3ABN Sabbath School Panel

Finding Rest In Family Ties

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: SSP

Program Code: SSP210032S


00:01 Hello, friends, welcome to 3ABN Sabbath School Panel.
00:02 I'm John Lomacang.
00:04 Thank you for joining us from week to week
00:06 as we walk through God's Word together.
00:09 We're now starting lesson number six,
00:11 Finding Rest in Family Ties.
00:13 And we're talking about dysfunction at home.
00:16 What an amazing title?
00:18 I'll be covering that one.
00:20 But this lesson is going to challenge you.
00:22 It's going to talk about the places
00:24 that we need to be strengthened more
00:25 in our family ties,
00:27 husband with wife, children, with parents.
00:29 So you don't want to miss this.
00:31 You want a copy of the lesson, go to ABSG.Adventist.org
00:36 and download a copy
00:37 or better yet
00:39 go to one of our local Seventh-day Adventist churches
00:41 and join in an energetic study with brothers and sisters.
00:45 But nonetheless, join us now as we talk about
00:48 how to find rest in families
00:50 and how to deal with all those dysfunctions.
01:25 Welcome to 3ABN Sabbath School Panel.
01:27 Once again, I'm John Lomacang.
01:29 We have some amazing panelists today.
01:32 You know them all,
01:33 but we're going to have fun talking
01:34 about this amazingly challenging topic,
01:36 dysfunction.
01:39 Is your family a dysfunctional family?
01:41 I don't want to know, but if it is, in fact,
01:44 I don't think there's a family on the planet
01:46 that has more than one person in it
01:48 that doesn't have some kind of dysfunction to deal with.
01:51 It's a serious topic.
01:53 You might smile, you might laugh,
01:54 but you might frown and say, wow,
01:56 I need to get this thing under wraps
01:59 and God need to give me direction.
02:02 But before we do any of that,
02:03 let's go ahead and meet our family members today.
02:05 To my left is the incomparable lady from Texas,
02:08 Shelley Quinn.
02:09 It's funny how you still consider yourself a Texan,
02:12 even though we've been here nearly 20 years.
02:16 Oh, I love Sabbath School.
02:17 We're so glad that you're joining us.
02:19 We study to share with you,
02:21 but we also share with each other
02:22 and learn so much.
02:24 So thanks for joining us.
02:26 And my sis from New York, Yvonne Shelton.
02:29 Good to have you here, Sis.
02:31 Thank you, my dear brother. It's wonderful to be here.
02:33 I love being on the set with all of you,
02:35 because it's such a blessing.
02:37 Like there's always something new to get to gain.
02:40 And so, thank you so much for the invitation to be on.
02:44 That's right.
02:45 And I say this with a smile
02:46 until I found out Jill's name was Jill.
02:48 I used to call her Julie.
02:50 And now she is the Vice President of 3ABN,
02:55 Head of Operations and so many other gifts.
02:57 Good to have you here, Jill.
02:59 Thank you, Pastor John.
03:00 Privileged to be here and we have a list today.
03:02 That's right. That's good.
03:03 And my, hey, my basketball buddy.
03:05 And we've been in the trenches together so many times.
03:07 Good to have you here, Danny.
03:08 It's good to be here as always.
03:10 And I always feel like I'm kind of out-manned
03:13 when a woman, I guess you'd say that,
03:15 set with all of you,
03:17 but I learned so much.
03:18 I'm happy to be here
03:19 and happy to be with you at home.
03:21 Okay. Well, why don't you have our prayer for us today?
03:23 I'll do it.
03:24 Lord, we thank You
03:25 for Your blessings and Your love.
03:27 And as always, we thank You for Your plan of salvation.
03:29 Now, Lord, we pray for a special anointing
03:31 of the Holy Spirit
03:33 upon each one of us
03:34 that's taking part each one at home
03:36 that's taking part in
03:37 and Sabbath School teachers around the world.
03:40 And so today is something that we all need.
03:44 It's from You.
03:45 We thank You for, Lord, for the answers
03:47 that You're going to give us.
03:48 John's talking about dysfunction.
03:50 This whole world is not functioning right,
03:53 but soon and very soon,
03:55 when you come back in the clouds of glory,
03:57 all the old things will be passed away
03:59 and behold all will become new.
04:01 We look forward to that.
04:03 Until then, Lord, thank You
04:04 for Your blessings and Your love.
04:05 In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
04:07 Amen. Wow.
04:09 You know, the writers of this lesson
04:11 really tackled a topic
04:12 that does need to be talked about
04:14 because the healthier the family,
04:16 the healthier the church,
04:17 the healthier the marriage,
04:19 the healthier the church,
04:20 the healthier the children, the healthier the church.
04:23 So why would the devil not want to cause
04:25 the family to be dysfunctional?
04:27 How can we say I'm so glad
04:28 I'm a part of the family of God,
04:30 but we're all crazy?
04:31 And somebody once said,
04:34 "The church is a hospital for sinners."
04:35 I sometimes think as an insane asylum.
04:38 When you think of some of the things
04:39 that we have to deal with as church leaders,
04:42 but you know, that's true
04:43 because sometimes you can come to church
04:45 and feel like you are glad to be there.
04:47 Sometimes you can go to church, whatever the denomination, say,
04:50 what am I doing here?
04:52 All of us at one point or another
04:54 deal with some kind of challenging dysfunction.
04:57 But the piece that we find is
04:59 the Lord knows that
05:01 whoever we were in Christ, we can all be a new creation,
05:05 new husbands, new families, new relationships.
05:09 And the Lord looks at us where we are
05:10 and is not content to have us stay there.
05:13 The memory text for this week is in 2 Peter 3:17-18.
05:18 Listen to what the Lord says in His Word.
05:21 "You therefore, beloved,
05:22 since you know this beforehand,
05:25 beware lest you also fall
05:28 from your own steadfastness,
05:31 being led away with the error of the wicked,
05:34 but grow in the grace and knowledge
05:36 of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
05:38 To Him be the glory both now and forevermore."
05:42 And I'm dealing with Joseph. I think that says a whole lot.
05:45 The children of Jacob,
05:47 Joseph was one of the children of Jacob
05:49 and the 12 children came from four different women
05:54 from an impatient man
05:56 and a wife who made the most ridiculous suggestion.
05:59 My wife will never make that recommendation.
06:01 Can't have a kid, well, here's my maid.
06:04 You know, it started out crazy.
06:06 How can something that started out that way
06:09 become corrected just very quickly?
06:11 Well, I'm not going to read all of it
06:13 because it's very, very long,
06:15 but I would challenge you to read Genesis Chapter 34.
06:19 And it talks about Dinah,
06:21 the daughter of Leah and Shechem.
06:24 How Shechem saw Dinah.
06:27 He saw that she was a beautiful young woman.
06:30 He wooed her. He...
06:33 I'm going to say this the way the Bible communicated.
06:35 He took advantage of her sexually
06:38 and brought dishonor to her.
06:41 Her brothers found out about it,
06:43 Simeon and Levi,
06:44 and the father Jacob found out about it.
06:47 And he tried to fix it by saying, well, you know,
06:49 now that we have become inappropriate,
06:54 let me try to find a way to fix this.
06:56 Why don't you let me marry her?
06:59 And they said,
07:00 "Well, you're not circumcised.
07:02 If you've got to marry her,
07:04 you've got to at least qualify."
07:05 So they finally agreed
07:08 if you and your men all get circumcised,
07:11 maybe we could get something done.
07:13 So Shechem decides to do that.
07:15 And Hamor his father and, which was a Hivite.
07:19 They decided to follow along in the pattern.
07:22 But Simeon and Levi said,
07:26 "I don't like what they did to my sister."
07:29 While they were healing from the circumcision,
07:32 Simeon and Levi took it upon themselves
07:35 to kill Hamor and Shechem,
07:38 and all the men that were with him.
07:40 And Jacob found out about it and said,
07:42 "You have brought dishonor to me."
07:45 The Perizzites and the Canaanites
07:47 are going to hear about this.
07:49 And now our name is going to be dirt.
07:50 He used the word, actually the Bible uses
07:52 the word obnoxious
07:53 among the inhabitants of the land.
07:56 And they're going to try to find a way to deal with us.
07:59 What a dysfunction.
08:01 You can't unkill someone.
08:03 You can't undo dishonor.
08:06 And this was something that
08:08 the Bible begins by sharing
08:09 how the dysfunction was permeated
08:11 through the family.
08:12 Let's go ahead and add some more to that.
08:15 You look back on the rival between the mothers,
08:19 the mothers in that family.
08:20 I cannot imagine
08:22 how Jacob was able to hold that together.
08:25 How do you please?
08:27 And then Solomon, well, let's not even go there.
08:30 That's just a whole complete dysfunction altogether.
08:33 What gives me courage is
08:34 the Lord can look at dysfunctional people and say,
08:36 that's where you are now,
08:38 but that's not where you're going to be
08:39 when I'm done with you.
08:40 But why did Simeon and Levi do what they did?
08:44 You know, Genesis Chapter 49 lists
08:47 all the characteristics of the sons of Jacob,
08:50 and Simeon and Levi were two of the worst.
08:52 Genesis 49:5 says, Simeon and Levi are brothers,
08:57 instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place."
09:02 They were cruel,
09:05 not lightly cruel.
09:07 The word cruel there means violent.
09:09 So it was nothing for them
09:11 to take this matter into their own hands.
09:14 It was nothing for them to consider
09:16 to perpetrate murder
09:17 and as they thought to honor my sister
09:22 because of what had been done to her,
09:24 but it goes further than that.
09:26 Let's go to Genesis 35:22.
09:29 The Bible talks about
09:32 another strange dysfunction in the family.
09:36 Genesis 35:22, it says,
09:38 "And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land,
09:41 that Reuben went
09:42 and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine,
09:46 and Israel heard about it.
09:49 Now the sons of Jacob were twelve."
09:51 What happened is, Reuben figured,
09:54 well, my dad is old now.
09:56 No big deal.
09:57 And he went ahead and went to bed
09:59 with his father's concubine.
10:00 One of the mother of some of his brothers.
10:06 How dysfunctional is that,
10:08 incestuous relationships in the family.
10:10 Let's keep going.
10:12 Now Jacob adds fuel to the fire
10:14 by showing preference to Joseph.
10:17 Look at Genesis 37:3,
10:19 "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children,
10:24 because he was the son of his old age.
10:27 Also, he made him a tunic of many colors."
10:29 And when you read the story, Joseph had a problem.
10:32 He had dreams.
10:35 And he said, you know, last night I dreamt that
10:37 you're going to kneel to me today.
10:39 I mean, how many wouldn't want to choke a brother like that?
10:41 You, how many brothers did you have?
10:42 Three. Okay.
10:44 I mean, you're the youngest, right?
10:45 Yeah.
10:46 So you know what it's like to be tormented?
10:48 Well... I can torment too.
10:49 You can torment too.
10:51 They can give and take.
10:52 And it's still the same way today.
10:54 You guys still love having fun together,
10:57 but Joseph was one of the hated ones.
10:59 And I could imagine they said, "We need to get rid of him."
11:02 So they put him in a pit
11:03 and they sold them to the Midianites
11:05 and he ended up in Egypt,
11:06 ended up in prison needlessly
11:08 for something being falsely accused of.
11:12 But later on, God turned that around
11:14 and saved his family.
11:16 Well, let's even go further now.
11:18 We have Judah
11:20 and his dysfunction in Genesis 38:15.
11:24 And, Shelley, I'm going to, in a moment,
11:25 I'm going to pass you
11:26 a whole lot of stuff to unravel.
11:28 All right. Okay.
11:29 But we're talking about dysfunction right now.
11:30 Genesis 38:15,
11:33 it talks about Judah impregnating his sister-in-law.
11:37 Daughter-in-law. I mean, sorry, daughter-in-law.
11:38 Thank you.
11:40 Thinking that somehow she was a harlot
11:42 because of her disguise.
11:44 Genesis 38:15,
11:46 "When Judah saw her,
11:48 he thought she was a harlot
11:50 because she had covered her face."
11:52 She knew she was, she knew who she was,
11:55 but what is strange to me is she understood
11:57 the relationship to the family
11:59 and did not disclose her identity.
12:02 Dysfunctions, we're just getting started.
12:04 When you look at Genesis Chapter 49,
12:06 you'll find the dysfunctions
12:07 are continually talked about there,
12:10 but let me bring out three very important points
12:12 before I pass the broken torch to Shelley.
12:16 One is, let's go to John, 1 John 3:1-2.
12:21 And this should give all of us
12:22 that are part of some kind of dysfunction.
12:24 I was born in a dysfunctional home.
12:26 My mom and dad were not married.
12:27 My dad's name was not on my birth certificate.
12:30 My mom left me at a babysitter house,
12:31 how about that.
12:33 And I was raised by a babysitter
12:35 till she was, till I was 12.
12:36 She passed away.
12:38 I was left to raise myself from that point on.
12:39 A lot of dysfunction,
12:41 but praise the Lord, look at me today.
12:43 God can do amazing things with those He calls.
12:46 This text always gives me encouragement
12:48 because it talks about who we were
12:50 and who we are becoming.
12:51 1 John 3:1-2,
12:53 "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us,
12:57 that we should be called children of God!"
12:59 Think about what we just talked about
13:00 and then think about being called children of God,
13:03 because these are the 12 tribes.
13:04 All the dysfunction I talked about,
13:06 these were the 12 tribes of the children of Israel
13:09 that are indicators of what we must overcome.
13:12 The Bible says,
13:13 "Therefore the world does not know us,
13:15 because it did not know Him."
13:16 But look at verse 2.
13:18 "Beloved, now we are children of God,"
13:21 when?
13:22 Now.
13:24 But look God is not done,
13:25 "And it has not yet been revealed
13:26 what we shall be,
13:28 but we know that when He is revealed,
13:30 we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
13:34 God chooses us not because of us,
13:37 but in spite of us.
13:40 Secondly, God chooses us
13:42 and changes our standing before Him.
13:45 1 Peter 2:9,
13:46 "But you are a chosen generation,
13:48 a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
13:51 His own special people."
13:52 When God chooses us,
13:54 young man, young lady, husband, wife,
13:56 God never chooses us and leave us
13:58 the way He found us.
14:01 And finally, God accepts us as we are,
14:03 but does not become content with leaving us that way.
14:08 Philippians 1:6,
14:10 "Being confident of this very thing
14:13 that He who has begun a good work in you
14:15 will complete it
14:17 until the day of Jesus Christ."
14:18 As the songwriter says,
14:20 one day, these hands of mine will touch the hands of God.
14:24 Hold on. God is not done yet.
14:26 Amen.
14:27 Thank you. That was a great opening.
14:30 Monday's lesson is Choosing a New Direction.
14:33 When you talk about dysfunctional families,
14:35 I think you all know
14:36 JD was working on his doctorate in psychology
14:38 when he quit school.
14:40 But, when he met me
14:41 and got to know my family, he said,
14:43 "I thought I'd seen it all."
14:45 He said,
14:46 "Your family is the most dysfunctional
14:47 I've ever met."
14:49 So we all come from dysfunction.
14:51 But as Monday's lesson is talking about
14:54 choosing a new direction.
14:57 Man, that's what it's all about is when you wake up
15:00 and choose a new direction.
15:02 You know, sometimes life can change
15:05 directions on a dime.
15:08 I mean, you know, your personal status changes,
15:12 circumstances around you are completely unfamiliar.
15:17 It is emotionally disorienting.
15:20 So just imagine the emotional pain
15:23 and trauma of Joseph.
15:26 Here he is the favorite baby boy
15:28 and by the way, parents,
15:30 you create dysfunction
15:32 when you show preference for one of your children.
15:37 And so Joseph had been shown preference
15:40 by his father, Jacob.
15:42 His 11 brothers hated him and he was a little showy.
15:47 But what, what's going on
15:50 is think of how he had gone from this coat of many colors
15:54 that's now been torn from him, put in a pit.
15:57 Now he's in change and he's on his way to Egypt.
16:02 Think about the change, the sorrow,
16:06 his, he, how he must have felt about his change in status.
16:12 He worried about daddy back home,
16:14 his loving father, who was so doting on him,
16:18 who would be suffering from pain,
16:20 but here though Jacob made a mistake
16:25 in showing preference.
16:26 There is something that Jacob did that was right.
16:30 Jacob had taught Joseph about the God of heaven.
16:35 Jacob had told him how he had been in a fugitive,
16:41 basically an exile
16:42 and how God had turned it around.
16:45 So here as Joseph is on his way to Egypt,
16:51 something happened,
16:53 he's going in a different direction,
16:56 but he chooses a new direction
16:59 because he chose to make a personal commitment
17:05 to the God of heaven.
17:06 I have to tell you something.
17:08 Spirituality is not faith
17:13 or spirituality is not passed on genetically.
17:17 God has no grandchildren. He only has children.
17:21 And it requires that we make
17:25 a personal commitment to choose our direction.
17:29 So what I'd like to do is take you through six points
17:34 about a personal commitment.
17:36 If you want to choose a new direction,
17:39 you've got to make this personal commitment.
17:42 Point number one,
17:43 personal commitment requires sincere prayer.
17:47 Deuteronomy 4:29, God says,
17:51 "From there you will seek the Lord your God,
17:53 and you will find Him
17:55 if you seek Him with all of your heart
17:59 and with all your soul."
18:01 Wow.
18:02 Are you seeking God
18:04 with all of your heart and soul?
18:06 I want to add Jeremiah 29 to that.
18:09 I'm going to read verses 11 through 13,
18:11 but I love...
18:13 Well, I remember when I was first reading,
18:15 I'd always read 11.
18:17 And then when I get to 12, I think, wait a minute.
18:20 Listen to that.
18:21 Eleven says, God speaking,
18:24 "I know the plans I have for you
18:26 declares the Lord,
18:29 plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
18:32 plans to give you a hope and a future."
18:35 Now look how verse 12 begins.
18:38 "Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me,
18:43 and I will listen to you."
18:45 What do you mean then?
18:47 When is then?
18:50 When you recognize that God has a plan for your life,
18:54 that's what wakes you up
18:56 to seek Him with all of your heart.
18:58 And I'm telling you today, God has a plan for your life.
19:02 And He says, you will seek Me.
19:04 You will find Me
19:05 when you seek Me with all of your heart.
19:08 God has always provided us the grace
19:11 by which we can believe, which we can repent,
19:15 turn around and come to Him,
19:17 but we've got to call upon Him in sincere prayer.
19:20 Number two,
19:21 personal commitment should be unwavering.
19:26 Love Joshua 24:15.
19:28 I have a plaque on my wall at home with this.
19:31 Joshua says,
19:33 "If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord,
19:36 choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,
19:41 whether the gods,
19:43 your fathers served
19:44 that were on the other side of the river,"
19:46 these little G pagan gods,
19:49 or the gods of the Amorites, little G pagan gods.
19:55 "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
19:59 That has to be a daily decision.
20:02 That's part of your personal commitment.
20:06 Colossians 3:1-3 says,
20:08 "If you then were raised with Christ,
20:11 seek the things which are"
20:13 where? "Above."
20:17 He says,
20:18 "Where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.
20:20 Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth.
20:26 For you have died
20:28 and your life is hidden with Christ."
20:30 Number three,
20:32 personal commitment requires a daily fellowship.
20:36 In 1 Chronicles 16:11, it says,
20:41 "Seek the Lord and His strength.
20:44 Seek His face forevermore."
20:47 You know, the Psalmist David said,
20:49 "Oh, Lord, when You said seek My face,
20:52 I said to you, Your face, I will seek."
20:56 So what does it mean to seek God's face?
21:02 This means that we're turning to God
21:04 in total 100% devotion,
21:08 desiring intimate fellowship with Him
21:12 that we are coming to know God
21:16 and God's face
21:18 is just His personal presence in our life.
21:21 Okay.
21:22 Number four, personal commitment
21:23 recognizes accountability to God.
21:27 Psalms 14:2,
21:30 "The Lord looks down
21:31 from heaven upon the children of men
21:33 to see if there are any who understand,
21:37 who seek God."
21:40 Now, this is depicted in human terms
21:43 as far as the Lord looking down from heaven
21:45 and surveilling the human race.
21:48 Actually God knows the hearts of all,
21:51 but you know what I love about God.
21:54 He is not ignorant of my actions,
21:58 but He always remembers I am but dust.
22:00 Yes. That's right.
22:02 Isn't that wonderful? Yes.
22:03 His intimate knowledge of us recognizes our frailty
22:08 and our helplessness if we're left to ourselves.
22:11 So He is always there to give us help.
22:14 Number five,
22:15 personal commitment requires
22:18 gaining insight to God's standard of truth.
22:25 Proverbs 8:10 says,
22:28 "Receive my instruction, and not silver,
22:33 and knowledge rather than choice gold."
22:37 Receive.
22:38 We've got to order our lives by God's instructions.
22:43 And that will bring us rest.
22:46 His rest is not found in wealth and worldly pursuits.
22:50 Listen, I've got rich relatives.
22:52 I know a lot of rich friends
22:54 who don't find any joy in their money.
22:57 They don't have that peace of mind.
23:01 Covetousness, greed, envy
23:04 and fraud disturb our thinking.
23:08 You know what the Bible says?
23:09 No one can serve two masters.
23:12 He go, you can't serve God and mammon.
23:15 So number six,
23:18 we, personal commitment.
23:20 Here's the sixth point.
23:22 We should not procrastinate
23:25 on making a personal commitment.
23:28 Isaiah 55:6-7,
23:36 "Seek the Lord while He may be found,
23:41 call upon Him while He is near.
23:46 Let the wicked forsake his way,
23:50 and the unrighteous,
23:52 unrighteous man forsake his evil thoughts.
23:58 Let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him."
24:03 Choose a new direction.
24:05 "And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."
24:09 Mercy and grace is available to all who seek God,
24:14 desiring forgiveness, deliverance from sin.
24:17 He, if we cast ourselves on God's mercy,
24:21 He will give us rest.
24:24 We can return to the Lord, repent,
24:27 turn around and choose a new direction.
24:31 Amen. Amen.
24:32 Amen. I like that. Thank you. Yeah.
24:33 So where you are is not your final frontier.
24:36 You can choose a new direction.
24:38 Don't take that out of the equation.
24:40 We'll be right back in just a few moments.
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25:18 Welcome back to our Sabbath School Panel.
25:19 We're going now to Tuesday's lesson,
25:21 Finding True Self-Worth.
25:23 Yvonne?
25:24 Thank you.
25:26 So far, these lessons have been just so rich.
25:29 My lesson is Finding True Self-Worth.
25:33 And we've been studying Joseph
25:35 and the dysfunctional environment
25:37 in which he was raised.
25:38 Think about it.
25:40 Joseph grew up feeling special because of his dad's favoritism
25:44 and hated
25:45 also because of his father's favoritism.
25:47 We see this in Genesis 37:3-4, which says,
25:52 "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children,
25:55 because he was a son of his old age.
25:58 Also, he made him a tunic of many colors,
26:01 but when his brothers saw that their father loved him
26:03 more than all his brothers,
26:05 they hated him
26:06 and could not speak peaceably to him."
26:10 So here you have it, father, kind, brothers, mean.
26:14 Father, affectionate, brothers, distant.
26:18 Father, provider, brothers, selfish.
26:21 Father, protective, brothers, murderous.
26:25 Where do you think Joseph sense of self-worth came from?
26:29 Often, we derive it from our families
26:31 and close relationships.
26:33 Joseph's situation yielded mixed signals,
26:36 beloved and hated, cherished and rebuffed.
26:40 And then to add insult to injury
26:42 at the hand of his hateful brothers,
26:44 he became a slave to be bought or sold at will.
26:47 He was sold into a family
26:49 of a new language, culture, and religion.
26:52 So let me share three points that stuck out to me
26:55 in relating Joseph's situation to his sense of self-worth.
26:59 Point number one,
27:01 your condition is just your position.
27:04 In other words,
27:06 if you find yourself
27:07 at the bottom of the heap today,
27:09 it's just a temporary situation.
27:11 Where you are today
27:13 doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be there tomorrow.
27:16 Amen.
27:17 Don't let your current situation
27:19 define who you are.
27:21 I love Psalms 28:13-14, where it says,
27:26 "I would have lost heart
27:28 unless I had believed
27:29 that I would see the goodness of the Lord
27:31 in the land of the living.
27:33 Wait on the Lord, be of good courage,
27:36 and He shall strengthen your heart.
27:39 Wait, I say, on the Lord."
27:43 Joseph found himself in a world of trouble,
27:47 hated by his brothers,
27:48 falsely accused by his boss's wife,
27:50 incarcerated, a foreigner in a strange land
27:53 and alone.
27:55 And yet in the end, Joseph was on top.
27:58 He had a position of leadership,
28:00 a beautiful wife, power, status in his community.
28:05 And he was on top. He was on top of the world.
28:09 Joseph would have been a very confused guy
28:12 if he's solely relied upon his earthly relationships
28:15 to determine his sense of self-worth.
28:17 Instead, he knew that his God had taken care of him
28:21 and he was accountable to Him,
28:23 as you mentioned, Shelley.
28:25 Ellen White in Patriarchs and Prophets says,
28:28 and I quote,
28:29 "Joseph served the Lord with an undivided heart.
28:32 He met the trials of his lot with fortitude
28:35 and performed every duty with fidelity."
28:39 He didn't bemoan his position when he was down.
28:42 He just continued to be faithful
28:44 to his God and his duties.
28:46 Thus, his position at rock bottom changed.
28:50 He was consistently elevated
28:53 until he was second in power to the Pharaoh himself.
28:57 This kind of consistent elevation
28:59 can happen for any child of the king
29:02 if we're faithful in our duties and responsibilities.
29:05 That's good.
29:06 Point number two,
29:07 your sense of self-worth must be rooted
29:10 in your relationship with God, not man.
29:13 How does God see us?
29:16 Isaiah 43:1 says,
29:18 "Fear not, for I've redeemed you,
29:20 I've called you by your name, you are Mine."
29:24 There is something so intimate
29:26 about being called by your name by the Creator of the universe.
29:31 Imagine that the most powerful prestigious being
29:34 ever wants a deep relationship with you.
29:38 Why wouldn't that boost your feelings
29:40 of worth and value?
29:42 In Micah 3:17, it says,
29:46 "They shall be Mine says the Lord of hosts
29:48 on the day that I make them my jewels."
29:51 He calls us His. He calls us His jewels.
29:55 And in Romans 8:14, Paul says,
29:59 "That if we're led by God's spirit,
30:01 we are sons and daughters of God."
30:04 And in 1 John 3:1-2, it says,
30:06 "Behold, what manner of love
30:08 the Father has bestowed upon us."
30:09 Pastor John, you read this.
30:11 "That we should be called children of God.
30:13 Therefore, the world does not know us
30:15 because it did not know Him.
30:17 Beloved, we are now children of God
30:20 and it has not yet been revealed
30:22 what we shall be,
30:23 but we know that when He is revealed,
30:25 we shall be like Him,
30:27 for we shall see Him as He is."
30:30 Had Joseph derived his sense of worth from men,
30:33 he would have lost.
30:34 He would have been most miserable.
30:36 He had no earthly familiar report, support,
30:40 for many years of his life.
30:42 Joseph knew his God.
30:44 He knew that,
30:46 although he didn't have
30:47 his beloved earthly father with him,
30:49 his heavenly Father
30:50 was watching over him constantly.
30:53 He knew that he had to be accountable
30:56 to the Almighty.
30:57 And point number three,
30:59 our confidence should be in Christ
31:02 more than in ourselves.
31:03 Jeremiah 17:7 says,
31:06 "But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord
31:08 whose confidence is in Him."
31:11 The whole idea of self-esteem
31:14 emerged out of a movement
31:15 that swept through the United States
31:17 like a whirlwind in the 80s and 90s.
31:20 A recent internet article that I read said
31:25 that it changed how countless organizations were run,
31:29 how an entire generation millennials was educated
31:32 and how that generation went on to perceive itself
31:35 quite favorably, as it turns out.
31:38 As it turned out,
31:39 the central claim underlying the trend
31:42 that there's a causal relationship
31:43 between self-esteem
31:45 and various positive outcomes
31:47 was almost certainly inaccurate."
31:51 The leading proponent of this line of thought
31:54 was a guy named John Vasconcellos.
31:56 I'm going to call him John V because it's a hard name.
32:00 He was a California legislator for 38 years
32:03 and was said to be an idealist
32:05 who was convinced that
32:06 humans had untold, untapped greatness,
32:09 but his idealism emerged out of his own long attempts,
32:14 long running attempts to control his anger problems.
32:18 He discovered research on self-esteem
32:20 that showed that people
32:21 with high versus low self-esteem
32:23 reacted in different ways to various challenges
32:26 and instances of adversity.
32:28 John V felt that
32:30 if low self-esteem
32:31 is tied to so many maladaptive responses,
32:34 to so many forms of underachievement
32:36 and bad behavior,
32:37 then surely raising kids in adult self-esteem
32:40 could bring with an untold benefits.
32:43 He began to lobby Sacramento
32:45 to launch a statewide self-esteem commission
32:48 to study the public policy implications of self-esteem.
32:52 And that commission, as it turned out,
32:55 just got off to a slow start.
32:58 It picked up steam
33:00 with a steady stream of research
33:01 purporting to confirm John V's theory
33:04 that self-esteem lay at the heart
33:05 of many personal and societal difficulties.
33:09 The problem with this research was
33:12 that it was fairly anecdotal and low quality.
33:15 There was a social scientist,
33:17 a social psychologist by the name of Roy Baumeister,
33:20 who studied self-esteem
33:22 and very likely authored a lot of this research.
33:25 He found that there were problems
33:28 with the research.
33:29 And so, what we find is that Joseph,
33:33 we go back to Joseph here,
33:35 and we know that
33:37 Joseph himself found his self-esteem in God,
33:43 his confidence in God.
33:47 Joseph had a sense of his value
33:51 as a result of his intense relationship with God.
33:54 He relied on Him
33:56 to give him the answers to properly interpret dreams.
34:00 He knew that the gift wasn't just something innate.
34:04 It was from God Himself.
34:07 In Genesis 41:16,
34:11 Joseph, when told by Pharaoh
34:13 that he could interpret the dream,
34:15 corrected him and said,
34:17 "It is not in me.
34:19 God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace."
34:22 Joseph's confidence was in God, not in himself.
34:27 He knew the source of all wisdom
34:30 was to be found in God and not in men.
34:34 So, no matter what we're going through,
34:37 no matter where you are right now,
34:39 you can trust God.
34:41 We can know that we have value
34:43 because He gave His life for us.
34:46 We matter
34:48 because we're created in His image
34:51 and He loves us.
34:53 Ephesians 2:10 says,
34:55 "We are His workmanship
34:56 created in Christ Jesus for good works,
34:59 which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
35:04 In God and in God alone,
35:08 in God only can we find our true self-worth.
35:13 Amen. Amen. Thank you so much.
35:16 Thank you.
35:17 Thank you, Pastor John and Shelley and Sis Yvonne,
35:19 powerful.
35:20 I love that. Not a pseudo self-esteem...
35:23 That's right. But biblical self-worth.
35:25 It's powerful.
35:26 I have Wednesday's lesson,
35:28 which is Doing Relationships God's Way.
35:31 So, let's flip over to Genesis 39.
35:33 We're going to walk through 10 verses there.
35:35 Genesis Chapter 39
35:37 as each member of the panel already brought out so well.
35:40 Joseph grew up in a dysfunctional home.
35:43 There was envy and jealousy.
35:45 There was hatred and bitterness.
35:47 There was a desire for revenge and a desire for power.
35:50 There was lust and sexual sin.
35:53 And somewhere on that journey,
35:55 when he was sold as a slave from the land of Canaan,
35:58 as he traveled to Egypt, he made a choice.
36:02 He would serve the God of his fathers
36:05 and he also discovered his self-worth in God.
36:10 So, we pick up the story in Genesis 39:1,
36:13 we're going to have five takeaways
36:15 from these 10 verses
36:16 and then five lessons
36:18 for how you and I can deal with temptation.
36:21 Verse 1,
36:23 "Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt.
36:25 And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,
36:27 captain of the guard, an Egyptian,
36:30 bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there."
36:35 I want to tell you right now, when all seems lost,
36:38 God is still in control.
36:40 You might be in your Egypt experience.
36:44 You might feel as if you have been sold as a slave,
36:47 God is still in control of your life.
36:51 Verse 2,
36:52 "The Lord, He was with Joseph, and he was a successful man,
36:57 and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian."
37:00 Takeaway number two, when you least expect it,
37:03 God will intervene in your situation.
37:07 He thought he was alone.
37:08 He thought he was in Egypt.
37:10 He thought everything was against him.
37:12 And yet God, God blessed him.
37:14 God showed up.
37:16 Joshua 1:5. This is Joshua, right?
37:18 When he takes over the people from Moses and God says,
37:22 "No man shall be able to stand before you
37:24 all the days of your life.
37:26 As I was with Moses, I will be with you.
37:29 I will not leave you, nor forsake you."
37:32 Are you alone? God will never leave you.
37:36 Jeremiah 1:19. I love this promise.
37:38 And I think it's a new promise that I've found,
37:40 it's not new, but I just discovered it recently.
37:43 It says,
37:44 "They will fight against you,
37:45 but they shall not prevail against you,
37:48 for I am with you, says the Lord to deliver you."
37:51 Are you in battled? God will deliver you.
37:55 The next verse, Genesis 39:3-4,
37:59 "And his master saw that the Lord was with him
38:01 and that the Lord made
38:02 all he did to prosper in his hand.
38:05 So Joseph, he found favor in his sight,
38:07 and served him.
38:08 Then he made him overseer of his house,
38:11 and all that he had put under his authority."
38:14 Takeaway number three,
38:16 when you faithfully serve God, God will honor you.
38:21 Proverbs 22:29.
38:23 I really like this in King James.
38:25 It says,
38:26 "Seest thou a man diligent in his business?
38:29 He shall stand before kings,
38:31 he shall not stand before mean men."
38:34 Joseph faithfully served his God
38:37 in the midst of overwhelmingly difficult circumstances.
38:42 And God honored that.
38:44 Next verse, verse 5, Genesis 39:5,
38:48 "So it was, from the time
38:49 that he had made him overseer of his house
38:51 and all that he had,
38:53 that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house," why?
38:57 "For Joseph's sake,
38:59 and the blessing of the Lord
39:00 was on all that he had in the house and in the field."
39:02 I love this one.
39:03 Takeaway number four,
39:05 when you belong to God, other people are affected.
39:08 You see, no man or no woman is in island.
39:11 We all have influenced.
39:13 And because God was blessing Joseph's life,
39:17 God blessed the household of Potiphar as well.
39:19 Potiphar wasn't a believer.
39:21 He didn't honor the true God, but what happened?
39:24 God blessed the entire household.
39:27 If you read in 1 Corinthians 7, we won't turn there,
39:30 but there's this whole passage of marriage
39:33 of believing spouses with unbelieving spouses.
39:37 And the Word of God says that
39:40 the unbelieving spouse can be influenced
39:43 or won to the Lord
39:45 through the influence of a believing spouse.
39:48 So, are you in a home that's divided?
39:50 Do you have children that don't walk with God?
39:53 Are you in a work environment
39:55 where your coworkers don't know God?
39:58 Guess what?
40:00 God blesses your life,
40:02 and other people will be affected
40:05 because of the Holy Spirit anointing coming out of you.
40:08 Let's look at verse 36, Genesis 39,
40:11 the first half of verse 36,
40:13 "Thus, he left all that he had in Joseph's hand.
40:17 And he, that's Potiphar
40:19 did not know what he had
40:20 except for the bread, which he ate."
40:23 Takeaway number five,
40:24 when you follow God, other people will trust you.
40:28 Potiphar trusted Joseph
40:30 with everything that was in his house,
40:33 except for the food.
40:34 Now we see a turning point in the story
40:36 and trouble in paradise begins to come up.
40:39 Let's look at the second half of verse 36.
40:42 Now Joseph was, thank you, 6.
40:45 Genesis 39:6, the second half.
40:48 Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.
40:52 Now I don't know, it's very interesting
40:54 why the Word of God mentions what Joseph looks like.
40:56 We don't know what Elijah looks like.
40:58 We don't know what Elisha looked like.
40:59 We don't know what Jeremiah the prophet looked like.
41:02 We don't know what Mary,
41:03 the mother of Jesus looked like.
41:04 And why?
41:06 Because God says it doesn't matter
41:07 on the outward appearance,
41:08 the Lord looks at the heart.
41:10 That is what matters.
41:11 Why does it even reference this?
41:12 And it says, form and appearance.
41:14 Did you notice that?
41:16 Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.
41:18 If you look at those two Hebrew words,
41:20 form literally means the form or the figure.
41:23 Appearance means the countenance, the face.
41:27 So, Joseph was a good looking man.
41:29 He was handsome.
41:30 His face was good looking,
41:31 and he had a good looking body as well.
41:33 So, Potiphar's wife took notice of this.
41:37 Let's look in verse 7,
41:38 "And it came to pass after these things
41:40 his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph,
41:44 and she said, 'Lie with me.'
41:45 But he refused and said to his master's wife,
41:48 'Look, my master does not know
41:50 what is with me in the house,
41:53 and he has committed all that he has to my hand.
41:55 There is no one greater in this house than I,
41:58 nor has he kept back anything from me but you,
42:00 because you are his wife.
42:03 How then can I do this great wickedness,
42:06 and sin against God?'
42:09 So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day,
42:12 that he did not heed her,
42:13 to lie with her or to be with her.'"
42:16 So, let's look at some lessons
42:17 just that I see from this passage
42:19 and how we can deal with temptation.
42:23 Lesson number one, make decisions on principle,
42:27 not by how you feel.
42:29 Did Joseph desire Potiphar's wife?
42:31 We're not told that specifically,
42:33 but we do know she came on to him.
42:35 We also know if you study what the Egyptian woman wore,
42:38 I would say probably
42:40 there was some sort of desire going on there.
42:43 You know, the Word of God says in James 1:14-15,
42:48 "Each one is tempted
42:49 when he is drawn away of his own desires and enticed.
42:53 Then, when desire has conceived,
42:55 it gives birth to sin,
42:57 and sin, when it is full-grown, it brings death."
43:01 You see, sometimes we feel like the feelings are wrong.
43:04 Feelings aren't wrong.
43:05 It is when we cherish.
43:06 It's when we dwell on them.
43:08 That is when it turns into sin.
43:11 You know, there's this analogy I always loved.
43:13 You can't stop the birds from flying over your head,
43:16 but you can certainly stop them
43:17 from making a nest in your hair.
43:20 Another words, it goes in one ear,
43:22 it can go out the other ear.
43:24 But when we dwell, when we linger,
43:27 when we make decisions based on how we feel,
43:29 and we indulge in that decision,
43:32 that becomes sin.
43:35 Lesson, number two,
43:36 make decisions on how it affects God,
43:40 not yourself for others.
43:41 What did Joseph say?
43:43 How can I do this wickedness and sin against God?
43:45 Well, clearly it would be against Potiphar and the rest,
43:47 but how can I do this and sin against God?
43:50 I think about Adam and Eve in the beginning,
43:52 they took a fruit
43:53 and what could they have said?
43:55 It didn't hurt anybody else.
43:56 Do you ever say that?
43:57 Oh, I'm not hurting anybody.
43:59 This is only affecting me.
44:01 It has nothing to do with,
44:03 or if we both agree, it's just between us.
44:05 It doesn't impact anyone else.
44:07 Look at the untold misery.
44:09 Look at what happened
44:10 as a result of Adam and Eve's one choice to step into sin.
44:15 It clearly affected the entire world.
44:17 And when we sin, it is not against ourselves.
44:22 And clearly sin can be against self,
44:24 but is most importantly, it's against God.
44:27 Lesson number three.
44:28 Once you've made your decision, stick with it.
44:31 Potiphar's wife tempted Joseph, the Bible says day after day,
44:35 but he did not change his mind.
44:36 Sometimes we make a decision,
44:38 we say, God, I want to do it Your way.
44:40 And then we turn around
44:41 and, oh, I'm going to change my mind today.
44:43 No, every day, make that decision for God.
44:46 Principle number four and five
44:48 are not implicitly in the Word of God,
44:50 but it's there.
44:51 Number four is to accept the power of the Holy Spirit.
44:54 Joseph could not in his own strength
44:57 resist this temptation.
44:59 Galatians 5:16.
45:01 "I say then: Walk in the Spirit,
45:02 and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."
45:06 Principle number five,
45:07 utilize the power of the Word of God.
45:10 If we hide God's Word in our heart,
45:13 you and I can be victorious over temptation.
45:16 Amen. Wow. That's great.
45:18 All of it's been such an eye-opener.
45:20 I'm sitting here listening and it's like,
45:23 there's this old saying, if it weren't for bad luck,
45:25 I'd have no luck at all.
45:27 I mean, we all could sit here
45:29 and say that in our own lives,
45:31 but it's showing that there's victory.
45:33 God can give us victory over dysfunction
45:35 no matter where we come from.
45:37 Now, mine is The Great Controversy
45:39 Up and Personal.
45:40 And I think we could also entitle this lesson,
45:44 life just isn't fair.
45:45 I mean, but I'm going to use the but,
45:49 but the Lord is with you.
45:50 All right? Life isn't fair, but the Lord is with you.
45:53 Now, I grew up with three older brothers
45:54 and a younger sister
45:56 and it always seemed like
45:57 the older brothers got to do things I couldn't do.
46:00 So, I would say, I'd say,
46:01 "Well, dad, I want to do that too."
46:03 "Son, you're too young. Your day will come."
46:06 Then I'd see my little sister, eight years younger
46:09 getting to do some things.
46:10 I'd say, "Dad, I want to do that."
46:11 "Oh, son, you're too old to do stuff like that.
46:14 You're too old."
46:16 I would think life just isn't fair.
46:19 Well, Joseph was thrown in prison
46:21 for something he didn't do.
46:22 Now he may have asked where's God,
46:24 in course, you all set it up
46:26 that he had a relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ.
46:29 He could've said, I did not commit the sin
46:31 with Potiphar's wife yet why am I in prison?
46:35 You know, where's God when I need Him?
46:36 He could have done all of those things,
46:38 but he didn't.
46:39 The good news is he did not question God
46:42 or God's plan for his life.
46:44 Now Genesis 39:21 says, "The Lord was with him."
46:48 I want you to put your name there.
46:50 The Lord is with me, whatever your name is,
46:52 the Lord is with me.
46:54 Get that into your mind.
46:55 And I promise you,
46:56 you're going to find the victory
46:58 that you all have been talking about.
47:00 This is why it's so important
47:01 to develop a personal relationship
47:04 through prayer and daily Bible study
47:06 with the Lord.
47:07 We must live by faith and not by sight.
47:09 Some of you have already said that.
47:12 Now Satan is a master deceiver
47:13 and attempter and a master discourager.
47:16 Now I want you to listen to this one.
47:18 He loves to feed our emotional offended sign
47:21 that he can read all over our face
47:23 when something doesn't go our way.
47:25 I'm talking about facial and body expressions.
47:27 Satan can't read our minds.
47:29 But when we're like, somebody says something to you,
47:34 you know, you do this.
47:35 Now, you think he doesn't have a heyday
47:37 when you fall into that trap.
47:39 See great peace have they which love thy law
47:42 and nothing shall offend them.
47:44 So, we have to learn in this life
47:47 that on this planet, nothing, it just isn't fair.
47:50 Good is not always rewarded.
47:52 And evil is not always immediately punished.
47:55 So, there's a great controversy going on,
47:57 which we know about.
47:58 And it's the spiritual conflict,
47:59 our lives and relationships.
48:01 The lesson says this, I thought it was so good.
48:04 Our miniature reflections of the great controversy
48:06 between God and Satan,
48:08 that is raging through the ages
48:10 and were, folks, we're right in the middle of that.
48:13 And it's amazing to be here
48:14 in the closing moments of earth's history,
48:17 but there's some good news for all of us.
48:19 We never have to be discouraged.
48:21 You know why? Heaven's on our side.
48:23 We have God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit,
48:25 literally all heaven is on our side.
48:28 So, when we trust God and His will for our life,
48:31 we can't lose.
48:33 Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.
48:35 I mean this is some good news, folks.
48:37 I don't care where you've been, what's your background is,
48:40 how downtrodden you seem, John, you left, abandoned
48:43 doesn't make any difference.
48:44 Greater is he that is in you now
48:46 than he that is in the world.
48:48 Satan has no control over you.
48:50 God has control
48:52 when you put your life into His hands.
48:53 In Joseph's case,
48:55 he could find rest even in prison.
48:57 I can't imagine that, I would hate prison,
48:59 but he found rest even in prison
49:01 because the Lord is with him.
49:04 Remember that, stick, don't lose that.
49:06 In prison he could have meditated
49:08 on the unfairness of his situation.
49:10 He could have been withdrawn.
49:12 He could have given up on God, but what did he do?
49:15 He made the best of his circumstances,
49:17 but there's a reason.
49:18 Joseph had peace in the midst of the storm.
49:20 And you all established that while ago.
49:22 It was because of his relationship
49:25 that he learned about God from his father.
49:28 Now, was he probably unhappy at times
49:30 for being thrown in prison for something he didn't do?
49:32 He wasn't guilty.
49:34 I absolutely, I'm sure he was.
49:36 But while in prison, the lesson says,
49:38 Joseph works with the real and not the idea.
49:42 And, so that's a great lesson
49:44 for how we should deal with unfairness
49:46 because things aren't fair that's all there is to.
49:49 Deal with what's real.
49:50 We can't re-imagine everything, right?
49:52 And make it real the way we want it to be.
49:54 That's a new word I've been learning, re-imagine.
49:57 So, we can't just re-imagine everything and it changed.
50:00 But because of Joseph's stableness of mind
50:03 and character,
50:04 because of his trust in God,
50:06 Joseph did what?
50:07 He flourished.
50:09 He didn't just get by, he flourished.
50:11 Now, where did, where was he when he flourished?
50:13 He was in prison.
50:14 It wasn't like he was out on his own.
50:16 It says, the Bible says, he flourished in prison.
50:20 And how is that possible?
50:21 Genesis 39:21-40. I won't read it all.
50:24 But it says,
50:25 summary tells us that Joseph says
50:28 that the prison keeper gave Joseph charge.
50:31 And I think you mentioned that over everything, right?
50:34 Over all, or at least all the other prisoners
50:36 and even trusted him.
50:38 I mean, this is amazing.
50:39 Now Potiphar could have ordered Joseph killed
50:42 for what he was accused of.
50:44 He could have, but he didn't. You know why?
50:47 Because it's probably, we're going to say
50:50 probably Potiphar didn't believe what,
50:52 that he knew Joseph
50:53 probably knew his wife, I would assume.
50:55 So, he didn't really believe it,
50:57 but they had to worry about his reputation.
50:59 So, he, the family's reputation,
51:02 so, you know, put him in jail.
51:04 We don't have to know all behind the scenes,
51:06 but we do know that Joseph's commitment
51:08 to serve God at all costs found favor in the prison,
51:11 found favor in the eyes of the Lord and the Pharaoh.
51:14 And later he was restored
51:15 and became a great leader in Egypt.
51:17 I mean, what more could you want
51:20 when you're following God.
51:21 You see, we've got to worry about
51:23 our life is not what we want
51:24 is what God wants for our lives.
51:27 We just have to be willing to trust Him.
51:29 Nothing can happen in your life
51:31 that's not God's will for your life.
51:33 Think about that.
51:35 Nothing's going to happen that's not God's will.
51:36 Yes. It may seem like it is time.
51:38 But the truth is God says,
51:40 and Shelley, I used the same scripture.
51:42 Didn't see it in my lesson,
51:44 but Jeremiah 29:11,
51:46 how can you do it,
51:47 "For I know the plans I have for you
51:50 declares the Lord,
51:51 plans to prosper, plans," to what?
51:55 "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you
51:58 and plans to give you hope and a future."
52:00 That's right. See, life's not always fair.
52:02 My dad would tell me when I complained about
52:04 not getting to do something with the older brother,
52:07 son, life is not fair on this earth.
52:09 Just that's the way it is. Get used to it.
52:12 That's what he would tell me. That's the way it is.
52:14 He would say, if everything were perfect,
52:17 we wouldn't be here, we'd already be in heaven.
52:19 So, get used to the fact life's not fair.
52:21 But what do we do?
52:22 We trust God with our life because the Lord is what?
52:26 He's with us.
52:28 I have to admit that it took many years for me
52:30 to understand really the statement my dad was,
52:32 what he was saying here.
52:34 But I really think I do now
52:35 because it's what's God's will for my life
52:38 and your life, not what our will is.
52:41 And so, I said, you know, I really think about it.
52:44 Matthew 5:45 says,
52:46 "That ye may be children of your Father
52:48 which is in heaven:
52:49 for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil
52:52 and on the good, He sendeth the rain
52:54 to the just and the unjust."
52:56 Now, I guess I'm kind of thinking like my dad,
52:58 because I haven't figured out
53:00 why we, Christians seem to think
53:02 that everything is supposed to turn out
53:04 the way we want it
53:05 just because we prayed about something.
53:07 That doesn't mean
53:08 God's going to make it turn out
53:10 the way you want it or the way I want it.
53:11 You know why? He sees the whole picture?
53:13 We don't.
53:15 In our, we pray for things it could,
53:16 we say, "Oh, He didn't answer our prayer."
53:18 No, He did. I promise you.
53:20 You can trust God.
53:21 He answered the prayer and what's best for us.
53:24 And Matthew 26,
53:26 I'm going to say sometimes
53:28 God answers prayers the way we want,
53:29 sometimes He doesn't.
53:31 But I think it's important to understand how Jesus prayed.
53:33 Matthew 26:39,
53:35 "And he went a little farther and fell on his face
53:38 and prayed saying, O my Father, if it be possible,
53:41 let this cup pass from me:
53:43 nevertheless not as I will, but thou wilt."
53:46 We should remember that when we pray,
53:48 we have to trust Jesus that He will answer our prayers
53:51 for what is best for our situation.
53:53 He sees all, He knows all, we don't, right?
53:57 So therefore, like Joseph,
53:58 we should never be discouraged
53:59 and always show complete trust in the Lord.
54:02 No matter what the outcome may seem
54:04 to the human eye,
54:06 we should walk by faith and not by sight.
54:08 We live in a sinful world.
54:10 Life will throw us some curves,
54:11 but we should never be discouraged.
54:13 The Bible says that all who live godly
54:16 shall suffer persecution.
54:17 So, for living godly, expect it.
54:20 But if we believe it,
54:21 then why do we doubt God every time
54:23 something doesn't go our way.
54:24 We should be praying,
54:25 "Lord, not my will, but thine be done."
54:28 There comes a point in our lives
54:29 that we like Joseph have to trust God.
54:32 And remember why we're here on earth
54:34 in the first place.
54:35 And that is to serve the Lord, be a witness to all nations.
54:38 The Bible says Matthew 28:18-20,
54:41 "Go ye therefore baptizing them in the name of the Father,
54:44 the Son and the Holy Spirit."
54:47 I cannot believe that our time is gone.
54:49 I've had so many notes here,
54:51 but the only way we can navigate
54:53 through this world of sin
54:54 and I wrote this down, because I never forget it.
54:57 I use it. I've used it for many, many years.
54:59 Only way we can get through, I can get through,
55:02 turn your eyes upon Jesus,
55:04 look full in His wonderful face,
55:07 and the things of earth will grow strangely dim
55:10 in the light of Christ's glory and His grace.
55:14 Don't give up, heaven's on your side.
55:16 Amen. Amen.
55:18 Well, thank you, Danny, Jill, Yvonne, Shelley.
55:22 Go ahead and summarize what you've covered today.
55:23 I was just thinking, choosing a new direction.
55:26 You know, the Bible tells us in Romans 6:16,
55:28 we are slave to whomever we obey.
55:30 We are either slaves to sin,
55:33 which results in death
55:34 or slaves to obedience, which will result in life.
55:38 So, choose you this day Jesus,
55:43 His gentle yoke.
55:45 And you can be saved by His grace and mercy.
55:50 Amen.
55:52 We are all looking to find out who we are and who,
55:58 whose we are is the more important question.
56:02 We know that we can find true self-worth in Jesus.
56:05 We don't need to look at ourselves,
56:07 look at Jesus.
56:08 Amen.
56:10 When you think about dealing with temptation,
56:12 your temptation might seem overwhelming
56:14 and you might be, I'm in the midst of addiction
56:17 or I can't break free.
56:19 Whoever the Son sets free is free indeed.
56:23 Look to Jesus and He can set you free.
56:26 Amen. That's right.
56:27 Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.
56:30 And while life is not fair on this earth,
56:33 remember that soon and very soon
56:35 we'll be able to look up in the Eastern skies.
56:38 We'll see them break.
56:39 We can say,
56:41 "Lo, this is our God whom we waited for.
56:42 He has come to save us."
56:44 Be faithful till the end.
56:46 Amen. Amen.
56:47 And all we've learned today in our lesson
56:48 is God can turn any situation around.
56:51 The beauty of the story of humanity
56:53 is not how we began,
56:55 but how we're going to end in Christ.
56:57 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
57:00 Old things have passed away,
57:02 behold, all things have become new.
57:05 And there's a passage
57:07 just kind of hidden in Isaiah 61
57:09 that I want to share with you.
57:11 When Isaiah focuses on the frailty of humanity,
57:14 he also focuses on the power of Christ.
57:16 He says,
57:17 "Instead of your shame,
57:18 speaking about Joseph and Jacob and all these dysfunctions,
57:22 instead of your shame,
57:23 there shall be a double portion.
57:25 Instead of dishonor,
57:27 they shall rejoice in their lot.
57:29 Therefore, in their land,
57:30 they shall possess a double portion.
57:33 They shall have everlasting joy."
57:34 Isaiah 61:7.
57:37 And so, we've seen the transition
57:38 from who we are in our own lives
57:40 and our own walk
57:41 to who we are becoming in Christ.
57:43 And praise the Lord, that's the double hander
57:44 as Danny would say,
57:46 but we don't want you to forget that
57:47 God is not done with you yet.
57:49 So, stay tuned for the next lesson
57:51 because as we continue in the trajectory,
57:54 lesson number seven is about Rest,
57:56 Relationship and Healing.
57:59 Look forward to seeing you then.
58:00 Amen.


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Revised 2021-08-05