Hope Church LV Sermons
Joseph :: Faithfulness in Prominence
(upbeat music) - Well, good morning. If you have the Bible this morning, you can take your Bible and turn to Genesis chapter 45. That's gonna kinda be the base camp. If you don't have your Bible, we will have the words on the screen for you this morning. Let me just say, over the past couple of weeks, we have been going through a series here. Faithfulness in the life of Joseph. This week, we're gonna talk about faithfulness and prominence. Over the past couple of weeks, we've talked about faithfulness and rejection, faithfulness and temptation. This week, we're gonna talk about a more positive subject. And I hope today that you will be blessed by what the word of God says. How many of you believe that you are God? Where you are exactly, where God wants you to be? Amen, praise the Lord, some of you are not sure. I've been there, right? Here's what I know, God has you exactly where he wants you to be. As we look at the life of Joseph, sometimes it's hard for us to understand this. We all love the story of Joseph. I'm just not sure many of us want to have his life. We want the last part, but not the first. For those of you who are new with us this week, we have, we're doing this character study. Let me just give you a quote by Rick Warren to kind of explain to you what we wanna do with this study. Rick said this, with a character study, you select a biblical person and research the scriptures to study his or her life and character. You try to become thoroughly acquainted with that person's inner life and find out what made it a spiritual success or a failure. And man, what a great word, a spiritual success or a failure. God does have us exactly where he wants us to be. And as we look at the life of Joseph, we'll be able to glean some life lessons, some insights into what God was doing in the life of Joseph to show us what he's doing in our lives as well. Let me give you a little background on Joseph. In chapter 37, we kind of meet Joseph and what we find out about Joseph there is that he is not liked. He is loved by his father, but he is hated by his brothers because he is the favorite. And if you've been in church all your life, you know the story of the coat of many colors. He actually was given a coat by his dad because he was the favorite and this didn't sit too well with the rest of the clan. They took him, one day they decided that well he actually told him a couple of dreams that really didn't help things either about how they, some day they would bow down to him. This made them more angry at him. And so one day they took him and they placed him in the bottom of a pit. Some of them wanted to kill him. One of the brothers talked him out of that and they actually ended up selling him into slavery into Egypt. He went with some Ishmaelites down to Egypt when he got to Egypt. Then he was bought there for Potiphar's house. Potiphar, he gained a lot of favor with Potiphar. Potiphar was a captain of the guard if you will for Pharaoh and he actually put him over his house. He trusted him so much. While he was there, Potiphar's wife began to be interested if we could say that. In Joseph, she wanted Joseph for herself. Joseph would not succumb to this and so she did what every ungodly person would do. She told a lie about him. She got him in trouble and got him in so much trouble that he was actually thrown into prison and he sat there for a while as well. While he was in that prison, we're going all the way back to chapter 40 here. While he was in prison, he met two people there. They had some dreams and he interpreted the dreams for them and both of those dreams came exactly true. Next thing you know, Pharaoh has a dream. Pharaoh said, does anybody know what this dream means? He brings his magicians in. He brings all his people in. Nobody knows what the dreams mean, but the butler says, I know somebody who can tell you the dream 'cause he told me my dream. He interpreted it for me. He is in prison. They bring him out of prison. He interprets Pharaoh's dream. He says, Pharaoh, here's what your dream means. Seven years of good times, seven years of famine. In the seven years of good times, what you need to do is you need to set back a part of a fifth of everything that's grown in the land and store it up because in the seven years, you will need that. And you know what happens? It all comes true. Pharaoh looks at him and says, "Is there anybody in the land like Joseph?" Absolutely not. He brings Joseph to his side and said, "I'm gonna put him as second in command." So here's what we got. We got Joseph, one of 12 brothers, actually one of 13 children who's been thrown into a pit, sold in the slavery, accused of something that he did not do. Now all of a sudden, he is second in command. We look at this area and go, "Wow, what a place of prominence. "What a place to be. "How awesome would that be?" As soon as he gets in that place of prominence, God sends his family who are in Canaan and Israel down to Egypt to get some food 'cause nobody had food except for the Egyptians. When they get there, they walk in and guess who they see? Their brother, but they didn't know it was their brother. He knew them, but they didn't recognize him. The Bible says that he actually disguised himself so they wouldn't know who he was. He's got a dilemma. I was rejected. I was put through all this stuff. And here's what I want you to know. Over more than 20 years of his life has gone by. He was 17 when he was placed in the pit. Now he's 38, 39 years old. His life is passed him by. And now his brothers sit in front of him. I know what you're thinking. They're in trouble. And you know, with a normal, natural human being, they would have been in trouble. I hate to say it like this. They may have been in