Do You Trust God?

What I ask the kids to do is I ask them to dig out a piece of paper, and I ask them to think about where they want to be in life. Think about where they want to be in life. And the reason that I do this early on is I feel like this particular activity establishes a purpose for the reason why we educate kids. Because sometimes—I don't know about you guys if you ever asked this question when you were in school—but the question that I often hear from a math standpoint, and even from science to an extent, is, when am I ever going to use this? And so they don't sometimes see the direct applicability of the content that we teach, but it is important for them to recognize why we educate and why we have students in a process of learning and growing. So I have them take out a blank piece of paper, and then what I ask them to do—and we kind of get silly with it—I ask them to press pause at that moment in their life right then and there. And we act it out. We'll press the pause button and everybody—oh! You know, they're eighth graders. They're 13 and 14. They love it. So then what I ask them to do, though, is I ask them to hit the fast-forward button. And of course, they get to do the... until we hit play eventually again. And I tell them, we're going to hit play now 20 years into the future. So some of you are now 33 or 34 years of age. And inevitably, I get the... Ugh! I'm mooooold! Right? I mean, when you're 13 and 14, 33 and 34, boy, that is just...you can't even see that. But then, you know, I've crested that now, and it seems like, you know, no time at all. But in their own words, they are officially old at that point. And what I ask them to do is I ask them to hit the play button. And what the assignment really is—it's more of a creative writing assignment, honestly—and what they do is they go through and they creatively write a day in their life at age 33 or 34. So from the moment that their eyes open to the moment that their eyes go to bed, what does the life that they've built for themselves look like? What does the life that they've built for themselves look like? And I tell them, flat out, I want it as detailed as you can possibly—I want to know what you had for breakfast. I want to know the car you drive. I want to know, do you swing into Starbucks and get a coffee on your way to work? I want to know where you work. I want to know what you do. I want to know, do you go out to lunch that day? What I'm trying to do as they're writing these stories is, in my head, I'm mentally racking up the bill. That's what I'm doing. I'm mentally racking up the bill. Because what we then do with this particular setup is we kind of drop reality on them a little bit. And I know that sounds like maybe it's somewhat soul-crushing and bone-crushing and whatever else, but I ask them in this particular assignment to dream, to look at what is the life that I want to lead? Where do I want to be 20 years off in the distance? Where do I want to be? What do I want to do with my life? What do I want to be thinking about? So some of the things that I get on this, just to give you some examples, okay? So we spend about a day on this. I can't tell you over the years how many professional football players I've had in my classroom. I mean, 90% of them are going to be professional footballers, either American football or football, if you will, for the Spanish side of things, professional soccer players.

The kids love it, though. They love this assignment. They're smiling, they're laughing, they're having a great time. But then, like I said, we cue the reality check. And I let them down gently. I don't drop the bomb on them all at once. I let them down very gently. But what we do is I have the kids share out a few of their stories, and they love to do that. They want to read all about their life and say all about the things that they've built.

And then, as I told you, I start taking notes on what I hear. And the kids can see me taking notes, as I've got it up on my document camera behind me. And so I'm writing it down as it goes. And so they'll tell me, you know, oh, here's the size of my house, you know. And what I try to do is I try to take a look at the life that they've built versus the paycheck that they can expect from the career that they've chosen. And to see if those two things match up. And we don't just do paycheck. We do taxes. We do all kinds of unseen costs.

We do all kinds of fun stuff. So, you know, the example would be a 4,000 square foot apartment in the West Hills of Portland. Right? I mean, really sweet house in the West Hills of Portland. This beautiful, beautiful place. Of course, they're driving a brand new, leased Range Rover. Always going out to eat. Always going out with friends. They go get Starbucks every single morning, and they're doing it all on an RN salary. So they're doing it all on a registered nurse's salary. Now, I love my registered nurses.

I do. They're fantastic, but you guys definitely do not get paid enough. And you know that as well as I do. And so, we then start looking at, okay, so if you want to do the RN thing, which I think is amazing, we're going to have to look at where we are over here. If you want this, then you're going to have to look at over here. And these two need to somehow match up. So what I do is then I factor in taxes. I factor in the house payment. I factor in their car payments. We factor in unseen costs like utilities, student loan payments, because of course you've gone to college to get the career that you have, right? Insurance costs. And the kids, guys, these 13 and 14 year olds watch in horror as this pile of money, because, you know, four grand a month sounds really good. Until you start factoring in all of these other costs. And they watch this pile of money that they're almost like dancing in like Scrooge McDuck at first. And they just watch it dwindle. And they watch it just slip through their fingers. One of my absolute favorite quotes from a couple of years back was, when a kid goes, 20 percent? What does the government need 20 percent of my money for? And I go, that guy right there for president. That guy for president. Right there, right? I mean, we all have asked that question. Where did all my money go? What's going on here? And so they watch this pile of money just slip through their fingers. And they see very quickly that the lifestyles that have been modeled for them in television and in movies, simply are not aligned to reality. They're not. In fact, one of the most notable examples of this, I don't know how many of you have seen the show, Friends, but somebody did the numbers on how much that apartment would cost in New York City. They have this beautiful high-rise apartment. It's a double apartment or something like that. It was on the order of like seven grand a month. I mean, it was an insane payment on this apartment. And one of them was a part-time barista at a coffee shop.

