Sunday Evening Worship Service
by Steve Smith
August 29, 2021 · First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Genesis 41:14, Genesis 40, Job 23:2-10, Hebrews 13:8, Genesis 41:49, Genesis 41:51-52, Numbers 6:24-26

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/steve-smith--sunday-evening-worship-service-180
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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thank you sir thank you man come on let's continue to give that to jesus can we thank you almighty god you may be seated for a moment 64 years 1957. [Music] the most popular television program in the united states in 1957 you only think it's reruns it's gun smoke not reruns first runs 1957 central high school little rock arkansas national guard enforcing integration but also in 1957 in knoxville tennessee [Music] a young couple by the name of billy and betty mccool answered the call of god and look what the lord has done we honor your bishop and sister mccool we honor you we honor you thank you jesus scripture says it well when it says beautiful are the feet [Music] where would we be many of us wouldn't even know this message if it weren't for the mccools the age of nine months of age my mother and father transferred from the church pastored by brother don johnson in memphis because of a work transfer for dad and moved to west memphis arkansas i like to say it was because i was such a problem saint they could just tell after nine months we got to get rid of him that wasn't the story and we went to the church pastored by your bishop's twin brother and so all of my life i have been influenced and shaped by the mccools it was always a highlight for us when bishop and sister mccool would come to west memphis as a kid i had a record now if you don't know what a record is ask your parents maybe even your grandparents they can tell you the album work was pictures taken at the knoxville zoo it was brother and sister mccool and your pastor and i wore that thing out it's always been a privilege when your pastor would come to west memphis and preach he actually did a youth retreat when i was youth pastor in west memphis and you could tell by looking at me that wasn't last year i always have loved these dear folks and one of the highlights of the last few years for me coming back to memphis and coming in contact with pastor nate and sister ashley whitley and pastor anthony and sister kelly mccool that they your whole team has ministered in germantown numerous times and blessed us and we love them so very much why don't you give your pastoral team the whole the whole team a great big hand clap and there's just kind of a an added bonus to this great family as a man who has three boys had two boys we tried for the third time for a girl and it was another boy we wouldn't trade him for anything we were talking in the room today you wonder if one of our boys might be able to strike gold and give us a grandbaby but my word easton and eleanor what what incredibly cute sweet wonderful children and i want to thank this church for your first class hospitality wonderful hotel room incredible hospitality basket they had the audacity to take a memphis boy to a barbecue place today for lunch it was the best burnt end i've ever had so find out where it was check it out you won't find better in memphis it was phenomenal and then i got to do something today i'll have it done literally in decades i got to have a sunday afternoon nap pretty good now now we have two o'clock service in germantown so inadvertently i think i have created the climate for others to have sunday afternoon naps while i'm preaching but i've not had to have one in many many years i invite your attention to genesis 41 verse number 14. is it all right if i go a little deeper in joseph joseph has spoken to my life so strongly particularly this year and uh i think it has a lot to say to us in the times that we live in and i believe god's going to speak to us tonight verse number 14 of genesis 41. then pharaoh sent and called joseph and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon and he shaved himself and changed his raiment and came in unto pharaoh i want to talk to you for a little while tonight on fruitful and forgetful turn to somebody near you again smile real big tell them fruitful and forgetful [Music] let's ask god to anoint our time together in his word god i thank you i thank you for the impact of this church god i've been blown away as people have recounted me in recent weeks the ministries and the ministers who have gone out of this church this church literally has impacted the world has changed the world has spread this gospel around the world so we don't just celebrate what's going on in this room right now we celebrate the the reaching impact of this church god the wisdom the dedication the faithfulness god i pray tonight that you will anoint our time together in your word your word is already anointed but i pray that you would allow our hearts and our minds to be open to hear what you are saying to the church in the wonderful name of jesus we pray and everybody said amen why don't you put your hands together and give god praise for what he is about to do come on give him high praise for just a moment joseph the son of the old testament patriarch jacob had been thrown into a pit and then sold into slavery by his half-brothers joseph's mother rachel was the love of his father's life and nearly everything as i mentioned this morning that we know about joseph's home life is spelled out on scripture after the death of rachel the strife the jealousy the competition even joseph's dreams take place after the death of his mother joseph's coat of many colors were given to him after the death of his mother the only person who could remotely love rachel as much as jacob was joseph and the same was true for the other one and so they found solace and love in the arms of each other but all of that was ripped from jacob's life when joseph's death was faked and he was sowed into egyptian slavery he found himself sold as a slave into the house of potiphar the captain of the guard that's important to understand because of his excellence and the favor of god he is elevated to second only to pharaoh in all of his house the story of joseph is so powerful for our day and in our time joseph was not looking for an excuse to be offended it seems like everybody's inventing a reason to be offended every day anymore he's not looking for a reason to be offended if so he had every opportunity to be offended the power of the pit the purpose of the pit does no good if we become bitter if we become bitter the story is all over but if we become better then god can use us and elevate us to the place that we need to be after some time he is falsely accused of attempted rape by potiphar's wife and thrown into prison now i believe that potiphar was not buying that story at all i believe that he wasn't convinced and he just had to go along simply to appease appearances because his wife said this was true here's why i believe that when you turn to genesis 40 it says that joseph is thrown into prison and that the captain of the guard charged the chief butler and the baker with them now if he really believed the story why would he then entrust people who are entrusted to him to joseph be that as it may he finds himself in prison and in the course of time the butler and the baker both had dreams of the same night and joseph accurately interpreted both dreams this is another message but it's sunday night so let me chase a rabbit for a moment if i were joseph when they had come to me and said hey i had a dream i'd say nope i don't do dreams i don't do dreams i've done dreams before matter of fact i'm in jail right now because i did i don't do dreams you will never have your dream fulfilled if you don't continue operating in your giftedness even if it has cost you everything the reason joseph interpreted dreams was he was a dreamer he couldn't stop doing that anymore that i can stop being a man because that's who god made him to be that's who god made me to be now as you know it didn't turn out well for the baker but the butler was restored to his position as the chief butler to pharaoh and so joseph asked him as he was leaving think on me would you help a brother out i'm in prison here think on me when it goes well with you and show kindness i pray thee unto me and make mention of me to pharaoh and bring me out of the house i've read some writers who say that that was a lack of faith on joseph's part maybe so but i'd have been down on hands and knees saying that please don't forget me i mean you know i helped you out here i interpret it correctly but the scripture says yet the chief butler did not remember joseph but forgot him joseph didn't just feel forgotten he was forgotten he didn't just feel overlooked he was overlooked he didn't just feel neglected he was neglected he had survived the pain of rejection and jail he'd endured the torture of false accusation in potiphar's house he had been formed and shaped in prison yet for me i would think the mindless numbing meaninglessness of waiting and waiting and waiting must have been almost unbearable what do you do when you feel like god has put your life on hold when god has pressed the pause button on your life when god has put you in a time out and you have no idea why job can relate he said it this way even today my complaint is bitter my hand is listless because of my groaning oh that i knew where to find him job said if i could find him that i might come to his seat i would present my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments i would know the words which he would answer me and understand that he would what he would say to me would he contend with me in his great power no but he would take note of me i mean he was pretty determined if i could just find him i'd argue my case there the upright could reason with him and i would be delivered forever from my judge look i go forward but he is not there and backward but i cannot perceive him when he works on the left hand i cannot behold him when he turns to the right hand i cannot see him but he knows the way that i take and when he has tested me i shall come forth as gold we give the butler a bad rap for not remembering joseph how ungrateful how how could you not remember the man who has been involved in your deliverance from prison how could you forget but i i suggest you tonight that this was a case of divine memory lapse this was a case of heaven sent amnesia we love it when god places our names on people's hearts not so much when he causes them to forget all about us but joseph when god gave you your dreams while you were still in your daddy's house those dreams are already a reality in the mind of god hebrews 13 8 says jesus christ the same yesterday today and forever god is omnipresent he is not just everywhere in place at the same time he is everywhere in time at the same time he is in your past he is in your present he is in your future all at the same time theologians caused this call this the instantaneous now so when god gives you a dream when you dream that dream it is already a spiritual reality in the mind of god that dream is already a reality but god has got to prepare you and grow you and stretch you so that you can live in the reality of that dream then it came to pass at the end of two full years that pharaoh had a dream two years of waiting two years of marking time two years of growing odor but nobody could interpret that dream and finally the butler says i remember my faults today i i remember them and and pharaoh called for joseph and he came out of the dungeon joseph if you had gotten out of prison when you wanted to get out of prison you would have been out of position when your pharaoh dreamed his dream everything in joseph's life was about process and position i've heard people say things aren't going well in my life i must be out of the will of god but let me argue with you that joseph was in the will of god in the pit joseph was in the will of god in potiphar's house joseph was in the will of god in prison whatever you do whatever you're going through don't abort the process by getting out of position because one day your pharaoh is going to dream a dream and he needs to know where to find you when he dreams that dream [Applause] if you could just see what's coming you wouldn't stress so much about what's happening sometimes i sense a spiritual knowing i i sense destiny i don't know how to explain it i i feel like i'm in prison maybe but i i sense destiny james wilson wrote it very well when he says there's not a mountain too tall there's not a problem too small that jesus can't resolve in time he'll get involved our god he cares about us there is not a light too dark a night too dark a journey too long to embark jesus will see you through in time he'll make you new our god he cares about us so wait on the lord wait on the lord wait on the lord and he will renew your strength because he's ordering he's ordering he's ordering your steps but you've got to wait don't get out of position when you don't understand what's going on don't try to rush the process when you don't understand what's happening god started this story and he is going to finish the story he is the author and the finisher of our faith he's not going to let you down come on and give god praise and pharaoh sent and called joseph and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon and he he shaved he shaved the egyptians abstained from shaving only during times of mourning and imprisonment otherwise they were clean-shaven to not shave was a practice among poor people so he shaved joseph what are you doing well i heard a voice from another side calling me up higher but you're still in prison boy it doesn't matter i'm gonna shave i'm getting ready for where i'm going ever checked into the hotel on a friday night you're going to a wedding the next day man you put on your best clothes i mean you've got you you are looking good you you even wore deodorant that day i mean it it's pretty special you know and you get in an elevator and at the same time there's a family that gets on with your family but they're not going to a wedding they're going to the pool i mean you both kind of look odd and out of place you're in an elevator but but you're both prepared you're dressed for where you are going there are times that you've got to prepare for where you're going bishop one of the things i love that that your brother poured into me is don't ever give your less than your best every time you minister we were starting a church in new york and we'd have just a handful of folks first service i think we had 11 and we were dumb enough to think that's as low as it would ever go oh it went lower than that but every every service i gave my very best people would compliment me and it didn't seem like a compliment that's what i was taught to do because if you're ever going to go from 11 to 200 you got to act like you're at 200 already dress like where you're going act like where you're going god's given me a dream right now i'm in the prison but i'm gonna shave i'm gonna shave the scripture says let the weak say i'm strong let the bronx say i'm blessed let the bounds say i am free i'm not crying anymore i'm not in bondage anymore i'm not in poverty anymore i'm i'm going to shave i'm going to shave and so joseph walked into pharaoh's court and he said to pharaoh look i can't interpret this dream but but god can interpret it and pharaoh began to tell him this great dream oh there were seven big fat cows that came up and then there were seven skinny cows and the seven were so hungry they ate up the big fat cows then i woke up from the dream and i fell back asleep and seven beautiful ears of corn and then then another seven scrawny years of corn and they consumed the big ear of corn and joseph said to pharaoh the dreams are one let me tell you what this dream is all about there's going to be seven years of great abundance then there's going to be seven years of famine then joseph did something that he was not asked to do he put in his two cents worth he said now here's what i think you ought to do about it you you gave me the microphone so here i go i think you ought to select a discerning and wise man set him over the land of egypt let pharaoh do this and and let him appoint officers over the land collect one fifth of the produce of the land of egypt in the seven plentiful years and let them gather all of the food of those good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of pharaoh and let them keep food in the cities i'm going to tell you one of the hardest things we've talked about the pit today we're talking a little bit about the prison but one of the hardest things to ever do is move from the prison to the palace to move from prison mentality to palace mentality to move from striving to thriving you you've been grasping for everything and god says that season's over now you're sitting on the throne to go from i prayed and i prayed that nothing's happened to the windows of heaven are open but joseph nails it he not only interprets a dream he understands there's an opportunity let me tell you what i think should happen here and pharaoh says i i don't know if we could find anybody better than you i think matter of fact what are you doing are you currently employed oh no no you were in prison yeah we could put you on the payroll everything will be fine when you get a dream from god there will always be a process oh this third dream's awesome but remember he went through a set of dreams that he had at his daddy's house then he went through a set of dreams in the prison and finally this third dream put him where god wanted him to be the whole time it's not just dreams he was given a coat of many colors oh he loved that can you imagine that that meant daddy loved me that was stripped from him how painful that must have been then he got a coat from potiphar he was the second in command of that house and that was wonderful sometimes we have potiphar's robes ripped from us we lose a job something catastrophic happens in our life oftentimes god is simply setting us up for something else because god never intended for joseph to stay in potiphar's house but joseph had to learn how to run a country all he'd ever known was herdsmen all he'd ever known was being a nomadic tribesman's son but he learned how to run a country in potiphar's house he had gone to the top of the ladder but now the ladder was leaning against the wrong building and then finally he gets the robe that pharaoh puts on him and things begin to change i am sure that joseph had difficult problems throughout the remainder of his life but at the time that he appeared before pharaoh he was 30 years old he died when he was 110 years old for 80 years he lived with no pits no more potiphar's house and no more prisons there are defining moments in our lives that shape us for the rest of our lives the early church fathers called it the dark night of the soul but don't give up hope while you're going through that process because god may allow some robes to be taken from you he may allow some dreams to be painful but if he ever gave you a dream he is going to bring it to reality there's going to be a day you wear the robe you were designed to wear there's going to be a day that you move in to what god has designed for you all along come on and give god praise in this room oh and so he he got all kind of honors you talk about going from the prison now everybody's got to bow the knee before him he he gets the ring of pharaoh on his finger it's like having an open bank account backed up by the the leader of the country everything is wonderful he is given a wife things are looking good for him when he was thrown into the pit he was 17. that process was excruciating arduous exhausting it seemed like it would never end but really it was just 13 short years 13 years to turn the favored son of a nomadic tribesman into the second most powerful person the mightiest nation in the world 13 years to turn a lad into a leader 13 years to develop the man who single-handedly saved the then known world from utter starvation today in america doctors must complete four years of undergraduate program along with four years in medical school along with three to seven years of a residency program to learn the specialty that they choose to pursue in other words it takes a doctor 10 to 14 years to become a fully licensed doctor in 13 years god fast tracked joseph into his divine leadership development course and turned out a world-class leader who consistently gave all of the glory to god now we're talking out of the bible and that's the best place for us to be but when you look at world history most great leaders that changed the world had a time in their life that if you were looked in on their life you'd have thought there's no way they're ever going to wind up where they wound up it's a forward of time joseph was majorly successful matter of fact the scripture says in genesis 41 that joseph gathered very much grain as the sand of the sea until he stopped counting for it was immeasurable now the brother was blessed i mean he started out in this lineage of abraham isaac and jacob and now because of all the hurt and difficulty now he is the one running the show in egypt and to joseph were born two sons before the years a famine came the first one he named manassas which means making forgetful for god has made me forget all the toil watch this and all my father's house joseph wasn't disowning them they disowned him but he had toil you look other places in scripture he prison wasn't just you know in the hilton hotel i mean he had some difficulties he was a slave he had toil but he said god has made me forget all of it in other words he was embracing where he was just embracing where he was he was holding in his arms his first born son every child that god gives you special but because of the fact you've never done it before at least for my wife and i when the first one comes along there's something special about holding that baby for the first time when i looked at landry our oldest that's 20 years old in the eyes that that day in memphis years ago on a snowy day in december can you believe it snowed in december and memphis my life would never be the same god god made the butler forget but i suggest to you that he also helped joseph forget the lady in our life my wife and i was life if i mentioned her name i think most the mccools would know her she was very instrumental in the church in west memphis very instrumental in their school always bright smile just always a bundle of energy but her upbringing had not been easy it was very very difficult growing up everything in her house fought against her being in church she she literally would have to lock the bathroom door and use that as an excuse to pray she couldn't even pray in her bedroom it was horrible and one day i was talking to her and she said you know i had an experience one time where somebody was bringing up a whole lot of things from my past and i really wasn't responding the way they thought i would respond and they said surely you you remember that surely surely you remember that happening she said i tell you what i can tell you i distinctly remember the day i forgot that i distinctly remember that day my wife and i have had a year a rule for years that we pretty much follow if something's going on our life and it's difficult once we run out of things to say about that situation we're not saying anything new then we quit talking about it there's nothing more to say joseph is holding in his arms his firstborn sometimes you have to move on from things that you'll never get over some painful things in your life the grieving process is just like if you lost a family member some things are going to wash over you you don't even understand there are days that you just feel sad about it but you've got to move on from things you may never get over you've got to embrace forgetfulness you've got to say god was orchestrating all of this and so i don't understand it but i'm going to forget the toil and i'm going to forget my father's house because i'm here right now and i'm going to give my very best to where i am and then he had another boy he looked at the eyes of that little boy and called him ephraim it says for god has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction oh if you ever thought for a moment if he if his allegiance had been shifted from what he was raised with the egypt this shows he understood it's the land of my affliction oh i'm i'm uber successful oh everybody talks about how great i am but this is still the land of my affliction but god in the middle of a difficult time has made me to be fruitful we we finished a series on joseph recently in memphis and now we're in daniel and the thing that struck me about daniel and joseph both is they both changed their life from places of second choices neither one of them wanted to be where they were daniel didn't want to be drug away from jerusalem at the age of 12 and put in babylon but instead of crying all the time he said i'm going to embrace my my forgetfulness so that i can embrace my fruitfulness in the land of my affliction you will never be fruitful until you are forgetful you cannot cling to the past and reach for the future at the same time you've got to say god i am where i am and whatever's brought me here god i trust it's in your plan and so i hold up forgetful but god because i can do that i can also hold up fruitful i can be fruitful in the land of my affliction can i tell you something i've heard many times since march of 2020. i can't wait for normal to come back this is not original me i stole it from social media but i think it's good normal is not coming back but jesus is yes we can be fruitful in the land of our affliction if we can be forgetful god will make us fruitful so jacob gets sick joseph hears about it and he takes ephraim and manasseh forgetful and fruitful to see grandpa grandpa hears about it he strengthens himself and raises up on his bed and he sees those grandbabies he said joseph here's what we're going to do those two right there they're going to become mine now all the other kids you have they can be yours but these two are going to be mine like reuben and simeon are mine that's why there's a half tribe of ephraim and a half tribe of manasseh they're going to be mine and then he started to bless those two boys he said god but whom before whom my fathers abraham and isaac walk the the god who has fed me all my life long to this day the angel who has redeemed me from all evil bless the lads let my name be named upon them and the name of my fathers abraham and isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth and then he just does something very interesting the scripture says he does it knowingly he's not slipping he does it knowingly joseph has lined him up where the firstborn is at the right hand and the second born is at the left hand we're going to put forgetful here and we're going to put fruitful here and jacob says ah now i'm going to do things a little differently and he takes his right hand and he puts it on the head of fruitful and he puts his left hand on the hand of forgetful and he said i i'm gonna bless these children joseph was not happy and jacob says i know i know son i know he also forgetful also shall be a people and he shall be great but truly his younger brothers shall be greater than he and his descendants shall be a multitude of nations and he said something that's interesting if you have any jewish friends you already know it he said so he blessed him that day saying by you israel will bless saint may god make you not as manasseh and ephraim but as ephraim and manasseh not as forgetful and fruitful but as fruitful and forgetful you've got to embrace forgetfulness in order to get to fruitfulness but once you ever get there it's the fruitfulness that leads the way god set you up god placed you where he wanted you to be so that there could be fruitfulness in your life and you could bear fruit abundantly i've been praying a prayer i didn't get it from anybody else it was quickened to me in an altar call a few weeks ago i've been praying a prayer for almost anybody i know god the apostolics in my life i pray that you will put a multiplication anointing upon them we are not in competition with anybody else we are in competition with the clock we are racing the rapture god would you multiply the finances of your people and would you multiply the influence of your people and then i pray god let our character always be bigger than our ability and let our humility always be bigger than our open doors but god set your people up with fruitfulness between now and the rapture of the church greater than we have ever seen before and so it's customary in many jewish communities for parents to administer this blessing may god make you as ephraim and manasseh on the friday before the sabbath others observe the blessing and they reserve it for those moments before the onset of yom kippur the holiest day of the year and here's what i love because a whole lot of them preface it by that great blessing in numbers chapter 6 by which moses told aaron this is the way you were to call my name upon the people they literally say over their children the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord lift up his countenance unto you and give you peace may god make you as ephraim and manasseh may god make you fruitful and forgetful here's where i stand today i think god has been toured the church tremendously since march of 2020 if you had asked almost any of us i'm going to tell you flat honestly our concerns in germantown we've got great faithful people but you're not going to church what's the finances going to look like i have not met one apostolic pastor that has told me that their church has suffered at all since the onset of this matter of fact i had one tell me i said what we really need financially is we need another 20 20. i think that is a testimony to the faithfulness of god's people but it's also a testimony to the faithfulness of god [Music] he's so faithful you can remain standing if you will because i'm almost done now if your pastor and bishop disagree they're right and i'm wrong but i believe this is simply the beginning of sorrows i don't know what we're going to face tomorrow but what we've already learned is we are going to be taken care of by god i don't know what it's going to look like next year but i know the church is going to grow the church is going to multiply the church is going to be blessed god has brought us through processes to get us to where we are we're not going to walk away and say oh my goodness i'm going to dwell on the things that hurt me in the past no i'm going to forget those forgetting those things that are behind i press i press to the mark of the high calling because god didn't waste all this time to get you here for you to be locked in bitterness and hurt god set you up to be fruitful and multiply and to replenish the earth and see the greatest revival that this world has ever seen from the front row of the back row if you're comfortable why don't you move to the front of this auditorium and if you've gone through some situations that you're having a hard time forgetting why don't you ask god lord would you help me be forgetful would you help me be forgetful god help me move on from something that i may never totally get over because god i didn't go through this whole process simply to be bitter and broken god you set me through this whole process the pit the prison potipher's house all of it to be fruitful it's not from my glory it's for your glory your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven hallowed be your name god let your name be known as hallowed and holy all we want to do is make much of your name god i don't even care if people remember my name i don't care if they know the name of the church that i pastor what i do want is for your kingdom to be established and for great things to happen god help us be forgetful so we can be fruitful god let us move beyond the things that have been used by you to prepare us for this moment to be instruments in your hand come on lift your hands all over this place have an honest talk between you and god he's setting you up he's setting you up he's already set you up but you need to forget the process so that he can make you fruitful