God Is In Control- (Pastor Walter L Pearson Jr.)

but there is a power that is working even when you think that nobody's watching there are some folk who believe that there are times when there is no witness but there's always a witness praise the lord let's just praise the lord this is the breath of life television broadcast with pastor walter l pearson jr when god gets ready he can deliver you if you call on him if you trust in him you're supposed to be down flat on your face but the power of god will lift you up tonight we are reading from genesis chapter 37 and there are words that i will share with you beginning with verse 18. so joseph went after his brothers and found them near dothan but they saw him in the distance and before he reached them they plotted to kill him here comes that dreamer they said to each other come now let us kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him then we'll see what comes of his dreams let's bow together as we pray father we are grateful tonight that god does step in we're grateful that when everything seems to have gone too far god is mindful of us we are never forgotten we are never displeased we are never misplaced but god remembers where we are and knows our needs now as we open thy word tonight let thy holy spirit come to make the word plain to us and we shall give glory honor and praise to thy name for it is in the name of jesus that we pray amen this is one of those rare events in the bible it fits our theme so well that it's almost unbelievable our theme has been when god steps in i think it's important because the fact is that if we ever needed god to step in before we sure do need him now there are situations that seem to me to be quite unfair and i'm afraid that the systems that ought to be in control of fairness have somehow broken down and the question is always there who is in control and the answer is god is in control i uh i look at this situation tonight and first of all i i think that cinematographers must be awfully jealous because you can't find this kind of drama anywhere outside of the word of god there is this proud father a proud father who in his old age has a son born in his family the bible says that when joseph was born he was born at a time that brought particular pride to jacob and so jacob loved joseph more than the other children that is not the right thing to do sometimes there are children in a family that remind parents of their good attributes and others that remind them of things that they would not want to remember but all of them are your children and it's not fair but but think of it it's understandable as the old man walks down to the marketplace can you imagine what his peers must have had to say there he is a man who has passed the age of of having a child born but he has a new baby in the house and some old fellow must have said to him man look at you what in the world can we say about you and jacob must have picked up his step you know how you do sometimes and said well don't worry about me i i'm doing all right and there must have been a little smile and a little twinkle in the eyes of the friends of this father and and perhaps it was what inclined him to love this boy so much but there was a strange situation that developed because you cannot love one child more without there being some kind of problem that crops up with the other children remember you've got these 11 brothers and i have only one brother but i know that my brother and i were always watching to make sure that everything was done equally we were careful and if anything didn't go just right we would protest immediately can you imagine what it's like to have 11 watching one well then there came the problem that was an exacerbation for not only was this young man of a good temperament and uh inclined towards god he had a righteous light that shone from his countenance and you know if you want to make people really mad you let them see god shining out of you now they say all the time that we want to see people who are good but that's just theory to have somebody around who is good can sometimes get on your nerves because the things you want to do they don't want to do and and when you try to say something that's not quite on point the look that they give you is enough and after a while you want to separate from their company this young man was of such a temperament but now in addition to that god gives this young man dreams in one of the dreams he sees himself as wheat or some green that is in one of those gatherings you've seen them in those wonderful pictures and and as he's in the center 11 others bow down to him now you can imagine that the brothers were unamused they were already convinced that he was the favorite of their father now he comes with these dreams and he says look let me tell you my dream he has another one that even gets his father a little concerned he said father and and brothers and mom let me tell you i dreamed that my star was in the middle and that 11 stars representing you my brothers and the son representing you dad and the moon representing you mom all bowed down to me well you know the brothers are kind of looking at each other with a low rumble of complaints this time dad is even concerned well son i don't quite understand the dream but i suppose if that's what you dream i i don't want to make this a hard and fast rule but let me suggest something to you be careful with whom you share your dreams you can't tell every dream to everybody you may think that people are just waiting for you to tell your dream so that they can help you you know oh isn't that wonderful how could we help this to come to pass but it was not so they were not thinking how can we help him they were thinking he must be out of his mind now you would think that that's quite enough we've got a father who loves one child the best we've got these