The Importance of Vision (1993)

Thank you for supporting the Ministry of Victory Outreach International. We pray this message challenges Ignites faith and that God would fan the flame that will produce a harvest of souls throughout the world. Chapter 29 of Proverbs and I just want to take a portion of Scripture, the first half of the Scripture that is found in verse 18 of chapter 29 of Proverbs and verse 18. You have it? Where there is no vision, the people perish. I would like to be repeated with me. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Lord Jesus this morning, we thank You once again for the presence of Your Holy Spirit that we're able to feel under this big tent. We thank You for what You have done thus far for the healing of sick bodies. For those that their lives were rededicated to You and those that came into Your saving grace this morning. And Lord I pray that You give me the strength to be able to minister in this service. Give me the words to speak to Your people. Lord most of all I meet the anointing of Your Holy Spirit. And I pray You are anointing upon this entire tent that every person that is here will be able to sense and feel the anointing of Your Holy Spirit moving and working within their lives. And we will be careful to give You all the praise and all the glory. We give all the glory, all the praise, all the honor to Jesus Christ our Lord. And everybody said, amen, You may be seated. This morning I want to speak to You on a very, very important subject and I like to have Your undivided attention for the next few minutes. And I want to speak to You on the importance of vision. Now if it gets a little bit warm, maybe the ushers could just lift up some of those flaps and on the left hand side and the right hand side and you'll be able to get some air coming in. Amen. But I want to speak on the importance of vision. And as you could see, I purposely used the scripture that is found in Proverbs chapter 29. The first half of the scripture says where there is no vision, the people perish. In other words, the scripture is bringing out the importance of a vision. The importance of a purpose within the life of an individual and also within the life of a church. Now I have come from, I've been on the road all this week. I've been speaking in conferences and I left Monday last Monday. I flew out and I flew into Kansas City. And I was in Kansas City in a conference there, ministering, spoken the afternoon and also spoken one of the evening sessions as well. And then after Kansas City, I went on and I went on to Joplin, to St. Joe, Missouri. And then I spoke again there with with pastors as they gathered together and I was able to minister to the pastors there. Then after that I caught another plane and I moved on into Chicago, Illinois. And in Chicago, that was the only place that I was actually with the victory outreach family. And in Chicago, they were all gathered together. All the ministry in Chicago, also the those that were from Detroit, the church in Detroit also came in. And the entire Chicago area, Detroit area, all the churches joined together and we had a fantastic rally that took place. And I was able to see the growth that has taken place in Chicago and how God has raised enough tremendous people to earn this leadership and congregations in the Chicago area. I was able to see some of our girls that left just recently from from our midst. They were all there. They were really excited. Some of them as soon as they saw me began to cry and started missing the Mama church. But they know that they're there for a reason that they're there because God has called them to a mission. And one of the things every time that I travel elsewhere and I minister elsewhere, it's reinforced the importance over and over again of what God has called us to. And the importance of the vision that God has placed upon this ministry. Now there are some ministry, you know, that there are some ministry that you would say are generalists or ministries that are not really they don't specialize in one particular area. Just like there are doctors that are practice general medicine. And then you have other doctors that are very specialists in one particular field of medicine. And especially if you have a specific problem and it's a very serious problem, you want to go to a specialist that specializes in that particular area of medicine. And then other times you may go to a generalist, someone that practice general medicine. And when I start thinking about our ministry and the vision that God has given to us, God has given to us victory outreach, a specialized ministry and a specialized calling. This is something that it is very important for our congregation and for people that are part of our ministry to understand. This is why sometimes we're a little bit different than most other churches. You have many churches that are geared towards just the gear to teaching the word of God and that's the mission, teaching the word of God. And whoever comes in, people from all walks of life come into that congregation and they teach them and the whole purpose is to instruct them and teach them the word of God. Those churches, powerful, powerful churches, many churches like that around America and especially here in California. But our church, God has called us to a specific people. And every time that I speak in these other conferences, the reason why they invite me to speak is because they want to know, they want to know how could we reach the inner city? How could we reach those hurting people within the inner city? And then I say, well, why did you call me? They say, well, because we have heard of the ministry of victory outreach and we have heard what God is doing through your ministry, not only in Los Angeles, but what he's doing