Joseph - A God Awareness - John Smucker

Good morning to all of you. I want to greet you in the name

of Jesus this morning. It is good to be here and see many faces

that I recognize. I see a number that I don't, but that's okay.

It's good to be with God's people and worship Him together. To begin

with here this morning, I'd like to give you a few short stories to

lead into what I would like to talk about. And as far as I

know, these stories that I'm going to tell you are all true. The

first one is something like this. There was a grandmother who was taking care

of her sick grandchild. She was walking with this child doing the now and

he was quite sick, and she noticed that he was not doing well,

and suddenly she realized that he had stopped breathing. She was, of course,

very distraught, and cried out to God and asked God to allow this

child to start breathing again. And she prayed, and she prayed for about

ten or fifteen minutes, asking for God to help, and suddenly she felt

the body of the little child in her arms twitch, and she looked down

and she noticed that the little boy's chest was beginning to rise and fall,

and before long his eyes opened. There was another situation where in an angry

man who used to be a believer in God. One evening it was raining

and thundering and a nasty thunderstorm going on, and he was very adamantly opposed

to Christianity, and he decided to challenge God. And he ran out into

that thunderstorm and he raised his fists to the heavens and he uttered many words

of blasphemy against this God that supposedly was there. He said, Hey,

God, if you exist, strike me dead, strike me dead with lightning.

And he waited and nothing happened other than him getting wet, and he

returned back into the house and declared, there is no God. I challenged

him to show me with a lightning strike that he exists, and I'm still

alive. There's a man in the Bible, a prophet of God who one

day stood up against the number of false prophets. You know the story well.

And this man saw God miraciously answer his prayer and send fire down from

heaven. And it was the day after I believe that the queen of that

day told him that, you know what, by this time tomorrow, you're

going to be dead like all of those prophets that you killed. And he

took off and he ran and he ran, and he ran ran for a

long time, the Bible tells us, fearing for his life. There's another

Bible character, a persecutor of Christians who spent most of his time as a

young man going out to different cities persecuting and killing the Christians. And one

day he was on his way to continue in those actions, and the Bible

tells us that he was struck down off of his horse by bright light and

he heard a voice talking to him from heaven, asking him what is he

doing? What are you doing? And after a short conversation, this voice

said, you need to go to this man's house and just wait. There's

another young man not in the Bible. This is not a Bible character.

But he was discouraged and he was tired of life, and he didn't want

to live anymore. And one day he decided that it's time to end his

life. And he decided that he was going to go out and stand by

the highway in front of his house and wait until a big truck come along,

and then he was going to step out onto that highway and let that

truck run him over. And as he stood there, he saw a semi

coming down the highway, and he stood he's he prepared to walk out onto

that road, and as he was beginning to do that, he felt a

hand on his chest, and that hand pushed him back into the ditch,

and he lay in the ditch on his back and watched that semi roar past.

There was a twelve year old boy who, years ago was content condemned

to go to a concentration camp in Germany. He was forced, as a

young lad to watch all kinds of horrible things take place, all kinds of

brutalities, people being shot, people being hanged for no reason, people being

overworked and starved, people families being ripped apart, and he didn't know what

was He couldn't understand what was going on, and at the end, I

shouldn't say at the end. Eventually, this young man came to the conclusion

that there must be no god, because how could a god who has the

power to stop all of that nonsense in that concentration camp do nothing to stop

it. Finally, then there was an Amish man who had a little boy,

and that little boy liked to be with his father, and he spent

time with his father on the farm. And one morning this man realized that

his son, who was usually with him, was not there, and he

immediately was concerned, and he began to look for his little boy, and

after looking desperately for a few minutes, he discovered the lifeless body of his

little son floating in the livestock pond on their farm. This man had some

emergency training, and he pulled his little boy out of that pond and he

performed began to perform CPR on his little son. He prayed and he worked,

and after about twenty minutes, the heart of his little son began to

beat again. This man testifies. His father testifies, but that afternoon,

when he went outside and looked into the sky, he saw clouds in the

sky, and he says that those clouds were in the shape of an E

and a J. And he says, I took that as a message from

God, because those are the initials of his son who had nearly drowned.

