Let the angels sing the words that brought an
offering. Peace on earth began in Bethlehem.
Oh, yeah. was in my early 20s I had a child who
was about a year old I was not married I was
living with my girlfriend I was not engaged and
we slept together in the same bed and we fought
a lot a lot of issues that kind of thing we were
working our way through what it means to kind
of like have two separate incomes and two separate
ideas of how to spend money and two separate
sets of debts. My debts were far worse than hers.
And one morning, I woke up and she was gone.
She'd gone to work. And I realized at that moment
that I didn't want to live the rest of my life
without her. It's on. Trust me. It's not on.
It says it's on. It's definitely going to sound
better. Got it now? All right. So I realized
at that moment when I woke up and she was gone
that I didn't want to live the rest of my life
without her. And from that moment on, I purposed
that I would ask her to marry me. I was pretty
cowardly back then, and I didn't really know
what the results were. So I kind of probed it
and talked about it. She talked about it before,
about being willing to get married, that kind
of thing. And as I was writing this message,
I realize now that I've told that story that
I just told to you probably a dozen times. I've
told it a lot of times in marriage Bible study.
I've told it a lot of times in a private counseling
session, private discussion about relationships
and things like that. And I realize now that
I miss an important part when I tell that story
because as I was preparing this message, I was
thinking about dreams. And the message is about
dreams. We're going to talk about what dreams
are and what they can be. And I realize now that
the night that I woke up that day and said, I
don't ever want to live without her, that right
before I woke up, I had a dream. Now, all these
years, I'd forgotten about the dream. I remembered
the not wanting to be without her, being willing
to get married, that kind of thing. But I had
forgotten the dream. And then as I was preparing
this message, the Lord brought it back to me.
In my dream that night, I was living my life
without. my girlfriend who would become my fiance,
who would become my wife. And I was going about
my daily life, working, doing various things,
and she never came into the dream. That's all
it was. She was just absent from the dream. That
was it. And when I woke up, I realized that I
didn't want her absent from my life. What I want
to say to you is that The dream that took place
right before I woke up was probably more important
than the realization that I wanted to have her
as my wife. In Matthew 2, verse 12, it says,
And having been warmed by God in a dream not
to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own
country by another way. In Matthew 1 .20, an
angel visits Joseph in his dream and tells him
that it's okay to go ahead and take Mary as his
wife. In Matthew 2 .20, He is later warned not
to take his family and flee because they will
seek the death of the child. It's not just there.
It's not just Joseph. It's pretty important that
it was about Jesus. It's pretty important that
it was about saving the baby Jesus, about carrying
out God's plan. Those things are all pretty important.
But actually, if you look in the Bible, you'll
find lots of opportunities, lots of times where
God spoke to people in dreams. There's the dream
to Abimelech. In Genesis 20, where God warns
King Abimelech through a dream not to touch Sarah,
who is Abraham's wife, even though Sarah and
Abraham lied to him and said that Sarah was Abraham's
sister, when she was, in fact, his half -sister,
not by the same parent or set of parents. The
dream of Abimelech is an example of a dream that
went to a man who was clearly not a Christian,
and he had to make a decision to do the right
thing. There's a dream... To Jacob, we studied
this on a Tuesday night recently. In Genesis
28, Jacob is fleeing from his brother Esau. He
lays down on a rock for a pillow. And as he's
laying there, he has a dream of a ladder reaching
to heaven and angels ascending and descending.
And then after the dream, God reaffirms his covenant
to Jacob and names him Israel. That's clearly
a dream to a non -Christian. Joseph, throughout
history, starts with dreams about his brothers
represented by... sheaves of wheat all bowing
down to him. They get mad at him. They sell him
into slavery, and he becomes the dream interpreter.
He first interprets dreams for some men who are
in prison. One, he says, well, you're going to
go back and serve Pharaoh. The other says, Pharaoh's
going to take your head. And both of those things
come true. Later, he's called to interpret Pharaoh's
dreams, and he interprets those dreams and becomes
second man in all of Egypt. Through that plan,
God saves his entire family as they come to Egypt
and get food to eat when there's a terrible famine
going on in the land. And they ultimately move
into the land of Goshen where they will stay
for over 400 years until long later under a pharaoh
who doesn't remember all that Joseph did for
Egypt. They are harshly enslaved and God calls
his people out of that. The prophet Daniel interprets
dreams on more than one occasion. And then we
get into the New Testament and we see the dream
of the Magi, the dream of Joseph. And let us
not forget the dream of Pilate's wife when Pilate
is actually sort of holding Jesus on trial and
deciding what to do with him, Pilate's wife says,
don't have anything to do with this righteous
man. I have suffered much in a dream today because
of him. And she warns Pilate not to go ahead
with the crucifixion, and yet they do. And then
still later in Acts 16, Paul has a, quote, a
vision at night. He has a vision at night of
a man in Macedonia pleading for help. We believe
that it's entirely possible that that man, or
at least out of that going to that man, comes
Luke. who then writes the book of Luke and Acts.
The vision at night led Paul to travel to Europe
to spread the gospel. So here is my question.
Might God speak to you in a dream? The answer,
of course, is yes, because God can do anything
he wants. All things are possible with God. But
is it more likely that God will speak to you
in a dream than that he will not speak to you
in a dream? God is the same yesterday, today,
and tomorrow. He has spoken to non -Christians
and Christians in dreams. So why would he not
speak to you or to me in a dream? The answer
is, of course, he would and he could. The question
is, is there enough room in your dreams for God
to do so? Is there enough room in your dreams
for God to speak to you in a dream? The things
that we focus on all day fill up our dreams.
We dream about a new job, a different situation,
a stressful problem that we're having at work,
etc. Our subconscious mind burns off stress from
the things that we experience all day long, and
that's what you encounter as you dream. The things
that you focus on all day fill up your dreams,
and our subconscious mind works through them
and deals with the stress so we can be healthy.
