Connect with Skip - Skip Heitzig

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad
you've joined us for today's program Connect with Skip Heidzig.
It's all about connecting you to the never changing truth
of God's Word through verse by verse teaching. That's why
we make messages like this one today available to you
and others. Before we get started with the program, we
want to invite you to check out connect with Skip

(00:21):
dot com. There you'll find resources like full message series,
weekly devotionals, and more. While you're at it, be sure
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teaching from God's Word write in your inbox each day.
Sign up today at connect with Skip dot com. That's
connect with Skip dot com. Now let's get started with

(00:42):
today's message from pastors Skip Heitzig.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
In nineteen thirty nine, the groundbreaking movie Wizard of Oz
hit the screens. You remember the film just about everybody
knows it. I started seeing it when I was just
a wee chap and I remember the scene opening up
with Dorothy Judy Garland playing Dorothy singing Somewhere over the Rainbow,

(01:08):
and the lyrics are classics. Somewhere over the Rainbow, Way
up high there's a land that I dreamed of once
in a lullaby, somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue,
and the dreams that you dare to dream really do
come true. But alas there is no Wizard of Oz,

(01:35):
there is no Emerald City like in the movie. There
is no tin man who needs a heart, scarecrow who
lacks a brain, talking lion who's looking for courage. It
was a great movie, but it was just a tale.
But now we turn to a Bible story that is

(01:57):
not just a tale. It's a true account. It's an
account of a man, a young man, who dreamed dreams.
His dreams really did come true. We saw those dreams
a while back when one night he dreamed that eleven
sheaves of wheat, representing his brothers, all bowed down and

(02:21):
did homage to his single sheaf of wheat. The mistake
he made is not getting the dream that was of God.
The mistake, perhaps he made is in naivete. He told
his brothers about it the next day, expecting them to
be all excited. Well, of course they wouldn't be. He's
already Dad's favorite. Look at the coat he wears. Now

(02:42):
this dream, he had another dream he told his mom
and dad and brothers, and that was a dream that
the sun and the moon and the eleven stars all
bowed down to his star in the dream. At this point,
Dad got upset with his son. What kind of a
dream is that? Do you think that your mother and

(03:05):
I also were going to bow down? Well, his dream
really did come true, but not in the way that
he anticipated it, for he was sold as a slave
to Midianite traders. Going down to Egypt. He went to
Potiphar's house, but God was with him gave him great status,

(03:29):
so the Potiphar, because of his managerial skills, put him
in a high position. It didn't take long until Potiphar's
wife noticed the young man and, casting longing eyes at him,
tried to get Joseph to commit sexual relations with her.
He denied. She accused him of rape. He was placed

(03:50):
into prison. That's where we find Joseph tonight in prison.
What an interesting life Joseph had. It seems that Joseph
would take two steps forward and three steps backward. One
day he's the favored son of his father. The next
day he sold as a slave into Egypt. One day

(04:13):
he's the head of Potiphar's house. The next day he's
placed into prison under false accusation. Two steps forward, three
steps backward. All the while God is working something very
deep in this young man's life and shaping him. And
the amazing thing is Joseph seems to be aware that

(04:33):
God is doing something, though he certainly doesn't know what.
But we never read of him complaining. Now, while he
was suffering, he was isolated. That is, there were no
believers around him, none of his family, none of his friends.
He had no copy of the scriptures, there wasn't one.
He had pagans who were watching him. And doctor F. B.

(04:57):
Meyer once said, perhaps one of the reasons God calls
his child or children to suffer is because onlookers, in
viewing the life of a believer see the reality of
his or her faith when they suffer, and they're drawn
to that kind of a steadfast endurer of trials. I'll

(05:19):
tell you what It makes an impact when an unbeliever
watches a Christian suffer and give glory to God and say,
I see God's plan. I may not see it clearly,
but I know it's there huge impact. And that's the
impact that he has made and will make but how

(05:39):
many sudden reversals happened in his life, just when he's
working his way up in Potiphar's house, now in prison,
just when he gets a dream from heaven sold as
a slave. When our lives have sudden reversals, how do

(06:03):
we handle them? Well? When they're going good our lives?
We love that. Oh Lord, thank you, I love you.
I knew you would come through because it's in your favor.
You see the blessing is coming, and you feel it,
you see it. It's awesome. But what about a reversal,
a setback? How do you treat God? Then? What do

