Video transition: Finding Peace from this frenzied life - sermoncentral.com
Series for the year: Come Alive in 2025
Thesis: We can come back to life – nothing is too dead for God to bring life back into it – nothing is too lifeless for God to breath His life back into it! He is the Creator and He can bring anything back to life! Can you catch the vision of this truth and reality for 2025?
Story of Coming Back to Life (physically through healing): John Mark Comer's wife, the author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Tammy Comer, battled a chronic illness for over a decade that included a rare neurological disorder. Her symptoms were severe, leading to debilitating fatigue, vision loss, and spasms. However, she has since been radically and completely healed.
Initial illness: For over ten years, Tammy struggled with a chronic illness that initially presented as severe fatigue and cognitive issues. She was eventually diagnosed with post-Lyme polyneuropathy and a digestive disorder.
Neurological deterioration: About five years before 2021, her condition worsened significantly, with new and scary neurological symptoms developing, including spasms, vision loss, and weakness.
Diagnosis journey: Doctors explored various possibilities, including brain and spinal tumors, and eventually, Multiple Sclerosis or late-stage Lyme disease. They ultimately diagnosed a rare neurological disorder, but there was no treatment available.
Healing: Around three years before 2024, Tammy was miraculously and instantaneously healed. She and her husband kept the healing private for a period to ensure it was sustained before sharing their story.
Current status: Tammy is now healthy and thriving. She and John Mark Comer continue to share her story of illness and healing to spread their message.
Action Point: Let’s all call on God to breathe life back into that which is dead, that which needs a healing and that which seems lifeless! In 2025! It could be our family, church, school, business, community or even our spiritual and soul realms! It could be the need for miracle healing! So, what are you asking God to breath life back into today?
Main Scripture Text for Series: Ezekiel 37:4-7:
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.
This prophecy which we adopted as our prayerful theme this year reminds us of two things – God can take something dead and bring it back to life with His breath of life and 2 God will always fulfill His word and He will do it in his timing, You or I cannot rush God in any way – The Devil cannot rush God – God will not be rushed by anyone or anything – He moves at his pace and rhythm.
Case in point this prophecy was partially fulfilled 120 years later as revealed in the Book of Ezra and Nehemiah.
But Remember: The nation of Israel was destroyed in 586 BC when the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Babylonians, and it was later restored in 1948 after being a stateless people for over 2,000 years.
God is never in hurry and His timing is always perfect!
Current Series: Unhurried!
Tag line: Good news for busy people!
Thesis: A hurried life will make your soul and spirit unhealthy and even toxic. Jesus was never in a hurry and we need to learn from Him how to live our lives with His rhythm.
Summary of first few sermons:
Main Scripture Text: Matthew 11:28-30: 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus has given all of us an invitation to come find peace in a society running at a frenzied pace! The question is “Will you come to him to find rest for your soul?”
Book: Comer, John Mark. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World
The books Message:
Psychologists and mental health professionals are now talking about an epidemic of the modern world: “hurry sickness.” It now has an official title and is recorded as a disease.
Here’s a definition to see if you have this disease:
A behavior pattern characterized by continual rushing and anxiousness.
Here’s another definition: A malaise in which a person feels chronically short of time, and so tends to perform every task faster and to get flustered when encountering any kind of delay.
Meyer Friedman—the cardiologist who rose to fame for theorizing that type A people who are chronically angry and in a hurry are more prone to heart attacks—defined it thus: A continuous struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time.
Friedman was the one who originally coined the phrase hurry sickness after noticing that most of his at-risk cardiovascular patients displayed a harrying “sense of time urgency.”
And—deep breath—he said that in the ’50s.
The point I’m driving toward is this: an overbusy, hurried life of speed is the new normal in the Western world, and it’s toxic.
Hurry is a sociopathic predator loose in our society.
It’s killing people literally – physically, spiritually, emotionally and deep within their soul!
We had a missionary from Kenya stay with us a few weeks ago and her husband a Kenyan said “You Americans live to much by your watch!”
Comer, John Mark. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World (p. 52-53). PRH Christian Publishing. Kindle Edition.
