Today, our message is called “A Dream Reborn.” We’re going to be talking about dreams or visions for your future. A dream or vision for the future gives you hope. A dream for the future helps you plan and focusses your energy and time. God wants you to have a dream for the future. If you don’t have a dream, then life can be very depressing and you won’t accomplish what God has for you. Some people have a dream about their future, but it’s not from God.
Proverbs 28:19 (NIV) He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.
A fantasy is simple a dream of your own making, a dream that is not from God and leads to ruin. But God has a dream for your life and He wants you to know it and fulfill it.
Acts 2:17 (NIV) In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
As you follow God, He will give you His dream for your life. But every dream from God is tested, it is tried, to see if you have the faith to see it to completion. Just because you have a dream from God doesn’t mean that it will be achieved. Many people have dreams from God that they fail to realize. Oftentimes, your dreams from God will be tested to the point you will think they are impossible to fulfill. Oftentimes, your dream will seem all but dead. You will be tempted to give up on your God-given dream. But don’t do that, because God can bring that dead dream back to life and your dream will be reborn.
Today, we’re going to see these principles played out in the life of Abraham. Abraham had a dream, he had a promise from God. God had promised Abraham that he would have a son and from his son a nation would be born. For many years, Abraham and Sarah were childless, but one day, the son of promise, Isaac was born. It seemed as if Abraham’s lifelong dream from God had been fulfilled. But God’s testing of Abraham’s faith was not yet completed. God was going to test Abraham in one of the most severe tests that any human being has ever been tested by.
Hebrews 11:17-18 (NIV) By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”
Abraham’s dream was wrapped up in his one and only son Isaac, whom God now asked Abraham to sacrifice. Today, we’re going to go through this story found in Genesis 22 and see how it applies to our lives and dreams.