Why God Gives Vision First | Pastor Chris Kouba

And it is really good to see you.

Been out for a couple of weeks and really glad to be back and just to be preaching with you today.

Hey, before we get going, I want to just mention something to you, a little logistical, but hopefully you've been able to join us so far the last couple of days as we have are in day three now of 21 days of prayer.

21 days of prayer.

If you are part of our email list, then you have been getting this on a consistent basis.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, one, it's not too late to jump in.

Uh you've just missed three days.

You could easily catch that up.

But also, that means you're not getting our email list and you're not on our email list.

So we've got a QR code right here.

I want to encourage you to sign up for that and to be able to get that.

I promise you, we're not going to spam you and overload you, but we do want to ask that you join with us.

And what I am telling you is the most important thing we will do this fall.

And that's saying a lot because we got a lot of exciting things planned this fall, besides just our normal weekly programming, besides our new series that we're starting today, besides the fact that we've got all different types of things for our next gen ministry, despite the fact that we've got mission trips that we're taking, and despite the fact that we've got at the movies coming in November, which we're praying God's going to do a big thing, the work is the next 21 days.

Don't miss that.

We don't see God move down the road, and that's what we really are wanting.

No, no, no, no.

The work is the next 21 days where we ask and we beg for God's presence when we come before him and we want to seek him.

And so what we've done is we've split this up into kind of three different themes throughout the three different weeks.

This first week is about school.

Do you realize New Caney starts on Wednesday?

Umble starts next Wednesday.

Like whether you want it to be here or not, summer's over, all right?

It's starting here.

And you may be thinking, well, I don't have any kids that go to school.

I promise you, your neighbor does, or your neighbor across the street does, or your neighbor two doors down does.

And we want to seek the welfare of the city.

So it's a stressful time in the city right now, all right?

Because kids are going back to school.

We all want them to go back to school.

They don't want to go to school.

It's a bad thing, all right?

And so it's it's what we're dealing with.

But we also know this, you teachers, you've already been in school, all right?

You've already gone back this week.

Many of you have already started back.

And so what we want to do this first week is we just want to cover our teachers, cover our students, cover our administrators in prayer.

And we're gonna guide you through that.

Montega, let our prayer this morning for wisdom.

Man, we need wisdom in the midst of our schools.

And praise God, we've got so many great, amazing teachers and administrators and coaches in this congregation.

We pray wisdom into your life.

We want you to join us with that.

Next week, we're gonna be praying for the harvest.

The Bible tells us in Matthew chapter nine that we should seek earnestly the harvest of God.

And we want to pray that God would allow more people to come into a relationship with Him this fall than ever in the history of United City Church, which is amazing ass because God's been so good here at this place.

And we want to ask you to come alongside that.

We're gonna equip you, we're gonna train you this fall to be able to personally share your faith with somebody else.

We're gonna put resources in your hands, we're gonna give you opportunities like at the movies for you to be able to invite people to come into a relationship with Jesus.

But we want to pray and ask that God would turn our hearts to be able to see what he sees.

Because all around us are people that need to know Jesus, and we want to be able to see that.

The last week is gonna be a time of just your own personal devotion to the Lord.

And we're gonna join together in prayer towards that.

If you are willing, you would join me.

I'm gonna be doing it as well.

Would love for you to consider fasting that last week of our 21 days of prayer.

It'd be an incredible opportunity every time I've ever fast.

God's done amazing things in my life that can be explained no other way than the fact that I took away all the distractions of the world and wanted to go and meet with him.

I want to encourage you to do that, but at a minimum, make sure that you're praying with us through this 21 days of prayer.

It's gonna be special.

Grab your Bibles, open them up with me to Genesis chapter 37.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 37.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

I want to take the opportunity, the privilege that I have to be able to greet all of those on the other side of the camera, the men and women, especially at our prisons, that are watching this on our Pando app.

Let's give them a hand and celebrate so many folks that are getting to join with us.

We are beginning today a sermon series for the next nine weeks called Rise from the Pit.

We're gonna be looking at the life of Joseph.

I'm gonna ask you to wave your journals at me that you grabbed whenever you came in here.

Hopefully, it should have been in your seat.

If you are here and you don't have a journal, would you raise your hand?

Our team is gonna be prepared to get you one of those.

We want to make sure everybody has a copy of the journal.

Just raise your hands, we'll get it to you.

Right there in the back, we got one.

