Thank you so much for listening to Riverbend Churches 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.
All right. Good morning, River in church.
Hope you're doing well. So glad to be able to worship
with you this Sunday. If we haven't had the chance to
meet yet, my name is Ben. Get to serve as the lead pastor
at Riverbend. If you are new, thank you so
much for choosing to be with us. We are in the midst of a series
called Joseph from Pit to Palace.
We've been in this series for several weeks, but before we
jump right back into the series, one just throw out kind of a
seemingly vague, seemingly rhetorical question.
Have you ever wanted to make a difference in someone else's
life? Has there ever been a point in
time to where you really desired to make a difference?
Maybe it was in one person's life.
Maybe it was in a group of people's life.
Maybe it was an entire environment.
Have you ever wanted to make a difference in someone else's
life? My, my guess is the answer to
that is probably yes. But just to just kind of add
some participation if you're joining us online, when I say
raise your hand if you're driving, don't because you will
make a difference in someone else's life, just not in a
positive way. You're also going to make a
difference in your insurance premiums, but raise your hand if
you would say, hey, there's been a point in time or maybe you're
there right now. There has been a point in time
to where I know I have desperately wanted to make a
difference in someone else's life.
Raise your hand. Probably every single one of us,
right? You're, you're either there now
or you have been you. You're either at A at a point of
like passion, God, please use me, or you.
You can think back to a point to where you were passionate about
the possibility of God using you.
I have no doubt that the vast majority of us, if not all of
us, we would love to have God use our life to make a
difference in our homes and in the in the men and women and in
the family members of of our family.
I have no doubt that there's that students you, you have no
you, you have a desire, deep desire for God to use your life
to make a difference in your school or or if you're if you're
if you're working in an office, no doubt online in the room, no
doubt about it. You have a desire, a deep desire
for God to use your life to make a difference in your workplace
environment. The desire is there, right?
I think that we can all agree that the desire to make a
difference for God, to allow God to use our lives to make a
difference, that is there. The variable, however, at least
it is for me, is I start to think about my own limitations.
I start to think about how big the issue is.
And then when I factor in the fierce undercurrent of culture,
then I, I, I'm kind of left paralyzed.
So the variable is not do we want God to use our lives to
make a difference for Him in the lives of other people?
The question is, how do we even start?
How do we even start allowing God to use us to make a
difference in other people's life?
And, and that's really where we're going to be heading this
morning, looking at the life of a man by the name of Joseph.
Over the past several weeks, we've been walking through this
life of a guy by the name of Joseph, whose life, his ups and
downs are chronicled for us in the book of Genesis.
So if you have a Bible with you, I want to invite you to find
Genesis chapter 41. Genesis chapter 41 is where
we're going to be hanging out this morning.
And if you're new to the series, let me kind of go ahead and and
give you some brief background info that's going to be helpful
to kind of catch you up to make sure that what we're about to
read together is going to make a little bit more sense.
This guy by the name of Joseph, he was severely beaten.
He was betrayed. He was sold into slavery by his
brothers at the age of 17 years old.
He was then carted off over 300 miles away from home into the
foreign country and culture of Egypt to where he was sold again
as a slave to a man by the name of Potiphar.
He's false accused of crimes he did not commit.
He's thrown into prison. If you were with us last week,
we talked about how Joseph was forgotten by his only ally and
his only legal lifelong the a guy that was that was Pharaoh's
royal cupbearer to where Joseph interpreted a dream for him.
And Joseph in return said, hey, listen, the only thing that I
ask is if you that you Remember Me when Pharaoh brings you up
out of the prison into the palace 3 days from now.
Mr. Cupbearer, would you please mention my name and my case to
Pharaoh because I'm here unjustly.
I didn't do anything wrong. I was snatched from my hometown
and I was card off 300 miles away.
And the cupbearers like, yeah, I got you Joseph.
And then we read the end of Chapter 40 to where it said and
the cupbearer forgot about Joseph.
