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How would your life be different if you woke up every single day with a sense of divine clarity for the unique reason you exist? To literally pre-decide every single day to live with this unique God-given conviction, purpose, and dream—to be driven by a dream.
A recent poll asked this question, and less than 10% of people said they have any kind of clarity about why God put them on earth or what their unique purpose is. Of those 10% that have a sense of purpose, only 5% actually live differently because of that purpose.
This creates a tension with the words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus: you are God's masterpiece. Created anew in Christ for good works that God prepared and almost dreamed up for you a long time ago.
Today, we're going to look at a dreamer—the life of Joseph. The story of Joseph spans 14 chapters and 450 verses in Genesis, so we're going to jump around quite a bit.
Let's look at some genealogy. Last week, Pastor Tim taught on Abraham, who was also a dreamer. God gave him a vision that he would have a child at a very old age, and that his descendants would be more numerous than the sands of the seashore. Abraham had two sons: Ishmael, from whom Arab nations flowed, and Isaac, who had twins, Esau and Jacob. Jacob had 12 children with four mothers, and one of them is Joseph.
Joseph was one of the young ones. In Genesis 37, we read:
"Joseph, when he was 17 years of age, was pastoring the flock with his brothers and while he was still a youth along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, and his father's wives. And Joseph brought back a bad report about the brothers."
Not only was he tattling on his brothers, but he was also daddy's favorite.
"Now Israel loved Joseph more than all the other sons because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a multicolored tunic and his brothers saw that their father loved him more than them. And so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms."
Then came the dream:
"Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said, 'Please listen to this dream that I've had; for behold, we were binding sheaves, and my sheaf remains standing, but behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.'"
This guy didn't know how to read the room. His brothers were not happy to hear it.
It's interestingly ironic that I'm preaching this sermon as we wrap up Craig's latest book, but I actually need to draw from his very first book, called "Chazown." He wrote it 18 years ago, and of all the books he's written, it's probably had the biggest sustaining impact on my life.
"Chazown" is the Hebrew word for vision. We believe that God has a chazown for every one of you—unique to you—because you are the fingerprint of God. One of the questions Craig asks in his book is this: "If money were no object, what would you do for the rest of your life?"
Money is chosen because it's one of the most common barriers to doing what we feel God's called us to do. But maybe the barrier for you is time. If time were no object, what would you do for the rest of your life? If health were no object, what would you do for the rest of your life? Would you start the business? Would you write the book? Would you maybe step into full-time ministry? Would you find a way to fight for the poor and the marginalized in your community?
Here's the thing: every single one of you will end up somewhere, but few of you will end up somewhere on purpose.
As we look at the life of Joseph, we're going to unpack four phases that you will all go through as you embark on a life of being driven by a dream.
It always starts this way. The Spirit prompts you. Every great story of God starts with Him initiating something. God speaks to us in different ways: sometimes He directs us clearly through His word, other times He guides us quietly through promptings—which is what's happening with Joseph through a dream. And sometimes He grows us silently.
All throughout the Bible there are examples of God imparting dreams, visions, and burdens to His people. We're not talking about something you dream while sleeping after eating pizza. We're talking about something that usually starts relatively obscure—a sense of dissonance between what is and what could be.
I remember 22 years ago my marriage was about to end. My wife Cindy went to Texas and found herself in a church she'd never been to before, desperate to hear from God. A teenager walked up to her and said, "I think I have a word for you," and quoted Habakkuk 2:3:
"For the vision is for the appointed time. Though it linger and delay, wait for it. It will surely come to pass."
Tears streamed down her face, not because she understood what it meant, but because she knew God was there and He saw her. After church, she had lunch with someone she'd never really spent time with before. That person brought out her Bible and said, "I feel like I have a word for you," and quoted the exact same verse: Habakkuk 2:3.
After God prompts you, the next phase you're going to go through—and some of you are living here right now—is certain uncertainty.
Joseph's dream was obscure. He saw sheaves in the field—what does that mean? Why is God using wheat? Because we have to wrestle with it. Sometimes I wish God would speak to us more like Google Maps: "In two miles, take a left at this job offer. In 500 feet, make a U-turn from your toxic relationship. You have arrived at your divine destination." But God doesn't speak that way. God speaks in obscure nudges so that we're forced to lean in and listen closer.
