My Future Is My Focus

0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:06.680 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, what in awesome privilege? Let 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:09.119 us know right now in the chat. Where are you? 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:16.959 Where are you? Are you in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.440 Are you in the grocery store? Are you in the walmart? 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.200 Are you in Target? Where are you at? Where are 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.120 you at? I'm in my car, so I'm typing while 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.160 I'm driving. Stop that, Put the phone down and just listen. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.800 We need you alive, all right, see the goodness of 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:35.760 the Lord in the land of the Living. Let me 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.080 tell you where I am. That's a little different. I'm 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:44.159 with my staff today. I'm with my Elevation Church staff, 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:51.519 my co laborers in the Gospel, my partners, my partners, 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:58.360 my partners. You know, God is so good at his job. 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.000 Bible says, if you're trust in Him with all your heart, 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:01.640 I lean not on your own understanding. He will direct 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.400 your past. When I got done preaching last week, I 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:11.880 preached about Joseph. It took me listen an hour to 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.440 get in the car after I preached because I couldn't 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:19.400 stop writing down what I wanted to say next. And 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.520 I was telling the Lord, You're gonna make me wait 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:26.600 seven days to say all of this that is cruel 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:32.440 and unusual punishment, Father, Daddy, Aba God. And then I 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:38.160 remember that we had a staff team day with all 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:45.360 of our amazing, amazing staff, and I said, y'all got 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:50.240 to turn on the cameras and I'll preach to them 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.240 for the whole church and for the whole E fam. 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:57.800 So that's where I'm at today. I'm not excited, I'm 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:08.040 fired off. I am, I am, I am so again. Welcome, 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:10.639 Welcome to every location, Welcome to the staff, Welcome to 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:17.840 the graphic designers, e kids, campus pastors, associate campus pastors, debutantes, derelics, delinquents, 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.080 and all points in between. God has a word for 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.000 you today. That's the person next to you. Do you 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:28.800 want your word, because I'll take yours too if you 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:33.560 don't want it. Like Chunks always looks at my plate 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.240 and says, you're gonna eat that. People who are hungry 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:38.960 for the word is like a you're gonna eat that, 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.360 I'll eat it at you know. But we want to 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.480 pick up today and thank you so much for your 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.520 attendance today, and thank you for the privilege of ministering 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.280 the Word of God to you. It's going to be amazing, 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.280 and y'all one reason I wanted to do it this 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.880 way because you know, normally I'm preaching the sermon live 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:03.200 on Sunday mornings, and that's great, that's great. But back 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:09.840 in the the days of the plague, right after Moses 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.440 brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai and the 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.240 plague had put it where I could only have staff 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:22.160 in the room for months and months and months. I'm 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.880 not gonna say I missed that at all because it was, 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.720 you know, tough time, but there was something special about 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.800 those moments. I mean, I haven't had Larry Bryan in 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:36.200 the room with me in six months. So when you 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:41.320 when you hear this, that's that's LB. LB is back 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:48.440 and oh man, So wherever you are, I pray that 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:54.040 God would bless you in a great way today. Why 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:58.160 don't we do this. Let's go, let's go to Genesis 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:04.440 forty nine. It's hard to call this a part two 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.920 for what I shared last week about bent Knee's break chains. 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:12.680 If you didn't hear it, I can give you the 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:19.000 whole message. Humility brings freedom when you stop trying to 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:24.080 control everything and manipulate everything and change everyone. But ask 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:29.280 God change me, change the way I see it. Then 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.800 it frees you in amazing ways. So that was the message. 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.120 It was a lot better than that. You can go 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.359 watch it. So now I want to back up to 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:42.919 Genesis forty nine and give you a picture of the 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.640 Bible character we spoke about last week. Who was Joseph 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:53.080 and what his father Jacob said to him before he died. 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:58.760 Now listen to this. Jacob has been speaking to all 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.320 of his sons, all twelve of them. You know him 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:06.039 as the tribes of Israel, because those went on to 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.919 be the patriarchs that God built his nation through. But 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.360 they were also troublemakers. And I'm telling you not only 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:18.360 did they push Joseph in a pit because they were 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.800 jealous of him, but they were crazy and so I 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.280 mean they attacked whole cities, whole villages. And so when 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.679 Jacob started talking to them, the Bible says something cool 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.800 that he gave them each the blessing that was appropriate 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.000 to them, and he went one by one, so he 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.520 gave them each a personal word, and it concerned their 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:44.440 future and their purpose. But it wasn't always this polished 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.120 kind of thing. One of his sons he called a 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:51.719 raw bone donkey. Isn't that crazy? He said, you're a 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:54.360 raw bone donkey. I think that was Isakar. He said 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:58.000 that too, you're a raw bone donkey. And one of them, 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.800 he said you're a snake by thee to one of 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:05.800 his sons. All right, So when he gets to Joseph, 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:10.640 you can tell how much he likes Joseph. He liked 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.720 Joseph's mom. He loved Rachel, and Rachel is no longer. 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.159 But I think he sees a little bit of Rachel 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:20.479 in Joseph's eyes because he gives him an extra long blessing. Now, 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:26.200 first point, the one who went through the most, the 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:30.479 one who had gone through the most, the one who 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:36.320 endured the most, was blessed the most. So listen to this. 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:38.640 This is what he said about Joseph. Just listen, just listen, 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.479 and I'm gonna have you seated in a moment. But 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.960 he said in Genesis forty nine to twenty two, Joseph 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:50.839 is a fruitful vine, fruitful vine near a spring, whose 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:56.000 branches climb over a wall. With bitterness. Archers attacked him. 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:01.760 They shot at him with hostility, but his bow remain steady, 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:07.120 his strong arms stayed limber because of the hand of 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.680 the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:15.080 Rock of Israel, because of your Father's God, who helps you, 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.320 Because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:23.040 the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:25.600 of the breast and womb. Your father's blessings are greater. 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:31.160 Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.120 ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age old hills. 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.680 Let all these rest on the head of Joseph. Let 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.080 all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:48.000 brow of the prince among his brothers. Say, Amen, I 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:49.520 want to speak to you today. God gave me a 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:52.000 word for you, and you could say it out loud, 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:57.200 to say, my future is my focus. Say it again, 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:01.760 my future is my focus. Now look all around you, 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:03.560 Look all around you, look all around you, and now 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:08.200 look straight ahead. Say my future is my focus. Amen, 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.160 you may be seated. I'm gonna teach a little bit today, 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.440 can I teach? I teach a little bit too. I 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:16.800 might preach a little too. I might preach a little teach, 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.920 a little dance, a little shout a little, I might 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:25.760 sing a little. You may hear that different than I 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.560 mean it. By the way, my future is my focus, 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:34.200 because sometimes I think we use the future as an 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:41.240 excuse to waste today. It is possible to look so 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.800 far ahead you can wreck your car looking too far 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.400 just as easily as not looking far enough. So when 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:52.960 I say my future is my focus, I'm not talking 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:57.640 about that that worrying spirit that tries to keep you 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:00.760 playing out every what if scenario, like you can think 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:05.400 of every contingency. When you get kids, you'll understand this. 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:08.120 Those of you who are maybe hoping to have kids, 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.440 you'll understand that. You will begin to plan who they're 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:17.000 going to marry the moment you find out what sex 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.000 they are. When I married Holly, her mom pulled me 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.320 aside and I love you, DDI, but she said, I've 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:27.360 been praying for you since Holly was born. I told 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.760 the Lord what kind of man to send for my 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:32.840 daughter since the day she was born. And I'm like, 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:41.040 did I fit the list? I am too bad? Because 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.679 now I am, so you might have to adjust the 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.160 list because here I am. Send me you know anyway, 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:52.640 that's good, But you can take it too far. Getting 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:54.720 so focused on me and Holly will go on a 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.440 walk sometimes and we'll start thinking about what if our 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.439 kids marry somebody that we don't like. It's like, it's 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.720 all right, Abby is eleven. She's got at least fifty 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:11.079 more years before we let her date. Say it again. 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:15.680 My future is my focus, and so a lot of 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.400 the things that are going on in your mind. I'm 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:19.520 just going to be honest with you. You're trying to 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:24.319 do too much too soon. You're trying to do too 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.680 much too soon. You know that feeling you can get 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.960 in a conversation where you're talking to somebody and then 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:33.040 you take it a little too far and you can 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.200 kind of back up and you say too far. This 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.280 happens to me all the time because I'm a pastor 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:39.760 and people have a certain perception of me as a pastor, 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:41.480 and sometimes I like to let them in on what 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.080 I really struggle with. And I'll say something about, you know, 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:48.200 something that's not completely sanitized, and I'll get this sense like, oh, 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:51.720 too far. They can't handle that, that's too far. I 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.040 get that sometimes when I'm preaching. Sometimes when i'm preaching, 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.200 I'll start digging at something and I can tell Oh, 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:58.440 this is a little too too deep, too quick. This 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.080 is not a Sunday morning, This is not a Sunday morning. Point, 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:03.080 this is something for a Bible study. This for a 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:04.920 men's Bible study. Back it up, back it up, back 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.240 it up. This is for a men's only Bible study. 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:13.760 Oh yeah, too far, and then there's too soon, and 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.520 so that's a real danger. It's a real danger when 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:24.320 you start trying to use today's faith to forecast tomorrow's problems. 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:28.760 Remember the hymn writer said strength for today and bright 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:32.240 hope for tomorrow. God will never give you strength for 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.120 tomorrow and hope for today. He will give you strength 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:39.600 for today hope for tomorrow. But a lot of us 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:43.959 get it backwards. So we want hope for today and 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.360 strength for tomorrow. What do I mean? We kind of 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:51.280 get in our minds that what's next will be better. 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:55.679 We get that in our minds. To a certain degree. 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:59.559 We do the opposite of Joseph in the Bible. Joseph 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.760 did not wait until he was in a position of influence, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.640 like we talked about last week, to begin to serve 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:11.119 God with integrity. Watch this. His integrity led to his influence. 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:17.480 It wasn't a byproduct of the influence. It wasn't when 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.320 others were watching him that he started working hard. It 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.320 wasn't when a great opportunity to relieve each of the 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:28.360 famine appeared that he submitted his job application to be 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:32.640 the second in charge to the Pharaoh. So we see, 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.280 and we saw last week. If you saw the message 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:41.559 last week, that message last week, we covered forty years 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:45.440 of faithfulness in Joseph's life that led him to this 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:49.559 point of forgiveness for everything that had happened to him 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.480 in his past, for everything that had happened to him 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:58.680 at the hands of others, for everything that Joseph couldn't 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:05.560 necessarily let go, but God helped him get over what 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:10.560 he couldn't let go of. There's something in your life 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:15.000 right now that you can't let go of. But the 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:17.679 word God is going to give you today is going 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.080 to help you to get over what you can't let 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.959 go of. I don't necessarily mean something that somebody did 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.560 to you, although it very well could be that it 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.320 could be your idea of what somebody did to you, 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:31.520 But if we asked them, they would see it differently. 