Secondhand Blessing | JOSEPH: From Pit To Palace (Part 6)

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We hope that you enjoy this message.

All right. Good morning, River in church.

Hope you're doing well. So glad to be able to worship

with you this Sunday. If we haven't had the chance to

meet yet, my name is Ben. Get to serve as the lead pastor

at Riverbend. If you are new, thank you so

much for choosing to be with us. We are in the midst of a series

called Joseph from Pit to Palace.

We've been in this series for several weeks, but before we

jump right back into the series, one just throw out kind of a

seemingly vague, seemingly rhetorical question.

Have you ever wanted to make a difference in someone else's

life? Has there ever been a point in

time to where you really desired to make a difference?

Maybe it was in one person's life.

Maybe it was in a group of people's life.

Maybe it was an entire environment.

Have you ever wanted to make a difference in someone else's

life? My, my guess is the answer to

that is probably yes. But just to just kind of add

some participation if you're joining us online, when I say

raise your hand if you're driving, don't because you will

make a difference in someone else's life, just not in a

positive way. You're also going to make a

difference in your insurance premiums, but raise your hand if

you would say, hey, there's been a point in time or maybe you're

there right now. There has been a point in time

to where I know I have desperately wanted to make a

difference in someone else's life.

Raise your hand. Probably every single one of us,

right? You're, you're either there now

or you have been you. You're either at A at a point of

like passion, God, please use me, or you.

You can think back to a point to where you were passionate about

the possibility of God using you.

I have no doubt that the vast majority of us, if not all of

us, we would love to have God use our life to make a

difference in our homes and in the in the men and women and in

the family members of of our family.

I have no doubt that there's that students you, you have no

you, you have a desire, deep desire for God to use your life

to make a difference in your school or or if you're if you're

if you're working in an office, no doubt online in the room, no

doubt about it. You have a desire, a deep desire

for God to use your life to make a difference in your workplace

environment. The desire is there, right?

I think that we can all agree that the desire to make a

difference for God, to allow God to use our lives to make a

difference, that is there. The variable, however, at least

it is for me, is I start to think about my own limitations.

I start to think about how big the issue is.

And then when I factor in the fierce undercurrent of culture,

then I, I, I'm kind of left paralyzed.

So the variable is not do we want God to use our lives to

make a difference for Him in the lives of other people?

The question is, how do we even start?

How do we even start allowing God to use us to make a

difference in other people's life?

And, and that's really where we're going to be heading this

morning, looking at the life of a man by the name of Joseph.

Over the past several weeks, we've been walking through this

life of a guy by the name of Joseph, whose life, his ups and

downs are chronicled for us in the book of Genesis.

So if you have a Bible with you, I want to invite you to find

Genesis chapter 41. Genesis chapter 41 is where

Genesis 41 · chapter mention Genesis 41 · chapter mention

we're going to be hanging out this morning.

And if you're new to the series, let me kind of go ahead and and

give you some brief background info that's going to be helpful

to kind of catch you up to make sure that what we're about to

read together is going to make a little bit more sense.

This guy by the name of Joseph, he was severely beaten.

He was betrayed. He was sold into slavery by his

brothers at the age of 17 years old.

He was then carted off over 300 miles away from home into the

foreign country and culture of Egypt to where he was sold again

as a slave to a man by the name of Potiphar.

He's false accused of crimes he did not commit.

He's thrown into prison. If you were with us last week,

we talked about how Joseph was forgotten by his only ally and

his only legal lifelong the a guy that was that was Pharaoh's

royal cupbearer to where Joseph interpreted a dream for him.

And Joseph in return said, hey, listen, the only thing that I

ask is if you that you Remember Me when Pharaoh brings you up

out of the prison into the palace 3 days from now.

Mr. Cupbearer, would you please mention my name and my case to

Pharaoh because I'm here unjustly.

I didn't do anything wrong. I was snatched from my hometown

and I was card off 300 miles away.

And the cupbearers like, yeah, I got you Joseph.

