Others- Pastor Logan Williams

- Well, hello, welcome guys. So it's an honor and privilege to be able to speak to you. My name's Logan Williams. My TDC number's 1490-218. From right here at Life Fellowship Church in McKinney, Texas, I have a message for you guys. I was tasked with speaking a message at another church and the sermon series was others, simply others. And the first guy that went, or it was a lady actually, she talked about helping others. She talked about the Good Samaritan and how he went out of his way to help someone, others, right? Even though they were an enemy to him and talked about are you willing to help others? The next speaker talked about letting others help you and talked about the story where the four men lowered the guy that was paralyzed through the roof so that Jesus could heal him. Would you let others help you? I don't know if I would've done that. If I'm paralyzed and you're gonna bring me through this roof, I don't know, that seems dangerous. Are you gonna let other people help you? Even if it seems dangerous? The third week, the pastor talked about what is Jesus down for you? And have you told anyone? Have you told others about it? And then it became my turn. And I came with the others coming against us.

What do we do when others come against, not just people, not just, it could be circumstances. It could be other forces. It could be other things that come against us. How do we respond to that? And I wanna start with a question. Okay, imagine if you will, if God gives you a deathbed moment. Okay, what I mean by that is you're in hospice or you've got like a week to live, you're on your deathbed, you know it's coming. And you've got time to kind of think back on your life and review, man. Do a flyover of your life. What would be your last words in regards to God and how he affected your life? Whether that be today or whether that's in a few weeks or maybe 20 years from now, they've got blesses you with that moment. What are you gonna say? What are gonna be your final words about the Lord, about God in your life? And some of you might say, if you're being truthful, I never know him. You know, yeah, I'll maybe lived in Texas, I maybe lived in the Bible Belt. Maybe I heard about Jesus, I heard about God, but he played really no role in my life. I have no desire to follow him. I made no decisions in regard to him.

Maybe that's your honest answer. Maybe some of you are in the Matthew seven camp, the scary play, the scary scriptures, where he says, you know, you might come to church, might sing the songs, might get in our fields. Yeah, I can speak Christianese, I can do Sunday morning Christianity. But here at the end of my life, honestly, I don't really know him. I didn't know him. I knew a Sunday morning God. I knew a Sunday morning Jesus, but I never knew him. I didn't surrender my life to him. Yeah, I came to church, but I didn't, I sure didn't pick up my cross daily and follow him. I didn't care about my sin. I really lived my life more for me than I ever did for him. And sure, man, I might've overcome some things in my life. Sure, I might've gotten clean and sober or whatever it is, but if I look over my life to some honest assessment, he really had no substance in my life. Or, and hopefully this is most of us, that you would be able to look over the courts of your life with this question before you. And so I've been a lot of things and I've done a lot of things. I've been down some roads. I shouldn't have gone down. I've screwed up over and over and over again. I made a mess of things who can relate, right? But here's what I know to be true about my relationship

with God in my last days, looking back over my life. He was faithful and he was good to me all the days of my life. There were moments I didn't understand. There were moments that life sucked. There were moments that I didn't agree with, that it went off the rails. There were prayers that I prayed maybe that didn't get answered. There were moments I didn't feel it. Moments I didn't understand it. Maybe even sometimes questioned his existence. But what I know, what I knew when I came out of that was God is faithful. And he will do the things that he says he's going to do, even in seasons where I can't see it, I can't feel it, or I don't even understand it. He was faithful. And I want you to think about that today. I want you to ponder that question today. whatever facilities that you're at, man. What can't be fallen? Because it's so important. Look, let's examine our-- so let's take an honest assessment because it's never too late to repent. It's never too late to get all in. And when I look at this character that we're going to look at today, this will be the story of Joseph. Okay, we're going to talk about the story of Joseph, Old Testament Joseph, not New Testament Joseph.

But Joseph, at the end of his life, at 110 years old, will be able to look back over his life. Okay, and in that moment, not hang his hat on anything else other than the reality that God was faithful to do, the very things he said he was going to do, even in the midst of chaos. And we're about to see Joseph had some chaos in his life. Even against, in the midst of others coming against him, others hating on him. Others hating forces coming against him. False accusations. Joseph went through it all. And in the end, this is the conclusion that he came to, that God is faithful. So this story is found in Genesis, chapter 37 through Genesis, chapter 50. It's a heck of a story, man. It's like a made-for-TV movie. It's like a Netflix documentary. They need to make a story on-- they got David, they got Moses, they got-- they needed Joseph movie out there. But I want you guys to go home. I want you to read it. I want you to go back to your cell and read it. Genesis 37 to Genesis 50, because we're just going to do a flyover. And anytime I do a flyover, I want to say, "Hey, man, go read it for yourself. Don't take my word for it.

Don't take anyone's word for it. Go find out for yourself." So we're going to pick it up in chapter 37, verse 3. It says, "Now, Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. OK, the brothers are hating on him, all right? And see, back in the day, they had-- he had a couple of wives. Jacob did. This is a time-- don't let that throw you off. This is a time-- it was just a weird time. They had multiple wives. They had conky minds. They had friends with benefits. Like, it was just a thing, all right? And so naturally, if you've got kids with multiple people, OK, there's going to be one of the girls you're just going to like more than the other one. Maybe one of them looks better than the other one. You're going to naturally love one more than the other, and you're going to love those kids more than the other kids. And that's what's happened here. Jacob, he loves Joseph. In fact, he made him this exotic, elaborate robe of many colors. And that's going to cause his brothers to hate on him, OK?

And so they're doing that because their dad loves them more. And they've just had enough, man. Like, not only was there this favoritism towards Joseph, but he had this special robe that his dad made them, and he didn't make one for the other guys. So they're out there in the fields, right? The other brothers are working like slaves. And Joseph's hanging out with his dad, right? Getting all these gifts, getting this special robe. And if that's not enough, Joseph has this incredible gift, of dream interpretation. He can interpret dreams. And this will be a key part of the story of Joseph later in his life. It'll actually save the entire nation of Egypt, this gift that God has given him. But Joseph's a little cocky about it. He's a little bit arrogant about it. And he has a dream, right? And he rolls up to his brothers, probably with his robe on. And he's saying, hey guys, check it out. I had a dream. Y'all got to hear it. And so I-- all right, what? And he's like, in my dream, we were all out bailing hay. And then my hay rose up, and your hay bowed down, and worshipped me. And so you're saying, we're going to worship you? And he's like, yep, that's what I'm saying. You're going to worship me. Now we know that in chapter 42, verse 6,

that's literally going to happen. There's going to be a moment where they're going to come to him and bow down. But dang, he didn't have to-- he didn't have to stunt like that, right? He's trolling up in his pretty robe and announcing, you know, you're all going to be worshiping me. And man, we're going to see that the brothers are outraged. And you see a lot of times the others that are in our lives that affect us, negatively that come against us, sometimes we cause that to happen. Sometimes we set that in motion, man. I just spent a few days in Florida with a friend of mine, old friend. I was just kind of unplugging, unwinding. And we would stay up late and talk about everything, man. Talk about marriage. We talk about kids. We talk about ministry. I kept seeing this common thread of fear, man. Fear motivates us so much. Motivates me so much, and I don't even realize it. And he's like, yeah, man, when we're talking about one thing and he'd be like, oh, man, that's not really why he did that. That's really fear. I'm thinking I'm doing these things to protect my family or to honor my wife, but really, it's fear. And when you dig behind the fear, it's like, well, what are you really afraid of? It's like, well, that this thing might happen.

And then when we dig behind that, it's like, OK, well, so what if that happens? Well, then that could cause this to happen. And then that might lead into this thing happening. And when you dig all the way behind it, it's like when it gets to the end of the little rabbit trail, like there's nothing there. And I've discovered I'm walking around in fear, not even realizing that I am. And the thing that I'm fearing is not even real. And so what he was telling me was, man, so many men are dominated by fear. And it causes you to have the arrogance that Joseph had. And it causes-- because you have that fear, you have that arrogance. It causes people to come against you. So what I'm saying is, yes, his brothers came against him, but he kind of had a part in that. He sort of set that ball rolling. Because we make decisions and take actions based on that fear. We step on the toes of our fellows, and they retaliate, and this is exactly what's going to happen when Joseph says, you're all going to worship me. They ain't having it. They ain't trying to hear it. And so one day Joseph is told to go get his brothers, and they see him coming. And they're like, oh, man, they call him the dreamer. Like, literally, they call him that.

Here comes the dreamer, and they come up with this plan. Let's kill him. Let's just be rid of him. And let's just tell Dad that the wild animals got him, and we're good. And they're about to kill him. And then Reuben, one of his other brothers, saves him. They said, hey, instead of killing him, let's throw him into this pit and let his blood be on someone else's hands. They didn't know that Reuben was actually planning on coming in and saving Joseph. So they'd say, good idea. They'd throw him in this pit. And the text said that as they were eating lunch, like, man, that's some hate, isn't it? Like, you just threw your brother in a pit. He's down there. He can't get out. Probably screaming, like, let me out. What are y'all doing? And they're just chilling eating a peanut butter sandwich, right? It's crazy. And so Mishma-like traders come strolling by. And as they came along, they have-- they're like, hey, I've got a better idea. Let's sell him into slavery. Then we don't have to kill him. We can get some money out of the deal.

