If Your Looking For Me...I'm Outside || Dr. Dharius Daniels

Genesis chapter 50, verse number 19. (congregation cheering) Genesis chapter 50, verse 19 says, "But Joseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid, "'am I in the place of God? "'You intended to harm me. "'But God intended it for good. "'To accomplish what is now being done, "'the saving of many lives. "'So then, don't be afraid. "'I will provide for you and your children. "'And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. "'I'ma stop the reading of Scripture here. "'I want to talk from this subject "'in our time together family. "'If you're looking for me, I'm outside. "'I need a praise right here to break up this atmosphere. "'Am I at the wrong service? "'I said I need my anointed spirit feel praises "'to understand what praise does in our atmosphere. "'Cause the devil don't want this word to be released. "'Cause when I release this word, it's gonna release you. "'Now, I need my anointed praises "'to break up this atmosphere with your praise. "'I feel a little resistance in here.'" (audience cheering) Just in case you didn't know, this is a church of truth and fire. We believe in the proclamation of the scriptures and the release of the spirit.

We got the Holy Ghost in here. We got good doctrine and the Holy Ghost. We will teach and we'll speak in tongues and rebuke a devil and bind sickness. I mean somebody to release a praise right here. (audience cheering) Hallelujah. We'll teach sound doctrine and then deliver you from the grips of the devil in the same service. (audience cheering) If you're looking for me. (audience cheering) (upbeat music) If you're looking for me, I'm outside. You can be seated. (audience cheering) (upbeat music) (audience cheering) (audience cheering) (upbeat music) (audience cheering) (upbeat music) (audience cheering) (upbeat music) (audience cheering) (audience cheering) (audience cheering) If you're looking for me. I'm outside. I want to start today's teaching with a question.

Have you ever engaged conversationally with someone and after some time you eventually came to the conclusion? They confused. (audience laughing) intently, you're trying to follow them closely, I mean, you lean in and trying to hear better. And somewhere in the middle of the conversation, you begin to recognize a disconnect between their confidence and their comprehension. And something became crystal clear to you, they don't know what they're doing. And what is scary is they were confused, but thought they were clear. They weren't asking for directions because they didn't know they were lost. They weren't looking for answers because they didn't know they still had questions. They weren't seeking correction because they were convinced they were right. And all the while they're talking. You're thinking silently and secretly to yourself, this baby needs some help. And you realize that if someone doesn't intervene, this individual is going to keep investing energy into something that's taking them to a place that they aren't going to like when they get there. And here's where I like to pause and offer a pastoral reflection. Is it possible that just like we may periodically come to this conclusion in our engagement with people that sometimes God is coming to this conclusion in his engagement with us? That he is listening to statements we release in our praise and listening to requests we release in our prayers and saying to himself with empathy, they confused. They are sincere, but sincerely mistaken. And it is one thing to be confused about something in your life. It is another thing to be confused about what you're supposed to do with your life. One of the greatest tragedies in life is for a person to get to the end of their life and realize they didn't do with their life what they were supposed to. An individual that experiences this is a person that died and never really lived. Their homes were full but their hearts were empty. They made some dollars but didn't make a difference.

They accumulated possessions but didn't accomplish their purpose and purpose will do what possessions can't. These possessions give you a standard of living, purpose gives you quality of life, possessions are fun, but purpose brings you fulfillment. And when you find purpose in the words of Jesus, you will buy the field to get the pearl. You will adjust your schedule for it, change your location for it, rearrange your priorities for it, restructure your life around it, sacrifice your comfort for it, surrender your preferences for it, separate yourself from people for it, change your habits for it, develop new disciplines for it, acquire new skills for it, abandon old patterns for it, invest your resources in it, dedicate your energy to it, devote your attention to it, give your best years to it, you'll endure criticism for it, embrace inconvenience for it, tolerate misunderstanding for it, persevere through opposition for it, you'll stay when you want to walk away, you'll keep going when you want to quit and you'll try again when you feel like throwing in the towel, you don't just get purpose, purpose get a hold of you. And if there's anything, if there's anything, we need to be clear on in life, it is what we're supposed to do with our life. And can I just offer you a pastoral observation? I'm not saying this is the case for every Christian or for every church, but can I just give you some insight based on 21 years of having the pastoral privilege to lean into the lives of people? This subject of purpose is the one we should be most clear on, but in my pastoral experience, it's the one people are most confused about. [BLANK_AUDIO] But God who is a good and gracious God and who is not the author of confusion uses the word of God as a weapon to disarm the enemy of the tool of confusion. And we can use this narrative found in Genesis regarding the life of a gentleman named Joseph and use this narrative to give us some insight that answers four key and critical questions. Everyone must be clear on if they're going

