Vision 2022 Perseverance
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Have you ever noticed that if you really want to accomplish something then you will go to great lengths to carry it out. I notice this with technology and students. If they really want something on their phone or device, then they will go to great lengths to learn how to do something. They will watch videos on it, they will ask questions about it, and do whatever it takes to figure out how to do something.
When you ask them to clean their room or do the dishes, the response is sometimes I don’t know how. You have not showed me how.
I have often observed this same principle when it comes to those who are caught in addiction. They work really really hard to be bad. They know math, They get connections, They spend a lot of time trying to get drugs or whatever they need. They will beg, borrow, and abuse anyone to get what they need.
When it comes to following God’s will, the same type of endurance or tenacity is not present. Ok God I will follow you be the first time I hit a bump or face a struggle for following God’s will we often bail or begin to question.
Our desire is that as we have established some vision for Bridge of Faith that you as an individual will continue to seek out what is God’s desire or vision for individual life personally.
We have looked how to discover God’s will in my life. Perhaps maybe you have gave it a shot and tried what God is calling you to and so what happens next.
Maybe you just gave your life to Christ this past Easter Sunday or you recommitted your life to Christ.
What happens next?
I have so many examples in my life of getting a sense of God’s direction and jumping in only to face opposition or resistance.
There was a time in Rockaway Beach that the town did not what Bridge of Faith Community Church to be here. The city leaders at that time fought to drive Bridge of Faith out of the city.
You can imagine God gives us a sense of direction and His will for us and we jump in with both feet. As we jump in, we face resistance from the city leaders in what we believe God is calling us to do.
One of my all time favorite quotes comes from the book Subversive Jesus
I have never prayed for God to move a mountain and the next morning not woke up next to a shovel
Craig Greenfield
I will never forget as we jumped into the Village project that some wanted us to stop working and so they used a situation to call the Department of Natural Resources on us. This opened up a several month process that involved the DNR and attorneys. Throughout this process we did not stop working. We learned a lot.
In a later instance, I remember we had a mission team scheduled to come building the awning as an entrance to the Village. They were bringing all the materials to complete the project and they were bringing the labor to accomplish the job. It was our job to have the 4 foundation pillars in place.
We were set and ready to get everything done on time and be ready for the team to show up. I remember the city calling me to tell me that we could not keep working on it because they did not have an engineer to inspect the project so we was not going to be able to move forward. We went back and forth on this. I would call them and see what the deal was they would keep pushing me off.
This was a tactic to delay the project.
Perhaps you can relate. You start to seek Jesus. You begin to move from pain to vision. You have taken the time to test and see if it is God’s will for your life. You respond with, “God I will follow you and your desire for my life”.
You jump in with both feet and then things don’t go the way you originally planned them to go.
James says this...
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
I promise you that Bridge of Faith is not where it is today because everything went exactly how we planned it. (I am thankful for this)
Once we establish God’s will in an area of our life, it takes endurance or perseverance to carry out what He is calling us to do.
Let me share some examples in scripture of this
46 They came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting by the road.
47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!”
48 Many people told him to keep quiet, but he was crying out all the more, “Have mercy on me, Son of David!”
49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man and said to him, “Have courage! Get up; He’s calling for you.”
50 He threw off his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.
51 Then Jesus answered him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” “Rabbouni,” the blind man told Him, “I want to see!”
52 “Go your way,” Jesus told him. “Your faith has healed you.” Immediately he could see and began to follow Him on the road.
Another example is in Luke 19.
1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man.
4 So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since He was about to pass that way.
5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today I must stay at your house.”
6 So he quickly came down and welcomed Him joyfully.
7 All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to lodge with a sinful man!”
8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord! And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much!”
9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
Last example
24 So Jesus went with him, and a large crowd was following and pressing against Him.
25 A woman suffering from bleeding for 12 years
26 had endured much under many doctors. She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all. On the contrary, she became worse.
27 Having heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His robe.
28 For she said, “If I can just touch His robes, I’ll be made well!”
29 Instantly her flow of blood ceased, and she sensed in her body that she was cured of her affliction.
30 At once Jesus realized in Himself that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My robes?”
31 His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing against You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”
32 So He was looking around to see who had done this.
33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came with fear and trembling, fell down before Him, and told Him the whole truth.
34 “Daughter,” He said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be free from your affliction.”
Here is what this looked like for me. Through some research I found out that you can get certified in asbestos inspection for about the same price as one inspection. So what did we do? We sent Cameron to St. Louis to stay with his family a couple of days and attend some classes so Cameron became asbestos certified inspector. Sounds simple but let me tell you there was a lot of testing of the faith going on through this process that developed endurance in us.
The second thing with the arbor being built. We were at a time when there was controversy about who was mayor. So I called the city and offered to cover whatever fees they would have for an engineer to come and inspect our foundation work. I remember after I kept pushing them and they kept pushing back that they had found an engineer to come look at our project. Let me remind you that they thought they had found someone who would find that we were not doing things right and would stop our progress.
I remember the day that the guy pulled up. He was very prepared to not see a good project. He was very prepared to stop us and put a stop work order in place because of what he had learned about us in his visit to the city office. I will tell you that we had some smart and wise guys working on the project. Steve Young and Dave Dalporto were working on this one. They wanted this to be built right more than the engineer did.
The engineer started in and very quickly realized that Steve and Dave had overbuilt what was required for the arbor structure. He said what you guys are doing looks great and I don’t see a problem at all with what you are doing here. I will make sure they know down at the city office that you are good to pour the concrete and keep pressing forward. So many times throughout our time here we have had to work around or work through the enemy desiring to stop progress.
I like problem solving and I do believe it is one of my gifts. I ask God to give wisdom and then seek out solutions.
For every NO answer, I try to have 3-5 other options.
Seeking Jesus takes work. If you truly desire, then scripture says over and over that if we seek him, then he will be found.
The blind man had to keep yelling out
Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus
The bleeding woman pressed through the crowd to touch Jesus