INTRO: When he was eighty-eight years old, the late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once found himself on a train. When the conductor came by, Justice Holmes couldn’t find his ticket, and he seemed terribly upset. He searched all of his pockets and fumbled through his wallet without success. The conductor was sympathetic. He said, "Don’t worry, Mr. Holmes, the Pennsylvania Railroad will be happy to trust you. After you reach your destination you’ll probably find the ticket and you can just mail it to us." But the conductor’s kindness failed to put Mr. Holmes at ease. Still very much upset, he said, "My dear man, my problem is not ’Where is my ticket?’ The problem is, `Where am I going?’
Most Christians feel like this at times. They know they’re supposed to follow the Lord and be a good person, but beyond that they’re not sure.
Someone has aptly said, "Living without God’s plan for our life is like sewing with a needle without thread, or writing one’s biography with a pen empty of ink."
Review: Discovering God’s plan for your life:
-We are God’s workmanship (from where we get our word poem). We are God’s poem to this world. The strange thing is we are the ones who will determine if it will be read.
-People are blessed who find their purpose in God and try to fulfill it.
Today: We are going to look at what is holding you back from your dreams (purpose). TITLE: Discovering Your Dream – Part 2
TEXT: John 21:3
I. Background. Jesus has come and gone.
A. Jesus had begun his ministry three years earlier, calling his disciples, and teaching them and others about the kingdom of God.
1. Peter, who was one of the Lord’s closest disciples, was a rugged fisherman.
2. He chose to follow the Lord. He stayed with Jesus, ate with Jesus; they basically did everything together.
-Peter followed Jesus—he knew he was the promised Messiah from God.
3. Peter was the one who pulled Jesus aside and rebuked him because the Lord was proclaiming he had to suffer and die. That’s when Jesus rebuked Peter.
-Peter was just being the protector.
4. Remember at the Last Supper Jesus was telling his disciples that all of them would fall away. -Peter proclaimed, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you."
5. But, as we know the story, Peter denied him three times and ran away. -Jesus was then taken, tried, and crucified.
6. Can you imagine the guilt and shame Peter endured. He dropped the ball and denied the Messiah.
7. Now he’s heard about the risen Savior. But it’s not what it used to be, he feels like a loser.
B. Peter’s dream came to a screeching halt.
-He was going to be the rock of the church of Jesus Christ. He was going to rule and reign with Jesus.
1. "Now that’s over, I’ve failed." (I’m sure this theme went over and over through his mind.)
TS: This brings us up to the point of the text.
2. What was Peter doing? V. 3, "I’m going out to fish." -But I thought Peter was supposed to be a fisher of men. (Luke 5)
-Could it be Peter was beaten and had given up (in his mind)? Point: A person without a future will always return to his or her past. IT. Things that can hold you back from your dream.
A. Failure. Peter failed Christ so he was going back to the old ways.
1. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen folks come in, get excited about God, walk with him a bit, and then return to their old ways because (in their mind) they failed.
-Those dreams and plans they sensed from God are now smoldering ashes because they failed the Lord. So they give up and walk away.
2. You know what happens when you go back to the old ways. Look at Peter as an example. He went out fishing all night and he caught nothing!
-Peter should have known he’d forgotten the words of Jesus: "Apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5c)
3. Failure has a way to destroy the dreams God has set in your heart.
-Proverbs 24:16, "For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again." -The point is: You will stumble and fall. Get up.
Question: What failure is holding you back from God’s dream, where have you failed that is hindering your dream for God?
4. You need to realize how many famous people failed before they made it. -George Washington lost 2/3 of all battles he fought.
-Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs during his career. But he struck out 1333 times, twice as often as he hit a home run.
-R.P. Macy, founder of Macy’s department store, failed 7 times at retailing before he succeeded with Macy’s and made billions of dollars.
-I could go on and on about people who didn’t give up chasing their dream.
a. We need to realize something.
-God uses failure to educate us. Psalm 119:71, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes."
-God also uses failure to motivate us. Peter did not deny the Lord again, even to the point of being crucified upside down.
-God uses failure to cultivate our character and refine our dreams. Failure in a strange way softens our hearts and makes us sensitive to others.
b. Remember failure is not fatal, it only appears that way.
B. The 2nd roadblock to your dreams is fear. I talked a little bit about this last week. I want to speak about it a little more.
1. I’m going to show a brief clip that’s an example of fear. [Run clip.]
-Here was a lady who felt trapped. She was wearing the orange prison suit, barred behind glass, and her little girl asking, "When are you going to get out?"
a. Fear gives us the illusion that we are trapped and we can’t get out – that we are stuck in something and it’s not going to change – so we just crawl in our shell and shut the world out.
Example. Shohoiya Yokowai spent 28 years of his life in prison. It was not a prison of bars and locks and wardens, but a self-imposed prison of fear. He was a Japanese soldier on the island of Guam during WW2. When the American forces landed, he fled into the jungle and found a cave in which he hid for 28 years because he was afraid of being captured by the Americans.
He learned that the war was over by reading one of the thousands of pamphlets dropped into the jungle. But he was afraid. So for 28 years he lived in the cave, coming out only at night to look for roaches, rats, frogs, and mangoes on which he survived.
Finally some natives found him and convinced him that it would be alright for him to come out of his jungle prison.
We think, "What a waste! Imagine, spending 28 years living as a prisoner of fear." Yet, there are a lot of people who are prisoners of fear.
Oswald Chambers: It is the most natural thing in the world to be scared, and the clearest evidence that God’s grace is at work in our hearts is when we do not get into panics....The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.
b. Question: What fear is holding you back from your dream?
-If you’re not careful, fear of battle will keep you at the starting gate to your dream. C. 3rd roadblock to your dream is over-satisfaction.
1. Folks need to be careful they just don’t hit the cruise control button in life, just cruising along enjoying their abundance while not pursuing their purpose.
-Don’t trade your purpose (dream) for pleasant circumstances.
2. Nothing is wrong with satisfaction as long as you’re not over-satisfied, when you trade the pleasantries of life for the purposes you were created for.
-The prophet Amos (6:1) said, "Woe to you who are complacent in Zion." -Over-satisfaction will cause us to become complacent.
a. The children of Israel were prospering, things were going well, and life was comfortable. -One of the things they fell into was becoming complacent about God.
Point: Let them be an example to us, not to make the mistake of enjoying our comfort at the expense of the plan and purpose that God has for us.
Conclusion:
What roadblocks are standing between you and your dream (the purpose God has for you)?
1. Failure. You’ve tried but you’ve failed.
2. Fear. You’re afraid to even step out.
3. Over-satisfaction. You’re allowing comfort to take the place of God’s purpose for your life.
