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Hello Redemption Church! It is a cold day in Plano Tx. Thank you for braving the weather to worship with us. Hello everyone watching & listening online. Let’s receive the Word of God together.
Game Changer Title
We all want to win, but sometimes the game gets away from us. When you find yourself down in the 4th quarter, you need a game changer.
A game changer is a play that changes the momentum and ultimately the outcome of the game.
In the year 2019, I think we could use a game changer.
In the last 2 weeks we told you that…
Serving is a Game Changer
If you want a successful 2019, then call this game changing play.
Last Sunday we told you that Perseverance is a game changer.
Perseverance is a Game Changer
There are times when life hits you in the face, but you have to get back up and try again. Every successful person has learned perseverance.
Our example of a game changer today is Martin Luther King Jr
Martin Luther King Jr
Tomorrow is MLK day. It is a day to honor the service of Dr. King and we would like to honor his work here today.
MLK was a game changer, an American Christian minister and social activist who was the most visible spokesperson & leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Although our nation had ended a civil war and freed people of color from slavery, there was still a huge divide in our nation. In the middle of that divide Martin Luther King Jr stood up and changed everything.
King advanced civil rights through nonviolent tactics. He got this idea from Christ by the way.
Large groups of people are known to get violent very quickly. King gathered large groups of people and they did peaceful acts. Don’t gloss over this. He gathered large groups of men & women who felt abused & forgotten, people who had anger about the past & current conditions. It would be so easy for a group to turn into an angry mob, yet King encouraged peace, love, and change.
In 1955 King led a bus boycott December 5th 1955 following the arrest of Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on a bus. December 20th 1956 the Supreme Court declared segregated buses unconstitutional. King was a game changer. He brought change that was largely considered impossible. He made America a better place. He made the World a better place. He made all of us better people. Thank you Dr King.
In 1963 He helped organize the “March on Washington.” The National Mall was filled with more than 200,000 people who gathered to call an end to racism. It was at this march, standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, that King gave the speech everyone knows by name. It was the “I have a dream” speech. This speech changed the world.
It is a short 6 page speech.. I want to remember a part of it to you today.
“I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
King was a game changer. He changed the way people thought, the way people viewed others, and even the way they viewed themselves.
While there are many game changing plays we could call to your attention today, we are going to focus on this one. Dreams are a game changer.
Dreams are a game changer
What is a dream? It is a hopeful idea, an aspiration, an ambition.
- The thought to do something important, that is a dream.
- The hope that one day we will see peace in our world, that is a dream.
- The idea or ambition to better your life, that is a dream.
Dreams can change the world. Here are 3 principles for changing the world with a dream.
Dreams Create
Dreams are not just some swirly spiritual thing that is hard to grasp. Dreams create new reality.
When King spoke about the dream of black & white children playing together, those words did not just drift off and disappear in space. Those words, that dream created a new reality. It caused people to envision that reality and consider that it was possible and that it was beautiful.
King did something so powerful. He spoke to the dreams of others.
Speak to people’s dreams
You want to be powerful and influential? Learn to recognize the dreams of those around you and then speak to those dreams. Encourage the dreams of the people in your life.
I am sure everyone understands the power of this… yet I am sure you will also agree that there is not near enough of this in the world today.
I would love Redemption Church to be a place where dreams are encouraged. A place where people come in with a weak dream and then through the beauty of a faith filled community, life gets breathed into the dream and then we all see it fulfilled.
If you will learn the dreams of those around you, if you will encourage these dreams and help bring them to pass, you will then be an indispensable commodity. IN TOHER WORDS… Be an encourager.
God gives dreams
The dream that King gave was not just a political or social movement. This dream was not just a slight improvement on society or a way to ease the suffering of a demographic. This dream was more than King’s dream… it was God’s will.
Your dream, your desire, your idea… it could be from Heaven. As Jesus said “Father, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
The idea of justice, that is God’s will. The ambition to peacefully influence change in the world, that is God’s will. The dream that people would look past skin color and simply love each other, that is God’s will.
Do you realize how precious dreams are? Some dreams come from Heaven.
Dreams are a game changer
As we have said repeatedly in this series. The best game changing plays come straight from God’s Word.
Scripture talks about dreams in various ways.
It talks about your desires.
Psalm 37:4 (NIV2011) Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
It talks about your calling… that God has a calling on your life, a not yet seen reality.
Ephesians 4:1 (NIV2011) …I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
It talks about your hope.
