We're going to speak about having vision today and our scripture is Habakkuk 2.2. The Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain upon the tables that he may run that reads it. So just as a way of introduction, especially for those that are online there, my name is Anthony Stander, and I was saved by the Lord Jesus Christ in 1985 in a maximum classification prison, where I was incarcerated for five armed robberies, one of them a bank robbery. And at the age of 23 years, lost and alone, Jesus found me, rescued me spiritually, placed me in his great kingdom, where I learned to find vision, hope, and purpose from a life that was utterly lost. I've had the honor of being involved in outreach to some countries in the East, mainly to an underground church in Muscat and Oman, Sri Lanka, India, and the Philippines. I was surprised that the sermon most in demand, can you believe it, was this sermon on vision. You go to a church and they say, listen, you preach that sermon at that other church, can you preach it here too? It was like, I've never seen something, anything that they could ask. This is mostly missing across the East. Even when I got to Oman, to that church, they asked me to preach on their sermon, you know. So, you know, it's obviously lacking in Christians, you know, having vision, you know. Churches and people lack godly vision. What is vision? Vision is the revealing of God's plan to the mind of man for him to undertake and complete. Vision is godly, okay? Everything that exists came about as a result of God's vision of creation. Imagine God's vision when he was thinking about the world, you know? And he thought, you know, he thought it out, you know? That incredible vista that must have appeared in his mind, you know? And what a vision did he have? None of us are accidents of nature. We've been created by God for purpose. Our creative ability is a transferred attribute from the Lord, which He desires to exercise in order to discover creative ways and to fulfill His purpose for us. Clear vision is what has propelled outstanding leaders to forge ahead with the destiny of their nation, overcoming all kinds of adversities. Any leader, you've got to have vision, isn't it so? You go to any big business today and you walk into their front door, You know, and they have their vision right up behind the desk, you know, and then they have their mission of how they're going to achieve the vision. And you can ask anybody in that place, what is the vision of this company? And they'll be able to tell you off by heart. You know, the world understands vision. But for us, vision means having a clear idea of what God wants us to accomplish. And we won't do this easily and we've got to do it by faith. And by faith we need to enter the spiritual realm through prayer and waiting on God to receive this vision and then bring it into the natural realm with the help of the Holy Spirit. I want to, if your vision doesn't scare you, you haven't got a godly vision. Your vision should terrify you for what you're going to do. You'd say, I can't do that. And when you've got to actually get to that point where you say, I can't do this alone, I can't do it. You're going to have to help me every step of the way. It's essential that we have vision because Proverbs 29 verse 18 says, where there is no vision, the people perish. God's got a lot to say about vision. If you've got no vision, the people die. The Hebrew word translated vision is shazon, which here means a divine revelation. Without this, people perish. That means they're in confusion or without restraint. One of the greatest sermons I ever heard was from Dr. Barnard, millions of years ago. It feels like, you know? I heard from Dr. Barnard and his sermon was on vision. And he started off his sermon by saying this. He said, a man without a vision is a man without a future. And a man without a future will always return to his past. And he gave the example of a man who set free from prison. And I know this is true. And he has nowhere to go. He has no vision. He comes out the door. He stands there. He has no vision about where to go. And because he has no vision, he has no future. So where does he go? He goes back to his past. He's back to Gilbride. All the dives and all the harlots and that's where he goes. Because that's the world he knows. And then the whole cycle starts again. A church or Christian with no vision will have no future. Exactly the same thing. And you will always go back to what you did before. Churches without vision don't grow. You know, people without vision won't grow. If you just happened, if you enjoy, if you're just gonna do the same things we did this year, next year, well then you're gonna have exactly the same outcome next year. There'll be absolutely no change in your life. There will be no growth and no change, stagnation or death. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 9, 26, I therefore so run, not walk, Not sit on his backside. In the kingdom, he says, I run, okay? Not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beats the air. He must have been watching the Roman boxers in Rome, you know, training. You know, he was in Rome for some time, you know, and he must have watched these guys because he likened us to soldiers of Rome, you know, and runners. And he thought, you know, he watched these guys. And he says he's watching his boxers. And so we must be like boxers in a ring who knock their opponent every time. Now, anybody that's done any boxing here will know how exhausting that sport actually is. It's extremely exhausting. And your opponent wants you to miss him as much as possible. Because every time you punch and you miss, you lose energy. You know, and for those of you who've been in the ring, you know how tired you can get. Absolutely. So they don't, they try and make every punch count. And that's what Paul said. I don't fight uncertainty. I fight not as one that beats the air. I'm not hitting and missing in the air. And lots of churches and people do that. They're dancing around the ring. The devil's in the ring, but they're taking wild swings and not hitting it. You know, and they're just, they're getting exhausted. And in the end, they give up. They just sit down because they're so tired. We cannot dance around and sometimes we hit something. We must be accurate, on target, excellent. And this can only be done by having a vision written plainly so that all can see and run the race that is set before them. When we understand our own personal vision, we need to have a church vision and a personal vision. And if you have a business, a business vision. When we write it down, we can plan to accomplish our vision. And we've always taught my kids, everybody, money, if you have a vision for God, you're not to worry about, I haven't