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I believe in God with all my heart
today that there's going to be deliverance.
I really mean deliverance, that you're going to
begin to understand that betrayal can have a
purpose and that you're not going to live
behind the gates where the enemy would want
to keep you.
Many, many people suffer betrayal as Christians and,
of course, even before you become a Christian.
And the betrayal that we suffer causes us
to live in a certain place right where
the enemy would have us, where God cannot
pour his provision through our lives.
Some of what you're about to hear you're
familiar with and some of it you might
not be.
If you'll go to Psalm 105, please.
We're going to begin here, and I've entitled
this message, Passing Through the Gates of Betrayal.
Now, Lord, you've spoken to my heart that
there's going to be a deliverance, a mighty
deliverance.
You said clearly the gates of hell cannot
prevail against the church of Jesus Christ.
There are gates that the enemy has erected
in front of many of even the most
choice servants of God to stop the outflow
of the provision of God through Christ Jesus
in his church.
Now, God Almighty, I'm asking you to anoint
me.
I'm asking you, Jesus, to take me so
far beyond any natural understanding I have of
this topic and take me, O God, into
the very heart of what you want to
speak.
Deliver me from excess speaking, and God, let
it be only your spirit that manifests through
me.
Lord Jesus Christ, I'm asking that you be
absolutely glorified.
My God, set your church free.
You have to have a testimony in this
generation.
There has to be a people that you
have prepared that are willing to carry the
banner of Christ in a very darkened hour.
I believe we've arrived at this hour, and
I thank you, Lord, that you are unlocking
the treasure of Scripture.
You said that you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall set you free.
I pray for a deep embracing of the
truth that we're about to hear today, and
I pray God the gates of hell would
be forced to open.
I'm asking you, Lord, for hundreds to be
released today in this service and brought into
an awareness of something that they previously didn't
know.
Jesus, only you can do this.
It cannot come by the reasoning of man.
Lord, we don't want to simply agree with
man's wisdom.
We want to be motivated and moved by
something from the heart of God, and we
want to be set free by the power
of God.
Now, Father, I thank you for this with
all my heart, that you're going to do
something so far beyond any natural ability.
We thank you for it.
In Jesus' name.
Now, Psalm 105, we're going to begin at
verse 16.
I'm going to read to verse 22, and
I want you to superimpose this on our
day and perhaps find a place where you
might be in this passage of Scripture.
Verse 16 of Psalm 105 says, Moreover, he
called for a famine upon the land.
He broke the whole staff of bread.
He sent a man before them, even Joseph,
who was sold for a servant.
Now, God was determined to move his people
from one place to another.
And you'll find that history repeats itself, both
the negative things and the things that are
good in the sight of God.
God saw something, and he called for a
famine.
He was about to move his own people,
who at that time assumed they were living
in the promised land, and he was going
to move them to another place.
And in order to do this, he created
a hunger.
And I do believe we're living there again.
I believe there's a hunger stirring in our
society today.
I believe that people are looking around, and
they're beginning to be afraid as they see
things rapidly starting to spin out of control.
Even the most positive optimists today are becoming
extremely pessimistic of our time.
Verse 17 says, He sent a man before
them, this is where you come in, even
Joseph, who was sold for a servant, whose
feet they hurt with fetters.
He was laid in iron.
Until the time that his word came, the
word of the Lord tried him.
The king sent and loosed him, that's what's
going to happen to you today, even the
ruler of the people, and let him go
free.
He made him lord of his house and
ruler of all his substance, to bind his
princes at his pleasure and to teach his
senators wisdom.
Now, the Scripture tells us that Joseph was
a man through whom God gave great provision
to others in a time of famine.
But he was, before this time came into
his life, called to walk a very difficult
path.
And there are some of you here today,
some of us, you've been called to walk
a very difficult path.
And you've had this question in your mind.
God, I thought this walk was a walk
of blessing, I thought it was constant provision
and joy.
I've had this impression, but I seem to
be called to walk in such a difficult
place.
I seem to be enduring hardship, when others
around me are perhaps not called to the
journey that I've had to undertake.
Verse 18 says that he was brought on
a path that brought pain to his feet.
In other words, there are just some journeys
in life that you and I would rather
not take.
There are some places we'd rather not go,
and there are some places we'd rather not
have been.
I think of many here today, just like
Joseph.
When you were born and you were a
child, your feet hit the ground with such
wonderful expectations of life, didn't they?
I remember as a little boy, I would
go out the back...
It's one of the first memories in my
life of walking out the back door of
the house I lived in at that time.
I probably was about, I don't know how
old I was, maybe three.
And I remember walking out, and when I
would go into the sunshine, and I'd look
up into the sky, and I had such
a sense that there was something that, in
the future, that was going to happen through
my life.
It's hard to explain that.
It's something in your heart, and your feet
start looking forward to getting up and kind
of running out the door, and living in
the anticipation of what it is that is
going to happen through your life.
And, of course, we know today that we
are born and destined to live in the
image of God, and to bring honor and
glory to His name.
Genesis 37 tells us that Joseph had a
dream.
He dreamt that God loved him.
He dreamt that one day he would be
in a greatly favored position, which God had
reserved for him.
And you have to have that kind of
a dream when you come to Christ, especially
when you're born again.
There's something that gets into the heart, because
God has this incredible secret that you've not
known about yourself.
And the moment you come to Him, He
says, I have something that only you can
do.
It may not be grand in the sight
of man, but God says, it's grand in
my sight.
And I'm looking down upon you with favor,
and I'm going to empower you to fulfill
this purpose that I've assigned, really, to your
life.
I'm going to grant to you the desire,
but then I'm going to come and fulfill
the desire.
And ultimately, you and I both know that
that desire is fulfilled when the provision of
God's life begins to flow out through us.
There's no other way to fully experience the
life of Jesus Christ than to allow Christ's
power to begin to flow through you to
meet human need around you.
That's where the giftings come into effect.
That's what the words of knowledge are for.
That's why there are giftings in the body
of Jesus Christ.
It's all about fulfilling this work that God
has and destined through His Son to meet
human need all around and to bring men
and women to the saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ.
How could he have known?
I see Joseph as a young teenager, a
type in the sense of a young Christian,
and so understanding.
God, I've been favored by you.
First of all, the fact that you know
Him means you're favored by Him.
You didn't find Him.
He revealed Himself to you.
He came to you.
God was never lost.
You can't find God.
He's never been lost.
You were lost.
He came and revealed Himself to you, and
you became aware.
Just as Joseph had this coat of many
colors, you just became aware of the many,
many things that God has for your life.
And you began to set out, especially young
Christians now, and you set out on this
journey.
And on this journey, you feel you love
everybody, and everybody loves you.
Wrong.
How could Joseph have known as he traveled
that day, and he's heading down the road,
and he's simply obeying his father.
His father says, go and see how your
brothers are doing.
So he heads down the road.
Remember the Scripture said in Psalm 105 that
they hurt his feet with fetters.
And he comes to see how his brothers
were doing, and how could he have known
that this would be the first of 13
years of suffering the effects of betrayal.
Joseph endured things that would stop most people
today in their tracks.
You would become crusty and hard and critical.
The tenderness of God would be driven from
your heart.
You would become ornery.
I've seen it over the years.
People who have been in the church for
years, and they just get harder and harder
and harder.
That's why I rejoiced today when Pastor Dave
said that Sister Gwen said, you're getting softer
and softer and softer as you get older.
That's such an evidence of the presence of
God working in your life.
This would be the first of 13 years
of suffering the effects of betrayal by his
own family.
I don't know if there's a deeper betrayal
than the betrayal that comes from those that
you thought loved you.
Those that you became vulnerable before.
And some of you have known this pain.
You came into the church of Jesus Christ,
and you thought that everything was going to
change.
Well, in some measure, it has changed.
You're just not aware of what the change
really is.
But you walked in to find similar betrayal,
perhaps not as vicious, or in some cases,
maybe it was as vicious as things that
you had to endure before you even came
to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Joseph was betrayed by a man he served
in Egypt faithfully.
A man who I'm convinced to this day
knew that his character was pure, but chose
to believe an evil report about him.
And because of it, he suffered again at
the hands of somebody he faithfully served.
He was betrayed by a woman who could
not gain his affections, and decided to cause
him harm by slandering his character.
And he suffered great harm because of this
secondary, well, it's even a third level of
betrayal.
Even in jail, he's betrayed by a fellow
prisoner who promised to help him when he
was again placed in a position to do
so.
And the scripture says he got out of
jail and forgot all about Joseph.
I don't know about you, but after 13
years of this, I might be inclined to
pack it in.
Find a cabin somewhere and just give up.
I heard an expression one time when I
was a young Christian, a pastor said, this
whole life of ministry would be just incredible
if it wasn't for people.
Now, the New Testament seems to tell us
that suffering is in some measure a doorway
to something of Christ that you and I
can't know any other way.
I want you to hear this today because
it's the beginning of the truth that can
set you free.
Suffering is in measure a doorway to something
of Christ that you and I cannot know
any other way.
We'll never know it.
Pastor David shared this morning about his son,
Greg, enduring incredible suffering, only to bring him
into a place where he can minister to
people who have suffered in a way that
nobody who hasn't suffered could ever fully understand.
Well, we'd have theories and we would throw
pat answer scriptures at them, but there's a
type of a person that God will send
into some of these darkened prisons.
Remember, Paul and Silas, we want to sing
about the victory and the prison doors opening
and the jailer and his family being saved
and the earthquake coming when they praised God,
but we forget that the precursor as it
is to all of this was stripes laid
on their back and false accusations and public
beating and humiliation and being put into a
jail and caused to lie on a cold,
hard stone slab with their feet in the
stocks.
There's a whole lot of things that happened
to Paul and Silas before they ever could
praise God in such a manner that would
shake a prison and see the prisoners, including
the jailer, set free and loosed.
You see, we'd rather go to the earthquake
and the miracles and all of the things
and skip all of the necessary classrooms.
But there is something about suffering.
Paul says it in Philippians chapter 3, verse
10.
He says that I may know him and
the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death.
Paul knew that suffering was fellowship with Christ.
And he said this fellowship of his sufferings
will bring me to a place where I
am made conformable unto his death.
Now, we know the scripture says he became
obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross.
But how do you and I become conformable
to the death of Jesus Christ?
Now, go to Matthew chapter 20, please.
I'm going to try to explain this in
the New Testament.
The fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable
unto his death.
Remember Joseph.
He had this incredible word that God was
going to use him.
And God was going to use his life
to bring provision to even his own family.
But before this word could be fulfilled, there
was a long journey that he had to
take.
Matthew chapter 20, verse 20 says, Then came
to him the mother of Zebedee's children with
her sons, worshipping him and desiring a certain
thing of him.
And he said unto her, What wilt thou?
She saith unto him, Grant that these my
two sons may sit, the one on your
right hand and the other on thy left,
in thy kingdom.
But Jesus answered and said, You know not
what you ask.
Are you able to drink of the cup
that I shall drink of and to be
baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with?
And they said unto him, We are able.
Oh, how quickly.
How quickly we answer God.
How quickly we run to the altar.
And how little sometimes we understand what it
is that we're asking for.
Oh, please, Jesus.
Can we sit with you in power and
authority?
And can we rule and reign?
And can we dash the nations of the
earth with a rod of iron?
Can we do all of these things?
He said, You don't know what you're asking
for.
You want to sit where I'm about to
sit.
But are you able to drink the cup
that I have to drink to get to
that place where I'm going to sit?
Are you willing to be baptized with the
same Holy Spirit that I'm baptized with?
Are you willing to walk in the will
of God and to let God's plan and
purposes for your life be completely fulfilled?
Even if it means pain and sorrow and
rejection and misunderstanding and laughter and scorning, and
in some cases even death, are you able?
Oh, how tritely they answered, Oh, we are
able.
Christ is saying to them, Do you have
the ability to drink of wrath which you
do not personally deserve?
Now, we're talking about betrayal.
Now, we know that he was not betrayed,
of course, by his heavenly Father.
But he was betrayed by Judas.
He was betrayed by countless hundreds and maybe
even thousands that he had fed on mountaintops
and been kind to their children and done
nothing wrong to any of them.
To see this crowd standing before him and
saying, Away with him, give us a murderer
and give us a thief.
Away with this Christ, crucify him.
And to have to go to a cross
and to suffer wrath, the wrath of God
actually, which he did not personally deserve.
And he's asking them, Are you able to
drink of this cup?
You want to sit with me where I
am.
And, of course, where Christ is sitting is
in a place of provision.
He sits at the right hand of God
today.
And all heaven is open to those who
trust in him.
He is the provision of God.
He's saying to James and John, You want
to sit with me where I am.
Are you then able to endure?
Are you able to endure rejection?
Are you able to endure betrayal?
Are you able to endure wrath which you
do not personally deserve?
Without losing heart and losing focus.
Can you follow me?
And can your life still be a source
of supply to others?
I was baptized by John.
The Holy Spirit came upon me.
I'm paraphrasing, but this is in fact what
Christ is saying.
I was baptized to take away the sins
of the world.
I was baptized to have no reputation.
To be made in the form of a
servant.
And to give my life as a ransom
for many.
Can you do that?
Are you able to do that?
And they said, We are able.
We can handle, Jesus, the good life.
A power, position, and honor among men.
We can handle the baptism of God's power
flowing through us.
I think of Solomon's proverb, chapter 17, verse
16.
He said, Wherefore is there a price in
the hand of a fool to get wisdom,
seeing he has no heart to it?
You see, they were manifesting this foolishness of
human reasoning.
That says, Oh, Jesus, fill us with the
Holy Ghost.
Oh, Jesus, take us to this place of
power.
And where our lives become this incredible outflow
of provision to fallen humanity.
It sounds so poetic, doesn't it?
But the question remains.
Are you able to drink the cup?
Or maybe I should just ask, Are you
willing?
Are you and I willing to go through
the places that we have to go through
to get to this position where the power
of God can flow through us to a
generation?
You see, in verses 17 to 19, Jesus
had just spoken of betrayal, mocking, scourging, and
death.
It says, Jesus going up to Jerusalem took
the twelve disciples apart in the way.
And here's what he said to them.
Behold, we go to Jerusalem and the Son
of Man shall be what?
Betrayed.
Unto the chief priests and unto the scribes
and they shall condemn him to death and
shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock
and to scourge and to crucify.
And the third day he shall rise again.
Now, he's clearly outlining the pathway that his
father has outlaid for his life.
This is the pathway Christ had to follow
to be our provision.
But verse 20 says, Then came to him
the mother of Zebedee's children.
Just after he's given this revelation.
And he said to them, You don't know
what you ask for.
Then in verse 24, it says, The ten
heard it and were moved with indignation against
the two brethren.
Their indignation was just simply because each of
them felt this is my place they're asking
for.
I mean, everybody knows it's me that God
is going to use and sit at the
right and left hand of power and all
authority.
In verse 25, Jesus just identifies the spirit
behind this whole interaction that's taking place.
And he said, But he called them unto
him and said, You know that the princes
of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them.
And they that are great exercise authority upon
them.
But it shall not be so among you,
but whosoever will be great among you, let
him be your minister.
And whosoever will be chief among you, let
him be your servant.
Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and
to give his life a ransom for many.
He said, You want to exercise authority.
You want the baptism.
You want to be close to me so
that you can have influence and power.
It sounds like half of the success seminars
in the Christian church today.
He said, But this is not the reason
that I came.
I came to serve.
I came not to manifest what is the
essential motivating factor as it is of fallen
humanity.
I came to manifest the heart of God.
I came to be God's provision for the
need of a fallen creation.
And in order to do so, I'm going
to be a servant, not a Lord, as
the Gentiles seek to be.
And I'm going to give my life as
a ransom for many.
Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13
says, There's no temptation taken you, but such
as is common to man.
And God is faithful.
He will not suffer you to be tempted
above that you are able, but will with
the temptation make a way to escape that
you may be able to bear it.
When we are betrayed, it is a trial
like no other.
I don't know about you, but I have
been.
It is a pain sometimes like no other.
And some of you have been betrayed long
before you became a Christian.
Your little feet hit the floor and before
you got to be five, you were betrayed.
Your pathway became less sure.
Your steps became more feeble.
It became a very, very difficult place for
you.
You were betrayed by people that you trusted.
You were betrayed by people in authority.
You were betrayed by people that you became
vulnerable and were vulnerable before.
And sometimes you come into the church of
Jesus Christ with this incredible baggage of betrayal.
And you say, Oh God, thank you.
I'm in a new kingdom now.
And everything is going to be different.
And that's what Joseph thought.
You see, it was his own brethren that
betrayed him.
And brought this incredible pain and this 13
-year trial into his life.
And the devil now would have you, and
the devil would have had Joseph.
Stay behind this gate of betrayal.
And shut this gate right in your face.
And say, now Joseph, for the rest of
your life, just endure people.
For the rest of your life, be out
for yourself.
Forget about other people.
Live this life for yourself.
Get the best of it that you can.
But forget about everybody else.
You see, God's plan was to flow through
him with incredible provision.
The enemy's plan is to put him behind
gates.
And to keep him behind these gates all
of his days.
And hear me clearly on this.
There are many, many people in the body
of Christ that never even come close to
fulfilling what God has for their lives.
They'll get to heaven.
But they sit behind these gates saying, I'll
never trust again.
I'll never be vulnerable again.
I don't even want to reach out.
I don't even like people anymore.
It seems humorous, but people think that way.
There are people in the sanctuary that think
that way today.
I don't like people.
Loving people is not an option.
I don't even like them.
I don't trust people.
Some people here today, you can't come under
leadership.
Because leadership at some point betrayed you.
Whether it's your father, your mother, a guardian,
a boss, somebody you trusted betrayed you.
You vowed a vow in your heart.
You went behind the gates of betrayal.
And you said, I will never trust leadership
again.
You cannot come under authority.
You cannot walk in a ministry.
You cannot walk in unity with anyone.
Because you are living behind the gates of
betrayal.
You are exactly in the place that the
devil wants you to be in.
But there are, you know, and reasonably so,
you'll say, Pastor, like, okay, I've heard these
sermons before.
I've gone to the occasional altar.
And I've prayed, oh God, please help me
to forgive.
And I thought there was going to be
some kind of a miraculous thing happen in
me.
And I walked out the door.
And I didn't feel any different than when
I walked in.
I had a momentary relief, a momentary release.
But I was not really free the way
I thought I was going to be free.
So I got discouraged.
And I felt, well, maybe there's just no
hope to get through this.
