POPULARITY
2 episodes with as joseph
2 episodes with as joseph
2 episodes with as joseph
2 episodes with as joseph
2 episodes with as joseph
2 episodes with as joseph
It is an absolute honor and privilege to welcome my guest, Joseph McCleandon III. Let me first share with you my experience of Joseph and how I discovered how incredible this man is. My first UPW with Tony Robbins was over the pandemic and done virtually. One of the pleasant surprises was spending a couple days with Joseph on stage. His sense of humor, the playfulness, and the impact he delivers is unforgettable. What you will learn today is not just theories on how to be successful, fulfill your purpose, or make radical shifts in your life. He will share the science and proven methods to radically change the trajectory of your life, improve your psychology, and create a lasting momentum to achieve the vision you see for yourself. Joseph McClendon III is one of the most sought-after Ultimate Performance Specialists in the world. His unique techniques rapidly trigger the personal change that effectively moves you to take more consistent action and go Further Faster with your personal and business achievements. He has delivered hundreds of workshops, coaching sessions, keynote addresses, seminars and training programs, one-on-one therapeutic intervention, and has presented to well over 3 million people around the globe. His remarkable ability to go straight to the core of the challenge and effect rapid change makes him a unique commodity in business, health and wellness, and personal improvement. Joseph has also partnered with world renown life coach Anthony Robbins for over 30 years; you may have seen them train together at Robbins conference Unleash the Power Within. His mission is making you bold in your ability to achieve the life you desire, and to help you go further faster, now. We Talk About: What successful people do differently to achieve results The difference between attracting and magnetizing what you desire How you can reprogram your thoughts that keep you stuck, afraid and stagnant The 6 pillars to optimize your health The questions you should ask yourself to discover what it is you want now ....so much more This episode is packed with value and Joseph overdelivers in his passion to serve you today. Grab you pen and paper, there will be some powerful nuggets shared and also an exercise suggested for you to do. As Joseph say, “MOTIVATION IS A MYTH… THE POWER IS IN THE “DO” For full show notes and episode resources head to https://ericalippy.com/joseph-mcclendon-iii/ Find our guest at: https://www.josephmcclendon.com/ https://www.facebook.com/JosephMcClendon https://www.instagram.com/iamjosephmcclendon/ Our Sponsor: Today's episode is brought to you by one of my favorite health experts and founder of Mindful Health LLC, Danette May. Danette’s top superfood product from her Earth Echo Foods line is Cacao Bliss, which is one of my absolute favorite things I consume everyday! Cacao bliss is a unique blend of 100% Organic Cacao Beans that are naturally kissed by the sun - maintaining its miraculous health benefits. Then they blend it with Turmeric, MCT Oil, Coconut, Himalayan Sea Salt, Cinnamon and Black Pepper for the perfect blend that tastes incredible. The result? Fall in love with a truly decadent, healthy, guilt-free chocolate...removing your cravings, facilitating weight loss, boosting your energy and reducing your inflammation with one simple drink. Not only that, it is friendly to Paleo, Gluten-Free, Keto, Vegan, and Vegetarian Diets. We are offering up to 15% off when you use code: ERICAL Just go to https://earthechofoods.com/ericalippy Please don't forget to subscribe and leave a review! FIND YOUR HOST: https://www.instagram.com/ericalippy PASSION LOVE PURSUIT INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/passionlovepursuit/ PASSION LOVE PURSUIT FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/passionlovepursuit/ PASSION LOVE PURSUIT PODCASTS: https://ericalippy.com/the-podcast/
Marty Solomon and Brent Billings merge the studies of Joseph and Jacob. As Joseph eventually experiences a reunification of his family, what more is left to do? Shouldn’t they sit back and enjoy the redemption in Egypt? Apparently not, according to Jacob.The Exodus You Almost Passed Over by Rabbi David FohrmanGenesis: A Parsha Companion by Rabbi David FohrmanAleph Beta AcademySubscribe to Aleph Beta AcademyBEMA listeners can use code friendsofbema for one month off of a monthly Premium membership.
(Hos.14:2-10; Ps.81:6-11,14,17; Mk.12:28-34) “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!” “There is no other than He,” and so what should we do but “love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, with all [our] mind, and with all [our] strength”? What promise the Lord makes to us if only we would return to Him and love Him: “If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk in my ways, I would feed them with the best of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would fill them.” Indeed, then we would be “not far from the reign of God,” even here on earth. Brothers and sisters, we “have collapsed through [our] guilt.” We have had “strange god[s]” among us and said, “‘Our god,' to the work of our hands.” Why should we continue so blind? Why should we continue stumbling as sinners – why do we find the straight paths of the Lord so difficult to walk? He will “forgive all iniquity” and strengthen us in justice; if we turn to Him, He will “heal [our] defection” and “love [us] freely.” “In distress you called, and I rescued you,” He says in the words of our psalmist, and His words are true. Turning away His wrath, He shall become “like the dew for Israel.” And with His living water to nourish us, we “shall blossom like the lily… blossom like the olive tree.” We “shall dwell in His shade and raise grain,” our “fragrance like the Lebanon cedar.” We must but love God and our neighbor, and we shall “bear fruit.” “Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them.” There is no God in all the world but the Lord, and it is He in whom “the orphan finds compassion.” Why should you continue in your vain pursuits when love awaits your turning to Him? What refuge can you find in your false gods? In them and in your pride you indeed will find yourself orphaned, cut off from the love that only the Father holds. But He loves the orphan, brother, and so He calls to your soul to return to Him with all your heart. In this is true wisdom; in Him you will find strength. There is no further question when the love of God is known. When His presence is revealed we fall silent, for nothing can be said in the face of Truth. Listen, brothers and sisters; but listen – and then do. ******* O LORD, you are rejected, you are killed, that your inheritance you might share with us. YHWH, though we reject your Beloved Son, dragging Him out of the vineyard to kill Him, yet His blood becomes salvation for us, release from slavery to sin. As Joseph who was sold to the Ishmaelites became ruler in the land of Egypt, so has the One who has died on a cross become the cornerstone of your kingdom. And all who come to Him this day, under Him become a holy nation. There is a great famine upon this land, O LORD, and we would quickly die for lack of nourishment if to us you did not send your only Son to provide for all our needs. Let us show our gratefulness to you for such rich blessing by giving due honor to the One you have sent and producing abundant fruit in His Name. O LORD, let all jealous souls be gathered into your harvest, redeemed from the blood upon their hands by our Savior's sacrifice. Such marvels you would perform for us at no cost but the abandonment of our greed and envy.
(Hos.14:2-10; Ps.81:6-11,14,17; Mk.12:28-34) “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!” “There is no other than He,” and so what should we do but “love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, with all [our] mind, and with all [our] strength”? What promise the Lord makes to us if only we would return to Him and love Him: “If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk in my ways, I would feed them with the best of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would fill them.” Indeed, then we would be “not far from the reign of God,” even here on earth. Brothers and sisters, we “have collapsed through [our] guilt.” We have had “strange god[s]” among us and said, “‘Our god,' to the work of our hands.” Why should we continue so blind? Why should we continue stumbling as sinners – why do we find the straight paths of the Lord so difficult to walk? He will “forgive all iniquity” and strengthen us in justice; if we turn to Him, He will “heal [our] defection” and “love [us] freely.” “In distress you called, and I rescued you,” He says in the words of our psalmist, and His words are true. Turning away His wrath, He shall become “like the dew for Israel.” And with His living water to nourish us, we “shall blossom like the lily… blossom like the olive tree.” We “shall dwell in His shade and raise grain,” our “fragrance like the Lebanon cedar.” We must but love God and our neighbor, and we shall “bear fruit.” “Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them.” There is no God in all the world but the Lord, and it is He in whom “the orphan finds compassion.” Why should you continue in your vain pursuits when love awaits your turning to Him? What refuge can you find in your false gods? In them and in your pride you indeed will find yourself orphaned, cut off from the love that only the Father holds. But He loves the orphan, brother, and so He calls to your soul to return to Him with all your heart. In this is true wisdom; in Him you will find strength. There is no further question when the love of God is known. When His presence is revealed we fall silent, for nothing can be said in the face of Truth. Listen, brothers and sisters; but listen – and then do. ******* O LORD, you are rejected, you are killed, that your inheritance you might share with us. YHWH, though we reject your Beloved Son, dragging Him out of the vineyard to kill Him, yet His blood becomes salvation for us, release from slavery to sin. As Joseph who was sold to the Ishmaelites became ruler in the land of Egypt, so has the One who has died on a cross become the cornerstone of your kingdom. And all who come to Him this day, under Him become a holy nation. There is a great famine upon this land, O LORD, and we would quickly die for lack of nourishment if to us you did not send your only Son to provide for all our needs. Let us show our gratefulness to you for such rich blessing by giving due honor to the One you have sent and producing abundant fruit in His Name. O LORD, let all jealous souls be gathered into your harvest, redeemed from the blood upon their hands by our Savior's sacrifice. Such marvels you would perform for us at no cost but the abandonment of our greed and envy.
By Pastor Chuck Ryan God's Higher Purpose Text: Genesis 50:15-21; Isaiah 61 Thesis: It is easy to be transfixed on all the challenges and fail to see God's Higher purpose! May we through the eye of Faith see God's unlimited power at work in our lives. The death of Jacob, the father of Joseph, triggered an enormous fear in Joseph's brothers. (vs15-17a) The brothers believed now that their father was dead that Joseph would seek revenge on them for all the harm, they caused him. The brothers possibly fabricated a story claiming their father reached out to Joseph pleading their defense. “When their message came to him, Joseph wept.” (17b) Joseph had the heart of Christ when it came to understanding the sin of his brothers and at the same time his love was so great, he was compelled to forgive. Joseph was instrumental in bringing physical salvation to the known world, including his family. Jesus was instrumental in bringing spiritual salvation to the world. “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts2:21) Joseph was not revengeful. Joseph said, “Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? (vs 19a) The Apostle Paul teaches, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19) III. Joseph explains the higher purpose of God to his brothers. (20-21) “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” God can bring beauty out of Ashes. “To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.” (Read Isaiah 61:1-3) Application: 1st Many like Joseph, in this past year, have experienced great hardship and anxiety. Jesus explains, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) 2nd As Joseph explained, God has a higher purpose planned for his children and the world. What Satan intends for evil, God can use for the good. Jesus' death on the cross provided eternal life “for everyone who calls on His name.” Nero's persecution of Christians caused them to flee Jerusalem and go to the utter parts of the earth and spread the Gospel. God can use difficulties to drive Christians out of their comfort zone so they will seek him and His will. 3rd God calls us through the eye of Faith to believe He can bring “beauty out of Ashes. “And we know that all things work together for the good to those who love God and to those called according to God's will.” (Romans 8:28) Examples: 1) An increase in the opportunity to pray-for healing, for the Church, for the salvation of others, for our nation etc. 2) Ministry opportunities-cards, letters, phone calls. 3) Ministry expansion. Isaiah 55:11 “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
(Gn.37:3-4,12-13,17-28; Ps.105:5,16-21; Mt.21:33-43,45-46) “They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.” “The stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone of the structure.” Hear what Scripture says. As he who was “sold as a slave” by his brothers became “lord of [the king's] house and ruler of all his possessions,” so He whom the elders of the people could call “our brother, our own flesh,” whom they “seized… dragged… outside the vineyard, and killed,” has become the very foundation of the New Jerusalem. How parallel are our first reading and gospel today. Jacob, Israel, sends the son he loves best, he who is “the child of his old age,” to the brothers who are tending their father's flock, to bring them food to nourish them in their labor. The Father in heaven sends Jesus, His beloved Son – who is Child of His old age both in His existing with Him before time and in His coming here at the end of the age to His brothers – to those whom He has entrusted the care of His vineyard, through whom He feeds all the people, with the greatest of nourishment to sustain them unto heaven itself. For their jealousy over the favor granted their brother, Israel's sons strip Joseph of his long and princely tunic and cast him into a cistern “which was empty and dry” as their souls. Out of the same jealousy and in the desire for His inheritance, the chief priests and Pharisees will soon arrest the Lord and see that He is stripped and nailed to a cross. And, brothers and sisters, the outcome of each story shall be the same. As his brothers must come on their knees to their brother to find grain to keep themselves from dying of famine on the parched earth once Joseph has taken his place as ruler of the king's possessions, so the elders of the people and all of us who bear responsibility for the death of Christ by our continual sins against Him shall have to come on our knees before Him who sits on the throne of heaven robed in glory, to find nourishment for our journey here in His sacred Body and Blood, and to find a place at table in the kingdom to come. There is much to be pondered in the rejection of Jesus, as is so with the betrayal of Joseph. It is not only the Pharisees – who answer so well the Lord's question regarding the fate of the tenant farmers, yet have not the faith to match the words God puts on their lips – who must look inside themselves and recognize their anger and jealousy and greed. The Lord invites each of his brothers to examine his conscience this day, in this time. In particular, are we showing ourselves to be the nation the Lord has given the kingdom of God? Do we “yield a rich harvest” for Him who was sold for thirty pieces of silver? Or have our souls gone bankrupt? May from us the Lord “obtain His share of the grapes.” ******* O LORD, you are rejected, you are killed, that your inheritance you might share with us. YHWH, though we reject your Beloved Son, dragging Him out of the vineyard to kill Him, yet His blood becomes salvation for us, release from slavery to sin. As Joseph who was sold to the Ishmaelites became ruler in the land of Egypt, so has the One who has died on a cross become the cornerstone of your kingdom. And all who come to Him this day, under Him become a holy nation. There is a great famine upon this land, O LORD, and we would quickly die for lack of nourishment if to us you did not send your only Son to provide for all our needs. Let us show our gratefulness to you for such rich blessing by giving due honor to the One you have sent and producing abundant fruit in His Name. O LORD, let all jealous souls be gathered into your harvest, redeemed from the blood upon their hands by our Savior's sacrifice. Such marvels you would perform for us at no cost but the abandonment of our greed and envy.
