Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church,
Speaker 1: and this is our podcast and I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Let's go in our bibles now to Genesis chapter forty
Speaker 1: for the final week of our series. Trigger at least
Speaker 1: I think it's the final week, but we'll preach it
Speaker 1: and see what happens. I had been preaching about taking
Speaker 1: back your mind in the age of anxiety. But looking
Speaker 1: at you, you seem to be completely now free of stress,
Speaker 1: and it seems as if you have gotten the message,
Speaker 1: and we can call it quits after today. But this
Speaker 1: last message that I want to bring to you, I
Speaker 1: hope will be as profound to you hearing it as
Speaker 1: it was to me as I studied for it, And
Speaker 1: ask that you consider it peerfully, because it's one of
Speaker 1: those messages where if you try to understand it with
Speaker 1: your mind, you won't get the most out of it.
Speaker 1: But if you'll listen at a different level and see
Speaker 1: what God wants to speak to you. I believe that
Speaker 1: he will welcome to every single location. I pray that
Speaker 1: you would lean into this word wherever you are and
Speaker 1: receive something from the Lord. Genesis, chapter forty, verse five.
Speaker 1: Let's jump right into the middle of it. And one
Speaker 1: night they both dreamed, the cupbearer and the baker in
Speaker 1: the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison,
Speaker 1: each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation.
Speaker 1: When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw
Speaker 1: that they were trouble. So he asked Pharaoh's officers, who
Speaker 1: were with him in custody in his master's house, why
Speaker 1: are your faces downcast today? And they said to him,
Speaker 1: we have had dreams and there is no one to
Speaker 1: interpret them. And Joseph said to them, do not interpretations
Speaker 1: belong to God? That was the question that got me
Speaker 1: started on this quest to preach this message today. Do
Speaker 1: not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to do something kind of weird. I'm
Speaker 1: going to go to a new Testament scripture, one verse
Speaker 1: of scripture that doesn't seem to go together on the
Speaker 1: surface with the one I just read, but it does
Speaker 1: seem like, you know, peanut, butter and mayonnaise, but it's
Speaker 1: really jelly. So go to First Corinthians fourteen three, and
Speaker 1: here Paul is giving some instructions to the Corinthian Church
Speaker 1: about orderly worship, and he says, therefore, one who speaks
Speaker 1: in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. Again, therefore,
Speaker 1: one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the
Speaker 1: power to interpret. I want to lift that phrase from
Speaker 1: my message title today and talk to you about the
Speaker 1: power of interpretation. Very very, very good stuff come in
Speaker 1: your way today from the word of God, not from me,
Speaker 1: but from God. And that's really the starting point for me.
Speaker 1: I realize that you come to church not to hear
Speaker 1: my opinion, but to hear a correct interpretation of the
Speaker 1: Word of God for your life and an application so
Speaker 1: that it is not only a historical document, but so
Speaker 1: that it becomes flesh, and so that the Spirit of
Speaker 1: God would breathe into your situation. Understanding this, I've already
Speaker 1: mentioned that many backgrounds attend church. And when I read
Speaker 1: First Corinthians fourteen, verse thirteen, and Paul is talking about
Speaker 1: speaking in tongues, you know half the church had flashbacks.
Speaker 1: And if you really want to start a good YouTube
Speaker 1: food fight, just talk about tongues in the church, because
Speaker 1: some people have a private prayer language where they speak
Speaker 1: in tongues, and it is very beautiful and helpful to
Speaker 1: many of us who believe in Jesus to pray that way.
Speaker 1: But yet other people have been told, well, if you
Speaker 1: don't speak in tongues, you're not full of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: Never mind the fact that Paul here is saying that
Speaker 1: every spiritual gift is only given to build others up,
Speaker 1: not to showcase your status and how much more spiritual
Speaker 1: you are. I mean, spiritual gifts are just that there
Speaker 1: are gifts. And what's far more important to God than
Speaker 1: us going around condescending to others because of our spiritual gift,
Speaker 1: is that we would cultivate the fruit of the Spirit
Speaker 1: in our lives. Things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
Speaker 1: and self control. These are the graces God would have
Speaker 1: us to grow in. But right now, if I really
Speaker 1: preached on First Corinthians fourteen thirteen, the Elevation Church YouTube
Speaker 1: comment section would get busier than it ever has in
Speaker 1: the history. I don't know how you type in tongues
Speaker 1: on a YouTube comment. But Paul is saying here what
Speaker 1: really matters isn't what is said as much as the
Speaker 1: interpretation of it, because you know what's true here about
Speaker 1: this spiritual gift of speaking in tongues where one person
Speaker 1: may speak in a heavenly language and someone needs to
Speaker 1: in turn so that it can be understood. It is
Speaker 1: not only true about languages. It is true about life
Speaker 1: to really live successfully, or maybe we could say a
Speaker 1: more biblical word faithfully for God, I need the correct interpretation.
Speaker 1: Touch somebody next to you and say I need an interpretation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I need an interpretation to be a good husband, because
Speaker 1: men and women are different. And if I don't learn
Speaker 1: to interpret, if I don't learn to understand that nothing
Speaker 1: is wrong does not mean literally on the surface, nothing
Speaker 1: is wrong. And by the way, most people when they
Speaker 1: say literally, it doesn't mean literally. I literally died. Think
Speaker 1: you mean figuratively. Touch somebody, say I need an interpretation.
Speaker 1: I need an interpretation to be able to raise my kids,
Speaker 1: you know, because I'll be thinking they're ungrateful when really
Speaker 1: they're just adolescent. And if you want to play back
Speaker 1: the tape from when I was their age, well let's
Speaker 1: don't do that touch somebody say I need an interpretation.
Speaker 1: That's what Paul is talking about. And really no one's
Speaker 1: life illustrates this more than the Old Testament character Joseph.
