It’s Not Me, It’s God | Adrian Gamba

It’s not about what you see on the outside, or the people around you, or your own strength.
 It’s about what God has placed inside of you and the purpose He is fulfilling through your life.

“It is not in me… God will give Pharaoh the answer.”
 — Genesis 41:16

In this message, we learned:

✨ It’s not what’s on the outside, it’s what God placed inside you.
 ✨ It’s not people who determine your path, it’s God’s power behind you.
 ✨ What God does in your life is not just for you, it’s for His mission.

Joseph understood that his process had a greater purpose:
 👉 God sent him to save lives.

Your story has a purpose too.

👉 It’s not me, it’s God.
 When you understand this, you begin to live for something greater than yourself.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Mission Orlando's podcast. We hope that through this word you will get closer to Jesus. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you new messages every week. Have a blessed day. So bear with me, alright? Just have some patience with me. I'm gonna try my best this morning. But I I I and I wrote some of this uh so I won't forget some of the details. But uh one of the memories I have with my brother Julian was many years ago. I was about 12 years old, and I remember it clearly um because it was a Friday night and we were at the movies watching The Rock. Anybody saw that movie? The Rock, it's like an old, old movie. I don't know if you remember this. I don't know if he's gonna remember this, but you do. In the middle of the movie, we're like it was like so intense, and it was like the best part of the movie, and then in the middle of the movie, he leans over and he whispers at my ear and he says, Oh, I forgot to tell you tomorrow morning you have to preach at the worship meeting. And I was like, Oh, because first of all, I've never had uh preach like that in public before. Second, I'm so introverted, I like I'm I'm always in my my deal, like it's just like I was so introverted back then. And third, I had no time to prepare, it was like the next morning. So, and my brother right there in the middle of the action of the movie, he asked me, and uh you have to preach tomorrow. At that moment, the the whole movie was ruined for me. My stomach started hurting, I I was feeling so bad, and uh, and I had so many like you know, like all those thoughts and like tingling fear. I don't know, it was just uh weird. So I was I was I wasn't watching the movie and um I don't even remember the ending, something exploding in Alcatraz, whatever happened there, but I was exploding with nerves. I was like, I don't I didn't know what to say or anything. So that night I got home and I started reading the Bible and I started like studying and taking notes and trying to you know get that word, and I highlighted the notes. I went to bed super late, I woke up very early to keep uh you know studying, and then when the moment came, they called me up to preach, and I was shaking. I remember I was like with the microphone, I was like, oh my gosh, so many things, so many emotions. And what happened in that time is that I had all these things prepared, and in less than seven minutes, I said everything that I had in my papers, and I was like, Oh my gosh, like this is hard. You know, preaching is not easy thing. Let's give it up for your pastor that preaches every single weekend, man. It's not easy, it's not easy. It makes he makes it look easy, but it's not easy. So in seven minutes, like he was he was done, so I was trying to now improvise because back in the day it was not an hour service, it was like a two, three hour thing. So we I had to preach and I had to say something. So I started improvising, and because of the nerves, I started like you know, I forgot like books of the Bible. I was trying to say Genesis, I said Gemini or something, and it was horrible, it was horrible. I remember that at the end the the message, and and God had mercy on me, and and and and and we prayed, and it was and it was all good, and turned out to be okay. But looking back uh at that moment, I realized something is that that that though that was one of the moments that God used to push me into something that I I never thought I could do, and it was preach the gospel and preach his word, and today I have that privilege to preach the gospel, to preach the word of God. Let me enjoy that for a moment because that's a big privilege to be here in front of you preaching the word that is uh unchanging, that is transforming. It's amazing to preach the gospel of Jesus. What a privilege I have today. This is amazing. I took all my time in that story. I'm sorry. But you know something I learned throughout all these years? It that it doesn't in that story, it doesn't depend on us, it doesn't depend on what we can do, but it depends on what God can do through us. And that's and and and that's uh you know, like after years, you know, uh years have passed. This time he told me two weeks earlier, so you give it up for him because he he at least gave me the heads up before. And I was preparing for today, and and usually I I I would speak something that I would preach before or something that I preach at my church, but I in in that moment I started praying because I felt that God wanted to release something, God wanted to speak something different. I've never preached this before, I don't know how it's gonna come out, but I hope it's okay. But I I know that if it matters to God, it matters to us. If it's important for Him, it's important for you. And the and the more time passes, and the more I live, the more years I have. I'm about to turn 41 next next week. 41. Can you believe that? I'm still young, I think. But the more I live, the more time passes, the more I realize that I need more of his presence in my life. That I need