Dreaming With God

Let the angels sing the words that brought an

offering. Peace on earth began in Bethlehem.

Oh, yeah. was in my early 20s I had a child who

was about a year old I was not married I was

living with my girlfriend I was not engaged and

we slept together in the same bed and we fought

a lot a lot of issues that kind of thing we were

working our way through what it means to kind

of like have two separate incomes and two separate

ideas of how to spend money and two separate

sets of debts. My debts were far worse than hers.

And one morning, I woke up and she was gone.

She'd gone to work. And I realized at that moment

that I didn't want to live the rest of my life

without her. It's on. Trust me. It's not on.

It says it's on. It's definitely going to sound

better. Got it now? All right. So I realized

at that moment when I woke up and she was gone

that I didn't want to live the rest of my life

without her. And from that moment on, I purposed

that I would ask her to marry me. I was pretty

cowardly back then, and I didn't really know

what the results were. So I kind of probed it

and talked about it. She talked about it before,

about being willing to get married, that kind

of thing. And as I was writing this message,

I realize now that I've told that story that

I just told to you probably a dozen times. I've

told it a lot of times in marriage Bible study.

I've told it a lot of times in a private counseling

session, private discussion about relationships

and things like that. And I realize now that

I miss an important part when I tell that story

because as I was preparing this message, I was

thinking about dreams. And the message is about

dreams. We're going to talk about what dreams

are and what they can be. And I realize now that

the night that I woke up that day and said, I

don't ever want to live without her, that right

before I woke up, I had a dream. Now, all these

years, I'd forgotten about the dream. I remembered

the not wanting to be without her, being willing

to get married, that kind of thing. But I had

forgotten the dream. And then as I was preparing

this message, the Lord brought it back to me.

In my dream that night, I was living my life

without. my girlfriend who would become my fiance,

who would become my wife. And I was going about

my daily life, working, doing various things,

and she never came into the dream. That's all

it was. She was just absent from the dream. That

was it. And when I woke up, I realized that I

didn't want her absent from my life. What I want

to say to you is that The dream that took place

right before I woke up was probably more important

than the realization that I wanted to have her

as my wife. In Matthew 2, verse 12, it says,

Matthew 2:12

And having been warmed by God in a dream not

to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own

country by another way. In Matthew 1 .20, an

angel visits Joseph in his dream and tells him

that it's okay to go ahead and take Mary as his

wife. In Matthew 2 .20, He is later warned not

to take his family and flee because they will

seek the death of the child. It's not just there.

It's not just Joseph. It's pretty important that

it was about Jesus. It's pretty important that

it was about saving the baby Jesus, about carrying

out God's plan. Those things are all pretty important.

But actually, if you look in the Bible, you'll

find lots of opportunities, lots of times where

God spoke to people in dreams. There's the dream

to Abimelech. In Genesis 20, where God warns

King Abimelech through a dream not to touch Sarah,

who is Abraham's wife, even though Sarah and

Abraham lied to him and said that Sarah was Abraham's

sister, when she was, in fact, his half -sister,

not by the same parent or set of parents. The

dream of Abimelech is an example of a dream that

went to a man who was clearly not a Christian,

and he had to make a decision to do the right

thing. There's a dream... To Jacob, we studied

this on a Tuesday night recently. In Genesis

28, Jacob is fleeing from his brother Esau. He

lays down on a rock for a pillow. And as he's

laying there, he has a dream of a ladder reaching

to heaven and angels ascending and descending.

And then after the dream, God reaffirms his covenant

to Jacob and names him Israel. That's clearly

a dream to a non -Christian. Joseph, throughout

history, starts with dreams about his brothers

represented by... sheaves of wheat all bowing

down to him. They get mad at him. They sell him

into slavery, and he becomes the dream interpreter.

He first interprets dreams for some men who are

in prison. One, he says, well, you're going to

go back and serve Pharaoh. The other says, Pharaoh's

going to take your head. And both of those things

come true. Later, he's called to interpret Pharaoh's

dreams, and he interprets those dreams and becomes

second man in all of Egypt. Through that plan,

God saves his entire family as they come to Egypt

and get food to eat when there's a terrible famine

going on in the land. And they ultimately move

into the land of Goshen where they will stay

for over 400 years until long later under a pharaoh

who doesn't remember all that Joseph did for

Egypt. They are harshly enslaved and God calls

his people out of that. The prophet Daniel interprets

dreams on more than one occasion. And then we

get into the New Testament and we see the dream

of the Magi, the dream of Joseph. And let us

not forget the dream of Pilate's wife when Pilate

is actually sort of holding Jesus on trial and

deciding what to do with him, Pilate's wife says,

don't have anything to do with this righteous

man. I have suffered much in a dream today because

of him. And she warns Pilate not to go ahead

with the crucifixion, and yet they do. And then

still later in Acts 16, Paul has a, quote, a

vision at night. He has a vision at night of

a man in Macedonia pleading for help. We believe

that it's entirely possible that that man, or

at least out of that going to that man, comes

Luke. who then writes the book of Luke and Acts.

The vision at night led Paul to travel to Europe

to spread the gospel. So here is my question.

Might God speak to you in a dream? The answer,

of course, is yes, because God can do anything

he wants. All things are possible with God. But

is it more likely that God will speak to you

in a dream than that he will not speak to you

in a dream? God is the same yesterday, today,

and tomorrow. He has spoken to non -Christians

and Christians in dreams. So why would he not

speak to you or to me in a dream? The answer

is, of course, he would and he could. The question

is, is there enough room in your dreams for God

to do so? Is there enough room in your dreams

for God to speak to you in a dream? The things

that we focus on all day fill up our dreams.

We dream about a new job, a different situation,

a stressful problem that we're having at work,

etc. Our subconscious mind burns off stress from

the things that we experience all day long, and

that's what you encounter as you dream. The things

that you focus on all day fill up your dreams,

and our subconscious mind works through them

and deals with the stress so we can be healthy.

