Let's continue our worship now by listening carefully to the reading of God's holy word. Today's scripture reading is from the book of Genesis chapter 41 verses 1 through 16. When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream. He was standing by the Nile when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. After them seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the river bank. And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up. He fell asleep again and had a second dream. Seven heads of grain, healthy and good were growing on a single stock. After them seven other heads of grain sprouted, thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up, it had been a dream. In the morning his mind was troubled so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dream but no one could interpret them for him. Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, today I am reminded of my shortcomings. Pharaoh was once angry with the servants and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. Each of us had a dream the same night and each dream had a meaning of its own. 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. And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us. I was restored to my position and the other man was hanged. 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. Pharaoh said to Joseph, I had a dream and no one can interpret it but I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it. I cannot do it Joseph replied to Pharaoh but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together before you look at God's word. Our father earlier this morning we sang that you would come have your way among us. And as we have heard your word read and now as we begin to think about it and ponder its message, Holy Spirit of God we pray that you will come and have your way among us. We need you, we want you, we're asking you to speak to our hearts, our minds, that you'll change our way of thinking today, that you'll change our way of behaving today. Your word is a powerful mighty weapon. It's a sword that uncovers the thoughts and intents of the heart and so Lord we're asking you to do that for us this morning. Let us see Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith and we pray this in his name. Amen. Well I want to talk with you this morning about something rather minor changing the world just that just changing the world. When I think about changing the world I really get discouraged and I've heard sermons that start off with something like we're going to talk about changing the world and I get very discouraged about that because when I start thinking about all of the problems in this world today all of them sort of remind me of that oil rig out in the Gulf it seems that it's just their stuff we can't do anything about. You know racism, terrorism, the spread of infectious disease, hunger, poverty, homelessness, atheism, religious persecution on and on and on. We could think about all of the challenges in this world and when I when I start listing them when I watch the news for example sometimes I think you know politicians can't do anything about those problems it doesn't seem that war affects those problems it doesn't seem throwing money at those problems it really seems to help. What can I do about one of those much less all of them so I sort of throw my hands up and say I give up I can't do anything about these things but then I read Genesis 41 and this is what I see one life lived with humble ambition for the glory of God can change the world that's what I see in this chapter one life lived with humble ambition for the glory of God can indeed change the world we see that here in Genesis chapter 41 and we see it throughout the Bible as well have you ever heard of the butterfly effect I think it's a fascinating concept it was a term made popular by a meteorologist and mathematician who died a couple of years ago his name's Edward Lorenz he was an early pioneer of chaos theory the butterfly effect is basically the idea that tiny things like the flapping of a butterfly's wings can ripple out over time and produce enormous changes in the earth's atmosphere Edward Lorenz gave a talk back in 1972 the title of the talk was does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas and what he meant by that was that something as tiny as a butterfly can change the course of history can affect potentially billions of people simply by being a butterfly Genesis 41 is an illustration a biblical illustration of the butterfly effect Joseph our main character here flapped his little tiny butterfly wings and changed the world and believe it or not you can too so let me show you what I mean we've been studying the life of Joseph this man in the Old Testament for several weeks now we left Joseph last week in prison if you were here last Sunday you know that we looked at Genesis chapter 40 and we found out that Joseph was there in prison for something like eight nine maybe ten years and he was in prison for a crime that he didn't commit well while in prison Joseph interpreted the dreams of two men who joined him as his cellmates one day they were the chief cup bearer of Egypt and the chief baker of Egypt the cup bearer was released from prison according as his dream had said and the baker was executed that is put to death now Joseph had asked the cup bearer when he got out of prison to put in a good word for him you know to speak to the king of Egypt on his behalf and say to the king hey Joseph is innocent he's in prison for a crime he didn't commit and you need to let him out but we learned last week