You know, the last couple weeks we have been talking about chasing our dreams and discovering what God has for us as we chase our big God-given dreams. I love the tagline that goes along with the title of the book, and it goes something like this, if your dream doesn't scare you, it's too small. Chase the lion. That probably is something we really don't think about doing.
The sight of lions usually incites us to run in the opposite direction, wouldn't you say? But tonight we want to talk to you about how we get there. What does it look like to chase those big scary dreams? Let's invite the presence of God to continue with us in this place tonight as we hear his word.
God, we love you so much and we are grateful for the opportunity to be in your house. We are grateful, Father, that you place within our hearts dreams that are bigger than us. And God, we thank you that you help us to see those dreams come to fruition in our lives. We pray your blessing on the message tonight.
We pray that you would just enlarge our hearts, enlarge our visions, and help us to chase after the things that you have for us, Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen. In 2 Samuel, chapter 23 and verse 9, it says this, He was with David when they taunted the Philistines. Can you imagine yourself being with David when he taunted the Philistines? You know, life is a game of inches.
It is two-inch events that change our trajectory. The story is told of a 12-year-old boy on vacation with his family, and they were driving across country through the mountains when a car coming from the opposite direction drifted into their lane. The boy says he remembered two things in that instant. First, he remembers his mom screaming, and second, he remembers his dad swerving the car.
They were, after the end, when everything stopped, they were two inches from the edge of the cliff. And they were absolutely close to death. So close, they would have been gone in that moment if the car had moved just two more inches. The boy's name was Ed Catnell, now founder and president of Pixar Animation Studios.
What is making that popping sound? No, it's my microphone. Away from my face? Run away, run away.
Okay. The boy's name was Ed Catnell, now founder and president of Pixar Animation Studios. Movies like Toy Story, Cars, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., 17 pictures in all. Looking back on that close call, Ed said, two more inches, no Pixar.
He also pointed out how many Pixar employees have met, married, and have what he likes to call Pixar Kids. Catnell said, all those Pixar couples have no inkling of the two inches that could have kept them from meeting or their children from being conceived. Life is a game of inches. Defining moments we sometimes don't recognize until we get further down the road.
God is in the business of strategically placing us and positioning us in the right place at the right time. Have you ever looked back at a chain of events in your life and imagined God sitting at a huge chessboard, moving the pieces, us, just the right way to bring the outcomes we experience in our lives? Everybody besides me ever done that. I just envisioned that in my mind.
One that comes to mind in our family is the story of the Smiths and the Johnsons. Steve and Cathy Smith lived two doors down from us in the early 1990s. And our children had a few encounters with their children. We were neighbors for about four or five years.
We were casually acquainted and we invited Steve and Cathy and their family to church from time to time. Cathy actually, when it came time for us to move, we decided we needed to relocate because our family was growing. Cathy actually is the person who sold our house. She was not a realtor.
She just had a friend who was looking for a place and she brought the person that bought our house to us. As I was thinking about that tonight, I thought, why was she so helpful? I'm just teasing. That's just her personality to be a helpful person.
But after we moved, we would run into Steve and Cathy from time to time in different places in the city. And if you've ever been around the Smiths, they know people everywhere they go. And they just chatted up with them. They remember everybody's name.
They're great people. Then through a course of events, they were brought to Calvary Church and started attending our church several years ago. And their son, Andy, and our daughter, Jessica, got reacquainted and got married. And now Cathy and Steve and Mark and I are sharing a granddaughter and as soon to be new grandbaby come May.
And we are thrilled. That's awesome. When you think about how God was just moving all of those pieces, all of those lives, so they would come together at the right times and his will could be worked out. It's an awesome thing.
God is setting us up. We shouldn't believe so much in coincidence, but instead in God's providence. As we surrender our will to his, he directs our path. One of my favorite passages is Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.
It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. Eliezer was with David when they taunted the Philistines. God put him there.
He was in the right place at the right time with the right person. This two-inch event changed the trajectory of his life. In Revelation 3, 7, it says, what he opens, no one can shut. And what he shuts, no one can open.
Mark Batterson, the author of the book, points out that some of the greatest miracles in his life have been on the other side of a closed door. He says it was a closed door at Union Station that led to their future campus on Capitol Hill. You know, we should thank God not only for the doors he opens, but also for the ones he shuts. I can help you think of an instance in your life.
Think back to some of the people you dated when you were a teenager. Aren't you so glad that God shut some of those doors? Life can be so much clearer in retrospect. He has a master plan for us, and as we yield to his direction, it will most assuredly be meted out in our lives.
