Pastor Aaron Cordeiro
March 19, 2017 - W1712

As we conclude our Doing Church as a Team series, I want to talk to you about our God who is a dream releaser for you and me. From its inception, New Hope has been a dream releasing church of the dreams that God has put in us in seed form. Dreams are like a homing system. You recognize and begin to set up your dream, then you zero in on God’s best for your life. This brings clarity to your life. Like setting GPS coordinates that allow distractions to be removed, and provides clarity, purpose, and inspiration, and allows you to feel that touch of God on your life. We want to talk about this today, because some of you may have either lost your dream, have forgotten about your dream, or it may have been crushed.

As a young man growing up, I always adored a certain type of woman, a hapa-haole woman. I remember one of our first services for New Hope was at Stevenson, and this hapa-haole girl was sitting in the front row. Immediately when I saw her I said, “Oh dear Jesus, someday I am going to marry someone like her.” Well, 10 years later, at age 26, I married to her.

Martin Luther King had a dream that mobilized thousands of people who marched into that dream and changed history forever. Jesus had twelve unbecoming disciples made up of tax collectors and fishermen who changed the world. Everything we talk about this evening will be based on this scripture. “By his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of – infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.” (Eph. 3:20 LB) The Bible is saying that God takes dreams, and by His nighty deeds and works in your life, makes them great.

God gives us dreams to build our faith. If there were no dreams and faith we would exist like an amoeba. If we are willing to walk in the dreams that God has for us, then our life will never be the same. Noah had an ark. Abraham was called the father of many nations. Nehemiah had a wall to build.  Joseph was a leader who saved his people.

Joseph was the son of Israel, aka Jacob who had a dream. Joseph stepped into that dream, allowing God’s people to be saved, and became the second most powerful man in Egypt. To fulfill that dream, Joseph endured trials. His brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery. He went to prison because Potiphar’s wife came after him with false accusations for rejecting her. The Bible said this about Joseph. “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored tunic. His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.” (Gen. 37:3-5) Sifting through what Genesis is saying here I will share the first irreducible principle of how God releases our dreams.

a. Dreams are CULTIVATED in the right CULTURE.

Joseph’s dreams were cultivated in a culture of love. When an athlete crosses the finish line people who provided love and support are always mentioned. A plant placed in a bad culture will soon wither up, verses a dying plant placed in a healthy culture will soon thrive and become healthy.   I read an interesting article in the Harvard Business review that said the top two causes of death in hospitals are sepsis, where patients get infections from foreign bacteria, because they were not tended to enough, and bed sores, because staff did not change the body positions of bed ridden patients enough. This got me thinking what type of bad culture am I tolerating in my life? Have my dreams, hopes, and life become infected or stagnant, because I have not moved towards them because of fear and insecurities? Maybe we have become tolerant of our sins or other things in life – this is bad culture and causes our dreams to be dashed.

We need ingredients to build the right culture:

Dream Releasing Culture:

i. Raise the value of healthy relationships.

Healthy relationships and circumstances releases a culture that will release dreams. If you come into a room and see someone, do you feel happy, or does your heart loathe. If it loathes, maybe the Holy Spirit is telling you to raise the value of healthy relationships.

ii. LIVE to make others SUCCESSFUL.

The Bible says, “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind towards one another. Do not be haughty in mind but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation, but instead live to make others successful.” (Romans 12:15-16)

iii. Steward your AUTHORITY WELL.

The Bible says authority is used to build others up – never to tear others down.

When we steward our authority well, God can take hurting people with broken dreams and place them in healthy soil and watch them thrive.

iv. Watch your STARTING POINTS.

The Pharisees and people of the church did not understand why Jesus hung out with tax collectors and sinners-people considered outcasts. Jesus did not judge them. God teaches us a culture where we are willing to start at others starting points, and not expect people to start at our starting points.

v. Gentle RESTORATION.

“If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself.” “You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out.” (Gal. 6:1)

Have you ever got on someone’s case and said “Why did you do that?!”, then thirty minutes later you do the same thing. It’s crazy how we keep people at certain standards that we are not even willing to keep ourselves. God says we are a frail and broken people – not perfect. Being committed to a culture of love like Christ’s heart, allows the lives of others to flourish.

b. Dreams are realized through UNWAVERING COMMITMENT.

No matter what injustice happened to Joseph, including being imprisoned by false accusations from Potiphar’s wife, he did not quit living out his dream. Joseph even protested to Potiphar’s wife, “No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked things and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9)

Joseph’s dreams were realized, because he had an unwavering commitment to never sin against God. It has been said that “Motivation is what gets us started, and commitment is what keeps us going.” We could say that commitment is like the ham in the ham and eggs. The chicken is involved, but the ham is committed.

After our DCAT conference, three churches approached me to do DCAT at their churches. The churches that Pastor Will and I flew to were Maui, and a bi-lingual Hispanic church in LA called Faro Church where we did a conference for them. The senior pastor has gone into the jungles of Columbia to teach other pastors. So the heart of this church extends globally.

PASTOR WILL GUZMAN:

As Pastor Aaron shared, Joseph had a dream. We all have dreams.

c. God given DREAMS are meant to serve God’s given PURPOSES.

After Joseph went to prison because of accusations by Potiphar’s wife, he starts to interpret dreams. Pharaoh has a troubling dream, and Joseph interprets his dream, and everything changes for Joseph. The Bible says, “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.’” (Gen. 41: 39-40)

God’s dream for Joseph is coming true. Now Joseph is living his dream out as a sweet spot in his life; however Josephs’ dream is meant to give God glory.

God used Joseph to bless the land when there was a famine. After all his struggles, and after arriving at his dream, Joseph realizes in the book of Genesis, chapter 45 that it is only through God’s grace and love that he is living out his dream. The Bible said “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves because it was for saved lives that God sent me ahead of you.” (Gen. 45:5)

God given dreams are meant for God given purposes.

I’m Hispanic, and seven years ago I married this beautiful Mexican girl. I am bi-lingual and we both had this dream to reach out to young second and third generation Hispanics; however, we knew we had to do it differently. I remembered praying and seeing New Hope and Pacific Rim Bible College. So we decided to go to New Hope and make our dream possible. After graduating I started working in my gifts and many pastors mentored me. I was living the dream; however, in January, God mentioned to me about the dream I had six years ago and told me it was time to realize this dream at a church in Orange County. So my wife and I prayed about it, and realized it is God’s dream, and it’s our dream, and our dream is meant for God’s purposes. I told my wife we really did not have to go because we were doing well at New Hope. I remember my wife responding, “I would rather follow the will of God than anything else.” The Bible says, “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” (Heb. 10: 35-36)

Maybe some of you have lost your dreams, so can I encourage you tonight to start chasing after the will of God for your life? When you do that, you will find yourself living in the dream that God has for you, because God given dreams are meant for God given purposes –Amen.

Questions:

• How do we know if our dreams are God given or are we simply satisfying our wants?

• What actions have you taken or can you take to fulfill your God given dreams?

• What ingredients do we need to manifest a dream releasing culture?