Meant To Dream

We're kicking off a new series this morning that we've entitled, dreaming of a white Christmas. Come on, everybody, just think about it. Don't you just love a white Christmas? Don't you love a snowy Christmas morning? Wouldn't that just be ideal? It's not looking like it's going to be a case for us this year. However, we can dream of a white Christmas, but I specifically remember as a kid dreaming of a white Christmas. I would sit on my porch in the fall, and I would, I didn't really pray at that time, but if I had prayed, I would have prayed something along the lines, God let it snow on Christmas morning. Man, because there's just something more magical about a snowy Christmas morning, isn't there? Isn't there? Man, I love when snow would come before Christmas even. And you know, just that just white, like, just enjoy it. Just everything was just right in the world. If it snowed before Christmas, you could have a snowball fight. You could build snow forts. You could even take your little brother's head and just smash it down in the snow. You know what I'm talking about? Like it was just so fun. Everything about a white Christmas is just so dreamy. Those were the days, if you'll remember with me, when kids could go outside before having Heated Gloves. Y'all know what I'm talking about. I can't go outside. I'm going to ruin my thumbs. How am I going to play on the Xbox? Right? You know what I'm talking about, right? Yeah, yeah. You remember in the day where you could go outside and you'd have to have heated under shorts and all the stuff. Y'all know what I'm talking about. You remember before the days where we were all helicopter parents and kids would go outside and you wouldn't be able to see him or hear him, and mom would just go back and sit down read the newspaper. She didn't care. Y'all remember those days. That's what I'm talking about. I'm dreaming of that. That's what I'm talking about. We go outside for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours, man and hours, and then we would come inside, we'd get a little hot cocoa. We'd warm up, you know, but the little warm cup of your face and just warming up and sipping the hot cocoa. Y'all remember that dreamy Can I just say something? Honestly, though, now that I'm grown, I don't like snow as much, because with snow comes responsibility, like you got to move the snow, you got to shelve the snow. You got to make sure your wife doesn't fall in the driveway. You know what I'm talking about, all of that stuff, all of that stuff. You got to scrape the windows. You know what I'm talking about. And can I tell you what's the worst? The worst is having snow after Christmas. Snow before Christmas, yes, in the name of Jesus, but snow after Christmas. We must live in a very bad place, man, bad place. It's just not the same. But for an instance, just thinking about that doesn't make you just feel all warm and fuzzy. You're like, Okay, I know it's 60 out today, but I could, I could handle a little snow. Like I feel like, I feel like, that would be that would that would that would be good. That would be good. Can I ask you something, where do you think that level of dreaming went? That consistency of dreaming went for us, where, as a kid, we would dream about that White Christmas, but now we're like, you know, the level of joy that came with that dream, the level of peace that came with that dream, the excitement, the anticipation that came with that level of dreaming. Remember feeling that anticipation. But can I tell you something while it was connected to Christmas? It wasn't limited to Christmas. Was it because as a kid, we used to dream about things like the first day of school? Remember? Remember when you wanted to go school supply shopping, you had your pencil sharpened just right and your folders just right? I don't think I ever used the pencil at school. I don't think I ever used one of my notebooks at school. But I had to be Christmas, I had to be school shopping. We had to go get the supplies, because I had to be prepped for that first day of school. There was a level of dream. There was a level of unknown where there was anticipation about what was to come. And then I would dream about the last day of school, schools, summer. You know what I'm talking about? Like, Let's go party. I would dream about the first baseball game of the summer. Man, there was nothing better than that game coming down the pipe. There was nothing better than dreaming about that. I would dream about the school dance, like, who was I going to ask to dance with me? You know what I'm talking about. Oh, sorry, Bucha. Y'all went to Christian school. You don't know anything about having a school dance. You can't dance. YouI think that's a rule that white folks just made up, like, oh yeah, dancing is the devil because we don't know how to dance. Probably ought to cut that out of the recording. You remember, the days, though, when everything was an adventure, everything was exciting, like there was hope that something great was going to happen when we were young. But now those dreamy moments, they're fewer and further in between, aren't they? Me ask you, what happened to those dreams? What happened to that level of dreaming and and I know you say to me, Well, Pastor, Matt, I'm I'm an adult now I'm grown. I have a family, I got a job, I run a business, I have student debt, I have responsibilities. I'm the one that has to remove the snow now, so I don't want it to snow anymore because of the way that it affects me. And I can't afford to dream like that anymore, because somebody has to be responsible while I understand this train of thought, and I used to absolutely prescribe to this train of thought. In fact, studies prove that as we get older, we dream less. In the natural we dream less. And so it's natural for us to dream less, even spiritually as well as we get older, don't you think? And while I think it's natural, I don't believe that it's God's design for us. In fact, I believe that God's design for us is we were meant to dream more now than we've ever dreamed before. See, dreaming is not a thing for kids to do. Dreaming is a thing for people to do, and especially those of us who are in Christ, we are supposed to we are meant to dream. I think we're meant to dream for our whole lives. Some might even say forever or forever. Acts. Chapter number two says this in the last day, God says, I'll pour out my spirit on all peoples. Let me say all people, your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will see dreams. And here's where argument gets in and going. He assessed all peoples, let me say all people. All people means all people. All people, that means if you're a man, people, if you're a woman, people, if you're a tall people or a short people, if you're a smart people or a still learning and in process. People, whether you're a white people or a black people, a brown people, all people. In those days, I'll pour out my Spirit, even on my servants, men and women, just in case you had a question about who all people were, men and women alike, and they will prophesy. Who enjoyed pioneer conference this weekend, I got me a little pioneer merch today. Come on, everybody, sisterhood is always my favorite event, and then brotherhood comes and that's my favorite event, and they're just my favorite so anyway, side note. Side note. Don't you think it's interesting that there are people that actually believe that a limitless God is limited by the gender that we were assigned at birth, to be able to be used by him. Some people believe that God can use me greater than he can use my wife because of how we were born. Like God messed up and said, Oh, can't use you. I created you, but I can't use you significantly. Or that's crazy to me. Anyway, I'm not going to preach about that today, but that's just like a side note. Like, think about that. Everybody. Think about. That. It's weird. It's weird. Oh, oh, here's where we are, here's where we are. And your old men will dream dreams. Let me say old men. And this isn't just like, hey, you're 40 now you're old, you're going to have dreams. Okay? Because you, my friend, are older than you were yesterday. That makes you an old man today compared to yesterday. Now you are older, for sure, but so your dreams are going to be really good, really good dreams, but you're all older. We're all every one of us are older today than we were yesterday, right? And so that lets us know that, by the Spirit of God, those of us who are in Christ, we should be dreaming new dreams filled with hope, dreams today more than we were yesterday. Our dreams yesterday were great, but today they're going to be even greater. Dreams. I love that about the Bible, I believe that it's time for us to dream again and to allow God's spirit to stir his good works in us again. So I looked up the definition of dream, and it means this. It's a series of thoughts, images and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep. Or we all know somebody who daydreams, right? I think daydreaming is what actually prohibits us from moving forward in the dreams that God has for us long term, because our whole lives when we start becoming more culturally aware, people tell us, hey, lock in. Stop dreaming. Hey, lock in. Pay attention. Stop dreaming. Stop dreaming. Stop dreaming. Lock in. Pay attention. Get on track. And so we subconsciously start to learn that we can't dream anymore. And studies prove that the older we get, the less we not the less we dream, but the less we remember our dreams, even in our sleep, I'd venture to say that the vast majority of us remember our dreams today less than we did five years ago or 10 years ago. I can remember dreams that I had as a boy, but I can't remember dreams that I've had in the last year. Why is that? Well, I think that in reading this definition, I saw three things that I want to highlight, that I think are roadblocks for our dreaming as we move forward, thoughts, images and sensations. So I want to talk about these three roadblocks that prohibit us from dreaming the way that God meant for us to dream. Number one roadblock is this, thoughts. Let me say thoughts. Ultimately, we must know that the way we think is the way that we will go. It is impossible, my friends, for us to think in one direction and go in another direction. Ultimately we're going to end up headed in the direction that we most consistently think, the thoughts that we most consistently think is the direction that we're ultimately going to head in. We will always and forever gravitate toward what we focus on. You ever been riding on a road trip with dad, and he's changing lanes. But, you know, he does the old school like checking his blind spot. You know, I'm talking about like this, what's he doing? You know what I mean? Now, okay, we probably don't do that in Nebraska, because nobody changed his lanes. Everybody just drives in the slow everybody drives in the fast lane. You're a slow driver, driving in the fast lane. You let me just give you a free piece of advice from your pastor who loves you very much. Keep right except to pass, unless you're passing somebody, stay in the right lane. But when you do it, check your mirror, don't, because what you focus on, you'll end up gravitating toward and swerve. Y'all hear what I'm saying. What you focus on, you gravitate toward. It's impossible for you to give your focus to something and head in a different direction. Impossible. The Bible says this is Romans, chapter 12, verses one and two, and so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he's done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind that He will, that he will find acceptable. This is truly the way that we worship Him. And I'm not going to focus on that verse at all. I just love it, and wanted to read it to you. Verse two, though, we're really going to lock in on, don't copy somebody say, Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. But let God transform who you into a new person by changing the way that you think, then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Anybody in here ever wanted to know what God's will for you was God? Why am I here? Why was I born? What do you have for me? Of course you have, still to this day, the number one most Googled question on the planet is, what's my purpose? Why am I here? Why did you create me? Why did I come to this church? Why did I meet this woman and marry her? Why tell me? I want to know your will. I want to know your plan. I want to know your purpose. God wants you to know, but the only way for you to know is to copy his ways, not the ways of the world. So behavior and customs. I'm going to talk about this for a minute right over here, and then I'm going to talk about transformation over here as well. Behavior and customs. Let's take a look at that. This term translated specifically means schematic or scheme. Okay, it's where we get our English word blueprint. It's very similar. Okay, so what is the scheme that we're going to move forward with? What's the blueprint that we're going to move forward with? Anybody ever built a home? If you have built a home, you've known that you had to work with an architect to get a blueprint so that when you went to build the home, there was a set of plans for you to move forward with. What am I saying? That the dream existed here, then it existed on paper before it existed for you to walk into right? Y'all see what I'm saying. And so what the writer is telling us is that if we're going to live the good, perfect and pleasing will that God has for us, we're going to have to get a different plan for our life, not the plan of the world, but the plan of God. And the plan of God will transform us. This word transforms, let me say transform you. I promise I know how to spell. I'm just a horrible, horrible writer. I told you I never used those pencils. So here's what I want you to think about when I say the word transform. I want you to think about a caterpillar turn into a butterfly. I want you to think about metamorphosis. I want you to think about seventh grade science, I want you to think about when you went into the woods and you got the little caterpillar, and you bought them back, and you put them in the jar and waited and waited and waited To watch them transform into the beauty little butterfly. You it. Think about it, metamorphosis. Think about that caterpillar. Think about that butterfly. Think about the amazing process that that is. That's what takes place. But you know what the most amazing thing that I never picked up as a seventh grader was that little cocoon started to pop open. We saw a wing. And I thought, Scott wings. Now I didn't even think about the fact that the change began inside that caterpillar before it ever took place on the outside of the caterpillar. See, there was one thing that the caterpillar would always do, but in order for it to become all that God had created it to be, there was some changes that began to take place on the inside of the caterpillar, where the caterpillars internal clock realized, hey, something's going down and something's about to change. But here's what we do as believers. We receive Christ, and something begins to change on the inside of us, but we still adopt the old ways of doing things, and we think that it's going to get us the new results of the new life, to change life and the fresh purpose that God has for us. That's not how it works, everybody, just not how it works. God changes the way that you think from the inside out. See as a seventh grader, I thought the change took place from the outside in, and that's what many of us as believers think too. They come to pastor Matt, they come to the small group leader, like, tell us what to do. Pastor Matt, you want me to stop drinking? And we'll be like, nope. You'll want us to stop smoking, and we'll say Nope. You want us to stop cussing, and we'll say, Nope. What do you want us to do? We want you to learn the things of God. We want you to open the Bible. We want you to sit in church. We want you to get connected to a city group. We want you to start being a part of a team. That's what we want to see you do. Well, what if I come hung over? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Because here's what we know, that changing from the outside in is only. Behavior modification. It doesn't truly change you into somebody new. It's changing from the inside out. That actually changes you into somebody that's new. You start getting in the Word, and God will speak to you about changing the way that you think, and then you'll become the new creation that you're called to be. Somebody won't have to say, hey, stop drinking. Somebody won't have to stay say, Stop sleeping around. Somebody won't have to say, Stop doing this. No, God is saying it on the inside of you, and you're just aligning now not to the old custom or behavior of the world, but to the new behavior and custom in Christ, Jesus, you will be transformed into a new creation, and that's when you'll begin to learn the good, the pleasing and the perfect will of God. See, there was one way of doing things. There's a world's blueprint, and then there's God's blueprint. And when you say yes to Jesus, God starts to do a work on the inside of you transforming you comes a day where the old blueprint can't build the new house that God's called you to live in. Y'all hear what I'm talking about. Second thing is this, that's thoughts, that's thoughts. So we gotta think on a new level. The second thing is images. Let me say images, pictures, right? Images, pictures, the images that we consistently see will determine the thoughts that we consistently think. I know that we don't all recognize this all the time, but the images that we see in our minds, those are going to determine the thoughts that we consistently think. The blueprint that we see, is it according to or is it a copy from the world, or is it a brand new issue created by the hand of God for your new life in Christ? What blueprint Do you see? What image do you look at? The image that you look at this blueprint or this blueprint will determine, will determine what you see. Will determine what you think. It'll determine what you think. Romans, chapter one, verse 21 says this, yes, they the people of God. They knew God, but they wouldn't worship Him as God or give Him thanks. That's why I always think it's so weird when we come to church and people won't worship God. We gotta tell people, hey, the Bible says you should lift your hands. The Bible says you should open your mouths. Why? Because we're trapped in this place where we think we're God instead of He's God. And when we think we're God, that we'll worship the way we want, rather than him being God, will worship the way he wants. They wouldn't worship Him or give Him thanks. They thought they were doing God a favor by showing up to church on Sunday morning. I know that's nobody that mercy city, but some churches, you it is quiet in this Harlem bag church boy made me sweat a little bit. Oh, man, I felt like I just stepped on 144 people's toes, and they begin to think up foolish ideas of what God was like, foolish ideas of what God was like. And as a result, their minds became dark and confused. See, when we don't recognize God for who God really is, and we try to play God, what happens is our minds darken and there's more confusion based on these foolish ideas. Or one translation is the old King James Version. Anybody know the King James translation? Some people are mad at me because I don't preach out of the King James, but honestly, I have a hard time I understand all of it, yeah, but I do like this verse specifically because that foolish ideas is actually vain In edge in a T owns vain imaginations. Vain imaginations. This word imaginations, image nation. Do you know what you need to build a nation, a blueprint, a blueprint. Seeing some of us are building the nations that we move forward the imagine the image nations in our world. We're building it based on a blueprint that is a copycat of the world. Rather. Have been building it on a blueprint that is inspired through the transformation of God in our world. And so our marriage is the image of our marriage. This is tough. This is so difficult. This is hard. Why? Because everybody tells us marriage is hard, but God tells us that marriage is holy and that those hard things being bring great things. It's actually when we're pressed, not crushed pressed, that greatness comes out of those things. See, your marriage is not intended to make you happy, happily ever after. Was a fairy tale that was written by Disney, holy forevermore that's written in Scripture. You hear what I'm saying, and so here's what we're doing. We got this image that's been seared in our mind that controls our thoughts about the way that our marriage should be, but God's saying something totally differently. So you're establishing this image, nation and imagination that is the foundation of where you're going, and you're disappointed, and you're wondering, God, where are you? And God's saying, Son, Daughter, I'm just trying to transform you. You've been living, you've been living a copycat life, the behaviors and the customs of this world, not the behaviors and customs of heaven. Come on, everybody. We're meant to dream, and these images that we see, these thoughts that we think they're blockages to the dreams that we're meant to dream. The third and final thing is the sensation. Somebody say, sensation, a sensation? Is this a feeling or perception resulting from something that has happened? See, here's the reality. We all have life experiences, don't we? Some things have happened that are really good, some things that have happened have been really bad, but what we do is we take on those things that have happened to us, and they bring a sensation to us. We feel the pain of that abuse, we feel the pain of that divorce, we feel the exhilaration of that adventure, and rather than living according to the new blueprint that God is adding to our world, we live according to the old customs or behavior blueprint thought process of the past. And we think that those things that happen to us are the truth. Some of you guys know my story, but as an eight year old, I was molested by we had opened our home to a to foster care. I love foster care. I'm an advocate of foster care. I think that we need more foster families to consider that and to consider adoption. I think we need to do more of that. But my mother believed that as well. But it just so happened that one of the young ladies had been sexually abused herself. She was several years older than me, and so she began to abuse me. And so my whole life, I grew up with the pain of this abuse, and that was my truth. That was the truth that I believed. The problem was, it wasn't the truth, it was just the fact. See, the fact is, I was abused, but I thought that that fact meant it was God's truth and it wasn't God's truth. God's truth is something different, but because I took it on as truth, I lived according to the custom and the behavior of the world, rather than of heaven, and it hindered me from being able to dream about a pure life, about a safe life. See, I felt unsafe, and so I thought that I had to protect myself. So as I grew up, what I did was I became angry. I was a big guy. I've always been a big guy, and so I would be angry, and when I was angry, I would be able to push people away, and I could push people away and keep them at an arm's length so they wouldn't get in close and be able to defile me. I'd protect myself. I didn't know that the Bible said that God was my protector. He's my safe place. In the shadow of his wings, I can find refuge and safety. And so every decision I made was according to this old custom and behavior, and I became so frustrated, even as a grown man, married, having a family, I would blow up on my wife, and we would get in fights, and I would be trying to protect myself. I hadn't let God transform me. I received Christ. Christ, I was experiencing that on the inside of me, but nothing was transformed yet. So my dreams were dying, but I knew something was in me. It's because I did this. The Bible says in Philippians, chapter four, verse six, don't worry. Somebody say, Don't worry about a day, every little thing, listen, listen, don't worry. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything that we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ, Jesus. I'm here to tell you this morning, I think one of the greatest barriers to our dreams in our old age. Come on, I showed you as old men and women, and you're older now than you were when I first shared this truth with you. I them,  what happened to you, and the sensation that that brings that trigger like all that hurts. Typically, when we operate according to the behavior and customs of the world, we shift into worry, and our minds are wrecked over those things. We become stressed, we become anxious, we become depressed, we become volatile, emotional, all of these things. But the Bible says, Don't worry about it, because worry is the way of the world. It's the old blueprint. What's the new blueprint? Prayer? Prayer is the new blueprint, taking it to God, not pretending that it didn't happen. For so long, I didn't want to take the fact that I was abused to God like he didn't know that it happened. Was I scared of God knowing that it happened? No, I was scared of navigating the reality of God, I know that you could have made this not happen. Why did you allow it to and I had to wrestle with that. And the thing that I realized is that God is good all the time. He is good in all things and always and what the enemy meant for harm. God turned in use for His glory. But I had to allow him to change the way that I thought, exchange this blueprint for this blueprint, and start painting different images. I don't have to protect myself. He's my protector. I don't have to guard myself. He's my guard. I don't have to work for purity. I don't have to I don't have to put a bunch of crazy safeguards on my computer. I get to invite the accountability in my world. That is that God's place there. It's my wife. I've got accountability. People. I don't have to worry about am I going to go back into sin? No, man, it's not the behavior and custom of the kingdom. That's the behavior and custom of my old life. But I'm new in Christ. Jesus, he's changed me from the inside out, which is one of the scariest things for me is we've done church these last several years, people who talk about Jesus, Christ as Lord and Savior, but whose lives do not display a change, a metamorphosis, still a caterpillar, crawling around On your little belly, God's intended you to have wings and fly and dream again. Dream again, dream again. 2025. Is going to be a different year. It's going to be better than you could ever think, hope, imagine, or dream. Ephesians, 320, come on, everybody. We stand on your feet with me this morning. If that's you. You felt like Pastor Matt, something in that message spoke to me. Something in that message spoke to me, it's time for me to dream again. My thoughts have been in the way the images have been in the way those sensations have been in the way Listen those sensations, they are fact. They're not truth. They're indication that it's not time to worry, but it's time to pray. So can I pray for you? If that's you, you say, Pastor, Matt, that's me. Something resonated, would you just lift both hands? Come on. Just lift both hands to heaven every location, just going to pray the simple word of God over you, Father, you see the hands of your son and daughters, sons and daughters that have gone. Up all over our rooms. I pray in the name of Jesus that we would not be limited, that there would be no barriers or blockade to the dreams that you've given us to dream according to the Holy Spirit, Father, that you've deposited vision and wisdom on the inside of us. God, I pray that every area of blockage, every area of disconnection, every area where we have embraced an old blueprint. You would exchange it for the new blueprint that our lives would be changed, that a metamorphosis would take place, that we would crawl out of this year. 2024 the caterpillars that we are into. 2025 the butterflies that you've created us to be God, that our thoughts would be your thoughts, that our ways would be your ways. God. Let us embrace a life of change and let us dream again as we were meant to in Jesus. Mighty Name, Amen and come on. Thank you, Jesus.