A NEW VISION FOR A NEW YEAR

Text- Nehemiah 4:6-15

INTRODUCTION

About 360 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America.  The first year they established a town site.  The second year they elected a town government.  The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness.  In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness.  After all, they thought, who needed to go west anyway?

Here were people who had a vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to come to America.  But in just a few years they were not even able to see five miles out of their own town.  The reason for this is because they had lost their pioneering vision.

Often times this is the same thing that happens to us as Christians.  The vision of any church always fades with time unless it is reinforced.  This is because people become distracted by other things.


In Nehemiah’s story of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, we learn that although it only took 52 days to complete, the people became discourage halfway through the project and wanted to give up.  After 26 days Nehemiah rallied the people and reminded them of their purpose and the importance of their work. Like many churches, they had lost their vision and sense of purpose.   What I propose is that we need to be reminded of our purpose and vision for this New Year.

There are five purposes we need to remember this New Year.