to effectively operate in their assignment. What is my purpose? What is purpose? Where is purpose? Why is purpose there? How do we fulfill it when we get there? Joseph's narrative offers insight that answers all four of those questions. We're introduced to Joseph in Genesis and our introduction to him is him being a young man that is a victim of a generational pattern of parental dysfunction that displays itself in blatant favoritism. Beginning with a man named Abraham who favored his son Isaac over Ishmael. Come on, going down to Isaac who favored Ishmael over Jacob. Going down to Jacob now we see who is favoring Joseph over Joseph's other brothers. This favor not only lives in Jacob's heart, it goes down to Jacob's hands. I'm about to lose some of y'all here to the degree that he customizes for Joseph only, the creation of a starter jacket. I just lost some of you right there. Some of my young people like, what's that? You missed it. You miss one of the greatest errors in history. You don't know what a starter jacket is. You don't know what Rayon's shirt says. You don't know what your bold jeans is.

You don't know what a hair and bone is. You don't know what troop shoes is. I'm y'all. (crowd cheering) He customizes this coat. And his mismanaged, that's another sermon, his mismanaged generosity creates animosity between Joseph's brothers and him. The Bible says they hated him. So he's already, watch this. He is already dealing with animosity because of mismanaged generosity that comes from his father. And the Bible says, in the midst of this, God starts giving Joseph's what I call God dreams. In his sleep, he's having dreams. And these dreams are not just a consequence of him eating Oreos late at night. This is a God dream. You see, a good dream is when you have an idea and you give that to God. A God dream is when God gives an idea to you. It is a prophetic picture of God's preferred future. It is a picture that is a part of your purpose. You see, when I say dream, I don't just mean something you see when you're asleep. I'm talking about something you sense when you are awake. It is what the writer is articulating when he says God gives you the desires of your heart. It doesn't mean God gives your heart everything it wants.

It means God gives your heart what to want. Some of your want to's are what God wants for you. So he will deposit longing on the inside of you for something he wants to do through you. Joseph starts having these dreams. And God dreams are dynamic. But God dreams are also disruptive. And many people, I feel like preaching in here. (audience cheering) God dreams, listen to me, are not only dynamic. They're disruptive. And many people don't realize the dream because they can't endure the disruption. (audience cheering) biblical characters. And every time we see their calling experience, you see divine disruption. You see God disrupting their plans. Come on in here. You see them having to make pivots and adjustments. You see a man named Moses who is out of Egypt, who is living his life. And here comes God setting bushes on fire. He's thinking I'm never going back to Egypt. I'm never seeing those people again. I'm never dealing with those people again. I will never cross that border again. And here comes God setting bushes on fire and saying I'm sitting you back to where I sent you out of to tell Pharaoh let my people go. Disruption. See Gideon who spent his whole life in agriculture threshing weed in a winepress. And then here comes a messenger from God. Disrupting him. So I need you to go from a farmer to a soldier. I'm calling you out of your comfort. You good at this. You can do this with your eyes closed. It's quiet in here. You can do this with one hand behind your back. And you've got so comfortable in your competence. I'm about to have to disrupt your comfort by exposing you to an assignment in an area where you feel incompetent. I'm about to pull you from being a farmer to a soldier. And you sitting here saying I don't have any experience in this. I don't have the pedigree for this. I don't have the background for this. And God's like you right but you got one thing that you overlooking. You got me. And if God be for you. He is more than the world against you. I came to tell somebody instead of looking at what you don't have. Maybe

you should be focused on what you do have. I got him. And I don't know how you think you made it through everything you made it through. But let me help you. It was him. I don't know how you think you survived what you survived. But let me help you. It was him. I don't know how you think you progress. Where are you progress to? But let me help you. It was him. It's disruptive. I mean you look at Joseph's narrative. Look at the text. It's very clear. It disrupted his circle. The text says he had a dream. And when he told his brothers they hated him all the more. They already hated him. They already had animosity because of the father's generosity. But now when he starts telling him his dreams they hate him all the more. Let me tell you why they hated him all the more. In the dream he says we were binding sheaves of grain out on the field. And suddenly my sheaves rose and stood upright while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it. Joseph's brother said to him look at the text. Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us? They hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Listen to me. This is really interesting. Their problem was in his dream. Their problem was their place. If he was the one bowing down they would have been okay with that dream. Because some people only accept you until you elevate it. You're not talking to me. Listen they didn't mind how high he went as long as it was under them. And God dreams do not destroy your circle. God dreams expose your circle. Your success didn't change the circle. It exposed it. And you've got to have the spiritual strength, the emotional intelligence and the relational intelligence to handle the disruption without resorting to dysfunction. Their dysfunction can't destroy my destiny. But my dysfunction can. I don't have time to bother this. But what I've learned is some people watch this. Some people's idiosyncrasy and secret competitiveness is not exposed in their speaking. In the text it's exposed in the speaking. But there are other instances where it's exposed in the silence. Y'all not talking to me. It's not what they do say. It's what they don't say when you start winning. When life is hard and there's hardship, they at your house, they hit in your phone, they send in you scriptures. But when God starts opening doors and expanding influence than others. 'Cause God dreams, they're gonna disrupt the circle. It's inevitable, and to be surprised by the inevitable, Dr. Ebunar says, it's to be naive. But it not only disrupts the circle, it disrupts its comfort.

Because in their anger, they get innovative. And I don't have time, maybe the next service I'll park right there. No, I don't, but yeah, but mm-hmm. 'Cause some of you, when you get angry, you get innovative. It's quiet right here on this second row, right here. It got real, I saw it, I saw it, I saw it. You get angry, you get innovative. You start thinking about all sorts of creative ways, you're about to destroy their life. Come on, talk to me. They say, we're about to get rid of him. He got the gold. So they lure their brother outside of the family estate. They concoct a plan to take his life. One brother says, don't take his life. Let's put him in a pit. So they put him in this pit. And then all of a sudden, coincidentally, there's a group of people called the Ishmaelites that happen to be walking by. At the same time, he's in the pit. We see providence in the pit. The exact day that he's in the pit. The timeframe, he's in the pit. Here come a people called the Ishmaelites. They sell him to the Ishmaelites. The Ishmaelites take him to a slave auction and sell him into slavery. Don't you miss this? The Ishmaelites come from a person named Ishmael.

Ishmael is characterized as Abraham's mistake. 'Cause it's the child he had with, hey God. But look at God's redemptive plan. Hallelujah. Look at God's redemptive purposes. Look at God and how he can repurpose a thing. He took the mistake of the past and use a mistake of the past as transportation to the future. And am I talking to anybody that seen God redeem your life from destruction? He has taken the mistakes of the past and used them as transportation. That you wouldn't be as strong as you are, discerning as you are, wise as you are, convinced as you are, convicted as you are, if it wasn't for that Ishmael season. Let me show you these men's innovation. They kill an animal, take his coat. They start a jacket. Dip it in animal blood and go back to their dad and say, we don't know where Joseph is, but we found this dipped in blood so an animal may have killed him. But that's some innovation. You could've used all that energy and brought your own dream to pass. If you had one, I'm not gonna bother that. Hating is costing you too much energy. Hating is costing you too much time.

