How to Make Your Dreams Come True

“How to Make Your Dreams Come True”

.

How many 17 years do we have here today? How many of you were once 17? What where you doing when you were 17?

Joseph is 17 years old; and he is living for God, obeying his dad, and being hated by his brothers. Joseph is one of the best examples of a Christian in the O.T.

He is a type of Jesus in the O.T.

Joseph is the 11th son of Jacob.

The rest of the book of Genesis revolves around Joseph; God gives 14 chapter to the life story of Joseph. He is an incredible man.

The life story of Joseph is a remarkable illustration of the providence of God.

God’s providence is that act of His grace, wisdom and power in which He guides and governs all that happens in the life of his creatures.

God was involved in all the events of Joseph life. God was working through all the things that happened to Joseph to get him to the place where he would save his family from starvation and death.

He is an example of

-“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

All that happens in this chapter is NOT GOOD; but God was working through it; to bring about good.

Joseph is best known by the dreams that he has; when you hear the name Joseph; you think of dreams.

When you hear the name David, you think about Goliath.

When you think of Daniel, you think about the lion’s Den.

When you hear the name Joseph, you think about dreams.

Joseph’s brothers call him “The Dreamer” V:19.

In this chapter you find the word “dream” 10 times.

The dreams of Joseph reveal the plan that God had for his life.

God had a very special plan for Joseph life; he goes through a lot of pain and heartache but in the end the dreams come true.

God has a very special plan for your life; and you can’t improve on God’s plan for your life!

Do you have any dreams, aspirations, goals, ambitions, desires, or hopes?

Every one of us ought to have a desire to be used by God! To glorify his name, to share his love, and to deliver others from eternal death and damnation.

We learn from Joseph the steps involved in making your dreams come true.

Step #1:

1. Develop Godly Character.

V:1-4.

There’s nothing more important in making your dreams come true than character. You will never fulfill God’s purpose for your life without character. Godly character means being righteous, holy, honest, trustworthy, dependable and faithful; when you’re all alone.

The best time to start developing character is when you’re young. Joseph is 17 years old and he is already developing godly character. You see the godly character throughout Joseph’s life, but it starts when he 17 years old.

God knows He can trust Joseph with great spiritual responsibilities; because he is a man with character.

Let me say to all of our young people here today; don’t waste your life on ungodly, unholy, sinful things that will destroy your character!

You may ask; how do you know that Joseph had character? That’s a good question:

V:2-“Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers: and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought to his father their evil report”.

When you read that you might think Joseph was a tattletale. Nobody likes a tattletale; but that is not what’s going on. Joseph is the only one of all Jacob’s sons who has any character and can be trusted.

Joseph at 17 was responsible for keeping an eye on his brothers for his father. You can be sure these wicked brothers were always trying to pressure Joseph into sin. Come on Holy Joe and have a drink, let me introduce you to sexy Sally.

In V:12, Jacob sends Joseph to Shechem to check on his brothers. Joseph big Brothers were mean, jealously, ungodly men! Two of them had murdered an entire village, Ruben his oldest brother slept with his father’s concubine; Judah gets his daughter-in-law pregnant… Rough big brothers! They had no character! Joseph was different!

Joseph was a dependable young man with godly character, and his dad trusted him to report on his brothers.

Joseph is a reminder that it is possible to be young and still have godly character. It is possible to be a teenager and love Jesus and make wise decisions.

You may be sitting there thinking; if I had a Christian family then I could live for God, and be a person of godly character. I want to remind you that Joseph grew up in a very dysfunctional family! His dad was a piece of work; he was a liar, deceiver, and master manipulator; he had four wives; and children from all of them. It was a competitive home filled with jealousy, strife, and turmoil. Joseph home life was messed up! All the cards were stacked against Joseph being a man of character; but he became a man of character in spite of it all.

Character is developed in difficulty.

Joseph was surround by brothers who were living the opposite of him! Many of you are surround by people who are not like Joseph, they are not like you; they are like Joseph’s brother. Living for themselves and the pleasures of the world.

