107 Sermon Illustrations on Vision

Nothing starts happening until somebody starts dreaming. Every accomplishment started off first as an idea in somebody's mind. It started off as a dream, as a vision, a goal.

Therefore, the first task of leadership is to set the vision for the organization. If you don't set the vision, you're not the leader. Whoever is establishing the vision and goals in your church is the leader of that particular church. A church will never outgrow its vision and the vision of a church will never outgrow the vision of the pastor.

So I want to challenge you to dream great dreams for God.

The Bible says, “God is able to do far more than anything we would ever dare to ask or even dream of, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts or hopes” (Ephesians 3:20, Living Bible).

That's an amazing verse. In it God tells us, “Think up the biggest thing you think I can do in your life, in your ministry, in your church, and I can top that; I can beat it.”

So you need to ask yourself this question, “What would I attempt for God if I knew I couldn't fail?”

Let that expand your horizons. Let it expand your dreams. Let it expand your vision into God's unlimited vision for your ministry. But how do you find God's vision for your ministry?

THE WHAT

When God reveals His vision for your ministry, the FIRST THING He shows you is the WHAT. He shows you what He's going to do. The big mistake is, Once God has shown you what He's going to do in your life and ministry, there is a tendency in all of us to immediately run out and assume we can accomplish it any way we wish.

So we go out and try to accomplish it under our own power, in our own way, and through our own efforts. And inevitably, we fall flat on our face, and it's then that we come crawling back to God.

“Oh, God, I'm so sorry,” we say. “What did I do? Did I miss the vision? You told me what You were going to do, and I went out and tried to accomplish it and fell flat on my face. Did I miss the vision?”

THE HOW

And God will say to you, “No, you didn't. You just didn't wait for Part Two. I told you what I was going to do, but you didn't wait to find out HOW I was going to do it.” God's HOW is always in the exact opposite way that you thought.

You say, “I'll grow the church this way....” And God will say, “No, let's do it My way,” because He wants the glory.

THE WHEN

Once you see the WHAT and the HOW, you're still not finished. There's a third part of the vision: God shows you WHEN. The longer I walk with the Lord and the longer I'm in ministry, the more I'm convinced that God's timing is perfect. He is never a minute early; He is never a minute late; He is always right on time. And His timing is as important as the WHAT and HOW of His vision. You must wait for all three parts for God to work in your life.

POLAROID VISION

Have you ever taken a Polaroid picture? You take it and the longer you look at it, the clearer it gets. That's true in my life. When I first started Saddleback Community Church, I didn't know what it was going to end up like. All I knew was that God had called me to this spot, and I had a bunch of ideas in a bag, and I wanted to build it on the five purposes of God. That's all I knew. As I have walked with the Lord and worked with the Lord over the years, the vision has gotten clearer and clearer.

Or you could say that God's vision is like a scroll. When you unroll a scroll, you don't see the whole thing from beginning to end. You just see what's right in front of you.

Then you roll it up a little bit and unroll a little bit more. That's the way God's will is in our lives. He doesn't lay His full plan before you all at once. If you knew what would happen the rest of your life, you might contemplate suicide. Some tough points are coming up along with some turning points, rough edges, difficulties and crises that you probably don't think you can handle.

And the truth is you can't. But God's grace is sufficient for each day and when you get there, the grace will be there.

So don't borrow trouble by worrying about what might lie ahead.

Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34, NIV).

Instead, you should seek God's vision day-by-day. You get God's vision by asking, “WHAT do You want me to do? HOW do You want me to do it? And WHEN do You want me to do it?”

You need to stop praying, “God, bless what I'm doing,” and start praying, “God, help me to do what You're blessing.”

I get up in the morning, and I pray this prayer every day: “God, I know You're going to do some very exciting things in the world today. Would You give me the privilege of just being in on some of them? I just want to be in on what You're doing. I want to do what You're blessing.”

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Adapted from a message by Rick Warren titled, “Authentic Leadership,” from a Purpose-Driven Church Conference.

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[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #18633]

Charlie Paddock had one burning ambition -- to become an Olympic champion. This ambition dominated his thinking even as a boy. After having set or tied several world records, including four world records at one time, Paddock claimed the dream of his lifetime by winning the 100 meters in the Olympic Games at Antwerp, Belgium in 1920.

Paddock was speaking once at East Tech High School in Cleveland, Ohio. A little spindley-legged boy was so touched he could hardly speak as he approached Paddock. "Oh, Mr. Paddock, I'd give anything to be a champion just like you." Paddock encouraged the young man and gave him a dream. The youngster worked hard, his body began to develop and in 1936 in Berlin that young man won four gold medals. He set three world records in one afternoon. His name was Jesse Owens.

After he was a champion, Owens told a similar experience in Cleveland as he encouraged a little boy so skinny he was called "Bones." That little boy was so inspired he ran all the way home and told his grandmother, "Grandma, I'm going to be an Olympic champion." In 1948 in London he won the 1000 meter finals in tying Owens' record of 10.3 seconds. In 1952 in Helsinki he set a new record in the hurdles ... his name: Harrison "Bones" Dillard.

What is your dream for the Lord's church here? You must have a dream, a goal, in your heart before much will be done toward the growth and strength of the church. What is your dream for our attendance, for the contribution, conversions to Christ, and all other aspects of the work here? Establish that vision in your heart and then you will work and pray for the fulfillment of that vision ((Proverbs 29:18a).

--via church bulletin, Camden, TN

The Blind Men and the Elephant

John Godfrey Saxe

It was six men of Indostan to learning much inclined,

Who went to see the elephant (though all of them were blind),

That each by Observation might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the elephant, and happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl:

"...Bless me! But the elephant is nothing but a wall!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk, cried: "Ho! What have we here?