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.800 So we're not talking about what somebody else did we're 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:39.560 talking about what is happening on the inside of you say, 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:44.080 my future is my focus now. To get us to 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:48.080 this place, I want to revisit Genesis fifty from last 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.520 week and kind of take it a little bit deeper 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.360 than what I was able to share. Let's go beneath 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.040 the surface of this conversation, just to remind you. And 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:00.160 I was telling my friend. My friend said, uh, I 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.320 liked the sermon and it made me mad. I said, 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.560 I did it right. I did that one right. Because 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.760 if you could hear this idea that you are not 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.920 in the place of God, what Joseph said, what you're 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:13.559 going to see in a moment. If you can hear 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:15.800 that and it doesn't challenge you, you didn't really hear it. 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.000 If you hear you are not God. And all you 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.640 hear is so I have no responsibility because God's gonna 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:26.520 do it. Then you didn't hear the message. You didn't 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:30.200 hear the scripture. You turned the scripture into a sedative. 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:36.720 But it doesn't strengthen you if it only sedates you. Okay, 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.720 I'm not God. So I'm just gonna let God work 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:44.840 it out. I'm just gonna let God do it y'all. God, God, 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.480 God did not preach this sermon to me. Today. I 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:53.960 studied it. Lord, give me the message. You know. The 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:58.560 next thing the Lord said, open your books, you know 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:02.120 those big books. If you don't like to read your message, 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:08.440 your blessing is in your books. So when she said 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.600 I liked it, it made me mad. I said, good, 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.600 because it's going to do you some good if it 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:16.960 If it irritated you a little bit, look at this. 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.720 I'm I'm gonna go through it slowly today. You ready, Concord, 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:25.800 Are you ready? Gaston? Are you ready? All right? Right? 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:30.040 All right, all right, make it sure. Listen to Joseph 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.160 at age fifty six, in the halftime of his life, 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:37.120 making a decision about what he's going to do with 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:43.280 his brothers who betrayed him, who are now kneeling before him, 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:49.600 begging him be good to us. Remember they haven't changed, 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:56.080 because they are still lying to him, saying, your dad 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:59.880 wanted you to forgive us. It was Dad's idea, it was. 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.840 That's like staff members who say, Pastor wants you to 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:04.600 be on time? Pastor, do I want you to be 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:06.800 on time? God wants you to be on time? Not 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.040 to do it pastor. But they did that, and so 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.880 have you ever been here? He is having to forgive them, 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:16.840 but they are still doing the thing that hurt him. 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:19.160 It's one thing to forgive him. And they've been dead 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.680 twenty three years. It's one thing to forgive them. And 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.680 they moved to Alabama, and now that they're living in 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.920 another country, I mean another state, you don't ever have 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:32.080 to see him again. But now he's having to deal 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:36.080 with it in the face of his present. He's having 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.840 to make a decision about his future. Let's go you ready. 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:42.880 When Joseph's brothers verse fifteen saw that their father was dead, 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.760 they said, when they saw that their father was dead, 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:50.440 they said, come back to that in a minute. What 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.360 if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:55.360 back for all the wrongs we did to him. So 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:59.000 they sent word to Joseph, say it, your father left 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.920 these instructions before he died. I can't resist telling you this. 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.120 I want to save it, but I can't. He already 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:11.480 heard from his father in chapter forty nine. He doesn't 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:16.240 need a second hand explanation of what his father said 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:22.199 from his dysfunctional brothers. That's why I'm glad. I have 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.600 direct access to God. I have a direct line to Heaven. 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.399 I have a direct connection to the heart of my father. 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.679 He knipped me together, made me, stitch me, and sustains me. 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.840 So I know what he said, so I'll have to 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.880 hear it secondhand. That means you don't get to dilute 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.000 it or pollute it, or mix it up or twist it, 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.000 because I know what he said, because he told me. 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.200 Verse seventeen. This is what you are to say to Joseph. 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.679 I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.080 wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now, please 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:05.479 forgive the sins of the servant of the God of 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:07.080 your father. And he didn't even have the guts to 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.719 do it face to face. They sent a messenger, and 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:17.520 when their message came to him, Joseph wept. Remember he 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:23.480 noticed his emotions, but he was not controlled by his emotions. 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:28.440 That's where you've got to get That's where I've got 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:33.200 to get that you notice the emotions if you want 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:38.280 to be free, but you are not controlled by the emotions. 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.639 Being controlled by your emotions will always limit your future 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.359 to the level of your feelings. So you will only 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.600 do what's right if you feel like doing what's right. Oh, 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.879 I just wasn't feeling it today. Well, those are the 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:59.920 times to faith it all right. So I didn't place 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.800 my feelings in Christ. I placed my faith in Cross, 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:07.920 who's greater than my feelings. And Joseph said, after he 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.840 finished weeping, they came and said, we are your slaves. 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.680 And he said to them Verse nineteen, don't be afraid. 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:20.240 Am I in the place of God? Obvious answers no. 