A Dream Is Revived Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The story of Joseph in Egypt is one of high drama.

A former slave judges the brothers who sold him years before. In the mind of God, an ingenious plan was unfolding to save two nations. A dream was indeed coming to pass. 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, I think today's program will be one of high drama. What can we expect? Well, Dave, I think that what we can expect is to see how God brought about the reconciliation of Joseph and his brothers, how God tested these brothers, and how Joseph's heart of forgiveness was extended toward them. It's an extraordinary story. But you know, there are many people who do not experience their dreams because of failure, moral failure, because of greed, because of relationships that have gone sour.

The world is a very hurting place. And I've written a book entitled When a Good Man Falls, and I wrote it with the intention of giving people hope because oftentimes there are those who fall, yet God is not finished with them. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Now I'm going to be giving you that contact info again at the end of this message. For now, let us listen in as we continue the story of Joseph. Chapter 45. Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, Have everyone go out from me. So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph.

Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, Please come closer to me. And they came closer, and he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me here to preserve life. Can you imagine it? Maybe someday we'll see this in heaven if it was videotaped by God. Here's Joseph who is suddenly in the arms of Benjamin, and then in the arms of Reuben, and yes, also in the arms of Judah. The scene is really too sensitive for us to try to reconstruct as Joseph and his brothers are finally united and finally brought together. Many Bible commentators have seen in this a little picture of how it is going to be when the nation Israel finally recognizes Christ to be the Messiah, to be their brothers.

It says in Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10, They shall look on him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son. They shall recognize Christ to be their brother. And Jesus will reveal himself to the Jewish nation and say, I am your Messiah for whom you have been looking all these many, many years.

And they'll scarcely know how to answer. But Jesus will in effect take them in his arms, and they will be reconciled. And Paul says that there will be a generation of Israelites living, all of whom, doesn't mean every single one, but as a nation, they shall accept Christ. That's what Paul says. All Israel shall be saved as it is written. I shall bring from Zion a deliverer.

And so Joseph is reconciled to his brothers. What does this teach us about dreams? If you've been here, you know that each time we analyze the whole business of dreams, not speaking of those kinds of experiences that we have at night when we have those crazy, crazy dreams like I do that make no sense whatever that are just jumbled together in absurd ways, but rather the aspirations that we have, the dreams that we dream, the desires that we have. What does this passage of scripture teach us about dreams? First, dreams are sometimes fulfilled in stages.

They are sometimes fulfilled in stages. Or we could say sometimes dreams take a long time to be fulfilled. When Joseph was there in prison, he never saw the fulfillment of his dream. He, I believe that there the dream really died. And then the ten brothers come and they bow and that's not quite the dream. It's just about the dream, but not quite because Benjamin has to bow before him too. And so dreams are sometimes fulfilled in stages. If you've got a dream, if it's a reasonable dream, if you have prayed about it and you believe it to be God's dream, hang on to it as long as you can because you don't know but that God might yet fulfill it. There is that possibility.

Twenty years elapsed from the seventeen-year-old boy's dream until the brothers bowed down. And God has plenty of time on his hands. We are very busy. We're the ones who somehow think that it has to happen today, but just let God lead you. And you never know, you never know, but that dream might still be fulfilled. Dreams are sometimes fulfilled in stages. Secondly, a small dream, a small dream can result in great blessing, great blessing. Now isn't it interesting that the dream that God gave a teenager ended up being the means by which God was going to bring blessing really to the then known world? Because when you stop to think of it, there was a family that was blessed.

The sons of Jacob, they had to get into Egypt in accordance with God's promises. And so you have a family that is blessed. You have the Egyptians that are going to be blessed because the Israelites are going to be there. You have we who are blessed.

We are encouraged to read this story. We say to ourselves, here's a young man whose example has been an inspiration to millions upon millions of people through century upon century. Joseph didn't know that when he was going through all that hurt. He didn't know that someday there would be great blessings that would come as a result of a little puny dream really, a little dream in a little country by a man who was just scarcely more than a boy.

And look what God did. Most of us know the name of D.L. Moody. We sure ought to, but not too many people know Edward Kimball.

I think Edward was his first name, Kimball, who led D.L. Moody to Christ. And you remember he led that shoe salesman to Christ.

And when D.L. Moody was being inducted into the church there out in Massachusetts, when he was asked about his testimony, he was rejected for membership, which should be an encouragement to those of you who perhaps for one reason or another have ever been rejected for membership. And the reason is because they asked him, what did Jesus Christ do for you? And can you believe his answer was, I cannot think of anything particularly that Jesus did for me. Now, we tell those who interview prospective members that if somebody gives you an answer like that, the answer is no, you're not fit for membership. You can't think of anything particular that Jesus did for you. We'd say, get saved. Well, that was D.L.

