HOW TO REACH YOUR DREAM
HOW TO REACH YOUR DREAM
Genesis 24:1-57
Introduction:
On January 24, 2000, Henry Sy delivered a speech before the Management Association of the Philippines. He said, “While I am not big with words, I am big and bold with my dreams and vision. By nature, I am curious and adventurous. I like the excitement of change and new and better ideas. Right after Martial Law in 1972, there was heavy capital flight. I decided to build Shoemart in Makati. After the Aquino assassination in 1983, there was a severe economic crisis. I started SM City-North EDSA. During the coup attempts against the president from 1987-1989, I started to build Megamall. And now, in the middle of the Asian crisis, I am embarking on the greatest project of my life, the Mall of Asia.”
I AM BOLD WITH MY DREAMS AND VISION!
The title of this series is, Believing IS Achieving. The first step is achieving or accomplishing something worthwhile is to get a dream for your life. If you are watching AGT, or BGT, during the audition stage, the most common question that Simon Cowell and the other judges was, “What is the dream?” We all need something worthwhile to aim for. Dreaming is stretching the imagination or visualizing the invisible. It is like faith.
Hebrews 11:1 – “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (KJV)
What is the dream? Let me bare my heart to all of you. I have been imagining/dreaming that by this time next year, the number of worshippers and disciples in RHBC have doubled; that members of RHBC are serving others. That is the dream! Dream with me!
But we cannot just keep on dreaming! We need to do something. It all starts with commitment. After commitment, we need to get started and take the risk.
Now, how can we reach our dream?
- DETERMINE YOUR POSITION
Genesis 24:1 – “Abraham was now very old, and the LORD had blessed him in every way.” (NIV)
Where was Abraham at this point of his life? He was now old, very advanced in years. God had blessed in every way, except for one thing: God has not yet fulfilled His promise to multiply his seed and to make him a great nation. Abraham is getting old, about to die and he still doesn't have a wife for Isaac. That's the starting point. If God’s promise for him to be a great nation, he had to find a wife for his son, Isaac.
The first step in reaching our dreams is to evaluate our present condition or situation. On many occasions I would receive a call asking for direction to the church. Guess what my first question was. “Where are you now?”
At the main entrance of all the malls here in Washington, you will find a directory, a floor map of the mall and the stores in that mall. On that map there is a star that says, “You are here.” That is where you start.
The question you ask in this step is this: Where am I now? Why am I where I am? What would I like to change in my life?
The dream for our church is to double the number of worshippers, disciples and servants here.
- DEFINE YOUR PURPOSE.
Genesis 24:2-4 – “He said to the senior servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh.3 I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, 4 but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.”
Abraham knew exactly what he wanted, and he knew exactly what he didn’t want. He called his servant Eliezer and made him to make a solemn oath that he will do everything to find Isaac a wife who is also a Jew, a relative, of the same belief, and with a servant’s attitude.
If we're going to reach our goal, the second thing we have to do is to define it. Be clear, be precise, get a picture of it. Visualize it. A vague (malabo, di malinaw) goal will never be achieved because you don't know how to get there. You don't know when you're there. You have to be very specific, a clear-cut image. You focus on your target. You define it.
Three questions to ask yourself here:
- Where do I really want to be? Ask yourself that. Force yourself to think bigger by asking yourself tough questions.
- What do I really want in life?
- How will I know when I get there?
When you set a goal for your life, you have to be specific. You say, "I want more income." How much? You say, "I want to travel." Where? You say, "I want to witness to somebody." Who? You say, "I want to read the Bible." How often? Be very specific about it. "I want a job." How far? Define your purpose.
What’s the dream as far as RHBC is concerned? Double the number of worshippers, disciples and servants here in our church in one year’s time. That's it. That's what we ought to pray about. That is a specific prayer that we can focus on. When you have a specific goal, you can visualize it and it draws you like a magnet.
- DISCOVER A PROMISE
Genesis 24:7 – “The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, To your offspring I will give this land – he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.”
What exactly did Abraham do here? He didn’t look at his own resources. He didn’t look at his own abilities. He didn’t look at what he can do. He looked at God!
Hebrews 12:2 – “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
After determining where we are at the moment and then defining our purpose, what we want, the next step is to find out what God wants to do. Don’t worry about how and all the problems you might encounter. That’s for later. Right now, you simply discover a promise. Find a promise that you can grab on to and claim. When you know God is on your side, your confidence soars. You know that you’re not just doing it on your own power. That is exactly what we need you to do: Believe God. If we can believe we can achieve. If our mind can conceive and our heart can believe, we can achieve it! AMEN?!
Study your Bible and you will find out that every time God performed a miracle He did it because somebody believe!
- DESIRE IN PRAYER
Mark 11:24 – “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
Is this true?! Of course, it is true! Whatever we ask for in prayer, if we believe and don’t doubt, it will be given to us. But then, it has to be consistent with what God promised you.