got money to do it. I haven't got the ability to do it. My daughter comes up one day to us and says, my youngest daughter, she wants to go to UCT to study law. We're like, we got no money. What are you talking about? No, she wants to go, she says, and she's going, she doesn't care what happens. Well, she toodled down here to UCT and signed in, and then the day came for her to pay, we had no money. We said, go in faith. We got a phone call from Christine's boss at that time. He said, I hear your daughter's going to university. She said, I'm prepared to give her 100,000 for her first year. Just like that. You need to place your vision because there's no ways you can accomplish that vision. You need to make that vision there. And then you pray to God about how he's gonna get you there. And you walk as if you're going there. That's the way it works because God's vision will scare you. It will be absolutely out of this world. And that's how God, that's how we follow vision. So we could write a vision for our spiritual life. In other words, read the Bible in a year and you get a plan to do it in a year, stick by. Or we can write a vision and then set goals to achieve our vision. You know, we can, we must be ruthless in achieving things in our life. We are supposed to be the best version that God has made us. You know, there's that parable of the sower, and it says, some produce 30 bushels, some 60, some 100. What are you going to produce? 30 bushels, are you going to be satisfied with that? We've got one life, one chance. We've got to go for gold. You know what I mean? We've got to run this race. We've got to do as much as we can in our business, in our life, in our studies. We glorify God in our studies, our business, our life, our sport. We are good at sport. We are good at this. We reflect. We're always talking about God. We're giving glory to God. You know, when I was a young Christian, I mean, when I landed up in prison or whatever, I was terrible. I mean, I've just barely made school, I'm a trick. A leopard crawled in over the line, you know? And you know, I mean, there was, I really had a problem counting, which I'm sure is spiritual now that I know about it, you know? I couldn't count, it's a count of my fingers behind my back, you know? You know what I mean? But when I became a Christian, you know, and I understood the high calling of God in Christ, Somebody gave me some money to study inside, you know, and I mean, I was useless at studying. But I put God first and I went for it, you know, and I prayed over everything that I studied. You know, I read God's word and I prayed and I asked God to help me remember and understand. I got a distinction in mercantile law from barely coming through matric. You know, God's on your side. I want to just tell you that a couple of years back when the underground church was still running in Oman, the owner phoned me one day and he said, look, you need a better qualification. Maybe you can come and work for us here. So he said, I'm going to pay for you to get a further qualification at CPUT. So now going back to school again. Anyway, off I went. And I believe God, I read my Bible before I study. I asked God to help me understand it. And I really studied this whole thing. And there were architects on this course that they would say to do this course. And a whole lot of other people. And the day of the exam, and I go and I sit down. I can't remember a thing. They put the paper in front of me. Mind blown. I can't do everything. I'm looking, I said, oh Lord, help me now. You know what I mean? I've been praying the whole time. And I just took my pen and started writing by faith. And it started coming back. I got a distinction. I'm telling you, you will be surprised how God will bless you if you step out in faith. I can give you so many other different things that happened to me in that area. Here's a quick story. In the 1840s, two young men came to America from Germany. The older of the two was skilled in making sauerkraut. He immediately headed for the West Coast. True story. He bought land, cultivated and raised cabbage for sauerkraut. The younger brother had no skill, no profession. He decided to go to mining school in Colorado. When he finished, he went to visit his brother. His brother was proud of his business and took him to see all that he had accomplished. As they walked, he noticed that the younger brother that stopped him was kneeling. He ceased to pay attention to what his older brother was saying and just sat there rubbing the soil in his hands. Big brother came over and said, you're not interested in my work, you're not interested in what I accomplished. And the younger brother stood shifting rocks in his hands and he says, do you know what these are? The guy said, they're just quartz. Yes, but these yellow flecks are gold. You are raising cabbage field in a gold field. And that's a true story. It was the beginning of the great gold strike in El Dorado in California in 1845. And what this writer said is, what I fear is that in most of our churches, we are content to raise cabbage in a gold field. We're okay with where our lot. We don't want to change the world. I saw that everywhere when I went, that's probably why they like this lecture so much. The churches are dead. You know, they've got the one church in the Philippines, a big church, it's got one guy in it. It's a huge church, women and children. I'm like, where are the men? No, we don't have any men. Well, why don't you go get some? No, no, they won't listen to us. It's like mad thinking, you know? So we said, we want to go and outreach up this mountain here. We call them hills, they call them mountains, because we could see people were living up these hills. No, no, we said, where are we going anyway? So they came back. We landed up leading, I don't know how many kids to Christ that came out of those bushes. Then I saw this hat on the top of the hill there. I said, I want to go see that guy. She said, they said to me, no, no, no, he'll not listen to you. We've tried it. I said, I'm going. 15 minutes later, he's giving me laughter. You know, there's just no vision. God has given us all the ability to overcome everything of the darkness and overcome everything in this world. My daughter Abby's like that. She will take nothing. She believes God. She just goes on. She's been in the dean's list. She's done, you know, she went further, studied further. She's ruthless. She just believes God. She phones us now from England saying, listen, I've got an important meeting. Just please pray, you know, that I'm going to have favor. We pray. She phones back. It was great. Well, we know it was great. We know that, you know, we serve God. You know, and there were two law firms actually fighting over Omer's one stage. You know what I mean? So in Christ, all things are possible. What the characteristics of a God-given vision, number one, it is a motivational force of outstanding leaders. Godly vision produces Congress. A real leader doesn't stop until he finds out the purpose of God for his life, uses all his abilities and resources to fulfill it. Our vision must become our driving force. We should eat, sleep, and drink vision. 