We don't have to kill him. And we can be done with him. And we'll still tell Dad that animals got him. Great idea. So they did that. They took his robe. They sold him into slavery. They took his robe. They dipped it into some goat's blood or something. They made it look like an animal got him. And that's what they said. And that's what they did. And so we see that because of some others, Joseph goes from being on top of the world to an Egyptian slave, just like that, man. And that can happen in life, right? We can go from a series of events can happen. And we can go from the top of the mountains. We've got to be grounded in Christ. We've got to have that as our source of joy because life is mountaintops and valleys, man. It just is. Can anyone relate to that? Everything going good in your life. And then through a series of events, boom. It's like, man, how did I get here? What happened? Man, this is Joseph. But God's favor is on his life. Amen.

And we will see this time and time again. And if you're born again, believer, and you're watching, listen to me. God's favor is on your life. God's favor is on your life as well. And this takes us to Genesis chapter 39. So he's sold to a man named Potiphar. Potiphar was second in command of Egypt. He's not just an ordinary guy. He's up there, OK? And this is all part of God's favor on Joseph's life. Potiphar loves Joseph, OK? He's a good worker. Potiphar loves him. And he pretty much gives him access to all that he has, his whole house. He's like, run my house, bro. And so he loves Joseph. But the problem is, so does Potiphar's wife. He loves Joseph as well. And she don't just love him. She don't just like him. She's like coming on to him, right? Like not just texting him some borderline inappropriate text. She's like trying to have sex with him, literally. And we need to keep that in context. Day after day, she's trying to sleep with him. And it says in chapter 39, verse 8, but he refused and said to his master's wife, behold. Because my master has no concern about anything in the house.

he is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept anything back from me except you because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Like he's recognizing that it would grieve the heart of God. And remember this, remember that part 'cause we're gonna come back to that. And in verse 10, he says, "And as she spoke to Joseph, day after day, he would not listen to her, to live beside her or to be with her. Verse 11, "But one day, when he went to the house to do his work, and none of the men were in the house, there, she caught him by his garment saying, 'Ligh with me.' Verse 12, "But he tore himself away and left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. He ran out of the house. She's like, 'Do this now,' and he fled. She had his garment in his hand, like there's a good chance he went running out of there in his underwear, okay? Like Forrest Gump straight up, taking a turn down that driveway, y'all see the movie, and here he goes. In his underwear, there's a good chance of that. And I want us to see this because it would just be a tragedy not to pause the story here and spend just a little bit of time on this part of the story. Because if I believe that sin to be a thing

in the church, I'm talking about the church at large, like the big church, the bride of Christ, okay? And I'm not just talking about sexual sin, okay? I'm talking about all sin. Every sin within the church. And I want to take just a second and look how Joseph responds. Even though other forces, other people came against him, and he found himself in this horrible situation, sold into slavery by no mistake of his own. Like if anyone had an excuse to just sin and throw in the towel, like, it's happened to me, I imagine you're in prison. You got a sentence, right? You got a 10-year sentence. Like you're depressed, you're dark, and you got an opportunity to sleep with some female guard. I can understand the thinking of, you know what, man, what do I have to lose? At least I can get this little excitement out of this deal. Like if anyone had an excuse to just go ahead and indulge, it would be Joseph. I get it, some momentary relief. Like what are they gonna do to me now? I'm already sold into slavery, and I think a lot of us would respond that way. But the way he responds is epic, okay? And we can learn a lot from Joseph's response to part of his wife, okay? Whatever, and I'm talking about any sin,

whatever you want to put in that blank, that your sin's struggle, when it comes to sin, I just want us to ask ourselves today, what can we learn from Joseph in this story? Because again, no one would really blame Joseph for getting a little fair going on with part of his wife and having something to look forward to every day, right? Or every few days, whatever it is, but he doesn't do it. And he fights against it to his own detriment. Watch this, the first takeaway is we avoid and fight against sin because it grieves the heart of God. Okay, because it grieves the heart of God. And as I thought about this, like all week, all the reasons that I fight against sin, all the reasons that I strive to live a righteous life. That's because, you know, when I thought about it, when I like pondered it, it's like I don't want to sin because I don't want to hurt my wife. I have an amazing wife that I love and I don't want to hurt her. I don't want to hurt my family. I don't want to hurt my ministry. I don't want to lose my job. Like if I indulge in sin, all those things could be destroyed. Okay, like I don't want to fall into sin because there's a lot at stake in my life. And those are all good reasons. Like there's validity and all that, no doubt. But what I've learned is that that can't be what draws me in my fight against sin. Like yes, the sin that has before me,

