“Prepared Days” by Pastor Daniel Floyd

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Welcome to church, everybody.

Glad you're here today.

Come on.

Let's put our hands together for Jesus one more time at all of our campuses.

What a great day to be in church.

You agree?

Yeah.

Good.

Women's night's coming up.

You don't want to miss that.

Women, make sure you get registered.

The registrations are going fast.

And uh all the guys in the room don't register.

But make whatever you have to do for the lady in your life, make it easy for them to go.

Watch the kids, pick them up.

If you're an uncle, grandfather, husband, friend, uh, make it super easy for them to be a part of that evening.

It's gonna be a powerful time.

And then September the 13th, everybody shout 13th.

We begin a new series called This Is Us, gonna go for four weeks.

We're gonna be talking all about the vision of our church, where we believe God is taking us.

What does the Bible teach us that the purpose of the church is?

You know, we don't get to decide that.

Um there's one there's one chief shepherd, his name is Jesus, and he's already told us what mission we should be on, so we're gonna be unpacking that from the word of God.

So if you call Gateway home or you're like, man, I wonder what the future holds, then make sure you're here for those four weeks.

It's gonna be a great time together.

You ready for the word today?

The word of God, I'm ready to jump in.

We've been in this series called Best Days, and we're in week number three.

If you've missed it, I encourage you to go back and get it online.

Do want to say hello to all of our campuses, and of course, everyone joining us online or on demand later in the week or some other time.

And our gateway gatherings, and a big hello to our prison campuses.

I get so much great feedback from you guys and women, we love you.

You're not a project, you're a part of our family.

And um, somebody, they told me whenever I said we visited all the campuses, I got word back from the prison campus said you haven't come here yet.

We are working on it.

I promise you, we are working on it.

So we will come see you and uh love to see that part of our church family.

I want to bring a message today entitled This, This Thought, Your Best Days are what?

They're your prepared days.

How do you prepare for the days ahead?

I want to look at the story of the life of Joseph from the Old Testament, one of my favorite stories in all of Scripture.

We're gonna jump in in chapter 41, verse 37, and it says this the plans seem good to Pharaoh and to all his officials.

So Pharaoh asked them, Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God?

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has made all this known to you, I'll give you the context in a little bit of what all this is, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.

You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders.

Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.

So Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.

How many of you know that is a good promotion day?

It's a big job.

Let's pray together.

Father, our hearts and minds are open to you.

So, Holy Spirit, would you speak to us?

We believe your word has the power to change us today, and we'll never be the same because of it in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

How many of you by show of hands, come on every campus, participate?

You would say you hate showing up somewhere unprepared.

You hate, okay.

How many of you by show of hands would say this?

You had a recurring nightmare that you got to class and you had not studied for the test?

I never had that nightmare.

Sometimes I had that reality.

Never had that nightmare.

Sometimes I showed up and just wasn't ready.

I have this reoccurring.

You don't know my recurring nightmare?

It has been for decades.

I have this dream often.

I've had it since we've been here in Texas.

That I get up to preach and I'm not prepared.

That I've got up and I haven't studied and I don't know what I'm gonna say, and I'm fumbling over my words, making a fool of myself.

It is my recurring nightmare.

I wake up and my heart rate is racing.

It feels so real to me.

Are y'all with me?

Somebody just said, Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I feel like I'm loved.

How many of you know though showing up unprepared is just bad in life?

Like showing up prepared for the meeting, unprepared for the sales proposal, unprepared for the school, whatever it may be.

Showing up unprepared is not good and it creates a lot of anxiety in our life.

But how many of you also know that there are some things in life you cannot prepare for?

You can't prepare for the job loss, you can't prepare for the injury that took you out from the season you thought you would have.

You can't prepare for the wrecked car, the sick child.

Like you just can't prepare for these things in life.

And the question I want us to wrestle with is what do we do in the unprepared moments?

Let me say it this way.

Who do we become in the unprepared moments?

Not just what is happening around us, but maybe what happens in us in the moments where we are not prepared for what life throws at us, and it's gonna happen to all of us.

Jesus said it himself, in this world you will have trouble.

You're gonna have trouble in this life, you know, not to discourage you on this beautiful Sunday, but you're gonna have trouble.

But Jesus says, but take heart, I've overcome the world.

So we have victory in the middle of our troubles.

But the reality is we're all gonna face unprepared moments in life.

And so what do we do in those moments?

Now, Joseph was facing a moment in his life where, from the look of the con of the text, it doesn't match the setup of the message.

We're talking about challenging moments, trouble moments, and then we read this passage of Joseph going to prominence.

He's basically the prime minister of Egypt.

Only Pharaoh is higher than him.

I mean, think about this scene for a moment.

Joseph comes in, I'll give you a little more context in a moment, but Pharaoh and all the officials say it's good for you to have this job.

Think about that for a moment.

Pharaoh and all the officials, so all the officials are like, we want you to be our boss.

This is the moment he's having right here.

He's put over all the prime minister of Egypt.

But if all you do is read a segment of Joseph's story, you could be misled to think that is the totality of his story.

If all you read is the highlight reel of his story, you don't know that there's a backstory.

And sometimes we do this to people in our life.

We see the highlight moments because how many of you know we only post the highlight reels?

Nobody posted this week when you yelled at your kid.

Right?

Nobody posted this week when you cut off the driver, right?

We don't post that.

We post the highlight reels, the smiling moments.

And we can begin to think that God, people God uses greatly, or even people we admire, that it's all the highlight reels.

And I would tell you that there is always a backstory.

That there's always some valleys before there are some mountaintops, that there's always some challenges before there are some victories.

There's always a backstory, so you got to put it in context.

Everybody shout context.

If you're new to Bible study, this is important because context means I don't cherry pick a verse out and make it say what I want it to say.

That's how weird things get started.

That's how cults begin, everybody.

Like I take one little verse out, you gotta put it in context.

Context is simply what's it said before the text, what it's saying after the text, who's the original audience it's written to, what is the context that is happening around the text?

And so here's the context of the life of Joseph.

You're with me, say amen.

So here's Joseph.

Joseph is born to a mom and a dad named Jacob and Rachel.

Jacob with Rachel, that's an interesting story, because he goes to marry Rachel and the father-in-law tricks him and slips Leah into the tent.

And Leah wasn't as uh nice on the eyes.

This is all in the Bible.

I'm not making this up.

You need to read your Bible.

Like, was it?

So then Joseph waited around so he could marry Rachel, who he really wanted to marry anyways, before he got tricked, which is a whole other story because his name means trickster, and he got tricked.

The trickster got tricked.

And so he gets married.

Well, Jacob and Rachel have only two sons, and it is Benjamin and it is Joseph.

All right?

Now, he has 11 brothers, only one biological brother, the other ten are half-brothers.

And there's a lot of tension between Joseph and his brothers because Joseph is the favorite of Jacob, and there's no discussion.

I mean, he just Jacob kind of makes it known.

You know how in a family they're like, I'm your favorite, I'm your favorite, I'm you know, I'm always like Jonas is my favorite when he was little, because he didn't talk back.

I was like, he don't talk back, he don't roll his eyes to me, he's never asked me to apple pay him any amount of money.

I mean, this the whole thing, like he's my favorite.

Little, it's changed now.

He has he's learned vocabulary.

Um, but this really was legitimately like he liked like Jacob made Joseph a coat of many colors.

He like loved Jacob.

All right, so there's already tension between the brothers.

Well, one day Joseph has a dream or he has a vision, and it really is from the Lord.

It's a God vision.

And he decides that he's gonna go share this with his brothers, and the dream is this hey, all y'all, you're gonna bow down to me one day.

You imagine how that escalated the tension?

Then he has a second dream, and he tells his mom and dad and all of his brothers, all of y'all are gonna bow down before me one day.

Can I tell you something, time out?

Even if it is a God dream, you don't have to share it with everybody.

Some of you may have a dream in your heart, but you don't need to tell everybody about it.

You don't need to post about it.

You don't, you may need to tell the right people about it, but you don't need to go around telling everybody because not everybody can handle the dream that God puts in your heart.

And so his brothers couldn't handle the dream, and so they decided they want him dead.

So Jacob sends Joseph out to check on his brothers one day out in the fields, and whenever he is coming, at a distance they see him coming, and they decide we're gonna devise a plan to kill him.

And so they decide they want to kill him, but instead of killing him, Reuben steps up and he says this.

One of the half-brothers, when Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands.

He says, Let's not take his life, he said, don't shed any blood.

Let's throw him in this cistern in a pit and leave him here in the wilderness, but don't lay hands on him.

Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

So here was the plan.

I'm gonna, we're just gonna put him in a pit.

I'm gonna let everybody else cool down.

Whenever no one else is looking, I'll get him out of the pit and I'll take him back to dad and everything will be cool.

But that's not what happened at all.

And Joseph would go from the pit to a guy named Potiphar's house to a prison to ultimately to be in front of Pharaoh.

And so Joseph couldn't have prepared for that moment.

But I think there's some things Joseph did in those three moments and seasons of his life that give us some clues of things we may not be able to prepare for the moment, but listen to me, you can predetermine how you will behave in the moment.

You can't always prepare for the moment.

You can't always prepare for the phone call you get and the betrayal that happened.

You can't always prepare for that, but what you can do is determine, I'm gonna predetermine in my heart that whenever life happens to me, these are some non-negotiables that I will run to even in the unprepared moments of life.

So the first thing we see in the life of Joseph that I think we can predetermine in our heart is this is that we will do this.

We will submit to God.

That we'll submit to God.

You'll see it as we go on through the life of Joseph, that Joseph never got bitter, that he never got revengeful, that he never allowed that to get into his heart.

So there had to come a moment, and we see it from his actions, where he yielded himself to whatever God was doing, even if he didn't understand it.

Joseph's dream wasn't to be in a pit.

His dream is that his brothers are bowing down, that he's in a place of authority, that he has some kind of power, and all of a sudden he finds himself in a pit.

I wonder if you've ever been there, that God burst something in your heart or gave you a dream in your heart, gave you a vision, and all of a sudden you're like, this does not look like that at all.

And you get to determine in that moment, when it doesn't look like it's going the way you thought it would, how do you respond?

And I would propose that submitting to God is the right response.

Let me say it this way: yielding to God.

That God, I yield to you.

I don't understand it.

I don't know why this is turning out this way, I don't know why the events are playing out in this way, but God, I yield to you.

I submit to you.

And can I tell you, yielding doesn't mean agreeing.

Some of us are waiting until we can get to a place where we go, oh, I get it.

I agree, God, you did it right.

Listen to me.

That may never come.

You may never understand it this side of eternity.

Do I understand why my dad, who served the Lord his whole life, was sick for seven years, then God healed him, then ended up with Alzheimer's, and now has been in heaven ten years?

I don't understand that.

But I yield that God is good.

I submit that God knows what he's doing, that God sees a bigger picture that I don't understand.

And matter of fact, yielding to God is surrendering the need to know.

Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

So trusting in the Lord means I'm giving up understanding.

I'm not always gonna understand what is happening, and I'm not always gonna understand why the outcome isn't coming in the way that I thought it should, but I'm trusting God.

I'm yielding to God.

I'm submitting to God.

I'm not I'm not disengaging from my faith.

No, I'm gonna lean in in an even greater way into my faith and go, God, I don't get it.

I don't agree with it, but I yield to you.

But also yielding isn't passivity.

Trusting God, submitting to Him, yielding to Him also doesn't mean that I'm passive, that I just disconnect.

God, whenever you get your act together, I'll you know?

It's not turning out the way I thought it would turn out, so I'll come to church, but I'm not gonna sing.

I'm not gonna engage.

How many of you know you can be in the room and not be present?

How many of you know you can be at the dinner table but not be parented?

It's not passive.

Yielding isn't disengaged.

It's going, God, I don't get it.

But I'm gonna lean into the process.

I don't like the pit, but if this is where you have me right now, I know you have measured the walls.

Because nothing, nothing that comes my way doesn't go through your hand.

It's the life of Job, right?

Even though he slayed me, yet will I trust him.

Right?

Even in the middle, God, I don't understand it.

Job I didn't like it.

He didn't agree with it, I'm sure.

He lost family, lost income, lost business, lost lifestyle.

All of it's gone.

And he goes, but I trust him, even in the middle of it.

When the unprepared moments come in your life, it is the wrong time to decide whether or not you're gonna submit to God.

That is the wrong time to decide whether or not you're gonna yield to God.

You have to determine before those moments ever come that God, no matter what life throws my way, I am yielding to you.

I am submitted to you.

I've already determined what I will bow my knee to, and it is to you alone.

I think about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo.

We talked about in week one, right?

Our God will save us from the fiery furnace, but even if he doesn't, we still will not bow to you.

Why?

They predetermine in their heart.

I am not bowing to a golden image.

I've already determined who I submitted to.

I'm submitted to King Jesus and to him alone.

We see a submitted heart in the life of Joseph.

What can you predetermine in your heart before unprepared moments ever come that you're gonna submit to God?

The story goes on to tell us that he's in the pit, and before Reuben can get to him, his brother Judah said this.

Judah said to his brothers, What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

Because they had this whole thing, they were gonna slay an animal, they were gonna, you know, they were gonna bring like a bloody coat to his dad.

They had this whole plan, and he says, What will it do if we if we kill him?

He said, Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites.

These are like vagabonds, they're traveling all around, and let's not lay our hands on him.

After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.

His brothers agreed.

So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern and sold him for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt.

So they were his transportation to Egypt.

And then if you jump down to chapter 37, verse 36, it says this why.

Meanwhile, sounds like an 18 show.

Anyone remember 18?

Come on, that's when television was great.

Mr.

T.

I love it when a plan comes together.

All right.

Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

Number two, what can we predetermine in our heart is this is that we will remain faithful to God.

So we're going to submit to God, but we'll remain faithful to God.

If we were writing the story, imagine if Joseph was writing the story, this isn't the story he'd write.

Some of us look at things in our life and go, this isn't the story that I would write.

We would have written that Joseph got out of the pit, his brothers apologized, he put them all in jail, and he's back with his family.

Or maybe the story could have been written on this side, could have been, and Joseph got bitter and forever played the victim card.

But that's not at all what we read in the life of Joseph.

We read a guy that remained faithful to God no matter what was going on.

If you take some time this week to read the story of Joseph, it says this that when he went to Potiphar's house, the Lord was with him, and the favor of the Lord was on him.

And he goes to the prison, and the favor of God is with him, and God is with him in the prison.

So there's this hand of God on Joseph, and Joseph remains faithful to who he is and to the God that he serves even in the middle of hard times.

Think about it for a moment.

He's been dejected by his family.

That's trauma.

He's been sold into slavery by his brothers.

He's been transported out of his country into Egypt.

He's been resold to Potiphar's house.

He's lost all freedom.

He's been stripped of all of his rights.

And here he is in Potiphar's house.

And the scripture tells us that he ends up becoming to Potiphar his right-hand man and leading the entire house and everything that was underneath him.

Some of us, if we'd have found ourselves in that situation, we'd been like, I ain't doing nothing for nobody.

But this wasn't the heart of Joseph.

There was the character part of Joseph that said, no, I'm going to be who I am, and who I am is faithful to my God.

I'm going to remain faithful no matter what.

I'm going to work what God has put in my hands.

This may not be what I wanted.

I may not be with my family, but I'm going to work what God put in my hands.

And can I tell you, that is the pattern of scripture?

It is the parable of the talents, is it not?

The master came back to the par to those he gave money to, and the question wasn't how much do you have?

The question was, what did you do with what you had?

What did you do with what I put into your hand?

Did you multiply it or did you squander it?

Did you multiply it or did you bury it?

And the ones that multiplied it, he blessed even more.

The one that buried it, he called him wicked and lazy.

Not just lazy, but wicked.

Because he didn't take what God had put in his hands and make more out of it.

What did Elisha say to the woman, the widow, who was in debt over her head?

He asked her this, What do you have in your house?

He didn't ask her, Can you go make more money?

Can you go do something else?

He said, What do you have in your house?

And she said, I just have a little bit of oil.

And the oil was enough in God's hands.

What about the five loaves and two fishes?

Was it enough to feed 15,000, 20,000 people?

No.

But the little boy brought what he had.

Some of us are waiting for God to put more in our lives before we're faithful.

And God is going, be faithful with the little that you have.

And whenever you're faithful with little, then I'll give you more.

When I can trust you with a little bit, I'll trust you with a lot.

Well, God, when you get me out of this situation, then I'll be faithful.

Well, God, whenever you line up all things, when this season of life is over, then I'm gonna be faithful.

To you, God, and we'll go all in.

I'm gonna serve, I'm gonna love people.

God is going, can you just work what you got?

May not be the job you want, but work the one you got, everybody.

The marriage may not be where you want it to be, but work the one you got.

The grass isn't greener on the other side, it's astroturf.

The grass is greener where you water it.

So water the one you got.

Work with what you've got in your hand, remain faithful.

And some of us are going, but I'm just waiting on the Lord.

Can I propose that maybe God's waiting on you?

Can I propose that this waiting on the Lord and I get it?

I'm not saying it's bad.

Wait on the Lord, man over the wings like eagles, you're swording.

I know the Bible.

But can I propose that we spiritualize stubbornness?

Amen, preacher.

That was good.

Well, when God does this, I'll do that.

I'm gonna start giving whenever this.

Wait on the Lord.

Can I say this?

Sometimes we spiritualize laziness.

I don't want to get burned out.

I'm concerned some of us are gonna rust out before we have a burnout.

This is this is I'm trying to I'm your I'm your friend.

I'm trying to help you.

Love you so much.

I pray for you every day.

We see him remaining faithfulness.

Just faithfulness.

Faithfulness.

I'm gonna serve God in this house.

I'm gonna be the very best.

I'm gonna rise.

The favor of God is on my life, and I'm a slave, but I'm giving it my best.

That's faithfulness.

You can't always prepare for moments in life, but you can predetermine who you'll be.

And you can determine that I'm gonna be one that is submitted to God, no matter what life throws at me.

I'm gonna be one that remains faithful to God, even when it doesn't make sense.

The story goes on to tell us that Joseph ended up being falsely accused by Potiphar's wife.

She was attracted to him.

She wanted him.

I don't know if there's kids in the room.

She really wanted him.

Okay.

And day after day she made advancements to him.

Day after day, Joseph resisted the advancements.

Day after day she made advancements.

Finally, she grabbed him cloak and was like, his clothes and was like, sleep with me.

And he like got out of his jacket and he took off running from her.

And she's holding his robe, and Potiphar comes in, and she says, He tried to take advantage of me.

Sold into slavery, dejected by his family, losing all his rights, falsely accused.

You know what I love about Joseph is he didn't let injustice rewrite his character.

Just because he was treated unfairly, he didn't become an unfair person.

He didn't let the hard times in life, listen to me, you can't let you gotta remain faithful to God, faithful to who you are in God.

And not let injustices in life or pain in life rewrite the character.

Yes, let it shape you more resilient, but don't let it rewrite your character where you become bitter or revengeful or or mad or angry or so triggered so easy by different things in life.

Joseph didn't let it rewrite his character.

Jesus didn't let it rewrite his character.

Step by step, day by day, remaining faithful to God.

And so because he was falsely accused, his master, Potiphar, took him to prison.

But if you remember, it's a specific prison because Potiphar's the captain of the guard of Pharaoh.

And so it's a specific prison he's going into, and it's the prison that Pharaoh would use.

So the Bible says in Genesis 39, 20 to 23.

Are y'all still with me?

Yes.

It says Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined.

But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him, and he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the prison warden, in the eyes of the prison warden.

So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in prison.

So now not only was he leading Potiphar's house, now he's in prison, and he's the man in prison.

So he's leading all of it, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.

And the warden, listen to this, paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care because the Lord was with him and gave him success in whatever he did.

How amazing is that.

The warden didn't even worry about it.

The warden's like, I'm going on vacation.

You got this?

Joseph's a prisoner.

And while Joseph is in prison, Pharaoh's cupbearer and uh baker, I always want to call him the breadmaker, but it's baker.

Pharaoh gets mad with them and throws them in prison.

So now these two guys are in prison and they have a dream and they can't interpret the dream.

Well, here's the dreamer, Joseph, knows how to interpret his dreams in verse 40, verse 8 says this.

They said to him, We both have dreams, they answer, but there's no one to interpret them.

And then Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God?

Tell me your dreams.

So he interpreted their dreams.

So thought number three, what we can predetermine in our heart is not just that we'll submit to God or remain faithful to God, but we will serve God.

Think about this for a moment.

Joseph is helping them understand their dream while his is unfulfilled.

So catch this.

He is serving someone else's dream, but still waiting on his.

And that is the kingdom of God.

That is the kingdom of God.

That is kingdom math, everybody.

World math.

Get what's yours.

Climb over whoever you have to climb over.

Make sure you keep your goals the number one in your life.

Don't get distracted by anybody else.

Focus on you, focus on where you're going, focus on what you're trying to get.

That's world's math.

God's math, serve someone else, and I'll fulfill your dream through the service of their dream.

That's God's math.

That's kingdom way.

So watch this.

He interprets their dream.

Pharaoh calls them back up.

And when he calls them back up, Joseph says, Hey, will you remember me?

That's all he asks of them.

Interpretes their dream, will you just remember me?

And the saddest line in the whole story of Joseph is this.

It's not that he's thrown in the pit, not that he got in Potter's house.

The saddest line it says this.

And they forgot about Joseph for two years.

Until Pharaoh has a dream.

And Pharaoh has a dream and he has no idea how to interpret the dream, and all of a sudden the cupbearer goes, Wait, there's a guy in your prison that knows how to interpret dreams.

Why don't we call on him?

So they clean Joseph up, shave him, give him a hairdo, put on new clothes, bathe him, and he comes before Pharaoh, and Pharaoh tells him the dream, and then he says the dream, and Joseph said, Here's what the dream is telling you.

There's gonna be seven years of prosperity in Egypt, and then seven years of famine.

And in the seven years of prosperity, you better prepare so that you're ready for the seven years of famine.

And then that's what we read this morning.

And Pharaoh goes, It seemed good to him and all the officials that Joseph be put in charge of all the land of Egypt and do what he said should be done.

So Joseph is 15 years since he's had his dream.

And now he's serving Pharaoh's dream, but his is still unfulfilled.

Let me ask you this.

Can you serve somebody else's dream while you wait on yours to come to pass?

While you're waiting on your child to come back to God, can you pray for somebody else's child to come back to God?

While you're waiting on the healing in your own body, can you pray for somebody else's healing?

This is the kingdom of God, everybody.

While you're waiting on your job opportunity to open up, can you pray and help someone else connect to someone that maybe will give them the job that they've been looking for?

This is the kingdom of God because God does his best work when you are serving the dreams of others.

He will begin to fulfill the dream in you.

Because here's what happened: seven years of prosperity came just like Joseph said.

And seven years of famine came just like Joseph said they would.

And in the seven years of famine, his brothers in Israel heard that Egypt had prepared for this.

And so they come over to Egypt and they come before the prime minister Joseph, not knowing it's their brothers, and they kneel down before him because they are asking for some food.

And Joseph's dream is revealed and accomplished right before his very eyes.

But it wasn't because Joseph worked harder at his dream.

It's because Joseph was serving Pharaoh's dream that his dream became reality.

Listen to me, it's not about what you can get, who you can step over.

It's God, how can you use me to be a blessing in the lives of those around me so that in that moment, through me, you can be seen.

God will fulfill your dream.

You take care of others, God will take care of you.

Can I give you one more thought?

And I want to propose to you that the pit and Potiphar's house and the prison were not roadblocks to Joseph's dream, but they were pulling him towards his dream.

Because some of you think that the pit moments and the Potiphar House moments and the prison, whatever that looks like in your life, that those are the barriers to what God wants to do in your life.

I want to propose that they are not the barriers, they are actually the things that are pulling you towards it.

Because Joseph would have never been in front of Pharaoh if he hadn't been in Pharaoh's prison.

And he never would have been in Pharaoh's prison if he hadn't have been in Potiphar's house and got wrongly accused.

But he had never been in Potiphar's house and got wrongly accused if he had never been thrown in a pit.

And he never would have got thrown in a pit if his brothers didn't have it out for him and want to kill him.

So the pit was moving him to Potiphar's house to get him in Egypt.

And it was not only in Egypt, but he was putting him in the captain of the guard of Pharaoh, so that whenever he ended up in the prison, he could interpret a dream from a cupbearer and a baker.

And two years later they would remember him so that he could end up standing before Pharaoh when Pharaoh was in need of a word from the Lord.

And whenever he stood before Pharaoh, he interpreted the dream.

He saved Egypt, he saved his family, and his dream became fulfilled.

It was always pulling him towards his dream, not away from his dream.

So it's all in how you see it.

Some of you feel like, man, I'm in a pit of life right now.

You can see it as a pit, or you can see it as something that is propelling you to the purpose of God in your life.

So you can't prepare for unprepared moments, but you can predetermine in your heart who are you gonna be.

And I would encourage you to determine today I'm gonna be submitted to God.

I'm gonna remain faithful to God.

And I'm gonna serve God no matter the circumstance.

I'm gonna live with a servant's heart.

Is that not the life of Jesus, everybody?

Philippians 2, 6, who being in the very nature God, don't get it wrong, Jesus wasn't just a good man, he was the God man.

Being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.

What did he do?

Being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself and he became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

You know what that humbled himself?

It was an emptying of himself.

He did not empty his divine nature, he emptied his status and role to become a man, humbled himself.

What is the Bible?

Paul goes on to write what he says, therefore God exalted him to the highest place, and he gave him the name that is above every name.

That idea of exalted himself is a rare compound Greek word in the scriptures that means a hyper exaltation.

And it is a result of his hyper-servanthood.

The two are connected.

It is the pattern of the kingdom of God.

Jesus himself, humble servant, exalted by God.

Joseph going through all the things he went through, exalted by God.

Moses serving Jethro and sheep that he did not own, so he could become the shepherd of Israel to lead them out of slavery.

Humble servant, God exalted him.

David served Saul after he had been anointed king, and Saul wanted him dead, and Saul was this thing that stood between him and the palace, but David served him with a humble heart, played music for him, and at the right time God exalted him.

This is the pattern of the kingdom.

You serve, then you become great.

You serve, then God fulfills your dream.

You serve, and then in due season, he will exalt you with his mighty right hand.

That's what the Bible says.

So you can't prepare for unprepared days, but you can predetermine in your heart who will you be.

So that's what I ask you.

Who will you be?

And I pray your answer is I'm gonna be submitted, I'm gonna be faithful, and I'm gonna be a servant.

You receive the word of God today?

Is that helpful?

Will you pray with me at all of our locations?

Bow your head, close your eyes if you can, right where you're at online.

Maybe you're here today and you've never taken a first step of submitting your life to God.

You've never really had a moment in your life where you said, God, I'm gonna live life your way.

I'm gonna submit my life.

I'm gonna make you the Lord of my life.

In other words, I want you to call the shots.

I've been doing it my way for long enough.

Maybe you've never come to that moment.

That would be the first step for you today.

The Bible says that we all have a problem that none of us can solve.

It's called sin.

We miss the mark, we don't meet the standard.

But the scripture also tells us that Jesus came and he lived the life you and I could never live.

He lived a perfect life.

And he died the death we really deserved.

He paid the penalty for our sin so that we could have relationship with him now and make sure our home is in heaven in eternity.

And so some of you here today at all of our locations, you need to take that step today.

You would say, Pastor, today, I need a fresh start with God.

Now, some of you, you're here today, and there was a moment in your life where you were really walking with the Lord, but you know in your heart you're far from Him right now.

And so, in just a moment, we're gonna pray together.

There's nothing necessarily special about the words I say, but it's about the faith in your heart and your intent.

So if you say, Pastor, that's me, when I count to three, I just want you to shoot your hand up long enough for myself or the pastor at your campus to see.

No one's gonna come to you or point you out.

You say, I need a fresh start in God today.

If that's you on three, you lift your hand.

One, two, three.

Just shoot it up high.

Just keep it up all over the room.

God bless you.

God bless you.

Lots of hands.

Lots of hands.

God sees you and heaven is rejoicing over you, just so you know.

You can put them down.

Church, will you pray this out loud with me for the benefit of those who slip their hand up?

Just say, Jesus, I need you.

I ask you to forgive me of all my sin.

I believe you died for me.

I believe God raised you from the dead.

Today I make you my Lord and Savior.

Thank you for a brand new beginning.

In Jesus' name.

Everybody said a big amen.

Amen.

Can we put our hands together and celebrate those who made that decision?

Incredible.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.