Living The Dream

Good morning and welcome to Living Faith Church. I am so excited to be able to worship Jesus Christ with you on this amazing Sunday. If we have never met before, my name is Aaron. My wife Stella and I are honored to be able to serve on the Pastoral team at LFC. We are coming close to the end of this series called Living With Favor. Next week Pastor Drex will wrap this teaching up. Bring a friend with you, it is going to be an amazing time. But today, I want to talk with you about “Living The Dream”.

Now, the truth of the matter is, I don’t really dream. Is anyone like me? Stella dreams these vivid, technicolor dreams of dinosaurs, and dragons. All the while, I’m over here dreaming of a big black box of nothing. I do remember when I was kid, I had a dream. My friends had just introduced me to the He Man action figure. Now, I don’t remember much about that line of characters, but I had a dream of He Man, and one of his enemies was a character with a mouth in his head and a mouth in his belly. In my dream this was incredibly terrifying, the dream ended with me trying to block off a road with construction cones and every time I took one cone off the pile, another took its place. I never got to the last cone; it was so frustrating. Maybe I had too much pizza.

Dreams are a massive part of our success. Without a dream you and I would never accomplish much in life, we would stagnate. It was Josephs dream that gave him the strength to pursue during great difficulties. It was the vision of Rachel that kept Jacob from quitting when Laban cheated him.

Did you know that God had a dream? Most of the time we don’t think about this. And it is true, theologically speaking God has no need for anything, but there was one thing that He wanted and that was relationship. Gods dream is a family. Sometimes we get so into the Bible and we see dos and don’ts, and God want’s my money and so on, but we miss the theme of family! He desires family so much He was willing to die to get it.

John 3:16 NASB95

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

The story of the Bible is very simple. We were created by God, we sinned and alienated ourselves from God. So, the ultimate price was paid through Jesus Christ. The price that Jesus paid on the cross was not just an act to eradicate sin, but through that, to adoption us into the family of God. Listen to me, if Christ lives in your heart, you are family! This is why we put such and emphasis on building strong relationships. We may not be related by blood in the essence of this world, but through the blood of Jesus, we are family, and this is Gods dream!

But there are seasons, aren’t there, in our life when it seems like our dreams are so far out, so outside of our class, comfort zone, out of our reach, that we will never get there? Have you ever been there? Jesus knew a woman who felt this way, let’s read her story.

Generosity Makes Way For The Dream

Mark 14:3–10 NASB95

3 While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head. 4 But some were indignantly remarking to one another, “Why has this perfume been wasted? 5 “For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they were scolding her. 6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me. 7 “For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me. 8 “She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. 9 “Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.” 10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests in order to betray Him to them.

This is a passage that sounds very similar to the events we spoke of last week with Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. However, most scholars will agree that this is a separate event. Some differences you may notice between these two events.

Marks account has Jesus at the home of Simon the leper,

Johns account has Jesus at the home of Lazarus

Marks account is two days before the passover

Johns account is 6 days before the passover

Marks account has Jesus head anointed

Johns account has Jesus feet anointed

There are enough differences in these stories that it would be very difficult for the writers to confuse this many elements of the same story.

So here we have Jesus in the town of Bethany. Bethany means “house of affliction”. Jesus is at the home of Simon, who had leprosy, and this woman enters the home and begins to anoint the head of Jesus. It says that she took an alabaster box full of a perfume that was worth 300 denarii. A denarii would be worth one day’s wage. An accurate exchange would value this vial of perfume at $32,000.00. As she is anointing Jesus - Listen to this comment in verse 4:

Mark 14:4 NASB95

4 But some were indignantly remarking to one another, “Why has this perfume been wasted?

You can hear the disgust in their heart, that this woman would take something of such value and use it to anoint this man, Jesus who would recline and enjoy supper with a man like Simon the leper. At this comment Jesus immediately interjects and says:

Mark 14:9 NASB95

9 “Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”

And we are doing that right now. But as we read, we find that it was at this command, the command from Jesus that this woman was elevated from a woman no one would ever know, to a woman that now, the whole world for the rest of time would hear about. Generosity makes way for the dream.

Why was Jesus at the House of Simon the Leper?

Why was Jesus, the Son of God, perfect in every way, a man who if He wanted to could fellowship with the richest of people, the highest class of people, people way better looking that a leper… why was this Jesus at the home of Simon? The answer is very simple, Simon was the dream of God. You might think; Simon… the leper, a man who was terminally ill, he was the dream of God? Yes, Simon was the dream of God. See, too often we classify people. We think, people with lots of money are better off, if they dress nice, they must have it all together, people in big homes are happy, we think, people who have good looks are better off. Jesus doesn’t look at people like we look at people. Jesus investigates the heart. Jesus didn’t see Simon the leper, Jesus saw Simon the dream of God. Simon the man created for relationship, Simon the man with a God call on his life. Even now he sees you, the dream of God. God wasn’t scared of Simons sickness, and He is not scared of your sins or mistakes either. Jesus was at Simons home because Simon was the dream of God.

