Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Driven by Your Dreams | Think Ahead | Part 6

Episode Date: March 24, 2024

Do you have a goal for your life that you can’t stop thinking about? Maybe achieving it seems impossible. What if this dream is part of God’s plan for your life? In this message, we’re talking about how to live out our calling—dreams included. ABOUT THIS MESSAGEOur decisions determine the direction of our lives. But when we're tired, stressed, or overwhelmed, what do those decisions really look like? Let's learn to Think Ahead so we follow God’s purposes no matter what.NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to the next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LCNowCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #thinkahead Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How would your life be different if you woke up every single day with a sense of divine clarity for the unique reason you exist to literally pre-decide every single day to live with this unique God-given conviction, purpose, and dream? Literally to be driven by a dream. I read a recent poll that asked that, that question. And less than 10%, you may not be surprised by this, but less than 10% of people that answered this question said that they have any kind of clarity like why God put them on earth, like what their unique purpose is. And of those 10% that have a sense of a purpose, only 5% of them actually live differently because of that purpose. And with that, it creates

a sense of friction with the words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus. when he says that you are God's masterpiece. Created anew in Christ for good works that God prepared and almost dreamed up for you a long time ago. Today, we're going to look at a dreamer, the life of Joseph. The good news is such a powerful story. The bad news is that the story. story of Joseph spans 14 chapters and 450 verses in Genesis. So we're going to do something we've never done before. This sermon is going to last until next Thursday afternoon. We'll take several

bathroom breaks. It's going to be great. No, I'm going to read an enormous amount of scripture today. So you're going to have to have kind of your thinking caps on. I'm going to jump around a lot. And honestly, I'm not even scratching the surface. So please go back and reread this story. it is worth your time. So let's look at some genealogy really quick. So last week, Pastor Tim taught on Abraham. Didn't Pastor Tim do an amazing job preaching? Pastor Sam and Tim, I love listening to guys preach.

And so Abraham was also a dreamer. God gave him this vision that he would have a kid at a very old age, not just that, but that he would have the descendants of many nations. In fact, more descendants than there are sins on the same. seashore. Abraham had actually two kids, Ishmael, who we get Arab nations flow out of Ishmael and Isaac, who had twins, Esau and Jacob. Jacob had 12 children with four mothers, which sounds unbelievably exhausting to me. And one of them is the one we're going to talk about today. His name, what's his name again? Joseph.

He was one of the young ones. And Joseph had a dream. Let's listen about Joseph in Genesis 37. Check this out. These are the records of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, when he was 17 years of age, remember that age, 17 years old. He was pastoring the flock with his brothers. And while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilha and the sons of Zilpa and his father's wives.

And Joseph brought back a bad report about the brothers. He's coming to tattle on the brothers. Now, Israel, so Israel was Jacob. They changed, God changed his name to Israel. So Israel loved Joseph more than all the other sons. So not only is he tattling, but he's now daddy's favorite, right? More than all of his other sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a multicolored tunic, and his brothers saw that their father loved him more than them.

and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. Then Joseph had a dream. Everybody say dream. Joseph had a dream and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. This guy doesn't know how to read the room. They're not a fan. They don't want to hear it. And so he tells them the dream.

He says, please listen to this dream that I've had. For behold, we're binding sheaves of wheat or grain or something. And my sheaf remains standing, but behold, your sheaves, gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf. It's fascinating. It's interestingly ironic that I'm preaching this sermon today to wrap up Craig's latest book, but I actually can't preach this without kind of ripping off and plagiarizing his very first book, which was called Kazone. He wrote it 18 years ago. And of all the books he's written, it's probably had the biggest sustaining impact on my life. And the premise is this.

Cazon is the Hebrew word for vision. And we believe, I believe, that God has a Cazone for every one of you. Unique to you. Because you are the fingerprint of God. And one of the questions that he asked in his book is this, that I want to extend to you. If money were no object,

what would you do for the rest of your life? And money here is like, chosen because it's one of the most common barriers, right, to doing what we feel like God's called us to do. But maybe the barrier for you is time. If time were no object, what would you do for the rest of your life? If health were no object, what would you do for the rest of your life? Would you start the business?

