Don't Forget Your Brother
by Kevin Allen
July 24, 2022 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Genesis 44:30-34, Acts 1:8, Mark 12:28-31, 1 John 4:20, Genesis 42:19-20, Genesis 38, Psalms 122:1, Genesis 43:5, Genesis 43:3, Genesis 43:8-9

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--don-t-forget-your-brother
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Your way to your seats — there's, there's an undertow in the Spirit, and I feel ties within to what I feel led to speak about today from the word. This message will be one that I will have to lead you through the scripture to make sense of what I feel like God has directed me to today. I'm going to weave through some stories in the scriptures to piece together this thought: Don't forget your brother. Don't forget your brother.

In the book of Genesis there's several stories. Genesis simply means beginning, start. In the book of Genesis, the story of the life of Joseph is one of the most fascinating stories. It requires several chapters to unfold all that took place in this man's life. If you read through the story Joseph in the book of Genesis, a few things stand out to you from the very beginning: he was a man who liked to dream; he was someone who had a continued, stayed faithful relationship with his God, in spite of some very difficult life situations. God kept his hand on Joseph's life. In fact, there are at least three or four instances where the word of God says that directly: "And the Lord was with Joseph." Sometimes just staying positive is hard, but staying positive can take you a long way.

I'm going to go to Genesis chapter 44 and pick up in the middle of the story. By this time in Joseph's life, he has risen to the second position and the most powerful nation to date. There was only one that was more important to him, and that was Pharaoh himself. Joseph — if you had read the story beforehand, you would have come across this fact, that he had 11 brothers who had turned their back on him, who had despised him. But now they find themselves in a position of need and want. And as they journeyed to the very place where their lost brother was in power, they had no idea who it was they were standing before. Their father had sent them to Egypt because it was the only place that they could buy food to keep the family alive, because of the severe drought that had taken place. And now they're standing before their lost brother, not realizing who they're talking to. Joseph knows who they are, and he's curious about the condition of their heart. Are they still the same men who had sold him into slavery and betrayed him all those years ago, or had time changed these men? He was put to task to test and see where his brothers were really at.

Now we read the words of Joseph's brother Judah, as he begins to speak to Joseph, having no idea who he's talking to — Genesis 44, verse number 30: "Now therefore, when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us, seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life, it shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die." Now he's speaking about the fact that Joseph has told them they had to leave one of the brothers there and go back to their dad and fetch the other brother. So it's in this conversation that Judah's talking and telling his — his brother Joseph, even though he doesn't know he's talking to his brother — that "I can't do that. If I go back, my dad's gonna die." My dad — again, he doesn't realize he's speaking to his brother Joseph, and his father is still mourning the loss of what, what has appeared to his dad, that Joseph is dead. So Judah's beginning to explain: "I can't go back and do this. If I do this, it's going to kill her dead, if the lad, if my brother is not with me. It's going to bring my dad down." Verse 32: "Father servant became surety to the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever. Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, and the bond meant to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me, lest pre-adventure I see the evil that shall come before my father?"

Last Sunday to this church, I preached about the gift of God. I talked about the fact that God's desire is to fill each and every one of us with his Spirit, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and how that gift is not intended to just be a gift for you, but

that gift is intended for you to be a gift, for it to flow through, so that God's kingdom can be furthered. It's not meant just for us to be consumers, just to feel good because we're in his presence — not just to be happy that my ticket to heaven is punched — but that's for you and I to allow that Spirit to lead us and guide us and direct us, for you and I to be his mouth, to be his hands and to be his feet. That gift is meant to flow through us so the kingdom can be furthered.

But I have to continue on. I want to build on that message. I want to move forward and work, because part of the work God has for us is reaching, and praying, and fasting, and asking, and doing whatever it is, to bring our brothers back. There are so many who at one time had a deep walk with God, had a relationship with God, but through time and circumstance and chance and, and things beyond their control — for whatever the reason is — they're not here today with us. They have drifted away and they have grown cold in their relationship with God. And part of our responsibility and obligation is that we don't forget our brother. We don't forget our sister. That there's something about, when we come into this place of worship, when we experience being in the presence of God, that we're also reminded that something's missing around the table, that something that once at one time was here is not here, and I can't rest until I've done all I can to reach out for my brother.

