Without a clear vision of the future. It means just surviving and getting by for us, right? But God has bigger plans. Clarifying your purpose in life. Coming up next.

Without a clear vision of the future. It means just surviving and getting by for us, right? But God has bigger plans. Clarifying your purpose in life. Coming up next.

I believe that the church of the Living God, when it has vision, it mobilizes men and women to take action and make a difference in their community and their family and their life and their society. That's vision.

I believe that the church of the Living God, when it has vision, it mobilizes men and women to take action and make a difference in their community and their family and their life and their society. That's vision.

Welcome to Moody Presents with doctor Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. One of the greatest things about Moody Presents is our opportunity to present Moody students to you. Like to introduce you today to Yasi Zarate. She's from Chicago, and so many of our students come from so far away, it's kind of pleasant to meet somebody from the hometown. Good to have you with us today. Yasi.

Welcome to Moody Presents with doctor Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. One of the greatest things about Moody Presents is our opportunity to present Moody students to you. Like to introduce you today to Yasi Zarate. She's from Chicago, and so many of our students come from so far away, it's kind of pleasant to meet somebody from the hometown. Good to have you with us today. Yasi.

Hi. Thanks for having me here.

Hi. Thanks for having me here.

So tell us, what's a personal challenge that God has helped you overcome during your time at Moody?

So tell us, what's a personal challenge that God has helped you overcome during your time at Moody?

I have some trouble trusting in God. So something that God has really taught me is how faithful he is and that he will provide each time. And so there has been a lot of confidence in just me trusting in the Lord.

I have some trouble trusting in God. So something that God has really taught me is how faithful he is and that he will provide each time. And so there has been a lot of confidence in just me trusting in the Lord.

So you told me that you've got some unsafe family members that are really close to your heart. That's been a journey for you, a passion for you. How has your time at Moody influenced that season?

So you told me that you've got some unsafe family members that are really close to your heart. That's been a journey for you, a passion for you. How has your time at Moody influenced that season?

I was just recently saved right out of high school, and so it's only been about half a year that I've been a Christian, and I just immediately stepped into Bible classes and learning that other people come from homes that just implement what I was learning into their life. And so I felt like I was a little bit behind, but it was just super encouraging to hear that there are families that have the Lord at the center of their lives and teachings of the Bible, and that is something that I didn't have. But I hope if I ever have a family, I would love to have.

I was just recently saved right out of high school, and so it's only been about half a year that I've been a Christian, and I just immediately stepped into Bible classes and learning that other people come from homes that just implement what I was learning into their life. And so I felt like I was a little bit behind, but it was just super encouraging to hear that there are families that have the Lord at the center of their lives and teachings of the Bible, and that is something that I didn't have. But I hope if I ever have a family, I would love to have.

Why would you suggest a parent listening right now encourage their their daughter to come here to Moody, their son?

Why would you suggest a parent listening right now encourage their their daughter to come here to Moody, their son?

Yes, of course you will learn more about the Bible and how to read it and more about the Lord. But you will learn unexpected things like how to navigate life. And it's a very rare place to just be on a campus full of young people that love the Lord in the middle of Chicago.

Yes, of course you will learn more about the Bible and how to read it and more about the Lord. But you will learn unexpected things like how to navigate life. And it's a very rare place to just be on a campus full of young people that love the Lord in the middle of Chicago.

A powerful work of God in Yazzie's life and increase her fledgling faith at the Moody Bible Institute is what we're all about now. This story links rather perfectly with today's message on clear vision. Maybe you've heard Proverbs 2918 quoted before. It says that where there is no vision, the people perish. And the New Living Translation puts it this way when people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. Well, in essence, he's saying that without a vision, people go unrestrained, let loose or ignored. In other words, everybody does their own thing. But when there was a clear vision from God, it has a way of catalyzing our life. It it guides us in a very focused direction, and so many of us need to gain clarity about that kind of vision. Right? I do well, today's message takes us right to the heart of the core issue. It's a powerful passage we're going to be looking at. We're going to be talking about gaining a God centered vision. Don't you want that? Pastor Mark's message is called do you see it yet? Hope your Bible is open. If so, join us in Second Kings chapter six. Here's Mark job en Moody presents.

