Genesis with Pastor Steve Whinery of Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

all right we're in uh chapter 41 you guys just want to open your bibles to genesis chapter 41. get rid of that we're going to be talking about joseph's exaltation let me pray before we get started um lord uh again we're coming before you just thank you for the nice weather lord it's awesome out here and uh father we thank you even more than that for your providence in our lives for the fact that you guide us you work and work in us you even work in our enemies lord to bring us to the place where you want us to be and father as we're talking about some of that some of those things this morning we just pray that you'd be speaking to our hearts and uh lord that you'd grant us faith we want to be people who actually trust you and so we just give you the morning prayer blessed that you do this all in jesus name amen okay genesis chapter 41 we're continuing on with the story of joseph let's just go through and read some of this it says then it came to pass at the end of two full years that pharaoh had a dream and behold he stood by the river let me stop right there two full years remember last week joseph is in prison and uh two of pharaoh's officers are put in prison with him he sees that they're sad he cares about it which is actually a awesome indication of joseph's character he cares about people even when his trials are worse than theirs in any case he talks to them they had a couple of dreams he interprets the dreams and with one of these guys if you look back in chapter 40 verse 14 he says but remember me when it is well with you and please show kindness to me make mention of me to pharaoh and get me out of this house the prison that he was in for indeed i was stolen away from the land of the hebrews and also i've done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon then it came to pass at the end of two full years this guy forgets him for two years and you can imagine joseph he was hopeful uh when the butler got out and he was restored he was hopeful that the butler would remember him but no he doesn't remember him and joseph sits there rotting for another two years goes on verse two and says suddenly there came up out of the river or excuse me it came to pass at the end of two full years that pharaoh had a dream and behold he stood by the river suddenly there came up out of the river seven cows fine looking and fat and they fed in the meadow then behold seven other cows came up after them out of the river ugly and gaunt and stood by the other cows on the bank of the river and the ugly and gaunt cows ate up the seven fine looking and fat cows so pharaoh awoke now normally when i'm going through reading my bible i'll go through a passage like that and just read it and move on to the next part of the passage but you know when whenever i'm doing a bible study and sometimes even when i'm reading i stop and think about it so what does that look like you got these seven good-looking good-looking cattle that come up out of the river and they're sitting there feeding in the meadow i got a couple of steers and we raised them for meat and for sale and and that kind of stuff and so um they're really looking good and so they're nice looking steers and just imagining a couple of gaunt looking steers coming up and eating them what does that look like what's happening there does the do the do the ugly cows does their mouth just open up and they just kind of swallow like a snake and there's a big bulge in their belly or whatever and the reason i'm uh talking about that or you know do they rip them apart and eat them you know eat them a leg at a time or what happens there reason i'm talking about that is because pharaoh woke up i think it was upsetting i think he said they're watching this whole thing and it's like oh that's gross and so he wakes up it goes on uh in verse five and it says he slept and dreamed a second time and suddenly seven heads of grain uh came up on one stock plump and good then behold seven thin heads blighted by the east wind sprang up after them and the seven thin heads devoured the seven plump and full heads so pharaoh awoke and indeed it was a dream um and you have a little different emphasis there in verse four it says so pharaoh awoke and then this one pharaoh awoken indeed it was a dream came to pass in the morning that his spirit was trouble and he sent and called for all the magicians of egypt and all its wise men and pharaoh told them his dreams but there was no one who could interpret them for pharaoh then the chief butler spoke to pharaoh saying i remember my faults this day what faults is he talking about and may be talking about the faults he's going to go on and talk about how pharaoh had put him into prison and was angry with him and and that kind of thing but i wonder if he wasn't talking about the fault he had towards joseph you know how that is you promised somebody something and then all of a sudden you realize that you didn't come through on your promise and you're like oh no this just happened to me i think it's covet brain it's not my fault but i was supposed to we're doing some stuff with the with the wi-fi at church because we have uh we have more people on it and so it's it's kind of getting crowded and stuff so we're doing stuff with the wi-fi and all week long i was supposed to be down here at 3 30 on thursday i'm supposed to be down here at 3 30 on on thursday so i could go over some stuff with them because i did the previous wi-fi stuff and uh i totally spaced it i was uh i was home that that day and i went out and you know did some stuff out in the yard and then i had to take a nap because i'm big fat and you know all the coveted stuff and i slept from like two till five never thought about it never never even thought about you know anything that was going on i happened to uh be up watching tv with my wife and she's watching something i'm not interested in so i'm kind of going through and looking at messages and looking at my calendar and stuff like that i'm like oh no it's like it's probably about 8 30 at night and i'm texting matt going i'm sorry you know i wasn't i wasn't there for you we do that kind of stuff all the time where where you know something may be important but it's not important enough for us to make sure that we get there and so on on some level we forget those things and we move on with our day well this guy had promised uh joseph years before that he was going to take care of it doesn't have a thought about this guy for two years until pharaoh has a dream and then at that point the butler spoke to sarah to pharaoh saying i remember my faults this day when pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard both me and the chief baker we each had a dream in one night he and i each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream now there was a young hebrew man with us there a servant of the captain of the guard and we told him and he interpreted our dreams for us to each man he interpreted interpreted according to his own dream and it came to pass just as he interpreted for us so it happened he restored me to my office and he hanged him verse 14 then pharaoh's sentence called joseph and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon and he shaved changed his clothing and came to pharaoh and pharaoh said to joseph i've had a dream and there's no one who can interpret it but i've heard it's said of you that you can understand a dream to interpret it okay this is going to be how god gets joseph out of prison this is going to be how god exalts joseph this is going to be how god gives the uh the fulfillment of the dreams that joseph had had when he was 17 years old he's 30 now the dreams that joseph had had when he was 17 years old where his brothers and his mother and his father were going to come and bow down before him this is how god's going to fulfill this whole thing one of the things you have to understand about joseph is he had those true two dreams when he's 17 years old but they're pretty general and the dreams that god gave joseph were just that your brothers are going to bow down before you your brothers and your parents are going to bow down before you that's that that was the the gist of those dreams nothing else and so joseph for the last 13 years has been going through one trial after another trial after another trial and god has been with him god has been with him and um i've been emphasizing that as we've been going through those things but he gets sold into slavery for no good reason his brothers throw him down into a pit they're going to kill him and then they decide let's not kill him let's make some money off him and sell them into slavery you can imagine this this guy sitting there looking at his brothers as the midianites are coming over and putting you know putting shackles on him or whatever they use tying him up so they can take him down to egypt to sell him and looking at his brothers and his brothers have no compassion on him and off he goes he's probably hoping that at some point they're going to come riding over the riding over the last ridge because they've repented and they want to you know they want to make things right with him but it never happens he gets to egypt he put he's put in the slave market and some dude comes up and buys him of all things and he becomes a slave in his household and god begins to bless him there because he's got a good attitude he trusts god and god blesses him and exalts him in potiphar's house and then the wife does her whole thing with the with she wants to sleep with him and then she falsely accuses him of adultery and rape and he ends up in prison and again for no fault of his own and he's sitting there in that place and uh you know obviously he's in a situation where it's just getting worse and worse he holds to his integrity he's got a right heart towards god god exalts him in that place but it's still just getting worse and worse as he said in verse 14 get me out of this place he didn't like it there's no reason i should be here in this dungeon i've done nothing and he all he wants is out and god hasn't said anything to this guy god hasn't told him what's going to happen except in general terms your parents and your brothers are going to bow down to you and by the time that he's in the prison i wonder if he's thinking you know what that was just a dream i don't know if god told me that or not because it's sure not looking like it's happening and so god gave him a little bit of warning but he never told him what he was going to do with him he never told him that he was going to make him vice president of egypt basically never told him any of that so every trial that joseph's gone through for the last 13 years god joseph's gone through with a big blank screen in front of him he doesn't know what's happening next and again god hasn't revealed it to him and yet he trusts him yet he has faith we need to have faith and i generally don't even like phrasing it that way because when i say you need to have faith in god or you need to have faith a lot of times what people do is they come up with this idea that they need to you know kind of grit their teeth and grunt real hard and believe real hard that something that can't happen is going to happen and you know if i just believe it hard enough it'll come to pass you know that kind of thing and that is not what the word faith is talking about the word faith is just the word trust trust and faith and believe and those terms in greek are all the same term in the greek language they're all the same and so all faith is is i trust and so i've got faith in certain people i've got faith in my wife i know her i know what she's like i know what she's going to do i know what she's not going to do and i know that i can trust her with my life and with the things that i give to her and the things that we have together i know that i can trust her right because i know her same thing with mitch i'd known the guys guy for well over 30 years i know him and i know i can trust him on certain things i'm just messing around i can trust him same thing with my secretaries i know them i know i can trust them i talk to them about issues that i wouldn't necessarily talk to anybody else about in our fellowship because i know i can trust them they'll keep their mouths shut and they're faithful i can trust them well it's the same thing with god do you trust him and even if things were going you know kind of kind of wongo at church in the in the sense of you know maybe uh bad things are happening and mitch is involved or the secretary's involved i know that i can give them the benefit of the doubt i know that they're going to have my back i know again that i can trust them even though the circumstances might might not look good and i'll come down and find out what the what the circumstances of something are and then i find out that yeah they were doing the right thing in this situation right thing by me and right thing by jesus and so i can trust these people that's exactly the same thing with god whenever we're talking about god you don't want to take him and sit him off in some you know in some ivory tower someplace like he like you don't know him and like you're never around him and like you you have no idea what he's going to do to you next you know god saved you in the first place if you're a christian god pulled you out of a pit and he brought you into the family of god and he did