Sunday, 4th February 2018
Rev Daniel Poon
Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
God gave us dreams, and in 2018, Bread of Life Christian Church in South Auckland will be dreaming with God, to partnership with Him, who makes our dreams come true.
Rev Daniel shared with us that there are many things stop us to dream. First of all is our mindset. Mindset stops us to dream, we limit ourselves with our thoughts, we believe in what we want to believe but we don’t know God is able to do immeasurable things for us.
Environment also stops us to dream, everything around us says it’s impossible for us to dream and when we afraid that we are wasting our time, we stop moving forward. What does it mean by dreaming? Dreaming is to move forward, to do something we don’t used to do.
The third reason that stops us to dream is our experience, because it reminds us our failures in the past experiences. But experience is in the past, whereas our God is in the past, present and future, we should set our experience aside and don’t let it stop us to dream.
Motivational speaker Sean Stephenson once said “You make a new life by making new choices.” Our life should be full of hope and we must start to dream. So where and how do we start?
1. Dreams Start from Ourselves
Helen Keller said, “What I’m looking for not out there, it is in me.”
God puts us in this world to be salt and light, to achieve excellence, but we need to be wise. Rev Daniel reminded us not to always focus on our weaknesses, thinking what we don’t have, but to invest our time and strength in our strength, where we have advantages of. We should focus on developing our strengths to make up for our weaknesses.
Even though Helen Keller was blind, she didn’t focus on the fact that she couldn’t see, but instead she used her strength in touch and other senses to develop a better system for the blind. She didn’t believe that she’s disable, in God all is able.
We must believe that we are created for a purpose, we are not the second but the most beloved children of the Heavenly Father.
2. Dreams start from Present Environment
Dreams never start from past, they always start from now. When can dream because we see the place God put us in right now has a potential. We can dream when we start to recognize that the place God put us is our own land. Look at the environment around us, what can we dream about? Ask God why He put us where we are right now? People like to daydream, daydream is not like dreaming with God, because daydream is always about places outside of where we are. We might be affected by media or the world, which tells us other places are better, but we should start to seek what God’s purpose for us in this land.
Dream starts with our environment, we must love the place where God puts us. God puts our church in South Auckland because this is our own land, and we should find our dreams here, to grow, to discover, and influence this land!
3. Dreams are Related to our Past
Nobody likes to remember our past failures, we complain about our past lives because there might be many bad experiences before. We want to forget the failed past as we think the past is poisonous but a lot of time our dreams are related to our past.
Esther 4:14b, “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
God put Esther in the royal position, not for her to enjoy a queen’s life but to use her position to save her people. In this story, God reminded us, good or bad things happened to us in the past all have important meaning for our lives, we must treasure and think about why God let these things happen. Our dreams should be related to our past, because without the past, we cannot be who we are right now, and we cannot dream like how we can dream now.
4. Dreams are Related to People Around us
Rev Daniel told us a story about Steven Jobs, the founder of Apple Inc. When he was 26 years old, he had a new idea to come against the biggest computer company, IBM. He had a dream and therefore he went to meet the CEO of Pepsi, John Sculley, and said, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”
We all know what happened next. Too often we are satisfied with what we are now, we let the world put us in a case, tell us who we are, and convince what our lives will be, but this is not the truth. God wants us to become more excellent, God wants us to create a culture around us, to make a difference, we are not followers, and we should not be settled in our current positions, but strive to seek God’s will always.
God give us dream and we can influence others to dream with us together. Rev Daniel reminded us to treasure the people God put around us. We need to find the right people. If people around us are are always complaining, talking about the past then we will be influenced by them. But if we find the right people to be with, those who dream big and dare to dream, our lives can also be changed.
5. Dreams are Always from God
Without God we can’t do anything, dreams are always from God. We should change ‘what is’ to ‘what if’, the present situations tell us things are impossible to change, and therefore we become afraid to dream. We must change our mindset. Abraham had a dream when he was 75 and his dream came true when he was 100 years old! He never gave up on his dream and he believed God will give him a son like how he dreamed.
Rev Daniel encouraged us to give our dreams to God, let God set us free, take away all our chains, and dream like God dream. Stop complain about the impossible, but step out of our comfort zone, to experience our God is the possible God!