Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When we began to put that in proper perspective, then
we'll see God using us in ways that we cannot imagine.
And the times that we are moving into is going
to be key that we have that understanding, so that
first that we won't deceive ourselves and be deceived, and
another thing, so that we won't get out of the
will of God because we think we're doing things of
(00:21):
our own empowerment. It is the gifting of God that's
working in and through us, that's accomplishing the will of God.
(00:47):
We are.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
We are.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
It's time for Sunday Supper and time to feast on
God's word. Sunday Supper is a ministry of christ Church
for the End Times. Christ Church for the End Times
is a non denominational teaching church which ministry. Our mission
is to help prepare God's people for life and ministry
during the times in which we live. Join us on
Wednesdays at six thirty pm for a dynamic, practical, engaging,
(01:11):
and life changing Bible study and on Sunday mornings at
ten thirty am for a weekly church service. But for now,
let's feast at the Lord's Table. Here's today's message already
in progress.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
What he said. And Pharaoh said, unto Joseph, I have
dreamed of dream, and there is none that can interpret it.
And I have heard say of thee that thou canst
understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh,
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saying it is not in me. God shall give Pharaoh
an answer of peace. And Pharaoh said, unto Joseph, in
my dream. And then Pharaoh begin and to share his
dream with Joseph. And we're not going to read all
of that. We're going to skip down to verse twenty five.
Excuse me, got a few snipples to night, but that's okay.
(02:12):
And so the thing that we got to understand is
that much of what we deal with in life as believers,
if you're a person of destiny, you got to understand
that this is a God thing. Everything that was taking
place in Joseph's life was a God thing. Things were
unfolding according to the will planning purpose of God. That
is not to say that everything was orchestrated by God,
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but God leveraged the things that was taking place in
order to accomplish his will planning purpose not only for
Joseph's life, but also to execute his plan of destiny,
and the same thing holds true when it comes to
our lives. God will leverage the unfoldings in our lives
in order to execute his will in order to accomplish
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his will planning purpose not only for our lives, but
also in the earth. A lot of times we become
so focused on ourselves that we lose sight of the
bigger picture. We got to understand that there's something that
God is trying to accomplish in the earth, and we
are part of that. We are part of what God
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needs in order to accomplish the things that He needs
to accomplish in the earth. And this is why also
we can't afford to allow us to put our flesh
at the forefront.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
If you do that, you're going to miss it every time.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And so it is imperative that we keep ourselves in
the place that we should be so that God can
use us without us and our flesh getting in a way.
In reality, when we do things like that, it's in
reality our flesh gatting in the way again Verse twenty
five and Joseph said, unto Pharaoh, the dream of Pharaoh
is one. God has showed Pharaoh what he is about
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to do. The seven good can our seven years and
the seven good years our seven years is one Joseph
is interpreting this dreams to Pharaoh. We're not going to
get in all to all of the needy gritty of
what have you. But one of the things that I
hope we don't miss is that Joseph understood that his
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gifting wasn't of his empowerment are his doing, It was God.
It is the same thing with Jesus Christ. Jesus says,
I do what I saw my father do. Jesus said,
I heal by the spirit of God. By the spirit,
if I by the spirit do these things. And so
Jesus realized that the things that he did was facilitated
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by the spirit of God. Joseph understood the things that
he did was facilitated by the spirit of God. What
we fail to do is understand that the gift things
that we have is the empowerment of God in and
upon our lives and working through our lives. We think
it's us that's doing the work. It's not you, it's God.
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It is the Spirit of God that's executing the will
of God in and through our lives. In order to
accomplish the objectives of God, not your objective, not my objective,
but God's objectives. When we began to put that in
proper perspective, then we'll see God using us in weighs
many times that we cannot imagine. And in the times
(05:17):
that we're moving into. Is going to be key that
we have that understanding, so that first that we won't
deceive ourselves and be deceived. And another thing, so that
we won't get out of the will of God because
we are doing things we think we are doing things
of our own empowerment. No, it is the gifting of
God that's working in and through us that's accomplishing the
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will of God. But we're going to go and look
at verse twenty seven and the seventh thin and ill
favored kN that came up after them. Our seven years
and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind
shall be seven years of famine. So he's telling Pharaoh
that you're going to have seven good years and you're
gonna have seven years of famine. In Verse twenty eighty says,
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this is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh,
what God is about to do. He showed unto Pharaoh. Behold,
there come seven years of great plenty throughout all of
the land of Egypt, and there shall arise after them
seven years of famine, and all the plenty shall be
forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine shall
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consume the land, and the plenty shall not be known
in the land by reason of that famine following, for
it shall be very grievous. And for that the dream
was doubled unto Pharaoh twice. It is because the thing
is established by God, and God will shortly bring it
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to pass. And that is the thing that we have
to understand. God is going to bring certain things to pass.
This time of plenty, this time of fullness and what
have you, is an act of God, and it's an
act of God. God wants to accomplish something, and God
is going to accomplish what he desires to accomplish. We
are no one else is going to be able to
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change that stop it. The important thing for us is
not to walk in the flesh, so we consume everything
that God gives us an order pair for that eventuality.
That's what far too many people did in the time
and the time of famine here in the story that
we are talking about. They literally consumed they consumed all
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of the times are the things that they grew in
the times of plenty. And that's what we do far
too often in our lives. We are consumers. We have
a consumer mentality, and everything you get, we spend. Every
time we get money, we spend, and all of a sudden,
we're constantly, like I said, just in this rat race,
we're constantly going, going, going, We're getting to spend, getting
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to spend, getting to spend, and we have nothing left over.