trouble with me. Who do you think you are? Okay, take him away off with their heads, you know? But that's not what he did. In fact, the first time that they came to him, what he did was, he did put him in jail for three days. And we're not sure exactly how that works out and that's a whole other sermon. But he puts him in jail for three days, gets them out of jail and says, okay, here's what I know. You didn't bring all the brothers with you. Benjamin is the only one that you don't have with you. Benjamin was the younger brother. He was the youngest brother. In fact, he was 16 or 17 years younger than all the rest. And Joseph was the number 12. So for seven years, he has 12 kids and then all of a sudden for 17, he only has one. But his little brother, who came from the same mother that he came from, the favorite wife of Joseph, another sermon. He wants to see 'cause the last time he saw him, he was a baby, okay? So he's got 10 brothers and who are standing in front of him and one brother who isn't and he says to them, "Go get Benjamin or your youngest brother "and bring him back." And just so I'll know you'll come back with him, I'm gonna keep another one of your brothers here with me, his name was Simeon. I'm gonna keep Simeon, you nine go back to your father and when you get back, tell him that I wanna see the younger brother too. So I'll know that you're not lying about what you're saying, that you're not spies. So he sends them back, he puts food in there, they get the food that they come for, but Joseph does something else there. He puts money, the money that they brought to buy the food back in their sack as well. So they got the food for free, they didn't know that until they stopped to feed their donkeys. They look and not only is the food, excuse me, not only is the grain in there, but also the money is in there and they thought, oh no, what have we done, what has happened? When they get back home, of course, their father Jacob, the son of Isaac, who is the son of Abraham, which makes Joseph the great grandson of Abraham, says to the nine brothers, where is Simeon? He's back in Egypt, this mean guy kept him. How are we gonna get him back? Well, we have to go back with our brother, the youngest brother, he wants to make sure we're not lying. He said, you're not going back, but guess what? They ran out of food and Jacob said, go back, we're hungry. Go back, so they do, the 10 of them pick up, go back down to Egypt, and when they get there, sure enough, Joseph sees them, but he sees Benjamin. For the second time, he begins to weep and cry, because he loves Benjamin, that's who he wanted to see. He hadn't seen him since he was a toddler, at best, maybe even an infant. He fixes a dinner for them, they sit down and they eat, all is well, right? He puts the grain back in their bins, in their sacks, he takes the money, puts it back in the sack with them, and says, go back to Egypt, everything will be fine, but he says, one more thing, take the cup, put it in my younger brothers, or put it in Benjamin's sack, and then we'll chase them down and make them think that one of them had stolen, and the one who stole this cup will be my slave. Now, I'm telling you a lot of stuff here, okay, to get to this point, they go chase them down, they bring them back, sure enough, in Benjamin's sack is the cup. What shall we do? What is going to happen to us? Where is this going to take us? Chapter 45, verse one, let's read together, this is where we pick up. The Bible says, then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, have everyone go out from me? There was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it, then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. His my father's still alive, but his brothers could not answer him, I bet. I bet they thought, oh, oh, oh. For they were dismayed at his presence, then Joseph said to his brothers, please come closer to me, and they came closer. By the way, this word closer is a word that doesn't have to do with proximity, as in spatial space, it has to do with intimacy. Come close to me again. I want the relationship. Come closer to me, he said, and they came closer, and he said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. Now, do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, listen to this, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me before you to preserve for you, a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by great deliverance. Now therefore, and listen to this, this is incredible what he says here. It was not you who sent me here, but God. And he was made, excuse me, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and the Lord of all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son, Joseph, God has made me, Lord of all Egypt, come down to me, do not delay. Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck, and he wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. He kissed all his brothers and wept on them, and afterward his brothers talked with him. Joseph says some things here in these first 15 verses that are just incredible to me. First of all, he looks at them and he says, I'm Joseph. Then he says, okay, listen, come closer to me. He said, I'm your brother, this is me, the one you sold, the one you threw in the pit, the one you sold in the slavery. He said, but don't be angry or grieved with yourselves. Don't, don't do that. God sent me to preserve life before you. And I love those statements. But this one statement is the statement that trumps them all. In verse eight, he says this, it was not you who sent me here, but God. Have you ever been, and I know the answer to this, I don't even know why I'm asking the question, but I wanna bring back to your memory in a tough situation. Have you ever been rejected, or have