Jealousy is mismanaged attention. (audience cheering) So this man goes from a son to a slave. He gets bought at the slave auction by a military official who's captain of a guard named Potipha. He is so excellent at what he does. I'm not gonna bother this, but yes I am, just a little bit. The Bible says, I'm trying not to run. He says, and the Lord blessed Potipha's household for Joseph's sake. Did you hear what I said? It said he blessed Potipha's household 'cause Joseph was there. Here's what his brothers misunderstood. They thought when they were taking his coat, they were taking his favor. My coat didn't get me the favor. My favor got me the coat. I speak this prophetically over somebody's life. He's getting ready to do it again. I said he's getting ready to do it again. Because the Bible says when he started working for Potiphar, that Potiphar's wife was attracted to him. She made advances at him, but Joseph ran away. But the tax says she grabbed Joseph's coat, which means even though he had lost the coat in one season, God gave him another one in another season. I'm telling somebody one more time and I'm going to see who knows how to receive a prophetic word. He's getting ready to do it again. Watch him do it. Watch him do it. Watch him do it. [Music]

It'll disrupt the circle. It'll disrupt comfort. You go from a son to a slave. It'll disrupt control. Because even though he did the right thing, even though he didn't do the crime, he had to do time. Potiphar's wife accused him of making advances at her. So Potiphar, now I'm inclined to believe, initially when I was reading this in my earlier years, because seasons of life affect your hermeneutic and so you read scripture differently once you've lived through some things. And so I used to just assume that Potiphar believed the wife and then put him in jail. But then I realized that Potiphar was likely a polytheist, be believed in many gods. So he wasn't governed by the moral code of Yahweh. And we in Genesis, so there isn't the giving of the law, which governs behavior. So you mean to tell me, a man that is not a godly man, believes a man he hired as a slave. Makes an advance at his wife and he don't take his life. I'mma just put you in prison. I don't think he believed, I think he appeased. It's different. It's weak leadership. So he in prison, for some he didn't even do. He did the right thing and still couldn't control his reputation. All this time he spent building a reputation of integrity is thrown away by the accusation of somebody who lying. He's not a perfect man because he's named Joseph, not Jesus. So he probably did something, he didn't do that. And when you're chasing god dreams, you gotta realize you gotta give up. It's gonna disrupt your control. That you can control who you are, but not how you seem. So this man get in prison, he in prison with two people, a butler and a baker. They have dreams. Joseph say, "Let me interpret your dreams." Now notice, in the first part of the chapter he's dreaming dreams. Now he's interpreting dreams.

Because god uses the disruption for development. It means he's teaching you stuff he ain't telling you about. Did you hear what I said? Yeah, you're learning things, you don't even know you in school. God's the only one that'll take you through school, you not even know you in class. Then you get to another season and you're like, "I know how to do stuff and I don't even know how to do stuff." And God's like, "I put you in a situation because your destiny was gonna require you knowing how to do some stuff." (audience applauding) I ain't even know I knew how to do this." And he told the baker, "Now, Doc, it's not looking good for you. Not looking good, Doc, but, but, look, you're going to be all right. You're going to get out." And the butler says, "As soon as I get out, I'm going to remember you." You know what that butler did? What a lot of people do, they get amnesia after elevation. I know what I'm talking about here. I say they get amnesia after elevation because you're calling will also disrupt your clock. And for two years, this man is waiting on a butler to make good on his word. But two years later, Pharaoh starts having dreams. And the butler says, "I remember. There was a man in prison who interpreted mine and he can interpret yours. Joseph gets out of prison, Pharaoh tells him his dreams, he gives Pharaoh the interpretation of the dream. I'm turning the corner here. Y'all all right?" He says, "All right now, Pharaoh. What you're seeing is seven years of plenty that's coming to the land. Then after the seven years of plenty, there's going to be seven years of famine." So here's what I would do if I were you. In the seven years of plenty because everybody doesn't know that famine's coming, they're

going to treat a temporary season like a permanent condition. I'm not going to bother that. One of the things my dad told me, he says, "The old man will have what the young man leave for him." So your old man is either going to be happy with you or mad at you. Anyway, seven years, a plenty of seven years of fame. He says, "So here's what I would do if I were you." When everybody else is bawling till they fall, during the seven years, during the seven years you put away, during the seven years of plenty. Then when the seven years of famine come, here's what's going to happen. Since you're going to have store houses filled with food, all the neighboring nations are going to have to come to you to get food, and we're going to sell it to them. And then when they run out of currency, they're going to come, and if I were you, I'd make them give me they land, so that Egypt prospers during the famine. Pharaoh says, "You the man. You do it. You in charge." And he said, "Nothing move in Egypt unless you say so." I don't have time, but he goes from a son to a slave to second-income man. And much of your frustration is you think your journey toward purpose is going to look like this. And the truth of the matter is your journey toward purpose is going to look like this. One day Joseph is making his rounds, and as he's making his rounds, he sees some people standing in line for food. He looks close, and he said, "Tim, look like my brother's." He gets closer. That's his brother's. Now what happens is he gets close. He recognizes them. They don't recognize him, because they look the same.

