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Nearly five months ago a television show
aired in England, that was quickly imported to the United States via
the Internet. The show was the British version of American Idol,
entitled Britain’s Got Talent. The contestant that caused the
worldwide stir was a mobile phone salesman from Wales. His name –
Paul Potts. The YouTube video that 15,425,459 people have viewed
introduced Paul backstage saying, “By day I sell mobile phones, my
dream is to spend my life doing what I feel that I was born to do.”
When the judges asked him, “What are you here for today, Paul?” and he
said, “To sing opera,” eyes rolled and deep sighs were exhaled. They
knew what we know. It is easy to sing opera badly. Yet it was his
lifelong dream and he was certain that he was born to do it. So he
sang. And if you can watch the video of him singing Nessum Dorma,
which was recorded on March 17th and aired on June 9th
of this year, if you can watch that without shedding a tear or feeling
the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, you are amazing. Some
incredible things happen when we respond to our dreams.
We are in the midst of a sermon series designed to help each of us
find our S.T.R.I.D.E. for Ministry. S.T.R.I.D.E. is an acronym
developed to assist people to discover their place for ministry. The
S is for Spiritual Gifts. The T
is for Talents. The R is for Resources.
The I is for Individuality. The D
is for Dreams. Dreams may be the most uncomfortable
part of this six-faceted method of determining one’s niche for
ministry. It has to do with what we are passionate about in life and
quite frankly many people have yet to discover that necessary
component of a fulfilling life. Most people struggle with this,
according to Carol Cartmill and Yvonne Gentile, authors of Serving
from the Heart. The authors encourage the readers to spend some
time on this. They wrote, “Since we will not feel fulfilled until
we’re serving in an area about which we are passionate, we have a real
need to discover our dreams.”
The author of Proverbs put it this way in Proverbs
13:12. Hear now the Word of the Lord:
12Hope deferred makes the
heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to
God.
In this one verse the author declared the importance of
dreams. While it may not be easy, especially at first, I want to
encourage you today, Dare to Dream. There are two
things that I want to say about dreams today: Everyone Dreams,
and Dreams Inspire. Dare to Dream.
Everyone
Dreams
The author of Proverbs was pretty clear about the
importance of dreams. If they are deferred, hearts grow sick, weak,
paralyzed. If they are fulfilled the dreamer is energized, eating
from the tree of life. Some will say. “That is too big of a risk. I
don’t want my heart to be sick – ever. I simply won’t dream.”
However, according to research by Dr. Edward Bixler at Penn State
University, “Everyone dreams, every night.”
There is another kind of dreams in our lives as well.
Wayne Cordeiro wrote in his book, Doing Church as a Team, “In
every person’s heart is a dream of what he or she can become for the
Lord; a dream that sees them making a difference in the world, in
their families, in their churches.”
I wonder if that is what stirred Martin Luther King,
Jr., a pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama
in his mid-twenties. Shortly after arriving at Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church, there was an incident of Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old
African American girl, refusing to give up her seat on the bus. She
was coming home from school on public transportation. She was in the
back of the bus, but the bus was crowded, so she was ordered to stand
so a white man could sit down. Martin Luther King, Jr. was new in
town and there were other matters of concern. He chose to focus his
attention on his new responsibilities as a pastor. But a dream began
to emerge. Two years later, Rosa Parks was commanded to give up her
seat, which was in the “Black Section” of the bus, to accommodate
white passengers who were standing. She refused. Some say it was
because she was tired. Rosa Parks remarked, “The only tired I was,
was tired of giving in.” Martin Luther King, Jr. stood beside Mrs.
Parks and became known all over as a man with a dream, a dream for
nonviolent reform, a dream for racial equality, a dream where people
of all ages, nations, and races could play together, eat together,
live together. It was a dream that would guide him for the rest of
his life.
What kind of dreams had God placed inside of you?
Bruce Bugbee in his book, What You Do Best in the Body of Christ,
outlines three types of dreams: Dreams that make a difference for
individuals and groups (such as Elder Aid, working with youth as a
counselor, mentoring college students in the Coffee House, etc);
Dreams that make a difference for a cause (such as the Civil Rights
movement, responding to the AIDS crisis, fighting against malaria,
etc.); and Dreams that make a difference through a role or function
(such as Information Technology skills, coaching leaders, etc.). What
are your dreams? What difference has God called you to make?
Remember, everyone dreams. Dare to Dream.
Dreams Inspire
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