Dreams May Die But God …
It was Edgar Allen Poe who once said, “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only by night.” [1]
Dreams can inspire people to accomplish things great and small – winning a marathon, becoming a doctor or nurse, raising a family, becoming president of the country, and so on. Dreams can come to you at night or during the day. Others may plant the seed of the dream or you may have the dream on your own. Dreams can be induced by sleep, by drugs, or by the God Himself.
What is the difference between God-given dreams and other dreams?
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senior, was a doctor. As such he was very interested in the use of ether. In order to know how his patients felt under its influence, he once had a dose administered to himself. As he was going under, in a dreamy state, a profound thought came to him. He believed that he had suddenly grasped the key to all the mysteries of the universe. When he regained consciousness, however, he was unable to remember what the insight was. Because of the great importance this thought would be to mankind, Holmes arranged to have himself given either again. This time he had a stenographer present to take down the great thought. The either was administered, and sure enough, just before passing out the insight reappeared. He mumbled the words, the stenographer took them down, and he went to sleep confident in the knowledge that he had succeeded. Upon awakening, he turned eagerly to the stenographer and asked her to read what he had uttered. This is what she read: "The entire universe is permeated with a strong odor of turpentine." [2]
God-given dreams are consistent with His word, His character, His purposes. Most importantly, they are affirmed by God. We may discover His dream through prayerful study, godly counsel, a variety of life circumstances … but the Bible says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9, NIV).
How do you handle life when your dreams are shattered? What do you do when your God-given dream fails to materialize? Our study in 2 Kings 4 will reveal some insights from God’s word on how believers are to deal with broken dreams.
Scripture: 2 Kings 4:1-37
Main Point:
Because of God’s constant grace toward His children, believers in Christ are to trust in Him even when our dreams are shattered. Because of God’s nature and infinite power, believers can rest assured that God can bring into being whatever He wills. Through faith, God makes a way.
Outline:
1. The Dream of a Future Died With Her Husband - But God…
2. The Dream of a Legacy Died With Her Son - But God…
3. Dreams May Die But Jesus Lives!
1. The Dream of a Future Died With Her Husband - But God…
1 The wife of a man from the company of
the
prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you
know that he revered the LORD . But now his creditor is coming to take
my two
boys as his slaves."
2 Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what
do
you have in your house?"
"Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a
little oil."
3 Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for
empty
jars. Don't ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut
the door
behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is
filled,
put it to one side."
5 She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and
her sons.
They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When
all the
jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one."
But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped
flowing.
7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell
the
oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left." (2
Kings 4:1-7, NIV)
This woman was the wife of one of the prophets in training, a seminary student if you will. Like many seminarians, he was quite poor. Now he is quite dead.
The dream of a future home with her family was instantly gone. Hard enough it was that her husband had died. Now there were debts owed that could never be paid. From her vantage point, the dream was shattered and gone. A nightmare took its place.
Is the dream of a home a godly dream? It can be. Then again, if God intends for you to be flexible, mobile, and ready for His service elsewhere, a home could constrain your ministry. So it is not a question that can be answered with a “yes” or “no” statement. Certainly it is a normal and honorable dream.
When is a dream merely an obession? JR Woodward tells this story:
As I was exploring which city in California God would have our team start a new church, I met an extraordinary pastor. He is what they call a "turn-around" pastor. He finds dying churches and helps bring them back to life, sometimes using shock treatment. This turn-around pastor told me about a church in Hollywood that was dying. It was a well-known church that many famous people had attended at one time. But when this man visited just a few years ago, it had only thirty members, all of them white with graying hair. The neighborhood is a lot different today than it was when the church started. Today there are people from dozens of different nations that live there.
This church was dying because they had no dream. They no longer cared for the people in the area. All they really cared about was their comfort and the choir loft. They would constantly argue about it - who was going to polish it this week or what color they were going to paint it next year.
Because the church was $280,000 in debt and had a $3,000/month negative cash flow, selling the building was all but inevitable. Pastor Ed, my friend, was brought in as a last ditch effort to try and save this church. After a few weeks of interviewing, the church board decided to accept him their pastor. Little did they know what would happen next.
It was time for Pastor Ed to give his first, shocking message. He stood in front of the thirty gray-haired people with a sledge hammer in his hand. He then proceeded with his message, swinging the sledge hammer, and totally destroyed the choir loft, eliminating what they idolized. After that Sunday the church was left with ten members. Pastor Ed began afresh with these ten people.
Today the church is filled with life, full of people from many different backgrounds that represent the neighborhood. What was a dying church, came to life because it started to dream God-given dreams again!
The woman had nothing but a little oil. What do you do – give up? No, you give it to God. Is there a real problem or need in your life. Listen to this:
But God …
There is “But God …” for this situation.
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19, NIV)
When you turn to God by
faith, you
find the infinite resources of His wisdom and power. Even if you
have only a
little faith (like the woman only had a little oil), God can meet your
needs
and grow you into something truly beautiful in His sight. She
still had to get
the jars for the oil. God uses you and other godly people, even
ungodly people
sometimes, to meet your needs. But God … is always faithful to
His promise.
2. The Dream of a Legacy Died With Her Son - But God…
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, "I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let's make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us." . (2 Kings 4:8-10, NIV)
The Shunammite woman was “well-to-do” (v8) meaning she was wealthy. But she was also generous. Knowing that Elisha was God’s prophet, she offered him a room with ample provisions for his work. From Elisha’s home near Mt. Carmel, he would have traveled past Shunem quite frequently in his journeys.
