The Key To Your Dreams Series

Ecclesiastes 2:1-25

The Key To Your Dreams

Woodlawn Baptist Church

October 8, 2006

Introduction

Show slideshow of billboards.

What are your dreams? Almost all people have dreams of what they’d like to be or do or own. Last night I heard a lady say that she had dreamed of becoming a great speaker. Another man gave a speech about his dream house. Last week I was out at Texoma Ford getting the oil changed in the church van and decided to enjoy the beautiful day outside. Now you need to know that I never, and I mean never walk through car lots, but on this day I did. I headed straight for the big trucks and I began dreaming of what it would be like to own one of those $40,000 four-door F250s. I thought of all the things wrong with my truck and how clean and comfortable a new one would be. I rationalized about how I deserved one and needed one.

After looking at the new ones I walked through the used trucks and did the same thing. Then I talked to one of the sales people who was in the middle of a sale. She told me that she thought she’d be closing the deal on a $90,000 sale that afternoon. As she told me about the buyer and the car my mind began wandering. I didn’t want the car she was selling, but I dreamed what it would be like to have $90,000 to spend on a car.

In the billboard I’ve shown you this morning, American Bank’s marketing team has done a great job of capitalizing on people’s dreams and emotions by saying that they are the key to our dreams. Want a new car? They can loan you the money. Is it your dream to build a new house? To buy an old one? They have the key to getting you into those homes. Maybe you want to travel – they can help. You need to finance your schooling? There they are. Retirement savings? Get your Roth IRA today. Is it your dream to send your kids or grandkids to college? Take out a college savings plan this week.

You may be more spiritual than me. Maybe you dream of a storybook marriage. Maybe you dream of the perfect job or position in the company. Do you dream of owning your own business? Do you dream of better health? A more secure retirement? Want to travel? Go here or there or do this or that?

Sometimes it is not stuff at all. It may be a quality of life – as in an excitement that is missing. Teens and young adults, even some families can get trapped by this. What’s the next thing we can do to keep some level of rush? Let’s get off to this concert or that retreat. Let’s go to Six Flags or the ball game. Anything short of that is boring, so we dream of a Walt Disney sort of life complete with the magic carpet ride.

Others dream of being noticed, of being the life of the party or just being noticed for being alive. The point I’m trying to make is that American Bank and the rest of the world, even most of us here today have come to see that the acquirement or accomplishment of some thing in our lives is the key to our dreams, but is it? If we were to get all we dreamed of, own all we ever wanted, do all we set out to do, would we really come to a place in our lives where it was satisfying? That’s the question we have to answer today. What is the key to your dreams? It is not American Bank, or any other bank for that matter. But there is an answer.

This morning we’re going to consider what happened in Solomon’s life as he set out to answer this same question. What is the key to our dreams? We’re going to answer that question by asking two other questions.

Are you holding the right key?

We’ve all seen those contests where some car lot gives out dozens, even hundreds of keys that may or may not fit some car on their lot. Only one key fits that car. Kathy was part of such a contest a few years ago. She drove up to the lot, and when it came her turn she hopped in the car, put her key in the ignition, only to find that it did not work. Of course, she had little expectation that it would, so there wasn’t much let down.

But the stakes are much higher in life. Are you sure you’re holding the right key? Do you know what it is that will open the door for you to experience what you’re after in life? It’s not accomplishing some thing. It’s not accumulating a lot of anything. It’s not by doing anything at all.