Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

The Faith that Toots God’s Horn!

Hebrews 11:30 (NASB)

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created. God has entrusted His creation to His people to work as His Harvest workers – “All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers!” Therefore, let’s be faithful farmers by following the four-step strategy of a hard-working farmer: 1) cultivate people with faith; 2) sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds; 3) care for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants; and 4) reap a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ. This strategy must be empowered by the Holy Spirit because apart from God we cannot bear any good fruit (John 15:5). Therefore, harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace. Let’s take the first step by learning from the transforming stories of the Hall of Faith, found in Hebrews 11.

STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

Today’s story is about Joshua, found in Hebrews 11:30, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.” This ancient story of Jericho is found in Joshua 6. Here are highlights from verses 1-5, 16, 19, 27:

Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in. The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors. You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead.” … At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.” … So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city. … So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.

What is it about this story that put Joshua in the hall of faith? To answer that question, we need to look at the next action step.

STEP #2 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

Joshua’s life was formed during Moses’ formidable years. In other words, Joshua’s transforming story started because he experienced the fruit of Moses’ formidable faith, and the good seed was put into his heart and mind because of Moses’ faithfulness to God. We see here the importance of multiplying yourself, as 2 Timothy 2:2 teaches, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Then, after Moses died, we watch Joshua called forth to succeed the man of God in Joshua 1:1-9:

Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying, “Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

People presume that God commanded Joshua to “be strong and courageous” because of the long military campaign ahead, starting with Jericho, and while that is true, the only real danger Joshua faced was the people’s rebellion against God and their not following the Law as given to them by Moses in the Pentateuch. Joshua’s primary duty and greatest challenge was leading the people spiritually. Without obedience to God, there could be no military victory, nor rest in the land, as God made clear in Joshua 1:13-18:

“Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God gives you rest and will give you this land.’ Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but you shall cross before your brothers in battle array, all your valiant warriors, and shall help them, until the Lord gives your brothers rest, as He gives you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to your own land, and possess that which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.” They answered Joshua, saying, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you; only may the Lord your God be with you as He was with Moses. Anyone who rebels against your command and does not obey your words in all that you command him, shall be put to death; only be strong and courageous.”

The reality we are going to learn today is that God’s people don’t need a hero, they need a spiritual leader. That truth will be borne out time and time again in the history of Israel, especially once the people get judges then kings. God is the only hero the people of God will ever need, but we have this sinful, incessant desire to make heroes out of people who then afflict us. To learn this, Joshua had to mature as a man of God in his leadership calling.

STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

Whereas heroes toot their own horns, and we happily grant them celebrity notoriety so that we can worship them like the idol worshippers we are, spiritual leaders toot God’s horn and point the people to their fundamental need to worship the only One worthy of our worship – God!

In today’s story about the famous battle of Jericho, Joshua exemplified the call of a true spiritual leader, who proved that his highest calling was to be strong and courageous, meditating upon God’s Word so that he would obey and be successful. Joshua received the battle plan from the “captain of the host of the Lord” in Joshua 5:13-15:

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Joshua, like the Centurion and how he submitted to Jesus in Matthew 8:5-13, executed the plan given to Him with great faith, even though it was an unusual plan. As a former military officer, sI want you to realize what a big moment this was for Joshua – God’s plan would have been unlike anything Joshua had ever seen or heard. God directed him in Joshua 6:3-5 to lead the army to walk around the city wall of Jericho for seven days, once per day for six days, and seven times on the seventh day. Upon completion of which the priests were to blow seven trumpets and the people were to shout out with a great shout. Then the wall of the city would fall flat.

I can only imagine how Joshua, an experienced military leader, could think of all the reasons this plan would not work. If this was Joshua’s burning bush moment, wouldn’t he second guess and argue against every point of God’s plan, just like Moses had done in Exodus 3:10-4:13? But he doesn’t – he had learned through his experiences as Moses’ second-in-command and as his time as a spy of the Land of Canaan to trust God to do the impossible! Joshua 6:6-7 describes how Joshua executed the Word of God without question:

So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord.” Then he said to the people, “Go forward, and march around the city, and let the armed men go on before the ark of the Lord.”

The battle for Jericho was a decisive victory that brought great glory to God. All because Joshua believed God and acted with absolute trust in God’s Word. This is the only way a leader will mature; not by seeking to be a hero for the people, but by pointing the people to the only hero they will ever need – God! Oh, how far the nation of Israel would fall, and how far we fall today when we refuse to trust God by obeying His Word in our own lives. That bring us to the last action point.

STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

Joshua’ life reaped a harvest of praise – he successfully tooted God’s horn! But God’s people did not walk in the way of Joshua, he had no successor, and after the elders of Joshua, the people entered into tumultuous years of the Judges. There is a warning with a call to action built into Joshua’s life, and we only need to look at the Battle of Ai, found in Joshua 7 to realize what it is.

Joshua 7 is a sad story that starts with the startling defeat of the army of Israel at Ai. There was no military reason for their defeat, especially after the amazing victory at Jericho. The defeat was a spiritual one. In response to this unexpected defeat, Joshua’s charge from God was to lead the people in repentance so that he would once again lead them in God’s victory. Joshua led the people back to God in verse 13:

Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, “Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the Lord, the God of Israel, has said, ‘There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst.’”

As we learn from reading Joshua 7, the defeat was caused by the sin of Achan, who coveted after the spoils of war and greedily hid in his tent that which God forbade (16-26). What Achan thought would go unnoticed and had justified in his mind and heart to help his family survive, led to great devastation to the community of God, causing a major defeat in the Battle of Ai. That is the startling revelation that each of must ponder about Joshua’s life and his call to leadership of God’s people. The victory comes as each of us learn to submit to God’s Word, just as Joshua was commanded in Joshua 1:8. The calling of Joshua, and every spiritual leader to this day, is to toot God’s horn, emphasizing the importance of meditating upon God’s Word, day and night, teaching God’s people to listen and obey so that they may enter God’s rest. This is as emphasized in the New Testament, in Hebrews 4:8-12:

For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We must not follow the example of disobedience. Instead, we must surrender ourselves holy and wholeheartedly to God’s commands as given to us through the Word of God. Consecrate yourself to God and dedicate your heart and mind to Him. At the end of his life, Joshua called the people to decide who they will serve; I join my voice to Joshua 24:14-15:

“Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Brothers and sisters, you don’t need me or any person to be a hero to save the day for you! Jesus Christ has already done that for you – we have a Savior! Today, and every day until He returns, you need to respond to the invitation of Jesus Christ from Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” This is what we learn from Joshua’s life – a life of absolute surrender to God! A life that abides in the vine bears good fruit – a harvest of praise to God!

You can watch the video of this message by clicking HERE.

Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

The Faith that Humbles You!

Hebrews 11:23-29 (NASB)

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created. God has entrusted His creation to His people to work as His Harvest workers – “All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers!” Therefore, let’s be faithful farmers by following the four-step strategy of a hard-working farmer: 1) cultivate people with faith; 2) sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds; 3) care for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants; and 4) reap a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ. This strategy must be empowered by the Holy Spirit because apart from God we cannot bear any good fruit (John 15:5). Therefore, harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace. Let’s take the first step by learning from the transforming stories of the Hall of Faith, found in Hebrews 11.

STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

Today’s story is about Moses, found in Hebrews 11:23-29:

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.

This is the Word of God; let us pray: God, we invite you to cultivate the soil of our hearts with faith to receive the good seed of Your Word! May Your grace work in us and through us so that our stories point to Your story and reap a harvest of praise to the glory of God.

STEP #2 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

The first forty years of Moses’ life are that of legends – Moses’ foundational years! This part of Moses’ story, highlighted in Hebrews 11:23-27, is told in Exodus 2:1-15:

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her maidens walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.” Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. He went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, “Why are you striking your companion?” But he said, “Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known.” When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

The seed of faith was put into Moses, but in his first forty years, a time of privilege and prestige for Moses, he did not know how to wield the power of his position to do good – to protect his people, the Israelites (the Hebrews), so in his haste to do so, he killed an Egyptian man and fled from the wrath of his adoptive father, a man who had ordered his death once before in Exodus 1:15-22.

God’s grace was given to the people of Israel in the man of Moses, but Moses’ foundational years did not prepare him properly to be a man God could use for His purposes. He fled Egypt, according to our passage in Hebrew 11:23-27, because God had to take him to a place where He could care for Moses and bring him to maturity. It was in the next forty years of his life that the faith of Moses was formed so that he was a man God could use for His glory.

STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

The second forty years of Moses’ life were the most important – Moses’ formative years! This part of his story is not mentioned in Hebrews 11, it is found between Hebrews 11:27 & 28. This period begins in Exodus 2:16-22, where Moses is taken in by Jethro the priest of Midian, who takes him in to his household; Moses marries Zipporah, one of his daughters, starts his family (they have two sons), and he serves Jethro as a shepherd. In exile, Moses goes from being an exalted prince of Egypt to a humbled shepherd, an occupation despised by the Egyptians. This forty-year period is summarized in Exodus 3:1, “Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro,” but by the end of these formative years something is about to happen, as indicated in the verses in Exodus 2:23-25:

Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.

Moses was put into exile at the age of 40, having escaped the wrath of his adopted father, the king of Egypt, until the day of his Pharaoh’s death, around the time Moses would have been 80. There is an appointed time for everything, and we must remember a very important lesson as the people of faith: God is always doing more than we can see or imagine! God is doing a larger work in the nations and through His people. You are a part of that, but you are not the center of it – God is the main character of our story; it’s His story that is being told through our stories! We must be formed into the kind of people He can use.

God’s people were in Egypt for 400 years, but it was in these 40 years of Moses’ exile that God set the conditions for the Exodus. It was during his years as Jethro’s shepherd that Moses became a humbled man, broken and contrite, the kind of person God could use. You see, Jethro the priest of Midian, turned his countenance toward Moses, which means he took him in as a his own, protected him, and gave him a new family. A family of security, hard work, and commitment to the community. At just the right time, when both the conditions were set and Moses was formed into a man God could use and trust, God called Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-4:18) to enter the third phase of his life – the formidable years!  

STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

The final forty years of Moses’ life tell the most famous story ever told – Moses’ formidable years! This part of Moses’ story was highlighted in Hebrews 11:28-29, and it began after his burning bush experience with God and didn’t conclude until his death forty years later, after accomplishing all that God had set for him to do – to rescue and deliver His chosen people from slavery, defeating the most powerful military in the world and leading them to the Promised Land.

Interestingly, all three periods of Moses’ life, each of which were forty years long, ended with a reference to Moses’ relationship with the father-figure who defined each of these three distinct seasons of his life:

We remember Moses because of his epic birth story, the kind of backstory that we give our heroes. We remember Moses because of his supernatural call narrative, the kind of experience we give those who are called to do formidable tasks for God. We remember Moses because of the Exodus, his victory over the Egyptian military machine, and all of his awesome deeds as a leader of a newly formed nation that was constantly grumbling and rebelling against him and their God.

We don’t remember Moses for being a faithful shepherd, husband, and father, but I believe the forty years he was defined by these relationships and responsibilities that he was shaped into the man of God who did everything else we do talk about. The forty years that didn’t make it into Hebrews 11 are the years that forged the character of Moses from being a pampered prince to being a formidable prophet! Often, the most important parts of our stories are found in the in-between times (the liminal space), for Moses that was the forty years as a shepherd serving his father-in-law. Forty years is a long stretch of time in a person’s life, especially when it comes in what is supposed to be your most productive years of life, but this is where Moses was forged into a humble man that God could use, knowing that Moses would not take the credit for it or hijack it for his own purposes. Moses wasn’t ready to reap a harvest of praise with his life until God nurtured him through his forty years of exile. This was an essential experience for Moses; otherwise, how would Moses have known why God caused His people to wander in the desert for their own forty years of formation to enter the formidable season of conquest under Joshua’s leadership.

Oftentimes, God forges our character through the circumstances of our lives, just as we learned from the story of Joseph. We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds, forged in the crucible of life circumstances before we are able to reap a harvest of praise to God! As Jesus said in John 12:24-26:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

I conclude with this thought about Moses and Jesus: both are described as humble! Numbers 12:3 is a parenthetic statement about Moses, “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.” Moses had a faith that humbled him, so that he would be the formidable man of God who stood against the most powerful man in the world and led his people to freedom after four hundred years under Egyptian rule. Jesus described Himself in Matthew 11:29 as “gentle and humble in heart.” Jesus was the second Moses, who stood against all the forces of evil, defeated sin and death, and leads His people to freedom!

You can watch the video by clicking HERE.

The Fullness of the Blessings of the Gospel

I want to encourage you to be still and know that He is God.  When we receive the Gospel, we receive a life changing power within us.  That power begins to change us from the inside out.  We sing songs of praise, and we sing of the blessings God gives us.  Please know when we leave this place God allows us to live in the fullness of His blessings.  We don’t need to leave the blessings here.  We live in those blessings out there!

But out there, we get so caught up in the things of this world, politics, inflation, high prices, wars, civil unrest, LGBTQ++ issues in schools and at work, unrest with neighbors, friends, family the list goes on and on with all the things that distract us from the blessings of Christ.

The Gospel is God’s agent, it is His power.  Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”   The Gospel is that which contains the purpose for your life.  It is filled with His blessing.  Just like Jesus came full of grace and truth, the Gospel comes with that, and it comes with the abundant grace of God.  In the Gospel we have everything we need.

In John 10:10 Jesus says, “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”  My encouragement for us today is to focus on all we have in the Gospel. Let’s live in His abundance!  Let’s live in the blessings He freely and generously gives us!

Now the blessings I am talking about here come from the inside out.  These blessings come from believing and trusting in Jesus. 

When you do, you can know you’re a child of God, bought with a price, living in His grace and mercy.  The blessings I want to focus our attention on are found IN HIM, in a personal relationship with Jesus.  These blessings are not found anywhere else.  But the good news here is if you have that personal relationship with Jesus, you have all these blessings already.  You can walk in them with confidence because of what Jesus has already done!  Trust Him!

So let me ask a few questions to help you clarify your true understanding of what you have inside you (IF you know Jesus to be the payment for your sin) or what you CAN have today if you decide to trust Jesus as your payment today.

How do you see yourself?  Prov 23:7, “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.”  Do you see yourself as a person who has it all together?  Someone who has no need of God because you can handle anything life throws at you. 

Do you see yourself as a person who is so dirty and worthless that not even God can save you out of the pit, you’re in?

Both views are dead wrong!