And then we read the end of Chapter 40 to where it said and

the cupbearer forgot about Joseph.

So here you got this guy sitting in prison, falsely accused, did

nothing wrong, but all accounts pretty much did everything

right. And he's forgotten about by his

only ally in legal lifeline. Any one of those things, one of

the things we've been talking about throughout this series,

any one of those things, much less all of them combined

collectively over a short amount of time could have greatly

threatened Joseph. And we would even say naturally

would have threatened Joseph to to break him to it would have

greatly tempted him to just kind of give up being faithful to

God. It would have tempted him just

to kind of go along with it, go with the flow and to live kind

of in survival mode without any type of purpose behind.

But he didn't. And one of the things that we

see playing out through the life of Joseph is a truth and a

principle that's been serving as the big idea throughout our

series. And if you've been with us over

these last few weeks, this will sound very familiar.

But if you're new to Riverbend or new to the series, let me go

ahead and introduce you to the new idea.

If you're taking notes with us, just jot this down.

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

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

And we've seen through the life of Joseph the things that could

have easily broken him. God is going to actually end up

turning to the good. He's going to end up turning to

the good. And here we got a guy that was

that, that was thrown into a pit.

He was thrown into a prison. And then God turned those things

that could have easily broken him into breakthrough to where

now he's elevated. By the time we get to Genesis

41, he's elevated to the palace of Pharaoh.

But if you were with us last week, we talked about how the

palace wasn't so much a destination as much as it was a

platform for Joseph's mission. To show you what I mean, I want

to get you to look Genesis chapter 41, and we're going to

Genesis 41 · chapter mention

look at just verse 46. So it says, Joseph was 30 years

old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went

through all the land of Egypt. During the seven plentiful

years, the earth produced abundantly.

And he gathered up all the food of those seven years which

occurred in the land of Egypt. And he put the food in the

cities. He put in every city the food

from the fields around it. And Joseph stored up grain in

great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to

measure it, for it could not be measured.

Now what's going on there is Joseph is actually brought up

from the prison to Pharaoh's palace because Pharaoh had a

series of dreams, disturbing dreams, and God gave Pharaoh the

interpretation of these dreams through Joseph.

And the interpretation of the dreams was, hey, Pharaoh,

there's going to be 7 years of, of plenty.

There's going to be 7 years to where crops, like crops are

going to grow abundantly like never before.

And, and, and that's going to be a blessing, but then following

those seven years, there's going to be 7 years of severe famine.

And this wasn't just a interpretation of dream for

information. It was an interpretation of a

dream for action. So what Joseph could have done

being elevated to 2nd command after Pharaoh, Pharaoh's dreams

are interpreted by Joseph. Joseph is elevated by Pharaoh to

2nd command. Pharaoh could have just sat

there and went, hey, great info Joseph.

Thanks so much for the heads up. But again, this interpretation

of the dream was never just for information.

It was for action. Look with me down at verse 56.

It says so when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph

opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the

famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain

because the famine was severe over all the earth.

So in seven years, ironically 7 verses later, from a time of

plenty and abundance, you have this massive famine.

You have this massive famine that that breaks loose on the

entire region. And just kind of as an

interesting side note, just kind of doing some research into this

message, there is an island in the South of Egypt.

It's actually located in the middle of the Nile River called

the Sahel Island. SEHEL, the Sahel island.

And in 1889, in 1889, there was an American journalist and

explorer by the name of CE Wilbur.

CE Wilbur decided to go on Sahel Island.

And on Sahel Island he finds this stone.

And on this stone there are 32 lines of Egyptian hieroglyphics

inscribed on this stone. This stone is now known as the

the famine, The Famine Stella. The famine Stella is a stone

that has 32 lines of Egyptian hieroglyphics that outline 7

years of severe famine during the Egyptian dynasty, to which

most scholars believe that that corresponds with these seven

years of famine that Genesis 41 is actually referring to.