Now, the truth is you don't remember much of
what you dream. And if it is resolved in your
dream, in other words, it has come to completion,
then when you awake, a lot of times you'll not
remember it. So if you move past the REM state,
that's where you have a lot of your dreams, the
REM state or stage one sleep are the two places
that we dream. And if you move past the dream
out of REM state into another stage of sleep,
then when you awaken, you most likely will not
remember the dream. There's a lot of people say,
I don't dream. Let's take a survey. In this room,
if you would say you don't dream, raise your
hand. You say, I don't have dreams. I see one.
One person, two people. You say, I don't have
dreams. When I'm sleeping, three people, four
people. Okay. So scientifically speaking, it's
been pretty much proven that roughly 2 % of people
don't dream. A lot of people think they don't
dream, but the reality is they do. but they don't
remember their dreams when they awake. Dreams
are a cleansing process of your subconscious
mind. So you have them, but you complete them.
If you think you don't dream, 98 % likely you
are a person who completes their dreams. And
then it being completed or resolved when you
awaken, you don't remember it. Which is a problem,
because if God gave you a message in a dream,
then odds are when you awaken, you would not
remember the dream. That's the problem. But it's
not that you would not have the dream or that
you're not having the dream, at least most likely.
Rather, instead, you are dreaming and not remembering
what you dream. If God spoke to you in a dream,
could you discern it from the many other things
that are going on in your head? When you awaken
in the morning and go, oh, I got to rush. I got
to do this. I got to do that. I've got my routine.
I got to make my coffee or get my breakfast or
jump in the car, drive to work. Oh, am I late?
I got to check my watch first thing. When you're
doing all of those things in the morning that
you do when you first wake up, could you remember
and discern that there was a message from God?
I submit to you, for those of you who say you
never dream, probably not. For those of you who
say you dream but you hardly ever remember your
dreams, you know you have in the past, but you
don't usually remember them. Probably not. If
you don't remember the dream, how would you possibly
discern it as a vision from God? Does God speak?
Well, if you're a Christian, you better be able
to say yes. If you're sitting here under teaching
and in his word today, then you know that he
speaks through his word. That's like the minimum.
But does he speak to people's hearts? According
to the Bible, the Holy Spirit will come and he
will teach us or explain to us all things that
Jesus laid out for us. So based on that one text
alone, God speaks to your heart through the Holy
Spirit. And I submit to you then, that is a thing
in your life. Notice that even with non -Christians,
the Holy Spirit would also come and convict all
men of their sin. So when someone is convicted,
they are feeling or sensing or hearing something.
That is a thing in their life. So God is at work
in people's lives, and he's speaking to us in
a variety of different ways. And so when you
go to sleep, your subconscious mind will address
the fact that throughout that day, you experienced
gravity, you got cold, you ate, you ate spicy
food, you had upset stomach or did not. You got
a job, got a promotion, lost a job, desired to
have another job, got stressed on your job, argued
with somebody, didn't argue with somebody. Your
subconscious mind will process all of that and
along with it process the fact that God has been
convicting you of your sin and if you're a believer,
talking to you in your heart. Does God speak?
Of course we know God speaks. Does he speak in
a variety of ways? Yes, he does. Does God care
about the daily events of our lives? We've seen
that at least three times and really hammered
it home on a Tuesday night a little over a month
ago about how God cares about our right now.
He cares about what you're going through, what
you're doing right now. If you're sitting there
tired today, God cares that while you're sitting
under the teaching of God's word, you're tired.
If you're in pain today, God cares that while
you're sitting under the teaching of God's word,
you're in pain. If you're understanding what
I'm saying, he cares that you understand it.
If you're not understanding, he cares that you're
not understanding. God cares about your right
now and the daily events of your lives. And he
is with us through those things. So if I have
a remembrance dream, a dream about myself walking
on the beach, and if I am walking on the beach
with Sherry, Sherry will be in my dream because
Sherry is on the beach with me. My ears hear
her sand crunching underneath her feet. My ears
hear her breath. I feel her hand. If I'm holding
her hand or she's holding onto my arm, I hear
the conversation that we are having. In the same
way, if you are dreaming, your subconscious is
going to process your dreams as if God were functioning
with you throughout the day. Because he is indeed
with you throughout the day. You feel his presence.
You hear his voice. You feel his conviction.
This is what Jesus died for. He didn't just die
to pay the price for our sins. He died for a
relationship with us in which we have a presence
with him and he has a presence with you. He wants
you with him for an eternity. He began that on
the cross long before you or I were ever born.
Then when you were born, he desired from the
moment you took your first breath to spend time
with you. And that's what he's doing. His presence
is with you. His presence is with you when you're
sleeping, when you're dreaming. So the question
is, how do we... become a people that receives
the messages of God and delivers them to people.
That's what a disciple is, right? A disciple
receives the messages of God through his work,
through his teaching, etc., and I submit to you
through dreams, and then delivers those messages
into the world. You follow? He delivers those
messages to people. That's what a disciple does.
In Job, the book of Job, in chapter 33, it says,
it's actually Elihu, which is my favorite guy,
because he's the only guy who kind of gets it
right. He comes and speaks to Job, When he speaks
to Job, he brings out God's wisdom into Job's
life. Remember, what was Job's one thing that
he was doing wrong? Does anybody remember? He's
only got one thing. What was it? He was alleging
that God was treating him unfairly or unjustly.
That was his one thing. And so the bottom line
is, Elihu's getting it right, and Elihu then
says this, Indeed, God speaks once or twice,
yet no one notices it. In a dream, a vision of
the night, when sound sleep falls on men while
they slumber in their beds, then he opens the
ears of men and seals their instruction, that
he may turn man aside from his conduct and keep
man from his pride. He keeps back his soul from
the pit and his life from passing over into Sheol,
which is representative of hell. You follow?
So what did he just say? He said, indeed, God
speaks. To those who are not hearing God, God
is speaking for sure. To lost people who do not
hear the voice of God, God is nonetheless still
speaking. Indeed, God speaks once or twice, yet
no one notices. In a dream, a vision of the night
when sound sleep falls on men while they slumber
in their beds. What did he just say? As he's
representing God to Job, he's saying that it
doesn't have to be a mystery. What God has to
say doesn't have to be a mystery. Instead, people
need to learn to listen to their dreams. Because
in that, God is speaking. God is speaking through
dreams, the word says. In Acts chapter 2, Peter
is preaching at Pentecost. Do you know this story
at all? So they were kind of speaking what everybody
thought to be gibberish. And then all of a sudden,
everybody could understand their language. And
so whatever language they spoke, they could understand
what they were saying. And Peter gets up and
he speaks. It's in Acts chapter 2. And he quotes
some very famous verses. From Joel chapter 2.
Easy enough to remember. Acts chapter 2, Joel
chapter 2, right? And this is what it says in
the book of Joel. It will come about after this.
Pin that. It will come about after this. that
I will pour out my spirit on all mankind, and
your sons and daughters will prophecy. Your old
men will dream dreams. Your young men will see
visions. Even on the male and female servants,
I will pour out my spirit in those days. I will
display wonders in the sky and on the earth,
blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will
be turned into darkness and the moon into blood
before the great and awesome day of the Lord
comes. And it will come about that whoever calls
on the name of the Lord will be delivered. For
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be
those who escape, as the Lord has said, even
among the survivors whom the Lord calls. So first
of all, before we go back to the beginning, it
says, And it will come about that whoever calls
on the name of the Lord will be delivered. And
I submit to you that that is in response to what?
In the verses that I just read to you, that I
just quoted, it is in response to what? It is
in response to this, that I will pour out my
Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters
will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions. Even on male
and female servants, I will pour out my Spirit
in those days. He will display wonders. And then
it says, and it will come about that whoever
calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.
So the end of it is, people will be delivered.
Is that not what we desire? And when will people
be delivered? In response to people receiving
God's Holy Spirit and... receiving the dreams
and the visions and God pouring out his spirit.
That's when people will be delivered as they
cry out to the Lord. And it will come about that
whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be
delivered. So when will all of this happen? Verse
28 says, and it will come about after this. So
there's something right before verse 28 that
tells us what it is. And then verse 28 comes.
So Joel was saying this will happen and this
is when it will happen. This is how we can get
there. And Joel 2, verse 11 begins like this.
It says, In other words, rather than grieving
or mourning over the bad things you've done,
Correct your heart. Set your heart upon God's
way. Now return to the Lord your God, for he
is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger,
abounding in loving kindness and relenting of
evil. And then to 15, it says, blow a trumpet
in Zion. Consecrate a fast. A fast is when you
go without something for self -discipline or
to direct yourself to the right place or to entreat
God. Consecrate a fast. Proclaim a solemn assembly.
That's when we come together to worship God and
we take it seriously. Gather the people, sanctify
the congregation. That means to make holy, that
we do the right things. Assemble the elders,
gather the children and the nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the
bride out of her bridal chamber. Let the priests,
the Lord's ministers, weep between the porch
and the altar. And let them say, spare your people,
O Lord, and do not make your inheritance a reproach,
a byword among the nation. Why should they among
the people say, where is their God? In other
words, why should the world look at us and say,
where is the God of the Christians? And the answer
is they should not. Then the Lord will be zealous
for his land and will have pity on his people.
The Lord will answer and say to his people, behold,
I am going to send you grain, new wine and oil,
and you will be satisfied in full with them.
And I will never again make you a reproach among
the nations. And after all of that, what did
they do? What did God's people do? They came
together in a solemn assembly. They recognized
that following God is serious. This is big business.
This is more than money, more than sorrow, more
than pain, more than hurt, more than lostness,
more than all the world's struggles or everything
that you're facing. The most important thing
is turning to God. And when we make turning to
God the most important thing, more important
than your entertainment, more important than
your money, more important than your relationships,
and it's really turning to God and we do that.
Then, verse 28 says, then it will come about
after this that I will pour out my spirit on
all mankind. So you want to hear from your dreams?
Repent and take God seriously. You want to hear
from God daily all day long? Then focus on God
daily all day long. There are false dreams. That's
a real thing. Jeremiah 29. 8 and 9, it says,
for thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
do not let your prophets who are in your midst
and your diviners deceive you and do not listen
to the dreams which they dream for they prophecy
falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them,
declares the Lord. Now that's interesting, isn't
it? Can you imagine that this is where we actually
live? This is the place at which we actually
live. The God of heaven who is with us and in
us and speaks to us on a daily basis. and speaks
to us in our dreams, we don't convey his message.
We don't tell others what they need to know.
We surely don't about our dreams because we're
not paying good attention and taking the steps
that we're going to talk about today on how to
hear from God in our dreams. So at the very least,
we're missing the communications of God in our
dreams, but then we're also missing the communications
of the pastor. And I'm not judging anyone or
whatever, but the pastor stands up and preaches,
and this is the word of God. And how many of
you take the lightning point? And throughout
the week, share it with your family and your
friends or whatever who are in different churches
or don't go to church at all. How many of you
put it on your Facebook page or your Instagram?
Now, we've got pictures of people standing in
the mirror because they're cute, but nothing
about God's word. I know, because I've been on
there. I see what we post. So the question is,
why do we not take the message of God and deliver
them? And here's the amazing thing. This is what
this verse tells us that's truly amazing, is
that the lost people who do not know God will
convey the message that they say are from God.
And as believers in God, walking with God in
the presence of God, we need to know enough not
to listen to what they say. In fact, to refute
it because they are not sent of God. So you've
got lost people out there that are winning thousands
of sheep and seating 10 ,000 people in their
quote unquote church building this Sunday. And
you've got people who truly follow the Lord and
have the Holy Spirit and teaching the word of
God. And the people that are sitting in the 10
,000 people churches, they will not hear it.