A powerful work of God in Yazzie's life and increase her fledgling faith at the Moody Bible Institute is what we're all about now. This story links rather perfectly with today's message on clear vision. Maybe you've heard Proverbs 2918 quoted before. It says that where there is no vision, the people perish. And the New Living Translation puts it this way when people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. Well, in essence, he's saying that without a vision, people go unrestrained, let loose or ignored. In other words, everybody does their own thing. But when there was a clear vision from God, it has a way of catalyzing our life. It it guides us in a very focused direction, and so many of us need to gain clarity about that kind of vision. Right? I do well, today's message takes us right to the heart of the core issue. It's a powerful passage we're going to be looking at. We're going to be talking about gaining a God centered vision. Don't you want that? Pastor Mark's message is called do you see it yet? Hope your Bible is open. If so, join us in Second Kings chapter six. Here's Mark job en Moody presents.

When I was growing up. Maybe like some of you. My father would drive these cars that let's just say they needed some work to be done on them. He was a mechanic. And, uh, on the side, he was actually a missionary, but could fix almost anything. So he always had grease in his fingers, and he would buy cars at a discount, very discounted. And sometimes only he could drive them because they had all these little quirks and he would fix them sometimes on the spot. Some of you know what I'm talking about because you have cars like that. You look at your muffler's drag and you think, okay, $300 the mechanic? Or should I just use some of that? Um, well, yeah. That, uh, duct tape mechanic. How many of you know what duct tape mechanic is? You just figure. Hey, you know, I'm just going to tie this muffler up with a little duct tape. It works. Well, some of you have fixed your cars for years with duct tape. And, you know, we all have those cars occasionally in our lives where, you know, I've had the cars where I drive up to the ATM and my window doesn't work, so I have to open up the door, bang it against the ATM, try to pick my arm around side and go like this. Or those cars that you have to get in the passenger side because your car won't open, or those cars that are just quirky. Come on, how many of you know what I'm talking about? I've seen some of your cars out there, so I know I've seen the duct tape on some of your cars, so don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. Well, my father had one of those cars, and we were on a trip and it started to snow really heavy. And as we were driving. Sure enough, the windshield wipers were not functioning. And so finally he he was trying to see and he said, Mark, I got I was probably about eight years old. He said, Mark, I got to pull over to the side. So he pulled over to the side and I said, dad, what are we going to do? I mean, it's snowing or an hour and a half, two hours away from our house. Uh, we don't want to be stuck in the snowstorm. He said, don't worry about it. I got this covered. He went in the trunk and rumbled through some things a little bit, and he came out with a roll of string. And he said, watch this, this will work. So he he tied a string to the right windshield wiper. He tied a string to the left windshield wiper. He put the string in the window on my side. He said, hold this mark. And he put a string in the window on his side. And he said, we're going to make this work, Mark. Okay? So he got on the road and he pulled his side and it went like this. And he said, okay, now it's your turn. Mark and I pulled the side and it went like that. And then he pulled and it went like this. And he pulled it and went like that. And we were able to make it home because we were able to see, you see, it was the back and forth clearing of our windshield that allowed us to have here it goes, vision. When you have no vision. It's hard to move forward. You can drag a muffler for a while, but if you can't see, you can't go very far. You can go on a low tank of gas for a while, but if you can't see, you don't get very far into your journey. Because if if you can't see clearly. If you've ever been in a really bad storm, or you've been in a snowstorm or a rainstorm, uh, some everybody, when you can't see, you slow down because you don't really you can't see where you're going. When you can't see forward, you go to the side of the road and stop the journey altogether because you say, I can't go forward if I can't see. Or you get in an accident because you start swerving out of your lane and get into someone else's lane. Because why? Because you don't have clear vision. Vision allows you to see forward, and when you see forward, you can move quickly into your destination. But if you can't see into the future, if you can't see forward, then you can't. You have no power in the present to to drive in the direction that you're supposed to drive. I'm talking about vision. And I've noticed that when we lack vision in