Uh, can I get some help from somebody?

Somebody.

We we employ a lot of people at our staff.

Anyone on staff?

Can you?

Oh, there we go.

There, Becky, you're awesome.

Thank you.

Right there, you're gonna help out.

Anybody else?

We got them.

I want to make sure that you have this and you bring it with you every single week, okay?

And here's the deal.

Our goal is that you're taking notes right up there, Becky.

Raise your hand again, buddy.

Oh, perfect.

Yep, sweet.

Um in the middle up here.

Got them in the middle.

Perfect.

You got them?

Got them?

Got them?

This is important.

Like if you don't have it, you're not gonna pass the test, okay?

And so I need to make sure that you get these because here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna ask you, even if you're like not a note-taker, and some of you, like I ask you to write something down, you just look at me like there's no chance I'm doing that, all right?

For the next nine weeks where you humor me and act like you are, like you don't have to do anything, just act like you're doing it.

Because we want to make sure that you're writing down stuff, not only the principles and things we're talking through, but you're gonna use this every single week, building off it, hopefully to be able to just to learn more and to walk through in your own personal time with the Lord.

But also all of the small groups from preschool, kids, youth, and adults, all of us are gonna be walking through this together.

And so, therefore, if you're not in a group, particularly you and adults, this is a perfect opportunity for you to jump into a group because you know exactly what we're gonna be talking about.

It's gonna be going over the messages that we talk about in here in the big room in these smaller settings.

But we'd love for you to bring this every single week and not lose it, but instead let it be something that you can build on.

The reason why we're walking through this and we spend so much time, it's the third year in a row that we've done this.

We're gonna talk about the issue and the topic of leadership.

Because I would argue there's a leadership crisis in our culture.

I would argue that we are desperately needing leaders in our community.

We're desperately needing leaders in our government, we're desperately needing leaders in our schools, leaders in our businesses, leaders in our neighborhoods, and leaders in our homes.

And some of you have the title of leader.

You have influence over other people, you've got responsibility for other people.

And maybe you're like a leadership guy like I am, and you love anything to do with leadership.

Like you love reading about it, you love listening to podcasts about it, you love growing and learning and trying to be a better leader.

Some of you, the idea of talking about leadership feels like a foreign concept that should be applicable to somebody else, but not you.

And what I want you to know is this regardless if you have a title in whatever sphere of influence that you have, you for sure have influence over your personal life.

Which means I would tell you, you are a leader.

I want you to take your journals out, open them up to page four for me, and I want you to write this phrase down.

This is the third year in a row, if you've been with us here at United City, that you will do this.

But I think this could be, for some of you, the most impactful thing that you will do throughout the next nine weeks is what you're about to write down.

Everybody, write down this phrase.

I am a leader.

I am a leader.

All of you are leaders.

The question is, what kind of leader are you gonna be?

How are you going to use and express your leadership that God has placed you in and given you the ability to have?

Uh companies spend literally billions of dollars every single year on leadership development.

They spend all this time and all this effort trying to train their employees.

Schools do the same thing.

We see it in communities, all of this attention and given books all around there, podcasts all around there, trying to help people become better in the roles that they find themselves in.

Yet it seems though, despite all of the material and all of the inputs and all of the things we have available to us, we still have a massive leadership crisis.

What I want to suggest to you is that instead of just reading what Harvard Business Review says is the best way to be the leader, we should go to the one source that is always the source of wisdom for all things in life, especially I have found in my own journey in leadership, and that is God's Word.

And so what we're gonna look at is the life of Joseph, and what we're gonna see is an up and down journey.

Literally, the title of the series is called Rise from the Pit, because you're gonna see he's got a good day and then he's got a bad day coming.

And then that bad day is really, really bad, and then all of a sudden it's really, really good.

And then it goes bad again, back and forth he goes, and what we learn from looking at his life is how God led him and allowed him to be one of the most effective leaders in history.

And we're gonna see how at times you're gonna listen to this message and you're gonna be like, man, this is exactly where I am.

Other times you may hear something and you're gonna think, okay, I'm not there, but now I know when I get there, I'm gonna know how I can respond.

What I want you to do is I want you to begin reading with me in Genesis chapter 37 as we begin to read about the life of Joseph.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

It says, Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan.

These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers.

He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives.

And Joseph brought a bad brought a bad report of them to their father.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of the other sons, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a robe of many colors.

But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

He said to them, Hear this dream that I have dreamed.

Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.

His brothers said to him, Are you indeed to reign over us?

Or are you indeed to rule over us?

So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

Then he dreamed another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed another dream.

Behold, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars were bowing down to me.

But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed?

Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?

And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.

Here's what I want you to do.

I want you to write this down.

Every week we're going to give you a bottom line, a main takeaway from the message.

And this week, the main takeaway from this message is this leaders have a God-given vision.

Write that down for me.

Leaders have a God-given vision.

In this specific situation, Joseph was given a dream.

Not just one dream, but two different dreams.

But ultimately, I want to word it, not saying God gives you leaders have a God-given dream.

I instead want to say leaders have a God-given vision, because I don't know about you, but most of the time when I think about my dreams, they're really weird, right?

Like they're just kind of odd.

They're not something that I would be like, man, I want to build my whole life and career around that.

It doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, but generally speaking, when we think about dreams, they're kind of throwaway.

They're easy to forget, they're oftentimes random.

Vision, however, is different.

Let me give you some research I found this past week actually about dreams, because let's be honest, dreams can get kind of weird.

Did you know that 12% of people dream only in black and white?

12 only black and white.

That feels like that doesn't sound very good.

All right.

You can't read in your dreams.

Did you know that?

You can't read in your dreams.

And 50% of your dreams are forgotten in five minutes after you wake up.

You also can't dream about anyone that you haven't seen before.

Now, you obviously go to the airport and you see a lot of people in your subconscious, but you don't necessarily see them, right?

But anybody that you've seen, even in your periphery, can be in your dream.

You'll never have someone in your dream that you've never ever seen before.

Last night I had a pretty weird experience.

I actually remembered my dream, all right?

And it wasn't a good dream.

Let me tell you what happened, all right?

I was actually preaching and I was preaching at another church.

I don't know what church it was.

It was a church that had a really some steps that you walk up, had a really big grand pulpit.

And I remember that I came in late while the worship was going, and for some reason I didn't have my iPad.

I instead had my old notebook that had a bunch of my notes in it.

And then I also had a bunch of other books for some reason that I was carrying.

And I I walk up the stage, it was my time to go and preach.

As I'm walking up the stage, I literally trip and all of my stuff gets scattered everywhere, including all of the pages for whatever reason in that notebook got all ripped up and scattered.

And basically, there was no way for me to put all of that back together.

But I also was really dependent upon my notes for this particular message.

And so, therefore, because of that, I was put in a situation where I didn't know what I was supposed to say.

But everybody was looking at me, and I go up there and I'm trying to stall, I'm trying to mess with stuff, people are growing irritated and frustrated.

I then bow, bend down, I go and look up something else, and I look up, and everyone starts walking out of the room, and then I woke up.

True story.

Please don't walk out today.

I will be very triggered from my dream.

A lot of times when we think about dreams, it's stuff like that, though, that like doesn't make any sense.

Like it seems not to go together whatsoever.

It's just like that was so weird.

I don't, I can't.

I maybe sometimes we tell someone else just because of how weird it was, not necessarily because of how real it felt.

And yes, there's certain times maybe whenever it does feel real, but even then you may or may not necessarily remember that.

I don't want you to think about dreams that Joseph had like that's what it was.

I want you to think instead about it being vision.

Dreams are forgetful.

Vision is clear, purposeful, God-given direction that shapes your future.

That's what's happening here.

Joseph was given a divine revelation, a path for him to walk.

Proverbs chapter 29, verse 18, the message translation.

Proverbs 29:18

It reads, If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.

But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.

Here's what it's saying.

You actually are blessed when you discover the God-given vision that He has for your life.

Here's how I want us to approach this topic today.

Uh, I want to ask two questions and answer both of those questions and give you advice depending on which one of these questions you find yourself in here today.

Okay.

The two questions are this What do I do if I have a vision?

And what do I do if I don't have a vision?

Okay, let's look at the first one first.

What do I do if I have a vision?

Maybe you're here today and you would say, Look, I haven't had a dream.

Maybe you have had a dream.

But you would say, I feel clearly, maybe some other way, maybe it's a billboard, maybe it's an open door, whatever it might look like.

But you would just say, I feel like I'm supposed to do this.

Like I feel like God is nudging me or pushing me or leading me to do something.

It's more than just you're interested in it.

It feels like you might even use the word a calling.

Like it's something deep within your gut that you're like, I know I have to do this.