it for a purpose and it wasn't so that he could wipe you out joseph is in a situation that none of us most likely have ever been in and if you have been in prison or you have been in jail you know what that's like but usually you were there for good reason not for no reason not for a false accusation and so joseph is at the at the worst part of his life and he has no guidance going forward all he knows is that god is with him and that's all he knows and yet he trusts him you may be in a situation right now where you don't know where you're going you don't know what's going to happen next you don't know what god's got god got for you and it's looking pretty bad and through no fault of your own you know when things look bad for me and it's my fault i really don't have a problem with it but when things are bad you know for me and it's somebody else's fault and all i'm doing is reaping the consequences they're bad actions i have a real problem with it that's when i'm going through the psalms and i'm asking god to you know watch over me and take care of me and i like the psalms at that point because david david's crying out to god he gives a complaint and he's talking about his enemies and things like that the psalms are really comforting in a situation like that but you may be in a situation where it's not you you didn't do it and here you are and you don't you literally don't know what's going to happen with you you don't know what's going to happen with your family can you trust god can he get you through it do you think that there's going to be an end and obviously there's going to be an ultimate end where you're going to stand before god in heaven and you're going to be ruler of the universe you know this don't you we're going to rule and reign with christ he rules the universe you're going to be a ruler of the universe that's where you're going to end up for the vast vast vast vast majority of your existence and that's what god's got planned for you and even before that he'll deliver you here god's never not come come come through for me and it's exactly the same thing with you god exalts joseph here i he doesn't have to do it himself in fact he can't do it himself he's in prison there's nothing that he can do to exalt himself getting himself out of prison because of the things that have happened to him there's a passage i quote from all the time psalm 75 verses 4 through 7 it says this i said to the boastful do not deal boastfully and to the wicked do not lift up the horn do not lift up your horn on high do not speak with a stiff neck for exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south but god is the judge he puts down one and exalts another god is the one who lifts me up god is the one who exalts me god is the one who puts me in the positions he puts me in who gives me the things that he gives me who opens up the deals that he opens up for me who gives me the family that i've got he all of this stuff it's a god thing and he's the one who does it and i don't have to do it on my own i didn't think that when i was first a christian i thought that god helps those who help themselves that's in the bible no for benjamin franklin said that god never said that god helps those who can't be helped and a lot of times god will put you in a position where you are helpless there's nothing that you can do i always think of the thief on the cross god brings that point that guy to a point where he's literally pinned to a piece of wood and he breaks him and the guy says lord remember me when you come in your kingdom literally can do nothing and then he saves the man turns turns his life around and it's the same thing for us there's a reason that god allowed these things to happen in joseph's life and it's to get him in front of pharaoh joseph when he when he when he's going down to egypt in the slave caravan he's not thinking well you know what god's probably going to put me in front of pharaoh nothing that would ever come to mind at all and in the same way when you're looking at your own life god's got purposes and plans for you and maybe they may be things that you would never even expect this is not my the job that i would have picked as you know when i was a kid you know there are two things that people are majorly frightened of in the united states when they do polls two things that people are majorly frightened of number one is death they're afraid to die so death and illness and sickness they're afraid to die and number two is public speaking did you know this people are deathly afraid of public speaking and that was me the only time i ever publicly spoke uh before i became a christian was in ffa they made us uh take uh made us do a speech it was horrendous had all the little you know little cards that that you put your notes on and you were supposed to give gosh i think i think it was like a three minute speech i got mine done in like 45 seconds you know like that i don't even know what grade i got and i didn't care because it was one of the worst things that ever had ever happened in my life this is not the job that i would have picked if god would have told me when i was 19 years old when i when i really started following christ if he had told me when i was 19 years old this is what's going to happen with you you're you are going to start you know you know when you're 23 and you you are going to be teaching bible studies in front of people you're going to end up in you know being in front of a church and talking to people and stuff like if he had told me that when i was 19 that might have been a deal breaker with me i don't want to do that and yet this is what god had for me and again he wasn't letting me know until he gave it to me basically piecemeal over my life he'll do the same things with you you have to trust him the place that he's brought me i like it i like teaching the bible now i like you guys i still get nervous before i come up but i like it and it's something that um god made me for god uses the situations in your life to bring you to places where he can bless you and not just you it's not just a bless me club he wants to bless you and he wants to bless people around you there are people that god wants you to minister to whether it's at your job or with whether it's with your family there are situations that god wants to bring you into so that he can use you providence that's a term that's used in old documents in the united states you read it a lot when you read um some of the founders documents they they say that that we rely on the providence of god or we rely on providence to lead us providence is divine guidance or care um it's the god it's god conceived as the power sustaining and guiding huma uh human destiny when you look at joseph's life