You are invited to trust that God is working even when life feels like a pit. Choose to forgive those who have hurt you and let His love transform your story into something incredible. Today is the day to pass the test of forgiveness and experience His full blessing.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Pastor Shad or pastor Cedric or Shad? Pastor Shad, would you would you come up? I want to introduce the congregation to you guys. This is 1 of those crazy church planters. He's god's put on him and his wife Tanya's Tanya's heart.
Tanya to plant a church in Tampa and a little less than a year ago, he approached me and and started developing a friendship and and man, I got to hear a story. I got to hear his why, why they're planting a church. The the name of the church is Imagine Church. If you're from Imagine, can you can you stand up? We wanna we just wanna celebrate you guys.
Could you guys give them a big crazy church planting people. I love it. You know what? In America, 1 of the most effective ways to reach the lost is to start a new church. 80% of a brand new church, 80% of the people that come on a Sunday morning, 80% are unchurched people or people who don't know Jesus or people who haven't been in church in years and there's new churches, new amazing life giving churches going up all over the place and this city, it's Tampa Bay area needs more churches and I'm sure he'll give you a couple of statistics there.
Look, since we have started our church in the last 10 months, we've had over "105 people" give their life to Jesus. Whoo. Marriage is transformed, lives changed. Look, I had a guy who was on his "deathbed a week" and a half ago who we went and prayed for and god just touched him. He approached me today and said, look, I had a I had a a wake up call and it's time for me to live for Jesus.
I'm ready to be baptized. He was on his deathbed a week and a half ago. He's getting baptized after service today. Come on. The local church is the hope of the world and so, this right here, Chad, what you're doing, we believe in it and we are a **radically generous church** and and we wanna sow into just as a friend, man, I I love learning from you and I love pouring into your life but then also, I believe that this church is a church that's going to plant many many churches throughout Florida, throughout the Tampa Bay area, and also be a part of planting churches throughout the world and so because of that, because we believe that you're good ground, today, the offering, everything that is given today from whether it's given online, whether it's given through text, or given in the giving boxes.
Every single cent today, we're going to write a big, add it all up, write a big check, and we're going to sow it into your church plant because we believe in the local church. So, if you guys will will listen, as you listen, I believe god's got an amazing word to encourage you. He's gonna preach today and I I I know it's gonna impact you and change your life forever. Without further ado, Chad, take it my friend.
*Amen*. Give me a hug. Thank you. Man, it's exciting to be a real church. I was at a real church about what, 10 months ago for launch day.
I see some familiar faces in here. I remember launch day getting out there sweating and unpacking that box truck. Who was with me on that day? Who was here at launch day? Come on somebody.
We were sweating. I remember. I remember. Man, we stayed for a couple weeks and I tell you what, watching the birth of a church is an amazing thing. Seeing people come through the doors for the first time because a group of crazy radical individuals decided it'd be a great idea to start a church in a high school.
Like, what on earth are we thinking, people? And how many a 105? What was that? 105 people have said yes to Jesus because there's a church in a local high school? Come on.
When they built Clearwater High School, they didn't know that what they were building was a church that was coming in the year 2018 and god had a plan for this soil and I believe the plan was real church. Amen? And you're a part of that legacy. You're a part of that destiny. Yeah.
Come on somebody. Man, we're excited. I love pastor David and his wife, Courtney. They are fantastic and incredible people. Along along at the time that you'll spend in ministry, you'll meet incredible communicators, you'll meet really charismatic people, special people that can just wow an audience, and then you'll meet people that are all those things plus they have character and integrity.
And you guys have 1 of the rare combinations of charisma, preaching ability, talent with *integrity and character* attached to that individual and I believe that is exemplified in the in the life and the marriage of David and Courtney. David is an incredible man of god and an incredible leader and you know, when he asked me to come and share and we're in our characters series. Man, I wish I could've caught the 5 for 5. Apparently, a few weeks ago, we did a 5 for 5 or 5 people preach for 5 minutes and I heard the real preacher of the house, Courtney, was up here and, Hershey threw it down. So I wish I was here for that, but we didn't get a podcast for that week, so I didn't get to listen.
So, yeah, give it up for your pastor's wife. She's incredible. Let that be a challenge to my wife to get up on this mic and start preaching someday. Come on, baby. I believe in you.
Sitting here in the middle in this blue shirt right there, stand up, baby. Wave at everybody. That's my better half. That's my wife, Tanya. I outpun in my coverage by a mile.
Okay? You know, I look like Sebastian Janakkowski, okay? But I punt him. I kicked far to get that girl right there, okay? I have 2 beautiful little girls that are over and and and kids church right now, Ireland who's 7 and Evie who is 3 and our family signed up for this wild journey to be church planners and it's it's an incredible honor to have friends like David and Courtney along the way helping us, supporting us, and allowing us to share.
What I wanna do is I wanna share, the a few little snapshots from the life of a character in the Bible that I believe when 1 exemplifies your your senior pastor, a man of integrity, and a man of character and I wanna share how his life can inspire ours and how we can radically change how we handle moments in our lives. So, we're going to be looking today at the life of Joseph, the life of Joseph and to set it up, I just want to read a few verses to you to set the story up and then we'll jump in. So, we're going do an examination of the life of Joseph. Context, Joseph is 1 of 12 sons. So, he has 11 other *brothers* and his dad loves Joseph more than any of the other brothers.
It's super obvious in scripture mostly because he is the son of Jacob has 2 wives and Joseph is the firstborn of his wife, Rachel, the woman that he loves and and Joseph is the fruit of that. So, he loves Joseph more than any of his other sons and it's super obvious. We'll find out about it right now but that's the context. Here's what it says in Genesis chapter 3007 12 through 28. Says, now his brothers went to the pasture where their flocks were near Shekem and Israel said to Joseph, are not your brothers Jacob also sent Joseph as a spy on his brothers all the time to go make sure they weren't goofing around.