(Gn.37:3-4,12-13,17-28; Ps.105:5,16-21; Mt.21:33-43,45-46) “They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.” “The stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone of the structure.” Hear what Scripture says. As he who was “sold as a slave” by his brothers became “lord of [the king's] house and ruler of all his possessions,” so He whom the elders of the people could call “our brother, our own flesh,” whom they “seized… dragged… outside the vineyard, and killed,” has become the very foundation of the New Jerusalem. How parallel are our first reading and gospel today. Jacob, Israel, sends the son he loves best, he who is “the child of his old age,” to the brothers who are tending their father's flock, to bring them food to nourish them in their labor. The Father in heaven sends Jesus, His beloved Son – who is Child of His old age both in His existing with Him before time and in His coming here at the end of the age to His brothers – to those whom He has entrusted the care of His vineyard, through whom He feeds all the people, with the greatest of nourishment to sustain them unto heaven itself. For their jealousy over the favor granted their brother, Israel's sons strip Joseph of his long and princely tunic and cast him into a cistern “which was empty and dry” as their souls. Out of the same jealousy and in the desire for His inheritance, the chief priests and Pharisees will soon arrest the Lord and see that He is stripped and nailed to a cross. And, brothers and sisters, the outcome of each story shall be the same. As his brothers must come on their knees to their brother to find grain to keep themselves from dying of famine on the parched earth once Joseph has taken his place as ruler of the king's possessions, so the elders of the people and all of us who bear responsibility for the death of Christ by our continual sins against Him shall have to come on our knees before Him who sits on the throne of heaven robed in glory, to find nourishment for our journey here in His sacred Body and Blood, and to find a place at table in the kingdom to come. There is much to be pondered in the rejection of Jesus, as is so with the betrayal of Joseph. It is not only the Pharisees – who answer so well the Lord's question regarding the fate of the tenant farmers, yet have not the faith to match the words God puts on their lips – who must look inside themselves and recognize their anger and jealousy and greed. The Lord invites each of his brothers to examine his conscience this day, in this time. In particular, are we showing ourselves to be the nation the Lord has given the kingdom of God? Do we “yield a rich harvest” for Him who was sold for thirty pieces of silver? Or have our souls gone bankrupt? May from us the Lord “obtain His share of the grapes.” ******* O LORD, you are rejected, you are killed, that your inheritance you might share with us. YHWH, though we reject your Beloved Son, dragging Him out of the vineyard to kill Him, yet His blood becomes salvation for us, release from slavery to sin. As Joseph who was sold to the Ishmaelites became ruler in the land of Egypt, so has the One who has died on a cross become the cornerstone of your kingdom. And all who come to Him this day, under Him become a holy nation. There is a great famine upon this land, O LORD, and we would quickly die for lack of nourishment if to us you did not send your only Son to provide for all our needs. Let us show our gratefulness to you for such rich blessing by giving due honor to the One you have sent and producing abundant fruit in His Name. O LORD, let all jealous souls be gathered into your harvest, redeemed from the blood upon their hands by our Savior's sacrifice. Such marvels you would perform for us at no cost but the abandonment of our greed and envy.
The change in governor from Felix to Porcius Festus (Acts 24:27) brings no immediate improvement in Paul’s condition. Yet God remains in control, and in this chapter, Acts 25, under God’s providence Paul takes a decisive step. How was this brought about?(1) New to the area and still relatively ignorant of its political and religious dynamics, Festus is determined to get off on the right foot. A mere three days after arriving at the regional Roman capital of Caesarea, he travels up to Jerusalem to meet the local Jewish authorities. He could have summoned them; he could have delayed his visit. But off he goes, and is promptly informed what a terrible man Paul is. The Jewish authorities see the accession of Festus as an opportunity to do away with Paul. They express their desire to have him brought to Jerusalem for trial, but in reality they plan an ambush that would ensure his demise (Acts 25:1–3). Festus replies that Paul is being held in Caesarea and insists that his interlocutors press their case there.(2) In the next round of legal maneuverings the charges against Paul and his responses to them (Acts 25:6–8) provide Festus with no clear idea of what to do. Still trying to make a good impression on the Jewish authorities (and thus far more likely to listen to them than to a solitary man already in jail for two years), Festus asks Paul if he is willing to stand trial before the Roman court, but in Jerusalem.(3) There is no hint that Paul is tipped off as to the planned ambush. Nevertheless, two years earlier he had been warned of a similar plot (Acts 23:16), and it would not take much to figure out that such a plot was likely being hatched again. If he agrees with Festus’s suggestion, he will be murdered; if he declines, he will appear obstreperous and arrogant. So he exercises the right of every Roman citizen in the first century: he appeals to Caesar. That was the judicial equivalent of appealing to the Supreme Court. Humanly speaking, this was a desperate move. Emperor Nero did not take kindly to frivolous suits, and he was already known to be corrupt and intoxicated by his own power.(4) Yet by that means, as the rest of the book shows, Paul finally arrives in Rome. As Joseph was brought to Egypt’s palaces by way of slavery and prison, so Paul is brought to testify for King Jesus before the mightiest human authorities by way of prison and corrupt justice. Indeed, how did Jesus gain his place at the Father’s right hand? This podcast is designed to be used alongside TGC's Read The Bible initiative (TGC.org/readthebible). The podcast features devotional commentaries from D.A. Carson’s book For the Love of God (vol. 2) that follow the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan.
In today's episode, Dr. Siohvaughn Funches continues the series, “Your Dream is Coming to Pass.” Dr. Funches recaps the message from last week and reminds New Covenant believers that this message — your dream is coming to pass — is a timeless, relevant, rhema message, word, and revelation from God. This is something you could listen to, time and time again and it would only do you good. God is faithful. He cannot lie. The Word of God is certain and sure. The blessings of God are not just for our benefit or the benefit of our loved ones at home but the benefit of everyone. Dr. Funches looks at the life of Joseph in Genesis. As Joseph was prophesied in a dream to rule over them, his brothers jealously sold him into slavery to the Ishmaelites. Joseph was taken to Egypt but God repeatedly showed favor to Joseph, placing him in a position of power. Dr. Funches reviews the story of Potiphar's wife accusing Joseph and causing him to be a prisoner. God continues to show favor to Joseph and he is promoted over all the prisoners. Joseph interprets the dreams of the butler and the baker but was kept in prison for two more years, until Pharaoh had troubling dreams and Joseph was summoned to interpret the dream. God gave the interpretation of the dreams and the solution to the upcoming famine to Joseph. Pharaoh promoted Joseph over Potiphar and the entire nation, under Pharaoh. God, in His mercy and grace, did that for Joseph. Dr. Funches explains that God's blessings and promises can come to pass in an instant. Joseph later saved his own family and his nation with grain stored during the years of plenty. God kept Joseph's heart from bitterness, loneliness, and dismay. Listen in to hear how God will bless with power the New Covenant believers who believe Jesus. KEY BIBLE VERSES [4:15] Isaiah 55:10, 11, NKJV 10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. [8:41] Mark 4:1–9, 13–20, NKJV 1 (read or listen to last week's message.) [18:17] Genesis 37:1–10, NKJV 1 Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. 5 Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. 6 So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: 7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. 9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.” 10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” 11 And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind. [24:39] Genesis 37:11–36, NKJV (summarized) [26:10] Genesis 39–47 (full chapters), NKJV (summarized) MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Please visit DrFunches.com for books, blogs and more helpful resources from Dr. Funches and for ways to get involved with this ministry, A Woman's Worth Foundation. See Dr. Funches's book, You Gotta Let God Finish!
Here it is, my 150th episode, a milestone in the lifecycle of a podcast. It has been a journey, creating a platform for progressive nonprofit change making, one that will expand in 2021. To mark the moment, I reconnected with Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, CEO and executive director of CAAB-Capital Area Asset Builders-and one of the most tenacious seekers of justice that I know. CAAB connects underinvested Black and Brown communities with strategies for creating assets (home ownership, small businesses and higher education) that are the basis for building generational wealth. This population includes the one in five individuals in the nation’s capital who live below the poverty line. And that statistic is particularly jarring because it is based in pre-pandemic data. CAAB embeds itself in the “unofficial” DC and metropolitan region where work opportunities are limited and low paying. And low-wage workers are often unaware that claiming a refund, through the Earned Income Tax Credit, can yield significant and lifechanging returns. As Joseph says, “When everyone is given an opportunity to succeed, we all benefit.” This is the vision and purposefulness we should all aspire to in 2021.
Shiloh and Ben open up a discussion about Joseph Smith’s First Vision and his “call to adventure.” Joseph lived in a day when there were arguments abounding over what was true and correct doctrine. People of all faiths around him seemed to exhibit “great love” and “zeal” at “the time of their conversion.” But whatever form or façade of conversion and love that existed soon digressed, and it became evident to Joseph that God is not discovered through argument and scriptural apologetics. Joseph had no context for how to gain more light and truth, but he realized that “the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible” (JS-H 1:12). The Spirit worked within Joseph, and Joseph experienced a type of contemplative lectio divina with God (i.e., “Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again.”). The First Vision was more than the imparting of truth through argument, reason, rational, and an appeal to the text. Through the First Vision account we begin to see what God truly has in store for us: To know truth by experience with Him. Whereas the world clamors to define and defend God through whatever perceived and appropriate methods of belief, argument, and dogma, the First Vision teaches us that truth is far, far more powerful and known through divine experience. As Joseph states, “For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it” (JS-H 1:25).
Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-23 Sometimes Joseph's role in the birth and early life of Jesus is overlooked. Elder Joel Porter shows the important lessons we can learn from him. As a righteous man, he wrestled with how to handle Mary's divine pregnancy, but once the angel explained it, he obeyed. As Joseph continued to discern and obey God's direction for their lives, so we too should learn to hear and obey God's voice.
Favor is coming to find you! As Joseph was rejected by his brothers, he was favored by God. No matter where you put Joseph, favor elevated him. God is about to cloth you with favor in this season.
