Dream Great Dreams, Part 1

God delights to do impossible things through improbable people, to impart exceeding grace to undeserving recipients. But you know something? Nothing can ever happen until it becomes even the flicker of a thought. Nothing will ever happen in the future until that flicker of a thought becomes a desire that you would even be willing to think about that desire might happen.

And I’m talking about godly, God-honoring, things that would help lots of people. And then, that little desire has to flicker, and go into a flame, to where you have a dream that is birthed in your heart, in your life. And then, that dream becomes the target. It becomes something that you think about, and you pray about. And your energy, and your resources, and your priorities, and your focus – it gets around this dream that, if God would so decide to do it, it would be so impossible that everyone would know God, and God alone, has done it. And I want to talk about: how does it happen? How does God develop, birth dreams in people like you, and people like me?

Well, He invites ordinary people to dream something so great that it would be impossible, if God did not do it. He just invites you. It’s not mysterious. It’s not for a few special people, special times, somewhere. God invites ordinary people to dream something so great that it would be impossible, if God did not do it.

So, let me give you the biblical basis for sanctified dreaming.

First, God is able. Write that in. He’s able. He’s able to do the impossible. Jeremiah 32:17 says, “Ah, Lord God, behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You.” What if we believed that?

Nothing is too difficult for God. And just before you say, “Well that’s an Old Testament passage, and maybe that’s not really operating the same way it was,” okay, let me give you a New Testament one. Luke 1:37: “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Do you remember where that showed up? Mary is being told, “You are going to be the mother of the Messiah.” Mary is being told, “Guess what, God is going to visit the planet. The Second Person of the Trinity is going to come.” And she says, “I think we have a problem here. I’m a virgin.” “Mary, the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you. And by the way, don’t worry about the scientific deal, for nothing is impossible with God. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will be with child.” We need to first believe that God is able. But He can be able and we can say, “That’s great. He has the power to do it. I intellectually believe that.” That’s not enough.

Second, God is desirous. God is desirous. He not only has the power, and the ability, but God is desirous to not just plant a dream, but to do things in you and through you that are beyond what you could even think or conceive. You say, “Well where do you get that?” 1 Corinthians 2:9, the Apostle Paul says, “But just as it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’”

Take your pen out, and put a line under: eye hasn’t seen, ear hasn’t heard – are you ready for this? – and then, that last part: have not entered the heart of man. Now, doesn’t that sound like something a little bit bigger than you have in your mind right now? And what is it? God desires to do it. He stores up things that have never come into your mind, things that you’ve never seen, things that, in your wildest dream, you’ve never birthed. God desires to give, and has stored up, for those that are His children, to do things in you and through you for His glory.

But He’s not only able and desirous, He has made a promise. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” When you delight yourself in the Lord, then you begin to take delight in what God takes delight in. Your heart begins to beat with the things that beats with God’s heart. Your concerns begin to be God’s concerns. The things that are of God, the things that bring Him delight, His purposes for the world, and for the planet, and for people – you begin to delight yourself in your special relationship with Him, and what you get is, I want to please You, Lord.

But finally, I love this last one: God invites us. Psalm 2:8: “Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession.” Is that big, or what?

See, what we want you to know is that this isn’t something that might happen, someday, somehow, some way, with some group, somewhere else. This is what God is doing. And He is inviting you and inviting us.

How did those things happen? He spoke to individual people. He was able. He was desirous. He made promises, and He spoke to individual, improbable people. And He said, He whispered in their ear, when they couldn’t even believe it, I want to do something impossible through you.

In fact, if you think I’m pushing it a little, again, from the Old Testament, this is the very last night Jesus is on the earth.

“Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also.” “The works that I do” – think of what Jesus did: raised people from the dead. Fed five thousand on a few fish, and a couple pieces of bread. “The works that I do, greater works than these he will do.” Why? “Because I go to the Father.”

And here’s the invitation: “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything, I will do it.” Do you believe that?

The condition is, you’re asking things that align with the Word of God, you’re asking things that will bring glory and praise to Jesus.

God births dreams in His people. How does it work, functionally? I don’t know about you, but when I go through this biblical basis of sanctified dreaming, I always start thinking, Man, I think so small. I just – God, I’m thinking about life in terms of – and I don’t mean to do it – about what I can accomplish in my strength, in my time, doing it my way, for Your glory. And what You want to do is say, “Chip, that’s not what I want in your life. I want you to start asking what I could do through you. Not what you can do.”

