Those Who Dream

Okay. We are in a series called the Hope Carrier Initiative. We’ve been talking about being disciples of Jesus, living on mission, who change their world. And if you go all the way back to January, when we started this, we said the whole heartbeat of this series isn’t to answer your questions, it’s to create questions. It’s to stir things up in your soul. It’s to create a holy discontent, this belief that there is more. And we’ve said that we wanted the theology of everything we were going to talk about in this series to become part of the ethos, the foundation, the very fabric and fiber of who we are as a church, and I think both of those things are happening. And last week we started talking about dreaming with God.

And so, here’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to relay that foundation again, because I don’t want anybody to miss it, and then I want to build on top of that. So, can you go with me there? Okay. The Scriptures say, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.” Paul, in 2 Corinthians, in this beautiful passage where he talks about how we’re a new creation in Christ Jesus, how we’ve been reconciled with God, we’ve been given the ministry of reconciliation, that we’re now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus says, “We are now Christ’s ambassadors.” That we’re strangers, we’re aliens, we’re foreigners in this world. We are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We are in this world, but we are of the kingdom. And so, we are ambassadors, representatives, re-presenters of Jesus and His kingdom, and God is making His appeal through us. In other words, God is inviting the world unto Himself through you.

You’re like an undercover agent sent in behind enemy lines, and wherever you go, that’s your cover. Your family, your marriage, your neighborhood might be your cover. Your class might be your cover. Your job might be your cover. Your team might be your cover, but you’re an undercover agent sent in behind enemy lines to demonstrate and declare the kingdom of God. Now, the term “ambassador” – representative, a re-presenter. And so, let’s say for example, you were the American ambassador to Iran. You moved to Iran, you live in the American embassy, which is literally an outpost of American sovereignty, American authority, American freedom. And when you’re there and you’re in Iran, are you going to live down to their level of oppression? Are you going to speak their language, and believe their beliefs, and take on their values, and think their thoughts, and function the way that they function? No.

You’re going to live American values with American freedom, American language, American ideals, American beliefs. You’re going to try to demonstrate and declare American freedom in such a way that calls them up so that they realize there is a higher way to live. Okay. So, if you wouldn’t live down to the Iranian way of life, why do we as citizens of heaven live down to the way this world lives its life? Why do we allow the world to determine the standards of the areas of life? Why do we live down to the way the world does family? The way the world does education? The way the world takes care of their bodies? Why do we do business the way the world does it? Why do we think of government the way that world thinks of government? Why do we do arts and media and sports and technology? Why do we even view the church the way that the world does? So, you have to remember that the world is an irrelevant standard when you’re a follower of Jesus.

I tell my kids this all the time, “Don’t compare yourself to the world because it’s an irrelevant standard.” Like, it doesn’t matter if everybody in class gets a 100 and you get a 50. Why? Because they’re not the standard. We’re not comparing ourselves against them. And it doesn’t matter if you get a 95 and everybody else gets a 50 and you didn’t try. That’s not okay. Some of you are still bothered from that from last week. Why? Because it’s an irrelevant standard. You have to ask yourself questions like this: Would I rather have an A from a teacher who requires nothing of me or a D from a teacher who requires everything from me, my best? The question is, what’s your standard, to get a good grade or to become your best? Would you rather be accepted for compromising or be rejected for standing for truth? It depends what your standard is, the approval of man or the approval of God.

Would you rather be celebrated for doing the wrong thing or called up and challenged to do the right thing? It depends if your standard is to feel good or to become good. See, the world is an irrelevant standard. It doesn’t matter if nobody else does their homework. It doesn’t matter if nobody else goes to work. It doesn’t matter if nobody else comes on time or stays late, if nobody else apologizes, forgives, says please or thank you. It doesn’t matter if everybody else is going here, doing that, saying this, acting like that. It is an irrelevant standard as an ambassador of the kingdom of God. Why? Because the standard is to live a life worthy of your calling, to do it with all your heart as unto the Lord and be shaped and molded and formed into the image and likeness of Jesus. So, the question is, what is the standard you measure your life by? Because make no mistake, we all have a standard.

