Sermon (September 18) "In Your Wildest Dreams: Your Wilderness"

     Going after our wildest dreams is not always as wonderful as it sounds.  I remember when I accepted a calling from God to enter the ordained ministry.  I was so excited and couldn’t wait to pursue this dream.  Penny and I were married in June of 1985 and immediately after our honeymoon, we drove off with the few belongings we had in our weighted down used Ford Escort.

     The sky was the limit.  There was nothing that we wouldn’t be able to conquer.  We were going after our wildest dream.  We were going to change the world!

     We arrived in Dayton, Ohio and walked into our tiny seminary apartment on that warm summer day.  I don’t know what happened but that apartment didn’t look anything like the picture in the seminary brochure!

     We had no air conditioning and the seminary dumpster was just outside our window which meant that like it or not, 5 AM was our wake-up time.  And when our wedding money was about to run out, I fortunately was able to find a part-time job at a nearby gas station.  That barely gave us enough food for groceries.  Looking back, I’m just glad that we were able to survive that first year of seminary.

     Over the past four weeks, we have been looking at the life of Moses and what it means to go after our wildest dreams.  And today as we conclude this series, we turn our attention to Moses and the wilderness story.  When we go after a God sized dream, we will inevitably encounter a wilderness moment when times will get tough and we will wonder if that dream is worth pursuing.

     Now there are a lot of stories we could use from when the Israelites were in the wilderness, but let’s focus on the one from our scripture reading for today.  This is the story of how the Israelites were facing starvation as they journeyed through the barren wilderness.  Things were getting so bad, that the people wished they were back in slavery in Egypt where they at least had bread to eat.

     The journey toward fulfilling a God sized dream will include sacrifice.  I mean, think about it.  If you go after any dream that is worth going after, you’re going to need to make some sacrifices. 

     This past spring, I finally watched the movie, “Invictus” which is a movie about apartheid and Nelson Mandela who is played by Morgan Freeman.  There’s a scene in that movie where the white captain of South Africa’s rugby team becomes friends with Mandela who is now the President of South Africa.  Because Mandela has been encouraging and helping the team to do well in the 1995 World Cup, the rugby team decides to visit the prison where Nelson Mandela had been detained for 27 years because of his work toward racial equality.

     When the rugby captain who is played by Matt Damon arrives at Mandela’s prison cell, he takes that time to think about the incredible sacrifice Mandela made in his pursuit of his wildest dream which was to help his country be free of racial segregation.  This rugby captain imagines Mandela in the prison cell with him as well as outside the cell doing hard labor.

     Let’s watch this clip.  (Show movie clip.)

     Any dream with pursuing will come with sacrifice on our part.  It won’t be easy.  There are going to be times that we’ll want to quit.

     I love the story of the high school basketball coach who was attempting to motivate his players to persevere through a difficult season.

     Halfway through the season, he stood before his team and said, "Did Michael Jordan ever quit?"  The team said, "No!"  The coach yelled, "What about the Wright Brothers?  Did they ever give up?"  "No!" the team responded.

     "Did Joe Montana ever quit?"  Again the team yelled, "No!"

     And then the wise coach asked, "Did Elmer McAllister ever quit?"

     There was a long silence.  Finally one of the players was brave enough to ask, "Who's Elmer McAllister.  We never heard of him."

     And the coach shouted, "Of course you never heard of him - he quit!"

     Following after our wildest dream can get discouraging at times.  Like the Israelites, we may feel like we’re in the wilderness wondering why we even left our old way of life in the first place.

     But let’s look carefully at this story of the Israelites in the wilderness.  Notice that the Lord responds by providing them with meat and bread.  Even though they are in the middle of nowhere, God still provides for them.  And it’s because of God’s grace, that they are able to continue their journey in the wilderness and finally arrive to the Promised Land.

     To pursue our wildest dreams, we need to remember that even when we are in the wilderness, God will provide.  God offers us grace along the way.  It’s God’s grace that keeps us going when we are ready to cash everything in. And notice that God gives Moses a plan to help the people have enough bread to eat on a daily basis.  The point here is that to go after our wildest dreams, we need to rely on God’s grace every day.

     One of the ways that I have found helpful to pursue a dream or a vision or a goal especially when the way seems difficult is to put together a plan of action.

     Putting together a plan takes a lot of time and thought.  It takes effort and work, but it will be worth it.  A good plan of action will help us think through some key areas in reaching our dream. 

     Here are those key areas.

     In a sentence or two, write out what the vision or the dream is.  By stating what the dream is, it helps us to be clear about what God is calling us to do. 

     The second area of a plan of action is when we think about the resources that God has given us to use to reach the dream.  Moses had some important resources if you think about it.  He had God who promised to be with him.  He had his brother, Aaron who would be his spokesperson since he was slow of speech.  He had a staff which was what God used to perform miraculous signs.

