SPEAKER_00: Um I wanted to thank uh Pastor David and the eldership team for uh inviting me to to speak and share the word.
SPEAKER_00: It's such a privilege.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna start by telling a story about Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: Um so when Daniel was young, he was like very small, I can't remember what year.
SPEAKER_00: So we had a guy finishing our basement, and he uh, you know, was working in the basement.
SPEAKER_00: He went outside to take a break, and then Daniel had a toy mower, uh, you know, like that.
SPEAKER_00: So he went, took his toy mower and pushed it against the guy and told him, My mom said to leave the property now.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy left.
SPEAKER_00: He listened to him left.
SPEAKER_00: So then I'm looking, well, why is he not coming back to finish the basement?
SPEAKER_00: And then he calls and said, Well, you you told your son to tell me who listens to a kid like to leave the property.
SPEAKER_00: But then the the interesting part of the story, later on, we found out that this guy was like shady and wasn't right in the stuff he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: And in a sense, Daniel was onto something when he wanted him to leave the property.
SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
SPEAKER_00: You can do that with a toy mower.
SPEAKER_00: Don't underestimate the kid with a toy mower.
SPEAKER_00: So um, but uh, you know, we've been going through a series of the Old Testament, and the the beautiful thing about the Old Testament is um that Jesus, every time he referred, he said, it is written.
SPEAKER_00: He would say, the the prophet said that even uh I'm gonna read one one of those times, John chapter 5, verse 46.
SPEAKER_00: He said, If for if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.
SPEAKER_00: So many times, so that there's so much of the Old Testament that actually points to Jesus, because ever since Adam and Eve sinned, uh there was a redemption plan in place.
SPEAKER_00: And I love it how God's heart is always pursuing us.
SPEAKER_00: And we see he chose the people of Israel to actually uh present him and actually to teach his name for all the nations.
SPEAKER_00: But they, you know, we see many times they failed over and over again, and God's still pursuing man.
SPEAKER_00: We see failure and still God still pursuing, and and it's just so encouraging to me.
SPEAKER_00: So we talked about Abraham uh leaving the heir of the Chaldeans, um, and then how his faith kept developing because at some point, you know, he kind of was wavering, and then he comes to the place where God asked him to give up his son, and he did.
SPEAKER_00: And in, you know, of course, God didn't let him kill his son, but we see just his faith growing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, last week, I think it was Jacob wrestling with God and God changing him from being a cheater to being Israel, which is Prince of God.
SPEAKER_00: So it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Now we come to the end of the book of Genesis, where we come to the story of Joseph, which is amazing how much this story, like it's in uh so many chapters in the Bible, this story.
SPEAKER_00: So I love that uh one thing we start that uh Jacob had 12 sons, two of them, uh Joseph and Benjamin, they were the sons of Rebekah, the woman he actually loved.
SPEAKER_00: So he um he favored Joseph more than any of his children.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go to Genesis chapter 37, uh, verses 3.
SPEAKER_00: And it says now uh Genesis 37, 3.
SPEAKER_00: Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his sons, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a robe of many colors.
SPEAKER_00: But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
SPEAKER_00: So they hated their brother, and then his father gave him a coat of many colors.
SPEAKER_00: Many times we think of the coat as just a beautiful, like colorful coat.
SPEAKER_00: But it's really more than that.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of scholars they say it was actually a robe that probably goes to the knee and long sleeve.
SPEAKER_00: It's given to people who do no labor.
SPEAKER_00: So imagine he's he gets, you know, he gives Joseph that, and his brothers look at him like, what?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to the field and work hard, and you get a coat where you're really not working hard like us.
SPEAKER_00: So they hated him.
SPEAKER_00: Then Joseph had a dream.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, in in the Bible, many times dreams are taken seriously as from God.
SPEAKER_00: Not like many times when I dream, I think because I ate too much pizza or I ate the wrong food.
SPEAKER_00: Then I don't actually, I don't personally take my dream seriously, but they took dreams seriously.
SPEAKER_00: So Joseph had a dream, he came, told it to his brother.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I saw that um my sheaf, which is like the in the field, stood up, and all your sheaves, 11 of them, bowed down to my sheave.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, What?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think we're all gonna bow down to you?
SPEAKER_00: And they hated him even more.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine his hate is going up even because he, you know, he was kind of you know, spoiled child, favored.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so he was like, I don't think he had wisdom at the time.
SPEAKER_00: He was just sharing when someone hates you, you kind of don't share stuff with them.
SPEAKER_00: But um you're like, well, you know, that kind of so then he has another dream.
SPEAKER_00: He dreamed another dream, and that's in uh Genesis 37, 9.
SPEAKER_00: And in his dream, he said, Um, Behold, the sun, moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me, which his father, they his father explained it.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do you expect your mother and your brothers to bow down to you?
SPEAKER_00: And his mother at the time was dead, uh, Rebecca, but I think he was referring to Leah, was still alive.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's interesting, his father, the Bible says he kept these things in mind.
SPEAKER_00: But if you if you like to write notes today, the title would be How to Be Fruitful When Your Circumstances Don't Align with Your Dreams.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we that's and we're gonna take these points from the story of Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: So here, um that you know he was very hated, but then one day his brothers went to pasture and his father said, Well, I want you to go check on your brothers, which I thought was odd.
SPEAKER_00: He's younger than them, but hey, he said, Go check on them and give me back word.
SPEAKER_00: Because he used to kind of uh tell on them sometimes to his father.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes and he uh walks about probably 65 miles to Dothan, where he finds his brothers, and they see him from a distance, and like here comes the dreamer, the the brother they hate, and they plotted to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: Then one of them said, No, no, no, let's not kill him, let's throw him.
SPEAKER_00: Um, let's first they threw him in a pit.
SPEAKER_00: So imagine the the brother who was favored, loved by his father, uh, who kind of was excited about his dreams, and now he's thrown in a pit.
SPEAKER_00: But then they they took him out of a pit, and there was a caravan of uh Ishmaelites uh traveling.
SPEAKER_00: And back in those times, a lot of things were trade.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they pass by, they give if they have olives and maybe trade with spices, with different things.
SPEAKER_00: The trade was much bigger than than even currency.
SPEAKER_00: So then uh which the Bible also refers to them also as Midianat.
SPEAKER_00: So then they said, oh, let's not um let's not actually um kill, let's actually not kill him, let's sell him to them.
SPEAKER_00: So they sell their brother for 20 pieces of silver, which in the book of Leviticus says that's the price for a kid under 20, because he was 17 at the time.
SPEAKER_00: So they sell his their brother as a slave to go a caravan all the way to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine, like, you know, that, you know, where he started with a dream, he started being beloved, and now he's being rejected.
SPEAKER_00: And kind of they did something, they took his robe.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first time Joseph loses his robe.
SPEAKER_00: They took his robe and put it in um, went and killed the goat and uh mix it with its blood, and they went to their father and said, Is this your son?
SPEAKER_00: When I was reading it, that I said, they didn't say, Is this our brother?
SPEAKER_00: They said, Is this your son?
SPEAKER_00: as if it's like he's not their brother.
SPEAKER_00: So and the father was so distressed, he wouldn't be comforted.
SPEAKER_00: But I mean it's interesting that we see Joseph going all the way to Egypt and he gets sold to Futifar's house, which is the captain of the guard.
SPEAKER_00: So if you wanted to write, uh, one of my favorite verses in actually the story of um Joseph is Genesis 39, 2.
SPEAKER_00: It says, the Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to write number one, how to be fruitful when your circumstances don't align with your dreams, is having a relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I love the parables of Jesus, many of them.
SPEAKER_00: There's one he said, there's a man uh immersion of many pearls, he's looking for a pearl, he finds one, and then he sells all of them to have that one.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I feel like you know, this is like the secret sauce.
