Thank you so much for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.
Riverbend Church exists to bring people to Jesus, grow
generations in Jesus, and send disciples for Jesus.
We hope that you enjoy this message.
But this morning we're going to be finishing out our series
Through the Life of Joseph, through the Life of Joseph.
And I don't know about you, but over the past eight weeks, this
is the 9th week over the past eight weeks, man, this has just
been so, so good for me personally.
And there's some, so many things that God has taught me.
And I know just with conversations with many of you
over the last couple months together, it's just been really
cool seeing how God's been working in your life and working
in your family's life as well. But I want to start off just
kind of telling you a quick, quick story.
When I was in second grade, I played started playing Little
League baseball, Little League baseball in second grade.
I wasn't very good, but I had a uniform and I was on the team.
So there are three things that always stand out about that
second grade year of playing Little League baseball.
A is my first year of playing Little League baseball and I
don't, I don't mean to brag, but I looked good.
I looked good in my uniform. It stayed clean the whole season
#2 we were the Cardinals, we were the Cardinals.
We had a great, we had a great, great team that year.
You know, second graders, we were awesome.
Third thing thing that stood out the most is that entire season I
never got a hit. I never got a hit the entire
season. And no, I wasn't injured and no,
I wasn't really sick. So I missed a lot of time.
I never got a hit the entire season.
One of three things always happened.
Either AI got walked because the pitcher failed to throw strikes.
BI got walked because the pitcher hit me with the ball.
My friend Ernie, he was the he was the main perpetrator.
He, Ernie must have hit me like 7 times during that year and I
don't know why I keep calling him a friend, but he hit me
every single time I got up to bat.
He was on the Cubs. We're the Cardinals.
Like I said, second grade. You know peewee baseball
rivalries, right? Third thing, they always stand
out or, or the third, third thing that would happen.
I would either walk because all the balls, no strikes.
I get a walk because I get hit with a ball or I would just
strike out. And most of the time when I
struck out, I struck out. Looking at the strike three, I
struck out without swinging the bat and, and here's why.
It wasn't because I was, I was scared of the ball.
It wasn't because I didn't know how to swing a bat.
It wasn't because the bat was too big or too heavy.
I didn't swing often because the pitcher didn't throw it where I
wanted him to throw it right. So I was always waiting for that
perfect pitch coming straight down the middle of the plate
about waist high. And then if he pitched that
pitch, then I would swing. I'd probably miss, but I'd at
least swing at it. So I struck out over and over
and over. Listen, at the end of the at the
end of the games, I got ice cream.
At the end of the season I got a trophy.
But in terms of my contribution to the overall team, wasn't much
to it at all. I think especially right here at
the very end of our series in the life of Joseph.
I think many of us, we live our Christian life the same way that
I played baseball as a second grader.
We, we're waiting for that perfect pitch in life.
In other words, we, we, we think that, hey, once I have
everything lined up and once everything in my life is
healthy, once my relationship with my wife and my kids, once
my, what's my job situation? What's my financial situation?
Once, once my mental health or my emotional health is in the
right place, then God can use me.
Then God can use me to do great things for him.
Then God can, can use me at all. But you know, I'm going to hold
back and I'm going to wait for all these things to be lined up
perfectly for God to use me. Listen, I want to give you 3
words of encouragement about that train of thought.
Number one, that's a faulty train of thought.
It's a faulty train of thought that waiting for life to line up
perfectly in order for God to use you.
That's not how it works #2 if that's how it works, none of us
would ever be used by God. Because you, you and I, we are
gathered here together this morning and online with
everybody online. We are an imperfect people
serving a perfect God. There will always be, and I
don't mean this as a, as a, as a point of discouragement.
I mean it as a point of encouragement.
Encouragement. There will always be part, parts
and points of our lives that have unhealth to them.
There will always be parts and points of our life that will
have unhealth to them. But listen, that's not, we don't
have to wait on life's perfect pitch to be used by God at all.
