Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Has God put a dream in your heart? A dream for a kind of marriage that you know would honor him? A dream for kids that walk with God and turn out in a way that you say, oh God, thank you. A dream that has to do with your work and him using you to reach others for Christ?
But down deep in your soul you say, I don't know how to turn even my God-given dreams into reality. If that's the case, stay with us. You can have a God-given vision, a burden so real you can feel it and still watch it go nowhere. Why?
Well, because a vision without a plan is just a wish. Today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram turns to Nehemiah chapter 2 as he continues our series, You Were Made for More. He'll show us how one ordinary man with a God-given burden turned four months of prayer into a blueprint. And why the great movements of God aren't held back by lack of resources, but by lack of vision and the faith to act on it. Here's Chip Ingram with today's message titled, Create a Strategic Plan.
Why is it that so many people sincerely desire to do so much, And usually, accomplish so little. I mean, I'm just going to go out on the limb and think that many of us who've had some sincere desire to, you know, I think God might want us to address this issue in our marriage, or, you know, we need to address this with one of our kids, or, you know, there's this person at work, a holy ambition. I think God wants me to do something here at work, or I'm new in a neighborhood, at least I am right now, and a sincere desire I have is to, you know, invite the neighbors over and get to know them. But I also know me that I've had that sincere desire before and lived next to people and not got to know them very well.
So why is that? And you might jot in your notes, the answer is good intentions. Good intentions. And what I mean by that is that there's I think there's this Psychology, I can't explain it any other way. That when God speaks to me, or when you have a very genuine, sincere desire.
And you really Believe that you are going to do it, you think you've actually accomplished something just because you have the desire. You with me there? It's like I really do care more about my neighbors than I used to care about them, or I really do want to address this marriage issue. And so, yeah, now I haven't really done anything, but that's a big step to get there. And so I think what happens is we think we did something.
When really what we did is we got aligned. to do something. Second question. Why is it that others who carefully prepare to do even a little? Maybe not very much, but they carefully prepare to do a little, accomplish so much more than they even imagined.
And the answer is a strategic plan. A strategic plan. Don't let that word scare you. You don't have to be in graduate school or go to Stanford or get an MBA from Harvard. We're going to find that some of the best strategic planning and thinking in any literature anywhere is in Nehemiah chapter 2.
And you're going to find a man with a leadership gift that has an impossible situation with a ragtag group with zero resources when he starts out is used by God through this strategic plan after his heart is dislocated, his broken spirit, and he takes this radical step of faith where God does through an ordinary person exceedingly abundantly beyond what he could think or imagine. And that's what we're going to learn. We're going to how to develop a strategic plan.
So open your notes, or as many of you are already there, I'll catch up with you. There's four things that we're going to see in this chapter, chapter 2, verses 5 through about 18. I put the text in there for you. And what we're going to see is there's four things very critical to developing a strategic plan. And this is what will take, you know, that good intention about your marriage, that good intention with one of your kids, that good intention as a single person to reach out and really get connected, that good intention at work, that good intention that you really want to kind of in your neighborhood.
A strategic plan Is what will turn that good-intended, God-shaped, God-deposited. idea or heart that he gave you into reality. First, it must begin with a vision. It must begin with a vision.
Now that word's thrown around in lots of different literature, so let me use it in sort of the way I'm... describing it here. A vision is a God-given burden. to see what could be and should be in a person, place, or situation. if God's power and God's grace was unleashed in it.
That's when I'm talking about vision here. That's what I mean. It's a preferable picture of the future. What would happen if you, if God's power and God's grace was unleashed in your marriage, or in your parenting, or in your singleness, or if His grace in this Particular difficult situation, or in this need, it's a God-given burden. Almost all great visions flow out of there's a big need.
There's a big need, the walls. Are down, the gates are burned by fire. There's a big need, this whole group of unwed mothers, there's a big need of Christians who have kind of gone through the motions and grown up in church and rejected Christianity, and they've not met an authentic, real Christ follower or what we call in our 12 Christian.
So it's a big need. What is the preferable future if you had unlimited resources. And a group of people were standing behind you, and they would line up to help you, and they have gifts that you don't have. What's the biggest need? What's the biggest burden that you can't even explain it at times when people start talking about it, or if you maybe see something on TV, or even a movie that touches on it, you just find emotions coming out that you can't shake.
See, you don't need to solve the problems of the whole world. But you need to be sensitive to what is it in your heart that when you're close to it and when you slow down long enough and when you get out of the busyness, God really begins to whisper to you: I want you to help that group, I want you to help that person. For me, It's the church. I don't mean just church work. I mean churches actually being the church of Christ, Christians who actually live out their faith.
Every time I get around people, when I see genuine life change, and when I see churches that just won't accept the status quo and see the biggest needs in their community and want to make a difference, I just tell you, something deep. inside of my heart. That's what I want to give my life to. It's a burden. That's my burden.
That's my vision. What's yours? The second thing is that it grows out of need, but there's a process of the heart. And there's a process of the head. Certain things have to happen in you.
That was chapter one. And then certain things have to happen through you. I put a little chart. Let me show you how this gets. Borne out in everyday practice.
In chapter 1, There's a problem, right? The walls. God's agenda. Chapter 2, we're going to get a solution. In chapter 1, it's in SUSE, it's in the comfort zone.
He's living in the lap of luxury. Chapter two, he's in Jerusalem, he's out of his comfort zone. But he's in the excitement and the center of God's will. Chapter one, it's about prayer, it's the process of discernment and formation. I'm only one person.
God, what do you want me to do? Chapter two, There's an answer. God confirms, this is what I want you to do. Chapter 1, there's a promise. He says, God, you know, I know you have an agenda, just like today.
We know God has an agenda for the world. He has an agenda for the poor. He has the agenda for Christians. He has an agenda for people that don't know him. Then Chapter two It goes from those promises to actual provision.
And God's going to resource that burden that He's put on His heart. Chapter one, there's a purpose. He clearly articulates, This is why I'm here. God wants me to rebuild that wall. Chapter two, there's a program.
There's timelines, there's peoples, there's resources. Chapter one, it starts with an individual. One guy. Just one guy, one business guy goes, I mean, what can I do?
Well, After four months of praying, he goes, Okay, I'm going to go before the king. I'll put my life on the line. I'm going to leave my comfort zone. Hear my send me. And the way it always happens, then...
A movement starts. For just a small group. And then pretty soon you're going to see by the end of this chapter, all the people of that city say, let us arise and build. In chapter one, it's uh perceptual. It's just an idea.
You know, someone ought to do something about that. By chapter 2, it's practical. There's a game plan. Chapter one, it's a heart issue. By chapter two, it's the head.
God did something in him, now God's going to do something through him.
So What's your vision? And what's the vision that you feel like is the top priority? And by the way, different seasons of your life, it looks different. And it might be, I don't mean just ministry vision as you think about, well, ministry at work or ministry here at the church or maybe ministry that you're involved in. I'm talking about, you know, the first and foremost ministry, if you're married, is with your mate.
The next ministry that's most important is with your kids. The next ministry outside of that is being the kind of person that shows up at work that actually lives like a Christian and loves people in authentic ways. My wife had a pretty difficult childhood. And her holy ambition It's very, very focused. She sets boundaries better than anyone I know.
And her holy ambition, was that God would give us the opportunity to raise kids. that would walk with him Love him with all their heart. find mates that love God as well. and then raise the next generation of kids that would make a difference for him. I mean, that was her holy ambition.
Now, she, you know, being married to me, I've been involved in lots of stuff, but she never felt compelled to run the women's ministry or do this or do that. You know, now she discovered her gifts and she was involved in different ministries, but I'm telling you. Man, we ate at 5.30. We read stories to our kids when they were little. We had a very specific plan that we were checking off all the years that they were in our home.
We had a plan about how they were going to learn about the opposite sex. We had a plan about how they were going to learn about money. We had a plan about which friends and who they're going to date. We had a plan about sending them out on crazy things that got really risky, that scared us to death. But we knew that was the only way.
that they would really discover and own their faith for themselves. But I'll tell you, her holy ambition has been focused and praying and investing in. And we knew that we couldn't control that, they're going to make decisions. But that was her holy ambition and dream. And now what I can tell you.
Is because of that kind of focus and a very dislocated heart, broken spirit, radical steps of faith, and a very clear strategic plan, she has been the rudder of our home. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll have more in just a moment. Remember, the place to go for all of these daily messages is over on our website, livingontheedge.org. There you'll find Chip's full teaching library, along with even more content like Chip's free daily discipleship tool to help you grow all week long. You can also download the Chip Ingram app absolutely free through any app store on your smart device.
Now let's continue with today's message from Chip Ingram. When our kids woke up at 5.30 in the morning, they saw their mom in front of the couch on her knees praying for them. I mean, she just had this holy passion about family. And I will tell you Those kids now, by God's grace, are all walking with God. Have all married mates that have a heart for ministry, and in different ways they're all in ministry.
I mean, one does it through physical therapy, and the other through preaching, and one writes song, and the other works with a nonprofit. But I just, as we're talking about vision, what's your vision? And what I've observed, and I mean this respectfully, because it's happened to me so many times, is what You get a vision for your home, you get a vision for work, you get a vision for ministry, and what happens is then you think about what it will really take, and you start thinking, well, these people, we might need some space, or oh, heaven forbid, we actually might need some money, or we might need some people a lot smarter than me. And you look at all the resources, and then when you see all the resources, you say, oh, well, this, you know, it can never happen. I mean, I'm just one housewife.
How can I help those people in the inner city? Or, you know, I'm just one business person. What can I do? You know, I just, I'm a software programmer. You know, I'm just a doctor, and, you know, my life is so full already, there's no way, but I've got this burden.
Most visions die on the operating table. of God's plan. because when we see how much resources it will take, We give up thinking. God can't do it.
So, you have this dream for an ethnic group. You have this dream for women. You have this dream for kids. You have this dream for kids around the school. You have this dream for your family.
You have this dream for other men that have addictions. You have this dream. And here's what I'm telling you. Where God's agenda is championed, God's resources flow. Where God's agenda is championed, his resources flow.
Don't start thinking about the how. Just get focused on the what and on the why. God will take care of the how. He'll bring people. Dream a dream, form a team.
He will resource the vision and he'll do something in you in the process. Nehemiah shows us how it works. Chapter 2, verse 5. And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, And if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me, radical step of faith. Where?
To the city in Judah where my fathers are buried, so I can rebuild it. That's his vision. That's his. Circle it. I can rebuild it.
It's just very clean, very clear. He didn't say, send me back to preach. Don't send me back to do a revival. Tell you what, there's a physical issue. I'm a business person, I've got a leadership gift, I've been praying about it, send me.
To rebuild it. Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, How long will your journey take and when will you get back? It pleased the king to send me, so I set a time. Circle the phrase, so I set a time. And he knew, I can only set a time when I know, here's the extent of the damage, here's the resource I need, here's how many people I'm going to need, here's about how long I better put a little margin and buffer into it, so he had a strategic plan.
Strategic plans don't have all the details. It has all the major building blocks and steps of how to get from where you are to where you know God wants you to do. He goes on.
So I said to him, If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of the trans-Euphrates so they will provide me safe conduct until I arrive in Judah?
So he needs protection. And may I have a letter to Aesoph, keeper of the king's forest, So he'll give me timber to make the beams of the gates of the citadel by the temple for the city wall and for the residence that I will occupy. He needs provision. Translation. King, I need your master card.
Yeah. And he has a broken spirit. He understands it's not about him. Here's his reason why he is so bold. And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my request.
It wasn't because I was a great leader. Was it because I'm persuasive? It's not because I had this great big vision that people ought to get behind. It's because the good hand of my God is upon him. And he knew his good hand was upon him because for the last four months he's been fasting and praying and seeking God.
And has said, this isn't about Nehemiah. This is about your agenda. And he's championing God's agenda.
So I went to the governor of the Trans Euphrates. I gave him the king's letters. And the king also, this is the exceedingly abundantly beyond when God provides. The key to the vision becoming a reality is a strategic plan. The key to a strategic plan is first and foremost: what's your vision?
You must have a picture of a preferable future. What is the burden on your heart that could be and must be in a person, place, or situation if the grace of God and the power of God was unleashed in it? And where God's agenda is championed, his resources flow. And here's how you get his resources. You ask the king.
So in him I did. I mean, he went from an idea to a prayer meeting, to a game plan, to can I go? And he says yes. And they say, and by the way, would you finance it? Really?
Will you finance it? King goes, yeah. You have a king that's a lot bigger than the king of Persia. Go finance it. You need staff, he'll give you staff.
You need ideas, he'll give you ideas. God will direct, God will fund it, God will resource it. I wrote a Very specific line in my notes I want to read to you. Great movements of God are not lacking because of lack of resources, but because of lack of vision and radical faith with a clear-cut strategic plan to accomplish them. God's just looking.
For a man. For a woman. And he'll give you eyes to see. Later, we're going to hear Nehemiah say, Big. What He shared with the people what God put in his heart.
There are needs. that prick your heart like no one else's. that make you tear up when you give yourself time to really think about it. There are needs that desperately need the grace of God and the love of God and the compassion of Christ to move into. And you are made differently than any single person.
And often God's provision is how He confirms. That You're on the right track. The biggest mistake we make is we wait for God to, well, God, when you bring all the people and all the resources, then we'll go. Nothing happens there. All those Old Testament pictures is the water parts when what happened?
