DREAM - Seize Your Tomorrow Today 1

Are you doing tonight he's increasingly welcomed the Turning Point you feel more comfortable.

Looking back on your love for booking for the next if you go to school you could cite Jeremiah begins a new series called to help you find passion and purpose for what lies ahead.

As you will discover the journey begins with a drink just three cities will tomorrow take you for joining us this is the very first program from a brand-new series based on the book that just releases this month called forward discovering God's presence and purpose in your tomorrow. It's a book about getting unstuck about getting out of the past into the present and into the future.

It's a book I believe in deeply, because I think it's where we are and what we need for such a time as this to talk about what it means to have a vision for your life what it means to ask God to give you a dream for the future time for you to visualize what God might want to do in your life tomorrow.

Right now I was to get started with the very first lesson. It's called dream sees your tomorrow today when we think of great dreamers like George Lucas must Walt Disney anyone who seen a Star Wars movie. Read about electric cars are visited Disney World knows that great accomplishments begin with one persons larger than life imagination.

Walt Disney's dream began with cartoon sketches to failed companies in a borrowed book on animation in time he brought beloved characters to life created classic films and built Disney World, Disneyland, and the center created the happiest place on earth and became known as the man who made dreams come true.

Disney's public persona was uncle Walt smiling man who kindly signed autographs in a tweed jacket while puttering down Main Street in the French top car driven by Mickey Mouse, but behind the scenes. The real Walt Disney was a demanding hardcharging man of a million ideas. Exasperated, family and colleagues. His life was a whirlwind of visionary projects that exhausted his associates and literally change the world.

When this thing was diagnosed with lung cancer.

He was still planning movies developing theme parks and mulling over his newest idea and experimental prototype community of tomorrow or God as he led his deathbed with his brother Roy sitting nearby. Walt looked up at the hospital ceiling tiles raised his finger and every fourth child. He said represented a square mile using that mental map. He suggested routes for his envision highways and monorails. Having said all that I believe will Disney's dreams were too small.

Believe it or not, you and I can dream bigger dreams than Disney ever conceived. It's one thing to invest one's life in the Magic Kingdom and it's quite another to play a part in the kingdom of God as followers of Christ we can cultivate a dream for our lives that outlasts the world transforms time changes eternity and advances his cause and his kingdom for his glory. In fact, that's the story. The Bible the Bible is filled with people who saw what life could look like in God's kingdom and then moved forward in faith, Abraham, dream of a great nation when he was yet childless, Moses envisioned a free people, and the Israelites were still making bricks without straw. Joshua envisioned and occupied land Sampson of the pleated enemy and David Temple on the hill. Nehemiah build miles of reconstructed walls in his prayers before a single stone was laid. Daniel glimpse the future kingdom, Peter established church and Paul a global mission.

All the stories the dreams of men and women of God thousands of years ago still inspire and guide and affect us more than we know. They remind us to keep dreaming there's always more out in front of us, always a reason to look forward to tomorrow.

By the way what I'm talking about a dream I'm not describing a self-made vision of your life apart from God's will and I'm not using the word as the ancient prophets did with supernatural visions of inspired revelation came across them. I'm not talking about seeing heavenly creatures or having apocalyptic dreams know.

Instead I'm talking about envisioning the next step or the next stage of your life. A dream or vision is simply a picture of what you feel God wants you to do next stop for just a moment about the power of a dream non-cool was born into a Jewish family and kid of Ukraine in 1976 during the Soviet era when anti-Semitism was rampant. There was no running water in their home and his parents were seldom together because of work they assume their phone was tapped so they have limited contact with the world and Jan grew up with the constant feeling of being bugged and surveilled when he was 16. Jan and his mother immigrated to California is that I plan to come later, but died before he could make the trip. Jan's mother found work as a babysitter and Jan swept floors to help pay bills when he got his first computer in high school. He taught himself programming by buying used computer manuals that skill led to a job as an Internet security tester and later he was hired by Yahoo.

One evening Don visited the home of Alex Fishman, who often invited the local Russian community to his home for pizza and movies 40 or so people showed up. And that's where John's dream was born.

He wanted a way for people to stay in touch without big brother listening an encrypted phone app laughs with the new thing that Jan had bought his first iPhone and visited one of the first app stores a few months before. He wondered if an app could actually help people connect safely around the world. He remembered the difficulty of communicating with his family in Ukraine and the expense involved. He also shuddered as he thought of being monitored began to envision an app that would safely connect people around the world thought of the name WhatsApp because it sounded like what's up Jan found some cheap cubicles in a converted warehouse and work day and night covering himself and blankets to stay warm and instead of making money.

He drained his bank account.

This was during the great recession of 2009. Who launches a startup downturn still Jan cool and his partner from Yahoo days. Brian acted worked on. We won't stop until every single person on the planet has an affordable and reliable way to communicate with their friends and loved ones.

Jan promised and when he sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $19.3 billion. He chose an unusual place to sign the papers and all-white building that used to house the social services office in the California town work. Jan went to school. He and his mother had stood in line in front of that same building years before to collect food stamps when Jan Kuhn had nothing. You actually have the one thing many people never find he had a dream despite hardship against great odds vision of a better tomorrow. Drove him forward in his life.

That's what a dream can do for you and you don't need a computer, a movie studio or themepark to realize it. All you need is a picture of what you're tomorrow could be as you follow Jesus Christ. Lillian Treas. had that kind of a dream.

At the beginning of the last century. Lillian was working in an orphanage in North Carolina when she felt God's call to pursue missionary work in Egypt. The call was so strong that she broke off her engagement with her fiancé did not share the vision. She sold her belongings boldly booked passage to a foreign country with less than $100 in her purse. One day she was asked to go to the bedside of a dying young widow who begged Lillian to care for her malnourished baby girl. Lillian agreed and began the first orphanage in Egypt. Those first years were filled with great difficulty in limited support. Lillian persevered to realize her vision of not only an orphanage, but also schools an evangelistic ministry. By the time of her death in 1961. Lillian had cared for more than 8000 orphans and touched thousands of others. The organization she founded the Lillian Treas. orphanage still serves the meeting in Egypt today for me the best part of Lillian story was the prayer she offered to the Lord when she was just a child.

She never forgot it. I'm sure the Lord didn't forget it either. She said Lord I want to be your little girl and if I can ever do anything for you just let me know and I'll do it. Can you think of a simpler prayer than that. Try Lord, if I can do anything for you just let me know and I'll do it. So if vision is so important how you build your vision.

There are many biblical models you could follow. But I believe the best example of dream building in the Bible is the story of King David's vision to build a temple for the Lord atop Jerusalem's Mount Moriah for hundreds of years Israel had worshiped around the framed remains of the tabernacle. The elaborate tent that was constructed in the days of Moses as a portable house of worship, but now the nation was occupying the land God had promised that Jerusalem was its capital. So David began dreaming of a permanent place where people could worship for centuries to come. David's story reveals the principles that you and I can follow as we build our own dreams. Principle number one wrote your dream in the history and second Samuel seven David told the prophet Nathan C.

I dwell in the house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains. He said they would go ahead and do it. So David grabbed hold of his dream and begin moving forward to see its fulfillment.

But David's idea to build the temple didn't just proof into his head like an exploding nebula, although it was rooted in the history of Israel see centuries before God told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice and burnt offering on a distant mountain and God was specific about the mountain not just any hilltop would do know it had to be Mount Moriah thousand years later when David and then Solomon plan to build the Jewish Temple. They placed it on that very mountain, Mount Moriah, David's vision for the location of his temple had roots as deep as Genesis 22 it was grounded in the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only begotten son is a burnt offering and is no coincidence that a thousand years after David Jesus Christ gave himself as an offering for sin on or near that very rich from Abraham and his son to David and his temple to Christ and his cross.

Everything was a link that each event had its roots in the one that proceeded to seek the best dreams don't start with us but instead are planted in us by God.

If it isn't rooted is rotten.

We stand on the shoulders of others.

We are links in the chain that we build on what others have done. Even his future generations will build on the work that we have done. That's why it's all right to look around for ideas and see what other people are doing. We get ideas from history and from how others are inspired to act today to develop your dream, think about your heritage what you love to do new life experiences. Think about your background everything in your life has prepared you for the next step so look at what's already happening in your life and in your church start when you are and work out word for word with your dream and history. Second, reproduce your dream and a picture is ideas and intentions begin to bubble up in your heart and mind. You need to figure out where to begin and how to implement your dream so you have to nudge the abstract burden into a real life plan.

After all, for your vision to touch others, it must become as practical as Esther's dinner. David's slingshot Gideons torches. The boys lunch of bread and fish in the good Samaritans wine and oil. In Paul's pin.

