Make God’s Dreams For Us Our Dreams As Well—Part 7

READINGS – Part 1

After two years of college and the study of business theory nearly bored me to death, I returned to the family business prepared to follow in my father’s footsteps. I loved the adrenaline of the marketplace. I was charged by the, challenge—to do things a little more efficiently, to organize better, to maximize resources. And to make a ton of money. I knew where I was headed and what I wanted.

And then came a leading from the Holy Spirit. The director of a Christian camp I worked at during the summers pulled me off to the side and asked me a question that shook me to my foundations. “Bill, what are you doing with your life that will last forever?” The question haunted me. I began to realize that my whole existence was wrapped around the here and now. Everything I was doing was self-centered and temporary. That question stripped me naked, and ‘I discovered that without the planes and boats and fast cars I had little to give my life meaning. As I continued to work at the produce company, I felt more and more restless. Finally, I decided I needed to serve the Lord more directly. I wanted to be on the front lines of the spiritual battle.

When I told my dad of my decision, he said, “Fine, Bill. Now turn in your credit cards and your keys to the plane, the boat, and the cars. And don’t entertain any ideas of coming back.”

I got a job in a shipping department of a Christian organization in the Chicago land area. I made minimum wage. I was nineteen. I’ll never forget the time my father flew in to visit me. I was standing between two middle-aged women, stuffing little plastic awards into cellophane wrappers. My dad looked at his son, for whom he had held such high hopes. Not one usually given to changing his mind, he took me to lunch and said, “You can get on that plane with me and come home.” I told him no; I didn’t want to miss the adventure. And I meant it!
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Descending into Greatness, Bill Hybels and Rob Wilkins, Zondervan, pages 206-207.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Make God’s Dreams For Us Our Dreams As Well—Part 6

FOR DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION

1. Think about someone you know who once walked close to the Lord but no longer does. Without naming the person, tell what you think happened.
2. Which is more likely—gradually drifting away from the Lord or turning away from Him suddenly? Why?
3. Explain how a church that was once close to the Lord could begin giving priority to more self-centered dreams.
4. How closely do your personal dreams align with what you feel God would say His dreams are for you?
5. Share a personal “Big Operator event,” a time of great satisfaction when you felt you brought your King great pleasure.
6. Give specific reason why it is a win-win relationship when we make God’s dreams for .us our dreams as well.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Make God’s Dreams For Us Our Dreams As Well—Part 5

The Restoration Is Near!

Here’s another short section from Tales of the Resistance. The evil Enchanter has taken his awful revenge on Big Operator and his taxi resistance. He’s trying to find the young King and destroy him as well. This is a conversation between two resistance members, young Hero and Amanda.

Hero sighed. The Chronicle was almost current. The orphan exodus had been recorded and he had only to write about these recent terrible events. “I think I can remember everything Big Operator ever said to me.” He leaned back in the chair and quoted the chief. “‘This is an occupied city; we are in the midst of enemy territory.’

“He was a rough man, Amanda,—but, everyone in the City Taxi Company knew he was a man of the mind as well. It was the chief who collected the fragments of song and unwritten stories from the tale keepers for the Chronicle. Without them that history would be almost forgotten—the tales of the always young King who once ruled this city with a firm but benevolent hand, of the Age of Rebellion when the Enchanter lured away the loyalty of the citizenry, of how the King went into exile vowing to return when time enough had passed for all to discover the folly of such a choice, and of how the fire wizard placed an enchantment over the city and ruled his subjects with the power of fire.”

Hero paused, remembering. “My own mother must have been a tale keeper—keeping alive the old, true tales. I remember her words on her dying bed: ‘There is a King, a real King!’”

Amanda felt tired and saddened. When would they ever be able to go back to the old ways of field and forest?

“You love him, don’t you?” she said, smiling gently.

“Yes,” said Hero. “He’s a gruff old gizzard, but he’s a genius, too. He’d been experimenting with daylight. ‘The whole city’s supposed to run on it!’ he’d say. Solar panels. Storage cells. Sun batteries. He was getting us ready to live in the Restoration, to live at day and sleep at night, to harness the sun to do the work that slave labor does now.”

Amanda quoted Big Operator: “Work in harmony with the world; not in disharmony with it!” She punched the air with her fist. This was a favorite City Taxi Company saying; they almost heard his rough voice again. The two smiled sadly at each other.

With that Hero leaned his elbows forward on the desk and hid his face in his hands. His voice was tight with grief. “He’s dead, Amanda. I know it in my heart. I can only hope that he died quickly.”

The two were silent. Amanda didn’t protest, didn’t work to evoke false hope. She had already seen this terrible truth deep in her own heart. After a while she spoke, “Did anyone tell you what Big Operator’s last words were when he was taken captive? You’ll need it for the Chronicle.”

Hero shook his bowed head, and she continued. “He had been badly beaten; three or four Breakers attacked him. Destruction was dismantling his lifework; but as they were dragging him away, he struggled to his feet and called out for all of us to hear above the din, ‘The Restoration is near!’ They knocked him senseless as he must have known they would. But, Hero, I keep hearing his cry, over and over—‘The Restoration is near!’”

“The restoration is near”—believe me, that’s a great truth to live by. Yes, our King’s dream will know fulfillment.

Personal dreams related only to this life are never enough. They will always come up short. They don’t span time and eternity. That’s why, even as Christians, when we give priority to self-centered dreams, we lose.

Don’t view Jesus’ role in your life primarily as someone to help you get what you have in mind—be it wealth, health, a comfortable life, security, a ripe old age, recognition, or power. That approach is vicarious at best. It’s the path Judas followed. It’s the servant thinking about the master, “I look at you as a means for me to reach the goals on my agenda.” That’s the reverse of the way it should be. Good servants don’t think or act in that manner.

What does a trustworthy servant keep as foremost in his or her mind? The desires and dreams of the master.

In that context the good Master, the gracious Lord, the true King of the universe, will see to it that such a servant is treated better than the best. Again, it’s a win-win relationship when we learn to make God’s dreams for us our dreams as well.

Now there’s a good gamble. I can almost hear the other eleven apostles saying, “Amen! Amen!”

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy