Bent Knees Break Chains

in Genesis chapter fifty, beginning in verse fourteen. The verse that I've heard the most from Genesis is verse twenty, and I'm going to read that one, but I want to give you fresh context around it to help ushered the principle in this text into the problem that you're facing in your life. And I believe it's going to be very, very personal for you today. Wow. Wow. My friend Rick Biatto does a YouTube channel and he has a thing. He's a guitar player, musician, producer, and he

calls it what makes this song great? He takes songs that you've heard a thousand times by worship leaders like Pink Floyd led Zeppelin Boston, and he takes those hymns of the faith, and he breaks it down and shows you things that you heard but you didn't know you were hearing them, and it's what makes the song great. I'm gonna take a page out of his playbook today. I'm gonna show you what makes this verse great in verse twenty, where it says that God takes what others

mean for evil and uses it for good. But let me show you what makes that verse great, all right? And to do that, I want to get a I want to get a start and ramp up from verse fourteen Genesis fifty fourteen, the Bible says, after burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.

And that's a big contingency because the chariots of Egypt and all the officials went with Joseph, so it's a huge traveling party, and seventy plus descendants of Jacob, so it's a big group. But then it comes to a personal decision verse fifteen. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, what if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him. Well, now's a fine time to think about the consequences of your action. Right. I'm

not sorry you did it. You're just sorry you got caught. Just scared of the consequences. So listen what they did verse sixteen. They sent word to Joseph saying, your father left these instructions before he died. Yeah, I'm sure he did. When other people tell you what God said to you as a form of manipulation. The Lord told me that you're supposed to date me. The Lord has my direct number. He could tell me. The Lord doesn't play the telephone game, all right, so he'll tell me. The Lord said we

should go in business together. That's funny because he told me you were a crook because I checked your online review. All right, So read the scripture. Man, This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now, please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father. That's what his brothers said that their dead dad said, which we

know isn't true because he didn't really like them. Joseph was his favorite, so he would have told Joseph directly, you understand, and that's why the Bible says when their message came to him, Joseph wept not because his dad was dead. His dad has been dead for three months at this point, forty days of embalming, thirty days of mourning, and then a journey that's eleven days on each side,

so he's had time to mourn his father, Jacob. But he is weeping because they still haven't changed, even after all the grace that he's given them. That's what he's crying about. This is the fifth time that he cries between Genesis thirty seven and fifty. So in verse eighteen, let's pick it up right here. His brothers then came threw themselves down before him. We are your slaves, they said.

But Joseph said to them, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God Verse twenty You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then verse twenty one, don't be afraid. I'm not going to kill you. I could, but I'm not going to not because of your little fabricated speech from Dad. But because I see God's purpose in this moment and in this season, so I will provide for you and

your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. Well back up to verse eighteen one more time. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. They bowed before the one they had betrayed. They bowed before the one they had betrayed, and said, we're your slaves. But Joseph said to them, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God. I got up here this morning to tell you bent knees, break chains. That's the title of this message. Say it out loud, bent knees,

break chains. And the truth that I want to communicate to you is all in those four words that bent knees, break chains. And Father, I thank you that the chain breaking power of your spirit is standing up inside of me right now to preach deliverance to every captive. Do it God in Jesus' name, I give you thanks. Samen, you may be seated, and I want you to start by considering this premise that the position that we're in

influences the decisions that we make. I probably should have put it on the screen so you could write it down as a point. Let me just repeat it a couple times while you fish for your pen or you fire up your notes. App get this wisdom. Make sure it doesn't just run off into the streets, but you can capture it. Okay, that the position that you're in really influences the decisions that you make. It sounds obvious, but it's illustrated all throughout the Book of Genesis. God said,

let there be light. He was in a position to make a decision to do something about the darkness. But you could run around shouting let there be light all you wanted to, And unless you have a flip to switch and are current on the power bill, no lights are coming on. The position that you're in determines the decisions you make. And the sub point that this is you are not God. You are not God. Your neighbor doesn't look convinced, so you tell them for me, say

you're not God. No, I really want you to tell them you're not God. So sometimes if you get confused, just to remember the position. Put this on the comment feed right now. The position I'm in influences the decisions that I make. The easiest way to explain it is parenting. When you start doing stuff as a parent that you hated as a kid, and you turn around and every parent in this room has had this thought. I sound just like my mom, I sound just like my dad.