through your ministry around the world. So more and more as the word gets out of what is happening here and what went then happening through the victory outreach ministry around the world, all of a sudden I'm invited to a lot of conferences. I will be pretty soon with Mario Marillo in the Dunamis conference. Then after that, Jack Hayford is having a conference and he called me not too long ago and he says, past the sunny, he says, I was praying about who I should have speaking at our conference that's coming up in November. And he says, the Lord laid upon my heart a number of ministers and he especially laid you upon my heart because there is a need in our city. And not only in our city, but there's a need all over the inner cities of America for a ministry like yours and we want to know how do you do it? So we want you to come and we want you to minister at our next conference. So more and more, God is reconfirming over and over again the importance of the mission that he's given to us as victory outreach. What I would like to bring out this morning is this, the first point that I want to bring out is the importance of having a vision. It is very, very important. Just what the scripture alone should tell us that it's important that the scripture tells us if you don't have a vision, you're going to perish. I mean, it can't be any more important than that. That's an admonition. If you don't have a vision, the people don't have a vision, perish. In other words, if there is no purpose for your living, then what are you living for? There is a divine purpose. If you didn't have a purpose when you were in the world, then not surely when you get saved and give your life to Christ, God places a purpose within your life. In other words, God has something special for every person that is gathered here under this big tent. And I don't care how many excuses you put out while you can't do this or can't do that. If the Lord saved you, you've been saved by the power of God and you've been redeemed and said free. I want to tell you, if you're born again Christian this morning, God has the divine purpose for your life. God has a plan for your life. There's a divine destiny for you. And if the Lord brought you here, then chances are that he wants you to be part of this vision. Now, there are those of you that have been birthed within this ministry, and if you've been birthed in this ministry, many of you that owe you no victory outreach. And you have a tendency to take it for granted. And you think everybody else is like you. But I want you to know this morning you are a unique bunch. Even our meetings are very, very unique. Especially when you travel around the country, I come back to victory out and I say boy we sure are a unique bunch of people that God has raised up. So God has a purpose for each and every person and it is very important for us as a church never to lose division. The vision that God has called us to. Now let's talk a little bit about the importance of the vision of having a vision. You know every church that is growing, any church around the country that is growing, you would find that all these churches, the ones that are growing, the ones that are prospering and that God is blessing in a special way, you will find some common things in those churches, some common characteristics and what you will find common in all those churches, every growing church you will find that they have a clear, cut identity. In other words they know who they are, they know where they're going. They understand the reason for their being. They know what God has called them to do and they know their business and have a sense of direction and know where they're going. If a church doesn't know where it's going, it's not going to get anywhere, it's never going to arrive if you don't know the destination and even if you did arrive you didn't know you arrived. So every church that God is blessing, every large church, every powerful church, it may not be the same vision like victory outreach but they all have a purpose. They have a vision and they have dedicated themselves and committed themselves to that vision. Now there are other churches that somehow cannot be mobilized and I hear pastors in fact in the conference that I was in, I could see the one of the pastors was totally frustrated with his congregation. He says you know I want to mobilize these people and God has placed a vision inside of me but somehow it seems like the people are not following me. And one of the most frustrated things for any minister or for any pastor is to have a vision and have a vision burning inside of him and he's trying to move with it and the people are not following. And I felt bad for that pastor and I told the pastor well pastor just just keep on praying, just keep on praying. Somehow if God has given you the vision then it's going to overflow, eventually it will flow into the congregation. But do you know that that is not something unique that you would find that in many churches the reason why they don't grow and the reason why many ministries are totally stagnated that we're not really accomplishing the mission and world evangelism like God has called us to is because somehow the people have lost a sense of mission and they've lost a sense of vision within their lives. In fact there was a survey, a national survey was done a few years back and they asked this members of several hundred congregations and they asked them about what is the vision of your church. This was a survey done and when they got back to survey they went ahead just like if we were here and people gave you some papers to fill out and you said what is the what is the vision of victory outreach and then you begin to respond on it. Well the people responded in hundreds of these churches, they responded