Hey, Destination Church. If we haven't had a chance to meet before, my name is Josh Meyers and I'm the lead pastor here, but I'm not here today. That being said, you guys are in for a special treat because you get to hear from my friend Dave Holve. He's going to be bringing the message this morning and closing out our Joseph series. I'm going to let him introduce himself and tell you a little bit about him, but man, I'm so excited for you guys today.

So would you give the best destination round of applause and welcome as we welcome Dave Holve to the stage. >> Thank you. And even though he said that some of you are like, "Wait, are you sure that's not Josh.

" I know we both have blonde hair and facial hair. I don't know what it is about blonde hair. I've already had this happen today.

Someone came up and they're like, "You look just like someone I know. " And it's like, let me guess, blonde hair, okay. Like, we're all the same for some reason.

I am not Josh. My name is Dave Holvig. It is so good to be here with you. I am a pastor at a church called Eaglebrook where I oversee the worship ministries. I've been there for 21 years.

So, it's really cool for me to get outside of my world for one weekend and just see what God is doing elsewhere. My family is here today. We're so excited to just get a different church experience because I'm someone who believes the church is still the hope of the world. >> Not my church, the church.

Which is why it's so fun to be here at Destination. So, I met your pastor, Josh, a handful of years ago, and I can't tell you how cool it is to go from hearing him talk about his God-given dream to put a church in East Bethl to being here and experiencing that dream in real life. So, like Josh, my daughter Hazel had a dream.

And this dream was so much bigger than her 11year-old world, right. This was a dream that was going to affect our entire family. Okay, even though we have four kids, in her mind, there was still something missing.

Now, little about me. I hate dogs. I'm just Someone has a dog right there. I don't hate dogs. Let me rephrase.

I was a paper boy in the 80s, okay. So, I grew up before invisible fences and leashes. So, I was constantly being attacked by dogs.

So, I don't hate dogs. I'm just afraid of dogs. But the weird thing is Hazel, my daughter, is like deathly afraid of dogs after she was bitten by a neighbor's dog. So, it was shocking to me when her life's mission became to convince me that we needed a dog. And now, she had a dream, but she knew that this dream would not happen if she couldn't convince me to catch the vision.

So, she got to work. She enlisted her little sister and they started trying to break me down, you know, day after day, week after week. And all of this culminated in like the most oddly impressive PowerPoint presentation you've ever seen. Okay, that laid out 20 carefully curated reasons our family needed a dog. Okay, first 19 I easily shrugged off.

I'm like, again, I've been mauled before. I don't want a dog in this house. But number 20 was impossible to dismiss, especially as a dad.

Reason number 20, she wrote, "To help me overcome my fear of dogs. " Meet Ranger. Don't let his cuteness fool you.

He is a full-blown terrorist. This is his real smile. Okay, but I'm actually starting to come around and my wife Rachel and I decided this year we wanted to pull him into our like sacred Christmas card and Ranger did not disappoint.

That's the rest of my crew. Hazel had a dream that she refused to give up on. And it makes me wonder, you can probably take that down.

That's better. And it makes me wonder, how many of you have ever had a dream. Maybe a dream that you did give up on.

How many of you had a dream that you knew was from God, but it just felt too unrealistic or too big or too scary. Whatever the reason, my hope and prayer today is that you can rediscover whatever dream God has put in you, because I believe we all have one. And here's what I know about dreams.

They don't die. They hide until we have the character to carry them or they come out sideways if we ignore them for too long. So, we are closing out a sixeek series on Joseph, the original dreamer, right. And one of my favorite characters in the Bible that for years I read as a story of perseverance, but now I see it as a reminder of God's providence.

God has a way of using our circumstances to shape us into something unexpected and ultimately better if we let him. It's a process that we often can't see as it's happening and we can't miss when we look back. Last week, Josh talked about the forgiveness decision and it was masterful.

If you haven't seen it, go back and watch it. It was so good. This week is called the resurrection decision because as I was studying the book or the story of Joseph, I kept coming back to the same question.

Is there a dream in your life that needs to be resurrected. Is there a dream in your life that needs to be resurrected. One of the greatest tragedies is that so many of us have big dreams when we're young and we're immature and by the time we have the skills and the character to carry out those dreams, we've completely lost sight of them, right. Life beats us up. Our dream gets replaced with a job, right.

