Vision 2 Get Started

Page 194 Leadership Pain

Pastor, broadcaster, and author Bob Gass identifies four primary traits of resilient people:

They take control of their lives instead of spending energy trying to blame others or waiting for them to bail them out.

They may want to quit, but they don’t. Instead, they look at the past and think about how they’ve handled adversity before, and they look at the present with clear eyes as problem solvers.

They surround themselves with the right people.

We may have grown up in an addicted, abusive, or abandoning family, but we can make choices to spend time with people who live in truth and have hope for tomorrow.

They allow their pain to spur growth instead of collapsing in self pity.

Even when a life goal is completely blocked by disease or any other cause, resilient people find an open door when others only saw the one that’s closed. they creatively invest themselves in a new venture, often one that focuses on helping others who are experiencing pain from similar physical, emotional, or relational heartaches— and they make a difference.

They insist on changing what they can and not worry about the rest.

For resilient people, encounters with pain enable them to sift through their responsibilities and priorities. Suddenly, many things that seemed important are no longer on the top of the to-do list. But other things, such as people they love and a cause they can champion, are now on top.

Shouldn’t we suppose that many of our most painful ordeals will look quite different a million years from now, as we recall them on the New Earth? What if one day we discover that God has wasted nothing in our life on Earth? What if we see that every agony was part of giving birth to an eternal joy?

Randy Alcorn, 90 Day s of God’s Goodness

In order to create a vision, you have to START somewhere. John Acuff’s book called start he describes how many people will never start something because of many different reasons some of which are.

We set our expectations to high to begin with

(Never lose weight because the goal was to lose 20 lbs in a week) Many people overestimate what can be accomplished in one year and underestimate what can be accomplished in 5 years. (Steve Conner)

It is not perfect for us to start so we will never try simply because it does not look good in the beginning.

We see finished podcasters and youtubers and think because mine will not look like that then we won’t even begin.

Yet when you watch the beginning episodes of dudeperfect it was not as well put together as it is now. They did not start out where they are today.

You may not start writing a blog or new website because it does not start out looking as good as someone you follow who has been doing it for years.

Dave Ramsey says I worked my tail off for 39 years for the media to deem me an overnight success.

(Gary Tanner on the tread mill)

One of my biggest fears when I give young pastors tours of Bridge of Faith is that they will see all that has happened here and think that this is where they need to start out.

We started our Wednesday night feeding off of a simple potluck. It grew and then the church was buy the supplies for people to cook it all at home.

All of you who serve so faithfully can you imagine today us buying you the supplies to cook in your home for our Wednesday night meal today? We are going to buy you the supplies to make 50 pizzas at home.

Things had to change in order for us to be where we are today.

Personally as well what worked in the past may not work for you today. How you handled your finances 5 years ago may not be the way you need to handle them now.

Monday night we had our team worship service and Virgil the youth pastor from John 3:16 ministries spoke. He shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord. It was beautiful. The Gospel was clear and plain.

As I thought about Vision 2022 for us as a ministry and us personally I thought that is where all this starts. It starts with the Gospel

John 3:3–5 HCSB

3 Jesus replied, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 “But how can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked Him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

John 3:16–21 HCSB

16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God. 19 “This, then, is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

This is the start for all of us personally and for us as an organization

Romans 10:9–11 HCSB

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 Now the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame,

Ephesians 2:8–10 HCSB

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

Luke 9:23–24 HCSB

23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it.

The New Way

Exodus 18:5–6 HCSB

5 Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, along with Moses’ wife and sons, came to him in the wilderness where he was camped at the mountain of God. 6 He sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”

They are in the wilderness

Exodus 18:8–10 HCSB

8 Moses recounted to his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships that confronted them on the way, and how the Lord delivered them. 9 Jethro rejoiced over all the good things the Lord had done for Israel when He rescued them from the power of the Egyptians. 10 “Praise the Lord,” Jethro exclaimed, “who rescued you from Pharaoh and the power of the Egyptians and snatched the people from the power of the Egyptians.

Exodus 18:13–27 HCSB

13 The next day Moses sat down to judge the people, and they stood around Moses from morning until evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw everything he was doing for them he asked, “What is this thing you’re doing for the people? Why are you alone sitting as judge, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?” 15 Moses replied to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16 Whenever they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I make a decision between one man and another. I teach them God’s statutes and laws.” 17 “What you’re doing is not good,” Moses’ father-in-law said to him. 18 “You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you. You can’t do it alone. 19 Now listen to me; I will give you some advice, and God be with you. You be the one to represent the people before God and bring their cases to Him. 20 Instruct them about the statutes and laws, and teach them the way to live and what they must do. 21 But you should select from all the people able men, God-fearing, trustworthy, and hating bribes. Place them over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. 22 They should judge the people at all times. Then they can bring you every important case but judge every minor case themselves. In this way you will lighten your load, and they will bear it with you. 23 If you do this, and God so directs you, you will be able to endure, and also all these people will be able to go home satisfied.” 24 Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. 25 So Moses chose able men from all Israel and made them leaders over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. 26 They judged the people at all times; they would bring the hard cases to Moses, but they would judge every minor case themselves. 27 Then Moses said good-bye to his father-in-law, and he journeyed to his own land.

(old way)

(new way slide)

Closing

Start with the Gospel

Everything else flows out of this.

Ephesians 2:10 HCSB

10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

From this, we go from pain to growth

Ask yourself, What does God want from me this year?

What does God want from me in the next 5 years?