Page 1 of 9

Gary Wassm and I saw this video at a workshop when we went to Leadership Institute at

Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. With the help of Jennifer Huehns we were able to

obtain the video and show it. I want to thank Ginghamsburg Methodist Church in Tipp City,

Ohio for letting us use this video.

When we saw this video Gary and I were filled with sadness. All of these people with all

of these dreams and no one is fulfilling their dream. There are many logical reasons why folks

don’t fulfill their dreams. Some folks don’t have the talents to live their dreams—when I was a

kid I wanted to be a professional athlete, but I didn’t have the talent to do this. Some people’s

dreams get sidetracked because we need to make money—our dreams don’t pay; some people’s

dreams are really only fantasies. But still—it’s sad realizing that at one time these people were

energized by a dream, but over time had given up. Their life doesn’t match their dreams.

I wonder how many people in the neighborhoods where we live are like the people in this

video. How many folks do we know who are just punching a clock? How about ourselves?

How many of us are fulfilling our dreams. Or are we just going through the motions?

I want us at Chain of Lakes to be a place of dreamers. I want us to be a place where we

are encouraged to take risks to live out our dreams. I want us to be place where we go out of our

ways to help each other to live out our dreams. One of the ways we’ll make an impact on the

world is to know that at Chain of Lakes we live out dreams.

When I saw this video I decided that I wanted to frame our stewardship sermon series

around the theme of dreams. Each week during this series we are going to look at how we can

fulfill God’s dreams for our time, our treasure, and our talent. Today we’re looking at time.

To help you with this I’ve included a sheet in the bulletin. This sheet contains a place

where you can take notes. I believe that I might say something in this sermon that you want to
Page 2 of 9

write down. The brochure has a prayer sheet. We have a lot of new prayer requests for us to

pray over. And it includes a devotion. This week I’ve shared five readings that share stories of

people who did or did not respond to God’s dream for them. I encourage you to use this daily. I

believe you will be blessed if you do.

Today we are launching our stewardship drive. You might wonder, “what is

stewardship.” Stewardship comes from the word “steward.” It originated in the 15th century. A

steward was a person who managed the affairs of a large estate for a wealthy person. A steward

would oversee the servants, collect rents, and keep accounts. In the church we understand

stewardship in a similar way. God owns the earth and our lives. We’re called to be stewards of

what God owns.

As disciples, followers of Jesus Christ, you and I are called to be stewards of our time,

talent, and our treasure or our money. We do this for God.

Usually a church will talk about stewardship in terms of what people can give to the

church. People are asked to give their time, talent, and treasure.

I want to turn this around. In this drive I’m going to talk about what we at Chain of

Lakes can give to you. A primary aim of this sermon series is to help you take steps towards

fulfilling your dreams. This is quite a different way to do stewardship.

In this series I’m talking about a dream in two different ways. You might want to write

these ways down. First I’m thinking of a dream as an overarching hope for our life. This was

the idea of a dream presented in the video. Remember the question? What is your wildest life

dream? What do you want to accomplish in life? As disciples we’re called to fulfill the

overarching hope that God has for our lives.

Second I’m talking about dreams as fulfilling a specific activity which gives us joy.
Page 3 of 9

SLIDE Have you seen the movie “The Bucket List?” It starred Jack Nicholson and

Morgan Freeman in 2007. In the movie the two went on a road trip and they developed a wish

list of things to do before they kicked the bucket. The bucket list. Because of the movie the term

“bucket list” has entered into the vocabulary of our culture. many people have developed their

own bucket list. A bucket list is not an overarching hope that defines our life, but it is still a

dream.

I never want us to stop dreaming. It doesn’t matter how old we are we can still live out

God’s dreams. Noah was about 600 years old when he built the ark. Abram was 75 when God

called him to establish a great nation. Moses led the people out of Egypt when he was in his late

70’s.

We’re never too old to dream.

I want you to know that I’m living out God’s dreams for my life. On my Facebook page

I’ve written that I have the privilege of sharing life with two wonderful red heads, and my dream

job of starting a new church.

My dream is to create a dynamic and powerful Presbyterian church in the north metro. A

church that is passionately being a authentic Christian community where strangers become

friends; friends become disciples; disciples impact the world. A church that is steadfast in its

devotion to the values of hospitality, God’s church, relevance, acceptance, outward focus,

investing in future generations, healthy disagreement, and joyful love. I’ve dedicated my life to

this dream.

Today I’m looking at God’s dreams for our time.

Page 4 of 9

Time is a great leveler. During this past week all of us experienced the same amount of

time. This past week you and I experienced seven days, 168 hours, 10,080 minutes, 604,800

seconds. We all have the same amount of time.

The question that is driving the rest of this sermon (and I would encourage you to write

this question down) “How do we let God shape us in using our time?”

Let me share some ways not to do it. Educators call this “null teaching.” Don’t do this.

In the Genesis story we heard some null teaching on how to use our time.

A man and a woman—late in the story they are identified as Adam and Eve—are in a

garden. In the middle of the garden is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told the

two not to eat the fruit of that tree. Both of them ate the fruit of the tree.

We picked up the story today right after they ate the fruit of the tree. The verse starts out:

SLIDE They [Adam & Eve] heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time
of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8

I’d like to have some conversation with them by asking you some questions. These

questions need answers from you.

Why did Adam and Eve hide themselves from God? (They were afraid of God)
Why were they afraid of God? (They had eaten the fruit of the tree which they weren’t
supposed to eat)
How were they letting God shape them when they ate the fruit of the tree?
What role did they let God play in how they used their time?

At the moment that they ate the fruit of the tree Adam and Eve were ignoring God and

what God wanted. The two thought they knew better than God in how to use their time. They

had pushed God out of the picture.

It’s easy to push God out of the picture. Sometimes we do this because of our strong

sense of independence.
Page 5 of 9

This Tuesday we’re voting. I encourage everyone to vote. In the United States we still

have some common ideals. They are expressed in the Declaration of Independence. All men are

people are created equal; everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In the Midwest we live by a few ideals. Though we now live in the suburbs all of this

land at one time was agricultural. Our ancestors lived by the idea that they had to pull

themselves up by their bootstraps.

These ideals of equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, pulling ourselves up by our

bootstraps are wonderful. I think we could describe these ideals as independence and freedom.

However there is a shadow side of independence to which all humans are susceptible.

The shadow side is when we think we know better than anyone else—even God—in how to use

our time. The shadow side emerges when we tell someone else—even God—don’t tell me what

to do. I know best.

In this story that we heard today, Adam and Eve fell into the shadow side of

independence. They made choices—really they used their time—in ways that ignored God. At

the moment they ate the fruit they didn’t stop believing in God, it’s just that they didn’t have any

use for God. Eating the fruit of the tree looked better to them than what God wanted them to do

with their time.

There is a cost to ignoring God with our time. Adam and Eve experienced the cost right

at the start of the story. They hid themselves from the presence of God. What a terrible thing to

intentionally hide from the source of our love, the source of our grace, the source of our care.

Even though Adam and Eve were punished later in the story, I believe their greatest punishment

was the choice they made to hide themselves from God.

Page 6 of 9

God could do so much more for them than they could do for themselves. I want to say to

all of us—all of us who love the ideals of freedom and independence and autonomy—God can

do so much more for us than we can do for ourselves. When we ignore God we cut ourselves off

from the best source of our well-being. A consequence of ignoring God is one day we find

ourselves on the street being asked what steps we are doing to live into our dreams and we say,

“nothing.”

Before I came to live in Blaine I lived for nine years in Rochester. During that time I got

to know a neighbor by the name of Greg. Greg is one of the nicest guys you would want to

meet. He was a wonderful neighbor. He was a teacher in the local schools; he was a coach; he

played all the time with his kids; he has a quality relationship with his wife; he’s involved in the

neighborhood. And he wasn’t involved in a church.

Greg and I did some stuff together. He knew that I was a pastor of a church. Every once

in a while we would talk about God and the church. I politely invited him to church, but it never

worked out. Greg went to church on Christmas Eve and Easter.

Many people in the north metro live the life that Greg is living. People are busy—with

their jobs and family and hobbies and friends. On Sundays Greg might drive to the Cities to go

to a Twins game, or he might spent the day at a park with his family; or he might go fishing; or

he might watch his kids play a soccer game.

He’s very, very busy. He as a good life. He believes in God, but he ignores God.

