This is chapter 39, and Penix, fellas, I tell you a great song tonight. I appreciate that. It's a blessing to our heart. And I want you to know, Brother Penix is a true missionary to Alaska. That means that he doesn't work on the road system. They're way off the highway system. And there's a difference between the guys that go off the road system and the guys who are on that. They're the city folks in Alaska. Now, we couldn't handle that, okay? But when you get off the road system and you go where they go, you're the real missionary pioneer missionaries out there. They're going places that is unbelievable. They'll go on a snow machine, what, a couple of days just to witness to people that otherwise would never hear the gospel. Brother Penix was a navigator in the Air Force, isn't that right? So he got this idea. He flies over the remote areas of Alaska, pinpoints places where people are living, and then finds a way to get there. through this boat on the river system. He's in villages that don't even have any kind of law enforcement. The very fact that they, listen, taking the gospel to places, he's an itinerant preacher, so to speak. I like the old circuit riding preachers except he uses snow machines and boats, or a boat and snow machine. I appreciate the work that they do, the commitment that they have, and I'm glad to be a part of his ministry. I want you to know that. And it sure is an encouragement to us. And there's still pioneer work to be done in missions. There is. And listen, you say, I want to do something that nobody else is doing. There's some work out there, I promise you. And you listen to the Lord. He'll call you and put you where He wants you to be. He'll prepare you for it. That's a little bit what we're going to be talking about tonight. Turn your Bibles to Genesis chapter 37, and I'm going to read probably a little bit a little more than what's going to be on the screen necessarily tonight even if they have a scripture up there. I want us to begin reading in verse number 1 of Genesis chapter 37. I'm going to do everything I can to get the message in tonight in a timely manner. Genesis chapter 37 verse number 2 if we could. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all of his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. Now there's more to that coat than just the fact that it was variegated and colorful and all of that. It was a picture that he was in charge. He was the steward, so to speak, of the flocks, and he was the one that Jacob could trust to oversee the family's business, its holdings, so to speak, and that he would check on the brethren and come back and share with Jacob, his father, what was going on. And you're going to find that there was already some division in the family as a result of that. And then this coat that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, that just exasperated things. And it got even more divisive. But then you come to verse number 4. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him. They hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Here I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf." Verse 8. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us, or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father and to his brethren, and his father rebuked him, and said to him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come down to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying. And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said unto them, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, and see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man found him. And, behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed hence. For I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. Look at verse 19. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Behold, this dreamer cometh. I want to talk to you tonight just a little bit on realizing your God-given dream. Let's pray and ask God to help us tonight. Father, I pray as we look at the life of Joseph, some snapshots, in His life that we would learn tonight some key truths, some key principles that I believe, Lord, are essential to experiencing and knowing and, Lord, realizing the desires that You put in our hearts for You. Lord, I pray that tonight that there would be someone here, maybe more that, Lord, maybe they don't have a dream, they don't have a desire, but God, you're going to put something in their heart, or tonight they begin desiring that. Others, Lord, maybe they've given up on a dream or a desire, and Lord, that you would refresh that and renew that and refuel their heart tonight. God is a church. Lord, that you would set before us, and God, remind us of the dreams and the desires that you put in our heart, and God, those things you have for us, and Lord, the desire to see them realized, as you have so many times led this church, Lord, to do things that, from a human standpoint, is impossible. But God, you've allowed it to take place, and you've worked mightily, and you've never failed this ministry. You've been forever faithful. Lord, there's no way that many years ago when this church was there in an old truck stop building out on Highway 52, they could ever realize, although they desired for you to do something great, Lord, there's no way they could encapsulize and realize everything you had in store. God, I don't believe you're finished. I believe you have great things for us to accomplish even now. And Father, I pray that we might be sensitive to you, obedient to you, faithful to you, that we might realize that that you have for us. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Joseph was a young man with a dream. Actually, Joseph didn't just have one dream, he had two dreams. Now those two dreams all dovetail together into one desire, one thing that God had showed him that was going to be a reality in his life. There was, first of all, in verses 5 through 8, for sake of time, we're not going to read all of it again, there was the dream of the sheaves. a dream relating to the harvest, and it had to do with the resources and the riches of this world. And the harvest field would be symbolic of the world's resources, and Jacob's sons were seen reaping the riches of the world. But Joseph would outdo them all, and in some form, some fashion, they would bow down before him, and they would recognize God's plan and desires for Joseph. in a real and tangible way. This dream ultimately was fulfilled when Joseph was given charge of the granaries of Egypt and he controlled the world's resources that day. And in the end, his brothers would be forced to acknowledge God's plan and God's purposes and God's desires in Joseph's life. But then, normally in that dream, there was the dream of the stars, a dream relating to Joseph's future rule over the world, and the sun, the moon, the eleven stars. We know that Jacob helps us to understand exactly what he was talking about because he comes to him and he says, listen, should I and thy mother and thy brethren bow down? So, the son would refer to Jacob. The moon would be to Leah because Rachel, by this time, has already died and she's went to heaven, who had been Joseph's biological mother. She's already died and passed. She died giving birth to the twelfth son, Benjamin. So it would refer to Leah. The eleven stars would be the eleven brothers of Joseph that would one day bow before him and hear this dream foretold, God's plan of Joseph's future position as prime minister. of Egypt and his father and mother and eleven brothers falling down before him and doing obeisance and reverence to him because of those dreams and those desires and plans that God had for him. Now, can I tell you, those dreams reveal God's plan for his life. Can I say something before us tonight? Everyone needs to have a dream, a desire for their life. I need one. You need one. Everybody needs a God. given dream or desire. Now, I'm well aware that God doesn't speak to us in dreams the same way He did unto Joseph and others in the Old Testament. However, I do believe that God puts dreams and desires in our heart to do things for Him. Let me tell you what Philippians says. Philippians 2, 13, For it is God which worketh in you. both to will, that's the desire, and to do of His good pleasure. Can I tell you, God is at work in the hearts and the lives of His people to give them desires to do something for Him, things that are tangible, things that are real, things that God wants to use you to accomplish for Him. But not only does God give you the desire, thank God, He gives us the ability to do it. Amen? And God wants us to have a dream. Listen, I believe those dreams and desires involve His will for our lives. Can I tell you tonight, a church needs a dream. It needs a vision. It needs a desire for God. Proverbs 29, 18, where there is no vision, the Bible says the people perish. Church is not going to accomplish much for God without a vision and a desire and a dream to do what God wants to do through that church. And you know, it's been my desire as a pastor. I know that for Dr. Baker, in the 32 years he was here as pastor, he had desires and dreams, and God allowed those to become a reality. In our founding, God put in the heart of a group of people right here in King over 46 years ago to have a local church in this town, an independent Baptist church. Like they were driving to Winston, down in Winston-Salem, the old urban street Baptist church, Dr. Billy Martin, a pastor. Dr. Martin had a desire. He had a burden in his heart to plant a church. There's a group of people in his church that had a desire to plant one, and God brought them together. And hence, Calvary Baptist Church was formed and came into existence. And listen, little did anybody know what God would do. But it started with a dream. And it started with a desire. And it started with a vision of what God can do. And can I tell you now, 46 years later, we don't need to lose this idea of having a dream and a desire and a vision for God to do something great through our church. We don't need to lose that. Hey, there is a generation. I thought about that as Jennifer and John were singing. And I thought about how here was another generation serving God right here in this church. And can I tell you folks, there's a generation on our heels. And just as we've been handed something, we need to be ready to hand something to the next generation and on and on and on until Jesus comes. Amen? Hey, I hear this all the time. That at some point, that a church will go off into liberalism or neo-orthodoxy or go off into some kind of left field and cease to be what it ought to