Not only would they not hear it because they
are sold out on their guy. But on top of that.
They won't hear it because the people who are
truly hearing from the Lord aren't delivering
it. And we're supposed to not hear it from those
who are of the world, but rather hear it from
the Lord and then deliver it. If God did not
send them, they came as an enemy. This is especially
true because they were claiming to come from
God. Now I ask you again, is there room in your
dreams for God to speak to you? These are the
conclusions. If you go through the Bible, and
this is what's called a topical sermon at this
point, if you go through the Bible and you kind
of wrap it all together, these are the conclusions
that we come up with. When God's Spirit is present
among people, they dream. Dreams that mean more
than just cleansing of the subconscious mind.
Sleep, then, for us, becomes like going to class
or going to worship, going to Bible study. You
have a responsibility when you lay down to sleep
to be prepared. The next time you're nodding
off, I want you to hear my voice saying to you,
the phone is ringing. The next time you're drowsy
and you start to go to sleep, I want you to hear
the phone is ringing. God is calling. All day
long, every day, God is with you. But we get
this idea that we go to, I'm tired now. I'm going
to push it as late as I can or I'm going to do
the things I have to. I'm so fatigued. I'm so
tired. And I go out like a light and I don't
remember a thing and I wake up 8 to 10 hours
later. That is not how you are supposed to sleep.
You need to prepare yourself so that when you
go to sleep, you realize you are about to block
out eight hours of time to rest your physical
body. But your soul doesn't need rest. While
you are sleeping, your soul, it doesn't have
muscles to regenerate or cells to cleanse so
those cells can put out their feces and it goes
into your blood, which goes into your kidneys,
which in the morning when you get up, you've
got to go pee. Your body needs that. Your soul
communes with God while you're sleeping. And
if you go to sleep so sleeping that you're going
to sleep so deeply that you're not going to be
able to remember anything when you wake up, then
you have a problem. You need to go to sleep prepared,
just like you're supposed to come to worship
prepared. Did you pray before you came in? Did
you study your Bible yesterday? Did you think
about what God's doing in your life and how it
might relate to this? Did you have a bizarre
dream this week and go, hey, I wonder what that
means? And now Pastor Dan's preaching on dreaming.
Or you may tonight. If you go to sleep the way
you normally come to worship, you're going to
be unprepared because most Christians come to
worship unprepared. We come into the presence
of a holy God in worship or with the body, and
instead, we're not ready. We're not excited.
We're not expecting. And that's the next thing.
We come prepared into the presence of the Lord.
We come expecting. You should go to sleep expecting
that God may deliver a message to you while you're
sleeping. And your subconscious mind will go,
hey, something might happen while I'm sleeping.
And it stays awake. So here's the problem. Your
subconscious mind essentially only has short
-term memory capability. So you remember it maybe
when you first wake up. Maybe. But it lasts for
about 30 seconds. Now, if you can take a thing
and ingrain it in your subconscious mind, it
becomes like programming. If your subconscious
mind will attach to something, it becomes part
of essentially who you are, at least in your
thought processes. For example... When you sit
down on your couch and have nothing else to do,
do you look for the remote? Why do you do that?
Why do we sit down on the couch and if there's
nothing else going on, we're not busy? First
thing we do is look for where the remote is or
reach for the remote. Why do you do that? Because
it's become ingrained in your subconscious to
do that. It's a muscle memory. When you step
up to back, do you tip on your toe? They call
it testing the water in preparation to swing.
Why do you do that every time? Because somewhere
along the line, you learn to do that and it became
ingrained. And it's not just muscle memory. It's
in your subconscious. And so you do it. And now
you do it without even thinking. And you need
to come to the point where you go to sleep prepared
and expecting without having to go out of your
way. But until you do that, you need to start
going out of your way. You have to start preparing.
So I do Bible study first thing every morning
when I get up. Praise the Lord. God convicted
me of that. I started doing that. And for 25
years, I was a Christian and I didn't do it.
And then I started doing it. And now it's becoming
a habit. Praise the Lord. Right. I want it to
be a habit. And I'm not saying you have to do
that, but it is a way of saying, OK, Lord, we're
in community here. We're talking you and I together.
What do you got to say? And now sometimes I reach
for my Bible and I'm thinking about my dream.
And amazingly enough, because I don't do any
certain Bible study, I go anywhere in the Bible
and that verse will relate to something I dreamed
about. You think God did that? Is God speaking?
Yes. You need to be prepared. What about when
you go to sleep? Who reads their Bible? The last
thing before they go to sleep. reading is one
of the best things you can do the last thing
before you go to sleep because it relaxes your
whole body right so you read and then what if
you read your bible people say well read my bible
it probably will put me to sleep because i'll
be reading things i already know yeah and then
you go to sleep and your conscious and subconscious
mind your consciousness is drifting off and your
subconscious mind latches on to what you just
read you understand that in this way you could
literally ask god god questions while you're
sleeping you could be laying down at night going
lord you know have you ever uh Have you ever
told me exactly what to do with this problem
that I'm facing? And you're praying as you're
going down to sleep and you're reading your Bible
and it says Jeremiah 29. Oh, I know the plans
I have for you. And you go to sleep and you dream
about the plans that God has for you. And you
wake up in the morning and then you enact a process
where you discern what was God saying? What am
I supposed to do about it? What does it matter?
But we're not preparing to go to sleep. We're
not coming expecting. And we're not engaging
the material that God gives us. For those of
you who think you're having dreams and God's
trying to communicate to you, you should be taking
notes. First thing when you wake up. Why? Because
your subconscious mind will only leave it for
a very short time. A number of times I've woke
up in the morning, had a dream, a new God communicated
to me in the dream. At least a half dozen times
this has happened to me. And I didn't take any
notes. And I lay there. And I repeated an outline
of the dream over and over and over in my head
like 10 or 20 times. Memorizing the dream. Like,
I don't want to forget this dream. I don't have
anything to write it down. But I don't want to
forget this. I don't want to forget this dream.
