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Guest (Male): Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. To dream is the God-given ability to see what God wants you to do and then to do it in the power of the Holy Spirit. To see what God can do with a life that's yielded to him. Do you have a dream for your family? Is it a big dream? On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how to fulfill the dreams God's given you. Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, Keeping the Dreams Alive.

Jack Graham: I want to invite you to take God's word and turn with me to the 37th chapter of the Book of Genesis. You might call Joseph the most Christ-like man in the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, one Bible scholar suggested that there are 121 different ways in which Joseph can be compared to Jesus. It's an amazing study in and of itself. But certainly, Joseph is a man who loved his God, and as a result of his love for God, he was faithful through all of the generations of his life.

Now because it is our goal as believers in Christ to be like Jesus, we can learn a great deal from this model of a man, Joseph, who teaches us what it's like to live for Christ. One of the fascinating and intriguing aspects of Joseph's life is his character. It is a powerful study in character. That character will prevail, that character will endure. Horace Greely wrote that fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, riches take wing, and only character endures. And we watch as Joseph's character endures through tough times and the twists and the turns of his life.

The Billy Graham of the 19th century, a man known as D.L. Moody, is reported to have originated the quote, "Character is what you are in the dark." And during the dark days of Joseph's life, his character shone brightly. J.P. Morgan said that a man's best collateral is his character. And Joseph was a man of character. He was a godly man. He was a good man. Adversity couldn't destroy his character, and prosperity couldn't destroy his character. He's been called a man for all seasons, for publicly and privately, he was faithful.

And this story, the story of Joseph, is a powerful epic story. And truly, he's an amazing man, and this is an incredible story. And all of the elements of an epic, of a great story, are here in the story of Joseph. You see jealousy and hatred. You see love and forgiveness. You see fear. You see lust and seduction and all the rest. But through it all, his perseverance and his faith encourages us. His faith never wavered, nor did he ever compromise his convictions.

And so in the 37th chapter, we begin his story, verse 2. "This is the history of Jacob. Joseph being 17 years old was feeding the flock with his brothers, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report to them or of them to his father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a tunic of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him even more."

I want to speak to you on the subject, Keeping Your Dreams Alive. Because God has given a great dream. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, God has given you a great dream for your life. God wants to do something significant. God wants to do something amazing with your life as you share him and serve him in this generation. These are dark days and they are dangerous days. And God needs to give his people a vision, a dream as to how we can in the emergency and the urgency of these times, capture our cities, our country, our nation, our neighbors for Christ and the whole world to share the gospel.

And if we're going to do that, if we're going to keep our dream alive personally and corporately as the church, we first of all need to understand our own uniqueness. Now Joseph did that. He was unique. He was distinct. He was favored by his father. The son of his father's old age, his father was Jacob, his mother was Rachel. And he had ten brothers who hated him and despised him and couldn't speak kindly to him.

And part of the problem was this coat that he wore around. This many-colored coat, it was a tunic. It was a beautiful coat and actually, it was a sign of his father's love and the nobility and the royalty of his life. It was a coat of many colors. You know, you're a favored son of God if you're a christian. That God loves you and you are born into the royal family of God. You're a joint heir with Jesus and you wear the Lord Jesus Christ.

People today talk a great deal about finding themselves and a great deal of emphasis upon self and self-esteem, which often ends up being selfishness and selfish pursuits and ambitions. But the fact is that God for every Christian has given you a proper perspective of self. And a real perspective of self is that you understand who you are in Christ, and that you discover your value in Jesus Christ. It's been said many times that God doesn't love you because you're valuable, but you are valuable because God loves you.

And you are a favored son of God. I love the story of Martha Taft, who went to elementary school in Cincinnati, and she along with the other children were asked to introduce themselves. And she said, "My name is Martha Bowers Taft. My great-grandfather was President of the United States. My grandfather was a United States senator. My daddy is the ambassador to Ireland, and I am a brownie."

Now that's a little girl who knows who she is. And we need to know who we are in Christ. Now if anyone could have complained about his background, it could have been Joseph. His family, I mean, they put the fun back in dysfunctional. His brothers hated him. His father adored him and played favorites. He was considered by his brothers a snitch, as he gave an evil report of their life. Whatever they were doing, Joseph reported it because it insulted the spirit of God that was working in him. If anyone could have claimed that he had a bad start and a rough life and the choices he might make would be bad choices and evil choices, it could have been Joseph.

But Joseph rose above his family and his circumstances. He understood his own uniqueness. He was more than just a coat. He was a man of character. And they could strip Joseph of his coat, but they could never strip him of his character. He was not just like a lot of people who are sort of all showroom and no warehouse. He strutted his stuff. He wore that beautiful coat, but he had the character to back it up. He didn't walk around with a loser's limp either.