So very round and smooth and sharp? To me 'tis mighty clear

This wonder of an elephant is very like a spear!"

The Third approached the animal, and happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands, thus boldly up and spake:

"I see," quoth he, "the elephant is very like a snake!"

The Fourth reached out his eager hand, and felt about the knee:

"What most this wondrous beast is like is mighty plain," quoth he.

"Tis clear enough the elephant is very like a tree."

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, said, "E'en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most, deny the fact who can?

This marvel of an elephant is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun about the beast to grope,

Than seizing on the swinging tail that feel within his scope,

"I see," quoth he, "the elephant is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion exceeding stiff and strong.

Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong!

The year was 1962...

David Glass, who headed up a successful retail drug chain in Missouri, decided that he would go to the opening of Sam

Walton's second store in Harrison, Arkansas. When he got there he found that

Sam Walton had dumped a couple of truckloads of watermelons out front. He had

donkeys in the parking lot for the children to ride. The temperature was 115. .

. So many of the watermelons had popped from the heat... and the donkeys

had done what donkeys do. "The parking lot was a mess," David Glass recalls.

"And inside the new store, it was just more of the same mess." "I concluded

that Sam Walton was a nice fellow," David Glass said, "but I wrote him

off. It was the worst store operation I had ever seen." Yet, the House of Morgan

predicts that in 1991 Sam Walton will become the No. 1 merchant in the United

States. Others predict it will take place in 1992. The wealth of his immediate

family --in the stock of his chain stores---is valued at $6.8 billion. But

David Glass remembers one thing: that even though Sam Walton was a nice

fellow and he had written him off... he said there was something about Sam

Walton, something inside him that made him improve every day. And that may

explain why

David Glass is the new president of Sam Walton's chain. Something

inside Sam Walton... made him improve every day! The success of Sam Walton is

not based on setting up ideals... but on setting up goals.

Four men used to meet

together each week in Memphis. One man was a service station owner, one man was a salesman for a wholesale appliance

company, one man was assistant treasurer of a large corporation, and one man was a

teacher. These men shared with each other their longings, desires, and plans.

They decided to set goals and to share these with each other. The service

station owner set a goal to be making $50,000 a year within five years. The

wholesale appliance salesman set a goal to be making $25,000 a year within the

next five years. The teacher set a goal to be teaching in one of the greatest educational institutions in America within five years. The assistant treasurer said he was going to do the best he could, but he was not

going to set a specific goal. Within five years the service station owner was

making in excess of $50,000 a year. Today he worth over one million

dollars. Within four years the wholesale appliance salesman was making $25,000 a year.

Today he is a wealthy man. In two years and ten months the teacher was

offered the best teaching job in his field in the United States. The assistant

treasurer is still working at his same job in the circumstances that he was in

the day the goals were set. Aim determines direction. When you aim a pistol

toward a target, how you aim determines the direction the bullet will go. The conscious and sub-conscious goals you have for your life have brought

about

the situation in which you find yourself today. A goal you set, an

aim you determine with your intellect and emotions is one of the most powerful

forces in the world.

In the last century, Lord Kelvin, a physicist and president of Britain's prestigious Royal Society, stated that "radio has no future." He also contended that "heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible" and that "X-rays will prove to be a hoax." About the same time, a British parliamentary committee dismissed Thomas Edison's incandescent lamp as "unworthy of attention of practical or scientific men". In 1889 the director of the United States Patent Office urged President William McKinley to close down the office because "everything that can be invented has been invented."

[see also HolwickID #2996]

There was a study done of concentration camp survivors. What were the common characteristics of those who did not succumb to disease and starvation in the camps? Victor Frankl was a living answer to that question. He was a successful Viennese psychiatrist before the Nazis threw him into such a camp.

"There is only one reason," he said in a speech, "why I am here today. What kept me alive was you. Others gave up hope. I dreamed. I dreamed that someday I would be here, telling you how I, Victor Frankl, had survived the Nazi concentration camps. I've never been here before, I've never seen any of you before, I've never given this speech before. But in my dreams, in my dreams, I have stood before you and said these words a thousand times."

"In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and lifted

up..." I know a little cottage which is surrounded by great and

stately trees which are clothed with dense and massy foliage. In the

summer days, and through all the sunny season, it just nestles in the

circle of green, and has no vision of the world beyond. But the winter

comes so cold and keen. It brings its sharp knife of frost, cuts off

the leaves until they fall trembling to the ground. There is nothing

left but the bare framework on which summer hung her beauteous

growths.

Poor little cottage, with the foliage all gone! But is there no

compensation? Yes, Yes. Standing in the cottage, in the winter time,

and looking out of the window, you can see a mansion which has come

into view through the openings left by the fallen leaves. The winter

brought the vision of the mansion.

My brother, you were surrounded by the summer green of prosperity.

It had become your king. There your vision ended. But the Lord wished

to give your thought a further reach--He wanted your soul to see the

mansion which the Father has prepared for them that love Him. So He

took away your little king. He sent the winter, and stripped your

trees; and in the year that the little king died, you saw the Lord.

--J. H. Jowett

Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well when they can not

be discerned from the top of a mountain. So are many things learned in

adversity which the prosperous man dreams not of. --Spurgeon

George Barna defined a vision as "a clear mental picture of a

preferable future, imparted by God to His chosen servants, based on an

accurate understanding of God, self, and circumstances."

George Barna, {Without a Vision, the People Perish}, (Glendake,

CA: Barna Research Group, Ltd, 1991), 28.