be. Hey, heaven forbid that happen right here. Hey, I believe there's a group of people that can stay strong, stay true to the Word of God. Hey, they can hold up the old blood-stained banner that Jesus saves and be faithful until Jesus comes. Amen? Hey, that ought to be our desire tonight, if nothing else, to end something in the next generation. I'm going to wear myself out in the introduction. I'm already tired. God, I wish I had all my energy. You all might not be able to stand it. It might be good that I'm just sort of spitting and huffing and puffing, alright? I'm going to tell you something. Hey, I may not have all my energy, but I haven't lost my dream and my desire. I can tell you that. God can give a pastor a dream and a desire for a church, but I tell you, it will never be fulfilled unless the people catch that vision. Lest they embrace it. Lest they come together. And I want to thank you for these years that I've been able to follow a great pastor. For you to be able to stand with me and continue to move forward. To see God do things in this place. And you know what? I just don't believe God's finished. Amen? Young people, you ought to have a dream tonight. You ought to have a desire. You say, Preacher, I've got a dream. I know what I'm going to do with my life. Let me ask you this. What about God's dream for your life? What about God's desires for your life? Hey, you say, Preacher, I know God saved me. If God saved you, He's got a purpose for you. And I'm going to tell you, doing anything other than the will of God is to be a failure. Hey, let's determine to start out of the gate with your life to say, God, it's not what I want, but what you want. Not my dream, but your dream. Not my desires, but your desires. Hey, God has something for you. Hey, He's got a plan for you. The Bible calls it the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You know what, dear friend? Hey, listen, God's will is profitable, it's pleasing, it's perfect, there's nothing better than God's will for your life. If I had a thousand lives, I'd give every one of them to Jesus Christ. I have absolutely no regret other than my failure in my own personal life of not being everything all the time that ought to be for God. Hey, I failed Him, but He's never failed me. Young person, I'm going to tell you something. God's got a bigger imagination than you do. You know, the Bible says that he can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think. And you can dream up some big dreams for yourself, but it will pale in comparison to what God has for your life. And you know what? I promise you this. When you sell out to God, you'll love what God has for you to be. But you know what? Not just the church needs a dream. Not just young people need a dream, but can I tell you, dear children of God, tonight, I don't care where you are in your life, you need a dream and a desire for what God can do. You say, Preacher, you don't understand. I'm now in my 60s or my 70s or my 80s. You know what? God's left you here for a purpose. He's got a plan for your life. It doesn't matter where you are in your stage of life, we ought to have something, some desire in our heart to do something for Him. I'm reminded of Lee Robertson. Lee Robertson was in his nineties. God used him in a powerful way. I remember the testimony of the people that were with him when the doctors told him that he was not going to make it. He wasn't going to survive in his nineties. Of this particular situation that has happened, Dr. Kim Dukes said, Dr. Robertson, I hate to tell you this, but you're not going to make it. And he said, oh, already? He said, in his 90s, he said, I had so much I wanted to do for God. Can I tell you, listen, we don't need to look for the retirement on God. We need to look where we can re-sign up to be everything God wants us to be in our day for Him. There's just no place to stop or quit. Amen? Let's stay faithful and keep going for Him. You know, God has a plan for you, and I believe you can impact the world for Him. And, you know, pastors and missionaries, we're not the only people that have a ministry. No, you have a ministry for God. Hey, you have a place. You have a purpose. And listen, I challenge you now, on this first Sunday night of 2 September 2017, if you don't have a dream, ask God to put something in your heart for your life, for your marriage, for your family, for this church. Hey, we need a dream from God. Amen? And realize it from Him. Someone asked Helen Keller if there was something worse than blind, and she said yes. She said having sight, but no vision. Having sight, but no vision. Let me ask you a question. What kind of vision do you have for your children tonight? What kind of vision do you have for your family, for your marriage, for your personal life, your spiritual life? What is it that God has for you? Listen, you can't realize a dream if you don't have a dream. So what you need to do first of all is have a dream and a desire from God. Amen? Number one, let me give you some things tonight. And I'm going to go until I get tired, and then when I get over, Kimo, we'll finish. How does that sound? Alright? You say, Preacher, it's not going to take you long. It looks like you're about ready to give out now. You're about right. Alright? Number one. Don't demand. If you're going to