“Follow The Dream”
Message To Young People
From
Bruce Morrison, pastor
God gives us dreams
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. Acts 2: 17-18
There was a time in history when humankind did not have the Bible as we do today. Ancient followers of God did not have churches and ministers that preached from and taught the Holy Scriptures. We might expect that during those periods God would communicate to people through means such as visions and dreams. We might not think that such methods are needed today especially since we have God’s Word, the Bible, in print. However, as we can see from the scripture quoted above, in the last days, God will increase His use of dreams and visions, especially to youth. This does not mean the Bible has less significance or that in any way dreams replace the authority of the Word of God or the role it has in the life of a Christian.
Far from replacing the Bible, the purpose of God given dreams, (not all dreams come from God) is that we might envision living our lives according to the elements of the Kingdom of God so frequently described in the Bible. The Bible teaches that we can live our lives in a way that pleases God and the Holy Spirit purposes to implant that kind of dream in the heart of every person. It is my purpose that young people who listen to me preach this sermon or read it, will determine to find God’s will for their lives and never give up following the dream God gives.
A Special Son
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. Genesis 37: 3
Anyone who has attended Sunday School as a child remembers the story of Joseph’s coat of many colours. Maybe, when you were real young, your teacher gave you paper and crayons and
you coloured a picture of Joseph and his coat. As we shall see, Joseph was a dreamer and as a result of his dreams, he faced a lot of very difficult trials and temptations, and the story of how he overcame these is very remarkable.
Without doubt that which influenced Joseph throughout his life, and gave him strength in every trial, was the profound sense that his father loved him. The influence of a father on a son or daughter for either good or evil, cannot be overestimated. To be fatherless is to suffer a great loss and yet this is the fate of many. Sometimes fathers are physically present but emotionally absent and the children never receive the benefits of the father’s blessing. Profound deficits are left in the lives of people who have never had the benefit of a good father.
God, our Heavenly Father, offers to each of us the kind of love that Joseph’s father gave him. Just as Joseph was covered by the many coloured robe his father gave him, our Heavenly Father covers us with a robe of righteousness made possible through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. If God the Father did not love us with the same love he has for his son, Jesus Christ, he would never have let Jesus die for us. This will always be the wonder of the gospel! God does love us with the love he has for his son Jesus, and God will do anything to ensure your success and mine.
If you have sinned and feel disqualified from even asking God to give you a dream, then you need to be assured that God loves you and he will forgive you. This makes you just as qualified to follow the dream God gives you as his Son Jesus was when he lived on this earth and followed the dream God gave him. How can this be? It is possible because of the blood that Jesus shed on the cross for us all.
Let God the Father adorn you with the many coloured robe of His grace – this he wants to do!
Then, start to dream the dreams that God has for your life
Joseph’s first dream
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had: Genesis 37: 6-7
Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." Genesis 37:9
It may seem that Joseph was unfairly privileged since his father loved him more than he loved his other sons. Worse, it may seem that God also unfairly privileged Joseph by giving him dreams and not giving them to Joseph’s brothers. Worse still, the dreams showed Joseph ruling over his brothers. It is important that we understand that God loves without partiality. The Bible is very clear about this. The fact that God gave Joseph a dream that showed him ruling his brothers did not mean that God decreed the events that would bring this about. On the contrary, it was the evil acts on the part of Joseph’s brothers that set in motion the course of events that would one-day see Joseph rise to become the world’s most influential person. The dream was something Joseph could hold on to and lean on the wisdom it offered both in the difficult places in which Joseph would find himself and in the places of high esteem and privilege that were also granted to him.
The dreams Joseph had were about authority – about ruling. God wants each of his sons and daughters to dream similar dreams. The dreams and visions we read about in the Book of Acts that the Holy Spirit gives in these last days are about kingdom authority. They are dreams of defeating evil and sin and yes! – even defeating the devil himself. These kinds of dreams shape the outlook of those who follow them. Such people believe they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. They believe that there is no obstacle they cannot, through the power of the Holy Spirit, overcome. They believe they can make a positive difference in the world around them. I pray, God give our church youth who dream these dreams and follow them to the end.
