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00:00:00 actually that was the real sermon the rest I'm doing is padding can we have the first slide up uh the reason why we got Jerry up is that Christians struggle with this speed what Jerry is exercising is both wisdom and obedience and today's sermon is closing the two part we want to be real we don't want to judge we want this to be a space where we can talk I want to ask you do you have any you feel the L Is Telling You for people who are struggling in this area what would you advise them to do how was I able to sustain despite
00:00:40 this kind of conditions my faith was based on the previous test God has given to me meaning to say PRI this I mean for those in construction SE in 30 years in construction I can write a whole book about that but the little challenge little challenge is one that makes you strong so at the point of time you are at least strong enough to sustain that kind of the challenges come to me so when there is trial I am a strong believer there is a purpose in that challenges okay thank you very much thank you brother
00:01:17 Jerry before Joseph became Governor God trained him to be a slave and now God trained him to spend years in prison without training he would not be able to take the biggest test of his life and that would be when he meets the people who enslaved them him his brothers so let's spend some time in prayer before we begin our sermon to just think what Jerry said in my Lord we we want to be a church that's real and I think a lot of us struggle making hard decisions whether they are big decisions like um you know what Jerry shared and
00:02:00 they could be relational or work or even small daily decisions because it's if we cannot be faithful in a small decisions how can we make big hard decisions I ask right now this morning I ask for power and anointing for me to disappear and only your voice humble me in Jesus name amen um here's next week's sermon up there uh brother John Harry will be talking about long for Resurrection Peter will start on on the knowing the heart of God why he chose the poor and then he'll do part two too also last
00:02:37 minute last minute announ if you have any mates right so please come and bring your mates for our baysia in order service Fellowship right um let me just go through a bit of what we did last week right right and we went through these four points God's will does not Rob off the freedom to choose God's will can use evil and suffering to saves life today we're going to expand three and four God's will involves human responsibility and God has a specific life plan for each one of us and how do you know that plan very simple
00:03:22 retrospectively that's how Jose finds it out only at the end and so this is idea of finding gods will um some people come up at to and tell you is God's will that I should fill in the blanks uh and we don't want to if you don't agree with me let's talk this number one is not explicitly found in the Bible you know if someone tells me it's God's will I should become a millionaire God's will I should do this and do that whatever it is number two the examples used to do this of they're not normative Gideon
00:03:55 putting out the fleece if you know that text carefully is actually due to his weakness God is giving a concession then people say Abraham yes but God doesn't tell Abraham where to go and Abraham waited for a child and in the end you know he caved in so there very few narratives to support this you see where God spoke to Moses but he didn't speak to nemiah he didn't speak to Esther so it is not a consistent idea especially in the New Testament thirdly it can be a form of divination divination is
00:04:27 something all faiths have if you talk to Buddhist people they tell tell you they saw this sign things line up I should do this can you imagine if you spend your life trying to find God's will you know I you're in a job and you say it's not God's will I be in this job I have to find another job what happens when you marry somebody you say you know it's not God's will I'm with this woman I have to find another woman it's very deadly but the most to me uh most biggest thing is very inconsistent oh it's God's will I
00:04:58 should be you know ABC when you when you after today you go for lunch and you go to Empire shopping center and you bring your car to basement you say Lord show me a sign which parking Bay to park hallelujah hallelujah no it's stupid then when you go and buy a shirt at online you're on shopping Lord hallelujah hallelujah you don't do that they say is a stupid example okay let's take it back how about buying property you when you bought the property do you say hey Lord hallelujah should have Buy in usj1 19 you buy us3 Show Me A Sign
00:05:35 well if you say you did that how about when you bought a car do you also ask for a sign now where do you draw the line so it's odd and small decisions compiled we're going to bring that up today and lastly lot of this self-actualization now I want to be fair some people say it's God's will I start a church I would rather say you decided to start a church because you're using God to undor then then we will say you not say is wrong go ahead but be very careful it's not your pride God's will is I should
