SPEAKER_00: Happy Sunday, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Are you glad to be in church today?
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you probably the most important question I'm gonna ask you all day long.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all are ready for warmer weather?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who moved down from Minnesota to Alabama and brought this with them, but y'all need to go home back to Minnesota, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We love ya.
SPEAKER_00: Watch online, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm ready for warm weather.
SPEAKER_00: Um I want to echo what Pastor Ashley said about marriage night.
SPEAKER_00: Um we take a night every year uh to strengthen and encourage the marriages in our church.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe this um in 2025 and in 2026, I believe that uh marriages are under attack.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so we take a night just to strengthen and encourage.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are engaged, you've been married for a year, you've been married 55 years.
SPEAKER_00: I wanna ask you to be there and um just take a night.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just good to be around other married couples who are in the fight together.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so sign up for that.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a great night.
SPEAKER_00: We are in uh a series and our theme for 2025 called Dream Again.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say dream again.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we've been teaching through this throughout the month of January.
SPEAKER_00: Have you enjoyed this series so far?
SPEAKER_00: It's been a great series as we are looking at what God has placed inside of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna bring this series to a conclusion today as we talk about putting um our dreams and what God's put in our heart into action today.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that it's gonna help you immobilize your faith today.
SPEAKER_00: Will you stand with me?
SPEAKER_00: Stand with me for God's word.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go with me to 2 Kings.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Kings chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, as we bring this series to a close, we're gonna look at a story about a widow today that I think is gonna stir your faith.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all came to church for your faith to be stirred?
SPEAKER_00: Not just to sit and listen and experience worship, but your faith to be activated.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we come to church, not just to listen and look around, but for our faith to be activated.
SPEAKER_00: Second Kings chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in verse 1, we're gonna read to verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: It says, one day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But now a creditor has come threatening to take my two sons as slaves.
SPEAKER_00: You need to remember that.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2 What can I do to help you?
SPEAKER_00: Elisha asked, Tell me, what do you have in the house?
SPEAKER_00: What do you have in the house?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing at all except a flask of olive oil, she replied.
SPEAKER_00: Verse three, uh, and Elisha said, Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and your neighbors, verse four.
SPEAKER_00: Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you.
SPEAKER_00: Pour olive oil from your flask into the jar, setting each one aside when it is filled.
SPEAKER_00: And verse five, so she did as she was told.
SPEAKER_00: Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another.
SPEAKER_00: Soon every container was full to the brim.
SPEAKER_00: Bring me another jar, she said to one of her sons.
SPEAKER_00: There aren't any more.
SPEAKER_00: There's no more, he told her, and then the olive oil stopped flowing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and when she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is leftover.
SPEAKER_00: You can live on what is left over.
SPEAKER_00: Today I want to teach from the topic a dream in motion.
SPEAKER_00: A dream in motion.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to turn to somebody around you.
SPEAKER_00: Say, put your dream in motion.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, just find somebody around you.
SPEAKER_00: Just say, put your dream in motion.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let me pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for today, for this time in your presence.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I'm asking right now, God, that you would open up our hearts to receive your word.
SPEAKER_00: Father, move me out of the way.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that your word, God, would speak more and louder than I could ever do.
SPEAKER_00: We submit our hearts to you right now in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Caleb.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we've been in this series called Dream Again because we really believe that God puts dreams inside people's hearts.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how old, no matter how young, no matter what um your past is, we believe that God can still put dreams in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all believe that?
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll ask you just kind of an opening question here.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I like to do this when I meet new kids around the church or they come up and introduce family.
SPEAKER_00: Um I like to ask kids this question.
SPEAKER_00: When you grow up, what do you want to be?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever asked a child that?
SPEAKER_00: When you grow up, what do you want to what do you want to do?
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why I like that question is because every answer is the most illogical question you've ever heard in your life.
SPEAKER_00: The other day I was sitting with um my son and he's three years old, and um and we were just kind of talking and and just rambling back and forth, and he's all into trucks, and he's all into just all the stuff, all the boy stuff.
SPEAKER_00: So I said, Maverick, I said, what do you want to be when you grow up?