In our culture Joseph’s brothers would be getting drunk, smoking pot, driving fast cars, going to parties, and sleeping around.

Joseph was not like his brothers; he loved God and had character! My desire for every young person in this church is that you love Jesus, and live your life for Jesus while you’re young. There are young people throughout the Bible who do great things for God (David, Daniel, Josiah, and Joseph).

-“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity”

You can serve God, follow Jesus, share the gospel and make an impact on those around you right now…your age is not a hindrance; it is a blessing! Live for God!!

Don’t be content to just say I’m not getting stoned or drunk; I’m not having sex or robbing houses; I’m doing pretty good. Well I’m proud that you’re not doing any of those things! But I pray that you would develop godly character; spend time in God’s word, pray, and serve God, and share the gospel with your friends. I pray that you make a difference on your ball team, with your friends, with your family. Live for God and follow Jesus while you’re young!

Joseph developed character in a difficult family.

Joseph developed character in the privileges of life.

V:3-“Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors”.

Joseph is the son of Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel; and he was Jacob’s favorite. Jacob showed favoritism to Joseph; all the brothers knew that Joseph was dad’s favorite. Jacob didn’t try to hide it, in fact he gave Joseph a bright coat with many colors.

This coat had long sleeves, and reach down to the ankles. The coat said that Joseph was an overseer, the heir, he would receive the inheritance and place of leadership in the family when Jacob died.

The firstborn son was actually Ruben; the son of Leah but he slept with one of his father’s concubine’s therefore surrendering his birthright to the firstborn of Jacob’s other wife Rachel; who was Joseph.

Every time Joseph put on that coat; it was like a great big T-shirt that said “my daddy loves me the most”! How do you think that made all the other brothers feel? We are told, V:4-“they hated him, and could not say anything nice to him. We are told three times in this chapter that they hated Joseph.

The fact that Joseph lived a holy life; and his father loved him caused his brothers to hate him.

I remind you; that all those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you live a godly life in this sinful world, people will hate you for it!

Maybe you’re like Joseph; you grew up in a dysfunctional family, you had bad parents, messed up brothers and sisters. You can either allow those circumstances to defeat you or we can allow those circumstances to develop godly character in you.

Joseph refused to become a victim of his bad home life; he refused to let his upbringing be an excuse for living a life of sin and rebellion.

The difficult family, the favoritism of his father, the hatred of his brothers was used by God to develop character in Joseph.

The second step for making your dreams come true is to:

2. Discover God’s Plan.

V:5-11.

Joseph’s brothers already hate him; then Joseph has two dreams that make his brothers hate him more. 1st Dream Joseph says; I dreamed we were in the field binding sheaves of grain; my sheaf stood up, like a king, and your sheaves bow down to it.

Should he have told his brothers about this dream? Probably not; he’s telling them that he’s going to rule over them and they’re going bow down to him.

V:8-“his brother say, yeah, right you’re going to reign over us? There thinking that’ll be the day!! V:8-“And they hated him even more for his dreams, and for his words. ”

Joseph should have picked up on the fact that his brothers hated him because of the dream he told them.

But Joseph goes to them the second time and says; guess what guys I dreamed another dream. WOW that was not smart!!

V:9, I dreamed that the sun and the moon, and 11 stars bow down before me. Joseph’s brothers knew exactly what that meant; Joseph’s dad hears about the dream and he says… really…V:10-“Am I and your mother and your brothers going to bow down before you”

His father rebukes him and his brothers hate him even more, and were told in V:11 their jealous of him. They can’t imagine their younger brother ruling over them.

God had a plan for Joseph life; and he used the dreams to reveal His plan to Joseph.

The dreams aren’t about how awesome Joseph is. The dreams reveal that God’s plan is to use Joseph for the salvation of his family. They will bow down to him one day because he will be in charge of all the food necessary to keep his family from starvation.

God will raise Joseph up to second-in-command in Egypt in order to save his family.

The brothers only see Joseph being exalted; and they hating him for it. God had a plan to save these brothers, but they hated the plan.

They didn’t want to accept the plan. Actually, they tried to destroy the plan.

