When God Breaks Your Dream

WHEN GOD BREAKS YOUR DREAM (II Samuel 7)

I believe it was Walter Cronkite who reported on an interview with Anwar Sadat who had said in the interview that he hoped to retire next year, to be able to step down as President of Egypt and that there would be pceace- i the Middle East. He so longingly wanted to see peace in that war-torn part of the world. But this week, we watched with dismay and grief as another man of peace was stricken down by the bullets of assassins. It makes you wonder what kind of world we live in, when seemingly those who want peace the most are taken out by war-like methods. I looked at Anwar'spicture and heard of his personal dream to someday see peace, and I realized that his dream was shattered in that burst of gunfire and grenades at a parade. Have you ever had a broken dream? Napoleon had one. He wanted to conquer the world, and as he neared the end of his life he said, "My dreams are broken. It seems," he said, "that great men have only one destiny and that's to burn out or be consumed, and my life is a dying light in time." Captain Scott, writing in his diary at the North Pole, said, "This is the end of the dream." How many times have men and women come to the end of what they thought was a dream? How many times have we, in our conquests in trying to succeed in life, come to the point where we knew God wanted a certain thing for us, and then, suddenly, like somebody taking a pin to a balloon, the dream was broken. You may have a son or daughter that you just knew God had this plan for--but they went another direction. Or you felt that God was calling you into a ministry, maybe to preach or be a missionary, or something like that, and something came along and the dream burst, and there you were with an empty dream. Maybe it was a romance. You just knew God had put His hand on it and said, "This is the one for your life." Everything seemed so right and sure and good and then those words came to you that said, "No. It's over." Or maybe death entered, at a most unexpected time. And the dream was broken. 2 In all of those circumstances, as you looked at them, you had done everything you knew to do and you felt that God surely was in it. Your life was in tune with God; everything seemed to be right and you could not understand why God would say no to your dream. I think all of us have experienced that. Well, David had a dream broken and in II Samuel, chapter 7, I want us to see how God brought it about and dealt with him in it. I. THE PEACE THAT PROVOKED A DREAM II Samuel 7:1-3: Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies... You see, there had been war and he'd been fighting for a long time. And now for the first time in years, apparently, there was peace. David had yearned for peace and now he had it. It was one of those rare interludes in his life. There was national and international peace. The Lord had given him rest and he stopped to think about it. I don't know where he was meditating, but the Bible says, in verse 2: ...that the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains.1 In this time of peace in his life, he is musing before a fire perhaps; maybe it's raining outside. He has a beautiful new house that another man had built for him. He is sitting there, listening to the pitter-patter of rain and then he remembers, "Hey, the tabernacle of God's out there in the rain! That holy place that means so much to us, the wind is driving the flaps around it and it's raining on it, and here I am. in a nice palace, and God's tabernacle is out there in the rain in a very bad place. Something ought to be done about it!" If you'll turn to the Book of Exodus, chapter 25, verse 1, I believe you'll get a little idea of what he wants to do, because all of this fits together when we see that he doesn't get to do it. It will also help us to understand about this tabernacle. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribu- tion. "1And this is the contribution which you are to raise from them: gold, silver and bronze, blue, purple and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, rams' skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and setting stones, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. "And let them construct a sanctuary for Me, (or a holy place) that I may dwell among them. 3 According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it. And in verse 10 is given the size of the tabernacle. This may surprise you. Here it is. "And they shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, (a cubit is about 18 inches on our measuring scale) and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. "And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make the gold molding around it. That was the tabernacle. Very small, really, wasn't it? As I have said, it would just fit on this side of this pulpit area. It wasn't very large. Paul Berleson describes the arrangement of the tabernacle: The tabernacle itself was made of three compartments. Outer Court, Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. The Outer Court was 75 by 150 feet (which would be pretty close to the size of this worship center. Not quite as wide, but probably a little bit longer.) It contained two pieces of furniture, the bronze altar and the bronze laver. The Holy Place was 30 by 15 by 15 feet. It contained a candlestick, table of shewbread, as well as the gold altar of incense. The Holy of Holies was a perfect cube, 15 by 15 by 15 feet. It contained the ark of the Covenant (that little two and a half feet by one and a half by one and a half instrument). And in that, the mercy seat. The Holy of Holies was separated from the Holy Place by the inner veil. There was only one entrance into the tabernacle and that was by the gate on the east. It is important to