Talk

Talk 8:

SAY, “The Lord is with you.”

We’re almost to the finish line of the book of Genesis.

Today, we are going to talk about an Old Testament character and one of you might probably know this guy already. He’s pretty famous. His name—a very common name— is Joseph.

In the Bible, you’ve got St. Joseph in the New Testament. But in the Old Testament, there is this one guy called the Dreamer.

You know, you guys are also dreamers – when you’re in the office, Day Dreamers.

So, Joseph is a very famous guy.

Quick, quick trivia about Joseph: Joseph was the youngest son of Jacob.

Remember, we’re studying the family of Jacob? Jacob had 12 sons. Can you imagine that? In our family, we’re only two, and it already takes big effort to relate to one another. Imagine 12 children!

History Repeats Itself

So, Joseph was the youngest child of Jacob. And they were 12 siblings altogether.

You know how it is in families.

Filipinos would probably know this— when the youngest is often the favorite.

We’re a family of three. I’m the youngest. I think the reason the youngest is the favorite is when you’re a parent, normally, with your first child, you want to perfect parenting, you’re so controlling, you want to make sure you get this right. But when the second kid comes, you’re a little more relaxed, laid back, you know, it’s okay. But normally, when you get to your third kid, onwards, that’s when you let go: “Basta humihinga, okay na.—As long as the kid is breathing, and there’s no blood, it’s fine.”

That’s why, sometimes, it’s the bunso, the youngest, who feels like, “Bakit hindi kasing-strict si Daddy at si Mommy sa akin? Why are Daddy and Mommy not so strict with me?“

Kasi sawa na sila– sawa na silang magalit– they are already tired of getting angry. ‘Yun ang narasan ko, e– That was my experience.

My parents were so tired of disciplining the first two children, so when it came to me, “Ahh, that’s it.”

Joseph’s case was like this. In Genesis 37:33, this is how the author describes Joseph:

So, because of this, the brothers hated him.

You know, in life, there is what’s called generational curse or generational sin— it’s sin passed from one generation to the next. It’s a dysfunction that you pass on to your children, your children’s children.

That’s why, you know, if you’re not careful, history will repeat itself—if you don’t break that curse.

Generational Dysfunction

At this moment, the Genesis author is telling us that there is a generational dysfunction in the family of Abraham.

What is that dysfunction? It’s called favoritism.

All the way from Abraham. What did Abraham do? Abraham favored Isaac over Ishmael. And then we see that Isaac did the same thing—Isaac favored Esau over Jacob. And now we see that Jacob is doing the same exact thing—favoring Joseph over his 11 siblings.

You know, as a parent, I’ve come to know this lesson: that the worst thing that you can do to your children is to play favorites. The easiest thing you can do to make a child lose his confidence is to love him lesser and make him feel that he is lesser than his siblings.

I was asking my wife one time, “Sino ang paboritong anak mo sa ating dalawang anak?”

She said, “Nah, I love them equally. They receive my equal love.”

You know, that’s correct. Because for every parent, the challenge is you need to love your children without partiality—there’s no preference.

I know a family who does this.

The mother said, “You know, Bro. Audee, we sibs grew up feeling our parents loved us equally.”

I asked, “Why?”

And she said, “Every birthday—whether it’s my sister’s birthday or my brother’s birthday, we all received gifts.”

I said, “Hindi ba magastos ‘yun? Wasn’t that expensive? Ano ba trabaho ng magulang mo? What’s your parents’ jobs?”

She said, “Oh, no, nothing like that. They didn’t have to give us expensive gifts. But just so we receive something in a package, to open it.”

How amazing is that? That the parents equally distributed their love, so the children felt like they were equally loved.

You know, Matthew 5:45 talks about God’s love in that way: that you may be children of your father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

When God sees you, He doesn’t look at you based on your sins. God sees you as His wonderful creation. We are all uniquely made, but we are all equally loved. You cannot say that you are more loved than the other person beside you. So, God loves you just as much as He loves every sinner.

Let’s go back to Joseph. His brothers hated him because–we know this without a doubt — that Jacob preferred Joseph over his other children. Why? Because as Verse 4 says Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful robe.

In the play Joseph the Dreamer, you’ll see that’s the rainbow-colored coat, the multi-colored tunic.

So, the brothers knew that Joseph was preferred by their father. And to make things just a little more interesting– you know, Joseph was so naïve. Because as if to add insult to injury, you know what Joseph does?

Verse 5:

And his brothers responded:

I don’t know what Joseph’s problem was. Maybe it was innocence. Maybe he was naïve. But here’s what I believe: I believe that Joseph had very poor timing. Why do I say that?