And, and to show you what what I'm talking about is many times
if we wait, and this is that third element of, of waiting on
life's perfect pitch, that if we feel that life has to be
completely lined up and perfectly lined up for God to
use us, then what we inevitably do is we are people chasing a
carrot on a stick that we'll never catch.
And I don't know about you, but the thought of living life just
chasing a carrot on a stick that we'll never catch.
That's exhausting. And believe me, when I tell you
and I don't, I don't have to remind many of us because we
know it to be true. Exhaustion is the point right
before the breaking. You ever been just completely
exhausted? And exhaustion is that point
right before the breaking. And if we've learned anything
over these last eight weeks in the life of Joseph, we've been
encouraged by this truth, by this principle that we've been
riding on the entire series. That served as a big idea.
And if you're taking notes with us, you may want to jot it down
one last time. It says, what can easily break
you, God turns in to breakthrough.
What can easily break you, God turns in to breakthrough.
So here's the question before us this morning.
If waiting on life's perfect pitch in order to be used by
God. If that's not correct and that's
not the right train of thought, then how can we be used by God
exactly where we are right now? How can we be used by God
exactly where we are right now and exactly how we are right
now? To give us some insight into
answering that question, I want to invite you to find Genesis
chapter 41 with me, Genesis chapter 41 and we're going to be
picking it up in verse 50. Genesis 41, We're going to be
picking it up in verse 50. It says before the year famine
came, two sons were born to Joseph as an Ath.
The daughter of Potiphar, a priest of own, bore them to him.
Joseph called the name of the first born Manasseh.
We talked about Manasseh last week for he said God has made me
forget all my hardship and all my father's house.
The name of the second. This is where we're going to
land. This is where we're going to
close out the series. This morning.
He called Ephraim for God has made me fruitful in the land of
my affliction. So like we've done last eight
weeks, we're going to look at this passage, we're going to
look at these 3 verses, and we're going to really ask three
main questions. What does this tell me about
Joseph? What does it tell me about God?
What does it tell me about me? If you're taking notes with us,
let's look at what Joseph name of his son Ephraim, what that
tells us about Joseph. The reason that we want to know
what it tells us about Joseph is because Joseph was a man just
like me and you. He wasn't a character in the in
in in a in a Bible story. He wasn't a fictitious man.
He was a real man that went through real life with real
hurts, pains, and trauma. So what does Joseph naming his
sons Manasseh and Ephraim? What does it tell us about
Joseph #1 Joseph's faithfulness was consistent in every place
and in every season. It was He was.
It was consistent in every place in every season.
Now, if you were with us last week, we talked about and just
kind of as a review and if you're new to Riverbend, just
kind of make sure that we're all on the same page.
And Joseph's Day, it was very, very popular and it was a very,
very well known thing for parents to name their kids a
name that corresponded with what the parents may have been going
through at that given point in time when the kid was born.
So for example, we talked last week about how Joseph's dad, his
name was Jacob. Jacob already had ten sons. 10
finds out that Joseph is on the way.
Joseph's born. Jacob names Joseph, Joseph
because Joseph literally means increaser or God will add.
In other words, hey, I got 10 boys.
He's increased it one more or he's added one more 2 to the
litter. Like now I got 11 boys.
We talked about how last week Joseph named his first born
Manasseh, because Manasseh means to forget or God causes me to
forget or to let go of something.
If you weren't here with us last week, I would highly, highly
encourage you go back either through Facebook or YouTube or
wherever you listen to podcast and listen why that was so
important to Joseph, but even more importantly, why that's so
important for us. What does it mean that God can
actually cause us to forget? Because that word forget is used
in a way that we don't often use it, but there's so much blessing
in that. But then Joseph has a second son
and he names his second son Ephraim.
He names his second son Ephraim. And Ephraim literally means
fruitful in my affliction, fruitful in my affliction.