more of Jesus in my life. The more I need to depend on him and not on my own understanding, and it's not what you can do, it's what God can do through you. Can you tell that to the person next to you? It's not what you can do, it's what God can do through you. You know, and and and and when I was studying this, I uh the the God uh brought me to Genesis 41. Can you turn for a minute to uh Genesis 41? In Genesis 41, 16, verse 16, it says here is here is uh Joseph and he's he's in in the presence of Pharaoh in the most important moment on of his life, and he answers to Pharaoh, and he in the word says, and Joseph answered to Pharaoh, saying, It's not in me. Can you say that it's not in me? God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace, and I think that the secret sauce for Joseph to be able to do what he did and and and and to be able to accomplish all the things that he did, he was a hundred percent depending on God. He learned that God was the one that moved, it was the one that uh spoke and did miracles, and it was not him, it was God. And that's the title of my my message this morning. Can you say with me, it's not me, it's God? Tell that to the person next to you, it's not me, it's God. Tell to the other person that you decide to ignore this morning, it's not me, it's God. And for the next few minutes, I uh want to talk to you about these words that came from the lips of Joseph at the most important moments of his life because these words were the result of a maturity, a growth, and a process. And to understand this phrase, I think that we have to take a little look at Joseph's story. Maybe you know it, maybe you don't, but Joseph was a son of Jacob, and he was deeply loved by his father, and he was his father's favorite. Anybody's favorite in the house? I think I'm the favorite. No, I know I'm not, I know it's Julian. But his father, he was so so loved that he he made him a special robe of many colors, and his brothers began to envy him. And at 17 years of age, Joseph had two dreams, and in those two dreams, his brothers bowed down to him, and then when he told his brothers about his dream and what he had in his heart, they hated him so much that they conspired against him. So they uh the first thing that they took was his the rope. You know, oh this you think this you're special? You think that you have something that just you know they just rip it apart, they just took it away, and they uh put him in a pit later. Um, he was sold as a slave. Joseph was taken into Egypt, um, and where an officer of Pharaoh uh put him to work. And there is a key phrase here, and I want you to have that in your heart that um it's the word says that God was with Joseph. God was with Joseph, and he prospered. And because of Joseph, Potiphar, his master, prospered in his house, in the field, in everything. And later, Joseph was tempted by his master's wife. She made this uh proposition, but he refused because he didn't want to sin against God, so he ran away, but she falsely accused him, and now he was thrown into prison prison. And I don't know if you ever felt like that, that you're just getting out of one problem, right? And you're kind of sorting that out. And when you feel that you're out of the problem, you fall into another one, and then this one is bigger, and then something happens, and then you fall into that one. I don't know if that happened to you. It happens to me sometimes when I feel that I'm over something, then something comes up. But this is the part that I think that I love the most about this story because uh he was taken into prison, but God was with him and showed him kindness and favor. And let me pause this for a minute and tell you that I love that God was with him when things were going well, but God was also with him when things weren't going well. And I think that that is a reminder that God is with you no matter what happens to you. I don't know if you came here and maybe you're going through like a difficult time. God is with you. You're not alone, God is with you, God is working in you, God is shaping something inside of your heart, God is changing something deep inside to prepare you for something bigger in your future. And that's amazing. Can you give it up for Jesus? You're not alone. Can you tell that to the person next to you? You're not alone, you're not alone. Man, when Joseph was in prison, then two men had this dream, and they he was able to interpret that dream, so everything happened exactly as he said, and one of them was restored to his position. But before he left, Joseph said, Remember me. Can you say that? Remember me? Have you said or had that opportunity to like, hey, put in a good word, you know, like and you you try to like move pieces, right? And try to accommodate things because you want to look good, you want to succeed, or you want this position or that. And I think that that's what he was trying to do, right? He's like, hey, put in a good word, but guess what? He forgot about him, just like people forget about us sometimes, amen. And he forgot about him. He's just like, I don't know, you so two long years passed. Uh chapter 40 says, two years for two years passed. He was still in prison until one day, one day Pharaoh had this dream, and the cover said that there is a Hebrew young man in prison who can help. He didn't know even remember his name. But now Joseph was called before Pharaoh for the most important moment in his life, and that's where we are. Can you say, ooh? I don't know. I'm I'm I'm um I'm a very visual person, and I I try to imagine all the moments in the Bible while I'm reading. And I think I just imagine this moment when Joseph he was there and it it was like the most important time in his life after 13 years of suffering, of being rejected, betrayed, sold falsely accused, and he stands before this great