And then there is a story in the Bible of a good looking man,

a good looking young man who was forced into slavery unjustly, and one day

he found himself living in a strange place and he had no connection with his

family, he had no connection with his homeland. He was alone. One

particular day, the wife of the man that he was a servant to found

him and demanded that he commit an immoral act with her. And the young

man, without hesitations, said, well, what did he say? Do

you know? Open your bibles to Genesis chapter thirty nine, and let's find

out what Joseph had to say in this situation. Genesis thirty nine, starting

a verse one. And Joseph was brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar,

and officer of Pharaoh, captain of the Garden, and Egyptian bought him of

the hands of the Ishraelites which had brought him down thither. And the Lord

was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man, and he was in

the house of his master, the Egyptian, and his master saw that the

Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to

prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he

served him, and he made him oversee her over his house, and all

that he had he put into his hand. And it came to pass from

the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all

that he had. That the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.

And the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house

and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand.

And he knew not aught he had saved the bread which he did eat.

And Joseph was a goodly person and well favored. And it came to

pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and

she said, lie with me. But he refused, and said, unto

his master's wife. Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in

the house. And he hath committed all that he has into my hand.

There is none greater in this house than I. And neither hath he kept

back anything from me but thee because thou art his wife, How then can

I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And he came to pass,

as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not under

her to lie by her or to be with her back home. I gave

a series of messages on the life of Joseph, and I do apologize for

you that are here from home. You're going to hear what you heard before.

And I hope that's not a problem. Well maybe not exactly, but

along the same lines. Joseph is an amazing Old Testament character. He gives

us a lot of things to consider. There's various quotes that are made by

Joseph or made by others about Joseph, and it's if you want to do

an interesting study. Take the time to research those quotes and consider what they

are communicating to you and to me today. The title of today's message is

Joseph a God Awareness? Joseph a God Awareness. Would you say that each

of those people that I gave you in those six or seven little short stories

I told you each of those people and those illustrations, were they aware of

God? I think we would agree that they were. Is God awareness only

achieved through the dramatic because most of those stories I told you were fairly dramatic.

Or is it something or is something like this able to be achieved,

able to be developed in the humdrum of your life? This God awareness?

Is God awareness important? Is it necessary for you to be aware of God?

Or not When you consider the story of Joseph, why do you think

Joseph refuse to engage in that immoral activity with the woman that was tempting him.

Why do you think he didn't do it? Have you ever thought about

that because that Joseph had no physical desire for this woman or for something like

what she was proposing. Was it because she was not a beautiful woman?

Was it because someone might find out what he had done? Was it because

his father had taught him that you just don't do things like that? Was

it because he feared Potiphar, the master of the house. You know.

The answer to that, to this question of why he didn't do it,

could be any of those that I just suggested that might have been somewhat some

of those, All of those may have been on Joseph's mind when Potiphar's wife

tempted him. But you know, I think there's something deeper, and that's

what I'd like for us to think about this morning. I believe the reason

Joseph refused is because of the God awareness he understood and had embraced. That's

why he didn't do it, because he knew God was there, He knew

God was present, and does that awareness have any effect on you in your

life today and in the things that you do and the things that you say,

in the way that you dress, in the entertainment that you engage in,

and the music that you listen to. Does it affect it? Do

you stop and say, no, I won't do that because I know God

is here. I'm aware of God, and it will stop you from committing

sin, as it stopped Joseph from committing sin that day. You know,

we wonder how Joseph developed that God awareness. I have thought about that,

just the whole thing with Joseph. It's amazing he had knowledge of God that

goes beyond hardly our ability to understand how he achieved it. The Bible doesn't

tell us how he was such a godly man who did almost everything right.

It seems like, well, maybe as a young man he bragged too much

about what he had, the messages and things he had heard from God.

But for the most part, he made good decisions and he did the right

things. What was it that made him become so aware of God? Was

it the dramatic events in his life that had made him aware of God in

his daily life? Was it the dreams, the special coat, the time

he spent in the pit. Was it the separation from his culture and family.