And you know it's because you now are in a position that not only you have to provide, but protect these lives that you treasure so much. So you're doing things that the kids don't understand. You can't go there, don't talk to them, and they think you don't want me to have any friends. I do want you to have friends, like I want to hang out with you all the time. I'd love for you to have somebody else to hang out with. I just don't know about these kids, and the position that I'm in is affecting

the decisions that I made. But see, empathy is tricky for the kid to have for the parent, because although the parent has been a kid, the kid has never been a parent. So that's why teaching your kids to drive is like the scourging whip that they laid on our Savior's back when they hung them on the cross. It's because it is the punishment of their inability to feel empathy because the position that you are in determines the decisions that you make. That's true in parenting, that's

true with money. Yeah, and a lot of times sweet say little cliches like money isn't everything. It is if you don't have any it is if you don't have any. How many of you have ever not had any money and had to do things, And that's I'm not talking about rob anybody. I'm not talking about anything crazy. I'm just saying when you didn't have it, you didn't walk around saying stuff like money isn't everything. You went around saying stuff like can I cut your grass? Can I

wax your bald head? Can I do it? Can I clip your fingernails? Because money isn't everything once you have money, Right, So we get in a position where maybe we've come to a place where we're in our life and then we're like, well, money isn't everything. I don't do it for the money. That's because you have some. But if you don't have any, you gotta do what you gotta do to catch the crumbs that fall from somebody's table.

And sometimes stop judging people for things they are doing in desperation for situations that you haven't been in or that you haven't been in lately. Amen. Amen, I'm gonna get my church back today. I'm gonna find my church today. Personal confession. I was a staff member at a church before I started this church, and I would always keep this mental list of dumb stuff that the pastor was doing that I would never do. And one day, when I get a spare minute, I'm gonna write him a

whole card. It's gonna be a seventeen page card of all the things I judged him for in his position as a pastor, from my position as a staff member that I now just want to say I'm sorry, especially because I met him when he was into his tenth year of pastoring that church, and I didn't know how tired ten years can make you. You see all it is Gray y'all put on me in these last sixteen years. So now I feel different because the position that you're in.

I want to nail this down. And if I lay this foundation right, then we can really really celebrate the truth in the text that Mennis break chains. But first of all, acknowledge that the position that you're in influences the decisions you make. Now, let's flip that because the decisions that you make influences the position that you're in, you are very timid celebrating that truth. I have never seen such a half hearted clap. I think he's probably right, but I don't like it because I want to say

the devil did it. I don't really want to clap for that. That it could be possible that not everything that happened to me was caused by decisions I make, but some of it, a little of it, ten percent of it. When's the last time somebody lost their job and told you, you know what, I just really sucked at it. I was lazy, I talked bad about everybody, I chewed gum with my feet up, played words seven hours, and worked one Nobody says that. And then in church,

now this is dangerous. In church, will slap a spiritual justification and a summary on something that happened through a series of decisions that you actually made, thereby enabling your dysfunction, by over spiritualizing your decisions. Goodbye, everybody. I've said enough so I don't mean to be Yoda on you, but those two things really go hand in hand. That the position I'm in determine the decisions I make. Sometimes I did something because I'm depressed, and the depression may not

be my fault. I believe there's a genetic element to depression. But in the process of me complying with the habits that brought me to that place, I may prolong my stay in depression by my decisions. And when we talk about the devil attack me, the devil attack me? The devil attacked me, Well, the Lord gave me a word on that a few weeks ago. He said, it is not the attack that matters the most, it is what you do after the attack. Because watch this New Testament verse.

I hope I get back to Genesis fifty, but I'm annointed for this right now. The Bible says the devil is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. It does not say he can devour whoever he wants, but he can attack whoever he wants. And the difference between him attacking you and devouring you will be the decisions that you make in the attack. So, when you feel anxious, what do you do with that anxiety? When you feel sad, who do you speak to about your sadness?

When you feel overlooked, do you retaliate or do you bring it to God and allow him to help you process it. We could describe Joseph's life in terms of a chain of events. Write that phrase down a chain of events. In reviewing all of those scriptures this week, I feel myself wishing that we had three days to do this, because everything in Joseph's life, oh, is so rich with detail, and just to boil it down to what the enemy means for evil, God means for good.

