Embracing Spiritual Awakening: Dreaming Beyond Limits

Your life is and always will be limited in the places you refuse to be pushed. You know, every once in a while, the people of God, they remember this about God, and they let God push them. And what happens is an awakening, breaks out across the nation. And I'll just say our nation needs an awakening. We don't need political reform, we need spiritual reform. And the only thing that can do that is a revival, an awakening of God's people. See, every, every, every national awakening begins with personal revival. Too many of us believe that can't happen. Too many of us think, I can't, America's too far gone. Most Christians that I hear, that's how we talk about our country. But the problem is that's not the story of the Bible or the history says, is this happened before? Why can't it happen again? Why not us? And why not now? That's what we're saying. What would happen in your life if you let God push you? That's the 10X push. That's the revival. [00:01:41] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


If you want to know what the next six weeks is about, you just heard it. It's one prayer. Father, may your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, where? Right here in my heart. See, for God's kingdom to advance, for us to see anything approaching an awakening across our nation, you and I have to get awakened. And for that to happen, God has to have all of our hearts. That's where we're going. That's what we're doing today. If you're not already standing, I'd invite you to stand up and sing this with us. Let's go. [00:16:00] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


And we're supposed to believe that in 1969, somehow we sent a message. A man to the moon caught him up and was like, yeah, we can hear you just fine. There's no problem. It's wildly, ridiculously improbable. And yet, no matter what this conspiracy theorists say, it actually did happen. The impossible happened. Not by chance. It was actually planned. Eight years before they landed on the moon, May 25th, 1961, President Kennedy addresses the United States Congress with what he called an urgent national needs message. And he said this. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long -range exploration of space. And none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar spacecraft. [00:41:05] (62 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


We propose to develop alternative liquid and solid fuel boosters. Much larger than any now being developed until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations. Explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook. The survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon. If we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there. It's a President Kennedy's speech, May 25th, 1961. [00:42:06] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


Now it's easy 50 whatever years later to lose perspective on exactly the environment that this was taking place in. Most of us weren't alive in the 1960s. Our senior pastor, Brian Tome, was. That's why he's the senior pastor. He's super old and I'm a little younger, you know, likes to make fun of my height. I just want to point out he's very old, very, very old. 1960s. What was going on in 1960s? [00:42:44] (27 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


If you were to put a label over it, you'd probably call it uncertain times. In fact, just 18 months after giving that speech to Congress about starting this mission, the Cuban missile crisis happened. Still to this day, the closest we've ever come to nuclear war. The Civil Rights Movement was roaring, facing enormous, enormous opposition, enormous violent opposition. There were riots on college campus. The Vietnam War. war was raging ripping apart and causing divisions inside of individual families across our nation the rise of drugs was taking place morality was changing with the hippie generation and boundaries on sex and morality all that in fact during the eight years of work on this mission there were four major assassinations jfk malcolm x mlk jr and rfk all happened in these eight years not not the time you would pick to dream impossible dreams not the time you would pick to go after something like a 10x vision [00:43:54] (61 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


which, by the way, the rocket scientist in charge of this project said it would literally take a 10x increase in rocket power in order to achieve this. It's not the time. It was uncertain times. [00:44:25] (11 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


And maybe, just maybe, you hear that, and you go, that kind of sounds like now. [00:44:26] (6 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


That was then, and yet in the middle of those times, America looked up to the heavens and decided we're going to aim for the impossible. And it happened. [00:44:45] (10 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


See, I think the first push that the church needs is for more of us to look up to the heavens like God has said to and to dream of the impossible. [00:44:56] (13 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


Jesus, he had a group who kind of felt the way that we might today. They did back in the 60s. They were living in uncertain times. When he was around. [00:45:07] (10 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

Hot, ready to boil over, is the way you could think about it. [00:45:47] (3 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

And to these people, Jesus gathers them together on a hillside. And he tells them to aim for the impossible. [00:45:48] (8 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

It's a sermon you might have heard of called the Sermon on the Mount. And it starts this way. [00:45:55] (6 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. See, this entire sermon. Which would go on to become the most famous sermon in the history of the world. This sermon is based on this crazy concept called the kingdom of heaven. [00:46:02] (21 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

People hadn't heard of this before. Kingdom of what? And Jesus is telling them about the kingdom of heaven that's radically different than the societies that they're used to. Radically different than their culture. And in the middle of this sermon, he teaches them how to pray. And he says this, Matthew 6, verse 9. This then is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. [00:46:23] (31 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we've also forgiven our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. See, Jesus says, right in the middle of the Lord's Prayer, he says, Ask God for his kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. What does that mean? Well, in heaven, God's will is perfect and complete. Everything. Everything that he wants to be happening is happening there perfectly. There's no pain. There's no problem. There's joy. There's hope overflowing. It's crazy. And Jesus says, ask him to have it happen right here. And I think if Jesus were to walk in to this church right now, in the middle of the times that feel uncertain to us right now, in the middle of lives that feel unstable, in the middle of lives that feel like we're just worrying about how do we put food on the table? How do we keep the kids out of trouble? How do we? In the middle of those times, he would walk. He would walk in and he would say, I have a solution to your problems. It's to ask me to bring heaven on earth. [00:46:53] (59 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

That's the solution that he gives. I think too many of us, we expect earth on earth and heaven maybe someday. That's the life that we live. Man, I'm just trying to get by. You know, I'm just another day, another dollar, just in that grind, man, just trying to just trying to make it happen. Right. That's, that's our day. If we can get to the end of it, not completely exhausted, that's a win. [00:47:52] (22 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

See, I think rather than dream of heaven on earth. We just aim for way less. [00:48:45] (4 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

God has a real vision for us. He has a real vision for us. He has a real, enormous, impossibly huge vision. And yet so many of us go, you know what? I'm going to take the small one. [00:49:36] (10 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

I don't want the big moon. I don't want the big moon shot. I'll just have the teeny one. The itty bitty little dinky one. [49:37] (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

If there were headlines about our life and what we were aiming for, I think they would sound something like this. [00:49:38] (7 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

A college student aspires to dusty cubicle hoping to be a cog in the wheel. Man retires to beach. Slowly turns into raisin. Says, I want to die with a tan. This one. Woman intends to share the gospel without words. No one hears anything. [00:49:39] (19 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

Husband and wife report marriage is fine. Secret, spending as little time as possible together. Or this one. [00:49:41] (7 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

Parents, Jim's kids only kind of hate him. He's totally not satisfied. This is not Sigma, says son. [00:49:42] (7 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

This is all just some ridiculous magic that Cygnus and I got ourselves into. And there's something about those, right? That's a little bit humorous and also a little bit sharp. [00:49:43] (5 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

Because some of us, that's what we're doing. We're aiming for something very, very small. And I'll just admit that I'm included in that. [00:49:44] (8 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

I've stopped in several places in my life dreaming the big dreams that God has for me. I've been convicted about that. [00:49:45] (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip