Breakthrough In Relationships Pt 5 - Lessons From Joseph Series

Our Theme this year - Breakthrough 2020

Thesis: In 2020 we are looking for spiritual breakthroughs in our lives, our relationships, our souls, our families, our church, our school, and our community. This is our vision and prayer! But to get the desired breakthrough in these areas requires us to have 20 – 20 vision from the Lord. We need to see into the spiritual realm and learn how to use His weapons which will bring us the spiritual breakthroughs we seek.

Scripture Texts:

2 Corinthians 10:3-4: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”

Philippians 4:19: "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."

Breakthrough in Relationships pt. 5 – Lessons from Joseph!

Thesis: Our man Joe even in the midst of being at his lowest point in life grows into the man God desires him to be. Joe grows through adversity into a man on the go for God and he learns humility and how to create healthy and whole relationships with others. The keys he learned were humility, grace and forgiveness!

Summary of last week’s message:

Each of us has the responsibility to act the way God desires us to act. For those who had the robe you need to be humble servants to all. To those who did not have the robe you need to admit it, deal with it and forgive.

To parents here is a special word from a pastor, “It you’re feeling depressed because your family was not perfect, is not perfect, then hear this. There is healing for imperfect families. There is a God who rejoices in bringing weak and broken people into the reality of His love. There is a home where love and peace rule. And good news is that we don’t have to wait for heaven to experience this joy and peace. We can get a taste of it right now. We can all wear the robe in God’s family.” (Ortberg, July 22nd sermon Willow).

I want to remind you of what I said last week you may have missed it – Fear will damage relationships it is what Dr. Smalley calls the “Dance of Fear” in relationships: We need to know that there is a fear factor which impacts relationships negatively and society.

I would add fear is impacting all of us with the fear of the coronavirus – it’s wiping out supplies in stores – it’s closing down schools and business – we need to remember perfect love casts out fear – 1 John 4:18.

We need a Proper Perspective today:

Matthew 6:33 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible! It addresses situations like today.

Put God first and everything that you worry about and fear will take care of itself.

Jesus is illustrating that humans worry about so many fears in our life; worry that is an overflow from our fears. And he shares that if God will take care of the birds and the vegetation, how much more will He attend to your needs?

We need to lose our fears and trust God – we need to be aware of what fear is doing to us and our society today.

THE EXTERNAL PROBLEM IS RARELY THE REAL PROBLEM...

Let me be so bold as to say that every person on the planet wrestles with some core fear. And that includes you. You may not like to hear that...just look at all the fear going wild today.

Scriptures on Fear:

Psalm 34:4: I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

2 Timothy 1:7: For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and of self–discipline.

Dr. Smalley notes: “Here’s the key: Without identifying your own core fear and understanding how you tend to react when your fear button gets pushed, your relationships will suffer. Every time! What is your core fear? Do you already know what it is? Most people don’t…Joseph brothers were letting fear drive out love and look at Joseph through a twisted and distorted lens…My core fear is that I feel . . . Helpless, powerless, impotent, or controlled… the government cannot control the virus so I will buy lots of toilet paper – cleaning products – paper towels – baby wipes – sanitizer – friends we need to relax and trust it’s going to all work out - don’t panic.

Illustration using the weapons God has given us: Today the President of the United States asked us to pray for our nation and this virus so that is what we are going to do in service right now. Let’s pray in families and in small groups. For this panic to stop and for the epidemic 😷 to stop.