And and I've got to wonder like when Ephraim grows up and he's
just starting to learn how to how to read and he finds out
what his name means, he probably goes up to his dad and he's
like, hey, daddy, why'd, why'd you name me?
Why'd you name me fruitful in my affliction?
That's kind of that's kind of weird.
And I can't help but think that Joseph probably sits his son
down on his knee. And he was like, Ephraim, let me
let me tell you about Daddy's affliction.
Let me tell you about what Daddy went through.
You see, Daddy, when he was 17 years old, he was he was beaten
and he was betrayed and thrown into a pit and sold as a slave
by his own brothers. And then he goes on to list
like, hey, remember, you know, Uncle Zebulun?
Yeah, he was there, too. And you can just imagine that
Ephraim's like, was, was Uncle Natalie, did he beat you, too?
And Joseph's like, absolutely, he beat me.
And you know, Ephraim, it, it really hurt.
And he sold me. They sold my own brother, sold
me as a slave. But you know, once I got to
Egypt, I started working for this man named Potiphar.
And, and Potiphar's wife accused daddy of doing something that he
never did. And Potiphar believed his wife
and, and not me. And because of that, I was, I
was thrown into the prison and I was, I was, I spent years in the
prison and I thought I was forgotten about in the prison.
You see, Joseph could go on and on and on and he could talk
about, he could talk about his affliction.
He could talk about to Ephraim like how he was afflicted.
But you know what, as inconsistent as Joseph's life
was, and if you've been with us over the last eight weeks, you
know those ups and downs, Joseph's life was so
inconsistent. And I think that a lot of us
here this morning and online, we can sit there and go, man, I
resonate with that. My life feels so inconsistent.
You know what stood out in stark contrast to Joseph's life's
inconsistencies? Joseph's consistent faithfulness
to his God. You see, through all the ups and
downs, through all the places and all the seasons, Joseph
never wavered in his faithfulness to his God.
He was. And here's the keyword for us
this morning, consistent. He was consistent.
And because Joseph was consistent, it leads us to the
second thing that we know about Joseph from this passage.
Check this out. Joseph chose fruitfulness over
vindication. He chose fruitfulness over
vindication. Again, go back in time,
especially if you've been with us over the last several weeks
and you know how the how the story of Joseph plays out.
If Joseph was to sit down and make a list of who to take
retribution on, imagine if, if you will, as you know, probably
mid to late 30 year old sitting down making a list.
They just sit there and go, OK, my top 10 would be my brothers.
And then after that that woman, Potiphar's wife that lied about
me. And you know what, while I'm
there, I'm going to write down Potiphar too because he believed
her over me. And while I'm at it, because he
believed her over me, I was thrown into the Egyptian
supermax prison and I was all but forgotten.
And there there were two guys, there was a royal royal Baker
and a royal cupbearer. The Baker, he got executed by
Pharaoh. So I can't really take
retribution on him, him. But the cupbearer, I interpreted
that guy's dreams for him. And three days later he, he got,
he got reinstated to his royal position in Pharaoh's palace.
And the only thing that I asked was that he for he, he, he
Remember Me. And instead of remembering me,
he forgot about me. And I spent two more years, you
know what, Royal cupbearer? You're on that list.
You know, Joseph could have spent his entire life chasing
vindication. But you know something about
vindication, Vindication, vindication.
If Joseph spent his entire life pursuing vindication and
retribution, he wouldn't have been able to save an entire
region of the world from starvation and an even more
personal retribution and vindication make very, very poor
substitutes for a husband and a father.
You see, Joseph understood something that's so very
important for us to understand. Joseph could have chosen to
pursue God's purposes, or he could have chosen to pursue
payback. He couldn't choose to do both.
He could choose God's purpose. I'm going to pursue God's
purposes or I'm going to pursue payback.
He couldn't do both. And Joseph comes to a point to
where he goes, God, I choose to live my life, to bear fruit for
you, and I'm going to leave the vindication to you.
