The document encourages individuals to nurture their Christian faith by being burdened with a vision, purpose, or dream that glorifies God, comparing vibrant faith to fire and stagnant faith to ice. It emphasizes the importance of communicating this dream and leading others toward its fulfillment while addressing common hindrances like fear and feelings of inadequacy. Finally, it highlights the necessity of having integrity and commitment in order to realize the vision bestowed by God.

1. Let Us Empower Our
Dreams

2. We need to be burdened
with a dream which brings
fire to our faith and glory
to God

3. John Wesley once said
about his preaching, “I set
myself on fire, and others
come to watch me burn.”

4. Can you characterize you
Christian faith as a fire; burning
with excitement, purpose,
meaning, always glowing,
always reaching upward, and
extending outward?

5. Or, is your Christianity better
compared with ice: Cold, hard,
difficult to grasp, slowly
melting away, with little
comfort, or little movement?

6. I. To inflame our faith and bring glory to God we
must be burdened with a vision, a purpose, a dream
that will bring glory to God.

7. I. To inflame our faith and bring glory to God we
must be burdened with a vision, a purpose, a dream
that will bring glory to God.
• A. Vision gives a destination for our faith!

8. I. To inflame our faith and bring glory to God we
must be burdened with a vision, a purpose, a dream
that will bring glory to God.
• A. Vision gives a destination for our faith!
• B. Great men of the Bible had big dreams
for God

9. I. To inflame our faith and bring glory to God we
must be burdened with a vision, a purpose, a dream
that will bring glory to God.
• A. Vision gives a destination for our faith!
• B. Great men of the Bible had big dreams
for God
• C. Great vision comes from God

10. I. C. 1. Moses received his vision from the
voice of God.
The LORD said, "I have surely seen
the affliction of My people who
are in Egypt, and have given heed
to their cry because of their
taskmasters, for I am aware of
their sufferings. Exodus 3:7

11. I. C. 2. Nehemiah’s vision came from
a burden for his people and God’s
Temple

12. I. C. 3. We need a God given
vision.

13. I. C. 3. We need a God given
vision.
• a. It can come out of burden on the heart

14. I. C. 3. We need a God given
vision.
• a. It can come out of burden on the heart
• b. I can come from a God given, or spiritual gift

15. I. C. 3. We need a God given
vision.
• a. It can come out of burden on the heart
• b. I can come from a God given, or spiritual gift
• c. It can come from a burden for a particular
people group

16. D. Corporate vision grows out
of individual vision.
• I told them how the hand of my God had
been favorable to me and also about the
king's words which he had spoken to me.
Then they said, "Let us arise and build." So
they put their hands to the good work
Nehemiah 2:18

17. II. Communicate your dream!
• A. If I simply dream dreams I a dreamer. But
if I communicate the dream and include others
in the dream I become a visionary

18. • B. Hindrances to communicating
your dream.

19. • B. Hindrances to communicating your
dream.
• 1. Feeling of inadequacy.
Then Moses said to the LORD, "Please, Lord, I have never been
eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have
spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of
tongue." (11) The LORD said to him, "Who has made man's
mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is
it not I, the LORD? (12) "Now then go, and I, even I, will be
with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say." (13)
But he said, "Please, Lord, now send the message by
whomever You will." Exodus 4:10-13

20. • B. Hindrances to communicating
your dream.
• 1. Feeling of inadequacy.
• 2. Fear
Then Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or
listen to what I say? For they may say, 'The LORD
has not appeared to you.'" Exodus 4:1
• Nehemiah – the cupbearer or the King.

21. • B. Hindrances to communicating
your dream.
• 1. Feeling of inadequacy.
• 2. Fear
• 3. The commitment required of the vision.

22. C. To whom do we communicate our
vision?

23. C. To whom do we communicate our
vision?
• 1. To those whom we need approval or support.
• Nehemiah went to the King, and to the governors.
Nehemiah 2:1-5 And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth
year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I took up the
wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.
(2) So the king said to me, "Why is your face sad though you are not
sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart." Then I was very much
afraid. (3) I said to the king, "Let the king live forever. Why should
my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies
desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?" (4) Then the
king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God
of heaven. (5) I said to the king, "If it please the king, and if your
servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of
my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it.“
Nehemiah 2:9 Then I came to the governors of the provinces beyond
the River and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with
me officers of the army and horsemen.

24. C. To whom do we communicate our
vision?
• 1. To those whom we need approval or support.
• 2. To those who we need help to do the work.
Then I said to them, "You see the bad situation we are
in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by
fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so
that we will no longer be a reproach." Nehemiah
2:17

25. III. We must be committed to lead
others with the vision.

26. III. We must be committed to lead
others with the vision.
A. Calculate the work required to fulfill the dream.
Nehemiah 2:12-16 NASB And I arose in the night, I and a few men
with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting into my
mind to do for Jerusalem and there was no animal with me except
the animal on which I was riding. (13) So I went out at night by
the Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon's Well and on to the
Refuse Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem which were broken
down and its gates which were consumed by fire. (14) Then I
passed on to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was
no place for my mount to pass. (15) So I went up at night by the
ravine and inspected the wall. Then I entered the Valley Gate
again and returned. (16) The officials did not know where I had
gone or what I had done; nor had I as yet told the Jews, the priests,
the nobles, the officials or the rest who did the work.

27. III. We must be committed to lead
others with the vision.
A. Calculate the work required to fulfill the dream.
B. Know the risk.
Nehemiah 2:10 NASB When Sanballat the Horonite and
Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was
very displeasing to them that someone had come to
seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.
Nehemiah 2:19 NASB But when Sanballat the Horonite
and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the
Arab heard it, they mocked us and despised us and
said, "What is this thing you are doing? Are you
rebelling against the king?"

28. III. We must be committed to lead
others with the vision.
A. Calculate the work required to fulfill the
dream.
B. Know the risk.
C. Formulate a plan of action.
Nehemiah formulated a plan of action on how
to approach the King.
Nehemiah formulated a plan of action on how
to rebuild the Temple

29. IV. We must be the people God
requires to fulfill the His vision.

30. IV. We must be the people God
requires to fulfill the His vision.
• A. Nehemiah was a man of proven integrity.
• 1. He was trusted by the king.
• 2. He was respected by the people

31. IV. We must be the people God
requires to fulfill the His vision.
• A. Nehemiah was a man of proven integrity.
• B. We should (must) be people of integrity.
• 1. God is as concerned with the instrument of the
work as He is with the work itself.
• 2. This doesn’t mean that God won’t use the task to
train us.
• 3. Prepare yourself for the task.

32. IV. We must be the people God
requires to fulfill the His vision.
• A. Nehemiah was a man of proven integrity.
• B. We should (must) be people of integrity.
• C. Areas that might need some development.
• 1. Competence
• 2. Know yourself.
• a. Your strengths – build on these.
• b. Your weaknesses
• 1) improve areas of weakness
• 2) delegate where you can’t (exp. Moses and Aaron).
• 3. Be Persistent. If God has given you the vision don’t quit.
• 4. Work on Moral integrity

33. IV. We must be the people God
requires to fulfill the His vision.
• A. Nehemiah was a man of proven integrity.
• B. We should (must) be people of integrity.
• C. Areas that might need some development.
• 2. Know yourself.
• a. Your strengths – build on these.
• b. Your weaknesses
• 1) improve areas of weakness
• 2) delegate where you can’t (exp. Moses and Aaron).
• 3. Be Persistent. If God has given you the vision don’t quit.
• 4. Work on Moral integrity

34. Is your faith like fire or
like ice?