The thing that I'm trying to convey to us is
that in the times that we're moving into, in the
times of your plenty, you want to make sure you
have something left over. Then we got to ask ourselves
what is that? What is the proportionality? What shall we
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just not enjoy life? That's not what I'm saying, But
what I'm saying, there's an approach to life that's a
little bit better than what we're we're doing. We don't
need to consume all of our increase. You want to
make sure that you put something aside. Let's see what
Joseph did here. Look at verse thirty three. Verse thirty
three says, now therefore, let Pharaoh, now this is Joseph
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giving Pharaoh advice. Think about this. Joseah just spent years
in prison. We know of two of them, and he
was there even before the butler and the baker got there.
We don't know exactly how long he's been in it,
but he was in prison for a pretty good while.
He was He's thirty years old when this was taking place.
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He was sold into slavery at seventeen. That's thirteen years,
so literally thirteen years he was in bondage. And so
now he's coming out of bondage and he's becoming counselor
to the king. He's becoming counselor to Pharaoh. The Bible
says that he that exalted himself shall be a base.
(09:25):
But if you let God exalt you, he'll bring you.
He'll bring your hey. If you humble yourself, God will
exalt you. And that's what David, I'm at death with
Joseph did. He kept himself humbled. Humble doesn't mean that
you walk through life with your head bowed or whatever.
It's just that it means that you're not that presumptuous.
You're not you don't put yourself forward, what have you?
(09:47):
You see, He's every advantage, and you do so unrighteousness.
You always do that which is right. You always do
that which honest God. True humility is walking in obedience
to God. And that's what Joseph did. Look at verse
thirty four, Joseph is advising Pharaoh as to what to do.
This guy just got out of prison and now he's
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advising the king. Joseph is saying, let Pharaoh do this,
and let him appoint officers over the land and take
up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in
the seventh plenteous plenteous years. So Joseph is telling them
exactly what to do. And when he says take up
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the fifth part, what he's saying is, take twenty percent
of everything that you grow in the full years. You
put those aside. Now, I want you to ask yourself,
can you live off of twenty percent of what you have?
Most people say, I don't know. I can't afford that.
The likelihood if you had twenty percent less you would.
And so what happens is that we have to exercise
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the discipline to put aside the twenty percent. And so
that is what Joseph is is advising Pharoh, you find
someone that's wise. You find someone that's disciplined, you find
someone that's prudent, You find someone that can manage this
and have them to put aside twenty percent of everything
that's going in this time of plenty. What I'm counseling
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you to do, as you are prospering and what have
you do the same thing, put aside twenty percent. Start
off with ten, start off with five, start off with
some portion, but you need to put something aside. The
amount you put aside is going to determine how well
you weather the storm. The same thing held true here
in Egypt during the time of Joseph. The amount they
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put aside determine how they weather the storm. You're going
to be able to put aside based on whatever your
yield is going to be, based on how your gifting
is going to be used. But the likelihood is that
you're going to have the capacity to put aside what's
going to be necessary in order to carry you and
those closest to you through this time of challenge, time difficulties.
(12:00):
Always know that the good stuff it doesn't last forever.
So what you do is plan for the time when
all the goodies are not there. But let's go and
look at verse thirty five. Let them gather all of
the food of those good years and come and lay
up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them
keep food in the city, so he having to put
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aside twenty percent and having to disperse it around in
various cities and what have you, so there'll be enough
in each of those cities.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And have someone over all of those. And what happens
is that you're gonna have enough.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
And the goal is to have enough to get through
the seven lean years. So you leverage the seven full
years in order to take care of yourself during the
full years, but also to take care of yourself during
the year lean years. And we have an opportunity to
do the same thing in this time of fullness that
we're moving into. So you enjoy the time of fullness,
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but you're also planning for the time of leanness. And
you do it right. You have not only enough for yourself,
but you have enough to help someone else out. Also,
when I look at the story about the ten versions,
the five wives and the five foolish, the five foolish
one didn't have enough in order to take care of themselves,
and the five wives had just enough for themselves, and
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I was thinking, man, they didn't have enough to even share.
And sometimes because we just have barely enough, that's where
we are. And then I say, the foolish one, the
height of their foolishness was not walking right behind on
the side of the one that did have the light.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And they still could have gotten there. But that's a
little side.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Joseph here is telling Pharaoh to put aside twenty percent,
disperse it aboard in various cities. Have cities when you
have enough stored up for that city, and even more,
and do this all over Egypt, and then that'll get
you through the time of leanness. Verse thirty six says
this and that food shall be for store to the
(14:01):
land against the seven years of famine which shall be
in the land of Egypt.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
That the land perished not through the famine.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh
and in the eyes of all of his servants. And
Pharaoh said, unto his servants, can we find such a
man as this is, and a man of whom the
spirit of God is in? Now that's an awesome thing.
So Pharaoh's approaches this, okay, Having someone overall this that's good.
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The key is finding the individuals that can do this.
You need someone with a certain nature, a certain character,
and a certain abilities. Guess what the gift was there?
God placed that gift in Joseph. Pharaoh saw that gift.
All the others saw that gift and then look at
look what Pharaoh did. So the thing you got to understand,
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just because you got that gift, that doesn't mean that
you need to go put it forth on. Whatever you
let God elevate you, let God exalt you, and if
it's for you, or God knows how and when to
bring you, you can actually have the opportunity. If it
wasn't for God, just keep in mind sometimes the enemy
could bring you opportunities also, so you have to be
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patient enough to wait on the Lord and allow the
Lord to elevate you. You just got to be ready
to use your gift whenever God give you the opportunity
to do so. Don't think someone is choosing you up
just because you're gifted. And maybe they are, but guess what,
it's just given an opportunity to practice and exercise your gift.