our own lives. And you say, well, vision pastor, it's hard to define vision. Grasp vision. Vision is that image of the future that you know, it's the call of God upon you to go somewhere that you know that that's who you need to be. That's what you need to do. That's where you need to go. It's that sense of inner direction. It's that clarified purpose of life. It's that mental picture of a God ordained future that you say, yeah, that's where I'm supposed to go. That's where I'm supposed to be. That's what I'm supposed to do. That's vision. You know, Proverbs tells us that Proverbs 29 verse 18 says, where there is no. Say it again. Where there is no people perish. If there's no clarity about what we're going in the future, if there's no clear mental picture of a God ordained future, then people perish. Another translation says where there is no clear revelation from God, everybody does their own thing. When there's a clear vision for your life, it charges you to work hard for the future. It makes you get up in the morning because you know what you're supposed to do, where you're supposed to go, what you're supposed to be. If a team has a vision, it unites it. It catalyzes energy towards a specific purpose. Where there's vision. Where there is no vision. And I've seen men and women leaders, countries, churches with no vision. And I've noticed that there's a common syndrome among people that lack vision. I noticed that when when a man lacks vision, he tends to not lead his family. He tends to survive in his family. When a man likes vision, he's not taking his family towards something. He's just surviving with his family in something. When a man lacks vision, he's not saying, no, no, this is where we're going. This is what me and my household will do. This is how we're going to live. This is what we're going to move towards. He just survives. He lets life happen to him instead of making something happen of his life. Man. I'm preaching to myself, so this is good. But I don't know if I met with anybody else in here listening, but hey, this is vision. Some of you need to know because I believe that God is speaking to some people here today about the lack of vision in your own life and the necessity. Of having vision. I've seen. Places without vision. When someone doesn't have a clear mental image of where they're supposed to be going, then they tend to ramble around. They tend to lack energy. They tend not to have focus. They tend to be reactive instead of proactive. They tend to let life happen to them. They tend to just kind of flow with the punches because they're not really going anywhere, concretely, anywhere specifically. There's no discipline. There's little motivation, there's little movement forward. Why? Because you don't know where you're going. And if you have no clear image of where you're going, then chances are you won't go there. I'm talking about a lack of vision. I've seen nations that lack vision. And when a nation lacks vision, it just reverts to maintaining or infighting. I've seen churches that lack vision. And when a church lacks vision, it's not moving somewhere. It's just maintaining what it has. Do you realize 80% of the church is in America? Last year did not baptize one person? Now you heard me right. 80% of the churches in America did not baptize one person. So what are the churches doing? Sometimes if you have if you lack vision, you start to maintain. You don't know where you're going. You just want to make sure you don't lose what you have. You just want to make sure that you keep people comfortable. You just want to make sure that not too much is happening. People are getting along. Not too much is stirring up. And so people come week after week to listen to a homily. Homily. Yeah. Homily. They're listening to a nice message that sprinkled with enough spirituality to make you feel good, but not too much conviction to make you want to change or feel uncomfortable. So the idea is, I don't want to offend anybody or step on anybody's toes. I just want to make sure you feel okay so that you come back next week and you give a little tithes and offerings. We're not doing anything. We're just making people feel comfortable. We're not moving anywhere. We're just making people feel okay. We're not mobilizing anything. We're just wanting to make sure that people are are coming back and sitting in their chair. We're not asking you to do anything. We're just asking you to show up and sit. A lot of churches in America lack men because men aren't great sitters. So men show up in church and they say, if the expectation of me is just to come and sit week after week and listen, they're not good listeners to how many wives say amen. So if I'm going to sit, which I'm not really good at, and I'm just going to be asked to listen, which I'm not really good at either, and occasionally give which I'm worse at, then I'm not sure I want to show up again. I believe that the church of the Living God, when it has vision, it mobilizes men and women to take action and make a difference in their community and their family and their life and their society. That's vision.