you ever been major league tempted, or have you, or have you just been in a rough circumstance? You know, like a really difficult circumstance. See, here's what I know. When we're in those circumstances, that's an easy place, really. For most of us to go, God, I need you. You don't come through, I'm gone, right? God, I need you. I need this, you know my situation here, you know what's going on here. And when I say easy, I don't mean easy as in, you wanna go through it, but I mean easy to say, you know what, I can't handle this. But I wanna submit to you that one of the toughest places to live a godly life is when you have prominence. It's when you have a lot of money in the bank account. It's when you live where you live, and you don't have to worry about making the payment. It's when you work at a place that's enjoyable to go to, and not somewhere that someone's always at you. And on top of you, and bringing you down, causing you not to succeed. It's a difficult place to be faithful to God. You say, Tom, it's not a difficult place. Here's what I know about us. We forget about God so easily when we think we have something to do with what is going on in our lives. Amen? Hello? (audience laughs) It was not you who sent me here, it was God. Have you ever thought about anybody else in the scripture who could have said such a thing? I don't know, let's just think for a second. Jesus? It wasn't the Jewish leaders, it wasn't the Roman soldiers. Father, you sent me to this place. And the reason you did wasn't just to build me, it was for others. You see, the truth is, is that Joseph was sent there, and he said it, to preserve a remnant for you. Do you know who else was gonna come out of this line of Joseph? Jesus. This remnant held the very seed of the Savior. Now, I'm not saying that the famine would have totally wiped that out for us, that's in the providence and sovereignty of God, but here's what I am saying. Is what we go through? Listen to me, and when I say this, I wanna make it really, really clear. Because as we've talked in the past couple of weeks with Travis about rejection and temptation, and now this week prominent, she say, "How is going through prominence? How is being prominent something that would be difficult and how I'd react and how I would live a faithful life, but it is. It is difficult, because how you handle rejection and temptation will look a lot out like how you handle prominence. They will be similar. 'Cause you will either walk with God and handle them in a godly way, or you will either not walk with God, either as a carnal believer, or as someone who doesn't know Jesus Christ at all. So I think as we look at these 15 verses, I think really there are three different things that we can look at today as life lessons that will help us out. But before we get to the life lessons, I want to kind of define what prominence is. Sometimes we think prominence is, or somehow in our society with our context, we think prominence is a movie star status, right? That's very prominent, or someone who's high up in government, maybe a CEO of a company, and that is a prominent place, and by no means want to just skate over that, because I will say this, for those of you who have that, and there are people probably sitting in this room who do, you've got a lot of influence, you've got a great position, you have a lot of prominence where you are, it's important for you to leverage that, like people such as Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, and Tim Tebow, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos, and even Bethany Hamilton. I think that as we look at these people, there's a great reason to see that prominence and say those are the people Tom's talking about, and I am talking about those people, but here's what I know, I'm talking about all of us. See, the word prominent literally means this, it means to be in a position of influence, it means to be important, or to stand out. Now think about that for a second, God has put us somewhere, has placed us in the exact place he wants us to be, listen close, to stand out. Now, as I say that, know that I'm not saying stand out as weird. Are y'all with me, okay? 'Cause sometimes Christians can stand out as weird, and that's not what I'm talking about. When I say stand out, I mean live a godly life, be different in the context in which you live, or work, or go to school. Live that godly life, 'cause here's what I know, you will stand out, God will raise you up to be able to speak into situations. He will raise you up to be able to live the life that he wants you to live. Not just, listen close, not just for you, but for others. Here's the reality. My responsibility in my personal relationship with Jesus is to trust him with what he wants to do in my life. His responsibility is to accomplish through my life that which glorifies him and builds the kingdom. And can I just say this, his placement of us geographically or influentially or positionally is totally up to him. It is at his discretion. And can I just say this to Joseph when it comes to Joseph? Joseph understood this greatly. God has placed me in the pit. Oh my goodness. Maybe he didn't know at the time. God has placed me in prison. Maybe he didn't know at the time, but let me just say this. When he saw his brothers, he knew. See, sometimes I don't think we're patient enough to get to the place where God wants to tell us and show us why we have gone through this, this, this, and this because he's got this. There you are with me. So here's what I wanna do today. Three life lessons that we can learn from the life of Joseph's. Life lesson number one. Being faithful in prominence means for going revenge on those who have wronged us. Listen, you wanna live a godly life? You can't be somebody who's always wanting