after and the survey they discovered that 89% of the members of the church said that the reason or the vision of the church was to take care of me, take care of my family and take care of my needs, those three things. Take care of me, take care of my family and take care of my needs. It is a sound familiar to possibly some of you. Could it very well be that maybe that's the vision that you have this morning. Take care of me when I come to church, feed me. Then also be sure to take care of my family. You don't take care of my children and that nursery or in the children's church and I will leave the church and go elsewhere, take care of my family and also take care of all of my needs. In other words a self-santer type of attitude. I come to church so that you could bless me and take care of my needs. That was the vision that the members had of hundreds of churches that they surveyed, had a survey of. And then only 11% of those congregations actually said that the vision of the church was actually to win the world. Now how many know that if you go about doing the business of God that God always will take care of you? How many know that? How many know that when you align yourself to divine will of God, God will always take care of you. I mean I like that scripture that says Seeky first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness and all things shall be added until you. God is saying listen, do what I've called you to do and if you're faithful and do what I call you to do then don't worry about everything else I'm going to take care of business. The problem that we have many times is that we fail to do what God has called us to do. So only 11% the reason why these churches were stagnated, these churches had actually peaked out, were not going anywhere, was because most of the people actually were self-centered just going to church to take care of me, take care of my family and take care of my needs, our needs. And only 11% were actually involved in a concern and a burden not only to reach their community but also to reach a world that was dying. Now the funny part about it is this that they asked the very same pastors, they did a survey with the very same pastors of those very same churches. If you're okay now we know what the vision of that church is. Now let's find out if it coincides if it's the same vision the pastor has. So they did a survey with all the pastors of those very same churches and they did the survey and they actually got the very not the same results. You would think that they would get the same results but instead they got opposite results. 10% only 10% of the pastors actually said that their job was to take care of the members needs and 90% said that it was their job to reach the world for Jesus. Totally the opposite of what results of what they receive from the congregation. No wonder there is conflict and confusion and many churches and then are growing. If you can't agree on the vision of the church they will be conflict conflict and every detail that also comes along. That's why it's so very important you know when I speak to you about vision maybe you say here he goes again speaking about vision but it's very important that God's people get a whole of the vision in which God has called us to as a ministry and as a congregation. Because the foundation for a growing ministry or growing church or growing person is vision. Vision is needed within your life if you're going to grow and when I say vision I'm saying purpose. There's a divine purpose that God has for you. Snap to it. God that not only saved you so you can escape the fires of hell but he saved you not only to take it at heaven but he saved you for a purpose. There's a meaningful purpose. There's a divine destiny that God has for you this morning as a Christian. Now I want us for a few moments to really take a look at the benefits of having a vision. Why is it important for us victory outreach la Puente to have a vision okay? There are benefits and there's reasons for it. Positive reasons. Let me give you the first one. You see when we have a vision and when God's people have a vision and a congregation gets a whole of the vision the first thing that happens it begins to bring morale. In other words they unifies people. Vision will always unify a group of people. Listen to what it says in 1 Corinthians 1 and 1 verse 10 in the living Bible it says, "Left there be real harmony so there won't be any splits in the church and it says, 'Be of one mind united in thought and in vision.' And I like that scripture that we have united or that slogan that we have united we can." That is the theme of our upcoming conference. It builds morale. It unifies people. People are united together under a vision. A common vision reduces always conflict within the church and again Proverbs 29 verse 18 says, "Where there is no vision the people. will perish. So then it is important for our congregation and for not only a pastor, but a congregation to be able to have a vision. And nothing is more discouraging for our congregation than having no clear reason for their existence. If the only reason you come is to be here and sit here on Sunday morning and sing a few songs and go home, then it is a sad situation. If all we're doing is gathering together so we could have a blessed meet time and a blessed meet club, then it's a very sad situation. If there is no clear reason for our existence, thank God that the Lord saved me and I'm able to point and say, "Man, God saved me for a reason." And God gave me a mission and He brought the urgency in my heart of the mission that He called me to. And I've been focusing on that mission for over 27 years in the same mission, the same vision that God has placed upon my heart. See, so it is very important then for us to have a