So Speaking of God, what does this passage, what does all this
tell us about our God? First one is God often defines
fruitfulness differently than I do.
God often defines fruitfulness differently than I do.
Out to the side, you may want to jot this word down.
Let's give fruitfulness because that may sound a little churchy
for us, but it's, it's an important word to use for, for
matters that we'll get into in just a moment.
But out to the side you can, you can substitute the word
fruitfulness for success. You can write the word success.
God often defines success differently than I do.
All right, if you're new with us, I'm going to ask that you do
something. It's going to seem really weird
if you call Riverbend home. I'm going to ask you to do
something, and it's going to seem really weird.
If you're new to us, I promise we're not a cult.
And I am well aware of the fact that that's exactly what a cult
leader would say. All right, but we're not a cult,
I promise. Which I know that's what a cult
leader would say, but just bear with me.
Here's what I want to ask that you do cross the room.
I just want to ask that you just close your eyes for just a
second. Just close your eyes and and as
you as you have your eyes closed, I want to get you to
think about something. How do you define success?
What are the things that are
that are present in a successful life?
I'll give you a further prompt to think about.
Not to sound morbid, but just to get us to 0 in on this point.
What would you like to be truthfully said about you at
your funeral? What would you like to be
truthfully said about you at your funeral?
Now let's get a little bit more real.
We know that every single person in the room, outside of the room
online in church this morning, outside of the church, near to
God, far from God, every single person will one day die and will
stand before God and give an account of of his or her life.
What do you think God will look at you and say?
Well done, my good and faithful servant.
What are the things that are present that are to be present
in our lives now that God will look at when we give an account
of our life? Then that he will say, well
done, my good and faithful servant.
All right, you can open your eyes.
Here's my guess. My guess is none of us thought
anything wrong or thought anything evil or thought
anything bad. My guess is we probably all
thought things that were good, right?
We, we, we may have thought he was a family man and she
nurtured her family. We, we may have thought he left
such a legacy of leadership in his company or she left such a
legacy of leadership in her company.
She was a great friend. He was a great neighbor, man.
They were successful because they earned so much money.
They lived in such a nice house, drove nice cars, had nice kids.
Listen, none of those things are bad.
But can I tell you this? None of those things will in and
of themselves will make an eternal impact.
Here's what I mean. Mom, dad, grandmother,
grandfather. Listen, our our one of the
things that we should be aiming at is raising and loving our
kids and our grandkids. But the main way that we raise
and love them is by pointing them to Jesus.
Listen, we should, as followers of Jesus, we should have a
strong work ethic. But the reason that we want to
have a strong work ethic is because we realize that as
followers of Jesus, as sons and daughters of God, we represent
God to all people at all times, in all places.
You know, being a good friend to someone is, is being there and,
and, and laughing with the laughter and weeping with the
crying, but then also understanding.
Hey, listen, I know what it's like to go through what you're
going through. Can I tell you how God has
brought me through this? Can I tell you how God has has
filled in those, those unknown blanks or those empty blanks in
my minds? Because I have a lot of
questions and I have a lot of doubts.
But man, His presence in my life has given me so much peace.
Listen, God does not define success based off of how much
you know about him. God defines success by how much
you made him known to the people around you.
God does not define success by how much money you may have
saved or earned. God defines success.
As what you did with what He entrusted you with the eternal
impact. If you want to know how God
truly defines success, it is living a life that is about
making earth better and heaven bigger, earth better and heaven
bigger. It is about producing fruit,
spiritual fruit, eternal fruit, the things that will last for
all of eternity. Which brings us to the second
thing that we know about God. And this passage teaches us
about God. God knows where I where I will
be most fruitful. God knows where I will be most
fruitful. Let's go back to Joseph for just
a second. So if you've been with us over
the series, you know all the UPS, all the downs, all the in
betweens, all the feelings, all the emotions before Joseph got
elevated to the palace. What do you think of Joseph?
If God gave Joseph one wish, one request that God would grant on
the spot, What do you think that would have been?
