All right, vision, vision for enterprise. Part three, we've talked about it,  ingredients, the character of vision, all those things. Now it's time to figure out  what your vision is first, Corinthians 15:58, this is the big chapter on the  resurrection, and the importance of Jesus' resurrection, ultimately leading to the  importance of our resurrection. This is how that chapter ends. So my dear  brothers and sisters, since future victory is sure talked about that in the last  video, we have nothing to lose. Get out and try, since future victory is sure, be  strong and steady, always abounding in the Lord's work. And for the Christian,  any enterprise is the Lord's work. For you know that nothing you do for the Lord  is ever wasted, as if it would be if there were no resurrection. See, the  resurrection gives meaning and purpose to everything that I do today, everything that you do, this whole enterprise thing, your family, taking the classes at CLI,  your vision for ministry and how you might do that ministry, all of that as you're  trying to struggle and figure out your vision. None of that is wasted. If there were no resurrection. Then it's all a waste. It doesn't matter what you do. Do  something with your life. Don't do something with your life. It's all the same  because it comes to nothing. But because of the resurrection, everything has  meaning and purpose. Everything can contribute to what God is trying to  accomplish in his kingdom. Colossians 3:23-24 whatever you do, work at it with  all your heart as working for the Lord. Okay, you're not right now, maybe you're  employed by someone. That's your enterprise. You're not working for that  person. You're working for the Lord. If you start an enterprise, it's not your  business, it's God's business as working for the Lord, not for human masters.  Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your  reward, it's the Lord Christ that you are serving. Psalm 90:10, our days may  come to 70 years or 80, if our strength endures. Yet the best of them are but  trouble and sorrow. Maybe you've known that, for they quickly pass. We fly  away. We're here for such a short time. You know, just the other day, I was a  teenager, then I became a pastor. And you know what I hear? Heard all the time, people would say to me, Wow, you're a pastor. You're so young. I haven't heard  that lately. You're so young. I turned 61 this year. I don't what happened? What  happened at the time, I have four boys. They're married. They have kids of their  own wives. They live in their own homes. What happened? I don't know. Time  goes by fast. It goes by quick. Let's make hay while the sun is shining. Let's do  what we can while we're here and we have nothing to lose. Let's go for it.  Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 a person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and  find satisfaction in their toil, in what they do, this too, I see, is from the hand of  God, for without him who could eat or find employment. So this whole business  of work and carrying out enterprise, it's part of the good creation that God  started way back in the garden. God created a good world. He prepared it for  Adam and Eve, and one of the first things he did is create work. He put Adam in  this garden, and he made him work it and to take care of it, become stewards of 

it. Matthew 28 the Great Commission. These were Jesus' last words before He  ascended into heaven, his last words to His disciples, and good words for you  and I too. Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on  earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations,  baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and  teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you and surely I'll be with  you to the very end of the age now, that promise that he makes, that he will be  with us is sort of dependent on whether we teach people, but that whole idea of  what does it say? It says to go. We don't sit in our office. We have to go. There's a whole world out there, a whole world of things to do, of things to sell, of things, services to give, to connect with people, all these, all this enterprise that you  know, what it does, it just connects us. Our lives are filled with all this stuff, going to work, playing sports, connecting with people, politics, all this stuff, all of it is  just connecting us to people, so that we can make a difference in their lives, so  we can teach them to obey everything that Jesus commanded. It's all just  opportunity into people's lives. That's why we do it. The only reason Jesus  delays in coming a second time in the world ending and we get on with Heaven  is he's got a job for us to do, the job of reaching people for him, and enterprise is just an avenue from which we can do that. Acts 13:36, my favorite verse. Now,  when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep and  he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. It's kind of what I wrote.  Pick me up verses, but I love it. What does it say when David had served God's  purpose. Just put your own name in there. Now, when Steve had served God's  purpose, that's me. When I've served God's purpose, that's what I want to do  with my life, in my generation, this generation, right now, I'm living today. I'm not  living in a generation prior. I'm not going to be living in the generation next. I'm  living in this generation. There's 8 billion people alive right now. The Christians  that are alive today have to reach the people that are alive today. We can't  delay. We can't wait. We can't say, well, when we're done with this, we'll get onto it, because those people will be gone. We have the challenge of reaching the  people that are here today. That's our purpose. When Steve had served God's  purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep and was buried with his ancestors  in his body decayed. you know when my job is done, I'm ready to go right now.  I'm here because God has a purpose, and when I complete my purpose, why  would I hang around? I love this verse. So what is your vision? What is your  vision for ministry, what is your vision for enterprise? What is your vision for your life, your purpose? So I'm going to give you several options now. You can come  up with your own. I just, I'm trying to help you think about your own vision for  enterprise and ministry, tent making, house church, whatever it might be,  network of house churches. I don't know what your vision is, so I'm just going to  give you some options. Number one, keep working where you are to support  yourself. Advance in the company to where you can go part time and then spend

more time doing ministry. Maybe that's your vision. Or, number two, start a  business to support yourself so you can do ministry free of charge, with the  potential of one day getting a full time ministry job, maybe that's your vision.  Number three, start a business that not only pays your bills, but does some  good for the Kingdom. You know, the business, I have Bibles and stuff like that. I feel good about that is a ministry. It's a business and a ministry. Four, keep  studying at CLI, taking courses in ministry and enterprise, until God gives you a  vision for your future, maybe you just don't know it's okay. Keep studying, keep  learning, keep growing. God will make it clear. Number five, to be so successful  as an entrepreneur that you not only make a huge difference in the lives of  people that you hire, but you become a sponsor of church planters and Christian leaders. My son just did a documentary. That's what he does for a living. He  makes videos and what have you. And he did a documentary of a of a coffee  grower in Nicaragua. I got it was an incredible, unbelievable story and and I  think it's on Video. But anyway, his name is Michael Elzinga. If you just look that  up, you can probably watch it. It's an incredible story of a guy who just trusted  God, lost everything, lost his farm, but he kept trusting God, and God  miraculously did things with him, and when he started making a little bit of  money, he just took those profits and he supported church planters. It's an  incredible, unbelievable story. His idea was not just to do business, but to  change the world through, you know, through planting churches number six,  start your own Bible school, mentoring potential leaders, using Christian leaders  Institute as a curriculum. Maybe that's your vision. So what is your vision? You  know, I just give you some options. Maybe your vision is to just start a little  house church right in your house, invite a few people over, and then out of that,  maybe you could split and there'd be more house churches, and then you could  lead a network of house churches, and maybe that network could pool its  money, and they can hire you to take care of them, of that network, I don't know  what is the vision that God is giving you? What is driving your vision? Acts  26:19, Paul has to defend himself before King Agrippa, and they're having this  conversation going back and forth, and he's telling his story. He's giving his  testimony. At one point he says, So then King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to  the vision from heaven. You know, when God called called Paul, you know, Paul  was going against Christianity, and God called him and turned him around, and  now he's saying, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to that turnaround, that  vision from heaven, first to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and  in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles. I preached that they should repent and  turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. I was not  disobedient to the vision that God gave me. That's what drives you. It's not  success, because sometimes success is a long ways in coming. It's a vision that God gives you that drives you on. Most people borrow a vision. Talk about  where visions come from. Most people just borrow one. Number one, borrowing 

somebody else's vision is better than no vision at all. Some people go through  life they can't figure it out, so maybe find somebody that has a good vision and  borrow it. Number two, but a borrowed vision is not as strong as finding one of  your own. The problem is someone else had all these experiences, and they  

came to a vision, and they're convicted about it. You read it, you see it, you think about it, you go, Well, that sounds like a good vision. You take it on, but the first  bump on the road, you go, Well, maybe that wasn't a very good vision, because  you didn't own it. It didn't come to you after a long struggle. You just borrowed it  from someone else. That's why you go to a seminar, you hear someone's grand  vision. It's really exciting. Oh, wow, I'm going to take that vision and you go  

home, you work it for a couple months, but then something doesn't work, and  you just discard it. And maybe you've been doing that your whole life, and  bouncing from one person's vision to another. Number three, a borrowed vision  often inoculates a person from doing the hard work of finding their own. The  borrowed vision is just enough to keep you going, but not enough to go through  the hard knocks of finding your own so you never really find your own. It never  really lasts. It's not really that strong. Number four, ultimately, you can have the  same vision as someone else, but you must earn it. And how do you earn it?  You earn it by going through it, owning it, going through the tough times,  hanging in there, and finally, having God shape that vision inside of you. How do you earn your own vision? I guess I'm trying to answer that pray to God for one  God I'm sick of bouncing for one person's vision to another. I want to own a  vision that comes from you, and I'm willing to go through whatever it takes. So  bring it on. Number two, get out and do something. Remember, failing can lead  to a vision as much and more often than success can. So get out and try to do  something. Chances are you will fail, and out of that, failure may come the  vision. Number three, keep learning. Never stop learning. Number four, find a  mentor you admire, someone that they can help you get through those tough  times. Number five, follow your passions, the things you're good at, and really  love doing. God has made you who you are. Why wouldn't we want to use those things? And number six, be patient. God, you know had the long view in mind,  and if he's going to teach you a vision that that's going to be strong, that you're  going to hold on to, it may take a while. You've got some more experiences and  frustrations to go through. Just trust that God really has something in mind for  you. Example of my own vision. I've told these stories many, many times, the  seven connections I hold on to the seven connections, not because it's just  some analytical thing, you know, let's see. I'm going to try to do this. I went to  seminar after seminar on how to plant a church. I tried this, I tried that, and then  the whole thing crashed in on me, and I ran away. I was like Jonah, running  away. And God came to me in a lonely night, and he spoke to me simple words,  I am here. Those are the words that I heard God speak to me. That's it. And over the next couple of months, God revealed to me, little by little what that meant, 

and what God was saying to me is, I am here, and what matters to me is your  walk with me, not how well you can preach, not how well you can put a service  together, plant a church. No. What matters to me is your walk with me, your  daily walk with me. Second, what matters to me is your walk with your spouse,  your wife together as a married couple, walking with each other and walking with me. And the third thing that matters to me is your walk with your family. Four  boys. Teach them how to walk with me together as a family, walk with me. Walk  with me in your personal life, walk with me in your marriage, walk with me in  your family, and then share those walks with other individuals and couples and  families. That's it. That's all I'm asking from you. And if they share it to others,  and they share it to others, and it becomes a church, or becomes a network of  of home churches, and that goes somewhere, and you end up getting paid, and  you get a, you know, a ministry salary from that. That's my problem, not yours.  Well, God gave that vision to me through a lot of trial and error, a lot of anguish,  a lot of difficulties. It took a while before that vision came. But when it did is like,  Okay, this is what I got to do. I can't not do this. Every book I write, everything  that I do, has that vision in it, and I can't help but not have that vision. It's a  strong vision, so I don't know where you're at. Maybe you're halfway in that  process. Keep going, keep learning, keep trying. Keep talking to mentors. Take  keep tacking, taking classes. Join the network, talk to people, learn from people, and eventually, God will give you a vision. Why? Again, I keep saying this, God  has you here for a specific purpose. He has you here because he has a vision  for your life. Eventually, he will make that clear to you what it is that is what it is  for you. Thanks 


Last modified: Monday, January 13, 2025, 10:43 AM