Did Jesus Have Goals and Dreams?

Did Jesus Have Dreams? In a culture that tells us to chase our dreams, dream big, and live the dream, what do we see when we look at the life of Christ? How should this inform our goals and ambitions?

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Transcript

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Did Jesus have dreams? In a culture that tells us to chase our dreams, dream big, live the dream, what do we see when we look at the life of Christ? And how should this inform our goals and ambitions? That is what we're discussing on the podcast today. But first, if you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this Bible study guide bookmark I made that you can print out yourself and laminate to make your Bible study process easier. Well, over 50 of you asked for one, so I made it available for download at the link in my bio. Go on and check it out. And as always, if you love this podcast, make sure to leave a five-star review. Let's dive in. Thank you. Welcome back to Going Deeper. I hope you guys are having a great day today. So over this past weekend, I had a chance to attend the Lifeway Women's Live Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, which is only about a 45 minute drive from me. And I wanted to share some super good nuggets that I stole from some of the messages. It was such a great experience. I'm really grateful that I was able to go to something like that prior to having this baby. And yeah, so there was a lot of speakers, but there was Jada Edwards, Jen Wilkin, Chrissy McClellan, Jennifer Rothschild, Courtney Doctor, who else am I forgetting? Kelly Minter. And I took copious amounts of notes during their talks. And I wanted to share some of the quotes that really kind of made sense. Miko, ooh, that was so good. And so I'm just going to read off some of these quotes to you. I'm not going to go into all the details of their message. I think it's possible to go and purchase the digital access pass online, but I'm not 100% positive if it's available yet. So Jada Edwards went first. That girl, I had never actually heard her live. She is so solid. She's also hilarious. Like we were laughing. We were laughing the whole time. So much good stuff was said, but a couple of quotes from her. First one, we can take in information without transformation. Isn't that the truth? Isn't that what we do all day long? We just are constantly consuming content and we're taking in a lot of information, but there's no transformation in our lives. Next quote. The hard place, because her whole message was on the exile. The hard place or the exile is not a waiting place, but a working place. Meaning a lot of us are waiting around to get out of our wilderness and God is asking us to do work in our wilderness. And that was so good. The next quote is, the presence of God is greater than the provision of God. Whoa. Yeah, true. It's true. And when we hear that, we're like, yeah. But then as far as living that out, we want God's provision more often than we want his presence. And I can say that's true in my own life. Jen Wilkin, her whole talk was on generosity. But one of the quotes that I loved was, the spirit does not fill the full, but the empty. So empty me of self-reliance, comparison, and greed. Christy McClelland says, Her whole talk was on Sabbath and this quote, oh my goodness. She said, Sabbath will calibrate your soul. What's that thinking? Then they did a whole panel. All of them were on a panel and the panel topic was sort of how to be agents of grace in a divided generation. And there was such good wisdom that they all shared on this panel. Jen Wilkins said, Empathize before evaluating. Oftentimes when we're having an intense conversation with somebody or somebody is kind of going off track or going off course, we want to evaluate, we want to fix. We don't want to empathize. We don't want to listen. So empathize before evaluating. Then she said more conversations than confrontation. And then she said, anytime I want to make a statement, ask a question, which that was a really, nugget of wisdom because I think for me personally, I am somebody that would rather make a statement, like fix the problem, give some sort of aspect of wisdom when you're never going to regret asking a question like, tell me more about that. And then Chrissy McClellan, she really brought the house down with her kind of answer to this concept of being an agent of grace in a divided generation. But she said, increase the net amount of shalom in the world. What? Like what? I think she stole that from a old theologian. And then the last one is, I want to be known for what I'm for, not what I'm against. And couldn't we all just linger with that during this election? Like, what if people know us not by what we're against, but by what we're for, like what we stand for, a.k.a. we are for Christ. We are not against a certain candidate. Right. Like that was sort of some really good nuggets that I wanted to share with you guys today. If you ever have a chance to go to one of those Lifeway Women's Live conferences, they are so good and very refreshing to the spirit. So highly recommend. And that's really going to be my recommendation for today. I have no book recommendations for you, or I probably could link their books. Actually, I will say anything by Jen Wilkin and anything by Christy McClellan, I have read absolutely is so solid, so we'll throw that in there as a book recommendation. So let's go ahead and pivot to today's topic. Many of you may not know this, but today's