(15:35):
The only thing that's gonna happen there is you're gonna
perfect it even more. Don't allow those sort of things
to confuse you and get you off the path. You
want to always be humble before God. Don't even try
to humble yourself before me, and just stay humble before God,
and then you automatically will be humble before men. Allow
yourself to stay in the place of God. Joseph allowed
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God to elevate it. Now look at what happens in
verse thirty nine, and Pharaoh said, unto Joseph, for as much.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
As God have showed thee all of.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
This, there's none so discreet and wise as thou art.
Pharaoh saw the gifting, and Pharaoh acknowledged a gift. It
was in Pharaoh's best interest to acknowledge the gift and
to utilize it. Joseph didn't have to put himself well, well,
you need to let me have over this.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
That would have showed that you're not the one that's supposed.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
To be there. You're too eager, you're too anxious, which
you mean there's self interest. There's not the interests of
the people, there's not the interests of the kingdom. There's
self interest there. And because there's self interest there, then
you're going to exploit your gifting, you're going to misuse
your gifting, so you're not ready. And that's why some
people and many people many times that are gifted, because
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they're so focused on being able to use their gift,
God really can't use them to do that which they
are destined to do because they want to do it,
which means they put themselves at the forefront, which means
walking in the flesh.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
And so you can't allow yourself to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
If you're humbled before God to be used by God,
you'll never get into that place. You only get in
those places when you move yourself out of the.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Path of God.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
So verse forty says, thou shalt be over my house,
and according unto thy word, shall all my people be
ruled only in the throne? Will I be greater than thou?
Pharaoh said, unto Joseph, see I have set thee over
all the land of Egypt. How about that you went
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from the prison to being the prime minister just like that?
Why because it's God that elevated you get would Joseph
had been if he got him out, if he just
got out of prison two years before, the likelihood that
he'd been out of place Joseph was the prison is
what God used to preserve him, to keep him, and
to bring him to the place where he needed to be.
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When it was time for Joseph to be elevated, they
just had to go down to the dungeon and bring
him up to the first floor. Verse forty two says
and Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and
put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him investures of
fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck.
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And he made him to ride in the second chariot
which he had, and they cried before him, bow the knee.
And he made him rule over all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh said, unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without
these shall no man lift up his head off foot
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in all of the land of Egypt. In that awesome
and and then Pharaoh gave gave him his daughters, his wife,
and so forth, and elevated Joseph because he was waiting
on God. And I shared that story with you because
the thing that we need to do is about the
same thing. We need to be patient enough to wait
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on the Lord and allow the Lord to elevate us
and do time in due season. Bible says, we will
reap if we faint. Not what we want is our season.
We want now, we want to do things our way,
as opposed to do in the God's way. Again, in
Patients Possession Your Souls and Verse forty six, it says
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that Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh,
king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence
of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land of Egypt
again seventeen years when he's sold into slavery, thirty years
old when he's standing before before Pharaoh, and all the things. See,
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all those things that Joseph did work together for a good.
When he was in part of his house, he was
understanding and learning the ways of the Egyptians. There's a
lot they had to learn. When he was in prison,
he was able to learn various things about the Egyptians,
about the culture and everything. As well as getting into
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the palace. We have a tendency to look through look
at things through our eyes instead of the eyes of God.
But if we allow God to elevate us, and we
allow ourselves to be patient in the midst of it,
then you will find in due season, God will elevate
us if we don't give up. Let's look at these
last few verses. Verse fifty one says, and Joseph called
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the name of his firstborn Manassa, for God said, he
have made me forget all of my toils and all
of my father's house. You see, God has a way
of blessing you to the point even though you've gone
through a whole lot of things. The blessing will erase
all of those things from your memory, those things literal
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will will will make it all worth it.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
But we don't allow ourselves to get to that place.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
What I'm encouraging you to do in the midst of
everything that you've gone through. When you move in this
time of fullness, this time of growth, this time of prosperity,
allow God to elevate you and bring you to the
place that you that you are destined to be. And
when you do, then God to make it all worth it.
(21:21):
And verse fifty two it says, and the name of
his second child was Ephraim, from then Manassa. But Loui's
side and the name of Ephram says, for God have
caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
How about that? Do you want to be fruitful in
the land of your affliction, in the midst of everything
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you go through, in the midst of everything you being
you have to deal with. Do you want to be
fruitful in the midst of all of that? Guess what
God can do it if you allow him to do so.
Joseph acknowledged that God is the one that was causing
him to be fruitful, and he did and everything that
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he did, he was fruitful. When he went to the prison.
Guess what he was the assistant to the prison, to
the chief of the prison, the head of the prison
that gave him certain privileges. When he was sold into slavery,
he was made the account for the one that he
was enslaved to. So God knows how to bring you.
(22:26):
So the thing that we have to do is to
just rest in God. Always do your best, and whatever
it is that you're give him to do, always do
your best. If you do your best, then God is
going to work things in and through your life that
need to be worked in and work through your life.
And he's in that process you're going to be refining
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the utilization of your gifts. So when you get to
your ultimate place of destiny. You be ready to get there,
but you got to trust God in the midst of
it all. And God will know how to prosper you
even in the place where you seemingly you in bondage
and you're in difficulties and whatever God can pross you
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even in the midst of that. Let's go to this
last verses and verse chapter fifty of the Book of Genesis.