Romans 8:24 (NIV2011) For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?
The word hope here means “an expectation of good.” It basically a hopeful dream…
Your salvation is a hopeful expectation… It is not completely fulfilled yet.
“Hope that is seen is no hope at all… who hopes for what they already have?” You see you hope & dream for the things you do not have. Before Christmas my kids dreamt of receiving certain gifts… after they open those gifts on Christmas morning they no longer dream for those gifts… because they have them. Instead they start dreaming of new toys they do not have.
It is built within us to dream, to hope, for things we do not have. You should never be done dreaming and hoping. Once you have accomplished a hope, within you your heart will start hoping hoping towards a new accomplishment. I would say that this is God at work with in us… Because Love always HOPES!
Romans 8:25 (NIV2011) But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
An unfulfilled dream requires patience. Sometimes we are great at dreaming but not skilled at patiently waiting for the fulfillment. The fulfillment of the dream is valuable. But often overlooked is how working toward the dream fulfillment will bring change to who you are. It brings patience & humility to you. It brings wisdom & skill to you. The fulfilled dream is valuable, but so is the change that occurs within, as you work the dream.
It talks about plans.
Proverbs 16:3 (NIV2011) Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.
Notice it says YOUR PLANS. God knows your plans and if you commit to the Lord He will establish your plan. God is not against your plan, He wants to be a part of your plan.
You have your plan, but Scripture also talks about God’s plan.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV2011) For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Dreams are a game changer
I want you to know that it is Spiritual to dream. It is God’s will for you to dream of a better not yet realized reality. There is a faith aspect to dreaming. It is not yet realized yet I am still believing in it and I’m still working towards it.
Dreaming is a very visual thing. We visualize our dream home… We picture what our future life will consist of… We see these things in our dream before they are physical realities.
I want to quickly inspire you to pray in a dream like way.
- Pray for a relationship…
- Pray for health…
- Pray for situations that you could never influence in the physical…
Let’s look at Romans 4:17.
Romans 4:17 (NIV2011) As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
God calls Abraham the Father of many nations. He calls him this before Abraham even has a son… before he is even a father, God sees Him as the father of many nations.
In that moment… in the natural… He was the father of nothing. BUT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD HE WAS FATHER OF MANY NATIONS… EVEN OUR FATHER.
I don’t know completely how to explain this. …But I believe that sometimes we receive a dream and it is not our mind at work, but we are actually receiving the “SIGHT OF GOD.”
Abraham received the Words in that moment, yet saw no son. Yet God who is not bound by time, when He speaks that Word He already saw Isaac, Jacob, Israel, David, Jesus… you. The fulfillment of your dream is already in God’s sight…
“The God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that are not.”
In a moment we are going to spend time talking to God. I want you to spend some time dreaming. I want you to pray in such a way that calls into being things that are not…
Before you come I want to tell you a story about my dad when he was..
In my dad’s house growing up was an atlas and Clyde Fluitt would get that book of maps and study the different countries. Often as he studied the countries he would trace countries with his little finger and He would start imagining.
Is finger would travel down North America, through Mexico, Guatemala, & El Salvador. His eyes are seeing the map and his finger travel across the page, yet in His mind he started to imagine. He started to picture the people in these areas. He started to say in his mind, these people in this small little village need a church, they need someone to come tell them about Jesus…
He continued down into South America… Columbia, Ecuador, Peru. His finger would stop on small villages and he would imagine people being so happy to hear about Jesus. He would picture little churches being built and missionaries coming and people praying. He would move his little finger and just dream.
He traced the Amazon river with his finger and traveled it with his mind and imagined. This village right here is where the church will start and then it is going to spread here and then here… everyone down this Amazon river is going to hear…
It was just kids stuff he later thought… until one day a missionary came to church decades later. Now Clyde Fluitt, in his 30 listened to a missionary talk about planting churches down the Amazon river. The missionary projected a map and with his finger said, we started here… the gospel spread to here… and then here.. and now we have churches growing up and down the Amazon river…
My dad was thrown back into that memory as a kid… He
There is a place in prayer where you can on the Spirit intercede for others. Your faith can move mountains. Your dreams can be faith filled & hope filled.
Can you dream today?
We are going to come talk to God. Don’t wait for me to stop talking. You can come now.
I want you to come dream in this altar. I want you to come visualize what you are praying over.
Some of you need to come to this altar because I was talking you felt the call of God on your life. You need to do something in this moment.
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Come into the first few feet of this stage and we will pray with you.