SPEAKER_00: What do you want to be when you grow up?
SPEAKER_00: He said, just as straightforward as he could be.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Dad, I want to be a fire truck.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So I was trying to help him.
SPEAKER_00: So I said, Maverick, so you want to be like the fireman that puts out the fires?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, I want to be the truck.
SPEAKER_00: I want I want to I want to be the truck.
SPEAKER_00: We're sitting there having that same conversation, and he's coloring, and and and and and if you've you've been around a small child, when they're coloring, they can't stay in the lines to save their life.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So this is the other day we're this is Spider-Man, because Spider-Man is super popular in our house right now.
SPEAKER_00: So he's coloring this, and we're just having this same conversation about trucks and life and him becoming a truck one day, and he's trying to color inside the lines, and we've got some purple mixed with some other blues and some reds and some browns and all the above.
SPEAKER_00: And he's coloring, and it's just starting to drive me crazy because he's not staying inside the lines.
SPEAKER_00: Do we have any stay inside the lines kind of people?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And I begin to think about this uh with life is um the older that we get and the more you experience life, if we're not careful, um, life has this tendency to make us stay inside the lines.
SPEAKER_00: It it has this tendency to kill imagination and to kill um what God has put in your life because sometimes it's illogical.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's better to play it safe, sometimes it's better to just lay low than to dream like you used to when you were a kid.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all had a big dream when you were a kid?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You would go around and you'd tell everybody what you wanted to do, and then the older we get somehow that dream becomes less and less.
SPEAKER_00: I love what Pablo Picasso he said this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, every child is an artist.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
SPEAKER_00: Preach, Pablo.
SPEAKER_00: Every child is an artist, the problem is how we remain an artist once we grow up.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not careful, life has this tendency to create in us a safe living, to dream small, to not take risk, to really stay inside the lines.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where honestly we find this widow in 2 Kings chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Life has beat her down, life has come at her.
SPEAKER_00: She's in a pretty vulnerable state, but it's right in the middle of that pain and that pressure that God gives her a dream.
SPEAKER_00: God gives her this supernatural goal that she's supposed to walk out.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, I want to look at this story from 2 Kings chapter 4 with this widow.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give you four steps this morning to getting our dream in motion.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout this series, we've talked about what is the dream and the revelation of the dream and how God imparts that into our life.
SPEAKER_00: But I think that this may be the most important step because at some point we've got to put the dream that God has put inside your heart in motion.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to take the step to put the dream in motion.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning we're gonna look at four steps through this story of this widow that I think is gonna make it come alive to you, challenge you, and let God move in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Step one, here's what we see from this lady, and I want you to write this down and take some notes.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the first thing that she did and that we have to do is define the dream.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say, define the dream.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says in verse one.
SPEAKER_00: It says, One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, My husband who served you is dead.
SPEAKER_00: So her husband is dead.
SPEAKER_00: She's in a dire situation, and you know how he feared the Lord, but now the creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.
SPEAKER_00: Two simple things I want you to see really quickly about this lady and the dream right here in her heart.
SPEAKER_00: Her dream was simple, she simply wanted her family back together.
SPEAKER_00: That was the dream that God put in this lady's heart in this moment, is she just wanted her boys to be safe with her.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, every mom can relate to this.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about when you read that, it pricks your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Her dream was simple.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say it's simple.
SPEAKER_00: And I began to think about this this week as I was reading this story over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what happens is when we hear series like this and you hear messages like the one today, is we often think about the dream God's put in our heart.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not careful, we overcomplicate the dream that He's put inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: We overcomplicate it.
SPEAKER_00: We think that there's got to be seven major points and three subplots, and you gotta write a dissertation to be able to have people to approve the dream and the goal and the thing that you want to do in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: And this lady, this widow, simply shows us that your dream that God puts in your heart can be simple, it doesn't have to be complex.
SPEAKER_00: Her dream was that she wanted her family together.
SPEAKER_00: That was it.
SPEAKER_00: She wanted her family together.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the second thing I want you to see about this lady's dream is how her dream came about.
SPEAKER_00: How it was birthed.
