“EYES WIDE OPEN #1-CAPTURING OUR DREAMS”
MARK 10:35, 46-52
INTRO: Dreams. We all have them. We have a picture in our minds of how
we would like things to be. But if our dreams only remain fuel for our
imagination then our dreams will never come to pass. Living is more
than existing it takes involvement. Our dreams will never become
reality if we are not willing to get involved.
Our Lord, amidst His miracles, His sacrifice, and His world-changing
resurrection, not only came to change our lives but also to change the
way we live our lives. He wants us to engage life differently than the
way the world engages life. Jesus said in John 10:10—“The thief
cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that
they might have life, and that they might have it moreabundantly.”
Through the Spirit God desires to unleash the untapped potential in
all those who trust in HIM. When Jesus touched the disciple’s lives
they began to live the impossible. They were living with EYES WIDE
OPEN.
Friends, our challenge is to wake up and rediscover our dreams,
hopes, and passions. We need to break the monotony, shake the
sleep from our bodies, and live the lives God intended for us to live!
We read in Romans 13:11-14—“And that, knowing the time, that now
it is high time to awake outof sleep: for now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let
us therefore cast offthe works of darkness, and let us put on the armor
of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and
drunkenness,not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and
envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision
forthe flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”Many of God’s people today are
like the ten virgins in Jesus’ parable—“While the bridegroom tarried,
they all slumbered and slept.”(Matthew 25:5). Friends, we need to
wake up and live each day with EYES WIDE OPEN.
Sadly, not only are many of God’s people asleep today but also many
are not doing in their lives what God intends for them to do.
“Unbreakable” is a movie about an ordinary person who discovers he
is a superhero. The premise of the story is that comic books are
based on the exploits of people who live and work among us. In the
film one character says to another: “That little bit of sadness in the
mornings you spoke of? I think I know what it is. Perhaps you’re not
doing what you are supposed to be doing.”(Erwin Raphael McManus. Wide Awake.
p. xi). Friend, have you ever woke up in the morning sad because of the
monotony of your life? Perhaps you are not doing what God intends
for you to be doing. God wants us to approach life with EYES WIDE
OPEN so that we can do exactly what God intends for us to be doing
in this life. I want to speak tonight on CAPTURING OUR DREAMS.
God’s desire for us is that we achieve and accomplish things that He
desires for us. The question is, “How do we capture the dreams God
has given us?” Let us note three things this evening. First let us
consider…
(1) OUR APPROACH TO LIFE
1 CORINTHIANS 15:58—“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast,
unmoveable,always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch
as ye knowthat your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
A. AMBITIONS. Friend, what is your greatest desire? What motivates you?
Paul tells us here that we are to be “always abounding in the work of the
Lord…”. Many times the dreams we have arewhat we want our lives to be
not what God wants our lives to be.Often the dreams we pursue the hardest
if we do finally capture them we wish we hadn’t. We were sure this was the
life we always wanted, the life we would kill for. Instead it almost kills us.
The life we couldn’t live without turns out to be a nightmare. We must be
sure that the object of our dreams are in line with the will of God for us or
else we are headed for shipwreck. In Mark 10:35 we see the ambition of
James and John—“And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto
him, saying,Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we
shall desire.”
B. ASSESSMENTS. Many times we want to pursue our God-given dreams, to
take great risks, and to live a life beyond imagination but often we just don’t
know how to make those dreams a reality. We look around us. The gift
may be right in front of us but we don’t know how to achieve it. Friends,
many times we don’t choose the worst of life; we just don’t choose the best.
James and John was not asking a bad thing of the Lord, but it was
something that the Lord knew was not in their best interests. Listen to
what Jesus tells them in Mark 10:38—“…Ye know not what ye ask: can ye
drinkof the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I
am baptized with?” The Lord wanted them to assess their situation. He
wanted them to think about their dreams—what would they have to
sacrifice to obtain it? Were they willing to pay the price? Could they live
with the consequences? Friends, we need to consider the same questions
concerning our dreams.
C. ACHIEVEMENTS. Life is a work of art. We each, by the choices we make
and the dreams we pursue, are painting the canvas of our lives. We are the
artists. What work of art will we leave behind? How will we touch other
people’s lives while we are here on this earth? The Scripture says that we
are living epistles. Men read our lives. The question is, “What do they see?”
Do our achievements benefit merely ourselves or do they benefit others
also?
CAPTURING OUR DREAMS depends on OUR APPROACH TO LIFE but also…
(2) OUR ASPIRATION IN LIFE
MATTHEW 6:31-34—“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we
eat? or, Whatshall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow:
for the morrow shalltake thought for the things of itself. Sufficient
unto the day is theevil thereof.”
