Teague Bible Church

False Dreams Or Daily Resurrection ?    4/20/14

People are under a lot of stress today. Duh! So much stress that even Christians are losing focus on what really counts. Isolation is normal now, fellowship with other believers is a low priority. A panic and self-preservation mode has set in.

We are told to follow our dreams. But we follow the world’s ideas in considering those dreams. The disappointment is inevitable. What did we think was going to happen if we focused only on ourselves?

We say we believe Christ died for us and rose from the dead, which proved who He was and that He is able to fulfill all His promises He made to us. I do not doubt we are saved, but where are we now that we are saved? What happened to us?

I was listening to a song this morning called, “Your Love.” One line stood out for me which said, “I’m getting older now and I am running out of dreams.” That pretty much says it for many Christians today. Since my plans did not work out; my circumstances are not ideal or always pleasant, then everything is wrong and I must have missed something.

Did it ever occur to you and me that maybe, just maybe, we are pretty much on schedule with God’s plan for our lives? Did it occur to us that it might be the Lord Himself who is making our “self-made” dreams a bit sour so that we can become people  much deeper and richer than we could have ever imagined?

So you might go to church Sunday. You might drift off during the service, and dream, once again, about your broken dreams. You will hear about the greatest thing that has happened; the cross and resurrection. You probably understand the meaning and agree with it wholeheartedly. But like trying to hold water in your hand, in just a few days the message fades away and you wonder what is this truth supposed to do to my everyday life?

The distance between your “everyday” and your own resurrection day seems too far away.

So come Sunday you feel like you cannot grasp and hold the truth of the historic resurrection. You are still searching for that something, but cannot seem to find it. Everybody around you sees that you are pre-occupied with something, but what is it?

I think the gap between the “now” and our resurrection day is too far, if we think that just reflecting on the resurrection event of Christ will be enough. The answer?

I Peter 1:3

“ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Well there it is; a “living” hope. Not a mere reflection on a historic event, but a vital relationship of new life that is daily recharged because of that historic event. Me thinks our “default” position is wrong. Our daily patterns do not reflect our hunger to be often recharged by daily devotion to Christ. We are not hungry for a daily walk like we once were.

You have not even scratched the surface of what you could have in Christ today; because you think you have learned most of it. As if head knowledge alone was transforming knowledge. It is not. It is not and never can be. The Spirit of God makes all things fresh.

II Corinthians 5: 14-15,   17

“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all so that they we who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf…

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things have come.”

I hope you die to the old dreams, and by now might be smiling about the reality of the truth that God’s plan for you is being fulfilled if you really know Him. Knowing Him daily is the very core of eternal life. John 17: 1-3.

Cause if you are still chasing a temporary dream, and hoping God will just push your self-glorifying and ultimately self-destructive dreams, you will become disillusioned.

There is a plan God has for your life. And this zombie-state you have placed yourself in is not that plan. Your preoccupation, your “comfortably numb” attitude might be because you think your broken dreams were your ultimate failure. Time has passed, you are running out of dreams.

As long as you are looking back you cannot see what God has for you ahead. May you have a blessed resurrection Sunday, but may you also have a great Tuesday of next week, when no one else is around, when you feel little of nothing but daily, ”have-to” stuff. In those moments, when you cry out to God, you may be surprised to find His sweet presence meets you there also. Where is your “living” hope showing up, caused by the historic resurrection?