Speaker 1: I mentioned him, and I read this scripture that I
Speaker 1: want to revisit now in Genesis chapter forty, concerning the
Speaker 1: power of interpretation. Well, you know, Joseph's life could be
Speaker 1: used to illustrate injustice. He was abused and actually survived,
Speaker 1: and a near assassination from his brothers, and years later
Speaker 1: in his life he was dealing with false allegations of
Speaker 1: sexual misconduct and that landed him in prison, which is
Speaker 1: what put him in this position in Genesis chapter forty,
Speaker 1: the situation he was in, okay, principle number one and
Speaker 1: this is not coming up on the screen, So you know,
Speaker 1: write it down if it seems like it's worth writing
Speaker 1: down to you, if you just got to write something down,
Speaker 1: write this down. My situation is not as important as
Speaker 1: my interpretation of my situation. I don't mean to sound
Speaker 1: like doctor SEUs to you, but what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: say is a lot of times we want an intervention
Speaker 1: from God in our situation. Instead of that, God will
Speaker 1: often give us a different interpretation of the situation, and
Speaker 1: he won't necessarily change it. He will change us in
Speaker 1: the way we see our situation. And one of the
Speaker 1: reasons we fight in church is because we don't respect
Speaker 1: that other believers could read the same scripture that we
Speaker 1: read and have a different interpretation, and other people could
Speaker 1: watch the same news stories that we watch and have
Speaker 1: a different interpretation, because interpretation is based on many different
Speaker 1: things and filtered through the lens of your life experiences
Speaker 1: and your cultural background and even your intellectual ability, and
Speaker 1: some of us don't have as much to work with,
Speaker 1: and so you know, we see things more simple than
Speaker 1: they really are, and they're really complex. And you know,
Speaker 1: somebody says this about evolution, and somebody says this about creation.
Speaker 1: But we're reading the same story with a different interpretation.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't necessarily mean that you're wrong and I'm right,
Speaker 1: and you're going to hell and I'm going to heaven.
Speaker 1: And we get so triggered going off on people who
Speaker 1: believe in the same God. But just because I have
Speaker 1: a different interpretation doesn't give you the right to be
Speaker 1: God and tell me that my interpretation is not valid.
Speaker 1: Come on, clap like that blessed you, even though I
Speaker 1: know its stepped on your toes a little bit. All right,
Speaker 1: So Joseph is in prison and he should be in
Speaker 1: a bad mood. He should be having pity party, day
Speaker 1: number seven hundred and forty three of his pity party,
Speaker 1: since Potterphar's wife said, you know that he tried to
Speaker 1: rape her, and he should be reflecting on all of
Speaker 1: his brothers trying to kill him, and yet he had
Speaker 1: the presence of mine, like Reggie Miller in the thirty
Speaker 1: for thirty doc where he says, to these men who
Speaker 1: are in prison with him, what's wrong? You look sad? Now?
Speaker 1: Imagine you've had his life, but you still are looking
Speaker 1: at others through the lens of what's wrong with them?
Speaker 1: And imagine you have so much resentment and you're in prison.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you were able to still release empathy instead
Speaker 1: of living in your own resentment. Y'all. I am preaching
Speaker 1: so hard right now, and I don't even have to
Speaker 1: raise my voice to do it. He said, what's the
Speaker 1: matter with you, you man? And they said to him,
Speaker 1: we've had dreams and there's no one to interpreted him.
Speaker 1: Joseph said, do not interpretations belong to God. Now know
Speaker 1: this why he didn't say I have the power of
Speaker 1: grat skul, I have the power of interpretation. He said,
Speaker 1: God can make sense of this. I believe deep down
Speaker 1: in your soul. That's why you came to church. Because
Speaker 1: only God can make sense of some of the things
Speaker 1: that I feel and that I'm going through. And I
Speaker 1: need God to make sense of this. So Joseph said, look,
Speaker 1: how polite he is. Please tell them to me, please,
Speaker 1: I want to help you. And the chief cup bearer
Speaker 1: who used to bring pharaoh is wine said, well, it
Speaker 1: was weird man. I'm gonna just tell you like I
Speaker 1: dreamed it. Because in the Old Testament, you know, they
Speaker 1: put a lot more stock in their dreams than we
Speaker 1: do today. And I don't think that you should necessarily
Speaker 1: think every dream that you have comes from God either. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's pizza. A lot of the times has had nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the Lord or your purpose in life.
Speaker 1: But when the man started talking, he said, it was
Speaker 1: a vine that I saw in my dream, and then
Speaker 1: there were like three branches coming off the vine, and
Speaker 1: then they they were like ripe right away, and all
Speaker 1: three of them we are filled with grapes. I started
Speaker 1: squeezing the grapes, and I was holding Pharaoh's cup and
Speaker 1: I handed it back to him. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: Joseph's like three branches three days. In three days, we
Speaker 1: could preach about that, couldn't wait from the perspective of
Speaker 1: something else that happened after three days. But we're not
Speaker 1: going to do that today. He said, three days, Pharaoh's
Speaker 1: going to lift your head, put you back in your
Speaker 1: rightful position. This is the interpretation. And now I remember
Speaker 1: there were two men and they both had dreams, and
Speaker 1: the other one standing over and he hears the interpretation
Speaker 1: that Joseph gave to the cupbearer. But he's the Pharaoh's
Speaker 1: chief baker. And apparently Pharaoh is easily triggered because he
Speaker 1: threw both of them in prison. But we don't know
Speaker 1: what for. Maybe the brought him pumper nickel and he
Speaker 1: really wanted rye or something like that, or the East
Speaker 1: rolls weren't hot, and so when he brings it out
Speaker 1: the bread, maybe Pharaoh flies off the handle. And Joseph's
Speaker 1: life can be understood through many different constructs, but one
Speaker 1: way to look at it is there three major interpretations.
Speaker 1: This is the first one. He tells the cupbearer three days,
Speaker 1: Pharaoh's gonna put you back in your position. The baker
Speaker 1: hears this, while Joseph is saying, and when you get
Speaker 1: out of here, mention me to Pharaoh because I don't
Speaker 1: deserve to be here. So don't forget your boy who
Speaker 1: came through. When you get out. And the baker now
Speaker 1: he's waiting his turn in line because he wants out
Speaker 1: of Shawshank as well. And so he says, ooh, ooh, ooh,
Speaker 1: do mine do my dream? I had a dream too,
Speaker 1: Can you do my dream? And Joseph says, tell me
Speaker 1: your dream? Do not interpretations belong to God, And so
Speaker 1: he's expecting a favorable interpretation, and he has a similar
Speaker 1: dream that's different in just a small, tiny little way.
Speaker 1: He says, okay, I had three, not three branches on
Speaker 1: a vine, because I don't do the cup beer thing.
Speaker 1: I had three baskets of bread and they were all
Speaker 1: full of bread. And then some birds came in my dream.
Speaker 1: I know it sounds weird, but they started eating the
Speaker 1: bread off my head. And Joseph said, oh no, And
Speaker 1: he said oh no, he said, yeah, it means this
Speaker 1: is this the interpretation, this is what it means. Three
Speaker 1: days Pharaoh's gonna lift up your head, uh huh and
Speaker 1: cut it off, and then the birds are going to
Speaker 1: eat your flesh. And then Joseph took up an offering.