And and a life that we've drifted into, a life that can be described as an autopilot life. For those of you who missed the leadup, Joseph had a dream, okay. A God-given dream that he would someday be so powerful his brothers would bow down to him.

The problem is when he had the dream, he did not yet have the character for that dream to make any sense. He was immature. He was unwise, at least in the way that he told his brothers.

And he ended up in a pit. And the pit is where dreams go to die if we let them. The pit is where dreams go to die. Right for Joseph.

And by the way, maybe some of you, maybe your dream ended up in a pit somewhere in your story. A pit that wasn't meant to kill your dream. It was meant to build your character.

For Joseph, the pit was the beginning of a process. A process that would prepare him ultimately for greatness someday. We all end up in a pit at some point.

That's life. The question is, will we allow the pit to prepare us or will we let it destroy the dreams that God has for us. Joseph never lost sight of his dream. Eventually, he beca key word.

Eventually, he became the second most powerful person in Egypt. And then we arrive at this moment. So, if you would, let's open our Bibles to page 47 as we come to the end of this story. And by the way, if you don't have a Bible, you can take that home with you.

That's a gift from Destination Church. We're going to start in chapter 50 verse 18, and I'll read it. It says, "His brothers then came and threw them themselves down before him. We are your slaves," they said. But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid.

Am I in the place of God. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. This is the exact moment Joseph's dream came true. But don't miss this.

In order for that to happen, he had to become an entirely different person. The dream didn't change. And if Joseph's dream can survive a pit, a betrayal, 13 years in Egypt, then yours can survive whatever is trying to bury it to.

And so that's where we're going for the rest of this morning. We are going to identify six types of buried dreamers in this room with the goal that you can find yourself in one of these along with a practical next step so that every one of us can live out and dig out our God-given dreams. And we're going to start with my favorite berry dreamer number one is the delusional dreamer. So, one of my brothers signed up for a gym membership, and part of that membership was a free tour with one of the personal trainers who happened to be ripped. So, the guy walks him around, shows him the machines, maybe even demonstr demonstrated a few things on the machines, and then afterwards, he's like, "All right, dude.

Do you have any questions or concerns. " And my brother is a musician like me, so he's going for a certain look, certain vibe, not the dad bod that I'm rocking now. This is off season, okay.

But he's going for something. So, he did have a concern and he said, "I just don't want to get too big. " >> And the guy looks at him.

He goes, "I don't think you have to worry about that, man. It's a lot harder than you think to put on this kind of muscle. " My My brother was teenage Joseph, right. He's flaunting his rainbow colored coat.

He's bragging to everybody about, you know, bowing down to him someday and he hasn't done any of the actual work. Okay, if you are a delusional dreamer, which I have some personal experience with, then you know that we love the outcome, not the work, right. We want the view without the climb, the muscles without the grind, the marathon without the months leading up to it.

And there's a verse in Zechariah that I love that is just for us. It says, "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. " Now, just a side note, church planning is signing up for small beginnings.

And I just want to say I am so proud of each person here. I've already watched like the morning leadup to this is just awesome to see. It is the body of Christ working together.

So, way to go. >> There's no way around it. If you want to build something that lasts, you have to start small. Delusional dreamers, however, despise small beginnings. But I don't think we do because we're prideful.

I think it's because we're afraid. We know that if we start small, it could actually happen, which is way scarier than just talking about it, right. So instead, we talk about changing the world instead of changing our world.

Making a dent in the universe instead of a difference in our neighborhood. We glorify big change because we're afraid of actual change. Maybe you can relate.

If this sounds like you, take heart. It just means it's time to still dream big, but start small. The way to accomplish big things is to embrace small beginnings.

God repeatedly asks us to take a step of faith. Not a series of leaps, a step. Don't be afraid to start small. Number two, the delayed dreamer.

So, I just watched this movie Goat with my kids. Have you seen this animated treasure. My kids loved it.

I had full-blown vertigo like halfway through this movie because of the the animation. But I was able to take a mid-mov dad nap and rally and finish strong. This is just a pro dad tip.