to get back at people who've done you wrong. You say, Tom, I'm not in a position of prominence. Remember what I said? We are all as believers in a position of prominence. We stand out, or at least we should. Revenge is a natural reaction when wrong, but listen to this. It's not the correct one. It's not the one that Jesus showed us. The word revenge literally means this. It's the act or action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands. Literally, I wanna get you back for what you've done. I wanna inflict injury and pain on you for the injury and the pain that you've caused in your life. And if anybody had a reason, surely it would have been Joseph, right? I mean, would you not have said, you know what, I gotta hand it to him. (inhales) You owe it. (chuckles) I mean, you owe it to them, man. Look what they did to you. Look where they placed you. Look at the point, look at the things they've done to you. Yeah, that's not what he did. Our natural reaction to being wronged is revenge. It's retaliation. When I'm being natural, I'm talking about how we were born. Our first thought, and it's easy for us to believe that somebody actually needs to pay for what they've done. Joseph had the opportunity, yet he didn't take it. And remember why the part of the story, I told you just a moment ago, they show up in front of him, they're standing in front of him. And there's no food where they live, but there's lots of food where he is. Verse seven, in chapter 42 says this, that Joe saw his brothers and he recognized them. Now he did throw them in jail for three days and I don't want to belabor that point. And we don't know all the reasons for that. But instead of sending them back empty handed, he put the grain in the sack, he also put the money in the sack and he sent them on. They didn't realize the money was there until they stopped. But does that sound to you like anybody who wants revenge? See, for me, I probably would have said, you know what, just go back and die. At the least, go back and die. Go back and wither. You're not getting anything from us. But not only did he give them the grain, he gave them the money too. The second time that they showed up, I told you just a moment ago, he gave them grain, sent the money as well. The second time while they were there too, not only did he feed them, he revealed himself to them. And we're not going to read this part either. It's all in the rest of this chapter that we're looking at. But when he sent them back, he actually gave Benjamin five times as much as everybody else. Now, Benjamin was a baby and maybe he thought there wasn't much revenge on him since he didn't do that. But you understand what I'm saying? This is a heart of no revenge. Here's what I know, where revenge is. Love is not. Do you know how to love somebody? See, when we are born, we have a natural kind of love. There's a family kind of love. There's an intimate physical kind of love, and then there's the brotherly love we talk about. But the God kind of love is totally different from that. And the only way that we'll ever be able not to seek revenge on somebody is to have that kind of love. The kind of love that Jesus had for us, the kind of love that Jesus had for the Roman soldiers and for the Jewish elite, he loved them enough to die for them. Not to stop it, not to hold it down, but to say, you know what? Father, do what you want to do with me. When I see this story of Joseph, I don't see revenge. And here's what I know. If you want to be a person, listen close, who has prominence in the kingdom of God, not from a high level, but just faithful to God in your prominence. Let me tell you what will happen. We will not be people of revenge. We can't be. Life less than number two that goes right along with this. Being faithful in prominence means forgiving those who have wronged us. So instead of exacting revenge, what we want to do is we want to forgive people. That's what people of prominence do. That's what people who are faithful to God and the prominence that he has put them in, that's what they do. And remember, I said, we all have prominence. Here's what Clyde Cranford said about this word forgive. He said, "Apart from the word Jesus, surely the word forgiven is the most precious in the English language." Have you ever been forgiven by a person? Have you ever wronged someone and them just say, you know what? I'm going to act like it never happened. Does that ever happen to you? Or maybe, have you ever forgiven anyone? Like they wronged you? But instead of taking up that offense and exacting revenge on them, did you say, I'm going to act as if it never happened? I think that most of us don't wait long enough in our lives to see what God is doing or trust God that he is actually doing something in our lives when it's rough and the circumstances are difficult to see that God himself has a great plan for our lives. I think intellectually as, if I were to ask you this this morning, how many of you think God has a plan for your life we would go? It's just that we want the plan to be really good and easy and simple. But it's not going to be. A couple of weeks ago, Travis used a passage of scripture where Paul said everyone who lives a godly life in Christ will be persecuted. Do we think that we will not be used by God in a way that will be negative from our viewpoint but very positive from the viewpoint of God and what he wants to do in our lives later? Save the whole nation of Israel through this one act. Here's what I know. If we want forgiveness, we will have to forgive. You know, the golden rule, do unto others is you would have them do unto you, right? Here's the premise. Forgive as much as you want to be forgiven. You should forgive people with the forgiveness that you desire. Does that make sense? If