Contempt – A dream destroyer
His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
Genesis 37:8
His brothers were jealous of him. Genesis 37:11
Joseph was thrown in a cistern. Thankfully it was dry and thankfully his brother Rueben appealed to his brothers to not let him die there. Instead, they decided to sell him as a slave to a passing caravan of Midianites. These were descendents of Ishmael. The Bible compares the two sons of Abraham, Ishmael, who was born to Hagar, a woman who was not Abraham’s wife, and Isaac, who was born to his wife Sarah when they were very old. The Bible describes Ishmael as the son of the flesh and Isaac as the son of promise. In essence, the comparison is about whether we insist on doing things our way, or yield to God and do things his way. Joseph’s brothers tried to sell out Joseph and his dream by selling him to a group of people whose legacy it was to not serve God. Joseph was left with no known recourse of action that could change his fate. Egypt, which in the Bible is a type of the world, was where Joseph was destined to live. How could it be possible for the Lord’s vision to come to pass in the life of an abandoned, entrapped and helpless young man, seventeen years of age? Yet it did come true. In fact, I think it is safe to say that Joseph’s dreams played a large part in shaping the values he lived by.
Defeat, discouragement, inferiority, shame and every other self-debasing thing, feeds on something called contempt. Contempt will take advantage of every opportunity it can to intimidate you, enslave you, and sell you out forever. You can be sure that the minute you choose to pursue the will of God for your life there will be all sorts of people who will tell you why you and your dreams will fail. Sometimes you will find these people right in the church! Sometimes they will be those who you thought were your best friends. Sometimes, as in Joseph’s case, it was members of his own family who will despise you and your dream. Many times I have counseled those whose dreams died at the hands of their own parents who told them they were a failure or stupid. I have even known of parents who told their son or daughter that they wished they had not been born. More often than not, the voices of contempt will come from within you. Your own memory will remind you of your past sins and failures and use these as proof that not only will your dream fail, but you have no right to be a dreamer in the first place.
Many dreams die in the face of contempt. Many dreamers accept a life of mediocrity. Success eludes them and the dreams remain just that - dreams, dreams that never become a reality. How sad this is.
Remember this: God, who gave you the dream to dream, will give you the grace and strength to enable you to fulfill His will in your life.
How you view success will determine the fulfillment of your dream
The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.
Genesis 39:2-5
Thus begins a roller coaster ride of ups and downs that would leave anyone dizzy. From a deep dry cistern from which he could not escape, to a place of prominence in the home of the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, Joseph went from lowest place in life to the place of highest prominence. Joseph’s climb up the ladder of success was unparalleled. Few have equaled it, especially when you consider the many disadvantages he started with.
How did he do it? If there ever was anyone who exemplified the words of the apostle Paul who said, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11), it was Joseph. When it came to his trust in God, he never faltered no matter what the circumstances. He was steadfast, consistent and faithful. The great sell out did not discourage him nor did his rise to success and prominence go to his head and fill him with arrogance and pride. He maintained equilibrium in much the same way as Jesus did. As long as he held to his dream he was a success regardless whether he found himself in a pit or a palace. He never let go of his dream!
Sexual sin – A destroyer of dreams
Now Joseph was well built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!" But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. Genesis 39:7-10
Once a person reaches the age of puberty, sexual temptation is never far away. Opportunities to sin have a way of presenting themselves daily. Pornography, societies acceptance of premarital sexual relationships, entertainment venues, all send strong signals of sexual temptation. The drive for sexual fulfillment God placed in each person cries out to be fulfilled. Some ask, “Can we wait until marriage and enjoy sexual intimacy God’s way?” Some reason, “Why bother waiting, let’s have a good time when we’re young!” Sexual permissiveness is an all too pervasive philosophy in our world today! And, these notions are not just in the world, all too often they creep into the church as well.
Many accept the proposition that it’s only sex, it’s no big deal, why not yield to the longings of our bodies? Many do! But all to often this leads to heartache and in our world of AIDS,
it can even lead to death. Broken lives, broken homes, broken dreams is the legacy left by sexual sin. If you have committed immoral acts, ask God to forgive you. He will do this. The punishment for your sins was borne by Christ on the cross. Don’t let sexual sin, or any other kind of sin enslave you or disqualify you. Find victory in Christ and the grace he gives.
Don’t let sexual sin kill your dream!
Overcoming injustice – The dream lives on!
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. Genesis 39: 20-23
Wouldn’t you know it, when a guy tries his best to do what is right, he gets treated unfairly. Joseph resisted the temptation to sin and instead of being honoured for what he did, he was accused of doing the very thing he avoided. Nothing generates anger more than injustice. Unfair and dishonest treatment by others can leave you a bitter and angry person for the rest of your life.
Few things I know of are harder to overcome than injustice.
But Joseph overcame! Amazingly, he overcame! Though he was imprisoned on false pretenses, plummeting from the top of success to a dark cold prison, he never gave up. Grace and peace ruled him. He refused the temptation to be angry and allow himself to be filled with the jealousy and contempt that characterized the lives of those who did their best to ruin him. He was a lot like Jesus!
Nothing, absolutely nothing could kill his dream. The dream was from God. The dream would survive no matter what – if he could just keep his faith in God. And Joseph did!