that Joseph's friend turned out to have forgotten him he didn't speak in his behalf and so Joseph had to deal with a major disappointment he had to stay there in prison and that brings us to chapter 41 according to verse 1 of our text and I hope you will leave your Bible open at chapter 41 because we're going to look at much of this chapter even though it wasn't all read to you. According to verse 1 two more years have passed since we left Joseph back in chapter 40 and we learned that one night the king of Egypt had a dream in actuality he had two dreams they were just the same dream back to back two different forms one of the dreams was about these seven fat cows that got eaten up by seven scrawny skinny ugly cows and the second dream was about seven healthy heads of grain that got swallowed up by seven thin heads of grain so the Pharaoh the king of Egypt had these dreams and the next morning he wakes up and he's very disturbed very concerned about whatever these dreams might mean he calls his wise men and his magicians and his sorcerers together he describes his dream to them they cannot figure it out they don't know what it meant but the chief cup bearer over here is the whole thing and suddenly he remembers oh wait a second I was in prison I had a dream and this guy Joseph interpreted my dream for me and it came true and so in in verses 9 through 13 this cup bearer tells Pharaoh the king of Egypt about Joseph he says king this guy Joseph knows dreams you got to call him out of prison so the king sins for Joseph tells Joseph his dreams and sure enough Joseph proceeds to give the king the interpretation of the dreams in the rest of Genesis 41 what we see is the butterfly effect Joseph flaps his wings if you will and amazing things take place for example in verses 25 through 32 basically what happens there is that Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dreams as a word directly from God that a famine was going to hit Egypt and if something weren't done now about that coming famine thousands of people were going to die well now let's get down to verses 33 through 36 let me read those verses for you it says in verse 33 now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance they should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh to be kept in the cities for food this food should be held in reserve for the country to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt so that the country may not be ruined by the famine in those verses you have Joseph's recommendations to Pharaoh king of Egypt about the coming famine now think about this and just let this sink in for a moment Joseph is just this 30 year old ob skier Hebrew from an ob skier country who's been in prison for the past dozen or so years he isn't famous he is not a doctor he's not a lawyer he's not a politician he doesn't have a PhD after his name or anything like that the only job Joseph ever held down during his time as a free man was tending the flocks of his father Jacob that's it but in verses 37 through 40 we find out that Pharaoh likes what he hears from from Joseph not only does he implement Joseph's plan but he appoints Joseph to be his prime minister as it were his vice president or his vice regent the second in command over the entire nation of Egypt didn't that amazing in verse 42 the king of Egypt takes off his signant ring and places it on the finger of Joseph he puts an ornate robe of royalty on Joseph's shoulders hangs a gold chain around Joseph's neck and Joseph gets to ride around in a chariot all day while people who see him coming say make way for Joseph this is an incredible now don't you see why I I entitled this series from prison to palace I mean this is an incredible tale of elevation for a man who spent about a dozen years of his life in prison and now he's the number two guy in all of the mightiest nation on earth now do you see why I said earlier one life lived with humble ambition for the glory of God can change the world this sentence right here how can that describe you when you look at it do you think oh that's great that's very nice and biblical sounding and I know that we're supposed to think that about Joseph but my challenge to you is this do you think it's possible that that sentence could actually apply to you that if you were to live your life with holy humble ambition for the glory of God like you never have before that your idea your passion your gift your ability your position your job your family could actually end up changing the world if it could happen with Joseph why not you could there have been anybody more ordinary than Joseph at this time in history no so why not you your life lived with humble ambition for God's glory I know that it's unlikely that you'll ever live in a palace like Joseph did I know that it's quite unlikely that people are going to say make way for you or for me but nevertheless you can flap your wings and change the world you can live your life with humble ambition for God's glory and so the question becomes how how can you do that how can I do that it can begin if we will adopt three convictions three convictions that I see taught or modeled for us by Joseph let me let me dive in right away with conviction number one if you want to be a world changer if you want to live that life of humble ambition for God's glory the first conviction you've got to have is this one that God is not finished writing your story God is not finished writing your story now I know I've pointed this out before but Joseph had a lot of reasons to be an intolerable jerk wouldn't you agree he had a lot humanly speaking Joseph