Moses the Prince of Leadership
The Vision Caster!
Exodus 3-6
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.
So, let me ask you this morning, “how is your vision?” What’s your vision for your life? Are you satisfied with merely getting by? Do you have a desire to press on and do all that you can to grow and stretch yourself? Are you doing everything possible to fulfill the potential that God has placed inside you? We need to ask this question as individuals but also as a church, as a community and as a country.
Last week we began a series on the life of Moses and last week we saw that he accepted the call of God to lead. He accepted the challenge but the difficult part was yet to come, to cast the vision of freedom to over a million Israelites and to persuade Pharaoh to let the people go. This was not going to be an easy task. But casting a vision is never easy whether you are a housewife, an executive, a salesperson, a teacher, an administrator or even if you are retired. We all have our circles of influence where we try to cast a vision of what we believe is necessary for the future.
How do we do that? Moses shows us how. It begins with introducing the vision. Notice that God first introduced the vision to Moses. He lays out the plan and basically says, "Moses, you are going to be my tool to accomplish this vision." In Exodus 3:7-9, God says, “I have heard the suffering of my people and I am going to rescue them and give them a land flowing with milk and honey." And then it says, "It’s the home of the Canaanites, and the Perazites, and the Hittites and the Amorites and Hivites and Jebusites, [and the termites and out of sights, they are all there]."
The introduction of this vision began with the leadership. Moses first went to Aaron, who was one of the influencers. Moses knew that if the other leaders were not involved, if they weren’t on board, then the mission was going to be doomed from the start. It would be like me coming in here this morning and saying to you, "I think we should build a new auditorium. I know that there has been a lot of talk about doing that in the future, but lets push the plan up and let’s vote on it today. Matter of fact, let’s go ahead and take up an offering today." Now you wouldn’t go for that. You wouldn’t do that would you? We all know that wouldn’t work. The leaders wouldn’t go for that, and neither would you, because you would want all the leaders on board with the project.
Look at Exodus 4:29-31,, "Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped."
Moses begins by explaining the big picture. He says, "we have been in slavery but our one true God wants to give us freedom." He starts with the leadership and talks with them about their roots. As we begin to look to our future as a church, we must never forget where we came from. We started in a house down here on Elk Creek Road, and someone said that if are going to continue to grow, then we need to find someplace else to worship. So we went to the High School, then someone said we need more room and a permanent place to worship, so someone said, "let’s build a building." So we came to this place and look at us now. We need more room so somebody said we need to build an education space. You see the past and current leaders have led us to the place where we are right now. And I believe they would ask us to do the same thing, and that is to cast a vision for a great future.
John Maxwell said, “People will not reach for the future until they are in touch with the past.” I remember two years ago when we kicked off the “His Land Our Faith” Campaign. That day we talked about all the lives that had been changed by the ministry here. We talked about how the land was used in the past as a piece of wonderful farm land and how God had some other plans for the future. We also talked about how this building was designed, so that educational rooms could be built when it was necessary. And now God has shown us His plans as to how to do this.
Moses reminded the people that they were a chosen nation and that God had promised to bless them if they remained faithful. I believe that God is saying the same thing to us. As Christians, we are God’s Chosen people now, and He is going to bless us if we stay strong and keep our eyes on the goal.
But after introducing the vision, Moses then motivates them with proof. He has to let them know that this really is from God. Look at Exodus 4:30. "And Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people.” God had given Moses the power to perform three different miracles. He could put his hand in his cloak, pull it out and it would have leprosy. Then, put it back in and pull it out and it was clean. Another miracle was that he could turn water to blood. I think that would be fairly convincing but the most dramatic one involved snakes.
The miracles were to show Pharaoh that Moses was truly from God. God wanted to remind Pharaoh that He was in charge but He also wanted to remind Moses of this, so Moses would be encouraged and inspired by what he saw.
But Moses also knew that introducing the vision would involve introducing unity. You see, leadership is necessary to move an organization from where it is to where it should be. Look at Exodus 4:31. "And they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped."