So, he was that brother that was the snitch. Not a good thing when you're the little brother to be the snitch on your big brothers, okay? So, so Jacob sends Joseph into the field to to see what his brothers are up to and so we sent them, he sent he sent them. He said, now, see if it is well with your brothers and the flock and bring me word. So, he sent them from the Valley Of Hebron and he came to Shechem and a man found him wandering in the fields And the man asked him, what are you seeking?
I'm looking for my brothers, Joseph said. Tell me please where they are pasturing the flock. And the man said, they've gone away. For I heard them say, let's go to Dothan. So, Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan and here's where it gets interesting.
They saw him from afar. So, they see Joseph walking in the distance and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him and said to 1 another, here comes the dreamer. Come now, let us kill him, throw him into 1 of these pits, and we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him and we will see what will become of his dreams. But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands saying, let us not take his life. And Reuben said to them, shed no blood.
Throw him into this pit into the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him, that with that he might rescue him out of the hand to restore him to his father. So, when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his colorful robe, the robe of many colors that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty and there was no water in it and then they sat down to eat because that's what you do after you throw your brother in a pit to die. You sit down and you have lunch. So, strange people.
They sat down to eat and looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead and their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh on their way to take it down to Egypt. Then, Judah said to his brothers, what profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites that that and let not our hand be upon him for he is our brother, our own flesh, and the brothers listened to him. The Midianite traders passed by and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver and they took Joseph to Egypt. What?
Wow. This is the first of 4 moments that I want to share out of the life of Joseph and I want us to take a moment this morning to look at. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for this moment. Lord, I pray that the life of Joseph would inspire us.
Lord, I pray that we would leave encouraged. I pray that we would leave knowing no matter what moments of disappointment, betrayal, heartache, desperation, no matter what our darkest hours have brought us to, there is hope when there is Jesus. We are not anchored in optimism. We are anchored in hope and hope has a name and his name is Jesus and if Jesus is with us, it does not matter what men do to us. We will always rise to the top.
We love you. Lord, I ask you to speak through me and to your people humbly. In Jesus name, we pray. *Amen*. Amen.
Have have you ever in your life been too good for your own good at anything? Anybody ever been too good for your own good? You know, maybe showboat a little bit. Well, anybody like Monopoly? Hey, Monopoly fans in the room.
Well, here's this thing about Monopoly and I humbly say to you that I've never lost at the game of Monopoly. But that's the thing. I've just never lost. The lord has blessed my life and I am great with monopoly dollars. I'm terrible with American dollars.
Okay? I can't save money to save my life. I spend them on shoes all the time. It's a bad thing. But when it comes to monopoly, I know how to raise some money and save some money.
I am monopoly champ. Does anybody else feel like you're you're you're the board game guy in your family like you you okay. Somebody's pointing at somebody right now. Challenge accepted. Monopoly after church.
I'm the monopoly guy. Okay? I'm such the monopoly guy that my wife's family has almost completely banned me from being able to play monopoly with the family when they play monopoly. See, every year, the family goes down to Fort Myers and they enjoy a little beach cabin and it never fails that somebody's like, let's play Monopoly tonight. And I get excited because I'm usually the guy that says, let's play Monopoly tonight.
And, we break out Monopoly. And here's what's happened over the years. I have beaten my wife's family so far into the ground in the game of monopoly that they've actually created "house rules" against me. You know, house rules, the rules you make up that aren't in the spreadsheet or the rules that you get in the pamphlet like, we've created house rules because here's the thing, I'm a master negotiator, okay? I can get anybody to make any trade I wanna trade because I sell the optic the right way.
Hey, brother. Listen to me. Okay. Imma give you 7 skips on my property if you give me all your yellows plus $3. Yes, I'll do it and I just get people to do it.
It's the favor of god all my life, okay? It's just favor and my father-in-law made a rule 1 day sitting at the kitchen table. He was like, okay, that's it. That's it. That's it.
Nobody is allowed to negotiate deals verbally any longer. No table talk. If you wanna make a trade, get a piece of paper, write it down, slide it to the person so there's no interference because you know the other thing I'm really good at is when somebody's trying to make a trade and they're like, hey, man. I'll trade you my blue for your 2 yellows and you'll have boardwalk and I'll have all 3 yellows. I go, uh-oh.
Don't do it. You're you're a sucker. So I'm good at destroying other people's deals too. And my father-in-law had it so that we wrote down house rules and now we now it's texting. Now we just text everybody, the deals that we wanna make.
So you have to have your phone on the table and it it still hurts because every time I do it, like they see me get my phone out or they see me write on the paper and everybody eyeballs the person that phone vibrates or the person I slide it to, they're like, mm-mm. And then 10 minutes before we play, there's a "team huddle". There's a team huddle. They have team huddles from Monopoly when we play Monopoly. I wish I was lying.
I'm telling the complete and utter truth, so help me God today. There's a team huddle where everybody decides it doesn't matter who wins as long as it's not Chad. This is this is what they decide. It doesn't matter who wins as long as it's not shed. We cannot let him win again because you see we created this little trophy out of household items and the winner of monopoly always gets to take it home until monopoly is played again.
I've never lost the trophy. Never. Never lost the trophy. In our story, that's a bit of an extreme version, but in our story, in our story, I think Joseph has a target on his back. Joseph is a dreamer.
Okay? So Joseph has these dreams as a young man, and his dreams look like this. He sees a vision of his brothers, and his brothers are "bowing down" to him. Now if you've already got a rift with your brothers, it's probably not a good idea to go, hey, big bros. Had a dream.
