SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you connect with us on social media to stay up to date on ministries and events happening at CCW.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To find out how to connect with us, keep listening after the message ends.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to take your Bibles this morning and turn them to Genesis chapter 37.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, if it smells good to you in celebration of what's taking place today, we want to invite you to stay around afterwards.
SPEAKER_01: Every covenant member here has a deacon now assigned to them.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been called already.
SPEAKER_01: But we want to invite you to stay around.
SPEAKER_01: We have a meal that's been prepared, and it is enough food for every person in this room, plus some.
SPEAKER_01: And so please make plans afterwards to stick around, get to know, and congratulate these officers that God's given to us.
SPEAKER_01: Take your Bible, Genesis chapter 39.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis chapter 39.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we left Joseph in a pit.
SPEAKER_01: And this week, Joseph, he's been taken out of that pit.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna find out how to hold the line.
SPEAKER_01: And that line this week is the line of character.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you it makes you a little nervous when you've got some passengers in the car and you're driving?
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Few of you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't really ever get nervous when I'm driving with just me.
SPEAKER_01: I've never had an argument with just me about the parking spot that I selected or how I parked on the line of the parking spot.
SPEAKER_01: I've never got mad at the placement of the spot.
SPEAKER_01: I've never gotten mad at my own directions.
SPEAKER_01: I just take them and I listen to me and I get where I'm going.
SPEAKER_01: But when I'm riding with a group of people or friends, sometimes that can make me a little nervous.
SPEAKER_01: Um the other day we were riding somewhere, and the phone, you know, today we all we don't know where we're going anymore.
SPEAKER_01: We used to know where we're going, and the phone started loading, and we we couldn't get to the next step.
SPEAKER_01: We were sitting in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody in the car, I felt bad for the fella driving, everybody in the car started giving their opinion on where they thought we needed to go.
SPEAKER_01: And that made me feel a little nervous.
SPEAKER_01: And when I was just about to give my second or third opinion, I just stopped talking.
SPEAKER_01: Um but the worst for me, one of the worst, okay, is downtown and parking garages.
SPEAKER_01: Those two things for me, um, it just makes me nervous, sometimes even nervous when I'm with myself.
SPEAKER_01: But when you think about a parking garage, it's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: The further you go up a parking garage, as you're circling and circling and circling, and feel like it must be rock stars that are in that hospital and can't find a parking spot anywhere, and you're circling and circling, and you're getting further from the entry point.
SPEAKER_01: The further you go up in a parking garage, it is not the better you've gone.
SPEAKER_01: The further you go up in a parking garage, the further you get away from the entry point.
SPEAKER_01: Elevation doesn't always equal direction.
SPEAKER_01: Last week Joseph was in a pit.
SPEAKER_01: God allowed him to go to the bottom.
SPEAKER_01: A pastor said this once, and I'm stealing it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, sometime God lets you hit rock bottom so you can see that he is the rock at the bottom.
SPEAKER_01: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_01: God, we love you and we are so thankful today for your goodness to us.
SPEAKER_01: That you never leave us.
SPEAKER_01: And God, in trial, in the valley or on the mountaintop, God, you are there.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, I pray that as we continue to develop and see the life of Joseph as he goes through thing after thing and hardship, God, that we will understand it.
SPEAKER_01: Let it take root in our hearts as we live through fallen life and struggle through things.
SPEAKER_01: And God, that we would see your truth this morning.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: First point this morning is this character is revealed in position.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Genesis chapter 39, verse 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard and Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord was with Joseph, and he was successful, a successful man, and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph went from Hebron, or he went from Hebron to Shechem to Dothan on this journey of obedience, and he went that extra mile to look for his brothers, and now Joseph went down into a pit, and now he was pulled out and given to Midianite traders, and now he went down to Egypt, and it says, down to Potiphar.
SPEAKER_01: God places the grammar in the Bible to give us an idea, even about the direction Joseph went.
SPEAKER_01: Letter A about that is his providential placement.
SPEAKER_01: In business, you'll hear things like people will talk to you about the moves that are being made in your business, and they'll say, was that like a lateral move?
