Hell in the Hallways
(Note to Pastor’s I created a powerpoint presentation for this message, but couldn’t figure out how to attach it. Email me at ikings1844@yahoo.com and I will send it to you.)
Introduction: Explain message
I was in the car on the way to a large church where I was going to preach this message. My 18 year old son Judah asked me what I was preaching on. I told him I was preaching on, "Hell in the Hallways." He immediately told me he knew what that was. I was shocked, how could he know, I thought? He then told me hell in the hallways is when you get up in the middle of the night and have to go to the bathroom, but you are so sleepy you can’t find the bathroom door. After laughing I told him I thought he was on the right track.
The Apostle Paul once stated that he was in a straight, (Phil 1:23) a straight is:
Power point #1 A straight is a narrow body of water between two larger bodies of water. A place of confinement and restriction.
Another word for a straight would be a hallway.
An excellent OT example of being in a straight or a "hallway," is the life of Joseph.
He came out of a nice large place - family life in Israel, and he was headed to a nice large place -
Prime minister of Egypt, but in between was one big hellish hallway.
It is what you do in the hallways of life that in large part determines the doors of life that God will open to you.
This morning we are going to use the life of Joseph and a portion of text in Psalm 105, and his hallway experience to make these three points:
Power point #2 The Trial, Tests, and Triumphs of hallways.
First I would like to define hallways in life and the people who are in them.
1. Those in school are in a hallway.
2. Those seeking a mate.
3. Those looking for a job.
4. Those waiting to retire.
5. Those in a difficult marriage.
6. Those who are waiting for a healing.
7. Those who are waiting for that baby to pop out.
8. Those who are waiting for those kids to move out!
9. Those who are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God...
So you can see that life is actually one hallway after another, and in one sense this life is just the hallway to the next.
Joseph was in a hallway first, he was waiting for his dreams to come true, than to reunite with his family, then to have his bones buried in the promised land. Life is a hallway.
What we have to learn to do, is not put life off until we get out of the hallway.
Let’s begin now by looking at:
I. The Trials of the Hallways.
Power Point 3 The difference between trials and tests
Trials are hardships, difficulties or troubles we have to endure.
Tests is that for which we are being critiqued and queried about.
Trials and tests are often so overlapping we can’t often tell the difference where one begins an the other ends. I am doing this in this message because I am trying to connect with that part of you that is suffering (going through trials) and minister to it, before we connect with that part of you that is being tempted and minister to it.
Text: Psalm 105:16-19
Ps 105:16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. Ps 105:17 He sent a man before them, [even] Joseph, [who] was sold for a servant: Ps 105:18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: Ps 105:19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.
Please notice God called for a famine. The famine was to get Israel in line with God’s plans for them. Perhaps the current financial crisis is the result of the prayers of the saints for our nation to be brought to repentance.
Notice also that before He called for the famine he provided for a solution.... He sent a man before them.
God has a solution in mind before He sends the problem!
So now let’s look at the trials of the hallways and the demonic spirits that will try to take advantage of the things we have to endure.
Power Point 4 Plans are derailed.
If you study Joseph’s life you will see that he thought he had it all figured out, his brothers and parents would bow down and honor him. God had told him that in visions and dreams. I think it no stretch to see that it didn’t work out the way Joseph envisioned. When our plans in life are derailed, it can be very painful and difficult.
The margin for Ps. 105:18 says that "iron entered his soul." The pain went deep...
Jacob prophesying of Joseph’s life in Genesis 49:23 says, "The archers have sorely grieved him..."
Hallways of life are places known for suffering and hardship.
So when life’s plan’s are derailed we are often attacked by a spirit of depression.
Power Point 5 3 Things depression does:
1. It takes away our testimony.
2. It puts the wrong spin on life’s events
3. It is used a a point of leverage by satan to tempt the flesh.
The Second trial of the Hallway is that:
Power Point 6 Promises are derided.
We are attacked by a mocking spirit. Ps. 105:19 Ps 105:19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him "yeah hath God said..."
The Third trial of the Hallway is that:
Power Point 7 The Place is difficult.
We are attacked by a grumbling spirit. Ps 105:18 his feet were hurt with fetters.
His feet they hurt with fetters. God knows about feet that hurt. God knows about hearts that are broken.
II. The Tests of Hallways
Power Point 8 1. The Test of Defilement.
Defiled = Rendered unfit for Divine service
Two ways satan tries to defile us: immorality, and bitterness.
Satan uses hallway troubles as a point of leverage to try and get us to be immoral.
Why don’t you just get drunk, shoot up, get some crack?
She cheated on you, why don’t you cheat on her?
The second way is with bitterness. Bitterness will steal the joy of the Lord and your Christian testimony right out of your life.
Look at what they did to you! The only way to overcome life’s disappointments is to make them God’s appointments. Isn’t this what Joseph did?
You meant it for evil, God meant it for good.
When we are bitter it isn’t because of what others have done it Is because we aren’t better.
Illus.: sailboat and tacking.
I was on vacation in Florida, and saw a guy wind surfing on a very windy day. He was really going fast because of the heavy winds, I thought it was a lot of fun, but then realized that guy was going to have to carry his board for miles or have someone come and pick him up, because there was no way he was coming back against that heavy wind. About a half hour later I saw him coming back from where he had gone to, and was amazed how he used the wind in a zigzagging motion to his advantage. Sailors call it tacking. You see its not the winds of life that determine your lifes direction, it’s what you do with them.
It is what you do in the hallways of life that in large part determines the doors of life that God will open to you.
Power Point 9 2. The Test of Discontentment.
Sometimes I think we forget that Jesus talked about taking up our cross.
Paul spoke of the secret of contentment
Php 4:11 Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. Php 4:12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
There is a world of difference between having a need and SUFFERING need.
In the hallways of life you will be tested to see if you can learn the secret of contentment even in a time when you are SUFFERING need.
Power Point 10 3. The Test of Confinement.
The Red light test. I think we all understand that red lights are necessary, but I also think we all hate them. I mean who really wants to wait for things? A lot of people stumble when God asks them to wait.
We want it and we want it now. Will you try to run the red lights God puts in front of you? Great danger awaits if you do so.
Joseph was confined in a prison, while at the same time he sensed he had a great destiny over his life. Waiting for that destiny to unfold was in all likelihood very disconcerting to him. To him these two realities probably seemed completely opposite, and yet they are not. Confinement time helped shape him to what he would later become, and it also tested the quality of the true spiritual metal of which he was made. The awesome truth is that it is the same for all of us:
1Jo 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
This passage (1 John 3:2) indicates there is a great destiny that awaits us, but at the present we are just ordinary appearing individuals. Waiting for that destiny to unfold, and the reality of our present sonship, is often very difficult to deal with.
Illustration of how the trials and tests of life can shape us:
Illus.: Egg, carrot, lobster, secret substance.
Eggs get harder when boiled, carrots get softer, lobster are killed. Trials will bring out the best in you, or the worst in you. Secret substance: tea bag. Tea bags change the boiling water to flavor it like it is. Even so Christians should flavor the water of our lives with the presence of Christ, rather than being changed by the world in negative ways.
III. The Triumphs on the other side of the hallways
(For those who sucessfully navigate its tests and trials)
Power Point 11 Authority Ps. 105:21, Power Ps. 105:22, Influence Ps 105:22
Ps 105:20 The king sent and loosed him; [even] the ruler of the people, and let him go free.
Ps 105:21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance:
Ps 105:22 To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.
AUTHORITY: Lord of his house, ruler of his substance, put His servants in charge of His goods.
How would you like to be put in charge of Jesus’s goods? What you do in the hallways of life will determine to some measure the authority the Lord invests in your life. To him that hath will more be given. God desires to entrust us with His goods: Mt 25:14 For [the kingdom of heaven is] as a man travelling into a far country, [who] called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
POWER: bind his princes: Jesus said this kind cometh forth not but by prayer and fasting. I believe we can be given great power of the enemy by what we do in the hallways of life. It is interesting to note than in the Hebrew the word translated princes means chief rulers. Wouldn’t you like to be able to see greater obstructions moved out of your and the churches way? The reward of a life lived like Joseph in the hallways of life is the ability to bind chief princes.
INFLUENCE: Teach his senators wisdom. Senators were the wise men of Pharoahs kingdom. Joseph earned credibility that allowed him to speak into their lives in such a way that they would receive it. Those who have won their stripes in hallway experiences earn for themselves spiritual collateral that allows them to speak into the lives of others. Power it has been said is the ability to effectively influence others. Joseph’s hallway trials earned him that kind of spiritual power.
Close: Prayer for those who are in a hallway. Prayer for those who feel they have blown it in the hallway but want to recommit to God. Prayer for those who are SUFFERING need.