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:25.520 But now to the naked eye, he kind of is 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.119 because he's so powerful at this point in his life. 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.840 He's not the little brother that they picked on anymore. 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:41.160 This boy is so blessed that they didn't even recognize him. 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:43.200 The first trip they made to Egypt to get food, 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:50.000 he stood right in front of them, dressed in Pharaoh's coat, 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:53.359 not the one his father gave him. The one that 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:55.879 they stripped from him was still in the house of 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.640 the Father. But God always has a coat for me somewhere. 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:04.600 If I I keep my character, somebody say, my future 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:08.760 is my focus. So if I keep my character, you 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.119 can have my coat. If I keep my sense of 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:14.640 who I am, I can go through things that would 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:19.680 have killed somebody else's character. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:21.520 yeah yea yeah, yea yeah yeah. This is the word. 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.360 This is the word. This is the word, and this 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.240 is the verse that we focused on last week. And 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:31.120 I'm gonna break it down again. He said, you intended 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:38.800 to harm me, but God intended it for good to 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:41.920 accomplish what is now being done, saving them any life. 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:43.959 All right, So I want to illustrate this, all right, 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:52.000 who can I use? I need three strong men, three 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:58.040 strong brothers. I need three. There we go, we'll do that. 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:02.600 One two three, perfect, perfect perfect. Now I want you'll 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:04.200 you'll come on up here and help me. This will 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:06.000 be fun. This will be fun because I want you 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:08.960 to see it like last week when I got on 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.359 my knees in that sermon that wasn't for a show, 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:16.639 that was so that the word of God, that you 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:18.760 could carry it forward so that it would have an 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.280 imprint in your life and you could ask the question, 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:25.000 am I in the position to make the decision? Or 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:26.600 am I letting my pain get the best of me? 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.520 So okay, So y'all line up from strongest to weakest, 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:33.040 Come on, now, come on out, coming it right here, 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:35.359 from strongest to weakest. Come on, come on, come in, 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:41.800 come here, from strongest to weakest. All these campus fasters now, 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:44.280 all right, so so stand up. I'm done with that, im. 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:46.600 It's just a different image. I did that last week. 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:49.920 That was last week. Y'all watch it online YouTube dot com. 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:54.440 Put put the strongest. I want the strongest one on 0:21:54.480 --> 0:22:01.640 that side and the weakest one on this side. That's 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:07.120 how you want it, weakest, strongest, weakest. What did I say, 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:12.560 which one on which side? Huh, you're the strongest, You're strongest. 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:16.240 I want. I think I want the strongest, the close. Well, no, 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:20.479 you're the strongest. I'm mixed up weakest. All right, we'll 0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:23.920 start with you. We're gonna call him I did this 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:27.960 last week, but now let me illustrate it. Let's call 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:38.720 him bad bad Jeff Bates. Let's call him bad to 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:42.160 represent not that he's bad, the bad things that happened 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.840 in Joseph's life. Remember, you meant it to harm me, 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:50.760 You intended it for evil. So let's say he's the 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:53.959 bad thing. What I endeavor for you to see today 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:57.440 is that, at this point in Joseph's life, when something 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:00.960 bad happens to you, when's thing bad is done to 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:09.600 you when the bad thing is because of you, all 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:11.800 of it, all of it. I'm trying to get you 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:16.080 to see that all things fall under the sovereignty of God. 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:20.040 Say sovereignty. You don't have to spell it, put it 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:24.000 in the chat, just say it, sovereignty. The sovereignty eye 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:28.480 before you had sovereignty, got a g in it. Sovereignty. 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:34.159 It means that God uses sinful men to accomplish saving purposes. 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:38.080 That's the whole book of Genesis in a nutshell, that 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:43.720 God uses sinful women to accomplish saving purposes. You intended 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:47.080 to harm me. God intended it for good, for the 0:23:47.240 --> 0:23:53.560 saving salvation of many lives. So sovereignty salvation. But it 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:55.880 was bad, and we said last week that that's so important. 0:23:56.080 --> 0:23:59.119 It was bad. Now, if Joseph spends the rest of 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:02.000 his life, he says fifty twenty. If he spends the 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:07.320 rest of his life in the first part of this sentence, 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:13.080 if he spends the rest of his life, I'm looking 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:15.120 for you. There, there you are. If he spends the 0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:18.000 rest of his life in the first part of this sentence, 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:22.520 you intended to harm me, Then the bad thing that 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:29.800 happened becomes just link arms becomes a chain to who 0:24:29.800 --> 0:24:34.359 he blames for it. Check your blame, you intended to 0:24:34.359 --> 0:24:37.960 harm me. And then he starts name checking him, Ruben Simeon, 0:24:38.560 --> 0:24:42.240 Isa Car, you rob bone donkey. He starts calling the names. 0:24:42.520 --> 0:24:44.920 He didn't call is a raw bone donkey. And I'm 0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:46.440 not one hundred percent sure it was Isa Car that 0:24:46.520 --> 0:24:48.600 he called a rob boone donkey. So somebody's fact checking 0:24:48.640 --> 0:24:50.440 me right now. But he didn't. He didn't call any 0:24:50.440 --> 0:24:52.879 of them it was good. It was is Car. He 0:24:52.880 --> 0:24:57.720 didn't call him that good app He could have spent 0:24:57.840 --> 0:24:59.840 the rest of his life put it back up p 0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:05.920 describing how they harmed him. Such a small thing to say, 0:25:06.160 --> 0:25:12.120 harm me? How much? How much time do you get 0:25:12.160 --> 0:25:14.479 to that? Because I'm telling you keep your arms light. 0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:18.120 Some of us would have spent the next fifty five 0:25:18.240 --> 0:25:24.120 years describing the first part of that sentence. And let 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:27.120 me tell you what it was like. First, I had 0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:29.800 to go down to I had to go down and 0:25:29.840 --> 0:25:32.600 be enslaved by the Midianites. I was picked up by 0:25:32.600 --> 0:25:34.680 the caravan. I was shoved in the back. He would 0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:36.840 have spent the rest of his life if he would, 0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:38.760 because if you start there, then you got to talk 0:25:38.760 --> 0:25:41.720 about and then I excelled in the house of Potterphar, 0:25:41.760 --> 0:25:45.160 who I served, But then his wife was crazy and 0:25:45.200 --> 0:25:47.159 his wife was kept on trying to get with me. 0:25:47.520 --> 0:25:49.680 And I mean, who can blame her? I am well 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:52.000 built and handsome. The Bible says that The Bible says 0:25:52.040 --> 0:25:54.400 that he was well built and handsome. He was well 0:25:54.440 --> 0:25:57.200 built and handsome, but he he didn't go into any 0:25:57.280 --> 0:26:00.440 details about Potterphar's house. He didn't go into any details 0:26:00.440 --> 0:26:04.159 about what happened after Potiphar's house, which was prison. He 0:26:04.160 --> 0:26:07.280 didn't go into any details about being forgotten in prison 0:26:07.480 --> 0:26:12.119 when he was the key to one man's freedom. He 0:26:12.160 --> 0:26:15.119 didn't rehearse the lack of reciprocation. Now coming to the 0:26:15.160 --> 0:26:17.560 story with me, coming to don't just don't just sit there. 