of it. We pray Father that we would trust you with all things and learn to depend upon your leading and direction so that your name might be glorified and we would experience the fullness of your blessings. In Jesus name, Amen. Last week we considered the same story as you would know if you were here that God is the dream giver.
He's the one that has communicated purpose and meaning to our lives. Most of us are not as much aware of the dream that God may have given as much as we are about the nudges that are in our heart, the desires that begin to flow from us when we look to God and the blessings and favor that have come our way as we have learned to simply walk with God. Most of us may not be so quick to say, let me tell you about the dream God gave me. But most of us that clearly say, I know where I was and I know where I'm at and I have a good strong sense of understanding about where God is leading my life.
What's important so much is that you and I learn to not be consumed with the dream or the details of what we sense God wants to do as much as we are consumed with the God who has a dream for your life. It's important to understand that there is a big difference between being fascinated with what God might want to accomplish rather than being fascinated with simply who God is, recognizing God as the one who has a dream, not only for you and I, but he has a dream from multitudes of people that as we rest in his dream, you and I can be a blessing to other people. When we think about dreams, some of us might get a little uneasy. When we talk about dreams, some of us might not be quite sure about this, but we all know that in stages of life for some reason, we were prompted to take a certain job, to pursue a certain career, to establish a certain relationship.
You and I were led through the course of events and the circumstances of life that you and I can be assured if we're walking with God, there's a good chance we are fulfilling the dream he has for us on the flip side. If we've been running from God, if we've dodged him for seasons in life, if we've been busy preoccupied with our own imagination and our fantasies in our own dreams, you and I are well aware. Boy, it's rough to run from the purpose and plan or the will of God. Joseph was convinced that what God had begun to impress upon him, he was fully convinced that this is his dream that God gave him and he believed it so much that he told his crazy brothers.
I don't know about you, but when God is beginning to work in my life, my brothers are not the ones I would want to tell. I had been sold just like Joseph was. I had been thrown in a pit. I had been mocked and laughed at.
As a matter of fact, they quite often think it's quite a joke about the ministry that I have involved myself in and they could tell you 10 reasons why it's crazy. You and I are well aware of the challenges you and I face when you begin to believe that God's got a purpose and plan for your life. You and I are well aware that when you take your relationship with Christ to be very intentional and sincere that sometimes it's going to have people rub against us. What do you do when injustice comes knocking on your door?
Because here is Joseph not only having to deal with his brothers and getting them to have a cute little laugh and do particularly mean things or hateful things. Now he begins to be sent and God begins to fulfill his purpose and plan and God puts his favor on his life and God makes sure that when he gets to Egypt, he is going to be second in command. There's only one problem. You and I are going to experience opposition, resistance, problems, complications, trials, temptations just like Joseph.
They may not be exactly in detail to that Joseph experience. But one thing you and I can be assured of, you and I have got to make some decisions in life. If we're going to keep our eye on the dreamgiver, you and I are going to be challenged in many ways and it's not that God likes to make things hard. It's just the world that you and I live in has dreams of its own.
It has goals of its own. It has plans of its own. And that's plan that's all around us goes in contradiction to the plan and purpose of God. It's tough when you and I deal with our own stubbornness and our reluctance to trust God and his plan for our life, let alone having to deal with some others.
My point that I want to look at and the reason I want to bring this story up again is because there's some things that I believe we can learn from individuals like Joseph. And there's some qualities about his life that are important for you and I to keep our focus on the dreamgiver and not be consumed on why isn't God fulfilling his dreams. I can put it this way. Some of you have become familiar with promises that God has in the Scriptures and you're wondering why aren't they working?
Why don't they happen so easy? Why do they not seem to be fulfilled so quickly? Why is life still challenging or difficult in spite of the fact that I truly have given myself to Christ? Isn't this life supposed to be easier?
Isn't it supposed to be sweeter? Isn't it supposed to be better or whatever? Comes into our mind when you and I get consumed by looking too closely at what God is supposed to be doing, you and I are going to get into trouble because God's promises are not simply just cookie cutter formulas that you and I might always have what you ever promised you want to pick. It's important to know God is faithful and he is to be trusted and he can be trusted and he is always faithful.
But you and I will probably go through seasons in life when it's going to be extremely hard. What seems to be some of the lessons we can learn from Joseph's experience and the other portions of Scripture that seem to allude to the same concepts is that in a time of injustice where Joseph pretty much was framed, he was set up and you're probably familiar with the story as much as I am as we think about this, it can really be a jolt to our concept of faith. It can be a jolt to our concept of God. It can be a jolt to a lot of different things that somehow we need to learn from these experiences and to try to understand the beauty of how we can mature and grow knowing God has given us a dream, He's given us a ministry, He's given us a calling, He's given us a place in life, He's given you a sphere of influence.