And I went, this happened. And this happened.
And this happened. And this was yellow in the
dream. And this happened. And this happened.
And I went over and over in my mind 10, 12, 15
times. And I'm not going to forget it. And by
lunchtime, it was gone. Couldn't remember it.
That's happened at least a half dozen times.
Because the battlefield is in your subconscious
mind while you're sleeping. And when you awaken,
you can tell yourself you're not going to forget
it, but you know better, you're going to forget
it. So take notes. What about the sermon? God
might speak to you sometime in this half an hour,
something seriously important that you need to
realize that the Holy Spirit might convict you
of something you're not doing. Or author in you
something new to do that you've never thought
of doing before. Just as when I was preparing
this message, I remembered that dream. That for
25 years, I've recounted that story over and
over again. And I had forgotten that it was a
dream that precipitated those emotions. I thought
it was I just woke up and she wasn't there. But
in reality, it was the dream when I dreamt my
normal life. She had gotten up and gone to work
before me a number of times previously. So I
woke up, let's say, 50 times and she wasn't there.
But on the 51st time, just magically, for some
reason, it really bothered me that she wasn't
there. No, it was the dream. The dream caused
me to realize I did not want to live my life
without her and started me on the path that I
needed to be on. You've got to engage the material.
Take notes if you're having dreams you think
might be from God. Dictate them if you can't
write. By the way, I found that I have a hard
time writing them down fast enough. And so I'll
use voice -to -text or voice -to -audio on my
phone or voice -to -email. You can do it in Google
Drive. You can do it in a document. You can do
it anywhere. And just push the button. And it
listens to your voice, and you start talking.
Just make sure it doesn't turn off while you're
talking. You can talk the whole dream out into
an electronic device, and then it'll be wrong.
There'll be little bits of things that are wrong,
but you won't forget. You'll be able to fix those
little things because you've got it all in there.
You can have a micro... cassette recorder next
to your bed. Turn it on and talk. What happened
in your dream? Whatever. You won't be able to
determine whether or not the dream is from God
or whether it says something to you unless you
can remember it. You have to start by remembering
it. Take notes. The sermon is the same way. Bible
study is the same way. You need to take notes.
Dictate. And then you need to prayerfully consider
what it was you looked at because it could be
a vision from the enemy rather than a vision
from God. You've got to figure that out. or your
flesh will want to interpret it a certain way.
You know how many times I've had a dream, I woke
up in the morning and I went, oh, God's giving
me a pat on the back, I'm doing right. And then
I got to thinking about it, but wait a minute,
because actually, in my dream I was doing this,
but in real life that's not what I do. Oh, God's
telling me, and that is what's biblical. God's
pointing out to me that I'm not doing what I
should be doing, so now I've got to go, okay,
I've got to repent and turn to God. More often
than not, if God's showing you how you're supposed
to behave, probably then it's something you're
not doing. Because we're not perfect. We don't
get it right. God can teach us. But we're right
now dismissing, as we're living, we're dismissing
33 % of the teaching time. Because you sleep
about eight hours a day on average. Let's say
you only sleep six or four. If you slept four,
you're dismissing 17 % of the sleeping time.
And the sleeping time is part of your life. 17
% of your life is if it's only four hours and
you're not preparing to hear from God. So for
that four hours, you're just sleeping. That's
it. I don't listen to God. No, that is not what
we're supposed to do. God is speaking all the
time during that time. Take notes, dictate it
to yourself, prayerfully consider everything
that might be in there that God is saying, and
if it's maybe not from God, or are you understanding
it? And then seek wise counsel. I had a dream.
I think this is what it meant. Do you think that's
what it meant? Or I had a dream. What do you
think that means? All the time in the Bible,
that's what they do almost every time. They say,
what am I supposed to do about this? And then
they figure out what to do and they do it. Document
whatever you can to secure retention. God is
speaking to you in your dreams. I didn't say
it. Elihu said it. And he got everything else
right, he said. And I believe he got that right
too. Also, discern with prayer, scripture, and
counsel what your regenerated heart already knows
of God. You've already been learning something.
God's already been speaking to you. He's already
set you on a path. Yesterday he said. Yesterday
he did. Yesterday I saw. Now I go to sleep and
I'm dreaming and I'm thinking about this. And
it might be that your dream actually becomes
your interpretation of an event that you saw
in your life if you'll be responsible with your
regenerated heart. And don't trivialize or seek
to escape the implications for yourself. In other
words, no big deal, just a dream. Listen to me.
You have never in your life, not once ever, had
a dream that you should have said, I'm just going
to forget it. It's worthless. Ever. It's either
a message from God, a message from an enemy,
and we know what we do with those. You still
learn from messages from the enemy. You just
learn the other way, right? Or it's you, your
flesh, or something in your life that's affecting
your dreams. That last one is probably the worst
thing. Those things we just write off. We're
like, that's okay. It's fine. No big deal. I
dreamt about playing a video game. I do that
all the time. If you're dreaming about playing
video games, you should stop playing video games.
Because you are blocking out God's ability to
speak with you by filling your subconscious with
playing video games. Unless, of course, your
dream was you're playing video games and God's
speaking to you while you're playing video games
or you're seeing something in the video game
that's speaking to your heart or whatever and
God's using that. But if you're regularly dreaming
about anything in your life, boys, girls, sex,
movies, anything like that, if you're regularly
dreaming about something and it's filling your
mind, then you have to ask yourself, can God
use that to speak to me? And if not, I need to
repent of that thing. And get to dreaming about
what God wants me to dream about. Get to listening
to God. We're cleansing our minds so much because
we're filling our minds so much with stuff that
doesn't need to be there. We should be open to
hearing what it is that God has us to hear and
not trivialize any dream ever. or seek to escape
the implications of a dream. In my dream, I did
something. I would never do that. If in your
dream you did something and you would never do
it, then there's a couple of immediate questions.