topic of dreams is something that I am super passionate about. In fact, it's actually something that I'd love to one day write a book about. And if you are a friend of mine, you already know this, but I have actually been on a journey for nearly... It's probably nearly three years or over two years for sure to become a published author. And if you're curious, let me just peel back the curtain for a moment to give you an idea of what this process looks like, where I'm at in this process. Just, yeah, just a little backstory. God put authorship on my heart so clearly in 2018. I remember where I was. I remember what I was doing. It was just a very much like, you're going to be an author. And I know that that sounds crazy. Like you hear other people tell stories about that sort of thing. But when it happens to you're like, what? And I remember thinking to myself, how? Like, I have no credibility. I have no platform. I haven't taken writing classes. Like I am not a writer, even though I would love to be. And anyways, since then, since 2018, I have just felt so confident that that's sort of my calling. And I've been working towards that in the best way that I know how. But I had no book idea at the time. So it was kind of like God was saying, you're going to be an author, but I had no book idea. And it wasn't until three years later that I would have a solid book idea. And it is about dreams, and it's just about our culture of dreams, and it's a whole... It's a whole thing. And once I had this book idea, I started working on a book proposal, which is the first step in the process of getting traditionally published. You can't pitch or query agents without a proposal and some sample chapters. So I honestly, it took me It took me a solid two years before I even had this fleshed out. And eventually I had a 30 to 40 page book proposal. And then the process is finding a literary agent. An agent is essentially the liaison between the author and the publishing house. So an author, me, I cannot just communicate directly with a publishing house unless I have some sort of in and I don't have an in. Most don't. And so that is what a literary agent does. It's very similar to a real estate agent between the buyer and the seller. So It's very hard to find an agent because you have to have three things. This is what most agents kind of in the publishing world talk about. It's the three C's. I think it's the three C's. Yeah, it's content, concept, and crowd. So your content, your writing itself has to be good. You have to be a good writer. You have to have a good book idea. So your concept, the book idea itself has to be good. And you also have a crowd. You have to have a platform to sell. And To make a long story short, I have been in communication with agents, I've gotten feedback, I've made a lot of edits, I've had multiple rejections. And I where I'm at in the process now is, I feel very confident in the book itself, the book proposal, the content, the concept, and where I lack, unfortunately, is the crowd aspect. And I publishing houses nowadays really have strong expectations for a platform. And that's something that I've wrestled with. And I have talked with other author friends who have struggled with the same thing. So anyways, back to this book idea. Because I've already written an entire 40 page book proposal on this topic, I could 100% go on for hours and hours on the topic of our dreams. But we obviously don't have time for that. So I wanted to talk about this on my podcast because one, this is it is a really relevant topic. We see this messaging everywhere in our culture. But it's also something that I enjoy talking about. So To dip our toes in the water of this conversation, I think a good place to start and a good question to ask is, did Jesus have dreams? Like would he have been described as a dreamer? And we're going to try and stay on track to answer this question because again, I could go on a million tangents and hopefully one day, Lord willing, I will in a book because this idea, this topic could be fleshed out in so many ways. And I feel like I could... There's a lot of questions that could go unanswered. So I want to stay kind of focused on this one question of, did Jesus have dreams? And was he somebody who would have chased his dreams? Does that make sense? Like... Because this messaging is so popular in our culture and the culture at large is telling us to chase our dreams. We've all seen the phrases, chase your dreams, follow your dreams, pursue your dreams, live their dream, dream big. It doesn't matter whether you're seeing it in a Christian sphere or a non-Christian sphere. It's all across landscaping. It is a very widespread, widely accepted, normal message to hear. And it's a normal message to accept. Like, yeah, I should... I should chase my dreams, right? And anyways, personally, I think everything should be held up to scripture. But one thing that I have wanted to do from the get-go, which is kind of where the book idea came from, is hold this messaging up to scripture. I think we should hold a gospel mirror up to this narrative, this dream culture that we are seeing today. Like, Should we chase our dreams? Did Jesus chase his dreams? What was he passionate about pursuing? What future did he envision for himself? And while he doesn't need to be put in a box, and it may seem like we're discussing semantics, I think having this discussion prompts us to dig further into the dreams and ideals that we have for ourselves and kind of look at them in a different light. So In order to kind of