Acts 2: 12-18

<sup>12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"
13Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine. "

Peter Addresses the Crowd

14Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem , let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
    17" 'In the last days, God says,
       I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
   Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
       your young men will see visions,
       your old men will dream dreams.
    18Even on my servants, both men and women,
       I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
       and they will prophesy.</sup>

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, good morning! God bless you all.

You know, there's a story told about a little child that was busy working with crayons and paper. The teacher came up to the child and said, "What are you drawing?"

The little child hid the paper and said, "I'm drawing a picture of God."

The teacher said, "Whoa, that's pretty amazing, but you really can't do that, because nobody knows what God looks like."

The child smiled and said, "They will, after I'm through."

It's a wonderful story. It cheers our hearts, because it talks about the possibility of vision, of envisioning something that nobody's seen before.  Oh dear friends in Christ, I want to talk with you this morning about dreams and visions. I invite you to highlight that verse in your Bible that says,

"I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. [Methodists love that word.] Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. On the manservants and maidservants, in those days I will pour out my Spirit on everyone."

I invite you to underline that part. I hope you come to love those words as I do. And I hope it's food for thought for you in the days to come. I have been captivated by this since I started studying this in the summertime, and I've been so anxious to bring this sermon to you.

Your young men and women shall see visions, and your old men and women shall dream dreams. That's the verse I want to lift up today. Don't let that one go by you. This verse is so rich with meaning; don't let it slip by.

The first thing that's so wonderful about this scripture is that it's so inclusive. Did you notice that? In a society that was rigorously putting down women – well, you experience it today, if you look at the attitudes of some of the Middle East cultures – the prophet was speaking of visionary possibilities of the future, and here it was coming true. Men and women, sons and daughters, servants and free, maidservants, male servants, all included, young and old! How wonderfully inclusive and embracing is the love of God that we see in this verse! It's fantastic.

Now here's the part that I really want to hone in on with you: Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. I'm not exactly sure where I fit in there, maybe a bit of both. It's hard to know what old means anymore. I used to go down to Ocean Grove and think, "Boy, the people here are kind of old." But I go down there now and I see that really I was wrong. They're perfectly normal down there.

What is the special meaning in this verse for us? Well, let's take a look at dreams. "Your old men shall dream dreams." What's so special about that? Maybe the prophet is saying that one of the hallmarks of being old is not having any more dreams, being kind of hopeless. And the prophet is saying that when the Lord invades your spirit, the old become young again, and they are able to dream dreams again. How are you doing in the dream department? Have the rigors and the put-downs and the errands and the day-to-day tasks of life squeezed the dreams out of you? Oh, dear friend, it is time to reclaim them.

Could it be that the prophet is not talking about chronological age at all? Perhaps old means dreamless. Perhaps here, old means hopeless no matter what the chronological age. Did you ever know anybody who was really chronologically quite young, and dreamless? Did you ever know anyone of advanced years who had dreams and therefore became young? I did. Joel Nystrom – how old was he when he passed to the Lord? Was he 98? Yes, 98. To his last days in the hospital, he told me about his dreams for this church. Joel was a young man who died much too young, in my opinion. He was young because he had dreams. You and I can regain youth and energy and renew our spirit like the eagles, if we allow the Lord to let dreams blossom within us.

What is a dream? A dream is the positive possibility with a tag on it that says "Maybe, yes." If you have had the hard stuff of life squeeze the dreams out of you, it's time, from this moment on, to make a personal commitment to let the Lord let dreams be in you again. God has a wonderful plan for your life. God never, ever, gives up on you. So don't give up on yourself. Let the dreams, the positive possibilities marked with the tag "Maybe, yes", blossom for you again.

That's what keeps us young – something to look forward to, something to blossom into, something to make each day worthwhile. Oh, God loves you so much; He has such a plan for you. Let your spirit be open to it.

What's a vision? The Bible says, "Your young people shall see visions." Well, if hopelessness is on the old end of the spectrum, what's on the young end of the spectrum that's a problem? How about confusion? How about uncertainty, lack of direction? What the prophet is saying is that for those of us who suffer from that syndrome, the Spirit brings vision. What is vision? Vision is a picture of a dream. Vision is a dream that takes shape with detail in your mind. Think of a house going up. It's just a skeleton frame, just the beginning hint of what the house will look like. That's what a vision is like. When you begin to let a picture surround your dream, the forces of the universe can come in and flesh it out. Maybe some dreams don't come true for us because we don't allow the Spirit to let us envision what happens, to take away our confusion and uncertainty, and let a clear picture of the dream blossom inside us.

Oh, my dear friends, I invite you to be visionary thinkers. Let your thinking rise up from the stuff that has crushed you and pulled you down and held you back, and let dreams and visionary thinking take place within you. That's the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's God coming down and energizing you.  That's what he wants for you. May it set you free. May you have the courage to dream, the courage to let the dream take on a vision.

Dream and vision for your world – do you have a vision for the Middle East ? Does anybody? What do we think about when we think of the Middle East ? Conflict, retribution, things blowing up, relationships getting worse – that's what we think about immediately. But how about envisioning something different for the Middle East ? How about Israelis and Palestinians getting along? Odd thought, isn't it? But a possibility. How about envisioning a rebirth of the tourist industry in the Holy Land , with all the factors, Christians and Muslims and Jewish people, getting along and respecting each other's heritages and cooperating to rebuild the economy of the Middle East ? Wouldn't that be wonderful? It starts with a dream, with a vision. Let it begin with us – you, me, us together – holding fast to that dream.

Do you dream for your church? I do. I have such visions for this church. I envision our youth group growing in number and spirit and song, and going to events with other youth. I have this vision in my heart of our church growing in outreach as we bring people from the community in to enjoy Jesus with us. I envision our church becoming an ever more attractive and welcoming and hospitable place, as it already is becoming, so that we can reach out to the community. I envision us loving the Bible even more. I envision us becoming more mission-conscious, to the world, to the region, and to the local area. I wonder what your visions are. I envision us dreaming together and making this church all it can be while it's on our watch.

And what about for you? What are the visions and dreams for your life? Where is God leading you forward, out of the darkness and into the light? May this be the start, may this be the day, when dreams and visions are yours again, and we all become not the young, not the old, but God's ageless people. May it be so for you, because God loves you. I do, too. Have a blessed week. Amen.