You know what a loser's limp is? It's a guy on the football field. He's one on one, man on man to make the tackle. He misses the tackle. So what does he do? He lays face-first on the grass. He's injured. And he gets up, drags himself off the field with a loser's limp. Now there are a lot of people who walk around with a loser's limp, making excuses about their past, about their circumstances. But if you are in Christ, the grace of God is greater than all of that. God is greater than all of that. And by the power of God, you can rise above any circumstance of your life. Some of you need to get over your past and get on with your life in Christ. Understand your uniqueness. But secondly, discover your dream. Now that's what Joseph did.

He had some dreams. And these dreams that he dreamed were portraits of his life. They were prophetic of his life and pivotal to his life. He was not simply daydreaming or fantasizing, but these dreams were given to him by God. He was a young man with a dream. And God showed him how he would rule one day. God showed him how he would be a powerful figure, and ultimately he was. He became the prime minister of Egypt.

Of course, we don't rely upon dreams today. We have a more sure revelation. We have the Word of God. We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit to lead us. Psalm 37 verse 4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. The dreams of your heart." As you open your life to him, as you delight in him, he will impart, implant in your heart these dreams. Do you have a great dream for your life?

There's an absence of dreamers today in the marketplace. I was reading just the other day, a man was writing. There are a lot of nuts and bolts people in business today. People who do exactly what they're told to do, exactly when they're told to do it, no more, no less. There are plenty of robots but precious few idea people. Then he writes, we need people with imagination, people who think over time, who find ways to make improvements or increase efficiency. We need dreamers, he was saying.

And what's true in the marketplace is certainly true in the ministry. It's true in the church. We need men and women who have a great vision, whether they're young or old. Because the Bible says old men shall dream dreams. Fairly often, I get calls from churches and pastor search committees asking me for recommendations for pastors of their church. And inevitably when I ask them, what are you looking for, what kind of person, what's the profile? At the top of the list, they say, we want a man of vision. Someone who sees the big picture and can lead our church to take our city for Christ.

I love the story that I read in Billy Graham's biography concerning the first time Ruth met Billy Graham or saw Billy Graham. She said that they were at Wheaton College, and here came this long, lanky young man bounding up and down the stairs like a bouncing ball of fire. And she said to one of her friends, "That's a man who knows where he's going." Many people think, seem to think that only the esoteric are to dream, that inventors and artists and composers and the like are dreamers. But if you're a Christian, keep dreaming.

Now what is your dream? To dream is the God-given ability to see what God wants you to do and then to do it in the power of the Holy Spirit. To see what God can do with a life that's yielded to him. Do you have a dream for your family? For your kids? Do you have a dream for your church? Is it a big dream? It's been said if God is in your plans, make big plans. Plan big. Now many people will try to destroy your dream and steal your dream. Joseph had his detractors for sure. His brothers despised his dreams, couldn't speak peaceably to him. "Here comes that dreamer." His own father rebuked him for his dreams. There will always be resistance if you have a great dream for God. I tell you how never to be criticized, and that's say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing. You'll never be criticized.

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Jack Graham: Understand your uniqueness, who you are in Christ. Discover your dream. Dare to dream. Develop your dream and dedicate yourself to fulfilling that dream. But along the way, you need to anticipate adversity, because there's no easy road to fulfilling your dream. Life can be difficult and it was for this man, Joseph. In fact, his difficulties really began when he began to dream. He was scorned, he was scoffed at. Ultimately, you may know the story. He was sold as a slave. He was dropped into a bottom of a pit, a cistern. He cried for mercy. His own brothers expressed their hatred, and his dreams hit the dirt.

And they could have died in that pit, but the dreams were still alive. He was sold as a slave. He rode off into the desert. Now remember, Joseph is just a 17-year-old boy going through all of this. I mean, we sit in comfort, many of us know the end of the story, but Joseph didn't know the end of the story. He was just a 17-year-old teenager. Man, at 17, I was just trying to learn how to tie my tie. Maybe my shoes. But he's going through all of these tough days. He rides out into the desert on the back of the camel, and he's facing the end, he thinks. Ultimately, he's thrown in jail. Potiphar's wife, his boss's wife, attempted to seduce him. He was tested in terms of his character, his purity. He was pure, but he was accused of rape, thrown in prison, forgotten in prison.

But the point is that through it all, there is a phrase that continues to show up in Joseph's life. It appears first in chapter 39 and verse 2. It's that phrase, "The Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. The Lord was with him." The big word we don't use it much today in our vocabulary is providence. Pro-video, to see beforehand. The big picture. And God sees that big picture. And God had a plan for his life. The Lord was with him. There were many times he could have quit. When his dreams turned to nightmares. He could have compromised his faith. But God was working in his life.

And when we get blindsided, when we bottom out in life, when we get knocked off our feet, we don't need to give up or to quit. But know that we advance through adversity. James said, count it all joy when you face trials of various kinds because your trials build you up in faith. Joseph somehow knew and believed that God was guiding and guarding and gracing his life all the way. That where God didn't rule, he overrules.

