Fruitful In My Affliction | JOSEPH: From Pit To Palace (Part Nine)

Thank you so much for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.

Riverbend Church exists to bring people to Jesus, grow

generations in Jesus, and send disciples for Jesus.

We hope that you enjoy this message.

But this morning we're going to be finishing out our series

Through the Life of Joseph, through the Life of Joseph.

And I don't know about you, but over the past eight weeks, this

is the 9th week over the past eight weeks, man, this has just

been so, so good for me personally.

And there's some, so many things that God has taught me.

And I know just with conversations with many of you

over the last couple months together, it's just been really

cool seeing how God's been working in your life and working

in your family's life as well. But I want to start off just

kind of telling you a quick, quick story.

When I was in second grade, I played started playing Little

League baseball, Little League baseball in second grade.

I wasn't very good, but I had a uniform and I was on the team.

So there are three things that always stand out about that

second grade year of playing Little League baseball.

A is my first year of playing Little League baseball and I

don't, I don't mean to brag, but I looked good.

I looked good in my uniform. It stayed clean the whole season

#2 we were the Cardinals, we were the Cardinals.

We had a great, we had a great, great team that year.

You know, second graders, we were awesome.

Third thing thing that stood out the most is that entire season I

never got a hit. I never got a hit the entire

season. And no, I wasn't injured and no,

I wasn't really sick. So I missed a lot of time.

I never got a hit the entire season.

One of three things always happened.

Either AI got walked because the pitcher failed to throw strikes.

BI got walked because the pitcher hit me with the ball.

My friend Ernie, he was the he was the main perpetrator.

He, Ernie must have hit me like 7 times during that year and I

don't know why I keep calling him a friend, but he hit me

every single time I got up to bat.

He was on the Cubs. We're the Cardinals.

Like I said, second grade. You know peewee baseball

rivalries, right? Third thing, they always stand

out or, or the third, third thing that would happen.

I would either walk because all the balls, no strikes.

I get a walk because I get hit with a ball or I would just

strike out. And most of the time when I

struck out, I struck out. Looking at the strike three, I

struck out without swinging the bat and, and here's why.

It wasn't because I was, I was scared of the ball.

It wasn't because I didn't know how to swing a bat.

It wasn't because the bat was too big or too heavy.

I didn't swing often because the pitcher didn't throw it where I

wanted him to throw it right. So I was always waiting for that

perfect pitch coming straight down the middle of the plate

about waist high. And then if he pitched that

pitch, then I would swing. I'd probably miss, but I'd at

least swing at it. So I struck out over and over

and over. Listen, at the end of the at the

end of the games, I got ice cream.

At the end of the season I got a trophy.

But in terms of my contribution to the overall team, wasn't much

to it at all. I think especially right here at

the very end of our series in the life of Joseph.

I think many of us, we live our Christian life the same way that

I played baseball as a second grader.

We, we're waiting for that perfect pitch in life.

In other words, we, we, we think that, hey, once I have

everything lined up and once everything in my life is

healthy, once my relationship with my wife and my kids, once

my, what's my job situation? What's my financial situation?

Once, once my mental health or my emotional health is in the

right place, then God can use me.

Then God can use me to do great things for him.

Then God can, can use me at all. But you know, I'm going to hold

back and I'm going to wait for all these things to be lined up

perfectly for God to use me. Listen, I want to give you 3

words of encouragement about that train of thought.

Number one, that's a faulty train of thought.

It's a faulty train of thought that waiting for life to line up

perfectly in order for God to use you.

That's not how it works #2 if that's how it works, none of us

would ever be used by God. Because you, you and I, we are

gathered here together this morning and online with

everybody online. We are an imperfect people

serving a perfect God. There will always be, and I

don't mean this as a, as a, as a point of discouragement.

I mean it as a point of encouragement.

Encouragement. There will always be part, parts

and points of our lives that have unhealth to them.