     God has given us the resources we need to pursue the dream that God has given us.  We just need to think about what those resources are and how we can find them.

     The next area in the plan of action is to brainstorm how all of this can be accomplished.  Remember, what the title of this sermon series is.  “In Your Wildest Dreams.”  

     Scott Peck, who has written several books on the Christian faith claims that he spends a couple of hours every day in thought and prayer where he can’t be interrupted.  Wow!  He says that it’s amazing what will come to your mind, if you just spend some time thinking and praying.

     I like to use my running time for thinking and prayer and it’s amazing how many ideas come to me during those workouts.  Last spring, I was struggling with how to approach a particular situation that our church was facing, and it was during one of my workouts that God gave me an idea that ended up being really helpful.  I don’t think I would have thought of that on my own.

     After those first three things; writing out what the dream is, listing all the resources that are available, and brainstorming how the dream can be accomplished, the next part of a plan of action is to list the specific things that need to get done either by yourself or by others.  This is the nitty-gritty part of going after our wildest dreams.

     Not all of us are detail persons, but without details, dreams can quickly lose their steam.  By listing the specific things that need to get done, we are honoring God by saying, this is way too important to leave to chance.  I need to own my responsibility for the dream that God has placed on my heart.

     And last but not least.  After we make a list of the things that need to get done, we need someone or maybe a team of people to help keep us on the right track.  Maybe there are some things that we can do to make sure that we are following through with the plan as well.

     Moses didn’t have a blackberry or an I-Pad but he did have Aaron and his family to help keep him on track.  We need each other to go after those big dreams.  We need each other for encouragement and support.  Moses needed others and so do we. 

     So those are the key areas of a plan of action.  And after we have a plan of action in place, then we begin the exciting, and often times challenging work of pursuing the dream that God has placed on our hearts.

     The story is told of Rafael Solano who in 1942 was physically exhausted and defeated.  As he sat on a boulder in the dry river bed, he announced to his companions.  “I’m through.  There’s no use going on any longer.  See this pebble.  It makes 999,999 I’ve picked up without finding one diamond.  One more pebble makes a million, but what’s the use?  I quit!”

     The exploration crew had spent months prospecting for diamonds in a Venezuelan watercourse.  Their efforts focused on finding signs of valuable diamonds.  Mentally, physically, and emotionally they were exhausted.  Their clothes were tattered and their spirits weak.

     “Pick up one more and make it a million,” one man said.  Solano consented and pulled forth a stone the size of a hen’s egg.  It was different than the others, and the crew soon realized they had discovered a diamond.  It is reported that Harry Winston, a New York jewel dealer, paid Rafael Solano $200,000 for that millionth pebble.  The stone was named the Liberator and to date is the largest and purest diamond ever found.

     Several years ago, staff members and people from the congregation I was serving attended a church growth seminar in Indiana.  One of my staff members was going through a time of feeling burned out in ministry.  He was feeling pretty low and discouraged.  I was concerned that he might be getting close to calling it quits.  But he was hoping that this seminar would be a way for him to be rejuvenated in the ministry. 

     When the staff and members of the church arrived at the seminar, I asked this staff member how his trip went.  And he said, “You won’t believe what happened to me.  Before I left from home, I stopped at a Christian bookstore to buy a motivational tape to listen to during the long trip hoping that it would cheer me up.  I got in my car and about fifteen minutes into the trip, I put in the tape but it didn’t play anything.  So I flipped over the cassette to try the other side, but it still didn’t play.  That’s when I realized that I had bought a bad tape.  It was blank on both sides.”

     Now friends, I know that it wasn’t appropriate for me to laugh in that moment, but I just couldn’t help myself.  I said, “Roy, you mean to tell me that you bought a motivational tape that ended up being blank?”  And I said, “Now that’s the definition of having a bad day!”

     Well, the good news was that he couldn’t help but laugh too.  And the truth is, the two of us laughing at that crazy story was more therapeutic for him than what any motivational tape could have ever provided.  And thanks to the seminar we attended together his faith was renewed and he came back with new ideas for our church that ended up helping us reach more people for Jesus Christ.

     As we conclude our focus on the life of Moses, I want to give us an opportunity to offer to God our wildest dreams.  In your bulletin this morning, you hopefully received this picture of a burning bush.  For the next minute or two, I invite you to write down the dream that God is calling you to pursue.  Don’t worry about how crazy that dream might sound, whatever God is calling you to pursue, write that dream down on that space.

     When it seems like everyone has had enough time, I’ll lead us in a prayer of blessing over these dreams.  Let’s take this time and write down our dreams.

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