And though you might not see so much about where you're at as a God-ordained situation, you and I can be assured of one thing. If your relationship with Christ is as a ought to be, you are where you ought to be. But if we wait to round for some greater dream, some bigger dream, more colors, more details, you and I can get into a lot of trouble. So Joseph, as much as he was proud of the dream that he was given, he was not overly ambitious to try to rub it in his brother's faces, he just assumed that his brothers would appreciate what God is doing in his life.
And that's one of the big struggles that you and I face is in our excitement about what God is doing. You want to share it with somebody, some people get excited with you, but many people cringe. Especially if their relationship is not with the Lord, as it ought to be, they're going to experience what his brothers did, jealousy. There's going to be that hatred or that intrusion upon.
The first thing I want to mention about what we can learn is to remember your dreams which God gave you are much more to do with God than they are how you and I are going to walk away with more. As much as God's dream seems to enlarge your view of life, they seem to enlarge your concepts of God's purpose and plan, you and I must humbly learn to realize the dream is more about God than it's about you and I. When we think about dreams, we think about college, we think about places in life, you think about your job, your career, where you work, the people that you bump into, your world is more about God's plan than it is, how you and I might feel or experience life even to this day. Think about it.
We go to work, we put up with whatever is involved in work, we go through all the challenges of being faithful and committed, but your testimony does more in God's name than you and I would ever imagine. It's really a mission that God has sent us on and we need to remember that our dreams are really God's dreams. They're just being entrusted to your care and mine. Sometimes our imagination might get us out of a wack and we might desire to see things differently, but let's turn to Gospel of Mark chapter 4.
Because one of the first things we need to realize is in the calling that God has for you, in the dream that God is unfolding in your life. When we think about dreams, we have a tendency to think in one color and that is if it's a God-sized dream, I'm not only going to be used of God in a significant unique way, but I'm going to like it. Sometimes God's dream is a little bit different than simply every day you're going to go to work and think this is the greatest place you could ever be. Every job, every ministry, every moment of influence, there is those moments of joy and there's moments of oh my goodness.
But when it's a God-sized dream, when it's a God-sized purpose, you're always influencing someone for the glory of God. You're always making an impact and here is Joseph. He knows that his reputation as a state, the temptation is there, all the pieces that could create an amazing story, a victory or catastrophe, he has his eye on God and he knows that God has blessed him greatly. He's been entrusted with everything.
He says, how could I do such a thing? He remembers that it wasn't so much the dream he kept looking at. That would probably be discouraging, but his eye was on the one who gave him that dream and he was confident, the one that has begun to place a dream in his heart, his focus is to keep his eye on the dream-beaver. It's difficult when we go through life and we go through work experiences and we wonder about how we thought that this would be such a meaningful job or a career or whatever it may be or the circumstances or the family or whatever it is, and you and I sometimes can lose sight that it's all about God.
Now in Mark chapter 4, I just want to give reference for a moment here, Mark chapter 4 verses 35 through 41. Familiar simple story that's important to understand that here's a dream that God is or Jesus is placing in the heart of the disciples and that dream that he gave his disciples is that they were going to be the first line of influencers, they were going to be the apostles set apart to turn this world upside down for Jesus and he takes them on a little boat ride and then there's a little storm and then the little storm becomes a big storm and then Jesus is asleep. Mark chapter 4, that same day, evening came, he said to his disciples, let's go over to the other side leaving the crowd behind. They took him along just as he was in the boat.
There were other boats also with him. A furious squab came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swam. Jesus is in the stern sleeping on a cushion and the disciples woke him and said, teacher, don't you care if we drown. Every dreamer of God goes through the time when the question comes.
God, what are you doing? Every one of us goes through points in our life that the dream doesn't look so great. It's not so colorful. It may not seem so appealing.
Every one of us goes through times where the questions begin to pop up and the heart begins to get torn and we need to try to understand what happened to the greatness of the dream. When our eye is upon the dream giver, our eye is upon Jesus as he leads and directs. That's really our only hope. And so Jesus takes the storm.
He takes the fears. He takes their story and he begins to show them just a little bit of his glory. He speaks to the wind and the waves and it's calm. The only way you're going to know the size of his power or the greatness of his name is you got to go through the storm before you get to the one who speaks to storms.
We're familiar with the story but I trust that you and I might realize that some of us have really sensed God's leading and direction on your life. He has given you opportunities to serve him, to speak confident his name, to be a testimony to the world and you wonder what happened to a sense of all that I could be doing for God is you and I must realize before the ultimate end of that influence happens you're going to go through times when God seems to be sleeping on the job. We go through the seasons where we wonder, we question so that he can show us later on. He really is exactly who he is and we need to learn that.
Joseph began to learn as he discovered that he could trust God and his story unfolded. It seems like one injustice after another but it's important to know that we learn how to remember that that dream he gave is not really what it's the focus upon. It's God himself who gives that dream and if our focus is upon him then all these circumstances that's his responsibility and promise to work those things out. But we can become buried and consumed and caught within the frustration or the overwhelmed sense that it'll never take place and we lose sight of that.
Something that's similar to that concept of looking to God as the dreamgiver is that we need to remember who we are. It's one thing that you and I learn through a series of events and tryings and testings and temptations and struggles that Jesus can be truly trusted and the only way we're going to learn that is we keep coming back to a new choice, a new commitment and new resolve I'm going to trust him. Sooner or later you begin to realize Jesus can be trusted but what's close to that is do we know and believe and are assured who we are. Obviously if Joseph was not in a relationship with God he could easily enter into a different kind of relationship with Potiphar's wife.
If he did not remember his identity in relationship with God then he could become anything he wants on any day of the week because he could somehow tell himself God's job is to give me the dream. If the focus is upon God as the dreamgiver then relationship is extremely important. Many people fall into all kinds of temptations and problems because we lose sight of who we are, that we are a people that truly belong to God. We have a people that have committed ourselves to God.
We are a people that have a new kind of standards and principles and priorities of life. That is who we are. Turn with me to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8.
I believe it's extremely important to not only recognize that there's a time in which your relationship with God not only began but there's a time that your relationship was resolved. It's easier possibly to think of the day that you get married. You make these vows, these commitments, these promises, these pledges as far as this day on I'm no longer an independent person free to do what I want to do. The rest of my life is devoted to the woman I pledge myself to.
When we come into a relationship with God we need to recognize who we are as a lot to do with what we promised to give. Romans chapter 8 we look at verse 1. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's a beautiful and precious statement.
It's important to know because the devil is going to come and throw a thousand things against you to try to destroy your confidence that you are free, that your sins are paid for, that your past is nailed to the cross, your identity is I am free. Well as Joseph understood that concept of freedom, his might have seemingly been a little different. He doesn't have quite a history of many kinds of problems and we could tell ourselves all kinds of things. The important thing is when Potipar's wife was there he understood I belong to God.
Without that confidence of knowing who we are and where we stand and what our relationship with God is about then it's so easy to experience temptation at all kinds of levels because it hasn't become clear where the lines are to be drawn, the boundaries to be set. Notice in verse 14 through 16 of Romans chapter 8. But those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a Spirit that makes you be slave again to fear but you received a Spirit of sonship and by him we cry, Abba Father the Spirit himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God's children.
It's important when God begins to lay a burden on your heart that he begins to impress upon you a ministry and gives you a sphere of influence in the world in which you are currently at. It's important to know who I am. It's extremely important that you recognize what gives you courage, it gives you momentum, it gives you strength is that you and I clarify specifically this is what it means to be a child of God. This is what it means to be a son of the most high.
This is what it means to be in tune with the Holy Spirit of affirming and reaffirming our identity, our purpose and our strength in God. It's who we are. We know who he is and we begin to experience a growth. Now that we know who we are.
It takes time. It takes a kind of dream that God gives that you and I we belong to each other. And when that begins to mature and it begins to grow that is part of the past towards the dream God has for us is we go through these stages of growth, these experiences of being absolutely assured. I can trust God and I can begin to realize I can trust that what I believe in is true.
That who I am isn't just something in my head. It's not something just that I feel in my heart. It is something that controls my feet, it controls my hands. It controls my whole life.
Am I saying that we're not going to struggle? No. What I am saying is that I is upon the One who gave the dream and promises the power to change us. It's who we are.
It's coming to that place of being assured. How could I do such a thing and sin against God? How could I allow myself to compromise? I've given myself to the Lordship of God.
Well Paul goes on to speak in such lofty terms about this assurance that comes with a strength that comes when you know who you belong to. In verse 31 of Romans chapter 8, what then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all.
How will he not also? Along with him graciously gives us all things. Who will bring any charge against those who God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
Who is he that condemns Christ Jesus who died? More than that who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ. Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or naginess or danger or sword as it is written.
For your sake we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No. In all these things we are more than conquerors.