So here you got this guy sitting in prison, falsely accused, did
nothing wrong, but all accounts pretty much did everything
right. And he's forgotten about by his
only ally in legal lifeline. Any one of those things, one of
the things we've been talking about throughout this series,
any one of those things, much less all of them combined
collectively over a short amount of time could have greatly
threatened Joseph. And we would even say naturally
would have threatened Joseph to to break him to it would have
greatly tempted him to just kind of give up being faithful to
God. It would have tempted him just
to kind of go along with it, go with the flow and to live kind
of in survival mode without any type of purpose behind.
But he didn't. And one of the things that we
see playing out through the life of Joseph is a truth and a
principle that's been serving as the big idea throughout our
series. And if you've been with us over
these last few weeks, this will sound very familiar.
But if you're new to Riverbend or new to the series, let me go
ahead and introduce you to the new idea.
If you're taking notes with us, just jot this down.
What can easily break you and God turns in to breakthrough.
What can easily break you, God turns in to breakthrough.
And we've seen through the life of Joseph the things that could
have easily broken him. God is going to actually end up
turning to the good. He's going to end up turning to
the good. And here we got a guy that was
that, that was thrown into a pit.
He was thrown into a prison. And then God turned those things
that could have easily broken him into breakthrough to where
now he's elevated. By the time we get to Genesis
41, he's elevated to the palace of Pharaoh.
But if you were with us last week, we talked about how the
palace wasn't so much a destination as much as it was a
platform for Joseph's mission. To show you what I mean, I want
to get you to look Genesis chapter 41, and we're going to
look at just verse 46. So it says, Joseph was 30 years
old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went
through all the land of Egypt. During the seven plentiful
years, the earth produced abundantly.
And he gathered up all the food of those seven years which
occurred in the land of Egypt. And he put the food in the
cities. He put in every city the food
from the fields around it. And Joseph stored up grain in
great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to
measure it, for it could not be measured.
Now what's going on there is Joseph is actually brought up
from the prison to Pharaoh's palace because Pharaoh had a
series of dreams, disturbing dreams, and God gave Pharaoh the
interpretation of these dreams through Joseph.
And the interpretation of the dreams was, hey, Pharaoh,
there's going to be 7 years of, of plenty.
There's going to be 7 years to where crops, like crops are
going to grow abundantly like never before.
And, and, and that's going to be a blessing, but then following
those seven years, there's going to be 7 years of severe famine.
And this wasn't just a interpretation of dream for
information. It was an interpretation of a
dream for action. So what Joseph could have done
being elevated to 2nd command after Pharaoh, Pharaoh's dreams
are interpreted by Joseph. Joseph is elevated by Pharaoh to
2nd command. Pharaoh could have just sat
there and went, hey, great info Joseph.
Thanks so much for the heads up. But again, this interpretation
of the dream was never just for information.
It was for action. Look with me down at verse 56.
It says so when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph
opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the
famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain
because the famine was severe over all the earth.
So in seven years, ironically 7 verses later, from a time of
plenty and abundance, you have this massive famine.
You have this massive famine that that breaks loose on the
entire region. And just kind of as an
interesting side note, just kind of doing some research into this
message, there is an island in the South of Egypt.
It's actually located in the middle of the Nile River called
the Sahel Island. SEHEL, the Sahel island.
And in 1889, in 1889, there was an American journalist and
explorer by the name of CE Wilbur.
CE Wilbur decided to go on Sahel Island.
And on Sahel Island he finds this stone.
And on this stone there are 32 lines of Egyptian hieroglyphics
inscribed on this stone. This stone is now known as the
the famine, The Famine Stella. The famine Stella is a stone
that has 32 lines of Egyptian hieroglyphics that outline 7
years of severe famine during the Egyptian dynasty, to which
most scholars believe that that corresponds with these seven
years of famine that Genesis 41 is actually referring to.