One is, would I actually ever do that? Are there
any circumstances? I'm appalled at my actions
in my dream. Would I ever actually do that? When
I was young, married, first five years, whatever,
I used to dream about being with other women.
I was unsaved. After I got saved, I realized
that's an inappropriate dream. Why am I having
that dream? And I repented. Remember, that's
how we got where we are. How do you get to the
point where you can hear your dreams? You repent.
You turn to God. So I turned to God. I said,
okay, God, why is this happening? And I said,
that's never going to happen. I'm never going
to allow that to happen, right? I'm going to
ask him, right? That's never going to happen,
right? And God said, that's never going to happen.
And some point in time, about 20 years ago, I
became holy and completely dedicated to my wife.
And I don't know how, but I got to the point
where I literally never, even if my wife would
do something that I find to be an atrocity, I
never have bad feelings or bad emotions about
her. We are becoming one person. Do you understand?
And until you do that, you have to address the
things that take place in your dreams. They're
real for a reason. We're all blowing them off
thinking it's no big deal. And believe me, the
psychosocial scientific world, that's what they
want you to do. They want you to think it's just
dreams and it's no big deal. You can't control
what you dream about. It doesn't matter what
you dream about. You can't do anything about
what you dream about after the fact. Yeah, and
they're the same ones that teach you that there
is no God. You don't listen to them when they
say there is no God. So why do you listen to
them when they tell you that your dreams are
no big deal? Does that make any sense? So now
we're going to be taught by the world how to
handle our dreams instead of taught by God who
says that he speaks to us in our dreams? The
answer is we should be preparing. We should come
expecting. We should engage in the material.
We should discern with prayer, scripture, and
counsel with our regenerated heart about what
we already know about God. And we should not
trivialize or seek to escape the implications
of the dream for ourselves. And this next one
will convict you probably. It does me. You should
get there on time or early. but not too early
or for the wrong reasons. Church starts at 1130.
You should not get here at 1130 because starting
at 1130, we are worshiping the holy God of the
universe. So you should be here by 1115 or whatever
it takes for you to be here and be ready. And
that's why some of the young people, teenagers
are in the room at 1133, they feel compelled
that they have to tell their neighbor about something
they did last night and they can't focus on worship
because they didn't get here in time to get ready
for worship. And it's not just them, it's us
too. And not just worship. It's going to bed.
You should go to bed early because guess who's
going to be there when you get there? God speaking
to you. Turn the TV off. Put the book down. If
it's not the Bible especially. Turn the TV off.
Put the book down. Stop playing the games. Stop
eating snacks 20 minutes before you go to bed.
Focus on your time with the Lord that starts
when your eyes go shut and you fall asleep. That's
an important time. Just the same as this is an
important time. In fact, maybe even more important
because it's just you and God and evil spirits,
demons and angels. It's just the spiritual realm,
right? If the room is cold, your body will feel
it, but it probably won't greatly change the
context of your dream. The point is this. We
should get there on time or early, but not too
early, right? Because too much sleep, too much
rest brings about destruction for a man and not
for the wrong reasons, right? So how many people
run to their bed when they're upset? I'm not
saying anybody in this room does that, but some
people do that. Like I'm upset, I'm mad, I'm
sad, whatever, and they go run in their bed and
take a nap. They go lay down. Now there's anything
wrong with going and meeting with God, but they're
not going to meet with God in sleep. That's not
where they're going. They're going to get away
from everybody else or get away from the situation.
They're vacating the premises, so to speak. And
so if they were going there to meet with God,
they would start with prayer. And then if they
fell asleep, there'd be a chance that God could
speak to them about what they're going through,
but that's not what's going on. It needs to be.
So you get there on time and early, prepared,
expecting, engaged, discerning. Notice that missteps
are possible. And because missteps are possible,
people want to dismiss this whole thing. Pastor
Dan is telling us we can dream and hear from
God. And I have a pastor brother friend of mine
who would say that's not possible, even though
the word says it clearly. But he says if you
tell people that, they're going to go and try
to hear from God and do what it is that God wants
to do, and they're not qualified. That's called
sacerdotalism. The only people that are qualified
is the preacher who gets up to talk on Sunday.
That is wrong. I am not qualified to hear from
God because I am a preacher or a pastor. I am
qualified to hear from God because Jesus Christ
died on the cross for me and saved my soul. And
I turned to him and he sent his Holy Spirit.
And now I can hear from him. And if you have
not done those first five steps, then sure, you
may not hear from him or you may have significant
missteps. But the bottom line is if you will
listen to the God of the universe, you can do
what the God of the universe tells you to do.
You can become faithful and obedient. Romans
12 says you can know what is good and perfect
will is. Missteps are possible. False dreams,
false interpretations are possible. And we go
back to handling our dreams appropriately, being
prepared, coming, expecting, engaging the material,
discerning with prayer, getting there on time
and early and for the right reasons. As within
life, there are missteps. These missteps are
largely avoidable. You don't have to do that.
You can stop being taught by the world how to
dream or how to interpret your dreams or how
to understand what God is trying to do while
you're sleeping and be taught by the Bible and
today by me and today by the Holy Spirit for
our entire church how we can see and reason based
on what we have happening while we are sleeping.
The third thing to see is dreams. Dream communications
are not meant to substitute for his daily presence.
We have him with us daily. And that's where we
get our primary direction. You say, well, God
doesn't seem to be directing me. You need to
repent and turn to God. You say, I don't have
any real convictions of sin throughout the day.