I've got to say this, I've got to serve at this place, I've got to do this for God.

Uh I want to follow his leading, and I feel like he is very clearly showing me this is why I made you.

Mark Twain says the most important day of your life is the day that you were born and the day you discovered why.

You've got that why.

You know what it is that is burning in you that you're supposed to do.

What is it that you're supposed to do?

Let me give you some advice.

I got six things for you if you do have a vision from the Lord.

First one is this don't tell everybody.

Don't tell everybody.

This is what Joseph did.

We're gonna learn a lot more next week about the family dynamics and what led to there being so much conflict in this family.

But we see here Joseph, it's pretty obvious, okay, he titles on his brothers and he's got a coat of many colors that his dad gives them.

And so clearly he's not like starting off strong with his brothers, and we don't know if it's that he was trying to rub it in, or we don't know if he just couldn't read the room and realized this is not gonna go well if I tell them this particular dream.

But what he does is he goes and he tells his dreams to the wrong people.

He had something exciting happen, and he immediately told everyone, including his brothers, which what does it say multiple times, they hated him even more.

Here's some wisdom.

Not everybody needs to know your vision immediately.

And in general, not everybody needs to know ever.

We have too many people who all of a sudden feel like they hear something from the Lord and immediately feel like they have to share it on social media with everybody else, and all that does is make it harder for them, sets them up for more ridicule and more criticism instead of just keep your mouth shut.

It doesn't mean that God isn't in it, but it does mean that many times visions are meant to be pondered privately before they are announced publicly.

This is like the new hire who starts off at a brand new company and feels like God tells them that they're gonna be the CEO of that company, and on day one posts a picture in front of the sign and says, Great first day, God told me I'm gonna be CEO in five years.

That may be true, but no one wants to hear it, okay?

No one's gonna be cheering for you if that's the case.

All right.

This is like the person who becomes a new believer and then all of a sudden thinks that God's calling them to be a pastor.

I'm not trying to say that God's not calling you to be a pastor.

What I am trying to tell you is this not everybody needs to know that that's what you think.

You instead ponder those things, hold those things closely, keep them within yourself or the teenager who, after one video, begins to get a lot of fame and a lot of success from that one video on TikTok and now thinks God is calling me to be a TikTok influencer.

First of all, he's probably not calling you to be a TikTok influencer, all right?

Just to give you that heads up.

But second of all, even if he is, don't announce it on TikTok that you're gonna be a TikTok influencer.

Just do your job and it will happen.

And you will look up and you begin to see.

But too often we think it doesn't count unless you tell everybody.

And I'm telling you, I think Joseph proves right here it's dangerous.

Don't do that.

Instead, do the next step here, the word of advice, which is seek wise counsel.

If you've got a vision from the Lord, a direction that God wants to give you, praise God for that.

Seek wise counsel.

It's interesting, Joseph goes to his father Jacob.

If you know biblical history, it tells you in Genesis chapter 28 that Jacob also had a dream in the middle of the night, whenever God appeared to him and he wrestled with the Lord literally overnight, and he walked away with a limp, and God changed his name from Jacob to Israel.

Genesis 28 · chapter mention

And so you can imagine because of the experience, life experience that he's had, and also just the age and the wisdom that he has, Joseph could have easily gone to his father and talked to him about this, seeking wise counsel.

Instead, he made it really difficult for everybody because he announced it to everybody.

I would tell you, one of the greatest things that you can do if you have a vision from the Lord is to find mentors, godly men, godly women who you can surround yourself with, who understand God's ways, who can help you process what it is that you feel like God may be leading you to do.

This is the benefit of a small group.

Man, I feel like God may be kind of nudging us to go and do this certain thing or to serve in this specific area.

What do you think?

And your small group has the ability to speak in and say, Man, we think that's a great idea.

You should keep walking through that door.

Or maybe they would say, you know, I've never seen that in you.

I'm not sure that's the best thing.

Have you thought about this?

They can be wise counsel to help you, to support you, and to guide you along the way.

God may want to use you greatly, but I'm convinced if you aren't willing to surround yourself with godly people, you can't be trusted.

Instead, God wants to look and see, okay, who's gonna make sure they've got wise people speaking into them and they're listening to that?

Because I know I can put my spirit behind them, I can use somebody like that who's gonna be able to handle what it is that they may be able to experience.

Number three, compare it with the Bible.

Compare it with the Bible.