Also, just kind of as an interesting side note, there's a
cave system in India. There's a cave system in India
by the name of Malu Cave. In Malu Cave, geologists tell us
that there is evidence of this mega drought that affected the
entire world and they're able to date it about 4000 years ago to
the time of Joseph. Isn't it amazing how archaeology
many times catches up with the Bible and what the Bible tells
us is happening? So you have Joseph actually
leading the nation of Israel to conserve grain so that through
their conservation, God can save not just Egypt, but the region
around Egypt, the world region around Egypt from mass
starvation. Now, as we've done in every week
throughout this series, we have to ask ourselves three main
questions. Number one, what does any of
this tell us about Joseph? What does any of this tell us
about God? And most importantly for us, if
you're new to church, you're probably wondered, why does any
of this matter to me? Thanks for the history lesson.
But why in the world does this matter to me?
And what we're going to see together is it's going to have
massive implications for you and I and where we are right now,
where we've been, where we are and.
Where God's going to take us. So let's start with that first
question. What does these two passages
that we just read? What does it tell us about
Joseph? The first thing it tells about
Joseph is the palace was never Joseph's prize.
It was his platform the the palace.
Was never Joseph's prize. It was his platform.
You see, we can say that it was never Joseph's prize because
Joseph didn't do anything to earn the palace.
He didn't do anything to deserve the palace.
So it wasn't his prize that he won.
Instead, it was Joseph's platform.
Platform for what? It was the platform for his
mission to tell the people around him about his God.
And everywhere that Joseph went all the way through from Exodus
or from Genesis 37 all the way to Genesis 50, we see Joseph
telling the people around him about his God, that there is one
true God that loves them and that he knows them, and that
this one true God, they can know him.
So this elevating to the palace wasn't a prize that Joseph
earned or something that he deserved.
It actually was a platform to continue, continue His mission.
And now being second command over the entire nation of Egypt,
that platform was even greater. One of the truths that you and I
that we talked about last week is when God elevates us, when
God promotes us to the palace, when He raises our platform, it
is not for necessarily our own benefit.
It is so that His message can reach further and that's exactly
what we see happening in the life of Joseph.
Second thing that this entire passage tells us about Joseph is
Joseph knew that the palace because it wasn't a prize, but
it was a platform. He knew that the palace was not
for resting. It wasn't for bragging, but it
was for what it was for serving. It wasn't for resting.
It wasn't for bragging, but it was for serving.
Now, I'm going to ask that you that you put yourself in the
shoes of Joseph for just a moment.
I have no doubt whatsoever that Joseph's bed in his bedroom was
much more comfortable than baking in the bottom of a pit in
the desert when he was 17 years old.
I am 1000% confident in saying that Joseph's bed and his
bedroom, his living quarters in the palace, was far more
comfortable than being carted off in a slave cart.
I would guarantee you that his bed and his living quarters and
his arrangements in the palace were far greater, much more
luxurious and more comfortable than his slave quarters in
Potiphar's house. And they certainly were much
more comfortable than his prison digs and all those years that he
spent in prison. It would have been so easy, it
would have been so easy and and even maybe expected by some for
Joseph to be shown to his palace quarters to be tucked into bed,
have like a nice little Andy's Candies mint, put on his pillow
and sit there and go ah this is the life and not leave his
bedroom. But Joseph knew that the palace
wasn't for resting, nor was it for bragging.
Again, put yourself in Joseph's shoes.
He is a 30 year old young man who has gone from a slave, a
foreign foreign slave, to 2nd command of all of Egypt Pharaohs
right hand man. The only person that is more
powerful in the entire Egyptian empire at that point in time, it
was Pharaoh himself. And that was completely
unprecedented. And it could have been very easy
for Joseph to, to get a big head and to, to, to become arrogant
and go, man, look at how far I've come to look at life.
As he was experiencing then in light of where he came from and
go man, look at how far I've come, I've made it.
And it could have been a place of bragging, but instead.
Joseph knew that it wasn't a place of resting for resting.
It wasn't a place for bragging. It was a place of leading by
serving others. This isn't in your notes.