Vision that looks inward becomes duty. Vision that looks outward

becomes aspiration. Vision that looks upward becomes faith.

"If you go as far as you can see, you will then see enough to go even farther."

-- John Wooden

"Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly."

-- Robert Schuller

"All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small."

-- Lao-Tzu

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Born-again-Christian roommates Derrick Mitchell, 38, and Teresa Tafawa, 58, were served eviction notices in May by their landlord in Cornwall, Ontario, because of complaints that they pray loudly and often around the apartment complex. Mitchell says he can't help himself when he receives "visions," especially the holy alerts about local devil worship; he said he is moved to speak in a high, quivering voice that Tafawa calls "the ecstasies" and that the pair may pray and sing for several hours a day, even in the laundry room and the parking lot. Said Tafawa, "We try to walk with the Lord all day."

About every five years, whether I need to or not, I make a visit to the local eye doctor to get an eye exam and some new glasses. I know I need to get my eyes checked every year, so you’d think that getting ready to return to the eye doctor after a long absence would force me to come to grips with the undeniable decline in my vision.

Well, you’d be wrong. Sure, in retrospect I can see that I had all the signs of weakened vision: squinting, headaches, and my wife reminding me more and more frequently that it always helps for a writer to be able to read the words on a page. But, as in the past, I couldn’t quite bring myself to believe that my eyesight was as bad as everyone else thought. After all, I still knew that I was holding a paper, even if I couldn’t quite make out the words on it.

That had to count for something, right?

The cold, hard reality of my vision situation greeted me this past weekend as my eyes were poked by an array of gizmos and the doctor informed me in a monotonic voice that my vision had “slipped a few levels.” What my friends and family had been telling me was — wonder of wonders — actually true after all. And, I have to tell you, when I slipped on my new glasses, I think I may have rediscovered a few colors and shapes that had long since gone out of focus with my old, outdated prescription.

Why is it that we don’t listen more to the advice and counsel of our friends and family? In my case, it was clearly an acute case of pride. Instead of accepting that my eyes are getting weaker, I chose to live in denial. And I paid the price in needless pain and suffering.

Is someone telling you that your eyes need a checkup? Could a new prescription restore some focus to your life? Are friends or family members warning you about something or suggesting you head in a particular direction? This week, why not carefully consider what they’re telling you? God just might be trying to get your attention.

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 (NIV)

Darkness is more than a symbol, it is a pervasive way of living and viewing the world. Darkness is the place of deception, evil, crime, predators, sin, and death. To follow Jesus means to bring him our heart and let him cast everything from the darkness that plagues us on the inside so we don’t have to be afraid of the darkness on the outside. In this way, Jesus gives us light, but it is a light that does more than fill a dark room. This is a light that illumines the heart. Holy Spirit, fill us and may we glow in your light.

”And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” — Joel 2:28, NIV

Dreams not only give valuable personal insights but also have given many creative insights. Many inventors, for example, have received profound ideas from dreams. I recall reading about the inventor, Elias Howe, who designed the first sewing machine. He was having great difficulty in conceiving a workable needle. When he was close to running out of money, he had an unusual dream. He dreamt that he was about to be executed because he failed to design a sewing machine for the king of a strange country.

In his dream he was surrounded by guards, all of whom held spears that had been pierced with holes near the tip. Howe woke up and immediately rushed to his workshop. The perfect concept for the sewing machine needle came to him in this dream. Within a few hours the first sewing machine design was well on the way to being completed.

I have heard it said that the theory of relativity came to Einstein in either a dream or a vision. Apparently he saw it on a beam of light. I have also heard that the design for the first radio tube also came to the inventor in a dream. Was it time for these discoveries to come into the world and did God give them to the persons who were trained to understand them and put them to use? Or did they just happen by chance?

The prophet Joel stated in the Bible that in the end times, or at least in the church age, “Your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”

So whatever we think about dreams, as we said yesterday, dreaming is a God-given gift in that he gave us the ability to dream. Whether we repress them as many do, ignore them as most do, or use them for creative purposes which some do is entirely up to each individual.

To help me remember my dreams I keep a pen and pad at my bedside and record a few key words or thoughts about the dream so when I wake in the morning, I can recall and think about the dream. If I can’t understand it, I pray and ask God to help me understand it and to see if there is anything I need to do about it. Most of my dreams are just dreams but every now and then a very valuable insight comes to me through a dream. One of which was about my unfinished business regarding my father. I knew exactly what I needed to do — and did it.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you again for the ability to dream and for the dreams that others have had that have helped to make our world a better place for so many. And thank you for the dreams I have had that have shown me unresolved issues in my life that I have needed to take care of and resolve. Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

A day without sunshine is like night.

Following the Baby Boomers has not always been easy for the Baby Bust generation. Busters (currently ages 20 to 38) have typically lived in the shadow of Boomers. But, according to a new study from the Barna Research Group, there are reasons to pay attention to the perspectives and practices of Busters who are currently serving as Senior Pastors of Protestant churches.

For one thing, Busters’ presence in the lead pastor role is – pardon the expression – booming! The number of Busters who serve as senior pastors has doubled in just two years from about 22,000 to more than 45,000 (out of 324,000 Protestant senior pastors). Even more significant is their courage and creativity in charting new courses for the churches they lead. They are experimenting with communication methods, ministry priorities, education, and many other aspects of their church-based work.

The Barna study highlighted five ways young pastors are beginning to shape their church’s ministry differently than was done by preceding generations of clergy.

