Humiliation | Part 2

He's so big he could take the enemy's plan and turn it for my good. To the point that your enemy wishes they had never have done that. When you feel like you're walking in shame and being humiliated for your faith, when it looks like it's the end, the enemy really wants to come in and tell you that's exactly what it is. But today the word of God is going to speak something different in your life. That there's always a trial before the glory. Shame comes before the glory. You might be living out some days of humiliation because we always associate hardship with some type of sin or failure. And if we don't, there are plenty of people in our lives that would love to point their long self-righteous finger up in your face talking about what have you done to deserve this hardship that you're going through. But hardship doesn't always come because we've done something wrong. God reserves the right of letting us walk through days of humiliation knowing very well what the end is going to be. Oh, glory to God. And what I want to do with these examples is encourage somebody. Because when you read the book of Job, you see the enemy come in early and he's challenging God and he's saying, look at how you have blessed Job. But if you touch all that you've given him, if he didn't see your hand move in his life, he would curse you. But God was like, no, he won't. And Job is put through this trial and this test. And at the end of the story, he is restored and he is blessed. And everything that he lost before he's fully restored, chapter 30 verse 10 records where they mocked Job and they ran from him and they humiliated him and spat in his face. Now I've had some stuff happen. I never had nobody spit in my face. Now your salvation can really be tested if somebody went and spit in your face.

Now you hear what I'm saying to you. Well, y'all said amen to that. I thought y'all were asleep. Watch this. Psalms, right in front of Psalms, you'll see Job 42 if you're there, say amen. Well look at it in verse number 10, and the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Read it with me. Shreveport and our Bossier campus. So the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Look at there. He got twice as much as he had before. So what you see at the start of the story is not what you see at the end of the story and church. This is so important. Oh, this is so important. I got to get down and make sure you get it. This is so important because I feel like too many believers want to associate their lives with Job when they're going through something. So you look at somebody's life, for an example, that might be walking in the blessing or in favor or everything seems to be going good their way, and then you say, wow, they think they're all that because of this, that, and the other. But you don't know they're in chapter 23 and you overlooked all 22 previous chapters. You don't even know they used to work in the mailroom of the company that they're now CEO, but you don't know anything about that. You don't know about how they barely got by from check to check before they began to walk. Y'all want to hear what I'm saying today? Many people want to look at your breakthrough and not know your trial, but there's always a trial that comes before the glory. And it's not like that's not a recurring event because it is.

If you feel like right now you're walking out some humiliating days and are facing some shame, despite the reason you better get ready for one thing, and that is the glory of the Lord, because God's glory always comes behind a trial. The greater the trial, the greater the glory. But we as believers are bad about looking back and thinking that that was my best chapter in the book of my life. That was my best days and they're long gone. And I'm here to tell you today, that's not the end of the story. When we associate with Job, I said this at eight o'clock and I'm going to say it again. I have never heard anybody ever in my life, brother Leonard, ever. I've never heard anybody walk in a breakthrough and in a blessing and then say, yes, I'm walking in the blessing of Job. I've never, I'm not saying you didn't say it. I'm saying these ears have never heard it. I've never heard someone walk in the goodness. and blessing of God, and then say, well, I'm just walking in the blessing of Job. But what I have heard is people in a struggle say, I just relate to Job right now. I'm just relating to Job. I'm just living the life of Job. Well, it wasn't a whole life. I mean, this thing turned around in less than a year's time. But don't write Job's story off with loss because that's not the end. So if you are feeling shame right now or like life is humiliating you, don't let that be the last chapter. Look at chapter 42. Are you seeing it in your Bibles, Job 42?

Look at the next chapter in Job. Y'all are turning and looking, aren't you? Tell your neighbor there's not a next chapter. Tell your neighbor there's not a next chapter. So let's see how it ends then. Hey, hey, hey, let's see how it ends then. Look at verse 10. Read it with me out loud. And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. There's not a next chapter. Why don't we relate to that side of Job? Why won't we relate to the breakthrough? Why won't we relate to the blessing and stop writing off our lives and writing off our families and writing off people and writing off cities like Shreveport that back in the good old days. Who knows what God can do? Who knows that God wouldn't turn the city of Shreveport and Bolsher into a light that shines in a dark place. While y'all are here, what I'm saying to you, go back and stream Wednesday's message. We called it Glory Days. I'm tired of looking back thinking my best is behind me. Is anybody with me? Like I know how many chapters are in my book. Like I know where I am in my book of life when only he knows.

Now Job's not the only example that I want us to look at. I want us to look at Joseph. Go with me to Psalm 105, you're right next door. Go with me to Psalm 105, let's look at Joseph. Joseph gets a vision from God that shows the Lord exalting him and this harvest that was gonna come through his life. When you read the whole story, you find out that it's Joseph that God would use to save the world after seven years of famine. That in Egypt, he would become the second highest ranked only under Pharaoh, that that's the end of the story. This vision that Joseph gets at the beginning of his life portrayed that, he had a vision. He goes and shares his vision, his dream with his brothers. Well, then they look back at him and say, who do you think you are? Daddy done gave you that coat of many colors and now you're talking about you have a dream and God's given you a vision and his brothers were like, no, we're not having this. Are we gonna bow down and worship you? That's what they asked him. So they plotted to kill him and they took him out on the back 40 and they had a plan, they were gonna strip him of his coat, put animal blood on it, take it back to his daddy and say, Joseph's dead. But right at that point, they had an opportunity

to sell him to a caravan of slaves and so Joseph, by his own brothers, is sold into slavery. Now, that's not lining up with the vision he got at the front. Do you ever look at your life and think, man, this don't line up with what I was dreaming at the beginning, this don't look like what I saw? Shame before the glory, humiliation before exaltation, that's the pattern in which God operates and one thing we could learn from Joseph is you can't share your vision with everybody. There's too many haters in the world that as soon as you start sharing your vision, they'll look at it in a competitive light and say, who do you think you are? And then now they wanna take that little nice coat you've got on off your back. Joseph seemed to have a problem with coats. Kept losing them. His daddy gave him a coat, his brothers took it off, ripped it up, put animal blood on it, lost that coat. When you read the story of Joseph's life, he ends up at Potiphar's house, he's been exalted, he's been promoted, he's the head servant in Potiphar's house and Potiphar's wife got. her eyes on Joseph, mm, and so one day she snatched him up by the coat and she said, hey, you know, I'm willing, are y'all understanding the words that are coming out of my mouth?

The Bible said Joseph ran out of there. The Bible said, you know, did he flee? He ran out of there, he ran out of there so fast that when she grabbed him by the coat, when he left, he left his coat. She got his coat and used it to say, look, this man tried to have his way with me. Joseph's history begins to point to anything other than his destiny. Watch this in Psalms 105 if you're there, say amen. I'm talking to somebody today whose life is not lining up with your dream, whose life is not lining up with what you envision. I want you to see Joseph to be encouraged. The shame comes before the glory. Trial comes before the glory. If you can't pass the test of being humble, you will never walk into that season of being exalted. Watch this, and it's not necessarily that we're longing to be exalted, we just long to see the Lord glorified in our lives. That should be the heart of all that we walk out. And whether he's glorified here or whether he's glorified when I get there, I know when it's all said and done, I will not be ashamed because I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, amen? We'll get to there with number seven, but watch this in Psalm 105 if you're there, say amen. We'll look at it starting in verse number 17.

He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant, whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in iron. Now look at verse 19. No, don't look at verse 19. Let's read verse 17 and 18 out loud together. Shreveport and Arboza campus, ready, read. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant, whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in iron. Now that right there is humiliation. That's shame. However, look at verse 19. Until the time, oh my soul. Read it with me, Shreveport and Arboza. Read it slow, let it marinate. Until the time that his word came. Oh, read it again. Until the time that his word came. Oh, Daniel chapter four teaches us that God is in control of every season in our life. I don't know when my time is coming. I don't know at what time this thing might change in my life but I do know this. He's called me to stand still and to see his salvation. He's caused me not to move. He said in Isaiah 40, just wait on me for they that wait upon the Lord,

he will renew their strength. Look at there, the trial always comes before the glory. Until the time that his word came. What happened? Read the rest. The word of the Lord tried him. In other words, if you say you believe the word of God, if you say the Lord has given you a vision, that same vision has the right to test you. Can you imagine you having a vision for your life and then be tested by that vision? Think of how many times we've written something on a vision board or we've stood in faith for that we walked away from because we looked at delay as denial and we weren't able to walk out the days of humility to get to that place. We weren't willing to take the lower seat, still believe in God for the higher seat. I need somebody to stand with me today and what I'm talking about. If you listen to people that have walked out glorious victories in their life, you will hear a common theme that that's not the way it always was. That there were days they had to be faithful over little before they could ever be a ruler over much. That's what Jesus taught in Luke chapter 16 verse 10. If I'll be faithful in that which is little, he can make me ruler over much.

