John K. Jenkins Sr - Moving Forward Requires Vision

I want to teach you today, and I want to tell you a story about when I became the pastor of this church. At that time, we had one part-time employee. Since then, our church has grown , and we now have 318 full-time and part-time employees. I started taking the church staff on retreats for teaching and training, helping us all to be on the same page. I began conducting annual retreats at a five-star resort. Amen? Somebody say amen to that-five-star! One year, I was teaching them about setting personal and professional goals , emphasizing that you must have a plan and a strategy to reach those goals . I taught them that day and sent them to their rooms to write out their personal and professional goals and strategies to achieve them. I asked them to come back the next day prepared to discuss their goals.

The next morning , we gathered again , and I began randomly selecting people to share their personal and professional goals and how they intended to reach them. One person I called on that morning was a member named Katherine Bus. Katherine oversees our hospitality and catering ministries. If you have eaten any food here at the First Baptist Church of Glen Arden during an official function, Katherine had something to do with it . Give her a hand for that! Today is her 69th birthday; she was at the ten o'clock service . I didn't mention her age there; I just said it was her birthday . Anyway, Katherine stood up while I was asking people about their goals, and she said , "I've always wanted to learn how to drive a tractor-trailer truck." This was back in 2011 , so it has been 11 years, and she was almost 60 years old at that time. Now, back in February of 2001, when she said she wanted to learn to drive a tractor-trailer truck, I realized that I had always wanted to do something as well- learn how to fly a plane. It dawned on me that day that, here I was, teaching the staff about achieving personal and professional goals and having a plan , while I hadn't done anything about my own aspiration.

So, I left that five-star resort that day determined to learn how to fly. By the way, that resort had a landing strip. My goal was to learn to fly and return the following year, landing my plane at the retreat. That was not a bad plan-don't hate , learn the game that the players are playing! So, February 2001 came around-after that moment, I started my flying lessons in April of 2001. Then, in September 2001, 9/11 happened, and they shut down the airport where I was learning to fly for four or five months . I resumed lessons in January 2002 and got my license in August 2002. Yeah, crazy , right? I also obtained my instrument rating in 2003. In 2004 , I wanted to fly there, but I couldn't because the weather was bad-there was a snow cover on the land. Since then, I've had the opportunity to fly there just one or two times, and this past Thursday was one of those occasions. I flew to cheers from the staff on the landing strip and landed smoothly . My wife said, "Hercules, that was superb!" Each time I accomplish something like this, I celebrate it. It reminds me that God helped me achieve a goal I had in my life.

Sitting in this building are many people with dreams , desires , aspirations , and goals, but you've never acted upon them. Let me try that again , because I know you want to say amen. If you all say amen together, no one will know that God has held everybody hostage just so I could preach this one message about how you can achieve your goals. Proverbs chapter 29, verse 18, speaks to this matter. In fact, let me read it to you from the New King James Version: "Where there is no revelation , the people cast off restraint." I'm just reading the first part of that verse . Now, from the King James Version , it says , "Where there is no vision, the people perish." I prefer that version because that's how I learned it. I want to talk to you about that today, because moving forward requires vision. That is my message title today: Moving forward requires vision. Say that with me! Tell the person next to you, "Moving forward requires vision." Now tell the person on the other side, "Moving forward requires vision."