God's Dream is to Expand Our Dream!
God's Dreams • Sermon • Submitted
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Our God is a Mighty God. In fact one of the Names describing Jesus in Isaiah’s prophecy about Jesus is Mighty God. And not only is He mighty but He’s the Everlasting Father. That means His kingdom keeps expanding and there is no end to it. So knowing that gives us the confidence that God dream will continue because He said so. And if He said it He will do it.
12 Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”
So let’s look at some steps we can do to be ready for God’s Dream to Expand Our Dream to happen in 2021! These steps are in no particular order, they are just what I believe we need to do so that we are operating at our best for God’s glory. So let’s start.
11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes!
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
1. We must make the commitment to get God’s word in us!
1. We must make the commitment to get God’s word in us!
So here is a very important step to making sure we are pursuing God to get His thoughts to become our thoughts and therefore being aligned to let God’s Dream to Expand our Dream happen in our lives. Notice the first scripture in Psalm 119 tells us that storing God’s word in our heart will keep us from sinning. Now, when we think about sinning, we have the tendency to think that’s not us. I’ve stopped smoking, drinking, I’m good with my family, and I go to church and serve. I’m a hard worker and I provide for my love ones. I’m not sinning. But did you know that you could be doing everything “right” and still be sinning because it’s all about what you are doing. Remember when King Saul disobeyed? He did it thinking this will be good. Only one problem, that’s not what God told him to do. So to let God expand His dream for us, we need to get His word in us and allow it to “mess” us up. It’s not comfortable but it’s worth it. That way we won’t be just doing things out of habit, thinking it’s always worked in the past. Which brings us to the next thing we need to do.
2 There was no water for the people to drink at that place, so they rebelled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The people blamed Moses and said, “If only we had died in the Lord’s presence with our brothers! 4 Why have you brought the congregation of the Lord’s people into this wilderness to die, along with all our livestock? 5 Why did you make us leave Egypt and bring us here to this terrible place? This land has no grain, no figs, no grapes, no pomegranates, and no water to drink!”
6 Moses and Aaron turned away from the people and went to the entrance of the Tabernacle, where they fell face down on the ground. Then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared to them, 7 and the Lord said to Moses, 8 “You and Aaron must take the staff and assemble the entire community. As the people watch, speak to the rock over there, and it will pour out its water. You will provide enough water from the rock to satisfy the whole community and their livestock.”
9 So Moses did as he was told. He took the staff from the place where it was kept before the Lord. 10 Then he and Aaron summoned the people to come and gather at the rock. “Listen, you rebels!” he shouted. “Must we bring you water from this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the staff, and water gushed out. So the entire community and their livestock drank their fill.
12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land I am giving them!” 13 This place was known as the waters of Meribah (which means “arguing”) because there the people of Israel argued with the Lord, and there he demonstrated his holiness among them.
2. We cannot let our emotions get the best of us!
2. We cannot let our emotions get the best of us!
Moses had already struck a rock before in order to get water for the Israelites. So now God has given Him a “new” way to get water. Speak to the rock in front of all the people and water will come out. God told Moses that He was going to do something different so the people would know it was God providing for their needs. (They probably thought that it was Moses the first time because He was the one who they saw strike the rock.) So God to him this time you’re not touching the rock but speak to it so for sure they would know it was God doing this. But Moses let his anger get the best of him and returned to the way that worked in the past and struck the rock twice to make a point to the people. Now water did come out but, because they did not trust God, Moses would no longer be the one to lead God’s people into the promise land. Think about how much more the people would have trusted Moses’ word if they saw that God did a great miracle right before their eyes. But… When we think we know how to do this or that or worse yet when we react because of pride, which always results in uncontrolled anger, we could forfeit God’s dream expansion. So we need to always be checking ourselves.
25 “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. 26 Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
27 “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? 28 All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, 29 but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
30 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? 31 What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. 32 People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. 33 Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
3. Stay focused on what God can do!
3. Stay focused on what God can do!
For God’s Dream of Expanding our Dream to happen, we must always be seeking Him. We cannot afford to be thrown off because “it hasn’t happened yet” . We need to be constantly looking at reality that only exists in God. His provisions, His reality and His initiatives. The world is screaming at us. The needs, the fear, the panic, the desires, the keeping up with the Joneses, basically everything that doesn’t last for eternity. We need to give our entire attention to God and what He is doing. Now this can be tough because of life’s demands but it is vitally important for us to do. So we can be in position for God’s Dream of Expanding our Dream to take place.
1 So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. 2 Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
4. We must get serious about this God-life and His dreams!
4. We must get serious about this God-life and His dreams!
We need to seriously pay attention to what God is doing. Now in the world we live in this is getting more and more challenging. There are so many things vying for our attention that it will take effort on our part to pay attention to what God is doing and to see things from His perspective. Think about the things that we pay attention to: television, our phones, our computers, social media, text messages, emails, videos, not to mention our jobs, our personal challenges, maybe some health issues, family needs, so many things it’s no wonder we stress out and cannot dream. So we must purpose to pay attention to God. When we do this, we start to see just how big God is! He’s bigger than our challenges and our needs. He’s bigger than any giant we might be up against. Then we’ll see that He is able to expand our dreams that are in line with His dream for us. Let’s take these steps and get ready for God’s Dream to Expand our dream take place! God is able and willing to take us higher for His glory !