I want to look at verse nineteen through twenty one,
and this is this is one verse that I always
love when it comes to Joseph. Verse nineteen said, and oh,
just louiside. Now Joseph's father died. Jacob has died, and
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now his brothers Sai saying, oh boy, we're going to
We're in trouble. Now Dad is dead. And now Joseph
have all this power. He's going to lower the boom
on us. Never cross Joseph's mind, never how many times
we'll try to get back at people, and we hold
her agains them because they did this to us, and
they did that to us. Joseph knew what they did
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to us, to him. You know what people do to you?
What have you forget about it? You know, don't allow
those spots to mess up your your feace of charity.
Keep yourself pure before God. Don't allow those things to
contaminate you. Don't allow those things to become spots in
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your life. Keep yourself pure, and you keep yourself pure
by forgiving. Just like Jesus said, and when he gave
the what we call the Lord's prayer, the our Father's prayer,
he says, forgive us our debts, so forgive us our truspasses,
as we forgive our debtors, or as we forgive those
that truspass against us.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
And so and it goes.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
On to say, if you don't forgive men of their trustpasses,
neither will your father in Heaven forgive you or yours.
Why because you always reap with your soul. So if
you continually soul forgiveness, then you're continually reaping forgiveness. Then
you don't have to worry about those spots being a
part of your life because from your heart you sincerely forgive.
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And what's even more important than than going through that
forgiving process is not not holding against them in the
first place. So if you don't if you don't allow
those things to offend you, then there's no reason to
even have to forgive why because you never got to
that place. And so that's a part of what Joseph did.
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Joseph didn't hold things against his brothers and so forth.
Let's see what he says. Look at verse nineteen, and
Joseph said, unto them, fear not for am I in
the place of God? Now? That is those few words
are the ones that's that I constantly think of, and
that are so love. Am am I in the place
(25:41):
of God? Are you in the place of God? Now?
This can be taken a lot of different several different ways.
One and some interpreted that am I God? Now he
knew he wasn't God, But am I in where God?
What happened to be? And and to me, this is
what jose was saying, am I with God would have me?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
And as you go on and read this, and let's
just do that, look at verse twenty.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
But as for you, you thought evil against me, But
God minutes until good to bring it to pass, as
it is to state to save much people alive. See
Joseph keepts God's perspective. What we do many times we
look at things according to the flesh as opposed to
keeping God's perspective in the midst of everything that we
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deal with, in the midst of everything that we go through,
you got to keep God's perspective. You got to ask yourself,
are you where God would have you to be? Have
all these things work together for good? Because you stayed
in God and God's brought you to where you needed
to be. All those things work together for your good.
If all those things work together for your good, then
what you're upset about. And this what Joseph was trying
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to convey. See, when you're looking at things in the flesh,
then you feel like his brothers did. Oh, he's going
to get back at me now because he can. But
that's not what Joseph did. Joseph looked at things according
to the spirit, and it says, and where God would
have me to be? Am I not where God would
have me? Isn't this where God has destined for me
to be? When God gave me the dream and the
(27:12):
vision of the sun and the moon bowing down and
the stars bowing down, whatever did not did that not happen?
So everything that took place was a part of the
plan of God, is a part of the purpose of God.
There's things that God worked together at you know, for good.
He wove, weave those things together in order to create
(27:34):
the tapestry for the life of Joseph, just like he
will for you if you allow him to do so.
But in order to do so, you're going to have
to keep the flesh out of the miss Look at
verse twenty one. Now, therefore, fear you not, I will
nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them
(27:56):
and spake kindly unto them. And that's what we got
got to do and got to understand in the midst
of everything. For some of us, you've been going through
a whole lot of things, and and for some you know,
you might have been used by the individuals, and God
may turn those tables. What will you do. You're going
to use it in order to get back at individuals.
(28:19):
Are you going to use it just to further establish
the will planning purpose of God. You're going to express
the love of God to those that might have used you.
The Bible tell us if you're going to walk in
script he said, do good to those that despite fully
use you. So the word that I wanted to leave
with all of us is that twenty twenty five is
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going to be a year that where we can thrive.
And when you really look at it, that has already
started happening. Because it has already started happening. What's going
to happen is that things is going to burst forth,
and so you want to be you want to be
ready to seize the advantage, sees the opportunities that God
is going to that God is going to bring to you.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Thank you for being with us today. I pray that
today's meal was a blessing to you. If you are
a serious Christian looking for a place to worship, fellowship
and fulfill God's call upon your life, consider Christ Church
for the end Times and don't forget to join us
on Wednesday evening at six thirty pm for Bible study
and Sunday mornings at ten thirty am.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
For a weekly church service.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
The church is located at nineteen ten Norwich Street in Brunswick, Georgia.
You can also reach us online at Sunday's Supper Online
dot org. That's Sunday's Supper Online dot org. You can
also tune us in on your iHeartRadio app. So until
next week, the Lord bless you and keep you the
Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious
(29:43):
into you. The Lord lift up his continence upon you,
and give you peace. And may God's richest blessing always
be upon you.
When we began to put that in proper perspective, then
we'll see God using us in ways that we cannot imagine.
And the times that we are moving into is going
to be key that we have that understanding, so that
first that we won't deceive ourselves and be deceived, and
another thing, so that we won't get out of the
will of God because we think we're doing things of
(00:21):
our own empowerment. It is the gifting of God that's
working in and through us, that's accomplishing the will of God.
(00:47):
We are.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
We are.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
It's time for Sunday Supper and time to feast on
God's word. Sunday Supper is a ministry of christ Church
for the End Times. Christ Church for the End Times
is a non denominational teaching church which ministry. Our mission
is to help prepare God's people for life and ministry
during the times in which we live. Join us on
Wednesdays at six thirty pm for a dynamic, practical, engaging,
(01:11):
and life changing Bible study and on Sunday mornings at
ten thirty am for a weekly church service. But for now,
let's feast at the Lord's Table. Here's today's message already
in progress.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
What he said. And Pharaoh said, unto Joseph, I have
dreamed of dream, and there is none that can interpret it.
And I have heard say of thee that thou canst
understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh,
(01:49):
saying it is not in me. God shall give Pharaoh
an answer of peace. And Pharaoh said, unto Joseph, in
my dream. And then Pharaoh begin and to share his
dream with Joseph. And we're not going to read all
of that. We're going to skip down to verse twenty five.
Excuse me, got a few snipples to night, but that's okay.
(02:12):
And so the thing that we got to understand is
that much of what we deal with in life as believers,
if you're a person of destiny, you got to understand
that this is a God thing. Everything that was taking
place in Joseph's life was a God thing. Things were
unfolding according to the will planning purpose of God. That
is not to say that everything was orchestrated by God,
(02:36):
but God leveraged the things that was taking place in
order to accomplish his will planning purpose not only for
Joseph's life, but also to execute his plan of destiny,
and the same thing holds true when it comes to
our lives. God will leverage the unfoldings in our lives
in order to execute his will in order to accomplish
(02:57):
his will planning purpose not only for our lives, but
also in the earth. A lot of times we become
so focused on ourselves that we lose sight of the
bigger picture. We got to understand that there's something that
God is trying to accomplish in the earth, and we
are part of that. We are part of what God
(03:17):
needs in order to accomplish the things that He needs
to accomplish in the earth. And this is why also
we can't afford to allow us to put our flesh
at the forefront.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
If you do that, you're going to miss it every time.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And so it is imperative that we keep ourselves in
the place that we should be so that God can
use us without us and our flesh getting in a way.
In reality, when we do things like that, it's in
reality our flesh gatting in the way again Verse twenty
five and Joseph said, unto Pharaoh, the dream of Pharaoh
is one. God has showed Pharaoh what he is about
(03:52):
to do. The seven good can our seven years and
the seven good years our seven years is one Joseph
is interpreting this dreams to Pharaoh. We're not going to
get in all to all of the needy gritty of
what have you. But one of the things that I
hope we don't miss is that Joseph understood that his
(04:14):
gifting wasn't of his empowerment are his doing, It was God.
It is the same thing with Jesus Christ. Jesus says,
I do what I saw my father do. Jesus said,
I heal by the spirit of God. By the spirit,
if I by the spirit do these things. And so
Jesus realized that the things that he did was facilitated
(04:36):
by the spirit of God. Joseph understood the things that
he did was facilitated by the spirit of God. What
we fail to do is understand that the gift things
that we have is the empowerment of God in and
upon our lives and working through our lives. We think
it's us that's doing the work. It's not you, it's God.
(04:56):
It is the Spirit of God that's executing the will
of God in and through our lives. In order to
accomplish the objectives of God, not your objective, not my objective,
but God's objectives. When we began to put that in
proper perspective, then we'll see God using us in weighs
many times that we cannot imagine. And in the times
(05:17):
that we're moving into. Is going to be key that
we have that understanding, so that first that we won't
deceive ourselves and be deceived. And another thing, so that
we won't get out of the will of God because
we are doing things we think we are doing things
of our own empowerment. No, it is the gifting of
God that's working in and through us that's accomplishing the
(05:41):
will of God. But we're going to go and look
at verse twenty seven and the seventh thin and ill
favored kN that came up after them. Our seven years
and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind
shall be seven years of famine. So he's telling Pharaoh
that you're going to have seven good years and you're
gonna have seven years of famine. In Verse twenty eighty says,
(06:04):
this is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh,
what God is about to do. He showed unto Pharaoh. Behold,
there come seven years of great plenty throughout all of
the land of Egypt, and there shall arise after them
seven years of famine, and all the plenty shall be
forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine shall
(06:29):
consume the land, and the plenty shall not be known
in the land by reason of that famine following, for
it shall be very grievous. And for that the dream
was doubled unto Pharaoh twice. It is because the thing
is established by God, and God will shortly bring it
(06:51):
to pass. And that is the thing that we have
to understand. God is going to bring certain things to pass.
This time of plenty, this time of fullness and what
have you, is an act of God, and it's an
act of God. God wants to accomplish something, and God
is going to accomplish what he desires to accomplish. We
are no one else is going to be able to
(07:11):
change that stop it. The important thing for us is
not to walk in the flesh, so we consume everything
that God gives us an order pair for that eventuality.
That's what far too many people did in the time
and the time of famine here in the story that
we are talking about. They literally consumed they consumed all
(07:35):
of the times are the things that they grew in
the times of plenty. And that's what we do far
too often in our lives. We are consumers. We have
a consumer mentality, and everything you get, we spend. Every
time we get money, we spend, and all of a sudden,
we're constantly, like I said, just in this rat race,
we're constantly going, going, going, We're getting to spend, getting
(07:57):
to spend, getting to spend, and we have nothing left over.
The thing that I'm trying to convey to us is
that in the times that we're moving into, in the
times of your plenty, you want to make sure you
have something left over. Then we got to ask ourselves
what is that? What is the proportionality? What shall we
(08:18):
just not enjoy life? That's not what I'm saying, But
what I'm saying, there's an approach to life that's a
little bit better than what we're we're doing. We don't
need to consume all of our increase. You want to
make sure that you put something aside. Let's see what
Joseph did here. Look at verse thirty three. Verse thirty
three says, now therefore, let Pharaoh, now this is Joseph
(08:42):
giving Pharaoh advice. Think about this. Joseah just spent years
in prison. We know of two of them, and he
was there even before the butler and the baker got there.
We don't know exactly how long he's been in it,
but he was in prison for a pretty good while.
He was He's thirty years old when this was taking place.
(09:03):
He was sold into slavery at seventeen. That's thirteen years,
so literally thirteen years he was in bondage. And so
now he's coming out of bondage and he's becoming counselor
to the king. He's becoming counselor to Pharaoh. The Bible
says that he that exalted himself shall be a base.
(09:25):
But if you let God exalt you, he'll bring you.
He'll bring your hey. If you humble yourself, God will
exalt you. And that's what David, I'm at death with
Joseph did. He kept himself humbled. Humble doesn't mean that
you walk through life with your head bowed or whatever.
It's just that it means that you're not that presumptuous.
You're not you don't put yourself forward, what have you?
(09:47):
You see, He's every advantage, and you do so unrighteousness.
You always do that which is right. You always do
that which honest God. True humility is walking in obedience
to God. And that's what Joseph did. Look at verse
thirty four, Joseph is advising Pharaoh as to what to do.
This guy just got out of prison and now he's
(10:10):
advising the king. Joseph is saying, let Pharaoh do this,
and let him appoint officers over the land and take
up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in
the seventh plenteous plenteous years. So Joseph is telling them
exactly what to do. And when he says take up
(10:33):
the fifth part, what he's saying is, take twenty percent
of everything that you grow in the full years. You
put those aside. Now, I want you to ask yourself,
can you live off of twenty percent of what you have?
Most people say, I don't know. I can't afford that.
The likelihood if you had twenty percent less you would.
And so what happens is that we have to exercise
(10:55):
the discipline to put aside the twenty percent. And so
that is what Joseph is is advising Pharoh, you find
someone that's wise. You find someone that's disciplined, you find
someone that's prudent, You find someone that can manage this
and have them to put aside twenty percent of everything
that's going in this time of plenty. What I'm counseling
(11:17):
you to do, as you are prospering and what have
you do the same thing, put aside twenty percent. Start
off with ten, start off with five, start off with
some portion, but you need to put something aside. The
amount you put aside is going to determine how well
you weather the storm. The same thing held true here
in Egypt during the time of Joseph. The amount they
(11:39):
put aside determine how they weather the storm. You're going
to be able to put aside based on whatever your
yield is going to be, based on how your gifting
is going to be used. But the likelihood is that
you're going to have the capacity to put aside what's
going to be necessary in order to carry you and
those closest to you through this time of challenge, time difficulties.
(12:00):
Always know that the good stuff it doesn't last forever.
So what you do is plan for the time when
all the goodies are not there. But let's go and
look at verse thirty five. Let them gather all of
the food of those good years and come and lay
up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them
keep food in the city, so he having to put
(12:22):
aside twenty percent and having to disperse it around in
various cities and what have you, so there'll be enough
in each of those cities.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And have someone over all of those. And what happens
is that you're gonna have enough.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
And the goal is to have enough to get through
the seven lean years. So you leverage the seven full
years in order to take care of yourself during the
full years, but also to take care of yourself during
the year lean years. And we have an opportunity to
do the same thing in this time of fullness that
we're moving into. So you enjoy the time of fullness,
(12:57):
but you're also planning for the time of leanness. And
you do it right. You have not only enough for yourself,
but you have enough to help someone else out. Also,
when I look at the story about the ten versions,
the five wives and the five foolish, the five foolish
one didn't have enough in order to take care of themselves,
and the five wives had just enough for themselves, and
(13:19):
I was thinking, man, they didn't have enough to even share.
And sometimes because we just have barely enough, that's where
we are. And then I say, the foolish one, the
height of their foolishness was not walking right behind on
the side of the one that did have the light.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And they still could have gotten there. But that's a
little side.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Joseph here is telling Pharaoh to put aside twenty percent,
disperse it aboard in various cities. Have cities when you
have enough stored up for that city, and even more,
and do this all over Egypt, and then that'll get
you through the time of leanness. Verse thirty six says
this and that food shall be for store to the
(14:01):
land against the seven years of famine which shall be
in the land of Egypt.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
That the land perished not through the famine.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh
and in the eyes of all of his servants. And
Pharaoh said, unto his servants, can we find such a
man as this is, and a man of whom the
spirit of God is in? Now that's an awesome thing.
So Pharaoh's approaches this, okay, Having someone overall this that's good.
(14:33):
The key is finding the individuals that can do this.
You need someone with a certain nature, a certain character,
and a certain abilities. Guess what the gift was there?
God placed that gift in Joseph. Pharaoh saw that gift.
All the others saw that gift and then look at
look what Pharaoh did. So the thing you got to understand,
(14:54):
just because you got that gift, that doesn't mean that
you need to go put it forth on. Whatever you
let God elevate you, let God exalt you, and if
it's for you, or God knows how and when to
bring you, you can actually have the opportunity. If it
wasn't for God, just keep in mind sometimes the enemy
could bring you opportunities also, so you have to be
(15:15):
patient enough to wait on the Lord and allow the
Lord to elevate you. You just got to be ready
to use your gift whenever God give you the opportunity
to do so. Don't think someone is choosing you up
just because you're gifted. And maybe they are, but guess what,
it's just given an opportunity to practice and exercise your gift.
(15:35):
The only thing that's gonna happen there is you're gonna
perfect it even more. Don't allow those sort of things
to confuse you and get you off the path. You
want to always be humble before God. Don't even try
to humble yourself before me, and just stay humble before God,
and then you automatically will be humble before men. Allow
yourself to stay in the place of God. Joseph allowed
(15:58):
God to elevate it. Now look at what happens in
verse thirty nine, and Pharaoh said, unto Joseph, for as much.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
As God have showed thee all of.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
This, there's none so discreet and wise as thou art.
Pharaoh saw the gifting, and Pharaoh acknowledged a gift. It
was in Pharaoh's best interest to acknowledge the gift and
to utilize it. Joseph didn't have to put himself well, well,
you need to let me have over this.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
That would have showed that you're not the one that's supposed.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
To be there. You're too eager, you're too anxious, which
you mean there's self interest. There's not the interests of
the people, there's not the interests of the kingdom. There's
self interest there. And because there's self interest there, then
you're going to exploit your gifting, you're going to misuse
your gifting, so you're not ready. And that's why some
people and many people many times that are gifted, because
(16:47):
they're so focused on being able to use their gift,
God really can't use them to do that which they
are destined to do because they want to do it,
which means they put themselves at the forefront, which means
walking in the flesh.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
And so you can't allow yourself to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
If you're humbled before God to be used by God,
you'll never get into that place. You only get in
those places when you move yourself out of the.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Path of God.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
So verse forty says, thou shalt be over my house,
and according unto thy word, shall all my people be
ruled only in the throne? Will I be greater than thou?
Pharaoh said, unto Joseph, see I have set thee over
all the land of Egypt. How about that you went
(17:36):
from the prison to being the prime minister just like that?
Why because it's God that elevated you get would Joseph
had been if he got him out, if he just
got out of prison two years before, the likelihood that
he'd been out of place Joseph was the prison is
what God used to preserve him, to keep him, and
to bring him to the place where he needed to be.
(17:58):
When it was time for Joseph to be elevated, they
just had to go down to the dungeon and bring
him up to the first floor. Verse forty two says
and Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and
put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him investures of
fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck.
(18:22):
And he made him to ride in the second chariot
which he had, and they cried before him, bow the knee.
And he made him rule over all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh said, unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without
these shall no man lift up his head off foot
(18:43):
in all of the land of Egypt. In that awesome
and and then Pharaoh gave gave him his daughters, his wife,
and so forth, and elevated Joseph because he was waiting
on God. And I shared that story with you because
the thing that we need to do is about the
same thing. We need to be patient enough to wait
(19:04):
on the Lord and allow the Lord to elevate us
and do time in due season. Bible says, we will
reap if we faint. Not what we want is our season.
We want now, we want to do things our way,
as opposed to do in the God's way. Again, in
Patients Possession Your Souls and Verse forty six, it says
(19:24):
that Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh,
king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence
of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land of Egypt
again seventeen years when he's sold into slavery, thirty years
old when he's standing before before Pharaoh, and all the things. See,
(19:48):
all those things that Joseph did work together for a good.
When he was in part of his house, he was
understanding and learning the ways of the Egyptians. There's a
lot they had to learn. When he was in prison,
he was able to learn various things about the Egyptians,
about the culture and everything. As well as getting into
(20:10):
the palace. We have a tendency to look through look
at things through our eyes instead of the eyes of God.
But if we allow God to elevate us, and we
allow ourselves to be patient in the midst of it,
then you will find in due season, God will elevate
us if we don't give up. Let's look at these
last few verses. Verse fifty one says, and Joseph called
(20:31):
the name of his firstborn Manassa, for God said, he
have made me forget all of my toils and all
of my father's house. You see, God has a way
of blessing you to the point even though you've gone
through a whole lot of things. The blessing will erase
all of those things from your memory, those things literal
(20:53):
will will will make it all worth it.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
But we don't allow ourselves to get to that place.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
What I'm encouraging you to do in the midst of
everything that you've gone through. When you move in this
time of fullness, this time of growth, this time of prosperity,
allow God to elevate you and bring you to the
place that you that you are destined to be. And
when you do, then God to make it all worth it.
(21:21):
And verse fifty two it says, and the name of
his second child was Ephraim, from then Manassa. But Loui's
side and the name of Ephram says, for God have
caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
How about that? Do you want to be fruitful in
the land of your affliction, in the midst of everything
(21:44):
you go through, in the midst of everything you being
you have to deal with. Do you want to be
fruitful in the midst of all of that? Guess what
God can do it if you allow him to do so.
Joseph acknowledged that God is the one that was causing
him to be fruitful, and he did and everything that
(22:05):
he did, he was fruitful. When he went to the prison.
Guess what he was the assistant to the prison, to
the chief of the prison, the head of the prison
that gave him certain privileges. When he was sold into slavery,
he was made the account for the one that he
was enslaved to. So God knows how to bring you.
(22:26):
So the thing that we have to do is to
just rest in God. Always do your best, and whatever
it is that you're give him to do, always do
your best. If you do your best, then God is
going to work things in and through your life that
need to be worked in and work through your life.
