As a Mover and a Shaker

Tom Shrader launches a six-week series called 'Survivors Through the Cycles of Life' by examining Joseph's early story in Genesis 37. He emphasizes that while Joseph faces betrayal by his brothers and slavery in Egypt, he is actually positioned exactly where God wants him to be. The teaching encourages believers to maintain perspective during life's ups and downs, recognizing that circumstances don't always reflect our spiritual standing.

“Don't you feel sorry one second for Joseph because God's got him right where He wants him.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Survival Through the Cycles of Life (2005)

Recorded: 2005

Duration: 42 min

Themes: suffering, betrayal, perspective, stability, cycles, trust, adversity, providence, facing betrayal, experiencing setbacks, seeking stability, going through transitions, dealing with family conflict, business professional, parent, new believer

Scripture: Genesis 37, Genesis 37:1-36, John 10

Theological Themes: sovereignty, divine providence, perseverance, spiritual maturity, god's plan, biblical narrative, old testament, sanctification

Handout Link

Full Transcript

Start a new series today titled Survivors Through the Cycles of Life. The premise of the series is obvious, and that is that life has cycles to it. We understand that in business. I remember just early on in my business career, people saying to me, hey, this is really not good right now, it's a bad time, but it'll get better because it has cycles to it. And as things would get better, they'd say, and that's where we're in right now, isn't it?

That's the question. I was with a couple of guys yesterday, a whole group of guys, really, and some of them from the real estate industry, and I must have heard the conversation I don't know how many times: how long do you think this is going to last? Where's the top to this? Are we in the bubble? That's all the questions. Well, that's true in business.

It's also true in personal lives. Relationships seem to have a cycle to them. Even the best of them have challenges and difficulties. Parenting has a cycle to it. Virtually every area that we talk about has some sort of a cycle to it. How do we survive in the midst of that?

Here's the other thing. It really doesn't matter in some cases what the large cycle is, if your cycle's contrary to that. My point is, if the unemployment rate is 5% and they're going, that's really good, but you're one of the 5%, it's not so good. So the cycles are running all over. How do I find stability in the midst of that?

Introducing Joseph's Story

In this series, and we're taking six weeks, we're going to look at the life of Joseph. So if you have Bibles, you open them, if you would, to Genesis chapter 37. It's interesting to look at the last quarter of the book of Genesis, chapters 37 through chapter 50, is all about the life of Joseph, his encounters, and he has cycles to it.

Those of you that are familiar with the story, you know that he really is one of these penthouse, outhouse, penthouse, outhouse kind of fluctuations in his life. And he becomes a magnificent role model for us. Yet, and we always have to emphasize this, though we're examining the life of Joseph, the main character of this in every story we look at is God.

How do I maintain this relationship? When my life is in fluctuation, how do I find stability? And not just survival through the cycles of life, how do I thrive in the midst of that?

Learning Truth That Transcends Feelings

I was sitting next to a guy yesterday on the bus coming back from golf, and the guy said, can I ask you a personal question? And I said, I guess. Don't answer all of them. And he said, how do you deal with the prospects that your wife may die? How do you deal with that? How do you handle that as you look at that on a daily basis?

And it's a great question, and maybe another day or another time we ought to go through that, but the basic answer to the question is I know the truth, that what I know trumps what I feel. I had an opportunity just in the last few minutes to talk to someone whose mother passed away, and his comment to me was all this stuff that we've talked about, it demonstrated itself in that moment.

Let me digress a second. What we do in here, if this is like a science class, this is classroom, and then we open the doors and you go out into the laboratory. Now, it's very important here that we don't reverse this. We don't go out in the laboratory to check to see if it's true what we learn. We go out in the laboratory so that God can demonstrate to us that what we learned is true.

What we're learning is the truth. Whether it works or experience, your experience doesn't make it true. Do you get the difference there? There's a very important difference. So somebody will say to me, well, I tried that Christianity for two weeks and it didn't work. Well, this isn't Crest or Colgate. It's not a toothpaste or a product. We have the opportunity to understand who the creator God of the universe really is.

