Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Welcome to today's installment of Power Walk. Thanks for joining us. Broken Not Defeated is our current series brought to you by Pastor Paul Cannings. Life is short. For some of us, it feels as if sorrows and pain far outweigh the good times. Does that sound like you? Well, Pastor Cannings has shared throughout this series Joseph's commitment to God transformed his life. Let's listen now to today's message, In Grief - Reverence God.

Dr. Paul Cannings: The worst time of your life can be the best. I know your response can just be, "What? The worst time, I repeat, of your life can be the best." Emotional distress is difficult. Emotional distress is harder to manage because it's not like you lost a toe. It is hard to deal with, but it is something someone can recover from. If you got hit really hard in an accident, God allows you to survive. There are many things that people can do to address that physically. But emotional distress, emotional pain.

When we come to those times, we can remain in the pain, like we've studied about Jacob this week. This is how Jacob responds when Joseph is excited. He is running up to see his father. He's in his chariot, soldiers next to him, and he's ready and prepared. He already knows where he's going to have his family settle in Goshen. He's got streams running through it, well-grassed to take care of their animals. He understands the kind of job and work they do, so he set them up perfectly. It couldn't be in a better place.

Joseph organized all that, and he's coming up to see his dad. He's got his chariot, and he's ready. He gets there, he falls on his dad, and he weeps. His dad never cried. Oh yes, they hug for a long time. In verse 29, Joseph made his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father, to Goshen and presented himself to him. He fell on his neck and wept a good while. And Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen thy face because thou art yet alive."

Wow. We're going to die? His grief just overwhelmed him for 22 years. He sees his son and says, "I'm good now. My son is good. He's not torn into bits and pieces and devoured by an animal. Now I'm seeing my son, he's dressed like a prince. He is here. Okay now, I'm good. I'm an old man. I can die now." You see, 22 years of grief and no weeping. His son is hugging him. Jacob in this passage seems like he's just in shock.

All this time I grieved. My son is good, now I'm good, I can die. That's where the father is, but the comparison we've been looking at is where Joseph is. Because where Joseph is, I pray that God in His power, His might, and His will takes you there. That's why we want to look at the next thing in this passage of scripture that Joseph did that caused Joseph to experience what God can do in the repair that God needs to do in his heart.

To deal with the pain of what his brothers did to him. They left him there to die if it wasn't for Judah and if it wasn't for Reuben. They said that Joseph cried and he was in distress and we left him there. Joseph was in pain. When they were talking to each other, reminding each other of what took place, Joseph wept. Look at what they said in chapter 42: "We saw his anguish, his distress." Joseph wept because that pain was still there.

It didn't go anywhere. I must say again, mourning, the grief, the pain, many times we want to get rid of it because we're singing it away, praying it away, devotionaling it away, if there's such a word. We believe that by doing all these spiritual things, we wouldn't cry anymore, we wouldn't weep anymore, we would be strong. No, there's nothing wrong with mourning. He just says do not do it ignorantly, uninformed, as those who have no expectation.

That's what he's saying. Jacob was saying, "I'm going down to Sheol." He's not going up to Egypt, even though he understands what God is saying. He could have asked, "What really happened here?" He never addressed it. Even when Joseph's brothers come to Joseph in chapter 50 saying, "Joseph is going to hold a grudge against us," the father yet to solve it. The father yet to sit back and say, "Hey guys, let's sit down. I want to know what happened." Never happened. Never addressed it. Never looked at the whole situation.

So if he had just sat down with them in the midst of 22 years and said, "Listen guys, what happened here? You know what, let's just take a look and go to Egypt and just by chance see if Joseph is there because this is what God said to my father." But no, he does not. He doesn't stay informed. He functions in ignorance, so he just wants to die. Joseph, who was in distress and in pain, came to a pivotal point. The pain was still there because mourning is still going to be there.

It's just that we find more strength in God. We're able to deal with life issues. Joseph is able to come around and have a family and build a home and establish children and run a nation and manage a time of drought and famine. He's able to now be able to forgive his brothers and walk through the process of forgiving his brothers and establishing a nation in Egypt. He's able to do all those things because in his pain, he's still able to move forward.

That's what we're after this week. How can we keep moving forward? We can't become informed if we don't first slow down in our pain to stop and remember. Remember what God is saying. How we live and how we die. Remember that. In my family, my youngest son started this routine where we always would say, "I love you," because the Lord says literally in James, "Don't act like tomorrow is guaranteed." Say if the Lord wills.

There's still a decision to be made by God when I plan tomorrow. When I plan what I'm going to do, my strategies, structures of how I plan to get this five-year plan done, how I plan to get this family organized and set up and all these wonderful things, still say if the Lord wills. He's given us information as to how we should operate. But if we shut the Bible in our emotion, shut the Bible in our anxiety, shut the Bible in our pain, we stay uninformed, and therefore we stay in grief and just "let me die."

Joseph remembers the second thing we look at. Joseph would tell us where God has brought him when we look at chapter 42, verse 18. This is what Joseph would say. Verse 17 wouldn't hurt you: "And he put them all together into ward jail three days. And Joseph said unto them the third day, 'This do and live, for I fear God.'" In other words, my pain says you could stay there forever. I was in there 12 years. That's what he could have done. Joseph has the power to do it.

It's interesting. Throughout when I study the story of Joseph, he never went back to Potiphar's wife and did anything, or Potiphar and did anything at all. I don't know if they were still alive, but it's interesting that Joseph never goes back to repay anything because of his commitment to God shows this forgiveness. We can't be committed to God and not forgive because forgiveness is doing what God says, no matter if a person is an enemy or if the person has done wrong. The Bible still has words for those things and how we walk in those things.

The fact that I am continually doing what God says despite my pain, that's forgiveness because I'm choosing to remember that God needs to forgive me every day. If I don't forgive, He will not forgive me. All those things lead me to say, "You know what, I'm going to treat this person based on how Christ says to treat them rather than my feelings tell me to treat them." Therefore, the Bible says when we do that, we are forgiving. I fear the Lord. You can track that throughout the Bible as to what that does.

You go to Proverbs and it says it drives knowledge. You go to Proverbs and it will say it drives wisdom. You go to Hebrews chapter 13 and it will say it drives worship. So many passages in the scripture and it drives reverence, worship, awe of God. It drives a person to come before God and want to love Him and lift Him high. Joseph now comes to say, "I need to organize this process within the wisdom of God based on what God has shown would take place in the dream that I had."

How God may be orchestrating all of these things for the purposes for which He's established in sustaining and keeping me in a land that doesn't like Israelites. In a land that doesn't like them, I'm second in command. In a land that wouldn't even eat with me, God has established this. In the midst of this, God has kept me, preserved me, blessed me, sustained me. As a result of that, and because I reverence Him, I now need to focus on the knowledge He's given me and live in wisdom.

The question is, do we reverence Him? Do we respect Him? Do we view Him in awe of His decision to preserve you and your family? That you're alive and that He has called you? He has established a system whereby He could take care of your family and sustain your family. All of these things that God is doing. We can sit back and look at where we are, or we can see where God's hand is involved in doing for us and end up looking at Him in awe.

Despite the fact that we're not always perfect, we're not always righteous, but He's still caring for us, sustaining us, watching over us. He's allowed the drought to come on the land and drive them to a place where Joseph would have a dream in a place of dreamers. Joseph will be able to interpret the dream so that they will be able to sustain themselves in the midst of a serious drought. The family would come and with all these different stations where people could go to get food, Joseph's brothers arrive at the very place that he stands.

What holds us together? I'll work out my salvation in fear and in trembling, knowing that it is you who is within us, both to will and to do for your good pleasure. You're going to transform me when I renew my mind and seek to do your perfect will. Walking in your will is to know that your word will never return void. Walking in your will is guaranteed success. It's to know that the word of God is powerful and sharper than a double-edged sword.

There's victory walking in your will because the Spirit who lives within me, that grows and matures, brings me joy. His fruit produces peace. His fruit gives me strength for longsuffering. It will help me in the midst of my pain to experience your presence. Thank you for what you're doing and have done, and I reverence that. That helps us to heal. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you Pastor Cannings. The Lord brought Joseph's life full circle. He was able to be reunited with his father and, in truth, be reconciled with his brothers. You know, life is hard, but we can remain sober and submitted to God each day to fulfill our role in His kingdom plan.

As we take the message of the gospel and seek to equip the body of Christ effectively, would you consider partnering with us both in prayer as well as through your financial support? You can do so online at PowerWalkMinistries.org or by giving us a call at 281-260-7402.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Well, you should come because we never stop learning. So a conference such as this one would just impact you so much that you will grow. I am so excited about the conference coming up April 23rd through the 25th. I really am ecstatic about it. Pastors have come together on a committee to help with the process moving forward. Excited about our first conference last year, but this conference this year is going to be greater.

There's about 40 classes here. Let me give you a taste: the pastor and deacon's functioning under the leadership of Christ; a biblical approach to resolving conflict in the church; traits of successful biblical leaders; cultivating a healthy and productive team environment; overcoming the stagnation in the church; discipling leaders; dealing with how do we grow people and do evangelism at the same time.

Despite all the difficulties churches are facing, we can find a powerful, effective way forward. A lot of teachers are coming to teach. They're well-trained, well-educated, practicing these principles within their church. Come, be a part of April 23rd through the 25th. Go to PowerWalkMinistries.org so that we could move forward together for God's glory. Look forward to seeing you at this conference.

Guest (Male): Please call us at 281-260-7402. And now remember, as we just heard, when submitted to God, we can overcome all of our pain because God's Holy Spirit who lives in us produces peace.