Uncovering what God has destined, called, and gifted us to do requires work. It's not easy. It doesn't just happen. It's just not coincidence, as I mentioned before.
This past spring, Mark and Michael and I were taking some time off down in Florida, and we watched a movie called, 42. Has anybody seen that movie? 42 is the story of baseball legend Jackie Robinson. 42 was his number on his jersey.
In 1946, Jackie Robinson made his debut as the first black player in the modern era of Major League Baseball. He hit a three-run homer in his very first game over the left field fence. And when he crossed home plate, the batter up named George Shuba extended his hand in a congratulatory gesture, which was a big deal at that time. An AP photographer captured that decisive moment.
That's what you see on the screen there. The band of the plate, George Shotgun Shuba, played ten seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and he was a member of a 1955 World Series Championship team. His swing was once described as being as natural as his smile. Now, Shuba laughed at this description because he said, in the off-season, he would swing a weighted bat every night, 60 times, and then mark an X on his chart.
After he reached ten Xs, he would give himself permission to go to bed. He practiced this daily ritual for 15 years. 15 years. And he said, you call my swing natural?
I swung a 44-ounce bat 600 times a night, 4,200 times a week, 47,200 times every winter. Swinging that bat every day during the off-season is what prepared him. He was ready because of his daily determination to work towards his dream. You know, some people are more naturally gifted than others, but unless that giftedness is coupled with a great work ethic, and it will only result in wasted potential.
You can be the talented person in the world, but if you don't work to be better, you are wasting your potential. Discovering the big dreams, discovering God's destiny for us, comes through many means, but mostly through prayer and hard work. You can't just pray as if it depends solely on God. You can't just pray and do nothing.
You also have to work as if it depends on you. It's your work ethic and your prayer ethic that will ench you closer to your dream. Our dreams come through our daily disciplines. A great case in point is this guy.
Will Smith, a fresh Prince of Bel Air and movie-dom fame, shares his secrets to success. I am not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked. You may be more talented than me.
You may be smarter than me. And you may be better looking than me. But if we get on a treadmill together, you are going to get off first, or I am going to die. Talk about tenacity.
Talk about stick-tutiveness. That is what Will Smith demonstrates in his statement there. And no matter what dream you are chasing, there are no shortcuts. You have to do your homework.
For Shuba, it was swinging the bat. For Will Smith, it was dress rehearsals. For Eleazar, it was sparring matches. The way you are living each day, the way you are living now, daily moving towards the dream and taking the actions required to get there.
Hearing an obeying God's prompting in your life prepares you for the dream ahead. If you are facing a struggle in your life, if you are aiming at a seemingly unreachable goal, if you are climbing up an unending hill, just keep swinging the bat. Every day, do what God directs you to do that will move you towards that dream. Daily disciplines bring our dreams to reality.
2 Samuel 23-10 says this. Eleazar stood his ground till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. Can you picture that? Can you conjure up that image in your mind?
He stood his ground until his hand froze to the sword. It must have been one of the greatest days in his life, the day he won that battle. But here is the thing. The day he won the victory was not the day he won the victory.
The victory was won the day before and the day before and the day before. Eleazar defeated his foe long before he met him on the battlefield. No one achieves their dream, his or her dream, without daily disciplines. Daily disciplines bring our dreams to reality.
Yes, I am being repetitive because that helps you learn. That is what I am told. There is a man by the name of Pablo Casals and he is widely considered the greatest cellist ever to draw a bow. He played for Queen Victoria when he was 22 years old.
He played for President Kennedy when he was 86. He lived to be 96 and up to that time he was still practicing three hours a day. When asked why Casals responded, I am beginning to notice some improvement. How awesome is that?
Can you imagine having that kind of drive in your life that just keeps moving you forward, always trying to improve, always trying to get better for 96 years? Wow. No one achieves his or her dream without daily disciplines. You get the music scholarship one rehearsal at a time.
Minimal practice does not make you a virtuoso. You get into shape one workout at a time. One visit to the gym does not make you fit. You get out of debt one payment at a time, you get your graduate degree one class at a time.
You get the job promotion one project at a time and you get the game ball one practice at a time. Whatever dream journey you are on you have to take it one step at a time. And if you keep doing the right things day in and day out, one day God is going to show up and show off. Think about it.
Can you imagine what it looks like to see God show off? I want to see that. We live in a culture that celebrates 15 minutes of fame, but God honors a lifetime of faithfulness. When the big dream arrives, we won't be surprised because we have done the work to get there.