vision. And the first thing it does, it builds around secondly. It also reduces frustration. And Isaiah chapter 23, it says, "You Lord give perfect peace to those who keep their vision firm and trusting you." See, a vision reduces frustration because not only does it define what you're to do, but it also defines what you're not supposed to do. See what I'm talking about? In other words, division, what it does, it lets us know whether we're on track or whether we're not on track. It reduces frustration because we know what our job is and we know what we're supposed to be doing. And if we're doing something else, we have no business doing it. So what it does, it also reduces frustration. Paul said in Philippians chapter 1, verse 28, "He wanted to see the church standing with one common vision." In James chapter 1 and verse 8, it says that the life of a man of divided loyalty will reveal instability at every turn. So it reduces frustration. Number three, not only does a vision reduce frustration, but also a vision allows concentration. We could concentrate on something. If you know what you've been called to, in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 13, it says in the living Bible, Paul says, "I'm bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing." You know what's with Paul said? Paul said, "I'm a specialist. I'm not a generalist. I am a specialist. I'm bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing for getting what is behind and looking forward to what lies ahead. I pressed toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Now, why do you think Paul was so powerful? The reason why he was so powerful is because he knew what God had called him to. He knew that on the road to Damascus, the Lord apprehended him, and he says, "I have been apprehended of the Lord, and I'm going to be faithful to the calling that God has placed upon my life." And he dedicated his life in reaching the Gentiles. He says, "I am a de Apostle to the Gentiles, and I'm going to go after the Gentiles. Let Peter go after the Jewish nation. I am going to go after the Gentiles in which I was called." And he dedicated his entire life to that purpose. He brought all of his energies to bear on this one thing, forgetting what is behind and pressing forward to what lies ahead. He pressed toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. See, when you have a vision, you know what you're looking for, you focus on it, and it helps you to be effective. And the only way a congregation could really be effective is when they understand the mission and the vision that God has called them to. Number four, it also attracts or should attract cooperation. See, a vision always attracts cooperation. There's always going to be people that are going to rally around someone that knows where he's going. I don't know about you, but I hate to be in a church that doesn't have a vision. If I'm in a church that doesn't have a vision, that church doesn't even know where they're going. I mean, you don't even know what they're doing. And sad to say, there's a whole lot of ministries like that around the world that if you ask them the purpose of the church, they don't really know they can't define it for you because they're all confused and don't know what the purpose and the vision of the church really is. So when a church has a vision, it attracts cooperation. People like to get around a ministry that is going somewhere. And then number five, it will also assist evaluation. How could you evaluate if you don't know what you're supposed to be doing? You see, you need to evaluate, to examine, to heed whether you're going in the direction that you're supposed to be going. So when a congregation knows their ministry and knows what they're supposed to be doing, then you could evaluate yourself. And that's what I do many times. I evaluate where we're going. I evaluate where we are. Are we on track? Are we getting diverted? And if we're getting a little bit diverted and I come right back again to the mission and to the vision that God has called us to. So these are the benefits. But not only am I bringing out the benefits this morning, but it's very important you could have the benefits, but if the people don't get a hold of it, then you have problems. It's not only good enough for the pastor to have a vision, but somehow that vision needs to be communicated to God's people. You hear that? It is not enough to simply define the vision, but we must be able to communicate it. And the pastor is always the keeper of the vision, because the vision of the church will never be larger than the vision of the pastor. The pastor needs to constantly be clarifying it and communicating the purpose of the church, or the vision of the church to the staff, and the key leaders, who then are the messengers to give it to the other people, and the other people carry it on. And before you know it, it filters out through the entire congregation. Now, this is one of the most difficult things to do. And I want you to listen to me very carefully now. I want to get to the nitty-gritty. One of the most difficult things to do is for me to take what's in here and place it in your heart. See, sometimes there's even misunderstandings sometimes, because you don't know what's in your pastor's heart. Somehow you don't know what's in your pastor's heart. You come to church. You don't really know why your pastor says this, or why your pastor says that, or why we do this, or why we do that, because you don't know. You don't understand the vision of your pastor, and many times the vision of his church. And for some pastors, it really becomes frustrating for them to be able to, they feel they know what God wants them to do, but they have a hard time in transmitting it into the hearts of their