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Darold Bigger

827 sermons

October 2009

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0903 Day Dreams, Pipe Dreams, God's Dreams

Gen 31:2–11, Jer 29:10–14

Title:                                        Day Dreams, Pipe Dreams, God’s Dreams
 
Text:                                        Gen 37:2-11, Jer 29:10-14
 
File Categories:                       Hope, Success
 
Central Thrust:                        God’s invitation to do great things
 
Ill:                                           Dawson
 
Hym:                                       
 
Theological Concern:              
 
Point of Immediacy:               
 
Probs in Comm:                      
                                                
Sermon in a Sentence:             Make God’s plans come true
 
Attribute of God:                    
 
Preached:                                090624 Chapel, WWU
 \\ God’s Dream for You
! I.             Intro stories.
What comes to mind when you think of day dreams and pipe dreams?  Do you still use that phrase, “pipe dream?”  
!! A.           Dawson pretending to ride a motorcycle while in the back seat of the van strapped in his car seat!
Dawson, the older of our two grandchildren, is now 3.  He and his little sister McKenzie helped pick raspberries at our house recently and taught me a new meaning for the phrase “too much.”  
While helping pick berries Dawson had eaten more from the vines than he put in the bucket.  He ate more when we got into the house, had more for lunch and when he got ready to leave he wanted to take all the rest home with him!
When I suggested that I could put some in a container he agreed, but insisted that I put “too much” berries in the container.  Over and over while I was spooning berries into the container he repeated “too much, too much” yet he made no move to stop me from adding to his loot and, in fact, seemed quite interested that I keep adding to his stash!  
Finally it began to dawn on me.  “Do you want more?” I asked. 
“Yes,” he said while excitedly jumping up and down, “too much, too much!
 
Another phrase he has taught us is “no noise.”  Its best said with your hands cupped over your ears so others will get the point.  It applies to almost any tool or machine with a motor—lawn mowers, trimmers, rototillers, tractors—and motorcycles.
The “no noise” motorcycles are a puzzle.  He loves to watch cycles.  His dad has a bike and for several years worked as a mechanic and shop foreman so Dawson comes by his interest naturally.  Since he was a baby he has pointed to bikes going by on the street or highway, been fascinated by them when they are parked and loves to climb up on a parked one and try to reach from the seat to the handle bars!  But he doesn’t want you to start it.
While riding along with them in their van one day, safely strapped in his car seat, we passed a bike in the opposite lane heading in the other direction.  Before long Dawson began making noise.  It was definitely the sound of a motorcycle and before long his hands were moving too.  This went on for several minutes and finally I asked “are you riding a motorcycle?”  “Yes,” he said, as his hands gripped the imaginary handle bars and the motor noise increased and decreased as he negotiated imaginary curves!
But the truth is, he is afraid of the noise of a real bike!  “No noise,” he pleads in his dad’s garage where that bike is parked.  “No noise” he says as he looks at a bike parked along the sidewalk.  “No noise” he commands when he sees my little Honda 110 trail bike.  No noise, which means “Don’t start it!”  He dreams of riding a motorcycle but doesn’t want what goes along with it!
Day dreams and pipe dreams.  Unrealistic expectations.
 
 
!! B.           Susan Boyle and “Britain’s Got Talent”
!!! 1.            She wanted to fulfill a decades long dream.
!!! 2.            She wanted to become famous like a well-known British singer.
!!! 3.            She did have a stunningly beautiful voice!
 
*/Les Miserables/ I Dreamed a Dream Lyrics*:
 \\ There was a time, when men were kind  \\ When their voices were soft  \\ And their words were inviting  \\ There was a time, when love was blind  \\ And the world was a song  \\ And the song was exciting  \\ There was a time, then it all went wrong 
 \\ I dreamed a dream in time gone by  \\ When hope was high and life worth living  \\ I dreamed that love would never die  \\ I dreamed that God would be forgiving  \\  \\ Then I was young and unafraid  \\ And dreams were made and used and wasted  \\ There was no ransom to be paid \\ No song unsung, no wine untasted 
 \\ But the tigers come at night  \\ With their voices soft as thunder  \\ As they tear your hope apart  \\ As they turn your dream to shame  \\  \\ He slept a summer by my side  \\ He filled my days with endless wonder  \\ He took my childhood in his stride  \\ But he was gone when autumn came  \\  \\ And still I dream he'll come to me  \\ That we will live the years together  \\ But there are dreams that cannot be  \\ And there are storms we cannot weather 
 \\ I had a dream my life would be  \\ So different from this hell I'm living  \\ So different now from what it seemed  \\ Now life has killed the dream I dreamed \\ *Lyrics: I Dreamed a Dream, /Les Miserables/ [end]*
* *
!!! 4.            Her success led to a medical and emotional collapse.
Day dreams and pipe dreams . . .
!! C.           Disney theme.
*When You Wish Upon A Star* \\  \\ *Music by Leigh Harline ~/ Lyrics by Ned Washington* \\ *Performed by Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards)**
*When you wish upon a star* \\ *Makes no difference who you are* \\ *Anything your heart desires* \\ *Will come to you*
 \\  \\ *If your heart is in your dream* \\ *No request is too extreme* \\ *When you wish upon a star* \\ *As dreamers do*
 \\  \\ *Fate is kind* \\ *She brings to those who love* \\ *The sweet fulfillment of* \\ *Their secret longing*
 \\  \\ *Like a bolt out of the blue* \\ *Fate steps in and sees you through* \\ *When you wish upon a star* \\ *Your dreams come tru*e
 
