Transcription
Hey YouTube family, my name is Kaylee and thank you for joining us today. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you can stay up to date each week. And we believe that God has a powerful word for you. So let's dive right in.
The title of my sermon is "Promise Still Stands." And what that simply means is this: that sometimes in life, you'll get a promise from God. And that promise can be simply scripture. That if you read the scriptures, there are some scriptures in the Bible that are promises from God and declarations from God. And that's what we would call graphe. And that's promises from the word of God, from the Bible.
But then sometimes God gives you a rhema word. Everyone say, "Rhema." Rhema word. And that's when God speaks to you directly. He gives you a word. And maybe he says he's going to heal you. Maybe he says he's going to restore you. Maybe he says he's going to use you a certain way. Maybe he says he's going to restore your family. I don't know the rhema word that the Lord has given you. Or maybe it's just the word that you've read in the Bible and you're holding on to that and you're declaring that.
But sometimes you'll get a word from God and you'll get frustrated because you won't see the manifestation of that word. Because God speaks, but then over time, God fulfills what he spoke. But what happens in the middle? Inside of the middle of God speaking and God fulfilling is what I call the expectation gap. And the expectation gap is where Satan rules. It's where we lose our faith. It's where the devil attacks us. It's where we don't believe that God's going to do what he said he's going to do. God's not going to move like he said he's going to move.
I believe that God was going to heal me. He spoke to me. Now I'm still getting negative doctor reports. I believe that once I ran a season of singleness, God was going to bring me a spouse. I'm still single. I believe that once I started this company, God was going to prosper. He still hadn't done it. And now I have these beliefs because of a promise. But yet I don't see the manifestation of that promise and my expectations are being broken. I thought when I got married, I'd be happy. Not a single that's married that's sleeping by myself and feeling lonely every night. And I had these expectations and they were broken. It's called the expectation gap.
But I want you to know something about God. God is a good God. And the Bible says he's the author and the finisher of your faith. What is an author? An author is one that starts a story. What is a finisher? A finisher is one that finishes the story. The Bible never said nothing about God in the middle because he gives the middle to the devil so the devil can bring his best punch. But God says, "At the end, you will win. At the end, you will prevail. At the end, you will be on top. And at the end, the promise still stands." Come on, somebody! Let's give King Jesus a shout of praise. That means that the promise is still going to stand at the end. That God is still going to show up and he's going to make good on his promise.
But be, but sometimes before God can take you to the promise, he has to take you through the process.
And there's a guy in the Bible that had a great promise from God, but he went through a very difficult process. And maybe you're in that place right now. I got good news for you. Promise still stands. Go to Genesis 37. Genesis 37. That is the first book in the Bible, by the way. You didn't know if you was going to the back. You in here with your girlfriend. You told her you was a man of God. Just turn to the back of the Bible. It ain't looking good for you, sir. I'm joking. I hope I'm joking. If you actually did that, I'm prophesying. Genesis 37. When you guys are there, say, "Ready."
Good deal. Good deal. Genesis 37, we'll start with verse three. And it reads, "Now Israel," which is Joseph's dad, "loved Joseph more than all his children." See, this is where the problem started, right here. That he loved this one more than all his children. This is where the problem started, right here. Because he was his son of old age, which means he was a miracle baby. And also, he made him a tunic of many colors. Some of y'all like, "What's a tunic?" It's a jacket. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and couldn't speak to him peacefully. There's some people that's hating on you and can't speak to you peacefully. You know how it go.
Now, Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him even more. Why do you keep telling your dreams to people that hate you?
Say, "So he said to them, 'Please hear this dream.' Now he's begging them to hear it. 'Please hear this dream which I have dreamed. There we were binding sheaves in the field. Then, behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright. And indeed, your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.'" Y'all like, "What's a sheaf?" We're going to find out. And his brothers said to him, "Shall you indeed reign over us or shall you indeed have dominion over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and his words. There's some people that's going to hate you because of the dream and the promise that God has put on your life. And this Bible has already said they didn't hate on him even more three or four times. People hating on you that much, you got to quit telling your dreams.
Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers and said, "Look, I have another dream." And this time the sun, the moon, and the 11 stars bowed down to me. So he told it to his father and his brothers. And his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come and bow down to the earth before you?" Maybe he didn't sound like that. That's in my imagination. And his brothers envied him. Wow. Hate them went all the way to envy. But his father kept the matter in mind.
Now, we're going to jump down to verse 23. So it came to pass when Joseph had come to his brothers that they stripped Joseph of his tunic. They, they his tunic, his coat of many colors, they stripped it off of him. The tunic of many colors that was on him. Then they took him and cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty. There was no water in it.
Now watch this. Um, whenever Joseph is talked about in the Bible, Joseph is held in high esteem, as he should be. Because when you read about most of the other guys in the Old Testament in the Bible, they had a ton of external character flaws. We read of David, Bathsheba. We read of Abraham. Abraham literally went somewhere, pretended like his wife was his sister because the place that he was going to, they liked his wife. And Abraham was like, "Say you my sister." Like, that's a way to get backhanded by your wife. Like, like Abraham all had all kind of treachery. We don't even go down his life. And then you got Samson who goes and tells Delilah all of his secrets and and get a and get a taper fade and lose all his strength. You know what I'm saying? She gave him a bald fade, a chili bowl cut while he was asleep. Um, and I mean, the list just goes on and on of all these mistakes. But when you see Joseph, you don't see any type of mistakes like that. So a lot of preachers and even scholars, they'll say that Joseph was unjustly put in a pit and everything he went through during the process was very unjustly.
But when I read the Bible, I see it a little different. I believe that what happened to Joseph was unfair. And I'm not saying it should have happened. And I'm not saying that that that I wanted that to happen or even God made it happen because God didn't. He's not the author of anything evil. But I will say Joseph did have problems. But unlike all the other guys, he had internal problems. This guy was prideful. He was a prideful, snotty-nosed little kid. Literally, he kept telling people who hate him about his dream. And then when they wanted to hear his dream, he begged them to listen to his dream. And you better believe every day he was wearing his bling-bling Louis Vuitton shiny coat every chance he got to let them know, "Daddy got me one. You ain't got one." He was letting it be known that God, that that loves me more. I'm special. I'm chosen. I am favored. And he was prideful. And the Bible says pride comes before a what?
Well, that's probably why he ended up falling inside of a pit, right? So, he came down blinged with his coat. His brothers snatched his coat off of many colors and they threw him inside of a pit. And I want you to know that a pit is a dark place. A pit is an isolated place. A pit is not a fair place. And the reason why he was thrown into the pit because of the promise and the dreams that God has given him. I want you to know that sometimes when you get a promise from God, that promise won't take you directly to the palace. Sometimes it will take you down into the pit. Because there are some people that want to throw you in a pit because you have a promise and a call of God on your life and they are mad because your tenacity is exposing their timidity. And you stepping out being what God has called you to do is exposing them for not stepping out. And people that don't have a dream will always try to kill somebody that does. People that don't have a promise will always throw people into a pit that does have a promise. And maybe there are some people that has thrown you inside of a pit. It's because you have a promise from God, and they don't. And now they want to destroy and abort what God has put on your life because they didn't ask God what he has put on their life.
And now Joseph is in a pit. And a pit is a dark place. It's a refined place. It's a place of isolation. But I got good news for you. If you feel like you're down in the pit, because the presence of God can get down in the pit, the power of God can get down in the pit. The hand of God can get down in the pit. And if you find yourself in the pit, scoot over because God won't let you be in the pit by yourself. He gets down in the pit with you. Down in the fire with you, down in the water with you. He's a good God. He'll never leave you or forsake you. God gets in the pit. And he was in there with Joseph. And his brothers wanted to leave him for death. But instead, God said, "I'm going to meet you in this pit." And God's going to meet you in the pit. He's going to meet you in the fire. He's going to meet you in a bad place. He has a plan. He has a purpose. God's going to do something through the pit.
