A Dream Is Born Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Is the dream you have for your life farther away than ever? Take heart. Although Joseph had a dream of ruling his brothers, he ended up in slavery. A lesser man might have given up. But for Joseph, the dream never died.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, how far have we come in the story of Joseph? Well, Dave, we have come to a point where Joseph must have been deeply saddened and discouraged. Yes, he had a dream, but it was very apparent that it seemed as if the dream would not be fulfilled. You know, sometimes we gloss over this story far too quickly, and we forget the fact that Joseph was perhaps 17 years old.

There's no doubt that he was crying. We learn that at the end of the story. We can imagine how sad he was, how lonely he was, and slavery in Egypt was in his future.

What a terrible tragedy that his brothers turned against him. And yet, as we shall see in this series, in the end, of course, his dream was fulfilled. And I say to all those of you whose dreams perhaps have died, remember this, you never know, but your dream, too, may be revived. If you are blessed as a result of the ministry of Running to Win, I want you to know it is because of people like you who stand behind us with their prayers and their gifts.

Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? That's someone who stands with us regularly. They pray for us.

They contribute to this ministry on a regular basis. Of course, you need more info, so here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com. When you're there, click on the endurance partner button, or if you prefer, you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. You know, it's the beginning of a brand new year, and I hope that this year you make the decision to become a part of the Running to Win family. And now we turn our attention to Joseph. They make up a lie, and they tell their old father Jacob as they took that coat and dipped it into animal blood and showed it to him and said, is this the coat that you gave to Joseph?

And he says, yes. And they say that, well, then a wild beast must have devoured him. And that's really the end of the story. They put out the light of their brother, they thought. They sold him, but they said they had killed him.

And that was really the end of the story. For 22 years, those brothers hid that lie in their hearts. And just like a siren that continues to get lower in its decibels because of a battery that is beginning to expire, in the very same way their consciences no longer could be touched by anything. Maybe throughout the years as they saw a coat like Joseph's or perhaps they walked past a pit, they remembered what happened.

But they bound themselves by an oath, and they kept the secret. And Jacob, of course, says, I'm going to go to the grave mourning for my son. He can't even believe that they would tell him such a lie. He assumes that what they are saying is true. And that is the end of the story for now from his point of view.

Let me ask you a question. How does Joseph take this? Do you think he took it so stoically? You know, sometimes we exalt him as if he was almost a supernatural person. You know, the Bible does not record any specific sin that he committed, and so we tend to exalt these saints and think that they were not touched with the same infirmities as we are.

Not so. Twenty-two years later, Judah is going to be speaking, and he does not know that Joseph is present, and I want you to read the story. Begin in chapter 37 and read to the end of the book of Genesis so you see it all in context. And he does not know that he's in the presence of Joseph, and he says these words. Judah says, this has happened to us, he's talking about his own distress, because we saw the distress of our brother and his pleas for help, and we did not help him.

Oh, I want you to catch this today. He knew and every one of those brothers knew that selling him into Egypt was probably far worse than death could ever be. And here's a 17-year-old boy now who doesn't get a chance to say goodbye to his father, he doesn't know whether or not his father has been told the truth, believes that so far as he knows he will never see his family again, the dream dies, it dies, and it's the end so far as he can see. Now, of course, eventually God is going to resurrect the dream, and that's really the story. It's an intriguing story of the providence of God, the greatness of God's ability to even control the weather patterns throughout the whole Middle East just to get this boy reconciled to his family.

It is a story that is staggering in its doctrine of providence, as we shall see in this series. But Joseph doesn't know that. As far as Joseph is concerned, he was simply the victim of angry brothers. He didn't ask to get this coat. He didn't ask to be the one that was favored by his father.

He didn't do anything to ask for what he got. Talk about an unfair shake from his family. Well, there's so much more that could be said, but for openers today, what we'd like to do is to give you four lessons that we can learn so far from Joseph's experience, four lessons that will bring encouragement and hope and help and eventually I trust healing to many who hurt. Number one, a child can rise above a dysfunctional family.

A child can rise above it. Nobody would have ever expected that Joseph was going to arise as a man of God, given the father he had, the brothers he had, and the hatred that he endured, and the separation from his mother, and all of the experiences that were so terrifying and so hopeless in a strange land whose customs and language he would have to learn for he did not understand them. No one would have expected that out of that family. Some of you to whom I speak today, you're ashamed of your roots.

You want to keep that in a closet. You want to keep those doors closed because of alcoholism and abuse and incest and all kinds of ugly things that you hope you never even have to confront or to deal with. You want to keep the doors closed and you think to yourself, I am inevitably and permanently tainted.

