A Dream Or A Vision
Nehemiah 1:1-11
I want you to meet Jay. From the time he was 9, Jay wanted to be a record producer. He even had the other kids start calling him Jay X. Jay X did not see much of a reason to pay attention in school, because one day his big break was going to come. He’d start out as a rapper.
By age 16 he decided to drop out of school to help devote himself to his upcoming career. He didn’t need teachers getting on his case. He laughed at them for the salary they were making. He was going to make money big time. He’d meet the right person and be discovered. He also got tired of his mother telling him he needed to get a job if he was not going to go to school. He grabbed some things and said when he made it big, hed’ be back. He got him a one way ticket to LA to be discovered.
That’s when it happened. He met one of the top video guys from BET. The guy asked him to do his thing on the microphone. Jay X was good, real good. Without even talking to an agent he was able to secure a half million dollar contract. His first recording was the bomb, shooting to the top of the charts. His first video was really great. He had money pouring out his pockets and women sreaming at him left and right. That’s when he saw the girl of his dreams. She was pulling at his arm, and trying to shake him a little bit. She kept yelling hey, hey hey. He said, no baby it’s Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay X.
Her voice went from soft and sexy to deep and angry. Finally he heard, the bus driver saying, hey, this is the last stop, you have got to get off this bus. All his success had merely been a dream. There was no big contract in the music industry waiting on him in Los Angelos. Some three years later, Jay still has no diploma, no job, and he calls an abandoned house home. Jay X had a dream, but he didn’t have a vision.
Have you ever had a dream about something in life only to have life give you a wake up call and you discover, this is not what you had intended to happen. In our dreams, everything work perfectly. We make the first string the first year we go out. We get the honor roll without trying. Our parents never get on our case. We score the winning shot with 2 seconds left. Or The job is perfect, the kids always behave, we can do everything we could do 20 years ago , and our husband or wife is always happy with us. Everybody takes our advice and life is easy. Dreams are a dime a dozen and when the pressures of life hit they fade away like the morning mist.
Today we take time to recognize those of you who had more than simply a dream to make it from one grade to the next. You put some hard work behind that dream, and changed that dream into a vision. A dream is nothing more than a simple hope for something to happen. I hope to be this or to do that. In order for our lives and for the church to be renewed, we need more than a dream. We need vision for our lives. Vision involves seeing things that are not yet in sight, but knowing that God can make it a reality. As a fifth grader, you can see yourself as a pediatrician saving a baby’s life or as a lawyer defending the cause of the poor. Vision involves a goal that we are working toward the getting involved in the process.
We know we can’t get that medical degree without first getting past the proficiency exams. Those exams are just stepping stones God has before us to get us where we want to go. We have definite steps to follow to make things happen. We expect some setbacks, some disappointments, and some heartache, but we never lose sight of the ultimate goal. You invest yourself in a vision today, because you know it’s going to be worth it.
Let’s look this morning into the book of Nehemiah and begin to discover discover the difference of a how a dream and vision affects the course of our lives. For our lives and for our a church to be renewed it must be willing to move beyond dreams into the area of vision. Sometimes holding on to dreams can cause us to miss out on what God is requiring of us. We think the dream is just going to happen the some kind of luck. Jay X, knew what he wanted to be be, but he wasn’t willing to pay the price to make it happen. God may need to shatter the dream in order to give us a vision.
Let’s picture the setting in history for the life and times of Nehemiah. God’s people had disobeyed God and after many pleas from God giving them the chance to change their ways and repent, they refused. They flunked their class in obedience and citizenship. Their report cards were filled with U’s and F’s in conduct. God sent them into captivity for 70 years into other nations. The Babylonian Empire took away people in different groups at a time. The city of Jerusalem was destroyed and the walls were broken down.
The Babylonians were later defeated by the Persians. But God’s people were still scattered all over the Persian empire. A Perisan king by the name of Cyrus, made a decree that any of God’s people, the Jews, who wanted to go back to their homeland and rebuild their city and the temple of their God could go and do so. About 50,000 people decided to go back to Jerusalem. They went with a dream to enjoy once again the good ole days.
But not all of God’s people went back. Some stayed in the places they were exiled for a variety of reasons. Nehemiah was one of the Jews who did not go back. He had a very good and prosperous life. His name meant, “the Lord has comforted.” He had been promoted time and time again because he was faithful in doing his assignments.
Nehemiah lived in the palace of King Artaxerses. He was cupbearer to the king. His job was to make sure the king’s drink was not poisoned by drinking of it first. He had a very good position and may have thought this was God’s call for His life. But saints sometimes, we are placed in a position of standing to make a difference when the right moment comes along. You may have your own reason for wanting to become something or to own your own business, but God may give it to you because God has something in mind for you and it, that you have not even thought of.
No doubt many people in Nehemiah’s day had dream of how wonderful it must be in Jerusalem. The presence of God must be there. The temple must be full of God’s praise. The people are probably dancing in the streets and celebrating all of the festivals. People who were having a hard time in exile, had dreams that if only they were in Jerusalem, how much better their lives would be. Many of them packed their bags and headed to Jerusalem looking for the good life.
Have you ever dreamed, that only if you were not where you are, life could be so much better? If only you were going to going to high school instead of junior high. If you could only move to Atlanta, or to New York City, or to California, oh how much better things would be. Any of you couldn’t wait to become an adult so that you could be free from rules and regulations and people telling you what to do. There was a dream out there of a life of happiness with money in your pockets all the time if only you were an adult. Listen to me, if you drop out of school, you will know the true meaning of the word broke much more often than you would like.
I don’t care how much you think the teachers are trippin, you get what God has for you in terms of your education. It is far better to be educated in school with tripping teachers, than to end up in jail with trippin gaurds being educated the other inmates who made the same dumb mistake of trying to find an easy way to make some money. The fact that you made it to ninth grade, means you’re smart enough to make it to college if you take it one day at a time. Keep your vision in mind. Things are not as good nor as easy out there on the streets as you might think. It’s a blessing to have a roof over your head and food on the table. Don’t get caught up in a dream that might not lead to the real thing.
Nehemiah has a dream in his head of how wonderful things must be in Jerusalem. He’s heard the stories that have been passed down from the grandparents of what the city was like and how beautiful the temple was, and how God had protected his people time and time again from their enemies. No doubt in the back of his mind, he’s probably dreamed of one day going to the city and see it’s splendor for himself.
You can imagine his excitement when he heard that Hanani and some of the other Jews had been to Jerusalem and seen it for themselves and were now back in town. Nehemiah went searching for the guys in order to hear the great stories of Jerusalem. “ Has anybody seen the brothers who went to Jerusalem and come back.”
Imagine him calling, “Hanani, Hanani. Come over hear my good friend. What’s the story on Jerusalem and the people who went back.? What does the city look like? What’s going on in the temple?” He’s eager to know if everything is just like it is in the dream he’s carrying around in his head.
Can you see the smile on his face fading away as Hanani says, “Brother, it’s awful. It’s a downright disgrace. It’s far worse than I ever could have imagined it. First of all, the people who survived the exile and went back are in great trouble and disgrace. It’s nothing like they thought it was going to be. Life for them is really hard. It broke my heart to see the city in the condition it was in. The walls of Jerusalem are broken down, and the gates have been burned with fire.”
Nehemiah instantly realized that he had been living in a dream world in fantasizing about the city and people of Jerusalem. 50,000 people had gone back to Jerusalem and nobody has rebuilt the walls of the city. Hanani and his travelers, saw the situation and quickly turned around and came back home. They let go of their dream for Jerusalem and it died. They moved on, and went on to something else in their lives.
Nehemiah realized he bad been dreaming about something that did not exist. Before you go off a do something for a dream, you need to sit down and talk to somebody who is going to give you the real deal of what’s involved. Talk to somebody who is a Christian who got pregnant by her boyfriend and find out what it’s really like. Talk to somebody who got caught up in a dream of adultery and find out what the price was like when they got caught. Talk to somebody who tried to steal just a little bit and got caught. Talk to somebody who was only going to try cocaine once or twice, but found themselves living as addicts. You see in dreams, everything works out.
What do you do when the dream inside of you runs into stark reality and it is not good. You look at your dream and you have to grade it at a D- or even an F at the moment. So much seems to stand in the way. There are three things we can do when reality shatters our dreams. We can be like the exiles who went to Jerusalem, and decided to just stay and accept things as they are. They let go of the dream and lowered their expectations, and started talking about one day, “I’m going to do such and such.”
They stay at the same job, hating it every day, but do not want to pay the price to go back to school in order to move on up. They stay in a lifeless marriage, just tolerating each other, not wanting to pay the price to restore life and romance to the relationship the choosing to forgive each other, burying their past, and committing themselves to love the other person. They sit back in the life of the church, never fully giving themselves to the work of the ministry. They just hope to get to heaven. Their lives will not be much different five years from now than it is today. But my friends you don’t have to stay there.
The second thing we can do when reality shatters our dream, is to drop the dream and run from it without looking back. When Hanani and the other Jews with him saw what was involved, they turned around and came back. They would rather go back and live in the land of their captors, than get involved in making a change. These are the people who live in the world with what might have been, if only they had stayed. They make decisions to leave and never receive what God had for them in the situation. They let go of the dream. They could have been a college graduate. They could have been a good father. They could have had a better marriage. But my friends, you don’t have to stay there either.
The third thing we can do when reality shatters our dream is what Nehemiah did in verse 4. Nehemiah said I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven. Nehemiah is ready to let go of his dream in order to obtain a vision. He’s ready to move beyond idealizing the situation to meet God in order to find out, what changes he’s going to have to make. If God gives you a vision, you’re the one who will have to pay the greatest price to make it come true. Say it with me, “I need to be willing to pay the price.”
God calls us to make sacrifices for the vision, but some of us are like the Jews who had no interest in going back to Jerusalem. We’re content with what we have, and the focus is on “Lord bless me.” We need balance in our lives so that we can extend that prayer from “Lord bless me” to “Lord bless me so that I can be a blessing to the kingdom of God.” Jesus said, “I chose you so that you may go and bear fruit.” God blesses churches so that churches can bless others.
Some of us in the body of Christ are like the Jews who made that initial sacrifice to go back to Jerusalem, but never did much once they got there. Everybody was waiting around for somebody else to do something. They didn’t mind talking about what was wrong, but nobody was willing to stand up and start making a difference.
Do the best you can and be the best you can for God right where you are. I don’t care if its kindergarten or a senior in college. God is still holding you to the same standard of righteousness.
Some of us in the body of Christ are like the Hanani’s who come and see the work, but we just do not want to get involve. We come to church hoping to find everything already done and all we have to do is enjoy the worship service. If somebody asks us to get involved, we feel the leading of the Lord to move on. We think the church is supposed to be all about us, when in reality, it is to be all about what God requires of us.
Some of us in the body of Christ are like the Nehemiah’s, who can feel the heart of God. Nehemiah did not know any of the Jews in Jerusalem personally. He did not have a financial interest at stake if they did not make it. Yet God instantly moved on his heart and gave him a compassion for the suffering of people.
Nehemiah’s change began with recognizing who God is. Neh. 1:5-6 Then I said: "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel.
When his dream was shattered he looked to God saying. “Lord, you are in charge of this situation. It does not look like it and it does not feel like it, but as Lord of the heavens you are in charge. Not only that Lord, but you have already promised to look out for what’s best for us. If we do our part in loving you and obeying your commands, we can look forward to good flowing into our lives. But even when we don’t do as we should your promise for us to change is still there.”
Isn’t it good knowing that our mistakes and failures do not cancel God’s involvement in our lives? Our dreams may have been shattered. That decision may have been a bad one. That action was just plain wrong. But we can still have the Lord listening for our prayer when we want a change. But change has to begin with ourselves and usually with a confession. Jesus Christ died so that we could make a change.
There was a reason, Jerusalem was in the pitiful state it was in. There was a reason God’s people were being humbled and humiliated. A lot of it had to do with the decisions that were made by God’s people. Even though we like to claim the devil has messed up our lives, we joyfully participated in the process by giving him the okay. Some of the decisions we blame on the devil, the devil wasn’t even in town that week. We made the decision entirely on our own.
The devil cannot make me do wrong, without my wanting and agreeing to do it. There were some decisions we made a long time ago, that still affect where we are in life today. We often want to blame somebody else for our problems, but if we are to obtain a vision, we must take some responsibility. Jesus never blamed us for killing him on the cross. He said, “I lay down my life voluntarily.”
Even though it was more than 70 years ago, Nehemiah identified what had placed God’s people in the predicament they were in. Neh. 1:6-9
I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. 7We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. 8 "Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ’If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 9but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’
There are times in our lives, when our hardships are related to our disobedience to God. There are some things that God has built in natural consequences. If we sow wild seeds with sex, they grow back in the form of child support payments, baby mama drama, and AIDS and other veneral diseases. It does not matter that everybody else was doing it. As quiet as it is kept, AIDS is infecting our young people at an ever increasing rate. Young people, this is an area of our lives where we need all A’s. The quickest way to being poor is through the avenue of sex.
In our relationships, if we hold unforgiveness in our hearts, we become bitter people and destroy the very relationships God intended for us to find joy and happiness in. It’s just a natural consequence. If we get greedy and start buying things we cannot afford we are going to go bankrupt and have all kinds of financial problems. If we have a stinking attitude at work, we’re going to get fired sooner or later
I want us to notice that Nehemiah realized that if a vision was to take root in his life, the change had to start in him, with a confession of how he had contributed to the problem. Nehemiah did not start blaming others. Nor did he pray God would start changing somebody else. We all have the power to make a change in our homes and in our church by simply choosing to change ourselves. Nehemiah recognized he was not even at the point of being able to ask God for anything, because of how he had contributed to the problem. If he changed, God could approach him differently.
Nehemiah says “Lord, you did exactly what you told us you were going to do. You said when we disobeyed you, we would be scattered over the earth. You said if we repented, you would gather us all back again. Lord I want to be a part of that gathering back again. I want a vision to make it happen.”
Let us recognize that Nehemiah is saying, “Here I am Lord use me.” Is there anybody here who needs to pray that prayer in their home today? Is there anybody here who needs to pray that prayer in their church today? Is there anybody here who needs to pray that prayer in their life today? You’ve been everywhere but where you should have been in God.
Nehemiah had no idea that his compassion for the people of Jerusalem would lead to him having to risk losing his job and his life. The more he thought about this thing, the more he felt God was calling him to go and make a difference in the lives of those living in disgrace and trouble. We can dream dreams all we want because they do not cost anything.
But a vision in which we make a difference will always require laying something on the line. Nehemiah spent three months wrestling with God on what He could do to make a difference. At the end of three months, he had one prayer left. At the end of verse 11 he prayed “Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”
The man of whom he was speaking was the king. Nehemiah was going to be bold enough to go to the king to try to make a difference for a group of people he did not know and had not met. He found himself in the position of another woman who was in exile, her name was Esther. Like Esther, Nehemiah had decided for his vision, “if I perish, I perish. I am going in to see the king.”
Do you really want a change this morning? Do you want to stop dreaming about something that has never really existed and move over into a vision for your life? Have you made up your mind to be something for God, for your family, for your church, and for yourself? What’s keeping you from allowing God to bless you in the situation you are in today? God is calling you to take that first step to make a difference. Are you willing to say, “Here I am Lord, use me.”
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
“A Dream Or A Vision”
GNLCC 6/30/04 Promotion Sunday
Nehemiah 1:1-11
A. Meet A Man With A Dream
1. Jay X The 9 Year Old With A Dream
2. Who Needs An Education With Trippers
3. From Unknown To Stardom
4. The Bus Diver Put An End To A Dream
5. What Has Been Your Dream
B. Moving Beyond The Dream To Vision
1. The Ability To See Things That Are Not There
2. Expecting Some Work & Heartache For It
3. The Fifth Grade Pediatrician
4. The Place Of Proficiency Exams
5. Shattering The Dream To Capture The Vision
C. The Setting Of Nehemiah’s People
1. Disobedience Led To 70 Year Exile In Babylon
2. City Destroyed, Walls Broken Down, Temple Gone
3. When You’re Getting F’s & D-‘s
4. Babylon Taken Over The Persia-Cyrus Gives Decree
5. 50,000 Go Home To Find The Good Ole Days
D. Nehemiah Had Not Gone Back
1. The Lord Has Comforted---Palace Of King
Artaxerses
2. The Cupbearer To King—Checking For Poison
3. Dreamed About Jerusalem & What It Must Be Like
4. The Parties, The Dancing, The Celebration
5. If Only I Was Somewhere Else, Older, Or Married
6. Stories From The Past
E. When The Truth Finally Comes Home
1. An Ordinary Day Turns Extraordinary
2. His Brother Hanani Is Back In Town From Jerusalem
3. From Joy To Disbelief
4. It Is Bad, Real Bad, Really Really Bad, I Left
5. 50,000 Not Enough To Rebuild The Wall
6. Hanani’s Dream Died—Nehemiah’s Shattered
F. What Do You Do When Dreams & Reality Clash
1. Just Stay And Accept Things As They Are
2. Lowering The Expectation For Less Than God
Intended
3. The Job, The Education, The Marriage, The Church
4. Drop It And Go Do Something Else
5. The Regrets Of What Might Have Been If I Stayed
6. Take It To The Lord In Prayer
Neh. 1:4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
G. Choosing To Let Go In Order To Seize The Vision
1. Moving Beyond The Idealizing Stage
2. What Changes Am I Going To Have To Make
3. The Need For Balance
4. Anybody Willing To The Price
H. The Reaction Of The Body Christ
1. We Went Back And Did Nothing
2. We Went Back And Left
3. We Went And Felt The Heart Of God
4. Learning To Have Compassion For People
5. Forgetting What Others Think
I. Change Begins With Acknowledging God
Neh. 1:5-6
Then I said: "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you.
1. Recognizing That God Is In Charge
2. Recognizing That God Loves Us
3. Mistakes & Failures Do Not Cancel God
4. Change Begins With Ourselves & Confession
J. Taking Responsibility For Our Actions & Circumstance
1. Bad Decisions Destroy Lives
2. The Devil Had Quite A Bit Of Help
3. Can’t Keep Blaming If You Want A Vision
4. Jesus Never Blamed us For The Cross
5. Nehemiah Identified With Sin Of 70 Years
Neh. 1:6-9 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. 7We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.
8 "Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ’If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 9but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’
K. Some Hardships Are Related To Disobedience
1. We Are Going To Reap What We Sow
2. From One Night Stands To AIDS
3. From Unforgiveness To Bitterness
4. From Greed To Financial Disaster
L. Nehemiah Wanted The Change To Begin At Home
1. He Wanted Something Different From God
2. If I Change, God Can Change The Way We Relate
3. Why Should I Go First
4. God Does What He Says He Will Do
5. Here I Am Lord—Us Me
6. The Consequences Of Putting Yourself In The
Hands Of God
7. Dreams Cost Little—Visions Call For Risk
8. Being Willing To Go To The King
9. What Do You Really Want Today
