1. Pioneering Vision
About 350 years ago a group of immigrants landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness.
In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?
Here were people who had the vision to see hundreds of miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision. With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.
2. We typically understand the general aspects of vision and mission -- Matthew 28.18-20
3. From time to time we need to stop and think about the specifics -- the elders and staff have spent weeks working on what we perceive God wants to do through this congregation at this time.
4. This is the first of three lessons I will give on vision and mission; Mike Sparks will conduct two combined adult Sunday AM classes to give us further detail
I. Necessary Ingredients:
2 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: "You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. 5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. 6 You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the LORD your God. 7 And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9 Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. Deuteronomy 29.2-9
A. Eyes to See the Vision -- Destination
When Walt Disney World in Orlando ,FL. opened in 1974, Mrs. Disney was sitting beside Walter Cronkite. Walt Disney has passed away a few years earlier. Walter Cronkite wanted to say just the right thing to Mrs. Disney, so he leaned over to her and said, "Wouldn't it be great if Walt were here to see this today." Mrs. Disney wisely replied, "If Walt had not first seen this you would not be seeing it today." Well said Mrs. Disney.
1. It is dangerous to lack vision -- Proverbs 29.18
2. "Vision" can be insight from God and it can be teaching
3. Israel got into trouble whenever there was a lack of teaching or a lack of heeding the teaching
4. Darkness at the time of Eli -- 1 Samuel 3.2-3
2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.
5. God's remedy -- Samuel -- the "Seer" or Prophet
B. Hands and Feet for Mission -- Route
When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions, he took a bold and decisive step to ensure the success of his military venture. He ordered his men to march to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover. To their amazement, they saw every ship in which they had crossed the channel engulfed in flames. Caesar had deliberately cut off any possibility of retreat. Now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but to advance and conquer! And that is exactly what they did.
II. Aspect #1: God-Led
A. We may not always see clearly but we follow God's directions
1. Abram -- "I will show you" -- Genesis 12.1-2
2. Israel -- Pillar of cloud and fire
Automobile genius Henry Ford once came up with a revolutionary plan for a new kind of engine. We know it today as the V-8. Ford was eager to get his new idea into production. He had some of his men draw up plans and presented them to the engineers.
As the engineers studied the drawings, one by one they came to the same conclusion. Their visionary boss just didn't know much about the fundamental principles of engineering. He'd have to be told gently -- his dream was impossible. When told, Henry Ford said, "Produce it anyway." They said, "But it is impossible." Ford said, "Go ahead, and stay on the job until you succeed, no matter how much time is required."
For six months they struggled with design after design. Nothing. Another six months. Nothing. At the end of the year Ford checked with his engineers, and once again they told him that what he wanted was impossible. Ford told them to keep going. They did. And they discovered how to build a V-8 engine!
B. Once we see God's Leading, We stay the course
1. Someone will try to distract us from our work -- Nehemiah
a. Through insult -- Nehemiah 4.1-6
b. Through injury -- Nehemiah 4.7-14
c. Through Interruption -- Nehemiah 6.1-9
2. When mission fails it is because we forsake God
"Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the LORD your God when He led you in the way?" (Jeremiah 2:17)
Do you believe in coincidence? Today, on the Fast of Tammuz (Tzom Tammuz), the Jewish People are remembering a tragic "coincidence."
On the 17th of Tammuz in both 586 BC and in AD 70, the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Babylonians and the Romans respectively.
And in yet another remarkable coincidence, the First and Second Temples were destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC and by the Romans in AD 70 three weeks later on the 9th of Av.
In Judaism, the breach of Jerusalem's walls and the subsequent destruction of the Temple are considered no mere coincidence. These great tragedies were the result of rebellion and idolatry.
16 And the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise andwhore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. 17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, 'Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods. (Deuteronomy 31:16-18)
1. Helen Keller was once asked the question: "Is there anything worse than being blind?" "Yes," she replied, having eyesight but no vision." Vision is the ability to see what others can't. Vision is able to see beyond the norms of each day to the possibilities of tomorrow.
2. Chinese Church
In the late 1940's, when the Communists took over China, there were less than 2 million Christians in China. The communists drove the missionaries out, killed thousands of Chinese Christians, and put most of the rest into "reeducation" centers where they experienced terrible persecution.
Some of my friends in China were among those killed or taken from their families to be "reeducated."
But despite the years of unrelenting persecution - maybe even because of it - and with almost no contact with other Christians outside of China, the gospel has been preached & the church has grown from less than 2 million to over 80 million Christians in China today.
You ought to read about the underground church in China. It reminds me of what the early church must have gone through during the centuries of Roman persecution.
