Participants:
Series Code: BOLS
Program Code: BOLS000092S
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00:09 Sermon #S048 - It Doesn't Matter What You Meant (Part 1)
00:19 I want you to take your Bibles 00:21 and we're going to do a 00:21 little bit of reading here on the front end 00:25 just to provide a little context for those who may not be 00:28 as familiar with our story today. 00:31 And I want you to begin with me in Genesis Chapter 42, 00:34 and we'll skip over the Genesis 45 and then we'll conclude 00:38 in Genesis 50. 00:39 Again, we'll be reading a little bit, 00:41 but it'll actually help us expedite things further 00:44 and later in the service, Genesis Chapter 42, 00:48 and we're going to begin together, verse number one. 00:50 Now, many of us are familiar with the story of Joseph. 00:54 Joseph had 11 brothers, and he told them about his dreams. 00:59 His dreams were of such rulership that one day 01:02 his brothers and his parents would be in a position 01:05 of submission to him. 01:06 And the brothers were so angry about the dream that they 01:10 intended to kill him. 01:12 But God spared him, had him sold into slavery, into Egypt, 01:17 and God brought him to power in Egypt, despite 01:20 their inequities against him, so much so that he became 01:23 governor over the entire land of Egypt. 01:26 And this is where we pick it up in Genesis 42, 01:29 Genesis 42, in verse one, when you get there, let me 01:30 hear you say amen. 01:32 The Bible says, 01:34 when Jacob saw that there was green in Egypt, 01:37 Jacob said to his sons, Why do you look at one another? 01:41 And he said, Indeed, I have heard 01:43 that there is green in Egypt. 01:45 Go down to that place 01:46 and buy for us there that we may live and not die. 01:51 So Joseph's twins brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. 01:55 But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother, Benjamin, 01:58 with the brothers, for he said, lest some calamity befall him 02:03 and the Sons of Israel went to buy grain. 02:05 Among those 02:06 who journeyed for the famine was in the land of Canaan. 02:11 Now, Joseph 02:12 was governor over the land and it was he 02:13 who sold to all the people of the land. 02:16 And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down 02:19 before him with their faces to the earth. 02:22 And Joseph saw his brothers and recognize them. 02:27 But he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. 02:32 Then he said to them, Where do you come from? 02:35 And they said, from the land of Canaan to buy food. 02:38 So Joseph recognized his brothers were watching this. 02:42 But they did not recognize him. 02:47 Then Joseph remembered the dreams 02:49 which he dreamed about them and said to them, You are spies. 02:53 You have come to see the nakedness of the land. 02:56 Verse 19 He proposes a scenario. 02:59 He says, 03:00 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers 03:01 be confined to your prison house. 03:04 But you go and carry grain 03:06 for the famine of your houses and bring your youngest 03:09 brother to me. 03:11 So the words will be verified that you shall not die. 03:14 And they did so. 03:15 And they said to one another, 03:17 We are truly guilty concerning our WHO. 03:22 In other words, when this thing hits them, 03:23 it comes full circle. They like, Oh, snap. 03:26 This is because of what we did to Joseph. 03:29 For we saw the anguish of his soul 03:31 when he pleaded with us. 03:33 And he would not hear and we would not hear. 03:35 Therefore, this distress has come where upon us? 03:40 And Reuben answered them, saying, Did I not speak to you? 03:43 Did you say, do not sin against the boy 03:46 and you would not listen? 03:47 Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us. 03:53 But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for 03:56 he spoke to them through an interpreter. 03:58 And the Bible says, 03:59 and he, talking about Joseph, turned himself away from them. 04:02 And what? 04:04 And wept. 04:05 And he returned to them again and talked with them. 04:08 And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. 04:12 Chapter 45, Genesis chapter 45. 04:16 And verse one they go and then they return. 04:19 We see what happens. 04:20 Then the Bible says Joseph could not restrain himself 04:27 before, before all those who stood by, 04:29 and he cried out, Make everyone go out from me. 04:33 So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself 04:37 known to his brothers. 