There will always be parts and points of our life that will

have unhealth to them. But listen, that's not, we don't

have to wait on life's perfect pitch to be used by God at all.

And, and to show you what what I'm talking about is many times

if we wait, and this is that third element of, of waiting on

life's perfect pitch, that if we feel that life has to be

completely lined up and perfectly lined up for God to

use us, then what we inevitably do is we are people chasing a

carrot on a stick that we'll never catch.

And I don't know about you, but the thought of living life just

chasing a carrot on a stick that we'll never catch.

That's exhausting. And believe me, when I tell you

and I don't, I don't have to remind many of us because we

know it to be true. Exhaustion is the point right

before the breaking. You ever been just completely

exhausted? And exhaustion is that point

right before the breaking. And if we've learned anything

over these last eight weeks in the life of Joseph, we've been

encouraged by this truth, by this principle that we've been

riding on the entire series. That served as a big idea.

And if you're taking notes with us, you may want to jot it down

one last time. It says, what can easily break

you, God turns in to breakthrough.

What can easily break you, God turns in to breakthrough.

So here's the question before us this morning.

If waiting on life's perfect pitch in order to be used by

God. If that's not correct and that's

not the right train of thought, then how can we be used by God

exactly where we are right now? How can we be used by God

exactly where we are right now and exactly how we are right

now? To give us some insight into

answering that question, I want to invite you to find Genesis

Genesis 41 · chapter mention

chapter 41 with me, Genesis chapter 41 and we're going to be

Genesis 41 · chapter mention

picking it up in verse 50. Genesis 41, We're going to be

picking it up in verse 50. It says before the year famine

came, two sons were born to Joseph as an Ath.

The daughter of Potiphar, a priest of own, bore them to him.

Joseph called the name of the first born Manasseh.

We talked about Manasseh last week for he said God has made me

forget all my hardship and all my father's house.

The name of the second. This is where we're going to

land. This is where we're going to

close out the series. This morning.

He called Ephraim for God has made me fruitful in the land of

my affliction. So like we've done last eight

weeks, we're going to look at this passage, we're going to

look at these 3 verses, and we're going to really ask three

main questions. What does this tell me about

Joseph? What does it tell me about God?

What does it tell me about me? If you're taking notes with us,

let's look at what Joseph name of his son Ephraim, what that

tells us about Joseph. The reason that we want to know

what it tells us about Joseph is because Joseph was a man just

like me and you. He wasn't a character in the in

in in a in a Bible story. He wasn't a fictitious man.

He was a real man that went through real life with real

hurts, pains, and trauma. So what does Joseph naming his

sons Manasseh and Ephraim? What does it tell us about

Joseph #1 Joseph's faithfulness was consistent in every place

and in every season. It was He was.

It was consistent in every place in every season.

Now, if you were with us last week, we talked about and just

kind of as a review and if you're new to Riverbend, just

kind of make sure that we're all on the same page.

And Joseph's Day, it was very, very popular and it was a very,

very well known thing for parents to name their kids a

name that corresponded with what the parents may have been going

through at that given point in time when the kid was born.

So for example, we talked last week about how Joseph's dad, his

name was Jacob. Jacob already had ten sons. 10

finds out that Joseph is on the way.

Joseph's born. Jacob names Joseph, Joseph

because Joseph literally means increaser or God will add.

In other words, hey, I got 10 boys.

He's increased it one more or he's added one more 2 to the

litter. Like now I got 11 boys.

We talked about how last week Joseph named his first born

Manasseh, because Manasseh means to forget or God causes me to

forget or to let go of something.

If you weren't here with us last week, I would highly, highly

encourage you go back either through Facebook or YouTube or

wherever you listen to podcast and listen why that was so

important to Joseph, but even more importantly, why that's so

important for us. What does it mean that God can

actually cause us to forget? Because that word forget is used

in a way that we don't often use it, but there's so much blessing

in that. But then Joseph has a second son

and he names his second son Ephraim.

He names his second son Ephraim. And Ephraim literally means

fruitful in my affliction, fruitful in my affliction.

