BIRTH OF A VISION
Vision #5
9-17-06
*Nehemiah. 1:1-5a

There are five basic building blocks to a vision: (we will discuss two of them today)

I. VISION BEGINS AS A CONCERN

A. A God-ordained vision will begin as a concern.

1. You will hear or see something that gets your attention
2. A thought related to the future will generate emotion
3. Something will bother you about the way things ARE or the WAY they are HEADED.
4. Unlike other passing concerns - these will stick with you (day & night)
* Not a casual concern
5. You won't be able to let them go because they won't let you go!

B. Multiple visions for your life but they started out as a CONCERN.: (outward life, inward life, upward life)

1. Career-
2. Finances-
3. Spouse
4. Children
5. Ministry
* What concerns do you have for those areas?
Has your heart been broken - thoughts of what is rather than what could be.

II. VISION DOES NOT NECESSARILY REQUIRE IMMEDIATE ACTION Neh. 1:1 & 2:1 (4 mos.)

* Developing or discovering a vision for a particular area of our lives takes time.
- It is a PROCESS (sometimes agonizing)
- "Time is a wasting"- old cliché…
- If we aren't moving NOTHING is going on… Wrong

Three important things happen while we wait:

A. The vision matures in us

1. Not all burdens are VISION MATERIAL
2. Gives us a chance to examine our EMOTIONS & sort through minor concerns
3. Immature vision is WEAK
4. After all vision is about CHANGE
5. Like a baby preemies have a hard time surviving outside the womb

B. We MATURE in preparation for the vision

Phil 2:12-13 "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

** He is working in you to prepare you to ACT on His purposes
** Initially vision exceeds your competency.
Phil. 4:14 "Do all things without murmurings and disputings"

Two examples:

1. Moses- Right idea wrong timing - kill one Egyptian at a time
- University of Sinai (40 years 10 for grade) (Paul 3 years in Arabian Desert)
- Took Moses 40 years to grow into the vision God had for him
2. Our hero Nehemiah gets off with 4 months (Neh 1:1 & 2:1)
- But he had to WAIT nonetheless.

* Can you relate? Do you wake up every morning & the circumstances have nothing to do with the vision you sense from God?
* Your in good company: Moses followed sheep; Joseph in a dungeon; David years following sheep; Nehemiah spent years serving a king that had help destroy his homeland.
* Jesus had to wait 40 days & then 3 1/2 years to accomplish his vision.
Note: There seems to be a correlation between how long you have to wait & the magnitude of the task to which you are called.

C. God is at work behind the scenes preparing the way

1. Remember you are one part of the large puzzle.
2. We are taking part a massive assault that began a dark afternoon on a hill just outside Jerusalem.
3. God's vision for you life is much bigger than you.
* Nehemiah certainly knew how this worked…
* Apart from divine intervention no way in this world he could take part in the reconstruction of Jerusalem.
* So he waited… BUT he THOUGHT about it, DREAMED about it- so much so that he though through EXACLY what it would take to do the job - & God was working behind the scenes with the King.

Summarize: Authenticating you vision…

1. A God-ordained vision will eventually feel like a MORAL IMPERATIVE…
- The burden grows into a moral compulsion- to NOT do it would be disobedience.
2. A God-ordained vision will line up with what God is up to in this world…
- His master plan & yours are the SAME…
- Whether it is loving your wife, investing in your kids, witnessing to your neighbor, launching a ministry, starting a company…
As a believer there is a larger, more encompassing context for everything you do!

* It was Israel's strategic role in God's plan that made Nehemiah's vision so COMPELLIING,
BUT it wasn't the CONDITION of the walls & gates but the SPIRITUAL condition of the people!

*E-mail Pastor Mike: mmatevich@aol.com