Vision, 2015 Series

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” "I want to put my hands on the bow! I want to do it!"

The boy with the loaves and fishes. Jesus is like, "What do you have?" Somebody had to give up their lunch. God always wants to work with somebody, and he says, "I need your hands on it." But here is the neat thing. You have just little hands on the bow. God has big hands on the bow. The reason that Elisha puts his hand on the bow and the arrow is that was symbolic to say to the king, "Hey, by the way, you think you're going to have to do this in your own strength. You're not. God's going to give you the strength for victory. And the reason I'm putting my hands on this as the prophet is because I'm saying I'm going to represent God right now in this moment, and God is going to be the big hands on what you need to do."

Now, in our church, all the things that we're setting out to do this year, God is the big hands. We are nothing more than the little hands. Now, we are going to have to work, and we are going to have to give, and we are going to have to sacrifice, we are going to have to go and invite people. But don't ever think that you are the big hands and God is the little hands. We are nothing but the little hands. He's the big hands. And any church that thinks they can move forward and do something great for God without his hand on their church is sadly mistaken. If you think, well, we have good preaching, we have good worship and free coffee and free doughnuts, and we've got soft chairs and a good location; we should grow. You are mistaken. You need God's hand. He needs to be the big hands in the process or we are in trouble.

That's why we do 21 days of prayer and fasting that starts this weekend; 21 days of prayer and fasting. And on every other seat there should be a card. It is on our website; you can download it. You can see what we are praying for every day. Why? Because we acknowledge the start of this year on the vision weekend that God is the big hands and we are the little hands. We need to say, "God, we need your help. We need your strength. We need you with us. May you bless everything that is done this year in your name. You are the big hands." And so I encourage you to pray. I encourage you to fast. I encourage you to do something this year to start it out. Say, "God, you are the big hands on this."

Now, there is a side note on this, and I'm going to ask Connor to come on up here, our oldest son, Connor, to come on up on the stage with me. I told him right before service, I said, "I may use you in an illustration, and you have to do this because I had a heart attack a month ago." So I want you to put your hands on it. I want you to represent the king, and I'm going to represent the prophet. Okay, I want you to understand this. There is more symbolism that's going on here. The king knew that Elisha was dying. He knew it. It talks about that. He weeps. "Oh, no, you're going to die." Okay? So he is sad. He knows that. And he knows he needs to do a battle, and the prophet is saying, "God is going with you. He's going to take care of you." And I think he was saying this, he was saying, "Even though I'm dying, don't think it ends with me. God doesn't die." He's saying the prophet is going to die, but God didn't die. The battle is still to be won. You're going to make it. It's by the power of God.