But then it gets worse. His brothers end up pulling him out the pit and they sold him into slavery to a guy named Potiphar. They sold him into slavery. Now, I want to show you a couple of things and I want to get back to Joseph's pride. And here's how I know Joseph had pride is because Joseph misinterpreted the dream. He had the scene right, but he had the plot wrong. He had the scene right, he had the plot wrong. Because here's what he said. When he saw their sheaves bow to his sheaf, he saw his brothers bowing before him and him standing tall, ruling over his brothers. When he saw the sun, the moon, and the 11 stars, that was his parents, the sun and the moon. And the 11 stars was his brothers. And they were all bowing to him. And we know that his posture wasn't right because his dad rebuked him. His dad would have rebuked him if he had the right posture. So what he saw was himself ruling over his family.
Now I'm going to fast forward to the back of the book. At the back of the book, he wasn't ruling over his family. He was actually serving his family. You got the plot wrong. When you see yourself ruling when God ordained you to serve. When you see yourself on top, when God said, "You're actually going to go low." And Joseph found out later, he said this. He said, "You guys sold me. You sold me into slavery." He said, "You sold me, but God sent me. You sold me, but God sent me." And I want you to know when you feel like you were sold out, you weren't sold out. God sent you. And God said, "I was sending him ahead of his family because what the dreams were about, they were about famine."
And what his dreams were is there was going to be a point in the world where there was going to be no food and no grain. And what God was doing was his people was going to be extinct and they were going to expire. So God was sending Joseph ahead of his family to preserve the Messiah's royal people that would bring Jesus through that line.
So he was sent ahead to feed them. He was sent ahead to serve them. I want to tell you something. God will prepare a table for you in the midst of your enemies. But he doesn't do it so you can tease them. He does it so you can feed them. That God blesses you so you can serve others. God blesses you so you can help others. He blesses you so you can help others. So if you ever got this ideology that, yeah, God going to bless me, he going to show y'all. That ain't God. That's you. Because God blesses you to serve who cursed you. God blesses you to serve who came against you. God blesses you to pray for those that cursed you. That is the spirit of our God.
So all of a sudden, Joseph, Joseph was sent ahead by God to serve his family. But he would go through the process because before God can ever give you the promise, he has to take you through the process. And the reason why Joseph had to go through the process is because he needed to process out pride and all of the internal things of him being on top and everything being about him. All that need to be stripped off of him. So what God does is he allows the devil's prison to bring his principles.
So God is not the author of your termination, but sometimes he allows it so he can develop you and trim everything off of you that can't go with you. God's not the author of bad, but sometimes he allows bad so bad can now refine you and purify you. God says, "I did not call you to go. I did not cause you to go into the pit, but I put my principles in the pit to purify you."
That's good.
And God didn't cause him to be sold into slavery, but God says, "We're going to use this." So now Joseph goes to Potiphar's house. And when he's at Potiphar's house, he is now being developed in leadership and administration. Why? Because God's going to develop you now for what he's calling you to next. And now he's developed for leadership, administration, and wisdom. He rose to the top of Potiphar's house. He was second in command. And the Bible says that he was so good at serving and leading in Potiphar's house that Potiphar entrusted him with everything all the way to the point that when Potiphar woke up, the only thing he had to think about and worry about is what I'm going to eat today.
Wow.
Everything else was handled by Joseph. Why? Because the Bible says that the Lord was with Joseph. And if God before you, who could be against you?
So now he's going through this process and God is with him and he's doing everything right. He's rising in the ranks. Things are starting to look good. The favor of God is on his life. But then the Bible said something about Joseph that was crazy. Guess what it said? It said Joseph was handsome. It's one thing when a lady calls you handsome. But when the Bible says you handsome, you look good, bro. You look good. Oh, what's the Bible say? I'm handsome. My wife be like, "Take out the trash." I'm like, "The Bible said I'm handsome. Call the trash man. I can't do that." Put some gas in the car. The Bible said I'm handsome. Call the gas man. I can't do that. She said, "What that mean?" I don't know. Sound good. The Bible said he was handsome. He in heaven arguing with people. They're like, "Jesse, be quiet. Your ugly stuff." He like, "The Bible said I'm handsome. You're talking against scripture." Like, the Bible said he was handsome. So, if the Bible thought he was handsome, imagine what Potiphar's wife thought.
She saw and she had longing eyes on him. And when she would see him, she would just go parade him. "Lie with me. Lie with me. Lie with me." She would ask him to lie with me. Joseph like, "You little fooly. You better wait for me. No, I ain't lying with you." And finally one day, she just couldn't take it no more. She saw Joseph and she ran and grabbed him so he can lie with her. Okay? And Joseph, as she grabbed him, he ran and he ran out of his coat. She snatched his coat off of him. He ran out of his coat and he ran outside and he stayed away from her and he told her husband what had happened. And her husband came and he came and he was furious with Joseph. He was angry. He was fierce because she lied on Joseph and said Joseph tried to force himself on her. And he was mad. He was fierce. Then the Bible says he investigated the matter.
And after he investigated the matter, he got Joseph sent to prison for something he did not do. Yeah.
But this gets worse because Potiphar was the captain of Pharaoh's guard. He was Pharaoh's executioner officer.
Wow.
Which means when Pharaoh needed to get someone killed or executed, this guy was the guy that did the beheading.
Wow.
So, I have a question. If you behead people for a living when they commit a crime, why are you just putting this guy in jail for forcing himself on your wife? Ah, you investigated it and you saw he was innocent. But because she told everybody at the camp, if you let him stay, that means she lied. But you couldn't have it on your conscience to execute him 'cause you knew he was innocent. So you just sent him to jail to cover your wife.
So now Joseph is in jail and he's double mad because I'm sure Potiphar was probably like, "Man, I'm sorry. I got to send you here because this protects my reputation and and and it protects our family and our wealth and all this and I have to send you here. So now he's not just in prison. He's in prison for something he knows he didn't do. But more than him just being in prison for something he knows he didn't do. He's in prison and he knows that he didn't do it. And the person that's sent him to prison knows he didn't do it.
Which means you are extra hot now.
Like, like you went from hot to flaming hot. I'm in jail. I know I'm innocent. And you know I'm innocent and you know I made a sin and I'm in jail.
And now Joseph is in jail. And this is painful because sometimes you will be incarcerated for the promise that God has put on your life. Sometimes you will be incarcerated to fear. You will be incarcerated to worry. You'll be incarcerated to people's opinions. And you got to break all of that off of you because the devil will always try to bring a prison cell. He will always try to bring a jail cell because he wants to abort the promise of God. And all the way he threw all the way to the point where he threw him inside of a pit. He got him sold into slavery and he put him in jail because he was trying to cancel the promise.
But I got news for the devil. You cannot cancel the promise because what you tried to do to cancel the promise actually confirmed the promise. What you tried to do to cancel the promise caused the promise to come to pass. What you tried to do to stop the promise is actually what started the process to the promise.
I want the devil to know on his best day, he still works for God. And I want the devil to know that whenever he creates a prison, God invests a blessing inside of the prison. Anytime the devil brings resistance, God's going to use that resistance to strengthen his people.
Every prison you've been through made you better. Every heartbreak you've been through made you stronger. Every time they came against you, you got better. Why? Because God will use the bad thing to make a better thing. That's the God we serve.
And now Joseph is in the prison. And because of the leadership skills and the wisdom and how God developed him, he found favor with the warden. And the reason why he found favor with the prison warden is because the spirit of God was on him. And guess what, Joseph? That he rose to the top in the prison. Why? Because the cream is always going to rise to the top. When the favor of God is on you, you're always going to come to the top. And he rose to the top. And now he's running the prison and he's leading and he's putting everything in order. But even deeper than that, he's interpreting dreams in the prison.
The little boy that was a dreamer is now a man that's a dreamer. And God is still developing this gift to interpret dreams. And throughout the Bible, every dream he touched was always accurate. And then one day, two gentlemen came to him, a baker and a cupbearer. And the baker comes to him and said, "Hey, I have this dream. Can you interpret it for me?" And Joseph interprets the dream for the baker. He says, "Yes, I'm going to tell you what this dream means. It means that you're going to get out of prison and you're going to get hung." I bet the baker was like, "Wait, I don't like this prophecy." No, we we good. Like, we you know, you know, you know people like they always want a prophecy. They had like a little prophecy little center and every was like, "Yeah, I want a prophecy." You going to line up and they're like, "You going to be hung." I'm good. I don't need no prophecy no more. Like, I'm good. Be careful. He got a word from Joseph and Joseph said, "You're going to get out and you're going to get hung."
This is what he told the baker. I bet the cupbearer was kind of like, "I'm saying, uh, here's my dream. What's going to happen to me?" And he says, "You're going to get out and you're going to be let free and released and restored."
That's what's going to happen to you. He was like, "I'm down with G.O.D." Yeah, you know me. I like, I like this prophet. It's a, it's a man of God right here. That's a good word there, preacher. Right. But if you slow it down, Joseph was preaching the gospel. Because what he was saying was the baker symbolizes the bread, and the cupbearer symbolizes the wine, which takes us to communion. And Jesus said, "This is my body, the bread that was broken for you, and this is my blood that cleansed you and set you free." See what happened was Jesus had to be hung on the cross and die for you and his blood would be released to set you free. Jesus' body had to be crushed and his blood will set you free. So the baker had to be hung like Jesus on the cross because the cupbearer, the wine, the blood of Jesus would set you free. The blood of Jesus would cleanse you. The blood of Jesus will restore you. The blood of Jesus would wipe everything off of you. All of your sin, all of your shame, all of your guilt. The wine goes free because it symbolizes the blood. I am free because of the blood of Christ. I am victorious because of the blood of Christ. I am seated in heavenly places because of the blood of Christ. So the bread has to be broken, hung, killed so the blood can be released to set you and me free. Can we give God a praise break in this place?
And what Joseph didn't know is the same cupbearer he released will soon release him because the blood of Jesus will always break down your prison doors and release you.
So Joseph told the cupbearer, he said, "Hey, I'm going to give you this dream. I need you to do something for me though, Mr. Cupbearer. I need you to remember me when you get restored and come exonerate me and get me out of prison 'cause I'm innocent." And and I get Joseph's heart. I mean, 'cause if you was in prison and you was innocent, you was getting this man out and he would be next to Pharaoh, you would probably say the same thing. But the issue is here is Joseph trying to process his process. And God don't like when we process our process because God wants to make it happen. God wants to fix the thing. God wants to break the curse. God wants to break the chains. God wants your prison doors to swing open because of his power and his glory. He don't want you to get yourself out of jail. He don't want you to fight for your own reputation. He wants to, he wants to get you out of jail and fight for your reputation.
So good.
So the cupbearer who was instructed by Joseph to not forget him, he left jail, got restored to his position, and the Bible says he forgot about Joseph. How many people have you blessed that forgot about you?
Forgot all about him.
Now, how do you forget about a guy that prophesies to you exactly what's going to happen and you're going to be restored and it happens and you forget about him? Nah, God blinded him and wiped his mind because he was blocking Joseph from trying to deal with his own situation. And Joseph better be glad that God blocked the cupbearer from remembering him because let's say he did remember Joseph like Joseph instructed. He told Pharaoh to exonerate Joseph and now Pharaoh goes and he exonerates Joseph and Joseph gets out of jail. Well, where's Joseph going to go? Back to his dad's house and fight with his brothers over what they've done for him. And who knows, maybe they really kill him this time. Who knows what would happen, but he wouldn't have been positioned for the palace because he was out of position. He was out of position. Leaving the prison was out of position. And sometimes you're in the prison season and God is saying, "I need you to hold your position until I change your condition. I need you to hold your position until I change your condition because I'm going to send a promise to come get you from the place that I placed you at." But when you try to make your own way, you're not going to be positioned when the promise shows up. If Joseph had it his way, when the promise came knocking, he would have been out of position.
Because God said, "Joseph, the reason you're in prison is because I need you to stay in position. So, I'm going to create a problem that your promise is going to solve." Ah. So while Joseph stayed in position, God created a problem. And the problem was Pharaoh kept having a dream, a dream that he couldn't interpret. He sent for the Magi, the magicians. He sent for all the psychics and all the sorcery readers in the land. And no one could interpret his dream.
And then finally, word got to who? The cupbearer. My God.
And the cupbearer said, "Oh, Joseph. I forgot about him. There's a guy in prison named Joseph. He was accurate. He was interpreting everybody's dreams. You got a dream. You got a dream. You got a dream." Interpreting everyone's dream. He was accurate. He said, "I will be restored and I'm actually restored." Joseph could probably interpret his dream. Joseph is that dude. We got to go back to the jail and get Joseph.
Now, instead of Joseph whispering in the cupbearer's ear, God whispered in his ear, "Go get my servant Joseph. Go meet Joseph. Go get him out of prison."
And they send for Joseph and he comes to Pharaoh. And it was just his dreams was about a bunch of sevens. And what Joseph told him, he said, "Here's, here's what your dream means. He said, 'Your dream means there's going to be seven years of blessing where the land is going to be fruitful and flowing for seven years and there's going to be seven years of famine where there is no grain. It will not grow. Nothing will be fruitful and there will be devastation and famine across the world. So what you are to do is in those plentiful years you are to save up grain so when famine comes you will have grain and you will be able to feed everybody and you need to find a wise God that can manage all this for you.'" And Pharaoh said, "Okay, find a wise guy." He looked up, couldn't find one. Looked down, looked to the right, looked to the left. He couldn't find a wise guy and he said, "God must want you to be the wise guy. You going to come manage it all." Joseph wasn't even talking about himself. He was just saying what Pharaoh needed to do. And God said, "You are the solution to the problem. Your promise is Pharaoh's problem."
So now all of a sudden, he is put in power. And the Bible says that Pharaoh told Joseph, he said, "You're going to be second command. You only respond to me. Everything else in Egypt is under your feet except for me. You are second in command." And he gave Joseph his ring of authority. And then the Bible says he put a coat on him. Can I rewind a little bit? Can I rewind? Is that okay? Let's rewind.
His dad gave him a coat of many colors and his brothers stripped his coat off in disgust. My God. He goes to Pharaoh's Potiphar's house and Potiphar's wife wants to lie with him and she strips his coat off in lust. Then he goes to the palace and now Pharaoh puts a coat on him with a divine trust because it was God saying, "When I cover you, they can't uncover you. When I bless you, they can't unbast you. And I got news for you and I got news for your haters. They could take your coat, but they can't take your calling. They could take your garment, but they can't take your gift. They could take that fabric, but they can't take the favor that God has put on your life. There's a purpose and a plan for your life, and there's no devil in hell that can stop it."
Promise still stands.
The pit couldn't stop it. Potiphar's wife couldn't stop it. The prison couldn't stop it. All it did was confirm it and accelerate it.
How dumb did the devil have to look to say, "This pit humbled him?" Her lies strengthened him. This prison equipped him to get to the very place I fought so hard to take from him. I don't care what the devil does to you. Promise still stands.
And when God gives you a promise, he first took in consideration all of your problems.
Come on. Come on.
He knew what you would go through. He knew who would attack you. He knew who would lie on you. He knew who would come against you. He knew who wouldn't have your back. And he said, "All that was taken into consideration when I gave the promise." And we get to the famous statement in the Bible. Joseph's brothers, when this famine hit, they had no food and no grain. And the danger of this was this was the people that the Messiah would come through. And they were all going to die off because there was no food in the world. And then they got word Egypt has food.
And they go travel to Egypt sent by their father. Had no idea who oversaw all the food and grain in Egypt. It was this little dreamer boy. And now they come and they find out that this is their brother. They didn't even notice him. It's a whole sermon in that. Maybe I'll preach it in a couple of weeks. They didn't even notice him. But when they found out and then all of a sudden the dad came, the family came and then we fast forward and the dad ends up passing away. And now they're afraid that Joseph is going to pay back the evil that they did to him because in the world of eye for eye, but in the kingdom of God, we bless those that curse us. And guess what they did? They all bowed down before Joseph.
Wait, freeze. We're at the scene of his original dream. All of his brothers bowed before him. And Joseph said, "Get up. I'm not God. I'm not God. Get up. No, you only bow to Yahweh. Don't bow to me." So when he saw that scene, this is God showing him the change of heart. When he saw that scene, he thought that was a position of power. That was actually a position of service because you liked them bowing before you was developed. But after you got developed, you didn't want them to bow to nobody but God because you have been humble. You've been through the fire, you've been refined, and now you have the heart of God. Don't bow to me. I'm just a man. You only bow to God.
And perhaps you had to go through this process so God could process you so you could be fit for the promise that he gave you. All the way to the point he stood them up and he said, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." In other words, what you did wasn't good. Oh, but how God used it was good.
'Cause if I would have never went to the pit, I would have never found humility. If I would have never got lied on, I wouldn't have known that Jehovah Gyra is the truth. If I would have never went to prison, I wouldn't know that God can bust open these prison doors.
You meant it for bad, but God meant it for good. It doesn't matter how they meant it. How did God mean it? Some of you didn't grow up with your parents. God said, "I still meant it for good." You're going to be strong. You're going to be an amazing parent to your kids. You're going to have everything that God has ever desired for you to have for you. God said, "It don't matter how they meant it. You got to see how I meant it. How did God mean it?"
I remember we was launching Radiant Church and we reached out to like 30 churches for funding and none of them would give us a dollar and I couldn't understand it. Like, why wouldn't they want to help us? And it hurt and cut deep. I felt like maybe we maybe we weren't supposed to launch this church. And then God spoke to me that night when in prayer, he said, "What they meant for evil, I mean for good."
God said, "I want to show you that we can plant this church without money." Because the danger of always having money is you think you can't do without it. And God said, "If I can build this with no money, that means that you, that that you're not tied to money. You're not bound to money." So when someone tries to come and bribe you, you ain't for sale 'cause you know money didn't build this. God did.
God did. And some of you guys, you didn't get the things you feel like you should get. But God gave you something better. He gave you the revelation that you all you need is God. And if you got God, he's all you need.
There's something I know that most pastors don't know. And I know that I, the Lord, will make it happen. I, the Lord, will build this house. I know I don't have to do this in my street. I don't have to carry this 'cause God's going to carry this vision. What they meant for evil, God meant it for good. And his brothers, they thought that they were selling him when God was just sending him ahead to preserve them.
Now, let's go back at the scene of this dream. In the beginning, everybody saw the dream wrong. Joseph saw himself ruling over his brothers. They saw themselves being ruled by Joseph. And what God saw was both parties being favored. We like to preach that Joseph was favored, not his brothers. But they all were favored. Because God sent their little brother ahead so when they got hungry, they would have meat and grain and food and provision for their children.
So God said, "I wasn't just blessing Joseph. I was blessing the family. All of y'all was favored. He was just sent first. Eventually, you would come too and eat also." So be careful when you get jealous of people getting blessed because sometimes the people you're fighting is the person that God is sending to feed you when you're hungry.
You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. I want to tell you something in life. It doesn't matter what happened to you because your outlook will always determine the outcome. I don't know what someone does to you, but whenever something bad happens, you have to fix your outlook. And if you fix your outlook, God will change the outcome. So Joseph, look, he got the right outlook. He said, "You meant it for evil, God meant it for good." And now all of that was used for good because his outlook determined the outcome. God says, "If you can see it right, I can make it right."
But if you see it wrong, you're going to be bitter. And instead of you feeding the people you're supposed to feed, if you don't get the right outlook, you're going to start teasing them. God says, "I bless you to serve your haters, not dab on them. Some of you guys in this room and I'm talking to you. You have dreams of being blessed to prove people wrong instead of proving God right."
Come on, stand to your feet.
Wow, what a powerful message. We hope that it blessed you. Make sure to share this message with your friends, your family, and even your co-workers so that they'll be blessed as well. Also, if you'd like to partner with us to give and invest in what we're doing here at Radiant Church, the giving link is provided below. Thank you for tuning in with us today. And also, make sure to check out our other sermons.