1. Young pastors are experimenting with approaches to effective communication.

In a world where image is king and attention spans are declining, the research shows that young pastors are more likely to experiment with new approaches to teaching and preaching. Compared with older pastors, Buster pastors are more likely to use drama (32% to 21%); more likely to show movies, videos, and DVDs (30% to 21%); and more likely to tell stories (28% to 13%). The study also indicated that young pastors more frequently use art, music, and interactive dialogue as part of their efforts to communicate biblical truths. These multi-media and experience-laden forms of communication appeal to younger, often postmodern people, who tend to reject external sources of authority in favor of relying on their own experiences and feelings to interpret reality.

Consequently, many of these young pastors also focus not just on communication techniques, but also on the communication environment. Some of these leaders even tinker with the lighting, with the look and feel of the room, with the seating, and with relational interaction to create a setting that better facilitates their efforts to communicate.

2. Young pastors’ perspectives about their churches and their ministry skills are different than their predecessors.

Another area in which young pastors seem to differ from older pastors is in how they describe their churches. Young pastors are more likely than Boomers to describe their churches as seeker-driven (45% to 33%) and as theologically conservative (93% to 80%), while less likely to depict their churches as fundamentalist (33% to 40%).

Young pastors are also more likely than their predecessors to say that their primary skill in ministry is leadership, administration, or management (18% of Buster pastors identified one of these skills, compared to 12% of Boomer pastors and 5% of Builder pastors). They also gave themselves above-average marks for motivating people around a vision, which is an activity closely related to leadership ability.

On the other hand, these young leaders gave themselves comparatively poor ratings when it came to pastoring, shepherding, and counseling. Both Boomer and Buster pastors described themselves as particularly ineffective at fundraising and at evangelism.

3. Young pastors are less likely to pursue traditional seminary education.

Despite their self-identified characterization as “theologically conservative,” Buster pastors are not taking the conventional path of ministry education. Less than half of Buster pastors (46%) currently have a seminary degree, compared to two-thirds of Boomers (62%). Part of this gap stems from the fact that some pastors obtain their seminary degree later in life.

However, many young pastors are avoiding seminary due to their growing skepticism about its necessity and relevance to their ministry. Past studies have also shown that a growing number of large churches are training congregants for full-time ministry from within, rather than sending people off-campus for more traditional academic training for ministry. Many of those church-trained leaders apprentice within the mother church, then are sent off-campus to plant a church. By staying within the nurturing framework and support system of the mother church, the nascent leader has no compelling reason to attend a seminary.

4. Young pastors are more attuned than are older pastors to the cultural battle for the hearts and minds of young people.

Another mark of Buster pastors is their heightened sensitivity to the cultural bombardment facing kids and teens today. The research showed that young pastors were significantly more likely to affirm that children are being influenced by magazines, by their peers, by television (including special mention for MTV), and by the political domain. In comparison, Boomers and Builder pastors were more likely than were Buster leaders to believe the church has significant influence in the lives of children and youth.

5. The ministry priorities of young pastors have shifted from those of their predecessors.

Perhaps because of their increased sensitivity to media influence, Buster pastors (46%) are more likely than are Boomer pastors (30%) to prioritize ministry to families, youth, and children. The study showed that Buster pastors are also focusing more attention than do their predecessors on spiritual growth, discipleship, and Bible study (37% to 27%).

However, many of the ministry priorities of Buster pastors are quite similar to those of the Boomers: both groups are equally likely to prioritize teaching and preaching, evangelism, and worship.

Out With the Old?

David Kinnaman, Vice President of Barna Research and director of the study of young pastors, commented on the findings. “Young pastors are basically cutting and pasting from fresh ideas as well as from established wisdom to form a new, era-appropriate portrait of church leadership. A handful of the young leaders are making huge changes in their ministry approaches when compared to older pastors, but most Buster pastors are simply tinkering with the style — not the substance — of ministry.”

Kinnaman noted that Buster pastors have embraced some new practices related to worship: for instance, they are less likely to use choirs or organs, and more likely to use a turn-and-greet portion of the worship service. However, few Buster pastors have implemented much change in relation to music style. Only one in four Buster pastors offers contemporary music, while most use traditional or blended worship, which is similar to the proportion of Boomer-led congregations using those styles. Kinnaman explained, “Many young pastors seem to struggle to find balance in worship and music. They admit they do not always see eye to eye with their worship leader. And their expectations about what facilitates true worship — and even how to assess whether true worship has occurred — seems to be in a state of flux. The bottom line is that young pastors have to identify God’s unique vision for their church’s worship and music, rather than trying to cater to people’s preferences or their church’s traditions.”

“Another challenge facing Buster pastors is the fact that even as they work to cover the basics, many may be allowing other important priorities to slip. Young pastors are actually less likely than average to say their church prioritizes community, missions, service, social action, or prayer. Surprisingly, the ‘missing’ priorities of young pastors are some of the exact elements to which members of the young generations (Busters and Mosaics) gravitate.” Kinnaman observed that “without increased emphasis on these areas, many churches — even those led by young pastors – will find it very difficult to appeal to young people who deeply desire relational authenticity, service to the poor and disadvantaged, globally minded activity, and spiritual depth through prayer.”

If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation, it must be by other means than any now being used. If the Church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting.

Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will be not one but many), he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom. Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt- spoken and a little bit angry with the world. He will love Christ and the souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the One and the salvation of the other. But he will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath. The Size of the Soul, 128-129.

“Lord, in the first half of this current century this need is even greater. Send to Your church today many who have 'seen visions of God and...heard a voice from the Throne.’ Amen.”

What is the point we are making? It is this: as we are faithful in following the Lord, we can expect Him to reveal His special plan for our lives. Just as Nehemiah caught the vision of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, so we, too, if we are ready and alert, will catch the vision of what God has specially equipped us to do. Many years ago, I asked God to give me a vision of the special thing He wanted me to achieve for Him. He gave me the vision of launching a daily Bible reading programme which is now read by half a million people daily. He also, so I believe, inspired the choice of the title, Every Day with Jesus. I sometimes tremble at the awesome responsibility I now have of developing a spiritual theme month by month which will minister to the needs in people's lives. What if I had not asked God to give me a vision of what He wanted me to do? I might have continued in a ministry that would have been good, but not the best. I believe there are many of you now reading these lines who are living faithful lives for God, but you have never asked Him to show you the special thing He wants you to achieve for Him. And don't think of that special calling in terms of something that will bring you prestige and glamour - to do that will take you right off the track. If you have never done so before, ask the Lord right now to give you a vision of what He wants you to achieve for Him. Who knows - this could be, not just a new day, but a new beginning.

PRAYER: O Father, I don't just want to achieve the good - I want to achieve the best. If I have not yet caught the vision of that special thing You want to achieve through my life, then reveal it to me today. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY: Acts 26:1-19; Eph.1:9; 3:11

1. What was Jesus' message to Paul?

2. What was Paul able to testify to Agrippa?

In the early 1920’s Philo Farnsworth was working on a farm, plowing a straight line on a potato farm. His mind was far away, thinking about the possibility of transmitting moving pictures through the air. He had no electronic or engineering background, nor was he a scientist. No one in the world of science would have considered him a serious contender in the chase to find the answer to photographic transmission without the aid of wires.

Scientists from all over the world had been struggling to solve this dilemma and although many had been aided by research grants, no one came up with the answer. So, what chance did Farnsworth, a potato farmer with no education, have?

While plowing, he imagined a different approach. He imagined dividing a screen into long rows just like the field he was plowing, using electricity to create areas of light and darkness at each point along the row. Then stacking the rows on top of each other, he imagined that they could bring to focus a picture. Bingo! The results were better than anything the world of science had ever conceived. It is the very system we still use today.

What did Farnsworth invent? Television. It was his vivid imagination coupled with a propensity toward science that has literally changed the world. But unfortunately he was not credited with the idea since he was only 14 years old. Two businessmen, George Everson and Les Gorrell, took an interest in Farnsworth and invested their life savings in his research. In spite of his age they had faith in him and on September 7, 1927, Farnsworth transmitted history’s first electronic television picture. (From Club Sandwich, by Jess Moody)

The world changed because Philo Farnsworth kept his hands on the plow and never looked back. He was totally focused on an idea, undaunted by people who would say, “That will never work.” He was determined and dedicated to his mission of transmitting a picture electronically through the air. At the same time he was a man of the earth, planting potatoes but constantly moving forward. Farnsworth was raised in an old house on the Snake River in Idaho. He was born in a log cabin. His dream became a reality because of his ability to concentrate and not be held back by prejudice, lack of education or family history.

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Almost every significant thing God births He allows to die before the vision is fulfilled in His own way.

• Abraham had a vision of being the father of a great nation (birth). Sarah was barren and became too old to have children (death). God gave Abraham and Sarah a son in their old age. He became the father of a great nation (fulfillment).

• Joseph had a vision that he would be a great leader and that many would bow down to him (birth). Joseph’s brothers sold him to some merchants and he became a slave. Later he was falsely condemned to spend his years in prison (death). God allowed Joseph to interpret the dreams of the butler and baker and later the king, whereupon, he was made a ruler in the land (fulfillment).

• Moses had a vision of leading his people out of the bondage of Egypt (birth). Pharaoh as well as his own people drove Moses out of Egypt after Moses’ first attempt to relieve their bondage (death). God gave Moses signs and wonders to convince Pharaoh to free the people and bring them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land (fulfillment).

• The disciples had a vision of establishing the Kingdom of God with Jesus (birth). The very ones He came to save killed Jesus, and the disciples saw Him buried in a tomb (death). God raised Jesus from the dead, and the disciples performed great miracles until the gospel had spread through all the world (fulfillment).

• A grain of wheat has a “vision” of reproducing itself and many more grains of wheat (birth). The grain dies in the ground (death). A harvest springs up out of the very process of “death” in the ground (fulfillment).

Has God given you a vision that is yet unfulfilled? If that vision is born of God, He will raise it up in His own way. Do not try to raise the vision in your own strength. Like Moses, who tried to fulfill the vision of freeing the Hebrews by killing the Egyptian, it will only fail. But wait on your heavenly Father to fulfill the vision. Then you will know that it was His vision when He fulfills it in the way only He can do.

Bitter over the death of his mother, Sundar Singh blamed God. The fourteen-year-old boy became vicious toward his Christian teachers. He threw filth on them, mocked their Scriptures, and interrupted classes. Then he made the ultimate gesture of scorn. He bought a Bible from the Christians. Outside his house he built a fire and page by page tore up the Scripture and burnt it.

“Although I believed that I had done a very good deed by burning the Bible, I felt unhappy,” he said. Within three days Sundar Singh could bear his misery no longer. Late one night in December 1903, he rose from bed and prayed that God reveal himself to him if he really existed. Otherwise -- “I planned to throw myself in front of the train which passed by our house.” For seven hours Sundar Singh prayed. “O God, if there is a God, reveal thyself to me tonight.” The next train was due at five o'clock in the morning. The hours passed.