(06:25):
you say to God? Then when the marriage seems like
it's just being restored, and then there's a setback, a reversal,
so to speak, Just when you're conquering the addiction, it
rears its ugly head and you fall or fail. When

(06:47):
the cancer was in remission, but now it's back. When
the child, your child is starting to grow spiritually and
you see signs of hope, then they go off the
deep end. Let's see how Joseph handles this. By the way,
before we jump into verse one, there's a key verse

(07:10):
of scripture that sort of gives away why and what
accounts for Joseph's good behavior. You'll notice in verse twenty
one of chapter thirty nine, but the Lord was with Joseph.
He was in prison, But the Lord was with Joseph.

(07:30):
You may want to underline that, or at least remember
that in verse twenty three, the keeper of the prison
did not look into anything that was under Joseph's authority,
because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did,
the Lord made a prosper. Now it came to pass

(07:52):
after these things that the butler and the baker and
the candlestick maker. Oh that's not there. The butler and
the baker of the King of Egypt offended their lord,
the King of Egypt, And the Pharaoh was angry with
his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker,

(08:13):
so he put them in custody in the house of
the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place
where Joseph was confined. The word baker, we get what
a baker is. He bakes bread, he makes food for
the king, for the pharaoh. But butler isn't. Perhaps the
best translation. We think of a guy with a little
bow tie and a tuxedo, opening and closing the door.

(08:35):
The NIV translates a cup bearer a better translation. He
was the ancient equivalent of secret service agent, making sure
that whatever went into the king's presence was secure, that
his food or drink wasn't poisoned, so he would taste
it first. Nehemiah had that position in the Persian of

(09:00):
a Hasuaras something happened in this court of Pharaoh. We
don't exactly know what it was. Something bothered him. And
so these guys are thrown in jail, but not by accident,
by appointment, because we see in verse four the captain
of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them.

(09:21):
Joseph is now in charge at prison. What a guy,
you know. Give this guy any mundane task and he'll say,
I'm up for it. I'll be faithful at that. He
won't say, well, that's not my job. Description. You're a slave,
then I'll be the best slave there is. You're a prisoner,
I'll be the best prisoner you got. So everywhere he goes,

(09:45):
whether a slave in Potiphar's house, Potiphars, is this guy
so trustworthy, so faithful, I've had my eye on him.
Give him more until he's over his house. Now in prison,
same thing. He's in charge, and these guys come under
his custody and he served them. So they were in

(10:06):
custody for a while. Then the butler and the baker
of the King of Egypt, who were confined in the prison,
had a dream, both of them, each man's dream in
one night, and each man's dream with its own interpretation.

(10:30):
In ancient times, especially the countries of Egypt and Babylon,
dreams were a huge deal. They were a highly significant
in their theology and cosmogony. They believe that the gods,
the pantheon of gods, communicated with people through dreams. They
had a dream in one night. It wasn't the gods communicating.

(10:52):
It was God singular, Joseph's God communicating and verse six
to them in the morning, and he looked at them
and he saw that they were sad, And so he
asked Pharaoh's officers, who were with him in custody of
the lord's house, saying, why do you look so sad today? Frankly,

(11:18):
I'm amazed that Joseph even noticed they were sad.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
You're listening to connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get
back to Skip's teaching the nineteen sixties promised us an
explosion of love and brotherhood, but instead they delivered a
nation in turmoil, confusion, and moral decline. Fortunately, God has
the solution for our damaged families and in Beyond the
Summer of Love relationships in the real world. Pastor Skip

(11:43):
Heitzig gives a Biblical guide for marriage and families that
can help restore relationships which have been damaged by sin.
Beyond the Summer of Love is our Thanks for your
gift of at least twenty five dollars today to help
share biblical teaching with more people around the world through
connect with Skip High go to connectiskip dot com slash
offer or call eight hundred and ninety two to two

(12:05):
eighteen eighty eight and request your resources when you give
twenty five dollars or more today to help reach people
around the world with the good news of Jesus through
connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with
Pastor Skip.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
There's an interesting thing about your own personal suffering. Whenever
you're suffering, whatever the hardship might be, it tends to
be very self focused. It tends to make a person
consumed with it. Where you don't really care about much
else or anyone else. This is your deal man, this
is your personal suffering. The fact that Joseph noticed it,