I think that may be the whole point: God wants us to lean in and be present with what He's trying to show us.
Here's a powerful concept: there are basically three things we want to look at in understanding who you are.
Every time someone says yes to Jesus and becomes a follower of Christ, the Holy Spirit imparts spiritual gifts that are unique to you. For me, my number one spiritual gift is wisdom. Number two is leadership. Number three is generosity. You can take a spiritual gifts test online to discover yours.
These are the things you are uniquely passionate about or have a righteous anger about—some injustice in the world that burns your spirit a little bit more than anyone else's. One of my top core values is uncomfortable honesty. Ask anybody who works for me and they'll tell you that's the way I row. I'm going to tell it like it is, but it's all in love. Part of the reason is that so much of my life prior was impacted by deception. I was a prisoner of self-deception and others' deception. One of my core values today flows out of one of my greatest weaknesses in the past.
You have to think about the timeline of you. The great stuff—those moments where you sensed His presence in a very unique way. But honestly, you have to look at pain. You have to look at suffering.
I grew up in a home in the arts. My mother was a composer, my father was an actor. I was cast in professional theater in middle school, so standing on the stage, I've been doing this since I was 12. You can start to see these glimpses of your past and how it points toward your future. But I also think about addiction that I struggled with from age 8 to 30.
Where these three things converge—your gifts, your values, and your past experiences—you can start to put together what God's unique purpose for your life is. Most of the time, your past misery will become your future ministry.
I remember Cindy, maybe two years into fighting for our marriage and trying to rebuild trust, when we were sitting down with another couple and sharing our story—not "here's what we've conquered," but "here's what we're walking through right now." They left inspired and encouraged, and I left feeling alive. Almost like, maybe this is it.
My vision statement is simply this: "It is to live free and lead others to freedom." Because you can't lead others to a place that you don't reside yourself. What's yours? I believe most of you have enough information to start the process of piecing that together.
As we start to break through the phase of certain uncertainty, we move into the next part where it gets a little harder: predictable resistance. You can bank on it.
In Genesis 37:18, we read:
"So, when the brothers saw Joseph from a distance, and before he came closer to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. They said to one another, 'Here comes the dreamer! Now then, come, let's kill him. Let's throw him into the pits and we'll say a vicious animal devoured him. And then we will see what becomes of his dreams.'"
The moment you start to let other people know that God's spoken into your life, you are going to see haters emerge. They're going to come. You just have to watch out for them.
But Reuben, one of the brothers who's a little bit more sensible, suggested that maybe homicide isn't the best approach. He said:
"Let's not take his life. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him."
When you decide to live a life driven by a dream that you still have yet to fully figure out, you are pre-deciding to step into a season—if not a life—of resistance. It's just a part of the deal. And honestly, the greatest things in your life are going to flow out of that struggle and out of that suffering.
I listened to a sermon from John Mark Comer a couple months ago, and he made a statement that I thought was so true: "The theological template for every God-given dream is that it will be different than you think. It'll be harder than you think. It will take longer than you think. But it will be infinitely better than you can imagine." Different, harder, longer—but way, way better.
Joseph was sold as a slave to Ishmaelite traders, who then sold him to a man named Potiphar—the head bodyguard in Egypt, the most powerful man's kingdom on the planet. When Joseph got into Potiphar's house as a slave, scripture says that the favor of God was on him. Potiphar noticed and said, "My house is now blessed because Joseph is here." So he put Joseph in charge of his entire estate.
Joseph thought, "Okay, this is it. This is what the dream is about."
Then Potiphar's wife wanted to sleep with him. She propositioned him a couple of times. He stiff-armed her: "I'm not doing that to my master." She wrongfully accused him of sexual assault. Scripture says:
"So Joseph's master, Potiphar, took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. And there he was in prison."
Predictable resistance is a rollercoaster. One step forward, three steps back, right?
But guess what? The hand of God was still on him. The warden of the prison noticed and said, "I'm going to put you in charge of the whole prison. You're going to run your fellow prisoners." Joseph thought, "Okay, this is it. This is the breakthrough. God, what are You going to do? This is my dream. There's something with wheat going to happen here. I don't know what."