God loves you as you are

Rom 8:38, 39: 1 Jn 4:9; 2 Thes 3:5.  Jesus is your sacrifice your complete payment

How do you evaluate your circumstances?  Are your circumstances all bigger than you?  Do you feel like there’s no way out?  Does it feel like the circumstances are bigger than God?

If we have those attitudes, we will not see the blessings that are staring us in the face because the blessing begins on the inside.  The blessing is released from the inside.  We get distracted and our faith waivers.  The fulness of the blessing of the Gospel starts and ends with faith.

Jerry has been using the example of a farmer in his sermon series.  Here is the seed of the Gospel being planted and it is planted only by faith.

The Gospel is a seed within us.

(To be incorruptible means not subject to death or decay it is eternal.)

The fullness in the Gospel of God carries all the life of God; it carries all the blessings of God; it carries all the promises of God.  Everything God wants for you came in a seed.  That seed is wanting to be released, but if we don’t live from that, if we don’t live from our spiritually renewed nature, if we live from our emotions and allow our own selfishness to rule, then we will miss out on the fullness of the blessings of the Gospel of God.  We miss out because we stop walking in faith and start looking at all the things around us for answers.

What I am encouraging you to do today is to allow this revelation, that we live in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel, to take over in your heart.  I want to encourage you to truly realize the goodness of God and the fulness of His blessing. Realize your true new nature in Christ.  When you do, you will begin to think differently, you will speak differently, and you will act differently.  The blessing that is within you will come out in how you live your life.

So, what is the Gospel?  Michael Rydelnik, the Professor of Jewish Studies at Moody, defines the Gospel in 25 words.  He says,

“The wrong things we do separate us from God. Messiah Jesus died, taking our punishment, and rose again proving He is God.  Trust in Him.”

It is the good news of God’s love for you. Rom 8:38, 39; 1 Jn 4:9; 2 Thes 3:5

It is the good news of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice for you. Mk 10:45; Heb 10:12

It is the good news of the promise of the Spirit.  You have the very Spirit of God living inside you!  That Spirit is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.  Rom 5:5; 8:9; 8:11; 2 Tim 1:14; 1 Cor 6:19;

It is the good news that you are reconciled to God. 2 Cor 5:18-20; Col 1:20, 22; Rom 5:10, 11

It is the good news that you are seated with God in heavenly places.  You sit with Christ because Jesus took our place on the cross, thus we are in Him.  Eph 2:6; Rev 20:4

It is the good news of an abundant life full of strength, not your strength but His strength in you. Eph 1:19, 3:16, 6:10; Col 1:11

It is the good news of the Gospel of peace.  You can be involved in all kinds of turmoil around you but walk in the peace that passes understanding. Prov 3:5, 6; Mark 9:50; Rom 12:18; 2 Cor 13:11; 1 Thes 5:13

It is the Gospel of joy – the joy of the Lord is your strength.  Walking in joy is where blessings begin. Ex 15:2; Psalm 21:1, 118:14,

It is the Gospel of walking in faith. Seeing the unseen and knowing that God is good enough to supply what you need.  Heb 11:1

It is the Gospel of righteousness.  There is nothing more powerful than understanding your right standing with God.  Understand you are made righteous!  You don’t have to feel guilty; you don’t have to walk in condemnation, you don’t need to feel unworthy.  Jesus has made you free from guilt, free from condemnation.  You are worthy when you are in Him.  That is the Gospel!   Rom 5:19; Gal 3:11

God wants you to realize these things are all part of the Gospel.  Understand these things deep within your spirit, not just intellectually.  Allow the blessings of the fullness of the Gospel into your life and let it change you from the inside out.

It is a Gospel of vision, a Gospel of purpose, a Gospel of freedom from fear.  No one needs to be living in fear.  No one needs to worry.  They are contrary to faith and anti-Gospel.  Living in the fullness of the Gospel gives no place to worry, fear, anxiety, depression or oh my what am I going to do?

You don’t need to live in a fallen state!

You have the ability in Christ to live in peace, live in the joy of the Lord.  You have the fullness of the Gospel within you and that Gospel will impact your circumstances.  It may not change what goes on in Washington, but it will change you personally.  It will change what goes on in your house, within your sphere of influence.  If you walk around with this blessing on the inside, it can’t help touching the circumstances and the people around you. 

Let’s look at what David said in

Psalm 103:2, “Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all His benefits.”

 It does not say benefit.  It says all His benefits.  It is plural.  It looks like there are more than two.  David doesn’t say both His benefits, he says all His benefits.   It goes on to talk about forgiveness of sin and healing.  David is looking ahead to what we are experiencing. 

Let’s look at what Paul had to say in

Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Later in the chapter he says we are accepted in Christ.  The Gospel has blessed us with everything.  You get to experience all this the through the grace of God…

Here is a great definition of grace –

Definition of Grace: God’s abundant provision for every need you have, spirit, soul, and body.  

There is nothing lacking.  Nothing was left off of the cross.  Everything that Adam’s sin unleashed, has been restored and then some through the blessing of the Gospel.

So, Paul says we have been blessed with every blessing in heavenly places.  By faith you receive the blessings of God.  They are where moth and rust cannot corrupt.  Those blessings are yours now.

What does Peter say?  Look at

 1 Peter 3:9, “Knowing that you were called to this that you may inherit a blessing.” 

If you were to find out that a rich Uncle, who had you in his will you would be excited about that.  You would be anticipating that inheritance.  You have something far greater than a rich Uncle!  You have an inheritance, a blessing, Peter says.

Do you need peace?  Does anyone have circumstances that are complicated?  Do you want peace that passes understanding?  Do you want joy unspeakable, full of glory?  Do you want the wisdom of God and to know what to do? 

All of that is your inheritance!  That is the blessing of the Gospel that came to you in seed form and is basically waiting on you to accept that fact and to walk by faith in the fullness of the Gospel.  This will change your life and the lives of those around you.  This is powerful!  It begins when we choose to believe it.  When you choose to believe that God is for you and not against you.  Believe that He will bless you and He will multiply you.  Believe God is giving to you pressed down and running over.

Yes, Lord I believe that.  This faith changes the way you think!  When you trust in Jesus it will change the way you speak.  Choose to believe God’s Word at face value. 

The Gospel is about a transformed life.  You became a new creation through the incorruptible seed of the Gospel.  You became something that never existed before.  You were spiritually separated from God, and you have been plugged back into God.  You are one spirit with Him.  You have a new life, a new creation life.

The Gospel is about being free from guilt and condemnation.

Please realize you do not need to live under a cloud of guilt!  You have been released.  You are free.  You have victory.  Let go of feeling unworthy.  That is not living in the blessing of the Gospel.  Jesus died on the cross to set you free from guilt and condemnation. “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”  Live in the joy of the Lord and in the presence of God in your life.

The Gospel is about loving as we have been loved.

The Gospel is about abounding in grace for every good work.

There are situations around you that God has placed you in and given you the grace to bring healing, to bring solutions, to bring wisdom, to bring help in time of need for the people around you, depending on what the circumstances may be, there is grace for that.  Please realize God has placed you there and given you the grace needed for such a time as this.  Be bold and get involved.  Allow the blessing of the fullness of the Gospel to flow through you!  You have the gifts that others desperately need.  You are the only answer, in some cases, to people’s trauma or need.  That is the power of the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel in you.  Realize that power, agree with it, allow God to bless others through you and your giftedness.  Let the blessing out.

The Gospel is about joy and peace.

Others will notice when you are walking in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel because they can see you responding to situations with grace and peace and having joy from within that is not touched by the circumstances around you.  That doesn’t mean you are always laughing but you are not overwhelmed by negative things around you.  You have the joy of the Lord and can minister from His strength in you.

Are you beginning to realize the power of this Gospel? Romans says it is the power of God.

The Gospel is about ceasing from your own works to earn salvation.

You can just give up trying to earn right standing with God.  You cannot do anything to make God love you more and you cannot do anything that will cause God to love you less.  That was all dealt with on the cross.  You cannot earn anything from God.  You can do something.  You can believe and receive what He has already done and what He has already given.

2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God are in Him, yes and amen to the glory of God through us.” 

All the promises of God reveal God’s heart for His people.  All the promises in Him are yes and amen to the glory of God through us.  Through us!  Believe God is that good and He wants to bless your life.  You get to bless others!  God’s grace and His blessings are yes.  We cannot keep this good news to ourselves!  We get to tell His story!

If your life needs a major overhaul God is the one who wants to do it!   God is the one who has grace for it to happen.  God is the one who gave all these promises to begin with so we would have a place to go and a resource, so say, “Father, show me… “   Where will you find the promise?  Not on TV.  Only in the Word of God.  That is where you will find your inheritance.

If I told you I hid a pot of gold in your back yard, would you invest in a shovel?  Would you invest some time digging around to find it?  You have a treasure in the Word of God.  He tells us about all the promises.  That is your inheritance that is the blessing of the fullness of the Gospel that is available to you.  How much is it worth to you?  Go after it!

Eph 3:20, “To Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us.” 

There it is again – in us.  God wants to do exceedingly abundantly more than you can ask or think.

So, the blessing of the Gospel is even bigger than we can comprehend, more than we can understand with our finite minds.  But it is according to the power that works in us, so what is the power that works in you and me?  Well in the scope of all the things we could talk about, it is, first of all, you agree that God wants you to have these blessings.  God is good and He wants to bless His children!

But you say, I have too many things that have gone wrong in my life, too many hardships.  It is hard for me to believe God has given me all these blessings, I can accept some of them but in my experience God does not or has not supplied.

Here is what I want to encourage you to do.  Stop judging the Gospel through the lens of your experience.  Look at and judge your experience through the lens of the Gospel. Stop allowing the experience to be your god.  If you or someone you know is saying that didn’t work for me or that didn’t work for Aunt Mable and that IF it didn’t work for this person, nothing works.  Well, if that’s the case then God’s a liar and we may as well pack up and go home. 

But God is not a liar!!  His Word is true.  I encourage you to look at your experience through the lens of the blessings of the Gospel, knowing the Word of God is true.  I encourage you to stop exalting your experience above what the Word says.  Look at your experience through the magnifying glass of the Word.

Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare is own Son, but delivered Him up for us all how shall He not with him also freely give us all things.” 

All things.  If God gave you Jesus, why in the world would He withhold anything else?  Why would He withhold any of His blessings?  His victory?  He has given you His name, His blood, His Spirit.  He has given you His covenant, He has given you His promises, His armor, His authority.  He has given you the sword of the Word, the keys of the Kingdom.  He has given us the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel.  When we accept Jesus as Savior and when we are born again, we get the whole package!  Just think about that… If God gives us Jesus, why in the world would He withhold anything else?

The reality is God is not withholding anything.  What’s happening is we are choosing to be fearful.  Choosing to worry, choosing to doubt, choosing to feed our flesh with garbage.  Choosing to do all those things means you are not choosing God and it is for that reason the blessings are being withheld.  

Blessings come through faith and trust that Jesus is Who He says He is and will do what He says He will do.  This is faith in the Gospel.   I encourage you to get back to believing that you are the righteousness of Christ.  He will reward you as you diligently seek Him.

James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” 

What that means is God does not change.  God is not fickle.  He doesn’t make up one set of rules for some and another set for someone else.  There is no shadow of turning – there is no variation in God.  Every good gift, every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation. 

God is good.  Taste and see that the Lord is good.  All this power, all this blessing of the Gospel comes from the inside.  Please understand that God is good, God is for you, God’s mercies are new every morning.  God has given you His promises, His name, His Spirit, His covenant His Word and on and on.  God has given all of this because He wants you to be blessed.  He delights in your blessing.  As a parent and a grandparent I delight in seeing my children and grandchildren blessed.  I don’t want to see them suffering. God is a much better parent than I am!  He wants to see me blessed.  He wants to see you blessed. 

All this begins with our heart becoming convinced.  First thing you must be convinced in is that Jesus is the Son of God and that His death was for you personally, His resurrection is your resurrection and His life is your life.  Choose to believe that from your heart. Confess it with your mouth – Jesus is Lord.

Choose to believe His joy is your strength

Choose to believe you am accepted in Christ

Choose to believe all things are possible because you believe

Choose to believe you hear His voice

Choose to believe that His favor surrounds you as a shield (Psalm 5:12)

Choose to believe you are blessed in your going out and in your coming in

Choose to believe God – without faith it is impossible to please God

Choose to believe you live with Him in heavenly places

One more passage 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, “Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness. And the work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in Him according to the grace of our God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Please hear me in what I say next.  Are you listening?  The world is trying to tell you that you are good in yourself.  That is not what I am saying!  We are fallen creatures, no one is righteous because of the good things they do.  What I am saying is we live in His goodness.  There is no one good but God.  When we trust that Jesus paid the price for sin, we receive His goodness and righteousness in us.

When you accepted Jesus as Savior, you may have not realized everything that took place. As a boy I certainly didn’t.   Now you know. Now you know what has been deposited in you.  This is exciting!

We get to live in all the fullness of the Gospel!

We get to be a blessing in this world.  Go live in fullness!  Proclaim it freely to those around you.  The world is in desperate need of the message of the fullness of the Gospel! 

If you have never publicly proclaimed your faith is Jesus, today is the day.  Come receive the blessings of the fullness of the Gospel for yourself!

Receive the blessings of the fullness of the Gospel today.  Remember The wrong things we do separate us from God. Messiah Jesus died, taking our punishment, and rose again proving He is God.  Trust in Him.”

You can watch this message by clicking HERE.

Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

The Faith that Elevates You Out of the Pits!

Hebrews 11:22 (NASB)

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created. God has entrusted His creation to His people to work as His Harvest workers – “All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers!” Therefore, let’s be faithful farmers by following the four-step strategy of a hard-working farmer: 1) cultivate people with faith; 2) sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds; 3) care for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants; and 4) reap a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ.

This strategy must be empowered by the Holy Spirit because apart from God we cannot bear any good fruit (John 15:5)! Therefore, harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace. Let’s take the first step by learning from the transforming stories of the Hall of Faith, found in Hebrews 11. Today’s story is about Joseph, found in Hebrews 11:22, “By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.” To be clear, this passage in the New Testament is not referring to  Joseph the husband of Mary; rather, it is pointing to one of the most famous Old Testament stories – the Genesis account of Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob. His story inspired the long enduring Andrew Lloyd Weber musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Jacket.” This is a story that has found a bridge into our culture and has inspired generations of Jewish and Christian people to live with integrity and to put their trust in a sovereign God during injustice and suffering. The problem is that it has been made into a “feel good” story without revealing the true depth of the story. We need to look at the depths of Joseph’s story, in all its gore and glory, for it to be more than a moralistic platitude.

STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

A decade ago, I was in Chicago at the Moody Bible Institute’s Pastors’ Conference when a celebrity pastor, who has since fallen from ministry notoriety because of toxic leadership practices, stated that every day in church ministry a pastor either becomes bitter or better. In that moment, the Holy Spirit convicted me: I had allowed myself to get bitter at some people and situations that had occurred over the years of my pastorate and that bitterness had started to form a hard, cynical place in me. It had started to inform the way I viewed people and situations, and those people and situations needed a fresh wind of God’s Spirit through me, not a stale wind of human hurt from me. In that moment, I did the only thing I could do, I honestly yielded to the Holy Spirit by crying out for God’s presence and power in me.

Each of us has a daily decision to make; it’s a choice: to choose better or to become bitter! The choice to allow bitterness to grow in our soul or to actively take steps to be transformed into a godly person through the circumstances of our lives is not just for pastors. The choice to embrace spiritual transformation is for every person who is faced with disappointment, discouragement, despair, and/or depression. This is for every person born under the sun, who experienced childhood, navigated friendships, went to school, has worked, has been a part of a church, has dated, has married, has kids, has faced medical issues. This is part of the human experience for all people regardless of human labels. This is about:

The legacy event of Joseph’s childhood was at the age of 17. It was caused by a mixture of his father’s favoritism, his brother’s hatred and jealousy of him, his own boastful and prideful ways, and a divine dose of providential circumstance. Joseph was a 17-year-old spoiled brat, his father’s favored child to his favored and deceased wife. Insanely jealous of Joseph’s favored position and blindly enraged by his boastful dreams, the older brothers plotted to kill Joseph; to throw him into a pit to be left for dead. But at the last minute they pulled him from the pit to sell him into slavery to a passing caravan of Ishmaelites headed through the fertile crescent to Egypt (Genesis 37:26-28). As the brothers go back and lie to their father about their little braggart of a brother, the Ishmaelites “sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard” (Genesis 37:36).

In that one decision of his older brothers, Joseph becomes a powerless victim of vicious circumstances! He is thrown in the pit. He is emptied of his status as favored son to become a feeble slave, but it is what happens next that has caused his story to be told for nearly four-thousand years. Joseph’s legacy was shaped not by the horror of his childhood and his brothers’ bitter choices, but by his own choice of how he would respond to his circumstances. The first pit most of us must work through is an imperfect upbringing – our family of origin and childhood experiences. Even the patriarchs of our faith were all messed up and so were their families.

We aren’t perfect people, nor do we have perfect families. Let’s be honest, there is no such thing on this side of Heaven. The church needs to come to grips with this reality, and instead of having impossible expectations of one another, what we need is to love with truth and grace as we imperfectly live with one another, trying to tell a better story of God’s work in our lives. The Bible is filled with flawed people and flawed families on purpose, so that we realize it is only by the power of God’s grace, the Spirit cultivating the soil of our lives and planting the good seed of God’s Word, that we can be transformed into fruit-bearing people that reflect Jesus Christ.

Do you need permission to get off the treadmill of performance, or to give up the anxiety of perfectionism? Learning to live strong in God’s Grace is the answer for you and your family, for us and our church, for our communities and nation! God loves you so much He gave His one and only Son so that your story would be transformed to tell His story!

Never forget that each of us has a daily decision to make; it’s a choice: to choose better or to become bitter! When life has thrown you harsh circumstances, what do you do? How do you handle the pits of childhood trauma and dysfunctional family systems? Just because you came from a broken family doesn’t mean you must be broken. Just because we have had traumatic experiences doesn’t mean we need to live like victims. Many people feel held back by an experience that happened in the early years of life, whether something that happened in our families or by someone who hurt, betrayed, and/or abandoned us.

The early years of our lives do have the power to shape us, but they don’t have the power to stop us from living the promised abundant life of Jesus Christ (John 10:10). That is why we must take the next action step of a hardworking farmer – there is a process of maturation that we must walk in. Your circumstances don’t shape you; your decisions in your circumstances do!

STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

If having bad childhood experiences and a broken family of origin wasn’t enough, Joseph was rescued from the first pit only to be thrown into the second: difficult and disappointing adult life experiences. After being bought by Potiphar at the age of 17, Joseph becomes the all-star slave in Potiphar’s household, given charge over everything in Potiphar’s house except one thing, Potiphar’s wife. She was a cougar, but Joseph would not compromise, not even for momentary pleasures. When solicited, Joseph asked of Potiphar’s wife, “How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9).

Potiphar’s wife lied about Joseph and Potiphar threw his young slave into prison to rot. Another pit! Another betrayal of his trust! Another abandonment by someone Joseph served with his whole heart! He finds himself as a powerless victim of injustice again! Did Joseph choose better or become bitter? In the pit of prison, Joseph stayed close to God and was transformed into the all-star prisoner, as Genesis 39:21-23 states:

But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper.

