Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Glory to God. Well, we have a very very.
Speaker 2: Special album that we just released this week, and.
Speaker 1: I also want to echo what Chris said that it is.
Speaker 2: An amazing, amazing church to be a part of that
Speaker 2: releases songs into the world. Have you thought about the
Speaker 2: fact that the songs that we release from this place,
Speaker 2: somebody say, from this place, might end up helping somebody
Speaker 2: in the most difficult season of their life, maybe a
Speaker 2: year from now, maybe in several years. They'll need those
Speaker 2: words at just the right time. And that is what
Speaker 2: I love about Elevation Church is that our partnership in
Speaker 2: the Gospel enables us to take our ministry places that
Speaker 2: we may never physically go, but the word of God goes.
Speaker 2: And when God sends his word, healing always follows. So
Speaker 2: we do pray that these songs the new album. I'm
Speaker 2: not so much doing a promotion when when meets fire
Speaker 2: available everywhere music is downloaded, stolen, or stream But I
Speaker 2: am just making sure that you are aware that.
Speaker 1: You can worship God anywhere.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, tell your neighbor, I can worship him anywhere.
Speaker 2: Come on, clap your hands. Look at your neighbor again
Speaker 2: and say, I can do this anywhere. I can do
Speaker 2: this anywhere. I can start clapping my hands when my
Speaker 2: kids are acting crazy. I can do this anywhere. I
Speaker 2: can lift my hands when the weight is too heavy.
Speaker 2: I can do this anywhere. Put it in the chat
Speaker 2: right now, Epham say I can do it anywhere.
Speaker 1: I can do it anywhere. So that's so exciting.
Speaker 2: And let's also thank God for all of our youth team,
Speaker 2: our volunteers are sad our eGroup leaders, our security teams.
Speaker 1: What an amazing week we had. And since you know
Speaker 1: that I haven't preached in a few weeks.
Speaker 2: I want to thank everyone that stood in the pulpit
Speaker 2: and shared God's word with you. I trust that you
Speaker 2: receive exactly what you needed from God's word. Also, since
Speaker 2: I haven't preached in a few weeks, I'm ready to
Speaker 2: do it right now without further ado. I want to
Speaker 2: share with you today from Genesis chapter forty one.
Speaker 1: Please remain standing as.
Speaker 2: I read my scripture Genesis chapter forty one.
Speaker 1: And be patient with me. I may be a little rusty,
Speaker 1: but I'm ready. Oh that would preach. I'm rusty, but
Speaker 1: I'm ready.
Speaker 2: Like Moses eighty years old, stretching out of staff over
Speaker 2: the red Sea.
Speaker 1: I'm rusted, but I'm ready.
Speaker 2: How many of you have had the devil tell you're
Speaker 2: too old to do something that God's calling you to do?
Speaker 1: All right, Well, you just got your word. I'm rusted,
Speaker 1: but I'm ready.
Speaker 2: I like that. This is what I do while i'm
Speaker 2: off by the way, I think of things to preach.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not preaching. I'm really, really, really messed up.
Speaker 1: But it is great to see you.
Speaker 2: We've had a great time of rest, reflection, study, and
Speaker 2: creativity with the family.
Speaker 1: And thank you.
Speaker 2: You said welcome home, Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I wanted to make sure he said something nice before
Speaker 2: I agreed with it. And what people are shouting out
Speaker 2: sometimes well. In Genesis chapter forty one, verse fifty, a
Speaker 2: very interesting moment in Joseph's life, and the Bible says,
Speaker 2: before the years of famine came, two sons were born
Speaker 2: to Joseph by asking that daughter of Potipherah priest avonn
Speaker 2: and Joseph named his firstborn Manassa and said, it is
Speaker 2: because God has made me forget.
Speaker 1: The name Manassa in Hebrew sounds.
Speaker 2: Like the Hebrew word for forget, so he said, it
Speaker 2: is because God has made me forget all my trouble
Speaker 2: and all my father's household verse fifty two. The second
Speaker 2: son he named Ephraim and said, it is because God
Speaker 2: has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.
Speaker 1: Now that's powerful, but let's read just a little more.
Speaker 2: The Bible says the seven years of abundance in Egypt
Speaker 2: came to an end, and the seven years of famine began.
Speaker 2: Just as Joseph had said, there was famine in all
Speaker 2: the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt
Speaker 2: there was food. When all Egypt began to feel the famine,
Speaker 2: the people cried to Pharaoh.
Speaker 1: For food.
Speaker 2: Then Pharaoh told the Egyptians, go to Joseph and do
Speaker 2: what he tells you. Go back to verse fifty two
Speaker 2: for a moment. He named his second born Ephraim and said,
Speaker 2: it is because God has made me fruitful in the
Speaker 2: land of my suffering, and I want to appreach to
Speaker 2: you from a subject today about increased in Egypt. Increased
Speaker 2: in Egypt. And the subtitle for this message is is
Speaker 2: going to happen here. It's going to happen here. And
Speaker 2: tell your neighbor it's going to happen here, and tell them. Now,
Speaker 2: sit down, you may be seen him. How much would
Speaker 2: you love it if you could go back and give
Speaker 2: yourself a name rather than letting your parents do that.
Speaker 2: I asked my kids the other day, if you could
Speaker 2: rename yourself, what name would you choose?
Speaker 1: And they all had different names. Elijah wanted to be
Speaker 1: Justin after of course.
Speaker 2: Justin Bieber from earlier fascination in his life. Everybody went
Speaker 2: around the table shared what their name is would be.
Speaker 2: It's an interesting thing when we read the Bible. There
Speaker 2: is so much significance given to the names of the
Speaker 2: characters culturally. And the name Joseph is a name that
Speaker 2: was given to him by his mother, Rachel. She wanted
Speaker 2: a baby for so long and she couldn't have a baby,
Speaker 2: and her sister was able to have babies, and when
Speaker 2: she was having babies, she was doing it through maid servants,
Speaker 2: and so when she had her first natural.
Speaker 1: Baby biological baby.
Speaker 2: She named that baby Joseph, and it means he will
Speaker 2: increase or may he add that's the meaning of the
Speaker 2: name Joseph, because she wanted more babies. Well, a lot
Speaker 2: has happened since the birth of Joseph, and this particular
Speaker 2: instance in Genesis chapter forty one, and just to bring
Speaker 2: you up to speed on some of the things that
Speaker 2: Joseph has been through his life really reads like the
Speaker 2: resume of somebody who does not have God involved in
Speaker 2: their life. And you may take issue with that, because
Speaker 2: obviously God was with Joseph. But I'm just saying if
Speaker 2: you didn't assume that God was with him, you would
Speaker 2: probably infer from the events that transpire that God was not,
Speaker 2: because you.
Speaker 1: Know how we do.
Speaker 2: When somebody's doing really good in life, we assume they're
Speaker 2: blessed and God is with them and God's hand is
Speaker 2: on them. But if someone struggles, a lot of times
Speaker 2: will think that, well, they must be doing something wrong,
Speaker 2: or they must be disobedient, or and sometimes it is
Speaker 2: sometimes we suffer for different reasons. And I do want
Speaker 2: you to know this before I go any further. Everyone
Speaker 2: suffers somewhere everyone, what I just told you, those three
Speaker 2: words can kill your jealousy about anybody that you envy,
Speaker 2: because anybody that you envy in your life, there is
Speaker 2: something in their life that if you knew about it,
Speaker 2: you wouldn't trade places with them or ten minutes. And
Speaker 2: this important to point out. Maybe else should do another
Speaker 2: youth x around. This whole subject is about influence, about
Speaker 2: the misery of influence in a day and age where
Speaker 2: the term influencer is almost meant to sell something. Influence
Speaker 2: is expensive, and so anybody who has a lot of influence, they.
Speaker 1: Often pay a great cost.
Speaker 2: It has cost Joseph a lot to stand in this moment,
Speaker 2: That's all I'm saying. And so we're reading about him
Speaker 2: naming two sons that are born to him. But the
Speaker 2: Bible says something really interesting, huh. It says that these
Speaker 2: sons were born to him before the famine. Now, Joseph
Speaker 2: has predicted a famine in the land. He had the
Speaker 2: ability to interpret dreams, and so when Pharaoh called Joseph
Speaker 2: to interpret his dream, Joseph said, well, you're gonna have
Speaker 2: seven years of plenty or abundance, and then you'll have
Speaker 2: seven years of famine. So wisdom would dictate that you
Speaker 2: take the good years, set some aside so that you
Speaker 2: are ready for the lean years. When you have a lot,
Speaker 2: don't just consume the lot that you've got, but keep
Speaker 2: a little so that when it gets lean, when it
Speaker 2: gets lean. Sometimes, even in church, if we're having a
Speaker 2: really good Sunday, I'll pull out my phone and take
Speaker 2: a quick video to show the devil the video for.
Speaker 1: The sundays that don't feel so good.
Speaker 2: I want to remember this moment because the next moment
Speaker 2: might not be as wonderful.
Speaker 1: I want to treasure this, I want to take this in.
Speaker 2: I want to take the good things that happen to
Speaker 2: me and bank those blessings so that when I go
Speaker 2: through a season of discouragement or defeat, I can point
Speaker 2: back to something that I know God did for me. Now,
Speaker 2: this is a physical famine, but we could apply this
Speaker 2: to our emotions. We could apply to our experiences. However,
Speaker 2: Joseph has been elevated to a position where the only
Speaker 2: person more powerful than him in all of the land
Speaker 2: of Egypt is the Pharaoh. He's done this by administrating
Speaker 2: the food supply.
Speaker 1: He's taken grain from.
Speaker 2: Each of the cities in Egypt and stationed on the
Speaker 2: outposts in silos some grain so that when the famine hits,
Speaker 2: there will be food in Egypt. And in doing this,
Speaker 2: Joseph has given himself a lot of significance nationally in
Speaker 2: a place called Egypt. It's hard for us to read
Speaker 2: about Egypt, knowing what we know about Egypt that is
Speaker 2: about to happen. As a matter of fact, when I
Speaker 2: say Egypt, most of us think of the place where
Speaker 2: God's people would be enslaved for four hundred and thirty years.
Speaker 2: To be enslaved in Egypt happened generations after Joseph was gone,
Speaker 2: and God raised up a man named Moses to say
Speaker 2: to Pharaoh, let my people go. Isn't it interesting that
Speaker 2: the same place they escaped to from the famine was
Speaker 2: the place they became enslaved in and needed to be
Speaker 2: set free from the Truth of the matter is a
Speaker 2: lot of the things that feed us in one season
Speaker 2: of our life, A lot of the things that help
Speaker 2: us in one season of our life. A lot of
Speaker 2: the things that serve to shelter us in one season
Speaker 2: of our life, will shackle us in another. Have you
Speaker 2: ever run to something for shelter, but it turned into shackles.
Speaker 2: Just in case y'all forgot how this works, I am
Speaker 2: preaching already, and y'all can talk back to me.
Speaker 1: I haven't been gone that long.
Speaker 2: I ran to Egypt for shelter, but I left Egypt
Speaker 2: in shackles. In Egypt, not only would the people of
Speaker 2: God experience great pain, but Joseph never wanted to go
Speaker 2: to Egypt in the first place. Egypt wasn't on Joseph's
Speaker 2: bucket list. Egypt wasn't on Joseph's itinerary, his travel dream
Speaker 2: destination list.
Speaker 1: Joseph was let me give you a little recap.
Speaker 2: Pushed into a pit by his brothers, sold into slavery,
Speaker 2: picked up by the Ishmael like caravan, put in the
Speaker 2: house of a man named Potiphar, treated as a slave
Speaker 2: for almost a decade, rose to prominence in that house,
Speaker 2: and then, after rising to prominence, was falsely accused of
Speaker 2: a sexual offense, landing him in prison for a space not.
Speaker 1: Less than two years.
Speaker 2: In prison, he met a man whose dream he interpreted,
Speaker 2: who was released because of Joseph's gift. And when that
Speaker 2: man left prison, he was the cup bearer to the
Speaker 2: king Joseph said, tell your boss about me, so I
Speaker 2: don't rot in this prison. Well, the cupbearer gets out
Speaker 2: and forgot all about Joseph.
Speaker 1: Can you believe he did that?
Speaker 2: He forgot all about the man who gave him the
Speaker 2: prophecy of freedom. He forgot all about the man who
Speaker 2: gave him the hope to hold on. He forgot about
Speaker 2: Joseph for two years until one day Pharaoh had a
Speaker 2: dream that needed Joseph, and the cup bearer remembered there
Speaker 2: was this guy in the prison who had a special
Speaker 2: ability to interpret dreams. And I wonder if we go
Speaker 2: get him right now, could he tell you the meaning
Speaker 2: of your dream?
Speaker 1: And here's where I want.
Speaker 2: To pause and point out that God is sovereign in
Speaker 2: his scheduling of your life. Think of the two years
Speaker 2: that Joseph sat in prison, wondering, will they ever remember me?
Speaker 1: A lot of good that did?
Speaker 2: Nobody appreciates me ever tells me thank you for washing
Speaker 2: the dishes. Maybe I'm not talking about Joseph now, maybe
Speaker 2: I'm talking about you. Nobody ever appreciates me for giving
Speaker 2: them awry. What do they just think I'm a free
Speaker 2: uber black? What do they just think I'm a free
Speaker 2: Do they just think I'm a free door dash? Do
Speaker 2: they just think I'm a free private chef? Did they
Speaker 2: just think I'm a freehousekeeper? Nobody appreciates me? And yet
Speaker 2: there seems to be a sense in which if Joseph
Speaker 2: had gotten out of that prison any earlier than he did,
Speaker 2: he wouldn't have been in position to fulfill his purpose
Speaker 2: that he was created for.
Speaker 1: I think of it in terms of food.
Speaker 2: You know, we're talking about a famine because Holly and
Speaker 2: I have different definitions of when food is too old
Speaker 2: to eat. Yeah, she has a very elastic understanding of
Speaker 2: an expiration date. She calls it an expiration recommendation, recommendation,
Speaker 2: and she goes by smell and I go what it
Speaker 2: says on the label. And especially when it comes to fruit,
Speaker 2: she likes a little bit of brown. I went to
Speaker 2: throw a peach away the other day, and she caught
Speaker 2: the peach before it went in the trash can.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know she was athletic.
Speaker 2: I've never seen such hand eye coordination from this woman
Speaker 2: in my life till I went to throw away a
Speaker 2: peach and she caught it, and she said, put that back.
Speaker 2: I said, put it back. Is brown. She said, brown
Speaker 2: ain't bad because she knows the difference between when it's
Speaker 2: rotten and when it's ripe. Now, if you are Joseph
Speaker 2: sitting in a prison for a space of two years,
Speaker 2: feeling as if the prime of your life is rotting away,
Speaker 2: and you're riding away and your physical strength is rotting away,
Speaker 2: only to find out that maybe the reason that God
Speaker 2: kept you in that situation for that length of time,
Speaker 2: maybe the reason the cup bearer forgot you so you
Speaker 2: stayed in there, was because if you had been released
Speaker 2: from that prison one day sooner, you would have missed
Speaker 2: the window of opportunity for you to demonstrate the gift
Speaker 2: that God gave you.
Speaker 1: So tell your neighbor you're not rotten. You're right. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I see people in my heart who are feeling right
Speaker 2: now like it should have happened a long time ago,
Speaker 2: Like I'm behind all my friends, Like it's not gonna
Speaker 2: happen for me because I'm supposed to be married by
Speaker 2: the age of twenty four. But God said, I know
Speaker 2: what ripe looks like.
Speaker 1: God said, I know the.
Speaker 2: Difference between when you're still getting ready and when you
Speaker 2: think you're ready. God says I know how to leave
Speaker 2: the thing in the obscure place until the opportunity has
Speaker 2: reached its optimal positioning high five three people say, I'm right.
Speaker 1: I'm right. Now.
Speaker 2: This will work against discouragement, because the enemy will tell
Speaker 2: you that too much time has passed, Too many years
Speaker 2: have gone, too many other people have gone ahead of you,
Speaker 2: too many experiences have eluded you. Too many things that
Speaker 2: you should have learned you didn't learn. I feel like
Speaker 2: preaching to tell somebody at just the right time, if
Speaker 2: you humble yourself under his mighty hand. I'm rusty, but
Speaker 2: I'm right. Mixing my metaphors. Let's get back to the text.
Speaker 2: The Bible says that Joseph had two children.
Speaker 1: Before the famine.
Speaker 2: Now it's good that he had them before the famine,
Speaker 2: because sometimes God will send you a blessing before a
Speaker 2: trial to remind you of who he is, so that
Speaker 2: you don't let the trial discourage you to the point
Speaker 2: that you want to quit.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that.
Speaker 2: Two sons were born of Asanath, the daughter of Potipharah,
Speaker 2: the priest of an In case you're wondering who that is,
Speaker 2: she was really important.
Speaker 1: These people were royalty, but they were not Hebrews. They
Speaker 1: were Egyptians.
Speaker 2: Imagine Joseph's surprise when he realized God is going to
Speaker 2: give me a family, but He's going to do it
Speaker 2: through foreigners.
Speaker 1: You know how we get in.
