Today we come to the conclusion of our message series called “Keep Your Dream Alive.” In this series, we’ve been looking at how God worked in the life of Joseph to fulfill God’s dream for his life. We’ve been applying the principles that we’ve learned from Joseph’s life to our personal lives and dreams. However, when we think more closely about Joseph and his dream, we begin to realize that Joseph’s dream was not just a personal dream. Joseph’s dream was part of a much bigger plan of God to rescue the community of Israel and to help it grow strong for the Lord.
In the same way today, the dreams that God gives to us personally are part of a larger dream that God has for your church. None of us can fulfill our dreams from God alone. We need to be part of a larger dream in our church family in order to see our dreams come to pass. In the New Testament, every believer was part of a local church family. It was inconceivable that a believer would not be part of a church. Within that church family, each believer grew and lived out their dreams in the context of the church dream.
So today, my message is entitled “God’s Dream for Life Church.” I’m going to be talking about God’s dream for His church in general and Life Church in particular. I’ll be sharing how God gave me the seed of this dream 20 years ago and how it is now coming into reality here. The Bible teaches us that God is the one who builds His church. Jesus said in …
Matthew 16:18 (NIV) … I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Jesus tells us that He owns the church and He will build the church. Our task is to discover God’s dream for the church He is building and cooperate with Him. Jesus also warns us that there will be opposition to the building of His church, but His church will not be overcome, as long as we keep the dream alive. It was 20 years ago that God brought together my wife Carol and myself. As we were married, we knew that God was calling us to build His church together. Engraved within our wedding bands was the Scripture passage that would guide our lives and the church God was calling us to begin. It took many years for the dream of a new church to begin to come into reality. And just a couple of years ago, God enabled that new church to purchase our present church property. Now, finally, we have the campus that God destined us for many years ago. So, today, we’re going to look at that Scripture passage, that is engraved on our wedding bands and is at the heart of God’s dream for Life Church.
Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV) Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus’s commands here are often referred to as the Great Commission. The Great Commission applies to individual believers, but today, I’m going to concentrate on how it applies to the church as a whole and Life Church in particular.