But remember, I read you a scripture that
your testing, the word temptation actually also means
testing, is not unique.
It is common.
Others have had to go through this.
Joseph had to go through it.
Folks, listen to me.
Every person who's ever been used of any
considerable measure in the kingdom of God has
had to go through betrayal.
Jesus Christ was betrayed.
John the Baptist was betrayed.
Isaiah was betrayed.
Just look at it all through the scriptures.
Jeremiah was betrayed.
You'll never get through it.
You'll never amount to what God wants you
to be if you can't get through these
gates of betrayal.
It's all through the scriptures.
Look through history.
You'll find men and women that were used
of God all had to not.
They didn't stop at the gates of betrayal.
They went through the gates of betrayal.
They went through to the other side.
Now, your question is reasonable today.
Pastor, tell me, help me.
How do I get through the gates?
How do I do this thing?
Now, I want to follow for a moment.
If you'll go to Genesis chapter 47, I
want to follow the 42 rather.
Genesis 42.
I want to follow with you the things
that Joseph had to go through.
We're going to do this just very briefly.
It's not going to take too long.
Joseph has been 13 years in a prison.
He finally gets released from this prison.
He's placed in a spot where he has
the keys now to provision, even for those
that have formerly wounded him.
Now, in chapter 42 and verse 7, it
says, And Joseph saw his brethren.
Now, remember, we started in Psalm 105.
God created a famine.
Now, I don't want to alarm you, but
hungry people that once wounded you are going
to come to you one day for help.
You're going to have to deal with this.
People in your neighborhood, people on your job,
people in your family, fathers and mothers that
let you down are one day going to
come to you.
It's going to get tough, folks.
It's going to get very, very tough in
our generation.
And they're going to come.
And they're going to come to you because
you're sitting in Christ in a place where
there is provision.
And when Joseph's brothers first come to him,
there's a memory now that's coming back to
him.
He'd rather just run away from this memory.
He'd rather not deal with it.
And when his brethren saw, when he saw
them, verse 7, he said, He knew them,
and he made himself strange to them, and
he spoke roughly to them.
Now, keep in mind, we're talking about the
man who became the provision for the household
of faith, for his own brethren.
And the best he could do in the
beginning is speak roughly.
And sometimes that's just where you and I
are.
We can't speak civilly about people who have
hurt us.
We try to cover it with some Christian
words, but there's a roughness in our speech.
You all know what that's about.
You just can't get through it.
You try, but you're face twisted.
When you try to say something nice about
them, you just can't say it.
And if you meet them, even in the
church, you'll say, It's good to see you
today.
Rough speech.
There's no tenderness.
There's so little of Christ, but I want
to tell you something.
It's not a defeat.
This is the beginning of something that God
is doing in Joseph's life.
And you and I have to start there.
We start with just acknowledging, this is where
I am.
I can't get by this.
Unless, God, you come and give me the
power, I can't get through this.
Now, these same men, beginning in verse 8,
are standing before Him, and they are pretending
to be honest men.
Amazing.
They've wounded Him.
They've betrayed Him.
And He says to them, Who are you?
And they start to say, This is who
we are.
And in verse 11, they say, We're all
one man's sons, and we are true men.
We're honest men.
They're standing before the man they've betrayed.
That's the most galling thing you'll ever have
to go through as a Christian.
When somebody has betrayed you, and they're absolutely
unwilling to admit their fault.
And they stand before you and have this
feigning of righteousness.
And Joseph is the man who has the
provision.
He could let them starve to death, and
he knows it.
He knows there's no hope for them.
There's a famine.
God has already shown him.
There's seven years of famine.
They're not going to make it.
Now it's within his power to either help
them or not help them.
And I'm sure he must have had a
battle in his mind.
Why should I help these malicious liars?
Why should I help these people on my
job that have slandered me, to malign my
character, to take a position above me?
Why should I give them the time of
day?
And if I have the provision of God,
if I know the way to eternal life,
if I have enough money in my wallet
to get them through this hard time, why
should I give it to them?
They're not even willing to admit who they
are.
In verse 17, the Scripture says he put
them all in prison for three days.
Oh, that must have felt good.
Feels good, doesn't it, when you can put
them all in jail.
Suffer.
But let me read to you a Scripture.
Matthew 18.
Don't turn.
I'll just read it to you.
The same servant went out and found one
of his fellow servants which owed him a
hundred pence.
He laid hands on him and took him
by the throat and saying, Pay me what
you owe me.
His fellow servant fell down at his feet
and besought him, saying, Have patience with me
and I'll pay thee all.
But he would not, but went and cast
him into prison till he should pay the
debt.
When his fellow servants saw what was done,
they were very sorry and came and told
their Lord all that was done.
Then his Lord, after that he called him,
said to him, Oh, you wicked servant, I
forgave you all that debt because you desired
and you asked me to.
Should you not also have had compassion on
your fellow servant, even as I had pity
on you?
And his Lord was wroth and delivered him
to the tormentors till he should pay all
that was due unto him.
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also
unto you.
If you from your hearts forgive not everyone
his brother their trespasses.
He put them in prison, but only for
three days.
I can't help but wonder what was going
on in his mind in those three days.
Maybe the Lord came to him and said,
Joseph, I've been merciful to you.
Remember, you were in prison.
You remember how it felt to be in
prison.
Remember how difficult it was in prison.
Why do you want anybody else to have
to go through this?
You have it in your power to set
them free.
You have it in your power to give
them what they need.
And Joseph said to them, verse 18, the
third day, this do and live for I
fear God.
The fear of the Lord, the scripture says,
is the beginning of wisdom.
The fear of the Lord moves Joseph to
begin to exhibit and to show and to
give mercy and provision.
He says to them, if you be true
men, he said, let one of your brethren
be bound in the house of your prison,
but go and carry corn for the famine
of your houses.
Now, his brothers begin to engage in a
conversation.
This is about as merciful as most of
us want to get.
You just go.
Here's your corn.
Just go.
We would say, well, that's wonderful.
We forgave the debt.
We'd have a praise service over this.
But he's still got a long way to
go yet.
In verse 23 and 24, he hears them
talking in their distress.
And they say that, did I not tell
you, verse 22, do not sin against the
child you would not hear.
Therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
And they knew not that Joseph understood them.
For he spake to them by an interpreter,
and he turned himself about from them and
wept.
Now, it's incredible.
He hears them talk about their distress, but
there's no true sorrow in them for what
they did to him.
It's not about the fact that they betrayed
him.
It's about the fact that they've gotten themselves
into trouble.
And they said, now, we are in trouble
because we did this.
But there is no sorrow for what they
did to him.
And the Scripture says he turned from them
and wept.
Now, this is the first indication of weeping
in his life.
You see, I see it this way.
He's not willing to be vulnerable again.
He hears them in trouble.
He says, I can help you, but I'm
not willing to be vulnerable.
He turns from them.
I really can't show you what's really going
on in my heart.
I really can't reach out to you because
I don't trust you.
In chapter 43, verses 30 and 31, we
see this yearning for reconciliation growing.
And this is an evidence.
Now, listen to me very carefully.
There's an evidence that you are moving to
be released from these gates of betrayal when
you are yearning now to be reconciled with
people who have hurt you.
It comes into your heart.
It's birth of the Holy Ghost.
There's a yearning.
You have all your ducks in a row.
You've got every reason why you shouldn't forgive
someone.
Every reason why you shouldn't write that letter.
You shouldn't make that phone call.
You shouldn't let your life be used as
a source of provision for them in their
time of need.
You have every reason lined up.
But all of a sudden, because you are
crying out to Christ, because you truly are
a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, there
is this yearning that comes into your heart
to be reconciled.
God puts it there.
This is a work of the Holy Spirit
within you.
And you just simply said, Oh God, in
spite of what it cost me, Lord, I
want to be reconciled.
It says in verse 30 of chapter 43,
Joseph made haste, for his bowels did yearn
upon his brother.
And he sought where to weep.
And he entered into his chamber and wept
there, and washed his face and went out
and refrained himself and said, Set on bread.
He's yearning for reconciliation.
And he's still unwilling to be vulnerable before
them.
Until chapter 45, which I believe, verses 1
to 5, tells us that he has passed
through the gates of betrayal.
Now here's the evidence that you've passed through.
Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all
them that stood by him.
Verse 1.
And he cried and said, Cause every man
to go up from me.
And there stood no man with him, while
Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians in
the house of Pharaoh heard.
Folks, God is not calling you to go
back into your situation sometime with a great
big smile on your face.
There's real emotions involved in this.
You're going back to somebody who hurt you,
it might mean some tears.
But Joseph was at least willing to do
it.
Finally, he came to the point of understanding
something.
And he wept aloud.
And Joseph said to his brethren, I am
Joseph.
Does my father yet live?
And his brethren could not answer him, for
they were troubled at his presence.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near
to me, I pray you.
And they came near.
And he said, I'm Joseph, your brother, whom
you sold into Egypt.
There's the evidence now.
Verse 5, he says, Now therefore, be not
grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold
me here.
For God did send me before you to
preserve life.
Here's the evidence that you've passed through the
gates of betrayal.
It's when you come to the place of
understanding that God has been in control of
everything all along.
When you begin to understand that everything that
He has allowed into your life has come
for a divine purpose, a purpose which has
been unfolding supernaturally, through which the life of
Christ will become a source of provision to
others.
