Living the Dream

And I'm excited today to speak a message to you on the subject of living the dream.

One of the reasons I'm particularly excited is as I was in worship, I saw a picture, and it was of like the start of a running track, and I just felt the Lord gave me the phrase, new beginning.

And I felt for people all across Gateway and in all your campuses, this is going to be a day of new beginnings for many of you.

Some of you be on the journey for years, but the Lord said, See, I'm doing a new thing.

So with that as a kind of a prophetic uh undertone, let's look at this glorious subject of living the dream.

Here's the headline: God has an amazing dream or plan for your life.

And he wants you to dream the dream, but even more than that, he wants you to dream that dream and then live it for your good and for his glory.

And I want to use as a text today a focus on Joseph, Old Testament character Joseph.

What a great picture of somebody who not only dreamed the dream, but actually lived the dream.

The full story of Joseph is found in the Old Testament, but chapters 37 through chapter 50 of the book of Genesis.

And I know in the past you've done a great uh sermon series here at Gateway on that subject.

I've written a book on that subject.

It's kind of a life message with lots of sort of applications from the story called Living the Dream that you can get after the service.

But today, what we're gonna do is we're gonna do like a summary and an overview of the Joseph story, just as uh Stephen summarized the Joseph story in Acts chapter 7, verse 9 to 10.

Acts 7:9–10

Let me read you this summary of the Joseph story.

It says, These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt.

But God, say but God.

But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles, and God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace.

I love the story of Joseph because it applies at a number of levels.

It's very much a story about an individual, so it's someone we can relate to.

It's not just a story, uh it's actually not a story about a church leader, it's a story about a marketplace leader, somebody who ends up in a high position of government.

But today, for those of us who are in Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ, I believe the Joseph story is a picture of what God wants to do for his church all across the world, including even more in and through Gateway Church.

He wants to lift us up to be like a Joseph company who will open the storehouses of his grace and bring salvation to multitudes.

Amen.

So I'm looking at a Joseph company today.

So I want you to receive this message for yourself, and I trust it will have application for the church too.

First thing we need to do, though, if we're going to live the dream, is we need to dream the dream.

Joseph's story effectively starts with him receiving two dreams, two night dreams from God.

It wasn't a lot of detail, it was just big picture stuff.

God letting him know that he had a plan for him to become great in God's service.

I don't know whether you've ever had a night dream.

God speaks to us in many ways, doesn't he?

Sometimes we can have like a vision in the day.

Maybe as you're reading your Bible or you're listening to a message or you're in worship, and God speaks to you, and you know that.

It's not very rarely, I've never had an audible voice, but I very often know those promptings of the Spirit preparing me for what is to come.

And the key thing is that we learn to listen to God because there's something about receiving God's plan, God's dream, that it causes our faith to come alive.

And it helps us keep going when the times get tough.

For me personally, this issue of dreaming God's dream, of if you like seeing ahead of time what he had planned for me has been critical in our journey.

We got called to start a church in a city called Peterborough, which is a relatively small, at the time was a very unchurched city in the UK, and we had a prophetic word.

God said to us, I want you to think big or you'll limit me.

I want you to think big or you'll limit me.

In a time when there were very few large churches outside of London, I felt God saying, I want you to dream, my dream for this city, for a large strategic breakthrough church that's gonna reach multitudes of people.

And so I started thinking big and dreaming big.

And while I was dreaming big, people were staying away in their thousands.

But you know, there's something about hearing from God, there's something about having God's dream for your life, it keeps you going even when things don't seem to be on track.

Because I want to tell you, God is a sovereign God and He is the master of timing.

But it's not just that we get dreams at the beginning of our lives.

I believe for many of us, we come to certain transition moments in our lives, and I believe there's many of you here who are at a transition point, and sometimes God reminds us of dreams that He's given us in the past, sometimes He enlarges and expands the vision that we have.

We've been going 20 years, we've been faithful to think big for seeing a strategic church in one city, and then God basically, as it were, say, I'm taking off the blinkers now, I'm enlarging your vision.

I want you to start dreaming my dream for other key UK cities, and even to start playing your part together with many others to help see the nation come to God.

That's an enlargement.

And I believe for some of you, God wants to enlarge your perspective and give you an even bigger vision for your life.

It's one thing to dream the dream.

We need to dream the dream.