it will destroy my family. It will destroy my marriage. It will destroy my ministry. But more than that, it grieves the heart of God. And that's the stuff that should keep us up at night. It grieves the heart of God. So when we act upon that sin, when we lie, when we relapse and use drugs, when we gossip, when we click on pornography, when you get out, it's going to be right there. Guys, it grieves the heart of God. When we lust, when we lust after that woman, and our minds go to places that should never go, and we act upon that lust, we're lusting after a daughter at the King, a beloved daughter in whom he's well-pleased. When we get over on someone in a shady deal to screw someone over that puts a little money in our pocket, but messes them over, we're getting over on somebody that means a whole lot to the Lord. It grieves the heart of God. When we gossip, when we talk garbage about people behind their back, and I'm guilty of this, okay? More than other things, we should have the most angst about. We're talking trash about a beloved son or daughter of God. And if you look at all the powerhouses of the Bible, they understood this. Psalm 51, he got David,

all that that's going on with David. He sleeps with Bathsheba and Uriah's dead now and the baby's born and then the baby dies. It's chaos. Sin has caused chaos in King David's life. And in the midst of this, you remember the verse created me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me? Like he's saying, I've made a mess of things. God helped me, created me a clean heart, but it's verse four where he says, "Against you and you alone have I sinned." I've done what is evil in your sight. David is like, I've made a mess of things and cause destruction, but more than that, I've grieved your heart, God. I keep recognizing that. Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son. When he's out there and he squanders all his money and he's in the pig pen of life, right? And he has this moment where he comes to himself and he's like, I know, amen, I'm starving to death. All my father's hired servants have more than enough bread. I know I'll rise, I'll go to my father and I'll say to him, father, I've sinned against who? Against you. Sinned against heaven and you. So even in this parable that Jesus tells, the understanding is that he grieved the heart of the father.

And we see it here in verse nine. Joseph says, "It would be a great sin against God." Yeah, Potiphar is a good dude and he's allowed me to live a semi-busy life here and even in slavery, but I'm not sleeping with his wife because it would hurt Potiphar. I'm sleeping with his wife. Why? Because it would grieve the heart of God. So I'm running out of here. I'm not even going to stay around and consider this because I might fall into that temptation. And so look, when we can see sin in this light, whatever you want, again, whatever you want to put in that blank, that it grieves the heart of God and say, man, if I act on this, it's going to hurt God's heart. We'll respond differently to sin. I guarantee you, just you'll respond differently. When we understand the high process was paid for us on that blood-stained cross from Calvary. It's just not worth the temporary pleasure if it's going to grieve the heart of God. And so we're going to respond differently to sin. Try it. Try to have this understanding. Pray about this and ask God to give you that understanding. The second takeaway we can learn is avoid sin at all costs. Avoid sin at all costs. It's simple, but it's a big one.

The text says he kept out of her way as much as possible. He's like, I'm not even going to be in the same vicinity as her because I know one bad decision and I might do it. So if she's in the house, I won't go outside and cut the grass. And then when she goes on a lunch break, then I'll go in the house and handle that stuff. I'm not going to get around her because I don't want to fall. I'm going to avoid this at all costs. Man, I don't know what you guys need to avoid in there. I don't know what you need to avoid at all costs, maybe certain people, maybe the people that have the drugs, the people that have the, whatever it is. But can we apply what we've learned here from the story of Joseph to your life? Say, God, how can I apply this? But sometimes you can do all those things sin's just going to find you anyway. You can do all the right things that sin's going to find. You're going to look up and it's just going to be right there, which brings me to the third takeaway and it's my favorite. And it's simply run, run, man. Many of us are there like I can act for that thing or I can run. And some of you who are watching right now, you need to be running right now. Whatever that looks like in the spirit, metaphorically, you need to be running right now. Like we can entertain the idea of sin or we can run. Some of us need to realize that there's a train wreck

coming at the end of this thing. But a lot of times we get so short-sighted, we just see the temporary pleasure we're going to get. And we don't see that it's going to grieve the heart of God. We don't see the absolute waterfall that's at the end of this thing. Like I don't care if you're barefoot and the pavement's 130 degrees outside, run, man. That's what Joseph did. He didn't even go back in and get his cloak. He didn't even go back in and get his clothes. Why? Because if I go back in there, I might be tempted. Even if that means running naked. Like I was just going to tell you, when I go to the gym, like that's my spot where I'm tempted. I am praying from the time I lock my car door for every female in that gym. It's pretty crazy, the gym scene today. I just love it because it's my stress relief. But I'm praying for them. And when I go in there, man, - Um. The other day one of them was like, "Hey man, I'm really trying to develop my triceps." And I just see, "Man, what are you doing for your triceps?" She's engaging me in conversation, but I was just like, "Hey, I just got really good genetics. I don't know." And I just picked up my water, and I left. I'm not even going to sit there and engage in a conversation with a female.

Why? Because I know me, man. I know my past. I am not, and I even have to think that I can't be deceived and tempted into going down this road. So I'm not even going to entertain it. I'm gone. Right? And so if we go back to his story, he does all the right things, doesn't he? Like he doesn't want to grieve the heart of God. He avoids her. He runs. And we learn here that even though again, even though you do all the right things, sometimes bad things happen to you. Listen, man, I know that there are some people watching right now that didn't do the thing that they got convicted for, or there are some people watching right now that got way more time than they should have gotten for the crime that they committed, for whatever reason. Maybe you were in the wrong county. Maybe you had the wrong DA. Maybe you had the wrong judge. Maybe you were innocent and you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time he got framed. I don't know. But sometimes bad things happen, because it's about to happen to Joseph. Potiphar's wife gets angry. She falsely accuses him of raping her, and she's got his garment in his hand. And so they believe her and they throw him into prison and look, guys, this is a dungeon. These go to this thing like some county jail where he's going to bond out tomorrow and then wait for his court date.

Okay. But historians would say he would spend 12 years in a dungeon. All right, so let's recap. Look at all these. Others that have come against him, okay? All the others that have come against him. He was thrown in a pit, which that would make me mad. I'm injury prone, and I like to be healthy, like throwing you in a pitman. I'm almost praying an ankle. I'm going to hurt something like that. The text doesn't give any validity to that, but that's going to make me mad, first of all, then he's sold in his slavery, then he's falsely accused of raping this woman, and then he's thrown into a dungeon. There's some others coming against him, right? Like he's got it worse than most of us have had it, honestly. But God's hand was on him, okay? And after 12 years in that dungeon, the pharaoh of Egypt, he has a dream, and no one can interpret this dream for him. And this dream is really bothering him, and he wants to know what it means. But guess what? It just so happens that there's a dreamer in the dungeon, so they bring Joseph into the court of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh's like, hey, I hear that you could interpret dreams, and he was like, yeah, I love the way that he responds to that. He doesn't say he gives all the credit to God. He says, I heard you can interpret dreams. He says, I can't do nothing, but my God can. And I think that's just awesome with all the things that Joseph had gone through, all the things that have come against him to still have that confidence, to say, I can't do anything but God can't, to have that confidence that God is still with me, the boldness of Joseph, even though he had been done especially wrong in his life, to give that glory to God right

then, and say that's God's gift that was given to me. So he interprets the dream. He explains the dream, and basically the dream was there's seven fat, healthy cows that come out of the Nile River, and that's cool, and then right behind them, there's seven skinny, scrawny, nasty cows that come out of the Nile River. And he explains that dream to Pharaoh as, hey man, this is representing a 14-year period in Egypt, and the seven fat cows are going to represent seven years of abundance. It's going to be seven years of plenty, the harvest is going to come in, there's going to be an overflow of everything in Egypt, but be careful, because just following that's going to be seven years of famine, there's going to be nothing, no harvest in the land of Egypt. So what you need to do is you need to save a fifth of everything for those seven years and put it back so that when the famine hits for those seven years, we'll still be good. And so Pharaoh's like, awesome, you're my boy, and he pulls him out of this dungeon. He pulls him out of prison, not as a slave, but as second in command of Egypt. And so you can see this roller coaster, right, of living this bougie life and then getting wrongfully accused and then going to prison for 12 years, and now he's second in command, But remember during the prosperity Egypt has all the stuff stored up And about two years into the famine part of that. So it'll be nine years after they let them out All the surrounding countries are starving, right? Because they didn't know about the dream They didn't save anything all the surrounding countries are hungry and they all start coming to Egypt To buy food and to buy grain and to buy stuff and guess who rolls in hungry one day the brothers What brothers the brothers that sold them into slavery The brothers that actually wanted him dead, but thanks to Ruben didn't kill him. They didn't recognize him But he recognized them These others that have come against him and done him so wrong and so here we are maybe two decades later If you think about a year with potter for 12 years in prison nine years seven years of plenty and then two years of famine It's like 20 years later and he starts interacting with them And he sort of gets to know them and he plays these little games with him

It's it's a you know, he sends them home. He hot stuff in there in there in their bags It's a it's a trippy story. You need to read genesis 37 of genesis 50 But he and one of his interactions he tells him hey go get your dad And go get Benjamin your brother that you talked about and come back and we gonna have dinner We all gonna have dinner and so they don't still don't know what's him. They're like, whoa, man This is cool. We get to eat with the second in command. They're like, man. We're doing good We're gonna it's like eating with the vice president, right? And so they go and get Benjamin They go and get their dad They come back and have dinner and this takes us to genesis chapter 45 And in verse four it says this please come closer. He said to them So they came closer And he said again, I am joseph your brother whom you sold into slavery in egypt First five, but don't be upset and don't be angry with yourself For selling me to this place. It was god who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives Verse six this famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years And there will be neither plowing nor harvesting verse seven God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and preserve many survivors verse eight So it was god who sent me here not you Understand what he's saying man like in context He's saying yes, it appears you've come against me It appears others other forces my own brothers have come against me But it was god who sent me through that slavery season of life It was god who sent me through this potter for wife's story where I was falsely accused It was god who sent me through this life spending 12 years in the dungeon that I did not deserve It was god. He's just pointing to this reality. You didn't do anything, but god did everything And i'm sure these brothers were tripping. I'm sure they were like, oh my god. It's joseph like freaking joseph man We're gonna die

Like we did him wrong. We threw him in a pit. We sold him into slavery Now he's sick and he commands surely we're done and joseph is like no, no, no, no It was all god's plan Yeah, I had to walk through some things. I didn't want to walk through I had to walk through some crap. I did not want to walk through Anybody else walking through some crap you don't want to walk through right now anybody Like there's some things that have happened in my story that I wish didn't happen, but it was all part of the plan egypt would be dead if it were not for the season god put me through so you didn't do nothing god did everything And that's just a an unbelievable perspective And he offers this unbelievable grace and mercy And I would contend that it's the story of jesus and us The story of joseph and his brothers is the story of jesus in us. We get this undeserved grace and mercy Like he offered to his brothers jesus offers to us that none of us deserve We deserve death yet jesus hung on that cross for you and for me. We don't deserve that We bring nothing to the table, but jesus steps into our story just like joseph did and he says no no no no It's not about you. It's about something bigger And this was the story of joseph he had an understanding that god had something so much bigger in his hands Can we have that perspective today? I know some of the places you're at are horrible And you're miserable But can we have the perspective that that god has something big for you That this is part of his plan somehow While he was sold into slavery while he was falsely accused while he spent 12 years in prison Can we have this perspective that we're going through whatever we're going through whatever others are coming against us that Maybe just maybe god is doing something bigger and that it's not about us So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph lived to the age of 110. Man, I've always wondered,

how do these people in Old Testament times live so dang long, man? They're all in their hundreds, man. They got no antibiotics. They got no Neo-Sporin. They got no antibiotic cream. They got no infirmaries to go to. They got no emergency rooms. How do they live so long? It's crazy. Verse 23, he lived to see three generations of descendants of his son, Ephraim. And he lived to see the birth of the children of Manessa's son, Makir, who he claimed as his own. Verse 24, soon I will die, Joseph told his brothers. So this is his deathbed moment. Listen to what he says, but God will surely come and help you and lead you out of the land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land. He solemnly promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Look at the confidence in this, man. After all he had been through, remember, understanding that they were exiled in Egypt. Egypt was not the land God had promised his people. And after all that, all the stuff that Joseph went through, all the others that came against him, he says, God will come help you. Not if, not maybe he will come help you. Guys, I want to say that to you today.

God will come help you, he's faithful. And so we see that on his deathbed, what he was sure of his entire life, that God is faithful, he's faithful. He's like, I don't know a whole lot at 110, but what I do know as I look over the track record of my life, there were moments I didn't understand and got sold into slavery by my own brothers. Yes, were there moments that I was wrongfully accused and spent 12 years in a dungeon for something I didn't do? Yes, were there times in my story that I was in the valley of the shadow of death? Yes, but one thing I can say, even though I didn't understand it, and I can look back now at 110 and say God was faithful in all those seasons. I didn't see it then, but I can look back now at 110 and see that I had to go through all those seasons to save the entire land of Egypt. He's faithful, y'all. How could Joseph possibly be so confident of all of that? After all of that, but if you look in the text, you see six words over and over and over again through 14 chapters, but the Lord was with Joseph. Read it, guys, he was sold into slavery, but the Lord was with Joseph. He was wrongfully accused, and the Lord was with Joseph. He was thrown in the prison cell, but the Lord was with Joseph, and the Lord was with Joseph,