And this might be the one thing you do want to write down. You can start a movie. You can do whatever you want in the middle.

Do a project, fall asleep. If you finish strong, you get full credit. So, write that down.

That's a pro dad tip. So, this time I wake up to my daughter Rose chanting, "Roots run deep. Roots run deep. " She's banging the couch cushions. Because this movie is all about dreaming big.

And dreaming big is so inspiring, right. It's so inspiring, but is a double-edged sword. Because the same thing that inspires us initially can overwhelm us eventually. At first, our dreams are almost always too big for our character to carry them.

So instead of letting God shape and build our character, we abandon our dreams for something smaller, easier, and more comfortable. Or we go on a neverending quest to get ready, which really means we wait our lives away. We live a dress rehearsal life, which is a tragedy. I don't want that for anybody in this room. The delay dreamer is always about to start.

But here's the problem. There's always one more course. One more degree, one more duck to get in a row. Which is why Monday is always a moving goalpost.

January stays kinetic energy. If this describes you, you've been waiting your whole life to feel ready. And I'm here to tell you that feeling is never coming. Ready is a decision.

Ready is a decision. The overarching story of Joseph is receiving a divine dream before he was ready. God using really difficult circumstances to get him ready for the time when that dream became reality. And here's what I'm learning. Vision is found in motion.

God gives us what we need when we need it and not before. Joseph didn't wait till he got to the palace, right. He brought his best to every pit stop along the way.

He kept moving. He kept growing, learning, becoming the the kind of person that could handle a God-sized dream. But he didn't do it alone.

Over and over, we see the same refrain in the text. The Lord was with him. In Piper's house, he displayed excellence in obscurity, and the Lord was with him.

In prison, right, he was faithful in the little things, and the Lord was with him. Joseph brought his best to every test along the way and God brought the rest. That's the key. God brought the rest and that's the part that we miss. Action is the antidote to uncertainty.

Not waiting, not more research, not more planning. Action, right. You don't need to know the whole plan to take the next step.

You just need to stop waiting for a feeling and start trusting God with your calling. Go before you're ready and he will be with you if you start moving. Number three, the detourred dreamer. So, my wife does most of the driving so I can focus on yelling at the kids. It works for us.

And she does this thing that drives me nuts where she'll ask me to plug in the directions and then instantly disregards what Google Maps is saying, right. It was like like she knows better, but but I still need to plug them in. So, first of all, can you imagine a world where Google Maps talked back to us the way that we talk to each other.

You know, you make a wrong turn and it's like, you always do this. I've been telling you for 20 seconds to make this turn. Do you even love me. Like, what do all in that like Siri English accent.

What does it do. It just reroutes, right. There's no complaint, no arguing, there's no shame, there's no judgment, there's no questioning your sanity.

It just accepts your new reality and finds the next best way to go. What if we could learn to simply reroute in life. Think about how much time we waste beating ourselves up when we could be getting back on track.

What if we could learn in life to just reroute. When Joseph told his brothers about his dream, his GPS was already set for the palace. I guarantee it. Along the way, he got way off course. But those those were not dead ends.

They were detours. It turns out Joseph was taking the scenic route to the palace. And some of you are taking the scenic route to wherever God wants you to go. And here's what I want you to hear.

Proverbs says, "In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. " Now, you can read that one of two ways. Either as a reason to avoid planning altogether or as permission to pivot when you get off course. One of my mentors, Mark Berley, says, "God doesn't have a plan for your life. He has plans plural for your life.

" And the amount of plans you get to experience is connected to your level of obedience. I love that. The amount of plans you get to experience is connected to your level of obedience.

Now, I'm not suggesting that God causes detours, but he clearly uses them, right, to develop us, to redirect us, and in some ca, well, I would say sometimes the detour we're on is because of decisions that we've made. So, if you have been on back roads, if your GPS has been telling you to turn around to make a Uturn for years and years, is it possible that God has something different for you. Is it possible that God has something better for you.

Romans says, "And we know that in all things God works for th for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose, in all detours, in all wrong turns, in all things. " Here's the best part about GPS. The destination that you plug in never changes, right.

You can make as many wrong turns as you want. It never changes. Eventually, you will get there.