could have been an intolerable jerk I say that because for one thing his brothers had sold him into slavery his boss potterfer had this wife who tried to seduce him he refused she accused him of raping her potterfer Joseph in jail he spends a long time there this friend of his the cup bearer forgets all about him Joseph could have been a jerk because of all those things you know for me I get upset when I don't get the garbage out on time on Monday morning I don't know how I would react if but one of these trials were to come my way I'm afraid that I would become a better old man really fast but not Joseph Joseph doesn't appear in the text to have gotten bitter but rather better how why how did he get better in prison how did he get better going through these different things that he had to endure well I've said it before I'll say it again Joseph knew that God is always at work that was one of his bedrock foundational beliefs that there's never a time when God just stops working and backs away and says forget you no God is always always at work he's always writing your story no matter how dark it seems to get no matter how desolate your circumstances might happen to be God is writing the story of your life and if you'll trust him and if you'll wait on him you'll find out it's a good story yes you might have a lot of heartache to have to endure I'm looking at faces that I know are enduring heartache there's going to be time when you when there will be times when you have to face and did a very difficult disappointment I know that there are going to be times when you're going to be thoroughly confused about what God is doing look I know that too I felt I felt that way at times I have felt God if you're authoring my story it doesn't appear to be going anywhere right now the plot is a mess God have you just stopped writing my story I mean it's very confusing for us at times but I want you to know the Bible teaches that it's a good story if you are in Christ today if you're trusting in Jesus today God promises that he's writing a good story for you and he's never going to take his pen away and stop writing I was talking one time with somebody who was really concerned about his teenage son this son of his was not living out his Christian faith very well he was into some things that were causing a lot of heartache to this man and his wife the boy's mom but you know what this father said to me he said Mike I'm concerned about my boy I really am but one thing I know for certain is that God is writing his story it's not the story that I would have written but it's the story that God is writing and that gives me great peace I know that Joseph must have had his dark days he had to have times when he struggled with discouragement and doubt but when the day came that Pharaoh called Joseph out of prison what do we find in this passage Joseph was ready he was ready because he knew God had not finished writing his story another chapter was about to begin and you see that in verse 14 in verse 14 it says that Joseph shaved and he changed his clothes and he came before Pharaoh he was ready for chapter 2 see Joseph never gave up on God because he knew God had never given up on him I don't know where you are today you may be very blue about something you may be feeling very desolate and discouraged about something going on your life might be your marriage it might be the addiction that you've been trying to battle with day after day after day you may feel that nobody on earth cares about you or knows what you're going through don't think for a moment that God has finished with you Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 says very clearly that he who began a good work in you will what carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus see with Jesus there are no unfinished symphonies look the proof of that is the cross if Jesus died for you he's not going to give up on you so conviction number one of someone who seeks to live such a life that might change the world is this God is not finished writing my story I hope you'll take that with you today and live it out in the months and years ahead in your life a second conviction that a world changer must have is that God can do impossible things through people like me if you want to have a life that's one of humble ambition for the glory of God so that you might seek to change the world this is what you've got to have you've got this conviction that God can do impossible things through people like you because when you're looking at the problems that face our country today for example small moral day weekend it's naturally something that's on our minds or when we're thinking about the challenges that face the church in the 21st century or just when you look at your own life the relationships that you're struggling with the cancer that you have the debt that you're in the addiction that you can't seem to win over just looking at those things you get awfully tired and awfully discouraged if you forget that God is sovereign and God can use people who are imperfect to accomplish his sovereign will and plan he uses us clay jars clay and broken vessels and imperfect people to accomplish his sovereign will and this is one of those mysteries of the Bible isn't it let's talk theology for a few moments you know that we teach here that God is absolutely sovereign that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to paths and that what does come to pass somehow fits into a marvelous plan we may not understand it but God is sovereignly overseeing and supervising this plan and he's the God of Providence if you come back