And and I've got to wonder like when Ephraim grows up and he's

just starting to learn how to how to read and he finds out

what his name means, he probably goes up to his dad and he's

like, hey, daddy, why'd, why'd you name me?

Why'd you name me fruitful in my affliction?

That's kind of that's kind of weird.

And I can't help but think that Joseph probably sits his son

down on his knee. And he was like, Ephraim, let me

let me tell you about Daddy's affliction.

Let me tell you about what Daddy went through.

You see, Daddy, when he was 17 years old, he was he was beaten

and he was betrayed and thrown into a pit and sold as a slave

by his own brothers. And then he goes on to list

like, hey, remember, you know, Uncle Zebulun?

Yeah, he was there, too. And you can just imagine that

Ephraim's like, was, was Uncle Natalie, did he beat you, too?

And Joseph's like, absolutely, he beat me.

And you know, Ephraim, it, it really hurt.

And he sold me. They sold my own brother, sold

me as a slave. But you know, once I got to

Egypt, I started working for this man named Potiphar.

And, and Potiphar's wife accused daddy of doing something that he

never did. And Potiphar believed his wife

and, and not me. And because of that, I was, I

was thrown into the prison and I was, I was, I spent years in the

prison and I thought I was forgotten about in the prison.

You see, Joseph could go on and on and on and he could talk

about, he could talk about his affliction.

He could talk about to Ephraim like how he was afflicted.

But you know what, as inconsistent as Joseph's life

was, and if you've been with us over the last eight weeks, you

know those ups and downs, Joseph's life was so

inconsistent. And I think that a lot of us

here this morning and online, we can sit there and go, man, I

resonate with that. My life feels so inconsistent.

You know what stood out in stark contrast to Joseph's life's

inconsistencies? Joseph's consistent faithfulness

to his God. You see, through all the ups and

downs, through all the places and all the seasons, Joseph

never wavered in his faithfulness to his God.

He was. And here's the keyword for us

this morning, consistent. He was consistent.

And because Joseph was consistent, it leads us to the

second thing that we know about Joseph from this passage.

Check this out. Joseph chose fruitfulness over

vindication. He chose fruitfulness over

vindication. Again, go back in time,

especially if you've been with us over the last several weeks

and you know how the how the story of Joseph plays out.

If Joseph was to sit down and make a list of who to take

retribution on, imagine if, if you will, as you know, probably

mid to late 30 year old sitting down making a list.

They just sit there and go, OK, my top 10 would be my brothers.

And then after that that woman, Potiphar's wife that lied about

me. And you know what, while I'm

there, I'm going to write down Potiphar too because he believed

her over me. And while I'm at it, because he

believed her over me, I was thrown into the Egyptian

supermax prison and I was all but forgotten.

And there there were two guys, there was a royal royal Baker

and a royal cupbearer. The Baker, he got executed by

Pharaoh. So I can't really take

retribution on him, him. But the cupbearer, I interpreted

that guy's dreams for him. And three days later he, he got,

he got reinstated to his royal position in Pharaoh's palace.

And the only thing that I asked was that he for he, he, he

Remember Me. And instead of remembering me,

he forgot about me. And I spent two more years, you

know what, Royal cupbearer? You're on that list.

You know, Joseph could have spent his entire life chasing

vindication. But you know something about

vindication, Vindication, vindication.

If Joseph spent his entire life pursuing vindication and

retribution, he wouldn't have been able to save an entire

region of the world from starvation and an even more

personal retribution and vindication make very, very poor

substitutes for a husband and a father.

You see, Joseph understood something that's so very

important for us to understand. Joseph could have chosen to

pursue God's purposes, or he could have chosen to pursue

payback. He couldn't choose to do both.

He could choose God's purpose. I'm going to pursue God's

purposes or I'm going to pursue payback.

He couldn't do both. And Joseph comes to a point to

where he goes, God, I choose to live my life, to bear fruit for

you, and I'm going to leave the vindication to you.