unpack this idea, the first question that we have to answer is how do we define a dream? So nowadays you can just Google and AI helps you, which is so cool, but also kind of freaky at the same time. But if you just type into Google, what is a dream? You are going to get this question. definition a cherished aspiration ambition or ideal and frankly when i compare it can i when i compare it to like oxford dictionary dictionary.com or no it's dictionary.com and what's the other one i can't remember this is my favorite definition a cherished aspiration ambition or ideal so the next question then is what aspirations and ambitions did jesus have like what in his eyes was considered ideal. And the first thing that comes to mind to me is that Jesus was extremely mission minded. Like when I think of Jesus, I don't think of aspirations. I don't think of him being as goal oriented or ambitious. I think of him as being mission minded. But Is there a difference? Like, is there a difference between an aspiration or an ambition and a mission? So because I'm a word nerd, I've mentioned that here on the podcast here. I love words. I love to write. I think if you're a writer, you love words. You're a word nerd. And I also am a big fan of a thesaurus. So if you go to a thesaurus and you search for the synonyms of mission, here are some of the words you're going to find. Assignment. Job. calling, duty, objective, operation. And then if you search for aspiration or ambition in the thesaurus, here are the words you're going to find. Desire, dream, longing, passion, wish. Do you notice a difference between the two? A mission is sort of this important assignment that someone is to carry out, whereas an aspiration is this hope or ambition of achieving something in the future. So what was Jesus's mission? What was his assignment? Because I wouldn't say that, yes, of course, Jesus had desires and he had a longing and he was passionate about something. But as I said, initially, I really think of him as more mission-minded. So what was his assignment? If we see, if we look at Luke 19.10, It says, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. We also see all throughout the Gospels over 100 times his concern for the kingdom of God. He was on a mission to seek and to save the lost and for God's kingdom coming down. And then the next question is, okay, so that was his mission, right? But If we're looking at, was Jesus a dreamer? Did he have dreams? A dream is connected to a desire. It's a want. It's a hope for the future. So what did he desire? One passage of scripture that I really found to be so encouraging and inspiring while working on my book proposal was in John 17. It is his final prayer before he is arrested. the final night before he was arrested. And this passage really gives us a picture into the heart of Christ, like what he truly desired, what he longed after. So listen to this. This is John 17, 24 through 26. It says, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory. I think what's so inspiring about that is like, which we always think about this, right? Like the night before he knew he was going to die, he washed his disciples' feet. Like what would we be doing the night before? What would our prayers look like on our final night when you knew you would die the next day? Like they're going to reveal our greatest desires. And what we see in John 17 is he's praying earnestly for his disciples, for his people, that one, We would see His glory, that we would know God as He knows God, and that God would be made known, and that we would know the love of the Father. So glory, knowing God, God being made known, and God's love for us being in us. And while we know that He prayed for the cup to be taken for Him, so He did pray for Himself, and He was hoping that He wouldn't have to go to the cross, He also still prayed for God's will to be done. because he was always about the Father's business. He was always surrendered to his assignment, his calling, his mission, his destiny. Okay, so let's back up for a second. We're going to argue briefly these two sort of positions, because the question, of course, for this episode is, did Jesus have dreams? Would he have been considered a dreamer? So let's talk about why you could argue that he had dreams. or aspirations or ambitions for the future, like you see in our culture today. So first, Jesus was very clearly determined. He was devoted to saving lost sinners. Like in the context of how we use the word today, I am sure he dreamed of the day that heaven would come down or the day he would walk out of that tomb, knowing he had just put an end to death for those who repent and believe in him. And secondly, aren't we all, like dreamers in a sense, like we're all purposefully moving in a particular direction. Some of us are moving in the direction of financial freedom. Others may be working toward a career change. And, you know, aren't we all trying to move into a new house, like bigger and better than the one we're currently in? Because I know if I was handed the down payment to my dream home and I was given the cash I needed to make any renovations or moving costs or whatever, And I could be in my new house by the weekend. Who wouldn't turn that down? But this is the catch here. Most of what we dream of are things that will better and benefit our lives. Or some of us do have more altruistic dreams that could better the lives of those around us. But we rarely move in the direction of less, always more. We would never intentionally head in the direction of pain. Always