But how many know it's another whole deal to actually live the dream?

The world isn't changed just through dreamers, it's through people who press through, stay the course, and actually end up fulfilling their destiny.

And that's what we see in Joseph's story.

He dreams the dream, and then he goes through what I would kind of summarize as three main seasons.

The first season is between the age of 17 and the age of 30.

It's the season that I call preparation.

Can we say that together in all the campuses?

Preparation.

Then at the age of 30, there's a sudden turn and he goes through promotion, say, promotion.

And then remarkably, from that moment, he has an 80-year run that I want to summarize here as provision for purpose.

Can we say that together?

Provision for purpose.

Preparation, promotion, and provision for purpose.

Let's look at each of these in turn.

The first season that Joseph entered into almost immediately after he'd had the dream is the season of preparation.

I don't know about you, but when God speaks to me about the future, there's something in me that wants it to happen right now.

It's called impatience.

But normally in the timing of God, there's a time lag between vision conception and sometimes it can be days, months, even years before the vision is finally fulfilled.

In Joseph's case, it was a 13-year time lag.

In Moses' case, do you know how long it was for him?

40 years.

The disciples were fast-tracked under the personal ministry of Jesus in three and a half years.

I say, please, Lord, that I want to go the disciples' journey.

And then we need to ask that, so why that why the delay?

It's not that God is deliberately holding things back because he's me.

No, God's a good God, He's a loving father, He wants the best.

But He often knows that we're not ready to live the dream when He gives us the dream.

I mean, let's look at Joseph.

How old was it was he when he had that dream?

He was 17.

He has a dream, basically.

One of the dreams was, I'm gonna raise you up above your brothers.

Guess who he immediately went and told the dream to?

The brothers.

How many think that was not very smart?

How many think that may have been displaying just a little bit of youthful pride?

He's not ready to run a massive empire.

And so God will use things in our lives.

I want to tell you, God is not the author of bad things in our lives.

God is a good God, but he will use bad things that happen to us and good things to prepare us to get ready to live the dream.

Whether we're starting out in life or whether you are in transition and you're about to go into a season of repreparation or you're right in the middle of it, preparation is something that we should rejoice in and embrace, even though sometimes it can be really tough.

And in Joseph's case, there were at least three key tests that he faced and passed in that preparation season.

They all begin with F.

The first is the forgiveness test.

Sure, many of you know the story, but imagine being betrayed by your own brothers, nearly killed, and then sold into slavery.

How many think that was a pretty bad day for Joseph?

I just wonder whether those years in exile he must have battled with feelings of bitterness and resentment.

I'm sure he did.

And yet, somehow, hundreds of years before the cross, Joseph found grace to first forgive his brothers and then later on to be reconciled to them.

How many think that's a great example?

And I've been in pastoral ministry long enough to know that really tough stuff happens to people.

And I don't want to minimize the offenses that may have been caused you harm and pain.

But I what I do know is that somehow you need to go to God, you need to go to Jesus, who's forgiven you an unpayable debt, and by the Holy Spirit, and maybe through the help of others and through ministry teams at the end of a service like this, come and say, I must get free of this offense because I don't want anything hindering me living the dream.

I remember years ago receiving an offense, and it wasn't a massive one, nothing like Joseph.

And I remember the Lord saying to me, You can either allow this offense to be your stumbling block, or like Joseph, you can forgive and use this opportunity as a stepping stone to the next stage of my destiny for your life.

I implore you in Jesus' name.

Get free from offense.

That's the forgiveness test.

Secondly, possibly even more dangerous test for Joseph was the test of faithfulness.

It was the test of staying pure when he was faced with a full-on and persistent sexual temptation.

There he is, he's on his own.

He's a young adult.

His testosterone all in working order.

And nobody knew him.

Remember reading a book by Bill Heibels years ago.

Who are you when no one's looking?

Here he is, away from home, and this powerful Egyptian woman, Potiphar's wife, let's call her Mrs.

Potiphar, comes at him full on.

And do you know what she says to him?

Come to bed with me.

How many know there was no subtlety in that?

But Joseph, here he is, amazingly.

Because of his love for God and his somehow he realized that to do this would be a sin against God and a sin against marriage.

It says Joseph ran from her.

Sometimes people they say, Well, I've got this problem and I'm praying about it.