When I was growing up. Maybe like some of you. My father would drive these cars that let's just say they needed some work to be done on them. He was a mechanic. And, uh, on the side, he was actually a missionary, but could fix almost anything. So he always had grease in his fingers, and he would buy cars at a discount, very discounted. And sometimes only he could drive them because they had all these little quirks and he would fix them sometimes on the spot. Some of you know what I'm talking about because you have cars like that. You look at your muffler's drag and you think, okay, $300 the mechanic? Or should I just use some of that? Um, well, yeah. That, uh, duct tape mechanic. How many of you know what duct tape mechanic is? You just figure. Hey, you know, I'm just going to tie this muffler up with a little duct tape. It works. Well, some of you have fixed your cars for years with duct tape. And, you know, we all have those cars occasionally in our lives where, you know, I've had the cars where I drive up to the ATM and my window doesn't work, so I have to open up the door, bang it against the ATM, try to pick my arm around side and go like this. Or those cars that you have to get in the passenger side because your car won't open, or those cars that are just quirky. Come on, how many of you know what I'm talking about? I've seen some of your cars out there, so I know I've seen the duct tape on some of your cars, so don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. Well, my father had one of those cars, and we were on a trip and it started to snow really heavy. And as we were driving. Sure enough, the windshield wipers were not functioning. And so finally he he was trying to see and he said, Mark, I got I was probably about eight years old. He said, Mark, I got to pull over to the side. So he pulled over to the side and I said, dad, what are we going to do? I mean, it's snowing or an hour and a half, two hours away from our house. Uh, we don't want to be stuck in the snowstorm. He said, don't worry about it. I got this covered. He went in the trunk and rumbled through some things a little bit, and he came out with a roll of string. And he said, watch this, this will work. So he he tied a string to the right windshield wiper. He tied a string to the left windshield wiper. He put the string in the window on my side. He said, hold this mark. And he put a string in the window on his side. And he said, we're going to make this work, Mark. Okay? So he got on the road and he pulled his side and it went like this. And he said, okay, now it's your turn. Mark and I pulled the side and it went like that. And then he pulled and it went like this. And he pulled it and went like that. And we were able to make it home because we were able to see, you see, it was the back and forth clearing of our windshield that allowed us to have here it goes, vision. When you have no vision. It's hard to move forward. You can drag a muffler for a while, but if you can't see, you can't go very far. You can go on a low tank of gas for a while, but if you can't see, you don't get very far into your journey. Because if if you can't see clearly. If you've ever been in a really bad storm, or you've been in a snowstorm or a rainstorm, uh, some everybody, when you can't see, you slow down because you don't really you can't see where you're going. When you can't see forward, you go to the side of the road and stop the journey altogether because you say, I can't go forward if I can't see. Or you get in an accident because you start swerving out of your lane and get into someone else's lane. Because why? Because you don't have clear vision. Vision allows you to see forward, and when you see forward, you can move quickly into your destination. But if you can't see into the future, if you can't see forward, then you can't. You have no power in the present to to drive in the direction that you're supposed to drive. I'm talking about vision. And I've noticed that when we lack vision in our own lives. And you say, well, vision pastor, it's hard to define vision. Grasp vision. Vision is that image of the future that you know, it's the call of God upon you to go somewhere that you know that that's who you need to be. That's what you need to do. That's where you need to go. It's that sense of inner direction. It's that clarified purpose of life. It's that mental picture of a God ordained future that you say, yeah, that's where I'm supposed to go. That's where I'm supposed to be. That's what I'm supposed to do. That's vision. You know, Proverbs tells us that Proverbs 29 verse 18 says, where there is no. Say it again. Where there is no people perish. If there's no clarity about what we're going in the future, if there's no clear mental picture of a God ordained future, then people perish. Another translation says where there is no clear revelation from God, everybody does their own thing. When there's a clear vision for your life, it charges you to work hard for the future. It makes you get up in the morning because you know what you're supposed to do, where you're supposed to go, what you're supposed to be. If a team has a vision, it unites it. It catalyzes energy towards a specific purpose. Where there's vision. Where there is no vision. And I've seen men and women leaders, countries, churches with no vision. And I've noticed that there's a common syndrome among people that lack vision. I noticed that when when a man lacks vision, he tends to not lead his family. He tends to survive in his family. When a man likes vision, he's not taking his family towards something. He's just surviving with his family in something. When a man lacks vision, he's not saying, no, no, this is where we're going. This is what me and my household will do. This is how we're going to live. This is what we're going to move towards. He just survives. He lets life happen to him instead of making something happen of his life. Man. I'm preaching to myself, so this is good. But I don't know if I met with anybody else in here listening, but hey, this is vision. Some of you need to know because I believe that God is speaking to some people here today about the lack of vision in your own life and the necessity. Of having vision. I've seen. Places without vision. When someone doesn't have a clear mental image of where they're supposed to be going, then they tend to ramble around. They tend to lack energy. They tend not to have focus. They tend to be reactive instead of proactive. They tend to let life happen to them. They tend to just kind of flow with the punches because they're not really going anywhere, concretely, anywhere specifically. There's no discipline. There's little motivation, there's little movement forward. Why? Because you don't know where you're going. And if you have no clear image of where you're going, then chances are you won't go there. I'm talking about a lack of vision. I've seen nations that lack vision. And when a nation lacks vision, it just reverts to maintaining or infighting. I've seen churches that lack vision. And when a church lacks vision, it's not moving somewhere. It's just maintaining what it has. Do you realize 80% of the church is in America? Last year did not baptize one person? Now you heard me right. 80% of the churches in America did not baptize one person. So what are the churches doing? Sometimes if you have if you lack vision, you start to maintain. You don't know where you're going. You just want to make sure you don't lose what you have. You just want to make sure that you keep people comfortable. You just want to make sure that not too much is happening. People are getting along. Not too much is stirring up. And so people come week after week to listen to a homily. Homily. Yeah. Homily. They're listening to a nice message that sprinkled with enough spirituality to make you feel good, but not too much conviction to make you want to change or feel uncomfortable. So the idea is, I don't want to offend anybody or step on anybody's toes. I just want to make sure you feel okay so that you come back next week and you give a little tithes and offerings. We're not doing anything. We're just making people feel comfortable. We're not moving anywhere. We're just making people feel okay. We're not mobilizing anything. We're just wanting to make sure that people are are coming back and sitting in their chair. We're not asking you to do anything. We're just asking you to show up and sit. A lot of churches in America lack men because men aren't great sitters. So men show up in church and they say, if the expectation of me is just to come and sit week after week and listen, they're not good listeners to how many wives say amen. So if I'm going to sit, which I'm not really good at, and I'm just going to be asked to listen, which I'm not really good at either, and occasionally give which I'm worse at, then I'm not sure I want to show up again. I believe that the church of the Living God, when it has vision, it mobilizes men and women to take action and make a difference in their community and their family and their life and their society. That's vision.