Notice that they didn’t worship Moses. They worshipped God. They understood that united, they would be strong. Every year, as I watch college sports, I always wonder how mediocre teams are able to beat teams that are obviously more talented. The answer is unity, team work. Five people playing together is much stronger and better than 5 individuals playing on the same side but playing for themselves.
In chapter 5 of Exodus we see where Moses and Aaron presented the vision, and they hoped that it would be embraced. But they learned something about vision; very seldom is it embraced overnight. It takes time. In Chapter 5:1-2 we read, "Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ’This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ’Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’ Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."
Not only was Moses having a difficult time convincing Pharaoh, but he was having trouble convincing the Israelites. You know why? Because after Moses’ discussion with Pharaoh, Pharaoh made life even more difficult for the Israelites. He told the foreman, w"hen they make their bricks tomorrow, don’t give them any straw. If they want straw they will have to get it themselves." Then he said, "and I’ll not give them any extra either. The quota is the same." And the Jewish people said, “thanks a lot Moses. Thanks for all the help!” Have you ever started a new project? Everything is going well and then you hit a wall. You look to God and say, “Hey I thought this was your will. I thought this was your plan." And God says, "hang in there. Persevere. Don’t give up." Look at Exodus 6:9. "Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage."
Listen, if you are a leader you can expect more intense criticism, and adversity and opposition. This doesn’t make being a leader any easier really. It doesn’t make it any less difficult to handle. We were sitting in the office one day when I was on staff at Plum Creek, and our Minister, Larry Travis, was telling us how he was mentoring a college student at CCU. It was this young man’s first preaching ministry. This young man was from Georgia and he said to Larry, "do you know that church people will sometimes get angry at you?" Larry said, “Nah. You’re kidding." And then he said, "well nobody’s gotten mad at me today but it is only 9:00 a.m." The leader or leaders will always be the target. I know that. Sometimes I’m the target and I had nothing to do with a situation at all. And that is the down-side to being a leader sometimes. It certainly can rob your joy. I know the guy who has the ball gets tackled but if you’re tackled a lot, it hurts. You should remember that about leadership.
Moses certainly could relate. It was hard for him to change the mindset of down-trodden slaves to dreamers of freedom. But he was determined because he had been called of God to do the job. So he just asked them to trust him and to trust the God they could not see. Here is something for every leader, if you stop dreaming, then you stop leading.
Walt Disney had a dream. His dream was to create a theme park, second to none. And the result was Disneyland, and he put it in California. It was incredible. But he wanted more. So he went to Florida. Real estate agents took him all around and he turned them all down. One day he drove past a huge swamp land near Orlando, and he said, here it is. This is where we will build. And his dreams were even bigger than Disneyland. The sad fact is that Walt Disney died just before the theme park was dedicated. He had cast a vision but wasn’t alive to see the project completed. At the dedication a friend leaned over to Disney’s widow and said, "I wishh Walt could have seen this!" And she said, "he did."
Some people have a unique ability to see what something can become, rather than for what they are. Let me ask you this question, what do you see for your future? Solomon said, "where there is no vision the people will parish."
Here’s another question, how do you get people to embrace your vision? If we could bring Moses down here, he would say, “I didn’t have a vision but God gave me a vision. He led me every step of the way." And you talk about a vision caster. Look at Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus continually cast a vision for people who had no hope. The woman was caught in adultery and everyone wanted to stone her but Jesus forgave her and said, "leave your life of sin and don’t sin anymore." Jesus looked at the bunch of men he called apostles and said, "you aren’t going to fish for fish but you are going to fish for men." Peter was a mess most of the time. We could call him the wishy-washy dude. But Jesus said, "from now on, I’m going to call you Petra, The rock. You are going to be a stabilizer." Why did Jesus continually do this? Because He didn’t always want them to see what they were, he wanted them to see what they could become. Jesus was about lifting a vision.
Charles Swindoll gives us four steps that any organization, any church, and for that matter, any individual could take to help others embrace a vision of what can be. 1. Detail it. In other words, set the strategy. According to Barna less than 1 out 10 Christians set any goals for their lives in any given year. Every organization must have a mission statement. Every individual and every church must have a mission statement. Do you know what ours is at Spencer Christian Church? Let me read it to you. Every member should be able to repeat. “The purpose of Spencer Christian Church is to Glorify God, and make disciples in Spencer and surrounding counties, Kentucky and throughout the world by Teaching God’s Word, Worship, Fellowship and Prayer.”