But sometimes when you're having to be faithful over little and you got people that have much in your life and you don't feel like they have much experience, much knowledge, much ability. And in your own mind, I've got much more knowledge, much more ability, much more experience. But I gotta listen to somebody that's been doing this as half as long as I've been doing it but yet because they have the seat and I don't, I've gotta be. Humble that test is hard to pass But that's not how it ends See look at verse number 19 until the time that his word came read it out loud the word of the Lord tried him The our vision tests us But that's not how it ends go with me to Genesis chapter 50 Genesis chapter number 50 and I want you to see how Joseph's story ends And the whole point is studying these seven people is that we don't get hung up in their trial and not see the glory because on this earth We're going to be tried and humiliated for our faith But if you read the end of the book God is gonna be glorified when we get to heaven and and and that that is the Ultimate glory that there's coming a day when I will not be ashamed From my faith not not that I am right now. I'll have ministered to people that humiliated me for my faith That later came back and said could you share me some scriptures? Okay That's called shame turn to glory That you living out your faith and people telling you that'll never happen And then it happens and then they come back and say could you tell me how you did that? And you said that was number two Lord Hmm

See look at look at look at look at how the story of Joseph ends Genesis chapter 50 when you get there say, man We'll go to verse number And His brethren also went and fell down before his face The same ones that sold him out The same ones that told him that his daughter's daddy. He was dead They fell down before his face and they said behold we be thy servants what a change and Joseph said unto them fear not For I for am I in the place of God? Don't worship me. Don't bow before me Look at this in verse 20 read it with me slow Shreveport Bozer, but as for you You thought evil against me But God meant it under good to bring to pass as it is this day To save much people he said don't even worry about it God has brought me through so much and it started with what you did to me. You ain't got to ask for forgiveness Please don't bow down and worship me you orchestrated a plan for my demise But God took your plan and turned it for my good because he's bigger than you. He's wiser than you He's more powerful than you. He's so big he could take the enemy's plan and turn it for my good To the point that your enemy wishes they had never have done that Wow, let's look at one more example go with me to first Samuel chapter number one. Let's look at Hannah So Joseph was attacked for his dream his vision that God gave him humiliated, but that wasn't the end of the story Trial comes before the glory Trial comes before the glory We're getting hung up on the trial. Well, you know back in the glory day You might be doing that to me. Well, you know back when he was 32 Don't write me off yet. I wasn't doing three services when I was 32 so he's able I Refuse to write myself off as having seen my best already Mmm, come on with me now

I refuse to look at the past of Word of God ministries and think that the best is behind us No I refuse to live in the past when my God I know has written out a Destiny for me and I don't even know what chapter I'm in right now in my life I was at my in-laws Friday night in my in-laws and it was my father-in-law's birthday And we were fellowshipping and and I heard them communicate to Christian I that grandkids are better than kids Well, I love my kids and we love our kids if grandkids are better than this then my best is still in front Are y'all hearing what I'm saying The Lord always deals with me on what's in my life. The enemy always comes from the angle of what's not in my life Let me show you an example. This is how he humiliates us first Samuel chapter Chapter one, if you're there, say amen. Amen. So Hannah wanted to give her husband a child, but her womb was shut up. She had no children. Verse six, so she's barren of a child. And that's where the enemy comes in, with what we don't have. Verse six, and her adversary also provoked her sore for to make her fret because the Lord had shut up her womb. So the enemy was using what she didn't have. She had no children. So the enemy was putting all of her value in having children. And she has no children. So the enemy was working on it. He was working on that. And so she goes up to the house of God.

