My Dream Church

We all have dreams, don’t we? A man went to the psychiatrist and said he was full of anxiety. The doctor asked him if he had any reoccurring dreams. The man said he had the same dream 2-3 times each week.

He said he dreams he is in a teepee and doesn’t know how he got there. At this point in his dream, then he closes his eyes and opens them to find that he is in a pup tent. He asked the doctor if that meant anything.

The doctor said it meant he was too tense.

Did you know that tension exhibits itself in the from of stress? And stress is not always caused by negative things; it is also caused by positive things in your life.

For instance, Mike Parker was recovering from a severe heart attack, and the doctor said there should be no excitement of any kind in his life for a couple months. He repeated, "None whatsoever!"

So when his wife found out they had won the lottery, worth 4 million dollars, she was afraid to tell him, for fear it might give him another heart attack. After several days of her worrying about it, she called their pastor. She explained the situation to him and asked for his help, since he was very good at helping people handle grief and stress.

About an hour later, the pastor came over and went into the den where Mike was watching TV. They talked for a few minutes, and then very calmly, the pastor leaned over and said, “Mike, I have a problem and I’d like your advice.”

Mike said, he would do anything he could for the pastor.

The pastor took a deep breath and said, "It’s a theoretical situation regarding Christian stewardship. I am trying to figure out what a normal person would do if they just came into 4 million dollars. For instance, what would you do if you had that kind of money?"

Mike never hesitated at all. He said the first thing he would do is give 2 million dollars to the church. And the preacher had a heart attack.

I think we have all dreamed about having more money, haven’t we? As a young boy, I used to dream about having so much money my parents would never have to work again.

Of course, that was replaced by other dreams as time went by, such as my dream of being a cowboy and my dream of being in charge of the world.

As I grew up, I had other dreams. I dreamed of meeting that beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime Lady I could love, and later I dreamed of being successful in the business world, and on and on they went.

And then one day, God came knocking on my heart’s door. Over a period of years, He began laying the foundation that would give me a dream of preaching to people in a church.

I am glad to say that some of my dreams never made it into reality, but some did. I did meet that Lady and I do love her very much. I had many opportunities in the business world, but never became a master at any of them. And perhaps the most important dream of all came true; I now spend my life telling others about Jesus Christ and how He can do the same thing for them that He did for me – if they will just let Him.

I still have dreams, however. You know that time just after we go to bed; the time after we talk to God for a while? I’ll be truthful with you: I sometimes fall asleep while I am talking to God. Not because I am bored, but because I am at perfect peace and harmony with Him.

But there are other times I start thinking about other things as I pray or when I get done. Things like building this church and what I would like it to be doing ten years from now for the Lord. I look at it and say, “This is the world’s greatest church!”

And so today, I want to talk about my dream church.

1. MY DREAM CHURCH IS STRONG

Almost every preacher will preach God’s word about how we are commanded to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and how we are to be unified through Christ. But as the congregational body leaves the church, it seems something happens to them between the church door and their car door. And whatever it is, makes them completely forget that part of the message that deals with brotherly love.

Two examples come to mind. The local pastor who said we could not rent their church from them on a temporary basis if they demolish this building before we find a place: His reasoning was, "We couldn’t do that because we would never let someone outside our denomination even walk through our door." So much for Christian fellowship or brotherly love. And so much for walking the walk of a real Christian.