The other one was a chef that wasn't working. And then the other one was a struggling musician. And it's like, of course we can afford this apartment. No, you can't. And so we see these kind of these unreal sorts of lifestyles portrayed in movies and in television and in film. And so, again, I don't do this particular activity to crush their dreams. In fact, I don't. I let them know up front. The goal of this is to show them what the real world looks like. The goal of this is to show them that maybe what you see on television and movies isn't all there is. That there are unseen costs. And the idea being that we then motivate them to be that much more successful. That we motivate them to realize, okay, well, if I want this life, then I need to do this. Or if I want to do this, then I need to reduce somewhat standard of living. And so we kind of go back and forth with it a little bit. We talk about where you can expect to find yourself at not finishing high school. We talk about where you can be after a couple years of college, four years of college. Of course, today, with the job market, the way that it is, there's no guarantees there. But whatever path they take in life, whether they push their education for a few more zeros on the end of their salary, they go do the engineer thing, which a lot of my friends have recently done.

Or if they build a modest life with a career that they love, it doesn't seem to stop them from dreaming. It doesn't seem to stop them from dreaming. And it's the same thing with us. We dream. We plot. We plan. We have places that we want to be. We have things we want to do. We have a life that we want to lead. And I don't know about yours, maybe mine personally. I would love a drift boat. I would love to be able to go and float downriver and do some fishing periodically. I think that'd be awesome.

But all of our plotting and planning, the question is, does it leave room for God's will in our life? Does all of our plotting and all of our planning, does it leave room for God's will in our life? What if God's plan for our life is very different than the plan that we set up for ourselves?

What if God chooses to put us somewhere that we personally would not have chosen? Do we trust Him? Do we trust Him? And not for our protection, not for blessings in our life, which is typically what we think about when we think about trusting God. We think about He protects us. He blesses us. But do we trust Him to dream for us? Do we trust Him to dream for us? To take our life in a different direction than maybe we hadn't seen or hadn't anticipated. So the title of the message today is, Do You Trust God? And that's the question that we're going to operate on as we go through this today. And often when we read the Bible and we dig in, oh, thank you so much, when we dig into preserved stories of the major and the minor characters that we come across, it's really easy to forget that in addition to being Biblical characters, examples for us from the pages of our own Bible, they were people first and foremost. They were people first and foremost. They had dreams. They had aspirations. They had goals. They had trials. They had struggles. They had difficulties, just like us. And sometimes these things are made known to us. Sometimes we know them up front because it's part of the story. Other times we have no idea. We have no idea what was going through the head of some of these characters as these things were happening. We're not privy to what was in their heads and in their thoughts. We don't know necessarily what they dreamed for. We don't know what they hoped for. What they wished for in this particular life. At times, the dreams and the hopes that they may have had ended up not being the things that actually happened in their life. They may have desired one thing, and God had other plans. I think back to myself, and I try not to use myself as an example too terribly often, but when I was a late teenager, I was barely in the church. I had one foot in and one foot very firmly out. At that point in time, I was trying to think about what I want to do with the rest of my life. Where do I want to go? Where do I see myself? I loved science. Absolutely loved science. I loved the ocean. I loved marine stuff. I thought, like every kid, I'm going to be a marine biologist. It seems like teenagers want to be a marine biologist. I was thinking one of the coolest things that I could possibly do would be to study and do research on a boat nine months out of the year in a really warm place. Like a Caribbean or some island somewhere. But interestingly enough, not long after that, I met Shannon. I realized, I don't want to go live on a boat for nine months. She's pretty awesome. Then, as time went on, things changed. We had other opportunities. We had other things. In my life, in particular, God had other plans. God had other plans. It didn't matter what I wanted. God had other plans. Let's turn over the book of Proverbs. Let's start by establishing this concept scripturally. Let's take a look at the book of Proverbs. We'll go to Proverbs 19 and we'll pick it up in verse 21. Proverbs 19 and verse 21. In Proverbs 19 and verse 21, we'll start to establish this concept of our planning versus God's planning. Our planning versus God's planning. Proverbs 19 and 21, you can see in the New King James, it says, There are many plans in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the Lord's counsel, that will stand.

Some translations put it, the purpose of the Lord, that shall stand. Counsel, purpose, both kind of sort of the same thing here. In other words, we can plan all we want. We can plan all we want. In fact, just a few pages earlier in Proverbs 16 verse 9, we won't turn over there. You can jot it down. God inspired Solomon to record that a man's heart plans his ways, but that the Lord directs his steps. So this idea that we can plot, and we can plan, and we can dream, and we can aspire. God has plans for us. If our plans and God's plans line up, perfect.

But sometimes our plans don't line up. Sometimes God has other things in store for us. In fact, there's an old Yiddish proverb that says, Man plans, and God laughs. Man plans, and God laughs. It's not that God is capricious. It's not that we decide, You know, we decide, God, I'd really like to do this, and God goes, Ha ha ha! Nope! That's not how it works.

That's not how it works. God is not capricious in that way. And it's not that he's making fun of what we think we want to do. It's that in many cases, he wants more for us. He wants more for us. He sees this bigger picture that we don't see when we're living in the snapshot of now. We don't see the bigger picture. God has the benefit of being outside of that, of being able to see where those threads are going and how that life is being put together.

The book of Jeremiah records a comment. Let's go ahead and head over there. Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29. And we'll pick it up in verse 11. This gives you an idea of what it is that God thinks towards us. Kind of the interaction that he has in his plans for us, and how he would like us to live, or the life that he would like for us to lead, I should say. Just a little bit of an idea of God's side of things. Kind of what he sees and how he sees.

Jeremiah 29 and verse 11. Jeremiah 29 verse 11 says, For I know the thoughts, I know the thoughts, some translations have plans, For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. To give you a future and a hope. A future and a hope that God could give us. The immense hope that he can provide for us.

Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart. God has thoughts towards us. He has plans for us. He thinks of us. He hopes for us. He dreams for us. And scripturally, as we go through God's word, Example after example after example of regular folks. Regular folks that were thrust into these situations that are Largely out of their control.

Largely out of their control. Quite often they're places they would have never chosen for themselves. Quite often they're places. Moses would not have chosen to take on what God had him take on had he had his druthers. And you can see in the conversation with God. You know, like, look, you want me?

I'm not your guy. I can't talk right. You know, it's hard for me to do that. Take care with you. Oh, okay. That didn't work. You know, it's one of those things where God has a habit of going through and picking people that would not Have chosen those things for themselves and using them for mighty, Mighty, mighty works. So he put them in a situation to achieve His purpose in their life.

And again, in that bigger picture. So with the time we had left today, I wanted to take some time and Analyze a few examples. But what I don't want to do is I don't want to go to the Really common examples. I was hoping to pull some like little more Obscure examples out. Now the first one's pretty common. So And pretty close to coming up on Purim. So you'll... well, there's my hint. You'll know who we're talking about then. But we want to take a look at their life. And we want to Take a look at the end with us in the modern church today and really ask ourselves The question, are we willing to let God dream for us?

Are we willing To let God dream for us? To look at what He has planned in our Life and to yield our will to His? So do we Trust God? That's the question we're going to look at. The first person we're going to take a look at today is In the book of Esther. So let's turn over to Esther. This is going to be the most... well, okay, they're all kind of well known, to be fair. But go over to the book of Esther.

And we'll pick up the story right after the book of Nehemiah. Book of Esther. When you consider a person who was thrust into a position That they would not have chosen for themselves, one of the first that comes To my mind is Sadassa. One of the first to come to my mind is Sadassa. A young Jewish girl who would become far better known as Queen Esther. And throughout chapter one, we see the introduction to the story. We see that in the first chapter, we're not going to read through the whole first thing, but the book picks up With the story of King Xerxes, sorry, the first. Also known as Ahasuerus. And his wife, Queen Vashti. Queen Vashti was exceedingly beautiful. Seatingly beautiful. I mean, the wife of a king of Persia. And in the midst of this festival Of drunken debauchery, Xerxes basically commands the eunuchs to bring Queen Vashti before him and his drunken men. Queen Vashti said, Not going to happen. I'm not going. No way. And there's some discussion. There's some speculation as to exactly what that entailed. You know, we don't know for sure. We don't know for sure. We do know a couple of things. He said, come here. She said no. And that's what we do know for an absolute fact based on the account that we have. So we can kind of speculate about other stuff, but that's what we know. She refused to go. So you've got to imagine for a moment what just happened. Again, people, first and foremost. King Xerxes of Persia at that time was the ruler of 127 provinces that stretched all the way from India to Ethiopia. Massive world leader. This was not a man to be trifled with. This was not a man to be trifled with. He was likely intoxicated at this point in time. There's a very good chance. Sounds like the party had been ongoing for quite some time. And he had just been disrespected by his wife in front of all of these princes of Persia. Now, after consultation with the men present, they were concerned with what might happen. If other women caught wind of what had just happened, I mean, it might lead to more disrespect. Something had to be done. Something had to be done. So, I mean, to Xerxes' credit, he didn't have her killed. To Xerxes' credit, he did not have her killed. He had her put out of the kingdom to be put away from Xerxes, and the ruling was then codified as law. Period. Done. No going back. So thus began the search for a new queen. Thus began the search for another woman to become queen. So here's where Hadassah enters. Let's go to chapter 2 of Esther, chapter 2, verse 1, and we'll read through the first little bit of this. It says, So we see in verse 3 that the search goes out. The search goes out. This has been a thing of a number of stories throughout the years, this kind of process. But the search goes out. They're trying to find somebody who can please the king. And so verse 4 says, It's a little like the bachelorette. I mean, it's kind of. Or is it the bachelor? Which one's the one where it's the bachelor, right? It's a little like the bachelor. But bachelor Persia.

And Mordecai, verse 7, had brought up Hadassah. So here's Hadassah.

Notice this. Now the young woman pleased him, and she obtained his favor. So God's already starting to work things out. He's already starting to work things out. She caught his eye. She was friendly, probably. And it says, So he readily gave beauty preparations to her besides her allowance. So it didn't just give what everybody else got. She got a little bit more of the beauty preparations. Then seven choice maidservants were provided for her from the king's palace, and he moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the House of the Women. So here we have Hadassah. We have an orphan girl being raised by Mordecai in exile, in what was once Babylon, but now Persia, because Babylon had sacked. The Jews are living here in exile after the fall of Judah. What would be the dreams and the aspirations of a young Jewish woman at that time in that place? What could she have expected? Maybe she's thinking about the man she might eventually marry. Maybe she's considering that. By all accounts, from the sounds of it, she was roughly 14 years of age for this account. That's what most of them say, right in that vicinity. So early teens, kind of middle of the teen years. But maybe she thought she would eventually marry. Maybe she considered an occupation. Maybe she thought of something that she could do. Maybe she longed to return to her ancestral homeland. Though I suppose at that point in time, her and Mordecai could have left and gone back at any point in time. They were already starting to resettle and rebuild. But what were Esther's dreams? What were her goals? What were her aspirations? I would imagine that becoming a part of Xerxes' harem wasn't one of them. You know, when it comes down to, hmm, what's on the docket for today? I don't think that was even close. Not even in the realm of possibility.