04:38 And the Bible says. 04:39 And he did what? 04:41 What did he do? 04:43 What did he do? 04:44 The Bible says, and he wept. How? 04:48 Bible says that he wept aloud. 04:51 And the Egyptian and the house of Pharaoh heard it. 04:54 Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. 04:57 Does my father still live? 04:58 But his brothers 05:00 could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence 05:05 about being sure they were done. 05:07 And Joseph said to his brothers, Please come near to me. 05:11 So they came near. 05:12 Then he said, I am Joseph, your brother, 05:14 whom you sold into Egypt, but now do not therefore 05:18 be grieved or angry with yourselves. 05:21 Because you sold me here 05:24 for God, sent me before you 05:27 to preserve life 05:30 for these two years the famine has been in the land 05:33 and there are still five years 05:35 in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 05:38 And God sent me before you to preserve 05:41 a posterity for you in the Earth 05:45 and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 05:48 So now it was not you who sent me, but who. 05:53 And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and the Lord 05:56 of all of his house and a ruler throughout the land of Egypt. 06:00 Quickly. Genesis, chapter 50. 06:02 And we're going to conclude here and verse 15. 06:05 So Joseph's father, his brothers come, 06:08 they settle in the land of Egypt. 06:09 But eventually Joseph's father, Jacob, dies. 06:12 And look at the fear that comes back upon them. 06:16 And when Joseph's brothers saw that the father was dead, 06:19 they said perhaps Joseph will hate us and may 06:22 actually repay us for the evil which we did to him. 06:26 I don't know if you'll catch this. 06:27 They still in prison to their own conscious. 06:32 So they sent messengers to 06:33 Joseph saying Before Father die, he commanded us. 06:36 Say thus 06:37 you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please forgive 06:40 the trespass of your brothers and the sin for the evil 06:43 they did to you. 06:44 Now, please forgive the trespass of your servants of God, 06:47 your father. 06:48 And the Bible says. 06:49 And Joseph did what? 06:51 Again, he waits. 06:52 When he spoke to them. 06:54 Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face. 06:58 And they said, Behold, we are your servants. 07:01 And Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid, 07:04 for am I in the place of God? 07:07 And this is the whole message right here. 07:09 But as for you, 07:11 you meant evil against me. 07:18 But God meant it for good. 07:22 In order to bring, as it is, this day, 07:25 to say, many people alive today, saints 07:28 for just a little while with God's help. 07:31 I want to talk to you under the subject. 07:33 It doesn't matter how you meant it. 07:37 It doesn't matter how you meant it. 07:39 Let's pray to God the father 07:42 once again in this little while. 07:44 Would you please say much? 07:47 Lord, would you please take full access of me? 07:50 The vessel. 07:51 So that your people are not shorted 07:54 or denied in any way? 07:57 Lord, I'm praying that hope would erupt. 08:00 I'm praying that faith would be multiplied. 08:03 And, Lord, 08:04 I pray that healing would commence in today's service. 08:07 Lord, would you hide me in the shadows of the cross? 08:10 That Jesus alone might be seen, that Christ alone 08:13 would be heard? 08:14 And at the end of our time 08:15 together, may Jesus alone be praised. 08:17 We ask this in the name of him, who is altogether lovely. 08:20 It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. 08:23 Let those who believe shout together. 08:25 Amen. 08:26 And a man who may be seated in the house of the Lord. 08:29 Again, talking on the subject. 08:31 It doesn't matter how 08:34 you meant it. 08:40 Quickly 08:41 want to have you come on in and sit and be settled. 08:44 Again, it doesn't matter what you meant. 08:48 Today, friends, I want to spend a little time 08:54 talking about how we hold on to God 08:57 in the midst of trauma and pain. 09:01 But in order to do that, there first 09:03 has to be a theological error that has to be corrected. 09:08 You see, friends, 09:09 the story of Joseph can be somewhat deceiving. 