DREAM - Seize Your Tomorrow Today

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Welcome to Turning Point Weekend Edition. King David's vision of building a temple for God is a vivid example of dreaming big. Today, Dr. David Jeremiah looks at the importance of trusting God with your dreams. Listen as David shares his message, Dream. Seize your tomorrow today.

And thank you for joining us for the Weekend Edition of Turning Point. Today we begin a discussion about going forward and the importance of getting unstuck. It all begins with a dream. It begins with a vision. It begins with your seeing the importance of tomorrow and seeing it today.

It's next right here on the Weekend Edition of Turning Point. When we think of great dreamers, we think of people like George Lucas, Elon Musk, or Walt Disney. I mean, anyone who's seen a Star Wars movie, read about electric cars, or visited Disney World knows that great accomplishments begin with one person's larger than life imagination. Walt Disney's dream began with cartoon sketches, two failed companies, and a borrowed book on animation. In time, he brought beloved characters to life. He created classic films and built Disney World, Disneyland, and the Epcot Center. He created the happiest place on earth and became known as the man who made dreams come true. His life was a whirlwind of visionary projects that exhausted his associates and literally changed his world. When Disney was diagnosed with lung cancer, he was still planning movies, developing theme parks, and mulling over his newest idea, an experimental prototype community of tomorrow, or Epcot. As he lay in his death bed with his brother Roy sitting nearby, Walt looked up at the hospital ceiling tiles, raised his finger, and every fourth tile he said represented a square mile.

Using that mental map, he suggested routes for his envisioned highways and monorails. Having said all of that, I believe Walt 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 a 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. By the way, when 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 when supernatural visions of inspired revelation came across them. I'm not talking about seeing heavenly creatures or having apocalyptic dreams.

No, instead, I'm talking about envisioning the next step or the next stage of your life. A dream or a vision is simply a picture of what you feel God wants you to do next. 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 frayed 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, and 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, root your dream in history. In 2 Samuel 7, David told the prophet Nathan, see, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains. He said to David, go ahead and do it. So David grabbed hold of his dream and began moving forward to see its fulfillment. But David's idea to build a temple didn't just poof into his head like an exploding nebula.

Oh no. It was rooted in the history of Israel. You 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.

No, it had to be Mount Moriah. A thousand years later when David and then Solomon planned 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 as a burnt offering. And it's no coincidence that a thousand years after David, Jesus Christ gave himself as an offering for sin on or near that very ridge. From Abraham and his son to David and his temple to Christ and his cross, everything was linked and each event had its roots in the one that preceded it. You see, the best dreams don't start with us, but instead are planted in us by God.

If it isn't rooted, it's rotten. We stand on the shoulders of others. We are links in a chain that we build on what others have done, even as future generations will build on the work that we have done.

That's why it's alright 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, your life experiences. Think about your background.

Everything in your life has prepared you for the next steps. So look at what's already happening in your life and in your church and start where you are and work outward and forward. Root your dream in history. Second, reproduce your dream in a picture.

As 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, Gideon's torches, the boy's lunch of bread and fish, and the Good Samaritan's wine and oil, and Paul's pen. But David's idea to build a temple didn't just poof into his head like exploding nebulae.

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 our dream.

Let me tell you what I've learned. Visionaries have an uncanny ability to see their dreams and convey them in images. That's how David built the impetus needed for his temple project. As we have seen, David's dream began when he told the prophet Nathan, quote, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains. The temple wasn't some abstract concept. No, 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 its paneled walls and glorious bulwarks, and look at that frayed tent called Tabernacle.

Shouldn't God's house be better than any home of yours or mine? You see, 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. And by God's grace, I've been able to see every one 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 dreams. You see, having a dream for tomorrow men and women isn't just a matter of feeling a generalized burden.

It may start there with the yearning to feed the hungry or help the homeless or evangelize the world. But as your vision develops, it takes on distinct and detailed images. You can see yourself rolling up your sleeves and getting a grip on the very things needed to press forward with your dream. You can convey it to others in a way that excites them. Don't 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 root your dream in history and reproduce your dream in a picture, reinforce your dream with determination. David discovered that every dream faces discouragements. I can 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, ready to go, eager to lead the campaign to build. He could see it in his mind's eye every time he looked from his palace rooftop 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. You talk about the death of a vision? Oh, 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 pout for long.

I love this story. He told himself something like this. Well, if I can't do it myself and if God has appointed the task for my son Solomon, then I'll just do all I can to help him succeed. In refusing to give up on the project because he was taken out of the driver's seat, David illustrated a core value of dream building. No dream is ever realized without a huge measure of determination. If you're going to see your dream through, you have to be determined. So root your dream in history.

Reproduce it in a picture. Reinforce it with determination. Number four, reconcile your dream with its cost. As you build your vision, be willing to sacrifice.

Let me tell you something that's without possibility of contradiction. Dreams are costly. Dreams are costly, as David found out when God led him to purchase some land for the temple at a high spot in the area.