The Difference Between Speculation and Truth

We don't have to guess. We don't have to speculate. And I don't think they've changed it. If you go down to the borders of 24th and Camelback, there's a section upstairs called speculation. And I can't even imagine what the value of that might be. I don't want to speculate.

I think it's fun to speculate about, you know, I'm a college football guy, that's my big deal. So it's fun to speculate about how the Hawks will do on Saturday. It's fun to speculate about, you know, maybe this game or maybe that, or do you think they'll ever get together or whatever. Those are fun speculations.

But when it comes to the real serious matters of life, I don't want to be speculating about who God is. I don't want to be guessing about that. And I can know Him as I study this book. That's why we say when we look at the life of Joseph, it's not about Joseph, though clearly he's the main character in our study. It's about God.

And the way that God worked in Joseph's life and all these other biblical characters is the way He works in your life and my life. This is a magnificent truth. So hopefully as we work our way through this study, there's a source of encouragement to it.

Setting the Historical Context

As I said, we look at the last quarter of the book of Genesis, and it is about Joseph. What's interesting, and you're talking about cycles, is that there's two characters, Joseph on one end, Moses on the other, who provide the bookends to the nation of Israel's experience in Egypt. Main characters as we look at this.

Joseph, and there's kind of a family tree, Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob. Jacob has 12 sons by four different wives. Joseph is at the bottom of these 12. He's a product of a relationship with Jacob's favorite wife.

And there's just great practical lessons and hopefully lessons of encouragement here as we work our way through this. Again, in my mind, I hope this is an upbeat message to you and one of encouragement. And this will be a great encouragement today. No matter how screwed up your family is, I'm doubting you're as bad off as Joseph is. So that

Let's work our way through it. Here's our very first point.

Joseph the Special Son

Joseph has this extraordinary dream. We're going to get there, but Joseph is a very special man. Chapter 37, verse 1: "Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had sojourned, in the land of Canaan. And these are the records of the generation of Jacob. Joseph was 17 years of age, was pasturing a flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father."

Now Israel—that's another name for Jacob—loved Joseph. If you've got your Bibles out, if you want to get the essence of this story, I'm going to have you underline a few phrases. When you turn to Genesis 37, they'll pop out. Here's a key phrase: "Now Jacob loved Joseph"—here's a key phrase—"more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a varied colored tunic." He made him a coat of many colors.

The Problem of Favoritism

There's a problem here, isn't there? You see it. Even a casual reading, you can't miss it. If you missed it, verse 4 pulls it together: "And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than his brothers." Here's a phrase to underline: "So they hated him and could not speak of him on friendly terms."

Joseph's in a very special position. His daddy loves him more than all the other boys. He's a favorite. Let's be practical here. If you have three or four kids, I think that it's not unusual for you to have a natural affinity to one more than the other. I don't think that's playing games. If you're a dad and you're a hunter and a fisherman, and you've got a son and he's into theater, and another son and he's into golf, and another son and he's into writing, and another son who just set the world's record for killing the largest bull elk ever shot with a bow, you're going to have an affinity toward that. I think it's pretty hard to hide that from the other kids. If they're smart enough, they'll understand that.

But what you cannot do is broadcast a spirit of favoritism and show that favoritism to one over the other. I'm going to hit the pause button here and drop this in and then get out, and this is a time bomb, so I don't want to hang around it. If you're parenting a blended family, you've got mom and dad, and mom brings her kids into it, dad brings his kids into it, let me tell you, you really have to be careful about this. Maybe you're grandparenting a blended family. You've got to be very careful, to the best of your ability, that you're showing affection for both of them, all of them.

If one is in an area and it's literature and you don't like literature, here's what I'd suggest. Take that kid and say to that kid, "Let's pick a book out together, let's pick Shakespeare, let's read Merchant of Venice together, let's work our way through that, let's study this together, and I want you, because I don't get it, I want you to teach me to love Shakespeare as much as you love Shakespeare." That's what you need to be doing.

Joseph's dad, Jacob, doesn't do that. What does he do? He gives him a coat of many colors. He gives him this tunic, this beautiful, multicolored tunic, and forget the fabric and all of those things, I don't care about that. What it said to the other boys every time they saw it is, "That's dad's favorite." It's just sticking it in their face again and again and again.