So Speaking of God, what does this passage, what does all this

tell us about our God? First one is God often defines

fruitfulness differently than I do.

God often defines fruitfulness differently than I do.

Out to the side, you may want to jot this word down.

Let's give fruitfulness because that may sound a little churchy

for us, but it's, it's an important word to use for, for

matters that we'll get into in just a moment.

But out to the side you can, you can substitute the word

fruitfulness for success. You can write the word success.

God often defines success differently than I do.

All right, if you're new with us, I'm going to ask that you do

something. It's going to seem really weird

if you call Riverbend home. I'm going to ask you to do

something, and it's going to seem really weird.

If you're new to us, I promise we're not a cult.

And I am well aware of the fact that that's exactly what a cult

leader would say. All right, but we're not a cult,

I promise. Which I know that's what a cult

leader would say, but just bear with me.

Here's what I want to ask that you do cross the room.

I just want to ask that you just close your eyes for just a

second. Just close your eyes and and as

you as you have your eyes closed, I want to get you to

think about something. How do you define success?

How do you define success? What are the things that are

that are present in a successful life?

I'll give you a further prompt to think about.

Not to sound morbid, but just to get us to 0 in on this point.

What would you like to be truthfully said about you at

your funeral? What would you like to be

truthfully said about you at your funeral?

Now let's get a little bit more real.

We know that every single person in the room, outside of the room

online in church this morning, outside of the church, near to

God, far from God, every single person will one day die and will

stand before God and give an account of of his or her life.

What do you think God will look at you and say?

Well done, my good and faithful servant.

What are the things that are present that are to be present

in our lives now that God will look at when we give an account

of our life? Then that he will say, well

done, my good and faithful servant.

All right, you can open your eyes.

Here's my guess. My guess is none of us thought

anything wrong or thought anything evil or thought

anything bad. My guess is we probably all

thought things that were good, right?

We, we, we may have thought he was a family man and she

nurtured her family. We, we may have thought he left

such a legacy of leadership in his company or she left such a

legacy of leadership in her company.

She was a great friend. He was a great neighbor, man.

They were successful because they earned so much money.

They lived in such a nice house, drove nice cars, had nice kids.

Listen, none of those things are bad.

But can I tell you this? None of those things will in and

of themselves will make an eternal impact.

Here's what I mean. Mom, dad, grandmother,

grandfather. Listen, our our one of the

things that we should be aiming at is raising and loving our

kids and our grandkids. But the main way that we raise

and love them is by pointing them to Jesus.

Listen, we should, as followers of Jesus, we should have a

strong work ethic. But the reason that we want to

have a strong work ethic is because we realize that as

followers of Jesus, as sons and daughters of God, we represent

God to all people at all times, in all places.

You know, being a good friend to someone is, is being there and,

and, and laughing with the laughter and weeping with the

crying, but then also understanding.

Hey, listen, I know what it's like to go through what you're

going through. Can I tell you how God has

brought me through this? Can I tell you how God has has

filled in those, those unknown blanks or those empty blanks in

my minds? Because I have a lot of

questions and I have a lot of doubts.

But man, His presence in my life has given me so much peace.

Listen, God does not define success based off of how much

you know about him. God defines success by how much

you made him known to the people around you.

God does not define success by how much money you may have

saved or earned. God defines success.

As what you did with what He entrusted you with the eternal

impact. If you want to know how God

truly defines success, it is living a life that is about

making earth better and heaven bigger, earth better and heaven

bigger. It is about producing fruit,

spiritual fruit, eternal fruit, the things that will last for

all of eternity. Which brings us to the second

thing that we know about God. And this passage teaches us

about God. God knows where I where I will

be most fruitful. God knows where I will be most

fruitful. Let's go back to Joseph for just

a second. So if you've been with us over

the series, you know all the UPS, all the downs, all the in

betweens, all the feelings, all the emotions before Joseph got

elevated to the palace. What do you think of Joseph?