0:26:17.600 --> 0:26:20.879 I know Jeff and Chedd are handsome together, you know, 0:26:21.119 --> 0:26:24.119 like that and all that, But I want you to 0:26:24.160 --> 0:26:37.760 see yourself shaned to whatever you blame. You gave your 0:26:37.800 --> 0:26:43.000 power away. You gave your power away, because now watch 0:26:43.160 --> 0:26:44.960 try to get away from chet Ah. It's not gonna 0:26:44.960 --> 0:26:48.679 be that easy. It's not gonna be that easy. You 0:26:48.880 --> 0:26:52.480 are now this creates what we called last week the 0:26:52.760 --> 0:26:57.560 shame of events that could have defined Joseph's life. You 0:26:57.560 --> 0:27:01.280 feel me. Oh, and even even sometimes I think you 0:27:01.320 --> 0:27:06.960 can blame yourself and think that that is somehow honoring 0:27:07.000 --> 0:27:14.640 to God. I thought you weren't God. Telling God you're 0:27:14.680 --> 0:27:21.280 worthless is an insult to the word that he spoke 0:27:21.359 --> 0:27:25.560 over you. And it is the opposite of worshiping God 0:27:26.080 --> 0:27:28.920 to tell him how worthless you are, because the focus 0:27:29.000 --> 0:27:35.320 is on you. So watch this, Watch this. This is 0:27:35.359 --> 0:27:38.520 a chain and what it becomes is terrible, but it 0:27:38.560 --> 0:27:44.840 becomes bitterness. And now you got bondage. Walk with it 0:27:44.880 --> 0:27:47.879 for me. In your own life, something bad happens. Oh, 0:27:48.080 --> 0:27:50.960 that's horrible. I didn't get to finish because of them. 0:27:51.080 --> 0:27:53.199 They weren't there for me. I mean, if we just 0:27:53.320 --> 0:27:56.320 named everything that's in this room, forget about all over 0:27:56.359 --> 0:27:59.119 the world. If we just named everything that's in this room, 0:27:59.440 --> 0:28:02.200 if we name everything bad that happened in this room, 0:28:02.520 --> 0:28:07.080 I wouldn't get to preach another sermon until twenty sixty four, 0:28:08.359 --> 0:28:10.720 all right, I wouldn't get to preach. And if we 0:28:10.760 --> 0:28:13.720 spent the rest of this day, we would still over 0:28:13.800 --> 0:28:18.440 into tomorrow. And then Yet Joseph, after after everything he's 0:28:18.480 --> 0:28:22.960 been through Genesis fifty twenty. Put it on the screen. 0:28:23.920 --> 0:28:27.760 You intended to harm me, And that's all he said 0:28:27.760 --> 0:28:38.400 about that. That's freedom. He wouldn't denial either, because he 0:28:38.480 --> 0:28:42.280 still wept. There was a process. He didn't say it 0:28:42.320 --> 0:28:45.280 the next day. He didn't say it in the pit, 0:28:45.360 --> 0:28:47.320 he didn't say it in the back of the caravan 0:28:47.600 --> 0:28:52.240 as he's being sold in chained. But at some point 0:28:53.360 --> 0:29:06.920 his perspective became, But God, so you break it with 0:29:07.000 --> 0:29:14.080 a butt. Let me show you again, y'all. I got 0:29:14.120 --> 0:29:17.720 the I got the remedial class, the summer school. In 0:29:17.800 --> 0:29:21.640 here today, I'm gonna show you again. You intended to 0:29:21.720 --> 0:29:26.520 harm me. That was bad. Now I could blame you, 0:29:26.680 --> 0:29:29.240 I could be bitter about it, and I could spend 0:29:29.240 --> 0:29:34.280 the rest of my life. But God, show you again, 0:29:34.280 --> 0:29:37.920 show you again, get back together. Let me show you again. 0:29:38.800 --> 0:29:43.760 Let me show you till you see yourself interrupting what 0:29:43.960 --> 0:29:47.600 the enemy said to destroy you. And you could break 0:29:47.640 --> 0:29:53.120 it with a butt. God, you can break it. So 0:29:53.400 --> 0:29:56.760 so I'm looking now. Now I'm looking. My future is 0:29:56.800 --> 0:30:00.960 my focus. So I'm looking for everything in my life 0:30:01.160 --> 0:30:04.800 that has me in bondage, and I'm looking to put 0:30:04.960 --> 0:30:09.160 a butt right here to see what God is gonna 0:30:09.160 --> 0:30:14.320 do next. I need thirty of doll I need thirty 0:30:14.400 --> 0:30:21.000 people in a Hammond B three to praise God, not 0:30:21.240 --> 0:30:24.280 no power to break it. He's say, in your praise, 0:30:24.920 --> 0:30:32.040 in your perspective, in your purpose, get together. That's how 0:30:32.080 --> 0:30:35.760 you break a chain. That's how they left me. But 0:30:35.960 --> 0:30:41.120 God has somebody else for me. They hurt me, but 0:30:41.200 --> 0:30:45.440 God healed me. He's healing me right now. Somebody's saying 0:30:45.520 --> 0:30:49.080 in the chat, but God, but God, I feel like 0:30:49.200 --> 0:30:53.960 preaching in this room today wright. God is breaking saying, 0:30:54.440 --> 0:30:58.880 I'm serious enough. You can break it with a foot 0:31:00.200 --> 0:31:04.280 in our sin. But God, you meant it for evil. 0:31:04.560 --> 0:31:08.680 But dah, the weapon was formed against me, but it 0:31:08.840 --> 0:31:15.160 didn't prosper because I'm still breathing, living, balking, dunking oven. 0:31:15.720 --> 0:31:29.840 But God, by God, but God, but God, Bah, break 0:31:29.880 --> 0:31:34.600 that thing. I can break that thing. You break it 0:31:34.680 --> 0:31:38.600 before it breaks you. You hear me, You break it 0:31:38.720 --> 0:31:43.680 before it breaks you. So start interrupting yourself and start 0:31:43.800 --> 0:31:46.840 you'll go, y'all go sit down. I almost played Red Rover, 0:31:46.920 --> 0:31:52.240 Red Rover, Sin Joseph right over who Red Rover, Red Rover, 0:31:55.240 --> 0:31:59.160 Red Rover, Red Rover. Y'all didn't play that game. Uh, 0:32:00.280 --> 0:32:07.680 y'all play the blame game, the blame game, the blame game. Yeah, man, 0:32:07.720 --> 0:32:10.040 I'll tell you. Let me talk to the staff for 0:32:10.040 --> 0:32:11.800 a minute. I'll be right back with the whole church 0:32:12.200 --> 0:32:18.200 if my supervisor would let me. But you didn't do 0:32:18.240 --> 0:32:21.440 the last thing they ask you. I'm gonna leave y'all alone. 0:32:21.480 --> 0:32:24.560 I promise, I promise. I'm going on my summer break soon. 0:32:24.640 --> 0:32:26.520 Y'all won't have to put up with me for a while. 0:32:27.960 --> 0:32:33.200 But I want you to begin. Let's get very practical 0:32:33.480 --> 0:32:40.400 to interrupt your self, defeating God, dethroning self talk with 0:32:40.480 --> 0:32:44.600 a butt And when you say but, it signals to 0:32:44.680 --> 0:32:51.720 your brain we're moving on. We're changing the focus, because 0:32:51.760 --> 0:32:59.440 my focus is my future. They say you can't change 0:32:59.520 --> 0:33:04.760 the past. That's not true. Certainly you can't reconstruct the events. 0:33:04.800 --> 0:33:06.920 But do you really think you remember it exactly as 0:33:06.960 --> 0:33:11.440 it was? And do you really believe that you are 0:33:11.480 --> 0:33:13.000 at the point in your life when you can fully 0:33:13.080 --> 0:33:17.840 understand why it happened how it happened. When the Bible 0:33:17.840 --> 0:33:20.080 says the Lord was with Joseph, I want you to 0:33:20.160 --> 0:33:27.160 understand that was written years after, decades after the events 0:33:27.480 --> 0:33:36.120 had transpired, after he wept forgave, wept forgave, wept forgave, 0:33:36.720 --> 0:33:39.840 wept forgave, And you have to do that sometime and 0:33:40.000 --> 0:33:42.360 every time you find yourself stuck in that first part 0:33:42.680 --> 0:33:46.040 you intended. I sometimes see these things and I don't 0:33:46.080 --> 0:33:48.400 show them like I should put Verse twenty back up. 0:33:48.720 --> 0:33:55.320 But God, that's how you break the chain. That's how 0:33:55.360 --> 0:33:59.520 you get set free to live beyond your feelings. That's 0:33:59.560 --> 0:34:03.680 how you break it. Addiction, not just forgiveness, bitterness, blame. 0:34:04.680 --> 0:34:07.000 That's how you break any cycle in your life. You 0:34:07.000 --> 0:34:13.040 have got to interrupt it every time it happens, even 0:34:13.080 --> 0:34:16.000 if you weep five times to get there. Every time, 0:34:16.040 --> 0:34:21.440 if you weep five, you worship five. If the enemy 0:34:21.480 --> 0:34:30.920 attacks five, you interrupt five. But God intended it for 0:34:31.040 --> 0:34:38.000 good to accomplish. Ah Ah, what is now being done? 0:34:38.360 --> 0:34:41.239 I thought we were appreciate about the future. Well, the 0:34:41.280 --> 0:34:46.200 only way that you can affect the future is to 0:34:46.200 --> 0:34:51.600 be faithful. Right now, let me give it to you 0:34:51.680 --> 0:34:54.839 like this. Everything God wants to do next in your 0:34:54.840 --> 0:34:57.040 life is connected to what He is calling you to 0:34:57.080 --> 0:35:03.520 do now. It took Joseph's attitude in the prison to 0:35:03.680 --> 0:35:08.640 interpret someone else's dreams while he himself was still in 0:35:08.680 --> 0:35:11.319 a dungeon to bring him to the place where he 0:35:11.320 --> 0:35:13.480 could be everything God called him to be, and not 0:35:13.560 --> 0:35:17.319 just for himself, but for others. Because some of the 0:35:17.320 --> 0:35:23.600 things that you're fighting with are not for you, they 0:35:23.960 --> 0:35:29.520 are for your children. I don't have children yet. No, 0:35:29.640 --> 0:35:31.759 I'm not talking about I'm not talking about your view 0:35:31.800 --> 0:35:34.680 of things. I'm talking about God's view of things. He 0:35:34.760 --> 0:35:40.879 already sees them at six foot two and you're only sixteen. Yeah, 0:35:41.000 --> 0:35:45.160 that's how God works, right. So he says I had 0:35:45.160 --> 0:35:47.600 plans to give you a hope in a future. And 0:35:47.640 --> 0:35:51.399 when we say, but God, I just think about how 0:35:51.400 --> 0:35:55.719 this needs to operate in my life when I'm saying hm, 0:35:57.080 --> 0:36:02.360 when I'm saying and the church now is not what 0:36:02.480 --> 0:36:08.960 it was before the pandemic. But God brought people into 0:36:09.040 --> 0:36:13.359 our church through the pandemic that would have never even 0:36:13.400 --> 0:36:18.760 gone to church if there were not a pandemic. Because 0:36:20.280 --> 0:36:23.000 if you just let the enemy attack you, attack you, 0:36:23.120 --> 0:36:25.480 and you don't learn to interrupt him, it just strengthens 0:36:25.520 --> 0:36:32.520 the chain. It becomes bondage. Your belief becomes your bondage, 0:36:34.080 --> 0:36:38.080 your belief that was Joseph's belief. God is using this 0:36:38.560 --> 0:36:41.880 for good and everything that I went through that wasn't 0:36:41.960 --> 0:36:45.000 good when God, I don't know if you've ever heard 0:36:45.040 --> 0:36:48.160 a preacher say God will work it out. That's cool. 0:36:48.400 --> 0:36:51.520 Let me give you one better. God will work it in. 0:36:54.200 --> 0:36:58.560 God will work it in. Whatever happens to you, God 0:36:58.640 --> 0:37:01.800 will work it in. One time, I was preaching about 0:37:01.960 --> 0:37:04.560 the woman who worshiped Jesus, and I was talking about 0:37:04.760 --> 0:37:07.280 how she poured it on his feet, how she poured 0:37:07.320 --> 0:37:09.600 the oil on his feet to annoy him, and how 0:37:09.640 --> 0:37:12.120 everybody thought it was a waste. And I was preaching 0:37:12.160 --> 0:37:13.879 so hard. It was only about one hundred and fifty 0:37:13.880 --> 0:37:15.480 people in the room, not even this many who are 0:37:15.480 --> 0:37:17.800 here with the staff today. It was about one hundred 0:37:17.840 --> 0:37:20.320 and fifty people in the room. But I was preaching 0:37:20.360 --> 0:37:22.640 so hard, man, because I don't just preach big when 0:37:22.640 --> 0:37:27.640 the crowd's big. I don't just do it big when 0:37:27.680 --> 0:37:30.520 a lot of people are watching. Never did ask Holly. 