This is one of the Times Square Church
pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
You are welcome to make additional cassettes of
this message for free distribution to friends.
However, for all other forms of reproduction or
electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply.
Praise the Lord.
Many of you I know are coming in
the prayer time between the services, and it's
proving to be such a time of blessing,
and I would ask to put one more
thing on your prayer calendar, and that is
if you would remember to pray for me
the last two weeks of September.
I have the privilege of ministering in two
Italian cities to Catholic women.
In one place in Sicily, over a thousand
Catholic women will be there, and I am
just trusting God for great things, and for
him to be able to just move upon
the hearts of those precious women.
Many of them are poor.
Many of them are going to be hearing
for the first time about the gospel.
So if you would just keep me in
your prayers the last two weekends, and then
I will join the team in Nigeria, and
we're looking forward to two great pastors' conferences,
one in Abuja and the other in Ajaw,
where the great crusades will be in the
night.
So we never tire of asking you to
pray, because as we heard this morning, God
does so much with our small prayers, and
so we are just going to keep pressing
in and believe in God, because we serve
a God with whom there is nothing impossible,
and I thank him that he can take,
amen, the foolish one, just that his glory
is brighter and sweeter and greater and causes
hope.
So I just thank you for your prayers.
Today, if you would turn with me to
Genesis chapter 37.
Genesis 37.
First book of the Bible.
My message this afternoon is called Lessons from
the Pit.
Lessons from the Pit.
Father, I come to you in Jesus' name,
and I pray, O God, that you would
come, Holy Spirit, and, Lord, you would lead
us into the heart of this message, that,
Lord, your Spirit would come and reveal and
teach us this great truth.
Lord, I frankly acknowledge I need you, and,
Lord, I pray we need you, God, not
just to be hearers of your word, but
to be doers of this word.
Lord, there is so much life in your
word.
I pray, O God, that we would open
to it, and, Lord, that you would give
us the power to walk in its incredible
light.
So, Lord, we trust you with this message,
and I trust you, O God, to touch
the ears and the hearts of all who
will hear it, as I trust you, O
God, to lead me forward, to preach this
under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, to
give all the glory to you, Jesus, and,
Father, because you deserve it all, and we'll
thank you for it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I want to speak this afternoon to you
about the life of Joseph and what his
life means to us today.
And we get the advantage, we have the
great advantage when we study a life in
the Bible, is we get to see from
the beginning and the end.
We get to see the whole life in
completion.
And when the Holy Spirit puts that life
together before us, we begin to see things,
because we have the benefit of seeing if
the path they started, if a man called
by God, touched by God, if he's able
to finish his course, what is his life
able to accomplish?
What is the end result of that life?
And we get to have that with the
life of Joseph.
But today, I really want to talk about
when Joseph went into a pit.
I want to talk about what does that
pit, what is that type?
What does that pit mean for you and
for me?
What did that mean in the life of
Joseph?
You see, Joseph was one of Jacob's 12
sons.
And we heard so powerfully this morning, Jacob
in the lineage of blessing, where God started
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And as most of you know, Jacob had
12 sons.
And the birthright and the blessing did not
go to the oldest boy, Reuben, who lived
in immorality.
But it fell to this son, Joseph.
And Joseph is a type, Joseph is a
type of a man or a woman that
has the kind of faith that separates and
singles them out from their generation.
It's a type of person that the touch
of God is on their life.
God touches your life and you respond to
it.
And with that touch comes a call.
And you don't turn a deaf ear to
it.
But you see, Joseph, in receiving that call,
had to bear the envy and the hatred
of religious brethren.
And Joseph had a dream.
And in that dream, he dreamt.
And he saw in the harvest field that
his sheaf that represented him stood tall and
11 others, his brothers, all bowed down to
him.
And when he told that dream to his
brothers, they were infuriated with him.
They hated him before because in their eyes,
he was more loved.
But when he had that dream, their envy
increased.
And then he had a second dream.
And in it, he saw the sun and
the moon and 11 stars bowing down to
him.