We all have a reference point, a measuring stick which we look at and then we align our life to it in sexuality, in finances, in time. We all look at something to decide what is a good life, what is a happy life, and what is a blessed life. Who determines the standard of that? What are the ideas and the images that are you letting bombard your life to align yourself with that? You see, I think so often we just kind of go into these spaces and we allow what we see and hear to become what we say and do. And we live down to the way the world does all of these different things, but why do we allow them to be the standard? We have to learn to think differently about this because the question you have to ask yourself at some point is, whose disciple are you? Because you’re someone’s disciple. I’ve been trying to teach you this, this whole series.

A disciple is simply a learner, a student, a follower, one who becomes like the one that they’re following. You’re being discipled by someone or something, make no mistake about it. Is it the world or is it Jesus? I mean, Jesus says, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” You’re being trained by someone. Are you being trained by the right someone? Are you being trained by the right something? Are you being shaped and formed and molded into the right thing? Jesus says, “You have heard it said, but I say to you.” [In other words], “I know that’s how they live, but that’s an irrelevant standard. I’ve got a better way. This is a good life. This is a blessed life. This is a happy life.” We’ve got to stop trying to win the race that God never called us to run. We spend so much of our lives celebrating ourselves for winning a race God never asked us to run. We spend so much of our lives being defeated for losing a race God never asked us to run.

And what you have to do is look at your own life and ask yourself this question, what are your trophies? What are your life trophies? What are the things you hold dear and value and find identity and worth in, would want to share with other people and show them this is who you are and this is what you’ve done? The question is, are those trophies given out for the world’s race or for God’s race? Because make no mistake about it, there is a race. “Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for you.” The way, the truth, the life. There is a way that leads to the good life, the blessed life, the happy life, and it is the way of Jesus. And if you would just stop and look at the world around us, you will realize how often the followers of Jesus, we allow the world to dictate the standard of which we live. We’ve got to change that. Come on, you with me on this?

“I urge you, as aliens and strangers in this world…” you’re different, you’re a foreigner, you’re in the world, but you’re of the kingdom. This does not mean you are creepy, awkward, or weird. This means you’re different. This means you bless those who curse you and you love your enemies. And you pray for those who persecute you and you forgive and you’re generous and you sacrifice. You have humility and honor, and character and hope, and faith, and you don’t live down “to abstain from the sinful desires which wage war against your soul.” You don’t live down to the world, but you “live such good lives among the pagans.” You live a kingdom life in the world around you. And “though they accuse you of doing wrong,” students, young adults, though everyone around you accuses you of doing wrong, wrong. They think you’re wrong because you’re not running their race. You’re not playing by the same rules, and so they think you’re wrong.

And they will use the only way that they know, which is shame and fear and condemnation and pressure and conforming because they want to control you and put you back into their box. But if you live set apart and you live called out, eventually they will “see the glory of God flowing through your life.” Are you with me on this? And so, we have to awaken to this reality that we are representatives of a completely different realm. We’re disciples of Jesus living on mission to change our world, but we’ve got to be disciples so we can change our world. And as we start to understand that we’re ambassadors of another realm, what happens? We start to dream about that realm showing up in our lives. “When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.”

Captives don’t dream. People in bondage don’t dream. People who are oppressed don’t dream. Free people dream. And the moment you get saved, you start dreaming again. This is context. This is, the Israelites were in bondage for 70 years in Babylon, a picture of the world. And God rescued them and he brought them back to Zion, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the place where peace flows; a picture of the kingdom of God on this earth. And when they got brought back into the kingdom, they started to dream again. You will dream to the level you are free. So, do you dream? Think of Adam in the Garden when God created him; oh, he dreamed about what they were going to create and design and build and engineer and where they were going to go and what they were going to do and what the generations after him were going to look like and what was beyond the horizon. He dreamed with God, why? Because he was made in the image and likeness of God.

And every good thing you experience in this world is an outflow of God’s dream for humanity. And the first thing God says to us, God blesses us, blessed Adam and Eve, “and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it using all its vast resources in the service of God and man.” He says, dream. Here’s a garden. I’ve given it to you. I’ve told you what to do – “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it,” – but I’ve not told you how to do it. I’ve told you to take all these resources that I’ve given you, your time, your money, your mind, your gifts, your talents, your passions, your voice, use all of it to dream within this garden with Me. What can we create? What can we build? What can we design? How can we expand? What could we do together? The greatest way you steward the garden that God has given you is dreaming with God about what could happen within it.

