- August 28, 1963
- I have a dream.
- “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” - Mahalia Jackson
- “All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream.” - Edgar Allan Poe
- Legacy is not what you accomplish. Legacy is what is accomplished because of you.
- Dream Encouragers
- Indifferent
- Dream Killers
Nehemiah 4:1-3 // When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?” 3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”
- Opposition attacks your identity
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- “What are those feeble Jews doing?
- Opposition attacks your motives
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- Will they rebuild the wall for themselves?
- Opposition will challenge your relationship with God?
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- Will they offer sacrifices there?
- Opposition will attack the confidence you need to chase the dream
- We should pour gasoline on people’s dreams and water on their fears!
- What do I do with opposition?
1. Turn to God for help
Nehemiah 4:4-5 // 4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
2. Prepare your heart
Nehemiah 4:13 // Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows.
3. Remember God’s faithfulness
Nehemiah 4:14 // After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
4. Refuse to quit
Nehemiah 4:15-18 // When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work. 16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.
Long obedience in the same direction.
Nehemiah 6:1-3 // When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates— 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” But they were scheming to harm me; 3 so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”
Time to DREAM bigger, PRAY harder, THINK longer