0:37:31.000 --> 0:37:33.040 When we travel go, I don't do everything right. But 0:37:33.080 --> 0:37:36.640 I've always been passionate about this. I used to travel 0:37:36.800 --> 0:37:40.960 to little, tiny little churches, tiny little crowds, and the 0:37:40.960 --> 0:37:44.680 first place we would stop was Walmart, and go to 0:37:44.719 --> 0:37:46.960 the Walmart in that town, and I would buy a 0:37:47.040 --> 0:37:50.239 mirror for five dollars and ninety seven cents out in 0:37:50.239 --> 0:37:52.320 my pocket because they didn't pay for it out of 0:37:52.320 --> 0:37:54.840 the ministry fund at the college ministry team that we 0:37:54.840 --> 0:37:57.080 were interning with, So we would go to the walmart. 0:37:57.160 --> 0:37:59.279 I knew exactly what i'le I had to find the 0:37:59.280 --> 0:38:01.719 mirror on. I would get the mirror and I'd stand 0:38:01.800 --> 0:38:04.239 up and preach to those kids, and I've had a 0:38:04.239 --> 0:38:06.400 hammer in the van, and I'd start preaching about the 0:38:06.440 --> 0:38:08.719 image of God, and I'd hold up the mirror and 0:38:08.760 --> 0:38:12.440 I was then a get real condemnation oriented, and I'd 0:38:12.440 --> 0:38:15.359 take the mirror and I start smashing the mirror. And 0:38:15.440 --> 0:38:18.640 I did it all the way until a kid got 0:38:18.640 --> 0:38:20.920 a piece of mirror in his eye, and the parents 0:38:20.960 --> 0:38:23.400 almost sued me. But I prayed, and the Lord is faithful, 0:38:23.480 --> 0:38:27.120 all right, But so don't I don't preach, And you 0:38:27.160 --> 0:38:32.640 need to start. You need to stop waiting for it 0:38:36.200 --> 0:38:41.239 to discover what God has put in you, because if 0:38:41.239 --> 0:38:42.759 you don't have it in the prison, you won't have 0:38:42.800 --> 0:38:50.360 it in the palace. And I was preaching with a 0:38:50.400 --> 0:38:54.120 worship night and I was flailing my arms and my 0:38:54.600 --> 0:38:58.480 water fell over I was so embarrassed my water falls 0:38:58.480 --> 0:39:00.600 and spills, and it totally broke the flow my message 0:39:01.440 --> 0:39:07.440 until I realized, don't cry over spilt water. Work it in. 0:39:09.360 --> 0:39:11.879 And since I happened to be preaching about the woman 0:39:11.920 --> 0:39:15.200 who poured out or oil, the image kind of fig 0:39:15.200 --> 0:39:17.799 because it was fluid, you know, And so if you 0:39:17.880 --> 0:39:20.040 stay fluid like that, you got to be fluid in 0:39:20.080 --> 0:39:22.400 those moments. You got to be fluid in those moments. 0:39:22.520 --> 0:39:24.319 You got to be fluid in those moments. And all 0:39:24.360 --> 0:39:26.920 of a sudden, I said, just like that, water hit 0:39:27.000 --> 0:39:29.799 that ground, and y'all are all wondering if I did 0:39:29.840 --> 0:39:32.640 it on purpose. Some of the things in your life 0:39:32.640 --> 0:39:35.799 that you're wondering, is this on purpose? You've got to 0:39:35.800 --> 0:39:38.600 turn it to worship. And other people will see it 0:39:38.640 --> 0:39:42.160 as a waste, but you got to turn it into worship. Hey, y'all, 0:39:44.560 --> 0:39:50.880 when I say, when I say, that was better than 0:39:50.920 --> 0:39:56.160 any illustration I ever could have planned, because I worked 0:39:56.160 --> 0:40:01.080 it in. And Joseph MA message to you today is 0:40:01.120 --> 0:40:07.680 not gotta work it out. Just future is your focus. 0:40:07.960 --> 0:40:12.319 God'll do it later, God'll send it when you need it. No, no, no, no, no, 0:40:13.080 --> 0:40:17.360 he said, it is what is now being done this 0:40:17.440 --> 0:40:21.000 season of your life, this moment of your marriage, this 0:40:21.080 --> 0:40:24.480 moment of your ministry, this moment of your business, this 0:40:24.520 --> 0:40:27.000 moment in your heart, this moment where you're deciding, am 0:40:27.040 --> 0:40:29.880 I going to go see a counselor or not? Am 0:40:29.920 --> 0:40:32.520 I going to work through this or not? Am I 0:40:32.520 --> 0:40:36.600 going to keep repeating these same powerless patterns? Am I 0:40:36.600 --> 0:40:40.000 going to take my power back? You said, well, no, 0:40:40.040 --> 0:40:42.160 I don't have power. God has power, right, And in 0:40:42.239 --> 0:40:44.919 Acts one eight, he said, you will receive power when 0:40:44.920 --> 0:40:48.480 the Holy Spirit comes on you, but you give your 0:40:48.520 --> 0:40:55.160 power away every time you stay focused on what happened. 0:40:57.000 --> 0:41:03.319 Genesis fifty twety is good. Oh, we could stay here 0:41:03.360 --> 0:41:06.680 all day, but we got to move. Genesis fifty twenty. 0:41:07.000 --> 0:41:11.160 You intended to harm me. You can change the past 0:41:11.400 --> 0:41:13.879 this way. I told Jared right before I came out. 0:41:13.880 --> 0:41:16.200 This came to me. Put harm on the board, Put 0:41:16.200 --> 0:41:18.200 harm on the center screen, and zoom out so everyone 0:41:18.200 --> 0:41:22.959 can see it. Oh, it's coming on that screen. That's right, Jared, 0:41:22.960 --> 0:41:24.640 I forgot. We did it like that. There it is, 0:41:24.640 --> 0:41:29.200 there is there is. You intended to harm me. Okay, 0:41:29.200 --> 0:41:31.560 so let me break this down. I hope this makes 0:41:31.560 --> 0:41:33.680 sense because it's a lot. He was putting on my mic, 0:41:33.719 --> 0:41:38.400 and I told him to do this. You can change 0:41:39.480 --> 0:41:44.960 the meaning of that by what you put after it. 0:41:46.480 --> 0:42:05.400 Put the letter O in Why what comes after that? 0:42:08.280 --> 0:42:14.440 What comes after that? And now you will be reminded 0:42:14.480 --> 0:42:17.880 of the New Testament companion verse of Genesis fifty twenty. 0:42:18.280 --> 0:42:24.360 All things work together. What's harmony? What's harmony? What's harmony? 0:42:24.400 --> 0:42:27.920 What's harmony? What's harmony? It's when I take one note, 0:42:27.960 --> 0:42:30.200 play one note, play one note, and when I take 0:42:30.239 --> 0:42:33.680 another note, and it's not the same note. But when 0:42:33.680 --> 0:42:39.000 I put them together together, together, together, together, together together. 0:42:39.200 --> 0:42:44.280 You hear this. You have got to let God bring 0:42:44.600 --> 0:42:53.160 this thing together, because it's what comes after the attack. 0:42:53.880 --> 0:42:56.080 He said, he said, let me tell you what Jacob said. 0:42:56.120 --> 0:42:57.879 Let me tell what Jacob said about Joseph. He said, 0:42:58.000 --> 0:43:03.160 he is a fruitful vine. Somebody say, fruitful vine, A 0:43:03.280 --> 0:43:08.520 fruitful vine, a fruitful vine who climbed over a wall. 0:43:10.040 --> 0:43:15.160 He climbed over a wall, He climbed over a wall. 0:43:15.960 --> 0:43:20.640 I wonder what wall you think is stopping God from 0:43:20.719 --> 0:43:24.520 doing what he's doing in your life? Right now, give 0:43:24.560 --> 0:43:26.520 me my verse again in Genesis forty nine. I got 0:43:26.600 --> 0:43:29.840 to show you this. He's a fruitful vine who climbed 0:43:29.840 --> 0:43:32.239 over a wall. So question, are you going to be 0:43:32.360 --> 0:43:37.560 defined by what stood against you or how you got 0:43:37.560 --> 0:43:45.879 over it? I'll tell you something right now. I want 0:43:45.920 --> 0:43:48.200 to find out what's on the other side of the wall. 0:43:49.400 --> 0:43:52.960 Because people don't put off walls unless they're concerned about 0:43:53.040 --> 0:43:56.879 something on the other side. So whatever the devil has 0:43:56.920 --> 0:44:00.719 been fighting you with, I just wonder why he's so 0:44:00.960 --> 0:44:04.920 threatened and worried about you getting through it. What's on 0:44:05.080 --> 0:44:08.160 the other side. It's what I want to find out 0:44:08.600 --> 0:44:13.279 for Joseph. For Joseph, he saved the whole nation, He 0:44:13.480 --> 0:44:18.160 preserved his entire family and posterity, And I wonder what's 0:44:18.200 --> 0:44:22.880 on the other side of your wall. Now, we probably 0:44:22.880 --> 0:44:27.040 wouldn't have called Joseph a vine, would we by our definitions, 0:44:27.120 --> 0:44:30.120 Because you know, we live in the days where everybody 0:44:30.160 --> 0:44:34.080 gets a trophy, everybody gets a ribon everybody. Oh, I'm 0:44:34.120 --> 0:44:36.640 so sorry. You didn't get what you wanted. You didn't 0:44:36.680 --> 0:44:39.479 get your seat, you didn't get your opportunity, you didn't 0:44:39.480 --> 0:44:41.399 get to serve where you want to serve. You didn't 0:44:41.400 --> 0:44:43.719 get the feedback you wanted. Nobody told me it was good. 0:44:43.840 --> 0:44:45.640 So if we had been Jacob, think of how we 0:44:45.640 --> 0:44:47.640 would have spoke to Joseph, because he's going through their 0:44:47.680 --> 0:44:49.960 life and he's defining their life as their father, and 0:44:50.000 --> 0:44:52.160 he's saying some things to each of them. So Genesis 0:44:52.280 --> 0:44:54.799 forty nine, twenty two, he gets to Joseph, you raw 0:44:54.880 --> 0:44:57.640 boned donkey, you snake by the road, talking to all 0:44:57.640 --> 0:44:59.040 out of the brothers, he gets to Joseph. He's a 0:44:59.480 --> 0:45:07.640 Joseph a vine. But I thought he was a victim. 