And Rick Biatto, my YouTube guy friend, my friend Rick byatdo he would break it down and show you the isolated tracks. He'd be like, this is what makes the song great. And I want to show you how the events in Joseph's life that God did not prevent that were painful, positioned him for the purpose of Joseph's life that he could have never imagined. So let me do a typical sermon about Joseph in two minutes. You got to walk through everything that happened to him. Right, he

had a dream, he told his brothers. That's an event. His brothers got mad about it and didn't like his Gucci coat that his father, Jacob gave him. Now understand when they threw him into a pit. They saw him as a snitch because he came out to check on them and see if they were doing their job. So you can understand then that from their vantage point, the position that they were in influenced the decisions that they made. And it's easy in this passage to feel like you're Joseph,

But have you ever been his brothers? To have you ever been jealous? Because you do things when you're in a position comparing yourself to others. That's why the Bible says, when you compare yourself to somebody else, you're not wise. That's what is that. It doesn't say it's evil, it says it's not wise because you were gonna do dumb stuff trying to be like somebody who does not have your same bone structure background or the same blessing on

their life. Rubin saved his life because he said, well, let's don't kill him, let's sell him, probably get twenty shekels for him, and they sold him to the Midianite Cara. Event these are the events of Joseph. So if I'm walking you through it, I'm saying, by the time you get to Genesis fifty, verse twenty he's fifty six years old. You didn't know that, did you. You thought he was standing there saying what the enemy means for evil, God

means for good while he's going through his testing. But he went through forty years to get to the point that he understood that the events of his life, all of them, the dream that he had, the coat that he wore, the good things, the pit that they pushed him into. Y'all. He even ended up in prison because he did such a good job serving this man named Potiphar. And Potiphar's wife, Hottipher I named her, said, hey, big boy, come to bed with me. I like your coat, I

like your character. I like the way you clean windows. Because remember he has a menial job, but he has a great sense of responsibility. So everything he did in Potiphar's house drew attention because God's favor was still on him. God's favor is still on you. God's favor is still on you. God's favor is still on you. God's favor is still on you. Pushing a mop, God's favor is on you, washing dishes. God's favor is on you. Quarter of a tank of gas and don't know how to

fell it. God's favor is on you. Oh, by the way, when you get a promotion that puts you in a tax bracket, you never imagine that's God's favor too. It was your father that put the favor on you to bring you into the position. And when you understand that that God raised me up, it makes you two things. It makes you humble in high circumstances and hopeful in

low circumstances. When I see that my father favored me, and Joseph knew that early in his life, and he saw this vision that his brothers were one day going to bow down to him, but he didn't see everything that would come before that. And this chain of events. Let me say that again, this chain of events, things that happened to Joseph that he largely could not control. Some people say that he shouldn't have told his brothers his dream and they wouldn't have pushed him in the pit.

I say, if he didn't go in the pit, how could he have gotten to Egypt? So there was food waiting for them when they came through the famine. Makes me think that even my mistakes can become miraculous if I give them to God and be humble about them, but a lot more happened to Joseph, and although we won't explore all of it today, I just want you to.

I just want you to hear some of the other things that come before this, so you can put yourself in this story in a way to try to figure out in this season of my life, what decision is God leading me to make, and the events that led you to this point in your life, however painful they were. I forgot to tell you this part. When he got to prison, he started interpreting dreams for the other prisoners.

Now I wouldn't have done that because I would have been pouting that I don't belong here, because Potiphar's wife accused me of raping her and I was actually running from her and she accused me of rape, and I probably wouldn't have been able to get past my own pity party. Pitt he was in a pity party. Okay, So I'm just checking to see if I still have your attention. There's a lot of background, so there's a

lot of things that happen. And eventually, when he interpreted the cupbearer had this dream, He's like, yo, I saw these three vines coming off of one branch grapes on it, and I squeezed grapes. It was in a dream, and then the cups were filled in. Joseph's like, oh, in three days, you're going to get your position back. It's going to be great. On Pharaoh's birthday, He's going to put you back in the position. And the baker was like, oh, yeah, me, to me, to me, to me too. I had a

dream too. There was baskets on my head and bread and the baskets and the birds came and ate it. And he's like, oh, yeah, that's because your head's going to be cut off in three days. That's why it's three baskets. And the birds will eat your flesh, all right. So all of that happens just as Joseph's folking and cut Parat gets out of prison completely forgets to mention Pharaoh. Oops. For two years, he stays chained in a dungeon, not because of his decision, but because of an event. But

here's what I want to show you. Within every event is a decision. You got it. I'm not even asking you to understand it yet, Just did you hear it? Within the event, there's always a decision illustrate this illustration of this. Today we are having a worship service. It's an event. The service is an event. We sang about four songs that was part of the event. Hopefully somebody offered you a breath mint and a pen when you came in the door, if you came in the door,

or you logged online. And here I am now standing behind my pulpit with my Bible open, ready to preach to you. Been praying about it all week. This is the event. This is the service. But worship is a decision that you have to make in the event. The service is the event. Worship is the decision. Worship isn't offering. Some of y'all didn't sing a note. You watched this like it was some what's the show? Do they still

have American idol? You were watching this like it like you're gonna vote whether they stay on the stage or not. Like I don't know that you are not what was the guy's name, Simon Cowell? You are not Simon. Why weren't you singing? God is the star of this, God is the audience of this. Why didn't you sing? Well, well, no, no, no, no. Pastor Steve Pester, Steve pastor, Steve Paster, Steve Pachter, Steve Pastor, Steve, you know I didn't sing because I can't sing that good.

That doesn't stop you in the shower. That doesn't stop you on the shower. And then and another thing is if the person next to you doesn't like you're singing, you just told them ten minutes ago they're not God. So they don't like how it sounds, is good news because they're not the audience that you were singing to anyway. So get this, get this, when we were singing at

the campus I'm at, I'm gonna see a victory. If that song went by and you didn't sing it, I mean, sing it out of tune, sing it loud, sing it bad, sing it good, singing falsetto, sing it bass, sing it ten or sing it out there. If you didn't sing it, and if you didn't believe it and put your heart in faith and say, you know, I don't feel that right now, but I believe it in Jesus's name. I'm gonna see it with my kids. I'm gonna see it on my job. I'm gonna see it in my body,

I'm gonna see it in my mind. There is a breakthrough with my name on it, and I don't know when, but I have faith for it. I'm gonna see a victory. If you didn't sing it, how can you expect to see it? Because the song was the event, but your worship was a decision, and I forgive you. Hearing the sermon is an event. Sharing it with somebody who needs it is a decision. What if they're about to give up and you could send them a link. I'm talking

to you. I'm talking to you logging on watching a sermon. This is an event. Wow, you can watch a lot of things on YouTube. But what if God prompts you to send it to somebody else? Hey man, thought about you today. Preachers up there talking about decisions and stuff, and I'm just thinking, how you got to make this decision right now? And so here it is. I love you, I see you Tuesday. You know whatever. That's a decision.

The more we separate the event from the decision, the more room it gives God to move in our situation. I'll go a little deeper. Can I go a little deeper? I don't know why I'm asking your permission. I'm gonna do what I want to do anyway. What God leads me to do is here's one, here's one. I thought of a bunch of them, but I won't give them all to you today. Y'all won't like this. Traffic is an event. What time you leave the house? Got him?

Got him like traffic was the Red Sea, like you didn't know was there, Like get in there every morning. I'm sorry the traffic was bad. The traffic's always bad. It is for eighty five. They're gonna be building it for the next four hundred and eighty five years. And you knew that when you pushed it to the last minute and hit snooze for the third time. And leaving early is a decision, and the decision to lead a

little early might affect your decision to road rage. See, we got to stop blaming so much stuff in our life. Joseph is a model. We got to stop blaming the events and start making the decisions that God is calling us to make within the events that can empower us to move forward, or else you will always be a

slave to what happened. Joseph has a decision to make now, and I think is such an emotional moment for him because his father loved him a little too much because he was born of Rachel, who was the wife that Jacob really wanted, not Leah, And because he was the firstborn son of Rachel, Jacob's favorite wife, Holly, you're my favorite wife, by the way, and that gave him a little extra status. Right. But he's going through this shift. A lot of people will tell you Joseph's life is

about going from the pit to the palace. I don't see it that way at all. Although that geographically describes his position, because he ended up being promoted when he interpreted Pharaoh's dream about the famine to a position of responsibility where he could prepare the people for the famine, even his own family. Although that's true, it's really not the heart. He's really going from status to service, and God brings him from a place of great status to

a place of great service. Or you could say see it this way too. He's going from a place where he's got to get from pain to purpose. And the position that you're in determines a lot of the decisions that you make, and a lot of the decisions that you make will determine the position you're in, because if at any point in Joseph's life, he would have decided, this isn't fair, forget it God. If he hadn't served with excellence in small positions, he could not have been

trusted in a bigger one. All along the way, there were little decisions that he was making, that you're making to do it with your whole heart or to only do it when someone else is looking. Little decisions that you make, corners that you cut or you don't, words that you speak, and times you bite your tongue because it's not going to help anything anyway, little decisions. Where would you be financially if you had made little decisions

along the way differently? Where would you be? Well, now, I don't have any money and I'm doing like what Pastor said, I'm in a bad position, so I'm taking desperate measures. But would you have to take desperate measures if you made some different decisions? And could it change from this point forward that your future is not chained to your past. We talked a lot about the chain of events that led to Joseph's moment of decision, But how about the chain of decisions that put him in

this place? The chain of decisions? Think about that. It's a lot more interesting than giving me a list of everything that life did to you. I told somebody went done. I said, when I first got married, I got fat, and I did. I was turning into a big old boy. And the way I explained it was like how Adam explained why he ate the apple in the garden. This woman you gave me, Lord, she's a wonderful cook. I was actually like perverting the gift that God had given

her as a cook. To explain the situation of my cellulite. You'll know, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Cellulites. Well, they were all coming against me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they were all coming against me. And somewhere in that I had to own the fact that I ate what she put on the plate and then went and filled the plate three more times to get this way. So it's not exactly true to say I got fat, like it's something that just crashed into the earth, like it was

a meteor shower, like it was a snow day. I ate food, I didn't exercise. I got fat. That's the event. The number on the scale screamed at me. I rebuked it. It didn't change. I prayed about it. It didn't change. I quoted Genesis fifty twenty. What you mean for evil God means for God, I reverse the curse. It didn't change, all right? And then I decided. I decided. I didn't get to decide once. I got to decide daily. I got to decide daily. Now, now, is this good to you?

Joseph has a decision to make in this moment because now his dad is dead, and the only thing that can keep him being kind to his brothers is how he views his relationship with God, because his relationship with them is obviously never going to change. They lied about him when he was seventeen, and they are lying about him as he's fifty six. He's been playing with it. He's been playing with whether or not he wants to pay them back. He's been doing it for decades. You know.

When they first came to him, he was thirty nine. The famine had only been going on two years. And when they came to him, he pretended like he didn't know who they were, because I think he was trying to decide, how am I going to move forward? He was already in a position of power, He was already in a position of authority. He was already in a position of influence, and the position that you're in influences the decisions that you may So he didn't tell him

for a little while. He'd go cry in private, and then he'd come back out and be strong in public. Yeah, he even stuffed their bags with silver and then send his own men to arrest them and throw Simeon in prison. That's how bad it felt to him. So I want you to think about when something bad happens to you, the event. I wish I could draw this. I am not a good artist. Let's just you can draw it and post it online later. Okay, something bad happens. When Joseph says God meant it for good, he does not

call their abuse, neglect, and betrayal good. He's moving past that. But so something bad happens, Right, many bad things happen to Joseph, And that's almost that's almost a disservice to what he's been through to call it something bad happened. But let's just call it that this thing happens and is bad and is bad. But now the decision that Joseph has to make, because from remember, the event, is not the decision. So now he says that was bad. What you did to me, that was bad. How you

sold me that was bad, what I went through. I'm not sugarcoating anything or spiritualizing your decisions. It was bad. It was bad. Sometimes the first step to getting to God is good is to say it was bad. It was bad. It was bad, and it hurt and it harmed, and it set me back, and I wish it hadn't happened. And if I got to write the script, I wouldn't have put that in it. It was bad, you know, we do. God is good all the time, all the time.

God is good, but it is bad a lot of the times, and a lot of the times it is bad. But God is good all the time and all the time. God is good, but it is bad. A lot of the that's bad. Read the news. That's bad, that's horrible, that's unthinkable. That's you and a lot of us, a lot of us in this room. We know somebody like Joseph. Everybody in this room knows that Joseph. You watched what happened to them, and you could not believe how they responded to it. My Joseph, that I think about all

the time is my buddy Levi Lusco. He's a pastor in Montana, foreign country. He's an international missionary to the state of Montana. And I love him for many reasons. But y'all, I put my hand on his chest to pray for him the other night because he turned forty and I was praying and God annoying me, and I was speaking stuff over his life that I couldn't even

understand where it was coming from. But when Graham was five and his daughter was five, and his daughter died of an asthma attack while he was out of the house, and he stood over her and prayed that God would make the sun stand still and save his daughter's life and she died, that would have broken me. And I had a context for it because I had a boy who was five, and I thought if I was in that position, I think I would be tempted to stand up and tell y'all, I quit, because how can I

speak this faith over you? How can I trust a God who would let me go through that. So now standing on ten years later and watching him turn forty and seeing I hope he watches this message, Text him and tell him to watch it. He can watch it right now. He's on a different time zone out there in Montana. I think it's like eighteen forty three in Montana. It's like a different year zone in Montana. But I prayed over him, and he's a powerful man. He wrote

a book. He wrote a book. It was bad. He wrote a book to let the devil know that my daughter Lenya will live on even if there's no breath in her lungs. You follow me, This is my Joseph. I think about him all the time when I go into a pity party, because I think about if he can decide that to keep preaching in the middle of

what he if he can decide that. That's why I love lifting these Bible characters up to you on Sunday, right, because even if you don't know somebody like that personally, you get to be with Joseph for a little while, and you get to think about the fact that at the moment, I mean most of us would have been waiting for this moment to pay our brothers that, oh, I'm just waiting till Jacob dies. When Jacob dies, I'm

about to let y'all have it. And to be over one hundred and forty do you know how long Jacob held on until he had put a blessing on all the kids, and then he dies, and they walk, they walk, they walk, they walk, They walk for eleven days to bury him. They walk eleven days back and then his brother sends some weak message talking about before he died, Dad said, trying to relay a message, showing him the evidence that there has been no change in their heart.