And beloved, this is a type, it is
a foreshadowing of the spiritual dominion that his
life and his faith would exercise over every
other unspiritual man and woman.
It's a foreshadowing and a type of a
man called and touched by God who responds.
And in that responding and in that abandoning
himself to God, he ends up at the
end of his life with a spiritual authority
where his type of faith, others are forced
to acknowledge at the end that his faith,
his walk, his responding to God was able
to lift him up higher into a walk
with God, into a faith that the others
did not possess.
Now, the scripture tells us that Joseph, before
he went into the pit and when he,
after he shared these dreams, it tells us
in verse 37, verse 2, the last line
of that.
And Joseph brought unto his father their evil
report.
You see, Joseph was out in the field
with his brethren, and he ends up getting
mixed up in the spirit upon these men.
And I have no doubt that when he
began to share these visions and begin to
ponder in his heart what it was that
God was saying to him, that a source
of pride, which is the scourge of the
religious, a pride that grips my heart and
grips your heart, a pride that wants to
get in all those that are called by
God, that wants to come in and build
a secret life and have the secret ambitions,
and begin to look around, begin to categorize
men and women, begin to operate in a
pride where it loves to hear its name
praised, love to see and hear of its
accomplishments.
And the scripture tells us clearly that Joseph,
mixing with his brethren, begins to partake of
this evil report.
But beloved, God has his hand on this
man, and he does what he does not
do with the other men.
He separates them, and he puts them in
a pit, a place of separating and sifting,
a place where you don't want to be,
because it's where we come face to face
with ourselves.
See, the story tells us in Genesis that
he was sent out to look for his
brothers, and when he finds them, when he's
still a long way off, they go, here
comes that dreamer.
See, they will all partake of stories, but
they themselves understand there's something different about this
man, and it bothers them.
And they said, well, they plot to kill
him, but in the end, through the intervention
of one compassionate older brother, they decide not
to kill him.
They throw him in a pit where there
is no water and where it's empty.
And the Holy Spirit began to show me,
he wanted me to stop there, and he
said, Teresa, this pit is no ordinary pit.
This pit is a place.
It's a type of dealing.
This pit is a type of dealing where
God puts those that he's calling to, of
those that he are going to come to
the end of themselves and are going to
be able to look away from themselves after
they go through the dealing of God.
He puts men and women who are going
to have the humbleness of heart to realize
truth when God speaks it.
He puts them in a pit.
And when he does that, extraordinary men and
women come out of that pit.
Now, I want to show you that in
Joseph's life.
Because when Joseph is taken out of that
pit, I want to fast forward and go
through his life very quickly.
And we can see the fruit of what
happens when God puts a called, a chosen
man and woman in his pit, a place
of dealing.
In Genesis 39, chapter 39, verses 2 and
3, we pick up the story of Joseph,
where he was taken out of that pit.
And it tells us in verse 2 that
the Lord was with Joseph.
You see, when Joseph was taken out of
the pit, he was taken as a slave
into the household of Potiphar, which was an
officer of Pharaoh.
And he's made a slave in Potiphar, the
Sagistian household.
And verse 2 says, and the Lord was
with Joseph.
And he was a prosperous man.
And he was in the house of his
master, the Egyptian.
In verse 3, and his master saw that
the Lord was with him.
And that the Lord made all that he,
Joseph, did to prosper in his hand.
Scripture is very clear.
When this man came out of the pit,
that the Lord was with him.
And Joseph knew it.
The Lord was with him and he was
a prosperous man.
You see, when he left the pit, he
left with something.
And his master saw that the Lord was
with him.
This is not, you know, there are times
God does a secret thing in our heart
and it's like something that we share.
But then there comes a time where there
is an abiding anointing upon us that people
can see it.
There is a radiance, there is a deep
-seated peace.
There is a joy in spite of a
surface pain.
There is something that they recognize, I don't
have.
And this Egyptian, though he the master saw
something, that the Lord was with him and
there was a prosperity on him.
This man was set apart.
And all he did, he did well.
And there was a clear thinking on Joseph.
There was a decisiveness.
There was a clarity of thought.
There was a clarity in his heart.
And it was evident to all that could
see this man.
Now he's brought into Egypt and he's surrounded
by the language of Egypt and the customs
of Egypt.
Here now is a God-called-out man.
A man that God can put his spirit
upon in a very evident way.
And God sends him right into the heart,
the hotbed of temptation.
The hotbed of the world.
God sends a prepared man right into the
heart of Egypt.
And he has to learn a new language,
the Egyptian language.
He has to learn the new customs.
And in surrounding that new language and that
new customs, and you and I know that
Egypt is always a typology of the world,
of a fallen humanity, where sin and pride
and self are masters.
And he goes into this world, a man
with an evident anointing.
And as he learns the language of Egypt
and the customs of Egypt, he would hear
all around him how the knowledge of man
is constantly exalted over the knowledge of God.
There would be such a contempt for a
simple faith.
He's put into a place where the pride
of man, the competition, the boasting, the comparing,
the exalting of one with another would be
the order of the day.
He'd be in a place where covetousness and
greedy-hearted and the hard-hearted is how
the marketplace operated.
And this man comes into that place.
But most of all, he's put into a
temptation where he actually lived.
He's put in where his home becomes the
place of his strongest temptations.
God puts him in a place where he
dwells, is where he fights his biggest battle.
And the scripture tells us that a sensual
voice, the voice of the wife of Potiphar,
comes to him and speaks to him and
she says, lie with me.
She's the voice of Egypt.
And she's saying to this man, lie with
me.
Come, compromise.
Make an allegiance with me.
Let us be one.
Lie with me.
I could hear her say, you should because
you know you're a slave.
You're a nobody.
What future have you, a slave, in this
house?
Give in to the pleasure.
Why should you deny yourself?
You have no pleasures around you.
Why deny yourself?
Lie with me.
Give in to me.
And in Genesis 39 verse 9, scripture records
Joseph's answer.
And he tells her at the last verse,
how can I do this great wickedness and
sin against God?
How can I do this?
I am little in your sight, but I
am chosen in God's sight.
And in verse 10, it talks about an
unrelenting temptation where the temptation is not a
one-time thing, but where it is a
day in, day out, hounding kind of temptation.
This man is in the middle of a
foreign culture.
He knows he's in a foreign land, but
the temptations pull on him all the time.
Was it easy?
Was it something that he could lightly turn
away from?
When the voice of Egypt is calling to
him at every place and at his place
of weakness, an unrelenting temptation day in, day
out.
And yet it tells us in verse 10,
and it came to pass as she spake
to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened
not unto her, to lie by her or
to be with her.
And here we see this man not only
refusing her offer of sexual sin, but he
even refuses in any way to be with
her.
At every opportunity, he separates himself from her.
And I've got to thinking, this man who
can withstand such an assault, what had he
learned in that pit?
You know, the Scripture goes on to tell
us his story, how when she was spurned,
she falsely accused Joseph and he is thrown
in prison.
And here he is falsely lied against, maligned,
lied against.
And he finds himself in a prison.
Why not a massive pity party?
Why not at that point, God, everything within
me to withstand this temptation and God, I
trusted you and you were faithful to me.
But now a prison, is this the reward?
Why not a massive pity party?
Why not a harboring resentment and a growing
distrust and content with the ways of God?
Against the God whom he surrendered himself to
and now seems to find himself in a
deeper place.
And yet the Scripture tells us, when Joseph
finds himself in this place in Genesis 39
verse 20, it tells us that the pit
had opened Joseph's eyes.
Verse 20, it says, and Joseph's master took
him and put him into the prison, a
place where the king's prisoners were bound.
And he was there in prison.
And God opened his eyes and able to
show him, Joseph, I'm taking you from one
place of appointment where you were able to
withstand the assaults you never thought possible.
And now I put you into a prison,
but I'm going to open your eyes and
you're going to see it's the king's prison.
You're going to see this is another God
appointed place.
And the Scripture tells us in verse 21,
and the Lord was with Joseph and showed
him mercy and gave him favor in the
sight of the keeper of the prison.