you want to be forgiven, if you want people to forgive you, if anything ever happened, which I know none of us would ever mess up. But if we did, wouldn't we want to be forgiven? That's the forgiveness that we need to give others because here's what I know. People who are people who are faithful to God in prominence are people who forgive other people who've wronged them. You're going to be wronged. Someone is not going to treat you well that someone may be in your family. It wasn't Joseph's. The great grandson of Abraham, are you kidding me? What a lineage. The grandson of Isaac, the son of Jacob. What a lineage of God. Followers of the one true God. How could the brothers do such a thing? We're people. We mess up. This life lesson here, I will promise you. There's a story, it's a true story. In 1955, five men flew into Ecuador to an unreached people group. This is a story of Jim Elliot. You know the story, some of you? Jim Elliot was just a man of God. He thought that America had heard the gospel enough to be able to come to faith in Christ. So he said, I'm going to go somewhere where they have never heard. And so he got on a plane with four of the gentlemen. They went down to Ecuador two weeks after they got there. They were all murdered by the people they were trying to reach. There's a movie that depicts this called The End of the Spear. Have you ever heard of that movie? End of the Spear? In this movie, it's really told from the pilot's point of view. Nick Saint was the pilot. He was killed as well. His son was six, seven years old, somewhere in that range. And the story's told from the standpoint of Steve who's his six or seven year old boy growing up to be a man. He goes back to the place where his father died and I guess just foreclosure. And to share with him as well. And when he got there, he met the person who actually killed his dad that day. And what the gentleman said was, he said, I'm a believer now because of your dad, but I deserve to die. And he picked up the spear and he put it in the hand of Steve Saint and he put the end of the spear in his chest and he gave the other end to Steve and said, go ahead and kill me, I deserve this anyway. Go ahead, I took your father's life. Now it's at this point that all of us go, you know, I wouldn't want to kill him, but I wouldn't want to kill him. I don't, but I do. He deserves to pay for this. Here's what Steve Saint said. He said, you didn't kill my father. You didn't take my father's life. My father gave it. Now listen, if we are followers of Jesus Christ, we've already given our life to him. It's no longer ours, it's his life. We are dead to ourself. And guess what? We gave our life. Back where I'm from in Tennessee, we have lots and lots of graveyards. Is anybody familiar with graveyards besides me here? Do you know what a graveyard is? Okay, praise the Lord. I don't know, I don't know, I'm just, I'm figuring this out. Lots of graveyards. And the thing, when I was little, that I didn't want to happen was to be walking through there and somebody come out of one of those graves. But here's what I know about dead people. They don't get up and walk around. They don't have feelings. They're dead. I mean, I hate to point out the obvious here, but they are dead. And here's the thing, as believers in Jesus Christ, we are also dead to ourselves. We are dead to our sins and trespasses. We are dead to our desires and our hopes and our dreams. We are dead. And guess what? You can't hurt a dead man. We are dead. Now, with that said, when we go through this, when we look at Joseph and see how he was in the pit and how he was rejected and how he was tempted, how he was thrown into prison, he was a dead man. God could do whatever he wanted, right? Let me ask you this. Can God do whatever he wants to do with you too? Could he? 'Cause here is a fact, at least 90% of our city, if Jesus were to come right now, and I'll be honest with you, my selfishness, I want him to come now. Lord Jesus come quickly, right? But if he did, nine out of every 10 people in our city would be separated from God forever. I don't know how many seats there are here that are not filled today, but there's quite a few. The people are not gonna come if they don't know they need to come. They're not gonna, not just our service to him. God's gonna use circumstances in our lives. The pit, the prison, the bad circumstance. Guess why? To bring himself glory, to draw people to himself. Here's the question, will we let him? Because instead of exacting revenge, we give forgiveness and guess what that makes us do? Stand out. It's different. People think you're crazy and you're weird and why would anybody ever think that way? But we're dead. It's him living through us. Just a thought. Life lesson number three, being faithful in prominence means using our influence to help those who have no influence. Being faithful in prominence means using our influence to those who have no influence. Let me draw you the picture right here. Okay, we're almost finished. I'll hang in there. We're hungry. We don't have any food. This is what the brothers said to Joseph. Joseph had all the food. He said, I'm not hungry. I have all the food. Nobody else has the food, I have all the food. You have no food, I have all the food. Let me tell you what Joseph did. He used his influence. Listen, not for himself, but for them. He took the influence that he had. He took the position that he had. He took what his prominence and he said, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take it and I'm gonna place it on somebody else. God has put us in the position, the place of influence that we have, not for us as much as for everybody else. In our natural flesh, it is so easy for us to think, man, look at what I've done, look at what I've accomplished. Look