0:45:07.680 --> 0:45:11.640 But his father called him a vine. But he was 0:45:11.680 --> 0:45:16.120 a victim. But he was a vine. But he was 0:45:16.160 --> 0:45:20.840 a victim. And what made him a vine was what 0:45:20.960 --> 0:45:29.200 he climbed over. You ready, what he climbed over and 0:45:29.280 --> 0:45:35.239 what he brought forth. Because he's not just any vine. 0:45:35.440 --> 0:45:42.319 He's a fruitful vibe. Tell somebody I got something to give. No, 0:45:42.640 --> 0:45:46.719 I'm not just surviving for me. I've got something special. 0:45:47.040 --> 0:45:50.280 I've got something to give. It will be the fruit 0:45:50.320 --> 0:45:54.280 of what I've been through that will preserve my purpose. 0:45:56.520 --> 0:46:00.960 Sitting next to a fruitful vine. Wow, look at that fruit. 0:46:01.160 --> 0:46:03.719 Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. And he's not 0:46:03.880 --> 0:46:06.480 just a vine. He doesn't just talk about a wall 0:46:07.880 --> 0:46:12.200 and he doesn't really describe the wall. I love it. Yeah, 0:46:12.320 --> 0:46:15.719 he care what kind of wall doesn't matter, matters more 0:46:15.719 --> 0:46:17.359 what the vine was made of than what the wall 0:46:17.440 --> 0:46:27.360 was made of. And because listen, this is this is 0:46:27.400 --> 0:46:31.280 the this is the meaning of a fruitful vine, because 0:46:31.360 --> 0:46:40.399 you are abiding in Christ, because you are choosing and 0:46:40.520 --> 0:46:46.640 deciding to focus on what He is doing, not what 0:46:46.760 --> 0:46:50.640 you have been through, but what you are bringing forth. 0:46:52.320 --> 0:46:56.040 And that's how you interrupted with a butt. Well that 0:46:56.160 --> 0:46:58.520 was horrible, but God was there with us. Did you 0:46:58.520 --> 0:47:02.239 ever watch somebody die in it? Horrible, but there was 0:47:02.239 --> 0:47:07.040 a grace that was almost more reel than the air 0:47:07.120 --> 0:47:10.880 that you breathed. And you almost feel sorry for the 0:47:10.920 --> 0:47:15.240 people who weren't there because of the grace that grew 0:47:16.000 --> 0:47:20.120 from the grief of that moment. That's what I mean 0:47:20.160 --> 0:47:23.520 by interrupting it with a butt, That's what I mean. 0:47:24.640 --> 0:47:28.120 So that you don't stay chained to the way things 0:47:28.200 --> 0:47:33.160 went down, so that you don't stay chained to what 0:47:33.239 --> 0:47:37.440 other people called you. The only reason that Joseph was 0:47:37.520 --> 0:47:41.319 able to do what he did in chapter fifty is 0:47:41.360 --> 0:47:46.560 because of what his father said in Genesis forty nine. 0:47:47.120 --> 0:47:49.279 She got to hear it firsthand from your father. Some 0:47:49.320 --> 0:47:51.839 of you didn't have an earthly father who told you this. 0:47:53.360 --> 0:47:56.080 So now God is speaking this over you. You're more 0:47:56.120 --> 0:48:00.840 than a conqueror. You're an overcomer. Is he that is 0:48:00.840 --> 0:48:07.920 in you? Then the wall that is in the world. 0:48:07.960 --> 0:48:13.640 Climb or die? Climb or die. You turn around the 0:48:13.640 --> 0:48:16.120 first wall you see, the first rejection, you get, the 0:48:16.160 --> 0:48:21.320 first know you here, the first relapse you turn around, 0:48:22.320 --> 0:48:25.320 he said, Joseph climbed over stuff that would have killed others. 0:48:25.440 --> 0:48:29.239 And by the way, I'm gonna say this, and if 0:48:29.280 --> 0:48:34.080 it was for you, send me a message. It's almost 0:48:34.080 --> 0:48:38.279 impossible to climb over something while you're complaining about it. 0:48:43.400 --> 0:48:46.279 Get it out of your system. Tell who you need 0:48:46.280 --> 0:48:49.239 to tell. But then start climbing and start bringing forth 0:48:49.239 --> 0:48:52.800 what you're supposed to bring forth. And ask the question, 0:48:52.880 --> 0:48:54.279 let me see how I wrote it down in my notes. 0:48:54.320 --> 0:48:55.920 I write all these notes and I never look at them, 0:48:55.920 --> 0:48:59.120 and I try to mess him up. Sometimes it was 0:48:59.120 --> 0:49:04.080 something along the line, not God, why am I going 0:49:04.120 --> 0:49:08.600 through this? But God, what are you bringing forth? Show 0:49:08.680 --> 0:49:11.279 me what you are doing through this that is for 0:49:11.360 --> 0:49:17.200 the benefit of others. Like Paul said, he comforts us 0:49:17.320 --> 0:49:20.719 with the comfort by which others may be comforted. That's 0:49:20.760 --> 0:49:25.040 a generational way of thinking about your faith. Now, faith 0:49:25.120 --> 0:49:32.120 is a fight, ye, faith is a fight. It's a 0:49:32.160 --> 0:49:38.440 fight for focus. It's a fight for focus. Not fighting 0:49:38.440 --> 0:49:41.080 against people. You're not fighting against Reuben and Simeon and all. 0:49:41.400 --> 0:49:45.440 You're fighting for your focus. And it's the fight of 0:49:45.480 --> 0:49:50.720 your life, right because how can God bring it into harmony? 0:49:51.960 --> 0:49:57.200 If you die on the vine? He said, he's a 0:49:57.280 --> 0:50:00.760 vine climbing over a wall. I had a great picture, 0:50:00.840 --> 0:50:04.960 a fruitful vine. You raw boned donkey, you snake by 0:50:05.000 --> 0:50:12.040 the road, You fruitful vine, you fruitful vine. You're gonna 0:50:12.040 --> 0:50:15.200 be defined by what stood against you. The next image 0:50:15.200 --> 0:50:18.600 is cool too. One of those images is kind of pretty, 0:50:19.640 --> 0:50:24.080 and the other one is grisly. I like this grisly image, 0:50:24.239 --> 0:50:27.200 you know what I'm saying. I like this testosterone prophecy 0:50:27.239 --> 0:50:29.960 that he gives it. Give me the next verse twenty 0:50:29.960 --> 0:50:36.120 three with bitterness. Archers attacked him. They shot at him 0:50:36.120 --> 0:50:44.400 with hostility. You intended to harm me. So, when Jacob 0:50:44.440 --> 0:50:47.720 says it's to Joseph before he dies, at the moment 0:50:48.239 --> 0:50:50.920 that Joseph is standing before his brother's making the decision 0:50:50.920 --> 0:50:53.680 about what comes next in his life, He still has 0:50:53.760 --> 0:50:57.440 this picture of the fact that every arrow that was 0:50:57.480 --> 0:51:05.640 shot at him missed. But he went to prison, but 0:51:05.719 --> 0:51:11.880 he didn't take his purpose. But he was thrown in 0:51:11.920 --> 0:51:14.799 a pit, but it didn't take his purpose. That was 0:51:14.840 --> 0:51:16.879 the word that kept comingto my mind when I said 0:51:17.120 --> 0:51:19.960 my future is my focus. I kept thinking about about 0:51:20.040 --> 0:51:25.440 preference and then purpose, and I thought that what Joseph 0:51:25.920 --> 0:51:28.400 was meaning when he said, you hit me with your 0:51:28.400 --> 0:51:31.840 best shot, but it didn't work. You tried to kill me. 0:51:32.080 --> 0:51:35.479 He didn't say it didn't hurt. He said, it didn't 0:51:35.560 --> 0:51:38.680 move me from my purpose. In fact, it was the 0:51:38.880 --> 0:51:43.200 exact thing that God used to bring me to this 0:51:43.480 --> 0:51:48.719 place where I could stand in my purpose and fulfill 0:51:48.920 --> 0:51:53.080 the promise that God gave to the nation. Isn't that awesome? 0:51:53.560 --> 0:51:57.560 So Jacob said, they shot him. They attacked him with bitterness. 0:51:57.920 --> 0:52:00.719 It was their bitterness, not his. He didn't let it in. 0:52:01.560 --> 0:52:03.879 He didn't let it in. They shot it at him, 0:52:03.880 --> 0:52:07.480 but it didn't get in. That's the challenge, y'all. Don't 0:52:07.560 --> 0:52:11.040 let it get in. Don't let it get in. Deal 0:52:11.120 --> 0:52:14.799 with it, acknowledge it, notice it, but do not let 0:52:14.840 --> 0:52:18.799 it define you. Whatever it is, let God work it 0:52:18.840 --> 0:52:22.560 in let God work it in so you could be 0:52:22.680 --> 0:52:24.759 like Joseph. I never shot a bow and arrow in 0:52:24.800 --> 0:52:27.000 my life, so I might look stupid doing this, But 0:52:27.080 --> 0:52:33.359 it said his bow Verse twenty four remained steady and 0:52:33.440 --> 0:52:40.360 his strong arms stayed limber only because the hand of 0:52:40.400 --> 0:52:48.239 the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the 0:52:48.400 --> 0:52:54.600 Rock of Israel. Now I want you to see what 0:52:54.640 --> 0:53:02.319 I saw in the spirit. It's a picture of Joseph, 0:53:02.400 --> 0:53:07.640 through all of the pain that he went through, never 0:53:07.719 --> 0:53:13.040 lost his focus. That's what you do when you aim right. 0:53:15.440 --> 0:53:19.200 You got to focus. You know how heart it is 0:53:19.239 --> 0:53:23.600 to focus when you got everything flying at you. We 0:53:23.640 --> 0:53:27.120 went out on tour a couple weeks ago. Every night 0:53:27.440 --> 0:53:30.520 was such a challenge because it was big rooms. And 0:53:30.560 --> 0:53:33.840 when I preach at our church, everybody's paying attention, taking notes, 0:53:35.200 --> 0:53:40.280 and nobody's bored. Y'all. In those arenas, there are people 0:53:40.320 --> 0:53:44.279 there that are literally praising God with one hand, eating 0:53:44.320 --> 0:53:47.400 popcorn with another, got a chicken finger in their beard, 0:53:47.760 --> 0:53:51.359 and talking about you know, oh God, my God, I 0:53:51.520 --> 0:53:58.080 need you. It's very distracting. And I'm sitting there one night, 0:53:58.120 --> 0:54:00.440 I'm about to preach in a few minutes, and I'm like, God, 0:54:00.440 --> 0:54:02.560 this is so distracting. I can't even focus on the word. 0:54:02.680 --> 0:54:04.040 Look at that guy down there. I think he has 0:54:04.080 --> 0:54:06.400 a beer. They're selling beer. No, they don't sell alcoholic. 0:54:06.600 --> 0:54:15.440 That's it looks like a beer. And I'm a it's 0:54:15.480 --> 0:54:18.440 almost like I'm I'm saying, God, I can't preach with 0:54:18.520 --> 0:54:23.680 all these distractions. And the Lord exactly. The Lord was like, 0:54:26.360 --> 0:54:34.239 whose eyeballs? Who's whose sockets are your eyeballs in? You know, 0:54:34.320 --> 0:54:43.960 at anytime you can stop watching mister chicken fingers. And 0:54:44.000 --> 0:54:47.520 if you look three seats over, look at look at 0:54:47.560 --> 0:54:51.319 those three guys right there, and and and these three big, 0:54:51.440 --> 0:54:54.680 big guys had their arms around each other. I mean big, 0:54:55.080 --> 0:54:59.960 wouldn't it You remember big guys? And I'm like, oh, yea, 0:55:01.600 --> 0:55:10.040 there's way more people worshiping God then sitting here getting 0:55:10.040 --> 0:55:16.480 a snack. But it's up to me to focus on 0:55:16.560 --> 0:55:24.160 what I want more of? Am I doing it close 0:55:24.200 --> 0:55:26.200 to right? I never shot a bow when arrow before? 0:55:26.320 --> 0:55:28.799 Does it look bad? Am I gonna get mean for this? 0:55:30.239 --> 0:55:32.399 I'm just trying to give a picture. When I read 0:55:32.440 --> 0:55:34.640 it, it it said the archers put the verse up. The 0:55:34.760 --> 0:55:38.799 archers shot at him, but his bow remains steady his bow, 0:55:40.200 --> 0:55:44.600 his bow, not their bow. It's not their bow that matters. 