What's Your Dream?

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Jan 8, 2017 - A God-given dream is a bothersome thing. It won't leave you alone. It keeps bobbing up to the surface of y
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What’s Your Dream?

What’s Your Dream?

Brandon: I readjusted this layout to better fit the formatting needed when I print. If you will just keep all your text within the blue margin lines on this page, I shouldn’t have any more issues ☺. Thanks! Dr. Brandon Park | January 8, 2017 Every one of us was created by God to have a dream, a destiny, and a reason for living. When God created you, He needed something done on earth that nobody else could do, so He designed you to do it better than anyone else. Like a spiritual DNA, your purpose in life and your reason for living are wrapped up tightly in the dreams and desires that God has put in your heart. Dreams are the key to finding _____________________ in life. Without a dream, a person will be frustrated in the present and will miss out on their future. It’s been said, “No individual has the right to come into the world and go out of it without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it.” Nehemiah was a man who changed the world for his generation. He became radically disturbed and decided to do something about it. BACKGROUND TO BOOK OF NEHEMIAH: God had a dream for His people Israel. He had provided them with the Promised Land. They had 80 prosperous years under King David and Solomon’s leadership. Then the kingdom became divided under Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. NEHEMIAH BACKGROUND: God had a dream for his beloved people, Israel. He had provided a land for them and turned over heaven and earth to see his dream become a reality. But after a great stint of about 80 prosperous years under David’s and Solomon’s leadership, the kingdom divided under the egotistical rule of Solomon’s only son, Rehoboam. After that division, God’s people spiraled out of control. They drifted further away from God. God sent 17 prophets to get their attention, but they ignored Him. Israel, the Northern Tribe, was destroyed first in 722 BC by the Assyrians. You would think that would result in a wakeup call for the Southern Kingdom (Judah), but it did not. In 586 BC, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, demolished the temple, burned their city walls, and those who survived the attack were forced to walk 900 miles and live in captivity in Babylon. But just as Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied, at the end of 70 years, the Persians (led by Cyrus) would conquer the Babylonians and they would be set free to return to their hometown. Although 2 million Israelites lived in Babylon, only 50,000 took Cyrus’ decree to make the journey back. They were able to rebuild the Temple and restore worship, but the city walls were still in ruins. WHY WERE WALLS SO IMPORTANT IN ANCIENT TIMES? Ancient cities prized themselves in their walls. Their national identity was contained within those walls. They were also able to protect themselves from outside invasions. The larger and stronger the walls, the safer the city stood. Walls around a city meant everything from protection to peace of mind. Nehemiah 1:3, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” When God gives us a dream, it usually follows a fairly predictable sequence of events. We see each aspect of this within Nehemiah’s life.

1. God-inspired dreams begin as a ___________________.

Nehemiah 1:4, “So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” • “When I heard these words…” He was actively listening. He was genuinely concerned. Maybe the reason you haven’t been disturbed about something is because you haven’t taken the time to actually listen to the world around you. • “I sat down…” Are you willing to pause your “busy” life and allow the Lord to disturb you? • “And wept, and mourned…fasted and prayed…” When’s the last time that you wept over someone else’s condition? Bill Hybels said, “Still today, what wrecks the heart of someone who loves God is often the very thing God wants to use to fire them up to do something that, under normal circumstances, they would never attempt to do.”



When God births a dream in our heart, it doesn’t usually begin as a dream; it usually begins as a disturbance. It is a “holy discontent” – a disruption in your heart that sets you on a new trajectory. How do you discover your dream? Pray every day for the next 30 days, “God, __________ my heart for what breaks __________.” How do I know which dreams in my heart are from God? 1. It is ______________ than you. “Is it too big for me to fulfill without God’s help?” 2. You can’t let it ________. A God-given dream is a bothersome thing. It won’t leave you alone. It keeps bobbing up to the surface of your heart… like a pebble in your shoe. 3. You would be willing to give ___________________ for it. You also know it’s a God-given dream if you are willing to devote every ounce of energy and every minute of your day to it. 4. It will last _________________. The problem with most people is that they pursue dreams built on things that will eventually fade away. 5. It meets a ____________ nobody else has met. The Bible says that only two things in the entire world will last forever – His Word and people. Those two things must be the foundation of our dreams. 6. It brings _____________ to God. Life is too precious to fritter away by building on a crumbling foundation.