Sometimes we don’t understand God’s plan. We may not even like God’s plan; a family member gets sick or dies; we have move; we change schools; we lose our job, something unexpected happens. But, we must trust God’s plan. Joseph probably thought, I don’t know how this is going to work out, but God has a plan.

In the Old Testament God spoke through dreams, visions, and even showed up in person as the angel of the Lord.

God communicated to the people involved in his plan of redemption and the writing of the Bible in those ways. God’s primary method of communicating to man today is the Bible.

-“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds”.

Joseph dreams showed him the future; today we don’t need dreams to show us the future; the word of God tells us about the future. The question for us today is; is the word of God sufficient?

- “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work”.

God gave us his word that the man of God, the Christian may be mature, and completely equipped for every good work. To say we must have something else in order to be complete and mature is to say Scripture is not true, and that it is not enough. To embrace modern prophecy or dreams or extra biblical revelation is to deny the sufficiency of Scripture. God made known to Joseph His plan for his life; and Joseph accepted God’s plan for his life; even though he didn’t completely understand it.

There are certain things today that you can know for sure is God’s will for your life:

· It is God’s will that none should perish but that all should come to repentance.

· This is the will of God even your sanctification; that you abstain from fornication.

· It is God’s will that you serve God.

· It is God’s will that you witness.

· It is God’s will that you give.

The greatest adventure of life is to find and follow God's will for your life.

The third step for making your dreams come true is to:

3. Determine to Obey.

V:12-28.

It is amazing to see the obedience of this 17-year-old young man. Were told that Joseph’s brothers had gone to Shechem to feed their flock. Jacob/Israel said to Joseph in V:13-14“your brothers are feeding the flock in Shechem I want you to go and check on them, then come back and let me know how is going. This was a 60 mile trip; this would take several days on foot, or with an animal. This lets us know how much Jacob trusted Joseph.

Joseph is an obedient son; when his dad called him he responded with, V:13- here I am; and when his dad sent him he didn’t, argue or make excuses why he couldn’t go, he just responded with instant, unwavering obedience. You wonder what Jacob was thinking when he sent Joseph 60 miles away to check on his brothers. Was Jacob so out of touch with his sons that he didn’t know how much they hated Joseph? Wasn’t he afraid of what his murderous sons would do to Joseph?

Joseph had great courage to obey his father even though he knew his brothers hated him.

When Joseph got to Shechem; his brothers weren’t there any longer. He could have said well they’re not here; I tried and turned around and went home. But that is not what he does; he goes 20 miles further to Dothan to find his brothers. Joseph’s obedience was a complete obedience; he went all the way to find his brothers in obedience to his father. Joseph went the extra mile to be obedient.

Joseph’s obedience was courageous and complete obedience.

Joseph’s obedience was also a costly obedience. Were told in V:18, that when Joseph brothers saw him coming wearing that coat of many colors they conspired to kill him.

They said here comes the dreamer; let’s killing and throw him into this pit and then what will happens to his dreams. Ruben heard their plan, and said let’s not kill him; let’s just throw him in this pit and let him die in there. But Ruben’s plan was to come back later and pulled him out of the pit.

V:23, When Joseph got to where his brothers were the first thing they did was to strip the coat of many colors off of him. They hated that coat and what it stood for; so like a pack of wild dogs his brothers jump on him and jerked his coat off his back.

The word strip in V:23 is a word that means to skin an animal.

The coat of many colors was violently ripped off him; and he was probably thrown naked into that pit. The word “cast” in V:24, is a word that means to dump a dead body into a grave. They threw Joseph in that pit to abandon him to his death. All of this happened because Joseph obeyed his father. Joseph was doing the right thing when all this terrible stuff happened to him.

We need to know… Obedience does not guarantee a life of ease and success in this world!

We live in a fallen, sin cursed world; obeying God often is rewarded with rejection, hate and hardship. The truth is, you will often suffer wrong for doing right in this sinful world!

The lives of some faithful Christians in martyrdom.

