Earthing a Vision (Part 1 of 2)

Music playing. We've all heard the expression, it's the thought that counts. Most of us have plenty of thoughts, but maybe we've lacked the initiative to make our intentions truly count. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains that when God plants a vision, action follows and vision is turned into reality.

We continue in Nehemiah chapter 2. If we're going to be effective in leadership, we have to be able to translate that into the most practical of terms. And in ways that are understandable both to those who will be following us and particularly those who will be engaging in the tasks, which is what of course we find here. Now, I'd like to trace a line through this by giving you a number of words. I think there are some eight of them, if I remember. Yes, there are eight words.

So I have eight coat hangers on which I'm going to hang the clothing, as it were, of our material. The first word may take you a little by surprise. It emerges from verse 11, I went to Jerusalem and after staying there three days. The first word is relaxation.

Relaxation. This is the kind of sentence that I think most of us are tempted to overlook. It's simply a point of information.

It gives a chronological footnote, as it were, to what's going on. I'm tempted to suggest, and of course we have to be aware of eisegesis always, but I'm tempted to suggest that there is something here that we could very quickly overlook and miss something in so doing. Wouldn't we expect that after he had been anticipating this for so long, after he had made this journey of all of these hundreds of miles, after he had finally got within the precincts of the realm of opportunity, that he would immediately get down to the business? Well, if we had anticipated that, of course, that is not what has happened. He gives himself these three days. And they probably included the Sabbath.

Again, we can't say with conviction, but it would seem that that would at least have established part of the framework. And in that, he recognized, it would seem, that rest is a necessary part of useful action. It is not something to be overlooked, neglected, denied. It tends to be, in many of the models of contemporary business life, where successful leaders in the world of commerce and industry are seen being able to make the transition from continent to continent and from plane to plane and office to opportunity with the minimum of fuss and with the maximum of ease. Within the realm of church activities, that can easily become the case also.

And it is not a good model, I would suggest, for us to begin to follow. Rather, we need to learn how important it is to take time to rest and to relax. In Ezra, in the record in Ezra, and in chapter 8 and in verse 15, we read, I assembled them at the canal that flows towards Ahava, and we camped there three days. In verse 32 of Ezra 8, on the 12th day of the first month, we sent out from the Ahava canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from the enemies and bandits along the way, so we arrived in Jerusalem where we rested three days. So there seems to be some pattern here, some anticipated modus operandi that was essential in the unfolding of the actions to which he was coming.

It makes perfect sense. The journey from Babylon to Jerusalem was a long one, and after such a long and tedious trek, the task to which he was about to give himself was absolutely crucial, and therefore it was imperative that he stopped, and he rested, and he collected himself before he went on. Now, let me just make two very practical points. First of all, most of us in pastoral ministry ought to beware of talking about how tired we are. I've noticed in moving around places that I keep meeting these characters, and I see them in the mirror, namely myself, and we can often sound as though we're working exceptionally hard, and by observation, I don't know that many of us are. In comparison to many of our lay elders who are just about killing themselves, fulfilling the responsibilities of their day and daily routine, trying to exercise the jurisdiction of father and husband, being faithful in the responsibilities of ministry within the church, and also in the oversight of what's going on, it is, I suggest, a word of necessary caution to the wise to quit with the assertions of our great fatigue. There are fewer callings in life that afford such unbelievable opportunities to do virtually nothing that are equal to pastoral ministry. Most of us are not in danger of burning out.

Let's face it, rusting out is a distinct possibility, collapsing under the weight of muffins. Their problem is not overactivity, trust me. Now, I say that because what I'm about to say is the reverse of it, but I don't want, especially if we have some lay elders here, anybody to think that we think, you know, oh wow, you know, we're really doing the job. Now, having said that, it is possible to get tired. And there are things that are demanding upon us, and we know from experience that usually we are the last people to identify how tired we are. And what happens is that we diminish in usefulness, we diminish in our ability to cope with the day-to-day routine, we tend to be snapping at people and responding to people in a way that is less than marked by Christian grace.

And therefore, we need to take a significant look at how we are endeavoring to fit relaxation into the framework of our establishing a vision. When we find ourselves overtired, there are a number of things that we shouldn't do. Number one, we shouldn't make important decisions. Number two, we shouldn't write important letters. Number three, we shouldn't launch new projects. Number four, we shouldn't shut down old projects. Number five, we shouldn't quit. Number six, we shouldn't assess somebody else's spiritual condition.

And number seven, we shouldn't assess our own spiritual condition. Because most of the time, we will be warped in our perception of what's going on. And again, it will often take someone who knows as well to point out the predicament that we're facing. Because the more tired you become, the more you tend to increase your frantic activity level, because you can tell that in soccer terms, it's taken you longer to get to the ball. When there's a loose ball, and so it just tyrannizes you, and you just try harder and harder and harder. When in point of flight, what needs to happen is that you need to be substituted. Because you have now lost the ability, you've lost your pace to make it to the ball, and it takes wisdom around to do that. Nehemiah was clearly wise, and he understood the importance, not of laziness, but of relaxation.

I probably said more on that than I should. But anyway, the second word is motivation. Motivation in verse 12.

I set out during the night, I had not told anyone what God had put in my heart to do. In my heart is the key. In my heart. What was in my heart?

At the core of his being. What makes you tick, Nehemiah? Why are you involved in this? Why did you even show up?

What are you planning to do? None of this he had as yet shared with any of the people who were going to be involved. And this is very, very important, especially when we have within us a longing and a passion to see something happen. When we have the responsibility somehow or another to convey that vision to others who are actually going to be implementing the vision.

Because in the initial dimension of it, it is possible for people to respond in all kinds of ways and to look at us and to draw wrong kinds of conclusions. From the outside, for example, the observers could have seen Nehemiah come into Jerusalem and said, Oh, here we go. Here comes the empire builder. He simply come here to make a name for himself.

After all, why would you come 900 miles? Does he really think he's so significant? Do we think that we need him? Well, the fact of the matter was that under God, they did need him, and he didn't think he was so significant. And it was because he didn't think he was so significant that he was about to become so significantly useful. The wonderful paradox again, that those of us who think we are so significant will live our lives in insignificance. And it is a very awareness of our insignificance that may prove to be the pathway to significance. That in Christian living and ministry, the way to up is down.

I think probably he would be aware of those things as all who are in leadership are aware of these things. My mail when I came back the other day, and I had a significant amount of correspondence. And in the middle of that, I came to a one-line letter from a man who left the church because he didn't like a number of things in it. And, you know, if not liking a number of things in the church was a good reason to leave, I would have left myself long ago. But anyway, he had this letter and it said, Dear Alistair, Pride comes before a fall.

Love, Joe. So I said, well, that's a cryptic message. How should I respond to this? I said, I'll take it from the hand of God. Here I am with 65 or 70 pieces of mail that could give you, it's such a fat head that your wife wouldn't be able to sleep in the bed with you. And in the providence of God, just slots it in, says, hey, by the way, fat head. You liking this mail?

Try this one. God is a wonderful way of working. He speaks through Balaam's donkey and he can speak even through disenfranchised people, you know. See, Nehemiah was internally driven and whenever a man or a woman is a woman of passion, a man of passion, that is not simply a member of the bright ideas society, when they are driven by something that God has put in their heart to do, that something will become apparent to others. When you think of Paul explaining his ministry in 2 Corinthians 5, he says, the love of Christ compels us. It compels us. It drives me from the inside, he says. It's my great longing, 1 Corinthians 9, to win as many as possible.

That's actually the phrase in the NIV. What are you doing, Paul? I'm seeking to win as many as possible. What are you doing, Nehemiah? I'm coming here to establish God and his glory.

I believe God has sent me here. What burns in your heart? What is inside of us? What drives you?