And I can absolutely guarantee that becoming Queen of Persia was not even on her radar. Guaranteed. Not even on her radar. You know, that's not something that she woke up one morning and decided, Hey, I think today I'm going to try to become Queen. It's just, no. No way. So as the story progresses, we see that she was chosen by Xerxes to become Queen. And then the rest of the story, the rest of what is recorded for us in the book of Esther, centers on a plot that is hatched by Haman, a newly appointed vizier. And his idea is, hey, you know, these Jews that we've brought in in exile, you know, they're kind of a pain. We should really just see if we can't get rid of them. And here's how we can do this. He hatches this plot, pitches it to Xerxes. Xerxes, kind of not really thinking it through, or maybe not really concerned, codifies it. And the way that that law worked at that point in time, once it was codified, it stood. It stood. There was no going back. You can't un-codify something. So without some sort of an intervention, a lot of Jews were going to die. So Mordecai and Esther discussed the ramifications of this. They discussed her part in it. He strongly suggests, Mordecai says, look, you've got to go into the king, and you've got to make a supplication for your people. You need to go in and say, look, please, you can't do this. Well, there's a problem with that. One, he didn't know that she was a Jew. And two, it was not done. That was a major breach in protocol. Major breach in protocol.

You were called before the king. You didn't just barge in uninvited. Even if you were his wife, you didn't just barge in uninvited. Even if you're the queen. Let's go to verse 11 of Esther 4. Esther 4 verse 11. Esther 4 verse 11 says, He has but one law put all to death, except for the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go into the king for thirty days. It's been thirty days since I've even seen him. You want me to just barge right in there uninvited and say, hey, while we're at it, I'm a orphan Jewish girl, and we should stop doing this thing. She's thinking to herself, this conversation's not going to end well. It's not going to end well.

Verse 12. So they told Mordecai Esther's words, and Mordecai... This is ancient text messaging for you teens. This is ancient text messaging. They're speaking through messengers from Mordecai to her. So this is like, send the text, seriously, and then sends, and then back. So anyway, this is the return. And Mordecai told them to answer Esther, Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. In other words, look, if they find out, you're just as dead as the rest of them. You're just as dead as the rest of them if they find out who you are.

For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And then this is that just unbelievable passage. It says, Yet who knows whether you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this.

Mordecai tells her, This may well be the purpose for why you have found yourself in the place that you find yourself. This may be it. This may be the reason why all of these things have happened. Where else can our relief come from if you won't intercede on our behalf? Verse 15, we see Esther's response.

This is her reply. This is the text back. Go gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me. Go gather them all and fast. Neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. We thought tome it was rough, right? There's three days, no food, no water. My maids and I will fast likewise, so we'll do the same. Tell everybody to fast three days, we will do the same.

And then she says, And so I will go into the king, which is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther commanded him. And so here we have this uncertain outcome. We don't know how she had no idea how the story was going to end. No idea. The people fasted, we know the rest of the story. The king accepts her intrusion, he drops the scepter, does the thing, allows her to live, listens to her, Haman's plot's defeated, Haman's killed, Mordecai's honored, and ultimately Mordecai gets promoted to chief vizier.

Second in command to Xerxes himself. Now the law couldn't be undone. The law couldn't be undone. But what they did instead was they made a new law. If they come after you, you may defend yourself. And so they did. And they routed a number of the people that came after him and wished to do him harm. If you think about it, Esther may not have planned these things for herself. But God dreamed for her. God dreamed for her. And a young orphan Jewish girl of what, again, most estimate, no older than 14, became the queen of the largest empire in the world at that time.

God had dreamed this impossible life for her. Now, another thing we don't think about sometimes, what were her thoughts as it was all falling into place? What was she thinking as all of a sudden she's being kind of rounded up and taken off to the harem over here and meeting this guy and like, I don't really know what I'm doing. What is going on here? Why? Oh, okay. Well, now I'm being moved over to this house.

What were her thoughts as all of this was falling into place? Was she unsure? Did she doubt? You know, she wondered whether this was going to work out or what this was going to be. I mean, you know, if she didn't end up becoming queen, she would just become another person in the harem. And there she stays. You know? So what was going on in her mind?

I can imagine at times she was scared. I can imagine, especially right before that knock on the throne door of, when I walk in here, am I going to be put to death? I can imagine there were times she was scared, but I love verse 16 sums up her outlook. Gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me. Eat or drink for, or neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do likewise, and I will go into the king which is against the law.

And if I perish, I perish. She handed her will right over. She said, you know what? If I die, I die. Let's do it. Let's find out what happens. And she went through and had this amazing miracle that occurred, you know, God delivered to people. And God had brought her to that place for that reason.

God had brought her there for that reason, even though that may not have been a place that she planned for herself. Let's take another look at somebody. Let's take a look at the book of Amos. Let's go over to Amos. I love Amos. He's one of my favorite minor prophets. I like Amos. Just a regular guy called to do something extraordinary. Book of Amos. And we'll take a look at his example. Amos, his name actually comes from the Hebrew root Amos, comes from the Hebrew root Amos, which means to carry a burden, to carry a burden, to be a prophetic messenger, really.

And he was given this prophetic burden, this prophetic message, to take to Jeroboam, king of Israel at the time. He was not born a prophet. In fact, he didn't even want to be considered one by his own estimate, by his own words. So we can see his words in Amos 7, verse 14. So we're going to jump into the story a little bit.

Amos 7 and verse 14. So we just want to establish this is a regular guy. This is a regular guy. This is not somebody who was born to this. This is not somebody who is of the priestly class. This is not somebody who is... This is a regular dude. This is a regular guy. Amos 7 and verse 14, if you turn over there, we'll give you just a little bit of the background context.