09:13 We see a person like him who endures trauma, 09:16 and yet they prosper under the care and hand of God. 09:21 And sometimes we can make the assumption that 09:24 because God created a happy ending, 09:28 we believe that God ordained the painful beginning. 09:33 Sometimes we think that because Joseph's story 09:36 ends well, that that is how God scripted it to go. 09:40 And as a result, we essentially make God 09:43 an accomplice in Joseph's trauma. 09:46 But the book of James teaches us that God cannot be tempted 09:50 by evil. 09:51 Neither does he tempt any man with evil. 09:55 In other words, I don't believe that 09:57 the spirit of God enflamed the jealousy of Joseph's brothers. 10:02 I don't believe that God 10:03 put murderous intent inside of their heart. 10:07 I don't think God anointed them to throw him down in a pit. 10:11 I don't think 10:13 God inspired the slavery that took place in Egypt. 10:16 And I know God didn't put the lie in the mouth 10:19 of Potter for his wife so that he might go to jail. 10:23 And see, just because God willed a positive end, 10:27 it doesn't mean that God ordained the toxic process. 10:32 You see, the truth is that God had a thousand ways 10:36 to get Joseph to power that we don't know anything about. 10:41 But there are times where God adds His providence to 10:45 our trauma in such spectacular fashion that our in results 10:50 scenes as if God scripted it that very way. 10:54 And I need somebody to know 10:56 that God is not the author of your pain. 11:00 God is the recycler of your pain. 11:02 Let me say it again. 11:04 That that God is not the author of your hurt. 11:07 God is simply the one that reframes your hurt. 11:10 In other words, I need somebody to know that it was not God 11:14 that took away your loved one in death. 11:17 In fact, the Bible says that 11:19 the last enemy to be destroyed is death. 11:23 I need you to know that God didn't send someone 11:26 into your bedroom to disrupt your childhood in a sense 11:30 that God is not punishing some woman with domestic violence. 11:35 It was not God that sent enemies to assault or assail you. 11:39 I don't believe it was God that sent the wildfires in Maui. 11:44 And it wasn't God that sent COVID across the globe. 11:48 And it's interesting. 11:49 There's this this inversion of credit in our time in it 11:53 crazy how we give God credit for the works of Satan 11:58 and we take credit for the works of God. 12:00 Let me say it again 12:02 that we give God credit for the works of the enemy 12:06 and we give ourselves credit for the works of God. 12:09 And there are some of us that are frustrated in this place 12:12 because we're blaming God for what Satan has done. 12:16 And we credit ourselves for what God has done. 12:19 And the reason we have to force praise in the church 12:23 is because we are creating 12:25 marketing ourselves for the works that God has done. 12:29 In other words, saints, 12:30 I need you to get that God is not the cause of your trauma. 12:34 God is just the one that reshapes your trauma. 12:37 How do I know Jeremiah? 12:39 He said, I know the plans I have for you. 12:42 My plans are to prosper you and not to harm you, 12:46 to give you a future and a hope. 12:49 Jesus says it was the thief that comes to steal, 12:53 kill and destroy. 12:54 But I've come that 12:56 they might have life and have it more abundantly. 13:00 And God is so good 13:01 that He says even the pain that is permitted. 13:04 I'll take what your enemy meant for bad. 13:08 I'll reshape it and reorganize it 13:11 so that it ultimately works out for your good. 13:16 Hmm. Let me say it this way. 13:19 I remember growing up, 13:21 I spent a lot of time at my grandma's house, and. 13:23 And Grandma was in the kitchen cooking one day, and. 13:26 And I told her I was like, Grandma, 13:27 I want to make some bread or some kind of cake. 13:30 And and she gave me a big bowl, 13:32 and she let me play 13:33 with the flour and the water and mix it all together. 13:36 And like little, small kids, I got bored with it 13:39 after about 5 minutes. 13:40 Man, my batter was hard and what? 13:42 Nothing good coming out of it. 13:44 And so I had the bowl in my hand getting ready to go 13:47 and throw that bowl of flour and stuff in the trash. 13:51 And Grandma said, Hold up before you throw it away. 13:54 And it's amazing. 13:55 She took this broken batter. 13:57 And I don't remember everything that she did, 14:00 but grandma took that flour and that milk 14:03 and she added some cinnamon and some water 14:07 and some southern folk know about some buttermilk. 14:09 And before I knew it, 14:11 it smelt 14:12 like the International House of Pancakes in that place. 14:15 And I need you to know, friends, 14:17 that she took what I was about. 14:19 I meant to throw it away. 14:21 And she turned around and reworked it so that she made 14:25 the best pancake I ever eight in my life. 14:28 And the crazy thing is that if you came in from the outside, 14:32 the pancakes were so good, you would think that that's 14:35 what she meant from the beginning. 14:37 But my grandma was able to take what I meant for trash, 14:41 turn it around and feed everybody in the house. 14:45 And how many of us know that God is a great baker, 14:48 that he can take what was meant to destroy you. 14:52 He can take what was meant to cancel you. 14:54 He can take what was meant to bind you, 14:57 and he can rework it and reshape it 15:00 that he ultimately blesses you. 15:03 He can take what was meant for bad 15:07 and turn it around and use it for your good. 15:10 Y'all hear me today, friends? 15:12 And so as we get heavy into the world 15:14 today, I promise not to take your time. 15:16 Too much time. 15:17 If you give me your undivided attention. 15:20 You see, I need you to get friends. 15:21 That Joseph's life teaches us some critical lessons of faith. 15:26 But the first thing that Joseph teaches us 15:28 is that your environment can shape you, 15:32 but it doesn't determine you. 15:35 Let me shout out to those in the balcony 15:38 that your environment can shape you, 15:41 but it should not determine you. 15:44 Not out of all the characters in Scripture, 15:46 nobody personifies this more than Joseph. 15:51 In fact, when you look at Joseph's 15:53 life, he is the antithesis 15:56 of everything he saw in his upbringing. 16:00 You remember who Joseph's daddy is? 16:05 Remember, Joseph's daddy is a man named Jacob 16:09 who is so crooked that his very name 16:12 means supplant or deceiver. 16:16 In other words, Jacob is that cat that smiles in your face 16:21 while he is turning the knife in your chest. 16:24 You are hearing me today, 16:25 in other words, of the great man that Jacob was, 16:28 the one that deceived his father while stealing the birthright 16:33 and later on out hustling his father, Laban. 16:38 But Joseph is so straight laced that both Pharaoh 16:42 and Potter for our trust him with everything in their house 16:46 except the very food that they eat in the back. 16:50 If I don't know this to be true, but I believe that Daddy Jacob 16:54 would have smashed Potter for his wife 16:57 and figure out a way to cover it up. 16:59 But Jacob has such integrity that he won't 17:03 even be alone with her and commit this sin against God. 17:08 Y'all remember that 17:09 Jacob had several kids by a bunch of different women, 17:13 but Joseph came back to God's ideal 17:16 and had posterity through one wife judge. 17:20 So Joseph is so different than his brothers 17:22 that even though they exacted cruelty and harm toward him, 17:27 even when he had a chance to split their rig, 17:32 he did not respond in time. 17:35 And what Joseph teaches you is that your environment 17:39 can shape you, but it ought not define you 17:44 as he friends of mine. 17:44 This is powerful 17:46 because one of the things that happens when we experience 17:49 trauma is that sometimes we get and what mental health 17:52 professionals call the cycle of trauma. 17:57 And it amazing how sometimes that that that brother that sees 18:01 his mother being abused by his father turns around 18:05 and becomes the same perpetrator of domestic violence. 18:09 And it crazy how sometimes the girl that sees 18:12 her mom being beaten somehow without instruction 18:16 grows up and finds that same kind of guy. 18:20 It's interesting 18:21 how those who are victims of sexual predatory behavior 18:24 then become the inflicting issues of predatory behavior. 18:28 You know, sometimes you will see 18:30 that those who come from a broken home 18:32 will then turn around and become the overseers of broken homes. 18:36 I need you to know the cycle of trauma is so great 18:39 that one time I went to jail to see one brother. 18:43 And there were three generations of men in the same family. 18:47 In the same jail. 18:49 That great uncle. 18:50 Nephew and son were in the same penitentiary. 18:55 And it's crazy because there are times 18:57 where we will use a term and say a family is under 19:00 a generational curse. Have you heard that before? 19:03 And I need you to know that there is an element of truth, 19:06 but it's not so much just a generational curse. 19:09 Some of us are trapped in a generational cycle. 19:13 And so the reason I don't just believe in a curse 19:16 is because it suggests that there is a witch or a demon 19:20 that's able to stand on the outside 19:23 and just wield a weapon that destroys 19:27 everybody in its path and fixes everybody's fate. 19:31 But the reason I don't believe in curses 19:34 is because the Angel of the Lord and camp, both about those 19:38 that fear him and build the weapons, might be formed. 19:43 I know that they will not be permitted to prosper, 19:49 so I don't believe that it's necessarily 19:51 just a curse that fixes my fate. 19:54 But the reason things get passed down 19:56 is that we read from the scripts our parents give us, 20:01 and I need you to know that you've got to get to a place. 20:04 I need somebody to hear me on this. 20:06 I need you to know that just because Grandma did it 20:09 and just because Daddy did it does not mean that 20:13 you have to do it. 20:14 I need somebody to know 20:16 that your decision is more powerful than your DNA. 20:20 Oh, let me say it again. 20:22 That your decisions are more powerful than your DNA. 20:26 You are hearing me today. 20:29 See, the thing I like about Joseph 20:30 is that he is not formed in the image of his pain. 20:35 He is formed in the image of his God. 20:37 Are you all with the past in a today? 20:39 In other words, 20:40 he is not shaped in bitterness by what his brother's done. 20:44 He is not shaped by the racial inequity and slavery in Egypt. 20:49 He doesn't even allow his jail time to reshape his image. 20:53 Our perspective. 20:54 And Joseph's life is both an encouragement and a rebuke. 20:58 Because if anybody had a right to throw in the towel, 21:02 become jaded and cynical, it was Joseph. 21:05 But what Joseph? 21:06 VI shouts out to us 21:08 is that you don't have to be what you came from, 21:11 that you don't have to live out what you saw growing up. 21:15 You don't have to let your container 21:18 determine your contact 21:21 with God. 21:22 In other words, your container art 21:25 not change our transformed the content of your character. 21:29 Real Talk. 21:31 This summer I was in Seattle doing an evangelistic revival, 21:34 and I went to this particular restaurant, Louis, 21:36 where they made something called spaghetti cupcakes. 21:41 And what the spaghetti cupcakes was, 21:43 it was essentially spaghetti. 21:45 But instead of baking it in a big pan, they put it 21:48 in the little cupcake holders and they baked it that way. 21:52 And even though they were baked and cupcake holders, 21:55 you didn't order these from the dessert menu. 22:00 Okay. 22:01 It was baked in a cupcake container, 22:04 but you can order it from the dessert menu. 22:07 You was going to pay the full price of an entree 22:11 because even though it was made in that container, guess what? 22:15 Its content was still. And on trade. 22:18 So you paid the price 22:19 of an entree, it had the value of an entree. 22:23 You were going to order it like an entree. 22:25 And what I'm saying to somebody 22:27 today is that you may have grown up in a ghetto container, 22:32 you may have grown up in a hood container, 22:35 you may have grown up in the 22:36 container of poverty or the container of divorce. 22:40 But you still got entree potential. 22:43 You still got entree character. 22:46 So guess what? 22:47 Don't discount the price. 22:49 Don't give nobody no coupons 22:51 because your container doesn't determine your contents. 22:56 You hear me today? 22:58 Because I need you to get this. 23:00 That you got to make a decision to remain molded 23:03 in the image of God. 23:05 You cannot allow the root of bitterness to get down so deep 23:10 that it literally contaminates every aspect of your soul. 23:14 And see, this is what I need. Somebody to know. 23:16 Because even as I stand before this robust audience here today, 23:21 I know that there are some of us that know exactly 23:24 what I am talking about, even though you may be clad in 23:28 church attire, decorated with decrees and accomplishment. 