LORD MAKE ME AN ANSWER
Gen. 41:9-14
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: TUNNEL VISION
1. How many basketball fans do we have here this morning? Do any of you know who was the best free throw shooter in the world in 1994? Did he play for the NBA? NO!
2. According to Sports Illustrated, the guy’s name is Tom Amberry and he set the record back in 1993. Tom was a foot doctor.
3. In 1993 this foot doctor set the world record by making 2,750 free throws in a row over 12 hours. Can you imagine that 2,750 free throws in a row. Guess how old he was? 71!
4. He was in a gym in California with all kinds of things going on around him. A volleyball team running around the gym while he was doing this.
5. Sports Illustrated asks, “How did Tom Amberry set the world free throw record? Focus, Focus, Focus!” Tom says that I just stay in my routine of three bounces and focus.
6. Tom didn’t miss number 2751 by the way; they turned out the lights and closed the gym on him. Tom had tunnel vision, singular focus. [Horace Wimpey. Verified Googled “most consecutive free throw shots”]
7. He’s the foot doctor I’d want operating on me! [Ted St Martin surpassed him in 1996. But Amberry was hired by the Chicago Bulls to train their shooters!]
B. SIX KEY POINTS ABOUT VISION
1. Vision of God will always bring about divine transformation. Isaiah was transformed by his vision of God! Isa. 6:1. So was Saul of Tarsus!
2. Correct Vision of God will give you a correct picture of yourself. When the white-hot light of God shines in your soul, you’ll know the truth about yourself!
3. A vision will make you know where to stand and what to stand for. The sons of Issachar “knew the times and what Israel ought to do” and they promoted David for king. 1Chron. 12:32.
4. Vision is the major difference between Success and Mediocrity. Without a vision, we’ll either do nothing spiritually, or the world will pull us into its vortex. We must have a vision!
5. To every God-given Vision there is a divine provision. Abram, Joseph, Moses, David, etc.
6. Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is Nightmare. You need to run with your vision. Habakkuk 2:2-3
C. THESIS
1. God doesn’t just have a vision for some of us, but a vision for ALL of us! You say, “So what vision does God have for me personally?”
2. I’m glad that you asked! The answer is, the Lord wants you to begin seeing yourself and your life differently, as He sees you!
3. The title of this message is “Lord, Make Me An Answer.”
I. PRACTICAL EXAMPLES OF THIS IDEA
A. IN A MARRIAGE
1. Some of you may have a marriage that is strained. Marriages often require God’s insight to be successful.
2. Now, when you get married, you marry someone with baggage. In every marriage you have to deal with the other person’s baggage; you only get to choose what kind of baggage you’re going to have to deal with.
3. Some ladies are married to a man with a strong relationship with his mother. For him, his mother was an answer. He’s worried about caring for his mother.
4. If you (his wife) get opposed to his mother, he’ll see you as a problem. It will drive you two apart.
5. But if you start helping care for his mother, your husband will see you as the answer to his problem and it will bring the two of you closer together.
B. PERCEPTION OF YOUR DIFERENCES
1. Everyone is weird. What I like, others don’t like. You are designed by God to be very different than everyone else. Why?
2. Here’s what a KEY looks like before it’s prepared and this is what it looks like afterward.
3. Notice that it’s all scratched and notched. It gets banged and bent and sometimes looks broken, but it’s broken in all the right places!
4. You never know how good or valuable a key is until you find the door it will open!
5. When you find just the right job, you’ll hear a “click.”
“ “ “ “ “ “ person, “ “ “ “ .
“ “ “ “ “ place to fit, there’ll be a “click.”
6. Then you’ll discover why you’re so weird – because you were designed to be someone’s answer! 2017 will be your year to find out why you’re weird!
II. JOSEPH: A PROBLEM & AN ANSWER
A. TEXT: Genesis 41:9-14; “9 Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings. 10 Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. 11 Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. 12 Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream. 13 And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was impaled.” 14 So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.”
B. JOSEPH HAD TO OVERCOME A DEFEATIST ATTITUDE
1. Joseph had favor, but not stability. He was always being uprooted and falling to a more precarious low. He was God’s man but his circumstances didn’t look like it. 13 years of trials!
2. If a SERIES OF TRIALS go on too long in our lives, we can develop a defeatist attitude. Then even when something good happens, you begin to think, “This isn’t going to last!”
3. Then You’re always looking for the next dip (instead of for good). Joseph’s life was full of dips.
4. IT’S SO EASY TO FALL INTO THAT RUT: “I’m always having trials; Murphy’s Law; bad things always happen to me. It’s my lot in life; my life will never change and be stable.”
5. You brace yourself for bad even during the good times.
C. FAMINES PLAYED A CRUCIAL PART IN JOSEPH’S LIFE
1. Joseph’s Mother’s womb was in a famine when he was conceived.
2. After years of fluctuation, a famine brought permanent blessing to his life. Famine put Joseph’s gifts on stage. After Gen. 41:14, Joseph’s life never went down again!
3. Some companies don’t have to spend a lot on advertising because their product is crucial in meeting some need (so others seek it out). God wants to make you that way.
4. You are an answer looking for a problem! There’s something in you God’s going to highlight.
D. JOSEPH WAS AN ANSWER, SO THERE HAD TO BE A PROBLEM
1. Joseph’s mother saw him as an answer. His brothers saw him as the problem. Whenever you get blessed (the Coat of Many Colors), some people will see your blessing as their problem! They have a problem if you get blessed.
