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00:00:03 okay do you have five minutes okay there's actually a slide prepared for the giving we have a code so um what we will do is at the end of the service we'll put it up and then uh so that you know how to give okay right this is what we call hot Potato Hot Potato mean you want to get into argument with someone this is the word to use God told me m no need to talk already so it's a very divisive word all right and depending on your church culture you are persuaded differently we have quite a lot of people from
00:00:53 charismatic backgrounds here and charismatics are great charismatics sit on the L they pray they fast some things we Evangelical don't do and they will tell you the Lord told me so then the Evangelical will say ah yeah all this in your mind you told yourself you know and then fight law but it's it's a fair question right here's a simple question how do you know is God's will you should be here in FBC why don't you go another church I'm not asking you to do that h and if you in FBC why is it you're not doing
00:01:37 anything is it God's will you sit down there and just listen so it's a hot potato then there the the other the other side is God's will I should preach this is Anor shouldn't preach is God's will I should play guitar how do you know is God's will you are in your job that's another one so it's a very important topic to do and it's there's a lot of misunderstandings on this so we're going to look at this now that's what we call specific will that means your life plans who you marry what Ministry what job what
00:02:19 apartment to buy what car to buy can go down that line right and then of course you have what some people call God's moral will or will of Desire will of decree I mean authors like to use all sorts of words that means the Bible tells you so within this this is your guideline law but then there's another way we use God's will what we call his Divine will or Sovereign will what we say that we don't know God's plan so recently this is what president adran said when he visited the earthquake site and this is was in BBC adrean has
00:03:02 admitted shortcomings and response he appeared to blame Fate on a visit to one disaster Zone such things have always happened is part of Destiny's plan which is quite strange because he's technically Muslim so some people say that it is fed it is karma it is Destiny that's another hot potato so sometime we do not understand we say that you remember last year there was flooding and there was a case if you read in certain part where it a very tragic story of a person who lost his children he had the children went into
00:03:42 the water he lost I think two or three of his daughters and he was in the papers and he said God took away my daughters I mean it's it's something we struggle with you know and I I always struggled because we just say well it's God's plan what why will God do it why will God do it so it's a real issue so today we want to really look into this and and the way to really understand is look into one narrative and one particular line from The Book of Genesis and we're trying to end our series on families in Genesis then we're
00:04:17 going to start Exodus is quite telling and at the end of it this is what Joseph tells his brothers his brothers then came and threw themselves before him we are your slaves they they said of course you try to kill they try to kill him so him slavery but Joseph said to them don't be afraid am I in the place of God and this very famous verse you intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done the saving of many lives that's God's will so we're going to do this in a two
00:04:56 parter and I pray you ask yourself a question this morning which we were going to latch on it's a simple question why what is God's will for you in FBC in FBC what's God's will for you in FBC let's come before God In Prayer Lord I'm a man of many opinions a man who talks a lot uh and so sometimes I'm only listening to my voice so I ask this morning I humble myself with fear and trembling ask that you speak that people hear your voice and when they hear your voice they will do your will and I say
00:05:38 this in Jesus name amen now what we're going to do we're going to do a huge recap of uh of uh the story of the life of Joseph and then we're going to hang ourselves only on these two verses we just going to exit these two verses but I'm going to give you a big recap now Joseph is quite interesting especially if you know the way is written now I'm not an expert in it Dr car is U I'm not going to go there but this is a story fascinates me let me give you a few key points of interest number one God never
00:06:09 directly speaks to Joseph let me picked up he speaks directly to Abraham he reveals himself to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and he reminds them about the Covenant that's why it's called the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob but for a man that can interpret dreams God never speaks to him which is quite interesting uh especially in the light a lot of people say God spoke to me here's a guy who could interpret dreams can tell you there's a famine happening and God never speaks to him that's point one now the other thing is
