Video Transcript: Vision part 1 - Ingredients of a Vision

All right, welcome back. We are talking a lot about enterprise, starting  businesses, tent making making enough money to take care of your family so  that you can get involved in ministry or making enough money at doing  something, doing better at your own job, so that ultimately you can get into  ministry, maybe get into part time, maybe full time. We're having this whole new  course on starting a house church, or a network of house churches, a lot of  different ways that you can go. So all these things really are about a vision. You  know, what's your vision for your life you're on this planet a short time. What are  you going to do while you're on this planet? What do you think God is calling you to do? What do you think you personally are gifted to do? Your past  experiences, the people you know, the connections that you have, all of these  things funnel into some kind of picture for your future and what it might be, and  maybe you don't know what that is yet. So in this lecture, I want to talk about all  the different ingredients, all the things that play into what a vision is and what a  how a vision can be formed in you. Visions come out of many different places.  It's like a it's like a diamond, and the light hits it in many different facets, many  different angles, contribute to the whole so we're going to look at some  ingredients of a vision. Proverbs 29:18, where there is no vision, the people  perish without that thing in front of you, without something calling you forward,  we just waste our time. We don't know what we're doing. We spend all of our  time worrying and getting involved in things that are not very productive. So I  want you to answer this question. Why do you want to start a business? Why did you even take this class on enterprise? What is it about this topic that interests  you? You have to answer that question first that might help you as you start  thinking about the vision, the personal vision that maybe God is giving you,  okay, some ingredients, things that contribute to the vision that God may give  you, things that you can look at that when we're done, maybe you'll get a little  sense of a possible Vision for you character. Character is who you are. Are you  an honest person? Do you tell the truth regardless of the consequences, or do  you fudge things a little bit? What is your character? Are you a faithful person?  What you say is what you're going to do. If you're that kind of person, it will  make a big difference. In terms of your business. You say you do it, people can  trust that. What's your character? Are you more interested in yourself and be  being sort of self absorbed with your program and your needs and your dreams  and your hopes, or do you care about other people's hopes and dreams? And it  gives you pleasure when you can help someone else. That's what ministry is  about, but it's also what business is about. I mean, that may surprise you, but  business is not about you. It's about you helping other people, and your product  and service just happens to do that personality type. What is your personality  type? Are you an extrovert? You love people. You spend all day with people, and you're energized. You have more energy than you did before. Are you an  introvert? You spend time with people, and at the end of the day, you're just 

drained. If you're an extrovert, you might like the sales part, talking to people,  selling to people, finding out who they are. If you're an introvert, I'm an introvert.  I like thinking. I like inventing. I like analyzing. I like writing Bible studies and  writing writing books and and try to figure out strategies. And, you know, I like all of that stuff. I like all the planning and the analyzing and not so much on the  going out or meeting new people. So what part should I play if I'm going to start  a business, where would I spend most of my time? I spend most of my time with the product. But then I need help. I need help selling, because that's not the  thing that motivates me. Now, when you're starting a business, sometimes you  got to do what you don't like, and I got to get out and sell, even though that's not my personality. But ultimately, I'm not going to make it if that's all I do. I got to fit  my vision to who I am, my personality type. Are you? You know, what kind of  boss are you? Are you the kind of person? It. You know, collaborates, likes to  talk, likes the team. Are you the kind of person that just likes to do it on their  own? All these things are going to make a difference in terms of your vision,  formative experiences, things that have happened to you in your life, in the  church world, I had a few formative experiences where I felt, you know, I was  going one direction I was doing, the build it and they will come, model of church  planting, and it left me flat. And I had a personal experience with God where He  turned everything around, and I started going, Oh, I'm not going to build it. And  they will come. I'm going to first walk with God in my life, in my marriage and my  family. And if I can share that with people, and they share with people, and that  builds organically. Then that's how my church is going to grow. Otherwise, my  church isn't going to grow. That formative experience gave me a vision for what  church could be, and I have to follow that vision. Paul said that once, I have to  be true to the vision that God has given me, and it doesn't even matter if it works or not, see that's a that's a strong vision. So what formative experiences did you  have? My dad was an entrepreneur. Started many businesses, so I watched  from the sidelines all these different businesses, and I was involved in some of  them, and I learned that if you you know that there's always a better way to do  something. We had veal calves. We built these barns. We had these calves, and we fed them milk, and we had these big bags that you could buy from a  company, and they cost so much, and we poured them into this big vat, and we  had this big propeller, and it would mix it up. Oh, my dad just looked at the  ingredients, and he found places where he could get the ingredients that came  into this bag cheaper. And so we were throwing in different ingredients into this  thing and mixing it up because he found that that was a cheaper thing to do. So  I learned very early on that there's always a better way of doing something.  There might be a cheaper way, there might be an easier way. So those  formative experiences helped me as I go forward. Well, what experience have  you? Have you had when I was five years old? I had my first experience selling.  We took ordinary rocks, we found in the dirt, we threw them in our red wagon, 

