Palace Principles
Notes
Transcript
Call to worship
Welcome everyone!
Call to worship
Ezekiel 34:11–15 (NASB95)
For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. “As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.
“I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. “I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. “I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God.
LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS
Lord,
“Cornerstone”
Words and Music by Hillsong
“Good good Father”
Words and Music by Christ Tomlin
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS
Lord,
SERMON
Introduction
For the pst three weeks we have been studying transitions in Jospeh’s life.
Two weeks ago we talked about Prison Principles
How to live for God when we are in the pit
Last week we seen how God delivered Jospeh from the prison to the palace
God changed Jospeh’s life in an instant
And Jospeh glorified God for it
Today we are going to see some Palace Principles
Joseph is delivered from his troubles
He is now living in the land of blessing
Yet his calling to serve God has not changed
And we are going to learn some principles we can apply to our lives when we are living in the land of blessing
All of us are in one of these three stages
We are either in the pit
Or we are being delivered from the pit
Or we are living on the other side of the pit in God’s blessings
And no matter what season of life we are in, our call remains the same: BE FAITHFUL TO GOD!
Turn to Gen 41:41 and we are going to begin with this first principle:
He who is faithful with the little things will be trusted with much
He who is faithful with the little things will be trusted with much
Genesis 41:41-46 (NASB95)
Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put the gold necklace around his neck. He had him ride in his second chariot; and they proclaimed before him, “Bow the knee!” And he set him over all the land of Egypt.
Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Though I am Pharaoh, yet without your permission no one shall raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh named Joseph Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, as his wife. And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt. Now Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.
Explanation
“All the land of Egypt” (repeated 4 times in these verses)
When you see repeated phrases like this in Scripture, we need to pay attention because there is something significant the author is wanting to communicate to us
The emphasis in these 6 verses is on how much authority Joseph had been given
God did not just free him from prison
Nor was he just promoted to a position in Pharaoh’s house
BUT, God positioned Jospeh over the entire land of Egypt
Why?
Last week we said that God honors those whom honor Him.
And this is certainly true and has been demonstrated in Jospeh’s life
But there is another principle that is at work too
“He who is faithful with little will also be faithful with much”
I want us to think about the little things Jospeh was faithful with
⇒ HE WAS FAITHFUL WHEN HE WAS SOLD AS A SLAVE TO POTIPHAR
Genesis 39:6 (NASB95)
So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate.
The Bible says, Jospeh was put in charge, and he did so well at leading there that Potiphar did not have to worry about anything at all.
In fact, Jospeh was so trustworthy that the only thing Potiphar has to do was feed himself!
Jospeh took care of everything else
He made sure all the crops were watered
He made sure the house was in order
He made sure the slaves were doing what they were supposed to
You could not find a more faithful employee than Jospeh
Yet, Jospeh was not paid a dime; HE WAS A SLAVE
⇒JOSEPH WAS ALSO FAITHFUL WHEN HE WAS THROWN INTO PRISON
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.
Here we see almost the exact same thing
Jospeh is imprisoned and finds favor with the Chief jailer
And the jailer puts Joseph in charge of all the prisoners
And when the baker and cupbearer were thrown into prison, Jospeh unknowingly that they would be his key to freedom, took care of them (40:4)
He is given a place of responsibility, and Joseph is faithful with that responsibility
He is even faithful even when the world is unfaithful to him.
⇒ AND NOW, GOD PUTS HIM IN CHARGE OF AN ENTIRE NATION BECAUSE HE HAS SHOWN HIMSELF TO BE FAITHFUL WITH THE LITTLE THINGS
“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.
God was training Joseph for what was to come
He gave him responsibility over a house
Then he gave him responsibility over the entire prison
The he gave him responsibility over the entire nation
Bridge
And many of us today are in training and unaware of it
God is giving us responsibilities and allowing us to demonstrate faithfulness to them
God is putting people in our lives and allowing us to demonstrate faithfulness
Application
Our lives are made up of many little things
How we treat people that we interact with everyday
How we handle money on a weekly or even daily basis
Don’t overestimate your claims on your taxes
Don’t underestimate how much you should give to the Lord
be faithful with your finances, and God will bless them
How we treat our secular bosses and those in authority over us
How we treat our family, our children, and our spouses
Are we honest in the little things
Being faithful in the little things is a day by day decision
And if we are unfaithful with the little things, why would God trust us with bigger things?
Be faithful in all things Regardless of our situation
It says much about our character
And God promotes those whom He can trust.
Joseph experiences 7 years of blessings
Joseph experiences 7 years of blessings
This comes in two ways:
a) The land produced abundantly
a) The land produced abundantly
During the seven years of plenty the land brought forth abundantly. So he gathered all the food of these seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt and placed the food in the cities; he placed in every city the food from its own surrounding fields. Thus Joseph stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring it, for it was beyond measure.
Explanation
This was just like Jospeh has said when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream
The seven fat cows and seven full ears of corn were the 7 years of abundance
Great prosperity and blessing was coming to Egypt in the form of a great crop.
How does Jospeh handle the abundance that has come to him?
He does so with integrity
He is not a man of self indulgence
He does not begin to waste what the Lord has given him
He uses it with wisdom and understanding that this great abundance is for something greater than his own desires
Bridge
I think there is a great lesson here on how to handle abundance
1) Don’t waste it
I am not saying you have to be Scrooge
But there is a temptation there to blow through the money because we have so much
Especially if it is just handed to us without working for it
What we need to remember is God often had a purpose for the abundance and it is not so we can have a vacation hom in the mountains
I love the parable of the feeding the 5,000
Jesus takes a fI’ve loaves and two fish and multiplies it so much that they were able to feed over 5,000 people
And when they are fed He says this, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.”