SPEAKER_00: This this is like the foundation, having a relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And we say, Well, I have a relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Joseph was really sold out.
SPEAKER_00: It says he was successful, and if we read the rest of it, um, he was in the house of the Egyptian master.
SPEAKER_00: His master saw that the Lord was with him, and the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: So Joseph found favor in his sides and attended him.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Bible says he surrounds the righteous with favor like a shield.
SPEAKER_00: You know, favor can get you places that money even can't.
SPEAKER_00: But that's God's favor.
SPEAKER_00: You know, many times we're looking for people's favor.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking, even I always think how when I first came to America, the first thing I learned is something called the American dream.
SPEAKER_00: And I used to, at the beginning, like, what is the American dream?
SPEAKER_00: I actually think I Googled it one time to find out what's the point of the American dream.
SPEAKER_00: Then I realized it was all really materialistic.
SPEAKER_00: It was the pursuit of this and that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think God was in that stuff I Googled, but uh, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So, but then here he is he is a slave, but the Bible calls him successful.
SPEAKER_00: You know, what is success in your eyes?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, we we it's wonderful going to college.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: My boys all went to college and all that, but then we can we can go our whole life pursuing things and then come to back to you know the drawing board.
SPEAKER_00: What really is the first thing to be fruitful and successful?
SPEAKER_00: And here, I love it.
SPEAKER_00: He was in charge, and actually, Joseph wasn't saying, Well, I'm a slave, I'm just gonna sit here and cry for myself.
SPEAKER_00: He was active in Fotifar's house, being in charge of everything.
SPEAKER_00: Probably if it was me, I'll be like sitting in a corner, like thinking, Oh my goodness, look what my brothers did to me.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm here in a foreign country and I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: But God blessed everything he touched.
SPEAKER_00: And then what happens is uh the the master's wife, she put her eyes on him, and she, because he was handsome in appearance, the Bible says, and she kept telling him, lie with me, lie with me.
SPEAKER_00: And she kept putting that pressure on every day.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, the you know, temptations will come.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, if you want to write point number two, when temptation comes, stay faithful.
SPEAKER_00: It's not if temptation will come, temptation will come.
SPEAKER_00: And temptation is not the worst thing, it's when we actually fall into it.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we think like here was a temptation, was sexual, but temptations aren't always just sexual.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think of it when every day she said, lie with me, lie with me.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like every day we are challenged with different temptations to turn our hearts away from him.
SPEAKER_00: Temptations of distractions, temptation.
SPEAKER_00: Here it was sexual, and you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Someone in Joseph's place could say, you know what, I'm in a foreign country, I'm in a house, I mean, the master never saw anything he did.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, I'm I'm rejected.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you know, throw it, throw, throw the towel.
SPEAKER_00: Or you think, like, who cares?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody sees.
SPEAKER_00: You know, people say that thing, what happens, what is it happening, what happens in stays in Vegas.
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, and I when I used to hear people say that, I'm like, what's that's kind of dumb.
SPEAKER_00: Because God, I mean, you know, because God is in Vegas.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like so, so I just like, so here, but so people like um, so every day she kept pressuring him, and I love, I love Joseph's stance, and he says in uh Genesis 39 uh 9, he said, How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
SPEAKER_00: Wow, what a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: And you may say, well, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I I'm not like Joseph, and I don't feel like I stood like that.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, sometimes even when we think we blow it yesterday, then we're like, Well, you know what, who cares?
SPEAKER_00: I blew it yesterday, I wasn't obedient yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter if I'm not obedient today.
SPEAKER_00: No, there's there's got God's heart is always for us to be reconciled and kind of stop and turn around.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, the word repentance means a turnaround, a turnaround from where you're going.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody had, you know, if people in history who had to stand up and stop certain things, somebody had to rise up.
SPEAKER_00: And here, Joseph actually, what he does, she kept trying to pursue him that she pulled his coat.
SPEAKER_00: That's the second time he loses his robe, and she and he ran out of the house.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we have to run away from temptation, actually.
SPEAKER_00: I used to hear people say, no, I can be in the midst of temptation and restrict myself.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're human.
SPEAKER_00: So that whole thing is is like, no, the Bible says run from it.
SPEAKER_00: What if places, things that that lead us into temptation?
SPEAKER_00: And and I think honestly, if we're many times when we're discouraged, when we're disappointed, when we have unmet expectations, we've we kind of more prone to to lean into sin and temptation because we kind of we're discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, here he could say, Well, where's God?
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't even care about me.
SPEAKER_00: Although actually God was with him, but he could still have been discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: So um Genesis 39, 20.
SPEAKER_00: So Joseph's master, because his wife accused him falsely that he did something, so he takes him and puts him into the prison.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Genesis 39, verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and Joseph's master took him and put him in the prison, the place where the king prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I mentioned the point.
SPEAKER_00: So we said, when temptation comes, stay faithful.
SPEAKER_00: That was uh number two.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so and then I love that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read that again.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the word of God speaks so much by itself, I don't have to say much.
SPEAKER_00: Um but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
SPEAKER_00: So, number three, receive the Lord's steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: Why is this important, receiving and trust his timing?
SPEAKER_00: Receiving the Lord's, I feel like if we're not receiving his love, we're gonna be looking for love in all the wrong places because we are meant to be loved and love, and then if we don't, if we don't receive God's love, we're gonna feel unloved and try to find love.
SPEAKER_00: And here God's love was poured into him, and again, he was with him and his favor.
SPEAKER_00: That's repeated so much.
SPEAKER_00: Like now he's in prison and God's favor on him, and he becomes a charge of all the prison.
SPEAKER_00: So from the pit to being sold as a slave to being accused before the pit, actually, uh to be hated and rejected by his brothers to the pit to be sold as a slave, to be accused falsely.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's in prison.
SPEAKER_00: But then in all these places he was fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: I always think that, and I've done that many times in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm waiting for tomorrow when things are better, maybe to be fruitful in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm waiting for, maybe you're waiting for circumstances to be better, if it's financial, or you're waiting for better health, uh, waiting for a better job, relationship, marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And we're waiting, but that that's God wants us to be fruitful in every place of our life.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like many times we're missing the journey, we're just because we're looking at the destination, we're missing that God wants to teach us something through the journey.
SPEAKER_00: I read uh I read a story, uh a lady who lives in the Carolinas, and I think uh is it Western uh Western the side of the Carolina where there's like uh the ridge where people hike up, and I think because of all the huge storms and stuff, uh she was saying either you see trees flat down or actually trees that um are strong.
SPEAKER_00: And because the winds and the waves and the storms are so strong, and many times in our life, I mean, those things, the storms, the winds, what we go through, it's either we get kind of stronger, or sometimes we can buckle under the winds.
SPEAKER_00: But here we see God wants to show us an example where he wants to strengthen us.
SPEAKER_00: We have uh, he wants to make us stronger.
SPEAKER_00: So he has a dream for our life, a purpose, but then he'll take the vessel and he has to mold us.
SPEAKER_00: You know, many times we start out too too full of ourselves, you know, a little arrogant, you know, this, that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we know we but but doesn't mean the dream is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: It's just God needs to take this vessel and mold us and shape us.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so here we see um where am I?
SPEAKER_00: Receive the Lord's sitva and trust his time.
SPEAKER_00: So here we see two people were in jail while he's in prison, and he comes to them, and it's the cupbearer and the butler.
SPEAKER_00: And they had each had a dream, and he comes in the morning, and that's another verse I like.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Genesis 46.
SPEAKER_00: When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled.
SPEAKER_00: So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him, who were with him in custody in his master's house, why are your faces uh downcast today?
SPEAKER_00: I think it's so interesting because he's the one in prison.
SPEAKER_00: Like he's asking them, Why are you downcast?
