Trust God with Your Dream (Genesis 37:12-36)

Today, we continue our message series called “Keep Your Dream Alive.” In this series, we are studying the life of Joseph, found in the book of Genesis. God gave Joseph two dreams about the future course of his life at the young age of 17. The dreams had to do with Joseph becoming a leader over his brothers and eventually a leader over his family, which became the nation of Israel. However, the fulfillment of those dreams was a long way off. Joseph will have to go through some severe attacks and disappointments before those dreams come to pass. So in this story, God has some important lessons for us today.

Today, my message is entitled “Trust God with Your Dream.” God has a dream for your life, just as he had for Joseph. God’s dream for your life has many facets. In fact, He has a dream for each area of your life. Some important areas we talked about last Sunday were your job, your family and your ministry. If you’re not sure of God’s dream for your life, ask Him to show you and He will. God wants you to know His plan for your life so that you can follow it.

Yet, every dream from God will be attacked. Why? Because we have an enemy, Satan, who will do whatever he can to stop God’s dreams from being fulfilled. Satan will try to get you to pursue dreams that are not from God for your life. Satan will attempt to put roadblocks in your life to delay or stop those dreams. He will try to get you to give up on pursuing God’s dream. But God’s Word tells us that nothing can stop God’s dream for your life if you keep pursuing it and trusting God for it to be fulfilled.

Hebrews 6:12 (NIV)  We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

This passage is speaking of how Abraham, Joseph’s great-grandfather, inherited the promise of Isaac, through faith and patience. You see God’s dreams for your life are really promises. God promises that if you follow Him, if you continue on with faith, if you have patience and don’t give up, those good dreams will be fulfilled. So what do you need to see your dream come to pass? You need to believe that with God nothing is impossible. That God will provide the way for your dream to become reality. When challenges come, as they will, trust God with your dream. Don’t try to bring it to pass in your own strength. Every dream from God requires His power and resources to bring to pass. Trust God with your dream.

Now, let’s review the story of Joseph. Joseph is currently the youngest of 11 sons of his father Jacob. Joseph is also his father’s favorite son and received a multi-colored robe from his father. Joseph has had two dreams, in which he has authority over his brothers and family. His brothers don’t like Joseph or his dreams at all and they are letting him know it. So Joseph’s life is not really going so well at the moment and they’re about to get worse.