Speaker 2: Our mind how God is going to do things in
Speaker 2: our life. You know how you were picking out what
Speaker 2: college of kids were going to go to. When they
Speaker 2: were three months old. You bought them a little duke
Speaker 2: passe and they had to be a tar heel. But
Speaker 2: you know this serves to illustreet the principle that I
Speaker 2: really stood up to preach to you today, and it's this.
Speaker 1: It's going to happen here.
Speaker 2: Long were the days that Joseph would think, maybe one
Speaker 2: day I'll get to.
Speaker 1: Go back home to Canaan.
Speaker 2: Maybe one day I'll get to reconcile with my brothers
Speaker 2: who betrayed me.
Speaker 1: Maybe one day they'll tell me that they're sorry and
Speaker 1: that they were wrong.
Speaker 2: Maybe one day I will again get to take in
Speaker 2: the familiar sights and sounds of the place where I
Speaker 2: came from. And imagine Joseph's surprise when, instead of God
Speaker 2: taking him back to his homeland, he gave him the
Speaker 2: gift of a family in the place of his hardship.
Speaker 2: Usually when we preach about Egypt, we talk about coming
Speaker 2: out of Egypt. In fact, the Bible says, give me
Speaker 2: the scripture from Leviticus that I sent earlier, or Deuteronomy, rather,
Speaker 2: where the Lord tells his people he brings them out
Speaker 2: of Egypt, be careful that you do not forget the
Speaker 2: Lord who brought you what out of Egypt, out of
Speaker 2: the land of slavery. God's warning his people after he
Speaker 2: brings them out of that place that grew to be
Speaker 2: so dreadful for them, breaks without straw and forced labor
Speaker 2: under the heavy whips of their.
Speaker 1: Masters, who knew not of Joseph.
Speaker 2: He said, be careful, don't forget when I bring you out.
Speaker 2: And yet we're reading a passage today that suggests that
Speaker 2: even in Egypt. Everybody say, even in Egypt, there are
Speaker 2: some things that God can do.
Speaker 1: Even though you didn't choose to go there.
Speaker 2: I am preaching to somebody today who is in a
Speaker 2: place in your life where you did not choose to
Speaker 2: go there, dealing with the situation that you did not
Speaker 2: choose to create for yourself. Joseph did not go to
Speaker 2: Egypt as a traveler. He went to Egypt as a slave.
Speaker 2: And yet the Bible says in verse fifty two, watch
Speaker 2: this God has made me fruitful in the land of
Speaker 2: my sufferings.
Speaker 1: So now here.
Speaker 2: Comes the question, how can God make you fruitful in
Speaker 2: something that you want to be free from? We all
Speaker 2: have things, and you can shake me off if you
Speaker 2: want to, And you can.
Speaker 1: Pretend like this is for the person sitting on your row,
Speaker 1: if you want.
Speaker 2: We all have things that we need to be free
Speaker 2: from want to be free from. We all have places
Speaker 2: that we never plan to go. Some of us have
Speaker 2: mental conditions that were passed on to us genetically. They
Speaker 2: are not even the result necessarily of behavior. Some of
Speaker 2: the demons that you're fighting are from your daddy. And
Speaker 2: the demons don't leave just because you said the name
Speaker 2: of Jesus. They still have to be fought against.
Speaker 1: For the rest of your life. And you imagine a.
Speaker 2: Day when I'll be free of this, when I no
Speaker 2: longer desire this, when I no longer feel this way,
Speaker 2: when depression will no longer show up like a dark
Speaker 2: cloud over my life, when anxiety will no longer overwhelm
Speaker 2: my soul. One day I'm gonna be free from this.
Speaker 2: But I came to preach you can be fruitful in it.
Speaker 2: Why you're waiting to be free from it? And it's
Speaker 2: gonna happen the moment you'll decide to name it manassa.
Speaker 2: Manassa means forget.
Speaker 1: Yet, No, let's study this, say down, we gotta study it.
Speaker 1: We gotta study it. Sounds good, but let's study it,
Speaker 1: he said.
Speaker 2: Joseph named his first one and verse fifty one Nasa
Speaker 2: say manassa, and said, it is because God has made
Speaker 2: me forget all my trouble and all my father's household.
Speaker 1: Why if you forgot it, why are we still talking
Speaker 1: about it? You don't forget something like this.
Speaker 2: You don't forget having your your coat of many colors
Speaker 2: stripped from you, dipped in animal blood, presented to your
Speaker 2: father as a proof or a token of your death
Speaker 2: when you are still very much alive. You don't forget
Speaker 2: being pushed in a pit, half dead and carted to
Speaker 2: a foreign place to serve as a slave. You don't
Speaker 2: forget any of that. And the Bible says that he
Speaker 2: said he forgot, so is he lying? No, No, it's
Speaker 2: not a lie. It's a lens. Because when he says
Speaker 2: that what God gave me.
Speaker 1: How many have something God gave you, God gave you,
Speaker 1: God gave you, He.
Speaker 2: Says, when I consider what God gave me, and then
Speaker 2: I think about what was taken from me, the years
Speaker 2: that were stolen from me, the peace that was stolen
Speaker 2: from me. I believe Joseph probably struggled with intense self
Speaker 2: hatred temptation, because when you are treated this way by
Speaker 2: your brothers, it makes you doubt yourself. Many people who
Speaker 2: come through abuse, they take the anger that they cannot
Speaker 2: bear to project outward or do not have the power
Speaker 2: to project outward, and turn it inward, and then it
Speaker 2: eats you alive, and it chows through all of the
Speaker 2: fruit of your future because you are stuck in something
Speaker 2: that someone else did.
Speaker 1: But Joseph said, Joseph said, when I.
Speaker 2: See what God gave me, this baby that I'm holding
Speaker 2: in a place I never chose to go to, in
Speaker 2: a situation that I never thought I would have to
Speaker 2: settle into, in a season of my life that I
Speaker 2: never saw coming. It isn't that he stopped remembering what
Speaker 2: he went through. He just refocused what he was looking at.
Speaker 2: And the word of the Lord is refocus, Refocus, Refocus.
Speaker 2: I know your body is holding a lot of trauma,
Speaker 2: but refocus. I know you have abandonment issues because everybody
Speaker 2: who you let in somehow let you down. But refocus.
Speaker 2: There's a manassa in your arms. Refocus. I know that
Speaker 2: some things you were cheated out of were unfair, and
Speaker 2: I know that if you could go back and have
Speaker 2: it happened.
Speaker 1: Differently, you would. You didn't choose it.
Speaker 2: And the things that you never chose don't mean you
Speaker 2: can't grow through them.
Speaker 1: Just because I didn't choose to.
Speaker 2: Go through it doesn't mean I can't choose to grow
Speaker 2: through it. So it is a mass matter a focus.
Speaker 1: LJ. You played so good on the album, don't y'all
Speaker 1: love l J?
Speaker 3: L J.
Speaker 2: Scottie shay Ois is over there.
Speaker 1: They played so good, y'all.
Speaker 2: When you go on YouTube and look at the songs,
Speaker 2: don't go into comments. The comments will kill your joy
Speaker 2: because we will put a song out that says, oh
Speaker 2: my God, you've been so good to me, and someone
Speaker 2: will put in the comments, well, what if he hasn't
Speaker 2: been that good to me?
Speaker 1: That must be nice for you that God has been
Speaker 1: good to you. But God hasn't been that good to me,
Speaker 1: you know, and I want to One day, I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna make up a name, so I'm go on YouTube
Speaker 2: and say all the stuff that I want to say
Speaker 2: back and nobody knows me, and I'm gonna have the
Speaker 2: IT department set it up real secure where nobody can
Speaker 2: track it back through any kind of AI or AARP
Speaker 2: or any of that stuff, and then.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go on there and say the goodness of
Speaker 1: God is a perspective, a perspective.
Speaker 2: The goodness of God is not freedom from problems. The
Speaker 2: goodness of God is not freedom from pain. The goodness
Speaker 2: of God is a perspective that starts with him and
Speaker 2: works its way outwards. Joseph is not saying it didn't happen.
Speaker 2: Joseph is not in denial. Joseph is not stuffing it down,
Speaker 2: so it's just gonna come out sideways. As a matter
Speaker 2: of fact, when he says I forgot my father's household,
Speaker 2: all of us who know what happens in Genesis forty three,
Speaker 2: forty four, and forty five, we kind of want to
Speaker 2: laugh because the people that he's trying to forget, his
Speaker 2: brothers who betrayed him, they are actually about to show
Speaker 2: up asking him for food. Sometimes God will call you
Speaker 2: to feed something that you wanted to forget. Sometimes God
Speaker 2: will call you to go back to a place that
Speaker 2: caused you so much pain, and from the wounds that
Speaker 2: you suffered will become a womb that birth's healing for
Speaker 2: someone else. And that's what I think Joseph is saying.
Speaker 2: He caused me to forget, to refocus, to see what
Speaker 2: God is doing right here in Egypt. I never thought
Speaker 2: I would have an Egyptian wife. I never thought i'd
Speaker 2: had these have Egyptian kids. I definitely never thought that
Speaker 2: I'd be overseeing all of the grain in a time
Speaker 2: of the famine. I never thought people would be asking
Speaker 2: me what to do. People been telling me what to
Speaker 2: do my whole life. My big brothers told me what
Speaker 2: to do. Potiphard told me what to do. The jailer
Speaker 2: told me what to do. And now all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: I find myself in a position where God has given
Speaker 2: me the ability to make a decision. And he realizes
Speaker 2: that while I was enslaved in Egypt, God was increasing
Speaker 2: me in.
Speaker 1: The very place where I was enslaved.
Speaker 2: And now he can look at his other child Ephraim
Speaker 2: and say something so powerful that I don't know if
Speaker 2: we truly understand the meaning of it. He says, God
Speaker 2: has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.
Speaker 2: Don't you wish God would just keep you from the suffering?
Speaker 2: He doesn't do that. And right now I think we
Speaker 2: need an illustration. So bring out my bring out my
Speaker 2: illustration devices. Boys, y'all, give them a hand as they come.
Speaker 2: This is gonna be good. Thank you so much. Appreciate
Speaker 2: you very much for that, y'all. I got two things
Speaker 2: that I have on my person right now. I was
Speaker 2: praying about how to bring this message home because I thought, man,
Speaker 2: I don't just want them to feel like today. I
Speaker 2: just told them a bunch of stuff about a guy
Speaker 2: who lived thousands of years ago, and they just talked
Speaker 2: about these metaphors and abstract analogies, and you know, with
Speaker 2: the things that people are going through in their life today,
Speaker 2: I really want them to understand what it means for
Speaker 2: God to make you fruitful in the land of your suffering.
Speaker 2: Because the thing about fruit in the land of suffering
Speaker 2: is that the earth makes whatever is inside the thing grow.
Speaker 2: The earth is neutral, The earth is not good or
Speaker 2: bad until somebody works it, then it can become fertile.
Speaker 2: But all that the earth can do is pull out
Speaker 2: what's inside of the sea. Now we live in a
Speaker 2: time where we respect a whole lot more about the
Speaker 2: external appearance than the internal reality.
Speaker 1: Oh yes we do.
Speaker 2: If you do bicep curls for the next year every day,
Speaker 2: get some big muscles or something like that. Where you
Speaker 2: go people talk about sons out and guns out and
Speaker 2: put those away, and you have license to carry those
Speaker 2: and everything like that.
Speaker 1: You read the.
Speaker 2: Bible for one hundred days or a year or something
Speaker 2: like that, Nobody's go walk around being like, man, your
Speaker 2: Philippians knowledge is really like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: sons out, son of God.
Speaker 1: Therefore, I want to illustrate what I think we don't.
Speaker 2: Understand about suffering, because everybody suffers somewhere, but not everybody
Speaker 2: gets something out of it.
Speaker 1: Not all suffering is productive.
Speaker 2: There is a difference between the suffering that brings forth
Speaker 2: fruit and the suffering that increases fear and shame.
Speaker 1: And the issue comes down to.
Speaker 2: What was in Joseph when Joseph went into Egypt.
Speaker 1: That's the issue.
Speaker 2: When Joseph went to Egypt, he already had his integrity.
Speaker 2: So when they took his coat, it didn't matter because
Speaker 2: it wasn't about what was on him, it was about
Speaker 2: what was in him. When Joseph was accused, they tried
Speaker 2: to throw dirt on his name. But even though they
Speaker 2: put dirt on his name, it didn't change his nature
Speaker 2: because Joseph went into Egypt fruitful. And the Bible says
Speaker 2: that when the whole world was suffering from a famine,
Speaker 2: there was food in Egypt. And I suggest that the
Speaker 2: only reason there was food in Egypt was because there
Speaker 2: was Joseph in Egypt. Sometimes God will put you in
Speaker 2: a situation because He puts something in you that that
Speaker 2: situation needs. So all the prayer, so if God get
Speaker 2: me out of this, God get me through this. There
Speaker 2: are things that God wants to do as you go
Speaker 2: through them that if you don't do those things, you.
Speaker 1: Can't be fruitful.
Speaker 2: And I will demonstrate why some of the stuff that
Speaker 2: is happening in your life right now that you feel
Speaker 2: is shameful and embarrassing and terrible, and it may be.
Speaker 2: I will show you why it might not be what
Speaker 2: you think it is. And I'm gonna use two objects
Speaker 2: to illustrate one I have in my pocket and one
Speaker 2: I'm wearing on my feet. So I'm gonna show you
Speaker 2: two items and then you can decide what you think
Speaker 2: about my illustration. These items seem to have not much
Speaker 2: in common, but I promise you they do.
Speaker 1: This is a sneaker. This is a seed.
Speaker 2: Technically it's a peach pit, but inside the pit is
Speaker 2: the seed, so it's a seed.
Speaker 1: Now look, what does a sneaker and a seed have
Speaker 1: in common?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: Answer class.
Speaker 2: Both of them have to get dirty sometimes, but one
Speaker 2: was made to.
Speaker 1: Follow me, this seed.
Speaker 2: If I take this seed, this peach pit and put
Speaker 2: it in this dirt, in the dirt, and then yeah,
Speaker 2: I should use to headset Mike today. The there was
Speaker 2: no part of you that found any of that tragic.
Speaker 1: Nobody winced, nobody cringed. But if.
Speaker 2: What's wrong with y'all? I just did it to the sea.
Speaker 2: But if don't do it, don't do it. Don't do it?
Speaker 1: Why oh oh?
Speaker 2: Because this only has value externally.
Speaker 1: So if I do this to these, it ruins them.
Speaker 1: If I do this to these, I just.
Speaker 2: Decreased the value. Because the value of the sneakers was
Speaker 2: how clean the sneakers were.
Speaker 1: But if I have a seed, and I take the seed.
Speaker 1: I just put the seed in.
Speaker 2: The same stuff up put the sneakers in.
Speaker 1: And when I did this, you didn't say no.
Speaker 2: You realized that what ruined the value of the sneakers
Speaker 2: revealed the potential of the seed. And I came to
Speaker 2: declare that you're one of these.
Speaker 1: You're one of these, kam No, one of these.
Speaker 4: What the seed of Abraham? How the seed of Abraham?
Speaker 2: So so when the devil does this, realize I'm one
Speaker 2: of these. And it didn't ruin you what you went through,
Speaker 2: And it didn't ruin you that they rejected you, and
Speaker 2: it didn't ruin you that you made a mistake, and
Speaker 2: it didn't ruin you because the value of you has
Speaker 2: never been the shoe were increased. The value of you
Speaker 2: has never been that you were squeaky clean. The value
Speaker 2: of you is that Christ is in you. And if
Speaker 2: Christ is in you, and I'm preaching in my socks
Speaker 2: to let you know, the seed is still good, the
Speaker 2: seed is still clean, the seed can still.
Speaker 1: Work high five three people say is in you? Is
Speaker 1: in you? The value is in you? So now I hear.
Speaker 2: Joseph saying he made me fruitful in my suffering, y'all
Speaker 2: missed it. He made me fruitful in my suffering. My
Speaker 2: faith turns suffering to soil. My faith turns suffering to soil.
Speaker 2: Jesus didn't resurrect till they put him in the soil.
Speaker 2: Jesus didn't get up until they put.
Speaker 1: Him in the ground.
Speaker 5: And some of the fruit that God has produced in
Speaker 5: my life happened when I was in a place that
Speaker 5: I never wanted to go.
Speaker 2: I can't believe you were so worried about my sneakers,
Speaker 2: and you're not worried about your mind, your soul, your purpose,
Speaker 2: your destiny, your gratitude, your kids, your integrity, your habits,
Speaker 2: your prayer life, your discipline. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: That dirt did not hurt that seed. It turned it
Speaker 2: to a harvest. That's why you came to church today
Speaker 2: because some of the things that you have been through
Speaker 2: in your life. If your value were external, it ruined you.
Speaker 2: But if your value is internal, it did not ruin you.
Speaker 1: It revealed you. So that this can become this, So
Speaker 1: that this.
Speaker 2: Can become this, so that Joseph can stand before his family.
Speaker 2: He was ready for the famine, but he wasn't ready
Speaker 2: for his family, because that's.
Speaker 1: Where he really hurt.
Speaker 2: But understanding that you are fruitful in the place of
Speaker 2: your suffering, well, it makes you look at It makes
Speaker 2: you look at bad things people say about you a
Speaker 2: little differently. It makes you look at the things that
Speaker 2: you don't like a little differently.
Speaker 1: You go, wait a minute.
Speaker 2: If if this goes in this and I'm a lot
Speaker 2: of seats now that was my last one. If this
Speaker 2: goes in this, then it will begin to absorb the moisture.
Speaker 2: If this goes into this, it will begin to spread
Speaker 2: apart and shatter.
Speaker 1: If it starts to shatter, then it can start to sprout.
Speaker 2: If it starts to sprout, it can grow down to
Speaker 2: get the nutrients and the minerals and reach to get
Speaker 2: the light. But it starts, Joseph said, in the place
Speaker 2: of my suffering. And this is why it's really important
Speaker 2: that you don't get stuck in what you suffered. Because
Speaker 2: you've already suffered enough. Don't you want to have something
Speaker 2: to show for it. We'll say that again, you have
Speaker 2: already suffered enough.
Speaker 1: Don't you want to have something to show for it?
Speaker 2: And I'm applying this to every type of suffering, even
Speaker 2: if your suffering was caused by your sin. You've suffered enough,
Speaker 2: don't you want to learn from it and repent and
Speaker 2: cling the blood of Jesus and get clean so you
Speaker 2: can help somebody else not fall into the same pit. Ooh,
Speaker 2: I wish I had another peach pit, I thought, Oh,
Speaker 2: I got one, I got one more. I thank you, Lauren.
Speaker 2: Joseph was put into a pit, and the seed is
Speaker 2: in the pit. Help me, where's your sern? And the
Speaker 2: pit represented potential because God was keeping him there to
Speaker 2: get him to Egypt. Your life is not random. God
Speaker 2: is sovereign. Your life is not rotting, it's ripe. Everything
Speaker 2: you've been through is for this moment. If Joseph had
Speaker 2: met his family one year earlier, he wouldn't have been
Speaker 2: ready to embrace them.
Speaker 1: He would have retaliated.
Speaker 2: So stop telling God when he needs to do stuff
Speaker 2: and be a seed.
Speaker 1: Be a seed.
Speaker 2: And when you are a seed and you are in soil,
Speaker 2: and you are in darkness and you are in obscurity,
Speaker 2: it can begin to feel like nothing is happening. But
Speaker 2: anybody who's ever planned and anything can tell you the
Speaker 2: most activity is happening once the seed is no longer visible.
Speaker 2: So do not let the absence of visible activity in
Speaker 2: your life confuse you to think that the presence of
Speaker 2: God has weakened or taken a day off. That seat
Speaker 2: is doing stuff, not that one that I just put in.
Speaker 2: It would have to be taken care of. But you
Speaker 2: get the analogy, right, it's breaking so that it can
Speaker 2: but blossom. And so was Joseph, and so are you.
Speaker 2: And he was in a place that he never wanted
Speaker 2: to go. Are you there right now you're like, yes,
Speaker 2: I didn't want to come to church.
Speaker 1: My mom made me come. I'm not talking about church.
Speaker 1: You wanted to be here. You love to hear me preach,
Speaker 1: It's one of your favorite things in the world. To do.
Speaker 1: That response was so weak. Y'all made me want to
Speaker 1: take another vacation. And then some of y'all didn't even
Speaker 1: want to be in Charpe.
Speaker 2: Some of you didn't want to live in a city
Speaker 2: or Rono, Goorli or wherever you want to put this camera.
Speaker 2: You know, we could, we could, We could go around
Speaker 2: the world and say I didn't want to I didn't
Speaker 2: want to be here in this soil. Soil isn't sexy.
Speaker 2: But that's where it happens, that's where the heart shell
Speaker 2: breaks off, so that what is inside then grab on
Speaker 2: and shoot forth and fill the world with fruit. Now,
Speaker 2: the beauty of this message is that we can apply
Speaker 2: what I have just said to any situation in your life,
Speaker 2: because I just told you about a God who can
Speaker 2: increase you in Egypt, a place that God's people would
Speaker 2: celebrate coming out of, and Joseph said, he increas me
Speaker 2: in the very place where I was dragged, kicking and screaming.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be a situation that you chose
Speaker 1: for you to grow through it.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be a situation that you like
Speaker 2: for you to stay in it. It doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be a state of mind that you enjoy for it
Speaker 2: to be productive.
Speaker 1: Every time I get ready to preach, not.
Speaker 2: Nine out of ten times, not ninety nine out of
Speaker 2: one hundred times. Every time I prepare to preach to you,
Speaker 2: just before the breakthrough of the word comes mounting anxiety.
Speaker 2: Almost it feels like the flu. I want to go
Speaker 2: to bed, I want to call in sick. I have
Speaker 2: learned that that is a sign that I'm in.
Speaker 1: The rich soil.
Speaker 2: Now that I have broken through the surface and I'm
Speaker 2: in the soil.
Speaker 1: And now.
Speaker 2: If you don't ever sit with your anxiety and process
Speaker 2: it with God, but you just run straight to pills,
Speaker 2: You just run straight porn. You just run straight to
Speaker 2: people who will say what you want to hear. If
Speaker 2: you don't ever sit with it and work through it,
Speaker 2: you will never see what was in you that was
Speaker 2: designed to be broken away in the soil of your fruitful.
Speaker 1: Place.
Speaker 2: I thought Canaan was the land with fruit. I thought
Speaker 2: the Promised Land was the land of fruit.
Speaker 1: I thought that was the land God was taking them to.
Speaker 1: Joseph said, I have a god who.
Speaker 2: If the land doesn't have fruit, he'll bring fruit out
Speaker 2: of you.
Speaker 1: He'll do it in your school. If every kid in.
Speaker 2: Your school is crazy, you'll be the sane one. Just
Speaker 2: so am out a walk in the ways of God.
Speaker 2: That's what the seed was made for. I see some
Speaker 2: of our kids going back to school in August and saying,
Speaker 2: it's gonna happen here. There's gonna be a revival here,
Speaker 2: there's gonna be an outpouring here, there's gonna be a
Speaker 2: day of Pentecost. Fully come here, I'm gonna do it here.