Have you ever noticed in the major leagues, guys never look surprised when they hit a home run? Can you imagine if they did, if they hit the home run and they were like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And then they ran the bases. They don't do that.
They are so super cool. They know as soon as the bat connects with the ball, they stand at home plate and they just watch it, sail over the wall. That's exactly what they do. They just stand there.
They are laying back. And then they know, I watched this last night. It comes to it a lot last night. You see that?
One guy had six RBIs. That's pretty awesome. But they know as soon as the ball hits the bat that it's over the wall, these guys know that they have put in the work to catch their dream. Big dreams won't seem outlandish because of the lifetime of daily preparations to get there.
We must be faithful to pursue the dream each day. Batterson often uses the phrase, long obedience in the same direction. This, he says, encapsulates his philosophy of ministry and his philosophy of life. Keep doing the right things day in and day out.
Look out somehow, some way, some day. God is going to show up and show off. I would love to see that. Eventually, the blessings of God will overtake you.
I love thinking about that as well. I love to think of being overcome by the blessing of God. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever thought about something God has done in your life and it just overwhelms you?
Even the salvation experience could do that if we really thought about what God brought us from and saved us from. What would it look like in your life to be overcome by the blessing of God? I love the scripture that went along with this in Deuteronomy 28 verses 1 and 2. And this is from the message version of the Bible.
Moses is speaking to the Israelites and he says this, listen to the scripture. If you listen obediently to the voice of God, your God, and hardly obey all his commandments that I command you today, God, your God, your God, and your God. Your God will place you on high, high above the nations of the world. All these blessings will come down on you and spread out beyond you because you have responded to the voice of God, your God.
You should look that chapter up tonight and read on through the whole thing because it continues to talk about how his blessings will overtake you in all the different areas of your life as you listen and are obedient to his voice. Remember, God's word does not return void. He's watching over his word to perform it. He wants to see it fulfilled in your life as you live obediently to his direction, to his leading, to the movement of his spirit, in your heart, in your life.
He wants to perform his word in your life. And he who began a good work will carry it to completion. I love sports and I think we can learn some great lessons, some great life lessons from some of the dynamic champions in the sports world. One of those great champions is a man by the name of John Wooden.
Mark has read many books about his life and when Mark gets excited about a book, I get to hear a lot of the passages read aloud to me. So I've heard a lot of passages from his books read aloud to me. John Wooden was a legendary basketball coach. He won 10 NCAA championships with UCLA.
John Wooden lived by a simple creed. Make each day your masterpiece. What a beautiful way to look at life. What a beautiful way to start each day to see your day as a blank canvas waiting for you to paint the beautiful picture, to paint the masterpiece on the canvas by the way you live out your life, by the words that you say, by the actions that you take, by the way that you reach out to people who are in need or hurting or lonely.
Paint that masterpiece each day. The way you chase a dream is by making each day your masterpiece in short, win the day. Win the practice. Don't just show up and meet the minimum requirements.
Win every sprint. Give your best to every element of the practice. Don't be the last one dragging yourself over the finish line. Don't adopt the Allen-Iverson attitude towards practice.
You don't know what that means. Ask somebody who loves sports and they'll tell you. Win the class. Don't just turn in half the assignments.
Do everything required and more. Ask for extra credit. I taught school, junior high school for seven years, and I loved it when kids who are working hard would come to me and say, I want a better grade. Can you give me extra credit?
I love that drive and that determination I saw inside of them. Win the meeting. Don't just put your time in and add nothing. Don't be a bump on a log.
Engage. Be an encourager. Bring the team together. Pray for good ideas to help meet the goals.
Now let's stop for a reality check. Everything has been very positive at this point. You will have bad days. Guaranteed.
You like guarantees? You have the guarantee that you will have bad days. But here's the thing. Do not get stuck there.
Don't get caught up in defeat. Move on. Learn from your mistakes. Let them be character building moments in your life.
Seize the opportunity to build on what you learn from failure. You can learn things when you fail. It's not all about just, I've held. It's taking a look back and saying, okay, what could I have done differently to bring about a more positive outcome?
And really searching inside of yourself, searching the elements around the failure and all the parts that would show you. If I did this differently, maybe this would have turned out better. Minimize the losing streaks and maximize the winning streaks. Practice daily rituals that will inch you closer to your dream.
Then stack all your successes together. And the net result is long obedience in the same direction. Just plugging away. Day after day after day.