next week we're going to talk about the Providence of God in Genesis 42 through 45 and you'll see what I'm talking about but the same Bible that teaches that God is sovereign also teaches human responsibility it's like the two are somehow in the mind of God totally compatible and we must hold both of them up equally high God although he has a sovereign plan uses your prayers your ideas your decisions your planning your words your deeds your actions to accomplish his sovereign will let's apply that to Genesis 41 what do we learn in this chapter we learn that Pharaoh has this dream and the dream foretells a coming famine that's going to last seven years so what does Joseph do what does Joseph do does he say oh well case Sarah Sarah no does Joseph say well God has a plan God's foreordained everything I'm just going to sit back and see how it works out no does he even go back to his prison and commit himself to nothing but prayer that the famine would end or not ever come their way he doesn't even do that and we all know the prayers are very good thing to do no what we learn in Genesis 41 is that fair is that Joseph takes action he acts he uses his brain he uses his will and he gets involved in the problem look with me at verses 46 through 49 it says that in verse 46 Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt and Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and traveled throughout Egypt during the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities in each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain like the sand of the sea it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure see what a clever man this is Joseph was not about to be a passive observer of the famine he wanted to do something about it he wanted to use his common sense and his administrative abilities and his leadership gifts to help Egypt prepare for the worst and his plan worked if you read on down to verse 55 you see this it says when all Egypt began to feel the famine the people cried to Pharaoh for food then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians go to Joseph and do what he tells you see Joseph's plan and his his ingenuity were so well respected by Pharaoh that Pharaoh just said go see Joseph he'll tell you what to do see friends God is telling us something very very important here and the message from God in this chapter is that you have a reason for living that is bigger than you you have a read God has put you here for a purpose bigger than your little cul-de-sac you have something a God given calling a God given ability an anointing from God a plan from God that is bigger than just your little bank account and your job and your home sometimes I get so tired of those shows on the HG TV network because these people are it's so sad they're putting all their hopes and all their dreams in their house and it's all gonna perish one day you have a if you're a Christian this morning your reason for living is bigger than you and God is saying through Joseph let's find that out let's go on an adventure and find out what your purpose is and live it out with gusto you remember what God said to Abraham right in Genesis 12 he said Abraham I'm gonna make you into a great nation but he didn't stop there he went on to say Abraham I will bless you and all people's on earth will be blessed through you that was God's plan then and it's still his plan for you and me now that he wants to bless us that we will be a blessing to others ultimately to all the nations on earth all the people groups on earth you and I can have an impact on them and we get so focused on our little bitty world our little bitty kingdom that we forget that we are to emulate Joseph and flap our wings for the glory of God and the good of the nations of the world I want to show you a video that helps illustrate this I'm not going to tell you what it is ahead of time I'd like you to look at it and then I'll I'll tell you something that might surprise you right afterwards imagine a way for people all over the world to tell the story of what was happening to them or around them during a disaster or emergency situation it would need to be easy to use something that almost anybody can do and it would need to be deployable worldwide and that's why we've created Ushahidi Ushahidi is the Swahili word meaning testimony or witness born from the post election violence in Kenya in 2008 Ushahidi kept Kenan's current on vital information and provided invaluable assistance to those providing relief it was deployed in the democratic republican of Congo to monitor unrest Al Jazeera used it to track violence in Gaza it was used to help monitor the 2009 Indian elections and to help gather reports globally about the recent swine flu outbreak anybody can contribute information whether it's a simple text message from an SMS capable phone a photo or video from a smartphone or a report submitted online Ushahidi can gather information from any device with a digital data connection after a report is submitted it's posted in near real time to an interactive map that can be viewed on a computer or smartphone but the most powerful feature Ushahidi offers is the ability to take the core application and deploy it yourself to suit your community's needs since Ushahidi is open source anyone can improve the service in any way they see fit our growing community of developers are constantly at work improving Ushahidi to bring it to as many people as possible including working to bring native applications to today's most popular mobile devices with Ushahidi it's easier than ever to get critical and timely information