The Bones Were Dead, But the Word Was Alive: Anchoring Hope in God’s Promise

• The Cloud of Witnesses 00:01:11 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that the 'cloud of witnesses' in Hebrews 12 serves to inspire and motivate believers to run the race with perseverance.
• Letting Go of Weight and Sin 00:01:54 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor reiterates the need to remove hindrances to spiritual progress, noting that some congregants are still holding onto burdens from weeks prior.
• Joseph's Burial Instructions 00:03:52 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor introduces Joseph's request to be buried in the Promised Land as an example of anchoring oneself to God's promise rather than present circumstances.
• Provision vs. Permission to Settle 00:06:39 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that God's blessings and provisions in the present are not permissions to stop chasing His will or to settle in temporary comfort.
• Church Growth and Complacency 00:11:10 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the history of Genesis Metro's growth to warn against letting ease and size become an 'enemy' that stops the church from chasing souls.
• Church Growth and Size 00:12:00 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues against the idea that a large church size is undesirable, asserting that God's goal is to reach as many souls as possible rather than settling for a 'just right' size.
• Individual vs. Corporate Faith 00:13:16 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts the view of church as an 'individual sport' for personal blessing with the biblical view of church as a 'team sport' focused on seeking and saving the lost.
• Faith Before Trouble 00:15:34 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor emphasizes the necessity of having a firm foundation in God's word before facing adversity, using the example of Joseph and Abraham.
• God's Sovereignty in History 00:16:01 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor details the lineage from Abraham to Joseph to Moses, highlighting how God's promises were fulfilled through miraculous births and difficult circumstances over centuries.
• Moses and the Exodus 00:22:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes Moses' life, his rejection of Pharaoh's house, his 40 years in the wilderness, and the fulfillment of the promise to take the Israelites out of Egypt with possessions.
• Joseph's Bones and God's Faithfulness 00:25:45 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the historical account of Joseph's bones being carried through the wilderness as a symbol of God's promise to deliver His people, emphasizing that the word remains alive even when the bones are dead.
• Standing on God's Word vs. Human Circumstances 00:27:31 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts relying on God's unchanging promise with relying on the actions or love of others, urging the congregation to find security in God's word rather than in people.
• Hope in Suffering and Sin 00:31:06 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references biblical figures like Samson and David to illustrate that God can restore and redeem even after severe failure or loss, encouraging the congregation to trust in God's ability to bring them out of bad places.
• Eternal Perspective and Church Mission 00:33:08 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor transitions to a call for prayer and mission, urging the congregation to view their current life as temporary and to focus on reaching the next soul, framing the current year as a 'year of worship'.

• Sermon Illustration 00:11:10 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts the history of Genesis Metro's physical locations, starting from his house (described as 'cultish'), moving to an elementary school, then a plumbing supply warehouse, and finally the current building with LED screens, to illustrate how ease can become an enemy.
• Sermon Illustration 00:13:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of 'Goldilocks' searching for a church to describe people who are never satisfied with their current church size, always looking for one that is 'just right'.
• Sermon Illustration 00:16:47 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts the biblical narrative of Joseph's lineage, including the miraculous births of Isaac and Jacob, Jacob's deception with Leah and Rachel, and Joseph's betrayal by his brothers, to illustrate the long path to God's promise.
• Sermon Illustration 00:20:52 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes the cupbearer forgetting Joseph after being released from prison, illustrating how provision can become a prison when one forgets God.
• Sermon Illustration 00:23:16 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses a humorous hypothetical about being raised in Pharaoh's house with air conditioning and Teslas to illustrate the temptation Moses faced in rejecting the pleasures of sin.
• Sermon Illustration 00:26:16 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes the Israelites carrying Joseph's coffin through the Red Sea and the wilderness, noting that even though Joseph was dead, his bones were carried as a declaration of God's promise. He humorously imagines the fear of Jericho residents seeing the coffin and trumpets, and draws a parallel to Jesus' burial in a borrowed tomb, highlighting that 'the bones were dead, but the word was still alive.'

