I HAVE A DREAM
Can I tell you about a crazy dream I had once? I don’t usually remember my dreams, but when one stands out, I make sure to write it down.
This one started in what felt like a boardroom—or maybe a lecture hall. We were having church, but something felt off. Then the weirdest things started happening. The minister from my childhood church was there, casually DJ-ing the moment with his iPad. At some point, I realized I forgot to put the slides into ProPresenter and had a video to show too. So, I’m literally crawling under tables, praying out loud, shoving boxes and cords around like a madman trying to make everything work. For some reason, we’re using one of those old media carts with a TV strapped on top.
Meanwhile, there’s a guitar lesson happening in the corner, and somehow I end up shirtless more than once. My iPad keeps freezing on random apps, and I can’t get it to the passage I’m supposed to read. New people keep walking in, and I’m processing out loud, thinking, “This beats everything that’s happened so far.”
Then, suddenly, we’re outside, and I’m off somewhere around a corner, alone, trying to hold it together. My notes are lost. My presentation is lost. My shirt is lost, apparently. And I’m just sitting at this table, alone, trying to speak through one of those awful Britney Spears headsets, just hoping my voice is reaching the people I can’t even see anymore. And everything is unraveling and falling apart.
Then… someone comes and sits next to me. And then another. And another. So I just say, “Come on, if you want to come join me, there’s plenty of room.” And people start coming. And we’re there, sitting down together at a long table—together.
There’s a power to dreams. Sometimes they’re just bizarre—like your brain’s throwing a party with zero adult supervision. Other times, even in the chaos, they somehow become these strange little bridges between heaven and earth. Between us and God.
That’s why they stay with us. Why they move us.
It’s no coincidence that one of the most significant speeches of the last century began with a dream. Martin Luther King Jr. stood up and said, “I have a dream…” A dream that one day, all of God’s children would sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
And here’s my favorite part of the speech, the part no one ever puts on the posters. He said: “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
Dr. King wasn’t dreaming up something brand new. He was echoing something from the very heart of God. This is straight out of Isaiah 40: “4 Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. 5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!” (Isaiah 40:4–5)
This is God’s dream. That one day, we will all sit at the table. Together. As family.
GOD’S DREAM REVEALED
This has always been God's dream. From the very beginning, His heartbeat has been for the world, and that world includes everyone—every tribe, every tongue, every nation.
We see this from the moment Jesus speaks in Acts 1:8, where He outlines the ultimate game plan: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
That’s the dream. A gospel that doesn’t stay contained in Jerusalem. A gospel that doesn’t stop with people who look like Peter, talk like Peter, or worship like Peter. No, the dream is that this gospel would break every boundary—cultural, political, spiritual—and spread to the ends of the earth. That’s where this is headed.
And this dream has been present from the very beginning.
In Isaiah 49, the Messiah is described as “a light to the nations.”
In Psalm 67, the psalmist prays, “May all the peoples praise You.”
Way back in Genesis 12, God says to Abraham, “Through you, all nations on earth will be blessed.”
God’s dream has always been global. Always been for the outsider. It’s been about reaching out to people from every walk of life, every background, every story. This has been His heartbeat since the very beginning.
One of my favorite verses that really brings this to life is from Psalm 46:10. You probably know the first part: “Be still, and know that I am God.” But don’t miss the rest: “I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”
This isn’t a wish or a hope. It’s a declaration. God says, “I WILL be honored among the nations.” And He will be. His dream will come to pass.
We got a powerful glimpse of this vision when we lived in Moldova. We were part of a church called International Christian Fellowship (ICF)—a small, diverse community. Every Sunday, we gathered in one room: Moldovans, Central Asians, Norwegians, Americans—people from all over the world. Some had been following Jesus for years; others were just starting out. We had Catholics, Assemblies of God, Baptists—people with wildly different church experiences. And yet, there we were: worshiping together, singing to the same God, hearing from the same Scriptures, praying for one another like family. Here’s a photo.