Maybe maybe all of those things begin to help him become more aware of

God. We just don't know for sure. The Bible doesn't tell us exactly

how this came to be, but the way he responded to Potiphar's wife makes

it very clear that Joseph was aware of God. God, for Joseph was

not out there somewhere, but God was right there with him. God was

not just a nice idea in his mind, but God was someone who was

real. It was a real being. He was a real being that he

was accountable to for everything that he did. For Joseph, God was not

a demanding, isolated dictator who didn't care. God was a loving father who

cared and desired to be loved. Joseph was aware of God. This morning,

again I ask you the question, are you aware of God? You

say, well, of course I'm here in church. Of course I'm aware

of God. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't aware of God. Well,

good that you're here. But what about tomorrow when you're alone and you've

got that phone in your hand, and something pops up and attempts you to

click that connection. What about when you're sitting at your desk at work and

you've got your computer in front of you and you're on the internet because it's

connected to your job, and something comes across that screen. What about when

you see your neighbor who has done something bad to you, who has said

something nasty about you, and you want to get him back, and you

want to do something a little worse. Are you aware of God then,

and does it affect how you live? I'm telling you this morning, if

we can get a hold of this God awareness that Joseph had, it will

change your life in ways that you can never never imagine. You will stop

committing the sin that you may be prone to commit because you know God is

there. Let's consider, just for a few minutes, what this God awareness

is, how it can be achieved, and what are the effects that it

has on our lives. I want to keep moving here. I have some

verses i'd like to read if we have time, and we'll start here.

First of all, what is the definition of God awareness. I've got five

things here to define what God awareness is. And if you'd want to turn

to job chapter one, we're going to read a few verses there Job chapter

one definition of God awareness It is worship and it is trust, starting at

verse thirteen. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were

eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And they came a messenger

under Job and said, the auction were plowing and the asses feeding beside them,

and the Sabians fell upon them and took them away. Yay, they

have slain the servants with the edge of the sword. And I only I'm

escaped alone to tell THEE. While he was yet speaking, there came another.

There came also another and said, the fire of God has fallen from

heaven and have burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them. And

I only am escaped alone to tell THEE. While he was yet speaking,

there came also another and said that Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon

the camels and have carried them away, yay, and slain the servants with

the edge of the sword. And I only am escaped alone to tell THEE.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, thy

sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother house.

And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four

corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they

are dead. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job

arose and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon

the ground and worshiped, and said, naked came I out of my brother,

my mother's womb, And naked shall I return thither the Lord gave,

and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

And in all this Job sin not nor charged God foolishly. Of course,

the story of Job is an amazing story. We're familiar with it, and

we knew. You knew what I was going to read, for all of

the calamities that befell him here in this first chapter. But I want you

to hire. I want to highlight verse twenty and verse twenty two. He

arose, rent his mantle, shaved his head, fell down the ground,

fell down upon the ground, and worshiped. This, my friends, is

what God awareness is. It's the worship that you offer to God in the

face of all kinds of inexplainable and undan and things that are that are beyond

your ability to understand. When you fall on your knees and worship, that's

God awareness. When you were able to trust, as Job did in verse

twenty two. And all of this Job sin nod nor charge God foolishly.

Why because he trusted, he knew God was, he knew who He knew

who God was, and he knew God was worthy of his trust. God

awareness is worship and trust. Joshua five. Let's see another definition in Joshua

five for this idea of God awareness Joshua five, verses thirteen through fifteen.

And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up

his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him,

with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua unto him and said,

unto him, art thou for us or four adversaries? And he said

nay. But as captain of the host of Lord, am I now come.

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship, and

said unto him, what show my lord? What saith my Lord? Unto

his servant, And the captain of Lord's host said, unto Joshua, loose

thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place wherein thou standest as holy,

and Joshua did so. God awareness is defined as worship again and reverence.

Worship and reverence, he says to Joshua, he said, look,

this is holy ground. Take off your shoes. Joseph did why because he

was aware there's something about this man was saying to him something about God.

And he demonstrated that awareness by them by showing reverence. Yes, he worshiped,

the Bible says, but he also showed reverence. Let's go to Esther

chapter four. Esther chapter four, verse thirteen. Then Mordi Chai I commanded

to answer Esther, think not for thyself that thou shalt escape in the King's

house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at

this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another

place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth

whether thou shalt come to the kingdom, whether thou art come to the Kingdom

for such a time as this. Then est bade them return Mordichai. This

answer go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast

ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days ni or day.