And yet a lot of us say we don’t dream or we can’t dream. But, “In the last days,” today, “God says, ‘I will pour out my spirit on all people and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.'” God says the evidence of a Spirit-filled life is that you dream dreams. The evidence of the Spirit of God in your life is that you dream dreams. All people, men and women, young and old, can dream in Jesus’ name through the Spirit that’s at work in their life. And so, last week, we finished up and I told you to think about your dreams. What are you dreaming about? Do you dream at all? What do you meditate on and dwell and ponder in your heart? What are you pursuing in your life? And you know the number one feedback I got all week? “I don’t dream.” “I don’t have any dreams.” “I realized that there’s no dream in my life.”

So, maybe this is pretty important to understand, because the evidence of the Spirit in my life is that I’m dreaming with God. So, let me describe it for you and then define it. Here’s what dreaming looks like. Dreaming is seeing what can be in the midst of what is. Dreaming is the belief that there is more. Dreaming is reaching into the future and bringing it into the present. It’s divine ideation, divine imagination, divine inspiration. Dreaming is creating a future that does not currently exist. And here’s how I define it for you, because I was told I gave eight definitions of dreaming last week. Here’s the definition of dreaming. Dreaming is looking with the eyes of your heart at what God is doing, what God can do, and what God wants to do and aligning your life with it.

Dreaming is seeing God’s kingdom come where His will is not currently done, and then, using all the gifts, passions, and talents of your life to make that happen. Dreaming is looking with the eyes of your heart at what God is doing, what God can do, and what God wants to do, and aligning your life with it. Dreaming is seeing God’s kingdom come where His will is not currently done and then using all the gifts, passions and talents of your life to make that happen. Isn’t that how Jesus lived? He only went where He saw the Father going, did what He saw the Father doing, said what He heard the Father saying. He could see God’s kingdom come where His will wasn’t done, and then He used all of the things of His life to make that happen. And here’s what’s so important for you to understand. Dreaming is not a goal to accomplish. It is a relationship to enjoy. Dreaming, it’s not a goal to accomplish. It’s not something to achieve. It’s not this objective, this thing to fulfill or be realized, or to make it happen or to get it checked off.

No. Dreaming with God is a relationship to enjoy. It’s about walking with God in the here and now, in intimacy and abiding and connection where we talk and we listen and we look and we dream about what we’re going to co-create together and how we’re going to co-rule and reign. It’s walking through life, looking at the beauty and the goodness of God’s creation and then asking Him what His heart is for those places. It’s not something to accomplish. It’s a relationship to enjoy. Come on, you with me on this? I mean, if we’re honest and we look around at the world around us, I would just submit to you that the preeminent dream of today is just owning my own time. Maybe that’s not how everybody says it, but if you look at it, that’s really how they live their life. My goal, in life, is to own my own time in some capacity, to do what I want, when I want, how I want.

But if that’s your dream – to do your own thing the way you want, when you want, your hobby, your finances, your retirement account, your travel, your vacation home, your things, your stuff, it’s just a really small dream. It’s not a bad dream. It’s not a wrong dream. It’s a small dream. You are made in the image and likeness of God to rule and reign with God on this earth, to co-create with Him. The kingdom of God is within you. The Spirit of God is upon you. You have the mind of Christ. You literally have the spirit of wisdom and counsel. You’ve been given power and authority. You have the keys of the kingdom and the extent of your dream is owning your own time? It’s just a really small dream. You see, the world’s definition of dream is basically “my good, my glory.” But dreaming with God is the good of others and the glory of God. And you say, “How do I know what to dream about?” Well, you have to attach your dream to your created purpose.

That’s what we’ve been talking about this whole series is, what were you created for? To be fruitful and multiply, to make disciples, to destroy the works of the devil. So, are your dreams attached to that in some way? And I’m not saying it’s bad to dream about having a beautiful house, so long as it’s attached to a bigger dream that’s raising up a kingdom family. And I’m not saying it’s bad to dream about having a lot of free time, so long as it’s attached to a bigger dream like making disciples and raising up the next generation. And I’m not saying it’s bad to dream about having lots of money, so long as it’s tied to a bigger dream of being generous to the world around you. I’m not even saying that all the things you dream about, places you want to go, and vacations you want to take, and things you want to discover and things you want to accomplish, those aren’t bad. Just make sure they’re attached to a bigger dream called enjoying God in this world. Come on. We’re kind of excited about this. I’m getting hot. I’m not sure if you’re coming with me or not, but look what Jesus says.