Well, there's more to come in this message about gaining a God centered vision. We're going to pause right now in Pastor Mark's message, though, to remind you that we would love to put into your hands a copy of D.L. Moody's book, Prevailing Prayer. In it, he says, we are not told that Jesus ever taught his disciples how to preach, but he taught them how to pray. He wanted them to have power with God, and then he knew they would have power with men. Well, you know, you'll get a copy of this prevailing prayer book as our thank you when you become a member of our Moody Presents Advance team at $30 a month or more. You'll also enjoy a 50% discount from everything in the Moody Publishers catalog. Sign up to be part of that Moody Presents advance team at Moody presents.org. Moody presents.org. All right, back to today's message with pastor Mark Jobe on Moody Presents.

Well, there's more to come in this message about gaining a God centered vision. We're going to pause right now in Pastor Mark's message, though, to remind you that we would love to put into your hands a copy of D.L. Moody's book, Prevailing Prayer. In it, he says, we are not told that Jesus ever taught his disciples how to preach, but he taught them how to pray. He wanted them to have power with God, and then he knew they would have power with men. Well, you know, you'll get a copy of this prevailing prayer book as our thank you when you become a member of our Moody Presents Advance team at $30 a month or more. You'll also enjoy a 50% discount from everything in the Moody Publishers catalog. Sign up to be part of that Moody Presents advance team at Moody presents.org. Moody presents.org. All right, back to today's message with pastor Mark Jobe on Moody Presents.