Speaker 1: But see, he didn't have the power to make the
Speaker 1: dream mean what he wanted it to mean. What he
Speaker 1: had to do was seek God to say, what does
Speaker 1: this mean? And one meaning was you're going to be
Speaker 1: restored to your position, that's the stuff that preaches good.
Speaker 1: And one meaning is you know you're you're actually you're
Speaker 1: actually you're actually gonna be dead three days from now.
Speaker 1: But it was the same power that enabled him to
Speaker 1: interpret both dreams, and it happened just like Joseph predicted.
Speaker 1: The interpretation was accurate. Three days later, the baker was
Speaker 1: dead and the cupbearer was free. Only he forgot about Joseph,
Speaker 1: have you ever done something for somebody? Have you ever
Speaker 1: helped somebody move when they moved out of their apartment
Speaker 1: into their house, and when it came time for you
Speaker 1: to move, their truck was having some issues. Has it
Speaker 1: ever happened to you? Have you ever raised your kids?
Speaker 1: And then they got out of the house and acted
Speaker 1: like they were too busy for you and the cats
Speaker 1: in the cradle. Well, you can relate to Joseph because
Speaker 1: he was forgotten in prison until one day Pharaoh. This
Speaker 1: is the second interpretation, and there're three. This one gets
Speaker 1: more difficult. It kind of goes in stages of interpretation
Speaker 1: where Pharaoh has a dream and he gathers all of
Speaker 1: the magicians in his court to interpret his dream. Watch
Speaker 1: what the Bible says. I believe this Genesis forty one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: verse fifteen. Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream,
Speaker 1: and there is no one who can interpret it. I
Speaker 1: have heard it said of you that when you hear
Speaker 1: a dream, you can interpret it. Now, how did Joseph
Speaker 1: get in front of Pharaoh? I thought he was in prison. Well,
Speaker 1: here's what happened. When Pharaoh had a problem, Joseph had
Speaker 1: an opportunity. I must say that again. When Pharaoh came
Speaker 1: upon something that he could not solve with his resources,
Speaker 1: it created an opportunity for someone who knew how to
Speaker 1: interpret the times, the situation, and to bring forth the solution.
Speaker 1: Here's why I pointed that out, because sometimes we run
Speaker 1: from stuff that God has introduced in order to bring
Speaker 1: us into the opportunity that we were praying for. And
Speaker 1: when Pharaoh had a dream, it was a strange dream,
Speaker 1: and he brought Joseph and said, man, I heard about you.
Speaker 1: And Joseph said, it's about time that dude was supposed
Speaker 1: to tell you about me two years ago. But see,
Speaker 1: sometimes God will allow people to forget about you because
Speaker 1: he knows where you need to be for the moment
Speaker 1: you need to come forth. And if you don't have
Speaker 1: a relationship with God, you won't know what to do
Speaker 1: with yourself in those times where you feel imprisoned and confined.
Speaker 1: All right, So he said, heard about you. There's no
Speaker 1: one who can interpret my dream, but I have heard
Speaker 1: it said of you that you are really, really brilliant
Speaker 1: at this dream interpretation stuff, So give it a shot.
Speaker 1: And Joseph answered Pharaoh, it's not in me. What a
Speaker 1: way to start your opportunity Go for a job interview
Speaker 1: talking about I'm not the one. But he said something
Speaker 1: similar to what he said in verse forty, and you
Speaker 1: start to see a pattern. He said, it's not in me.
Speaker 1: God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer, So let's hear it,
Speaker 1: because the power of interpretation is not in me. I'll
Speaker 1: get it wrong. I've learned that about myself. I'll get
Speaker 1: it wrong every time. Even preaching, I will mess the
Speaker 1: whole thing up. If I preach from the perspective of
Speaker 1: how I interpret that you are receiving the message, I
Speaker 1: start getting nervous because really, when you're listening the most
Speaker 1: you look angry. I'm gonna tell you that about yourself.
Speaker 1: When I'm really doing good, your eyebrows start making a
Speaker 1: queue up there, and you start you start hunching forward.
Speaker 1: And even when I'm really preaching good, you cross your
Speaker 1: arms because I just offended something that you've been clinging to,
Speaker 1: that God really wanted to pry out of your heart.
Speaker 1: So when you start leaning back and stuff, start doing
Speaker 1: all this. One woman one time looked like she was
Speaker 1: sleeping in my sermon. I realized she was praying for me.
Speaker 1: He took me twenty minutes into sermon. I was so offended.
Speaker 1: And I've learned this about myself. I will interpret it
Speaker 1: wrong every time, because the power of interpretation is to
Speaker 1: get into the presence of God. Watch this and say, God,
Speaker 1: what are you saying, what are you doing? What do
Speaker 1: you want to speak? And Joseph from that place of humility.
Speaker 1: Here's Pharaoh's dream. And Pharaoh starts talking about cows. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: there were seven fat cows and seven skinny cows. I
Speaker 1: don't know why Pharaoh's talking like this, it must be
Speaker 1: southern Egypt. But he's like, the fat cows. First came
Speaker 1: the fat cows, then came to skinny cows, and skinny cows.
Speaker 1: Eight the fat cows, and there were fat stalks and
Speaker 1: skinny stalks, and it's a great story you can read sometimes.
Speaker 1: But Joseph's, oh, that's easy. Seven years of plenty. That's
Speaker 1: the fat cows, seven years of famine, that skinny caut
Speaker 1: and if you save up during this fat years, you
Speaker 1: can make it in the lean years. And Pharaoh said,
Speaker 1: I need somebody smart to put in charge of saving
Speaker 1: up during the fat years. I need somebody to manage
Speaker 1: my fat cows. And Joseph said, well, hey, if you
Speaker 1: need somebody to manage the fat cows, maybe the guy
Speaker 1: who told you about the fat cows would be the
Speaker 1: one to manage the fat cows. And Pharaoh said, you're
Speaker 1: the man. And he's second in command of all of
Speaker 1: Egypt because of what the power of and if he
Speaker 1: would have given his opinion in that moment, or if
Speaker 1: he would have interpreted that opportunity through the lens of
Speaker 1: his own pain, he would not have had the clarity
Speaker 1: to see God and see what God is doing. The
Speaker 1: second interpretation, and here's the third one. Okay, there's a pattern.
Speaker 1: Here's three branches on the vinus, three interpretations and joseph life.
