It’s Not What It Looks Like

Some of us are so good at describing problems. We

can look at the valley of bones and name every

bone in the human anatomy by name. We know what

to call it in Latin, we know what to call

it in French. We can describe every issue in our

life from every level. But the moment that you become

skilled in interpretation, you realize that it's much less important

what happens to you, much more important what you believe

about what God is doing through what happens to you.

We appreci this, Let me appreci this. I flew a

long way.

It's the power of interpretation. So he says, I know

a lot of people are saying a lot of things

about what.

Has happened to me.

But actually somebody shout, actually, actually.

I know it looks one way on the surface.

I know the word on the street is that while

Paul is in prisoned, that the gospel is not going forward.

But actually, somebody shout, actually, I know that the enemy

has been telling you in your mind that the reason

that people have rejected you is because you're worthless. But

somebody shout, actually, what if actually God was protecting you

from people who were not a part of a bigger

picture of a purpose that he has conceived since the

beginning of time for your life.

Actually, actually, I know a.

Lot of people are saying that it's not looking good

for Paul, and I know it looks like I'm in

here chained up to these guards. But actually, while it

may look like these guards have me chained up to them,

the reality is they're chained to me. I really want

to tell you about the word advance, because he said

what has happened to me has actually served to advance

the gospel.

How does he know that?

Because he decided that, you know, we spent all this

time time to figure out is this God or is

this the enemy? Why not just go with the first one.

I know God doesn't cause everything. I understand that. I

read my Bible one time.

But I also believe this, if all things work together

for the good of.

Them that love him.

Even if it didn't start from his hand, it has

to pass through his hand, and by the time he

gets done with it.

Is he gonna be good. It's gonna be good. It's

gonna be good. It's gonna be good.

It doesn't feel good at this moment, but it's gonna

be good. Right now, it's driving me crazy, but.

It's gonna be good. I feel that it's gonna be good.

I need to tell that to somebody who's trying to

evaluate your situation through.

The lens of your senses. Right now.

There might be a circle of enemies surrounding you in

the hills, but there.

Is a second circle.

Whatever is surrounding you, God is surrounding it, and it

has to pass through Him to get to you.

It's gonna be good stuff.

That so ss the interpretation. Like Joseph in the Old Testament,

not Jesus Father, well kind of father, Jesus Father who

wasn't really Jesus Father, who had to interpret the dream

of his wife on the basis of the faith that

God was doing this even though everything in him told

him that it was humiliating, and everything in him told

him that it made no logical sense.

But I'm not talking about that Joseph.

I'm talking about Old Testament Joseph, who had the ability

to interpret dreams, and like when he was too busy

telling other people.

His dreams that got him in trouble.

But the moment he woke up in a prison one

day and said to the cup bearer and the baker,

tell me your dreams.

His gift began to operate.

Now, one thing about Joseph when he interpreted their dreams,

and then he was brought before Pharaoh because he was

faithful and little, so God made it him faithful over much.

When Pharaoh said I've heard that you can interpret dreams,

he says something very wise. He said, I can't, but

God has the power of interpretation. That's not the most

powerful interpretation, though, when he said to Pharaoh, you know

there's going to be seven years of plenty, seven years

of famine, and you need to store up in the

seven so you have something in order to draw people

in the next seven, that wasn't the most powerful interpretation,

as much as when his brothers, who had betrayed him

to begin with, were standing.

Before him needing food.

He's now in a situation, and if God doesn't help

him interpret the situation, he is going to see them

as his enemy.

They were not his enemy. They were his purpose. They

were not his enemy. They were his very reason for

being in Egypt. They were not his enemy.

They were the very thing he had dreamed about two

decades earlier. But if he does not go to God

for his interpretation, he will send the very thing that

God sent to him away because it's too painful.

So he says something really powerful.

In Genesis forty five, he says something that sounds on

the surface contradictory, but if you think about it.

It makes a lot of sense.

He says to his brothers, who years earlier had pushed

him in a pit and sold him to the Ishmaeli

caravan into slavery, that you sold me to Egypt. That's

the event you sold me. Some of you in here

have had your heart broken. Some of you in here

have been betrayed. Some of you in here have been

passed over. Some of you in here have a learning disability,

some of you have an eating disorder. Some of you

have a deep darkness that you can't express with words.

But it causes you to leave an atmosphere like this

where you are charged with faith and immediately go away

and forget what you look like. That's the event, that's

the condition. Joseph said, you sold me to Egypt. I'm

not living in denial.

About what happened.

I'm not pushing my pain down to the bottom and

suppressing it and calling it faith.

You did it.

You sold me but in the same breath that he

says you sold me, he says God sent me.

Well, which one is? It is both?

The first is the event, the second is the interpretation.

What happened to me.

Does not matter as much as what I decide about

what happened to me. Actually, God's gonna get some glory

out of that situation. Actually, I'm preaching this for somebody

who has been in a situation and you've been wondering.

Why stop wondering, why just decide why everything works for

his glory. Everything serves a purpose. Every goliath has a sword.

Maybe I'll take it and cut off his head. Maybe

I'll put it in the priest's house and take it

out for my next battle.

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