00:06:41 the the way it's structured the most interesting about it they are in duplets that's been picked up he's got two dreams Pharaoh has two dreams there's a cup Baron a baker in prison in fact there's two places of Darkness ptif households captain of the god jail captain of the god they two captains of Gods and there multiple repetitions one repetition you find is the brothers bow down before him twice there two trops to Egypt everything is in duplex why because the duplex tells you what's critical is is is a literary device to
00:07:16 tell you so whenever you see it occurring again in a duplate the author trying to tell you it's important now the other thing which has imp picked up which is really interesting is in the longest narrative The Narrative is in three parts the first section is in and after he's been sold well four parts he's a bragard he gets sto into slavery after that that's PTI part's household that's the prison but the longest narrative the single longer narrative is when the brothers come to him to buy Grain and in that narrative all the way
00:07:46 to Jacob coming he weeps seven times seven is a Biblical number you cannot miss this you miss this you miss the main Trust of the story so it's not a difficult biblical authors use this as a way of telling you what's important right I'm just going to read a little bit Israel Love Joseph more than any of other Sons number one ever play favoritism because he Bor to his old age he made an H road for him number two don't spoil your sons or your children when his brother saw his father loved him more at the end of day they hated
00:08:20 him and could not speak a kind word to him he's doing the same thing his father did his father was the same thing his father was also played favoritism he runs in a family Joseph had a dream when he told it to his brothers they hated him all the more he said to them listen to this dream I had L we were binding sheep of grain on the field when suddenly my sheep Rose and stood upright while you shes gathered around mine and bow down to it wow his brother said to him do you intend to re over us will you
00:08:53 actually rule us and they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said so the the story opens with this this is what we call is a structure system these are the bookends of the story so it starts off the this now to reinforce this the alar doubles down then another dream like I said duplet first duplet and he told his brother listen another dream and this is the Sun and the Moon and the L stars were bowing down before me when he told his father's best Brothers his father rebuked him and
00:09:23 said what is this dream you had will your mother and I and your brothers actually come down and bow down this ground before you same thing again right his brothers jealous as him and then there this little line which the author gives us his father kept the matter in mind Hey what if he was true you know that's the way the plot is being presented to you so when you open the story the plot line is established remember this H there's a doubling down same scenario you guys going to bow down to me Mah I Numero Uno I'm big man
00:10:00 number one so this guy is not a very nice guy now right then the brother goes hm wonder whether there's some truth in this now let's give you the whole summary I that you went here for the whole day Joseph's brothers sell him to slave Traders take him to Egypt first they want to kill him and they do the same thing the father did to his father okay so as you know Jacob Conn Isaac using clothing the brothers con Jacob using clothing all right is a classic repetition all right what goes around turns around he works at potifa the
00:10:35 slave flees fromation for his wife the wife accuses him of rape he goes to prison he in prison interprets the dreams of the bacon and C now this part is important because as you know the baker forgot about him for two years so before that he's in prison he's at least been prisoned four or five years it's a long time in prison he comes out at the right time interpos the dreams of pharaoh then suddenly voila he becomes Governor rises in power ad ministers the state the brothers come seeking food Genesis 42 Joseph then test the
00:11:10 characters Genesis 4244 and then finally he reveals himself to his brothers they calls his family to come to sating Goan and finally he's reunited with Joseph so there a story line for you all right you need to get a big picture this is like the way Bible project does their preaching right big picture all right now another duplet when he's in Portia's house and just put it down there it says the Lord was with Joseph and he prospered his master saw the Lord was to him the lord gave him success in
00:11:40 everything he did Joseph sound favored his eyes and became his attendant potifa p in charge the household and entrusted to care everything own from that time he put him in charge of household and all that he own the Lord blessed his household the Egyptian because of Joseph the blessing of the Lord was on everything potifa had both in the house and the field so potifa left everything he had in Joseph care with Joseph in charge he did not concern himself with anything except the food he add so we
00:12:07 see a shift suddenly first we are told the Lord is with Joseph and we find although he's a slave he does very well and he's so successful everyone knows the the captain of God portier knows the Lord with him he doesn't do anything notice the repetition again in prison because after this the wife wants to sleep with him the wife accuses him raped his throne in prison notice the repetition while Joseph was there prison the Lord was with him that's a repetition of verse 1239 and the whole line is a