god uses the captain of the guard potiphar to take joseph from the slave market potiphar happens to rule the political prison god uses the the failure of the butler and baker to put the butler in contact with joseph god sends a dream to both to make an impression on the butler and god uses dreams to speak to pharaoh who hanged the baker and hangs with the butler morning noon and night i told you last week the butler is not just some guy that comes in and you know answers the doorbell or something and uh uh brings people in before the pharaoh he's the guy who tastes his food he's with the pharaoh morning noon and night every time this guy has a meal uh the pharaoh has a meal this guy's standing beside him he's a close confidant of the pharaoh he's a servant but he's a close confidant of the pharaoh and god maneuvers the situation so he gets that guy in touch with joseph and so the pharaoh hangs out with this guy morning noon and night who had a dream interpreted by joseph every man that joseph deals with in egypt is a close official of the pharaoh why and the reason is because god has a plan and the plan is to not only bless joseph and not only bless pharaoh and not only bless egypt and not only bless the nations around egypt and not only bless joseph's family but god's plan is for joseph to be instrumental in bringing about the nation of israel that the messiah is going to come from and that's why joseph's going through these things without a clue as to what's going to happen so you don't know what god's doing in your life you don't know where he's going to take you but you can know this it's going to be good it's going to be awesome so pharah has two dreams and we already talked about those and you have the failure of the magicians in verse 8 it says now it came to pass in the morning that a spirit was troubled he sent called for all the magicians of egypt and all its wise men and pharaoh told them his dreams but there was no one who could interpret them for pharaoh that's par for the course you see this over and over in the bible this happens again with a guy named nebuchadnezzar so during the time of daniel nebuchadnezzar has a dream god is using dreams actually god a lot of times is using dreams to speak to the hearts of people who are unbelievers he continues to do that and so he's using a dream in this situation uh and in the situation with nebuchadnezzar and when nebuchadnezzar wakes up he can't remember the dream and it he knows that it's it's upsetting and he obviously doesn't know the interpretation and so he calls in the magicians and the caldeans and the astrologers and the soothsayers and says tell me my dream and give me the interpretation and they say tell us the dream and we'll give you the interpretation and he goes no i want you to tell me that tell me the dream first i don't remember the dream so you guys are soothsayers you know all this stuff you're you know mr occult and so you should be able to do this stuff you're you know you're a fortune teller you can read mind so go ahead do it and they say we can't it's not fair nobody's ever done this and he goes i'm killing you all so nebuchadnezzar's just kind of like that i'm killing you all daniel gets gets wind of that whole thing and he says whoa whoa whoa don't be so hasty about this stuff give us a night we'll pray about it and then i'll come and give uh nebuchadnezzar the interpretation point being and daniel does exactly that point being that the magicians and the astrologers and the soothsayers have no power when it's compared to the power of god same thing in this passage this is something that that you need to understand when you're talking to people who are in the world there are people who in the world who are basically secular people and they're materialists and many times when we're sharing with them about jesus we talk about the fact that there's something bigger than just the stuff that you see around you and you know that to be true there's a work in your heart that shows you that to be true but then on the other hand there are people who in the who are in the world who are not materialists they're people who are looking for power and it's why they get involved in the occult because they're looking for power and their power does not compare to the power of god you know i'm not one of those guys who goes around and talks about every miracle that god's done in my life and makes a big deal about her puts it in the book and things like that but i get miracles that happen in my life all the time god is constantly guiding me god is constantly working my life i can always see the hand of god and things i don't do things without praying about it god speaks to me about the things that i buy he speaks to me about the places that i go and the reason he speaks to me is because i ask you have not because you asked not and so i i talk to god about all those things god again does miracles all the time with me and so i pray for people and it's not like i'm doing you know it's not like i'm working something up we pray for people on uh sunday nights and on wednesday nights and people generally come into my office when they need to be prayed for we'll anoint him with oil and i'll pray for him i have no idea how many people have been healed i couldn't count them how many people have been healed and healed miraculously sometimes of cancer i know a couple of there's a couple of people in our fellowship that that that's happened to they've been healed of cancer of all things and still healed to this day and you know it's one of those things where um i just kind of expect it now i'm dealing with a god who who created the heavens and the earth and he can do anything that i ask him for there's nothing that i'm going through that god can't take care of now god doesn't always heal you know it's like i'm i'm somebody who you know i don't i don't do medicine a whole lot and and generally speaking the most i'll ever do is aspirin or tylenol or something like that and a lot of times i don't even use that i'm just kind of that guy and i pray for healing for myself all the time and i don't always get healed sometimes i do other times i don't but when i get healed i'm not sitting there just flabbergasted about the whole thing because it's normal for me this is where we live this is who we deal with we deal with a god again who can do anything he wants and all i have to do is ask he's got a will he's got a purpose i want him to do what he wants but he can do anything he wants and all i have to do is ask and so you need to be asking too um when i when i look at the at situations like this what god's going to do with joseph is tell him what the dream is or give him the interpretation of the dream not only is he going to give