1 Corinthians 9, 24 to 25. Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize. Again, we're not walking. We're not sitting. We're running. And we're running to win this race. We're not gonna lose it. We're gonna do absolutely excellently in this race to the utmost of our ability. And he says, so run, Paul says, that you may obtain. You need to run this race. And it says, every man that strives for mastery is temperate in all things. In other words, he's watching these runners train. They eat the right food. They sleep the right amount of sleep at night. The boxers don't even sleep with their wives while they're training for six months. They're absolutely dedicated. for their strength. And Paul's using this typology for us. Every man that strives for mastery is temperate in all things, but they do it to obtain a corruptible crown. He says, these guys are training for rubbish, for crowns that fade. But we, an incorruptible crown, we are training for eternity. Everything that we do for Christ is for eternity in your bank account. You know, ask any missionary that. Why do they go live in the dirt of the world and in the worst places of hell on this earth? They know the reward is in the next world. And they're okay with that. They'll tell you that. Our reward is in the next world. We're okay. We'll suffer. We'll go through. We're doing it for them. A Christian should always be running, never standing, running to obtain something, striving for mastery over sin and the world, temperate, self-controlled in all things, overcoming all things. We've got to be ruthless in these things on Earth, man. You know, you haven't got a chance otherwise. The darkness is so great and the enemy, you know, will resist. But we mustn't worry about that. Everything we do in our life, whether studies or sport or play, we do it excellently and to the glory of God. So I changed my whole thinking in prison. You know, I was quite a bit of a pessimist in my life, you know, I'd always see the grass half empty instead of the glass half full, you know what I mean, you know? It's like, ah, you know? Which is why I never, I always got to second team rugby at school except for my matric year, but you know, I just never seemed to get to the top. But Christianity changed my way of thinking, you know? And I mean, I played sport in the first teams, you can't believe it, you know? I didn't even know myself anymore. Because I strove for excellence in absolutely everything that I did. Because of Christ, I prayed about everything. I used to read Psalm 18 before I go play soccer or rugby inside there, you know? And, you know, I'd be able to play to the best of my, utmost best of my ability. We are to shine in this world, you know? We are to shine as Christians. Everywhere we go, gee, he's a Christian, you know what I mean? And that's what we're supposed to do. And it really changed my life. You know, we do it, Lord, I'm doing this for the glory of God, you know, to let your name be glorified through me. Colossians 3, 17 says, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. That's washing your dishes, do it in the name of the Lord. That's studying everything that you study. God will not force himself upon you. I wanna tell you that right now. He will not force himself upon you. You need to ask him to help you. If you don't pray a day in, well, then the day's yours. And what happens in the day's yours, own it. But if you ask God and you place your day before God and you do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are guided. God will guide and lead you in everything you do. And if you ask God to help you study and learn and do these things and remember things, God's gonna help you do it if you ask him. Do all in the name of the Lord, you're giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. It's not a thing that we shouldn't be doing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This morning, my wife and I, we prayed again and put our day, ask God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to guide us in everything we do. Then I pray about my job that the guys are on. It's high job and it's dangerous stuff. And I pray, you wanna hear some crazy stuff. I mean, this is normal Christianity in our lives. The wind's pumping there, and the guys are up on high ladders. You can also hear, he's there. The wind's pumping there, and these oaks are on high ladders, you know? And it's dangerous, you know? I ask the Lord not to stop the wind, but to protect the block we're working on. There hasn't been a day when the guys haven't been able to work. And you've felt this wind that's been coming through. They've been fine. But you just walk around, a little bit further down, it's like, holding onto your, I've got to hold onto something. You know, we live in a world of miracles and power. God's power. He wants to be part of your life. He wants to share your moments with you. The Holy Spirit's not bored if you're sweeping the floor. You're doing it to the glory of God. Look at this in Daniel 1.8. It says, Daniel purposed in his heart. He made a decision. They've come out of captivity. It looks like God's let them down. Jerusalem is destroyed. His people have been chained by the neck, walked all the way from Jerusalem to Babylon, being whipped, beaten. They're humiliated. They've lost to this horrific Babylonian army. But Daniel, he don't care two hoots. He's serving God. and he purposed in his heart, I'm making a decision now, I'm putting God first in my life, that young boy did. It didn't say God made him, he did. And he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of eunuchs that he might not defile himself. He went boldly to the guy and said, it's against my religion to be doing all these things. I'm not going to party with you. I'm not going to drink with you. I'm not going to eat this stuff, you know, at all. And that eunuch was frightened, you know, if you read up on that, he was frightened. He said, you're going to get me killed. If you don't put on weight, you're going to get me killed. And Daniel said, don't worry, God will look after us. And they were better than all the other kids, eating vegetables and stuff. Daniel 1.17, how did God respond to Daniel and his friends taking that stand? It says, as for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. God said, hey, I can use this man. Doesn't say anything about all the other Jews that