Question you ask yourself on this step is: How often do I pray about my goal? You may have never thought about it, but your prayer life reveals two things:
- It reveals your desire. How badly do I want my goal? Just look at your prayer life and how much you pray about it. Do you really mean business or is it just a passing whim? If it's just a whim, you'll probably mention it once. If you're serious about it, you'll bring it to God until it happens.
- It shows your reliance on God. Prayer says, "This is how I’m depending on God." If I don't think I need God, I'll just go out and achieve it on my own. But my prayer life shows how much I'm trusting God to help me with the goals.
- 12 – “Then he prayed `O Lord, God of my master, give me success today and show kindness to my master Abraham."
v.21 – “Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful.”
- 26, 27 – “Then the man bowed down and worshiped theLord, 27 saying, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”
v.52 – “When Abraham’s servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the Lord.”
Eliezar prayed continually. He was constantly worshipping, praying, praising God, giving thanks. He prayed before he went, he prayed after he arrived (v. 15), he prayed in front of the family (v. 52). All through the entire chapter, during the project he's constantly praying.
This is what we need to be doing here in our church! We need to be praying always, relying on God for everything.
Let me continue to challenge you to pray without ceasing!
- YOU MUST DESIGN A PLAN.
You must design a plan to reach your goal. Plan out a specific course of action. Write it out. Write it down on paper. Set some deadlines. Schedule it on your calendar.
Ask yourself two questions: How do I intend to get there? Specifically, step by step. How long will it take?
Eliezar's plan is a masterpiece. In v.10 it says, “Then the servant left, taking with him ten of his master’s camels loaded with all kinds of good things from his master."
He takes ten camels from Abraham who is a very wealthy man and loads them down with incentives for this new bride. What do you think he put on there? In v. 53 it says there was gold and jewelry, silver, articles of clothing. I'm sure he got the latest fashions from Jerusalem and stockpiled them all and headed off.
He goes and takes the camels and in v. 11 it says he comes to the city of Nahor and has the camels kneel down outside the town by the well. Every evening the women would come out and they would get water at the well and go back in.
He thought he'd have a little test. In v. 13-15 it says he sat up a test. "I'm going to get my camels to kneel down here and I'm going to stand here waiting and when all of these ladies come out I'm going to ask whoever I feel led to, to give me a drink of water. If she gives me a drink of water and then offers to water all my camels, I'll know she's the right one." Why do you think he set that up as a goal? I think because he was looking at her character. He wanted a woman with a servant's attitude, a servant's spirit.
You realize how much water camels drink? A lot! It's no menial task watering ten camels. She probably brought bucket after bucket load. It probably took her a long time to water those camels.
Sure enough, in v. 15, it says before he'd finished praying Rebekah came out. She came out. She was beautiful. She was a virgin. She had character. So Eliezar has this plan. He offered the test. If she passes the test, then, he'll show her the wealth.
Then he says the next thing is he'll ask about her family. His plan was to get invited to her home. Then his plan was to share his reason for coming with the parents. Then his final plan was to pop the question, "Will you go back with me?"
So he asked these things in a logical order. A lot of people miss these things in setting their goals. They set a goal and then have no steps in getting there.
You've got to have a plan. You've got to know where you're going. Write out some specific action steps.
First, determine your position. Where are you now? What’s your situation?
Second, define your purpose. What do you want? Where do you want to be? What’s the dream? Be specific.
Third, discover a promise. Don’t look at your own resources or your own abilities, look to God.
Fourth, desire in prayer. Your prayer life reveals your true desire and shows your reliance upon God.
Fifth, design a plan. How do you intend to reach your dreams? What steps are you going to take? How long will it take?
- YOU MUST DIAGNOSE THE PROBLEMS
Identify the roadblocks, the obstacles, the things that are holding you back.
Questions: Why don't I have the goal already? What's holding me back? What's the pitfall?
In Eliezar's case in this story, there were all kinds of problems. Eliezar had to make a proposal. He's to go to a foreign country he's never been to, find a lady he's never met, convince her to go back with him, a stranger, to marry a man she's never met. You talk about a difficult assignment...!
Eliezar has all kinds of problems here. In v. 21, he's got to find the right girl. In v. 49, he's got to get the consent of the parents. In 58, he's got to convince the girl to go back with him. There's all kinds of problems.
What's the problem here in our dream, in our goal? The problem is schedule. Ten people in each group. That means ten people with different schedules that need to be synchronized. Money. Can God do it? No doubt!
Look at the problems so you can start working on them.
- DISCIPLINE YOUR PERSONALITY
Nothing ever significant has ever been accomplished without discipline. It takes discipline and doing things you don't necessarily want to do.
The question you want to ask yourself here is: How do I need to grow personally? While you're working on the goal, God is working on you. God is much more interested in your character than in your project. He's interested in that too, but He's interested in you. So you ask yourself, "Where do I need to grow to reach my goal? Are there things I need to learn? Are there skills I need to develop? Are there attitudes I need to work on? Are there changes I need to make? Are there bad habits I need to let go of? What kind of person will I need to be with I reach the goal?" You work on self development.
Eliezar is a perfect example of discipline. There are so many examples in this passage. In v. 21, he was disciplined in his decisions. After he saw Rebekah and she passed the test, it says, "Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful."
He was not impulsive. He didn't make a snap judgment. The woman he chose, Isaac was going to have to live with the rest of his life. It's an important decision. He's not making an impulsive decision. He's disciplined in his decisions.
What is the principle? Anytime you're trying to reach your goal, sometimes you have to defer personal pleasure and after you reach your goal, then you reap the fruit of your rewards. Then you sit down and enjoy it.
- 49. He disciplined his words. He's very tactful. He says, "Now if you'll show kindness and faithfulness to my master tell me and if not, tell me so I may know which way to turn." He's tactful. He controls his tongue. If you're going to be successful in life, you have to learn to control your tongue. You can't just say whatever you feel. You discipline your words.
- 56 He disciplines his time. In v. 55 they had said to him, "Let the girl remain with us ten days and then you may go." And he says in v. 56 "Do not detain me now that the Lord has granted success." He didn't want to wait. They had made a deal. He wanted to get on with it. He moves ahead. He says, "I'm not here to procrastinate. I'm not here to waste time. I'm on a schedule." He disciplines himself.
During the next few weeks while we're working on this church project, God's going to be working on you and on me. There's going to be a time of great personal growth and He wants to increase our faith and deepen our commitments and expand our vision and jell our unity and personal development in our lives. That's what a church is. A church is not a building, it's people.
- YOU MUST DEPOSIT THE PRICE
This is where the truth of the matter comes out. The fact is, in any goal there is always a price tag to be paid. Everything worthwhile costs something. Even salvation. Salvation wasn't free. It cost Jesus Christ His life. It's a gift. But it sure wasn't free. Christ paid for it.
There's a price tag always to be paid in reaching a goal. A price in terms of time, money, energy, reputation. There are many different prices that we pay in order to reach our goals. Great goals require sacrifice. That's always a level of commitment. Some people only want to reach their goals if they're convenient. It takes a commitment.
In your goal setting you have to ask yourself at this stage three vital questions:
- What will it cost me? In terms of time, money, energy.
- What am I willing to give?
- Is it worth it? That's the bottom line. Is it a wise investment? The Bible says, "What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul?" What does it profit a man if he makes a million dollars and loses his family? You have to balance it out. What is it worth? Is the cause worth the cost? Is the prize worth the price?
In this instance the answer is "Yes." Eliezar, v. 52, deposited the price. It says, v. 53 "Then the servant brought out the gold and the silver jewelry and the articles of clothing and he gave them to Rebekah and he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother." He put forth the price.
This is the moment of truth for Faith Baptist Church. Three Sundays from now, we will begin to see what God is doing in the fulfillment of our goals. THERE IS A COST TO PAY!
God is going to do some fantastic things in the next 60 days here and the people who are going to enjoy it the most are the people who make the commitment of time, money, to pray, to serve, to help.
- YOU MUST DEPEND ON PEOPLE
God chooses to work through people. Aren't we suppose to depend on the Lord? Yes. But God uses people. And if people are not available it does not get done. God has used people in the last 4 or 5 weeks. Depend on people.
You will never achieve very much in life until you learn to get along with others. Success is never a one man show. It takes cooperation, teamwork, people working together.
The question you have to ask yourself is: Am I a cooperative person? Which is more important: my pride or the project; mMy way or the goal.
Consider the teamwork God has done in our church in the last few weeks.
What's the bottom line? In the next 60 days we must pull together. We must be unified. I can't do a whole lot on my own. You can't do a whole lot on your own. But together something significant can be done to capture the attention of this entire city. We need everybody working together. Everybody praying faithfully, everybody giving faithfully, everybody believing and expecting, volunteering where needed to make phone calls or do mail outs or run errands -- whatever.
Lenin, at the turn of the century, said this to less than 100 people. There were less than 100 Communists at the time. There are more people in this auditorium here today than there were Communists when Lenin said this. "We must train men and women who will devote to the revolution not merely their spare evenings but the whole of their lives."
With that kind of commitment with just a few people, today, two thirds of the world is Communistic.
What kind of revolution would we see in Novaliches if God's people would say "I will pray. I will give. I will serve. Is the cause worth the cost? You bet it is. You won't be in heaven five minutes until you say it was worth it all.
That's what God's going to do. He's going to do a miracle.
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