dreams that have him in the center all the time and i think we probably got enough on the table here but we're not finished one day as jacob is out shopping somewhere he comes across a tunic this tunic is one that is worn by dignitaries or royalty it is woven in multiple colors but everyone knows in that economy what the tunic means so now jacob comes home but instead of bringing 12 tunics and if you've got 12 boys you need 12 tunics or you shouldn't buy any but he comes with one now forgive me but i think i've been there and i watch now as those brothers looking what is that he's got i think he's got a little you know coat or something well who do you think it's for you got the nerve to ask who it's for it ought to be for reuben one suggests the eldest but guess who's going to get it and dad takes it out joseph comes son now it is not written in the word but let me tell it because i am now old enough to understand human psychology one of them said you wait till i get here without dad man don't talk like that that kind of scares me it's gonna scare you some more if i ever get it now now now there comes an occasion when the brothers are out working 65 miles from home the scholars say and 11 have been sent away to work but guess who got to stay home joseph can you imagine that trip can you imagine the conversation that must have gone on you know we got to work we got to go out guess who gets to stay home and do little namby pamby things around the house we're out here working with the sweat of our bra but little brother little cutesy joseph gets to stay at home and and all these hours that went slowly by there's a strange time of criticism until somebody looks up and and they gotta rub their eyes now but in the distance they think they see that coat coming you know the heat can play tricks on your eyes look over there do you you see what i say yeah is that that's him he's wearing that coat here say wait a minute look see if dad is in his dad with him no he's coming alone i don't know how long it took for joseph to get from where he was when they saw him to where they were but before he got there the plan was in place that means that they had not just started talking about it are you still with me because you can't make a plan as convoluted as was theirs in that shorter time they must have tossed around a couple of teasers before this happened there must have been some scant outline of the plan before they saw him coming and now they can't believe it but he's on the way and when he arrives the hatred in their heart has come now to a boiling point and they have decided we will put him in an empty cistern we will put him there and leave him there we will take that coat of many colors that we hate we will dip it in the blood of some small animal a goat probably we'll take it home after we've torn it and made it look like some animal ate him and we'll tell dad look and you know you really don't have to lie when you when you have things like that even though it is a lie that you perpetrate you can just say dad look what happened and they've got it planned but but there is a power that is working even when you think that nobody's watching there are some folk who believe that there are times when there is no witness but there's always a witness we have learned that the one who watches is satan himself he always watches for he wants to know what he can get you to do but god is also watching and when you think that you have no help god is there now now be careful to see this because god could have stepped in right there god could have showed up in some fashion could have sent angels could have done anything that he chose to interrupt their plan immediately but god does not move on my schedule god moves on his schedule so now they say let's put him in the system when you read this in the niv you come to understand that after they put their brother in this cistern down in the ground they sat down to eat and you thought people just got cold hard people have been mean a long time huh meanness is ancient it's deep seated so don't get all bit out of shape when somebody lays a plot for you it's been happening a long time but longer than plots have been put together god has been watching so god's power lasted longer than plots they're sitting down for a meal and as they sit down some ishmaelites pass by these are merchants they carry with them myrrh and spice and bomb and they are going now into the city they're going into egypt and when they get there they will sell their wares and one of them says you know if we kill him we don't gain anything and why would we kill him after all he is our brother that sounds like some folk who call themselves your brother and sister in christ they make the term brother and sister seem almost an evil thing to say let's not kill him he's our brother let's sell him let's not kill him his blood would be upon our hands let's make him a slave let's sell him for seven ounces of silver let's give him to those people and let them take him into a foreign land and who cares what they do so now they pull him out of a pit his elder brother reuben had already conjured up a way to save his life but it was not to be it would seem that god had gone to sleep but don't ever believe that god is going to sleep god is watching when you think things have gone awry they take him out of the system put him on that wagon and now joseph looks at the land of his father as it shrinks in his vision and as he watches his heart falls into despondency for he is leaving everything that he knows going somewhere that is unknown the face he knows not what so the question is what do you do when there's nobody to call his father had told him about the time when he was out alone and lay down on the ground with a rock as a pillar and when he had a vision of angels going up and down a ladder most scholars agree that the latter