Pray and Never Give Up – 4

 Pray and Never Give Up – 4

Subject: Dreaming for a Life Time

By Rick Welborne

Joshua 6:1-5 (NKJV)
¹  Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in.
²  And the LORD said to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.
³  You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days.
⁴  And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
⁵  It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him." 

Psalm 126:1-6 (NKJV)
¹  When the LORD brought back the captivity of Zion, We were like those who dream.
²  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."
³  The LORD has done great things for us, And we are glad.
⁴  Bring back our captivity, O LORD, As the streams in the South.
⁵  Those who sow in tears Shall reap in joy.
⁶  He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him. 

--Tonight we continue the series…Pray and Never Give Up! Do we have a lot of walls in our lives? Of course, 

But God is our wall smasher. 

--People who dream for God especially big dreams make a settled determination to pray and never give up. Are we ever tempted to quit? Of course, but dreamer keep pushing forward. 

--Is it possible to keep dreaming for a lifetime? In other words, can we keep dreaming large dreams for Jesus as we age and see them fulfilled before us as we trust God?

1. As we pray and never give up, let us choose to be like those who dream.

Psalm 126:1-3 (NKJV)
¹  When the LORD brought back the captivity of Zion, We were like those who dream.
²  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."
³  The LORD has done great things for us, And we are glad. 

--We have all met people who have chosen, for whatever reason, to stop dreaming and have become complacent to live “back there” somewhere.

--Neuroimaging has shown that as we age, the center of cognitive gravity tends to shift from the imaginative right brain to the logical left brain. And this neurological tendency presents a grave spiritual danger. 

--At some point, most of us stop living out of imagination and start living out of memory. Instead of creating the future, we start repeating the past. Instead of living by faith, we live by logic. We stop going after our dreams, 

--Look at your neighbor and repeat this: It doesn’t have to be that way. We have a choice in the matter. We can choose to keep praying the walls will fall or be trapped behind them…our choice!

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NKJV)
¹⁹  I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
²⁰  that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

--Harriet Doerr lived during a time when women did not go to college…lack of money and then, raising children kept her from her dreams…temporarily. She dreamed of writing books. At 74 she did!

Doerr: One of the best things about aging is being able to watch imagination overtake memory!

--Harriet sounded so much like Caleb in the Old Testament…even at 85 he was not willing to become complacent and he was determined to keep dreaming God sized dreams.

 Joshua 14:10-12 (NKJV)
¹⁰  And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the LORD spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old.
¹¹  As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.
¹²  Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the LORD said."

--I am so glad that I pastor a multi-generation church but I am so thankful that I pastor a bunch of seniors who have made the decision that it is not all about them and their past. 

--You have blessed our youth, our children’s ministries, our music, our missions giving because you understand that God is not finished with you yet. Bible Quiz is a great example. 

--You can go all over Central Florida and find churches who are filled with senior adults who believe church is all about them…no youth, no children, no growth…just watching each other die off one at a time.

--God give me a bunch of Harriets and Calebs who are willing to keep circling the walls before them. Seniors who are willing to see a campus in Fruitland Park and one in the Villages.

--People who say to your pastor, who is only a senior by age but not by his heart, give us this mountain! We are still strong and can do something great for the Kingdom of God…walls are going to fall.

--I do not want to be a pastor who sets his ministry and calling on cruise control just because of my age…I want my latter years to be greater than the former…I want to pass off the baton to a hungry pastor and church!

Kristina Torbet (Missionary to India) – If your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near. If your dreams exceed your memories, you pioneer.

2. As we pray and never give up, it is possible to keep dreaming for a lifetime.

--Maybe you are asking “Who is right? Harriet Doerr or the neurologist?” The answer is both. As we age, either imagination overtakes memory or memory overtakes imagination. 

--Imagination is the road less taken because it is the pathway of prayer. Prayer and imagination are directly proportional to each other.

--The more you pray the bigger your imagination becomes because the Holy Spirit super-sizes it with God sized dreams. Pray, Life Church, pray!

--The litmus test of spiritual maturity is whether your dreams are getting bigger or smaller. The older you get the more faith you should have!

--Because you have walked with God and have experienced more of His faithfulness, you trust Him for more …it is God’s faithfulness that increases our faith and enlarges our dreams. 

--Maybe you would say…Pastor, I am not dreaming for anything and truthfully I do not know what to dream for…then, get behind your pastor and let his dream be your dream. Follow God’s man in your life. His vision!

--When you do that you will realize that your pastor’s dreams are God’s dreams and they are biblical…reaching the world thru missions and reaching the world thru another campus. Our dreams are Jesus dreams:

Mark 16:14-15 (NKJV)
¹⁴  Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
¹⁵  And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

--If you can’t make yourself follow Pastor Rick’s dreams, then for the sake of the Kingdom of God, follow Jesus’ dreams. Have your stroll down memory lane but keep dreaming until the day you die. Age is irrelevant! 

3. As you pray and never give up, you can keep dreaming.

--What miracles have Jesus worked for you that were great enough to keep you praying for a lifetime…I am sure we have our list…especially if He saved us out of darkness into His wonderful light.

--If you keep praying, you’ll keep dreaming, and conversely, if you keep dreaming you will keep praying. Dreaming is a form of praying, and praying is a form of dreaming. 

--The more you pray the bigger your dreams will become. And the bigger your dreams become the more you will have to pray. In that process of dreaming big dreams causes the sphere of God’s glory to be expanded.

--The day of our death is not the date etched on our tombstone. The day we stop dreaming is the day we start dying. When logic overtakes imagination we rob God of glory that is due to Him.

--The death of a dream is subtle form of idolatry. We lose faith in the God Who gave us a big dream and settle for a small dream that we can accomplish without His help. 

--We go after dreams that do not require divine intervention. We go after dreams that do not require prayer. We let god take the place of God. Our left brain of logic overtakes our God Who can do anything.

Ephesians 3:20-21 (NKJV)
²⁰  Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
²¹  to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

--Nothing honors God more than a big dream that is way beyond our ability to accomplish. Why? There is no way we can take credit for it. Big dreams keep us on our knees. 

--Big dreams are not just methods whereby God does great things for us, but it is also a means whereby He does great things in us. Is it possible to keep dreaming for a lifetime? Yes…keep praying big dreams!