(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So keep your place there in Matthew chapter 1. So we're continuing our Christmas story series tonight before Christmas Day next Sunday. And tonight we're going to look, we've looked at John the Baptist, we looked at Elizabeth, his mother, we looked at Mary last week, and this week, tonight, we're going to look a little bit at somebody who isn't mentioned all that much in the Bible, but Joseph, Joseph, the actual, the husband of Mary, obviously not the, you know, the birth father of Jesus Christ as, you know, God, the father is, you know, Jesus' father. But we're going to look at Joseph tonight, we're going to look at some things in his life, things about Joseph that are admirable, things that we can take from that admirable. And then we're also going to look at how God communicated with Joseph and see how we can apply that to our lives tonight. So look down at the Bible, if you would, at Matthew chapter 1 and verse number 19. So Joseph comes on the scene here, of course, he is espoused as we went through in the last couple of weeks, he's espoused to Mary, which in the Bible is, you know, it's not the equivalent of engagement today, engagement today, in today's society means nothing, you know, people don't take it seriously. Engagement is kind of a different thing than espousal, espousal in the Bible was considered marriage, it was considered marriage, but it was before the husband and wife came together physically as husband and wife. So Joseph as espoused to Mary finds her with child, she's pregnant, and of course, Joseph, you know, that's a problem for most people, right, in the normal world. But we see Joseph's character right away with how he handles this, we went through Deuteronomy last week with the law considering, you know, divorce and fornication and things like that during that espousal period, but in verse number 19, and look at how Joseph handles this situation, it says, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. So as we talked about last week, he would have been justified into bringing her before the elders, you know, that she had been in fornication before, you know, they came together in marriage. Look at verse number 20, but while he thought on these things, now of course, God intervenes, Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived of her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Of course, Jesus is God. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, as did the angel of the Lord, had bidden him, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and he knew her not. Of course, that's a, they did not, that means they did not come together physically till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. So Joseph, right away at the beginning, he could have put her away, let's go back before the angel even talks to him. You know, Joseph, when I think of Joseph, he's not mentioned very many times in the Bible, Matthew chapter one, Matthew chapter two is kind of Joseph's debut in the Bible. You don't hear too much about him after that. But Joseph, when I think about how his actions were here, what he was justified in doing, but what he didn't do, what he didn't push forward doing, Joseph, I kind of think of Joseph as just like when I think of a good man, I think of Joseph. You know, there's a couple of things. First of all, he showed, he was going to show mercy to his espoused wife, Mary. Before God even intervened, he could have taken her publicly and put her away or divorced her as the Bible lays out in Deuteronomy, as we went through last week, but he was a just man. He didn't want to do that. He was a merciful man. He was going to put her away privately, meaning privately, quietly. He did not want to, even though it appeared she had betrayed him, he did not want to harm her, damage her, things like that. He was just a good man. He was just a very merciful person. Turn to Luke chapter six. So again, just because he had the right to do so doesn't mean that he had to do it, okay? Doesn't mean that he had to go through it. The point I want to make here before we even get into the sermon, this is just his introduction, is this. The Bible teaches very clearly that forgiveness and mercy is always an option, okay? Forgiveness and mercy is always an option. Look at Luke chapter six and verse 36. I'm going to give you two reasons why forgiveness and mercy are always options, and especially when dealing with our brothers and sisters in Christ and who the Bible would call our neighbors, people that are not like enemies of God, you know, forgiveness and mercy are the preferred options, all right? Look at verse 36 of Luke chapter six. I'll give you two reasons why, that you should always default to mercy and forgiveness. And that's what Joseph was doing here. He was just defaulting to maximum mercy when it came to Mary. Look at verse number 36. The Bible says, be ye therefore merciful, as your father also is merciful. So the Bible is saying here the first reason that you should show mercy is because God the Father showed mercy to you. You're like, what do you mean? When did he show mercy to me? Well, I don't know. How about when he sent his son to die for you? How about when you deserve to go to hell and he sent himself as the Son of God to sacrifice, you know, himself for the sins of the world, including all of yours? So that is why, you know, that's the first reason you should be merciful, because somebody was merciful to you. Because all you deserve, as we talked about this morning, all you deserve personally, all I deserve personally is to go to hell. That's what we deserve, because we're sinners. We deserve that. So Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 7 is the second reason. So first of all, I mean, that makes perfect sense. Somebody showed mercy to me, I should show as much mercy as possible to others. All right? Look at Matthew chapter 5, verse number 7. Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 7. Now if that's not enough for you, here's another reason that you should show mercy. Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 7. Here's a selfish reason for you. You know, here's a selfish reason that you should show mercy whenever you can. The Bible says, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. So the Bible is literally saying here, if you are merciful, you will get mercy. What does that imply if you're not merciful? If you're not merciful, that implies that your Heavenly Father is going to deal with you in a way. I'm not talking about losing your salvation or anything like that. I'm talking about just being chastised, you know, your Heavenly Father dealing with you as a son. I'm talking about if you're not merciful to the people, you are not going to be granted mercy. That's what the Bible is saying here. Look at James chapter 2. James chapter 2. If you need more evidence on that, James chapter 2 and verse number 13 is extremely clear. James chapter 2. I'm going to wait for you to turn there. James chapter 2 and verse number 13. So number 1, you should be merciful. Joseph was showing mercy. He was a good man. He was showing mercy where he didn't have to. The law was on his side. He could have followed the law through as it was written, but instead he erred on the side of mercy. All right? I'm trying to convince you to do the same tonight. Look at verse number 13 of James chapter 2. It says, for he shall have judgment without mercy that showeth no mercy. And mercy rejoiceth against judgment. Now, let me tell you some things that this says. Let me tell you what this doesn't say. It says, he shall have judgment without mercy. All right? So it's saying, if you show no mercy, let's walk it backwards. If you show no mercy, you're going to have judgment without mercy, meaning judgment is there. Okay? Now, what people will say today is, see, you should never judge. Whoa. Like, what are you talking about? That's not what that says. The Bible does not say, don't ever judge anywhere ever. Okay? As a matter of fact, in John chapter 7, the Bible says, look, judgment is necessary. Judgment is necessary. In James chapter 2 verse 13, what we're talking about here is two types of judgment. There's judgment with mercy, and there's judgment without mercy. And the Bible is saying, if you have judgment without mercy, then you're going to receive less mercy. That's all it's saying. In both of those scenarios, judgment was there. There's this wicked false doctrine that's going throughout Christianity today that says, don't judge. It's not in the Bible. In John chapter 7, it actually says, judge righteous judgment. If people would just think about these things, what they're being told, for five seconds, just think about what it means to not judge. How many people have raised children or would like to raise children with no judgment? Raise your hand. I want my kids to have no judgment. Judgment simply means, I brought it up this morning in 1 Kings chapter 3 verse number 9, when Solomon was asked by God, what do you want? Ask me anything. What would you like? You know what Solomon asked for? He said, give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people. He asked for judgment. And then he defines it in the very next words, it says, to discern between good and bad. So judgment, all judgment means, all to judge means, all to judge a situation, look, I hope my children are very judgmental. I hope they have very good judgment. Every single decision you make in your life is some kind of judgment. This don't ever judge is ridiculous. Like you're just supposed to walk around like just thinking everything's great and, you know, it's the same thing with don't hate anything or anybody. You must, you know, you must not, because extremely dislike is what hate means, you must not extremely dislike anything or anyone. What in the world? You know what kind of person would tell you to not extremely dislike anything or anybody and have zero judgment on anything? An extremely evil person would tell you that. That's the kind of person. So look, in James chapter 2 and verse number 13, we're looking at two types of judgment. And the Bible is saying the best type of judgment is judgment with mercy, right? There's judgment without mercy and there's judgment with mercy. And it's saying mercy is better. Mercy is the better option, all right? So look, judgment without mercy is bad, especially when it comes to our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ. God prefers mercy. God prefers mercy. Turn to Proverbs chapter 25. Even with, by the way, even with your enemies, even