There is no hope for me. I want you to know today that God sometimes just to display his mercy and his grace reaches down in the most unlikely terrible situation and raises up someone to display his glory and might to show that the family of God can step in when the human family has failed and we don't have to be victims. We don't have to be victims of those brothers and sisters that harassed us and mistreated us and were angry with us and abused us. God can do something wonderful even in a family like that. It's interesting that Jesus, the Bible says of him, he was a root out of dry ground.

That had to do with his lineage. Oh, I know he was divine but he was also human and then he came from Nazareth, the town that was despised and people asked, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? If you are an environmentalist in the sense that you believe that people are the product of their environment, what hope do you give to Jesus? What hope do you give to Joseph?

Let me challenge you. If you came from a family like the one described here in the scriptures, break the cycle, break the curse in the name and the power of Christ and move on because God is with you. God is with you.

So that's the first lesson. A child can arise above a dysfunctional family and Joseph proves that. Secondly and more painfully, God's dream for you may be different than your dream for yourself.

That's very obvious, isn't it? God's dream for you may be an entirely different dream than you carved out for yourself. You know, if we could interview Joseph before all this happened and sit down with a tape recorder and say, Joseph, what's your dream? He wouldn't talk about being a sheaf before which others bowed or being in the middle of the sky so that the stars would even bow before him.

That isn't really what he talked about. You say, you know what I want to do? I want to live next to dad.

I love my dad. I want a couple of sheep. I want to marry a nice Jewish girl. I want to settle down, have a family life.

And frankly, I'd like to live a life free of hassle. Probably. That's what he'd say. God says, Joseph, you know, I'm sorry, but I have a different plan for you that includes 22 years of ups and downs being mistreated, misunderstood, false accusations, and eventually to rise in Egypt to fulfill your dream. It will happen.

That is to fulfill the dream about the stars and the sheaves. It will happen, but the years are not going to be pretty. You know, isn't that true? Yesterday, we heard of a couple going through a great deal of problems because of the birth of a child.

It was born prematurely. And my daughter related that one of the friends of hers said this, you know, when you stand at the altar and you say, I do, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, nobody knows what the worse is going to be. Your dream, your dream is happiness. I've performed I don't know how many marriages.

One day I counted all of the marriage certificates that I have in a file, and they may not be a complete list, but tons of them. I don't remember anyone saying, you know, our dream is to have a miserable marriage. What we'd really like to do is to go through life unhappily.

Could you help us fulfill our dream? I've never had anybody say that, but I've married more than one couple for whom God had obviously a rather different dream. You see, the point is this, that sometimes we do get this confusion because we know what our dreams are. And they're always pretty dreams. They are always successful dreams. They are always painless dreams.

That's the way my dreams have always been. But God sometimes desires a different agenda because of a different purpose. If you hang on and if you come back as we do this series, we are going to be both encouraged and breathless at God's providential guidance in the life of someone who'd have never, never, never chosen Egypt as his dream. God's dreams are sometimes different from our dreams.

A third lesson, and this is more difficult to take. And I know I have to say this carefully because some of you are hurting today and you might not agree with this, but I'm going to say it anyway. Not even your family, not even your hate-filled family can stand in the way of God's dream for you.

Ouch. But I'm going to say it again. Not even a hate-filled family can permanently stand in the way of God's dream for you. Some of you grew up in homes and the desire even of your parents, not to mention your brothers or sisters, the desire of your parents was to shatter your dream. I remember a man saying to me, you know what the fondest wish of my mother is? And I said, what? And he said that I might be a failure.

She so hates men that she ridicules me, cajoles me, makes me feel very inferior, abuses me when he was younger. And she did this because she is determined to show that every single man is evil, every single man is a good for nothing, and what she wants to do is to smash his dream once for all. That's what the brothers wanted to do. They said, come, let us kill him and let us kill his dream. And some of you bless you.

You've had to survive a home like that. Where is God? Where is God? Does God abandon you and say, well, you know, if you're from a family like that, what in the world do you expect me to do with this mess?

No, you love God. He'll have a dream for you. He'll have a dream. Sometimes even out of ugly situations, there is a dream. It's not the dream that you wanted.

No, we've already covered that. It's not the dream that you would choose if God gave you options, but then the options are very few in life, aren't they? And what you need to do is to understand that God does not forsake those whose dreams have been shattered. He gives them new dreams, new ones, and says it isn't what you wanted, it isn't what you expected, it isn't even what you deserve, but here is something else. God, 22 long years, was with Joseph and his dream credibly, credibly was fulfilled. Finally, and I'll leave off with a fourth lesson, broken dreams can be more easily accepted when we know God.

