Wake Up Your Dreams | Joel Osteen

Hi, this is Joel in Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoyed today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend. We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. God bless you. It's great to be with you today. I hope you'll stay connected with us during the week, through our daily podcast, through our YouTube channel, social media, and you can come visit us in person. We'd love to have you be a part of one of our services. I'd like to start with something funny and I heard about this groom during the wedding rehearsal. He said to the minister, I'll make a deal with you. If you'll leave out all that honor, obey, and love stuff, I'll give you $100. He's left $100 bill into the minister's hand, walked away with a smile. The next day during the ceremony, the minister said to him, do you promise to bow down before your wife and take her breakfast in bed, fulfill her every desire? He gulped in astonishment and said in a weak voice, I do. He then whispered in the minister's ear and said, I thought we had a deal. The minister handed him his money back and said, your wife made me a much better offer. All right, y'all, say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the Word of God. I boldly confess my mind is alert. My heart is receptive. I will never be the same in Jesus' name. God bless you. I want to talk to you today about wake up your dreams. All of us have things that God has put in our hearts. Promises he's spoken, dreams he's whispered in the night, maybe to have a baby or to start a business, to see your marriage restored. And at one time we were excited about it. We prayed and believed. We knew it was a part of our destiny. But when things don't happen the way we thought, we go through delays and closed doors and people didn't support us. It's easy to get discouraged and give up on what we're believing for. But just because we gave up doesn't mean God gave up. God doesn't abort dreams. Nothing that's happened to you has canceled what God has spoken over your life. No length of time, no disappointment, no bad break. It may seem like the dream is dead. There's no sign that that promise will come to life. You've already accepted it. It's not meant to be. It's not dead. It's just asleep. The good news is God knows how to wake up your dream. He knows how to breathe new life into what looks dead. He'll send people across your path to speak a word, to ignite your faith, like he's doing today, to light a new fire on the inside. When it looks the least likely, you've already made peace that it can't happen. Joel, that ship has already sailed. Know what God started. He's going to finish. You're not too old. It's not too late. The odds may be against you, but God is for you. That's when he'll step in and do what only he can do. Suddenly your health turns around or a door opens or you're free from that addiction. God's about to wake up some dreams. What you thought was dead is just lying there dormant. It hasn't happened yet. Maybe it wasn't the right time. You prayed, you worked hard. You did all you could. Well, God saw your effort. He saw the disappointment, the frustration. That's not how your story ends. That's one chapter. Another chapter is coming. Why don't you get your hopes up? Why don't you take some steps of faith? Well, Joel, I tried before, but the door closed. Try again. God knows how to open doors. I'm just going to endure my marriage. I don't think we're ever going to be able to get along, never be happy. The enemy would love for you to lower your expectations, to lose your passion. When we've gone through disappointments, human nature has a defense mechanism that says, don't get your hopes up. That way you won't be hurt again. Don't believe anymore for that dream. Don't pray. Don't expect anything good. So you won't have to deal with the pain if it doesn't happen. Many people live this way. To protect themselves, they bury what they were believing for. They push down the dream they once had. They've already grieved the loss, accepted it's not meant to be. They don't want to risk the chance of being hurt again and having to deal with a disappointment. Don't fall into that trap. You haven't lost your dream. You just laid it down. You let the setbacks, the failures cause you to quit believing. That was okay for a season, but this is a new day. You need to wake up your dream. Get your hopes up. You can't have faith if you don't first have hope. That's why the enemy works so hard to suppress your hope. To get you to live discouraged, constantly whisper, it's never going to happen. It's too late. You don't deserve it. Look what you've been through. Tune all that out and declare what God says about you. You need to speak life over what you're dreaming about. If it's your health, God, I thank you that you're restoring health back into me. That I will get well. Or I will lend and not borrow. Or like the Psalm says, I will be the happy mother of children. Or as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. What God promised you is still alive and is still on the schedule. Second Kings chapter four, there was a woman that was friends with the prophet Elisha. She saw him traveling through her city and recognized he was a man of God. So she and