This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holliday and I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time
Devotions. We are in week nine together of our look at the book of Genesis. So
we're heading towards an end, ten weeks because of the fifty chapters that we're
going to be looking at this book since we're looking at a chapter a day.

Today, week nine, the beginning of it, we're going to look at chapter forty-one
and in chapter forty-one we're continuing to focus on the story of Joseph and
how God worked in his life. Remember, last week we talked together about the
fact that Joseph, even as God was accomplishing the dream that he had, he was
raising him to the second highest leader in Egypt, we saw in Joseph's life
wisdom and humility and tenacity and gratitude. Those are reflected in the
verses that show us how Joseph's story really begins to end in chapter
forty-one.

I'd like to read for you a good, solid section of scripture to begin our study
this week because it puts everything we're going to talk about in context. It's
the story of Joseph and what God did. The Bible tells us in chapter forty-one,
verse one, let me read verses one to sixteen.

The Bible says, "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 riverbank.

And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then
Pharaoh woke up. " Skipping down to verse eight, "In the morning his mind was
troubled, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt.

Pharaoh told him his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him. Then the
chief cup bearer said to Pharaoh, 'Today I am reminded of my shortcomings.
Pharaoh was once angry with his 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 for us. I was restored to
my position, and the other man was hanged. So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he
was quickly brought up 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
that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. '" In verse 16, he says,
"Joseph says, 'I cannot do it.

' Joseph replied to the Pharaoh, 'But God will give Pharaoh the answer that he
desires. '" So Pharaoh tells this dream to Joseph that had happened, and then
down in verse 28, here's what Joseph has to say to Pharaoh, "God has shown
Pharaoh what he is about to do. Seven years of great abundance are coming
through the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine will follow them.

Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage
the land. And 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, 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. " This plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials.

So Pharaoh asked them, "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the
Spirit of God? " And then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has made all this
known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in
charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders.

Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you. " So here's this
moment when Joseph's dream comes true, the dream that he would be a ruler, the
dream that he would rule even over his brothers, as we're going to see later,
that many would bow down to him. Here it is.

He's gotten the dream. So what happens when you get the dream? Do you just sit
back by the pool and enjoy it?

No, once you get the dream, you have to begin to manage the dream. You have to
begin to live the dream. Once you get the dream, you begin to realize
immediately dreams are a lot of work.

You get the dream of being married to someone. Dreams are a lot of hard work.
You get the dream of having a child, and they come into your life.

Dreams are a lot of hard work. You get the dream of starting this wonderful
ministry, and God raises you to a position of beginning a new ministry, and you
get a lot of notice. And all of a sudden, you realize dreams are a lot of hard
work.

You can have the dream to start a Microsoft, but once you build the company,
it's a lot of hard work. And there are many, there are many who stumble at the
point of managing a God-given dream. In the Bible, you can read about people
like Gideon or Solomon who stumbled at managing the dream that God had given.

And what I want to say to you these next few weeks is don't be a victim of
victory in your life. Don't be a victim of all the good things that God brings
into your life. Victory in our lives can cause us to become prideful.

And because of that, victory has a long string of victims. We become so caught
up in our own importance or in the importance of the dream that we're living
that we forget what's really important. We become so intent on reaping the
benefits of the dream that we stop sowing.

In these chapters that we're going to look at this week in Genesis, there are
seven qualities that make us great managers of God-given dreams. We're going to
look at them over these next few days, even the next few weeks. But the first
three of them are here in this chapter we've just read.

What is it that makes you a great manager, a great person who lives out a
God-given dream? Well number one, dream managers develop discipline. That's
exactly what Joseph is going to do.

He's going to gather grain for seven years. He becomes a model of discipline. He
gathered grain when there was an abundance in the land.

How is he a model of discipline? He did two or three things. One, he worked when
he wasn't pressured to work.

He didn't have to gather grain. He had enough food for that day. But he worked
when he wasn't pressured to work.

That's a model of discipline. Number two, he collected consistently over those
seven years. Not a little here and then took a couple years off and a little
more.

Every year for seven years he collected. And the third thing he did is he
continued to gather even after it seemed like he had too much. All the
storehouses were full.

He could have said, "Well, job's done. I'm going to go take a vacation. " No, he
built more storehouses because he knew what God had told him to do.

He was a model of discipline. And dream managers, when God's given you a dream
and you begin to live it out, you have to develop discipline. Second thing you
see in Joseph's life here is that dream managers choose service.

They choose to serve others. In chapter 41 verse 57, we didn't read it earlier,
the Bible tells us that all countries began to turn to Joseph and to Egypt,
recognizing that they were going to be fed during this famine. All countries.

He became in charge of feeding the world, all these people, all of that
responsibility, all that time given to feeding people. And Joseph, there must
have been a moment when he said to himself, "I didn't ask for this. " But he
did.

He did. He prayed that the dream that God had put into his heart would become
real. And when it became real, he had to begin to live out all that that dream
demanded of him.

Your dreams, a God-given dream, is always going to demand service. God gives
dreams that demand that we serve others. Because that's what he dreams for us.

Jesus came to serve, he wants us to serve. Dream managers choose service.
There's no doubt that this dream that God has given into your life, whether it's
in a relationship, or it's in a ministry, or it's a job, this dream that God has
given into your life means you're going to be able to serve others through that
dream.

There's a third thing that we're reminded of in these verses, not just that
dream managers develop discipline and choose service, but number three, dream
managers remember who owns the dream. Let me read for you beginning in verse 50
what happens in Joseph's life. "Before the years of famine came, two sons were
born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potipharah, priest of On.

Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh and said, 'It is because God has made me
forget all my trouble in all my father's household. ' The second son, he named
Ephraim and said, 'It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my
suffering. ' The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, and the seven
years of famine began, just as Joseph had said.

There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there
was food. When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened the
storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe
throughout Egypt. And all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph,
because the famine was severe in the world.

" I want you to notice in those verses that Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and
Ephraim. Now they're going to become important to the history of Israel, very
important later, but right here they are important to the history of Joseph's
life. He names one Manasseh, which means causing to forget.

He names the other Ephraim, which means God has caused me to remember to be
fruitful in the land of my affliction. He is saying even in the names of these
two sons, 'God is with me. ' When Pharaoh said, 'Do you have an interpretation
for the dream?

' Joseph said, 'I don't, but God does. ' He never forgot from beginning to end
that it was God's dream. Let me ask you this question about the dream that God
has put into your life.

If your dream were to be fulfilled, whose victory would it be? Would it be
yours, or would it be God's? When God fulfills a dream in my life, in your life,
you have to be very, very careful of what I call the subtle transfer of
ownership.

All of a sudden, because I'm now living it out, it's no longer God's dream, it's
my dream, and I can do with it what I want. Joseph didn't do that. He managed
the dream because he never forgot who owned the dream.

Let's take a moment to talk to him. Let's talk to the Lord. Our Father, we thank
you for the dreams that you put into our lives.

Dreams of relationships that please you, and dreams of ministries and businesses
that bring you honor in the way that they are conducted. And dreams, Lord, of
the things that you want to do in and through our own lives. Some of them other
people will notice, others of them only we will know about.

Thank you for the dreams that you put into our hearts. And with those dreams,
always help us. Always help us to choose discipline, to choose service, to
choose to recognize every moment of that dream, that you are the one who is the
giver of that dream.

Help us to recognize you in the dreams that you've given, Lord. We ask this in
Jesus' name, amen. Join us tomorrow.

We're going to continue to learn how to manage a God-given dream.