0:55:45.960 --> 0:55:49.399 It's not there. If you get that. I know you're 0:55:49.440 --> 0:55:51.520 twenty four, I know you haven't been through a lot 0:55:51.520 --> 0:55:53.520 of life yet. But I'm telling you you can be 0:55:53.560 --> 0:55:55.960 attacked on every side. You can be attacked by everything. 0:55:56.239 --> 0:55:58.279 You can be attacked by the worst thing Hell has 0:55:58.320 --> 0:56:02.040 to throw at you. But if your bow stays steady, 0:56:02.440 --> 0:56:07.279 if your gaze stays on God, if you let me 0:56:07.280 --> 0:56:09.959 give it to you like this, if you point toward 0:56:10.040 --> 0:56:16.600 your purpose, your purpose, your purpose. It's about purpose. It's 0:56:16.640 --> 0:56:21.840 about purpose. It's not about problems. It's about walls and weapons. 0:56:22.160 --> 0:56:25.080 It's about what you climb over. And it's about what 0:56:25.200 --> 0:56:28.239 you focus on. And that is the message God gave 0:56:28.280 --> 0:56:30.480 me to give you, is that he has put a 0:56:30.520 --> 0:56:33.239 hope in a future ahead of you. But you will 0:56:33.280 --> 0:56:38.440 not see this future by watching somebody else's bow. Your future, 0:56:39.000 --> 0:56:43.839 your fruit, your future, your focus. They do what they do, 0:56:44.239 --> 0:56:46.919 They are who they are, They say what they say, 0:56:47.239 --> 0:56:49.839 They go where they go, they leave, when they leave, 0:56:50.080 --> 0:56:53.400 they stay when they stay. They are not God. I 0:56:53.520 --> 0:56:56.799 am not God. He is the Holy One. He is 0:56:56.920 --> 0:57:01.320 my rock. He is not fortress takes my hands strong, 0:57:01.760 --> 0:57:08.800 He teaches my fingers to walk. And all I gotta do, baby, 0:57:09.719 --> 0:57:15.239 is hold that focus and point toward my purpose. To 0:57:15.360 --> 0:57:18.880 know that in all things, the good notes and the 0:57:18.920 --> 0:57:23.080 bad notes work in harmony. You mint it to harm me, 0:57:23.800 --> 0:57:26.640 But God took what you did to harm me. That 0:57:26.880 --> 0:57:30.160 was the bow and shot me to Egypt. I was 0:57:30.240 --> 0:57:34.120 the arrow, and I am where I am, not because 0:57:34.120 --> 0:57:39.600 of the schemes of men or the failed plans, but 0:57:39.760 --> 0:57:45.280 because of the purpose of God. Oh Lord, send this 0:57:45.320 --> 0:57:47.800 word where it's supposed to go today. Send it like 0:57:47.840 --> 0:57:50.800 an arrow flying through the night sky. Send it like 0:57:50.840 --> 0:57:53.240 an arrow. Send it like a weapon that they can 0:57:53.400 --> 0:57:55.760 that they can use against the enemy in the dark 0:57:55.880 --> 0:58:00.520 night of their soul. Send it, Lord, Send You sent 0:58:00.640 --> 0:58:07.920 Joseph ahead of his brothers to Egypt where they sold him. 0:58:09.520 --> 0:58:14.720 You sent him where they sold him. I want to 0:58:14.720 --> 0:58:19.520 bring before you again today, Lord, all of the things 0:58:19.520 --> 0:58:21.160 that are in all of the hearts of all of 0:58:21.200 --> 0:58:25.680 these people that they cannot name. It's too painful to name. 0:58:28.200 --> 0:58:30.240 Some of it they didn't even quite come to terms with. 0:58:30.360 --> 0:58:36.800 Yet they can't even really verbalize it. And yet I 0:58:38.320 --> 0:58:46.680 know that alongside each deep trauma and every breaking disappointment 0:58:46.720 --> 0:58:55.480 and crushing betrayal. There are those little things, those little foxes, 0:58:55.520 --> 0:58:59.680 that spoil the vine. Sometimes the wall that we can't 0:58:59.720 --> 0:59:04.840 climb over is only two inches high. Sometimes it's not 0:59:04.880 --> 0:59:10.360 the height of the wall. Sometimes it's the lack of 0:59:10.400 --> 0:59:19.600 our strength because we are not rooted in you. I 0:59:19.680 --> 0:59:21.720 would pray today, God, that on our staff and in 0:59:21.760 --> 0:59:27.320 our church, that you would raise up Joseph's that even today, 0:59:27.360 --> 0:59:29.280 as I have spoken, that you've been pointing to purpose. 0:59:29.320 --> 0:59:31.440 Now we don't always know what that purpose is. But God, 0:59:32.880 --> 0:59:41.000 we're shifting now from you intended to harm me, and 0:59:41.040 --> 0:59:45.440 we're going to what comes after that comma. But God 0:59:48.040 --> 0:59:50.080 and I thank you that you are using everything that 0:59:50.080 --> 0:59:55.920 they've been through. I speak now to childhood abandonment. I 0:59:55.960 --> 0:59:58.520 speak to the anger that you feel that you can't contain. 0:59:58.680 --> 1:00:04.240 Sometimes I speak to the isolation that is a byproduct 1:00:04.280 --> 1:00:11.560 of your insecurity. There is enough in you to climb 1:00:11.600 --> 1:00:21.240 over it. There is enough in you to climb over it, y'all. 1:00:21.280 --> 1:00:23.360 I don't have to yell to preach a powerful thing. 1:00:23.600 --> 1:00:26.640 And what I just said is worthy of your meditation. 1:00:27.080 --> 1:00:30.760 There is enough in you, the spirit of God, the 1:00:30.800 --> 1:00:34.440 fruit of the spirit. Love is joy, his peace is patience, 1:00:34.480 --> 1:00:38.160 is kindness, is goodness, is faithfulness, it's jealous his self control. 1:00:38.480 --> 1:00:42.800 All of that is yours. And you will receive power. 1:00:44.680 --> 1:00:47.480 Power to get up out of the pit, power to 1:00:47.560 --> 1:00:49.240 do what you were sent to do in the prison, 1:00:49.840 --> 1:00:51.680 power to do what you were intended to do in 1:00:51.680 --> 1:00:55.640 the palace. Power to point toward your purpose in every 1:00:55.680 --> 1:01:01.960 painful season of your life. My focus is my future. 1:01:04.520 --> 1:01:06.560 When I said that title, I intended for you to 1:01:06.600 --> 1:01:09.720 hear it two ways, And one is that you stop 1:01:09.760 --> 1:01:13.920 focusing so much on the bad things that happen and 1:01:13.960 --> 1:01:16.920 blaming people who aren't even here to pay for it anymore, 1:01:18.240 --> 1:01:21.680 and becoming bitter in your own soul, and that you 1:01:21.680 --> 1:01:24.640 would break that chain. But I also meant it as 1:01:24.640 --> 1:01:30.320 a prophecy that the future you experience is going to 1:01:30.360 --> 1:01:36.680 be based on the focus you choose right now. So 1:01:36.720 --> 1:01:39.600 if you don't get some help with this, if you 1:01:39.600 --> 1:01:42.400 don't own it, if you don't submit it to God, 1:01:43.560 --> 1:01:46.080 if you don't get like Joseph and say I will 1:01:46.120 --> 1:01:48.680 provide for you, I will do what I'm supposed to do, 1:01:50.360 --> 1:01:52.280 your future is just going to look like more and 1:01:52.360 --> 1:01:54.760 more of the same frustration you're living in right now. 1:01:54.880 --> 1:01:58.480 But it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't 1:01:58.480 --> 1:02:01.520 have to be that way because the chain breaker is 1:02:01.520 --> 1:02:06.120 in the room. But God, how will you finish the sentence? 1:02:06.760 --> 1:02:10.280 How will you finish the sentence? You know first, the 1:02:10.360 --> 1:02:13.120 first eighteen years of my life were rough, but God 1:02:13.160 --> 1:02:16.960 made them up to me. But God, how will you 1:02:17.000 --> 1:02:20.080 finish the sentence? When you go to prison, they call 1:02:20.120 --> 1:02:26.480 it a prison sentence. And Joseph refuse to stay chained 1:02:26.720 --> 1:02:32.400 one more day. He said, I've been in prison long enough. 1:02:32.400 --> 1:02:35.080 I'm not going back. I'm not going back in my 1:02:35.200 --> 1:02:37.440 memory to the prison that God brought me out of. 1:02:37.480 --> 1:02:41.400 In my reality, I'm moving into my future. That's my focus. 1:02:46.240 --> 1:02:48.960 How can God use what I've been through? Oh, it 1:02:49.000 --> 1:02:52.280 gets glorious when you ask that. And I came to 1:02:52.320 --> 1:02:56.200 attack not only every devil of your past, but every 1:02:56.240 --> 1:03:00.320 devil of your own regrets, not only what happened to you, 1:03:00.360 --> 1:03:03.600 but what you keep saying to yourself about it. I 1:03:03.640 --> 1:03:06.000 came to beat every should have, could have wooded devil 1:03:06.040 --> 1:03:08.520 off your shoulder today in the name of the Lord. 1:03:10.360 --> 1:03:13.640 Every should have could have wood a devil, Every should 1:03:13.640 --> 1:03:15.200 have could have would have if you'd have done this, 1:03:15.280 --> 1:03:16.880 and if you'd have done that, it wouldn't end it 1:03:16.920 --> 1:03:19.600 like that. Why would you bow to a should have 1:03:19.680 --> 1:03:22.840 could have wood, a devil when you got a sure 1:03:23.000 --> 1:03:27.080 enough gonna God who is able to do. I got 1:03:27.080 --> 1:03:30.760 a sure enough gonna God who is sure enough gonna 1:03:30.800 --> 1:03:35.200 bless you and blessing I will bless you, and multiplied, 1:03:35.600 --> 1:03:40.760 I will multiply this. That's the promise. I stand on 1:03:41.200 --> 1:03:45.880 the Rock of Israel, on Christ, the solid rock I stand. 1:03:46.160 --> 1:03:51.560 All other ground is sinking. Same, all other ground is sinking. 1:03:52.520 --> 1:03:59.840 Sam Father, I thank you today that the boast a 1:04:00.200 --> 1:04:05.480 steady because of the strong hand of God. I want 1:04:05.520 --> 1:04:07.880 you to lift your hands right now and worship God, 1:04:08.720 --> 1:04:12.360 knowing that it's his hands that are holding up your hands, 1:04:14.680 --> 1:04:18.240 that it is His purpose that is aiming your bow. 1:04:20.120 --> 1:04:25.320 And with your hands lifted up and with your heart 1:04:25.400 --> 1:04:28.800 filled with faith, I want you to say again what 1:04:28.840 --> 1:04:31.320 we said an hour ago, but I want you to 1:04:31.520 --> 1:04:38.720 say it with faith. My future is my focus. I'm 1:04:38.720 --> 1:04:42.919 going forward in the name of the Lord. Now, let's 1:04:42.960 --> 1:04:47.280 give him thanks and praise on every location. Thanks and praise, 1:04:47.360 --> 1:04:50.040 Thanks and praise with your mouth, with your mouth, with 1:04:50.200 --> 1:04:56.640 your mouth, the fruit of Liss. That's confesses Well. If 1:04:56.680 --> 1:04:58.960 you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of things 1:04:59.040 --> 1:05:02.280 I'd love for you to to make sure to subscribe, rate, 1:05:02.640 --> 1:05:05.600 and review this podcast. You can also help us reach 1:05:05.680 --> 1:05:09.480 others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash give 1:05:09.920 --> 1:05:12.760 and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.