You and I, we stand ready. And if you've ever been around apostolic Pentecostals, you know that, that we're ready to receive the Book of Acts experience. We love it. We, we get cranked up on it. We love to talk about the fact that God's desire is to fill you with his Spirit. We believe in the mighty God in Christ. We believe in baptism in Jesus' name. We believe in living a separated, holy lifestyle. All of those things are good, but those are the beginnings of our walk with God. It's not just that experience by itself, but that sets us up to be successful, to do the kingdom work he's called us to. You and I have a calling on our life — not just me, because I'm pastor; not just these guys over here who are part of the, of the ministry team at our church; but you, each and every one of you sitting — listen to me today; everybody who's listening to me online today — you have a call of God on your life. You may never stand behind a lectern or a pulpit. You may never do what I'm doing right now in this moment. But that does not take away the fact: God has called you, God has gifted you, God has given you talents and abilities that are specific only to you, and he's made a way for you to have influence in areas that I would never have influence. Why? So that you can further his kingdom. So that we can reach our brothers. So that we can reach our sisters. We were never created to simply sit in four walls and stay inside here and be imprisoned, while the rest of the world is out there under siege. That's not his intentions.

When I look at what God has uniquely done for this church — how he has positioned us in this moment of time, how he has positioned us in this city that we live in — and, and, and, and we are here in one of the fastest growing counties in the nation — we know that our God is faithful. He helped us build this building that we're in, and I'm thankful for that. But he's also going to help us fill the building that we're in today. I'm here to speak to the church, so that you understand: he's going to use you and I to fill it up. We cannot become so inwardly focused that we never reach out to our brothers and sisters outside the walls of this church. I'm here to speak about a revival of souls that's out there for us. We're not instructed in the word of God to pray for revival, but we're instructed in the word of God to pray for laborers to be in the harvest. And I'm here today to be a voice piece, to be a mouth, to sound the alarm. The revival is there. Is there anybody willing to work with me, to help reach out and grab a hold of a brother and

a sister that's out there. We have to understand that we have a role and a responsibility to bring them to the Father. Listen to me today, church: when we reach out to our brothers and sisters who are not in the church, we're not just helping in the process of saving their souls, but we are helping ourselves in the process of salvation as well. If you do the same old thing week in and week out at church, you learn how the game is played, and eventually you become bored. We all know how well service goes around here, and if you're here for a few months of time, you figure out how the service schedules is: when we're going to sing, and when we're going to set, and when we're going to pray, and when we're — when we're going to preach, when the altar calls going to take place. We have to be very careful, because if we don't exercise the gift that God's given us more than just feeling satisfied ourselves, if we don't allow that to, to take hold and really grasp inside our minds the obligation and responsibility that we have to be a part of the kingdom of God, we will become consumer minded in what we do. It's a very short trip from being engaged to being a critic. I've seen it happen.

I've spent my life being a part of this church. My family moved here when I was five years old. There's no way I would have ever dreamed or imagined, in my highest thoughts, that I would ever pastor this great church one day, but that's what God had chosen for me. Never did I, did I ever think that I would be in the position that I'm in. And still, there's some days I can't believe that I'm doing what I'm doing, that God has allowed me to be here. But what I have seen through time is how people can become content just showing up and setting on church pews. They can be content by just being around the atmosphere and presence of God, and that somehow that pacifies them just a little bit, to know that "I can still feel God." And what I see is people slowly drift to where they keep one foot in the church and one foot in the world — one foot in the church and one foot in the world. And before you know it, they become critical about all the things that are there, because the world is constantly telling you, "It's all about you, baby. Anything you want, however you want it done, whatever it is to accommodate you — your thoughts, your whims, your passions, your desires — it can be fulfilled." And if we're not careful, it seeps in the back door of the church, and before we know it, we can sit down and God is moving all around us, but if it's not the song I like, or, or the temperature's not right, or the sound's too soft or it's too loud, I become critical and judgmental about what's going on, and the whole time God is still desiring to move around you and in your life.

Somehow we think that God exists to make us happy, that God is here to meet every desire and demand that I have. And without being aware of what's going on, we treat him no different than kids treat Santa Claus: that I can make a wish list in my life, and that if I say "in Jesus' name" and I have a few scriptures memorized, and I show up forever many services I feel is enough for me to be counted on the role, that God should just take care of everything in my life because he's a God of love and he's a God of care. And somehow we miss the part that this is all not about us. This is about him. It's always been about him. It's always been about the King. It's always been about the kingdom. And when we get those things out of order, it all runs off the rails. We can become professional Pentecostals, to become takers instead of givers, because we're so lost in our consumer mentality.