How did we get to having so many lives filled with frantic hurry and “Hurry Sickness” and its toxic side effects such as anxious dark souls, frantic frenzied spirits and unhealthy broken bodies?
Glad you asked this question – here is a history lesson we should all pay attention to: Comer lays it out for us:
First, the sundial, aka the original Casio (clock). As far back as approximately 200 BC. Roman people were complaining about what this “new” technology was doing to society. (Sound familiar?)
Fast-forward to the monks, our well-meaning spiritual ancestors who played a key role in the acceleration of Western society. In the sixth century Saint Benedict organized the monastery around seven times of prayer each day, a superlative idea. By the twelfth century the monks had invented the mechanical clock to rally the monastery to prayer.
But most historians point to 1370 as the turning point in the West’s relationship to time. Before that, time was natural. It was linked to the rotation of the earth on its axis and the four seasons. You went to bed with the moon and got up with the sun. Days were long and busy in summer, short and slow in winter. There was a rhythm to the day and even the year.
But the clock changed all that: it created artificial time—the slog of the nine-to-five all year long. We stopped listening to our bodies and started rising when our alarms droned their oppressive siren—not when our bodies were done resting.
Then in 1879 you had Edison and the light bulb, which made it possible to stay up past sunset. Okay, brace yourself for this next stat: before Edison the average person slept eleven hours a night. BUT - Now, at least in America, we’re down to about seven as the median number of hours of sleep per night.
7 from 11 – is this a sign because 7 11 (The numbers of a store also added to our hurry) when this store birthed it boasted a store opened 7 days a week until 11! No more closed on Sundays! What blasphemy – WOW That is spooky – UGH?
We now live and sleep and rest by the ticking sound of tick toc- tick tock and then the bells and sirens go off – scarring us up for the day – UGH!
The time saving devices started being invented 1900’s – 2,000’s things like cars, planes, toasters, microwaves, computers, internet, smart phones, AI, and a host of other items.
In the 1960s futurists all over the world, from sci-fi writers to political theorists, thought that by now we’d all be working way fewer hours. One famous Senate subcommittee in 1967 was told that by 1985, the average American would work only twenty-two hours a week for twenty-seven weeks a year. Everybody thought the main problem in the future would be too much leisure.
Do any of you have this problem? Do you have too much leisure time?
Why did they conclude this prophecy - because of all the time saving devices that were being invented and made – but we work more than ever and have less leisure time than our ancestors – we sleep less- eat meals together less- and we are more anxious and depressed than ever.
I am told - The average American works nearly four more weeks per year than they did in 1979. Do you see it?
Not to mention the loss of a Sabbath one day a week! That is a sermon pastor Vernon is doing – soon – hurry up Pastor Vernon we need to hear that message! We cannot wait much longer! But it coming in 2 weeks!
But - We lost more than a day of rest; we lost a day for our souls to open up to God. All of this reached a climax in 2007. When the new history books are written, they will point to ’07 as an inflection point on par with 1440. And you are thinking – What happened in 1440, of course, that was the year Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which set the stage for the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment, which together transformed Europe and the world. And what happened in 2007? Drumroll…The year Steve Jobs released the iPhone into the wild.
Yep – all these have added to this new disease “Hurry up Sickness!” – “Living Heart attack lifestyles.”
Harvard Business Review recently conducted a study on the change in social status in America… It used to be that leisure was a sign of wealth…now it’s busyness.
Comer, John Mark. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World (pp. 30-33). PRH Christian Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Here is the problem with joining or even getting swept up into “The Hurry Sickness Culture:” that runs circles around us!
…What you give your attention to is the person you become. Put another way: the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to.
Wow that was deep! By the way those are Mark Comer’s Words not mine! But Jesus said the same thing!
Matthew 6: 19-21: 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… the Jesus adds this warning in verse 24 “No one can serve two masters…
Let me help the light bulb go on: The phrase "wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also" means your deepest affections and desires will naturally follow what you value most. This verse advises that one should invest in what is eternal and meaningful, rather than temporary, like earthly possessions that can be lost, because where your attention and energy are focused – that - is where your heart will be.