Blessing vs. Bragging

Did you know that there should be the right timing whenever you share your blessings with people? There’s a certain sensitivity… Like, you cannot talk about being blessed with your seventh child to somebody who’s still struggling to have one kid. That’s sensitivity. You can’t talk about building your fifth business to somebody who just lost his job— unless you want to hire him in your company.

Here’s some sound advice: When you feel compelled to share with people your blessing —like a dream that God planted in your heart- – have the intention of also sharing the blessing with people.

When you share your blessing with people, have the intention to bring them to the top with you—to enjoy your success—and not just leave them at the bottom. Because if you’re leaving them at the bottom, you know what you’re doing? You’re just bragging.

There’s a very thin line between blessing and bragging.

And as Christ followers, you know what we need to do? We don’t just run our own races– and finish our own races. We help people also finish their races.

So, you serve people. Be sensitive to others. It’s good to post your blessings on social media. But if your intention is just to attract attention, my friend that’s not blessing. That’s called bragging. So, be very careful about your intention.

Crime…and Compassion

Since the brothers hated Joseph, they wanted to kill him (Genesis 37:20). Doesn’t this remind you of another story in the Bible?

This author is so brilliant that there are so many connections in the book of Genesis. The story of Joseph points us all the way back to Cain and Abel. Cain wanted to kill Abel. Why? Because he felt the favor of the Lord was upon Abel.

The brothers felt the favor of Jacob upon Joseph, so they said, “Come let’s kill him.”

But then in Verse 21, you’re going to be blessed by this:

Aren’t you glad that there are still compassionate people around you? In a world that’s full of evil, there are compassionate friends that you have. When people want to destroy you, there are in turn people who want to rescue you.

Important Question

So, this begins the story of Joseph becoming a slave. He was exiled to Egypt.

Here’s an interesting trivia: Did you know that when the author wrote this story in particular, he was writing it during the Babylonian exile?

This was written at the time when they were exiled from their hometown. Imagine: Living in Jerusalem, having the time of their life, and all of a sudden, they get conquered by Babylon. And now they have to leave their place. They saw some of their relatives killed. They saw their temple destroyed and burned. And now they’re living as slaves.

Now, why is this important? Because, remember, we’re looking through the lens of the author. That’s what we’re learning, right? We’re asking: What was the purpose of the author? What did he want his readers to know?

Here is the answer: He wanted to ask one of the most important questions that were hanging in the head of the Jews:

“Lord, why me? Lord, I’ve been serving You. I’ve been worshipping You. I’ve been offering in the temple. Why did you allow me to be exiled?”

Today, somebody may be asking: “Lord, why me? I love You. I follow You. Why did You allow me to have cancer? I’ve been giving to Your Church, to Your Community—for years. And I’ve trusted You with my finances. But why is my business struggling?”

Message for Those in ‘Exile’

If you stretch that question further, you can ask this question that a lot of people have asked: Why do bad things happen to good people?

If this were Adam or Eve, or Noah, or Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, or Esau — we would understand that. Because they did something wrong—they deserved the consequences, after all.

But Joseph was a good man. He was a straight A student. Why do bad things have to happen to good people?

In Verse 39, the author says this:

This is a message for those who feel like they are in exile right now. And you don’t have to be exiled to a different place for you to understand this.

You don’t have to be exiled away from your family, or from your job to understand this. Because all it

takes is for you to feel like you’re not happy with where you are right now. Or you’re not happy with what you’ve got. You’re not happy with who you’ve become.

Because the message today is so good– that I want you to know that prosperity doesn’t depend on your location. Prosperity doesn’t depend on your situation. Prosperity doesn’t even depend on your position. You know what it depends on? It depends on your companion.

If the Lord is with you, you will prosper no matter what you do.

Isn’t that good? If the Lord is with me, I don’t have to have everything that I need. But I can make sure that I will enjoy and I will be grateful for everything that I’ve got. Because grace-filled people are grateful people.

Because if the Lord is with you, you’ve got joy, you’ve got peace, you’ve got purpose. Even if you’ve got problems, you’ve got Jesus with you through those problems.

Another Good News

So, if the Lord is with you, you will prosper—no matter where you are and what you do.

And I wish that was the only message that I could give to you today. That’s not the only good news. Because the other news is this: That the reason God prospers you is that you can also prosper others. You know this– God blesses you so that you can be a blessing to others too. And that’s exactly what happened to the story:

Remember how God promised Abraham: “You’re going to bless nations. You’re going to be a blessing to many.”

In a way, we’re seeing that already happening.

This is it. Joseph was about to bless the entire nation of Egypt.

