The Life of Your Dreams

 

Dream

 

 

January 6, 2008

 

Worship through Song

 

Reading

Psalm 46 (MSG)

 

Offering

 

Video:

Unmet Expectations

 

 

Bless the Broken Road

Rascal Flatts

 

Message:

 Pastor Clare Loughrige

 

Church Family News

 

Any musical selections and/or media elements used in our services are for illustrative purposes only and are not an endorsement of any artist, musical group, film or television program.

 

The Life of your Dreams: Week 2 Dream

 

 

It’s 2008 and believe it or not God has great dreams and plans for you this year!  How do you tap into those dreams? How do you know if you’re a God-sized dreamer or just one of those wishful thinkers?  Are you a dream-catcher or a dream-avoidant? The Bible is full of dreamers who made their way to their dream. People like Jacob with his "Stairway to Heaven", the dream of real estate and promise of blessing on his family.  

 

What keeps people from living the life of their dreams? There really are several roadblocks that can keep us from our dreams. Here are just 3 that we will be looking at in this series:

 

Roadblock 1:  _______________ to Dream. 

What makes you smile? What gets your blood pressure up?  What makes you cry? Who or what do you care about? Allow your imagination to be a holy playground for you and God to create, discover or fix what’s right or wrong with the world. You can uncover your God Dream!

 

Roadblock 2: _______________ Alone. 

Develop regular prayer...a prayer that is as easy as breathing...a breath prayer like “Jesus lead me in my dreams”. Inviting God to lead the dreams gives confidence to crazy ideas as they come! Then invite another person into your dream.  Not a nay-sayer but a cheerleader or a coach that will keep the dream alive.

 

Roadblock 3: ________________ the Dream.  

Unconfessed or undealt with fear can keep you paralyzed.  However, when fears are given to God and a safe friend, fear not only loses its power but that fear can give you the electricity to succeed!  Naming a fear can open a systematic strategy to living the dream.

 

Jacob’s Dream

 

Genesis 28:11-15 (NIV) When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." 

 

 

Jacob’s Stairway to Heaven 

 

1. Mama Rebekah

2. Brother Esau

3. Uncle Laban

4. Booby-prize bride Leah

5. ANOTHER wife Rachael

6. WWF Angel

7. Jacob himself

 

 

 

Genesis 32:24-31  (TNIV) So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.  Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with human beings and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.

 

 

A road block or a reroute to your dream?

 

A stumbling block or stairway to your dream?

 

DON’T LET YOUR DREAM GO!!

 

Many times the biggest roadblock you have is you!  Someone once said,

“I have met the enemy and the enemy is me.”

 

Life Group Conversations

  1.  Are you a God-sized dreamer or just one of those wishful    

            thinkers?  

 

  1. Are you a dream-catcher or a dream-avoidant?

 

  1. Who is on your “stairway to heaven”?

 

  1. Who’s your mama, brother, Laban, Rachael, Leah?  Who are you and who is your God?

 

  1. Which is your biggest roadblock?

Failing to Dream.

Dreaming Alone.

Fearing the Dream.

 

 

Spiritual Exercise:

Use a dream journal for the above questions.

Name your dream, the fear you feel about the dream and who you can bring into the dream.

 

Breath Prayer: Jesus lead me in my dreams

 

Read:

Genesis 27-33 (The perils of Jacob)

Dream Releasers by Wayne Cordeiro

 

Today’s message is available in the bookstore on CD or DVD. Streaming audio and videos of today’s message are also available on our website:  ccmonline.org.

 

Answers:

a. Failing   b. Dreaming   c.  Fearing  

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2007 Clare Loughrige