him the interpretation he's going to give him the way out he's going to give him knowledge and he's going to give him wisdom word of knowledge word of wisdom and that again is something that's normal for christians you're talking to somebody and god is speaking to you know when it's when it's one of those issues where you're ministering to them or witnessing to them or whatever god will be speaking to you giving you words to say have you ever done this you're sitting there talking to somebody and stuff's coming out of your mouth that you didn't even know that you knew why is that happening well it's because you're so awesome and your brain is so cool or maybe some maybe somebody's injecting things into your little chicken brain giving you words to say that you might never have said because god's with you and again that's stuff that i expect i've had people put curses on me you ever had somebody put a hex on you i put a hex on you they said it like that i'm gonna put an x on you i'm like shut up you put an x on me all day long and i've had people do exactly that i put a curse on you and so bad things are going to happen your house is going to burn down your church is going to burn now never had my house burned down never had my church burned down oh why because god is more powerful than anything that you see in the world and so again it's something that you need to expect these guys these guys got nothing these guys have nothing and joseph is the one who gives the interpretation when you see joseph come before the pharaoh it says verse 15 and pharaoh said to joseph i've had a dream and there's no one who can interpret it but i have heard it said that you can understand a dream to interpret it so joseph answered pharaoh saying it's not in me god will give pharaoh an answer of peace and then pharaoh tells him the dream god will give pharaoh an answer of peace you see joseph's humility there joseph's not somebody who's going to talk about his great power and all the all the all the cool things that god has to use him for because he's his instrument of god here on the earth you don't see him doing that he just points straight to the lord when i when i was a kid uh i got saved at the tail end of the jesus movement and we had this sign one way and you guys know that one way and so somebody somebody would uh actually uh when bands would play and stuff like that people would clap for him they'd just raise their hands and go one way and what they were doing is pointing to jesus and that needs to be our attitude there's only one way there's only one who matters and it's jesus himself and that's what joseph is doing here there's a couple of other guys later on in history daniel's one of them jonathan jonathan goes up with his armor bearer says let's see what god can do goes up strikes the philistines starts this route of the philistines they start running saul his father comes out and blows a trumpet and says he wants to be revenged on all his enemies jonathan is actually doing the work god's doing the work through jonathan and saul comes in and ties tries to take credit and take over nebuchadnezzar with daniel he said this to daniel are you able to make known to me the dream which i've seen and its interpretation and daniel answered in the presence of the king and said the secret which the king has demanded the wise men the astrologers the magicians and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king but there is a god in heaven who reveals secrets and he's made known to king nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days and then daniel goes through and gives the interpretation of a prophecy that is still being fulfilled to this day one of the major prophetic utterances that you have in the old testament joseph's the same kind of man before him both joseph's the first guy who comes up and walks in humility he's not ready to take credit for god's work it's not a good idea to try to take credit for god's work it's always dangerous when you try to take the bowels for god god's the one who's doing the work you're just a tool and so god uses you god works through you praise the lord you're a hammer you're a saw you're a skill saw you're a screwdriver and you know screwdrivers and hammers and skill saws don't take credit for anything they don't even talk they just keep their mouths shut don't even have a mouth right that's a good picture too god uses you and it's kind of like you're just going through life going i'm a hammer that's what i do and you keep it there you don't touch god's glory god uses you you be thankful you give god the glory and let people know that it's god who used you but don't try to tell us how smart you are or how wise you were or what a tremendous program you came up with the glory needs to be going to god god give god the glory for the work that god does and that's exactly what exactly what god or what joseph does in the passage goes on in verse 17 and says then pharaoh said to joseph behold in my dream i stood on the bank of the river suddenly seven cows came up out of the river fine looking in fat and they fed in the meadow then behold seven other cows came up after them poor and very ugly and gaunt such ugliness as i have never seen in all the land of egypt and the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven the fat cows when they had eaten them up no one would have known that they had eaten them for they were just as ugly as at the beginning so i woke also i saw in my dream and suddenly seven heads came up on one stock full and good then behold seven heads withered thin and blighted by the east wind sprang up after them and the thin heads devoured the seven good heads so i told this to the magicians but there was no one who could explain it to me then joseph said to pharaoh the dreams of pharaoh are one god has shown pharaoh what he's about to do the seven good cows are seven years the seven good heads are seven years the dreams are won and the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine this is the thing which i have spoken to pharaoh god has shown pharaoh what he's about to do indeed seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of egypt but after them seven years of famine will arise and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of egypt and the famine will deplete the land so the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following for it will be very severe and the dream was repeated to pharaoh twice because the thing is established by god and god will shortly bring it to pass and so god gives joseph the interpretation knowledge that nobody else could have because it was something that had to be given by god that's called a word of knowledge when you get to the new testament you see