This is just a side point. If you're in any type of
leadership position, whether it's in the home, whether it's
in your neighborhood, whether it's on your team, whether it's
in your class, whether it's in your workplace, if you're in any
leadership position, the way to lead that follows the example of
Jesus is by serving others. It is not about, it's not about
a title, it's not about a position.
It's about serving others. That's free.
But Joseph knew that the palace was a place for him to lead by
serving. So how did he serve?
He actually got out to city to city, region to region and he
went to work. He went to work.
He served the Egyptian people by convincing them, hey, listen,
there's seven years of plenty that are coming.
Agricultural growth. We're going to have lots of
grain, lots of food. We need to store it back.
We need to store it back and he led.
The nation he served the nation of Egypt by causing them to
serve to to store back their grain.
He also ended up serving the entire region of that world by
storing back the grain and causing them to avoid
starvation. But how does Joseph serving, how
does it coincide with his position and his platform?
Remember what we said that Joseph's position was or his
platform was, his mission was? Is to tell people about his God.
Now I'm going to ask that we go back in time 4000 years ago.
Let's say that you're a city leader and you got this young 30
year old that's coming up. He he, he's not even he's not
he's not from around here at all.
He's from over 300 miles away. And he comes and tells you, hey,
listen, we need to put some of this food back.
We need to build some silos. We need to identify an area of
town or maybe an area outside of the outside of this development
over here. And we need to build some grain
silos. And you got to imagine that
these city leaders or these officials, these regional
officials who've probably been at their job longer than
Joseph's even been alive. There's got to be a lot of
sideways glances and rolled eyes.
And basically there's probably going to be one of them that has
the courage to go. Hey, Sir, can I ask you a
question? Why?
How confident? Like, why should we do it?
Like, how do you know that what you're asking us to do is
actually necessary? And Can you imagine Joseph's
response? I guarantee you.
He probably had the same conversation from every city,
from every regional leader. Hey, my God told me that this is
what we should be doing. And you got to imagine, you got
to imagine these city officials, these regional leaders probably
just rolled their eyes and go, all right, you heard the guy.
Let's build the silos. Let's put the let's put the the
grain reserves in the silos. I think he's kind of off his
rocker. I think the old man Pharaoh, I
think he's kind of lost it. He's appointed the wrong
secretary of agriculture. But listen, that's above my pay
grade. We're just going to go ahead and
do what the guy tells us to do. And they probably did that for
the first seven years. But I wonder what their response
was when the seven years of famine happened.
I guarantee you those same city leaders in those regional
leaders probably thought back to those conversations with Joseph
and go and thought, you know what, he was right.
There's something to that guy's God.
And because Joseph didn't view the palace as a prize, but as a
platform for his mission, there were probably a lot of people
that were led to a faith and a trust in God.
So that's what it tells us about Joseph.
Speaking of Joseph's God, what does this passage tell us about
God? Number one, God will equip us
for what he's called us to. God will equip us for what He's
called us to now. 30 year old Joseph.
Let's talk a little bit about what Joseph would need in order
to be able to a do his job and B come across as halfway credible
in his job as the new Egyptian Secretary of agriculture.
All right, just to name a few just off the top of our head.
Joseph would at least need a working knowledge, a working
knowledge of agriculture, right, like botany and horticulture and
irrigation. Joseph Wood would probably need
a working knowledge, a working knowledge of mathematics to to
be able to rightly ration the people's food or to lead the
city and the regional leaders to rightly ration the the the
people's food during the seven years of of plenty.
He would probably need a basic understanding of economics to
lead these areas in building new grain silos.
These grain silos didn't exist. They didn't have like empty
grain silos that that Joseph is going.
Hey, listen, I know that way back in the day, your grand
pappy, he built this grain silo and it's been sitting dormant
ever since. It's we need to build new grain
silos. We need to build grain silos
outside the city, inside the city, because there's a famine
that's going to take place. And here's how we need to do
that. He would need, at the very
least, a basic understanding of diplomacy to know how to to get
things done and to know how to grease the wheels of these city
leaders in these regional leaders.
Now, if you've been with us throughout these past few weeks,
let me ask you a question. Where in the world in Joseph's
illustrious background? As a former slave and convict,
do you think that Joseph got any of that training?
He didn't. So how in the world was Joseph
able to do what God called him to do is because God equipped
Joseph to do what God called Joseph to do.
Did you know the same thing is true for you and I?
Is that whatever God calls us to, he will equip us for.
And we're going to come back to this, to this thought in just a
moment. You see, I'm convinced that
there are men and women and students with us this morning in
the room and online that you have a God sized dream that you
have this crazy big dream or you have this, you have this calling
that you feel that God has placed to own your life.
And if you're new to church, let me kind of identify or let me
kind of define calling. Calling is when God places
strategic and specific opportunities in front of you
for you to seize and to walk into because you know you have a
confidence that he's the one that's placed those in front of
you and you have the confidence that this is his work in and
through you. That's calling.
Some of us, we have a God size calling, but we're so
intimidated to step into that calling because we feel so in
equipped or unequipped for that calling.
And here's what I would tell you.
Do not allow what you are not equipped for now to keep you
from being obedient to what God has called you to just as God
gave Joseph on the job training many times, many times God
equips us while we are in motion.
Many times God equips us while we're in motion.
And if you grew up in church, you know all the all the Bible
excuses out there be like, well. The Israelites didn't walk
across on dry ground in the Red Sea until the waters parted, so
I'm just waiting for the waters to part in front of me and then
I know well that's true. But if you read.
On into the book of Joshua did you know that God also parted
the Jordan River? But when did he part the Jordan
River? It says when the people's feet
first touched the water, the river parted.
If you see more times than not God equips us in the midst of
motion and obedience to Him, then He does in our waiting.
Do not allow, never allow what you feel unequipped for to
hinder you from following what God has called you to.
There's an old Christian saying. There's an old Christian bumper
sticker theology and y'all know how much I love bumper sticker
theology. There's an old Christian, we'll
call it Christianese if you will, but it's but it is very
true. God does not call the equipped,
He equips the called. That's true.
God does not call the equipped, He equips the called.
So listen, here's what I would tell you that our responsibility
is walking forward in obedience. God's responsibility is
equipping us while we're walking forward in obedience.
And here's the best news of it all.
God is always faithful. God is always faithful.
Can I throw, before we transition into that next point
about God, Can I throw something else out?
Because I'm, I'm, I'm firmly believing that there are some of
us this morning that that God has put a burning passion on
your life and a calling on your life.
And I don't know what all that looks like, but there's a
hesitancy. There's a hesitancy to step into
that because you're afraid that you're not equipped and because
you're not equipped that you're going to fall flat on your face.
Let me get you to think about it from a different angle.
Did you know that God probably cares more about your calling,
you, stepping forward in your obedience and using you to bring
about His glory than you do? I think that God wants to
release us of a lot of fear to where he says, hey, listen, I
know that you're afraid of failure.
I got you. I got that.
I'm more concerned about failure than you are, Ben.
So listen, God will always equip us for what He has called us to.
Second thing that we know about God or that this tells us about
God is God cares about the one and the 99.
God cares about the one and the 99.
This right here is a reference to a parable that Jesus told is
recorded to for us twice, once in the book of Matthew, once in
the book of Luke. And a parable is a story that
God that Jesus would tell to bring about a spiritual point
and a spiritual truth. It's an understandable story or
illustration that would be greatly understood and
universally understood by the people of his original crowd and
audience that pointed people to a truth about God.
And in this one, he tells the story of a shepherd who loses 1
sheet. Here's what here's what I want
to show you. Look at Matthew chapter 18 in
your notes. I gave you both references.
You can look both of them up. The one in loose a little bit
longer. But Matthew 18, Jesus says, what
do you think if a man has 100 sheep and one of them has gone
astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in
search of the one that went astray?
And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more
than over the 99 that never went astray.