Here's the truth if you receive a vision from God, one of the primary ways that you know it's from God is that it doesn't contradict with what God has already said in his word.

Scripture should be primary, visions should come under and be subservient to his revealed.

Wheel.

I've seen this all many, many times.

Somebody feels like, man, I'm supposed to marry that person.

Like I'm supposed to have that job.

I'm supposed to go and achieve this level of success.

And any or all of that may be true, but the vision becomes all they think about and all they care about instead of realizing God's revealed word was here when you got here and it will be here when you leave.

And so your vision, as significant as it may be, must never be more important to you than what God's already said in his word.

Personal revelation must always align with biblical principles.

God's word is infallible, your vision is not.

And if there is ever a contradiction, know this your dream, your vision isn't from God, it's from you.

So study relevant passages looking for biblical examples of similar callings.

Most of the visions that I hear about are all about personal glory.

When I read God's word, it's all about his glory.

And so therefore, I want to also ask this is this to make me a big deal?

Does God want me to do this because I need this recognition and this is going to validate me and on and on and on?

Or God, I want to serve you and you can use me if you want, but you don't need me if at all in this process.

And so therefore, I want to be faithful to you in all things.

Let me give you the next one.

When you have a vision, you need to be prepared.

Number four, expect opposition.

Expect opposition.

We're going to do a deep dive into this next week and talk a ton about it.

Joseph's brothers hated him even more after his dreams.

Experience shows God's visions often face resistance, which makes some sense because we have an enemy who wants to kill, steal, and destroy.

Opposition does not mean you're wrong.

It can actually many times be a validation that you're actually right.

Because the enemy doesn't want to have to mess with you if you're just doing something that's not what God wants.

But instead, if you're going after what God says and you do what he asks you to do, the enemy is going to come up against it.

So don't be afraid, don't be surprised when you people ridicule you, when people make fun of you, when people belittle you.

Expect opposition is coming.

We're going to do a big, big study on that next Sunday morning.

Number five, piece of advice.

Serve faithfully.

Serve faithfully.

Continue to do what God has placed in front of you to do today.

Faithfulness in small things will always prepare you for bigger things.

So don't wait until your vision is fully realized before you start doing something.

I've got people that come up to me in my office and like, man, I've got this ministry that I want to start.

It's so great.

In my mind, I'm thinking, you don't even, you're not even on a serve team at your church.

Like it's true.

God may be giving you this amazing vision and ministry.

And man, I'm here for it, and I'm going to cheer for you and I'm going to be excited for you.

But can you actually go help uh park cars?

Or can you actually go greet people as they come in the doors?

Because that's the need in front of you.

What God may do in five years is great.

What's he going to do in the next five minutes?

And too often we want the realization of the vision without the steps to get there.

And what God is telling us is that we should serve faithfully with what's in front of us as we pursue where God is leading us.

I know some people say, for instance, they want to raise kids who know and love Jesus.

I think that's an amazing vision.

I think that's a great vision.

I think that's one all of you parents should be able to have.

I would simply tell you this: if you want kids that know and love and serve Jesus, then you need to make sure that you're in a small group.

You need to make sure that you're on a serve team because kids model what they see more than what they hear.

And I don't want to speak words over them that sound good, but my life doesn't back it up.

Instead, what I want to do is I want to serve faithfully.

And guess what?

How many times have we seen people who may not have eloquently cast that vision, but they modeled it through their lives where their kids didn't know any other way?

This is just what we do.

This is just how you live.

You walk and you follow Jesus and you trust him and you pray to him and you seek him and you go through all these things for him.

The reason this is so important is because ultimately we are called to seek the God of the vision more than the fulfillment of the vision.

The relationship with God is more important than the destination.

God wants to literally change you in the process, and he does so as you walk in obedience to him.

Don't worship the vision, worship the vision giver, and you can do that by serving faithfully.

Here's another thing to think about, too.

Joseph was 17 when he got this vision.

The fulfillment of this vision did not actually happen, though, until he was 30 years old, 13 years later.

We're gonna see that was a really, really long 13 years because of all the things that he had to experience along the way.

What I want to tell you though is some of you are holding out, saying, Well, God, I'm gonna do this when you come through and do what you said you were gonna do.

And all along he's saying, I'm not moving.

What are you talking about?

You instead be faithful, walking towards me, and trust me with the timing of this.

We don't want to hold him hostage, we want to instead serve faithfully.

Let me give you the final thing I would give you is an idea, uh, an advice if you have a vision from the Lord.

Finally, be faithful over famous.

Be faithful over famous.

Why?

Because fame disappoints, and so many people chase it.

But so few people receive it, and for those that actually do, even fewer know how to handle it.

Too many people care about being recognized too much.

And instead, we need to be the one who is faithful, who has a massive impact, and not everybody's gonna have to know about it.

I want you to pull your journals out for me, and I want you to think about someone who you know who had a very significant impact in your life, but not everybody else may know who they are.

Might have been a teacher, might have been a Sunday school leader, might have been a pastor.

I want you just to pull out your journals there on page four, wherever it is that you are.

I want you to write their name, and I want you just to write briefly why, just a couple of words, why you chose them as somebody who may not be famous, but who's had great impact.

For me, it's David Scott.

David Scott was my youth pastor.

Whenever I gave my life to ministry and I was in his youth group, David just let me hang around him all the time.

David used me like crazy.

I got to set up chairs all the time and do all the grunt work that goes along with him just needing some extra hands.

But also, David allowed me to pepper him with questions all along about ministry, about life, about all of these things.

David taught me how to play golf.

David taught me about ministry, David gave me opportunities along the way.

Looking back, I can't believe he allowed me to do that.

There's no reason I should have been up in front of people speaking to them at the ages that I was.

But David saw something, he believed in me.

And here's the thing: I don't even know if David's on social media, and I can guarantee you the majority of the people in this room have never heard the name David Scott.

I will never forget it.

David Scott was faithful over trying to be famous, and because of that, he left a mark in my life that I will never forget.

I want you to take your journals out.

I want you to write down who is that person for you?

Who's your David Scott?

Who is your person?

That you're like, man, that fourth grade teacher.

Man, I just saw something in me, and I've never been the same because of it.

Who's that Sunday school leader who prayed for you?

And man, the fact that he voiced those prayers, it just changed something.

You may have never told them that, but you've never forgotten the sound of his voice praying for you.

What does that look like in your life?

What I want to ask you to do this week, if they're still alive and you're able to, write them a note, call them, don't text them, call them, and just say, hey, I just want to let you know we talked about you this past week.

You didn't realize that's what we were doing, but I just want to say thank you.

This is the impact you had on me.

Some of you are listening to this and you're thinking, okay, this sounds great.

I want what you're describing.

But my story is I've never had a vision from the Lord.

I have no idea what that looks like.

I have no idea what God wants me to do.

I would like that.

I I that sounds appealing and attractive.

So, what am I supposed to do if that's my story?

Let me answer that second question.

What do I do if I don't have a vision?

What do I do if I don't have a vision?

Maybe that's the point of this series for you.

Is for you to embrace and to realize that God has made you as a leader.

You've already wrote it down.

You are a leader.

The question then might be for some of you, okay, this may be a revelation.

God not only has made me a leader, but he has a purpose and a plan for your life.

And the whole point of this leadership journey, walking in the life of Joseph, is for you to embrace and discover what that calling actually is.

Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11 says this, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 29:11

Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

What do you do if you don't have that future?

What if you do if you don't have that hope?

Let me give you a few things of advice.

Number one, seek the Lord.

Seek the Lord.

Vision comes through a relationship with God.

So spend time in scripture, spend time in prayer, and what you will begin to discover is that vision leaks out of that relationship.

Ask God to reveal his plans for your life.

Too many people are saying, I don't know God's will for my life, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, I don't know where I'm supposed to go, but they aren't reading God's word and they aren't praying.

He's already spoken here.

Don't look for the billboard, just read the text.

And God's not going to give you new things if you're not even following the things that He's already given you.

Too often we think, I don't, I can't hear God's voice, yet we're living in a constant state of distraction, unable to hear the voice of God.

That's one of the reasons why we want to call you to prayer.

That's one of the reasons why I want you to consider fasting.

When you remove the distractions of the world and it allows you to keep your mind and your heart open to receive the things of God, what I have discovered is this is that his voice has always been there the whole time.

I was just too busy to hear it.

I was just too consumed with other things to be able to focus upon it.

The believer who wants so often we have people who are there a believer who wants God's plan but hasn't cultivated a relationship with the planner.

If you don't have a vision yet, don't be discouraged, but do seek the Lord.

Do be expectant for him to show you things that you could have never imagined.

Second piece of advice don't compare.

Don't compare.