note that there was only oone door into the presence of God. The gate on the east was the only entrance into the tabernacle. That's the reason Jesus later said, "I am the door." Later, we'll dig into a study of that tabernacle, because everything in it has a deeper meaning. There are fifty chapters in the Bible written about the tabernacle and only three chapters about creation. We spend more time on the creation than we do on the tabernacle, but it's such a magnificent picture of Jesus Christ and the atonement. We'll dig into it later. But for now, I want you to get the picture: David's sitting there and this ark, this small piece of furniture is out there in this larger kind of tent -- 150 by 75 feets an& it's possibly raining and cold. Here he is in a nice place and he says, "God ought to have a nice place for His tabernacle." So David calls his friend Nathan, his confidant, in verse 2. Nathan is his buddy, his preacher-friend who later has to come to him and confront him, face-to-face 4 about his sin. And he says to him, "I want to build a place for God." That's a good thing to want to do, isn't it? but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains." And Nathan (like a good friend) said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your mind, for the Lord is with you." What an encouraging friend. Nathan, the encourager said, "Go to it, David. That's a good thing." David had a good dream and a good resolve. There's nothing wrong with that. He wanted to do something for God. That was his dream. He was in a time of peace and musing, and he had a great resolve to do something big for God. That's why it's so important to have a "quiet time." Have you ever been to a camp or a retreat where they have that "quiet time?" You go out alone by the lake, and you have that fireside service, and they ask you to be quiet and listen for a while. Or you go out under a tree and think, or you go climb a mountain. No one else is around. You may go to the beach and listen to the waves. You experience those quiet times of life and you know, some of our greatest resolves for God are made in those quiet times. Sometimes God moves in the quietest times of our services. In the quiet place of your heart, God does business. I remember when I knew God had called me to preach. I came to that conclusion after struggling for years, in a very simple, quiet moment. There wasn't anyone around. It wasn't at church. I wasn't at a campfire. I wasn't driving down the road. I was up on the--second floor in my room in Panama City, Florida where I was teaching school and I finally came to the awesome recognition that God had touched me. I just got down on my knees and said, "Lord, I've checked it every way I know, and if You've called me, and I believe You have, I'll go anywhere You want me to go; do anything You want me to do. Just don't ever let me embarrass you or not be a good representative of Your cause." It was very quiet. Nobody around. No jumping up and down. No shouting. Just commitment in a quiet time. God can speak in a quiet time. David thought he did, and he had a great resolve to do something big for God. There's a very important point here. We must be sure we hear the voice of God in those times. David heard the wrong voice. Notice another important point. As David sat in his place, he recognized that he had put God in second place. He said, "Look what I've got, and God's tabernacle, His holy place is out there. The tent is flapping out in the elements. Lord, it shouldn't be that way. You've got to have a better place than this." Have you ever put God in second place, or third or fourth place? You know, somewhere down the line, and then one day, all of a sudden you came to the striking recognition: "Lord, I put You back there and You ought to be up here!" I think it finally dawned on David. He had a situation that provoked a good dream. 5 II. GOD'S PLAN THAT REVOKED THE DREAM There was a peace that provoked it, but God had a plan that revoked it. In I Chronicles, chapter 17, verse 3 you'll notice how God dealt with His servant, David. David has told Nathan what he wants to do, and Nathan encourages him in it, but later Nathan is sent back to David with these words f-rom God:- And it came about the same night, that the Word of God came to Nathan, saying, "Go and tell David My servant, 'Thus says the Lord, "You shall not build a house for Me to dwell in... Bam! David's dream of building a place for God is going up in smoke. God says to Nathan, "He didn't hear My voice. He is not to build that house. You go and tell him." You know, that's very hard for a preacher to do. If somebody walked up to me and said, "I want to give you a million dollars, Preacher. Do anything you want for the glory of God in the church." More than likely I'd say, "TWhy sure! Just hand it on over. I'll be glad to get that load off your mind. Let me have it." And if that night the Lord would say, "No. You'll have to tell him he can't give it to you. He's not supposed to do it." That would be very hard for me to do, to tell the truth. It would be very difficult. But God said to Nathan, the preacher, "Go tell David he's not going to build My house." You know, the wounds inflicted by a friend can be good ones. When a person comes in the proper attitude--not of super piousity or being better than you or, "I want to correct you," but out of love, saying, "Let me help"--that can be a real blessing in your life. Chuck Swindoll tells about a fellow-student in seminary with him who just could not preach. He went through three years of school and still couldn't preach. He kept trying, but it was evident to everybody except himself that he was not a preacher. Still, he just knew God had called him to preach. Finally, the seminary professor realized that he needed to confront him, let him know that he needed to change vocations. He finally got the courage to call the young preacher in and try to convince him that he could not preach. But after a long conversation, the student-preacher finally said, "Sir! You don't understand. God has given me the gift of preaching and called me to preach." And the professor said, "But son, God hasn't given anyone who has heard you the gift of listening." It wasn't easy for this preacher to go back to David and say, "God has said No to your dream." It must have been hard, but he did it. So, in verses 4,5 and following, after David had the good resolve, God reminds his servants David and Nathan that He's been without a proper place for a long time, so He can continue to get along. 