with your enemies, God prefers mercy. I didn't say God's enemies because there's a difference between God's enemies and your personal enemies. But look at Proverbs chapter 25 and verse number 21. And this is also repeated by Paul in Romans chapter 12. But we'll look at the original doctrine in the Bible. Look at Proverbs chapter 25, verse number 21. The Bible says this about your enemies. Now what a lot of people do is they'll make their personal enemies God's enemies. That's elevating yourself to God's level and we ought not do that, all right? But look at Proverbs 25 and verse 21. The Bible says, if thine enemy, that means your enemy, be hungry, give him bread to eat and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee. So look, if you have somebody that just doesn't like you or is your personal enemy for one reason or another, I mean, first of all, this works. I mean, if you have somebody that just like, just despises you or you're in some kind of, the first thing you're not, you're not supposed to like return evil for evil. You're supposed to, they're mean to you and you're just supposed to be nice back. And you know what? It's just going to drive them nuts is what the Bible is saying. They're going to be like, ah! And it works. It works. Just return, you know, evil comes to you and just return it with mercy. And what does the Bible say? It will just heap coals of fire on their head. It's totally true. And in Matthew chapter 6, verse number 7, the opposite of this is Matthew chapter 7. Look at verse number 6. Turn back to Matthew chapter 7, verse number 6. So the Bible's telling you, like Proverbs, like Proverbs has like the answer to everything. The Proverbs has how to deal with your friends, how to deal with your enemies, how to be in church, how to find a wife, how to, you know, all these different things. Every single how to handle your business, everything is in the book of Proverbs. It's the direction for your personal relationships on this earth. And the Bible is saying when you have a personal enemy, just return mercy. And you're like, yeah, but I want to get them. Well that's how you get them. That's what the Bible's saying. You're just going to return mercy. You're not going to jump down in the ditch with these enemies, with even, you know, bad people that are attacking you or whatever. But look at Matthew chapter 7. The opposite, most of the time, this is what people do. In Matthew chapter 7, look at verse number 6. Most of the time, instead of returning, you know, good for bad, here's what people will do. The Bible says, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. I had somebody explain this verse to me this way, kind of paraphrase it this way. Don't get down in the mud with the pigs because the pigs like it. This is the people that get on, you know, get on social media and want to argue with people and, you know, just get down in the mud with all, you know, sometimes very bad people and you're not going to change everybody's mind, but they like it. They like it. They like that they get you engaged. They like that they can pull you into their mess. And look, the Bible says it's going to rend you, you're going to get hurt that way and you ought not do that. Don't cast what is holy unto the dogs. You are holy. You have the Holy Spirit in you and if you ever, I mean, this is a little bit different than Proverbs 25 where these are wicked, you know, dogs, as the Bible says, you know, haters of God, reprobates, but don't get involved with even arguing or debating with people like that. All right? So look, Joseph was a merciful man. He was a good example of how you should just grant mercy as a default, okay? That's all introduction. That's not even the point of the sermon. Go back to Matthew chapter 1 and verse number 20. Matthew chapter 1 verse number 20. So Joseph, he was a good man. He was who God needed in this case. You also know that he was right with God because every single command that God gave him throughout the life of before Jesus was born and Jesus having to go to Egypt and bringing Jesus back from Egypt, he followed God. He never questioned the Lord one time. He just did what he was told and he was very obedient to God. Look at verse number 20 of Matthew chapter 1. So the Bible is saying here after, you know, he finds out that his wife, his espoused wife is pregnant. It says, but while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee, marry thy wife for that which is conceived of her is in the Holy Ghost. Now turn to Matthew chapter 2 and look at verse number 12. Turn to Matthew chapter 2 and verse number 12. I just want to point out something that's consistent in how God communicates here with Joseph. So he didn't just come and have an angel stand in front of Joseph. He communicated to Joseph in a dream. Okay, look at verse number 12. This is talking about the wise men that came from the east to visit Jesus after Jesus was already born. He's a young child at this point. And of course they didn't go back to say, by the way, there wasn't, there's no evidence in the Bible that there was three wise men. People just think that because there was three gifts, you know, it fits with the nativity scene, a little idols and they go with three. Okay. But there could have been 10. Who knows? Right? Look at verse number 12. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. This is talking about the wise men going back. They were warned by God how? In a dream. Okay. Look at verse number 13. And when they were departed, the wise men, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph again in a dream saying, arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt and be there until I bring thee word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Of course, after this, Herod sends an order to kill all the children under two years old to try to destroy Jesus or destroy this Messiah that he heard was born. And look at verse, skip down for sake of time to verse number 19 just to prove my point. After Herod's dead now, this horrible thing was done. Herod's dead. Of course, they did not kill Jesus because God protected him by, you know, using Joseph to take Jesus and Mary away. Look at verse number 19 though. It says, but when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appearth, what? In a dream to Joseph in Egypt. So we see that God is using a pattern here. He's communicating to the wise men, Joseph, several different times through dreams. Okay, now, as in my short time as a pastor, I have been asked this question several times and I'm going to answer it to you tonight from the Bible. The question is, can God, can God talk to us through dreams? That's the question. All right. Now, before I answer the question, yes or no, because it is a yes or no answer, okay? It is a yes. Here's the answer. Yes. Yes, he can. And I'm going to prove to you from the Bible. Go to Genesis chapter 37. There is dreams. There is people in the Old Testament, Joseph in the New Testament, the wise men in the New Testament being communicated to God, by God, in their dreams all the time. Probably the most famous one in the Old Testament is Joseph. Joseph himself. I don't know if there's a correlation there between the name, you know, Joseph had a dream. He was a dreamer of dreams. The Bible said, you know, the Bible says in Genesis 20, Jacob's ladder, you know, the vision that he saw was in a dream. In verse number 37, you know, he had this dream that he went to his brothers. This is what got Joseph in all these trouble. He's like, you know, he was the youngest brother and he went to all his older brothers. He's like, hey, I had this dream that you're all going to serve me. And he just kept bringing up this dream. And so they all hated him and they all wanted to like, you know, kill him. Later on, look at Genesis chapter 37, Genesis chapter 37, verse number 19. They got so upset with him, this is what they said. This brother said, and they said to one another, behold, this dreamer cometh. Because all this trouble that was getting Joseph into, it was coming from his dreams that he was having. Okay, God was communicating to him through dreams. These things happened. They did end up serving him. He ended up as the number two man in Egypt, just right below Pharaoh. All right? Later on, the reason he gets out of prison and he gets, you know, his brothers throw him into slavery and he goes into prison for several different things, but he ends up interpreting dreams. Dreams were a huge part of Joseph's life. Just interpretations that God gave him, you know, visions that God gave him in dreams. You know, dreams were ways of God communicating to people all throughout the Bible. Abimelech, he even gave bad news in dreams. Abimelech, you know, the wicked son of Gideon, he's like, you know, he communicated bad news to him. He's like, you're dead in a dream. There's a message you don't want from God. God communicates through dreams in the Bible all the time. So can God talk to us through dreams? Yes. Yes, he can. But the question is this. Let's start here. Let's look at the Bible and let's have proper context to this. Turn to Hebrews chapter 1. Turn to Hebrews chapter 1. The question is this. How does he do it? How does he do it? How do I know if it's God? I'm going to answer those questions for you tonight. Go to Hebrews chapter 1 and look at verse number 1. Let's just do a real quick Bible study here and let me connect some dots for you. But look, we see lots of evidence in the Old Testament, the New Testament about God communicating to people through dreams. The question is, can he communicate to me through dreams? And I'm telling you, yes he can and I'm going to show you from the Bible that this isn't my opinion. This is what the Bible says and I'll explain it to you now. Look at verse number 1 of Hebrews chapter 1. The Bible says this, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners, what that says is several different times, many different times, and in diverse manners, meaning many different methods and ways, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days. Now remember, we are in the last days, okay? Jesus himself told the disciples that we are in the last days. So the disciples were in the last days, okay? I'm not going to predict Jesus coming tomorrow. That's not what this is about. The last days meaning the last half, the last part. We're not in the end times, but we're in the last days. That's just a phrase that is used, even Jesus said it during the disciples' time. So look, he had spake to the fathers by the prophets, okay, we get that. This is the Old