            Day dreams, pipe dreams. . .
!! D.           MLK  “I have a dream” speech (28 Aug 63 at the Lincoln Memorial)
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
 
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
 
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
 
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
 
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. 
 
I have a /dream/ today!
 
! II.           You coming to WWU.
!! A.           Pipe dream.
!!! 1.            A fantastic notion or vain hope, as in *I'd love to have one home in the mountains and another at the seashore, but that's just a pipe dream*. Alluding to the fantasies induced by smoking an opium pipe, this term has been used more loosely since the late 1800s.  http:~/~/www.answers.com~/topic~/pipe-dream
!!! 2.            The allusion is to the dreams experienced by smokers of opium pipes. Opiates were widely used by the English literati in the 18th and 19th centuries. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the best known users, and it would be difficult to claim that the imagery in surreal works like Kubla Khan owned nothing to opium. Lewis Carroll, although not known to be an opium user himself, makes clear allusions to drug use in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has his hero Sherlock Holmes visit an opium den - although that was for research rather than consumption.  http:~/~/www.phrases.org.uk~/meanings~/283700.html
 
!! B.           Day dream.
A *daydream* is a visionary fantasy experienced while awake, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions.[1] There are so many different types of daydreaming that there is still no consensus definition amongst psychologists.[1] While daydreams may include fantasies about future scenarios or plans, reminiscences about past experiences, or vivid dream-like images, they are often connected with some type of emotion.
Daydreaming may take the form of a train of thought, leading the daydreamer away from being aware of his or her immediate surroundings, and concentrating more and more on these new directions of thought. To an observer, they may appear to be affecting a blank stare into the distance, and only a sudden stimulus will startle the daydreamer out of their reverie.
While daydreaming has long been derided as a lazy, non-productive pastime, daydreaming can be constructive in some contexts. There are numerous examples of people in creative or artistic careers, such as composers, novelists and filmmakers, developing new ideas through daydreaming. Similarly, research scientists, mathematicians and physicists have developed new ideas by daydreaming about their subject areas.
http:~/~/en.wikipedia.org~/wiki~/Daydream
! III.          Joseph’s dream.
Ge 37:2-11TNIV
2This is the account of Jacob’s family line.
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
3Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. 4When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
5Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
8His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
9Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
10When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
 
! IV.         God doesn’t dream.  God knows.
Je 29:10-14TNIV
10This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
 
!! A.           In spite of difficulties, God promises.
!!! 1.            Context of captivity.
!!! 2.            See beyond present challenges and limitations.
!!! 3.            Rely on the God who holds the future!
!! B.           Appeals to us to call on Him.  (vss 12-14)
! V.          How to help God’s plans come true.
!! A.           Pray.
!!! 1.            Includes lots of listening, much less telling.
!!!! a.            Impressions of the Spirit.
!!!! b.            E.g. spring class experiment of fasting & prayer:  3 summer job leads in one day!
!!! 2.            Seldom enough by itself.
!!!! a.            God most often works through the natural law of cause and effect.
!! B.           Persist.
!!! 1.            “God helps those who help themselves.”
!!!! a.            Not in the Bible.
!!!! b.            This is actually a quote from Ben Franklin and it appeared in Poor Richard's Almanac in 1757.
!!! 2.            Diligent effort equips us to do God’s work.
Rogers & Hamerstein
 