Let me say that again, broken dreams can be more easily accepted when we know God. You know what we're going to see in the next message in this series? Remarkable little phrase that occurs a number of times in the life of Joseph. He goes into Egypt and it says, the Lord was with him.

That's the phrase. He's promoted in Potiphar's household and it says, and the Lord was with him. He is falsely accused.

He's going to have to die to his family, to his reputation, even to his friends, as we shall see, so you stay with us. But the interesting thing is, in prison, falsely accused, and the Lord was with him. You see, when Joseph left Canaan, he had to leave his family behind, but he did not leave God behind. God transverses the borders. God is the one who follows people into countries and into situations where no one else is permitted to go. God goes with his people, and God is with him in his good times of elation and promotion, and God is with him in his demotions, and God is with him the whole way.

God is there. And you know, you can take some shattered dreams. Oh, it doesn't mean that the pain goes away.

It doesn't mean that it's easy, but you can live with some of those shattered dreams more easily if you know that God walks with you through the furnace, through the fire, through the misunderstanding, and through all of the hurt the Lord is there. And so I end this message today by asking you a question. Do you know God well enough that you can trust him in the dark? Many years ago when I interviewed Del Faisonfeld just before he died, I said, Del, I said, you know, you've learned so much with this terminal illness, this tumor diagnosed, I think it was in April, and the doctor said, we promise you, we promise you, you will not live till Christmas.

People praying for him all over the world, and yet he died in November of that year. I had a 45-minute interview with him, and Del said to me, said, you know, when you follow God in the light, he said, it's like coming at home. I can find my way in the house even when the lights are out because I have walked in that house so often during the day. So I need to ask you something. Do you know God well enough in the light that when darkness comes and the dreams lie shattered at your feet, that you know that he walks with you through that experience? You can only know him like that through Christ. And if he is distant to you, if you do not know him personally, if he is only a concept or an idea, I remind you that Jesus said, he that has seen me have seen the Father. I invite you to Christ because in inviting you to Christ, I invite you to see God, to see God. And if you've never believed in Christ personally, there's been no transfer of trust.

You can do that even today. We have many purposes for our existence here at Moody Church, but the good news of the gospel, the understanding that God is a forgiving and receiving God to those who come in humility through Christ, that is really the core. That's our bread and butter. That's our life. That's the thing that motivates us. That's the thing that explodes within my soul. Every time I have the privilege of telling people that, there is a Christ who can lead you to God so that you can know him well enough in the light that when the dream is gone, he is still there. He is still there. As the deer pants after the water, so our souls pant after him.

Why? Because we know we need God even worse than we need the fulfillment of our dreams. We need him more desperately than we need that.

Where are you today? You're willing to give all your dreams to God. Give them up to him. And for those of you who don't know the Savior, come quickly today in faith and receiving. Let us pray. Our Father, we do want to thank you today for the life of a young man who eventually saw you in the injustice, in the hatred.

And in the end, he will say that God was a part of it all. Work in us the same faith, particularly among those today who hurt. Grant them, Father, hope, the hope of Christ and God and your promises. Raise up many from homes that are a mess to display your glory. Lift up all those who have fallen and grant us your peace in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, my friend, this is Pastor Luther. I'd love to have a personal word with you I'd like to speak to your heart, particularly to those of you who are hurting because it appears as if your dream is dead.

It can never be revived. Well, as we're going to be emphasizing in this series of messages, no matter your past, God does still have a new dream for you. Some of our dreams are not fulfilled, but there are other dreams. I want you to keep on believing. I want you to keep on trusting, even when you look around and think that God is not on your side.

He is on your side. And if you're blessed as a result of this ministry, would you consider, especially now as we enter a brand new year, would you consider helping us by becoming an endurance partner? Endurance partners are those who stand with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts.

They become a part of what I like to call the running to win family. Of course, you need more information. Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com. When you're there, you'll see an endurance partner button.

You click on it. That will have the info that you are looking for. Or if you prefer, you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. I need to tell you that in this year, this new year, we hope to expand the ministry of running to win, and so we thank all those who stand with us. Go to rtwoffer.com. Click on the endurance partner button, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Thanks so much for holding our hands as together we continue to make a difference. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Few of us have ever faced the trials Joseph faced. Between this man and his dream lay injustice, treachery, slavery, and prison. Indeed, his dream was sorely tested. How long could you hang on to your dream under circumstances like these? Next time on Keep Your Dream Alive, Dr. Lutzer will bring message number two, a dream is tested. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.