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, they're talking to you, and what they're trying to find out, do you have any room for growth?
SPEAKER_01: Is there any room there in that new business for you to have more success?
SPEAKER_01: Is there room for betterment?
SPEAKER_01: Is there room?
SPEAKER_01: Can you gain wealth?
SPEAKER_01: What they're saying in all those things, is there a way for you to move up?
SPEAKER_01: The word Yarod that's mentioned here for what's going on with Joseph is down, Yarod, and God writing this direction right into the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know about Joseph the dreamer.
SPEAKER_01: Dreams require development before they have deployment.
SPEAKER_01: Dreams require development.
SPEAKER_01: When Joseph descended, hear this, he didn't fall out of God's will, but he fell deeper into God's will.
SPEAKER_01: And you see this in a couple of different heroes in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Moses went down to Midian, and for 40 years he went through a development process.
SPEAKER_01: 40 years he was shepherding out in the cold in the quiet before he became leader of a nation.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah, when God called him, he took him and sent him to the brook Cherith, where he would spend some time.
SPEAKER_01: And then he took him to a place called Zarephath.
SPEAKER_01: And Zarephath literally means smelting furnace, a place where gold is purified through a flame.
SPEAKER_01: And God sent him to Zarephath.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see throughout Scripture, this is one of God's ways of giving providential placement.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to look at Luke chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: I just want you to see a complimentary text to this.
SPEAKER_01: Luke 16, and we'll look at verses 10 through 12.
SPEAKER_01: He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much.
SPEAKER_01: And he who is unjust in what is least is also unjust in also.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust true riches?
SPEAKER_01: And if you have been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is not your own?
SPEAKER_01: So Scripture tells us, he who's given little and is faithful, is able to be faithful with much.
SPEAKER_01: God does this throughout scripture, and it seems like with different characters in the Bible, God gives character quizzes.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to see what people do in circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to ask you, how are you doing with the quizzes?
SPEAKER_01: I ask my kids almost weekly.
SPEAKER_01: Any quizzes?
SPEAKER_01: Any tests?
SPEAKER_01: How's that going?
SPEAKER_01: Have there been any pop quizzes?
SPEAKER_01: I love the idea of a pop quiz.
SPEAKER_01: If I was a teacher, man, I feel like I'd do that every couple of days.
SPEAKER_01: What fun that would be.
SPEAKER_01: Pop quiz.
SPEAKER_01: Because life gives you pop quizzes that you're not ready for all the time.
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: What have you done with the success that God's given you?
SPEAKER_01: Is there character being formed?
SPEAKER_01: How is God?
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask this in placement.
SPEAKER_01: How is God central to your life right now?
SPEAKER_01: Providential placement.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph, the dreamer who had a big dream, was going through things that didn't look much like his dream quite yet.
SPEAKER_01: Letter B, we see a pressure-filled position.
SPEAKER_01: Of all the places that someone from Hebron might go, to the house of Potiphar, captain of the guard.
SPEAKER_01: Potiphar, if you try to understand who he was, this is like Pharaoh's top secret service agent.
SPEAKER_01: That is Potiphar.
SPEAKER_01: And when I think about Potiphar, I think about someone who was strong, someone who was assertive, someone who had wealth.
SPEAKER_01: We know that he had wealth because he had to have the money to buy Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is where Joseph, coming from a family of twelve, a blended, messed up, kind of crazy family, God puts him in a place that's completely different.
SPEAKER_01: That's interesting because Joseph the dreamer, I'm not sure all of his dreams could have come true in Hebron.
SPEAKER_01: But God moved him through some pain, through some struggle, and it was very directed.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph was in a house of an important man.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about pressure.
SPEAKER_01: 17, 18-year-old kid is going to be a slave in a house of a very important figure in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 5 says this.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, but we also glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character.
SPEAKER_01: Character is forged through pits.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph learned how to hold the line.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear me here.
SPEAKER_01: Pressure does not create character, but it exposes what's already there.
SPEAKER_01: The same element produces both pencil lead and diamonds.
SPEAKER_01: It's called carbon.