If God gave Joseph one wish, one request that God would grant on

the spot, What do you think that would have been?

Let's put ourselves in the shoes of Joe.

I mean, what would it be for you if you got like sold into

slavery, carted off over 300 miles away to a foreign country,

foreign culture, and as a slave, and not just a slave, but as a

prisoner. I mean, from the pit to the to

Potiphar's house, as a slave to the prison.

What do you think Joseph's main wish would be?

I think it would be just to go back home, don't you?

I think Joseph's main wish probably while he's on the cart

being driven 300 miles away from home.

I think that Joseph yearned just to be home.

I think that Joseph probably went to sleep at night thinking

maybe tomorrow when I wake up, this nightmare ends and it was

just all the bad dream, but he wakes up and he's still behind

bars. I think when Joseph, that first

night when he was sold as a slave to Potiphar and he's a,

he's a slave in Potiphar's house, I think that Joseph

thought, I wonder if I'll ever be back home.

I wonder what my dad's doing. I wonder what my friends are

doing. Why?

Why He's being forgotten about in a prison.

You know that Joseph's probably sitting there, probably crying

himself to sleep at night, going I'll, I'll never be back home.

I think that Joseph's number one desire was to be back home with

his dad and with, with his friends, probably not so much as

brothers, but to be back in his own bed.

Don't you? Can I tell you something to

remind you something? Joseph couldn't save an entire

region of the world from starvation from his bedroom in

Canaan. Let me say that again.

Joseph could not save an entire region of the world from

starvation from his bedroom in Canaan.

God knew that Joseph would be most fruitful and most used and

most successful not in his bedroom in Canaan, but in Egypt.

You see, I'm 1000% convinced that in this room with us

online, there's some of us that man, we want to be somewhere

else doing something else with somebody else.

We want that so bad. And we're frustrated because we

just feel that God's not answering our prayers because

that's a dream. That's a deep desire of ours.

If that's you, can I throw out a possibility to you?

Maybe God's not so much blocking your dreams and desires as much

as he is about blocking less fruit in your life.

You see, when it comes to being used by God, God's pause is

never about less. God's pause is always about

more. You may say, well, Ben, I don't

like where I am right now. I don't like what I'm doing.

And to be honest with you, I don't really like the people

around me. Yet here you are.

And maybe God knows that that's exactly where you're going to be

the most fruitful, where you're going to be most fruitful.

You see, God has a way when he defines fruit, the way that is

going to have an eternal impact and eternal significance.

He knows where we're going to be most fruitful.

So if we're going to be most fruitful for God then, and He

knows where we're going to be most fruitful, what does that

require of us? Again, taking notes with us.

Let's look at what all this means about me, what all this

tells me about me #1 I can never underestimate the importance of

being consistent in my faithfulness to God, of being

consistent, my faithfulness to God.

I grew up in a generation. I grew up in a generation that

highly, highly emphasized, big, audacious, huge things for God.

The bigger the idea, the crazier the idea, the more audacious the

goal, then obviously the more Godly it was.

Listen, I'm not knocking that. However, what I would tell you

is like through the rise of the Internet and blogs and

conferences, what ended up happening is we were showcasing

all these big, bold, huge, audacious things for God that we

inadvertently downplayed the day in, day out consistency with

God. We we listen.

I thank God for the men and the women that take the gospel of

Jesus to all over the world, to people that have never heard of

the name of Jesus before. I thank God for those men and

women. But I also thank God for the

stay at home mom that leans into Jesus and makes it a point to

teach her kids about Jesus and his love for them.

I thank God for for for the men and the women that that that are

doing these massive college campus crusades.

And I thank God for them, and we need them, but I also thank God.

I also thank God for the student that is intentionally living his

or her life as a light, living his or her life as a light to

the gospel in a Dark World that understands that they're

stepping into a classroom and the person on their left, the

right in front of them, behind them need the hope of Jesus in

their life. I thank God for the men and the

women that are standing on stages and preaching the gospel

to hundreds and thousands and 10's and hundreds of thousands

of people. I thank God for them, but I also

thank God for the man that goes to work every single day

understanding that hit one of his coworkers is going through a

very, very difficult time and he has a pretty good idea that that

man or that woman doesn't have a relationship with Jesus.

So he prays for him or her by name each today.

It is that day in, day out consistency you can never, you

can never underestimate the day in, day out consistency.

You see, it's not just about making headlines for the gospel.

It's about living a life that is fully devoted.

It is a consistency of spending time with God in prayer and a

consistency of, of reading God's word, and a consistency of, of,

of pouring worship music in you and over you throughout your day

as a consistency of, of seeking God and seeking His guidance in

whatever comes next in your life.

It is a consistency of God. I know that it seems that life's

storms are like blowing against me, but I'm going to hold on to

you because you have always been faithful to me.

It is a consistency to not break because I realize that what

often breaks me God can use as a breakthrough in me.

It is that day in that day out consistency.

And when I start to look at that consistency, then I start to, I

start to, I start to my, my, my goals start to change.

God begins to change my goals because my, my, my vocation is

not my identity. My vocation is my vehicle.

You follow me, my vocation is not my identity, my vocation is

my vehicle and this is what God begins to change my goals to

check this out. These are my new goals.

Second thing that this tells me about me is wherever I am,

whatever I face, whoever I'm with, my goal is fruit, more

fruit and much fruit and I gave out in parentheses John 15.

Here's one in John 15, Jesus is talking to the disciples.

He one of one of his most masterful teaching sessions.

And there's a phrase that he continues to use in John 15 and

it's the phrase abide in me. And essentially that phrase

abide in me means stay plugged into me.

If you stay plugged into me, then you'll bear fruit, you'll

bear more fruit and you'll bear much fruit.

There's a progression all through John 15 that progression

bear fruit, bear more fruit, bear much fruit.

And the goal's still the same is to make him known to the people

around us. It is to it is getting to heaven

and realizing like, listen by your grace and by your mercy, O

God, I am here. But I was faithful in what you

entrusted to me. So guess what?

Through your grace, through your mercy, and through using me, I

brought these other people with me.

I brought these other people with me.

Bear fruit, bear more fruit, bear much fruit.

Riverbend, if you want to know what my prayer over this church

is and over every single one of us is over this next year, well,

it's first and foremost. It's always same.

Prayer is everywhere that Riverbend touches, everywhere

that Riverbend Church touches physical campus, whether it's

meeting here on Sundays, online or virtual or virtual arena or

going out in our community. Things like Mule Camp, things

like serving our schools and our teachers in the name of Jesus.

One of my main goals and one of our goals is always going to be

this is that everywhere Riverbend touches that people

give their lives to Jesus. That people not because we're

something great, but because we serve a great Savior.

But the two really specific prayers over 2026 that I'm

praying through and I'm praying over this church is that number

one, that we would live in a culture of connectivity.

And here's what I mean by that is we are connected.

We are a diverse group of people, right?

What connects us is the gospel of Jesus.

And, and one of the things I love about Riverbend, I was

talking to somebody this past week about this.

So many different things over the past five years could have

split us, could have, could have splintered us, could have

fragmented us. But it's God's hand of

protection and his hand of blessing on Riverbend Church

that he's never allowed any of those things to become the main

thing. So the main thing's always the

gospel, right? So we are connected together by

the gospel of Jesus. And here's what I know.

Just practically speaking, a culture of connectivity means

that we are connected together by the gospel, but we are

connected together by the gospel even more effectively when we're

connected to one another, when we're connected to one another.

So it's a culture of connectivity.

But my second prayer over this church over this next year is

that we live out a culture of calling.

And a culture of calling means that you and I, we begin to

realize that because God knows where we will produce the most

fruit in our lives, He has strategically placed us where we

are when we are doing what we're doing around who we're doing it

with. Calling is not just for pastors,

by the way. So you could be pouring concrete

or you could be pushing carts at Kroger.