And I'm beginning to see this abiding, sustained
presence and favor of God in his life
like I have rarely seen it.
This man is in a prison and yet
his eyes are open to see the mercy
of God in that place.
This man is in a prison and yet
his heart is wide open.
And because of it, he receives the favor
of God in prison.
And I'm beginning to see an anointing and
a favor on this man like I had
never seen it before.
I saw a man before the pit where
his very own brethren could lead him astray,
deposit evil reports in his heart, and he
takes on the press and imprint of them.
But I see a man that God puts
down into a pit and comes out and
is able to withstand Egypt, is able not
to doubt God in a prison, has his
eyes open to see that this is God's
prison and it's for a place and there's
comfort.
And even though there's no explanation, there's something
better.
There's God's mercy there.
There's God's, the Scripture says, His favor is
there.
I begin to say, God, why did Joseph
have your sustained presence and favor?
Who is the man God's hand is on
in prison?
What kind of man is a man that
God's hand is in the middle of persecution,
in the middle of that kind of trial?
And I got to think, what did this
man know?
And where did he learn it?
Then the Scripture tells us as we fast
forward his story that while in prison, he
interprets the dreams of fellow prisoners and one
is freed to Farris Court.
Joseph looks at him and says, when you
stand before Pharaoh, remember me.
And the Scripture tells us clearly that when
that man was freed from prison, he promptly
forgot Joseph.
Beloved, what turmoil do you and I go,
are plunged into when day after day of
uninterrupted chains, we realize we have or seemingly
have been forgotten.
When we go through those long stretches of
time, where seemingly God seems deaf to our
pleas, where there's no answer to prayer, where
sin seems to have the dominion over us.
In any kind of prison, but where a
place where we feel forgotten and forsaken, a
place where we seem abandoned and overlooked.
But beloved, Joseph was in that place where
the Scripture tells us, yes, the word of
the Lord tried him.
But I believe in that trying where Joseph
abandoned hope and every promise anyone ever made
to him.
And said, Lord, that word that you gave
me, I'm going to call upon the favor
you put here that when I close my
eyes and open my heart, Lord, you stir
me and you remind me that you are
here in this place with me.
And I see Joseph being able to comfort
himself and encourage himself knowing he's in the
king's prison.
And finally, Scripture tells us he is released
from prison because Pharaoh also dreams a dream.
And Joseph is now brought to the attention
of the court because he is a man
who understands dreams and visions.
He seemingly is a man who has an
understanding of the times that no one else
around him does.
And it summons him before Pharaoh.
And his great moment when he stands there,
knowing that Pharaoh needs him, knowing something that
is in him, this great nation now comes
to a halt till it hears the word
from him.
And the first words out of Joseph's mouth
as he stands before Pharaoh when he's asked,
can you interpret this dream?
Joseph says, it is not in me.
It is not in me.
But he says, God shall give Pharaoh an
answer of peace.
He's able to interpret the dreams and Pharaoh
is able to realize what is the character?
What is the caliber of this man that
stands before me?
So independent of the praise of men.
So not needing what we seemingly can offer
him.
What is this man that stands before and
can declare before everyone?
What you seek is not in me, but
I will tell you what you need.
What kind of man should be for Pharaoh
that day?
Well, you know, in Genesis 45, the crowning
moment of Joseph's life and ministry.
And what the pit, the dealing of God,
what it produced in his life came to
a full flower in Genesis 45.
Because when Joseph interprets a dream, he told
Pharaoh there's going to be seven years of
plenty and then seven years of famine.
He says, we must store up the grain.
And Joseph now is a type whose life
is not just going to bless a household
of faith, but he's a type of a
man who's going to bless Egypt.
He's got, he has the caliber, he has
the faith.
He has something of God so worked in
him.
He blesses every life that comes in contact
with him, believer or non-believer.
But in chapter 45, Joseph's crowning achievement of
what the pit did in Joseph's life, where
he became a leader and nourisher of the
household of faith.
He became by his powerful example.
When his brethren came to him in great
need, he revealed himself to him.
I am Joseph.
And then he says, do not be angry
and do not fear.
God has sent me before you.
And it is not you that sent me
hither.
It is not you that's brought me to
this place.
God has brought me to this place.
And in bringing me to this place, you,
I will nourish you.
You will not come to poverty.
And he kissed his brethren and he wept
upon them.
Beloved, what kind of man is this?
That those that betray him and ill-use
him have his own household.
Those that he had every right to expect
the most and gave him the least.
He is able to turn and nourish and
sustain and point them by his very presence
to a God who had not forgotten them
and who would forgive them, who would give
them a second chance.
But they bowed down to him just like
the dream said.
Because something in them recognized something in him
they did not have.
And all that was bestowed upon Joseph, the
wealth, the prestige, the blessing, the understanding, none
of it would corrupt him.
He would not be corrupted by pride.
That's why he could be humble and long
-suffering with his brethren.
That is evidence enough.
Now, beloved, what do we mean?
What do I mean when I say that
Joseph went down to the pit?
What am I talking about?
In practical terms for you and I, we've
seen the fruit of the pit.
We've fast-forwarded through this man's life and
we have seen evidence of the power of
God on this man like you, a man
like you, and a man type like me.
And yet we've seen the fruit, very different
fruit from his life after the pit than
before.
And I believe that that pit that God
will bring every called, every God-touched, every
called person, that God's saying that if I
want to use you, as small as you
think you are, as incapable as you think
you are, those that he touches and brings
down into that pit, God is going to
begin a process, a brokenness.
What went in operating in pride and feeling
superior with a natural strength, is going to
be broken.
And my definition of broken is a very
simple one.
I feel that a broken man or woman
is someone who truly appreciates our own neediness.
Who truly appreciates our own neediness.
Brokenness, beloved, starts with humility.
Joseph was humbled in the pit.
He heard brothers discussing him.
And I believe that finally the light began
to dawn what his actions caused and who
he was.
But beloved, he could start to blame them.
He could start to say, I'm in this
pit because of you.
But no, no, no.
God was coming.
And in the pit, in a natural place
of panic and despair.
In a place where we have to come
face to face of who we are.
Where our pride and where we thought we
were and what God was going to do
in our life in the call of God
and the words he spoke all come to
nothing.
Where we're put in a place that's empty
and without water.
And we find in a place in that
pit.
This, we begin to sense because God's presence
is in that pit.
If he, if it's God's pit, his presence
is there.
And we begin to sense that this journey
is going to be about fulfilling the word
God gave to us.
But something in this pit that's empty with
no water has to die.
Something in this pit has to die.
Jesus understood the ways of God, beloved.
He did not resent or resist the death
that the Father had planned for him.
When Jesus said, this is my body which
is broken for you.
And the devil thought that death was the
ultimate defeat.
And that's why he thought he engineered the
death of Jesus Christ.
But you and I know, New Testament believers,
that Christ's death brought life.
Never-ending life to those that would come
to him.
To those that would bow their knee to
him in repentance.
Acknowledging their sin.
Saying, God, I am a sinner.
Lord, I exchange my life for yours.
Jesus says, because of my death, I'm going
to give you life.
And in the spiritual world, death to sin
and our selfishness brings life.
You see, Christ died for sinners.
And when we come to him, the scripture
clearly says that the handwriting of sin is
blotted out.
And that that sin is no more.
But then the scripture tells us there is
an old man and indwelling sin still in
us.
And God says, because I died and you've
come to me acknowledging and I've washed away
your sin.
He says, now I'm going to dwell in
you.
And now there's going to be two dwelling
in you.
There is going to be my Holy Spirit
that is going to convict you of that
old man in there.
And it is going to be your privilege
that every time the indwelling Holy Spirit convicts
of a sin, the inward sin.
Now, I'm talking about the pride.
I'm talking about the sins that grip us
and twist and form our mind.
I'm talking about deep down where many times
we don't even know its presence.
God says, I'll be faithful to you.
I will send the Holy Spirit who will
convict you of that kind of sin.
And he said, in the pit, you're going
to come face to face with what motivates
you and I.
Beloved, it's for our life.