So what has your attention day in and day out – Is it Jesus – God – The Kingdom of Heaven - The Bible – The Fruits of the Spirit - Sadly, I have seen way to many people not allowing the fruits of the spirit to be manifested in their lives because they are in a hurry, by the way Galatians 5:22-23 remind us what the fruits are – Are You ready? They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These fruits are not in a hurry! Let me rephrase it “These fruits come from a soul that is not hurried!”
Many quotes above from Comer, John Mark. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World (pp. 54-55). PRH Christian Publishing. Kindle Edition.
T.S. – Today I am bringing us back to Joseph and using his life story to remind us that God is not in hurry with us and that spiritual maturity comes not from a microwave process but by a slow cooker life style with God.
Series – Unhurried Spirituality pt 2!
Thesis: We want microwave spirituality – we want the feeling – The God High – the emotion when we worship God. We want fast results, and we want it on demand, but God does not work that way. God is never in a hurry – never! True, spirituality occurs in the slow cooker of life! It grows and develops through hardship, perseverance, through valleys and yes even on the mountain top experiences of life too.
Scripture: Psalm 13 - For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
Let me read this from the Message:
Psalm 13 (MSG), “Long enough, God—You’ve ignored me long enough. I’ve looked at the back of Your head long enough. Long enough I’ve carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me. Take a good look at me, God, my God; I want to look life in the eye, So no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face. I’ve thrown myself headlong into Your arms—I’m celebrating Your rescue. I’m singing at the top of my lungs, I’m so full of answered prayers.”
Introduction
Have you ever felt like David? Most of us in the later twilight of our lives know what David is going through for the Kingdom of God. Most of us were there and walked through this same dark valley of grief, and suffering. We have learned it’s part of spiritual growth! If you have been a spirit filled Christian, any length of time you know life comes with valleys! You discover you grow most through the pressing days of pain and sorrow. I have learned that spiritual growth happens most in the valleys of life – Why – because our hearts are more open to the Lord for help - because we see God is with us in the valley - just like we experienced him on the mountain tops!
It seems to me something has been lost in people’s teaching on what is mature spirituality today! Today a lot of people want microwave spiritual heights on demand! They want the God highs without the struggle or the pain. God, I want that high feeling now – we believe He is an on-demand type being! I demand He responds!
The truth is we chase the emotional spiritual high from place to place and in turn exchange a genuine relationship with God for inoculations of spiritual highs and then we become surprised when we find ourselves less then satisfied with the slow cooking method of the Holy Spirit to shape us into the mature Christian God uses to change the world. We want the blessing but we ourselves are not a blessing to others.
T.S. - Today my biblical case study centers in on the value of a slow roasted spiritual growth to maturity and a guy named Joe!
Joseph could be known by other names – The favorite one, The guy with the multicolored coat, the tattle tale, the dreamer, The handsome one, Joseph the Patriarch, The eleventh son of Jacob and Rachel. Pharaoh gave him the Egyptian name Zaphnath-Paneah ("He who explains hidden things").
Joseph’s life can teach us a great deal on how to grow spiritually, how to become a mature Christian and how to deal with adversity in our lives and grow spiritually. His life will show us How God is never in a hurry or that God just microwaves people into spiritual maturity. Jospeh had to go through the process of life, of unfairness, of temptation, of betrayal, of listening to God, of being faithful over time, of not becoming bitter, of forgiving, and being in tune to the voice of God.
I have grouped his three time periods into the following categories:
• “YO JOE! – Covers his early years. Birth to 17
o Birth to Seventeen Years (Genesis 30:24-37:2)
? During this time Joseph’s family was in transition-everyone was unsettled, on the move. A low-level antagonism was brewing as his family – they clashed and argued in jealousy and hatred.
o
• The second part is called “LOW JOE!”- covering his late teens 18, 19 – and his 20’s.
o Seventeen to Thirty years (Genesis 37:2-41:46)
? This second segment occurs as Joseph reaches young manhood. It appears his life becomes out of control. Enslavement, unfair accusation, and imprisonment assault him.