And then that didn't happen.
Pharaoh got super angry with two guys—the chief cupbearer and the baker. They were put in prison with Joseph, and both of them had dreams. Now, the one who God gave a dream was given the capacity to interpret other people's dreams. Joseph thought, "Okay, maybe this is it. Maybe this is the breakthrough."
In Genesis 40:21, scripture says:
"Pharaoh restored the chief cupbearer to his office and he put the cup into Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the baker."
All right, this is the breakthrough. Pharaoh's about to give him a promotion or something, right? Nope. Scripture says:
"Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him."
One step forward.
Let me encourage you: if you find yourself in this ebb and flow, this up and down of life, but you have a dream or a burden or a vision that is propelling and compelling you, you are exactly where you need to be. This is just a part of the journey.
The dream came when Joseph was 17 years old. He would not start seeing the fulfillment until age 30. Delay, uncertainty, resistance.
Then Pharaoh had a dream about weird-looking cows—some fat, some skinny—coming out of a river. Nobody could interpret this dream for him. Finally, the chief cupbearer said, "Wait a second. There's a guy." Pharaoh called for Joseph. Scripture said he had to shave and change clothes. He was relatively nasty.
In Genesis 41:15, scripture says:
"Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I've had a dream but no one can interpret it. But I've heard it said about you that when you hear it, you can interpret it.'"
And Joseph answers, listen to this:
"It has nothing to do with me."
Remember the 17-year-old? Daddy's favorite? The guy that was tattling on his brothers, who didn't know how to read the room and shared this dream about how everybody's going to be bowing down to him? Look at what happens through the context of suffering: a beautiful humility emerges.
"Pharaoh, it's not about me."
I want to encourage you in a thought: one of the reasons that living with a sense of divine direction is so frustrating is because, if we are honest, we tend to write ourselves in as the main character of the dream. We think somehow it's about us. That's what we saw in Joseph. "Look how great I am. I got this coat with all these colors and nobody has it." And then a little bit of time in pain brings out a humility where we realize this is not about me.
Joseph goes on to say that God will give Pharaoh an answer for His own good:
"Pharaoh, you should look for someone else, a man discerning and wise. Appoint him over the land of Egypt."
You need to find somebody with a resume, graduated from the right universities, with some skillset to help preserve a region from an upcoming famine. That's really the interpretation of the dream: seven years of abundance followed by seven years of earth-shattering famine.
Pharaoh says to Joseph:
"Can we find a man like this in whom there is a divine spirit? Since God has informed you of all of this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you are. Joseph, I'm putting you in charge of my whole house and all my people. They shall be obedient only to you. Only in regards to the throne will I be greater than you."
Don't dismiss the power of the fuzziness, of the struggle, because it increases your capacity to be the person God's already hardwired into your spirit. If you find yourself today in the fight, in the struggle, in the suffering, just know it is growing your capacity to make an impact much greater tomorrow.
And that leads us to our very last phase: uncommon clarity. The spirit prompts, certain uncertainty, predictable resistance, and then uncommon clarity.
Joseph executed the plan. During the seasons of abundance, they stored grain and derived a plan for how to navigate the region through an upcoming famine. When the famine came, people started coming from all over the region, selling things for grain so that they could survive.
Two years into the famine, it was just a matter of time before the ones who threw him in the pit, who plotted homicide, and who sold him as a slave would show up at the palace, hungry. They didn't even know he was still alive. But Joseph noticed them when they walked in.
Listen to his heart in Genesis 45:4:
"Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Please come closer to me.' And they came closer. And he said, 'I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold to Egypt. Don't be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me ahead. For the famine has been in the land these two years and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting, so God sent me ahead of you to ensure a remnant on earth and keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord over all of his household and ruler over the land of Egypt.'"
Uncommon clarity: This is what I was made for.
The vision God has for you is not about you. A God-given vision really does two things: it glorifies the giver of the dream and serves the purpose of heaven on earth through people. But while it is not about you, it can only be lived out by you—because you are a fingerprint. There is not another person on the planet wired like you.