You could be a barista, or you could be a banker.

You can be a farmer or a pharmacist.

It's realizing that God has specifically tapped you on the

shoulder and said, you, I need you to fill this outpost to make

me known to the people that you will encounter in this line of

work. That is a culture of calling.

That is a culture of calling. Let me get it.

Get you to think of it this way, when we lived in Jacksonville

Beach, I became the I became the senior pastor when I was 27

years old. If you want to know my my take

on that, it's a really bad idea for a pastor to hire a 27 year

old pastor. A really bad idea for a church

to hire a 27 year old pastor. I can't tell you how many times

that I was asked this question over our ten years there.

So when did you feel called to become a senior pastor?

When did you feel called to become a senior pastor pastor?

When do you feel called to be a senior pastor?

I never really knew how to answer that.

And then one day I remember, I remember talking to a, to a

buddy of mine that he was wrestling through this whole

issue of calling and I and I told him, I said, you know,

Robbie, I don't know if I could tell you that I was called to be

a senior pastor. And he looked at me really weird

because that's a weird thing for the senior pastor of a church to

say. And I said, but what I can tell

you is I feel called to be the be the senior pastor of First

Baptist Jack's Beach. Do you see the difference there?

You see, when we transitioned away from that church and we

found ourselves at Bethlehem Christian Academy writing

curriculum and teaching, I felt no more, no less called there to

do that then I was when I was a pastor, lead pastor in

Jacksonville Beach. You know, when we were at Prince

Ave. and doing what I was doing there, I felt no more no less

called to become the executive pastor of River Bend Church.

I felt no more no less called to become the lead pastor of River

Bend Church than I did when I was the executive pastor of

River Bend Church. Calling is living in obedience

to what God has directly placed in front of you and using where

you are when you are around who you're around to reach the

people around you with the gospel.

So stay at home, Mom live called blue collar dad live called,

student live called, coach live called everywhere in between

live called. So to help us put some feet on

what it looks like for us to live called this week, I want to

walk us through three three key questions.

Here's the first one. What is my greatest enemy to my

consistency? What is my greatest enemy to my

consistency and what we're talking about like spending

consistent time in prayer, spending consistent time in the

Word, spending consistent time being consistent and being a

part of the church, coming to church, worshipping together.

What is the greatest enemy to my consistency?

I think that that answer is going to be different for

different people, different ages, different stages.

I think that we probably all have one in common.

You ever sat down to pray or to to read the Bible and you start

getting a lot of notifications? That's not by accident.

You ever sit down to pray and your mind just goes off like

1,000,000 miles away to all the stresses from yesterday and all

the stresses of today. It's not by accident.

I think it's really important that we identify though, what is

my greatest enemy to my consistency.

Second one, how have I measured fruitfulness differently than

God does? How have I measured fruitfulness

differently than God does? In other words, if we are living

for standing before God to hear him say, well done, my good and

faithful servant, what parts of our life will he point to and

what parts of our life will he be shot?

Will we be shot that that he won't point to?

You see all the things that have to do with us leading people to

him and showing him and his grace and his mercy and his

goodness and his hope and his salvation and his invitation to

take us just as we are without us having to clean up ourselves.

Those things last all other pursuits and they'll just burn

away. Third question in this season

and in this place, how can God bear fruit through me in this

season? What season are you in right

now? What place are you in right now?

I'll go ahead and tell you when we start talking about season

and place, we could probably spend all day talking about like

the hardships that we're going through, the different seasons

that we're going through. Man, I'm so tired.

I'm so, I'm so this, I'm so that, you know, a lot of times

when we, when we think about like serving in the church and

as the church, we often fall into this trap.

My life is chaotic. I can't serve right now and

we're just waiting on life to not be chaotic anymore.

Can I tell you something? Life's always going to be pretty

chaotic. There's always going to be a

measure of unhealth in our lives.