• The third part is called “GO JOE!”- covering his last 80 years his 30’s to 80’s.
o Thirty Years to Death (Genesis 41:46-50:26)
? Joseph’s last eighty years of prosperity and reward under God’s blessing. He had the classic opportunity to get even with his brothers, to ruin them forever, but he refused. Instead, he blessed, protected, and forgave.
o It’s important to note – that in the fifty chapters of Genesis Joseph’s life story takes up one-fourth of the chapters.
I. Yo Joe – (Joseph is favored by his dad, brothers take notice and he then receives some dreams)
a. Remember Joseph was the great grandson of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob, who was also known as Israel – which is how Israel got its name today.
i. Recall Joseph was the son of Jacob and Rachel.
ii. Rachel was his favorite wife – the one he originally wanted but was deceived in marrying her sister first!
iii. Jacob had four wives and 12 sons and Joseph is the 11th son.
iv. He had one full brother named Benjamin (the youngest) and during his birth his mother died.
b. Yo Joe you’re special- Here is a coat of honor to show everyone I love you more than the others (Genesis 37:1-4).
i. This is the story of Jacob and Joseph, a young man of seventeen.
1. Jacob his dad lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and Joe brought their father a bad report about them.
2. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.
a. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not say a kind word to him.
b. Why, because Joe is a spoiled Bratt – tattle tailing on everyone – pointing his finger at his family!
c. Joe was in a family where his dad lifted him up as a more honorable person than the rest of the kids.
i. Jacob blatantly showed favoritism to Joseph, and the rest of the family took notice. Joseph was in the middle of the disease called favoritism.
ii. At a young age Joseph was engulfed in a plague that brought painful sores to his life.
3. News Flash – Do not spoil your kids because if you do God will have to humble them!
a. The first wound he received from this plague created by his father was rejection from the rest of his brothers.
i. Showing favoritism to others sets the one favored up for receiving much heartache and rejection in life.
b. The second wound Joseph faced from favoritism was jealousy from his brothers.
i. It’s amazing but a fact the brothers do not get mad at their father Jacob (Israel) who is in the wrong but at Joseph.
1. But to be fair he did not help his case by telling them they would all be ruled by Him one day!
2. This is youthful arrogance and spiritual immaturity.
ii. The brothers in my view - Maybe they just wanted to believe that their father did love them as much as Joseph, but Joseph kept him from loving them like he should. This thought pattern took root in his siblings.
1. His telling them by the way did not help his standing in the family!
2. Plus- The favoritism and the special robe just added to this dysfunctional family and the green-eyed monster of jealousy comes alive!
a. See Genesis 37:11
i. I have seen this monster rise up in families and cause mass destruction – this demonic spirit has killed many people and destroyed many families.
ii. It made a mess that breed a deep-seated envy and anger that affected the other brothers so bad- that the Bible states, “They would not be friendly to him or speak nice words to him.”
iii. Joe became the focal point of his brother’s anger! He became the one to punch, to swear at, ridicule, mock, abuse, verbally abuse, emotionally abuse, and the list could go on.
iv. Have you ever observed this ugly monster of disease? It produces hatred, denial, and torment to one it’s focused on.
v. Many would never admit they had this disease. But as this one writer states it’s all too common:
1. Jealousy is one of the hardest of all sins to admit to. How often do you hear someone admit to that one? But’s it’s universal. Mass confession time. If you have in your life envied somebody else’s car or house or physique or marriage or children or grandchildren, if you’ve ever wished you had someone else’s skin, if you’ve ever wished you had someone else’s hair, if you’ve ever envied somebody’s salary, success, beauty, wardrobe, education, temperament, athletic ability, spiritual gift or humility…”
a. You experienced the disease of jealousy.
i. It happens in life and this monster lives in a state where people deny he’s there. Yet it causes mass destruction.
c. The third infected wound caused by favoritism was prideful arrogance. Joe was arrogant!
i. Another ugly disease surfaces to the top because of a father’s fleshly action. Only this one surfaces in our young hero Joseph.