A DRAMATIC CONVERSION

Suddenly the room filled with a glow. A man appeared before him. Sundar Singh heard a voice say, “How long will you deny me? I died for you; I have given my life for you.” He saw the man's hands, pierced by nails. This could only be Christ. In that moment of recognition, the boy who had burnt the Bible became a man who would endure anything for the Christ taught in it. He knew Christ as the Savior of the world and fell to his knees with a wonderful sense of peace. To meet Christ was only the beginning for Sundar Singh. He was a Sikh. Sikhs had endured terrible persecutions in their early history. As a consequence they were fiercely loyal to their faith and to each other. Conversion to Christianity was considered treachery. Now every effort was made to woo or coerce Sundar Singh back to his ancestral faith.

WHATEVER IT TOOK TO RECLAIM HIM!

His father pleaded. An uncle opened his cellar full of treasures and said they were all Sundar's if only he would return to Sikhism. A cousin with connections at court introduced him to the prince, who appealed to the boy's patriotism. His own brother spread lies about him. The gang he had led hurled muck at him. He was made to feel that his actions endangered others. Because of him the mission was attacked. Christians were denied service at the stores and driven into exile. A boy who followed Sundar Singh was poisoned to death. Sundar's father alternately pleaded with tears and raged with fury. Thinking marriage would change the boy's attitude, Mr. Singh ordered the fourteen year old to marry. Although parental commands are law among the Sikhs, Sundar Singh refused in Christ's name.

ACCURSED FOREVER

Finally Sundar Singh realized he must break with his people. He cut off the hair he had worn long like every Sikh man. Then he heard the words of outcasting spoken over him. “We reject you forever.... I declare you are no more worthy to be called our son.... We shall forget you as if you had never been born. You will leave this house with nothing but the clothes you wear on your back... .” Hours later he experienced wrenching pain in his gut. His family had poisoned his last meal. He staggered to a mission hospital. The missionary-medic was able to save the young man's life. Sundar now had a decision to make. Conventional Indian churches were willing to grant him a pulpit, but their rules were foreign to his spirit. Indeed, he felt that a key reason the gospel was not accepted in India was because it came in a garb foreign to Indians. He decided to don the yellow robe of India's holy men. Unlike them, he would not let dirt accumulate on his body or torture his body with ascetic practices. Dressed in his thin yellow robe, Sundar Singh took to the road. Wherever he went he preached the gospel of Christ. Sometimes he was blessed, sometimes cursed. He visited his own village and many of the gang members listened to him with curiosity and interest. A few became Christians. Sundar Singh was still a very young man. Already he had endured far more than most mature Christians ever experience. And his sufferings had only begun.

INTO FORBIDDEN LANDS

The mountains of Tibet called to him. In those remote regions were souls starved for the word of God. Buddhist monks exerted tremendous power over the nation. They wanted no part of the Christianity which might rob them of income and influence. Sundar Singh determined to enter the forbidden land with the gospel of Christ. Before his death he would travel into Tibet about twenty times.

HOW DID HE ESCAPE?

In 1912 in the Tibetan village of Lazar, he was beaten and thrown to die in a pit filled with rotting bodies. His arm was broken; the pit was sealed above him, and only the Grand Lama had the key. The stench was unbearable. Three nights later, Sundar heard the grate open. A shadowy figure lowered a rope and pulled him out. Next morning he boldly showed himself again, preaching in the streets. The Grand Lama seized him. Furious questions followed. Who had helped him? Who had stolen the key? He pulled the key ring from under his robe. But the key to the pit was still on it. Terrified, he freed Sundar Singh, expelling him from town.

REPEATEDLY DELIVERED

One time, Sundar was left bound to die in the forest of Nepal. Secret Christians came to his rescue. Another time, when he sang of Christ in prison, he was bound in stocks and hurled into the jungle to die. Again secret Christians came at night and released him, speaking to him for long hours of the faith they shared. Men who knew him said he was more like Christ than any other man they had known. He himself said, “A Christian is one who has fallen in love with Christ.” Later -- and amazingly -- his father became a Christian. To make amends for his former actions, he paid for Sundar's passage to the West to preach. Sundar visited Europe, England and America. What he found here upset him deeply. Shocked by Western materialism, Sundar Singh paraphrased Christ's words: “Come unto me all ye that are heavily laden with gold, and I will give you rest.” The Sadhu was glad to return even to Tibet after his experience in the West. Worn down, he no longer possessed the strength and will power of former years. For months he was very sick. In 1929, before he had fully recovered, he climbed again to Tibet. He never returned. Nothing was ever heard from him again.

JESUS WAS THE WATER OF LIFE TO SUNDAR

In Sundar's words: “Christ is my savior. He is my life. He is everything to me in heaven and earth. Once while traveling in a sandy region I was tired and thirsty. Standing on the top of a mound I looked for water. The sight of a lake at a distance brought joy to me, for now I hoped to quench my thirst. I walked toward it for a long time, but I could never reach it. Afterwards I found out it was a mirage, only a mere appearance of water caused by the refracted rays of the sun. In reality there was none. In a like manner I was moving about the world in search of the water of life. The things of this world -- wealth, position, honor and luxury -- looked like a lake by drinking of whose waters I hoped to quench my spiritual thirst. But I could never find a drop of water to quench the thirst of my heart. I was dying of thirst. When my spiritual eyes were opened I saw the rivers of living water flowing from his pierced side. I drank of it and was satisfied. Thirst was no more.”