• Pastoral Charge 00:03:26 ▶️ 📄
  > Make adjustments to prioritize God over competing interests.
• Pastoral Charge 00:02:17 ▶️ 📄
  > Let go of weights and sins that hinder spiritual progress.
• Pastoral Charge 00:34:51 ▶️ 📄
  > Commit to reaching new souls for the church regardless of personal cost.
• Pastoral Charge 00:34:59 ▶️ 📄
  > Worship God with total devotion in response to His word.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Let's give it up for the band leading us in worship today. It is a beautiful day outside and I'm glad that you chose to spend it in the Lord's house. It's going to be a great day. This is our finale for our Surrounded series. This has been a very impactful series and we're excited for it to be a launching point for the rest of our year. If you haven't seen the big sign on the wall outside, this is the year of worship and worship is nothing more than us sacrificing all that we are to
[00:00:30] as a living sacrifice, as a worshipful expression to a holy and living God.
[00:00:35] And so, man, when I hear you guys singing, I felt like, oh, we're in the pocket today.
[00:00:40] Do you guys feel that? I mean, like, that's us giving it back to God for all that he has given to us.
[00:00:45] And so, man, it's going to be a great Sunday.
[00:00:48] Today, we're going to be talking about an obscure passage, but I think you'll find it inspiring.
[00:00:55] Before we jump into it, I just wanted you to begin thinking with me.
[00:00:59] last week we said that faith was necessary to have a God story that you can tell for the rest of your life. And that's when the whole expression of this series is that all of these people that
[00:01:11] are in this surrounding cloud, it says in Hebrews 12, one and two, our, our theme verse that we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses and that what is their, what is their goal? Twofold. So
[00:01:24] going to give us inspiration and motivation. Inspiration means that you have wind in your sails. Motivation means that you intend to move, that you'll be transformed, that you're not the same after you receive this truth, that something in your life contiguous to this word begins to
[00:01:42] change as you pursue after God. So he says that we're not only inspired, but we're motivated and there that we're three things that we've been harping on for eight weeks okay and that is one
[00:01:54] we have to get rid of the weight that is holding us down and i know that i've said it for eight weeks and guess what some of you you're still holding on to the same thing that you had eight
[00:02:04] weeks ago so i'm going to give you one more bite at this apple okay and then it's on you all right fair enough right we only learn through repetition so let it go else of that let it go okay and then
[00:02:17] not only are you to let go the weight that is holding you down, you're also to get rid of the sin that so easily entangles us. And then what does that allow you to do? It allows you to run
[00:02:29] the race that is marked out for us with perseverance. And so we want to be a church that is ready to run, that as God pours out his blessings on us, that we are ready to run after him, to
[00:02:40] chase after the things that God is giving us, that God is pouring out at Genesis Metro. And so I wanted us to look back in Hebrews chapter 11. And I want us to answer a question today. Are we tied to the promises of
[00:02:55] God? And is there a promise in God's word that is greater than the present circumstances that we're living in? In other words, are you do you have something bigger than you that you are living for? Because once you decide that God is better than
[00:03:11] anything else in this world, you don't have to be worried about are you going to arrive at any destination? It takes the pressure off in a sense of like, man, I think my life will be fulfilling when I get to X because once it's God, God does not change and
[00:03:26] it doesn't get better than God. And so I encourage you that if other things are competing for God, God's number one slot in your life today, you would make some adjustments. So here's our obscure
[00:03:36] passage and I'm going to tie some things together. Um, I'm going to preach a passage I've never preached before. And I'm pretty sure that 90% of you have never heard someone preach on. So Hebrews chapter 11, it says by faith, Joseph, and most of you are familiar with Joseph. He's the
[00:03:52] coat of many colors guy by faith, Joseph, as he was nearing the end of his life, mentioned the Exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions concerning his bones. You could just insert a modern language would be burial instructions. Okay. So, um, just by show of hands, uh, has
[00:04:13] anyone heard anybody preach on this? Just by show of hands. Good, good. Then we're all in this together. Okay. Um, you say, well, Tim, what, what is inspiring about burial instructions? Oh, well, you'll see. You'll, you will see. All right. So I wanted to jump back and I wanted to see what
[00:04:30] he actually said and what actually happened in Genesis 50. So this is when Joseph said this thing. So Hebrews is new Testament for all of our non-Christians in the room. Hebrews in the new Testament is commentating on things that happened in the old Testament. So when we say we're
[00:04:46] surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, Joseph is one of these witnesses. Joseph's story is intended to inspire you and motivate you this morning to run after the things of God. So as we are going
[00:05:00] through, it's going to be, it's going to be a long history lesson today, but it's going to have a payoff at the end. In Genesis 50, it says, when God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones
[00:05:11] from here. And then Joseph died at the age of 110. They embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt. So when we look at Joseph's life, this is going to be the prelude to a one point message.