her husband built an extra room on their house so Elisha could stay there when he was in town. She was a generous woman, faithful, loved God. Her family was wealthy and influential, had plenty of resources, and looked like she was on top of the world. Well, Elisha would stay at her house and he was so grateful for the hospitality, wanted to do something nice for her. He called her in and asked what she needed. Could he give her some fawns or could he put in a good word about her to the king? She said, no, Elisha, we're fine. We're friends with the king. We don't need anything. We had plenty of resources. Well, she went her way and Elisha kept thinking about it. Later, he said to his assistant Gehazi, what do you think we can get this woman? How can we be good to her? Gehazi said she doesn't have a child and her husband is an old man. When Elisha heard that, he knew it was right. He called her back in and said, by this time next year, you're going to be holding a son in your arms. Verse 15 says she protested, no, Elisha, please don't lie to me like that. One version says, don't play games with me. This struck a nerve. This woman had always dreamed of having a baby, but she wasn't able to conceive. Now she was an older woman. It was too late. She'd already buried that dream, already grieved the loss. When Elisha made this promise, her response was so passionate, it came out of a place of pain. No, Elisha, I'm not going there. I'm not going to get my hopes up again. You don't know how painful this has been. You don't know the nights I've cried. You don't know what it's like to see my sister's giving birth and my cousin's having babies. I try to be happy for them, but I'm so discouraged. As a young bride, you can imagine, she had dreams of holding her little baby, seeing them take the first steps, hearing that child call her name. It didn't happen at first, so she kept praying and believing. Still nothing. She had drier tears and pray again. Hope that it's going to happen. Munch went by. No baby. Years went by. Still nothing. She got so discouraged, so worn down. She was tired. Not tired of life, but tired of believing for her dream. She got to the point where she accepted it. She was too old. Didn't work out. Rather than keep being disappointed, she grieved the loss. She buried the dream and went on with her life. And this lady wasn't weak. She wasn't taking the easy way out. She was a faithful lady, honoring God. When Elisha said, you're going to have a baby by this time next year, that was a critical point. Her defense mechanism kicked in. She said, no Elisha. Don't stir up what I've already buried. I don't want to take the risk and hope again. This wound, this disappointment, she had gotten past it. She was content knowing that it wasn't going to happen. She didn't want to feel that pain again. She had good reasons to dismiss it. She was too old now. If it had happened 30 years earlier, then maybe she would believe. Her husband was an old man, two strikes. Everything in her mind said, don't believe now. You're going to be disappointed again. But down in her heart, something came alive. A faith, a knowing, a confidence. She dared to believe. She had the risk opening up that old wound. All that pain where she had already accepted that it couldn't happen. But she took that chance. Verse 17 says, Sure enough, soon the woman became pregnant. At that time, the following year, she had a son. There may be things that you buried. Dreams that didn't work out. Promises you once stood strong and believed. But like this woman, you couldn't conceive. Doors closed. People walked away. You kept a good attitude, celebrated others, but it didn't happen for you. Now you've dismissed it. Can I encourage you? God remembers what you've given up on. He has not forgotten what you quit praying about. He knows what you used to believe for. What you used to be passionate about. He's the one that put that dream in you in the first place. I love the fact that God didn't ask the woman, do you want a baby? Do you want what you've given up on? God didn't ask for permission. He knew she would come up with all these excuses. So he just declared, you're going to have what I intended for you to have. Time didn't cancel it. Bad breaks didn't cancel it. People didn't stop it. Mistakes didn't override it. What you thought was dead, too late, too far gone, it's only asleep. God is saying to you, what he said to this woman, by this time next year, you're going to see some things you thought were dead to come back to life. Don't keep, don't let the pain of what hasn't happened keep you from believing again. Like this lady, you may have already grieved the loss and accepted you can't get along in your marriage or you can't get well, can't get out of debt. No, God is about to breathe on your life. He's about to resurrect dead dreams and dead relationships, dead health, dead careers. There's going to be some resurrections, things coming back to life. You couldn't make it happen. You couldn't explain it. It's the hand of God waking up your dreams and pushing you into your purpose. I don't know, Joe, if I have enough faith for this to happen, I don't know if I can believe for what I've already given up on. This lady didn't believe. She was so over having a child and so