that in first corinthians chapter 12 words of knowledge then he goes on and he says verse 33 now therefore let pharaoh select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of egypt let pharaoh do this and let him appoint officers over the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of egypt in the seven plentiful years and let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of pharaoh and let them keep food in the cities then that food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of egypt that the land may not perish during the famine that's wisdom and so the bible in the new testament talks about a word of wisdom both of these things came from god it's not just stuff that joseph is making up you can see in the next passage verse 37 so the advice was good in the eyes of pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants and pharaoh said to his servants can we find such a one as this a man in whom is the spirit of god when god's doing these things in a person's life when god's working through a person in this kind of situation it becomes obvious not only to the person that god's doing something the guy who's doing the talking but it becomes obvious to the people around them that there's something going on here that's supernatural something going on here that's straight from god and again that's normal for a christian gifts of the spirit are supernatural natural and so there have been times like i was saying before where you've been witnessing to somebody and things are popping into your head as you're talking to them or maybe they've come to you for counsel people do that with you you realize this right because you're the only person in the office when everybody is in turmoil and scared to death of something or everything's falling apart you're the only one who has a smile on your face or you're the only one who's holding it together you're the only one in the office who still has a marriage after 10 years after 15 years after 20 or 30 years and so when somebody's having a problem in their marriage they obviously are not going to the you know to the yahoos who've been married four times to get marriage counsel not if they want to fix their marriage what they're doing is coming to you and you sit there in a situation like that and you're like i'm no counselor you know i don't i don't know anything and then god begins to give you things to say to these people and again things are happening there that are supernatural naturally supernatural and you're like whoa i didn't know i knew all that well guess what you didn't what god was doing was using all the things that got pumped into your head over the years that you've forgotten about and he's speaking through you at that point this again happens all the time some of the some of the times that i've been preaching actually a lot of times when people come up after a bible study they'll come up to me and say wow steve that was a really good bible study you spoke straight to my heart you spoke straight to my heart and it's like this this thing that you said and this thing that you said it was just for me you know and i i understand that whole thing but it's not something that i said i did say it but it's stuff that god does we use the word of god here this is something that's living it's something that's powerful it's something that defines between the the heart the soul and the spirit it's something that works supernaturally in the lives of people and god does that routinely one of the one of my first real memories uh preaching on sunday morning i was an assistant pastor down in big bear and i'm up there teaching and it was a pretty small congregation and i'm teaching and there's this guy in the third row and he's kind of a big guy and as i'm teaching he's starting to get this look on his face and so his face starts to get hard and he starts he starts getting that stare and he's looking straight at me his arms come up and they fold like this and he looks at me and then he looks over at his wife and then he looks up at me and i made another point and he looks over at his wife and he's getting madder as time goes on and so pro that probably happened he looked at his wife probably three different times and as soon as the study was over he jetted outside he just got out of there and his wife came up to me afterwards and she goes could you pray for me and i go what's going on and she goes my husband thinks i told you stuff about us it's i'm going through and i'm talking about all this stuff that's going on in his life and i wasn't even doing a marriage study you guys i'm talking about all the stuff that's going on in his life and he's getting more and more convicted because god was using the words to speak to that guy and afterwards he came up and talked to me and he said you know what my wife told me that she didn't talk to you did she talk to you you're a christian you're a pastor he made the point that i can't lie to him did she talk to you and i go no i don't even know you dude what's your name and what i'm doing is reading his mail and i have no way of knowing what's in his mail i have no clue about this guy but god does and that's what god does he speaks to people routinely that way and um that happens with me in counseling i've told you that before people come in for counseling and i'm immediately like and it's not like i haven't done counseling so it's like there's equipment there i've been doing it for a long time but i don't rely on the equipment i rely on god and so somebody comes in for counseling i'm jesus i'm like jesus you need to do something here you need to speak to me show me what to say show me what the real problems are tell me what to do here and god's faithful to do exactly that word of knowledge word of wisdom happens all the time in my life all the time i live a miracle and it's pretty natural and so same with you i'm no different than you are i'm no different the power that we've got in following god is immense it's huge it's way cool and so joseph gives god's interpretation of the dream and then he gives a recommendation uh for action joseph's a humble guy he's not looking for a job he just wants out of prison he's not even thinking about a job in this passage he says this is what you do you go out and do a double tie that you know what's normal in those in those days to give a tenth to the kingdom that you were under and so you gave a tithe to the king that was your taxes so ten percent went to the government not twenty not thirty not forty not fifty ten that's all nobody got more than god same thing with tipping not 15 not 18 not 22 10. i liked it when it was 10. i don't think it should have changed makes me mad i give 15 because my wife was a waitress and that's what's