You're God's masterpiece. He forethought you with great design a long time ago. And the moment you said yes to Christ, He made you new and imparted a purpose that He dreamed about a long time ago.
What would happen if every single one of us had the courage and the perseverance to lead ourselves through the uncertainty and the struggle and live out every day with a sense of laser conviction? This is why I'm here.
Interestingly, Joseph isn't really mentioned much again in the Bible after this. His lineage didn't amount to much. But because of God's hand on him—to preserve a remnant on earth, remember?—one of his brothers who survived because of his ability to feed the region was a guy named Judah, who would then begin the tribe of Judah. Thirty-eight generations later, a baby would be born who would be referred to as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
It puts into perspective when you look back through the span of time. When Joseph said, "God sent me ahead to preserve a remnant and to bring about a great deliverance," he was not talking about his brothers. He was talking about the Son of God—to bring about a deliverance not from hunger, but from sin. The Lion of the tribe of Judah. His name is Jesus, and He is worthy of being worshiped.
Before we close, God believes in you. He doesn't make mistakes. He has a purpose for you, and He will give you everything you need to do what He has called you to do.
The commonalities in the words and mission of Joseph and that of the Son of God are striking. Joseph said, "Don't feel bad that you sent me here, because it was God who sent me to save lives." Jesus hung on a cross looking at those who sinned and put Him up there and said, "Forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing."
The bad news is that we have all sinned and fallen short of His standard. Paul spoke to the church in Rome that the penalty of sin is eternal separation from God. And you have to know that and you have to own it. We do not deserve this gift of forgiveness and salvation.
But scripture goes on to say: "But the gift of God is eternal life."
What do you do? We remember what we've done. We repent. And we call the name of Jesus. Scripture says, "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But it starts with us owning that we've blown it and we are in desperate need of a Savior.
If you're saying yes to the gift of God today, pray this prayer with me: Father, I need You. I've sinned. I'm asking You to save me. Jesus, I believe You died on a cross You didn't deserve to pay for my sin. And You rose from the grave to bring me life. Fill me now with Your Holy Spirit that I could serve You always. In Jesus' name I pray.
How would your life be different if you woke up every single day with a sense of divine clarity for the unique reason you exist? To literally pre-decide every single day to live with this unique God-given conviction, purpose, and dream—to be driven by a dream.
A recent poll asked this question, and less than 10% of people said they have any kind of clarity about why God put them on earth or what their unique purpose is. Of those 10% that have a sense of purpose, only 5% actually live differently because of that purpose.
This creates a tension with the words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus: you are God's masterpiece. Created anew in Christ for good works that God prepared and almost dreamed up for you a long time ago.
Today, we're going to look at a dreamer—the life of Joseph. The story of Joseph spans 14 chapters and 450 verses in Genesis, so we're going to jump around quite a bit.
Let's look at some genealogy. Last week, Pastor Tim taught on Abraham, who was also a dreamer. God gave him a vision that he would have a child at a very old age, and that his descendants would be more numerous than the sands of the seashore. Abraham had two sons: Ishmael, from whom Arab nations flowed, and Isaac, who had twins, Esau and Jacob. Jacob had 12 children with four mothers, and one of them is Joseph.
Joseph was one of the young ones. In Genesis 37, we read:
"Joseph, when he was 17 years of age, was pastoring the flock with his brothers and while he was still a youth along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, and his father's wives. And Joseph brought back a bad report about the brothers."
Not only was he tattling on his brothers, but he was also daddy's favorite.
"Now Israel loved Joseph more than all the other sons because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a multicolored tunic and his brothers saw that their father loved him more than them. And so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms."
Then came the dream:
"Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said, 'Please listen to this dream that I've had; for behold, we were binding sheaves, and my sheaf remains standing, but behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.'"
This guy didn't know how to read the room. His brothers were not happy to hear it.
It's interestingly ironic that I'm preaching this sermon as we wrap up Craig's latest book, but I actually need to draw from his very first book, called "Chazown." He wrote it 18 years ago, and of all the books he's written, it's probably had the biggest sustaining impact on my life.
"Chazown" is the Hebrew word for vision. We believe that God has a chazown for every one of you—unique to you—because you are the fingerprint of God. One of the questions Craig asks in his book is this: "If money were no object, what would you do for the rest of your life?"