Now, the truth is you don't remember much of

what you dream. And if it is resolved in your

dream, in other words, it has come to completion,

then when you awake, a lot of times you'll not

remember it. So if you move past the REM state,

that's where you have a lot of your dreams, the

REM state or stage one sleep are the two places

that we dream. And if you move past the dream

out of REM state into another stage of sleep,

then when you awaken, you most likely will not

remember the dream. There's a lot of people say,

I don't dream. Let's take a survey. In this room,

if you would say you don't dream, raise your

hand. You say, I don't have dreams. I see one.

One person, two people. You say, I don't have

dreams. When I'm sleeping, three people, four

people. Okay. So scientifically speaking, it's

been pretty much proven that roughly 2 % of people

don't dream. A lot of people think they don't

dream, but the reality is they do. but they don't

remember their dreams when they awake. Dreams

are a cleansing process of your subconscious

mind. So you have them, but you complete them.

If you think you don't dream, 98 % likely you

are a person who completes their dreams. And

then it being completed or resolved when you

awaken, you don't remember it. Which is a problem,

because if God gave you a message in a dream,

then odds are when you awaken, you would not

remember the dream. That's the problem. But it's

not that you would not have the dream or that

you're not having the dream, at least most likely.

Rather, instead, you are dreaming and not remembering

what you dream. If God spoke to you in a dream,

could you discern it from the many other things

that are going on in your head? When you awaken

in the morning and go, oh, I got to rush. I got

to do this. I got to do that. I've got my routine.

I got to make my coffee or get my breakfast or

jump in the car, drive to work. Oh, am I late?

I got to check my watch first thing. When you're

doing all of those things in the morning that

you do when you first wake up, could you remember

and discern that there was a message from God?

I submit to you, for those of you who say you

never dream, probably not. For those of you who

say you dream but you hardly ever remember your

dreams, you know you have in the past, but you

don't usually remember them. Probably not. If

you don't remember the dream, how would you possibly

discern it as a vision from God? Does God speak?

Well, if you're a Christian, you better be able

to say yes. If you're sitting here under teaching

and in his word today, then you know that he

speaks through his word. That's like the minimum.

But does he speak to people's hearts? According

to the Bible, the Holy Spirit will come and he

will teach us or explain to us all things that

Jesus laid out for us. So based on that one text

alone, God speaks to your heart through the Holy

Spirit. And I submit to you then, that is a thing

in your life. Notice that even with non -Christians,

the Holy Spirit would also come and convict all

men of their sin. So when someone is convicted,

they are feeling or sensing or hearing something.

That is a thing in their life. So God is at work

in people's lives, and he's speaking to us in

a variety of different ways. And so when you

go to sleep, your subconscious mind will address

the fact that throughout that day, you experienced

gravity, you got cold, you ate, you ate spicy

food, you had upset stomach or did not. You got

a job, got a promotion, lost a job, desired to

have another job, got stressed on your job, argued

with somebody, didn't argue with somebody. Your

subconscious mind will process all of that and

along with it process the fact that God has been

convicting you of your sin and if you're a believer,

talking to you in your heart. Does God speak?

Of course we know God speaks. Does he speak in

a variety of ways? Yes, he does. Does God care

about the daily events of our lives? We've seen

that at least three times and really hammered

it home on a Tuesday night a little over a month

ago about how God cares about our right now.

He cares about what you're going through, what

you're doing right now. If you're sitting there

tired today, God cares that while you're sitting

under the teaching of God's word, you're tired.

If you're in pain today, God cares that while

you're sitting under the teaching of God's word,

you're in pain. If you're understanding what

I'm saying, he cares that you understand it.

If you're not understanding, he cares that you're

not understanding. God cares about your right

now and the daily events of your lives. And he

is with us through those things. So if I have

a remembrance dream, a dream about myself walking

on the beach, and if I am walking on the beach

with Sherry, Sherry will be in my dream because

Sherry is on the beach with me. My ears hear

her sand crunching underneath her feet. My ears

hear her breath. I feel her hand. If I'm holding

her hand or she's holding onto my arm, I hear

the conversation that we are having. In the same

way, if you are dreaming, your subconscious is

going to process your dreams as if God were functioning

with you throughout the day. Because he is indeed

with you throughout the day. You feel his presence.

You hear his voice. You feel his conviction.

This is what Jesus died for. He didn't just die

to pay the price for our sins. He died for a

relationship with us in which we have a presence

with him and he has a presence with you. He wants

you with him for an eternity. He began that on

the cross long before you or I were ever born.

Then when you were born, he desired from the

moment you took your first breath to spend time

with you. And that's what he's doing. His presence

is with you. His presence is with you when you're

sleeping, when you're dreaming. So the question

is, how do we... become a people that receives

the messages of God and delivers them to people.

That's what a disciple is, right? A disciple

receives the messages of God through his work,

through his teaching, etc., and I submit to you

through dreams, and then delivers those messages

into the world. You follow? He delivers those

messages to people. That's what a disciple does.

In Job, the book of Job, in chapter 33, it says,

it's actually Elihu, which is my favorite guy,

because he's the only guy who kind of gets it

right. He comes and speaks to Job, When he speaks

to Job, he brings out God's wisdom into Job's

life. Remember, what was Job's one thing that

he was doing wrong? Does anybody remember? He's

only got one thing. What was it? He was alleging

that God was treating him unfairly or unjustly.

That was his one thing. And so the bottom line

is, Elihu's getting it right, and Elihu then

says this, Indeed, God speaks once or twice,

yet no one notices it. In a dream, a vision of

the night, when sound sleep falls on men while

they slumber in their beds, then he opens the

ears of men and seals their instruction, that

he may turn man aside from his conduct and keep

man from his pride. He keeps back his soul from

the pit and his life from passing over into Sheol,

which is representative of hell. You follow?