I also in my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in

under the king, which is not according to the law. And if I

perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all

that Esther had commanded him. God awareness is trusting action. It's not just

sitting around and waiting for something to happen. It's not just sitting around and

saying, well, I've done my part, you know, and I'm waiting

for God to do his No. No, no. God awareness emboldens us

to step forward and engage. You know. I've often wondered, you know

what all went through Esther's mind, But you can see here that she says,

you know what, I'm gonna do this. Why Because somewhere along the

line, I believe Esther had learned how to trust the God of Heaven.

She didn't know what the king would do, she didn't know whether and we

don't understand all the cultural things here, and it makes it seems a little

strange for a king to treat his wife like that and not hold out the

scepter to her, causing her then to be killed. But we don't know

quite understand that. But she was able to say, I'm going to go

in and if I die, I die well at least I'm gonna do something

to try and save my people. She was aware of God and that inspired

her to take those steps. God awareness is also defined as respectful confidence.

And this is this. An illustration of this is found in the book of

Daniel. And again you know the story, but I'm going to read the

verses to you so you understand, so you can hear them again. Nevick

and Nezzar, starting a verse fourteen in Daniel chapter three, Nevick and Nezzar

spake and said, unto them, is it true, shadrack, mishak and

a bendigo, do not ye serve my gods nor worship the golden image which

I've set up. Now, if ye be ready that at what time you

hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, the heart, the sack,

but the sultry and dulcimer and all kinds of music, you fall down

and worship the image which I have made. Well, But if you worship

not ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery

furnace furnace, and who is that God? They shall deliver you out of

my hands. Shadrack mishek and have been to go answered and said to the

King, O neebican Zar, we are not careful to answer thee in this

matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is

able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us

out of thine hand, O King. But if not, it be it

known under the O King, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship

the golden image which thou hast set up respectful confidence. These young men,

without hesitation, told that powerful king. You know what, King, it

doesn't matter if you give us a second chance. We're not gonna worship it.

It doesn't matter if you throw us into that fiery furnace. God's gonna

save us. Maybe we'll die, but He's gonna save us. You can't

do what you can't achieve what you really want to achieve, because God's gonna

deliver us out of your hand, either by them dying and going into eternity,

or by rescuing them from that burning flame. We know the story they

were rescued. But God awareness inspire, there's a respectful confidence in the situations

that we find ourselves in definition of God awareness, it's life altering understanding.

And we see the story of Joseph to illustrate what that was life altering understanding.

You know what, it's not hard for us to imagine Joseph in that

scenario. He was alone, he was with a woman. He's a young

man, he has the passions and the desires of a young man. And

it's amazing that he stopped and said, lady, I won't do it.

Why It's because he was aware of God. And I think sometimes that we,

as God's people, too often are not aware of God enough to let

it impact every area of our lives. We sometimes maybe want to reduce this

to, you know, impacting the struggles morally that we might have, or

in facting some other some other habit or addiction or problem that you know,

we know we need help on. But I'm here to challenge you this morning

that this concept impacts you in every area of your life. And I could

go down through the list again, but I don't need to. How you

talk how you relate to authority, whether it's here in the church or whether

it's secular authority. Do you have a God awareness in your life as Joseph

did? Is your life this morning marked by a worship and trust that leaves

no question to those looking on that you know God in the face of difficulties?

Do you acknowledge the hand of God and your trust in that hand.

I don't know about you, but that's a tough one for me to do,

because it's really hard. As that twelve year old boy that I talked

about who ended up coming to the conclusion that there is no God. I

can be real honest with you this morning, that there have been things happen

in my life that if I wanted to, I could be right where He

is, because I don't understand why the difficulties came, why the problems happened.

Do you show that you are aware of God in your life? Do

you demonstrate an attitude of worship and reverence here in the auditorium when you're in

a worship service, when you're alone out in the woods and God brings something

to your mind, do you demonstrate that worship and that reverence. It's so

easy to pull out of our pocket that thing that we call a telephone in

a worship service, And after all, you can put it on the bench

and nobody can see what you're doing. And you've got to send that text.

You got to read that one that came in. You got to research

that pickup truck, you got to do whatever. You got to do.