Testament, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. So the Bible here is saying is that, yes, he's spoken time past to the fathers by the prophets. The prophets would get visions from God, get messages from God, and they would go tell the people, Jeremiah, Isaiah, you name them all. This is what they did. They spoke the word of God. Thank God we have, you know, we have what God wants us to have in the Bible sitting in front of us. But he says now he speaks to us by his son, alright? He speaks to us by who's his son? By Jesus, okay? What is Jesus? Jesus is the word. John chapter 1, Jesus is the word, and the word, you know, became flesh and dwelt among us. This is what we're going to celebrate next week, is the birth of the Messiah. And I like how it says in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2, it says, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. So what he's saying is, Jesus is who God communicates through, he communicates to us through Jesus. By the way, he also made the worlds through Jesus. How did God make the world? He spoke it. So what God is saying here is that he communicates, let me just translate this for you, he communicates to us today through his word. That is what the Bible clearly says. Alright, now I'm going to dig a little bit deeper into that in just a few minutes, but turn to John, 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. So you say, I dreamed something and I think that it was God talking to me. How do I know if it was God? Well, the Bible tells us how you can know if it was God. And then I'll explain how God could actually, you know, communicate to you in your sleep, in your dreams, through his son. Okay, look at 1 John chapter 4 and verse number 1. So the first thing is this. The first thing is this, the Bible is very clear that it might not just be God that communicates to you in your dreams. Okay, 1 John chapter 4 and verse number 1 says, Beloved, believe not every spirit. Now spirit there being lower case meaning every person or message that you receive, but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world. You say, okay, so it says try the spirits, that means test the spirits. Okay, so that means every message that you get, whether it be when you're awake or when you're sleeping, you need to try those spirits, test them to see if they're of God. You say, how do I do that? Well, God tells us, go to Deuteronomy chapter 13. God tells us how to do that, right? God tells us how to test the spirits to see if they're of God. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 13 and look at verse number 1. You say, if there's a test I need to put these spirits to, I wish God would tell me what the test is. Well, I'm going to show you. Deuteronomy chapter 13, look at verse number 1. Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse number 1, because look, we've talked about this before. Not every message that you receive in your life, whether you be awake or sleeping, not every opportunity that comes in front of you, whether you be, you know, conscious or not, you know, guess who else is trying to lead you in this world? Satan is walking about on this earth, as we saw in Job chapter 1 this morning, he's walking around, he's on the earth with his demons and he's trying to derail you. He can't take away your salvation, he can't make you go to hell, but he can make you worthless. He can get you into trouble, he can get you into sin, he can get you into things that you shouldn't be into to make you, what, unfruitful, unprofitable in your Christian life. That's what he wants. And look, if you're out here and you're being a profitable Christian, if you're out preaching the gospel to people, you're out getting people saved, let me tell you something, if you move from not being a profitable Christian to being a profitable Christian, your life will change because you have a target on your back. And I can't tell you how many times I've seen this, because now the devil is trying to get you unprofitable, unfruitful. Okay, look at Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse number 1. The Bible says, if there arise among you a prophet, if there arise among you a prophet, just listen to everything he says no matter what. I mean, he's a prophet. Most people, look, how do you know somebody's a prophet? I mean, everybody says they're a prophet. If there arise among you a prophet, or look at this, a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, now here's what's really interesting, and the sign or wonder come to pass. So here this prophet comes out, and he says, I have a vision from the Lord, I have a message from the Lord, and he said, the Lord's going to give me a sign, and look, the sign happens. The sign happens. Wherefore he speak unto thee saying, let us go after other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them. Then thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. The Bible here is saying, if you have some prophet, he comes out, because guess who else is going to do great signs and wonders? False prophets will do great signs and wonders. The false prophet that works for the antichrist is going to do great signs and wonders, and the entire world is going to follow him. So it's not the signs and wonders, it's what he's actually saying. The