So what did he just say? He said, indeed, God

speaks. To those who are not hearing God, God

is speaking for sure. To lost people who do not

hear the voice of God, God is nonetheless still

speaking. Indeed, God speaks once or twice, yet

no one notices. In a dream, a vision of the night

when sound sleep falls on men while they slumber

in their beds. What did he just say? As he's

representing God to Job, he's saying that it

doesn't have to be a mystery. What God has to

say doesn't have to be a mystery. Instead, people

need to learn to listen to their dreams. Because

in that, God is speaking. God is speaking through

dreams, the word says. In Acts chapter 2, Peter

Acts 2 · chapter mention

is preaching at Pentecost. Do you know this story

at all? So they were kind of speaking what everybody

thought to be gibberish. And then all of a sudden,

everybody could understand their language. And

so whatever language they spoke, they could understand

what they were saying. And Peter gets up and

he speaks. It's in Acts chapter 2. And he quotes

Acts 2 · chapter mention

some very famous verses. From Joel chapter 2.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

Easy enough to remember. Acts chapter 2, Joel

Acts 2 · chapter mention Joel 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, right? And this is what it says in

the book of Joel. It will come about after this.

Pin that. It will come about after this. that

I will pour out my spirit on all mankind, and

your sons and daughters will prophecy. Your old

men will dream dreams. Your young men will see

visions. Even on the male and female servants,

I will pour out my spirit in those days. I will

display wonders in the sky and on the earth,

blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will

be turned into darkness and the moon into blood

before the great and awesome day of the Lord

comes. And it will come about that whoever calls

on the name of the Lord will be delivered. For

on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be

those who escape, as the Lord has said, even

among the survivors whom the Lord calls. So first

of all, before we go back to the beginning, it

says, And it will come about that whoever calls

on the name of the Lord will be delivered. And

I submit to you that that is in response to what?

In the verses that I just read to you, that I

just quoted, it is in response to what? It is

in response to this, that I will pour out my

Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters

will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams,

your young men will see visions. Even on male

and female servants, I will pour out my Spirit

in those days. He will display wonders. And then

it says, and it will come about that whoever

calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.

So the end of it is, people will be delivered.

Is that not what we desire? And when will people

be delivered? In response to people receiving

God's Holy Spirit and... receiving the dreams

and the visions and God pouring out his spirit.

That's when people will be delivered as they

cry out to the Lord. And it will come about that

whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be

delivered. So when will all of this happen? Verse

28 says, and it will come about after this. So

there's something right before verse 28 that

tells us what it is. And then verse 28 comes.

So Joel was saying this will happen and this

is when it will happen. This is how we can get

there. And Joel 2, verse 11 begins like this.

Joel 2:11

It says, In other words, rather than grieving

or mourning over the bad things you've done,

Correct your heart. Set your heart upon God's

way. Now return to the Lord your God, for he

is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger,

abounding in loving kindness and relenting of

evil. And then to 15, it says, blow a trumpet

in Zion. Consecrate a fast. A fast is when you

go without something for self -discipline or

to direct yourself to the right place or to entreat

God. Consecrate a fast. Proclaim a solemn assembly.

That's when we come together to worship God and

we take it seriously. Gather the people, sanctify

the congregation. That means to make holy, that

we do the right things. Assemble the elders,

gather the children and the nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the

bride out of her bridal chamber. Let the priests,

the Lord's ministers, weep between the porch

and the altar. And let them say, spare your people,

O Lord, and do not make your inheritance a reproach,

a byword among the nation. Why should they among

the people say, where is their God? In other

words, why should the world look at us and say,

where is the God of the Christians? And the answer

is they should not. Then the Lord will be zealous

for his land and will have pity on his people.

The Lord will answer and say to his people, behold,

I am going to send you grain, new wine and oil,

and you will be satisfied in full with them.

And I will never again make you a reproach among

the nations. And after all of that, what did

they do? What did God's people do? They came

together in a solemn assembly. They recognized

that following God is serious. This is big business.

This is more than money, more than sorrow, more

than pain, more than hurt, more than lostness,

more than all the world's struggles or everything

that you're facing. The most important thing

is turning to God. And when we make turning to

God the most important thing, more important

than your entertainment, more important than

your money, more important than your relationships,

and it's really turning to God and we do that.

Then, verse 28 says, then it will come about

after this that I will pour out my spirit on

all mankind. So you want to hear from your dreams?

Repent and take God seriously. You want to hear

from God daily all day long? Then focus on God

daily all day long. There are false dreams. That's

a real thing. Jeremiah 29. 8 and 9, it says,

for thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,

do not let your prophets who are in your midst

and your diviners deceive you and do not listen

to the dreams which they dream for they prophecy

falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them,

declares the Lord. Now that's interesting, isn't

it? Can you imagine that this is where we actually

live? This is the place at which we actually

live. The God of heaven who is with us and in

us and speaks to us on a daily basis. and speaks

to us in our dreams, we don't convey his message.

We don't tell others what they need to know.

We surely don't about our dreams because we're

not paying good attention and taking the steps

that we're going to talk about today on how to

hear from God in our dreams. So at the very least,

we're missing the communications of God in our

dreams, but then we're also missing the communications

of the pastor. And I'm not judging anyone or

whatever, but the pastor stands up and preaches,

and this is the word of God. And how many of

you take the lightning point? And throughout

the week, share it with your family and your

friends or whatever who are in different churches

or don't go to church at all. How many of you

put it on your Facebook page or your Instagram?

Now, we've got pictures of people standing in

the mirror because they're cute, but nothing

about God's word. I know, because I've been on

there. I see what we post. So the question is,

why do we not take the message of God and deliver

them? And here's the amazing thing. This is what

this verse tells us that's truly amazing, is

that the lost people who do not know God will

convey the message that they say are from God.

And as believers in God, walking with God in

the presence of God, we need to know enough not

to listen to what they say. In fact, to refute

it because they are not sent of God. So you've

got lost people out there that are winning thousands

of sheep and seating 10 ,000 people in their

quote unquote church building this Sunday. And

you've got people who truly follow the Lord and

have the Holy Spirit and teaching the word of

God. And the people that are sitting in the 10

,000 people churches, they will not hear it.