came out. They're not mentioned. They're joining the local customs, you know, cross with God. You know that song, by the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down, yea, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion, is them coming into the city of Babylon. And the people say, sing us a song. But Daniel, under all that, stood for God. So breakthroughs come through when we discipline our thoughts and desires to conform to the mind of Christ. Philippians 4 verse 8 says, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are good report, if there's any virtue, and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. We start to take control of our life in Jesus' name. I tell you, God's on your side. Gonna help you, I promise you. You know, it's His will for you to conform to the image of His Son. I don't care what addictions you got where they're going down, and you coming up now, if you put your trust in the Lord. That having a vision, it is power that gives life. A vision looks at the natural realm from a spiritual perspective. Now what I'm gonna tell you, every single intercessor knows this. If you can learn this, you will achieve much in the kingdom of God, okay? The vision looks at the natural things of life, okay? But you look at it from a spiritual perspective in order to decide what is required. Only then can things be seen with the eyes of God. You cannot look. You write your vision down. There isn't a snowball's chance of you getting that in the human. You can't look at it like that. You've got to say, Lord, that's what I feel that I must do. And it doesn't always have to be a pastor or whatever, you know, or missionary. You can be a doctor, like my daughter's a lawyer, you know. She's already shaken that world with her honesty, you know. One of the other lawyers came and phoned and said, you know, we don't get people like you anymore. I just want to tell you, he said to this young girl, you were so honest. I want to tell you something, that if ever you want a job, you come see me. You know, that's how we should be. We must shake our world around us. We are so honest, so strong, so powerful. The world cannot fathom us, put us in a box. They expect Christianity to be weak and broken, but we are not. You know, and so you've got to look at it from a spiritual perspective in order to decide what is required. Only then can things be seen with the eyes of God and the things that do not exist yet can be called as if they did. Scripture, Romans 14, the last section of Romans 4 verse 17, sorry. And God calls those things which be not as though they were. God calls things which be not as though they were. So we have taught, I don't know how many Christian mothers and fathers, and their children are struggling with maths, they're struggling with studies. And we say to them, you call that out of your child, and you call things which be not as though they were. You say to that child every day, mighty child of maths, you're gonna do well in your maths today, you're gonna understand, you're gonna be able to write those exams in Jesus' name. You call it forth. And I don't know anybody where that didn't come to pass. It came to pass with me. I've got a certificate in accountancy for who could not count. I could not count. I'm actually absolutely sure that not counting is a spiritual thing from my past, you know? But I'm just saying, you know, God, I'm telling you, you've got no idea the power that God has and has for you in your life and in your children's life. So this challenge was put to Ezekiel when he had the vision of the dry bones. Ezekiel 37 verse three. And he said to me, God said to Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones live? So he wasn't quite sure, but looking at this valley with all these bones, dry bones, and he didn't want to say no, Lord. He didn't want to say yes either, because he didn't know that was going to work out. So he says, oh Lord, you know. You know about these bones. And then in verse four, God says, prophesy to these bones and say to them, oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. The answer to that situation lay in the spiritual realm, not in the natural. Likewise, the change required in our lives and the ability to fulfill God's purpose is only achieved through divine intervention. There are forces in this world that are darker than anything many people can imagine. There are fouler things in this earth. And if we don't have God with us, you will not make it. It's only by the power of God that we face these creatures and these things of hell that lie before us. You know, the Battle of the Crusaders, Islam had invaded the whole of North Africa, taken it, killed all the Christians. They had generals who could number the amount of Christians that they killed. Swept into Spain, taken Spain. On the other side, Islam had swept up towards the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, taking everything before them. enslaving and killing the Christians. They had one million white European slaves at that stage, which people don't know. The Barbary pirates, a group that snatched from Europe already one million slaves. You know what I mean? Castrated the guys and the women were all in harems until some monk stood up in front of all the leaders and said, how long will you allow the Saracen to enslave our women and children? How long? Challenge the kings of Europe. Everybody says the Crusades was bad. Let me tell you something, it stopped Islam in its tracks. Took back Spain, took back North Africa. You know, it took back the whole section by the Byzantine emperor. We pushed them back. And the battle cry of the Crusaders was, Deus vult, God wills it. I read an account, a real account of Crusaders coming in in the first Crusades, you know? And they were praying all, actual story, he wrote the story, he wrote the account. These were guys who loved God, who wanted Jerusalem. They wanted to go walk where Jesus was. You know, I'm not going to argue the pros and cons of that now, but I'm just telling you, you know, all things are possible through the Lord. Vision can be reproduced by a successful leader. Jesus' vision was to redeem mankind from eternal damnation. I've got a vision, okay? Apart from that, there was no hope for man. If Christ would have failed at the cross, those 72,000 angels, those legions of angels that were standing by with their hands on the sword, just waiting for Jesus to say, I can't anymore, would have wiped us out. If you look at the history of the human race, God had not spoken to these people for 400 years. They were so back to them. You know, the violence of the human race was unspeakable by this time. So it was either salvation or judgment. And Jesus said, you know, I could at any time call on these legions to help me at