Bible says that these prophets are going to come and they're going to try to draw you away from the Lord and draw you into false gods, false things, against what the word of God says, and it says, you know, God is testing you. God is, you know, that's a test for you as a Christian, whether or not you will recognize that or not. So all that to say this, dreams can be good or they can be bad. So we first need to understand that. We need to understand, okay, can God communicate with me through my dreams? And I'm going to show you how he does that in a few minutes, but I first want to show you that dreams, just like opportunities that come to you, they can be good and they can be bad, and they need to be tested against what? Against what God's word says. And how in the world could you test something against God's word if you have no idea what it says? This is how important it is to read the Bible. This is how important it is that you be like the Bereans that we just learned about in Acts chapter 17, that you just, you study yourself to see if these things are so. You don't just sit and just listen to sermons. You go home and you read the Bible and you study the Bible and you say, I don't know, pastor said that. Is that what, is that what this is? Is that what the Bible says? Look, we need to study to show ourselves approved the Bible says. Look at verse number four, Deuteronomy chapter 13. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and, oh, look at this, obey his voice. There it is. You see how the Old Testament is no different than the New Testament? Obey his voice. Obey his word. Obey his son. Obey Jesus. I just said the same thing like four times. It's all the same thing. Verse number five, and that prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death. That's what God thinks of false prophets. Because spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord God commanded thee to walk in. So shall thou put that evil away from the midst of thee. So look, we all know this, look, dreams can be powerful. Dreams can be powerful. You wake up from a dream, I mean, who's experienced this? I mean, you wake up from sleeping, you wake up in the morning and like you feel completely different about something for like 10 minutes. Dreams are very, very powerful. I'm going to explain to you why they're powerful, but you need to understand, you don't just wake up from a dream and be like, that was really powerful, I feel this way towards this now really strongly, you must try that message. You must test that message because it could be good or it could be bad, as we just saw. We need to make sure that it matches God's voice, as the Bible just said. Try those spirits to see if they're of God. Look, they might be, they might be, but look, as soon as you start to understand the Bible, it's really easy to figure out whether these are good spirits or bad spirits. You need good messages or bad things. Maybe they're things that were from your past that you shouldn't even be thinking about or shouldn't even be, you know, people that you've separated from that you should stay separated from. And you had a dream for some reason about it, look, that's not a good thing. You should be able to try these things, all right, whether they're good or bad. So you need to test. Dreams are very powerful. Let me give you just a little bit of a testimonial. I've had many revelations through dreams. Well, I don't mean biblical revelations where I'm writing scripture, okay, don't leave the church, okay. But the point is, I've had many things that have come to me, I have been thinking about things at work, really stressed out about a project at work, and just having problems, technical issues at work, and I have literally dreamed the solution. I have dreamed about something and I've woken up and I've tried it and it worked. And look, I'm telling you, that's from God. I'm telling you, that didn't come from me, that's a blessing. That's a blessing. I remember, I'll give you one specific example that sort of changed my life. And it wasn't a dream, but it was a deep thought that just kind of seemed to come from nowhere. I was literally in the middle of the pasture working on a fence post. I was tamping a fence post, how many people know what that means? I had a railroad tie that I was putting in the ground, and I was walking around this railroad tie, tamping this dirt around this railroad tie, and I had this huge project at work. And all of a sudden this idea just, I just thought of this idea on this project. And this idea, it turned into this massive success that turned into a patent for the company, and guess what? That idea and that patent helped me get a job when I moved to California. That one thing. I said from the beginning, I was recently saved when that happened just a few years earlier, and I said from the beginning, because guess what? I always prayed for creativity. That was one of my prayers that I always said, if you have a job and you want to do better at your job, that's a great prayer. Pray for creativity. You're a homeschooling mom, pray for creativity. Why would God not answer that prayer? So I always prayed for creativity. I prayed for God to give me ideas, to help solve problems, all these types of things. And look, that was just an answered prayer. That's