Joseph makes me think of a diamond. Formed under years of pressure and showcased behind a black velvet backdrop to bring out its brilliance and beauty. Neither the years of pressure nor the darkness of the backstory is beautiful, but the diamond is priceless. “Simply put, diamond formation occurs when carbon deposits deep within the earth (approximately 90 to 125 miles below the surface) are subject to high temperature and pressure.”[1] Everyone wants to shine like a diamond, but no one wants to go through the process of becoming one!

Each of us has a daily decision to make; it’s a choice: to choose better or to become bitter! Your decisions while in the pits of hard adult circumstances shape you by forming your character and determining the direction of your life. Is there a situation in your life that is not going the way you planned? What is the circumstance you would change right now if you had the power to do so? What would you push fast forward on if you could? Maybe, just maybe, God cares more about your character than your circumstances, and in fact, is using your circumstances to shape your character. How can you choose better in your life so that you can reap a harvest or praise, bearing the good fruit of your relationship with Jesus Christ? That brings us to our final action step.

STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

You may find yourself in a pit, but that is where God does some of His best work to press you, shape you, prepare you to be showcased. God has a plan for your life and the pits you have experienced, are experiencing, and will experience, may be exactly what are necessary to prepare you for the palace that is ever before you. God wants to glorify His name through your life!

Earlier in his life, before his brothers abused him and betrayed his trust, we saw in Joseph a special connection with God through dreams (Genesis 37:5-11). His lack of maturity as a 17-year-old caused him to share his dreams without discretion or humility, but now that he has been put in the pressure cooker of life experience for a long enough period, this diamond in the rough was being shaped with the precision of a master gemcutter. This is a life-long process!

Then in Genesis 40, Joseph was given the ability to help two prisoners by interpreting their dreams and his interpretations proved correct. He asked them to remember him and to put in a good word for him, but “the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Genesis 40:23). Forgotten in the pit again! Two whole years of being in the prison until one day, at the age of 30, after fourteen years of pressure cooking, something happens. Joseph had learned in the pits that spiritual gifts, leadership capacity, and physical charisma were not about him; his characteristics and giftings were all from God. The gifts of God are to be used for God by loving and serving other people. Joseph learned all this before we get to the climax of the story. These lessons were not words in a book study or classroom instruction, but experiences forged into his soul. Joseph was shaped like a diamond, then excavated from the depths of the pit, and then cut by a master gemcutter to be displayed on the backdrop of black velvet. Let’s watch him shine!

In a dramatic turn of events that only the Master Storyteller could orchestrate in the life of one of His faithful servants, Joseph goes from a condemned slave to a celebrated prime minister in the blink of an eye. Genesis 41 captures the pivotal moment. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has been given a dream that no one in the land could interpret, but the king’s cupbearer remembers that Joseph could accurately interpret dreams. After being discarded in the pit, Joseph now stands before the most powerful man on earth. A condemned slave, sold by his own brothers who wanted him dead, forgotten by all but God Himself, stands before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. When Pharaoh asks Joseph if he can interpret his dream, what does Joseph say, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer” (Genesis 41:16). [emphasis added]

That is the climax of the story: At a moment when Joseph should have begged for mercy and told Pharaoh he was an innocent man sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, thrown into prison and forgotten about, what did Joseph do? He declared his faith in God: “My God, in whom I trust, can do anything!” Joseph put his whole trust in God and gave God glory! He chose faith when everyone would expect begging and bitterness!

God transforms Joseph’s character so that he can be a part of His plan to save many and shine His glory to the nations – to reap a harvest of praise! For the rest of the story, Joseph shines to God’s glory and the entire world sees and recognizes God in Joseph as many lives are saved through his leadership. It begins with the pronouncement of Pharaoh in Genesis 41:38-41:

Then Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is a divine spirit?” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and according to your command all my people shall do homage; only in the throne I will be greater than you.” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”

From this moment in Genesis 41 until the last recorded moment of Joseph’s life in Genesis 50 we see that Joseph is the real deal – he is a priceless diamond on display! In his old age, Joseph didn’t abuse his position of power for selfish ambition or vain conceit; rather, he chose to bless his family when they were dependent on his favor and forgiveness. He saw that the pit experiences and the palace experience weren’t about him at all. Joseph learned through it all that his life was about God being able to use every part of his story to tell His story of salvation! Joseph made this clear in his last recorded words from Genesis 50:19-21:

But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

For all time, Joseph’s story points to the importance of putting our faith in God through the pit and palace experiences of life – the ups and the downs! Along the way, Joseph had many off ramps to become who God made him to be. By God’s grace, in each crossroad moment, in each circumstance, in each forgotten moment in the pits of his life, Joseph had the choice: better or bitter! The difference between Joseph and others is found in a single word: Faith! Joseph seized the moment, trusted God and didn’t take the off ramp of bitterness. God placed Joseph into the palace because God knew he could trust Joseph with the power and authority. It was in fact his faith through the pit experiences that formed and shaped him for this great responsibility in the place, which was also the ultimate test of His character! God still does this today for those who will trust Him with their whole hearts and choose to get better.

You can watch this message by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTE: