Vision That Moves

“Chains and tribulations await me, but none of these things move me.” Paul’s line in Acts 20 is a gut check for anyone trying to follow Jesus with real endurance. We take that same courage and bring it into everyday Christian leadership: not the kind that talks about vision, but the kind that moves with it. Because a bleedable vision is never just a motivational idea. It’s a calling that changes your calendar, your priorities, your relationships, and the way you make decisions.

We wrestle with a phrase that sounds harmless but can hide a deeper problem: “I’m waiting on God.” Sometimes we’re not waiting at all. We’re resisting movement. We talk about why obedience opens doors and why stagnation quietly drains purpose. We name the real blockers that keep people stuck: waiting for certainty, overthinking every detail, fear of failure, and fear of stepping outside comfort zones. Then we offer a better definition of failure that keeps you moving: failure is quitting, not trying and learning along the way.

The turning point is Acts 8 and the story of Philip on the desert road. God doesn’t hand him a full blueprint. He simply says “Go,” and Philip discovers the assignment while he’s moving, right down to God providing water in the desert for baptism. We end with a challenge and a prayer: be available, because someone else’s breakthrough may be connected to your yes.

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who feels stuck, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s one step of obedience you can take this week?

Transcript

Paul’s Resolve And The Race

0:00

Once again, Acts chapter twenty, beginning of verse twenty-two. And now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. This is the Word of God for the people of God. Amen. May God add his blessing to the reading of the Word. You may be seated. I could almost put myself in that verse and say, the Holy Spirit has told me to go preach the gospel in Malawi and Mozambique, and to be faithful. And it would be a very fitting life verse for me for the next several weeks and for the entire team.

Lead Your Life With Endurance

1:19

So we are in the lead your life series, and we're talking about endurance, we're talking about bleedable vision. The whole series is about becoming the kind of person who can be led by Jesus into a life of purpose, endurance, and mission. The phrase lead your life implies that you take responsibility for the choices and direction your life heads as you follow Jesus. God is not forming passive people who drift through life reacting to fears, comforts, distractions, or culture. He's forming people who can be led by Him. He calls us to a direction worth surrendering for, something worth suffering for, enduring for, and carrying into the world. We learned of a bleedable vision like that. Now we arrive at a critical truth in this series.

Vision Must Move Into Action

2:29

Vision must move. You're going to hear me say that a few times today. I want to go back about a year ago. I was about two or three weeks away from a different season in my life. That season is now ongoing. Last week, I put out the mission trip and someone wrote a prayer to me to pray for the mission trip. At the end of the prayer, it said, now go, Pastor, and go change a nation. A nation? I thought 22 pastors, you know, women's conference, work projects. Me? Change a nation? Really? But I couldn't let go of the statement. What if God actually was saying that? I got to think differently if that's the case. I have to approach everything that I'm doing differently. Rather than just talking about grace and sacraments, I need to talk about how to do that. And I said to God, well, I think that statement was erroneous because I don't know how to change a nation. You're going to have to tell me what to say. Isn't God amazing that He'll ask you to do something you have no idea what He's talking about? Sounded like a personal challenge to me. And I have one for you. You see, some of you right now are a step or a moment away from a different and completely different season of your life. Whatever that thing might be that causes it. And not because everything's going to be suddenly easy, it might get harder, more difficult. But because obedience opens doors, stagnation never will. So if you're obedient in that season, he will open a door. That's your first fill-in-the-blank. Obedience opens doors, stagnation never will. Now, what do I mean by that? There are conversations waiting to happen with you in them. People waiting for you to show up and cross their path. Faith calls us to go, to act. Faith is movement in response to the voice of God, to the call of God on our life. There must be a moment where your faith becomes action. James writes that faith without works is a dead faith. Did you know that? Faith without works is dead? Not inactive faith. Dead. Are you okay with that? Not having a lot of action with your faith? Are you okay to think that it's just inactive? I'm not doing much. But James says it's not inactive, it's dead. Living faith moves you. Some people are spiritually safe, but they're stagnant. They're protected, but they're not moving. They're near to Jesus, but they're never stepping toward him to see what he can actually do. With them or through them. You see, kingdom vision is always larger than the individual who receives it. Kingdom vision is like this: God blessing us to be a blessing to others. That's what he told Abraham. You will be a blessing. I will bless you, and in blessing others I will bless you. God speaks to us so we can carry something onward from where we are. God forms us so we can participate in his work in this world around us. A bleedable vision is never this. What can God do for me? Nothing can do for me through this. But rather, who might be affected if I obey this vision? Or if I don't obey it, who might be affected?

The Hidden Cost Of Staying

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We talk about missions and missionaries and things like that, and we often talk about the cost of going. That was my hang up, one of my first hangups when God asked me to consider going to Africa. I said, Well, you know, kind of expensive, God. Don't have a budget for that. It's not in the budget, God. But, you know, we don't talk about the cost of staying and not going. There is a cost to refusing to move. There's a cost to being comfortable rather than acting in discomfort. There's a cost to being delayed in your choice to follow. There's a cost to your hesitation. What happens when the truth is never spoken because you're afraid to? What happens when the encouragement somebody's needing never arrives because you didn't go? Or you never did it? What happens when someone in your path never hears the gospel because you weren't ready? What happens when a hurting person never encounters compassion because everybody is out there like that? I can't help one and won't make a dent. Or whatever reason we offer. And what happens when ministry never happens because we want to stay as believers comfortable in the grace of God? It's a dangerous place people who believe in Christ can reach in their lives spiritually. It's not rebellion. It's not unbelief. It's none of those things. It's not even intentional or open disobedience. It's stagnation. The kingdom loses something when God's people refuse movement. The kingdom loses something when God's people refuse to move when God asked them to go or to do. It doesn't look rebellious. It doesn't look like you're hostile towards God. It can even sound spiritual. But that's the danger. Many believers will say something like this, I'm waiting on God. When in reality they are resisting movement. We often say, I'm praying about it, seeing what God wants here. But what if God already spoke and said, do it? What if the issue is not lack of clarity, but a lack of movement on what God is directing. Vision calls for movement. Vision sends. Vision moves you. And one of the most sobering truths in all the scripture is this truth right here. Somebody else's breakthrough sometimes is connected to your willingness to obey. Someone may be waiting on your yes to God. Some people are waiting for fear to disappear before they obey. But let me tell you something. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is moving despite being uncertain. In the face of fear, often, or questions. You don't have to know everything to take the next faithful step God asks you to take. You don't need the entire blueprint of what this thing's supposed to look like at the end to go ahead and start doing something in obedience. A bleedable vision is directional by nature. It points you someplace in some way. It moves you. It changes your priorities. It changes the rhythms of your life. It changes your decisions and how you make them. It changes your relationships and what you focus on. It changes the direction you thought you were going to a different one. So let me say it like this. If nothing in your life is moving, you must honestly ask yourself whether the vision has been just inspiration instead of transformative and transformation. True vision creates momentum in your life, it creates the power to move. That's what momentum is. Yet some of us we stay stuck.

Why We Get Stuck

12:28

There are four reasons we might stay stuck. And the first one is sometimes we're just waiting for certainty. Got to be certain this is the right thing. I heard it right, you know? When God put on my heart a couple years ago to Africa, I said, I'm not sure that's God. I want to be certain this is really you, God. Put him through some tests like Gideon, you know, did with his Felisas. Some people stay stuck because they overthink things. Trying to figure it out, you know, okay, if I, okay, God, you told me to go to the neighbor next door. Okay, do I need to take anything? Uh what do I say? Uh do I need to wear something different? You know, am I supposed to carry uh uh what do they need? And we we overthink it and try to jump ahead rather than just going. And some people stay stuck because they're afraid to fail. A lot of us get into that. Well, if I'm gonna be embarrassed if it doesn't work, I'm gonna fail. I got a definition for you of failure that you may have never heard before. Failure is when you quit trying. Until you stop trying, you have not failed. You're still trying to find a way to do it. So you haven't failed. So don't be afraid of failure. Keep working at it. Other people are stuck because they're afraid of leaving comfort zones. Well, you know, I don't know those people. I'm not good with strange, you know, whatever it is that we say that makes us think that it's a good idea not to do it because it makes us uncomfortable. But listen, each of these causes delayed obedience. And that can eventually lead to disobedience to what God's asked us. There comes a point where waiting becomes avoidance, not a spiritual practice. I'm waiting on the Lord to renew my strength. When my strength is renewed, I'll know it's time to go. I've heard that. I've said that. That was an excuse. You see, vision isn't just moving, it's also directional. Faith is active. Drifting through life is living passive. Stagnation will kill your vision eventually. We convince ourselves we're waiting on God when often it's God who's waiting on us. God asks us to do something and we're waiting on God. Months pass, years pass, we still haven't done anything, we're still standing still. And now the danger that comes from that is if your vision never moves, eventually it will fade. You will lose the passion that you had for it, and the reason you were doing it in the first place. Just like a river that stops flowing, it becomes stagnant. Or a fire that doesn't get fed will eventually die down. So a calling that is never acted upon eventually becomes a memory instead of a mission. Oh, I remember God asked me to do that. I forgot. I avoided that so long I forgot he even asked me. God never intended a vision to remain in theory, in theoretical. Vision was meant to move you. Think about this. Our obedience has a ripple effect. It does. Most people never really fully realize how far our obedience travels. We may never see the ongoing ripple effect that moves beyond us to who it affects. People seeing us faithful, living this life as an example, passing it on. One conversation can change a life. One act of obedience can alter a family. One missionary can impact generations to come. One surrendered, yes, even yours, can affect an eternity for somebody or somebody's. Often we won't ever see the full impact while we're alive. But heaven sees it, God watches it as it unfolds over time. And the tragedy of being disobedient is what it does to us and more so what it withholds from others in the ripple effect and the direct effect that it could have.

