The Line of Discernment

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Morning, CCW.

Take your Bible out to Genesis chapter 41 this morning.

Genesis 41 · chapter mention

Thank you.

A quick update: my dad, who you many of you have been praying for, was transferred last night to a uh rehab center, which is about five minutes from where my mom is.

If you're visiting, my dad was in a burn accident and church has been praying.

So thank you.

That's about the best case scenario right now.

So thank you so much.

Um he uh has been very moved by your prayers, and that's been a special thing.

So thank you for that, uh, church.

And uh, we can say a word of congratulations.

I believe the ropers.

I saw a post yesterday, Facebook told me, but 22 years of marriage.

That's worth celebrating.

Twenty two wonderful years, Pester Danny used to say.

Susan 40, 30, uh wonderful years.

Spiritual discernment, holding the line in discernment, the ability to see God's will and step into it at the right time.

Not just knowing what is right, but knowing when is right.

Spiritual discernment shapes many things, big decisions in life, things such as choosing a spouse, uh, making a change in where you live, a job decision, saying yes or saying no, and we live in an age of mass information with minimal filtration.

And with that, the access we have to data is more than we ever have, but the amount of truth that is falsified is more than we've ever had.

Satan lies, the media lies, people will lie.

Thou shalt not lie seems today to mean very little.

We don't even call it a lie anymore.

We call it spin, we call it narrative, we call it something different because we don't like the word.

So, what do we do when we're unsure?

That's where discernment lives.

The difference between impulse and wisdom lies in discernment and the opportunities that lie before us.

Discernment allows us obedience.

In Psalms 119, you can look it up, verse 66.

David says, Lord, teach us or teach me discernment.

All of Psalms 119 is about God's word.

And he says, about God's word.

Use your words to teach me how to discern.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we love you, and God, we are blessed to be together today in your house.

And God, it's cold outside, but it's warm here.

And we ask for a warming of your Holy Spirit to move.

Lord, prepare hearts, even now, the ones that were unprepared, Lord.

I ask that your Holy Spirit would just do a work.

Prepare us for your word.

And God, let it do its work.

Uh, Lord, get everything else out of the way.

All the thoughts, all preconceptions, everything, Lord.

Let us just hear what you have to say through your book in Jesus' name.

Amen.

First thing I want you to see this morning as you turn there in uh Genesis chapter 41 is position is shaped into leg.

Genesis 41 · chapter mention

Look at verse 1 of Genesis 41.

It says, Then it came to pass at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream.

I want to pause there and I want to go back to chapter 40, verse 23.

Okay.

It says that the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

Joseph interpreted the butler and the baker's dreams, and the last thing he said was a plea, please remember me.

It says, ending chapter 40, they forgot him, and two full years have gone by.

Talk about a delay.

Have you ever had a delay in life where you just wanted to get an answer and it was kind of driving you a little crazy?

Um early in youth ministry.

I put together this plan with some other youth ministers for this.

You've heard me talk about before, but it's a youth rally called Storm.

The very first one, okay, was gonna happen, and as life does, that week snow struck Connorsville, Indiana, and we had planned all of this money and resources and advertising, inflatables were coming from Michigan, and and there was food on order, and there were speakers that had already been there.

All of this stuff was in the works, and a level three snow emergency hit our town on Friday morning.

And I waited and I wandered, and everybody was looking to me to make a decision.

And I got a call about eight o'clock the next morning, and the speaker was trying to everybody's trying to meet, and level three meant you're not supposed to go out on the road in a vehicle.

In case we don't have that here, so I don't know if you know that.

So you're not supposed to be on the highways unless you're an emergency vehicle.

So it really, if we were gonna go through with this event, it would be illegal as it stood.

And so eight o'clock, and I'm I'm telling everybody, I'm going to make a plan by noon today.

I said, but pray.

Pray with me.

So nothing had changed.

I'm waiting, I'm watching this.

There's a local TV station, and it would post it, and I'm watching, I'm watching, I'm saying, God, I took a shower and I'm praying.

I said, God, why would you open all of these doors just to slam them shut?