Would you write the book? Would you maybe step into full-time ministry? Would you find a way to fight for the poor and the marginalized in your community? Because here's the thing. single one of you will end up somewhere, but few of you, and I pray it's more than that, will end up somewhere on purpose. So today, as we look at the life of the dreamer, Joseph, we're going to unpack four phases that you will all go through as you embark on a life of being driven by a dream.

The first, and it always starts this way, is it starts with the spirit's prompting. Every great story of God starts with him initiating something. Pastor Tim talked about this last week in talking about the different ways that God tends to speak to us. Like sometimes he directs us clearly, like he speaks to you through his word, right? Other times he guides us quietly through promptings,

which is pretty much what's happening with Joseph through a dream. And sometimes he grows us silently. Look, all throughout the Bible, there are examples of God imparting dreams, visions, and burdens to his people. And this is not just like the thing you have while you're sleeping when you ate the pizza the night before. Like we're talking about something that usually starts relatively obscure. It almost feels like a sense of dissonance between what is and what could be.

I remember 22 years ago, my marriage was about to end. And I don't have time to get into it because I have a lot of verses to read today. But there's like 10 sermons that I've preached on the story if you want all the details. but I had failed. Marriage was falling apart. Cindy did not know if she had it in her to stay. I'm just going to keep preaching. And so she went to Texas where we're from.

And as she's driving in her car, she's praying to the Lord. God, I need a word from your word. It's one thing for somebody to tell you something, like, I feel impressed that God wants me to tell you this. It's something else when you get a word from the word, because the word never returns void and it always has power. And then he found herself in a church that she'd never been to before, desperate to hear from God. And a girl about the age of Joseph walks up to her, teenager, and says, I think I have a word for you. And she quoted,

a scripture. Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 3. For the vision is for the appointed time. Though it linger and delay, wait for it. It will surely come to pass. And tears just streamed down my wife's face. Not because she knew what that meant, but she knew that God was there. And he sees her. And she went to have lunch with someone out. after church, who she never really spent time with before. It was a friend of a friend. And after a meal, she brought out her Bible and opened it up and said, I feel like I have a word for you. And you can probably guess what she quoted to Cindy Beale, Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 3. The vision is for the appointed time, though it linger, wait for it. It will surely

come to pass. That kind of leads us in to the second phase. of being driven by a dream. We start with God prompting you about something, to do something, to make a difference, to step out in faith, and the next phase you're going to go through and some of you are living here right now

is certain uncertainty. Certain uncertainty. Look at what this dream is that Joseph shared with his brothers. He said, please listen to this dream, which I've had for behold, we're binding sheaves in the field,

And my chief stood up and all of yours bowed down to me like, what on earth does that mean? Like, why is God using wheat to give a sense of vision? Because we have to wrestle with it. Right? Sometimes I wish, I don't know about you, I wish that God would speak to us more like Google Maps does. You know what I'm saying? Like, in two miles, take a left at this job offer. I'm leading you in the direction in 500 feet, making you.

you turn from your toxic relationship with Brad or whatever that thing is or you have arrived at your divine destination. But God doesn't speak that way. God speaks in obscure nudges so that we're forced to lean in and listen closer. I think that may be the whole point is that God wants us to lean in and to be present with what he's trying to show us. it often starts obscure. And this is one concept that Craig presented in the book that I just think is so powerful. Because today, like I can tell you exactly what my vision is, my purpose is, but I didn't have a dream about it. I didn't hear God's voice from a burning bush. I just looked back over the timeline of my life and put the pieces together. So let me explain this. So there's basically three things that we want to look at

in who you are. The first one is your spiritual gifts. So every time someone says yes to Jesus and becomes a follower of Christ, the Holy Spirit imparts to you spiritual gifts that are unique to you. So for me, my number one spiritual gift is wisdom. Number two, leadership. Number three, generosity. Right. So I know that. I just, you literally just go online and take a spiritual gifts test, right? The second circle are your unique core values. And so these are the things that you are uniquely passionate about or have like a righteous anger about, like some injustice in the world that just tends to burn your spirit a little bit more than anyone else's.

And so my core values, like one of my top core values is uncomfortable honesty. Ask anybody who works for me and they will tell you that's the way I row. I'm going to tell it like it is, but it's all in love. And part of the reason is that so much my life prior was impacted by deception. I was a prisoner of self-deception and others' deception. So one of my core values today flows out of one of my greatest weaknesses in the past. And then you have your past experiences. And you've got to think about like the timeline of you, the great stuff,

those moments where you sensed his presence in a very unique way, but honestly, you have to look at pain. You have to look at the suffering. And so past experiences, like I grew up in a home in the arts. My mother was a composer. My father was an actor. I was cast in like professional theater in middle school. And so like standing on the stage,

I've been doing this since I was 12. And so you can kind of start to see these glimpses of your past as how does it point toward your future. But then I think about addiction that I struggled with from the time that I was 8 to 30. And then where these converge, folks, where these three things have commonality, you can start to put together what God's unique purpose for your life is. Because most of the time that your past misery will become your future ministry. It just works that way. It's really easy to see it when you look backwards.

Like in the moment, it might be a little bit hard to see, but I can still remember, Cindy, maybe two years in to fighting for our marriage and just trying to rebuild trust. And I remember the first time we were sitting down with another couple as we were still in process. And just sharing our story. Not here's what we've conquered, but here's what we're walking through right now. And I remember they left inspired and encouraged and I left feeling alive. almost like maybe this is it.

And so my Cazone statement, my vision statement is simply this. It is to live free and lead others to freedom. Because you can't lead others to a place that you don't reside yourself. And so it just starts with my own freedom. That's my vision. What's yours? I believe most of you have enough information to start the process. process of piecing that together. And so as we start to break through this, this phase of certain

uncertainty, this is actually the next part where it gets a little bit hard and it is predictable resistance. You can bank on it. And so Genesis 37, notice 14 chapters, we're still on the first chapter. We're going to pick up some steam as we go. Genesis 37 verse 18. So when the brothers saw Joseph from a distance and before he came closer to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. They said to one another, here comes the dreamer. Watch out. Because the moment you start to let other people know that God's spoken into your life, you are going to see haters emerge. Look at what the brothers say. Here comes the dreamer. Now then, come, let's kill him. Let's throw him into the pits and will say a vicious animal devoured him.

And then we will see what becomes of his dreams. They're going to come. You just have to watch out for them. But Ruben, one of the brothers, who's a little bit more sensible, suggested maybe homicide isn't the best approach. And so Ruben heard this and rescued him out of their hand saying, let's not take his life.

Good job, Ruben. Then the brother said, shed no blood, throw him into this pit, though, in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him. Let me encourage you. When you decide to live a life driven by a dream that you still have yet to fully figure out, you are pre-deciding to step into a season, if not a life, of resistance. It's just a part of the deal. And honestly, the greatest things in your life,

your life are going to flow out of that struggle and out of that suffering. When you, when you pre-decide, it really feels more like a roller coaster, if you will. I listened to a sermon from John Mark Comer a couple months ago. He preached on this text and he made a statement that I thought was so true. He said, the theological template for every God-given dream is that it will be different than you think, it will be harder than you think, it will take longer than you think, but it will be infinitely better than you can imagine. Different, harder, longer, but way better, but way, way better. So he was sold as a slave to the Ishmaelahite traders who then sold him to this guy named Potipher. Potipher was like the head bodyguard.

the most powerful man's kingdom on the planet, Pharaoh, Egypt. And he gets into Potipher's house as a slave. And scripture says that the favor of God was on Joseph as a slave. So much though, Potiphar noticed and said, my house is now blessed because Joseph is here. So what does Potipher do? He puts him in charge of his entire estate. So you can almost get the sense that Joseph's like, okay, this is it. This is what the dream is about. And he puts him in charge of his whole estate. And then Potipher's wife has the hots for Joseph. Now, I don't know if that's the current phrase, have the hots for. She wanted to sleep with him. She propositioned a couple of times. He stiff-armed her. I'm not doing that to my master. She wrongfully accused him of sexual assault. And then look at what

scripture says. So Joseph's master, Potipher, took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined and there he was in prison. If you didn't get the memo, he's in prison. Predictable resistance is a roller coaster. One step forward, three steps back. Right. So he's in prison. But guess what? The hand of God is still on him. And the warden of the prison is like, man, this guy's awesome. And so he says, you know what? I'm going to put you in charge of the whole prison. You're going to actually run your fellow prisoners. And so he does. God's hand is on him. okay, this is it. This is the breakthrough. God, what are you going to do? Like, this is my dream. There's something with wheat's going to happen here. I don't know what. And then that didn't happen.