Let's put ourselves in the shoes of Joe.
I mean, what would it be for you if you got like sold into
slavery, carted off over 300 miles away to a foreign country,
foreign culture, and as a slave, and not just a slave, but as a
prisoner. I mean, from the pit to the to
Potiphar's house, as a slave to the prison.
What do you think Joseph's main wish would be?
I think it would be just to go back home, don't you?
I think Joseph's main wish probably while he's on the cart
being driven 300 miles away from home.
I think that Joseph yearned just to be home.
I think that Joseph probably went to sleep at night thinking
maybe tomorrow when I wake up, this nightmare ends and it was
just all the bad dream, but he wakes up and he's still behind
bars. I think when Joseph, that first
night when he was sold as a slave to Potiphar and he's a,
he's a slave in Potiphar's house, I think that Joseph
thought, I wonder if I'll ever be back home.
I wonder what my dad's doing. I wonder what my friends are
doing. Why?
Why He's being forgotten about in a prison.
You know that Joseph's probably sitting there, probably crying
himself to sleep at night, going I'll, I'll never be back home.
I think that Joseph's number one desire was to be back home with
his dad and with, with his friends, probably not so much as
brothers, but to be back in his own bed.
Don't you? Can I tell you something to
remind you something? Joseph couldn't save an entire
region of the world from starvation from his bedroom in
Canaan. Let me say that again.
Joseph could not save an entire region of the world from
starvation from his bedroom in Canaan.
God knew that Joseph would be most fruitful and most used and
most successful not in his bedroom in Canaan, but in Egypt.
You see, I'm 1000% convinced that in this room with us
online, there's some of us that man, we want to be somewhere
else doing something else with somebody else.
We want that so bad. And we're frustrated because we
just feel that God's not answering our prayers because
that's a dream. That's a deep desire of ours.
If that's you, can I throw out a possibility to you?
Maybe God's not so much blocking your dreams and desires as much
as he is about blocking less fruit in your life.
You see, when it comes to being used by God, God's pause is
never about less. God's pause is always about
more. You may say, well, Ben, I don't
like where I am right now. I don't like what I'm doing.
And to be honest with you, I don't really like the people
around me. Yet here you are.
And maybe God knows that that's exactly where you're going to be
the most fruitful, where you're going to be most fruitful.
You see, God has a way when he defines fruit, the way that is
going to have an eternal impact and eternal significance.
He knows where we're going to be most fruitful.
So if we're going to be most fruitful for God then, and He
knows where we're going to be most fruitful, what does that
require of us? Again, taking notes with us.
Let's look at what all this means about me, what all this
tells me about me #1 I can never underestimate the importance of
being consistent in my faithfulness to God, of being
consistent, my faithfulness to God.
I grew up in a generation. I grew up in a generation that
highly, highly emphasized, big, audacious, huge things for God.
The bigger the idea, the crazier the idea, the more audacious the
goal, then obviously the more Godly it was.
Listen, I'm not knocking that. However, what I would tell you
is like through the rise of the Internet and blogs and
conferences, what ended up happening is we were showcasing
all these big, bold, huge, audacious things for God that we
inadvertently downplayed the day in, day out consistency with
God. We we listen.
I thank God for the men and the women that take the gospel of
Jesus to all over the world, to people that have never heard of
the name of Jesus before. I thank God for those men and
women. But I also thank God for the
stay at home mom that leans into Jesus and makes it a point to
teach her kids about Jesus and his love for them.
I thank God for for for the men and the women that that that are
doing these massive college campus crusades.
And I thank God for them, and we need them, but I also thank God.
I also thank God for the student that is intentionally living his
or her life as a light, living his or her life as a light to
the gospel in a Dark World that understands that they're
stepping into a classroom and the person on their left, the
right in front of them, behind them need the hope of Jesus in
their life. I thank God for the men and the
women that are standing on stages and preaching the gospel
to hundreds and thousands and 10's and hundreds of thousands
of people. I thank God for them, but I also
thank God for the man that goes to work every single day
understanding that hit one of his coworkers is going through a
very, very difficult time and he has a pretty good idea that that
man or that woman doesn't have a relationship with Jesus.
So he prays for him or her by name each today.
It is that day in, day out consistency you can never, you
can never underestimate the day in, day out consistency.
You see, it's not just about making headlines for the gospel.
It's about living a life that is fully devoted.
It is a consistency of spending time with God in prayer and a
consistency of, of reading God's word, and a consistency of, of,
of pouring worship music in you and over you throughout your day
as a consistency of, of seeking God and seeking His guidance in
whatever comes next in your life.
It is a consistency of God. I know that it seems that life's
storms are like blowing against me, but I'm going to hold on to
you because you have always been faithful to me.
It is a consistency to not break because I realize that what
often breaks me God can use as a breakthrough in me.
It is that day in that day out consistency.
And when I start to look at that consistency, then I start to, I
start to, I start to my, my, my goals start to change.
God begins to change my goals because my, my, my vocation is
not my identity. My vocation is my vehicle.
You follow me, my vocation is not my identity, my vocation is
my vehicle and this is what God begins to change my goals to
check this out. These are my new goals.
Second thing that this tells me about me is wherever I am,
whatever I face, whoever I'm with, my goal is fruit, more
fruit and much fruit and I gave out in parentheses John 15.
Here's one in John 15, Jesus is talking to the disciples.
He one of one of his most masterful teaching sessions.
And there's a phrase that he continues to use in John 15 and
it's the phrase abide in me. And essentially that phrase
abide in me means stay plugged into me.
If you stay plugged into me, then you'll bear fruit, you'll
bear more fruit and you'll bear much fruit.
There's a progression all through John 15 that progression
bear fruit, bear more fruit, bear much fruit.
And the goal's still the same is to make him known to the people
around us. It is to it is getting to heaven
and realizing like, listen by your grace and by your mercy, O
God, I am here. But I was faithful in what you
entrusted to me. So guess what?
Through your grace, through your mercy, and through using me, I
brought these other people with me.
I brought these other people with me.
Bear fruit, bear more fruit, bear much fruit.
Riverbend, if you want to know what my prayer over this church
is and over every single one of us is over this next year, well,
it's first and foremost. It's always same.
Prayer is everywhere that Riverbend touches, everywhere
that Riverbend Church touches physical campus, whether it's
meeting here on Sundays, online or virtual or virtual arena or
going out in our community. Things like Mule Camp, things
like serving our schools and our teachers in the name of Jesus.
One of my main goals and one of our goals is always going to be
this is that everywhere Riverbend touches that people
give their lives to Jesus. That people not because we're
something great, but because we serve a great Savior.
But the two really specific prayers over 2026 that I'm
praying through and I'm praying over this church is that number
one, that we would live in a culture of connectivity.
And here's what I mean by that is we are connected.
We are a diverse group of people, right?
What connects us is the gospel of Jesus.
And, and one of the things I love about Riverbend, I was
talking to somebody this past week about this.
So many different things over the past five years could have
split us, could have, could have splintered us, could have
fragmented us. But it's God's hand of
protection and his hand of blessing on Riverbend Church
that he's never allowed any of those things to become the main
thing. So the main thing's always the
gospel, right? So we are connected together by
the gospel of Jesus. And here's what I know.
Just practically speaking, a culture of connectivity means
that we are connected together by the gospel, but we are
connected together by the gospel even more effectively when we're
connected to one another, when we're connected to one another.
So it's a culture of connectivity.
But my second prayer over this church over this next year is
that we live out a culture of calling.
And a culture of calling means that you and I, we begin to
realize that because God knows where we will produce the most
fruit in our lives, He has strategically placed us where we
are when we are doing what we're doing around who we're doing it
with. Calling is not just for pastors,
by the way. So you could be pouring concrete
or you could be pushing carts at Kroger.