Whenever I do something wrong, I don't really
feel anything. You need to repent and turn to
God. Because according to what we read and according
to what's true in Scripture, if you repent and
turn to God, God will fill you with his Holy
Spirit. And his Holy Spirit always has a certain
sort of feeling about sinful behavior that you
engage in. Now, if you chase him away, chase
him down deep, stop listening to him, tell him
to shut up, you probably won't have any feelings
for a while. But he's not going to be gone. He's
still there if you're truly saved. They are not
meant to substitute for his presence daily or
for his word in us. Read your Bible. Study and
grow. Dreams will never supplant that. You need
to know the word. And how are you going to test
your dreams by the word if you don't know the
word? Indeed, these dreams are an accompanying
feature. That's what we read. They are an accompanying
feature of his presence. And if you are living
with him throughout all the days, then you can
safely assume that he will be with you throughout
all of your dreams. They are a feature of his
presence and they occur with meaning, like we
are discussing, only after his presence is initiated
by him. The Pharaoh, Abimelech, all of them had
dreams. Abimelech was able to understand his
dream enough to say he was not going to take
Sarah. pharaoh couldn't even understand his dreams
when you hear joseph interpreting pharaoh's dreams
you go oh yeah duh that's what it makes that
makes sense it's radical to mobilize the entire
entire country for seven years to store up food
because we think there's gonna be seven years
of famine coming that's radical but it's clearly
what that dream could mean right that's an obvious
meaning and pharaoh couldn't figure that out
and so the point is these dreams are an accompanying
figure a feature of his presence and they occur
with meaning like we are discussing, so you can
understand them and act on them and do what you
want to do only after his presence is initiated
in us. If God is present in your dream, then
there is something that you can learn. If you
are sleeping with God in you, and if you are
a Christian, you are sleeping with God in you.
And if you are... then there is something in
your dreams that you can learn from. Our part
is clearly the repentance. It's just the turning
to God. The entire passage that I read from the
book of Joel, what did it say? Have a solemn
assembly, bring the entire family, everybody
get together, worship God. Yeah, it said all
of those things. holy is our God, and we must
wholly turn to this holy God. And when we do
that, his presence in us will be real, and he
will be real with us 24 hours a day. And when
you are in sin, he'll be there to convict you.
And when you're asleep, he'll be there to spend
your time sleeping with you. He will be there
if you've turned to the Lord. If you have sinned,
Maybe during this you've been convicted. I don't
come to worship right. I don't do this right.
I don't do that right. I stay up too late. I
spend too much time on certain pursuits, and
I don't really have room for God to speak to
me or train me or help me grow. Then you need
to repent and turn to God. If God is right now
saying to you there's something in your life
that needs to be cut out so you can follow him
and have this kind of a presence with him 24
hours a day, not just while you're wide awake
and studying your Bible, not just while you're
sitting in church being preached at or just while
you're singing worship songs, but 24 hours a
day. And if there's something in your life that's
interfering with that, then come. Cut it out.
Turn to God and say, that's got to go. And if
God wants to let it come back, then God will
let it come back. God will say, okay, now I want
you to take that thing up that you cut out of
your life and you're going to use it specifically
for me. I've had that happen to me a couple of
times in my life. I've said, no, you can't do
that anymore. That's just not going to be for
you anymore to do that. And then I'm like, okay,
God, as you say, as you wish, it's fine. I'm
moving forward without it. And then God said,
okay, now take that and use it this way. That
skill that you learned there, that ability that
you have, that talent that you picked up in that
hobby, now I want you to use it this way. And
if you can't use it for God, it doesn't belong.
Because if you can't use it for God and it is
in, then if it doesn't affect you throughout
the day, you say, well, I still read my Bible.
I still pray. Yeah, I'm on my phone five hours
a day, but I still pray. I still read my Bible.
I still do all of these things. And so, yes,
I'm still a Christian. I'm still following God.
But the problem is, eventually, you have to go
to sleep. And when you go to sleep and you dream,
what's going to be in your dreams? The little
bit of Bible that you read for seven minutes
today? The one and a half hours you spent in
a worship service? The one moment you spent counseling
with somebody as they ask you to pray for them?
If you spend exactly three hours a day with God,
focusing on God, serving God, looking to do what
God would have you to do, and 21 hours a day
doing what you want to do the rest of the time
so that you can call yourself a Christian, you
can guarantee while you sleep, if God speaks,
you're not going to hear him. Because your mind
is going to be busy dealing with all the other
15 hours that you were awake, not focused on
God. And that's the math of it. And that's where
we are. And as a people, I think we need to return
to God. And as a Christian people, the world
over, I think we need to return to God. We need
to repent and turn to God and say, there are
things in my life that are interfering. You say,
but they're not interfering. I'm still serving.
I'm still praying. I'm still worshiping. I'm
still giving. Yes, but how are you sleeping?
Well, I'm sleeping $7 or $8 a night. Yes. And
when's the last time you woke up and remembered
that God said that you're doing something in
a dream? Is your subconscious mind active with
all of those other activities that you're doing
that's not hearing from God so that when you
sleep, you dream, God speaks, but he can't be
heard over the roar of your subconscious mind
processing the things that you are doing on a
daily basis that have nothing to do with him?
You say, they're not sin. They're good things.
God gave them to me to enjoy. The Bible even
says that. Yes, okay, it's fine. How do you sleep?
Are you in community with God while you're sleeping?
Are you hearing from the Lord? You see why it's
so important now that day in and day out, we
make the choices that we make. You say, well,
I just made a little slip up. God repented. The
Bible says that if you repent, turn to God after
screwing up. 1 John, I think, 1 .9, right? He
is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse
you of all unrighteousness. So if you repented
and he forgave you, where's all that cleansing?
Why is that needed? Why do we need to be cleansed
if we were repented and forgiven? Because there
are impacts, there are things that happen after
you have sinned. You tell a lie, you repent,
and you're forgiven, right? You're going to go
to heaven, but you told a lie. It affected you.
Where did it affect you at? In your bicep? It
affected you in your heart. Okay, now that's
cleansed, forgiven. How about your mind? It affected
you in your mind. Is your mind cleansed completely?
No, we do that by the renewing of our mind over
a period of time. When is your mind renewed?
Most? While you're sleeping. So what does your
focus of sleep need to be? God. God has to be
your focus of sleep. I submit to you, go to sleep.