But you know, when you really think about the life of Joseph, it wasn’t easy. He was experiencing good now. But it wasn’t easy because after all, you know, life is not easy. Life is not a straight path. It’s not linear. If some of you think that success is just one straight road, you will be utterly disappointed because life is not a straight road.

This Is Life

You know what life is like?

Life is more like Kennon Road. Before you reach the beautiful mountains of Baguio, you’ve got to pass through one of the most dangerous, hazardous roads in the country. Imagine: Beautiful road, beautiful scenic route, you get distracted, you fall off the cliff.

That’s how life is.

Life is going good – until you hit an obstacle. You think that now you’re

experiencing remission and all of a sudden the sickness comes back in full force. Just when you think that you’re experiencing abundance, all of a sudden, your business is crashed. Just when you think you’re headed towards the next level of that relationship, then all of a sudden, you break up. How many of you believe that life doesn’t come in a straight line? Why is that? Because sometimes, before you can get to the best part, you’ve got to go through the hard parts. Before you can get to the lightest part of the day, you’ve got to go to the darkest part of your life.

That was what Joseph was experiencing.

I recently met somebody and I discovered that he was able to kick the habit of vaping and smoking. Praise God for that. But if I tell you how he did it, you might not want to do the same thing.

You know how he overcame his bad habit? He got COVID. He realized that because of Coronavirus Disease, he couldn’t breathe as much. His chest hurt. But then it was a blessing.

Sometimes, before you can get to the best parts of your life, you’ve got to go through the hard part.

Some of you want the strength, but you need to go through the struggle before you get the strength. Some of you want the triumph but you know you’ve got to go through the test first. Some of you want to be called champions already but you don’t want to go through challenges. It’s the hardest parts of your life that will get you to your best part.

The Prisoners’ Dreams

Life is not easy

It wasn’t easy for Joseph. You know what happened to Joseph?

Sometimes, on Kenon road, if you’re not careful, what happens? There are landslides. And so, you have to take detours—take a different, longer route.

And that’s what happened to Joseph.

He was already experiencing abundance, but what happened? The wife of Potiphar, the master of the house, suddenly developed a crush on Joseph.

So, what did she do? She seduced Joseph. She invited Joseph to sleep with her.

But Joseph was with the Lord. Why do we know that? Because he knew that the offer of Potiphar’s wife was just a curse disguised as a blessing. When you’re with God, you know when it is actually a curse just disguised as a blessing, the good thing. You know what Joseph did?

He said no. But it hurt her pride. You know what she did? She accused him of rape. And because Potiphar believed in his wife, he threw Joseph into prison. Guess what: Joseph was back in the place where it all started.

You can be doing so good in life, and all it takes is just one backslide. You could be doing so good, getting rid of that addiction, and all it takes is just one temptation, and you’re back where you started.

It’s hard, my friends. But know this: When Joseph was in prison, there were two other persons who were there—the Pharoah’s baker and the Pharaoh’s cupbearer. And they had a dream. Thank God that Joseph was in the same place– because he was a master of dreams. So, Joseph interpreted the dream of the baker and the dream of the cupbearer. And they were so amazed.

The cupbearer said, “I’m never going to forget you. I’ll tell the Pharoah all about you.”

But you know what happened? When he got out of prison, he eventually forgot about Joseph.

Because sometimes, when you’re at the top, you forget the people who journeyed with you so you could reach the top. That’s a reality that we go through.

But God did not allow Joseph would be forgotten. I want to say this to somebody: God has not forgotten you. He hasn’t.

The Pharoah’s Dreams

After two years, the Pharoah had a dream—two dreams actually. And he was looking for somebody who could interpret his dream.

The cupbearer suddenly remembered, “I know a guy who could interpret dreams. And he’s in prison.”

So, what did the Pharoah do? He pulled Joseph out of prison and Joseph interpreted the Pharoah’s dreams.

He said, “Your first dream—it’s about having seven years of fruitfulness in the land of Egypt. But your second dream—it’s about having seven years of famine. So, what you need to do is to stock up during the seven years of fruitfulness—so that when the seven years of famine come, you are more than prepared.

So, you know what the Pharoah did? The Pharoah loved Joseph so much, that he actually made Joseph the governor of Egypt. Impressed by Joseph’s interpretation of his dreams, Pharaoh made Joseph his second-in-command.

Now check this out: Joseph never applied for that position. Joseph did even submit a resume for that position. But God mentioned his name to the Pharoah who eventually gave him that promotion.

Now, what am I trying to say? I want to declare over the life of somebody here today: That because God hasn’t forgotten you, God will mention your name to somebody who will take you up to the next level of growth.

That’s the Good News today. God hasn’t forgotten about you. He can mention your name to somebody who will take you to that next level of growth, the next level of promotion.