any time. So we, Jesus vision was to save us. And apart from this, there was no hope for men. This vision could only be accomplished through paying the high price of shedding his blood and dying on the cross of Calvary. And then to find faithful and dedicated people to carry the message to the ends of the earth. that you find people to carry this message. Jesus' vision was mission impossible, save the human race. I mean, we were just so gone, and so bad, and so evil. But he was prepared to take it, win the lost at any cost, which is passed on to us now. We are too to win the lost at any cost. Our task is to adopt this vision and reproduce it in others, sharing the message of salvation, carrying it through the world, broken lives around us, picking them up, dusting them off. You know, it's making disciples of those that we reach, teaching them the word of God, watching the strength in their eyes come back to them. They feel self-worth again. You know what I mean? They feel like there's somebody again, you know, that you're giving them hope. We give the world hope. We smash the enemy forces in front of us out of people's lives, people's situations, and out of Africa if necessary. We must do God's work. You know, we must get this vision. So our task is to adopt this vision and reproduce it in others sharing this message. Strategies for success in achieving your mission. Declare that success is for you. We don't fail. We always win. Retreat's not in our language. No surrender, no retreat. Sometimes we get knocked down again, but we don't retreat, we stand up again later on. We have another go at it. Sometimes we lose, you know, instead of England that they lose all the battles, we win the war. We also win the war on the last page of the Bible, you can see we win. You know, we've got to have this never say die attitude. All the promises of God in revelations are given to overcomers. I do a sermon and it's actually shocking. Tehima overcomes, Tehima overcomes, Tehima overcomes, Tehima overcomes. Later on, cowardly, unbelieving, they're going to the lake of fire. Liars off to the lake of fire. That's the church he's writing to, by the way, not the world. So we've got to get that never say die attitude in the Christian world. And the more you know God and the more you see God's hand in your life, the more you realize, okay, things are going bad, but it's okay. We'll be okay. It's going to turn around and it always turns around. God and His sovereignty and grace has made it possible for anybody to succeed. The beauty, in the Old Testament, prophets were hand chosen, you know what I mean, by God, you know, to represent Him on the earth. But in the New Testament, we all are born again. We all start the same. Your Christian walk lies in your hands. I'm waiting for God to call me. No, He already called you. In Matthew 28, He already called us. He already told us what to do. So there's no special people in the New Testament. People rise in grace, grow in grace. People grow in the things of God, and they grow past others who refuse to carry on grace. Some produce 30 bushels, some 60, some 100. I'm thinking I've got one life. Let's go for it. What we got to lose? Let's go for 100. Let's be the best person that God can make of me at this time in the world. So he's made a puzzle. The poor man can succeed. The weak man can succeed. The hobo can succeed. All men and women can succeed in life if we have godly vision. God chooses to lead those that are already doing the job. He doesn't give you, tell you you're gonna be a leader before you've actually got to that point where you are a leader. It's when you're a leader that God makes you a leader. God qualifies those who are already running the race. And there is no distinction between him in rank and file. Look at the disciples, fishermen, uneducated men, except probably for Luke. What did they have? They go to university like the Pharisees and Sadducees? No. Change the world. God changed the world. So I'm saying anybody that obeys the Lord, God will call you. So we need to stir up faith in the Lord and His provision and think like conquerors. Because Proverbs 23 verse seven says, for as he thinks in his heart, so is he. If you think like you can't do this, you can't do that, well then that's your job. That's what you will be for the rest of your life. And so we've got to have that victory mentality. Success does not come easy, it must be pursued, which requires a willingness to risk the unknown, always the unknown. We cannot afford to be captive to past failures or lived on past glories. We get these Christians, you know, like, 20 years ago, the Lord helped me, you know, did this and I did that. But that's no good. What did you do last week for the Lord? What are you doing now for God? No, you know, they always tell us about the past. There's no new things in their life. You know, and it shouldn't be. We should be like God's wrecking balls on this earth amongst the devils. Just spitting his word. We should be most hated by devils, you know. Success does not come easily. It must be pursued and requires willingness to risk unknown. We cannot afford to be captive to past failures or live on past glories. We need to press forward. And like Paul, then we'll be able to declare, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I had to forget my life which was behind. I'm going to run this race. You know, and I often find myself, because I'm not like these guys, I haven't been to 10 degrees and what all these guys, I learned my studies in prison, those years of studying God's word. But, you know, we know the power of God. We can win people to Christ. We can start churches from scratch. We can do it, we know how to do that. We are deadly to the enemy. Drop us in a town or start a church there, quick, quick, quick. No problem. We've been trained for this. We are soldiers of Christ. Take us to the worst African town, let's start there. And I know we're gonna be success. Because if God is with us, who can be against us? It's not me, it's having God with us. So Paul, who said he was the chief of sinners, he had killed Christians, tortured Christians, arrested Christians, and said, I am the chief of sinners. And God made an example of me. So I'm not worse than Paul. Paul said he's the chief of sinners and God made an example with him. So imagine how much regret he could have had thinking about like all those guys he made renounce their salvation and they went to hell. And all those people he killed and saw them killed, you know, and he didn't do that. He said, I'm forgetting those things that are behind now and now I'm going to run this race. And that's the mentality that we've got to have. Our past failures, even if you failed up until today, you know what I love about God? Even if you messed it up