Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Karma Church podcast.
[00:00:06] How many of you guys were here the last couple of times I spoke in an evening service?
[00:00:12] Few. Okay, this is good.
[00:00:15] I'm Joel, by the way.
[00:00:17] My parents lead the church. I'm the worship pastor here. I have been here since day.me, emma. My parents were the OGs.
[00:00:26] Paul on the sound desk. I reckon you're almost as long as we are.
[00:00:30] Real, real og.
[00:00:32] Well, any of you are here. The last couple of times, I've been telling you all stories about Ethan and Mario Kart.
[00:00:40] There's been developments, in case you were wondering. I'm sure you were.
[00:00:45] And Ethan had quite a major surgery. He's doing really well. I saw him today. He was at church, back on his feet, doing an amazing job. But he had, like, really intense surgery to correct some stuff on his spine.
[00:01:01] And his whole thing leading up to this was that he wanted to play me and Jake on Mario Kart whilst he was on the drugs and medication for the surgery to prove he could still beat us.
[00:01:16] Now, I need to be real with you. I didn't play him. I was away in America.
[00:01:20] I'm not responsible. Jacob did.
[00:01:24] Who thinks Jacob won?
[00:01:30] He thinks Jacob lost.
[00:01:33] Wow. You lot of prophetic. Apparently, Jacob got absolutely battered by it. I just thought it was important for Ethan's sake. I thought it was important you guys knew that.
[00:01:44] Nothing to do with the message tonight, but okay.
[00:01:50] Well, tonight I want to talk to you about the favor of God.
[00:01:54] I want to talk to you specifically about setting your life up to walk in the favor of God.
[00:02:01] I was in Nashville this past week, and I knew I was preaching this Sunday, and towards the end, I felt like the Lord really spoke to me about. About favor.
[00:02:11] It wasn't what I was planning on doing. So I sat on the flight writing this message out on favor.
[00:02:19] And it's a really interesting thing because what I want to talk to you about is something I've never talked about in church. But I do believe it's something I lived. I've lived in the favor of God and under the favor of God for my whole life, in the good seasons and the bad seasons.
[00:02:35] See, I really know that. That God shows up.
[00:02:39] I really know that he will perform the miracles you need.
[00:02:44] I really know that I am not impressive enough to do anything without his favor.
[00:02:51] Just not.
[00:02:52] And I hate to break it to you, I doubt you are either.
[00:02:57] You need the favor of God. We need the favor of God.
[00:03:02] And in the evenings, we've been talking about Bible characters and going through their story and Tonight I want to talk to you about Joseph and I'm going to do it tonight. And I'm speaking next week in the evening as well. So we're going to do part one, part two. Okay, Tonight's part one. Next week will be part two.
[00:03:18] And we're going to talk about the story of Joseph. And the reason I want to talk to you about Favor is because I think primarily a lot of the people in this room. You're the start of your journey with Jesus.
[00:03:34] And I hope it's the same for you as it was for me. God put big dreams on my heart at a young age. I wanted to do amazing things for God. I wanted to walk in his favor and I wanted to see him move. And I was pretty confident I was going to.
[00:03:52] And it's really only recently I've stepped into some of the things I feel like God promised me when I was young.
[00:04:00] But the thing was when I was younger, kind of teenage years, I was really sure that what God was speaking to me about was for tomorrow. I was really sure when I was 12, he was like, this is gonna happen, get ready.
[00:04:16] And it's really funny cause I remember this conversation with my mom when I was around 20ish, I think.
[00:04:24] And we were going through something really traumatic as a family.
[00:04:28] And it was like in a moment I felt like all the dreams I had that God had given me, my plans for my life, everything he had, I believed set in motion.
[00:04:39] It was like in a moment when I was 20, they all vanished, like all of them. All prospect of any of them happening was gone.
[00:04:49] And I remember sitting with my mom and I remember kind of sobbing a little bit. And it's funny because I still believed the word of God. I still believed he was gonna do it.
[00:05:01] But I was sobbing a little bit and I was like, I don't think I'm gonna see this till I'm 30.
[00:05:09] I remember saying that I'm 29 now.
[00:05:12] And the truth is I'm finally starting to see some of those things now. What's really interesting is when I was like a 12 year old boy all the way up to 20 and into my early 20s, I was so confident that I wanted to see all the things God had on my heart tomorrow. I was so confident, I was ready, so confident.
[00:05:33] And now I'm starting to see some of those things that I feel like God promised me when I'm young. And I am absolutely terrified, absolutely terrified. I feel the least qualified.
[00:05:45] I don't feel ready.
[00:05:47] It feels so scary. How many of you guys have read God's Generals. How many of you guys have read that book?
[00:05:53] Let's go. Come on. Okay. You need to read that book. It's an amazing book, but it is a terrifying book.
[00:06:01] I remember reading that book and it's all these stories of men and women who have had dreams and God gave them dreams and they went on and did the things that God said for them to do. And it's amazing. But some of the things they go through, some of the things that happen, some of the way the dreams tested and the calls tested and the persecution is insane.
[00:06:23] I remember finishing that book and being like, no, God.
[00:06:27] I am going to be a postman in the next revival.
[00:06:29] It's going to be great. I'm going to love it. Have a great time. We could be in the presence of God, but I'm going to be nowhere near any of that.
[00:06:38] And the honest truth is that's kind of the feeling I have now.
[00:06:41] I'm not doing anything like what the God's Generals guys are doing, but there is a feeling of like, I am terrified. And I think that's the best place to be. I hope it is.
[00:06:52] So I want to talk to you about Story of Joseph tonight. I'm going to go through a couple of ways that I see for us to walk in the favor of God. And then I'm going to do the same next week.
[00:07:03] Between now and next week, I'd love it if you'd go and read the full story of Joseph in Genesis. It's chapter 37 to about 47. It's actually. They're not super long chapters, and it's an amazing story. And you can come back and if what I'm about to paraphrase to you is wrong, you can also come back and correct me, which I know some people love. So is that okay? So if you wouldn't mind, go and read it for next week because we're going to keep going. Is that right?
[00:07:32] And I'll put a few little.
[00:07:34] I've got a few little excerpts in it. How many of you guys know the story of Joseph?
[00:07:41] Yeah. Okay, cool. Okay, great.
[00:07:44] So start the story. Joseph is about 17 years old.
[00:07:51] He is tending the flock and the sheep and the animals with his brother.
[00:07:58] And the Bible says he brings his father a negative report on his brothers. So basically, he snitches. We don't know what on. We don't know what the deal is. He goes and snitches. The next thing the Bible says is he gets a technicolored dream coat.
[00:08:12] So my reading is Joseph goes tells on his brothers and then his dad gives him a dream coat. And not only that, his dad says to Joseph, like, well, I don't know if he says it, but the Bible says his dad loved Joseph the most.
[00:08:27] He was the most favored. At a young age, Joseph was elevated above his brothers and his brothers did not like that.
[00:08:35] And to be honest, I think that's fairly reasonable. They found him a bit annoying. They didn't like some of that stuff.
[00:08:43] The next thing the Bible says is that Joseph had two dreams. Let me read it to you. Genesis 37:5. It says, Listen to this dream I had.
[00:08:53] So this is Joseph telling his brothers, we were binding sheaves of grain out of the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.
[00:09:08] His brothers said to him, do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?
[00:09:14] And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream. He didn't learn from his first one. And he told it to his brothers. He said, listen, he said, I had another dream. And this time the sun and moon and the 11 stars were bowing down to me.
[00:09:31] And when he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, what is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you? His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
[00:09:48] So after this, after he tells them the dream, tells them they're all going to bow down, they don't.
[00:09:54] He then his father then sends him to go find his brothers.
[00:10:01] So actually it sounds like to me, this might be my read, but his father has now is now tasking Joseph with going and reporting back to his dad how his brothers are doing, which any siblings in the room are not going to rate that at all.
[00:10:14] So Joseph goes to find his brothers, and as his brothers see him coming, they go, hey, let's kill him.
[00:10:22] That is how peek it's got between him and his brothers. And eventually they deliberate and they decide, no, no, let's not kill him. We'll just throw him in a pit.
[00:10:31] And after they throw him in a pit, they then sell him to slavers who then take him all the way down to Egypt.
[00:10:40] So he is now a slave in Egypt. Dreams and visions of his brothers bowing down. Now he's a slave and he becomes a slave in Potiphar's house. Potiphar was the captain of Pharaoh's guard. In Genesis 39, 2, 2, it says, the Lord was with Joseph, so that he prospered.
[00:11:00] I want you to keep that in mind. Underline that in your Bible. And he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and all that he owned. The Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph.
[00:11:30] The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care. With Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. And now Joseph was well built and handsome. And after a while, his master's wife took a notice of Joseph and said, come to bed with me.
[00:11:53] So Joseph's a slave in Egypt.
[00:11:58] The favor on his life sees him promoted and he's a slave, but he's now in charge of his master's house.
[00:12:05] Then his master's wife comes and says, hey, let's do something none of you that aren't married should be doing.
[00:12:12] Okay. And Joseph says, no, my master's given me all of this, all of this to look after. I must not do that. And he repeatedly says, no, no, no, no, no. And then at one point, Joseph is alone with in the house with his master's wife. And she says, come to bed with me. And he says, no. And she grabs him and he runs and she rips a bit of his cloak.
[00:12:38] And then she takes the cloak to her husband and says, look, he tried to rape me.
[00:12:44] His brother is down on his luck.
[00:12:47] He tried to rape me.
[00:12:50] So then Joseph gets thrown in prison.
[00:12:53] Okay, it says. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him.
[00:12:59] He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care Because the Lord was with Joseph and he gave him success in whatever he did.
[00:13:21] Whilst Joseph is in the prison with all of this favor. And now he's in charge of the prison again. He meets two people, the cupbearer and the baker.
[00:13:31] And they both have dreams and they're very Distressed by their dreams. And Joseph comes and he interprets their dreams. And he basically comes to this conclusion, hey, God's saying to the cupbearer, you're good. Pharaoh's gonna take you out of this prison. You're gonna go back to your old gig. Which, by the way, I was listening to commentary on this, and apparently the cupbearer's official title was. Hold on, I wrote it out. The Captain of Drinking. Just thought that was interesting. And.
[00:14:00] And. And then the. The baker, he says, hey, brother unlucky, you're gonna die. Pharaoh's gonna kill you.
[00:14:08] And so then that happens. Pharaoh calls them both. One gets his job back, the cupbearer, and the baker gets killed. And before the cupbearer goes, Joseph says to the Captain of drinking, he says, like, don't forget me, okay? I did this. Don't forget me. I'm not even supposed to be here. Don't forget me.
[00:14:26] And the cup bearer goes, okay.
[00:14:28] And then he goes back, and the Captain of Drinking probably drinks, and he forgets Joseph.
[00:14:34] Two years later, Pharaoh has a bunch of dreams, and Pharaoh's, like, distressed.
[00:14:43] No one can tell him what his dreams mean. And the Captain of Drinking remembers Joseph. He goes, oh, there was this Hebrew guy.
[00:14:53] He can sort your dream. And so Joseph is brought before Pharaoh.
[00:14:57] And when Joseph is brought before Pharaoh, Pharaoh says, can you interpret my dream? And Joseph says, I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.
[00:15:10] Joseph tells Pharaoh his dream, and in the dream, he tells him about a famine to come. And he gives him a plan for dealing with the famine. And so Pharaoh gets Joseph, and he says, I hereby put you in charge of the whole of Egypt. Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He made him ride in a chariot as his second in command. And people shouted before him, make way.
[00:15:43] Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, but without your word, no one will lift a hand or a foot in all of Egypt. Pharaoh gave Joseph the name something and gave him someone to marry, who was the priest of someone.
[00:16:04] And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt past this point. Joseph's brothers then end up coming to the land because there's a famine. And Joseph, they don't recognize Joseph, he takes them on a bit of a merry go round. And then eventually they bow down to him like he saw in his dream. And he Reveals himself to them and they hug and have a great family reunion. And there's a little bit more after that. And that is the story of Joseph. Okay, What a wild story.
[00:16:38] A kid tending a farm, boasting to his brothers, becomes a slave, who is then elevated to be the most senior person and ruler of all of Egypt.
[00:16:53] And the only real thing we know is that God gave him two dreams when he was 16, 17 years old.
[00:17:00] Crazy.
[00:17:06] I want to go through three things tonight, and then we go three things next week of ways that I think we can walk in the favor of God. Like Joseph did. Some tips, some ways to get going.
[00:17:18] So here's the first one.
[00:17:20] God always speaks before a season of favor.
[00:17:26] In Amos 3. 7, it says, surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secrets to his servants, the prophets.
[00:17:38] God loves you because he loves you, because he loves you, because he loves you. And he loves you because he wants to have relationship with you and he wants to know you. But might I also suggest that God has a purpose and a plan for your life and that his relationship with you is also unto that.
[00:17:55] I would challenge you to find a single character in the Bible whose God's relationship with them was just about them being in love.
[00:18:05] There was always a plan and a purpose and a way he wanted people to go always.
[00:18:15] And that's not always the most popular thing in the world, but it is the reality. And you see, God always speaks. He will call you and say, I want you to do this. And then he will always walk with you in relationship for you to do that always.
[00:18:37] So right at the start of Joseph's life, he gets a word.
[00:18:42] He gets a word and he takes it. And he tells his brothers, expecting them just to bow down. Probably goes, God's spoken to me.
[00:18:51] Drop to your knees.
[00:18:54] And much to his surprise, no one does. How many of you guys have been around people or who has done it themselves, where you get a word from God and you go, right, people, it's time. It's my time. God's spoken.
[00:19:09] You know, when I was 15, 16, maybe even younger, when I felt like the Lord said, hey, this is what I want you to do. Honestly, I told some people and was like, set it up, people.
[00:19:21] I was like, let's do this.
[00:19:23] I'm ready.
[00:19:25] And to my surprise, no one did.
[00:19:28] Was a surprise. I really thought people would like. When you hear from God and you're sure this is what he's called me to do, and you go for that first job interview, there is a level of surprise. Because you're like, God, God spoke to me. And then you don't get the job. And you go, huh?
[00:19:45] And this is exactly what Joseph did. He gets the dream, gets the vision, and then he goes before his brothers and his father, he says, hey, good news guys, you'll get to bow to me. And they're like, no, we don't.
[00:19:57] And we read that story and we think, oh, Joseph, what an idiot.
[00:20:01] But actually we do the same thing. We get the word of God, he speaks to us, he gives us a dream, and then the first time we don't see the thing that he's spoken to us about, we think maybe we got it wrong, maybe he didn't speak.
[00:20:18] We get cross with him. Sometimes we get cross with people. I mean, how many times have you been like, hey, have you thought about doing this? And someone's like, no, no, God spoke to me, I can't do that.
[00:20:29] God called Joseph to rule and then made him a slave.
[00:20:36] Those two things do not work together.
[00:20:41] If you're on a track to be a ruler, you don't want to be a slave.
[00:20:45] It's not a good combo. If you're building your CV to be a ruler, you don't go and become a slave.
[00:20:51] You see, I believe that the reason God told Joseph what was coming was not because the Word was going to make it happen.
[00:21:02] It was because God knew what was coming next. Joseph needed to cling onto the word.
[00:21:09] And you see, what was coming next was going to make Joseph that 17 year old boy, couldn't lead his brothers, let alone the nation of Egypt.
[00:21:21] But what came next made him a man who could.
[00:21:27] And so often for us, God gives us a dream. Not that we would make the dream happen, but that we would cling to it when it doesn't look like it's going to.
[00:21:39] That we would sit down and go, God, I believe you.
[00:21:44] You said this. Even if I see this, you know, for some of you in this room, you believe God's called you to a certain field or a job. You have a dream you in your mind and then you leave uni and you go for that job. Maybe you don't get it and you find yourself in a job you don't want to be in.
[00:22:04] Will you cling to what God said and not grab everyone and go, God said this, make this happen.
[00:22:12] Because the truth is you don't want them to. You want God to.
[00:22:17] When God raises you up, no one can take you down.
[00:22:21] When God pulls you into that place, no one can stop you.
[00:22:25] You want to walk in the favor of God. Do you notice everywhere Joseph went, it says God went with him and prospered him.
[00:22:33] That's what you want.
[00:22:36] But so often when God speaks to us, we take it and we kind of believe it, but we don't really believe it. So we kind of tell everyone and we hope that they'll make it happen.
[00:22:47] And I just want to say to you tonight, treasure the word of God. Let the word and the dream in your heart draw you to him.
[00:22:55] Let it make you desire him. And when it doesn't look like it's going to come true, come back to him and go, God, I love you. I believe you, you know? And I'm pretty sure when Joseph looks back on his life, he's like, oh, my goodness, God, thank you for every single season I see how every single different bit set me up to do what I did.
[00:23:19] Do you know, the boy that stands before his brothers is so different to the man who stands before them when they bow.
[00:23:27] If they had bowed down to Joseph when he was 17, I dread to think how much of a pain in the behind he would have become.
[00:23:36] He was already pretty annoying.
[00:23:40] When they eventually bow down to him, he weeps, stands them up, he loves them. God got him ready. The dream God puts in your heart is for you to treasure and know him.
[00:24:01] Here's my second point.
[00:24:03] The pit is good.
[00:24:08] There is purpose in your future.
[00:24:13] I think I've kind of already said this, but when I had some of the dreams I had when I was 16, even younger, I was just.
[00:24:22] I was so convinced I was ready. And not just that. I was so convinced I had the answer to every solution. I know none of you are like this, but I. There was no.
[00:24:32] There was nothing that I wasn't ready to solve. There was no. No topic that I didn't have the answer to. I sometimes sat and just thought, why don't world leaders ring me for my wisdom?
[00:24:45] I mean, everyone's laughing. I mean it. I was. I was just. I sit and think about things and I think, why don't they just do that?
[00:24:53] Come on, come on, guys, give me the reins. I'm ready.
[00:24:58] I was so ready, and I was so confused.
[00:25:02] And when I looked at people that would go through hard seasons, honestly, like, I'm being really serious with you. I would look at them going through a hard season and think, God obviously just doesn't like them as much as he likes me.
[00:25:13] And I would look at people and go, honestly, probably if they would just do life like I do life, it would be fine. Why doesn't everyone just do things my way? It's better.
[00:25:23] And I had all these dreams, and God had put all these dreams in my heart.
[00:25:28] And then when the pit season came, then when the challenging season came, I was stunned.
[00:25:35] I was like, what? Lord? This is not in the dream.
[00:25:41] I'm dreaming of stadiums, not busking in town.
[00:25:45] It's cold.
[00:25:47] It wasn't the dream.
[00:25:49] And I was surprised. And you know in Joseph's dream where it says that this. His brother's gonna bow down? It doesn't say and just precursor. You're gonna be a slave for like, 20 years.
[00:26:00] So when that happens, Joseph is like, huh?
[00:26:03] Like, what's going on?
[00:26:07] But the truth is, the season in the pit was the making of Joseph.
[00:26:13] His season in slavery was the making of Joseph.
[00:26:18] His season in Potiphar's house was the making of Joseph.
[00:26:24] God was making him.
[00:26:26] That hard season was good. And I look back on my life, and there was a point where I hit a season where my entire world collapsed. And it was tough, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
[00:26:43] And if you hang out with some people that are a little bit older than you and you say, look back over your life and some of the hard things you've been through, would you trade them?
[00:26:52] There are some things, but most people would say those seasons are what made me who I am today.
[00:26:59] That's where God got me ready.
[00:27:02] That's where he turned me into a man or a woman of God.
[00:27:14] Joseph, with his coat, was not ready to step into the destiny God had for him.
[00:27:19] He just wasn't.
[00:27:21] Your tough season is good. If you have no opposition, you're probably going the wrong way.
[00:27:28] Sometimes people think favor looks like no challenges. Some of the most favored men and women in the Bible went through some of the greatest challenges.
[00:27:39] You look at David, he was told he was going to be king. They reckon about 15, 16 years old. He didn't actually become king till he was 30.
[00:27:48] That just doesn't fit our current cultural narrative. Do you realize Jesus, the Messiah, the son of the almighty God, the one who is seated at the right hand of the father, did not start his earthly ministry till he was 33?
[00:28:05] God is not in the business of raising up children.
[00:28:09] I really don't think the greatest dream he has for you is to be famous at 20.
[00:28:15] How cruel would it be for him to give you an entire life to walk with him and for him just to stack everything into the first, like, 10, 20 years of your life?
[00:28:27] Thank God he didn't give me more. When I was younger, I was not ready. It would have been a train wreck. I still think it might be.
[00:28:40] You need, need, need the season in the pit. The season where you're serving the time where you look and you go, this doesn't make sense for the dream that God's put on my life, but I promise you, it will make you.
[00:28:57] He is a father, and he is a good father. And a good father doesn't just give you good things.
[00:29:03] A good father gives you good things, and he gets you ready for life. He trains you, he leads you. He makes you into a man or a woman of God.
[00:29:14] You do not want to step into the dream God has for you. If he has not first made you, it will be a disaster.
[00:29:24] A disaster.
[00:29:26] It's so glamorous stepping into your dream in your head.
[00:29:31] Sometimes I think God doesn't put some. You know, sometimes I think God didn't tell Joseph about the slavery thing because if he had, Joseph might have been like, you know what?
[00:29:40] I'll be nicer to my brothers. I'm gonna chill.
[00:29:45] But I'm sure when he looked back on his life, he would have thanked God for what he had done.
[00:29:52] That's my third point. Favor always requires a miracle.
[00:30:00] Joseph is the sheltered child.
[00:30:04] He's the one that dad likes the most.
[00:30:09] My reading is he seems to be home a bit more than the other boys.
[00:30:12] He's not been exposed to a ton at all.
[00:30:16] And he gets this amazing dream. And the honest truth is he probably goes, yep, everything in life has told me absolutely.
[00:30:23] And then he has this season where the rug is pulled under him and everything goes away. And I doubt in that season, he's thinking, okay, God spoke this. I'm going this way. The dream is to rule.
[00:30:37] He's probably going. I wish I was back home with my brothers.
[00:30:42] I wish I was nicer to them. I wish I had gone back into that old season. It's really funny.
[00:30:46] The wilderness kind of season always makes you feel more grateful for where God had you before. Always.
[00:30:54] But what God did is brought Joseph to the point where it was absolutely impossible for him to step into the next season.
[00:31:04] But God, and I think for some of you guys tonight, if your dream doesn't involve you needing a miracle, your dream's too small.
[00:31:16] If it's just you, if you can accomplish it on your own, it's not big enough.
[00:31:22] It's not.
[00:31:24] And honestly, you don't want that.
[00:31:27] There is nothing, nothing better than walking with God. Nothing.
[00:31:34] Nothing. And as you walk with him. As you walk with him every day, you fall in love with him to a point where you don't even care about the thing he's gonna give you because you love him so much and nothing's better than that. And then he takes you into the place where you need to be and your eyes are locked on him and you see the higher you go and the further you go in life, you want your eyes locked on him.
[00:32:01] Because actually as the temperature and the pressure comes up and it all gets a bit higher, risk you want to get there and go, God, without you this isn't happening.
[00:32:15] You know, I really mean this. I want people to look at me and go, that guy, he's a friend of Jesus.
[00:32:27] And you know why?
[00:32:28] Because I've seen him and he's not that impressive, but God is with him.
[00:32:42] I want people to look back on my life and go, how on earth did he do that stuff?
[00:32:51] He just wasn't capable of it. How did he do it?
[00:32:58] There's a few places I've been to, churches I've been to where I walk in and I go flippin heck. I mean if God wasn't here, this would not work.
[00:33:11] That's the best place to be.
[00:33:14] The best place to be where you look and go without God there's no chance. And as I spend time with some of these people that do some crazy things, you know, you hang out with like a Ben Fitzgerald who moved to Germany because God told him that he was going to rent a stadium and lead thousands of people to Jesus. And he just did it. And he got there and was like, I don't have the slightest idea how to do that. When you hang out these people, you discover they are friends of God and that they, they need the miracle of God to step into the next thing.
[00:33:54] We have to live our lives like that. I promise you, it's way more fun, It's a lot scarier, but you'll be way more satisfied. And the most important thing is you'll be way more satisfied with your life with Jesus. And you actually don't care whether you get to the dream or not.
[00:34:10] That's the amazing thing. Only God, only God can take a boy who has all of this privilege, all of this stuff, this beautiful coat who boasts over his brothers and give him everything he dreamed of.
[00:34:27] Make him a ruler over everyone and make him a man who is humble enough to weep at his brothers when they come back after they did what they did to him.
[00:34:38] Have you thought about that? Joseph was well within his rights to go, hey, guards, just give him a good, quick beat in.
[00:34:45] I'm pretty sure I would just be real if they. If someone throws me in a pit, I go through 20 years of slavery and that brother stands in front of me wanting food.
[00:34:58] Come on. There's no way every single one of you is like, yeah, maybe you're not giving him food. I'm probably asking the guards to beat him as well.
[00:35:09] And what God does with Joseph, really think about it. What God does with Joseph is he gives him everything he's desired, every part of the dream that was on his heart, and he makes him a humble, godly man through the whole process.
[00:35:28] It's unbelievable.
[00:35:33] That's what I want.
[00:35:35] I want to be a man who walks in the favor of God, who everywhere I go, people say, the Lord is with him, and I want to fully be made into the man he wants.
[00:35:49] So here's the three things he speaks at the start. What has he said to you? What's the dream? Cling to the dream. Cling to the dream.
[00:35:59] The pit is good.
[00:36:00] It doesn't look like it's going to happen. When you're going through the hard stuff, when you're serving, when no one's watching you, no one knows what's going on. You're doing the opposite thing to what you think you should be doing.
[00:36:14] Good. If God is with you, it's good.
[00:36:17] It's going to make you. He's going to make you.
[00:36:22] And the third point favor requires a miracle. If you don't need him, you're going the wrong way.
[00:36:30] Thanks for listening to the Chroma Charge podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe.
[00:36:37] You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship, and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