SPEAKER_00: I when I when I read that, like kind of resonated with me.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, like he's he's not even thinking, well, I'm not in the this perfect place, so I'm not gonna do any ministry, I'm not gonna share about the Lord, I'm not gonna do my assignment yet because the circumstances aren't ready, because nothing is what it should be, nothing is as the dream.
SPEAKER_00: He actually here is actually being fruitful in every place.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be fruitful in every place, even those places, I'm like, why am I in here?
SPEAKER_00: I don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever asked yourself why you're you're in certain places?
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe stuff you went through and you thought, well, why did I even go through that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, where was God?
SPEAKER_00: Was he there?
SPEAKER_00: Like, did he why didn't he protect me?
SPEAKER_00: And then through it all, actually, God was God's hand was on Joseph, protecting him.
SPEAKER_00: But it it doesn't seem like sometimes when he think in the natural when we go through stuff.
SPEAKER_00: So here he asks them and they tell their dreams, and he tells the the butler in three days.
SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, it tells first the cupbearer, in three days you're gonna actually uh get your job back and go back to to serve Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: And the butler he told him, in three days you're gonna uh you're gonna be hanged.
SPEAKER_00: That was the interpretation of the dreams.
SPEAKER_00: But he did tell them God's gonna be the one answering you.
SPEAKER_00: Then Joseph said, please, he told the cupbearer, please remember me, tell Pharaoh that I'm innocent here and all that.
SPEAKER_00: But then you know what happened?
SPEAKER_00: He forgot.
SPEAKER_00: The guy went back to serve Pharaoh, he forgot Joseph completely.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, two more years went again.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine, imagine if you were in a place, and that's why we said trust his timing.
SPEAKER_00: If you will you well, you thought, okay, this is the season that things are gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: This is the here is the answer.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I feel like something's is coming, and then you find yourself like, you know how they call that mirage in the desert, where like nothing happens.
SPEAKER_00: You are just chasing, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And here I feel like if Joseph was in that place, but then uh in I love that's other verse, Proverbs 13 12, it says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it's a tree of life.
SPEAKER_00: So, in this place of waiting, we need to be careful not to be sick in heart.
SPEAKER_00: Because we we can get sick in heart, we're like it's not a good feeling.
SPEAKER_00: I've been there so many times, and I'm sure many of you have been were like, Well, you waited so long, it's just this waiting is not doing anything good for you.
SPEAKER_00: But here, somehow I feel like Joseph allowed God to continue to work in him.
SPEAKER_00: And even in that time when we don't understand why we're waiting, um, we just trust his timing.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so then we go on after two whole years, not half a year, not a year and a half, two whole years pass by, and then Pharaoh had a dream.
SPEAKER_00: That's the time, like I feel like this was God's timing now.
SPEAKER_00: You know, already now Joseph has been in Egypt for 13 years after he left his home.
SPEAKER_00: He was 17, then 13 years later, he's going through all that, finally, the last year of uh prison.
SPEAKER_00: So Pharaoh had a dream, and his dream was very um interesting because he he dreamed that there's these um plump cows, I guess fat cows, seven fat cows, and then seven skinny cows, and the skinny cows ate the fat cows.
SPEAKER_00: And then another dream he saw these sheaves like were seven very healthy and seven not healthy, and the unhealthy ate the healthy, and he was so disturbed.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then finally the the cupbearer remembered, he said, Oh, I remember this um this Hebrew slave who interprets my dream.
SPEAKER_00: So then we see uh if you want to write uh number, what numbers?
SPEAKER_00: Number four, be ready to do your assignment at a short notice.
SPEAKER_00: So here uh Genesis 41, 14.
SPEAKER_00: Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit.
SPEAKER_00: Quickly, like this was a quick thing.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: So don't get too comfortable in your waiting time.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we get too comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: It's like when you sit too long on a chair and you have a hard time getting up, like you know, your feet kind of freezes.
SPEAKER_00: Or like, goodness, I need circulation.
SPEAKER_00: You know how you lose circulation.
SPEAKER_00: So don't get too comfortable in the waiting place.
