I Got You

Title: I Got You

Place: BLCC

Date: 4/8/18

Text: Hebrews 6.18-19, Genesis 37,39

CT: God loves you and is for you. [Screen 1]

FAS Todd Wilson tells a powerful story of rescue in a life and death situation.

As a country, we are still reeling from many tragic events. But there are a few flashes of hope coming forth from the stories of tragedy. One is from a survivor of the 2015 San Bernardino shootings, 27-year-old Denise Peraza. Her life was spared, not because the shooters saw her and turned the other way, but because a valiant man named Shannon Johnson shielded her body with his own and saved her life. Listen to her recount the situation.

Wednesday morning at 10:55 A.M. we were seated next to each other at a table, joking about how we thought the large clock on the wall might be broken because time seemed to be moving so slowly. I would have never guessed that only five minutes later, we would be huddled next to each other under the same table, using a fallen chair as a shield from over 60 rounds of bullets being fired across the room.

While I cannot recall every single second that played out that morning, I will always remember his left arm wrapped around me, holding me as close as possible next to him behind that chair. And amidst all the chaos, I'll always remember him saying these three words: "I got you."

Always, no matter what, remember these three words: "I got you." These are God's three words to you, not just in time of need, but all the time. He is your everlasting Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, who will never leave you nor forsake you. He says to you, "I got you, I got you, I got you."

Todd Wilson, "The Gift of the Son: Everlasting Father," sermon on PreachingToday.com

God has got you. He loves you and is there for you in all times, good and bad.

Have you ever felt lost? Have you felt like the only hope you had was gone? Most of us have been there. We have lost someone we dearly loved. We have had a girlfriend or boyfriend leave us. We have lost a job we really needed to get our family through. We have been sick and in the hospital and it seems hopeless. We have fallen to an addiction we know is tough to beat. We have all had our moments of despair.

Joseph had his moments of despair but he had something that got him through. That same thing can be there for us.

Joseph was not very well liked by his brothers and they sold him.

Genesis 39.1-5, 1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. [Screen 2]

2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph.

Joseph was ripped from his family into a country that didn’t know him yet God was with him. He gained power and prestige with Potiphar and Potiphar depended on Joseph to run his household. It is amazing what can happen when God is with us.

But Potiphar’s wife had plans for Joseph that would have ruined most men. But not Joseph. He withstood her advance but was still put in prison because Potiphar’s wife said he had tried to attack her.

Genesis 39.19-23, 19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.

But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

Even after Joseph was put in prison, the Lord was with him. The warden trusted Joseph with so much and didn’t worry about what Joseph was watching for him.