Through him who loved us. My challenge, my encouragement to us is in the journey in which God has taken us on. And as he begins to verify and validate and prompt us in whatever areas we are being used or being set that you and I recognize we got to remember the one who might seem to be sleeping on the job. I can still trust him.
I can trust Jesus in life though it may not seem or feel as if he cares about my situation today. I must learn to develop trust. The dream is his. His calling, his purpose is his.
And that you and I learn to trust Jesus and engage within a relationship that keeps on growing. The second thing is remembering who we are and constantly keeping that on the forefront to the direction of life. We lose sight of who we are and we could also lose sight to the way things ought to be. The third thing that's important to recognize within the context of Joseph's journey particularly in the injustice of what's happening in his life.
He had no one to defend him. He had no defense attorney to go to court and settle the matter. As far as he seemingly felt I'm sure was I have been taken advantage of and there isn't a soul on this earth that can defend me at this particular point. But it goes on to say he was blessed again.
He was rewarded. He was elevated now while he's in prison. Luke chapter 18. We need to realize that though it doesn't say much about Joseph's prayer life.
It talks about his faithfulness you assume that he had a unique relationship with God to be able to be that strong and consistent. But Jesus makes it clear that faith equals persevering prayer. It's important to know in stories like this that if our confidence is in God then we have a unique relationship that knows how to connect with God and believe against all odds. The story in Luke chapter 18 one through eight notice the context is injustice.
Luke 18, sorry verse 1, then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should not they should always pray and not give up. He said in a certain town there's a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men and there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea. Grant me justice against my adversary for some time he refused. But finally he said to himself even though I don't fear God and care about men yet because this widow keeps bothering me I will see that she gets justice and that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming.
And the Lord said listen to what the unjust judge says and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night will he keep putting them off I tell you he will see that they get justice and quickly however when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth the question is will he find a people who pray and pour out their heart to God I know one thing if I don't take my burdens to God my wife hears about him if I don't bring the burdens and the things that bother me to the Lord I wear her out when I don't settle the matter in the place it ought to be I'm going to take it somewhere else and every one of us knows quite well that in the relationship with God and the things that bother you in life if they're not being brought to him you and I have them all over ourselves it's on our face it's in our hands it's on our feet it's all over us everybody you bump into says man you got a bad day something must be eaten you depart oh no I got everything under control I'm just frustrated with life prayer it's important to know though it doesn't specifically say that Joseph was one who spent time in prayer but I'm not so sure what else he was doing in prison in those long extended hours of waiting for what the dreamgiver to show up once again it doesn't say he got another crash course on the dream to remind him about what God had promised he simply held on to the fact that the dreamgiver at one time made it so clear to me it became so evident I know that this has come from God but the testing the seasons the long ordeal so being sold out by his brothers and then being sold out by potter per's wife and then the story continues to go on as we think in terms of injustice after injustice it's not an easy thing to go through this progression of trusting a God who has dreams for us we wait in anticipation we long we pray and we keep on knowing justice is God's promise faithful trust in him that is our responsibility trust is a big word and obviously that that becomes a bigger word especially when we are going through big problems it's one thing to to think about faith in God when things are working out quite well but every one of us knows in the seasons of trials and testing that that is when our faith gets really stretched it's when the voices come into our head whether they seem to be the enemy saying you know you asked for that one you slipped last week didn't you you did that one thing wrong and God's got his lightning bolt out he's been waiting for the moment to just zap you and fry you it's amazing what in our brokenness and the hardships of life what kind of thoughts can come in our head obviously when the devil adds to it he puts it in full color he could give you a whole brand new concept of dream I think the but probably one of the most challenging thing is to not recreate your own dream just sort of like you actually remember one of your dreams one one day and you actually liked it so now you want to start it over again the next night anybody think that way yeah we want to live within this imaginary world of experiencing whatever it is you and I need to understand God has already promised what he wants to accomplish we need to not be consumed so much about the fulfillment of this dream we need to learn to trust that our faith would grow in fulfillment that it's all about him Josh which chapter 23 verse 14 this is probably a powerful concept and yet it might rub us wrong in certain seasons of life but one thing I can be assured of that when you're going through a trying time a very testing time as a matter of fact when you've been treated unfairly and you've been dealt the injustice blow and you feel as if there's no defender out there no one really on your side no one who fully understands no one to really speak in your defense that part of our faith and confidence is remembering the faithfulness of God in the past it's difficult I believe at times to to regroup when you're in the middle of a crisis it's difficult to just have this great faith when fear is all around you whether it's a bad report or a bad report of whatever kind it might be trouble and hardship is going to rock us if in fact we're attuned to the reality of what's really