Just prior to where we're going to jump in in verse 14, Amaziah, who was the priest of Bethel at this point in time, had just recounted his interaction with Amos to Jeroboam. And he reported to Jeroboam that Amos had predicted his death, that Amos was running around telling everybody Jeroboam was going to die, and that the captivity or that the land of Israel was going to be taken captive. And so he's predicting some of these things that ultimately, absolutely came into play and occurred. And it was so much so, it mentions in the section, that people couldn't bear the words that they were hearing.

So here's Amos, and he's, you know, I'm assuming he's shouting from the corners, you know, and doing that, which prophets do. And they just couldn't bear it. They couldn't handle what they were hearing. So Amaziah basically tells him, look, get out of here. Get lost. We don't want you here.

Get out of here. We don't want you here. In fact, he says, get out of here, you seer. Go eat your bread in Judah and prophesy there. Go prophesy in the southern kingdom. Don't ever come back here again. We see Amos's response in verse 14 of Amos 7.

So verse 14 of Amos 7, Amos responds to Amaziah, He says, And Amaz answered and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet. I was a sheep breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. Sycamore figs, as some translations put it. And then the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. I love that follow through. He told me to come do this.

So listen up. Here's what he said to tell you. Hear the word of the Lord. You say, do not prophesy against Israel and do not spout against the house of Isaac. I love that phraseology too. He sits there just spouting words, right? Do not spout against the house of Isaac. Therefore says the Lord, your wife shall be a harlot in the city. Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword. Your land shall be divided by survey line.

You shall die in a defiled land, and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land. Amos in no uncertain terms tells Amaziah, look pal, I'm not a prophet. I'm just a regular guy. I wasn't born into this. I'm a herdsman. I'm a tender of sycamore tree. I keep figs. You know, I take care of sheep. I breed sheep. I'm not who you think I am. Not who you think I am. I'm a shepherd and I'm a farmer, but God had other plans for me. He took me from my herds. He took me from my flocks. He took me from the figs that I tended.

And he said, go, prophesy to Israel. And so here I am, he tells Amaziah. Here I am. But Amos burned with the message that he was given. He boldly preached it throughout Israel, throughout Israel. But again, he was just a man. Just like any one of us. He had dreams. He had goals. Maybe he wished to increase his flocks. He says he was a sheep breeder, not specifically a shepherd. So it's possible that he may have actually been involved in genetic crosses and whatever else and was building up flocks.

It's a very good possibility. We don't know for sure. But maybe he wished to increase his flocks in his herds. Increase his yields to just be content to serve God as humbly as he could serve God while doing these things. But again, God had other plans. God had other things in store for Amos. He plucked him out of this life of comfort. And he sent him as a prophet to Israel to pronounce his destruction. That's a different thing than what you were doing before, right? That's quite the change. Now interestingly enough, if you think about it, he had no formal training for this role. He had no real authority beyond what God had provided him as a prophet.

It's not like he had a name that was backed up with some kind of, you know, when Amos says something, everybody listens. It's a regular guy. It's a regular guy. He had no authority beyond what God had provided him to pronounce this message. But what God saw in Amos was a talent that he could use. He saw something that he could use. Something beyond simply tending sheep and tending sycamore figs. Tradition holds—and again, you know how tradition works, whether it's true or not— but tradition holds that Amos met a violent end at the hands of Jeroboam according to tradition. But there's no specific historical accounts that substantiate that.

So it's possible that this calling that God had provided Amos cost him his life. We don't know for sure, but it's possible. Regardless, whether he was martyred or not, really, he stepped beyond his comfort level. I mean, he stepped way out of his comfort level. And he left a very powerful message for God's people then and for us today. The final example that we'll look at this morning—this afternoon, rather— before we start jumping into the modern era is the example of the Shunammite woman found in 2 Kings 4.

So let's go over to 2 Kings 4. I told you I was going to try to get to some of the more obscure characters. Shunammite woman is a somewhat obscure character, but a really interesting one. So we'll go to the example of the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4. The record of her story. 2 Kings 4. 2 Kings 4. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 8. So we can get an idea of the interaction between the Shunammite woman and Elisha. So that way we can kind of get an idea of exactly what the interaction is, how the relationship kind of gets set up and established, and we can understand why we see the story that we see.

So 2 Kings 4, and we'll pick it up in verse 8, says, Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunamm, where there was a notable woman. So we see right up front she had some nota...nota...I don't know. Is notoriety the right word? Or does that mean that she had...she was notable? Let's leave it at that.

I think notoriety means that you're famous, but for the bad reasons. Yeah, we don't want to use that one. She was notable. They knew who she was. And she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food. She's actually lauded very much in the circle of what hospitality should be. That she opened up her home. She allowed this traveling prophet to come in. She allowed him to eat and eventually works it out to where he has a place to stay.

And she said to her husband, Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God who passes by us regularly. We've seen him go by, you know, dozens of times. No, he walks our road pretty regular. Please let us make a small upper room on the wall and let us put a bed for him there and a table and a chair and a lamp stand. So it will be that whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there. And it happened one day, happened one day, that he came there and he turned into the upper room and lay down there.

And that's verse 11, that he lay down there in that particular room. And so we get this introduction to the Shunammite woman. We see she's a person with great hospitality. She was wealthy.

She was wealthy. She was married to an older man and she had no children as we get this kind of introduction going. And Elisha was so impressed with her example of hospitality that she provided him with a place to put his head. And you could think, maybe no one else did. You know, they often say, you know, a man has no honor, you know, in his own country kind of thing.