When you begin to understand that all things
work together for good to those that love
God and are called according to His purpose,
all things, the things you know and the
things you don't, the things you like, the
things you don't like, the things that cause
you pleasure, the things that cause you pain,
God has been working these things out and
allowing them to be worked out from the
day you came to Him.
To bring you and I to a place
where our lives would become a source of
provision, as the life of God did through
Jesus Christ for a humanity which had betrayed
and rejected Him.
We are called to follow in the footsteps
of our Savior.
We are called to walk with Him.
We are called to drink the cup that
He drank and be baptized with this incredible
baptism of God's love.
God so loved the world.
God loved you in your rebellion.
God loved you when you cursed His name.
God loved you in your betrayal.
God so loved you that He gave His
only begotten Son that you should not perish
but have everlasting life.
Are you willing to drink the cup?
I think of Pastor David this morning when
he was speaking and talking about this tenderness
and the renewed zeal at 75.
I had a vision, Brother Dave, this morning
in my heart of the next five years
are going to be incredible in your life.
And my mind went back as he was
speaking to 12 years ago in this church.
The vicious and bitter betrayal that caused him
to bleed inside, physically bleed.
Where at one point I personally feared for
his life.
I remember you, Brother Dave, not able to
come out on the platform.
You'd sit behind the curtain and ask me
at the end of the service, has the
Holy Spirit left us?
Is the Holy Spirit still here?
Have we grieved God?
I don't know if I'd ever seen a
man in my whole lifetime ever more wounded
by people who were supposed to be his
friends.
But yet look today.
Look at the tens of thousands of pastors
in the Islamic world.
And all 80 invitations pending, different countries, conferences,
conventions with thousands and thousands.
If you've not seen the CDs of this,
DVDs of this, you need to see it.
With thousands, up to 10,000 pastors.
The glory of God coming down.
Men and women falling on their faces in
the aisle.
Being just opened to the treasure and the
storehouse of God's life.
I dare to say, if it had not
been for the betrayal, I'm not sure that
these days would be happening.
You see, the betrayal opened something of God.
I've been here, I saw it, I lived
through it.
I saw a covenant unveiled.
The new covenant.
I saw Jesus Christ just absolutely unveiled it
all.
Any darkness that was there between this man
and Christ was pushed away.
And now at the age of 75 has
the provision.
The key sits at the right hand with
Christ.
Can you drink the cup?
So many people in the body today just,
oh, they offended me.
Oh, they didn't recognize my gifting.
Oh, they didn't do this.
And they go back behind what they think
are the gates of betrayal.
They fold their arms and amount to nothing
in the kingdom of God.
David said it this way.
If you read Psalm 23, he said, oh,
I walked through the valley of the shadow
of death.
And then after he walked through the valley
of the shadow of death comes the last
verse in Psalm 23.
The revelation that goodness and mercy will follow
me all the days of my life.
Because I've walked through this valley.
I've come through to the other side.
Christ has kept me and brought me through.
It's time, folks.
This is a starving generation for truth.
There's a famine in the land.
There's hardly the word of God left anymore.
Young people are starving in our society today.
It's time for maturity to come.
It's time for the church to put away
childish things.
It's time to get up.
Because Jesus said, you're my church and the
gates of hell cannot prevail against you.
It's time for God's people to get up
and say, I'm going to be vulnerable again.
I'm getting up.
And I'm not letting past betrayal, I'm not
letting woundings and hurts stop me from what
God has for my life and the provision
that God is going to flow through me.
The gates of hell cannot prevail.
That means they can't hold you.
They can't hold you back if you have
a heart for truth.
If you have a heart for God.
If you want to go with Christ.
They can't stop you.
You have to choose.
I shared this life of Joseph with you
to show you that there's a process involved.
It's not just as easy as snapping your
fingers and praying some nice little prayer.
You have to determine in your heart that
this is the way I'm going to go.
God will confront you with the situations.
And then as they arise, he'll give you
the power because the power is not of
us.
It's of him.
Oh, God, help us to understand this.
I see at least 300 people here today.
I just see it in my spirit.
I've stopped at the gates of betrayal.
And you've just said, I'm not going any
farther.
And by your own admission, that's as far
as you're going to go.
But if today you can see that the
anointing of the spirit, Jesus said in Luke
four is to open the prison doors.
If you truly sat with the Holy Spirit
is if you've truly heard the word of
God, the Lord Jesus says the Holy Spirit
is here to open the prison doors and
to set you free.
You don't have to live there anymore.
You're going to be vulnerable.
Will you get hurt?
Absolutely.
But will you get through?
Yes.
What will be the end result?
God will give you insight into his word.
He'll give you boldness.
He'll give you words of knowledge.
He'll give you faith in troubled times.
You will stand in the midst of adversity
and be a testimony for the living God.