far past it, that when Elisha asked what she wanted, she didn't even bring it up anymore. Didn't even enter her mind to have a baby. And she knew Elisha was a man of God that he could perform miracles, but she still didn't believe. She said, Elisha, I don't need anything, but God gave her what she didn't ask for. He brought to life what she thought was dead. The Scripture says, sure enough, she had a baby. God has some sure enoughs for you. Those dreams that look too far gone. You've given up. You saw your trying. He saw you believing. Like this woman, you've been faithful. You're generous. But sometimes what we're believing for doesn't happen, and we bury these dreams. It's too painful to keep believing God is so merciful He remembers what you've given up on. Even when we think, there's no way it can happen now. God says, watch me. Get ready, there are some sure enoughs that you seem too old to accomplish that dream. Sure enough, it's going to happen. Did you see the medical report? You can't get well. Sure enough, healing is coming. You went through a breakup. You're always going to be lonely. Sure enough, the right person is on the way. See, sure enough, it's not just God bringing a promise to pass. It's promises that we've buried. It's dreams we've given up on. We thought they were dead, but they were only asleep. At the right time, God will wake them up. Some friends of mine have a son that got off course. He was raised in a good home. As a teenager, he sang on the worship team and attended a Christian school. But in college, he started running with the wrong crowds and got into drugs and a lot of other bad things. And this once happy family was now filled with strife and contention. And these parents are strong believers. They prayed and got their son in rehab, did everything they could, but it was a constant struggle. One night, the father and son had this very heated argument. The father told him to get out of the house that he couldn't take it anymore. Years went by with his son estranged and very little contact. This father was faithful. Of course, he loved his son, but he was tired. Tired of the conflict, tired of believing, tired of bailing him out of trouble. He came to the point where he accepted that his son was going to live this way. That they'd never have a healthy relationship. It wasn't meant to be. God knows when we come to the end of our limits. This father had been through so much heartache, so much pain. He finally buried it and quit believing. When it's taken a long time and we're not seeing improvement, it's easy to lower our expectations and water down our dreams. That way, we won't be disappointed. My friend is a very upbeat person. He's very faith-filled. But I could see it started to take something out of him. Lost a little passion, lost a little joy, not his normal personality. Proverbs says, hope deferred makes the heart sick. The enemy would love for us to put off our hope. He whispers, it's never going to get better. What's the use of believing for your child? Look how long it's been. Look at the medical report. Difficulty in your career, the trouble in your marriage. How could it ever resolve? When your hope is put on hold, it steals your passion and weakens your faith. Now, wonder today if your heart is sick. You love God. You're good to others, but you've buried what you once were excited about. You've accepted you can't accomplish what's in your heart. You don't risk believing, hoping, dreaming because you may get hurt again. You don't want to reopen that wound. It's painful. It didn't work out. It could never happen now. Well, that's one way to handle it. You can survive with low expectations, but you may not realize it's making your heart sick. Like that woman in the Scripture, she said, I'm fine. I don't need anything. But inside, there were broken places. Buried dreams. Hurt that she had covered over to numb the pain. And people tell me, well, Joy, you're just real positive. You just always look on the bright side, but it's not just about being positive. When you don't have hope, it clouds your vision, lessens your creativity, it lowers your expectations, your heart becomes sick. You were created to be hopeful to believe even when you don't see a way to expect things to turn in your favor. A hopeful heart is a healthy heart. The Scripture says, against all hope, Abraham hoped on in faith. My friend had buried his dream and thought his son would always be off course. But about a year ago, his son was watching us on television, flipping through the channels, and at the end of our program, he prayed that prayer was like to Christ. It was like forces of darkness were broken off of him. Chains that had held him back were loosed. He was completely freed from that addiction, had no more desire, went back to his parents' house and reconciled. Today they're the best of friends. There's Joy and laughter in their house, and the son is excelling. How'd this happen? The father came into a sure enough that he had buried. Too painful to deal with. He'd accepted the heartache, but God stepped in and did what only he can do. Are there things that you buried today? Promises you quit believing for. Feels too late, too complicated, too hurtful, it's not dead, it's just dormant. God is about to wake it