I'm the master, and you're all my servants. Deal with it. And they hated him for his dreams. He always told them the dreams that he had, and they put this target on his back. Oh, little brother.
Son of Rachel, daddy's favorite. We'll see who is gonna bow down to who 1 day. And then and then we find out later in scripture that Joseph is good looking, okay? So, I feel like I have a lot in common with Joseph. He's smart.
He has great dreams. He's good at monopoly and he's good looking, okay? The Bible says that he's good to look at, okay? So, he's a good looking little brother and he has these dreams and he's daddy's favorite. Have you ever grown up in a house where it's obvious who 1 of the parents favor over the other 1?
Anybody ever had this experience? Come on. Don't don't lie. Okay. Raise your hand if you were the favorite.
You think you were the favorite in your house growing up. Okay. Okay. Now, raise your hand if you feel like you weren't the favorite in the house, okay? More of those hands.
See? See, that's why I'm preaching this message today, okay? You need deliverance. Okay, that's pain. That's real.
You spit in my sister's boat. My sister hates me. To this day, because I was daddy's favorite. Okay. No, she loves me.
But but he was daddy's favorite. To the point of this, you know, it goes too far. When you go back to school shopping for your 12 sons, and you take your son Joseph over to "Dolce and Gabbana". You're like, hey, son. Pick out your coat and he picks out his coat and Judah, Reuben are like, oh man, what coat are we gonna get from Dolce and Gabbana?
I was thinking Burberry myself. You know, I wanna go low key. I'm gonna go Burberry and and he goes, no, sons. The rest of you stay outside in the car. Taking Joseph into Dolce and Gabbana.
We're going to "Dollar Tree" later to get your clothes. Like, this is what it was. Joseph had this coat of beautiful colors which meant it was incredibly expensive and it was rare and Joseph was walking around with a colorful coat while the rest of his brothers were just covered in sheep skins and and and animal and animal skins and and looked plain. Joseph got the best coat. Joseph had a target on his back and and his brothers have made a decision.
We gotta teach this guy a lesson. Have you ever started making a plot to do something and then it gets a little bit too far? Have you ever taken something too far? Like, I imagine the Bible doesn't tell us. I imagine this conversation started with like, let's just abandon him in the woods for a night and then come back in the morning and be like, got you, Joseph but that's not what they do.
The Bible says they see him coming and they're like, let's teach him a lesson. What do you think we should do? Let's kill him. Like, what? Kill him?
You're going to kill your brother? Because he has dreams and a nice coat? Yeah, let's kill him and then Reuben's like, woah, woah, woah, woah, guys. Too far. Too, too, too far.
Instead of killing him, let's just throw him in a pit to starve and die. What? This is the lesser. Just throw him in a pit. Let him starve out.
He'll die. Maybe an animal will come and eat him, and then his blood's not on our hands. His blood's not on it. We didn't do it. It was murder by throwing someone into a pit and letting them starve and die.
And then they're like, wait, okay. Well, throw him in the pit but this is dumb. Okay. This is a dumb way to kill our brother because we should at least make some money off of it. Wait, what?
These brothers, I don't know what their issue was but they're like, we need to make some cash off of this. So, they're like, hey, here comes some slave traders. How about we sell our brother into Egyptian slavery? What? Talk about sibling rivalry gone too far.
What are we talking about here? So, the Midianites come and they sell their brother into slavery and Joseph's life changes forever. He's gone from the head of the house, the the father's favorite, most likely heir to the first blessing. He's going to inherit all that his father had. His father is the son of Isaac.
He's the grandson of Abraham. Big deal, right? Like, he's a great, he has great lineage in him and now he's been sold into Egyptian slavery. I believe this, in our lives, we all have defining moments. Right?
Maybe you could think of the different defining moments that you've had in your life. Maybe they were hard moments. Maybe they were good moments, but they were decision making moments where you had to decide left or right, forward or backwards. Where do I go with what's been put in front of me? We have defining moments in our lives.
This is the first 1 in Joseph's. And with defining moments, I want you to hear me. It's so important that we define our moments and do not allow our moments to define us. We have to define our moments and not allow our moments to define us. Because if we allow our moments to define us, then we are nothing more than a casualty of what's been done to us.
But when we choose to define our moments, we get to decide what we do with what's been done to me. And Joseph has been thrown in a pit and sold into slavery and he's gotta make a decision in the pit. What am I going to do with what's been with what's been done to me? What am I gonna do with the fact that my brothers just throw me into this pit? And Joseph had a secret of how to deal with these things.
So, we're gonna get to that later but Joseph had 4 moments where he had 4 game changing moments in his life. This is the first of the 4. Joseph had a secret. If we comply, we'll radically change the way we handle disappointment. So this is disappointment number 1.
Betrayal number 1. Moment number 1, the betrayal of relationship. His *brothers* have utterly rejected him. I wonder if there's anybody in this room that's ever been betrayed by someone close to you. I wonder if there's anybody in this room that's had the people in their inner circle end up being the Judas in the circle and betray you, end up being the brothers that you thought had your back but they did it and they reject you.
If you've ever faced rejection, you know this is a real thing. I grew up in a in a in a split home where I had a biological father who wasn't there for me. So, I faced rejection on a daily basis and because I faced rejection do not not going
I'm able
on a very to large scale. Has anybody ever faced the rejection of somebody that should've loved you and embraced you but they hurt you. This betrayal was ultimately an act of rejection and Joseph shared his dreams. I believe wholeheartedly that Joseph didn't want to to lord over his brothers. I believe that he wanted to love his brothers.