and the Lord was with Joseph. That's why he could so confidently say, look, I don't understand all the wise, but I know that every one of those seasons, he was more faithful than I could have ever imagined. God did something so much bigger than I could ever imagine. I'm getting to live that right now, guys, and I want you to live that. I want you to live that too, but here's the crazy thing about the Bible. It's about the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi, and get the Old Testament. Not everyone in the Old Testament could attest to this. In fact, you're gonna see a lot of God's people, the Spirit of God, leaving their lives. It's sad scriptures, it's King Saul. It's King Saul, he was elevated to King, and he was the man, and everyone loved him, and he kind of got full of himself, and all the lot of things that God was supposed to get the glory for, he gave to himself, and then he didn't do some things that God had asked him to do, and he just see this crumbling of Saul's life. And in 1 Samuel 16, 14, it says, "The Spirit of God left Saul." That's a sad scripture. You see Samson, Samson's the man, super strong, beating up everybody, killing folks at the drop of a hat. He's super arrogant, he's flexing, right?

It's got all the ladies, right? He becomes so entrenched with his sin that he failed to see that when old Lala Girl cut his hair off, that the Spirit of God left him. Spirit of God left him. All through the Psalms, you see King David cries out to the Father, "Please don't take your Spirit away from me." So we see it all through the Old Testament, God turning his face away, God's Spirit leaving certain people. Well, listen to this, man, praise God. We get to turn the page from Malachata Matthew, right? Because there's gonna be one more time that God's gonna turn his back. But this time, he's not turning his back on his people. He's not turning his back on the disciples. He's not turning his back on the church, okay? But he would turn his back on Christ himself. He was beaten within every inch of his life. The flesh of his back was ripped off of him. He was stripped down but naked hanging on the cross, hanging there for three hours, and I want you to get this picture, man. I want you to get this in your mind, right? After three hours, he would lift himself up and would cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And we see in this moment, we see God turning his back on his own son. In the wrath of God being poured out on Jesus, wrath that you deserve, wrath that I deserve, wrath we all deserve, and Jesus took it all. God turns his back on the Savior as the wrath of sin was poured out on Jesus, paying the penalty of sin through his life, death, and three days later, his resurrection. And according to the Word of God, when we place our trust in faith in this great gospel message, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son there, whoever believes in him won't perish but have eternal life. When we put our faith in trust in him

that he came, that he did those things, that he took the wrath that you deserve and that I deserve for the sins of the world, and we call upon his name, we get to be a part of the family of God. This is the good news of the gospel, capital letters, right? This is why people all over the world right now are going to their death proclaiming that there's a Jesus that has saved us. Like we're on our way to hell and Jesus has intercepted us and pulled us into glory. We get to be a part of the family of God and the Bible would call us a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own possession. So I got to remind myself when God looks down from heaven he don't see dope fiend Logan like I used to be, he don't even see pastor Logan but he sees the blood of his son of my life and he's like he's mine, he sees the blood of his son on your life, he's mine, she's mine, we're his, we get to be a part of the family and I don't know about you but that's some good news and I would be good with that, like that's good enough for me like praise God, I'm not going to hell, I got a place at the table, I have a relationship with him, amen, but wait there's more, I like that dude on TV that sells Flex Seal for 1995 right, but wait there's more, but man the more, the more is so much greater because not only did we get to be in relationship with God, not only did we get to have a place at the table but according to John chapter 16 and Acts chapter 2 we get the spirit of the living God given to us and listen to me a spirit that will never be taken away from us, okay, that Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost is my grandmother, we call it, that Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sin that shows us those things that grieves the heart of God, that Holy Spirit that teaches us God's Word and how amazing it is, that Holy Spirit that shows us when we get off the rails a little bit, that Holy Spirit that walks us through those Psalm 23 valleys, when it don't make sense and we don't have the answers, you think you're getting through that valley among yourself, think again man, Holy Spirit walking you through that valley with your hand, getting you through that valley, we have this great gift of the Holy Spirit that will never be taken away and what I say this man, I just feel like there's so many people and I felt like this too at the church in large, so many people are acting like they're in this old testament, old covenant mindset, like we worry every day that we're going to do something or not do something like King Saul or like Samson and God's going to remove his spirit from us and it's not true but we get stuck in that mindset and so we're walking around with our head down, kicking the dirt, hoping that we read enough Word or we're doing up Bible studies or we pray enough this week and when we get to Friday, God will love us on Friday as much as he did on