SPEAKER_00: Like keep that vision because the vision is still there, it's just there's a time for it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so here they call him, and I love what Joseph says in verse 16 of 41.
SPEAKER_00: He says, It is not in me.
SPEAKER_00: God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.
SPEAKER_00: So um stay humble and give God all the glory when the answer comes.
SPEAKER_00: Number five.
SPEAKER_00: Here he gives God the glory.
SPEAKER_00: He could have said, Yeah, I'm good at interpreting dreams, even though that's a gift God gave him.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, Oh, that's my gift.
SPEAKER_00: Um, he actually said, It is God, and he told Pharaoh that there'll be seven years of plenty, and then followed by that, seven years of famine.
SPEAKER_00: And he told him you need to assign person in the seven years of plenty to gather all the grain in Egypt, and then when the seven years of famine, that's going to be provision for Egypt, and actually ended up being for many, uh, many countries around uh money.
SPEAKER_00: So, and then he's so Pharaoh is like, it's interesting how Pharaoh then would say, Well, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Who is a wiser man than you?
SPEAKER_00: Like, and he says, In whom is the spirit of God?
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was interesting.
SPEAKER_00: So he kind of said, Oh, you're a man who have the spirit of God in him.
SPEAKER_00: Who's wiser than you to actually be in charge of this mission?
SPEAKER_00: And then uh, so Genesis 41, 42, it's say Pharaoh took his signet uh ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand and clothed him in garments of fine linen.
SPEAKER_00: So now he loses two robes, but now he gets clothed with a with a really a robe of authority, a robe of position, and put a gold chain about his neck, and made him ride in his second chariot, and they called out before him, bow the knee, and he sets him over all the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when we wait on God, God does things better than us.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why why would we want to run our own life?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do a good job of it.
SPEAKER_00: Like, he he will he will take us places we can go, he will give favor.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the key important thing in the life of Joseph was having a relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now I don't know where you're sitting today because I feel like um sometimes we we kind of try stuff on our own and then we think, oh, it doesn't work now.
SPEAKER_00: I give it to him.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't waste, we don't want to waste life like that.
SPEAKER_00: We can waste so many years actually trying things.
SPEAKER_00: Um but I love that so he became uh in charge of all Egypt, and the seven years of uh plenty came, and he gathered so much grain.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, God gave him so much wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like he was now at a place where he could really do the assignment.
SPEAKER_00: You know, before like he was ready.
SPEAKER_00: He had, you know, God was all these years weren't a waste.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't waste anything.
SPEAKER_00: Even when we make a mess, we give him these broken pieces.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's an art, I think there's a Japanese art where they actually take broken pieces, and I forget what the name of it, and they weave them in in gold, like make a vessel out of broken pieces.
SPEAKER_00: God, God is the only one who can take the broken pieces.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like, you know, if you take a pillow and release all the feathers, nobody can put it back together.
SPEAKER_00: But God is the only one who can take the mess in our life and He can, you know, He can work with it.
SPEAKER_00: He's the only one, He's He's like the Potter.
SPEAKER_00: He he He made us.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know, who would you go?
SPEAKER_00: Like I always used to keep, now I don't anymore because people tell me you shouldn't keep all these guides, you know, like if I have a microwave, the book for it, so I can have instructions.
SPEAKER_00: So lately somebody told me everything's online now.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, okay, I'm throwing them.
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, but I used to like to keep this stuff because it helps me when I have an issue.
SPEAKER_00: I go to the company, I go to the guidebook, I find the 800 number there.
SPEAKER_00: So why would we want to go to somebody else other than him who made us?
SPEAKER_00: Who else can fix us?
SPEAKER_00: Who else can can make our life and can take us, can take our dreams, and can actually get the purpose he put in us, we can actually accomplish it.
SPEAKER_00: So um, and the story doesn't end because we have to deal with these brothers.
SPEAKER_00: These, so you know, back in Canaan, Jacob's life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I keep calling Jacob because the Bible changed his name to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Um, he said to his sons, time to go to get us grain, so otherwise we'll die.