to those that needed most on a platform that almost anybody can use that's Ushahidi now I'm not real up on a lot of technical stuff but this is what I understand about that that this is a free open source web resource that people in the world can use to alert the rest of the world about things like earthquakes hurricanes other natural disasters disease outbreaks violence outbreaks and that's exactly what it's been used for it was developed created invented thought through by a member of our church Eric Hersman Eric now lives over in Africa he is the author of that idea and I don't know how started but I guess one day Eric thought there's got to be a way that when something bad happens in the world those who know about it can go online and tell the rest of the world so that resources can be appropriated and so a member of our church is now having an earth changing impact through his laptop computer now I know that is a far out example but isn't it possible that you can have an idea a passion a gift or an ability that God could blow on and allow your little wings to flap in such a way as to have an impact in some way in another part of God's kingdom that is my total conviction that anyone of God's people filled with God's spirit can have an impact on others for the kingdom of God so I'm embarrassing Eric long distance I don't know if you'll find out about this but I used his example to show what's possible for us for you for me Jim Elliott was a missionary who died giving his life for the cause of Christ and he said this he said wherever you are be all there live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God I love that thought wherever you are be all there if you're a school teacher be all there for Jesus if you're a nurse be all there for Jesus live to the hilt if you're a mom or a dad if you're an engineer a missionary if you're in sales be all there for Jesus don't do anything halfway explore new paths investigate your dreams when you sense God putting a holy desire upon your heart follow it wherever it leads take a risk go on a mission trip invite your neighbors to church ask somebody to do a bible study with you somewhere meet a non-Christian for coffee one afternoon figure out how you can get out of debt and give more money to the church the sky's the limit on what God can do through you well let me wrap up real quick with this third conviction we've seen the two things two of the three that a world change needs to believe God's not finished writing your story God can do impossible things through people like you the third and final conviction though is that you cannot do life on your own you can't possibly do life on your own you've got to live in total dependence upon God and his grace look with me at verse 16 and Joseph shares this with us Pharaoh had come to Joseph and said Joseph I had this dream nobody can interpret it but I've heard that you can do anything Joseph you can interpret dreams but look with me at what Joseph says verse 16 I cannot do it you know when you think about what we've talked about this morning think about world changing thinking about using your gifts your abilities contributing your ideas following your dreams and so on you're probably thinking like Joseph I cannot do it and you know what I say good that's great you can't do it not on your own living life on your own does not work and I suspect I'm speaking this morning to some people who are trying to live their lives on their own disconnected from God you know that was the first sin Adam and Eve committed this first sin and that was to become like God that's what the devil said to Eve eat this forbidden fruit Eve it'll make you like God and that appealed to her because there's something inside us that wants to be independent from God to not depend on him for help to not pray to not trust in him but to live life on our own by our own bootstraps Joseph says you can't do it I cannot do it but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires it's because we have this incredible longing to be independent from God that Jesus came to this earth he came to live the life we didn't live and die the death we deserve to die to set us free like Joseph from our prison of sin to set us free that we might be united to the Father that we've always wanted and desperately needed you know I mentioned earlier that oil rig in the Gulf your sin problem is just like that you can't solve it it's too hard Jesus left heaven to come to earth to take care of it for you so trust in him don't live life on your own flap your wings in dependence upon Jesus and sit back and watch how God's going to write your story and use you to change the world let's pray Father we want to first of all confess to you that we do want to do things on our own we do want to break free of you and be our own savior but Lord thank you Jesus that you came to die for people like that to free us from our prison of sin to forgive us and give us your Holy Spirit Lord we praise you that you are writing a story in our lives each of us we pray that you will fill us with your spirit and help us live with holy abandon and humble ambition for your glory I pray for each of the people here at UPC Lord that we will depend on your grace that we will flap our wings with joy that we will not even fear failure but we will pick ourselves up and keep flapping so that you might use us for your glory Father we thank you so much for the challenges that faces because they show us that we're weak but we believe you are strong you can do the impossible use us we pray to accomplish your perfect plan we ask this in Jesus name oh man