What I'm telling you, When we get involved in that kind of thing in

a worship setting like this, we are we've lost our awareness of God.

I can guarantee you one hundred percent that of God would sit beside you.

You'd never pull that out. You would never do it, would you,

I don't think. So. It's like the other Sunday. I got done

preaching at our home church, and you know, when we're done preaching there,

sometimes we go back to where we were sitting. Sometimes we might sit

on the front bench. This particular time, when I walked down off the

platform, I decided to sit on the second bench, which is the bench

that some of our young boys sit on, and I was just tickled in

an amusing way. This little guy sat down beside And I won't tell you

who he was. You don't need to know, but he was doodling on

a paper, he was drawing a picture, and he did not expect me

to turn in that bench. And when I did, man, he would

work really hard to cover that up, put it away and look like he

was supposed to look. But he's not very old, I mean, but

he was more aware of his doudling than he was of what was going on

in that worship service. And your responses to life's circumstances, do you show

clearly where your trust is? How about the authorities in your life? I

reference that already? Does your God awareness effect how you respond to them?

You give them a responsive respect and obedience rather than dishonor and arrogance. And

finally, this morning, when it comes right down to the reality of being

alone, where there is no other physical person with you, how do you

show it? Then? Are you aware of God in these circumstances to the

point to the point where you will be able to do as Joseph did and

say, when there is something put in front of you you you'll be able

to say, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

I challenge you this morning to consider that young men, young ladies married folks

when something comes into your life and in your heart you know you shouldn't do

it. Stop and think about Joseph, and think about this question and let

it affect your response. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against

God? With Joseph, that made a difference. He didn't want to sin

against God. He didn't want to be guilty of that, and that was

enough to stop him because he knew God was with him. How do you

develop this morning the God awareness in your life. Well, it demands an

intentional choice to believe and to serve. Joshua tells us about how The Book

of Joshua talks about how Joshua challenge the children of Israel to choose to serve

God. He told them, put away all the other gods that are around

you, be committed one hundred percent. They said we will. He said

you can't, and they said we will. He said, all right,

if you will, then do it, And the Bible says that they did.

It didn't last real long, but they did. At that point,

the may made themselves accountable. They were publicly accountable in the statements that they

made. If you want to develop a God awareness in your life, you

have to intentionally choose to believe and to serve. You have to intentionally choose

to meditate on God's word. Again, Joshua tells us that familiar verse.

I can't even it's familiar, but it's escaped my mind. Here but where

he talks about meditating on God's word day and night. To Joshua, when

eate this book of the law, shall not depart out of thy mouth,

but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, David says in Psalms verse two

again talking about meditation on the word of God, this means that you're investing

time in listening to God. For you, God is a twenty four to

seven God versus a Sunday and special meetings God. You say, well,

it's not me. I think about God all the time. Well, I

want to encourage you in that. But too many times we think about God

when we come here for Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, when's the

evening service, and other than that, God can sometimes be pretty much on

the fringes and little thought is given to him. If you want to develop

a God awareness of your life, in your life, it's going to demand

the intentional meditation on the word of God. It demands also the intentional interaction

with God's people. You can't develop a God awareness and hang out with the

other side. Hang out with the ungodly. You won't develop a God awareness.

You will only develop an ungodly awareness. That's what will happen. You

say, well, I'm gonna go I'm gonna go hang out with them so

I can win them over to the Lord. Well, God bless you in

that desire. But it doesn't happen very often. Do you go hang out

with them and before you know it, they've won you over to their desires.

I don't know why it's that way, but it is. Look in

history, it happens over and over and over again. You say, Welsh,

I'd never try to influence the ungodly. Will know I'm talking about choosing

to intentionally interact with God's people so that you can have a God awareness in

your life. When you have done that, then you can go visit with

them, Then you can go minister to them, and you'll survive it because

you are aware of God. The Bible says evil communications corrupt good manners.

Have you ever thought about that verse? It's very simple verse shortened to the

point, and it's true. Beware, development of God awareness demands an intentional

pursuit of God, as described to us in the book of First Chronicles.