You could be a barista, or you could be a banker.
You can be a farmer or a pharmacist.
It's realizing that God has specifically tapped you on the
shoulder and said, you, I need you to fill this outpost to make
me known to the people that you will encounter in this line of
work. That is a culture of calling.
Let me get it.
Get you to think of it this way, when we lived in Jacksonville
Beach, I became the I became the senior pastor when I was 27
years old. If you want to know my my take
on that, it's a really bad idea for a pastor to hire a 27 year
old pastor. A really bad idea for a church
to hire a 27 year old pastor. I can't tell you how many times
that I was asked this question over our ten years there.
So when did you feel called to become a senior pastor?
When did you feel called to become a senior pastor pastor?
When do you feel called to be a senior pastor?
I never really knew how to answer that.
And then one day I remember, I remember talking to a, to a
buddy of mine that he was wrestling through this whole
issue of calling and I and I told him, I said, you know,
Robbie, I don't know if I could tell you that I was called to be
a senior pastor. And he looked at me really weird
because that's a weird thing for the senior pastor of a church to
say. And I said, but what I can tell
you is I feel called to be the be the senior pastor of First
Baptist Jack's Beach. Do you see the difference there?
You see, when we transitioned away from that church and we
found ourselves at Bethlehem Christian Academy writing
curriculum and teaching, I felt no more, no less called there to
do that then I was when I was a pastor, lead pastor in
Jacksonville Beach. You know, when we were at Prince
Ave. and doing what I was doing there, I felt no more no less
called to become the executive pastor of River Bend Church.
I felt no more no less called to become the lead pastor of River
Bend Church than I did when I was the executive pastor of
River Bend Church. Calling is living in obedience
to what God has directly placed in front of you and using where
you are when you are around who you're around to reach the
people around you with the gospel.
So stay at home, Mom live called blue collar dad live called,
student live called, coach live called everywhere in between
live called. So to help us put some feet on
what it looks like for us to live called this week, I want to
walk us through three three key questions.
Here's the first one. What is my greatest enemy to my
consistency? What is my greatest enemy to my
consistency and what we're talking about like spending
consistent time in prayer, spending consistent time in the
Word, spending consistent time being consistent and being a
part of the church, coming to church, worshipping together.
What is the greatest enemy to my consistency?
I think that that answer is going to be different for
different people, different ages, different stages.
I think that we probably all have one in common.
You ever sat down to pray or to to read the Bible and you start
getting a lot of notifications? That's not by accident.
You ever sit down to pray and your mind just goes off like
1,000,000 miles away to all the stresses from yesterday and all
the stresses of today. It's not by accident.
I think it's really important that we identify though, what is
my greatest enemy to my consistency.
Second one, how have I measured fruitfulness differently than
God does? How have I measured fruitfulness
differently than God does? In other words, if we are living
for standing before God to hear him say, well done, my good and
faithful servant, what parts of our life will he point to and
what parts of our life will he be shot?
Will we be shot that that he won't point to?
You see all the things that have to do with us leading people to
him and showing him and his grace and his mercy and his
goodness and his hope and his salvation and his invitation to
take us just as we are without us having to clean up ourselves.
Those things last all other pursuits and they'll just burn
away. Third question in this season
and in this place, how can God bear fruit through me in this
season? What season are you in right
now? What place are you in right now?
I'll go ahead and tell you when we start talking about season
and place, we could probably spend all day talking about like
the hardships that we're going through, the different seasons
that we're going through. Man, I'm so tired.
I'm so, I'm so this, I'm so that, you know, a lot of times
when we, when we think about like serving in the church and
as the church, we often fall into this trap.
My life is chaotic. I can't serve right now and
we're just waiting on life to not be chaotic anymore.
Can I tell you something? Life's always going to be pretty
chaotic. There's always going to be a
measure of unhealth in our lives.