I think this says something about the heart of God here.
He doesn’t want us to be wasteful people, wasteful with resources that He has given us
2) The wisdom to store up the abundance for hard times
It is a wise thing to make provisions for the future
To be prepared when the famine comes into our life
We do not know the future, but God does
And the abundance God has given us May just be for an unforeseen event that is coming
And that is exactly what would happen in this story
Listen to the what the Bible says:
The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.
USING OUR ABUNDANCE WITH WISDOM HONORS GOD AND SERVES OTHERS
Be wise with what the Lord has given you
We do not know what tomorrow holds
b) Children are born to Joseph
b) Children are born to Joseph
Now before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him. Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” He named the second Ephraim, “For,” he said, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Explanation
The birth of children and good crops are always seen as marks of divine blessing in the OT
If you have children, do not forget that they are God’s special blessing to you
It can be so easy to take this for granted
We’re with them all the time, they are like “little jobs” running around the house
Pick up after them
Feed them
Break up their fights
You cloth them
You entertain them
They keep you up at night kicking you in the back and side
But the Bible says
Psalm 127:3–5 (NASB95)
Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them
You’ll never get a better earthly treasure than your children
They are better than riches and gold
They are better than big houses
They are better than big churches
They are God’s great blessing that He gives to us
But notice what he names the first one: “Manasseh” which means, “God has made me forget all my troubles, and my all my father’s household”.
Principle:
Joseph had left the past behind him, and was living in the present.
All the hurt, all the shame, all the pain he had been through, he had let it go and it freed him
We will never truly live until we have learned to forget
We will never truly live until we have learned to forget
Application
It is so easy to hold onto to bitterness and resentment.
But holding onto that only keeps us enslaved even longer
We can have all the blessings of god upon our lives, and yet be miserable because we are holding onto the past
Unforgivness
resentment
And what we must do is let it go!
Move on with your life!
Look at the great things God is doing around you!
Look at the people God has put in front you!
Live your life in the present! And enjoy what God is giving you right now
That is what God does with us
He doesn’t remember the ways that we fail Him!
“For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”
God does not hold our past against us
No matter how wrong or bad we’ve been, there is life to be lived in Jesus Christ
God met the needs of people through Joseph
God met the needs of people through Joseph
When the seven years of plenty which had been in the land of Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said, then there was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; whatever he says to you, you shall do.” When the famine was spread over all the face of the earth, then Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Egyptians; and the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. The people of all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the earth.
Explanation
“Go to Jospeh”
All that abundance that God gave him, was to be shared with the people around him
The land brought forth, and Joseph used wisdom and stored up for the winter
This is only a part of God’s plan unfolding
But look at the overall picture at how God was using Joseph
It was all for something much bigger than Joseph
Bridge
The things with which God blesses us with, and are not just for us
They are to be used for the service of others and we are to always keep that in mind!
I cringe at the pastors and leaders who live in 5 million dollar homes
I cringe at the ChristIan’s who own multiple homes, have multiple luxury cars while so many are struggling to make ends meet around us
Application
1) Make sure you are not building an earthly kingdom
Be careful about how much you accumulate for yourself
Be careful that your plans are not all about me
Always keep in mind those around you, whom God has put into your life
Jesus said the second greatest commandment is this, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”
2) As a church, we must make sure we never fall into the trap of building our own earthly kingdom and forget the kingdom of God
What I mean is that all churches have the same calling, the same God who has ownership of them all
And we must be a church who is willing to use the abundance God gives us to service of other churches for the advancement of his kingdom
This church would likely not exist, if it had not been for other churches who have demonstrated this principle
Several churches and organization have so graciously demonstrated this to us and asked for nothing in return
They have done it because they care about the Kingdom of God not their own earthly kingdom
They want the gospel to advance in whatever way they see fit
And they see every resource that God has given them to be at His disposal
And they have taught me, that MUST BE WHO WE ARE
When God brings the years of abundance, we must be willing to use it for the needs of other churches
It is my hope that one day we will plant another church
It is my hope that God will rasie up pastors and planters from this church and send them out
And we will support that church not just with finances, but with people who are willing to be a part of that church
We must not be selfish With what God has given us
Conclusion
Let me tell you where all this blessing begins
It begins with an whole heart commitment to Jesus
It is to hand him over our lives, and say God use me
If you take me to the pit, I will go
If you carry me to the prison I will go
If you promote me to the palace I will go, and I will be faithful no matter where You carry me
We must go to Jesus
He is the One who gives life and gives it abundantly
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
~PRAYER~
RESPONSE
PUBLIC INVITATION
“Come Thou Fount”
Words and Music by Hillsong
OFFERING
We will now worship the Lord through our tithes and offering.
BENEDICTION
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His face to you, And give you peace.’”
Business Meeting
Business Meeting
Opening Prayer
Reading of last months minutes
Any Questions?
Vote to approve last months minutes
Treasurers Report
Any Questions?
Vote to approve the treasurers report
Unfinished Business
New Business
Vote in Breanna as Treasurer
$650 to Purchase a lazer printer
$1000 to get church sign
Any other new business?
Meeting adjourned