I believe he had best intentions for his brothers but hear me on this, not every person in your circle is going to support your dreams. Not every person is gonna support the decision that you've made to follow Jesus. Not every person is gonna support the decision that you decided to not go to those places anymore. Not every person's gonna decide to to to support the fact that you're gonna do, moral business deals from here forward and you're not gonna take money and you're not gonna do things the wrong way. You're gonna do things the right way and you're gonna lead your house the right way.
Not everybody's gonna support your dreams. People are going to reject what you stand for. People are gonna turn their backs on you and reject you. Not every person is going to support your dreams and the enemy is slick and he's sly and he will send the people closest to you to be the ones who reject you. He will send the least likely people in your mind never thought it would be them.
Can't believe they said those things about me behind my back. Can't believe she said that. Could be a could be a spouse, could be could be your parents, could be your coworkers. I don't know who it is. But when the people closest to us reject us, it hurts us on a deep level.
Why? Why did Joseph face rejection? Why do you and I face rejection? It's a tool of the enemy. Rejection is a tool of the enemy.
The enemy knows that if he can reject you, he can change the way you live the rest of your life. I learned some things about rejection. Did you know that rejection can actually cause physical pain? Rejection can cause physical pain. When someone walks out the door, thought the door on you, when someone hurts you, when somebody mistreats you, when somebody pushes you away, pushes you away, can actually cause physical pain.
Has anybody ever been there before? Well, rejection has so hurt you that it brings pain into your life. Do you know this that rejection, rejection, our brains can reproduce the pain of rejection more than it can any physical pain we've ever occurred in our life. So, that means your brain is wired the moment that you remember what's been done to you to bring all that pain back to the surface and you feel it like it's the first time it happened all over again. Has anybody ever thought about the pain?
You go back, you see a face, you see that person, you recall, you can't, and you see them, and you remember the situation, and it's like it's happening all over again to you. Our brains are wired to recall the the pain of rejection in such a way that we'll feel it in the past as though it's the present. And ultimately this, I believe the enemy knows this. Rejection will send you and I on a mission to destroy our own self esteem. Rejection will send you and I on a mission to destroy our own self esteem.
When we're rejected, we get thoughts like, ah, it's my fault. I'm just not good enough. I coulda did more. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I shoulda loved him more.
Maybe what could I have done differently? And we begin to speak negative things over ourselves out of the rejection that we've encountered. Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's somebody that was supposed to be there and they're not and you blame yourself for the rejection that you faced. It affects our personal relationships and it affects our relationship with god** and rejection will do this.
Rejection will make you a victim for the rest of your life. You will recall the rejection that you faced over and over again and that pain will be real until it is dealt with, okay? Conclusion though, how do we, how do we handle rejection? I'm gonna sound real redundant today every time I give you an answer. I got a 2 part answer.
Number 1, "let it go". You gotta take the rear view mirror off of your life. When people hurt you, when people reject you, you gotta remove the rear view mirror and you have to keep going forward in what god has for you. Number 2, as you're moving forward, you have to remember in rejection to say over your life what god says about your life. The only way you can defeat rejection is to embrace your acceptance, okay?
*Jesus* does not reject you because your dad did. *Jesus does not reject you* because that boyfriend did. Jesus does not reject you because that boss did. Jesus does not reject you because that church did. Okay?
He accepts you. Holy and completely. *John-15* says, I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends. For everything I learned from the father, I've made known to you.
What's Jesus saying? I'm here and I accept you and you're my friend and you're in my inner circle and every secret that I have, I'm gonna give to you. I don't reject you no matter who does. Psalms says that there's a friend who *sticks closer* than a brother. Jesus is that friend, okay?
You're not rejected. You have to remind yourself as you move forward, let it go, and remind yourself what god says about you. Joseph could have never entered and walked into the next season that he had bearing the weight of that rejection which brings us to the next season. Joseph is he's sold into slavery, right? I can't even imagine the mixed bag of emotions going through Joseph's head as he's sold into slavery, right?
Like, can you even imagine what you're dealing with? You go from being a part of your father's house. His father was a man. He's the he's the the heir of of lots of property and and and then all of a sudden, his brothers with no real explanation throw him in a pit and sell him into slavery. Like, I know what I make life, the monopoly thing but really think.
Like, this is a dark moment in his life and he's in the pit and he's pulled out and he's sold into slavery and he's sold into the house of a man named Potiphar. He sold in the house of a man named Potiphar and even as he's a servant, as he's a slave in the house of Potiphar, he is still blessed. *God* blesses him and within no time, Joseph moves all the way up the ladder to where he's the head of everything that Potiphar does. Potiphar literally lets Joseph run his entire household. The second most powerful person in Potiphar's house is Joseph.
Joseph runs everything and hear me, no matter what pit the enemy throws you into, god says your next season will be great and it will be blessed and the pit will not define where you go next. No matter what rejection you have faced, the next season for your life is blessing because god is not going to let you stay there. He's gonna take you out of that pit and he's gonna bring you right back to where he wants you. You're gonna walk in blessing. No matter what pit, the season will not last and it will be better than the last.
But you learn in your faith. And you'll learn if you haven't learned it yet. You're always either in a storm, coming out of a storm, or about to enter a storm. Just the way it works. Coming out of the storm going in or you're in 1 and Joseph has came out of 1 and he's about to go into 1.
Just when Joseph starts to get good, he's he's he's living the good life. He's got command. He's got people who respect him. He's good looking. He's got all these things going for him.
Another betrayal comes. And in Genesis 39 6 through 18, it says this that so so Potiphar left all that he had in Joseph's charge and because of him, he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. That's all Potiphar was worried about. Come on somebody. You don't need to worry about nothing.
You just want me. I, what's for dinner? You know what I mean? What's for dinner? That's all I wanna know.
Anyways, now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. You could change Joseph's names to Shadrach. Shadrach was hand. No. Joseph was handsome in form and appearance and after a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "lie with me".