You Cannot Steer While Parked

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I think about learning and moving in mission kind of like when my sister was a freshman year of high school learning to drive. She was nervous. She probably had every right to be. She was an anxious person, but this was a little worse than that. She had to take her driving tests in our parents' Volkswagen Rabbit. Y'all remember those? Four speed. One in reverse, four forward. And if you remember those cars when they came out, they were $3,500 brand new. That's the one my parents got, the very basic plane Jane model with air conditioning, which was an add-on back then. My sister didn't know how to drive a stick shift. So she would get in the car and sit there, push the clutch, and start practicing shifting, and she would do it for hours. She'd grab a hold of the wheel, the steering wheel was locked because the key wasn't in it. And if it was unlocked when she got the key, you do know they didn't have power steering. And so it was really hard to turn that wheel when the car's sitting there. I mean, you had to really muscle it up. And so she's trying to shift and muscle that wheel, and she's just having all sorts of problems with it. And I'm looking at her going, take about 10 minutes to figure this out, sister. And she goes, I ain't got it yet. She would practice for days and days and weeks learning how to drive. But listen to this. She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to drive the car and shift while steering with the other hand. She was taught to drive with two hands on the wheel, and then you don't look down when you shift. Is how you're supposed to do it. So she was trying to practice that. But the problem is she didn't know how to steer the car. Why? Because a moving car is what changes. A parked car, steering doesn't change anything on its direction. You can think of it, right? You can't steer and know how it's going to work in a parked car. It doesn't matter how far you turn the wheel, you don't know how far the car's going to turn because it's not going anywhere. She sat there, she imagined it, but she didn't know. So can you guess what caused her to roll the car in a single-car accident with mom and I in it on Interstate 57 by Mount Vernon, pulling onto the interstate when she couldn't find four gear? She looked down to shift with her right hand and couldn't find fourth gear, so she took her hand off the wheel to help herself shift like she'd been practicing in a car veered hard to the right. When she realized what was happening, she let go of the gear shift and took both hands and flipped the wheel that way, and we rolled. You can't learn how to drive or to drive with momentum or even learn to steer or go any direction without moving. Vision and faith require movement, or you don't know how it's gonna go.

Philip Obeys Without A Blueprint

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The story of Philip in chapter 8, the evangelist, one of the disciples, it's one of my favorite stories. Maybe you've uh heard his story. This I'm gonna read the section to you. It begins at verse 26, which I have for you on the screen. Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. So he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Canaus, the queen of Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was returning and sitting in his church. Chariot. He was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said to Philip, Go near and overtake this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, How can I unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. This is what was told him. Arise and go toward the south, along a road which goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. Now let me tell you something. We've been on that road and near that road. It's desert. It says this is desert. That's not random in there. And when Philip begins to open up the scriptures to the eunuch, he believes. He believes in Jesus. But wait a minute. Did God go say, hey, go find this eunuch? Ethiopian eunuch. Gosh. And uh and find him in a chariot and go lead him to Christ and help change Ethiopia. Is that what it killed him? He just said, go. Go south. That's all he said, go south toward Gaza. That's it. And go into the desert. Philip didn't go, well, what do I need to take? Huh? How long am I going to be gone? You know, he didn't say any of that, did he? He got no detailed strategy. No explanation of why he was doing it. No promise of success, just go. It reminds me of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, when God says, Abraham, at the time Abram, I want you to leave Ur of Chaldeans, the home of your father, your religion, your country, and all of your relatives. Take your family and all you got and go. And I will show you where I want you to go when you get there. But if I was Abram, I would have said, uh, well, how long's it going to take? What do I need to prepare? What direction do you want me to go? Why am I doing this? And uh he got none of that. God just says, go. Take all you got and go. Leave your family and your familiarity and the religion of your dad, and I'm gonna make you into a nation if you go. Abraham goes. Drags his wife along with him. Sometimes that happens, guys. Ladies, sometimes your husband gets a crazy idea from God and you end up going with him, like maybe the Malawi. I don't know about you, but if you were Philip or if you were Abram and you heard God just say, go this direction and nothing else, would you struggle with that? When you've had some questions, maybe for God. Wouldn't you want details? Outcomes of why you're doing it, what's the purpose of this thing? Confirmation that you're actually supposed to do it? You know, is this really you guys? I'm not sure. Or guarantee that it's actually going to be safe? Wouldn't you want that? Philip went before he fully understood. And while he was moving, he encountered the Ethiopian official. Think about this. If Philip stayed where he is comfortable, this encounter never happens. If he delays, the man remains searching. If he refuses, someone else misses what God intended through his obedience. But look, if you will, later, at the rest of the story. It says that the Ethiopian eunuch believes Jesus is the Son of God and his Redeemer and wants to believe. And Philip says, great. Let's be baptized. And he takes him and baptizes him right there. You go, wait a minute. Now, what do you mean, baptize him right there? Listen, on the screen you see it. This is desert. Wait a minute. What'd he baptize him in? Sand? No. God knew and had it ready for water to be where the man would believe. It was Philip's obedience at that point that made that miracle line up with the water where he would believe to be baptized. That is a great miracle we miss sometimes by running through Scripture too quick. But Philip got that story to tell, didn't he? He got this testimony. Could you imagine him saying, I didn't know why God was sending me to the desert road? Seemed kind of strange. Rather unimportant. But I've learned something about following God. Sometimes the assignment only makes sense after I've been obedient. I could not see the old Ethiopian when God first spoke, telling me to go. I only discovered him while I was moving in the direction he sent me. And I wonder how many people are just waiting beyond the edge of other people's obedience because they refuse to move.

Available People Change Other Lives

28:06

Listen, Philip was available. God's just looking for people who will be available. One of the most freeing truths in scriptures for me is this: God repeatedly uses ordinary, available people. Not perfect people, not always people who are confident. Not always people with experience. Available people. Philip was available. That's what he seeks. Are you available for him and are you available to him? To be used for what he will. Listen, there are people connected to your obedience. You don't know that until you do it. And you may never fully realize who they are. Someone may be waiting for your encouragement or a word of testimony, or an act of service, or your generosity, or your willingness to go and be an example. A child may be waiting on your leadership that they don't get at home or from anybody else. A hurting person may be waiting on your compassion right now. And you're going to cross their path. A community right here may be waiting on your obedience. And God say, I'm going to change this community and transform it by you when you go. A nation may be waiting on somebody, anybody, willing to say yes to the possibility it could happen. In

For Such A Time As This

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the book of Esther, Esther was confronted with this reality. Maybe you know the story, and Mordecai tells her this Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this to change the nation and the course of it? Isn't that what I was told last week from someone who wrote a prayer? Who's to say it isn't you that will go do that? Who's to say it isn't me that will go and do that? I'm available, I'm willing. Do I dare say no to that possibility and miss out on what God might be wanting from Malawi or Mozambique? You just need someone to do it. I can't say no. Not to that. God has put a deep, abiding love in my heart for the people there. They matter to God, and they matter to me. Do you understand? People matter to God. Each one of them. This is why local outreach matters. Each person is valuable to God. This is why serving matters. This is why missions matter. Because it's people we're reaching out to. God is serious about us loving people. He's serious about it. And that's what matters to him. When we stand before God someday, I don't believe the question he's going to ask is, what did you accomplish? What did you build? How much did you earn? How much did you own? How much land did you have? I don't think he's going to ask those questions. I think he's going to ask questions like this. What did you do with what I entrusted you to do? And asked you to do? Did you listen when I told you my heart? Did you allow my Holy Spirit to love others through you? Did you go when I said go? Did you make yourself available to me when you were available already? And maybe you'll say this. What part of go was so hard for you to understand? That you chose not to? Will he find resistance in us today? Or will he find in us gratitude that he includes us in his work and what matters to him and his heart for the world? Will we let ourselves be commissioned for the work we are doing for him and the work that he will call us to engage?

Prayer For Courage And Movement

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Would you pray with me? Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for calling us into something greater than ourselves. Thank you for including us in your kingdom work world in this world. Forgive us for the places where we resist. Forgive us where we allow fear, comfort, or hesitation to keep us standing still. Open our eyes to the people connected to our obedience. Help us understand our yes matters. Give us courage to move when you speak. Teach us to trust you beyond what's familiar and what's comfortable. And let our lives become vessels through which others encounter your grace, truth, hope, and love. May we experience it. May we carry it. May we live it. May we share it. And may we do so in Jesus' name. Amen.