And they bow before him, and he has to decide what he's going to do because he can't control what they do. You can't change them. Stop trying. They're on their knees before Joseph, but not for the right reasons. Forgive us, forgive us, forgive us. We are your slaves. We'll do whatever you say. We're sorry, You're not sorry.

You're still lying. And he wept, and he came out and showed us something that right after he got done weeping, he still made the right decision, because your emotions don't determine your decisions, not when you've seen the goodness of God. These brothers, what they did was evil, But I'm not going to let what they did be the final word on what I do, because I still had life to live. So if I look at them and I say Reuben, Simeon, Judah and start calling them by name. And I say,

this is the moment I've been waiting for. Y'all want to throw me in a pit, Let me show you. I'm in the palace now. If I use this moment of my power to put you in your place, than I am putting myself in God's place. That's what he said. He said, He said, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no. They're on their knees. He says, wait, wait wait, wait, wait, wait wait, I'm not God. Am I in the place of God? Verse nineteen? You've got to go through verse

nineteen to get to verse twenty. All things work together for the good. For the good, all things work together. God uses what the enemy meant for evil. You know, we kind of skip to that verse. No, no no, no, get to this verse first. Am I put verse nineteen? Am I in the place of God? Not only are they on their knees, but Joseph, after everything he's been through, in the moment of decision, you are at the moment of decision right now. Am I gonna stay chained to

my past? Am I going to live in this resentment toward others and this regret? Toward myself. Some of you are angry at yourself. You think you're God. You think you can make a big enough mess that God can't clean you up. But it's not true. You're not God. If he died for you, and if he calls you, and if he comes for you, and if he raises you, even you yourself can't change his mind, because the gifts

of God are without retentance. And Joseph has a decision to make, and he does it like this, I'm not God. And in the moment of decision, he takes a posture as the second most powerful man in the land. He takes his posture to say, God, and what it looked like for you to have this mentality, to say, God put me here for a purpose, and I'm submitting everything that's happened to me to God. I'm gonna do. I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm gonna put myself in a position on

my knees before God. I've never come to preach to you. If I can help it that I don't do this, even if it's for ten seconds before I round the corner, because a lot of times the way that I'll preach stuff will be just be coming to me to the last minute, and I'm literally like, but I try. I try every time to take one minute by myself. I say God, when I get out there today and there's there's people out there whose parents abandoned them. There's people

out there who were molested. There's people out there who are going through the most scary medical situation in their life or their kids are There's people out there who have no idea how they're going to catch up on four months worth of mortgage. There are people out there today who need you, and I can only meet that need on my knees. And it reminds me that if I do this, I can do this because see, the

power that you need is not in me. But if I go to the one who has all power and all authority, and I get down low and I say God, I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from. My help comes from you. I know big knees can break things. I know one word from Almighty Dom, one breath from the spirit of Hot. Feel chase breaking right now, Hot, feel burden flifting right now, Hot feel shackle second, my prison floors, prison doors flying open right now. Because when you do this. God does

that way. Pray. What you did to me was bad. What happened to me is bad. What I'm going through is bad. But if I blame you, then my blame will become bitterness, and my bitterness will become bondage. Not your bondage, it will be my bondage. So I either get to stay chained to the events or I get to make a decision. This is where God brought you to. This is why you logged on. This is why they sent you the link. This is why you came to church.

You thought you decided to come to church. You're crazy. God sovereignly brought you to church. You had ten excuses not to come. What didn't fit and I have nothing to wear. But here you are. It's a size too small, but you can't why for this moment. God wanted you to know. You are in an important moment of your life. And if you do this, come on. Every athlete knows you can't hit a golf ball good if you don't

bend your knees. That's where your power comes from. You can't shoot a basketball right if you don't bend your knees. That's where your accuracy comes from You can't do a takedown standing up straight. There's no Division one wrestling champions that stand up straight talking about why are you fighting your battles like this? When God gave you this? This is how I fight my devil. Watch me surrendered to God cause been knees breaks. You can't do it in

your own strength. If you could, you would have by now. But God brought you to your knees. God, he's breaking. Subsiderational change up to the Holy Ghost. Come Lord, come Lord, break those changes. Break it, break it, break it, break it, break it, break it, break it. Breaking the past has no power over you. The blood of Jesus makes up better. I'm breaking in the name of Jesus, Ah, cause you still have so much life to live. Joseph lived to be one hundred and ten. He was fifty six. It's

only halftime. It's a huck, It's it's it's high five. Somebody say this is your halftime speech. This is your halftime speech. Come on, let's turn this into a locker room. I'm down by twenty, but I got time on. Watch me ben my knees, watch me hit this song, watch me, watch me, watch me, watch me worship watch me trust God, cause I have a decision to make what to do with the time and the life I have left. And so ben these great chains. Long as you rehearse what happened,

you can never reverse what happened. Uh huh. Will y'all drive nice? If I keep you a little long and you run into the other people that are coming in the surface, I won't do too much. What makes us verse great? Genesis fifty twenty, What makes us verse grade? If Rick the otto over here, he will tell you this, It's not what you think. Verse twenty of Genesis could be the worst verse in the Bible. It could be when it says you got it, you intended to harm me.

It's what comes after the comma. God brought you here so you can make a decision. What comes after your comma. It's just halftime. This is just a comma, not a coma. A comma a comma. Put it back up. How could one comma make such a big difference? Because that's where Joseph went from the event to the decision. And I'm choosing to do this on my knees, because if I let this whole power over me, I stay a slave, and I won't be chained to what you did, and I won't be chained to what I did when I

remember what God has done. He set this up in your life. You don't have to believe that, but you can. I can decide. I can decide. Is this the moment that you decide to own your story, the bad and the good, and put something after the calm? I hear the spirit of God saying, finish the sentence, finish the sentence, And in the spirit of Kanye West, I'm gonna let you finish. Come on, come on, come on, stay with me, Stay with me. You tried to hurt me. It hurt me.

But my hope is what happens after the comma. But God give me the scripture. But God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done to saving of many lives. Decision decision Verse twenty one. Decision, decision, decision, decision. So then don't be afraid. I will decision provide. He makes this decision. If I don't feed you, it will eat me. So I'm gonna use this as food. And he fed that family, the same family that failed him

by a decision. You have a decision to make today Are you gonna stand up and try to be so strong in your own strength? Are you gonna bend your knees? I'm talking physically. This week. I want some of y'all to pray on your knees for at least a minute a day this week. It doesn't have to be long, but you drop on your knees just to remind yourself, Well, God doesn't need me to kneel. No, you need to kneel because the position that you're in determines the decision

that you make. So when you get up, maybe you walk different, maybe you talk different. Maybe you remember, I'm favored by God and He has a purpose in a plan for my life that needs and when you submit it to God. How do I know when I've submitted it to God? Other than physically? Okay, a couple things. When you stop waiting for others to change for you to obey, you're on your knees. The way they treat me is not going to make me toxic. That's one sign.

Another sign is you start becoming absorbed in the process of what God tells you to do and stop being attached to the outcome. That's when you know you're on your knees. This is how I fight my battles. I got to do what God gave me to do today. That's all I can do. You know how I know what I'm really annointed to preach. When I don't care how you look at me while I'm doing it, that's when I'm like, oh oh, that's when I got my power up, my invincibility, mushroom. You know, remember super Mario,

all right, the star, The star was the invinciment. Look at me, you'll quit playing. This is so important when you have given up the illusion of control, but you have committed yourself to the process of obedience of what God spoke. Now you're on your knees and look. The Bible says in Philippians two, verse five that this is what Jesus did. He considered it not robbery to be equal with God. And he was God in beginning words with God, and the word was God. And he did this.

He became sinful man and humble himself to the point of death on a cross. We're not talking about Joseph. We're talking about Jesus, and he lives in you. So he said, when Jesus humbled himself, God has given him God will lift you up. God will lift you up. You gotta trust God to lift you up. You gotta trust God to position you and bring you where he wants you. Because the scripture says in Philippians too, that one day every knee will bow, everybody will be brought

to their knees. If life hasn't humbled you yet enough, if you're still in the dream state, that's okay. Life will eventually bring you to this point. So why not bow now? Why not bow now? Why not do it God's way now? If you do it his way now, you'll be ready for whatever he has next. Joseph didn't die in the pit. He didn't quit in the prison. You didn't either give God praise that you didn't quit give God praise. It was his mercy that got you through it. Quit trying to look so strong. It was

his mercy. I don't understand being a self made man, because if I'm self made, that means I can be enemy broken. I'm a God made man. Yeah, yeah, he did it for me. He was with me, and I'm bowb befo him to give him the glory. And that's not weakness. Bit knees aren't weak. That's where your strength comes from. So Joseph goes on to raise these two kids.