Doing what you feel like God has called you to do. Being tenacious, like Will Smith. Just staying on that treadmill. Even though it's hard work.
Even though it's frustrating at times. Just keeping on and moving in the right direction towards your dream. Daily disciplines bring our dreams to reality. You know, when the dream comes, you're going to know that you need God.
But you're comfortable with that because you've prepared. You've leaned in day after day. Swinging the bat just like George Shuga did. Day after day after day.
After David defeated Goliath, he undressed the giant and hung his armor. Which must have been quite a feat. Think about that. Undressing the giant.
I have had to undress a child that was dead asleep. And that's work. This dude was a giant. But David took the time to undress him and to take his armor and hang it in his tent.
Scripture tells us that that armor weighed about 125 pounds and 15 ounces. Probably as much as David weighed. So why would he go to the trouble of hanging it in his tent? Think about this ladies.
Trying to hang something that weighs 125 pounds and 15 ounces. Let's just say 126 pounds. Okay. 126 pounds on the wall.
Of a tent. Yeah. Why did he do it? Because the armor doubled as a life symbol.
It was a daily reminder of a defining moment in David's life. Every time the sunlight reflected off of those bronze scales and caught the corner of David's eye, it renewed his confidence in the God who was bigger than any giant he could ever face. We need to create traditions and symbols to remind us of God's faithfulness. After the Israelites defeated the Philistines, the Prophet Samuel built an altar and he called it Ebenezer.
Which means stone of help. Then Samuel said, thus far the Lord has helped us. Thus far the Lord has helped us. I think it's important for us in those moments in our life when we have victories to give credit to God.
To thank God and to recognize that without him we would succeed at nothing. And so that's exactly what Samuel was doing at this time. He was building an altar to mark the place where they had seen victory and to say thank you God for the help you have given us. And we recognize that it's because of you that we've won.
An altar reminds us that the God who did it before can do it again. The God who did it before can do it again. Several years ago my husband started talking about a 100-foot cross. I don't know if you can see the cross through the window tonight, can you?
Some people can, some can't. It just depends on where you're sitting. But he started talking about that. Kind of caught my attention.
And he said, you know, I would really like to build a big cross in our community. And we would see crosses as we traveled different places and he would talk about how he would someday like to build a cross in Springfield. So it grew beyond our traveling conversation two things we began to talk about among our staff. We talked about it with our team.
We discussed what it would represent and what it would say about our church, about Calvary Church. We shared the vision with the church. We planned. We shared the vision with people in our community.
We asked and we prayed that it would be a beacon to all who saw it. And that it would compel people towards Christ. Guess what? God did it.
Thus far the Lord has helped us. We have been told multiple times about the drawing power of our cross and how it has led people who have just passed by on the highway into life-changing conversations. And to people being drawn into Calvary. People will fill out those cards you see in front of you in the seat back.
And on that card when it says how did you hear about Calvary? We had had person after person right down. We saw the cross and we felt like we should come. That was a big dream.
And now we're seeing the results of that dream and the prayers over that dream as we move through our community and talk with people that are new to our church. I believe the cross through this window is our altar. It's the altar of Calvary Church. And it reminds us that the Lord has helped us.
That there is much more ahead and that He will help us again. Tonight we are sitting in a sanctuary. Our children are at Guasahal and our teenagers are across the town. We have a dream.
And even though we can't see how we're going to get there, my husband shared with me that God has told him, and it was before I ever studied for this lesson, that God has told him to keep moving. Even if you don't know how it's going to happen, keep moving and God's going to help us. That's so exciting to me. Every time we look at our cross, we need to find strength to do the work to move towards the dream every day.
Every time we look at our cross, we need to be reminded that daily disciplines bring our dreams to reality. Every time we look at our cross, we need to remember God has done it before and He can do it again and He will do it again. Let's pray. Father, we love you so much.
And God, we are grateful to you for all that you have done in our lives as individuals and all that you have done through the ministry of Calvary Church. God, we believe that you are smiling upon us and that as we persevere every day, and we keep moving towards the dream that you've placed in our hearts, that we will sense your strength, sense the power that you bring to our lives, and that we will see that dream come to fruition. God, that we will not be surprised when it happens because we know that we've done the work day after day after day. Use us, unite us, and let us get glory and honor to you each time we catch a dream.
We love you so much, Lord, and we thank you that you enable us to do things that are bigger than we are. And we're just believing that we will see more and more of that in the days ahead. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.