And here’s the crazy part: I don’t even recognize most of the people in that photo. There’s Kathryn and Brian, Tommy and Tanya with their kids, Paul, who started leading the church after we left—but the truth is, I don’t recognize the vast majority of those faces. About 90% of them are strangers to me. Why? Because God wasn’t done. He was still at work. He was still bringing people in, still drawing hearts toward Himself. God’s dream didn’t stop when we moved—it keeps growing, it keeps expanding, and the table just keeps getting longer.
And that’s what the Kingdom of God looks like. It’s not something we get to control. It doesn’t stop with us. We don’t put limits on it. The table keeps growing. And that’s the beautiful part—God’s dream is always bigger than what we can see, than what we can imagine.
If this is God’s dream, then it changes everything about how we live. If God is drawing people from every nation, every background, every story—then we can’t afford to exclude anyone. No one is outside the scope of God’s love. No one is beyond the reach of His grace.
This is God’s dream, and He’s calling us to live it out. Are we willing to join Him in this mission, to embrace His vision for the Church, and to love those who He is calling to Himself?
GOD’S DREAM REALIZED
Let me ask you this: what are you expecting when you come into this gathering? Are you coming with certain expectations? Because our expectations shape our experience. If we're expecting comfort—if we’re expecting everything to go just as we’ve always known it—then when something unexpected happens, something that disrupts our sense of control or comfort, our response might be, “I didn’t connect with God the way I thought I would,” or “Something was missing this Sunday.”
But it doesn’t even have to be that dramatic. Sometimes we come with the expectation that everyone will be like us—think like us, look like us, experience God in the same ways we do. And when that doesn’t happen, it throws us off. But here’s the thing: the family of God was never meant to be uniform. It’s a beautiful mess of diversity, not just in the obvious ways—like Jew and Gentile—but in the subtler ways too. Different cultures, different stories, different ways of connecting with God.
If we’re doing this right, church should challenge our comfort. It should challenge how we expect God to meet us. And this is exactly the lesson Peter had to learn.
Peter had to be shown, literally. God gave him a vision—a dream—that turned everything he thought he knew about holiness upside down. Peter had to learn that God's kingdom wasn’t just for people like him—it was for everyone.
Take Cornelius, for example. He was a Roman soldier, a Gentile—someone the Jewish people would’ve dismissed as unclean, as "other." And in some Jewish traditions, Gentiles were even considered *“garbage”—good for nothing other than fueling the fires of hell.
But listen, that’s exactly the kind of radical shift Peter had to make. Because in God’s eyes, Cornelius mattered. In God’s dream, every person matters. People from every tribe, every tongue, every nation—they matter. And that’s why Peter stands in Cornelius’s house and says, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation He accepts those who fear Him and do what is right” (Acts 10:34-35, NLT).
This is a huge moment. It’s the moment where God’s people begin to understand what He has been dreaming of since the beginning—to welcome all kinds of people into the family. This is God’s dream: that all are welcome, all belong.
And this has massive implications for us. Yes, it means that God’s family will be ethnically diverse, reflecting the multitudes of heaven. But it also means a diversity of stories, of experiences, of responses—and this can be a huge disruption to our expectations. Because there are two realities we often run into as we try to picture what God’s family is supposed to look like:
First, sometimes the people we expect to respond to the gospel don’t. We see this in Acts 9, when Saul has a dramatic encounter with Jesus. You’d think that the religious leaders—the people he used to work with—would celebrate his conversion. Instead, they try to kill him. And the church is terrified of him. Paul finds himself rejected, isolated, alone. The very people who should have rejoiced were the ones who resisted him the most.
Some of you know exactly what that feels like. You came to Christ, and you were changed. You thought the people around you would celebrate, but instead, you faced skepticism, distance, maybe even opposition. Sometimes, the people we expect to embrace the gospel are the ones who reject it.
But the opposite is also true. Sometimes, the people we least expect—the overlooked, the ones who don’t fit our mold—are the very ones God is already calling. Take Cornelius again. He didn’t fit the categories. He wasn’t who anyone would have predicted. But he was listening. He was ready. And God saw him.
