This Week's Sermons

Sermons for the Month
How to Make Your Dreams Come True
Baptism of Our Lord
DATE: January 10, 1999
TEXT: Proverbs 3:5-6

"To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

A woman's best friend, her dog, was very ill. This poor dog probably was dead already but she brought it to the veterinarian and said, "Doctor, you have got to do something! Anything you can do to save my dog's life, I'll be grateful to you forever. So the doctor did the examination. He used his stethoscope to listen for the heartbeat. Then he went over into the cabinet and got a little round mirror and held it by the dog's nostrils. He didn't see any activity or breathing, so the doctor said, "It doesn't look very good. There isn't much I can do." The woman said, "Doctor, isn't there anything else you can do?" "Well, there is one more test, but it is very expensive. I don't know if you want to spend that kind of money." She said, "I'll spend anything. It doesn't matter. I can't stand to have my dog die!" So the doctor walked over into the corner and pulls down a big cat. He take it over to the dog. The doctor moves the cat over the dog's head, then around it's body. He then walks over and places the cat back on the shelf and says, "Ma'am, you're dog is dead." She was starting to cry when the doctor handed her the bill which made her cry even harder. The bill was $1250. She exclaimed. "$1250. It can't be. Why did it cost so much?" The doctor said, "It was $50 for the examination and $1200 for the cat scan."
(That joke has nothing to do with dreams but it was a new one to me and I like it!)
We've been talking about waking up your dreams. We've talked about a dream as being a vision and hope that stirs our imagination and calls us forward to a fantastic future. The reality is, nobody can live without a dream. We know that a dream, as tiny as it might be, as insignificant as it might seem, has an impact greater that it's size. The kind of dreams we've talked about last week are the dreams that not only impact our world, but improve the world.
Today we want to focus specifically on how to make your dreams come true. There are some key word that can help us get a handle on this: REMEMBER, RENEW AND RESPECT. REMEMBER. Remember the dynamic dream formula. The dynamic dream formula is: TALENT + GOD'S CALL ON OUR LIFE + PREPARATION + OPPORTUNITY = WAKING UP YOUR DREAMS.
Let's take a look at that for a moment.
Talent. Everybody has talent. You were created in the image of God. The Bible tells us that when God created you, God was delighted. God gave you talents, gifts, abilities, and strengths. Some of those come into focus as we live our life and begin to do the things we like. Compliments on some things that we are doing help, too. We can begin to investigate those that might truly be God-given talents to help us not only launch but live out the dream.
What happens when you can't find the talent? It may seen like you're stuck and you feel like a zero with he edges rubbed off. You feel like a nobody.
Jim felt like that. When Jim was 8 years old he stuttered in front of the class whenever the teacher asked a question of him. He preferred to not say anything because he felt so dumb. Jim's class mates thought he was stupid. When he was 14 years old he had a teacher who did not believe that. His teacher, Donald Crouch, believed that God gave everybody talent. Donald knew that this student had the capacity to write some poetry--and it was good. And so he challenged him to memorize a poem and then he invited this student to share it with his classmates. Then the teacher announced, "We have someone in here who is extremely talented. They are going to recite a poem of their own writing." James got up and he started out slowly but then pretty soon it began to flow. You could tell that the students were impressed. The teacher continued to cultivate this young man. This young man went on to win all kinds of speech contests. He received a scholarship to the University of Michigan. Linda and I first saw him as a young struggling actor in his first Broadway play called, "The Great White Hope." Today he is one of our country's greatest orators and actors. James Earle Jones discovered that God, in fact, had given him talent. God has given you talent as well.
To the dynamic dream formula equation we add:
God's Call. God has purpose for us. Every person is not here accidentally. God intended for you to be here. God has some great plans. As Proverbs tells us, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge and he will direct your paths." God wants to show us why we're here. When God extends a call and we respond our dreams are launched.
I believe that God has a special call for this church. God has a purpose for this church. I believe we are positioned rightly to go into our world, baptize and make disciples for Jesus Christ. With over 60% of those living within a 5 mile radius of this building unchurched, I believe God has positioned this congregation with a special responsibility:
1) To reach the unchurched with the good news of Jesus; 2) to equip them with a faith that works in real life; 3) to send them out to serve the world in the name of Christ.
I believe we have the talent. I know because I know you. When I received the call here to Faith, it was a very distinct call to build a church that would reach out and connect with people in the community who hadn't been part of a church community before. When I came to Faith, I found it to be wavering, to be in pain. I have spent most of my first ten years healing the wounds of this congregation. The most obvious symptom of that despondency was the way the building looked when I first came. The roof leaked everywhere: in my office, in the foyer, in Kathy's office, the library, the fellowship hall. The outside lights didn't work; there was no readable sign telling those who passed by who we were. The halls were dimly lit; the Fellowship Hall cold literally and figuratively. But what is more, it felt like a tomb here. Jean Gombert and I would be the only persons in the building day after day. Still I sensed the dream. I sensed God's call. I made many mistakes, the worst of which has been my frequent despair of God's dream for this church ever coming true. Yet, I felt God brought us together for a reason. And that brings me to the next part of the formula:
Preparation. It takes hard work to fulfill a dream. God always prepares the dreamer for the dream. As we seek out what God wants, God shows us that preparation gives us stamina. It gives us encouragement. It gives us energy and it helps us keep on keeping on. But the preparation process can be sometimes very difficult. I recall times in my first year here at Faith when I literally just sat and cried. I had left a rapidly growing church. In four years we had grown from 90 per Sunday to 200. There were a number of angry people there when I left. I often wondered why I ever listened to Bishop Sauer when he asked me to consider this church. It seemed no one shared God's call. Everyone was withdrawn. It was hard.
But when I look back on it, I believe all that time has been simply preparation for me to do what we have been called to do. In that time God helped to prepare me best when I spent time with Him. When I took time to read the bible, when I took time to pray, that was part of the preparation process. I also read some books. I took some classes. I learned from other people who were doing it. All that was part of the preparation process and also an important component in waking up the dream. I believe next 18 months is your preparation time to heed God's dream that all may know Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior and become responsible members of his church
Opportunity. When I talk of opportunity, it's the kind of opportunity that Dr. Fleming saw. When he was looking under a microscope at a round metal ring he saw mold sitting in the corners of it. But be also noticed that where the mold was, there wasn't any germs. Here was a great opportunity and so he investigated it further. This was the beginning of the discovery of penicillin. If Dr. Fleming wasn't open to the opportunity, we wouldn't have penicillin. Many lives have been saved because of him. My friends, we have a magnificent opportunity. We are in the best position we have ever been in 17 years I have been here. Provided we are open to it and God's call.
So we have TALENTS + GOD'S CALL + PREPARATION + OPPORTUNITY = WAKING UP YOUR DREAMS.
Secondly, we need to RENEW. We need to renew ourselves mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
When the Challenger blew up on its way to space, it was due to a simple rubber, seemingly insignificant O ring. It was something that had not been renewed and updated. Finally, it failed and many suffered as a result.
The same can happen to us if we are not renewed. Worship is a time to renew. When we come, as you are today, we are getting renewed and refreshed. The same is true as we study and grow. We need more adults in involved in the study of God's word. Beyond the Sunday morning adult class, and Lois Petersen's women's bible study, and a few of you in individual study groups outside of the church, there is much room here for improvement. Renewal is an essential part, personally and professionally, as we live out our God-given dreams and to see the dreams come true.
Finally, we need to make sure that we RESPECT. We need to respect the dreams of dreamers. How many of us have been rather cynical when someone's shared a big dream. It someone told you a number of years ago that we were going to build an international space station, wouldn't you have scoffed. Years before that, if someone had said, "One day you're going to fly in an airplane," you'd have laughed them out of town! You'd have written them off. You'd have been very critical and cynical. I'm sure the same is true when people were told that they'd be driving an automobile someday. "We have horses! That's good enough. We don't need automobiles." No, we need to respect every dream and every dreamer. Virginia Satire respected the dream and dreamer. She got a group of people who were on welfare, people who had lost the respect from others and for themselves. When the 12 met she said, "Friends tell me about your dream." The first person reacted rather viciously. He said, "Dreams! We can't dream! Rats are eating my children's food and you're sitting here wasting our time talking about dreams!" Virginia calmly said, "Why are the rats eating your children's food?"
"There's a hole in our screen and the rats...."
Virginia said, "Just a minute. Is there anybody here in this group of 12 who knows how to fix a screen?" A guy raised his hand and said, "You know, I had a dream to be a handyman but I dumped that dream. I can fix that screen."
And so Virginia reached into her pocket and gave a few dollars to the screen-fixer. He fixed the screen and they got back together the next week. Then Virginia said, "Tell me about your dream."
A woman said, "When I was a young teenager I got pregnant. My husband left. I've had several kids and I've never gotten off welfare. I've wanted to be a teacher. But I can't go to school. I don't know what to do with my kids."
Virginia said, "Is there anyone here who can take care of children?"
One woman said, "I've had a dream of being a day-care mother and taking care of children during the day." I love children. I can take care of children while she goes to school...."
Within 10 weeks every single welfare recipient was off welfare. You may say, "Well, that could never happen again." But it did. It happened again, and again, and again and again as people began to respect the dreams and the dreamer.
It's kind of like Eliza Doolittle. She said, "You know, I will always be treated like a flowergirl to people who treat me like flowergirls. But to Colonel Pickering, he treats me like a lady. And I will always be a lady to him. I will always be a lady."
Today we are invited to be champions of dreams, to respect dreams and dreamers. Guy Daud was selected teacher of the year during the Reagan administration. When he went to the White House to receive his award the then-president Ronald Reagan, wrote out in his own handwriting these words, "Friend, you are the molder of their dreams. You are the spark that sets aflame the poets hand or lights the flame of a great singer's song. You are the guardian of a million dreams. Your every smile can heal or pierce a heart. Yours are a hundred lives, a thousand lives, your patient words, your touch, make you the champion of hope. Fill their souls with dreams to make those dreams come true."
The following are the words of Jesus. They're in the New Testament. Jesus said, "I tell you, whoever believes in me will be able to do the works that I do. In fact, they will do greater things than I ever did because I'm going to the father. I will do whatever you ask in my name so that God will be glorified. if in my name, you ask me for anything, I will do it."
God gives us dreams because God wants those dreams to come true. Today, let Jesus Christ wake up your dreams.

AMEN