What's Jesus point in this parable?
Jesus point in the parable is he's pointing out to us how much
God loves us, and as a matter of fact that he's telling us that
if we were the only person, if you were the only person on
earth, that God loves you so much that he would send his son
to die on a cross for you so that you could be made right
with him. He's talking about the emphasis
on the one, but the emphasis on the 1 does not devalue the 99.
The emphasis of the one does not devalue the 99.
As a matter of fact, we look at the pattern of how God uses men
and women. And God has always specialized
and still specializes in using the life of a fully devoted man
or woman, a fully devoted man or woman, to him to change the
course, to change the trajectory in the course of generations to
come. So in this case, God uses the
one Joseph to reach the 99 in Egypt.
And guess what? He still does the same with you
and I. One of the reasons that God
wants to use you so much the 1, is so that you can go out and
reach the multitudes. You can go out and reach the 99.
So God cares about the one and He cares about the 99.
So what does any of this tell us about ourselves?
This is where it comes to. Why does any of this matter to
me? Here's the first thing I would
tell you. When I walk in obedience to God,
those around me also experience His blessing.
When I walk in obedience to God, those around me also experience
His blessing. You see, not only did Pharaoh,
but the entire Egyptian empire in that region of the world
experienced the blessing of God through Joseph's faithfulness
and obedience to God. And it's the same thing for you
and I. Is when you and I walk in
obedience with God, then those around us in our immediate
sphere of influence in our immediate sphere of influence,
they also will experience God's blessing.
Does I was talking to somebody this morning and we were talking
about just kind of aversions to to to crowds.
Let me kind of introduce this is like been vernacular.
Has any of y'all, any of y'all ever heard of the hula hoop
rule? Here's the hula hoop rule.
Imagine that I have a hula hoop around me and imagine that you
have a hula hoop around you and I promise not to get in your
hula hoop if you promise not to get in my hula hoop.
That's the hula hoop rule, right?
We love the people that that are like really close talkers, don't
we? To where we're constantly
backing up and they constantly follow us as if as if it's some
type of dance. The reason I bring up the hula
hoop rule is think about the relationships and the levels of
influence that we have around us.
That my obedience to God, God always blesses my obedience
towards him and his in my faithfulness towards him.
And guess who else gets secondhand blessing out of that?
The people that are in my close proximity.
Same things true for for you and I.
So here's where I would tell you Dad, father figure.
If you want your family to experience the blessing of God,
you need to be very resolute in being obedient to His ways and
submissive to His word. Ma'am, if you want your friend
group to experience the blessing of God, you have to be very
resolute that, hey, listen, I'm going to be obedient to the word
of God and I'm going to be submissive to the ways of God.
If you're, if you're an employer, if you're a
supervisor, if, if you're a team lead, if you want your team, you
want your organization to experience the blessing of God.
And by the way, when we're talking about blessing of God,
we're not talking about health and wealth.
What we're talking about is peace in the midst of chaos.
We're talking about joy in the midst of the storm.
We're talking about a love, a supernatural love in the midst
of massive polarization. If you want your team to
experience the blessing of God, then you have got to be resolute
to. And walk faithfully in the ways
of God and live fully surrender to the word of God.
You see other people are blessed that second hand blessing God
has a way of blessing the people around me through my
faithfulness and my obedience to him.
Second thing is this tells us about God is even the smallest
steps of obedience today set the stage for God's greater work
tomorrow. The smallest steps, the
seemingly smallest steps of obedience today set the stage
for God's greater work tomorrow. This is where we come full
circle back to our original question.
Remember our original question, original question was, hey, has
there ever been a point in time and maybe you're there now to
where you really want to make a difference in someone else's
life. You want God to use you to make
a difference in the lives of of maybe your classroom, maybe the
lives of your workplace, the lives in your home, but you just
don't know where to start. You don't know where to start.
This is where we come full circle to that.
Let's look at the example of Joseph, the life of Joseph.
Do you know where it all began for Joseph?