Monday or I hope I didn't do this and if I did do this then he's probably really mad at me so I'll probably need two more good weeks, not cussing, drinking, smoking, dipping, going to church, not looking at pornography and then maybe I'll get to that Friday and he might mow me a little more and we're operating in this same dangerous place that King Saul and all these other guys had to worry about and I see it man, I run into people that I hadn't seen in church in a while and they're like hey man good to see you and they're like yeah man I would have been in church but I just don't even feel worthy enough to walk in there, you know they've fallen back into the drugs or fallen back into the sin, they bought into this lie as born-again believers that somehow God has matted them and frustrated at them like there's this angry daddy up in heaven saying hey man talk to me when you do all your Bible studies and we'll talk and I'm like dude if that's the case then I don't need to be going to church on Sunday and I just feel like someone needs to to hear that, man. If you're a born-again believer... and the spirit of the living God dwells within you, then listen to me, man, I want you to hear this. If you don't hear anything else, man, I want you to hear this. The Lord is with us. The Lord is with you. He's with you. He's with you in the prison cells. He's with you in the famines. He's with you when there's no money on your books and you ain't heard from your family in months. He's with you in the days of prosperity. He's with you on the mountaintops. He's with you on the daisy. You don't even wanna get out of bed and you wish it would all just be over. He's with you in the valleys. He's with you in the courtroom.

And he's with you when you fall all the way off and you turn all the way back to that sin and you get back on the drugs or whatever that thing is in your life. He's with you. He's with us. He's with you in all those seasons. And so when we can understand that as we're being sanctified into the image of Christ, one degree of glory to the next, which is what the Bible says, as his saints, then when that day comes, when that day comes, for all of us going back to the question that I began this message with and you're laying on your debt bed and you just have a few days left and someone would say to you, "Hey man, what's your final words about the Lord in your life?" When we understand this truth that we have the Holy Spirit and all the days of our journey, the good, the bad, the ugly, all the stuff, all the others that have come against us, all the circumstances we've had to walk through, we will, by confidence, be able to stand in the same place that Joseph did and say, "He's been so good to me. "He's been so good to me.

"He's been so faithful to me." And yeah, there were times I didn't understand. Yes, there were times I was wrongfully accused. Yes, there were times where people were disgusting. Yes, there were times that I had to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, yeah, more than I wanted. But I can also say at 110 years old that the Holy Spirit was with me and he got me through this and he got me through this and he got me through this and he got me through that and he got me through that. And to be honest, I wouldn't be the person that I am today if I hadn't had gone through all this that the Holy Spirit got me through. I don't understand it and I wish it played out different but man, God's been faithful. He's been so good to me. So I don't know where you're at today, man. Every time I walk into a prison or a jail to do prison ministry, I just see God's grace, God's grace, God's grace, God's grace. And if I could see through this camera right here, all the people that are watching, I would just see God's grace, God's grace, God's grace, God's grace. See, Jesus knows that we can't possibly earn it or buy it. So he just gave it to us. It's an amazing gift. I hope you guys can embrace it today. I'm going to close with John 15, 16.

I was at a thing on Saturday morning, a men's deal and this scripture was highlighted. I've never seen it before. I'm sure I've read it. I just never really paid attention to it. But John 15, 16 says, "You didn't choose me. "I chose you. "I pointed you to go and produce lasting fruit "so that the Father will give you whatever you ask "for using my name." This is Jesus' talk. This is new living translation. You didn't choose me. I chose you. And again, man, I just want to say, man, that if you're clicking on this video today, God is trying to choose you. Jesus is choosing you. And Romans 10 says, "Anybody who calls upon the name "of the Lord will be saved." If you've never done that, it's just that simple. It's just that simple, man. Let me pray for you guys. Father, thank you. Thank you for choosing us. Thank you for the plan that you have for our life. God, I pray that these words that have gone forth, man, that they would land on fertile soil, God, that you would provide the increase. God, I pray that you would meet these inmates,

these men, these women that are watching, men right where they are, and let them know how much you love them, God. And let them know that you have a plan and a purpose for your life. That's so much bigger than what they're going through right now, and that can we have this revelation that Joseph had on his deathbed? Can we have it now so we can live a life of joy? Can we have it now so we can have understanding that you've got this and that you've got a plan? God, I pray that if anyone is watching that does not know you, that they would be saved today by the power of your Holy Spirit, that they would call upon your name, God, to save them. And God, I pray that you would just continue to bless them. And we thank you, God, for all that you've done. We just praise your name and give you glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, guys, for listening. I love you. You're my heart. I'll talk to you soon.