Also, just kind of as an interesting side note, there's a

cave system in India. There's a cave system in India

by the name of Malu Cave. In Malu Cave, geologists tell us

that there is evidence of this mega drought that affected the

entire world and they're able to date it about 4000 years ago to

the time of Joseph. Isn't it amazing how archaeology

many times catches up with the Bible and what the Bible tells

us is happening? So you have Joseph actually

leading the nation of Israel to conserve grain so that through

their conservation, God can save not just Egypt, but the region

around Egypt, the world region around Egypt from mass

starvation. Now, as we've done in every week

throughout this series, we have to ask ourselves three main

questions. Number one, what does any of

this tell us about Joseph? What does any of this tell us

about God? And most importantly for us, if

you're new to church, you're probably wondered, why does any

of this matter to me? Thanks for the history lesson.

But why in the world does this matter to me?

And what we're going to see together is it's going to have

massive implications for you and I and where we are right now,

where we've been, where we are and.

Where God's going to take us. So let's start with that first

question. What does these two passages

that we just read? What does it tell us about

Joseph? The first thing it tells about

Joseph is the palace was never Joseph's prize.

It was his platform the the palace.

Was never Joseph's prize. It was his platform.

You see, we can say that it was never Joseph's prize because

Joseph didn't do anything to earn the palace.

He didn't do anything to deserve the palace.

So it wasn't his prize that he won.

Instead, it was Joseph's platform.

Platform for what? It was the platform for his

mission to tell the people around him about his God.

And everywhere that Joseph went all the way through from Exodus

or from Genesis 37 all the way to Genesis 50, we see Joseph

telling the people around him about his God, that there is one

true God that loves them and that he knows them, and that

this one true God, they can know him.

So this elevating to the palace wasn't a prize that Joseph

earned or something that he deserved.

It actually was a platform to continue, continue His mission.

And now being second command over the entire nation of Egypt,

that platform was even greater. One of the truths that you and I

that we talked about last week is when God elevates us, when

God promotes us to the palace, when He raises our platform, it

is not for necessarily our own benefit.

It is so that His message can reach further and that's exactly

what we see happening in the life of Joseph.

Second thing that this entire passage tells us about Joseph is

Joseph knew that the palace because it wasn't a prize, but

it was a platform. He knew that the palace was not

for resting. It wasn't for bragging, but it

was for what it was for serving. It wasn't for resting.

It wasn't for bragging, but it was for serving.

Now, I'm going to ask that you that you put yourself in the

shoes of Joseph for just a moment.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Joseph's bed in his bedroom was

much more comfortable than baking in the bottom of a pit in

the desert when he was 17 years old.

I am 1000% confident in saying that Joseph's bed and his

bedroom, his living quarters in the palace, was far more

comfortable than being carted off in a slave cart.

I would guarantee you that his bed and his living quarters and

his arrangements in the palace were far greater, much more

luxurious and more comfortable than his slave quarters in

Potiphar's house. And they certainly were much

more comfortable than his prison digs and all those years that he

spent in prison. It would have been so easy, it

would have been so easy and and even maybe expected by some for

Joseph to be shown to his palace quarters to be tucked into bed,

have like a nice little Andy's Candies mint, put on his pillow

and sit there and go ah this is the life and not leave his

bedroom. But Joseph knew that the palace

wasn't for resting, nor was it for bragging.

Again, put yourself in Joseph's shoes.

He is a 30 year old young man who has gone from a slave, a

foreign foreign slave, to 2nd command of all of Egypt Pharaohs

right hand man. The only person that is more

powerful in the entire Egyptian empire at that point in time, it

was Pharaoh himself. And that was completely

unprecedented. And it could have been very easy

for Joseph to, to get a big head and to, to, to become arrogant

and go, man, look at how far I've come to look at life.

As he was experiencing then in light of where he came from and

go man, look at how far I've come, I've made it.

And it could have been a place of bragging, but instead.

Joseph knew that it wasn't a place of resting for resting.

It wasn't a place for bragging. It was a place of leading by

serving others. This isn't in your notes.