“Climb Every Mountain” from “Sound of Music”
MOTHER ABBESS: \\ Climb every mountain \\ Search high and low \\ Follow every byway \\ Every path you know
 \\  \\ Climb every mountain \\ Ford every stream \\ Follow every rainbow \\ Till you find your dream
 \\  \\ A dream that will need \\ All the love you can give \\ Every day of your life \\ For as long as you live
 \\  \\ Climb every mountain \\ Ford every stream \\ Follow every rainbow \\ Till you find your dream
 \\  \\ A dream that will need \\ All the love you can give \\ Every day of your life \\ For as long as you live
 \\ Climb every mountain \\ Ford every stream \\ Follow every rainbow \\ Till you find your dream
 
!! C.           Partner with others who share your aspirations.
!!! 1.            Choosing friends is one of your most important tasks while here.
!!! 2.            Choosing friends is also choosing the foci of your life and levels of your success.
!!! 3.            Collaboration is a major factor in achievement.
 
! VI.         Connection with WWU mission statement.
!! A.           Here’s why I think your decision to come to WWU is a good one.
!! B.           Here you’ll find the kind of people who can support and motivate and inspire you.
*Excellence in thought*
 
*Johnny Jesson,* 2009 mathematics graduate (cum laude), was recently awarded a two-year fellowship at T. Rowe Price, a high-profile investment firm. Competition for the two available fellowships came mostly from prestigious institutions such as Princeton, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and MIT. He was chosen from a pool of more than 200 applicants and starts work this month. More at: http:~/~/www.wallawalla.edu~/about-wwu~/news~/article~/browse~/7~/select_category~/10%2C11%2C12%2C13%2C14%2C15~/view~/student-granted-fellowship-at-t-rowe-price~/?tx_ttnews%5BpS%5D=1230796800&tx_ttnews%5BpL%5D=31535999&tx_ttnews%5Barc%5D=1&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=28&cHash=bdb79be9fc
 
*Beauty in expression*
 
*Carl Canwell*, 2009 mass communications major, was awarded second place in the SonScreen Film Festival and third place in a contest sponsored by The Christophers for his original short film called “The Gospel,” which told the story of one man’s life-changing encounter with a stranger without using any dialogue. Find more about the awards he won at: http:~/~/www.wallawalla.edu~/about-wwu~/news~/article~/browse~/5~/view~/communications-grad-wins-video-contest~/?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=28&cHash=0fe061fb65 and http:~/~/www.wallawalla.edu~/about-wwu~/news~/article~/browse~/9~/view~/alumnus-wins-prize-in-video-contest~/?tx_ttnews%5BpS%5D=1236615979&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=28&cHash=143abe8e4b. 
* *
*Jonathan Woodruff*, a current business administration student, recently won first place in 2009 Musicfest Northwest in Spokane. See his story here: http:~/~/www.wallawalla.edu~/about-wwu~/news~/article~/browse~/2~/view~/music-student-wins-first-place~/?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=28&cHash=69a78adc31
 
 
*Generosity in service*
 
*Karisse and Matthew Lee*, (2004 WWU graduates) were student missionaries during their time as students here, and following graduation went to Paata in Chuuk to continue their service. Their story is chronicled in the PDF here: http:~/~/www.wallawalla.edu~/about-wwu~/news~/article~/browse~/4~/select_category~/10%2C11%2C12%2C13%2C14%2C15~/view~/the-difference-love-makes~/?tx_ttnews%5BpS%5D=1230796800&tx_ttnews%5BpL%5D=31535999&tx_ttnews%5Barc%5D=1&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=28&cHash=c933bb853e
 
While on an independent mission trip, *Ryan Eggers* (2007 engineering graduate) and *Rebecca Parshall,* current humanities major, ran the operations at Muriwa Orphanage in Zimbabwe. Read their story here: http:~/~/www.gleaneronline.org~/104~/6~/38694.html 
 
*Faith in God*
 
*Rachel Davies*, 2007 Theology graduate, was awarded the 2007 Young Adult Service Award from Maranatha Volunteers International last June, and is currently sharing her faith as a youth pastor in Toledo, Ohio. Read her story here: http:~/~/www.gleaneronline.org~/104~/5~/38414.html
 
! VII.       God’s dreams.
!! A.           EGW.
Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God’s ideal for His children. Godliness-- godlikeness--is the goal to be reached. Before the student there is opened a path of continual progress. He has an object to achieve, a standard to attain, that includes everything good, and pure, and noble. He will advance as fast and as far as possible in every branch of true knowledge. But his efforts will be directed to objects as much higher than mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are higher than the earth.--/"Education," pp. 18, 19/. {MYP 40.1}

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