comfort. And most people don't dream about leaving their well-to-do suburban homes for nomadic, uncertain living situations, even though some do. You see these van life people. But the point is, our dreams are rarely selfless or sacrificial or uncomfortable. So on the one hand, yes. Did, you know, in a loose term of the word dream, did he look forward to and hope for and have a vision for the day when he would walk out of the tomb and that, or even the day when he would conquer Satan? Of course, of course, I'm sure he did, right? But here's why you might argue on the other side, that he didn't really have dreams as we might think of them in our culture today. So think about this. What if your parents... predetermined your life before you were born. Like, what if they knew your destiny from the beginning? What if from the time you could walk, talk, and think for yourself, you were completely confident of how your life would end? It would be very hard to, quote, dream. It also would be terrifying. But this is true for Jesus. Like, not only did his earthly parents, Joseph and Mary, hear from the angel Gabriel prior to his conception about his destiny, but but his heavenly father also knew. So God's plan to redeem his people through Christ was set in place before he spoke the world into existence. And without nerding out too much on theology, because Jesus is God, he also knew how his entire life would pan out. So here's my argument. There really was no dreaming happening, only predestining. One of the most beautiful things about scripture is the story of Jesus that's woven throughout from Genesis to Revelation, his birth, his ministry, death on the cross, resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of the Father and ultimately, and his ultimate end to rule and reign with people, his people were all laid out before him. And he knew exactly the direction that he was headed in from the get-go when he started his three-year ministry. He knew everything was going to end at Calvary well. It was going to end at Calvary, but then he was going to walk out of the tomb, right? He knew that. And though his earthly life would have a happy ending, in a sense, that he would come to life three days later, it didn't come without a tragic cost. It didn't come without Calvary. And he warned his disciples of this multiple times leading up to his death. In Matthew 16, 21, we see, Again, why would anyone ever dream of death? Why would anyone ever live their entire lives knowing they would be mocked and flogged and beaten before being crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross without seeking out some alternative, more ideal end? His ultimate future described in Luke 1 that he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. But that truth, that future wouldn't come without the cost of Calvary. And even one of the most well-quoted portions of scripture comes right after he predicted his death. When he said to his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? This was and is one of the most well-quoted portions of scripture. And it's something that he said right after he told his disciples that he was going to die on a cross. And essentially, when I look at that, I see him saying, I'm going to die. And if you are to follow me, you must die as well. You must die to yourself, your comforts, and your life. But then I'm going to rise. And if you die with me, you will also rise with me. So considering all of this, What do you think? Like, did Jesus have dreams? Was he a dreamer? And also, the other question that's important here is, why does it matter? So here is why it matters. We like to call ourselves followers of Jesus, disciples of Jesus. Well, that means that if you look at Jewish culture, at the rabbi-disciple relationship, Jesus is our rabbi. And rabbi in Hebrew means my master, right? And in Jewish culture, the goal of the rabbi-disciple relationship, so like in the Western educational system, a student and a teacher relationship is more knowledge information. They are teaching you information and you are trying to consume that and take that in. Whereas in the rabbi-disciple relationship, it has always been about imitation. It is, as Christy McClellan once said, it is not so much learn from me, but become just like me. So like a mirror, the disciples' goal is to reflect their rabbi. Ephesians 5, 1-2 says, Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. So Jesus is our rabbi, and to follow him isn't... merely and loosely embodying his morals it's wholly and fully adopting the ways of his heart and soul and mind so in the context of this dream culture that we live in this is it seems contradictory right in no way shape or form was jesus's life ideal like he didn't share like he He shared beautiful experiences with others, he taught in front of thousands, he worked miracles, and he raised people from the dead. His life was anything but boring, but it certainly wasn't what we would consider the dream. His life was marked by surrender and submission and servanthood and sacrifice, and he knew his ultimate destination, like he knew the conclusion of his life was the cross, but also an empty tomb. And he, knowing that, headed obediently and steadfastly in that direction. And he did it knowing that he was going to bring salvation to everyone. Like, right? The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. So, again, what do you think? Was he a dreamer? Did he have dreams? Or was he predestined by God to for God to accomplish his destiny through God and now sits enthroned with