I believe unless I have us, I have a feeling, that is not

the right reference. No, it should be Second Chronicles. I think I

forgot to correct that Second Chronicles, chapter seven, verse fourteen. If my

people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and

seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from

heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land intentional pursuit of

God. Humble ourselves, the writer says here, that's a declaration of our

need pray. That's our response to the realization that we have a need seek

God's face. That's a continued response to the realization of our need and turn

from our wicked ways. That's thesical. That's the visible testimony that leaves no

question that you're aware of God's morning because you have turned from those things that

would identify you otherwise. You know, sometimes we hope it just will have

and we could say that with Joseph that seemed to be the case, because,

as I said, there's a little record of intentional teaching and intentional activities

that helped develop the God awareness in Joseph's life that he had. And yet

Joseph had such an awareness that this temptation could not overpower him, It could

not take him down. This First Chronicles or Second Chronicles seven fourteen, somehow

was a reality in Joseph's life. I ask you this morning, is it

a reality in yours? Finally, then, the effects of God awareness,

And I'd love to read these verses, but it's just we don't have time.

What are the effects of God awareness? First of all, it causes

worship in the face of the unexplainable. God told Abraham that he was going

to be the father of people many as I mean as many people as the

sands of the sea, an innumerable host. And he had no children.

And when he was told that, the Bible tells us that he built an

altar and worshiped. Because Abraham was aware of God, and we could look

at other illustrations. When God said sacrifice Isaac on that altar, he went

ahead and did what or he prepared to do what God told him to do.

And I don't know how he could do that. And that is that

story is a story that the critics of today use often to cast God in

a really, really negative light. But to me, it's a story that

demonstrates a man who knew who God was and it affected everything that he did,

even the unexplainable. How many of you, and this is not a

message about Abraham offering Isaac, but I just ask you how many of you

would have got everything together and taken off for that mountain. To be frank

with you, I probably would not have. There would have had to have

been a lot more, a lot more what's the word I want? There

would have been a lot had to have been a lot more clear demonstration that

this is exactly what I was supposed to do. Before I would have got

on my donkey and taken my son to kill him. And maybe maybe they

wrestled. Maybe Abraham had wrestling matches in his mind and and and and in

his conversation with God that the Bible doesn't record. But it is true that

he was aware enough of God that he did what he was told. We

talked about job. The Bible says, after all of these calamities he worshiped,

there was no explanation for it. And he worshiped. Is that the

way you respond when the things come into your life where there's no explanation for

do you worship? If you do, this is a this is this is

evident that you have maybe a little higher level of God awareness than those who

do not worship God in these situations. Another effect of this God awareness is

reverence in the presence of God. Revelations talks about a great crowd around the

throne, singing and worshiping, giving reverence to the lamb. It's on the

throne. God wants us to give reverence to Him when we're in situations,

particularly where it's demanded, you know, And we could talk about the corporate

worship that we're all involved in right now. Reverence includes listening, It includes

being involved. It includes quietness. It does not include your telephone. It

does not include you getting up and going out multiple times. Maybe you shouldn't,

Maybe you shouldn't do it anytime. It doesn't include whispering. It does

not include doodling. It does not include drawing pictures. It does not include

sleeping. And I'll have to say, I haven't noticed anybody sleeping here this

morning yet. And I'll try to not look at anybody who looks drowsy.

Don't want to spoil that record, but I'm sorry. God awareness, it's

not going to make you sleep, It's going to keep you awake. Now,

I realize we sometimes find ourselves in situations where we're, you know,

whatever happened on Saturday night, and we are tired, and I fight sleep

sometimes. I understand how that is. But I would challenge you to consider

when you're struggling with sleep, the God's right there with you. Because of

that awareness, you stay awake private worship, you know, keep your electronics

out of your own personal private worship, you know, do what you need

to do so your phone doesn't interrupt your private worship time, your computer,

the book you were reading the night before, whatever it is. A God

awareness will help you to concentrate. If you have a God awareness, this

will make you concentrate on God and the things of God in your private worship

time. Another effect of God awareness is being separated to the Kingdom of God.

Separation and the things that we take into our lives. The books,

the internet, the podcasts, the recordings, the music. Anything that we

take in we filter it through that God awareness. The amusements that we get

ourselves involved in we filter it through that God awareness. Whether it's some hobby

that we have and we really enjoy, we are careful not to overindulge because

we're aware of God. You know, maybe it's some struggle you might have

with gaming or something else on the internet that's got you in its clutches.