all that was. I literally, I wasn't even thinking about work. I was, I was kicking dirt in a hole, and it just, this just popped into my head. It's just from, it's just from the Lord. That's all. And I mean, I'm not any more smart than anybody else. It was just from the Lord. That's all it was. And it turned out that that turned out to be a great blessing in my life. It helped get me to where I am today, standing here in front of you all. So you can see these things, and it's definitely blessings can come from God into your mind. Okay? That's the main point that you need to understand. Again, you have to test it against the Bible to know if it's of God. Now, turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. I love situations, I love situations where science catches up to the Bible. But let me read you a secular, we have, let me read you a secular explanation of what dreams are, okay? The question is, the question is, God communicated to the prophets through dreams, He communicated to Mary's husband Joseph through dreams. Does He communicate to us through dreams? I'm going to tell you, yes He does, and I'm going to tell you how He does it, okay? Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 5, and while you turn there, again, you're going to have many things come to you through dreams. You need to test them to see if they are of the voice of God or not, alright? So we know that. I'm going to give you some secular science on dreams. There was a book written in 2011, and it was called Dream It, Dream On It, Unlock Your Dreams and Change Your Life, and it was by this gal, and she just shares all these insights about dreams, alright? But here's a description of what dreams actually are from this secular scientist. She's a PhD or some scientist expert in dreams, okay? But here's what she says. I love when science catches up to the Bible, alright, because the Bible has all the answers in it. She says this, dreams are thoughts. When you are dreaming, you are thinking, but on a much deeper and focused level than when you're awake. Think about it. When you go to sleep, the lights are off, your eyes are closed, and the world around you is shut out. There are no distractions. The mind doesn't stop working at this point. Whatever your stream of thought is as you drift off continues and begins to go inward. As your conscious waking literal mind slips into a state of rest, your deeper inner subconscious mind takes over. So what she is saying here is just, what are dreams? Dreams are thoughts. I agree. I agree. Many times, you will dream about things. If you're super stressed about something, you'll have dreams about that. You can tell that dreams are just, they're continuations of your thoughts. So science has caught up to the Bible. Are you in Ecclesiastes chapter 5? Look at verse number 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 5, look at verse number 3. The Bible says, for a dream cometh through the multitude of business. Let me just, let me say that differently, because what business means in the King James Bible is really busyness. It means, it means being profitable work that you're doing. That's what, that's what business as that word means to us. So what that means, for a dream cometh through the multitude of business, it says, you know what that's saying? Dreams are thoughts, and you're going to dream about what you're busy doing. Solomon knew it. You know, this lady just caught up, I don't know, 2500 years later or so, probably more. Yeah, more than that, 3000 years later. You will dream about things that you are thinking about. The Bible tells us this. Now go to Joshua chapter 1. Can God communicate to us through our dreams? So you will dream about things that you're thinking about that you're busy doing, meaning things that you're just, you're feverishly doing, and you're taking seriously, you will dream about those things. And according to that scientist, you will dream about those things on a much deeper level. Again, I agree. How, you know, how you could, you know, possibly wake up in the morning and have a solution that you didn't have the night before is because your mind keeps going. Your mind keeps going even while you're sleeping. Look at Joshua chapter 1 in verse number 8. So question is, what are, what are you thinking about? What are you thinking about? Joshua chapter 1, look at verse number 8. How about this one? What should you be thinking about? This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, meaning you should be speaking God's word, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then shall thou make thy way prosperous and then shall have good success. So if God in these last days has spoken to us by His Son through His word, the Bible says we should be meditating day and night on that word. And guess what? You're going to dream about it. You're going to dream about God's word. You're going to dream about things that you've read, things that you've meditated on. Let me give you a little bit of an insight into how I write sermons. You say, I write three unique sermons every single week. You say, is it nice to get through Sunday night? I'm kind of like, yes, I made it again. I somehow preached two more sermons on Sunday. But guess what? Monday morning, right away. Right away, Monday morning, what