and we went door to door, knocked on people's doors and said, Would you like  to buy a rock for $1 we did that all day long. We sold one rock for $1 one person felt sorry for us and bought our rock. Well, I learned that. You know, sales is  tough, and you better sell something people want. Past failures and successes.  I've started so many things that did not work. They were great ideas in my head, okay. And, you know, I conceived it, I sought it, I built it, and I thought this has to  go, but it didn't. I learned from those failures that just because I like it doesn't  mean every other person is going to like it. I have to test things. I have to  actually talk to people. I have to interact with people. I can't come to them and  say, I know better than you. I know what you want. No, I have to learn to listen  and not be so arrogant that to think that I know and I've figured it all out. So my  past failures actually helped me more than my successes, but I've had enough  successes that say to me, once in a while, you'll get it right, but you got to keep  trying. Colonel Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken. He started that  company when he was 67 years old. You know, a whole string of failures until he was 67 till he finally hit on something that actually worked. You never know  what's going to work. So you keep trying learn from your failures and your  successes. Aha moments, that passage where the blind man is healed by  Jesus, and then the Pharisees, you know, they take him and they question him,  what happened? Who did this? Is this of God, and they keep pushing and  shoving this blind man who can now see, and they call in his parents, was this  your son? Was he blind? Yes. How is it that he sees? And the parents are like  backpedaling. They're not sure they want to get involved in this whole thing. And finally they they get the blind man again. They say, you know what's going on.  Tell us the truth. What's you know. And finally, he goes, I don't know, like, I don't  know who this is. I don't know anything, but I do know this. There's one thing I  know. I was blind, but now I see. And you can say anything you want. You can  talk about this person negative. I don't care, but I can tell you, from my own  personal experience, I was blind, and now I see, I tell you when you have those  kind of aha moments, they stick with you. Have you had those? I've had a few of those kind of experiences where you know, this is what it is. I believe, like in the  seven connections, I believe that you have to have a walk with God personally  and in your marriage and your family, and those are the building blocks for small groups and churches. And I believe that with my heart, it was an aha moment for me. I have to stick with that regardless of anything else. I'm not going to be  swayed by a great speaker, or some big mega church that did it another way,  because I had my aha moment. What aha moments have you had that can be  part of your vision? By the way, with this aha moment, I remember it was my first AA meeting, and I was going to preach on the 12 steps of Alcoholics  Anonymous, and one of the parishioners in my church invited me to his meeting. So I remember getting to the parking lot, and I got there early, and I was a little,  you know, apprehensive. What did these people do? What's going to happen? 

How's this going to go? And so I sat in my car, and then he pulled in. So then I  got out of my car, and then before we went into the meeting, he said to me, we'll  go to this meeting. And if someone asks you a question, it's okay for you to just  say pass. Okay, this is great. I can just say pass. So I walked in, and someone  was making the coffee, and the meeting hadn't started, and he leaned over and  said, Do you want some coffee? I didn't think I could say pass, so I said, Yes.  Then he said, Is this your first visit? And the meeting hadn't started, so I didn't  think I could say pass. So I said, Yes, it's my first meeting, which was a big  mistake, because word got around to everyone else as they came in that we  have a first timer. So the whole meeting, these people centered their talk, their  everything that they said on me, one by one when they had a chance to talk,  they said things like, we know how it feels. Your first meeting. I remember my  first meeting. I was scared. I was thinking this. I was thinking, These people are  crazy. And they would they just poured their hearts out to me personally. Then  the next one would go, and the next one would go, and it went back and forth,  back and forth. And they're all centering their talk on me. And after the whole  meeting, one of them came up to me, he put his arm on me. He said, Hey, don't  sweat the God talk, because there's a lot of mention of a higher power and  relying on God and all that kind of stuff. And I wanted to say, I don't sweat the  God stuff. That's my thing. You know, I'm a pastor. I'm into this God thing. But I  just thanked him, and I felt so bad that I couldn't say who I was. But I'll tell you  what I learned. I learned that when people have had their aha moment, they've  been saved from something, and these people had been saved from the slavery to alcohol. They had been saved from that they knew what they been saved  from, and when they see someone who is struggling like they were, they can't  help but share. You don't have to train them. You don't have to have an  evangelism course. You don't have to motivate them. You don't have to guilt  them. They just do it. They can't help but do it. That's what an aha moment is.  An aha moment is something that happens in you or to you, and it forms  something in you and gives you a vision that you cannot help but do Do you  have something like that in your life? Ingredients of a vision mentors, people that have helped you, people that have come alongside of you. Henry was one of  those for me. We met at the right time. We're doing the same thing together, and we really can help one another. You need a mentor, someone who can someone that's maybe a little farther down the trail than you are. Needs. What are your  needs? What's What? What? What are you lacking? What are you looking for?  That can be part of your vision, the valleys, the hard things, the difficult things,  the things you've gone through in your life. What have you learned from those  relationships that have failed? Why did they fail? How has that formed you or  scarred you or given you a passion or a dream? Mountain tops, things that have happened that are incredible. This is fantastic stuff and and you want to repeat  it, you know, a connection to a friend or something that you discovered you can 