SPEAKER_00: It was a simple dream, but it was also a painful dream.
SPEAKER_00: Her dream was born out of passion, out of a pain, and out of desperation.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see at the beginning of verse one?
SPEAKER_00: As the members are coming from this group to take her sons, she cried out, My husband.
SPEAKER_00: This tells us how passionate she was about what she wanted to see God do in her life.
SPEAKER_00: Her dream was for her family to be together, but it was a moment that was birthed out of pain and desperation.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been in a moment of pain and desperation?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever felt God move in your heart in a moment of pain and desperation?
SPEAKER_00: That's where this widow is at, because I want to remind us today that every dream that God fulfills begins with a divine desire.
SPEAKER_00: Every dream that you have in your heart that you've been thinking through over the last four weeks is a divine desire that God puts inside your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this lady is.
SPEAKER_00: That this is where she's at.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we can kind of even wonder where does this dream come from?
SPEAKER_00: Where does my dream am I just supposed to make something up?
SPEAKER_00: Am I supposed to just kind of pull my dream out of thin air?
SPEAKER_00: And I think oftentimes the dreams that God births inside of our heart are out of the deepest pains that we've walked through.
SPEAKER_00: It's out of the situations that we've wanted to avoid, is where God brings our dreams out of.
SPEAKER_00: It's out of moments of passion and pain and desperation.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a key truth that I want you to get from this is that God defines your dreams through the burdens He will not let you ignore.
SPEAKER_00: Is there something that you think about often?
SPEAKER_00: Is there something in your spirit that God just will not let you let go of?
SPEAKER_00: Is there something that you're passionate about that it feels like nobody else is passionate about that one thing?
SPEAKER_00: It's probably a pretty clear indicator that God is pricking your heart to run with the vision that He's put inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: What is that one thing that God keeps bringing up over and over and over again?
SPEAKER_00: It's a point of passion.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's it's settled deep in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's the dream that God puts inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes you feel the stirring in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever felt the stirring in your heart over what God's called you to?
SPEAKER_00: You just know it, right?
SPEAKER_00: In the 1950s, there was a man who was pastoring a rural church in Pennsylvania by the name of David Wilkerson.
SPEAKER_00: David Wilkerson was pastoring this church, and um, one night, as the story goes, David Wilkerson was reading a magazine article, and he's flipping through this magazine article, and he opens it up, and it's an article about gang violence in New York City and how rampant gang violence had become.
SPEAKER_00: So he's reading this and he he opens this page and it comes to this article, and all of a sudden he felt the Holy Spirit prick his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And when he felt the Holy Spirit prick his heart, he felt the Holy Spirit say, Go to them.
SPEAKER_00: Go to these people.
SPEAKER_00: So automatically, David Wilkerson has so many questions.
SPEAKER_00: He's never been to New York City a day in his life.
SPEAKER_00: And as the story goes, he says he had no desire to go, didn't want to go, and kind of fought it.
SPEAKER_00: So after much prayer, David Wilkerson leaves very rural Pennsylvania and goes to New York City.
SPEAKER_00: Goes on a prayer of hope, and begins to find these gang members in the streets.
SPEAKER_00: Goes up to them and begins to witness to them and begins to just share the love of God with them.
SPEAKER_00: And at the beginning had absolutely no success.
SPEAKER_00: Had multiple times his life was threatened.
SPEAKER_00: He was questioning God.
SPEAKER_00: Did I hear you?
SPEAKER_00: When I opened up that page, was it the pizza from last night?
SPEAKER_00: Like what is going on, right?
SPEAKER_00: And David Wilkerson continues to just be consistent in sharing his faith with the people of New York, with these gang members.
SPEAKER_00: One day he goes up there, as he's walking down the streets, he runs into one of the most feared gang members at the time named Nikki Cruz.
SPEAKER_00: And David Wilkerson looked at Nicky Cruz in the eyes and he said, I want you to know two things.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I want you to know that I love you and Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And Nikki Cruz did not take too fondly to that.
SPEAKER_00: He did not stand there and worship Jesus in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: He had very choice words to say back to David Wilkerson.