do I do? I don't write any sermons on Monday. I hardly ever write anything down Monday. But what I do is I'm going to read Acts chapter 18 at least twice as early as I can tomorrow morning. Why? So I can think about it. So I can meditate on it. I'm telling you, if I wrote a sermon, I could probably sit down and write a sermon in one day in just a couple hours. But it wouldn't be that good. Why? Because I like to think about it. I like to read it and meditate about it. I like to think about it, think of applications about it. I talk to my wife about it. I'm like, hey, what do you think about this? And then my wife says, hey, what do you think about this? She's got things. What are we doing? We're just talking about, we're not letting the law depart from our mouth. And we're meditating. I'm meditating on these things. And then I write some things down. I kind of bust out a skeleton of an outline on Tuesday. And then after I think about it some more, sometimes I'm like, yeah, that doesn't really make much sense. And then I kind of back things up and then I fill it out on Wednesday. So like literally three days. I'm not saying it takes three days to write a sermon, but that time is super important in order to get a good message because I like to meditate. And look, I've dreamed about things. I've dreamed about God's Word. I've dreamed about ideas to sermons. I'm not saying that God is telling me some revelation that He's not telling you. I'm telling you, I'm dreaming about the same Word of God that you have sitting on your lap right now. But if you meditate on it, it will communicate to you. It will talk to you. If you meditate on God's Word, you will start putting those pieces of that puzzle together with things that are going on in your life. You got some specific situation that only you know about that nobody else in the church knows about that you're going through or your family's going through or whatever, and you're meditating on the Word of God. Look, this is how important it is that you meditate on the Word of God because I don't know everything that's going on with you. I don't know everything that's happened in your past and what's going on with you now. That's why you need to meditate on the Word of God and then God will communicate through that Word to you while you're awake and while you're sleeping. It's very simple. So does God communicate through us in our, yes, as long as you're thinking about the Word of God. As long as you're meditating on the Word of God because that is how God communicates to us. Now if you decide that you had a dream and you wake up and you decide that God gave you another book of the Bible that no one else has been given, that doesn't pass the test. That was not of God. That was not of God, Joseph Smith. That's a false prophet, okay? Those are false things. So look, God can communicate through you in your dreams. It's just another way of you meditating on the Word of God. That's all it is. It's just your thoughts. That's it. God can't communicate with a lot of people when they're awake. Much less when they're sleeping. But in order, this is how you know that Joseph, the man, he was a godly man. He was a godly man. That way when God did have a very specific message through the angel Gabriel for Joseph. And that's why he never questioned it. He never questioned it. He tried those spirits. They were of God. They matched up with the voice of God. And he knew that it was the Lord. So yeah, meditate day and night on God's Word. Because look, that's how God communicates with you. God communicates through us. Look, if you're awake and you're hearing audible voices, you know, you need to come talk to me, alright? Because that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about meditating on the Word of God that we all have right here. And then God will speak to you through this Word. It's an infinite book. It applies to you. It applies to anyone who's ever lived. And he will speak to you through it. And if you meditate on it, you will dream on it too. And he will communicate through you. And many times, folks, look, I'm telling you, many times the things that you're meditating on, you will see things and you will connect things in your dreams. It's an amazing thing. Which again, shows the power of the Creator, Jesus Christ, that he created such intricacies in us. He can communicate with us in such great and wonderful ways. So Joseph, Joseph, he was a good man and God was successfully able to communicate with him because he had a good, bringing it back to the first sermon, he had a good relationship with his Heavenly Father. You know, he had a good relationship with his Heavenly Father. And I can tell you that I'm sure Joseph, and I'm sure these people that God gave dreams to, I'm sure they meditated on God's Word. Just as Joshua said that we should meditate on God's Word. And then you will dream about God's Word. And that may, you know, connect some dots for you in your life. You know, always testing, always testing those things though against the Word of God. And how do you know the Word of God? You do the nine chapters a day challenge and you read the Bible cover to cover and you understand what God's Word says and then it's easy to know whether it's God or not. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.