GOD'S DREAM FOR YOUR LIFE
The Six Phases of Faith -- Part 2
05-04-14 Sermon
Jer.
29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to
prosper you and not hurt you, plans to give you a hope and a future!"
How to Discover God's Dream For You
1. Dedicate
_____________________________________________
"...Offer
yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service ... Do
not conform to the standards of this world, but let God transform you ... Then
you will be able to know the will of God -- what is good ... pleasing ...
and perfect." Rom.
12:1-2 (GN)
"Let
us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back ... and run with
patience the particular race that God has set before us." Heb. 12:1 (LB)
2. Reserve
_______________________________________________
(To
Job) "Pause a moment and
listen! Consider the wonderful
things God does."
Job
37:14 (GN)
Examples
-
Abraham - Gen. 15:5 -
Elijah - I Kings 19:11-12
-
Jacob - Gen 32:24-29 -
Nehemiah - Neh. 1:4
-
Moses - Ex. 3:1-10 -
Habakkuk - Hab 2:1-2
-
Gideon - Judges 6:11-14 -
Paul - Gal 1:17-18
- David - Ps. 5:3 -
Jesus - Luke 5:16
3.
Evaluate
_______________________________________________
"For
we are God's handiwork, created in Christ to devote ourselves to the good
deeds for which God has designed us." Eph. 2:10
"God
has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to
help each other..." I
Pet. 4:10 (LB)
"We
are to use our different gifts in accordance with the grace that God has given
us." Rom 12:6 (GN)
"Your young men shall see visions, your old
men shall dream dreams." Acts 2:17
4. Associate
_____________________________________________
"As iron sharpens
iron, friend sharpens friend."
Prov. 27:17 (Knox)
"Bad
friends ruin the noblest people."
I Cor. 15:33 (JB)
5. Make
__________________________________________________
3 effects of
publicly stating your dream:
1.
It gets you __________________________
2. It attracts other people's _______________________________
3. It releases God's ______________________________
"What is
faith? It is the confident
assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting
for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead." Heb. 11:1 (LB)
"David
served God's purpose in his generation, then he died." Acts. 13:36 (GN)
"I
reckon on my own life worth nothing to me, in order that I may complete my
mission and finish the work
that the Lord Jesus gave me to do..." Acts 20:24 (GN)
Only one life will soon be past,
But
only what's done for Christ will last.
GOD'S
DREAM FOR YOUR LIFE
The Six Phases of Faith
Part 2
05-04-14 Sermon Jeremiah
29:11
We're
in the series "The Six Phases of Faith". The first phase is you've got to get God's dream for your
life.
How
do I get a dream? How do I get the
kind of dream God wants me to have.
Your dream determines your destiny. We shape our dreams and then they shape us. I've come to the conclusion there is no
such thing as great people. There
are only ordinary people committed to great dreams. When you commit yourself to a great dream it draws something
out of you and helps you become larger than you would become any other
way. God uses dreams in our lives
to direct us, shape us, define us.
Your
dreams determine your dignity -- how you feel about yourself. If you don't have a dream for
your life right now you feel like you're just existing. "Why
am I here? What am I here
for? Why do I get up in the
morning? Why do I go to work? What's the purpose of life?" If you don't have a dream -- no dream
means no esteem. When you get
God's dream for your life and begin to fulfill the plan for which He made you
then you'll feel better about yourself.
Nothing is more important, after you come to know Jesus Christ, than to
get God's dream for your life.
It's the reason you exist, your purpose for living. When you don't have it, you just drift
around. It's only when you
discover why God made you and what He wants you to do with your life does God
make sense.
Jeremiah
29:11 "`For I know the plans I have for
you,' says the Lord, `plans to prosper you, not harm you, plans to give you
a hope and a future.'"
God's dream for me first, is personal
-- for you, not just a plan for the world but for you, your life, a personal
plan. It's a positive plan -- it will give you hope.
How
do I get God's dream for my life? D.R.E.A.M.
D -- Dedicate all my life to God
You've
got to be willing to do this, whatever God wants you to do, and you need to be
willing to do it in advance before He tells you what the dream is.
"Offer yourselves as
a living sacrifice to God dedicated to His service. Don't conform to the standards of this world, but let God
transform you. Then you will be
able to know the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." If you commit yourself, dedicate yourself, offer yourself as
a living sacrifice, then you will know God's will. You can't miss it if you're seriously committed to God.
What
is His will like? It's good, it's
pleasing and it's perfect. Perfect, in Greek, means it fits me, it
matches me, it's just what I want to be, what I ought to be, could be and
should be.