There is a cost to ignoring God

What happens if something terrible happens to Greg or someone in his family. To whom

does Greg turn? Of course Greg can turn to God, but Greg doesn’t know God. What happens if

someone does something truly awful to him in his job. Greg could respond with grace, but it’s
Page 7 of 9

hard to be graceful when we ignore the source of our grace. Or what happens if Greg suddenly

starts hating his teaching job. To whom is he going to go for answers? God has the best ideas,

but if we haven’t cultivated a relationship with God, it’s hard to get satisfying answers.

We can fill our life with a lot of good stuff—this good stuff comes out of our desire for

independence. But if we ignore God we ultimately give up on the dreams God has for us. There

is a cost to ignoring God.

This summer I would leave my house on a Sunday morning about 8:00 a.m. to go to the

Lovell Office to get ready for worship. As I would drive south on Radisson Road I could see the

soccer fields in Blaine. I was amazed by the hundreds—maybe even thousands of kids and

parents who were ready to play soccer at 8:00 on a Sunday morning. As a pastor I couldn’t help

wonder if those families were going to be in worship that day. I don’t intend for that to sound

judgmental. I was just curious. Maybe some of them were going to worship after soccer or

maybe some of them went to worship on Saturday. I’m pretty sure that some of them were

substituting soccer for worship.

If you get to know me, you will learn that I love sports. I think it’s cool that kids can

gather in large numbers to play soccer. But if we choose sports (or any other activity) and ignore

God we will ultimately pay a cost. I’m all for soccer. But I’m not for soccer when playing

soccer means we ignore God. When we don’t use our time to cultivate a relationship with God,

we give up on the dreams that God has for us.

As I said this sermon is not a time management sermon. A lot smarter people than me

can teach us how to manage our time. This sermon has a fairly simple two-part conclusion. The

first step is this—don’t ignore God; attend worhip.

Page 8 of 9

The best way not to ignore God is to worship God every week. Through weekly worship

we open ourselves up to being used by God to fulfill our dreams. Something happens to us when

we worship God. I would be surprised if at some point when we worship, you encounter a

thought or have an experience that you weren’t expecting. I would be surprised if you don’t

walk out of that door in a different place than when you walked through that door. Through the

practice of weekly worship we take steps towards fulfilling God’s dreams.

We live in a culture that to worship God every week we have to manage our time. People

or groups outside of us are going to ask us to use our time in other ways on Sunday morning than

worship. Here is where we practice the art of saying “no.” It’s not hard to come to worship

every Sunday—we just learn to say no to everything else on a Sunday morning. If our kids has a

soccer game on Sunday morning, before we sign up our kid we find out if they play on Sunday

morning. We just learn to say “can’t do soccer if the games are on Sunday morning.” Some of

us have to work on Sunday morning. Over time could we ask our boss to not schedule us on

Sunday morning.

SLIDE Here is a calendar for next Sunday, November 7.

SLIDE Here’s what I’d like you to do

The second step is to take a step this week towards your dream. We’ve heard the slogan

that a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. Sometimes our dreams seem so big

and so impossible that we don’t do anything to live them out. If we’d like a new job and it seems

impossible, take a step to talk to someone about what you would like to do. Or write down three

or four jobs that interest you. If you don’t have a bucket list, write down your bucket list.

Maybe it’s as simple as praying every day, “Lord reveal your dream for my life to me.”
Page 9 of 9

I want to challenge everyone here to take one step towards fulfilling God’s dream this

week. It might be as simple as identifying the overarching hope for your life. We’re going to do

that in a bit. It might be as straightforward as deciding you’re going to accomplish one thing on

your bucket list. It might be as simple as inviting God into your life.

The good news is God wants us to fulfill our dreams. When Adam and Eve were hiding

from the presence of God, God asked them the question “where are you?” In that question I hear

a pathos, a pain, a sense that God was disappointed in a loving way that God couldn’t find the

two. God went searching for them. No matter where you and I are on our journey of faith today,

God is searching for us too. God wants to help us fulfill our dreams. God is asking us the same

question, “where are you?” God doesn’t ask the question in judgment, but instead with a sense

of pathos. God wants to be with us. God never gives up on us. God wants us to fulfill God’s

dreams for us. May be go forth assured of God’s deep and abiding passion for the living out of

our dreams.