up. He's about to bring to life what you thought was over. Now give him something to work with. Quit deferring your hope. Quit watering down dreams and trying to protect yourself from being disappointed. God sees what you're dealing with. He knows what didn't work out. He didn't fault the lady in the Scripture for giving up on the baby, thinking she was too old. He doesn't fault my friend for thinking his son would never get back on course. God is the restore of what was broken. He's the healer of our wounds. One way he heals those painful areas is to bring to pass what we thought was dead. This happened with Moses. He was born with a calling on his life to deliver the Israelites. Before he took a breath, there was a target on him. The Pharaoh issued a decree to kill all the Hebrew baby boys. Moses shouldn't have survived, but people don't have the final say. What God has purposed for your life will come to pass. God will override what should have stopped you. People that have more power and influence. He'll override sicknesses, addictions, and storms. He won't let you face a challenge that he can't bring you out of. Moses was hidden for three months in his mother's house. When he got too big, she put him in a basket and sent him down the Nile River. Just so happened that Pharaoh's daughter was taken to bath. She saw the baby. It was love at first sight. She took him in the palace and raised him as her own son. Moses grew up in Egyptian royalty. He had the best education and trained to be a leader. But as a young man, he saw an Egyptian foreman mistreating a Hebrew slave. That calling rose up. He wanted to do something about it, but he got out of God's timing. He didn't think anyone was watching, but people saw him. He had to flee for his life. He spent years hiding in the desert. He thought his dream had died and it's too late for me. I had my chance, but I blew it. He buried it under shame and under failure. He went from the palace all this opportunity and prestige to the desert. No more people waiting on him. He's serving him food. Now he's living in a tent. Hot, dusty. It was his own fault. But the Scripture says God's calling on our life is irrevocable. God doesn't change his mind. He knew every mistake we would make before he called us. He knew the times we'd blow it, take the easy way out. That didn't cancel your destiny. It may take you on a detour, but it's just to get you to your purpose. Well, Joel, I miss plan A. That's okay. God has a plan B and C and D and some of your own plan X and Y and Z. Why are you bearing that dream? Why have you disqualified yourself? God has not written you off. He doesn't say just sit on the sidelines. You messed up. That's the enemy. He's called the accuser. He'll remind you of all your mistakes and failures. He'd love for you to live feeling unworthy, in shame, water down your dreams, defer your hope. His goal is to get your heart sick, discouraged, not expecting, just enduring life. Don't let that be you. Your dream is not dead. It's just dormant. At the right time, God's going to wake it up. 40 years after that mistake, minding his own business and God showed up in a burning bush. Said Moses, take off your shoes. You're standing on holy ground. Look at how good God is. Moses didn't go to God. God came to him. God loves you too much to let you miss your destiny. When you feel unworthy, you don't deserve it. God and His mercy will come to you. Dreams you've buried. Promises you've given up on. God too late, your time is coming. God said to Moses, go tell the Pharaoh to let my people go. I can imagine Moses thinking, no God, don't talk to me about that dream. I buried it. I've already accepted that can't happen. I've already grieved that loss. That's a painful time in my life. It caused me so much heartache. I can't reopen that wound. He quit believing that would happen decades earlier, but God has not forgotten what you've given up on. It may have been delayed by mistakes, poor choices, or circumstances you didn't have any control over. That lady that wanted a baby, she couldn't help that she was barren. My friend is a great parent. He didn't do anything to make a son get off course. God sees what you've been through. The dream He put in you, those promises you're standing on, they may get buried, but they are still alive. Moses told God all the reasons that He couldn't do it. God, who am I to go to Pharaoh? He's not going to listen to me. I stutter. I'm slow of speech. He was saying, God, I'm not worthy. I fell before. I may fell again. I'm not qualified. I don't have a lot of talent. He had believed those lies so long that He had this defeated mindset. God kept answering back, but we found that He could do it. Verse 13 says, Moses pleaded again and said, please, Lord, send someone else. He's saying, in effect, I don't want to hurt again. Those weren't really excuses. They were wounds. He was trying to protect Himself from being disappointed again, failing again. There will always be these voices trying to convince us to defer our hope. I'm not qualified. I don't speak well. Tune out all those lies. That's what makes your heart sick. That's what keeps your passion down and your expectations low. You were created to rise higher, to overcome obstacles, to defeat those giants, to set