You know their names. JJ. Come on, tell me you remember in Manassa and Manassa, they both got a Joseph got an extra ridge in the allotment of the promised land, and Manassa, the half tribe of Manassa, got property to his kids, got blessed because of what he did. Because of what he did. Wow, there's a lot on the line right now. Some of you are breaking generational chains and you don't even know it, but you need God's help to do it, not by power, but by his spirit.

Bent knee say it, dent knees, break chains? Yeah? Not you proven you're right? Not you refusing to admit when you're wrong. And I love what the Bible says. Not leave you with this thought today for what God has next. If you will bend your knees now I don't mean physically in this room. I mean if you will submit and surrender these events, this situation to God and ask him for his wisdom and act on what he shows you. Ask him for his wisdom, act on what he shows you,

make the decision to turn pain into purpose. Look what happened to Joseph. You won't believe it. Verse twenty two. Please that Joseph stayed in Egypt along with all his father's family. The death of Jacob was an event. Staying in Egypt was a decision. Yeah, and he lived one hundred and ten years. Now. I told you that already, but I didn't tell you this next verse and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children, y'all, that's great grandchildren,

great grandchildren. God's not through with you yet. God is not through with you yet. God is not through. It is too early and too soon for you to plan. And also the children of mckure. It means in Hebrew sold that's what happened to him. That was the event. But the children of mckure, the son of Manassa, you got it. The children of his child were placed at

birth where on Joseph's knees. When you bow your knees to God and surrender your situation to him, it makes room on your knees for the future that He has in store for you. So I close with this thought for everybody who has been brought to your knees by a situation in your life, expect God to bring to your knees a new beginning. God wants you free and clear from all of the junk, all of the bondage,

all of the bitterness, all of the blame. And you gotta do what you gotta do to get on your knees so you can get your knees ready for what God wants to bring you next. And he is able. I preach this to every nation right now to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond what you ask or imagine. And God wants to bring you what's next when you get on your knees. Joseph said, I've been in prison and before I didn't like it. I want to be free now. So God, I'm on my knees. Lord, today

we lift our hands. Go ahead, lift them up right now, just as a sign of our prayer and our eager hope for the freedom that Jesus died to bring us to be made a reality in our lives. I thank you today, Lord, that this week is going to be different. It's going to be different because we're not going to spend it chained to bitterness. We're not going to spend

it looking for something or someone to blame. But this week We're starting this week right here, right now, bowing before you, saying that Jesus Christ is Lord, and what God has planned for my life, no man can stop it. No curse can stop it, no betrayal can stop it, No sickness can stop it. No reason session can stop it. No virus can stuff it, no pandemic can stuff it. When God gets ready to bless me, when God gets ready to raise me, when God has a purpose, it

will come to pass. Let's give him sixty seconds a praise. That bit needs break change. Come. Throw off those chains, throw off that attitude, throw off that shame, throw off that kill, throw it off this. Praise him, Praise him, praise him. That's not enough, that's not enough. Who the Son says free is free. Indeed, bow your head, Bow your head. The scripture says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus's Lord, and believe in your heart God

raised him from the death, you will be saved. This is a salvation moment of decision for somebody, a salvation moment. You are making the decision right now to place your faith in Jesus Christ, to place your faith in his death, to place your faith in his resurrection. He died for your forgiveness. He rose again to give you life. He invites you to follow him. He has promised you his spirit. All you've got to do is receive it, and the moment you hit your knees, his forgiveness will hit your life.

And I want to lead you in a prayer right now. We're going to pray this across all of our campuses and our epaum around the world for the benefit of those who are making the decision right now to place your faith in Christ, because He has already made the decision to save you. It's God who calls you, It's God who's drawing you. It's God that works in you,

and He brought you to this moment. So for those of you who need to come to Him for the first time or come back to Him, I want you to repeat this prayer after me as you bow your heart before God, Heavenly Father. I am a sinner in need of a savior, and today I bow my heart to you. I give you my life, make me new. I believe you die that I could be forgiven and rose again that I could live. Jesus, I receive you as my Lord and Savior. I bow my life to you.

I belong to you. This is my new beginning. Well, if you enjoy today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevation Church dot org, slash give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.