SPEAKER_01: And carbon under 2,500 degrees of pressure crystallizes into something called a tetrahedron, and you see the beautiful thing that is on your wife's finger.
SPEAKER_01: But a pencil is also carbon.
SPEAKER_01: If the pressure is released too early for what's happened at 2,500 degrees, if it's released too early, then you have dust.
SPEAKER_01: You have just lead.
SPEAKER_01: You have what's in a pencil.
SPEAKER_01: And someday or somebody today might be praying something like this.
SPEAKER_01: God, this pressure in my life, God, it's gotta stop.
SPEAKER_01: I need the pressure that's going on around me.
SPEAKER_01: God, can you lighten up on me, God?
SPEAKER_01: And this is what I believe that God knows.
SPEAKER_01: God knows if I do, I'll stop the process that is cutting a diamond.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph was being pressurized into something special.
SPEAKER_01: No woman here today, I can guarantee you, said yes to a man that got down on his knees and said, Will you take my two-carat pencil?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Let me see that rock.
SPEAKER_01: Let me see something that's been pressurized into something special.
SPEAKER_01: Hear me, church, don't be comforted today into being a pencil.
SPEAKER_01: Let that hit you for a second.
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna tell you a joke here about a pencil, but it was pointless and dull.
SPEAKER_01: But really, don't be, don't be that way.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_01: It's talking, Paul is sharing about the pressures.
SPEAKER_01: And hear this.
SPEAKER_01: This is ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's glamorous, Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And all the things that Paul accomplished that we have books of the Bible through, and these are some of his words that it may not be on your Hobby Lobby picture sitting over your mantle.
SPEAKER_01: It says, 2 Corinthians 1, 8, and 9, we are burdened beyond measure.
SPEAKER_01: We are burdened beyond measure and above strength, so that we despaired even of life.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we have the sentence of death in ourselves, but we should not trust ourselves but in God who raises the dead, whom delivers us from so great a death.
SPEAKER_01: In him, it is who we trust.
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul talks about the pressure of ministry, the pressure of life, and it's not glamorous, but he hit the important thing that's gonna get us to the next point.
SPEAKER_01: He says, It's not about me.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about me who I trust.
SPEAKER_01: Point number two, character is recognized through presence.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Genesis chapter 39, verse 3 and 4.
SPEAKER_01: It says the Lord, verse 2, the Lord was with Joseph and he was successful.
SPEAKER_01: And his master, verse 3, Saul, the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand.
SPEAKER_01: So Joseph found favor in his sight, and he served him.
SPEAKER_01: Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he had put under Joseph's authority.
SPEAKER_01: The second point this morning is character is recognized through presence.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the presence in a phrase.
SPEAKER_01: It says, And the Lord was with Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: May this be said of you, church family.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord was with, put your name in.
SPEAKER_01: When people look at you, when people visit your work, when they visit your home, may it be said of you, and the Lord was with them.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see again in chapter 41, because this theme is mentioned a little bit differently, chapter 41, verse 38 and 39.
SPEAKER_01: It says, And Pharaoh, when he meets with Pharaoh later on, and Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?
SPEAKER_01: Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph was with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And when people saw him, even the leader of Egypt saw that there was something different about this man.
SPEAKER_01: Church, today, we can be separated from friendships.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard the old saying, blood is thicker than water, but you can physically even be separated from family.
SPEAKER_01: But in Romans chapter 8, it says, Nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: When you have Jesus within you, it can't be separated.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can separate us from that.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the different spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Letter A, there's a different spirit that is seen with Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: They see something different, and it says, it literally told us, and the Lord, it's not hidden, and the Lord was with Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: Here's something that you need to know today.
SPEAKER_01: In Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit came and it became our guarantee and our seal as Christians today.
SPEAKER_01: Every saved individual, every person who's given their life to Jesus Christ here today, the Bible says the Holy Spirit came and indwelled in you.
SPEAKER_01: But in the Old Testament, there was something interesting.
SPEAKER_01: You can look through it in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It says that the Holy Spirit would fall sometimes upon people.