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the Gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet forfeit his soul?” He says, the more you put yourself into the center, the less life you experience. The more you remove yourself from the center, the more life you’ll experience. What good is it for you to accomplish every dream in your heart and yet have no relationship with God? That’s a question that we have to wrestle with. And we look around and we say, why don’t people dream with God? Why do we dream maybe for my good and my glory, but we don’t dream with God as the people of God, as ambassadors of the kingdom? There’s three really simple reasons. One is we’ve just been disappointed. We’ve been disappointed because the dreams we have haven’t come to pass. And, somehow we allow the disappointments of yesterday to become tomorrow’s expectations.

We allow what happened in the past to keep us from dreaming in the future. But listen to me, a delayed dream is not a denied dream. And “not now” doesn’t mean “not ever.” I mean, think about Abraham, the dude is 100 years old and his dream is to have a kid. “Against all hope,” yet, “Abraham in hope believed and so became.” In other words, his dream was all but dead, but he still had faith. And so he “became the father of many nations. He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith, gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why it was credited to Him as righteousness.” In other words, Abraham still dreamed in the midst of disappointment. That’s what faith is. Faith is dreaming in the midst of disappointment.

It’s holding on to the promises of God because they’re attached to the character of God, so they will come to pass. Against all hope, in hope. It takes faith to dream in disappointment. And without faith, it’s impossible to honor God. So, when I dream in the midst of disappointment, it’s righteousness being manifest in my life. If you can grab that, that’s big. Or how about this? “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” A dream delayed, a dream deferred, a dream pushed forward makes the heart sick. If we look at a lot of us, a lot of us are carrying sick hearts because the dreams of our life haven’t come to pass. Just this week in my life, there’s dreams that I have and they got deferred. They got delayed and I went home with a sick heart on a couple of days this week. But desire fulfilled is a tree of life. The desire that you have beneath that dream in your heart, His name is Jesus.

The Bible says Jesus is the desire of all nations, of all people groups, and a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. So, Jesus says, even though your hope has been deferred, I offer to be your desire fulfilled and be a tree of life right here in this moment, right now. And so, if your delayed dreams or “not now” dreams, just ask God, “What are you trying to do? What are you trying to teach me?” The second thing is that we just think like the world. Man, we think like the world. You can’t dream with God if you think like the world. We’ve been conformed to its pattern. We’ve taken on its ways. We walk in its ways. We think it’s thoughts. We align ourselves with the irrelevant standard. I mean, you have to ask yourself this question, where do your dreams come from? They come from ideas and images. There’s a saying I have. I say it all the time is, “You can’t become what you haven’t seen.”

You have to see it to have a vision to become it. You don’t dream about what you haven’t been exposed to. So, whatever I get exposed to, whatever ideas and images become the things that I start to dream about in my life. And the question I have to ask myself is, do I really want to dream about the ideas and the images that I’m exposing myself to all the time? Think about this. You are exposed to more ideas and images of the world in a single day than someone would have in their entire life 100 years ago. So, what’s your plan to deal with that? Because that’s a choice you’ve got to figure out what to do with. Like, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world.” Renew your mind. Like, okay, let me just get real raw with you because I’m not sure I’m grabbing you today. I’m not sure we want to dream yet.

But if you don’t have a foundation, you can’t build a building. Okay, pornography. Ideas and images. What happens? You get exposed to it. Now, what do I start to dream about? Dysfunctional sex, transgenderism. Why is it on the rise? And, everywhere you look, you’re like, “Wait, what is happening here?” Ideas and images that get into the mind and get into the heart and they become a dream because I’ve been exposed to it. Money and the love of it. All the things we see, all the possessions, all the stuff, all the time, ideas and images. So, now my heart starts to dream about money and the love of money is the root of all evil. Narcissism, selfishness, self-centered living. What happens? Ideas and images of everyone else putting themselves out there all the time and how amazing it is. What do I get exposed to? That idea, that image that begins in my heart and that’s what I start to dream about. So, what’s your plan to deal with the ideas and the images of this world?