Here’s the thing: you’d be amazed at who God is working on in secret. He’s at work in places you can’t see, in people you might not even notice. So let’s not count anyone out. God’s dream is bigger than we think. His family isn’t just made up of the people we would naturally gravitate toward. It’s made up of the unexpected, the unqualified, the unlikely. Everyone has a seat at His table.
And here’s the key: God doesn’t just send messages through dreams—He sends people. Just like He sent Peter to Cornelius, He sends us—to cross boundaries, to break down walls, and to invite people into His family.
GOD’S DREAM LIVED OUT
Let me share a story with you that has deeply impacted me. It’s a parable from Luke 14, and it’s one of those moments in Scripture that has stood out to me as we read through the New Testament together in our discipleship groups. Jesus tells the story of a man who planned a great banquet and sent out invitations. But when the time came for the feast, all the invited guests made excuses. One had just bought a field, another had new oxen to test, another had just gotten married. They all had something more pressing than the banquet. Lame.
The master was angry—not because he was petty, but because the table was ready, and those he invited didn’t care. So he sent his servant out: “Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” When there was still room, he sent the servant out again.
What stands out to me is this: God isn’t waiting around for the respectable, for those who fit into our tidy expectations of what church should look like. He’s not just calling the people who won’t interrupt our carefully cultivated spiritual experiences. No, He’s reaching for the ones we might overlook—the ones who don’t fit our mold, the ones who challenge us, stretch us, maybe even make us uncomfortable. That’s who God is. He fills His table, not with the expected, but with the willing. With those who will open themselves to Him.
And here’s how the story ends — Luke 14:23 (NLT): “Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that my house will be full.”
This is God’s heart. A full house. No empty seats. No one counted out.
And here’s the kicker: God is sending His servants to make sure His house is full. And in this story, we’re not just the honored guests. We are also His servants. We’re the ones sent into the streets, the alleys, the unexpected places, to bring people in. Just like Peter was sent to Cornelius. That’s the surprising twist in this parable.
Yes, God works through dreams—but here’s what’s truly surprising. It’s not just that God speaks through dreams, it’s that those dreams always lead somewhere. They don’t just end in clarity. They end in direction. A message that almost always ends at a messenger.
Think about Paul’s story. When he was struck by the blinding light on the road to Damascus, God didn’t give him all the answers right then and there. He told him to go find a man named Ananias. God doesn’t just drop all the answers in our laps. He sends us to people.
Cornelius was a good man. A Roman soldier, devout, prayerful, generous. But still, he needed more. He needed Jesus. Because “good” isn’t enough. Not for Cornelius, not for Peter, not for you, not for me. We all need Jesus. And God didn’t just give Cornelius a dream. He gave him a name. A person. A messenger.
This is how God works—He doesn’t just send messages, He sends us. He sends people. And He is sending you.
GOD’S DREAM IN YOU
So, are we paying attention? Are we aware of the people God is bringing into our lives? Because He is drawing people to Himself. And honestly, they may not be the ones we would naturally gravitate toward. They might be the ones who make us uncomfortable, the ones who challenge us the most. And our response can’t be, “Well, God will send someone else. Someone who fits that mold a little better. Someone more like them.”
But here’s the thing: God’s dream isn’t about us staying in our comfort zones. It’s not about building a place where we only surround ourselves with people who think like us and believe like we do. If that’s the goal, then we’re completely missing the point. God’s dream is about something far bigger—it’s about creating a beautiful mess of a community that is radically diverse. It’s about breaking down walls and inviting people from all walks of life to His table.
We should expect diversity in the church. Not just diversity of race, but also diversity of culture, thought, and personal background. And we should be united by what matters most: the gospel. The truth that God came down to us. That Jesus lived the perfect life, was crucified, poured out His blood, died, rose again, and is coming back. That’s what brings us together.
When we get this right—when we embrace the diversity and messiness of God’s kingdom—we are reflecting God’s dream for His family. That’s when we truly become the body of Christ. A family united, not because we’re all alike, but because Jesus is the center.
OPEN TO THE SPIRIT
Can I detour us for just a second? I think it’s important—and deeply relevant.