You cannot hold down a good man or a good woman. The brothers, the pit, the slave auction, the shame, the false charges, the prison, nothing could hold Joseph down. Before long he rose to the top within the prison finding favour with the officials and his inmates. Joseph was given authority over the affairs of the prison.
Agents on assignment
One day he woke up to find two fellow prisoners, a butler and a baker, in a very sorry state. They too were dreamers. The problem was, they couldn’t understand them. This is what the Bible says happened: The first words are Joseph’s.
“Why are your faces so sad today?” "We both had dreams," they answered, "but there is no one to interpret them." Then Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams." Genesis 40:7-8
God has placed a dream in the heart of every man and woman. People long for acceptance, they long to be important, to be needed to be valued and to live a fulfilling meaningful life. None of these longings are wrong. However, many do not know how to see their longings fulfilled. They try almost everything, but nothing works. The reason for this is simple. It is God who gives the dreams. He is the only one who can fulfill them. All the money, fame, and pleasure in the world cannot fulfill the God given longings of the human heart. God alone can do this.
Joseph came upon two confused, disappointed and despondent peers when he came upon the two men who could not understand their dreams. Joseph asked them why they were sad and when they told him, he immediately turned them to God.
Our world is filled with such dreamers, their sad countenances testifying to their many failed efforts to realize their dreams. They are confused, unsure of the future and in desperate need for someone like Joseph to help them.
Will you be a Joseph to them? They are everywhere; in your school, your neighbourhood, and some might even be in your own family or amongst your own friends. Will you point them to God? God never gives you a dream for your sake only. God calls each of us to be his agents in this world, agents on assignment to help those with unfulfilled broken dreams, find help from the one who gave the dream in the first place – to find Jesus and live for him.
Disappointment - Another emeny of dreams
The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him. Genesis 40:23
Joseph interpreted a cupbearer’s dream and it came to pass. The cupbearer was released from prison and restored to his former place. A cupbearer had an important job. There were always those who wanted to kill the king and one way to do this was to try to slip poison into his food or drink. It was the job of the cupbearer to sample the king’s food first and then if he was OK the king would eat. As you can appreciate, it was a rather dangerous job but one that carried a considerable amount of prestige. He was after all, among those most trusted by the king.
Once the cupbearer in our story was away from the prison and back in the king’s palace, he forgot about Joseph and the promise he made to help him. He probably did this on purpose not wanting to risk his position by advocating for a prisoner. He was a coward.
Joseph’s hopes for rescue were undoubtedly very high. However, as each day came and went so too did Joseph’s expectations of help come and go. Each day began with hope and ended in disappointment. This went on for two whole years. How much of this can a man endure and still maintain a proper and godly perspective?
Again we see the remarkable resiliency of Joseph. Disappointment could not destroy him. He kept bouncing back
In a world filled with tragedy and disappointment it is no small thing to hold on to your dream and refuse to let go. God who gives the dream gives the strength and power to see it come to pass. This we must never forget.
Don’t let anything cause you to forsake the will of God for your life. Never let go of the dream He gave you!
God alone - A dreamer’s point of reference
We have a distinct advantage that Joseph did not have. We have the examples from the Bible of many men and women who successfully pursued the will of God for their lives. Most importantly, we have the example that Jesus Christ himself set for us. Then, there are those around us, some in our homes and churches, and some in the church at large who set good examples for us to follow. You might well call these wonderful people, “heroes of the faith”.
Joseph, for most of his life, had no one to follow. There were no heroes of faith for him to look to. He was alone when it came to his faith in God and the lifestyle that he lived and yet he succeeded. He was a trail-blazer, a pioneer in the truest sense of that word, a courageous adventurer for the Kingdom of God.
God is looking for young people like Joseph. There are times when each of us is alone and it is at these times that we face life’s greatest temptations and trials. This might happen at school, or at work, or even with your friends. All around you are voices trying to pull you away from what you know is right and lure you to do that which you know is wrong. You will encounter situations in your life when the only thing you have to stand on are the promises of God, there is nothing else or no one else to look to. In times like these, God alone is your compass. But, it is at these times that we can be of the greatest use to the kingdom of God for it is then that our light shines the brightest. We become the examples to others, pointing them to the Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit who fills young people in these last days with visions of God and what he will do, gives to every young person who asks that same pioneer, trail-blazing anointing that Joseph had, an anointing that will enable you to see your dream through to the end!
May God richly bless you!
All scripture quotes are from the New International Version of the Bible
Sermon preached for young people
By: Bruce Morrison, pastor,
At: Emmanuel English Church,
Hong Kong,
April 27,2003