And he's in that process you're going to be refining
(22:48):
the utilization of your gifts. So when you get to
your ultimate place of destiny. You be ready to get there,
but you got to trust God in the midst of
it all. And God will know how to prosper you
even in the place where you seemingly you in bondage
and you're in difficulties and whatever God can pross you
(23:08):
even in the midst of that. Let's go to this
last verses and verse chapter fifty of the Book of Genesis.
I want to look at verse nineteen through twenty one,
and this is this is one verse that I always
love when it comes to Joseph. Verse nineteen said, and oh,
just louiside. Now Joseph's father died. Jacob has died, and
(23:30):
now his brothers Sai saying, oh boy, we're going to
We're in trouble. Now Dad is dead. And now Joseph
have all this power. He's going to lower the boom
on us. Never cross Joseph's mind, never how many times
we'll try to get back at people, and we hold
her agains them because they did this to us, and
they did that to us. Joseph knew what they did
(23:52):
to us, to him. You know what people do to you?
What have you forget about it? You know, don't allow
those spots to mess up your your feace of charity.
Keep yourself pure before God. Don't allow those things to
contaminate you. Don't allow those things to become spots in
(24:15):
your life. Keep yourself pure, and you keep yourself pure
by forgiving. Just like Jesus said, and when he gave
the what we call the Lord's prayer, the our Father's prayer,
he says, forgive us our debts, so forgive us our truspasses,
as we forgive our debtors, or as we forgive those
that truspass against us.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
And so and it goes.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
On to say, if you don't forgive men of their trustpasses,
neither will your father in Heaven forgive you or yours.
Why because you always reap with your soul. So if
you continually soul forgiveness, then you're continually reaping forgiveness. Then
you don't have to worry about those spots being a
part of your life because from your heart you sincerely forgive.
(24:59):
And what's even more important than than going through that
forgiving process is not not holding against them in the
first place. So if you don't if you don't allow
those things to offend you, then there's no reason to
even have to forgive why because you never got to
that place. And so that's a part of what Joseph did.
(25:19):
Joseph didn't hold things against his brothers and so forth.
Let's see what he says. Look at verse nineteen, and
Joseph said, unto them, fear not for am I in
the place of God? Now? That is those few words
are the ones that's that I constantly think of, and
that are so love. Am am I in the place
(25:41):
of God? Are you in the place of God? Now?
This can be taken a lot of different several different ways.
One and some interpreted that am I God? Now he
knew he wasn't God, But am I in where God?
What happened to be? And and to me, this is
what jose was saying, am I with God would have me?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
And as you go on and read this, and let's
just do that, look at verse twenty.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
But as for you, you thought evil against me, But
God minutes until good to bring it to pass, as
it is to state to save much people alive. See
Joseph keepts God's perspective. What we do many times we
look at things according to the flesh as opposed to
keeping God's perspective in the midst of everything that we
(26:29):
deal with, in the midst of everything that we go through,
you got to keep God's perspective. You got to ask yourself,
are you where God would have you to be? Have
all these things work together for good? Because you stayed
in God and God's brought you to where you needed
to be. All those things work together for your good.
If all those things work together for your good, then
what you're upset about. And this what Joseph was trying
(26:51):
to convey. See, when you're looking at things in the flesh,
then you feel like his brothers did. Oh, he's going
to get back at me now because he can. But
that's not what Joseph did. Joseph looked at things according
to the spirit, and it says, and where God would
have me to be? Am I not where God would
have me? Isn't this where God has destined for me
to be? When God gave me the dream and the
(27:12):
vision of the sun and the moon bowing down and
the stars bowing down, whatever did not did that not happen?
So everything that took place was a part of the
plan of God, is a part of the purpose of God.
There's things that God worked together at you know, for good.
He wove, weave those things together in order to create
(27:34):
the tapestry for the life of Joseph, just like he
will for you if you allow him to do so.
But in order to do so, you're going to have
to keep the flesh out of the miss Look at
verse twenty one. Now, therefore, fear you not, I will
nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them
(27:56):
and spake kindly unto them. And that's what we got
got to do and got to understand in the midst
of everything. For some of us, you've been going through
a whole lot of things, and and for some you know,
you might have been used by the individuals, and God
may turn those tables. What will you do. You're going
to use it in order to get back at individuals.
(28:19):
Are you going to use it just to further establish
the will planning purpose of God. You're going to express
the love of God to those that might have used you.
The Bible tell us if you're going to walk in
script he said, do good to those that despite fully
use you. So the word that I wanted to leave
with all of us is that twenty twenty five is
(28:40):
going to be a year that where we can thrive.
And when you really look at it, that has already
started happening. Because it has already started happening. What's going
to happen is that things is going to burst forth,
and so you want to be you want to be
ready to seize the advantage, sees the opportunities that God
is going to that God is going to bring to you.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Thank you for being with us today. I pray that
today's meal was a blessing to you. If you are
a serious Christian looking for a place to worship, fellowship
and fulfill God's call upon your life, consider Christ Church
for the end Times and don't forget to join us
on Wednesday evening at six thirty pm for Bible study
and Sunday mornings at ten thirty am.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
For a weekly church service.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
The church is located at nineteen ten Norwich Street in Brunswick, Georgia.
You can also reach us online at Sunday's Supper Online
dot org. That's Sunday's Supper Online dot org. You can
also tune us in on your iHeartRadio app. So until
next week, the Lord bless you and keep you the
Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious
(29:43):
into you. The Lord lift up his continence upon you,
and give you peace. And may God's richest blessing always
be upon you.
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