It's a crazy housewife right there y'all but he refused Come on somebody. Oh my gosh. So many things I could say. I'm going to leave that alone. This is not my church.
Okay. But he refused and said to his master's wife, I love Joseph's like his response to this woman doing this. Behold, Because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has not put everything he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept anything back from me except for you. Because you are his wife, then how can I do this great wickedness and **sin against god**?
And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her to lie beside her or to or to be with her. Notice Joseph doesn't say like, hey, I don't like you. I don't wanna be with you. Joseph is like saying, I cannot. "I will not".
My **integrity and my character** refuses to allow me to be a person who does something like that. Because you'll learn, I'll teach here in a second. When the enemy can't get you to do it, he'll just lie about you. That's what he did to Joseph. If he can't get you to do it, he'll just lie about you to destroy your character.
But 1 day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house were in the house, uh-oh, accountability always "leave a door open", okay? Like, always leave a door open. Jeez, it's in the Bible. She caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. This woman's crazy but he left his garment.
What is her problem? I don't even know. He left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house And as soon as she saw him that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, see, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.
That's her side of the story here. Then, she laid up his garment by her until his master came home and she told him the same story saying, the Hebrew servant who you brought home to us came in to laugh at me but as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled the house. This woman is trying to get Joseph to be somebody that he's not. And she's coming at him with what I believe is probably a generational sin in his life because his dad has 4 women that he's created children with, right? He has 2 wives and they're 2 handmaidens.
It's a whole another story for a whole another day about the Old Testament but there's probably an issue here and Joseph is fleeing temptation. Hear me, when the enemy cannot get you to do the thing he wants you to do, he will lie about you to destroy your character. But why does god allow us to go through moments? Like Joseph's a good guy. He passed the character test.
Why didn't she just let him be? What is the issue, god? Hear me. Because god is always more concerned with what's happening in you than what's happening to you. There is somewhere in every season god is trying to get you to and he knows in this season, in order to get you where I want you, I've gotta do some things inside of you and resistance makes the body stronger.
Struggle makes us stronger. It shows us who we really are. How do we respond to these things? So, moment number 2 is the betrayal of his character. Potiphar's wife can't get what she wants so she lies about him and attacks his character.
You gotta understand when the enemy can't get you, he'll lie about you. All he does is lie. John-8:44 says this, he was a murderer from the beginning. Talking about the enemy. And does not stand in the truth.
Because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his own character for he is a liar, the "father of lies". People will lie about you. The *enemy* will lie about you. Now, I'm not talking about the stuff I grew up doing, okay?
I mean, I love going to my mama's house because mama always had the freezer loaded with ice cream sandwiches. Anybody have a mama like that that keeps the fridge in the freezer loaded, orange juice for me because she knows I can kill kill a gallon of orange juice in like 5 minutes and like 3 boxes of ice cream sandwiches and Klondike bars. Oh my gosh, Klondike bars. So good. Something special about that creamy vanilla.
I'm not talking about, you know, when your grandpa finally comes down to clean the couch and you're sitting in his La Z Boy and he pulls up the couch cushions and there's 35 ice cream wrappers tucked into the couches and he's like, who did this? You know, like, not me. I didn't do this. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not talking about those sorts of things where you lie on somebody.
I would, I would always say, it's Johnny. Johnny did it. Johnny did the ice cream wrappers there. I'm not talking about little lies like blaming somebody for for breaking the vase at the house or lying about whether you did your homework. I'm talking about the lies of the enemy that come to damage who you really are.
I'm talking about the lies that come after your character. The lies that come after who you really are. The the thoughts that you have at night when nobody is in your headspace but you. The things you say about yourself, the lies you rehearse about who you are. The lies that people bring against you, who don't cheer for you.
Listen, if you got people in your life that can't cheer for your successes, you need to get them out. I need people who are telling me I can go where I'm going and I will plant a church and god will bless my city and we will see the harvest and we will impact people's lives and dead people will rise and people will be healed. I don't need people telling me that can't be done because it's never been done. I don't need anybody telling me those things. You don't need people telling you that you come from people that have never graduated college, so you'll never graduate college.
You don't need people telling you, well, your family's always been poor, so you'll be poor. Well, your dad's an addict so you're an addict. He was an abuser so you're an abuser. These are the lies of the *enemy* and they come to damage your character because psychologists say this, so you think you are. This is what science tells us.
The thoughts that you have about yourself on a daily basis determine the destiny that you have. These are scientists. Sounds like the Bible. What you believe about who you are will end up being who you actually are. So, if the enemy can get you to believe a lesser truth because he can't get you.
There's nothing the enemy can do to actually make you bad or hurt you. All he could do is suggest. All he can do is come in with sly tactics. He knows he can't get you. So, number 1 tactic is to lie about you.
He can't say the truth. So, he lies about you because he knows this, if I can just get you to believe a lesser truth about you, I've got you. You know what? You are just like your dad. You know what?
You're a quitter. You've always been a quitter. You're not enough. Your wife's right. You give up at everything you do.
You'll never be a good mom. You're barren because you'll never be a good mess, not the truth. The enemy will lie to you to take your pain and amplify it till you believe that you are the lie he's been selling you. And if he can do that, then he's got you. He wants you to believe a lie.
He wanted because imagine now, Joseph is this man of integrity and now he's thrown in prison for sleeping with a woman he never slept with. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter whether it's true or not true, right? He's been accused and now he has to walk out that that's who he is for the rest of his life and he's thrown in prison. How do we counter the lies of the enemy?
I would say this to you as well. People get to choose what they say about you but you get to choose how you respond. People are gonna say things about you. People are gonna say things about this church, pastor David. Through that church, that guy prays for people to be healed.