right to today, you can take a step now and say, I'm going to change everything now. Everything's, I'm changing my life now. I'm following Christ. I'm doing, I'm going, I'm leaving the world and God will accept it. And you will begin to run. The problem is there's so few Christians that are actually running that it's easy to shine now. It wasn't like that 25 years ago. There were a lot of strong Christians. We were like juniors compared to them, but it's hard to find anybody that's running this race anymore. Persevere. There's a danger that we may become frustrated and discouraged if the desired results are not quickly achieved. But we need to be encouraged by the principle of sowing and reaping. God's word which cannot be broken says in Galatians 6, 7, do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever man sows that he will reap. You know, what we sow, we will reap it. That studies that you're putting in every single night in there. I'm telling you, like I landed up in the exam and I couldn't remember a thing and then I had to call on the name of the Lord to help me to write this exam. It was there, God just unlocked it. Perseverance is that quality which enables us to continue steadfastly in what we are doing, regardless of trials, difficulties, and to trust in God's specific timing. The devil does not shoot rubber bullets, you know, and will seek to hinder you on this path. And that hindrance will often come through people that are close to you. In the church, often be church people that'll try and hinder you. You're growing too quickly, brother. You know, you must calm down. You know, you don't have to do that. All this kind of, they're just being used by Satan. Don't listen to them. And it is hard. I mean, I've been a Christian now for 38 years. It's been hard. We've faced terrible trials. Terrible trials, you know? And I'm telling you to make your head spin. And many a night I had to go and ask God to strengthen me to get through these trials. But we have got through. and we came through, and it gets easier after a while, then you just know God's gonna deliver you, no? So you, okay, just put your helmet on, we're going through the under attack now, you know what I mean? We trap, trap, trap, just carry on going, keep on going. What did Winston Churchill say? If you're going through hell, keep on going. You know, that's what we do in the Lord. Remember that the bearing of a harvest is a process which yields fruit in its due season. James 5 verse 7, Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain. Many would like to obtain success without the experience of trials, but you can't even make a good soldier without giving him trials. You know, every army knows that, don't they? they will break you to pieces and then rebuild you in their image, you know, and then put you through trial so that you can overcome. So when the bombs start dropping, you don't all just run away. So many would like to obtain success without experience trial. But if you're a Christian, you know, once we rebuke the devil and the devil doesn't leave, we put our helmets on and we know that we must walk this road. It's we've got to walk this road. And we walk it, and we get people to pray for us, and we walk, we fast if we have to, and I'm not a happy faster, but anyway, we have to, we do what we have to do. And then one day you wake up and the sun is out again spiritually and your problems are over and you're through. And you wonder what did you worry about in the first place? All right, we need to continue with this strategy and focus on our objective until we've obtained it. This requires that we must die to self in the same way that a seed dies so that it can bear fruit. I mean, I think of my daughter, you know, she's hardcore believing God for stuff. So she's in the riots here at university when they were burning all this stuff, you know, taking it out. you know, throwing human waste into the holes where the kids were. He didn't care who it was. My wife, she's come home crying. She said, I just dropped Abby at UCT. The police are everywhere. You know, there's police guards. Off she goes with her books under her arm, little blonde hair bobbing like this. She said, I don't care, Ma. I'm going to go get my degree. And off she goes, you know. Nothing stopped her. She wasn't worried about the riots. She wasn't worried about the violence. She walks right through all the fire to her room, and she goes and does her thing. You know, I love that, you know. We taught her that from a young age. John 12, 24. Most assuredly, I say to you, that unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. Notice that when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, he didn't take them to the promised land. It was a short trip to the promised land. But he said, lest they see war and they give up. So he took them to the desert. And it's the same typology with us. We go through, sometimes there's a hard times in Eucharist. So that we may learn to look to God alone, like those Israelites had to look to him for water, for food. You know, before they got to that promised land, they had to go through a series of things. Have dreams. Only those with defined and noble dreams will be able to reach the top of the ladder of success in Christ. If you have a big dream, it's possible you may be able to change the history of a whole nation. You want to know how many Christians have changed histories of whole nations. So that you may be able to change a history of a nation, history of people's lives around you. You know, we got to go for gold. You know, so we're going to just be satisfied with our miserable little lives. You know what I mean? And have some money to get through every month. No, we don't want to be like that. Just as many other determined men who dared to believe God have done. Nehemiah dared to dream that the walls of Jerusalem would be rebuilt. The city was, the walls were actually pulled down. The Babylonians had pulled the walls down. They'd burnt the city, the great city of God. The great temple of God, which Solomon built, was gone. It was rubble. The entire city was rubble. As far as the eyes could see, burnt, blackened stones. They had to burn some of these stones to get them off and break them down. They'd razed the city to the ground, but Nehemiah, He had a vision, you know, that he's going to be rebuilt again. It was an impossible dream, but God even turned Cyrus, the ungodly king, to help him. The emperor, the Persian emperor, helped him go rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And the incredible thing against all odds, they didn't just get there and, okay, now slow motion in the cornfields, we're all gonna build these walls. First of all, the Oaks freaked out when they saw Jerusalem and the size of these rocks and