How
do I discover it? Scripture says offer. Dedicate every part of me. Dedicate my time, talents, treasures, relationships, past,
present, future. If you don't do
this you're never going to discover God's dream for your life.
The
Bible says "Don't conform to the
standards of this world."
Why does he throw that in there when he's talking about God's
dream? Most people miss God's
dream because they're not looking at God, but at everybody else. They're watching what everybody else
does. They want to keep up with
the Jones's and be like everybody else.
If you're trying to imitate somebody else you're going to be a carbon
copy of somebody else instead of being what God made you to be. The number
one reason people miss God's dream is because they're hung up with trying to
fit in. Get God's dream for your life, not the American dream.
The
American dream and God's dream are two very different issues. The American dream used to be a very
easy thing to get 30 years ago. It
meant you buy a home in the suburbs, Dad goes to work, Mom stays home and bakes
cookies. Ward and June Cleaver. Ozzie and Harriet. Father Knows Best. I know some of you have no idea who I
am talking about! The American
dream was pretty affordable for most people. It didn't involve a whole lot.
Today,
the American dream is an all consuming concern. This rat race becomes your total focus. If you want to get serious about what
God's dream is for your life, you have to decide if you're going to settle for
the American dream or for God's dream.
The good life or God's life.
Materialism or ministry.
Rat race or God's race.
Dedicate yourself and don't worry about being like everybody else.
Heb.
12:1 "Let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us
back. Let us run with patience the
particular race that God has set before us." God has a particular life course for
you to run. If you're always
looking at other people you're going to end up running their race. God has a particular life race for you
to run and nobody else can run it.
He
tells you to focus on that and lay off all the excess baggage. There may be relationships, friendships
that are pulling you down, because they have goals that are counter to what God
has for your life. You can't
always please the crowd and God at the same time. You dedicate your life to God. Dump the excess baggage. A lot of things aren't necessarily wrong but they're not
necessary. There are a lot of
things I could do with my life that keep me from the best, from what God really
wants me to do with my life.
R - Reserve Time Alone
With God
You
have to be quiet in order to hear God speak. If you want to hear God's
vision then you're going to have to
turn off the television. You can't listen to God and Dancing with the Stars at the same
time. The reason why God may never
speak to you could be because you're never quiet. Something is always going on in your mind and God is trying
to get through to you on the telephone of life and He's getting a busy
signal. You've got to reserve time
alone with God.
Job
37:14 "Job, pause a moment and listen. Consider the wonderful things God does." God wants to spend time with you. Why in the world would the Creator of
the world want to spend time with you?
Because he likes you. He
says, pause, be quiet, get alone, learn solitude so I can talk with you.
Pascal
said, "Most of man's problems come
from his inability to set still." Sometimes as adults we get spiritual wiggles. We cannot set still and be quiet.
Is
getting God's dream for your life worth a day of your life? Have you ever taken an entire day and
done nothing but be alone with God?
How about half a day? How
about a morning? Talk to God in
prayer. Let God talk to you
through the Bible. Relax. Think. Write down the thoughts He puts in your mind. Set some goals. Look through your schedule. Set your priorities. Spend the day saying, "God, where do You want me to go? What direction do you want my feet
headed?" You think you
don't have time for this? You
don't have time to try to figure out why you're here on earth?
God
speaks to people who take the time to listen. This is not a one time shot. This needs to be some kind of regular occurrence.
E - Evaluate my abilities
If
you want to know God's will, you look at what you're good at. Why would God give me certain gifts,
abilities and talents and not use them?
That would be a waste. He gives you talents, abilities, gifts,
experiences, a certain kind a personal bent (personality) that make you and
when you look at that seriously it gives you direction as to where you should
go with your life. Ask yourself
what am I good at? What do I love
to do? What is my passion? What turns me on and what turns me
off? What is it that people affirm
in you? How can He use those
abilities for His kingdom?
Ephesians
2:10 "For we are God's handiwork,
to devote ourselves to the good deeds for which God has designed us." The word for God's handiwork, in Greek,
is the word poema, from which we get
the word poem. You are God's poem. You are a work of art. You are unique. There is nobody like you. You didn't come off an assembly
line.
But
there's more to life than just being unique. God wants you to be unique and effective. He says He designed you that way to do
good deeds for which God has designed us.
Even before you were born, God predesigned a role for you in life. He said, I'm going to make this person and give them certain gifts, abilities,
talents. And I'm going to allow
them to go through certain experiences -- some good and some incredibly
painful. Some are educational and
some you'll have to go through five or six times. He says, I'm going to
bring all of these things together because I want something done in the world
that will take that kind of person to do it. And that's why you've gone through all that you've gone
through.
