The opening session includes Rich Wilkerson Jr, Chad Veach, and Chris Durso.
They’re sharing on the process of developing your dream. How long dreams will take. And the temptations you will face.
Joseph was a dreamer. He shared his dreams with his brothers and his parents.
We see this in Genesis 37:2
Joseph, a young man of 17, was tending the flock with his brothers…
Three Things We Learned About Joseph
He’s 17 years old
He’s a shepherd
He’s a snitch
But really, there’s quite a bit we can learn from Joseph about dreams…
Dreams Take Time
Anything great that God wants to do takes time to develop
We often see a picture of the future. However, we don’t see the instant production of these results.
Think of the old 35mm cameras and the film that was used.
You would take a picture. Bring the film to the store for processing. The film goes into a dark room. Pictures are shipped back to the store.
Then, and only then, do you see the results of the pictures we have taken.
Isn’t that just like our dreams? We see glimpses. We believe we know what they’re going to produce. But dreams take time to develop.
3 Tests Joseph Faced
The Test Of Rejection – Joseph faced the rejection of his brothers. When he shared his dreams, this provoked the wrath of his brothers.
The results of Joseph sharing his dreams resulted in his brothers detesting him.
Millenials are so quick to share with others what God is saying to THEM.
This is much like Joseph. He brought HIS dream in front of his brothers. He strutted his future to his brothers. He made a spectacle out of what God had planned.
The crazy thing is that we don’t have to share all of the information we have about the future. Doing so can invite unwanted or unneeded rejection.
The rejection we face from sharing our dreams holds the possibility to knock us off track.
We take the rejection, which we shouldn’t have heard in the first place, to beat us down. And we give up on our God-given dreams.
If God said it, it’s going to happen.
The Test Of Temptation – Every day we will face the temptation of pride and sexual temptation. Just look at Joseph’s life.
He was faced first with the temptation to taunt his brothers. He failed here.
Next, he was tempted by Potifer’s wife. This woman wanted to sleep with Joseph, but he resisted her advances time and again.
Oftentime rejection turns out to be God’s direction
The Test Of Retribution – We see Joseph’s journey come full circle. As the famine spread through Egypt and the surrounding areas, people were getting desperate.
Jacob decided to send his sons to Egypt to see if they could get food. There, they run into Joseph.
Joseph was in a situation to extract retribution. His brothers were now bowing before him.
Rather, during this test of retribution, he chose to bless his brothers.
If you’re too big to serve, you’re too small to lead.
Are you willing to put yourself aside and pass the test of retribution?
3 Things About Temptation
There is always the temptation to indulge – We see things that always look good.
We are tempted to indulge in excessive food. We are tempted to indulge in improper relationships.
God has given you the ability to resist these temptations.
There is always the temptation to force the dream – We know the future that is waiting for us. We know it’s going to come.
We don’t know when and we are tempted to force the dream to come early.
Joseph fought this by doing what needed to be done where he was. He served Potifer. He served the pharaoh.
He took the time to develop the dream and it paid off.
The temptation to quit – Joseph could have quit. He had lots of troubled times. But he didn’t.
He persevered because he knew the DREAM.
Imagine if he had quit.
He could have quit when his brothers tossed him in the pit. Joseph could have quit when he was in prison. He could have quit when Potifer’s wife tempted him.
He didn’t. And you don’t have to either.
We don’t lose young people to the temptation of sin. We lose them to the temptation of quitting.
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