So often we walk with Christ and we
realize his life is now blocked off.
It's hindered.
And God wants an agreement.
He wants to say, sin is blocked off
in my life and you have gone down
to a trickle.
It die.
It bringeth forth much fruit.
But if it die, it doesn't truly die.
Just die to what's killing it.
It died to what keeps it hard and
in a shell.
It died to what keeps the abundance of
fruit and life from bearing in its life.
But if it will die to that, life
will spring forward.
The seed in the ground, that seed if
it could talk and say, this is a
dark place.
It's a lonely place.
It's a cold place.
Would sound like Joseph in the pit, wouldn't
it?
I was so proud and full of myself,
Joseph could say.
But then he begins, the word begins to
stir him where it says God resists the
proud.
That word resist is an enemy, is a
warfare term.
We resist the enemy.
That is battle array.
That's God standing up to make war against
the pride in our heart.
And beloved, we need to call pride the
enemy it is.
God says he resists the proud.
He separates.
He says the proud he knows from afar.
Beloved, does God ever seem like a million
miles away?
We may have a remedy here.
He drew close to Joseph in the pit
because it says he regards the lowly.
I believe many suffer from a low-grade
depression.
A low-grade depression in your life.
And we've known those seasons.
But many times I believe it is the
turning strong emotions inward and trying to bury
it.
It's when we take the resentment and anger
and jealousy and rebellion.
And we won't call it that.
We'll bury it.
But we can't bury disease like that.
We can't bury sickness like that.
We will break out into a low-grade
depression.
That will always just be under the surface.
That will always keep us from fully moving
into the light.
And knowing that breakthrough in Christ.
But let us learn from Christ.
Because he says in John 12, 23, The
hour has come that the Son of Man
should be glorified.
And beloved, that hour he was talking about.
That hour of glorification was the hour of
his crucifixion.
The hour of his glorification was the hour
of his crucifixion.
But he knew a glory was going to
come upon him in his God-ordained death.
He knew there would be a glory upon
him.
Because there was a God-ordained death in
his life.
And beloved, we need to apply a God
-ordained death to the root causes of our
depression.
When we harbor those inward sins.
Joseph's calling was mighty.
And so is ours.
Death to an outer hard shell.
So that our roots can go deep in
Christ.
You know, a tree can only go as
high as its roots go deep.
And Joseph's life is the picture of that
tree planted by the river.
That river of God.
Where in dying and agreeing to God when
the Holy Spirit begins to convict you and
I of those things that deep down we
struggle with.
That we don't want to release.
But if we will, if we will die,
if we will say, Jesus, you died for
me, and now you live in me.
The crucified one lives in you and I.
And he will get, if we belong to
Christ.
And he will give us the power to
die to the things that he's asking us
to.
Our willingness, beloved, to follow him in this.
Our willingness to follow our master so closely
to lay down our life also.
That his life may flow through us.
That's a life lived sacrificially.
That's how Jesus lived.
The pit creates a longing, beloved, to shed
our life of failure and darkness.
Self-will and selfish plans and pride.
It creates a longing to shed that.
That's a gift of God.
That's the result of the pit.
That's coming face to face with who we
are.
That's all of a sudden where the visions
that God gave us and how we long
to use us.
He said, this is the only way they'll
be fulfilled.
You can have your own plans, your own
energy, and how you think you'll get that
job done.
But he says, no, the truly great in
me are brought down to a pit and
called to die to the things I'm pointing
out to you.
That my life, my life may flow in
you.
That you may also say, now is the
hour of my glory.
I've learned to walk a crucified walk.
The glory, glorification comes with the crucifixion.
Now, beloved, there's a great deal of difference
between being crushed by circumstances and being broken.
Many times we feel we are broken because
we're in pain.
We feel like, oh, I know what you're
talking about.
But what we're talking, what can be referred
to there as being crushed.
Our sin can crush us.
Circumstances can crush us.
Things that can cause a heaviness and a
depression, where the will to go on, where
every step is an effort.
That is a crushing, but that is not
brokenness.
The brokenness.
Joseph could have said, the reason I'm in
this pit is my brothers threw me here
and I did nothing against them.