opportunity, and his response reveals everything he learned in the process, and what he learned the first words out of his mouth were it's not me, it's God. Can you say with me, it's not me, it's God. You know, Joseph learned that to to to complete depend on God or or depend on God completely. I don't know if I said that right or wrong, but you know what I'm saying. That's how what we used to say in Miami. You know what I'm saying, man. You know what I'm saying. You know, I think that Joseph understood that for God's dream to become a reality in his life, he had to depend a hundred percent on God, and that that's what I think that God wants to speak to us this morning. We need to depend a hundred percent on him because there is no doubt that God has plans for you, that God has dreams for you, that God wants to change you, your family, your future, everything that you have. There is no doubt about it. God has promised us that his plans are better for us, that his his ways are better than uh for us, and that everything good is for us, right? But we need to depend on him, and God has those big plans for you. But we need to let go of that self-sufficiency, let go of pride, let go of doing things our own way, and we need to surrender a hundred percent to God. Surrender your whole life to Christ and say, you know what? God is not me, it's not what I can do, is what you can do through me. There's some things that I can't move, but I know that you can. There's some there's some things that I want in my time, but maybe it's better if I wait for your time because I know your time is better than my time, amen. And we need to depend on God, and I want to leave you with these three things, and I'm gonna finish with this. Every pastor says that, and then it takes 25 minutes. So help me, God. But I want to leave you three things, three things for you today, this morning. Are you ready to receive that? First thing is not what's on the outside, it's what God placed inside of you. It's not what it's on the outside. You know, the first thing that they took from uh Joseph was the robe, and I think that he might be like uh saying or thinking, oh, you know what? God is gonna use this robe. God is one is going to use this color to make me unique. But the first thing that they got it was this robe of colors. You know, I think that we need to we need to realize that your value is not on what you have, but it's on what God has placed inside of you. And maybe today you are here and you lost things, you lost businesses, houses, positions, but that's not what matters. What matters is what God is doing inside of you, what matters is what you have inside of you, what the word of God is inside, saying and doing inside of you. And that's what matters the most. What matters is what is inside. So don't cry over things that you lost. Don't cry over things that you don't have today. Maybe because oh, we didn't we don't have this. I used to have this in that place, I used to have this in my country. Now I come here, I don't have this, I don't have that. You know what? Stop crying for things that you don't have today because God wants to do something new, and He's already doing it, and He's already changing your life because it doesn't matter what you had before, it doesn't matter what uh big things you had before. What matters is what God is placing inside of your heart that is gonna give a harvest in your family. Can you say amen to that? So it's not what it's on the outside that makes you great, it's God in you because he is great. Can we say amen to that? The second thing is not people, it's not people, it's got power, it's God's power behind you. You know what? Joseph trusted the coverer to remember him, but he forgot about him very fast. So it's not what people can do for you, it's not what others can do for you, it's God that promotes you, it's God that uses you, it's God that needs to uh that that you need to trust. People may forget you, but you know what? There's a God that will never forget about you. He remembers, he remembers the suffering, he remembers the moments, he remembers even when people reject you because we have a great God and he loves us deeply, and he knows your name, he knows your address, he knows where you live. And sometimes we put our trust in people. Sometimes we think that our our our our the people are gonna solve our problems or or or this connection or this or that, and we take a care of our connections and our friendships, but our trust is not on people, our trust is in God, and that's the most important thing for you this morning. Many times we put our trust in a system in the country and and and on people and our governments, but our trust is not in the government, our trust is in God, He's our King, He's our governor, He He will make us prosper even when the land is barren. How many of you say amen to that? Oh, this is awesome, and last but not least. Oh, I wish I had 20 more minutes, but I had zero minutes, but but this is out of out of everything that I'm telling you, this is the part that I I honestly was so eager to preach about, and I left it for the end. I'm so sorry, but listen to me for a minute because I I I believe that Joseph realized something that was so powerful and so important that if you understand this today, your life is going to change because Joseph understood that it's not for me, but for his mission, it's not for me, but it's for his mission, and you know what? God filled Joseph, and and and and he he had a place, a position, an honor. Everything that he lost was restored, right? And he was he was given authority, resources, and influence. But his dependency of God was not a matter of things of this world, but to but for a purpose, it was for a bigger purpose. So I'm gonna read you uh uh Genesis 45 verse 1 through 8 in the in the um uh version of the