Speaker 1: And this one, this last one that I want to
Speaker 1: show you, is going to be the most difficult of all,
Speaker 1: because now Joseph has to interpret not the prisoner's dream,
Speaker 1: the cup baker, cup baker, it's new things. Cup baker
Speaker 1: bakes cups, the cup bearer, and the baker. But the
Speaker 1: second interpretation of Pharaoh's dream was easy in comparison to
Speaker 1: Joseph's final test, when he had to interpret his own dream,
Speaker 1: and to do that he had to face his own pain,
Speaker 1: because remember I told you when he was seventeen years old,
Speaker 1: he had a dream where he saw all these sheaves
Speaker 1: of grain that his brothers were out in the field harvesting,
Speaker 1: and his was at the middle, and they all bowed
Speaker 1: down to him. And perhaps in his immature eagerness to
Speaker 1: be important, he went and told his brothers what he saw,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the reasons they hated him. I
Speaker 1: mean many reasons. His father liked him better because he
Speaker 1: came from the wife Rachel that Jacob really loved, and
Speaker 1: his dad gave him this Gucci coat, and so many
Speaker 1: reasons why he was hated and theirs her from Target.
Speaker 1: But it's crazy because you know now he's standing in
Speaker 1: front of him. I read you the passage, and you
Speaker 1: imagine how emotional this would have been. Because the famine
Speaker 1: that Joseph predicted is now in full swing. It's been
Speaker 1: seven years of plenty. Joseph has stored up all the
Speaker 1: supplies and so they're ready for it. But he won't
Speaker 1: ready for this because two years into the famine, seven
Speaker 1: years of plenty, and two years into the seven year famine,
Speaker 1: Jacob sends all of his boys, Joseph's brothers, to Egypt
Speaker 1: because he heard there was grain there, and Joseph is
Speaker 1: the one who's in control of the pantry. Now. Sometimes
Speaker 1: God will test you by putting you in a position
Speaker 1: to see how you will deal with somebody who hurt you,
Speaker 1: and how you interpret that moment has everything to do
Speaker 1: with what happens next and how much God can trust you,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna read it to you just like It
Speaker 1: says that in verse one from verse one of Genesis
Speaker 1: forty five, he's been with his brothers. This is the
Speaker 1: second time that he's seen them. He's been dealing with
Speaker 1: a wide array I'm sure of different instincts and impulses
Speaker 1: of how he should deal with them. He hasn't let
Speaker 1: them know yet who he is because he's dressed like
Speaker 1: an Egyptian, and so they don't recognize him. You know,
Speaker 1: some people in your life don't recognize the you that
Speaker 1: you are now, not only because of what you've been
Speaker 1: through in life, but because God has taken you to
Speaker 1: a different place. And what he did this is very interesting.
Speaker 1: In Genesis forty two, it says he spoke to them
Speaker 1: through an interpreter, so he pretended like he couldn't understand them,
Speaker 1: and he played tricks on him. It's an epic story.
Speaker 1: We can't preach it today because this is one principle
Speaker 1: I'm trying to illustrate, but it would be well worth
Speaker 1: your time to invest about forty five minutes and read
Speaker 1: the whole thing. But when he finally decided to reveal
Speaker 1: himself to his brothers, it triggered that trauma of the
Speaker 1: day when he was so hated by them that they
Speaker 1: dipped his robe in animal blood and sold him to
Speaker 1: the Ishmaelit caravan, and he ended up separated from everything
Speaker 1: that he knew. And in the Bible says in verse one,
Speaker 1: Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood
Speaker 1: by him, and so he cried, make everyone go out
Speaker 1: from me, so no one stayed with him. When Joseph
Speaker 1: made himself known to his brothers, he's all alone in
Speaker 1: front of the thing that hurt him, in front of
Speaker 1: the unfair situation that started this whole chain of events
Speaker 1: in his life. And now he has to decide how
Speaker 1: to interpret this encounter. And I'm preaching right to your
Speaker 1: life today, because you're standing in front of something that
Speaker 1: hurt you. You're standing in front of some things that
Speaker 1: happened to you or didn't happen for you that should have,
Speaker 1: and standing before his brothers, Joseph has a decision to
Speaker 1: make what is the interpretation of this? And now perhaps
Speaker 1: he remembers his dream that he had over twenty years
Speaker 1: ago where he saw all of his brothers bowing down
Speaker 1: to him, but he realized they would not be bowing
Speaker 1: down to him so that he could show off in
Speaker 1: front of them, but so that he could serve them.
Speaker 1: In this moment, he's very powerful. It's very powerful. What
Speaker 1: happens next, he's crying and he's hurting, and finally he
Speaker 1: reveals himself. In verse three, Joseph said to his brothers,
Speaker 1: I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his
Speaker 1: brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at
Speaker 1: his presence. And so Joseph said to his brothers, come
Speaker 1: near to me, please, because you really can't interpret what
Speaker 1: God is doing in your life from a distance. And
Speaker 1: he has to call the thing that has caused him
Speaker 1: so much pain closer in order to see what God
Speaker 1: would have him to do. And when they come closer,
Speaker 1: he identifies himself again and said, I am your brother.
Speaker 1: Joseph doesn't disassociate himself from them. He acknowledges his position
Speaker 1: before them, and then he mentions what they did to him,
Speaker 1: whom you sold into Egypt. In other words, it's your fault.
Speaker 1: I'm here verse five. And now do not be distressed
Speaker 1: or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for
Speaker 1: God sent me before you to preserve life. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be honest with you. I really had to pray about
Speaker 1: that verse because it seemed like such a contradiction. He said,
Speaker 1: On one hand, please put it on the screen for
Speaker 1: just another moment. You sold me. Do you see that
Speaker 1: you sold me? So he is placing the blame for
Speaker 1: his situation on his brothers who stand before him. He's
Speaker 1: not denying their hand in bringing him into this situation,
Speaker 1: nor is he denying the dysfunction of it. You sold me,
Speaker 1: and it was wrong. You sold me out, you let
Speaker 1: me down. You are the reason on one hand that
Speaker 1: I'm here. I would not be in Egypt. I would
Speaker 1: be back home if it were not for you. But
Speaker 1: watch the shift. This is the message that God gave
Speaker 1: me for somebody today, and I pray that you'll have
Speaker 1: ears to hear it and that God will will enlighten
Speaker 1: your spirit to receive it. He said, you sold me
Speaker 1: here for God sent me before you to preserve life.