You know, maybe there was not a lot of places for some of these prophets as they were traveling. But she offers him an opportunity to put his head down, and he wanted to bless her for her generosity. And so he says to Gehazi, his servant, and this is the same guy that Naaman talked to, Gehazi.

So 2 Kings 4, verse 12. That would be Jehoshaphat. I'm back too many passages. 4, verse 12. Sorry. I tried to give you three. Then he said to Gehazi, his servant, Call this Shunammite woman. And when he had called her, she stood before him. And he said to him, Say now to her, Look, you have been concerned with us, or concerned for us with all this care. What can I do for you? What can I provide to you?

What is your dream? Is maybe what he asks. Or what would you like? What can I do for you? Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the King or to the commander of the army? And she answered, I dwell among my own people. So he said, Well, what then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Actually, she has no son. And her husband is old.

So he said, Call her. When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. And then he said, About this time next year, you shall embrace a son. And she said, And you can only imagine the amount of emotion in her voice. No, my Lord man of God, do not lie to your main servant. Do not lie to me. Do not tell me a story. And so you can imagine she's childless at this point in time. What were her dreams? What were her aspirations?

Maybe at one time she desired a child. Maybe she wanted a family. But it wasn't in the cards. Her childbearing years came and went. She wasn't blessed with children. And likely, you know, like often happens when we don't maybe get our dream early on. She got to the point where she just went, Well, that ship sailed. All right. Then we can, you know, we can ultimately just do what we can for other people.

But likely she gave up on that and settled into whatever life her and her husband had created for themselves. But she was faithful and she was generous and she had a desire to help other people. And as we see, God had other plans for her.

He gave her a son. Was she likely surprised? I can imagine she probably was. It seems like when she was told, she seemed, I mean, you can almost read the emotion in our response. You can almost hear it in the voice in verse 16. This was something that was unexpected. This was something she had honestly probably hoped for for a number of years. Now, let's continue the story. 2 Kings 4, verse 18. And the child grew, as they do. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers, and he said to his father, My head, my head. So he said to a servant, Carry him to his mother.

And when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon and then died. So here's the boy that she's been gifted with, this gift from God, and he's dead. Put yourself in her shoes. Here was a dream that I never really vocalized, I never really said, Maybe I wanted this. Maybe this was something that I desired at one point in time. Now I've been given it, now it's been taken away.

Now it's gone. No, we continue on. Verse 21. Again, God had other plans. And she went up and she laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out. Then she called to her husband and said, Please, send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God, and come back. So he said, Why are you going to him today? It's neither the new moon nor the Sabbath. And she said, It is well. Don't ask questions, I'm going. Just give me the donkey and get me somebody.

She saddled a donkey and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward, and do not slacken the pace for me, unless I tell you. She is going, I don't know what, donkey power? There's horse power, right? Full horse power here. She's driving this donkey as hard as she can drive it, to get...which can't be that fast. In my head right now, I'm picturing a running donkey.

They don't move that quick. But anyway, that was what she had. That's what she was doing. That's where she...probably faster than she could walk. But anyway, she departed, verse 25, and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. So it was, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to his servant, K'Hazi, Look, the Shunammite woman, please run down to meet her and say to her, Is it well with you?

Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. He knew! This is uncommon. Why is she coming over here? Something's wrong. Something's wrong. This is not normal. So verse, let's see, that was 25, 26. Please run now to meet...or I just read that. My apologies. Verse 26, once again, though. Please run now to meet her. Say to her, Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. Well, it wasn't well, though. So verse 27, we see, Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, But K'Hazi came near to push her away.

The man of God said, Let her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, And the Lord has hidden it from me, and has not told me. So he's not sure what's going on yet. He can just see that this woman has shown up and has fallen in a puddle at his feet. She has fallen at his feet and is clutching his feet. You know, it doesn't say specifically, but you can imagine just racking sobs, you know, And just trying to process what's going on and what's dealing with.

So he said to K'Hazi...or verse 28, sorry. So she said, Did I ask a son of you, my Lord? Or did I ask a son of my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? I didn't ask for this. She says, I didn't ask for this. You gave me this. I didn't ask. And now you've taken it back?

Or now God has taken it back? Didn't I say, Please do not lie to me? Elisha now realizes what's going on. He kind of is like, Okay, now I know what we're dealing with. So he tells him in verse 29, he says to K'Hazi, Get yourself ready, take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him.

From what one of the commentaries was saying, it sounds like K'Hazi kind of had this thing about stopping him, being like, Hey, how's it going? I'm K'Hazi. Do you know about Elisha? I'm the guy who goes with him. So again, I don't know for sure, but do not greet him. And if anyone greets you, do not answer him. But lay my staff on the face of the child. Verse 30, And the mother of the child said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I'm not going anywhere.

I will not leave you. So he arose, and he followed her. Verse 31, Now, K'Hazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore, he went back to meet him and told him, saying, The child has not awakened. So the staff wasn't enough. The staff wasn't enough. And it could be, I don't know, is it that K'Hazi didn't want K'Hazi thinking that he did it somehow? That, you know, this was a way of proving that it was Elisha that the power resided in. Don't know for sure, but again, verse 32, When Elisha came into the house, there was the child lying dead on his bed.

He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.

He went up and lay on the child. He put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm. It's kind of a different version of CPR. But he returned, and he walked back and forth in the house, and then again went up and stretched himself out on him, and then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. Verse 36, He called G'Hazi and said, Call the Shunammite woman. So he called her, and when she came into him, he said, Pick up your son.