2. God-inspired dreams drive us towards greater ______________.

Your dream should be so big that it takes your breath away, makes you temporarily weak in the knees, and makes you cry out to God for help and guidance. Nehemiah’s burden drove him to pray (second half of Nehemiah 1). He prayed a dangerous prayer: “God, use me.” He didn’t pray for God to send someone else to do it. WHERE WAS NEHEMIAH AT THIS TIME? He was in Susa (the winter retreat palace for the Persian Kings). He was living the most comfortable life one could live at that time! Let’s be honest. We live pretty comfortable lives. We live in our own spiritual “Susa.” Living a _________________ life may be one of the greatest traps of the enemy. Are the decisions you are currently making ones that drive comfort or challenge? Are you building your personal Susa? Once Nehemiah was disturbed in his spirit, it drove him to his knees in dependence upon God. Dependence is simply clinging to the _____________ and ________________ of God. Nehemiah recognized this reality early and often. He was a man who clung to the Lord. He was desperate. Maybe the problem in your prayer life (or lack thereof) is that you’re not desperate enough for the Lord. We need to analyze our prayer life. Do our prayers make God bored? There are two types of Christians: Are you a prayer ____________ or a prayer ______________? If your dream fails to force you to your knees in dependent prayer, then it’s probably just a good idea, not a God-idea. It probably came from a planning session, not a providential season. READ Nehemiah 1:4-11. Notice Nehemiah’s attitude towards God. What was his posture? Does a prayer like this resemble your prayer life? A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

3. God-inspired dreams will become more progressively ________.

Now, Nehemiah started to receive God’s dream with clarity. He became consumed with being the one to go and rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. (Read Nehemiah 2:4-5.) He was clear. Concise. Confident. He knew exactly what God wanted him to do. How do you go about getting clarity and cultivating your dream? Every person’s dream is different, but all dreams grow in the same “soil.” The four main nutrients in that soil are: 1. THE SOIL OF ______________ – Dream with God in prayer. 2. THE SOIL OF ______________ – Dreams grow in an environment of praise and gratitude. 3. THE SOIL OF ___________ ____________: Dreams are transformed and renewed by God’s Word daily. 4. THE SOIL OF ___________________: Dreams grow in the presence of fellow “dreamers.”



1

What’s Your Dream?

What’s Your Dream?

Brandon: I readjusted this layout to better fit the formatting needed when I print. If you will just keep all your text within the blue margin lines on this page, I shouldn’t have any more issues ☺. Thanks! Dr. Brandon Park | January 8, 2017 Every one of us was created by God to have a dream, a destiny, and a reason for living. When God created you, He needed something done on earth that nobody else could do, so He designed you to do it better than anyone else. Like a spiritual DNA, your purpose in life and your reason for living are wrapped up tightly in the dreams and desires that God has put in your heart. fulfillment Dreams are the key to finding _____________________ in life. Without a dream, a person will be frustrated in the present and will miss out on their future. It’s been said, “No individual has the right to come into the world and go out of it without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it.” Nehemiah was a man who changed the world for his generation. He became radically disturbed and decided to do something about it. BACKGROUND TO BOOK OF NEHEMIAH: God had a dream for His people Israel. He had provided them with the Promised Land. They had 80 prosperous years under King David and Solomon’s leadership. Then the kingdom became divided under Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. NEHEMIAH BACKGROUND: God had a dream for his beloved people, Israel. He had provided a land for them and turned over heaven and earth to see his dream become a reality. But after a great stint of about 80 prosperous years under David’s and Solomon’s leadership, the kingdom divided under the egotistical rule of Solomon’s only son, Rehoboam. After that division, God’s people spiraled out of control. They drifted further away from God. God sent 17 prophets to get their attention, but they ignored Him. Israel, the Northern Tribe, was destroyed first in 722 BC by the Assyrians. You would think that would result in a wakeup call for the Southern Kingdom (Judah), but it did not. In 586 BC, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, demolished the temple, burned their city walls, and those who survived the attack were forced to walk 900 miles and live in captivity in Babylon. But just as Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied, at the end of 70 years, the Persians (led by Cyrus) would conquer the Babylonians and they would be set free to return to their hometown. Although 2 million Israelites lived in Babylon, only 50,000 took Cyrus’ decree to make the journey back. They were able to rebuild the Temple and restore worship, but the city walls were still in ruins. WHY WERE WALLS SO IMPORTANT IN ANCIENT TIMES? Ancient cities prized themselves in their walls. Their national identity was contained within those walls. They were also able to protect themselves from outside invasions. The larger and stronger the walls, the safer the city stood. Walls around a city meant everything from protection to peace of mind. Nehemiah 1:3, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” When God gives us a dream, it usually follows a fairly predictable sequence of events. We see each aspect of this within Nehemiah’s life.