use that challenges, things that are in front of you. I met someone that was  using the King James Bible to use it as evangelism, and I just felt bad about  that. So I sat down and I added to the King James Bible the New Testament. I  sat down, it was I was on. Vacation and for eight hours every single day while  everyone's playing cards, I sat there and I added quotation marks, I added  chapter headings, and I put in parentheses the explanation of words that I knew  people wouldn't understand. So I was trying to make the King James readable  for a new person. And it drove me. It was like a challenge. I can do this. This  would be something that would help people competition. I'm a very competitive  person. I like competition. I play sports with someone, and my back hurts. My  knees hurt. I've had I have a new hip put in. I had rotator cuff surgery, my  Achilles heel snapped in half. I mean, of all these things, and when I get out of  bed in the morning, oh, everything hurts. But I'll tell you when I'm playing the  sport, I'm diving after the ball, I I will do whatever it takes to win. You throw a  ball. I will go chase it, so that that competition, if you know that about yourself,  how can competition be part of your vision? I want to be the best at whatever it  is that I do. So whatever business I'm doing, it has to be well, it has to be good  dreams, ingredients of a vision, what is your dream? That's a basic question.  What is your dream? Henry and I used to go around wherever we would be, and it didn't matter where we were, didn't matter what part of the world we were in.  We'd ask people this question, what is your spiritual dream? What is your  spiritual dream? And we discovered that people have two dreams. We  discovered people had a lot of different answers, but they basically fell into two  groups. One thing that people said is they had a dream connected to God. I  remember being in Vancouver, Stanley Park looking out at the ocean. There's a  guy sitting there looking you can only look at the ocean for so long, and then you get bored. So I asked this guy, Hey, so what's your spiritual dream? He said,  Well, what do you mean by spiritual and I said, whatever you want it to mean.  He looked out to the ocean, and he thought for a minute. He said, My spiritual  dream is to be one with the whales, one with the whales. Okay, what is that?  That's really what he's really saying is, I want to be one with God. This is the  West Coast. West Coast. People have that sense of, you know, I'm God, you're  God. The tree is God, the whales are God, the sky is God, the ocean is God.  We're all part of God. So he was saying, I want to be one with God. Now he has  a weird view of God, but that's my dream, too. I want to be one with God too.  People have that dream to connect to the force God, or whatever it is out there.  The second answer that people tend to give is they wanna, they want to be  connected to to people. They want to be they want to have a good marriage.  They want to have a good family. They want to make a difference with the  people at work. They want to make they want to help. They want to they want to  show compassion to people that are suffering. So it's interesting, people have a  dream to connect to God, and they have a dream to connect to people, a hand 

reaching up and a hand reaching out. It's interesting that that's the 10  Commandments as well, right? Love God above all else, and your neighbor as  yourself. And when you look at Genesis chapter three, when sin came into the  world, the first two things that Adam and Eve did is they hid from each other.  They could no longer face one another in their brokenness. So that dream of  connecting with people, or making a difference in the people, people's lives, that dream was broken apart because of sin. And then when God came around,  what did Adam and Eve do? They hid. They hid in the garden from God  brokenness. So we have this dream of connecting to God, dream of connecting  with people around us, but sin keeps us hiding from both. That's where Jesus  came, died on the cross to take us out of the hiding, to allow us to face one  another in our brokenness, in our nakedness, so that we can have a dream of  actually making a difference in the lives of the people around us, and a dream of connecting with God. Well, how does that dream? How is your spiritual dream?  How does that connect with what you want to do? My dream is to know God  better and to have people know him better. So when I do a business, how does  this business help with that ultimate dream? That's the question that you have to ask yourself. How does what I want. To do, and it doesn't matter how mundane it is. If I'm going to go power wash people's siding and make a living doing that,  how does that fit into my dream? My dream is not clean buildings. What is my  dream and how to clean buildings fit into that dream? These are the things that  you have to figure out. If you can see, then you have all the energy in the world,  because this is what your life is about. So connect your dream to your vision.  Thank you