Not only would they not hear it because they

are sold out on their guy. But on top of that.

They won't hear it because the people who are

truly hearing from the Lord aren't delivering

it. And we're supposed to not hear it from those

who are of the world, but rather hear it from

the Lord and then deliver it. If God did not

send them, they came as an enemy. This is especially

true because they were claiming to come from

God. Now I ask you again, is there room in your

dreams for God to speak to you? These are the

conclusions. If you go through the Bible, and

this is what's called a topical sermon at this

point, if you go through the Bible and you kind

of wrap it all together, these are the conclusions

that we come up with. When God's Spirit is present

among people, they dream. Dreams that mean more

than just cleansing of the subconscious mind.

Sleep, then, for us, becomes like going to class

or going to worship, going to Bible study. You

have a responsibility when you lay down to sleep

to be prepared. The next time you're nodding

off, I want you to hear my voice saying to you,

the phone is ringing. The next time you're drowsy

and you start to go to sleep, I want you to hear

the phone is ringing. God is calling. All day

long, every day, God is with you. But we get

this idea that we go to, I'm tired now. I'm going

to push it as late as I can or I'm going to do

the things I have to. I'm so fatigued. I'm so

tired. And I go out like a light and I don't

remember a thing and I wake up 8 to 10 hours

later. That is not how you are supposed to sleep.

You need to prepare yourself so that when you

go to sleep, you realize you are about to block

out eight hours of time to rest your physical

body. But your soul doesn't need rest. While

you are sleeping, your soul, it doesn't have

muscles to regenerate or cells to cleanse so

those cells can put out their feces and it goes

into your blood, which goes into your kidneys,

which in the morning when you get up, you've

got to go pee. Your body needs that. Your soul

communes with God while you're sleeping. And

if you go to sleep so sleeping that you're going

to sleep so deeply that you're not going to be

able to remember anything when you wake up, then

you have a problem. You need to go to sleep prepared,

just like you're supposed to come to worship

prepared. Did you pray before you came in? Did

you study your Bible yesterday? Did you think

about what God's doing in your life and how it

might relate to this? Did you have a bizarre

dream this week and go, hey, I wonder what that

means? And now Pastor Dan's preaching on dreaming.

Or you may tonight. If you go to sleep the way

you normally come to worship, you're going to

be unprepared because most Christians come to

worship unprepared. We come into the presence

of a holy God in worship or with the body, and

instead, we're not ready. We're not excited.

We're not expecting. And that's the next thing.

We come prepared into the presence of the Lord.

We come expecting. You should go to sleep expecting

that God may deliver a message to you while you're

sleeping. And your subconscious mind will go,

hey, something might happen while I'm sleeping.

And it stays awake. So here's the problem. Your

subconscious mind essentially only has short

-term memory capability. So you remember it maybe

when you first wake up. Maybe. But it lasts for

about 30 seconds. Now, if you can take a thing

and ingrain it in your subconscious mind, it

becomes like programming. If your subconscious

mind will attach to something, it becomes part

of essentially who you are, at least in your

thought processes. For example... When you sit

down on your couch and have nothing else to do,

do you look for the remote? Why do you do that?

Why do we sit down on the couch and if there's

nothing else going on, we're not busy? First

thing we do is look for where the remote is or

reach for the remote. Why do you do that? Because

it's become ingrained in your subconscious to

do that. It's a muscle memory. When you step

up to back, do you tip on your toe? They call

it testing the water in preparation to swing.

Why do you do that every time? Because somewhere

along the line, you learn to do that and it became

ingrained. And it's not just muscle memory. It's

in your subconscious. And so you do it. And now

you do it without even thinking. And you need

to come to the point where you go to sleep prepared

and expecting without having to go out of your

way. But until you do that, you need to start

going out of your way. You have to start preparing.

So I do Bible study first thing every morning

when I get up. Praise the Lord. God convicted

me of that. I started doing that. And for 25

years, I was a Christian and I didn't do it.

And then I started doing it. And now it's becoming

a habit. Praise the Lord. Right. I want it to

be a habit. And I'm not saying you have to do

that, but it is a way of saying, OK, Lord, we're

in community here. We're talking you and I together.

What do you got to say? And now sometimes I reach

for my Bible and I'm thinking about my dream.

And amazingly enough, because I don't do any

certain Bible study, I go anywhere in the Bible

and that verse will relate to something I dreamed

about. You think God did that? Is God speaking?

Yes. You need to be prepared. What about when

you go to sleep? Who reads their Bible? The last

thing before they go to sleep. reading is one

of the best things you can do the last thing

before you go to sleep because it relaxes your

whole body right so you read and then what if

you read your bible people say well read my bible

it probably will put me to sleep because i'll

be reading things i already know yeah and then

you go to sleep and your conscious and subconscious

mind your consciousness is drifting off and your

subconscious mind latches on to what you just

read you understand that in this way you could

literally ask god god questions while you're

sleeping you could be laying down at night going

lord you know have you ever uh Have you ever

told me exactly what to do with this problem

that I'm facing? And you're praying as you're

going down to sleep and you're reading your Bible

and it says Jeremiah 29. Oh, I know the plans

I have for you. And you go to sleep and you dream

about the plans that God has for you. And you

wake up in the morning and then you enact a process

where you discern what was God saying? What am

I supposed to do about it? What does it matter?

But we're not preparing to go to sleep. We're

not coming expecting. And we're not engaging

the material that God gives us. For those of

you who think you're having dreams and God's

trying to communicate to you, you should be taking

notes. First thing when you wake up. Why? Because

your subconscious mind will only leave it for

a very short time. A number of times I've woke

up in the morning, had a dream, a new God communicated

to me in the dream. At least a half dozen times

this has happened to me. And I didn't take any

notes. And I lay there. And I repeated an outline

of the dream over and over and over in my head

like 10 or 20 times. Memorizing the dream. Like,

I don't want to forget this dream. I don't have

anything to write it down. But I don't want to

forget this. I don't want to forget this dream.