6 Notice then, how He deals with David. First He gives him affirmation: (Verse 8, II Samuel:7) "Now therefore, thus you shall say to M4y servant David, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, "I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be ruler over My people Israel. "And I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth." 1. God affirms David. The first thing God says to David is, "I still love you. I affirm you, I am with you, I am for you. Your dream is a good one, but it's not My plan. But I affirm you, David, as a person." God will affirm you as a person, even though your dream is broken. 2. He reminds him of his gifts. He said, "You have been a fighter. You have gone and I have cut off your enemies before you." David was a military man, a military genius. He was a man of the sword, consequently he had blood on his hands. God said to him, "You have gone out and done the job. Your gift is to be a fighter, not a temple-builder." What's your gift? Maybe you were going in one direction and God said, "No, I want you to do something else." 3. He gives him a promise (Verses 12-13:) "When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, (when you die) I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. God is really promising two sons here: David's son, Solomon, and The Son, Jesus Christ. That's the Messianic promise right there. He gave him a promise. Now, notice this. When God breaks a dream it isn't necessarily because of sin in our life, because He's trying to discipline us, or because He is rejecting us. It could be a redirection of our lives. David was not wrong in thinking up and trying to carry out a big plan for God. God just redirected the dream. What does that say? It says that we've got to be open to God's will every day. Sometimes we say, "This is God's will," and we fix it and we lock it in place and say, "That's it. God's not going to do anything different." No. God's will is fresh. God's will changes. Not His eternal will -- He doesn't change His mind, but we discover it day-by-day and walk-by-walk and month-by-month. It may be this direction for a while, and then God will redirect it another and then another. God's will for our lives is fresh. Be open to it every day. It may be a redirection of a dream. 7 A young man once called me in tears. He said, "I have prepared and prepared -- believing God had called me to do this ministry. And now the door has been shut and they have told me I cannot be a missionary. Brother Jim, what's wrong with me? What's wrong? I want to go and they're saying, 'Where are the missionaries?' and I'd say, 'Here am I, Lord,' and they say, 'You can't go!"' I said, "Well, God's got another plan." "Well, He couldn't have another plan! This is what it's got to be." I said, "No, if God shut the door, He's got another idea. You wait on God." Some months later, he got back in touch. He said, "You were right. Look what God did." And he told me what God had opened for him and what God was doing in his life. He said, "You know, you told me, but it didn't make any sense. But now I know. This is where God wanted me all the time. But I had to go through that experience to get there." God redirects our dreams, and we need to recognize that some of us are not temple-builders but preparation engineers. I was in the Army Corps of Engineers for about three years. I'm thankful war didn't come then, because we would have lost every tank crossing a bridge that I built, I'm sure. But I was doing my part and I knew that in the Corps of Engineers, our commitment and our job was to go before the Infantry and to make a way for them to cross a river or go over a ravine or whatever it was. We had to make it safe and possible to move the artillary, the tanks and the troops. That was our job. To prepare the way for others to come along. God was saying to David, "Your job is to prepare for it, not to build it." You may have a dream, but God may be saying to you, "You're to prepare for it, not do it." He may be saying that to you through that disappointment in your life. You may have been sure that God had planned it, but God said, "No, that's preparation for something else." You may have a child who wanted to do a certain thing, and you thought sure God had prepared him or her. They had gone to college to prepare for it, but then they did something else. We say, "Lord, why did You let our child do that?" We must affirm our children and encourage them, even when our dreams for them do not come true. Think how many frustrated daddies there must be, who wanted their kids to make the major leagues or be All-American because they themselves could not. And then to see that child become a scientist, or doctor, or preacher and say, "Son, why did you choose something like that? With all your ability and talent you could've had a scholarship for four years, and instead you want to study to be a doctor!" Affirm your children. Encourage your children. They need that. Celeste Holme. the actress said, "People die because they don't get encouraged. Slowly, bitterly, angrily, because