Here's the story. This place was owned by a guy named Arunah the Jebusite. He used to use the high location for its winds to thresh out his wheat.

The chaff would blow away and the grains of wheat would collect and then he would sell them. As David approached Arunah for this valuable site, the most desirable location in Jerusalem, here's what happened. Because he was the venerable king of Israel, he could have seized the land. He could have just taken it.

That may be why Arunah offered to donate to him. He said, King David, this is my land. You want to build something here, you can have it.

Let me just give it to you. But David said in 2 Samuel 24, 24, no, no, no. I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing. Big dreams are expensive.

If you've experienced a fulfilled dream, you know what I'm talking about. The cost comes in money, in energy, in criticism, in unbelief, in unplanned obstructions, in unfaithful helpers and a multitude of other very discouraging things. I think Jesus was trying to help us with this when he said, For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it?

Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? Your dream may not involve building a tower or going to war, but hear me now, there is still a cost involved if you want to see it through. Not understanding that cost up front can cause you to give up on your dream when you hit the first hurdle. To realize your dream, if it's a God-given dream, there's a price to pay, but I promise you it is a price worth paying. Finally, release your dream to your legacy. Looking back on this period of Israel's history, one thing jumps out at me, and here it is. This was David's dream, and it ended up being called Solomon's Temple. David's dream? Solomon's Temple? You see, David not only accepted that, he made that happen.

It was his dream all right, but when the dream was not going to be realized in his life, and God said, Pass it on to your son, David refused to allow his dream to die when he died. And although he was not allowed to build the temple, the Lord gave him the construction details, which he passed on to his own son, Solomon. Here's what he said, Consider now, Solomon, for the Lord has chosen you to build the house for the sanctuary.

Be strong and do it. Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the vestibule, its houses, its treasuries, its upper chambers, its inner chambers, and the place of the mercy seat, and the plans for all that he had by the spirit of the courts of the house of the Lord, of all the chambers all around, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries for the dedicated things. You say, Pastor Jeremiah, what does that all mean? Well, the Holy Spirit had instructed David with the specific details of the temple, and David in turn passed them on to his son, Solomon. I can imagine David transferring that information from God onto an architectural blueprint and laying it out before Solomon and saying, Here it is, boy. God gave this to me, and this is what you're going to build. David had dreamed of building a permanent place where God could be worshiped, and he determined to leave something behind that would honor the Lord. It was his dream and the resources he put in that place that allowed his son Solomon to move quickly toward the construction of the temple. And David's instructions to his son Solomon have been a charge to pastors and missionaries and Christian workers ever since. First Chronicles 28, 20.

Be strong and of a good courage, and do it. Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God, will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord. Friends, this story illustrates how it's possible to achieve something after your death that could not have been achieved during your life. Before he died, David decided to pass on something that would live on after him. From his life, we can learn the great importance of dreaming beyond the span of your years. How can God use us? What is something he could do through each of us after we're gone?

Well, when I think of that question, I often think about this. I remember as a young man, when I turned 16, my parents gave me a copy of the Scofield Reference Bible. It was part of my spiritual education. I still have that Bible and I cherish it. It was really the only reference Bible that there was back then that I know about. It was the standard reference Bible during my growing up years, even though it was copyrighted in 1909. Years after its inception, years after C. I. Scofield put that whole study Bible together, it was still helping people like me understand what the Bible says, what the Bible means, and what the Bible means for me.

I can only hope and pray that in some small way, the Jeremiah Study Bible, which was released in 2013, will have that same impact on some future student of the Scriptures. One Sunday afternoon in 1771, a man named Valentin Howey ducked into a restaurant in Paris for dinner. He sat near the stage and the show that evening featured blind people and a comedy routine. They were objects of ridicule and cruelty. The act was designed to make fun of their blindness. Deeply offended, Howey began to develop a burden for the blind.

Sometime later, he spotted a sightless street urchin who was begging for coins outside a Parisian church, giving the boy some money. Howey was amazed to see the boy feel the raised markings on the coins and distinguish the amounts. That gave Howey an idea. Why couldn't books be written with raised letters like images on coins?

Why couldn't people learn to read with their fingers? Howey took the boy off the streets, offered him food and shelter, and devised a plan with wooden blocks and numbers and taught the boy to read. In 1784, Howey started the world's first school for blind children. It was in Paris, and one of the first teachers was the blind boy rescued from the streets.

But that's just the beginning. Several years later, another boy named Louis was born in the village of Couvenry, France. His father was a farmer and a harness maker. As a toddler, Louis loved watching his father work with leather tools. But tragedy struck in 1812 when three-year-old Louis began playing with a leftover strap of leather, trying to punch holes in it.