And I went, this happened. And this happened.

And this happened. And this was yellow in the

dream. And this happened. And this happened.

And I went over and over in my mind 10, 12, 15

times. And I'm not going to forget it. And by

lunchtime, it was gone. Couldn't remember it.

That's happened at least a half dozen times.

Because the battlefield is in your subconscious

mind while you're sleeping. And when you awaken,

you can tell yourself you're not going to forget

it, but you know better, you're going to forget

it. So take notes. What about the sermon? God

might speak to you sometime in this half an hour,

something seriously important that you need to

realize that the Holy Spirit might convict you

of something you're not doing. Or author in you

something new to do that you've never thought

of doing before. Just as when I was preparing

this message, I remembered that dream. That for

25 years, I've recounted that story over and

over again. And I had forgotten that it was a

dream that precipitated those emotions. I thought

it was I just woke up and she wasn't there. But

in reality, it was the dream when I dreamt my

normal life. She had gotten up and gone to work

before me a number of times previously. So I

woke up, let's say, 50 times and she wasn't there.

But on the 51st time, just magically, for some

reason, it really bothered me that she wasn't

there. No, it was the dream. The dream caused

me to realize I did not want to live my life

without her and started me on the path that I

needed to be on. You've got to engage the material.

Take notes if you're having dreams you think

might be from God. Dictate them if you can't

write. By the way, I found that I have a hard

time writing them down fast enough. And so I'll

use voice -to -text or voice -to -audio on my

phone or voice -to -email. You can do it in Google

Drive. You can do it in a document. You can do

it anywhere. And just push the button. And it

listens to your voice, and you start talking.

Just make sure it doesn't turn off while you're

talking. You can talk the whole dream out into

an electronic device, and then it'll be wrong.

There'll be little bits of things that are wrong,

but you won't forget. You'll be able to fix those

little things because you've got it all in there.

You can have a micro... cassette recorder next

to your bed. Turn it on and talk. What happened

in your dream? Whatever. You won't be able to

determine whether or not the dream is from God

or whether it says something to you unless you

can remember it. You have to start by remembering

it. Take notes. The sermon is the same way. Bible

study is the same way. You need to take notes.

Dictate. And then you need to prayerfully consider

what it was you looked at because it could be

a vision from the enemy rather than a vision

from God. You've got to figure that out. or your

flesh will want to interpret it a certain way.

You know how many times I've had a dream, I woke

up in the morning and I went, oh, God's giving

me a pat on the back, I'm doing right. And then

I got to thinking about it, but wait a minute,

because actually, in my dream I was doing this,

but in real life that's not what I do. Oh, God's

telling me, and that is what's biblical. God's

pointing out to me that I'm not doing what I

should be doing, so now I've got to go, okay,

I've got to repent and turn to God. More often

than not, if God's showing you how you're supposed

to behave, probably then it's something you're

not doing. Because we're not perfect. We don't

get it right. God can teach us. But we're right

now dismissing, as we're living, we're dismissing

33 % of the teaching time. Because you sleep

about eight hours a day on average. Let's say

you only sleep six or four. If you slept four,

you're dismissing 17 % of the sleeping time.

And the sleeping time is part of your life. 17

% of your life is if it's only four hours and

you're not preparing to hear from God. So for

that four hours, you're just sleeping. That's

it. I don't listen to God. No, that is not what

we're supposed to do. God is speaking all the

time during that time. Take notes, dictate it

to yourself, prayerfully consider everything

that might be in there that God is saying, and

if it's maybe not from God, or are you understanding

it? And then seek wise counsel. I had a dream.

I think this is what it meant. Do you think that's

what it meant? Or I had a dream. What do you

think that means? All the time in the Bible,

that's what they do almost every time. They say,

what am I supposed to do about this? And then

they figure out what to do and they do it. Document

whatever you can to secure retention. God is

speaking to you in your dreams. I didn't say

it. Elihu said it. And he got everything else

right, he said. And I believe he got that right

too. Also, discern with prayer, scripture, and

counsel what your regenerated heart already knows

of God. You've already been learning something.

God's already been speaking to you. He's already

set you on a path. Yesterday he said. Yesterday

he did. Yesterday I saw. Now I go to sleep and

I'm dreaming and I'm thinking about this. And

it might be that your dream actually becomes

your interpretation of an event that you saw

in your life if you'll be responsible with your

regenerated heart. And don't trivialize or seek

to escape the implications for yourself. In other

words, no big deal, just a dream. Listen to me.

You have never in your life, not once ever, had

a dream that you should have said, I'm just going

to forget it. It's worthless. Ever. It's either

a message from God, a message from an enemy,

and we know what we do with those. You still

learn from messages from the enemy. You just

learn the other way, right? Or it's you, your

flesh, or something in your life that's affecting

your dreams. That last one is probably the worst

thing. Those things we just write off. We're

like, that's okay. It's fine. No big deal. I

dreamt about playing a video game. I do that

all the time. If you're dreaming about playing

video games, you should stop playing video games.

Because you are blocking out God's ability to

speak with you by filling your subconscious with

playing video games. Unless, of course, your

dream was you're playing video games and God's

speaking to you while you're playing video games

or you're seeing something in the video game

that's speaking to your heart or whatever and

God's using that. But if you're regularly dreaming

about anything in your life, boys, girls, sex,

movies, anything like that, if you're regularly

dreaming about something and it's filling your

mind, then you have to ask yourself, can God

use that to speak to me? And if not, I need to

repent of that thing. And get to dreaming about

what God wants me to dream about. Get to listening

to God. We're cleansing our minds so much because

we're filling our minds so much with stuff that

doesn't need to be there. We should be open to

hearing what it is that God has us to hear and

not trivialize any dream ever. or seek to escape

the implications of a dream. In my dream, I did

something. I would never do that. If in your

dream you did something and you would never do

it, then there's a couple of immediate questions.