people. And that's a frustrating experience, when they can't transmit it. And sometimes it will determine whether that church is going to be successful or actually fail. And there are many ministries that have actually failed, because somehow the vision was not communicated and transmitted into the hearts of God's people. You see, the only way I declare to you this morning, the only way we're going to accomplish what God wants us to do is not singularly, but collectively. It has to be God's people getting a whole of God's mandate for the church and for their lives. Not only locally, but also around the world. Now, how do you communicate? How do you pass on a vision to people? Well, let me share with you the way that I find that I do it. And I found that it's become effective, and we've been able to do it. We have now churches all over the world, so somehow we've been able to pass it on. Now, there are five steps in passing on a vision. Number one, the first step is this, that we need to expose people to the vision. And you know how we expose people to the vision by modeling it? If a person has it, somehow you will expose them to it, because it would automatically what you have inside is gonna come out. So if I have inside, worldly evangelism, like my wife, she has inside of her, worldly evangelism, reached the world. She's involved in worldly evangelism. You see flags and all these flags here are saying something that's, you know, we're involved in reaching the world. All these flags here. And when I speak to you, I speak to you about planning churches, I speak to you about taking the world, I speak to you what's happening in Chicago, I speak to you what's happening in other parts of the world, because there's a vision inside of me. It automatically comes out. So I begin to expose people to the vision. I think that's the first step in exposing people to the vision. And there, I believe all of you. I don't think there's one person here. If you come a few Sundays, you've been exposed. And if you've been here any longer than that, you've really been exposed. But it doesn't necessarily mean because you're exposed that you really have it. There are some of you that all, the only level you are in, the only level you're in in the vision is that you've been exposed to it. See, you've been exposed to the vision. So that, but that's the first step. That's the first step. Then the second step is not only exposure and some of you have only gone as far as exposing you to and we haven't been able to any further than that. I want you to think about it, some of you are on that level of just being exposed. But then there are others that are on the second level. And the second level is not only being exposed but after a while there are people that begin to participate in the vision. They get exposed to it, they like what they hear and then they want to participate and they participate by getting involved by doing. And somehow we try to get everybody to participate. And some of you whether you know it or not you've been participating in the vision even if you don't have it you've still been participating in it. You didn't know it but you know it now. And I tell you how you've been participating. You get the people to participate in the vision through prayer. What do we have recently? All night prayer meeting. And then we were touching, we had prayer meetings. Who do we have it with? It was still in the vision. We were with praying with everybody around the world and there was a whole lot of place. The place was packed out with people. And some of you came to just check it out. But as you checked it out and you got into that prayer meeting you participated in it. This morning if you gave in your offering, whatever you gave even if you gave a dollar, even if you gave 50 cents, even if you gave a quarter within your offering plate, you were participating in the vision. We participated by praying, we participated by giving. You participated by just even sitting down here and just being a listener. As far as your participation is being a listener sitting down but you're participating by just sitting here and congregating with the congregation. So people participated in conferences and also discipleship as well. So there's a participation also working like the girls have been working and everybody's working because we're the mother church and you're helping out and somehow you've been recruited and they got you involved in working towards the conference or maybe participating by hosting somebody but you're participating. But even hosting or participating doesn't necessarily mean that you have the vision yet. In other words you haven't become owner of that vision so there's the participation. Then after that once you start participating you will find that you begin to like it. Because once you participate you're being used of God. You're getting involved in something. You're getting involved in a cause. Even though you don't fully understand that cause but you're getting involved in a cause and I don't care who it is. Whenever you get involved in a cause you feel good about it because you feel that your life has some meaning. Before I didn't have any meaning whatsoever. You were idle but all of a sudden you just get involved even though it's a small part but you're participating in something and there's a good feeling behind it. Even just hosting somebody, taking somebody into your house it's a good feeling behind when they leave you say praise God. They were blessing to me and I was a blessing to them and they asked you about the visions. I don't know understand too much about it but I know as I go to the church there and they ask me to do something and I'm doing it anyhow. But don't ask me too much because I don't really know too much about it but all I know is that I just wanted to help and that's what I'm doing. I am helping. So there's a good feeling to see the participation but after you begin to participate then the next step is you begin to identify. You begin to identify with a vision. In other words you become receptive to it. You become sensitive to what we're trying to do and you become a believer. You begin to believe I believe in Pastor Sonny's vision. I believe in the church vision. Don't you dare talk about my church. Don't you dare talk about my church because I believe in what's the vision. I am in and I know all about it but I believe in it anyhow. I identify with what my pastor is doing. I identify with what my church is doing. All I know is I may not understand it all but I see good things happening and I see good results and I see people getting saved and I see the glory of God and I feel the presence of God in that place. So now you begin to identify. Now you begin to defend me. Now you begin to defend with it. You know they could say, "Well, you know what you're right. I guess so probably." I'm only there for a season. But once you begin to identify with it, "Oh, it hits home. Don't you dare talk about it." I may not have it but I identify with it. In other words, when you begin to identify at that particular level, now you're plugged in. It's not your vision but you're plugged into your pastor's vision. But it's still the pastor's vision and you haven't become owner. It's of that vision. You have not yet claimed ownership of it. But that getting you getting close now, if you're at that level and there are some of you that are at that level, you're pretty close to ownership. And it's just going to be a little while. I think this conference will probably do it. But the next step is after you begin to identify with it, the fourth step is it's internalized. That's the next step. You internalize the vision. In other words, once it becomes internal in you, even now, if you have it inside of you, what I'm speaking, you get excited about it. If you don't have it inside, well, "Huh, who cares?" It could even become boring to some people. Well, I don't want to get up and just walk out. You could care less. You could be sitting here and care less about what I am saying and what I'm speaking to you about. Then it hasn't been internalized within you. And it very well could be that you've been here for years. There's some that could be there for years and maybe 10 years, five years, six years. And it still hasn't been internalized. And now there are reasons sometimes why it's not internalized because you shut yourself out. Somehow you don't want to get involved. Somehow you become hard. Somehow you're interested. You're so involved in some other interests that you're not involved in the interests of God's work. Somehow you're so selfish that you just caught up on yourself and you haven't been looking at the needs around you, the needs in the world, the needs in your community. The needs of people around you and God involved in some meeting, some of those needs. But when that happens, you're missing out on a blessing. Once the vision is internalized in you, something happens to you. Your life is totally revolutionized. It becomes part of you. You begin to feel the vision. It develops all of a sudden you begin to develop a sense of destiny within your life. You say, "I don't know, but God has a plan for me. I may not have much, but oh, how I feel inside of me. I just feel that God wants to use me. There's something special that God has for me." And somehow the Lord has brought me to this church because He wants me to get involved and He wants me to be a blessing and He wants me to help and see this vision become a reality. See those people that are yelling, they got it. That's something you'll be sitting there. If you don't have this, then what do you have? What do you have? What do you live for? You live for yourself? Isn't that selfish? You think God saved you just so that you could just live for yourself and just myself, me, my family, I. That's it. You come to church? Well, feed me. They say, "Do something. Well, let somebody else do it." We so easily forget where God has brought us from. You know what breaks me? I always try to remind myself where I can. We could become so religious, so religious that we actually forget where we came from. Think about it for a moment. Think about who you were before. There's somebody who said, "Well, why not?" There's somebody who will whine us, thinking real bad. And now you get saved. And it's just a one way direction and doing nothing for God? Nothing for that? It doesn't matter where our background is, doesn't matter where we come from. If you've been saved and gotta set your free, you don't have to be a drug addict to be grateful. All you know is that once you were lost and now you're found, once you were blind and now you see, you didn't have the joy and the peace that you now have. You don't have the future that you now have. But how easily we get diverted and get sidetracked and everything else that don't, to tell you honestly, it don't amount to hellabies. Don't amount to anything. You know the only thing that anything amounts to it is things that are eternal. Everything else is gonna be done away with only things that are eternal. And somehow, if God has brought you here, there's a tremendous opportunity. I mean, God has a reason to bring it. You're sitting here not because of a coincidence. You're sitting here because God brought you here. You're sitting here because God willed it to be so. Somehow God has says, I'm gonna take Mary and I'm gonna take Johnny and I'm gonna take Mike and I'm gonna take this one and I know the place that they need to be. They need to be in victory outreach. I want to join that mighty army. I want the pastor to share with them the vision. I want them to get a hold of it. I want them to become part of that army that gets a hold of that vision and it's internalized inside of them so they could go and accomplish my purpose and reaching Jerusalem to the Asamaria and onto the most parts of the world. Oh, Halle, Lucha. And for the life of me, and some of you guys that were bad dudes before, dedicated to the gangs, they get saved and they become spiritual whips. (crowd cheering) Out! Now I'm hitting them. (clears throat) No, no, no, no. God has a purpose for us, and we need to internalize it. We need to have it internalized inside of us. And you know what happens? Once it is internalized, what happens to it? What do you think happens? Once it is internalized. Once you have it inside of you, what are you gonna do? You're gonna go out and share it. In other words, it becomes contagious. Just like the woman at the well, what happened to her? She got saved and what happened to her? I mean, she was an inner city woman, right? She was a Lucha, right? And by the time Jesus finished with her, he transmitted what he had inside of her. She got so turned on, the Bible says she left the water pot and she ran into the Asamaria and she started telling people about it and she brought about revival within Asamaria. (crowd cheering) She was consumed with it. In other words, once it is internalized, you can't help but go somewhere, begin to share it, you begin to identify with it, that you begin to transmit it also to other people. And it starts a holy, go spiritual revolution that begins to take place. You know what we need here? Victory outreach leaders that are transmitting it. We need transmitters. Not babysitting. Now we know sometimes you're spiritually babysitting. We need to be transmitting. Once you got it, you go in your Bible study in your small group or every you're involved in and you're transmitting, you're transmitting, you're transmitting. Somehow your influence has a powerful influence into the life of an individual within the life of another person that totally spiritually revolutionizes that life. I'll tell you, you say has anybody, have you seen anybody that the vision has been internalized and they're transmitting it? Yes, you know how, look at all these people. I can't help but think of a whole lot of people that have caught it, got a whole of it. You know who got a whole lot of people in Chicago? What do you think, Tina happened to Tina? Sister Tina. I saw her just a few days ago in Shaitan, Chicago. And she misses everybody. But she says, I'm here. I'm here because God has a purpose for me. And I am part of God's divine plan and the part of the vision that God has called us to. And I am here to help brother Pete evangelize Chicago for Jesus Christ and Jesus I'm excited about it. David and Donna all the way leaving their comfortable place over here in the Mother Church and going to a horrible city like New York City into the inner cities of New York to work with those hardcore Puerto Ricans and those hardcore Italians like Jimmy Pinto and some of these other guys. But they went, they says, I got a whole of it. It's been internalized inside of me and I got to go and take it and I got to share it and give it out. People that have gotten a whole of it and once you got a whole of it, it begins to totally revolutionize your life. So internalized. And my prayer is that more people in victory outreach get internalized with the vision that God has given to you pastor. And believe me, I mean, I've been with the same thing all these years. See, and because we're specialists, some people can't be in an atmosphere like this. Don't worry, when you see people leave it could be God's will for people to leave. You see? Because if you're not with it and somehow you're not with it and you say, I don't like it, I don't even like what you guys talk about, then you don't belong here. I don't like this reaching the inner city, confidence is out, man, yeah. Drug addicts, guys, that's not me. I want to go to church where I could just sit down and get deep in the way. I want to hear spiritual truth and revelation. And you hear all these things and what do you do with them? You go Sunday, you hear them and then you go back home, do nothing, go back Sunday, hear them again, go back home, do nothing, get spiritually fat and fat or and fat or and fat or until you finally explode. Believe me, this is not an easy ministry to belong to. I mean, everywhere you go, you hear commitment, commitment, raising soldiers, straight meeting, conference, prayer, taking the world. This is not an easy ministry to belong to. After why you start getting on a guilt trip, you know? But I think we need to ask ourselves a question. I've got to ask you here, I've got to ask reasons for that. What do you think? You think that God knows what he's doing? He's your dose. If God is brought here, you don't have to, God works in strange ways. You don't even have to be a drug addict to be part of this church. What I see is God bringing people from all walks of life and he says, I want to put them all together and I'm bringing them for a purpose. So they can be part of what I am doing and I want them to commit themselves to that purpose of what I am doing. So God works in mysterious ways and once it's internalized, you never again to say, let me move a little quicker now and I'm going to finish. So communicating the visions is very important. Now, what we do now, and I want to share this with you, if you didn't get anything, get this. What we do now, and I tell you this with a sense of note of urgency, victory outreach, that went there. What we do now will shape the destiny of our future. I believe we've come to a place now. We're at a place where God is giving us marching orders. We're at a place that God is saying, I want you to step out. I want you to step out. And what we do now, how we act and how we behave towards God's divine will shape the destiny in the future of this ministry. And even the future of your life. Now, there's always going to be people that will always be laughing at you whenever you have a vision. People always laugh and mock visionary people. You see this throughout the years. You know what they do? They say it can't be done. When I say about putting a building over here, when I say about reaching the world for Jesus, this is going to be the headquarters of a tremendous move of God that God has raised in our poll over the world. (congregation cheering) So I'm looking, say, there he goes again, you know. Talking nonsense, talking big talk. There he goes again, how you gonna do it? And how you gonna get the money? And how is it gonna be done? You know what they told Paul? They left that poll and they mocked them. They said, you're crazy. You're much learning has made you, you know, you mad. Paul is saying, "I am not this obedient to the heavenly efficient Paul, not a sharing why he was called on the roads of Damascus. God got a hole in me and I'm a apostle to the Gentiles." And what happened? And he was sharing it and the king rises up and says, "You're crazy. You're much learning has made you mad." And how many people, even people have got think one is crazy when you speak of reaching world, and world evangelism, of reaching cities of establishing a headquarters that's going to touch the globe. People will always say, "There's always people that say you're crazy. You can't be done." Many people do not believe it is possible to do what God has called us to do. But I'll tell you this, how many know that God is faithful to His promises? How many know God is faithful to His promises? If God has called us, you can rest assured that God will be faithful to what He has called us to do. Let me finish and just give me just five more minutes and we'll throw. Would you do that? There will be five minutes. Okay? We have a reference point to look at. You know, when I talk to you, I'm not talking to the sight of my mouth or sight of my neck. What do you guys say then? How do those guys say it anyhow? Sadiya and mouth, Sadiya and neck. They say something, even say more than Sadiya and neck, you know, whatever. You know what reference point we have? What do we have to look with? It's God been faithful to our ministry? Look back. Where has He brought us from? Just being in Chicago, I go in there and I see victory out of each people. There's about five churches in Chicago now. Then Detroit and all those people coming together and all those black brothers and sisters and Puerto Ricans and Mexican and white and everybody getting together and they'll have something in common that we're going to take the world for Jesus. Christ, you know, I go different parts of the world and that's what I see in London. You see those Londoners and all those, they come and they talk a different way. I say they all jab, cheerio and then they come out and even with their slaying and everything, they have the same goals, the same vision and I see God read that it raised people when I think about couples that were sitting here, just like you're sitting here this morning that God has raised them up and sent them out all over the world. We see them for filming over and over of God's divine promises that He's true to His promise and everything that He says, "We'll come to pass because He's a faithful God." So if you're an unbeliever, I don't know what's going to make you believe. I don't know what in the world's going to make you believe. I think we have our brother right now. It's Robert in Brazil right now. Robert's in Brazil spying out the land. He just came from Holland. He was only here short while. He's back again and mission feels spying out the land pretty soon. Him and his wife will be going to Brazil to work for God. What makes these people do that? What makes Joey go to England and go to the British out? They won't work for brother Sonny. Somehow it was internalized that Joey and his precious wife, they go to England and he's ready to lay down his life in England on the pain and whatever it is, he gets up and preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ because there was a sense of mission, a sense of destiny within his life. He got ahold of it. God had a purpose for him. So God is faithful. And then last I finish with this, that if we're going to accomplish what God has called us to do, we need to be people that will need to sacrifice. That's what I'm getting at this morning. Let me say the word again. Should I say it? Sacrifice. Repeat it with me. Sacrifice. Somebody said, "ouch." Say it again, come on, say it and if a person does not say it next to you, hit him over on the side. Say, "sacrifice." Look at the person next to you and say, "sacrifice." That is calling us to sacrifice. And God, see great ministries and great people only come through great sacrifice. That's the only way. And God has given us a task and He's given us the task so that He could stretch our faith and the only way we'll accomplish is through sacrifice. Sacrificing of our talents, sacrificing of our lives and also sacrificing of our finances. And this morning I pray to God that you'll be able to say like Paul before King of Grypper that he said, "I have not been this obedient to the heavenly vision." As victory outreach, we could stand and say, "we have not been this obedient to the heavenly vision. God is calling you. God is calling you to sacrifice this Lord." We pray that this message has encouraged you to grow in your walk with God. To hear more messages, visit www.visionintlstore.com. Thank you for listening. God bless you.