In this episode of the Web3 Marketing Debate Show, we talk eCommerce. Arguably the two biggest platforms in eCommerce are WooCommerce and Shopify. We'll assess both platforms from the perspective of small to medium businesses who are considering setting up an eCommerce website or needing to add eCommerce to an existing one. Which platform is the best one for selling physical and digital product and which one is better suited for small to medium business. Listen ahead and we will share our insights in this eCommerce episode. Let the debate begin! WooCommerce VS Shopify Episode show notes James: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Web3 Marketing debate show. I am your co-host, James Banks Joseph: and I'm your co-host Joseph Chesterton. James: And today we'll be weighing in to an all time heavyweight debate, which is WooCommerce versus Shopify. Which one is better? I will be taking the Shopify ring of the corner in this debate. Joseph: and obviously I'm on the WooCommerce side. James: All right, Well, without further ado, let's start. So, which one is better for selling physical products? WooCommerce or Shopify? What's your opinion, Joe? Joseph: Okay, so first of all, WooCommerce. It's built on WordPress. It has a huge open source community made by the people that actually build WordPress whereas Shopify. It's all closed source and you can't actually modify your website to the exact needs that you require, whereas WooCommerce you can. To actually sell physical products. It's a seamless integration with your website. Selling physical products on your website is an end to end solution. It starts from customer coming to your website. Your products are listed on your website, not on a third party platform. The customer chooses the products they wanted buy, clicks add to cart. Person puts in their payment details and is able to pay on your website using payment gateways that you choose. If you're selling products that are physical products then you're obviously going to need shipping. So WooCommerce integrates really well with all the major shipping providers. With WooCommerce you can list an almost infinite number of physical products. Each product has its own product page with all the info that you would expect: description, gallery, variations and so forth. So yes, it's a very good platform for selling physical products. James: So you mention community. I mean, Shopify has probably one of the most, if not the most passionate community of eCommerce merchants in the world over 700,000 of them. Yeah okay, I might agree with you that there's more individual WooCommerce sites per se than Shopify. Data speaking, that is the truth. But are they active in the market? Are they passionately commerce, business people that are there to help each other out? I think a big part of it is the difference between open source versus close source, particularly around selling digital products, is Shopify has everything you need to do to basically get an online store to sell physical products up and running within five minutes or less. Good luck trying to do that with WooCommerce. You're going to be there for a lot longer, trying to figure out the right themes, trying to figure out the right plugin mix to make it work. And on top of that, you have also vulnerability. That open source has versus a close source. Secure platform, like Shopify does not have as much. So that's my point of view why Shopify is superior for selling physical products online. What's your counter argument to that? Joseph: Well, all platforms can be compromised, the fact, that it is a huge community building. The platform means that it's peer review, whereas who knows with Shopify, maybe it would be hacked in a second if someone just did some sort of exploit on the system. Okay, moving on. So it's clear that both platforms can sell physical products, but not everyone needs to sell physical products. What about digital products... James? James: Well Shopify, is not only excellent at selling physical products. It's also great for digital products. It has a whole slew of apps that can be integrated into your Shopify site to allow it to do things such as direct digital download sales, online course sales, selling MP3's, music for your musicians out there. Same with video. And the list goes on and on and on. It has got great community support. These arent sort of hackjob plugins that just some random throws up. These have been verified through Shopify, and they've got a great community support. So it is a fantastic platform for doing this. On WooCommerces front. It's more of a mixed soup off a huge variety of plug ins that all say they do the same thing, and often the case they don't. It's very difficult, in my opinion, to know what is the best way to sell products digitally through WordPress eCommerce such as WooCommerce. WooCommerce is you can switch off its inventory control, but it's still sitting there is still weighing the site down. It doesn't really function as well as a pure play digital products selling platform as opposed Shopify. It can be, it can't be flipped to do that and do it very well. Joseph: OK, so you're attacking, what, the free plugins on the WordPress plugin repository. Whereas, well actually there's a dedicated WooCommerce platform of reviewed plugins that will do exactly what you need with what you're after on your website. WooCommerce does digital products very well. Just as well, as physical products and the checkout process adapts to selling digital products very well. There isn't any need for inventory solutions, but if you do need to then sell products that require inventory, then WooCommerce can easily just integrate straight in. It's part of your website, so it looks like it's just another page on your website. You can integrate with things like memberships and selling courses and membership platforms so that it's a seamless experience for all your customers. James: All right, well, I'm sure the question everyone wants to know is, Why is WooCommerce better than Shopify for small and medium businesses? And in my opinion, is this is the thing is that no matter how hard you try with WooCommerce, you cannot get an eCommerce store up and running. That has a nice, decent design, is well developed. It doesn't break any of the coding and development rules that could hurt your site from things such as organic search ranking point of view. It has a turnkey checkout everything you need to know everything you need to get started and it's so simple to get one up and running. I think I've been able to do it in about two minutes flat and you just simply can't do that with WooCommerce. You know, WooCommerce, yes, it is quite an advanced, powerful tool, but you typically would need professional help. Or you really have to know what you're doing to pull off an effective well optimised online eCommerce store whereas Shopify takes away all of that hard thinking from you and gives you the ability to set it up yourself quickly and easily and get your products to market as fast as possible so you can start making money. That's what we're all here to do as business people. Joseph: Well, James chances are, with 30% websites already running WordPress, you don't actually need to set up a new platform to just sell products online. You can use WooCommerce and integrate directly into your existing website. You don't need to change the entire website, just to sell products. WooCommerce is free to get started. You can do everything that you need to sell products online and it will integrate into your WordPress website just fine. Of course, there's thousands of plugins and things that you can install on your website to increase the amount of flexibility and control on your website, but those are optional paid extra, so you don't need to use them if you don't need them. WooCommerce grows with your business. You're not locked into plans that increase. The problem with Shopify is that as your shop grows, you then have to pay more for all the hosting and platform, whereas with WooCommerce as it's way more flexible and will allow you to scale at a greater rate. James: I think to bring this all together, ultimately both are good, both are very good eCommerce platforms. You can create a successful eCommerce site on either one of them. Either would WooCommerce or Shopify ultimately it boils down and typically our advice is that how do you plan on actually running your eCommerce business. Is eCommerce more of say, like a side extension to your core business, which isn't eCommerce. As Joseph mentioned, typically in that case, the business would probably already be on WordPress. So then extending the existing WordPress site to include WooCommerce to allow for eCommerce sales is often the best way to do it because then you don't have to respin the business. You don't have to relearn how to use a separate platform and then manage a completely separate platform on top of our existing content management system, which just becomes a maintenance and management nightmare long term as organisations grow. However, if you're a pure play eCommerce store and, you know, you're wanting to run and manage the store yourself with the minimal design and development help and you have a relatively straightforward store, no crazy custom integrations that requires sort of custom development. Usually in that case, Shopify is the better solution, particularly for businesses that are starting up. There's Shopify plus, of course, which is for your mid to enterprise level clients. That's a whole other thing we won't get into. But ultimately it boils down to what is the right tool for the right job for your business. If you need any help and assistance and understanding which one will be best for your business, that's what we're here to do. So reach out to us. Web3.com.au. Get in touch and will happily advise you on what will be the best way to get your business selling online and what would be the best way to execute it online. Any final comments on your end Joe? Joseph: Nup. James: Haha, Well, that's a wrap. We'll see you again on the Web3 Marketing debate show real soon. Discover more at https://web3.com.au/woocommerce-vs-shopify/
So we are deep into the Joseph story and we have arrived at what I think represents the power climax in Joseph’s life. Last week’s message was entitled “The Greatest Promotion of All Time.” And I really think this might be true. What man in history could have been promoted faster, further, and higher than Joseph? For 13 years of his life, he had either been a slave or a prisoner. And when you are in either of these positions your job is to simply listen and do. You do not exercise your will. You do the will of others. You do what you are told.“Joseph, go get the pot of water. Sit there till I get back. Why are you doing it that way? We do it this way. Joseph, hurry up we don’t have all day. When you get finished with that, come talk to me, because I have a lot on my plate today and I need your help.”I mean Joseph had no decision-making power. He has no control. He is being controlled. And then in a single day, we are told in Genesis 41, Joseph is catapulted from a prisoner who is serving a life sentence accused of rape to being second in command in the most powerful nation in the Ancient Near East.Now, keep in mind how significant this promotion is. We are told that Pharaoh takes off his signet ring and gives it to Joseph. Pharaoh doesn’t give Joseph his own unique signet, he pulls the signet off his finger and hands his royal signet to Joseph which means that all the power that resides in Pharaoh to effect change has been transferred to Joseph. And remember, Egypt is not a democracy. This is a monarchy, a totalitarian regime of absolutism. Pharaoh, to the people, is a god. Egypt is a kingdom where all power centralizes in the signet of a single person. Beneath one man Joseph now has absolute power. Joseph could pass any law he wanted, set any tax he desired, spend 1 trillion dollars, imprison or free anyone he wished without a reason, assemble armies and he could do it all without consulting a committee or without getting approved by any superior. He had as many aids and consultants as he wanted, he had access to any resource his heart desired.And the amazing thing about Joseph we learned from last week was that he used that power to serve God and the nation, not himself. There’s the phrase, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Turns out we need to caveat that. That’s generally true. Power given to men without character will destroy them. But power given to men of character will result in blessing to many.Today we are going to talk about a power we share with Joseph and like Joseph, if we wield it properly, it could bless many. Of the various types of power Joseph had, this was perhaps the most powerful. The power to forgive! Now in order to wield this power, you don’t have to be Pharaoh or ruler of a great land. You don’t have to be given a position of authority. You don’t have to have a fancy title or education. The only prerequisite needed is that you’ve been hurt by someone. This means it’s a power that we all possess since every one of us in this room has been hurt.All who have been hurt have the power to forgive which is a power strong enough to change the world. Forgiveness is going to be a big topic sprinkled through the upcoming messages and each time it comes up we will have opportunity to inspect a different aspect of forgiveness.Today we just want to talk about facing forgiveness. It’s that moment when you are face to face with the offender, with the one who has hurt you and you are reliving the hurt, reeling from pains you thought were over but now the scab is ripped off and you are bleeding afresh. This is where we find Joseph in the text today.Now let’s pick up the story of Joseph in chapter 42. You will remember from last week that the seven years of plenty had come to the end and the seven years of famine had begun. And this famine was very severe. This week as part of our week of prayer and fasting, I chose to fast from food for a few days, and man, it really helped me to empathize with this famine. Hunger is really a terrible feeling.In just a few quick strokes, so much is communicated. You can almost see the gaunt looks on the faces of the brothers as they have almost completely given up. They are starving. All starving people are waging a two-front war. They are fighting a psychological battle and they are fighting a physiological battle.Psychologically, hunger is chipping at them relentlessly. Hunger gnaws at the mind as much as it does the stomach. It chews away at the resolve and determination. The teeth clack and smack against parched, tasteless gums and all you can think about is food. Hunger is a constant companion that won’t leave you alone. It won’t stop pestering. Psychologically, it’s terrible.But physiologically, it’s just as significant. Since the body always needs fuel, but no fuel is coming in, it begins feeding on itself. Metabolism slows and the body cannot regulate its temperature. Kidney function is impaired, the immune system weakens, and vital organs, muscles, tissues, the heart, and lungs shrink. People feel weak, body temperature drops, chills set in, people can become irritable, and it becomes difficult to concentrate.So all that was happening in Jacob’s tent. They are irritable. They are not in the head-space to make good decisions. And so Jacob, undoubtedly himself irritated, barks at his sons. “I’m old. Do you expect me to go solve the problem? What are you doing just staring at each other? Do something! There is grain in Egypt. Go to Egypt and buy grain to feed our family so we don’t die!”Now, this is no small undertaking. When you are very, very hungry and your beasts of burden are equally parched and starving do you feel like walking 150 miles one way?Es no bueno, amigo.Now we also get an insight into the family dynamics here. Jacob only sends the ten brothers but he keeps Benjamin back. Why Benjamin? Benjamin was Joseph’s full brother, and as far as Jacob knew, the only living son of his favorite wife Rachel. And the text says he didn’t send him because he was scared that something might happen to him. You could read that as just an overly protective father not wanting something bad happening to his last precious son. But I think Jacob was suspicious. He knew the character of his sons. I wonder if Jacob didn’t suspect foul play with Joseph. So he keeps back Benjamin out of fear of either the unfortunate circumstances of the journey, or the unforeseeable savagery of his sons, or both.Now I want you to imagine this moment. You are Joseph. You are administering grain to famished weary travelers. And you’ve been doing this for weeks and months. Day after day, it’s all a very similar routine.And between customers, servants are coming with important documents and you are pressing your signet ring into wax, sending orders here and there. And then all of a sudden you see ten brothers who look very familiar. And I can’t help but wonder if Joseph had been looking for them. I mean, this job of handing out grain to weary travelers of foreign countries hardly seems like a job for the sovereign of the land. Couldn’t some lesser dignitary do this job? Perhaps Joseph chose to personally do this job under some pretense hoping to see his family. At any rate, one day it happens. He sees his ten brothers. It’s been something like 25 years since they have seen each other and they are thin, significantly grayed, and starving.Can you imagine the feelings that would rush upon you? Initially, there would be an almost visceral terror. Even though Joseph is now tens of thousands of times more powerful than his brothers, in a moment he’s transported back to a skinny 17-year-old who’s pleading and begging for mercy at the bottom of a pit. His abusers are before him. Even though he’s the viceregent and wears the signet of the Pharaoh himself, even though he has the power to imprison them for life, Joseph is the one in prison. He is in the pit. Why? Because Joseph was reliving the terror of torment and was now facing his tormentors. He was facing the prospect of forgiveness. He was now being forced to make a choice to forgive or not forgive. To trust or not trust. To reconcile or remain estranged. Four points come out of the text and here’s the first:When you are separated from the one who has hurt, injured, or abused you, it is possible to kind of bury that hurt so long as there is separation. You can find a chamber in your mind and sort-of-kind-of bury it. After all, there’s nothing you can do about it since the person isn’t there. But when all of a sudden you face your offender, when all of a sudden your abuser is standing in front of you, those buried hurts are resurrected. They come tearing out of the buried corners of your heart with redoubled energy and begin screaming and bleeding all over again.Let’s see how Joseph responds when he comes face to face with his abusers.Now the fact that Joseph recognized them but they did not recognize him is entirely understandable. Joseph was 17-years-old when he was captured. He was 30 when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams. There have been 7 years of plenty and now they are some years into the 7 years of famine. So Joseph is in his early 40’s. Compare photos of your 17-year-old self and your 30-year-old self. Now add to that the fact that Joseph would have likely been wearing the royal headdress. There is a bit of debate as to who the Pharaoh was during the reign of Joseph, but here’s what one of the likely candidates looked like.I mean, that’s a lot of costume atop a face that had changed quite a bit. Additionally, if Joseph’s brothers were to be on the lookout for their brother, it would be in the market selling fish or pushing some giant stone up a ramp as a slave. I mean, you’d just never suspect it.From Joseph’s point of view, it was obvious. These dudes were obviously Semitic with the beards and robes. They were obviously related. And people don’t change as much from age 25-45, the likely age range of his brothers.So Joseph recognizes them, but they do not recognize him. And this puts him in the unique opportunity to be hurt afresh without them knowing. He is re-wounded, re-injured, and re-afflicted to the complete ignorance of the brothers. Joseph becomes a metaphor for how all emotional pain happens. When we are hurt by someone and we suffer, that suffering is experienced alone. Emotional pain happens in the cavity and vacuum of our own experience. Nobody else can enter completely into our head or feel the pain the way we experience it. It happens in isolation. The one who caused the injury goes about their life in total ignorance of how they have bruised and crushed the heart of another. They perhaps are even happy, laughing, and enjoying recreation while you suffer.When Joseph saw his brothers, the flood of emotions begins to choke him, and he suffers alone. Even if someone there knew a fractional portion of his story, no one would be able to relate. When we face our offender, the hurt is reactivated and relived alone. Not only did the hurt come flooding back. Something else came flooding back. The dream.Can you imagine that out of body experience where you look at all ten of your brothers, bowing in front of you? There they are on their faces in the dust and all you can see is the bald spots on the backs of their heads. How ironic. These hardened desert dwellers, these brothers of mine who had single-handedly, in a fit of revenge, murdered the Shechemites. These brothers of mine who stood over me, kicked me, spit in my face, stripped me naked, pulled out my beard, and threw me into a pit. Here they are bowing before me.You can imagine the shivering realization that this was promised you more than twenty years ago. And now you are staring in solitude at prophecy fulfilled. It would just send shivers down your spine.Now you honestly have to feel sorry for Joseph at this moment. He has swirling emotions of hurt, prophesies being fulfilled, he’s wounded, angry, lonely. How is he going to respond?Now a lot of commentary goes into Joseph’s reaction here. What was Joseph doing? He’s speaking harshly. He’s holding his cards close not revealing his identity. He’s making harsh accusations that he knows are not true. He’s asking them to do something that he knows would be insanely difficult, almost impossible for them to do, to ask dad to bring down the youngest brother. So what is going on here?Was he enjoying the power he had over them, kind of toying with them like cat and mouse? Was he being vindictive? Or was he wanting to trust them and reveal himself but thought it best to first test them? Or maybe, he wanted to forgive but wasn’t in the right headspace. Did he need to buy some time to get his thoughts together?I mean, it doesn’t take a seminary degree to put yourself in Joseph’s position. I’m sure it was all this. The emotions that collide in forgiveness are extremely complex.Confusion is the result of losing your bearings. When you know that north is here, south is here, you are confident. But when all a sudden you discover that what you thought was north is certainly not north and now you have no idea where north is, it creates feelings that are very disturbing and unsettling. Confusion sets in.Relationally, we get our bearings through trust. I can really trust that person. That person will always look out for my best interest. I can lean on this person and they will support me. And when we know we can trust people, that becomes our compass for how to navigate the world.But when that trust is broken, suddenly we find ourselves incredibly disoriented and confused. Who can I trust? I thought they were absolutely trustworthy but clearly they are not, so who can I trust?When we face our offenders, that confusion of trust swirls around and fogs our thinking. Are they still the same person? Or have they changed? Are they still so unaware of how they hurt me? Do they still lack empathy, sympathy, compassion? Do they have any regret at all? Will they continue to go on in these foolish ways? Will they continue to put themselves in the center of the world?Trust and forgiveness are related but not synonymous. You can forgive someone and not trust them. But it’s difficult to have a relationship with someone you don’t trust. Since all relationships are built on trust, no trust equals no relationship. What is Joseph doing in the narrative? He’s trying to forgive but he’s also trying to find a way to determine if he can trust his brothers again.Obviously, as the narrative unfolds, Joseph’s aim here is not to inflict revenge. But he’s also not ready to trust. Clearly, he’s disoriented. He’s acting in a way that all confused, sincere, disoriented, but godly people do. He’s trying to determine where north is.Will I be hurt again? Do they still wish me harm? Even if they don’t wish me harm, do I even want to get involved with them? Maybe the best thing to do is just let them go home and nobody would be the wiser? How do I move forward? Thoughts like these must have been going through his head.Facing the offender reactivates the hurt and creates confusion. There’s a third thing that happens. As the person who is hurt and confused begins to ponder, meditate, and ask the question, “Why am I so hurt?”, the answer surfaces. There is a debt.The feeling of hurt and the feeling of confusion are products of an objective debt. What you see here is quite dramatic. Joseph’s brothers are literally vocalizing and putting words to the debt that was created in the offense. You see, every act of unkindness, injury, insult, abuse, and harm creates a debt.Imagine if you had a precious vase in your bedroom and I walked up with a baseball bat and I just smash that vase into million pieces. I can say sorry all I want, but the vase is still broken. The broken vase represents the debt. That’s real damage. There’s real money that has to be shelled out to repurchase it. And some vases are not replaceable. I mean, certain vases are one of a kind heirlooms that don’t have a price tag. They are priceless. What if you smash one of those? And we have all sorts of vases in our hearts that represent things precious to us, one-of-a-kind items. Some of those can be replaced and some of them could never be replaced.In Joseph’s case what was the debt? What has been destroyed that has been irreparably damaged? His brothers have incurred a pretty significant debt. They robbed him of the prime years of his life. Instead of getting a career started or playing sports, he’s rotting in a dungeon. He can’t get that back, no matter how sorry they are. They robbed him of 30 years of a relationship that he could have had with his father and his full brother Benjamin and many years with his mother. He’s not getting that back. They robbed him of his dignity, his sense of belonging, and his ethnic identity. They robbed him of all his friends, every relationship he enjoyed, every possession he had, and every comfort he relished.But more than all that, it was the steely cold eyes of hatred that ignored his cries. It was their enjoyment of watching the pleas be ignored and their lust to see the bewilderment in Joseph’s eyes. That must have been what hurt the most and it was the thing that caused the most guilt in the brothers. “In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother. We saw his distress. He begged us. We did not listen.” They caused distress in his soul and that distress was unresolved. The debt was very large.So here Joseph his. He has come face to face with his debtors. And as he faces off the hurt has been reactivated. The pain is resurrected and those buried demons come tearing out of the corners of his soul with redoubled ability to hurt. Confusion has been created. Can I trust them? They have hurt me so deeply. Should I forgive them? How can I forgive them? The pain and confusion are all factors of the debt. Joseph has the power to make them pay. He can make them pay for life. But look at what Joseph does.That’s where we end today. Now here’s the fourth thing that happens when we face forgiveness.Will I forgive? That’s a choice and in that choice represents nearly infinite power to change the world. Yes, there’s an objective debt. Yes, that objective debt created hurt. Yes, that objective debt created confusion. But I have a choice. Will I forgive? Joseph’s decision to forgive his brothers will save the world. It could be argued that this power is the greatest power Joseph possess.To illustrate this, let me ask you a question: why do you think Joseph turned away and wept at this point? Why would the sovereign of Egypt weep? We don’t have an immediate explanation. In some way, the consequence of his brother’s sin against him came crashing down upon him. And the feelings represented in those tears are undoubtedly multi-faceted and complex.Sin had created this moment. The sin of the brothers against him had created this moment of deep fracture and relational death. He felt that. And I’m sure he felt compassion on his brothers as they suffered beneath the weight of guilt, the thought of them having to live a lie to their father for 25 years. Carrying in their memories the cries of their younger brother. He felt that and had compassion. And I’m sure he wept because of the cost of redemption. The only path to redeem this was suffering. He has already born in his own body the incredible injustice of that sin. And he would have to absorb in his soul much more if they were to be forgiven. He felt that. As Joseph contemplated forgiveness all of these emotions were present and he just wept. He wept.You see, Joseph is for us a beautiful Christ figure. Jesus Christ is the one who wept, Jesus wept as he absorbs debt for the sake of others. Both Jesus and Joseph save humanity through forgiveness. Consider the parallels. Jesus Christ is the ultimate sovereign. He stands second in command, viceregent to the father. He wears on his finger the signet of the father from which flows all authority, all dominion, and all power. We are the ones who tried to destroy him. We have sinned against him. We are the ones who through our rebellion have kicked him, spit on him, plucked his beard, stripped him of his robe, sold him for a handful of silver, and threw him into a pit.Like Joseph’s brothers, the way our sin has hurt and injured Christ is largely unknown to us. We go about our life totally unaware of the fracture that we have created. We laugh, we absorb the benefits of God’s blessing, we live comfortable lives not realizing the atrocious effects of our sin upon our brother. We cast him into the pit and leave him for dead.But like Joseph, that pit could not hold him because there was a dream. It was prophesied of him that he would rise from that pit and rule. And that every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And Jesus Christ was resurrected from the pit. And when anyone stands in front of a resurrected sovereign, it’s obvious that we stand in the presence of greatness. The contrast to self is obvious.Our debt is felt against the blinding light of the sovereign. We carry around in us our guilt and our sense of inadequacy. We don’t want the sovereign to discover it. We whisper amongst ourselves thinking he is out of earshot. But he speaks our language. He is right there overhearing the rehearsal of our guilt and the many ways we have hurt him. And terrified of our guilt we bow in the presence of greatness. Jesus looks at our bald spots as we bow to our sovereign. Jesus looks at us and says, “Here my abusers are bowing before me, the ones who closed their heart to mercy and now they are at my mercy.”We continue to bow having no idea who we bow before. Sure we can tell by his signet and scepter that he’s mighty. We can tell he’s in charge - he has authority to judge. But we are woefully ignorant that we are on trial for our lives for the crime of murder of the one we bow before. We are totally blinded by the degree to which we are at fault. We are blind to the offense, the transgression, the breach, and the relational criminality. We have no idea that our careless self-centered thinking sent him to the pit, threw him into the dungeon where he was nailed to the cross, was stabbed in the side, and left to die.The reality is we have incurred a debt. A debt we could never afford. But here’s the good news. Our sins they are many his mercy is more. Yes, our sins they are many, his mercy is more.Our sin was far, far, far worse than we could have ever imagined but God’s mercy was far more expansive than we ever could have dreamed. Our sins they are many but his mercy is more! God is much more forgiving than we thought possible. He’s more merciful, gracious, and slow to anger than we could have imagined. He’s more compassionate, tenderhearted, moved to sympathy than we dreamed. God abounds in loving-kindness, he’s near, and he loves us.Folks, we are here today to celebrate and worship a sovereign who has chosen to forgive. As we come to the end of our week and fasting, we are here to acknowledge that even if the world blows apart to millions of pieces through internal turmoil, suffering and fighting, though our sins are many, his mercy is more! God has fixed the problem of sin through his mercy, his mercy.I’m going to invite up the musicians and we are going to sing this song together. And I want to express what I know your heart is saying to you right now. I want to give you permission to clap and sing and rejoice while we sing this song. It is appropriate right now to celebrate the mercy of God. And I want to practice."What love could remember no wrongs we have done Omniscient, all knowing, He counts not their sum Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore Our sins they are many, His mercy is morePraise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more"Isaiah 43:25, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”"What patience would wait as we constantly roam What Father, so tender, is calling us home He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor Our sins they are many, His mercy is morePraise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more"Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”Romans 4:7-8, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”"What riches of kindness He lavished on us His blood was the payment, His life was the cost We stood ’neath a debt we could never afford Our sins they are many, His mercy is more So much more!Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more"Why is forgiveness the greatest power that Joseph had? Joseph’s forgiveness made ripples through history that are literally incalculable. As Joseph stared at those bald spots, he was staring at the future tribes of Israel. What if he had executed them? He would be justified in doing so. And he and his brothers would have died and with them the promise of God.You see it would be through these twelve tribes that Messiah would come. The entire future of the history of Israel hung in the balance of that decision to forgive. Messiah came through the line of Judah. Joseph’s forgiveness made a way for ultimate forgiveness to be realized. Joseph’s forgiveness pointed to the ultimate forgiveness of the ultimate forgiver.What our nation needs right now is for people to forgive one another. What if every person in our country completely forgave their five worst enemies? What if that anger, hurt, animosity was replaced with warm benevolent love? Can you imagine the impact that would have on our nation? What if you forgave, truly forgave, those who have hurt you most?BenedictionHe who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.If you would like to come up and accept God’s mercy do that. If you would like to come and thank God for his mercy, come up and do that. The prayer team will be up here after the service to pray with you.
When you think about buying something — a plain ol’ shirt, for example — what’s your thought process? How do you decide what shirt to buy? Maybe you think, “I don’t want to spend over $20 on this shirt.” Or, “I need it fast, so I need to buy it online from a store that offers free two-day shipping.” How often are you thinking, “I need a shirt that’s sustainably and responsibly made from a locally owned clothing boutique”? This is an example of using your money to make an impact. Every purchase you make has a ripple effect. That’s why it’s important to understand that impact. In our newest episode, Dustin and Joseph discuss the idea of “voting with your dollars” — what it means and how you can start practicing it through spending and investing. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN [02:17] What “voting with your dollars” means [05:05] Changing our spending habits [09:22] The draw of cheapness and convenience [12:10] What makes a monopoly? [14:20] A tip for buying clothes (and really, anything) [16:09] Why we just “buy a new one” [18:30] ESG investing [25:27] It goes both ways: voting affects your money too Cheapness and Convenience Let’s go back to our hypothetical shirt situation. We buy the shirt from Amazon because it costs ten bucks and it’ll arrive tomorrow. With that purchase, whether consciously or not, we’re choosing to support a big corporation over our local clothing shop down the street. A big corporation that doesn’t even need your business. Meanwhile, mom-and-pops go to great lengths to compete with giant companies like Amazon, for example. They’ll match the price, even if they have to show a loss. They just want your business. Sad, right? The truth is, though, that we are choosing to ignore how that shirt from Amazon is made; many workers in the fashion and textile industry suffer from labor abuse and unethical practices. (Just listen to Episode 80 with Stephanie Hepburn to learn more.) We’re not trying to guilt trip you, promise. This is just to illustrate the fact that, in our culture, cheapness and convenience often motivate our decisions to buy stuff. If you want to start spending your money differently, you have to be more mindful of what you’re buying. Changing our Buying Behavior How do we start changing the way we make purchases? Think of everything as an investment. This quick little thought process can help us buy quality clothing over fast fashion. An electric car vs a gas car. Organic food instead of cheap, unhealthy food. It can even influence how we buy replacements for things we already have, like a busted TV or a phone. Decades ago, we’d hire someone, maybe a local handyman or specialist, to repair a broken device. Not anymore. It’s usually quicker, and costs you less money and less time and stress, to just ‘buy a new one’ of something. Cheapness and convenience strike again. We may understand the factors influencing our purchases, but that doesn’t make it any easier to change. As Joseph put it: “We’re less likely to change our behavior because, ‘well, I already paid for the Prime membership this year, so…’” But we can change for the better. We Can Do Better It’s not all doom-and-gloom, folks. You can begin investing and spending your money the way that you want. Change takes time, so you shouldn’t expect to get rid of any bad spending habits all at once. One thing you can do is be more selective of the businesses and organizations you support with your dollars. Research companies before you buy from them. Practice ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing. You can invest in “regular” stocks, watch your wealth grow, and see businesses change in response to their shareholders’ behavior. Or, you can focus on “impact investing,” where companies address certain social or environmental needs through special stocks or funds. Either way, ESG investing isn’t that hard. And the benefits are two-fold: you can grow your wealth and know that your money is supporting your values. Change can happen, but it has to start within each of us. As Dustin put it: It’s not always just about profit, cheapness, and convenience. We can live in the world that we want. But we have to change the way we spend our money, how we outline our budgets, and the way we invest. This material is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. RESOURCES & PEOPLE MENTIONED Buy n Large, and how our society is like the one in WALL-E Quick history lesson on trusts and Teddy Roosevelt Sustainable Fashion & Social Good with Stephanie Hepburn: Episode 80 Build Wealth and Make an Impact with ESG Investing: Episode 76 The Volkswagen emissions scandal on Dirty Money Check out our new program, Wealth by Design™ DIY! Join the Know Your Numbers challenge Schedule a free call with us — Are we a good fit for your financial planning needs? CONNECT WITH DANIELLE AND DUSTIN Ask Your Questions On Facebook On Twitter Danielle’s Instagram
## IntroductionI love survival stories. One of my absolute favorites is entitled “The Endurance,” and is about Earnest Shackleton’s attempt to cross the Antarctic Continent from 1914-1917. And what makes it so gripping is the cycles of hope and despair. You’re reading along and they are enduring unbelievable catastrophes. They are getting stuck in ice, their ship sinks, they are in open seas on an iceberg. They run out of key supplies. And you think to yourself, “Wow, I can’t imagine this getting any worse.” And then you look at your book and your only a quarter of the way through. And sure enough, it gets way worse. But then they get this incredible stroke of luck and you think, “Oh, man they are going to make it!” And you’re on this adrenaline high of hope. And you think, “This has got to almost be over.” And you look at your book and you haven’t even reached the halfway marker. And then you find out why. Tragedy strikes. And then you are just crying in sympathy for these guys. It can’t get worse. And it gets way worse. It just keeps cycling through these incredible highs where they celebrate a stroke of fortune only to be rewarded with an unforeseen tragedy of monstrous proportions.And this is kind of the way the Joseph narrative reads. He goes from mountain to valley to mountain to valley. You could illustrate it like this.Joseph starts out on this mountain top, this incredible position of privilege of an especially gifted, favorite, handsome son. But tragedy strikes! His brothers act on their raging jealousy and strip his identity from him like skin from an animal. His family, privilege, language, culture, values, and even his name are stripped away. His naked body and soul is sold into slavery.It’s a tragic valley low. But then with the Lord’s help, he rises to a position of incredible influence and privilege in Potiphar’s house. And now we are standing on a mountain high. Who wouldn’t love the view from where he stands? That is, until strategy strikes in the form of a seductress.Today we watch Joseph go from being in charge to being charged with rape. We watch him descend back into the valley and reach a low watermark, beneath his previous bottom. So let’s watch how this happens in the text. You will remember that this woman is bad news. On the outside, she looks extremely attractive and is always put together. Her hair is always so effortlessly perfect, the clothes are tailored to the perfect length, very physically gifted, very beautiful to behold.But she’s bad news. Why is she such bad news? From the text alone we can tell she has an adulterous heart, she’s a skilled liar, and she is very manipulative. Let’s re-read part of the text from last week and see the seductress work her angle.He’s getting slaughtered by temptation. But he’s trusting God. If you were to summarize from Joseph’s response his chief reason for resisting this woman, what would it be? “How could I do this great evil and sin against God.” That’s his core reason. That reason has both a positive and a negative built into it. There is a consequence of sexual sin and there is a reward for righteousness. And both are intended to keep us in the place of blessing. But I want to illustrate how important it is to correctly identify the consequence and the reward. Because the incorrect identification of reward and consequence might psychologically destroy you.ConsequenceLast week, we mostly talked about consequences. Sexual sin has consequences that we need to take really seriously. We used the analogy of temptation as bait. Every temptation hides a sharp hook that leads to death. And the reason temptation works is because it deceives. Satan is a deceiver. He’s always making bad things look good and good things look bad.Joseph was able to resist temptation because he was able to uncover the deception. This was not life. This was death. It may be pleasurable now but it will be miserable later. The Bible always tries to help us see the deceptions woven into sexual experience. There are always consequences.This woman was hunting down Joseph. Here was a married woman trying to hunt down a precious life. There are always consequences of sexual sin. Yes. We’ve identified those. But God gives us more than just deterrents. There is also a reward for righteousness.Reward.I’ll say it one more time. It is so important to identify the correct consequences and the correct reward. Because the incorrect identification of reward might psychologically destroy you. So what is the reward of righteousness? Let’s begin with what it is not.Let me illustrate it this way. If you were to listen in on Joseph’s prayer life in the heat of his temptation, what do you think he would be praying? “God help me live a life of complete integrity. Everyone knows I’m a follower of YHWH. God, reward me for my righteousness. I want to live completely above reproach. I want to be like a sheet of Teflon so that no accusation has even the slightest chance of sticking. Reward my integrity!”If you overheard that prayer, what’s reward do you think he’d be referring to? Here’s the mistake most of us make. Most of us assume that with enough diligence, obedience, and righteousness, our life will turn out pain-free, struggle-free, and we will have relational harmony throughout. We think God ought to reward our righteousness with wonderful circumstances.Let me show you how dangerous this can be. Let’s imagine for a moment that Joseph incorrectly believes that the reward for righteousness is favorable circumstances.Motives for ObedienceLet’s keep reading the narrative through the lens of this incorrect expectation:Now, this has got to have a wearing effect on a guy. Let’s suppose for a moment that in the heat of these temptations, what was motivating Joseph was the belief that his righteousness was going to be rewarded. And he had a very specific understanding of what that reward was. Let’s imagine Joseph with the yet-to-be-written book of Proverbs in his hands. He reads chapter 1:And he’s thinking, “Okay God, I’m counting on you take out this adulterous woman. I’m going to obey you. This is tough but I trust this is going to get better. After all, you told me:”“So God, I’m praying that you would fix this situation. That’s what I really want.”And we could imagine a Joseph whose motive for obedience was the reward for his righteousness in the form of vindication, justice, relational harmony, and comfortable situation. Well, look at what happens next.Now Joseph is freaking out at this moment. But he’s got his book of Proverbs and it just so happened that it was September 11 so he had just read Proverbs 11 that morning.“Okay, God, you’ve said that my reward for righteousness is deliverance. Time for you to do that, right now.”And he was so consumed with chapter 11, he read clean through to chapter 12:“Cause my house to stand! The reason I obeyed you, Lord, was that you promised to reward my righteousness. Time for some help here.”Now if Joseph thought in his mind that the reason he is obeying the Lord is that he will be rewarded for his righteousness in the form of comfortable circumstances, he would be very, very, very disappointed. He would feel very betrayed and very confused at this point.Think about Joseph in heavy chains around his neck and manacles around his wrists and ankles. And he would have said something like this, “The whole reason I obeyed you, Lord, is that you promised to reward my righteousness and now I’m in prison. What kind of reward is that?”Many people turn from God for exactly this reason. They are confused by suffering and ask, “God, why did you take my son or daughter? Why did you let that terrible accident happen? God, why did that financial tragedy destroy us? Why are we suffering from this physical illness?” And they walk away from God.Prosperity Preaching in Conservative ChurchesNow most of us realize that suffering plays a role in the Christian life. Now not one of us in the room buys into prosperity theology which basically says, “God wants you to be materially, circumstantially prosperous and so if you are not materially prosperous you are out of step with God’s will. You either don’t have enough faith, you haven’t prayed, you have some sin in your life, or some combination of these factors.” We ought to know, just from a cursory reading of the Bible that this is bogus theology. There are dozens of heroes of the faith that honored God and were rewarded with suffering - including Joseph and even Jesus himself. That can’t be right and it isn’t. We realize that suffering is part of the Christian life.But what I want you to understand is that prosperity theology did not originate with greedy preachers. It originates in your own greedy heart. At a very subconscious level, we believe that we deserve ease. We expect comfort. We expect a physical reward for righteousness. We expect comfort and relational harmony ought to be our reward for righteousness. And here’s how I can prove it. I’m going to trick you so watch for it. See if you can relate to this train of thought: “Man, I have really got myself into a mess. I’ve totally been a terrible parent and now my kids are acting up in this way. I’ve been neglectful. I feel guilty about that. I’ve been totally mean to my spouse and now they are all mad at me and I deserve it. I’ve been really lazy and procrastinated. So now I’m reaping the rewards for that. I didn’t save for retirement and now I’m paying the price. What was I to expect? I made this bed and now God is making me lay in it.”There it is. That is conservative evangelical prosperity theology at it’s finest. Yet if our righteousness does not merit prosperity and good circumstances, then our unrighteousness does not merit poverty and bad circumstances. Why? Because God does not reward or punish primarily through circumstances. If the gospel of Jesus Christ means anything, then it means you are already righteous. You have been merited the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It means the verdict has already been delivered. And there is no judging of your works as if they are the basis upon which you receive pleasant or unpleasant circumstances. The basis of our circumstances is God’s sovereign, providential plan for our good and for his glory. There is no ying-yang. There is not karma upon which the world operates that says because you did this bad thing over here, the cosmic powers that be will ensure this bad thing will happen to you and because you did this good thing over here, the divine forces of the universe will ensure that this good thing happens to you.If you think that your circumstances are somehow divinely linked to your righteousness or unrighteousness, how would you explain what you witness in the world? Is it not the case that sometimes the unrighteous prosper and the righteous suffer? And is not the inverse true? And if you concede that this exists, how would you ever know when your good circumstances are a result of your good behavior or when your good circumstances are a result of God circumventing your bad behavior?God does not reward our righteousness with material prosperity, physical prosperity, or relational prosperity. There is a reward but that’s not it. On the other hand, God also does not punish our unrighteousness with material poverty, physical poverty, or relational poverty. There are consequences to unrighteousness but that’s not it.You want to argue with me, I know. Isn’t there cause an effect? For sure. That’s not what we are talking about. Yes, if you punch people, they are going to punch you back. Yes, if you are kind you will generally receive kind treatment. Is there a connection? Of course. Here’s the distinction I’m making. I’m trying to disconnect the reward of righteousness with circumstances. Yes, certain causes will generally have certain effects. But that effect is not a reward. The reward of righteousness is something else. What is the reward?One of the most remarkable things about Joseph is that he understood reward. The reward for righteousness is simply this: closeness with God. How could I do this great evil and sin against God?Joseph wasn’t looking to get a position of influence from God, nor riches, fame, glory, or blessings from God. He was looking for God! God was the desire of his heart. Joseph appears to have the heart described by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.It is so easy to confuse the reward, isn’t it? The gift is God. The gift is being with God, closeness, the feeling of satisfaction knowing you didn’t betray him, freedom from guilt, the satisfaction of his smile. This is the reward. This is what Joseph was after.Many are after a different reward. They mistakenly believe that the reward for righteousness is the gifts of God rather than God himself. In fact, if you remember, this is the problem with the Psalmist in Psalm 73. You may recall, the Psalm begins:The Psalm begins by affirming that God rewards the righteous. Great! But what’s the reward? That’s the all-important question we have been asking. It’s easy to get it wrong. And at first, Asaph did get it wrong. Asaph, the writer of this Psalm, says, “My foot almost slipped when I looked around and I saw the wicked prospering.” Everywhere he looked he saw reversals of how things ought to be. He saw the wicked being rewarded. They were the ones who were well-fed, had luxury cars, got anything they wanted, and got away with such evil.If the righteous are rewarded, then how do you explain this? God doesn’t reward the righteous. He’s rewarding the wicked! And what’s God’s answer? You’re totally misunderstanding the reward. The reward of the righteous is nearness to God. Closeness to God is the reward and separation from God is the consequence of unrighteousness. And when the Psalmist enters the house of God, it’s all made clear to him.This was Joseph! “How could I do this great evil and lose the relational intimacy I have with God?”Do you feel distant from God? Perhaps it is because of sin. If I ever feel distant from God, this is always the first question I ask myself. Am I aware of any sin that might be distancing me from God? I might be getting away with it like the man of Psalm 73, but I have no closeness with God. Repent!The godly prize this closeness with God more than anything in the world. How could I do this great evil and sin against God!For Joseph, the reward and the consequences are one and the same. The consequence of sexual sin is that God becomes very distant. The reward of righteousness is that God becomes very near.Now here’s where you can actually see the reward given to Joseph in the text itself. Even though Joseph was unjustly thrown into prison, accused of attempted rape, and had his character drug through the mud, they could not take from him the thing he prized most. Now, look at how it is stated in the text. It’s so beautiful!Now there, my friends, is your reward for righteousness. The reward of the righteous is the awareness of the steadfast love of God, the presence of God, and communion with God. Joseph was rewarded with the awareness of the steadfast love of the Lord. What a beautiful picture. Locked in prison walls, stripped of everything, all men’s power used against you to destroy you, but you have the steadfast love of God! Joseph was richly, richly rewarded!Now, this might seem a little too neat and too tidy. Those who are currently in a difficult situation might say to me at this moment, “You sure look comfortable up there. Have you ever suffered a day in your life? I mean, in the midst of suffering it sure doesn’t feel like I’m being rewarded with intimacy with God. It actually feels more like God is about 10 billion miles away as I scream out my prayer into the night and he doesn’t answer.”You won’t always feel the reward in the midst of difficult circumstances. In fact, do you remember Job? The Bible says Job was a righteous man, blameless and upright and God allowed him to go through a period of intense suffering. Job has lost his house in a hurricane, all his family, his entire 401k has been wiped out, and he’s got some nasty sickness replete with body boils, a sickness that would make COVID-19 look like a dreamy relief. Not only that, but his friends are heckling him that he must have sinned in some horrific way.He’s suffering as a righteous man. What is our reward supposed to be for the righteous? The reward is supposed to be a relational closeness with God. We are supposed to feel close to God. Is that how Job feels?How do we square this? It sounds nice to say that God is our reward for righteous living, but is it true to our experience? As Joseph stood staring at his prison wall, how do you suppose he felt? Elation? I doubt it. How is the reward of righteousness experienced?Let me give you an example. Running is terrible. Those of you who actually enjoy running are freaks of nature. For most of us, we just hate it. You don’t feel like anything good is happening. I generally feel like throwing up, like my legs are rubber mallets, and my lungs are tiny plastic sandwich baggies flapping in a hurricane. It’s truly just torture. But then when I finish, suddenly, the magic kicks in. My body is flushed with energy, I feel loose, my muscles thank me for actually being used. After the suffering is over, I stand back and I realize that the suffering eclipsed the really wonderful things going on at a much more nuanced level.The reward was there all along, it was just being drowned out by the noise of suffering. This is much how the reward of righteousness works in the midst of suffering. James Fixx wrote a book entitled, The Complete Book of Running which sounds pretty definitive, doesn’t it. I’m guessing he’s one of these freaks. And there’s a section in the book where he addresses the psychology of running. He says the hardest thing about running a marathon is winning the mental battle. When you suffer, weird stuff happens to your mind. He says, “I would be in the middle of a marathon and the pain would wear on me to the point where I would ask myself the question, ‘Why am I doing this again?’ But the pain makes you forget.” And he would start to wrack his brain for a reason why he was punishing himself so severely and he would find he had no answer.Isn’t that sometimes how you feel in suffering? I’m sure Joseph felt this way. “God, why did I choose to obey you again? Why didn’t I just give in? God if I had slept with that woman, I would have had a really great night, and probably would have even been rewarded in some way but now I’m cursed. What’s the reward for righteousness again?” And he has no answer.Maybe you are suffering for righteousness’ sake and you find you have no answer. You thought there was an answer but you can’t remember it. So you know what James Fixx recommended? Memorize the reasons. Before every race, he would memorize the reasons he loved running. And when he was super tired, he would recite those reasons back to his own brain. That’s good advice for the Christian. If Joseph had the New Testament, for sure he would have memorized:You could imagine this being very helpful. Because prisons are not fun. Imagine being in prison and what your body would be screaming at you. How would you feel being hungry, hot, the smell of urine and human waste, dirty, sick, and coughing. What’s my reward for righteousness again? Nothing comes to mind.I’m sure in this moment, all Joseph’s dreams about sheaves of wheat bowing down and stars bowing down seemed like pipe dreams. All he can see and smell and taste is the dungeon. But there’s this verse I memorized. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.Now James Fixx had one final trick. “If things really get bad and you can’t remember what you memorized, the final trick I used to play on my brain is I used to say, ‘Well I know when I get there, I’ll remember it. I know I had a good reason to start. When I get there, I’ll remember it.’”Now there’s a lot of wisdom in this, and this is what Joseph does. Joseph says, “How can I then do this wicked thing and sin against God?” At that moment it’s all clear. But then he gets tossed into prison, and perhaps God feels a million miles away. But he can say, “I have no idea why this happening and I can’t even remember the reason I decided righteousness was worth it. But I know there was a reason and when all this is over, I’ll remember.”Imagine a marathon runner who forgets the reason he runs and just decides to quit. The reward was all around him, it was in him, it was just ahead of him in spades, but he couldn’t remember and so he just stopped. How tragic to lose a race because you forgot!Do you know the Christian’s version of this? It’s Romans 8:28, “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose.” I don’t know what that good purpose is, but when I get there, I’ll remember. When I get there, I’ll know it. You see Romans 8:28 is a verse for the dungeon. It’s not what you quote when you get a stimulus check. It’s what you quote when you find out you have cancer, or when your child walks away from the faith, or when your marriage is in shambles.Nobody Can Take The RewardYou see, for a Christian, one of the greatest comforts is that nobody can take that reward away from you. Nobody has the power to take away that assurance. In Joseph’s case, everyone tried. Everyone was trying to ensure that nothing worked together for Joseph’s good. There were all sorts of power exchanges going on trying to strip Joseph of his reward for righteousness. If you inspect the narrative closely you will see the story is a story of various powers trying to destroy Joseph and strip him of his reward, but he is indestructible because of God’s righteousness in him. No power can destroy the righteousness of God.And you can see this in the text by tracing the Hebrew word “hand.” In Hebrew, the word ‘hand’ is nearly synonymous with power. In an agrarian society, power is represented by plowing, tying a rope, harvesting, building, farming, weaving, raising children - all things we do with our hands. And there are all these expressions in the Bible that associate power with the hand: - God shuts his hand. - Open your hand to me or do not relax your hand. - A mighty hand and outstretched arm or the right hand. - Deliver my enemies into my hands.The hand is synonymous with power. You can trace the word ‘hand’ through the narrative. At first, Joseph is put into the hand of the Ishmaelites. He’s under their power, under their hand. But soon the power shifts. Everything in Potiphar’s house is given into Joseph’s hand. Everything that is, except Potiphar’s wife. But then the woman uses her imperial hand, her power, to try and grab Joseph. But that grasping hand does not reach Joseph. Only his clothes are left in her hand. She is ultimately empty-handed. And all through the narrative the power shifts, from Joseph’s brothers to the Ishmaelites to Potiphar to Pharaoah to the seductress. Who has the power? Whose hand is controlling these events?As we back away, we are shocked to see, none of these hands are actually doing anything. It’s the sovereign hand of God, orchestrating, keeping, preserving, redeeming, strengthening those he wills to strengthen, and destroying those he wills to destroy. Ultimately Joseph entrusted himself to that gracious hand and when he is safe in God’s hand nothing can touch him. Nothing can hurt him. The hand of the woman could not reach him. The hand of others could not separate him from the hand of God.And this should be a lesson for us in suffering. It’s the thing we memorize. It’s the thing we recall to mind. The hands of men can never ultimately assail me. They don’t have the power to take away my reward. Their hands can’t reach that far.Even though the suffering is so terrible, know that when the suffering lets up the reward will be obvious. For Joseph that suffering lets up. And even though it’s not perfectly clear at this moment in prison, he begins to see glimpses of God’s hand working, saving, redeeming, preserving, and keeping. Listen to it.The story of Joseph is the ultimate example of Romans 8:28. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. What if you were Joseph with one key difference? What if you knew that the answer to your suffering is that your suffering would be written into the pages of the Bible to encourage other Christians? Wouldn’t it be easy to suffer through prison for two years if you knew that you would be made ruler of the entire land?Wouldn’t that change things? Of course it would! Can you trust God if you don’t know the reason? God’s hands are large enough for that. Can you accept the fact that your reward for righteousness will not necessarily be pleasant circumstances, but in that dungeon of darkness, God will show you his steadfast love?Ultimately, this has incredible sustaining ethical power because circumstances don’t factor into the reason why you obey. It’s why Joseph was able to resist. Why are you righteous? Why do you keep God’s sexual ethic, Joseph? What is Joseph’s answer? Because the nearness of God is my good. How could I do this great evil and lose closeness with God? If the only reason you obey God is that you don’t like consequences, you will fail. It’s easy to think, “I’m righteous because it’s beneficial to my business. If I get caught it would be horrific. If I get caught, my reputation would be destroyed. Can’t have that. If I got involved in this sexual stuff, well, I can’t imagine breaking apart my family. That would be more than I could bear.”That’s all fine. What if you were totally righteous but you were falsely judged, condemned, and then destroyed as if you committed all those sins? If the only reason you obey God is for the good circumstances he brings you, then you are preaching to yourself a prosperity gospel. Could you choose righteousness if the reward was nothing else except the nearness of God?ApplicationYou see, the man or woman God uses is not necessarily a missionary or a pastor or ministry professional. Joseph wasn’t any of these. He wasn’t in ministry. The person God uses is the one who resists temptation when nobody can see. One who, in the secret watches of the night, is righteous because he loves the smile of God. A man or woman who does the right thing when nobody is watching. That’s who God uses.
The Life of Joseph ~ Willing to Wait ~ Genesis 40 Last week we saw how Joseph was a man of integrity. Unwilling to compromise or give in to temptation, he chose to honor God. We would like to think that if we honor God over falling into temptation, it will result in a positive outcome. But sometimes, honoring God over the pleasures of this world comes at a cost! Joseph refused the advances of Potiphar’s wife so she accused him of attempting to rape her and he ends up in prison! Nothing fair about that, but God doesn’t promise that this life will be fair. Rather he promises that whether it’s fair or not, in the end, it will work out for our good and His glory! That’s where we pick up today in Chapter 40. It begins with Joseph in prison, and it ends with Joseph in prison.... for doing the right thing! Does life ever seem like it’s going that way for you? You’re trying to work with integrity, but the ones that cut corners are the ones that get ahead! You’re working a 2nd job to pay off debt, but it seems like every time you get a little ahead the car breaks down, the kids get sick, something happens that empties the bank account out. You’re praying for God to move in your marriage. You’re trying to love her sacrificially like Jesus... Or you’re trying to let him lead you and your family spiritually, but he just won’t do it! It seems like nothing is going right and it’s just not getting any better! What do you do??? That’s the question and it’s an important one.... What do you do right then, and the next day, or week, or month, or year? How you wait – What you do – when you can’t see God working in your situation, it matters! Are you willing to wait for God? Let’s look and see how Joseph responds to his situation during the years he was imprisoned for doing something right! Joseph is waiting because there’s nothing else he can do... Can’t get out - No appeal process - Can’t escape. He’s gone from being a favored son to thrown in a pit & sold into slavery by his brothers. Now he’s falsely accused & stuck in an Egyptian prison where no one is looking for him! Here’s the thing -- We know the end of his story! Where Joseph says in Genesis 50:20 “You meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Try to look at Ch 40 as Joseph would have lived it... with no clue how it was going to turn out! Sometimes we’re stuck in a situation where we have no choice but to wait. *Have you ever really considered how much we wait anyway? Am I the only one that watches to see which line is moving quicker at the grocery store? I’m pretty patient when it comes to people... But I hate waiting in line, on hold, caught up in phone tree hell! We’re all waiting for something... HS – Graduation College – 1st Job Working – Buy your 1st house Waiting on the right time to get married, have a child... Waiting for your prayers to be answered... for your child to come back to the Lord... Any football fans hoping there’s going to be a real season this year? Talk about waiting!! Wall Street Journal looked at the avg. 3 hr football game... 60 min for commercials 75 minutes when the players are standing around. 17 minutes for replays. Throw in a little time for crowd shots and talking heads and you’re left with...... 11 minutes of actual football IT’S JUST LIKE LIFE! The Action of Life Is Short The Waiting Is Long Waiting is probably one of the hardest disciplines of the Christian life. But how we wait can change everything! Even when the situation isn’t fair and doesn’t seem to be changing at all. As Joseph waited in an Egyptian prison, it became an amazing period of spiritual growth. A.W. Tozer said: “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has wounded him deeply.” Charles Swindoll: “Pain, when properly handled, can shape a life for greatness.” Warren Wiersbe put it like this: “God permitted Jose...
The coronavirus pandemic, as well as recent protests against racial injustice, have highlighted a few underlying problems in our society that have been unknown by many and ignored by most. One of them is the income equality in America: the staggering wealth that a very small percentage of the population owns. As you’ve probably heard, about 1% of the population owns 44% of the wealth in the world. It’s staggering. That’s why the idea of a wealth tax has been kicked around lately, especially as we draw nearer to the 2020 election. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders both proposed a wealth tax during their campaigns, and billionaires like Warren Buffet have even spoken in favor of a wealth tax. But what is a wealth tax, and how does it work? Listen to our latest Wealth by Design episode to find out. Bonus: we have Joseph Darbonne from the Toujours Planning team as a co-host! WHAT YOU’LL LEARN [00:52] Meet Dustin’s co-host, Joseph [03:56] What is a wealth tax? [06:15] Why the idea of wealth tax is becoming popular [09:55] Is our current tax system fair? [13:38] Negative net worth [15:20] The ultra-wealthy who called for raised taxes [18:06] Downsides of a wealth tax society [20:18] The difference between “regressive” and “progressive” taxes [24:43] Arguments against wealth tax What is a wealth tax and how does it work? Let’s get this out of the way first: wealth tax is not the same as your income tax. Income tax taxes the money you rake in over a period of time. Through our progressive income tax system here in the United States, people with higher taxable incomes pay higher income tax rates. There are seven federal income tax brackets, where the lowest tax rate is 10% and the highest is 37%. Net worth is, as Dustin put it, basically everything you own, minus everything you owe. (Need to know what yours is? We have a calculator for that) A wealth tax would tax your net worth. For example, if you have $400,000 of assets and $250,000 of debt, your net worth would be $150,000. A 2% wealth tax would be $3,000. As Joseph mentioned, wealth taxes are not brand new ideas. “There are wealth taxes in place already that you’re not even aware you pay,” said Joseph. “If you’re a homeowner, your property tax is a wealth tax.” There are also inheritance taxes, estate taxes, and gift taxes as other examples. The argument for a wealth tax Why would we want to institute a wealth tax in this country? Well, we talk about the net worth of Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos in this episode, and we guesstimated it was around $77 billion at the time of recording in mid-July. We were wrong: he has an estimated $178 billion, and is the currently richest person alive. Compare how much wealth he has to the average American, and it’s mind-boggling. As Joseph explained, we now have about 2,100 billionaires in this country… and minimum wage is still under eight bucks in their state of Louisiana. A wealth tax would move to balance out the wealth inequality we experience in our society today. It would also make tax percentages equal for all: “If you’re worth ten dollars or ten billion dollars, you’re gonna have the same tax rate, but based on your net worth,” explained Dustin. We point out in the episode that many people in the top 1% are lucky enough to inherit wealth. There are self-made billionaires who busted their butts, yes, but some of the ultra-wealthy didn’t lift a finger to make their millions and billions. Wealth is much more unequally distributed than income. If we continue to allow income inequality, the ultra-wealthy who inherited their wealth will keep dominating the economy. The cons of having a wealth tax Having a wealth tax sounds like an easy fix to income equality, but the mechanics of having it? Not so much. What would be considered a taxable asset? Are there liabilities that wouldn’t be taxed? How do you even calculate the value of an asset, like your house or business? It gets tricky. And there may be cons against those who aren’t wealthy, too. One of the biggest arguments against the wealth tax, Dustin explained, is that it doesn’t incentivize saving, investing, or building businesses. If we tax the richest people, they might not want to do anything to build their net worth. That may be so, but we also discussed how human nature plays into everything. We want to feel like we have value, and that we matter. Would we really settle for having a negative net worth? Or would people want to keep building their savings and growing their wealth? This was a really fun topic to discuss in our latest episode, and we hope y’all learned about wealth tax by listening. We also hope you enjoyed meeting our new co-host! This material is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. RESOURCES & PEOPLE MENTIONED Learn more about our co-host, Joseph! More on net worth in Episode 102 A short guide to Capital in the 21st Century Jeff Bezos’ net worth (which is already higher than the amount we mentioned at the time of recording) The “Millionaires for Humanity” letter calling for raised taxes Check out our new program, Wealth by Design™ DIY! Join the Know Your Numbers challenge Schedule a free call with us — Are we a good fit for your financial planning needs?
Happy 4th of July celebrating 244 Years of Independence in Our United States of America! Tonight at 9:00PM ET on @siriusxm Channel 103 #siriusxmfaction @rolandsfoodcourt with @gennaro.pecchia We making it an all American great food & wine show with a few of the leaders in the biz! First, we chat with Meat Maestro @marcsarrazin from New York's Butcher @debraggameats Founded in 1927 by Marc Sr, serving 1st quality meats, poultry & more to the restaurant industry & now directly to the public, lucky us! Marc is a culinary wonder, he on the board of the @theculinaryinstituteofamerica & uses his goodness to give back to many charitable organizations since taking over the company. He also been able to grow #debraggameats¿with the additions of assistance of his sons who are making sure they continue to be prime time players in the food industry! So make sure to visit www.debragga.com. We also realize you can't eat your meat without great wine! We've got you covered & paired up with California greatness with winemaker #josephcarr from beloved @joshcellars #joshcellars was founded in 2007 by vintner Joseph as a tribute to his dad, Josh. The brand started with one varietal, Cabernet Sauvignon, and today features a diverse portfolio of well-balanced and delicious wines made to exacting standards. Sourced from across California’s great winegrowing regions, every vintage represents a very personal promise to make great wine in honor of Joe’s dad, Josh. We had the honor of trying the new 2018 Vintage 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve & it is outstanding! Bourbon barrel aged made with award-winning cabernet sauvignon aged in oak bourbon barrels for 2 months. As Joseph states, "I have fun everyday..." You can taste the passion in every sip. Joseph also loves giving back to our Heroes! Currently, @opgratitude is leading one of the largest coordinated efforts in the country to support the brave individuals on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. For every bottle sold of this limited release, Deutsch Family will donate $1 to Operation Gratitude (up to $180,000) To contribute visit www.operationgratitude.com We, along with our producer @paulofcharsky wish you all a safe 4th!
On this episode, we welcome Joseph Martinez, a doctor just weeks away from starting his first position at East Alabama Medical Center. As Joseph will share, his journey is one similar to a fantasy, a story that begins with his Mexican immigrant parents. Despite a strong determination to find success, he will explain why he didn't feel he fit in when he started medical school. Plus, Dr. Martinez will pass along his advice to other first generation Americans who are looking to live out their fantasies.
Genesis 39.1-20a – In this third message of the series we find Joseph as a slave in the house of an Egyptian official named Potiphar. As Joseph had done in his families household, he rises to the position of overseeing this Egyptian household because the Lord is with him, favors him, and causes both him […]
'The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, They stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord , That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord , And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.' Psalms 27:1-5 Nothing can replace the presence of God’s people together. There is a dynamic when the people of God gather together with the Spirit of God that can’t be duplicated over live stream or TV. The recent lack of toilet paper due to Coronavirus is a phenomenon in the human condition called “panic buying”. It is a herd type of behavior. “Don’t Panic During Pandemic.” Use common sense - don’t tempt God by acting stupid, like the NBA player who mocked the virus during a press conference and ended up with the virus, infected his teammates and put several people in quarantine. Obeying God’s commandments that sound counterintuitive, like the Children of Israel walking around Jericho instead of attacking with swords, is not stupid. If God is for us, who can be against us? If Coronavirus is scarier to us than our faith in God, we have a very puny god. God can use things like the Coronavirus and other calamities to bring His people closer to Him. We can do everything possible (go to the hospital, wash hands, use sanitizer, government releasing money into the stock market, etc.) and still fall short. President Trump declared today a National Day of Prayer because even he understands this. Good parents don’t protect their children from every harm - we want them to struggle a little in order to learn something; do better next time. As a good father, God will sometimes allow us to struggle. The Spanish Flu of 1918 did horrible damage to the population, but afterwards there was massive revival. During a pandemic, we should humble ourselves and pray. People of prayer are the ones that experience the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. If we’ll seek the face of God, He’ll forgive our sins and heal our land. Our land is sick with more than Coronavirus: abortion, divorce, pornography, perversion, etc. As Joseph’s example shows us, “what you meant for evil against me, God meant for good, in order to bring about this day to save many souls alive.” Want to receive text updates from our church? Send the keyword VBPH to 757-665-2410. Please let us know how this message has influenced you using one of these options: Email: pastor@vbph.org Voicemail: https://anchor.fm/vbph-sermons/message Thanks for listening! Has this message been a blessing to you? Please consider giving a generous donation --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
As Joseph and Mary lost Jesus on their return to Nazareth, so we may go on in our lives without an awareness of Jesus' presence. An exhortation on attending to the means of grace is included.
The Fourth Sunday in Advent turns our attention toward the Nativity of Our Lord. With the blessed Virgin Mary, we await the coming of the Christ, her Son, conceived in her womb by the Word and Spirit of God. This fulfillment of the sign once given to the house of David, that “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (Is. 7:14), is now given to us in the Gospel. It declares that salvation is by His grace alone, entirely His work and a free gift. It also is the way and means by which the Lord our God is Immanuel, “God with us.” The almighty and eternal Son of God is conceived and born of Mary, and is thus “descended from David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:3–4). He comes in this way to save us with His own flesh and blood; wherefore, He is called “Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). As Joseph received this sign in faith and immediately “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Matt. 1:24), we also live by faith in this Holy Gospel.
Matthew 2:13-15 13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the Child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy Him.” 14 And he rose and took the Child and His mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” “Fear not, then,” said the angel, “let nothing you affright; This day is born a Savior of a pure virgin bright, To save all those who trust in Him from Satan’s power and might.” O tidings of comfort and joy! The hymn that frames our service this morning, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, is one of the most beloved Christmas carols in the English-speaking world. Though the earliest published version is from the mid-1700s, variants and fragments can be found at least two centuries earlier. It is the carol referred to in the title of Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol, though in the story Dickens misquotes it as “God bless you, merry gentlemen.” The poetry refers to the appearance of the heavenly hosts to the shepherds in Luke 2, but I thought that the angel’s words of reassurance were equally appropriate to pair with this week’s sermon text from Matthew. As Joseph is warned in a dream to take his family and flee to Egypt ahead of Herod’s murderous soldiers, a reminder that God’s Son was born “to save us all from Satan’s power” would surely be tidings of comfort and joy. —Henry C. Haffner Key Words: Angel, Dream, Flee, Egypt, Herod, Spoken, Prophet Keystone Verse: This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. (Matthew 2:15) Bulletin & Newsletter
Around 5 BC, Caesar Augustus decreed the whole Roman world was to be accounted for, including Israel. As Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth, they were required to register at Joseph’s ancestral town of Bethlehem, nearly 100 miles south. Mary being nine months pregnant, it was a long, grueling trip to walk or ride. Doing the will of God won’t often be in our timing or for our convenience. As all of Joseph’s relatives would be going to Bethlehem for the same reason, family who lived there would be planning to accommodate them. Given the hospitality culture of the ancient near east, it’s highly unlikely they would have had to resort to staying in an unsafe, public inn (Gr. pandocheion, ‘all-receiving, public lodging’; Luke 10:34) when relatives were local. Travelling slowly, they probably arrived after all the extended family from out of town had already settled in the house. Being that the house was full, and/or their pregnancy was viewed as ‘illegitimate’, they were given the lower part of the house to stay in rather than the more appropriate upper room (Gr. kataluma ‘guest chamber, dining room’; Luke 22:11). Even pre-birth, God doesn’t demand the best scenario amidst the worst situation!
Today, we continue our series, "The Wonder of Christmas." In Matthew 1, we learn of Joseph's dilemma of what to do about Mary. As Joseph considers divorcing Mary, an angel appears to tell him that he is to take Mary home as his wife. Today, we look at Joseph and see how God draws him into the miracle of Christmas.
As Joseph is reunited with his brothers, he makes a choice to forgive them for the pain and wrongdoing they caused him. We are to forgive others just as God has forgiven us; however, it is vital we understand what forgiveness is not and what forgiveness is.
As Joseph faithfully serves his new master, temptation comes against him. Yet Joseph overcomes the temptation to sin. As we all battle temptations, we must remember that God is with us and that he faithfully sets limits on our temptation and makes provision for us to overcome.
In today's episode, Dr. Siohvaughn Funches continues the series, “Your Dream is Coming to Pass.” Dr. Funches recaps the message from last week and reminds New Covenant believers that this message — your dream is coming to pass — is a timeless, relevant, rhema message, word, and revelation from God. This is something you could listen to, time and time again and it would only do you good. God is faithful. He cannot lie. The Word of God is certain and sure. The blessings of God are not just for our benefit or the benefit of our loved ones at home but the benefit of everyone. Dr. Funches looks at the life of Joseph in Genesis. As Joseph was prophesied in a dream to rule over them, his brothers jealously sold him into slavery to the Ishmaelites. Joseph was taken to Egypt but God repeatedly showed favor to Joseph, placing him in a position of power. Dr. Funches reviews the story of Potiphar's wife accusing Joseph and causing him to be a prisoner. God continues to show favor to Joseph and he is promoted over all the prisoners. Joseph interprets the dreams of the butler and the baker but was kept in prison for two more years, until Pharaoh had troubling dreams and Joseph was summoned to interpret the dream. God gave the interpretation of the dreams and the solution to the upcoming famine to Joseph. Pharaoh promoted Joseph over Potiphar and the entire nation, under Pharaoh. God, in His mercy and grace, did that for Joseph. Dr. Funches explains that God's blessings and promises can come to pass in an instant. Joseph later saved his own family and his nation with grain stored during the years of plenty. God kept Joseph's heart from bitterness, loneliness, and dismay. Listen in to hear how God will bless with power the New Covenant believers who believe Jesus. KEY BIBLE VERSES [4:15] Isaiah 55:10, 11, NKJV 10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. [8:41] Mark 4:1–9, 13–20, NKJV 1 (read or listen to last week's message.) [18:17] Genesis 37:1–10, NKJV 1 Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. 5 Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. 6 So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: 7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. 9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.” 10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” 11 And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind. [24:39] Genesis 37:11–36, NKJV (summarized) [26:10] Genesis 39–47 (full chapters), NKJV (summarized) MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Please visit DrFunches.com for books, blogs and more helpful resources from Dr. Funches and for ways to get involved with this ministry, A Woman's Worth Foundation. See Dr. Funches's book, You Gotta Let God Finish!
