The Need For A Vision

Title: The Need For A Vision

Text: Proverbs 29:18

Intro: It is important that each of us have a vision for what God wants us to do. The church should have a corporate vision true, but each of us must see ourselves as individuals with personal visions that come together make up a greater vision.

Churches need to understand that today-------God has a purpose and plan for each Church------and they need to be devoted to accomplishing it.

The average Church today though is like a football game-----you have 22 players in desperate need of rest being watched by 50,000 people in desperate need to exercise.

So what should we do about getting a vision?

I. Seek God For Direction

1. You don’t need to ask God what you need to do as much as how you need To Go about it.

2. Most want to make the idea of a vision a hard thing.

- We want to sweat, toil and agonize over “What does God want me to do?”

- 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

a. 2 Cor. 5:11 – Persuade men

b. 2 Cor. 5:18 – fulfill ministry of reconciliation

c. 2 Cor. 5:20 – Be ambassadors for Him

d. Mathew 28:19 - teach & baptize

e. Mark 16:15 -

f. Luke 14:23 -

g. John 20:21 -

h. Mark 13:10 -

i. Psalms 96:3 -

3. WE HAVE A MISSION

- We cannot afford to lose sight of that mission

ILL. About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers 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 of public funds 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 three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great obstacles 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.

4. We need to seek God for a method

- It is not God’s perfect will:

a. That any should perish

b. That should walk in sickness

c. That any live under a curse

d. Any remain under Satan’s bondage

ILL. Moses God told him to build a temple, but it did not stop with just a vision for a temple God gave him the plans in detail.

Noah, God said it is going to rain, build an ark. Not only did he have a vision but also God gave him direction or a detailed plan as to how it was to be done.

II. Trust God

1. One of the hardest things that God has to deal with from us is our lack of trust in Him.

2. Don’t be afraid to do what he has called you to do.

- If He has called you He will not only empower you but He will go with you.

3. It may seem impossible for you but God say’s, “trust me”

Luke 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Psalms 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

4. We have all of these great promises from God’s Word but yet most live as if they are not true.

- Many Christian live as if this word is not the inerrant word of God.

- “Well, I know that God said that He would give me power, but I don’t want it.”

- “If God really wanted me to tell others about Him He would have made me a missionary”

- “If God wants those people to get saved then He can lead them to a church.”

ILL. Gladys Aylward, missionary to China more than fifty years ago, was forced to flee when the Japanese invaded Yangcheng. But she could not leave her work behind. With only one assistant, she led more than a hundred orphans over the mountains toward Free China. In their book "The Hidden Price of Greatness," Ray Besson and Ranelda Mack Hunsicker tell what happened:

During Gladys’s harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng ... she grappled with despair as never before. After passing a sleepless night, she faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety. A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. "But I am not Moses," Gladys cried in desperation. "Of course you aren’t," the girl said, "but Jehovah is still God!"