realize your God-given dream, don't demand to understand everything God does. Don't demand to understand everything God does. You know, the dream is there, but how you get there may be different than what you plan on. Listen, Paul wanted to go to Rome. He had a desire to go to Rome. You know what he thought he was going to do? He thought he would take a ship to Rome and get off on the other side and meet with the brethren and have an itinerant ministry and some preaching and evangelism. He had a desire to go, had a plan to go. God had other plans. He sent him as a prisoner. Sure did. But you know what? It had far-reaching effects. If it went Paul's way, he probably would have preached to some folks, seen some folks, but he had never stood before Caesar. He had never stood before the most powerful man alive on that day, excuse me, in that day, and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ to that man. Hey, listen, he had a dream, but God had a different way of getting there than what maybe he thought it would be. You know what? When you have a dream, God has His own way of getting us there. God doesn't always work according to our plans on our timetable. As a 17-year-old boy, Joseph had no idea all that he was going to face, all that he would have to go through before his dreams would be realized and fulfilled. I believe during that time, those 13 years, between the dream and the fulfillment of that dream, I believe he wondered how all of it fit into God's plan for his life, or how it would really even come true or even be realized. Listen, he teaches us, don't demand to understand everything God does. Hey, you know what? God realized in his dream it started out in a pit. His father sends him to check on his brothers, and he's wearing the coat, and his brothers hate him. And as he makes his way toward them, they begin to conspire how they're going to kill him. And one of them said, Hey, wait a minute. He's our brother. Let's not kill him. Let's just throw him in this pit. And so they don't know what he's going to do with him. So they got a hold of him. They ripped that coat off of him. They beat him up, threw him in the pit. And you know what? Those guys were so callous and hard-hearted. While he was down in that pit suffering, they sat down and had lunch. They had lunch. And not only was he in a pit, but then here comes a company of Ishmaelites, and they sell him into slavery. And then to cover up their act, they take his coat, and they kill a goat, and they put some blood on it, take it to his daddy, and say, hey, is this your son's coat? Boy, a lion must have got him. It broke Jacob's heart. But here he is in a pit, and now he's sold into slavery, and he winds up in Potiphar's house. He's there in Potiphar's house as a steward or as a slave. He winds up there, and everything's going good for him. I mean, God's blessing, doing good things. There's a problem, and it's called Potiphar's wife. Potiphar's wife set her sights on Joseph, began to tempt him, to commit immorality with her, and it became a daily thing. I mean, it vexed that young man. Seventeen years old, here's the master of the house, and no doubt, Potiphar's wife was a very beautiful woman. And she began to vex Joseph and tempt him to commit immorality day after day after day. And you know what? Finally, when he gets to the point that he says, no, Torah is enough times, and I'm not going to go through all of it right here, he winds up from a pit in a Potiphar's house into prison. He's in prison for doing right, by the way. He didn't do wrong, he did right. And he's in prison. You know what? He's getting further and further and further away from the dream that God had put in his heart. I mean, listen, I'm going to be a ruler and I'm in prison. was working in a way that Joseph could not understand. He could not see. It didn't make any sense to him. It wasn't working out according to plan. But you know what? You're going to find in one night, when the Pharaoh has a dream, he's going to go from the prison house to the palace. And you know what, friend? That wasn't the route probably Joseph would have picked. If God laid out a couple of paths to him and said, hey, which one do you want? I guarantee you, he wasn't going to choose the pit and Potiphar's house and prison. But that was God's plan because God was at work and knew how to get Joseph where he needed Joseph to be and prepare him for God's dream and God's desires to become a reality in his life. You know what? There's times that you and I go through difficult times. But hindsight is 20-20. Looking back on it all, Joseph clearly, could see God's purposes in his life. Look with me if you could, chapter 45 and verse number 7. Chapter 45 and verse number 7. Here he's talking to his brothers on the other side of all of it. And he's looking back on all that God's done. He's now Prime Minister of Egypt. Married children, realized God's dream in his life, and look what he says, verse 7. And God sent me before you to preserve your posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great love." He said, I just want you to know, hey, I don't understand it, you don't understand it, whatever took place and all the things that, whether it was the pit, whether it was the Potiphar's house, whether it was the prison, he said, I just want you to know, God sent me ahead to preserve you and protect you and to make things, hey, it wasn't just for me, I want you to know God was working in my heart and in my life for you as well. Look with me, if you would, chapter 50 and verse 20. But as for you, here's the brethren, they're afraid because Jacob's died that somehow or another Joseph is the prime minister of Egypt. He's going to exact revenge. He's going to get his pound of flesh. By the way, you know how we are sometimes? You just wait, I'll get you. I'll make you hurt like you made me hurt. That wasn't Joseph's heart at all, but the brethren, his brothers thought that's how it was going to be. Jacob wasn't there to protect him any longer. He's now gone. So they go to him and they say, listen, our father said that while he was alive that, listen, we're sorry, we ask you to forgive us for what we've done to you and all of that. And notice what Joseph says to verse 20. But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. You know, that's the Romans 8, 28 of the Old Testament. He said, you thought evil against me, but God made it under good to bring to pass, to realize the dreams, as it is this day, to save much people alive. You know what he didn't do? He didn't get up and boast and say, hey, I just want you to know that whatever God showed me, he brought it to pass, and I'm prime minister, and you just go ahead and bow down to me one more time. Let's go ahead and watch this take place one more time. I just want to show you that, hey, what God promised me way back there, 17-year-old boy, and how you treated me, and how you did me, and all of that, I just want to show you that it's a reality, and look at me, I'm the Prime Minister, and look at you. He didn't do that. No, he said, I just want you to know God meant it. You might have meant evil. You didn't understand everything He was doing, but I want you to know God turned it into good to save us alive this day. You know, maybe that's where you are tonight. Maybe you're in a position or in a place and God's doing things in your life and you don't even understand it. It's beyond your comprehension. You wouldn't understand it if He told us. Can I tell you that's where I'm at? That's where I'm at tonight, personally. Exactly where I'm at. There's nothing that I love more than traveling to the mission field and preaching, other than preaching right here at Calvary Baptist Church. Those are the two greatest loves that I have as a preacher. There's nothing like it in all the world. You get to preach here, and then you go and preach to people all around the world. There's nothing like it. Matter of fact, Brother Penix has been trying to lure me to Alaska for several years, and I just had never been able to put it into my schedule. And now I look at where I am, and I say to the Lord, I say, Lord, you know, I'll probably never go to the mission field again in my life. I don't understand. God, the last time you let me go to the mission field, you let me preach a tent meeting in a place that nothing like this had ever happened in this country. And Lord, we were getting ready to meet, and the next time we went and had the next tent meeting, we were going to have the president of this country there. Lord, you were putting us in contact with people in high-ranking places. We saw 150-some people come to Christ. God, you've opened this country up. The only English-speaking country in South America. You've opened it up that we can impact it for you. We put 150,000 gospel... John Romans, I don't know how many whole Bibles, I don't know how many of these. And listen, Brother Ron and them had been laying the groundwork for 13 years or better down in Guyana, and then God had opened the door for us as a church. And listen, God opening things on a scale that was baffling to me. And next thing I know, I'm fighting for my life. The next thing I know, I've got an incurable disease. Oh, I'm thankful because if it had hit me when I was in Guyana, they'd have been bringing me back in a body bag. I'd have never survived. I'm thankful God let me survive. I'm thankful that God allowed me to be where I'm at tonight. I'm thankful. I prayed to the Lord. I said, Lord, I want to live, number one. And number two, what I want to be able to do is pastor my church and love and take care and be with my family. Those are the things I prayed for. Well, He's given those in a measure. Oh, but every time I see a video like that, every time I think about the harvest fields of the world, And just so you can understand this, do you understand that the number of pastors that go to the mission field and preach is a minute number? It's not like pastors all over America are doing it. They'll take a revival mission to 50 or the lower 48, excuse me. Some might even venture to Alaska if you'll take them fishing on the boat. Am I right? See, I've never asked you about what kind of fish we'd catch. I just want to know what villages we'd go to. I wasn't there sightseeing and fishing and hunting. I was there to win souls. I'd even bought a little piece that I could carry up there with me to help keep the grizzly bears off of me, because I knew I was going to go at some point. I know there's a dream in there somewhere. I'm not sure how we're going to make that all work, but anyway. But I don't know why I'm on the sideline. I have no