somebody didn't encourage them." God may have given to you the opportunity to be an engineer, not a temple-builder, somewhere in your life, revoking your plan and redirecting it, as He did David's. III. THE PRAYER THAT PROVOKED PRAISE After God told David no, He affirmed him and said, "I'll raise up your descendants for you. I'm going to give you a son and your house will last forever." It was important, you see, to be assured that his kingdom would be ongoing, because usually when a kingdom was destroyed, the enemy would come in and kill the sons and daughters so no one would be left to try to take over. David was concerned about this and God said, "I'm going to promise you that you will have descendants, and that they will rule and reign, and go on forever. And then in verses 18-29, God gets the praise through David's response to a broken dream. When God says no, we can do one of two things: we can seek or we can sulk. David sought. In verse 18 notice David's pronouncement. Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord, and he said, "Who am I, 0 Lord God, and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me this far? David is saying: "I'm counting my blessings. Thank you, Lord. I remember when I was a shepherd-boy out there, out among all those stinking sheep and You came and said, 'I'm going to make you king.' And look at all the good things that have happened to me through the years. You've been good to me." And he counted his blessings before the Lord. When your dream is broken, stop for a moment. Look back at God's faithfulness, His blessings, time after time. Count your many blessings, and then you'll quit sulking. David sat down before the Lord and counted his blessings. "Who am I, Lord, that You should be so good to me?" Have you ever asked that question, "Why me, Lord? Why me," when God's been so good to us. Have you ever asked Him, "Why? I don't understand it." David didn't understand either. He was saying: "Why me, Lord?" Notice David's posture. The Bible says,, "He sat down before the Lord." You know, that's the only time in the Bible where a person sat down before the Lord. People kneel down before the Lord, stand before the Lord, and lie down before the Lord, but it's the only time it says anyone sat down before the Lord. He just came, sat down and talked to God. Have you ever just sat down and talked to God? You've knelt down, stood up, you've been prostrate, but have you ever just sat down? Do you know what you do when you sit down? You sit down as friend-to-friend. David just sat down and said, "All right, Lord. I want to talk to You." And notice David's preparation as he sat down to pray and talk to God. He talked to Him as a little child in this really beautiful verse 20. "And again what more can David say to Thee? (David is using his own name) For Thou knowest Thy servant, 0 Lord God! Do you remember how your little children would use their own name when they would talk to you? "Mommy, can Jimmy go out and play?1 -You know, asking fo-r themselves? And here, just like a little child, David just slips up to the Lord, sits down and says, "Father, what more can David ask of You?" Isn't that 9 beautiful? Do you see his humbleness and contrite spirit? Just like a little child talking to his father. So, he says, "I'm going to make preparation." Let's see what David does. He had a dream that was broken, and instead of sulking, I Chronicles, chapter 22:1-5 tells us what he did. David says, "Since I can't build it, I can get ready for it to be built." Verse 1: Then David said, "This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel." Can you imagine? He goes out there, selects the site and stands there. You know, if you're building a house or something you might say, "This will go over here, this will go over there, and that will be here." David goes to the site where the temple is to be raised and he says, "This is where the burnt offering place will be; this is where ...." And it's just like he's going to be there and build it himself. He is so excited about it. Verse 2: So David gave orders to gather the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, and he set stonecutters to hew out stones to build the house of God. And David prepared large quantities of iron to make the nails for the doors of the gates and for the clamps, and more bronze than could be weighed; and timbers of cedar logs beyond number, for the Sidonians and Tyrians brought large quantities of cedar timber to David. And David said, "My son Solomon is young and inex- perienced, (Isn't that just like a father?) and the house that is to be built for the Lord shall be ex- ceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all lands. Therefore, I will make preparation for it." So David made ample preparations before his death. Do you see the greatness of this man? God says, "You can't build it." David said, "All right, I'll get it ready. I'll prepare the ground. I'll prepare the place. I'll get the materials so it can be built." And that's the sense of what a lot of life is like. A teacher - a coach - a preacher - a leader comes to a place and gets the folks ready and says, "Here are the tools. I can't go with you. Now, you've got to do it." And you've got to turn them loose. David said, "I'll do everything that I can to get my son Solomon ready to build it. But he has got to do the job." The dream was broken, but David did not sulk. He did all that he could. And then he prayed - and his prayer is magnificent. It's a prayer of praise, beginning in verse 22 of I Samuel 7: "For this reason Thou art great, 0 Lord God; for there is none like Thee, and there is no God besides Thee... Then skip to verse 24: 10 "For Thou hast established for Thyself Thy people Israel as Thine own people... Verse 26: ...that Thy name may be magnified forever, Verse 