One is, would I actually ever do that? Are there

any circumstances? I'm appalled at my actions

in my dream. Would I ever actually do that? When

I was young, married, first five years, whatever,

I used to dream about being with other women.

I was unsaved. After I got saved, I realized

that's an inappropriate dream. Why am I having

that dream? And I repented. Remember, that's

how we got where we are. How do you get to the

point where you can hear your dreams? You repent.

You turn to God. So I turned to God. I said,

okay, God, why is this happening? And I said,

that's never going to happen. I'm never going

to allow that to happen, right? I'm going to

ask him, right? That's never going to happen,

right? And God said, that's never going to happen.

And some point in time, about 20 years ago, I

became holy and completely dedicated to my wife.

And I don't know how, but I got to the point

where I literally never, even if my wife would

do something that I find to be an atrocity, I

never have bad feelings or bad emotions about

her. We are becoming one person. Do you understand?

And until you do that, you have to address the

things that take place in your dreams. They're

real for a reason. We're all blowing them off

thinking it's no big deal. And believe me, the

psychosocial scientific world, that's what they

want you to do. They want you to think it's just

dreams and it's no big deal. You can't control

what you dream about. It doesn't matter what

you dream about. You can't do anything about

what you dream about after the fact. Yeah, and

they're the same ones that teach you that there

is no God. You don't listen to them when they

say there is no God. So why do you listen to

them when they tell you that your dreams are

no big deal? Does that make any sense? So now

we're going to be taught by the world how to

handle our dreams instead of taught by God who

says that he speaks to us in our dreams? The

answer is we should be preparing. We should come

expecting. We should engage in the material.

We should discern with prayer, scripture, and

counsel with our regenerated heart about what

we already know about God. And we should not

trivialize or seek to escape the implications

of the dream for ourselves. And this next one

will convict you probably. It does me. You should

get there on time or early. but not too early

or for the wrong reasons. Church starts at 1130.

You should not get here at 1130 because starting

at 1130, we are worshiping the holy God of the

universe. So you should be here by 1115 or whatever

it takes for you to be here and be ready. And

that's why some of the young people, teenagers

are in the room at 1133, they feel compelled

that they have to tell their neighbor about something

they did last night and they can't focus on worship

because they didn't get here in time to get ready

for worship. And it's not just them, it's us

too. And not just worship. It's going to bed.

You should go to bed early because guess who's

going to be there when you get there? God speaking

to you. Turn the TV off. Put the book down. If

it's not the Bible especially. Turn the TV off.

Put the book down. Stop playing the games. Stop

eating snacks 20 minutes before you go to bed.

Focus on your time with the Lord that starts

when your eyes go shut and you fall asleep. That's

an important time. Just the same as this is an

important time. In fact, maybe even more important

because it's just you and God and evil spirits,

demons and angels. It's just the spiritual realm,

right? If the room is cold, your body will feel

it, but it probably won't greatly change the

context of your dream. The point is this. We

should get there on time or early, but not too

early, right? Because too much sleep, too much

rest brings about destruction for a man and not

for the wrong reasons, right? So how many people

run to their bed when they're upset? I'm not

saying anybody in this room does that, but some

people do that. Like I'm upset, I'm mad, I'm

sad, whatever, and they go run in their bed and

take a nap. They go lay down. Now there's anything

wrong with going and meeting with God, but they're

not going to meet with God in sleep. That's not

where they're going. They're going to get away

from everybody else or get away from the situation.

They're vacating the premises, so to speak. And

so if they were going there to meet with God,

they would start with prayer. And then if they

fell asleep, there'd be a chance that God could

speak to them about what they're going through,

but that's not what's going on. It needs to be.

So you get there on time and early, prepared,

expecting, engaged, discerning. Notice that missteps

are possible. And because missteps are possible,

people want to dismiss this whole thing. Pastor

Dan is telling us we can dream and hear from

God. And I have a pastor brother friend of mine

who would say that's not possible, even though

the word says it clearly. But he says if you

tell people that, they're going to go and try

to hear from God and do what it is that God wants

to do, and they're not qualified. That's called

sacerdotalism. The only people that are qualified

is the preacher who gets up to talk on Sunday.

That is wrong. I am not qualified to hear from

God because I am a preacher or a pastor. I am

qualified to hear from God because Jesus Christ

died on the cross for me and saved my soul. And

I turned to him and he sent his Holy Spirit.

And now I can hear from him. And if you have

not done those first five steps, then sure, you

may not hear from him or you may have significant

missteps. But the bottom line is if you will

listen to the God of the universe, you can do

what the God of the universe tells you to do.

You can become faithful and obedient. Romans

12 says you can know what is good and perfect

will is. Missteps are possible. False dreams,

false interpretations are possible. And we go

back to handling our dreams appropriately, being

prepared, coming, expecting, engaging the material,

discerning with prayer, getting there on time

and early and for the right reasons. As within

life, there are missteps. These missteps are

largely avoidable. You don't have to do that.

You can stop being taught by the world how to

dream or how to interpret your dreams or how

to understand what God is trying to do while

you're sleeping and be taught by the Bible and

today by me and today by the Holy Spirit for

our entire church how we can see and reason based

on what we have happening while we are sleeping.

The third thing to see is dreams. Dream communications

are not meant to substitute for his daily presence.

We have him with us daily. And that's where we

get our primary direction. You say, well, God

doesn't seem to be directing me. You need to

repent and turn to God. You say, I don't have

any real convictions of sin throughout the day.