And he doesn't. God's been good to me. I don't look like what I've been through. I don't know what you expected me to look like because I was in that pit, but I don't look like. We got to go what I've been through. So through a series of events, he reveals and exposes himself to them, and they get upset. They say, "This man about to do who he about to give us what we deserve." [laughter] harm me." But God, who sovereign, but God, who's got the final say. But God, intended it. Don't miss the text because here, here's where, which is why I think not necessarily formal education, but theological training is important because read the text because sometimes when you add a word, it changes the meaning. The text doesn't say God intended it for my good. This isn't some get-back. This isn't some look at me now. Did it work for my good? Yes. Was that the primary purpose? No. God intended it for good. Read the text to accomplish what is now being done. The saving of many lives. God didn't put me here just to save my life. God, put me here to save yours. What he's saying is this is purpose. This isn't just personal promotion. This is purpose. This is a assignment. This is not just a get-back. God had you in mind because he made a prophetic promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand by the sea. And if Israel ends up extinct in the famine, that prophetic promise can come to pass. And there's a Messiah that needs to come through this lineage that needs to save the whole world. So you needed to be preserved. So you think you were sending me away? And he says earlier in the chapter, "God, sit me ahead of you. God almighty. He sent me to get here first." Because I demonstrated the character to be trusted with this platform. This narrative I'm done. I'm done, Tario. Answers for questions. Because this is, Joseph is saying, this is my purpose.

This is purpose, which is a compilation of the reasons for the creation or the existence of a thing. Are you here? It is the compilation of the reasons for creation or existence of a thing. It is a compilation of something called roles, callings and roles. Calling is God's invitation for your participation in the, for the reason of your creation through the roles he assigns in every season. Roles are sets of responsibilities that he gives you in certain seasons. And when people, if you don't understand this, you can't understand purpose. Your purpose, somebody say roles. So God calls you to roles. And when you confuse your role with your purpose, God may call you out of a role and you'll think he's calling you out of purpose. But your purpose is going to be accomplished when you keep saying yes to the roles he calls you to in certain seasons. Pastoring isn't my purpose. Pastoring is a role. So Joseph was in purpose when he was in the pit. Joseph was in purpose when he was in the prison and Joseph was in purpose when he was in Pharaoh's house. And when people don't understand this, they stop accomplishing purpose because they fight to hold on to roles God's calling them out of. When he says you don't get to do that anymore. Shabbat, ha, yah, yah, yah, yah, yah. But not just what? It's where. None of this took place in a temple. All of this took place in Egypt. His assignment wasn't inside the church, it was outside. Egypt is a metaphor for the world. Israel coming out of Egypt in Exodus is a metaphor of them coming out of the world. It's a metaphor for the world. God sent him to the world. We outside, the anointing work outside. And when we say the world is what Reggie Manillo calls the seven sectors of society. I call them streets. According to Matthew 5, we're a salt of the earth. We're a light of the world. Am I making sense? You got the religious street. Not only do you have the religious street, you got the family street. Then you got the education street. You got the wellness street, which is physical, relational and emotional. You got the arts and entertainment street.

You got the government street. You got the business street. So God sprinkles you like salt on these streets. Salt of the earth. Light of the world. Why Christians scammer streets? Bad theology. Be in the street, not of it. Be in the world. Not of the world. I bring value to my street. I don't take on the values of my street. And he pushed you on the street for three reasons. To impact it. If you look at Genesis chapter number 30, 41, you'll see Pharaoh said, "Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one is discerning and as wise as you." You impact the street because you're good. Not just because you're a good person, because you're good. Pharaoh, like, you're good. And when Christians don't understand this, they develop an attitude of entitlement. And they think their piety entitles them to promotion when you demonstrate in poor performance. You're not promoted because they hate and sometimes you're not good. You're not good. And you're comparing your goodness to peers. When greatness needs to call you great. Which means we need to revisit the language we're using around favor. Because we're using favor as a way for God to put us in positions that we unequip for. Now, he might put you in a place that you're morally unqualified for, but he won't put you in a place that you unequip for. Some doors are closing, not because of the devil. The doors are closing because you hadn't been developed to be good enough to handle that room.