But I also tell you this, God is faithful and redeeming our time.

But where in this place, where in the season of your life right

now, can God bear fruit? You are not in some spiritual

purgatory to where God doesn't want to use you.

Because before God can use you, you've got to get everything

straightened out. God wants to use you exactly

where you are and exactly what you're going through right now

for your own good and for His glory.

But you've got to ask yourself this question in this place and

in this season, how can God bear fruit through me?

Do not waste this place. Do not waste this season.

It is incredibly strategic for you and for the people around

you. In just a moment, I'm going to

pray and we're going to end not just today, but we're going to

end this series with a song that maybe a few of you know, but

probably most of you don't. It's a song called Manasseh.

And it's, it's of course, after Joseph's first born son.

And we're going to invite you to to stay and we're going to

invite you to sing. But here's The thing is, I just

want Hannah and Connor in a lot of ways just to sing this over

you. Because as we close this series

of the life of Joseph out, we can thank God for every season

that we're in and we can look back and we can go, you know

what? I was in affliction, but God,

you made me fruitful in that affliction.

God, I went through some really hard times, but you made me

forget the pain behind me in light of the blessings in front

of me. So in just a moment, as we pray,

we're going to invite you to stand and you can sing with us.

You can not sing with us. You can come down and pray if

you want to pray, you can come down and talk to one of our

pastors if you want to talk to one of our pastors.

But I pray that this speaks over you, man.

This life, the series of the life of Joe's been so, so good.

And it doesn't have to end this morning.

Where does God want to bear fruit in my life here and now?

God, we love you and we thank you for your word.

God, we love you and we thank you for your presence.

God is a presence that is faithful to us even when we're

not faithful to you. God that is always aware of us,

even when we're not aware of you.

God is a presence that you as our perfect, loving heavenly

Father. We are always on your mind, even

when we allow our minds and our thoughts to get cluttered by

other things and lesser things. God, I pray that this morning,

God, you remind us of your faithfulness to us.

God, in whatever season, in whatever place we may find

ourselves this morning, God, you have been faithful, you are

faithful, You will continue to be faithful.

So God, as we get ready to close out this morning, got to pray

that your Holy Spirit would move in and through us this morning.

And it's in Jesus name that we pray, Amen.

Stand if you want to stand, sing if you want to sing, come pray.

If God is calling you to come, pray with His church.

You redeem the innocence that stolen you return the years that

thou were taken. You.

Every broken home inside my heart.

And you made. It all better.

This is my manasa. You've caused me to forget.

Your goodness washes over all the pain of my past.

This is my Manasa. You've caused me to forgive in

all my broken places. You'll rewrite in what's been

written. Thank you for Manassa.

Thank you for Manassa. You fulfilled every facet of my

purpose in the waiting when this islands felt so useless.

You changed me. You traded on my trauma.

For. Vintages of grace.

I can see it all now that this is my Manasseh, You've caused me

to forgive. Your goodness washes over the

world the pain of my past. This is my Manasseh you've

caused me to forgive. In all my.

Broken places you're rewriting what's?

Be written thank you for. Vanessa, I'm so grateful for

Vanessa. 'Cause it's a new season,

there's a new freedom. All I thought was lost.

You felt it made it. Better glory to glory.

Joyful my morning. There is nothing wasted.

You work. It all together.

The new season, there's a new freedom.

All I thought was love. You found.

And made it better. Glory.

To. Glory, joy for my money.

There is nothing wasting. You.

Work it all together. And this is Marmosa, this is

Marmosa 'cause this is Marmosa, you've caused me to forget.

Your goodness rushes over all the.

Pain of my past. This is my manasseh you've

caused me to. Forgive and all my broken.

Places you're. Rewriting what spirit?

Thank you. For Manasseh.

Riverbend, thank you so much for worshipping with us today.

Have a great week. Thank you for listening to

Riverbend Church's podcast. To find out more about this

message or Riverbend Church, connect with us online at

Riverbend Church dot live.