Speaker 1: And what I was praying about is which one is it.
Speaker 1: Did they sell you or did God send you? And
Speaker 1: I kept praying about that because it sounds like he's
Speaker 1: talking out of both sides of his mouth. You sold
Speaker 1: me for God sent me. Notice the construct. He doesn't say,
Speaker 1: you sold me, but God sent me. It's not even
Speaker 1: that he's contrasting the two. The second is a continuation
Speaker 1: of the first. God help me preach this Bible verse
Speaker 1: right now. This is the most annointed verse I've read
Speaker 1: all year. He said, you sold me, and it hurt
Speaker 1: me not but you sold me for God sent me.
Speaker 1: Don't be mad about it, don't even punish yourself, and
Speaker 1: don't cower in my presence. You don't need to spend
Speaker 1: another day tormented by it, because now I see through it.
Speaker 1: It's been a lot of years since you pushed me
Speaker 1: in that pit. It's been a lot of years since
Speaker 1: you broke my heart. It's been a lot of years
Speaker 1: since my dad left me. It's been a lot of
Speaker 1: years since they walked out. It's been a lot of
Speaker 1: years since I went down. It's been a lot of
Speaker 1: years since they lied on me. It's been a lot
Speaker 1: of years since they said I did it. It's been
Speaker 1: a lot of years, and now I've got a I've
Speaker 1: got an interpretation of the event. I've been studying about this,
Speaker 1: and I realize it is not the event that determines
Speaker 1: the outcome. It is your interpretation of the event that
Speaker 1: determines the outcome. And so watch this you'll be good.
Speaker 1: Sit down. The first one is the event you sold me.
Speaker 1: The second one is the interpretation God sent me. Which
Speaker 1: one are you going to live in the event or
Speaker 1: the interpretation? And here's a better question. Here's a better question.
Speaker 1: Who is your interpreter? Are you interpreting your God through
Speaker 1: your life or your life through your God? Because see
Speaker 1: your interpreter. Sometimes it's not what's happening, it's how you
Speaker 1: are interpreting what's happening. Right. I thought she was sleeping,
Speaker 1: but she was really praying. I thought they didn't love me,
Speaker 1: but really they just couldn't be there for me because
Speaker 1: they were going through some of their own issues. Is
Speaker 1: not the event, it's the interpretation. I thought the fire
Speaker 1: came to kill me, but I found out God was
Speaker 1: using the fire that I thought was gonna kill me
Speaker 1: to refine me. So God will use a fire that
Speaker 1: neipuchinesser started to refine me and bring me forth this goal.
Speaker 1: I don't just need the spirit of God to help
Speaker 1: me interpret tongues. I need God to help me interpret
Speaker 1: trauma and trouble and trials. And so I'm praying like
Speaker 1: Paul told the church, to pray for the power to interpret.
Speaker 1: I need the power to interpret. How many of you
Speaker 1: need the power to interpret by the wisdom of the
Speaker 1: Spirit of God. You don't need the spirit of God
Speaker 1: to give you goosebumps. A lot of things can give
Speaker 1: you goosebumps. You know, if you put on Mariah Carey,
Speaker 1: I can make it through the rain right now. It's
Speaker 1: one of her lesser known hits, just off the album
Speaker 1: with the rainbow on it where she's not wearing enough clothes.
Speaker 1: So I never looked at the cover when I was
Speaker 1: a teenager. Well, anyway, the problem with that, it can
Speaker 1: give you a feeling. I don't need the spirit of
Speaker 1: God just to give me a feeling. If it's a feeling, great,
Speaker 1: But I need the Spirit of God to give me focus.
Speaker 1: The unique property of the Spirit of God. You know,
Speaker 1: you got the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: The Father that's the legislative branch of the government of God.
Speaker 1: He's the one who makes the laws. You've got the Son,
Speaker 1: who is the executive branch of the government of Heaven,
Speaker 1: who enforces the grace of God and takes the penalty
Speaker 1: of your sin because you can't keep the law. And
Speaker 1: then you've got the judicial branch, which is the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit which lives inside of you. That helps you to
Speaker 1: get in a situation and say, I don't know what
Speaker 1: to do, I don't know what to say, but God,
Speaker 1: will you give me an interpretation of what the people
Speaker 1: in my life need right now this season I'm in
Speaker 1: right now, I need the Holy Spirit or I'll get
Speaker 1: it wrong. I'll get it wrong, And some of us
Speaker 1: have the wrong interpreter. We are interpreting our present through
Speaker 1: our past. We are interpreting our purpose through our pain.
Speaker 1: We are interpreting our entire life through one little situation.
Speaker 1: We are interpreting our future through our flaws. When you
Speaker 1: have the wrong interpreter messages everything. The first time I
Speaker 1: went to speak in a country where they didn't speak English,
Speaker 1: the first international speaking trip that I remember was Australia.
Speaker 1: That they speak kind of English. I like to pick
Speaker 1: on the ossis they shorten everything, kind of speak English,
Speaker 1: but they nickname everything. They call praise songs praisees, and
Speaker 1: that's weird. And when I go over there, they don't
Speaker 1: call me Steve, and they call me Steve and there's
Speaker 1: an inn on my name for a reason my mom
Speaker 1: put it there. Would you please let my consonants come
Speaker 1: through customs and put the in on the end of
Speaker 1: my name. I love Australia. I've been there many times.
Speaker 1: But one time I went to preach in a place
Speaker 1: where they didn't speak English, and I called a wiser
Speaker 1: minister who had preached many times in international settings, and said,
Speaker 1: give me some just different things I need to know
Speaker 1: about preaching through an interpreter. Translator is for written, interpreter
Speaker 1: is for spoken. I said, I need some of your
Speaker 1: wisdom on speaking through an interpreter. He gave me a
Speaker 1: few things, but one thing he said that stood out.
Speaker 1: He said, First, pray that you get a good one.
Speaker 1: He said, cause you'll think that he's saying what you said,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you can tell. I said, how will I
Speaker 1: tell if I have a bad interpreter? He said, one thing,
Speaker 1: he'll talk longer than you. When you finish your sentence,
Speaker 1: he'll say three sentences. That means he's putting something in
Speaker 1: that you didn't intend to say. Can I tell y'all
Speaker 1: something the devil has been putting some stuff in. Come
Speaker 1: on between what God has spoken to you. He puts
Speaker 1: thoughts in people's minds about you, in your mind that
Speaker 1: they weren't even thinking about you. Makes you paranoid. Oh man,
Speaker 1: look how they're looking at me. They don't like me. No,
Speaker 1: they actually don't like their husband. And they came to
Speaker 1: work in a bad mood because of something else that
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with you. But the devil will
Speaker 1: make you think that they don't like you because he's
Speaker 1: an interpreter that likes to add. He puts all that
Speaker 1: you have. You ever had this happen before in a
Speaker 1: situation where you start interpreting it wrong, and now all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you're thinking that they said things or
Speaker 1: thought things that they didn't say or think. He said,
Speaker 1: the other extreme you gotta look out for. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: won't say everything that you just say. They'll cut it short,
Speaker 1: he said. Sometimes they'll leave stuff out. And that's what
Speaker 1: the enemy will do. When you let him interpret your life,
Speaker 1: he'll only show you what's wrong with you. But he
Speaker 1: won't let you see how God is going to use
Speaker 1: everything that you consider to be a deficiency to bring
Speaker 1: you into your destiny. So he will only keep you confined.
Speaker 1: Come on church, that golf clap. That's not even worth
Speaker 1: doing if you're going to brace God and worship God
Speaker 1: for what he's spoken over your life and the fact
Speaker 1: that no man can add to it or subtract from it.
Speaker 1: If he said it, it it will happen. If he said
Speaker 1: in three days he will rise. I might be on
Speaker 1: a cross now, baby, but resurrection power is in my
Speaker 1: God future. So before we leave this place today, I
Speaker 1: just want to give you five things to pray for.
Speaker 1: Don't get nervous where we are now approaching our initial dissent.
Speaker 1: Make sure your bibles are securely open. But I thought
Speaker 1: we would just spell out the word dream, because Joseph
Speaker 1: interpreted not only the dream of the prisoners, not only
Speaker 1: the dream of Pharaoh, but his own dream that he
Speaker 1: had at seventeen years old, not through the lens of
Speaker 1: what he had lost in his life. You know how
Speaker 1: you keep doing it? You get you keep focusing so
Speaker 1: much on who left you and the opportunity that you wasted,
Speaker 1: that you keep bringing that forward with you into the
Speaker 1: next opportunity, and it's messing with you and you need
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit does
Speaker 1: speak in tongues. That's awesome. Shout at the top of
Speaker 1: your lungs. That's awesome. Get a goosebump. I'll get one
Speaker 1: with you. We'll go, we'll goose, we'll rub our goosebumps together.
Speaker 1: It's all wonderful. But what I really eat the spirit
Speaker 1: of God for is for those groans that words can't express.
Speaker 1: And I'll give them to you and we'll go and
Speaker 1: we'll call it a day, and we'll call it a series.
Speaker 1: But the first one that I'm praying for the power
Speaker 1: to interpret, like Paul said, because I know that interpretations
Speaker 1: belong to God. So I need God God help me
Speaker 1: to interpret my desires. I don't sometimes know why I
Speaker 1: want what I want, and neither did Paul. He was like,
Speaker 1: what I want to do it? Don't do what I
Speaker 1: don't want to do it. Don't do that didn't make
Speaker 1: any sense. If you want to do it, you want
Speaker 1: to do it. What do you mean you want to
Speaker 1: do it? You don't do it? Like, well, there's flesh,
Speaker 1: there's the spirit. I got a new nature. I love God,
Speaker 1: and then four minutes later, I really, I really still
Speaker 1: love God, but I love something that's the opposite of
Speaker 1: God too, And I don't know what to do and
Speaker 1: I need the Holy Spirit to show me why I
Speaker 1: want what I want, because if the Holy Spirit doesn't
Speaker 1: interpret my desires, I will run around my whole life
Speaker 1: trying to get what I want, and then when I
Speaker 1: get it, I won't even want what I've got. God,
Speaker 1: help me interpret my desires, because sometimes what will happen
Speaker 1: is it's not like one desire is divine and one
Speaker 1: is demonic, and you know there's no devil and no angel.
Speaker 1: Sometimes what the enemy will do to me is he'll
Speaker 1: take a god given desire and distort it. And what
Speaker 1: I really want is not a bad thing. It's not
Speaker 1: a bad desire. I notice a lot of people these
Speaker 1: days seem to want to be famous, famous for what famous?
Speaker 1: So I could be famous? Have you noticed that fame
Speaker 1: is like the number one cultural value now? And I
Speaker 1: was thinking about that as to why everybody wants to
Speaker 1: be famous. I mean, you think about it, famous kind
Speaker 1: of a weird thing. People aren't really built to receive
Speaker 1: that amount of attention. And when you see the number
Speaker 1: of famous people who are famous and don't even want
Speaker 1: to go on living, it should cause you to question,
Speaker 1: what is the real thing that I want? Is it
Speaker 1: really fame? Is it really followers on some platform full
Speaker 1: of people who don't even know me, but only the
Speaker 1: presentation and projection that I choose to stage, the props
Speaker 1: that I put in my life. Is that really what
Speaker 1: I want? Do I really want to be noticed? Or
Speaker 1: do I really want to be known? Because I think
Speaker 1: a lot of times we're trying to be noticed, and
Speaker 1: the real desire is we want to be known. And
Speaker 1: the Spirit of God can show you your real desire
Speaker 1: to say, I know that you're doing all this to
Speaker 1: try to get people to notice you, but I'm the
Speaker 1: only one who really knows you. And see when people
Speaker 1: know you from a distance and they notice things about you,
Speaker 1: but they don't know the real you, and you still
Speaker 1: feel lonely. It's so important that you ask the Spirit
Speaker 1: of God things like this, what am I really spending
Speaker 1: fourteen sixteen hours a day working for? Is it really
Speaker 1: to give my kids the life that they Yeah? Is
Speaker 1: it really that? Are you really trying to prove something
Speaker 1: to somebody who's not even paying attention. Like early in
Speaker 1: Joseph's life, he's like, you were all bowing down to me,
Speaker 1: It was awesome. Twenty years later, he's the one crumbling
Speaker 1: on his knees because he realizes that the desire God
Speaker 1: gave him was not so he could be important, but
Speaker 1: so that he could have influence, not so he could
Speaker 1: have status, but so that he could be a servant. So, God,
Speaker 1: show me my desires, show me which ones come from you,
Speaker 1: and help me. You know, I used to always pray
Speaker 1: some thirty seven for it says, delight yourself in the Lord,
Speaker 1: and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Speaker 1: And an immature interpretation of that is God's going to
Speaker 1: give me what I want. You know, God's just peeling
Speaker 1: them off. You know what you want, what you want?