I challenge you with everything that is in
me, because I believe this is a very
late hour.
The famine is already here.
People are already starving.
It's time to get up.
The door is open.
You have to choose to walk through it.
That's as simple as my altar call can
be today.
The annex here in the main sanctuary.
The annex you have nowhere to step forward
to right now.
You can join us here.
But if the Holy Spirit is speaking to
you, and you know the Holy Spirit is
speaking to you, and it's time to get
out from behind these gates and to be
vulnerable again.
It's a huge step.
And there will be tears that come with
it.
And there will be difficult times.
But Jesus says, I'll bring you through these
difficult times.
You're going to have to write letters that
are going to be hard to write.
You're going to have to make phone calls
that are going to be next to impossible
without God.
You'll have to forgive people that are already
dead.
But God will give you the power.
If this is in your heart, as we
stand, come, join me.
We're going to pray.
We're going to tell those gates of hell
to open.
And they're going to let you out.
Stand, please, in the balcony.
Go to either exit.
Make your way here in the main sanctuary.
Just make your way down, please.
We're going to pray together, and we're going
to believe God.
You want your life to be a source
of provision in this generation.
Hallelujah.
I agree with Pastor Carter that this is
a time for deliverance.
And for many of us that heard this,
many of you here, you're hearing it lovingly
by a loving confrontation of the Holy Spirit
who says, Do it now if you want
the blessing of God in your own life.
Pastor Carter mentioned the season this church went
through when my wife had to pick me
out of a chair and literally pull me
to a service.
I didn't want to come to this church
because of the wound in my heart.
But God spoke to me.
He said, If you can do two things,
you can get bitter and you can quit,
and you can live with that.
And I'm not going to damn you, but
you're going to live in sorrow.
And you're going to live in pain mentally
that you could not conceive.
But because I love you, I'm going to
tell you what to do.
First of all, you forgive everyone who's ever
hurt you and do what you can to
bless them.
I had to make a list with the
help of the Holy Spirit.
I had to write letters.
I had to make calls.
I visited people and I humbled myself before
them.
And I blessed them.
And I asked them to forgive me.
I said, Evidently, I've done something that caused
you to turn against me, and I'm sorry
for that.
And if you tell me what it is,
I'm sorry, but I'm just telling you.
And, folks, there were tears, there were weeping.
And I can stand here now and tell
you, I don't know one.
God has not reminded me of anyone else.
If he did, I would go.
And I want you to know that the
blessing started in my family.
It started in my house.
It started then with my finances.
Then it started with the way I preached.
I have a journal I don't even want
to look at.
I can't handle it because every day it
says, Well, this nightmare never ends.
But God ended it the day that I
was confronted by the Holy Spirit like you
and I are right now, out of such
love of God, because he has set his
heart on you.
Lay it down now.
Lay it in the service.
I didn't scream.
I didn't have to weep.
I just opened up my heart and said,
Lord, that's your word.
I'm going to obey it.
You obey him now.
You don't have to fall on your face.
You don't have to scream.
You just open your heart to him now.
First of all, there has to be that
willingness to let go.
God will fix things if you'll turn it
over to him now.
Would you lift your hands to the Lord
right now?
Just lift them up.
And will you, in your own way, not
my words, but your ways, said, Lord Jesus,
take this out of my heart.
Lay it down right now by an act
of faith.
Speak the word right now to the Lord.
Lord, I lay this down.
Lord, right now, I forgive.
I forgive everyone who has ever wounded me,
who's ever betrayed me, who's ever turned against
me.
And Lord Jesus, right now, take that out
of my heart.
That someone who molested me, that someone who
talked about me, that someone who walked out
on me, that someone, oh God, that has
just ignored me.
And they don't even believe I'm near anything,
worth anything.
Oh Jesus, take our eyes if all of
these hurts.
Take our eyes of all this and look
unto Jesus right now for cleansing and healing.
Now, raise your hands and say it right
now.
Lord, I lay this down.
I surrender this to you by a step
of faith.
Holy Spirit, show me what to do because
I'm willing.
Give me words.
Whisper in my heart the direction you want
me to take.
Now, will you lift your hands and thank
him for his faithfulness to you.
And Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness.
You have been good to us.
You have blessed us with your living word.
Listen, Pastor, I tremble with you to think
that anyone, after hearing this word, would hold
on to something another could damn you.
Only because you'd hardened your heart and the
grace of God could not reach you.
God's grace would always be there calling, wooing,
but there'd be a wall there.
That's the gate he's talking about.
Oh my Lord, help you.
Take that stuff and do it quickly.
If you wait, wouldn't you agree, Pastor, if
you wait another day?
You have to move when the Spirit is
moving on you.
Make up your mind and do it.
This is the conclusion of the message.