SPEAKER_01: You find it in 1 Samuel 16 with David, and the Holy Spirit fell upon him.
SPEAKER_01: And it says later about King Saul that the Holy Spirit left King Saul.
SPEAKER_01: And it says something about Caleb was a man with a different spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And Joseph was one of this type.
SPEAKER_01: He had a different spirit about him.
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody here ever met somebody with a different spirit?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about your weird cousin.
SPEAKER_01: A different spiritual spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And the secret was given, and the Lord was with Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: This may sound elemental or elementary or trite, but the Lord could not be with Joseph if Joseph was not with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It says, and he was with Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 21 of that chapter and 39.
SPEAKER_01: It repeats it.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord was with him.
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm saying this over and over, but I'm wanting you to pick up on something so necessary for us today.
SPEAKER_01: May it be said of us that the Lord was with him.
SPEAKER_01: And it says he gave him, and he gave him favor.
SPEAKER_01: This is a refrain.
SPEAKER_01: It's a central theme of this passage.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just background noise, that the Lord was with Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: Man, people, I hope one day, when I've lived this life and I'm done with this life, that people, my kids, my family, my church family will say, There was something about Rick.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it was just his time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord was with him and he was with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I pray I don't need anything else known about me.
SPEAKER_01: But if you were with God, it's different, hear me, church, than most society outside these doors.
SPEAKER_01: If you're really truly with God and He's with you.
SPEAKER_01: You know what else I think is hard to happen?
SPEAKER_01: I think it's hard for you to let go of holding the line of character if you're really getting up and reading this book.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I can go off and snap if I've just had my coffee.
SPEAKER_01: But it's real hard for me to get in the word of God and not be moved by what the Lord has to say to me.
SPEAKER_01: Because I've been with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You say that sounds like background noise.
SPEAKER_01: Hear me, you have to do something to be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Are you doing that?
SPEAKER_01: The Lord was with Joseph, and Joseph was with the Lord, and it made an impact on his character.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear this, it doesn't say, and the Lord was with Joseph, and it kept him out of a pit.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord was with Joseph and it kept him out of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: Being with God may not mean that all of your circumstances are made lighter, but it means that your spirit does not collapse.
SPEAKER_01: It means that your faith doesn't burn out.
SPEAKER_01: It means that you don't get bitter because you got angry at something, that you're able to let go.
SPEAKER_01: It means that Joseph could live faithfully because the spirit was upon him.
SPEAKER_01: How much more should we hold the line who don't have the spirit upon us, but the spirit that's living within us?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you just a couple of practical things I thought about.
SPEAKER_01: How should we who have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us be different?
SPEAKER_01: Being different of a different spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Here's just a couple of things.
SPEAKER_01: One, react slower.
SPEAKER_01: People with a different spirit, the Holy Spirit should react slower.
SPEAKER_01: Take a breath.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question: Does this reflect Jesus Christ or just my mood?
SPEAKER_01: React slower.
SPEAKER_01: Two, having integrity when no one else watches.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, the Holy Spirit doesn't just inform us good or evil, he inhabits us.
SPEAKER_01: Take that with you.
SPEAKER_01: When nobody's watching, your character is still being forged.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, respond to pressure with peace, not panic.
SPEAKER_01: Pressure is a part of life.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 8 6 is my verse with that.
SPEAKER_01: It says, A mind governed by the Holy Spirit is life and peace.
SPEAKER_01: If we have a different spirit, when panic and struggle and pressures happen, we should be governed by the Holy Spirit and react with peace and not panic.
SPEAKER_01: Letter B.
SPEAKER_01: Something else about Joseph, because of that presence God, he was a dependable servant.
SPEAKER_01: He was a servant.
SPEAKER_01: He was a bought slave.
SPEAKER_01: In the historical context, it stands to reason that Potiphar had a few dozen servants in his house and a large estate.
SPEAKER_01: So Joseph was a servant amongst other servants.
SPEAKER_01: And I and this is just as we move forward through this, you need to understand as we will continue this Old Testament typology of Jesus Christ, Joseph is this foreshadowing of the central theme of 66 volumes over 1,500 years.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph is an early type of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the things that we see in him.