What makes you tick? Relaxation, motivation, examination, verse 13. If we're going to earth a vision, then we need to rest in order that when we get on our feet we can go. If we're going to earth a vision, then we need to be motivated by a concern that is God-given rather than man-engendered.

Because in the words of Robert Burns, the best laid plans are mice and men gang after glade. I'll give you a translation later. Examination, by night I went out through the valley gate towards the jackal well and the dung gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem which had been broken down and its gates which had been destroyed by fire. And he describes for us this little reconnaissance mission. Clear in his mind about what needed to be done, sure in his heart about his motivation, he now sets out to see how it can be accomplished. I think this is where some of us fall down. In our eagerness to implement, we miss the reconnaissance part. And so when the engineers in our session who think in linear progressions and are really quite bright encounter this sort of artistic pseudo philosophical theological rambling going on, they're able to cut to the heart of it very quickly and say, I'm not sure you actually know what you're talking about here, Alistair.

It's very painful, but very helpful. And the reason that we often don't is not because we aren't motivated. It's not because we're not relaxed and ready to go. It is because we haven't done this part. We haven't taken the time to do the reconnaissance.

We haven't thought about it. Now look at the hallmarks of his examination. First of all, he did it quietly, quietly. I think that's the significance of the last phrase of verse 12.

There were no mounts with me except the one I was writing on. I don't think he's identifying the fact there that, you know, he had a donkey and no one else had a donkey. It's not the spirit of leadership, not servant leadership.

It's not Nehemiah. I think it's an expression of the fact that the last thing you want when you're doing this kind of thing is a lot of snorting and neighing. So he is not going to carry on with a bunch of these things. There is a time to be silent.

There's a time to speak. He doesn't come in with a big fuss, big bother. There's no posters. Nehemiah will be arriving next week. None of that junk. None of that classic American evangelical hype.

Sorry. You know, if your church is this size, you get this size of picture. If your church is this size, you get this size of picture. If your church is this size, you get the whole back page. If your church is this size, they don't even want to know who you are.

May the Lord forgive us for all of that stuff. Nehemiah comes into town quietly. Quietly. Some of us have a hard time with being quiet. He comes actually secretly. Secretly. That underlines why it is he's coming by night. He says it in verse 11, verse 13, verse 15.

And in verse 16, the officials didn't know where I'd gone or what I was doing. How does this fit with full disclosure? Well, there's a time for full disclosure, but there is a time for full disclosure. If you give full disclosure prematurely, people may not be able to handle the disclosure that you give. And furthermore, as I just suggested, we may be disclosing things that we haven't fully thought through.

And so instead of establishing a vision, we simply establish chaos, and it takes us ages to repair the breaches, and we have to go all around and come back and start all over again. I was saying to the gentleman who picked me up and brought me here from the airport this morning, he was asking about the transition from Scotland to America. And I said that after I'd been in this church for about three years, I suddenly realized I would have to start all over again. Now, I didn't tell everyone I was starting all over again, and only the perceptive would know, but I essentially had to start all over again. Because the first three years, I had all kinds of assumptions. The first three years, I shared all this wonderful material that nobody had a clue what I was on about. And I realized that Mark Twain was right.

Here we have two nations divided by a common language. And that the ropes that I was pulling, there were no bell ringing at the other end, because the rope wasn't attached to the bell. And the people who were the bells, as it were, that weren't making any noise couldn't understand why I was working myself up into such a frenzy pulling on this big bit of string.

So we had to come around again and start all over again. What was the problem there? I didn't do the reconnaissance.

I assumed too much too soon, launched into it. You see, I think he probably was secretive, first of all, to ensure that when he finally stated his plan, he knew it was feasible, and also to prevent his enemies via traitors from jumping on the strategy. So in terms of examination, it happened quietly, it happened secretly, and it happened methodically, methodically.