It's that crazy church. People are gonna say things. People are gonna throw lies and accusations that this is all crazy and this is silly but god's doing something and if you will hold to your character and hold to your vision and hold to who god says you are and let the lies go. The greatest battle you'll ever face is the space between your ears because the enemy speaks and then he lets it sit right here. I do it.
*God*. In constantly battling the lies of the enemy versus the truth of God. You've just gotta make a decision to let the lies go and trust that God is God. And if he loves you and if he's for you and if he says no weapon formed against you will prosper, the tail, the first and not the last, you're blessed going in and you're blessed going out, and that's just who I am. And I'm not my dad.
I'm not them. I'm not whatever it is. Whatever the lie is that's been spoken over your life that makes you believe this lesser truth about who you are. *1 Corinthians-5:17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ*, they are a new creation. The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.
You are not who you were before Jesus. Don't let anybody remind you who you were before Jesus. That's between you and Jesus. And Jesus says it's gone as far as the East is from the West. He doesn't remember who you were.
He only knows who you are today. You don't get to choose what people say but you get to choose how you respond. How will you respond to the lies of people, the lies of the enemy? You gotta let it go. You gotta speak the truth of god.
Moment number 3, so Joseph is then thrown in a prison for the result of the lies told against him. This isn't like fancy prison like we have today where they feed you and give you showers and you have these things. This is an Egyptian prison. Cells were very low. You could barely walk.
You walked around in your own feces and urine. It was really, really bad. It was really, really bad. And for a few years, Joseph sits in prison. But God, even in prison, listen to me.
As a follower of Jesus, and if you don't know Jesus, please listen to me. Bad things before Jesus are just bad things. But bad things with Jesus are promotion opportunities. Even in prison, you can rise to the top. Even at the bottom of the chain of your workplace, you can rise to the top.
Even in the poorest house, in the poorest neighborhood, God will rise you to the top. In prison, the prison guard notices Joseph and says, I like that guy and puts Joseph in charge of the whole prison. Says he doesn't even check on him to make sure he's in his cell. Joseph rises to the top in his prison. I don't know what your prison is, but you can rise to the top in whatever you're going through right now.
Even in this prison, he rises to the top and then Joseph hears a conversation between 2 cellmates and they had, they both had dreams and they're both confused about what the dreams mean and they're trying to get an interpretation and Joseph overhears the 2 cellmates and he has compassion on them. It says that Joseph was troubled that they didn't know what the dreams meant which tells me this, Joseph refused to allow the disappointments of his past to ruin his future relationships. Let me help you. You can't go into the next season thinking people are the same as they were in the last season. You've gotta open up your heart and be willing to say, I'll be vulnerable at real church.
Even though I've been hurt, I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna trust that pastor David John Phillips has the best in mind for me. So, I'm gonna get plugged in and I'm gonna serve and I'm gonna share my story because I refuse to allow my past experiences to damage my future relationships. And so Joseph hears the story and he interprets. He's like, I got some good news. I got some bad news.
He interprets I'll give you the bad news first. He interprets the the baker story and the baker has a dream and his head's getting plucked by some birds at the end of he's like, hey, man. Hate to break it to you. 3 days, you're gonna get out of here and pharaoh's gonna impale you and birds are gonna eat your face. Okay.
Wow.
Second guy, the cup bearer, he's like, hey man, same thing. 3 days, you're gonna get out of here but Pharaoh's gonna restore you to your place. He's gonna restore you to your position and then Joseph makes 1 request and this is what's amazing about Joseph. This is the first time we see him make a request. This is the first time he does something and he says, hey, can you do something back for me for what I'm doing for you?
*Genesis* 40 14 through 15, it says, only remember me when it is well with you and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh and so get me out of this house for I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews and here also I have done nothing that should have put me into this pit. It's Joseph's first defense. It's the first moment we see him defending himself. He's let god defend him. And of course, the cup bearer forgets him.
*Genesis* 40 20 to 23 through 22 23 says, on the third day when it was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all the servants and lifted the the head of the chief cup bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cup bearer to his position just as Joseph had said and placed the cup in the pharaoh's hand but he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet, the chief cup bearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him. This is the betrayal of abandonment. Have you ever felt forgotten?
Have you ever felt like, where's god? Have you ever felt like, where's my family? Have you ever felt alone? Have you ever felt like I try to be a good person and I try to do good things? When is the blessing coming?
When's my story gonna turn around? If you've ever felt alone, you know what Joseph feels like as he's sitting in a prison because he did a good deed and the dude just simply forgot him. Joseph rots away in prison for more time and feelings of abandonment are such a tool of the *enemy* Why? Because abandonment skews every future relationship as you now always wait for it to happen again. When you've been abandoned and you've walked through being forgotten and left alone and people walking away from you, you always now wait for the next person to do the same thing that the last person did to you.
And so you never fully put yourself out there. The effects affect your relationships with people and with God. And we never give ourselves fully and completely because it's too good to be true and it causes us what I call to be anxious faith. Anxious faith. Where we're always waiting for god to let us down because people have But can I really believe god's promises?
Can I really believe that even in loss? Can I really believe that even in my mess? Can I really believe even in this divorce? Can I believe really even in the loss of my loved 1? Can I actually believe?
Can I believe it? Because people have just left me and hurt me. And he says he'll never leave me or forsake me. That he knows me and he loves me. And he has a plan for me.
And he knew me in my mother's womb. And he bottles my tears. And he numbers the hairs on my head. Like, but where is he? If you ever felt alone, forgotten, 1 of the hardest things about the gospel is just to believe that it's true, that god is really who god says he is.
Abandonment from people is the enemy's attempt to shatter your identity as a child of the perfect father. You have to let those people go, and you have to let those situations go. And I know I'm making that sound way easier than what it is, but you have to find a way to let them go. Remove the rear views. Move forward.