SPEAKER_00: So he sends his children to Egypt to buy grain from who?
SPEAKER_00: From Joseph, their brother.
SPEAKER_00: So they come before Joseph and they all bow down before him.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the dream?
SPEAKER_00: It's like the dream coming to pass.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't recognize Joseph at all, but he did.
SPEAKER_00: And one thing about that, and you can write, you know, um, point number six, forgive and hold no resentment.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I remember Daniel when he was young, he broke two fingers, and they first put like a soft thing, soft cast or whatever they call it, uh, for a week.
SPEAKER_00: But then after one week, when we went back to the doctor, there was still pain and swelling.
SPEAKER_00: So then he had to go in a hard cast uh to actually heal it.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like many times pain, you know, when you why do we go to doctors?
SPEAKER_00: Because we have symptoms.
SPEAKER_00: Pain is one of them.
SPEAKER_00: When we have pain in in a particular part of our body, we have symptoms.
SPEAKER_00: We we this actually pain is not a bad thing because it it tells us there's a problem.
SPEAKER_00: So I feel like many, maybe some of us we have this woundedness, maybe it's a family thing, maybe uh you have unreconciled relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, maybe somebody treats you so bad and you can't get over it every time you uh you want to talk about.
SPEAKER_00: I used to know from myself if I haven't forgiven somebody's away, if I'm talking about them in a conversation and this thing comes up.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever felt that?
SPEAKER_00: You're like, hmm, why am I talking like that?
SPEAKER_00: There's something there that we have to deal with.
SPEAKER_00: You know, some so there's pain, there's a wound, or there's an infection.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's an infection that hasn't been addressed.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we we can actually live.
SPEAKER_00: I think of wounds sometimes like those hidden tattoos that nobody sees, but we just walk with them, carry them, we know they're there.
SPEAKER_00: And we we come in certain you know, places, we smile, we we act like everything's fine, but we know there's some woundedness that needs to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like here uh it's beautiful how Joseph he actually forgave his brothers because what happened when uh he didn't tell them he was Joseph, and it's many chapters of story, but they buy grain, long story short, buy grain, go back.
SPEAKER_00: He told them, Don't come back again without your younger brother Benjamin.
SPEAKER_00: He was testing them actually for a few chapters to see if they changed.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so then they go back to their father, and after they run out of grain, they said, we have to go back, but the man said we can't go back without our younger brother Benjamin.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No way, Joseph is gone, and now you want to take away my youngest.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I cannot like have this happen.
SPEAKER_00: And and finally, Judah, he actually said, I'll guarantee him, like I'll I'll be the guaranteer, and I will be like I will take the full responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: So when they go back, and um uh Joseph put actually his cup in the in their bags when they left, and then he said, The person who whose cup in their bag he becomes you know my slave.
SPEAKER_00: And it was actually Benjamin, but he was actually testing them, and finally he opened up to them and told them he was their brother.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting, he was like he actually called all the Egyptians out and he was wailing.
SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes when I read that, I was like, how much like sometimes we we bottle stuff in for years and we don't even know because we suppress, we suppress our emotions, we suppress wounds, we suppress hurts, because sometimes it's painful to go there.
SPEAKER_00: But then here he lets it all out, and he told them, Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's uh Genesis 45, 4.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt, and now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.
SPEAKER_00: For God sent me before you to preserve life.
SPEAKER_00: God sent me to preserve life.
SPEAKER_00: It was for the Egyptians, for the whole clan of Israel, because they all ended up coming to Egypt, and then they became a great great nation.
SPEAKER_00: But it's like um, so I remember one time, uh, some years ago, um, we've been through so much as a family that I was reading something the other day.
SPEAKER_00: I was I found an old journal, and I was reading it, I was like, man, this stuff, like this stuff like um is so much pain in that.
SPEAKER_00: I need to to burn that book at some point.
SPEAKER_00: Because, like, you don't want in the future leave that as an inheritance, you know, like somebody, why would they want that?