Moody's answer. And the next year he knew enough to say the right things and was admitted into membership. Kimball had no idea that this scrawny kid was someday going to be a great evangelist who would begin a school and a church and whose ministry and blessing would touch millions of people as an evangelist.

He had no idea like that. But you know, sometimes very small dreams, because God sets up the dominoes in such a way, it results in great blessing. You know that you may want to be a missionary, maybe you want to be a pastor, maybe you want to do something great for God. And what you don't know and what I don't know is that the greatest thing that we do for God is possibly something that we do some Thursday afternoon when we minister to a single mother and we show her the compassion and the love of Jesus.

And she comes to saving faith in Christ and she rears her two children to love Jesus Christ. And from that, a series of events takes place that just causes us to be astounded at the mercy of God and we even were not aware of what was happening. Because sometimes just a small act of kindness, a small dream in the hands of God can become a means of great blessing.

A little lunch that the boy gave to Jesus would eventually feed 5,000 people and he had no idea when he left that morning with his lunch that God would do something so wonderful. You know that there are things that God may still do in your life and through your life for His glory, things that will astound you, many of which you will not know about before you die. You'll have to wait until you get to heaven to see all the good things that God did just because you lived for Him because small dreams sometimes can end up with great, great blessings. Number three, God is powerful enough to fulfill our dreams.

I mean if He really wants to. I'm not saying that He wants to fulfill all of our dreams but I mean if He really wants to, He is powerful enough. Have you ever thought of the fact that God took the weather patterns of the Middle East and He controlled those weather patterns? Seven years of plenty, seven years of rain, seven years of a great harvest. Then the next year, famine, and the famine lasted seven years. I can just imagine the people hurt during the famine, not only in Egypt but in other countries. They're saying to themselves, you know, our children are starving. We don't know where there is food and we don't know what to do. We don't know where the next loaf of bread is coming from. And people complained about hard times and they would have discussions about how awful things had become in the economy of their countries. They had no idea that the reason that the heavens were shut up for seven years and there was no rain was because God said, look, there is a family in Canaan that has to get to Egypt and this is the way I have decreed that they are going to end up there.

It's going to need a worldwide famine to pull it off. To see that Joseph has his dream fulfilled and to see that the promise that God made to Abraham, fifteenth chapter of Genesis, God says, Abraham, your descendants are going to be taken from Canaan and they are going to be put into another country in Egypt and they're going to be there 400 years and then they're going to come out. That's what God predicted and he had to get the family of Jacob into Egypt and that's the way he chose to do it. Now, of course, there were other options that God had. God has all kinds of ways to move one family, to move a family from one country to another. It's just that this was God's sovereign choice and you and I know that God sometimes chooses things that we do not understand.

They are mysterious to us. He does it all the time and we don't understand exactly what he has in mind when he does what he does, but of this we can be absolutely sure that if God gives you a dream, he has enough power, if he wills, to pull it off. If he can shut up the heavens, if he can open the heavens, if he can create all of the circumstances by which Joseph came into Egypt and to have all of this fit together, God is mighty and great. That's why it's okay if we are Christians to dream some big dreams once in a while. That's why we can do that is because God is strong.

You know what we're going to do next week? My text is going to be taken from 45 verse 5. Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves for God sent me. You sold me. You sold me, but God sent me. We're going to talk about the providence of God that is just absolutely astounding.

They sold him in anger and God used this for good to preserve people alive. How do we understand the providence of God? That's next week as we talk about the powerful resources that God has in mind to fulfill our dreams.

There's another lesson. That is, of course, that God is bigger than our failed dreams. He's bigger than our failed dreams. We've already learned that he gives us dreams that we would never choose for ourselves, never in a hundred years. Joseph, his dream was to sit down in the land of Canaan next to his father, I'm sure.

As I mentioned, marry a lovely Jewish woman, have some kids, and enjoy life. That would've been his dream. He had no idea that God had a different dream for him and that meant to be sold cruelly by his brothers to be in Egypt. But there, of course, we learned that God had all kinds of other dreams prepared, even a dream for him in prison because God is bigger than our failed dreams. And he recreates new ones in accordance with the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

He's always got something new for us. Did God have any dreams for these brothers? Yes, he sure did. I mentioned it before, 15th chapter of Genesis, God says, Abraham, your children, your descendants are going to be in the land and then they're going to be taken into Egypt. The brothers, they blew it. They were cruel and God does not in any way get them off the hook because of that cruelty.