SPEAKER_01: And so what God is trying to do from front to back, why the Bible is cohesive, He's trying to help us see the gospel from cover to cover.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a foreshadowing of Joseph is of Jesus who comes to bring himself to the cross and reveal God's plan to redeem and restore humanity through the birth, cross, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Mark 10, 45, I call Joseph a servant, says that the Son of Man came to serve and not to be served.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians 2.7, it says he took upon himself the form of a servant, Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: A servant, a leper touching, disciple foot washing, teenage teaching servant.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't sound like the king of all of creation, the type of things that he might have to expose himself to, but that's what Jesus came to this earth to do, to serve.
SPEAKER_01: And some people here might say, that's a little below me, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know who I am?
SPEAKER_01: Or the corporation that I run or what I do?
SPEAKER_01: I have people for that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm begged to differ today.
SPEAKER_01: You're here to be a servant like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph is a foreshadow, and Joseph already is producing a good name.
SPEAKER_01: When people hear about your name, what do you think comes to mind?
SPEAKER_01: I did this this week as a survey.
SPEAKER_01: I took ten people who were in my phone that were, you know, ten of the most recent texts, it was random all over the board.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I asked them, I said, what are three things that you think about?
SPEAKER_01: It's really sound like fishing, like I need a compliment real bad.
SPEAKER_01: What are three things that you think about me?
SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, I said, when you hear my name, because the Bible says in Proverbs 22, 1, here, a good name is better than great riches.
SPEAKER_01: Your name means something, it's your character.
SPEAKER_01: So when people think about you, Joseph was miles from home.
SPEAKER_01: But what he still had was his name.
SPEAKER_01: He still had his character.
SPEAKER_01: There is a line from Romeo and Juliet that says, That which we call a rose, by any other name, would it ever smell as sweet?
SPEAKER_01: When you hear the name rose, you immediately smell something, some of you.
SPEAKER_01: I went to the Whitepages.com this week, found out that there are 20 other Richard Wrights in Birmingham, Alabama.
SPEAKER_01: And so then I made these texts to folks, and it was kind of humorous to see some of the things that got sent back to me.
SPEAKER_01: One person, I said, When you hear my name, or I said Wright, last name Wright, when you hear that name, what do you think?
SPEAKER_01: And I had a few people said, I think of Richard, or I think of Orville and Wilbur.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody texted me, I think of not wrong, and I said to them, Well, you're not wrong.
SPEAKER_01: When I met Heather, you know what I said, Kyle?
SPEAKER_01: I said, You finally met me.
SPEAKER_01: You've met Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Wright.
SPEAKER_01: When your name is mentioned, what is associated with it?
SPEAKER_01: I know this was surprising to me.
SPEAKER_01: There were things that people text me back that I would have thought other things would have been first or second or third.
SPEAKER_01: It was surprising in some ways.
SPEAKER_01: I challenge you to do this for fun, just to see.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: A good name is the character associated to that name.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph showed his name to be a dependable name.
SPEAKER_01: So, church family, what do people think when they hear your name?
SPEAKER_01: I'll ask one that's hard.
SPEAKER_01: What do your kids think when they hear your name?
SPEAKER_01: What does your enemy think when they hear your name and why?
SPEAKER_01: A good name is better than great riches.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that takes us to the third point this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Character returned prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: Character.
SPEAKER_01: Read verses uh four through six.
SPEAKER_01: So Joseph found favor in his sight and served him.
SPEAKER_01: Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had put under his authority.
SPEAKER_01: So it was from the time that he had made him overseer of his house, and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake, and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field.
SPEAKER_01: Thus he left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate.
SPEAKER_01: All of the sudden Joseph became an overseer.
SPEAKER_01: And that's letter A, overseer of Potiphar's house.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph's character began to return prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph became a lead.
SPEAKER_01: In his own house, under his father, at Jacob's house with his brothers.
SPEAKER_01: He was next to the last son, and his giftedness was not really able to be highly seen or impactful as of yet.
SPEAKER_01: Something else in this context, slaves were rarely estate managers.