00:06:05 leave this job really just say you leave the job and take responsibility about it because either that you putting the blame on God right so I just want to pick us on that now then here's the issue then how should you make decisions and this is a common reply is found in many of this finding God's will book you throw you throw a stone there so many of this they tell you read your Bible pray seek Godly counsel and most will tell you look we we take into consideration all this subjective signs you know peace
00:06:35 conscience prompting confirmation others I mean Paul had a door in trest but he didn't go through it by the way he even though there was a door open to it he chose not to go it agabus had a prophecy about Paul and even though agabus had a prophecy and the and the and the disciples Apostles interpreted one we poor interpret it the other way so that's human responsibility but so here's a common thing all these book teach you this so let me launch and ask do you think this three things H read your Bible pray and seek Godly counsel
00:07:10 is enough to make Godly decision it's a real question let me start off with the text today all right and this is the biggest test in Joseph's life then 10 of Joseph's brothers went down to buy Grain for Egypt but Jacob did not send Benjamin Joseph's brother with the others because he afraid that harm might come to him so Israel's Sons were among those who went to buy Grain for there was famine in the land of Canaan also so many people are coming to Egypt and there is Joseph Governor sitting there
00:07:39 all right who are you you're the hies who are you you're the nebuses who are you etc etc etc now Joseph the governor land the person so GRE to all people then suddenly one contingent comes in and he looks some dist they look quite familiar so when Joseph Brothers arrived they bowed down to him their faces to the ground as soon as Joseph spoke to brother he recognized them you are that bunch of beep beep who sow me into slavery and he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them where do you come from he asked that's
00:08:16 decision number one from the land of Canaan they replied to buy food although Joseph res recognized his brother they did not recognize him then he remembered his dreams ah it's abouted to bow down to me you know and it said you spice you come to see where our land is unprotected that's decision number two Let me throw you a question are they Godly decisions most commentators will say no it came from a place of anger we don't know H it's harsh and do that point one decisions are often instinctive at the SP the moment do you
00:08:55 really have time to say hey I think uh oh you're my I think you're the brothers who killed me let me go to to the bedroom and prayer maybe find someone among the Egyptian Council here oh no Christians among here all Pagan worshippers no Bible what did my father taught me you can't you have a 5sec window and he went with his gut what did he do uh they and we going to take a little bit of of signs is a family life thing all right um there Norm three responses what Joseph doing is the angry one he spoke harshly to them spice they
00:09:28 call this fight the other one you could do is that ah I want to go toilet run that's called flight flight that means you see something you run fight a flight the third one they call it deer and the headlight it's called Freeze have you ever had that we all had that common decision one they're instinctive number two they're habitual Aristotle say we are what we repeatedly do how many people here buy from shopping don't raise your hand my star buy from shoe every few days we get a Ting Tong what is this
00:10:12 boss it's a sale very cheap do you need it it's new let get to my car boss you should put this don't put it on my can put your headphone on can do this stick it off my they buy all sorts of stuff small decision Mark really you you you check the amount of money you spend on there and clock it over one year see whether is these small things add up it's habitual we make decisions on a habitual process we're going to pick it up on the second part of the sermon and third one and I think philis is the one
00:10:46 who highlighted this to me due to the sin of Pride we will make wrong or sinful decisions and justify this and I tell you I'm going say this look people active in church this one very common and they will tell you they read the Bible they prayed and they had Godly counsel actually what they did was they read the Bible selectively they prayed to affirm it and they got a gang to affirm it they call it group thing like go what third John 9 says I wrote to the church but Deus who L to be first you know what he is an
00:11:16 elder oh Elder oh Elder all this elder is very ambitious loves to be fast will not welcome us so when I come or call attention to what he's doing spreading malicious nonsense about us not satisfied with that he even refuses to welcome other believers now John is actually calling him a Christian you know this guy's a Christian he also stops those who wants to do so and put them out Church welcome to church politics uh in in modern data we call you dictator oh but no I'm doing it right you know ulam Yen Peter they all
00:11:50 troublemakers you know I should be lead Elder so I will engineer everything to co- storage them but I'm doing it for the sake of the church you must listen to me you you follow me you can do that right so let's plow into this a little bit um because of these three things it's not so easy to tell people read the Bible pray seek Godly counsel I want to propose few things for big decisions and heart decision but let's go through the text he tests his brothers this a single longest narrative unimportant to