After explaining to her husband her heaviness, he came back and said, listen, am I not better than 10 sons? In other words, you got me, you don't need no child. That's just what we husbands do. We think we fix everything. We don't always fix everything. And so she goes to God. And that's a good word for the wives. If you feel like your husband ain't hearing you and doesn't understand, then maybe he just can't. Go to God. That's another word for somebody. Don't be talking about I married the wrong husband. He's just too insensitive. No. All right, man. You owe me one for that one. Verse 10, and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. Prayed unto who? The Lord. And she vowed a vow. She's making a commitment, a covenant with God. She said, oh Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me and forget not thine handmaid but will give me a man, child, I will give him to you. Now she's in the temple of the Lord, according to verse nine.

So while she's praying in the temple about being barren, her heart is broken, no one relates, nobody understands. The enemy is provoking her over what she does not have in her life. She feels shame and humiliation. She goes to church, she goes to the house of God, she prays and the priest of the house in verses 14 and 15 said, what are you doing in here drunk? Because she was so broken that her words were not made out but her lips were moving. And the priest said, you in here drunk. So now she went to her husband and he said, listen, am I not better than 10 sons? She's like, you don't understand, let me go to the house of God. She goes to the house of God, she's like, Lord, I want a child. If you'll give me a child, I'll give him to you. And then the priest walks over and says, what, you've been drinking? The men in her life are really letting her down. My husband said, what, am I not better than 10 sons? You got me. I give you more than I give anybody. She's like, you don't get it, that you give me what I'm not looking for. The Bible says he gave her twice as much as he gave anyone else but she was like, you don't get it, I want a child. So she goes to God and in the house of God,

the priest says, what are you doing in here drunk? That's humiliation. She's in there because nobody else is hearing her. She's in there because the enemy is tormenting her over what she's been dealing with and now the priest of the house says, you are drunk and she responds in verse number, help me. 14, he accused her of being drunk. Verse 15, Hannah answered and said, no, my Lord, I'm a woman of sorrowful spirit. I've drunk neither wine nor strong drink but I have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of the devil. Belal, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken. I'm here because my heart is broken and I'm pouring out before the Lord. And Eli, the priest of the house that had the authority, answered and said, go in peace and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. Her prayer would be answered and I want you to see what she says when the child is born and I gotta hurry because we got just a few minutes before the next service is coming. Watch this, verse 27. Verse 26, she said, oh my Lord, talking to Eli again.

As thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here praying. Under the Lord. Oh, look at here. Look how things turn around. I'm the woman you accused of being drunk. I Know I wasn't talking good then but can you understand me now? I Know you saw me when I was broken, but I'm whole now I know you saw me when I was tormented by what I didn't have but God has restored me now Aren't you grateful for the opportunities you get to come back behind? Yourself and show others the you that the Lord has blessed. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? She said I want to make sure you know, I'm the same woman And we don't know how much time it passed. We know at least nine months She said I'm the woman that stood by thee here praying unto the Lord look at verse 27 for this child I prayed and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of him Therefore I have lent him to the Lord which means I dedicate him to the Lord look at chapter 2 verse 1 This is where I closed and Hannah prayed and said my heart rejoiceth in the Lord Look at the next statement my horn or strength is what? Exalted but where was she in chapter 1 humiliated? But where is she now? Exalted she went from humiliation to exaltation That's this story we get in one chapter. She said my strength my horn is Exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies No, my enemy don't have nothing on me back then my enemy had that on me, but he don't have that on me anymore Well, I want to thank you for allowing me into your viewing area today And I hope that you were blessed by the ministry of God's Word Our broadcast is made possible through the faithful financial support of our members and partners here in this Viewing area and I want to encourage you to prayerfully consider Supporting the work of this ministry so that we can take the message of Jesus as the manifested Word of God Reaching more people in more ways and in more places than ever before Thank you for your support When he died on that cross and when he pierced his hands with those nails he was saying I am

eternally Covenanted and committed and connected to you and the scars in his hands are a testimony of his faithfulness To you and me. Oh, hallelujah You Healer deliverer way maker peacemaker provider salvation everything in one name He is the capital s son of God He's man enough to relate and God enough to demonstrate his power in the beginning was the Word the Word was with God The Word was God verse 14 and the Word became flesh and we beheld his glory You