Speaker 2: It's gonna happen on YouTube. It's gonna happen here. It's
Speaker 2: gonna happen in my family. It's gonna happen here. It's
Speaker 2: gonna happen in my mid life. It's gonna happen here.
Speaker 2: It's gonna happen in my old age. It's gonna happen here.
Speaker 2: It's gonna happen in my failure. It's gonna happen here.
Speaker 2: It's gonna happen here. Tell the person next Year's gonna
Speaker 2: happen here, here, here, here. I read about a God
Speaker 2: who would give me a land with fruit in it,
Speaker 2: But I also have a God who put fruit inside
Speaker 2: of me. This is for those difficult situations that you
Speaker 2: can't change. This is for those decisions that others made
Speaker 2: that set you back. This is for those times where
Speaker 2: you can't reverse course. This is for those things that
Speaker 2: you can't see how God is working.
Speaker 1: This is for.
Speaker 6: Those things you are not this, you are.
Speaker 1: One of these.
Speaker 2: Get your hands sturdy, Come on, get your hands sturdy.
Speaker 2: Dig till you find what you were designed to do.
Speaker 1: Dig till you find the source of the pain.
Speaker 2: Dig till you find the will and resolved to forgive
Speaker 2: what you can't forget Dick till you get it, and
Speaker 2: everything you've been through, even what broke you, was only
Speaker 2: designed to show you what was in you and the
Speaker 2: God who put you there.
Speaker 1: I believe every.
Speaker 2: Place in your life you walk into you can have
Speaker 2: the confidence God put me here. Now, don't be an
Speaker 2: alcoholic and go to the bar and say, God put
Speaker 2: me here. Don't take my words, make something stupid out
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 1: Don't twist my sermon.
Speaker 2: But the state in life that you are in is
Speaker 2: the soil. God changed things. No, God change me, God
Speaker 2: change me. Let me tell you something in my sock
Speaker 2: feet with my dirty right hand that I hope you
Speaker 2: never forget this picture. That man looks at the outward appearance,
Speaker 2: God looks at the heart. And my Bible says in
Speaker 2: Romans eighteen that the sufferings of this present time are
Speaker 2: not worthy to be compared with the glory that will
Speaker 2: be revealed.
Speaker 1: It will be revealed. Is happening here.
Speaker 2: Let God have it. Let God have it. Your surrender
Speaker 2: turns soil into a place of new beginnings.
Speaker 1: Or maybe I should say it the way I wrote
Speaker 1: it in my notes before.
Speaker 2: I just messed it up because that didn't make a
Speaker 2: bit of sense. Your surrender turns your suffering into soil.
Speaker 1: That's what I meant to say. That's what I want
Speaker 1: to say.
Speaker 2: So stand up on your feet, lift your hands to
Speaker 2: your Father in heaven, who knows what he put in you.
Speaker 1: Thousand lives can be put on you.
Speaker 2: If the truth is in you, what does it matter
Speaker 2: the weight of others that expectations maybe put on you.
Speaker 2: But if God's approval is in you, this is my
Speaker 2: beloved son with him.
Speaker 1: I'm well pleased.
Speaker 2: Even Jesus went to Egypt and he's with you in
Speaker 2: your Egypt.
Speaker 1: Today.
Speaker 2: You are increasing in Egypt. Things are going to happen
Speaker 2: here that are going to blow your mind.
Speaker 1: I need you to.
Speaker 2: Stop delaying the idea that God has to do everything
Speaker 2: you want him to do before he can use you,
Speaker 2: before you can be happy. Eat your lunch today with gratitude,
Speaker 2: and every bite you to thank God that you have
Speaker 2: something to put in your mouth.
Speaker 1: I don't care what the four ol one k is.
Speaker 1: Be grateful is God in you.
Speaker 2: It is God in you, willing and acting to his
Speaker 2: good pleasure. Father, I thank you for all of these seeds.
Speaker 2: Who knows what Joseph's are increasing even under the water
Speaker 2: of this word. Today, Father, as we confess that the
Speaker 2: dirt that was meant to hurt us actually produced to
Speaker 2: harvest from what is inside of us, I pray that
Speaker 2: this would be rayma and flesh to everyone who hears it,
Speaker 2: that they would know exactly what it is that they
Speaker 2: were meant to see and what they were meant to
Speaker 2: release and refocus. For Father, if we stay mentally in
Speaker 2: our father's household and do not release those things, we
Speaker 2: can't hold Manassa, we cannot hold e from I want
Speaker 2: you to turn your palms up to Heaven now, just
Speaker 2: like you're offering something to God, and like you're receiving
Speaker 2: something from God. I want you to first give him
Speaker 2: what happened. Give him what happened, hard as it was,
Speaker 2: awful as it was, give him what happened. And now
Speaker 2: I want to tell you that in his presence, there
Speaker 2: are some things he wants to put in those empty hands,
Speaker 2: and it's going to happen.
Speaker 3: Here, is going to happen here. This is a place
Speaker 3: of healing, This is.
Speaker 2: A place of newness of life, This is a place
Speaker 2: of salvation, and this is a place of freedom right here.
Speaker 2: I know you don't want to be in Egypt. But
Speaker 2: let's get Egypt out of you. He called it Manassa.
Speaker 2: That's a Hebrew name. He called it Ephraim, that's a
Speaker 2: Hebrew name. I will not let where I am defind
Speaker 2: who I am. I am a child of God. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: begin to celebrate. That's good. That means you're receiving. That
Speaker 2: means your receiving.
Speaker 7: Oh how great the love of the Father. Oh how
Speaker 7: great the gift of the Sun. Oh how great the power?
Speaker 1: Jeez? What a save? What a save? I was lost
Speaker 1: in sin and you found me, Hollliah, you save my soul.
Speaker 1: I was saying money, raise what I mean?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 1: Oh? How great? Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 2: more information and if you enjoyed the podcast.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you