ANOTHER SIKH, ANOTHER SINGH

Another Sikh who became an internationally known Christian was Bakht Singh. Born to wealthy parents in 1903, Bakht Singh was converted in 1929 (the same year Sundar disappeared) while studying in Manitoba. Knowing that his parents (like Sundar Singh's) would not accept his conversion, he returned to India with great trepidation. His fears were well-grounded. His wife left him. His parents and relatives rejected him. Despite suffering from a speech impediment, Bakht Singh became an evangelist. He spent hours a day on his knees studying the Scripture. He carried the Bible wherever he went and urged converts to read it daily. His sermons quoted extensively from Scripture. Revival followed wherever he went, but he was unsatisfied. Converts were not receiving the follow up they needed. What should he do? After a night praying on a mountain, he determined he must form a new kind of congregation for Indian believers, a congregation based on New Testament principles. He started over 500 of these local assemblies in his lifetime. Thousands of these Christian brethren gather each year in designated cities to hold Christian festivals which Bakht Singh established. They march singing and holding aloft Scripture banners. Bakht Singh helped make Indian Christians independent, the very thing Sundar Singh had wanted to do.

Remember CORRIE TEN BOOM, Heroine of the WWII Story The Hiding Place?

As a teenager, Corrie so badly wanted to hear Sundar Singh when he visited Europe that she came to his conference with a blanket, prepared to sleep in a field. It was not necessary. A kind student found room for her. So Corrie listened with awe as Sundar told how he had met Christ. Disturbed that as a Christian she had never seen a vision of Christ or performed miracles, she asked the Sadhu why. Sundar responded that she was the real miracle. He believed in Christ only after seeing Him. She, on the other hand, had merely heard and believed. He quoted to her Christ's words, “Blessed are those who have not seen but believed.”

If you look on the backside of an American nickel, you'll see a picture of it. It's the domed mansion of President Thomas Jefferson, known as Monticello. And it's a living monument to the genius of one of America's great minds - the author of America's Declaration of Independence, the architect of the Louisiana Purchase that more than doubled the size of this nation in a day. Monticello reflects so much of his creative genius and his insatiable, inquiring mind. Everywhere you turn, there are inventive touches that were there years ahead of their time. Perhaps the single feature of that house that best reveals the mind of Thomas Jefferson is the direction that its main rooms face. His study, bedroom and library, for example, all face west. Jefferson loved to look west; he wanted his guests and friends to be looking west because that's where the frontier was. That's where the unexplored territory was. And Tom Jefferson was always facing the frontier!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Hungry for 'Something More.'“

Facing that frontier - that's an exciting way to live. With a restless heart that says, “You know, there's more out there, and I want it.” It's the heart of the spiritually healthy Jesus-follower. However far you've come in your relationship with Christ, however much you've experienced of Him, you know there's much more. And you want to go beyond anywhere you've gone before.

That was the passion of the great Apostle Paul - thirty years into what may have been the most powerful relationship with Jesus anyone ever had. But in Philippians 3, beginning with verse 10, our word for today from the Word of God, he says: “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings ... Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.” If the Apostle Paul felt that way - that he had much more of Jesus to experience - you should be concerned if you find your heart isn't restless for more! Oswald Chambers put it this way: “Beware the danger of spiritual relaxation.” The spiritual level you're at may very well be enough to satisfy your pastor or other Christians, but I hope it isn't enough to satisfy you.

I pray for you and me the driving passion of Paul as he says: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” There's so much more - a greater experience of the closeness of Jesus, the power of Jesus, the moment-by-moment leading of Jesus.

There are two major spiritual frontiers to hunger for. First, greater intimacy with Jesus. I'm by nature a doer. I'm more Martha than I am Mary, busy running around serving Jesus. But I want to experience more of the realness of His presence and His love, the sound of His voice in my soul. I want to be a lot more like Him a lot more minutes of the day.

The second frontier is a greater impact for Jesus; making a greater difference for Him than I've ever made before. The road to His glorious “more” is increased time with Him each day, more “cuddle time” where I just love on Him and let Him love on me; a passionate pursuit of personal orders from Jesus every time I open His book. Every time we're in His book, every time we're in a Christian meeting, we should go with this prayer in our heart, “Jesus, help me come away with more of You!” And then, we need to be mining each day for every possible opportunity to have an impact on somebody's life for Him.

“More, Lord, I want more. I want all You have for me. I want to go beyond anywhere I've ever gone with You before!” Let that be the cry of your hungry heart, and don't ever be content with how far you've come. There's so much more!

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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I believe that most people want their lives to count. We want to make a real difference in the world. We want our lives to be significant -- even if that means simply touching the lives of a few people. And this is true especially in the church. We’ve experienced so much, we’ve been blessed with so much -- and we want to express our gratitude, we want to help other people experience what we have in a relationship with God. We want our lives to count.

But that’s as far as it goes. That’s as far as we get in our thinking about this. We don’t have a PLAN to make it happen -- and so we don’t make very much progress.

Tom Sine has said recently that the biggest challenge we face in the church today is what he calls a “crisis of vision.” That is, vision of what our lives COULD be. A vision of how we can make a difference with our lives and be a part of something significant. Many of us go through our whole Christian lives without ever really being intentional, or thoughtful, about what our lives could be -- by the grace of God.

Lily Tomlin once said, “I always wanted to be somebody. I just should have been more specific.” And the problem with not being specific about the kind of person we should be is that we’ll tend to DRIFT. We’ll allow other people to dictate that vision for us, and we’ll drift into adopting the goals and mindset of the people around us -- rather than God’s.

Because let’s face it -- there’s no shortage of people who have visions for the kind of person you and I should be. If we don’t think hard about and decide what our values and goals should be -- there are plenty of other people who would love to do that for us.

Unless we take time every so often to raise questions about our sense of purpose -- we’ll just drift with the tide. And drifting with the tide is dangerous business. Every once in a while a ship that just drifts just might drift into a pretty good place. By chance it might drift into a harbor. But most often the ones that drift tend to run aground somewhere, or crash into the rocks on the coastline.