said, how are we gonna build this? And this place is rubble. So it was impossible to man. Then the Arabs and the rest of the bunch heard about this and attacked them daily. Arrows. You know, they're trying to build, they're being hit and run attacks, hit and run attacks. Nehemiah still didn't give up. He gave them a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other, and one guy to blow a trumpet. And he said, listen, blow the trumpet and the enemy comes, we'll come and help you. So they were building these walls under fire. And listen to the typology of your life. You think you're going to just get great things in this life. The enemy's going to snipe at you and hit and run attacks against you. And you got to trust God and you got to keep on going. And they put that city together in 52 days. It was absolutely impossible. Even the enemies were astounded that the Jews could have rebuilt the walls of that city in 52 days. Because Nehemiah had a vision that we can do it. And God said, well, let's do it. A godly dream requires a firm commitment of getting to know God's thoughts, and then in faith, apply our resources to realize the dream. Hebrews 12, verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. I love Christianity, it's such a strong, and I'm gonna say religion, people say it's not a religion. It is a religion, it has traditions and things, it's a great religion. We plant our flag in front of all the religions of the world. We serve Christ, there's one God, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, you know what I mean? We are strong religion. We believe God. The story of an elderly lady who was crippled with arthritis used to hobble to the services of the Church of Crutches. It was a great ordeal and required of her a considerable amount of toil and pain. A friend of hers observed her regular and faithful attendance and asked, how do you manage to be at every service? Her answer was, my heart gets there first and my old legs just follow afterwards. We need to dare to dream. You need to say to God, what can you do with me? What can I do for you? Give me a challenge. Years back, I was getting really frustrated in same old, same old Christianity. And I asked the Lord, I told my wife, I asked the Lord, and I said, Lord, I wanna go on a mission where no one else. I don't wanna go where other people go. Like you've got all these churches that go to the same place every year. Like the one church I know, they go to Zambia to the same place, then they build a little room on the mission there, then they all come home. I don't want to do that. And then I said to the Lord, please, I don't want to do that. I've got no money, and then I can't go anywhere. And I said, I want to go on a mission, and I'm asking you for that in Jesus' name now. And then I told my wife that I'd asked the Lord that, and then I told my church, that I told the Lord that. And that was towards the end of this year, particular year, and nothing was coming. Now I've already said, I've asked God to guide this mission, but no one's phoned me or anything. There's no gaps, nothing's open, nowhere, you know? And January comes and I'm like, you know, Lord, I did ask you, don't forget me, you know? And then I get a phone call from this friend in Muscat in Oman. He's very rich. He's one of the top builders in Oman at that stage. And he phoned me out of the blue. I haven't heard from this guy for years. He says hi, and I led him to Christ and John Leach led his wife to Christ. So he phoned me and says, hey Ant, how you doing? He said, I need you to come up here, my church, I've got a little church here, underground church, it's backslid and I need you to come up here and help me. I said, but I haven't got any money. He says, don't worry, we'll pay your ticket, no problem. You can come stay with us, I'm gonna pay your way there, back, no problem. And I was gone, January already. overseas into the oldest Muslim nation in the world, got to preach to an underground church. We turned that church around, woke them up very quickly, you know, and that church grew. But then I had many trips like that with them across into the East. You'll be surprised what God will open up for you, you know what I mean, and the things that God will do for you if you ask. So we need to dream. It's God's will we dream great and mighty things to glorify him by our work, by the testimony of our lives. I went to one of the greatest They had a seminar here in Cape Town in 1980s. Anyway, what year it was. Anyway, so we go to this conference here in Cape Town, led by its people. They invited the best speakers in the entire world, Christian speakers to come in the world to speak at this. I mean, that's mind-blowing. I mean, do you know how many people are Christians are second in charge in countries? You would be shocked. His oath stood up, and I'm the advisor to this president in this country, and I'm a Christian, and I serve God, and he'd give us his testimony, and how he influences his leaders, you know what I mean? We never heard stuff like this. But one guy, his topic was about work. He was gonna speak about work, you know? And he said this, I've never forgotten it. He said, we know God by his work. How do we know God? We look at the mountains. We see how great he is. We look at the power of the sea. We look at the universe. We see God's hand in his creation. We see the elephant, the giant elephant, the gentleness of the elephant. We see the lion, the power of the lion. You know what I mean? You see the great ocean and the currents. And we can see God, who God is by his creation. It reflects his glory. And then this guy said, so we know you by your work, because it reflects you. That work that you are doing, whether at school, whether at your workplace, reflects who you are. And I was blown away because it's absolutely true, isn't it? Our work should be so, we should be the Daniels, the Josephs of this world. You should be so excellent at your job and so dedicated because you're not doing it for your boss, you're doing it for the Lord. We do everything for the Lord, not for this world. So we don't take short corners and we do our utter best. You see, because, and then you would be so outstanding in your workplace, I can tell you that, to not even lie is like unknown nowadays. That you would shake that company that you were in. I'm telling you, they'll put you number two, like my friend Simon was like the number two or three in Omran in the Muslim nation. And they knew he was a Christian. You know, because they could trust him. They'd never seen a guy like that. They actually said to him, because they had Christian working there as well, and they drink and they con on and they carry on. So they said to Simon, are you a different type of Christian? So Simon says, yes. So every