God, who's in charge of the weather?

I don't understand.

And I had hope and I had all this desire, and one o'clock came and I had made no decision.

I said 12.

And we were nearing to two o'clock, and all of these 23 other youth pastors, everybody's waiting on me, and I'm getting call after call.

My pastor's like, you're gonna have to pull.

And at two o'clock, I prayed again, and I was about to make a call, and across the TV station, level three has been pushed down to level one.

And I said, Oh, yes.

And I called the man in charge of the TV station because he was a member of the church.

I said, John, we just went down to level one.

He was on the storm task force.

And he said, I don't know who did that because I didn't do it.

And I was like, I don't know, I don't care.

Maybe an angel walked into the studio, but let me tell you what happened in delay.

Delay forced my faith.

Delay forced my belief.

Delay did something in me.

It was a crisis of desire.

Do I really want to see and believe that God can do something when there's a whole lot of doubt?

And I did.

And let me tell you the outcome.

God was in control of the weather.

This part of my belief.

So we hoped, dreamed 150 students would show up.

Okay, that was, we got all these people together.

We just dreamed that that could happen.

So when we got rolling, it was like ants coming in the building.

We had 375 teenagers show up.

75 of them gave their heart to Jesus Christ.

We had more kids than we had chairs.

And let me tell you just about what God was doing back here when I was struggling.

He said, You know what?

They hadn't been able to do anything for two days because the weather has had them so tied up.

Guess what?

Every kid in town's gonna want to go do.

And they did.

That's what God can do and how he positions and shapes.

Sometimes your delay feels really awful and hard, but God has not stopped working.

Letter A, we see that.

And in my notes, I don't know if they made it to yours, I have a question mark under this point.

A sovereignty hidden?

You could say it that way.

Is it hidden?

Hidden in a jail cell.

It says that the Lord was with Joseph.

Joseph had done all it seems he could do.

He was the manager first in Potiphar's house, and now he's become the manager in the prison that Potiphar put him in.

Two years.

Consider what Joseph has been doing.

He's been expanding this management resume.

Two years though, and no change.

Do you think, Joseph?

I told you earlier, it's hard to find a lot of fault.

Bible says that hope deferred makes the heart sick.

That in your gut feeling, you know what I'm talking about?

When you're sick about something, you just wish you had the answer.

And Joseph goes two years, no, no, no answer, no change, no anything.

He says to the butler, please remember me, and then begins his 700-day track of not being remembered.

He kept working hard though, and he kept managing.

And I believe that Joseph, although he was doing and walking through what he was supposed to be doing, I believe his heart was feeling that deferred hope.

Pastor Rick, I see that God is working in the lives of others.

Why does he seem silent to me?

Does God, church, ever seem silent to you?

You ever feel like that?

He can be if you study scripture.

One thing scripture says, Isaiah 59, 2, it says, But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

That sin separated Jesus from the Father at the cross.

He said, Father, why hast thou forsaken me?

And the weight of sin.

And so if you feel like God has been silent in your life, there's a possibility that fellowship has been broken.

Not that a relationship has been broken, but fellowship in something that you're choosing that isn't godly.

Sometimes James 4, 3 says that we have not, but because we ask not, and that sometimes we ask amiss.

Silence because we're asking with wrong motives.

I don't believe that God is too busy.

I don't believe he's too tired, but sometimes I think that God seems silent.

Now hear me.

Silence does not mean absence.

Silence has its place.

God teaches listening in silence.

Sometimes a quick fix in a situation that you've been in doesn't do with the process of seeking God through silence, does.

Sometimes people get fixated on the answer in an instant prayer, and they don't value the conversation.

Sometimes silence stresses me and my capacity because the next season that I'm going into may require more of me than the last season.

And so God may be delaying to position you and shape you.

Sometimes uncertainty unsettles me, and sometimes I need unsettled.

Don't you?

The process of seeking God, sometimes God will strip superficial reassurances that we think this thing over here is what is making me happy, giving me purpose, and giving me joy, and then I get to a place where other things don't matter, and I just need God.

And God says, Now you'll hear me.

Now you'll see me.

Now you'll find me.

Is a sovereignty hidden?

I don't think he's hidden.

I think he can seem quiet.

Well, it says sometimes we ask amiss.

When it seemed like God fell asleep, look at what happens.

Pharaoh became sleepless.

Let's look at letter B, a sleepless hierarchy, and we're gonna see this dream unfold.

Look there at the end of verse 1.

It says 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.

He slept and dreamed a second time, and suddenly seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, 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.

Now it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled, 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.

And so we see this dream, and we're gonna look at it in just a moment.

But this kind of wild dream almost sounds like Pharaoh had a bender last night.

He was eating pizza late and some mountain dew, and he wakes up and he's like stressed.

Let me ask you a question.

How many people here are morning people?

Raise your hand.

We got some morning people.

You're my people, amen.

Night people?

It's okay.

It's okay.

There's time.

So you know, you know how morning people they wake up and they say, Good morning, Lord.

And night people wake up in the morning and say, Good Lord, morning.

Like, that's how it works out, right?

Sleep is similar to the weather in my mind.

Who controls it, right?

I have done a lot of things to try to get a good night's sleep.

And sometimes you just get woke up.

And it's nothing that you're gonna find in science that I can identify of why you woke up, but sometimes you just woke up.

Right?

Pharaoh was disturbed from his sleep.

It's not just a nightmare, it says there, that last verse, that his spirit, his spirit was troubled.

Daniel has the same word in Daniel chapter 2, verse 1, when it talks about Nebuchadnezzar waking up in his dream, and it says his mind was troubled.

Daniel 2:1

And then he goes on further.

He says, and nobody can interpret this dream.

What does it mean?

Well, I'm gonna try to describe it in a moment, but it says, seven fat cows get eaten by seven skinny cows, seven skinny heads of grain get eaten, or seven fat heads of grain eaten by seven skinny.

So, let me just show you.

Alright.

So, about early 2000s, a ghastly thing happened to our sweatpants, and uh I got this as a gift.

You see this?

What's going on with these pants?

This is Nike, this is a large sweatpant.

And I have gotten into these, and it was no good.

I've walked around in these and it was no fun.

Look at my ankles down there.

They're trying to squeeze every ounce of my ankle away.

And they call this comfort.

That's what they tried to do in the name of fashion or something.

I don't even know.

I don't even have big legs, but okay.

In the early 90s, I've had these sweatpants since I was a senior in high school.

I mean, praise God! Is that not a sweatpant?

I mean, do I even have to go any further?

This is comfort.

You will find me five out of seven days in my house wearing the right sweatpant.

Nothing restricting any of me.

But Joseph or or Pharaoh has this dream that the godly, the good, sweet, wonderful sweatpants, the fat ones, are being swallowed by the skinny.

And he wakes up and he says, What is wrong with the world?

Can you imagine?

Wouldn't that wake you up in shock and terror?

And so we're gonna talk about what the dream means.

But Pharaoh wakes up out of this dream.

It's interesting that we're back to dreams, right?

This whole thing started with dreams.

And Joseph's own dreams were the occasion of his troubles, it would seem.

And now Pharaoh's troubles, the occasion of fulfilling Joseph's dreams.

God continues to use this pattern.

Well, let's see the second point this morning: preparation scene and spiritual discernment.

Preparation scene.

Look at verse 9 through 13.

Then the chief butler spoke 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 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 hanged him.

And so, letter A is this a sudden remembrance.

Sudden, suddenly.

The word is euthus.

Over 80 times this word is used in the Bible.

Sudden, suddenly.

And it has the idea of to do, it has to do with unexpected nature in God's timing.

You ever thought something hits you out of nowhere?

A thought, been studying for a test, and you were sitting there writing and looking for the answer in your mind, and there it came back.

Out of nowhere.

Well, I want you to know today there is no such place as nowhere.

You had a dream, you had an idea, and this is what's happening here.

You had a dream and you needed help.

The butler hears Pharaoh saying, You have a dream and you need help with your dream.

And he goes, Joseph! I had a dream once.

Out of nowhere, right?

No, there is no nowhere.

There is a somewhere, and there's someone who's in control of that somewhere.

Joseph, it youth is suddenly, right?

And for you and me, we have this in our brain, a place called the visual cortex.

That's where imagery is recorded.

I think the butler's visual cortex went, Joseph! Boom, a picture of the whole thing in a flash.

He said, Aha! This is gonna make me look good with the Pharaoh for sure.

Joseph, we need to grab Joseph.

Now, that was the situation with Pharaoh and the butler.

But consider this.

It has almost been 11 years since Joseph was thrown in the pit.

Joseph is nearly 30.

Two years since he interpreted that butler's dream and said, please remember me.

When it comes to timing, it stands to reason that had Joseph been released when the butler was released.

If Joseph had freedom, do you think Joseph might have gone back home to the Hebrews?

If Joseph had had freedom, two years goes by in this delay, and it was not God's plan for Joseph to come out of prison at that time.

God may seem silent, church, in your room, and in the meantime, he's working just in the other room, preparing a sleepless night for a king.

There's no suddenly, youth this is all about humanity.

There is no suddenly for a God who exists outside of time, who is eternal.

He doesn't have suddenly, he has a plan and he has a purpose, and he's working all things together for the good.

Look at letter B, a spiritual readiness.

I think this is where you'll find a lot of practicality, I hope today.

I left a gap.

If you've seen in your notes and thought there was an error, some of you looked at it and went, well, they done messed up this week.

It's because I didn't want to make a bunch of blanks next to the word discernment.

So fill that out if you're a note taker when you think of the word discernment that's mentioned in this section.

But a spiritual readiness.

Again.

For the last several weeks, we've been showing you the foreshadowing Jesus Christ.

How Joseph is this picture, Old Testament of a New Testament Jesus Christ that's coming.

I want you to see another one.

Jesus, 30 years.

30 years, just a carpenter.

It's hard to say that.

He was not just a carpenter because of what we know.

But in Nazareth, Jesus and his family and everyone else, in a no-name town, planing wood, walking dusty paths, nails, no miracles, no sermons, no crowds.

And one day, in God's timing, heaven opened in one moment, the Father said, nah.

And in that moment, you see John the Baptist, a prophet, there hadn't been a prophet for over 400 years, talk about a delay.

John the Baptist, a prophet, shows up on the scene.

Now we're not prophetless anymore.

And his announcement, as if to be a ring announcer for a grand fight, says, Behold, the Son of God who came to take away the sin of the world.

And when God said, Now, the very axis upon which human history turns in an instant, in a moment, suddenly.

30 years had gone by.

And now ministry begins, and that ministry would change the world.

Joseph in a pit.

Joseph as a manager in a home.

Joseph in a prison.

Both hidden, but both ready.

Both stepped forward at the moment ordained by God.

I got a text this week, and if I can find it quickly, I'd like to share that was exciting.

I've had a man who's been a part of this church, has been a councilman, who's been uh involved in from Go, from the time that we have been at this church.

And uh this is kind of an exciting thing to be sharing.

But he told me years ago, he said, I think I have a call from God on my life.

He said, I'm not sure.

He, you know, and I asked for his permission.

He said, I'm not sure if I've missed something or not, but has continued working while I will say, in the delay.

Okay.

Rick, Elaine and I wanted to update you on a new ministry we have started.

God's been leading us down this path for some time, and we are finally beginning the process of getting started.

Adopting uh Aramena opened our eyes on so many things.

One is how extremely blessed Americans are and how much we take for granted.

Elaine and I have opened Carpenter's Grace Ministries to help reach and support at-risk youth while the need is severe in so many places across the world.

We feel God has called us to serve where we have built a decade of relationships.

And so God put a call on a man's life and there was some delays.

But now, when God says go, it's time to go.

And you might be here today, and God has put the same type of thing on your heart.

Let me tell you, CCW wants to help.

We want to get in and be a part of that.

We want to help financially.

We want to help people who have a call.

And so when God says go, are you ready?

Joseph was spiritually ready.

Are you?

Joseph had to be ready for 500 Tuesdays in order to be ready for the one day that the palace called.

So while he was in the delay, while he was in the wait, he was being patient, he was holding the line, he was managing.

And I have learned this, all of us are at different parts of our spiritual journey.

And I don't know how God is preparing you, but here's the question: are you discerning to see when a door opens?

Are you able to discern when your gift can be used?

Are you readying in the wait?

Are you helping?

Are you bettering the situation that you're in while you wait?

But are you ready?

So let's talk about discernment.

First, the source of discernment.

If you want to write in your gap, the source.

Spiritual discernment.

We're talking about spiritual discernment.

Now, everybody has a sort of discernment, spiritual or not.

Okay?

But we're talking about spiritual discernment.

Jesus said to the disciples in the upper room, he said, Now I'm gonna leave you, and when I leave you, another is coming.

A helper is going to come, and he's going to live within you.

That's important for you to hear before I read the next.

This is a verse.

If you want to write down a verse to go back on discernment.

1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 4.

1 Corinthians 12:4

The natural man church does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually, here's the word, discerned.

A believer has the Holy Spirit living within them.

Jesus called him the helper, direction, guidance, and help to discern these decisions wisely.

Now hear this: if a person is here and they are an unbeliever, he has no spirit within him, and therefore cannot spiritually discern.

If you're making bad choices, bad decisions, listening to lies, hear me, one real possibility is there's no spirit in there for discernment.

And that real possibility means a person is lost.

They're without Jesus Christ.

It's the saddest frame there is.

And so there may be, 1 Corinthians says, the natural man doesn't receive these things of the Spirit.

And so understand that spiritual discernment, one, comes from the Holy Spirit of God.

It is a Christian who can spiritually discern.

Second, a source of discernment is the word of God.

Church, I want you to know today, I said God can seem silent, but God's voice is never hidden in the word of God.

It's never hidden.

The word of God is not only a book that was once spoken, it is a book that is continuing to speak.

That's why it's called the living word of God, Hebrews 4.12.

It is alive and active.

And it says in Hebrews 4.12 that it discerns the intents and thoughts of your heart.

It's living.

So if you go to the Word of God and seek God in Scripture, then you will find that there is discernment.

I've yet to meet a person, and I bet nobody else here has either who has said, you know, I have been digging deep in the Word of God, and it's just not given me anything.

I've been digging deep, and I just am wasting my time.

I I have not come across that person.

Well, Pastor, what if I make mistakes?

What if I make wrong decisions?

Well, yes, we're human.

Let me tell you the answer to that about discernment.

Hebrews 5 14.

It says solid food belongs to those who are of full age.

That is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

That says discernment comes by practice.

What are we talking about?

Alan Iverson said, practice?

Talking about practice?

Not talking about the game.

Practice.

He said, practice.

Discernment comes by use of lots of practice.

Are you practicing biblical discernment, using the word of God against your opportunities, choices, obedience?

So read it.

Read it.

If you want to make a wise choice, read it and read it and keep reading it.

And then it'll get in you.

And when the opportunity comes, if it gets in you, by word of a hidden in my heart, that I may not sin against God.

Because it's in me, I won't make a wrong choice and be separated from the one giving me discernment.

I'll be able to track back those words because it's already there.

I'll be able to make a wise choice because it's in me.

Now, if you neglect practice, you, I believe, will lose discernment.

Just like anything else that you're practicing, you can lose.

What else?

Romans 12, 2.

Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove, that you may discern what is the will of God.

Same word.

Prove, discern.

It says, be not conformed.

The world is bombarding us with information.

So if you do not practice, you're still going to take in information and make decisions.

Where are you getting that from?

And so he says, most of the rest of everybody will go and be conformed.

But you be transformed.

You've got to be transformed.

You've got to change that way.

Don't be a person who is conformed.

If you're using wisdom as a Christian, that's spiritual discernment.

Now, as a Christian, if you're not using wisdom, I believe the term would be spiritual blindness.

It's kind of like this.

How far do I go?

Is this why right?

You're not completely blind because you got the spirit there, but it's like you're walking through life and you're choosing.

The Bible says, I love this term.

It says in the end times people will be willingly ignorant.

That means dumb on purpose.

I don't know what to do because I can't.

I just I'm struggling.

Don't be conformed.

Don't listen to that voice.

Don't listen to that pattern.

Don't do that.

A secular term for it would be secular recklessness.

He says, for the spiritual person it's discernment.

For a secular person, it's recklessness.

If it's a spiritual person who's not practicing discernment, it's spiritual blindness or ignorant on purpose.

Don't be conformed.

Bible says seven times in a set of passages, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Hear this.

That's discernment.

Ecclesiastes 8, and we can go on.

Let me tell you, read the book of Ecclesiastes.

You want to talk about wisdom?

It'll tell you about this life.

It sounds like the writer's a little bit down on humanity, but you can get through it.

Ecclesiastes 8 5 says, A wise man will discern the appropriate time and response.

People with spiritual discernment aren't able to read a room.

I know a lot of Bible, but because the Bible is truth, doesn't exempt people from using tact and timing.

Right?

You remember the old joke I talked about?

You know, soul women was seven to nine, and they would say, Go to soul winning, and people will get saved.

But people went to soul winning because the pastor told them to go, and they were mad people.

And they get to a door and they say, Well, we got something going on in church.

Maybe if you don't have nothing else, would you come?

There's a way, and there's a time, and there's an appropriate response, and there's a way to do things.

You have the truth, but there's right and wrong manners.

There's right and wrong opportunities.

Hey, by the way, here's another one about tact discernment.

Not everything happening in the world needs your verbal contribution.

Silence is not always spinelessness.

Sometimes it's discernment.

Husbands, you hear me?

Sometimes I just need to close it.

And it will help the situation a lot better if I just learn to be a good listener.

If Heather was in here and not back there cooking for the deacons, she'd say, Amen.

Well, Joseph is called upon.

And he was ready.

He was called upon with an audience of the king of Egypt, the shepherd boy, cast aside.

He was called upon.

And I want you to see the scene.

Let's go back here in scripture.

Let's see.

I think it's verse 14.

Then Pharaoh sent out and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon.

And he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh.

And Pharaoh said, Joseph, I have a dream.

We'll pause there.

They call out Joseph.

The butler remembers Joseph.

Joseph is ready.

He's ready for God's timing.

And they call on him, and all of a sudden, Joseph comes out and looks like he lost a fight with a raccoon.

Joseph's hair is a mess.

His beard is grubby.

He smells like 11 years a dungeon.

He's in an orange jumpsuit, whatever.

And some posh servant says, Ah, this will never do.

Take him the makeup, please.

They get Joseph all cleaned up.

And now it's his time for discerning.

Let's look at letter C.

A superior sign reading.

Look at verse 16.

So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, This is so good.

It is not in me.

God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.

It's not in me.

So the spotlight turns over to Joseph in this moment.

His immediate words, did you see it?

It's not in me.

The spotlight, my um previous church, my pastor, about nine months in, we he was going to be gone.

And I thought maybe we'd have a conversation about me preaching.

No, just a youth pastor.

I didn't preach for two years, Eli.

I'm just telling you.

Two years of ministry.

And but this is nine months in, and he's going to be out of town.

We got a guest speaker in the church that I'm a pastor of.

And I'm like, maybe I'm gonna get a little debrief on how this service goes.

Nothing.

Never call, email, nothing.

I sit in church like everyone else that Sunday, and all of a sudden, before the guest speaker gets up, there's a video that pops on.

Pastor John Reynolds is in a video.

I'm looking at his office.

There's greenery I've never seen in the office.

There's trees and plants.

And he introduces the guest speaker from a video.

He would not even trust me in the spotlight to say, here's our guest speaker.

He flew in himself by video.

I'm like, what are those plants?

What if he's done with his office?

I'm John Reynolds, and we're about I'm like, are you kidding me?

Joseph steps into the spotlight.

And he takes the light that's pointed on him, and he says, It's not in me, Pharaoh.