SPEAKER_01: And Joseph rose, and it would have been culturally shocking at the time, this rise of a slave.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you, you have a job now that was not the original path, right?
SPEAKER_01: And if you look back and start piecing it together in thought, you go, how did I ever get here?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone like that?
SPEAKER_01: You you've got a job now, and as you look back, it's almost like you're a little awestruck at how God was moving.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are here, and you didn't start your journey in Alabama.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are far from that place.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like that.
SPEAKER_01: And as you look at the way that God's intervened in your story, Joseph was in Hebron just dreaming, and all of a sudden, as he looks back, he goes, I'm overseeing all of this head of security's household.
SPEAKER_01: God, how did this happen?
SPEAKER_01: And for you and me, it looks a little bit like Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.
SPEAKER_01: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not into your own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.
SPEAKER_01: God can do anything.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes he does miraculous things because he can.
SPEAKER_01: And he picked Joseph, it seems, from Hebron, and he went from a dreamer and low man on the totem pole in Hebron to now he's a lead in a different location.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you?
SPEAKER_01: You have to raise your hand, but it doesn't surprise me because of Christian character, everywhere you've gone, you've moved up the ladder in business or in work.
SPEAKER_01: You hear it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: I hear the testimony of many.
SPEAKER_01: I went to this place, I was, you know, sweeping floors, and then I became warehouse manager.
SPEAKER_01: I went from warehouse manager, they brought me into the front office.
SPEAKER_01: I was in the front office and I became disposed.
SPEAKER_01: Back all of these things.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't surprise people that have no experience, but their character kept showing up to work, and they kept working hard because they respected people, and Christian character came through.
SPEAKER_01: That should be the case.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Pharaoh's secret service.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph could have said, I wish I were home.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, kidnapped away from his father.
SPEAKER_01: Think about our 17-year-olds in here today.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I were home.
SPEAKER_01: Or I'll try to run away.
SPEAKER_01: But his character said, I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna work.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna get after it.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Danny, our previous pastor, was a keynote speaker at this conference, and he would drag me to conferences.
SPEAKER_01: And when he was dean of the seminary at Liberty University, he got to know all kinds of people in the Southern Baptist Convention.
SPEAKER_01: So he would, we would go to things and he would introduce me to people, and they were like, in that world, they were who's who of people, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he would introduce me to people, and I didn't know they didn't know who I was, or it was kind of them to introduce me.
SPEAKER_01: This is my assistant pastor, Rick Ross.
SPEAKER_01: And and he was the keynote speaker of this one specific conference, and he got into going and he threw me his phone.
SPEAKER_01: He started speaking, he said, Hey Rick, I turned, and it was cinematic, folks.
SPEAKER_01: I caught it, one hand, no fumbling, and I looked around at the crowd of thousands, the crowd of hundreds.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I'll sign Bibles in the lobby afterwards, just catch me.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, That was my assistant pastor, Rick right in front of them all.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought about that.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Danny didn't hand me the microphone, he handed me his telephone.
SPEAKER_01: That's the difference between being seen and being known.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph wasn't handed a throne of Egypt, he was handed a household.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph had to be trusted with keys and accounts and daily details before he would ever be trusted with authority over the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: If he was not trustworthy, if he was not hardworking, if he was not dependable, what would he become?
SPEAKER_01: But when pressure came, the character of Joseph held tightly to the line.
SPEAKER_01: A bought shekel, a slave boy.
SPEAKER_01: He was the bottom of social hierarchy, yet the dreamer was becoming a leader because when pressure hit, his character stood.
SPEAKER_01: What are you going through, church?
SPEAKER_01: Can you see that God is outside of all of the struggle and pressure, the pit?
SPEAKER_01: And he's strategically allowing opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: The overseer.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that turned in the letter B.
SPEAKER_01: The overflow of prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: Again, in verse 2, it says that the Lord's with Joseph, and he was a success.
SPEAKER_01: And then it goes on throughout that chapter in verse 3, and it made all he did to prosper.
SPEAKER_01: And then talking about Potiphar's house, he says, and all the blessing of the Lord was on that house, and it continues.