I was listening to a conversation between Tyler Staton and Tim Mackie. Some of you have read Tyler’s book on prayer, and Tim, as many of you know, is the scholar behind The Bible Project. These two guys are good friends, and they were talking about the Holy Spirit—and something Tim said just stuck with me. He described the Spirit as the most real presence in existence, and yet the least perceptible by our five senses.
It’s kind of like love. You can’t measure it, you can’t see it, but you know it’s real—in fact, it might be the most real thing about you. Now imagine that—but deeper, more mysterious, more powerful. That’s the Spirit of God. And Scripture is full of stories where people encounter this Spirit in wildly different ways.
And that’s by design. The Bible gives us a beautiful array of Spirit-filled experiences. It’s not one-size-fits-all. The Spirit doesn’t conform to our expectations or comfort zones. When Luke talks about the Holy Spirit, he zooms in on power—bold proclamation, signs and wonders, tongues of fire. It’s about empowered witness. But when John writes about the Spirit, the tone is radically different. He doesn’t talk about miracles—he talks about intimacy. He describes the Spirit as Comforter, Helper, Advocate. Not less powerful, but more personal. More tender.
And you know what? Both are true. Both are Scripture. And we need both. Because when we only surround ourselves with the kind of faith that looks and sounds like ours, we shrink God down to the size of our own experience. We end up expecting church to feel a certain way, people to respond a certain way, the Spirit to move a certain way—and anything outside of that box just doesn’t register. We miss it.
But what if that unfamiliar expression of the Spirit—the one that makes us a little uncomfortable or stretches us—is actually the missing piece? What if that’s the part that makes the body whole?
We need Luke’s fire and John’s whisper. We need both power and presence. Because if we want to be a people who live by the Spirit, we have to stay open to the fact that God moves in ways that are bigger, richer, and more diverse than our preferences.
So we can’t get locked into our own expectations. That’s not where God lives. Stay open. Stay humble. Because the Spirit of God might be moving right next to you—just not in the way you’re used to. And in the same way, His dream for His kingdom is bigger than we might think. If we close ourselves off to anything unfamiliar, we might miss the very thing God is doing. We have to be open to His dream—to the messiness, the beauty, and the radical diversity of what He’s bringing together. Stay open to the Spirit, because He’s always at work in ways we can’t predict.
RESPONDING TO GOD'S DREAM
I've been trying to engage with God in this way as often as I can remember. It’s nothing fancy—just a simple, honest whisper throughout the day:
“Where do You want me to go?”
“What do You want me to do?”
“What do You want me to say?”
Because I don’t want to live my life on autopilot. I don’t want my daily choices—my words, my presence—to just be background noise in someone else’s story. I want every interaction to be a chance to partner with God’s dream for this world. I want to live with the awareness that God is moving all around me—because He is.
That’s the heart of this story. The Spirit of God is not just moving through visions, but through radically diverse people. And in the end, they’re not as different from one another as we think. Cornelius was closer to the Kingdom of Heaven than Peter ever imagined.
In the same way, the people around us are closer to the Kingdom than we might realize. The Spirit is stirring in places we wouldn’t expect. That person you’ve written off—that neighbor, coworker, or family member—they might be a Cornelius, just waiting for someone to show up and speak Jesus.
The Kingdom is nearer than you think. Heaven isn’t just some far-off hope—it’s breaking in now. Every time someone is welcomed in, every time someone says yes to Jesus, and every time the church makes room at the table, we see God’s dream unfolding.
God’s dream is bigger than ours. His house will be full. And He’s inviting us to be a part of it. So let’s ask Him:
Where do You want me to go?
What do You want me to do?
What do You want me to say?
And then, let’s do it. Because when we respond to God’s dream, we’re part of something far greater than we could ever imagine.
As Jesus said in John 12:49-50, “I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say.” (John 12:49–50, NLT)
Let’s live like that. Let’s speak what the Father tells us to speak. Let’s go where He sends us. And let’s trust that His dream is unfolding right before our eyes.
Resources (*the views expressed within the following content are solely the author's and may not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Mountainside Church):
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