was significant because it represents jesus our connection to heaven and if jesus is the connection then you've always got access to the power of heaven and what god was trying to allow you must understand is for enough trials to come to teach him how to lean on god for himself instead of leaning on somebody else who leaned on god so while god allowed the trial god allowed it because in the long term it was good for him now you've got to get that one because somebody's going through something tonight and you've already said it why is god letting me go through this well you've got to understand god is not a genie in a lamp you don't rub and he jumps out to give three wishes you have seen that occur on cartoons and television and you know that most people mess up their wishes anywhere people who win the lottery turn out to be more poor than they were before they won their lives are decimated ill-gotten gain is no blessing after all but god is not a genie who gives blessings in a strange capricious fashion he is a father who knows what i mean even when i need some hardship in my life one writer says that before joseph was put in that system he had started to be rather exacting he expected too much out of others because he hadn't suffered if you want to have a hard time you fall into the hands of somebody who has never had a hard time they can't understand i don't know why they can't make it i made it i pulled myself up by my own bootstraps i started out with nothing and made something of myself they will look down their noses at you and count you out before you can blink your eyes because they haven't suffered really enough but when you have gone through some hard times oh do you get merciful huh it happens so god had to allow some some suffering in that young man's life because he was becoming exacting of others and self-sufficient because when you don't have trials you don't know that you can't trust to lean on yourself if god never sent a problem too big for you to handle you would go throughout life under the mis apprehension that you can handle anything huh and if you think you can handle anything you are culturally deprived so god had to show him there some things you can't handle son and then had to take him away listen take him away from where he was comfortable because so long as you live in your comfort zone there are some things that you will never ever have to learn because you always have resources around you've got mom and dad and cousins and uncles and aunts and friends sometimes god will take you away from all of them so now who will you call and after a while you will find yourself early one morning down on your knees with the recognition that the only one you can call is to call on god and you need to know that you need to know that so now this young man is sold into egypt sold like so much merchandise i don't know what they got for him there but whatever it was it was not enough he was a young man who had dreams and as you watch it see you you and i look at this thing we are so pompous when we read the bible because we've already read it you know we know how it's going to turn out it's like somebody who's watching a motion picture with you and you already saw it you know and you're sitting there all smug well you know what do you think what do you think is going to happen well i think so now keep watching so you're sitting here now saying no big thing i know how it's going to turn out but look suppose you didn't know wouldn't you begin to wonder where is god is god going to let the boy get sold as a slave where is god where is he now and if god doesn't come when you need him what good is a relationship with him but remember that god is a father and so he's watching and the boy finds his way into the house of a prominent family in egypt the house of lord potiphar now you only know the negative side because you haven't paid attention to this other side but there was a blessing for joseph even in part of his house i love this part everything that joseph touched was blessed and it was not a direct miracle it was through persevering constant effort that god blessed everything now that's that's important to know because there are some people who when they finally believe in god believe that god will just put things there you can just sit down and wait what are you doing waiting on the lord there are times when god will say wait but the same bible it says wait on the lord says that if you don't work you ought not eat so you've got to put some effort in but for those who trust in god and who are willing to put their hand to excellence god will add something the young man comes into part of his house from a foreign country a slave and you would think that he would have gotten an attitude now don't get me started but there are some of us who can explain away everything you know i'm not going to work until i get a job well i can i want to wear a shirt and a tie and um you know and if i don't get a job like that i'm going to sit right here cause you know see i'm not gonna do that i'm not you know i'm not cut out for that kind of work i'm the executive type you better get your executive hands on a mop or a broom until you get some expertise amen i don't believe that your aim ought to be at some low job i think you ought to aim high but you got to understand that you don't get hired and and go to night school you know turn your brain on ask god to massage your gray matter get all of those electric movements going on up there pull your iq up and and get something happening and and work your way out of where you are it's true that some who have worked have not made it but you ought not stop until you try this young man was in a house where he couldn't you know he could have come in in potiphar's house i got to do what okay you just go on and then i'll do that and when he leaves you think i'm