Christian afterwards, when they met me, they said, are you also a different type of Christian? You know, isn't that terrible? You know, that we have to have that. We gotta be a testimony in this world for God and what God can do through us. So, we have a revelation from God in the universe. So how you conduct yourself in your work and play also reveals who you are in Christ. We should be the best. Acts 2, 17 says, you shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. I'm in the dream, dream section now, so unfortunately, I'm in the old men's section. But it says your young men shall see visions. Have a vision for God, you know, and what you could achieve for him in this world. The Word of God is full of visions and dreams. Are you full of visions, young people, and dreams, old people? You know, Lord, what can we do for you? You know, I went through a place where I lived like a monk. Just read the Word of God all day, studied the Bible. I didn't watch any worldly movies, didn't read any nonfiction, that type of stuff. Just totally concentrated, like a year or so of my life, living like an absolute monk. You know, and kept myself out of, I was in prison, but I kept myself completely separate from these guys. You know, you sleep, you go to sleep thinking about scripture, you dream about scripture, and you wake up with a psalm in your mind, because your mind's clear. You haven't filled it with the things of this world. It's crazy. You have spiritual dreams. There's a lot of drawling witches there in the heavenlies reading their dream. until you wake up, I think it was actually real sometimes, you know? The Lord used you somewhere or whatever, you know? But you know, if we could just take that chance and serve God with everything that we got, you will see your life be transformed. And I can say this to you now, you come to Christ as you are, you come to Christ as the person you are, but you've got no idea who you're going to be. Because sin has changed our nature. You know, but when you come to Christ and you serve him with all your heart, you will be a completely different person within a couple of years. People will actually say, who are you? You know, and you will find, you know, you often find people that never knew they could paint suddenly can paint, or they had no love for music, suddenly can play music. I had a friend who was a drug addict completely to the core of his being, and he got saved. He found out he was a genius. He actually was a genius. Study stuff like nothing, photographic memories, all that kind of stuff, you know? So, you know, we need to get vision. All right, I'm coming to an end. Matthew 28, 19. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. That is our command. That is what we, each one of us, whether we're gonna be a doctor or a lawyer or a banker, we need to understand that that's our purpose. This is just a means to help God's purpose on this earth. It's God first. It's the King of God. When my daughter went to England and that, I said to her, this whole university, how God brought you through these years of university, I don't even know how. We worked out that it cost us 500,000 rand to get her through university, and I don't know where that came from. I never had a cent saving. I don't even know how we did it. It's like 20 grand, five grand, something, but we got her through. And I said to her, you do know that God is going to require from you one day. You're going to have to stand for God. And she says, I know that. I know that. I said, God is going to require this from you and you're going to make a stand for him in this world and you're going to shake this world. You know, and she has understood that and she has welcomed it. So I'm going to end up with one of the verses of William Blake's hymn. from the 1800s, I think it was, called Jerusalem. I just love these two verses of it. You know, he says, Bring me my bow of burning gold, bring me my arrows of desire, bring me my spear of clouds unfold, bring me my chariot of fire. I shall not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, till we have built Jerusalem. And he says in England's green and pleasant land. We could say in South Africa's green and pleasant land. We shall not cease from mental fight, nor shall our sword sleep in our hands. We are always fighting the enemy, always advancing the kingdom, always doing God's way. You know, and I love that, you know, and I think that we could put that in our hearts, my bow of burning gold, you know, and they say it to we have built Jerusalem. The early Christians, the early radical Christians believed that if we serve God with all our hearts here on the earth, we will extend a suburb of Jerusalem to the earth where there's peace and joy and lack of crime. And that's what happens when Christians work in an area and a crime drops. They used to have these transformation videos. We used to watch them years ago in South America of towns that were coming to Christ, left, right, and center. Their crops grew incredibly. Their prisons were empty. You know what I mean? They were building Jerusalem, extending the kingdom of God here on earth by war, by spiritual war. You know what I mean? And holding this ground for the Lord. I love that, you know, till we have built Jerusalem. in our green and pleasant land. Amen. We're going to end off with a quick video. You are a generation called to be reformers. You are a reforming generation. You are here because God has marked you. You're here because you want to be a difference maker. There's something in your DNA that can't accept status quo business as usual things as they are. You will never fit in the box marked normal. Deep in your heart, you know you're called to change things, to rock the boat. You love God but hate religion. When you taste Him, it only makes you hungry for more. You have God cravings. You crave His presence but loathe the average church service. You refuse to let the world around you shape or define you. When you dream, it is about the impossible. When you see pain, you know you're called to heal it. When you face adversity, you don't fear because you measure it against your God. You're dangerous to evil, to Satan, because your life is not your own. To live is Christ, to die is gain. You wonder why you're so strange, so different. When others want to party, you want to pray. When they laugh, you weep. When they dance, you mourn. You will never fit in the typical societal niche because you are a reformer. You don't live for fame. You would never lower your goal to being rich and famous. You're an Abraham, a Joshua, an Esther, a David. a Wilberforce, a Lincoln. Bullets don't scare you, mediocrity scares you. Indifference scares you. Losing your life doesn't scare you, wasting it does. You've already died, so you are free.