SPEAKER_00: It was in that moment that something registered again in David Wilkerson's heart that he would continue to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And he would go back and he would go back, and specifically he would go back to Nicky Cruz and say, I love you, and Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, after staying consistent, not only did multiple gang members get saved, but Nikki Cruz gave his life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his life to Jesus, and because of that one man, the fearless, the the the gang member who was kind of running a lot of this, multiple gang members gave their life because Nikki Cruz gave his life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it was out of that obedience and out of that pricking of his heart that he gave his life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Nikki Cruz and David Wilkerson began to share the gospel all throughout New York.
SPEAKER_00: And as the story goes, a great ministry was born from these two men called Teen Challenge.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all have ever heard of Teen Challenge, the Addiction Recovery Center, Christian Addiction Recovery Center?
SPEAKER_00: Out of a moment of the Lord stirring David Wilkerson's heart when he didn't understand.
SPEAKER_00: It was a moment of, I kind of feel it, but I don't know where I'm supposed to go.
SPEAKER_00: And he walked it out.
SPEAKER_00: Now we have this great ministry that is across 129 different nations.
SPEAKER_00: At any given time, 20,000 people can be ministered to it at Teen Challenge.
SPEAKER_00: Because David Wilkerson said yes, and because he followed what God was stirring in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And for some of you, the last few weeks, God's been stirring this dream.
SPEAKER_00: And you can feel it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is out of a moment of pain.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's out of a moment of desperation.
SPEAKER_00: And I just feel this morning that God's saying, pursue the dream, go after the dream, do what God has called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to define the dream that He's put in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, you've got to define the dream, number one.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, you've got to discover what you have.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say, discover what you have.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says in 2 Kings.
SPEAKER_00: So after she's cried out, after she's had this moment of desperation, after they're threatening to come and take her sons.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, here in verse 2, here's what it says Elisha comes to her and says, What can I do to help you?
SPEAKER_00: What can I do to help you, Elisha?
SPEAKER_00: Tell me, what Do you have in the house?
SPEAKER_00: And she says, nothing at all except a flask of olive oil.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing at all except a flask of olive oil.
SPEAKER_00: So after we define the dream, generally then we have this moment of how in the world am I going to walk this dream out?
SPEAKER_00: Has God ever given you a step, something that you were supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00: And then the next question in your heart, maybe you didn't verbalize it out loud, was how am I supposed to do that?
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all have ever had that moment?
SPEAKER_00: How am I supposed to walk this out?
SPEAKER_00: And Elisha asked her two simple questions.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, hey, how can I help you?
SPEAKER_00: And here's the second question.
SPEAKER_00: And this, the second one is really the game changer question.
SPEAKER_00: The second one is really kind of what almost shifts the entire story.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just simply what you can see right there on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: What do you have in the house?
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to notice that immediately after he asked her that, she begins to minimize what she has.
SPEAKER_00: She begins to lower the expectation of what she has.
SPEAKER_00: What do you have?
SPEAKER_00: What do you have in your house?
SPEAKER_00: And then she says, nothing at all except just a little oil.
SPEAKER_00: Just a little bit of oil.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I put in my notes, and I filled this this morning she almost missed her miracle because she was looking at what she didn't have instead of what she did have.
SPEAKER_00: She almost missed the great miracle that God wanted to do in her life because she was more focused on what she did not have instead of the thing that she did have in her life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have much.
SPEAKER_00: I've just got a little bit of oil.
SPEAKER_00: Just got just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And please hear me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have got to stop believing a lie that what you have is not enough to do what God's called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say it again.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that some of you have bought into this lie that what you have is not enough.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to speak truth and I want to speak life into you that you have what God needs to accomplish the dream inside your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You have what it takes.
SPEAKER_00: And many people don't walk out the dream in their heart because they simply believe that what they have is not enough.
SPEAKER_00: They stop at this step in the game because they don't believe that what they have is enough.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want you to know whatever God's given you right now in this season is for this season.
SPEAKER_00: And He's given you what you need.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you have in your hand right now, God's placed it there for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, just say this after me.