But I also tell you this, God is faithful and redeeming our time.
But where in this place, where in the season of your life right
now, can God bear fruit? You are not in some spiritual
purgatory to where God doesn't want to use you.
Because before God can use you, you've got to get everything
straightened out. God wants to use you exactly
where you are and exactly what you're going through right now
for your own good and for His glory.
But you've got to ask yourself this question in this place and
in this season, how can God bear fruit through me?
Do not waste this place. Do not waste this season.
It is incredibly strategic for you and for the people around
you. In just a moment, I'm going to
pray and we're going to end not just today, but we're going to
end this series with a song that maybe a few of you know, but
probably most of you don't. It's a song called Manasseh.
And it's, it's of course, after Joseph's first born son.
And we're going to invite you to to stay and we're going to
invite you to sing. But here's The thing is, I just
want Hannah and Connor in a lot of ways just to sing this over
you. Because as we close this series
of the life of Joseph out, we can thank God for every season
that we're in and we can look back and we can go, you know
what? I was in affliction, but God,
you made me fruitful in that affliction.
God, I went through some really hard times, but you made me
forget the pain behind me in light of the blessings in front
of me. So in just a moment, as we pray,
we're going to invite you to stand and you can sing with us.
You can not sing with us. You can come down and pray if
you want to pray, you can come down and talk to one of our
pastors if you want to talk to one of our pastors.
But I pray that this speaks over you, man.
This life, the series of the life of Joe's been so, so good.
And it doesn't have to end this morning.
Where does God want to bear fruit in my life here and now?
God, we love you and we thank you for your word.
God, we love you and we thank you for your presence.
God is a presence that is faithful to us even when we're
not faithful to you. God that is always aware of us,
even when we're not aware of you.
God is a presence that you as our perfect, loving heavenly
Father. We are always on your mind, even
when we allow our minds and our thoughts to get cluttered by
other things and lesser things. God, I pray that this morning,
God, you remind us of your faithfulness to us.
God, in whatever season, in whatever place we may find
ourselves this morning, God, you have been faithful, you are
faithful, You will continue to be faithful.
So God, as we get ready to close out this morning, got to pray
that your Holy Spirit would move in and through us this morning.
And it's in Jesus name that we pray, Amen.
Stand if you want to stand, sing if you want to sing, come pray.
If God is calling you to come, pray with His church.
You redeem the innocence that stolen you return the years that
thou were taken. You.
Every broken home inside my heart.
And you made. It all better.
This is my manasa. You've caused me to forget.
Your goodness washes over all the pain of my past.
This is my Manasa. You've caused me to forgive in
all my broken places. You'll rewrite in what's been
written. Thank you for Manassa.
You fulfilled every facet of my
purpose in the waiting when this islands felt so useless.
You changed me. You traded on my trauma.
For. Vintages of grace.
I can see it all now that this is my Manasseh, You've caused me
to forgive. Your goodness washes over the
world the pain of my past. This is my Manasseh you've
caused me to forgive. In all my.
Broken places you're rewriting what's?
Be written thank you for. Vanessa, I'm so grateful for
Vanessa. 'Cause it's a new season,
there's a new freedom. All I thought was lost.
You felt it made it. Better glory to glory.
Joyful my morning. There is nothing wasted.
You work. It all together.
The new season, there's a new freedom.
All I thought was love. You found.
And made it better. Glory.
To. Glory, joy for my money.
There is nothing wasting. You.
Work it all together. And this is Marmosa, this is
Marmosa 'cause this is Marmosa, you've caused me to forget.
Your goodness rushes over all the.
Pain of my past. This is my manasseh you've
caused me to. Forgive and all my broken.
Places you're. Rewriting what spirit?
Thank you. For Manasseh.
Riverbend, thank you so much for worshipping with us today.
Have a great week. Thank you for listening to
Riverbend Church's podcast. To find out more about this
message or Riverbend Church, connect with us online at
Riverbend Church dot live.