Sunday Sermon THE COURAGE TO DREAM Introduction Minsanposaakingpagpuntasakomunidad, may kausapakongmgabata at tinanongkosilaanoangkanilangmgapangarap. Hindi silaagadnakasagot at pagkatapos ay nagsabiangisana gusto niyangmagingsirena. Usopokasiyungmgafantaseryenoongmgataongyun. Taposyungisasabi pa niya gusto niyalangmagingbato, yungibawalangmasabi. Nakakalungkotponamarinigyun.We become what we expect to be. If we expect nothing from ourselves, surely, we’ll get nothing from ourselves. Kung walakanginaabot, hindikanamanaabot. A. Some people are dreamless • Sa parable of the talents (Luke 19), yunglalakinabinigyanngisang talent, tinagolangniyayungbinigaysakanya at hindiginamit. Pagbaliknghari at tinatanongano’ngnangyarisabinigaynya, angsabiniya: Man: “Sir, here is your money. I have kept it hidden in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you. You are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in. You harvest what you did not plant.” He presented him with the same amount, nothing more, nothing less. King: ‘Take his money away from him. Give it to the one who has ten times as much…I tell you that everyone who has will be given more. But here is what will happen to anyone who has nothing. Even what he has will be taken away from him.” Like this man, we don’t actually start with nothing, God gave us something. Some are given 10, some are given 5, some are given 1 but nobody starts with nothing. We are given potential. God gifted us uniquely, He has provided for us. We all have something to work with, to grow from and to improve on. However, if we do not use what we have, if we do not have a dream to grow that something that we have, if we are too comfortable with what we have to endure with for everyday; we truly will end up with nothing. • Reasons for being dreamless o Fear Katuladnunglalaki, maaaringmeronkangtakot, maaaringnatatakotkangmangarapkasibakamagkamalikalang, baka ma-disappoint kalang o hindinamankasimakatotohanan: • Gipit kayo sapera, mangangarapka pa bang makataposng college? • Anghirapmaghanapngtrabaho, mangangarapka pa bang above minimum? • Walakanamangmaipagmamalaki, mangangarapka pa ba for God’s best? If you don’t have any vision for yourself, if you do not have a dream, you will end up like that man, everything will be taken away from you, even the little that you have. o Resignation Many of us, we’re resigned to saying Lord, bastayung will moangmaganap. But do you actually know what God’s will is for your life? We are not God’s puppets, we are given wisdom and ability, we are capable of knowing and pursuing our dreams but we cannot pursue something we don’t know. • Importance of knowing your dreams In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus said: “Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks will receive. He who searches will find. The door will be opened to the one who knocks. How can you ask if you don’t know what to ask for? How can you search and not know what you’re looking for? What door should you knock on? We don’t wait for life to happen to us, we happen to life. We are supposed to be guided by God’s willand it takes courage to seek that. The battle starts in our mind. The enemy will feed us with lies and discouragement just so the seed of our destiny won’t get to the soil of our minds. Ni hinditayomakapangarapkasisaisipnatinangdaminaagadkumokontra, sautaknatinmeronlagingnagsasabi, hindirin, ay hindi. There’s fear even just in imagining. If we don’t overcome that fear, we won’t know what God’s will really is. If we don’t probe onto an inclination that something better is out there, that God’s best is out there, we will become what the enemy says we are, we’ll be nothing. Romans 8:15 says that by the Spirit we have received, we have become God’s children and thus we should not live like slaves who’s always afraid but claim our sonship to the Most High and Almighty God, He is our father. B. Some people are small dreamers Ano’ngpangarapmo? Is that a question you can readily answer? If it’s quite hard to answer, then it’s high time to really think about it, commune with God, pray to be enlightened. Probably some of us have ready answers: • Gusto kongmakataposngpag-aaral • Gusto kong ma-maintain yungaking 140/100 BP • Gusto ko ma-endure yungaking difficult naasawa These dreams are definitely okay but notice, if we compare these dreams with who will help us realize them, that’s God, they don’t measure up. Naturally, when we ask for a favor, we ask according to what we perceive the ability of the person we’re asking is. Hindi kanamanmangungutangsapulubi, o magpapaturong algebra sa Grade 2 o magpapagamotsa chef, di ba? Imagine the scenario: You have the almightly, all powerful God in front of you, creator of heaven and earth, owner of the universe. He asks you, what can I do for you and you say: gusto ko pong makataposngpag-aaral. That would be like asking Henry Sy, owner of the Philippines, natuwasiyasaiyotapostinanongkaano’ngpwedekonggawin for you? Sagotmopwede pong makahingikangisang particle ngalikaboksaloobng SM? Taposmedyonahihiyahiyaka