gonna work in here i'm a slave doing nothing but instead he put his hand to and when they would look at what joseph had done they'd have to say how did you do that and the answer though he may or may not have been able to explain it verbally was that when he put his hand to it with effort that was persevering god blessed that effort and more came of it than ordinarily would god will do that when you are dedicated to him and you're willing to apply yourself so he became trusted in potiphar's house and in fact lord potiphar arranged it so that there was nothing that he kept back from joseph save for his wife the devil loves to hear things like that he says oh okay so he can have anything but what his wife oh okay so that means i got only one place to work here only one he can't have is mrs potiphar so he goes and starts working on this poor little lady some scholars say that maybe brother potiphar spent too much time in the office and brother you got to be careful amen your wife may be ever so faithful but you got to come home you got to come home you got to got to take a little time you know it is not such you know there there was once the time when those captains of industry you know envisioned themselves holding the helm at some grand ship and they didn't care about home that would take care of itself but the greatest reward in life is a is the joy and warmth of a family to come home and spend time with your wife and your family well some suggested maybe his time was not allocated well but i believe that it was satan's plan to take the one thing that lord potiphar said he couldn't have and make it available that's the way the devil works i don't care what you can have he makes you want what you can't have think about it this is good preaching all the things you can have you stop worrying about that it's the one thing you can't have there are some people whose lives are centered around what they can't have they sit up and watch television and that's all got all kinds of stuff in your house got things you don't even know how to pronounce but you still got your eye focused on something you don't have some neighbor shows up with a brand new toy you know a new car or some new appliance you don't need it but you see somebody else with it so when the box is out there waiting for the trash man to pick it up you pass by and look and say uh-huh they got a new one of those i think i'll go down and see if i can get one of those why don't you learn how to be happy with what you got you don't need a new one of those anyhow when you get it it'll just sit there but but satan loves to play games with your mind about what you don't have so now the man can have anything in the house but the lady and the devil knows what to do he goes in there and starts talking to sister potiphar child you sure are you just you're not treated well how could a man leave a woman like you lonely hour after hour got these servants walking around here like that foreign boy strong man have you looked at his muscle good-looking fella as far as your husband knows you might you know you might think about it and all of a sudden that light flickers on do you know there's nothing wrong with temptation as long as you don't fall for it everybody gets tempted it's one thing to have a bird light on your head it's quite another to let him build a nest in your hair evidently mrs potiphar and i want to be very careful i i understand that one one commentator has suggested that this is one of the greatest uh castigations of the female gender somebody wants to say that because this story is written it says terrible things about women it says nothing more terrible about women than all of the bad men in the bible say about men there are some women who are good there are some who are not there are some men who are good and some who are not it happens that mrs potiphar is about to be used by the devil to work a plan and every time the devil brings a temptation you must not flatter yourself to think that you are the object of his affection you are a pawn in his game you are not what it's about it's the glory of god he wants to tear down and so the the the thing is set and and you know i've got a couple of theories one of my theories is that mrs potiphar might have been quite alluring and that joseph might have found himself uh unable to look away for a moment but he prays because he understands in fact one of my favorite bible commentators suggests that in that house joseph worshiped the god jehovah openly because had he not been opened he would have fallen much sooner it was a ten year period that he spent in that house and he stayed on god's side because he openly declared himself he was god's child so if she was alluring that's one thing but i've learned something men we must admit and and i don't want this to sound in any way sliding to women but when you see that a woman is quite attractive we know to be careful you bring the shields up be careful of that there's nothing wrong with that brother you got to know when to be careful turn to the wall pray amen in fact don't worry about how dignified you look leave go this is not a game when joseph finds himself in the situation he would say i cannot do this thing and sin against my god it's not about you lady this is against my god so i suggest that maybe she she perhaps was not so alluring you know when a woman is not so obviously attractive maybe you nice lady but i would never fall let him that thinks that he stands huh you better be careful ladies you got to be careful these days amen brethren have always been like this this is this is a new phenomenon when you read this in the bible you are shocked this is a long time ago it's it's amazing for a woman to be so assertive this is amazing this is amazing piece of literature but these days if we wrote this very same thing it would not be notable because our morals are being set not by the word of god but by our television screens and anything happens on television if the people who created television programs owned heaven then you could be very comfortable doing what they suggest and know that you would have a place reserved for you in the kingdom but heaven will not will not be governed by the morals of people who put television shows on the air god is a god of principle so maybe she was attractive maybe she was not it really doesn't make any difference i have been to egypt they have told me that the man controls the office but the woman controls the home there is every reason to believe that mrs potiphar was the one who made the determination to send everybody else away and have joseph there alone and it was in that tense situation when a slave boy in a foreign country would have done himself a favor apparently to have done what this woman said when he said i cannot say well you may be sorry you know because i have certain power you understand that not only might it accrue to your good to do this but it might cause you a problem if you don't if you get my drift well i understand what you're saying but you see i've been trusting in my god this far and if you don't mind i'll keep on oh you will oh you will you will what is my husband gonna think when he comes home and finds my clothes torn and knowing that only you were here well that's the times folk when you got to decide whose side you are well lady i don't know what's going to happen but i i'm gonna have to stay on god's side lord potiphar comes back and you know i i wonder what that was like because husbands and wives know things you know lord potiphar listens and i'm sure it was an academy award performance wait a minute well did anything happen no but you should have been here and all of a sudden this this scenario is conjured up and joseph goes to jail when is god gonna step in when is he gonna step in surely if you stand up for god in a situation like this surely he won't let you go to jail when if ever will god step in and if god allows you to go to prison for a crime that you did not commit must you still have a positive attitude i believe that the pit was good for joseph and that's the only reason god allowed it i believe that the trip away from home was good for joseph and that's the only reason why god allowed i believe that the experience in lord potiphar's house was good for joseph and that's the only reason god allowed but i somehow believed that the jail was for the glory of god think with me for a minute if joseph goes from lord potiphar's house to the palace down at the golf course won't they say have you heard what happened with that young man joseph no i i didn't what happened i said wait a minute let me what does it no let me tell you they i understand that he was in lord part of his house everything he touched turned to gold and and i think it just shows how liberal our society is that a young man from a foreign nation could go from lord potiphar's house to the palace isn't it wonderful i feel better about us as a society don't you no one would have thought and so if he had gone from lord potiphar's house god might never have gotten the glory so god said let me show you what i can really do i let him go to jail first of all i'll show you who he is god does not allow trials to come to us to show him who we are he already knows god allows trials to come to us to show us who we are so now in jail is he going to change his attitude now no joseph goes into the prison for a crime that he did not commit and says fellas let's lighten this thing up a little bit in here my lord what can't we do something what do you believe in here we don't believe in anything well i believe in god jehovah well he let you come to prison yeah but don't worry about it he got it under control when he gets ready he'll take care of it oh well you know i don't know why you got to believe in something why don't you try my god and now all of a sudden he changes the atmosphere in the prison so that instead of it being a dark terrible place the light of god begins to shine through this devoted young man so that even prisoners are beginning you know place ain't that bad kind of glad i met him one day they see another element of god's power you remember the the butler and the baker have these dreams you know the baker's got his dream with the baskets and the bread and and you know you know and then he's got the wine the grapes and stuff and the birds and he says uh i've been wondering i had a dream i don't know what it means he said well my god sometimes can tell dreams and and now comes comes the the other dream and it's it's about pressing the grapes into the cup and these these symbols don't seem to mean anything you and i dream these dreams all the time when we eat the wrong thing late at night but god is allowing this to happen so that he can show to this baker you won't make it in three days your life will be cut off and the birds will consume your flesh but to the butler he says in three days you will serve pharaoh and and if it be so kindly remember me when you're there two years pass you would think that joseph would certainly get bitter now but he keeps his positive spirit because joseph knows something that you and i are trying to learn right now that is that god doesn't come on your time schedule but he comes at a perfect time so now what will be done that comes a strange dream to pharaoh seven skinny cows eat up seven fat ones and don't get fat don't you wish diets worked that way seven thin ears of corn eat seven full ones and don't get any bigger and pharaoh calls all of those people who are assigned uh go and get the uh ah bring bring the diviners you know bring the regular falcon tell you the dream what do you think oh lord pharaoh we are we think that uh we would like to have some time well i i want to know what they say well uh we'll come up with something while they are about to come up with it this butler remembers ah praise god for the memory it's not pharaoh i i don't mean to to be out of the way but there is a gentleman a slave who is able to tell dreams his name is joseph you wouldn't perchance mean the one who gave that trouble to lord potiphar well the very one but i would want you to understand that there were extenuating circumstances with that if if your highness would simply call him that would be nothing to lose and now you begin to watch what god can do allow me if you will to put it in a dramatic fashion god knows the end from the beginning with god yesterday today and tomorrow are the same god moves without reference to time as we know it you and i are limited to time but god is not so that god holds the future and the past in his hands god can move into the future and adjust things according to his will so that god had the power to move seven years ahead huh and turn the rain on think about it move seven years ahead of that and turn it off so you got seven years with no rain and seven years with rain and he please it in reverse fashion so that there will be seven years of plenty and then there will be seven years of famine and god simply rearranges it so that in his hand there's a scenario that he can put in joseph's heart so in other words he goes down into the future changes the pattern of rain and then comes back to his servant joseph who needs to get out of prison and says here's the key in egypt before the oswan dam the water was controlled by a system of dikes but it was not all that well done so when the rainy season came if the rains came too high they would go in and destroy the houses and flood the crops if the rain came too low it would not come far enough to water the crops in the middle of that the water would come just close enough to water the crops but not destroy the houses and god simply adjusted the rain so that they would have seven years of rain and then seven years of famine now he tells the whole story to joseph and joseph gets the call now from pharaoh from a butler who finally remembered shaves himself getting ready to go and see the king do i have any clothes left presentable where you going i'm going to see the king what you going for joseph they're going to let you out of here you never know now he goes yes sir what what is your dream well there were the seven fat cows that ate the seven skin and the seven lodges if you allow me sir i know a god do you know you got to be careful to give credit to god i know a god who can divine things in the future who knows the end from the beginning and i want to suggest to you that the seven thin cows represent a drought that's going to be down in your future but the seven large ones will be consumed by it you will have rain so much that everything will be fine and then you'll have seven years when you'll have not enough to make it the corn represents the same thing so i want to suggest to you that if you take 20 from those good years and put it aside you will have enough to get you through the family he said so you've not only told me what the dream means but what i ought to do and when the young man goes back to his prison cell the king says what what what would we do now in a situation when we need an administrator to be over a situation like this and like a light coming on in the back of his head god arranges that a man in a foreign country who's been accused of a heinous crime who's been in jail and you know when you get that on your record you can't make it but god had to show you that he can allow your record to be tarnished and ruined and if you trust in him he can still bring you out because that's what happens when god steps in first corinthians chapter 1 read down about the end of that chapter around 26 it says that god has chosen the simple things to confound the wise god has chosen the base things to confound the mighty god has to take situations like this to prove to us that he is god if you let him go from one high place to the other everybody would have said it is a natural and so god allowed him to sink down to the dregs of society and if you'd been there you'd have said it he'll never make it now foreigner slave accused of rape in jail forget him never make it there are people right now whose society looks at and says never make it outrageous ever wonder if your life has meaning and purpose if there was more to life than a sink full of suds if god was really active in the details of your life if there was greener grass over some other fence if so get this week's offer outrageous grace by dwight nelson get the book and be prepared to jump for joy or at least get a case of happy toes the grace from god is free the book it's a 5 donation grab a phone and make a free call 877 bol offer translation 877 265 6333 or write for the book and let the us postal service carry it to breath of life p.o box 97192 washington dc 2007 what else easier to say outrageous done if you'd like an audiocassette copy of today's program call the number on your screen or write walter pearson p.o box 97192 washington dc 2007 for your love gift of any amount we'll send out your copy right away and if you have a special prayer request write us walter pearson wants this ministry to be a blessing in your life walter pearson believes that jesus christ is the answer to every problem you face is

Channel: 11:11 Ministries

Views: 221,476

Rating: 4.6231527 out of 5

Keywords: breath, of, life, ministries, walter, pearson, seventh-day, adventist, sda, bible, jesus, god, religion, holy, spirit, trinity, faith, christianity, gospel, heaven, praise, truth, word, salvation, pastor, Salvation (Christianity), Ministry, Preaching, Lord

Id: fs2lZvNRmzU

Length: 54min 1sec (3241 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 08 2012