God at his right hand. So while I don't think a definitive answer is necessary, this is what we know when we look at the life of Jesus in this context. He came to earth knowing his one primary purpose, and he was obedient unto the Father all the way to the end. Now, I'm not saying that When we think about this dream culture and the ideals that we chased after and the beautiful kitchens that we want and the dream home and the dream body and the dream career, job, what have you, I'm not saying we can't enjoy the beauty and the blessings of God. But have we elevated the beauty and blessings above the one who gives them to us? Has our God-given dreams for the future overshadowed our devotion to God himself? Has our longing for what's culturally ideal stifled our ability to be content in the present and made us forget that this earth isn't our home? Would we actually want to model the life of Jesus if that modeling led us to a miserable death? I don't know, Amy DiMarcangelo says in her book, Hunger for More, she says, Words spoken in pompous pulpits and best-selling books tell us to claim the futures we want, in faith, of course. After all, as sons and daughters of the king, we should be recipients of abundance. Meanwhile, it's forgotten that our king wore a crown of thorns. Oof. Oof, that quote is so good. But here's the good news, because I think what can happen when we... And this is what happened to me as I was working on this book, as I was coming to grips with some of this reality when you study the life of Christ, about how surrendered and sacrificial he was and how far off we are from that, not only as just humans and sinners, but also humans and sinners who are living in an extremely godless culture. Here's the good news. Jesus never picked perfect disciples. Romans 5, 7-9 Romans 5, 7-9 So this idea of, you know, reckless abandon in following Jesus, it's not about walking in our own inadequacies or in our own adequacies, but it's walking in the adequacy of Christ. Because I think we can easily get discouraged in sort of like how we're doing, right? How are we doing as followers of Jesus? When we look at Jesus and we look at his life and we look at how he lived, but it's not about us being the perfect disciple. It's that Jesus was perfect and that as his disciples, we can follow and walk and step with that. But also as children of God, we have been given righteousness of christ so we're in christ now we're not even just followers of christ we're in christ and if you want to be mind blown study that doctrine for a while so here's here's the question what is your purpose like what are you called to do as a believer but like like what do you find in scripture when you look at scripture and you know i'm a follower of jesus what am i called to do it's everywhere but also do you know your unique calling Do you know what God's unique destiny is for you on this earth? I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all answer, and I don't think there's a one answer, right? Like, I think it is very different for everyone, and it's different by a season. It's different all the time. It's changing, but I do think that we have to be intentional to, one, walk in what we already know we're called to do as believers, and intentionally discover what it is that God wants us to do with our lives. What does He want us to do in the season that we're currently in? What does He want us to do today? Because Jesus knew exactly what He was called to do, and He was obedient in walking in the will of the Father. So because over the course of two years, I have wrestled with this message and our culture to chase our dreams. And while I believe it's rooted in a lot of worldly selfishness, I think this is something that we can redeem. God can redeem anything, right? And he can give us a dream. He can give us a vision for the future. He can place a unique desire and a purpose on our hearts. And he wants for us to walk alongside him in pursuing it. I just think that We have to be mindful. We have to have eyes to see. We have to be aware of the extreme propaganda, the extreme messaging in our culture to chase our dreams and our passions and our ideals. And essentially, it's very easy when you follow that path to make life all about yourself. And Christ was an extremely selfless person who lived a very others-focused life. And he most definitely did not, in the context of the way our culture chases dreams, I would say he wasn't somebody that did. I would say that he was somebody who very much considered others above himself and was so extremely devoted to his destiny, his purpose. in being on earth, that he was willing to go to the cross for it, for us, for others, so that we could be saved, so that we could have an eternity in heaven, so that others would have the opportunity to be in Christ, to know God, to know his glory, and to one day spend eternity in that glory. So like I said, this topic is, there's a lot. You could talk about all these layers of Forever. But I hope that that was encouraging for you. You may not have ever thought of that before. This may spark other conversations, other thoughts. And if they come, please reach out to me via email. I would love that. But that's all I have for today's episode. If you guys got something from this or if something resonated with you, Again, make sure to leave a review. Share this episode with a friend. If you have any thoughts or questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you guys so much for listening. I will catch up with you again in next week's episode.