So that you can renew your mind, so that you can actually see what God’s will is, so that you can dream about bringing it to pass in your life. Are you with me on this? Sort of. And then the last thing is this, it’s just – dreaming is hard work. We use impossibility to hide apathy. We use these perceived impossibilities to hide the spirit of apathy in our life and we’re like, “That’s impossible, it will never happen, it’s just the way it is.” Like, really though? Because who says, “It’s impossible?” Because the Bible I have says, “With God, all things are possible.” So, is it really impossible to have a good marriage or is it just a lot of hard work? Is it really impossible to be mentally healthy? “I’ve got all this anxiety and this depression, it’s impossible to be healthy.” Really? Or is there just a whole lot of costs that might be required to actually align with what God wants to do? I can’t change my work culture, it’s super dysfunctional, really?

It’s impossible? Or is it just going to cost you more than maybe you’re currently ready to pay? Noah dreamed with God about saving the world and then he didn’t sit around and wait for it to happen. He went and chopped down a bunch of trees for decades. Turned them into boards, built a ship and gathered animals from all the world and put them into it. He dreamed with God, but then he did it with God. Dreaming without doing is fantasy. And here’s the difference between wishing and dreaming. Wishing is, I see it and I want it to happen. Dreaming is, I see it and I’m going to work with God to make it happen. Do you have wishes or do you have dreams? Because wishes is, I see it and I want someone else to make it happen. Dreams is, I see it and I’m going to work with everything I’ve got with God to make it happen.

Because I can’t do it without Him and He won’t do it without me. He’s given you a garden to rule over and He’s not going to take away your sovereignty in that space. He’s not going to take away your authority. He wants to wait to see what you’re going to do with your words and actions and how you’re going to align with it. So you’ve got to do it with God and He won’t do it without you and you can’t do it without Him. So, that’s the question, are you willing to do that? And if you look at somebody that has a dream, you don’t have to tell them, get up in the morning. You don’t have to tell them, you’ve got to get going here. You don’t have to tell them, come early, stay late, let’s get on this, let’s put in some action. No, because it’s a dream that captivates their heart. Are you with me on this? Okay. Here’s where I’ve been trying to bring you to, this is David. Do you realize that David dreamed of the Temple? One of the most important things in the Old Testament, literally, was David’s dream.

When Solomon, his son, is building the Temple, “God said, ‘I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built for My name to be there, but I’ve chosen David to rule my people Israel.’ So Solomon said, ‘My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the name of the Lord… The Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was in your heart to build a temple for my name, you did well to have this in your heart.'” God says, “I did not choose the Temple, I chose David.” God says, “My dream wasn’t the Temple, my dream was David. And I gave David a garden and I empowered him. And he had it in his heart to build a Temple for Me. And what he had in his heart was good.” You want to talk about empowerment, you want to talk about ruling and reigning, you want to talk about creativity, you want to talk about a belief, you want to talk about a bigger life?

God says, “The Temple wasn’t my dream, David was my dream.” Okay. You’re God’s dream and He’s put you in a garden to rule. What garden are you ruling over, family, a business, your body, a thing, a team, a place? What are you dreaming about? What are you dreaming about? Because God already fulfilled His dream, it was you. And now, He’s waiting to see, what are you going to dream about? And what are we going to do together? But it’s really hard to dream about something you dread. It’s really hard to dream about something you complain about all the time. What is in your heart for the space that God has given you? Come on. Oh, you guys are tough today, people. I just told you you’re God’s dream and you’re like [eh].

Here’s what’s amazing, David spent his whole life preparing for a revival he never got to experience. He didn’t build the Temple, his son did, but it was his dream. He spent his whole life planning a garden he never got to enjoy the fruit from. You want to talk about a dream, that’s a dream. Are you willing to give your life to a revival you’ll never experience? Are you willing to tend a garden that you might never enjoy the fruit of? Some of you are so disappointed because your dreams aren’t coming to pass, but maybe it’s not supposed to happen in your lifetime. Maybe you’re just supposed to lift the lid and take the next base camp and move it forward a little further. It’s like John Adams, you’re like, I’m really reaching for you now. I’m giving you a John Adams quote. When he says, “I must study war and politics so that my sons might have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. And my sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy so that their sons might have the liberty to study arts and music.”

