(Slide 1 up) I am thinking of something that everyone has and that we often receive it during the same time period each day. It can bring pleasure or pain or uncertainty when we receive it. What it is?
(Slide 1a) It is a dream! We all have dreams and most of the time we have them during the night when we sleep (although some people work during the night.) Some dreams bring pleasure; some cause us to wake up upset or afraid. But we all have dreams.
The Bible speaks of dreams and some of dreams or visions that Biblical characters had are recorded. There is Jacob and his ladder to heaven; there is Paul and his dream in which he was caught up to the third heaven (whatever that means); there was John with his heavenly vision or dream that we read of in Revelation; and there was Joseph’s dreams that are a part of our text this morning.
In fact, I would suggest that dreams played a very prominent role in Joseph’s story. He had dreams and he interpreted dreams.
Dreams are the subject of much discussion and are a field of study within the field of psychology itself. What they mean is open to interpretation and while some people take dreams seriously others believe them to be insignificant.
(Slide 2) But Joseph took his dreams seriously. I would even suggest that Joseph dreams were God’s dreams of deliverance.
Let’s quickly review Joseph’s story.
Joseph is one of several sons born to Jacob, who was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham that we heard about last week. So Joseph was Abraham’s great-grandson.
Now according to Genesis 37:3, Jacob ‘loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age.’ The passage goes on to say, ‘his brothers hated Joseph because of their father’s partiality. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.’ (I hear the Smothers’ Brothers right now. ‘Mom liked you best!’) Some of us here understand the issue of favorites, don’t we?
Well in short order Joseph has two dreams which appear to his family as setting Joseph (the youngest) above the rest of them. Although, as Genesis 37:11 says, dad gave some thought to what Joseph dreamed.
But the brothers had enough and they sought to rid themselves of this brother they had become extremely jealous of. They were going to kill him but two of them (probably because they were having a change of heart) stopped the rest from doing so.
Instead, they sold him as a slave.
Well off Joseph went to Egypt while the brothers, went home to lie about Joseph’s ‘departure.’
Joseph now begins a life in Egypt first as a household servant that is sexually harassed and then wrongly accused of rape by his master’s wife which causes him to be unjustly thrown into prison.
Then in prison he meets two of Pharaoh’s, the Egyptian king, servants, the cupbearer and the chief baker. Both have dreams and share their dreams with Joseph who makes an interesting statement to them as we read in Genesis 40:8, ‘Interpreting dreams is God’s business.’
Joseph interprets the baker’s dream as a dream about his death. He interprets the cupbearer’s dream as a dream about his restoration. He correctly interprets both dreams.
So now Joseph becomes a dream interpreter. Joseph asks to be remembered by the men when they are released back to the King but he is forgotten, for two years, until Pharaoh has a couple of dreams that no one could interpret.
Then the cupbearer remembers Joseph and Joseph is brought before Pharaoh and correctly interprets his dreams as a forewarning about a coming famine and the need to stockpile food before the famine hits. Joseph’s success creates the condition for his selection as Pharaoh’s number two man in the entire nation and the head of the national Egyptian food bank.
Then when the famine hits, 7 years later, Joseph finds himself face to face with his brothers over whom he has the power to provide food and therefore life or death. Joseph’s wrestling with what I believe is his anger and his conscience is one of the most intense situations in the Bible. Eventually he and his brothers are reconciled and his family is spared starvation.
Both to the cup bearer and baker as well as to Pharaoh, Joseph makes it clear that he is not the one interpreting the dreams that they had but it is God who is doing that work through him. Joseph is also a wonderful illustration of how faithfulness to God pays off over the long term.
But what is it about Joseph’s dreams that should matter to us today? Why should this story be important for us right now at this time and place in our lives?
Joseph’s dreams were God’s dreams. They were one way that God spoke to Joseph. In and through them God revealed His plans and purposes to Joseph. But there are some things about God’s dreams we need to understand because His dreams, His plans and purposes for us, are larger than our dreams for us and others are.
(Slide 3) God’s dreams can create tension.
We see this illustrated in Joseph’s story. Joseph’s brothers were furious with him as he shared his dream. As we read in Genesis 37, they get the meaning of the dreams right away. ‘So you are going to be our king, are you?’ they tauntingly asked when he shares his first dream.
Then when he shares his second dream his father asks, “What do you mean?” ... “Will your mother, your brothers, and I actually come and bow before you?”
Mocking someone else’s dream is not uncommon. Think with me for a moment about some of the dreamers of our recent history who envisioned products like the personal computer and the telephone or the airplane. Many scoffed at the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and others who had a vision for creating things, like the telephone and incandescent light that we take for granted today.
In Ephesians 6 we are reminded that the opposition that we face as we follow God’s vision, His dreams and purposes is not people but ‘the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, …those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and … wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.’
God’s dreams are focused on the forgiveness of our sins and the spiritual opposition, led by Satan, is constantly at war with God on this front. And we are on the front lines. In fact, the front lines run right through our souls.
The opposition Joseph faced along the way because of the dreams that he had, were spiritual in nature even though they had a human face. Each of one of us can be an agent of either good or evil. We can be working to fulfill God’s dreams or our own selfish and sinful dreams.
But, in spite of all the opposition that Joseph faced he still believed in God and in God’s goodness and mercy. Those dreams that he had were God’s way of communicating to not just Joseph but his entire family that God, through Joseph, would take care of them.
Dreams have a way of creating tensions between the reality of everyday life and the visions we carry around within us. There is also tension in our redemption.
In Matthew 7 Jesus said, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.’
Joseph could have given up and surrendered to his circumstances and surroundings. But he did not. He remained faithful on the ‘narrow’ way even though it was hard to do.
In Isaiah 55 we read, “My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
God’s dream for us, we have to admit is not the American dream. It is God’s dream, a higher, bigger, larger, and unbelievable dream. It is dream; a passion about our transformation into God’s ways and image.
(Slide 3A) God’s dreams creates maturity
In the early part of his story, Joseph seems to spend a great deal of time looking up because he kept finding himself on the bottom. It also seems that just about the time that his life would start to get going he would hit another pothole. (Slide 4) And we know what those potholes do, don’t we? They get our cars out of alignment.
But the Lord uses the potholes in Joseph’s life to shape him for the place that he ends up to save his family and his nation! God’s dream is realized!
One of the most memorable statements in this story is found in Genesis 45:5, ‘But don’t be angry with yourselves that you did this to me, for God did it. He sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.’
Joseph is the one who utters this statement. Now I don’t know about you, but I would probably have a great deal of trouble saying that to a group of people who wanted me dead.
But, Joseph probably could not have said this when he re-met his brothers. I think that part of the reason we read of his struggle to keep his composure is that the Lord was dealing with him at those points and bring him to a maturity that would allow him to do and say what was right.
I can recall a time in my life when I said, out loud, to a group of people, ‘There is no way I am going to be a pastor! I just can’t do it! I cannot talk to people about personal issues and their relationship with God like the pastor I had interned with could.’
I needed some maturity, I needed to have more life experience including some of my own tough times, so that I could talk to other about their life and their faith. But, God still called me to the ministry even though I thought that I would only serve in a church for a few years as a youth pastor and now a pastor. Those few have turned into 20 years.
What about you? Has God given you a dream? Is it, God’s dream? Is it God’s dream? Hear me, is… it… God’s …dream? If it is God’s dream and He has given it to you, then He will make it come true as He directs and we follow and obey by faith!
I have no doubt that Joseph struggled with doubt but, he had God’s dreams within his soul and heart. I don’t believe that he gave up on believing the God was going to do something on his behalf and maybe that of his family.
What are God’s dreams and why should they matter to us this morning?
They are different than our dreams…
They cause us to choose either God’s way or our way.
They require us to see and think differently than what our culture’s thinks that we should dream.
They are not just about ‘me’ for God’s dream is a corporate dream – redemption of the entire human community using the entire church community.
God‘s dream for Joseph’s family was the same as it was for Joseph… it was not enough for Joseph to be delivered – it was also God’s dream, His desire that the entire family be delivered because of the promise that God had made to Joseph’s great-grandfather, Abraham…
What is God’s dream for our church? I believe that this is an important question to ask ourselves on a regular basis.
And I suggest this morning that God’s dream for our church is found in Acts 1:8, ‘When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
God’s dream for our church is to be involved in the telling of the Christian gospel in both word and deed. How well are we doing?
Joseph’s story continues to the end of the book of Genesis. It ends with his family coming to Egypt and being spared from death through starvation. His father, Jacob dies and again Joseph assures his brothers that he will not seek revenge on his treatment by them because God worked it out so that many would be spared from death.
What strikes me about Joseph is that he appears to never loose his sense of whose he is, God’s, throughout his entire life time. And his father, as he is dying blesses Joseph’s two sons, as well as his other sons the names which become the names for the twelve tribes of Israel.
God’s dream is about our transformation from being sinners to being saints. (Now that’s a big dream!) It is about doing a great and powerful work with us and through us to become persons and the people of God.
I believe that we begin not only to dream God’s dream but live out God’s dream when we very, very consciously choose to, individually and corporately as the people of God, to live out:
(Slide 5) The Great Commandment to Love and the Great Commission to go and make disciples.
Amen.
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘081907slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