So she went in, fell at his feet, she bowed to the ground, and then she picked up her son, and she went out. Again, the emotion in this account is palpable. You can just read it in the way... you don't just fall... Imagine emotionally just falling at somebody's feet. But again, it seems like a little bit of a strange method to us as we go through and read it, but it's a testament to the power that got granted to Elisha as his prophet. We have other examples where there's another account where a man's body was tossed into Elisha's tomb, and when the body came into contact with the bones, the man was raised back to life. There was incredible power that got it granted to Elisha. But the point is, the Shunammite woman did not ask for a son, yet God had other plans. And as we move into the modern church, the same pattern continues. And we're going to go through these really quickly. Zechariah, like the Shunammite woman, had likely settled into the idea that he would not have a successor. His wife Elizabeth was barren. He served in the temple. She likely kept the home. Maybe he sold items at market. They had no plans for children. It was kind of a dream at one point. But maybe that dream and that ship had sailed. Yet they were blessed with a child who became John the Baptist. They'd likely settled for being childless, but God again had other plans. The apostles were all different men with different backgrounds. Fishermen, tax collectors, tent makers. Again, regular folks that had been called to something more. Again, they might have had their own dreams and goals before Christ showed up on the scene and they began to follow him.

And again, while they might have had dreams and goals and aspirations related to their careers, God had other plans. We see throughout the accounts Timothy, Onesimus, Priscilla, Quilladorkus, Stephen, the list goes on. The list goes on. God had plans for these people. He had plans for these individuals. He dreamed for them. He had goals. He had aspirations and plans for these men and women that would ultimately achieve his purposes. Romans 8, 28 discusses this. And we'll, for, well, let's go ahead and turn there. We have a little bit of time. Romans 8, 28. We have lots of time. I didn't really start at the timer. As far as I know, I've got 45 minutes left. I'm kidding. Romans 8, verse 28. I find myself coming back to this account in Romans 8 a lot lately. I keep coming back to this in a number of ways and in a number of sections and different parts of it and different things. But Romans 8, 28 discusses this idea that God's purposes will stand. That God's purposes will be done. It tells us very specifically in Romans 8, verse 28. It says that we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. And that's kind of sometimes where we stop. We sometimes stop there. Well, all things will work together for good because we love God. But look at the rest of it. To those who are the called according to their purposes, our purposes... no, his purposes. According to his purposes, he called them according to his plan. That there's a reason why that person was chosen. God saw something in them. He chose them for a purpose. Maybe we could say that he had a dream for them.

And likewise, as members of that ecclesia, a dream for us. Ephesians 1, verse 11 discusses the same concept. Ephesians 1, verse 11. Ephesians 1, verse 11 again addresses this same concept that we are called according to his purposes, his plans for us.

Ephesians 1, verse 11 says, So according to the counsel of his will. Now, this isn't predestination as the churches of the world preach predestination. This isn't the idea that God has chosen the ones who would receive salvation from the beginning, and that's that. It's fate. Nothing a person can decide can change it. No sin they can commit will move them from this chosen status. No one else has that. It's not at all. It's saying that these are the ones that he picked. These are the ones that he chose. He has chosen certain individuals to call in this life, and that those who have been chosen will be given an opportunity. They may possess talents. They may possess gifts that he can use. But ultimately, the choice is theirs.

Brethren, you're sitting in this room because you've been called. You're sitting in this room because you've been called. You listen to something at one point in time, and a lot of you guys go way back. You might remember the radio program. You might have listened to that. That might have brought you in. You know, it might have been the television program or the plain truth or whatever it might be. You watched the world tomorrow or a Beyond Today telecast. Something. Read a piece of literature that brought you to this point. But God has called you, and according to Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 and 28, he called you according to his purpose. And we can't forget that. We didn't choose this. Well, we kind of did. So it's an interesting way. There's a number of choices that occurred here, right? God chose us, gave us the opportunity, and we chose to answer that invitation. So that's the order of choices, I suppose. But ultimately, it is our choice. It is our choice.

Just because God wants something else for us doesn't necessarily negate our free will. Let's go to Matthew 19. In fact, we'll see an example of this in Matthew 19. That it didn't always end in success. Matthew 19. In Matthew 19, verse 20, we see an example of a young man who comes and questions Christ. And it seems, in this case, it seems that he's genuine in his question.

You know, sometimes the questions posed to Christ were not particularly genuine. They were meant to trap him in some way or another. But it seems like this young man had a legitimate question. Verse 19, or I'm sorry, verse 20. The young man said to him, all of these things... Well, yeah, verse 20, I'm sorry. The young man said to him, All these things I have kept from my youth, what do I still lack? So he'd asked him, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life?

What do I need to do? Christ gave him the answer. Told him exactly what he needed. He said, well, all these things I've kept, these 10 commandments, I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack? Verse 21. Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and then come, follow me. He was essentially given the same invitation that the disciples were given and those who became the apostles were given.

He said the same exact thing to Matthias. Same exact thing. He said, hey, drop what you're doing. Come on, follow me. Verse 22, but when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. You know, God dreamed for this young man, too. He was young, he was successful, he knew the law, he was knowledgeable. He would have likely been a wonderful disciple.

Except, he loved his money a little too much. He loved his money a little too much. God dreamed for him, too. God dreamed for him, too. And perhaps he dreamed for him a life of discipleship, perhaps a life of service as a bishop or a deacon eventually. Maybe he would eventually be in charge of one of the churches as time went on. But we'll never know. We'll never know. What potential was left on the side of that road there in Judea? What had God dreamed for this young man?

