Dreams Series

No Ordinary Joe: Dreams!

Genesis 40

Chenoa Baptist Church

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

11-07-2021

I Believe I Can Fly

When I was in college, I took a psychology class from my favorite professor. We spent time studying Sigmund Freud’s classic, “The Interpretation of Dreams.” Dr. Vidulich asked if anyone had a recurring dream and I volunteered to share mine with the class.

In my dream, that I had multiple times, I could fly. It was amazing and I bragged about the ability to fly to everyone. The dream always ended with a group of friends lining the sidewalk waiting for me to take off. I would run and jump but would fall flat on my face. I couldn’t fly, everyone started laughing, and then I would wake up.

He wrote the main points on the board and then we started to interpret the dream from multiple different psychological theories.

After looking at all the different angles, including a very embarrassing interpretation from a Freudian perspective, the class decided that the theme of fear failure was at the heart of the dream. I was taking a full load of classes and working full time and was constantly on the edge of burnout. That made perfect sense to me.

Then Dr. Vidulich asked for another volunteer and the whole class went silent and someone in the back said, “Nope.”

That class was fun, for everyone else, but it was just a class on theories of psychology.

Can God speak through dreams? He obviously did in the Old Testament. God spoke to both Jacob, Laban, and Joseph in dreams. The gift ran in the family.

We know that God can use dreams today as well.

We know that Muslims are reporting dreams in which Jesus comes to them or they are directed to someone to share the Gospel with them.

Egyptian cultures valued dreams highly and that will be important as we move through the story of Joseph. Dream interpretation was big business and there were many magicians and diviners who made a lot money and wielded a lot of power by telling people the meaning of dreams.

Can God speak through dreams? Yes. But we must be very careful. Sometimes, it’s not God but the burrito you ate the night before! How can we tell?

If you have a dream that you think is from God you need to talk it through with a trusted mentor that is spiritually wise.

But most of all, you need to pass it through the filter of the Word of God:

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.” (Heb 1:1-2)

If your dreams do not line with the living word, Jesus, and the written Word, the Bible, then we should take them for what they are - a movie your brain put together in order to receive stress while you sleep.

Review

Last time we studied the life of Joseph, we watched him reject Potiphar’s wife’s sexual advances outright and call her actions wicked. He would not sin against his master Potiphar or his God by sleeping with her.

She was relentless and one day arranged for all the servants to be out of the house. She caught him by the cloak and said come to bed with me but he refused again. This time he left his cloak and ran out of the house.

Potiphar’s wife was a woman scorned and accused Joseph of attempted rape to her husband. Potiphar must not totally believe his wife because he has Joseph put into the king’s prison instead of executing him on the spot.

And that’s here we find Joseph - in prison for doing the right thing. But God was still with him and working behind the scenes to fulfill his purposes for Joseph and the nation of Israel:

“But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.” (Gen 39:20-23)

Turn with me to chapter 40 of Genesis.

Prayer

New Royal Prisoners Arrive

“Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.” (Gen 40:1-4)