expected but when i go with it in with a big group and you know they they uh tack on you know they put the they put the tip on themselves that makes that irritates me because i'm gonna tip and i realize other people are flakes i don't know deal with it but you know i'm gonna tip but you know given more than ten percent a lot of times just irks me with anyone in in any case what joseph says is just double the tithe double a tied for seven years and then you'll have enough in the in the years of plenty or in the years of famine to be able to take care of this um whole situation and in verse 35 he says let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming and store uh store up grain under the authority of pharaoh and let them keep food in the cities again he's not looking for a job and what pharaoh says pharaoh's response is the advice is good in the eyes of the pharaoh and the in the eyes of all his servants and pharaoh said to his servants can we find such a one as this a man is in whom is the spirit of god then pharaoh said to joseph inasmuch as god has shown you all this there is no one as discerning and wise as you are you shall be over my house and all my people shall be ruled according to your word only in regard to the throne will i be greater than you and pharaoh said to joseph see i have set you over all the land of egypt then pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on joseph's hand and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck had him ride in the second chariot which he had and they cried out before him bow the knee so he set him over all the land of egypt hours before he's in prison he's filthy he has to take a bath and shave before he comes before before pharaoh hours before and all of a sudden he's gone from the pit of egypt to the pinnacle in less than a day in the time that it takes to read this passage that's how quickly this happened for him and it doesn't matter where you're at doesn't matter what you're going through god can turn things around and actually he's not even turning things around what he's doing is he's taking you in a certain direction to fulfill something that he wants to do in your life and when the fulfillment comes it can happen suddenly and in such a way that it just blows you away and we need to again understand that there's recognition here of god's work in his life by the pharaoh and then the exaltation that comes with them remember i told you that joseph is a picture of jesus and everybody in egypt is bowing the knee before joseph the bible says that there's coming a time where everyone will bow the knee before christ every knee will bow every tongue will will confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father pharaoh also said to egypt verse 44 i am pharaoh and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of egypt and pharaoh called joseph's name zaphnath payanaya that that word is hard to translate there's a number of uh translations that are given for it one is abundance of life another is savior of the world another is revealer of secrets in other words god's word speaking life furniture of sustenance joseph who knows life all those things are possible interpretations of that and all of those things are things that apply specifically to jesus when you get to the new testament and are given in the name that pharaoh gives him he gets a wife too he gave him his wife asanath the daughter of potiphara priest devon so joseph went out over all the land of egypt assange means she who is yours when jesus who has a name that's above every name comes to get his kingdom he's going to get a wife too and that's you and me and we are she who is his he gets a ministry and the ministry is saving the known world giving them the bread of life like literally giving them the bread that will make them live and again that's his ministry he goes on and talks about the fact that he has a son verse 47 it says now in the plentiful years the ground brought forth abundantly so he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of egypt laid up the food in the cities he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them joseph gathered very much green as the sand of the sea until he stopped counting for it was immeasurable and the joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came whom asanath the daughter of potiphara priest of on bore to him joseph called the name of the firstborn manasseh for god has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house his name means manasseh means making forgetful and the name of the second verse 52 he called ephraim for god has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction and that word that word ephraim means fruitfulness i want you to notice that god verse 51 joseph says has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house he doesn't expect to see his father's house again he doesn't expect to see his brothers again but god's not done with joseph in just putting him in charge of egypt he's going to take and turn everything around in his life it goes on uh again in the passage and it talks about uh verse uh where we at verse 53 then the seven years of plenty which were in the land of egypt ended and the seven years of famine began to come as joseph had said the famine was in all lands but in all the land of egypt there was bread so when all the land of egypt was famished the people cried to pharaoh for bread and pharaoh said to all the egyptians go to joseph whatever he says to you do the famine was all over all the face of the earth and joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the egyptians and the famine became severe in the land of egypt so all countries came to joseph in egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe in all lands when jacob saw that there was grain in egypt jacob said to his sons why do you look at one another that's what a dad says to a kid what are you looking at and he and he said indeed i have heard that there's grain in egypt go down to that place and buy it for us there that we may live and not die so joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain in egypt and you see where god's going with this not only is he going to exalt joseph he's going to repair the family that was broken um 13 years before okay let's wrap this up you know you heard the hindsight's 2020 and many times as we look uh at the trials of our lives and the hard places that we come through when we were crying out to god and saying god why have you forsaken me where are you what are you doing i quoted from a psalm here why are you so far from the cry of my roaring god i pray day and night and you don't hear and many times we think that god has forsaken us and god isn't concerned with us and that