happening but notice here in Joshua chapter 23 and verse 14 Joshua chapter 23 and verse 14 Joshua is at the end of his years and he is communicating very clearly what God's purpose and plan is for his own people he says now I'm about to go the way of all the earth you know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed every promise has been fulfilled not one has failed now some of us the only way we can read that and say it out loud is it's purely a statement of faith some of us may have looked back upon our lives and gone through experiences that we don't see a God who's always faithful and always consistent to his promises and may you've been brought up in homes that it hasn't always seemingly been that God is so good and loving and gracious and kind whatever our story is whatever our experiences are it's important to learn that Joseph held on to the fact God is faithful now how he got there we can't fully understand that but I know one thing how you and I get there is whatever the journey is in life we have to learn to choose to begin to stretch our faith element we must learn to choose to take a risk that the God we began to trust a few years ago I can still trust him today and it banks on how many times we can allow his faithfulness and the stories we tell are embedded in our mind and heart so that when the seasons are stretching and the times it seems as if the enemy is winning you and I have one thing to hold on to I know as though these points in my life God is faithful one of the key ways that can really enhance that process is you need to learn to associate with people who can tell you flat out point blank without question without blinking God has been faithful you asked many people that were some of the beginning individuals that had a burden for this church in this city and that's the way they talk they talk about the faithfulness of God and it's always exciting to meet people who have walked with God for a long long time and have them tell you on one hand the hardships the challenges the problems the disasters of life but God is faithful we live sometimes in a world that we're confused over whether God really keeps his promises we're a little confused is he really faithful when you're going through the thick and the thin the storms the trials the pressures of life sometimes we're the voices that come into our head the things that laugh in front of our face we lose sight of because our focus might be too much on the dream we think that God's supposed to give us and lose sight of the God who is the dream giver God wants to take us through a journey and experience a portion of life we have no idea who he wants us to minister to who he wants us to encourage who he wants us to help but sometimes our focus can be on what we interpret the dream to mean rather than letting like Joseph did the unfolding of a faithful God taking him one step at a time he's back in prison now in this particular chapter God's blessed them again and I don't know about you but if I was there thinking God this is cruel you put your favor all over me how did that lady get away with that it can be tough it can be extremely challenging when we think in terms of this one more concept we'll look out in closing and that's an in the end of the story and Joseph in Genesis chapter 50 Genesis chapter 50 and verses 16 through 21 now if you fast forward this and if you're familiar with the story you have an advantage if not I'll simply try to fill you in it's been about my understanding 13 plus years that Joseph has either been in the cistern being sold to the Ishmaelites or putting up with Potiphar's wife or being in prison and being forgotten and ultimately he is positioned to the place the dream was all about 13 years later that could be longer I don't honestly know Genesis chapter 50 verse 16 through 21 so his brothers sent word to Joseph because they figured out his brothers are his brother they sent word to Joseph and they're actually scared now because Joseph is really important your father left these instructions before he died this is what you were to say to Joseph I asked you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs that they had committed in treating you so badly now please forgive the sins of the servant of the God of your father when their message came to him Joseph didn't laugh he wept think about that his brothers sold him out he's gone through some pretty tough years and he weeps because it was probably the first indication the dream giver has promised it doesn't happen automatically because you and I discover one day that all the pieces fit together but what happens is when God has matured us through the hardships of life and we're convinced the dream is the one I've given my life to he weeps then it goes on in verse 18 his brothers then came and threw themselves down before him we are your slaves they said but Joseph said to them don't be afraid am I in the place of God you intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done the saying of the saving of many lives so then don't be afraid I will provide for you and your children and he reassured them and spoke kindly to them there's only one way that we will rise to become the individuals God intended is we have to learn to love even when someone got the best of us and that's why a relationship with God is truly all about is coming to the place of letting the dream giver accomplish his own dream in our life we're going to go through injustices we're going to go through tough times we're going to go through temptations trials all kinds of tragedies in life the question is can we trust God and as a result do we know who we are because we trust a God who is bigger than the problems the hardships the disappointment setback God's plan is still going to be accomplished in our life sometimes we may make it difficult sometimes we may add and make it more complicated the beauty is Joseph teaches us by example God can be trusted and it may not always be comfortable all the way through the journey but one thing is sure whatever people mean against us God can use it for his good let's pray father as we journey on in life might we recognize the beauty of the life that you intended for us give us courage give us strengths most importantly give us the ability to trust you that you'll use us even before all things are fulfilled that you can minister to us and through us in the midst of the most difficult situations might we rest in you and may the dreams that you have laid upon our heart may they be bring glory and honor to you in Jesus name amen God bless you have a great death