Whenever I do something wrong, I don't really

feel anything. You need to repent and turn to

God. Because according to what we read and according

to what's true in Scripture, if you repent and

turn to God, God will fill you with his Holy

Spirit. And his Holy Spirit always has a certain

sort of feeling about sinful behavior that you

engage in. Now, if you chase him away, chase

him down deep, stop listening to him, tell him

to shut up, you probably won't have any feelings

for a while. But he's not going to be gone. He's

still there if you're truly saved. They are not

meant to substitute for his presence daily or

for his word in us. Read your Bible. Study and

grow. Dreams will never supplant that. You need

to know the word. And how are you going to test

your dreams by the word if you don't know the

word? Indeed, these dreams are an accompanying

feature. That's what we read. They are an accompanying

feature of his presence. And if you are living

with him throughout all the days, then you can

safely assume that he will be with you throughout

all of your dreams. They are a feature of his

presence and they occur with meaning, like we

are discussing, only after his presence is initiated

by him. The Pharaoh, Abimelech, all of them had

dreams. Abimelech was able to understand his

dream enough to say he was not going to take

Sarah. pharaoh couldn't even understand his dreams

when you hear joseph interpreting pharaoh's dreams

you go oh yeah duh that's what it makes that

makes sense it's radical to mobilize the entire

entire country for seven years to store up food

because we think there's gonna be seven years

of famine coming that's radical but it's clearly

what that dream could mean right that's an obvious

meaning and pharaoh couldn't figure that out

and so the point is these dreams are an accompanying

figure a feature of his presence and they occur

with meaning like we are discussing, so you can

understand them and act on them and do what you

want to do only after his presence is initiated

in us. If God is present in your dream, then

there is something that you can learn. If you

are sleeping with God in you, and if you are

a Christian, you are sleeping with God in you.

And if you are... then there is something in

your dreams that you can learn from. Our part

is clearly the repentance. It's just the turning

to God. The entire passage that I read from the

book of Joel, what did it say? Have a solemn

assembly, bring the entire family, everybody

get together, worship God. Yeah, it said all

of those things. holy is our God, and we must

wholly turn to this holy God. And when we do

that, his presence in us will be real, and he

will be real with us 24 hours a day. And when

you are in sin, he'll be there to convict you.

And when you're asleep, he'll be there to spend

your time sleeping with you. He will be there

if you've turned to the Lord. If you have sinned,

Maybe during this you've been convicted. I don't

come to worship right. I don't do this right.

I don't do that right. I stay up too late. I

spend too much time on certain pursuits, and

I don't really have room for God to speak to

me or train me or help me grow. Then you need

to repent and turn to God. If God is right now

saying to you there's something in your life

that needs to be cut out so you can follow him

and have this kind of a presence with him 24

hours a day, not just while you're wide awake

and studying your Bible, not just while you're

sitting in church being preached at or just while

you're singing worship songs, but 24 hours a

day. And if there's something in your life that's

interfering with that, then come. Cut it out.

Turn to God and say, that's got to go. And if

God wants to let it come back, then God will

let it come back. God will say, okay, now I want

you to take that thing up that you cut out of

your life and you're going to use it specifically

for me. I've had that happen to me a couple of

times in my life. I've said, no, you can't do

that anymore. That's just not going to be for

you anymore to do that. And then I'm like, okay,

God, as you say, as you wish, it's fine. I'm

moving forward without it. And then God said,

okay, now take that and use it this way. That

skill that you learned there, that ability that

you have, that talent that you picked up in that

hobby, now I want you to use it this way. And

if you can't use it for God, it doesn't belong.

Because if you can't use it for God and it is

in, then if it doesn't affect you throughout

the day, you say, well, I still read my Bible.

I still pray. Yeah, I'm on my phone five hours

a day, but I still pray. I still read my Bible.

I still do all of these things. And so, yes,

I'm still a Christian. I'm still following God.

But the problem is, eventually, you have to go

to sleep. And when you go to sleep and you dream,

what's going to be in your dreams? The little

bit of Bible that you read for seven minutes

today? The one and a half hours you spent in

a worship service? The one moment you spent counseling

with somebody as they ask you to pray for them?

If you spend exactly three hours a day with God,

focusing on God, serving God, looking to do what

God would have you to do, and 21 hours a day

doing what you want to do the rest of the time

so that you can call yourself a Christian, you

can guarantee while you sleep, if God speaks,

you're not going to hear him. Because your mind

is going to be busy dealing with all the other

15 hours that you were awake, not focused on

God. And that's the math of it. And that's where

we are. And as a people, I think we need to return

to God. And as a Christian people, the world

over, I think we need to return to God. We need

to repent and turn to God and say, there are

things in my life that are interfering. You say,

but they're not interfering. I'm still serving.

I'm still praying. I'm still worshiping. I'm

still giving. Yes, but how are you sleeping?

Well, I'm sleeping $7 or $8 a night. Yes. And

when's the last time you woke up and remembered

that God said that you're doing something in

a dream? Is your subconscious mind active with

all of those other activities that you're doing

that's not hearing from God so that when you

sleep, you dream, God speaks, but he can't be

heard over the roar of your subconscious mind

processing the things that you are doing on a

daily basis that have nothing to do with him?

You say, they're not sin. They're good things.

God gave them to me to enjoy. The Bible even

says that. Yes, okay, it's fine. How do you sleep?

Are you in community with God while you're sleeping?

Are you hearing from the Lord? You see why it's

so important now that day in and day out, we

make the choices that we make. You say, well,

I just made a little slip up. God repented. The

Bible says that if you repent, turn to God after

screwing up. 1 John, I think, 1 .9, right? He

is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse

you of all unrighteousness. So if you repented

and he forgave you, where's all that cleansing?

Why is that needed? Why do we need to be cleansed

if we were repented and forgiven? Because there

are impacts, there are things that happen after

you have sinned. You tell a lie, you repent,

and you're forgiven, right? You're going to go

to heaven, but you told a lie. It affected you.

Where did it affect you at? In your bicep? It

affected you in your heart. Okay, now that's

cleansed, forgiven. How about your mind? It affected

you in your mind. Is your mind cleansed completely?

No, we do that by the renewing of our mind over

a period of time. When is your mind renewed?