My answer is, by all means pray about it, but while you pray, make sure you're running.

Flee.

Right now, you may have a Mrs.

Potter fart, could be male or female in your life, could be a real person at work.

You're getting a bit too close to.

Maybe it's some kind of deal on the internet.

I want to say a number of things.

If you've already fallen, come and receive grace and forgiveness and restoration in Jesus' name.

But if you're near the edge, if you're about to fall off, I pray that this simple visit from the you from the UK will be a warning to you.

Can I say, step back from the brink?

Do you want to live the dream?

Make a decision to pursue faithfulness in the sexual area in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Yeah, you can clap God for that.

And then the third test was the fruitfulness test.

Here's the test of learning to be successful and fruitful, even when you're at the place that is not God's ultimate for you.

You see, Joseph didn't wait until he was ruling Egypt to suddenly become successful.

He experienced success and fruitfulness first as a slave, and then second in prison.

There was something about him, his honoring of God and the fact that he walked with God.

The fact that he honored his bosses, even tough bosses like Potiphar.

In other words, he didn't wait for the circumstances to be ideal before he decided, I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna do my best right where I am.

And I believe this is hugely, hugely important for us.

You see, sometimes we can wait, well, when the big break comes, then I'll make it.

No, please, in Jesus' name, make a decision.

You're gonna do the best for God right where you are now.

And it may be a confined place.

You may feel confined in a home setting, you may feel confined in a in a job or career, you may feel confined in the church, and you say, This is not the ultimate that God has for you.

No, but if you're faithful and you're fruitful where you are right now, God can and will give you more in Jesus' name.

Because here's a little aside: where did Joseph learn the leadership skills to run a nation?

He learned it by running Potiphar's household and then by running the prison.

And never despise the day of small things.

God will allow you to go through things in order to prepare you for what he has for you.

Our main preparation season, Karen and I, in King was definitely when we were starting Kingsgate Church in the early years.

We were young, we were trying to work out issues in our marriage and how to bring up a young family.

Then there were huge financial pressures.

We literally had to pray every month for basic bills.

And we kept honoring God.

We gave, we tithed, we gave our offerings, and then there came some times when literally we had nothing left.

There's one occasion when Karen needed nine pounds sixp, that's the equivalent of about twelve dollars for some formula milk for our baby, and she didn't have it.

And she was praying in the kitchen, and she heard uh something comes to the letterbox and opened it up, and it was the exact amount that we needed.

Fast forward 15 years, we're having to believe God now for millions of dollars for land and a church building.

I want to tell you, it took no more faith to believe for the millions than it did for the nine pound sixp.

Because what you learn in the little is the same for believing for big.

Amen.

And God is a provider in all the seasons of our life.

And then the biggest test for me personally was just I just couldn't seem to get this church going and growing.

I remember, I don't know you've ever been here, handing my resignation into the Lord.

I said, Lord, I quit.

We had this conversation going on.

I said, I quit.

And he said, I don't accept it.

Your resignation.

And I said, I remember saying, God, I can't build this church.

And I kind of heard a little smile and a word from the Lord.

I'm glad we've got that one settled.

That's my job.

God was dealing out as he was doing with Joseph all that pride and self-sufficiency.

If anything was gonna happen, it was gonna have to be by God's power and by God's grace.

If you'd come to us at that time in those early years, you wouldn't have seen a lot on the surface.

Because do you know what was happening?

There wasn't a lot of fruit above the ground, but what was going on, lots of roots were going down under the ground.

God was helping us put deep roots in the soil of his love and his grace, and how to walk with him, how to honor one another in marriage, and how to put him first, even when times were tough.

And for some of you right now, you may be in a root work season, not a fruit work season.

But if you want to build, if you want to see something big and glorious for God, allow him to put deep roots down in you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The good news though is that preparation doesn't last forever.

That's an L men from someone.

But if you're in the preparation season, can I say in Jesus' name, don't quit, don't take shortcuts, don't compromise.

Be like Joseph, pass the test, and then the glorious promise is in God's timing, the promotion will come.

We go from preparation to promotion.

In Joseph's case, it was an incredibly sudden and dramatic promotion.

I mean, here he is, 13 years later, he wakes up.

I don't think he'd had angels just sort of singing, saying, This is the day.

But then suddenly he gets a call and he goes from being basically an exiled prisoner to, in effect, running the empire in one day.

How many think that's pretty sudden dramatic promotion?

Amazing.

If God can do it then in the Old Testament, how much more can he do it now with those of us who are in Christ and are seated with him in heavenly places?

God is the God of preparation, he's also the God of promotion.

If you go back to the passage in Acts chapter 7, listen to how God promoted Joseph.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

It said, God gave him Joseph favor, say favor.

God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, say wisdom.

So that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt.

And I believe the same today.

God wants to pour out upon us more wisdom and more favor.

More wisdom and more favor.

Let's briefly look at those.

What was the wisdom that God gave Joseph that enabled God to promote him?

Well, the first and the obvious answer is he gave him the gift or the wisdom to interpret Pharaoh's dreams.

It's what I would call prophetic wisdom.

Can I say if there's a guy in the Old Testament, way before Pentecost, interpreting dreams and exercising a prophetic gift, how much more can we use and exercise prophetic gifts, charismatic gifts of the Spirit in the New Testament as the people of God?

Amen.

God is still pouring out his spirit of prophecy upon his people.

But that's only part of the story.

Because if that's the only wisdom that God had given him, I don't think Pharaoh would have given Joseph the running of the country.

I mean, would you give the running of the country just to a guy who can interpret some dreams?

I think at the best, if that's all he'd done, he might have been promoted to being like a chief magician or something, chief seer.

But there's another side of God's wisdom that Joseph also exercised.

He not only had a prophecy, God gave Joseph a plan.

Say a plan.

Now I know some of you are naturally more prophetic and spontaneous.

Some of you are more natural planners and ducks in a row kind of people.

But I want to tell you, if we're going to change a nation and we're going to become all that God wants us to be, we need to be part of a church and we need to work together in teams and we need to hold in balance what very often, sadly, God's people separate.

We need prophetic and pragmatic wisdom together.

We need the whole deal if we're going to change a nation.

Amen.

We need a vision and we need a plan.

And if you look at the life of Joseph, we need hard work too.

God gave him an upgrade of wisdom, but he also gave him favor.

You know, God has poured out extraordinary favor on Gateway Church.

God poured out incredible favor on Joseph.

We in Kingsgate have had our own journey of favor from those early days when it was tough and nothing seemed to happen.

It seemed like we moved out of the preparation season.

We started to grow.

We started seeing a glorious multicultural intergenerational family being knitted together by the Holy Spirit.

And after a number of years, we'd outgrown all the facilities in our city that we could rent and were in multiple services, and we had a word from God, it's time to go and buy land.

Cut a long story short, we ended up with a piece of land, we raised money for it, we went to the planners and we lost the planning.

And I remember coming out of the planning office and I was angry, I was frustrated.

I started rebuking the devil.

And God said to me, Whoa.

Basically, don't rebuke the devil, this is me.

Can I say when a door been door's been closed and God said, This is me, guess what?

He's got something better in mind.

And so we let go of that site.

In between, we I identified another site, this time it was double in its acreage, in a better location, and we got favor with the city authorities who basically thought we want this church to grow and prosper in the city, which can I say is pretty remarkable in a UK city.

They got behind the vision for what we were gonna do.

We went back to planning, and this time we won the vote unanimously.

Better location, double the acreage.

God is a God of great favor.

When you come against an obstacle, if the favor of God is on you, he can remove the obstacle, he can change rules and regulations and policies on your behalf.

God wants to pour out his wisdom and his favor upon us.

And since that time, the church has grown beyond all recognition, and we've begun to sense him leading us into other cities and a sense of a burden for the nation, too.

Say preparation, promotion.

Then the third season that Joseph entered into, and I think this is so instructive for us, is provision for purpose.

Provision for purpose.

The thing I love about Joseph and why he's one of my favorite characters, is he gets promoted at 30 and he stays in God's A1 plan for his life for 80 years.

And what's missing from the story of Joseph is any sexual scandal, any financial misconduct.

He's there keeping his integrity for 80 years.

I think that's amazing.

See, Joseph doesn't just go through stuff and have a good beginning, he has a good ending too.

I don't know about you, but certainly for me, and my heart for you, individually and for this great church, is you don't just have a good beginning, you have a good ending too.

You don't just start well, you finish well.

Joseph finished exceptionally well.