Speaker 1: What you want. Now I look at it like he
Speaker 1: will give me the right desires. He will give me,
Speaker 1: I part unto me the right desires. So I don't
Speaker 1: just come up wanting to impress people. But I start
Speaker 1: asking God, how can I be a blessing? Because I
Speaker 1: cannot simultaneously be a blessing if I'm trying to be impressive.
Speaker 1: So I want to get out of my own way
Speaker 1: and ask God to interpret my desires. God, I want you.
Speaker 1: I want your presence in my life. God. I want
Speaker 1: your pleasure, your smile. God. I want harmony, and peace
Speaker 1: with you, even if it costs me sometimes position with people. God,
Speaker 1: I don't want to just be popular. I want to
Speaker 1: live a life of purpose. I want to know that
Speaker 1: this matters and means something at the end of it all.
Speaker 1: So I need the power of interpretation for my desires.
Speaker 1: And see, you can't really have that if you don't
Speaker 1: get past rejection. So the second thing is, God, will
Speaker 1: you help me interpret my rejection? Will help me look
Speaker 1: at my brothers not just through the lens of what
Speaker 1: they did to me, but through the lens of what
Speaker 1: you want to do through me. I did not expect
Speaker 1: an amen right there, but I didn't expect that level
Speaker 1: of silence. I'll tell you that right now. That was
Speaker 1: that was just over the top. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah,
Speaker 1: all of them. Yeah, because he says two things. He says,
Speaker 1: you rejected me, but God protected me. Is see it,
Speaker 1: you know, I see it again on the screen? Do
Speaker 1: you I can show it to you on the screen
Speaker 1: that push a button. It'll come right up on the screen.
Speaker 1: Genesis forty five to five. You sold me, God sent
Speaker 1: me to preserve life. So when I was seventeen, it
Speaker 1: felt like rejection. But now that I've grown, and now
Speaker 1: that I've experienced the grace of God, and now that
Speaker 1: I've led go of the resentment and I refuse to
Speaker 1: hold on to it, I see that what man calls rejection,
Speaker 1: sometimes God calls protection. Some of the people who left you,
Speaker 1: God was removing them. God wanted to do some things
Speaker 1: for you that only he could do, And if he
Speaker 1: had let them say yes, you wouldn't have been ready
Speaker 1: for what was match. I'm gonna come back to these
Speaker 1: and preach a whole series on them. Each one. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna preach a series on dream. I promise you I
Speaker 1: will do it. If you stay here long enough, I
Speaker 1: will do it. I might be ninety three years old,
Speaker 1: board and over three. I'm APPRECIAU singer because I got
Speaker 1: to get God to help me interpret what my desires
Speaker 1: and rejection, and then I gotta make sure that God
Speaker 1: filters my emotions. So God, help me interpret my emotions
Speaker 1: because I know what I feel. Well, let me be
Speaker 1: honest as a man. Sometimes I don't even know what
Speaker 1: I feel. And being married has helped me so much
Speaker 1: with interpretation. I really love my wife I jokingly call
Speaker 1: Holly the Holly Spirit. It's only half joking. She's a
Speaker 1: great interpreter. She interprets things. One time we were fighting
Speaker 1: about a bill. I think it was like three two
Speaker 1: hundred and forty three dollars. And guess what I didn't
Speaker 1: have in the bank account three thousand, two hundred and
Speaker 1: forty whatever. I said, dollars and I got so angry.
Speaker 1: And I don't yell. I'm not the kind of guy
Speaker 1: that goes around yelling at his wife. But I was
Speaker 1: yelling at her this day. This was years ago. This
Speaker 1: was like, you know, the early stage is a marriage,
Speaker 1: and so you know, you'll forgive me for being angry.
Speaker 1: But she she, at one point in the argument, goes,
Speaker 1: why are you so angry? I said, that'spens around. You
Speaker 1: know what I was telling the truth. I wasn't really angry.
Speaker 1: I was afraid, and it was expressing itself as anger.
Speaker 1: But she was able to interpret the fear that was
Speaker 1: driving my anger, and when she realized that I wasn't
Speaker 1: mad at her. I was mad at the attorney who
Speaker 1: sent that bill, and mad at BB and T for
Speaker 1: not having enough money in my bank account to pay
Speaker 1: the attorney who sent the bill. See how an interpretation
Speaker 1: can change everything. She was able to realize, it's not
Speaker 1: me versus you in this moment's us versus this bill,
Speaker 1: and let's figure it out together. But if you don't
Speaker 1: pray for the power to interpret, you will just live
Speaker 1: at the level of the emotion and never know what
Speaker 1: is beneath the surface. And you will repeat the emotion
Speaker 1: on the next person who steps into the line of
Speaker 1: fire of your unfiltered experiences. Okay, I'm gonna download this
Speaker 1: podcast myself. I think, all right, so God help me
Speaker 1: interpret my emotions. So I say I'm depressed. I'm in
Speaker 1: depression right now. Well maybe maybe you are depressed or
Speaker 1: maybe you know sometimes it's just it's just Monday. You
Speaker 1: always feel this way on Monday. This hadn't been outside yet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but if you don't ask God, God, see, do not
Speaker 1: interpretations belong to God. That's what Joseph knew. That's what
Speaker 1: Joseph knew because on one hand, emotionally he's angry, he's crying,
Speaker 1: and he sends everybody out of his presence. But then
Speaker 1: beneath the emotion he realized the reason. Now here's a
Speaker 1: good question, are you living at the level of reaction
Speaker 1: or reason, because if you always just react, react, react,
Speaker 1: but never ask God, what is the reason I'm reacting
Speaker 1: this way, you will fix the wrong factors. And this
Speaker 1: is where a lot of preaching gets so mean and
Speaker 1: hateful and impossible, because we're correcting behaviors but not addressing
Speaker 1: the beliefs that drive the behaviors. So you'll hear a
Speaker 1: preacher sometimes preach against addiction, but why is she drinking
Speaker 1: six classes? Or you'll hear it preached against, you know,
Speaker 1: pornography or sexual addiction, and the preacher will never address
Speaker 1: the fact that you're reaching out for God. When you
Speaker 1: log on that site, you just don't know it's God
Speaker 1: that you're reaching out for, so you're trying to fill
Speaker 1: it with something that leaves you more empty. But you're
Speaker 1: really reaching out for God. But what you really want
Speaker 1: isn't sex, it's connection. So you run around for sex,
Speaker 1: but you don't get connection because it's empty because you
Speaker 1: never ask God why. And this takes reflection, and this
Speaker 1: takes sitting alone with God and even other people that
Speaker 1: you trust, and joining an e group and sharing some
Speaker 1: stuff that makes you uncomfortable. Shameless plug. Today there's tenths
Speaker 1: outside join any group. She again interpret Pharaoh said, I
Speaker 1: need someone interpret my drink. The prisoner said, someone interpreted
Speaker 1: the dream, But really I need God to help me
Speaker 1: interpret not only the hard things I've been through. But
Speaker 1: look at Joseph. Now he's in a position of power.
