goals

This is a long message … but I implore you to read it and listen to the song at the end!

Genesis 37 ⁵ Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

In one conversation, Joseph set his life on a different course.

When you approach older brothers and make statements like this, you are showing yourself to be arrogant, entitled, pompous, ungrateful, clueless, … just to name a few …

And not long after this, he was enslaved, falsely accused, and thrown into prison.

Reading the story, it is by God’s protection alone that he lived through the incident with Potifer’s wife.

But that is not what this is about.

This blog is about YOU and it is about YOUR DREAMS.

It is about knocking the baggage off of your life and reclaiming what you have lost …
It is about you fighting to get back in the driver’s seat while at the same time allowing God to be the driver.
It is about us facing the realities in front of us. It is true, when we enter into this world, we start with two strikes against us.
- Strike One is talked about in Revelation 12:10B, and it relates to the Accuser. Day and night, he releases accusation after accusation that do nothing but condemn us.
- Strike Two is that those accusations, for the most part, are true. We are guilty as charged in most cases. And, the reality is, we have nothing on this earth to defend ourself from those serious charges.
It is about us not letting the story end here. Just like Joseph, our actions have been a viable part of our destination at the prison cell. We are there for good reason. But we are not there to stay. We are there to be released by what Jesus said in John 3:16. We are there so that we can truly understand the freedom that He is granting.

God convicted me this last weekend about one of the greatest stories in the Bible, and I never would have connected it to Genesis 37, but I was happy to see the connection.

Matthew 25 ¹⁴ “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. ¹⁵ To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶ The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. ¹⁷ So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. ¹⁸ But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

¹⁹ “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’

²¹ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

²² “The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’

²³ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

²⁴ “Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

²⁶ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? ²⁷ Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

²⁸ ” ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. ²⁹ For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ³⁰ And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Jesus is challenging us to stand up and dream again. But He is challenging us to give these dreams away even as we pursue them.

He is challenging us to be Kingdom builders … to not bury our talents … to not view Him in our world but as He is … to GIVE OUR LIVES FULLY AWAY.

If we don’t use our talents to bless other people, not only will it cost them, it will cost us too.

If we bury our abilities, not only will they die, but we will to.

If we want to be more fruitful, we must aspire to be more faithful.

I believe that these are biblical truths that we must truly try to find in all that we are aspiring to do … and in them … we will have life.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

As I read this morning, I was convicted:

Lord, what does this have to do with me? And what does this have to do with what I might talk about today? … I say that because I was convicted to speak about:

“The Fight Before You”

What could this possibly be about?

I am not the sharpest tool in the box … And God sometimes has to hit me over the head for me to even begin to understand …

The reality is this:

All of us have dreams. And all of us are destined and called by God to pursue those dreams. And all of us are going to have to STAND UP AND FIGHT for those dreams. Because those dreams will not be given to us …

And Jesus proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that He does not want us PLOWING OVER THE BROKEN IN PURSUIT OF OUR TRIUMPH.

Now while what I am saying is obvious, this is exactly what what do, and we should all be willing to admit, confess, that this is exactly what we do.

And so it was with Joseph.

God had put a dream on his heart, he was proud to stand over his brothers and lord over them … even in their brokenness.

God had given him a dream to save them, and he was professing it like bragging rights in a high school locker room.

And so here are my words for you today. Because whether you are 2 or 14 or 17 or 35 or 50 or 90 … you should be pursuing your God-given dreams like they were the most important things that you could ever hold onto. But as you do … be warned of that very verse above. Because that’s the verse that set Joseph up to be a slave and put him on his way to prison. It broke up his family and devastated his parents. It wreaked havoc on his life and the life of his family.

So here is my advice today on March 1, 2024:

Jesus Is The Lion Of The Tribe Of Judah. God has put a pecking order over our universe. Watch the pecking order in a pride of lions. One King. One Rule. One Ruler. And in that order they are safe, well-fed, and loyal.
Dreams Can Never Be Idols. Because of bullet point 1, a dream as an idol will NEVER, EVER, work. It might be a short term victory … but it will NEVER, EVER, work.
You Are Called To Lead In Humility. This could mean early mornings and late nights. It could mean giving up your first choice. It could mean that you are frustrated, or tired, or exasperated.
There Will Always Be A Fight In Front Of You. This doesn’t make you a fighter in the physical sense, but it means that you are always a fighter in the spiritual sense, in the character sense, in the repentance sense. And, most of all, you are always a fighter in the chase after God sense.
Things Are Not Always What They Seem. The very execution stations that Haman set up (Esther 7:10) were the very things he died on …
Persevere, Worship, And Give Everything To God. His plan is better than yours. And your plan is not even a close second. This takes faith.

I am not sure how to end this.

So maybe I will end this by encouraging you to read the “end of the Joseph” story. It is an incredible story of redemption, faith, and family.

And, while his dream comes to fruition, it was not at all where he took it in his lust to brag.

Thank you Jesus that you love us where we are and in the midst of where we are going.

You, Jesus, and You alone,

Hold the keys to eternal life.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

2 MINUTE WARNING

WITH DOUG JOHNSON

Tag

456 Reclaim Your Dreams In The Night

455 Dreams … And Idols