In other words, he says, my dream is so big, I know it won’t happen in my lifetime, but I’m willing to go for it. And you look at David and you think, how? How was he okay not seeing the Temple fulfilled in his lifetime? Because he had the Lord in his heart long before he had the Temple in his heart. He didn’t want God so he could have a Temple. He wanted to do the Temple for God. And so if the Temple didn’t happen in his lifetime, his dream didn’t happen in his lifetime, he still was with God, so, he was okay. So, here’s the question for you, do you want the dream or the Dream-Giver? Do you spend more time pursuing the dream or pursuing God? Because what I think happens to a lot of us is we want God so we can have our dream. And then, we displace God from the center and we make the dream the center. And the moment God is removed from the center, it’s no longer a dream, it’s a nightmare.

Because now it’s an idol that takes over my life. And a whole lot of us, we set out and we had a great dream to do it with God, but somewhere along the way, some of you here, you have had such success for the dreams in your life, but they have now displaced God. So, they’re no longer a dream, that business, that thing, that success, that achievement, that life. That thing has now displaced God. Some of you, I think this is a prophetic word. You prayed for a spouse for years. You sought the Lord and He gave you one. And now you forgot about Him and you’ve made it all about your spouse. And the Lord is saying, “Why don’t you invite Me back into the center? Why don’t you invite Me back into the center?” “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” That’s alright. That’s alright. We’re good. The bummer is you made me work so hard on the front end, we’re going to miss all the good stuff on the back end.

This is what David says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” God wants to give you the desires of your heart. Just take it face value. God wants to give you the desires of your heart. Delight yourself in the Lord – delight, enjoy, focus, turn your attention, your affection, rest upon, literally means “be soft and pliable.” It’s what that word means in the original language. Be soft and pliable to the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Desire, de-sire; de-sire, of the Father. Father, de-sire, Father. “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Your desires will become like your Father’s. His desires will become your desires. His thoughts will become your thoughts. His dreams will become your dreams. Whatever you delight yourself in, your desires will be of your Father. So, if I delight myself in the world, my dreams will be of the world.

If I delight myself in the Lord, my dreams will be of the Father. David says the heart that is captivated by God will always be full of dreams. Or how about Jesus, when He says, “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.” God wants to give you what you ask for. Just take it at face value. He wants to give you what you ask for, but back it up. You say, “I’ve asked for a lot of things and it’s not happened.” “Well, if you remain in Me, if you focus on, turn your attention towards, give Me the affection, rest in, remain in, be aware of Me and My words remain in you. My words are shaping and forming the thoughts, the attitudes, the perspectives, and the beliefs of your life. Then ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.” Why? Because now I can see God’s kingdom come, where His will is not done.

And I know what God is doing and what God can do and what God wants to do. This is Jesus saying, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and everything else will be added unto you.” In other words, don’t seek a dream, seek the Dream-Giver. Some of you have been waiting for this message, this part of dreaming and you’re like, “Because I don’t have a dream.” Don’t seek a dream, seek the Dream-Giver and your heart will be full of dreams. Jesus, that’s what He’s saying. “A heart that is captivated by Me will always be full of dreams and they will see those dreams realized.” Realized; realized in Jesus’ name. Come on, dreaming keeps you from settling. So many of us, we just settle, this is it, this is the way it is. This is just the life. You were created to create the future, man.

And here’s what we think, “I’m too old to dream.” We think the dreaming curve goes like this. You’re young, you have lots of dreams and phew. It says, “Old men will dream dreams.” We just looked at it. The dreaming curve in the Bible starts here. You’re young, whoop, and as you go through life, dreams come. Why? Because the more I walk through life, the more I know God, the more I know His kingdom, the more I know His will, the more I can see what can be. So, if you’re young and you don’t have a dream, keep walking with God, it’s coming. And if you’re old, you’re in the prime of your life to dream. You’re like Caleb, “Give me that hill country,” 85-year-old man, “that’s full of giants and fortified cities because I can see God’s kingdom come where His will is not currently done.” The only limitations in your life are that which is in here. The only impossibilities that exist are that which is in here. You are created to create the future. The future.

See, all these good things we missed? Joseph has this amazing dream with God. Joseph has this amazing dream with God, this dream that captivates him for his entire life. And he goes through ten years. He is sold by his brothers, he’s thrown into a pit, he’s enslaved, he’s oppressed, he’s falsely accused, he’s thrown into prison, and yet he never gave up on his dream. “Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the Lord tested Joseph’s character.” Until the time came to fulfill your dream, maybe the Lord is testing your character. Satan tempts us to break us. God tests us to strengthen us. What’s the point of a test? To get an A. No, that’s the world standard. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Why do you care if you get an A anyways?

