For every flourishing, there’s a famine that finds us. But life’s famines don’t define us; we do. We can choose how to react on the road to better, even when others have more, even when others mess us over, and even when we feel afraid of where to step. But God put a special gift in each of us that awakens when we face adversity — ascending us to a new level of power, praise, and perseverance!
[Music]
but it’s ministry time as we turn our
attention and our hearts to the word of
the lord uh i won’t be pretentious i was
inspired i was watching something that
really uh got my attention and it drove
me to the 42nd chapter of the book of
genesis and i just started reading uh
and decided to share with you i almost
didn’t title it at all i just wanted to
go through the entire chapter and i’m
going to move as quickly as i can but if
i don’t get finished i’ll come back
wednesday night and do it i’m going to
talk the bumpy road to better
the bumpy road
to better
a lot of people
teach about better as if it were magic
as if it would happen simply or easily
you could come up for prayer and
somebody could anoint you with oil or
lay hands on you and convey their spirit
upon you without going through the
process that they went through but in
reality it’s not that simple
as i’ve traveled around the world and
many other times that i’ve had people
come up and say i want a double portion
of your spirit and i say do you want a
double portion of my trouble
because you can’t get a double portion
of my spirit until you can stand a
double portion of my trouble
that was the problem with elijah’s
request he was asking for a simple
solution to a journey long-term issue
that elijah said if you can take this
journey and see me when i’m taken up
i’ll give you the double portion but i
can’t give a double portion to somebody
that’s not going to walk this thing out
say man somebody
so we’re going tonight uh last sunday i
was talking to you about the patriarchs
and the role that they played in the
foundation of uh the judaistic
understanding of faith and the jehovah’s
understanding of faith the hebrew
understanding of faith itself is built
upon abraham isaac and
jacob
i talk quite a bit about isaac as he is
often underserved and tonight we’re
going to talk about jacob jacob and his
family and we’re going to talk about it
in the 42nd chapter of the book of
genesis uh you need not stand because
we’ve got too many verses to read you’ll
be standing a long long time but when
you have it say amen
look at somebody and say the bumpy road
to better
now i’m going to reach straight through
it and then i’m going to come apart back
and pick it apart i want to pay
particularly a close attention uh to
certain aspects of it and we’ll go back
to the top after i read the whole
chapter now when jacob saw
that there was no corn in egypt jacob
said unto his sons why do you look one
upon another
and he said behold i have heard that
there is corn in egypt get you down
dither and buy for us from thence that
we may live and not die
and joseph’s ten brethren went down to
buy corn in egypt what did they go for
they went to buy corn in egypt they were
going to buy it but benjamin joseph’s
brother
jacob sent not with his brethren
the old man didn’t send benjamin for he
said lest for adventure mischief befall
him
and the sons of israel came to buy corn
among those that came for the famine was
in the land of canaan
and joseph was the governor over the
land and he it was that sold to all the
people of the land and joseph’s brethren
came and bowed down themselves before
him with their faces to the earth
oh it’s getting prophetic now and joseph
saw his brethren and he knew them but
made himself strange unto them and spake
roughly unto them and he said unto them
whence come ye and they said from the
land of canaan to buy food
and joseph knew his brethren but they
knew him not
and joseph remembered the dreams which
he dreamed of them and said unto them ye
are spies to see the nakedness of the
land yet come
and they said unto him they my lord but
to buy food
are thy servants come
we are all one man’s sons
we are true men
thy servants are no spies
let’s go back to this uh
and and take it from the top
uh
i’m kind of confused because i think
there’s a little bit more to that i
wanted did we get to the end of the
chapter
i don’t think we got to the end of the
chapter so let’s let’s let’s go on down
uh and he said unto them name but to see
the nakedness of the land here come i’ll
pick up there keep going verse 13 and
they said thy servants are twelve
brethren the sons of one man in the land
of canaan and behold the youngest is
this day with our father and one is
not
yeah they didn’t know they were standing
in front of him but one
is not and joseph said unto them
that is it that i speak unto you ye are
spies
hereby ye shall be proved by the life of
pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence
except your youngest brother come bitter
send one of you and let him fetch your
brother and ye shall be kept in prison
that your words may be proved whether
there be any truth in you or else by the
life of pharaoh surely ye are spies
and he put them all together into ward
three days locked them up in prison and
joseph said unto them the third day the
third day this do and live for i fear
god
if ye be true men let one of your
brethren be bound in the house of your
prison
go ye carry corn for the famine of your
houses
but bring your youngest brother unto me
so shall your words be
verified and ye shall not die and they
did so
and they said one to another we are
verily guilty concerning our brother in
that we saw the anguish of his soul when
we be when he besought us and we would
not hear
therefore is this distress come upon us
in other words we’re getting what we
deserve because of the evil we had done
when we were younger
and reuben answered them saying spake i
not unto you saying do not sin against
the child and ye would not hear
therefore behold also his blood is
required
and they knew not that joseph understood
them
for he spake unto them by an interpreter
yeah
and he turned himself and he turned
himself about from them and wept and
returned to them again
and communed with them and took from
them simeon
and bound him before their eyes
then joseph commanded to fill their
sacks with corn and to restore every
man’s money into his sack and to give
them provisions for the way
and thus did he unto them
and they laid it their asses with the
corn and departed thence
and as one of them opened his sack to
give his ass prevender in the end
he spied his money
for behold it was in his sacks mouth
and he said unto his brethren my money
is restored and lo it is even in my
sight and their hearts failed him and
they were afraid saying one to another
what is this that god hath done unto us
they had gone to buy
and they had got what they bought but
they also got their money back
which means it could have looked like
they stole it
and they were afraid
that this might be an international
crisis
between
between egypt and israel
and they came unto jacob their father
unto the land of canaan for it had not
yet been called israel
the land had not and told him all that
befell unto them saying
the man who is the lord of the land
spake roughly to us and took us for
spies of the country
and we said unto him we are true men we
are no spies
we be twelve brethren sons of our father
one is not and the youngest is this day
with our father in the land of canaan
and the man and the man the lord of the
country said unto us hereby shall i know
that ye are true men leave one of your
brethren here with me and take for food
for the famine of your households and be
gone
and bring your youngest brother unto me
then shall i know that ye are no spies
but that ye are true men so will i
deliver you your brother and ye shall
traffic in the land
and it came to pass
and it came to pass
and it came to pass
as they emptied their sacks that behold
every man’s bundle of money was in his
sacks
and when both they and their fathers saw
the bundles of money they were
afraid
and jacob their father said unto them me
have ye bereaved of my children now i
want you to listen closely at what jacob
says jacob says me have ye bereaved
bereavement grieved of my children
joseph is not he’s already
dead
and simeon is not you left him in egypt
and ye will take benjamin away
all these things
are against me
and we would spake unto his father
saying slay my two sons if i bring him
not to thee deliver him into my hand and
i will bring him to thee again
and he said my son shall not go down
with you for his brother is dead and he
is left alone
if mischief befall him by the way in the
which ye go
then shall ye bring down
my gray hairs
with sorrow
to the grave
the bumpy road to better
now we are entering into this text at a
time in jacob’s life
that this is not a comprehensive
discussion of jacob because we are
introduced to jacob in the womb of his
mother
he is struggling in the womb of his
mother we watch him as he grows as a boy
and and cheats esau out of his
birthright we watch him mature into a
young man and on a mountain called
pineal wrestles with god we watch jacob
find a place called bethel the house of
god and then later come back and call it
el bethel the god of the house and we
watch him grow but he is now
an old man
his sons have grown to manhood
they have had a family that has
withstood much sorrow
they have had tests and trials along the
way
jacob has married the love of his life
and he has also been married to leah
leah was the way he was tricked
by laban
and he has
birthed children by both leah and rachel
and a concubine and he has 12
sons he is
he has lost
those women they are gone
he has lost
rachel the love of his life
he has lost
joseph
they have brought back the bloody coats
of cnn from the coat of many colors that
he has made for his beloved son
and he has lost him
you don’t get old without having
suffered loss
yeah
you you every year brings some sort of
challenge with it
uh there is a certain sobriety that
comes upon you with age
because as you go along the way
you you gain some things
and you lose some things
you win some battles
and you
lose some battles
and wisdom develops in the life of those
who have capitalized on their pain to
draw conclusions
and young people are amazed at your
wisdom but if you keep living
if you keep living wisdom will teach you
a few things it will it will speak to
you about some things it will it will
cost you to understand some things now
jacob is an old man and if what is left
of his family he has managed to hold
them together
and they still respect him though they
are grown men with children themselves
and when we enter into the text here
series of famine in the land
and jacob has told his sons
you will not defeat the famine looking
at each other
did you hear what i’m saying
watch how jacob handles the famine
because my my first point is the famine
and until you can deal with the famine
you will never get to better
because the famine is a part of your
journey
how you react to the famine determines
whether you make it
to the food
you you you’ve got to be aggressive you
can’t just pray
against the famine you’ve got to do
something jacob says you can’t just pray
against it you can’t just look at each
other you can’t stay in the same spot
and do the same things that you’ve
always done and expect to get a
different result because we’re in a
famine and you’ve got to take action
and we don’t understand that today
we don’t understand the human
requirement in the miracles of god
as much as we have read about the
miracles of god we walk away with praise
to god but absolve ourselves of human
responsibility
as if god were going to act outside of
human effort when god has created us to
be collaborative in the miraculous
oh i’m talking already he wants us to be
collaborative in the miraculous that we
have a responsibility to take action and
to be aggressive about resolving issues
just because you’re spiritual doesn’t
mean you get to pray for a job and stay
at home
i’m just going to pray if the lord wants
me to have the job he’ll give me a job
i’m just gonna watch tv and hit the
remote control and believe god for
better you’ll you’ll never get to better
if you don’t get on the road you gotta
you gotta you gotta get on the road in
the middle of famine they’re traveling
in the middle of a famine
now traveling is not fun anytime but
traveling in the middle of a famine is a
very difficult time because the famine
is so severe that jacob says if you
don’t move you’re going to die
now i don’t know who i’m talking to
tonight but there are some pressures
that come so strong that if you don’t
move you’re going to die how could you
let me die and i’m a child of god you
didn’t move
i told you to move
and when god tells you to move you got
to move and don’t act like god has
failed you when you have failed to move
[Applause]
when god says move you have to take
action whether you’re the prodigal son
who came to himself but he still had to
go home
or whether you’re the woman with the
issue of blood who believed that jesus
could heal her but she still had to
crawl or whether you’re blind by the man
standing by the highway side begging he
still had to come out of his coat and go
toward jesus there is a human
responsibility in spite of the famine
so you gotta move in the middle of a
famine in the middle of a need in the
middle of a storm in the middle of a
crisis and he sends his voice to go
from canaan to egypt because jacob heard
where there was food
don’t hate on people who have even when
you don’t have
because he didn’t hate on egypt he said
i’m going to egypt
see we sit back and hate on people as if
them having is our demise when it’s not
them having that is our enemy it’s us
not moving that is our enemy and the
bible says that though they didn’t have
any corn they had money
uh yeah and people don’t quote it too
much but the bible also it says that
money is the answer to all things it’s
the answer to all things if it’s a thing
money can buy it there are there are
some issues that cannot be resolved by
things but money answereth all
things so jacob told the boys he gave
them some money and said go down to
egypt and don’t go down there begging
we came down here to do business
yeah yeah we’re spiritual people but we
know how to do business
uh we praised jehovah but we still know
how to do business oh y’all not saying
nothing to me tonight see you the church
has failed its parishioners because we
have been real heavy on the praise and
real light on the business
so we told them to praise your way out
and dance your way out and spin around
three times and you’re going to come out
and sow a seed and you’re going to get
out but we don’t tell them that you’ve
got
that the blessings are transactional
that there’s a business element required
in it and we got to go back and lay some
foundation to understand that jacob does
not go down to egypt to beg he goes down
there to do business
and he sends his sons down there to do
business but wait a minute
you you have to realize as we begin to
talk about the famine we have to
understand that the famine is so severe
that it pushes them to egypt
now the second thing i want you to see
about the famine is that god will use a
famine to move you
it doesn’t have to be a fairman for food
it can be a famine for love
it can be a famine for peace but in
everybody’s life listening at me whether
online or in the room you have
experienced some kind of famine
the famine of fatherhood the famine of
family the famine of a mother’s
affection the famine of a good job the
famine of a nice house all of us have
our famines you might not be able to see
it because we might dress nice and and
spray cologne over top of it but all of
us live with some level of famine in our
lives famine makes you pray and famine
makes you seek god and famine makes you
cry out and famine will make you move
and oftentimes god will use famine as an
instrument to force you out of your
comfort zone
it is more comfortable to stay in canaan
but the famine will drive you out it’ll
make you move it’ll make you get outside
of your comfort zone it’ll make you
travel it’ll put you on the road
somebody say i’m on the road
i’m not on the road for a field trip i’m
not on the road joy riding i’m on the
road to better i’m on the road to better
there’s something i’m after there’s
something i want to see done in my
lifetime and i’m tired of sitting around
assessing the same old troubles and
crying about the same old problems and
going through the same old things i’m
tired of complaining one to another back
and forth oh ain’t it bad yeah child
it’s real bad it’s so bad i got to move
from here deliver me from people who
will not take action in the famine and
god says action is required on you you
got to get on the road and that’s
anytime you can’t rebuke it with a
prayer anytime you plead the blood and
it doesn’t go away any time you call on
god and it still stays there then god is
using the famine as an instrument to
move you from one place to the other if
it was the devil i could rebuke it if it
were demonic warfare i could overcome it
but when god sends a famine to make you
move it is something in his providence
that cannot be performed where you are
and you’ve got to move in order to get
it and god knows that some of us won’t
move if we’re too comfortable
now y’all aren’t going to talk to me
tonight
and so god uses the famine to force them
to move and they go down to egypt to do
business now it is interesting to note
that though there is a famine in canaan
there is also a famine in this family
so my second point deals with the family
you have to understand that this text
brings out
subtly ever so subtly in the text that i
want to point it out to you first thing
that it tells us about jacob is that
jacob sent his sons down to egypt to buy
but then it mentions that he did not
send benjamin
lest he fall into mischief
and this is just a hidden subtle
reminder that that jacob doesn’t totally
trust his own sons
now where did this this distrust
come up in the culture of this family
this distrust comes up into the culture
of the family and you can act like you
don’t know what i’m talking about but
all of us have different little things
that we know about our family that that
when when cousins so and so comes over
you kind of look at them out the corner
of your eye because because you’ve been
through some things where you’ve learned
some things and this culture has risen
up in the family that the family is not
fruitful and the canaan is not fruitful
and there is not the comfortable loving
environment of trust that would cost the
family to be a nurturing place because
jacob remembers what happened to joseph
last time jacob sent one of his sons out
with the rest of the sons he turned up
missing
and there’s a residue of distrust in the
old man with his sons and he says i’m
going to keep benjamin now the reason
he’s holding on to benjamin and he let
the rest of them go is that joseph and
benjamin were born to him by rachel and
rachel was the love of his life
and the reason he’s holding on to
benjamin is because that’s all he’s got
left of rachel
and he says if i lose benjamin i lose
all i have left of the best days in my
life and sometimes we hold on to things
because we’ve been through so much pain
that we become possessive
oh y’all don’t hear what i’m saying
there’s a reason you hold on to what you
hold on whether it’s money or people or
things there’s a reason you hold on to
there’s a reason that certain things
make you mad there’s a reason that you
overreact in certain ways there’s a
reason that if we hit certain pulse
points you respond differently than
other people because until you
understand what i’ve been through back
here you won’t understand why i’m
holding on to this right here what do
you hold on to because of what you’ve
been through
what do you hold on to because of what
you’ve been through for jacob the old
man is holding on to the last smell of
rachel
[Music]
when he holds benjamin it’s the last
reminder
of a happier moment in his life
and he is so
afraid of losing
benjamin
because rachel the barren woman has
birth two sons unto him and one of them
jacob thinks is dead and benjamin is all
he got left any time you think this is
all you got left you will hold on real
tight
[Applause]
whether it is true or not you will hold
on real tight if you think that this is
the last person that will ever love you
you will take stuff that you wouldn’t
normally take
you will go through things you would
normally go through and your girlfriends
will tell you if i was you i wouldn’t
take that and your mama told you you
need to get away from there but you keep
holding on to it because you’ve been
hurt before and anytime you’ve been hurt
before you hold on to something when you
think you won’t get any more i wonder
tonight how many people are holding on
to some sort of benjamin in your life
holding on to it out of fear not out of
love he’s not clutching him out of love
he’s clutching him out of fear be
careful what fear will make you do
fear will convince you that this is your
last chance your last opportunity your
last moment of love your last tastes and
fragrance of life fear will make you
respond in this this uh
disoriented ways fear will cause you to
react in a way that other people don’t
understand and it is the first hint that
the family is dysfunctional
so while we have a famine on the outside
there is a degree of famine on the
inside it has affected the culture of
the family because there are certain
incidents that once they happen in the
family it changes the trajectory of the
entire family i wonder if there’s
anybody in here who understands the
words that are coming out of my mouth
there are certain incidents that once
they happen in the family they keep
coming up again
you say you forgave me but you keep
bringing it up again you say it’s over
but you keep bringing it up again you
say you’re not gonna say no but you even
told the kids about it you said you
weren’t gonna do anything about it and
it comes up in the way you look at me
and it comes up at the dinner table
whenever you get mad you reach back and
get it because it has changed that the
family has been through such a traumatic
crisis that it has affected the culture
of the family itself and even though
they are still together they are not
together have you ever been together but
not been together have you ever been
with somebody but still not quite with
them have you ever been with somebody
you had to watch
oh y’all not going to talk to me tonight
see see see the old man has got his eye
on him and
the neighbors it looks good to the
people across the street it looks good
but if you get in the house and you
start looking real close you will see
some residue from what happened to
joseph all of those years ago when they
threw joseph in the pit and they came
home with his bloody coat his coat of
many colors and laid it out before
jacob had told him that joseph
was dead
as a father i would rather cut off my
leg than lose my child
losing a child is a painful thing to do
he’d lost a child he loved
he lost
rachel’s baby
and it broke him
and benjamin is all he has left
now he gives his sons
his ten sons because joseph in jacob’s
mind is dead
and he’s holding benjamin back
in case he doesn’t have anything left he
says you won’t get this
and he sends his 10 sons down there to
transact business to buy corn
now when they get down there to buy corn
they have a conversation with joseph
now joseph’s name means
he will add
he will add and so when they named him
they said joseph he will add it’s almost
prophetic because jacob has joseph has
arisen for their posterity
there are certain people
that rise up out of a group of people
that are meant to be exceptionally
blessed
that through them the blessing will add
to other people that’s why you shouldn’t
hate on people because you might be
hating on somebody that god is going to
use to bless you y’all don’t hear what
i’m saying yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah they they hated on joseph
but they did not know that joseph was
blessed for them
there is a greater responsibility to him
whom much is given much is required and
jacob has been blessed for joseph has
been blessed for them
but they hated him and they they almost
murdered him
they almost murdered him they almost
murdered him but instead they threw him
in a pit and let him be sold into
slavery because joseph is also a type of
christ
who is rejected of his own brethren
who goes into a pit and rises up out of
a pit like christ who was sold for 20
pieces of silver and christ was sold for
30 pieces of silver joseph is an old
testament shadow of jesus christ are you
following what i’m teaching now now i’m
going to work this text are you going to
work with me
now joseph means he will add but joseph
jacob has joseph has gone through so
much in his life he’s been in the pit
he’s been in potiphar’s house he’s been
in the prison and finally his gift his
gift was bigger than his environment
everything they put him in he got out of
it
somebody excited i’m gifted
right on the line i’m gifted
you got to be careful how you handle
people that are gifted because when
somebody’s gifted i don’t care what kind
of pit you put them in they’ll get out
of it i don’t care what kind of lie you
tell on them they’ll get out of them i
don’t care what kind of prison you put
it in they’ll get out of it i want to
talk to some people that have gotten out
of some stuff
that people put you in and thought you’d
never get out of it but because of the
level of the gift that’s down inside of
you i don’t care how deep the pit was
sooner or later god would get you out of
it i don’t care how the eyes that have
been told on you pretty soon god will
get you out of it i don’t care if they
put you in prison after a while you’ll
be running the prison because you’re
gifted one thing you can do you can take
my coat but you can’t take my gift you
can take my clothes but you can’t take
my gift here you can have my watch but
you can’t take my gift my gift is not in
my watch my gift is not in my shoes my
gift is not in my clothes my gift is not
in my car this gift that i have the
world didn’t give it to the world can’t
take it away i want to talk to some
gifted people tonight who knows that god
has kissed you with a gift that no
matter what health threw at you you kept
getting back up again because you were
gifted take 30 seconds and give him a
praise for the gift
the bible says that your gift will bring
you before great men
so your gift will bring you into places
that that you could have never been able
to access if you didn’t have the gift
that’s why you ought to keep your gift
any kind of gift i don’t care what it is
whether it’s a speaking gift a teaching
gift whether it’s a gifted type a gift
to write a gift to do anything a gift to
draw i don’t care what it is a gift to
cook a gift to do makeup i don’t care
what god will use any gift he gave you
to bring you into places you couldn’t
get anywhere that’s why the devil tries
to convince you that you don’t have no
gift but i came to tell you just cause
your brothers hate you don’t mean you
lost your gift
just because they stripped your clothes
that mean you lost your gift just
because they lied on you and you had to
run out of your coat doesn’t mean you
don’t have your gift just because you’ve
been in prison doesn’t mean you don’t
have your gift as long as you got your
gift your gift will always bring you
back up again no somebody tell them i’ll
be back
yeah i’ll be back you’ve not seen the
last of me i’ll be back i’ll be back i
don’t care what you said about me i
don’t care how you said i was dead i’ll
be back because there’s something down
inside of me that i just find a way to
keep getting back up again oh you don’t
hear the words that are coming out of my
mouth the powerful words that are coming
out of my mind they put him in the
prison and they threw away the kill but
he was still gifted in prison a gift in
incarceration
a gift in intimidation a gifted and
embarrassing situation a gift that is
stripped of royalty and majesty and
honor and recognition but even in the
bottom of the prison he’s still gifted
when you get this you’re just gifted
when you got it you just got it when you
can do it oh let me stop
somebody shout i’m gifted
you gotta start talking to yourself in
the right language and stop talking to
yourself about what folks did to you and
start talking to yourself about what god
put in you
because what god put in you will always
overcome what people do to you shout i’m
gifted
oh yeah
yeah we get we get too much recognition
and too much of our tongue is spent
talking about who threw us in the pit
you need to use your tongue to validate
your gift and look yourself in the
mirror and encourage yourself in the
lord and say i’m still gifted i’ve been
through some pain but i’m still gifted
i’ve buried some loved ones but i’m
still gifted i’ve had some setbacks but
i’m still gifted
[Applause]
when you’re gifted sometimes you’ll be
gifted in a way that your situation
hasn’t caught up with your gift
joseph was gifted as a child and he had
a dream that one day his brothers were
going to kneel before him and they
laughed and they mocked him but let me
tell you just because people laugh at
your prophecy doesn’t mean that it’s not
going to come to pass god will use a
famine to make it come to pass god has
sent a win to make it come to pass god
has sent an earthquake to make it come
to man don’t worry about how high they
are god will bring them down to their
knees
now joseph has come to a place
in the prison that his gift brought him
out before pharaoh
and when he told pharaoh
what
what his dream was
pharaoh renamed him zephaniah paneer
zephaniah paneer is the egyptian name
that is given to joseph
zappanapaniya means one who discovers
hidden things
glory to god
so his brothers don’t come into the room
looking for joseph
they come and they’re asking for
zaphonal
and they don’t even recognize him
because he is dressed up as a prince of
egypt
[Applause]
won’t god turn it around
last time they saw him he was naked and
bloody in the bottom of the pit and this
time they see him he’s dressed in
majesty and honor and incidentally he’s
in charge of the corn in egypt and the
harvest in egypt and the increase in
egypt and they can’t get anything till
they go back to the one they cursed
god is not unjust to forget your labor
of love you don’t have to get even with
people god will make them bow down and
have to come back and admit that they
were wrong don’t worry about it it may
not happen today but sooner or later
oh sooner or later god will bring them
down to their new soda or later god will
make them humble themselves
and the brothers have come into the room
and they run into zaphanov paneer
and they don’t know that it’s joseph
zappanov paneer is speaking to them
in egyptian
he’s speaking to them in the egyptian
language
and so they are talking amongst
themselves
in hebrew
and joseph doesn’t let on
that he understands
what they are saying
because sometimes you have to feign
yourself a fool
sometimes you can’t let people know that
you know what you know sometimes you
can’t act like you’re as smart as you
are sometimes you gotta act like you
don’t get it sometimes you see that’s
where you’ve been messing up every time
you know something you gotta say
something but sometimes you gotta know
something and hold your peace
zafina paneer held his peace
and did not let on that he spoke hebrew
and as they spoke amongst themselves
they said watch this
and this is important this is very
important they were
they were bowing down and they were
having difficulty getting the corn that
the whole man had sent them to buy
and they were murmuring you know how
brothers do they were arguing amongst
themselves we brought this on ourselves
i told you not to do anything to that
boy
look at how long these brothers
have carried the pain
of what they did
they are in pain
because they are guilty
over what they did to joseph and they
don’t even know that this man is joseph
and yet they are talking about joseph
because they have never been able to
escape
this injury
this trauma
the the the the colloquy of their
conversation has taken on a nature that
lets you know that they are still
reliving
the guilt and the agony of what they
went through this is important because
we often talk about
uh joseph as the victim
but we don’t talk about the pain of the
perpetrator
you need to hear this because the person
who hurts you didn’t get away clean
y’all don’t hear what i’m saying to you
you think you’re the only one that had
any pain because you went in the pit but
the one who threw you in the pit has to
live with the guilt
that you never did a thing to hurt them
and god is too just to let them get away
without suffering they may not have gone
in a prison that you can see
but these boys are in a prison as much
as joseph has ever been
because they have never been able to
escape how in the world can you go to
buy coin and bring up something that
happened when you were children
that means that one incident has been
with them all their life they’re still
arguing about it in the palace
and they said one to another we are
verily guilty concerning our brother and
that we saw the anguish of his soul when
we when he besought us and we would not
hear therefore is this distress come
upon us this is the agony of the guilty
this is why you can’t carry the pain of
what they did inside of you
because the only reason for you to carry
the pain is to think that they got away
clean
but this text teaches us that when there
is trauma no one escapes its reach
i wanted to sink real deep down in your
soul because the holy spirit is talking
to you about some real heavy stuff
nobody got away clean
there is no winner in this story
joseph goes into a pit
they go into a place of pain
and both of them are living their lives
still at the place
where they did what they did like they
did when they did it
and all of your life you’ve been
thinking
that they got away clean
but this text comes to teach us
that the culture of the family has
suffered
tragically
that these boys are sitting up having a
conversation about something that has
happened years ago
and they are really they are living it
in real time as if it were happening now
you
if you can receive this
you can let that pain
go i don’t care what kind of car they’re
driving i don’t care what kind of house
they’re living in
they remember
i don’t care how how they live or drink
or party or dance
they remember
some of the reasons that they get as
drunk as they do and as high as they do
is because
they remember y’all ain’t gonna help me
you’re not gonna help me but i know i’m
on to something i know i’m on to
something you you you have to understand
that god is a just god
he’s an
equalizer he will make sure the bible
said vengeance is mine saith the lord i
will repay you mess up when you try to
get even if you just step back and let
god get even god can get even better
than you can
and he and the scene opens up with the
family and now the boys are on their
knees down there and they’re down on
their knees in front of joseph and
joseph can determine whether they live
or die oh
are you hearing what i’m saying to you
let me tell you
the tale is gonna become the head
the last is gonna become first
the stone that the builders rejected god
is going to make the chief cornerstone
type on the line it ain’t over it ain’t
over it ain’t over it ain’t over it
ain’t over it ain’t over i might be down
right now but it ain’t no way it ain’t
over don’t count me out just yet it
ain’t over it ain’t over god’s gonna
turn the whole thing all the way around
that’s why i want to bring this text to
you tonight
and they don’t even recognize
that joseph lives to see
the reverse of the curse
[Applause]
in your lifetime
you will see
the reverse
of the curse
[Applause]
do you hear me in your lifetime you will
see the reverse of the curse
i never will forgive my mother-in-law
telling me about the young man that shot
her son
and how angry she was and how painful
she was he killed it
he killed it
and she was angry and she had so much
pain and so much hurt and as the years
went on a few years went by and he got
cancer
and mother had to go to the hospital to
see him
and there he is eating up with cancer
now when he shot her son he died
instantly
you don’t understand the words that are
coming out of my mouth
but the one who shot him he died slowly
and
painfully and as he’s dying he has to
look into the eyes of the mother
of the child
that he had killed
god is a just god
[Applause]
god is a just god
god is so such a just god that you’ll
find yourself praying for the person you
used to hate
oh y’all not gonna talk to me you’re not
gonna talk to me but stay here with me
y’all are not gonna talk to me you’ll
find yourself praying for the bible says
that when job prayed for his friends
god restored everything that he had lost
when your heart becomes soft enough that
god can trust you with power
glory to god that you’ll be merciful and
not filled with hate and envy and strife
you got to get your heart right
because we got to change the culture in
this family we gotta break it
[Applause]
god is using the family the famine to
heal the family
he is using the famine
to heal
the family
and the ten boys have been brought to
their knees
and it is important that you understand
that they are in the presence
of their brother
and they do not recognize him
because their brother is a type of
christ
who came unto his own
and his own received him not
and they did not recognize that he was
the messiah
that they were waiting on are y’all
following me can i can i teach like this
can i go like this can can you handle
this kind of teaching can i drop it on
you can i drop it on you i’m gonna drop
it like it’s hot tonight i’m gonna drop
it like it’s hot tonight something’s
gonna happen in here tonight a yoke is
going to break it here tonight a
breakthrough is going to happen in here
tonight everything happens for a reason
and god is using what happened to
jacob’s family as a prophetic prediction
of what he’s going to do through jesus
he’s brought his enemies down to his
knee and every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that jesus is lord
to the glory
of god
glory to god oh glory to god oh glory to
god you don’t have to bring them to
their knees god will bring them to their
knees god will bring them down to their
knees
if your heart is soft enough
that you won’t be glad
[Applause]
can god trust your heart
to be empty out enough
that when he does bring them down
you won’t be glad
see the reason that joseph got blessed
in the first place is because of the
pliability of his heart
he never held a grudge
later on he will tell them when he does
reveal himself you meant it for evil but
god made it good he he said don’t worry
about it brothers he he absolves them of
their guilt because he said i made it
anyway as soon as you figure out that
you made it anyway then your hate will
have nothing to hold on to
[Applause]
oh you don’t understand in order for
hate
to grab your heart it needs something to
hold on to and as long as you allow hate
to grip your heart it means that some
kind of way you believe what they did
stopped you
as soon as you get enough faith to
believe i got there anyway then hate
will lose its grip and have to turn you
a loose
he said don’t worry about it you meant
it for evil but it’s okay god paid it
god made it good god paid me for my
suffering god paid me for my agony god
paid me for the things i’ve been through
everything you did to me god made it up
to me i’m good
it was good for me that i was afflicted
had i not been afflicted i wouldn’t be
standing here all dressed up right now
oh i’m glad you did it for me because
had you not afflicted me i would be the
one needing the corn and not giving the
cord it’s more blessed to give than any
oh y’all don’t hear what i’m saying
[Applause]
now the real love affair
is between joseph
and his father
and joseph
and benjamin
so joseph leverages the power of his
position
because he has not seen benjamin his
full-blooded brother
or his father
so he puts him in jail for three days
and then says i tell you what in order
to get free you have to bring
benjamin back to me to prove
that what you told me was true
while in reality the truth of the matter
is
joseph was blessed watch this
but he was in a famine for his family
[Applause]
he was blessed
but he was in a famine
for his family see when we preach about
it we make his family the enemy but the
truth of the matter is in spite of
everything they did to him he still
loved his family
and he he is using his power to get them
back
oh you have to be a big person to
receive this kind of message because
everybody who lives on evil street can’t
get this message but there are some
people in this room that know how you
can love somebody who hurts you
[Laughter]
oh i wish i had some people in this room
who had lived long enough to understand
that you can be hurt and loved at the
same time
that you can lay somebody out and still
feed them
i’m gonna knock you upside in your head
come on in here and get something to eat
have you ever had those two
contradictory things going on at the
same time i want to talk to some real
people tonight i want to keep it 100
tonight i want to keep it real tonight i
want you to understand
that that joseph creates this fallacy
and he makes out that he thinks that
they are spies
[Music]
even though he knows they are family
he creates this fallacy that suggests
that they are spies to force him to go
back
and bring his brother
and he says i will not release you
till you bring my brother so i’m holding
simeon
hostage
see i’m holding him hostage
as a down payment on your deliverance
now the boys have gone back home to tell
their father about the fallacy of what
befalled them when they went to have a
transactional
relationship
see the problem with this age is that
all we know how to do is have
transactional relationships if you give
me this i’ll give you that if you do
this for me i’ll do that for you and as
long as you have transactional uh
relationships those aren’t real
relationships
and and they went up there to
transactional to do a transactional
relationship and some of you don’t even
know what i’m talking about because all
you’ve ever seen
was these swap shop relationships
you don’t do nothing for me i don’t do
nothing for you if you help me i’ll help
you if you give me this i’ll give you
that you don’t know how to love beyond
transaction
but every now and then you got to test
the love
to see if it’s just
transactional do you love me as long as
i put you in the house do you love me as
long as i let you drive the car if i
take the car will i lose you because
transactional relationships do not last
and they have gone up there to do a
transaction but joseph hungers for
relationship
so when they gave joseph the money
he told the servants give him the corn
and the money
that’s a powerful man right there he
said give him the coin and the money
he was so good to them
that it scared them
he he was so good to them that they
thought it was a trick
he would see evil people always think
evil
until the pure all things appear but
unto the evil all things are evil and
they were suspicious that ain’t no way
he could have blessed us like this
and so when they when they got down to
feed uh the the the the oxen and the
cattle and so forth they opened up the
bag to get the corn and they ran into
the money and the boy dropped the bag
and it scared him so bad because he
wasn’t used to getting it all
see in a transactional relationship you
have to always earn everything
but but in a real relationship i don’t
love you because you do this i just love
you because i love you i did to love you
if you don’t do it i love you if you
can’t do it i love you if you got oxygen
tank i love you if you’re on a kidney
machine i love you if you got one eye i
love you if you you lose your lid so
y’all don’t know what i’m talking about
that’s why you’ve been married for a
time but if you get to the point that
you get beyond transactional
all y’all don’t hear swap it out pawn
shop relationships and learn how to love
people irregardless now you set yourself
up for real power god don’t give real
power to people who are just
transactional god doesn’t give real
authority to people who are just
swapping out
you come to my anniversary i’ll come to
your anniversary you give a hundred
dollars i’ll give a hundred dollars
transactional relationship well we’re
just even
the blessing comes when you bless
somebody who has nothing to give you
back
[Applause]
and you you got to study this because i
want you to see why joseph was preferred
because god could trust him
god won’t give favor to people he can’t
trust
and god cannot trust people who are
always transactional
can i teach this thing tonight some of
you all you’ve ever seen in your family
in your friends in your church in your
life and your business is transaction
and that’s all you know
in the moment you meet somebody you got
your scales out trying to see how you
can get something
and that’s why you always end up
miserable
because you’re not having a relationship
you’re doing business
jacob gave him the corn
joseph gave him the corn and the money
and they come back and they tell jacob
now they have to go back
and tell jacob
and i’m looking at it jacob is an old
man and the older you get
the more
precious everything becomes
and and jacob is holding on to benjamin
and he’s saying
joseph
is not
and now simeon
is not
you ain’t taking my benjamin
i’m wondering what you’re
squeezing too tight
what are you
squeezing out of fear
see jacob isn’t squeezing benjamin
out of faith
he’s squeezing him
out of fear
he’s squeezing him like it’s the last
thing he’s going to ever get
you you you can’t grow
when you squeeze something like it’s the
last thing you’re going to ever get even
if it’s squeezing money
like it’s the last you’ll ever get
then you have prophesied against
yourself
you have used faith in reverse fear is
faith in reverse to have confidence that
that thing that you don’t want is going
to happen to you
he’s holding the boy out of fear
and god is manipulating all of these
circumstances to bring this family back
together
he is wooing them back to a place so he
can heal them
and wouldn’t it be better to be healed
than to be mad
and jacob says to him
if i lose benjamin
let me quote it just like he said and he
said my son shall not go down with you
for his brother is dead
and he is left alone
and if mischief befall him by the way
see see how jacob is still
in a place where he don’t trust them
they’re his children
and he don’t trust him and he has good
reason not to trust him
he said
you’re not going to get him let’s
mischief befall him by the way
in the which ego
he says if i go through with benjamin
what i went through with joseph
your my gray hairs are going to turn
into sorrow and bring me to the grave
see
you get to a point in life that you’ve
reached at age that you can’t take no
more pain
and he says i can’t afford
to live through this again
and god is really behind it all
trying to pry
benjamin out of jacob’s hands
because what jacob doesn’t understand
yes the road’s been bumpy
and yes the road’s been tough and yes
the road’s been difficult and yes you’ve
shed some tears and yes you’ve endured
some pain
but it is the bumpy road
to better
it is
bumpy
road
to better
i don’t i don’t i know a lot of people
that are doing better than me and have
more stuff and more money and more
recognition and more fame and more
whatever you want to count it by than me
but none of them that i know
have got there without a bumpy road
the road to better
it’s bumpy
so if you’re on a bumpy road
i’m telling you you’re headed to better
[Applause]
do you hear the words
that are coming out of my mouth
you can’t get to better without bumping
you can’t get to better without pain you
can’t get to better without tears you
can’t be all buff if you don’t work out
you can’t lose weight if you don’t push
the food away you can’t get to better
without bumping there is no pill you can
take there is no simple solution it is
the bumpiness of the road that leads you
to better ultimately jacob will end up
having to go
to egypt
and when when joseph
sees his father
[Music]
[Applause]
when when
when joseph sees
his father all of these years
he’s been living
without the touch of his
father
and all of a sudden
he reveals himself
and he shows him who he is
the bible says that one day
those who rejected jesus
are going to look on him whom they have
pierced
and a nation shall be saved in a day
this day in the life of joseph
is a prophetic prediction of what will
happen between
jesus and israel
when all of a sudden they will look on
him whom they have pierced and finally
recognize
he was the messiah
he is the lamb of god
he is the i am
he is the true vine
he is the living bread
he is the manner that came down out of
heaven he is it wasn’t alive it wasn’t a
joke it wasn’t a fallacy and the family
will be reunited again and all of a
sudden they beheld him whom they had
thrown away
and they fell down and said oh joseph
and they now realize that joseph
everything he went through was to
position him
to bless
them
are y’all hearing what i’m saying
the reason god doesn’t bless some people
because you’re selfish
the reason god didn’t bless some people
is because you’re only interested in you
because you hate too long and you’re too
angry and you’re too bitter to be
trusted with that much power
god blesses people whose hearts are
tender
and and it was only when i saw
joseph’s heart
that i understood joseph’s blessing
because joseph was the son that could be
trusted with favor
because he would not use his favor to
get even
he would not use his favor for revenge
he would use his favor
to bring them into better
and so joseph brings the family
to better
the whole family dwells together in
better and not only does he bring them
to better
he releases the guilt
from the guilty
it’s one thing to absorb the innocent
but it’s another thing to acquit the
guilty
he he absolved the guilty
because he was big enough
to be blessed like that
he he was big enough to be blessed like
that he he he was strong enough to be
blessed like that and that’s why he was
chosen from the very beginning that god
trusted him with trouble god trusted him
with rejection god trusted him with pain
god trusted him with agony because god
knew his heart that when push came to
shove that love would always went out
over revenge god knew his heart that
there was something down inside of him
that was better than that
and if you want the favor of god in your
life you have to be prepared to ask
yourself can god trust you
with favor
can god trust you with power
can god trust you with honor
because until that answer is a
resounding yes
[Applause]
the doors of your blessing will be
closed
they’re closed because you are too angry
and too bitter
and too vindictive
and god can’t give you favor
because you’ll use it like witchcraft to
bring crushes
on those who hatch you
and you’ll know you’re getting bigger
when you start getting better
you’ve been praying to be bigger you
should have been praying to be better
there’s somebody watching me right now
there’s no reason in the world that
somebody is talented to you as you are
shouldn’t be further than you are
you have the talent
to go all the way to the top
but every time you try to go to the top
something blocks you
and god sent me to tell you it’s not
what’s on the outside that’s blocking
you
it’s the stuff you carry on the inside
that always blocks you because you’re so
slick
[Applause]
and god has to keep showing you that you
ain’t as slick as you think you are
and your blessing has been delayed and
you wandered in the wilderness of almost
getting there and never being able to
get there because you’ve never been able
to get your heart to the place that you
could be trusted
[Music]
god gives favor
to people
he can trust
[Applause]
but you are so transactional
everything is a way
for you to manipulate
and so you never get better
the bible says none but the pure in
heart shall see god
the word pure in the greek is where we
get the word catheter
and there is no way for you to see god
until you put a catheter into your heart
and get rid of the bitterness that is
blocking you from your blessing
i’m still talking about the bumpy road
to better
as i close tonight
i challenge you to look at genesis 42
and even go on into genesis 43 and watch
god
bring
jacob
and his boys
into a state of blessings
that does not fade away
and they lived their lives out
in abundance
and all their needs were met
and joseph never went through another
downturn again
because god had reconciled the family
and what really mattered was better
you got to fix this stuff in your family
you got to forgive
you got to
love
even when you were right
you can be right and still be wrong
[Applause]
and i am telling you there is a
wholeness that you will not capture
until you stop holding your father
hostage
until you drop the charges on your
mother
the curse will pass from generation to
generation
until your heart gets big enough
to accept the imperfections in other
people
then you’ll never be able to accept the
imperfections in yourself
some people would call joseph a fool
but i think he was a wise wise man
because he used the bumps in the road
to make him better
and i’m wondering tonight if there’s
anybody listening at me
in this room
or in your house
are you going to use the bumpy road to
be more bumpy
[Music]
to make you feel with more trickery
to make you more cynical
more vindictive and more respectful
can you be trusted
with access
can you be trusted
with capital can you be trusted with
advantage yes
if the bumpy road
doesn’t make you better
then you will die in the wilderness
and god will raise up yet another
generation
and try it again
the reason israel stayed in the
wilderness so long
in a journey that was so short that
their ancestors had gone back and forth
to egypt like it was going up and down
the street
why did their children wander in the
wilderness 40 years
is because they could not get over
themselves
you’re going to make your life harder
than it should be
and longer than it was supposed to be
if you don’t use the bumpy road
to be better stand on your feet i’m
closing
[Applause]
i took you
from the famine
and showed you how the famine
was used
to pull the family
through the fallacy
and pass the fear
[Music]
and finally
god put them in the place
where the food was
and they sat down at the table
tonight i’m telling you that god is
preparing a table
before you
in the presence of your enemies
[Music]
that god has
god has
set a table before you
in spite of what you went through
in spite of your pain and your trauma
and your agony and your injustice
and jacob i’m telling you
you can’t become so fearful
that you squeeze benjamin to death
[Music]
i find hosting people are not evil
they’re scared
[Music]
they’ve been so traumatized that they
think that if they
give without getting
transaction
that they’re never going to get anymore
[Music]
or they’ll spend money as long as they
get something back
but they won’t give to ministry because
they don’t see a quick return
they won’t make investments
because they don’t see a return
[Music]
they’ll spend their money
in perishable
assets
it doesn’t matter that is losing value
while i’m driving it off the parking lot
i just need to get something back
because i’m
scared that if i give anything away
it won’t come back i found out that
people
who don’t love are not evil
they’re scared
that if i if i if i let you know that i
love you
like i love you
then maybe you won’t react the way i
thought you would react
and so
i would rather hate you
and love you
they love you at the risk of being at a
disadvantage of being vulnerable
because i’m scared of my own emotions
and i’m holding benjamin
even though i know you need him
and i’m challenging you tonight
to let go of what you’ve been holding on
to
and i know you have good reason to hold
on to it
even if you’re holding on to your gift
[Music]
or your ministry
or your friend
or your compassion
there are people in this room that are
really loving people
that hate that they are loving people
[Music]
there are people in here that have the
gift of giving
but they hate that they have it because
they have given and been hurt
and now they are scared to give again
but as long as you expect to get it back
from where you gave it
you’re gonna always get hurt
god did not promise to give it back to
you where you gave it
he only promised to give it back to you
[Music]
give and it shall be given unto you
good measure pressed down shaken
together and running over shall men give
unto that but he didn’t say which one
you don’t get to control who god uses to
bless you
[Applause]
so if you didn’t get it back from where
you thought you should get it back from
that doesn’t mean you’re not going to
get it back
bow your heads with me it’s been a bumpy
road
[Music]
somebody watching me right now
it’s been a bumpy road
and god is trying to get you to better
but you took a detour
into bitter
[Music]
and tonight the holy spirit is wooing
you back
and i just want to pray with you on this
wednesday night before we close
that you would get a catheter and put it
in your heart and let bitter start
praying out
lest you die in the wilderness
[Music]
i want you to trust god to take you to
better
and it begins with getting rid of your
cynical ways
because god
blesses people
he can trust
and he can’t trust you because you’re
slick
you’re a player
and you’re slick because you’ve been
hurt
but you’re being hurt is god’s business
and god knows how to handle
your hurt
and i want you to give it to him right
now
in the name of jesus
father as i pray over this room and pray
over people i don’t know and pray over
people in different time zones and pray
over mothers and fathers and sons and
daughters and children
the enemy is trying
to trick us out of better
[Music]
and give us bitter
but the devil is alive
this road has been too bumpy
for me to settle for bitter
when you called me the better
i know what you told me at the house
lord
you told me at the house
that the good old days
are ahead of us
and i pray that somebody tonight would
receive
that their best days are ahead of them
and not behind them
that the power of the holy ghost
would move in a supernatural way
untouched
and healed
[Music]
and deliver
it’s been a very winding road
[Music]
and lots of hills to climb
but the closer we get to home
[Music]
the more we recognize
that you’ve been gone all the while
in every bumpy place
father as i close tonight
let the words of our mouth
and the meditations of our heart
be acceptable in thy sight
oh
lord
my strength
and my redeemer
[Music]
ladies and gentlemen brothers and
sisters
the bumpy road
to better
god bless you
[Music]
you