Joseph's Bold Vision

Well, Joseph has a bold vision. He has a dream. Look at verse 5: "Joseph had a dream. And when he told it to his brothers"—here you go, this is the third time already and we're only five verses into it. You see it?—"they hated him all the more."

And he said to them, "Listen to this dream I had. Come on, guys, just give me a chance. Listen to the dream I had. We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it." Not good.

And his brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" Here you go: "And they hated him all the more because of his dream."

And then he had another dream. And he told it to his brothers and to his father as well. His father rebuked him saying, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and brothers actually come and bow down on the ground to you?" And his brothers were jealous. There it is again—jealous of him. And his father kept the matter in his mind.

The Power of Dreams

Joseph has this dream. In this dream, it's a picture of the whole family coming and the whole family becoming dependent upon Joseph. Vision, dream. I'm playing, and I'm acknowledging this, I'm playing a little loose here with some of this because I want to fast forward and apply it in your life and mine.

I love dreamers. I really do. Realistic dreamers. I love dreamers that live in the present physically and work toward it, but their minds drift to the future. There is nothing wrong with dreaming. Some of you had a lot of dreams, and you've sacrificed them. You sacrificed them on the altar of practicality. You feel them, and it's contagious because now you feel like you want to make sure you ruin everyone else's dream. If somebody comes to you with a dream, let's say it's one of your kids, you can't wait to introduce them to that phrase: "Wait, you've got to get out in the real world."

That's not Joseph. Here you go: if you've got a dream, and part of your dream is you're going to dominate your family, you ought to keep that dream to yourself. That's another thing we learn out of this. But don't quit dreaming.

Now, Joseph receives here a specific assignment. His brothers are gone to graze their father's

flock near Shechem. And Jacob said to Joseph, "As you know, your brothers are grazing their flocks near Shechem. Come, I'm going to send you to them." "Very well," he replied. So he said to him, "Go and see if all is well with your brothers and the flocks, and bring me back word." I need a report.

It's so funny, but we need to remind ourselves almost consciously here—they didn't have the state-of-the-art communication that we have. It was funny yesterday because we were in Sedona on this golf thing, and cell phones don't work at the golf course in Sedona. And it was so funny to watch guys: "I can't get my thing, I can't get my thing, I can't get out, I can't get out, I can't check my messages." Well, even if you got a message, there's nothing you're going to do about it. It was so funny. And the minute we could get out, I said, "By the way, can you give me a phone because I need to make a call." It's interesting—we have this instant communication. They didn't have that.

So here's what he's saying. You need to go to Shechem. It's a trip of about 30 miles and see how the boys are doing. They've been gone a while. Let's get the report back. Let's understand the status. You need to really understand this.

So he sent him off from the valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering in the fields and said, "What are you looking for?" And he replied, "I'm looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where my brothers are grazing their flocks?" "They've moved from here." Not unusual—all the grass is gone. There are not a lot of fields in this area. They've moved from here. "I heard them say they were going to Dothan."

Joseph's 50-Mile Journey

So here you go—they're moving. He moves. Joseph moves to Shechem. That's about 30 miles. Now they go to Dothan. It's another 20 miles. So it's about 50 miles from home. So Joseph goes and finds his brothers.

A couple of things about Dothan. Every time we see this in the Scripture, it's just a place of immorality. There's this terrible sin and debauchery that's going on there. But the key thing is that Joseph is 50 miles away from his protection—His dad. So Joseph's going to visit his brothers. And what we've seen is already his brothers can't stand him. They hate him more and they hate him more and they hate him more. And now they're 50 miles away from home and any accountability. This is not good.

The Plot Against Joseph

Verse 18: Joseph has a serious problem. "They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. Here's what they said to each other"—and I love this—"Here comes the dreamer."

Let's stop right there. When people see you coming, what do they say? How do they describe you? What's your handle? How do they identify you? "Here he comes, he is..." "Here she comes, she is..." This is really, really important, because whatever that answer to that question is, you better make sure it's what you want them to think of you.