2. The Midianites looked into the pit and saw an answer. You got an interview on that job because the boss saw you as an answer.
3. Stop looking for the blessing. Look for the problem and “click.” All my dents were good because they prepared me to fit the lock. “It was good for me to be afflicted” Ps. 119:71.
4. Pharaoh heard of Joseph as the answer, “Send for him!” Somebody’s getting ready to send for you!
5. You’ve been surrounded by hostile brothers, inmates, prison – but God’s getting ready to reach down and pull you out.
6. The famine was a blessing. If not for the famine Joseph would’ve rotted in jail. HUMOR: Someone has pointed out Joseph also was the first tennis player in history: the Bible says he “served in Pharaoh’s court.”
E. EVERYTHING JOSEPH LOST, HE WAS SUPPOSED TO LOSE!
1. He was supposed to lose his position in his father’s house, because it wasn’t God’s best.
2. Potiphar’s house was less than God’s best: God wanted him to run the nation!
3. Everything you’ve practiced on is beneath you – it’s not your real destiny. It was preparation for what God is about to release in your life!
F. GET RID OF THE OLD LIFE
1. Joseph didn’t have long to get ready. He shaved himself and changed his clothing. WE need to cut off all that looks like where I came from. All that’s holding you back from 2016, shave it off now!
2. The moment they saw Joseph as the answer, they took him from being a prisoner to being a Prince.
3. God’s going to put you in a situation completely out of your element. It will feel too big for you.
4. You know how broken, how scratched, how bent you are – but God was shaping you to fit a specific lock. You couldn’t fit any other locks because they weren’t the right one.
5. But you have to see your uniqueness as an answer -- or you’ll stay in the prison. Imagine: an Israelite running Egypt!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: THE HESITANT PASTOR
1. Pastor James Merritt tells this story; “A man joined my church and had been a member there for a while. He came up to me after one Sunday morning's service and pulled me aside, and asked if I would go and visit his wife?
2. Well, I didn't even know he was married because he didn't wear a wedding ring, and I had never met his wife. But I told him that I would go. Her name was Diane. He told me that she was a confirmed atheist and hated preachers. But by that time I had already promised to go, so I had no choice.
3. On Tuesday night he & his wife went to visit with Diane. Now to say the least, she was extremely cool in her reception. She let me know she was an atheist and that she did not like preachers. But she agreed to let me come in for five minutes.
4. He said to her, "Diane, do you know for sure that if you were to die today you would go to heaven?" She said, "I don't even believe in heaven. I told you I'm an atheist.”
5. He said, "Are you telling me that you know that there is no God?" She said, "That's right." I said, "Well, let me ask you a question. Do you know everything there is to know about everything?" She said, "Well, of course not."
6. He said, "Well, let me be generous. Would you say you know half of everything there is to know about everything?" She said, "No, I wouldn't say that either." He said, "Well let's just say you do."
7. "Now here's the half of the knowledge that you do have, and over here is the half of the knowledge you don't. Would you agree that God could exist in the knowledge you do not have?" She said, "Well, I never thought about that before."
8. Then she admitted, "Well, I don't know whether there's a God or not." He said, "Now we're getting somewhere. You're not an atheist, you're an agnostic." She smiled and said with pride, "Yes, that's right, I'm not an atheist, I'm an agnostic." (Now I did not tell her that the Latin word for agnostic was ignoramous.)
9. He said, "Now I want to ask you this question. Are you an honest agnostic, or a dishonest agnostic?" She said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, an honest agnostic says, 'I don't know whether there's a God or not, but I want to find out.' But a dishonest agnostic says, 'I don't know whether there's a God or not, and I don't want to know.' Now which are you?" She said, "Well, I'm an honest agnostic."
10. He said, "Alright. Here’s a copy of the New Testament. I want you to do me a favor; I want you to begin reading everyday one chapter in the gospel of John."
11. She said, "But I don't even believe the Bible." He said, "I understand that, but I want you to do it anyway." She said, "It won't do any good." He said, "I understand that, but I just want you to read the gospel of John."
12. He said, "As you read the gospel of John I want you to ask two questions: 1) Who did Jesus claim to be? 2) What am I going to do about it?" Do you understand?" She said, "Yes."
13. He said, "Okay, there’s 21 chapters in John's gospel. If you read one chapter a day that's 3 week's worth of reading. After 3 weeks, I’ll come back and see how you are doing."
14. The next Sunday morning he gave the invitation, and the first person to walk down the aisle, crying big crocodile tears, was Diane.
15. He said, "Why have you come?" She said, "I have come to be baptized." He said, "Well, Diane that's wonderful, but before you can be baptized, you've got to be saved."
16. She said, "Oh, I have been saved." I said, "Yes, when?" She said, "Wednesday morning." The Pastor was stunned. She smiled and said, "I didn’t get past the first chapter!"
B. THE CALL
1. How many have wondered why things have been so difficult in your life? It’s so that you can be an answer to someone’s need. Would you all come join me up here?
2. Let’s ask God to give us VISION of how He wants to use us! PRAYER FOR VISION.
3. Are there any here who have been like Diane and wrestled with your faith? It’s time to face your fears and trust in God!
[This is a T. D. Jakes’ message, except for the intro & conclusion.]
Q: Who was the straightest man in the Bible?
A: Joseph - Pharoah made a ruler out of him.