I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Second Kings chapter six. We're going to be looking at a story. As far as I know, it's the first time I've ever preached out of this passage since I've been preaching, and I've preached out of a lot of passages in the Bible. The main character of this story is a man by the name of Elijah. Not to be confused with Elijah. Elijah. Was the iconic prophet that appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. One of the most powerful prophets in all the Old Testament. He prayed and it did not rain for three years. The weatherman. Prophet. He prayed again and it rained. He confronted 400 prophets of Baal. They danced, pranced, cut themselves, worked themselves up into a frenzy, trying to get fire to come down from heaven and consume the altar. And Elijah. One prophet against 400 pagan prophets just stood there and say, maybe your God's on vacation. Or literally he said, maybe your God's in the bathroom and can't hear you. And then when it was his turn, he didn't dance and prance and beat himself and yell and holler. He just said, Lord God Almighty, you hear my prayer. Now vindicate yourself in front of these people. Call fire down from heaven and consume this altar. And just to make sure that they knew it wasn't just because it was dry and fire came out, he said, let's dump water on the altar. And as soon as he prayed, fire came down from heaven and consumed the altar. That's Elijah the prophet. But Elijah the prophet had a protege, a mentor, a someone he was mentoring. He was a farm boy. He knew about plowing, about dirt, about farming. He wasn't very sophisticated. He wasn't very knowledgeable about leadership. Elijah found him plowing some fields. Just doing a simple task, but a hard worker. And Elijah said, come and follow me. And so young Elijah came and followed Elijah, and he started training him and mentoring him, follow him and and carrying his suitcases and watching what he did. But I tell you something. When the time came for transition, the iconic prophet Elijah looked to his young protege and he said, what do you want from me? Here's where you see vision, because I believe during those times, Elijah, the young young man of God, was starting to dream. God, what could you do through me when it's my turn? How could you use me? And he envisioned himself being a prophet, that God would use a man of God that he would use. He had a vision that had been boiling up inside of his spirit. He saw himself not just as a farmer, but as a man that could make a difference, a man that could move in power. And as soon as Elijah asked him what he wanted, he said, I want a double portion of what you have. You don't ask for bold things unless you have a vision for it. You don't ask with courage or boldness or aggressiveness unless you've seen it already in your mind, he said. I want to double what you have. And Elijah said, you ask a hard thing. But the Bible tells us that God granted this young man a double portion of what Elijah had. And if you do the math and count the miracles that Elijah senior did and what Elijah did, Elijah did double the miracles of Elijah. God gave him a double portion. Man, I'm praying for a generation of young leaders that will rise up and say, you know, what's happened in the past is good. I love it. I've learned from it. But I'm not settled for it. I want a double portion. I'm praying for men and women that have their own clarity of vision, that say, you know what? It's been good. But I believe that God wants me to go even further than the last generation. God, give us the boldness of a double portion. So in Second Kings chapter six, we find this man of God. Encountering some trouble. Because the anointing of God and the call of God and vision comes with trouble. There is no vision without obstacles. There is no vision without testing. There is no God given preferred. Vision of the future, that will not be difficult. There's a man of God in this place that you never grew up in a godly home. You never saw a father train the children in the ways of God. You never saw your dad bless you and the children beside the bedside. You never saw him pray. You never saw him crack a Bible. You never saw him not swear in the household, not bring booze in and get drunk on the weekends and be faithful to his wife. You never saw that. But in your mind, you're saying I want to be a cycle breaker. Legacy maker in Jesus name. And I never saw it physically. But in my mind, I've seen a vision of the family man that I want to be of the man, the husband, the father that God is calling me to be. Maybe I never saw it in the physical, but I see a vision of it that God has placed in my heart. I see that vision, and that vision drives you. It drives you, or you stumble or you fall and you think it's going to be easy, and then you start going and you realize, wow, this is harder than what I thought. How many of you know what I'm talking about here? It's not easy to break cycles. You view yourself as a patient, loving man, but you get home and man you. You kicked the dog. You slammed the door. You're cranky, you're crabby, and then you realize, man, who I am is not matching up with the vision of who's God's called me to be. So. So you stop yourself and there's a vision. There's a conviction that says, that's not who I am. That, that, that that's who my daddy was. But that's not who the future man of God is being called to be. I will not be. I will not be the old self. I will be the new self. God is calling me to something and there's a battle there. There's a challenge. There's a battle to become the man that you envision yourself to be but have never lived in reality. That's called vision. And Elijah was called to be a man of God, but he was encountering some difficulty fulfilling the vision that God had called him to to walk in. And I believe in this passage that we see that God has to open his eyes to three things. As he starts pursuing his God given vision. If you're taking notes, write this down. The first thing that God starts to open his eyes to. Is to God's very own presence. You see, you can't grasp the vision of God unless you first of all understand the presence of God. He says in verse 15, when the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city, and he said, oh, no! My lord. What shall we do? Ever felt like that. You ever gone to bed at night feeling like everything was okay and woke up in the morning and you're hit by a ton of bricks? A crisis, a difficulty, something that you didn't expect. And you wake up and you say, oh no, my lord. What shall we do? And you look around at your physical circumstances and you feel like I am surrounded like never before. There is no way out. This is going to end up in catastrophe. This is worse than I thought it was going to be. The news is bad. The circumstances are terrible. There's no way out. God, why have you let this happen?