Speaker 1: Not only does have the power of interpretation that God
Speaker 1: has given him, but he has the power to punish
Speaker 1: his brothers or provide for them. And what's he going
Speaker 1: to do with his advantage? That's the fourth one. God,
Speaker 1: show me the advantages that you've given me, and show
Speaker 1: me why you gave them to me. Because when people
Speaker 1: receive advantages, but they think that the purpose for the
Speaker 1: advantage so that they can call attention to themselves, that's
Speaker 1: when leaders become toxic. That's when rich people become oppressive.
Speaker 1: The hard thing is sometimes recognizing the advantage. Because remember
Speaker 1: when David killed Goliath and Bible says that after he
Speaker 1: killed him, he took his sword. I always thought that
Speaker 1: was an illustration of how today's attack can become tomorrow's advantage.
Speaker 1: You sold me for God sent me, and the whole
Speaker 1: time that people were pushing me in a pit, God
Speaker 1: was preparing me so that I could provide with the
Speaker 1: power that He's given me. And maybe the reason that
Speaker 1: you went through the attack is so that you could
Speaker 1: have an advantage. Do you hear me, Just forget I'm talking.
Speaker 1: Hear this from God. He wanted to say this to you,
Speaker 1: and he's just using me to do it. Quit calling
Speaker 1: it an attack. It's an advantage. Quit calling it a
Speaker 1: weakness because it is in your weakness that he is strong.
Speaker 1: Quit being ashamed of it. Quit trying to run from it,
Speaker 1: hide it and numb it and cover it up. The
Speaker 1: attack is the advantage. And you know what Paul said.
Speaker 1: He said, I am convinced that the sufferings of this
Speaker 1: present time are not even worthy to be compared with
Speaker 1: the glory that will be revealed. So I interpret my
Speaker 1: pain through the lens of God's purpose and my feelings
Speaker 1: through my faith. So God give me the power to interpret.
Speaker 1: Not just to interpret when I get there, not just
Speaker 1: to interpret when it's all better. But God, help me
Speaker 1: to interpret when I'm in the middle. I'm in the middle.
Speaker 1: Joseph spent twenty years with a dream. They contradicted everything
Speaker 1: he was facing in his situation, and yet the most
Speaker 1: frequent line that is repeated in the account of his
Speaker 1: li life. Is this the Lord was with Joseph. You
Speaker 1: know that's not something you always feel. That's not something
Speaker 1: that you can always prove. That's not something that you
Speaker 1: always have facts to back it up. But I don't
Speaker 1: need facts. I got faith. I don't need feelings. I've
Speaker 1: got faith God. I want to interpret my life as
Speaker 1: it unfolds through the lens that you love me and
Speaker 1: that you're with me. And I need a faith interpretation
Speaker 1: because you know, Church, the world is trying to give
Speaker 1: us a fear interpretation every single day, and if you
Speaker 1: read the paper, it's a fear interpretation. But when I
Speaker 1: come to God, I can look at everything in my
Speaker 1: life and look at it through the lens of what
Speaker 1: He's spoken to me and the power of interpretation to
Speaker 1: confess the presence of God in every situation, whether you
Speaker 1: feel it or not. And if you need God to
Speaker 1: show you something right now in your life, stand to
Speaker 1: your feet so I can pray for you. Because this
Speaker 1: message was not meant for those who just want to
Speaker 1: live by your five senses, And this message was not
Speaker 1: intended for those who just want to spend the rest
Speaker 1: of their life blaming people. And this message was not
Speaker 1: for those who everything is easy and you can always
Speaker 1: explain it and you understand it all. This message is
Speaker 1: for someone who needs an interpretation. God. I don't need
Speaker 1: you to explain everything to me. You'rre God and I'm not.
Speaker 1: But I need to know God, what you are doing
Speaker 1: in this moment of my life. I don't want to
Speaker 1: spend the rest of my life projecting stuff. I need
Speaker 1: an interpretation, Paul said, pray for the power of interpretation.
Speaker 1: You can't get this on your own. You can't get
Speaker 1: this by logic. You can't see this on a spreadsheet.
Speaker 1: You cannot consult bank accounts and other people and books
Speaker 1: in a library. This only comes from God. God. I
Speaker 1: need an interpretation. I need to know why my kids
Speaker 1: are acting crazy right now. I need to know God,
Speaker 1: why my money is acting funny right now. I need
Speaker 1: to know why they said no. I need to know
Speaker 1: why this keeps happening. I need to know why this
Speaker 1: pattern keeps submerging. And I need to know more than anything,
Speaker 1: that you are with me in this moment, even when
Speaker 1: I don't feel it. I need an interpretation. Do not
Speaker 1: interpretations belong to God? Doesn't he have the power to
Speaker 1: show you why I made you. Doesn't he have the
Speaker 1: power to comfort you in all of your trouble? Doesn't
Speaker 1: he have the power to assure you of his presence
Speaker 1: in this moment? Father, thank you for your word, and
Speaker 1: thank you for your people. And I pray that today
Speaker 1: I have been a faithful interpreter of what you said
Speaker 1: through Joseph, and what you said through Paul, and what
Speaker 1: you're saying to each life represented in this place. Today,
Speaker 1: I asked God that you would interpret the message exactly
Speaker 1: as each hearer needs to receive it. In fact, if
Speaker 1: you would just lift your hands right now and show
Speaker 1: the Lord that you're listening, we'll receive from you in
Speaker 1: this moment as you speak to us. Well. I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the podcast today, and if you did, there
Speaker 1: are just a couple things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Number One, subscribe to our show. That way, the most
Speaker 1: recent episode will always be in your feed, waiting for
Speaker 1: you ready when you are. And Secondly, if this ministry
Speaker 1: has impacted you and you'd like to help us continue
Speaker 1: to reach others, you can click the link in the
Speaker 1: description and you can give now and I'll see you
Speaker 1: next time. On the Elevation podcast