Intro: God’s dream for our lives is always bigger than our dreams. Joseph was given a God dream and was so excited he told his family. But Joseph learned a lot of things about God’s dream for his life. Today, I would like to give you some lessons on:
God Dreams
Genesis 50:18
This may seem like such an insignificant verse as you read it, but it is the fulfilling of a God dream. Joseph saw this exact thing at 17 years old, now many years later it is fulfilled. Today we will look at the obstacles that come with God’s Dream for us.
1. Time—the first lesson is simple: from the time God gives you your dream until it is fulfilled is for God to decide not you. We live in a microwave society, so waiting on God, waiting on dreams to be fulfilled is something that a lot of people won’t do. They give up on their dream, they get discouraged because it didn’t happen on their time table.
2. Rejection—Joseph was so excited about his God dream, but found out that others were not so enthusiastic about his dream. So many people fail at this point, as soon as there is rejection, as soon as their God dream becomes unpopular, they discard the dream. Joseph’s brothers hated his dream.
3. Tribulation—Joseph now went through a phase that many don’t want to face, he was thrown in a pit, sold into slavery because of his God dream. There will always be tribulation between you and your fulfillment. If God dreams were easy, they wouldn’t be God dreams. The bigger the dream, the greater the tribulation to get there.
4. Testing—Potiphar’s wife—she wanted Joseph to commit adultery with her. Here is a big part of every God dream, you will be tested in your flesh, before you ever arrive at your spiritual destination. God always kills the flesh along the way. The part of you that won’t die is the part of you that will keep you from your God dream.
5. Genesis 41:38—Pharaoh recognized the Spirit of God in Joseph. You can try with all your might to get to your God dream, but the fact remains, it is God that will get you there. It is not by might, it is not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.
6. 50:21—when Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers all feared that he would retaliate for all they had done. But here is the biggest key to your reaching your God dream. You can’t let anything ruin your spirit. You can’t be blessed of God while pronouncing curses on others.
Joseph never allowed bitterness, unforgivness to get into his heart.
Close: years ago a man stood up at a church in Montgomery and told this story. He had felt a call to missions as a young man. His family owned a large business in town. They convinced him that he could do so much more for missions taking over the family business. So over the years he gave to missions, but on this night he said, in all these years I have not been happy at all. Money, success, security will never fill the void of not following the call to missions. When he sat down you could have heard a pin drop in the church. Your God dream is bigger than your other dreams. Your God dream is the only thing that will satisfy your soul. Don’t let anyone or anything rob you of your God dream.
