What If We Don't Follow Our Dreams?

Introduction/ What does it mean to dream?

The Egyptian word for dream is common in such expressions as “see a dream” or “see something in a dream.” Dream means “awaken” (both transitive and intransitive), has an open eye as its determinative, apparently representing dreaming as a special state of consciousness, something like “watching during sleep.”

Close your eyes and tell me what do you see? It interesting that our answers are often nothing. But somehow nothing is descriptive; it is adjectival. When we say nothing we are describing something.

What I want God to do to us during this series:

Awaken us.

Give us a special state of consciousness.

Dreaming is the way God communicates to those He wants to use.

Dr. Martin Luther King & The March on Washington

There was a crowd of nearly 250,000 people in Washington on August 28, 1963 after African-Americans were encouraged to rally together to oppose the woes of civil injustice. The event that brought so many people together was the March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs.

Several individuals were in attendance to either show support or participate on the program. Among that list was Dr. Martin Luther King.

The confident and well-spoken leader was deliberating on what should be said during this solemn moment. The speech that was crafted by King’s staff was “Normalcy Never Again.” However, this is not the speech he would deliver.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. had debuted the phrase “I have a dream” in his speeches at least nine months before the March on Washington, and used it several times since then. Yet, King’s adviser, the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, discouraged him from using the same theme again, and he had drafted a speech that didn’t include it. Walker called the i have a dream theme “hackneyed and trite” As he spoke that day, the crowd seemed a bit disappointed with the content of his delivery. Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson yelled from the crowd, “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” Abandoning his prepared text, King improvised the rest of his speech, with electrifying results. The rest is history.

What happened here? What we have here is different types of people. There’s Rev. Walker and there’s Sister Jackson. Wyatt forgot a very important fact about humans, everyone loves to dream! Mahalia was very aware of what was needed in this sacred moment—King had to get the people to dream again!

Maladaptive Daydreaming: A great majority of people spend 5-7 hours a day daydreaming. (As people in the room if they have daydreamed since being in church this afternoon.

If dreams are God’s way to communicate, what happens when we [the church] forgets to dream? What does the church look like?

Go get yourself a dream! Let God talk with you!

Joseph’s Dream-less Brothers/ A Fair Warning to the Dreamers

Joseph’s brothers were dreamless. However, the bigger problem is that they were haters of those that did dream. But why? What was the real reason behind their hate?

Dreamers are not hated because they are dreamers. They are hated because they are loved.

Genesis 37:3–4 KJV 1900

Now 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 colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

Most of the fights you will endure in your life will not be because of your dream, but because of God’s love for you.

Ancient Hebrew: The pictograph x is a picture of a thorn, the n is a picture of seed. Combined these mean "thorn seed". The thorn, the seed of a plant with small sharp points) cause one to turn directions to avoid them.

Now, we do need to understand that dreamers who are loved are hated more, because of their dreams.

Though it is true that people will hate you because you are loved, it is your dreams that intimidate them.

Genesis 37:5 KJV 1900

And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.

Since dreams are about communication, the inability to dream magnifies our character flaws.

When a church or a person becomes busy with other things besides God’s dreams, they become busy with things less productive and less fruitful.

A Dreaming Pharaoh/ What if we fail to dream?

If we don’t dream, who will? What happens if/ when the world dreams?

Pharoah was a dreamer. God communicated with him. One of the most important things that Pharaoh did was ask for an interpreter.

Genesis 41:8 CSB

When morning came, he was troubled, so he summoned all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.

Genesis 41:15 CSB

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said about you that you can hear a dream and interpret it.”

The word interpret means to explain.

How can we/ why do we dream without finding the appropriate meaning? Why don’t we dream in and look for the resources and understanding of what should be done to make the dream happen?

Dreams are about knowing what God is about to do. We cannot know what God is about to do unless we, have interpreters/ explainers of the dream.

Conclusion/ Get a Dream!

Avoid idle time.

Genesis 37:2 CSB

These are the family records of Jacob. At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father.

Avoid hate.

Genesis 37:4–5 KJV 1900

And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.

Avoid jealousy.

Genesis 37:11 KJV 1900

And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.