Joseph was wrongly imprisoned, sold, and forgotten. He could have thought on this and allowed it to make him bitter. Instead, he thought on things from above and became a blessing. Psalm 105:17-24
Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller
Sermon # 11552
7:30 PM on 10/3/2018
P. Schaller
I just returned from Paris and Hungary. P. Barry Quirk went with me to the Hungary part. We had a good time. In Paris, I want to share with you what I saw in Paris. I wrote that down as a title of the message. What I saw in Paris. It will be a good message.
Hab. 3:17, All that is bad news! That’s amazing. In the agricultural world, it can’t get any worse. That’s bad. Why? The Babylonians are coming and going to strip the land clean. Going to take into captivity. The Babylonians are powerful.
Even if the crops fail and animals die, the whole world is coming down, vs. 18-19. I want you to think about this. I might have some problems, but I want to learn this. Things are coming apart but there is something more. What’s going on? There’s two levels to the house. The problem on the first floor and Christ on the second. There is my flesh, death, disease, cancer, trouble in relationships, finances, – turn to your neighbor and say I have some of that going on in my life yet I will rejoice in the Lord. It’s nothing but actually maybe it is powerful. It could be but this is the “but.”
This is driftwood Wednesday. The Women’s Seminar I heard was awesome. Thank you, God. Beautiful.
The Paris ministry celebrated its 25th anniversary and P. Texier went there with a small team, Jean Cartier – they had an amazing celebration. How many know P. Texier? Not only did they organize an event and had skits and great messages, I want to show you a video of P. Texier singing a solo. I asked him if he ever did it before and he said no. Will you do it again? He said no. I told him he raised the standard for pastors! He did an amazing job. I was shocked watching it. We did a little video. There is a little background and then he does his solo and you will see the crowd there. What I saw in Paris. I want to bring it home to you with a short teaching tonight. He had a great voice and I don’t think it was easy for him but because he loves his church. He loves his church. I’m going to do this once in my life. I’m going to practice and do it at a celebration because I love the church.
Ps. 105:17-19, it seems that when he was in pain and trouble and it was physical, his feet were hurt in iron and psychological or spiritual because his brothers produced the problem and the woman who tried to seduce him slandered him. He lived by the word of God and found himself in prison. Sometimes when I follow God and do his will, I find myself in more trouble. It happened with Joseph. The word of God tried him. He was being tested by the word of God. Sometimes we have problems in our lives and they happen for many reasons but one of those is God is trying us. We talked about it in Hungary and France.
This is the idea. (drawing). This is a person. I’ll give him feet, arms, and I’ll put on here an antenna. He’s like an ant! The feet, we’ll put here the word “dust.” My body made out of dust and then lightning rods or bolts. The antenna, the sensual, and then the devilish. These three words are in James: earthly, sensual and devilish. There is a wisdom from below that is earthly. Like when we think of earthly I think of the dust, our bodies. Joseph’s feet were hurt in fetters or irons. He had real pain in his feet because of it. The antenna is like what is fair, just. What happened to me? I can feel that in my soul. That woman was an evil woman who lied and took my coat and I ended up in prison. The devil is projecting in the air wisdom from below. This is a common thing that happens to all of us as people.
What I saw in Paris was something else. What we read in this psalm and what happens when the H.S. is our teacher. We learn the doctrine that allows us to apply another way of thinking. The little diagram up here if you can digest it, you can say I’m hungry. My stomach needs food. I understand the importance of the food. Without it, I become angry.
In Poland, I asked for a Polish proverb. A Polish person said a hungry Polish man is an angry Polish man. That will fit everywhere! Anger is easy to happen in life. We get angry for many reasons. We can get frustrated for many reasons. We have these antennas in our world. We pick up from other people and words said. Another thing that is common is when people speak behind the back and say unkind things. They judge or talk about something they don’t know entirely. It happens. This is a description of wisdom.
James 3. I believe you are familiar with the passage. Wisdom from below, envy and strife that comes from wisdom from below. These are excellent people. Just normal people but they don’t have the wisdom that comes from above. They are too sensitive. These antennas. They can be very sensitive about what happened in an earthly way. Joseph was in this. Joseph was in this when he was in the prison. There is one question about it. He stayed there and the word of God was trying him. He had to make a new calculation.
We read in the beginning of the message in Habakkuk, the crops had failed, the animals were dying, the world was on fire, CNN, Fox News, politics, the whole world but I and this is the beautiful thing. But I. This is what I saw in Paris. The churches came and P. Morley came from the U.K. I saw experienced, mature men with amazing unity and love because of a wisdom that is from above. Here is a human being made of the same stuff. But it says wisdom from above is first pure. Why is it pure? It’s not touching the ground so to speak. It’s not coming from the feet. It’s pure. It’s coming from above. It’s not from our heart that twists and turns things. Not our feelings and emotions that can be supercharged. It’s the mind of Christ. With Joseph in prison, remember the story. What happened? Two men there a baker and butler that had dreams. What happened? Joseph said I can tell you what the dreams mean. Where did it come from? Above. It did. It was pure. It was from above. Joseph said the baker you’re going to die and the butler you’ll live. Butler, when you get out, remember me. He got out and forgot Joseph. That’s like this one. He forgot me! The devil telling him life is not fair. God is not good. You are a victim again of an injustice. You are hurt again. It’s not fair what is happening to you. Why don’t you shrivel up and die Joseph. Your world is not working. It’s again hitting you. This is what we read in the psalm.
Ps. 105:19, I would say in Paris they were tried with very little money and support. Like a couple people moving up to New York City. You’re little one room house – I’m not saying these are Paris prices but expensive like New York. $1500 or $2000 a month rent and to do it by faith with wisdom from above. This is beautiful. You saw the crowd. As the pastor is singing, beautiful impression in my heart about what I saw and heard. They were a great combination of joy and being serious. They could hear wisdom and had been listening for years and growing in wisdom from above.
Sisters and brothers, it doesn’t matter how old you are. You need the wisdom from above. No matter your situation, you need the wisdom from above. It doesn’t matter. We will look at this picture and be sensitive about all kinds of things in our culture and personal lives. This is really our blessing here. The meaning I understand your dream means God has spoken to me and I’m accurate about it. It has nothing to do with my past, my culture, what my brothers said, what this woman did. I got delivered from wounds and pains of life. You can’t smell smoke on me. Not a hair is singed to use the boys in the fiery furnace. Missions got to be something that is wisdom from above. We see our country and the struggle we have but we can understand unbelievers. They don’t understand what we are talking about. They have many problems they are dealing with.
Rom 1, the gods that I worship are like animals and birds and creeping things and God gives those people over to uncleanliness. Through the lusts of their own hearts, they dishonor their own bodies between themselves. It seems to me the gods I worship, God will give me over and in my own mind I’ll get some ideas and mutilate my body. I’ll get some ideas and it speaks there about this thing that happens. These people are amongst us in our world. These people who are not believers are struggling with all kind of things. We are messengers like Joseph. We are people with wisdom from above. We are not living in judging or hating. Some disgust maybe but it’s more like pity and care. This wisdom from above is so precious because it increases and grows. The light of the righteousness shines brighter and brighter unto the prefect day. I have opportunities. I have things I can do in my life. As I get older, thinking about what can be done because the wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, easily convinced, easily entreated, easily under a godly influence of AGAPE love. We are believing all kinds of things that come from God.
vs. 20, the king sent and loosed him. It’s so good when we are not locked into a narrow thing. Our hearts are big and we are able to love and worship God as the H.S. anoints us in it. It’s so good when our troubles can’t get ahold of us and grab us by the throat and drag us around in this small world of pain. We are able to say I can do this. The Pharaoh, I can do this. I can tell you what you dream means because I have the wisdom from above.
vs. 20-21. He made him Lord of his house. Amazing! A man’s gift will bring him before kings. The Spirit- filled person gets promoted. I see it in sports and in different areas of life. I see people doing things that are remarkable. Sometimes it happens to us. Maybe my place in life is a smaller realm, but we have found the wisdom that liberates. It gives us godly counsel and sets us free from our sin.
The third thing I saw in Paris was highly committed people. Many of them have been there the whole 20 or 25 years. I saw the Montpellier people, Geneva, Lausanne, Normandy, Belgium, Nimes, and Paris. We saw the work of God and highly committed people. You have the feeling this is going to move. Wise people invest and have influence when the fig tree does not blossom and the animals are dying in the stall and Joseph is in the prison and a lot of people have their antenna and are feely, touchy and influenced by what people say and think. The wisdom from above has a ministry and it’s pure and powerful. The king said to Joseph, I need you to run things. And Joseph did. That’s a beautiful story.
vs. 22-24. I believe we are a great people. I’ve never seen greater people that are Spirit-filled, wise people, committed people, forgiving people. Amazing wisdom comes from God. I have to say this flat earth idea that is kind of cool and thinking in the world. Young people and the flat earth. I wonder what the real statement is. We can’t trust what science is saying, the internet, and the authorities. We want to make a statement the earth is flat! Seriously, what concerns me is that I would be a reader of the Bible. What concerns me is I would not be moved easily from the fundamental teaching of the Bible. What I’m concerned about is people would be humble and Spirit-filled and not fighting with issues. Not issue oriented. Above it and hear from God.
When you hear from God, there is a purity about it. There is love and trust and encouragement and prayer. Sometimes you meet people on the street and they want to talk about the President of the U.S. I’m not on the street to talk about the President but to pray for our country and our President and the needs of young people and families and our brokenness as people. We need to find the wisdom that comes from above. When you find it, Jesus said it will set you free and you’ll be free indeed.
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