1. God-inspired dreams begin as a ___________________. disturbance

Nehemiah 1:4, “So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” • “When I heard these words…” He was actively listening. He was genuinely concerned. Maybe the reason you haven’t been disturbed about something is because you haven’t taken the time to actually listen to the world around you. • “I sat down…” Are you willing to pause your “busy” life and allow the Lord to disturb you? • “And wept, and mourned…fasted and prayed…” When’s the last time that you wept over someone else’s condition? Bill Hybels said, “Still today, what wrecks the heart of someone who loves God is often the very thing God wants to use to fire them up to do something that, under normal circumstances, they would never attempt to do.”



When God births a dream in our heart, it doesn’t usually begin as a dream; it usually begins as a disturbance. It is a “holy discontent” – a disruption in your heart that sets you on a new trajectory. break How do you discover your dream? Pray every day for the next 30 days, “God, __________ my heart yours for what breaks __________.” How do I know which dreams in my heart are from God? bigger 1. It is ______________ than you. “Is it too big for me to fulfill without God’s help?” go 2. You can’t let it ________. A God-given dream is a bothersome thing. It won’t leave you alone. It keeps bobbing up to the surface of your heart… like a pebble in your shoe. 3. You would be willing to give ___________________ for it. You also know it’s a God-given everything dream if you are willing to devote every ounce of energy and every minute of your day to it. forever 4. It will last _________________. The problem with most people is that they pursue dreams built on things that will eventually fade away. 5. It meets a ____________ nobody else has met. The Bible says that only two things in the need entire world will last forever – His Word and people. Those two things must be the foundation of our dreams. glory 6. It brings _____________ to God. Life is too precious to fritter away by building on a crumbling foundation.

dependence 2. God-inspired dreams drive us towards greater ______________.

Your dream should be so big that it takes your breath away, makes you temporarily weak in the knees, and makes you cry out to God for help and guidance. Nehemiah’s burden drove him to pray (second half of Nehemiah 1). He prayed a dangerous prayer: “God, use me.” He didn’t pray for God to send someone else to do it. WHERE WAS NEHEMIAH AT THIS TIME? He was in Susa (the winter retreat palace for the Persian Kings). He was living the most comfortable life one could live at that time! Let’s be honest. We live pretty comfortable lives. We live in our own spiritual “Susa.” comfortable Living a _________________ life may be one of the greatest traps of the enemy. Are the decisions you are currently making ones that drive comfort or challenge? Are you building your personal Susa? Once Nehemiah was disturbed in his spirit, it drove him to his knees in dependence upon God. person promises Dependence is simply clinging to the _____________ and ________________ of God. Nehemiah recognized this reality early and often. He was a man who clung to the Lord. He was desperate. Maybe the problem in your prayer life (or lack thereof) is that you’re not desperate enough for the Lord. We need to analyze our prayer life. Do our prayers make God bored? There are two types of worrier warrior Christians: Are you a prayer ____________ or a prayer ______________? If your dream fails to force you to your knees in dependent prayer, then it’s probably just a good idea, not a God-idea. It probably came from a planning session, not a providential season. READ Nehemiah 1:4-11. Notice Nehemiah’s attitude towards God. What was his posture? Does a prayer like this resemble your prayer life? A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

3. God-inspired dreams will become more progressively ________. defined

Now, Nehemiah started to receive God’s dream with clarity. He became consumed with being the one to go and rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. (Read Nehemiah 2:4-5.) He was clear. Concise. Confident. He knew exactly what God wanted him to do. How do you go about getting clarity and cultivating your dream? Every person’s dream is different, but all dreams grow in the same “soil.” The four main nutrients in that soil are: PRAYER 1. THE SOIL OF ______________ – Dream with God in prayer. PRAISE 2. THE SOIL OF ______________ – Dreams grow in an environment of praise and gratitude. BIBLE STUDY 3. THE SOIL OF ___________ ____________: Dreams are transformed and renewed by God’s Word daily. NETWORKING 4. THE SOIL OF ___________________: Dreams grow in the presence of fellow “dreamers.”