And I have no reason to be here.
And beloved, that's going to stay in a
crushed state of mind.
But Joseph, when God visited him in that
pit, he began to see this was a
God ordained pit to fulfill the call on
his life.
And it wasn't going to go the way
he thought it was going.
And he found a cross in that pit.
No men and women that say, God, you
break me.
You brought me to a place for this
reason.
That I can see the need of repentance
and forgiveness in my life.
Every time I need to.
That I will not back away from what
you show me that truly goes on in
my heart.
And when I need to apply the cross
to it, God, the grace will be there
and we get free.
We cannot obey the gospel.
In any measure.
And touch our world the way Joseph touched
his world, able to bless Egypt and the
household of faith.
Unless we will allow God to take us
to that pit, to that place of death,
to sell where a cross goes upon those
inward sins that God deals with us.
But if we will do that, a new
man emerges out of the pit, a new
woman, a new understanding.
We do emerge knowing how frail and foolish
we are.
And yet there is a abiding presence of
God and prosperity that goes with us.
Jay, Joseph went into Egypt, protected and strong,
though still a slave.
Joseph went to prison.
And though a prisoner knew the favor of
God in that place and the mercy of
God in that place, those that will come
out of the pit, allowing God to do
that work and merge new men and women.
If we resist the means that God provides
to bring us to brokenness.
Beloved, if you're called God, you don't and
I won't escape brokenness.
We're not going to escape it.
This is God's only path to a great
faith, to greatness in him.
We're not escaping it.
We will make it necessary for God to
intensify and prolong the process.
But when in our God given separating pit,
we open up our heart and we say
whatever you have to say.
Whatever you have to do.
God, you're teaching me.
You are teaching me.
I can say that I'm being trained to
surrender to Christ.
My will is broken and I'm trained to
surrender.
And so that was what Joseph's life in
a nutshell was about.
And that's why the power and the majesty
of God upon him.
You see, beloved, he was lifted out of
that pit to lead.
He was lifted out of that pit to
nourish and strengthen his brother in the household
of faith.
He was able in himself that God could
take him to great heights because he never
would take the glory.
He knew who he was.
God could be seen in him and God
be seen through him and God could work
through him in incredible ways.
And beloved, God wants to put the same
prosperity, the same anointing, the same favor, the
same mercy upon us.
He wants to lift us to the same
places, to the same level of faith.
Because Jesus Christ lives, because Jesus Christ died,
because Jesus Christ rose again.
You and I have the hope of a
Joseph faith, a Joseph walk.
But will we follow him to the pit?
Will we allow him to take us to
the same places?
It's a sobering thought.
But beloved, it is possible.
I hear God calling.
I hear him saying to a church that
has long been labeled all over the world
that the Western church is lazy, that the
Western church is soaked in materialism, that the
Western church lives for herself and nothing else.
But I tell you, in every generation, in
every place, God still has a people.
God still has a Joseph company.
Men and women whose heart can still be
stirred, who say, God, I see that the
death you're calling me to only brings me
life, only brings me freedom, only brings the
glory of you in my soul and a
sweetness in your presence.
And beloved, we lose the taste for the
world.
We can be sent into Egypt like Joseph,
and it touches us not.
That the sensual pleasures of this world, we
never find ourselves lying with it.
We get a pure mind and a pure
spirit, and we can walk these streets empowered
and safe.
We go into prison.
We can say, my God, my suffering will
not last one moment longer than a God
-ordained time.
God, I trust you.
You will never call me to bear more
than I am able.
And God, in my suffering, in what you're
calling me to go through, if it's a
prison time, I'm going to see your favor
and your mercy in it.
The prosperity of you is going to be
upon me.
People are going to say, where do you
get that kind of presence and treasure?
Joseph was made ruler of the prison house.
That prison was not on top of his
head.
He had the prison under his feet because
it was a God-ordained prison.
That's exactly the place, a description where our
circumstances don't control us, but we are controlled
of the circumstances because our God is with
us.
We recognize it as God's prison.