This is just a side point. If you're in any type of

leadership position, whether it's in the home, whether it's

in your neighborhood, whether it's on your team, whether it's

in your class, whether it's in your workplace, if you're in any

leadership position, the way to lead that follows the example of

Jesus is by serving others. It is not about, it's not about

a title, it's not about a position.

It's about serving others. That's free.

But Joseph knew that the palace was a place for him to lead by

serving. So how did he serve?

He actually got out to city to city, region to region and he

went to work. He went to work.

He served the Egyptian people by convincing them, hey, listen,

there's seven years of plenty that are coming.

Agricultural growth. We're going to have lots of

grain, lots of food. We need to store it back.

We need to store it back and he led.

The nation he served the nation of Egypt by causing them to

serve to to store back their grain.

He also ended up serving the entire region of that world by

storing back the grain and causing them to avoid

starvation. But how does Joseph serving, how

does it coincide with his position and his platform?

Remember what we said that Joseph's position was or his

platform was, his mission was? Is to tell people about his God.

Now I'm going to ask that we go back in time 4000 years ago.

Let's say that you're a city leader and you got this young 30

year old that's coming up. He he, he's not even he's not

he's not from around here at all.

He's from over 300 miles away. And he comes and tells you, hey,

listen, we need to put some of this food back.

We need to build some silos. We need to identify an area of

town or maybe an area outside of the outside of this development

over here. And we need to build some grain

silos. And you got to imagine that

these city leaders or these officials, these regional

officials who've probably been at their job longer than

Joseph's even been alive. There's got to be a lot of

sideways glances and rolled eyes.

And basically there's probably going to be one of them that has

the courage to go. Hey, Sir, can I ask you a

question? Why?

How confident? Like, why should we do it?

Like, how do you know that what you're asking us to do is

actually necessary? And Can you imagine Joseph's

response? I guarantee you.

He probably had the same conversation from every city,

from every regional leader. Hey, my God told me that this is

what we should be doing. And you got to imagine, you got

to imagine these city officials, these regional leaders probably

just rolled their eyes and go, all right, you heard the guy.

Let's build the silos. Let's put the let's put the the

grain reserves in the silos. I think he's kind of off his

rocker. I think the old man Pharaoh, I

think he's kind of lost it. He's appointed the wrong

secretary of agriculture. But listen, that's above my pay

grade. We're just going to go ahead and

do what the guy tells us to do. And they probably did that for

the first seven years. But I wonder what their response

was when the seven years of famine happened.

I guarantee you those same city leaders in those regional

leaders probably thought back to those conversations with Joseph

and go and thought, you know what, he was right.

There's something to that guy's God.

And because Joseph didn't view the palace as a prize, but as a

platform for his mission, there were probably a lot of people

that were led to a faith and a trust in God.

So that's what it tells us about Joseph.

Speaking of Joseph's God, what does this passage tell us about

God? Number one, God will equip us

for what he's called us to. God will equip us for what He's

called us to now. 30 year old Joseph.

Let's talk a little bit about what Joseph would need in order

to be able to a do his job and B come across as halfway credible

in his job as the new Egyptian Secretary of agriculture.

All right, just to name a few just off the top of our head.

Joseph would at least need a working knowledge, a working

knowledge of agriculture, right, like botany and horticulture and

irrigation. Joseph Wood would probably need

a working knowledge, a working knowledge of mathematics to to

be able to rightly ration the people's food or to lead the

city and the regional leaders to rightly ration the the the

people's food during the seven years of of plenty.

He would probably need a basic understanding of economics to

lead these areas in building new grain silos.

These grain silos didn't exist. They didn't have like empty

grain silos that that Joseph is going.

Hey, listen, I know that way back in the day, your grand

pappy, he built this grain silo and it's been sitting dormant

ever since. It's we need to build new grain

silos. We need to build grain silos

outside the city, inside the city, because there's a famine

that's going to take place. And here's how we need to do

that. He would need, at the very

least, a basic understanding of diplomacy to know how to to get

things done and to know how to grease the wheels of these city

leaders in these regional leaders.

Now, if you've been with us throughout these past few weeks,

let me ask you a question. Where in the world in Joseph's

illustrious background? As a former slave and convict,

do you think that Joseph got any of that training?

He didn't. So how in the world was Joseph

able to do what God called him to do is because God equipped

Joseph to do what God called Joseph to do.

Did you know the same thing is true for you and I?

Is that whatever God calls us to, he will equip us for.

And we're going to come back to this, to this thought in just a

moment. You see, I'm convinced that

there are men and women and students with us this morning in

the room and online that you have a God sized dream that you

have this crazy big dream or you have this, you have this calling

that you feel that God has placed to own your life.

And if you're new to church, let me kind of identify or let me

kind of define calling. Calling is when God places

strategic and specific opportunities in front of you

for you to seize and to walk into because you know you have a

confidence that he's the one that's placed those in front of

you and you have the confidence that this is his work in and

through you. That's calling.

Some of us, we have a God size calling, but we're so

intimidated to step into that calling because we feel so in

equipped or unequipped for that calling.

And here's what I would tell you.

Do not allow what you are not equipped for now to keep you

from being obedient to what God has called you to just as God

gave Joseph on the job training many times, many times God

equips us while we are in motion.

Many times God equips us while we're in motion.

And if you grew up in church, you know all the all the Bible

excuses out there be like, well. The Israelites didn't walk

across on dry ground in the Red Sea until the waters parted, so

I'm just waiting for the waters to part in front of me and then

I know well that's true. But if you read.

On into the book of Joshua did you know that God also parted

the Jordan River? But when did he part the Jordan

River? It says when the people's feet

first touched the water, the river parted.

If you see more times than not God equips us in the midst of

motion and obedience to Him, then He does in our waiting.

Do not allow, never allow what you feel unequipped for to

hinder you from following what God has called you to.

There's an old Christian saying. There's an old Christian bumper

sticker theology and y'all know how much I love bumper sticker

theology. There's an old Christian, we'll

call it Christianese if you will, but it's but it is very

true. God does not call the equipped,

He equips the called. That's true.

God does not call the equipped, He equips the called.

So listen, here's what I would tell you that our responsibility

is walking forward in obedience. God's responsibility is

equipping us while we're walking forward in obedience.

And here's the best news of it all.

God is always faithful. God is always faithful.

Can I throw, before we transition into that next point

about God, Can I throw something else out?

Because I'm, I'm, I'm firmly believing that there are some of

us this morning that that God has put a burning passion on

your life and a calling on your life.

And I don't know what all that looks like, but there's a

hesitancy. There's a hesitancy to step into

that because you're afraid that you're not equipped and because

you're not equipped that you're going to fall flat on your face.

Let me get you to think about it from a different angle.

Did you know that God probably cares more about your calling,

you, stepping forward in your obedience and using you to bring

about His glory than you do? I think that God wants to

release us of a lot of fear to where he says, hey, listen, I

know that you're afraid of failure.

I got you. I got that.

I'm more concerned about failure than you are, Ben.

So listen, God will always equip us for what He has called us to.

Second thing that we know about God or that this tells us about

God is God cares about the one and the 99.

God cares about the one and the 99.

This right here is a reference to a parable that Jesus told is

recorded to for us twice, once in the book of Matthew, once in

the book of Luke. And a parable is a story that

God that Jesus would tell to bring about a spiritual point

and a spiritual truth. It's an understandable story or

illustration that would be greatly understood and

universally understood by the people of his original crowd and

audience that pointed people to a truth about God.

And in this one, he tells the story of a shepherd who loses 1

sheet. Here's what here's what I want

to show you. Look at Matthew chapter 18 in

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

your notes. I gave you both references.

You can look both of them up. The one in loose a little bit

longer. But Matthew 18, Jesus says, what

do you think if a man has 100 sheep and one of them has gone

astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in

search of the one that went astray?

And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more

than over the 99 that never went astray.

What's Jesus point in this parable?

Jesus point in the parable is he's pointing out to us how much

God loves us, and as a matter of fact that he's telling us that

if we were the only person, if you were the only person on

earth, that God loves you so much that he would send his son

to die on a cross for you so that you could be made right

with him. He's talking about the emphasis

on the one, but the emphasis on the 1 does not devalue the 99.

The emphasis of the one does not devalue the 99.

As a matter of fact, we look at the pattern of how God uses men

and women. And God has always specialized

and still specializes in using the life of a fully devoted man

or woman, a fully devoted man or woman, to him to change the

course, to change the trajectory in the course of generations to

come. So in this case, God uses the

one Joseph to reach the 99 in Egypt.

And guess what? He still does the same with you

and I. One of the reasons that God

wants to use you so much the 1, is so that you can go out and

reach the multitudes. You can go out and reach the 99.

So God cares about the one and He cares about the 99.

So what does any of this tell us about ourselves?

This is where it comes to. Why does any of this matter to

me? Here's the first thing I would

tell you. When I walk in obedience to God,

those around me also experience His blessing.

When I walk in obedience to God, those around me also experience

His blessing. You see, not only did Pharaoh,

but the entire Egyptian empire in that region of the world

experienced the blessing of God through Joseph's faithfulness

and obedience to God. And it's the same thing for you

and I. Is when you and I walk in

obedience with God, then those around us in our immediate

sphere of influence in our immediate sphere of influence,

they also will experience God's blessing.

Does I was talking to somebody this morning and we were talking

about just kind of aversions to to to crowds.

Let me kind of introduce this is like been vernacular.

Has any of y'all, any of y'all ever heard of the hula hoop

rule? Here's the hula hoop rule.

Imagine that I have a hula hoop around me and imagine that you

have a hula hoop around you and I promise not to get in your

hula hoop if you promise not to get in my hula hoop.

That's the hula hoop rule, right?

We love the people that that are like really close talkers, don't

we? To where we're constantly

backing up and they constantly follow us as if as if it's some

type of dance. The reason I bring up the hula

hoop rule is think about the relationships and the levels of

influence that we have around us.

That my obedience to God, God always blesses my obedience

towards him and his in my faithfulness towards him.

And guess who else gets secondhand blessing out of that?

The people that are in my close proximity.

Same things true for for you and I.

So here's where I would tell you Dad, father figure.

If you want your family to experience the blessing of God,

you need to be very resolute in being obedient to His ways and

submissive to His word. Ma'am, if you want your friend

group to experience the blessing of God, you have to be very

resolute that, hey, listen, I'm going to be obedient to the word

of God and I'm going to be submissive to the ways of God.

If you're, if you're an employer, if you're a

supervisor, if, if you're a team lead, if you want your team, you

want your organization to experience the blessing of God.

And by the way, when we're talking about blessing of God,

we're not talking about health and wealth.

What we're talking about is peace in the midst of chaos.

We're talking about joy in the midst of the storm.

We're talking about a love, a supernatural love in the midst

of massive polarization. If you want your team to

experience the blessing of God, then you have got to be resolute

to. And walk faithfully in the ways

of God and live fully surrender to the word of God.

You see other people are blessed that second hand blessing God

has a way of blessing the people around me through my

faithfulness and my obedience to him.

Second thing is this tells us about God is even the smallest

steps of obedience today set the stage for God's greater work

tomorrow. The smallest steps, the

seemingly smallest steps of obedience today set the stage

for God's greater work tomorrow. This is where we come full

circle back to our original question.

Remember our original question, original question was, hey, has

there ever been a point in time and maybe you're there now to

where you really want to make a difference in someone else's

life. You want God to use you to make

a difference in the lives of of maybe your classroom, maybe the

lives of your workplace, the lives in your home, but you just

don't know where to start. You don't know where to start.

This is where we come full circle to that.

Let's look at the example of Joseph, the life of Joseph.

Do you know where it all began for Joseph?

I think it began with that first footstep outside of Joseph's

palace bedroom. Where he could have stayed in

bed, he could have enjoyed the lap of luxury.

It began with that one small step, and then that step led to

another step. To where?

Then those series of steps led him from city to city and town

to town and region to region. To where that one small,

seemingly small step of Joseph led to a blessing of an entire

nation. Let me ask you a question.

What's your small step of obedience this morning?

Let me be very, very like vulnerable, very real and very

honest with you, church, whether you're in the room, whether

you're with us online. I happen to believe that anytime

we gather together, anytime we spend time in God's Word, I

believe that there's always a step of obedience that God calls

us to. I believe there's always a step

of obedience that God calls us to.

We don't gather together to sit there and go.

Man, I didn't know about that. That was good background info.

I'll remember that next time I watch Jeopardy.

It's not just like God's interpretation of of of

Pharaoh's dreams to Pharaoh. They weren't given for

information, they were given for action.

Whenever we spend time in God's word and, and especially when

we're together corporately and we lift our voices and sing

together and we pray together and we're encouraged by one

another, it's never for information.

It's always for action. And that action is what is that

small step of obedience that God is calling me to?

You know that that that step of obedience may be for you this

morning. I need to finally let go and

surrender my life to Jesus. I need to know that I have a

relationship with God. Let me tell you a really cool

story. If you were with us last last

Sunday night or night of worship.

I told this story after the 11:00 service last week.

There, there was a man and a woman that were standing like

right here. It was right after the service

and they, they were just waiting, they're waiting to, to,

to say something, to talk. So this man and woman, they come

up to me and they say, Hey, we need to talk to you about being

baptized. And I was like, well, that's

great. Let's talk about what is, what

is baptism? Tell me about your relationship

with Jesus. They, we don't have a

relationship with Jesus. That's what we came to talk to

you about because we want to have a relationship with Jesus.

And I was like, I tell you what, let's go to my office.

So go to my office and and I'm talking to him.

And I was like, so you want to give your life to Jesus?

And they're like, yes, that's why we are here.

And they're looking at me like you're a pastor, right?

Like you seem pretty dense on this.

That's why we are here. So anyway, they both this

husband and wife, they give their life to Jesus and we're

going to be able to celebrate their baptism with twelve

others, at least twelve others next Sunday night at our late

baptism at Laurel Park. So after, after, after I, after

I get up, pray with them, walk them out, I go looking for

Julie. I was like, all right, so

where's Julie? We need to find out.

Are we going to Taco Mac or going to El Sombrero?

Because those are pretty much the Sunday options, right?

And I can't find Julie. So I'm walking up and down the

hallway and I pass the conference room and I see

somebody in the, in the conference room and, and there

Julie is and their, their, their lady in our church is and, and,

and A and a child. And they motioned for me to come

in. And this 5th grade little girl

said, Hey, I need to give my life to Jesus.

And it's just absolutely amazing to where in the span of just a

few minutes, we have a husband and wife, We have a 5th grade

little girl give their life to Jesus.

Later on that afternoon, we get a we, we get a message, our, our

all staff Slack message, one of our staff members, her, her

father-in-law gave his life to Jesus.

And we're sitting there going, praise God, Maybe this morning,

maybe this morning, your step of obedience, you know what it is,

is to let go and to give your life to Jesus.

Maybe your step of obedience is you've given your life to Jesus.

But every time we talk about baptism, you start to tense up

because you know that that's a step of obedience that you need

to take in your relationship with God.

You're just hesitant to do so because you're worried about

what the other people around you're going to think.

Let me go ahead and tell you what they're going to think.

They're going to celebrate with you.

I'm not just telling you that from a place of sympathy.

I'm telling you that from a place of empathy because you're

looking at somebody that gave his life to Jesus as a fourth

grader and fought that all the way up to the summer before he

started college. And it to be able to go back in

time. I would have done it so much

sooner. I would have done it immediately

after I gave my life to Jesus as a fourth grader in the month of

May. I wouldn't have waited.

That long, but you know that that's your step of obedience.

Maybe your step of obedience is you need to make that

appointment to sit down with that counselor.

You need to send that text, that call, have that conversation

with that person and you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Maybe your step of obedience is to say, Hey God, here I am,

please use me. I know that I'm not equipped for

what you've called me to, but I kind of understand that's the

point because it's not about me, it's all about you.

So here I am, use me. So here's the question.

What's your step of obedience to help give us some handles and to

to have some clarity around what that looks like for you.

This morning I want to show you 3 key questions that we'll walk

through very briefly #1 in what ways have I falsely viewed the

Palace as a prize rather than a platform?

In what ways have I falsely viewed the palace as a prize

rather than a platform? This is me as your pastor.

Just like being real with you. One of the things that I see

that is so easy for us to enter into is if you grew up in church

and you were faithful in church and you served in church for

years and years and years, the moment that kids move out and

you become an empty nester, it's so easy to go.

I made it, and we start to view the palace as a prize rather

than a platform. So we unplug from God using US

in the ways that He has used us at the very moment that we have

been given supernatural wisdom and the experience of His

faithfulness to pour into the lives that have come before us

or after us. So in what ways have I viewed

the palace? Sit there and go.

This is a place, Forrest, or this is a place for bragging.

Look how far I've come. In what ways have I viewed the

palace falsely viewed the palace as a prize rather than a

platform? Second question.

How do I need God to equip me for what he's called me to?

Again, going back to that God sized dream.

That God sized dream may have something to do with the

confines of your own home. That God sized dream may have

may have to do with your own business, with your own career.

That God sized dream may involve you going back to school.

That God sized dream may involve you moving overseas.

That God sized dream may mean anything and everything that God

has placed on your heart that you cannot get away from.

That is a burning. Passion within you, yet you feel

so unequipped and unprepared to take hold of it.

And I would tell you that's the point.

God did not call the equipped. He equips the called.

So our step is obedience. God's responsibility is the

equipping. So maybe your step of obedience

is to sit there and go. OK God, here I am, all that I

am. It ain't much, you know.

You created me. Prepare me for what you have

prepared for me. That's your step of obedience #3

General. What step of obedience do I need

to take today? What step of obedience do I need

to take today? The reason that God has brought

us here this morning is for this.

Moment, this sacred moment to where you and I, every single

one is. We're at a fork in the road.

We either take that step of obedience or we just swipe it

off to the side and go maybe next week.

Here's why I would encourage you.

Never swipe it off to the side. Let me go ahead and pray over

us. And after I pray, we're going to

have an opportunity to stand. We're going to have an

opportunity to sing together, but most importantly, we're

going to have an opportunity to pray together.

So whatever your step of obedience looks like, I would

encourage you come down and pray.

If you want to talk to myself or you want to talk to Todd, we'll

be down here. We would love to pray with you.

We'd love to celebrate with you. We'd love to help you however we

can. But you're the one that needs to

take that first step. So God, we love you and we thank

you for loving us as the one. But God loving us so much that

you want to call us and equip us to reach the many.

God, in that calling, there will be highs and lows.

There'll be seasons of pits, there'll be seasons of prisons,

there'll be seasons of palaces. God, I pray that you would help

us to understand that the palace seasons are never our prize.

The Palace seasons are a higher platform for the mission that

you have called us to God. For many of us, that mission, it

scares us to death because we know ourselves and we know how

unequipped we are. God, would you help us to

understand that our responsibility is obedience to

step into that calling. Your responsibility is equipping

while we're on the move in the midst of that calling.

God, would you give us the faith to live that out?

Would you give us the faith for that one step?

And God, I pray that you would not only bring clarity to what

that one step of obedience is for us this morning, but God,

that you would bring a resolve. God that we want you.

We want to be in the center of your will, walking in your ways

more than anything else. God, I pray that you would have

your way through us this morning.

It's in Jesus name we pray, Amen.

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.