28: "And now, 0 Lord God, Thou art God, and Thy words art truth, and Thou hast promised this good thing to Thy servant. "Now therefore, may it please Thee to bless the house of Thy servant, that it may continue forever before Thee. For Thou, 0 Lord God, hast spoken; and with Thy blessing may the house of Thy servant be blessed forever." He prayed a prayer of thanks. Can you praise God when your dreams are broken? It's hard, isn't it? When something you have put your heart into, a child;_ a romance, a job -- something good and -- it seemed like everything was just right and then it burst. Can you say, "praise the Lord-"- A little boy came home from school and told his momma he was so excited. He wanted to play a part in the school play, and had tried out. He'd given everything. She waited nervously till he came home the next day. She said, "Son, how'd it go?" And he said, "Momma, guess what? I got the lead part in clapping and cheering!" Sometimes God calls us to have a part in clapping and cheering when our dream is broken. I remember so well when I wanted to be president of my sophomore class in college. I wanted that so badly, and I thought I was the best candidate. Maybe not the best looking, but certainly, probably the most intelligent. And I couldn't see why anybody with good sense wouldn't vote for me. I didn't get elected president of the sophomore class of my college class. It hurt. My dream was broken. I'd been president of every class--president of my junior high, my senior high, my clubs--I'd been president of everything and I just knew God wanted me to be president right on through college. But God said, "No. No, son. This isn't yours." And I sulked and I was angry with God, until God taught me -- "That's not My dream for you." And one of the hardest things I ever had to do was go to the fellow that beat me, because I am a competitor. God made me that way and I guess I'll never change. But I had to go to him and say, "I'll do all I can to help you be a good president." And I meant it. And I learned my greatest lesson at the point of a redirected dream. When God broke a dream, He had another direction, and I never would have found it, probably, had I kept on winning because my ego, my self was too much out of proportion for God to speak to my heart and my life. When God breaks a dream for us as individuals, He has another way and expects us to support it. When God has a dream for my life, He expects me to follow that and He will redirect it and expect me to support whatever way He's going. When that dream is broken, God says, "I've got another way -- Follow Me in it. Believe Me through it." It also mean-s corporately. rGod has a dream for us, corporately- And whew God says "No" to one dream and "Yes" to another, that means that we will go for it. We will believe God in it. Our best reaction is cooperation, humility and praise when our dreams are broken. Are you willing to do that? I have prayed with people who had broken dreams, and have asked them, "You're not going to praise God for it, but in it. Would you praise God and thank Him through it -- that He's going to show you something else?" "How can I say thanks to God, when this thing has happened!?" Is often the reply I hear. Will you say, 'God, I don't understand it, but I praise You anyway'? Because God allowed it to happen, or it wouldn't have happened. The Bible says He directs the pathways of His children. So I've got to believe Him, even through that circumstance, that difficulty, that thing that I wanted so much to be good and right for God, but He broke the dream. I must believe that if I'll cooperate with Him, and be humble before Him, and praise Him, I'll be blessed. If I can't go, I'll send someone else. If I can't build, I'll prepare the way. And that's what God called you to do when a dream is broken. Some of you are sulking and mad at God about your broken dreams. You're angry and there's bitterness in your heart. Do you notice when you study the Old Testament that the Hebrew children, when they got to that place with God, many of them were willing to talk to Him about it? I mean, get angry with God about it? I mean, say, "Lord, why did You let that happen?" God can take that anger. God can take that hurt. God can take that frustration. He understands when our hearts ask, "Why, God! Why?" He'll hear that. Have your private controversy with God, but when it's over, humble yourself before Him, and say, "All right, Lord, where are You going? I want to go with You." And He'll redirect the dream. When your dream is broken, what do you do? You praise Him. You humble yourself before Him and cooperate in getting that dream fulfilled in another way. Individually, we've got to believe God for it, and corporately some of our people in our church have to recognize this also. It's a part of God's plan to cooperate, to pull together, to encourage, to provide the nails, to give the instructions. To help someone else do what maybe we couldn't, or even what we didn't think ought to be done, but God has said, "This is the way of the vision. This is the way of the dream. Go for it!" And we can either cooperate or we can sulk. David cooperated with God. He wanted to build a temple and they said it was the most magnificent temple, perhaps the world has ever seen. I read somewhere that on today's market it would cost 70 billion dollars to build the temple that Solomon built for God. But God said, "No, David. You're a preparation engineer and that's all." David had it in his heart to do a good thing and God said, "No." David turned to praise. Can you do that? It is a test of Christian maturity, a test of trust, of believing God when God breaks a dream to be able to say, "Lord, I don't understand it, but I praise You and I thank You." When your dream is broken, keep on believing God.