1. How you raise your kids will impact their future and their relationships all through life.
ii. Yo Joe here are some dreams to show how great you will become – I never hear these dreams are from God in Scripture by the way.
1. Genesis 37:5-11 “Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
d. First the coat now the dreams the ugly diseases are spreading like wildfire getting more deadly by the day.
i. But note this Joseph brags about his dreams! Prideful arrogance to his family is manifested. His father, the one who started all of this, rebukes him. But he created the monster!
1. By the way it never says in our text that these dreams came from God! The writer inspired by the Holy Spirit does not attribute them to God. IN other Biblical texts it is usually affirmed that the dream was from the Lord. So don’t take the view that God showed this to Joseph so that he could share this inside scoop with his brothers and father.
a. And tell them you will bow to me – I am that greatest!
ii. How many see that a spoiled child turns into a spoiled teenager who now tells the family I will be the greatest. I am special – more special than you! And the clincher you will all bow to me!
1. Have you ever met a spoiled child? It’s very ugly and leads that person into a life of misery, pain and prideful arrogance.
a. Proverbs 8:13 states, “To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.”
b. Proverbs 16:18 states, “Pride goes before destruction a haughty spirit before a fall.”
iii. The lesson here is that favoritism infects the one favored not just the ones not favored.
1. This is what I love about the Bible it tells the story of real-life situations. It does not try to paint our Bible characters as perfect, but it shows their flaws, bruises, mistakes, scars and imperfections.
a. Here is my famous phrase “God uses imperfect people to do his perfect will!”
2. Yes, my friends our picture in Genesis 37:1-11 says Joseph was imperfect – Gilliland states,” Joseph, at the age of seventeen, was not the humble, likable, mild mannered young man that we sometimes picture. He was more likely a pompous, arrogant, conniving spoiled brat. He was Little Ford Fonteroy with full, puffy sleeves to match his full, puffy ego. He looked better than the rest of his brothers. He dressed better. He had a better job. He had the preferred position. His father liked him best and he rubbed it into all of his other brother’s faces. No wonder they were jealous of him. No wonder they schemed against him. If he had been my kid brother, I’d have tempted to throw him down the well too!”
ii. The solution to the disease of favoritism (adapted from John Ortberg’s message.
1. For those of you who have grown up receiving favoritism you need to put yourself in places where you’re not the center of attention.
a. You need to throw away the arrogance and pride of thinking you’re more special than others.
i. That you are more special according to God
ii. That you are more anointed than another Christian
iii. That you are more spiritual than other Christians
iv. That God likes you better
b. You need to learn to be servants to others – this is how you grow from immaturity to maturity in Jesus.
i. One pastor says, “Carry someone’s groceries, change some other kids’ diapers in the nursery, anything. But just humbly serve someone else and learn to rejoice in just being ordinary.”
1. Serve the younger in youth group or kids ministry!
2. Clean up the kitchen – mop the floors and clean the bathrooms after a service!
c. You need to die to yourself and be what God wants you to be a servant – just like he was.
i. Hybels states, “Jesus’ perspective was shaped by a deep sense of humility. It was a humility where none was called for; Jesus, as God, clearly deserved His titles, position, and praise. But as we have seen, Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.” He wanted instead, to relate with man on an equal level. Where religious leaders of His day relished the separation between themselves and “the common people”, Jesus sought to break down the barriers, even those imposed by His divine rights. Humility was at the core of His philosophy. More times than not, He used His power for the powerless, showed love to the loveless, and served those who could not possibly return the favor. With characteristic consistency, He repeatedly rejected a Pecking order based on conditional response.” (121)
ii. Matthew 23:11-12 “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
c. In the height of Joe’s arrogance and pride – his brothers – his family had enough of his spoiled mouth, and they sold him off into slavery!
i. Pride and arrogance will always lead you to slavery and suffering! It will cause you to lose your freedom!
ii. Parents if you spoil your children then God will have to humble them!
II. Low Joe says No to Mrs. Po. In the land of bondage and goes lower (Genesis 39)
a. Joe said no unlike other Bible heroes like David, Samson, and Solomon.
i. Mrs. Pothphar’s wife was like “Mrs. Robinson in the 1967 movie The Graduate!”
ii. Video Illustration from – The Graduate!
1. The film is about a recent college graduate, Benjamin Braddock, who is seduced by an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson, and subsequently falls in love with her daughter, Elaine.
2. Lyrics from the famous song to the movie!
• And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
• Jesus loves you more than you will know
• Whoa, whoa, whoa
• God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson
• Heaven holds a place for those who pray
• Hey, hey, hey
• Hey, hey, hey
• We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files
• We'd like to help you learn to help yourself
• Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes
• Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home
• And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
• Jesus loves you more than you will know
• Whoa, whoa, whoa
• God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson
• Heaven holds a place for those who pray
• Hey, hey, hey
• Hey, hey, hey
• Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes
• Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes
• It's a little secret, just the Robinson's affair
• Most of all, you've got to hide it from the kids
•
• Coo, coo, ca-choo, Mrs. Robinson
• Jesus loves you more than you will know
• Whoa, whoa, whoa
• God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson
• Heaven holds a place for those who pray
• Hey, hey, hey
• Hey, hey, hey
• Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon
• Going to the candidates’ debate
• Laugh about it, shout about it
• When you've got to choose
• Every way you look at this, you lose
• Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
• Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you
• Woo, woo, woo
• What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
• Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
• Hey, hey, hey
• Hey, hey, hey
• Source: Lyric Find
b. Just because you say no to temptation once does not mean it will never come again.
i. Mrs. Po did not accept Joe’s no. Her repeated tempting was “Yo Joe!” “Come here Joe!” “Joe, I want you.” “Joe, he does not love me-he is too busy with his work!”
ii. Joe’s continual response was no. It was based not on what his father taught him but because of his relationship with God.
c. How did Joseph overcome this temptress? (Genesis 39:6 -12).
i. He knew that to honor God he had to live the life.
ii. He knew if he sinned that it would affect others.
iii. He knew that adultery was not permitted by God
iv. He knew he had run.
1. Share about the women’s house we did for Urban.
2. Share about girl you dated (Denise)
d. Jo goes but Mrs. Po – she Mo’s and puts on a show.
i. Result of this unfair circumstance is that Joe’s teachable spirit grows. She moans and he grows – who really Lost Joe? Of Mrs. Po?
1. Who’s the Master?
a. Whatever injury wicked men-in-power inflict upon good men is to be regarded … as a test for the good man’s virtues. Thus, a good man, though a slave, is free; but a wicked man, though a king, is a slave. For, a wicked man serves not just one master, but, what’s worse, as many masters as he has vices. For, it is in reference to vice that the Holy Scriptures says: “For by whom a man is overcome, of the same also he is the slave” (II Peter 2:19). -Augustine
e. Low Joe is thrown into death row-oh no!
i. Low Joe goes to prison and grows:
1. Share Jim Bakers story about how 5 years of prison helped him to grow in leaps and bounds.
a. Baker, “It was a five-year seminary. You might say “Wait a minute!” This is not the place to learn! Well maybe we need to define the term teach-ability- It is defined as the willingness to learn from others, from life situations good or bad and to learn from God.”
i. For Baker it opened his eyes to his blindness!
ii. Low Joe has decided to not be low but to grow. So, what happens in prison he rises to the top.
1. Interesting side note – he should have been executed!
2. I did dome research: Who put him in charge of Pharoah’s baker, and cup bearer.
a. If my research is correct, it was Mr. Potiphar!
3. Joseph - He does not become bitter but better.
iii. Low Joe in prison does not get the win and I am sure he moans – but he still cares for others. He then interprets dreams to these two men.
1. Note he gives honor and glory for the interpretation to God.
2. Note that the disease of favoritism is cured.
a. It only took a few years in slavery and prison to be delivered!
3. He asks not to be forgotten but he is – for about two years – notice he does not become bitter just better.
4. Joe knew that he was not forgotten by God! But one day the cupbearer remembers Joe! The dream interpreter!
a. Pharoah had dreams no one can interpret!