You were abandoned, but you're not abandoned. You are not forsaken. You are not un you are loved. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them.
For the Lord your God goes with you, and he will never leave you, and he will never forsake you. I'm closing now. In the final moments, this is all everything led to this. In these final moments, Joseph finally gets his breakthrough. He finally gets out of prison because now Pharaoh has a dream, and the cup bearer is like, oh, "I got a guy".
It's always nice to be the guy who knows a guy. Oh, I got a guy for that. He's like, I got a guy. I'll hook you up, Pharaoh. Everybody needs a mic and a coacher in their life.
I got a guy. It's on my dream team. He knows everybody in Tampa. He probably knows all your families. 1 of those OG Tampa guys.
I got a guy that interprets dreams. I met him in prison. He totally told me to remember him, but I totally forgot until just now. And he interprets Pharaoh's dream. They get him out.
They clean shave him. He's looking good again. He's been scruffy like pastor David John Phillips before a couple weeks ago. You know, the beard was strong. He cleans up.
He shaves up for church on Sunday. Come on, somebody. And and he gets before Pharaoh. Right? He gets before the Pharaoh, and he interprets Pharaoh's dream.
And Pharaoh is so impressed by the dream interpretation that check this out. Joseph goes from a prison cellmate in 1 day becomes the most powerful human being on the planet. Running the entire nation of Egypt which was the world's superpower. He is the number 1 most powerful person on the planet. I don't know if you have to go through a pit.
I don't know if you have to go through lies. I don't know if you have to go through abandonment in prison, but I promise you, if you are faithful and you let it go, God will get you to the place that he promised you he's gonna get you. Your job is to let it go and don't give up. So he gets to the top, but this isn't Joseph's moment. Okay?
Joseph's moment was about to come because now he's the most powerful person on Earth, and he's been able to let it all go. Every offense, every broken moment, everything that's been done to him, he has been able to just completely let it let it go. But moment number 4 is is this, it's it's a confrontation with the past. We're going a moment where the past comes back. Sometimes in betrayal and disappointment, we aren't afforded the luxury of just being able to let it go.
To let them go, they're out of my life. I'm not gonna see them anymore. I'm not gonna deal with them anymore. I'm changing jobs. I left them.
I don't associate with them. I blocked them out of my cell phone. I I unfollowed them on Instagram. That's brutal. I I let them go.
Sometimes we get the luxury of just letting people go. But what do you do when you can't just forgive and forget? What do you do when the thing you let go of is staring you in the eye 20 years later? What do you do when the brothers who abandon you to die are standing in front of you? Joseph had gone through bad moments, but we never see a moment where Joseph has to confront the person or persons that have betrayed him until now.
The most powerful man in the world finally sees his brothers, the same guys, the same man who's just seemed invincible. For, like, 6 chapters of the Bible, Joseph does no wrong, shows no weakness, just keeps moving forward, perfect saint, not letting anything bother me. Happy, happy, happy, lucky, lucky, lucky. Don't throw me in prison. I'm still good.
Make me a slave. I'm great. Forget about me. I'm fine. Until now.
And over the next several chapters, we see Joseph break down and weep 6 times. I'll say them quickly. As he meets his *brothers* and has confrontations with them. *Genesis* 42 says, they did not realize that Joseph could understand them. He was interpreting when he met them.
He pretended like he was Egyptian so they wouldn't know who he was and he recognized them. Since he was using an interpreter and and as he was as they were talking, he had to turn away from them and he began to weep but then came back and spoke to them again and had Simeon taken and bound before their eyes. Genesis 43 30, deeply moved at the side of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there. 45 1 and 2, then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, the most powerful man in the world, and cried out, everyone leave.
So there was no 1 with Joseph but his brothers, and he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard it. 46, Joseph and his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father, Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time. What do you do when the thing you let go of is the same thing that makes you cringe every time you think about it. When it makes you sick to your stomach, when you think about what those people have done to you.
That sickness that came and took your friend, your father, your daughter, whoever. The things that were done to you when you were a child and the people behind them. What do you do when the thing that you thought you were able to let go of is now staring you in the eyes? Joseph is weeping. Joseph is in pain.
Joseph is now facing his greatest moment. And his greatest moment was not being able to just let things go. His greatest moment was not being able to just walk away and stay positive. His greatest moment was to look the people in his eyes that have shattered his life, left him in shambles, sold him into slavery. His friends, his brothers, look them in the eye and find the compassion within him to love them and forgive them.
I wanna let you know, you can let people go all you want and you can move forward and be *blessed* but there are going to be moments in your life where you can't just forgive and in
this We're
the midst We're going be We live in a world where you gotta go see the biological father who wasn't in your life at funerals, at birthday parties. Like, we live in a world where you have to coexist because there's social media and you're gonna see the people. And what do you do with the weight inside of you that feels like I just wanna curl up and die inside? Because I have so much pain, so much hurt because of what's been done to me. What do you do with it?
What's Joseph's secret? How is he found? What I'll show you and the ability to forgive them. Joseph's dad loved. I love Joseph.
The Bible says that he wept for months at the thought of the death of his son. And he wept and he wept and he wept. There must have been a deep love and compassion between Joseph and his father. And Joseph gets to see his father and we read that he weeps and weeps on his neck. Just cries on his neck.
Like, here's what we don't see in the scripture. Joseph could've went back to Canaan anytime. Joseph didn't want to see them. Joseph didn't want to go back home. Joseph could've went.
He was the most powerful man in the world. He could've sent for his father at any moment. Moment. Joseph was, I don't know if he was just hoping this wasn't ever gonna happen, wishing it wasn't ever gonna happen, or preparing for the day that his dream became reality. But this was pain that Joseph hadn't dealt with.