[00:05:27] Um, number one, don't bury me in what God called temporary. Don't bury me in what God called temporary. So Joseph is in Egypt at this point. He's going to be in Egypt for 400 years. He's
[00:05:45] saying, but my end where I'm destined to be, where I'm called to be, where God has promised I will be is not here. So the essence of living beyond the present moment, number two, don't let your
[00:06:01] present become a prison. So just because something is working right now, doesn't mean that God intended for you to stay here, right? So, so as God is moving people around, he will bless them because they're under his favor, but that doesn't mean that he wants you to sit down in this present
[00:06:19] as if it is your, your, your end goal, which is, which is permanent. Number three, provision is not permission to settle. Provision is not permission to settle. So whenever we think about Joseph's life, he is not a slave in Egypt. Joseph has been elevated to number two. So he is the most
[00:06:39] powerful person next to Pharaoh on the planet. And so when he says, God is going to come in Genesis 50 and deliver you, he's not talking about the condition that they're in right now. He's talking about a condition
[00:06:54] they're going to be in, in the future. And so you could see how if you not careful, whenever we talk about this, these provisions that God gives us, the blessings that God gives us in this area, especially, do you think you could ever, do you
[00:07:12] think you could ever fall in love with luxury? Does anybody think that they could like, like, do you think like, if I just gave you all the money in the world, you could like, I could get used to this, Tim. Does anybody think that? I mean, would you,
[00:07:26] would you say, and don't say this out loud, but from where some of you started to where God has blessed you to, did you think in some, in some times in your life, you would ever be as blessed
[00:07:40] as you ended up? Most people in Frisco are more blessed than what they ever thought, but the way they could ever imagine self-made. So when we think about that, wouldn't it have been easy for Joseph to say, well, God has put me in Pharaoh's house. And this is clearly is where he
[00:08:02] wants me to be forever. Like, this is great. I love it compared to the prison cell I was in.
[00:08:07] I love this. Right. And you can see how people might fall in love with their present circumstances because the present is better than their past, but then they're elevating where God has brought them to almost an idle level.
[00:08:21] Because if you love the present more than ever, chasing after God or sacrificing in the future, or you love it so much you can't let it go, then you're back to Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah
[00:08:33] versus Joseph's attitude.
[00:08:34] Joseph didn't have the attitude of, I wanna stay in this lane forever.
[00:08:39] He said, whenever I die, I want you to take me to where God intended me to be. So he was still worried about his destination, even though he was never going to see it because he wanted to be so in line with God's word. He
[00:08:53] was chasing after God's will for his life so much so that he cared about his burial expression.
[00:09:02] And so I started thinking about that and I started thinking, you know, even as a church, right? Our fourth point in this subsection, we need a promise greater than our present.
[00:09:12] We need a promise greater than our present. He was anchoring himself to a word, which we'll get into in just a moment, that was given to Abraham. And when we see that the promise that Abraham was
[00:09:26] told was 220 years before Joseph existed. So he anchored himself to that word and that propelled him to his future destination. What I'm trying to say is if we're going to listen to the voices
[00:09:40] that are surrounding us from God, then they have the ability to anchor us through some turbulent times. And then they will always get us to the destination that God intended. Wouldn't it be better today if your life was anchored to a promise that was greater than any present circumstance
[00:09:59] that you're in. In other words, you wouldn't have to worry about if I get the raise, if I close the deal, if we have four kids or three kids or two kids and we have the three car garage, or if I
[00:10:12] make it over to that neighborhood, you wouldn't have to worry about any of that because you could say, no, no, no. The thing that I'm anchored to is greater than anything in this world. I couldn't
[00:10:22] be bribed or bought to what God has for my life because I've already arrived at the very top of what my essence and my purpose was. So today I want you to begin thinking about that. Is your
[00:10:33] presence a prison and has the blessings that you've been given become, become something that you sat down and you settled in, even though God intended it for a season that he wanted to bless you to get you ready to run. He wanted to like, like our church, for instance, let's, let's say,
[00:10:51] let's just give our example here. We, we went from an elementary school. Well, we really started from Tim Bourne's house. Okay. Four people in a house and it felt cultish. Okay. And you're trying to invite somebody to church. They're like, Oh, where's it at? Oh, it's at my house. That's weird.
[00:11:10] Okay. I'm just going to let you know. It's not a good selling point. Um, so then we moved to a school. We moved to another school. We went to a plumbing supply warehouse. We renovated it. And
[00:11:18] then we ended up here. Do you think it's possible that people could ever say like, well, Genesis Metro, we finally made it. We made it. And now look at this, which essentially we have more chairs,
[00:11:34] better lights, and these giant led screens. And I feel like the camera adds some weight. I don't know. I felt like I was skinnier in the old building. I don't, I don't know if you guys feel
[00:11:45] that, but when I look up there, I'm like, Hmm, you can lose 10. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you, there. So whenever we think about that, we got to be really careful that ease doesn't become the
[00:12:00] enemy. That because we have this, we quit chasing. We quit running as hard as we did in the past.
[00:12:09] As a matter of fact, do you think it's possible that some could even get to a point that they say, you know, you know, Tim, I mean, the church, it's just gotten too big, just gotten too big.
[00:12:22] and I always, I always hear that. And I, by the way, don't ever say that to me. You will not enjoy the response I will give you if you say that to me. Okay. What if we sat down in this
[00:12:36] present and we said, well, so what, so what's the number? What's the number for you? Is it, is it now that we have 2000, we don't need any more souls to go to heaven. Is that the logic?
[00:12:46] Cause I think some people are like, kind of like Goldilocks in search of a church. They're like, oh, this one's too small. Oh, this one's too, oh, this one is just right. You know, who is that about? Who is that about? That's about you. Do you think God wants small church
[00:13:05] or do you think God wants reach as many souls as you possibly can? See the point of the exercise, and I think we've gotten this kind of corrupted, to be honest with you. We start to think that
[00:13:16] church is an individual sport versus a team sport. In an individual sport, you're saying, how can church grow me? How can I get right? How can this bless my family? When God is looking at
[00:13:32] like, how can you join my team? And then my team put up as many points on that scoreboard. And the only way that he measures, what did Jesus say that he came to do? To seek and to save that which was
[00:13:46] lost. And every time one of those lost souls gets right, gets saved, becomes born again, that the angels start worshiping and partying in heaven. And then someone says, I think we should have less.
[00:13:59] I think we should, oh, this is just, this is just, may we never, ever get to the place that it comes out of our mouth that we're satisfied to settle in our presence when God has anchored us to a
[00:14:12] promise that says, let's save as many as we possibly can. And the church said, amen. Yes.
[00:14:20] Now that was all the setup. And now there's going to be a one point sermon.
[00:14:27] Here's, I'm going to give you the point right now. The bones were dead, but the word was still alive.
[00:14:34] okay the bones were dead but the words were still alive we're all going to say it together is it on the screen all right ready on three one two three the bones were dead but the word was still alive
[00:14:46] and what do you want to anchor yourself to something that's bigger than death something that's beyond death something that's greater than death listen to this he said take me back to the promised land. That's where I'm intended to be. In Genesis 15, what word is Joseph referring
[00:15:11] to about God is going to deliver you, even though they're not in trouble yet? Man, I wish.
[00:15:18] Listen, listen, you're going to have to listen in order to get this message. All right. But what I just said right there, like, don't you want to have a word before the trouble comes? Should I
[00:15:34] say it again. Don't you want a word before the trouble comes? Don't you want to build your life on a word before the storm rises, before the flood, before the thoughts of divorce, before the
[00:15:45] kid goes, don't you want a word that you could stand on before all of that? I know that's what I want. It says in Genesis 15, this is 220 years before Joseph, that God is making a covenant with
[00:16:01] Abraham, who is now Abram, he is going to morph and become Abraham. The Lord said to Abram, know for certain your offspring will be resident aliens for 400 years in a land that does not
[00:16:16] belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. However, I will judge the nation they serve and afterward they will go out with many possessions. All right. Now listen, I want you to think about
[00:16:31] for Joseph to get to the place that he's saying, my ending is not here. What had to happen? Just, just, just for the promise to get to Joseph, not even get through Joseph, but just to get to Joseph.
[00:16:47] Number one, Abraham was a hundred years old. His wife, Sarah was 90 and beyond childbearing years.
[00:16:57] not only was she beyond childbearing years she was barren her entire life so you had to have a miraculous birth in order for this promise to come to pass God opens her womb and she has Isaac
[00:17:13] Isaac then marries this chick named Rebecca and turns out Rebecca also barren and so God has to miraculously open her womb in order for her to have twins. And she has Jacob and Esau. Jacob
[00:17:31] then has to go on the run because he does some shady stuff. His name literally in our modern day vernacular means shady. He just doing shady things. And he's on the run and he goes out to
[00:17:42] his uncle's house named Laban. And the Bible says, what you sow is what you, all right. He found this chick named Rachel. And he was like, Rachel is the one, the apple of my eye. Perfect in every way.
[00:17:56] On wedding night, uncle Laban pulls the switcheroo and he thinks he's going into the tent with Rachel. And it turns out she had a sister that was a little bit older, also had a lazy eye
[00:18:10] named Leah. All right. So, so he thought he was, and then he woke up to like, you know, you know that's rough that's rough all right but you reap what you sow all right so you might want
[00:18:33] to think about that all right quit being shady you might wake up with lazy eye anyway there's literally some people right now like he shouldn't say that that is the bible go read the story it is
[00:18:47] it is true so now he has two wives because he has to work another seven years to get to rachel Now, as they begin family planning, Leah has the ability to have children and Rachel doesn't.
[00:19:05] And so God has to miraculously open her womb in order for her to have her son, which was Joseph.
[00:19:14] So just to get to Joseph, you had to have three miraculous births.
[00:19:21] Jacob had to wrestle with God and become Israel.
[00:19:24] all just to get to the promises handed to Joseph. And then you think, okay, now Joseph is going to coast to this moment that we're talking about in today's message. No, he has a dream. And in this
[00:19:40] dream, his brothers bow down to him and worship him along with his father and his mother. And so he got super excited about that dream. And he went and he told his brothers, and I don't know
[00:19:51] if you ever thought about telling your older brother, older, bigger brother, older, 10 of your brothers, much bigger than you and not even the same mom. And so they came from lazy eye side.
[00:20:00] And so, so like there's some tension there and you say, you're going to bow down and you're going to worship. No. And so they weren't down with that. They were like, no. So what'd they do?
[00:20:11] They betrayed him. They sold him into slavery. So here is a man with a God dream, but it isn't going well. It's never, it seems like he's suffering at every turn. And just when you think
[00:20:22] being sold as a slave, that's pretty rough. Now he gets falsely accused of rape, gets thrown into prison. While he's in prison, he interprets two dreams. One guy, bad news, he died. And then the
[00:20:37] other guy, it was, you're going to be elevated. And it was the cupbearer. And then the cupbearer, when he gets back in his position, he doesn't even remember Joseph. He just completely was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Glad to be back. What was he doing? He was enjoying his present. His provision
[00:20:52] became his prison. And he didn't even mention, he didn't even think about Joseph. He was an afterthought, even though it was his words that set him free. Anyway, Pharaoh has a dream and the cupbearer is like, oh, I know a guy when I was doing a stint in the Pharaoh prison and he
[00:21:11] interprets dreams. He brings him up. God elevates Joseph. And now he becomes the most powerful man on the planet. I think about that. Think about that arc. That's just to get to where we're at
[00:21:26] in this story. He lives out his 110 years and on his deathbed, he says, Hey guys, um, one day God's going to intervene on your behalf before they're ever made slaves, before they're ever in trouble, before they're ever suffering. He said, and when God intervenes for certain,
[00:21:45] he is going to intervene. What word is he referring to? He's referring to what Abraham said.
[00:21:51] Abraham already prophesied this when he said, or God prophesied it to Abraham, you're going to go into the land for 400 years. So he knows that the clock is ticking. So he says, I want you to take
[00:22:02] my body back to the promised land. And that's where I want to be buried because the bones after he died were dead, but the word was still alive. We next see the next progression is that 400 years
[00:22:19] happen. Suffering begins. God raises up a deliverer, a savior, and his name is Moses. Moses has to survive a genocide from a Pharaoh that is a homicidal maniac. And his mom puts him in the
[00:22:37] river. And who happens to find him? And are you surprised that God can find you in crazy places?
[00:22:45] Is anyone in here surprised? And so they find him and it's Pharaoh's daughter's servant. And she's like, Oh, next thing you know, Moses is in Pharaoh's house and he's raised in Pharaoh's house.
[00:22:59] And that's, this is crazy. Now, if, if some of you were raised in Frisco, I mean, Pharaoh's house, would you would you be like look at how God has poured it out on me why would I ever why would I
[00:23:16] ever leave this I mean they had air conditioning for everybody else everybody had a Tesla I don't know it was it was great and then when he got to the age where he was seeing and God put it on his
[00:23:29] heart he was like well would I rather have the pleasures of Pharaoh's house or would I rather have God's people and God's promises. And it says that he, by faith, rejected the pleasures of sin
[00:23:42] for a season to be accounted by God. And you're like, great. Now Moses is going to rise and lead the people out. No, he makes a mistake in a heated argument and he kills some people. And so the plan
[00:23:57] is slightly off track now. And he has to go out in this wilderness experience for 40 years. As he's in the 40 years of the wilderness, a burning bush happens. The burning bush begins to speak to him. Now, would you
[00:24:07] say that's kind of crazy? Would you guys agree? Have you ever had this experience? Have you ever been walking by a campfire and God's like, Hey, you're right. No, you haven't. Okay.
[00:24:14] So, so God's like, Hey, just because you're delayed does not mean you're done. I'll say it again for the people at the back, just because you're delayed doesn't mean you're done. Wouldn't it be great if you had a word that you could
[00:24:30] stand on that was spoken 200 years before you were ever born and now is alive 400 years after you died wouldn't you want a word that was God wouldn't you want a word that was eternal wouldn't you want a word that was indestructible wouldn't you want
[00:24:51] to have a word that you could plant your feet on and know that it could not be shaken that's the kind of word that I want and so God raises up Moses he walks in 10 plagues bam bam bam there's
[00:25:03] frogs, lizards, water turned to blood and death angel came, wiped some people out. I mean, there was a whole thing going on. And then what did he say? He said to Abraham, 220 years before
[00:25:14] Joseph, now 660 years before this current moment that Moses is raised up. And he said to him, they will go out with great possessions. After the death angel came, the Egyptians were like, get out, just get out, go, go. Here's our silver. Here's our gold. Here's our cows. Here's just
[00:25:32] take anything you want. Just get out. The last thing right before they go out, what did Moses say? Exodus 13, put it on the board. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had
[00:25:45] made the Israelites swear a Solomon saying, God will certainly come to your aid. Then you will take my bones with you from this place. So that coffin sat there for 400 years. How many times
[00:25:58] did they tell the story? Who's coughing? Oh, that's Joseph. Why isn't he? Why isn't he? Why isn't he buried oh it's not a decoration it's a declaration that God will certainly come to our aid at some point in the future and now that future is now and as they're walking out they're
[00:26:16] like grab the coffin now this is where I got I got excited trust me like you know you think it's like no it's not we're not even close so so they go out to the Red Sea and never in any Charlton
[00:26:28] Heston movie, never in a painting, not in a Disney special. Did you ever see Moses raise his staff, the Red Sea parts, and then along with the whole procession of Israel walking across on dry ground,
[00:26:42] what is walking with them? There's a coffin. There's like some pallbearers, right? They're like, never like go to any painting and find the coffin. And like, no, they literally had Joseph's bones. And they're like walking across the Red Sea. And you think, oh, now they made it. Now
[00:26:58] they made it. So this promise will surely come to pass. But then the people rebel. The people start making golden calves. They start complaining. They're like, oh, this water is too bitter.
[00:27:09] They're Goldilocks and all over the place. And yet Joseph keeps moving despite the rebellion of others. You see, his life was what? It was attached. It was attached to a promise that it doesn't even matter what other people do. It just matters what God said to you. And if you're
[00:27:31] standing on a promise that it will come to pass, wouldn't you want to be standing on a word today that isn't contingent upon what people do around you? Sometimes you have falsely let them have more
[00:27:44] power than what they actually have. Cause you think your fate is in their hands. If they do this for you, then you'll get to, Oh, if they, if they love me, then this will happen. What if
[00:27:55] you had a promise that there was a God who already loves you more than you deserve. And you stood on that. And then you could say to anyone in your life, it doesn't matter what you do because God
[00:28:06] has already promised me when you love that today. Yes. Let's give it up for him on that. I don't know if I'm preaching to me or if I'm preaching to you. They walked through 40 years of the
[00:28:19] wilderness carrying this coffin. And now the baton is handed to Joshua. Joshua crosses this Jordan river. So now we're going to have a red sea that was parted and a Jordan river that was parted.
[00:28:33] They walked through the Jordan river, first battle Jericho. Now it doesn't say they carried the coffin around Jericho six, seven days, but then on the seventh day, seven times, but it kind of feels like that type of energy. And I was just thinking if I was a Jericho person standing on top
[00:28:52] of the wall and I was looking down, I was like, Hmm, they're like blowing these trumpets and like every day though. And I looked down like, is that, is that a coffin? Like that would Tom, come on.
[00:29:06] Like that would freak you out. Right? I'd be like, I don't know. It says that Joshua had to fight 31 battles over a five to seven year period to settle the land. And then this verse,
[00:29:21] Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt were buried at Shechem. The bones were dead, but the word was still alive. And what was that word? God says, I know how to get you
[00:29:37] out. If I, if I, if I get to have three miracle births, two transformative names, a guy survive a genocide and then part a Red Sea, a Jordan River, a Lake Louisville, whatever I got to do,
[00:29:52] it doesn't matter if a whole generation rebels against me. Joseph, I'm giving you a word that started before you and it will come to pass 400 years after you are gone because the bones are
[00:30:07] dead, but the word is still alive. I can almost, if you really worked hard, you could almost say is is that about joseph or is that about jesus it's almost like like a word was before him and
[00:30:23] then he fulfilled the word and then they took some bones and then they laid them in a borrowed tomb and you could even get crazy like what was that guy's name i don't even remember what was his
[00:30:33] name oh was it joseph that's pretty crazy i mean of all the people just named joseph that means anything theologically it's just interesting but they put those bones in a borrowed grave and Three days later, what happened?
[00:30:50] Yeah, the bones were dead, but the word was still alive.
[00:30:57] What is the hope I can give you today?
[00:31:00] And God knows how to get people out of bad places.
[00:31:06] Like when Samson made the mistake and he lost his strength, God knows how to make the hair grow back.
[00:31:12] When David commits adultery, that seems like everyone around him would have said, that's permanent, you can never get out of that.
[00:31:21] but don't bury me in what God says is temporary because Psalm 51 is coming. Created me a clean heart, oh God. Renew a steadfast and right spirit inside of me. You see, I don't know what you're
[00:31:34] in today, but I do know this. Just like the Israelites, trouble is always coming. Trouble is always brewing. The storm is already gathering. So what should you be doing in preparation?
[00:31:47] I would be finding a word to stand on. Joseph was standing on Abraham's word. But at the end of the day, whose word was that? That's God's word. So if you stood on God's word today, even though it was
[00:31:59] given to some other person in the past, it was a word that was given before you. And it's a word that will endure after you. What would be the guarantee that God is giving you? Don't you want
[00:32:10] to know that when you die, that that's not your permanent place, that if he can move Joseph through all of the hats to a burial plot in Shechem, in the promised land, wouldn't that give you the same hope that no matter where they put your bones, when you die, that God knows how
[00:32:37] to get you to the promised land, that he guarantees you that if you put your faith and trust in him, that you've passed from death unto life.
[00:32:49] And it doesn't matter what anyone does around you, that no man can take that away.
[00:32:54] And that's the kind of promise I want you to know about, a promise that is greater than any present that you're in.
[00:33:01] This isn't the word you probably need today.
[00:33:04] It's the word you're going to need tomorrow.
[00:33:07] Let's pray.
[00:33:08] Father, we ask in the name of Jesus, God, help us to understand that this present is not our promise.
[00:33:16] this present is not our home. This present is not permanent. Let us quit living as if there's not eternity in our future. God, let us consider how we might be moved, that we might be inspired,
[00:33:33] that we might be motivated, that we might be transformed so that the next person can experience this great salvation. God, I pray for every family sitting in this room that they would consider what place does God have in their lives? I want every person to consider what God's story could
[00:33:52] you tell today that demonstrates that you know him and that he is moving you. What word is your family standing on? What word is your marriage built on? Where does your parenting philosophy originate? Is it from the word? Are you pointing your kids to Jesus and saying, no matter what it
[00:34:17] costs you, think about it. If I could tell you that your kid's future is Joseph, but you don't know the end. You just know that he'd be betrayed, that he'd be sold, that he'd be falsely accused,
[00:34:29] that he'd be put in a prison. Would that be enough just to say, stop there, stop there. I don't, I don't want that future. I'd rather do it my way. And then it costs the entire world
[00:34:38] as a result of you thinking you know better than God.
[00:34:42] You see, we have the opportunity this year to do greater things for God.
[00:34:48] And our church is ready.
[00:34:50] And we need you.
[00:34:51] We need you to love the church enough to say, whatever it takes, I wanna reach the next soul.
[00:34:57] This is the year of worship.
[00:34:59] When God puts out his word, our only response is to worship him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our mind.
[00:35:06] We wanna give you that opportunity right now.
[00:35:08] would you stand and worship with us?