Let me give you a little stroll through a biblical lane, if you will, about how God births dreams in His people. You ever wonder how this works? So, one of the things about me – and I never opened this book until I was eighteen – but what I love about it, it’s so earthy. It’s so real. We make these people like they’re so out there. And we put them in stained glass, and, “Oh, Peter! Founder; Rock.” Loudmouth, betrayer, loser, went back to fishing. “Abraham, the great man of the faith.” Liar: “She’s my sister! Please don’t kill me.” Rahab: former prostitute.

I read this book, and I’m thinking – I don’t know about you – I qualify. This is a book about very improbable people. In fact, some of you may be too good for God to use in a very significant way. You know? You just may have too much going for you. Because the people that God uses here, man, they’ve got baggage. They’ve got struggles. They’ve got sin.

I think about the great men that God has used, the great people God has used. Do you have to commit murder to be greatly used of God? Moses. David. Paul. Moses, David, Paul. Each, for different reasons, succumbed to the flesh, and did the most hideous of things that a human being can do to another human being. And they were forgiven, and they were restored. And God planted, not just a dream, but He changed the course of history, and fulfilled His purpose, through an improbable person.

How about you? Could it be that God brought you here, on this day, to pull the veil off your eyes, and get you thinking God-sized dreams? And saying, Lord, Dawson Trotman was a guy with a high school education. Cameron Townsend was some guy who didn’t have a lot going for him. But he dreamed a dream, and, now, all of those languages are being translated from the Bible.

Well, let’s talk about how it works. I want to get down to the very nitty-gritty. And the way I’ve done this is, I just did a little survey of some Bible characters. And I think there’s a principle from each one. How God births dreams in His people – let’s take Abraham.

First, He commands us to step out of our comfort zone. By the way, most dreams are done right here. If you are not willing to step out of your comfort zone, forget the dream stuff. Just listen to the first part of this, and give it to a friend and say, “You might like this. It’s not for me.” Unless you are willing to step out of your comfort zone, unless you are willing to take a risk, unless you are willing to do something where you step out, and you’re thinking, Oh, God, if You don’t help me, forget dreams. Because, without faith, it’s impossible to please Him.

And those who come to God must always believe two things. We always emphasize one, but not the other. Those who come to God must believe that He is who He really is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Do you believe He’s a rewarder? Do you believe that, when you step out with your time, when you step out with your money, when you risk in relationship, and get out there on the edge, that God is waiting, leaning over the throne of heaven, wanting to reward you, and help you, and bless you? See, that’s a part of what faith is.

Genesis, Chapter 12: Here’s Abraham. All of his family’s right around him. He gets a word from God: Abraham, I want you to leave everything. Here’s where I want you to go. “Where do You want me to go?” I’ll let you know later. “Can we go over that again?” Yeah, I want you to leave all the security, all the people, and all this land, with all its evil. I’ve got a whole brand new plan. And what I want you to do is just follow where I say. And it’s, go out of town, that direction, on that road. “And no destination?” No. “No map?” No. You just take the first steps of where I’m showing you. And as you keep walking, My Word to you will be a light unto your path, and a lamp that will show you where, one step of the way.

The first step in the birthing process of God’s dream in your life will be the same one with Abraham. You have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone.

Second, from the life of Joseph, we learn, He puts a dream within our hearts. This isn’t something you have to go out somewhere and say, “What’s some great, wonderful thing?” What are your passions? What are the things that, every time you see it, without understanding, your emotions start to well up? What is it that, when you hear about it, or think about it – your blood pressure goes up, your heart beats a little bit faster, and you catch yourself going, Ahhh?

See, God, he just, Joseph was just dreaming. And God put a dream in his heart because He had a plan for his life. And you remember, the dream that He gave him was, Joseph, I’m going to have you in a position where, you know what? Your brothers – in fact, your folks, they’re going to bow down to you.

Now, he wasn’t very mature. We’re often not very mature with our dreams. He blabbed, and he was kind of arrogant; he had some character issues to deal with. But a few times in prison, and a little bit of neglect – that’ll get your character where it needs to be.

And you know what? That’s what God does. He puts the dream in your heart. And often, as you move toward the dream, life does not get better at all. It gets worse. It gets worse. It gets worse. Because when God entrusts a great dream to a man, or a woman, the greatest danger is, they will get swallowed by the dream, and get caught up in their role in the dream. And so, He usually has to take you through some painful, difficult times, so you always know who the dream’s about.

And, so, Joseph’s character got to the point where, when he was the ruler of all the land of Egypt, he understood who God was. And he understood he is just a steward. And he was put in this role, and in this role, it was, “How, God, do I answer to You?” And what do we know? He preserved the entire nation. He saved God’s agenda, humanly speaking. But God will give you a promise. God will birth a dream. What’s yours? What’s yours?

I was pastoring in Santa Cruz – and I’m the most ordinary guy you’re going to meet. And I didn’t grow up in a Christian home. My grandfather wasn’t a pastor. I’ve shared my story. And I’m a coach. And I still, in my mind’s eye, just think I’m a coach, just on a different team. And what coaches know is, players win games. I’ve never seen a coach get out on the floor and go, “Hey, I scored forty tonight. What do you think?” Coaches find the right players, get the right people in the right spots, and cast a vision. And then, they help those players become all that they can become. And I’ve always been a coach. But I never dreamed I’d be a pastor coach. And, so, this church began to grow. And then the thing got on the radio, and that started to happen. And then, some people wanted to take some stuff and put it in the form of a book. And this dream, I didn’t know – all I knew was, God used my life.

And if you have never done this, I did something I’d never done: I said, God, I’m hitting this window of the forties, and the pull of the church, and the growth of the radio, and people wanting me to write these books, and You know what? This is, I’m an improbable person. I don’t know how to handle this. Will You show me how it all fits together? I’ll do whatever You want me to do, but, right now, I just feel like my heart and my emotions are just getting jacked around. And I feel pulled here, and pulled here, and I can see all the temptations, and it looks like a slippery slope. I could see how You could really use my life, or I could be one of those statistics, and get caught up with myself. I need to hear from You.”

And we went on a retreat, 1996, up to a little camp called Koinonia. And we were reading another Collins book, as a staff. And each staff member came up with big, hairy, audacious, we called them “dreams,” instead of “goals,” because we figured, men can achieve goals, but only God can fulfill dreams. Every staff member would come up with: “This is the dream for my area of ministry,” and then we get to pray, and have a strategic plan to get there. And we were ready to pull all the staff together, and each person was going to share, “This is my big, hairy, audacious dream for the glory of God.”

And I thought, Well, okay, great. And a buddy I worked with – I told you about him: Steve. I said, “Well, this’ll be good.” He said, “Yeah. Well, what’s yours?” I said, “What do you mean, what’s mine?” “Well, mine is that all these guys and gals fulfill theirs. And then that’s my dream.” And in classic, ex-football, coach-to-coach – you guys will understand this – he kind of looked at me, and went…and hit me right in the chest. Not real hard, but hard enough that it wasn’t all that fun. Boom! – like that.

And he said, “Come on, Ingram.” He said, “You don’t get away with that. Go out there. We got a half hour. Sit in the field. Ask God what your personal dream is. Everyone else has a dream. You’re the coach, but you’ve got to have one for yourself.” It was just a divine push from God. And I can still remember: I went out, sat with crossed legs, opened my Bible – and we’d have two or three days of great worship and great teaching. And we were all close to God. And I said, Lord, I’ve been asking about this. Will You just tell me what You want to do with my life? It’s all got to come together. And I sat quietly.

And I don’t come from an overly mystical background, okay? But this was one of those times. And I heard the Spirit of God prompt me and say, as clearly as an audible voice, Chip, I want you to be a catalyst to transform how America thinks about God, how pastors think about preaching, how churches think about their communities, and how everyday believers live out their faith, at home and at work. Do you want Me to go slower? Write that down. And, literally, I pulled out a pen, and said, literally, “Could You go slower?”

I want you to be a catalyst. You don’t need to be a big somebody. A catalyst is a small little something, put in a certain environment, that causes a chain reaction. Chip, I want you to be a part of lifting My name so there’s a high view of God. I want America to be transformed in how they think about Me. I want pastors to get back into preaching through the text, but in relevant, applicational ways. I want churches that dream dreams for their community, and get off building their own little kingdoms, and would team in their whole communities, and love each other, and pray and worship together, and reach their communities. And I want, the day has got to come where, at eleven o’clock, people live exactly the same way as they do eleven o’clock on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday. And how you drive the carpool, and how you do business deals, is exactly how you do it when you’re worshipping God.

And I wrote that down, and I went back, and I shared the dream that got birthed in my heart. And I was so embarrassed. Does that sound audacious, or not? You’re in one church, on the left coast, as some people would call it, and we’re on four radio stations, so, yeah, we ought to be able to transform how the nation thinks about God. And, you’re in the process of writing one book, but you don’t even know if it’s going to be any good, or maybe no one will ever buy it, and you hear this dream.

Here’s what you’ve got to understand: Abraham, you’re going to move out of your comfort zone. Joseph, He’ll birth a dream. And as he births it, if it is impossible, you’ll say to yourself, “How could this be?” Eight years later, what I realized was, it wasn’t just about helping America be transformed, and teaming with other pastors. It’s about what God wants to do in the world. But that birth of that dream, that became, I will tell you – that vision statement became the grid. Every decision that I’ve made, has been based on that vision.