Saints & Ain'ts: Dreams & Gifts

There is a Dream, and there is a Gifting.

There is a dream that God has for you and me

And there is a gifting, or gifts, extended to you and me for His dream to be fulfilled.

There is a Dream from God that He seeks to be fulfilled in this World.

The Dream is for everyone, everybody, every soul, and anything that has breath to fully know and comprehend how long, how wide, and high, and how deep God’s love truly is - and that through that knowledge to have the fullness of God in your and my life.

It is God’s dream for you and I to know what lengths God will show His love for you and me.

It is God’s dream for you and I to know what cost He’s willing to pay for you and I to know His love for you and me.

It is God’s dream for you and I to know the mountain and/or circumstance He’s willing to climb for you and I to know His love for you and me.

It is God’s dream for you and I to know what depths He’ll go to for you and I to know His love for you and me.

Not only is it God’s dream, but He put everything into motion and established every opportunity into reality for you and I to know His love for you and me.

It was through God’s unlimited grace and divine power that surpasses any reasonable or rational explanation, that we would be established in the presence of God and knowingly carry out His Will in the world around us.

It’s His Dream. And like most things that are dream-worthy, there needs be a personal investment to see the dream come to fulfillment.

*Talk about Dream & Dream team and the cost to implement the original dream team*

In 1988 The US lost to the USSR and ended up taking a bronze in the Olympic basketball competition. The Soviet team, consisting of some professionals, whooped up on the US purely amateur team. Up until that point, only amateurs had competed in Olympic basketball, and they royally handed the US their first major loss in their own sport.

Somehow then, in 1989, the FIBA voted 56-13 to allow professional ballers in the next 1992 Olympics. This led to the creation of the Dream Team.

The US took out all the stops. We chose without question the best gifted of the best gifted.

'Magic' Johnson, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, Christian Laettner, Clyde ‘the Glide’ Drexler and Chris Mullin formed a squad that was rightfully called 'The Dream Team’.

They formed the ultimate team, to take back the the Olympic basketball throne. And they did. Easily.

There was the dream. The dream of being back on top - the elite, the unquestionable greatness of all time.

That dream required something that the fabulous five of the 1992 gold medal game: Jordan, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing; they put together arguably the final cap of the greatest return-to-dominance run in sports history. Their gifts made it happen.

A group of the greatest US pro-basketball players of all time came together and were utilized for their gifts to bring pride back to a nation.

God also uses gifts

God, the visionary, the dreamer, put into motion the prominence of gifts within the body to help accomplish His dream.

He put these gifts through Himself in Jesus Christ. Jesus, Himself, when He died stole the keys from death, Hell, and the grave - meaning any authority these things had in your life have been completely removed.

Eph 4:7-8 “Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. For it says: When he ascended on high, he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people.”

Jesus is the Victor and all authority resides in Him.

That means there is no aspect of you and me that cannot be redeemed. You and I were rescued from the captivity of depravity.

And in this redemption process, He’s gathered to Himself a body, the Church, and the Scripture here says,

Eph 4:11 “And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,”

At another time we’ll break these down, but God implemented His fabulous five - the 5-fold ministry for a purpose.

5 Key roles in the Church model that are designed - but God’s strategic genius - to equip the saints for the work of the ministry - to build up the body of Christ...

God put in your and my life Church leadership designed to shepherd and teach you the work of ministry so that you can do the work of the ministry.

God is the ultimate visionary

Why do the work of the ministry? So that the body of Christ can be built up?

The Church is the body of Christ - it is God’s design that pastors and leaders teach and guide you in the works of ministry so that the Church can grow.

Essentially we’re teaching you to prepare the way of the Lord so that we can make Heaven crowded!

BONUS

The Scripture says here that as we do, we will reach a level of unity in faith and knowledge of Jesus - our faith grows together, finding the fullness of God, seeing the glory of God in each others’ lives and the word of our Testimony going forward changing lives -

THEN, we will no longer be little children (immature, distracted, and aimless), tossed by the waves and blown around every wind of teaching [caution about the Internet social-pastor-influencers].

We also will be built up in a way to not be pushed around by human cunning with cleverness in the ways of techniques.

So the process of discipleship must include theology - the study of God - and doctrine so that we will know fundamentally our role in service to Him.

To know God properly, theology is needed. It creates the right understanding of God. Doctrine is necessary to acknowledge God in the ways He has explained Himself, not the ways we expect him to be.

And we become, through education and through doing, under Jesus the Head of the body, we become

Eph 4:16 “From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.”

REMEMBER THEREFORE

Eph 4:17-18 “Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.”

We’ve got to be careful saints, in that our hearts do not become hardened, but remain soft and pliable in the hands of our Creator.

We’ve got to be careful saints, in that we don’t become dim-wits because our lights have turned down in the pursuit of things that don’t amplify God in our lives.

We’ve got to be careful saints, in that we don’t push away the life of God and His kingdom principles and become excluded from the process of his work in us.

Why? Because we’ll become callous, and give ourselves over to perversion with fleshly desires for more and more and more and more.

NEW LIFE

Eph 4:20 “But that is not how you came to know Christ,”

No, remember your former ways - remember where you were. Remember what He’s brought you from.

Eph 4:22 “to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,”

And instead

Eph 4:23-24 “to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”

And we have another THEREFORE (contrasts)

Eph 4:25-27 “Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity.”

Eph 4:28 “Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.”

Eph 4:29 “No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.”

Eph 4:30 “And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.”

Gratitude. A heart of gratitude and verbal thanksgiving.

Eph 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.”

BE DREAMY

There is a Dream from God that He seeks to be fulfilled in this World.

The Dream is for everyone, everybody, every soul, and anything that has breath to fully know and comprehend how long, how wide, and high, and how deep God’s love truly is - and that through that knowledge to have the fullness of God in your and my life.

It is God’s dream for you and I to know what lengths God will show His love for you and me.

It is God’s dream for you and I to know what cost He’s willing to pay for you and I to know His love for you and me.

It is God’s dream for you and I to know the mountain and/or circumstance He’s willing to climb for you and I to know His love for you and me.

It is God’s dream for you and I to know what depths He’ll go to for you and I to know His love for you and me.