But David's idea to build a temple didn't just proof into his head like exploding nebula. Remember that David had a plan. We never know how a single detail born from a visionary mind will be used by the Lord in helping us experience a great let me tell you what I've learned visionaries have an uncanny ability to see their dreams and conveying them in images bathtub. David built the impetus for his temple project as we have seen, David's dream began when he told the prophet Nathan quote see now I dwell in the house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtain. The temple wasn't some abstract concept know it was a vision that filled David's mind in Technicolor. He was able to convey that image to others and motivate them to action by drawing a contrast look at my palace with discounted walls and glorious bulwarks and look at that frame tent called tabernacle should be God's house be better than any home of yours or mine is the ability to see what could be in the future is essential to straining forward toward the realization of your dream. I've been a pastor now for right at 50 years I've been involved in 10 building programs in my career by God's grace. I've been able to see everyone of those buildings in my mind before they showed up in the blueprints. I don't know how you can fulfill a vision unless you can see it in your prayers and in your dream is a good illustration. One day when land was sightseeing in New Mexico, who had his three-year-old granddaughter with them and they were taking pictures of things that interested them little girl was impatient to see how the pictures turned out she wanted to know why she couldn't see them right away land took a short walk in the desert and ponder that question. By the time he returned he had visualized a camera that would develop its negatives instantly. He saw the whole thing in his mind and he went on to invent the Polaroid land camera. One of the most successful photographic products of the 20th century, describing how he invented the camera land later said you always start with a fantasy part of the fantasy technique is to visualize something as perfect then with the experiment you work back from the fantasy to reality hacking away at the components having a dream for tomorrow men and women isn't just a matter of feeling a generalized burden may start their yearning to feed the hungry or help the homeless evangelize the world. But as your vision develops, it takes on distinct and detailed images you could see yourself rolling up your sleeves and getting a grip on the very things needed to press forward with your dream you can convey to others in a way that excites them. Worry if you can't see the final fulfillment of your long-term dreams. We will walk through the practical steps toward reaching success in the time to come.

But for now, what matters is being able to imagine your dream in a way that captivates both others and you and then number three not only Richard dream in history and reproduce your dream in the picture. Reinforce your dream with determination. David discovered that every dream faces discouragements-give testimony to that. That's part of the process of proving its validity. David's dream for the temple excited him like nothing else in his whole life. He was fired up and ready to go either to leave the campaign to build could see it in his mind's eye.

Every time he looked from his palace roof top toward Mount Moriah. He was ready to see his dream accomplished but then if you know the story.

The roof caved in.

God told David he would not be allowed to build the temple because of his violent past. Here's what God said David you shall not build a house for my name because you have been a man of war and have shed blood. It is your son Solomon, who shall build my house and my courts talk about the death of a vision or how many of my visions have died and each time it feels like a small part of my heart dies with it. I have this little place near my house where I go and park my car and pout when a dream of mine doesn't pan out.

I think through it. I surrender things back to God. And then I drive away, looking forward through the windshield and not backward in the rearview mirror, but David didn't count for long. I love the story he told himself something like this. Well if I can do it myself. God has appointed the task for my son Solomon that others do. All I can to help them succeed in refusing to give up on the project because he was taken out of the driver seat.

David illustrated a core value of dream building.

No dream is ever realized. Without a huge measure of determination.

If you go to see you dream through you have to be determined.

My story of my oldest grandson David Todd.

One of our family Christmas traditions in the Jeremiah family is assembling jigsaw puzzle this year. David Todd joined in enjoyed it so much that he told his roommates about it when he got back to college and they decided to tackle a puzzle together. To my amazement, they bought a 2000 piece puzzle. I've never even thought of doing one of that many pieces so what did he and his friends do.

Determined to complete what they started. They took 10 days to finish the puzzle around their regular obligations and then I got a phone call from a very frustrated David Todd is a copy of puzzle is done, but we can find the last piece. There's one piece missing one piece out of 2000.

So what did he do they went back to the store they bought the very same puzzle in another box they use the box top as a guide and they went through all 2000 pieces of that other puzzle till they found the culprit and with great satisfaction. They snapped that final piece in the place.

The completed puzzle now hangs on the wall, bearing the signatures of everyone who helped. I don't know if I would ever have the determination to do that. I mean the puzzle is just a fun project. A simple shared goal among a bunch of friends but there determination to achieve that goal was real.

The picture on the box top was both vision and guide showing them their goal as well as the exact puzzle piece they needed to achieve it. God's vision as a guide for you to follow to and what God places his dream in your heart, you become more determined and dedicated and you press on to make sure the work is fitting is what determination will do when you put puzzle together determination so important as you perfect your dream. See you next time right here for more information on the Jeremiah's current teaching series, please visit our website.

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