Your subconscious mind follows the Lord while
you're sleeping. It's attentive. It listens.
You wake up. You listen to what God said, the
time that you spent with him. If you have ignored
God while you were sleeping, even while you were
going to sleep, while you were walking, whatever
else you might have been doing when you were
waking up, repent and turn to God. If you have
taken your responsibility as a child of the king
lightly, repent and turn to God. If you have
never been a child of the king in truth, repent
and turn to God that you might be saved through
the sacrifice of Jesus into his lordship, which
includes while you're sleeping. I'm going to
close with an illustration. This morning I got
up. Something's totally written. Hadn't planned
on this illustration. I walk up into the couch
and Ariana's watching Right Now Media. The episode
that she's watching right now, Media, is about
Joseph. Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's dreams,
Joseph representing his family, Joseph forgiving
his brothers, you know, that kind of whole thing.
In the middle of that, there's an illustration.
You can go on there and watch it right now if
you want. I can't tell you what the program was,
but Ariana could. And there's a story. It's a
story about a boy. He goes sailing with his dad
in a pretty big sailing boat. And he's with his
dad, and he's up on the prow of the boat looking
out, and the wind's blowing in his face. You
know, like that Titanic thing, right? And the
wind's blowing. He's like, oh, happy. What a
beautiful day. And the sun's shining. Dad pulls
the boat out of the dock. Sail and boat starts
moving pretty good. And they're winding through
this river to get out. The dock is way back from
the shore. And he's winding through this river.
And it's a pretty scary river. And there are
branches hanging over. And you can see sandbars
and crocodiles and everything. And the boy is
terrified. He's scared. But all the while, the
dad just keeps steering the boat, tending the
sails. Steering the boat, tending the sails.
And he navigates the river. Pretty soon, he's
out onto the water. And it's a big wide open
sea, and there's no land in sight. If the boat
goes down, the boy's scared. He's like, oh, man,
what's going to happen here? There's no land
in sight. We're so far from anywhere. What if
the boat breaks down and something happens? We'll
be stuck out here, and he's terrified. But his
dad just keeps steering the boat and tending
the sails, steering the boat and tending the
sails. And they're fine. And then a terrible
storm comes up, and the waves get high. Over
half the keel of the boat. Over half the length
of the boat. The waves are up and down. And the
boat's crashing down in a huge splash. And the
boy's soaked. Lightning flashes and thunder roars.
And his ears are ringing. And he's terrified.
He's terrified. And his dad just keeps steering
the boat and tending the sails. Steering the
boat and tending the sails. And what the boy
doesn't know is that the dad has a ton of experience.
He's been in storms before. He's been in twisty
waves before. He's been in open water before.
He's seen it all. He's done it all. He's been
there. The dad is steering the boat and tending
the sails. And the boy is terrified because he's
learning to trust his dad. His dad comes forward
while he's tending to take a little break from
tending the sails. Say, okay, hold on. Slow down.
Everything's fine. I'm tending the sails. I've
been through this before. Everything's going
to be fine. And that's what everybody wants.
Everybody wants that peace. They want that feeling,
that joy, that they can do whatever they want
and God's got the wheel. And when it's like that,
God's going to have to take you into the narrow
ways or the crazy storms to get you to trust
him. And you've got 16 hours a day of waking
time to willingly decide, okay, Lord, if you
want me to go left, I'll go left. If you want
me to go right, I'll go right. If you want me
to go into the storm, I'll go into the storm.
I trust you because I know. You can see it all.
You can do it all. Everything is possible with
God, like Mary said. But you've got eight hours
a day that you've not been using. And this sermon
is giving us back those eight hours. We need
to prepare ourselves for sleep. We need to expect
God to speak in our sleep. We need to be ready
to write down whatever he says or ready to somehow
or other record it so we can remember it. And
then we need to learn from it. If you need to
ask others for counsel, what does it mean? If
you've got an idea, but you want to run it by
somebody else, do that. Pray and say, God, what
is it? And God will say, well, it's this. So
it was blue because of that, or it was big because
of that. Today, I picked up three dream journal
entries. Two of them are in a spiral notebook
that I've been carrying around recently. One
of them is in an old black journal that I had.
And I read them all. And now I can look back
and go, oh, I think I see what God was trying
to say then. But I hadn't done the work. This
is not just for me. It's for all of us. And it's
not even just dreams. Visions are on the table
as well. While you're awake, daydreaming. Your
daydreams. If your daydreams are about things
that you're doing and not things about God, you're
wasting your daydreams. I'm asking you to become
men and women who are focused on God, repent,
realize He is holy, turn to God, do the things
He would have you to do, cut out things that
interfere. I'm asking you to do nothing less
than dream the dreams of God. Interpret. those
dreams and live those dreams. And I'm saying
to you that this is what the Bible says we must
do. Something been missing in your life? Could
it be that God's been telling you what it is,
but you're not hearing him because he's telling
you while you're sleeping? If you're here today
and you need to repent, you need to turn to God,
you need to commit yourself to do something that
God would have you to do, whatever it is, this
is your opportunity as we sing this coming song.
I'm asking you. God is asking you. God is convicting
me in my spirit that I have not done. So I will
repent before you, even though I maybe have done
more in listening to God during my dreams than
others have. I have not done it right. And because
I have not, and because I have not taught this
in the 20 -some years, 25 years that I've been
preaching, because I have not taught this, I
know you have not heard it from me. It's time.
It's time we got back the hours while we were
sleeping and listened to the Lord. And it's going
to require some sacrifice in the hours while
we're awake. But for each hour you give up on
something that doesn't belong in your life, you
gain eight hours while you're sleeping. Not just
eight hours of rest, but eight hours of renewal
and communication with God. Would you stand with
me and sing this song? And then our services
will be through for the day. And I will ask you
to go forth and as you do rest, as you do sleep,
We need to be prepared to commune with God.