They were a group of half-brothers, as we learned, from four different mothers, this motley crowd of guys who just, no wonder they didn't get along. And yet, they are going to be the ones who will be the beginners of what we call the 12 tribes of Israel. God had a dream for them. And you know that even despite their failure, despite their failure somehow it came about, it doesn't mean that we excuse their failure, it simply means that in the midst of human failure and disappointment and crushed hopes and expectations that we hoped would come to pass but don't, in the middle of all that there still is God. And I say to those of you today who have brought your shattered dreams to this auditorium, to this sanctuary, I want you to know that at the end of your shattered dreams there is still God, still God. You know the Puritans used to say, and this is a difficult quote because we may wonder whether it is really fair, but what the Puritans used to say is this, that he who has God and many other things does not have more than he who has God only. Well, what he's really saying, those Puritans, they believed so passionately that if you had God you could accept failed dreams and you didn't need many dreams if God was the center of your life because he would become your dream. That's what the Puritans believed. And I have no doubt in my mind that God shatters many of our dreams simply because he wants us to find him as our ultimate dream. He who has God and many other things does not have more than he who has God only because if you have God you have all that you really, really do need.

That's what the Puritans used to teach. Connie Erickson-Tada had her dreams, boyfriend, popular, she of course over 20 years ago dives, breaks her spinal cord, and you know today of course that she is in a wheelchair still, still hurting. I just read a recent book in which she spent most of a recent year in bed with all those awful sores, every dream that a young woman could have shattered.

When it happened she spent days wondering how she could commit suicide so that she would not have to live. Every dream crushed, every one. But you know today God had a different dream for her.

And you know the blessing that she has been to millions of people, the organization that she begins helping those who are disabled, blessing people with her speaking and her writing and who could have ever predicted that with the death of all of her dreams God would give her something so special and so unique. But that's just like God, that's just like God. He takes away the dreams upon which we attach our hearts, he shatters them, they lie at our feet unfulfilled and in despair he comes to us and he says I love you, I care about you, and I want you to know that I'm giving you a brand new dream.

Just like God, that's the way he is. The only requirement for you to still have a dream is that you be alive. Once you're dead and the preacher has all said those wonderful things about you that make others in the audience wonder whether he's talking about the person that you think really knew.

I'm being a little facetious there. Once it's all over and things have been said about us, you can stop your dreaming on earth, but until then God has some purpose for you. And those who may even go through Alzheimer's disease, they may no longer be able to dream their own dreams, but they become a part of the dream of those who care for them because God's purposes towards us are always benevolent.

There is always some reason why it is that he loves his people and he goes on loving us and he keeps giving us a dream. There's a final lesson that I've thought much about and it does not grow out of the text of Genesis, but it is, I believe, scriptural and that is this, that God's dreams are really only for God's people. God's dreams are only for God's people. Because I was meditating on this and the question occurred to me, does God have a dream for everyone?

And the answer is I think no, at least interpreted in the way I'm interpreting it, the answer is no. He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life all the dreams, but he that believeth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. God has a purpose for everyone, but he does not have a dream for everyone except those who are his people. And your dream with God, if it is to begin, has to begin at the foot of the cross by receiving Christ as savior, transferring your faith to him, being reconciled to God, and then you and God can begin to dream together.

Until that time, you are under the condemnation of God. There is a purpose for your existence, but there is no use talking about dreams. And there are many of you who are listening to me today that if the truth were known, if the inside of what is within you were to come out, that we could see who you really are, we would discover that you have never believed on Christ for yourself, which is the place where all dreams begin. My friend, this is Pastor Luther, and indeed, if you've never believed on Jesus Christ, that is where all legitimate good dreams begin.

But let me ask you this question. What does Moses and Jonah and Lot and Noah and Samson, David, what do they have in common? Well, they all fell into sin.

They were all disciplined. But at the same time, God revived them, so to speak, and God gave them some new dreams. That's why I've written a book entitled When a Good Man Falls. It's a book actually of hope.

For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the book When a Good Man Falls, 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 N. LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. It's been a long road from a pit in Canaan to a palace in Egypt. For Joseph, God's dream had been fulfilled. The fate of many nations depended on one man holding on to a dream God had given him, one component in what's known as the providence of God. Next time on Keep Your Dream Alive, Dr. Lutzer will come with the final message on the life of Joseph. Don't miss A Dream is Fulfilled. Thanks for listening. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.