We talk about it all the time: What do you want them to say at your funeral? And not have to lie. What do you want them to say at your memorial service about you? When somebody gets up to talk—we do open mics at our funerals, almost all of them, and so we let anybody say anything. We get some goofy things periodically. You have to reel that in a little bit.

I don't know, two or three years ago, we did a memorial service, and so I said, "We're doing this open mic, not everybody's used to it," and so on. This guy said, "I just know that right now—we'll make up a name—right now, Tom, I just know right now Tom is up in heaven in his lazy chair with a beer, watching a ball game with God." Well, I always have the last word because we need to correct some of these things. And interestingly enough, it happened to be a funeral where I'm sure this guy's in hell—didn't know Christ, didn't know the Scripture. We're doing a funeral as a favor to a family, to console them.

What do you want them to say? What do you want them to say when they get the mic? And whatever it is you want them to say when they get the mic, you better be working toward that in that relationship and your own character now. If you want them to say "she is a person of integrity," then you can't be screwing them in deals. "He's somebody who was a good father who loved his kids"—then you better love your kids. Don't make these people have to get up and lie at your memorial service so everybody feels okay.

The Brothers' Murderous Plan

"Here comes the dreamer." They said to each other, "Come, let's kill him and throw him into one of these large cisterns and say ferocious animals devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams."

Can you see this? See how all of this—see this coming out? What's in there that's coming out?

When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life. Don't shed his blood. Let's throw him into a cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." Reuben said this to rescue him from them, to take him back to his father. So what he's trying to do here is to say we're going to put him in this cistern and we'll figure something else out. Reuben's going to come back, get him out of that, take him back to the dad and rescue him.

Mob Psychology in Action

You've got a little bit here—do you see this? A little bit of a mob psychology going. A little bit of one says to the other. We're away from home. We have anonymity and it rolls away.

The most vivid illustration I ever saw of this: Ali's fighting George Foreman. And again, to go back in time, that's just an electric moment. We're in Davenport, Iowa at the Masonic Temple to watch this on these large old videos that we used to go to. You pay whatever it was and you get this picture. And so it's there. It's an electric environment. They're coming in. Those of you who remember it, they fought kind of under a canopy. They're coming into the ring. And Ali's got them chanting. Foreman's coming into the ring. And all of a sudden, our picture goes "zhoop, zhoop, zhoop." Not good. Not good. And now they're saying, "Just be patient."

The Betrayal Unfolds

When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the richly ornamental robe he was wearing. I'll bet they hated that robe. And they took him, and they threw him in a cistern. A big old jug that they use for water, fluid, something to transport. Now, the cistern was empty. There was no water in it.

As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spice and balm and myrrh, and they're on their way to take it down to Egypt.

A Brother's Dark Bargain

Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and don't lay hands on him. After all, he's our brother, our own flesh and blood."

Now, there's some serious humor in this. First of all, he says, "Look, let's not kill him. Let's do the American thing. Let's make a buck on this deal. Let's sell him." After all, the mind is an incredible thing. He's our brother. Let's not kill him. Let's sell him into slavery.

Now, if you ask a Jew, any Jew in that day and age, "We're going to give you a choice. We'll either kill you or sell you into slavery to the Ishmaelites," every one of them would have said, "Kill me." This is the worst fate you could pick. But in his mind, somehow this is the great thing to do.

So his brothers agreed. So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern and sold him for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites.

Reuben's Failed Rescue

When Reuben returned—remember his plan? To rescue. When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. It's a sign of repentance. It's a sign of grief.

When he went back to his brothers, he said, "The boy isn't there. Where can I turn now?"

The Deception of Jacob

And they got Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in blood. And they took the ornamental robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it's your son's robe." And he recognized it. And he said, "This is my son's robe. Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has already been torn to pieces."

Interesting. The boys never lied. They just took the robe and they dipped some blood in it and they gave it to their dad and he drew his own conclusions. Kind of like buyer beware.