00:12:22 understand it is controversial as involved deception we won't go into that today maybe we'll do that in a church camp and they repetitions used they give you the key now he does test it's quite interesting I I label the test in certain way so it's easy for you to understand how does he test his brothers test one find Ben uh any Ben here not referring to you find Benjamin or find B test two find B favor B give him five times more food to eat test three fine band favor band frame band take take my so-called divination
00:12:59 cup stick it in the S there's one other test I'm going to tell you later all right let's go through the the four test I'll give you the four later let's F test fine B don't continue the thing no my lord your servants said come to buy food we are the sons of one man your servants are honest man of spice no he said you have come to see land is not protected notice the duplet there's always this repetition attack but they replied your servants with tell brothers the sons of one man who lives in the
00:13:26 land of Canan Canaan wow you can imagine how Joseph fil he says here the youngest one is now your father and one is no more yeah right hello Joseph said to them just as I told you you are spies and this is how you will be tested as surely as faraoh lives you will not leave this place until your youngest brother comes here find Ben send one your number to get a brother the rest of you be kept in prison that decision number three yeah so your words may be tested to see telling the truth you're not n surely far lives you're spies and
00:14:03 he put them all in custody for three days what this guy really Agro with throw them in prison why you D you feeling wow really frightened after he cool down no after a few days know not so emotional already cool down Third Day Joseph said today do this your live and this is a key verse I Fear God your honest man let one of your brothers stay here in prison while the rest of you go take grain back for your starving household so he's going to do some horse trading with them but you must bring your youngest brother to me you see the
00:14:31 emphasis again nonnegotiable so that your words may be verified you may not die then they proceeded to do so now this is interesting verse they said to one another surely we are being punished because of brother we saw how distress he was when he pleaded with us for his life but we will not listen that's why this distress Has Come On Us Ruben replied didn't I tell you not to sin against this boy but you wouldn't listen now he must give an accounting for his blood they didn't not realize Joseph will understand them since he was using
00:15:01 interpreter I want you pause on this let me give you one big lesson sin has consequences you can get away for it for years he consequences right verse 24 he turned away from them and began to weep you know um but then came back and spoke are we going to get he had Simon taken from them and bound before their eyes and that's a repeted motive he began to weep now of course as we know uh let me just give the story they then agree they get the food they put in the bags and then twice again he makes this remark he
00:15:49 he he he actually picks the silver that they paid and they put it back in the sack all right and as they emptying the sack this is when they gave back to Canaan there each man sex was his pouch of silver exclamation mark in the Hebrew important point when they and their father saw the money poucher they were frightened their father Jacob said to them you have deprived me my children Joseph no more Simon no more and now you want to take Benjamin why rate uh you find now the plotline heavily involves
00:16:18 Benjamin that's why I name all the test after Ben you see everything is against me you can feel his pain now this is interesting Reuben says you may put both my sons to death you but do not bring him back to you and trust him to my care bring him back wow let your sons die for what you did great dad man great dad but he's trying something all right it is what we call substitution I I will pay for that Folly but Jacob is a demon my son will not go down with you his brothers dead he's the only one left this very painful verse
00:16:52 harm comes to him on a journey journey you're thinking you will bring my great hate down to my grave in sorrow me I will die of grief that's very painful now the famine was still serving the land they eaten not the grain the father said go back buy a little more food Judah said a man W Solly you will not see my face un your brother with me you will send your brother along with us you will not send will not go down you will see unless your brother brother repeated three times verse eight and this is also interesting I highlight in
00:17:22 purple then Judah said to Israel's father send a boy along me and and we will go at once and that you and your children may leave live and die and here is the substitution again but it's more align I will stand in the Gap I will guarantee safety you can hold personally responsible with him if I do not bring him back to you and stand him before you I will bear the blame before you on my life so Reuben is imperfect Judah makes it a bit better as it is we have not delayed we have gone and returned home