Pharaoh, don't care about your religion. Are you good? You impact it. Then you can get influence. He says nothing happened in Egypt unless Joseph say so. That's influence. And it's the influence that Joseph had that allowed him to spare his family's life. Let me tell you something. You're probably not going to change the streets. You're not there to change it. Some of these streets are so corrupt. You're not going to change all these people's motives in government. You're not going to change all these people's motives in business. You in wellness and you really care about people. You can't make all therapists. You can't make all doctors care about people. But you can be so influential in the street. You can influence people that are open to do better. And you can gain the influence that you need to leverage that street to help your people. Come stay with me. He felt confident saying, "Come stay with me." Because I got influence. I didn't even know you were going to be here, but we'll get rooms for you. We'll get houses for you because I got enough influence to leverage Pharaoh's assets for God's business. I got to go. And finally, Incom. Now, I'm going to share this with y'all. I'm way over time. I'm going to share this with you.

I'm sorry. You stand in the lobby. I'm sorry. Here it is. Here it is. He says, "I will provide for you and your children." Now, don't throw stones at me. He didn't say, "God will provide." He said, "I will provide." In other words, God's going to use me to provide for you. The assumption is, "I got enough to take care of you and your children." Now, I got to go, but we'll be throwing around scriptures in Pentecostal churches, like the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just. So we're sitting at home waiting on chicks. Name it, claim it, blab it, grab it. So God's going to take something somebody else work for and give it to you. That's unjust. The way the wealth of the wicked is extracted is by you invading the marketplace, adding value to the marketplace. Now you extract the wealth from the wicked. Then you can actually now move from just being an intercessor to an answer. He ain't even pray about this 'cause I can do it. I'ma pray about it when I need God to do it. (audience cheering) But this right here, I can do. This is a healthy biblical theology on wealth creation. 'Cause most people in church are either influenced by the spirit of mammon that worships money or the philosophy of Gnosticism

that treats everything that is of matter in a way that it doesn't matter. Gnostics didn't even believe Jesus had a physical body because they felt like anything physical was inferior. This contributes to the poverty gospel. So you got the prosperity gospel influenced by mammon, then you got the poverty gospel influenced by Gnosticism. When there's a healthy biblical balance that says, "Lord, I want you to give me "as much as I can handle without losing you." That's why you're on the street. And if you're gonna impact influence and get income from that street, you're gonna have to leverage three things. I'ma talk to you about all my spiritual traits. This is traits that the spirit forms in you personally. It's not a matter right or wrong, it's traits. I'ma talk to you next week about a trait Daniel had. It's excellent to not be excellent in sinful, but his assignment required a spirit of excellence. Then there's spiritual gifts, special abilities that the Holy Spirit gives you that make you uniquely effective. We're gonna talk in this series about something called impartation where the spirit distributes different gifts to you at different seasons. We're gonna talk to you about fanning into flame the gifts. It's when gifts that God is the positive and you go dormant because of a lack of usage.

Some of you, that's your gift of tongues. You come into a church like this that does not forbid tongues, but we claim order with tongues and now you don't use it at all. Start the gift. Use it. And then spiritual fruit or what we would call fruit of the spirit. And when you look at the fruit of the spirit, it's ways in which the spirit demonstrates and displays his transformative work in you and through you. How you let them do that to you and you don't do that back to them. I got temperance with your self control. I got gentleness. I got kindness. You will not impact the street. You will not influence the street and you will not maximize your income on the street without these three things. And this month, we're gonna help you release them into your life. Now, may the Lord God bless and keep you cause his face of favor to shine up on you. Be gracious to you. May he protect you, may he provide for you. And may he grant you peace. This is my prayer in Jesus name. Amen.

And I still feel the Holy Ghost right now. Somebody praise him on your way out. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (rock music)