Sin fractures relationships between friends, family, and, most significantly, our relationship with God. As Joseph hears the confession and repentance of his brothers through Judah, Joseph responds with overwhelming grace. Rev. Mike DeLozier explores the powerful unifying force of true reconciliation.
In our study of Joseph we have seen him go from being the favorite son to the favorite slave and finally to the favorite inmate. As Joseph plunged further and further it would have been harder and harder to see anything that could come out of his increasingly desperate situation. But nothing could be further from the truth. In this message, Rick shows us that God’s amazing work is generally hidden from our view.
Shape The Culture continues the For Dreamers Only series and takes a look at Joseph's time in jail. As Joseph embraces his gift and continues to be a dreamer, we learn how important it is for us to never forget our humble beginnings and to share the gift God has placed inside of us with the world.
The events of Joseph's -son of Jacob- life illustrate the invisible but certain working and directing of all human affairs by God. As Joseph's life shows, the evil directed toward him by his brothers became the means by which God brought about the preservation of his people from starvation. This preservation of the elect remnant was also the means by which the Messianic line was protected from extinction. Our own lives also are being directed by the providence of the all-wise and good God for his own glory, as well as the good of his people.
We are all visionaries however, there are layers in executing on that vision that we need to educate ourselves on prior to. As Joseph shared his vision with his brothers, he was not mature enough to understand what his dream meant. Once it came to fruition, he truly understood the meaning of it but had to go through a process. On this episode we will talk about the importance of the process and why maturity is required as a visionary. - Download my free eBook at: https://mailchi.mp/89a3bfa4e01b/talktoyourgirls - Follow me on @msaishaspeaks - From the SpeakFyre studios, also check out: @speakfyre on IG LeadershipFyre with Michael G. SutdentFyre with Bobby B. YoungFyre with Sean B
Do you know the difference between sorrow and repentance? As Joseph has gone from slave to master in Egypt, his brothers are caught in the famine. They go to Egypt, where they have heard there is plenty of food. What happens when the brothers meet Joseph? How do they react now? How does Joseph respond to the situation? We have much to learn from the fascinating events in Genesis 42-43.
As Joseph continues orchestrating events and testing his brothers, they finally reach the point of true repentance where restoration can begin to take place. Join us as this incredible story continues unfolding, teaching us invaluable lessons of faith along the way.
New Hope Church Messages - Challenging, Encouraging, & Relevant Bible Studies
As Joseph continues orchestrating events and testing his brothers, they finally reach the point of true repentance where restoration can begin to take place. Join us as this incredible story continues unfolding, teaching us invaluable lessons of faith along the way.
We all struggle to find niches when trying to get into the coaching game. But is it really that hard? Or have we been looking in the wrong places? This episode shows you how you can find dozens of niches, all of which have great power and are profitable now and for years to come. Click here to read online: Coaching Series 2/3: How Niches Can Easily Be Found in Recurring Client Problems ________________________________________ In 2010, Gillette blades dominated the market at 70 per cent. Six years later, they were down to 54% How can Gillette get back into the game? Phil Masiello is one of the reasons why Gillette is losing market share. Masiello founded 800razors.com and sales at his company were up to about $2 million annually before he sold it. However, Masiello is only one among many competitors. Harry's, Dollar Shave and other smaller razor and blade companies are all responsible for the drop in Gillette's market share. It's Phil Masiello, himself who has the best advice for Gillette. “Gillette makes a great shave,” Masiello said. “Nobody has ever complained about the great shave of Gillette and Schick. People only complained about the price. You take the price difference out, all of a sudden they are back in the game.” Notice what Masiello is pointing to? It's the “recurring problem”. If you've ever bought Gillette's blades, the only thought that crosses your mind with every purchase is: how can five pieces of plastic and some metal cost $40 per pack? In New Zealand, each blade is priced at the whopping price of $8. 15 zillion shaves later; you think of the same problem over and over again when buying new blades. The recurring problem exists in every industry, without exception Take for instance the role of a media planner in an advertising agency. What is her recurring problem? It's ROI or a return on investment. A media planner's job is to decide where to spend the client's money. Will it be on social media? On TV adverts? Or some place else? What she decides then trickles down to the copywriters and designers and everyone else in the agency. The teams will need to either need to make more TV commercials or instead, radio spots, depending on where the ROI is best. And the biggest problem with media planning isn't the spending of the budget, but the perception of the clients and the agency. If you were asked: On a scale of 1/10 how high would you rate newspapers with regards to ROI? What about TV? Or radio? Or would social media be a better choice? Perception isn't reality, and when a firm did painstaking research, they found something mind-boggling. See the figures below. What's the recurring problem? Yup, it's perception. And this kind of recurring problem shows up consistently when you're coaching clients. Usually, the same problems turn up again and again. Take, for instance, the Article Writing Course. All of our coaching is done online via a forum and through assignments. It's not what you'd call a traditional system of phone calls, Skype calls or in person. Even so, it's not the medium of coaching that is valid for this discussion. What's important is in identifying the recurring problem. And the recurring problem is that our clients, at least, are keen on getting new clients, and they realise that articles are one of the better ways to create authority and hence, get clients. But they struggle with speed. Writing an article takes so long that they get exhausted. And you know what happens when you get so tired, right? Your output isn't that great. The coaching system we have in place is therefore built around speed. By the end of the coaching program, the goal is to write magazine-quality articles in 90 minutes. If you're training a netball team the recurring problem might be different Nerves and pressure situations on the court is almost endemic among young players. As Leanne Hughes, once a netball player herself, says: “Playing in the circle is tough. You don’t want to miss that goal and lose the game by one point. How do you calm the nerves when you need to deliver that shot? The recurring problem is getting the shot even under extreme pressure. This precise idea is what enables a buyer to lock into whatever it is you're selling as a coach. And in turn, it prevents you from saying something silly like: “Oh, I'm a netball coach” when asked what you do for a living. One more example and then it's time to move on through the series. Joseph Ch'ng runs training in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Clients learn to be NLP coaches just like him. But what's the recurring problem that shows up? Joseph has found that coaches aren't always in the right frame of mind to coach others. To get into that state of mind—a meta state—as he calls it, is essential. And that's a recurring problem that he sees with many coaches. As Joseph says: Meta State is a peak performance state. A state of being in-tuned, open, connected. Clients respond well to coaches who are in this state and as a coach you get far more impressive results. You need to learn how to move into, and stay in that meta state when working with clients, no matter how your day has been before that moment.” See those problems cropping up time and time again? Gillette has its price issues; a media planner tends to battle with the perception of clients. On the Article Writing Course, we have to deal with speed, while Leanne works on nerves. And finally, Joseph's client's recurring problem is the “burdens of the day” and “how to switch into meta state right away”. Find your client's recurring problem today. Ask them. They'll tell you. Just like I would tell you why I don't like paying $8 for a single Gillette blade. However, now that we have the recurring problem concept in play, how do we go about the important task of finding prospective clients? Next Step: Coaching Series 1/3: How to Start Up with a Great Niche
On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Joseph Romm joins Dean and me to teach us in the art of persuasion. Joseph is Chief Science Advisor for "Years of Living Dangerously," which won the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Series and now generates viral videos online seen by tens of millions a month. He is also the founding editor of ClimateProgress.org, which New York Times columnist Tom Friedman called an “indispensable blog.” Romm is also a senior advisor for New Frontier Data, the leading “big data” firm providing actionable analysis in cannabis, whose content reaches hundreds of millions of people a year. We chat today about Joseph’s extensive storytelling experience and expertise and how he uses that storytelling prowess to create viral content. Making it clicky and sticky Joseph first dipped his toe into blogging when it became a popular way for companies to connect with customers. And soon, he became a bit of a data junky, tracking performance metrics on his blog post, and really putting in the work to figure out what makes a post popular, what makes it really shareable for readers, etc. As he says, he was trying to figure out what makes something “clicky and sticky.” You’re going to want to hear what he has to say about that on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. The fundamentals of making viral content The first step to making a great piece of viral content, Joseph told us on this week’s Just the Tips, is writing a great headline and then delivering on the promise of that headline. So there is a lot of clickbait out there with catchy headlines to draw readers in, but then the post doesn’t deliver. Eventually, you’re not going to be able to build a good relationship with your readers if you’re pulling a bait and switch. And even then, you shouldn’t expect a headline to bring the entire Internet to your post. As Joseph says, a good post by him has about a 15% clickthrough rate. And it’s all about appealing to reader emotions. Listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips to find out how. How Jesus became the first viral content creator In Joseph’s book, How to Go Viral and Reach Millions, he talks about how Jesus is a great example of someone who knew how to reach lots of people with just how he crafted a story. As Joseph says, Jesus never traveled further than about 100 miles, but his story got out there because he knew how to tell a story in metaphor, various figures of speech, repetition, etc. But Joseph looks beyond historical figures to look at contemporary storytellers who have been able to connect with large audiences based on their storytelling techniques. And luckily Joseph is full of helpful advice on how they did it on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. The three A’s in storytelling One of the things that Joseph tells us in this week’s episode is that you have to grab your audience in the first seven seconds, or you’re going to lose them. And a big part of that is appealing to their emotions, which he breaks down as the three A’s: Anger, Awe and Anxiety. He really digs into the meat and potatoes on this episode, including how videos connect with an audience when that audience isn’t even listening to it (as many people online do). And that’s just the beginning of what Joseph has to say on this week’s Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:23] How Joseph got into creating viral content [5:09] The fundamentals of making viral posts [10:21] Why Jesus is the most viral person in history [12:10] The three-act structure [17:57] The crucial first seven seconds [23:17] What makes stories memorable [30:15] Why short words sell Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned How to Go Viral and Reach Millions Years of Living Dangerously Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/
Your podcast heroes get all the K-mart Klingon backstory and all at once as they grapple with "Alliances". As Joseph and Peter wade through a densely packed 44 minutes of skeezy Kazon bars, Burn Queen interludes, and shifty Maquis coworkers they ask the most critical question of all...where was New Jack Neelix when you needed him most?
How do you respond when those who have hurt you are now at your mercy? As Joseph's story concludes, we find him in a position to take revenge against his brothers. Yet his example teaches that forgiveness isn't a sign of weakness; it's a sign of strength. Instead of looking back, Joseph chose to look up.
The story of Joseph is about to take a large turn. As Joseph tests his brothers to see if they are ready to carry the mantle of Israel’s future, they finally come to grips with their sin. Will you?
As Joseph experiences some serious setbacks in his life he may have been tempted to think that his dream had died. But looking back at his story, we can now see that his dream was only being refined. Clear applications are made to our dreams, including our finances. To view a video of this message by Pastor Terry, visit christplace.church
Joseph Mbele understands and appreciates two entirely different cultures, and in doing so reminds us that what we think is normal, is not necessarily someone else’s normal. Understanding and appreciating this makes all the difference in having a peaceful global community. Joseph gives us a glimpse into his African culture, the idea of community, and the promise of learning from each other. As Joseph says, the understanding of other cultures will wake us up and see life differently. It’s a fascinating glimpse into how our differences can make us stronger.
Genesis 47 - As Joseph settles his family in Egypt and manages the famine, the big question this passage answers is: What happens when our eyes are fixed on ourselves?
As Joseph lived out the success of a new job, new wife and kids, new place of power and influence he was surprised to find that this new path led to a familiar place - home. As he comes face to face with his brothers, the very ones who began his now 20 year journey abroad, he is confronted with the idea of revenge or reconciliation. From Genesis 41-42.
Genesis 50: As Joseph looks back on his life, we ask if God really can bring about good from evil.
Genesis 44: As Joseph tests his brothers, Judah pleads for mercy, and offers his own life as a substitute. Liam Thatcher looks at how we can experience true freedom through confession, repentance and faith.
From one perspective it can be said that the entire spiritual path rests on the development and cultivation of a particular mind state known simply as equanimity. When highly developed, equanimity brings about an unshakable quality of mind that allows us to ride the inevitable changes of the human experience with balance and ease. We must be careful to not confuse the neutrality of equanimity with a sense of disconnection or indifference toward ourselves and others. As Joseph explains, this universal mental factor is present in every wholesome state of mind, making it difficult to overestimate its value in cultivating spacious impartiality.
Matthew 1:18-25. As Joseph stands outside waiting for the birth of Jesus he wonders, "Did I miss something God?" How often do we think we've got life figured out and it doesn't go the way we thought it would and we ask God, "Did I miss something?"
As Joseph invites us to dream God’s dreams, we discover that following God isn’t always we expect. Join us as Carol Morgan retells this story in our Sunday morning service.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
