Are you a Big Godder or a Little Godder? If you're a Little Godder, you're a victim. You'll live that way. You'll be under that banner your whole life. I'm a victim of this and that and those people.
If you're a Big Godder, you're a victor, not a victim. You'll sail through life and life. You'll see life differently. You'll have a sense of peace and lightness and joy as God is in control, managing your life. So trust him and be faithful to him and wait for his timing and his providence.
Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip shows you what happens when you live your life trusting in God's provision and his timeline. But first, here's a resource that dives deep into biblical truth about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit bestows many different spiritual gifts on believers like prophecy, healing, miracle working and more.
And each gift shares a common purpose to edify others. Here's Pastor Skip Heitzig explaining the best way to use our spiritual gifts. I think man's greatest capacity is to be a channel from which the Holy Spirit flows into us, but then out from us, as Jesus said, like torrents of living waters. Dive into this month's Connect with Skip Heitzig resource to discover who the Holy Spirit is and deepen your understanding of how and why he gives spiritual gifts to believers. He comes on us to give us his empowering. He has something he wants us to do, a task he wants us to perform. The complete expound Holy Spirit teaching series is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to help this ministry continue reaching a lost world. Plus, we'll include a copy of Bring the Rain, Skip's book on expositional teaching. Now let's get started with today's teaching.
We'll be in Genesis 41 as we begin. Now there was a young Hebrew man with us there. Yeah, that's a guy who said, Don't forget me, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him that he interpreted our dreams for us to each man he interpreted according to his own dream. And it came to pass just as he did. He interpreted for us.
So what happened? He restored me to my office, and he hanged him. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him in quickly out of the dungeon. He shaved, changed his clothing. That was Egyptian protocol. You know, Hebrew protocol for men is you let your beard grow, not in Egypt. You shave it.
Not just shave the beard, but sometimes the head as well. So they did that. He came to Pharaoh, 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 of you that you can understand a dream to interpret it. This is a very vulnerable moment for Joseph. He could have easily said, Why, yes, I am awesome.
He could have heard right. Look at his answer. Joseph answered the Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me.
God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Just notice that humility. Notice the faithfulness of Joseph to point heaven where he's saying, It's not in me. It's not in me. It's him. It's God. Meanwhile, I do have an extraordinary talent of telling the future.
I am very gifted. He said, It's not in me. Notice there's no rebuke here. There's no blame. He could have said, You know what? First of all, Pharaoh, before I even give you an answer, you know, I've been in jail for no good reason, accused for a crime I didn't commit for over two years.
None of that. No blame, no bitterness, no pettiness. But a beautiful brokenness before God. See, in prison, God was changing Joseph's heart. Changing his heart.
Now it's a heart of gold. Because we didn't read it, but when he was put in prison, it says, But the Lord was with Joseph, and the Lord showed him favor in prison. And Joseph, even in the worst circumstances, has already by now, as a young man, come to realize, I can trust God. He's trustworthy.
No matter what I'm going through, I can lean on him. Somebody once said, If you kneel before God, you can stand before anyone. Paul the Apostle bowed before God, stood up to Felix, Festus, and Agrippa.
All through the Scripture, you bow before God, you'll be able to stand before anyone. So we have these factors in play. Forgetfulness, failure, faithfulness.
Let me give you a fourth. Frankness. Frankness. He begins by saying, It's not in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. He tells him the dreams he had. 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 one. 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 is 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, singular. Not the gods, plural.
God, singular. This is important. I'll explain.
And God will shortly bring it to pass. Did you notice? Straightforward. Theatrics. Just.
Here's what it means. This is what God's doing. You're going to be blessed.
Seven years. But then things are going to turn really bad. So bad, you're not going to remember the blessing. It's out of your control, Pharaoh. God's going to do it. God is going to do it. But you have to respond to what God is going to do.
His answer is bold, unapologetic, and evangelistic because he speaks of God singular. You know how many gods the pharaohs worshiped back then? You know how many gods in Egypt?
1,500. They were polytheistic. They had gods for everything. Joseph comes in and goes, Oh, no, there's one God.
The rest are all fake. He's the one true God. God did this.
God's going to do this. So you've got to respond to that because it was true. You should never be ashamed of the truth. You should never be ashamed of the truth for one basic reason. It's the truth. It's not your truth, my truth. It's the truth.
You should never be ashamed of that. Paul said in Romans, chapter 1, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. So when it comes to speaking the truth, speak it like it is the truth. Not, well, you know, there are so many different ideas.
This is what God's doing. This is the truth. Look, I know that not everybody is an extrovert. I know that not everybody wants to initiate an evangelistic God conversation with people.
I get that. I used to have friends who would go door to door, knock on door, didn't know the people. But they would just knock on doors and share the gospel with people. And it's like, whew. They asked me, will you come along?
And I remember going along, I think I would have been praying that no one would be home. Because that's just not my style. I'd like to have a little bit of relationship going on first. So listen, I understand that you may not have the same temperament in approaching someone and telling them what you know to be true. But I'm going to ask you to do two things. I'm going to ask God to help you do two things.
This is your prayer. To help you care, number one. God, just help me care for people. Because if you don't care for people, you'll never say anything to them.
If you do care for people, you will. Jesus saw the multitude. It says, He was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep not having a shepherd. It always begins with that, with care. If you're taking notes, you're taking care.
If you're taking notes, and I hope you are, if you're taking notes, by the way, you're my new best friend, write this down. Compassion is the birthplace of evangelism. Compassion is the birthplace of evangelism. Evangelism happens first when you see and you care. You have compassion for someone.
So ask God to help you care. Then number two, ask God to help you share, to speak up. Now, this is the hard part. This is where we get nervous and tongue-tied. But make it this easy.
Make it this easy. Just pray for boldness and see if He answers it. Pray for boldness and see if God answers it. Well, how do I know if He answers it? Take a step of faith and start talking.
What? Start talking? Just try it. Just see if that works. Pray for boldness.
Take a step out and just start talking. I'll tell you my own personal experience. I was a brand-new believer. I worked at Art Adams Chevron gas station. This is in the era when there were things called service stations.
Anybody remember those? So you'd pull up. People would come in washer windows and pump your gas for you. Google it. You'll have to look it up in the annals of our history. But it was a thing.
I worked at Art Adams Chevron doing that. My supervisor was a very popular kid in school named Angus McIntosh. I know he sounds like he'd have a brogue from Scotland, but he was just a California kid.
Very popular, very confident. I was not popular nor confident. And I felt like the Lord prompted me to share with Angus. So I asked the Lord for boldness. Lord, I just said, fill me with your Holy Spirit. Help me to be a witness to Angus McIntosh. And I prayed that life for a few days. And finally, by gas pump number three, I walked up to Angus McIntosh and I said, excuse me. It was like that. I mean, I was just so scared. But as I started talking to him, I felt a confidence and a cadence and a settledness and a boldness.
This is awesome. It's awesome, first of all, because God just answered my prayer to care and then to share. So you just notice that about Joseph. He's very frank about what is happening and brings God into the conversation.
Fifth and final dynamic at play, formulation. Let me take you to verse 33. Let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this. Let him appoint officers over the land to collect one fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years. 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.
The 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. Here's what I love about this. Joseph just interpreted the guy's dream, but he didn't stop there. He could have said, look, this is what you dreamt.
This is what it means. Can I go now? I'm done here, right? I told you what you wanted to know.
No, he says, therefore. And he formulates for him a plan going forward. It was a really good idea. I have a plan.
In a nutshell, I suggest a 20% times seven year savings plan for grain decentralization and distribution. All of that little nutshell plan he gives to him in just a couple of sentences. And let me just say, as a leader, leaders like guys like this and gals like this. People who don't just see the problems coming, but they have a solution for it. They're formulators, not complainers. Anybody can complain.
You know what? I see problems around here. I don't like this. I don't like that. I don't like that. There are a dime a dozen of those folks. But somebody said, yeah, there's some problems. I got a plan.
I formulated a plan for it. Leaders love those people because they're faithful. They're faithful people.
They're faithful people. Joseph, if you are faithful in small things like interpreting dreams and coming up with plans like this, well, I could give you greater responsibility like ruling the world. Jesus said, Luke 16, he who is faithful in what is least will be faithful also in much. Joseph comes up with a plan. Verse 37, here's the icing on the cake. So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of the servants. And Pharaoh said to the servants, can we find such a one as this?
A man in whom is, notice this, the spirit of God, singular, not the gods, 1500 of them, God, singular. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house and over my people. 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. Come on, somebody say wow. Right?
Wow. This was the intended outcome to get the earthly king to acknowledge the heavenly king. That was the intended outcome.
That's why the two-year waiting. That's why all of that till now happens. To get the earthly king to recognize the heavenly king. Pharaoh was a polytheistic ruler. His gods and his prophets got nothing. They failed.