SPEAKER_00: But then, but then I kind of checked myself and I felt like no, this is God's faithfulness, God's been with us through all this pain.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I used to write the pain, like, you know, write what we're going through, like, but then God was through it all, God's been faithful.
SPEAKER_00: So we're not faithful many times, but he's been faithful, and I'm thankful to the Lord and working in us because we could, you know, we could get bitter from going through stuff, we could get hardened.
SPEAKER_00: Hardness is one thing that kind of to me is something we need to be careful from.
SPEAKER_00: We can get hard.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, we're like, we don't we don't even realize we're hard, because that's why here Joseph he let it all out.
SPEAKER_00: And one time I remember I was some years ago, I was congested for several months.
SPEAKER_00: And I was look, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know what, and the Lord spoke to me through somebody who doesn't even know the Lord, and she actually she told me, I think maybe what if it is that you're bottling stuff in, like you're keeping stuff in, like you know how when you keep stuff in and you're not letting it go.
SPEAKER_00: But I went home with that word and I kind of prayed and I kind of fled stuff out before the Lord, and then my congestion actually left.
SPEAKER_00: It was like I was carrying something, you know.
SPEAKER_00: We could be carrying wounds, like it becomes like weights on our hearts and things, and the Lord wants to free us.
SPEAKER_00: Um, one of my favorite passages in the Bible is Isaiah 61.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when Jesus uh opened his ministry when he came to the synagogue, the first thing he opened was Isaiah 61, which is he came, and that actually speaks of him, that he came to heal the brokenhearted, set the captives free, and those who are in prison.
SPEAKER_00: And I've always loved that, the healing the brokenhearted.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, and even today, um, I will invite the praise and worship team to come up.
SPEAKER_00: And but I just want us to take a moment and just what's going on with your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Is there any symptoms that you've been seeing lately where you feel like, you know what, there's wounds that that's not been healed, if it's from your past, uh maybe you experienced rejection from friends, from family.
SPEAKER_00: There's unresolved issues in family.
SPEAKER_00: Family can be many times tough to see unresolved issues.
SPEAKER_00: The good news, even when we see Joseph's brothers, they actually have changed over the years because we see that in like the rest of the story.
SPEAKER_00: And um, I just want us, if we can stand, uh, I'm gonna read one last scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Um Genesis uh 49, 22.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Joseph is a fruitful bow, a fruitful bow by a spring.
SPEAKER_00: His branches run over the wall, the archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, harassed him severely, yet his bow remained unmoved.
SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
SPEAKER_00: And he talks about the blessing of the deep, the blessing of so God wants God wants to be the captain of your life.
SPEAKER_00: I want to uh today invite you, if you've never experienced uh Jesus as your personal savior, this this is the main thing.
SPEAKER_00: This is like the first thing before anything else.
SPEAKER_00: I if you want to raise your hand and we can pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, Jesus um when Jesus came and died on the cross, he took He paid the price for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't actually free, it was free to us, but he paid the penalty of our sins, he took our place, and he's he's pursuing us today.
SPEAKER_00: Um, he knows what you've been through, he knows your story.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about Joseph's story, but he knows your story.
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, this this is a moment God's tugging on your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Um anybody wants to receive the Lord, you can raise your hand and then we can pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to repeat after me, um Father God, I thank you for sending your son to die on the cross for my sins.
SPEAKER_00: And that Jesus rose again, um, I invite you to be my Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to encourage everybody, if something uh touch you today from what we talked about in the story of David, and uh there's wounds, uh, just invite you to come pray with uh our praise and worship team.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, not our praise and worship team, our prayer and ministry team.
SPEAKER_00: You can pray with them too.
SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, just don't let that stuff sit.
SPEAKER_00: If you have already symptoms, if you already have, don't don't go home with it.
SPEAKER_00: You can go home with it, we don't know, but you know.
SPEAKER_00: Don't go home with it.
SPEAKER_00: So just bring it to him today.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.