I know that this site used to be a gas station and I know that on the ground there used to be these tanks and I know that inevitably they leak and I know that it'd be a problem and of course they're underground and I know that. Bring the guy on site and say, "Yeah, I think there was a gas station here once." But I let him draw his own conclusion. It's the sin of omission, verbal omission anyway. It's not just enough here for us to be silent. It's to tell the truth. Do you see that?

A Father's Inconsolable Grief

And Jacob tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and mourned for his son. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him. He refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "I'm in mourning and I will go to my grave." So his son wept for him.

There's a sense of hopelessness here. Do you hear that in Jacob? There's a hopelessness here. "I'm never going to get over this. This is a hurt so deep that I'll never recover from it."

Joseph's Undesirable Destination

And then there is verse 36. Kind of an undesirable destination takes place. While the Midianites then sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

It's like any really good real estate deal in a hot market. There's one spin left in Joseph. There's one more turn here. Midianites bought him and now they sell him. And this is a key thing. See the purchaser here? Potiphar. Who's Potiphar? He is the captain of the guard. He's the head of the Egyptian secret service.

God's Will Despite Circumstances

And you would think, if you were just reading along, that it would just say there the end. Away goes Joseph. Jacob certainly discouraged and depressed, ready to die over his grief. Joseph was in bad shape with the Midianites. He's now moving into Potiphar's household. Potiphar, a key figure in the Egyptian empire. And not one thing looks bright for Joseph.

Here's what I want you to see. Joseph's in the best place he can possibly be. He's right smack in the will of God. Forget the circumstances. Don't get distracted by the circumstances. Same thing is true in your life and mine.

It becomes very dangerous when we try to interpret our life based on our circumstances. In other words, the deal closed. Look at all the stuff. I got the order. My relationships are great. I must be okay spiritually. Not necessarily so. Joseph is now in slavery. He's been removed from his dad who he loves desperately and obviously loves him back.

loved him. Though it's naive, he seems to even have some sort of affection for his brothers and his family. He's as far away from home physically and spiritually and emotionally as he could possibly be. All those relationships are severed.

Don't you feel sorry one second for Joseph because God's got him right where He wants him. The same thing can be true in your life. Now you can be in real trouble and that may be an indication of your spiritual condition because you can sin and do stupid things and you're stuck on stupid and you're doing the same thing over and over again and you just keep doing that and sinning and all of a sudden, somewhere in there, there's a consequence. We reap what we sow but not necessarily so.

God Always Protects His People

This is really dangerous and God, and here's what we're going to see, and God always protects His people. So if you're one of His, now what does that mean to be one of God's? I thought we were all children of God. No, no, come on. No.

Here's what the Bible teaches. That we come into the world as a child of wrath or a child or son of disobedience. Children of God are not just all humanity. We're not all children of God. We don't all worship the same God.

No more graphic illustration for us than after September 11th in Yankee Stadium where Oprah emceed that ecumenical movement. Remember that? And there were Native Americans and Buddhists and there were Catholics and Hindus and Protestants and Evangelicals and Methodists. There was everything under the sun. Everything that even could dream something that had something remotely to do with anything that might be vaguely called God was on that platform. And as I've said to you many times, they did everything that morning but sacrifice a goat. They did as much stuff as they could. And they all did it under the eyes that they're praying to God. They aren't.

If your God doesn't have a son Jesus who came, He was the God-man, who died on the cross so that you can have eternal life, if you're praying to some God where that isn't there, then you're not praying to one true God. That's really important to understand. And that God, if you're His kid, He'll never, ever, ever, ever let you go. Just like you'd be with your kids. If you screw up, He's going to discipline you. Not because He wants to punish you, but because He loves you.

I know for Susan, Susan grew up and her dad just one day went to work and never came home. And Susan never was in church her whole life. I mean, she'd never been to church. And it was so interesting to me because I'd heard about things like this but I'd never experienced it. When I talked to her about God the Father, she had a hard time with that. I didn't understand it. She didn't understand it. We had this language barrier thing going. And she kept resisting this. And I said, I don't understand. What's your problem here? You've got issues. And of course, she would say, clearly, you're one of them, but you've got issues. And I'd say, you've got issues. And she'd say, look it, Tom, my dad walked out on me and never came back and I've never spoken to him and heard from him since the day he walked out. I don't need that father. I'd say, ooh, we need to redefine fatherhood. God my Father will never leave me, never forsake me.

Jesus says it this way in John's Gospel in the 10th chapter. Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I'll give them eternal life and no one can snatch them out of my hands. So don't you go and have a bake sale for Joseph and start feeling bad for old Joseph because Joseph's doing fine. He's right where God wants him.

Five Principles for Pursuing Your Dreams

Five points here as you begin to unpack these dreams. Number one, be gracious to those around you. All of a sudden, maybe now we'll talk about career. Maybe all of a sudden you're the rising star. Maybe all of a sudden you're the one that they've tagged and said, boom, we're going to build a division around you. You be gracious to those. It's hard for other people. People are jealous and envious. They just are.

I remember when we were at Coldwell Banker, we had a motto, or at least I had a motto. I always assumed everybody had the same motto. The next best thing to making a deal is seeing someone else lose one. It's absolutely true. Next best thing to making a deal, because that's a good thing, is watching someone else lose something. I don't want to see you get a hit. Don't give me that. I'm concerned about me. That's the environment around you. You better understand when you're on the rise and you've got the dreams and you've got the vision and you're the horse we're going to ride, you better be very gracious to those around you.

Here's the second thing. Be cautious about sharing your dreams, especially with people who are disgruntled. That's contagious. I had a friend who in the old days played on the PGA Tour. When they used to have the top 60 were exempt and then you had to have a Monday qualifying. You had to qualify. And it was really interesting. He would tell the story. He would say, and those guys were called, do you remember what they were called? Rabbits. That's exactly right. They were the rabbits. And so the rabbits had to go and they had to qualify. The rabbits thought the PGA Tour was the most screwed up thing in the world. And one rabbit would say it was stupid and the other rabbit would say it was stupid and then they're all saying it's stupid. You better be really careful in the midst of that if you're going, hey, I've got a dream and it's a good dream and this is a great deal.

Here's a third thing. Be careful. This is really important. We've got a couple little stars by this, an asterisk. I put a little NB. That's what I write. Latin. Note it well. Here you go. Be careful to continue performing your present duties while pursuing your dream. It's really important. You've got this dream. I have no problem with dreams. But you've got to understand that you can't quit doing

What you're doing to pursue that dream necessarily. You may be at the office and you've got this dream. They didn't hire you to be a dreamer, probably. And this is really important. I hope this doesn't get so theoretical we lose the point. This is really important if you don't know the specifics of the dream.

Let me give you an example. God saved me in 1980. God saved Susan, I don't know, four or five months after me. God began to transform my life, transform her life. And I studied and studied and studied. I never read a book. I read my first book of my life, first book from cover to cover I ever read was my junior year of college. I never read a book ever. And that was a book about Muhammad Ali. So not like I was cracking War and Peace at that time anyway.

So I got through college basically never reading, never studying, never doing anything. And you've got to be really smart or devious to do that. And I wasn't smart. But I always felt that the way I handled it was just taking tutoring to the next level. I just had them tutor me during the test. I thought that was a great way to do it. Move your arm and stick your paper over this way. I thought that was a very effective way to study.

A Dream to Teach

I get out, God saves me, and all of a sudden I just start reading and studying. And I fell in love with this Word. And then I saw how it began to be able to change other people's lives, especially if you could somehow find a way to communicate it. And here's what I thought. I thought that maybe one day I'd want to teach. Now, that was a dream. And Susan is saying that's great.

We didn't know any specifics, but here's what I knew. If I was going to teach and I was going to make a living doing this, I was going to make a lot of money. We were at a time in our career where it was really starting to kick off and do well, and the guys who were making the money I was making were living in different houses and driving different cars than I'm driving. This isn't a judgment thing at all. But I was saying if I start doing that, what I want to do, teach God's Word, isn't going to support that lifestyle. It just isn't.