we were going to you know again like i was saying before god saved you so that he could wipe you out or something and we think that we're going to perish like the people of israel thought they were going to perish in the wilderness we go through life and there are a series of valleys and mountaintops that we go through it's always like that it's always an up and down type of thing and we go through valleys when i first moved up here one of the things that i noticed the most was the sky the first three months that i was here when i was on a job whenever we had a break i would just look up at the sky because everywhere you look it's nothing but sky i came from a from a mountain valley big bear in california and it's mountain mountain lake little v down by the end by the dam where the where the weather comes up over it but it's mountain mountain lake and it was pretty but you couldn't see the sky the sky was like this big and so when i came up here that's one of the things that blew me away a lot of times when you're going through valleys you're you're hemmed in and you feel like you know like literally that whole thing you're between a rock and a hard place mountain mountain precipice precipice and there's only only one way to go and it's dark and it doesn't look good and then at some point god brings you out of that brings you up to the top of a ridge you ever gone hiking you ever gone uh backpacking and you're you're walking through an area and it's all enclosed then you get up to the top of the ridge and it all opens up you can turn back and you can see where you came from a lot of times you can see the trail if you're in the sierras and you can see where you're going it's a really cool thing when you come to the top of a ridge same thing in a christian's life you're going through a valley and you can't see a whole lot you get to the top of the ridge and you see where you came from and god's sitting there right with you going this is why i had you go here this is why i had you go here this is why i had you go here because this right here is where i wanted to bring you to and now you can see and that happens routinely in a believer's life and you got to trust god when you're going through the dark places you have to trust god when you're hemmed in on both sides you have to trust him because at some point he's going to bring you out to the top and you know we always talk about mountaintop experiences and that kind of thing and that's that's a good analogy fruit grows in valleys doesn't grow on mountaintops and a lot of times um what god's doing with you is he's not only making you and putting you in a place where you can be blessed and you can bless other people let me flip that around where you can bless other people and you can be blessed because that's really what god wants to do with you and he's not only doing that but he's changing your character you ever heard of case hardening it's my last illustration when i was a kid i was in a middle school and you had to take shop they have this thing you guys called shop they don't have it anymore but i took metal shop and i was going to make some stuff and i had to case harden it because you know i was going to put an edge on something and steel is too too soft many times for the things you want to work with the things that you want to do with it and so what you would do is you put it in the fire you'd heat it up you put it in this chemical in these dry chemicals you'd coat it sometimes you pound on it for a little bit then you put it back in the fire you pull it out do the same process over and over and over again until it got to the point where it was hard enough to take the edge or whatever you wanted to do with it and many times that's exactly what god is doing with you he wants to use you for something awesome he's got to get you to the point where you can take an edge he's got to get you to the point where you can be a useful tool and so he's going to be changing you as he as he takes you through those things and again you got to trust him through it some of you are going through some case hardening right now there's issues happening with jobs and covid and and the jab and all that kind of stuff there are things that are happening in people's lives and it may not even have anything to do with that you may be going through issues with your marriage you may be going through issues with uh death in a family that kind of thing you don't bail on god when you're going through those things you trust him through the midst of those things knowing this is going to come to pass it's going to end and at some point god's going to bring me out on the other side and even though this is hard and even though this is bad when it gets me to the other side it's going to be good and i could tell you story after story of this whether it's in my own life i pray about you know just about well i pray about almost everything don't make purchases without praying god gets me deals all the time all the time same thing with church here when i talk to other pastors about what's happening in our fellowship and the things that god's done for us they're all just blown away and this is all i do a deal comes up god plants it right in front of me and i go jesus you want me to do this and then he goes yeah and i go okay and then off we go and god just blesses that he blesses that and he'll do exactly the same thing for you you just got to ask the questions jesus do you want me to do this and see what he says and if he says yeah then move and do it so anyway that's all i got for you let's pray father thanks again for your word thank you for good examples like joseph i love this guy this just um hardcore follows you we don't even see any doubts in his life just follows you just goes for it trusts you through the midst of um hard times and god you bring him to a place that the guy never expected to be in because you're good you want to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think that's exactly what you did in joseph's life lord i pray for my people here i pray for those who are um having a hard time right now god that you would be speaking of their hearts that they would hear from you that they would hear your voice saying trust me just trust me you're going to make it through this i'm going to take care of you i'm with you and father i i pray that you do exactly that just thank you lord again for the time together thank you for your word pray that you'd continue to speak to us through the week and that you bless your people in jesus name amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

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Id: v7pB7mRecp4

Length: 55min 56sec (3356 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021