If
you don't use those experiences for what God intended, you missed the
point. One day you'll stand before
God and He'll say, What did you do with
what I gave you? Retired is the wrong answer. That's not what I'm expecting you to do
with the talents and experiences I gave you. I had a plan and I predesigned it before you were born.
We
are saved to serve. It's called
having a ministry. Using your
talents and gifts to help other people.
Fulfillment means being what God meant for you to be.
I
Peter says, "God has given
each of you some special
abilities. Be sure to use them to
help each other." He's given you these abilities; that means
they are unearned. You can't take
pride in them. It's not something
you thought up. When God has given
someone the ability of coordination of a schedule -- that's a gift. When God has given another coordination
with a basketball -- that's a gift.
Why take pride in it? It
didn't come from you -- God gave it to you. It is a gift.
You shouldn't go around comparing.
God
says if you're faithful in small things you'll be faithful in greater
things. God is testing you where
you are. God doesn't give you two
blessings until you use the first one He's already given you. The way you build a talent is by using what
you've got. It strengthens and
gets strong and better. The Bible
says, "To those who have, more will
be given." That sounds
unfair. But it's because they use
what they've got. If you don't use
it, you loose it. It's like a
muscle -- it atrophies.
Romans
12:6 "We are to use our different
gifts in accordance to the grace God gives us." The purpose of this church is first to
help you come to know Christ and second to help you discover God's dream for
your life. It's called your
ministry and your life message.
You
are never too young to get God's dream.
And you're never too old to get God's dream. The Bible says, "Your young men shall see visions,
your old men shall dream dreams."
The Bible says that God has a dream for your life.
There
are two more steps.
A - Associate with Godly
dreamers
Hang
out with people who are also trying to discover God's dream for their
life. Both dreams and
discouragement are contagious. The
people who are your closest friends are either going to help God's dream for
your life or they're going to hinder it.
There is no such thing as a neutral friend. You'd better choose the people who are closest to you very
carefully. I've seen too many
people miss God's dream because a friend had no interest in it. If you want to get God's dream, you
want to get around Godly dreamers.
It's caught, not taught.
It's contagious.
This
is the importance of being in a church family. You come to know Jesus Christ and then you get into a church
family. If you want to know God's
dream for your life start hanging around people who are saying, "I want to do whatever God wants me to
do."
Prov.
27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, friend
sharpens friend."
1
Cor 15:33 "Bad friends ruin the
noblest people." -- If
you want to soar with the eagles, you can't run with the turkeys. If you want to break out of a rut, some
of you may need to change friends.
Some of you need to make some friends here in this church family to
build God's dream in your life.
M - Make my dream public
Why
should I announce it to everybody else?
Because it demonstrates faith.
Also, other people will start coming out of the woodwork to help
you. Some of you have had a dream
and had no one to help. But you
haven't shared it with anybody.
Just by telling other people, you're making a statement of faith and
other people will come along to become a part of it. You see it, sense it, and then state it. You visualize the dream first and then you verbalize the dream saying "This
is what I believe God wants to do in my life." A goal is a statement of faith.
There
are three effects of publicly stating
your dream:
1. It gets you started. There is no more procrastination. Now that you've announced it, you're accountable to try and
you have to get moving.
2. It attracts other people's support. The moment I stated my dream other people wanted to get in
on it. A dream from God will
attract people you don't even know yet that will help.
3. It releases God's power. Because of your faith, you've stepped out of the boat and
started walking on water and God holds you up.
Heb.
11:1"What is faith? It is the confident assurance that
something we want is going to happen.
It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us even
though we cannot see it up ahead."
The
first phase of faith is a dream.
It starts with a dream.
Nothing happens in your life until you start dreaming. I'm not saying just think up whatever
you want to think up. I'm saying
seriously, ask God. I dare you to
dream God’s dream for you.
Acts
13:36 "David served God's purpose
for his generation and then he died." That's what I want people to be able to say about you. That you served God's purpose in your
generation -- then you died.
That's what I hope people will be able to say about me.
Acts
20 "I reckon my own life worth
nothing to me in order that I may complete my mission and finish the work that
the Lord Jesus gave me to do."
Only one life will soon be past,
But
only what's done for Christ will last.
What's
your dream? Not the American dream
but what's God's dream for your life?
You must be willing to say I'm not
going to conform to the standards of this world, but go for the glory -- God's
glory. And then you go for
it. It won't happen
overnight. It can take years for
all of it to be revealed.
Ask
God, Please show me your dream for my
life.
No comments:
Post a Comment