Acts 1 and 8 says, "You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you." This is right before it was poured out. These are red-lettered words, as Jesus is explaining how everything he endured up into that point — all of his teachings, all the miracles, all the signs, all the wonders, all the fulfillment of prophecy — had come up to the point that he had to die. But he was back. He'd rose from the grave, and he's fixing to

ascend again, but he's reminding them that "I'm going to send a promise in my name, and it's coming back to you." And he says: "After the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you shall be my witnesses." You shall receive power. What's the power for? Is the power for you to speak in tongues? No. That, that tongues is a, is a sign for you to know that God's filled you — you're full of his Spirit. But that's not, that's not what the Holy Ghost is — just for you to run around here speaking in tongues. It's for you to be a witness. The power he puts in you is so that you can start being in the kingdom business. And then he says where you're going to go: to Jerusalem, locally; Judea — it's like, it's like county, city, state in the nation; unto the uttermost parts of the earth. What's he saying is: "I'm giving you the power to be effective everywhere you go. It's fixing to break out when you guys go into the upper room, and you're going to spill out, and people are going to be asking questions about what's going on, and one of you is going to stand up and preach the pivotal foundational message of how you can be born again. But it's not meant to just stay in Jerusalem. It's meant to spill out. It's meant to reach the entire globe, all the way around, every corner. How? By you being empowered to be a witness."

Mark chapter 12, verse 28: "And one of the scribes came, having heard them reasoning together, and perceived that he had answered them well, ask him, Which is the first commandment of all?" He's trying to — try to check Jesus out, to see if he can maybe, maybe entrap him a little bit with his own words. And Jesus responds: "The first of all the commandments of heroes of the Lord our God is one Lord." Man, we read that scripture in that Pentecostal church, we get fired up, because we are one God folks. We like one God. We like the mighty God in Christ. We like it. We'll buy shirts and, and socks and t-shirts, and, and we'll put bumper stickers on there. We, we love it all. And I — I'm one God to the very core who I am. But he didn't just stop there. Are you okay, you apostolic Pentecostals, okay right now? He didn't just stop by, by talking about the mighty God in Christ. He went on. Sister, remember, he didn't just stop there. He, he went forward, and he said — verse number 29, and Jesus answered and said, there was one God — verse number 30: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all the heart, without a soul, with all thy mind, with all that strength. This is the first commandment." We're still on board. "Yes — one God, love God, one God, I'm in, I'm bored." And the second — "Wait a minute, I didn't ask for two." "I can't give you one, because there's more than just one. They're tied together. You cannot love me and not love your neighbor. It's an impossibility. Don't come and tell me you love me, when you step over somebody else I love." And the second is like it, namely this: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as myself. There is none other greater commandments than these two." Jesus was asked, "What's the greatest?" "I'll tell you what it is: it's love God, the one true God, and love your neighbor." It's love God and love your neighbor. You can't love God and not love your neighbor, and you can't love your neighbor and not love God. You got to put those two things together. When I cannot reach my brother or sister, then I have a God deficiency in my life.

John talked about this in First John chapter number 4, verse 20: "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." You're a liar. You can't say you love God and hate your brother. "For he that loveth his brother and whom he saith, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" Shouting — listen to me, and I, I gotta slow down, because I'm getting ahead of myself in here. I need to slow this down a little bit. Help me say, "Slow down, Pastor." I got — you got to get this in yet. Okay: shouting and worshiping was never made to be independent from reaching our brothers and sisters. Now here's the deal: we love to shout. Now, if this is your first time with us, you may be wide-eyed right now. We get a lot of wide-eyed first-timers, if

you've never been in the Pentecost Apostolic church — once the music starts, we go. We, we, we like it. What are we — what are we doing? We, we are so happy for what God has done in our life that I can't shed — I can't sit still. Now here's the deal, okay — I'm just going to say this, and I'm going to go back over my notes, all right. But here's the deal is, is: for some reason, we can lose our mind in a sporting event, or we can lose our mind over some favorite celebrity, but when we come in and we seemingly are losing our mind over God, we're weird — when there's never anybody on any sporting event who's ever done anything for me, and there's never been a celebrity that has ever done anything for me. But I have a God who died for me. He had no — he had no guarantee I was even going to return my love. So when I have an opportunity, I'm going to return my love, and I'm going to shout, and I'm going to dance, and I'm going to sing, because baby, you don't know where I was at when he found me. I was down at rock bottom, and my God found me, and picked me, and cleaned me up. So yeah, sometimes I get a little crazy. But if you could have seen me then — so there's a lot of crazy in this room. We crazy about Jesus. But our shouting — we can do that, we can sing, we can worship. Worship brings with it a sense of urgency for our lost loved ones, too, when our worship has matured.