23:33 I know everybody didn't grow up with a silver spoon 23:36 in their mouth. 23:37 There are some, like Langston Hughes mother, that can testify 23:41 that life for me ain't been no crystal stair. 23:44 But there have been some splinters and planks 23:47 somewhere along the floor 23:49 and places where there was no carpet in the ground. 23:52 And you are in this place today, not because you had 23:56 every advantage in life, but because somehow 24:00 God got in the midst of your pain, 24:03 turned it upside down, ordered your steps. 24:06 And how are you are hearing me today? 24:10 I see there are 24:11 some of us that learn from a good example, 24:13 but sometimes you got to learn from a bad example. 24:16 In other words, I need you to understand 24:19 that sometimes we learn through, through, through comparison. 24:22 But sometimes some of us grow up in a space 24:24 where you got to learn through contrast. 24:26 In other words, from some you learn from your parents 24:28 what to do, but some of us 24:32 learn from our parents what not to do. 24:35 Am I preaching anybody? 24:38 In other words, 24:39 you just got a different 24:40 type of instruction that God is able to use. 24:43 In other words, when you see that 24:44 all of your cousins in them have wound up in jail, 24:47 that's simply aiming you in the direction of your purpose. 24:51 When when you saw how certain men treated your mom, 24:54 it ought to aim you in the direction 24:56 of the most gentle and praying man on this campus. 25:00 I need you to get for Chris 25:02 that in order to break the family cycle, 25:05 you've got to adopt some different talents 25:09 and other words. 25:10 I can't copy the pattern 25:13 and get a different result. 25:17 May I share this story? 25:18 I remember one time, my wife and I, we were going out of town. 25:21 We come here for camping. 25:22 We're living in Kentucky at the time, 25:23 and we were here for the whole ten days of camp meeting 25:26 and before we left, 25:26 we made the mistake of living up, 25:28 leaving a big bowl of fruit 25:30 right there on the kitchen table. 25:32 And when we came home after about two and a half weeks, 25:34 I knew, you know, 25:35 we had one of the greatest infestation of fruit flies 25:38 you're going to ever see in your life. 25:40 And it's crazy because, 25:41 man, the fruit flies, they don't bite, 25:43 they don't sting, but they'll drive you out of your mind. 25:45 And I preaching anybody that 25:47 and it's crazy because back then my wife 25:48 had this little concoction where she would feel a cup 25:51 half way with vinegar. 25:53 Then she would put some dishwashing liquid on it, 25:56 then fill the rest of the way with bubbles. 25:59 And when it bubbled up, what would happen 26:01 is when the flies came in to get the vinegar, 26:04 they would get trapped in the bubbles and die. 26:07 And so we have these traps all over the house 26:10 for about two weeks. 26:11 And guess what? It begins to work. 26:13 They go in in search of the visitor 26:15 vinegar and get stuck in the bubbles. 26:17 But how many of us know that sometimes the hardest fly 26:20 the catch is the last one? 26:25 And it's crazy because, man, there's this one 26:27 man that I can't catch with my hands. 26:29 I mean, he's got a radar and eyes in the back of his head. 26:32 And so, man, I'm watching, man, little Jermaine from a distance 26:36 as one day Jermaine gets there on the edge of the cup 26:40 and I'm ready to see Jermaine get down. 26:43 But it's crazy. 26:44 It's like Jermaine looked down and the cop 26:48 and Jermaine got in the cup. 26:49 He saw Pookie and listened. 26:53 And cake and Tyrone. 26:57 Come on now. 26:57 And Tyisha, answer me. 27:00 Come on, now. 27:01 He saw them look then saw their fate. 27:05 And guess what? 27:06 He just kept on going to another place. 27:09 And do I have any Jermaine's in the church 27:15 that knows where that road leads? 27:17 You know how this story ends, and you decide to choose 27:21 a different path. 27:23 Thank you so much for joining us for The Breath of Life 27:27 Television Ministry broadcast with Pastor Debleaire Snell . 27:32 We hope and pray that you have been blessed 27:35 by his powerful message. 27:37 Join us next week for part two of the message. 27:41 It doesn't matter what you meant. 27:44 You don't want to miss it 28:27 END |
Revised 2023-10-26