CrossTrainers

Date: May 26th 2010

Speaker: Jerry Foster

Title: God Built – “Powerful Punks”

We’ve been learning that God is in control over devastating loss, assignments, broken hopes, prolonged waiting,

Today we learn that God is in control over people

Proverbs 21:1 God is turning the hearts of the leaders. This includes presidents, school board members, military dictators, everyone who rules anywhere.

God guides and directs each of them.

With Proverbs 21 in mind, that God can change the hearts and minds of leaders, think about what is going on in our world, about frustration in leaders across the world

Turn to your neighbor – How does that effect the way you look at the world?

Bottom line – They (leaders around the world) serve Him even in their rebellion because they breath because He allows them to breath, they think because He allows them to think

Does God make them sin? No. But He uses their sin for His purposes.

Joseph – Pharaoh was the most powerful man on the earth. He has a dream and Joseph interprets the dream. Joseph became the co leader of Egypt. It all began with a dream, that God made him dream. He couldn’t refuse the dream. That was it, the Pharoah was smack dab in the middle of God’s plan and he didn’t even know it.

Think about it – here is the most powerful man in the world, but he has no power over this dream that troubles him so much. Steve Farrar puts it really well -”God said to the powerful king, ‘dream this you little Egyptian wuss’”

Isaiah 40:12-17 – This passage is so great when we stop to think about God’s control over the nations.

Look at Isaiah 40:17 – Look at all of the powerful nations, they are nothing, they fall under the control of a sovereign God.

Turn to your neighbor – When you look at this verse what does that do to your confidence?

When we look around the world at some of the bad things that happen it can be easy for us to fear.

But we have to remember that God is in control

This makes me want to know the God that is in control. Because if I know the God that is in control, then I am secure.

When we look at the evil and harm that is going on, we have to ask the question – can they do harm? Yes. Can they do harm to a believer without the consent of God? No.

He appoints them and then He can take them out when He wants to.

Isaiah 40:21-26

Probably what we need to do is to read these verses every morning. First the verses, then the newspaper or the news.

Back to Joseph – Why was pharoah a mighty ruler at this time? Because God put him there.

Makes you wonder, what is God up to? What ruler, dictator, evil tyrant is God already working in or about to work through

So God takes this dream, plants in his subconscious and gives it to him in the middle of the night.

He has these two dreams that just haunt him. He calls together all of his helpers and other folks who can’t do anything for him.

Then along comes Joseph. Pharaoh is about to hand over his power to Joseph. Think about it, Potipher did it, the jailer did it, everyone gave their power to Joseph.

So who was in control of this? He didn’t ask for that dream.

“God is in control of powerful people” Steve Farrar

“It’s the most comforting thing in all the world to know that there is a God who is in charge of my life” Steve Farrar

I don’t know about you guys but my human nature is alway trying do to the work to get things to work out right.

I get tired of always pushing and pushing and pushing for things to work out the way I think they should work out.

The reality is that God is in control of my life. I may think that my success is my own but it really was God.

Turn to your neighbor – How do we as believers cooperate with Him and His plan in order to enjoy the maximum benefit?

I need to work harder to stay inside the boundaries of what He is doing.

Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, when we see pain or suffering

Its not mine to question why, it is mine to be obedient and to trust Him

Let’s pray. . .

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(notes typed by PJ)

CrossTrainers

Date: March 31th 2010

Speaker: Mike Swaim

Title: God Built – Chapter 1: Strangely and Slowly; God is Working

The story of Joseph – An overview

This book deals with how men are forged

I’ve studied the life of Joseph up and down over the years but I’ve never spent this much time thinking about Joseph as I have over the last couple of days.

If you are going to be coming over the next few weeks or months you should be reading through Genesis 36-50.