And finally, the palace, beloved, can we be
trusted with greatness?
Can we be trusted with prosperity?
Can we be trusted with a blessing?
Will God lose us?
But with a Joseph anointing, beloved, he joyfully
laid down his life.
He joyfully sacrificed for others.
He was not corrupted by blessing and praise
and greatness.
His inward response is, it is not in
me what you seek.
And that kept him.
That inward revelation, that inward powerful truth.
It is not in me.
Whom you seek is Jesus Christ.
And God is able to use you in
a way and use me in a way
we never thought able because worked in us
is the brokenness of our own frailty and
foolishness, but a deeply embedded knowledge.
It is not in me, but it is
in him.
And when that can be worked in us,
we sing a far different song than the
world out there.
It is a powerful song.
Able to draw a man to him.
Able to put something into their life that
they don't have.
We don't put it there, but they see
Christ in us.
Beloved, I have an altar call and I
wrote a list of things and God today
is asking some of us to wave the
white flag of surrender.
He's asking us to let him lead us.
Because there's a call in your life.
There's a destiny for you, but it's done
his way.
And as I speak, any of you that
feel led, prompted in the annex are here
and you say, God, I'm hearing you.
I want you to come forward.
But some of the things that the Lord
was speaking to me is that if his
Holy Spirit was truly present and convicting, there
would start to be a deep resistance.
That is because something vital is being touched
in you and I.
But resisting the pit of brokenness would be
a strong witness and assurance of the Holy
Ghost.
I will draw you forward.
I'm going to do something in your life.
I'm going to break through.
If you would stand the list that the
Holy Spirit gave me by no means a
conclusive list.
He was saying to me that there were
some here.
You've been resisting the pit because it meant
surrendering will, your will concerning marriage and career.
There would be a resistance because you know
a wall of pride has been erected that
keeps you from making restitution of speaking to
the people that you must speak to, of
phoning those you must phone.
There's some of you resisting God because God's
asking you to sell something and give it
to God's work.
There's some of you that you are resisting
because it would mean confessing your fault one
to another.
There are some because there's a deep resistance
in you to share the gospel where you
live and work.
There are some because God is prompting you
to cancel divorce proceedings.
God is telling you move away from this
other person.
There are some here there's a deep resistance
because you're afraid of what God would speak
to you.
There are some here that have never submitted
to Jesus Christ.
You think you have, but you're hearing for
the first time that when you submit to
him he's going to ask to be Lord
and Savior.
But beloved if we will run head on
to what pride and sin is trying to
keep us from, if we are going to
say Lord you can lead me down into
that pit for I want all you have
for me.
I want to live my life on the
plane of like a Joseph company where you
lead I will follow knowing an abiding strength
because I went to the pit first.
I faced what you were trying to say
to me.
And Lord you showed me how to apply
a cross to every indwelling sin that raises
its head to trouble me that I don't
want to call sin.
But beloved today God is saying come, come.
He's going to put his hand on people
and call them Joseph.
Beloved if the Holy Spirit is speaking to
your heart and continues to speak to you
you're welcome to stay here.
You're welcome to stay at the altar, the
sanctuary and spend some time in prayer before
the Lord.
We meet again at six o'clock this
evening for a time of worship and the
word of God again for our Sunday evening
service.
Between now and then we're just going to
play some music softly for five minutes or
so.
If you have to go you may greet
your neighbors as we leave today.
But for those who want to stay and
pray we invite you to do that with
us.
Father we just thank you so much for
this word.
Thank you Holy Spirit for how you are
so gently probing very deeply into our hearts
and challenging us.
The very motives of why we seek you
and why we pray and where do we
really want to go with you.
And Jesus all we can say is that
God we do want you.
We want your kingdom.
We want your power and your presence.
And wherever you have to take us you
will take us that that becomes a reality
in all of our lives.
My God we thank you for this word
today.
Thank you Lord for the clarity, the anointing,
the touch of heaven.
Father we give you the praise and all
the glory in Jesus mighty name.
Amen.
God bless you.
We'll see you either next week or we'll
see you at six o'clock.
This is the conclusion of the message.