They step into the water. It's moms going, I think my holy ambition needs to be first and foremost my family, and then I think I'll connect with children, or I think I'll connect with women. It's guys saying, first and foremost, my vision, I'm going to be a man of God. a man of integrity, but I've got some baggage and I'm going to help some other men get out of their addictions like I got out of mine.
So, in the next couple pages, Nehemiah will give us, I think, as good as any leadership book. And I don't have any formal training in it, but I've just read everything under the sun. To try and learn about strategic planning and leadership, and I will tell you what. Points 3 and 4, Nehemiah gives it as good as any book I've ever read. He's going to say, Your strategic plan must be birthed in private.
Must be birthed in private. Follow along with me in verse 11. He says, I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days, so he's gone from Susa, he went to the Guy with all the timber and said, Here's how many trees we're going to need. King says, So, here's his credit card. And now he's arrived in Jerusalem.
And after staying there three days I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. And by night, I went out through the valley gate toward the jackal wall and the dung gate, and I was examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. And then I moved on toward the fountain gate and the king's pool, but there wasn't enough room for my mount to get through.
So I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. And then finally, I turned back and re-entered through the valley gate.
So he literally, counterclockwise. If you had a map of this city, he goes all the way around. The entire wall.
Some places there's so much rubble he can't get through, and he's examining the extent of the damage. and what the situation is. And then notice his last line. He said the officials did not know where I had gone, so he's doing it secrecy. Or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or the nobles or the officials or others who would be doing the work.
There's some confidence, isn't it? I haven't talked to anyone yet. But these are all the people that are going to do the work. There's some faith.
So imagine he's coming to Jerusalem. And you've got to picture this, because we got to... He's like, not quite the vice president, but I mean, this is, he's coming from the right-hand man and the most powerful person in the world to a broken-down city. And for three days, he goes dark. I mean, he is not like he came.
Press conference, want you to know, guys, God spoke to me. I got the king's credit card. We're going to make this thing happen. You just listen to me, guys, and we can do it. For three days he says nothing.
In fact, when he wants to find out the real lay of the land, he does it at night.
So people don't even know what's happening. You've been listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and a message titled Create a Strategic Plan. We'll hear more from Chip in a moment. Living on the Edge has been part of people's strategic plan for growing in their faith for over 30 years. Not because it's the flashiest ministry or the loudest voice, but because week after week, this teaching has a way of meeting people right where they are and moving them somewhere they couldn't get on their own.
Marriages have been rebuilt. People have found direction. That kind of impact doesn't happen by accident. It happens because people who believe this work matters make a deliberate choice to back it. If you've been thinking about giving or giving more consistently, we want to invite you to make Living on the Edge part of your strategic plan for the gospel.
A monthly gift is one of the most effective things you can do to ensure this teaching keeps reaching people who need it. Give online at livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. And if you want to take a practical next step in discovering how God has specifically designed you, try The Real You. a free online assessment we've made that offers a biblically grounded look at your personality, your strengths, and your spiritual design. Take it free at therealyou.org.
We also want to encourage you to check out the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast, where you can hear complete full-length messages anytime. You'll find it in your podcast app, so subscribe today.
Well, now here's Chip.
So let me ask you: as you listen to today's program, How are you going to turn your good intentions into a strategic plan? What area, what is it that began to bubble up in your soul? What came to your mind as you listened to today's program? And as we think about that together, I want to remind you of the two points we covered today. In order for a strategic plan, To be used of God, it must begin with a vision.
What is your vision? What need in some other person, in some other group, sparks something so deeply in you that as I was talking today, it came right to your mind. Your heart started to beat a little faster, and you said to yourself, Wow, I didn't think I was a person that had vision, but maybe that's it. Let me encourage you, pursue it. Pursue it.
Ask God. Go after that. See if in fact He isn't in that. Second thing, don't be afraid.
Okay, remember what we learned? Don't be afraid. If you will champion God's agenda, what's the promised? God will resource you. All right?
He's looking for someone just like you whose heart beats fast for a specific need, and you step out and you'll find there's other people that'll get excited about that. And He will bring you what you need when you step out: money, time, resources. He's for you. He loves you. Come up with that strategic plan.
I hope you'll be with me on our next broadcast because we're going to talk about how to turn those good intentions into that strategic plan.
Well, I'm Dave Druy. Chip Ingram will continue our lesson about the kind of unhurried, private preparation that separates people who start strong from people who actually finish.
Next time, on Living on the Edge. Wow. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge. Uh