SPEAKER_00: Say, I have what I need to do what God's called me to do.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Say, I have what I need to do what God's called me to do.
SPEAKER_00: You have what you need to do what God's called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: But if we're not careful, we get into the same mentality that the widow had of I don't I don't really have anything.
SPEAKER_00: Well, except a little oil.
SPEAKER_00: We develop this around what what our goal is, what our dream is, what the thing God's put in your our heart.
SPEAKER_00: I just I have just a little bit of money, but it's not enough to do what God's called me to do.
SPEAKER_00: I have a little bit of help, but it's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: I have a little bit of passion, but it's it's not.
SPEAKER_00: I have a little bit of curiosity.
SPEAKER_00: And the little bit that God's given you is enough for him to perform the miracle through you that he wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's enough.
SPEAKER_00: You have what you need to do.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: This is the key truth.
SPEAKER_00: I want you just to write this down, take a picture, whatever you gotta do, is that dreams don't start when you get more.
SPEAKER_00: They start when you surrender what you have.
SPEAKER_00: Dreams don't start when you get more, they start when you use what you've been given.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not careful, this is where a dream will die.
SPEAKER_00: Because we look back in the mirror and we believe lies of insecurity that have been spoken over us, and we say, I don't have what I need to do, X, what God's called me to do.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm here to stand and tell you, you don't need more.
SPEAKER_00: You need to surrender what God's already given you.
SPEAKER_00: Use what he's given you.
SPEAKER_00: Because how many know when we surrender it over to him, it turns out a hundred times better than what we could do on our own, anyways.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That's the story of this widow, is that she had to discover what God had put inside of her, and you've got to see what God has given you differently.
SPEAKER_00: You have to see it different, you have to see your talents different, you have to see your ability different, you have to see the people around you different, you have to see your calling different.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is when we think about our dreams of what God's called us to do in 2026 and beyond, is oftentimes we only see it through here and not through here.
SPEAKER_00: And if we only see our dream through here, we limit what God can do through our spirit and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: Because we look at it through our eyes and we say, God, I can only do this.
SPEAKER_00: And I can only accomplish this because we're looking at it the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta see it differently.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta see what God's called you to do differently.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, we we we see this biblical pattern all throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Examples of people that had what they needed, but they didn't think it was enough.
SPEAKER_00: They had what they needed in their hand, but they didn't think that it was enough.
SPEAKER_00: In Exodus chapter 4, we see this in the life of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show this to you.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter 4, verses 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says, but Moses protested again.
SPEAKER_00: He protested again.
SPEAKER_00: What if they won't believe me or listen to me?
SPEAKER_00: What if they say the Lord never appeared to you?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord asked him, What's in your what?
SPEAKER_00: What's in your hand?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, It's a shepherd's staff.
SPEAKER_00: Moses replied.
SPEAKER_00: Well, throw it down on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord told him, So Moses threw down the staff and it turned into a snake, and Moses jumped back.
SPEAKER_00: I love that line in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Because that would have been all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Moses had in his hand a miracle the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: He just didn't recognize it.
SPEAKER_00: It was in the miracle was in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: Every step he was taking, every moment he was fighting back with the Lord, saying, I'm not the guy, I can't do this, I don't have what it takes.
SPEAKER_00: Every step he was walking with that staff, he had a miracle in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: Because he, but he ignored it because it didn't look like a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: It looked like something completely different.
SPEAKER_00: And God didn't give Moses a new tool, he anointed the one that he already had in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't give him something new.
SPEAKER_00: He anointed what he already had.
SPEAKER_00: And Elisha didn't give this woman something new.
SPEAKER_00: He just opened her eyes to see what she already had in her hand the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: He opened her eyes to be able to see what I have is actually enough.
SPEAKER_00: I really can do what God's called me to do.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just with Moses.
SPEAKER_00: We see it in the life of David.
SPEAKER_00: David is carrying around a slingshot and a pouch and goes gets five smooth stones.
SPEAKER_00: And with those simple things that he had been carrying around for days, he took down Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: He had it on him the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: The feeding of the 5,000.
SPEAKER_00: We know this story, but a young boy with five loaves and two fish.