And for those of you who are listening to me thinking, I don't know if I have the right destination plugged in, you can change that today and start on a new path right now. If you feel lost, start with obedience. Barry dreamer number four, the discouraged dreamer. This is for those of you who have tried and failed.

You did pick a direction and every door was closed. But here's the thing. We often mistake rejection as a sign to retire our dreams instead of recalibrating them.

Now, if you ask anyone who has achieved a God-sized dream, they will tell you that obstacles refine us. They don't define us. Steven Presfield calls this the resistance, right. And if you've ever tried to level up in any area of your life, then you know this is a real thing, right.

I mean, if you don't believe me, try eating healthy and watch how your own family turns against you almost instantly. Have you experienced this. It's like their life suddenly depends on you eating a brownie.

It's the weirdest phenomenon, but it always happens. Sometimes the more resistance you face, the more significant the path you're on. For those of you who feel discouraged about where you're at or where you're not, know this. A bad year can be the best way to build character, right. Hitting rock bottom is often the starting line that sticks.

That's been true in my life. If your struggles were self-inflicted, don't spend another second on them. And if it was out of your control, let it go and lean into God's grace. Galatians says, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest. " Here's the key.

If we do not give up, >> if we do not give up, whatever you do, do not give up. Get back on the horse. Ask God to give you strength to persevere.

You are being formed in the resistance in the same way that Joseph was being formed in prison. If you feel discouraged, can I encourage you to start again. Number five, the damaged dreamer. Okay, go with me here. Dreams are a lot like newborn babies, right.

Just go with me. They're precious, right. They're often fragile, but we don't treat our dreams like newborn babies.

Maybe we should. , you wouldn't just hand your baby to anybody, right. There's a screening process for that.

When my wife and I had our first kid, one of her relatives came to the hospital and she was just an eager beaver. She wanted to hold our baby, our precious little peanut olive that no one should ever touch. And she she wanted to hold her and she came in guns blazing.

Give me the baby, right. And she she comes in. She's like So we're getting ready to hand her the baby and she does this like violent swinging motion as she get gets into the chair.

Can't you just sit down. Why do you have to. Like it was like this, right.

And she ends up elbowing Olive square in the soft Play-Dohlike skull. AND I'M LIKE, "YOU MONSTER. Did you even wash your hands. " It's I think I mean I yelled everything. It was like we didn't handle it well.

But in fairness, do you remember that playoff game. This is for T-Wolves fans. Do you remember that playoff game when Wem caught Nas with the elbow to the face.

I think we have a picture. That's exactly what she did to my baby. Exactly that.

It was the wind up, the release, and then the drop kick to finish her. Olive was totally fine, by the way. The lesson, don't let some rando punch your dream in the face. Be careful who you trust your dreams with.

Not everyone is equipped to steward them in the way that they deserve. Some of you in this room have been legitimately hurt, right. Somebody crushed your dreams. Somebody close to you, maybe someone in your family, maybe someone in the church, and you would call yourself a damaged dreamer. When Joseph first, I want you to see this.

When Joseph first shared his dream with his brothers, it says they hated him all the more. Later when he told his father about his dream, it says his father rebuked him. Okay, this is his family.

Joseph's dream was dismissed by the very people he trusted it with, but it wasn't destroyed. It was dismissed. It wasn't destroyed.

Joseph was deeply wounded by his brothers, but by God's grace, he was able to achieve his dream and forgive them. For some of you, the idea of forgiveness feels impossible. And I get that.

And what I would say to you is you're right. Without God's grace, it's impossible. Hebrews 12 warns us that if we don't forgive, a bitter root will grow. And I think Joseph understood that the bitterness that comes from unforgiveness is the self-imposed prison.

There's a specific kind of bitterness that comes directly from unforgiveness that locks us in to a selfimposed prison. Now, I'm not suggesting that you need to return to the person that hurt you, but maybe it's time to return to the dream, right. Maybe it's time to truly grieve. Maybe it's time to time to pursue healing through prayer and professional counseling. Or for some of you, it's time to let yourself out of jail.

If that's you, it might be time to start with forgiveness. Okay, number six, the distracted dreamer. If I haven't described you yet, this one is an all play. You know what you're supposed to do.

