One verse tonight, Genesis chapter number 37 and find verse 19. Trust you'll leave your Bible open as we may look at some other passages. Pretty much I'm just going to be giving you the snapshots, thumbnail snapshots of Joseph's life as we talk about realizing your God-given dream. Look, if you would, Genesis chapter 37. Find, if you would, verse number 19. And they said one to another. Now that's his eleven brothers. They despised him, they hated him, and they hated his dreams. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. They're talking about a young man by the name of Joseph. They said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Realizing your God-given dream. Now Joseph was a young man with a dream. But can I tell you tonight, he didn't just have any dream. He had God's dream. He had a dream that God had given him for his life. Now, when you read the verses prior to this, you'll find that God had given him that dream, the dream of the sheaves, and then the dream of the sun, moon, and stars. And it pictured his future rulership as prime minister of Egypt, that his brethren would come and bow down before him, that he would be over the resources of the world. And God, at the very outset of his life... Now, listen to me, young man and young lady, teenager. God had given him direction and a dream for his life. You know what? When I was 17 years old, God brought me to himself. I was saved by the grace of God. I have no regrets. I'm thankful that I came to Christ as young. I was a rebellious young man. I was a wicked young man. Listen, my family didn't know it. I was good at hiding it. I played the game. I played the game. I'd come to church. I'd say the right things. I could go through the motions. I had my grandma so fooled that later when I preached my testimony, she said, I don't believe a word of that. And I said, well, I'm going to tell you the truth, grandma. I was just as bad as I said I was. And you know what? I'm glad God brought me to Jesus Christ. You know, there's probably not a teenager in this room that was bad as what I was. You know that? And I'm going to tell you what, God had mercy on me. And God will have mercy on you tonight, too, if you're not saved. Boy, how important it is to know Christ's teenager. And you know what? It was at 18 years of age that God gave me my dream for life. I had no idea it involved Calvary Baptist Church. I didn't know all the details of it, but I knew in a service one night that there was a preacher preaching, and he got up and began preaching on denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Him. I'd been praying for God's ways, getting ready to graduate high school, didn't know what it was going to do with my life, I just know I wanted to do God's will more than anything else. I remember going forward that night and bowing before the Lord and said, Lord, I want to take up my cross and follow You, but I can't do it if You don't tell me what it is. And that night, God impressed upon my heart that He wanted me to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. And you know what? I went home and I told my granddaddy, and I said, you know, how do you know if God's calling you to preach? And he said, well, if you can do anything else, you just go ahead and do it. I thought, what kind of advice is that? You know? I mean, my goodness! You know what? A young man comes to me and he says, I don't know if I'm called to preach. I'll say, if you can do anything else, go do it. Because you know what? I can't do anything. This is God's dream for my life. I had absolutely no idea what it would look like. For some, it's to be a nurse. For others, it's to be a carpenter. Or whatever it is in life that God gives you. Don't limit God in giving you a dream. But I'm going to tell you what. Don't shut Him out. and not let Him give you a dream. Because I believe God has a desire and dream for everybody's life, no matter where we are in our life. It doesn't matter if we're saved, whether we're 8, 18, 28, 58, or 88. God has a plan and purpose for our life. He has a God-given desire for us as long as we're standing upright planet Earth. Amen? That means we're on this side of heaven. And so, I believe that those dreams reveal God's special plan for His life, and everybody needs that. I'm well aware that God doesn't speak to us in dreams the same way He did in Joseph's day and others in the Old Testament. But I do believe He puts desires in our hearts to do for Him. I believe He begins to impress upon us direction for our life. And you know, church, we need a vision from the Lord. And I look forward to sharing with you what God's put in my heart. As a matter of fact, I can't wait to share with you on January 22nd what God has for our church. It's going to be far different from anything we've ever done before. And I'm so excited about it because I believe it's going to change our church. I believe God's going to do a deep work in our hearts in the coming year. God's already started it in my heart and our staff's heart, and we've been praying over this thing and talking about it and discussing it, and God's just crystallized it in our hearts. I can't wait to give it to you here in just a couple weeks. You don't want to miss it. Amen? And you know, the Bible says where there is no vision, the people perish. And you know, church, if we lose our vision, if we lose our desires, our dreams for God, listen, then there's people that'll go without Christ. There'll be missionaries that'll go unsupported. There'll be bus routes that'll go undone, and Sunday school classes that are not taught. And listen, I believe that God gives us a dream. And listen, my prayer is that you'll catch the dream and the vision that God's put in my heart, and I'm looking forward to that. You know, young people, I'll tell you tonight, you need a dream from God. You say, Preacher, I've got a dream. Let me tell you something, your imagination is nowhere near what God's is. The Bible says He can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or even think. I couldn't think about the wife and two children that God gave me that are grown adults now. I couldn't imagine that. What a dream that was. And to be happily married these 27 years. I got it right. I got schooled on the way home from church. And I came down there, and I'm kidding. but she told me how to remember that and everything. Let me dig in a hole, let's just move on. So anyway, I didn't imagine what God was going to give me in a wife. I could imagine that. Most perfect thing in all the world for me. I couldn't imagine that. But you know what? I got the person God wanted. Listen, young people, don't get ahead of God in this matter of courting and getting ahead of God in who you're going to marry. Let God bring the right person into your life. You say, well, preacher, I don't have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. It's okay. That doesn't measure success in life. That doesn't measure your worth in life. What measures that is that I have God's person for my life. And you know what? There's many people sitting in this room that would tell you what I'm telling you right now. Don't make the mistake of getting ahead of God in this matter of who you marry. Let God fill in those blanks. Just determine that you're going to get God's desire and God's dream and God's will. Because listen, success. Listen to me, young people. Success. is finding the will of God early in life and then living in it for the rest of your life. Just letting God direct your steps. You say, well, preacher, I missed it at some point in my life. You know what the good news is? We have a God of the second and third and fourth and fifth chance. And you know what? When we mess it all up, God can make it all right again, can't He? And He can renew those dreams and those visions. Somebody said this. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and all of that, and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put him back together again. A little girl listening to that fairy tale said, well, God can put him back together again. And you know what? God can put our lives back together again. And He can restore the years that the locusts have eaten. And I just want to tell you, God can have something greater for you. You can't even imagine it. You can't see it all right now. Joseph didn't know all the details. He didn't know he was going to be prime minister. He just knew that God had a desire for his life, and Joseph was a young man that set out to do His will. Listen, can I tell you, His will is the most perfect thing in all the world for you. It is tailor-made for you, and nobody else can fulfill it. And listen, it doesn't matter where you are in your spiritual life, God has desires for you and dreams for you. And you know what? I know we all sit down and talk about New Year's resolutions. I believe when you wrap your arms around God's dream and God's desires for your life, it's not a New Year's resolution. It is a spiritual change and transformation that takes place in our life. It's something we can wrap our arms around that's different and brings joy to our lives because we're doing God's will. And you know what? Every man who's married ought to be praying for God's will and God's desires for his marriage. Every wife in this building needs to be praying about God's desires for her as a wife and as a mother, maybe your grandparents now, and desires in your heart of how you can impact the lives of your grandchildren and how God can use you in different ways. And maybe it's your family. Listen, desires for your family, desires in your church ministry, in your own individual spiritual life. What do you want from God in the coming year spiritually that will transform you and make you different? Listen, God, When you and I get serious with God, God has something that He wants in our lives. Areas of ministry, areas of service. Somebody asked Helen Keller if there was something worse than blindness, and she said yes, to have sight, but no vision. And listen, I'll tell you tonight, you need to get a vision and a desire and a dream about what God wants for your life and how He can use you. And I'll tell you what, you get serious with God and He'll show you. He's not in heaven trying to play hide and seek with you. I hear this all the time, a preacher pray, I'll do the will of God. I understand what you're praying. But you know what? Let's start doing what He's told us to do. And then as we get serious with Him and we surrender and submit, He'll make the way plain and He'll give it to you. And He'll show you what He wants from your life. And you know what? The good news is, not only does God give us the desires, He gives us the ability to do it. Amen? And be what He wants us to be. Let me tell you, how do you get it? And I'm going to go real quickly tonight. Number one, I mentioned this the last week, didn't get any further than that. Don't demand that I understand everything God does. God doesn't always work according to our timetables, our plans. Joseph was a 17-year-old young man when God began to give him these dreams. He had no idea all he'd go through, all he'd face before God would make those dreams a reality in his life. I'm sure he wondered how all of it fit into God's plan for his life, or if his dreams would ever come true. I mean, as a 17-year-old boy, his 11 brothers, they come up, or 10 of his brothers come up, and they hate him, and they see him coming, and they jump on him, and they beat him up, and they rip that coat of many colors, and they throw him in a pit. Then they sent him into slavery in Egypt and he's in Potiphar's house. I mean, hundreds of miles away from home in a heathen land as a slave boy there in an Egyptian home. I'm imagining in my mind how in the world that Joseph is sitting there thinking, God, what in the world are you doing in my life? And then he goes from Potiphar's house to the prison house. And it's not his fault. He didn't do anything. He did right and wound up in jail. And so he's now in jail, and God is working all of this out in his life. And you know what? He couldn't see what God was doing. But you know what, Joseph? He trusted God through all of it. And you know what? I may not be able to trace everything that God's doing in my life, but I tell you what, I can trust His heart for my life. Amen? That He's too wise to ever make a mistake. He's too loving to ever be unkind. Hindsight is 20-20. Looking back on it all, Joseph told his brothers, he said, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And aren't you glad that God is at work in our lives, and He knows the way that we take, and that we can trust Him. And listen, if you say, well God, I'm going to do Your will, but you show me how it's all going to work out for Him. God doesn't work that way. No, no. I just need to submit and say, God, whatever it is, whatever it takes, that's what I'm willing to do. Hey, when I did that as an 18-year-old young man, I had no idea that I'd face an incurable disease. I didn't know that was part of God's plan for my life. I didn't know that would limit my ministry for a time being. But yet at the same time, I believe God's enriched my spiritual life and my family and my marriage and enriched my relationship with you as a church through all of this. And you know what? You can't put a price tag on those things. You can't. I've watched God work. I've already seen the blessings and the fruit of it. And friend, listen, I told the Lord, I said, Lord, I don't know everything you're doing, but I said, I'll tell you what, I know you know what you're doing, so sign me up. That's what I told him. Number two, don't expect everybody to share your dream. A young person will tell you something. Not everybody is going to get on board when you say, God wants me to do this. There's just people, friends, who are going to make fun of you. Sometimes parents can discourage you. Why in the world do you want to give your life to ministry? Why don't you go out there and be somewhere where you can make a living and do this and do that? And why in the world would you want to go to some place like Africa for me, be thousands of miles away? And you know what? I've said this many times. I would rather one of my children or both of my children be a thousand, ten thousand miles away from me in Africa doing God's will than their life being destroyed by sin out of God's will right here breaking my heart. Now, I have no idea what God's going to do, and you don't have any idea what God's going to do in your life and with your children. But you know what? We need to be willing to give them to God. Amen? And let Him have control. He was misunderstood by His Father. His Father said, Joseph, am I and your mother going to bow down to you and your eleven brothers? His brothers hated Him for it. They conspired against Him. He was persecuted by Potiphar's wife, who made advances toward Him of an immoral nature, and He stood for God during that. And then she had Him... She slandered him, and she falsely accused him, and he wound up in jail. And then you know what? He was talked to a butler and a baker who had dreams, and he interpreted them. And the baker, he was hanged, as Joseph said he would, and the butler was restored to his butlership there before Pharaoh. And here's what he said to the butler. He said, now listen. He said, when you get before Pharaoh, he said, would you remember me? Would you remember me? And you know what the Bible says? Look at it over in chapter 40. Would you turn there? And I want you to look in chapter 40 verse 23, and I want you to see this. He was forgotten. Can you imagine that? Here he's in jail, falsely accused. He's in prison. In verse 23, he's got a chance to get out. And he said, I've been falsely accused, verse 23, yet did not, look at this, chapter 40, verse 23, yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. He forgot him. Can you imagine the hope that welled up in Joseph's heart and saying, you know what? The butler's going to talk to Pharaoh. I'm going to get out of here. And then the days went by, and the months went by, and the years went by. Hope deferred, the Bible says, maketh the heart sick. Do you realize tonight that not everybody's going to share your dream? And there's times that you'll feel like that you've been forgotten even by God at times. And I'll tell you something, God knows exactly where you're at. He knows what you're going through. He knows what His plan is for your life. He knows where He wants to place you. He knows what He wants to do. He's in charge. Listen, you say, preacher, you don't understand. I've been in a tight spot and I've been praying and praying and praying and nothing's happening, can I tell you? Hey, listen, you may be forgotten by people, but you know what the Bible said over and over and over again? Even though Joseph may not have seen it, he may not have felt it, he may not have understood it, He may have lost hope in his heart. The Bible said over and over again, but the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. And I'm here to tell you that God hadn't forgotten where you are. He's hearing those prayers. He's waiting on a time of surrender and commitment from you to get to the place where He can answer that prayer in your life. Number three, jot this one down. Don't fail to be faithful. God doesn't require us to be successful, but He does require us to be faithful. You know that? Listen, if we measured preachers by success and numbers and how many people get saved and all of this, Noah would be a colossal failure. Preached 120 years, nobody got saved. His family was already saved. They already knew the Lord. They had already embraced the faith of Noah. They went into the ark. Nobody 120 years preaching. Nobody got saved. He'd have been a failure. Isn't that true? God doesn't require us to be successful. He requires us to be faithful. Leave the success to God. Sunday school teacher, I know there's times, and I can go on and on, bus worker, whatever it is, children's church, whatever you do, there's times you can beat your head against the wall and wonder if anybody's listening to anything. Isn't that true? Sometimes I even feel that way preaching to adults. Are we accomplishing anything? You know what I'm saying? But the truth of it is, God didn't tell me to look at the results. God told me just to be faithful. And I'll tell you something, you're making a difference whether you ever know it or not. There's an impact being made. You say, Preacher, how do you know that? Because God made a promise to every one of us that when this book goes forth, it'll accomplish that that He sends it out today. Amen. And listen, he was faithful in service. It didn't matter whether it was at his father's house that resulted in him being elevated to being the overseer of his father's flocks and his brethren, which they hated him for, whether it was Potiphar's house overseeing his goods. As a matter of fact, the Bible said that Potiphar had entrusted everything that he had to Joseph, didn't know anything about his finances and how things were going. He entrusted every bit of that to his slave Joseph. The only thing he held back was his wife. Everything else. He said, you're in charge of all of it, Joseph. I've already found that when you're in charge, God blesses me. He didn't know all about God, but I'll tell you what, he was quickly learning, wasn't he? There's something different about this boy and his God, and his God was blessing him, and he's blessing me as a result of it. And you know what? He was faithful there. He could have just threw his hands up and said, hey, I'm a slave. God, you put me here. Have a bad attitude about where he's at, and be miserable all that time, and never realize his dream. He went down to the prison house. He could have got bitter on God. He went to Pharaoh's house. Everywhere he was, he was faithful. Let me just tell you what I wrote down. Joseph bloomed where he was planted. It didn't matter where he was at. It didn't matter what he was doing. It didn't matter where he was placed. He just bloomed where he was planted. He just said, OK, God, this is where You've placed me for right now, and so I'm just going to bloom right here. I'm just going to make a difference for You. And you know what? I believe that's what God wants for us to do. Listen, if God can't trust you to do the little things in life, how can He ever trust you to do the big things in life? How can He ever? Listen, if God couldn't have trusted me with 18 people back 26 years ago, then God would have never allowed me to be able to lead and pastor here at Calvary Baptist Church tonight. If I'd have been faithful there, if I'd have said, well, God, if you can't give me no more than 18 people, I'm just going to give this thing up. Or I could have got a bad attitude when other friends of mine that graduated college was already pastoring larger churches and larger ministry, getting greater accolades. And I was up on a hill in a rough area where drug deals went down while the van... We had to wait on the drug deal to go down. You're in Bible school to go to the other side of the neighborhood to pick up kids to bring to our Bible school. I watched a shootout take place between two drug gangs through our fellowship hall window. Never bothered us one time. Never. The police officers would stage in our parking lot to go up and do and raid drug houses above where our church was. But you know what? We were a lot in that neighborhood. And over 16 years of faithful ministry in a hard place where I had men come and tell me, you can't do anything on this hill. I watched God do a miracle on that hill. And when I left, there was over 225 people. And the majority of them was there under the ministry that God gave me. Because you know what? Even during the hard times of adversity, and I didn't know what God was doing in my life, I just determined I was going to be faithful. And God put His hand on it and blessed it. And friend, if I'd never have done that there, Let me come here. And listen, I just want to tell you, if you'll do what God tells you to do, and you'll be faithful in the little, God will expand that and give you the much. He was faithful in self-control. In a time of temptation, he refused the advancements of Potiphar's wife. And daily, daily, she would make immoral advances toward him. Seventeen-year-old boy. No doubt she was a beautiful woman. No doubt she was. And I can imagine the battle that must have raged in his heart and mind. But I want you to look at something. Look if you would in verse number 9 of chapter 39. Look what it said. Joseph is talking to her. And notice he said, "...there is none greater in this house than I, neither hath he Potiphar kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife." How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against who, church? You know what? There wasn't anybody looking. His mom and daddy wasn't there. His brothers weren't there. The other people that knew the Lord in the household weren't there. There was nobody. He was hundreds of miles away. Nobody would know where he was at and what he was doing, but he realized there was somebody that knew. God knew. And he said, listen, it's not a matter of Potiphar, and it's not a matter of you, and it's not a matter of anybody else. He said, it's a matter of my relationship with the God of heaven. He said he was faithful in time of temptation. He was faithful in self-control. Hey, when the advancement came, he said, how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And verse 12 said, "...he left his garment in her hand, because she grabbed hold of him and fled and got him out." And I know you've heard a dozen preachers say, Joseph lost his coat, but he kept his character. But you know what? I'm going to say it again. He lost his coat, but he's kept his character. Because listen, I don't care how old we are. I don't care where we are in life. Listen, you won't go very far in life without character. Do you know the Greek word for character means to cut, to engrave, to make a furrow? That is something far different from a pencil mark. You know what? I make a little pencil mark in my life. You can rub that out. You cut a line with an engraving tool in wood or metal. You can't just rub that out. Friend, a true godly character is something that is impressed. Now listen to me, church, tonight. It is impressed or cut into the very fabric of our being as Christians. It is what we are for God. Bob Jones Sr. said, character is what you are in the dark. Somebody said, character is what you would be willing to do if you knew no one would ever find out. Young person, let me ask you a question. If you knew no one would ever find out, what would you do with your cell phone? What would you look at on it? Your computer. I ask us adults that tonight. If we knew, what would we be willing to do if we knew nobody would ever find out? I just want you to know there's two people that always know, you and God. Somebody said, when wealth is lost, nothing is lost. When health is lost, something is lost. But when character is lost, all is lost. Don't fail to be faithful. If you want God's dream for your life, you want His desires, you want Him to work and use you, then listen, don't fail to be faithful. And this is number four, I want you to get it. Don't bow to bitterness. If anybody had a right to be bitter, Joseph did. How many agree with that tonight? I mean, God gave him a great dream. He's excited about it. His daddy didn't like it. Brothers hated him. Put him in prison, a pit. Sold him into slavery. He wound up in prison. I mean, he was forgotten in prison. I mean, he could have been bitter at his brothers, bitter at his daddy, bitter at Potiphar's wife, bitter at the butler, bitter at God. Can I tell you that if Joseph didn't have a right to be bitter, you don't either? Let me take that one step further. You think about what they did to Jesus Christ. Our Lord went about doing good, the Bible says. And they conspired against Him. They spat on Him. They scourged Him. They crucified Him. And He had never done anything wrong. He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And bitter will mess up your spiritual life, your family life, your personal life. Don't bow to bitterness. Young person, you may be bitter at your parents right now. Don't bow to bitterness. There may be adults in this room and you're still bitter at a parent that maybe they're no longer alive. There's people that could be bitter at an ex-spouse. There could be people bitter at other people for simply things that are said or done. I'm just here to tell you, if Joseph didn't have a right to be bitter, and Jesus didn't have a right to be bitter, you and I don't have a right to be bitter tonight. We're sinning against God of heaven. It'll short-circuit God's dreams in our life, and you'll never realize everything God wants for your life, for your family, and for your future. Here's three basic reasons God will allow difficulties into your life. And once you get it, jot it down. I'm going to be done here in just a minute. First of all, God will allow difficulties in our lives in order to break us. You say, Preacher, what do you mean? You ever went through the Bible and noticed all the broken things that God has used? I got a little... You know, I'm a quote fanatic. And I tweet a lot of those things out from time to time that strike me. I've got a lot of them in the margins of my Bible. I put one on a sticky note on my computer. Not a real sticky note like what Brother Eco uses. It's one of those kinds of computerized sticky notes. And you type it. OK? It's not those kinds you know that you write on. But anyway, I have it on my computer. Here's what it says by A. W. Tozer. For God to use a man greatly, he must wound him deeply. I put that on my computer three years ago. I thought I'd been wounded many times, but never like this. And it could be that there was areas in my life that God had to break to make me better and more usable for Him. I don't know. Because I don't see everything God's doing. There's times that God lets you go through what you're going through. Listen to me, young preachers in the room. Listen to me. God at some point will break. You say, oh, I've already been broken. I surrender to the will of God. Oh, no, no, no. There will be a life of brokenness. It's not always this kind of stuff. It's not always sick. There's times that God brings us to where we only have Him to lean on. You ever been there? Somebody said that trials are God's megaphone to get our attention. I don't believe that every time that God allows a trial in my life is God breaking me. I told you there's three reasons, but one of them could be. One of the first things I prayed when I got sick is, God, is there something in my life that I don't know about, that I've let go in my life that's wrong and it's hateful to you? Because God, if I'm not right with you and that's what's in the way, I want to get it out of the way right now. That was the first prayer I prayed. God, if there's some hidden sin in my life that I'm not aware of because I've let it be there for so long that I've gotten used to it and comfortable with it, You make it plain. You get my attention. I'll confess it. I'll deal with it. Psalm 119 verse 67, the psalmist said, Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. It's amazing when God has to wound us, how He brings us back, and we're so much more willing to be obedient to Him. Because many times, some of the strives and struggles that we have, we bring on ourselves, don't we? Number two, in order to build us. I've preached on this many times out of James chapter 1. We just preached on that a few weeks ago. 1 Peter 5.10, the fiery trial, which is to try you. The trying of our faith is more precious than gold. Somebody said trials are God's divine gymnasium whereby He develops our spiritual muscles. It's through the trials and difficulties of life that God strengthens and builds our faith. It's teaching us to depend on Him. I learn so much more. I don't enjoy the valleys, but I tell you what, I learn more about God in the valley than I do on the mountaintop. We go on the mountaintop too much and too long, we start coasting. Somebody said, if you're coasting, always know you're going downhill. You're going to get in a valley at some point. Number three, now this is going to be the hard one to understand. Not only to break us and to build us, but sometimes God wounds us and allows difficulties in order to bless us. I don't understand that. Somebody wrote this down. The thickest cloud may bring the heaviest shower of blessing. I'll try to put some of these on my Twitter account where you can get them, or you can call the office if you want some of these quotes, and the secretaries will get them to you. Okay? The thickest cloud may bring the heaviest shower of blessing. Wow. I've said many times that adversity will either make you better or it will make you bitter. Joseph allowed his circumstances to make him better and not bitter. He realized his God's given dream because he didn't bow to bitterness. Let me give you the last thing and I'm done. We've said, don't demand to understand everything God does. Don't expect everyone to share your dreams. They're not all going to share your dreams. Don't fail to be faithful. I've had many college students here in Bible college, it's their parents were against what they were doing. I can't imagine that. I can't imagine it. Don't fail to be faithful. Number four, don't bow to bitterness. Number five, determined to wait upon God. Joseph had to wait. I'll give you this and we'll be finished tonight. It was 13 long, hard years from the time Joseph was sold into Egypt until God elevated him to the prime ministership of Egypt, second in command, the second most powerful man in the world. He probably thought his dreams would never come true, but Joseph didn't push the providence of God. He waited on the Lord. You know, every time I've pushed the providence of God, I got in trouble. I'll tell you this little quick story and I'll move us on. We needed another car. Most of our first years of marriage, we only had one car. And I dropped Lori off to work back when she worked before she came home with our children. I dropped her off, and then I would come to college, drive 100 miles one way to the school. I'd finish up, drive 100 miles back, and she'd be waiting on me, and I'd pick her up, and we'd go home, and stuff like that, one car. And we needed another car, we felt like, and so we really couldn't afford it, but we're just gonna step out by faith, you know? And we found, well, I found this little red car. I just couldn't do without, had to have it. And I began to pray about it, and I knew in my heart, I knew that I shouldn't have did it, but you ever wanted something so much anyway, you just do it anyway? And I did it anyway. I finagled and worked this thing out to where I got that thing. It wasn't that God wanted me to have a car, He wanted me to have that car. Tell you what happened. First time, we drove it off the lot fine. We took it off up to a family picnic up on the mountain where our family's from. And we was going to show off this shiny red car. It wasn't new. It had plenty of miles on it, believe me. And it wasn't new to us. We got it up there. And we were on the top of Blowing Rock. We're actually on past that in a place called Oh my, it left me. It was funny when I tell you the name of it, Meat Camp. How many of you know Meat Camp is above Boone? I got about four or five people, okay? I was in Meat Camp. It's a good place to fish, used to be. We've cleaned out the creeks by now, but it used to be a pretty good place to fish. But we would, for trout, we would stop up there, and we was going to go there, and we were leaving, okay? And I had a mitt borer pulled off the gravel onto the highway, and the transmission came out and fell down on the road. It locked up. Is that possible, Jim? Okay, I thought it was. It was bad. Because I just felt it, and it stopped. It wasn't going anywhere. And it was like, told you. You ever had that? And the funny thing is, or the ironic thing, it's so hard sometimes to learn, isn't it? To wait on Him. Joseph didn't push providence. Somebody said there's no panic in heaven, only plans. Young person, don't listen to me tonight. What God promises in your life, He'll perform. He's never early. He's never late. He's always on time. The problem is, I'm in a hurry and you're in a hurry, and God's not. We don't wait. We want to start out on top. And I'm here to tell you, you have to crawl before you can walk. You've got to walk before you can run. Isaiah 40, 31, But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Vance Havner said, He who waits on God loses no time. Can I tell you these five principles that I'm giving you is the Word of God? Not only can I tell you they're accurate because they're from the Bible. I'll tell you what, I've lived them. All five. And I'm realizing his dreams for my life, but you know what? He's got more for me to dream about. And I'm not going to stop dreaming until God's ready to take me to heaven. And I pray and I say, God, help me to dream again. God put burdens on my heart. I'll turn 50 here in about a month and a half, and you know what? I'm just getting started. I'm excited about what God has for our future. I don't know what all's in front of me. You know what I'm saying? But as long as I'm alive and kicking, I know God has something for me to do. Amen? God's got something for you or He wouldn't have left you here. And I want you to reach out and get a hold of it. And don't miss it. And what God has for you is just as exciting and precious and real as what He has for me. God doesn't just have dreams for preachers. He's got them for everybody. Maybe the reason you don't have one is you haven't asked Him for it yet, or not submitted yourself to it, or not embraced it. And the best time to do that, young man, young lady, adult tonight, is now. Young adult, get God's desire for your life. Get God's mate. Get God's plan. Get God's future. Let God direct your steps. Let Him do it. But it doesn't happen until first of all we submit to Him and begin to apply the principles that helps us at the end of life to have realized His dreams for us. Let's stand to our feet.