He Was There All Along

man let's keep that spirit of praise as we go forward here the lord's not done just yet we're going to go to genesis 45 then joseph could not refrain himself starting at verse 1 before all them that stood by him and he cried caused every man to go out from me and there stood no man with him while joseph made himself known unto his brethren and he wept aloud and the egyptians and the house of pharaoh heard and joseph said unto his brethren i am joseph doth my father yet live and his brethren could not answer him for they were troubled at his presence joseph said unto his brethren come near to me i pray you they came near and he said i am joseph your brother whom ye sold into egypt now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither for god did not send me before you to preserve life for these two years hath the famine been in the land and yet there are five years in the which there shall neither be earring nor harvest god sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance so now it was not you that sent me hither but god and he hath made me a father to pharaoh and lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of egypt you see joseph was in a pretty bad spot right here he went through some things but yet at this point now after going through those he was in a place of greatness and it's all because he was there through all of it all lord we ask that you just speak to us today as the word is brought forth we know that you're not done speaking to us today lord we know that there's an anointing in this house we know that there is an itching ear that needs a word from you lord we ask that you just let us usher in your presence today as we go forth in the name of jesus you see we as humans we do not want to face hardships most of us don't want to face minor inconveniences little long big trials that the enemy may come towards us with but being in the flesh things are going to happen but you see in john 16 verse 33 god said i spoke unto you that you might have peace in the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer he has overcome the world he has promised that he is going to be there we still all hope and pray for a life of ease some of us try to be the best person we can in hopes for an easier life we just want to cruise through sometimes no hardships nothing getting in our way you see joseph he was loved by his father more than his other brothers he was his son of his old age so i would say he was a good man but still bad things happen to joseph you see he had a gift he had dreams that seemed to indicate he would be a ruler he told his brothers about these dreams and they hated him even more you see they were a little jealous because his father loved him more you see due to this jealousy his brothers tossed him into a pit after stripping him of the coat that represented his father's love for him after that he was sold into slavery and then the midianites then sold him to potiphar an officer of pharaoh who was a captain of the guard not only that but then potiphar's wife then accused him of immoral things through lies and deceit yet he ended up in prison he had every right to give up he had every right to question what was going on what did i do i'm sure that we can so easily forget as we read these stories that they were people just like us i'm sure he had some thoughts as he was going through these situations god i don't feel that you're here what did i do i did nothing wrong and yet i have went through all of these things did you see the lord was still with him throughout those situations in genesis 39 it says the lord was with joseph joseph found favor in the sight of his master his master saw that the lord was with him and that the lord caused great success in his house you see he was in a bad spot but the lord was with him some people noticed that are you in a place now where you're not feeling the lord is with you because there's other people that can feel him when he's with you we have to keep working even when things get bad you see even though he was in prison the favor of the lord followed him throughout all of those places that he went to through that pit through that slavery through that prison the favor of the lord was still near because he was there through it all even while he was in prison he still used his gifts that god had given him there was a baker and a butler in that prison that had dreams and they didn't know what they meant you see joseph could have felt like this gift that god's given me what's the use look where i'm at look what i've been through how can god use me but he interpreted those men's dreams and you see after this the pharaoh had a dream he called all of the magicians and all the wise men and none could interpret his dream but you see this was quite a bit after what joseph had done but that butler called to remembrance wait there was this hebrew when i was in prison that interpreted my dream he remembered what joseph did in that terrible place during that terrible time you gotta still use what god's given you there's someone that's in that same bad place with you that will remember what you did in that place pharaoh called joseph in they cleaned him up they took him in there he was going to see what it was about and joseph interpreted pharaoh's dream just as he did all the ones before and in genesis 41 38 pharaoh said unto his servants can we find such a one as this a man in whom the spirit of god is this man was a slave he was a prisoner he was hated by his brothers but yet this pharaoh he knew that the spirit of god was in this man he knew that there was an anointing he knew that he was there with him joseph didn't let his situation take away the gift he didn't let it take away the calling that god had put and he was still doing the things of god he was still showing that spirit of god and it was being noticed he used his gifts even though things were not at the best just as joseph was the one to interpret those dreams there's some things we have to do in the midst of our troubles that no one else can do for some people there's someone that needs the gift that god has given you maybe you feel he's not here with me i can't help them but i'm telling you he was there all along and there's someone that needs that gift you have don't wait until things are perfect even though you fell away from him he was there all along and he's still working so you got to keep working what he's giving you there's people in the world looking for the answers that you have you can't let your situation suppress those answers because you have what they're looking for you may be the only one in their life that has that answer and if you just hide it away due to what you're going through who else is going to bring that to them he is there he realized going back to our text why he went through what he went through he was in a position of power at this time he could have told his brothers look at me now now i can have my revenge but no he realized wait i see why i went through that i understand why you did that to me it was all part of his plan he's the one that sent me through what i went through to put me where i'm at now it had been so many years since he saw his brothers i'm sure he had a lot of time to think about it i'm sure he had anger at times he had resentment but yet he chose not to spot them in that time how many of you could be that way in the face of someone that hurt you he realized the purpose behind his life's troubles james 1 2 through 4 counted all joy my brothers since when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing there is a purpose everything you went through up to this point whatever you're going through right now it has all been orchestrated he was there from the beginning he is the one that is sending you through that situation through that fire because he is working on you he's producing something in you that is going to be you and if you didn't go through that trial i'm sure that you would not figure it out on your own job was recommended by god could he recommend you does he know how you go through your trials does he know that you know he was there and he will be there all along some flowers spread their seeds only once they're trampled on you wonder why you're being trampled right now there's some seeds that's being spread we want to constantly blame the past for why bad things are happening i think it's time we start understanding the purpose to why we went through that trial to go hey god sent me through that if joseph had not been in the pit he wouldn't have ended up in the slave if he hadn't went through slavery he wouldn't have ended up in prison if he wouldn't have ended up in prison he wouldn't have met that baker who then told pharaoh what this man can do it all led up to that moment when somebody like pharaoh noticed the spirit of god he knew god was there with this man god spoken to some of you he's promised you that there's a reason for what you're facing i think you just need to understand you need to realize he was there all along he is still there he's going to continue to be there you may not understand it i would even venture to say you may not ever have the answer as to why but there's still a reason as i do come to a close john chapter 9 verses 1-3 jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth his disciples asked him saying master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind jesus answered neither had this man sin nor his parents but that the works of god should be made manifest in him how many of you were born with something how many of you are facing something that just won't go away maybe you're thinking god what did i do why is this happening did i do something wrong i'm doing all i can but you see we can't look at it with our earthly mind like the disciples did and think what happened why is this happening to me who did something did i do this sometimes the works of god are just a waiting to be manifested in your situation maybe you feel just a little blind right now you can't see that path but there's a manifestation of god that is going to take place he's the same yesterday today and forever so he was there he is there and he will continue to be there through whatever you face pain it will either hurt you or alter you it's up to you to decide what you're gonna let it do to you can we all just give him a hand clap of praise