INTRODUCTION:<\/p>\n
A. John 4:35<\/p>\n
B. The word “vision” means the ability to see things that are visible – but we also use it to mean the ability to see other things:”Vision is the art of seeing things invisible”<\/p>\n
1. Vision is the “unusual competence in discernment or perception; intelligent foresight”<\/p>\n
2. Who has not heard a founding father of some community eulogized as a “man of vision”?<\/p>\n
C. Without the imagination to visualize worthy goals and the foresight to see how these can be realized, very little of importance is achieved.<\/p>\n
D. No wind favors the ship with no destined port.<\/p>\n
E. In the Lords work, we desperately need an elevated vision of what it is all about.<\/p>\n
1. We need greater goals (what can be done) and greater objectives (how it can be done).<\/p>\n
2. Jesus had a great vision- Matthew 9:36-38.<\/p>\n
F. We need to be dreaming some dreams that are worthy of the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Rev. 19:16).<\/p>\n
G. What can help us to elevate and enlarge our vision in the Lords work?<\/p>\n
DISCUSSION:<\/p>\n
A. TWO WAYS OUR VISION CAN BE INADEQUATE<\/p>\n
1. Suppose a man is driven by the “vision” of “making as much money as possible” – two things may keep him from making as much money as he could.<\/p>\n
a. One is that he may be limited in his idea of what “a lot of money” is — his imagination of how much money it is possible to make, etc.<\/p>\n
b. Another is that he may never make any more specific plans than the vague notion of “making as much money as possible.”<\/p>\n
2. If our “vision” is to “teach as many people the gospel as possible,” we can be afflicted by the same two shortcomings.<\/p>\n
a. We may think too small concerning what can be done.<\/p>\n
b. We may think too generally about what we should be doing.<\/p>\n
3. Perhaps we keep our vision small in both of these ways because that is a safe – it is a no-risk way to avoid the possibility of failure.<\/p>\n
4. In any case, we have a problem that is a vision problem.<\/p>\n
B. THE PROBLEM OF A VISION THAT IS TOO LITTLE<\/p>\n
1. When we contemplate the Lords work, we often fail to set our sights high enough – we have limited horizons and minimal expectations.<\/p>\n
2. Perhaps we are hindered by our past experience from seeing any greater possibilities.<\/p>\n
a. For example, the child who has never known anything but abuse can have only a very limited notion of the possibilities involved in the word “home.”<\/p>\n
b. “It doesnt get any better than this” is a statement many almost always make within the framework of what they have known so far.<\/p>\n
3. Or maybe we have been fed such a steady diet of defeatism that we see only problems (rather than possibilities) and obstacles (rather than opportunities) – maybe we have been conditioned to see the glass as half-empty, rather than half-full.<\/p>\n
4. But when it comes to “opportunity” for us to do what we can do, the Lord is capable of opening “a great and effective door” (1 Cor. 16:8-9).<\/p>\n
5. We need to set our goals in terms of seed-sowing – but even in terms of “results,” it just may be possible for us to rescue far more people than we have allowed ourselves to dream possible!<\/p>\n
C. THE PROBLEM OF A VISION THAT IS TOO GENERAL<\/p>\n
1. No dream has ever been achieved except by someone who dared to flesh it out in terms of the specifics necessary to make the dream a reality.<\/p>\n
2. It is great to plan to “go to heaven,” to “serve the Lord faithfully,” to “do the work of evangelism,” etc.<\/p>\n
3. But how do we do those things? By asking the following questions…<\/p>\n
a. By what means do we get those results?<\/p>\n
b. What specific, measurable actions will move us where we want to be?<\/p>\n
c. How much time, effort, and money will it take?<\/p>\n
4. We need to see our vision of the Lords work in concrete terms of things we can actually do – and plan specifically how much of them we are going to do!<\/p>\n
D. WHAT OUR VISION NEEDS<\/p>\n
1. Without question what we really lack is greatness of faith.<\/p>\n
a. We simply do not trust the Lord.<\/p>\n
b. Do you remember Peter and his attempt to walk on the water to Jesus?<\/p>\n
b. Matthew 14:31<\/p>\n
2. We need to “see” the help that is available to us, and have the faith to appropriate it.<\/p>\n
a. 1 Samuel 17:26, 47<\/p>\n
b. 2 Kings 6:15-17<\/p>\n
c. Romans 8:31<\/p>\n
3. God has proven over and again His ability to bring great results out of “unpromising” situations<\/p>\n
a. The feeding of the 5,000 (Jn. 6:1-14)<\/p>\n
b. Jonathan said to his servant – 1 Samuel 14:6<\/p>\n
c. Asa prayed – 2 Chronicles 14:11<\/p>\n
4. If the Lord ever said anything to His disciples, He surely said, “Do not be afraid.”<\/p>\n
a. Matthew 10:28<\/p>\n
b. John 16:33<\/p>\n
c. 1 John 4:4<\/p>\n
CONCLUSION:<\/p>\n
A. We need to eliminate whatever is keeping us from having a worthy vision – congregationally as well as individually, we need to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us” (Heb. 12:1).<\/p>\n
B. We will acquire a greater vision if we develop a greater sense of personal involvement in the spiritual welfare and destiny of our neighbors:<\/p>\n
1. A sense of personal grief for what is going on (Ezra 9:3-6)<\/p>\n
2. A sense of righteous indignation at the devil who is responsible (2 Cor. 11:2)<\/p>\n
C. We need a unified vision that can inspire us together to greater labor for the Lord.<\/p>\n
D. “Let us rise up and build” (Neh. 2:18).<\/p>\n
E. We need leadership that will lift our vision up to where it ought to be.<\/p>\n
F. We need simply to open our eyes: “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” (Jn. 4:35).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vision Bible Study INTRODUCTION: A. John 4:35 B. The word “vision” means the ability to see things that are visible – but we also use it to mean the ability to see other things:”Vision is the art of seeing things invisible” 1. Vision is the “unusual competence in discernment or perception; intelligent foresight” 2. Who … Continue reading “The Need For Vision In Our Work – Bible Outlines”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}