His hand slipped, and the sharp tool punctured and put out his eye. An infection set in that spread to the other eye, and little Louis ended up blinded in both eyes for his whole life. A local minister named Jacques Poulai loved the boy and began visiting him to read him the Bible. Seeing the boy had a good mind, Father Jacques determined he could receive an education. So at age 10, Louis was enrolled in the school Howey had established in Paris, where he proved to be a brilliant student. Eventually, Louis began teaching other students in the Paris School for the Blind. He studied Howey's method of reading. He also became aware of a system of military communication developed by a French army captain that allowed soldiers to communicate in the dark by running their fingers over a series of dots and dashes. Though still a teenager, Louis Braille began adopting these systems into a program of his own. And in 1829, at age 20, he published a little book on the Braille method of reading. The school resided in a damp building by the River Seine.

It was cold and unhealthy, and the food and conditions were poor. Louis got tuberculosis, but he continued working on his system of reading, which began catching on and soon was being exported all over the world. As his health failed, Louis said, I am convinced my mission on earth has been accomplished. I asked God to carry me away from this world.

Now pause for just a moment with me and think of the chain reaction of that cascading dream. One man developed a burden for the blind when he saw ridiculed actors on stage and a beggar boy on the streets. His burden led him to establish a school and attempt a system of reading. Then a local pastor developed a burden for a blind boy in another village and taught him the Bible and longed to send him to school. And that blind child, Louis Braille, developed a burden to improve and expand how his work, and the world was changed. And as a result, millions of sightless souls have experienced the joy of reading the Bible and other books for themselves now for almost two centuries. We may never create a language for the blind or build a temple for the Lord, but please remember there are no small tasks in the Lord's work and no insignificant dreams. Our work is never routine.

Our labor is never wasted and our legacy is capable of outliving us. I've always loved radio and everything about radio. From sitting next to the radio as a child with my ear to the speaker so I could listen to the Lone Ranger or the Shadow, to putting together night radio kits as a teenager for reasons I can't explain, I have always loved radio and radio has had a mysterious hold over me as far back as I can remember. When I became a student at Cedarville College in 1959, I was given the radio opportunity of a lifetime. A new Christian FM station was being launched in Springfield, Ohio, just 15 miles from my home. I don't remember how it happened, but I was able to audition for an on-air announcing position and I got the job. Every day, Monday through Friday, I drove to Springfield to do the 3 to 11 shift on WEEC FM. I did the news, I hosted the call-in music shows, I cued up and played radio programs like Back to the Bible and Unshackled. I loved every minute of it and when I was asked to help start a radio station on the campus of Cedarville College, I teamed up with Paul Gaffney, a college classmate, and my girlfriend and soon to be wife, Donna Thompson, and we launched WCDR FM. This station had a humble beginning.

It was a 12 watt transmitter on the third floor of the administration building and we used to joke with each other that on a good day you could hear that station on the first floor. But in time, that station grew to a network of stations that literally covered the entire Miami Valley with great Christian music and the message of the gospel. I personally believe that God used WCDR to help grow Cedarville College. When I was a junior in college, God called me into the ministry. It was absolutely, definitely clear to me that I was to become a preacher of the gospel, so I immediately enrolled in Dallas Theological Seminary. Donna and I got married right after graduation from college and we headed off to Texas for four years of post-graduate learning.

My greatest regret, if I could call it that, was this. I loved radio. I had spent most of my life involved with radio. Now it appeared God was leading me in a totally different direction in terms of my vocation and lifelong calling. Radio was put on hold for four years while I worked on my master's degree.

What happened after that is one of the most amazing stories of my life. After a short stint as a youth pastor in New Jersey and 12 years as a pastor of a startup church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I accepted the call to Shadow Mountain Community Church in San Diego. The next year, I began a local five-day-a-week teaching program on a Christian station in San Diego, Salem Radio's KPRZ. The station manager, David Ruhlman, helped me get started in this new format, and the rest is history. Today, Turning Point hits the airwaves on more than 3,000 radio stations in the United States, and on many of those stations, the program is heard two or three times per day. Memento de Saívo, the Spanish edition of Turning Point, is heard in every country where Spanish is spoken.

We broadcast more than 121,000 radio programs and 4,050 television programs outside the United States every year. So, you can see God did not call me into the ministry to take my dream away. He called me into the ministry because my dream was way too small. He had a much better and a much bigger plan for my life, and as a result of those experiences, I've learned I can trust God with my dreams, even as I move forward toward his plans for my life. And I've told you all these stories and shared all of this gospel message from the Bible to tell you one thing. You can trust God with his vision for your life.

You can be like Nehemiah who said, God put it in my heart, and when God puts something in your heart and gives you a dream, never stop until you've realized it, and you will be the most blessed person on the face of God's green earth. We hope you enjoyed today's Turning Point weekend edition with Dr David Jeremiah. To hear this and other Turning Point programs, or to get more information about this ministry, simply download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smart device, or visit our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. You can also view Turning Point television on free to air Channel 7 too, Sunday mornings at 8, and on ACC TV Sundays at 6.30am and Friday afternoons at 1. We invite you to join us again next weekend as Dr David Jeremiah shares another powerful message from God's Word here on Turning Point weekend edition.