11 One day when Elisha came, he went up
to his room
and lay down there. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, "Call
the
Shunammite." So he called her, and she stood before him. 13
Elisha said to him, "Tell her, 'You have gone to all this trouble for
us.
Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king
or the
commander of the army?' "
She replied, "I have a home among my own people."
14 "What can be done for her?" Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son and her husband is old."
15 Then Elisha said, "Call her." So he called her, and she
stood in the doorway. 16 "About this time next year,"
Elisha said, "you will hold a son in your arms."
"No, my lord," she objected. "Don't mislead your servant, O man
of God!" . (2 Kings 4:11-16, NIV)
When it comes to God-given dreams, what dream is too big? The truth is this: there is no God-given dream that is too big for God. And you do not have to have great faith to accomplish the dream. Even with little faith in the Almighty God, really big dreams can become a reality. Now here is the first “But God …” for the Shunammite woman:
17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her. (2 Kings 4:17, NIV)
God spoke to the prophet Habakkuk about God-given dreams/visions:
For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. (Habakkuk 2:3, NAS)
And so we have the truism: “God is never late but rarely early.” The Shunammite woman was granted a son very late in life (for her, this was a great blessing).
18 The child grew, and one day he went
out to his
father, who was with the reapers. 19 "My head! My head!"
he said to his father.
His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother." 20
After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the
boy sat
on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21 She went up and
laid him
on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
22 She called her husband and said, "Please send me one of
the
servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and
return."
23 "Why go to him today?" he asked. "It's not the New
Moon or the Sabbath."
"It's all right," she said.
24 She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, "Lead on;
don't slow down for me unless I tell you." 25 So she set
out
and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. (2 Kings 4:18-25, NIV)
When asked what he thought about when he struck out, Babe Ruth said, “I think about hitting home runs.” [3]
When the Shunammite woman lost the God-given dream of her legacy (a son), what was she thinking about? Surely the woman was grieving. Yet she wasted no time acting on her faith in God. She immediately set out to find the prophet Elisha.
When he saw her in the distance, the man of God
said to his
servant Gehazi, "Look! There's the Shunammite! 26 Run to
meet
her and ask her, 'Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your
child
all right?' "
"Everything is all right," she said.
27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took
hold of
his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said,
"Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it
from me and has not told me why."
28 "Did I ask you for a son, my lord?" she said.
"Didn't I tell you, 'Don't raise my hopes'?"
29 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt,
take
my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him,
and if
anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy's face."
30 But the child's mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives
and as you live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her.
31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy's
face, but
there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and
told
him, "The boy has not awakened."
32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying
dead on
his couch. 33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them
and
prayed to the LORD . 34 Then he got on the bed and lay upon
the boy,
mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself
out upon
him, the boy's body grew warm. 35 Elisha turned away and
walked back
and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out upon
him once
more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite."
And he did. When she came, he said, "Take your son." 37
She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took
her son
and went out. (2 Kings 4:25-37, NIV)
We see in verses 27-28 that her dreams were seriously shattered. This is where the faith of many fails. Because God appears, keyword “appears,” to have failed, some turn away from God in anger and denial. It was the great preacher Spurgeon who said, “God is too good to be unkind. He is too wise to be confused. If I cannot trace His hand, I can always trust His heart." [4]
The Shunammite woman had not the courage to even dream of a legacy. But once God provided this dream for her, she insisted that the prophet not dash her hopes by allowing the child to die. She also insisted on staying with the prophet until he came to her dead son.
Her faith was certainly in the right place. Faith in God is never misplaced when the “god” you serve is the Creator of all and Savior of all, the LORD Jesus Christ. Remember the believers in the Old Testament placed their faith in God and His promise of a Messiah (Christ) who would deliver us from sin and Satan’s grasp once and for all. They did not have the full revelation of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Their faith was in God and in His promises. As the Bible says about Abraham, “Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6, NIV). And that kind of faith is enough. Why?
But God …
He raised her son from the dead through the prophet Elisha.
3. Always Remember That Dreams May Die But Jesus Lives!
You may recall the story often told at Christmas about the angels appearing to the shepherds in the fields at night. They told the shepherds about the birth of the LORD Jesus:
10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord…
You may recall the story often told at Christmas about the angels appearing to the shepherds in the fields at night. They told the shepherds about the birth of the LORD Jesus:
16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (Luke 2:10-20, NIV)
There was another woman who lost a son. Her name was Mary, the mother of Jesus. As we see from this text, extraordinary things were revealed to her by the angels of God about her son – who was really God’s Son – and His incredible mission to be the Savior of the world. The Bible says, “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19, NIV). She had a God-given dream about her son.
25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," 27and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (John 19:25-27, NIV)
What do you think happened to Mary’s dream at this point? Her son gave her away and died. But God had promised that her son was “Christ the LORD”
But God …
23This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. (Acts 2:23-24, NIV).
Because Jesus lives,
everything
changes about your life. If you trust in the LORD Jesus Christ as
your Savior,
there is always a “But God …” for every situation you
encounter. You
just have to trust in Him no matter how dark the day or long the night.
Conclusion:
… what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. (Ephesians 1:19, NAS).
© Copyright 2004, Randy Lariscy.