Stop, there's a God that you need to be aware of and let that

awareness affect what you do, your language, let that awareness affect the things

that you say. Finally, then one more effective God awareness is that we

are directed by the principles of God. We're directed by his principles. In

business, we're honest, we have integrity, we demonstrate integrity. We're directed

by God's principles in relationship our relationships. In our relationships, we demonstrate kindness,

we demonstrate carefulness. We're quick to listen and slow to speak. In

times of difficulty, We're directed by God's principles and we give him all.

We give him worship in the midst of those difficult times. And I've talked

about that already, so I won't go into that again, but I just

urge you, you know, to begin to be aware of God now,

because when you do go through those hard times. If you have not cultivated

a God awareness, it is going to be extremely hard for you. You're

going to be like the man who called us on the hotline and said,

you know, I prayed and I prayed, and I prayed and I prayed

that God would heal my daughter, and he didn't. He said, I

don't believe in God anymore. God's a horrible person. Even if he didn't

exist, I wouldn't believe in him because he didn't answer my prayer. Something

was missing, and that man's awareness of God, God awareness the effects of

it. You're directed by God's principles. In the situations where you're alone,

you obey what God has told you. You're consistent in the way you live.

You do what's right because you know that's what God wants you to do.

You know, we understand this morning that a decoration of awareness of God

demands evidence that this is true. We sometimes look at others and feel like

we have a right to demand that evidence from them, But this morning,

I want to call you to not look at others, but instead consider your

own life. Where is the evidence that you are a person that does life

in a way that without question shows to all of those looking on that you

have the same God awareness that Joseph had. For some reason, today we

struggle to allow our knowledge that God is present to impact the everyday realities and

the everyday responses of our lives. We so often want to excuse ourselves,

and then we get frustrated when people question our commitment. You know what a

claim this morning, If you claim that God awareness, a claim demands a

demonstration of that claim for people to be convinced. Don't say it if you

aren't able to demonstrate it. And you know, there's no area of our

lives that we can excuse and say that it doesn't matter, because you know

what, if you excuse, that area that you excuse is the area that

Satan's going to poke in at it. He'll trip you up. So let

God awareness infiltrate every part of your life, because without it, you will

not choose the right way. Without it, you will be overwhelmed by the

apparent senselessness of the events of your life. Without it, you will indulge

in your own desires instead of God's desires. Without it, you will feel

lost and without hope. That's all negative that I just talked about but on

the positive side. With it, you will be able to resist the devil,

and he will flee from you. With it, you will be able

to look under the hills from one cometh your help and find God's rest in

the face of events that otherwise would make you reject God. With it you

will do. You will want to do as Jesus did when he was here.

That is, you will want to do only those things which please your

Father, which is in Heaven. With it, you will hope in God

and know that there is a way, and be willing to walk in the

way that God has given to you. God awareness this morning, it doesn't

seem like it should be something too hard to develop and maintain in our lives.

Today we look at the story of Joseph, and we will be quick

to say, you know what, if I would have been in that situation,

That's what I would have done. Don't trust that's true for all of

you men sitting here. But let's not assume that such God awareness is automatic

and will make itself automatically obvious upon our new birth experience. The Bible this

morning is clear that such God awareness is intentionally nurtured and developed and embraced particularly

in the world that you and I live in today. Each of those people

I talked about at the beginning had to God awareness. Some may be more

than others. The one doubting, the one persecuting, the one scoffing,

the one who begged, the one who was traumatized. They all had a

sense of God. What is your sense this morning of God? How aware

of Him are you? Are you aware enough of Him that whatever life brings

you, you are able to stop and realize that God is present and respond

in a way that reflects that understanding. This morning, we know that when

tempted, Joseph did not want to do anything against the will of God,

and I trust that will be your desire as well, that in whatever God

brings to you, that you will be so aware of Him that you will

choose His way and reject the way that would cause you to sin against God.

God offers you and I this morning forgiveness and healing, but only if

we choose His way again. Second Chronicles seven fourteen of my people which are

called by my names, shall humble themselves in pray and seek my face and

turn from their wicked ways. Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive

their sin and will heal their land. Thank you, an God, bless you,