pa, medyonatatakotka pa bakahindikapagbigyan. He might even be insulted kasiganunlangpalaangtinginmongkakayananniya. God is far richer, wiser, kinder than any rich, wise, kind man on this planet so we shouldn’t go around asking these small dreams. If you are tempted to dream small, remember John 10:10, Jesus said: I have come to give you life and life abundantly. Abundant means excessive, exceeding, greater, overflowing. He has made you worthy of such kind of life. In 2 Kings 4, may babaeponakamamataylangngasawa. Unfortunately, pinamanahansiyangutang at dahilwalasiyangmapambayad, kukuninnalangnungpinagkakautangannilayung 2 anakniya at gagawingalipin, dahildito, nanghingisiyangtulongkay Elisha. Tinanongsiyaano bang meronsakanyangbahay, sabiniyaisang jar of oil. Elisha said: “Go and get empty jars from all your neighbors. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go into your house and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and set the full ones aside.” So she left Elisha and shut the door behind her and her sons. As they brought the jars to her, she poured out the oil. When the jars were all full, she said to her son, “Bring me another jar.” But he said, “There are no more jars.” Then the oil stopped flowing. Notice here that the oil only stopped flowing when there were no more jars, it would have went on and on if they had borrowed more jars. After all, they were tapping onto the infinite power of God. How big is the jar you are setting before God? Again, we become what we expect to be. If it’s 1.5L big, that’s negligible, too small. If it were the size of this building, good for you! God can handle that, actually, that would still be nothing compared to what God is capable of doing. If you think about it, our minds cannot actually grasp how powerful our God is. So we should dream big dreams, we have a big God! C. Some people are big dreamers The Story of Jabez - He has a very short account in the Bible but clearly, it was exhibited how a big dreamer he is. In 1 Chronicles 4:10, he cried out to God: “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from the evil one.” And it said there, simply, God granted his request. He had a big dream and God helped him realize it. It was interesting how in this short passage, it was mentioned that his name meant sorrow maker, something really negative. Imagine having that name, it wouldn’t be very encouraging would it? Kunwaripinangalanankangpigsakasinoongpinagbubuntiskanagkaroonngmgapigsaangnanay mo. I personally cannot imagine living with that name, it would have been really hard. But notice also how it was highlighted that he was an honorable man, more respectable than his brothers. Despite being branded the way he was, he went beyond himself, distinguished himself by being honorable and had for himself a great dream. And God honored that. I remember when I was still in my previous job, I was underpaid and got transferred to a department that wasn’t really my forte. Being in that organization was like a dream come true for me, I got hired there 8 months after dropping out of med school and it wasn’t a bed of roses but I had peace and was happy because I knew that it was where I was supposed to be, I was fulfilling God’s will. However, when I was about three years there, I started to have a disturbance within me, a desire to move to another organization started to surface but I said to myself ever since that I would only leave if it is God’s will. One day while I was communing with God, He impressed upon me a question: what is your dream job? E di syempreakonamanitonganglakilaking faith nanagsabi, naku Lord imposible, wag nanatingpag-usapan. Parangganun no, isipin pa lang o iverbalize pa langnatatakotnaako e, kasi may lumalabanagadsaisipkonahindipwedengmangyari and there is no such thing. But God is good and He was able to encourage me to write it down and so I wrote this impossible looking job set-up. Sabiko Lord, gusto kongtrabaho ay sa community development pa rin, pero gusto komataasangsahod, mababapokasiangsahod usually samga NGO’s, may matataas din poperohindimonahawakangorasmo, pero gusto kokasikahitmataasangsahod, gusto ko flexible angoraskoetc etc. Yun pa lang 3 yun, parasa akin nun, imposiblengmagsamasama. But God is faithful, in one of my meetings with another foundation, I was offered a job, the job. I had a great boss, had kasikakaresignnyalang and a great project.. • Focusing on God If I focused on my own ability, on my own wisdom, my own strength, I would not have dreamt that dream, I would not have acted accordingly. Ang last na department kopokasi ay sa marketing, may hinahawakanpoakong accounts, mga organizations or corporations nanagbibigayngpondo for us to run programs. I thought to myself, all these organizations and corporations are potentially my next employer, so I always have to give it my best, to work hard. That was my part in the dream that God started in me but all the rest was God’s doing. It was not by me, that I was transferred to the Marketing Department, not by me that I was assigned that organization, not