Why Was This Anointing So Important?

The answer to this is simple, this woman didn’t give perfume, she gave her dream!

In the days Jesus was on earth, when a young woman reached the age for marriage, her family would purchase an alabaster box for her and fill it with precious ointment. The size of the box and the value of the ointment would reflect her family’s wealth. This alabaster box would be part of her dowry. When a young man came to ask for her in marriage, she would respond by taking the alabaster box and breaking it at his feet. The gesture of anointing his feet showed him honor. This was her dowry! This was her wedding, her child's college fund, her house with a white picket fence. But this Woman does not only anoint his feet, a sign of surrender, but she annoyance his head, a recognition of his lordship over her life. The reason that Jesus commanded this story to be told everywhere the Gospel is preached is because this woman laid down her very dream at the feet of Jesus, and this is the spirit of the Gospel. The Gospel can only be preached by people who are willing to lay down their dream, so God can have his dream. This woman looked at Jesus and said, you want a relationship with me… I’m surrendered! I have dreams of a man, of children, of a future in a beautiful home and smart kids and a husband. But I will lay it all down for you Jesus! This woman laid down her dream, so God could have His dream.

I’m convinced that the biggest mistake we make regarding our lives and our futures is we separate our dreams from our God. We think that we can pursue our future without pursuing God first. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God holds our life plans. You have passions because God gave them to you. You cannot separate your dream life from your God life. Listen to Jesus words.

Matthew 16:24–26 NASB95

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

If you lose your life for my sake, you will find it. This world is full of empty promises. We talked a few weeks ago about the Spirit of Mammon. How Mammon will promise you power, wealth, great possession, and every dream to come true, and what is at the end? Slavery. How many people do you know who seem to have everything the world has to offer and yet they still are unhappy, they still want more. Why is this? Because the dream life is not really in having everything you want, the dream life is satisfaction. That’s what people are after. They just want to be satisfied, but mammon is a thief and liar. That sprit always cries more, more, more… it takes and never gives back. If your dreams are attached to stuff, to money, to value, to popularity, to living the care-free life; you will never be satisfied.  Listen to me! The real dream life is when God’s dream becomes more important than our dream.

For Judas; his dream was power and wealth. He was pursuing riches and popularity and look at where it led him to. See, Judas could follow Jesus for a season, Judas was with Jesus for 3 years! Judas could follow Jesus around, listen to the teaching, but as soon as Jesus dream came in conflict with his personal dream Judas had to choose a side.

The greatest threat to Gods dream is our un-surrendered dream

The greatest threat to the gospel being preached is putting our dream above Gods dream

“I can’t wait until I get more money so I can start tithing, but right now I just got to take care of my bills”  - Their dream of security is more important than Gods dream

“I know I should go to church more, I’m just in a season where I got to work extra hours to pay for my vacation.” - Their dream of pleasure is in place of Gods dream

“I know God has called me to ministry, I’m just working right now so I can serve God later and not be strapped”  - Their dream of a carefree life is in place of Gods dream

I’m not telling you today that if you start tithing, God will give you everything you’ve ever wanted. This is not a Give and You’ll Get message. But I am telling you, that if you lay down your dream for JESUS, you will find peace and satisfaction, and this is what you are searching for.

What do you need to lay down today? Is it a vision of success? Is it control? Is it love for wealth and riches? Is it a love for pleasure and self-gratification?

Maybe you fear that if you let God really have control, you will lose the chance to have what you really want. I am here to tell you today; it’s exactly the opposite.

Matthew 16:24–26 NASB95

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Salvation Response

So, my question for you today is simple. Do you trust Jesus with your life?I’m going to pray with you in just a moment, but I want you to ponder this question.

Maybe you are in this room and you’ve always wanted to have control of your life. Maybe you are in this room and you have realized that as much as you thought you had control, you are really out of control. My question for you today is this - are you ready to believe that His dream for your life is better than yours?

If that’s you, I want to pray with you right now to receive this gift. If you would say, I want God’s forgiveness, I want to accept this gift of life, I want Jesus to live in my heart, raise your hand so I know who I am praying for. 

* KEEP YOUR HANDS RAISED HIGH - I HAVE A PRAYER PARTNER COMING TO PRAY WITH YOU

“Heavenly Father, I trust You to save me through Your Son, Jesus. Forgive me for all of my sins. Make me brand new. Because You died for me, I want to live for You. Fill me with Your Spirit, so I could follow You. Jesus, You’re now my Lord and the Savior of my life. Take my life. It is Yours. In Jesus’ name, I pray.”