The point of a test is to see what you really know, is to see what knowledge you have, what wisdom you have, what’s in your heart, who you really are, can you apply it to your life? And when we fail that test, God says, “Then you’re not ready for what’s next, so let’s do it again. Let’s do it again, and let’s do it again,” and He keeps strengthening us over and over again. A question you have to ask yourself is this, do you have the character to fully steward your fully realized dreams today? All the things you dream about, do you have the character, right now, to steward them if it was fully realized in this moment? If the answer is no, then it’s not time to fulfill your dream; the Lord is still creating character in you. So, partner with Him in that process. Okay. What are you dreaming about?

What would it look like for God’s kingdom to come in your life? What would it look like if God’s kingdom came through your life into the places you go every single day? That’s how you start dreaming. You’re like, “This is a lot. I don’t understand it.” What would it look like for God’s kingdom to flow through your life in the places you go? What would it look like for God’s kingdom to be in your marriage, to be in your home, to be with your parents, or your children? This is how you discover how to dream. Just ask that question. If Jesus was married to your spouse, what would that marriage look like? If Jesus had your children, how would they be raised? If Jesus had your parents, what would that relationship look like? That’s asking the question, what would God’s kingdom look like in that space? Now I see it, now I can dream about it, now I can work with God on it. What would it look like for God’s kingdom to come in your class, at your lunch table, with your friends?

What would it look like for God’s kingdom to flow through your practice and place that, I don’t know, you can catch what I’m saying. What would it look like, I’m totally out of time, all the things. What would it look like for God’s kingdom to come in your job, in your sales calls, in your department? If Jesus did your job – if Jesus did your job, what would it look like? This is dreaming with God. You can go through all of these and you can wrestle through it. Just ask yourself that question, what would God’s kingdom look like? A dream is not a goal to accomplish, which means it is not a word-crafted statement. And I have one dream that I go after with everything I’ve got. No, every space I’m in, I’m dreaming with God about what His kingdom would look like in that space. This is what hope carriers do. It’s a relationship to enjoy. There are songs that have yet to be sung. There are businesses and ideas yet to happen. There are next generation leaders yet to be raised up.

Some of you are saying things like this, “I can’t dream because I’m raising children.” The children are your dream. The Lord, His boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places for you right now. Boundary lines, pleasant places, faithful with the little and trusted with much. It’s not one thing. It’s dreaming with God everywhere you go. And I just – this is the last – this is it, I’ve just got to say this. If you don’t know how to dream or you’re not sure what you’re dreaming about, the most – are you ready for this? If you get nothing else out of this, you’re like, “This is a long two weeks.” It was, I’m right there with you. Longer for me than you, you have no idea. Here’s the most important dream you’ll ever have: The dream of who you’re becoming. The most important dream you’ll ever have is the dream of who you are becoming and who you want to become. Apply our definition.

See what God is doing, what God can do, and what God wants to do in your life and align everything with it. See God’s kingdom come where His will is not currently done in you. And then use the gifts, passions, talents, and time of your life to see that come to pass. The most important dream of your life is not where you go or what you do, it’s who you become. And if you will have a dream of who you’re going to become and you align your life with what God is doing and can do and wants to do and His kingdom come where His will is not currently done in your life, your life will overflow with dreams that are fulfilled and realized because you’ve grabbed a hold of the most important dream, which is becoming like Jesus in the here and now.

So, Jesus, thank You for today. Thank You for the concept of dreaming. Thank Ypu for the gift of time that we choose to honor and steward the best that we know how. And so, Lord, I just even pray that as we have to land the plane in, kind of, crash-landing mode today, I just pray Lord for activated dreams. I pray for awakened dreams. I pray for a new vision and a new heart and mind and eyes. I just declare there are some students, today, that have just figured out that they need to figure out how to seek God first in their life. That there are marriages today that have figured out they’ve been dreaming about the wrong thing. That there are some of us who have had these small dreams that we’ve been lost in, that You’re opening up our eyes. So, Lord, activate and awaken us to dream with You about Your kingdom come where Your will is not currently done. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.