00:12:39 repetition he showed him kindness Grant him favor the water put him in Jo Joseph in charge everything the water paid no attention the Lord was with Joseph whever he gave him success the Lord was with him gave him success gave him Prosperity what in prison when prison not not in your corporate world first way he was a slave granting success as what as a slave not as a CEO when you pick up these things that's the duplet successful does very well where Nepali guard domestic helper garbage collector
00:13:17 puu prison no you get the dri he's doubling down on a point to you you got to get the trend you know this the duplet right here's the other duplet all right is a repetition pixs up Genesis 36 seven just now my sheep rose up I'm big you're going to Bow and so now no food famine the brothers come so when the Joseph's brothers arrive what did they do they bow down hey where have you heard that before and so verse 8 he remembered his dreams about them then they said Oh Come please I'm your brother long lost who
00:13:57 you tried to kill now who should I kill first or did he say oh no yes you are starving I'm your brother let's give a big hug all is forgotten he didn't do that he said you spies he lies Peter told us last week cannot lie you know this guy lies you know wow he's not the only guy who lies just to double down the Egyption who uh took help the uh Israelites give birth lied to Pharaoh reab lied didn't the Bible tell us we can't lie we're going to take this next week a all right now here's the Weeping part I
00:14:45 just put it up to you okay and then we're going to take you a little bit on that it's really quite fascinating there are seven accounts of weeping you read it h let me give you a little bit of clue how to read it you look at Genesis 42 he he sees them first he weeps he weeps not in their presence look at Genesis 50 when their message came to him this is when they realize the game is up they want to repent Joseph weeps what's the similarity in the two he's weeping not in the presence of the brothers so
00:15:18 24 and uh uh 422 24 and 5017 are tied here's the second one H Genesis 43 he looked and saw his brother Benjamin okay that's his own brother from from Leah this your youngest brother God be gracious to you my son you can almost hear the emotion deeply mve it is an emotional text Joseph hurried up and looked for a place to weep he's weeping now because of his love for Benjamin is highly emotional look at Genesis 46:29 Joseph had his CH mid read went to Gan to meet his father Israel as soon as Joseph appeared him he TR his arms
00:15:59 around him and wept for a very long time it's also emotional in 43 2932 30 he's weeping for Benjamin in Genesis 51 he's weeping for Jacob all right Genesis 4512 then Joseph could no longer control himself have everyone leave me so there was no one when Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept so loudly he's weeping now in the presence of his brothers that's 401 to2 and then you find the same similarity down there uh with 4540 to 50 he kissed all his brothers and wept over them now if we sort of break it down
00:16:49 whoops let me uh I'm going to come to that later sorry okay but I just want you to pick up a little bit on that there's seven weeping sorry got thing so last day we came in he says come close to me etc etc God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a Remnant on Earth to save your lives by great Deliverance so it was not you who sent me here but God he made me Father the Pharaoh Lord of his entire whole soul and ruler of all Egypt okay so this is where the ending of the climax of the story comes
00:17:20 do not be distressed do not be angry for selling me here you was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you and then we have the final second bowing down Verse 18 his brothers then came and threw themselves before him we are your slaves that again is another second fulfillment of Genesis 37 and then there's a classic line Joseph said to them do not be afraid am I in the place of God you intended to Har me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done the saving of many lives so that's a whole scenario we see
00:17:52 duplets we see this very interesting verse about weeping and weeping I'll tell you are in PA it's very obviously they impairs now what does it all tell us all right point one okay point one God's will does not Rob Wass of the freedom to choose God could have chosen to stop Joseph brothers from selling him into slavery but he did not and this is the first thing we need to learn about life it's called free will God gave us free will to choose if God intervene at every moment Danger free will will not exist so let's talk a
00:18:32 bit about Sovereign will you know if something bad happens to you what would you say life's unfair God why did you allow it we get it we all went through it I'm not going to intellectualize it I want us to process this a bit go I have my own shares of calamities we all have our tragedies we will say if God is so good why did he for example take away my father let's let's continue the line of thinking so we say okay so are you saying if God didn't take away your father your faith will not be affected
00:19:13 yes continue thinking so are you saying that every Christian who has a father who has got cancer he should not take away the father yes let's extend the thinking why not we then say uh if covid happens God should protect every Believer from covid yes let's go down there thinking if you're eating food that causes you to get high blood pressure or to get your diabetes in increased shouldn't God then remove all the chocolates all the red meat come on let's hear yes no right you see where we're going
00:19:57 with this because you chose to eat chak you chose to eat Bak you chose not to wear your M it's called free will if God intervene at every Calamity you and I will be a robot now it doesn't answer suffering I'm not going to tell you when you suffer that's that's the best answer but gives you a glimpse into this I give you another simple example this one is for Wong architect i w I don't think this very nice building wo is a great architect he can design better the first building is a it's a Japanese building maybe maybe y
00:20:48 knows it like he's been there this another one is a bang they are not very nice designs what's so special about this thing an know show us not very nice designs the I want you understand this one is in Turkey now what are we saying why would a modern building in Turkey collapse because the first two buildings are designed to be earthquake resistant now you don't tell me turkey cannot make their buildings earthquake resistant they've been knowing earthquakes for decades if you know the history me
00:21:27 reading it what happened was there was a cause issue and so there was what we call a amnesty and all the developers apply for it in Malaysia we call it Char Jalan you cut Corners so you can sell your building cheaper and you make money Ma you should read all the reports coming out of it and then when the building collapses you say it's fate it's not fate Mr adran is called corruption and incompetence and bad Administration I'll give you another example closer and this one I know because I'm an architect not
00:22:10 to his caliber but s and this area I know because I got project there and know you know that Landslide there right it was horrible it was near one of my project sites 2 kilom from T you know you tell someone year uh before that hey you know this camping s you see the mountain 2 kilom away it's going to land side Che sure but let me tell you I know that counselor is called M pendan bong and because this sermon is being taped I'm going to be very careful in my words let me ask you a question you don't do you
00:22:48 think they knew about these landslides I didn't see anything H I didn't see anything but when it happens what do we say God why do you allow it to happen God didn't allow it to happen man did it Collective human choices have resulted in the world of halves and halfes not the impact of natural disasters and diseases depends where you are you're in America you're in Japan there the earthquake happen you sleep at night you're in Syria where there's no a when there's a war you in Turkey where there's corruption and there an
00:23:33 earthquake 26,000 people died you say that's god's fault that's not God's fault it's man's fault and the Bible is very clear in this Genesis opens with chapter 1 and two sayings you have freedom Garden of Eden you can do whatever you want the garden here go banana go make gor P here durian eat until your stomach blow and the smell we can take it got watermelon did God tell him hey you must make sushi with this this one you make salad the avocado I need you to do it God gave them freedom God gave them only one one
00:24:14 commandment you see that three there don't eat not very difficult right but for some reason that also we screwed up one commandment also cannot keep can you imagine can you imagine it's the purpose of the story one also you cannot do never mind God says never mind uh Grace we're going to send the seed of the woman he will bring about salvation so Genesis 4 opens up two brothers are there and what does he say you have a choice so the Bible opens up with choices you know you make this choice you live with it don't blame
00:24:53 God the problem with us every Cancer that happens every disease that happened covid we said life's unfair and what scripture is telling us is that the world is broken and when the world was broken in Genesis 3 with TS what did humankind do did he make it better no they made it far worse why is cancer increasing because of the food we eat that's as Dr Peter why are we eating processed food and all of this food because mmana why is it we cannot eat eat organic food because it's expensive the rich can afford not to
00:25:33 have cancer the poor will get cancer and you blame God so that's Point number one point two we see this phrase saving lives repeated again and again Genesis 5 twice Genesis 50 and when the author repeats it is important remember this lives have being saved how will life being Sav because you all went to do alpha program how will life saves because you put people out there you gave them makan you Shar the gospel how are Li slaves because you went and do good no lives was saved let's hear this because Joseph's
00:26:23 brothers tried to kill him let me repeat that I want you to hear this very carefully lives were saved because Joseph's brothers plotted to kill him if Joseph's brothers didn't plot to kill him lives would have been lost that's one of the main theme of this narrative we can even double it down more not only did the brothers plot to kill him if they didn't plot to kill him if he wasn't so into slavery if Portia's wife didn't accuse him falsely of of rape if Joseph didn't spend 5 to 10 years in jail lives will not have been saved do
00:27:20 you see what God is telling you is a very important point we miss what do you call all of this is a simple word it's called evil you can't miss it you know it's front and center of the text God allowed evil to happen so that lives would be saved and when we read the newspaper and we see evil what do we say if God is so good uh why did he allow evil self read it and the clearest example of it is Jesus on the cross if Judas did not betray Jesus if Pontius Pilate didn't ask for a bribe if the Pharisees W so corrupted
00:28:24 and worried about their position if if if you and I will not be sitting here today that's the point of scripture now I'm not saying all of this makes it easier if you have a loved one who has cancer I'm not saying it makes it easier if you're struggling with a disease or you are you you have unhappiness I'm just saying whenever we use this word it's not fair I want you to think a bit more about that does it take away the pain no but maybe over time you see a bigger picture and this is a very powerful
00:29:10 Point that's why we're taking this over two weeks now let's take this one we've been looking at God's will you know they mean no matter what the world throws at God sin evil God is God he's going to save people and nothing things going to stand in the way what does it mean oh s don't do anything Karm here looks another few ifs we look at if all the bad things now let's do the if he did not choose to flee from Temptation if he did not choose to excel to work in Portia's house so I love this in modern day terms is this no I choose
00:29:56 to excel as a rubbish collector sorry you got are you a millionar not offending you millionar and jenz will say what's my purpose in my job I meant to be like an Elon Musk I'm not happy in my company because not happy God is calling me to other things yeah maybe God's calling you to be a Nepali God what about that that's what the verse is telling you Nepali GS have no choices by the way farmers at the time of Jesus had no choices but young people noway you want to be a job I can be engineer I can be
00:30:35 software guy I can be influencer you know I can be YouTuber then maybe when AI chat gbt comes up they can write all my scripts for me I got more choices and God what is your will for me this is quite interesting thirdly if he didn't choose the compassion hey hello he's reason some tell people my life is very stressful no you know how much problem I have and you ask me go and serve in church hey please please don't talk okay let me pray for you sorry we da today you see where we going these are human responsibilities now I want to
00:31:21 give you a point they are not except for the first one which is the moral thing the other two are not major you know you could sit in prison and rot and say a yeah I'm in prison no one's going to blame you he had a choice he chose to Excel and because of that they prospered and they saw God in him now do you know what happened in that you know you know Chinese they call it the Mandarin system you know Chinese really like to dig in into the Americans Americans you want to govern the state you need a lot of money
00:31:51 we have some Americans here with us we have one brother here no offense to you two Americans the Chinese love to say the Chinese call it a scaling up system if you can govern a village of 20 people you can govern a a province of 200 people you govern 200 you govern 2,000 you govern 2,000 20,000 20,000 you govern 2 million it is how the confusion system of scaling up goes up let me repeat the logic you can govern a household with an unruly wife and few kids you can govern a prison you can govern a prison you can govern a
00:32:35 country that's the point of the text you can show compassion for people in prison whom you don't know you can show compassion to your brothers who tried to kill you you see the way the tax is going it's about decision making so let me go to this and let me give it to you the framing you can read it they in a pair let make it easier for you they call this in theology a Chasm I don't want to take you to theology you going to see Dr Peter but the center piece is extremely interesting and is deliberately crafted
00:33:23 a b c there's only one in seven the author trying to tell you of all of his whipping the D is the single most important and you read the text he whips Twice first for Benjamin then for the brothers and what is that centerpiece it is a weeping that leads to reconciliation of Brothers who tried to kill him and sold him to slavery and resulted him being framed for rape and spending maybe 5 to 10 years in prison he should have taken a gun and shot all of them hello that's the key message was the single most important
00:34:10 decision he made this after testing them why test them why so many chapters very simple are you repentant are you repentant and so the story ends with the brother sings we are your slaves that is an acknowledgement of repentance and then there is the giving of Grace God brought us here together come for the saving of lives for salvation you see this we'll do next week a lot of us have this problem of imbalance I struggle with this because I'm an architect and we live in a very corrupted environment let me throw a question to
00:35:03 you last week Peter talked about you know uh a story in World War II where they hit Jews underneath the floor the Nazis come are they here she didn't really lie so let me ask you a question now say you're hiding some Christians from a race or that says you cannot be Christian and the mob comes to your door says so and so are they with you are you going to tell them oh I can't lie and by the way my house doesn't have a basement where I can I have the cleverness to tell you half truths are you going to
00:35:49 lie it's fair question right where do you draw the line you see it's a tricky question if I say no you cannot lie you just condemn them to death if I say yes you can lie oh very good man other say can lie he my business doing very badly counsel ask for $40,000 if I don't give I chop you know if I chop I cannot feed my daughter I cannot feed my daughter she canot go to university it say she also to die right so I give $40,000 La God will forgive me because uny can lie you follow the logic You Follow Me
00:36:27 Lord so this one is something we struggle with so the story is very fascinating because what he does is he doesn't outright forgive them though he test them for many chapters and the way the story is being laer to show that his testing is from the heart he weeps because he wants to forgive them it's a very powerful story and next week we'll look into this because some of us are too much into obedience we become legalists you cannot do that H you cannot play that kind of song H oh she's like that cannot worship L cannot do
00:37:01 this you're very moralist Ma you become a legalist the other one is we very full of grace you know you must forgive you must do this do everything Al talal I can I can I can no problem hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah we have to struggle with this and we'll do this next week let me end with this God has a specific life plan for each one of us yes Hallelujah God has a plan for you for your job for who you marry for everything so let me end with this question does God have a speciic life plan of course he knows every h on
00:37:38 your head he must be if not he's not a God that cares for you you just become a number he becomes a God in the Clockwork Universe he has very good you sit on there what's my plan should I be an FBC you new you know I sit here I'm very good at preaching you know they never let me preach these people no no no no no no no no I I got no time I sit here I give money that's my calling my calling to give bu to FBC we get a quite a lot of that not offending anybody please today we throw everyone at Thea but you thr a sto all
00:38:16 of you will say it I got no time at work so give some money law I can only come on Sunday my mother's very sick with no time blah blah blah no this Anor Peter they P everything they is a c tell you know this people you you know they only let ma into leadership don't m not allowed to preach not all do Bible study ah extreme I can see some smile already let's talk so can God reveal this specific Life Plan of course Joseph became Governor that's God's will for him so God's will for me to become CEO up you
00:38:58 your pel God's will for me to become lead Pastor that's been told to me I asked somebody one God with straight eyes God's will for me is to be senior pastor God's will for me is to be start my own church who's the lead pastor of the church MAA yes you're right Hallelujah Joseph was a governor and God made him a governor so he could save life when did Joseph find out at the end when it's all over hello he didn't start off by saying God make me a CEO that's my will and this is my plan he found out at the end excuse
00:39:42 me so you want to know whether it's your will whether you should stay in FBC stay ler that you find out that's all it's simple logic stay longer then you find out you say it it's God's for me not to serve and to give money really Surfers let me find out it's not very difficult logic it's quite simple Common Sense stop waiting I don't know I need to sense I need to feel I need to feel don't feel just do thank you very much come here talk to us we got a lot of things have we do here's another one you
00:40:18 know God I should preach you know really okay great idea why don't you join a life group first I don't need join life group I can just pre no no join the life group because if you don't know people you offend people why should we let you preach now here's the classic story you know should Believers seek to find this life plan and I tell the answer is no God gave you some brains use them and decide now I'm not discounting Visions I'm I'm semi charismatic I believe in waiting and hearing but please waiting and hearing
00:40:58 and voices are just nudgers Paul in Corinth had a door open for him the door was open he did not walk through that door God gave him a choice and the classic story is this let me wrap up this partner for all of you who say that God told me I should use my business to do this God told me I should start a church God told me I should be senior pastor God told me I should be a preacher God H he should be an elder and power none of you can come in you know we could do God do you know all of this has a similar Trend you know God told me
00:41:37 I should start an NGO hey please give us your money my NGO very important one Now esther the same thing because what is the lesson here it says for if you remain silent this time if you know the story disasters coming to Jews relief and deliverance for the Jews arise from another place but you and your family will perish but here's the key word and who knows that you have come to your Royal position for such a time as this who knows I'll tell you who knows God even his uncle didn't tell Esther definitely but what my more important
00:42:14 point and it's similar to Joseph what was Queen Esther's response Hallelujah that's why I'm the queen come and kiss my hand baby did she say that Hallelujah I'm Queen come and F me I'm going to walk down and buy some nice clothes what did she say I'm going to Fast and the period of fasting I don't know whether I can do that then I'm going to see the king and what's the last words if I die I die what's the similarity with Esther and Joseph and this is where all of us who say is God's will I do this they are very hard
00:42:56 decisions we have people in our midst where family members cheat them a Chinese New Year so cannot Maran together here your brothers Tred to kill you if you were there your brothers came out you hang all of them you know your brothers Tred to kill you and you forgive them you think there an easy decision why do you think he weep seven times but let me tell you what is the single most hardest decision made in the history of mankind to a person this through evil did salvation came and he said this if you're willing take this cup
00:43:42 from me let me end with this and this going to be quite offensive H I hope not now you're a business man I say this love you got a lot of money and you say is my job to give a lot of money to the church you know what we call that we call that an easy decision why do you come and serve no time really is that really the truth or you choose not to have time that's that's a simple one right is God's will for me to start my own church good start your own church but don't be lead pastor you follow where we're going with this
00:44:29 it's about hard decisions you notice a lot of these people who come and tell you is God's will is God's will all of the decisions are what we call self-actualization decisions you know why don't you say this God spoke to me today I need to forgive my brother God told me today maybe I should go full time God told me today I need to fight sin God told me today that actually I have all these bad habits I need to stop you never hear that on you know a lot of these people who have God's will they always
00:45:08 self-actualization things so let me give you a few uh this one is what we call teaser because this one we discuss next week come back next week let me end with something which I think is important and and I I I want to maybe ask the worship team to come up to just really take us through this I want to challenge you with three things and the first one as the worship team prepares is very important and I believe God is speaking to some of you today you say how you know God spoke to you I don't know I
00:45:51 have no idea I have an impression on this I have an impression on this and the first first one is this are you willing to make some hard decisions today for some of you is this you know you need to know Jesus Christ as your lord and savior you say hey hey hey hey hello I've been abbc for the last 5 years you never see me I give money to the Box you know so let me tell you a story I thought I was a Christian since I was young man Edward knows because we both came from the same Brethren background but I was a
00:46:24 moralist and I was a hypocrite and I hit many things and I thought coming to church would save me I sat one day in Australia in a church right at the back I've been telling everybody I was a Christian and they were there I said yes Lord today I make you my master and I'm telling you here in our midst that is a message to some of you can we have some keyboards for some of you God is asking you to work on a sin that you say it doesn't matter it could be forgiveness that you need to do bitterness a habitual
00:47:15 sin now here's the second part you see you know an know I I've been there done there I can't help myself I'm not worthy that's why I sit at the back and I give money I don't think I'm very Godly in fact if I really tell you honestly I'm not even so sure I'm safe for the first point I'll say welcome to the club we all sinners in need of Grace the second point I'll tell you that's the LIE of the devil the biggest lie the devil tells you is I can't help it so if you cannot do point one here's point
00:48:03 two do something small something small change is small how did Joseph come to the point where he could be a governor to save people he start off as a spoiled bread God threw him under the bus and then God said one thing here's a household with some Bry kids the captain of God and a frisky wife go make their bits maybe you should do that small little changes let me give you one now for all of you who sit in the church and say you have no time I challenge you to say you have time you have time I have no time
00:49:03 try if you haven't tried to serve how do you [Music] know I I can't fight this sin I do it it comes back what about trying to do it less will it [Music] help you say I can't do 0.1 I can't do point two let me end with this you can't do 0.1 you can't do point two can you at least talk to us we've been talking about choices you have to be innocent as a dove but wise as a serpent we'll discuss that next week also if you do not do one or two all [Music] three the rest of the sentence I'm not going to end it you really got to ask