The Biggest Question

We all know how Joseph was—he was faithful to the Lord even until the end. While Joseph was in prison, there was something significant about his stay in prison. In Verse 19, it’s about Potiphar finding out how Joseph supposedly raped his wife.

The Lord was with Joseph. You know, the craziest thing about this story: The prison warden loved Joseph so much that he actually made him in charge of all the prisoners. This is Joseph—hated, rejected, abused, misused, and just completely reused—again and again. If we were Joseph, we would probably have rebelled against the Lord already. We would have questioned the Lord. We would have already walked away from Jesus. But at no point in this whole story of Joseph did it ever mention that his trust was removed from the Lord. Adversity was not enough to destroy him. Not even prosperity was enough to ruin him.

And—I don’t know—I’m sure some of you can probably relate to Joseph. But let me just say this already: you and I are the same as Joseph—in the sense that we didn’t choose the crisis that we are in right now. We didn’t choose to be bankrupt or heartbroken or sick. We didn’t choose to be under the baggage of problems that we go through. None of us wanted this in the first place.

Joseph never wanted to be a slave. He never wanted all he went through. But the biggest question right now is not about what you’re going through. It’s not about how big the problem you’re carrying is.

The question is: Will you believe that even in that bad place, the Lord is there with you? Because if He is, know that you will prosper no matter where you are and what you do. Will you trust that God is there with you? In that prison, in that place of pain. Because you’re not meant to stay in that place, my friend. You’re not meant to stay in brokenness. You’re not meant to stay in bitterness. You’re not meant to stay in resentment. God wants you to walk out of that.

Worship Him in This Truth

In some of the places that you think God is sending you to,

He’s actually just sending you through.

As Psalm 23 puts it, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Why? Because the Lord is with me. His rod and his staff guide me. His grace protects me.

His love abounds in me. So, why worry? If the Lord is with you, who can be against you?

Put your hand over your chest. Close your eyes. Whatever burdens, baggage, sins, or shame, that you’re carrying right now, I want you to know that Jesus is with you. He doesn’t want you to remain in that place but He wants to walk with you– to move you forward.

I want you to believe right now that no matter how hard the place is, no matter how dark it may be, the Lord will meet you there. He’s not just a God of the mountains but he’s also the God of the valley. He’s not just the God of your good side, He’s the God of your bad side. He’s not just a God of your victory but He’s the God of your defeats. The Lord is with you, my friend, wherever you go.

And I want you to just declare that right now: “The Lord is with me. And because He is with me, I will fear no evil.”

Believe, my friend that Jesus walks with you. And let’s just worship Him in that truth and declare it out loud: “Thank You, Jesus, for meeting us in this place. Thank You, Jesus, for meeting us in our brokenness. Thank You Jesus, for meeting us in our bitterness. Thank You, Jesus, that You meet us in our anger, in our dysfunction, in our limitations. That here, in the middle place where we are waiting for our miracle, thank You, for being here.

Thank You, Jesus, You will minister to us. Thank You, Jesus! Thank You, Jesus!

BOUNTIFUL BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS!

Today, on this day, is actually my birthday.

But I’m not alone I’m sure there are other August birthday celebrators.

We got Ryan Nabus, our Events Council head.

August celebrators, we pray for you:

Father in Heaven, we believe that the power that courses through our hands right now is energy coming from You. I’s strength from you. It’s power from You. And we extend this Lord with every intention of praying for abundance, blessing, healing, provision, purpose, and every good gift that can only come from Heaven above. We want You, Lord, to just flood their life with so many blessings that they won’t know what to do with them — except to share them with the people around them. Whatever the season of the life they find themselves in, Father, walk with them. Be there God. Be ever so close in their time of need and. Let them know that You love them so much. Make this month so special so that people will know that they walk as a blessed woman, as a blessed man.

Thank. You, Jesus, for how You will give an encounter to them like no other. We declare a future like no other — that the best is yet to come.

In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Happy Birthday! God is good. God is good.

SURPRISE!

We honor you with your favorite DONUTS– and everybody gets a bag– or two?

Plus: Your favorite SUPERHERO!

And the greatest gift we can give someone: the GIFT OF PRAYER:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit:

Father God, thank You for giving us the gift of Bro. Audee. Thank You, for His heart of service, his heart to reach out to every Feaster, to love everyone, to disciple them. Thank You, Lord, for Bro. Audee’s efforts to bring people closer to you each and every day of his life.

And on this special day, Father God, we pray that You grant all the desires of his heart. We pray for his family. We pray for all the other desires of his heart, even those that only You will know, Father God.

Thank You so much for the gift of Bro. Audee.

And forever we will praise You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.