I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Second Kings chapter six. We're going to be looking at a story. As far as I know, it's the first time I've ever preached out of this passage since I've been preaching, and I've preached out of a lot of passages in the Bible. The main character of this story is a man by the name of Elijah. Not to be confused with Elijah. Elijah. Was the iconic prophet that appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. One of the most powerful prophets in all the Old Testament. He prayed and it did not rain for three years. The weatherman. Prophet. He prayed again and it rained. He confronted 400 prophets of Baal. They danced, pranced, cut themselves, worked themselves up into a frenzy, trying to get fire to come down from heaven and consume the altar. And Elijah. One prophet against 400 pagan prophets just stood there and say, maybe your God's on vacation. Or literally he said, maybe your God's in the bathroom and can't hear you. And then when it was his turn, he didn't dance and prance and beat himself and yell and holler. He just said, Lord God Almighty, you hear my prayer. Now vindicate yourself in front of these people. Call fire down from heaven and consume this altar. And just to make sure that they knew it wasn't just because it was dry and fire came out, he said, let's dump water on the altar. And as soon as he prayed, fire came down from heaven and consumed the altar. That's Elijah the prophet. But Elijah the prophet had a protege, a mentor, a someone he was mentoring. He was a farm boy. He knew about plowing, about dirt, about farming. He wasn't very sophisticated. He wasn't very knowledgeable about leadership. Elijah found him plowing some fields. Just doing a simple task, but a hard worker. And Elijah said, come and follow me. And so young Elijah came and followed Elijah, and he started training him and mentoring him, follow him and and carrying his suitcases and watching what he did. But I tell you something. When the time came for transition, the iconic prophet Elijah looked to his young protege and he said, what do you want from me? Here's where you see vision, because I believe during those times, Elijah, the young young man of God, was starting to dream. God, what could you do through me when it's my turn? How could you use me? And he envisioned himself being a prophet, that God would use a man of God that he would use. He had a vision that had been boiling up inside of his spirit. He saw himself not just as a farmer, but as a man that could make a difference, a man that could move in power. And as soon as Elijah asked him what he wanted, he said, I want a double portion of what you have. You don't ask for bold things unless you have a vision for it. You don't ask with courage or boldness or aggressiveness unless you've seen it already in your mind, he said. I want to double what you have. And Elijah said, you ask a hard thing. But the Bible tells us that God granted this young man a double portion of what Elijah had. And if you do the math and count the miracles that Elijah senior did and what Elijah did, Elijah did double the miracles of Elijah. God gave him a double portion. Man, I'm praying for a generation of young leaders that will rise up and say, you know, what's happened in the past is good. I love it. I've learned from it. But I'm not settled for it. I want a double portion. I'm praying for men and women that have their own clarity of vision, that say, you know what? It's been good. But I believe that God wants me to go even further than the last generation. God, give us the boldness of a double portion. So in Second Kings chapter six, we find this man of God. Encountering some trouble. Because the anointing of God and the call of God and vision comes with trouble. There is no vision without obstacles. There is no vision without testing. There is no God given preferred. Vision of the future, that will not be difficult. There's a man of God in this place that you never grew up in a godly home. You never saw a father train the children in the ways of God. You never saw your dad bless you and the children beside the bedside. You never saw him pray. You never saw him crack a Bible. You never saw him not swear in the household, not bring booze in and get drunk on the weekends and be faithful to his wife. You never saw that. But in your mind, you're saying I want to be a cycle breaker. Legacy maker in Jesus name. And I never saw it physically. But in my mind, I've seen a vision of the family man that I want to be of the man, the husband, the father that God is calling me to be. Maybe I never saw it in the physical, but I see a vision of it that God has placed in my heart. I see that vision, and that vision drives you. It drives you, or you stumble or you fall and you think it's going to be easy, and then you start going and you realize, wow, this is harder than what I thought. How many of you know what I'm talking about here? It's not easy to break cycles. You view yourself as a patient, loving man, but you get home and man you. You kicked the dog. You slammed the door. You're cranky, you're crabby, and then you realize, man, who I am is not matching up with the vision of who's God's called me to be. So. So you stop yourself and there's a vision. There's a conviction that says, that's not who I am. That, that, that that's who my daddy was. But that's not who the future man of God is being called to be. I will not be. I will not be the old self. I will be the new self. God is calling me to something and there's a battle there. There's a challenge. There's a battle to become the man that you envision yourself to be but have never lived in reality. That's called vision. And Elijah was called to be a man of God, but he was encountering some difficulty fulfilling the vision that God had called him to to walk in. And I believe in this passage that we see that God has to open his eyes to three things. As he starts pursuing his God given vision. If you're taking notes, write this down. The first thing that God starts to open his eyes to. Is to God's very own presence. You see, you can't grasp the vision of God unless you first of all understand the presence of God. He says in verse 15, when the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city, and he said, oh, no! My lord. What shall we do? Ever felt like that. You ever gone to bed at night feeling like everything was okay and woke up in the morning and you're hit by a ton of bricks? A crisis, a difficulty, something that you didn't expect. And you wake up and you say, oh no, my lord. What shall we do? And you look around at your physical circumstances and you feel like I am surrounded like never before. There is no way out. This is going to end up in catastrophe. This is worse than I thought it was going to be. The news is bad. The circumstances are terrible. There's no way out. God, why have you let this happen?

