Dreaming BIG
by Frank Schaefer
(this sermon is indebted to Pastor Frank Nuño)*
First of all, I want you to understand that Pentecost, much like Advent,
Christmas and Easter isn’t just a day in the life of the church, it is a season.
In fact it is the longest lasting season of the church calendar.
One of the central Scriptures of Pentecost, the one that the apostle
Peter quotes in his Pentecost sermon is from Joel chapter two:
“In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit
upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young
men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” Joel 2:28
Whatever else the Pentecost season is about, it is also about our
visions and dreams. According to Joel God calls us, in these last days, to
retake our dreams and visions. God gives us dreams to form, to forge us, to
propel us toward a future of hope, to lift our lives to much higher plains.
I daresay that everybody needs a dream. If we don’t have dreams we
will live frustrated lives, boring lives, lives with no direction. It’s only
when we dream that we find the motivation to be all that we can be. When you
follow a great dream, that dream brings out the best in you. It helps you to
become so much more than what you have ever imagined yourself to be.
What is that which hinders us from dreaming God’s dreams? What hinders us from
following God’s dreams for us?
1. We need to figure out God’s dream for us.
Remember how the apostle Paul describes in 1 Corinthians how all of us have been
given different skills and talents—or, as we Methodists like to call them—gifts
and graces. Those are the things that enable us to fulfill God’s dream for us.
And those talents we have are an indication of how God wants us to live, what
God wants us to achieve in our lives.
Each of us have been given a unique set of talents, each has a
somewhat different purpose and function. There is no one quite like me (thank
God?) And so the dream God has for your life is unique as well.
1 Peter 4:10 says: “God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to
use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings.
“
So as we use these special abilities that God has generously given to each one
of us and as we use them to help others, we will feel fulfilled. Because you
will live your life according to the dreams God has for you. The secret of a
fulfilled and happy life is when you start living your life according to your
God-given purpose. You will never be bored or frustrated when you feel that you
make a difference in this world by using the talents God has given you.
2. We must avoid getting sidetracked
Once we figure out our dreams, our purpose, our talents, we should live to
fulfill them. One of the great hindrances is that we are constantly surrounded
by temptations and distractions, many of which can seriously derail us and cause
us to get stuck or to get lost.
There is a story about a WW2 pilot who got lost while flying across the ocean
and speaking to the control tower he said: “I have no idea where I am nor where
I’m going, but I expect to arrive on time.”
Wow, speaking of unrealistic expectations! I got bad news for this pilot: You’re
not going to arrive on time, because when you’re lost, you won’t make it on
time, and if you get distracted from pursuing your dream you won’t make any
progress toward realizing it.
Someone once observed that we human beings, ironically, double our speed, our
energy when we’re lost. It’s like we realize we’re lost and ...we start moving
in circles frantically trying to get a grip of a situation that’s slipping out
of control. For whatever reason we think that if we push the panic button we’ll
find our bearings, but instead we tire ourselves out even more. It’s like the
person who can’t swim that goes overboard and starts frantically thrashing his
arms around while going under.
Instead we must learn to stop and examine our hearts, our situation. We need to
calm down, pray, meditate, and allow God to guide us, to help us back on track.
And then we need to identify those things that keep sidetracking us. In Hebrews
12:1 we read: “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so
easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
We have to run the race that is marked out before us; we need to leave behind
everything that hinders, and we need to throw off those things want to rob us of
our dreams and stop us in our pursuit of them.
3. We must get rid of Negativity
Another hindrance to living our life according
to God’s dream is negative thinking. We often struggle with negativity in our
lives. In order to realize our dream, we must pay attention to the way
negativity can hinder us. We often find ourselves thinking: “I can’t do it. I’m
not good enough. I’m not strong enough.” Needless to say, with this kind of
thinking, we won’t ever get there.
Negative thinking can come from our own insecurities, low self worth or self
esteem. I want to refer you to my sermon from last week which reaffirms how
valuable each one of us is, how precious and beloved we are in the eyes of God.
But negativity can also come from people that surround us. We need to surround
ourselves with other dreamers. Did you know that dreams are contagious? Well,
unfortunately, so are discouragements. If you surround yourself with people who
constantly complain, who are notoriously negative, you will become negative too.
But if you surround yourself with people who are dreamers, you will be a
dreamer. The people in your life can either help you or hinder you. If you want
to live out God’s dream for your life, surround yourself with other dreamers.
Pastor Frank N saying: "Si quieres volar como las águilas, no nades con los
patos." (If you want to fly with the eagles, don’t swim with the ducks.)
Nothing against ducks, it’s not that they’re bad, they’re not like
eagles; they just don’t spend a lot of time in the air, they prefer the water.
And that’s fine for all those that want to do that. But if you are a person who
thinks out of the box, if you have lofty goals, if you want to soar like an
eagle, then don’t surround yourself with ducks. I’m sure we all have ducks in
our lives, the people that say: flying? it’s too arduous, it’s too difficult.
Soaring like the eagles. We’ve tried that before, it didn’t work... How
depressing of a message is that?
Instead, let’s surround ourselves with eagles, with fellow dreamers, with those
that encourage us to let our dreams fly! Look for people in your life who
empower you, that tell you: go for it. Yes you can! You have the ability, the
intelligence, the gifts and graces. You have what it takes. “I can do all things
through Christ who gives me strength” (Phil 4:13).
Don’t let those who cannot see, limit the vision God gave you. Don’t let people
with little imagination rob you of the great dreams God has given you. Don’t let
people of a narrow mindset rob you of the amazing life God has for you. Instead,
believe in God, for God has great dreams and visions for you and God wants you
to believe in your dreams and realize them.
This morning I want to encourage especially those that are at the end of
broken dreams, but really, this message is to all of us. God is saying to us
through the prophet Joel, through the apostle Peter, through the act of
Pentecost: Dare to dream again.
Right now, I would like for us to listen to into this powerful song called:
Dream Again. I’m presenting it as a prayerful denouement to this message. Amen.
Dream Again by Seth and
Rachel Enos, WorshipMob
_______
* this sermon borrows from Pastor Frank Nuño,
Abrazando los Sueños
de Dios,
La Iglesia En El Camino
