"share The Vision" Series

“Share the Vision!”

Nehemiah 1

So, every pastor has numerous responsibilities, usually more than one person can tend to. At times, just too many hats you must wear. You have likely felt the same way at times about the responsibilities you carry as well. For me it comes down to figuring out which ones matter the most – what are the priorities?

• Pastors are called to be leaders . To lead the people.

• Pastors are called to be teachers. To feed the people.

• Pastors are called to equip. To train God’s people to do the work of the church.

• Pastors are called to serve/minister to the people.

One more. Pastors cast vision for the local church. Some of you know the vision of the church we wrote 24 years ago ……

Our vision is to enlarge the size of Heaven by taking as many people as possible with us.

June 2000

So, the question comes to us – how do we do that? This series in Nehemiah will be about two things. Casting the vision and carrying the vision. Now to get started we must go back about 3000 years to 587 BC. Jerusalem has been nearly destroyed. The temple is now in ruins. The king’s house was burned down along with ALL the houses in Jerusalem. The temple had been built by King Solomon--- at least he was the one who challenged the people to build it. And the Bible tells us there were 70,000 unskilled people who helped: 80,000 stonecutters and 3300 foremen overseeing all of this. Massive project. There must be those who CAST the vision and those who CARRY the vision. All because God gave Solomon a vision and he took it to the people, and they carried it out.

So, there must be those who will cast the vision and there must be those who carry the vision. And as we carry it out, we continue to cast it. So a new king arrives on the scene -- his name is Cyrus -- he is the new sheriff in town and this is what he says to the Jews. The Jews had been taken captive and Cyrus says – I’m going to allow you to go home to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple so now under the leadership of a man named Zerubbabel the future starts to look much brighter. But this is what he was facing.

• The temple was destroyed. It was in ruins.

• The people had left the faith. They were living in sin. They were allowing the evil/negative influence of others to control everything they did. Every action. Every decision.

Now Jerusalem was the hometown for Nehemiah. It is where he grew up. And everybody has a heart for their hometown. So, try to picture this – wherever you grew up ------

• everything in that city / County has been destroyed

• homes burned down

• the building where you worshiped ---- completely gone. I mean, how would you react? PAUSE

The Bible says in verse 4, “when I heard this I sat down and wept In fact for days I mourned, fasted and prayed to the God of Heaven. Here is a principle to remember:

When everything is taken away, God is not finished. He is just getting started.

Just look what he did ….

• in the life of Job. He lost his family, lost his home; his farm, all his cattle, everything. But He never left God. Even his wife and friends told him to turn from God. God restored all of this; and even gave him twice as much as all he had before.

• In the life of Joseph. He was loved by his father but hated by his 11 brothers. His brothers sold him into slavery and told their father he was dead. In the end Jospeh got an amazing job, a family and more than anything he was completely reconciled with his father and all his brothers.

• In the life of Moses. Moses faced the ten plagues, Pharaoh’s army and a lot of stubborn people. Moses had all sorts of struggles that would have made any leader just give up.

When everything is taken away, God is not finished. He is just getting started.

Vision is the art of making the invisible, visible.

Vision can get covered up by destruction, division, death ----- when your life has been seemingly destroyed – God says keep looking – I’ve got something for you. What is it you want to accomplish more than anything else. What really gives you a burden? A burden is like a weight. Ask yourself, what are the obstacles standing in your way? Many times, the future can seem blurry. Things are not clear. This is the time to pray.