SPEAKER_01: It says it again, and you can look at it in verse 21 through 23.
SPEAKER_01: The same things continue.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever Joseph's hand was on, God gave prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: The word prosperity here is Sileia, and it means to fall quickly, like as a rapid rushing through a river.
SPEAKER_01: Psalms chapter 1, verse 3 says this that godly people are like a tree planted by rivers of water.
SPEAKER_01: And what that means is the fruitfulness of a tree that has access to watering.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph was like a fruitful tree that had access to watering.
SPEAKER_01: He was with the Lord, and because he was had access to something that made him grow, he took the access, and then the fruit came.
SPEAKER_01: And so Joseph was given prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear me about prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: In the Bible, there are principles that are prescriptive, and there are principles that are descriptive, but they don't put God in some box.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna say tell you why I'm saying that, because people will say something like, if you just do this, Proverbs says, go to the ant, thou slugger, and it will produce business.
SPEAKER_01: You'll have accounts just overflowing if you apply this.
SPEAKER_01: I believe you should apply it, and don't be lazy.
SPEAKER_01: But this is prescriptive of what is common to happening, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that David, descriptive, picked up a stone and threw it at a giant and it killed the giant.
SPEAKER_01: I don't recommend that anybody here does what that describes.
SPEAKER_01: You may have giants in your life, you may have an enemy at work.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go sling a stone at them.
SPEAKER_01: That's descriptive of something that happened.
SPEAKER_01: But hear me, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because I believe there's a fallacious message of prosperity today that is going all throughout churches.
SPEAKER_01: One teacher said this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, God's will is prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: Another teacher said this.
SPEAKER_01: But to then make our prayers come to pass.
SPEAKER_01: Church, God is not some kind of cosmic bellhop.
SPEAKER_01: Prosperity is prescriptive, and I suggest running your business through the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: But life has pits, and Joseph's about to be a real authority, but Joseph was not without problem.
SPEAKER_01: He was not without trouble, he was not without strife.
SPEAKER_01: There's one promise.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, you will have tribulation.
SPEAKER_01: But I can give you this prosperity word.
SPEAKER_01: One day only.
SPEAKER_01: And if we, like Joseph, are with that king, and he is with us, church, then we are ever walking towards infinite prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: Forever prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: So I will preach this prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: If you've given your heart to Jesus Christ, this life may be good and this life may be bad, but one day you're gonna experience heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And one day you're gonna have a mansion.
SPEAKER_01: And one day the streets are gonna be translucent gold, and there's gonna be a gate in front of your house full of pearl.
SPEAKER_01: And there's gonna be many, many mansions.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: One day you're not gonna have a tear like you had this week.
SPEAKER_01: One day you're not gonna wake up with an ache or a pain.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna feel the weight of cold temperature.
SPEAKER_01: You will overflow forever in prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: And so Joseph was with God, and God was with Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to continue to see these parallels as we go through this series.
SPEAKER_01: But God was with Joseph in a pit, and Joseph was with God in Potiphar's house, and Joseph was holding the line, and here the foreshadow, the central theme.
SPEAKER_01: He is pointing us to the idea that's all throughout scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph, it said, went down to Dothan, and then Joseph went down to a pit, and then Joseph went down to Egypt, and then he went down to Potiphar's house, and in all of that going down, he held the line of character.
SPEAKER_01: And the foreshadow of Jesus Christ is that Jesus emptied himself in eternity, and he went down from heaven to earth, and he went down to Bethlehem, and he went down to be born in a manger, and Jesus went down to the cross, and after he got on the cross, he gave his life and he went down to the grave.
SPEAKER_01: He emptied himself.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture says that he was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.
SPEAKER_01: He lived a perfect life and died the death of our failure.
SPEAKER_01: And we're seeing in Joseph this character foreshadowing.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus teaches us, church, just keep holding the line.
SPEAKER_00: We're excited you've joined us for today's message.
SPEAKER_00: Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another, and build a bigger kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.
SPEAKER_00: Take a moment and text CCW Connect to 94,000.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.