SPEAKER_00: He's just walking around with five loaves and two fish and has no idea the miracle that he has in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: Has no idea what he's carrying around.
SPEAKER_00: But the miracle was right there the entire time, but he didn't see it until the Lord let him see it.
SPEAKER_00: Until he saw it different.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not careful, we will miss what God wants to do through our life because it may not look like what we think it should look like.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to know you've got what it takes to do what God's called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: You just gotta see it different sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: You just got to see it different.
SPEAKER_00: So let God take what you have and accomplish what He's put in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: We got to define the dream, discover what you have.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, this is super, super important.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, I want you to get this is you gotta do what God says.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say, do what God says.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta do what God says.
SPEAKER_00: Recognizing what you have is powerful, but nothing changes until you put it into motion.
SPEAKER_00: You can define the dream all day long, you can recognize what you have, and you need to.
SPEAKER_00: But eventually you gotta put the dream in motion.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually you gotta say yes.
SPEAKER_00: There is no replacement for faith and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what it says in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: And Elisha said, Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: And then go into your house with your sons.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see this progression.
SPEAKER_00: Shut the door behind you, pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.
SPEAKER_00: And verse five, I think, is the game changer in this whole story.
SPEAKER_00: These few words at the beginning of verse five changes the entire story.
SPEAKER_00: So she did as she was told.
SPEAKER_00: She did as the prophet told her to do.
SPEAKER_00: And her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled them one after another.
SPEAKER_00: So she did.
SPEAKER_00: So she walked in obedience as she was told.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it doesn't say?
SPEAKER_00: She understood perfectly, so she did.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say she felt confident, so she did.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that she had all the answers, so she did.
SPEAKER_00: It just says, so she did.
SPEAKER_00: So she did.
SPEAKER_00: So she began to walk by faith.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not careful, church, listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: This is a really crucial piece in walking our dreams out.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we don't pay attention, if we don't listen to our heart and have the right eyes to see, this is where dreams die, right here.
SPEAKER_00: Because what we are really good at is talking about our dream.
SPEAKER_00: And we're really good at thinking about our dream.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll take it a step further.
SPEAKER_00: We're really good about praying about our dream.
SPEAKER_00: But until you put faith and action with the dream God's put in your heart, it's just a daydream.
SPEAKER_00: Until you put faith and action to what God has called you to do, we're simply wishing, hoping, and thinking.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta do what God calls you to do.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to step out.
SPEAKER_00: I love what James chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see these verses.
SPEAKER_00: Because James describes this so perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 2, verse 14, he says, What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith, but don't show it by your actions?
SPEAKER_00: I don't even have to elaborate on that.
SPEAKER_00: If you say you have faith, but don't show it by your actions, can that kind of faith save anyone?
SPEAKER_00: Verses 21 and 22.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you remember that our ancestors Abraham was shown to be right with God by his what?
SPEAKER_00: Actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: You see, his faith and his worked together.
SPEAKER_00: His actions made his faith complete.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know this morning that it takes two things for our dreams to get moving.
SPEAKER_00: It takes faith and it takes action.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 tells us that after she stepped out and she did what Elisha told her to do, is that soon every jar was full to the brim.
SPEAKER_00: She just didn't think about pouring oil.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what she did?
SPEAKER_00: She poured oil.
SPEAKER_00: She didn't just think about shutting the door.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what she did?
SPEAKER_00: She shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: She didn't just consider borrowing all of the jars.
SPEAKER_00: She borrowed all the jars.
SPEAKER_00: She did what God called her to do.
SPEAKER_00: And every dream, listen to me, every dream that God places in your heart at some point is going to require faith and action.
SPEAKER_00: Every dream, everything God's called you to, whether big or small, is going to require you to step out on faith and it's going to require action on your part.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes faith can be hard to define.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we kind of just throw out faith and we think we understand what it talks about, what it what it means, and faith is defined in multiple ways, but I want you to see this is just my personal definition of what faith means and what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Is faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step.
SPEAKER_00: That's faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step.
SPEAKER_00: If you know the second step, it's not faith.