(12:44):
and then second the fact that he asked them about it.
He didn't say, what's up with you? He just noticed
and politely said, why is it that you are sad?
I think there's a principle to be learned here. I
think that one of the keys to enduring your own
hardship is to push the pause button on your hardship

(13:09):
and go find someone who has it worse than you
have it and serve that person. You are deliberately now
taking the focus off of your own needs momentarily to
minister to someone else's needs who is in far greater
need than you are, and it has amazing results of

(13:31):
lifting you out and giving you a fresh perspective in suffering.
I had a friend years ago. We went to the
same church in California, and this guy was going through
a very difficult time in his life. He was a
Christian musician, and he very artistic, and he had ups
and he has downs, and he was going through a

(13:52):
very down time, a rough spot. He was dealing with
his own depression and he went to one of these
assistant pastors at our church. The assistant pastor said, Eric,
this will cure you. Tomorrow. I want to send you
to one of the nursing homes that we work with,

(14:13):
and he gave a list of the names of the patients.
I want you to visit and then come back and
tell me what the Lord said to you, what he
did with you. Eric did it and came back a
few days later, and he said, I'm not feeling like
I felt. I'm sort of cured. I ministered to people

(14:34):
who are dying. I ministered to people who are in
advanced stages of a certain disease, and I looked at
their problems and I considered my own problems and yeah,
I still have them, but it's just like a perspective check,
a reality check. That made such an impact on me
that some years later, when I was here and we
just started pastoring, I tried this with a girl who

(14:55):
was in a ward in a local hospital. A metal
ward was on suicide watch. She attempted suicide and I
visited her and I listened to her, and she was
really down, and I said, now, when you get out
of here, there's something I want you to do, but
I'm not going to tell you what it is till
you get out. I want you to come and see me.

(15:17):
So what I did is I gave her a small task,
not much. The only task was, you have an appointment
with me when you get out. It's all she had
to do. But when you're depressed, that's huge. Little task
becomes huge tasks. But that was the only task I
gave her. And then when she came in saw me,
I employed sort of the same thing. I said, there's
some people I want you to visit. She came to

(15:40):
me and she said, she smiled, to get your strategy worked.
She goes, I know what you're doing. She's been in
these joints enough. I know what you're doing. And it worked,
and she goes, now I'm helping other people in their depression.
So here's Joseph. He's in prison. He's not supposed to be.
They're falsely accused, and he noticed the sadness of prisoners

(16:02):
and he stops and he asks them why they're sad,
and they said to him, we have had a dream
and there is no interpreter of it. So Joseph said
to them, do not interpretations belong to God, tell them
to me. Please, please help polite, please to a fellow prisoner, please,

(16:28):
How often does that happen? Then the Chief Butler told
his dream to Joseph and said to him, behold, in
my dream, a vine was before me. Now we would
not have fault. We would not find fault with Joseph
if he were to say, write about here, stop right there,
don't tell me about your dream. It was my dreams

(16:51):
that got me into trouble to begin with. I hate dreams.
I don't want subscribe to dreams. Rather, this statement is
an affirmation of faith, as if to say, tell me more,
because I do believe in dreams. I've had my own dreams,

(17:12):
and though they haven't come true, I believe God, and
I believe they will come true. So tell them to me.
It's a very strong affirmation of his faith that God
has spoken to him, and though he has not seen
any sign of its fruition for years, he still trusts
in God. So he says, tell me. Guy starts to

(17:33):
tell him about his dream, and verse ten. In the
vine there were three branches. It was as though it
budded its blossoms, shot forth, its clusters brought forth ripe grapes.
Then Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took
the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed
the cup in Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said to him,

(17:57):
this is the interpretation. He knew it right away. Three
branches are three days now. Within three days, Pharaoh will
lift up your head and restore you to your place,
and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand according

(18:17):
to the former manner when you were as butler. So
the dream is a positive interpretation. It's a good dream.
It's a dream of being restored back to the previous place.
Your head's going to be lifted up. That's a biblical
idiom of restoration and favor. You may remember Psalm three.