Money is chosen because it's one of the most common barriers to doing what we feel God's called us to do. But maybe the barrier for you is time. If time were no object, what would you do for the rest of your life? If health were no object, what would you do for the rest of your life? Would you start the business? Would you write the book? Would you maybe step into full-time ministry? Would you find a way to fight for the poor and the marginalized in your community?
Here's the thing: every single one of you will end up somewhere, but few of you will end up somewhere on purpose.
As we look at the life of Joseph, we're going to unpack four phases that you will all go through as you embark on a life of being driven by a dream.
It always starts this way. The Spirit prompts you. Every great story of God starts with Him initiating something. God speaks to us in different ways: sometimes He directs us clearly through His word, other times He guides us quietly through promptings—which is what's happening with Joseph through a dream. And sometimes He grows us silently.
All throughout the Bible there are examples of God imparting dreams, visions, and burdens to His people. We're not talking about something you dream while sleeping after eating pizza. We're talking about something that usually starts relatively obscure—a sense of dissonance between what is and what could be.
I remember 22 years ago my marriage was about to end. My wife Cindy went to Texas and found herself in a church she'd never been to before, desperate to hear from God. A teenager walked up to her and said, "I think I have a word for you," and quoted Habakkuk 2:3:
"For the vision is for the appointed time. Though it linger and delay, wait for it. It will surely come to pass."
Tears streamed down her face, not because she understood what it meant, but because she knew God was there and He saw her. After church, she had lunch with someone she'd never really spent time with before. That person brought out her Bible and said, "I feel like I have a word for you," and quoted the exact same verse: Habakkuk 2:3.
After God prompts you, the next phase you're going to go through—and some of you are living here right now—is certain uncertainty.
Joseph's dream was obscure. He saw sheaves in the field—what does that mean? Why is God using wheat? Because we have to wrestle with it. Sometimes I wish God would speak to us more like Google Maps: "In two miles, take a left at this job offer. In 500 feet, make a U-turn from your toxic relationship. You have arrived at your divine destination." But God doesn't speak that way. God speaks in obscure nudges so that we're forced to lean in and listen closer.
I think that may be the whole point: God wants us to lean in and be present with what He's trying to show us.
Here's a powerful concept: there are basically three things we want to look at in understanding who you are.
Every time someone says yes to Jesus and becomes a follower of Christ, the Holy Spirit imparts spiritual gifts that are unique to you. For me, my number one spiritual gift is wisdom. Number two is leadership. Number three is generosity. You can take a spiritual gifts test online to discover yours.
These are the things you are uniquely passionate about or have a righteous anger about—some injustice in the world that burns your spirit a little bit more than anyone else's. One of my top core values is uncomfortable honesty. Ask anybody who works for me and they'll tell you that's the way I row. I'm going to tell it like it is, but it's all in love. Part of the reason is that so much of my life prior was impacted by deception. I was a prisoner of self-deception and others' deception. One of my core values today flows out of one of my greatest weaknesses in the past.
You have to think about the timeline of you. The great stuff—those moments where you sensed His presence in a very unique way. But honestly, you have to look at pain. You have to look at suffering.
I grew up in a home in the arts. My mother was a composer, my father was an actor. I was cast in professional theater in middle school, so standing on the stage, I've been doing this since I was 12. You can start to see these glimpses of your past and how it points toward your future. But I also think about addiction that I struggled with from age 8 to 30.
Where these three things converge—your gifts, your values, and your past experiences—you can start to put together what God's unique purpose for your life is. Most of the time, your past misery will become your future ministry.
I remember Cindy, maybe two years into fighting for our marriage and trying to rebuild trust, when we were sitting down with another couple and sharing our story—not "here's what we've conquered," but "here's what we're walking through right now." They left inspired and encouraged, and I left feeling alive. Almost like, maybe this is it.
My vision statement is simply this: "It is to live free and lead others to freedom." Because you can't lead others to a place that you don't reside yourself. What's yours? I believe most of you have enough information to start the process of piecing that together.
As we start to break through the phase of certain uncertainty, we move into the next part where it gets a little harder: predictable resistance. You can bank on it.
In Genesis 37:18, we read:
"So, when the brothers saw Joseph from a distance, and before he came closer to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. They said to one another, 'Here comes the dreamer! Now then, come, let's kill him. Let's throw him into the pits and we'll say a vicious animal devoured him. And then we will see what becomes of his dreams.'"
The moment you start to let other people know that God's spoken into your life, you are going to see haters emerge. They're going to come. You just have to watch out for them.
But Reuben, one of the brothers who's a little bit more sensible, suggested that maybe homicide isn't the best approach. He said:
"Let's not take his life. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him."
When you decide to live a life driven by a dream that you still have yet to fully figure out, you are pre-deciding to step into a season—if not a life—of resistance. It's just a part of the deal. And honestly, the greatest things in your life are going to flow out of that struggle and out of that suffering.
I listened to a sermon from John Mark Comer a couple months ago, and he made a statement that I thought was so true: "The theological template for every God-given dream is that it will be different than you think. It'll be harder than you think. It will take longer than you think. But it will be infinitely better than you can imagine." Different, harder, longer—but way, way better.
Joseph was sold as a slave to Ishmaelite traders, who then sold him to a man named Potiphar—the head bodyguard in Egypt, the most powerful man's kingdom on the planet. When Joseph got into Potiphar's house as a slave, scripture says that the favor of God was on him. Potiphar noticed and said, "My house is now blessed because Joseph is here." So he put Joseph in charge of his entire estate.
Joseph thought, "Okay, this is it. This is what the dream is about."
Then Potiphar's wife wanted to sleep with him. She propositioned him a couple of times. He stiff-armed her: "I'm not doing that to my master." She wrongfully accused him of sexual assault. Scripture says:
"So Joseph's master, Potiphar, took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. And there he was in prison."
Predictable resistance is a rollercoaster. One step forward, three steps back, right?
But guess what? The hand of God was still on him. The warden of the prison noticed and said, "I'm going to put you in charge of the whole prison. You're going to run your fellow prisoners." Joseph thought, "Okay, this is it. This is the breakthrough. God, what are You going to do? This is my dream. There's something with wheat going to happen here. I don't know what."
And then that didn't happen.
Pharaoh got super angry with two guys—the chief cupbearer and the baker. They were put in prison with Joseph, and both of them had dreams. Now, the one who God gave a dream was given the capacity to interpret other people's dreams. Joseph thought, "Okay, maybe this is it. Maybe this is the breakthrough."
In Genesis 40:21, scripture says:
"Pharaoh restored the chief cupbearer to his office and he put the cup into Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the baker."
All right, this is the breakthrough. Pharaoh's about to give him a promotion or something, right? Nope. Scripture says:
"Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him."
One step forward.
Let me encourage you: if you find yourself in this ebb and flow, this up and down of life, but you have a dream or a burden or a vision that is propelling and compelling you, you are exactly where you need to be. This is just a part of the journey.
The dream came when Joseph was 17 years old. He would not start seeing the fulfillment until age 30. Delay, uncertainty, resistance.
Then Pharaoh had a dream about weird-looking cows—some fat, some skinny—coming out of a river. Nobody could interpret this dream for him. Finally, the chief cupbearer said, "Wait a second. There's a guy." Pharaoh called for Joseph. Scripture said he had to shave and change clothes. He was relatively nasty.
In Genesis 41:15, scripture says:
"Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I've had a dream but no one can interpret it. But I've heard it said about you that when you hear it, you can interpret it.'"
And Joseph answers, listen to this:
"It has nothing to do with me."
Remember the 17-year-old? Daddy's favorite? The guy that was tattling on his brothers, who didn't know how to read the room and shared this dream about how everybody's going to be bowing down to him? Look at what happens through the context of suffering: a beautiful humility emerges.
"Pharaoh, it's not about me."
I want to encourage you in a thought: one of the reasons that living with a sense of divine direction is so frustrating is because, if we are honest, we tend to write ourselves in as the main character of the dream. We think somehow it's about us. That's what we saw in Joseph. "Look how great I am. I got this coat with all these colors and nobody has it." And then a little bit of time in pain brings out a humility where we realize this is not about me.
Joseph goes on to say that God will give Pharaoh an answer for His own good:
"Pharaoh, you should look for someone else, a man discerning and wise. Appoint him over the land of Egypt."
You need to find somebody with a resume, graduated from the right universities, with some skillset to help preserve a region from an upcoming famine. That's really the interpretation of the dream: seven years of abundance followed by seven years of earth-shattering famine.
Pharaoh says to Joseph:
"Can we find a man like this in whom there is a divine spirit? Since God has informed you of all of this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you are. Joseph, I'm putting you in charge of my whole house and all my people. They shall be obedient only to you. Only in regards to the throne will I be greater than you."
Don't dismiss the power of the fuzziness, of the struggle, because it increases your capacity to be the person God's already hardwired into your spirit. If you find yourself today in the fight, in the struggle, in the suffering, just know it is growing your capacity to make an impact much greater tomorrow.
And that leads us to our very last phase: uncommon clarity. The spirit prompts, certain uncertainty, predictable resistance, and then uncommon clarity.
Joseph executed the plan. During the seasons of abundance, they stored grain and derived a plan for how to navigate the region through an upcoming famine. When the famine came, people started coming from all over the region, selling things for grain so that they could survive.
Two years into the famine, it was just a matter of time before the ones who threw him in the pit, who plotted homicide, and who sold him as a slave would show up at the palace, hungry. They didn't even know he was still alive. But Joseph noticed them when they walked in.
Listen to his heart in Genesis 45:4:
"Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Please come closer to me.' And they came closer. And he said, 'I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold to Egypt. Don't be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me ahead. For the famine has been in the land these two years and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting, so God sent me ahead of you to ensure a remnant on earth and keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord over all of his household and ruler over the land of Egypt.'"
Uncommon clarity: This is what I was made for.
The vision God has for you is not about you. A God-given vision really does two things: it glorifies the giver of the dream and serves the purpose of heaven on earth through people. But while it is not about you, it can only be lived out by you—because you are a fingerprint. There is not another person on the planet wired like you.
You're God's masterpiece. He forethought you with great design a long time ago. And the moment you said yes to Christ, He made you new and imparted a purpose that He dreamed about a long time ago.
What would happen if every single one of us had the courage and the perseverance to lead ourselves through the uncertainty and the struggle and live out every day with a sense of laser conviction? This is why I'm here.
Interestingly, Joseph isn't really mentioned much again in the Bible after this. His lineage didn't amount to much. But because of God's hand on him—to preserve a remnant on earth, remember?—one of his brothers who survived because of his ability to feed the region was a guy named Judah, who would then begin the tribe of Judah. Thirty-eight generations later, a baby would be born who would be referred to as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
It puts into perspective when you look back through the span of time. When Joseph said, "God sent me ahead to preserve a remnant and to bring about a great deliverance," he was not talking about his brothers. He was talking about the Son of God—to bring about a deliverance not from hunger, but from sin. The Lion of the tribe of Judah. His name is Jesus, and He is worthy of being worshiped.
Before we close, God believes in you. He doesn't make mistakes. He has a purpose for you, and He will give you everything you need to do what He has called you to do.
The commonalities in the words and mission of Joseph and that of the Son of God are striking. Joseph said, "Don't feel bad that you sent me here, because it was God who sent me to save lives." Jesus hung on a cross looking at those who sinned and put Him up there and said, "Forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing."
The bad news is that we have all sinned and fallen short of His standard. Paul spoke to the church in Rome that the penalty of sin is eternal separation from God. And you have to know that and you have to own it. We do not deserve this gift of forgiveness and salvation.
But scripture goes on to say: "But the gift of God is eternal life."
What do you do? We remember what we've done. We repent. And we call the name of Jesus. Scripture says, "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But it starts with us owning that we've blown it and we are in desperate need of a Savior.
If you're saying yes to the gift of God today, pray this prayer with me: Father, I need You. I've sinned. I'm asking You to save me. Jesus, I believe You died on a cross You didn't deserve to pay for my sin. And You rose from the grave to bring me life. Fill me now with Your Holy Spirit that I could serve You always. In Jesus' name I pray.