If you don't have a vision from the Lord, don't compare.

That's one of the worst things that you can do.

Your timeline isn't somebody else's timeline.

And their timeline isn't your timeline.

God has unique plans for each person.

Joseph got his vision when he was 17 years old.

It wasn't fulfilled until he was 30 years old.

Some of you may be much older, and some of you may be much younger.

Don't be discouraged if you don't have a vision.

You just ask God, what is it that you want me to do?

And allow God to speak to you and to guide you and to tell you.

So if you're a 40-year-old who's going back to school watching all of your younger colleagues advance, don't worry about it.

That's God's vision for your life.

If you're a young couple and you're trying to have kids and you're and you're trying desperately to have kids, and you look up and you see all these other couples around you who are having kids all the time.

Many of them didn't even try, and all of a sudden they just have another child and you're discouraged.

Don't compare your life with them.

You instead say, God, what is your plan for my story?

For our relationship, for our journey, knowing that God is faithful to both.

But when you compare, it is such a difficult thing to do.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 1 says, For everything there is a season, a time for every matter under heaven.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

You lead your life and you let God lead your life.

Don't scroll and compare your life to everybody else's.

Instead, stop and live the life that God is giving to you.

Final thing.

While you're living, next thing to do is don't underestimate small things.

Don't underestimate small things.

What I have so often seen is God starts big visions with smaller steps.

It's the principle found in the parable of talents.

Those who are faithful in little will be faithful with much.

Every small act of obedience matters.

So if you're here and you're a single mom working two jobs while you're going to nursing school, know that God has big plans for you and you keep going.

Don't look at your situation, everybody else.

You just take that next step.

No, God's going to bless you.

If you're here as a teenager faithfully serving and you see kids, know that God may be preparing you for something even bigger and greater one day, whenever you're no longer in that area.

Zachariah says this do not despise the day of small things.

God is working, God is moving, even when we can't see it.

When I was in fifth grade, I was uh I grew up in the church.

I've been in church my whole life.

I believe my parents took me to the preschool area even before I was technically allowed to, because they had a relationship with the preschool person.

I mean, I've just I've never known anything different than being a part of church and loving church.

It's just always been a part of who I am, and that's a lot because of my parents.

And so, because of that, I knew some of the folks on staff at the church, particularly the pastor.

And so I was on a Wednesday night, my dad was driving, I was in the backseat of the car, and I remember asking my dad this question that I had no idea was going to be forever changing my life by asking this question.

I said, Dad, what does a pastor do?

I thought he was like a guy that had another job, and then he just kind of spoke on the weekends.

Uh, and so my dad began to just describe for me what the calling in the life of a pastor looked like.

And I don't know why I did this, but I just felt prompted that night.

That's the only way I could describe it, prompting.

That night I laid in my bed and I prayed this prayer.

God, I want to be used by you.

Would you show me how?

I had no idea what that prayer would lead to.

I remember waking up the next day, and I didn't have a dream that God woke me up in the middle of the night.

I didn't have some revelation that took place, I didn't have some billboard that I saw.

I didn't open up my Bible and have some verse that stuck out and was like, boom, this is the word I was looking for, and it just kind of came.

None of those things happened.

The only way I can describe it is I felt like I had a nudge, like a prompting, like a push.

And it felt like the Lord was saying, You are going to preach my word in the church.

Now the problem is I'm in fifth grade.

I don't really know what to do with that.

But it was undeniable.

I'm like, I feel like this is what I'm supposed to do.

I remember going to my parents and telling them, hey, I prayed this prayer, this is what happened.

And I think I'm supposed to go be in ministry.

And I remember my parents were super excited for me.

And I remember my dad, he pulled me aside and said, Chris, I want to talk to you about this.

He said, Here's what I want you to do, okay?

This is amazing that God has called you to do this, but right I want you to do is don't wait until you get to be a pastor.

Don't wait until long term.

He said, Right now, read God's word every single day.

Most important thing you'll ever do to be able to be a pastor is you just got to love God's word.

He said, You need to pray every single day.

He says, when you get up, make sure that's the first thing that you do.

You pray, you seek Him.

Don't wait until all of a sudden you're a pastor to do it.

You do it right now.

He said, Chris, you're in fifth grade, but here's the deal.

You can serve right now.

And what I want you to do is, I want you to serve.

I want you to, I want you to don't wait until one day you need to do it.

I want you to serve.

And he said, here's the deal, Chris.

What I want you to do is I don't want you to tell everybody about this.

He said, I'm not saying that it's it's it's not exciting.

It's super exciting.

Your mom and I love it, and we're super excited about it.

But what I want you to hear is this.

What I want you to know is that if God is calling you right now in fifth grade, he's gonna be just as faithful to have the same calling in your life when you're in high school, and just the way that same exact calling in your life whenever you are in college.

And I'm telling you, as I began to walk through the end of my journey, what I began to feel is that that that calling of God didn't go away.

It got clarified, it got stronger, it got more conviction.

I began to seek mentors along the way throughout my life, men like David Scott and many others along the way in college and otherwise, who began to shape and to mold and to help me.

I remember going and serving in various areas that looking back, I knew I don't ever want to serve in that capacity in the life of a church.

But you know what?

I believe because I was faithful to do it for that season, God said, I'm gonna let you do what I do feel like you're supposed to do.

And I began to serve, and now I'm standing here before you at 45 years of age, living out the vision that God has for my life.

Here's my challenge to you.

Is it possible that that simple prayer could change your life the way that it changed mine?

All the words were this God, I want to be used by you.

Would you show me it?

And He did everything.

Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes?

I'll across this room.

I'm gonna ask you to keep your journals closed, so I'm gonna get you to do something real quick with me.

Just in the spirit of prayer, though.

Would you pray that prayer with me?

God, I want to be used by you.

Show me how.

Take your journals out, and what I want you to do is, no one's looking around, but could you just write?

Whatever it is that He's prompting you right now.

You need to know this.

It may change, it may evolve, but it also may be true.

I just want us to be in a spirit, in a place to where we listen.

God, God wants to be used by you.

Prompting you.

Gives you an answer.

He's already given you an answer.

You commit right now to take your next step.

Maybe for some of you, the reason why things feel fuzzy and unclear is because you aren't doing what God's wanting you to do.

You aren't in a group, you aren't serving, you aren't walking with Him.

You just make a commitment right now to take your next step to make that happen.

Maybe some of you are doing those things, but He hasn't answered yet.

I don't want you to be discouraged.

I just want you to keep me in faith.

Seek the Lord.

Not despise small things.

See where he leads.

Remember, knowing the Lord is the point.

For some of you, your struggle is you don't have a God-given vision because you don't have a relationship with God in the first place.

You've never received him as your Lord and as your Savior.

You've never made him the real boss, director, leader of your life.

I want you to know that you can do that today.

It's as simple as A, B, C.

A, admit that you are a sinner.

Admit that you've fallen short of what God requires, and because of your sin, there is a punishment that has to be paid.

B, believe.

Believe that Jesus, God's Son, came on a and died on a cross for you, that he rose from the dead, and he now offers you the opportunity to place your faith and your trust in him.

Receiver as your Lord and Savior.

And then finally, see.

Choose.

Choose Him.

Choose to turn from your way of running your life, your way of leading things, and instead choose to follow Jesus.

You can do that today.

Just a moment, we're gonna have a time of invitation.

Team is gonna be up front, they're gonna be at the bottom of these steps.

Would you come and let us pray with you, if that's you, that you can leave here knowing today with certainty that you have a relationship with Jesus.

Others of you need to come and make United City your church home.

You know that this is where God is leading you.

And maybe there's a man in this room that needs to lead his family down the aisle and make this official.

Maybe some of you need to be baptized like we just saw Kennedy getting baptized.

Praise God for her faithfulness.

It's never too late for you to make that important step of obedience.

That's you today, and you want to get baptized.

You come forward and let us schedule that.

Maybe some of you have a similar experience that I had when I was in fifth grade.

I couldn't explain it, I couldn't articulate it all.

I just knew God's saying, Man, this is what I want to do, I want you to do for me.

Maybe for some of you, you have no idea logistically how in the world that could even happen.

Maybe you want to come forward and you want to give your life to full-time Christian ministry.

We'd love nothing more than to talk with you about that.

Maybe some of you need prayer.

You need prayer because you have the clarity, but you need the you need the courage to do it.

Some of you may need prayer because you need that clarity.

Would you come and let us pray for you?

Father, I pray you'd move in these moments we have left.

Thank you for leading and guiding and directing your people.

It's in the name of Jesus that I pray.

Amen.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We can't wait to see you next week for any of our services at 8 30, 10, 11 30, or Espanol at 1 o'clock.