00:50:00 your conscience let's come before God In Prayer Lord God today we ask you to speak to our hearts and make us choose Choose Wisely choose in your will let us take risk for you this morning we only ask one thing let us make hard decisions and right now I know as I standing here there are some of you God is speaking you have to make a hard decision as a song place I ask that God speaks to your heart and convict you and you're not sure God is telling you talk to us in Jesus name we say this I'm going to
00:50:54 leave you now to the worship team to minister to us Church would you stand let's just reflect upon what um brother Arnold just shared with us and as we sing the song All the Way myor me whoever to us be [Music] his tender Mercy who to light has been my God all the way my savior leades [Music] me CH each winding path I gives me Grace for every [Music] Tri fits me with the living bread you lead me keep me from falling you car be close to your heart and surely your goodness and mercy will follow me all the way my savior leads
00:52:49 me oh the fullness of his love oh the shess of his prise in the tri of his love when my spirit clo in moral Wings is fly to Realms of day this my song to endless [Applause] ages Jesus let me all the [Music] way Jesus let me all the way you lead me and keep me from falling you car be close to your heart and Sur your goodness and mercy will follow I want to invite all of you to to sit down you know I believe God speaks and I believe God speaks supernaturally I believe the charismatic takes a lot of teachers that
00:54:28 believe that you just need to test it and as I was standing there just now I felt the word come to me and I want to give this word to you and you feel the Lord is speaking to you you ask yourself is that the voice of God you know I was standing there just now I felt that the people here want to make a decision but they don't want and this word came out to me and I want to give it to you you are gripped with fear if that hits you now I will tell you God is speaking to you let me repeat it again you are gripped with fear I'm going to
00:55:12 encourage you not to make a small decision to come out that fear it's not a big decision but it's going to teach you to come out your comfort zone we're going to pray now eyes closed and if you feel God God spoke to you I want you to raise your hand don't do it because honorly wants to be a mega preacher may God judge me for that do that because you felt God speak to you shall we do that eyes closed Lord anointing here we come in power Holy Spirit Come breathe on us right now your presence in our
00:55:53 midst take a moment to be quiet for the heart is deceitful break us Lord right now as you move and there some of you in the Miss who are just frightened but you've been living a certain way or there are certain things or maybe God is telling you you need to make a hard decision you need to forgive someone you need to come out your shell you need to be more vulnerable you need to not worry so much you need to be less anxious you need to be less jealous if God speaking to you right now eyes closed I just want you to do
00:56:29 something Brave and raise your hand would you raise your hand raise your hand thank you I see you at the back thank you I see you at the back thank you in the front I see you thank you in the front I see you yes at the back I see you right out there I see you thank you I see you thank you at the back I see you don't do this for me I have no glory anyone else thank you I see you you can raise your hands and put it down get anyone else is God is speaking to you put up your hand again slowly anyone
00:56:57 anyone else thank you in front I see you anyone here to the left do I see you the Lord speaking if you're weeping you are crying the Lord is speaking to you anyone else just raise your hand slowly anyone else at the back yes I see you thank you Lord we ask right now your spirit moves in power break down break down in the name of Jesus break down chains that keep us in bondage and from the life you want us to have that purposeful life a life in power a Life in Grace aive in obedience alive in wisdom let your anointing so flow over
00:57:40 here and flood this place that people sitting here will say ah Lord God your presence is before us heal us oh Lord Comfort us speak to us and we say all this in jesus' name amen going to let them to close now if you have been one of those that put out your hands again the elders and the leaders want to welcome you to talk to us you might not be comfortable coming to the front send us an email WhatsApp us talk don't just go back alone we're going to share the benediction but before that we want to give you a slide
00:58:31 the slide that we missed out just now this is the slide to give you can click on it turkey 2023 and do give give as the Lord compels you now let us close to the benediction May the god of Abraham I Isaac and Jacob the god of Joseph the god of Moses the god of David the god of Daniel the god of Jesus Christ the Father the god of Paul the God of all of us so speak to you this morning you clearly hear his voice and that he will comfort you and give you the strength to make hard decisions so that you can be so happy
00:59:45 and lead the life he has purposed for you and God's people say amen God bless all of you please exit the hall quietly please stay back the pastors and the elders are here do not live without encountering God have a blessed week