A. THE POWER OF OUR DREAMS. Friends, not all dreams come true. But
we should never underestimate the power of dreams. Discoveries in
Science are revealing the extraordinary capacity of the human brain, and
Scripture clearly points to the mind as the context for all change. Romans
12:1-2 reminds us that our transformation is directly connected to the
renewing of our minds—“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that yepresent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be
ye transformed by therenewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good, andacceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Have you ever noticed that
the people who expect great things seem to always accomplish great
things? Friend, if your dreams are supposed to be bigger than life, then
your life will always be limited by the size of your dreams. It is odd how
our imaginations are not limited but often our thinking is.
B. THE PURSUIT OF OUR DREAMS. Many have given up on their dreams.
Many times our capacity to dream is so beaten up and left broken by
people, pain, and disappointment. We often give up on our God-given
dreams because of negativity, criticism, and nay-saying. We hear “It can’t
be done,” or “It will never work” so often that we begin to believe what we
hear.
Friends, there is nothing more devastating to the human spirit than to give
up on your dreams. WE MUST dream BIG and live BIG! The bigger we
dream the bigger we tend to live. Friends, we are capable through God of
accomplishing all He desire for us to accomplish! Paul said it this way—“I
can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians
4:13). When we trust in the Lord we tap into our God-given potential.
Then the things we dream—the things God desires for us to accomplish—
can truly come to pass.
CAPTURING OUR DREAMS depends on OUR APPROACH TO LIFE, OUR ASPIRATION IN LIFE, and lastly…
(3) OUR ASSISTANCE IN LIFE
MARK 10:35—“And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto
him, saying,Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us
whatsoever weshall desire.”
MARK 10:46-52—“And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of
Jericho with hisdisciples and a great number of people, blind
Bartimaeus, the sonof Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.
And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry
out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And
Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the
blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; hecalleth thee.
And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And
Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do
unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive
my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made
theewhole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed
Jesusin the way.”
*In the gospel of Mark, there are two conversations involving people who were
asking Jesus for something. I want us to see in these…
A. THE WRONG WAY TO ASK. God wants to help us capture our dreams but
God will not help us capture a dream that is selfish, greedy, nor unholy. In
this conversation with James and John recorded for us in Mark 10:35ff we
see that right after Jesus had opened His heart to them—telling them He
was going to Jerusalem to suffer as a sacrifice for all humanity; telling them
He was going to be crucified, killed, and raised from—James and John came
to Jesus with this request. If the timing wasn’t bad enough listen to the
way they ask—“Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever
we shall desire.” They wanted the highest seats of power after Jesus. They
wanted to be in charge. They wanted to be next in line to run everything.
But Jesus told them—“…Ye know not what ye ask…”. The Lord told them
that they positions were not His to grant, but for the Father to grant (v40).
Many times we have dream we try to win God’s favor for. But friends, God
is not going to invest Himself in a dream that is fueled by greed, arrogance,
self-indulgence, or self-centeredness. Friends, our passions fuel our
dreams. When God is the center of your life, He then becomes the
inspiration for your dreams. If we want to live with EYES WIDE OPEN we
must trust God to guide us on this journey we cannot take on our own.
B. THE WINNING WAY TO ASK. The story of blind Bartimaeus has always
fascinated me. A great crowd was following Jesus, and this blind beggar
begins to shout—“Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.” Some
wanted him to be quiet, but he continued to shout (v48). Then Jesus
called him over and asked him—“What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?”
(v51).
That kind of seems like a strange question doesn’t it? This man is blind
and Jesus is the Son of God so you know Jesus knew what he wanted. The
man did not ask for anything except the thing he needed the most—to see.
He did not ask to hear better, or for clothing, food, or lodging. But He asked
about his greatest need.
Friend, if Jesus were to ask you, “What do you want?” What would you
say? Our dreams are a product of our longing. Is our desire similar to
Paul’s—“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto hisdeath.”
(Philippians 3:10). I truly believe that so many of our dreams go unrealized
because we are afraid to ask BIG things of God. Could it be possible that
we are not living the life of our dreams simply because God has asked us
what we want and we are asking for way too little?
CLOSING: CAPTURING OUR DREAMS depends on OUR APPROACH TO LIFE,
OUR ASPIRATION IN LIFE, AND OUR ASSISTANCE IN LIFE.
Friends, what we need is not more stuff—the material things of this
world. What we need is more of Jesus in our lives! The problem
today with so much of the televangelism is that is all about getting
more for us. When does enough, become enough? There is
nothing wrong with having things, but that is not to be the basis
of our existence.
Living with EYES WIDE OPEN means that we realize that the world
needs us to live up to our potential for God. There are others
whose lives and future depend upon us stepping up and living BIG.
To impact our world we must accept our life’s calling and
responsibility. Friends, the future needs us to dream God-sized
dreams because these are the ones God gets involved in. And what
this world needs desperately is God working through His people!
PREPARED BY BROTHER BRYAN L. BROWNING, PASTOR OF BEECHMONT BAPTIST CHURCH, BEECHMONT, KY FOR SUNDAY EVENING, MARCH 29, 2009.