Dreaming Again: Faith That Requires God

In one paragraph

The guest speaker shared a message drawn from a recent trip to the Dominican Republic, where a Young Life volunteer named Papi Papi sparked a question that shaped the whole morning: why do so many of us, especially in the Western church, stop dreaming big dreams for the gospel? Working through Nehemiah chapter two, the sermon pressed on what it looks like to live in a way that genuinely requires...

Read together

1. Nehemiah 2:1-8 primary text read aloud by a congregation member, the story of Nehemiah asking King Artaxerxes to send him to rebuild Jerusalem
2. James 1:2 quoted near the close of the sermon: 'count it all joy when you face trials of many kinds'
3. Psalm 119:105 paraphrased in the closing prayer: 'your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path'

Talk about it

1. The speaker described how Papi Papi's dream of filling a basketball stadium with high schoolers was met almost immediately with logistics questions rather than excitement. When you hear about a big vision for God's kingdom, what is your first instinct, and where do you think that comes from?
2. The speaker said many of us have built lives that function perfectly fine whether God shows up or not. Where in your own life, whether in parenting, work, relationships, or faith, do you think that might be true?
3. Several people in the room noticed that Nehemiah prayed before he spoke, served with excellence before he asked, and gave God the credit afterward. Which of those three is hardest for you personally, and why?
4. The speaker listed comfort, disappointment, fear, and distraction as reasons people stop dreaming. Which of those has most affected you, and has anything helped you push past it?
5. The speaker closed with four steps for recovering a lost dream: remember, repent, re-surrender, and take one step. Is there a dream you feel God stirred in you at some point that you have set down? What would the next single step look like if you picked it back up?