You just haven't figured out how to put that dopamine dispenser in your pocket in its proper place. Okay, this is all of us, right. There's an old Jewish blessing that says, "May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.

" And for most of us now, our rabbi has an algorithm, right. If we're honest, if I'm honest, we're covered in the dust of Dude Perfect episodes. Gilmore Girls reruns. Distraction.

I'm a dad of three girls. Guys, come on. Give me a break. Distraction is the new default. But here's the thing.

Joseph was connected to God. And the more connected we are to God, the less affected we are by our circumstances and our notifications. Ephesians says, "Lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.

" Living a life worthy of your calling starts when it's just you and God. It's not glamorous, but it is where he does his best work in us. The problem is we feel like we don't have time, right. We're all busy.

Maybe for you, a day off is spent side hustling. Or maybe you're in school and you're balancing classes and friends and this pressure of knowing what you're supposed to do with the rest of your life. Or maybe like me, you are raising kids in the world of professional youth sports that has decided we need to take this thing on the road so we can lose somewhere else that requires a hotel and time off work. We're all busy. However, my iPhone screen time report told a much different story, especially when I realized that 6 hours was the average for the day and not the week.

Again, I do a lot of Google Maps for no reason. That adds up. Okay, like I said earlier, but finally after years of struggling to find time for God, I wondered if I could make time for God instead. And I believe God gave me a phrase that has changed my spiritual life more than anything else. And maybe it can help you too.

Throne before phone. I know it's silly. Throne before phone.

That has changed my spiritual life more than anything else. And it's not just a pathy little phrase. It is a principle that reordered my days so that I give God my first fruits.

Not what's left over after work, after bedtime negotiations, my first fruits. And what I've learned is that when we give God our first fruits, he multiplies our time. He multiplies our time.

The stuff that you think you can't get done because you don't have time to read your Bible, it miraculously gets done and then some. It's unbelievable. Psalm 90 says, "Teach us to make the most of our time so that we may grow in wisdom. " Starting your day in God's presence is making the most of your time.

I promise you, it is making the most of your time. That connection can be a lifeline back to whatever dream God has put in you. If you are distracted like so many of us, start with presence.

So, where do you find yourself. If you're a delusional dreamer, start small. If you're delayed, start moving. If you're detourred, start with obedience. If you're discouraged, start again.

If you're damaged, start with forgiveness. If you're distracted, start with presence. The common thread is we all need to start somewhere, right. And now I want to speak to those of you who have no category.

I never described you because you feel dreamless. You have no idea why you're here, what you're supposed to be doing. And what I would say to you is you need to hear from God.

I love what Mark Batterson says. He says, "The shest way to get a word from the Lord is by getting into God's word. " >> When we open the Bible, God opens his mouth.

>> You don't need to have the answer. You just need to listen. You need to pray and ask God for a dream and the courage to act on it.

And in the meantime, if you don't know what to do or where to start, serve others. That's often where we discover a dream worth giving our lives to. First Peter says, "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.

A God-given dream is never just about you. A God-given dream is never just about you. And that's one of the best ways to know that it's from God in the first place.

So, wherever you find yourself on this buried dream continuum, know this. God didn't give you those dreams just to bury them. He didn't give them to you as a source of pride or bragging rights.

And this is something I'm just now starting to understand. He gave them to you as a way to bring him glory. >> He gave them to you as a way to bring him glory. And don't miss this.

In a way that only you can. In a way that only you can. And so that is my hope for every one of us today. I'm going to pray for God's help with that. And while I'm praying, if the band wants to come up, get in place, they can.

Lord, I just thank you for what you are doing right here in Destination Church. There are so many dreams represented in this room right now. Some that have been forgotten.

Some that have been buried in a pit somewhere along the way, Lord. And some that are thriving right now. Some people in this room are living the life of their dreams and your dreams for them, Lord.

And so praise you for that. But I just pray for the person who feels stuck, who has no nowhere to go. Lord, I pray that you would put the right people around them, that you would give them the motivation to start moving, knowing that you will show up when they start going.

So we trust you with that, Lord. We love you. I just pray a special blessing on this church that you would continue to grow this community, that it would thrive, Lord, and it would be centered around you. Let this be a place where people can find and follow you easily. Lord Jesus, we give it all to you in Jesus name.