Thanks, pastor Mark, more about gaining a God centered vision next week. You know, taking you the next step with Jesus means we don't want to let this program end without sharing the many resources that Moody presents has to offer. For example, you can become a part of our advanced team to help us continue to advance the good news of Jesus Christ at Moody Presents org, you can become part of our advanced team. As you do so, you are literally helping us advance the gospel of Jesus Christ that was so powerfully seen in Yeezy's student testimony heard up front in today's broadcast. And now is the time for you to be part of that advanced team. Just head to our website, Moody presents.org and you'll find everything you need to become a member of our advanced team. And thank you for doing that. Our time is gone, but we're back next week, Lord willing, with more from the powerful Word of God. As we hear from Mark Jobe on Moody Presents, I'm John Jaeger, thank you for listening. See you again next time for Moody Presents, a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.

Thanks, pastor Mark, more about gaining a God centered vision next week. You know, taking you the next step with Jesus means we don't want to let this program end without sharing the many resources that Moody presents has to offer. For example, you can become a part of our advanced team to help us continue to advance the good news of Jesus Christ at Moody Presents org, you can become part of our advanced team. As you do so, you are literally helping us advance the gospel of Jesus Christ that was so powerfully seen in Yeezy's student testimony heard up front in today's broadcast. And now is the time for you to be part of that advanced team. Just head to our website, Moody presents.org and you'll find everything you need to become a member of our advanced team. And thank you for doing that. Our time is gone, but we're back next week, Lord willing, with more from the powerful Word of God. As we hear from Mark Jobe on Moody Presents, I'm John Jaeger, thank you for listening. See you again next time for Moody Presents, a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.