If you read Genesis 36-50 each week through this study you would understand how to move from being a victim to being a victor

2 concepts on typology:

1. When you read the Old Testament you can see different types in scripture that represent different things that we experience or see in Christ. Many people look at Egypt as a type that represents “the world.” God had told Isaac not to go to Egypt when things got tough but instead to stay in the land and wait for God to provide. Keep the understanding that when we read about Egypt we are looking at mans solution for problems.

2. Joseph represents a type of Jesus. We see many things of Jesus in Joseph.

Foundations

We need to look at Luke 6:46-49

Jesus talks about people being on a solid foundation being those who are DOING the sayings of Jesus.

Even though Joseph was doing God’s plans there were still floods that came. He didn’t have sin that was creating these things, it was a flood that God had brought into his life.

From Victim to Victor

How many of you would like to go through what Joseph went through?

He was sold into slavery. He was a stranger in a strange land. He was sent to prison for something he didn’t deserve.

Lets look at Joseph’s life from the end, looking back

How old did he live? 110 years

How old was he when Pharaoh took him out of prison and put him in charge of Egypt? 30

He faced adversity from ages 17 or so to 30.

Sometimes we need to understand that our trails are for a season and are to produce something better.

If Joseph’s grew up in today’s world his story would have been a great episode of Oprah!

He came from a really dysfunctional family.

• Great Grandfather – Abraham: He had a child with his handmaid. Lied to a king to save is own hide, Twice!
• Father – Jacob: Steals his brother’s birthright. That was a big deal! He felt entitled, he was a deceiver and a thief. He got deceived by his uncle Laban and ended up with the wrong wife. He finally got the “right” wife but found out that she couldn’t have kids. This kicked off a tug of war between Jacob’s two wives and their maid servants. Joseph had a bunch of brothers with four different moms and one dad.
• Brothers: Eventually his brother’s try to kill him, but instead sell him into slavery. They make up a story to deceive their dad.

But Joseph is on his way to Egypt – 300 miles. Probably took about 10 to 20 days. He gets to Egypt, doesn’t speak the language.

Genesis 37:28, Genesis 39:1-4

The Lord was WITH Joseph.

BUT!!

Then Potiphar’s wife gets him thrown in prison.

In both of these situations he could have said, “If I hadn’t grown up in this dysfunctional family this wouldn’t be happening”

He could have been looked at what was going on and blamed those around him

We have a tendency to do this. What we need to do is to look around and say, “God what are you doing here?” instead of blaming our circumstances on everyone else.

Adversity comes. Not necessarily because you have sinned.

God was with him

God prospered him

The principles of God are true through out scripture regardless of when they are revealed.

Proverbs 3:3-4

If I love you regardless of what you do to me then I will find favor.

What is the word of God that was given to Joseph? There will come a day when your brothers and father will bow down to you.

What is the love of God to Joseph? He was with him. Regardless of what happens with anyone else, God was with Joseph.

What is the key to moving from moving from victim to victor? FORGIVENESS

I believe that forgiveness for Joseph started on the way to Egypt. I believe this because we see that Joseph won favor in Potiphar’s house. He wouldn’t have won that favor if he hadn’t forgiven his brothers and refocused his attention on God, he wouldn’t have been walking in love and wouldn’t have found favor.

HOMEWORK: Read Genesis 36-50 once a week as we go through this study.

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(notes typed by PJ)

The NEW CrossTrainers teaching series based on God Build by Steve Farrar starts on March 31.

Our world is in desperate need of bold, passionate men of integrity. Yet such men aren’t born, they’re built, shaped and formed by God to enrich their families, church, and community. But what does this process look like? And how do we get started?

The answers are found in the story of Joseph, a humble shepherd who overcame tremendous odds to become an influential leader. It’s here we discover the process that creates true men of God, where He works

Providentially, supplying everything we need in our journey
Strangely, often in ways that we won’t understand
Slowly, building our patience and trust

God Built explores the defining spiritual process that makes men of God. You’ll uncover the Biblical pattern for growth, gain insights into common frustrations and difficulties, and get equipped for the journey ahead.

Surrender yourself to Him. And become a man that’s built to last.