(18:42):
The Lord is the lifter of my head. When you're
down and you're dejected, like a little kid, head down,
the Lord comes, lifts your head up. Let you see
things correctly, so you will find favor and you'll be
restored back to your former position. But he says, remember
me when it's well with you, and please show kindness

(19:06):
to me, make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get
me out of this house. Joseph saw this not only
as a chance to serve the prisoners. But he saw
this as the first ray of hope in getting out
of prison. This was his get out of jail free card.
Quite literally, he thought, great, I know this is going

(19:28):
to happen, and when it happens, if this guy puts
in a good word for me to the pharaoh, I
might get out. So remember me, put in a good
word for me when you're in the pharaoh's house. For indeed,
verse fifteen, I was stolen away from the land of
the Hebrews, and I've also done nothing here that they
should put me into the dungeon. And when the chief
baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph,

(19:53):
I also was in my dream, and there were three
white baskets on my head. The baker's been listening to
the butler tell his dream. He didn't speak up first.
He's just sort of waiting. He's troubled by his dream.
But in hearing the dream and the interpretation, he thinks, great,
that was a positive outcome. And no doubt he's thinking

(20:15):
that Joseph's going to say, well, you're going to be
sprung out of here and serving it up at the
Pharaoh's table in no time. But his dream turns into
a nightmare as he hears the interpretation verse seventeen. In
the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh,

(20:36):
and the birds ate them out of the basket on
my head. And Joseph answered and said, this is the
interpretation of it. The three baskets are three days. Within
three days, Pharaoh will lift off your head from you
and hang you on a tree, and the birds will

(20:58):
eat flesh from you. See what I mean by nightmare?
The dream turned into the nightmare on Pyramid Street. It's
not what he expected to hear. He thought it would
be favorable. Like the first guys, notice the difference in
the dreams. In the first dream, he sees the pharaoh's

(21:19):
cup in his hands, the Pharaoh's drinking out of his cup.
In the second dream, though the bread basket is four pharaoh.
Birds are eating out of that basket. Now, let me
just throw this out at you so you can keep
it in your mind. In prophetic scripture, in scripture parabolic scripture,
prophetic scripture, birds are often a symbol that pour tend evil,

(21:44):
not good. I'll give you a few examples that come
to mind. There are more. In Matthew chapter thirteen, Jesus
gave the parable of the sower and the seed, and
the seed fell upon rocky soil, and the birds of
the air came and snatched it up, speaking of how
Satan removes the word of truth from a person's heart

(22:05):
as soon as they hear it. Also in Matthew thirteen,
Jesus gave a parable of the mustard seed, that it's
the smallest seed in the herb garden, but this huge
tree grows from it, and the birds of the air
lodge in its branches. The follow up parable to that
is the parable of the leaven, and leven is the
symbol of evil, and birds was also a symbol of

(22:27):
the evil that would lodge within that organized community throughout
church history. Within the church, then there's Revelation chapter eighteen,
Mystery Babylon. Babylon has fallen is fallen, which has become
the habitation of every foul bird and unclean bird. So

(22:52):
here's another example of how they don't portend good but evil.
So yep, three more days your days are your head's
coming off, and you're a dead dude, and birds will
eat your flesh off of you. Ouch. Now it came
to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday.

(23:14):
Then he made a feast for all of his servants,
and he lifted up the head of the chief butler
and of the chief baker among his servants. But in
two quite different manners. He restored the chief butler to
his leadership again, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand,
But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted

(23:39):
to them. Yet now watch this. Yet the chief butler
did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Hey, remember me
when you get out of here. I shouldn't be here.
I didn't commit any crime. Tell Pharaoh I want to
get out of here. Remember me. But he didn't remember him.

(24:00):
He forgot him. There are certain experiences in your life
that you cannot control. They happened to you. You wish
they wouldn't happen to you, But they happened to you.
Jesus said, the sun and the rainfall, and the just
and the unjust. You can't control all the things that
happened to you in life. However, you can control your

(24:23):
response to all the things that happened to you. That's
in your control. How do you take it? What is
your response to it?

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope
you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program.
Before we let you go, we want to remind you
about this month's resources that will help you understand and
follow God's plan for your relationships beyond the Summer of Love.
Relationships in the real world by Pastor Skip Heitzig is
our Thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today.

(24:57):
Request your copy when you give twenty five dollars are
more Call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight.
That's eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight, or
visit connect with Skip dot com slash donate and did
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Simply visit connect with Skip dot com and sign up

(25:20):
for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more
verse by verse teaching of God's Word. Here unconnect with
skip Heidzig, Make it.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Connects, make a connects. The cross chat song song makes Next.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Connect with Skip Heidzig is a presentation of connection communications
connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.