Moses had a strategy. It was simple; do what God told him to do. Whatever God says, do it. God’s strategy was showing His power and to show Pharaoh how He would deal with disobedience. God did this through the ten plagues. These were some big-time plagues. It is amazing to me how Pharaoh endured them all. But he last one (when the first born of every family would die unless they had the blood of a lamb on their door post) broke him. He said, "go leave," and the Israelites were freed.
Here’s step 2 needed to help others embrace a vision. Express it, and you must do in a way that others will want it in their lives. Not every leader has the ability to cast a vision. George Barna says, “Living the visionary life is exhilarating and spiritually glorifying to God. But without a vision from God you will flounder.” What’s your goal of what you can be for God? Let me ask you, Spencer Christian, that same question as a church; what is your goal of what we can be for God? I remember two years ago, when we first started presenting the vision for "His Land Our Faith." People were working hard to come up with some great ideas for the land. There was a lot of excitement. Then the same thing happened back in January when we first started talking about the education wing. A lot of people had some great ideas and we used a lot of them to come up with the design of the building.
Here’s where we must begin, embrace the vision that God wants to do in your life and in your family. Then embrace a vision of what God wants to do in this church. There’s an old Chinese proverb that says: “if your vision is for a year, plant wheat, if your vision is for a decade, plant trees, but if your vision is for a lifetime, plant people.”
Here is step #3. Accept it. If any vision is to become a reality, everyone must buy into it. Everyone must own it. There must be unity. I think this is one of the reasons why the church doesn’t conquer more than it does. There can be so little unity in some churches. There are so many denominations. There are so many splits in churches today. Listen Spencer Christian, if we are to build a ministry here that will outlast us and make a difference in more lives than we can even to begin to imagine, it is going to take us all. Everyone must be on the team. Every single person is important. Every single person is needed. Every single individual is vital to the success of fulfilling the vision of what God has given us. We must go forward with boldness that comes from our faith in God. We must not allow our fears to say it can’t be done. We must allow our faith to say, "it can be done and it must be done and it will be done.” Nothing is impossible with God, nothing, Absolutely nothing!
If you want a vision to be caught, you must detail it, you must express it, you must accept it and then you must repeat it; and repeat it often. Moses’ vision for the Israelites was very simple one. His goal was freedom. And Moses repeats this idea of freedom eight times in less than four chapters. He said, "Let God’s people go." Over and over he said, “let God’s people go."
Several years ago, the coach of the CCU Eagles basketball team, Coach Toole, began his pre game speech with the same phrase. It was thi, "our goal is to go the national tournament." Now the previous year’s team went 10 and 13. But each game he said, "our goal is to go to the national tournament." And you should know that in the team’s 57 year history, that had never been done. But game after game, he would cast the same vision of going to the national tournament. That year the CBC Eagles went 27-3 and they beat KCC to go to the national tournament.
So what are your goals? How do you plan to fulfill the vision that God has given to you in your life? I mean, after a vision is detailed and expressed and accepted and repeated, how is it fulfilled? Exodus 12 tells us that the Israelites walked out. That was their vision, and they had fulfilled it. How big are your plans? And how big should our plans be at Spencer Christian? Are our plans to small? We have a big God. Are our plans to big? Do we think our God is that small?
Here’s the question; who are we to limit what God wants to do? I believe that God is placing before us, as a church, a great vision of a great ministry that will affect hundreds upon hundreds of lives. It is not about numbers and buildings. It’s about people. It is about souls. And we could never have too many.
Here is one last vision we each must have. It is a vision of Jesus in our hearts. I want you to know that Jesus has always had a vision of you. He has always wanted a relationship with you and he’s done everything possible to make it happen. Now it’s up to you. This is the day I hope you fulfill the vision that Jesus has for you, that you come to commit your life to him, now and forever.