I think it began with that first footstep outside of Joseph's
palace bedroom. Where he could have stayed in
bed, he could have enjoyed the lap of luxury.
It began with that one small step, and then that step led to
another step. To where?
Then those series of steps led him from city to city and town
to town and region to region. To where that one small,
seemingly small step of Joseph led to a blessing of an entire
nation. Let me ask you a question.
What's your small step of obedience this morning?
Let me be very, very like vulnerable, very real and very
honest with you, church, whether you're in the room, whether
you're with us online. I happen to believe that anytime
we gather together, anytime we spend time in God's Word, I
believe that there's always a step of obedience that God calls
us to. I believe there's always a step
of obedience that God calls us to.
We don't gather together to sit there and go.
Man, I didn't know about that. That was good background info.
I'll remember that next time I watch Jeopardy.
It's not just like God's interpretation of of of
Pharaoh's dreams to Pharaoh. They weren't given for
information, they were given for action.
Whenever we spend time in God's word and, and especially when
we're together corporately and we lift our voices and sing
together and we pray together and we're encouraged by one
another, it's never for information.
It's always for action. And that action is what is that
small step of obedience that God is calling me to?
You know that that that step of obedience may be for you this
morning. I need to finally let go and
surrender my life to Jesus. I need to know that I have a
relationship with God. Let me tell you a really cool
story. If you were with us last last
Sunday night or night of worship.
I told this story after the 11:00 service last week.
There, there was a man and a woman that were standing like
right here. It was right after the service
and they, they were just waiting, they're waiting to, to,
to say something, to talk. So this man and woman, they come
up to me and they say, Hey, we need to talk to you about being
baptized. And I was like, well, that's
great. Let's talk about what is, what
is baptism? Tell me about your relationship
with Jesus. They, we don't have a
relationship with Jesus. That's what we came to talk to
you about because we want to have a relationship with Jesus.
And I was like, I tell you what, let's go to my office.
So go to my office and and I'm talking to him.
And I was like, so you want to give your life to Jesus?
And they're like, yes, that's why we are here.
And they're looking at me like you're a pastor, right?
Like you seem pretty dense on this.
That's why we are here. So anyway, they both this
husband and wife, they give their life to Jesus and we're
going to be able to celebrate their baptism with twelve
others, at least twelve others next Sunday night at our late
baptism at Laurel Park. So after, after, after I, after
I get up, pray with them, walk them out, I go looking for
Julie. I was like, all right, so
where's Julie? We need to find out.
Are we going to Taco Mac or going to El Sombrero?
Because those are pretty much the Sunday options, right?
And I can't find Julie. So I'm walking up and down the
hallway and I pass the conference room and I see
somebody in the, in the conference room and, and there
Julie is and their, their, their lady in our church is and, and,
and A and a child. And they motioned for me to come
in. And this 5th grade little girl
said, Hey, I need to give my life to Jesus.
And it's just absolutely amazing to where in the span of just a
few minutes, we have a husband and wife, We have a 5th grade
little girl give their life to Jesus.
Later on that afternoon, we get a we, we get a message, our, our
all staff Slack message, one of our staff members, her, her
father-in-law gave his life to Jesus.
And we're sitting there going, praise God, Maybe this morning,
maybe this morning, your step of obedience, you know what it is,
is to let go and to give your life to Jesus.
Maybe your step of obedience is you've given your life to Jesus.
But every time we talk about baptism, you start to tense up
because you know that that's a step of obedience that you need
to take in your relationship with God.
You're just hesitant to do so because you're worried about
what the other people around you're going to think.
Let me go ahead and tell you what they're going to think.
They're going to celebrate with you.
I'm not just telling you that from a place of sympathy.
I'm telling you that from a place of empathy because you're
looking at somebody that gave his life to Jesus as a fourth
grader and fought that all the way up to the summer before he
started college. And it to be able to go back in
time. I would have done it so much
sooner. I would have done it immediately
after I gave my life to Jesus as a fourth grader in the month of
May. I wouldn't have waited.