And then Pharaoh got super angry with two guys. The chief cup bear bodyguard guy and the baker. Like, what does a baker do to get thrown in prison? Like, that's kind of interesting to me. I guess a bad sourdough or something. I don't know. So they're in prison with Joseph. And then that both of them have dreams. And now the one who God gave a dream, he's now given the capacity to interpret other people's dreams. And it's like, okay, maybe this is it. Maybe this is the breakthrough. And in Genesis chapter 40, verse 21, scripture says that Pharaoh restored the chief cup bearer to his office and he put the cup into Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the baker. must have been a really bad loaf of something, right?

Just as Joseph had interpreted. All right, this is the breakthrough. Pharaoh's about to give him a promotion or something, right? Nope. Look at what scripture says. Yet the chief cup bearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him. One step forward. Let me just encourage you.

If you find yourself in this ebb and flow, this up and down of life, but you have a dream or a burden or a vision that is propelling and compelling, you, you are exactly where you need to be. This is just a part of the journey. The dream came when Joseph was 17 years old. We will not start seeing the fulfillment until age 30. Delay, uncertainty, resistance. And then Pharaoh has a dream. It's a little little bit, it's a little bit interesting. He had his dream about these weird looking cows. Some fat, some skinny coming out of a river. Interestingly, I had the exact dream in college. Like, almost, I'm just playing. Just playing. And so nobody can interpret this dream for him.

And so finally, the chief cup bear said, wait a second, there's a guy. There's a guy. got no idea what his name is. Pharaoh calls for him. Scripture said that he had to shave and change clothes. I'm guessing he was relatively nasty. And in Genesis 41, verse 15, scripture says, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I've had a dream, but no one can interpret it. But I've heard it said about you that when you hear it, you can interpret it. And so Joseph answers, listen to this. it has nothing to do with me. Remember the 17-year-old, daddy's favorite,

the guy that was tattling on his brothers that didn't know how to read the room and share this dream about everybody's going to be bowing down to him. You look at what happens to the context of suffering. This beautiful humility emerges. Pharaoh, it's not about me. I want to encourage you in a thought. One of the reasons that I believe that living with a sense of divine direction is so frustrating

is because if we are honest, we tend to write ourselves in as the main character of the dream. That somehow it's about you. Because this is what we saw in Joseph. Look how great I am. I got this coat with all these colors and nobody has it. and then a little bit of time in pain brings out a humility where we realize this is not about me. Pharaoh, this has nothing to do with me. He goes on to say that God will give Pharaoh.

God is going to give you an answer for his own good. And so now, Pharaoh, you should look for someone else, a man discerting and wise, a point him over the land of Egypt. Like, you need to find somebody with a resume. You graduated from the right universities. He's got a little bit of a skill set of helping preserve a region from an upcoming famine because that's really the interpretation of dream. There's going to be seven years of abundance, followed by seven years of earth-shattering famine.

Pharaoh, you need to go find somebody who's qualified. to lead Egypt through this. Pharaoh says to Joseph, can we find a man like this? In whom there is a divine spirit? So Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has informed you, so Pharaoh is not a follower of Jehovah God. He worships millions of gods. In fact, Egyptians would say that he himself is a God. And look at what he says. He said, since God singular, has informed you of all of this. There is no one as discerning and wise as you are. Joseph, I'm putting you in charge of my whole house and all my people. They shall be obedient only to you. Only in regards to the throne will I be greater than you.

Don't dismiss the power of the fuzziness, of the struggle. because it increases your capacity to be the person God's already hardwired into your spirit. And if you find yourself today in the fight, in the struggle, in the suffering, just know it is in growing your capacity to make an impact much greater tomorrow. And that leads us to our very last phase and it's uncommon clarity. The spirit prompts certain uncertainty, predictable resistance, and then an uncommon clarity. So Joseph executed the plan.

During the seasons of much, they stored and derived a plan for how to navigate the region through an upcoming famine. And the famine came, and people started coming from all over the region, selling things for grain so that they could survive. and two years into the famine, it was just a matter of time. The ones who threw him in the pit, who plotted homicide, sold him as a slave, would show up at the palace hungry. They didn't even know he was still alive.

But Joseph noticed them when they walked in. I want you to hear his heart. Genesis 45 verse 4. then Joseph said to his brothers please come closer to me and they came closer and they said I'm your brother Joseph whom you sold to Egypt don't be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here why for God sent me ahead don't you love that for God sent me ahead for the famine has been in the land these two years and there is still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. So, I'm going to say it again.

God sent me ahead of you to ensure a remnant on earth. I need you to remember that phrase. To ensure a remnant on earth and keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here, once again, but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord over all of his household and ruler over the land of Egypt. Uncommon clarity. This was what I was made for. The vision God has for you is not about you. A God-given vision does really two things.

It glorifies the giver of the dream and serves the purpose of heaven on earth through people. But while it is not about you, it can only be lived out by you. because you are a fingerprint. There is not another person on the planet wired like you. You're God's masterpiece. He forethought you with great design a long time ago.

And then the moment you said yes to Christ, for those of you that have, he made you new and imparted a purpose that he dreamed about a long time ago. What would happen if every single one of us had the courage and the perseverance to lead ourselves through the uncertainty and the struggle and live out every day with a sense of laser conviction. This is why I'm here. Interestingly, Joseph's really not a big deal after this. He's not really mentioned much again in the Bible.

His lineage didn't amount to much. but because of God's hand on him to preserve a remnant on earth. Remember? One of his brothers who survived because of his ability to feed the region was a guy named Judah, who would then begin the tribe of Judah, who 38 generations later would be born a baby, who would be referred to as the line.

of the tribe of Judah. And it puts into perspective when you look back through the span of time, when Joseph said, God sent me ahead to preserve a remnant and to bring about a great deliverance, he was not talking about his brothers. He was talking about his son of God.

And to bring about a deliverance, not of one of hunger, but a deliverance from sin. The lion of the tribe of Judah, His name is Jesus, and he is worthy of being worshipped in this place today. Before we close in prayer, God believes in you. He doesn't make mistakes. And he has a purpose for you, and he will give you everything you need to do what he has called you to do.

At all of our locations, let's pray together. Father, we pause just in the reminder of your goodness. And just the way you architect time and history, you use us almost like these chess pieces. God, to play our part that others will take that up and play their part later. And in an attitude of prayer today at all over locations, whether you know what your purpose is or not, my question for you is, at all over locations, how many you were saying, God, if you should show me, my answer is yes. I'm going to live that vision out for the rest of my life to the best of my ability. Raise your hand if that's you. My answer is yes. Hands everywhere. God, you see our hands

lifted, but really our hearts bowed in submission is what we're saying. And God, help us to put the pieces together of our past struggles, how you've gifted us, and the values that you've wired into our soul. And our answer, God, is yes. We will live out this calling to the best of our ability, but empowered by the Holy Spirit that resides inside each of us. As we continue to pray, I am marked by the commonalities in the words and the mission of Joseph and that of the Son of God. Joseph said that, don't feel bad that you sent me here. because it was God who sent me to save lives. Jesus hung on a cross,

looking at those who sin put him up there and said, forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing. The bad news, church, is that we have all sinned and fallen short of his standard. And that Paul spoke to the church in Rome that the penalty of sin is eternal separation from God. And you have to know that and you have to own it.

We do not deserve this gift of forgiveness and salvation. But scripture goes on to say, but the gift of God is eternal life. So what do you do? We said it earlier. We remember what we've done. We repent. And I'm going to ask you to respond. We repent of our sin.

We call the name of Jesus. And scripture says, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But it starts with us owning that we've blown it and we are in desperate need of a savior. So at all of our locations and at church online, you can just type it under this video below me. Say today I'm stepping across the line. I'm saying yes to the gift of God through Jesus. At all over campus, would you raise your hand? Those are you saying yes to the gift of God today.

Praise God for you. I see you. I got you. others of you. Hold that for a minute. I just want to see you. I just want to see you. Today I'm saying yes. At all of our churches together praying with those saying yes to Jesus, pray this prayer with me. Father, I need you. I've sinned. I'm asking you to save me. Jesus, I believe you died on a cross you didn't deserve to pay for my sin. And you rose from the grave to bring me life. Fill me now with your Holy Spirit, that I could serve you always. In Jesus' name, I pray. Can somebody make some

noise and celebrate the goodness of God's grace?