Okay, we — let me, we let me unpack what I feel like God laid on me. I, I, I feel it's so important. See, see, when a couple worship to the one true living God in brotherhood, I have a fulfillment unlike anything else. I, I know this: if I can wake somebody up today, and I can convince you of this truth, if I can somehow wake up Center Point to the revelation that the book of revival sets ready to explode here in Murfreesboro — it has nothing to do with the availability of souls. We are overrun with souls, but I'm not overrun with laborers. And I feel like what God is doing is, he's beginning to position families, as they're moving into our city — in the past few months, we've had some good apostolic families who are moving into our cities — because I'm praying, "God, send me labors. If I can't get in the ones that I got, then send me the ones that I need, because I got to have somebody to help me reach out for all that's going around." Because when I drive around the city, and I'm seeing development after development, and home after home, and all these things taking place, all I can say is, "God, there's more people here than I can reach by myself. I gotta have somebody come along beside me and help me." See that there's a whole world surrounding us, right at our back door.

And I don't think it's right for us to come in here and shout and spin and worship and do all this stuff, and have no regard for our brother or sister outside the walls today. It can't just be us and no more. It can't just be, if they happen to drive by and see the new building, or see that we're, we're putting in some parking, that they're curious. No — at some point, something has to wake up inside of you and I, and then when I leave, that I'm looking for a hungry soul, that I'm looking for a lost brother, that I'm looking for a lost sister, that there's somebody there that needs the good news inside of me. I can't just be a consumer of this. I have to put my hand into building the kingdom. We are not operating at our potential until we grab ahold of this: when praise matures, it brings with it brotherhood, because praise is not a solitary action. Praise is a corporate practice. It's done with others.

When John the Revelator, as he's there on the Isle of Padmos, and his — as God has begun to open up the heavens, and he's pinning down what he's seeing that is going to take place in the future, and he begins to look and see all the worship that is there, looking down the road, he begins to see, and he says that there are then thousands of ten thousands that are there. It lets me know that there's a multitude in heaven. It's not about single. It's about

us together, sitting around the throne room, worshiping the one true God when it's all said and done. Which makes me think, maybe we need to be worshiping together down here before we get over there. Solidarity — and worship can lead you down the road to backsliding if you're not careful. You can get so consumed with self that you will sell your brother out.

Joseph wanted to see if his brothers had changed, because his brothers had sold him down the road. Joseph had a dream, and maybe he was a — he was a little naive and sharing the completeness of the dream. There's a lot of things we could be critical about, at how Joseph handled himself. And if you're interested in the story, I encourage you to go back into the book of Genesis, read about Joseph's story. But to give you the, the Kevin note version of it — I know, I don't even know a cliff, anyway, some of you'll get that in a minute — or for this generation, I don't know, a spark, two worlds — he told his brothers that, "I had a dream." The dream was basically this: that you guys are going to bow down to me one day. And as typical brothers, they don't go over so well. I got a brother — he's right back there. I can imagine me telling Brandon in that conversation, "Hey bubba, one day you're gonna be bowing down to me." That ain't gonna go over good. It ain't, just like it didn't go very well. But here's the deal. The deal is this: it was a true story for Joseph. God was calling him into something much greater than he could possibly get his head around. And there was a possibility and an opportunity for his brothers to go along the journey with him. However, it didn't go well. Hatred was in the family. Dysfunction was in the fair. It was like some sort of tale. It was some crazy reality TV show stuff that's being transformed, as you read through the book of Genesis. It's, it's crazy, crazier than any, anything we have on our reality TV. You know, I heard it said before, you know, it — it's just, just — this is the kind of stuff that as you read it, if you think through it, you're like, this is just utter lunacy. But I love the fact that God says, "I'll step in the middle of that mess. I step in the middle of crazy, and I can still do work." Because that's what he did. He stepped right in the middle of crazy, and begins to lay on people's hearts.

So, so Joseph tells the story, but the dysfunction in the family calls jealousy. Jealousy caused them to head into betrayal, and they turned it over. Genesis 42:19: "If you be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison. Go ye, carry corn to the famine of your houses. But bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified, and you shall not die, as they did so." See, Joseph wanted to see if the brothers had changed their minds, because here's what happened: Dad sent Joseph out to check on the brothers one day, and Dad had given Joseph a really cool coat because Joseph was his favorite. There was dysfunction in the family. Joseph is just wearing the gift that his dad got. He's going to check on his brothers. We already read in the scriptures that Joseph is a bit of a tattletale, yeah. So he shows up, the brothers seem — a ways off, and they said, "Here comes that dreamer." And they start to conspire: "We need to kill him." One of the brothers, at least Reuben, had a little bit sin, said, "We can't do that. We can't kill him. Let's just put him in a pit, and just leave him in a pit." Sounds merciful, doesn't it? They put him in a pit, and Reuben disappears for a minute. And then all of a sudden, a caravan, a carnival comes through, and Judah — Judah says, "Let's sell him." Now what's interesting about Judah is, Judah, literal translation, is what? Praise. Judah is immature at this point in his life. He's immature. Immature praise says, "I'll sell my brother down the road." Immature praise says, "I'm concerned about myself. He makes me uncomfortable, so I'm not worried about him. I just soon sell him down the road." Are you guys okay? I'm gonna take us somewhere. It takes me a minute to unpack it, okay. But immature praise will turn its back on a brother. Immature praise will turn its back on a sister. So in this

part of the story I just read to you in Genesis 42, Joseph, who was sold, is looking back at praise, saying, "You sold me once. I still got a true brother" — because there were some half brothers going on, named Benjamin — "I want to know if Benjamin's still alive. I want to know if you sold him too. I want to know if you sent him down the road, just like you did me. So I can't determine whether or not you're where you need to be, so I'm saying: until I know whether or not praise is concerned with the brother, I'm not willing to move on this point." That's what's taking place right here. Joseph has to know. He has not revealed his identity. He's checking the temperature in amongst the brothers that are there. You guys with me? Okay. "See, if you have changed, I will know you have changed, because you'll bring your brother back." There is more than a shout — it's a call into action.

Listen to me, church: faith without works is dead. And what I'm afraid is that we have multiple generations who have come in and have become praised junkies in an immature fashion. They come in — and as I said to you earlier, if you've been around here, we know how to sing, and we know how to ramp your emotions up. If all you're worried about is getting your emotions ramped up, we can ramp the emotions up. But is that all you're about? Or are you about — is this feeling, as God casually strolls through our sanctuary, that you feel his presence, and you're good just having a few goosebump experiences in your life? Because here's what I see, as I see a lot of people who have been around this for decades now, but they're still immature in their walk with God. Their praise is still immature, because they are willing to disregard a brother or sister who has a need. All they're concerned about is, "I can't wait to get to church so I can feel the presence of God again, so that I can get my fix for the week." And they'll come down, and they'll confess all their faults and everything that they've done, and everything they've been bound by, in every circumstance that has overwhelmed them. Yet when they leave this place, they pick it all back up and head out the back door, only to come back in the next week and lay it down again. Because when praise is immature, it'll sell a brother. When praise is immature, it's only concerned with self. And God never intended that gift to just be for you.

Y'all okay? I know I'm getting a little deeper today, but I feel God has this for us. I feel we're ripe right now for a word like this in our church. Our mission — our mission is not this new building. It's nice, and I, I thank God for it. It is beautiful. I still can't believe that we're here in the middle of what's going on right now. But our mission is to reach this lost and dying city. That's our mission. If God takes the building away — and I don't want it to — if he takes it away, the church is still here, because the building is not the church. We're the church. We're the church. We're the church. And we've got to be about the Father's business. Faith brings with it action, because faith without works — James said it — it's dead. Don't just show me that you can worship. Show me what that worship does to you. How does it cause you to be engaged in the kingdom, and not just concerned with yourself?

Now don't get me wrong: there — there are times and seasons when we do have to work on us, okay. There are — I'm not saying you can't have where you've got something going on in your life, or you're facing something, or something's been done — or there are times when we do, we, we come in and we have to be focused. But if all you've ever been is self-focused, you're missing the kingdom. You're missing the kingdom. Because when Jesus went in and he healed people, he always changed their circumstances. Their eyes — "Take up your bed and walk." What? "Don't go back to bed. I got you up out of the bed — don't go back to the bed." All — there was always actions in what he was doing, because he was changing their identity. Don't go back to the thing you were bound by.

Praise — Joseph — his father Israel is dying. He calls for a son. I'm fast forward in just a little bit, but please I hope

I can — see, can stick with me. I know this is maybe just a little bit unconventional for a normal sermon that I do, but God was just — my mind, he sometimes, when he turns the spigot on, I can't type fast enough. Okay, so this may be a little bit — did stick with me. Y'all okay? So let's — this fast — Lord say, pastors fast forwarding. Okay, so we were there, and Joseph's — Joseph's looking, okay. But I'm a fast forward now for a minute. Now they've already come back, and there's been a, there's been a reunion, and they're in Egypt, and the dad's already there, but the dad's dying, okay. Now listen to me for just a minute, because I'm explaining the, the progression of praise. Okay, you're okay? This is an explanation of the progression of praise. He's there dying. He calls his sons in, and he's beginning to bless them. Now, for those of you who have studied this word, you know — you know where I'm at. He looks at Reuben and basically says, "Reuben, year is unstable as water." Simeon and Levi, "your instruments for cruelty." It gets to Judah, the fourth point, and he says — he says, "Jesus — Judah, you're, you're a lion's whelp." Okay, you're, you're a praiser. But, but in the beginning, you're not a nice guy. The best way I know — it had to literally translate that when he says that, he's like, you're a worshiper, but, but when you start out, you're not, you're not such a nice thing to, to be around. Praise in its immaturity will not accomplish what is supposed to, until it comes to full maturity. Praise begins with words, but that's just the beginning. Anyone can say words. But maturity and praise moves beyond words. It gets off the pew, into the community, however the brothers and sisters are there, in need of someone reaching out to them.

And God is speaking — I feel like, wholeheartedly, does somebody in this church right now, that you know the area in which he's called you into, you know the whole, the part you're supposed to play in the revival that is out there — but for some reason, you've convinced yourself you're not qualified, you're not able, for what? You're still immature in your praise. And I'm here to call you out today: don't be a lion's whelp anymore. It's time to understand that praise is here to equip you in this room, so that you go out those back doors into the world out there, and you take what you get in here, out there. Oftentimes I hear people — and I, I know your heart when you say this, I just think sometimes you don't fully think through what you're saying — "I just wish we could see the miracles around that's going on, the Bible." Okay, when's the last time you brought somebody in that needed a miracle? Don't tell me what you want to see if you're not willing to go out and get it. Don't tell me what it is your desire, if you're not willing to work for it. You got to, at some point, rise up enough to understand that, that if, if it's going to happen, God will use me to make it happen. I'm not meant — I was never created to be a spectator. He made me to be someone who participates, to be a part of what's going on. That's why we begin to see things change around here, in this sense of urgency right now.

Our kids are over there in kids church. You know, there's, there's probably 120 over there right now, over there. And God's doing a work in that generation. But let me tell you, I'm not preaching this message to that generation. It's not their time. But I'm preaching specifically to who's in this room today, because I knew the kids wouldn't be here. To tell you, this is our time. If you're in this room right now, it's our time. If you're still drawing breath, it's our time to be about the kingdom business. If not, the miracles will dry up. You remember when, when Israel leaves Egypt — God gets them out, and along the way there's a miracle after miracle. Red sees part, and things are just happening. God's providing. He's doing all this miraculous stuff. But they reach a point to where they get the grumbling. They become self-focused, self-centered, and all of a sudden the miracles drop. Now their shoes don't wear out, their clothes don't wear out, and God still provides them their daily bread, because he's a faithful God. But the miracle stopped. Why? Because it always stops when you allow praise to be only about you. When it

becomes about you. And he had to kill off a whole generation who were self-focused, even though they were the very generation that got to see the miracles with their own eyes, because they wouldn't buy into being more than just self-focused. He said, "I gotta kill you off. I'll raise up another generation, and I'll work with them." I'm telling it — it's a scary place to allow our praise to stay immature, because when we do, we forget about our brothers. We forget about our sisters. Praise must mature. And we apostolics know how to praise, but is our praise — and mature — as Joseph was making his ascension in Egypt, you see Judah meeting with Tamar.

It's this crazy story there in Genesis chapter number 38. It just doesn't make sense. It's, it's the story of Joseph, and then like all of a sudden somebody rips a chapter out of a whole 'nother book and sticks it right in the middle. We see praise show up on the scene again. Have you ever thought about this? But, but it's very interesting to me, intriguing: why, why does this story come? We're talking about Joseph, and here's Judah showing up. And Judah, in this story, it starts out that he drifts away, because again, he's immature. Praise is immature. He finds some moment. He falls in love, yeah, and they have a baby, and then another baby, and then another baby, and another baby. Active, I love you. They grow up, and then immature praise goes and finds a wife or a son. But because praise is immature, he's never taught his son how to adequately do anything. And the word of God says that he was evil, and God took him. Now, the way things were supposed to go during that time was that if a brother had a wife and there was not a heir passed on yet, that the next brother in line was to, was to raise up an air and honor his brother that way. So the next son was up, and he was supposed to take care of his brother.

But it's an interesting story. Again, it's — it's this one's ready, you know, PG-17, so just know that when you read it. But he doesn't do what he's supposed to do, and God kills him. So immature praise tells his widowed daughter-in-law, "If you'll just wait till my son's old enough, then the next one, then I'll send him to you." But he's immature. Praise is immature. And praise doesn't keep his word. And the daughter-in-law sees that praise isn't going to keep its word, so she arranges this scandalous thing. I'm telling you, it's, it's just like PG-21. Let me go read it now. I know some of y'all probably haven't — you're getting your Bibles out right now to read it. You can just — it's there. He ends up unknowingly sleeping with his daughter-in-law, produces a child. She doesn't tell him who she is, but he finds out about, and he's willing to call her out and burn her — that's what the word of God says: call her out and let her be burned, for what she's done. And, but she was — she was sharp. She was sharp, girl. She worked the system, because she got — she got a few things from him. So when, when she comes out, she's proven. She said, "The man to whom these things belong — he's the man responsible for the child in me." And all of a sudden he's like, "Oh snap, she is more righteous than me." Praise — are you still with me? Praise realizes how immature he's been.

So we have this crazy, sordid story, and then now we're back to Joseph. You're almost like, "What in the world — like, how do we, how do we get there?" It's like we're reading, and all of a sudden we're in a Harlequin novel, and then all of a sudden we're back to the Bible. If you don't know what that is, then you're young. So back to Joseph. And Joseph's trying to prove that his brothers have matured. And this is where we get into the story now — I promise you, I'm taking you somewhere with this. I know, be a little funny just to keep you in here. The story about Judah is just ugly, but God's trying to teach praise a lesson. Praise that runs out of control will kill a church. Praise was designed for us to honor God, and to raise up seed, to reach out to our brothers and sisters and bring us in. The psalmist said in Psalms 1:22, "I was glad when they said unto me" — what's it say? "Let us" — was it — wasn't a solo event, but

it was meant to be done together. It's meant for us. It's meant for us to reach out. It's meant for us to go together. I cannot shout in a mature way without seeing lost souls. I, I cannot worship without understanding that my brother is lost, without seeing a move of God in my community, without trying to do something to reach outside the walls of my comfort zone, to know that God wants me to do something to help further his kingdom.

I was thinking about this as I was putting this together. And a few years ago, we're going on a men's retreat, and we're going to Five-Star Retreat that's out by past Dixon, towards Lyles, Tennessee. And we — we're, we're weaving our way down this little, little country road, and we come across this little man, just the shanty of a, of a house trailer. You know, it's just — you know, for whatever reason, there's tires up on top, and there's like seven cars in the yard, and just — you know the kind of place I'm talking about. This thing — you go there, some of you may have been growing up. So Randall's riding with me. Our daughter were passed over in Watertown. He's riding with me, and he — he stopped. I looked over at him, and he's a little emotional. He points, he says, "Pastor, that exactly right there — that's what I came from. I came from a little boy of, of dragging my drunk dad off the porch when he'd passed out, back into the house, because night had come." See, see, praise is willing to reach out to all those lost and all those hurtings, those ones who have — I thank God that somebody reached out to Randall, because Randall was, was in that mess. And now he's preaching the gospel over to church. They just baptized their 30th person in Jesus' name since the beginning of the church. 27 filled with the Holy Ghost. God's doing miraculous things in Watertown. What am I saying to you? Somebody allowed their praise to mature to the point that they reached out to somebody. It's one thing that I picked up from the story, is that praise had to mature.

As I bring this to end — the musicians can come — I want to wrap this up nicely for you, okay? Joseph presented the point to his brothers that things won't be right until you come back with my brother, or the brother that was there. He didn't say who he was yet. They can't appear before Joseph — even though they don't know him, all they know is that they have to bring the brother back. Genesis 43:5 says this — this is Joseph speaking to his brothers, they don't know his identity: "You shall not see my face except your brother be with you." Reuben's the oldest, and they go back. He — he says to his dad that, "You can have my sons, if I don't bring him back." Jacob understands Reuben. He knows what kind of man he is. He knows he's a self-absorbed man. He knows that he's the kind of man that will sleep with his concubine. So he doesn't believe Reuben. He says, "Ruben, you can't take him."

But I want you to look at this in Genesis chapter 43, and Judah spake unto him, saying, "The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, You shall not see my face except your brother be with you. If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food." Skipping down to verse number eight: "And Judah said unto Israel's father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones." Verse number nine: "I will be surety for him." Praise has matured to the point that he realizes it has to be more than just me. "So Dad, I'll take his place. I will be surety. Of my hand shalt that require him. If I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, and let me bear the blame forever."

He appears before his brother Joseph. He comes back in. He's there. And all of a sudden Joseph realizes that Judah has matured, because Judah tells him, "I'm going to take his place. I'll be the one to stand." And in that moment of time, he realizes: "The very one who sold me down the road is now willing to stand as guarantee that my little brother makes it home." There has to be, Center Point, a progression of our praise — from immaturity that's self-focused and self-centered, into something that realizes, "I'm going to come, and I'm going to

worship — because my God has been good, and my God is faithful, and he is justly due to praise, the fruit of my lips. I will sing to him. But when I am worshiping and praising, it is also there to remind me that there's a brother and a sister who's not here. Then my praise will lead me to the point where I will say, "God, I will stand in the gap, until I can bring them back here before you."

So I'm reaching for somebody today, that you've sat on the sideline for too long. It's time to allow your praise to mature, so that you are aware, when you walk outside these doors, that there are hurting people all around you, and that there is somebody that God wants you to talk to. Because that's what mature praise does, is it leaves with a burden, that I can't come back and stand before him without bringing my brother with me. See, the salvation was not determined upon Judah, but he had to bring his brother in. And when he did, provision was given. I'm not saying God's going to withhold from you, but there are kingdom blessings tied into when you and I operate in our giftings and abilities, and we further his kingdom. There are things you think you could never do. I'm here to tell you, hell was never going to encourage you. The enemy is never going to say, "You have the ability to reach out to somebody." But there is a God who's looking to say, "Has praise matured to the point that it's willing to reach out and bring a brother, or bring a sister, in before my presence?" I'm here to tell you: there will be things unlocked in your life that you cannot even begin to imagine.

As you close your eyes with me, if you're comfortable. Joseph was a type and a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ to come. Sold for 20 pieces of silver, he finally ended up being the one who was able to save his people. And I'm telling you, in this room today, there's an anticipation in God, waiting for you and I to bring our brother and our sister before him. And when we do, he will reveal himself like never before. You're hungry for miracles. You're hungry to see these things. You're hungry for that latter outpouring that he promises in his word. Are you willing to bring somebody? Are you willing? Are you willing to reach out to your comfort zone?

Oh God, I've delivered my heart to your church, to your people today, the truth that you showed me in your scripture. I pray, God, that we would awaken with a hunger to reach out to our brothers and sisters around us — to reach out to those prodigals, to reach out to our friends, our co-workers, our family, to reach out, God, to those people that you have purposely put in our life. Let us see that there is somebody you want us to reach. Give us a boldness and a courage that we have never experienced before, God. Give us laborers for the harvest. In Jesus' name. This altar is open. If you are desiring to deepen your relationship with God, if you're desiring to start a relationship with God, if you're desiring to make some changes in your life, I, I invite you to this altar for a time of prayer. They're gonna sing.