That long, but you know that that's your step of obedience.
Maybe your step of obedience is you need to make that
appointment to sit down with that counselor.
You need to send that text, that call, have that conversation
with that person and you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Maybe your step of obedience is to say, Hey God, here I am,
please use me. I know that I'm not equipped for
what you've called me to, but I kind of understand that's the
point because it's not about me, it's all about you.
So here I am, use me. So here's the question.
What's your step of obedience to help give us some handles and to
to have some clarity around what that looks like for you.
This morning I want to show you 3 key questions that we'll walk
through very briefly #1 in what ways have I falsely viewed the
Palace as a prize rather than a platform?
In what ways have I falsely viewed the palace as a prize
rather than a platform? This is me as your pastor.
Just like being real with you. One of the things that I see
that is so easy for us to enter into is if you grew up in church
and you were faithful in church and you served in church for
years and years and years, the moment that kids move out and
you become an empty nester, it's so easy to go.
I made it, and we start to view the palace as a prize rather
than a platform. So we unplug from God using US
in the ways that He has used us at the very moment that we have
been given supernatural wisdom and the experience of His
faithfulness to pour into the lives that have come before us
or after us. So in what ways have I viewed
the palace? Sit there and go.
This is a place, Forrest, or this is a place for bragging.
Look how far I've come. In what ways have I viewed the
palace falsely viewed the palace as a prize rather than a
platform? Second question.
How do I need God to equip me for what he's called me to?
Again, going back to that God sized dream.
That God sized dream may have something to do with the
confines of your own home. That God sized dream may have
may have to do with your own business, with your own career.
That God sized dream may involve you going back to school.
That God sized dream may involve you moving overseas.
That God sized dream may mean anything and everything that God
has placed on your heart that you cannot get away from.
That is a burning. Passion within you, yet you feel
so unequipped and unprepared to take hold of it.
And I would tell you that's the point.
God did not call the equipped. He equips the called.
So our step is obedience. God's responsibility is the
equipping. So maybe your step of obedience
is to sit there and go. OK God, here I am, all that I
am. It ain't much, you know.
You created me. Prepare me for what you have
prepared for me. That's your step of obedience #3
General. What step of obedience do I need
to take today? What step of obedience do I need
to take today? The reason that God has brought
us here this morning is for this.
Moment, this sacred moment to where you and I, every single
one is. We're at a fork in the road.
We either take that step of obedience or we just swipe it
off to the side and go maybe next week.
Here's why I would encourage you.
Never swipe it off to the side. Let me go ahead and pray over
us. And after I pray, we're going to
have an opportunity to stand. We're going to have an
opportunity to sing together, but most importantly, we're
going to have an opportunity to pray together.
So whatever your step of obedience looks like, I would
encourage you come down and pray.
If you want to talk to myself or you want to talk to Todd, we'll
be down here. We would love to pray with you.
We'd love to celebrate with you. We'd love to help you however we
can. But you're the one that needs to
take that first step. So God, we love you and we thank
you for loving us as the one. But God loving us so much that
you want to call us and equip us to reach the many.
God, in that calling, there will be highs and lows.
There'll be seasons of pits, there'll be seasons of prisons,
there'll be seasons of palaces. God, I pray that you would help
us to understand that the palace seasons are never our prize.
The Palace seasons are a higher platform for the mission that
you have called us to God. For many of us, that mission, it
scares us to death because we know ourselves and we know how
unequipped we are. God, would you help us to
understand that our responsibility is obedience to
step into that calling. Your responsibility is equipping
while we're on the move in the midst of that calling.
God, would you give us the faith to live that out?
Would you give us the faith for that one step?
And God, I pray that you would not only bring clarity to what
that one step of obedience is for us this morning, but God,
that you would bring a resolve. God that we want you.
We want to be in the center of your will, walking in your ways
more than anything else. God, I pray that you would have
your way through us this morning.
It's in Jesus name we pray, Amen.
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.