We’re like that at times. We pray to God for stuff, when we know what the real solution is to our problem. So often, it boils down to just being obedient no matter what. We carry around our leprosy because of our anger and self centeredness. Namaan wanted things to go his way, not necessarily the way things needed to go for a victory to be complete. What about you today. Are you demanding changes of others that you will not apply to yourself.
A servant of Namaan’s put his life on the line by saying, “you know I think you ought to think about doing what the prophet said.” A true friend is going to confront you when you’re about to throw away a victory that could be yours. The servant said, “look think about the big picture, your healing. Swallow your pride, and at least try what he asked you to do.” Some of us lose right here, because we say, “ I know it ain’t going to work” or “I’ll wash seven times, but I’ll do it where I want to do it.” Namaan could have bathed into those other rivers 77 times and still he would have come up a leper.
But this time Namaan humbled himself. He orderd the chariots to head for the Jordan. Namaan got in the dirty waters of the Jordan River. Dipped down 6 times. Six times he went down and not a thing had changed. How long are you willing to keep going for your vision, even when you don’t see a change? Every time he came up empty, it was harder to stay where he was. But he endured and on that 7th time after coming out of that water nothing was ever the same for him again.
Jesus Christ has a vision for your life. He has a victory Sunday waiting for you. The question is do you want it. Do you want to let go of that thing, that’s really a kind of leprosy in your life that’s holding you back from the victory that could be yours. You could learn to live with leprosy, but you won’t live as long and you won’t be living fully for Christ.
Victory in Christ, always means a sacrifice. Christ victory over death, involved the sacrifice of his life. Our victory as a church means the sacrifice of some of our desires. Your victory in your vision for your life, means some sacrifice on your part. Have a vision high enough and worthy enough to make the sacrifice worth it and then go and pay the price.