It's like somebody coming to me and saying, "Okay, here are my goals. I want to have a million dollars by the time I'm 30, and I want to teach poor kids in South Phoenix." Well, you better have another income stream. You better have some other plan because you aren't going to have a million dollars when you're 30 teaching poor kids in South Phoenix.

So I'm saying here's what I want to do. When you've got this dream going, you better get on now the things you know. Was that clear at all? Do you see what I'm saying there? That you can't put obstacles in the way of that dream unnecessarily, even if you don't know what they are. And you may have this dream. You may want to do... I think of the real estate business. You may be a broker who wants to be a developer, and you want to develop these things, but you just can't quit and do that. You've got to be diligent about what you're doing now. See that?

Be Wary of Antagonizing Others

Number four. Two more things. Four, be wary of situations that antagonize the people around you. Paul writes this in the book of Romans: "Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep." And I think the order is significant.

If I come in today and I say, "Listen, we just got back from the doctor, and the doctor said it's not good, the cancer's back, Susan's not going to make it," you're going to cry like a baby with me, right? You just are. But if I come in this morning and I say, "This is the darndest thing. I got a call last night, and I had this aunt that I didn't even know. I knew we had this aunt, but I didn't know her. And she moved to Texas years and years and years ago and bought this little ranch. And there was an accident on her ranch the other day, and they're out there cleaning it up, and they were digging a ditch, and out of it comes oil. And when the aunt died a week ago, she left everything to me."

When I begin to share that news with you, it's the deafening sound of one hand clapping. You're not that happy for me. No. You want to hear "Susan's sick." You don't want to hear "my aunt left me a billion dollars." That's why it says "rejoice with those who rejoice." Be very careful about doing things that you know are going to aggravate the people around you.

Be Confident Despite Setbacks

Here's last. Be confident. Be confident in spite of temporary setbacks. Now, we can get carried away with that and talk about business and all that. I'm talking about life. Give me two minutes here. I want you to be a dreamer.

1988. I'm watching the Dukakis-Bush, first Bush, presidential debate. And I mean, it's a yawner. Haley comes in and sits on my lap. Haley at the time would have been seven. Sits on my lap and watches it. And she said, "I can do that." I said, "I think you can. I know you're going to be the one."

And she said, "Are one of these guys going to be president?" I said, "Yes." And she said, "Doesn't the president live in the White House?" And I said, "Well, He or she does." And she said, "You know, Dad, I think I'm going to be president." And I said, "That's a great idea."

I went out and found this incredible picture of the White House. Had it framed. And she had this bookcase with her dolls. She had her dolls and all her stuff in it. And I just put this picture of the White House in there. Now, I never said a word to her.

And she's in there one night and I'm putting her to bed and we're praying and we're all done. I said, "I love you, babe. I'll see you." She said, "Hey, hey, hey, Dad. Is that the White House?" And I said, "Yeah." She said, "Why is that there?" And I said, "I don't know. Maybe you could be president someday."

It's interesting. She's not going to be, okay. In fact, she's going to be a mom here in another few weeks. And she's going to be a stay-at-home. That's her deal. And she's going to love her husband and she's going to do her deal however she wants to do it. But here's what I didn't do there. I didn't kill that.

dream. And here's what I've observed. And I know this is too much. I've observed we're pretty good at encouraging dreamers when they're seven. But by the time they're the senior year of college, we're saying, what are you going to do? What are you going to do?

Well, I kind of have this dream. We don't have time for dreams. You need to go to the real world. And by the way, you can help short-circuit this. When the kid comes to you their freshman year and says, I'm going to major in English literature criticism, you're going to say, here's an application for Subway. So it's going to be that or the yogurt store or the shirt shop. But I don't want to teach. That's what they say.

Man, don't kill those dreams. It is not your job to bring reality to everybody's life. They'll learn it soon enough. Here's the punchline for the day, though. Don't feel sorry for Joseph. God's got him right where He wants him. We'll pick up right there next week.

Father, thank You for this truth. Thank You that You love us even more than we love ourselves. We pray here this morning and now that You would use this in our life. God, give us dreams and visions and give us patience and wisdom and insight and let our dreams be Yours. We pray that in Christ's name. Amen. Have a great week. We'll see you next week.