1. ‘PLAN A’ How God makes our dreams come true, in ways we’d never dream.

2. WHAT TO DO WHEN THE DREAM OF YOUR LIFE SEEMS DEAD Is the dream really dead? Can the dream live without the dreamer?

3. We live in a day of dying dreams. Many projects that had promise seem lost beyond recovery. The worldwide recession is a dream-killer. But while the dreamer lives the dream cannot die!

4. Joseph was the son of a dreamer. His father Jacob dreamed of a stairway to heaven on which angels ascended and descended. (Genesis 28) But when Joseph dreamed that his family would bow down to him, and told them the dream, his brothers hated him for it. “Let’s kill the dreamer and see what becomes of his dream” his brothers said. Joseph was Jacob’s only son by Rachel, his beloved. (Benjamin had not been born when this took place.)

5. Joseph’s step-brothers told their father that a wild animal had killed his son, but they had sold him into slavery. As long as Joseph lived his dream could not die, but could he survive slavery? Jacob thought the dream had died with Joseph, but it was still alive in the dreamer. Another dream was to raise Joseph from the prison to the palace. Jacob sorrowed over the loss of his beloved son for seventeen long years.

6. IN THE SHOCK OF HIS LOSS JACOB VOWED THAT LIFE WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN He said, “I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning." (Genesis 37:33-35)

7. His grief and his morbid words show that he did not take into account The God Factor: he didn’t know what the Almighty was doing with Joseph in Egypt. God will keep the dream alive. Don’t worry about what tomorrow might bring because every new day brings new opportunities.

8. Yesterday ended with the Evening Primrose (Psalm 4:8) Tomorrow begins with the Morning Glory (Psalm 5:3)

9. JACOB POURED HIS LOVE INTO A SUBSTITUTE, HIS NEWBORN SON His life became "bound up" in the life of Benjamin, his remaining son by Rachel. (Genesis 44:30) But there can be no substitute for what you loved most but lost.

10. Binding your life to what’s left will strip the future of its promise and the present of its enjoyment. You must believe that the dream is still alive. There can be no substitute for the original dream

11. IS THERE AN EMPTY VOID BETWEEN THE DREAM AND THE LOSS? Jacob had no idea of the future his son was preparing. Joseph was God’s advance man. He was not a man before his time, just a man before their time. (Psalm 105:17-19)

12. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO CONVINCE YOU THAT THE DREAM NEVER DIED? Jacob's personal grief numbed his hope. Only when the proof was too strong to deny did his spirit revive. (Genesis 45:25-28) Joseph was alive in Egypt, and the dream had become a reality!

13. IN HINDSIGHT WE SEE GOD'S FORESIGHT God's plan extended far beyond Joseph – to all the nations! He made all things work together for Joseph’s ultimate good. (Gen. 45:5-8 & 50:20; Romans 8:28)

14. If you think the dream is dead, it’s probably because you can’t see God’s ‘Plan A’ God makes everything work together for good. Joseph was sold as a slave, unjustly accused, thrown into prison, and then raised to the position of Prime Minister! If you can’t see what God is doing, believe that the dream lives…

15. …because it does, in the dreamer.