When we read the story of Joseph there are some things that cannot be denied, because the scripture makes it clear that:
* Joseph was chosen by God
* Joseph was anointed by God
* Joseph had a destiny given to him by God
* Joseph was favored by God
* Joseph was favored by his earthly father
* And God was with Joseph
And to the natural ear this sounds like a winning combination, judging from that criteria it would look like Joseph had it made. It would seem as though he was living the life, high on the hog. In fact when reading this specific book called Genesis you would expect to find his book listed under the lifestyles of the rich and famous by Joseph.
Also, when we read the scriptures, we find out that this same Joseph who had everything going for him, who was anointed by God, who was favored by his earthly father and had so many great advantages; One day found himself in a pit.
And I want to stop here for just a minute and tell you; If somebody told you that when you become a Christian that all your problems would be over, and that you would never be hurt again, you would never cry again, you would never suffer again. I want to tell you that (They Lied) and Psalms 34:19 backs me up when it says “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and here’s the good part but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.
The point that I’m trying to make is that Christians have problems too:
* Christians get sick
* Christians get in debt
* Christians get divorced
* Christians get their hearts broken
* Christians get in places they shouldn’t be. They have arguments, disagreements, disappointments, differences, discrepancies and sometimes you fall into a pit, sometimes you jump into a pit, and then there are sometimes you’re pushed into a pit. But regardless of how you got there or why you’re there, a Pit is a Pit is a pit and if you stay there you will die in the pit. So, in this lesson Rueben was responsible for Joseph’s pit.
If you remember it was Rueben that suggested that they throw Joseph in the pit. And you have to be careful who you hang around because they just might be the person that is responsible for your pit experience. Now we don’t know what happened but whatever happen we know that (Rueben was there when Joseph was thrown into the pit, (and here is the interesting part) but he was not there when he was lifted out)
The point is: Rueben was surprised, Rueben was shocked, because he saw him go into the pit, he saw him struggling and begging to be delivered from the pit (but now he’s looking into that same pit expecting to see pitiful Joseph full of fear and confusion stressing and crying and begging for his life and begging to be delivered (but Joseph wasn’t there)
As I minister to somebody listening to me right now (God is getting ready to do something that is going to blow some people away).
Because there are some people who saw you in the pit, there are some people that even helped put you in the pit, and they have watched you struggling, and pushing, and scratching and clawing trying to climb your way out, when they left you, you were in the pit, the last time they saw you (you were in the pit) you were a mess. But tell somebody, this is the last time you’re going to see me like this.
Watch this Rueben came back to the pit where he last saw Joseph, and Joseph wasn’t there. You can send this out this. Everybody don’t mean you good and what I have learn to do is when the haters act like they mean me well, I act like I believe them.
But that was yesterday, and yesterday I was a pit recipient, but today I’m a pit alumni, yes I am a pit graduate
Yesterday I was in the pit
Yesterday it looked like I was going to die in the pit
Yesterday I felt like I was going to die in the pit
But I heard a word from Joseph:
I heard Joseph say: Don’t die in the Pit
I heard Joseph say: The fall doesn’t have to be fatal
Because it looked like Joseph was going to die where he was, but through a turn of circumstances in a matter of minutes Joseph was up out of the pit and on solid ground.
Can I tell you that God can turn it around:
I don’t know how he’s going to do it
I don’t know when he’s going to do it
I don’t know who he’s going to use to do it
I just came to tell you (God can turn it around) and if you have learn anything from the bible then you should know that God is a God of the turnaround. He turned it around for Joseph, Job, Daniel, The three Hebrew Children, Jonah, Jesus. From Genesis to Revelation God has been turning it around (And if you haven’t been convinced yet, all you have to do is look in the mirror. Because some of us use to be street walker, some of us were pushers, some of us were thieves and liars, some of you were adulterators and fornicators, some of us were alcoholics and drug addicts. But that was the old man: tell your neighbor that was B.C. That was before Christ: tell somebody I’ve had a turn around. Since 2nd Corinthians 5:17 which says If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away behold all things become new.
Now I want you to see something: It happened suddenly. One minute he was in the pit, one minute he was in the dark, one minute it was terminal, one minute it looked like the end, and all of a sudden everything changed.
Suddenly, (somebody say suddenly) he was standing in the sunshine (In an instant everything changed, in one minute what was terminal, and staring him in the face was over and behind him).
I don’t know who I’m talking to but God told me to tell you and to tell you that you are standing on the verge of a suddenly that’s going to change everything.
Somebody snap your fingers Just like that and saying I’m looking for a suddenly miracles:
At the lowest point in Josephs life physically and spiritually, God stepped in.
But it was JUDAH THAT GOT HIM OUT It wasn’t his coat of many colors that got him out, it wasn’t his anointing that got him out, and it wasn’t even his dreams that got him out.
(It was an ugly old Judah) JUDAH means PRAISE
Rueben got him in, but Judah got him out
I don’t care how you got in the pit, I don’t care who it was or what it was.
(I came to tell you, Judah will get you out) The circumstances may not have been of Josephs choosing, nevertheless Judah was responsible for getting him out of the pit.
What I’m telling you is sometimes you have to shout in the face of the devil. There are time when you are going through that you will have to say that I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My point is: Don’t wait till the battles over (shout now)
Start praising in the dark with the walls closing in on you
Start praising when you are laying in that hospital bed
Start praising when you are at the bottom of that pit
Start praising when you are in the middle of your pain
Start praising when you are in the inner prison at midnight, with your hands and your feet bound and your back bloody, beaten black and blue.
How many knows that, that’s why some people have a problem with real praisers? Because a Real praisers get loud, a real praisers get undignified, a real praisers can get messy, they don’t worry about their hair or their makeup. And I can hear the Lord saying to somebody this morning to praise your way out!
Praise him when it don’t make no sense,
Praise him when it sounds crazy
Praise him when you’re going through hell and high waters, and praise him when you don’t even understand.
Job lost everything that he had: and after he had lost everything (his heart was broken into a million pieces, more tragedy than a human being should ever have to endure) But in the middle of it all, (Job Praised God)
In fact it was His worship that kept him connected to his destiny, and in the end God blessed him with more, restored everything and gave him double.
We don’t have the benefit of choosing the problems and trials and afflictions that come our way in life. But I can choose my praise
The devil knows (if you ever get your praise on he’s in trouble)
Joseph was not the only a man of God who found himself in a pit: Ps 40:2 David Said: He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.
Jeremiah the Prophet found himself in a horrible pit:
Jer 38:12 And Ebedmelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah: put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine armholes under the cords. (And Jeremiah did so)
But I came to tell somebody today: that I may not praise him like you do, and my praise may look strange to you, (But understand that it was praise that brought Joseph out of the pit.
I wish I had some people in here who is not too proud to put praise.
I dare you to praise God anyhow.
There’s some people that expected you to die in the pit, but today you’re going to disappoint them.
When Joseph was thrown into the Pit it was empty, but he filled it with praise.
If they would have filled it with dirt it would have been his grave
But he filled it with praise and he came out.
And I’m telling you today that you are coming out: and if your not too proud just Praise God.
You can praise your way out
You can shout your way out
You can dance your way out
You can run your way out
You can fill your pit with praise, and when that pit gets filled with praise, and it will spit you out, Just like the whale spit out Jonah.