SPEAKER_00: It takes faith and it takes action.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: I I am a person I like to know every step.
SPEAKER_00: Do we have any detailed people?
SPEAKER_00: You like to know the details.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know, I don't want to just know one and two, I want to know like through ten.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll take 11 and 12 if you got them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna know every step.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not faith.
SPEAKER_00: And in the dream God's called you to, it's gonna take some times where you're gonna have to step out in faith and you're not gonna know.
SPEAKER_00: But it's in the stepping out that God reveals how faithful he truly is.
SPEAKER_00: When you step out, God shows himself to be trustworthy and faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Faith, it is the willingness to step out and look foolish.
SPEAKER_00: We see this all throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Noah looked foolish when he was building an ark in the desert.
SPEAKER_00: Sarah looked foolish when she was buying maternity clothes at 90.
SPEAKER_00: David looked foolish attacking Goliath with a slingshot.
SPEAKER_00: The wise man looked foolish following a star.
SPEAKER_00: Peter looked foolish stepping out of the boat onto water.
SPEAKER_00: The widow looked foolish borrowing empty jars with only a little bit of oil in her house.
SPEAKER_00: But God always has a tendency to show up when we step out with faith in action.
SPEAKER_00: Because Noah survived the great flood, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, David defeated Goliath, the wise men found the Messiah, Peter walked on water, and the widow saw every jar of oil filled because she stepped out on faith.
SPEAKER_00: God honors when we step out.
SPEAKER_00: When we move, God moves.
SPEAKER_00: In the 1850s, um elevators were not very common.
SPEAKER_00: Elevators were kind of starting to be used just a little bit, and they were very unstable.
SPEAKER_00: Elevators in the 1850s were really just a platform that had a rope that was going to the top.
SPEAKER_00: No thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I would also like to say the elevator we're putting next door is much safer than that.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Your kids are in good hands.
SPEAKER_00: And in the 1850s, elevators were starting to be used, but nobody trusted them at all.
SPEAKER_00: And Elisha Otis comes on the scene and he creates this invention of the elevator safety break.
SPEAKER_00: The elevator safety break.
SPEAKER_00: And he had this great idea, but they didn't want to just hear him talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to see him put it into action.
SPEAKER_00: So in 1853, at the World's Fair, there were thousands of people gathered round, and Elisha Otis thought, This is my time to really show if this works or not.
SPEAKER_00: People had been kind of hearing about it, and he said, if we're gonna do it, now's a good time.
SPEAKER_00: So with thousands of people gathered round, people underneath him, he gets on this elevator platform and goes way up in the air.
SPEAKER_00: And this platform, just like elevators were at that time, was just suspended by one rope.
SPEAKER_00: But he had his elevator safety brake that he had invented.
SPEAKER_00: And he has an assistant that is over to his right, and with everybody around, Elisha Otis screams out, cut the rope.
SPEAKER_00: So his assistant takes an axe and cuts the rope.
SPEAKER_00: And as he cuts the rope, the whole crowd gasps, as you can imagine.
SPEAKER_00: The elevator falls about four feet.
SPEAKER_00: The safety brake does what it was supposed to do.
SPEAKER_00: And Elisha Otis in that moment moved from just talking about the dream God had put in his heart to now he had put it into action.
SPEAKER_00: And Elisha Otis is not.
SPEAKER_00: Known for the safety break and the Otis Elevator Company and all of those great things.
SPEAKER_00: And in months just following what happened at the World's Fair, elevators began to pop up over all over New York City.
SPEAKER_00: They began to, within years, elevators were popular.
SPEAKER_00: Skyscrapers were going up because there was safety now in the elevators.
SPEAKER_00: Elisha Otis was not only known for creating the elevator safety break.
SPEAKER_00: Many people call him the father of the modern-day skyscraper.
SPEAKER_00: Because without the safety break, we would have no way to have a safe way to go up.
SPEAKER_00: He had a dream in his heart, but his dream never came to fruition until he put action to what was there.
SPEAKER_00: And I think some of us that's where we're at.
SPEAKER_00: We've thought about it and we prayed about it.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about it.