Most? While you're sleeping. So what does your

focus of sleep need to be? God. God has to be

your focus of sleep. I submit to you, go to sleep.

Your subconscious mind follows the Lord while

you're sleeping. It's attentive. It listens.

You wake up. You listen to what God said, the

time that you spent with him. If you have ignored

God while you were sleeping, even while you were

going to sleep, while you were walking, whatever

else you might have been doing when you were

waking up, repent and turn to God. If you have

taken your responsibility as a child of the king

lightly, repent and turn to God. If you have

never been a child of the king in truth, repent

and turn to God that you might be saved through

the sacrifice of Jesus into his lordship, which

includes while you're sleeping. I'm going to

close with an illustration. This morning I got

up. Something's totally written. Hadn't planned

on this illustration. I walk up into the couch

and Ariana's watching Right Now Media. The episode

that she's watching right now, Media, is about

Joseph. Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's dreams,

Joseph representing his family, Joseph forgiving

his brothers, you know, that kind of whole thing.

In the middle of that, there's an illustration.

You can go on there and watch it right now if

you want. I can't tell you what the program was,

but Ariana could. And there's a story. It's a

story about a boy. He goes sailing with his dad

in a pretty big sailing boat. And he's with his

dad, and he's up on the prow of the boat looking

out, and the wind's blowing in his face. You

know, like that Titanic thing, right? And the

wind's blowing. He's like, oh, happy. What a

beautiful day. And the sun's shining. Dad pulls

the boat out of the dock. Sail and boat starts

moving pretty good. And they're winding through

this river to get out. The dock is way back from

the shore. And he's winding through this river.

And it's a pretty scary river. And there are

branches hanging over. And you can see sandbars

and crocodiles and everything. And the boy is

terrified. He's scared. But all the while, the

dad just keeps steering the boat, tending the

sails. Steering the boat, tending the sails.

And he navigates the river. Pretty soon, he's

out onto the water. And it's a big wide open

sea, and there's no land in sight. If the boat

goes down, the boy's scared. He's like, oh, man,

what's going to happen here? There's no land

in sight. We're so far from anywhere. What if

the boat breaks down and something happens? We'll

be stuck out here, and he's terrified. But his

dad just keeps steering the boat and tending

the sails, steering the boat and tending the

sails. And they're fine. And then a terrible

storm comes up, and the waves get high. Over

half the keel of the boat. Over half the length

of the boat. The waves are up and down. And the

boat's crashing down in a huge splash. And the

boy's soaked. Lightning flashes and thunder roars.

And his ears are ringing. And he's terrified.

He's terrified. And his dad just keeps steering

the boat and tending the sails. Steering the

boat and tending the sails. And what the boy

doesn't know is that the dad has a ton of experience.

He's been in storms before. He's been in twisty

waves before. He's been in open water before.

He's seen it all. He's done it all. He's been

there. The dad is steering the boat and tending

the sails. And the boy is terrified because he's

learning to trust his dad. His dad comes forward

while he's tending to take a little break from

tending the sails. Say, okay, hold on. Slow down.

Everything's fine. I'm tending the sails. I've

been through this before. Everything's going

to be fine. And that's what everybody wants.

Everybody wants that peace. They want that feeling,

that joy, that they can do whatever they want

and God's got the wheel. And when it's like that,

God's going to have to take you into the narrow

ways or the crazy storms to get you to trust

him. And you've got 16 hours a day of waking

time to willingly decide, okay, Lord, if you

want me to go left, I'll go left. If you want

me to go right, I'll go right. If you want me

to go into the storm, I'll go into the storm.

I trust you because I know. You can see it all.

You can do it all. Everything is possible with

God, like Mary said. But you've got eight hours

a day that you've not been using. And this sermon

is giving us back those eight hours. We need

to prepare ourselves for sleep. We need to expect

God to speak in our sleep. We need to be ready

to write down whatever he says or ready to somehow

or other record it so we can remember it. And

then we need to learn from it. If you need to

ask others for counsel, what does it mean? If

you've got an idea, but you want to run it by

somebody else, do that. Pray and say, God, what

is it? And God will say, well, it's this. So

it was blue because of that, or it was big because

of that. Today, I picked up three dream journal

entries. Two of them are in a spiral notebook

that I've been carrying around recently. One

of them is in an old black journal that I had.

And I read them all. And now I can look back

and go, oh, I think I see what God was trying

to say then. But I hadn't done the work. This

is not just for me. It's for all of us. And it's

not even just dreams. Visions are on the table

as well. While you're awake, daydreaming. Your

daydreams. If your daydreams are about things

that you're doing and not things about God, you're

wasting your daydreams. I'm asking you to become

men and women who are focused on God, repent,

realize He is holy, turn to God, do the things

He would have you to do, cut out things that

interfere. I'm asking you to do nothing less

than dream the dreams of God. Interpret. those

dreams and live those dreams. And I'm saying

to you that this is what the Bible says we must

do. Something been missing in your life? Could

it be that God's been telling you what it is,

but you're not hearing him because he's telling

you while you're sleeping? If you're here today

and you need to repent, you need to turn to God,

you need to commit yourself to do something that

God would have you to do, whatever it is, this

is your opportunity as we sing this coming song.

I'm asking you. God is asking you. God is convicting

me in my spirit that I have not done. So I will

repent before you, even though I maybe have done

more in listening to God during my dreams than

others have. I have not done it right. And because

I have not, and because I have not taught this

in the 20 -some years, 25 years that I've been

preaching, because I have not taught this, I

know you have not heard it from me. It's time.

It's time we got back the hours while we were

sleeping and listened to the Lord. And it's going

to require some sacrifice in the hours while

we're awake. But for each hour you give up on

something that doesn't belong in your life, you

gain eight hours while you're sleeping. Not just

eight hours of rest, but eight hours of renewal

and communication with God. Would you stand with

me and sing this song? And then our services

will be through for the day. And I will ask you

to go forth and as you do rest, as you do sleep,

We need to be prepared to commune with God.