by me that the person I was meeting was bold enough to pirate me, not by me that their organization was set up that way. All I had to do was dream and honor God in my capacity, indeed, He who promised is faithful. We may be weak but as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:10, he said “I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength). He’s like saying, yes, I am imperfect, the people around me are imperfect, the situation I am in is imperfect but so what? I am far more than okay for even when I am limited, God’s strength cannot be limited in me. This is harder said than done but it can be done. In Hebrews 12, it is said there that in running the race marked out for us, we should fix our eyes on Jesus, He is the author and perfecter of faith. We should not look at ourselves because if we do, we are more likely to doubt, to fail, to make mistakes or to not start at all. For us to have big dreams and for us to pursue those dreams, we should focus on God, His love, His grace, His power, His wisdom and His strength. Let us saturate ourselves with His truth. D. We should be eternal dreamers Some might have thought of a really big dream: • I will graduate with honors • I will head my own company • I will be healthy and strong at seventy • I will have a truly happy satisfying family life • I will meet God’s best for me, Christian, tall, dark, and handsome, at mayaman This is very good. However, these dreams are still limited. In James 4:2-3, sabi: “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yetyou do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures or with wrong selfish motives.” What starts out as a neutral grand dream could have you end up greedy, inconsiderate and unfeeling. That’s why, ngayon pa lang, our dreams should not just be big, but we should be conscious of the eternal impact it would have. We should not just be big dreamers but eternal dreamers. We should deliberately ask God to direct us or to show us the eternal impact of our dream because this would filter out big dreams borne out of pride, borne out of anger, borne out of insecurity. • Magiging top executive akokasisaisangmalakingkompanyamalakingpangarapperosalikodpala nun ay pride, paramaipakitakosalahatnamagalingako • Magigingmaayosangpamilyakoparamaipakitakosamgamagulangnapinabayaanakona kaya kokahitwalasila • Magigingmayamanakoparawalangmakakaapisa akin God won’t hear these kinds of dreams because they are coming from wrong motives. He loves you enough to allow us to destroy our lives like that. I remember when I just dropped out of med school, I said to myself, I had a dream to study abroad, and not just any other school but in Harvard University and I thought to myself I can do it, there’s nothing that I cannot do with God’s help and favor. Angganda but thank God, He asked me, why? I stopped and didn’t really know what to tell Him, I knew that I only wanted that for personal gains. Out of med school, I felt I lost everything I worked so hard for. I felt I had to prove to the world that I am not nothing, I wanted to feed my pride and insecurity. When we dream big dreams, we have to be ready to answer why? That question would lead us to our dream’s eternal impact or to the reality of our motivations. You must know if your dreams have eternal impact or not. If it is selfish, ask God to purify your heart. If it will impact eternity like God wants you to do, you are aligned with God’s will, you are not hindered by sin or disobedience, then by all means, you have every right to ask God to bless it and He surely will. Conclusion Take time to discover your dream, it will inspire you, excite you, focus you and guide your decisions. Having big eternal dreams will make you bold and more importantly, it will draw you closer to God, because you cannot but focus on God’s power, He alone can make that dream come true.At the end of the day, you will be surprised because no matter how big your dream is, God has an even bigger, brighter, bolder dream for you. In John 4, we can read about a Samaritan woman, she walks about 2 miles under the heat of the noon sun everyday to get water from a well. One day, Jesus asked her for a drink and talked to her about the living water by which she won’t be thirsty again. She declared: “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Her dream? She just wanted to have an easier daily life, she wanted to avoid long walks of shame, big enough for her because she even doubts its possibility. What did God give her? In verse 39: And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. One, she had eternal salvation but more than that, she caused many and many more people to be saved. She was the subject of ridicule and she just wanted to avoid that but God has a bigger dream for her, she became a person of influence, her words had power, she drew people to God and gain their own personal salvation. What higher achievement could there be for a person?
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 05:37:51 +0000
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