SPEAKER_00: But at some point, you gotta stand on a platform and you gotta cut the rope.
SPEAKER_00: And you gotta say, God, I trust you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put faith and action together.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, and I'm closing with this.
SPEAKER_00: Number four.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta define the dream.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta discover what you have, you gotta do what God calls you to do.
SPEAKER_00: And then number four, you gotta depend on God's provision.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta depend on God's provision.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is just how good God is in verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Every container was full to the brim.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read that again.
SPEAKER_00: Every container was full to the brim.
SPEAKER_00: Bring me another jar, she said to one of her sons.
SPEAKER_00: They aren't there anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And then the olive oil stopped flowing.
SPEAKER_00: And when she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and your sons can live on what is left.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see how good God is, and how faithful and how trustworthy He is.
SPEAKER_00: Her original dream was she just wanted her sons to be together.
SPEAKER_00: She wanted to save her family, which is a great dream.
SPEAKER_00: Very noble dream is what God had put in her heart to do.
SPEAKER_00: But God didn't just stop at, I'm gonna save your family.
SPEAKER_00: He did much more.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's a much more kind of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's a more than able kind of God.
SPEAKER_00: He did far more than anything that she could have ever hoped or imagined.
SPEAKER_00: Here's I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did he do one miracle for her, he actually did four miracles for her.
SPEAKER_00: The debt is gone, the sons are safe, the house is filled with oil, and there's enough left over to live on.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say it again.
SPEAKER_00: The debt is gone, the sons are safe, the house is filled with oil, and there's enough left over to live on.
SPEAKER_00: She started with a dream of God, just save my kids.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, I'll do it, but I'll do more.
SPEAKER_00: I'll do more than what you can even imagine.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to end with this morning and encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: There's a dream God's put in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I think today he's saying, Will you give me the dream?
SPEAKER_00: Put it in motion so that I can do more with it than you could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_00: But it starts with surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we give it to him, he'll do more than we ever thought, hoped, or imagined.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, this key truth: God doesn't just fulfill the dream in your heart, he exceeds it beyond what you imagined.
SPEAKER_00: Will you stand with me?
SPEAKER_00: Stand with me.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna spend just a moment worshiping, worshiping and responding today.
SPEAKER_00: I believe this morning that there's some of you that as I've been talking about the dream that God's put in your heart, you know exactly what it is, and you need to receive prayer for what He's called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, some of you, as I was just talking today, you can just kind of feel your heart beating out of your chest because you know there's a step of faith.
SPEAKER_00: There's a calling, there's a dream.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have put it off, and I believe today you need to receive prayer for what God's put inside of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the second group of people.
SPEAKER_00: This morning I was praying early for you.
SPEAKER_00: And there's some of you that you're battling fear and confusion over the dream.
SPEAKER_00: There's fear of what if I step out?
SPEAKER_00: What if I don't know?
SPEAKER_00: What if God doesn't meet me where I where he said he would meet me?
SPEAKER_00: There's fear and there's also confusion.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to call the enemy a liar, and God is not a God of fear, and he is not a God of confusion.
SPEAKER_00: He is a God of peace, and he's a God of clarity.
SPEAKER_00: My second call is for those of you, maybe this morning, you're battling with some fear and some confusion on what God's put inside your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to receive prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I believe things can be broken off of your life in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: And you can walk through the rest of the month of February and all of 2026 doing what He's called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Will you just bow your heads with me?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna spend just a moment worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: I want you just to respond this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to already come forward, you can.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have another need in your life that you need prayer for that I did not mention.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I'm praying right now, God, over your people.
SPEAKER_00: God, touch them in a special way, God, over every dream, over every calling, over every specific thing that you've put in their spirit to do.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm asking right now, God, that you would break off fear off of their life.
SPEAKER_00: That where fear has tried to cripple them to take the next step.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm praying, God, it's being removed for those that have been walking in a place of confusion.
SPEAKER_00: God, you are the author of clarity and peace.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, right now I'm asking, move upon your people's hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Let's worship this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, people are already beginning to move.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just worship for a moment and let's receive prayer.