new standards, to leave your family better than they were before. It's going to take courage, courage to take a risk, a risk of being hurt again, a risk of not being accepted, a risk of not feeling qualified. Moses was letting the guilt, the insecurity, what hadn't worked out to hold him back. God could have said, fine, Moses, I'll find somebody else. No God is not going to give up on you. The dream He put in you is still alive. He said, Moses, when you go, I will be with you. I will give you words to speak. I will perform signs and miracles. And I will send Aaron along to help you out. Moses went out, delivered the Israelites, parted the Red Sea, and took them toward the Promised Land. Now like Moses, you may have let a dream go to sleep. It didn't work out the first time, but when God wakes it up, you're not going to go on your own. God is going with you to strengthen you, to fight your battles, to give you the words to speak, to give you the things that you're dreaming about, to bring your child back home. There are some sure enough coming your way. By this time next year, God is going to surprise you and do what you thought was over and done. Now here's my challenge today. Get in agreement with God. No more deferring your hope, talking yourself out of it. Try a better approach. Stir up your hope. It's not happening up an old wound. Something you've accepted can't happen. It was too painful, too disappointed. What if you knew that it wasn't the right time before? And just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it's not going to happen. The dream is not dead. It is just to sleep. Now I believe and declare God is about to wake it up. He's breathing on you right now. Fresh vision, fresh anointing on your health, your children, your finances, your relationships, dreams are coming back to life. What He's promised will come to pass in Jesus' name. And if you receive it, can you say amen? I'd like to give you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. If you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again. We'd love to send you some free information on your new walk with the Lord. You can text the number on the screen or go to the website. But I hope you'll get into a good Bible-based church and keep God first place. Life throws so much at us. Disappointments, failures, challenges. We can feel so out of touch that we no longer recognize ourselves. Life has a way of changing us. At one time we were outgoing and excited about our dreams. But when we go through disappointments and people do us wrong, it's easy to lose that positive, passionate person that we used to be. In my new book, Rediscovering the Forgotten You, I'll help you get back to who you really are. The joyful you, the confident you, the talented you. It's not too late. You haven't been through too much. You may have lost part of yourself, but you can find yourself. God is in the business of restoring what was lost, healing what was broken. You haven't seen the best version of you yet. It's still in front of you. As our way of saying thank you for your gift of any amount, we would like to send you a copy of Joel's brand new book, Rediscovering the Forgotten You. Take back your passion, reignite your dreams, and embrace the life you were created to live. This book shares the lifting scripture and personal stories that will help you release bitterness, silence self-defeating thoughts, and embrace, by faith, the vision of the life God designed for you. Life's challenges might have distorted the true you, but now you can reclaim, revitalize, and restore the version of yourself that you once knew, or the version that you know God has made you to be. Filled with hopes and dreams, optimism and confidence, we will now copy today and discover the best version of you yet. God is about to breathe new life, new passion, new dreams into your heart. What he started, he's going to finish. Thanks so much for being with us today. Victoria and I are praying for you and your family for God's very best. Thank you so much for your prayer and support. Your generosity helps people all over the world. A special thank you to our champion of hope partners, for all you do and for all you do. I hope you'll be able to make the ministry possible. If you're not a partner, I hope you'll consider the coming one. Until we meet again, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Be sure to request your copy of Rediscovering the Forgotten You available this month by simply visiting us at joelosteen.com or call 888-567-JOEL. You can also receive the God's Got You Rediscovery Duo. The God's Got You promises for overcoming fear. It's the perfect combination to help you rekindle your purpose while standing firm in God's promises. In addition to these two inspiration books, you can also receive the beautifully crafted CSB Thinline Study Bible in camel suede soft leather touch. An elegant Bible that offers a rich, immersive study experience and brings God's Word beautifully into your everyday life. This collection is more than encouragement. It is a foundation for lasting renewal, rooted in God's Word, strengthened by faith and anchored in His promises. You can request these inspiring resources by calling 888-567-JOEL or logging on to joelosteen.com today. Thank you.