idea. I couldn't imagine the dream. And I'm saying, God, I don't understand. Or it didn't make any sense to me. But I can tell you this, God's got a plan. And I'm excited for it. And if God never allows me to go to the mission field again, I know what He's going to let me do. He's going to train men and ladies who are going to go to the mission field. He's going to let me invest my life in men that's going to take the gospel places that probably I'll never get to go, and places I'll never get to see, and impact the world through our association with Help Ministries in the future, impacting the world. And if I never leave the shores of America again, you know what? God will let me fulfill those dreams and visions through other people. Hey, He may let me go back. I don't know. I'm not sure. But that's a long time down the road. But I'm going to say, you see, you may be somewhere tonight thinking, I don't understand what God's doing in my life, preacher. And you know what? The truth is, we wouldn't understand if He told us. But I know this. I know that God doesn't cause all things, but He sure does use them all, doesn't He? And for as the heavens, Isaiah 55, 9, are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. He says in Romans 11, 33, his ways are past finding out. William Cowper caught it in a poem. He said God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds of never-failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs and works His sovereign will. You fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err, and skin his work in vain. God is His own interpreter, and in time He'll make it right. plain. And I don't understand everything God's doing in my life. I don't understand everything God does in your life. But you know what? There's going to come a time, just like He did for Joseph, that He'll make it plain. Hey, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Don't always have to understand what God's doing in your life. Hey, keep the dream. Keep the desire. Keep the vision in front of you. And keep going forward for the Lord. Job said, He knoweth the way that I take. When you can't trace His hand in your life, you can trust the heart of God for your life. I promise you that. Life, someone said, must be lived forwards. You have to keep going forward. Hey, there's another year, and as much as maybe we want to hold back, you can't hold it back. You're going to keep going. It has to be lived forwards. But it's understood backwards. Isn't that true? Looking back on it. And you know what? I don't know what God has for me. I don't know what God has for you. Hey, it might be one of these guys right here that God fulfills the desires and dreams that He put in my heart through one of these guys right here. Or through several of them. Sitting on this front row. Hey, getting a vision for what God has for your life, fellas. Boy, surrendering now and grasping hold of that and never looking back. I tell you what, you'll be glad that you did. You'll be glad you did. Some young ladies getting a vision for what God can do in your life and not turn it back. Church, keeping this place on fire for God, keeping it in the love of God, the will of God, the Word of God, staying true to God so that we can raise up a generation to impact our world for God after we're in heaven. Amen? That's what we want to do if Jesus doesn't come first. But if we lose the desire, and we lose the dreams, and we have to understand everything God's doing, and we quit, give up, and quit, you know what? We'll never realize everything God has for us. Never will. So tonight, because I'm out of gas, I'm out of fuel, can I encourage us to get a dream? God's given us a mission to honor Him, build lives, and reach others. Where are you in that process? Are you honoring God with your life, your marriage, your family, your finances, your personal life, your spiritual life, your recreational life? Are you honoring God with your life? You know, that's what we seek to do as a church, is to honor Him as a church in all that we do. To honor Him as a lady, to honor Him as a man, a young adult. Wherever you are in your stage of life, just say, you know what? Come what may, I'm going to honor God with my life, no matter what that looks like. and then to build lives, to build your own life first. Have you got a reading plan for the coming year in your Bible? You say, well, I don't know that I'm going to read it all the way through. I don't think that's the point. I think it's reading it every day is the point. It's not just going through your Bible. It's letting the Bible get in you. Now, if you read it through, praise God, I think that's a great achievement. And you ought to read the Bible through as many times as you can. But it's not just the process of reading it through. It's letting it get in me. Have you got a plan for your spiritual life for the coming year? What about your prayer life? Have you got a vision for your prayer life? Do you know that we've had some prayer warriors go to heaven and we have some more that in time, in time, they're going to be with the Lord? I hope it's a long time off, but nobody knows that. Who's going to fill the ranks and be the next people that's going to pray God's blessings upon this church? Who's going to teach the Sunday school classes? Who's going to work the children's churches? Who's going to fill the choirs? Who's going to run the buses? See, God wants to use you to do those things. God is looking for a generation right now to say, hey, I'll fill the ranks. God, count me in. I know what it's going to look like. I know how it's all going to flesh out. I don't know where you're going to place me, God, but I'm just going to put myself at your disposable. At your disposable. At your disposal. I think Brother Pinnock's got it right tonight when he said this. Being blessable. We need to quit praying, God, bless me. And start praying, God, help me to be blessable. Help me be somebody you can bless. Help me be somebody you can use. Help me be somebody that you can trust me with a dream for you. And that dream may be a Sunday school class. It may be a nursery. Thank God for nursery workers. Hallelujah. Listen, even during the week in preschool time, I have right behind me some two-year-olds. Sometimes, Brother Vernal will tell you, they sound like they're coming through the wall, and I know they're not. They sound that way. Sounds like a whole herd of elephants and buffalo and everything else are coming through that wall. I got some music I cut on and turn up that I can keep myself going, you know, mentally while I'm trying to study or read or whatever, you know. But you know what I think about? How that there's somebody impacting their little lives for Jesus Christ. I think about how those children go home and sing to parents who don't even go to church, who have no thought of God. Jesus loves me, this I know. And quote John 3, 16. And thank God for people that can work at a preschool and survive it. Hallelujah. Or a Christian school. or homeschool, or wherever it is that God has placed you. Work at a bus route. On your job, how you can impact the people where you work for Him. God didn't put you where you are just to draw a paycheck. If that's what you think, you missed it. He's put you there as His servant to reach those people around you for Him and let you draw a paycheck on top of it. But you're there as His servant, His missionary. It's your field of service. Have you got a dream, a desire? Do you want one? And say, God, use me. God, renew it. God, refire something in my soul to be used for you. I tell you what, you make yourself available, God will use you. He will. He's looking for willing vessels to fill and use for His glory right here at Calvary Baptist Church. And you know what? You think that you have to be a pastor or missionary to do something great for God, and you don't. It was a Sunday school teacher that led D.L. Moody to Jesus Christ. If it hadn't been a Sunday school teacher, when a shoe salesman, in his Sunday school to Christ, two continents may not have been reached, which set the stage for America to be what it is today. And it started with a Sunday school teacher that got a burden. So you don't have to be behind a pulpit. In Moses' life, it was a mama that had her boy for no more than three years and began to impress something in his life. And instead of being the prince of Egypt, he became the deliverer of his people. See, I'm just trying to tell you You don't have to be great. You don't have to be in marquee lights. You don't have to have your name in the bulletin. You don't have to be called out from the pulpit or get some type of a recognition plaque to be great for God. All you have to do is be a person that says, God, I want a dream and a desire from you wherever you are in your life, wherever you are in your stage of life. I just want that from you, God. And then you bring it to pass. And then don't demand to understand everything God's going to do. Because it may not work like you plan it. But I promise you this, God puts something in your heart, He's going to bring it to pass. He's going to bring it to pass. And God will use you in a way that's beyond anything you can imagine in your own life. But the question is, are we willing to step out and say, God, give me a dream. And then, God, work your plan in my life according to your will and not mine. I'm just your servant. That's what God's looking for individuals. He's looking for couples. He's looking for families. And He's looking for a church tonight to do that in our day. In our day. We're living in the best day we can live in to impact our world for Jesus Christ. You say, Preacher, you've lost your mind. I mean, people's trying to tear down Christianity in our day. Wow, that God would trust us was His truth to stand up for Him in our day. What a privilege. What a privilege in the closing hour of this age that God has chosen you and allowed this church to be risen up for such a time as this to make a difference. But we've got to grasp it. We've got to get hold of it. We've got to desire it. And we've got to submit ourselves to it. Are you willing to be that, as the song was tonight, that one? That one? Don't matter what anybody else is going to do. What are you going to do? See, Peter put it this way. And I know I'm keeping going. I'm going to stop and give an invitation. But Peter put it this way. He said, And Lord, what shall this man do? And the Lord said, Peter, what's that to you? You follow me. You can't wait on somebody else. What are you going to do? Jesus said, you follow me. Are you willing to follow tonight? Let's bow our heads.