at how I've gotten to this place. Look at where I've been able to ascend. But the truth is, is that God has let you ascend. He has allowed you to ascend for one reason, to bring him glory so that you can help others. To be able to influence where people have no influence, to give where people can't give. You know, in the scripture in James, James says that true religion is when you do ministry to orphans and widows. You know that verse? Here's another way you could say that. Giving to people who might not, probably won't ever be able to give back to you. That's what true influence is. It is using it not so that you'll get something back, but just understanding God has blessed me to the point of being able to bless others. Listen, you're that boss at work. Have rules, have regulations, you better or your company will close. But be a Christian boss. Coach, are you a coach? Awesome, wonderful, listen, drive the boys or the girls. Help them to excel in the sport, but listen, be a Christian coach. Take the leverage that you have and leverage it. When I think about people like Truett, Cathy, and Bethany Hamilton and Tim Tebow, that's what I think about people who have leverage and they are using it for the good of other people. 'Cause here's what I know. Faithful people who are faithful to God won't just be faithful and trust God in their difficulty, they'll trust Him in their prominence. You say, Tom, I wish I could try that one time, I'd like to be prominent. I'm waiting for the prominent time, here's the thing. And I wanna say, I just wanna reiterate it one more time. You are, it means to stand out. So let me encourage you, stand out. I wanna give you a couple of truths just to end up today. 'Cause I'm running a little bit behind. To help us to realize where we are and what God's doing in our lives. Truth number one, God strategically places us in places of prominence, influence, and position. He puts us exactly, that was the first question I asked you, how many of you believe that you are where God wants you to be? He's got a plan for your life, right? Well, here's the deal. He has strategically placed you exactly where you are for maximum benefit of glory to himself and others. Number two, God places us in positions of prominence, influence, and position, that the kingdom may be impacted. He puts us there so that the kingdom of God can be impacted. Here's my question for us today. Or let me put it in a statement. If people have to ask you if you're a Christian and you've been around them for a while, it's probably not good. In China, I was able to go there a few years ago and I was asked to teach a lesson, a specific lesson. There was something they wanted me to teach on. They wanted me to teach on, listen to this, how to be a godly employee. There are lots of workers in China, lots of companies. And the Christians were having problems because they said we don't want to be godly. I mean, we want to be godly employees, but we don't want to be godly employees. And the reason we don't want to be godly employees is because every time we're godly in our workplace, they come and arrest us. Here's what the M told me, missionary. Here's what he told me. He said, Tom, here's what happens. When a Chinese believer becomes a believer, they take it serious. And it's not like they go around with the family, Bob, we're hitting everybody over the head, but here's what happens. Listen to this. Now this is convicting to me. Their production of work goes sky high. Like they're the best worker in the plant. And so what the government has figured out is if we'll just go to all the companies and say, who's the best worker? That we can follow that person back to a whole be high full of other believers. And they try to break the church down in that manner. You know why? Because when they were at their job, when they were at their workplace, man, they stood out. In that place of prominence, they stood out. He has strategically placed us for major impact in the kingdom. And here's what I know about those Chinese, man. They won't be quiet just because they were persecuted. They won't stop just because things got rough. Stand out to them means a whole other deal. So here's just three questions I wanna ask us today before we leave. I want you to think about, go over this in your head. Number one, why am I in the position of prominence I'm in? Why am I where I am? Why am I there? Listen, here's what I mean. In your subdivision, where you live, where you work, where you go to school, where you shop, why are you specifically there? Nine months ago, I was in Orlando. Today I'm here. The answer to the question is really easy. God wants to do something. He wants to do something in your life, but also in the lives of other people. If I went around the room and asked you testimonies, many of you could say, you know what? I totally believe that, Tom, here's why. Because there are some people at my job or in my neighborhood that I would've never known, that may have never came to Christ, that may have never wondered about the things of God. He has us in the place he wants us to be. Do we believe that? And then secondly, am I allowing my position of prominence to gratify my flesh or to impact the kingdom of God? Am I taking it in for myself or am I letting God get the maximum impact? Is it for the kingdom? And then last, how can I use my position of influence for other people? Listen, I want you to really put some brain power behind that one. Because when you do, people can be reconciled to God. You know how easy it is to take your salvation and be so glad you have it. And then really, honestly, if I hate to even put it this way, really not care about the others coming to Christ or knowing you, that are in your life. Maybe in your house. [BLANK_AUDIO] [ Silence ]