There's a favorite verse that many Christians have memorized. If you turn to it, you might have already marked it in your Bibles. There might even be a smudge or two on the page or a teardrop. That Romans 8 and verse 28. "For we know, we know that all things work together for the good to them who love the Lord, to those who are called according to his purpose." For we know this. Christians do not live by what they feel, but what we know to be true. We don't live by what they feel, how our emotions may lead us. We live by what we know. And what we know is that God is working creatively, constructively, continually in our lives for his glory and our good. That's what we know.

And the Romans 8:28 of the Old Testament is Genesis chapter 50 and verse 20. And here we see it in technicolor. When Joseph stands before his brothers at the end of the road, he is now the Prime Minister of Egypt. They think their life is finished because certainly he will judge them. He refused to judge them and ultimately he said, "What you did to me, selling me as a slave, leaving me for dead, what you did to me, you meant for evil. But God meant it for good." And what was true for Joseph is true for those who follow Jesus. God uses the pit and the desert and the tough times and the twist and turns of life to shape us. No doubt Joseph needed some rough edges knocked off. Maybe he was dealing with pride and cockiness and arrogance and God dealt with all of that in his life.

But through it all, he refused to bow down to bitterness and anger and resentment. He refused to quit. You know, we got too many Christians today, too many people today who want to quit at the first sign of an obstacle. The marriage gets tough, what do we do? I quit. We've got a lot of fair-weather Christians. The first sign of trouble, we quit. What's going to happen in your life when your child is sick? Are you going to quit? But what are you going to do now that your dream of your career may have died temporarily? Are you going to quit serving God? What's going to happen when someone insults you or says something about you for your faith in Christ? You going to quit? You're going to give up? A lot of you teenagers, you're going to just give up because somebody, quote, persecutes you or says something evil about you? Joseph didn't.

Joseph stayed with it. He didn't care what people said as long as he was faithful to God. And I believe that if we understand the promise and the purposes of God in our lives that he is working in us and through us, that his hand is invisible but it is invincible in moving us forward. That our dreams will stay alive and we'll take our dreams with us all the way to heaven and beyond. And that's our ultimate prayer and our ultimate dream is to take as many people with us to heaven as possible. Joseph. You know, this is a promise for believers. And if you're not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can't claim this promise that all things work together for good. As a matter of fact, all things don't work together for good. You might even say all things work together for bad to those who don't know the Lord and who are not following his purpose in their lives.

I mean even the good things work together for bad. There's a verse in the Bible says the plowing of the wicked is sin. I mean here's a guy just plowing ground, taking care of his crops, providing for his family. He's plowing a row, and yet the plowing of the wicked is sin. Why? Because outside of Christ everything we touch is tainted by sin. And everything's working together for bad. The good things as well as the bad things. That's why you need Jesus Christ in your life. That's why you need the one who gives us this promise, the Savior. Is God with you as God was with Joseph? He can be. He will be. If you invite him into your life. The one who died and rose again and who lives to live in you. Let this be God's promise and God's purpose to keep your dream alive. Because nothing can separate you from God's love and grace and hope. "I know the plans that I have for you. Plans not to hurt you or to harm you, but to give you a future and a hope."

Guest (Male): Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: You know, many great historical leaders faced incredible difficulties. But to achieve greatness, they pushed their way through overwhelming adversity before accomplishing their goals. For example, Abraham Lincoln. He endured constant failure and defeat through his life. He failed in business twice, and before becoming president, he ran for public office six times and lost all six times. He endured great pain through the death of a fiancée, and he had a nervous breakdown. In 1860, he was finally elected as our 16th president, and to this day, he will be remembered as one of our nation's greatest leaders.

You see, God had a plan for him, and no amount of failure would deny God's purpose in his life. As we saw in the life of Joseph, God can use failure or those seemingly endless periods of restlessness and waiting to produce in us the qualities that we need to achieve our goals. So when we pray for things, when we dream, we must be ready to accept the challenge, stay committed no matter what, no matter where the path may take us. We have to remember that God sees the whole picture and he knows what qualities and character we'll need to advance his kingdom. So when periods of struggle or doubt or just plain failure work against us, remember God is just preparing you for the next step, the next season of your life.

A book came out about Ronald Reagan's remarkable faith and optimism. It was called, appropriately, *The Hand of Providence*. And through story after story, the author tells how God used several different jobs and some long periods of what seemed like meaningless work to refine the man that would become one of our greatest presidents. In his latter years, Reagan remarked that he could look back over his life and see how clearly God had led him to his calling. Are you feeling a little bit daunted by the hurdles that stand in the way of your dream? Write down these scriptures that we looked at today in Genesis 37. Keep them there as a reminder that God uses all circumstances to refine us and build us up for the next phase of the journey of life. Dreams are a gift from our creator. Don't let obstacles get in the way of where you were meant to go.

Guest (Male): And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Jeremiah Johnston's book, *The Jesus Discoveries*. Just text JUNE to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about finding true success in the midst of your struggles. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.