Delivered

Handout titled Delivered and Delivered with notes

Intro

Others can get answers to their prayers, but not me. Nothing much can change my life now. Too much has happened, too much has already gone wrong.

I wonder if we have ever thought or even said things like this in regards to our prayer life. I’d like to believe that since you came here on an evening in the middle of the week to a prayer service, you don’t entirely resonate with these thoughts, but perhaps you are in a season where you feel like this.

Did you know it’s ok to feel things that aren’t exactly ideal? By that I mean, we know what scripture says about God’s promises, about trusting Him, about His provisions. But that’s not always how we feel is it?

I want to give you permission tonight to accept the fact that you feel things that are not exactly ideal when it comes to where your faith should be. And I want you to feel those things, so that we can acknowledge them as a reality so we can talk about what it means to move forward from here.

Throughout tonight we are going to reference the story of Joseph in the Old Testament, and how He was delivered not just in a physical sense, but a spiritual sense.

Joseph Story

Joseph came from a dysfunctional family. He had daddy issues, but not the daddy issues we are accustomed to. His issues came from the fact that daddy loved him too much. This incited jealousy among his brothers, and when they got the chance they sold him into slavery.

While scriptures aren’t exactly clear on timelines, many scholars believe that he served in Potiphar’s house for a couple of years before doing anywhere between 10-12 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Scripture also doesn’t say much about how Joseph felt about so many of these things while they were happening to him, but let’s just assume he experienced human emotion as we all do.

Many times scripture is unclear about exactly what we are supposed to receive or lesson we are to learn from the passage. I think often God wants us to see the story of a fellow human being so that we can relate to them and draw strength from their story. I definitely believe Joseph’s story is one such story.

Why did God allow Joseph to be in slavery and in prison for around 12 years. Again, I’m not going to pin anything on Joseph as far as sin or lack of shame. But I wonder if in the room tonight, if all of us haven’t recognized the fact that brokenness needs to take place or has taken place in areas of our life that needed to go through the fire. Maybe this 12 years for Joseph was a period of peeling away imperfections to prepare him for the project ahead. I’m sure of this though, that each step of Joseph’s life required him to let go of something from the past, whether it was recent or not so much, so that he could see the future God had for him.

So where I’d like to start our conversation and interaction to start tonight is with this thought.

Paralysis from the Past - Groups of 3 to 5, men with men, women with women.

Answers outloud raised hand

What did Joseph regret about his past? Outloud

outloud? What was happening to him

regret - own immaturity

abandonment - family

Injustice - wife of potiphar

disloyalty - baker butler

outloud? What was happening in him

anger, discouragement, loneliness

Anything good?

faith, hope, presence of God

What do we regret about our past? WORKSHEET

Give them the assignment, give them 10 minutes. regroup then one person pray over these ideas

I want to read a few verse to you towards the end of Joseph’s story but let me fill in the gaps for a second.

Prison, butler remembered him, he interpreted dreams for pharoah, 2nd command, saves everyone from famine.

Genesis 41:50–52 “Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.””

Our next thought I want us to interact with tonight is the freedom to forget.

Freedom to Forget

stories about things i don’t remember anymore, losing my memory or remembering what someone else thinks i should. My latest pet phrase is “mental energy.”

Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh saying, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” He didn’t say he had learned to forget. He didn’t say he had enrolled in a seven-step course or gone to a psychiatrist for help. Instead he said, “God made me forget.” God can still touch us supernaturally where no therapist can reach. Joseph didn’t suffer from or become gifted with amnesia. The facts were not erased from his memory. But God took the sting out, so there was no bitterness.

One of the subtle ways Satan hinders us today is by playing unpleasant tape recordings in our minds over and over and over. Hurtful words said by others are heard again and again. Horrible, ugly scenes are repeated hour after hour, day after day, year after year.

Whatever has happened because of you, to you, or around you, we can know that beyond a doubt that God can make us forget. He does not obliterate the events, but he can deliver you from the paralysis of the past.

Joseph might not have wanted to forget family, what it represents, he probably played baseball with his brothers or had a garage band. I think sometimes we waste time wishing things could have been better than they were. But it’s time to move on.

freedom must be embraced, Israel didn’t, We say we want delivered from something but I think of how in different areas of life we might have to accept a delivery. We might have to sign our names, it’s our way of saying we know that we have received that which we’ve requested. What deliverance do you need to sign your name to tonight?

WORKSHEET FREEDOM TO FORGET - write, speak to others as little or as much as you want

YOUR SIN

YOUR SHAME

YOUR GUILT

YOUR LACK OF TRUST

Skepticism

bitterness

remorse

RESPOND Reason to Remember

The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.””

doesn’t remember my sin jeremiah 31:31-34, repeated in the book of Hebrews… new covenant remember our sins no more

God remembered Joseph and he remembers us, while he forgets our sin, he never forgets us.

His goodness and mercy have followed me King David wrote in Psalm 23 saying surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. I don’t think God’s goodness and mercy just follow us, but I believe it goes before us.

In the darkest parts of Joseph’s story…

twice in Genesis chapter 39 we see this phrase THE LORD WAS WITH JOSEPH

Joseph did alot of waiting…

What is it for you tonight? I mean be real with God today. I want you cry out in your spirit in prayer, God I know I haven’t been patient enough. I’m serious say right now God, God I’ve been impatient about my job, I’ve become bitter about my marriage, I’m tired of waiting on my children.

I promise you according to the word of God, that if you commit your ways to Him, if you are honoring him with your life, if you are minding the direction of the Holy Spirit, He has you in the waiting because He wants to do something that isn’t just going to heal your pain, he’s not just going to restore your family, he’s not just going to reveal your purpose, he’s going to blow you away with His goodness.

All of God’s great ones have waited before Him. If He has you waiting, He wants you learning. If He has you learning, it’s because His plans for you are greater than you understand. If He has great plans for you, nothing will stand in the way of Him accomplishing them in and through you.

REPEAT OVER AND OVER God if you’re still working, I’ll keep waiting. responsive 5x me then them

stand, let’s come to the altars maybe noting something that came from our worksheet tonight that we need to give to God. But I want you to ask someone to come pray with you about it.

find group of people brought a blind man, miracle started with move of others

CHRIST BE MAGNIFIED singing