Break Out – 1 – When Your Dream Died

Welcome – Easter

 

Happy Easter

 

Break Out

Caught, trapped, stuck, imprisoned, chained, caged, bound, in limbo, on hold, delayed… ever feel like that?

A Plan for Freedom 

April 7 – When your faith croaked – How to believe again

April 14 – No way forward? – How to turn around

April 21 – Need a new start? How to live a new life

April 28 – Carrying the weight of the world? How to Exercise Power

Today – When your dream died

Have you ever wanted something?

 

Me – Too much…. Church/call

 

We

Marriage – divorce/death
Career – fired/bad economy
Friendship – rejection/trust broken
Purpose – failure/no support
Home – foreclosure/bankruptcy

 

Confused
Shell shocked
Angry/Sad

 

You wanted something, but you lost it.

Easter story: Jesus dies, is buried, and rises again… but his disciples did not understand.

Luke 24:13-35

2 sad disciples walking to Emmaus (7 miles from Jerusalem)

Confused, angry, sad… trying to figure it out.

They wanted something, but they lost it.

 

A guy walks up and asks them what they are talking about. You know who?

15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.

17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

 

They stood still, their faces downcast.

 

18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

19 “What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him;

 

21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.

“But we had hoped…”  We know what that feels like

 

We need a plan for freedom.

 

When your dream died – How to Hope again.

“But we had hoped…”
A person can live for…
-week­s without food.
-days without water.
-minutes without air.
-not a second without hope.

Hope is necessary.

 

1950s – Curt Richter, a professor at Johns Hopkins – drowning rat experiment.
Rats in a bucket – Drown in 2 min
Rat rescued – lasted days (60 hours)

Hope maid the difference

Wild rats with fight died just as quickly as domesticated rats.

 

Not fight… but faith

Contrary to how we are taught.

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

The plan for your life must include HOPE.

 

How do we hope again?

The Easter story is about how to hope again.

The disciples on the road… Jesus joins them.

“26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

 

30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

 

32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

“I felt something…”

 

Hope returns before you recognize it

Could it be that you felt something today?

Could it be that hope is coming back into your life because of God?

Feel something today?

 

Imagine hope returning…
Before you recognize…
Imagine Jesus walking with you…

 

Call to Action

#1 The Easter Story = Your Story

–        Believe the story

#3 Feel Hope returning

–        Receive the story

#3 Minister to the hopeless

–        Share the story