00:17:51 they all starving the brother relent he said if I'm if I'm grief I'm grief so the man took the gifts double amount silver and Benjamin also HED down to Egypt presented himself to Joseph when Joseph saw Benjamin with them he had just his plan he said to the store that I'll take this man to my house Slaughter an animal prepare meal there to eat with me at no this guy his mind thinks very very H really like must be Chinese businessman the man did that Joseph told him and took the man to Joseph house
00:18:19 this is quite fascinating now the men were frightened anxiety High ctis saur spiking through the loaf they were Tak how they thought we brought here because of the silver they were bought in our sax the first time he wants to attack us and power us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys so they went up to Joseph store spoke to him we beg your partner Lord we came down they come clean which something new for the these guys hid from their father what they did to the son to Joseph but at a place where we
00:18:48 stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver so they come clean now Joseph reply is fascinating it's all right don't be afraid your wife tells him your God the God your father has given you trash your sex I receive your silver he's basically telling them you know you were starving and you got food you didn't earn it you in one word you didn't earn your salvation God gave it to you I want you to see where this heading as we bring the text uh to a closure test I love this fine B favor
00:19:22 B now the plotline goes on how the father feels about B and what we get earlier on is the father fa Benjamin all you other Sons you can go to to to to Egypt but you cannot take Benjamin so imagine how Reuben Levi W you love him more than us that's how the plotline is being developed you know Benjamin cannot take all of you Goa I mean you die pray for Yol but not my Benjamin that's the way the plot line is being developed now we see a doubling down from Joseph as he saw his brother Benjamin his own
00:19:55 Mother's Son he asked this is this your youngest brother the one he told me and only to him not to anyone he says God be gracious to you my son that is a sign of protection he gives away the plot also meaning I'm not going to let anything happen to you then here's the second weeping deeply moved the sign of his brother Joseph hurried out looking for a place to weep he went to the private room and went there I want you to feel the text after he washed his face he came out controlling himself Ser the
00:20:22 food now this one is a classic verse there are three tables are number one they serve him by himself he's got one table the brothers by themselves another table the Egyptians by themselves they are three tables and then the the narrator gives away the story Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews for that is detachable to Egyptians then the author doubles down the men have been seated according to other ages from the first more youngest that means how do you know now hello you eating you know Egyptians
00:20:57 shouldn't eat with Hebrews and the governor is eating by himself hello what is the author trying to tell you he's not Egyptian hello rule number two when you're very Kong or anxious you don't think straight that's true when you're full of it ctis so SP you're not thinking straight so it's quite funny the the text picks it up and how how do he know he's younger unless he knows something about you and he's obviously not Egyptian and here's a test with portions of ser from Joseph table you understand
00:21:31 they are starving know these guys be eating grain in Chinese you know they be eating porridge for the last two years now suddenly wow got stick man Benjamin got five times more what is this test is trying to do he's trying to trigger the what the jealousy button you see this guy this guy special I give him five times more so what what Joseph doing trying to set up the brothers you know what you guys made me a because you were jealous of me I'm going to do the same to you now because payback is a
00:22:07 beep can't say it on poopit let's see whether you do the same to me as what you did to B so fine B favor B now test three find B favor B let's frame Ben but we know already beforehand he loves Ben so we know that you know but they don't so no Joseph gave instruction to the stewards of his house F the men SE with as much food I can carry then put my cup the silver cup in the mouth of the youngest one SE frame band and of course just to shorten the story Joseph the house when Judah and the brothers came
00:22:41 in they threw ground Joseph said what is this have done don't you know man like me can find things out with div nature he's still in his act you know this verse is really interesting what can we say my Lord what can we say twice how can we prove our innocence God has uncovered your servant's guilt I want to repeat that how can we prove our innocence God has uncovered your servant's guilt hey you say you're innocent then you say guilty make up your mind you know what they're trying to tell you we never took the
00:23:14 cup God not you has uncovered our guilt you know what our guilt is we took our brother because we were jealous and we sold him into slavery that's the point of the text and then understand this one we're talking about heart decisions now sin has consequences they make a heart decision we are now my Lord slave we ourselves and the one who has found of the cup so one last test and Joseph is very smart really tell you Chinese Jew like our brother Isel key last test fine band favor band frame bam forget B free yourself this like our
00:23:57 brother Jerry I nego with you we can talk one it's the Malaysian way hey this B your father loves him so much even we Egyptians we give him five times more food get rid of him you'll go back may that's the card you know it throws the A out we you send a runner your hands are innocent 50,000 you never did anything go tell your brother it happened La what to do but you know we got food now how did they respond okay they said far away from me do such thing only the man was found to have the cup will become my slave the
00:24:41 rest of you go back now what they don't realize if they take this dealer they are long-term implication the family will become destitute because they don't realize the family is going to happen another five more years and they don't realize that Joseph loves Benjamin he's going to let Benjamin Go free Joseph is setting them up to see their heart you take this deal you guys never change man you guys are slime balls it's a fascinating story so how do they respond Judah respond free Ben I will take his
00:25:15 space and so he says if the boy is not with when I go back to your servant my father and if my father whose life is closely bound out with a boy's life sees that the boy isn't there he will die your servant will bring the gray hair of a father down to the grave in sorrow that's the second repetition again your servant guaranteed the boy's safety to my father I said if I do not bring him back to you I will play the blame before you my father on my life and here's the heart decision talking about heart decisions yeah now then
00:25:49 please let your servant remain here as my Lord slave in place of the boy let the boy return with his brothers how can I go back my father if the boy is not with me no do not let me see the misery the come of my father I think it's a fantastic family verse and so we know Joseph could no longer control himself before his attendance he cried have everyone leave my presence he wept so loudly the Egyptians ha him I am Joseph is my father still living by the way he repeats that again and again the whole narrative and then we have the
00:26:25 entire verse about come close to me I'm your brother Joseph again second repetition the one you sold to Egypt again duplate God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a Remnant on Earth to save your lives a great Deliverance God sent me ahead of you is also repeated twice a lot of duplex sin has tremendous consequences sometimes you hear people say this you know they say I don't know what wrong I did when I was young that my life is so bad now that's a Buddhist thinking we call that Karma and Christians use that when
00:27:06 they do that they go into what we call a victim mindset the question is that you say you know my life is hard I must have done something wrong maybe the question to ask is then what wrong did you do and then the next question to ask is well what you going to do about it what happens here the remorse and the guilt leads to genuine repentance and we'll take responsibility like Jerry we make a hard decision and Jerry didn't do any wrong but I'm saying hard there two hard decisions coming up from the text the
00:27:43 first obedience Joseph says no to potifa lands in jail does right calls him here's a brother who do wrong things admitted we pay the price we'll pay the price so if you feel you've done wrong the question I ask you today is are you willing to pay the price now here the good news of the Gospel someone greater than Joseph will come his name is Jesus Joseph stands for his brothers Jesus stands for all of us and he brings forgiveness for repentance of sins and the question to you now are you genuine
00:28:28 finally repented Jacob would not let go of his favorite son but John 3:16 Says God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life and that's a challenge I want to give you for reconciliation and salvation now you can sit there and say you know had very uncomfortable sermon so I want to take now another part of it what we call the small decisions and my proposition is this it's small daily decisions to make not the hard one
00:29:04 that Jerry does you can say you know what I'm not a Jerry's level I'm not that Godly but Jerry gave a point God trained him before he could make that decision so let's look at small daily things and what I want to look at is Joseph's decision making process one he overcame his initial bias NES his brothers for what he did with Grace and forgiveness the text begins with a lot of hostility throw them in prison accuse them aspies all very unchristian things two he gave four tea uh in business we call it due diligence very careful
00:29:45 three the text talks about how he controls his weeping and four most importantly he did not allow the memories of what his brothers did to push him into Act of Revenge there's one more but there's four things here what does signs tell us when any of you make a decision these are the four things that shape your decision making biasness reasoning emotions and memories there's one more we take to the end this is data let me give you example you come up to me and say something and I'm reactive this honor very cha
00:30:36 very got bad memory ready got very confrontational the words he use very wrong so you develop a bias against an Lim and because you have bias against an Lim any reasoning you have filters out the good of anal liim I'm just using as illustration and then you see me you get upset now we could repeat that for anything you know some of us our weakness is emotion we we the first sin that came in remember the first thing in the garden post Garden even Eden is that God gives Cain a choice sin is crouching at the door you
00:31:20 must control it he chose the path of anger biasness Nazareth what good can come out of Nazareth again and again this are the four things that affect us so how biased are you against a race against certain people you don't like have you reason carefully or we call this in in in in in mental health they call this confirmation bias you know that means that you you start off by saying hey this guy is already like that then your investigation is already subconsciously designed to prove your point I will tell you majority of people
00:32:10 have this problem majority 99.9% we all have this problem it takes a lot of humility I have that if I don't like you I think you are you are self-righteous and I I see everything I'll cherry pick the self-righteousness of you I'll remove everything else I have that problem emotions let me tell you emotions has not nothing to do with being emotional in fact I think women are more Discerning because women let it out men try to be like Batman you know try be very strong about it they bury it inside and
00:32:43 memories you see we often told we need to lead a good life life obedience we not told enough how to do so I want to say this for me this for me is lifechanging for me I tell you my fault I make emotions emotionally I get triggered it takes a lifetime to change it but but at least God I think I thank God I know it so sometime you tell me things now I want to go W the guy to go and so okay now ji peeker put this in his book called God's will in not so many ways he said look it's very hard to come to this you know it's very very
00:33:21 difficult because it takes a lot of Courage he said there's a very simple way of doing it like I say we trying to break it down to simple ways of of of uh finding out how you make decisions and in this book it's a fantastic book it was it was Alex who brought me to it and the proposition is the everyday small decisions that trigger the big decision that trigger the one that Jerry make and he gave a list and I want to put it to you and see whether you see yourself in the list I I've expanded it a bit when you make
00:33:55 decisions are you one of the if you say you're not one of these you are God I know where I am H I'm not going to tell you embarrassing but I know one thing I'm not I'm caress my wife always knows it it cost me dearly in my business I've learned to pull back and say look I need to be much more careful some people are not very inflexible I'm also impulsive now langang is obviously not in his book you know what's langang they call it the politically correct answer I hate to tell you this but Christian leaders all
00:34:35 have this problem so do I langang is like that I say a to you then I see your mood o I can make a B Loyal B but I can make it C but it's also a Hallelujah because the Bible say so because I know I know the Bible better than you and you don't know I just going to use Bible lingo in you and PS so we all have this and Bea's point was very clear he says if you can't even pick this up you would not know how sin affects your daily decision making and and I tell you this was lifechanging for me I suggest you do
00:35:13 this and when you do this you sit and then you know what you do after that you look at some of the bad decisions you made in life that cause a lot of hostility you may find the torn in your S I know mine some of them are too embarrassing to say up there right point two okay how do you do it so there a story in Kings about a man called Elijah who made a decision it's a decision the two line the first line you all will understand the second line you will not let me tell you the story starts off this way he's like The Avengers you know
00:35:53 he he brings down lightning and thunder before the ball woo I'm like Iron Man man zap then Jezebel threatens him from a high he goes to low he runs and then he says a word which all of us use a lot of times God I had enough then he say something worse I want to die I want to die I can tell a lot of people something I push the what they feel it now what do you think God did do you think God said hey Elijah let me counsel you go and family life let me tell you the problem with you is this uh let me tell you let
00:36:32 me ask some open-ended questions and you know all those techniques this is what the Bible says you know do you know what God did God said go and eat yeah go and drink go and sleep then he does it again God tells you a second time eat drink sleep then after that God says you know you go for walk 40-day walk 40 days hey going and clear your mind get some sunlight in you your ctis is spiking through your your your system too much dopamine from your thing with uh the ball you need to reset bring back some of these
00:37:20 baselines so I saw this poster you know never underestimate the spiritual power of a nap a snack or talking to God in the end he expects God to speak to him in thunder lightning and when God finally talks to him it's a whisper point one how does your daily routine affect your decision-making process if you as a young man playing genin impact until 12:00 p.m. of valerion of League of Legends of God of War until 12:00 wake up early morning take a shot of coffee and you add the no spikes through the roof you hit the
00:37:59 office you know what's going to happen to at 3:00 the osis is going to wear off because of the caffeine you didn't get enough sleep you were druged and at the meeting room they ask you to say something you say okay and that decision can cause you your job let me tell you this from my own experience I used to be a DJ I used to be boom bo boom I was clubbing late at night go to work next day I can still hear them let me tell you is God told him get some sleep get sleep eat properly you're not going to
00:38:38 make good decision if your diet is full of sugar exercise hey an know this is a sermon why are you telling us to exercise it's The Godly habit get sunlight sunlight is very good triggers something get hydration late at night your Mel ton is going to kick in slow down so your Cadian cycle kicks in why you turning this into some medical thing because God said so because God said so it is the little daily habits that shape your decision making point two I pray Ma I pray the question isn't praying is how are you
00:39:23 praying how many of you have ever fasted before a big decision I think I see a lot of guilty faces how many of you have wrestled with God and said you know what I think I'm right but what if I'm wrong I want this Lord I I struggle always remember this in love sin has consequences and what looks easy now you are going to pay for it years later uh let me go on because of time and the last thing in the first two struggles talk to someone um not judging anyone H when I was young man I I had a girlfriend who wasn't a Christian I'm
00:40:19 not judging anyone and I struggled and I felt God was talking to me every sermon every word I speak I heard the word in equally yoke I heard it until I got terrified I spoke to my pastor his name was chrisa for Aden Ro prian Church you know what Chris told me as outla for makan and Chris never judged her and Chris never judged us never judge us I had looks for my church people like hey you're dirty you know you know I felt so judged but Chris never judged me but I could tell you were telling me what
00:40:58 you're doing is wrong but I'm not going to judge you you know what happened after that he just naturally didn't work out years later I married the woman of my life when I meet my ex-girlfriend I tell you I say thank God I never married you I hope she never he this Serv but there a lot of I did a lot of mistakes so I don't think so let me end with this uh you you know how biased are you have you reasen emous babies one last one who do you think at the moment you make the decision and there are times when I you
00:41:45 know I'm an elder hey Elder move Elder some people talk to me and they tell me of I want to I'm Elder you know not is so many words but hello you know who we talking to Elder you know I mean who am I and one of the most interesting story about the text is identity you know is identity how do we know that because God is telling him hello you're not Governor because of self-actualization you're not CEO you're not Elder you're not Pastor you're put here to save lives you're put to save lives and and you know the story
00:42:31 actually he's losing himself a bit he's really naming his children Ephram and Mana God has forgotten me and Joseph later had to bring the kids back and bless the younger over to tell you the line will continue he's really losing a bit of it I think uh Kai Dr Kai estri has a great sermon on this what is the thing that ties all of it let me give you a simple example Christians disagree me Yan Yulan Peter we disagree a lot we also agree a lot we disagree and sometimes our discussions get very heated I learned one thing uh with my
00:43:14 four brothers here never let disagreements destroy the Power of Love Can I repeat that to you never let disagreements destroy the power of love so sometimes you may have issues if your relative your wife your husband your colleagues remember this God has sent you to be a witness your identity is hidden with Jesus when that anger comes in front of you emotions ask yourself I a Christian I'm a son of God when that biasness comes to God remind yourself God died for all people when bad memories come up think
00:44:06 of good memories the moment you remember you are a child of God you are put on Earth for a purpose and God loves you so much you move with Grace forgiveness reconciliation and that brothers and sisters is really what I want to tell you today let me challenge you with this as we ask the worship team to come up I would tell you with absolute certainty God wants you to make some decisions today there a given not because I had a voice from God it's Common Sense maybe you're prejudice against someone and you may need to remove that
00:44:58 maybe your emotions are so strong because of a past memory of pain you build a wall maybe you have confirmation bias you have information but not all now if Joseph can decide to forgive his brothers for selling him into slavery what does he say about us if Judah was prepared to be a slave to save Benjamin what does he say about us I want us to do something today uh after David's sin he said search me oh Lord that's my heart that's my mind find with any way that offends you and lead me to the way Everlasting we want we
00:45:52 want to let the Lord's Spirit to move in our midst and I want to do an exercise and I he want us to quieten down and uh we're going to ask the Lord to move in our midst what when we look at decision making is always patterns I want you to think of a decision you made that cost you dearly can you do that I'm going to repeat that I want you to think of a decision you made that cost you dearly I want to ask you do you ever recover from that decision let us do this quietly I'm going to take you through a few things
00:46:38 Lord as we just quieten our hearts and we want you to speak to us come with power anointing Hallelujah Lord and if your answer to that just now is and no one knows it I have never recovered let me tell you the memory of that event has kept you in bondage and maybe today today God wants you to put it on the cross right now we're just going to let the Lord minister to us quietly no raising our hands I want you to just search me oh Lord search my heart search my mind whisper to me the way you whisper
00:47:38 to Elijah some of you you had a hard decision caus you badly here's a second question to you you learn anything from that decision are you repeating the same mistake I know I've done that I want to ask you to look at the patterns of your decision- making process and you start very simple are you impulsive are you reactive are you unending are you laang let's spend a few moments to just look at how we make decisions and it's always the little little things that add to the [Music] things Lord we ask for your presence to
00:48:33 just come before us and today the Lord is asking what will you decide for me and if you are fearful you think you're not strong enough you think you lack courage you want to run the Lord is telling you this and I say this if as what I believe is the Lord's will to me to you you are covered in Grace you covered in forgiveness now go talk to someone now go talk to someone I'm going to pass the time over now to Brandon who let who lead us through worship and let the Lord minister to us let's Stand
00:49:38 [Music] Together Beautiful Lord wonderful savior I know for sure all of my days are held in your hands crafted your perfect plan you gently call me into your presence guiding me by your Holy Spirit teach me dear Lord to live all my life through your I'm captured by your holy calling set me apart I know your dra me to yourself me Lord I [Music] pray take me mold me use me f me I give my life to the poter stand Hold Me Guide Me lead me walk beside me I give my life to the PO hand s again Beautiful
00:51:58 Lord Beautiful Lord [Music] wonderful I know for sure all of my days are H in your hands crafted into your [Music] perfect you G ly call me into your presence guiding me by your Holy Spirit teach me dear Lord to live all my life through your and I'm captured by your holy calling set me apart I know your dra me to yourself Le me Lord I [Music] pr sing it out take me take me GL you [Music] me feel me I give my life to the father [Music] hand Hold Me Guide [Music] Me me walk beside might I give the
00:54:02 right to [Music] the uh shall we be seated and every time we do this I I will ask the Lord to give me a word and you can test the word and I was set there the Lord give me a word give me a word so I'm going to give your word and you you can say you can ask yourself whether that word is for you but this word came up very strong and the word is this are you feeling guilty and I I I sense very strongly that word are you feeling guilty and here's the word of the Lord to you if you are feeling that and the word of the
00:54:48 Lord is saying this talk to someone and hear this you will not be judged Lord is here to comfort and be Grace if you feel you're struggling with sin you're making a decision that doesn't please him the Lord is just saying talkk and the church holds out that hand if Joseph could forgive his brothers we will not be a church we will read you the Riot Act so Lord let us close in prayer on this and I will give you the benediction Lord you speak [Music] today if my word was not from you let me be [Music]
00:55:44 rebuilt but if it is from you you have said if it goes out it will not come back not if feel the Lord has spoken to you and you're too embarrassed to meet us after this service send us an email drop me a line I will tell you I give you a word we will take time to talk to you that is our word now receive the benediction May the god of comfort the God of Peace the god of reconciliation the god of forgiveness so bless you that tomorrow as you go to work and to go on your life you will make wise Godly decisions for him and God's
00:56:47 people say amen we pass the time back to Brandon as the Lord leads him [Music] when do we stand again and sing this chorus One Last [Music] Time sing take me take me me you Lo me fill me I give my life to the part [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] hand me lead me walk bes me I give my life to the [Applause] [Music] part come just your voices take me mold me you me fill me I give my life to the water head me gu me lead me walk beside me I give my love to [Music] the the service is over any of you who
00:59:09 need ministering or prayers the Pastoral team is in front please depart in a orderly manner because the holy spirit is doing its work in our midst and again encourage you find time to talk to us do not go through your life struggles on your own that will be very unwise God bless all of you have a great weekend week ahead