Silence and secrecy without this dimension would yield very little. He moves around. We're told he arrives at the king's pool, which in the New Testament we know as the pool of Siloam. Remember where Jesus told the blind man to watch. It's always exciting when you read the Old Testament, you realize how it fits with the New. The place that Hezekiah had built a tunnel from inside the wall to the pool, which was on the outside, to ensure a solid supply of water in case there was a siege. And if you've gone to Jerusalem in the last while, you will have gone down Hezekiah's tunnel, and you will have broken your back examining that.

That is exactly there. And as he does this reconnaissance methodically, he realizes that the wall had fallen down the steep terraces, and because it's fallen down the steep terraces, he's unable to proceed on his mount, so he dismounts and he leads his donkey. You can just picture him going around, building a picture of what needed to happen. Perhaps making notes of who needed to be involved. Asking God to make the concept clear in his own mind before he introduced it to the workers. See, that's the challenge, isn't it, of what we do in pastoral ministry. That if our responsibility is to edify the saints so that they can do the works of ministry, if we're going to do God's work in God's way, then it doesn't mean that we are the minister. I hope I'm not standing on toes here.

Nomenclature is not the issue. But the gentleman with whom I spent time this past weekend in Ireland was explaining to me how overrun he was, how demanding the task was, how the expectations were very high, and everything else. And I tried as graciously as I could to say, you know, you've got to start doing this biblically, and you've got to be prepared to live with a fallout that comes from implementing a biblical strategy and doing it methodically. In other words, if you take your little brochure on your church and look at what it says against your name, there's an inherent flaw right there. But the thing says, welcome to the church, and then it gives a list of the key people. Okay, now what's the first name? Right? Why do we go first?

Because we want everyone to know that we are the most significant person there. Is that it? I don't know.

Anyway, it's there. So we have the name—that's all right, maybe it's alphabetical—but underneath it says, The Minister. The Minister. Now, you don't have to be a rocket scientist sitting in the congregation to put two and two together and work this out. We put the money in the box so that the minister can do what the minister is supposed to do as the minister—namely, minister—and let him get on with it.

There's no reason for us to start interfering. So when the minister starts to discover a New Testament pattern for implementing ministry and discovers that he is not the minister, but that he is a pastor-teacher, that he is a shepherd, that he is a teacher, that he is a guide, that he is a servant, and as a result of the unfolding of the Scriptures, the people themselves become ministers, then it unleashes the church in ministry. But the challenge is, how do you do that? How do you do a reconnaissance during the night to find out where Joe and Mary and Fred and Bill and Agnes are all going to go and then tell them, There's a work for Jesus.

None but you can do. That's exactly what he was doing. Building a picture of who was going where. You're listening to Truth for Life and Alistair Begg with the first part of a message titled, Earthing a Vision. We'll hear part two tomorrow. If you've been enjoying our current series titled, The Pastors Study, you might be interested to know you can own all eight of these volumes for pastors and leaders.

It comes on a USB drive. You'll find it online at truthforlife.org slash store and on the mobile app. Just search for The Pastors Study. And tomorrow is the last day I'll be mentioning Sinclair Ferguson's new book titled, Devoted to God's Church. This is a book that Alistair and the leaders at Parkside found helpful, and he's here to talk with us about it.

Thanks, Bob. As I've often said, books by Sinclair excite me, they instruct me, and the insights in this particular book, Devoted to God's Church, are absolutely fantastic. Reminding us that we're called to far more than simply weekly church attendance. What it really means to be united with Christ, united with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I really can't say enough about it. We're studying it together here at Parkside, and I hope all of you will get a copy. Those of you who are listening, Bob will let you know how you can do that.

Thanks, Alistair. You can request your copy of Devoted to God's Church when you give a gift of any amount by clicking the image in the app or by visiting our website truthforlife.org slash donate. And if you'd rather mail your donation, along with your request for the book, Devoted to God's Church, you can write to us at Truth for Life, Post Office Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code is 44139. I'm Bob Lapine. It's not uncommon for pastors to deal with opposition and apathy when trying to establish a vision. How can they accomplish their God-given task without becoming disheartened? Be sure to join us tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.