Only God through Joseph figured it out and Pharaoh acknowledges that. Now that's the story. Let me just leave you with a few tidbits as we close. A few observations about making a kingdom impact. Number one, timing. Back to that word timing. Timing.
Timing. So many things about God's work and God's plan for your life you can't see. God sees it all and God sees you. He might see you struggling. You might be struggling right now in some life-altering event in your life and it's so hard, it's so difficult. You're looking at your sundial every day going, come on, when am I going to get bailed out of this?
God may be saying no or he might just be saying slow or grow so that one day he can say to you, go. It's all about timing. We have a tendency to rush. We don't like to wait for anything. We text. We want instant communication. We want instant news.
We hate long lines in McDonald's. We want it now. God doesn't go by now. He goes by his now and he knows when that is.
Timing. Second word to leave you with is faithfulness. Again, if you are taking notes, you're my new best friend.
If you're taking notes, write this down. God-given opportunities must be met by God-honoring faithfulness. God-given opportunities must be met by God-honoring faithfulness. That's what Joseph does. This isn't about Joseph. It's about Joseph's God. This was not to showcase Joseph.
Ooh, he's awesome. But to showcase Joseph's God. To make a big deal out of God. See, it's not about who you are. It's about whose you are. You're his, so point to him.
Be faithful. Third is providence. We're going to talk about providence in the next few weeks with these stories, with these heroes. It would be very easy to read the story of Joseph throughout his story in the last part of Genesis. It would be very easy to read the story of Joseph and conclude, this boy was a victim. He had a dysfunctional family. His father played favorites. His brothers sold him as a slave. That's trafficking.
On and on. This guy's a victim. He is under the control of the ill wishes of another person. Here's what you need to know if you think that way, because that is sort of the favorite card these days. I'm a victim.
Listen, listen, listen. Joseph never saw himself as a victim. He never saw himself as a victim.
He never pulled out the victim card. In fact, he said to his brothers when they finally came together and he revealed himself, chapter 50, as for you, you meant this for evil. But God meant it for good to save many people alive as it is this day.
That's the lens he viewed his life through. I don't care what you meant it for. I believe there's a God in charge of my life.
He meant it for good to bring about this. So you are not a victim. You are not a victim of someone who wishes you harm.
You are under the power and providence and control, not of them, but of him, of an almighty, loving God. So I'm going to conclude with a story. I have shared this story before, many years ago. I'm bringing it out again.
So as I start telling you this story, you need to hear it again. So Donald Gray Barnhouse, one of my favorite authors. I wish I could have met him, but he was a generation before me. Donald Gray Barnhouse went to Princeton Theological Seminary. One of his professors, Hebrew professor, was a guy named Wilson, Robert Dick Wilson, Professor Wilson, brilliant scholar. After Barnhouse graduated, he went back to Princeton Theological Seminary to speak at the Miller Chapel. That's the little church chapel on the premises. Barnhouse preached.
In the front row was Dr. Wilson. After the sermon, Dr. Wilson came up to Barnhouse and said this, if you come back again, I will not come to hear you preach. I only come once. I am glad that you are a big Goder, G-O-D-D-E-R, a big Goder. When my boys come back, I come to see if they are big Goders or little Goders.
And then I know what their ministry will be. Barnhouse gave him a quizzical look and asked him to explain. Robert Dick Wilson said, well, some men have a little God, and they're always in trouble with him. He can't do any miracles. He can't take care of the inspiration and transmission of the Scripture to us. He doesn't intervene on behalf of his people. They have a little God, and I call them little Goders.
But then there are those who have a great God. He speaks, it is done. He commands, and it stands fast. He knows how to show himself strong on behalf of them that fear him. You, Donald, have a great God, and he will bless your ministry.
He turned around and walked off. Here's my question. Are you a big Goder or a little Goder? If you're a little Goder, you're a victim. You'll live that way. You'll be under that banner your whole life.
I'm a victim of this and that and those people. If you're a big Goder, you're a victor, not a victim. You'll sail through life and life. You'll see life differently. You'll have a sense of peace and lightness and joy because God is in control, managing your life.
So trust him and be faithful to him and wait for his timing and his providence. That's Skip Heitig, reminding you that you'll have peace when you trust in God's timing. It's a message from his series, Kingdom City. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Right now, listen as Skip shares how you can share life-changing teaching from God's Word with more people around the world.
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800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity. Join us next time as Skip begins his message, A Kingdom-Minded Woman. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His Word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