Through those 80 years, he kept honoring God, he kept honoring Pharaoh, he was reconciled to his brothers, he loved and honored his father, he opened the storehouses and saved multitude, and he ended up leaving a great legacy for the next generation.

And I believe one of the main reasons, there are many, but one of the main reasons that Joseph managed to, if you like, stay in God's plan was he knew why God had promoted him.

It wasn't for his glory, Joseph's, it was for God's glory and God's purposes.

It was provision for a purpose.

Now Pharaoh did give Joseph huge influence.

Basically, he was like the vice president, except in Joseph's case, he had real power.

And then he effectively was allowed to run the country.

He also gave him great affluence.

Pharaoh basically gave it his like his credit card, his signet ring.

How many know?

That'll buy a lot of stuff.

But Joseph knew that the stuff and the elevation wasn't for Joseph's sake.

God, the good God, the sovereign God, the loving God, who loves people everywhere, had raised Joseph up for a purpose.

Just like he wants to bless us and raise us up for a purpose.

He wants to bless us to be a blessing.

And what you see in Joseph's later years, the youthful pride is gone, and there's a recognition and a revelation as to the reason why God has so blessed him.

A couple of times, virtually in the same way.

First, when he reveals himself to his brothers, he explains to the brothers why he was there in Egypt.

He says in Genesis 45, verse 5, it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

Genesis 45:5

Many years later, at the end of his life, the he acknowledges that while the brothers had intended to harm him, he says, But God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, say after me, the saving of many lives.

Why has God raised up Gateway Church?

Saving of many lives.

Why does God want to bless you as an individual?

Save many lives.

In Joseph's case, it was primarily about physical salvation.

He has the plan, doesn't he?

Opens up the storehouses and literally saves his family, the people of God, from starvation.

That's God's plan.

Uses one man to save a whole future nation.

But our God's heart is not just limited to one people.

God loved those that huge Egyptian empire too.

Through Joseph, multitudes were saved from physical starvation.

And God is still calling his church to be his storehouse to help the needy and feed them physically and clothe them and house them.

Amen.

Still a huge part of God's heart for the poor.

We have an even greater mandate today.

It's not just physical salvation, but spiritual salvation.

We now have an even greater gift than Joseph had, because there is one who has come since Joseph, who's like Joseph, greater than Joseph, who actually did die, not for his sins, but for our sins and for the sins of the whole world.

And he is now raised up to the highest place in the universe, and he wants us, his body, if you like to open up the storehouses of his grace and offer salvation to multitudes in this city, in this nation, and to the nations in Jesus' name.

Amen.

That's the purpose for the provision.

God wants to bless us, to bring the greatest blessing of all salvation in Jesus' name.

As we close, I'd like to invite you to stand wherever you are in all the campuses, wherever you're at, some of you are in preparation season, some of you in transition, some of you know that you are where God wants you.

But I want to pray two things.

How many of you say, God, I need greater wisdom in my life?

I want greater favor.

And so I want to pray.

I want you to imagine that we're going to lift up both hands, and in your left hand, as you lift up your left hand, we're going to say, God, will you upgrade our wisdom?

And then as we lift up our right hand, we're going to say, God, give us more favor.

Because in whatever season of your life, you need more wisdom and you need more favor.

So just lift up your left hand right now.

Pray with me.

Father, I want to thank you for your wisdom.

I want to thank you, Lord, for prophetic and pragmatic wisdom.

And I pray right now, all across this house, all across Gateway Church, I pray for an upgrade of wisdom in Jesus' name.

We thank you that wisdom protects us, wisdom instructs us, wisdom keeps us.

We receive right now more wisdom in Jesus' name.

Let's thank Him for more wisdom.

Now let's lift up our right hand.

Father, we thank you for the favour you poured out upon us.

Thank you for favor in Jesus Christ.

Thank you for favor thus far on this journey.

Thank you for favor over the church.

Thank you for the favor over individuals.

But I pray right now, supernatural favour that breaks limitations, that breaks every curse, that breaks every point of barrenness will come upon us in Jesus' name.

Breaks restriction in Jesus' name.

Open doors for the gospel.

Open doors for influence.

We pray and we receive right now an upgrade of favor over our lives and over this church.

In Jesus' mighty name.

Let's thank him for it.

Amen.