At Bridgewood, our vision is based on what could happen in this community if all of us in this church really become the intentional about our calling as followers of Christ. What if we would discover that our real mission in life is wrapped up in our relationship with God, and what if we'd commit ourselves to using our gifts and talents to serve Him and reach out to the people around us with the message of His love?

This past month I've been focusing our message series on the plan we have at Bridgewood for helping people do just that: helping people take the steps of growth in the various areas of the spiritual life so that we can become the kind of people God wants us to be. Our desire is to help people make commitments in these areas:

STAYING CONNECTED TO CHRIST -- by worshiping regularly and spending time in prayer and Bible study daily

GROWING IN CHRIST -- by participating in a Learning Community, Grow Group, or Bible study

SERVING CHRIST -- by using gifts to serve God in ministry

SHARING CHRIST -- by praying for and reaching out to the people God has placed in my life who need Him

If you missed one or more of these messages, and would like to hear more about this, contact the church office. We can send you copies of the text of these messages, for your own thinking and study. In fact, if you give us your email address, we'll send you a copy of the message and weekly announcements each week. Our goal is to help you grow, and in the process make a significant and positive difference in the world.

[see #30649 for a similar essay]

Over the years, I've learned that –- contrary to popular opinion -– the bigger the vision, the easier it is to reach that vision, and, ultimately, the size ofa pastor'svision should be determined by the size of God.

How big do you think God is? The issue is not who do you think you are, but who do you think God is? In your dreams foryour ministry, don’t limit yourself by saying, “What can I do?” Instead ask, “What can God do in this place?”

• Determining the size of your vision.

When determining the size of your vision,you need to keep three factors in mind. The first factor is the ultimate population of your ministry area. Obviously, if a church planter is going to start a new church, he doesn’t plan a church of 2,000 in a town that only has 500 people in it. Be pragmatic.

I tell people: Go get a map of your community, draw a circle that would include approximately 15 minutes' driving distance to your church and find out how many people are in that area. Then you say, “Ultimately, we want to try to reach everybody. We know we can’t reach everybody. But we assume the responsibility for reaching everybody. We pray that other churches will reach people, but we want to assume responsibility for that.”

• A lifetime investment.

The second factor is a question only you can answer: How long do you intend to stay there? There’s an old saying: Inch by inch, anything is a cinch.

Most of us overestimate what we can do in one year and underestimate what we can do in 10 years or 20 years. The trouble with most goal-setting is we set our goals too low and try to accomplish them too soon.

Instead, we need to set big goals, huge goals, enormous goals, but plan on plenty of time in getting there. I tell everyone who comes on staff with us, “We don’t expect a miracle overnight.Let’s build.” We’re not interested in building a mushroom. We’re interested in building an oak tree. A mushroom takes 12 hours to grow; an oak tree takes 60 years. But an oak tree is going to last.

To reach big goals, you have to plan for the long haul in ministry. There are lots of flash-in-the-pan churches. There are churches that have grown larger than our church in a shorter amount of time. There was a church once near Saddleback Church that started with 1,200 people within the first month, but a year later the church was dead. It didn’t build the structure. It didn’t build the roots. It didn’t build all the other factors. Everything rises or falls on leadership.

So how long will you stay there? If you don’t plan on staying someplace for the long haul, don’t go there. You must plan for time. Persistence is the key in reaching a large goal. Conversely, the size of your goal will be determined by how much of your life you plan to spend in reaching it.

• Vision and your giftedness.

The third factor for determining the size of your vision is a frank appraisal of your own gifts. The Bible makes very clear that there are one-talent people and five-talent people and ten-talent people.

Some pastors will never have more than 150 in their church because they insist on doing everything themselves. They do all the prayers, all the visitation, all the counseling, all the marrying and burying. They want to know everybody by name, every kid by name, every dog. This shepherd-type of pastor loves the personal contact of getting involved with people in that area.

There’s nothing wrong with having a shepherd’s heart. God loves people with shepherd’s hearts. That’s why he made so many of them. There are about 400,000 churches in America and the overwhelming majority of them run less than 300 on a weekend.

Most of those are led by men who have a shepherd’s heart. But if a church is going to grow, one of the prices of growth is you must be willing to stop being everybody’s pastor.

In other words, you’ll have people who do not come to you, personally, for counseling. They won’t come to you for weddings. They won’t come to you for funerals. I’d say that is a price I’ve had to pay. I can’t do everything anymore. I can’t meet everybody’s needs individually as much as I’d like to; I have to give most of that over to other pastors and lay ministers.

The same thing is going to be true of your area. If you have a vision to grow a large church reaching people from across the spectrum, you’ll have to change the way you think. That’s why you have to do an honest assessment of your gifts.

Not everyone can walk away from the shepherd model. If that’s you, plan your vision accordingly. Your own gifts and abilities will determine your style of ministry and the size of your vision.

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(Isaiah was between about 15 and 25 at this point)

1. He should expect a vision of God (vv 1-4)

A. God's Position (v 1)

i. Enthroned

ii. High and lifeted up

iii. Filling the temple (church)

B. God's Hosts

i. Wondrous seraphim (v 2)

ii. Powerful seraphim (v 4)

C. God's Person (v 3)

i. Holy

ii. Glorious

2. He should expect to see his sin (v 5)

A. Undone - ravaged as a wasted city

B. Unclean lips - he and his people

C. His eyes had behld God

3. He should expect to find a way of cleansing for his sin, vv 6-7

A. live coal from the altar; symbolizes Christ's blood on the cross

B. takes sin away; N. T. revelation, 1 John 1:8-10

4. He should expect to see a vision of service, v 8

A. God has a job: He asks who will do it -- He knows who is to do it, but awaits Isaiah's response

B. Isaiah responds offering himserlf