Once they threw Joseph into that pit they sat down to eat lunch… These guys were calloused, mean, hard hearted men. Jealousy leads to bad things!

Can you imagine these guys sitting down and eating while Joseph is pleading, begging, crying and asking them to pull him out of that pit? And they just ignore him!

-“And they said one to another, we are very guilty concerning our brother, and that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he begged us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us”.

Can you hear Joseph and his pitiful cries from the pit; Judah, Simeon, Levi, Dan somebody help me; don’t leave me down here in this pit to die!

Their plan was to eat, move on, and leave Joseph to die in that pit. But the providence of God brought by a caravan headed down to Egypt to sell spices. Judah speaks up in V:26-27, and says there’s no profit in killing Joseph; let’s sale him to this caravan of traders.

The rest of the brother think that’s a great idea. So they pull Joseph out of the pit and sell him for 20 pieces of silver, which is the equivalent of about 9 dollars. Joseph began that day a robed prince in Israel; and ended it as a slave, tied to some beast on a long walk headed to Egypt.

To make your dreams come true you must live in obedience.

The fourth step for making your dreams come true is to:

4. Depend on God.

V:29-36.

After they sold Joseph; they took Joseph’s coat of many colors and dipped it in the blood of a goat and brought it to their father.

They are covering up their sin; that is a reoccurring theme in the book of Genesis; and in life of people; trying to cover up sin.

Adam and Eve tried it; and it didn’t work!

The brothers of Joseph try it; and it’s not going to work! There are only two options when you sin: repent, or cover it up.

They choose to cover up their sin; they take the blood-soaked coat to their father Jacob; he identifies it as Joseph’s coat and says my son has been killed and eaten by a wild beast. Jacob breaks down and mourns for days, months, years and refuses to be comforted.

These guys are living in sin and covering up their sin. You can’t make your spiritual dreams come true covering up your sin! Some of you here this morning are covering up your sin:

· You’re messing around with your boyfriend or girlfriend, and you’re hiding it from your parents.

· You are looking at pornography, but you’re hiding it from everyone.

· You’re cheating on your spouse, but you’re covering it up.

He that covers his sin shall not prosper; but if you confess it and forsake it you will find mercy! As Christians, we must constantly walk in repentance. Every time we sin or disobey God, we should confess our sin and repent.

Turn from your sin; to Jesus. Our sin should constantly drive us back to the cross.

Don’t miss the way that Jacob was deceived; the blood of a goat; years before he had deceived his own father with the skin/hair of a goat.

Jacob’s brothers are covering their sin; Jacob is reaping his sin; and Joseph… What is Joseph doing?

What is Joseph doing as he’s being carried down to Egypt; he has nowhere to look but up; and I’m convinced that’s what he doing. Joseph is depending on God!!

V:36-“And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of pharaoh, and captain of the guard”.

God providentially brought Joseph safety to Egypt, and saw to it that he was sold to one of pharaoh’s chief officers. One of the major themes of Joseph’s life is providence; God brings good out of bad.

God takes this terrible sin that was committed against Joseph by his brothers, and he turns it into good. He raises Joseph up to save them and their families…that is grace! These brothers, who sell Joseph into slavery are saved by their brother! And, they are protected and blessed and become a great nation! God works through Joseph to save his brothers.

Joseph is a great picture of Jesus; Jesus came to his brothers, to his own, and they received him not. Jesus was sold for silver, Jesus Christ was stripped naked, beaten and nailed to the cross; and in the darkness of that cross Jesus cried my God, my God why have you forsaken me?

Jesus suffered, died, and was burial; but God raised him from the dead and exalted him to his right hand! Today Jesus Christ is the savior of the world!

Jesus Christ extends grace, forgiveness and salvation to you!

If you are not a Christian, Jesus came to save you.

If you are a Christian, you should thank God for His grace. Thank God that He sent Jesus for our sins to rescue and redeem us.

Joseph’s life is such an encouragement; he teaches us how to make our spiritual dreams come true.

· Develop a godly character.

· Discover God’s plan for your life.

· Determine to be obedient.

· Depend upon God.