III. Low Joe is on the go! (Genesis 41)
a. Low Joe receives his divine opportunity from the head leader to interpret a dream. He takes it serious and cleans up. Egyptians were clean shaven, and Joe knew he needed to look desirable and clean to be received. It’s important to remember that as you stay teachable you also become a teacher to others.
i. Quote from Maxwell “When you are through learning your through.” But a good teacher is one who is always a student.
b. Joe in interpreting the dreams displays the heart of humility and teachability. “I cannot but God can!” (verse 16) He knew the source to interpret was from God not him.
i. Andrew Murray said, “We can never have more faith than we have humility.” He continues, “As long as we take glory from another, we do not seek and cannot receive the glory that comes from God.”
1. Murray states, “We need only think for a moment what faith is. Is not the confession of nothingness and helplessness, the surrender and the waiting to let God work? Is it not in itself the most humbling thing there can be-the acceptance of our place as dependents, who can claim or get or do nothing but what grace bestows?
2. Humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust. And every, even the most secret, breathing of pride-in self-seeking, self-will, self-confidence, or self-exultation-is just the strengthening of that self which cannot enter the kingdom or possess the things of the kingdom, because it refuses to allow God to be what He is and must be-the all in all” (46).
3. Humility releases more of the Spirit of God.
a. Sittser notes, “If God is not in control, then we should abandon faith and find our own way through the hard times of life” (38).
Conclusion:
Remember God is never in a hurry! Hurry is of the Devil – according to some theologians!
So many people live without an awareness of God’s Presence and the main root cause of that is found in the Hurry up Sickness of today! We are to busy for God!
Instant gratification: It mirrors the modern world's obsession with speed and instant results, seeking to "zap" your way to spiritual maturity.
“Don’t try to rush things that need time to grow.” (Author Unknown)
“Patience! Patience! You are always in a hurry, but God is not.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
Lessons from Joseph’s slow grow process:
1. Watch your heart that you don’t become spiritually arrogant and prideful! It will lead you to slavery and hardship!
a. Yes, God can grow you spiritually through the hard times and he will humble you if you become prideful.
b. Parents don’t spoil your children, or God will have to humble them.
2. When you find yourself in hard times in the valleys of life stay pure to God and run from sin!
a. Spiritual growth comes in the slow cooker of life’s ups and downs. It comes through hardship and success.
b. Trust God through the injustice and still serve others.
c. God has perfect timing to bring to fruition to the dreams He has placed in our hearts.
3. When you have grown to become spiritually mature God will open the door for you to fulfill what He has laid in your heart TO DO FOR HIM.
a. If God has given you a vision or a dream, then He will bring it into fruition!
i. God will not rush it - it will manifest in His timing!
b. Also, at His appointed time the door will open and in a God moment you will see that vision or dream fulfilled.
Summary of Joe’s life!
I. Yo Joe – Yo Joe your special
a. Joe and his brothers suffered from the disease of favoritism.
i. There were the robed and the unrobed, the haves and the have nots.
ii. There were spoiled prideful brats and unloved sons driven to rage by their father’s favoritism.
iii. The robe needs to remove it and give it away
iv. The ones who never got to wear robe must admit it, deal with it and move on in life.
II. Low Joe- say’s oh no! I am so low!
a. Joe learned from God that he needed to say NO to temptation.
i. This meant over and over!
ii. He also learned here that if you say “No” there could be repercussions but don’t worry God is with you.
b. Joe learned through his adverse circumstance and even though he could have become bitter he chose to become better.
i. Joe chose to grow and in midst of his trial he showed compassion and concern for others.
ii. His attitude and trust in God promoted him even in prison.
III. Jow is on the Go - Joe’s humility before pharaoh helped him rise to the top.
a. He chooses to honor God in front of Pharoah.
b. He gave credit to God for the interpretation
c. He came to pharaoh all cleaned up
d. His humility in God set him free
e. His ability to learn through his ordeals helped him to become set free.
f. His care for others paid great rewards – even though it was not immediate. Joe went from low Joe to go Joe!
