Dreams Destroyed Series

Intro: One of my favorite animated films of all time is “Toy Story.” The 2 main characters in the story are Woody, a stuffed cowboy doll, and Buzz Light Year, who’s the latest and greatest action figure doll. Now my favorite of the two is Buzz Light Year. And the reason why is b/c he believes he’s a REAL hero and not a toy.

-But Woody comes along and begins to tell Buzz he’s not a hero, but he’s just a TOY! And as time goes on Buzz begins to realize that he’s not what he thought he was and it’s actually kind of depressing watching him become aware of his short comings, watching him realize the dream of who he thought he was not be a reality.

-Now obviously I didn’t get too depressed @ this part of the movie for a very simple reason. We all know that the idea of toys coming to life is just make believe. But I think there’s something @ Buzz that we can all relate to: and that is dreams that go unfulfilled in our lives.

-Today we’re continuing our series “Breaking Bad.” And the purpose of this series is to help us see how so many of us get to a place in life where we look back and wonder, “How in the world did I get here? This wasn’t a part of my plan for life!” Some of us as Xians have these same thoughts and wonder, “How did I end up controlled by this addiction in my life; how did I end up w/this broken marriage; or how come I feel so unfulfilled in my life?”

-Last week we examined King David in the OT who was known as a man after God’s own heart. And yet this godly man found himself very far away from God as he fell into adultery, lying, and murder. I guarantee you he didn’t envision that would be a turn he’d take in his life. This week we’re going to look at the dreams the Hebrew people had for themselves (actually it was the dream God had for them) and how those dreams, for a period of time, ended up on the trash heap.

Sermon Idea: Today in our passage of Scripture we’re going to see the typical journey of a people who had God-sized dreams come crashing down. And my hope is as we go thru this text we’ll discover how to move from living a life of destroyed dreams to a life of fulfilled dreams.

TEXT: NUMBERS 13: 26-33

Bckgrd: It’s important to understand the background of this text. Moses had led the Hebrews out of a 400 year Egyptian captivity. And during that time God had promised His people a land that would be their own. A promised land, a land flowing w/milk and honey. All they had to do was take the land and it would be theirs.

-Well, as the Hebrews got to the very edge of the Promised Land they sent out 12 spies to scout the land and tell people what they saw. And it’s in these verses that we read their report, and we discover the majority of the spies are ready to let the dream of having their own land die on the vine.

-Now what was the cost of them not being ready to take what God was giving them? The cost was a dream unrealized; the cost was not taking possession of a land that would be their very own.

-God is so generous. Jesus tells us in John 10: 10, “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” He then tells us in Matt. 6: 33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” Those are some seriously strong promises from God. Yet very few people find an “abundant” life! Why is that? B/c very few people are seeking the things of God FIRST in their life and the result is we go thru life w/unfulfilled dreams.

-The story we’ll examine today gives us a picture of the typical journey to broken dreams. The 1st part of the journey begins with:

1: DOUBTING THE DREAM (vv. 26-27)

Exp: God first shared the dream of His people having their own homeland to Abraham. In Gen. 12: 1-3 God told Abraham, “Go out from your land, your relatives and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you w/contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed thru you.”