Yet he refused that calling. Instead of focusing on remaining where he was, he wanted to be comfortable, he wanted to stay where he was, he wanted to have that comfort and the security of having that money. He was more focused on his goals, more focused on his aspirations. And God has this uncanny way, God has this uncanny way of stepping into people's lives and asking them to leave everything they've held dear. The comfort that they have had stepped out on faith.

You might think back to instances in your life where that's happened. The loss of a job, a big move that you had to do. All of a sudden you had to be in some other place or whatever else. It might have different issues and other things, but he did it with Abraham.

He did it with Noah, Moses, Gideon, David, Mary. And he's doing it with us, too. He's doing it with us, too. We know their responses. We can see them right in the pages of our Bible. We know their responses. But what about us? What about us? How will we respond? Will we yield? Will we let his purposes for us stand? Or will we stay where it's comfortable? Will we remain where it's comfortable?

You know, our comfort zone can be a really difficult thing for us to work with. They provide us a place of rest, which is nice. It's nice to have a place where you're comfortable, right? Think of the chair in my house that I like to sit in. It's a very comfortable chair. It's nice to have a place of comfort and rest. It's not stressful. It's comfortable. It's safe. And as a result, we don't often like to leave our comfort zone.

We don't like to step into those zones of risk and danger. We don't want to take the possibility that things might not end well. I'm not a huge fan of the Huffington Post, but I came across an article on comfort zones, and it's actually really well done. Normally, I'd stay away from Huffington Post, but this one's actually very well done. I'm going to read just a couple of little things here real quick. It says, many of us think of the comfort zone as a relic of 80s motivational psychology and a tagline on cheesy corporate reach for success posters.

We've all seen those. Motivational posters, right? But in fact, the comfort zone is a useful psychological concept that can help you to embrace risk and make changes in your life that can lead to real personal growth. The comfort zone, as defined by the website Lifehacker, is a behavioral space where your activities and behaviors fit a routine and a pattern that minimizes stress and risk. The operative words here being stress and risk.

In our comfort zone, there's a sense of familiarity, security, and certainty. But when we step outside of our comfort zone, we're taking a risk. And we're opening ourselves up to the possibility of stress and anxiety. We're not quite sure what will happen and how we'll react. We've actually come to see, as a society, stress is a dirty word and for good reason. But a little bit of healthy stress can actually act as a catalyst for growth and provide a powerful motivation to act. Within our comfort zones, generally speaking, there's little stress.

In fact, according to one theory, the term comfort zone originated in reference to the temperature zone, 67 to 78 degrees, where we're most comfortable, where we feel neither cold nor hot. Psychologically, our comfort zone is the place where we're most at home. So you might say that the comfort zone is where you're feeling really neither cold nor hot.

Now, while staying in your comfort zone can result in consistent, steady performance, stepping out of your comfort zone into a new and challenging task can create the conditions for optimal performance. Think about it. Did you ever do something you were really proud of when you were in autopilot mode? Did you ever do something you were really proud of when you were in autopilot? You know, at times, God operates outside of our comfort zone.

He may offer us opportunities that we're not comfortable with. He may provide us with things that we didn't necessarily realize that we needed. But it's in those times where we need to step back and take stock. Trials might be blessings in disguise. Trials might be blessings in disguise. Setbacks might be setups for something better. God might be dreaming for us. Even though at that time, going through that situation, we might not recognize it as a blessing until we're on the other side. We might not see the hand at that point in time. Think about it.

I'm going to give you two well-known examples, and I want you to think about what was going on in their life. I purposefully didn't use these guys. David. Think about for a minute what was God's dream for David? And then think about where David was in this process.

God's dream for David was to become king of Israel, fight a giant, get chased by Saul until you become king. At any point in time throughout that thing, if he looks at that, those are not blessings. Those are trials when he looks at it from his viewpoint. Those are difficulties. Those are struggles. Those are issues. I just can't catch a break. Every time I turn around, Saul is trying to pin me to a wall. Right? What about Mary?

What about Mary? Mary's life, God's dream, was for her to become the mother of Christ. Whoa! Except that at that time she wasn't married, and it looked by all intents and purposes to everyone else that she was a harlot. Yet God dreamed mightily for them both. Dreamed mightily for them both, and they became great characters within the pages of her Bibles. So what can we do? I'm going to provide you with three very brief things as we close up today that will help us to seek God's will and allow him to dream in our lives more effectively as we close. The first of those things, we can pray to God to help us to see the places in our life where he's asking us to develop our talents further.

We mentioned the speaking club. We can pray about what God's will might be in that. Is that something that he wants for us to do? Is that something he'd like us to develop ourselves in? Is that something that is available to us? So for the first one, we can pray to God to help us see the places in our life where he's asking us to develop our talents further. The second thing, we can pray to him to show us his will in our life.

Pray for him to show us his will. I don't know about you guys. Sometimes that's hard to interpret. That can be very tough to interpret. Sometimes it's hard to know whether the door is open or whether we're forcing it open. But we can pray to God to show us his will and to give us the strength to step out on faith when that door is open. Especially when it's outside of our comfort zone quite a bit. The last thing that we can do is we can recognize that not every dream that God has for us is huge.

Not every dream is going to be on the order of some of the ones that we looked at today. Sometimes these dreams might be very small. It might be very personal.

And perhaps he will provide us with something simple that stretches us out of our comfort zone. Maybe it's a conversation with somebody at church. Maybe it's an opportunity to give an opening prayer. Maybe it's an opportunity to lead songs. Maybe it's... who knows? Who knows what that opportunity might be?

Brethren, when God is dreaming for us, when God is dreaming for us, the possibilities are endless.