Pharaoh, who can release him of everything that's been going on.

Joseph, who knows that he's interpreted dreams, the spotlight comes on him and he says, Let me tell you something about what's going to be said.

It's not on, it's not me.

It's about God.

Are you spiritually ready, church, to give God all the glory?

Praise God for all He's done.

Use your opportunity.

What about your work now?

What about what you're doing right now?

The gift that you've been given is every opportunity that comes to you and says, Man, you're so good at that.

Let me tell you about the one.

Let me tell you about the one who created me.

He deserves a church.

He has been so good to you and to me.

And he deserves all the glory.

Joseph says, It's not me.

That's the theology of revelation.

He's about to give revelation, and the theology of revelation is I don't have the discernment.

It doesn't come for position, it doesn't come from king or any person, not a magician, not a sorcerer, not a psychic.

But Joseph says, it's from God.

No one knows wisdom like the all-knowing creator who created wisdom.

So the dream interpretation, it's not really sweatpants.

Cows in Egypt were associated with fertility and provision, and they were seen by people as sacred.

Coming out of the Nile makes a lot of sense because if the river flooded properly, then they would have provision and abundance.

If not, if that river dried up, then they would have famine.

And so God, who's sovereign over dreams, delays, nations, weather, economics, promotion, that same God who gives the fat also allows the lean.

And Joseph tells him, there's going to be some lean years, there's going to be some fat years.

And we need, he will go on to tell him if we're going to survive, there needs to be a plan while things are good.

Pharaoh was just a ruler in the church.

Let us not forget that a ruler is just a man.

He's appointed by God, but a ruler needs advisement.

And often some of the greatest rulers will be the ones with great advisors.

So Joseph's discernment, he tells him the dream, but I want you to look at verse 37.

Joseph goes to the dream, and then he takes an opportunity.

He goes further than just the interpretation.

If you look back at verse 33, he says, Let Pharaoh do this.

He starts to give Pharaoh advice.

Got past the dream.

Here's the ready moment.

An audience with the king.

He asked me to interpret the dream, but now he goes a step further and he says, Let Pharaoh do this, let him point officers over the land to collect of the produce.

And he goes on about gathering and grain.

And he says, You need to choose somebody.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, He says, You need to choose somebody who is discerning.

You need somebody who can help you discern.

Joseph, who has just discerned all of the problems, says to Pharaoh, You need somebody.

I don't know who?

Where?

Where you find a guy like this?

But you need somebody with discernment.

Where somebody like that is.

But you need somebody.

He takes his shot.

Right?

So the advice was good in the eyes of the Pharaoh and in the eyes of all of his servants.

And Pharaoh says, We'll look at this some next week.

Can we find such a one as this man in whom is the Spirit of God?

Joseph takes his ready shot.

Discernment said, Here's the opportunity.

And I don't know who here is right there.

You're right here.

And you've been waiting and you've been listening and you've been looking, and God said, Here's your opportunity.

Or maybe you just have a decision that you say, Man, I need God's wisdom on this decision.

I'm ready to pull this cord, but I'm I need God to be in it, and you're right there.

And Joseph was on that precipice, but let me tell you, there was a lot going on.

There was 11 years of delay, and Joseph, when God finally opens that door, Joseph said, I see it.

In the meantime, while he was in the waiting, what did Joseph do?

He just built a management resume.

Manage Potiphar's heart, his house, the prisoners, the services.

And then he said, you need to get someone to manage and discern Pharaoh.

What would help you is someone who is discerning.

So, church, this morning, if you're gonna continue to hold the line in 2026, it's going to take some wisdom.

It's gonna take some discerning steps.

There's going to be choices after choices after choices.

So when you look at those things in your life, how do you deal with them?

Maybe you gotta rebuild.

Well, how do you rebuild?

Maybe you need to repent about something.

Well, how do I what are my steps toward that?

Something needs to be resolved.

How do I do that?

God, how do I rearrange my life?

How do I do these things?

Take spiritual discernment.

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes this morning.

I'ma ask.

Take a moment and text CCWConnect to 94,000.

Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.

We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.