*Genesis* 50 15 through 17 and this is the secret. This is Joseph. Oh no, not Genesis-50:18 to 18 20. 18 through 20. How did Joseph move forward in the face of his greatest offenders?
He realized this, hear me. **"God wastes nothing"**. God wastes nothing. His father had told his brothers because they were still worried that Joseph was going to kill them. Like, he's the most powerful man in the world.
He snaps his fingers, armies in here. And these are the brothers that keep trying to kill him. They're still worried. So, before dad dies, they go to dad and like, dad, Joseph's going to kill us when you die and he's like, no. Send him this message.
After I'm dead, They came to Joseph and they said, your father left these instructions before he died. This is 50 17, 50, 15 through 17. This is what you're to say to Joseph, Israel said. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now, please forgive the sins of the servants of the god of your father.
When their message came to him, this is the last time Joseph wept. Joseph forgave them. How? How do you forgive people like this? How do you forgive people who have damaged you like this?
Verses 18 through 20 are the secret to how Joseph has done this his entire life. His brothers came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, do not fear. For am I in the place of God? To be
name
a of We're to be comes my way, whatever death comes my way, whatever demotion, whatever whatever bad or vile thing that is done to you, God will not waste it. If you can see that it's not wasn't it was you, but it wasn't you because look where I am now. God took what you did and I get to be here. God took a a split home little boy that that that grew up suicidal in middle school, that grew up hating himself, who never thought he'd be married, who never thought he could influence anybody. And God has him planting a church in Tampa Bay, married to the most beautiful woman he's ever seen with 2 beautiful little girls.
I'm here to tell you, I'm here to tell you, if you will believe whatever they did to you wasn't them, it was God. And he's doing it because he loves you, because he's trying to get something out of you that he can only get out of you by making you push yourself to the limits. And when you stand strong and when your character holds up and when you have integrity, God will go, I can do something with him. I can do something with her. I can make them powerful and an influencer, but you have to pass the test of forgiveness.
Your destiny, Joseph's original dream was not him being a master over his brothers. It was Joseph blessing his brothers. It was him giving forgiveness as they asked for it, bent around him. He thought it was him being king. It was them asking for forgiveness and him granting freely.
I close with this. This is a type and picture of Jesus. No matter what offense, no matter what things you've done in your life, no matter how many times you've thrown religion in the pit, no matter how many times you thought thoughts about god that were negative, no matter how many times you've abandoned him, forgiveness is yours. He loves you. Jesus is like Joseph in this picture.
He loves you and he wants nothing more than to forgive you and the verses go on to say that Joseph blessed the families. He gave them land. He gave them provision. He gave them homes and houses and I wanna say to you, if you're here and you don't know Jesus, he could take all that pain and take it from just pain and allow it to be the promotion of your life And allow it to be the thing you stand on. To allow you to become the man and woman that he designed you to be.
With every head bowed and every eye closed, I just wanna say a prayer. *Lord*, I pray right now. Lord, that you will bless every person here. Lord, I pray that they would pass the test of forgiveness. Lord, I don't know who's hurt them.
I don't know who's spoken against them. I don't know what wrong has been done in their life. I don't know the area that they've that they've let it go. But whenever they hear the name of that person, they still die a little inside. *Lord*, I pray that not only would they let it go, that they would give forgiveness so that they can move forward.
And they can have all of what God wants for them, that they would forgive freely, that they wouldn't just love those who love them, but love the enemies. Pray for them. Bless them. And let them go. In complete forgiveness, holding nothing against them.
The next time they see them, they can wrap their arms around their neck and love them. I know that's not easy, God. But with you, all things are possible. Behold, you "make all things new". Enemies can become friends.
Reconciliation can happen when you're involved, God. Lord, I believe 1 of the greatest tests we'll ever pass in our life is our ability to forgive those who hurt us. Because, God, your work at the cross was to give forgiveness to every son and daughter who would ever call upon your name. So if we want that forgiveness, we must give forgiveness. Lord, I pray even right now that people would begin to think about the person in their life that's been gutting them, that they let them go but they forgive them so that they can move forward into all that god has for them.
Full blessing. Full full love. Full experience of god. And lord, for those in the room, who've just been living in the midst of 1 bad situation to another bad situation and the thought and idea that there is a god out there who loves me enough to take my mess and turn it into my promotion and love me and bless me through it. Man, that sounds like something I want.
So, if you're here at Real Church today and you wanna make the greatest decision you could ever make, your life will never ever ever ever be the same. *God will take your story, redeem* it, change it, and make it the most incredible thing you've ever seen. If you're here and you wanna know Jesus and you wanna say a prayer to get to know him, I'm gonna ask you to do this in the privacy of your seat. If you would just slip up your hand right where you're at, I wanna say yes to Jesus today. I wanna say yes to Jesus.
I see the hand. I see it. I see the hands. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
You can put it back down. I see him, man. So, we're gonna say this prayer and saints, if you pray it with me, if you know Jesus, if you pray this prayer, salvation with me. And then let's celebrate salvation in this house. Jesus, today, I ask you to forgive me of my sins, to "Make me new", to recreate the image of Christ in my life.
"I've messed up". But I don't wanna be that person anymore. **I love you**. I admit with my mouth that you are god. "Wash me clean".
Make me new. In Jesus name, amen. Now, can we celebrate real church? Can we celebrate the souls that said yes to Jesus today? Can we cheer?
Can we celebrate? Thanks
**[Speaker 1]* [01:04:51]*
for listening to the Real Church podcast. If you have questions, comments, or would like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching real church clearwater or visit us online at www.realchurch.us. If you'd like to play a part in what we're doing, you can do so right where you are. Your prayers are powerful and effective. You can also be a part through giving.
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