message just because it's easy to read for me because then I don't know how to say the and all these words, anyway. So just picture this for a minute. Bear with me. Joseph couldn't hold himself any longer, he was trying with his family, everything, and um uh you know uh the the land and all the things that was happening at in that moment. So he said, keeping up up front before all these attendants, so he cried out and he said, Leave! Clear out everyone, leave! So there was no one with Joseph when he identified himself to his brothers, but his tone was so violent, he was crying so violent. I think it was the presence of God in that moment because he says that the Egyptians couldn't help but hear what was happening in that room, and the news soon reported to Pharaoh. They they heard what was happening in that room, and it says that Joseph spoke to his brothers and he said, I am Joseph, I is my father still alive. He asked for his father, of course, he was his favorite. But he said, But but his brothers couldn't say a word, they were speechless, they couldn't believe what they were hearing and seeing, and so he he says here, come close to me, I am Joseph. Is my father really still alive? Come close to me. Joseph said to his brothers, and they came closer. And he says, Again, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt, but don't feel badly, don't blame yourselves for selling me. God was behind it. God sent me here ahead of you to save lives. God sent me here for a mission that was bigger than me, that was bigger than just making me um known or famous on getting things out of the world. There has been a famine in the land now for two years. It says here. And it will continue for five years, neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me a hand to pave the way to make sure there was a remnant in the land to save lives in an amazing act of deliverance. So you see, it wasn't you who sent me, but God. It was not me, it was God who sent me in place as the father of Pharaoh, put me in charge of his personal affairs, and he made me a ruler of all Egypt. You know what? Joseph understood something powerful. God didn't raise him up to be more, but to serve more. And I think that's what we need. We need to serve more. We need to do more. His position was not about a status, but it was about a mission. And you know what? God has brought you to this church, mission Orlando, for a mission that God has for you in this time, in this church, with this congregation. And your mission today is to save lives, to save families, to go preach the gospel, to go change the nation, to go change the United States of America. Because we need revival in this land. We need revival in this land. And I think that there is a moment in life that we need to realize that life is not about getting ahead or having things. Life has a deeper meaning. It's about living with purpose, and God has brought you to this place with that mission. Yes, you will achieve things, yes, you will experience provision, blessing, and family, but above all, God has brought you here to save lives. I don't have the time, but I was very sick in a moment, two years, I was very sick. And I I remember that I I I thought in my mind, it was this was this is gonna be my last month or my last week. I was so uh I was in two bones, and I remember just going to uh I was staying in my brother's apartment, and I remember I just kneeled down and I was like, God, I I surrender, I surrender, I depend on you, not in me. It's not what I can do. I can go to the doctors, I can go to this, I can go to that. And I told and I told God, God, if it this is my last week, if this is my last month, so be it. Let let it let it be your will, not my will. And I remember that when I woke, I I was crying, and when I went to the word of God, I wasn't even married. God gave me a word, and God said, Hey, you know what? You're gonna live, you're gonna see your children, you're gonna have family, and you're gonna see your children, children. And when I started depending on the word of God, everything changed for me. Everything changes, everything changes. So, can you stand right there where you are and say, God, help me to depend more on you. Help me, Lord, help me, Lord, help me, Lord, help me, Lord, help me, Lord, help me, Lord. Let's bow our heads and let's make this prayer today, Lord. We recognize that it's not what's on the outside, Lord, it's not what other people can do for us, Lord. It's what you have placed inside of us, Lord. Help us, Lord, depend more, depend more on you. Teach us, Lord, to depend completely on you. We surrender our strength, our abilities, our ways, and we say, God, we need you. Can we see you say that with me? God, we need you, we need you, Lord. Reminds us that it's not about who helps us or forgets us, Lord. It's about about the power working in us through us. You are the one who opens doors and closes doors, Lord. You are the one who lives up, you are the one who promotes, you are the perfect time, Lord. So today we choose to trust you, Lord, and we declare, Lord, that our lives are not our own, Lord. It's not for us, it's for your mission, Lord. Use us, God, send us, Lord. Let our lives be a reflection of you. Let people encounter Jesus through us, Lord. Let us be a light wherever we go, and we give you everything, Lord, and we declare today that it's not me, it's you. Can you say that we mean today? We declare, Lord, that it's not me. It's you, Lord. It's not me, it's you. And right there where you are, just lift up your hands and worship Jesus for a moment as we um worship Jesus with all of our hearts, with all of our hearts, with all of our tuning in. We hope this message has blessed you greatly. We encourage you to subscribe and share it with your friends. For more content from our church, visit missionorlandochurch.com.